SECOND EDITION

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016 | Shraban 1, 1423, Shawwal 10, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 80 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

Terror strikes France again

STORIES ONPage 2, 8, 9››

PHOTO: AFP

Shock, horror and the comfort of strangersn AFP, Nice

The living held their hands. They knew they were dead, but they would not let them go.

Hours after unspeakable horror was visited on families who had gathered to watch the Bastille Day � reworks on the seafront in Nice, the dead still lay scattered where they fell across the Promenade des Anglais.

Here and there people sat with them, sometimes alone, some-times in a little huddles of family and friends.

Some had only the comfort of strangers, after the lorry’s murder-ous passage.

And one victim, a small child who like so many others had been allowed to stay up late to see the � reworks, lay dead on the tarmac with a doll at its side.

“You would think you could do something to help by being there,” said Tarubi Wahid Mosta, who tried to do what he could in the after-math of the attack.

“But we were useless.”The dead remained under sheets

as the massive investigation began.“All these families who have

already spent a long time at their sides are likely – given the horri-ble number of the dead – to spend hours on the ground holding the cold hands of bodies dismembered by the truck. You can’t even speak

to them or comfort them,” the actor wrote on his Facebook page.

“That is the hardest thing, to be useless at such a horrible moment.”

- Baby lost in the panic -One photograph he post-

ed shows a headscarfed women kneeling over a body.

“In the middle of all this is a

Muslim family, one of whom did not escape this crazy lorry,” he said. “Once again everyone has been touched, whether they were believers or not.”

Outside a Nice hospital a grieving family later told reporters that their mother, a devout Muslim, had been the � rst of the lorry’s 84 victims.

Long after dawn broke some of the victims were still lying on the promenade covered by blue and white sheets as the � rst of the morning joggers set out along the Bay of Angels.

Nice is a town that likes to par-ty, that was built to a great extent as a playground for the European aristocracy and industrialists who wintered on the French Riviera in the late 19th century.

Its carnival is the third biggest in the world after Venice and Rio.

Like the carnival, the Bastille Day � reworks display is a huge family occasion, with children al-lowed to stay up well after their normal bedtimes to enjoy the spec-tacle.

Several children were among the dead, French President Fran-cois Hollande said. Authorities lat-er con� rmed that around 50 were hurt, many seriously.

Such was the violence with which the lorry tore through the crowds that a family was separated from its eight-month-old baby that had been in a pushchair.

He was found by a young wom-an who brought him home with her and reunited him with his parents after they posted a picture of the boy on Facebook, a family friend told AFP.

After a night of little sleep and many tears, the resort city was still struggling to come to terms with

the horror.“I saw a whole heap of dead

people in front of me,” said a re-tired man called Charles, who lives close to where the lorry � rst drove into the crowds.

“There will be no more parties, no more festivals. Yet if we are to face down the terrorists life has to continue,” he added.

“This will not stop us living our lives,” said Jean, an astronomer who was caught up in the panic with his wife Myriam and his two children and their dog.

He said the dog had led them to safety, to a hotel where the man-ager told them to go into one of its rooms.

With fears that other gunmen could be on the loose, Myriam told AFP that she locked the children in a shoe cupboard and they re-mained in the room for three hours before deciding that it was safe to leave.

But the family were back on the promenade on Friday “so the chil-dren would not be terri� ed,” Myr-iam added.

Many of Nice’s bars and cafes were closed Friday, as was its life-guard station on the beach.

One lifeguard, Mehdi Zid, 21, told how he had managed to help “four of � ve people who where fro-zen by shock” the night before.

“One lone person is impossible to stop,” he said. l

News2DTSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

Amsterdam

NiceThree soldiers attackedin front of a Jewishcommunity centre

Mediterranean Sea

February 3, 2015

NiceJuly 14, 2016

Paris

Amsterdam

Amsterdam - Paris train25 year-old Moroccan nationalopens fire on a train.Bloodbath prevented bypassengers who overwhelm him

Magnanville42 year-old police o�icerand 36 year-old partnerkilled at their home inknife attack

January 7-9, 201517 killed in attacks that started at theCharlie Hebdo o�ice

January 7, 2016Moroccan-born manwielding a meat cleavertries to attack police station

June 13, 2016

April 19, 2015Algerian IT studentarrested on suspicionof shooting dead awoman in her car

August 21, 2015

November 13, 2015130 people killed ingun attack onrestaurants and theBataclan concert hall

Major attacks in France since January 2015

Saint-Quentin-Fallavier35 year-old man kills

and beheads his boss,tries to blow up gas plant

June 26, 2015

More than 80 peoplekilled in a truck attack during Bastille DaycelebrationsJuly 15, 2016

At least 84 dead in terrorist truck rampage in Nicen AFP, Nice

A Tunisian-born man zigzagged a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing at least 84 and in-juring dozens of children in what President Francois Hollande yes-terday called a terrorist attack.

The attack was the third major strike against France in less than 18 months.

One witness said a motorcy-clist tried to stop the rampage by drawing level with the truck and attempting to open the door of its cab before he fell and ended up under its wheels.

Two children were con� rmed among the dead and another 50 were being treated in hospital after the attack that left bodies strewn over the palm-lined Prom-enade des Anglais in the French Riviera resort.

Some of the dead, covered with sheets, remained on the prome-nade in the bright sun yesterday.

One family lost their eight-month-old baby boy in the chaos but were reunited with him after

they posted a desperate plea on Facebook.

Two US citizens and a Ukraini-an were among those killed, their countries said.

Witnesses said the white truck drove at speed into a crowd over a distance of two kilometres (1.3 miles) after they had been watch-ing a � reworks display on France's national day. City authorities said some 30,000 people had watched the display.

Driver a 'loner'Details meanwhile began to emerge about the driver, identi-� ed as 31-year-old Mohamed La-houaiej-Bouhlel.

Neighbours described him as a loner who never responded to their greetings.

One neighbour, however, said she was wary of the "good-look-ing man who kept giving my two daughters the eye."

Witnesses said he had also � red at police before o� cers shot him dead.

Hollande declared three days of mourning after the assault, as

shell-shocked France found itself again mourning its dead after at-tacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and the Novem-ber 2015 massacre in Paris.

"France was struck on its na-tional day... the symbol of free-dom," said Hollande in a sombre televised address in the early hours Friday.

The attack was of an "undenia-ble terrorist nature," he said.

Around 50 children were being treated at a paediatric hospital close to the scene of the attack. Some were "hanging between life and death," a hospital o� cial said.

The State Department said two American citizens were among the dead. A Texas-based newspaper,

the Austin American-Statesman, named the victims as 51-year-old Sean Copeland and his 11-year-old son Brodie.

A Ukrainian citizen was also killed, the country's foreign min-ister said on Twitter, without giv-ing more details.

Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said 84 peo-ple were killed and scores injured in the carnage, including 18 who were in "critical condition."

Another witness identi� ed only as Nader told BFM television he saw the driver pull out a gun and start shooting at police.

The truck, which a police source said had been rented in the region "a few days ago", remained Friday where it had been halted, its front badly damaged and rid-dled with bullet holes and its tyres burst.

Hollande announced he would extend France's state of emergen-cy for three months in the wake of this latest attack and "step up" the government's action against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. l

200m

Nice truck attack leaves over 80 people dead

At about 2100GMT: a firework display ends, a large crowd has gathered along the Promenade des Anglais

The truck comes to a halt

Palaisde la Mediterranee

MediterraneanSea

Source: maps4news.com/©HERE

MassenaMuseum

NICE

An exchange of gunfiretakes placeThe truck driver is shot dead

2

1

Promenade des Anglais

3

A white 19-tonne truckploughs 2km up the famousPromenade at full speed, crushing revellers

Nice

PARIS

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016News 3

DT

IS disowns 5 attacks they claimed earliern Tribune Desk

In an infographic released early yes-terday, international terrorist group Islamic State listed 11 operations, including the Gulshan mass attack, that their members have carried out this year across Bangladesh killing at least 37 people.

The group, however, mysterious-ly refrained from mentioning � ve other attacks committed since Janu-ary that they previously took credit for, including the murder of two ho-moeopaths in Jhenaidah and a Ra-jshahi University professor.

The photo post published by its Amaq news agency also did not claim the IS-style attack on the police near Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj that killed three people on Eid day. IS also did not take credit for two other similar attacks – on a Hindu priest in Gopalganj and a Hindu college teach-er in Madaripur.

All 16 attacks this year and the nine others committed since Sep-tember 28 last year, when an Italian NGO worker was shot dead at Gul-shan, have also been veri� ed by US-based jihadist monitor SITE Intelli-gence Group.

The victims of IS include non-Sun-ni and non-Muslim preachers, for-eigners and law enforcers. They also bombed and opened � re on devotees inside two mosques of the Shia and Ahmadiyya communities, and blast-ed bombs inside two temples.

The government denies the pres-ence of IS’ organisational base in the country and instead blames the local banned militant groups for the killings. The police suspect that one of the several sections of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) might have established contact with IS.

They have found the involvement of several outlawed groups – JMB, Ansarullah Bangla Team (believed to be representing al-Qaeda in the Indi-an Subcontinent) and Hizb ut-Tahrir – in most of the attacks claimed by IS.

Some detained JMB members have also given confessional state-ments while the investigators have � led charge sheets in some cases.

On the other hand, Ansar Al Is-lam (believed to be outlawed group Ansarullah) which is representing al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in Bangladesh has claimed credit for 13 attacks since 2013 kill-ing 11 people including war crimes trial campaigners, secular bloggers, writers, publishers and LGBT rights activists.

Gulshan attack victims 22 or 24?In another infographic published by the group’s weekly magazine al-Na-ba on Tuesday, IS boasted 14 terror attacks across the world, including in Syria, Iraq, the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa during Ramadan kill-ing and injuring around 5,200 people.

The victims of the recent attack on a Gulshan eatery on July 1 include

22 people, mostly foreigners and two police o� cers, shot and slaughtered in the country’s deadliest militant at-tack. Some 40 other policemen were injured in the assault.

The latest IS infographic, howev-er, mentions 24 individuals at Holey Artisan Bakery.

Five of the attackers were killed in a commando operation the next morning when the pizza chef of the restaurant was killed mistakenly. An assistant cook, detained as a suspect, succumbed to his injuries at a Dhaka hospital. A total of 32 guests and sta� survived the attack.

During Ramadan, the IS members also killed four others in Bangladesh – three Hindu priests in Jhenaidah and Pabna and an Awami League leader from the Marma community in Bandarban.

Mistakes, denialsMeanwhile, the infographic wrongly mentioned Rajshahi’s Bonpara as the location of an attack on Hindu priest Nityanando Pandey though he was killed near the temple at Hemayet-

pur of Pabna on June 10.Moreover, it said that Awami

League leader Mong Sanu Marma had been killed in Chittagong, Jhe-naidah on June 30. But the murder took place in Baishari of Naikkhyang-chhari in Bandarban.

Buddhist monk Maung Shue U was slaughtered at Naikkhyang-chhari on May 14. This attack was claimed by Amaq on June 5 along with the murder of Christian grocer Sunil Gomez at Bonpara of Baragram in Natore. But in the latest statement, IS dropped the murder of Maung Shue from the list.

The group also did not mention the murder of two homoeopaths in Jhenaidah – Chhamir Uddin Mandal on January 7 and Shia preacher Ab-dur Razzaq on March 14.

Chhamir Uddin was termed an apostate in a statement IS released to take credit for the murder. But locals say he was converted to Chris-tianity in 1993 but switched back to Islam four years ago and used to say prayers at the local mosque.

On the other hand, Razzaq was

described as a “polytheist apostate” and one of the top preachers for the “Ra� da” religion – a pejorative term for Shias used by Sala� sts.

Earlier, IS militants killed Japa-nese national Hoshi Kunio in Rang-pur on October 3 last year believing him to be a non-Muslim and a for-eigner. But Kunio actually convert-ed to Islam several months ago and started a farm because he had plans to stay in Bangladesh.

IS also wrongly claimed Kushtia homoeopath and Baul a� cionado

Sanwar Hossain, who was killed on May 20, because he was thought to be a Christian. The apparent reason for this was that he ran a free clinic located next to a church.

In the latest statement, the Islamic State group also did not mention the murder of Hindu hardware business-man Tarun Datta which they had ear-lier claimed. He was found beheaded in Bardhankuthi area of Gobindaganj in Gaibandha on February 8.

On April 23, IS also claimed the murder of RU English department teacher and cultural activist Prof Dr AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique, nearly 10 hours after the attack was carried out near his house in Shalbagan area of the city.

The killing of Prof Rezaul was not on the list of operations the group released yesterday. The police have arrested eight people, mostly leaders and activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, in the case.

What IS wantsThe � rst Bangladeshi group of � ve people gave Bayah (allegiance) to IS caliph Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in early August 2014 taking oaths to organise Muslims under his leadership.

In the 14th edition of IS’ Dabiq magazine published on April 13, the group claimed that they have an organisational base in Bangladesh (they term it Bengal), from where they have plans to attack India and Myanmar to “avenge the persecution on Muslims” in those countries.

The chief of its Bangladesh wing also mentioned that Shariah would not be achieved until the local Hin-dus were targeted in mass numbers.

On July 6, three other Bangladeshi youths released a video from Raqqa of Syria hailing the Gulshan attack and threatening more attacks. The attack on the Sholakia Eid congrega-tion took place the following day.

So far, several dozen Bangladesh-is have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the war for IS. Some have been killed in airstrikes.

On the other hand, law enforcers since 2014 have arrested more than 30 recruiters, trainers and followers of IS, mainly students from well-to-do families, who were planning to travel to Syria. But nearly three doz-en trained recruits have not yet been arrested. l

DhakaHoley Artisan Bakery,22 killed

1July

June10

Hindu priestShymanondo Das

ISLAMIC STATE ATTACKS IN 2016

Pabna

Tangail

Gaibandha

Kurigram

Panchagrah

Bandarban

1July AL leader Mong

Sanu Marma30

June

NatoreChristian grocer

Sunil Gomez5

June

KushtiaHomoeopathSanwar Hossain

20May

TangailTailor Tangail NikhilChandra Joarder

30April

BusinessmanTarun Datta

8February

Homoeopath ChhamirUddin Mandal

7January

Hindu priest AnandoGopal Ganguli

7June

HomoeopathAbdur Razzaq

14March

Buddhist monkMaung Shue U

14May

Rajshahi UniversityProf AFM RezaulKarim Siddique

23April

PanchagarhTemple priestJoggeshwar Roy

21February Kurigram

Christian convertHossain Ali Sarker

22March

Shoe trader DebeshChandra Pramanik

25May

PabnaHindu priestNityanando Pandey

Gaibandha

Jhenaidah

Bandarban

Natore

JhenaidahDhaka

Claimed Dropped

Kushtia

Singapore deportees linked to militancy, charges soonn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Investigators have linked 23 of 34 Bangladeshis deported from Sin-gapore to terrorism and militancy and are preparing to press charges against them.

These men who went to Singa-pore on worker visa six to eight years ago were found to have raised funds for militancy and plotted sabotage activities in Bangladesh, accord-ing to sources in the police Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit.

A senior CT unit o� cial involved in the investigation who wished to remain anonymous told the Dhaka Tribune they had linked the 23 de-portees to the terrorist group An-sarullah Bangla Team’s activities. These men were followers of ABT chief Jashimuddin Rahmani, the source said. They also used to lis-ten to the sermons of Jamaat leader Delowar Hossain Sayedee and Is-lamic televangelist Zakir Nayek.

Cases have been � led against these men under the terrorism act at the Ramna and Uttara East police stations.

According to investigators, all

23 men were well acquainted with the four Bangladeshis jailed by Sin-gapore court on July 12 for terror � nancing: Rahman Mizanur, Miah Rubel, Md Jabath Kysar Haje Norul Islam Sowdagar and Sohel Hawlader Ismail Hawlader.

Four other Bangladehi men are waiting to be charged in Singapore.

They used to meet in secret lo-cations and collect funds among themselves. Their plan was to carry out sabotage and plotting against ruling government.

However, investigators said the suspects had told them they met each other in Singapore and had no connections while in Bangladesh.

Singapore � rst sent back 26 Bangladeshis in December last year. Authorities there reported that a list of Bangladeshi government and military o� cials had been found in the possession of some of these men and the group had planned to make an attack.

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested them after they reached Dhaka.

After a primary interrogation po-lice � led cases against 14 of them on December 21 with Uttara East

police station.These 14 were Aminur, Abdul

Alim and Shah Alam of Tangail, Nurul Amin, Mahmudul Hasan and Golam Zilani of Comilla, Jafar Iqbal of Brahmanbaria, Akram Hossain of Jhenaidah, Abdul Ali of Chuadanga, Ashraf Ali of Pabna, Saiful Islam of Dhaka, Alam Mahbub of Kurigram, Dolar Parvez of Chapainawabganj and Mohammad Jashim of Munshi-ganj.

Four more were shown arrested later. These are Sujan Shah Alam, Md Rowshan Alam, HM Faruk and Ali Abdul.

On May 3 police arrested eight Bangladeshis who were deported from Singapore. Of them, � ve will be charged with terrorist activities. They are identi� ed as Mizanur Rah-man alias Galib Hasan, Raha Miah Pilot, Alamgir Hossain, Tanzimul Islam and Masud Rana alias Sallu Khan. The case was � led with Ram-pura police station.

Sanowar Hossain, Additional Deputy Commissioner of CTTC unit, said, “We have almost completed the investigation of these two cases and charge sheets accusing these men will be submitted soon.” l

Police look for owners of vehicles left at Holey n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Police are looking for the owners of 13 cars and 11 bicycles that were found abandoned near the Holey Artisan Bakery following the terror attack on July 1.

Although more than two weeks have passed since the attack, no one has come forward to claim the ownership of the vehicles recov-ered by police’s Crime Scene Unit.

O� cials of the Counter-terror-ism and Transnational Crimes unit are now trying to � nd out whether any of these vehicles were used by the attackers or their associates.

They have contacted the BRTA for information about the vehicles.

They are also analysing CCTV camera footage to see whether they can piece together the movement of those cars before the attack.

A source close to the investiga-tion told the Dhaka Tribune that a white-coloured sedan which did not have a number plate had been found in a smashed condition after the attack; another damaged black car was also found at the scene.

However, it was not certain whether the damages were done by any explosives or during the Op-

eration Thunderbolt rescue drive.Eyewitnesses, meanwhile, de-

scribed that the attack began soon after an SUV of Toyota Prado model entered and left the Holey Artisan Bakery premises. An SUV matching that description is among the aban-doned vehicles.

Saiful Islam, acting deputy commissioner of the CTTC unit, said they suspected that several of the seized cars had been used or owned by the victims.

For this reason, the police have contacted the BRTA to check own-ership of the vehicles.

Saiful also said some evidence had been sent to the laboratory of Criminal Investigation Department for tests. If necessary, some major evidence would also be sent abroad for testing to get new leads.

However, a senior-ranking in-vestigation agency o� cial, re-questing anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had information that the attackers had walked into the attack site after being dropped o� by a car near the bakery.

Meanwhile, the authorities are also checking the bicycles to deter-mine whether those were used by any of the attackers. l

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

4DT News

Counter-terrorism dominates Asem agendan Tribune Desk

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has joined oth-er global leaders and government represent-atives in a two-day 11th Asia-Europe Summit (Asem 11) that began in Mongolia’s Ulaan-baatar yesterday morning with counter-ter-rorism with high on its agenda.

The Summit titled “20 years of Asem: Part-nership for e Future through Connectivity” kicked o� in Shangri-La Hotel in presence of high-level delegation from 51 Asem partners - 30 European and 21 Asian countries and two intergovernmental organisations.

The Summit will have two plenary sessions

titled – ‘Two decades of partnership: taking stock and looking forward’ and ‘Promoting Asem partnership for greater connectivity’.

Sheikh Hasina will address the second ple-nary on partnership for greater connectivity.

A retreat session under the title of “En-hancing the three pillars of Asem” will take place on Saturday which will look into both regional and international issues including counter-terrorism and migration.

The Summit will end tomorrow with the Chair’s Statement followed by “Ulaanbaatar Declaration” on the Future of Asem.

In parallel to the Summit, various bilateral meetings are taking place. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina delivering speech at the Second Plenary Session of the ASEM Summit in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia yesterday PID

There is a belief that madrasa students are vulnerable to recruitment by violent extremist groups. Is this the case? First of all, it is incorrect to say that madrasa students are being radicalised. The majority of madrasa students in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are peaceful and come from poor backgrounds and serve their communities as basic religious functionaries.

Occasionally, on issues like defamation and blasphemy, madrasa students are mobilised to protest o� ences against the Prophet Muhammad. But the majority of madrasas are neither involved in violence nor radicalisation. They have a di� erent set of challenges. Madrasa communities do not share the same level of literacy or world view as secular people. And that is the fault line.

There are New York Times reports that Saiful Islam, who was a Bangladesh madrasa student, was arrested in connection with the deaths of bloggers. Yet, we are not told which madrasa. Did he belong to a Qawmi madrasa? Was he a Deobandi, a Barelwi or Sala� ?

These reports lack information that make them di� cult to believe. Madrasas appear to serve as a scapegoat for serious political divisions and political failures in law and order and security in Bangladesh.

If six well educated Bangladeshis engage in an IS-in� uenced terror attack, do we say all Bangladeshi university students are engaged in terrorism? Obviously not. So why the double-standard when it comes to madrasas? When madrasa leaders and students are involved in violence, the media must take their names, identify their madrasa and identify which orientation of the multiple streams of madrasas these people belong to.

So what's going on? Rich, elite Muslims are the biggest challenge today. Especially the rich and elite who become religious but have a very minimal literacy of Islam.

They do not understand Islam’s teachings. They have little understanding of Islamic law, Quran interpretation and lack complex literacy. These individuals su� er from what I call a poverty of dignity.

Radical interpretations of Islam o� er a language to express political grievances.

They have high levels of education and wealth but do not experience dignity in the globalised world. So they join a global tribe called Islam and they live in that Islam [sic] bubble. They begin to see their self worth not within the context of Bangladesh but within the context of the Umma, as a place of salvation.

Groups like IS target them and tell them not all people in the Umma are good and that IS members are the best. They say they follow the Sharia in its original form and these elite kids with poor Islamic literacy become persuaded. Many of them might previously have lived sinful lives of sex, women and drink.

So the fake-Islam addiction they get from IS gives them a quick path to redemption – a fallacy in terms of proper Islamic teachings. But they fall for the fake-Islam addiction. Since these elite kids can

read English and are aware of global issues they witness the destruction in Iraq and Syria, they see images of Guantanamo Bay prison and their sympathies are cultivated to � ght for the “Islamic” cause, because there is also a global lake of Muslim victimhood from Iraq to Burma. Anyone can draw the water of grievance from that lake of victimhood and feel justi� ed in become a jihadi Muslim on steroids. So these sel� e-taking, Facebook and AK47-toting jihadis try to make themselves into Bollywood heroes.

What about family guidance?The families of these elite kids are also not well educated about Islam. Most of their parents lived secular lives and were hardly religious for most of their lives. At some point the parents become devout, but devout not based on sane Islamic literacy. When they see their kids grow beards, pray � ve times a day and fast in Ramadan, they become happy and boast: “Oh my son is a practising Muslim, my daughter

wears the hijab so she is a practicing Muslim and will get a good Muslim husband.” Meanwhile they don’t have sophisticated literacy. They don’t know what their kids are doing on their computers and in which chat-rooms they are talking to jihadis who are trying to recruit them.

Parents are just too happy to a see a beard and hijab on their children and think they are Islamic. The moral of the story is this: all Muslim parents must adopt a sophisticated Islamic education and procure the same for their children. This do-it-yourself Islam that people get from self-help manuals are most toxic and dangerous. You need quali� ed scholars to educate your children. Reading the Qur’an unsupervised or reading the hadith unsupervised can create the most toxic misunderstanding and result in dangerous practices.

The most toxic element in these elite Muslim families is this: many elite Muslims believe in conspiracy theories. So if you investigate the

family backgrounds of all elite jihadis you will � nd that at home many of them believe in fantasy stories about the world. They believe 9/11 never happened and that it was caused by the US government as a pretext to invade Iraq. They believe weirdly that all the problems in the world are caused by Jews or by Hindus. l

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016News 5

DT

PRAYERTIMES

Cox’s Bazar 28 25Dhaka 28 26 Chittagong 30 26 Rajshahi 31 26 Rangpur 28 25 Khulna 30 26 Barisal 28 26 Sylhet 25 23T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

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

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW36.0ºC 24.5ºC

Rajshahi TeknafSATURDAY, JULY 16Source: Islamic Foundation

Fajr: 4:45am | Zohr: 1:15pmAsr: 5:15pm | Magrib: 7:00pmEsha: 8:45pm

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Ebrahim Moosa, professor of Islamic Studies and co-director of Contending Modernities at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global A� airs talks to the DhakaTribune’sAbid Azad about the radicalisation of youth in the � rst of a two-part interview

‘Elite Muslims are the biggest challenge’

RejoinderA news on Dhaka Tribune’s 14 July 2016 issue was published on page-5 titled “Brainwashing from madrasa to private university” where Inde-pendent University, Bangladesh (IUB)’s name was also mentioned. In this regard, IUB authority has made a strong protest and remonstration as this highly reputed institution has never had any kind of allegation or negative impression over the last 23 years. IUB’s image has been clean and � awless all the way through, the authority a� rmed.

Activists of Gonojagoron Moncho bring out a � ag procession in Shahbagh, Dhaka yesterday demanding a terrorism-free Bangladesh MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

6DT News

Syndicate pockets Tk100cr shipment, leaving Korean trader in the lurchn Hedait Hossain, Khulna

Five cheaters have sold 33,000 metric tonnes of wheat of a South Korean to local markets defying an injunction in this regard.

Later, the court issued arrest warrants against them after an investigation of Anti-Corruption Commission found the allegation to be true, but the law enforcement agencies failed to trace them de-spite passing long time.

South Korean national Hco Man Woog, president of M/S Samjin cs & t co ltd, in 2014 signed an agree-ment with Bangladesh Food Minis-

try to supply wheat and the com-pany supplied a consignment of 19,500mt wheat as per the treaty.

Woong assigned Sheikh Ashraf Ali and Sons located in Khulna as local exclusive agent for the job.

When the second consignment of 33,000mt worth Tk100 crore reached Chittagong port, a dispute over the commission percentage erupted between both parties.

Finally Sheikh Ashraf Ali and Sons � led a case against Woong and the court directed to stock the haul under the Korean national un-til a solution come.

Meanwhile, the local agent ap-

pointed JK Shipping as subcontrac-tor for the task. The organisation’s owners Md Kamrul Islam, Akhtaru-zzaman Khan Mamun, Saiful Is-lam, Malek Majhi and unknown another forged signature of Woong to ensure its release from the port.

The food ministry denied to ac-cept the wheat haul because of the expiry of collection time and the subcontractor stocked it in a silo owned by Malek Majhi according to the court order.

The � ve later sold the whole consignment to local markets without the knowledge of the local agent as well as Woong.

The matter came to light when Sheikh Azizul Islam, managing director of the local agent, in the next year managed a sale order of 7,000mt from court to realise his commission and he found no wheat stock in godown.

On May 31, 2015, he � led a lawsuit with the port city’s Bandar police sta-tion against the � ve and the ACC run an investigation into the allegation.

ACC Assistant Director of Chit-tagong and the case’s investigation o� cer HM Akhtaruzzaman said: “A message has already been sent to the police stations and airports concerned to arrest the accused.

They are now on the run. Even Woong received a threat with death after incurring huge loss and he be-came mentally imbalanced as a re-sult of the situation.

“The matter has been informed to the Korean Embassy as well. We have all proofs of the wheat embez-zlement by the � ve, but police can-not trace their whereabouts.”

When contacted, JK Shipping Managing Director Kamrul Islam said: “The country’s law bars ACC from any personal investigation ex-cept public matters. Woong is real owner of the haul and the allegations raised by Azizul are baseless.” l

The bamboo village of Durgapurn Tajul Islam Reza,

Gaibandha

Sixteen kilometres from Gai-bandha district town lies the village of Durgapur, a quaint old place where almost all residents make their living by making bamboo crafts.

For generations they have been reshaping the bam-boos into tools that are partand parcel of the daily rural life.

Some are experts in mak-ing Chatai or traditional � oor mats, some stay busy mak-ing Kula or winnowing fans, while others create small toys using the bamboo that are found locally.

It is a place where villagers are happy with what they do. Bamboo crafting is a time of community e� ort.

People gather in groups to work, while music plays in the background on their mo-bile phones.

Visiting the village in Bhat-gram union recently, the Dha-ka Tribune found that almost any available space where one could spread out and sit was occupied with bamboo craftspeople.

The entire village is en-veloped in a sweet scent which residents say originatewhen the bamboo is hacked down.

Despite the happy-laid back nature of Durgapur, the lives of the local bamboo craftspeople are full of strug-gles.

Although not far from the district town, the village lacks proper education, health,

power or communication fa-cilities.

The day’s activities begin at dawn when a lot of the men go out to cut down bamboo for the crafting materials. Others, meanwhile, get busy with other preparations like shaving and carving the bam-boo bark.

The women also join after they � nish the day’s cooking, while children also lend their hands as well.

The tasks, however, must be � nished in daytime as there is no electricity supply in the area.

Forty-year-old Akkas Miah, who works along with his wife and two children, said they could have gotten more work done if only there was power supply in the village so that they could turn on light bulbs at night.

Rumi Begum, 33, said the pro� ts have su� ered a blow recently as it is becoming harder and more expensive to collect bamboo.

Another craftsmen named Akbar Ali, 55, said it is also tough to market their prod-ucts as wholesalers are reluc-tant to come to their village because of the terrible condi-tion of the roads.

A di� erent sort of trouble that has plagued the craft-speople lately is a group of unscrupulous wholesalers who lend the poor the initial investment to buy o� their products at extremely low rates.

As a result, the craftspeo-ple are being denied the fair share of pro� ts. l

Decade-long road woes in Horogram Bazarn Abdullah Al Dulal, Rajshahi

A kilometre-long stretch of dilap-idated road in Rajshahi city has been causing frequent accidents for more than a decade and has been a reason of su� ering for locals throughout this time.

The road in question runs through the Horogram Bazaar stretching from the Janata Bank in-tersection near Rajpara’s court area to the Court Station intersection.

The entire road is riddled with potholes, while commuting becomes an extremely di� cult task as many traders who have shops nearby dump their garbage right on the road.

Even if someone braves the stench and ignores the massive holes, they would have to su� er for the regular water stagnation on the road.

Such a shoddy state of the street has caused many local tenants to leave, dropping the renting value of local houses.

A local resident named Mo-hammad Salauddin told the Dhaka Tribune that vegetable and � sh-meat traders dump their trash on the road that eventually just rots there and causes a horrible stench.

People try to avoid this road unless it is an absolute emergency, Salauddin said.

He added that people refuse to rent in the area as daily commute would be a di� cult task.

Manik, another local resident, said school-college students su� er a lot every day, especially during the monsoon.

Sha� qur Rahman Badshah, a former principal of Rajshahi Court Mahabidyalaya and also a local, de-manded that the road be repaired immediately.

Mohammad Shihab, who owns a hardware store in the bazaar, said the road has not seen any repair in the past 12 to 15 years, while the condition has only been worsened because of constant digging for developing water and gas connec-tions.

A local trader named Md Shariat Ali said the road was built around 40 years ago and last saw repairs over a decade ago.

He added that the city corpora-tion has started buying o� land be-side the road for a planned expan-sion and repairs.

Nurul Islam, a trader in Horo-

gram Bazaar, said he had to re-spond to a government notice and give up 18 feet of his land for a road expansion.

The � rst notice was served eight months ago, while the � nal notice arrived three months ago, he said.

Asked about the amount of com-pensation, Nurul said he will be re-ceiving around Tk8.5 lakh for the land, while the notice also men-tions additional compensations for damage to infrastructures.

As road expansion plans slowly get realised, local traders alleged that their businesses continue to su� er. They also blamed the Ra-

jshahi City Corporation, which they said only collected taxes but did not clean the road.

Mithu, a van puller who regular-ly uses the road, said no passenger can sit straight when they are pass-ing through this road. Small acci-dents are a daily occurrence and damage to passing vehicles is also very common.

Asked for comments, the city corporation’s Chief Engineer Ashraful Haque said the entire road would be repaired soon, but only the stretch of road from RDA Court Station to Lily Cinema Hall would be expanded. l

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016News 7

DT

CU under the scanner over militancy links Surveillance intensi� ed at Cuet, International Islamic University and BGC Trust Universityn FM Mizanur Rahaman,

Chittagong

Law enforcing agencies and intel-ligence organisations have inten-si� ed their surveillance in Chit-tagong University (CU) campus area following the recent militant activities Gulshan and Solakia.

Police said they were keeping eye on students of the university, as their involvement with militan-cy have already been found.

Apart from that, three other universities – Chittagong Univer-sity Engineering and Technology (Cuet), International Islamic Uni-versity in Chittagong (IIUC) and BGC Trust University – are also under the scanner of intelligence agencies, said police sources.

Chittagong district Additional Superintendent of Police (North)

Mosta� zur Rahman said: “We have asked all the university authorities to keep a close watch on students and their attendance.

According to the police and in-telligence sources, two banned Islamic out� ts—JMB and Hizb-ut-Tahrir – are active at CU while po-lice have found the involvement of the six CU students with the radical organisations.

CU teachers and students were � abbergasted when police revealed that JMB’s Chittagong Regional chief Raisul Islam Khan Rasel alias Fardin alias Noman was a student of the university.

On December 27, 2015, police arrested three students of CU on charge of their alleged involvement with banned Islamic militant out� t Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen Bangla-desh (JMB).

Of the suspected JMB militants, Faisal was supposed to pursue his thesis titled “Quantum Field Theo-ry” under the supervision of Phys-ics department Professor Dr Anjon Kumar Chowdhury of CU.

According to police and CU sources, JMB regional commander Fardin had joined JMB and started to organise the JMB activists from university after completing his graduation from Physics depart-ment in 2012.

Police said Fardin had died with one of his aide in a grenade blast on April 3 in Bogra while he was re-portedly making bombs there.

Saifur Rahman Farabi, who is now behind the bars, is also a for-mer student of Physics department of CU and an active member of Hizb ut Tahrir. Farabi was an irregular student of the department under

2005-2006, said campus sources.At present, Farabi is suspected

to have killed blogger and founder of Muktamona blog Avijit Roy, said the sources.

Farabi was previously arrested on February 24, 2013 for issuing threat to an Imam who o� ered Namaz-e-Janaza of another blog-ger Ahmed Rajib Haider through facebook.

In the recent development, Ab-dun Nur, a student of Mathematics department, was arrested by police from Magura for his alleged link with militancy on Wednesday.

It is learnt that most of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir men who completed their graduation from the faculty are now working in Chittagong city and instructing their fellows through facebook, whats app and other social media and carrying out

their ogranisational activities.A police o� cial of Chittagong

Metropolitan Police (CMP) said: “The extremist militant out� ts are trying to recruit fresh workers from the physics department or science background as they have sound knowledge on various devices and tools.”

CU Proctor Ali Asgar Chowd-hury told Dhaka Tribune that they were working along with law en-forcing agencies to trace out any suspicious link to the students.

Vice-Chancellor of CU Professor Dr Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury said: “We have formed an anti-militant and terrorism cell at the universi-ty. Deans and chairmen of every department and faculty have been asked to report about their stu-dents who were not present in the class for last 10 days.” l

A man tries to struggles his van which is stuck in a big pothole on a road near Horogram Bazar, Rajshahi city yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Munshiganj clash kills twon Tanjil Hasan, Munshiganj

A newly elected UP member and his brother was killed in a gun� ght on Thursday night in Charbalaki village of Hosendi union under Gazaria upazila of Munshiganj.

The deceased are Ward 8 UP member Golap Hosen Bepari and his brother Eiyub Ali Bepari.

Ten people were also wound-ed by bullets during the clash that broke out over a business deal over � lling a ditch with sand.

The wounded are Yusuf Mridha, 50, Rehana Begum, 45, Fulchand, 60, Rubel, 30, Kamal Hosen, 40, Nabi Hosen, 35, Zahirul Haq, 35 and Imran Hosen, 32.

Gazaria Police Station O� cer in Charge Hedayetul Islam Bhuiyan con� rmed the incident.

Nine men were arrested, three from the Munshiganj General Hos-pital in connection but no case has been � led yet.

Sources said the incident hap-pened when supporters of the new-ly elected chairman Mahbubul Haq Majnu and supporters of ex-chair-man and UP Awami League Pres-ident Abdul Matin Mantu locked into the clash.

Two others, Aowlad Hosen and Jewel, have been since the inci-dent.

OC Hedayetul Islam Bhu-iyan said: “Additional forceshave been deployed in the area to avoid any escalation of the situa-tion.”

Almost all male villagers of Charbalaki village and surround-ing areas have gone into hiding to avoid arrest. l

8DTSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan declares Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani a ‘martyr’Further needling India on the Kash-mir issue, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday declared slain Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani a “martyr” and said July 19 will be observed as a “black day” to express solidarity with people of Kashmir. -TOI

INDIA

India seeks further discount on Rafale, deal in � nal stagesIndia is pushing for a � nal discount of nearly 1,50,000 Euros in the much-anticipated Rafale � ghter jet deal with France even after success-fully bringing down the price by nearly two billion Euros. The French side, however, is adamant on the price it had o� ered way back in April which comes to about 7.89 billion Euros for the 36 � ghter jets. -TOI

CHINA

China detains 53 people for deadly Shenzhen landslideChina has detained 53 people in con-nection with a landslide that killed 73 people last year in Shenzhen, the o� cial Xinhua news agency said on Friday. Investigators found that the December 20 disaster, which was characterised as an “extraordi-narily serious” industrial accident, occurred because too much waste construction material had been dumped in a land� ll. -REUTERS

ASIA PACIFIC

N Korea arrests defector who ‘worked as S Korea agent’North Korea on Friday paraded a defector accused of involvement in a child abduction plot it says was masterminded by South Korean agents, as Seoul demanded the man’s immediate release. In a carefully stage-managed press conference in Pyongyang, Ko Hy-on-Chol, 53, who � ed the North in 2013, “confessed” to attempting to kidnap two orphans and take them to the South. -AFP

MIDDLE EAST

Russian strikes kill 18 IS � ghters in SyriaRussian air strikes have killed 18 Is-lamic State group � ghters in central Syria, including near the historic city of Palmyra, over the past 24 hours, a monitor said on Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said European members of IS were among the dead in the strikes around the town of Sukhna and near Palmyra -AFP

World

A man reacts near bouquets of � owers on July 15 as people pay tribute near the scene where a truck ran into a crowd at high speed killing scores and injuring more who were celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday, in Nice, France REUTERS

The world stands with Francen Reuters, Ulaanbaatar/

Moscow

World leaders united in horror and pledged their determination to � ght terrorism on Friday after a truck attack on a Bastille Day crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice killed 84 people.

US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and European and Asian leaders meeting for a summit in Mon-golia joined in condemnation of what they called a terrorist attack in messages to French President Francois Hollande.

Police sources said the truck was driven by a 31-year Tuni-sian-born Frenchman known to authorities for petty crime but not Islamic radicalism, who was even-tually shot dead after an exchange of gun� re with police.

Dozens more people were in-jured. The dead included foreign tourists and students.

European Council President Donald Tusk, speaking in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, captured the global shock when he spoke of the "tragic paradox that the subject of #NiceAttack was the people celebrating liberty,

equality and fraternity."German Chancellor Angela

Merkel said on the sidelines of the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Mongolia: "All of us who have come together at the ASEM sum-mit are united in our feeling of dis-belief at the attack of mass murder in Nice."

New British Prime Minister Theresa May, whose country has just upset Paris and other Euro-pean capitals by voting to leave the European Union, said Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with France.

Putin, whose relations with the West have been strained over Rus-sian actions in Ukraine and Syria, went on Russian television to con-vey his condolences to Hollande after apparently being unable to reach him by telephone.

"Dear Francois, Russia knows what terror is and the threats that it creates for all of us. Our people have more than once encountered similar tragedies and is deeply a� ected by the incident, sympa-thises with the French people, and feels solidarity with them," he said, adding that Russian cit-izens were among the victims in Nice.

Domestic AgendasIn France itself, far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, ex-pected to do well in next year's presidential election, faulted the country's response to past attacks.

"The war on the scourge of Is-lamist fundamentalism has not begun. It is urgent now that it be declared," she said on Twitter.

In the Middle East, many mes-sages of sympathy and condem-nation were laced with domestic agendas.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdo-gan, whose country was hit just days ago by a coordinated gun and bomb attack on Istanbul airport by suspected Islamic State militants, said Turks could understand what France and the French people were going through.

Saudi Arabia's top clerical body condemned the French attack but said it should not distract the world from "the crimes of the Syr-ian regime".

Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu, whose settle-ment policies on Palestinian land have been criticised by France and other foreign countries, said Israel stood ready "to help the French government � ght this evil until it

is defeated".

Neighbours Discuss SecurityItaly, Spain, Germany, Britain and Belgium, all of which are neigh-bours of France, held separate meetings to review their own se-curity after the Nice attack, which came just after the French had successfully hosted the Euro 2016 soccer tournament and launched a massive security operation dur-ing it.

Germany said it had boosted border controls at airports as well as road and rail crossings into France in response, as did Italy.

Britain and Belgium said their threat level was already severe, indicating they regard an attack is "highly likely".

It was the third time that France has been hit in 18 months, following the attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in January 2015 and a wave of gun and bomb assaults in November on a concert hall, restaurants and bars and the national soccer stadium.

Last month, a knife attacker killed two French police o� cers in their home before being shot deal by police. l

9D

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SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016World

USAUS carries out � rst execution in more than two monthsGeorgia executed a prisoner by lethal injection early Friday, the � rst US execution in more than two months, ending a pause that re� ects a decline in capital pun-ishment. John Conner, 60, died at 0429 GMT in Jackson the state’s prison authorities said. -AFP

THE AMERICASVenezuela will temporarily reopen border crossingVenezuela will temporarily re-open its border with Colombia on Sunday, a state governor said, a move that will allow desperate Venezuelans to stock up on food, medicine and other basics sorely lacking in their country. “We will not put up any obstacle...whoever wants to cross can cross,” Jose Vielma Mora, governor of the bor-der state of Tachira, told report-ers Thursday. -AFP

UKSlain MP Jo Cox laid to rest in private ceremonyThe funeral of MP Jo Cox, whose murder shocked Britain in the run-up to last month’s EU referen-dum, was being held on Friday in the northern English constituency she represented. Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two young children, was shot and stabbed in the street in the village of Birstall, West Yorkshire, on June 16 as she made her way to an advice session for the people she represented in parliamen. -REUTERS

EUROPEAfghan man killed in Greek migrant camp brawlAn Afghan asylum seeker died Thursday after a brawl in a Greek migration camp involving 50 oth-ers, a police source said. The man, aged around 20, was seriously injured by his countrymen in the camp at Hellinikon, in Athens’ southern suburbs, and transferred to a neighbouring hospital where he died from his wounds. Two oth-er migrants, whose nationality was not con� rmed, were also hospital-ised. -AFP

AFRICA7 loyalist troops killed � ghting IS in Libya’s SirteSeven Libyan unity government fighters were killed and 49 wounded Friday in clashes with IS in the jihadists’ coastal strong-hold of Sirte, pro-government forces said. Fighting was fiercest around Sirte’s conference centre, which has become a command headquarters for IS, a statement from forces loyal to the GNA said. -AFP

Tour de France stage goes ahead amid high securityn AFP, Bourg-Saint-Andéol

Friday's 13th stage of the Tour de France went ahead amid height-ened security despite the terror attack which killed at least 84 people in Nice on Thursday night.

Some 600 security forces were deployed along the 37km-long route from Bourg Saint Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d'Arc in the south of France.

"All access roads leading to the route have been blocked," as-sistant Tour director Pierre-Yves Thouault, who is in charge of se-curity, told AFP.

The Tour is o� cially in mourning according to organis-ers, with festivities suspended on

the day's stage."We want this day to be digni-

� ed in hommage to the victims," said Tour director Christian Prud-homme ahead of the start of the stage, a 37km time-trial from Bourg Saint Andeol to La Cav-erne du Pont d'Arc in the south of France.

Despite the extra security, for-mer world champion Rui Costa of Portugal admitted he was afraid that the Tour could also be tar-geted, in particular because of the thousands of people who line the streets every day to watch the cyclists go past.

"#prayfornice I don't feel safe here in France," he wrote on Facebook. l

Nice attack a new strike against French tourismn AFP, Paris

In striking the jewel of the French Riviera on a national holiday the truck attack on Nice delivered a new blow to France’s tourism sec-tor already reeling from repeated terror attacks.

The place of Thursday’s Nice at-tack was a top tourist destination: the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais along the Mediterranean coast in the city which is the number two desti-nation in France behind Paris.

Georges Panayotis, head of the MKG hotel and tourism consultan-cy, expressed concern about the e� ect the repeated attacks were having on the industry.

“This is no longer a classic ter-rorism situation where a couple of

months is enough following an at-tack for economic activity to recov-er,” said Panayotis.

The successive attacks and high number of victims “will dissuade tourists for a certain time”.

The number of tourists arriving on regular � ights has fallen by 5.8 percent since January, including by 11 percent in Paris.

The number of hotel nights for-eigners spend in Paris is expected to be down around 20 percent for the prime summer season, tourism minister Matthias Fekl said in a re-cent interview with TourMag.

The tourism industry is critical-ly important for France, the world’s top tourism destination that wel-comed nearly 84.5 million visitors last year. l

When vehicles become weaponsn AFP, Paris

Transforming a vehicle into a sim-ple but deadly weapon of terror - as happened to such bloody e� ect in Nice on Thursday - is a tactic well known to intelligence agencies.

A truck smashed into revellers celebrating France's Bastille Day, killing at least 84 and injuring scores as its ploughed two kilo-metres through the crowd.

In Israel and the Palestinian territories, car-ramming attacks have featured heavily in a wave of violence that has killed at least 215 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Su-danese since October last year.

Western authorities have had to deal with three similar attacks in recent years: two in Britain and another in Canada.

In May 2013, two Islamists smashed their car into British sol-dier Lee Rigby before attempting to behead him on a London street in broad daylight.

The pair, who were of Nigerian heritage, said they attacked the 25-year-old fusilier to avenge the deaths of Muslims at the hands of British troops.

Just 18 months later, a man claiming to be acting in the name of radical jihad ran over and killed Canadian soldier Patrice Vincent, also injuring a second man.

Shortly after, the 25-year-old Muslim convert, Martin Cou-ture-Rouleau, called the police emergency line to dedicate his at-tack to the cause of jihad.

And in June 2007, two men in a burning jeep smashed into the main terminal building at Scot-land's Glasgow Airport. One of the men was jailed for life, with the judge describing him as a "reli-gious extremist".

For several years, extremist

groups such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda have exhorted followers via videos or messages to carry out such attacks using whatever comes to hand.

In September 2014, Abu Mo-hammed al-Adnani, an IS spokes-man who Western intelligence agencies have dubbed the group's "attacks minister", issued chilling instructions that some have since apparently followed.

"If you cannot (detonate) a bomb or (� re) a bullet, arrange to meet alone with a French or an American in� del and bash his skull in with a rock, slaughter him with a knife, run him over with your car, throw him o� a cli� , strangle him, or inject him with poison," he said. l

French police forces and forensic o� cers stand next to a truck July 15, 2016 that ran into a crowd celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday on the Promenade des Anglais killing at least 60 people in Nice, France, July 14 REUTERS

A body is seen on the ground July 15, 2016 after at least 30 people were killed in Nice, France, when a truck ran into a crowd celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday July 14 REUTERS

10DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016World

May says won't trigger EU divorce until UK-wide approach agreedn Reuters, Edinburgh

Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday that Britain would not trigger formal divorce talks with the European Union until a "UK ap-proach" had been agreed, bidding to appease Scots who strongly op-pose Brexit.

May made the comment after meeting First Minister Nicola Stur-geon, head of the pro-independ-ence Scottish government which says pro-EU Scots should not be dragged out against their will and has been looking at ways to keep Scotland in the bloc.

Scotland voted by 62-38 percent to stay in the European Union in the June 23 referendum while the United Kingdom as a whole vot-ed 52-48 percent to leave, a result which Sturgeon has said made the prospect of another vote on Scot-tish independence "highly likely".

"I have already said that I won't be triggering Article 50 until I think that we have a UK approach and ob-jectives for negotiations - I think it is important that we establish that before we trigger Article 50," May told broadcasters, referring to the procedure through which a country would withdraw from the EU.

May's said her decision to visit Sturgeon on her own turf less than 48 hours after taking o� ce under-lined her determination to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom af-ter the Brexit vote had revived the issue of independence, which Scots rejected in a 2014 referendum.

Sturgeon has said she will ex-plore all options for keeping Scot-land in the EU and May, who her-self had backed the campaign to remain in the bloc, said she wanted the Scottish government to be in-volved in the Brexit talks.

"I will listen to any options they bring forward. I've been very clear with the � rst minister today that I want the Scottish government

to be fully engaged in our discus-sions," May said. "I want to get the best possible deal for the whole of the United Kingdom."

'Scotland has had its independence vote'Scots rejected independence by 55-45 percent in the referendum two years ago, but since then, Sturgeon's Scottish National Party has gone

from strength to strength, winning 56 of Scotland's 59 seats in the Brit-ish parliament in the 2015 election.

"As far as I'm concerned the Scottish people had their vote, they voted in 2014 and a very clear message came through, both the United Kingdom and the Scottish government said they would abide by that," May said.

Sturgeon said on Wednesday she

wanted May to enable the Scottish government to explore possibilities for Scotland to remain in the EU as a central part of the overall negoti-ations with the bloc over the terms of Britain's exit.

She has also repeatedly said that Scotland should be able to conduct talks directly with EU counter-parts, and met several EU leaders in Brussels during a visit there days after the referendum.

If independence then turns out to be the best way for Scotland to remain an EU member, Sturgeon argues there should be another referendum on the issue. Polls sug-gest support for independence had risen since the Brexit vote.

On Friday, Sturgeon said it would be inconceivable for a British prime minister to block a referendum vot-ed for by the Scottish parliament.

"I work on the basis that trying to block a referendum, if there's a clear sense that that's what peo-ple in Scotland want, would be completely the wrong thing to do," Sturgeon told Sky News after the meeting with May on Friday.

May's Conservative Party, un-popular in Scotland for decades, holds only one of Scotland's 59 seats in the Westminster parlia-ment, although it has recently im-proved its standing, coming second to the SNP in the Scottish parlia-mentary election in May.

It is now the o� cial opposition to the SNP in Edinburgh, having beaten the once dominant Labour Party into third place. l

New British Prime Minister Theresa May meeting First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon at Bute House in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 15 REUTERS

Trump announces Pence as running maten Reuters, Washington

Republican Donald Trump an-nounced Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his vice presidential run-ning mate on Friday, putting a sea-soned conservative politician at his side who could help rally more par-ty loyalists behind his White House bid.

Republican sources said on Thursday that Trump had decid-ed on Pence, but the campaign had not con� rmed this until now. Trump had postponed a Friday event to announce his decision fol-lowing the deadly truck attack in France.

Viewed as a safe pair of hands, Pence, 57, has diverging views with Trump on his proposed Muslim ban and trade, and is more social-ly conservative. But he could help unify Republicans left divided by Trump's campaign to win the par-ty presidential nomination for the November 8 election.

"I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00am," Trump said in a tweet.

Trump had faced a midday deadline to announce Pence be-cause the governor had to declare by then whether he would be on the ballot in his home state for re-election.

Trump, a New York business-man who has never held elected o� ce, had chosen Pence from a short list that included two other � nalists, former House of Repre-sentatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

In a Fox News interview on Thursday night, Trump said Pence had done a great job in Indiana and that of all the people he had in-terviewed for the job, "there's no-body that agrees with me fully on everything."

His choice was slammed by the

campaign of Democratic presiden-tial candidate Hillary Clinton.

“By picking Mike Pence as his running mate, Donald Trump has doubled down on some of his most

disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for support-ing discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that fa-

vour millionaires and corporations over working families,” said Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Trump said on Thursday he postponed his planned announce-ment on Friday out of respect for the victims in Nice, France. An at-tacker in a heavy truck drove into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, killing at least 84 people and injur-ing scores more in what President Francois Hollande called a terrorist act.

Trump, 70, is set to be formally nominated as the party's candi-date for the presidential election at the convention in Cleveland. Traditionally, the vice presidential choice is used to build enthusiasm among party loyalists.

The Republican National Com-mittee expects the convention to draw 50,000 people to Cleveland and US authorities were prepar-ing for the possibility of violence - whether from demonstrators or planned attacks. l

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) and Indiana Governor Mike Pence (L) wave before addressing the crowd during a campaign stop at the Grand Park Events Center in West� eld, Indiana, on July 12 REUTERS

11D

T

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016World

Unesco adds four new sites to World Heritage listn AFP, Turkey

The UN's cultural agency on Friday added four new sites in Iran, India, China and Mi-cronesia to its World Heritage list.

The sites named by UN-ESCO include the so-called qanat water systems in Iran, the Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape in Chi-na and the archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara in India.

The landscape in China is all that remains today of the bronze age culture – known as "bronze drum" after its most characteristic artifacts – once prevalent across the country's south, the agency said in a statement.

The site in Iran is an exam-ple of an ancient water-sup-ply system - known as qanat

- suited for the most arid ar-eas.

The fourth site is Nan Madol – a ceremonial centre of eastern Micronesia in the Federated States of Microne-sia containing mediaeval pal-aces and tombs.

The Micronesian site is a series of 99 arti� cial islets built with walls of basalt and coral boulders.

It was, however, immedi-ately placed on UNESCO's list of heritage-in-danger.

The UN agency warned threats to the site were nota-bly the construction of nav-igation channels which was leading to the uncontrolled growth of the mangrove, making the historic edi� ces more fragile.

The heritage-in-danger list is intended to highlight the risks facing world herit-

age sites that need protection and allows the committee to allocate immediate sup-port from the World Heritage Fund.

UNESCO named the old towns of Djenne in Mali and Shakhrisyabz in Uzbekistan on Wednesday on its herit-age-in-danger list during its 40th meeting of its World Her-itage Committee in Istanbul.

All � ve of Libya's World Heritage sites were named on Thursday by the agency as at risk of damage from the civil war that continues to rage in the country.

Meanwhile, the complex of churches and holy sites in the Georgian town of Mtsk-heta was removed from the in-danger list, where it had been listed since 2009.

The meeting will end on July 20. l

Death toll hits 38 as Indian Kashmir clashes spread n AFP, Srinagar

Two people including a teenager were killed Friday as clashes spread in India-adminis-tered Kashmir despite a curfew, with the death toll reaching 38 in a week, o� cials said.

The teen died, while three protesters were

critically wounded, when Indian soldiers opened � re on an angry group that attacked their camp with stone, a police o� cer speak-ing on condition of anonymity told AFP.

Another young man died when police � red live bullets at a group of protesters who set � re to a police station. l

UN seeks probe into violence against asylum seekers in Hungaryn Reuters

The UN refugee agency urged Hungary on Friday to inves-tigate reports that its forces had beaten asylum seekers and unleashed police dogs on them - and decried a new law allowing irregular migrants to be taken back outside a border fence.

Janos Lazar, minister in charge of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's o� ce, denied on Thursday that Hungarian police or soldiers had mis-treated asylum seekers and

described their performance as "outstanding".

Hungary, a member of the European Union, last month adopted a law that allows po-lice to send illegal migrants detained up to eight km in-side its southern razor-wire border-fence back to the oth-er side of the barrier.

"These restrictions are at variance with EU and in-ternational law, and reports of abuse need to be inves-tigated," William Spindler, spokesman for the UNHCR, told a news brie� ng.

"Reports include cases of bites by unleashed police dogs, the use of pepper spray and beatings. UNHCR has requested the Hungarian au-thorities to investigate these reports," he said, calling them "consistent".

Hungarian prosecutors last month opened an in-vestigation into possible criminal abuse by police in the case of a Syrian migrant who drowned in the Tisza River as he was trying to cross into Hungary from Ser-bia. l

Nalanda Mahavihara

Zuojiang Huashan rock art

Nan Madol

Qanat Niavaran water systems

n Rad Sharar Bin Kamal

Azim Hossain joined PRAN-RFL Group back in January 2011, and is now the head of Digital Media

at the established conglomerate. After a comprehensive meet,

he opened up on the e� ectiveness of the National F-commerce Summit 2016 hosted by GEEKY Social, a national 360 degree digital marketing company, and how important it was for the little guys in the F-commerce sector and our nation.

What is your opinion on the National F-commerce Summit? Do you think it was helpful to revitalise the industry?Yes! It was de� nitely helpful. When there is a singular and uniform platform for an industry which is organised, it helps that sector grow. Previously, concerned parties were very interested in propelling the SME sector. They organised nationwide events in order to encourage it. The same should be done here.

With regard to F-commerce, the industry refers to those businesses which are Facebook centric. These small business units usually have little capital to begin with, but using Facebook as a medium, they are being able to spur out revenues 10 times more than their initial investment. This, in turn, provides them with the initiative to invest further and gain more revenue. If such businesses are given a platform to stand over, it would inevitably

help the economy to excel. Most startups halt in operations

after a year or so of operations at best, simply because they do not have a platform to support them. These startups generally come into the market with unique ideas, but face issues with the implementation of those ideas. The absence of a platform is strong felt when they seek guidance in that area.

How would you describe the intersection of digital marketing and F-commerce entrepreneurship? The digital marketing ecosystem and penetration in Bangladesh is led by Facebook. Maximum Bangladeshi audiences are Facebook centric, as I mentioned. The media provides superb communications tools for F-commerce businesses to reach their target audiences, all in a cost-e� ective manner.

Facebook audiences are mostly dominated by the youth in our country, and they help carry forward any form of movement which requires attention. The youth represents the digital media, and if they are encouraged to be so, the generation which proceeds them shall be even more adaptive to innovative technologies. In turn, this shall create immense momentum in the F-commerce business cycle in the years to come. What is your take on digital marketing in Bangladesh? How developed is the market?

In my opinion, the digital marketing sector in Bangladesh has not even reached a stage of maturity, and is following the trends of developed economies around the world. There are a lot of digital inventory which the Bangladeshi market is not matured enough to adapt to as of yet.

The bittersweet truth is, developed economies require decades of research and innovation to come up with new digital commodities and make it available to the world. But as a developing economy, all we have to do is adapt.

The population catches up on such trends quite fast, but if a platform is present to aid businesses to make those trends lucrative, it helps the economy stride just as quickly.

I believe that social media should not be used as a sole platform for business and communication. Facebook makes it e� cient to begin operations and connect to your target market, but it should only grow from there into a personal and branded media (like your own website, blog, app outside of Facebook) to which you pull your current and potential customers.

What potential do you see for digital marketing in the overall marketing budget mix in the coming days?The marketing budget is calculated by understanding how much money it would need for a company to reach their target

audience. Traditional forms of marketing

followed a “spray and pray” theory, where the intended message is dispersed amongst the masses with crossed � ngers that it reaches the right people.

Digital forms of marketing allow a much more targeted approach, where a company can reach 20-year-old university students directly when they target, indeed, 20-year-old university students. It may be costly in some cases, but the e� ectivity of the approach is ensured.

It helps you get the right people, at the right time, with the right product, and by communicating the right message. This helps the customers as well, as their search cost for innovative solutions is decreased.

How big is your organization’s (PRAN-RFL Group) digital footprint?I won’t necessarily say that PRAN-RFL Group’s digital footprint is large, for the whole world have been engrossed in the digital movement. It would be prudent to consider every Facebook user as a personal TV channel, using which businesses can reach every one of them. Everyone is now live and everyone can play the role of media now.

The traditional media channels have now began to merge/blent

with digital media channels in order to provide customers with the best of both. It was previously believed that digital media would result in a con� ict between the two platforms, but it was realised that they were actually complementing each other. Hence, whoever begins adapting the earliest, the better it shall be for them.

At PRAN-RFL Group, we are a very marketing driven entity. Our movements tend to be persistent in nature, and as a part of that movement, we have a digital marketing side. We have a separate department for the task, for our products are exported to more than 120 countries around the world. Hence, naturally, the digital inventory we utilise are operated and invested in on a global scale. Here, the role of my department is to make a perfect media mix to reach the brands objective e� ectively.

For conglomerates like ourselves who are export centric, it has become a necessity to adapt to digital marketing and excel at it. The more time we take to adapt this, the greater our losses shall be.

“Brand is for the consumer. The role of a brand manager/custodian is to give the audience a good platform to interact and build a connection with those brands.”

You can get in touch with Azim Hossain by sending a mail to pranazim@gmail.com l

12DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016Interview

The need of a F-commerce platform in Bangladesh

The youth represents the digital media, and if they are encouraged to be so, the generation which proceeds them shall be even more adaptive to innovative technologies

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

n Max Mystel

Staring at a glass of water, sometimes I wonder how I feel. Some days the glass is half full, some days the glass is half empty. Other days, I wish the glass had lemonade in it. Therefore, even if I felt the glass was half empty, the lemonade would be worth it. If you read the above carefully, you will notice that there is a very important message here. Have you � gured it out yet? If you still can’t � gure out what the message is, it’s basically this: “I love lemonade; get me some if we ever hang out.”

On that narcissistic note, let’s talk a little about current a� airs. We are slowly starting to recover from what has recently transpired. No amount of words can help express the sadness I feel. What happened was an extremely

traumatic experience for us, the people, and the nation as a whole. I would like to forward my condolences to the relatives of all the people who died on July 1 and 7. Yes I said ALL THE PEOPLE, and that means including the families of the terrorists. Losing your life is the ultimate price anyone can pay and I believe no one deserves to die.

Am I angry? Yes I am, in fact, I am furious at what happened. But even more so at how we are slowly succumbing to this fear. Instead of being collectively aware we’re playing the blame game. The most recent development has been the sad yet strategic targeting of students, among other institutions, of a certain private university that I will not name. You see, I have many friends from North South University (NSU). And

they are doing an excellent job of representing our country both at home and overseas. Therefore, saying that NSU only breeds terrorists is the same as saying all our fruits and vegetables are formalin free. The bad may have been highlighted, but let’s not forget the good and stop with the stereotyping and hate mongering. All this does is create more divide between us in a time when we all need to be united.I am done with the serious commentary, so now let’s move on to the laid-back humour part of the column. As I feel the only thing that can help us cope with the current situation is a bit of laughter. Because laughter is the best medicine, unless you have asthma, then you need an inhaler…� lled with laughing gas. And on that terrible joke, here’s a compilation of some one-liners that I have written, which are de� nitely much better than the one you just read. Here’s to hoping they help lighten up your mood and wish your glass was half-full or half-empty with watery lemonade.

Laid-back humour:• In my mind, you are either

married or happy. Never both at the same time, unless…you’re Saudi. Then you are four times happily married.

• Introducing a YouTuber as a comedian is like introducing Ananta Jalil as an expert in

English. Because none of the introductions are true. They’re “PALSE!”

• When I was young, my father used to beat me. My sister never got hit though. He used to beat me so much that if he ever directed a sitcom, he’d call it How I beat your brother!

• Saudi woman in Saudi Arabia walks into a burqa shop asking for a coloured burqa. Shop attendant: “What colour would you like? We have black, dark black and midnight black.”

• My mom calls me fat and dark. I wonder whose DNA messed that up for me.

• Roses are red, violets are blue, I am schizophrenic, so am I.

• It is said that you can’t buy friendship with money. True! Every time I do a show I make new friends. And my client pays for it.

• Some of my friends say I can’t spell for the life of me. I want them to know, I am NOT yxlesdic!

• During an earthquakeMost people: “Hurry, let’s go downstairs! Let’s go downstairs!”My mom: “Let’s go upstairs and see what’s happening downstairs.”

• Went to a restaurant and ordered a wa� e and alphabet soup. Waitress asked me: “Are you a crossword puzzle expert?”What do you call a master

in botching, breaking and stealing? The MBBS course for malpraciticing doctors. l

13D

T

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

Feature

Seriously laid-back humourMax Mystel is a stand-up comedian, magician, a terrible writer and a professional bum

It is said that you can’t buy friendship with money. True! Every time I do a show I make new friends. And my client pays for it

n Noor-E-Shahrin

Meet Tania. She is an average high school girl, too plain to notice, too unimportant to

remember. Right now, she is sitting forlorn on her bed, checking her Facebook newsfeed like any other day. She notices her current pro� le picture, which was uploaded two days ago with an artillery of 30 likes, and no comments. She thought of her best friend, Tuhin, who managed 365.

Okay, this was the limit. Rion uploaded a post saying, “It’s summer and I’m bored.” A few hours, and � fty likes emerged!

“How is that more fascinating than my pro� le picture? I used a Snapchat � lter on it for heaven’s sake,” thought Tania. She knocked some of her friends online. They all ignored her texts after seeing them. Unsurprised, Tania smashed the screen shut and put away her laptop.

She lay in the darkness of her blanket, like it would protect her from her messed up emotions. She stayed up all night thinking about why she isn’t popular enough to get a three-digit number of likes. She mentally listed down everything wrong with her, simultaneously drowning in the voids of her sub-consciousness.

If you can relate to Tania, don’t be embarrassed to admit it to yourself. Believe me, you are not the only one whose insecurities goes ricocheting up when life keeps presenting evidence of your almost invisible existence. Your friends are busy with their other friends and you never even got asked out. No shame. We can work this out. A tall glass of popularity coming right up!

First step of solving a problem is to agree that there is one. Some people are born with millions of friends. You are not one of them; discard that headstrongness and own up to yourself. The � rst thing to do is to bring a positive attitude in you about your mission to become popular. Never act like you don’t care about your reputation. Always show your friends, teachers and colleagues that you are interested in impressing them.

What you have to do now is to get yourself noticed. Your wardrobe plays a signi� cant role here. Don’t hide yourself in clothes that you think might make you seem dull. Wear comfortable clothes but be trendy in your own style. You might have heard or read it that looks don’t matter. However, it does work as a catalyst for this particular mission.

Learn how to strike up a light-hearted conversation with anyone you like. Be careful to avoid controversial topics like politics and religion; but if your companion wants to discuss such topics, just go with it. Do not expect your friends to chase after you while you sit on a di� erent table from them. Be social and approach them yourself. But if you see that s/he is busy or showing signs of not being interested in you, do not badger them. Just don’t hide yourself in the corner, give others the privilege of knowing a smart and fun person like you.

And a sense of humour is a crucial matter; crack jokes every now and then (not clichéd knock-knock jokes, though). Here’s a helpful tip - give direct observational compliments towards your friends, but make sure they are relevant. Use body language casually and keep yourself relaxed. Nobody wants to hear you go on and on about the � nals coming up.

Talking smart isn’t all. Half the work you have to do is simply listen to your companion. And then, tactfully relate their stories to yours. For example, if they are talking about their siblings, compare yours to them. Make them feel like their feelings and experiences matter to you.

Once you are an expert on the previous stages, it’s time to get you up in the club. Building rapport will become much easier if you are a member of some club that matches your interests. Remember, your mission is to make yourself visible to as many people as possible.

“Be yourself,” and, “Popularity isn’t a thing,” these are some hackneyed phrases you learn through Net� ix and such. If you feel like you have bigger mountains to move and these issues are trivial to you, then good luck with that. But there are some of us who see the celebrities in school and our work place and fantasise about what the spotlight actually feels like. The feeling of

being on the outside looking in is a painful one.

But don’t let desperation drive you too far. Never try to do something illegal or unethical to attract attention. In particular, don’t just take a friend as a camera man, go beat somebody up beside a lake and then upload the video on Facebook to earn likes (people actually do that). That’s old hat. Adding strangers online and

getting too comfortable with them just so that they will act as your “like-bank” is very dangerous as well. Don’t play with � re, especially in these troubled times.

Most importantly, be con� dent with whatever you say or do. Never cry in public. No matter how sick you are, get out of your bed and attend the party.

Mission accomplished. l

14DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016Teen

Popularity for dummies

What you have to do now is to get yourself noticed. Your wardrobe plays a signi� cant role here. Don’t hide yourself in clothes that you think might make you seem dull

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

n Laurie Goering

For the 127 families of Medical Slum, a warren of tin shacks set in the shadow of a towering yellow-brick

pharmaceutical factory, just listing all the problems the community faces is no easy task.

There’s a lack of water, as ever-longer dry spells and overuse of the city’s groundwater empty wells. There’s � ooding when heavy rains do come, washing sewage from the community’s open toilet and e� uent from the nearby factory into homes and forcing families to wade to their wooden beds, propped up on bricks out of the � ood waters.

Electricity is scarce and costly. Jobs are hard to come by, and poorly paid. Credit is available largely at loan-shark rates.

Girls are married too young, and many women fear for their safety in the slum’s narrow alleyways after dark, residents say.

“And the heat!” lamented Abdul Sattar, an old man in a white prayer cap, his long beard tinged orange with henna. “The summer is longer, and the heat is bad. Winter is disappearing. There’s a big shift.”

Climate change is making an already tough life even harder for many of the estimated 20 million people now crammed into heaving greater Dhaka. Its population continues to grow at nearly 5% a year as migrants -- many of whom have lost their farms to worsening erosion, storms and sea-level rise -- � ood in, seeking new work. “If we told them to go back, where would they go?” asked Sirajul Islam, chief urban planner for the Dhaka South City Corporation, which manages the southern half of Dhaka.

But at least some of the city’s 3 million slum dwellers -- many squeezed into one-room shacks of tin, bamboo, plastic sacks and wood -- are now looking for ways to lower the risks from climate change and a host of other problems.

Solar panels to pumpsIn Medical Slum, in Tongi district, a newly formed community development committee has, over the last year, mapped out threats to the neighbourhood, from � ooding to pollution from the pharmaceutical plant, as well as resources, including a nearby police station, and hospital.

With the map in hand, the community -- most of them migrants who lost land in di� erent parts of the country -- has drawn up a list of its priorities for action.

Those include buying submersible pumps to clear away � ood-water, and obtain clean drinking water from a well, installing solar panels to power street-lights, and eventually creating a few roads wide enough for � re trucks and other emergency vehicles to pass.

The community’s top priority -- garbage collection, to help keep clear the drains that carry away � ood-waters -- has already been arranged for the � rst time through the municipal authority.

Some young members of the new committee have also been trained as emergency volunteers, to assist � re-� ghters and police in the event of disasters.

“The community was not united earlier. We didn’t interact with each other much. Now we do,” said Poly, a 32-year-old development committee member who goes by one name, like many people in Bangladesh.

“We are a team, and we are ready to act if something happens,” she said.

Women’s rightsThe new social cohesion, and a big role for women in planning, are key to helping communities like Medical Slum begin to tackle some of their problems, said Palash Mondal of aid agency CARE.

It, with the Village Education Resource Centre (VERC), a local partner, is working with the community development committee to build resilience to threats in Medical Slum, backed by funding from the Switzerland-based C&A Foundation.

“Women are now aware of their rights, and can raise their voices. Before, we couldn’t do this,” said committee president Kalpona Begum, 55.

The community’s meeting hall, a tin-roofed shed with a cardboard ceiling, and orange tarp stretched over its concrete � oor, is plastered with hand-drawn posters illustrating ways to reduce earthquake and � re risks, and to combat social ills -- including one image of an old man and a young girl in a red wedding veil, with a big red X marked over it.

The e� orts to unite the community to build resilience to climate change and disasters have already helped halt at least one child marriage, said Shaheen, a VERC community coordinator.

Two months ago, she stopped by the home of a local widow, to � nd out if her 14-year-old daughter Jasmine, who had been forced to leave school as money was short, was interested in some training to become a garment factory worker.

Many slum residents � nd work

at Dhaka’s garment factories, earning about $50 per month of 12-hour shifts, or spend their days recycling plastic wrapping in sheds within the slum.

Jasmine’s mother said the training wasn’t necessary, as she planned to send her daughter back to their native village to marry.

Shaheen contacted members of a women’s group, who visited to urge Jasmine’s mother not to break the law by marrying her daughter at such a young age. The woman relented, and Jasmine, a shy, quiet girl in a red tunic, now stays at home in Medical Slum.

Jasmine watches her younger brothers during the day, and spends time in the late afternoon with her 13-year-old friend Farjana, in the shade of the coconut trees just outside the slum’s entrance.

She is relieved not to be on her way to becoming a bride just yet.

“Early marriage is not healthy for us,” she said. “I am not yet mature enough to give birth.” l

This article was originally printed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women’s rights, tra� cking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate.

Climate Change

This page has been developed in collaboration with the International Centre for Climate Change and De-velopment (ICCCAD) at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and its partners, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and Inter-national Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). This page represents the views and experiences of the authors and does not necessar-ily re� ect the views of Dhaka Tribune or ICCCAD or its partners.

Fight disaster, � ght child marriage

Residents of Medical Slum, in Dhaka’s Tongi district, watch a community theatre performance on the problems of child marriage and dowry payments COURTESY

The e� orts to unite the community to build resilience to climate change and disasters have already helped halt at least one child marriage

15D

TSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

Heritage16DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

n Tim Steel

Robert Clive and Hector Munro, two men who built for themselves a formidable record of

military achievement, might well be regarded as those who, after a century and a half of English activity on north-east India, secured the foundations of the British Empire that grew out of the lands around the Ganges and its delta; lands that are now those of Bangladesh.

One of the most signi� cant characters in the mid-18th century drama that unfolded, as the British secured their control over the vital lands of Bengal, Bihar, and

Orissa -- a major source of both their supplies of gunpowder, and all the wealth accruing from manufacturing and trade -- was, unquestionably, Hector Munro, Laird of Novar.

The other, of course, was Robert Clive, who became the 1st Baron Clive, Lord Clive.

Born in 1726, in his family’s lands in Ross Shire, Scotland, Munro was commissioned into a highland regiment, Loudon’s Highlanders, in 1747. He was under the patronage of the Duchess of Gordon, who he had rescued from a coaching misadventure. A minor aristocrat himself, such distinguished patronage was helpful then -- as even now -- in

Britain.Through that in� uence, when

the highland regiment in which he was then commissioned, the 89th Foot Regiment, sailed to India in 1760, leaving behind the 17-year-old fourth duke of Gordon, whose mother was Munro’s patron, and who had been anxious to go but was forbidden by the King (presumably at the behest of his mother), Munro held the rank of major.

The role of his regiment was as a mobile support force to others, especially those of the East India Company, as the Company’s in� uence spread. First, to overcome the constant attempts by the French and their

allies to take control of the Indian territories, and, also, to overcome the resistance of local rulers.

In 1764, following a number of defeats of the Company and British forces by the resistance of the Mughal imperial forces and

their allies, he found himself as “commander in chief” of the Royal British forces in India. He was commanding the British forces, which also included those of the East India Company, at Buxar, near Patna.

How the foundations of the British Empire were secured

The baron and the laird

Such men as Clive and Munro were the builders of Empires. In a more ancient, smaller world, these lands of Bangladesh bred, surely, their own such adventurers

17D

TSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

His � rst task on assuming command was that of overcoming a mutiny by local troops in his own forces. He achieved that in a brutal fashion, which may have owed something to his experience of Scottish warfare in the suppression of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, and the aftermath of the � nal Battle of Culloden.

The aftermath of that battle for the English and Scottish crowns was followed by as much brutality as the battle itself. The Hanoverian regime -- which had been somewhat generous in the aftermath of the earlier, 1715 Rebellion in the same cause -- had learned that generosity in victory is not always rewarded.

His victory at Buxar laid the foundations for the opportunity that Robert Clive (who had led the British forces in the 1757 battle of Plassey, overcoming the forces loyal to Sirajud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal) gladly seized, moving into “negotiation” with the defeated Mughal Emperor Shah Alam ll, and e� ectively securing control of the vital and valuable territories of Bengal, Orissa, and Bihar.

These territories were the var-ious sources of many of the most vital and valuable of local commod-ities, including the all important saltpetre for gunpowder, together with diamonds, fabrics, spices, fra-grances, and agricultural products.

The Mughals themselves had built much of their own power and wealth upon those resources.

Munro, following a spell in England -- including becoming an

Inverness Member of Parliament -- returned in 1778 for a highly successful spell of activity, defeating both the French at Pondicherry, and the famous Hyder Ali (although previously defeated by the father of the more famous son, Tipu Sultan).

There is no real evidence that Munro made the kind of fortune in India that others, such as Clive, managed. But he lived a further 23 years, to die at the age of 79, unlike his early contemporary, Robert Clive, the First Baron Clive “Clive of India.”

Clive had been born a year earlier than Munro, in 1725. His somewhat disturbed childhood probably marked him from an early age as having the potential to become an adventurous soldier with strong leadership qualities,

and greedy for wealth.The India he found, on arrival

at the age of 19, was already in thrall to the Mughal regime. As the Kishoreganj born historian Nirad C Chaudhuri has suggested, it was also the subject of “destructiveness of the Marathas and Afghans,” and the “greed of the high caste Hindus.”

Indeed, contemporary journals seem to bear out such a contention in their observations. The Mughals in Bengal themselves may have, almost, amounted to a challenge to the adventurous, and acquisitive, Clive.

The treasure collected from governance of the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa by the viceroy Shaista Khan, and taken back with him on his recall to Delhi, is estimated in modern

values as billions, if not upward towards a trillion pounds sterling. It certainly required a substantial � otilla of barges to carry the gold, silver, gems, and coins that he had succeeded in squeezing from the poorest farmer, to the wealthiest merchant.

Perhaps he took that as a measure of success. And fairly successful, both on his own behalf, that of East India Company investors, king and country, he certainly was!

Whilst he served his time as a clerk, as all such arrivals of East India Company association, it was very apparent that his military skills were rapidly recognised by the Company. Perhaps his youthful follies, which included organising a “ma� a-like” protection racket in the town where a part of his schooling took place, along with his clear qualities of leadership, stood him in good stead.

His military achievements, and his powers of negotiation and organisation, spoke for themselves. Clearly, he was a versatile, high achiever.

He was, without doubt, one of the key � gures of a period in which Britain became, historians now observe, “rulers of the world” through both naval and military success. Both together, the prerequisite of global domination.

He ranks with the duke of Marlborough and wolfe of Quebec in the gallery of those who laid those foundations of empire.

From his refusal to “sit out” the French occupation of Madras at the opening of the First Carnatic War, the Indian theatre of the War of Austrian Succession, in which British and French were savagely opposed, until his � nal departure from India in 1767, and death at the comparatively early (even for those days) age of 49, his was an astonishing record of achievement against both European and local forces.

For better or worse, he and Hector Munro stand out amongst those who built the military, as did Admiral Pocock, who laid the naval foundations for Britain being an empire that arguably commenced its life in and around the lands that are now those of Bangladesh; shaping, too, those of India and Pakistan, today.

Such men as Clive and Munro were the builders of empires. In a more ancient, smaller world, these lands of Bangladesh bred, surely, their own such adventurers.

If “Datis,” the chief of the Gangaridai, who makes his appearance in the civil war on the shores of the Black Sea in the 3rd century BCE rewrite of the Homeric legend of Jason and the Golden

Fleece, by Apollonius of Rhodes, ever existed, he would, surely, have been such a man. And if he never did exist, it may be instructive that Apollonius felt the need to invent him!

So, too, would the men of whom Virgil, the great Roman poet, wrote in the last century BCE, as “men of Gangaridai,” whose victory in Asia Minor as mercenaries in the Roman Army, he would celebrate in ivory and gold.

Qualities, no doubt that some -- especially victims and failures -- would view with horror. But there is plenty of evidence that young Bangladeshis themselves have, throughout history, been more than capable of both conquest and defence, and of accumulating wealth. A custom that is rarely practiced with the admiration of others.

And this is not to forget the thousands of young adventurers from these lands who left their homes to sail the oceans, and even making their own small “conquests,” by settling in foreign lands, opening businesses, and even joining the ruling elites, in such as the UK parliament, today ... a more “civilised” form of conquest, perhaps. l

Tim Steel is a communications, marketing and tourism consultant.

This is not to forget the thousands of young adventurers from these lands who left their homes to sail the oceans, and even making their own small ‘conquests,’ by settling in foreign lands, opening businesses, and even joining the ruling elites

Heritage

Opinion

n Israfi l Khosru

As an impressionable teenager, Dhaka in the 90s was a great place to grow up in. The urban

divide was apparent among income classes much like in the present, but the ideological divide did not have much room for hate, violence, or heinousness as we are witnessing in the present.

The 90s began with the fall of an autocratic regime that re� ected a milieu of political consensus and consciousness.

There was a sense of positivity and accomplishment exuded by the youth who believed that we were hallowed by a new beginning.

The debates between the left and the right were often centred around each side’s perspective on equity, justice, governance, social system, and economic management.

The discourse hardly ever included the issue of religion or anything pertaining to it as a focal point.

We would occasionally have discussions on religion and what it meant to us on a very personal level, but those discussions were almost never in the context of Bangladesh.

It did not matter what the constitution stated, the vast majority of the urban class of Bangladesh did not see religion as a de� ning factor or a possible game changer.

Fast forward to a decade down the line, and we have a starkly di� erent scenario. The mainstream conversation has changed radically.

The concept of blissful pluralism that we urbanites took for granted is now often questioned. Manifestation of this new urban divide was apparent in the carnage that unfolded in Gulshan on the � rst day of July.

There were whispers of urban radicalisation which we conveniently decided to ignore simply out of smugness and impudence.

We were convinced that we outnumber them by many, and hence they will not be able to penetrate our tightly wound social fabric built on belief and general tolerance.

The extent of barbarism and misguided single-mindedness displayed by the attackers of the Holey Artisan Bakery has shattered that notion to pieces.

The stray killings around the country preceding the Gulshan

attack had most of us concerned, but did not substantially deplete our general sense of security. This is where they have managed to strike now with purpose and audacity. They have managed to promulgate fear coupled with mistrust.

They are telling us that the upper echelon of the Bangladeshi society is not beyond their agenda as well. The identity of at least three of the attackers reveals that they belonged to the a� uent class much like the victims of the tragedy.

So what has led to such decay that exposes our urban youth to such violent doctrines? What are the factors that led to this seismic change in the thought process of a considerable portion of our youth in just over a decade?

While there might be no speci� c answers to these questions, there is no denying the fact that a sense of complacency seemed to have taken refuge in our society for a while now.

The urban class is often labelled as the “critical mass” or the “opinion shapers,” but a deep analysis of our thought process will reveal that at some point, we stopped striving.

We started believing that our liberal views were everlastingly preserved, and the battle against the radicals and the

fundamentalists were won a long time ago.

We also believed that the radical elements that remained were mere remnants of a bygone era, and those who were subscribing to such doctrines were miniscule in number.

We automatically assumed that our children will adopt the liberal dogma that we adhere to, and cannot be swayed otherwise. Recent events have now dealt a deathly blow to that sense of comfort.

A liberal society is a work in progress. The process to attaining a pluralistic society must be inclusive and continuous. What is happening now in Bangladesh cannot merely be attributed to

failing governance, incompetence, and ine� ciency. The political class, despite its many � aws, cannot be held solely responsible for what is unfolding in Bangladesh.

When the urban youth of this country, equipped with the best possible education and resources are leaning towards such extremist views, we must admit that there is something fundamentally wrong in our society.

The � rst step must be to launch a concerted and comprehensive e� ort to ensure that the youth in our society feels to be a part of it despite varying di� erences.

This e� ort must be unrelenting and ongoing. The culture of shunning, alienating, or ignoring

di� ering views must be bunged. There has to be a conversation across the board, and our politicians can lead by example here. Denial and complacency has already led us to this slippery predicament.

Hence, it is imperative that we no longer assume that our youth and our children inherently share our conception of a tolerant and pluralistic Bangladesh.

We must admit there is a weakness plaguing our youth which warrants the risk of an exposure and hence we must approach it with sagacity and calm.

I must reiterate that I do not exclusively blame our sense of complacency and comfort for

the adverse course our society is taking today, but it is something that we have control over.

If the state has the responsibility to protect us, then it is our responsibility to simply wake up. It is the least we can do.

In Bangladesh the notion of secularism should not be merely political capital. Again our complacency is partly to blame for this development, and it needs to be reclaimed by us.

The fact is, we are losing the Bangladesh that imbibed me with optimism and pride as a teenager and we must � rst admit it.

The urban landscape in terms of ideals, thoughts, and tolerance are showing signs of decay, and we must not sit back anymore.

The urban and the enlightened class of Bangladesh must again lead by example. It is time to be vigilant, moral, and tolerant. The time for complacency is indeed over. Our foundations are shaken, and nothing ever will be for granted. l

Isra� l Khosru is an entrepreneur and runs a youth-led think tank called The Bangladeshi.

We can’t let our country fade SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Hence, it is imperative that we no longer assume that our youth and our children inherently share our conception of a tolerant and pluralistic Bangladesh. We must admit there is a weakness plaguing our youth

Our urban landscape is showing signs of decay

The Bangladesh we are losing

18DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

n Rehan Ahmed

“The Residential Semester has helped us to socialise with our peers. We have learned how to adjust in an unknown environment and help each other,” shared Shuchok and Sadia, students of BRAC University, about their unique experiences from attending the residential semester three months ago.

Lately, a growing tendency towards browsing through social media and electronic gadgets on their phones and computers has been observed among students. Although it enables them to establish vibrant communications with each other virtually, it cannot dim the importance of maintaining direct interactions with their peers. Direct interactions broaden a person’s outlook and give him/her a more credible idea about society. Again, one notices that a large portion of students are unaware of the national and international news and events. As students carry on their daily activities, they seldom pay attention to issues that have impact on their surroundings and society. Moreover, the over-usage of social media has a deleterious e� ect on people’s ability to communicate directly with their fellow human beings. Keeping such realities in mind, the Residential Semester has been designed for the students of BRAC University, with an aim to bring about qualitative improvement in students’ social skills.

It is a unique programme among the private universities of Bangladesh, that provides students with opportunities to meet and closely interact with people from diverse backgrounds. Each semester, some 500 students spend about three months at the BRAC University residential campus at Savar,

living in dormitories, attending classes, taking their meals, and participating in di� erent co-curricular and social activities. Each of these daily activities give them the chance to communicate with each other and thus, improve their interactions with people, aiding them in acquiring communication skills that will give them a competitive edge in the job market.

RS, which is compulsory for all students of BRAC University, is a requirement for the ful� lment of their degree. It aims at improving students’ communication skills, leadership skills, patriotism, morality and global competitiveness. Kibtia, a former RS student, observed that the residential semester improved her sense of responsibility towards herself and others. While living at the campus, she learned to

take responsibility for seemingly regular tasks like locking her door, switching o� the fan and light in her room, preparing herself to get ready on time to attend classes and a range of works that she reminisced, never noticing so minutely before. Surely, at di� erent stages of life, everybody needs to learn how to develop themselves as a mature and responsible human. However, in our social system, as long as we live with our parents, we seldom face the necessity to take responsibility for our own actions. It is only when we live away from home that most people in the society learn and develop certain social skills which are expected from responsible human beings. RS strives to provide this opportunity to the students of BRAC University and aims at shaping the students into

responsible human beings. Rayon, another former RS

student, observed that the residential semester has provided him with the unique opportunity to see the life of other people closely and refrain from being judgemental about others. Simultaneously, he realised that all jobs in the society are important and that, people need to respect one another, irrespective of their social standing. This, he felt was the most signi� cant leaning from his experiences from the Social Learning Lab program. During the course of the semester, every student participates in the social learning lab, a unique learning program where the students take over the responsibility of running the residential campus for an entire day. They not only take over the role of the administrative o� cers, but also work as cleaners, gardeners, chefs, cooks, labourers, and so on. Rayon admitted that he did not hold much respect for these people, but ever since his experience at RS, he has learned to appreciate the people working in these professions. He realises that these people are an integral part of society, they deserve to be respected; the value of their work must be recognised, and all must contribute to creating a congenial working atmosphere for them. Rayon, like many other RS students, has learned to be empathetic towards people belonging to all walks of life. 

RS is a pool of students coming from a wide array of backgrounds

and possessing di� erent habits, and they all need to co-exist in a residential life. Their daily practices are often absolutely opposite to one another. For instance, some like to keep the light on while sleeping while others prefer to keep it o� . Jefroon shared her RS experience in this regard that living with people of di� erent kinds of practices actually helped increase her tolerance level and learn how to negotiate with each other. Such social skills, like learning to co-exist, would not only help them in their everyday life as a student but would also contribute to their professional and social lives, later on. 

After the completion of a Residential Semester, positive changes are re� ected in the behaviour of students that set them apart from others. The experiences they share about their stay in RS and its impact on their life, assert that it has played a vital role within the university education system in building future leaders of our country. We hope that more students will bene� t and learn vital social skills by being a part of the Residential Semester and shape up to be great leaders. l

19D

T

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016Feature

Learning to co-existThe unique role of BRAC University’s Residential Semester

The author is the Campus Superintendent of BRAC University, Residential Semester, Savar Campus.

INSIDE

Moving ahead with the proposed 1,320MW coal-powered Rampal power plant gives Bangladesh a bad deal -- bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and bad news for all of us.

The $1.49 billion power plant, which is to be � nanced by India and is scheduled to start generating power in 2019, would endanger the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Sundarbans in ways that cannot be fully anticipated at present.

The environmental and social costs will be dire, and e� ects on the delicate ecology of the region could be catastrophic.

These losses would be further compounded by the fact that the main bene� ciary of the plant would be a foreign government who would be unwilling to care about damages or pay the true cost of this project.

It is regrettable that in spite of the formation of the National Committee to Protect the Sundarbans, and objections from experts and respected � gures of the nation, the government has refused to budge on the issue of Rampal.

Committee Convener Sultana Kamal is correct in her assessment that the plant is against the spirit of liberation. It would release toxic gases and chemical wastes into one of the most precious regions of Bangladesh, adversely a� ecting not just the lives of 20 people million, but endangering iconic creatures such as the Royal Bengal Tiger, and the deer.

Human intervention is forests in certainly one of the top reasons for dwindling wildlife and extinction.

There is no reason Bangladesh cannot � nd better locations in which we can build faciltiies to satiate the need for electricity.

If the government moves ahead with this project, it will be willfully destroying one of the greatest treasures of the nation to serve shallow business and political interests. 

The environmental and social costs will be dire, and e� ects on the delicate ecology of the region could be catastrophic

Do the right thing and stop Rampal. There’s still time

SYED

ZA

KIR

HO

SSA

IN

The terror in us

PAGE 23

A political earthquake

PAGE 22

Security isn’t skin-deep

PAGE 21

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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EditorialSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

DT 20

By now, Bangladeshi law enforcers should have been equipped with in-depth knowledge about terrorism and small-scale militancy

It is not that the Vote Remain campaign was a sitting duck. It was lead by the prime minister and the chancellor

The mosques are the homes of Allah, and all are welcome. But in a Gulshan area mosque, the imam gave a sermon saying that those who did not fast or committed various subversive activities were not welcome for Eid prayers

Opinion 21D

TSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

n Ekram Kabir

One of my teammates came in on the morning of July 12 with her acute dissatisfaction over the

overall security measures taken across Dhaka city. It’s not because she was annoyed by the measures enforced by the government, but the lack of it.

She said she was coming to Gulshan from Bashundhara, and saw a few restrictions on the people’s movement. The buses weren’t allowed into Gulshan, but the private vehicles were.

The questions she asked were: “What if the passengers were carrying something with them? I was inside a private car, and they didn’t check my bags that I was carrying with me. You can’t call this a heightened security!”

She could be right. When the most gruesome killing at the Gulshan café happened, all local and international media agencies started terming Gulshan as a “well-protected” area. The phrase came as a shock to me, as I, a resident of the area, have hardly seen Gulshan well-protected.

The only time Gulshan looks secured is on every December 31, on the eve of every New Year. On

other days, anyone can enter and exit the area. The only apparent security measure is seen as police barricades at the entrances of the area. The barricade is meant for slowing the vehicles down,

and having a good look at the passengers inside.

But can you really call that an e� ective security measure? I doubt it. You can at best call it a stop-gap-measure that can create some impact, or awareness among the minds of the common people, or the potential criminals.

Perhaps they’re the necessary external feel-good exercises during a crisis. But proper security measures are something that goes much deeper than that.

According to a report in daily Prothom Alo, the police came to know about Nibras Islam’s involvement in militancy � ve months ago, when there was a case

against him at Shahbagh Police Station. Unfortunately, the report said the police did nothing about it. What kind of act of security was that, given the wake of events we’re in right now?

If we look back, and analyse how our two police o� cials received bullets, and ultimately were killed by the militants, we can see that these valiant o� cers didn’t have any clue as to where they were heading.

So, it was evident from their action that our law enforcers operate in ways that make them vulnerable; they themselves operate in an insecure manner.

Then, please allow me to talk about the importance of monitoring as well as analysis. As far as I remember, after the gruesome grenade attack at Sheikh Hasina’s rally in 2004, and serial blasts across the country in 2005,

I saw hundreds of news reports in Bangladesh media detailing on militant activities including the locations of their training camps across the country. Some actions were taken at that time.

That was a decade ago. By now, Bangladeshi law enforcers should have been equipped with in-depth knowledge about terrorism and small-scale militancy with the all available tools and technology to � ght and prevent them.

What we’ve just experienced was the result of the denial that runs through the nooks and corners of the country -- the lack of knowledge in global terrorism, and the lack of monitoring of what was going on inside the country.

Preventing terrorism isn’t just police work, it also requires the involvement of other professionals such as social scientists, psychologists etc.

The recent horrible crimes have led almost all the government and private o� ces to step up their own security measures.

In doing so, the authorities of are checking everyone’s bags while entering the o� ce premises.

It’s a great initiative, but I think it’s more important to do background checks of the people rather than checking everyone’s backpacks.

Given the current scenario and the seriousness of what just happened at the Gulshan café, our sense of security would have to be more than just checking people’s bags, which I term as “skin-deep security.” This won’t do.

I am not suggesting any mass surveillance to be in place for the members of the public, but there has to be a mechanism to prevent the growth of potential terrorism.

The idea of mass surveillance hasn’t worked anywhere. Again, there’s also no magic-bullet solution to the scourge of terrorism.

There’s no overnight solution to our security concerns since security itself isn’t skin-deep.

It’s a continuous and pro-active process. l

Ekram Kabir is a writer.

By now, Bangladeshi law enforcers should have been equipped with in-depth knowledge about terrorism and small-scale militancy

Security isn’t skin-deepChecking people’s bags is just skimming the surface

Are we well-protected? MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Opinion22DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

n Nabila Rafi que

What contributed to this fast transformation?

Brexit had to be made real and given a face. Soon after David Cameron’s announcement of the referendum, MPs had to come to terms with their own views and take sides. Brexit manifested itself in the form of a cross-party campaign called Vote Leave. It had members from all the leading parties, economists, and historians -- slowly but steadily gained numbers.

It formed a company, set up a headquarters, and formulated action plans. It opened a website (http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/) complete with an app you can download in your mobile device.

In a quiet part of East London where I live, I must have received twice the number of � yers from Vote Leave than Vote Remain. The � yers were always single-paged and had a simple, clear message “take back control” on one side and the key pointers on the other. Leaving would:

1. Stop the handover of £350 million a week to EU. Money which they said could be given to the National Health Service (NHS)

2. Take back control of UK

borders and the ability to kick out violent criminals

3. Take back the power to make laws (suggesting EU forces laws on UK)

4. Free businesses from damaging EU laws and regulations

5. Take back the power to make UK’s own trade deals

6. Regain in� uence in the wider world and become a global nation

Vote Leave members worked hardThe £350m statement was also sprawled across big, red coach buses which crisscrossed the country, making an unavoidable impact on anyone visualising it that £350m are lost every week to the EU. The Vote Leave campaign ensured that their statements were disseminated across the nation by meticulous lea� eting. Vote Leave members worked diligently, turning up in every possible public appearance and every opportunity to further their campaign.

In fact, my � rst encounter with any of the EU referendum campaigners was with a staunch Vote Leave campaigner, and this was as early as February. I was attending a conference arranged by the British Bangladesh Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs. The aim of the conference was how to encourage more Brit-Bangladeshi woman in trade and commerce.

One of the speakers was Priti Patel, a conservative MP of Indian heritage, and the Minister for Employment. This was the � rst time I met her and seeing her I was quite pleased that a woman with roots in my sub-continent made it in the upper echelons of British politics.

However, within minutes, my image crumbled as it was obvious she was making a case for Brexit. She started talking about why British-Bangladeshi woman should vote leave as they can trade beyond EU and more importantly with their country of ethnicity -- Bangladesh.

She said EU held UK back from forging trade ties and that she dreamt of “a world of open markets and free trade, where a customer in Dartford can place an order from Dhaka simply and securely.” As I listened to her, I was shuddering. Being a practising lawyer of business laws of Bang-ladesh in the UK and serving the British-Bangladeshi community members and businesses in both countries, I knew very well that Britain and Bangladesh had very strong ties economically, political-ly, and socially.

There was nothing from stopping her vision from being reality. Anyone from Dartford could place orders in Dhaka.

Exports in the form of education to Bangladesh and imports in terms of garments and � sheries were getting stronger than ever. The EU never stopped or held either of the countries back from � ourishing together. I did not think much of what else she said until after the referendum results.

What I realise now, something I did not realise then, is that Priti Patel had friends who were doing exactly the same thing as her, relentlessly, every day. Pushing their Brexit agenda, the embodiment of which were

the six points above, and they started doing it early. They picked occasions where commoners gathered, spoke freely, built mistrust of the EU and made a � nancial case for Brexit.

They demonised migration and played on the people’s worst fears: Financial distress, lack of public resources, and unsecure borders. It is also notable to mention Farage was never an o� cial member of Brexit, as he was never a sitting MP, yet he did everything he possibly could to make a case for UK independence from EU.

His campaign of 20 years was � nally gaining momentum, even through by people completely unrelated and unaccustomed to him. He even went to the heinous extent to unveil a poster which showed waves of Syrian refugees with the title “Breaking Point: The EU has failed us all.” Politics in this country had hardly been this nasty and divisive.

The Vote Leave campaign gained further momentum when former London Mayor Boris Johnson, and Michael Gove, Minister for Justice, decided to join. They added star power and intellectual depth to its movement.

It is not that the Vote Remain campaign was a sitting duck. It was lead by the prime minister

and the chancellor. They brought in experts such as the Bank of England governor to say that a poor � nancial forecast was imminent in the event of Brexit. The PM even invited President Obama across the Atlantic to assert that the UK would be at the back of any trade deals with the US if they leave EU.

A 16-page booklet was disseminated nationwide, outlining that jobs, businesses, and the young workforce would be lost, households would be worse o� , exports would decrease as the EU was the prime trade partner, and that the UK would be left high and dry on legal, environmental, and worker’s rights fronts.

Experts, lead economic organisations all warned of doom and gloom. The brutal murder of prominent In campaigner, Labour MP Joe Cox, tragically and unwittingly furthered the Vote Remain cause. Despite these e� orts, the British people only saw the PM and the chancellor making remarks which they no longer wanted to understand, and gravitated towards the Leave campaign as a means of change.

By the early weeks of June, polls were predicting a neck-and-neck outcome. For the � rst time, I learned that the Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn campaigned to stay in. I also received a frantic letter from my local Labour MPs stressing the need to vote In. I believe the case was already lost by then. The people had already decided to vote out.

Come referendum day, the polls showed a lead for In. In London, the in campaigners were optimistic. I exchanged words with one outside my local train station. He was young, energetic, and open -- typical features of those campaigning In. They want to be part of the EU, travel without restrictions, work without borders, have and make friends from all over the continent.

They believed in progress through diversity and they felt that their voice mattered more over the older generations as “they will be around for a longer time,” as one youngster put it in BBC news. l

The concluding part of this long form will be published tomorrow.

Nabila Ra� que is a Barrister.

Brexit holds potentially grave repercussions for the UK’s economy REUTERS

It is not that the Vote Remain campaign was a sitting duck. It was lead by the prime minister and the chancellor

The Brexit agenda showed early signs of success. This is the second part of a three-part long form

A political earthquake that shattered the Richter scale

Opinion 23D

TSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

n Nadeem Qadir

After the two recent acts of terror in Bangladesh, it is natural that would be the talking point when

I met people in London. They are very sympathetic, and want us to get out of this situation, but they have many questions.

The question that keeps cropping up most frequently is: “Why is it that Bangladesh has been targeted by the extremist Islamist groups?” followed by, “what can done now?”

Most here do not know the

history of Bangladesh, where pro-Pakistani, anti-liberation elements in� ltrated the country’s politics after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

Now that his daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is leading the country with the mission of establishing a secular country, free from war criminals as well as pro-Pakistani elements, she has become a target.

But what we need to do right now is a bigger topic of discussion, and it is not easy to explain our local political situation to

outsiders, where BNP and its ally the Jamaat-e-Islami seem to be backing these extremist elements as far as the arrests indicate.

My sources tell me that the Bihari camps are riddled with crime, and tend to breed anti-Bangladesh sentiments.

Many well-o� Biharis have now in� ltrated the mainstream, but there are rumours that they fund and harbour pro-Pakistani elements.

Why should we continue to host individuals who oppose the independence of Bangladesh?

They not only collaborated

with the Pakistani army during our Independence War but themselves were involved in looting, arson, and murder in 1971.

I remember my father telling our Bihari neighbours in Chittagong where we were staying in 1971 to leave the then East Pakistan as they were opposed to the demands of Bangalis.

I believe he understood that these elements would never pledge their allegiance to a new country when it will appear on the world map sooner or later.

The other factor is to look at the sermons given by imams in mosques and madrasas both small and big.

I remember once going to the big mosque in Mahakhali that was built with funding from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain.

The imam was preaching wrong Islam, urging to � ght (Jihad) for an Islamic Bangladesh. During the prayers, he sought the divine blessings from Allah for war criminaI Moulana Abdul Mannan.

I left, to the surprise of others present.

The mosques are the homes of Allah, and all are welcome. But in a Gulshan area mosque, the imam gave a sermon saying that those who did not fast or committed various subversive activities were not welcome for Eid prayers. A blatant lie.

Those who are well-versed in Qur’an were surely furious at such a statement. Needless to say, we need a new generation of imams who are actually well-versed when it comes to the Qur’an.

We must try to bring in clerics from Saudi Arabia who would tour Bangladedsh, giving sermons against Islamist terrorists that are being indoctrinated with wrong Islam. Last but not the least, is the role of the media.

All media houses should undertake comprehensive e� orts to send out the clear message that Islam preaches: Love and peace. l

Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism. He is the Press Minister of Bangladesh High Commission in London.

The mosques are the homes of Allah, and all are welcome. But in a Gulshan area mosque, the imam gave a sermon saying that those who did not fast or committed various subversive activities were not welcome for Eid prayers

The terror in usWe must do something about the dangerous beliefs that are leading our youth astray

What our youth are being exposed to can hardly be called Islam MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

24DT Sport

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

TOP STORIES

Conte hopes to light a � re in the EPLAntonio Conte says he hopes Chelsea under his stewardship will light up the Premier League title race this season. The 46-year old said Chelsea may not be top of everyone’s list to challenge for the crown after � nishing 10th in their title defence last term. PAGE 28

Carberry diagnosed with cancerFormer England batsman Michael Carberry has been diagnosed with cancer, his county side Hampshire announced on Thursday. The 35-year old consulted a specialist on Tuesday after sitting out this week’s county game. PAGE 25

101-year old aims for more recordsAs the world’s top swimmers prepare for the Rio Games, a sprightly Japanese centenarian insists she will still be smashing records by the time the 2020 Games roll around. She is closing in on her 102nd birthday. PAGE 27

Maradona TV series plannedDiego Maradona’s larger-than-life exploits are coming to the small screen, producers said Thursday, announcing the Argentine football legend will be the subject of a new TV series targeting international audiences. PAGE 26 England’s Alastair Cook in action against Pakistan during the second day’s play of the opening Test at Lord’s yesterday REUTERS

Cook lays foundation for England replyn Cricinfo

After being rattled out inside the � rst hour at Lord’s, Pakistan needed to take their chances with the ball in order for their � rst-innings 339 to assume more daunting proportions. They proceeded to drop Alastair Cook twice, with his unbeaten 75 anchoring the England reply, but three wickets during the afternoon session for Yasir Shah kept Pakistan in the hunt.

Chris Woakes’ maiden � ve-wicket haul in Tests had helped � nish o� Pakistan with only 57 added to their overnight score before the stage was trans-ported back to 2010, as Moham-mad Amir prepared to bowl to Cook once again. Amir had previ-ously removed Cook three times in � ve Tests and he should have added to that tally here but for glaring errors by Mohammad Ha-feez, at � rst slip, and wicketkeep-er Sarfraz Ahmed.

Cook put on 110 with Joe Root for the second wicket but Yasir struck for his � rst Test wickets outside of Asia to check England’s advance. Root, in his � rst innings replacing Nick Compton at No. 3,

looked at something like his dy-namic best before trying slight-ly too hard to force the pace and top-edging a slog-sweep o� Yasir straight up in the air to be taken at midwicket.

That gave Pakistan a look at England’s reshaped middle-order, with James Vince moving up to No. 4 above the recalled Gary Ballance. Vince brie� y shimmered on an otherwise dull, cloudy afternoon, before playing back to be lbw to Yasir - DRS con� rming it would have clipped leg stump - for a � fth innings without a signi� cant score at Test level. Ballance clipped one four but was then beaten by a gently turning legbreak, pushing down the wrong line, to leave England 153 for 4 at tea.

Amir’s � rst delivery in Test cricket after a � ve-year ban for his involvement in spot-� xing on this ground was met by a few pseu-do-witty cries of “no-ball” from the crowd and it was unceremoni-ously tucked away into the covers for a single by Cook.

Amir struggled with his line and length, leaking 33 runs from six overs before lunch, but ought to have removed the England cap-

tain when he had made 22, slant-ing the ball in to take the edge just as he did as a teenager, only for Hafeez to make a mess of a straightforward low catch.

Rahat Ali was more accurate with the new ball and he picked up Alex Hales in his � rst over, an-gling a delivery across to have him taken at third slip. Cook took ad-vantage of too many deliveries on his pads to pick up seven bound-aries - including another edged through the cordon o� Amir - and score at more than a run a ball, as he and Root ticked up a � fty stand before lunch.

There was further anguish for Amir when he began his second spell during the afternoon, his � rst delivery luring Cook into a drive as the ball left him, only for the ball to hit Sarfraz on the wrist as he dived his left.

In the morning session, a burst of three wickets in eight balls, including the dismissal of Misbah-ul-Haq for 114, had helped England wrap up Pakistan’s innings. Woakes collected two of them to � nish with 6 for 70 and join Misbah in having his name added to the honours board. Having been 282 for 4 shortly before

the close on Thursday, Pakistan would have been disappointed to make only 339.

Misbah, fresh from becoming the oldest captain to score a Test hundred, began the second day with designs on seeing his side up towards 400 and a secure po-sition from which his bowlers could mount an attack. He could only add four runs to his over-night score, however, before Stu-art Broad brought a delivery back to burst between bat and pad and rattle the stumps.

That dismissal meant Pakistan had gone from 310 for 7 to 316 for 9, with Woakes removing Ahmed and Wahab Riaz in the preceding over. Sarfraz had looked in dan-gerous mood, frequently stepping down the pitch to cut and drive on his way to 25 from 29 deliver-ies but he gifted his wicket when slapping a short, wide delivery to backward point to give Woakes his maiden � ve-for.l

DAY TWO, AT TEAPAKISTAN 339 (Misbah 114, Sha� q

73, Woakes 6/70) v ENGLAND 153/4 (Cook 75*, Root 48, Yasir 3/22)

Pakistan lead by 186 runs

Sport 25D

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SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

OLDEST PLAYERS TO HAVE MADE A TEST HUNDREDPLAYER COUNTRY RUNS AGE OPPOSITION VENUE YEAR

Jack Hobbs ENG 142 46y 82d AUS Melbourne 1929

Jack Hobbs ENG 159 45y 239d WIS The Oval 1928

Patsy Hendren ENG 132 45y 151d AUS Old Tra� ord 1934

Warren Bardsley AUS 193no 43y 202d ENG Lord’s 1926

Jack Hobbs ENG 119 43y 192d AUS Lord’s 1926

Dave Nourse RSA 111 42y 291d AUS Johannesburg 1921

Frank Woolley ENG 154 42y 61d RSA Old Tra� ord 1929

Misbah-ul-Haq PAK 110no 42y 47d ENG Lord’s 2016

Jack Hobbs (ENG) 119 42y 31d AUS Adelaide 1925

Jack Hobbs (ENG) 154 42y 16d AUS Melbourne 1925

Eric Rowan (RSA) 236 42y 06d ENG Headingley 1951

Jack Hobbs (ENG) 115 42y 03d AUS Sydney 1924

Leggie Jubair eyes improvementn Mazhar Uddin

There were high expectations on leg-spinner Jubair Hossain when Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha selected the young-ster directly from the national team nets even though he hardly played local cricket in the last few years.

And the 20-year old wrist spin-ner wasted very little time in mak-ing a mark, picking up his maiden � ve-wicket haul in his debut Test series against Zimbabwe two years ago. In six Tests so far, Jubair has bagged 16 wickets and can further add to the tally as he was recently called up to the 30-member na-tional preliminary squad for the upcoming home series against England.

The Jamalpur cricketer howev-er, is yet to prove his mettle in the limited-over formats, having taken four wickets in three one-day inter-nationals and two scalps in his only Twenty20 international appear-ance against Zimbabwe.

Jubair though is determined to cash in this time around, provided he gets the opportunity to strut his stu� , be it in red- or white-ball cricket, against the visiting English side.

“At the moment, I am looking to prove myself whenever I get

the opportunity to play, either in the longer-version or the shorter formats of the game. Sometimes I lose my focus when I put too much pressure on myself. My perfor-mance was harmed in the process. I am looking to overcome it in the coming days,” said Jubair to Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Prior to this season’s Dhaka Pre-mier League, the youngster only ever featured in one Dhaka league match. However, in the seven DPL games that he did play this season for Abahani Limited, he scalped 13 wickets, including 6/34 against Kalabagan Krira Chakra in the opening match.

Surprisingly though, Jubair bid-ed his time in the sidelines for the remainder of the campaign after all-rounder Shakib al Hasan joined the side.

With that said, he explained, “This was the � rst time I got the op-portunity to play more matches in the Dhaka Premier League for Aba-hani and it was a great experience for me. I played seven matches and managed to win two games with my bowling. I think it really helped my con� dence. Abahani or the Bangla-desh team, there is same pressure so it was a great experience for me this season. I think it will help me to improve my bowling.” l

Former England batter Carberry diagnosed with cancern AFP, London

Former England batsman Michael Carberry has been diagnosed with cancer, his county side Hampshire announced on Thursday.

The 35-year-old, who played the last of his six Tests in 2014, consulted a specialist on Tuesday after sitting out this week’s county championship game against War-wickshire because he was feeling unwell.

“Following recent reports about his health and now that he has spo-ken fully to his family, friends and team-mates, Hampshire Cricket can con� rm that after a brief period of feeling unwell, a specialist has determined that Michael Carberry has a tumour that is cancerous,” read a statement from Hampshire.

Carberry’s plight prompted an outpouring of support from former team-mates.

Australian great Shane Warne, who captained Carberry at Hamp-shire, said on Twitter: “Just heard the terrible news re my great friend @carbs646 thinking of you buddy & am here for you as is the whole cricket family !”l

ICC wary of � xing life-bansn AFP, London

International Cricket Council chief executive David Richardson poured cold water on suggestions match-� xers should face mandato-ry life-bans as Pakistan’s Moham-mad Amir made his Test return at Lord’s on Thursday.

Richardson also said the with-drawal of so many top golfers from the Rio Olympics next month had made it harder for sports such as cricket, that were considering bids for Games status. But with no pros-pect of Twenty20 at the Olympics until the 2024 Games at the earli-est, the question of how the ICC deals with � xers is likely to remain a more immediate concern. It was a view shared by Richardson. “I am not uncomfortable with it at all,” Richardson, speaking at Lord’s, told BBC Radio’s Test Match Spe-cial when asked about Amir’s re-turn. But he was less enthusiastic about compulsory life-bans.

“Each case should be treated on its merits. You cannot hang every-body,” he said. “I think we have to stick with the principle that the punishment should � t the crime ... (and) players who in� uence oth-ers should be treated much more severely than those who are in� u-enced.” l

Misbah: Lord’s ton my top inningsn AFP, London

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq said his unbeaten century against England at Lord’s on Thursday was the “top innings” of an impressive Test career.

The 42-year-old Misbah became the sixth oldest player in Test his-tory to make a century as his un-beaten 110 took Pakistan to 282 for six at stumps on the � rst day of a four-match series.

Thursday’s match was Misbah’s maiden Test at Lord’s, selection decisions having seen him miss previous tours of England, yet he secured a coveted place on the dressing room honours board at the very � rst attempt.

As soon as he had completed his 10th Test century, Misbah dropped to the turf. But rather than utter a prayer, Misbah performed several press-ups, just as 73-year-old actor Jack Palance did when winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at the 1992 Academy awards.

But Misbah’s celebration, which included a salute to the Pakistan � ag � ying above the Pavilion, was no tribute act.

Rather it was a reference to Paki-

stan’s gruelling pre-tour boot camp at a military academy in Kakul in May. Misbah equalled West Indies great Vivian Richards’s then world record for the fastest-ever Test cen-tury with a blistering 56-ball hun-dred against Australia in Abu Dha-bi in 2014 -- a mark surpassed by Brendon McCullum’s 54-ball hun-dred for New Zealand against Aus-tralia at Christchurch in February.

But Thursday’s hundred ranked higher in Misbah’s estimations.

“I rate this as my top innings in Test cricket and I’m really happy about that,” he said.

“It’s a dream to play at Lord’s and especially getting 100, and the name on the honours board is something special,” added Misbah, who vindicated his own decision to bat � rst after winning the toss.

“Obviously when you are play-ing competitive cricket you just don’t think about your age. If you are there, you just take on the chal-lenge that comes with playing the game. “These records are always something special, and they are very satisfying to make those kinds of achievements, but the main thing is just to keep achieving for your country.”l

‘That was my promise to the army guys. We did a camp in Abbottabad before the skill camp in Lahore, and we used to do an honour code every time, we just stepped into the ground and did 10 push-ups. And I promised them, if ever I score a hundred, I will de� nitely do that to remind you that we were there,’ cited Misbah-ul Haq as to why he did the press-ups after reaching his 10th Test ton last Thursday against England at Lord’s

26DT Sport

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

Independiente del Valle’s goalkeeper Daniel Azcona in action against Boca Juniors’ Carlos Tevez during their Copa Libertadores semi-� nal second leg at Alberto J. Armando Stadium, Buenos Aires on Thursday REUTERS

Ecuador’s Independiente stun Boca to reach Libertadores � naln Reuters, Buenos Aires

Modest Ecuadorean side Indepen-diente del Valle reached the Copa Libertadores � nal after a shock 3-2 win away to favourites Boca Jun-iors at La Bombonera on Thursday to go through 5-3 on aggregate.

The � nal will feature two teams from the Paci� c northwest of South America in a shift of the power base from the south Atlantic with Inde-

pendiente meeting 1989 champi-ons Atletico Nacional of Colombia over two legs.

“We showed it was no � uke when we eliminated River Plate,” Independiente’s Uruguayan coach Pablo Repetto, whose side upset the Argentine holders in the round of 16, told reporters.

Independiente, who have only been in Ecuador’s top � ight since 2010, have reached the � nal in

their � rst season in the Libertado-res, while Boca were looking for a record-equalling seventh title in the region’s elite club competition.

Down 2-1 from the � rst leg but having taken an early lead through striker Cristian Pavon to level the aggregate score at 2-2, Boca suc-cumbed to goals from Luis Caicedo, Bryan Cabezas and Julio Angulo.

Boca mid� elder Nicolas Lo-deiro had a penalty saved with 20

minutes to go and they could only muster a consolation from Pavon in stoppage time. Independiente, who are unbeaten at their 7,000-ca-pacity ground in the Andean town of Sangolqui where opponents struggle in the thin air 2,500 metres above sea level, will host the � rst leg of the � nal next Wednesday.

Atletico Nacional beat three-times champions Sao Paulo 4-1 on aggregate in the other semi-� nal. l

Maradona TV series plannedn AFP, Buenos Aires

Diego Maradona’s larger-than-life exploits are coming to the small screen, producers said Thursday, announcing the Argentine football legend will be the subject of a new TV series targeting international audiences.

“Every month of my life could make 100 episodes. Everything I’ve lived surpasses any kind of � ction,” Maradona said in a press release from Argentine TV channel Telefe, the producer of the new series.

Telefe said it had signed a deal with Maradona to make a show about his life, but did not give de-tails on the format, cast or release date.

Maradona said he was “happy and enthusiastic that Telefe is de-veloping this project for the world.”

Telefe’s content director, Tomas Yankelevich, said the company was looking for partners to make an “unprecedented superproduc-tion.”

“It’s an incredible challenge as a producer to think about � ctionaliz-ing the life of the best player of all time and probably the best-known person in the world,” he said.

Maradona, 55, is worshipped in Argentina, which he led to the World Cup title in 1986.

His fame as a football genius is rivalled only by the infamy of his colorful and controversial misad-ventures, including a pair of dop-ing bans and battles with drug ad-diction, alcoholism and obesity.l

Nani aims success at Valencian Reuters

Nani, who was recently crowned European champion with Portugal, wants to help bring the good times back to new club Valencia.

The Spanish side struggled this past season and ended the La Liga campaign with just 44 points and in 12th place, their worst � nish in three decades.

Valencia have paid Fenerbahce Nani’s 8.5 million euro ($9.47 mil-lion) buyout clause and he has 5tmoved to Spain on a three-year deal, just 12 months after leaving Manchester United.

“People think that when you win an important championship, you relax,” Nani said at his unveil-ing at the Mestalla stadium, which was attended by 12,000 fans.

“But that is not my thinking. I’m very eager. This is a big club, with great fans. I want to be a part of this great club. “My aim is to con-tribute in the best possible way, to help in every game I play and try to achieve our aims.”

Valencia are accustomed to � n-ishing high in the standings and playing in Europe, with back-to-back appearances in the Champi-ons League � nal in 1999 and 2000

and a 2004 UEFA Cup success, among their notable achievements.

Their disappointing 2015-16 campaign has meant they will not play in a continental competition this season. “It’s normal that big clubs in the world go through bad years, the same thing happened to Manchester United and now they are better,” said Nani.

“The same has happened to Va-lencia. We hope to return the club to the level it deserves as soon as possible.”

Portugal’s Euro 2016 � nal tri-umph over hosts France was still at the front of Nani’s thoughts.l

Valencia’s new player Portuguese Luis Carlos Almeida de Cunha Nani dances ‘Capodeira’ during his o� cial presentation in Valencia on Thursday AFP

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SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

Bournemouth sign Liverpool winger IbeBournemouth have signed Liverpool England Under-21 international Jordon Ibe on a four-year contract. The 20-year-old made 58 � rst-team appearances for Liverpool after joining the club’s academy from Wycombe Wanderers in 2011. Neither club disclosed the transfer fee, but media reports said Bournemouth would pay a club-record 15 million pounds for the forward.

–REUTERS

PSG appoint Kluivert as director of footballFrench champions Paris St Germain have appointed former Netherlands international Patrick Kluivert as the club’s director of football, the Ligue 1 side said. The former Ajax Amsterdam and Barcelona striker had a coaching stint as the manager of Curacao and was an assistant coach for Netherlands under manager Louis van Gaal.

–REUTERS

‘Windies’ Russell to start anti-doping hearing’West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell will face a preliminary hearing before an independent anti-doping disciplinary panel next week over a whereabouts rule violation, his lawyer Patrick Foster said on Thursday. The 28-year-old missed three doping tests within a 12-month period. Russell was not provisionally suspended but faces a two-year ban if found guilty.

–REUTERS

QUICK BYTES

DAY’S WATCHCRICKET

STAR SPORTS 14:00PM

Pakistan Tour of England 1st Test, Day 3

SONY SIX6:30 AM

Caribbean Premier League T20Jamaica v Guyana

10:00 PMBarbados v Trinbago Knight Riders

FOOTBALL SONY SIX7:20PM

Premier Futsal LeagueMumbai v Kochi

Kolkata v Bangalore

TENNIS SONY ESPN HD

7:00 PMATP World Tour 500 2016

Hamburg, Germany: Semi Finals

Indian Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and tennis player Sania Mirza pose during the release of ‘Ace against Odds’, a biography of Mirza during the book launch in Hyderabad on Wednesday.The book is co-authored by Sania’s father, Imran and journalist Shivani Gupta and covers all aspects of Sania’s career

AFP

101-year-old Japanese aims for more recordsn AFP, Narashino

As the world’s top swimmers prepare for the Rio Olympics, a sprightly Japanese centenarian in-sists she will still be smashing re-cords by the time the 2020 Tokyo Games roll around.

Closing in on her 102nd birth-day, Mieko Nagaoka has racked up a slew of jaw-dropping world bests in her age bracket after only taking up swimming in her late eighties, but warns she is not done yet.

“I’m � t as a � ddle,” Nagaoka told AFP in an interview after complet-ing the 400 metres freestyle in 26 minutes, 16.81 seconds at a Japan Masters Swimming Association competition in Chiba, on the out-skirts of Tokyo.

“The secret is to eat well and stay active. It’s no good sitting around at my age. I want to keep swimming until I’m 105 - and be-yond that,” added the Yamaguchi native, who has lived through 22 Olympics to date.

Nagaoka, who swam the race backstroke sporting a white cap and dashing black and gold swim-suit, � nished well over 17 minutes behind the winner, 80-year-old Et-suko Azumi.

Hard of hearing, Nagaoka failed to hear the roar of the crowd after completing the eight-lap race and attempted to return for a ninth be-fore being � shed out by judges as nervous medics watched on.

“It was just another race,” smiled Nagaoka after changing into a pink jacket and matching hat.

“Swimming makes me happy, that’s what I love about it,” she added. “When I’m swimming I’m in my own little world.”

Along with 105-year-old sprinter Hidekichi Miyazaki, another geriat-ric record breaker, Nagaoka is blaz-ing a trail for Japan’s turbo-charged pensioners in a country with one of the world’s highest life expectan-cies.

Nonetheless, Nagaoka’s time was well outside her world record of 16:36.80 set two years ago.

Her rivals had long dried o� and were talking by the side of the pool when Nagaoka � nally touched to thunderous applause. But she struck a de� ant tone.

“I want to keep swimming as

fast as I can,” said Nagaoka, who owns world records in the wom-en’s 100-104 age division in nine events, including the 1,500m free-style - a distance most people of her venerable age would struggle to walk.

“I’ll keep going for as long as I’m alive.”

Born in 1914, days after the out-break of World War I, when Japan fought on the side of the allies, Na-gaoka’s rambunctious lust for life continues to astound her family and coaches.

“Her attitude to life is totally scandalous,” said her 76-year-old son Hiroyuki.

“She refuses to live life by the correct rules. She eats only the � n-est food and turns her nose up at anything she doesn’t fancy.

“You’re supposed to slow down with age, but she was getting quicker with age in her nineties, breaking record after record,” he added.

“That sense of joy and purpose in life is the secret to her long life.”

Nagaoka still trains three times a week in Yamaguchi, southwest Japan, under the tutelage of long-time coach Shintaro Sawada.

“At � rst I thought she was joking about swimming until 100, but she was deadly serious,” said 41-year-old Sawada.

“I’ve never met anyone like her - she eats when she wants and sleeps when she wants.” l

Pakistan buys bulletproof buses to woo back teamsn Reuters, Islamabad

The Pakistan Cricket Board has bought four bulletproof buses as it tries to convince other teams to shed their security apprehensions and visit the country.

Pakistan has largely been shunned by teams since 2009 when gunmen attacked a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers, injuring six players and killing six security per-sonnel and two civilians.

The incident has forced Paki-stan to play their “home” matches at the United Arab Emirates and the country has since remained starved of international cricket at home, barring Zimbabwe’s limit-ed-overs tour in 2015.

“We have bought these four Coaster buses as part of our e� orts to revive international cricket in the country,” a PCB spokesman told ESPNcricinfo.

“There will be high expectations from teams willing to visit Pakistan and we want to ensure that we pro-vide them with the best possible arrangements.

“Having these bulletproof ve-hicles would play a major part in convincing teams (about security arrangements).”

“We have to have discussions with the (overseas) players about their safety and security and I think this new addition in our security facilities will de� nitely give us an edge,” the spokesman said. l

28DT Sport

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

Former Brazilian footballer Ronaldhino (3L) poses with other players including former Welsh international player Ryan Giggs (3R) during a media brie� ng for the Premier Futsal Football League in Chennai on Thursday AFP

Conte hopes to light a � re under the Premier Leaguen AFP, London

Antonio Conte says he hopes Chel-sea under his stewardship will light up the Premier League title race this season.

The 46-year-old - who guided Italy to the quarter-� nals of Euro 2016 only losing on penalties to world champions Germany - said Chelsea may not be top of every-one’s list to challenge for the crown after � nishing 10th in their title de-fence last term.

“We are under-rated a bit, and

might slip under the radar, but I hope there’s a small � ame � icker-ing here that can hopefully grow into a blazing inferno,” said Con-te at his unveiling to the media at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.

The Italian - who rejected the opportunity to follow the example of predecessor ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho and give himself a nick-name - said a club the size of Chel-sea shouldn’t be scrabbling around in mid-table.

“When you are a player, a foot-baller, or a manager of a great club

like Chelsea, you must play to win,” said Conte, who also took the op-portunity to con� rm Chelsea icon John Terry would be club captain.

“I know that this league is very, very di� cult because there are six or seven teams who can win the ti-tle. For this reason, this situation is very exciting for me. It excites me, this situation.

“We know that, this year, it won’t be easy for us because if we think about the last season and 10th position... Last season was a bad season, yes?

“I know, that there is only one team who wins the title. But we must stay there at the end of the season, to � ght for the title and be there for the Champions League. Chelsea belongs in the Champions League, and we must stay there.”

“There are certain managers who are winners. On that I would agree with you.

“In this league there are many, many players with great talent. Fantastic players. Also there are good managers,” said Conte.

“For me, I’m very happy to be

compared with them, but in this tournament it’s not a challenge between managers. Between great teams, between great players... these are the most important things.

“There are also great manag-ers, good managers, but the most important things when there is a game, Chelsea v United, City, Liv-erpool, Arsenal... Tottenham also. All teams.”

“I don’t know if it’s the most dif-� cult challenge of my career,” said Conte.l

Make your mind up, Leicester boss Ranieri tells Kanten AFP, Stegersbach

Leicester City manager Claudio Ra-nieri has called on French mid� eld enforcer N’Golo Kante to decide quickly on his future as the Pre-mier League champions plan the defence of their title.

Kante’s future is uncertain with a new contract from Leicester on the table amid interest from a host of rival clubs including Chelsea.

Ranieri has warned he does not want to be left waiting for a deci-sion from the 25-year-old, who was one of the stand-out stars of last season’s title triumph and emerged with credit at Euro 2016 although

he didn’t get to play in the 1-0 de-feat in the � nal against Portugal.

“We o� ered a new contract to him, he went away because he wanted to � nish Euro 2016, and now there is so much speculation around him,” said Ranieri at Leices-ter’s pre-season training camp in Austria.

“I don’t want to lose him but I can understand if he wants to go.

“I would like now to be sure who stays with me or not, because the friendly matches start now and I have to start to manage and change and try things.”

Ranieri has made regular calls to 25-year-old Kante, who has a re-

lease clause of around £20 million ($26.6m, 23.9m euros) in his con-tract and is understood to be being monitored by European champions Real Madrid as well as Chelsea.

“Maybe it is not Chelsea, maybe it is another team who made the Champions League,” said Ranieri.

But Ranieri is more bullish about his chances of keeping Ri-yad Mahrez, who was crowned PFA player of the year for his eye-catch-ing displays last season.

“I am very con� dent with him,” said the Italian. “He stays here with us. He enjoys it and is not a man saying ‘coach I want to go’. He is happy.”l

Neymar in Brazil squad for Rion AFP, Paris

Barcelona star Neymar was as expected named in the Brazil squad for the Olympics football tournament on Thursday as well Paris Saint Germain defender Marquinhos.

Also selected were Neymar’s club mate Ra� nha, Lazio mid� eld-er Felipe Anderson and rising star Gabriel Barbosa.

Brazil squad:Goalkeepers: Fernando Prass (Palmeiras), Uilson (Atletico-MG)Defenders: Marquinhos (PSG/FRA), Rodrigo Caio (Sao Paulo) Luan (Vasco da Gama), Willian (In-ternacional), Douglas Santos (At-lético-MG), Zeca (Santos)Mid� elders: Walace (Grêmio), Rod-rigo Dourado (Internacional) Thia-go Maia (Santos), Ra� nha (Barcelo-na/ESP), Renato Augusto (Beijing Ghouan/CHN), Felipe Anderson (Lazio/ITA)Attackers: Neymar (Barcelona/ESP), Gabriel (Santos), Gabriel Je-sus (Palmeiras), Luan (Grêmio) l

Leicester City captain Wes Morgan (L) and manager Claudio Ranieri are pictured during a public training of Leicester City in Stegersbach, Austria on Thurday AFP

Downtime

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 18 represents W so � ll W every time the � gure 18 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Bring back to life (6)4 Central (3)7 Disturb (5)8 Soapy foam (6)11 Metal (3)12 Fencing sword (4)13 Prosecutes (4)15 Part of a ship (5)16 Drink (5)20 Decays (4)23 Remedy (4)24 Strange (3)25 Makes up for (6)26 Perfect (5)27 Female swan (3)28 Sport (6)

DOWN1 Governs (5)2 Receive as one’s portion (7)3 Does wrong (4)4 Silent (4)5 Egyptian goddess (4)6 Lair (3)9 Liable (3)10 Golf mound (3)14 Mythical animal (7)17 Mouse-coloured (3)18 Before (3)19 Reposes (5)20 Ill-mannered (4)21 Augury (4)22 Preservative (4)24 Tear (3)

SUDOKU

29D

TSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

n Showtime Desk

The nominees for the 2016 Emmys were announced a few days ago by Anthony Anderson and Lauren Graham. The ceremony is set to be held at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, on September 18. Jimmy Kimmel will be hosting the ceremony, which will air on ABC. Below are the nominees for the major categories at the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy A wards.

Lead actor in a dramaKyle Chandler, BloodlineRami Malek, Mr. RobotBob Odenkirk, Better Call SaulMatthew Rhys, The AmericansLiev Schreiber, Ray DonovanKevin Spacey, House of Cards

Lead actress in a dramaClaire Danes, Homeland Viola Davis, How to Get Away With MurderTaraji P Henson, EmpireTatiana Maslany, Orphan BlackKeri Russell, The AmericansRobin Wright, House of Cards

Lead actor in a limited seriesBryan Cranston, All the WayBenedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: The Abominable BrideIdris Elba, LutherCuba Gooding Jr, The People vs. O.J. SimpsonTom Hiddleston, The Night ManagerCourtney B. Vance, The People vs. O.J. Simpson

Lead actress in a limited seriesKirsten Dunst, FargoFelicity Hu� man, American CrimeAudra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & GrilleSarah Paulson, The People vs. O.J. Simpson Lili Taylor, American CrimeKerry Washington, Con� rmation

Lead actor in a comedyAnthony Anderson, Black-ishAziz Ansari, Master of NoneWill Forte, Last Man on EarthWilliam H Macy, ShamelessThomas Middleditch, Silicon ValleyJe� rey Tambor, Transparent

Lead actress in a ComedyJulia Louis-Dreyfus, VeepEllie Kemper, The Unbreakable Kimmy SchmidtTracee Ellis Ross, Black-ishLaurie Metcalf, Getting OnAmy Schumer, Inside Amy SchumerLily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Comedy seriesBlack-ishMaster of NoneModern FamilySilicon ValleyTransparentUnbreakable Kimmy SchmidtVeep

Drama seriesThe AmericansBetter Call SaulDowntown AbbeyGame of Thrones HomelandHouse of CardsMr. Robot

Outstanding limited seriesAmerican Crime

FargoThe Night ManagerThe People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime StoryRoots

TV movieAll the WayCon� rmationLutherSherlock: The Abominable BrideA Very Murray Christmas

Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy seriesLouie Anderson, BasketsAndre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-

NineKeegan-Michael Key, Key & PeeleTy Burrell, Modern FamilyTituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy SchmidtTony Hale, VeepMatt Walsh, Veep

Outstanding supporting actor in a drama seriesJonathan Banks, Better Call SaulPeter Dinklage, Game of ThronesBen Mendelsohn, BloodlineKit Harington, Game Of ThronesMichael Kelly, House Of CardsJon Voight, Ray Donovan l

Source: Los Angeles Times

30DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016Showtime

2016 Emmy nominees

Meghan Markle keen to work with Piggy Chops in a Bollywood � lmn Showtime Desk

There is little doubt that the “desi girl,” Priyanka Chopra is currently one of the leading Bollywood actresses, and is easily one of the best newcomers in Hollywood, after garnering fans for her outstanding performance in the show, Qunatico.

The Bar� actress is enjoying a huge international fan following, which also includes a hefty number of celebrities from Hollywood.

One such celeb is Meghan Markle, who is willing to share screen time with Piggy Chops.

Meghan, who’s probably best known for her role as Rachel Zane on the legal-drama Suits, says she would love to work with the Bajirao Mastani star in a Bollywood movie, something which Priyanka suggested.

The Suits actress also shared sel� es with Priyanka on her social media page. Meghan even talked about how she has become good friends with Priyanka ever since the � rst time they met, and praised her as “unbelievable.”

Meghan said she connected instantly with Priyanka and promised to meet up whenever they were in the same town.

On the other hand, Meghan is currently excited for season six of Suits, which is currently underway. l

Source: INDIATV

31D

TSATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

Showtime

Jen pens against body shaming

WHAT TO WATCH

BladeHBO 3:30pmA half-vampire, half-mortal man becomes a protector of the mortal race, while slaying evil vampires.Cast: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dor� , Kris Kristo� erson, N’Bushe Wright, Donal Logue, Sanaa Lathan

Ice AgeStar Movies 3:50pm

Set during the Ice Age, a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a wooly mammoth � nd a lost human infant, and they try to return him to his tribe.Cast: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black

Monsters Inc.Zee Studio 5:45pmIn order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, two monsters realize things may not be what they think.Cast: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, Frank Oz

FrozenZee Studio 7:30pmThree skiers stranded on a

chairlift are forced to make life-or-death choices which prove more perilous than staying put and freezing to death.Cast: Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore, Ed Ackerman, Rileah Vanderbilt

Dragon BladeWB 9:00pmWhen corrupt Roman leader Tiberius arrives with a giant army to claim the Silk Road, Huo An teams up his army with an elite Legion of defected Roman soldiers led by General Lucius to protect his country and his new friends.Cast: Jackie Chan, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Lin Peng, Mika Wang, Choi Siwon, Xiao Yang, Wang Taili l

n Showtime Desk

The famous 72-year-old Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger is to become a father for the eighth time.

This time it’s his girlfriend, 29-year-old American ballerina Melanie Hamrick, who is more than three months pregnant, a spokesperson of Hamrick con� rmed the BBC.

Mick Jagger started dating Hamrick after his partner of 13 years L’Wren Scott killed herself in 2014.

Hamrick’s spokesperson says: “This is great news. It will be Mick’s eighth child and nothing fazes him. He’s been incredibly supportive,” according to a report published on UK tabloid The Sun. The source said they were “surprised and happy,” adding that, “They are taking the news in their stride.”

However, it does not appear as if there are any plans for Hamrick to make an honest man out of him. “Mick likes the arrangement they have and doesn’t want to be in another formal relationship. The plan is for Melanie to move out of New York and be based in Los Angeles, where Mick spends a lot of time, or Connecticut where she

knows people. In reality, Melanie was coming toward the end of her career as a ballet dancer but has now had to give it up earlier than previously planned.

The music star has seven other children — all but three of whom are older than Hamrick, from four other women – Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall and Luciana Gimenez Morad.

His youngest child, Lucas, was born in 1999.

In 2014, he became a great-

grandfather when Assisi Jackson, the daughter of Jade Jagger — the only child he had with ex-wife Bianca Jagger — gave birth to a baby girl.

This will be the third new arrival in the Stones camp. The news comes two months after fellow Rolling Stone, Ronnie Wood, became a father again aged 68, after his wife Sally Humphreys gave birth to twin girls – Gracie Jane and Alice Rose. l

Sources: Ultimate Classic Rock, BBC

Mick Jagger expecting eighth child

n Showtime Desk

Following decades of pregnancy rumours, Jennifer Anniston has � nally addressed the ongoing fascination over her body in a passionate op-ed for Hu� ngton Post.

Apparently, Rachel from Friends is “fed up” with tabloid publications and journalists constantly speculating whether or not she’s pregnant. The actress went on to link the intense scrutiny regarding body shaming and misogyny in Hollywood.

In one particularly emotional segment, the beautiful actress wrote: “The objecti� cation and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing. The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a re� ection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty. Sometimes cultural standards just need a di� erent perspective so we can see them for what they really are — a collective acceptance… a subconscious agreement. We are in charge of our agreement. Little girls everywhere are absorbing our agreement, passive or otherwise. And it begins early. The message that girls are not pretty unless they’re incredibly thin, that they’re not worthy of our attention unless they look like a supermodel or an actress on the cover of a magazine is something we’re all willingly buying into. This conditioning is something girls then carry into womanhood. We use celebrity ‘news’ to perpetuate this dehumanising view of females, focused solely on one’s physical appearance, which tabloids turn into a sporting event of speculation. Is she pregnant? Is she eating too much? Has she

let herself go? Is her marriage on the rocks because the camera detects some physical ‘imperfection’?”

To make her point perfectly clear, the celeb went on to put those pregnancy rumours to bed once and for all saying, “For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up. I’m fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of ‘journalism,’ the ‘First Amendment’ and ‘celebrity news.’”

Jennifer might be appreciated for her honesty and passion, however, it’s not certain whether the baby rumours will ever end. This seems to be an ongoing battle for the 47-year-old. l

Source: UNREALITYTV

Back Page32DT

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016

COOK LAYS FOUNDATION FOR ENGLAND REPLY PAGE 24

TRUMP PICKS PENCE AS HIS RUNNING MATE PAGE 10

JEN PENS AGAINST BODY SHAMING PAGE 31

Major Sanjida � rst female o� cer to attend US army sta� collegen Tribune Desk

For the � rst time, a female B a n g l a d e s h i army o� cer, Major Sanjida Hossain, is go-ing to attend the United States Army’s Command and General

Sta� College course.In a Facebook post yesterday,

the US Embassy in Dhaka congratulated Major Sanjida for her achievement.

According to the post, this one-year course at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas prepares promising o� cers for leadership responsibilities in a strategic security environment during wartime and peacetime. l

Top militant leaders under surveillancen Tribune Desk

Law enforcement agencies are con-ducting separate drives to arrest top leaders of banned militant groups.

Sources yesterday con� rmed that they had detained some sus-pected militants. Around 50 top leaders were under surveillance.

When contacted, a police source said the top leaders under the scan-ner include Joynal Abedin alias Akash, Mama Khalek and Bijoy.

Most belong to Jama’atul Muja-hideen Bangladesh (JMB), Ansarul-

lah Bangla Team and Harkat-ul Ji-had al-Islami Bangladesh (HujiB).

A DMP Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes unit o� cial yesterday said they hoped to arrest the main planner of the Gulshan and Sholakia attacks this week.

Another CTTC source said the receiver of a call from a Gulshan at-tacker had not yet been identi� ed. They are seeking probe assistance from India, the US and Singapore.

An o� cial of the telecom reg-ulator said the attackers had tried to communicate with people in at

least three countries. Investigators earlier recovered around 30 mo-bile phones from the Holey Artisan Bakery and sent those to the CID for IT forensic tests.

Another source claimed that in-vestigators were looking for 20 of at least 24 automatic and semi-au-tomatic � rearms smuggled into Bangladesh last December.

A source said JMB leader Bike Hasan alias Nazrul along with three of his associates named Saddam, Reazul and Rabbani had been detained. l

Tarikat seeks info on Afghan war veteransn Tribune Desk

Tarikat Federation, a component of the ruling alliance, has demanded information on the Qawmi madra-sa students who had joined the Afghan war in the 1980s and later formed the country’s � rst militant group Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HujiB).

Secretary General of the party MA Awaal yesterday also criticised Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal for saying that there were no militants in the Qawmi madrasas.

“Our home minister might have forgotten that Qawmi madrasa students formed HujiB after their return from the Afghan war. Muf-ti Hannan, Maulana Farid did not study in private universities,” he said in a written statement at the National Press Club.

“The home minister is wrong in identifying the root of militan-cy. Mufti Shahidul was directly in-volved in militancy. Chittagong’s Mufti Izhar and his son Harun Izhar, and Habibur Rahman Bul-buli, the principal of Sylhet’s Ka-zirbazar Madrasa, went to Afghan-istan [in 1988] to join jihad [against Russian troops]. We want to know where they are now. Does the gov-ernment know anything about

their whereabouts?”Formed on April 30, 1992, HujiB

was banned on October 17, 2005 for their involvement in a number of bomb attacks since 1999.

Awaal claimed the militant groups who are conducting killings do not actually want to establish Islamic rule.

He also demanded action

against the 27 Peace Schools oper-ating across the country mainly by Jamaat-e-Islami supporters under the patronage of controversial In-dian televangelist Zakir Naik.

“We have read news on the detailed report of an intelligence agency about the Peace Schools. But no steps have been taken as of yet. Peace TV has been banned, but his [Zakir Naik’s] books should be brought under surveillance too.”

He suggested that foreigners coming to the country under the guise of joining the Tabligh Jamaat should also be investigated.

“Many organisations and groups are conspiring against the state by cashing in on the religious sensitiv-ity of the people,” Awal said.

Tarikat chief Syed Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandari and Presid-ium member Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri were also present at the event among others. l

The Asian paradise � ycatcher is a medium sized passerine bird that is native to Central and Southeast Asia. Asian paradise � ycatcher has been split into three subspecies: Indian, Oriental and Amur. The photo above shows a female Indian paradise � ycatcher native to Northern and Central India, Nepal, Balochistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Rarely seen in Bangladesh, this bird was spotted near a canal in the Sundarbans SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

‘Our home minister might have forgotten that Qawmi madrasa students formed HujiB after their return from the Afghan war’

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