Confusion remains over scope of reviewn Ahmed Zayeef

Debate surfaces again whether there is any scope for � ling a review peti-tion against the Supreme Court verdict that yesterday upheld the war crimestribunal’s death sentence handeddown to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Kamaruzzaman.

After the verdict was delivered, the defence said it would � le a review pe-tition after getting the full copy of the judgement. On the other hand, Law Minister Anisul Huq said there was no scope of review since the petition for � ling a review had been cancelled in the case of executed war criminal Quader Molla.

“As per law, the verdict must be expected within 21-28 days after pro-

nouncement,” the law minister said at his residence yesterday.

Arguments and counter-arguments dominated earlier too when the apex court gave death sentence to war crim-inal Abdul Quader Molla on September 17 last year.

On that day, a � ve-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain revised the tribunal’s life-term imprisonment, sentencing Molla to death.

After the full text of the verdict was released, the tribunal issued death warrant for the Jamaat leader on De-cember 8. However, as the Dhaka Central Jail authorities were preparing to hang him on December 10, Molla’s counsels rushed to the chamber judge

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Sohagpur widows now want to see executionn Our Correspondent, Sherpur

“I could not have died before I saw my husband and son’s killers hanged. To-day, the death sentence for Kamaruz-zaman removed a heavy burden from my heart,” said Jatiran Bewa, wife of martyr Khejur Ali, who was killed in the infamous Sohagpur genocide.

In 1971, eight members of Jaritan’s fam-ily, including her husband and son, were gunned down.

“They dragged my husband out of our house to the yard and shot him six times. When he wanted water, they shot him again and he breathed his last. They brought my treasure trove,

my son Hashem, threw him on his fa-ther’s dead body and killed him as well. Then they stabbed my brother-in-law with a bayonet and eventually killed him shooting inside his mouth,” Jaritan thus described her dreadful experience 43 years back.

Jabeda Bewa, widow of another martyr Fazar Ali, said: “Kamaruzzam-an, the leader of those who killed our men, has been sentenced to death. That is the least solace that we could have expected for our heavy hearts.”

Bewa is a title given to widows in some areas of Bangladesh.

Nure Maan Bewa, wife of martyr Jasimuddin, said: “The Pakistani sol-diers did not know the area. Razakars and al-Badr members showed them

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

AIMING TO BE AVERAGE

11 | OP-ED

REVISITING THE ‘PEACE PROCESS’: JORDAN-ISRAELI RELATIONS

7 | LONG FORM

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Kartik 20, 1421Muharram 10, 1436Regd No DA 6238Vol 2, No 211

FIVE FACTORS DELAYING FOREIGN-FUNDED PROJECTS

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TAMIM TONES DOWN AGGRESSION TO GUIDE HOSTS

13 | SPORT

HE APPEARED ‘CALM’P3

All o� ces of the Dhaka Tribune will remain closed for today on the occasion of Ashura. Therefore, there will be no issue tomorrow. However, our online www.dhakatribune.com will keep you updated.

H O L I D A Y

Blackout probe committee tovisit Bheramara sub-station todayn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The investigation committee charged with determining the factors that caused Saturday’s countrywide power failure will visit Bheramara HVDC grid sub-station today, sources said. Some o� cials believe the site is crucial to explaining the unexpected grid failure.

“We will visit the High Voltage Di-rect Current grid sub-station at Bher-amara in Kushtia and collect data on the incidents of last Saturday,” Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) Managing Director Nazrul Hasan, also an investigation committee member, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The investigation committee was formed to probe the massive black-out that switched the country o� onSaturday.

The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources formed the eight-member probe committee headed by additional secretary Ahmed Kaikaus.

The duty of operating and maintain-ing the HVDC grid sub-station falls to the state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB).

“We yesterday collected from the PGCB the total list of power plants which were operative before the col-lapse, reasons for low system frequen-cy and the status of auxiliary power at each power plant,” Mohammad Hos-sain, director general of the Power Cell and member secretary of the investiga-tion committee, told the Dhaka Trib-une yesterday. The committee will also collect information from the Indian side of the cross-border power trans-mission line, he said.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

SC con� rms death for KamaruzzamanThe key organiser of al-Badr force to die for mass killing, rape at Sohagpur villagen Julfi kar Ali Manik

The Supreme Court’s � nal verdict in war criminal Muhammad Kamaruz-zaman’s appeal case has come as an overwhelming decision for the victims and justice seekers of the 1971 Libera-tion War as the apex court yesterday upheld a war tribunal’s death sentence to the key organiser of infamous killing squad al-Badr.

This comes only a month and a half after another verdict of the apex court that shocked the nation by reducing no-torious war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee’s death sentence to imprison-ment until natural death. In February 2012, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Jamaat leader Sayedee to death for the crimes he had committed against humanity in 1971.

“We are very happy to get justice, for which, we had to wait 43 long years,” Mohammad Jalaluddin, a vic-tim of Kamaruzzaman’s war crimes at Sohagpur village in Sherpur, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

Sohagpur village has come to be widely known as the “Bidhoba Palli” or the village of widows, following a mass killing of 1971 when all men in the vil-lage were killed making all the married women widowed overnight.

Kamaruzzaman has been found guilty of that massacre for which the apex court also handed down capital punishment upholding the tribunal’s verdict.

On May 9 last year, the tribunal 2

in its verdict awarded death sentence to Kamaruzzaman for committing hei-nous crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. He appealed against the judgement after a month.

Seventeen months after � ling of the appeal, a four-member Appellate Divi-sion bench of the Supreme Court yes-terday pronounced their judgement in a packed courtroom.

“I have always had faith in Allah that the culprit [Kamaruzzaman] must get punished some day for his o� ences,” said Jalal, who lost seven male mem-bers of his extended family including his father and an uncle in Sohagpur.

Jalal said the Pakistani Army had no

idea about the village. “It was the lo-cal razakars and the al-Badr men who brought them to our village. Kamaruz-zaman was their commander.”

He thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for ensuring justice even after 43 long years of independence. Since 1971 the victims of Sohagpur village have been carrying colossal and un-speakable trauma.

Naturally, Kamaruzzaman’s law-yers and family members expressed disappointment over the verdict and said they would � le a petition seeking review of the judgement. However, the attorney general said there was

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

CHARGES TRIBUNAL VERDICT APPEAL VERDICTShohagpur mass murder and rape

Death Death

Abduction, torture and killing of Badiuzzaman

Life Acquitted

Torturing Syed Abdul Hannan 10 years 10 yearsAbduction, torture and killing of Golam Mostafa Talukder

Death Life

Killing of eight Acquitted AcquittedRepression Acquitted AcquittedKilling of Dara and � ve Life Life

KAMARUZZAMAN VERDICT

For the war criminal, being a journalistwas a privilege n Julfi kar Ali Manik

Sixty two-year old war criminal Mu-hammad Kamaruzzaman enjoyed a journalist’s status for more than three decades including a membership of the National Press Club.

With yesterday’s verdict, Kamaruz-zaman became the second Jamaat-e-Is-lami leader whose death penalty got � nal con� rmation from the Supreme Court, following his party colleague Quader Molla, who was executed in December last year.

For decades, Molla also enjoyed a journalist’s status and all the facilities of the National Press Club, becoming a member of which has always been hard even for professional journalists.

Molla got allotment of a plot in the PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Holy Ashura todayn UNB

The holy Ashura, commemorating the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA), will be observed in the country today with due religious fervour and solemnity.

On this day in 61 Hijri, Hazrat Imam, the grandson of Prophet Hazrat Mu-hammad (PBUH), along with his family members and 72 followers embraced martyrdom in the hands of soldiers of Yazid at Karbala desert for the suprem-acy of justice and righteousness.

The day is a public holiday.President Abdul Hamid, Prime Min-

ister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairper-son Khaleda Zia have issued separate messages on the occasion.

In his message, the president said: “On this day, I wish unity, solidarity and continued progress of the Muslim Ummah alongside establishing a socie-ty based on equality and justice.”

The prime minister urged all to re-� ect the teachings of the holy Ashura in establishing truth and justice in the national life resisting all injustice and unjust.

23 public holidays in 2015 n Tribune Report

The cabinet yesterday approved 23 public holidays for the year 2015.

The approval was given in a regular meeting of the cabinet at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Out of those public holidays, 15 days will be general public holidays on the occasion of various national days and religious functions of di� erent com-munities. The remaining eight public holidays will be observed through the executive order.

However, 15 public holidays include nine weekly holidays and eight public holidays of executive order will include three weekly holidays, said Cabinet Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhui-yan while brie� ng the press at the Sec-retariat.

According to the Hijree calen-dar year, the country will have two Eid-e-Miladunnabis next year, he said.

The � rst Eid-e-Miladunnabi holiday falls on January 4, 2015, while the sec-ond one on December 24, that year. l

SC con� rms death for Kamaruzzaman PAGE 1 COLUMN 3no scope of reviewing verdicts in war crimes appeal cases.

This debate is likely to be solved after the release of the full judgement, said some Supreme Court lawyers who gath-ered at the court to witness the delivery of the historic judgement yesterday.

Majority judges of the apex court bench found 62-year-old Kamaruzzam-an, the senior assistant secretary gener-al of Jamaat-e-Islami, guilty of mass kill-ing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in greater Mymensingh district in 1971.

Kamaruzzaman has been in the condemned cell of Kashimpur prison since the tribunal awarded him death sentence and he will remain there until implementation of execution, a prison o� cial said.

Out of the seven charges brought against him, the tribunal found him guilty on � ve and acquitted on two charges. The Supreme Court found Kamaruzzaman guilty on four charges.

Of these four charges, the tribunal gave Kamaruzzaman death sentence on two charges – for the mass killing at Sohagpur and the abduction and killing of Golam Mostafa.

All the four judges of the Appel-late Division bench also convicted Kamaruzzaman for the mass killing at

Sohagpur village where more than 200 people had been killed and many wom-en raped. But majority (three) judges awarded Kamaruzzaman death sen-tence for the mass killing.

Though the presiding judge of the bench, during pronouncement, did not say who gave descending punishment, later many lawyers in the court were seen talking among themselves on this issue.

They said Justice MA Wahhab Miah gave life-term imprisonment on this charge while Justice SK Sinha, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury gave capital punishment.

Meanwhile, the bench awarded the Jamaat leader life-term imprisonment (until death) for the abduction and kill-ing of Golam Mostafa by majority – com-muting the tribunal’s death sentence.

The apex court by majority upheld the tribunal’s sentences to Kamaruz-zaman on two other charges – tortur-ing Sherpur College’s Principal Hannan and killing Dara and � ve others.

The tribunal had given Kamaruz-zaman 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for torturing Hannan and life-term im-prisonment for killing Dara.

The war tribunal also gave Kamaru-zzaman life-term imprisonment on another charge – abduction, torture and killing of Badiuzzaman. But the

Supreme Court judges acquitted him from the charge.

Kamaruzzaman’s one is the third appeals case verdict by the Appellate Division bench. In its maiden verdict, the court enhanced the punishment of another notorious war criminal Abdul Quader Molla. The Jamaat leader was awarded life-term imprisonment by the tribunal 2. Molla was executed in December last year.

On the other hand, top Jamaat lead-er Delawar Hossain Sayedee is serv-ing his rigorous jail term until death in Kashimpur jail. He was given death penalty by the tribunal.

In 1971, Kamaruzzaman was a top leader of greater Mymensingh unit Isla-mi Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat. He was also the o� ce secretary of East Pakistan unit Chhatra Sangha.

He played the role of a key organ-iser in the formation of al-Badr force with the selected students belonging to Chhatra Sangha. Infamous al-Badr was involved in killing Bangalees system-atically and widely known for planned killing of the best brains of Bangalees to intellectually cripple the nation.

Al-Badr and other auxiliary forces also collaborated with the Pakistani occupa-tion forces during the war for committing genocide mass killing, raping women, looting, destroying properties, forceful

conversion of Hindus and deportation.Several hundred people including

lawyers, journalists, justice seekers and observers gathered on the Su-preme Court premises yesterday morn-ing amid Jamaat’s hartal.

The shutdown was called in protest against the tribunal’s death sentence to notorious al-Badr chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, now chief of Jamaat.

After Kamaruzzaman’s verdict, Ja-maat called hartal again for tomorrow and Thursday.

The tribunal 2 judges – Chairman Obaidul Hassan, Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Shahinur Islam in their full judgement said: “We deem it just and appropriate to pen our � nding that the accused [Kamaruzzam-an] was a perpetrator in white gloves who deserves the highest penalty.”

On the Sohagpur massacre, the tri-bunal said: “The � erceness of the event of the attack was launched in such gro-tesque and revolting manner in which the helpless victims, the unarmed hun-dreds of civilians, could not save their lives and honour.

“The act of massacre and devasta-tion of human honour was diabolic and detrimental to basic humanness.”

Kamaruzzaman by his acts and conducts had participated to the per-petration of such horrendous attack

that resulted in murder of hundreds of unarmed civilians constituting the of-fence of crimes against humanity, the tribunal verdict states.

It also observed that undeniably the act of indiscriminate sexual invasion committed on women, in conjunction of the event of mass killing at Sohag-pur village, shocks the conscience of humankind and aggravates the pat-tern of the criminal acts and liability of Kamaruzzaman as well.

Three rape victims, who also lost their husbands in the Sohagpur mas-sacre, standing on dock of the tribunal narrated the trauma and demanded justice for causing extreme dishonour and sexual invasion to them.

Death on two chargesOn July 25, 1971, Kamaruzzaman ad-vised members of al-Badr and razakar forces to commit a large-scale massacre in association with the Pakistani troops at Sohagpur village of Nalitabari in Sher-pur. The collaborators murdered 164 unarmed civilians, 44 of whom have been named, and raped many women.

Life imprisonment on two chargesOn August 23, 1971, on Kamaruzzam-an’s instructions, collaborators took Golam Mostafa of Gridda Narayanpur village in Sherpur to an al-Badr camp.

He and his accomplices brought Mosta-fa and one Abul Kasem to Serih Bridge and gunned them down.

Quasem survived jumping into the river but su� ered injuries in his � ngers. Mostafa died on the spot.

The tribunal in its order said Kamaruzzaman be convicted and con-demned to a single sentence of death for these two crimes. “He be hanged by the neck till he is dead” as per the Inter-national Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973.

On Ramadan 27, Kamaruzzaman accompanied by 15-20 armed al-Badr members abducted one Tepa Mia and his elder son Zahurul Islam Dara from Golapjan Road in Mymensingh. They were taken to the al-Badr camp at Dis-trict Council Bungalow.

The next morning, the father and the son along with � ve others were lined up and shot on the bank of the Brahmaputra River. Tepa Mia managed to escape by jumping into the river, but the six others were killed on the spot.

10 years on one chargeIn mid-May, 1971, Kamaruzzaman and his accomplices in� icted inhumane torture on pro-liberation intellectual Syed Abdul Hannan, then principal of Sherpur College, by compelling him to walk naked through the town under constant whipping. l

Blackout probe committee to visit sub-station PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Media outlets speculated that the rea-son for the outage was a malfunction on the Indian side of the India-Bang-ladesh power transmission line that links up with the Behramara HVDC grid sub-station.

“We yesterday visited the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) in Aft-ab Nagar in the capital to determine if NLDC operations, including sta� read-iness, was functioning properly, the Power Cell director general said.

“We will also look at the reason why power synchronization did not occur between the power plants when the na-tional grid collapsed,” Hossain added.

An o� cial of PGCB, asking to remain anonymous, said he had learned of two possible reasons for the collapse, a fault at the sub-station and the inability of NLDC o� cials, responsible for electric-ity transmission across the country, to adequately respond to the problem.

The o� cial said: “If the NLDC o� -cials did their jobs correctly, such a ma-jor shut down would probably not have

taken place.”The high-voltage, direct current

(HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current for the bulk transmission of the electrical power imported from India, in contrast with the more common alternating cur-rent (AC) systems used elsewhere in the national distribution network. For long-distance transmission, HVDC sys-tems are preferred because they may be less expensive and su� er lower elec-trical losses than the alternative.

Bangladesh and India signed a Mem-orandum of Understanding in January 2010 on power sector cooperation.

Bangladesh began importing electric-ity from India in October 2013 through a 400-kilovolt transmission line that runs from Baharampur in the Indian state of West Bengal to the southwestern Bang-ladesh town of Bheramara.

After a nine month delay, the grid in-terconnection project was completed.

The project, which aims at purchas-ing 500MW electricity from India, was scheduled to be completed by Decem-

ber 2012 at a cost of Tk10.79 billion. The cost of the project increased to Tk15.79bn from the original outlay of Tk10.79bn.

German company Siemens AG built the sub-station and Spanish compa-ny Cobra Instalaciones Y Servicios SA built the transmission line.

The project includes 100km of 400kV double circuit (D/C) transmis-sion line between Bheramara in Bang-ladesh and Baharampur in India, a 400kV switching station at Baharam-pur and a 500MW back-to-back high voltage direct current (HVDC) sub-sta-tion (400/230kV) at Bheramara.

“The incident could have resulted from using substandard machinery or because of the mismanagement of the HVDC sub-station o� cials operating the equipment,” BD Rahmatullah, for-mer director general of the Power Cell, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“We do not have the expertise among our sub-station sta� to face such situations and training is badly needed,” he said. l

Delhi responds to Dhaka’s queries on Bardhaman blastn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

New Delhi has responded to the que-ries made by Dhaka over the blast in Bardhaman that shocked the Indian administration over alleged links of In-dian politicians with anti-Bangladesh activities.

“We asked them for information, and they responded,” Foreign Secre-tary M Shahidul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune. “They shared some informa-tion with us. The whole matter is un-clear to them as well.”

Bangladesh sent a note verbale to India on October 8 seeking information over the Bardhaman blast as allega-tions of the incident having links with anti-Bangladesh components surfaced.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali had an hour-long meeting with Indi-an High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pankaj Saran and discussed the issue yesterday afternoon.

After the meeting, Pankaj declined to talk when approached by reporters.

The foreign secretary quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as saying both governments were exchanging infor-mation and working on the issue.

On October 8, State Minister for For-eign A� airs Shahriar Alam said Dhaka had sought information from New Del-hi about the bomb explosion on Octo-ber 2, in the West Bengal district.

The explosion took place at a house in Khagragarh area in Bardhaman, kill-ing two persons, Shakeel Ahmad and Sovon Mondol, on the spot.

Dhaka asked for information because it was primarily assumed that one or more of those involved might be Bang-ladeshi citizens and were identi� ed as members of JMB.

In an interview with an Indian newspaper, Hasina warned against pat-ronising terrorism and anti-Bangladesh activities in the neighbouring country.

A recent development in the investi-gation of Saradha scam unearthed that an Indian politician funded Bangladesh Jamaat to create instability in here. l

Being a journalist was a privilege PAGE 1 COLUMN 1journalist colony at Mirpur in Dha-ka during BNP founder Maj Gen Ziaur Rahman’s regime, but later sold it out, said Hasan Iqbal, the eldest son of con-victed war criminal Kamaruzzaman.

Iqbal said his father had not got alloca-tion from the government; rather he had purchased senior journalist Matiur Rah-man Chowdhury’s plot, who got it from the government. Matiur is now the chief editor of daily tabloid Manabzamin.

Ruhul Amin Gazi, president of a housing cooperatives society of jour-nalists, told the Dhaka Tribune: “As far as I remember, Quader Molla was of-fered a plot but he never took it. But it is true that Kamaruzzaman purchased the plot from Matiur Rahman Chowdhury.”

Gazi also said the process of plot allotment began during Zia’s regime, the plots were registered to the allotee journalists by the Ershad government and handed over to them during Khale-da Zia’s 1991-1996 rule.

Iqbal said their family had moved to their own residence in the journalist colo-

ny in 2000 from the capital’s Moghbazar.Kamaruzzaman, originally from

Sherpur, was a student when he com-mitted crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in the greater My-mensingh area. Father of � ve sons and a daughter, Kamaruzzaman was arrest-ed as a suspected collaborator soon af-ter the birth of Bangladesh.

Iqbal claimed that his father had been released from jail later and got a bachelor of arts (pass course) degree from the Dhaka Ideal Collage in 1973. Three years later, he obtained post graduation in journalism from Dhaka University. He was a boarder of the Sal-imullah Hall dorm.

As a student of DU, he started his ca-reer as the university correspondent of daily Sangram, Jamaat’s mouthpiece, Iqbal said. The Jamaat assistant secre-tary general joined monthly Dhaka Di-gest as editor after passing out. In 1981, he joined Sonar Bangla, a weekly publi-cation of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Kamaruzzaman came back to San-gram as the executive editor and stayed

there until 1993. Iqbal said his father had again joined Sonar Bangla as the editor and worked there until he had been ar-rested in 2011 as an accused war criminal.

Following the Shahbagh uprising, the National Press Club authorities said last year that they had cancelled both Quader Molla and Kamaruzzaman’s memberships.

“We did not get any formal letter from the National Press Club authori-ties regarding the cancellation of mem-bership of my father. We just read about the matter in newspapers,” Iqbal said.

Apart from these two, another convict-ed war criminal Chowdhury Mueenud-din was also known as a journalist.

But the di� erence was that Mueenud-din committed war crimes in 1971 as a reporter of the then Bangla daily Pur-bodesh, while Molla and Kamaruzzam-an came to be known as journalists after committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

Mueenuddin left Bangladesh a few days before the war ended and now lives in London as a British citizen. l

Confusion remains over review PAGE 1 COLUMN 5and got a stay order on the execution until 10:30am the next day, saying that they would seek a review of the death sentence.

On December 11, the Appellate Di-vision bench received two review pe-titions – one of which challenged the death sentence. The petitions were rejected the following day clearing the way for executing Molla.

The full copy of the judgement on Molla’s review petition is yet to be pub-lished, Supreme Court sources say. As a result, the decision of the apex court in the this regard is still unknown.

Some law professionals say Kamaru-zzaman has the right to � le the review petition as per article 105 of the consti-tution.

The provision states: “The Appellate Division shall have power, subject to the provisions of any Act of Parliament

and of any rules made by that division, to review any judgement pronounced or order made by it.”

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said: “I do not think there is scope to � le a review petition. The In-ternational Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 is a special act and there is no pro-vision for � ling a review plea.”

Defence counsel Tajul Islam said: “Once we � le the review petition, there will be a hearing and the judges may de-cide its fate either way. The petition may be scrapped if it is not maintainable.”

He said � ling a review was a consti-tutional right. “The prosecution has been saying that a review is not possible after the apex court verdict. But there was a review in Quader Molla’s case.”

Kamaruzzaman’s elder son Hasan Iqbal said: “We did not get justice. We will � le a review petition as soon as the copy of the verdict is available.” l

Sohagpur widows now want to see execution PAGE 1 COLUMN 3the way. They are the ones who did the massacre, made us widows and killed our relatives. They told the Pakistan soldiers that there were freedom � ght-ers in our village. Kamaruzzaman was their leader. The death sentence will give us blood for blood. We are happy.”

That infamous mass killing turned the Sohagpur village in Nalitabari of Sherpur “manless.” After that, just like uncountable other villages across the country, Sohagpur also came to be known as a “village of widows.”

These widows have all testi� ed against Kamaruzzaman in the war crimes case.Jalaluddin, son of 1971 martyr Sa� r Ud-din, said they were happy with the ver-dict and scared too. “Kamaruzzaman’s followers have been threatening us. They said they would teach us a good lesson when there is a change in power.”

On July 25, 1971, Pakistani soldiers ran a massacre in Sohagpur village on the Indian border – some 36km from Sherpur district town. On that day, they, along with their Razakar and al-Badr collaborators, killed at least 187 men in just six hours.

They broke into people’s houses and brutally killed innocent peasants and labourers. Jamaat leader Kamaruzzam-an, then a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student front Islami Chhatra Sangha, was at the forefront.

A total of 34 widows of Liberation War martyrs live in the village today. For most of them, the only sources of income are the meagre allowances from the government and a few private banks which by no stretch of imagina-tion are reasonable.

Many people from greater Sherpur area testi� ed as prosecution witness against Kamaruzzaman before the In-

ternational Crimes Tribunal, which handed down death sentence to the war criminal in May last year. The Su-preme Court yesterday upheld that verdict after hearing Kamaruzzaman’s appeal petition.

One of them was Manwar Hossain Khan alias Mohan Munshie. “I wanted to be a freedom � ghter. But Kamaruz-zaman forced me to become the securi-ty guard of a torture cell that he had set up in the house of Suren Babu.”

Another witness Mojibur Rahman Panu said: “In 1971, Kamaruzzaman and his men picked me up from my house and took me to the Ahmadnagar camp. There they lined up many people and opened � re on them. I survived miraculously.”

Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Kamaruzzaman was sent to the gallows on seven counts of crimes against hu-manity including murder, genocide, torture and forced deportation. l

Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and her party leaders place wreaths at the graves of the four national leaders in observance of the Jail Killing Day yesterday FOCUS BANGLA

Jamaat’s second-round slack hartal ends

n Tribune Report

The last day of the second-phase coun-trywide 48-hour hartal, enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami protesting the death sentence of its chief Matiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War, passed o� yesterday without major incidents of violence.

In the capital, hartal supporters blasted some crude bombs sporadical-ly in Mirpur, Malibagh Chowdhuryp-ara, Jatrabari and Tejgaon areas and vandalised at least a dozen vehicles. No injuries were reported.

Police arrested at least 26 Jamaat ac-tivists and some leaders of its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir from these areas. The arrestees also included ac-tivists from the Bibirbagicha, Dhan-mondi, Dakkhinkhan areas who had some anti-war crimes tribunal and hefty Jihadi books with them.

In the Tejgaon industrial area, police found three crude bombs abandoned on a street around 8:30am which a bomb disposal team later defused.

In Hatirjheel, three Shibir activists were sentenced two months in jail by a mobile court for igniting a road by pouring petrol, said Ramna police sta-

tion SI Md Manju.Our Chittagong correspondent re-

ports: There was no sign of hartal im-pact nor any untoward incident in the port city. Public life was as usual as a normal day.

Public transports and other vehicles were found plying the streets. Trains left the station without any disruption while the long-route buses had police protection.

Government, non-government of-� ces and others business establish-ments remained open although the educational institutions were closed during the hartal considering the safe-ty of the pupils.

In Sylhet, at least 37 Jamaat-Shibir activists were detained from the city and its adjacent areas by the SMP.

In Comilla, a clash ensued on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Choud-dagram uapzila town around 10am when police tried to foil a blockade move of hartal supporters. The un-ruly activists exploded several crude bombs. Police � red about 25 rounds of rubber bullet to � nally disperse them.

In Barisal, pro-hartal  activists brought out sudden processions in Kawnia, C and B Road, Sagordi and

Kashipur areas of the city and tried to block the road by felling trees. On being informed, police rushed to the spot and dispersed them, said Kotwali police station OC Shakhawat Hossain.

UNB reports: Jamaat-Shibir activists brought out processions in Charmatha, Upashahar and Sargram areas of the Bogra town in support of the hartal, whereas earlier, police arrested 14 ac-tivists from the town.

In Natore, pickets set � re to tyres on the Natore-Bogra highway and � ed the spot.

The second phase of hartal ended

at 6pm yesterday when the party had curtailed its ongoing shutdown for 12 hours to observe Ashura.

However, the party announced an-other 24-hour hartal for tomorrow protesting the Supreme Court verdict upholding the death penalty of Inter-national Crimes Tribunal 2 against its leader M Kamaruzzaman.

Earlier, Jamaat called another 24-hour hartal for Thursday protesting the death sentence to its leader and � -nancier Mir Quasem Ali for committing crimes against humanity during the bloodiest Liberation War of 1971. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Bergman shown the door in courtn Ahmed Zayeef

A judge of the four-member Appellate Division bench that upheld war crim-inal Kamaruzzaman’s death penalty yesterday, ordered Bangladesh-based British journalist David Bergman to leave the courtroom for using his mo-bile phone there.

Just after the verdict was delivered, Bergman was working on his phone in-side the courtroom which was against the rules.

Having noticed that, Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik asked him to leave the court. “You are not supposed to use mobile phone in the court. Using mobile phone in the court-room is prohibited,” he said.

Bergman was still sitting although rules suggest that when a court says something to someone, that person must stand up. Then some lawyers present in the court advised Bergman to stand up.

The judge then told Bergman: “Stand up and show respect to the court.” He then stood up and said something that could not be heard at

the back of the packed courtroom. The court then said: “You commit-

ted the same o� ence in the past. You have been warned but you do not seem to care.”

Informing Bergman that a notice put up outside the courtroom explains ev-erything about mobile phone’s usage in court, Justice Shamsuddin asked him to leave.

Bergman, who is criticised by jus-tice-seekers and campaigners for his controversial comments on the war crimes trial process, then left the court-room and immediately posted a status on Facebook terming the incident his “own personal drama.”

He said in the status: “...out of hab-it, I took my phone out of my pocket, and suddenly within a few seconds of it being in my hand, Justice [AHM Sham-suddin Choudhury] Manik, one of the appellate court judges shouted at me for doing so, telling me that no phones were allowed in the court. I had been warned earlier, he said.

“I said ‘Your honour, I had not been warned earlier.’ I was then told there

was a notice outside the court. It was then intimated that I should leave the court.”

Towards the end of the status, Berg-man wrote: “...I think just about every-body had one [mobile phone] in their pockets, since the guards were not checking at the door, and I am not sure many, or any, are aware of the notice, or abide by it. Anyway, I was just the fool who took it out of his pocket!!”

When contacted, SM Kuddus Zaman, acting registrar of the Supreme Court, told the Dhaka Tribune: “According to the court’s order, using mobile phones in the courtroom is prohibited. The no-tice has been put up at the entrance of every courtroom.”

Bergman is facing contempt charges at the International Crimes Tribunal.

In April, one of the tribunals decid-ed to hear the charges against Bergman for contesting the number of people who died in the Liberation War. In his blog, Bergman wrote that there was almost no evidence that supported the o� cial number, three million, of Liber-ation War martyrs. l

Moncho demands quick execution n Tribune Report

Gonojagoron Moncho activists have demanded that war criminal Kamaruz-zaman’s verdict be executed soon. They also called for rapid sentencing of other war criminals and execution of verdicts.

Moncho spokesman Imran H Sarker at a gathering in Shahbagh said execu-tion of Kamaruzzaman’s verdict would remove the frustration grew after Dela-war Hossain Sayedee’s verdict.

“The distrust that people have on the government will go if a review pe-tition is � led against the tribunal’s ver-dict that which sentenced Sayedee to life imprisonment,” Imran said. Mon-cho activists gathered at Shahbagh in the morning and were waiting for Ka-maruzzaman’s verdict. They chanted slogans demanding death penalty for the Jamaat-e-Islami. After the verdict was delivered, the activists carrying na-tional � ags brought out procession. l

Hasina: Khaleda’s curse becomes blessing for Bangladeshn Tribune Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has claimed that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s curse works as a blessing for Ban-gladesh and also for the Awami League.

“When Khaleda Zia curses Bangla-desh it works as a blessing for Bangla-desh. She � nds everything illegal as her party was once illegally formed by as-suming power through illegal means,” Hasina said yesterday while addressing a rally at the capital’s Suhrawardy Udy-an to mark the Jail Killing Day.

Mourning the killings of four nation-al leaders inside Dhaka Central Jail in 1975, the prime minister said Bangladesh would ensure justice for every killing and complete the trial of all war criminals.

“It was our commitment to the peo-ple to try the culprits of 1971 for their crimes against humanity during the Lib-eration War. We have begun their trial and execution of the verdicts has start-ed. We will implement all judgements Insha Allah on this country’s soil to free the nation from stigma,” she said.

The premier called upon Khaleda to cut ties with war criminals, terrorists and militants, saying there will be no place for them in the country.

“It is good to wage movement along with the people. But you will have to sever ties with terrorists, militants and war criminals and there will be no

room for them on this country’s soil,” she said.

In this connection, Hasina mentioned the silent role of the BNP chief and com-pared her present condition to a snake with a frog stuck in its mouth. “The snake neither can swallow nor release it, and Khaleda Zia can neither speak in favour of the trial nor can she oppose it.”

Hasina, also the Awami League president, said Bangabandhu had be-gun trying the alleged war criminals after the Liberation War. But after the assassination of Bangabandhu, Ziaur Rahman attempted to destroy all the achievements, distort the history and values of the bloodstained war.

The premier said: “Zia not only did that, he rewarded the killers of Bangab-andhu and those who acted against the Liberation War...The military dictator rewarded the killers by providing them with lucrative posts.”

The dictators, who subsequently emerged following the killing of Bang-abandhu and the four leaders, reward-ed the killers by politically rehabilitat-ing them, even making them ministers, Hasina said.

“Soon after the killing of the nation-al leaders, the country came under the reign of the killers,” she said, adding that Zia had politically empowered the killers by bringing them back to the country. Hasina not only Zia but also Ershad shel-tered the killers of Bangabandhu.

Hasina alleged that the political par-ties formed by dictators always disrupt-ed the development initiatives undertak-en by any Awami League government.

During the tenure of Khaleda, the BNP ruined the country with corrup-tion as it ran a parallel government based in the so-called Hawa Bhaban, Hasina said. She also questioned how the Zia family could have amassed such an amount of money if not by corrupt means. l

Panic spreads in Ray Saheb Bazar area in Old Dhaka as unruly hartal supporters blast crude bombs during the second day of Jamaat-enforced countrywide 48-hour hartal yesterday (Left); Police arrests one in connection with the blasts from the scene (Right) MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Members of Gonojagoron Moncho bring out victory procession in the capital’s Shahbagh area yesterday after the Appellate Division gave death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami leader and former al-Badr man Kamaruzzaman for committing crimes against humanity during 1971 Liberation War RAJIB DHAR

He was ‘calm’ in condemned cell as he was ‘prepared’ n Ashif Islam Shaon

Yesterday’s Supreme Court verdict that upheld the tribunal’s death penalty did not seem to a� ect war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, who is now in the condemned cell of the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur.

Md Jahangir Kabir, senior jail super of the Kashimpur jail, told the Dhaka Tribune that the death row convict heard the news on a one-band radio that his family had given him and the authorities had allowed.

“He did not appear to be nervous. He ate and slept as usual. But it is hard to tell what was going on in his mind,” the jail super said.

The war criminal has been in the condemned cell since May last year when a war crimes tribunal handed him death sentence for the crimes he had committed against humanity in 1971.

Arrested in July 2010, Kamaruz-zaman had been transferred to the Kashimpur jail in June 2011.

“We will notify him about the Su-preme Court verdict after receiving the formal documents,” the jail o� cial said.

Apart from Kamaruzzaman, there are a total of 104 death row convicts in the Gazipur prison.

Kamaruzzaman’s eldest son Hasan Iqbal also con� rmed that his father had remained “calm” even after hearing the news.

“Jail sources have told us that he was normal. It could be easily guessed that the court would deliver a verdict of this kind. So, he was mentally prepared,” Iqbal told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

The family members will visit the war criminal in jail on November 14, he said. l

Witnesses from Sohagpur happyn Ashif Islam Shaon and

Ahmed Zayeef

Over the last four decades since inde-pendence, the widows and orphans of Sohagpur village in Nalitabari of Sherpur waited and prayed for one thing – trial of the killers of their husbands and fathers, and justice. But with the lapse of time, their hopes for justice faded gradually.

Even when the war crimes tribunal was set up in 2010, they did not believe that Jamaat-e-Islami leader Kamaruz-zaman would be brought to book some-day. He was the infamous al-Badr chief and leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha of then greater Mymensingh, who along with his accomplices, led the Pakistani Army to the village on July 25, 1971.

They became hopeful only after people from the village started testi-fying at the International Crimes Tri-bunal in the case � led against the top Jamaat leader. They were relieved after the tribunal delivered its judgement in May last year sentencing Kamaruz-zaman to death.

Supreme Court’s � nal verdict yester-day in the appeal case somewhat eased them of their psychological agonies as the notorious war criminal enjoyed im-punity for long.

“We knew that the Supreme Court will not break our hearts. After we, from the village, deposited against Ka-maruzzaman in the tribunal, we were

sure that no one will deny the truth, no one will strangulate our hopes,” said Mohammad Jalal Uddin, son of martyr Sa� r Uddin of Sohagpur. He was the 10th prosecution witness in the case.

Jalal told the tribunal how his father and paternal uncle had been killed on that day along with at least 245 others and the large number of rape incidents. Following the massacre, Sohagpur (vil-lage of love) was renamed as Bidhoba Palli (village of widows).

“Our village is still one of the poor-est villages of the country. In 1971, they [Pakistani occupation forces and collaborators] killed most of the bread-winners forcing their depen-dants to beg and starve. We are yet to come out of the curse,” he said.

Jalal was happy to hear that the ring leader of the collaborators would be hanged. “Baka Bura, Nasa and Kadir Daktar were razakars while Kamaruz-zaman was their chief. They commit-ted the atrocities after bringing the Pa-kistan Army members into the village,” the 62-year-old witness said.

“The Pakistani Army along with razakars and al-Badr men came to So-hagpur village around 7am. My brother and I hid on hearing the news.

“After sometime, when the shooting stopped, I saw four bodies on the east side of Suruj Ali’s house. When I rushed to my house, I saw 11 bodies in the yard – my father Sa� r Uddin, my paternal

uncle Kitab Ali, my cousin Monnas Ali, and Mohammad Ali, Momin Mia, Ku-tum Uddin, Rejot Ali and Iman Ali and some other unnamed people,” Jalal added.

Another witness Mosharraf Hossain Talukder, whose elder brother Golam Mostafa had been caught by the al-Badr men and executed, said: “My brother’s soul will � nally rest in peace. I pray so that I can live until he [Kamaruzzaman] is hanged.

“I was feeling unsafe after I gave deposition at the tribunal. But later the tribunal verdict gave me relief. Now we all are waiting for his execution,” Mosharraf said.

His brother was taken to the al-Badr camp on the night of August 23, 1971. Mostafa, then an HSC examinee, had gone out to buy batteries for his radio as he used to listen to the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, a pro-liberation radio sta-tion broadcast from the Indian territory. Mostafa also received training in India.

His uncle Tofail Islam met Kamaruz-zaman, then a leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha – Jamaat’s student wing, and pleaded for the release of Mostafa.

Mosharraf said later that night, Ka-maruzzaman and some al-Badr men took Mostafa to the nearby Sheri Bridge area where he was � rst tortured and then shot dead. The collaborators also cut one of his knees o� with a bayonet and tore o� � esh from the other. l

Soon after the killing of the national leaders, the country came under the reign of killers

Jail o� cial and Kamaruzzaman’s eldest son Hasan Iqbal con� rmed that the death row convict had remained ‘calm’ even after hearing the verdict

CorrectionOn Page 3 of yesterday’s edition of the Dhaka Tribune, a story titled “Prose-cution: Another step towards repaying debt” mentioned Zead-Al-Malum as the chief prosecutor of the Interna-tional Crimes Tribunal. Actually, he is a prosecutor in the war crimes case against Mir Quasem Ali, not the tribu-nal’s chief prosecutor. l

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Complaint against Hanif dismissed n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court has dismissed a com-plaint � led against Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, who said BNP Senior Vice-Chair-man Tarique Rahman had links with al-Qaeda and was an ISI agent.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Rased Talukdar dismissed the complaint around 1pm yesterday, around two hours after it had been � led by BNP Organising Secretary of Bogra district unit Mir Shah

Alam. The complaint was � led with Dha-ka Metropolitan Magistrate Court.

According to the complaint, Hanif described Tarique as an agent of the ISI while talking to reporters after dis-tributing relief goods among families a� ected by riverbank erosion at Daulat-pur upazila in Kushtia on September 6.

Hanif said the decision to turn Bangla-desh into an al-Qaeda stronghold might have come through Tarique’s links with the militant organisation, or he might have had a link with the decision. l

Highest applications submitted for 35th BCS exam n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) has received a record number of applications from aspirants willing to obtain civil service (cadre) positions in the 35th BCS examination.

Terming the number as the highest in the history, AEM Nesaruddin, examina-tion controller (Cadre) at the commis-sion, said the total number of applicants in the scheduled BCS exam was 244,107.

The number of applicants in the � rst

phase of the examination was 221,575. Deadline for application submission

was at 6pm on Thursday, but the PSC received the application fees up to 72 hours after the deadline.

The PSC also disclosed the number of applications for each centre. Dhaka received the highest number of appli-cations, with 155,244 applicants want-ing to appear in the exam in Dhaka.

The numbers for the others centres are: 21,873 for Rajshahi, 20,469 for Chittagong, 14,078 for Khulna, 5,729

for Barisal, 9,858 for Sylhet and 16,856 for Rangpur.

The preliminary test of 35th BCS exam would likely be held at the end of December, depending on the availability and management of exam centres to ac-commodate such a large number of ap-plicants, PSC sources said, adding that the PSC aims to conduct the examina-tion in all the centres at the same time.

Previously, 46,250 candidates ap-peared in the written test of 34th BCS ex-ams, which was held on March 24-31. l

Three Chhatri Sangstha activists held at DUn DU Correspondent

Three activists of Islami Chhatri Sangstha were detained in Shamsun-nahar Hall at the University of Dhaka early yesterday.

The detainees are Umme Kulsum Joli, a third-year student of World Reli-gion and Culture department, Fahmida Akter, a fourth-year student of English department, and Saimun Akter, a � rst-year student of Journalism Depart-ment.

Acting proctor of the university Amzad Ali told the Dhaka Tribune the students had books on Jihadi, Maududi and other similar subjects with them.

“They have active involvement in such issues. Another student Israt Jah-an, who is also involved in these, � ed

sensing the presence of the authori-ties,” he said.

The proctor said actions would be taken against the three after investiga-tion.

“We did not hand them over to the police as they are females,” he added.

Shamsunnahar Hall Provost Sajeda Banu said the three were detained at the prayer room around 5am based on information from the Chhatra League unit of the hall and other students.

“They were found carrying books and documents of Islami Chhatri Sangstha. They will lose their dorm seats temporarily before we hand them over to their guardians,” she added.

Sources said the girls ran activities of Islami Chhatri Sangstha in the dorm. l

CU admission test dates reshu� ed for hartaln FM Mizanur Rahaman

The Chittagong University authorities have reshu� ed the dates for two ad-mission tests again because of Jamaat’s hartal.

Written test of C unit under BBA faculty will be held on November 8 (Saturday) instead of November 5 while the written test of B unit under Arts and Humanities faculty will be held on November 7 (Friday) instead of November 6.

The decision was taken in an emergency meeting chaired by CU Vice-Chancellor Professor Anwarul Azim Arif at his o� ce on campus

around 11pm yesterday.CU Deputy Registrar SM Akbar Hos-

sain, who is also the member secretary of CU Admission Committee, said  the venue of exams and shuttle train schedule would remain the same.

Earlier, the B unit written examina-tion was reshu� ed for the same reason.

More detail of the tests will be found at the university’s website www.cu.ac.bd

Jamaat-e-Islami has called country-wide hartal for Wednesday and Thurs-day in protest against the death pen-alty for its leader Kamaruzzaman for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War of Bangla-desh in 1971. l

Another probe body formed to investigate BSEC � re n Tribune Report

Another probe body came into being to investigate the � re incident at the Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) building in capital’s Karwan Bazar area on October 31, that burnt the o� ces of vernacular daily Amar Desh and two other private � rms.

Bangladesh Ministry of Industries formed the � ve-member probe com-mittee yesterday with its Additional Secretary Md Forhad Uddin as the con-vener and o� cials from BSEC, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and Fire Service and Civil Defence as members.

The committee is directed to submit

an investigation report by November 15 along with recommendations for avert-ing repetitions of such incidents.

Two other � ve-member committees – one by the BSEC and another by Fire Service and Civil Defence – formed on

the day of the incident are already in-vestigating into the mishap.

After a devastating � re that broke into the centrally air-conditioned 11-storey building in 2007, experts made a number of recommendations, including installation of at least two � re exits and an auto ventilation system which were not seen by � re-� ghters while engaged in dousing the � ames.

As for the cause of the � re, � re-� ght-ers suspected that an electric short circuit during the shifting of Amar Desh o� ce equipment might have started the � ame, but, Amar Desh executive editor Syed Ab-dal Ahmed claimed that “this was not a � re under normal circumstances.” l

Ashraf: Jail killings carried out at the behest of Zian Rafe Sadnan Adel

On 39th Jail Killing Day yesterday, the general secretary of the ruling Awa-mi League named BNP founder Ziaur Rahman as the orchestrator of the kill-ings-in-custody of four national lead-ers in 1975.

AL General Secretary and LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said yesterday that the four na-tional leaders were killed inside Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975 at the directive of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman.

“August 15 and November 3, 1975, the two most heinous killings in the history of the country, were carried out at the behest of the same killer,” he said.

Syed Ashraf made the statement after paying tribute to the four nation-al leaders by placing wreaths at their graves at Banani Graveyard.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also

paid tribute to the country’s founding president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mu-jibur Rahman yesterday morning by placing wreaths at his portrait in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi in the capital.

After placing a wreath at the portrait of Bangabandhu, she o� ered fatiha and munajat for the eternal salvation of the departed souls.

The prime minister said the target of the conspirators was to destroy the spirit of the Liberation War and leave the nation without leaders. The PM said the conspirators planned to have the Awami League removed from Ban-gladesh forever. Calling the custodial assassinations an “unprecedented kill-ing,” she said it was a continuation of what had begun with the assassination of her father, Bangabandhu.

A written speech from President Md Abdul Hamid said: “Their killers want-

ed to erase the ideals of the Liberation War from the minds of the new gener-ation and set up an undemocratic dic-tatorship in Bangladesh … Jail Killing Day will forever remain a dark chapter in our national history.”

Senior leaders of the party includ-ing Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan and Food Minister Kamrul Islam were pres-ent, among others.

In the afternoon, the prime minister at a remembrance rally organised by her party at Suhrawardy Udyan said: “The ruler at that time sent those con-spirators to di� erent parts of the world to represent Bangladesh as ambassa-dors. That is a shame for the nation.”

She warned those who are a threat to the spirit of the independence of the country that her government would punish them no matter who they are.

The national � ag and party � ag were lowered to half mast at the Awa-mi League’s headquarters and o� ces across the country to observe the day.

Di� erent political parties including the ruling Awami League and its allies in the grand-alliance government, as-sociate bodies and other pro-liberation parties and socio-cultural and profes-sional organisations paid homage to the slain four national leaders, who were also close associates of Bangab-andhu, in observance of the day.

In Rajshahi, the AL organised spe-cial prayers and milad meh� ls at Qam-ruzzaman’s grave.

On this day in 1975, four leaders of the wartime national government—act-ing president Syed Nazrul Islam, prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed and cabinet ministers M Mansur Ali and AHM Qam-ruzzaman—were brutally killed inside Dhaka Central Jail. l

Supradip Chakma made new envoy to Mexico n Rafe Sadnan Adel

The government has appointed Su-pradip Chakma, the current Bangla-desh ambassador to Vietnam, as the country’s new ambassador to Mexico.

Kakoli Saha, assistant secretary (media) at the external publicity wing of the Ministry of Foreign A� airs, con� rmed the government’s decision through an e-mail yesterday.

A career diplomat, Supradip be-longs to the 1985 batch of Bangladesh Civil Service (Foreign A� airs) Cadre.

He earlier served in the Bangladesh Embassies in Rabat, Brussels, and An-kara and the Bangladesh High Commis-sion in Colombo in various positions.

Supradip studied Marketing at the University of Dhaka. l

169 Jamaat men sued under speedy trial tribunal act n Our Correspondent, Bogra

Some 169 local activists of Jamaat-e-Is-lami have been sued in a case � led with Adamdighi police station under the speedy tribunal act yesterday.

Delwar Hossain, secretary of Adam-dighi Sadar union unit AL, lodged the case against the activists on charge of attacking a procession of anti-hartal supporters on Sunday morning.

The accused include Adamdighi upa-zila unit jamaat ameer Ataur Rahman and an arrested Shibir leader named Edris Ali.

Adamdighi police station OC Md Moslem Uddin con� rmed the incident of case � ling, saying several people were injured in the attack-counter at-tack incident between the activists. l

Bangladesh against joining anti-IS military interventionn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Bangladesh has been engaged with other countries in combating global terrorism, including the threat of the Islamic State (IS); but it does not want to be involved in any military interven-tion, the foreign secretary has said.

“We are engaged with many coun-tries including the US and the UAE, as Bangladesh has zero tolerance towards terrorism,” Foreign Secretary M Sha-hidul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina dis-cussed terrorism and the IS issue with UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Mak-toum in Dubai last month.

Also last month, the foreign secre-tary discussed the issue with US Under Secretary for Political A� airs Wendy Sherman during a partnership dialogue.

“Bangladesh is not considering mil-itary intervention, but will take part in any UN-led humanitarian assistance programme,” Shahidul said.

The Islamic State, a threat to peace and security in the Middle East, IS has

wrested control of a vast tract of Iraq and Syria. A UN Security Council reso-lution on foreign � ghters and � nancing was adopted on September 25 and is binding on all member states.

“I discussed the issue with the US side during the dialogue and they as-sured me that Washington would not impose anything on Dhaka,” he said.

Washington was ready to share in-formation if Dhaka asked for it, the for-eign secretary added.

Bangladeshi foreign policy con-demns all forms of terrorism irrespec-tive of who carries it out, and is for upholding the territorial integrity, in-dependence and sovereignty of Iraq and Syria, Shahidul said.

A US-led coalition of about 50 coun-tries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bah-rain and UAE are � ghting against the IS.

A joint statement issued after Hasi-na’s visit to the UAE read: “In regard to peace and security, the two sides dis-cussed the situations in the Middle East and underscored the need for the main-tenance of peace and stability for the sustainable development of the region.”

The foreign secretary said the UAE, a major regional participant in the US-led coalition against the IS, wants Bangla-desh on its side as it � ghts against the malice in Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has turned down a US request to join the military coalition it was leading against the IS, saying that it would only join a UN-led humanitarian intervention. l

DU ‘Ka’ unit viva from November 28-30n DU Correspondent

The viva voce for Dhaka University “Ka” unit admission test for 2014-15 session will take place from November 28-30 at the dean o� ce of Biological Science faculty.

The test will be held in two sessions – 9am to 12noon and 2pm to 4pm.

Candidates are asked to bring their original grade sheets of SSC and HSC, admit card of the admission test, circular for Honours � rst year admission test downloaded from the admission website, and copy of candidate’s subject choice list on the day of the test. l

In observance of the 39th Jail Killing Day, Awami League central leaders and families of the slain placed wreaths at the busts of the four national leaders at Dhaka Central Jail yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Bangladesh is not considering military intervention, but will take part in any UN-led humanitarian assistance programme’

Fire-� ghters suspected that an electric short circuit during the shifting of Amar Desh o� ce equipment might have started the � ame

Portraying utter impatience, a few men try to get on the rooftop of a running bus at capital’s Shahbagh intersection after attending the public rally organised by the Awami League at the Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday RAJIB DHAR

WEATHER

PRAYER TIMES Fajr 4:49am Sunrise 6:05am Zohr 11:42am Asr 3:41pm Magrib 5:18pm Esha 6:35 pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:18PM SUN RISES 6:07AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW34.2ºC 18.5ºC

Situakunda Chuadanga

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 31 22Chittagong 30 24Rajshahi 30 19Rangpur 30 19Khulna 31 20Barisal 31 20Sylhet 32 20Cox’s Bazar 31 24

DRY WEATHER LIKELY

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Repair of Farmgate footbridge yet to startDelay in the renovation work forces pedestrians to cross the street amid riskn Abu Hayat Mahmud

The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has yet to start the renovation of a vulnerable footbridge in Farmgate area which has been closed o� for pub-lic use since July, causing pedestrians to brave huge risk to cross one of the busiest roads in the capital.

The DNCC authorities shut down the reinforced concrete footbridge when a team of experts from Bangladesh Uni-versity of Engineering and Technology (Buet) assessed and declared it unsta-ble, also suggesting that the authorities carry out a feasibility study for its reno-vation, o� cials at the DNCC said.

Several commuters claimed that the delay in the renovation work was “forcing” pedestrians to cross the street in the city’s busiest intersection – the footbridge connects the western point of Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue near Ananda Cinema Hall in Farmgate to its eastern point near Tejgaon Govern-ment Girls High School – though there are two other footbridges in the area.

Suman Saha, a resident of East Ra-jabazar, said: “Though there are two other footbridges nearby, a huge num-ber of people come to the intersection for buses when o� ces close in the evening. This rush is too big for those footbridges to accommodate.

“Due to the rush, I go to the inter-section by walking across the busy road with speeding vehicles, fearing for my life,” he said.

The authorities concerned had tak-en no initiative to repair and open the footbridge for public use since they shut it down more than three months ago, he claimed.

Shahara Islam, resident of Nakhal-para, said: “We heard the city corpo-ration would repair the footbridge, we have yet to see anything happen. Every

day we have brave crossing the road through heavy, speeding tra� c.”

She also claimed that women, chil-dren and elderly people faced most dif-� culties in crossing the road.

When contacted, Syed Kudratullah,

additional chief engineer at the DNCC, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The metro rail project covers Farmgate, so before taking any � nal decision for the foot-bridge, we have to consider that pro-ject.”

He also said the DNCC authorities had contacted the Buet experts to con-duct a feasibility study on the foot-bridge. “The � nal decision will taken after we receive the Buet experts’ rec-ommendations,” he said.

However, an expert from Buet shot down Kudratullah’s excuse of the metro rail project impeding the foot-bridge’s repair work.

“It is a baseless excuse,” he told the Dhaka Tribune, seeking anonymity. l

Government fertiliser sold on black market in Bargunan Our Correspondent, Barguna

About 200 tonnes of fertilizer allotted as subsidy for the farmers in Brguna district were allegedly sold on the black market by unscrupulous dealers.

Sources said AKM Yusuf Ali of Nuruizannat Enterprise in Amtoli un-ion, Fazlul Haque Akond of Bhai Bhai Traders in Koraibaria union, Siddikur Rahman of Satata Traders in Kukua union, Zasim Duari of Duari Traders in Attharogachia union, Habibur Rah-

man of Habibur Rahman Traders in Chaora union, Nurul Hque of Haque Traders in Kalomegha union, Masuma Akter of Rafa Moni Enterprise in Nis-hanbaria union, Nannu Khan of Ruma Enterprise in Pochakorali union, Asif of Asif Traders in Taltoli union, Zesmin Akter of Nurnabi Traders in Chotobigi union, Nasir Sarder of Sarder Traders in Pathorghata and Yusuf of Haolader Enterprse in Kakchira union sold the fertilizer on black market instead of providing it among the farmers

An o� cial of Agriculture Extension O� ce said 200 tonnes of non-urea fer-tilizer had been allotted for the farmers in the area but the dealers had sold it on the black market.

A trader of Noapara on condition of anonymity said that they also bought fertilizers from the dealers in previous years.

When asked, the owners of Mess-ers Bhai Bhai Satata Traders in Amtoli, Duari Traders in Attharogachia union, Habibur Rahman Traders in Chaora un-

ion could not show any sacks or docu-ments of the fertilizers as they had sold it on the market.

An o� cial of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation on condition of anonymity said some corrupted deal-ers sold the fertilizer on black market depriving the farmers.

When asked, Masuma Akter, dealer of Rafa Moni Enterprise said: “I do not know about the fertilizer.”

“My husband Dulal Farazi, the UP chairman of Nishanbaria can say about

the incident,” he said.Dulal also said that he did not know

about the incident.“The union parishad secretary Zakir

Hossain can talk about the fertilizer,” he said.

When Zakir was tried to reach with cell phone, he did not answer.

Agriculture Extension O� ce Deputy Director Askok Kumer said : “I do not know about the incident as I had been absent in the o� ce for few days due to sickness.” l

Declared unstable, the Farmgate footbridge lies closed for more than three months now in the capital’s busiest intersection NASHIRUL ISLAM

‘Stop impunity for crimesagainst journalists’n Tribune Desk

The United States yesterday said ending impunity for crimes against journalists is both a moral imperative and a practi-cal necessity in creating free, open, and stable societies around the world.

“Impunity for those who threaten, beat, and murder journalists isn’t only unjust. It sets a dangerous precedent and creates a culture of impunity,” said John Kerry, secretary of State of the United States, in a statement marking International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

“Journalists shouldn’t be muzzled from asking tough questions. They should be empowered to seek the truth

without fear of reprisal,” he said.Kerry observed that abuses are hap-

pening in far too many places and they have seen them in horribly brutal and painful ways this year in Syria. “We see them in the ISIL-controlled areas of Iraq and throughout Syria, where the regime and ISIL continue to censor the media through vicious and heinous attacks, including disappearing and kidnapping journalists to stop the vital � ow of in-formation to the outside world.”

He said the United States is commit-ted to working with the Iraqi Govern-ment to bring the perpetrators to jus-tice. “We call on all parties to the Syrian con� ict to protect journalists in Syria.”

The US Secretary of State demanded

an end to impunity for those who use violence to silence their critics. “We demand answers on behalf of all the journalists and their families who still have not seen ustice served. And above all, we stand in awe of the courage of those who risk their lives to tell the sto-ries the world needs to hear.”

He also mentioned that the danger that journalists face in pursuing and publishing the truth was really driven home for him earlier this year when he visited Kyiv. “As we all know, knowl-edge is power - and truth the great anti-dote to impunity. That’s why the United States co-sponsored the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists,” Kerry added. l

Unesco delegation meets DU VCn Tribune Desk

A delegation of United Nations Organi-zation for Education, Science and Cul-ture (Unesco) led by its consultant Prof Paulin Djite called on Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Are� n Siddique at the latter’s o� ce yesterday.

Among others, coordinator, Asia Pa-ci� c Program of Education for All (AP-PEAL) unit Unesco, Bangkok Min Bista and director general of International Mother Language Institute Prof Dr Jin-nat Imtiaz Ali were present on the occa-sion, reports UNB.

During the meeting, they discussed various bi-lateral issues especially about language, education, research, culture and other important aspects of collaborations among Unesco, In-ternational Mother Language Institute (IMLI) and Dhaka University (DU).

Prof Are� n Siddique stressed under-taking project by the (IMLI) to identify and safeguard the disappearing lan-guages of the world.

He said the Language Institute should become a global language cen-tre for all mother languages of the world. l

Husband set � re on wife’s body for dowryn Our Correspondent, Gazipur

A housewife has been struggling for life at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) since Sunday after being burnt by “a � re set by her husband” at Bir Uzoli village under Kapasia upazila in Gazipur.

The victim is Runa Aktar, 20, daugh-ter of Dulal Miah of Panchua village of the upazila. She has a one year old son.

Victim’s family members said Runa got married with Hazrat Ali, 26, son of Shahjahan of Bir Uzoli village of the upazila about two years ago.

After their marriage, Hazrat Ali was creating pressure on her for dowry and they used to lock into altercation over

the issue, they alleged.On Sunday morning, Runa’s hus-

band set � re on her by pouring Kerosin following an altercation over bringing Tk10,000 from her father as dowry, they said.

Hearing her scream, locals came to the spot and sent her to Kapasia Upazi-la Health Complex in a critical condi-tion.

The on-duty doctors referred her to DMCH as most of her body was burnt and she was in a critical condition, they added.

O� cer-in-Charge of Kapasia police station Ahsan Ullah said no one � led any complaint in connection with the incident. l

Entrance fee for visitors introduced at SBMCHn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital authority has introduced a visitor-fee system aimed at checking the rush of visitors.

The SBMCH sources said the author-ity recently in a meeting had taken the decision that entrance fee would be imposed on visitors from November 1, and the fee for each visitor has been � xed at Tk10.

At least 12 sta� s of the hospital were deployed at the three entrance gates of hospital to collect the visitor-fee.

On average, about 1,100-1,300 pa-tients remain under treatment at 35 wards of the hospital.

The hospital would be able to earn Tk10,000 daily and Tk3 lakh in a month from the newly-introduced system.

But many employees of the hospital are not happy with the system. They said the system would create opportu-nities of corruption for many dishonest sta� .

Most of the visitors to the pub-lic hospital come from lower income group of rural areas. It is di� cult for them to be already paying for medical fees; the entrance fee will just combine the proble, said Anowar Zahid, a health right activist.

Dr Mizanur Rahman, former resi-dent medical o� cer of Barisal Gener-al Hospital, a unit under SBMCH and member-secretary of Bibhagio Swartha Sangrakkhan Committee, said the SB-MCH also tried to introduce this system at General Hospital, but they failed.

Dr Kamrul Hasan Selim, director of the SBMCH, acknowledged that collec-tion of visitor-fee had been introduced from November 1 and authority would introduce free attendant-card to con-trol visitors and take care of the patient.

He also claimed that proper use of visitor-fee would enhance develop-ment of medicare services at hospital, but failed to give details about the col-lected amount, heads of expenditure and exact balance of the deposits. l Workers of Hamim Sports Wear stage protest in front of the National Press Club yesterday demanding clearance of their dues BSS

Indigenous man rescued 10 days after abduction n Our Correspondent, Jamalpur

Police rescued an indigenous man from Melandah upazila of Jamalpur yester-day, 10 days after his abduction.

The victim is Robi Dalboter, a member of Garo ethnic community of Sankhanpara Tilpara village in Bakshi-ganj bordering area.

The law enforcers also arrested three people in connection with their involvement in the abduction, said Su-perintendent of Police (SP) in Jamalpur at a press brie� ng yesterday.

The arrested are Alimul Raji Choud-hury Roni, Langar Kobiraj alias Dulal Kobiraj, and his driver Abdus Salam.

Robi Dalboter remained untraced since October 25 when Dulal Kobiraj took the Garo man in a micro bus say-ing that they would go searching for some medicinal herbs in the hilly areas, the SP said.

Two days later, Dulal made phone calls demanding Tk3 lakhs as ransom from the victim’s wife Sherula Khaksy, he said quoting Sherula.

Introducing him as one Anik Kabi-raj, Dulal threatened Sherula that her husband would be killed in case of her failure to pay the ransom, he added.

Later, the abductor stopped phone communication as the victim’s wife could not meet the demand.

Yesterday, Sherula informed the SP about her missing husband and sought help to rescue him. l

Two days later, Dulal made phone calls demanding Tk3 lakhs as ransom from the victim’s wife

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

WORKING FOR FAULTY VEHICLES

Health and life of children at riskn Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

Around 400 children have put their health and life at risk while working as helpers and drivers of locally-assem-bled faulty and unauthorised vehicles in Mymensingh.

More than 100 of them are found to have been su� ering from breathing, hearing and skin diseases.

Sources said locally-assembled Nasi-man, Kariman and Bhatbhati vehicles are two-stroke diesel engines.

They contribute to air pollution with excessive levels of smoke emission and to sound pollution with making exces-sive amount of noise on public roads.

Most of the locally-assembled vehi-cles either do not have any hydraulic

brake or gear or any backside signal light. Many child workers are said to have been maimed in road accidents involving such vehicles.

Though children aged between eight to 16 work as helpers and drivers of these vulnerable vehicles, they get a shockingly low amount of wages every day. They get as helpers Tk50 to 60 and as drivers Tk100 to 150 per day.

Nasiman helper Ra� qul hails from Tangab village in Gafargaon upazila. An under-12-year-old child, he su� ers from breathing problems. He could not continue at school after passing Class-1. He had to start work as a helper of a Nasiman vehicle.

Like him, Bulbul, 11, Nayon, 10, Kan-chon, 9, Monir, 9, Shahid, 12 and Liton, 15, work as helpers or drivers of Nasi-man, Kariman and Bhatbhati. They all are driven by poverty to come to this deadly profession.

Deputy Commissioner Mustakim Billah Faruki was asked about this all, he said each upazila nirbahi o� cer had long been asked to run their mobile courts along with police in preventing hazardous child labour in the district.

They regularly operate their mobile court drives. Big initiatives would be taken on large scale in future to root out this menace, he said. l

Rundown Kheya Ghat Road puts commuters in miseriesn Our Correspondent, Bhola

The Kheya Ghat road, which is the gate-way of Bhola, is in a sorry state, causing much su� erings to several thousand people of the island district.

Big cracks and potholes has devel-oped on the four kilometre road mak-ing it almost unsuitable for the plying

of vehicles as has not been repaired for long time.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, many commuters termed the road a death trap as accidents and malfunctioning of vehicles are regular phenomena on the road.

Commuters have to pay unusual ex-tra fare as drivers of light and small ve-

hicles, including rickshaw, do not want to ply their vehicles on the road due its poor condition, they said.

“In addition to immense su� erings, we have to pay double fare,” said Saleh Ahmed, a regular commuter on the road.

Ibrahim Hossain, a driver of Nasi-man, an improvised three-wheeled hu-man hauler, said they have to ply their

vehicles with passengers or goods by taking risk their lives.

Md Akbar, an executive engineer of Local Government Engineering De-partent in Bhola, said the road has been damaged due to plying of heavy vehi-cles on it. The road was constructed mainly for plying light and small vehi-cles, he said. l

Three get life term for murders in Netrakonan Our Correspondent, Netrakona

Two local courts here yesterday sen-tenced life term of imprisonment to three people in separate cases � led for killing about nine years ago.

Netrakona Additional District and Session Judge Md Abdul Hamid alone pronounced the verdicts in his separate courts in the morning.

Besides, the courts also � ned them Tk50,000 each and in default,they will have to su� er � ve years more in jail.

According to the statement of � rst case, a man named Yahia, a resident of Mauati village in Barohatta upazila,

hit his mother with axe at one stage of brawling with her over family matter on the 23th September of 2007, leaving her dead on the spot.

Later, the victim’s husband � led a murder case with the local police sta-tion, in which the court after examin-ing all witness and evidence handed down the judgement to Yahia for mat-ricide.

In another case � led on December 21 in 2006, the court pronounced the verdict to Khairunnahar Doli, wife of Jahangir Alam, of Asiol village in the upazila, and her extramarital lover So-hel Miah for strangulating to death the husband together. l

Main accused of robbery case arrested n Our Correspondent, Khagrachari

Zibon Chakma, the main accused in a robbery case in the district was arrest-ed in Kalapani area yesterday.

SI Idris of Guimara police station said on a tip-o� , a team of police arrest-ed Zibon in the morning.

He along with his associates com-mitted a robbery on the highway in the area on recently, the SI said.

He was the main accused of the in-cident and he had been absconding, he added. l

Housewife strangled for dowry in Sirajganjn Our Correspondent,

Sirajganj

A housewife was strangu-lated to death allegedly by her husband at Dhulirchar in Belkuchi upazila in the early hours of yesterday.

Police said Mukta Khatun, 19, daughter of late Motiar Rahman of Khukni village married Faruq Hossain in August this year.

Since the beginning of their marriage, Faruq and his family members used to torture her over dowry.

Yesterday Faruq was locked in altercation with Mukta and strangled her.

A case was � led in this connection. l

More and more farmers going organic inJessore regionn Our Correspondent, Jessore

Farmers are increasingly turning to vermicompost, which is made by pro-viding organic waste as a food source to earthworms and then collecting their excrement, relying less on chemical fertilisers in the greater Jessore region.

They are using this organic manure after practically learning that it increases land fertility resulting in a better yield.

Farmers from Jessore Sadar upazi-la’s Sheikhhati, Ghurulia, Madhugram, Khajura, Basundia, Rupdia, Jhenidah’s Barobazar, Chuadanga’s Alamdanga and various areas in Kushtia collect and use this manure on their farmland.

Farmer Abdur Razzak who lives at Jessore Sadar upazila’s Ghrulia village, said he uses vermicompost on his 40 percent of IRRI paddy land and on 13 percent of his vegetable land, resulting in a bumper output. According to him, the vermicompost guarantees poi-son-free food in the world.

Farmer Jalaluddin who lives at Mad-hu village said he used vermicompost on his cabbage and cauli� ower land and so has got a better yield this year compared to the previous years when he used to use chemical fertilisers and other inputs.

Besides, the colour, size and taste of the vegetables grown with organic ma-nure are better, which is why he could sell his cabbages and cauli� owers per piece at Tk2 more than the average marker prices, he said.

Farmer Jalal said he would like to apply this organic manure in his vege-table land from next year on.

Farmer Abu Hossain, who lives at Jes-sore Sadar upazila’s Sheikhhati, said he used vermicompost on his three bighas of land but found only � ve to six kgs of paddy with no rice this inside it while it was 40kgs of such paddy last year.

Besides, paddy output was better and vermicompost is less costly, he said, adding that he would use the or-ganic manure this year too.

These farmers collect this organic manure from Aminul Islam Litu who has been doing organic manure busi-ness since he set up a vermicompst plant beside the district’s downtown HMM Road on the bank of the Bhairab river in 2012.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Litu said a farmer needs to spend Tk4500-500 for chemical fertilisers for growing crops on 33 decimals of land, but this cost can be cut down to Tk2600 only by applying the organic manure on such an area of land twice in a season.

In an upsetting tone, he said: “I ap-plied to the government for permission to go for commercially producing ver-micompost and doing its business but have not yet got any response.”

Vermicomposter Helaluddin of Mo-heshwarchada village in Jhenidah’s Kaliganj upazila is the pioneer of this organic manure in the region. Litu is one of around 4000 people who have learnt about the method of making ver-micompost from him in the region.

Regional vermicompost pioneer Helal told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are being forced to eat poisonous food by growing our food crops with chemical fertilisers and other inputs

“The government should promote the vermicompost at every nook and corner so that we can take poison-free food easily.”

Regional Agriculture Research Cen-tre o� cial Monirul Islam said: This ma-nure has become popular in the region for a few years. Farmers are increas-ingly using it every year.” “Researchers have not yet found any bad side in the vermicompost and so they all are posi-tive about its use,” he said. l

30 injured in AL factional clashn Our Correspondent, Magura

At least 30 people were injured in a clash between two groups of Awami League in Balidia village under Mohammadpur upazila of the district yesterday.

Mohammadpur police station Of-� cer-in-Charge Motiar Rahman said the supporters of local AL leader Mo� jur Rahman and Eunush Shikder locked in a clash in the morning over supremacy in the area, leaving 30 persons includ-ing � ve police men critically injured.

Of the injured, Taham Shikder, 26, Mosharraf Hossain, 40, Rezaul, 45, Mujib, 20, Anwar, 30, Abu Bakkar, 60 , Ahmed, 22, Alamgir, 40, Shujan ,20, and Akash, 25, were admitted to Mo-hammadpur Upazila Health Complex. l

Child workers are engaged in spreading bricks at a brick � eld at Godagari in Rajshahi. Thousands of children are working at di� erent brick � elds in the district AZAHAR UDDIN

They regularly operate their mobile court drives. Big initiatives would be taken on large scale in future to root out this menace

Traditional Jagadhatri Puja ends in Kalaskathi n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The three-day celebration of Jagadha-tri Puja in the Kalaskathi of Bakerganj upazila ended yesterday, with the Hin-dus celebrating the puja with fervour.

A village fair was also organised which brought a festive mood at Kala-shkathi viilage.

The Puja and fair observed in Kala-skathi since more than last 200 years and devoted to Mother-Jagadhatri who is known as another form of Shakti, the supreme mother goddess of the Hin-dus, informed Tarun Ganguly, presi-dent Kalaskathi Kalibari Puja Mandop.

He said district administration as well as law enforcers had helped them a lot to arrange the puja.

This year Jagadhatri Puja was ob-served at nine puja-mandops in Kala-skathi without any patronisation from government funds, said Tarun Kr-makar, secretary of Mandir committee.

The ruling to perform the special puja of the goddess on the ninth lunar day of the light fortnight in the month of Kartik has been referred in ‘Krit-yatattarnab’ by Srinath Acharyachura-moni of the 15th-16th century. l

7Long Form Tuesday, November 4, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal

Over the last year, we have heard much about the possibility of a long and just peace between Israel and Palestine. By contrast,

far from peace-building, the conversa-tion surrounding the harrowing scenes we witness coming out of Gaza and the West Bank – or recently out of Jerusa-lem – continues to focus on attributing blame to one side or the other.

The international complacency with the continued non-resolution regarding a Palestinian state has gen-erated widespread nihilism permeat-ing “zones of order and disorder.” It is a trigger for both Zionist extremists, who, unsatis� ed with Palestine alone, yearn for the penetration of the whole Middle East, and for Islamist extrem-ists, who, like ISIS, are pursuing their own expansionist agendas.

When the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was incorporated into the preamble of the Palestine Mandate, created with the authority of the League of Nations, the international community e� ec-tively violated the cardinal principle of self-determination, which was at the very core of the League’s Covenant and subsequent Charter. The repercus-sions of this violation have been felt ever since, above all in the cycles of violence in Israel and Palestine, which continue to destabilise the entire region.

Arabs and Israelis have arrived at a crossroads: either we move further away from one another, pursuing self-interests that will inevitably bring about destructive regional Balkaniza-tion, or we move closer together and, taking our common humanity as the starting point, realise a sustainable peace process founded on President

Woodrow Wilson’s guiding principle of self-determination.

Success will be predicated on dealing � rst with the obduracy of extremists, whether the hardline Israelis who insist on a God-given right to the land roughly encompassing the whole of the southern Levant, or those who conversely are intent on “drive(ing) the Jews who live in their midst into the sea” and who between them currently block any possibility of successful negotiations in the near future.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, a good starting point might be to re-ex-amine the strengths and weaknesses of previous initiatives (many of which were prematurely cast aside).

While Jordan does not negotiate on behalf of Palestinians, it is intimately involved because the peace process has profound political, security, eco-nomic and demographic rami� cations for the country. Hosting the largest number of Palestinian refugees, Jor-dan’s “carrying capacity” is becoming increasingly limited, especially in the light of recent mass waves of refugees from Iraq and Syria. Israel’s refusal to comply with the humanitarian responsibilities outlined in Resolution 237 serves as a reminder that Jordan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity should not be secondary to that of Israel.

Throughout Jordan’s o� cial in-volvement in the peace negotiations, Israelis, regardless of party a� liation or ideological position, maintained that Jordan had no claim to the West Bank. The annexation of the West Bank by Jordan in 1950, they argued, was recognised only by Britain and Pakistan. And, yet, as I used to say to Israel’s negotiator, “That’s two more than recognised yours.” Neverthe-less, the legal status of the territory remained unresolved.

A number of options by both sides that o� ered pragmatic compromises were all eventually discarded in favour of the Camp David formula of “gradual autonomy” over a � ve year transition period.

Moderates on all sides have been overpowered by those with extreme religious convictions and have been left to address the absorptive capacity of the land which we all inhabit. These same extremists in their beliefs have ignored the vulnerability and fragility of this region, whilst working towards our Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) instead of being committed to our Mutually Assured Survival (MAS).

The refugee problem, along with

the status of Jerusalem as described in the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty, is a trans-boundary issue. Economic and social developments demand an inte-grated and agreed approach between the stakeholders. The exploitation of natural resources, and the growing de-mand for energy are all areas of critical imbalance which will be the root cause of future con� ict.

Minimum consensus, which, in itself, is dangerous as it inevitably falls short of sustainable peace, dic-tates that there can be no territorial compromise except in return for a conventional peace treaty. This posits the following three questions:

First, if two conventional peace treaties – between Egypt and Israel and between Jordan and Israel – have been inadequate to resolve the crises in the West Bank and Gaza, how and when can we expect Israel to initiate meaningful talks with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours?

Second, if Israel insists that Jeru-salem cannot be re-divided and must remain the capital of Israel, what common ground is there between Palestinians and Israelis, or between Jews, Christians and Muslims of Arab cultures? Nationalist politics on all sides have poisoned the atmosphere between these peoples who lived hap-pily together in the Fertile Crescent for centuries.

In his testimony before the An-glo-American Committee of Enquiry on Palestine in 1946, Chaim Weizman stated “I wouldn’t like to do any in-justice: the Muslim world has treated the Jews with considerable tolerance. The Ottoman Empire received the Jews with open arms when they were driven out of Spain, and the Jews should never forget that. On the other hand it’s no use blinking the fact that these great humanitarian traditions are now under the pressure of modern nationalisms.”

The spiritual signi� cance of Jeru-salem for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam places it above regional geopol-itics. One way or another, Jerusalem must be shared once again among all the Abrahamic faiths for there to be a peaceful region.

Third, how can comprehensive peace ever be achieved when no international conference (such as the Congress of Berlin or Vienna) that involves all the super powers, or even key regional players, is ever seriously considered? Given that the exclusion-ist policies of the Security Council are predicated on Israeli exceptionalism and committed to shielding Israel’s

expansionist and discriminatory practices, from illegal settlements to systematic abuses of civil rights, com-prehensive peace seems more obscure and elusive than ever. This should be a major cause for concern.

We need a new regional archi-tecture, not unlike that of Europe following the Helsinki Accords: a constructive, inclusive conversation, not in competition with the West, but, recognising the gravity of the situa-tion, in a spirit of mutual respect and partnership. Within this architecture any progress, in the present condi-tions, must be sought slowly, gradu-ally, incrementally and organically, and with an emphasis on the concrete issues of the con� ict.

Even while seemingly ceaseless time, energy and news coverage is dedicated to the problem, any sugges-tion today that we consider a process with a revised quartet that includes Russia, is greeted with apprehension and a marked lack of statesmanship. Yet such a process would strengthen those in Israel who accept a Jewish state within a more compact territory vis-à-vis those who, fearful of the Arabs, demand an ever larger Israel.

It is perhaps stating the obvious to say that no number of fences or shields can provide long term security.

Ultimately, the con� ict comes down to control over the region, and its resources. To ensure self-determina-tion for the Arab people and non-ex-ploitation of their resources, the Arabs must be involved in any peace process conversation, so that their concerns and interests are heard. As my friend, the former Turkish President Turgut Ozal, God rest his soul, told me once, “When there is a peace conference, it is far better to be at the table than on the menu.”

It is undeniable that the sense of sepa-rateness cultivated by Israel and those in Washington who reward Israeli belligerence, admittedly aided by the intellectual intimidation practiced by militant Islamist extremists, prevents many in the Arab world from seeing Israel as a potential partner in regional development.

This situation is further exacer-bated by Zionists’ racist argument of carrying the white man’s burden in Palestine, whereby Israel inhab-its the role of the “civilising” white man in the region. But the citizens of the world, many Arabs and Israelis, recognise this for the shameful colo-nial rhetoric that it truly is. A unitary democratic state should be established in Arabia where people, irrespective of race and religion, can work and live in harmony.

Israel must acknowledge its own role as a stakeholder in regional stabil-ity and development by committing to peace along the lines laid down in UN Resolutions 242 and 338. Further-more, Jordan, along with its neigh-bours, must be included in talks and negotiations pertaining to the peace of our region. Only then, can we move forward inclusively to address the possibility of the long and just peace we all so desperately seek. l

Revisiting the ‘peace process’: Jordan-Israeli relations

The sense of separateness cultivated by Israel prevents many in the Arab world from seeing Israel as a potential partner in regional development AFP

Nationalist politics on all sides have poisoned the atmosphere between these peoples who lived happily together in the Fertile Crescent for centuries

The international community e� ectively violated the cardinal principle of self-determination, which was at the very core of the League of Nations’ Covenant and subsequent Charter

Tuesday, November 4, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

Abbas’ condolence outrages Israeln AFP, Jerusalem

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has outraged Israeli leaders by calling the attempted assassin of a Jewish ultra-rightwing rabbi a “martyr” and the soldiers who killed him “terrorist gangs.”

Abbas on Sunday sent a letter of condolence to the family of 32-year-old Muataz Hijazi, killed by Israeli po-lice who said he had tried to murder Yehuda Glick.

The US-born Glick, who was seri-ously wounded in the shooting attack, is an ultranationalist whose demand that Jews be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa compound in east Jerusalem outrages Muslims.

The compound – which Jews call the Temple Mount – is the third holiest site in Islam and regarded as the ho-liest in Judaism as the location of the � rst and second temples.

In his letter, which AFP has seen, Abbas expressed his “anger and con-demnation after news of the criminal, despicable assassination by the Israe-li occupation army’s terrorist gangs of Muataz Ibrahim Khalil Hijazi, who died a martyr defending the rights of our people and the holy places.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-tanyahu, in a statement released late on Sunday, condemned the Palestinian leader’s remarks.

“While we are trying to calm the

situation, Abu Mazen (Abbas) sends his condolences on the death of a man who tried to commit a despicable act,” he said.

The Israelis and Palestinians accuse each other of fanning the � ames over east Jerusalem, the occupied Arab sec-tor of the Holy City conquered by the Jewish state in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed.

Glick was leaving a debate on the status of the � ashpoint compound late last Wednesday when he was shot by a man Israeli police said was Hijazi.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the letter of condolences to Hi-jazi’s family showed that Abbas was “a partner of terrorism, terrorists and murderers.”

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, a cab-inet moderate who was Israel’s chief negotiator in abortive US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians, told public radio that Abbas was “playing with � re.”

“You can’t on the one hand go round saying you condemn violence and on the other hand send letters en-couraging it,” she said. l

Egypt journalists defy editors on freedomsn AP, Cairo

Several hundred Egyptian journalists have rejected a recent policy declara-tion by newspaper editors pledging near-blind support to the state and banning criticism of the police, army and judiciary in their publications, ar-guing that the move was designed to create a one-voiced media.

In a statement posted Sunday on social media networks, the journalists said � ghting terrorism was both a duty and an honor but has nothing to do with the “voluntary surrender” of the freedom of expression as outlined in the editors’ Oct. 26 declaration.

“Standing up to terrorism with a shackled media and sealed lips means o� ering the nation to extremism as an easy prey and turning public opin-ion into a blind creature unaware of the direction from which it is be-ing hit or how to deal with it,” said the statement.

Khaled el-Balshi, a board member of the Journalists’ Union who initiated the move, said the statement came out of a meeting Saturday in which jour-nalists discussed the future of the lo-cal media. El-Balshi, who edits a news website, said at least 300 journalists

have so far signed the statement on-line. The number rose to 350 by Sun-day evening.

“It is an attempt to make newspa-pers speak with one voice,” he told The Associated Press. “The move by the editors of the newspapers was like establishing a political party in sup-port of the regime. They want to end diversity.”

Last week’s statement by editors pledging support to the government appeared like a throwback to the days of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak or the charismatic but authoritarian Gamal Abdel-Nasser who ruled in the 1950s and 1960s. But it also appeared to be in synch with the mood of a na-tion fatigued by turmoil, bloodshed and an economic meltdown in the three years since Mubarak’s ouster.

The dispute between the journalists and their editors is the latest episode in Egypt’s struggle between authorities and their loyalist media who give secu-rity precedence over nearly all else and a small but vocal pro-democracy camp made up mostly of secular and leftist youth groups.

The dispute is rooted in the recent erosion of many of the freedoms Egyp-tians won when they rose up against

Mubarak in a stunning, 18-day upris-ing. At the top of that list is the free-dom to protest; a law adopted in No-vember 2013 criminalizes any street demonstration without prior police permission.

This rollback of freedoms has run in parallel with crackdowns against secu-lar pro-democracy activists as well as Islamists. In the backdrop is a coun-try of nearly 90 million people that

appears to be steadily moving to the right, with jingoism and xenophobia dominating the media as the army and police battle Islamic militants waging a campaign of violence against them in the Sinai Peninsula.

Dozens of activists, some as young as 20, have been tried, convicted and sentenced to jail for organizing or taking part in peaceful demonstra-

tions since the law on street protests was enforced.

A much harsher and wider crack-down targets members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the now-banned Islamist group that has been labelled a terrorist organization by the state. Authorities have killed hundreds of Islamists and jailed thousands since the military ouster in July 2013 of Islamist Presi-dent Mohammed Morsi.

Early on Sunday, police released from custody a Cairo University professor, Heba Raouf Ezzat, and four others, after holding them for questioning for several hours in an apparent misun-derstanding. The group had been par-ticipating in an event celebrating vol-unteerism held at the city’s medieval Saladin citadel and wearing T-shirts that bore impressions of children’s

handprints in di� erent colors. One of the handprints was yellow, prompt-ing police to mistake it for the symbol used by Morsi supporters after their sit-in protest outside Cairo’s land-mark Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque was stormed by security forces last year, killing hundreds.

The Brotherhood’s yellow “Rabaah sign,” shows four � ngers, while the handprint impressions on the T-shirts had � ve. Ever since last fall, any public display of the four-� ngers symbol has been grounds for arrest.

Egypt’s media, meanwhile, is tar-geting civil society groups and activ-ists who played a key role in the 2011 uprising, accusing them of being for-eign agents on the payroll of sinister foreign organizations.

The declaration by the newspa-per editors came in response to a call by Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, for Egyptians to rally behind him in the face of terrorism following the killing last month by suspect-ed Islamic militants of 30 soldiers, the deadliest attack on the army in decades.

El-Sissi, who took o� ce in June after a landslide election victory the previous month, says the law mir-

rors similar regulations in the West and is meant to restore law and order. El-Sissi led the ouster of Morsi, Egypt’s � rst freely elected leader, amid street demonstrations by millions demand-ing his removal.

The Oct. 26 declaration said editors would take measures to halt what it called the “in� ltration by elements supporting terrorism” in their publi-cations. Signi� cantly, the editors also stated their “rejection” of what they called attempts to cast doubt on state institutions, basic policy choices and criticism of the army, police or judicia-ry that “may re� ect negatively on their performance.”

Other media have taken similar stands in public, with one private TV channel saying it intended to bar cer-tain guests from its political programs on charges of being “rumor mongers” — parlance for government critics. Sev-eral talk show hosts have meanwhile either been brie� y taken o� the air in the middle of their programs or pre-vented altogether from hosting their shows.

“You can never counter terrorism by suspending freedoms,” warned Re-hab el-Shazli, a freelance journalist who signed the statement. l

IS claims second Syrian gas � eldn Reuters, Beirut

Islamic State � ghters in Syria said on Monday they had taken control of a gas � eld in the central province of Homs, the second gas � eld seized in a week after battles with government forces.

The hardline Sunni Islamist group posted 18 photos on social media showing the Islamic State � ag raised in the Jahar gas � eld as well as seized vehicles and weaponry, according to the SITE jihadist website monitoring service.

Reuters could not independently

con� rm the events due to security re-strictions.

Islamic State � ghters, who now hold up to a third of Syria as well as swathes of Iraq and have declared a ‘Caliphate’ on the territories they control, took the larger Sha’ar gas � eld on Oct. 30.

“So after the (Sha’ar) company and the (positions) surrounding it became part of the land of the Caliphate, the soldiers advanced, conquering new areas, and all praise is due to Allah,” Is-lamic State said in the message.

“Yesterday they tightened control over Jahar village and the Mahr gas

pumping company, and nearly nine (positions) supported by heavy weap-onry such as tanks, armoured vehicles, and heavy machine guns of various calibres,” it added.

The report said Islamic State had seized two tanks, seven four-wheel drive cars and several heavy machine guns.

A US-led coalition has conducted air strikes against Islamic State since September. The United States says it is not coordinating with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to combat the Islamist group. l

Key function of crashed spacecraft deployed earlyn Reuters, Mojave Calif

An investigation into the deadly crash of a Virgin Galactic spaceship has found that a function to help the craft descend into the atmosphere was de-ployed early, according to federal safe-ty o� cials, adding pilot error could not be ruled out.

SpaceShipTwo’s rotating tail boom, a key safety feature for re-entering the atmosphere, rotated early, Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the NTSB, said late on Sunday, though he said it was too early to say whether this had caused the crash.

Virgin Galactic is the � edgling space tourism company of billionaire entre-preneur Richard Branson.

NTSB’s Hart told a news conference that investigators had determined the “feathering” system, which helps it de-scend into the atmosphere from space, should have been deployed when the vehicle was traveling about 1.4 times the speed of sound.

Instead, the feather began rotating when the rocket-powered vehicle was traveling at Mach 1, he said, using a technical term for the speed of sound at a given altitude.

Hart said the feathering system, which folds the vehicle in half to create more atmospheric drag, was unlocked early by the co-pilot, according to vid-eo from the spaceship’s cockpit. About two seconds later, the spaceplane’s tail section began to fold. l

Kiev claims ‘intensive’ movements of troops crossing from Russian AFP, Kiev

The Ukrainian military on Sunday reported “intensive” movement of troops and equipment from Russia into the separatist controlled parts of eastern Ukraine.

“There is intensive deployment of military equipment and person-nel of the enemy from the territory of the Russian Federation onto territory temporarily controlled by insurgents,” Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a brie� ng in Kiev.

In Donetsk, the main rebel-held city in Ukraine’s industrial south-east, AFP reporters saw about 20 trucks, some carrying anti-aircraft guns, heading to-wards the government-held airport, al-though it was not clear whether these were new forces.

Several Western news outlets re-ported witnessing heavy movement of troops near Donetsk.

Among them, reporters for the news sites buzzfeed.com and mash-able.com tweeted that they had seen a large military column. Buzzfeed’s Max Seddon wrote: “31 unmarked Kamaz-es (military trucks) just drove past to-wards Donetsk. Anti-aircraft weapons, ammunition boxes, radar systems, a bus of gunmen.”

Mashable’s reporter Christopher Miller tweeted having seen more than 40 trucks headed toward Donetsk “with anti-aircraft guns, � ghters.”

Video footage that appeared on You-Tube and was rebroadcast on Ukraine’s

Channel 5 – but which could not be in-dependently authenticated – showed a huge column of green trucks snaking slowly through an unidenti� ed city.

Russia has repeatedly denied ac-cusations from Kiev, Western govern-ments and the Nato alliance that it is � ghting on the side of pro-Russian sep-aratists who have taken over a swathe of Ukraine’s industrial south-east.

However, Moscow openly supports the two self-declared rebel statelets politically and said it would recognise the validity of elections being held there Sunday.

The rebels, who also deny receiving help from Russia, have large amounts of sophisticated, heavy weaponry and no apparent problem in procuring am-munition. They have told journalists that some of their weapons are cap-tured from Ukrainian forces.

A cease� re was declared on Septem-ber 5 in Ukraine but is violated daily in the con� ict zone which runs along the Russian border. Rebel leaders say they intend to expand their territory as far as the Azoz Sea port of Mariupol.

Russian troops already occupy Ukraine’s southern province of Crimea, which has been declared a part of Russia.

The province was taken over almost without a � ght when large numbers of heavily armed men in unmarked uniforms quickly surrounded demor-alised Ukrainian troops in March. The troops, widely dubbed “little green men,” were later con� rmed to have been Russian regular troops. l

Merkel warns UK’s Cameron over EU immigrationn Agencies

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned Britain’s David Cameron that putting limits on immigration from other European Union nations would be a “point of no return” that could sharply increase the risk of Britain leaving the EU, a magazine said.

The weekly Der Spiegel, citing un-named sources in Merkel’s o� ce and the German foreign ministry, reported on Sunday that Merkel was becoming worried for the � rst time that a British exit from the EU - dubbed “Brexit” - was a real possibility.

Under growing pressure from the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) ahead of a May 2015 national election, Cameron’s Conservatives have said they would try to cap immigration from the rest of the EU if re-elected.

Both Merkel and the European Commission in Brussels have said this would violate a fundamental EU prin-ciple that allows citizens of the bloc to live and work in any member state.

Spiegel cited sources in Berlin saying that if Cameron does insist on limiting the number of immigrants from other EU states, “there will be no going back.”

“Should Cameron persist [in this plan], Chancellor Angela Merkel would abandon her e� orts to keep Britain in the EU. With that a point of no re-turn would be reached,” it quoted the sources as saying, adding: “That would be it then.”

There was no suggestion that Ger-many, the EU’s biggest economy and most powerful member, would itself push Britain towards the exit. l

UN urges civilian transfer in Burkina Fason Agencies

The United Nations has threatened to impose economic sanctions on Burki-na Faso, if the army does not hand over the power to civilian rule.

The army stepped into the power vacuum left by President Blaise Com-paore, who was forced to resign in the wake of violent street demonstrations over his 27-year-rule that some have

likened to the Arab Spring.UN envoy for West Africa, Mohamed

Ibn Chambas, said on Sunday he had pressed the demand in a meeting with the country’s top military brass.

If the army refuses, “the conse-quences are pretty clear,” he said. “We want to avoid having to impose sanc-tions on Burkina Faso,” he added.

The US State Department also called on the military to immediately transfer

power to civilian authorities, while the European Union urged the army to respect the people’s right to peaceful protest.

On Sunday, the army vowed to in-stall a unity government after tight-ening its control over the landlocked country. Troops moved into Place de la Nation in the capital Ouagadougou and took over the national television head-quarters in a show of force. l

Daredevil Nik Wallenda performs his blindfolded walk along a tightrope between two skyscrapers suspended 500 feet (152.4 meters) above the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois on Sunday REUTERS

‘Fighting terrorism was both a duty and an honor but has nothing to do with the “voluntary surrender” of the freedom of expression as outlined in the editors’ Oct 26 declaration’

Smoke rises above from Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, as seen from the Turkish border town of Suruc, in Sanliurfa province on Sunday AFP

Abbas was ‘a partner of terrorism, terrorists and murderers’

Tuesday, November 4, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World 9

Like Bangladesh, South Africa plunges into darknessn Agencies

Four major cities in South Africa have su� ered power cuts due to a huge loss in output after a coal storage silo collapsed. Blackouts on Sunday were reported in Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town, and could run through the whole week, the state-owned power supplier Eskom said.

Eskom lost 1,800 megawatts due to a loss of capacity at its Majuba power station in Mpumalanga in northern South Africa. A crack in a silo that held more than 10,000 tonnes of coal on Saturday caused the loss, Eskom said, warning of blackouts between 8am and 10pm.

Tshediso Matona, CEO of Eskom, said the incident would exacerbate an already “tight system.”

“An investigation is already under way into the cause of the incident, but it appears that this is an isolated inci-dent speci� c to the coal infrastructure at Majuba.” South Africans with access to the internet took to social media to express their outrage with the outages.

Eskom has also called on residen-tial users to turn o� geysers and pool pumps until 10pm, and switch o� non-essential lighting.

It feared that if there are any other supply interruptions, there could be widespread blackouts with a heavy cost to the economy, local media said. l

Spy agencies averted more deaths in Pakistan-India border bombn Reuters, Wagah

Indian and Pakistani intelligence agen-cies both picked up plans for an immi-nent strike on their Wagah land border

ahead of a suicide blast that killed 57 people on Sunday, and heightened se-curity possibly averted a more devas-tating attack.

Pakistani police on Monday said

they had recovered a “huge” cache of weapons and explosives near the bor-der, where thousands of Indians and Pakistanis gather at dusk every day to watch a � amboyant ritual parade by

their security forces.Pakistani police spokeswoman Na-

beela Ghazanfar said the latest death toll was 57 after the bomber detonat-ed explosives in a car park 500 me-

ters (yards) from the border gates and parade ground, just as hundreds of spectators were returning from the ceremony.

Pakistani and Indian agents, who are arch-rivals and do not share intel-ligence, gave con� icting accounts of whether the bomber’s true intention was to cause casualties on the Indian side of the border and stir up tensions between the nuclear-armed nations.

“It appears the bomber wanted to target ground zero where Pakistan and India border o� cials stand together to perform the � ag ceremony but he could not enter due to tight security on the last gate,” a Pakistani intelligence o� cial told Reuters.

“Had he managed to reach the place, there would have been the worst scenario at both sides.”

If successful, such an attack would likely have severely tested ties be-tween India and Pakistan, already frayed after weeks of shelling fur-ther along the border killed 17 people in October.

Another source said a second sui-cide vest had been found in a � eld near the explosion site, suggesting there might have been another bomber.

“The target - the border facility that symbolizes trade and interaction be-tween India and Pakistan - is a tempt-ing one for extremist Pakistani groups that want con� ict with India and op-pose any detente or cooperation with New Delhi,” said Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution, a former adviser on South Asia to US presidents.

Every day, thousands of Indians and Pakistanis � ock to watch the elab-

orate show where border security o� -cials kick their feet high and grimace in mock aggression in a peacock-like dis-play of patriotism. It is one of the only chances regular citizens from the two countries get to observe each other.

India said the daily � ag-lowering ceremony would be suspended as a mark of respect for the dead, but a spokesman for Pakistan’s paramilitary Rangers said later they had decided to go ahead with the parade to send a message to the militants.

“The top Rangers leadership has decided to continue with the � ag cere-mony to convey ... to the terrorists that we are not afraid of them,” spokesman Major Mohammad Ijaz said by phone from the border. “I can see a large number of people, including women and children, and they are extremely enthusiastic today.”

Under the new government of Hin-du nationalist Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi, India has stepped up its re-sponse to perceived aggression from neighbors Pakistan and China, with which it has long-standing border disputes.

Modi, who is reviled by some Isla-mist groups, condemned Sunday’s at-tack as a “dastardly act.”

“My condolences to the families of the deceased. Prayers with the in-jured,” he said on Twitter.

India regularly alleges the involve-ment of Pakistani security agencies in militant attacks on its soil, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed when Pakistani mil-itants went on a three-day rampage in India’s � nancial capital. l

Obama to reboot administration to save presidency? n Reuters, Washington

A reshu� ing of President Barack Obama’s sta� looks all but certain after Tuesday’s congressional elections, which are likely to bring humbling losses to his Democratic party and could add to pressure on him to reboot his presidency.

Forecasters say that Republicans, who have made Obama’s unpopularity a top is-sue in the elections, are in a strong position to capture the six seats they need to take over the Senate from Democrats. They are also expected to expand their majority in the House of Representatives.

But current and former White House aides say that even if those predictions prove correct, Obama will likely resist calls to clean house for the � nal two years of his administration, a departure from the dra-matic makeovers quickly ordered by many of his predecessors after similar setbacks at the ballot box.

Even slow-motion sta� turnover could add some new talent to an inner circle that has been criticized as too insular. But it re-mains to be seen whether new blood would be enough to help a diminished president overcome Washington gridlock and push through new initiatives to burnish his legacy.

At the same time, there are doubts whether Obama will respond with what many see as an even more critical remedy: altering his cloistered leadership style to

deal with the new reality on Capitol Hill and cascading crises abroad.

The president, known for his cautious “no-drama Obama” persona, may be reluc-tant to make a fundamental course change for the last quarter of his tenure, according to people inside and outside the administration.

“There will always be a sta� change here or there,” particularly among people who have served for a long time, said Jay Carney, Obama’s former press secretary. But he added, “It’s just not his style to do it ... I wouldn’t expect a big change.”

But both supporters and critics say recent stumbles in the handling of the Ebola crisis and a halting strategy against Islamic State underscore the need for major changes within the White House “bubble,” where policy decisions have become concentrated to a degree seen as almost unprecedented.

“He should consider reviving the ‘team of rivals’ approach,” said Jane Harman, a former California congresswoman regular-ly consulted by the White House. “Having people with di� erent opinions in the room, that would be very helpful.”

Loyal to his loyalistsHowever, Obama, famously loyal to those who have been loyal to him, has shown an aversion to � ring senior sta� ers. Most of those who have left since he took o� ce went voluntarily.

That may still be the case even as the predicted midterm losses sink in with his West Wing team, many of whom are ex-hausted after nearly six years of governing.

But there is another, albeit less likely, scenario. With lame-duck status looming, Obama – his approval ratings languishing in the low 40-percent range - may calcu-late that he has little to lose by making sweeping sta� changes, which could send a message that he is serious about making a fresh start, one former insider said.

White House chief of sta� Denis Mc-Donough has already quietly asked senior aides to tell him if they plan to stay onboard for Obama’s � nal two years in o� ce.

A longtime Obama con� dant, Mc-Donough himself is the object of growing speculation. His departure would suggest Obama is doing more than just tinkering with the makeup of his sta� .

McDonough has made clear he prefers to stay and Obama won’t send him pack-ing, people close to the president say. But no one is ruling out that McDonough could decide on his own to leave.

Obama may be mindful that the last time he revamped his White House sta� , after the “shellacking” su� ered in the 2010 midterms, the results were far from glowing. Former banker Bill Daley, brought in for a more pro-business approach but never able to pen-etrate the Obama inner circle, was pushed out as chief of sta� after little more than a year. l

TTP splinter groups claim Wagah attack; 61 dead, 20 arrestedn Agencies

An improvised explosive device (IED) was found from parking area of the Wagah border on Monday, a day af-ter at least 61 people were killed fol-lowing the � ag-lowering ceremony at the main India-Pakistan land border crossing. Outlawed out� ts Jundullah and Tehriq-e-Taliban-a� liated Ja-maat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attacks seperately, Dawn of Pa-kistan reported.

The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) was called to the site for inspection after the IED was recovered. The BDS then launched search operations sur-rounding Wagah border, The Nation newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, security agencies ar-rested about 20 suspects from the In-dia-Pak border area.

Ten women, eight children and three security personnel were among the 61 people who have died in the at-tack that took place on Sunday when a suicide attacker detonated a powerful bomb at Wagah.

Over 100 people were injured in the incident and are being treated in di� er-ent Lahore’s hospitals where emergen-cy has been declared, reports Times of India.

The blast took place when a large

number of people were returning after attending the � ag-lowering ceremo-ny at the main India-Pak land border crossing, which is heavily guarded by the Punjab Rangers.

A young suicide-bomber blew him-self up near the main exit gate of Pa-rade Avenue at 6.03pm (local time), causing colossal devastation.

“The death toll of the devastating suicide attack at Wagah border has ris-en to 61. The condition of some injured is still critical and the doctors are bat-tling to save their lives,” Punjab Emer-gency Services Rescue spokesman Jam Sajjad told PTI.

About 43 bodies have been handed over to the families while the remain-ing are yet to be recognised, Sajjad said.

“We have sought the help of the Na-tional Registration Database Authority (Nadra) for recognition of 18 bodies,” he said.

Punjab police chief Inspector Gen-eral Mushtaq Sukhera told AP that the bomb exploded outside a restaurant near a paramilitary soldiers’ check-point at Wagah border on the outskirts of Lahore city. He also added that the explosion could have been the result of a suicide blast.

Lahore police chief Amin Wains con� rmed it was a suicide attack.

“People were returning after watching the parade at Wagah border when the blast took place. Ball bearings were found at the scene,” he said.

The law enforcement agencies have launched operation in the res-idential areas in Wagah and taken about 20 suspects into custody, La-hore police spokesman Niyab Haider Naqvi said.

“A joint investigation team of po-lice, rangers and intelligence agencies have started its probe into the inci-dent. The army and rangers along with police will provide security to Ashura processions in Lahore and they have been put on high alert in the wake of Sunday’s attack,” he said.

Punjab Interior Minister Col (Retd) Shujah Khanzada said the target of the suicide bomber was the venue of the � ag-hoisting ceremony.

Emergency has been declared at all hospitals in Lahore. Prime Nawaz Sharif has taken notice of the explo-sion and called for a report on the incident.

An Indian security o� cial told Reuters that the Indian side of Wagah border is “safe” after blast on Pakistani side.

Wagah is the only road border cross-ing between the Indian city of Amritsar and the Pakistani city of Lahore. l

Cold water on the idea of Xi-Abe talksn Reuters, Beijing

China’s official Xinhua news agency on Monday poured cold water on the idea that the leaders of China and Japan could have formal talks on the sidelines of next week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Expectations have been grow-ing in Japan for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to meet Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping for an ice-breaking chat at the gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders.

A meeting of the two leaders would be a symbolic breakthrough in ties between the world’s sec-ond- and third-biggest economies, which have turned frigid in the past two years over a territorial row, re-gional rivalry and the bitter lega-cy of Japan’s wartime occupation of China.

Abe had “spared no efforts” in seeking to meet with Xi, Xinhua said in an English-language commentary.

“His wish will be fulfilled, since Beijing, the host of this forum, will undoubtedly receive the Japanese leader with etiquette and hospital-ity, despite chronic territorial rows and a historical feud with Tokyo,” it said.

“However, that does not nec-

essarily mean Abe’s long-sought formal talks with Xi during APEC would come true, which demands Abe extend good faith and take real action to create the proper atmosphere.”

But Japan has not made such ef-forts in bilateral ties, which have been constantly troubled by its at-tempts to wash off its war-time atrocities, Xinhua added.

Xinhua commentaries are not of-ficial government pronouncements, but can be read as a reflection of of-ficial thinking.

The commentary said that though bad ties benefited neither country, Japan had “launched a string of provocations” last month, includ-ing visits by government ministers to the Yasukuni Shrine, which China sees as a symbol of Japan’s past mil-itarism.

Yasukuni honors millions of war dead, including wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Al-lied tribunal.

“In short, it seems nothing more than a mere clumsy political stunt for the island country to advocate dialogue and fence-mending with neighbors on the one hand, while sticking to the bigoted course of fo-menting strife and misgivings on the other,” Xinhua added. l

BJP not to form govt in Delhi, expects fresh polls by February next yearn Agencies

Delhi on Monday night appeared head-ed for assembly elections with BJP, AAP and Congress expressing themselves against formation of a new government and seeking a fresh mandate to end the eight-month-long political uncertainty.

Indications are that Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, who met leaders of the three political parties, may send his recommendation to the President for dissolving the assembly any time.

While BJP declined the LG’s o� er to form a government, AAP and Congress made it clear that they were in favour of immediate elections.

The LG held consultations in the wake of the Supreme Court putting the issue on the fast track and giving him time till November 11 to explore the possibility of forming a government.

The court was hearing AAP’s peti-tion seeking early dissolution of the Assembly which has been under sus-pended animation since February after the fall of the AAP government.

Satish Upadhyay and Jagdish Mukhi of BJP, Haroon Yusuf of Congress and AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Siso-dia met the Lt Governor. “All the above parties expressed their inability to form the government. The Lt Governor would be sending his report to the Hon’ble President,” a Raj Niwas release said.

Currently BJP, along with ally Aka-li Dal’s lone MLA, has 29 legislators and would require the support of � ve more MLAs to prove majority in the 67-member Assembly.

BJP had emerged as the single larg-est party in the December Assembly polls winning 31 seats but fell four seats short of a simple majority. It had refused to form government then, saying it will not resort to any “unfair means” to take over the reins.

AAP had formed the government in Delhi with the support of Congress. The government led by Kejriwal had resigned on February 14 after the par-ty’s pet project, the Janlokpal Bill, could not be passed due to opposition from BJP and Congress.

President’s Rule was imposed on February 17.

Earlier on Monday, L-G called all parties for a meet. Delhi Congress lead-er Mukesh Sharma, meanwhile, batted for the dissolution of the assembly and fresh elections - a stand time and again reiterated by the AAP.

Jung’s decision to hold talks with all parties came against the backdrop of the Supreme Court recently criticising his and the Centre’s role over the delay in taking a call on government formation.

The L-G has been under � re over the issue, with Kejriwal training his guns on Jung. The former Delhi chief min-

ister had accused Jung of “promoting horse-trading.”

Kejriwal and his party had stressed since the BJP does not have the num-bers to form a stable government, invit-ing it would lead to “horse-trading.” The AAP had also accused the BJP of running away from fresh elections fearing defeat.

In the 70-member Delhi House, the BJP and its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has 29 MLAs - down from 32 after its legislators Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Bidhuri and Pravesh Verma were elect-ed to the Lok Sabha. The AAP has 27 members, while the Congress has eight.

A lot is at stake for the AAP in Delhi. After its dismal showing in the April-May general elections - the party con-tested more than 400 seats and won just four - it is desperate to retain its foothold in Delhi. Positive response to Kejriwal’s recent rallies is believed to have given the AAP a shot in the arm.

The Delhi BJP, which won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the 2014 elections, seems upbeat following the party’s pan-India success story - the most recent chapters of which were scripted in Maharashtra and Haryana.

Jung had last month sent a report to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking permission to invite the BJP. The Cen-tre last week informed the Supreme Court that the President allowed Jung to invite the single largest party. l

The Wahga Border Flag Ceremoney took place yesterday despite the bombing. This � le photo shows the usual scenario that takes place at Wagah everyday NTEMUR/WIKI COMMONS

Break the glass ceilingA new study by the CPD and Manusher Jonno Foundation notes

that if household work done by women was paid for, it would be equivalent to 87% of the current GDP.

It demonstrates, as is the case all around the world, that women spend far more time on household chores than men, without being economically recognised.

The most immediate lesson to learn from this survey is the need for more men to do their fair share of household work. Sharing household work more evenly will mean fewer women are unfairly burdened at home. This is important in order to help more women seek and retain formal paid employment.

It is also crucial to helping the economy grow further, by making fuller use of the untapped potential of having more women in the workplace.

For Bangladesh to develop as people hope and the country needs, no good is served by factors which hold women back from participating and progressing in the workplace.

More broadly, the survey’s example of transparency in drawing attention to inequality should be emulated more widely.

For instance, large employers could develop and promote policies to attract and retain women in the workplace such as support for childcare. They could also publish � gures for the percentages of women they employ and the percentage who are senior managers or directors.

Such disclosure would set a positive example and drive competition to help women progress in the workplace.

Closure may be the best option for state banksDespite pressure from the IMF to close unpro� table branches, the government is persisting with its policy of spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to keep state run banks a� oat.

Not only is this a waste of scarce taxpayer funds which could be more productively spent, but it is particularly misguided given the Bangladesh Bank’s latest report showing that the boards of directors of several state-run banks are continuing to � out rules designed to ensure prudent lending.

The continuing disregard for pro� tability shown by state-run and owned banks, despite the criticism they have received in recent years in the wake of large scale frauds and scams, suggest the sector is unsalvageable.

As state banks have been so poorly run, even privatisation may not be a tenable option.

It would be more realistic and practical to simply shut down bankrupt state banks. This could be done by taking the following steps. First, the government should guarantee it will ensure depositors are given all their money back, to prevent a run on the banking system.

Then, sellable assets including loans which are not in default should be sold to private sector banks.

Bad assets should be transferred at zero value to a new institution set up to realise these loans through the courts.

Once the depositors have received their deposits back, and functioning loans have all been transferred to the books of other � nancial institutions, the bankrupt state owned banks should be wound up, and their employees retrenched with all due bene� ts.

What true diversity meansOctober 23

RSThere is quite a famous adage, that diversity is strength. i just remembered this while going through this article.

Two jailed for appearing as proxy in examOctober 26

Arch Bishop Probably they were not BCL or Jubo League members. Otherwise, the magistrate herself would be out of a job.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Ships of the desert (6)6 Tooth on a wheel (3)9 Friendship (5)10 Remedy (4)11 Arab currency unit (5)12 Prohibit (3)13 Landed property (6)15 Stop up (4)18 Arrowhead (4)21 Poked gently (6)24 Flightless bird (3)25 Make up for (5)28 Tear (4)29 Narrow ways (5)30 Numeral (3)31 Replenishes (6)

DOWN1 Younger son (5)2 Friend (Fr) (3)3 Musical note (5)4 Greek letter (3)5 Old stringed instrument (4)6 Country (4)7 Public speaker (6)8 Inherited character unit (4)14 Bath (3)16 Mental acuteness (6)17 Farm animal (3)19 Unaccompanied (5)20 Consecrate (5)21 Wicked emperor (4)22 Low sand hill (4)23 Valley (4)26 Make brown (3)27 Fresh (3)

CROSSWORD

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

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 15 represents H so � ll H every time the � gure 15 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appro-priate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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A freedom we can’t handleOctober 23

OsmaniaFreedom of speech is precisely about defending people you disagree with or � nd o� ensive. The writer is as wrong as you can get. I also do not believe his beliefs have been genuinely hurt by reading some newspaper articles.

“Are we good at being open and free and honest at the same time? Don’t we know what the free-thinking souls (mostly the young ones) are doing in the name of freedom, modernism, and friendship? Don’t we hear sadistic stories almost every day? Aren’t we victims of free-mixing environments already? Think hard, friends. Don’t push for a freedom that you know not how to handle or respect.”

His last paragraph (which appears above) makes clear he wants to control people and is either contemptuous or envious of young people.

S MallikFirstly, Latif by no means is our or anyone’s Rushdie. It seems the author has not read enough of Rushdie’s books, and as such, unfortunately, seems to have insu� cient grounds to compare anyone to Rushdie.

The Taslima Nasrin tirade is also meaningless as he deviates and points out she was driven out of Kolkata. I could not quite see how it helped him drive a point, if at all there was one.

Can I also point out that atheists are self-declared, by their very own de� nition? There is hardly any other way for one to become one. It is not like faith that one can be born into one.

Lastly, this could have been a one line Facebook status.

Maqsood Jamil S Mallik: Right or wrong, it is one’s choice. The point the writer may have tried to make is “believers” are always looked upon as if they are wrongly following the religion. I agree with the author that most of the atheists seem not at all aware or well read. Atheists attack believers. Not

the other way around. They are the ones who write perverse pieces about religion and create problems in society, believers don’t.

The write-up is not ludicrous. You and Osmania have only come up with weak points to counter the piece. When you malign somebody and attack faiths, you are a Salman Rushdie, or worse! Simple. Taslima Nasrin had to � ee the country – may I ask, my dear friends, Why did she? For her good works? What was she propagating, do you know?

No wonder where do they (the half-educated, self-styled free-thinking people) get the back up from! A sign of frustrated minds!

Faizul Kabir What Maqsood Jamil and others are trying to say is not quite clear. While the modern minds of Osmania and Mallik smack of perverted ideas and blind toeing of faithlessness, Maqsood seems to be a softer version of believers.

I can say, no one with a healthy mind would support anything about Taslima Nasreen, and Salman Rushdie is a human disgrace. Who supports him?

One who has a twisted mind. Shame on them who try to downplay some good observations. The author belongs to that group – or so it seems from his writings – which tries to uphold moral and social issues! That is not bad!

It would be more practical to shut down bankrupt state banks

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZFree the untapped potential of women in the workplace

The accidental scientist who changed BangladeshOctober 23

rose“He succeeded in raising the height of dwarf HYV rice plants to 125cm and making them signi� cantly more photosensitive.”

Our respect goes for Dr Munshi who worked so hard and had such patriotic feelings towards his country.

Dhaka to join China-led multilateral agency

October 26

ABThree of the leading economies are staying away

from this multi-lateral bank: South Korea, Aus-tralia, and Indonesia, while Malaysia and India are

both reviewing their full participation. Let’s not count the chicks before the eggs hatch.

n Aziz Ahmed

Rozina Akter has three children. Two of them are disabled. Her husband believes that there’s no

need to spend time on them. Instead, he believed she should get a job so that they can earn more money. Rozina � nally stopped taking her children to school seven months after their admis-sion, and started working at a garment factory. Poverty and negative attitudes of the family as well as society destroy the hopes and aspirations of children with disabilities.

There are many children with dis-abilities (CWDs) living in our society, and they are deprived of the opportu-nities non-disabled children usually get. School is an important place where children adapt themselves in the socialisation process through mutual sharing with their peers and teachers. If CWDs keep staying at home, they fail to learn how to socialise.

In some cases, guardians send them to special schools, even though very limited numbers of CWDs get this chance. Disabled children are able, but di� erently, and therefore they need extra care and opportunities compared to their non-disabled peers. A new idea known as inclusive education has been developed and practised abroad where disabled students are included in mainstream education.

In this approach, children with and without disabilities participate and learn together in the same class. The teacher takes classes of all of the students in regular classroom settings instead of segregating the CWDs in special classrooms. This means that all students are welcomed by their neighbourhood schools to attend regular classes and are supported to learn, contribute, and participate in all aspects of their school life.

This is important not only for the disabled students, but also for marginalised students. In this way, disabled and other marginalised students learn to live alongside their non-disabled peers. They learn, play, and grow up together. In an inclusive classroom, children with disabilities have a chance to feel like the other kids and get more opportunities to make friends.

The chance to achieve alongside their peers without disabilities can help their self-esteem. With the support of a skilled teacher, they may become more socially competent and feel less isolated. Students, who do not have disabilities may gain greater understanding and empathy of others, as they learn to accept and appreciate students with disabilities.

There are many challenges to promote inclusive education in Bangladesh. Lack of access to school buildings and toilets, substantial space in classrooms, proper lighting, and suitable blackboards are major barriers for CWDS to study in regular schools. Physically and visually impaired chil-dren face problems in this situation. The teachers in the existing schools do not know sign language and the Braille system. Due to lack of these skills, teachers cannot teach children with visual and hearing impairment properly.

Existing educational materials such as blackboard, printing map, chalk and slate, books, pictures, etc are developed considering non-disabled students, which are not suitable for students with low vision. In most of the

primary schools, there are many stu-dents and only one teacher in a class. As a result, the teacher cannot give extra attention to the disabled children.

The primary education curriculum is one of the most important guidelines to implement the primary education system. But in reality, it does not prop-erly support the education of various types of disabled students. Textbooks used in di� erent classes from I to V are not suitable for students with disabilities.

Children with varying degrees and types of impairments are unable to follow the instructions mentioned in the text books. The font size of words in textbooks is too small to read for children with low vision. Above all, there is a lack of awareness about inclusive education for CWDs in the communities and families.

National and international legal instruments provide support for the education of CWDs. The Bangladesh government approves and rati� es UNCRPD, and is thereby accountable and committed to ensuring di� erent rights of disabled people. Bangladesh has introduced acts and policies such as Disabled People’s Rights and Protection Act 2013 and National Education Policy 2010 that support to promote equitable, inclusive, and high-quality education for CWDs and reduce disparity.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has taken some initiatives to promote the inclusive education for CWDs such as training school teachers to teach CWDs, setting ramps in new school buildings so that wheelchair users have easy access to classrooms, etc. The government provides stipends to CWDs so that poor family members are encouraged to send their disabled children to school. Recently, pre-primary sessions have been introduced in primary schools. But, not many CWDs have access to these facilities.

Di� erent kinds of CWDs have di� er-ent needs. Due to limited resources, it is di� cult for the government to bring a vast number of CWDs under main-stream education. Long-term plans and strategies are needed to ensure ed-ucation of the vast number of CWDs. The government should motivate NGOs and also the corporate sector to work in this regard. Many NGOs have been working to provide formal or informal primary education to poor children. If these NGOs include CWDs in their existing programs, grassroots CWDs will be bene� ted.

Joint initiatives by the communi-ty, NGOs, corporate sector, and the government can ensure inclusive education for CWDs. We should stand by CWDS to build them as resources instead of burdens of our society. l

Aziz Ahmed is a development worker.

11Op-Ed Tuesday, November 4, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Aaqib Md Shatil

This is a story from 1955. During those days, there were not many students in this region. There was only one education board,

the East Pakistan Board. A rumour had spread in some of the renowned institutions of East Bengal that the students from KM Latif Institution of Pirojpur might outpace the students of all the other institutions in that year’s matriculation examination.

The teachers of the school predict-ed that one particular student, who later became a governor of Bangladesh Bank, was going to stand � rst in the East Pakistan Board.

However, when the results were published, the headmaster of that school was shocked to see that his best student – who stood � rst in every ex-amination in class – was not in the list of the top 20 students with the highest scores, while the one who used to stand second secured sixth place on the list.

In those days, there was no scope to re-scrutinise examination papers. But the headmaster of the school went to the board and managed to see the answer sheets of that student. He was awestruck to � nd out that some of the answer sheets of the most brilliant student of his school were blotted with ink, as if someone had intentionally done it.

The headmaster realised that some-one did this deliberately – someone who was involved with the examina-tion process and did not want a boy from a small town to stand � rst in the entire board.

I heard this story when I was inter-

viewing a former government o� cer who studied at KM Latif Institution. He unravelled the story while he was explaining the education system of the 1950s. This is surely an example of unwholesome competition between the educational institutions of those days. But I think that there is a hidden message in this story.

In those days, there was no GPA system. First, second, and third divi-sions were the parameters which were used to measure the levels of achieve-ment of students. And a list was an-nounced by the board with the names of the top students of the country.

In 2002, the government decided to introduce the GPA system. The initiative was taken with a view to cope with the international standards of education. The � rst division was re-placed by A+ or GPA 5. Since 2010, the number of GPA 5 achievers has been increasing rapidly.

In the last SSC examination, 142,276 students, around 10% of the total 1,008,174 examinees, got GPA 5. Nearly 45,000 additional students got GPA 5 compared to the previous year as well. This means that 10% of the total stu-dents of the country who passed the SSC examination have quali� ed as the best students – a record indeed.

The result of the HSC examination was brilliant as well. The number of GPA 5 holders in the HSC and equiva-lent examinations this year marked a signi� cant increase, with 70,602 GPA 5 holders, which is 12,405 more than the previous year.

But surprisingly, the “brilliant” stu-dents of our country found themselves in deep trouble when the result of the admission tests in Dhaka University were published. According to the

university’s authorities, 86% of the examinees failed to obtain the pass mark in the admission tests.

Even more surprisingly, around 66% of the 76,003 GPA 5 holders in the two exams had failed to secure pass marks in the DU admission tests. The admission test results in the previous academic years also give a dismal picture, with constantly high failure rates.

Such depressing results in the admis-sion tests have raised questions about the quality of education provided by the teachers in the secondary and higher-secondary levels. The quality of education can be presumed from the fact that only two out of 1,364 students quali� ed for enrolment in DU’s English department.

The hidden message that I was talking about may give an answer to this conundrum. Before the introduc-tion of the GPA system, the competi-tion between the institutions was not only to enhance the pass rate and the number of � rst-division holders, but also to make their students the best of the bests, so that they could secure

their place in the top scorers’ list of the board and the country, respectively. The parameter to identify the best institution was the pass rate as well as the number of students who were in the list of top scorers.

Test scores were more important in those days, as the top scorers’ lists were made by adding the total score of a student in every single subject. Obtaining good marks was a priority, but getting the highest marks in every subject was also necessary to be in the top scorers’ list.

So, the best students of the institutions used to receive special care from teachers. Others were also given extra attention so that they try harder to become as good as the best students.

Unfortunately, after the introduc-tion of the GPA system, the priorities of the students changed. Getting at least 80 marks in every subject has be-come the priority as well as the neces-sity, because being the top scorer is not important anymore. A student who got 99 out of 100 in every subject is a GPA 5 holder. On the other hand, a student who got 80 out of 100 in every subject is also awarded with a GPA of � ve.

This is how the devaluation of talent occurs. The whole system has demoralised both the students and the teachers. The competition to make the best students has been converted into a competition of making average students. The education system of our country is on the wrong track. It is badly in need of an evaluation itself. The sooner, the better. l

Aaqib Md Shatil is a blogger and member of Dhaka University Model United Nations Association.

Aiming to be average

The defenestration of Russell Brand, easy as it is, conceals the fear felt by the elite

After the introduction of the GPA system, the priorities of the students changed

Disabled children are able, but di� erently, and therefore they need extra care and opportunities

Studying for the wrong reasons? BIGSTOCK

Can’t hold us back

n Ikhtisad Ahmed

A bearded, long-haired man speaking with a glottal stop and wearing skinny black jeans has

dared to discuss politics. His entry into that sacred domain has caused a stir. It is all too easy to dismiss Russell Brand.

The never-ending queue of com-mentators awaiting their turn to mock him, with left-wing experts joining the droves of right-wing voices, not one of whom has been able to resist the temptation of rising to the challenge of a kindergarten-level spelling test, is testament to the complete lack of di� culty.

Here is a celebrity with a hedonistic past – a label that is impossible to shed once earned – and no fancy Oxbridge or Ivy League education, a million-aire comedian with a propensity to court controversy, asking to be taken seriously.

He does not o� er solutions to the myriad political problems, actively campaigns against voting, thereby

encouraging the populace to surrender its voice, and romanticises revolution with a contrived, convoluted verbosity.

He purports to speak for the masses, but his bank balance, no doubt being in� ated by the political crusade that is his current pet project, his appearance, his standing as an entertainment � g-ure, all point to him being part of the machinery on which he has declared war.

For all his shortcomings, however, he is closer to respecting and feeling the pulse of the average citizen than

the establishment, and is able to give him or her a voice outside of the Hobson’s choice presented by it. The

defenestration of Russell Brand, easy as it is, conceals the fear felt by the elite in the smallest of chances that he just may be getting through with a message that refuses the spin that keeps them a� oat.

This convenient witch-hunt allows the political establishment and their friendly pseudo-intellectuals, and friendlier entrepreneurs, to preserve the status quo. The fact is that,

whether it is the US, the UK, India, or Bangladesh, citizens are being oppressed by a ruling class intent on never relinquishing its monopoly on power.

The self-perpetuating system, heavily funded and championed by half-truths and outright lies, is not bene� tting the common man. The myth of individualism leading to the attainment of collective and personal capitalist utopias leaves him broken, counting failures and berating himself while the elites congratulate themselves on soaring higher and tightening the noose evermore on him.

In these desperate times, the only hope – that cruel thing that is fated to birth more of its kind even when it is fading – he has is to think di� erently. He needs to reject the existing structure because it has rejected him.

A revolution of thought is the need of the hour, eventually fuelling the realisation of the dramatic changes necessary to salvage the

heart and soul of nations and their peoples with revolutionary ideas being implemented rather than being discussed in hushed tones and ridiculed if spoken out loud.

Every day that passes without an altruistic populace thinking for itself, free from the shackles of thought control, takes the world closer to an absolute victory for the establishment. That creature has risen from its resi-dence in the depths of hell, manipulat-ing and adulterating the laws of gods, men, and nature to keep possession of the crown of thorns that allows it to rule supreme over mortals. It will never serve the common man or his land, and it is time he came out of his self-in� icted petri� cation and made a full recovery.

Russell Brand is not a messiah, but he is someone who is taking a stand against the false prophets who popu-late the upper echelons of the world’s society. His advocacy against voting is in support of the common man, an argument in favour of him having a

real voice that counts for more than choosing who to be ruled by.

In all walks of life, criminals are punished to prevent them from con-tinuing to adversely a� ect society. The exception to this universal rule lies in the sphere of governance, where the elites are given carte blanche to dictate terms to their bene� t, and trusted to keep committing heinous crimes against humanity that the masses are unable to in� uence.

The common man needs to stop wallowing in self-pity in order to prevent his present and future miseries. He needs to shake o� the catalepsy and seize the day. The current state of a� airs has been tried for decades, only to prove that it does nothing for the common man. It is up to him to think di� erently, to try something else, to revolutionise the system, for his sake. l

Ikhtisad Ahmed is a writer and an erstwhile lawyer. He can be contacted on Twitter via @Ikhtisad. 

BrandedF R O M T H E M A R G I N S

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Tuesday, November 4, 201412

ExhibitionSearching MyselfBy artist Monjur RashidTime: 11am – 6pmLa Galerie, Alliance Francaise,Dhanmondi

The Dhaka Print Club ShowTime: 12pm – 8pm, Bengal Art Lounge

Stones By Hamiduzzaman KhanTime: 11pm to 8pm, Gallery Kaya

Film Pipra BiddaHow to Train Your Dragon 2 Guardians of the Galaxy Million Dollar Arm, Tarzan Star Cineplex

Shrek Forever After Zee Studio, 7:40pm

A bored and domesticated Shrek pacts with deal-maker Rumpel-stiltskin to get back to feeling like a real ogre again.

The Hangover Part III HBO, 9:30pm

In this epic � nale to the Hangover trilogy, the Wolfpack must track down Mr. Chow to help their mate Doug, who’s been kidnapped.

Night at the MuseumMovies Now, 5:00pm

Larry Daley accepts a menial job as a nightshift security guard at New York’s Museum of Natural History. During Larry’s watch, extraordi-nary things start to happen.

Registration starts for Bengal Classical Music Festival 2014 n Entertainment Desk

Registration has begun for Bengal Classical Music Festival 2014, set to be held for � ve consecutive nights from November 27 to December 1 at Bangladesh Army Stadium. Bigger and better, the third instalment of this mega classical music festival has been dedicated to Pallikabi Jasimuddin.

The festival will present a broad variety of classical music genres and dance forms by 160 performers from India and Bangladesh.

Registration via online and mo-

bile phone opened at 12am yes-terday. To register online, one has to log on to the website of Bengal Foundation – www.bengalfoun-dation.org. To register via mobile phone, one has to write Bengal and send to 6969.

Booth registration will begin on November 7 at Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in Dhanmondi, Aranya in Banani, The Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct in Farmgate, and Kushol Centre in Uttara from 12-7pm, with a break on Fridays from 12:30pm to 2:30pm. l

MOUSHUMI showered with blessings on her birthdayn Entertainment Desk

Moushumi, the most celebrated ac-tress in Bangladeshi � lm industry, cel-ebrated her birthday yesterday amid tonnes of blessings and good wishes.

The actor, 41, who reigned the sil-ver screen for more than two decades, received blessings and wishes from fellow actors, directors, producers and her fans across the country. Her fans took to social media to convey birth-day wishes to their favourite actor.

Moushumi regards her strong will and determination for her continuing success since debuting in “Keyamat

Theke Keyamat.” The actor considers her fans’ love and fame as her achieve-ment from her career, while she says losing her simple self was the price of stardom.

In her illustrious career, Moushu-mi has won the National Award once, for her performance in Nargis Akhter’s “Meghla Akash.” Despite appearances in over 150 � lms, she has only two di-rectorial ventures to her credit – “Kok-hono Megh Kokhono Brishti” and “Me-her Negar.”

Her latest � lm, titled “Ek Cup Cha” with co-star Ferdous, will be released on November 14. l

SHOSHEE plays schoolgoer in TV draman Entertainment Desk

Sharmin Zoha Shoshee just wrapped up the shooting of a drama, where she will appear wearing a school uniform. She plays Mala, a school student, in the drama titled “Bikele Bhorer Phul,” di-rected by Progga Niharika. With a rural setting, the story is about Mala’s jour-ney from school to marriage.

The drama will be aired on TV short-ly. Shatabdi Wadud will also appear in the drama alongside Shoshee.

Shoshee also starred in a single-epi-sode drama titled “Bhalobasai Jothest-ho Noy” along with Azizul Hakim and Golam Farida Chhanda. Written and directed by Mamunur Rashid, the dra-ma is also in the pipeline to be aired on TV. l

Samay Natyasampradaya presents Bhager Manush n Entertainment Desk

Samay Natyasampradaya will stage “Bhager Manush” today at 7pm at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The acclaimed play was premiered in 1997 and so far has been staged over 150 times.

Mannan Heera has adapted the play from a popular Urdu short story Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto. Here, the play satires the partition of the Indian subcontinent

in 1947 which brought immense su� ering to the people living in the border areas of the two countries—India and Pakistan.

The play highlights the “exchange agreement of the lunatics” between the governments of India and Pakistan, two or three years after the Partition (1947). Directed by Aly Zaker, it shows many historical characters like Gandhi, Jinnah and others. They are represented as a contrast to those who are labelled insane by society. l

Shaon Chowdhury receives RD Smriti Awardsn Entertainment Desk

Singer Shaon Chowdhury has been awarded the prestigious RD Smriti Awards in Kolkata for his duet song “Amar Achhe Robi Thakurer Shesh-er Kobita” with famed Indian singer Haimanti Shukla, from album “Mone Rekho Prithibi.”

Accepting the award at a recently held ceremony in Malda, Kolkata, the singer said: “It is indeed a beautiful song, and this award is its acknowledg-ment. This will surely inspire me to cre-ate even better songs.”

The RD Smriti Awards was founded in memory of celebrated Indian sing-er Rahul Dev Burman. Every year the award honours artistes with outstand-ing contribution to music in the Indian Sub-continent.

This award adds to Shaon’s many achievements. He has also received awards such as the World Master Award in Music, India-Bangladesh Friendship Award 2011, and South Asian Cultural Award. He learned classical khayal and ghazal under the tutelage of renowned ustad Niaz Mohammad Chowdhury. l

DEEPIKA graces the cover of Stardustn Entertainment Desk

Bollywood actress Deepika Padu-kone recently launched the cover of Stardust magazine’s November edition.

The Stardust November cover has Deepika, and she is referred as “The Glorious Diva.” One of her quotes from the interview is also high-lighted on the page: “Salman & I are star-crossed lovers!” The diva had launched the magazine’s January edition as well, which also featured her on the cover.

Deepika will now be seen in three � lms next year. One of them is “Tamasha” with Ranbir Kapoor. This will be their second mov-ie together, after last year’s “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani”.

The other two are “Bajirao Mas-tani” with current beau

Ranveer Singh and “Piku” with Am-

itabh Bachchan and Irrfan

Khan. l

n Entertainment Desk

The trailer of “Furious 7,” seventh instalment of the “Fast and Furious” � lm series, has been released, which sees the late Paul Walker in the role of Brian O’Connor for the � nal time.

The � lm was in production when Walker died suddenly in a high-speed car crash on November 30 last year.

He had completed the majority of shooting for the latest instalment of the street racing franchise, and pro-ducers employed digital e� ects with the help of Walker’s brothers to � n-ish his parts.

Paying tribute to his co-star in Au-gust this year, Vin Diesel said: “I grew up in the bouncer world, and we lost people while we were bouncing. But the brotherhood in Paul Walker was something completely di� erent.

“We grew up in the business to-gether, and we became famous to-

gether, and we represented the big-gest franchise together. He was my partner, and it is a strange thing to ... I’ve been acting all my life and they don’t teach you in acting, how to mourn someone and simultaneously pretend they’re in a scene with you.”

The trailer, which also stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster, sees Walker suc-cessfully rescue a damsel in distress from the back of a run-away coach, which plunges o� a cli� . He escapes falling with the vehicle by leaping and holding on to the tail of Rodri-guez’s car, which speeds to the cli� edge just in time.

It ends with Diesel saying, “I don’t have friends. I got family,” be-fore it movingly cuts back to a scene starring Walker.

“Furious 7” is set to be released in cinemas in April 2015. l

PAUL WALKER’s� nal � lm appearancein Furious 7

SHAH RUKH would not mind joining the Dhoom franchisen Entertainment Desk

He has been part of many blockbust-ers produced by Yash Raj Films and Shah Rukh Khan would not mind joining their popular Dhoom fran-chise if the project is o� ered to him.

So far John Abraham, Hrithik Ro-shan and Aamir Khan have played the main villain in Dhoom franchise.

Shah Rukh said: “I am doing a � lm with Yash Raj and that’s Fan. If I get an opportunity, I would love to do it. I � nd it very cool.”

The � rst Dhoom came in 2004 and the superstar said he was attached to the � rst instalment. “I knew Sanjay Ghadvi and I liked the � lm. Aditya has never asked me for Dhoom,” he said.

“The audience have a lot of expec-tations from me and I don’t want to disappoint them and that’s my biggest fear. I hope I work hard and live up to everyone’s expectations,” said the su-perstar who turned 49 on Sunday. l

13DHAKA TRIBUNETuesday, November 4, 2014

Sport 1414 Van Gaal slams ‘stupid’ Smalling, defends Fellaini

German giants and Real close to quali� cation

15 Pakistan spank sorry Australia for series win

Did you know?Real Madrid have scored 37 league goals this season, their best haul at this point in a La

Liga term alongside 1950/51 (37)

BD U12s gearing up for Supermokh Cupn Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh Under-12 football team will take part in the Supermokh Cup U-12 Football scheduled to be held from De-cember 1-7 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) will draft the squad for the U-12 tournament from a nationwide U-13 talent hunt programme and a football festival jointly organised by Sonali Otit Club and football’s governing body in the country. The football festival will be held at BFF’s arti� cial turf on No-vember 9 and 10.

A total of 20 sides – three local teams, two sides from England and 15 teams from 15 countries – will participate in the tournament that will be held at Na-tional Sports Council’s ground, Bukit Jalil. The BFF will bear the expenses of air tickets while the organisers will take care of local accommodation.

“It will be a good experience for the youngsters. We have decided to send the team with a view towards groom-ing them for the future,” said BFF gen-eral secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag. l

DPL to begin on Nov 11, � nallyn Mazhar Uddin

After several postponements, the country’s most prestigious � fty-over tournament, the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League (DPL), is � nally set to kick o� its 2014-15 season from November 11, the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis informed last Sunday. According to the previous among many schedules, the DPL was slated for a November 5 start.

Defending champions Legends of Rupganj, previously known as Gazi Tank Cricketers, will face Old DOHS in their � rst game at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

In the other two matches of the opening day, last edition’s runners up side Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club will take on Partex at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah while Prime Doleshwar will locks horns with Kalabagan Krira Chakra at BKSP-3.

The players’ transfer of the national cricketers took place on August 10-11 while the transfers of the remaining cricketers were completed on August 27-28.

Following the players’ transfer, all the participating clubs have already begun their training camps.

Ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan and hard-hitting opener Tamim Iqbal signed for the defending champions while Test skipper Mush� qur Rahim joined Prime Doleshwar.

The national cricketers will join their respective clubs following the conclusion of the ongoing home series against Zimbabwe.

In the upcoming DPL, only one foreign player will be able to play in the starting eleven with maximum three foreigners allowed in the squad. Previously, 10 foreigners were drafted into the squad with two being allowed to play in the playing eleven. l

Chigumbura pleased with bowling e� ortn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna

The hosts might have lost just three wickets on day one, but Zimbabwe’s Elton Chigumbura believes the second Test is still balanced as they did not let Bangladesh score enough runs.

“I think it was an even day. Us get-ting three wickets, not letting Bangla-desh score more than 200, so it was a good day for us and for Bangladesh side, they lost only three wickets, I am sure they are happy about it. I know they would have wanted more runs,” said Chigumbura yesterday.

The visitors started o� the day on a bright note with Chigumbura dismiss-ing Shamsur Rahman early, but haven’t had much success throughout the day. But the all-rounder thinks “It was a good day” for them.

“Going for around two runs an over I thought it was a good e� ort especial-ly on this wicket. It’s Test cricket. You don’t expect to get lots of wickets in a day. It’s about keeping the run rate down which gives a chance for more wickets.”

Chigumbura also felt they were un-lucky not to get a couple more Bangla-deshi wickets after they built pressure on the home side batsmen. l

Tamim tones down aggression to guide hostsn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna

More often than not, substance over style is the key to success not just in cricket but

in every facet of life. Bangladesh open-er Tamim Iqbal must have learned the proverb by heart as his workmanlike 250-ball 74 steered his side to 193 runs for the loss of three wickets following the conclusion of the opening day’s play of the second Test against Zimba-bwe at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium.

The left-handed batsman, famous for his swashbuckling approach, was totally o� -colour yet extremely patient as his unbeaten knock put Bangladesh in the driving seat after the � rst day’s proceedings.

The determined hosts came into the second Test looking to rectify the mistakes their batsmen had committed in the � rst Test in Dhaka where the Ti-gers posted a narrow three-wicket win over the visitors. Batting was the major worry for the home side and opening batsman Shamsur Rahman’s (two) ear-ly dismissal hardly helped matters after Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat � rst. Tamim, however, alongside top-order batsman Mominul Haque saw o� the � rst hour of play without further damage. The duo nulli� ed the early morning moisture with ease de-nying the Zimbabwean pacemen fur-ther success.

The second-wicket pair added 72 runs before Mominul was dismissed by � rst Test hero, right-arm seamer Ti-nashe Panyangara. Mominul, as always, was level-headed and scored 35 runs o� 101 deliveries. Mahmudullah then joined Tamim at the crease looking to drive home the advantage provided by

the second-wicket partnership.A relaxed Tamim soon reached his

slowest Test � fty, o� 169 balls with the help of four boundaries. The south-paw was coolness personi� ed as he outfoxed the Zimbabwean bowlers throughout the entire day. The only reprieve Tamim received was when he was on 58. Wicketkeeper Regis Chakabva dropped an edge induced by o� -spinner Malcolm Waller but that proved to be the only dent in an oth-erwise impressive display of patience from the 25-year old opener.

This was Tamim’s 17th Test � fty but � rst against Zimbabwe. When on 60, Tamim also added another feature to his career. The cricketer from Chit-tagong went past 2500 Test runs and now � nds himself third in the list of the highest Bangladeshi run-scorers in Tests. Habibul Bashar (3026) and Mo-hammad Ashraful (2737) occupy the top two spots.

Both Tamim and Mahmudullah ad-opted a cautious approach and it was re-quired against the debutant leg-spinner Natsai M’Shangwe. The leggie appeared threatening, especially to Mahmudul-lah, who at times went for some reckless drives through the cover region.

Mahmudullah though also reached his � fty as the third-wicket pair put on 95 runs. The Tamim-Mahmuduallah partnership lasted 45.2 overs and were largely responsible for taking the life out of the Zimbabwean bowlers. How-ever, with seven overs left till the end of play, Mahmudullah was trapped in front by Panyangara for a responsible 152-ball 56. This was Mahmudullah’s fourth � fty in his last six Test innings.

Alongside Tamim, Shakib al Hasan (13 not out) will resume the second day’s play today. l

Bangladesh 1st inningsTamim Iqbal not out 74Shamsur Rahman lbw b Chigumbura 2Mominul Haque c and b Panyangara 35Mahmudullah lbw b Panyangara 56Shakib Al Hasan not out 13Extras (b4, lb5, w2, nb2) 13

Total (three wickets, 90 overs) 193Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Shamsur), 2-78 (Mo-minul), 3-173 (Mahmudullah).Bowling: Panyangara 19-5-29-2 (nb1), Chigumbura 16-5-32-1 (w2), Chatara 15-3-30-0 (nb1), M’shangwe 24-4-60-0, Waller 9-1-22-0, Raza 7-2-11-0Toss: Bangladesh

SECOND TEST, DAY 1

Bat as long possible and score may be 400-450, says Mahmudullahn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna

Bangladesh batsmen are often crit-icised for gifting away their wickets and are said to lack the mindset and patience needed to bat in Test cricket. However, the picture was a rare one on the � rst day of the second Test against Zimbabwe in Khulna as the hosts post-ed 193 runs with seven wickets intact.

The day’s run-rate – 2.24 – pretty much explains how Bangladesh batted as the batsmen carefully selected their shots and hardly chased or made con-tact between the bat and ball unneces-sarily.

The slow batting might have bored the crowd in the stadium, but Mah-mudullah believes they are on the right track and they batted naturally.

“A wicket less would have looked better but still I think we were able to meet our target which was to bat nat-

urally,” said Mahmudullah during the post-day media conference yesterday.

“The wicket was little slow and it was hard to score runs on it, but we played according to our plans. The � rst session will be vital for us tomorrow (today) but we are happy that we have good number of wickets in hand,” he added.

Tamim Iqbal was the most surpris-ing package on the day as the hard hit-ting southpaw wore a defensive look and � nished the day with 26 runs away from what will be a magni� cent come-back into form. He was unbeaten on 74 from 250 balls – the highest number of balls he ever faced in an innings.

“I think he batted very well today, he played 250 balls. He might have had reached his century if he had played his own game which is aggressive. I think he worked very hard the whole day and batted respecting the behaviour of the

wicket,” said Mahmudullah before add-ing, “Actually their bowlers were bowl-ing at very good areas and it was tough to score runs. One had to wait for the bad deliveries as hurrying can cost you your wicket. So considering these facts I think our batsman were choosy with their shots, hope we start from where we left today (yesterday).”

Mahmudullah, who scored 56 – his fourth half-century in his last six Test innings – believes the � rst session to-day will be vital and the � ow of the game will literally depend on it.

“This will depend on how many wickets we lose in the � rst session to-morrow (today). The runs might come quick if we play positive and then go aggressive if needed.

“We now want to bat as long possi-ble and score may be 400-450 runs in the � rst innings,” said the former na-tional vice-captain. l

After a two-year gap, cricket returned to the south-western city of Khulna. Despite it being a weekday, the cricket-loving people of Khulna thronged the stadium in their thousands to witness the opening day’s play of the second Test between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium yesterday HEDAIT HOSSAIN

Siddik to take part in Panasonic Indian Openn Raihan Mahmood

Premier Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman will tee-o� in the Panason-ic Indian Open at Delhi Golf Club this Thursday. Another Bangladeshi golfer Jamal Hossain Mollah will also partici-pate in the $300,000 event that is sanc-tioned by Asian Tour and PGTI.

Siddik will be facing a tough time as local rising star Rashid Khan is expect-ed to stand in the way of the former’s title aspirations. Rashid defeated Sid-dik in the play-o� of the Sail-SBI Open

last March. The golf course, however, will be fa-

miliar to Siddik as he won the Hero In-dian Open last year at this very venue, pipping Indian stars Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chowrasia into second place.

Apart from Rashid, the 131-strong � eld will also have defending cham-pion Wade Ormsby of Australia, two-time Asia Tour number one Thaworn Wairatchant of Thailand, 2002 Order of Merit champion Jyoti Randhawa and two-time Asian Tour winner SSP Chowrasia. l

BFF aims for Tk10mn Shishir Hoque

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), with an intention of raising fund to develop football, aims to earn at least Tk10m from their lottery programme – BFF National Lottery 2014.

After receiving the green signal from the Finance Ministry in the early last month, BFF handed the rest of the work to J K International.

“The third party usually does the most of the lottery task in national lev-el. We also leave the responsibility to an organisation called J K International and they will do the necessary works,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nay-eem Shohag yesterday.

J K International will bear the ex-pense of promoting/marketing and sell-ing the lottery tickets and will take away 40% of the expected earnings which is Tk15m while BFF will get the rest. l

DPL OVERSEAS SIGNINGSPlayer ClubAshar Zaidi Legends of RupganjLiam Dawson Sheikh Jamal DCDawid Malan Prime DoleshwarAngelo Perera Mohammedan SCDilshan Munaweera Prime Bank CCAzhar Mahmood Kalabagan CAJosh Cobb/ Samit Patel Brothers UnionChamara Kapugedera Victoria SCChamara Silva Abahani LimitedJehan Mubarak Kalabagan KCRoshan Silva PartexShehan Jayasuriya Old DOHS

The unbeaten Bangladesh batsmen, Shakib al Hasan (L) and Tamim Iqbal head back towards the dressing room after the end of the � rst day’s play of the second Test against Zimbabwe at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14

German giants and Real close to quali� cationn Reuters, London

The three teams with 100 percent records in this sea-son’s Champions League can secure their places in the knockout stage

this week with two games to spare.German heavyweights Bayern Mu-

nich and Borussia Dortmund -- who contested the 2013 � nal -- plus holders Real Madrid have all been in imperious form in the competition and will be con� dent of making it four wins from four games as they take on opponents they beat away from home a fortnight ago.

Real Madrid, now top of La Liga, are on a club record of 11 straight wins in all competitions as they host � ve-times European champions Liverpool in Group B, having beaten them 3-0 at An� eld on matchday three.

The main interest in that group ap-pears to be who � nishes second, with three teams all on three points. Basle and Ludogorets play their return game in Switzerland on Tuesday after the Bulgarians won 1-0 at home.

“We’re still very much in the group to qualify, which is the objective,” Liv-erpool manager Brendan Rodgers said ahead of a daunting trip to the Spanish capital.

“It’s a big ask playing against argu-ably the best team in the world at the moment. But we’ll go into it with con-� dence.”

Bayern host AS Roma in Group E on Wednesday after an astonishing 7-1 away victory against them in Italy, and will be con� dent of taking another three points.

Roma’s defeat o� ered new hope to

winless Manchester City, who let a 2-0 lead slip away to CSKA Moscow and now need to win the return in England and hope the Italians lose again.

Dortmund are having a strange sea-son in which they struggle domestical-ly while brushing aside all opposition in Group D.

Beaten by Bayern in the Bundesliga on Saturday, they have dropped into the relegation places, but play at home to Galatasaray on Tuesday looking for a repeat of their 4-0 success in Turkey.

If Juergen Klopp’s team and Arsenal, who are at home to Anderlecht, both win, they will each have quali� ed with two games to spare.

The four German representatives have lost only one game out of 12 be-tween them so far, which was Bayer Leverkusen’s 1-0 defeat to Monaco on matchday one.

They still top Group C, but a second

loss, away to Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday, would put the Russians ahead of them. Second-placed Monaco, away to Ben� ca, have yet to concede a goal and are also very much in contention.

The fourth German and English teams, Chelsea and Schalke, hold the top two spots in Group G ahead of Wednesday’s matches.

Chelsea visit Slovenia to play Mari-bor, who they thrashed 6-0 in London, while second-placed Schalke know Sporting Lisbon have a poor record against German opposition, despite only having beaten them 4-3 in Gelsen-kirchen with the help of a last-minute penalty.

Barcelona will want to bounce back from Saturday’s shock defeat at home to Celta Vigo when they visit Ajax in Group F, in which they trail Paris St Germain by a point.

Four points ahead of Ajax, they would be well-placed to qualify with another win, as would PSG if they win as expected at home to APOEL.

Manager Laurent Blanc has said they must do that without talismanic strik-er Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who su� ered a heel injury in September and has not played since. He is due to return in the middle of this month.

Group A remains the closest, so much so that two home wins on Tues-day would bring all four teams level on six points.

Juventus and Malmo are those home teams, facing Olympiakos and last season’s � nalists Atletico Madrid respectively.

In Wednesday’s other matches Group H leaders Porto travel to Ath-letic Bilbao and Shakhtar Donetsk host BATE Borisov, who they humiliated 7-0 in Belarus when Luiz Adriano scored � ve times. l

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Marseille back to winning ways n AFP, Paris

Marseille restored their four-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 on Sunday, beating Lens 2-1 at the Stade Velodrome despite a less than convincing display against their struggling visitors.

Nicolas Nkoulou headed Marcelo Biel-sa’s side into an early lead, but Lens drew level courtesy of Baptiste Guillaume and had chances to go in front themselves.

However, Florian Thauvin secured the points with his third league goal of the season on the hour-mark as Mar-seille got back to winning ways after su� ering consecutive defeats in league and cup, holding on despite the late sending-o� of Alaixys Romao.

With 28 points, OM are four clear of second-placed Paris Saint-Germain before they face their great rivals at the Parc des Princes in the biggest � xture in French football next Sunday.

A positive result in the capital against the defending champions would set them up for a sustained title challenge, but Bielsa will accept that his side need to play far better than they did against Lens if they are to take anything from PSG. l

Sociedad axe coach, Moyes linkedn Reuters, Barcelona

Real Sociedad have sacked coach Jago-ba Arrasate following their poor start to the season, the La Liga club said on Sunday.

The Basque out� t were beaten 1-0 at home by Malaga on Saturday which left them one point o� the bottom with six points from 10 games.

“Real Sociedad have decided to re-lieve Jagoba Arrasate of his role as � rst-team trainer,” read a statement.

Real are yet to name his replacement but former Manchester United manag-er David Moyes is among the coaches in the running, media reports said.

FIXTURES Juventus v Olympiakos Malmo v Atletico Madrid Basel v Ludogorets Real Madrid v Liverpool Zenit v Leverkusen Ben� ca v Monaco Arsenal v Anderlecht Dortmund v GalatasarayOn Wednesday Bayern Munich v Roma Man City v CSKA Moscow Ajax v Barcelona PSG v APOEL Nicosia Maribor v Chelsea Sporting v Schalke 04 Bilbao v FC Porto Shakhtar v BATE Borisov

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti (R) jokes with mid� elder Luka Modric (C) next to forward Gareth Bale during a training session at the Valdebebas training center in Madrid yesterday on the eve of their Uefa Champions League match against Liverpool FC AFP

Van Gaal slams ‘stupid’ Smalling, defends Fellainin AFP, Manchester

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal said that Chris Smalling’s “stu-pid” dismissal had fatally undermined his side’s chances in their 1-0 Premier League defeat at Manchester City on Sunday.

Smalling was sent o� in the 38th minute at the Etihad Stadium after receiving quick-� re yellow cards for trying to block a clearance by City goalkeeper Joe Hart and then scything down James Milner.

City eventually prevailed through a 63rd-minute Sergio Aguero strike, leav-ing the champions six points behind leaders Chelsea and seven points above United, and Van Gaal said Smalling’s red card was the turning point.

“In the derby you have to be careful. The second yellow card was stupid,” he told BBC Sport.

“As a player you have to control your aggression. I didn’t see the � rst yellow, but the second you know as a player you have a yellow, so you have to handle it di� erently. I said that to the players.”

Van Gaal said that the England defend-er had apologised for his dismissal and

was “very humble” about the incident.Van Gaal also lost Smalling’s cen-

tre-back partner Marcos Rojo after the Argentina international dislocated his shoulder in a sliding challenge early in the second period.

“The shoulder is out, so you never know how long that takes,” said the Dutchman, whose side host Crystal Palace next weekend.

“I have to wait until tomorrow (Monday), but he shall not play against Crystal Palace.”

City manager Manuel Pellegrini was relieved to see his side end a run of three games without victory, although he felt his team should have been awarded a penalty for a challenge on Yaya Toure by Rojo in the � rst half.

Louis van Gaal came to the defence of Marouane Fellaini after it appeared the Manchester United mid� elder had spat at Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero during Sunday’s derby match at Eastlands.

During the course of a typically � ery clash between the local rivals, which Premier League champions City even-tually won 1-0, Fellaini vented his an-ger at Aguero after the City striker ap-pealed for a penalty towards the end of

the � rst half. Aguero went to ground after Fellaini kicked his standing leg but no spot-kick was forthcoming.

Belgian international mid� elder Fel-laini was unimpressed with Aguero and shouted at the Argentina striker while the forward was down on the turf.

According to some observers, spit left Fellaini’s mouth in the midst of his verbal tirade but United manager van Gaal insisted it wasn’t an intentional act by his player. “The TV has shown

that he is shouting and sometimes when you shout there’s a little bit of sa-liva (that comes out) with it,” van Gaal said.

“I don’t think that he’s a spitting � g-ure,” the Dutchman added.

Fellaini endured a poor match at the Etihad Stadium, missing a chance to equalise with a poorly directed header after the impressive Aguero scored the only goal of the game when he turned in Gael Clichy’s cross in the 63rd minute. l

Manchester United mid� elder Marouane Fellaini allegedly spat on Manchester City striker Aguero during their derby match on Sunday INTERNET

Milan stunned by Palermon AFP, Milan

AC Milan’s six-match unbeaten run in Serie A came to an end in spectacular fashion as promoted Palermo ran out deserved 2-0 winners at a stunned San Siro on Sunday.

Following two consecutive draws, Filippo Inzaghi’s men had been look-ing for the win that would have hoisted them up to joint third place alongside Sampdoria.

But they were stunned by two goals in the space of three � rst-half minutes and, despite battling for the equaliser, were left with a second defeat of the season which kept them in seventh place.

Milan are nine points behind leaders Juventus but only three points o� the last Champions League qualifying spot now occupied by Sinisa Mihajlovic’s high-� ying Samp.

“Hats o� to Palermo,” Inzaghi told Sky Sport.

“I take full responsibility for the de-feat. We’re still growing and so there can always be bumps along the way but maybe we deceived ourselves.”

Milan welcomed ‘keeper Diego Lo-pez back to the starting line-up follow-

ing several weeks on the sidelines and mid� elder Riccardo Saponara returned after a six-month injury absence.

But Lopez found himself beaten when defender Cristian Zapata, who replaced Alex due to an injury after just three minutes, turned the ball into his own net from a corner on 23 minutes.

Earlier, Sampdoria reclaimed third spot thanks to a 3-1 home win over Fiorentina, while city rivals Genoa fought back to claim a precious 4-2 away win at Udinese.

Sampdoria now trail leaders Juven-tus by six points, with Roma in second three points o� the pace. l

Spurs edge 10-man Villan AFP, Birmingham

Substitute Harry Kane’s last-minute winner, his seventh goal in as many games, completed Tottenham Hotspur’s come-from

behind 2-1 victory at 10-man Aston Villa on Sunday as the visitors soared up the Premier League table.

Andreas Weimann’s 16th-minute goal gave Villa the lead but the hosts had to play the � nal 25 minutes a man down after striker Christian Benteke was shown a red card for a slap on the face of Spurs’ Ryan Mason.

Tottenham eventually made their advantage pay by scoring two goals in-side the � nal six minutes at Villa Park.

Nacer Chadli struck from a corner be-fore rising star Kane, a life-long fan of north London club Spurs and a product of their youth system, grabbed the win-ner. Victory saw Spurs climb to eighth place, six points above the relegation zone but Villa’s sixth league loss in a row meant they remained just two points above the bottom three.

“You always need all the players,” Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino told Sky Sports.

“Today Andros (Townsend), Erik (Lamela) and Harry (Kane) made a big impact.” l Gladbach equal club record

n AFP, Berlin

Borussia Moenchengladbach stayed within four points of Bundesliga lead-ers Bayern Munich on Sunday with a 3-1 win against Ho� enheim that saw them equal the club record for their longest unbeaten start to a season.

Gladbach have not lost any of their opening 17 matches this season to match the club’s record-breaking start to the 1970/71 campaign.

Left winger Patrick Herrmann was the star at the Borussia Park as he set up the � rst goal for opposite winger Andre Hahn, then netted twice either side of half-time.

Gladbach coach Lucien Favre cele-

brated his 57th birthday with the win which equalled a record set more than 40 years ago at the start of the club’s heyday.

Ho� enheim are fourth after their � rst defeat of the campaign. l

Musta� brace sees Valencia go secondn Reuters, Barcelona

A second-half double from defender Shkodran Musta� sealed a 3-1 victory for Valencia at derby rivals Villarreal that put them on the shoulders of La Liga leaders Real Madrid on Sunday.

Sevilla had earlier missed the chance to take top spot after a � rst-half Aritz Aduriz volley condemned them to a 1-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao.

It was not a pretty performance from Valencia but they were determined in defence and Musta� also showed his threat in attack as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side moved into second place, a point o� Real, with 23 points from 10 games.

Luck was on their side when Manuel Trigueros slid in to clear a So� ane Feg-houli cross and ended up putting the ball past his own goalkeeper after six minutes to give Valencia the lead.

Villarreal pressed forward looking for the equaliser but while they moved the ball around well they were missing the killer touch in the � nal third of the pitch.

Instead, midway through the sec-ond half, Musta� headed home a Pablo Piatti cross and then minutes later in another foray forward for a corner he slotted home on the volley.

Athletic’s La Liga form has su� ered as they have struggled with the extra demands of Champions League foot-

ball but they came out on top against Sevilla thanks to a well-struck volley from Aduriz in the centre of the penalty area after 13 minutes. l

SERIE AChievo 0-0 Sassuolo

Sampdoria 3-1 Fiorentina Palombo 27-P, Savic 45Rizzo 43, Eder 77

Torino 0-0 Atalanta

Udinese 2-4 GenoaDi Natale 1, Widmer 41 Marchese 21, Iago 24, Matri 54, Kucka 87

AC Milan 0-2 Palermo Zapata 23-og, Dybala 26

LA LIGAAthletic Bilbao 1-0 SevillaAduriz 12

Villarreal 1-3 Valencia Trigueros 88 Trigueros 6-og, Musta� 64, 73

Levante 2-1 Almeria Barral 25, Casadesus 75 (Jonathan 70)

Elche 2-1 Espanyol Jonathas 19, 52 Stuani 86-pen

BUNDES LIGAM’gladbach 3-1 Ho� enheim Hahn 12, Modeste 32Herrmann 32, 52

Cologne 0-1 Freiburg Darida 51

Paderborn 3-1 Hertha Berlin Bakalorz 28, Kalou 41Kachunga 53, Meha 76LIGUE 1

Nantes 1-1 Rennes Armand 21-og Pedro Henrique 4

Bordeaux 2-1 Toulouse Planus 52, Rolan 63 Pesic 68

Marseille 2-1 Lens Nkoulou 10, Thauvin 60 Guillaume 31

RESULTAston Villa 1-2 Tottenham Weimann 16 Chadli 84, Kane 90

Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane (R) celebrates scoring the winner against Aston Villa during the English Premier League match at Villa Park on Sunday AFP

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15

Djokovic on top of the world after Paris win and fatherhoodn AFP, Paris

It’s been quite a year for Novak Djokov-ic, who is driving towards another year-ending number one spot, recently becoming a proud father and winning his third Paris Masters crown for his 600th ATP victory.

The popular 27-year-old Serb said at the beginning of last week that be-coming a dad had already made him feel like number one, but he is also

doing his talking on the court, breez-ing through an elite � eld in the French capital without dropping a set.

His 6-2, 6-3 victory over big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic on Sunday em-phasised his dominance in world ten-nis, but there is still one tournament

to go at the season-ending World Tour Finals in London. His lead over Rog-er Federer in the ATP rankings is now 1,310 points with up to a possible 1,500 available to the winner in London.

Federer can also pick up a small amount of points when he plays the

Davis Cup � nal for Switzerland against France in Lille but it might be too late by then with Djokovic the man to beat heading to London. The other players to qualify are Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych, Marin Cilic and Raonic. l

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Gazi TV, BTV9:30PMBangladesh v Zimbabwe 2nd Test, Day 2Star Sports 27:30PMIndian Super LeagueChennai v KolkataUEFA Champions League Ten Action11:00PM Zenit St Petersburg v Bayer Leverkusen 1:45AM Real Madrid v Liverpool Ten Sports1:45AM Arsenal v Anderlecht Ten HD1:45AM Juventus v Olympiakos

WEDNESDAYGazi TV, BTV9:30PMBangladesh v Zimbabwe 2nd Test, Day 3Star Sports 12:45PMAustralia v South Africa 1st T20IStar Sports 27:30PMIndian Super LeagueMumbai v DelhiUEFA Champions League Ten Sports 1:45AM Manchester City v CSKA Mascow Ten Action1:45AM Bayern Munich v AS Roma Ten HD1:45AMAjax v Barcelona

DAY’S WATCH

IPL probe panel submits reportThe Mudgal committee investigating spot-� xing allegations in the Indian Pre-mier League cricket tournament submit-ted its � nal report to the Supreme Court on Monday, lawyers said. The apex court will deliberate on the � ndings on November 10 which could determine if world cricket chief Narayanaswami Srinivasan can seek re-election as president of the Indian board. “We have submitted the report in a sealed envelope to the court,” Raju Ramach-andran, lawyer for the panel, told AFP, without elaborating. The panel, which is headed by former judge Mukul Mudgal and includes ex-India captain Sourav Ganguly, had in February presented a sealed envelope to the court containing names of 13 individuals who needed to be probed further.

– AFP

Chelsea fans hit back after Mourinho blastChelsea manager Jose Mourinho has been told that if he wants Stamford Bridge to feel less like an “empty stadium” then the Premier League leaders must reduce their ticket prices. Mourinho was unhappy with the atmosphere generated during the early stages of Chelsea’s 2-1 win at home to west London rivals Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, saying it felt like an “empty stadium”. However, Chelsea Supporters’ Trust chairman Tim Rolls said Sunday that many younger fans were being priced out of the game and that this was the root cause of Mourinho’s complaint, with cutting the cost of watching the Blues the best way of generating more vocal backing. “We’ve got a situation at Chelsea and at other grounds where the atmosphere probably isn’t as good as it used to be,” Rolls said. “But there are clear reasons for that around the age of the supporter base. It’s £50-plus ($80, 64 euros) to go, and young people -- who are the most likely to sing and make noise -- have been priced out of the game.

– AFP

Kipsang, Keitany win New York MarathonKenyans Wilson Kipsang and Mary Keit-any surged at the � nish to win Sunday’s New York City Marathon, holding o� rivals over the closing strides in Central Park for narrow triumphs. Kipsang, making his New York debut, held o� Lelisa Desisa to win in an o� cial time of two hours 10 minutes and 55 seconds, defeating the Ethiopian by 11 seconds with Ethiopia’s Gebre Gebremariam third in 2:12:13. Kipsang looked Desisa in the eyes in the � nal stretch and then pulled away to claim the $100,000 (80,000 euro) top prize and take the 2013-14 World Marathon Majors bonus top prize of $500,000 (400,000 euros). “Towards the end, I saw Desisa was very close to me and very strong,” Kipsang said. – AFP

QUICK BYTESPakistan 1st innings 570-6 dec (Younis Khan 213, Azhar Ali 109, Misbah-ul Haq 101; M. Starc 2-86)Australia 1st innings 261 (M. Marsh 87; M. Clarke 47; Imran Khan 3-60)Pakistan 2nd innings 293-3 dec (Misbah-ul Haq 101 not out, Azhar Ali 100 not out; M. Johnson 2-45)

Australia 2nd inningsC. Rogers c Sha� q b Babar 2D. Warner c Shah b Hafeez 58G. Maxwell lbw b Babar 4M. Clarke b Babar 5S. Smith b Shah 97M. Marsh c Sha� q b Hafeez 47B. Haddin b Babar 13M. Johnson b Shah 0P. Siddle not out 4M. Starc b Shah 2N. Lyon c Ali b Shah 0Extras: (b5, lb1, nb3, pen5) 14

Total: (all out; 88.3 overs) 246Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Rogers), 2-31 (Maxwell), 3-43 (Clarke), 4-101 (Warner), 5-208 (Marsh), 6-238 (Smith), 7-238 (Haddin), 8-238 (John-son), 9-245 (Starc)Bowling: Rahat 8-6-3-0, Khan 8-1-29-0, Hafeez 17-4-38-2, Babar 32.3-2-120-5 (1nb), Shah 22-4-44-3 (1nb), Ali 1-0-1-0Note: Pakistan were penalised � ve runs after the ball hit the helmet placed behind the wicket-keeper Result: Pakistan won by 356 runsToss: Pakistan Umpires: Richard Kettleborough (ENG) and Nigel Llong (ENG) Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)

SECOND TEST, DAY 5

Pakistan spank sorry Australia for series winn Reuters

A de� ant Steve Smith tried to delay the inevitable before Pakistan crushed Australia by 356 runs in the second and � nal Test to complete a 2-0 series victo-ry in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Having set the visitors an improb-able 603-run victory target, Pakistan claimed the remaining six wickets in a little over a session on the � nal day to secure their � rst Test series victory against Australia in 20 years.

The win also saw them leapfrog England, Sri Lanka and India to rise to number three in Test rankings, behind South Africa and Australia.

Smith (97) added 107 runs with Mitchell Marsh in a rare display of Aus-tralian resistance in the two-match series before his post-lunch dismissal triggered a collapse with the visitors losing their last � ve wickets for only eight runs to be all out for 246.

“I think Misbah-ul-Haq and his team played some outstanding cricket in both Test matches and we’ve certain-ly been outplayed,” Australia captain Michael Clarke said at the presentation ceremony.

Zul� qar Babar (5-120) and Yasir Shah (3-44) once again laid bare Australia’s spin frailties even though Pakistan were without their main spinner Saeed Ajmal

who has been banned for an illegal ac-tion. Pakistan captain Misbah was ad-judged man-of-the-match for his twin centuries in the match, the second of which equalled Viv Richards’ record for the fastest Test century in 56 balls.

Run-machine Younis Khan, who hit two centuries and a double hundred in his four innings, was the obvious choice for the man-of-the-series award.

Resuming on 143-4, Smith and Marsh (47) frustrated the Pakistani bowlers with a century stand, showing the stomach for � ght which was miss-ing in their team mates.

Marsh, playing only his second Test, proved the perfect foil for Smith, whose

decisive footwork against the spinners and positive intent stood out in an oth-erwise Australian batting capitulation.

Marsh was looking set for his second � fty of the match when the 23-year-old walked into a leg-slip trap, � ick-ing o� -spinner Mohammad Hafeez straight into the hands of Asad Sha� q.

Smith hit Babar for successive boundaries to bring up his eighth Test half-century and meted out the same treatment to the spinner in the � nal over before lunch to cruise into the 90s.

Yasir denied the 25-year-old Smith his � fth Test century, trapping him leg before with the second delivery after lunch, which opened the � ood gates

and Australia collapsed in a heap.Smith hit 12 fours in his 204-ball

knock that proved there were no real demons in the dry and dusty pitch at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

Comprehensively beaten in the � rst Test in Dubai, nothing went right for Australia in the second Test either.

Not a single Australian managed a century in the Test while Misbah and Azhar Ali got hundreds in both innings and Younus struck 213 in the � rst innings.

Australia’s bowling limitations were also exposed as they could not bowl out their opponents even once, manag-ing nine wickets in the match bleeding 863 runs. l

Novak Djokovic kisses the trophy after winning the � nal match against Canada’s Milos Raonic in the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Paris on Sunday AFP

West Indies cricket chiefs seek help from politiciansn AFP, Port of Spain

West Indies Cricket Board o� cials are turning to Caribbean political leaders for support and guidance in the after-math of a US$42 million claim by Indi-an authorities following last month’s abandonment of the tour to India by the West Indies team.

On the same day, Friday, that the WICB received formal noti� cation of the claim from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, a meeting was held in Trinidad after which WICB president Dave Cameron con� rmed the involve-ment of regional leaders in seeking a resolution to both the impasse be-tween the players and their own play-ers’ association, which resulted in the abandonment of the tour, and the im-pending legal battle with the BCCI.

“This is a matter that we will en-list the support of Caricom (Caribbean Community) going, forward,” Cameron was reported as saying.

Dr Ralph Gonsalves, prime minis-ter of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada prime minister Dr Keith Mitchell were present at the meeting.

“I think what we have done, we have a

modality for the way forward, so that to us is very important,” Cameron added with speci� c reference to the players’ impasse. Cameron was among three WICB o� cials at the meeting in Port of Spain, which was also attended by Dwayne Bravo, captain of the One-Day International squad that left the tour following the fourth ODI in Dharamsala on October 17 and Test team captain Denesh Ramdin, who was also a member of the one-day team.

Wavell Hinds, the president of the West Indies Players Association, did not attend in person but contributed to the near six-hour dialogue by teleconference.

As the dispute became public during the ODI segment of the India tour, Bra-vo called for the resignation of Hinds over the signing of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement/Memorandum of Understanding between the WICB and WIPA in September which, accord-ing to the disgruntled players, slashes their overall earnings by 75 percent.

While there has been no o� cial con-� rmation of the speci� cs of the meet-ing, it is understood that the conten-tious CBA/MoU is to be renegotiated and the players will withdraw the call for Hinds’ resignation. l

Lippi retires from coaching, Cannavaro to replace himn Reuters

World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi has signalled an end to his stel-lar managerial career after the Ital-ian guided Guangzhou Evergrande to their fourth successive Chinese Super League title on Sunday.

The 66-year-old’s Chinese adven-ture was the � nal chapter in a remark-able coaching career that began with a host of managerial roles at lower league Italian clubs in the 1980s.

He went on to win � ve Serie A crowns during two separate stints with Juventus and secured a Champions League triumph with the club in 1996.

Lippi also had two stints with the national side with the highlight being when he coached Italy to victory at the 2006 World Cup. He resigned after the side put up a poor defence of their title in South Africa and joined Guangzhou.

“I will be 67 years old in the near fu-ture, and I do not want to be the head coach any more; but I will be in charge

of technical sta� as a member of the coaching team.”

At Guangzhou, he won the league and cup double in his � rst campaign before leading them to another league title plus the Asian Champions League last season.

Italy’s World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro was being hotly tipped Monday to replace his former national coach Marcello Lippi as boss of Guang-zhou Evergrande after the 66-year-old announced he was stepping aside. l

Wozniacki completes NYC Marathonn AFP, New York

Caroline Wozniacki says she’s pleased she beat her goal in the New York City Marathon, especially since her training routine included late nights and attend-ing a sporting event on the eve of the run.

“I’ve done everything you are not supposed to do before a marathon,” said the 24-year old Wozniacki. “I had a Halloween party three days ago and came back at like 4:00 in the morning.

“I’ve been really busy. Last night, I actually didn’t have much of a dinner because I went to the (New York) Rang-ers game. You are supposed to load up on carbs, but I didn’t have too much time for that.”

The WTA Tour tennis star � nished her � rst marathon Sunday in just un-der three hours, 27 minutes, saying she even had enough left in the tank to sprint the � nal few metres to the � nish line.

“It was incredible,” said Wozniacki, who set a goal of three hours, 30 min-utes.

“I’m so happy to have done this. I’m

so proud. Now I have this medal. I can say that I’ve done the New York City Marathon. I’ve even done it at a cool

time. So I’m really, really happy. “I’ve never tried anything this hard.

This is like toughest physical test ever. It was so hard. You have to keep going.”

The former world number one from Denmark said she would wait a few years before attempting a second mara-thon. She quali� ed for the Boston Mar-athon with her time Sunday.

“Right now I don’t think I’m going to do one for a few years, but probably at some point I’m going to do another one.”

Asked to compare running a mar-athon to a � ve-hour tennis match, Wozniacki said running 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) is much more di� cult.

“This is completely di� erent,” she said. “I had no idea what to expect when I went out there.

“Every time I go on the tennis court, I know exactly what to expect. I know what to do out there. Here I just knew I had to put one foot in front of the other until you see something saying � nish.”

Wozniacki was met at the � nish line by fellow women’s tennis star Serena Williams. Williams tweeted about the experience. l

Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki celebrates after � nishing the Pro Women’s division during the 2014 TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday AFP

Pakistan players celebrate with the trophy after beating Australia in the � fth day of the second Test in Abu Dhabi yesterday INTERNET

ATP RANKINGS Ranking Player ATP Points 1 Novak Djokovic (SRB) 10,0102 Roger Federer (SUI) 8,7003 Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6,8354 Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 4,8955 Kei Nishikori (JPN) 4,625

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

JSC, JDC exams rescheduled again for hartal n Abu Hayat Mahmud

The Junior School Certi� cate (JSC) and its equivalent Junior Dakhil Certi� cate (JDC) examinations have been once again rescheduled due to the hartal en-forced by Jamaat-e-Islami.

Accordingly, the JSC and JSD exams scheduled for November 5 and 6 will now be held on November 19 and 20 respectively, said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday.

The rescheduling decision was made at an emergency meeting chaired by the education minister, hours af-ter Jamaat called a 24-hour hartal for Wednesday (November 5) protesting the death penalty of the party’s leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court up-held the death penalty to Jamaat leader and war criminal Kamaruzzaman.

Earlier, the JSC and JDC examina-tions scheduled for November 2 and 3 were rescheduled for November 7 and November 14 respectively because of the Jamaat enforced hartal.

Around 21 lakh candidates are expect-ed to appear for the examinations this year. Frequent changes of exam dates have made the examinees, their parents, guardians and teachers deeply worried.

Earlier, Education Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan said that a decision was made to hold exams suspended for strike every Friday. “If strikes continue, exams will also be held on Saturdays.” l

Militants take terrorism to cyberspacen Mohammad Jamil Khan

A Bangladeshi terrorist group has taken to the cyberspace, claiming responsi-bility for murdering a university stu-dent and posting on its Facebook page a hit list of 15 bloggers it intends to murder, police investigators said.

“The newly formed extremist group announced its presence and intentions through social media and said its prime objective is to hunt down the noted bloggers of the country,” a high o� cial of the Detective Branch of Police told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The group, which calls itself Ansar al-Islam, is believed by the DB o� cial to be none other than militant out� t Ansarullah Bangla Team in high-tech garb.

The online militant out� t has tak-en responsibility for the September 30 slaying of Da� odil University student Ashraful Alam, 22, in Savar, as proof of its success.

Ashraf, a second-year student of science and technology at the univer-sity who lived in a rented home on a four-storey building in Ambagan area of Savar, was killed with a sharp weapon in his home by unidenti� ed assailants.

A murder case was � led with Ashu-lia police station.

Mohammad Rasel Shaikh, senior as-

sistant superintendent of police (ASP) of Savar Circle, who is coordinating the investigation of the murder case, told the Dhaka Tribune that police were in-vestigating the murder from a number of angles including the possible role of extremist groups, family con� icts and other personal issues.

Police have interrogated a number of suspects over the murder, the senior ASP added.

Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibili-ty for the grisly murder of the student on its now-defunct Facebook page, say-ing Ashraf harboured atheist beliefs, and had spoken against the Qur’an and Sunnah.

A DB high o� cial, requesting ano-nymity, said Ashraful’s murder bore a resemblance to the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider and there were similarities to the attacks on bloggers Rakib Al Mamun and Asif Mohiuddin.

“We know that at least 15 bloggers of the country are on the hit list of the extremist group and its Facebook page was shut down after October 28,” the DB o� cial said.

Monirul Islam, DB joint commis-sioner, told the Dhaka Tribune that the presence of the new extremist group was found on Facebook after the killing of Ashraful. He said police would keep an eye on Ansar al-Islam. l

ZUBAIR MURDER

Kadir sexually assaulted him, say police after getting full medical report n Mohammad Jamil Khan

The complete autopsy and forensic report of Zubair Ahmed, crucial to the murder case of the Uttara O-level stu-dent, has reached investigators of the Detective Branch (DB) of Police, DB sources said.

DB Sub-Inspector (SI) Nasiruddin, also the investigation o� cer of the case, collected the report from Dha-ka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) around 3:30pm yesterday. Investigat-ing o� cials are now analysing it.

Asked about its � ndings, SM Nazmul Alam, DB senior assistant commission-er (AC), told the Dhaka Tribune that investigators had yet to go through the report in detail but the � nding of the reports clearly states evidence of

intercourse. “This means our primary investigation was accurate and Zubair was sexually assaulted by the Algerian citizen,” he said.

Asked about the cause of death, he said investigators did not yet have a clear understanding of what happened.

“We need to analyse the forensic re-port and the statements of the eyewit-ness and accused to develop a clearer picture of the incident,” he said.

With the medical report in hand, we can now interrogate those who were at the crime scene and try to obtain more information from the accused, the sen-ior AC added.

Seventeen-year-old Zubair Ahmed was known to be a good swimmer but allegedly drowned in a shallow pond inside a park in Sector 4 of the capi-

tal’s Uttara neighbourhood on October 4. Police recovered his body from the pond after Abuubaida Kadir, an Alge-rian national, showed them where it was.

Kadir was later arrested in a murder case � led by Zubair’s family.

Kadir’s involvement in the murder was � rst suggested when the sole eye-witness to the incident, a 17-year-old boy, gave his confessional statement to investigators.

Kadir reportedly arrived in Bang-ladesh on a student visa but he never went back to Algeria.

Instead, he destroyed his passport and other documents and lived in Bangladesh illegally, posing as a local and giving a local address when signing up for a mobile phone service.

A DB high o� cial, requesting anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that investigators had contacted the Algerian Embassy in Pakistan. Investigators are trying verify a statement Kadir made to police claiming that he had applied to the embassy for a new passport after he lost his old dpassport after entering Bangladesh.

“We have a got a preliminary re-sponse,” the o� cial said, adding that the statement given by Kadir was false.

Both Kadir and the sole eyewitness, following their respective remand ses-sions, are in custody. A DB source said it will be necessary to interrogate Kadir and the teenage eyewitness about the incident again to clarify some aspects of the medical reports. l

Report: Hefazat sets Tk5 lakh bounty on Latif Siddique’s headn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Hefazat-e-Islam Ameer Allama Shah Ahmad Sha� and his close associates have put a Tk5 lakh bounty on the head of former telecom minister Abdul Latif Siddique for his derogatory remarks on hajj and Tabligh Jamaat, according to an intelligence report.

The report was sent to the Prime Minister’s O� ce late last month and of-� cials there forwarded it to the police headquarters via the Home Ministry, said police sources.

The bounty, the report read, was set during a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia on October 11.

Sha� held the meeting with Madhu-pur Pir Maulana Abu Hamid, Maulana Tajul Islam, Maulana Sajidur Rahman, Abul Hasnat Aminee, Mawlana Sha� -uddin, Mawlana Ataullah and about 100 other top Hefazat leaders at Kakiah of Mecca from 9pm till midnight on Oc-tober 11, according to the report.

The venue of the meeting was so se-cret that it was changed twice or thrice and the agenda included the organisa-tion’s activities, future plans and the Latif Siddique issue, it said.

Sha� told the attendees not to pay heed to rumours about his � nancial condition and also that of his family members.

“I am not into partisan politics. I, along with my followers, am working

to protect Islam, religious values and norms which is a kind of politics, and that is what I do,” he said.

The Hefazat chief said he does not work to support the Awami League or the BNP. He said there would be protests against any attack on Islam, regardless of the person making the attack.

“Hefazat does not care which party gets advantage and which does not as we do not work for anyone,” said Sha� , according to the report.

Home Ministry Senior Secretary Dr Mohammad Mozammel Haque Khan said he could not recount anything about the report while Joint Secretary Musta� zur Rahman said he was out-side the country when the report ar-rived at the ministry.

Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmud Khandaker, who is now in Monaco to participate in an Interpol conference, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone that he would look into the matter after returning home and sug-gested talking to Additional Inspector General of Police (administration) AKM

Shahidul Haque Khan.Shahidul, however, refused to talk,

saying he was busy. Hefazat Organising Secretary Azizul

Haque Islamabadi denied any closed-door meeting but said Sha� had met a few leaders of the organisation, who were in Mecca and Medina, during his stay in Saudi Arabia for hajj last month.

“They chie� y talked about organisa-tional issues. When Latif Siddique be-came the subject of the discussion, our ameer said Hefazat would go for stern protests if the government did not take any action against the former minis-ter,” he said.

“Hefazat is not against the law of the country and we do not � out the law,” he said, adding that any report claim-ing closed-door meetings in Saudi Ara-bia was fabricated.

Hefazat ameer’s son Anas Madani, who was with his father during hajj, refused to comment on the intelligence report despite repeated calls.

Latif drew � ak for his comments on hajj that he made while addressing a programme arranged by the expatri-ates from Tangail in New York in late September.

His derogatory remarks stirred up widespread criticism both at home and abroad. The government removed him from the cabinet on October 12 and also expelled him from the party after-wards. l

Allama Sha� and several Hefazat leaders meet at a secret rendezvousin Saudi Arabia

n BBC

US tightrope walker Nik Wallenda has successfully completed back-to-back high-wire walks above the city of Chicago, watched by thousands of people.

The 35-year-old achieved the two skyscraper crossings without a safety net or a harness.

He � rst walked up a steep incline be-tween buildings either side of the Chi-cago River.

Then, blindfolded, he crossed be-tween the two Marina City towers.

It took him six minutes 52 seconds

to complete the � rst stage 500ft (152m) above the ground – in winds that were gusting at up to 40km/h.

He then completed the 94ft between the two Marina City Towers in one min-ute 17 seconds.

The stunts were televised with a 10-second delay in case he fell.

On the ground, thousands cheered Wallenda – a seventh-generation tight-rope walker.

Wallenda – again blindfolded – then answered reporters’ questions. He has already walked across both the Grand Canyon and the Niagara Falls on tight-ropes. l

Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda makes Chicago crossings

Armed AL leader arrested from PM’s rallyn Tribune Report

An armed Awami League leader was detained by the police yesterday from the rally attended by Prime Minis-ter Sheikh Hasina in the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan.

Amir Hossain, president of Awami League’s ward number 92 unit, was

detained by the police while entering the rally venue through the Kali Tem-ple gate, said Shahbagh police station o� cer-in-charge Shirajul Islam.

Although the weapon was licensed, Amir was detained for security reasons as he carried a weapon inside the ven-ue of a rally where the premier attend-ed, the OC added. l

Germany pledges €211mfor Bangladeshn UNB

Germany will provide Bangladesh 211 million euro for bilateral technical and � nancial cooperation.

Of the amount, 140 million euro will be provided for improvement and establishment of energy transmission lines and substations with a view to ensuring a more reliable and e� cient energy supply.

Germany pledged the 211 million euro assistance at the two-day biannual

negotiations on development cooper-ation between the two governments, which concluded yesterday, reads a press release from Germany Embassy in Dhaka.

The German delegation led by Dr Wolfram Klein, head of the South Asia Division, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Bangladeshi delegation headed by Abul Mansur Md Faizullah, additional secre-tary, Europe Wing, Ministry of Finance, took part in the negotiations. l

Presence of vehicles remains no less than usual in capital’s Karwan Bazar yesterday, during the � nal day of the second phase of Jamaat’s hartal RAJIB DHAR

This critical patient with a broken hand travelled 45 kilometres on a rickshaw van to reach Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital from Natore during the second day of Jamaat-enforced 48-hour countrywide hartal yesterday AZHAR UDDIN

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014

B3 MetLife to meet skeptical regulators in bid to escape rules

B4 Cheaper tomorrow? Bank of Japan battles entrenched ‘de� ation mindset’

Tanners want banks implement relocation incentivesn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The tannery owners have demand-ed of the central bank and the gov-ernment to instruct all the banks to ensure full-� edged implemen-tation of the incentive package o� ered to help relocate the leather processing factories from Hazari-bag to Savar.

Bangladesh Bank on Sunday of-fered an incentive package includ-ing transferring irregular loans to block accounts, moratorium fa-cilities and � exible payment term for the owners to help move their factories to a designated industrial park in Savar.

The central bank came up with the directives as the tannery busi-nessmen were facing fund crunch to relocate their factories as per the government directives.

“We have just relaxed the rules

to give a cushion to the banks so that they can help tannery own-ers to meet fund shortage,” said Chowdhury Md Feroz Bin Alam, BB general manager of Banking Regulation and Policy Depart-ment.

“But if the banks do not comply, we cannot take action against them,” he said, adding that the government can direct them to do so.

The tanners had been demand-ing funds and policy support from the government and the bankers.

Bangladesh Tanners Associa-tion (BTA) General Secretary said: “O� course, the incentive package would help the owners relocate factories, if it is implemented.”

For full-� edged implementa-tion of the incentive package, the government and the central bank have to instruct all scheduled

banks to comply with the circular, he told the Dhaka Tribune.

The BTA has 155 members, of which 105 from tannery and 50 from � nished leather and footwear

exporters. About 80 tanneries al-ready had started the process of relocation and the rest would start soon.

“In the past, we had seen that

there were a number of initiatives for the sector, but we hardly saw any proper implementation and cooperation from the stakeholders concerned,” the tanners alleged.

“The initiative is praiseworthy and it will expedite the process of relocation,” Shaheen Ahmed, chairman of BTA said.

Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (Bscic) Pro-ject Director allocated 205 plots for relocation and distributed those among 155 tanners who were oper-ating in Hazaribagh.

The move of tannery relocation came following the widespread demands from the buyers and rights organisation from home and abroad to avert ecological impact and health hazards.

In recent times, some buy-ers specially from the US market warned that they would not source

anything from factories, which are not compliant, Mosharaf said.

To retain the buyers, making the factories compliant through relocation is a must, he added.

Following a public interest lit-igation, the High Court in June 2009 asked the government to relocate the tanneries from Dha-ka to a proposed leather estate at Harindhara, Savar by February 28, 2010 or face shutdowns. The gov-ernment has repeatedly sought more time.

According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), In the last � scal Bangladesh earned $1.30 billion, exporting leather, leather products and footwear.

Of the total amount, Bangla-desh earned $240 from leather products, $505.50 million from leather and $550 million from foot-wear.l

Data to take over voice soon Predicts a high o� cial of Banglalink’s parent company VimpelCom n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

A top o� cial of VimpelCom, Banglalink’s parent company, has pre-dicted the data communication will soon become the mostly used service of mobile phone operators in Bangladesh.

“Data will be the key driver (of earn-ings) within a short time where voice will be a related application of data, and people can talk with others buying data only,” said Mikhail Gerchuk, Chief Com-mercial and Strategy O� cer of Vimpel-Com in an interview with Dhaka Tribune.

He put the prediction during his recent visit to Bangladesh along with some other top executive o� cials. He also shared the group’s planning about Banglalink and talked about the cur-rent trends of global market of mobile phone industry.

Mikhail said Bangladesh is in the beginning point of transformation into data service as market is set to absorb all the modern services soon.

“Future customers will not spend for voice separately as voice will be an ap-plication where data will be main factor of choice,” the VimpelCom o� cial said.

He said there has been fast growth of data service use in the company’s di� erent operational market where the customers can buy data bundles to use voice and the operator can connect the users as a IP connector.

“...it is our forecast that Bangladesh is going to be one of the fastest data grow-ing countries,” said Mikhail Gerchuk,

He said VimpelCom has a very strong partnership with all the leading internet sites like Facebook, Google, Whatsapp, Viber and twitter.

This partnership has created a

very good competitive advantage for Banglalink compared to local compet-itor, according to him.

“If you compare our products with the local competitors, we are far ahead of them,” Mikhail said, “As global inter-net players are dominating everywhere so they will be the main thing to create di� erences with our other competitors.”

Talking about the company’s motto, Gerchuk said they mainly aim to satis-fy their customers and if customers are happy, Banglalink will be a pro� table � rm, and there is no other way to be-come a pro� table one.

Recently the second largest operator in the country Banglalink now enjoys having 3 crore active subscribers. Vimpel-Com said Banglalink will be a pro� table � rm soon. Gerchuk said many of the mobile users of Bangladesh already have two or more SIM cards and on this point Banglalink wants their SIM cards be the main SIM for the subscribers.

“As we have improved our network signi� cantly and we o� er very good products with attractive prices, we

believe these services can satisfy our customers.”

For last few years Banglalink has made a big investment to develop its network base. The o� cial said the com-pany also developed Internet speed and improved call drop problem. The regula-tor in their study found better quality net-work service from Banglalink, he added.

“We are inviting all the Banglalink subscribers not using the operator’s ser-vice as the main source to use it as the main one. I challenge they will take it as the chief operator after enjoying better service quality including network.”

Mikhail Gerchuk said they know that many customers think Banglalink network is good enough. “We are working to further improve it.”

“This type of perception is also a challenge for us and we will change this mind set as because we are here,” Mikhail said.

Currently VimpelCom is the seventh largest mobile group in the world. The group cites Banglalink one of their ma-jor ventures. l

Germany pledges 140m Euros to improve energy supply linesn Tribune Business Desk

Germany will provide Bangladesh 140 million Euros to support establishing a more reliable and e� cient energy sup-ply sytem.

It is a part of a total commitment of 211 million Euros under a bilateral technical and � nancial cooperation made at the concluding day of the two-day biannual negotiations on development coopera-tion between Bangladesh and Germany.

These funds will be used for the im-provement and establishment of ener-gy transmission lines and substations, said a press release issued in Dhaka yesterday.

Dr. Wolfram Klein, Head of the South Asia Division, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment led the German delegation to the negotiations while Abul Mansur Md. Faizullah, Additional Secretary, Europe Wing, Ministry of Finance led the Bangladesh delegation.

The funds will be made availa-ble in three priority areas “Renewa-ble Energies and Energy E� ciency”, “Good Governance/Rule of Law/Hu-man Rights” and “Adaptation to Cli-mate Change in Urban Areas” to be implemented by BGR, Institute for Geosciences, GIZ, the German Devel-opment Agency and KfW, the German Development Bank.

Since 1972, Germany has contrib-uted more than 2 billion Euros under the bilateral development cooperation with Bangladesh.

The German delegation compliment-

ed Bangladesh on its impressive eco-nomic development and improvements towards achieving the Millennium De-velopment Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

The stressed on developing a post-2015 agenda for sustainable develop-ment represents a central issue for the development debate of the coming months and years.

Poverty reduction and sustainable de-velopment are signi� cant challenges that need to be tackled by the whole international community on the basis of a new universal agenda.

In regard to creating conducive con-ditions for sustainable development the German side stressed the impor-tance of a constructive and open envi-ronment that allows for the participa-tion of all societal groups.

Bangladesh can be proud of the great achievements it has made in this area over the last few decades, the press release said.

The protection of human rights, transparency, favorable working con-ditions for NGOs, access to information and freedom of the media are essential for the development of a country, said the release. l

Five factors delaying foreign-funded projects n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Economic Relations Division has said the delay in implementation of foreign fund-supported projects is due to slow process of recruiting manpower, ac-quiring lands, approving projects, pro-curement of materials and appointing local or foreign consultants.

According to the o� cials, the aver-age time required for implementing a project is now 6 years, which the gov-ernment plans to reduce to below 5 years by mid-2016.

The reasons why the projects are delayed were discussed at a regular cabinet meeting yesterday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

PM directed the o� cials concerned to speed up the process though she said the use of funds was faster and more e� cient compared to neighbouring countries.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said a total of about $19.03bn (Tk146,530 crore) foreign grants are waiting to be disbursed for various projects as of June this year.

The amount has been accumulated since independence, of which, about $8.2bn were committed in last two � s-cal years only.

Bhuiyan said Bangladesh has re-ceived $86.89bn commitments from donors as of June since its Independ-ence and used $67.59bn of the amount to implement di� erent projects.

The government received the high-est fund commitments from its foreign donors in last two � scal years, which

has resulted in the increased fund to be in the pipeline.

An average time to implement a project with foreign fund is six years now. The government wants to make it faster and reduce the time to below � ve years by June 2016.

“Comparing with the other neigh-boring countries we are doing better in using foreign funds. However, we also

want to make it faster,” cabinet secre-tary quoted PM as saying.

The meeting reviewed that the FY2013-14 was the best year ever after Independence as around $3bn was re-leased from $5.6bn commitment.

Md Mujibul Haque Chunnu, state minister for labour and employment, said ERD cleared its position that the amount of unreleased fund increases

as the commitment increases. The meeting discussed the � ve rea-

sons behind delay in fund use or project implementation and asked the author-ities concerned to bolster the process.

“The PM directed the ERD o� cials and the other ministers to make the process faster,” Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told journalists after the cab-inet meeting. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presides over a regular cabinet meeting yesterday. She directed the o� cials concerned to speed up the process of implementing foreign-funded projects PID

Hard loan for peaking power plant approved Donors unwilling to lend for the 100MW peaking power plant to be set up in Chapainawabganjn Asif Showkat Kallol

The government has approved borrow-ing a hard-term � nance of US$112.7 mil-lion to set up a 100MW fuel oil-based peaking power plant in Chapainawab-ganj.

The fund is a part of the total loan of US$162.7 million approved by the Stand-ing Committee on non-concessional loan at its meeting yesterday, with Fi-nance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) had proposed for the commercial loan from a multinational bank in the wake of fund crunch, an of-� cial said after the meeting.

“As we have no other choice, the power division placed the proposal and the committee approved it today,’’ he said. Construction of the power plant has already been delayed by three years as the foreign donors are reluc-tant to � nance the project.

In accordance with the proposal, the funds would come from two sources – $112.7 million from multinational bank HSBC and the rest from the govern-ment of Belarus. The remaining fund, other than the power plant, would be used to procure vehicles for the city corporations and municipalities across the country.

“We have taken all the initiatives for the development of the power sector as the committee has already approved the long pending Chapainawabganj power plant project today,” Muhith said after the meeting.

“The government for the � rst time is going to get the supplier’s credit from Belarus for procuring vehicles and services for city corporations and mu-nicipalities under the government to government procurement framework,” a member of the committee told the Dhaka Tribune.

B3 COLUMN 1

Since 1972, Germany has contributed more than 2bn Euros under bilateral development cooperation

‘We had seen a number of initiatives before, but to no avail and no implementation of the steps’

Tuba Group faces legal action over workers’ dues n Tribune Report

The government yesterday � led a case with the labour court against the man-agement of Tuba Group as it violated law by not paying workers’ dues as per the law, o� cials said.

The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) � led the case against Delowar Hosa-sain, managing director of Tuba Group, as he closed � ve units unlawfully and did not pay workers termination bene-� ts and other dues, it said.

The management of Tuba Group did not shut factories as per the labour law and did not pay workers dues, said Syed Ahmed, Inspector General of DIFE.

“To ensure worker’s right and dues as per the laws we have taken legal ac-tion against the management.”

On August 18, Delowar announced shutdown of � ve factories of Tuba Group in line with article 13(1) of the Labour Act, 2006.

According to the Labour Act, 2006, the employers may, in the event of an illegal strike by any section or depart-ment of any establishment, close down either wholly or partly such section or department and the striking workers shall not be paid any wages for such a closure.

The closure of factories made 1,600 workers jobless. The � ve closed units were Tuba Fashions, Tuba Textiles, Mita Design, Taif Design and Bughsan Garments.

On July 28, at least 1,200 workers went on an inde� nite hunger strike at Hossain Market in Badda, demanding payment of three months’ wages, over-time and Eid bonuses. l

Mikhail Gerchuk

B2 Stock Tuesday, November 4, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosersSPCL: The Board of Directors has recom-mended 25% cash dividend and 5% stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014. Date of AGM: 29.01.2015, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Factory premises of the Company at Fatepur, Shahjibazar, Madhab-pur, Hobigonj. Record Date: 27.11.2014. The Company has also reported net pro� t after tax of Tk. 470.92 million, EPS of Tk. 4.13, NAV per share of Tk. 28.17 and NOCFPS of Tk. 16.42 for the year ended on June 30, 2014. The Company has also reported that the said EPS has been calculated based on Weighted Average Pre-IPO paid up number of Shares i.e. 114,118,000 shares. However, considering Post-IPO 126,798,000 num-ber of shares, Company's basic EPS would be Tk. 3.71.CVOPRL: (Q1): As per un-audited quar-terly accounts for the 1st quarter ended on 30th September 2014 (July'14 to Sep'14), the Company has reported net pro� t/(loss) after tax of Tk. 25.98 million with EPS of Tk. 1.31 as against Tk. (33.42) million and Tk. (1.69) respectively for the same period of the previous year. Accumulated pro� t/(loss) of the Company was Tk. (32.17) million as on 30.09.2014.AMBEEPHA: (Q3): As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 3rd quarter ended on 30th September 2014 (July'14

to Sep'14), the Company has reported net pro� t after tax of Tk. 4.61 million with EPS of Tk. 1.92 as against Tk. 4.41 million and Tk. 1.84 (restated) respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas net pro� t after tax was Tk. 8.42 million with EPS of Tk. 3.51 for the period of nine months (Jan'14 to Sep'14) ended on 30.09.2014 as against Tk. 7.52 million and Tk. 3.13 (restated) respectively for the same period of the previous year.KPPL: National Credit Ratings Limited (NCR) has announced the rating of the Company as "AA-" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to June 30, 2014.DULAMIACOT: The Company has further informed that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will now be held on November 05, 2014 at 3:30 PM to consider, among others, audited � nancial statements of the Company for the year ended on June 30, 2014.IPO Subscription: National Feed Mill Limit-ed subscription date 26 -30 October 2014, NRB upto 08 November 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscrip-tion period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for

entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Re-cord date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. BIFC: subscription period for rights issue of the Company will be from 09.11.2014 to 30.11.2014. Record Date for entitlement of rights share: 19.10.2014.Dividend/AGMANWARGALV: 7.50% cash dividend to the general shareholders, AGM: 12.01.2015, Record Date: 13.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 0.50, NAV per share of Tk. 8.11. DAFODILCOM: No dividend, 24.12.2014, Record Date: 20.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 0.73, NAV per share of Tk. 11.71.SAMATALETH: No dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 23.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 0.05, NAV per share of Tk. 14.98.AMCL(PRAN): 32% cash dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 13.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 6.93, NAV per share of Tk. 60.88.METROSPIN: 5% stock dividend, AGM: 30.12.2014, Record Date: 17.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 0.84, NAV per share of Tk. 19.29.PRIMETEX: 10% cash, AGM: 27.12.2014, Record Date: 13.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 1.17, NAV per share of Tk. 56.56.AGNISYSL: 10% stock dividend, AGM: 23.12.2014, Record Date: 16.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 1.01, NAV per share of Tk. 15.87.

Stocks slip for second day n Tribune Report

Stocks slipped for the second con-secutive session with volatility yes-terday, as the impact of war crimes verdicts in politics dampened inves-tors’ sentiment.

The market swung between gains and losses in the morning but late huge selling pressure pushed it down at the closing.

Dhaka Stock Exchange bench-mark index, DSEX, lost 40 points or 0.8% to close at 5,065, after hitting a month low in the previous session.

The Shariah DSES index fell almost 10 points or 0.8% to 1,195. The DS30 index comprising blue chip issues was down 24 points or 1% to 1,893.

Chittagong Stock Exchange Se-lective Category Index, CSCX, shed 47 points to 9,504.

The trading activities also re-mained slow with DSE turnover standing at Tk680 crore, a slightly up 7% over the previous session.

The market breadth also re-mained negative as out of 308 issues

traded, 131 gained, 147 declined and 30 remained unchanged.

All the heavy-weight sectors end-ed in the red with telecommunica-tion being the worst loser by 2.4%, followed by food and allied 1.3%, banks 1.2%, non-banking � nancial institutions 1% and power 0.8%. Pharmaceuticals edged lower.

But life insurance posted the highest return of more than 3%.

In its second trading day, Western Marine Shipyard added over 7% to its � rst day’s gain of 79% to close at over Tk67 a share on its o� er value.

It continued to get investors’ at-tention, being top of liquidity chart for the second consecutive session with turnover of Tk37 crore.

The ship building company also accounted for over 20% of the total market turnover.

LankaBangla Securities said the market lost breath and was subdued throughout the day.

Benchmark index breached the 5100 mark today as investors con-tinued to factor the � nancial per-formance of companies on equity market, it said.

LankaBangla said investors re-mained cautious as country is facing political deadlock owing to 72 hours of hartal this week.

Zenith Investments said the mar-ket stayed within the grip of correc-tion although some major stocks from di� erent sectors tried to rally through the trading day.

It said most of the sectors tried to balance the tug of war between both buyers and sellers, but at the end, the buyers were outnumbered by the sellers. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

SAIF Powertec-N -7.31 -2.39 87.47 83.70 96.00 82.00 21.762 2.54 34.4Shurwid Ind. -N -6.34 -1.67 48.94 47.30 51.50 46.10 8.296 1.64 29.8JMI Syringes MDL-A -6.07 -5.64 163.25 162.50 171.00 162.00 3.510 4.48 36.4Rangpur Foundry -A -5.70 -2.09 106.43 102.50 108.40 102.50 0.160 3.23 33.0Rupali InsurA -5.28 -5.28 25.10 25.10 25.50 24.70 0.010 2.52 10.0Asia Pasi� c Insu. -A -4.55 -4.55 21.00 21.00 21.00 21.00 0.011 2.32 9.1FarEast Knitting -N -4.39 -3.28 33.06 32.70 34.00 32.50 2.784 2.28 14.5ISN Ltd. -Z -4.35 -4.36 10.98 11.00 11.00 10.90 0.044 0.13 84.5City G Insu.-A -4.35 -4.35 19.80 19.80 19.80 19.80 0.002 1.89 10.5Continental Insur. -A -4.35 -5.38 22.00 22.00 22.00 22.00 0.011 2.27 9.7

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

SAIF Powertec-N -7.08 -0.24 89.09 84.00 99.40 82.00 165.240 2.54 35.1Kay & Que (BD) -Z -6.92 -5.68 12.28 12.10 13.10 11.80 0.356 -1.41 -veShurwid Ind. -N -6.59 -1.95 48.81 46.80 52.70 46.00 79.199 1.64 29.8Stylecraft -A -6.58 -6.58 875.00 875.00 875.00 875.00 0.088 44.98 19.5Shahjibazar Power-N -6.32 -12.00 189.34 185.40 218.90 175.00 161.699 3.71 51.0Libra Infusions-A -5.44 -5.51 380.00 380.40 380.60 380.30 0.152 5.92 64.2B I F C -A -5.33 -5.45 16.32 16.00 17.30 16.00 9.183 1.41 11.6Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z -4.76 -4.93 8.10 8.00 8.10 7.90 0.068 -48.70 -veNational Tubes -A -4.73 -3.75 162.59 159.00 169.40 157.50 37.241 4.96 32.8Mithun Knitting -A -4.62 -4.46 92.45 90.80 95.50 90.00 9.193 2.69 34.4

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

WesternMarine -N 1,139,200 77.42 14.99 66.60 6.90 62.30 69.90 65.00 67.96Khulna Printing-N 693,500 22.01 4.26 32.50 9.43 29.70 32.60 29.80 31.74SAIF Powertec-N 248,800 21.76 4.21 83.70 -7.31 90.30 96.00 82.00 87.47RAK Ceramics-A 312,439 20.33 3.94 65.90 6.81 61.70 66.30 61.00 65.06Keya Cosmetics -A 672,550 19.63 3.80 29.70 6.83 27.80 30.20 27.20 29.19Khulna Power-A 262,636 17.43 3.37 67.90 7.44 63.20 68.30 63.80 66.37S Purbanchol Power-N 261,305 15.93 3.08 61.40 5.32 58.30 62.70 58.10 60.96BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 406,651 15.90 3.08 38.80 -2.02 39.60 40.20 38.70 39.10Summit Power -A 360,598 15.88 3.07 44.10 2.08 43.20 44.50 42.90 44.04SummitAlliancePort.-A 163,678 11.48 2.22 70.80 9.94 64.40 70.80 65.00 70.16Grameenphone-A 29,800 10.95 2.12 362.80 -2.03 370.30 371.00 361.00 367.42FAR Chemical-N 266,100 9.76 1.89 36.50 -0.82 36.80 38.10 36.00 36.68The Peninsula CTG.-N 288,000 8.79 1.70 30.30 -1.94 30.90 31.30 30.10 30.52Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 379,500 8.49 1.64 22.20 0.45 22.10 22.80 22.00 22.36Shurwid Ind. -N 169,500 8.30 1.61 47.30 -6.34 50.50 51.50 46.10 48.94

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW Avg-Price

WesternMarine -N 5,454,300 372.94 5.48 67.30 7.34 62.70 70.00 66.00 68.37Keya Cosmetics -A 11,108,471 323.17 4.75 29.80 7.19 27.80 30.30 25.10 29.09Khulna Power-A 4,106,838 273.57 4.02 67.70 6.95 63.30 69.00 58.00 66.61Grameenphone-A 557,626 203.59 2.99 361.60 -2.45 370.70 373.00 360.10 365.10Summit Power -A 4,102,328 180.71 2.65 43.90 2.09 43.00 44.60 39.00 44.05S Purbanchol Power-N 2,924,392 178.48 2.62 61.40 5.68 58.10 62.80 52.30 61.03SAIF Powertec-N 1,854,800 165.24 2.43 84.00 -7.08 90.40 99.40 82.00 89.09Khulna Printing-N 5,135,500 162.63 2.39 32.40 9.09 29.70 32.60 29.60 31.67Shahjibazar Power-N 854,000 161.70 2.37 185.40 -6.32 197.90 218.90 175.00 189.34MJL BD Ltd.-A 1,193,445 158.52 2.33 131.20 -3.39 135.80 136.80 122.30 132.83SummitAlliancePort.-A 2,246,489 157.83 2.32 71.10 9.89 64.70 71.10 59.00 70.26BD. Thai Alum -B 3,490,079 142.39 2.09 41.60 9.76 37.90 41.60 36.00 40.80AFC AgroBiotech-A 2,417,300 138.30 2.03 59.10 8.44 54.50 59.60 50.00 57.21RAK Ceramics-A 2,070,914 134.59 1.98 65.70 6.14 61.90 66.50 55.80 64.99Square Pharma -A 455,394 125.13 1.84 273.80 -1.23 277.20 285.00 253.00 274.77

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 436.44 6.41 24.82 3.25 461.26 6.09NBFI 266.83 3.92 17.77 2.33 284.60 3.76Investment 56.37 0.83 4.58 0.60 60.94 0.80Engineering 1276.44 18.75 131.55 17.22 1407.99 18.59Food & Allied 205.02 3.01 45.55 5.96 250.58 3.31Fuel & Power 1465.84 21.53 110.22 14.43 1576.06 20.81Jute 2.26 0.03 0.00 2.26 0.03Textile 348.66 5.12 65.37 8.56 414.04 5.47Pharma & Chemical 1146.86 16.84 61.19 8.01 1208.06 15.95Paper & Packaging 164.24 86.66 11.34 250.90 3.31Service 339.29 4.98 33.78 4.42 373.07 4.93Leather 39.52 0.58 67.30 8.81 106.82 1.41Ceramic 146.49 2.15 21.01 2.75 167.50 2.21Cement 118.49 1.74 10.03 1.31 128.52 1.70Information Technology 83.42 1.23 26.67 3.49 110.09 1.45General Insurance 46.64 0.68 0.39 0.05 47.03 0.62Life Insurance 174.08 2.56 5.69 0.75 179.77 2.37Telecom 231.61 3.40 16.91 2.21 248.52 3.28Travel & Leisure 96.78 1.42 16.06 2.10 112.85 1.49Miscellaneous 163.87 2.41 18.49 2.42 182.36 2.41Debenture 0.08 0.00 0.03 0.00 0.12 0.00

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 5065.14491 (-) 0.78% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1893.79640 (-) 1.27% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 15619.2729 (-) 0.58% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 12838.5500 (-) 0.66% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 9504.8279 (-) 0.50% ▼

DSE key features November 3, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

6,809.23

Turnover (Volume)

153,920,360

Number of Contract 179,538

Traded Issues 308

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

108

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

195

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,702.63

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.76

CSE key features November 3, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 548.71

Turnover (Volume) 13,360,234

Number of Contract 28,143

Traded Issues 227

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

74

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

149

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,621.17

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.77

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

Investors remained cautious as country is facing political deadlock owing to 72 hours of hartal this week

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Aziz PipesZ 10.00 5.97 16.34 16.50 16.50 15.50 0.052 -0.37 -veSummitAlliancePort.-A 9.94 9.18 70.16 70.80 70.80 65.00 11.484 0.88 79.7Alltex Industries -Z 9.91 10.87 25.49 25.50 25.50 25.40 0.790 2.56 10.0Rahima Food -Z 9.78 7.74 49.43 49.40 49.50 49.10 0.445 -1.01 -veBD. Thai Alum -B 9.76 7.03 40.96 41.60 41.60 39.00 7.818 1.09 37.6Anwar Galvanizing-B 9.75 9.75 30.40 30.40 30.40 30.40 0.106 0.50 60.8Orion Infusions -A 9.74 8.41 57.59 58.60 58.70 53.50 3.559 4.81 12.0Khulna Printing-N 9.43 3.19 31.74 32.50 32.60 29.80 22.010 2.13 14.9AFC AgroBiotech-A 9.39 6.97 58.33 59.40 59.70 54.90 3.506 2.65 22.0Sonargaon Tex -Z 9.17 10.43 11.86 11.90 11.90 11.00 0.261 -0.84 -ve

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Dulamia CottonZ 10.00 10.00 9.90 9.90 9.90 9.90 0.470 -4.13 -vePrime Islami Life -A 10.00 2.84 95.80 97.90 97.90 91.00 8.038 4.95 19.4Savar Refractories-Z 9.96 9.96 56.30 56.30 56.30 56.30 0.011 -1.08 -veSummitAlliancePort.-A 9.89 9.30 70.26 71.10 71.10 59.00 157.829 0.88 79.8Quasem Drycells -A 9.88 6.91 55.05 56.70 56.70 50.00 93.158 2.24 24.6Rahima Food -Z 9.82 8.01 47.72 48.10 48.10 45.00 1.885 -1.01 -veAlltex Industries -Z 9.77 9.82 23.60 23.60 23.60 22.00 2.008 2.56 9.2BD. Thai Alum -B 9.76 6.81 40.80 41.60 41.60 36.00 142.388 1.09 37.4Anwar Galvanizing-B 9.76 8.27 31.17 31.50 31.50 29.10 5.455 0.50 62.3ICB Islamic Bank-Z 9.43 10.06 5.80 5.80 5.80 5.70 4.637 -0.71 -ve

ANALYST

The market stayed within the grip of correction although some major stocks from di� erent sectors tried to rally through the trading day

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Citi Foundation has recently launched Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards (CMA) programme in Bangladesh for the tenth consecutive year. The announcement came at a press conference, attended by the chairperson of the Advisory Council, Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud and Citi country o� cer, Rashed Maqsood, among others

City Bank has recently won the award - Best Consumer Internet Bank in Bangladesh - from Global Finance, a North America based leading global � nancial publications. The bank’s chairperson, Rubel Aziz received the award at a ceremony recently held in New York

Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd has recently inaugurated Sheba Mash 2014 at its Panthapath branch

Professional Advancement Bangladesh Limited (PABL), a subsidiary of Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd has recently organised a training program on underwriting (general insurance), in association with Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) (UK) for the company’s employees. Nasir A Choudhury, chairperson of PABL inaugurated the course at the presence of the company’s director, Farzana Chowdhury

Bangladesh Brand Forum has recently organised the 4th Commward. Santosh Ramesh Desai, MD & CEO of Futurebrands India Ltd has attended the event

NCC Bank Ltd has recently relocated its Kawran Bazar branch to new premises at Jahangir Tower, 10 Kawranbazar, Dhaka. The bank’s chairperson, Md Nurun Newaz Salim inaugurated the new premises as chief guest

MetLife to meet skeptical regulators in bid to escape rules n Reuters, Washington

MetLife, the largest US insurer, will make a � nal plea on Monday to a group of US regulators determined to subject it to tougher oversight as they probe which � rms could pose a risk to the larger � nancial system.

MetLife will meet behind closed doors the heads of the agencies grouped together in the Financial Sta-bility Oversight Council (FSOC), who want the Federal Reserve to oversee MetLife’s business and force it to meet higher capital standards.

Metlife, unlike counterparts AIG and Prudential which have already been deemed “systemic” by FSOC, has vig-orously fought the tag.

After FSOC in September proposed to add Met Life to that group, the insur-er’s chief executive Steven Kandarian hit back. He issued a statement saying MetLife was a source of strength dur-ing the 2008 � nancial crisis and that the insurer was “not ruling out any of the available remedies.”

But observers say MetLife faces an uphill battle, especially after an inter-national body of regulators had already deemed MetLife systemic on a global level in July 2013.

“MetLife has a strong case on the substance ... but the FSOC is not likely to listen,” said Phillip Swagel, a pro-fessor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy who was a se-nior Treasury o� cial during the recent credit crisis.

FSOC is housed within the Treasury Department, which also chairs the group, and is comprised of the leaders of all the major US � nancial regulators.

After hearing from MetLife on Mon-day, the � rst such in-person meeting between the insurer and the top regu-lators after months of sta� -level talks, regulators will have 60 days for a � nal decision. MetLife can challenge the de-cision in court.

Metlife declined to comment.

Shadow insurance The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street re-form act automatically designated

banks with more than $50bn in assets as “systemically important � nancial institutions.”

But it gave the risk council the pow-er to also tap � nancial � rms that are not banks, if they are so big and risky that their activities could destabilize US markets.

To date, the regulators who make up FSOC have not spoken publicly about MetLife. However, public documents justifying their designations of AIG and Prudential, and FSOC’s annual report, shed light on their concerns.

The watchdogs worry insurers have their � ngers in too many risky activi-ties even after the credit crisis, and that they are no longer just straightforward providers of traditional life or car in-surance policies. One issue likely to be weighed is captive reinsurance, an ac-counting practice through which life insurers can lower their reserves, or funds set aside to pay claims.

In captive reinsurance, life insur-

ance companies transfer risk to enti-ties a� liated with their business in overseas jurisdictions or US states with light-touch rules, which allows them to free up regulatory capital.

Benjamin Lawsky, the New York Superintendent for Financial Services, has stopped issuing licenses for such activity, which he called “shadow in-surance,” while Vermont and Delaware still actively court the business.

In an apparent e� ort to reduce some scrutiny, MetLife last year announced it would merge three of its life insur-ance companies and a Bermuda-based captive reinsurance unit into one U.S.-based company, to “address regulatory concerns about the use of captive rein-surance.”

Another point regulators have looked into is securities lending. Insurers hold huge portfolios of stocks and bonds that they often lend out, typically to broker-dealers or hedge funds, backed by col-lateral, in return for a small fee.

This is generally seen as a low-risk ac-tivity, but played a key role in the near-collapse of AIG, which was reinvesting much of its collateral in often complex and risky instruments that rapidly lost their value when the crisis hit.

Insurers say such risky behavior is a thing of the past, yet they continue to lend out considerable amounts of secu-rities. MetLife’s securities lending port-folio ended 2013 at $28bn, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Lastly, regulators are wary about a possible run on an insurer much in the same way as on a bank. The industry is � ercely contesting this perception, say-ing their business model is di� erent, and funding more stable.

But the Federal Insurance O� ce, a Treasury unit that monitors the indus-try, last year pointed out that AIG was not the only US insurer in trouble. Insur-ers Hartford Financial Services Group and Lincoln National Corp both received taxpayer aid during the crisis. l

The MetLife building is seen in New York REUTERS

Argentina default spreads to Par bonds, risking payment demands n Reuters, New York

Argentina’s debt default spread to its Par bonds on Friday after the country failed to complete an interest payment, raising the risk that creditors could demand that the country’s cash-strapped government immediately repay all of its debt.

Argentina deposited a $161m pay-ment with a newly appointed local trustee last month to try to circumvent US court orders for it to settle with “holdout” investors. The holdouts are suing to get full repayment of bonds from a 2002 default before holders that accepted the terms of a debt restructur-ing get paid by the government.

But Par bondholders could not col-lect the $161m payment due to legal and technical hurdles, and the 30-day grace period since the coupon was originally due expired at midnight Thursday.

Argentina’s economy ministry has not said whether any bondholders have come forward to collect.

Argentina had already defaulted in July on its discount notes, but holders of the Par bonds might be more likely to claim accelerated payment of the principal because the Par bonds are trading at a steeper discount to their original value. Demands for acceler-ated payment could leave Argentina facing claims of up to $30 billion, more

than it holds in foreign reserves.

Downgrade Fitch Ratings weighed in on Friday by cutting Argentina’s foreign law Par bonds to the rock bottom level of “D”, for Default.

“The only exchanged foreign cur-rency bond under foreign law that re-mains performing is the Global17 bond, which has a coupon payment sched-uled for Dec 2,” the credit ratings agen-cy said in a statement.

Sources owning Argentine debt say other creditors have approached them about forming a group to accelerate payment. The move would require the backing of investors holding at least 25% of the nominal amount of any sin-gle bond series.

“We were asked in very theoretical terms what our thoughts were on ac-celeration,” said one source. “It was something intermediated by an invest-ment bank. The shop leading the o� er did not want to be identi� ed.”

Analysts say many investors will be hesitant about such a move as it could mean costly litigation with an uncer-tain outcome. It could also trigger a balance of payments crisis and further damage Argentina’s ailing economy, making an eventual payment even more di� cult. l

Expo Milano to begin from next May n Tribune Report

An 184-day fair titled Expo Milano 2015 is going to be held in Italy next with its theme – Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.

The expo will kick o� from May 1 and continue to October 31, 2015, said a press release.

Some 130 participants are expected to attend the fair that will run for over six months and is expected to welcome over 20 million visitors, added the release. Bureau International des Expositions of Italy will host the giant expo.

The aim of the programme is to bring to life a unique experience for visitors and building awareness about right to food that is healthy, safe and su� cient and about environmental, social and economic sustainability of food chain.

Lara Travels and Tourism will pro-

vide support for ticketing, hotel reser-vation and transport arrangement. It will give full assistance to the visitors opting to join the expo from Dhaka.

Expo Milano 2015 is a global event char-acterised by its nature of uniting many di� erent voices, basing its success on the involvement of all various players taking part in it.

The universal exposition bears a re-sponsibility to leave a cultural, social, scienti� c and technological heritage, and the Expo will build this legacy. l

US dollar trades near seven-year high against yen n AFP, Singapore

The US dollar traded near a seven-year high against the yen yesterday after Japan’s surprise decision to widen its stimulus and speculation that US inter-est rates could be raised sooner rather than later.

The greenback bought $112.72 - its highest since December 2007 - in Sin-gapore afternoon trade, compared with $112.35 yen in New York late Friday.

The euro was at $1.2485 against $1.2525, while it also bought 140.70 yen compared with 140.71 yen. Japanese markets were closed for a public holiday.

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) said the dominant in� uence on markets was the Bank of Japan’s sur-prise announcement on Friday that it would expand its already vast asset-

purchasing scheme to try to kickstart the economy. Policymakers at Japan’s central bank said they would add up to 20tn yen to the scheme, bringing it to 80tn yen annually.

The decision follows a series of poor data that has fanned fears the world’s number three economy, which con-tracted in April-June, may shrink again in the following three months - techni-cally putting it in recession.

In the United States, UOB said deal-ers are focused on US jobs data that will be released on Friday.

“The US jobs data could swing mar-ket expectations for the Federal Re-serve’s future course of interest rate actions,” the Singapore lender said.

The Fed’s optimistic comments last week on the state of the jobs market were seen as more hawkish than in the

past, fuelling speculation of a possible earlier rate rise.

The US central bank said in a poli-cy statement last week it would keep near-zero interest rates for “a consider-able time” after the end of the quanti-tative easing programme, sticking to its timetable of an increase well into 2015.

UOB said the US unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 5.9% , while the non-farm payrolls data will likely show an addition of 215,000 jobs in October, compared with 236,000 jobs in September.

The greenback was higher against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.

It rose to Sg$1.2874 from Sg$1.2805 in Tokyo on Friday, to Tw$30.47 from Tw$30.42, to 1,073.10 South Korean won from 1,065.95 won, and to 44.98 Philippine pesos from 44.86 pesos. l

Hard loan for peaking power plant approved B1 COLUMN 2“Belarus government will give services to the city corporations and munici-palities in next eleven years as per the credit agreement signed between Ban-gladesh and Belarus with an interest of 6%,” said an o� cial. HSBC will charge interest at LIBOR (London Inter-bank o� ered rate) plus 5% rate.

According to Power Division sourc-es, the government is yet to start the construction work of the power plant due to crisis of foreign funds, especial-ly from the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Although tender was earlier � oated on September 9, 2011, the Bangladesh Power Development Board so far failed to attract potential donors for imple-menting the vital project, which will be completed within 450 days since beginning of the works, o� cials said. l

Expo Milano 2015 is a global event characterised by its nature of uniting many di� erent voices

Aamra Open House 2014 held n Tribune Business Desk

“Aamra Open House 2014”, an annual networking event of Aamra companies, was recently held at a city hotel for its valued customers, partners, vendors and stakeholders.

The day-long event held on October 28 attracted around 2000 invited par-ticipants from all industries and posi-tions, said a statement of the company.

The mufti-faceted event, in its fourth edition, was an opportunity to meet and network with the valued cus-tomers, partners, vendors and stake-

holders in a relaxed environment. “We are pleased to see that our part-

ners and guests are happy with the ac-tivities that have been planned while designing the event. Our goal has al-ways been to create a platform where all stakeholders can have an e� ective inter-action that can improve their respective businesses,” said Syed Farhad Ahmed, managing director of Aamra companies.

On behalf of the company, he also thanked all its stakeholders, partners and guests for making the event suc-cessful through their lively participa-tion. l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, November 4, 2014

DILBERT

Cheaper tomorrow? Bank of Japan battles entrenched ‘de� ation mindset’ n Reuters, Tokyo

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Ku-roda does not need to convince Japa-nese people like Kazue Shibata that de� ation brings problems, but getting them to believe that higher prices will make things better is proving to be a harder sell.

Shibata, 65, who runs a small dress shop in central Tokyo, worries the BOJ’s mission to hit a 2% in� ation tar-get could end up driving business away unless people also have more money in their pockets.

“If prices rise, people might not buy as much,” she said, echoing a concern of many private-sector economists.

On Friday, Kuroda’s BOJ doubled down on a high-stakes bet that the cen-tral bank can shake Japan’s consumers from a defensive set of expectations hardened by a decade and a half of falling prices, lower incomes and stop-and-go growth.

“It’s important for the BOJ to strong-ly commit to achieving its price target to get that price target � rmly embed-ded in people’s mindset,” Kuroda said at a news conference on Friday, after the BOJ stunned markets with an un-expected expansion of its monetary stimulus program.

“It won’t do much good in trying to shake o� the public’s de� ation mindset if you just say in� ation will reach 2% some day,” Kuroda said.

At the core of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” agenda is the as-sumption that the outlook for sus-tained in� ation will prompt consumers to anticipate rising prices, and that con-sumption will rise as a result.

That represents a sea change for a country used to de� ation, where cling-ing to cash today meant greater buying power tomorrow, a set of expectations that has proven hard to shake a year-and-a-half into an unprecedented eas-ing by the BOJ.

Japan’s economy, which has been hit by four recessions since 2000, is now on track to grow just 0.5% in the year to March, according to a revised projection by the central bank.

Shibata, who has run a shop in To-

kyo’s Higashi Azabu neighborhood of-fering ready-to-wear attire and custom-made items for about three decades, has seen the pain from that kind of slow growth - and falling prices - on her business.

“The prices people were willing to pay for order-made clothes fell, until they were almost the same as ready-to-wear,” said Shibata, sitting in a cush-ioned chair next to her sewing machine.

Been down so long In announcing its program of expand-ed asset purchases, the BOJ stuck with projections that it could hit Kuroda’s 2% in� ation in the � scal year beginning next April.

But Japan’s annual core consumer in� ation slowed for a second straight month in September, adding to scep-ticism among economists that goal is within reach.

Moreover, the UTokyo Daily Price

Index, a gauge maintained by econo-mists at the University of Tokyo that tracks point-of-sales data for as many as 200,000 food items and daily neces-sities, has trended downwards after a spike in spring linked to a hike in the sales tax. That means that the falling prices people see every day reinforce the kind of “de� ation mindset” that Kuroda hopes to break.

Kaoru Sakai, 65, who runs a hair salon in Tokyo’s Nakano district, did not raise prices even after the national sales tax was raised to 8 percent to 5 percent in April, worried the sticker shock could scare away business.

“The fact is that people don’t feel con� dent about the future,” Sakai said. “Our society and economy has tilted people toward lower-end options. For example, it’s like people choosing to eat at fast-food places, or standing-only soba shops even when they could, realistically, eat at proper restaurants.”

Unless Japanese people see real progress in solving fundamental prob-lems, such as lack of wage growth, a shrinking manufacturing base, and an unsustainable welfare system, many might prefer the problem they know to the one Kuroda hopes will replace it.

Classical economics would argue that consumers should welcome de-� ation, because it increases their pur-chasing power, an argument some con-sumers echo.

“De� ation re� ects the underlying economy. Our population is decreas-ing, production is low and we’re not seeing innovation. We are losing power compared with other countries,” said Yohei Tanaka, 33, an accountant in To-kyo, who said his salary has not risen since Abe took o� ce in December 2012.

“I don’t think this is the time to drive the economy to in� ation. I don’t think in� ation is the end solution. De� ation, in a certain way, is good.” l

Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda points to a placard showing BOJ policy decisions during a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo REUTERS

A customer holds an energy drink can in front of a warning poster informing that energy drinks cannot be sold to minors at a shop in Vilnius on November 1, 2014, on the ban's o� cial start. Lithuania became the � rst country to ban energy drinks for anyone under 18, in what o� cials here dubbed a global � rst amid health concerns AFP

Apple Pay fails to unify fragmented market n AFP, Washington

Apple Pay, meant to inject momen-tum into a fragmented market for the emerging mobile payments sector, has instead highlighted the squabbles be-tween retailers and the banking and payments industry.

Since Apple Pay made its debut October 20 for US customers with the iPhone 6, several major retailers have said they would not use it.

That includes number one retail group Wal-Mart and the large pharma-cy-retail group CVS, which has disabled payment terminals that could accept Apple Pay.

“You’re never going to come up with anything as smooth (and) as easy as Ap-ple Pay. But if you can’t use it, you’re go-ing to use something else,” said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner who follows mobile payments. Litan said a few re-tailers, such as McDonald’s and Disney, like the system because it speeds trans-actions and “every fraction of a second goes to the bottom line.”

But she noted that for most retailers, credit card fees simply are too high.

Apple Pay has aligned itself with major banks and payment processors Visa and MasterCard, which take a cut of every transaction, typically two to three percent.

Retailers, which often operate on razor-thin pro� t margins, would like to cut or eliminate those fees, and Apple Pay does nothing to change that system.

“Most of the merchants have been hungry for competition,” Litan said.

Stuck in neutral Gartner projects mobile payments will hit $721bn around the world by 2017. But some estimates have been lowered recently amid squabbles over the type of technology used and payment structure.

Apple uses a “near � eld communica-tion” or NFC chip, similar to that used by Google Wallet and Softcard, which has been slow to gain traction.

Although Apple has signed on most major US banks, Visa and MasterCard, and retailers like Macy’s and Staples,

many others are balking. A coalition of merchants led by Wal-

Mart, Target and Sears called MCX is promoting its own system called Cur-rentC, using a di� erent technology, and importantly, allowing retailers to bypass credit cards and use direct bank debits with lower transaction costs.

Apple Pay “really falls short when it comes to merchant value proposition,” said Litan.

Nitesh Patel, analyst with Strategy Analytics, said retailers are not nec-essarily targeting Apple but want “to avoid what they believe are excessive swipe fees and the cost of upgrading hardware and software to accept con-tactless payments.”

But he added that if Apple Pay catches on, the retailers will be forced to go along.

Patel said, however, that if the retail-er sector does not unify around the con-tactless system used by Apple Pay, us-ers may revert to their old habits, “since they will need to carry their payment cards and wallet with them anyway.”

“This is a challenge that all propo-nents of contactless payments, Google Wallet, Softcard and Apple Pay face to-gether,” Patel told AFP.

The merchant system got a black eye when it revealed a data breach expos-ing customer emails, even though the app itself was not a� ected.

Forrester Research analyst Denee Carrington said security is an advan-tage for Apple.

“Apple Pay is highly secure, and the

data privacy will mean that merchants are less likely to be hacked since they won’t have card payment data that hackers are interested in,” she said.

“Apple Pay is also very fast and con-sumers seem to like it as well.”

Battle for customer data Bob O’Donnell at Technalysis Research said Apple’s privacy protections make the system less attractive to retailers, because they cannot as easily track customer habits to deliver coupons or marketing messages.

“They want that data,” O’Donnell said. “That’s why the grocery stores give you the loyalty cards.”

O’Donnell said Apple has created excitement about mobile payments but has failed to bridge the di� erences among the market players.

“It gives momentum to the sector but it remains fragmented,” he said.

“Apple Pay provides an example of the promise and the challenges of mo-bile payments in a very clear way.”

Litan said meanwhile that the squabbles could intensify. And she not-ed that retailers which are disabling the ability to use contactless NFC technolo-gy could also be blocking rival systems.

The merchant-sponsored system uses a more cumbersome technology that requires customers to scan a QR (quick response) code and display that. But by bypassing the credit card sys-tem, it can reduce costs for merchants, who may pass on these savings to cus-tomers. l

China October services growth slips to nine-month low, property weighs n Reuters, Beijing

China’s services sector grew at its slow-est pace in nine months in October as a cooling property sector weighed on de-mand, a survey showed yesterday, add-ing to signs of fragility in the world’s second-largest economy.

The services sector has been more resilient than the manufacturing sector and is creating more jobs, which partly explains why the government has so far refrained from more aggressive policy easing in supporting the slowing economy.

The o� cial non-manufacturing Pur-chasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 53.8 in October from September’s 54, which was the weakest reading since January, the National Bureau of Statis-tics said.

But it was still comfortably above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.

The sub-index of new orders inched up to 51 in October from September’s 49.5, which was the lowest since De-cember 2008.

“Sub-indices for sectors such as rail-

way transport and real estate remained below the 50 point and market demand weakened,” the bureau said.

The sub-index measuring employ-ment fell to 48.9 in October - the fourth straight month when it was below 50, and was down from September’s 49.5.

An o� cial survey published on Sat-urday showed China’s factory activ-ity unexpectedly fell to a � ve-month low in October as � rms fought slowing orders and rising costs in the cooling economy, reinforcing views that the country’s growth outlook is hazy at best. l

China PMIs point to cooling economic momentum n Reuters, Beijing

China’s economy lost further momen-tum heading into the fourth quarter as a cooling property market weighed on activity and export demand softened, surveys showed on Monday, putting Beijing’s o� cial target for the year at even greater risk.

Analysts had already expected full-year growth to miss the goal of around 7.5%, but many thought there may be some signs of stabilization in the world’s second-largest economy late in the year after a � urry of stimulus measures.

Instead, the surveys showed demand at home and abroad continued to cool and the labor market remained under stress, while adding to fears that many companies are being starved of credit as banks grow more reluctant to lend.

And measures announced in late September to shore up the slumping housing market so far seem to be hav-ing little e� ect, reinforcing expecta-tions that Beijing will have to stump up more support.

“Growth momentum is slowing go-ing into the fourth quarter,” said Kevin Lai, senior economist at Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong.

“Exports were quite strong the last couple of months but that was mostly driven by electronics demand. So the orders for iPhones etc. have cooled down again. Europe and Japan are still struggling, so that is not good news.”

Growth in China’s services sector slipped to a nine-month low of 53.8 in October, the weakest reading since January, from September’s 54, the Na-tional Bureau of Statistics said.

It was still comfortably above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction, but readings on ar-eas such as real estate and employment continued to shrink.

Home prices in China dropped for a sixth consecutive month in October, a separate private survey showed on Fri-day, pointing to a persistent downturn, despite government e� orts to lift the market.

Beijing is counting on strong job growth in the services sector to o� set

that weakness, and top policymakers have insisted that the labor market re-mains resilient.

FACTORY GROWTH ALSO FRAGILE Another o� cial survey on Saturday

showed factory activity unexpectedly fell to a � ve-month low in October as � rms fought slowing orders and rising borrowing costs.

A private factory survey by HSBC/Markit on Monday showed a similar worrying trend. Though overall growth picked up slightly, growth in new or-ders and new export orders - proxies for domestic and foreign demand - fell to their lowest in four to � ve months.

Exports have been one of the lone bright spots for the economy, and helped o� set weaker internal demand in the third quarter.

Tommy Xie, an economist at OCBC Bank, estimated that without � rmer exports, the economy would only grow an annual 6.7% in the � rst three quar-ters this year - the slowest since the 1998 Asian crisis.

The o� cial PMI is focused on larger, state-owned factories, as opposed to the HSBC/Markit PMI which focuses more on smaller manufacturers in the private sector.

MORE SUPPORT MEASURES Most analysts believe authorities

will announce further modest support measures in coming months to sup-port growth, but they are divided over whether policymakers will act more aggressively, such as by cutting interest rates, unless there is a risk of a sharper slowdown.

Barclays expects a bolder policy re-sponse soon.

“We maintain our forecast for two, 25-basis-point cuts in benchmark in-terest rates, one in Q4 14 and one in Q1 15,” the bank’s economists said in a re-search note.

“Weakening October o� cial PMI, soft domestic demand and rising disin-� ationary risks are adding to the prob-ability of more monetary easing. We also note that the PMI shows that the targeted easing measures are not e� ec-tive in supporting small- to medium-size enterprises.” l

Japan economy minister calls for � scal stimulus if third-quarter GDP data weak n Reuters, Tokyo

Japanese Economy Minister Akira Am-ari said yesterday that the government should deploy fresh � scal stimulus to prop up the economy if third-quarter preliminary gross domestic data due on Nov 17 turns out weak, public broad-caster NHK reported.

Amari also said the stimulus steps should be taken regardless of Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe’s decision by year-end on whether to proceed with a second sales tax increase planned for next year aimed at reining in massive public debt.

The comments came days after a shock move by the Bank of Japan to expand its massive monetary stimulus raised speculation that Abe would go ahead with the next tax hike in Octo-ber, if it were followed by promises of added � scal steps to o� set a tax pain.

Amari said additional � scal stimulus should be aimed at stimulating private consumption, particularly low-income groups and families with children, hit hard by April’s tax hike to 8% from 5%.

The government plans to raise the levy to 10% in October next year. But April’s tax hike triggered the deepest

economic slump since the 2009 global � nancial crisis, when the economy contracted an annualised 7.1% in the second quarter, and a weak recovery in the following quarter cast doubt about the next tax hike.

Amari, speaking at a seminar, noted some private-sector economic fore-casts for July-September are said to be short of an annualised 2%, compared with an initial projection of above 4% growth, according to NHK.

Analysts polled by Reuters expect an annualised 2.9% bounce in July-September. l