Benzema breaks 10-man Hondurasn AFP, Porto Alegre

France beat 10-man Honduras 3-0 in a bruising World Cup clash early today where goal-line technology awarded the � rst international goal in history, causing mayhem in the process.

Three minutes into the second pe-riod, the German-manufactured Goal Control system was called into action when a volley from Karim Benzema, who ended the night with two goals, came back o� the post. It bounced back into the area before hitting Honduras goalkeeper Noel Valladares with the ball then diverted back towards the goal.

The keeper tried to scoop the ball to safety, but Brazilian referee Sandro Ricci awarded the goal – classed as an own-goal – after consulting the instant technology.

France, whose 2010 World Cup was a footballing and public relations disaster, dominated the Group E match, twice hitting the woodwork in the � rst half.

First, Blaise Matuidi � red the ball towards the target but Valladares saved well and pushed the ball on to the crossbar.

Then, on the 23 minute mark, An-

toine Griezmann, selected ahead of Olivier Giroud, climbed above the de-fence but headed on to the bar.

Stoke City mid� elder Winston Pala-cios was yellow-carded for a brutal stamp on Pogba with the Frenchman also booked for a retaliatory kick.

Palacios was then red-carded in the dying moments of the half for another

foul on Pogba inside the box.Benzema converted the resulting

penalty for his seventh goal in his last seven internationals.

The Real Madrid striker then played the crucial role in his team’s historic second goal before striking his second of the night from a tight angle in the 72nd minute. l

Messi begins journey towards immortality

Argentine icon Lionel Messi is de� nitely feeling the pressure of delivering the very best as he skipped the

pre-match presser ahead of his side’s World Cup opener against Bosnia at the magni� cent Estadio do Maracana yes-terday. The nearly 500-capacity confer-ence room was brimming and waiting to catch a glimpse of the prince who is yet to ascend the throne of the World Cup but the expectations did not meet the reality.

Coach Alejandro Sabella and � rst-choice goalkeeper Sergio Romero in-stead took the seats in the press con-ference, much to the dismay of the journalists present.

Messi has remained tight-lipped since arriving in Brazil and is yet to face the media. Media people were eager to hear some words from him but the

Argentine captain preferred to stay be-hind the curtains. Isn’t it the truest of indications that “the Messiah” does not want any unwanted distractions this time around and is fully focused on the job at hand?

Following the presser, the Argentine team management declared that their practice session will be open to the press for 15 minutes. The press wast-ed little time and � ocked to the media tribune to have a glimpse of the four-time world footballer of the year. Clad in a black jacket, Messi was seen shar-ing a light moment with fellow team-mate Sergio “Kun” Aguero before the Argentine trainer initiated the stretch-ing session. Messi was quick to react to instructions, pulled o� the black jacket and started to sweat it out.

As usual, Messi was extremely quick and showed tremendous � exibility while balancing his body. The mag-ical control was often evident when he tapped the ball, sometimes with the outside and sometimes with the

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

from Rio de Janeiro

n Tribune Report

Police in India on Saturday arrested three people for illegally entering the country; but without having prior knowledge that one of the arrestees was Nur Hossain, the prime accused in the Narayanganj seven-murder case.

Nur, along with the two other arrest-ees - Asif and Shamim – were placed on an eight-day remand each after police had produced them before court and petitioned for a four-day remand.

Edwin Lepcha, the Second Judicial Magistrate of the North 24 Parganas District Court in Barasat, gave the order.

The three were taken to the court around 11am, according to BBC Bangla. They were charged with intruding into India and staying there illegally.

Kolkata police on Saturday night arrested the three from an apartment on the � fth � oor of Indraprastha apart-ment complex owned by one Seema Singh who lives in Mumbai.

They were under watch in India. Con� rming the arrest, the Bidhan-

nagar police commissioner said o� cer-in-charge of Baguihati police station Debbrata Ojha led the arrest drive.

Narayanganj Police Superintendent Khandakar Mohid Uddin also con� rmed yesterday that the three had been ar-rested and produced before court.

“National Investigation Unit and Anti-Terrorism Unit conducted the

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

8 | BLAIR: ‘WE DIDN’T CAUSE IRAQ CRISIS’

15

20 pages | Price: Tk12MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Ashar 2, 1421Shaaban 17, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 76

B1 | INVEST MORE IN INFRASTRUCTURES 11 | IT’S NOT JUST FORMALIN

9 | WorldJust days into her job running a police station in Pakistan’s largest city, Syeda Ghazala had to put her training to the test, � ring at a man who shot at police

14 | SportUruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said his team desperately needs star striker Luis Suarez back on the � eld after being stunned by Costa Rica on Saturday.

15 | SportJapanese football fans erupted in joy – then dropped their heads in dismay, cursingDidier Drogba as the Blue Samurai went down 2-1 to Ivory Coast in their World Cup opener.

16 | SportGermany kick-o� their World Cup campaign on Monday aiming to continue their domina-tion of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal at recent major tournaments. The Germans enjoyed wins over Portugal at the 2006 World Cup.

4 | NewsBangladesh has detected its � rst con� rmed case of the often-fatal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, with the 53-year-old patient currently receiving special treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of a private hospital in Dhaka.

5 | NewsA widespread indiscipline in the city’s transportation and tra� c management is seen as the primary reason for public su� erings during their daily commute.

6 | NationThe headmaster of a school in Kashiani of Gopalganj is allegedly erecting a building on a canal after illegally occupying and� lling it.

INSIDE

Nur Hossain arrested for illegal entryHe and two accomplices placed on 8-day remand in Kolkata; Bangladesh yet to be informed o� cially

Jun 16, 201410PM Germany vs PortugalJun 17, 20141AM Iran vs Nigeria4AM Ghana vs USA10PM Belgium vs Algeria

Jun 18, 20141AM Brazil vs Mexico4AM Russia vs Korea Republic10PM Australia vs NetherlandsJun 19, 20141AM Spain vs Chile4AM Cameroon vs Croatia10PM Colombia vs Ivory CoastWORLD CUP MATCHES

Kolkata police take Nur Hossain, one of the accused in Narayanganj seven-murder case, to the court yesterday. He was placed on eight days’ remand for illegal entry into the country. Police had arrested him early yesterday Photo Courtesy

Friends and foes of law enforcers n Julfi kar Ali Manik and Ahmed

Zayeef, back from Narayanganj

Once both of them were listed crimi-nals of Narayanganj police department but later a mutually bene� cial relation-ship developed between the duo and a section of members of law enforcement agencies; much to the surprise of many.

One of them is a much-talked-about

name Nur Hossain, the prime accused of Narayanganj seven murders.

The other is Md Motiur Rahman Moti who is not accused in the chill-ing murders but in a widely circulat-ed poster in the port city Narayanganj prominently publicised him as a killer of seven murders along with Nur and demanded their execution.

Earlier, they went into hiding when

the BNP-Jamaat alliance came to power in October 2001 and remained a fugitive until the army-backed caretaker gov-ernment relinquished power in 2008.

Both Nur and Moti left Bangladesh at that time to evade arrest as they were accused in many cases and most wanted criminals on the list of police.

Even the police department sought PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Rescued Malaysia-bound passengers ready to travel again n Adil Sakhawat, from Teknaf

After the rescue of 312 passengers from a Malaysia-bound ship waiting on My-anmar border near the Saint Martin’s Island only two days ago, even then many new faces have been found on small � shing trawlers at di� erent points of Teknaf and Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar.

Many tra� ckers are operating in Teknaf by managing the police and the administration, they claimed to the Dhaka Tribune.

Interestingly, it is also found that

three of the rescued passengers are now ready to travel on a � shing boat which will leave for Malaysia shortly.

Imtiaz, coming from Moheshkhali, was rescued on June 12 along with 230 passengers. He has already reached “Kochubunia” sea point under Sabrang union in the Bay of Bengal which is pop-ularly known as an airport to Malaysia.

Broker Jashim rescued him from Teknaf Degree College the same day in exchange of Tk2,000. The money was received by Sub-Inspector Gobinda of Teknaf police station, said Jashim who

comes from Sonarpara area of Ukhiya.When this correspondent informed

the police immediately about the move, the law enforcers said they had no such information.

Like Jashim, many tra� ckers com-ing from di� erent districts are now staying in Teknaf area to send the re-cently rescued passengers again to Ma-laysia.

Alim Laskar, a broker from Jhe-naidah, is now staying in Teknaf to convince his previous passengers again to travel to Malaysia.

This correspondent met these bro-kers identifying as a tra� cker from Dhaka having � ve people on hand who were willing to go to Malaysia.

Alim said: “My passengers whom I managed from my district are eager to go to Malaysia by using this sea point of Bay of Bengal. For this purpose, I arrived here a day ago. I have already managed my three passengers by giv-ing the police money and now they are under my control.”

He said the passengers too wanted to go to Malaysia this way.

“Except for one passenger named Mithun Sheikh from my district, I have managed three others to send to Ma-laysia again. To manage the three, I had to pay the Teknaf police Tk6,000,” he claimed.

When asked accepting the money, SI Gobinda declined to talk about it. He, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that the police members had arranged the money personally so that the rescued passengers could reach their families.

It is learnt from Alim that his brother PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Left: Symbolic execution of Nur Hossain and Moti on posters put up on walls by locals in Narayanganj. Full-page advertisements of Nur’s and Moti’s business establishment with their photographs in a very special magazine on the occasion of the Police Week 2014, published just a month before the seven murders took place DHAKA TRIBUNE

Biharis demand trial of MP Eliasn Ashif Islam Shaon and Abid Azad

Thousands of Biharis from the Kurmi-tola Bihari Camp in the capital’s Mirpur area yesterday took to the streets, de-manding arrest and trial of lawmaker Elias Uddin Mollah and his cohorts for allegedly orchestrating Saturday’s vio-lence.

Chanting slogans, Biharis of all ages blocked the Kalshi road around 10am and vandalised some vehicles in pro-test of the killings of at least nine Biha-ris on Saturday. The blockade was lifted in the evening.

The demonstrations were also joined by the residents of other Bihari camps in Mirpur and the Mohammad-pur Geneva Camp.

They also burnt an e� gy of MP Elias during the agitation.

“First, we want the prime minister’s intervention in this case; second, ar-rest of all criminals involved with the killing, arson attack, vandalism and violence in the area and exemplary punishment to the criminals, includ-ing their political godfather MP Elias and his cohorts,” said Jobbar Khan, president of the Kurmitola Bihari Camp Committee.

“Police have to release our detained brothers immediately,” he added.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Mir-pur Deputy Commissioner Imtiaz Ahmed said 14 platoons of police had been deployed in the area to avert any untoward situation.

“We have been observing the sit-uation and we will not bar them if

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

France’s Karim Benzema (L) celebrates his goal with teammates during today’s match against Honduras at the Beira-Rio Stadium in Porto Alegre AFP

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

CEC: Narayanganj 5 by-poll area sensitive but no army deploymentn Mohammad Zakaria

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad has described Narayanganj as a sensitive area in the run-up to the Narayanganj 5 by-poll scheduled for June 26.

He, however, said military would not be deployed during the election.

“The area is sensitive and the com-mission will keep an eye on the poll but as it is a by-poll, the commission has decided not to deploy army,” he said while talking to reporters after a meet-ing with Narayanganj administration o� cials and law enforcement agencies at the EC Secretariat yesterday.

Narayanganj 5 constituency is going to by-poll following the death of Jatiya

Party lawmaker Nasim Osman but a tense situation prevails in the district over the sensational seven murders.

“The commission will deploy addi-tional law enforcers to ensure that the election is held in a free and fair envi-ronment,” the CEC said.

Rakibuddin said the commission did not fear any violence during the poll considering the report submitted by the intelligence agencies and local administration.

But the authorities concerned had been asked to be on alert when voting was held, he said.

“Members of the law enforcement agencies have already begun opera-tions to seize illegal arms and arrest criminals in the polling area. The

commission has also asked them to take immediate action if there is aviolation of electoral code of conduct,” he added.

A senior EC o� cial, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that police report had hinted at probable violence consid-ering in� ghting within the ruling party.

But the law and order situation was normal so far, said the o� cial who at-tended yesterday’s meeting.

He added that intelligence o� cials had urged the EC to take special meas-ures for maintaining law and order in the area before and after the poll.

The CEC said the commission would deploy 17 law enforcers each at the general polling centres and 18 at the vulnerable ones.

EC o� cials said the commission would deploy members of the Border Guard Bangladesh, Rapid Action Bat-talion, Armed Police Battalion and An-sar in the polling areas.

They said the EC would deploy three platoons of Coast Guard and four pla-toons of BGB. Besides, 10 executive magistrates and two judicial magis-trates would be appointed to punish o� enders right away.

Meanwhile, independent candidate SM Akram got the symbol pineapple, Jatiya Party candidate Selim Osman got the plough, Krishak Sramik Janata League’s Sha� qul Islam Delowar got the towel and independent candidate advocate Mamun Sirajul Majid got the shrimp to contest in the election. l

Nur and Moti: Friends and foes of law enforcers PAGE 1 COLUMN 6help from the Interpol, world’s largest international police organisation, to nab Nur Hossain and accordingly the Inter-pol issued red alerts around the world to help Bangladesh police but to no avail.

This time too they both went into hid-ing. Moti feared he might be arrested too as posters were put up in the district in which he was branded as a killer of seven people including panel mayor Nazrul.

Nur Hossain has already been ar-rested by Indian police but there is no similar move to capture Moti. However, Narayanganj police and district crimi-nal investigation department (CID) men went to his home and o� ce in Siddhir-ganj area of Narayanganj to look for him.

Until the abductions and murders of the seven people on April 27 Nur and Moti had been enjoying all kinds of supports from the local civil and police adminis-tration since the ruling Awami League as-sumed power in 2009 as both of them be-long to the ruling party with the blessings of in� uential local Awami League leader and lawmaker Shamim Osman.

The friendship between the duo and local administration reached such a personal level that the police depart-ment did not even feel hesitant to take money publicly from Nur and Moti to publicise advertisement of their busi-ness establishment with their photo-graphs in a very special magazine on the occasion of the Police Week 2014.

The Police Service Association published the magazine in March, the month before the seven murders. The same publication also carried the mes-sages from the president, prime minis-ter, advisers to the PM, minister, secre-tary and high police o� cials.

Interestingly, the editor of the publi-cation was Syed Nurul Islam, who was withdrawn from the post of Narayan-ganj Superintendent of Police (SP) after

the seven murders. Nur and Moti gave a full-page adver-

tisement with their own photographs in that memorabilia and wished all the suc-cess of Police Week which the force ob-serves every year to accelerate its drive against crimes in a particular week.

“If someone is harmful to the public I will not take any monetary support from him such as money for advertise-ment for any publication of the police department. If I do so this will ruin the sanctity of my institution,” said incum-bent SP of Narayanganj Dr Kh Mahid Uddin, who has been appointed after the withdrawal of Syed Nurul Islam.

“This (police force) is a 150-yeal-old institution. Taking help from a person who has a criminal pro� le will destroy the sanctity of this ancient force.

“I personally, being a police o� cial, should not mingle with a person hav-ing criminal record while others may do so as long as they are not the part of their crimes.

Months after their advertisement on the police magazine Nur and Moti, Narayanganj police began to hunt them down led by their new SP.

Meantime, thousands of printed posters with photographs of the six accused with symbolic nooses around their necks were put up on the walls across Narayanganj demanding their trial and execution.

Of those, one large coloured poster prominently put Nur and Moti’s pho-tographs in similar fashion of others branded them as killers of Narayanganj City Corporation councillor and panel Mayor Nazrul, advocate Chandan Sark-er and � ve others.

Nur, after the seven murders, has already been exposed as the newly emerged “godfather” of Narayanganj who once was actively involved in Jatiya Party and BNP politics but in late 90s joined the

Awami League. For the � rst time Nur’s underworld has widely been exposed by media after the seven murders.

Moti was not accused in the sev-en-murder case but as his picture ap-peared on the posters along with Nur he naturally came up in the discussion of the locals.

Moti was also involved in the Jati-ya Party politics in late 80s as a labour leader of now-defunct Adamjee Jute Mills in Narayanganj, which is now Ad-amjee Export Processing Zone (AEPZ).

In 1990s Moti joined the Awami League politics and now he is the presi-dent of Siddhirganj Thana Jubo League, the youth wing of the Awami League.

A group of plainclothes o� cials of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police went to Moti’s luxurious home and o� ce at Siddhirganj weeks ago to look for him.

Though Moti’s wife Rokeya Rah-man, 43, told the Dhaka Tribune police did not go inside their home and they only went past their house.

When on June 10 afternoon these correspondents arrived at Moti’s house Rokeya initially was unwilling to talk but at one point she agreed to speak out and asked the newsmen to be seat-ed in her house.

Rokeya said she performed Hajj thrice and her husband Moti too per-formed it several times.

In praise of her husband and to au-thenticate her claim that the goodness of her husband, she told this corre-spondent that Moti sponsored many locals to perform Hajj in Saudia Arabia on di� erent times.

“Currently there is no case against my husband” and as for the previous cases, she said, they had all been quashed.”

Claiming her husband as an innocent person, Rokey said it was a conspiracy of a group of local rivals of Moti in the

BNP and Awami League who are putting the blame of seven murders on him.

Moti’s wife said, when the BNP came to power in 2001 Moti left the country and returned in 2009 with the Awami League coming to power.

Between 2001 and 2009 Moti stayed in Africa, Dubai and Kolkata. Two of her three children also studied in Kolkata at that time and she used to visit Kolkata along with her youngest child to meet her husband and other children.

She blamed a former BNP lawmak-er’s men for looting almost everything even ceiling fans from their house be-tween 2001 and 2006 when she used to live in her parents’ house which is only a stone’s throw from her house.

However, the correspondent of the Dhaka Tribune found her house decorat-ed with expensive luxurious furniture. Moti’s o� ce in rural area of Siddhirganj looks more like a luxurious corporate of-� ce from the capital’s posh area.

Rokeya said, Moti only does some business with the under-construction project of Orion Pharmaceuticals and in a 110-megawatt power plant. Both the business projects are within close proximity of Moti’s house and o� ce.

But many locals who have well knowledge of the rise of Moti said, Moti had become a millionaire within a very short period.

Moti was merely a worker and a CBA (collective bargaining agent) leader in Adamjee Jute Mill at the end of military dictator HM Ershad’s regime in 1990.

Not only the locals but also police know Moti as a close associate of Nur and they are partner of many under-world activities. After their return Moti and Nur established their control over Adamjee EPZ.

In February Nur and Moti’s men grabbed six of eight truck-loaded Jhut (scrapped textile of garment factories in

the EPZ) of slain Nazrul in the EPZ. Naz-rul complained about this to local police and a con� ict over the issue was going on between Nazrul, Nur and Moti.

Ehsan Uddin Chowdhury, an assis-tant superintendent of police of CID in Narayanganj, told the Dhaka Tribune, they raided Moti’s house to arrest him in the afternoon of May 15.

The CID o� cial told the Dhaka Trib-une they went to arrest Moti from his home with an aim to rid the Adamzee EPZ of his control and ensure a proper working environment there. But the CID failed to arrest Moti.

Rokeya, wife of Moti, however de-nied any police raid at their home but said she and other family members ad-vised Moti to leave home as a conspira-cy was going on against him.

“Now I don’t know his (Moti) where-abouts, his mobile remains switched o� and once in a while he calls me,” Ro-heya said. When these correspondent reached Moti’s luxurious o� ce nearby his home they found few local Awami League and Jubo League leaders there.

Kalipada Mallick, 60, introduced him as acting general secretary of Sid-dhirganj Thana Awami League as they expelled their general secretary Yas-in Molla from the committee after his name came up as an accused in the sev-en-murder case.

Nur Hossain was the vice-president of the same Awami League commit-tee. He was also expelled on the same ground.

Kalipada and a local Jubo League leader Malek Khandakar spoke highly about Moti and said it was a conspiracy of the BNP and Jamaat against Moti to destroy the Awami League in Siddhir-ganj as Moti is very popular there.

Moti could not win the election as a councillor in Narayanganj City Corpo-ration polls in 2011.

Kalipada and Malek said Shamim Osman brought Moti into the politics of the Awami League after the fall of Er-shad. They did not agree that Shamim Osman also brought Nur into the Awa-mi League politics in late 90s but it was to the best knowledge of the locals.

Kalipada and Malek were critical of Nur. Malek repeatedly said Moti was a very good soul. “Moti along with 24 others helped me go to Saudi Arabia to perform Omra Hajj. Moti was also planning to organise some Islamic pro-grammes in our locality.” They said Moti was a follower of Shamim Osman.

“You will never � nd any poster of Moti without Shamim Osman’s photo-graph but you can see posters of Nur Hossain without Shamim.”

When asked why they had never raised their voices against Nur they said: “No journalist had written anything against Nur before the seven murders; they did not raise any question about him, rather the journalists including some from Dhaka used to come to Nur’s house to take money from him.”

After the seven murders many peo-ple in Narayanganj including some in� uential people in local administra-tion said many o� cials in the district administration and law enforcement agencies used to receive bribe daily or monthly basis from Nur.

Interestingly, when these corre-spondents along with a Dhaka Tribune photojournalist was about to leave Mo-ti’s house after a long interview with his wife Rokeya, she suddenly o� ered a bunch of new notes of Tk1000 to the correspondents.

She repeatedly requested the corre-spondents to take the money and tried to stu� those forcibly into their hands.

“You are my brothers; take this money as your food and transport ex-penses,” she pleaded. l

Messi begins journey towards immortality PAGE 1 COLUMN 6inner part of the boot. For a while he juggled the ball with his toe. And the subsequently quick delivery of the ball and the faintest of touches were there for all to witness.

Despite a glittering career with Bar-celona, Messi has yet to transform his club success to a World Cup and silence those who claim that he will never rank alongside the likes of Diego Maradona, Pele or Zinedine Zidane. Messi’s interna-tional goal-scoring record of 38 goals in 86 outings also provides a case in point as it pales in comparison with the 327 goals in 395 games for the Catalan club.

In two previous World Cups in South Africa and Germany, Messi managed to score just one goal and he will be ea-gerly waiting to double his tally against the Bosnians. Messi recently grabbed his 38th international goal in last week’s warmup win over Slovenia with the op-ponent chosen due to their resemblance

with neighbouring Balkan nation Bosnia.A lethal attacking triumvirate of

Messi, Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain and supported in mid� eld by the tire-less Angel Di Maria, Argentina boast, on paper at least, the best forward line-up in the World Cup. The quartet are known as Los Cuatro Fantasticos – the Fantastic Four.

Since being appointed the captain of the side in 2011 by Sabella, Messi has been in inspirational touch notching 10 goals in 12 World Cup Quali� ers. Su� ce to say the armband gave him extra moti-vation as he had went on a run of 16 com-petitive matches without scoring before being chosen as the leader of the side.

Let’s see if Messi is able to inspire the Albiceleste to their third title in the 20th edition of the World Cup. If he is successful in his pursuit, forget the word legend, he will forever be remem-bered as one of the greatest players to have ever graced a football pitch. l

Nur Hossain arrested for illegal entry PAGE 1 COLUMN 1arrest operation. Deputy Commission-er and Assistant Police Commissioner of Kolkata con� rmed us,” he told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

Mohid said: “Interpol had issued red notice against Nur Hossain and the au-thorities concerned as well as Kolkata Police were aware of that.”

“During the arrest, police seized the arrestees’ mobile phones but found no arms with them. As the three had no le-gal documents, they were arrested and produced before court,” he added.

However, India is yet to inform Bang-ladesh o� cially about the arrests. Con-� rming this, Home Secretary CKQ Mustaq Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune last night

that his ministry had told the Foreign Min-istry and police to look into the matter.

The West Bengal government has not yet informed the Bangladesh Dep-uty High Commission in Kolkata of the arrests either, Deputy High Commis-sioner Abida Islam told the Dhaka Trib-une over phone.

“It is a normal practice that the state government informs the Bangladesh mission in Kolkata whenever it arrests somebody who they believe is a Bang-ladeshi national,” she said.

The authorities provide the mission with names and addresses, which are then sent to both Foreign Ministry and Home Ministry for veri� cation, said Abida.

“But so far we have not received any

such noti� cation,” she said at 8:30pm, adding that the Bangladesh mission tried to reach Indian o� cials but failed because it was a weekly holiday.

Meanwhile, the government in Bangladesh initiated the process to bring Nur and the two back.

“The procedure to bring them back is on,” State Minister for Home Asaduz-zaman Khan told reporters at his o� ce at the Secretariat yesterday.

He, however, said identities of the three had to be recon� rmed.

“We are examining all options in-cluding extradition treaty to bring them back,” Mohid Uddin said, adding: “We earlier sought Interpol’s assistance in arresting Nur.”

A senior Home Ministry o� cial said Bangladesh has not brought back any of its citizens under extradition treaty with India.

According to the extradition treaty between the two countries, the govern-ment can make a formal request to the Indian authorities to send Nur back, he said, adding that the process would be much easier.

On January 28 last year, the then home minister MK Alamgir and his Indi-an counterpart Sushil Shinde signed the extradition treaty. On October 9, the cab-inet endorsed it and India also rati� ed it.

O� cials said neither Bangladesh nor India has made any request to each other in the past for bringing or send-

ing back any citizen on behalf of the respective countries.

On April 27, Narayanganj panel may-or Nazrul Islam and six others were abducted and their bodies were recov-ered from Shitalaykha river on April 30.

Nazrul’s wife � led an abduction case against Nur on April 28.

Meanwhile, a lawyer introducing himself as Arun Kumar Debnath talked to an Indian private TV channel and a Bangladeshi satellite channel on the court premises after the court had placed the trio on remand yesterday.

He was not a lawyer in the case but saw the remand forwarding. The video of his interview was uploaded on sev-eral websites.

“The forwarding read that the three Bangladeshis were arrested from In-draprastha Complex block A � at num-ber 503 on the � fth � oor. Baguihati police had information that three Bang-ladeshis were hiding in the building and had entered India illegally,” he said.

“The raid was conducted to nab those intruders. During the raid they could not show any valid documents. This is why police arrested them and produced them before court under the 14 Foreign Act,” said the lawyer.

Police found many mobile phones, SIM cards, Indian currencies and Bang-ladeshi currency in their possessions, he said, adding that no defence lawyer represented them in the court. l

Biharis demand trial of MP Elias PAGE 1 COLUMN 1they stay peaceful,” he said yesterday evening.

Earlier in the day, the inhabitants of the Mohammadpur camp staged a demonstration by blocking a road in the area.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the vic-tims of Saturday’s violence were hand-ed over to their families at 9:15pm.

At least nine members of a family were burnt alive when eight homes at the Kurmitola camp were set ablaze following a clash between Biharis and law enforcers, who were allegedly ac-companied by locals early yesterday.

Another person with rubber-bullet pellet injuries, reportedly from police � ring, succumbed to his injuries at hos-pital.

Six cases filed Sub-Inspector Yasin of Pallabi po-lice station said six cases, includingone for killing and another for assault-ing police, were � led against 1,200 un-named people in connection with the violence at Kalshi and its surrounding areas.

“We think more cases will be � led in this connection,” he said, adding that names of some individuals had been added in the cases. He declined to dis-close the names.

However, family members of the victims of the violence did not lodge any case.

SI Mominul � led the murder case while SI Zahid � led the case for assault on police. A local named Mobarak � led another case against some unidenti� ed people for vandalising a local mosque. Another person, Faruk, � led a case against 800 people for stabbing him at Baunia Bandh and looting his shop dur-ing the violence.

Parvez, a resident of Mirpur 11, � led the � fth case against 200-300 people for attacking him during the violence, while Apu, a resident of Paris Road of Mirpur 11, � led the last one for an at-tack on him the same day.

Forensic doctors had conducted au-topsy of the 10 victims and their DNA samples had been collected for ensur-ing their identities, said AKHM Sha� -uzzaman, an assistant professor Dhaka Medical College. l

Rescued Malaysia-bound passengers ready to travel again PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Mukul Laskar is living in Malaysia. For every passenger, Alim charges Tk2-3 lakh to send them to Malaysia.

He does not take money from the passengers until they reach Thailand’s border. Even the fare of � shing trawl-er has to be paid by the tra� ckers – Tk2,000 for each passenger. After reaching there, the passenger’s family has to pay him the full amount. Later he informs the Thailand-based tra� ck-ers to send those passengers to the Ma-laysian border at which point his broth-er manages the Malaysian authorities to receive those in� ltrators, says Alim.

Jashim told the Dhaka Tribune that there had been many tra� ckers active throughout the country who they nev-er met before. They contact each other via mobile phones.

The migrant workers who reach Ma-laysia in the illegal way inform their fam-ilies to manage some new people from villages and provide them the mobile number of Teknaf-based main broker.

When the new people contact with the brokers, they tell them to come to Teknaf with Tk10,000. If the people are

poor, the brokers o� er to send them to Malaysia without any money. But when those passengers reach the Thailand border, the tra� ckers and the crew of the trawlers torture them brutally and force them to ask their families to pay the money to the Teknaf-based broker.

If they fail to do so, the passengers are sometimes killed, Jashim said.

Tra� ckers operate freelyWhen con� rmed by an in� uential rul-

ing party leader, who wished to be anon-ymous, said some passengers were ready to travel to Malaysia from Kocubunia point of Sabrang union, this correspond-ent rushed to the spot – some 17 kilo-metres from Teknaf Sadar area - on June 13 and found nine passengers waiting in a shanty for boarding on a � shing trawler.

Those people con� rmed that they were going to Malaysia using the illegal way. Each of them had water bottles � lled with two gallons of water and a small backpack with them.

Among them was Abu Bakar who came from Netrokona. He said: “The broker told me that if we go to Malay-sia we can earn Tk70,000-80,000 per month. There is no way to earn this

amount here in Bangladesh.”A mark on his right hand means that

he is the passenger of a certain broker. All the nine people had similar seal on their hands.

“Now we have nothing to do as we have already spent some cash to come here and we are from very poor fami-lies. So we have to start now [for Malay-sia],” Bakar said.

Many of them agreed that it was an illegal way, but suggested that the legal way would cost them more.

“Many young people of my village who went to Malaysia this way are now earning lucrative amounts of money there,” he said.

When asked about these new pas-sengers, Teknaf police station Second O� cer Kamrul Azam said: “We have no such information. We will investigate this and if found, we will arrest all of the tra� ckers active there.”

Teknaf Coast Guard Station Com-mander Quazi Harunur Rashid said: “There are some remote points used for human tra� cking where the force members cannot reach without infor-mation. Even the BGB and the police

have no check posts there. “The tra� ckers are very cautious

when sending passengers to Malaysia. They keep their men at every entry point of those remote areas. If they can sense our presence, they will just disappear.”

Many teenagers even those of class IX or X are leaving school to go to Ma-laysia on � shing trawlers, said Moham-med Ismail Hossain, headmaster of Malka Banu High School in Teknaf.

Australia lucrative destination Many local people said now the bro-

kers were sending many people to Aus-tralia using the waterways.

About one month ago, 40 people in a group went to Australia from Shyam-lapur point of Teknaf. Those people were from Teknaf and Ukhiya.

Rehana Begum, wife of one of them Ajgar Ali, said: “My husband went to Australia one month ago by using the borders of Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and East Timor. For this, we paid the brokers Tk6 lakh in several phases.

She said the local tra� ckers had strong connection with brokers in oth-er countries that help the passengers reach their destination. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

Consultants for metro rail company appointedn Tribune Report

The government yesterday appointed a joint venture of three Japanese and one Australian companies as consultants for enhancing the organisational capac-ity of the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited under which the much-talked-about metro rail will be constructed.

The cabinet committee on public pur-chase yesterday approved the Commu-nication Ministry’s proposal for assign-ing the task to the Oriental Consultant Company, Katahira Engineering Interna-tional, and Metro Development Compa-ny of Japan, and the SMEC of Australia.

After a meeting of the committee, Ad-ditional Secretary Nurul Karim told re-porters that the � rms had been appoint-ed for Tk26.47 crore under package 1.

On January 28, the cabinet commit-tee approved the draft of the metro rail act in order to constitute a company for the operation and management of the metro rail network in the capital, keep-ing special provision for land accusation.

Under the act, Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line 6 will be constructed from Uttara to Bangladesh Bank via Pallabi, Farmgate and Shahbagh with 16 sta-tions on the route.

The construction of the 20km metro rail network from north of Uttara Model Town to Bangladesh Bank at Motijheel was expected to complete by 2019. Res-idents of Dhaka, world’s ninth densely populated city with 44,000 people liv-ing in every square-kilometre area, will be able to travel by metro rail in six years.

An o� cial of the Communication

Ministry claims that Dhaka will be free of its terrible tra� c jams in six years with the opening of the � rst 20km met-ro rail services.

The proposal says the service would drastically reduce the number of pri-vate cars on Dhaka roads and thus de-crease tra� c congestion and environ-ment pollution.

A survey by the Japan Internation-al Cooperation Agency (Jica) says the metro rail network will save Bangla-desh an annual loss of Tk200 billion, equivalent to the country’s 1.5% GDP and 17% of the total tax revenue.

The metro rail will carry an estimat-ed 60,000 passengers an hour to and from Uttara and Motijheel, signi� cant-ly reducing the travel time from one end to the other to 36 minutes from at least two hours at present, it says.

Jica has provided Tk16,594 crore of the estimated Tk21,985 crore project cost as the government bears the rest.

In November last year, the govern-ment appointed a consortium led by Nippon Koei Company as consultant for the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit De-velopment Project to complete the project for Tk928.17 crore by 2024.

Communications Minister Obaid-ul Quader, who attended the cabinet committee meeting yesterday, told the Dhaka Tribune that the metro rail proj-ect had progressed as per the plan and its construction would start in time.

“The appointment of the consultants for the Dhaka Mass Transit Company is another step ahead towards the con-struction of the metro rail,” he said. l

Perilous passage to MalaysiaOver 150 illegal migrants dead, 2,000 held in the past two years n Kailash Sarkar

Over 150 people reportedly died in the last two years while law enforcers and security o� cials detained more than 2,000 others who were heading to-wards Malaysia illegally on the Bay of Bengal.

In addition to the six people, who were shot dead by tra� ckers on June 11, at least 60 people died after a trawl-er capsized at the sea on November 7, 2012. In April this year, another 27 peo-ple died from starvation while making the illegal journey.

Commander AKA Maruf Hassan of the Coast Guard told the Dhaka Tri-bune unless awareness could be raised among people, such illegal journeys would continue to be made, causing su� erings as well as deaths.

“We often detained the tra� ckers but not the people who play key roles behind the scenes,” he said.

According to Coast Guard o� cial

sources, they detained a total of 1,129 people from 2013 to June 11 this year. Of them, 361 were arrested last year, 57 in January this year, 211 in February, 73 in March, 46 in April, 66 in May and 315 till June 11.

Besides, BGB and RAB arrested around 1,000 during the same period and Bangladesh Navy arrested over 50 others.

According to UNHCR, an estimated 13,000 people, including Bangladesh-is and the Rohingyas, left for Malaysia through the Bay of Bengal on tra� ck-ers’ boats in 2012.

Some 485 people are reported to have drowned in four boat accidents on the Bay of Bengal that year, though the real death toll is believed to be much higher, a recent UN report observed.

The UN estimates that nearly 50 to 150 Bangladeshis travel to Malaysia ev-ery week by paying tra� ckers who op-erate on these illegal sea routes.

The Rohingyas � rst began making such precarious boat journeys to reach

Southeast Asian countries, mainly Ma-laysia, in the 1990s. Recently Bangla-deshi youths have begun joining them in such dangerous voyages.

Sources in the Coast Guard, BGB, Ban-gladesh Navy and RAB said tra� ckers prefer the Bay of Bengal for tra� cking people to Malaysia. At least 25 syndi-cates, with several thousand agents, are engaged in this illegal act and they use false promises of work with better pay to entice people into making such journeys.

According to sources, masterminds of such syndicates operate in collu-

sion with political leaders of Cox’s Ba-zar and usually reside in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Malaysia.

The sources said tra� cking agents generally search for poor and unem-ployed people in Chittagong, Cox’s Ba-zar, Dhaka and several other northern districts who could be trapped by the dream of better life abroad. They usu-ally demand Tk2-3 lakh from each of the people intending to go to Malaysia through the sea route.

With such glorious promises and a temptation too hard to resist, many poor people embarked on the journey but ended up losing their valuables. A large number of tra� cking victims are even languishing in Malaysian jails on charges of illegal immigration.

According to BGB sources, tra� ck-ers usually carry their clients on mo-torboats and trawlers in the sea. Apart from frequent accidents, these water carriages are often caught by BGB or Nasaka of Myanmar or the Thai Navy. l

DHAKA-CHITTAGONG EXPRESSWAY

Joint venture picked as consultant n Tribune Report

The cabinet committee on public pur-chase has approved the proposal for ap-pointing Bangladesh Army for the task of protecting a 1,300m stretch of bank of the Padma River in Mawa-Kandirpa-ra-Jashaldhia areas.

A meeting of the cabinet presided over by Finance Minister AMA Muhith also ap-proved appointment of an Australia-New Zealand-Japan-Bangladesh joint venture as the consultant to provide technical as-sistance for the detailed study and design for the Dhaka-Chittagong expressway.

The army had already completed 75% of the work assigned to the Water Resources Ministry, Additional Secretary Nurul Karim told reporters

after the meeting. He said the appointment of the army

would not increase the cost of the proj-ect assigned to the ministry which is Tk124.17 crore.

The Roads and Highways Division selected Snowy Mountains Engineer-ing Corporation International Pty Ltd of Australia in the joint venture with the Oriental Consultants of Japan in associa-tion with the Association Consulting En-gineers Consultants Ltd of Bangladesh and Castalia Ltd of New Zealand for the expressway project for Tk83.22 crore.

The government has planned to build the expressway exclusively for local exporters and importers carrying goods at high toll to earn large amount of revenues. l

ARSON, VANDALISM CASE AGAINST SQ CHY

Hearing on charge framing on Aug 3 n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court yesterday � xed Au-gust 3 for hearing on charge framing in two cases against war criminal Salaud-din Quader Chowdhury in connection with arson and vandalism on Dha-ka-Chittagong Highway in the district’s Sitakunda upazila in 2010.

Accepting the time petition of the defence, acting district and sessions judge Hla Mong passed the order yes-terday in the presence of SQ Chowd-hury, said sources in the court.

Chittagong district Public Prosecu-tor Abul Hashem said the defence had pleaded for the release of SQ Chowd-hury from the case under section 241 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

“The prosecution also submitted a discontent petition in 2011 over the charge sheet while the defence sought time for hearing on the discontent peti-tion,” he said.

SQ Chowdhury, who was awarded death penalty on October 1 last year for war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War, was brought to Chittagong Central Jail on June 12 night from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.

He was brought to the court under tight security while additional police forces were also deployed on the court building complex yesterday.

On November 7, 2010, miscreants vandalised and set � re to vehicles on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in Bansh-baria and Salimpur areas of Sitakun-da, hearing the rumour of SQ Chow-dhury’s arrest and protesting the government-imposed restriction on BNP’s holding rally at Paltan in Dhaka.

Sub-Inspector Golam Faruk Bhuiyan of Sitakunda police station lodged two cases centring the violence on that day when four persons were arrested.

Later, two arrestees confessed that they had conducted the violence on SQ Chowdhury’s order. l

IO: Azhar responsible for crimes against humanity n Udisa Islam

The investigation o� cer against war crimes accused Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam yesterday concluded his testimony before the Internation-al Crimes Tribunal 1, claiming that he has found evidence of Azhar’s crimes against humanity committed at Rang-pur during the Liberation War.

Submitting deposition as the 19th prosecution witness, the investigator, SM Idris Ali, said he began his investi-gation against Azhar on April 15, 2012, and visited di� erent places where Azhar had allegedly committed crimes against humanity in 1971.

Idris also exhibited some documents before the tribunal as evidence, which included the admit card of Azhar for SSC and HSC examinations, and tabu-lation sheets.

The probe o� cer said he had re-viewed many books and magazines as part of his investigation, as well as col-lecting newspaper clippings from 1971 and di� erent government reports and contemporary writings.

Idris also said he had found through his investigation that the Pa-kistani Army and Jamaat-e-Islami, Nezam-e-Islami and Pakistan Dem-ocratic Party formed many auxiliary

forces like peace committee, Razakar, al-Badr and al-Shams during the Liber-ation War.

The IO also described when and how many time he had visited the places in Rangpur Sadar and Badarganj upazilas where the crimes had allegedly taken place.

According to documented evidenc-es, prosecution witnesses’ statements and other evidences, Azhar was guilty of committing crimes against humani-ty, Idris told the tribunal.

He also exhibited a statement of a witness, Abdur Jabbar Sarker, who had died; and also submitted a video of statement of the seventh prosecution witness, Aminul Islam, who had been declared hostile by prosecution.

When defence counsel Abdus Sobhan Tarafder objected to the exhib-it, the tribunal told him that he would later get his chance to cross-examine the witness on this matter.

At the end of the deposition, Taraf-der cross-examined him with only one question before the tribunal adjourned the session until June 22, allowing a time plea from the defence.

Azhar, the incumbent assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, faces six charges of crimes against humanity. l

Martyrs’ relatives testify against Qaisarn Udisa Islam

The relatives of two martyrs yesterday testi� ed against Syed Md Qaisar at the International Crimes Tribunal 2, ac-cusing the former state minister of or-chestrating the murders of their family members.

Ambia Khatun, 63, daughter of mar-tyr Abdus Shaheed, and Anwara Be-gum, 70, widow of martyr Askar Ali, submitted their depositions against Qaisar as the 23rd and 24th prosecution witnesses, claiming that Qaisar along with the Pakistan Army had abducted and tortured to death their relatives from the same place and the same time.

The ladies, both from the Madhyam Noropoti village in Habiganj, corrobo-rated each other’s depositions.

Both of them described to the tri-bunal how their family members were tortured by the associates of Qaisar and that both of them had witnessed Qaisar present at the torture site.

They said Hamdu Mia, also a raza-

kar, had told them that Qaisar – who allegedly raised an auxiliary force to assist Pakistani Army during the Lib-eration War – gave the order to shoot Askar and Shaheed.

Anwara told the tribunal that the day after her husband Askar was ab-ducted, Hamdu informed them that her husband had been killed at Nalua tea estate following the order of Qa-isar and the body was thrown into a well. Hamdu, who was a neighbour of both the women at the time, also said he could not follow Qaisar’s and it was Firoz Mia and Ishad Haji who � red the shots and dumped the body.

Both witnesses said Qaisar had planned and coordinated the abduc-tion, torture, and deaths of their fam-ily members as both the victims had refrained from joining Razakar Bahini.

The other witness, Ambia, told the tribunal that Firoz Mia, Ishad Ali, Mus-lim chairman, Hurai and Khalek chou-kidar came to their house and ordered her father Abdus Shaheed and three of

his friends to join Razakar Bahini at the end of Bangla month of Ashar in 1971.

The men refused to join the Razakar Bahini, with Shaheed � eeing to India with Jahir Hossain, Askar Ali and Mo-hibullah, Ambia said; adding that this was the reason why Qaisar killed them when they returned to the village.

When the men returned o n the Ban-gla month of Bhadra, Razakars sur-rounded Shaheed’s home and told him that he had to go to the house of Lichu Podder where Qaisar was waiting. The witness said she saw her father and Askar Ali being tortured at that house.

Based on an order form Qaisar, the detained men were taken to the south-ern part of an army camp in Kalarpur, the witness claimed.

Following the deposition of the two women, the tribunal adjourned the hearing until today, keeping the cross-examination incomplete.

On February 2, the ICT 2 framed 16 charges of crimes against humanity against Qaisar. l

A family member of a Kalshi violence victim bursts into tears during a demonstration at the capital’s Mirpur yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Further hearing on Bergman’s reply to be held on July 8 n Udisa Islam

The International Crimes Tribunal has set July 8 for further hearing on the contempt of court case against British journalist and blogger David Bergman. The ICT 2 set the date after Bergman submitted his written reply to a previ-ous tribunal order and the petitioner pleaded for more time to prepare.

On April 17, the tribunal initiated contempt proceedings against Berg-man for his “criticism” of the trial process, after it was not satis� ed with an earlier explanation by him. The tri-bunal in its order had asked Bergman to reply as to why he would not be ac-countable for committing contempt of court and be punished for his contemp-

tuous comments about the order and the judgment of the tribunal.

On February 18, High Court law-yer Abul Kalam Azad � led a petition seeking the tribunal’s rule on why con-tempt proceeding would not be initiat-ed against Bergman for his comments related to war crimes trials and judg-ments on his blog.

According to the petitioner, the journalist made the comments in his two blog posts uploaded on November 11, 2011 and January 28, 2013 following the indictment of Jamaat leader Del-awar Hossain Sayedee and death pen-alty awarded to Abul Kalam Azad alias Bachchu Razakar.

On February 20, the three-member ICT 2, led by Justice Obaidul Hassan,

asked Bergman to explain his “criti-cism” of the trial process by appearing before it or through his counsel.

Bergman submitted his reply on March 18 through his counsel Barrister Musta� zur Rahman Khan saying the criticism was a fair one and it was to as-sist the tribunal. Bergman prayed that considering the facts, circumstances and submissions, the tribunal may be pleased to dispose of the matter upon an acceptance of the explanation.

However, in its order on April 17, the ICT 2 said the tribunal was not con-vinced with the explanation and asked him to reply why he should not be pun-ished for contempt of court. Following the order, Bergman submitted his reply yesterday through his counsel. l

A large number of tra� cking victims are even languishing in Malaysian jails on charges of illegal immigration

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

BARISAL 5 BY-POLL

Hiron’s widow Jebunnessa uno� cially electedn Our Correspondent, Barisal

The Awami League-nominated candi-date Jebunnessa Afroz, widow of late lawmaker Shawkat Hossain Hiron, came out as a winner in Barisal 5 con-stituency by-poll that witnessed a low turnout of voters.

Barisal Deputy Commissioner Md Shohidul Alam, retuning o� cer of the by-poll, declared Jebunnessa Afroj winner in the election.

Jebunnessa received 1,83,629 votes while her rival Bangladesh National-ist Front (BNF)-nominated candidate Saiful Islam Liton only 6,136 votes.

The 810 polling booths under 159 vote centres in the district witnessed a thin presence of voters.

Awami League candidate Jebunnes-sa cast her vote at Nuria School 1 centre at 8:30am.

While talking to journalists, she ex-pressed her satisfaction in the way the election was being conducted.

However, no polling agents of BNF candidate Saiful Islam Liton and cam-paign in his favour were spotted.

The returning o� cer of Barisal 5 by-election said voting was held peace-fully and there was a congenial polling atmosphere. There were 3,42,228 vot-ers and 159 vote centres in Barisal 5 con-stituency within the purview of Barisal City Corporation and Sadar upazila.

However, the constituency fell vacant after the death of Awami League law-maker Shawkat Hossain Hiron on April 9.

The Election Commission on April 29 declared the schedule for by-poll and � xed June 12 as polling date.

Later it was rescheduled June 15 for election date considering the ongoing madrasa examination. l

First MERS case detected in BangladeshPatient recently returned to the country from the US via Abu Dhabin Moniruzzaman Uzzal

Bangladesh has detected its � rst con-� rmed case of the often-fatal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus, with the 53-year-old pa-tient currently receiving special treat-ment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a private hospital in Dhaka.

Sources said the patient had re-turned to the country from the US via Abu Dhabi on June 4, and started de-veloping a fever from June 6. He was admitted to the hospital on June 9 with pneumonia and respiratory ailments.

The condition of the patient was reportedly improving, with doctors ex-pecting to shift him to a cabin from the ICU soon.

Dr Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control Research (IEDCR), con� rmed the news about the � rst case of MERS Coronavirus in Bangladesh and told the Dhaka Tribune that they had col-lected several samples of throat swab, nasopharyngeal and sputum between June 10 and 14.

The disease was con� rmed on Sat-urday through repeated tests of Poly-mer Change Reaction (PCR) process in the IEDCR’s laboratory, while the news was o� cially disclosed yesterday.

According to International Health Regulation rules, the IEDCR has in-formed the World Health Organisation (WHO) about the � rst MERS case in the country.

Although the IEDCR had been close-ly monitoring the MERS situation since last Hajj, the tests of 39 previous sus-pected patients had come out negative.

The IEDCR director said MERS was a highly infectious disease, with fam-ily members and health workers with close contact with the patient running the risk of being infected with the vi-rus. Doctors of public and private hos-pitals have been trained to treat MERS patients, Dr Mahmudur claimed.

IEDCR sources also said they were now monitoring 52 people who came in contact with the MERS patient since he contracted the disease.

Precaution and symptomsThe IEDCR director advised expatri-ates who had developed fever, respi-ratory illness or pneumonia within 14 days of their return from abroad, espe-cially from Middle East countries, to go to a doctor for diagnosis.

Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, director of communicable disease control (CDC) of health directorate, told the Dhaka Tribune they were taking precaution-ary measures ahead of upcoming Hajj, including creating awareness among the pilgrims about the disease.

He said every haji, during their pil-grimage to Saudi Arabia, should a wear mask, regularly wash hands with soap, and stay away from people who are sneezing or coughing.

According to the WHO, most MERS patients su� ered from severe acute respiratory illness with symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath. Some patients also had gastrointesti-nal symptoms including diarrhoea and nausea or vomiting. For many people with MERS, have more severe compli-cations following, such as pneumonia and kidney failure.

About 30% of the people with MERS have died, with most of the fatalities su� ering from an underlying medical condition. l

Family drugged and robbed of in Dhaka cityn Tribune Report

A � ve-member family was drugged and robbed of valuables at a house of No-tunbazar in the capital’s Badda in the early hours of yesterday.

Sekander Ali, his wife Momena Be-gum, daughters Shilpi Akhter and Simi Akhter, son Abdul Mumin, were admit-ted to Dhaka Medical College and Hos-pital (DMCH).

A neighbor named Neighbour Motiar Rahman said he along with his wife had discovered the family at their house in the morning in an unconscious state, when they went to visit them.

He said: “Besides them, we found broken utensils and furniture and some boxes of gold ornaments lying on the � oor, scattered. We rushed the victims to DMCH with the help of others.”

After regaining consciousness, the daughter Simi told reporters that there was a boy named Sagar from Bogra with whom her father Sekander had met at a city shopping mall around a month ago.

Introducing himself as an orphan, the boy managed to build a good re-lationship with their family. He used to address her father as father and her mother as mother, she said.

She said, “Last night he came to visit us with sweets, biscuits and soft drinks. We had dinner together and af-ter taking the soft drinks, we fell asleep. I can’t remember anything further.”

Victim Simi said the boy had re-mained missing since morning. His bag of clothes was not found at home either.

Taking for granted that they boy was truthful and good-natured, the family however did not try to verify the boy’s identity.

Simi however could not say much about the details of the valuables robbed from the house until she could verify what is missing when she is able to go home from the hospital.

Badda police said they had not been � led with any complaint in this connec-tion. l

Tk10 crores incentive fund for Aman producersn Mohosinul Karim

The government is planning to give incentives worth Tk10 crores to some 101,722 farmers in 31 districts to boost Aman production in the country during the next season.

The allocation of incentives will be distributed by the Ministry of Agricul-ture to provide Aman seeds, DAP (Diam-monium Phosphate) and MOP (Muriate of Potash) fertilisers to farmers, who has earlier accrued losses during the last sea-son due to natural calamities.

The government plans to add some 40,000 metric tonnes of paddy to the to-tal harvest in the upcoming season using the incentives. The Agriculture Ministry already issued an order to allot the mon-ey as incentives for the farmers.

“The fund for incentives will be dis-

bursed directly among root-level farm-ers,” Director General of Seeds Wing and Additional Secretary to the Agriculture Minister Anwar Faruq told the Dhaka Tribune.

Saying that the government wants to help farmers directly as they have shown their interest in producing more so that the country becomes food su� cient, he also added: “The money for the in-centives will be distributed starting this week.”

According to the ministry order is-sued last week, around 50,000 farmers from 31 districts will get assistance for cultivating Nerica Aman rice. Each of the farmers will get 10 kilograms of seeds, 20 kilograms of DAP and 10 kilograms of MOP fertilizers, worth Tk990 in total.

The farmers of Narsingdi, Tangail, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Netrokona,

Kishoreganj, Brahmanbaria, Sylhet, Hab-iganj, Sunamganj, Comilla, Noakhali, Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore, Nababganj, Bogra, Joypurhat, Pabna, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Dinajpur, Thak-urgaon, Panchagarh, Jhenaidah, Magu-ra, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Barisal and Bhola districts will get assistance for growing Nerica Aman variety.

Similarly, some 51,722 farmers from 21 districts will get support for cultivating hi-breed Aman rice. Each of the farmers will get 5 kilograms of seeds, 20 kilo-grams of DAP and 10 kilograms of MOP fertilizers, worth Tk790 in total.

The farmers of Narsingdi, Tangail, Sherpur, Netrokona, Kishoreganj, Brah-manbaria, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Comil-la, Noakhali, Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore, Nababganj, Joypurhat, Pabna, Gaiband-ha, Nilphamari, Panchagarh, Jhenaidah

and Bagerhat districts will get assistance for growing hi-breed Aman.

According to the ministry, Tk 26,275,520 will be spent in procuring seeds while Tk50,861,000 will be spent for DAP and Tk13,223,860 for MOP fer-tilizer.

Anwar Faruq also said farmers, who will be enlisted by the block sub-assis-tant agriculture o� cer, an o� cial of up-azila agriculture implementation com-mittee and local chairmen or members, will get the assistance. The list must be approved by the upazila agriculture re-habilitation implementation committee earlier, he added.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the production of Aman came down to 12,897,210 metric tonnes in last � scal year, which was 13,023,312 metric tonnes the previous year. l

A classical dancer performs at the monsoon festival of the Institute of Fine Arts of Dhaka University in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Tariqul: Unite to start a movement against the government n Tribune Report

BNP Standing Committee member Tariqul Islam yesterday called upon the party leaders and activists to unite for a movement and disregard all sorts of divisions and intra-party feud.

“All sorts of division should have to be forgotten to get rid of killing, abduc-tion and forced disappearance and to re-store democracy in the country. To oust the government, everybody has to be united and take to the streets,” he said.

Addressing the launching pro-gramme of a book, edited by party’s Se-nior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman, at Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, Tariqul said, “This book has unveiled the mask of Awami League.”

The BNP leader said the country had been going through a critical juncture. “To conceal Awami League govern-ment’s failure, they have been propa-gating against Ziaur Rahman.”

Tariqul said Tarique Rahman would be brought back home after ousting the government. l

Government approves Tk2.5m tari� discount for two rental plantsn Tribune Report

The government yesterday approved a tari� discount of $2.5 million for two gas-based rental power plants and is also considering to increase the plants’ capacity by 30MW.

The Power Division yesterday sub-mitted a proposal for increasing the capacity of the plants of Aggreko In-ternational, the tenures of which were recently extended for four years, to the

cabinet committee on public purchase.A meeting of the committee yes-

terday approved the tari� discount, Additional Secretary Nurul Karim told reporters.

As per the Power Ministry propos-al, the capacity of the 80MW plant at Ashuganj and 70MW plant at Brah-manbaria will be increased by 15MW each for four years under the main contract.

The Aggreko International will give

the government the discount amount as tra� c cost.

The extension of rental and quick rental power projects would increase power subsidy to Tk7,000 crore in the next � scal year from the present Tk6,000 crore.

The government in February ex-tended the tenures of two rental power projects having a capacity to generate 128.5MW of electricity by � ve years each. l

HC judge assigned to dispose of Khaleda’s writ petitionsn Nazmus Sakib

A High Court judge was assigned yes-terday to dispose of two writ petitions � led by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging the legality of framing charges against her in two graft cases.

Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hos-sain assigned Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque for the job, 13 days after a bench of two High Court (HC) judges issued a split order on her petitions.

Earlier on March 19, Dhaka’s Special Judge Basudev Roy charged Khaleda in Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases.

Later on May 12, Khaleda � led the petitions challenging the legality of framing charges against her in the cases and claiming that the judge, who has charged her, was not appointed legally. l

Obaidul: Weeds should be removed from Chhatra Leaguen DU Correspondent

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said the BCL activists who are involved in illegal activities must be removed from the associate body of the ruling Awami League.

“Some BCL activists are involved in extortion, abduction, killing and violence in the name of the organisation. Which is destroying the clean image of AL, continuously. The scoundrels must be wiped out from the BCL to hold its glorious prestige”, he said.

The minister made the remarks yesterday while addressing a Dhaka University Unit BCL-arranged discussion program in TSC auditorium on Bangabandhu’s autobiography titled Asamapta Atmajibanee, the Un� nished Memories in English.

Obaidul opined that the activists who use arms in political activities and run their livelihood by extortion will not be a good leaders in the future and he urged upon the BCL men to be honest imbued with the ideology of the father of nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“Only reading Asamapta Atmajibanee is not enough. It is essential to practise its real message in life”, he continued. l

IEDCR sources also said they were now monitoring 52 people who came in contact with the MERS patient since he contracted the disease

Thieves continue to steal terracotta tiles from a century-old Hindu temple at Puthia in Rajshahi AZAHAR UDDIN

Tra� c indiscipline adds to commuters’ woesCity residents spend around 11 minutes at every major intersectionn Abu Hayat Mahmud

A widespread indiscipline in the city’s transportation and tra� c management is seen as the primary reason for public su� erings during their daily commute.

The city people waste on an aver-age around 11 minutes at every major intersection and bus corridors around the capital, according to a study by Ra-jdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).

The Rajuk study titled Regional De-velopment Planning (RDP) came up with its report, saying there was no discipline in transportation and tra� c management system.

The survey observed that the city lacked adequate sidewalks, pedestri-an crossings, foot over-bridges, park-ing facilities, bus stations, passenger sheds and public vehicles alongside the tra� c mismanagement.

Rajuk conducted the survey last year for updating its database for the RDP which was implemented with the � nancial assistance from Asian Devel-opment Bank.

Korean companies Saman Corpora-tion and Han-A Urban Research Insti-tute and Bangladeshi companies Dev Consultants Ltd and Sheltech (Pvt) Ltd carried out the survey in a joint venture.

The study � nds that the negligence of the authorities concerned and lack of proper maintenance and monitoring system are the key factors in throwing the transportation system into disarray.

The RDP covers an area of 1,528 square kilometres, which includes two Dhaka city corporations, Narayanganj and Gazipur city corporations, four municipalities, 72 union parishads in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur.

According to the � ndings, a con-spicuous lack of adequate parking fa-cilities put on an average 332 vehicles

of various modes in a haphazard fash-ion in the city’s busy hotspots, includ-ing Gulshan 1, Gulshan 2, Karwan Ba-zar and Elephant road.

Rajuk and Dhaka South City Corpo-ration own parking facilities for only a total of 1,474 vehicles at di� erent plac-es within their purview.

The report says there are only � ve bus terminals under two Dhaka city corporations and no speci� c layover for the city buses, auto rickshaws and

taxi cabs. It adds that passengers’ suf-ferings are on a par with those of the pedestrians.

The sidewalks meant for the pass-ersby only are used by the transport workers to get the passengers in and out of their vehicles, � nds the study.

Rajuk � nds that the � ve terminals go on manual loading system and most of the time trucks are parked on adja-cent low capacity roadsides.

In rail sector, the report says the

availability of train tickets is a major concern for passengers.

The parking facilities in all railway stations in and around the capital are non-standard and some parking grounds are occupied by temporary vendors.

The survey � nds the circular water-ways for water buses and their termi-nals being in poor condition that have lost public interest.

Lack of adequate services and land-

ing station facilities are attributed to the fall of passengers’ attraction of wa-ter bus services.

The urban planners stressed con-cerned e� orts of Rajuk, city corpo-ration authorities, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, Dhaka Metropol-itan Police and respective ministries to rein in the city’s tra� c congestion.

Although the government imple-mented a few mega projects, including construction of a number of � yovers

across the city, townsfolk are still struggling with tra� c congestion ev-ery day.

Besides, tra� c lights and count-down timers in the city are proving worthless as tra� c police are regularly seen controlling tra� c manually.

The manual tra� c control is en-couraging drivers and commuters to disobey rules.

Tra� c police department of Dha-ka Metropolitan Police has seemingly failed to cope with the messy situation which is largely responsible for deadly road crashes and tailbacks.

Moreover, the BRTA data shows a total of 87,795 un� t motor vehicles ply-ing across the roads of Dhaka, posing threat to road safety and contributing to tra� c congestion.

Prof Nazrul Islam, chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies,   said: “There is no decrease in tra� c congestion be-cause of unplanned urbanisation and tra� c mismanagement system.”

“It may intensify in future if the government does not take � tting steps for decentralisation.”

He blamed illegal parking of cars and plying of rickshaws and auto-rick-shaws in thoroughfares for tra� c jam.

Prof Nazrul suggested that the au-thorities should introduce separate lanes for buses as most townsfolk ride the mode of vehicle for commute.

Prof Dr Sarwar Jahan, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Buet, echoed the same sentiment as Prof Nazrul.

He said: “The capital has become un� t for living because of a large in� ux of migrating people to the capital.”

“If the government does not take appropriate measures for decentrali-sation, no e� orts to promote the city’s tra� c system will work,” he added. l

WEATHER

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 3:44am Sunrise 5:11am Zohr 12:00am Asr 3:18pm Magrib 6:47pm Esha 8:15pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:48PM SUN RISES 5:11AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW38.6ºC 24.0ºCKhulna Chuadanga

MONDAY, JUNE 16

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 38° 28°Chittagong 33° 28°Rajshahi 39° 30°Rangpur 38° 27°Khulna 38° 28°Barisal 36° 28°Sylhet 37° 26°Cox’s Bazar 33° 28°

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Roadblock in Savar demanding arrest of Azad killersn Our Correspondent, Savar

Locals and family members of Azad Rashid, a local businessman who was murdered by unidenti� ed miscreants last month, put a blockade on the Dha-ka-Aricha highway in Thanastand area in Savar yesterday demanding the ar-rest of the alleged killers.

Consequently hundreds of vehi-cles got stuck on both sides of thehighway that lasted for aroundone hour, creating immense su� ering to the commuters in the heat of the summer.

Sources said Azad’s family as well

as local people brought out a proces-sion from the local police station area at noon protesting the delay in arrest-ing the killers and then they placed a memorandum in this regard to Savar upazila nirbahi o� cer (UNO) Kamrul Hasan Mollah.

Afterwards, they put a blockade on the highway around 1:30pm, halting all types of vehicular movement there.

Being informed, police rushed to the spot and drove away the protesters from the scene.

Azad’s son Asaduzzaman alleged that police took a big amount of bribe from the accused, because of

which they were reluctant to arrest the killers.

He also threatened to declare tough-er protests unless the accused are ar-rested forthwith.

Denying allegation brought against police, Savar model police station OC Mostofa Kamal said they were trying best to arrest the killers involved in the Azad murder.

On May 11, some unidenti� ed mis-creants gunned down Azad while he was on his way home.

Later in the incident, his son Asa-duzzaman � led a case accusing 11people. l

RMG worker commits suiciden CU Correspondent

Police yesterday recovered a body of a female readymade garment (RMG) worker from her residence at Colonel-haat under Akbar Shah police station in Chittagong city.

The deceased, Selina Aktar, 27, wife of Md Yusuf, comes from Noakhali dis-trict, said police sources.

However, they could not trace the victim’s workplace.

Victim’s husband,  Yusuf  is on the run after the incident, said  Md Jaker Hossen, sub-inspector of Akbar Shah police station.

He said the neighbours found  Seli-na’s body hanging from the ceiling fan with her scarf at her rented residence at Shahjahan Colony and called the po-lice.

Receiving information, police recov-ered the body and sent it to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) morgue for autopsy, added the SI.

Locals said the RMG worker and Yu-suf married three months ago and rent-ed the house after their marriage, also said the SI; adding that they are sus-pecting the incident as a suicidal case while they are looking into the matter as the husband is a fugitive. l

One held for rape of 9-year-old girlin Chittagongn CU Correspondent

Police yesterday arrested a person for raping a nine years old girl who studies at a madrasah in Jorarganj area of Mir-sari upazila in Chittagong.

The arrested, Abdul Kader, 24, son of late Nur Ahmed, is a day labourer by profession and resident of Chuttaruya area of Jorarganj, said police sources.

Sub-Inspector Ariful Islam of Jorargaj police station said Abdul forcibly picked up the girl, a grade III student of Chut-toruya Kindergarten Madrasah, near a hill in the area on her way to the madra-sah yesterday morning and raped her.

Hearing her cry for help, locals caught the rapist red-handed and hand-ed him over to the police around 10am after he was lynched, said SI Ariful.

A case was � led with the police sta-tion and the girl would be sent to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital for medical tests, added the SI. l

Beloved’s sibling hacked to death in Savarn Our Correspondent, Savar

A boyfriend allegedly hacked his girl-friend’s sibling to death for prying into their love a� air in Savar yesterday.

Victim, Shanto Lal, 18, son of Mintu Lal of Kutubali area in Mymensingh, worked as a sweeper staying at his grandfather’s house in Kathgara area under Ashulia in Savar. Police recovered the body inside a bamboo grove at Kath-gara in Ashulia around 11am yesterday.

Police, locals and family sources said Shanto left home around 8pm on Friday and his family members start-ed to look for him as he didn’t return

home that night.Locals found a body inside the

bamboo grove yesterday morning and informed his family. His father, Mintu Lal rushed to the spot and identi� ed the body. Later police recovered the body from the spot after receiving in-formation.

Mintu told the Dhaka Tribune that his daughter, Sharathi Rani Lal, fell in love with a local Muslim youth named Raj Sheikh, son of Mahbub Sheikh. When Shanto came to know about their relationship, he asked Sharathi to discontinue her relationship with the youth leading to an altercation be-

tween the siblings.After the incident, Raj Sheikh and

his sibling, Taj Sheikh threatened Shanto to kill him if he does not change his disapproving stance. Mintu alleged that Taj is behind the murder.

Assistant Superintendent Russel Sheikh of Ashulia circle police said pri-marily it is suspected that the murder might be linked with the love a� air. How-ever, no one has been arrested so far.

The body was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy and victim’s father lodged a case with Ashulia police station in this regard, added the o� cer. l

Condition imposed on formalin import n Tribune Report

The Ministry of Commerce yesterday imposed tougher conditions on the im-port and use of formalin.

As per the conditions, the import-ers must apply with recommendations from respective ministries. Retailers must keep registered records of the formalin buyers and they must show register when the commerce ministry or any government authorities want to check, said a statement of the ministry.

The conditions have been imposed through a gazette noti� cation issued on 14 March last year.

After imposing the conditions, the ministry has not permitted any com-pany or person to import formalin, the statement added.

In recent time, the ministry has received allegation that a group of unscrupulous businessmen are using formalin in perishable goods including fruits, vegetable, � sh, meat and others foods to protect it from rotting.

These formalin contaminated foods are very dangerous for health even can cause cancer and death.

The government was working to enact a law and the cabinet already approved draft in principle, the ministry said. l

A row of CNG-run auto rickshaws is seen parked on the Babubazar bridge in the capital illegally. The photo was taken recently MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Youth killed by drug addicts in Gournadi n Our Correspondent, Barisal

A youth was killed allegedly by a group addicts at Badurtala in Gournadi of Barisal yesterday afternoon.

Quoting family police said drug ad-dicts – Monir Khan, 18, Sumon Sardar, 18, Masum Haoladar, 17 - had an alter-cation with Belal Chowkidar, 20, son of Moktar Chowkidar over stealing coco-nut in the early hours of Saturday.

At one stage of the altercation, Su-mon, Masum, Monir indiscriminately hit Belal with sticks and rods.

Relatives of Belal rushed him to Kalkini Upazila Health Complex in crit-ical condition.

Belal succumbed to his injuries at the health complex yesterday morning.

Moktar Chowkidar as complainant lodged a murder case against trio yes-terday afternoon.

AKM Ehsan Ullah, district police su-perintendent and Md Qamruzzaman, assistant police superintendent of Gournadi circle visited the spot.

Police sent the body to Barisal Sher e Bangla Medical College Hospital for autopsy and started drives to arrest the accused, said Abul Kalam, o� cer in charge of Gournadi police station.

Protesting the death, local people held a rally at the upazila headquarters yesterday afternoon.

They said the local goons had been creating nuisance in the locality for long, but police did not take any step against them for unknown reason. They demanded exemplary punish-ment to killers of Belal with out any delay. The agitators also brought out a procession in the district town that paraded different roads of the district town. l

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

Blockade ends with sporadic clashes in Khagrachharin Our Correspondent, Khagrachhari

The half day road blockade enforced by four organisations of indigenous peo-ple in Khagrachhari ended with spo-radic clashes yesterday.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (Sadar circle) Sarwar Alam said the UPDF pickets clashed with police in Swanirbor, Khabongpuriya, Bus Stand and Collegiate School areas in the hill town with brickbats, stones and logs.

The pickets also blocked the roads of Swanirbhor, Shatinagar and Mohila College road areas of the district town.

Police also � red at least 28-30 rounds of tear-shell and rubber bullets to dis-perse the angry pickets. The pickets also vandalised � ve vehicles at di� erent spots in the district, ASP Sarwar added.

United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), Pahari Chhatra Sangram Pari-shad, Gonatantrik Jubo Forum and Hill Women’s Federation called the strike protesting attack on indigenous peo-ple by members of Bangladesh Border Gourds and land grabbing by newly es-tablished BGB members.

Lieutenant Colonel of 51-BGB Bat-talion Md Abul Kalam Azad said they had established the battalion on May

15, this year aiming to protect at least 47 kilometres unprotected border ar-eas of the country.

But in a mysterious way, some eth-nic people under the banner of a re-gional political forum UPDF, protested the establishment of BGB since the very beginning that resulted in Tues-day’s attack, he alleged.

Meanwhile, police Super Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that additional forces had been deployed in sensitive areas to avoid any untoward incident.

At least 23 people were injured in a clash between law enforcers and indig-enous villagers over setting up of a new BGB battalion o� ce at Babuchhara of Dighinala upazila in the district on Tuesday afternoon.

Local sources said a group of in-digenous women and BGB personnel locked into an altercation when the lat-ter put a � ag in the proposed helipad area for BGB 51 battalion.

At one stage of altercation, both the groups engaged in a clash that lasted for more than an hour.

Indigenous people claimed they owned the place and that it was beyond the BGB’s jurisdiction. l

Class III employees stage demo across country for salary hiken Tribune Report

3rd class employees yesterday in Magu-ra, Jamalpur, Pirojpur, Kurigram and Sirajganj districts staged a demonstra-tion and observed daylong work absten-tion for promotion and upgrade of their payscale.

Our Magura correspondent said the employees under the banner of Bang-ladesh Collectorate Sahakari Samiti, Magura district unit observed the day-long work abstention.

They also arranged a discussion at the deputy commissioner o� ce premises.

Ashaduzzaman and Nabiruzzaman, president and general secretary of the organisation, spoke at the meeting.

They demanded rename of the post ‘o� ce assistant’ in divisional, district and upazila collector o� ces as ‘deputy assistant administrative o� cer’ and ‘up-per division assistant’ as ‘assistant ad-

ministrative o� cer’ and ‘chief assistant’ as ‘administrative o� cer.’

Our Jamalpur correspondent said the employees in several upazilas of the dis-trict observed daylong work abstention and staged demonstration demanding promotion and upgrade of pay scale.

Jamalpur Collectorate Shahakari Samity President Ra� qul Islam said they would continue the programme till 5pm every day.

He also said they would form human chain in front of the National press club on 21 June.

Our Pirojpur correspondent said the employees in the district observed day-long work abstention demanding pro-motion and upgrade of payscales.

The district unit of the samiti presi-dent Humayun Kabir said that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered to ful� ll the demand in 2000. But it has not been ful� lled yet.

Our Kurigram correspondent said the employees staged a demonstration in front of the deputy commissioner’s o� ce and observed a daylong work ab-stention over the issue.

Among others, the district unit samiti president Wares Ali, its general secretary Reazul Ra� , Nasimuddin, Mizanur Rah-man and Mamataz spoke on the occa-sion.

Our Sirajganj correspondent said the employees observed daylong work ab-stention programme and held a discus-sion demanding promotion and upgrade of payscales.

Among others, the district unit presi-dent of the samiti Ansarul Alam, its gen-eral secretary Akbar Hossain and organ-ising secretary Nur Alam spoke on the occasion.

The employees said they would con-tinue their movements until the de-mands were ful� lled. l

Youth stabbed to death in Nilphamarin Our Correspondent, Nilphamari

Unknown miscreants yesterday night stabbed a youth to death at village Singergari Hajir Haat under Kishoreganj upazila in Nilphamari district.

The victim, Md Mithu Mia, 23, son of Ahmed Hossain, hails from the same area in the district.

Witnesses said: ”Mithu was walking back to his home at village Hazir Haat yesterday night on the Kishoreganj-Rangpur highway. Some unknown miscreants stabbed him around 11pm yesterday and he died on the spot.”

Shah Alam, o� cer-in-charge of Kishoreganj police station con� rmed the news.

He said:”The victim’s familly � led a murder case with the police station and investigation is going on to trace the killers.” l

Headmaster builds structure illegally occupying canal in Gopalganjn Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

The headmaster of a school in Kashiani of Gopalganj is allegedly erecting a building on a canal after illegally occupying and � ll-ing it.

Md Ilius Akter, headmaster of Sajail Gopi Mohon High School, claimed ownership of 60 decimals of Sajail canal, � lled it with sand and recently began constructing a building there, completely blocking transportation on the water body.

Acting deputy assistant land o� cer of Sa-jail Land O� ce Nityananda Paul has served a notice to Ilius asking him to stop the con-struction while Ilius has � led a case with Gopalganj court claiming ownership of the land.

Locals said boats carrying people and goods run on the canal, which � ow beside the school, during the rainy season but Il-

ius had forcefully occupied it, � lled it across with sand, and was erecting a building there.

Besides, with the help of the management committee of the school, he occupied anoth-er one acre of land by showing it to be under the ownership of the school, they said.

A year ago, the school authorities and locals evicted a local in� uential man who had set up a shop by illegally occupying the same land. Ilius was said to have occupied not only the land but also a portion of the school’s playground.

The locals demanded the canal be recov-ered from the clutches of the occupier.

Green activist Bidhan Chandra Tikadar said according to the environment act of 2000, no building could be erected by � ll-ing a canal and construction of any building would require approval from the authorities concerned and clearance certi� cate from the Department of Environment.

“Besides, the building code has to be fol-lowed. What the headmaster is doing is a clear violation of the law and is responsible for environmental degradation.

Nityananda Paul said they obstructed when the canal was being � lled but Ilius de-� ed that and went on with � lling the water body.

“We issued a notice on May 29 and have asked to suspend the construction. At pre-sent, construction is halted,” he said.

Claiming ownership of land of the canal, Ilius said the SA record contained no canal in the place and we were the owner of it.

“But the canal was mentioned in the Hal BRS record. There can be no canal in a place that is under my ownership which is why I have � lled the place to erect a building,” he said.

“I received a notice from the land o� ce but I � led a case claiming ownership of the land. The canal is next to the school play-ground and the school also owns a part of the place. That is why the school authorities occupied and � lled that portion,” said Ilius.

The headmaster, however, admitted that he had taken no permission from the govern-ment to � ll the canal or no clearance certi� -cate from the Department of Environment.

President of the school’s management committee Enamul Haque said they occu-pied part of the canal as it was under the ownership of the educational institution. l

Traders, transport workers’ clash leaves 15 hurt in Sreemangaln Our Correspondent, Moulvibazar

At least 15 people, including police and businessmen, were injured in a clash between businessmen and trans-port workers at Sreemangal upazila in Moulvibazar on Saturday night.

Quoting locals, police said the clash had taken place over a truck parking in front of a shop in Central road area of the upazila headquarters.

When shop owner resisted the truck driver from parking the vehicle there, the transport workers unitedly at-tacked the shop, local traders alleged.

As the news of attack spread, trad-ers swooped on the transport workers at several points of the district town ensuing clashes in which 15 people from both sides were injured.

The injured are Jogendra Paul 50, Krishna Paul 33, Abu Paul 26, Kanu Paul 36, Biplob Dev 33, Tazul Islam 33, Kamal Hossen Cherag 49, Shawn Hos-sen 22, Iusuf Miah 45, Shudhu Kor 33,

Md. Kala Miah 55, Dulal Miah 44. Meanwhile, Sub-Inspector Omor

Faruque, 38, and constable Alom, 45, were admitted to Sreemangal Upazila Health Complex and Srimongal Munici-pal Councilor Md Jhinu Mia was admit-ted to Moulvibazar 250-bed hospital.

During the clash, many shops and business establishments were vandal-ised and looted. After the clash, Sree-mangal Traders’ Association went on a strike for an inde� nite period of time.

M Kodor Ali, general secretary of Sreemangal Traders’ Association, alleged that transport workers had attacked busi-nessmen over a trivial matter.

Sheikh Lutfur Rahman, president of Srimangal Traders’ Association, as po-lice and upazila administration assured them of protecting their shops from further attack and local traders opened their shops yesterday morning.

Md Shajan Miah, secretary of Truck Labour Union, Sreemangal unit, said they did not damage or loot any shop. l

Abductors kill baby girl in Rajbari n Our Correspondent, Rajbari

Rajbari Sadar police recovered body of an 11 months old baby girl on Saturday after 26 hours of her abduction in Sadar upa-zila of Rajbari district.

The victim is Masura Begum, daughter of Abdur Razzaque of village South Bhabanipur under Alipur Union in Sadar upa-zila of the district.

The victim’s father Abdur Razzaque said on Friday, her daughter was asleep in their bedroom around 12pm while his wife was cooking. After she was � nished, she could not � nd the baby when she came back to the room.

He also said: “We found our baby’s body lying down in a small bush just behind our room at 2pm next day (Saturday).”

Sub-Inspector Md Kamrul Islam of Rajbari Sadar police station said the locals found the body and informed the police.

Later, the police recovered the body and sent it to the Rajbari Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy, he said.

A case was � led with the Rajbari Sadar police station in this regard, he added. l

Contraband items seized Bangladesh Border Guard yesterday recovered 1567 pieces of sharee, 927 metre clothes and a covered van including drug in Chandina Bazar area on the Dhaka-Comilla highway in Comilla district. On the otherhand the BGB recoveed 10 kg hemp, 56 bottles of whisky in Mathurapur area. Lt Cornel Sahidur Rahaman said the contraband valued at Tk1.66 crore. – Our Correspondent

Paddy seeds distributed Free paddy seeds were distributed among 400 farmers in Kurigram district yesterday. Solidarity, a local NGO organised the distribution programme in Sadar upazila. The organisation executive director Harunur-or-Rashid Lal, agriculturist Abdulla-al-Razi and Bhudeb Sarker were present among others during the distribution. The organisation has taken the programme to distribute highbred variety of seeds among the farmers i. – Our Correspondent

Youth electrocuted A youth was electrocuted in Biharpur area of Rangamati town on Saturday. The deceased was identi� ed as Promith Chakma, 30, son of Shushantu Chakma of Biharpur. Locals said Promith Chakma was seriously injured when he came in contact with a live wire while repairing a water-lifting pump at his house at about 3pm. – Our Correspondent

Listed criminal held Police arrested a top terrorist from Dhanmondi area under Joypurhat Sadar upazila Jaipur Saturday night. The arrestee was identi� ed as Nur-e-Alam alias Ghutu Alam, 35, son of late Moziruddin of Dhanmondi area of the town. O� cer-in-charge (OC) of Joypurhat Thana Abdur Rashid said acting on a tip-o� , a team of Joypurhat Sadar Thana police conducted a raid at his house and arrested him. – Our Correspondent

Labourers load sand, which have been illegally lifted from the River Padma, on a truck in Court area of Rajshahi yesterday. Although district administration conducts drives frequently, vested interests group continues sand lifting from Godagari to Lalpur in Natore DHAKA TRIBUNE

A building being constructed on a canal at Kashiani upazila in Gopalganj district DHAKA TRIBUNE

NEWS IN BRIEF

Acting deputy assistant land o� cer of Sajail Land O� ce Nityananda Paul has served a notice to Ilius asking him to stop the construction while Ilius has � led a case with Gopalganj court claiming ownership of the land

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BIZVOCAB

7CareerDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

Troubleshooting through undetected knotsn Career Desk

What can you do when you are facing a seem-ingly undetectable problem at work? You do not even know the

cause of this great problem – just that you have a problem on your hands. (Maybe your team is not meeting the mandatory sales quota despite their best e� ort, and you are trying to get to the root of the problem).

The obvious � rst step is to brain-storm for possible causes and trying to apply lessons learned from previous experiences to the situation. Howev-er such directionless brainstorming is more prone to derail you and your team from the problem at hand rather than o� er a way out. No matter how need-lessly remedial and self-deprecating checklists seem they can be surprising-ly useful when used appropriately to stimulate open thought.

In the 1960s, a systems engineering professor, Peter Checkland, had the novel idea of developing a problem solving method that would apply sys-tems principles to business problems and other such “soft” problems. This Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) con-ceptualises the activities of the busi-ness under scrutiny as a system, a part of which is the CATWOE checklist for problem solving.

CATWOE is a simple checklist for troubleshooting and one of the gener-ic techniques business analysts use to identify a business’ bottlenecks, prob-lem areas and how potential solutions may a� ect the business and the people involved in it. The CATWOE has six ele-ments: clients, actors, transformation, worldview, owner and environmental constraints.

What kind of situation calls for CATWOE?The CATWOE checklist may be used to identify a problem, to prompt think-ing about what you are really trying to achieve and to implement the solution and help consider the impact of the business and people involved.

Use the following elements of the CATWOE checklist to stimulate think-

ing about the problem and solution during your brainstorming.

Clients: The clients are the stakeholders who use the system, or rather the busi-ness. These are the people who will be directly a� ected by any change in the system and bene� t or su� er from its outcome. The � rst step to a CATWOE checklist is to identify this group and un-derstand how the system a� ects them.

For example: Maybe your sales team is not meeting its quota because of an outdated processing system and you think introducing an automated sys-tem will expedite the process. A few questions to ask yourself are: Who is on the receiving end? What problem do they have now? How will they react to your proposal?

In this case, your employees are on the receiving end and are thus the clients. They will be directly a� ected by this change. Their problem is slow processing time due to a manual sys-tem. Their reactions may be mixed, as the more tech-savvy will welcome the change but older employees in the company may resist such a big change.

Actors: The actors in a CATWOE check-list refers to the people involved in the implementation of the changes to the system, or business.

A few questions to ask yourself are: Who are the actors who will be carrying out the changes to the system? What will its impact be on them? How will they react to the change?

In the aforementioned example, this role would be of the automated system

development team, the IT department, and to an extent the HR department.

Transformation: The transformation is the total number of changes that the system or business undergoes. Ques-tions to ask yourself are: What are the inputs and where do they come from? What are the outputs and where do they go? What steps are in between the transformation?

In our example, the transformation would be the shift from a manual pro-cessing system to an automated one.

Worldview: The worldview is the big picture and the impact at large of the transformed system or business. The entire system is analysed in this step to come up with the positive and neg-ative impact of the change. This is the

most crucial step in CATWOE analysis as di� erent stakeholders may have dif-ferent approaches to the same issue. The worldview de� nes why we want to implement the change to the system.

The primary di� erences in the over-all analysis will lie in this particular step, if each individual “client” were asked to do a CATWOE. Questions to ask yourself about the di� erent world-views are: What is the real problem you are working on? What is the wide scale impact of any solution?

In our example, the impact at large to the system would be that the auto-mation of the processing system in-creases the e� ciency of the sales team, leading them to making more sales, and reducing time spent manually pro-cessing all sales.

Owner: The owner or the decision mak-er is the one with authority to make and

implement the changes to the system, stop the process or decide on whether to look at alternate solutions.

A few questions to ask yourself about the owner are: Who is the real owner of the system you are trying to change? Will they assist you or get in your way? How can you get their help?

In our example, the system owner would be the head of the sales team, while other key owners will also be in-volved, such as the HR and IT heads.

Environmental constraints: Environ-mental constraints are external limita-tions that a� ect the success of the solu-tion. These can range from budgetary limitations, regulations, ethical con-straints, limits set by owners etc.

A few questions to ask yourself about this step are: What are the broad-er constraints imposed on the situa-tion? What are the more speci� c con-straints and limitations? How can you get around them?

In our example, some environmen-tal constraints may be the expense of running an automated system, mainte-nance of the system leading to a high-er strain on the IT department, lack of integration with current aspects of the system etc.

The CATWOE model is used to iden-tify and categorise all stakeholders of the system, or business, being analysed to come up with the root de� nition. The root de� nition is a structured de� -nition of the system – a clear statement of activities that take place in the sys-tem being studied. l

Ready, set, unemployment!n Career Desk

Animals can sense danger coming – strange behaviour in the animal kingdom before impending doom is something we have all heard of – dogs bark themselves hoarse before a big earthquake; birds act strangely out of pattern before a big hurricane; earth-worms dig out of the ground before big � oods. Human beings do not have such � nely tuned sensors to detect im-pending doom, but certain things such as the end of a relationship or an immi-nent sacking often becomes obvious to one before it has happened.

If you have been noticing warning signals and think you may be about to get laid o� , it is prudent to start prepar-ing for it right now, whether it comes to pass or not. Preparing for unemploy-ment is di� cult enough for a single person; if you have people depending on your pay check, then you are head-ing for troubled waters. Consider the following suggestions on how to get ready for joblessness.

SaveThe most important step to preparing for unemployment is to have a negli-gible rainy day fund. Negligible in this instance means enough money to last you three to six months without a job. There is no such thing as unemploy-ment bene� ts in Bangladesh, so unless you already have emergency money set aside, there is no time like right now to start saving. You do not want to lose your job and � nd yourself without a safety net.

Stay within meansBeing thrifty is not a process, it is a way of life, which makes it di� cult to at-tain unless you are used to living with-in your means. If you know you are heading towards unemployment, stop spending money on things unless you absolutely need them, and cut corners at every available opportunity.

“Exploit” your contractFringe bene� ts such as medical in-surance or coverage are often the last things on one’s mind before losing a job. However, if you know your dis-missal is imminent, now may be the time to schedule any medical or dental appointments you have been putting o� all these years. You do not want to be jobless and have to cover huge med-ical expenses!

Stop charging on your cardsUnless you absolutely need to, stop using your credit card now. If you lose your job today, it is just one moreextra payment to deal with tomor-row. If you can tell that your job is indanger, stop charging anything on your credit cards.

Create a portfolio Once you get laid o� , you will no lon-ger have access to your workstation or work email; start collecting samples of your work (such as written pieces, pro-posal drafts, presentations) on a pen drive or email the � les to your person-al account. When you look for a new

job, they will want to look at samples of your previous work, and you do not want to � nd yourself without access to them.

Do not forget networkingNetworking is not a one-o� activity but a constant development. Howev-er, unless the job expressly requires it, it is common to fall out of the practice. When you are heading towards unem-ployment, you need to scurry towards your closest acquaintances and be on the lookout for opportunities. Keep an eye open for potential opportunities at all times, whether you are at a work event or a friend’s child’s birthday party.

Study your contract Go through your employment contract

thoroughly and � gure out if you have any unused leaves left. It may be a good time to use them up before it is too late. Also look through the sections regard-ing dismissal and how long a notice your employer will have to provide, so you know how best to prepare for it.

Have the talkUnemployment is a di� cult and emo-tionally stressful time, not just for you but everyone who cares about you. If you are looking at an upcoming remov-al, have a talk with anyone who will be impacted by the loss of your job, such as your spouse, parents, children etc. Make sure you are on the same page, and most importantly, can start prior-itising and setting � nancial goals to-gether. l

No matter how needlessly remedial and self-deprecating checklists seem they can be surprisingly useful when used appropriately to stimulate open thought

Unemployment is a di� cult and emotionally stressful time, not just for you but everyone who cares about you. If you are looking at an upcoming removal, have a talk with anyone who will be impacted by the loss of your job

Monday, June 16, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

Ships move into gulf as US lays out goals for Iraq

n AP, Washington

The United States ordered an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf and laid out speci� c ways for Iraq to show it is forging the national unity necessary to gain assistance in its � ght against Is-lamic insurgents.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Saturday ordered the USS George HW Bush from the northern Arabian Sea as President Barack Obama considered possible military options for Iraq. Ha-gel’s press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said the move will give Obama additional � exibility if military action were required to protect American citi-zens and interests in Iraq.

Accompanying the carrier will be the guided-missile cruiser USS Phil-ippine Sea and the guided-missile de-stroyer USS Truxtun. The ships, which

carry Tomahawk missiles that could reach Iraq, were expected to complete their move into the Persian Gulf by the end of the day. The Bush’s � ghter jets also could easily reach Iraq.

Islamic militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, have captured large swaths of territo-ry north of Baghdad. Their advance on the capital was sending food pric-es dramatically higher and prompting tighter security in the city of 7 million people.

In a phone call Saturday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Ze-bari, Secretary of State John Kerry said US assistance “would only be successful if Iraqi leaders were will-ing to put aside di� erences and im-plement a coordinated and e� ective approach to forge the national unity necessary to move the country for-ward and confront the threat of ISIL,” according to a statement by the State Department.

Kerry pointed to the importance of the Iraqi government ratifying election results without delay, adhering to its constitutionally mandated timeframe for forming a new government and re-specting the rights of all citizens as it � ghts against terrorism, the State De-partment said.

Amid sectarian strife between Sun-ni and Shiite citizens, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for unity of all Iraqis. A Shiite, al-Maliki is widely re-sented by Sunnis for his perceived sec-tarian policies.

Kerry told Zebari that the US was em-phasizing with the international com-munity as well as those in the region the threat posed by ISIL and the importance of coming to the aid of Iraq. l

Tony Blair: ‘We didn’t cause Iraq crisis’n Agencies

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has accused critics of the war in Iraq of trying to “wilfully” claim the current crisis in the country is a result of the original invasion. In a 3,000-word essay, Blair rejected claims that he was to blame, saying that if the West had not rid Iraq of Saddam Hus-sein in 2003, the crisis in the Middle East would be worse. “We have to lib-erate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t. We can argue as to whether our policies at points have helped or not; and whether action or inaction is the best policy and there is a lot to be said on both sides.

“But the fundamental cause of the crisis lies within the region not outside it,” he wrote. Blair added that it is a “bi-

zarre reading of the cauldron that is the Middle East today, to claim that but for the removal of Saddam, we would not have a crisis.”

“Is it seriously being said that the rev-olution sweeping the Arab world would have hit Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, to say nothing of the smaller upheavals all over the region, but miraculously Iraq, under the most brutal and tyrannical of all the regimes, would have been an oasis of calm?”

Blair, who said he was not calling for allied troops to return to Iraq but all measures short of that, including air strikes, said the major cause of the current con� ict was the civil war in Syria, together with the “sectarian-ism of the Maliki Government” which had “led to the alienation of the Sunni community.” l

Australian natural wonders under Unesco spotlightn AFP, Sydney

Australia is home to some of the most pristine environment on Earth, but two of its most high-pro� le protected areas face threats to their status as World Heritage Sites at a Unesco meeting starting Sunday in Doha.

In such a vast country that boasts large tracts of desert, rainforest and coast, many of Australia’s natural wonders have won Unesco World Heritage listings.

They include Fraser Island, Shark Bay, the Wet Tropics of Queensland, the Greater Blue Mountains, Kakadu National Park and Uluru.

Perhaps its best-known masterpiece is the Great Barrier Reef, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet that sprawls across an area roughly the size of Japan.

But all is not well on the reef, which is considered to be in “poor” health.

It is under growing pressure not just from climate change and the destructive coral-eating crown-of-thorns star� sh, but agricultural runo� and rampant coastal development linked to mining.

For these reasons, Unesco is considering downgrading its status to “World Heritage in Danger” at its annual meeting, in the absence of Australia showing “substantial” progress in dealing with the problems.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt insists Australia has thrown millions of dollars at protecting the reef, bolstering its resilience to the major threats of extreme weather events and climate change.

Working to reduce outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns star� sh was also being tackled, as was reducing nutrient and sediment run-o� from land-clearing and agriculture, he said.

Queensland state Environment Minister Andrew Powell, who released a report Thursday on water quality that he will take to the Doha meeting, said he was con� dent a downgrade would be avoided.

“The reef is now on the pathway to long-term improvement,” he said, pointing to improved land management practices that had reduced pesticide loads by 28 percent since 2009. “In terms of nitrogen – that’s what causes those crown-of-thorn star� sh outbreaks – we’ve reduced it by 16 percent overall,” he added.

Reef a ‘dumping ground’ While improvements to water quality had been achieved, Powell conceded that the overall health of the reef still needed more work.

The report did not deal with port devel-opments linked to mining, which conser-vationists have warned could hasten the

demise of the reef.There has been particular concern from

Unesco about the approval in December of a massive coal port expansion in the region, and allowing the dumping of millions of tonnes of dredge waste within the marine park waters.

The Australian Marine Conservation

Society said while a reduction in sediment from farming was good news, dredging was ruining the reef.

“The mining industry, backed by the state government and the state-owned ports corporations, are treating the reef as a dumping ground,” said spokeswoman Felicity Wishart. l

Iran warns against military intervention in Iraqn AFP, Tehran

Iran warned yesterday that “any for-eign military intervention in Iraq” would only complicate the crisis, after the US said it was deploying a warship in the Gulf. “Iraq has the capacity and necessary preparations for the � ght against terrorism and extremism,” foreign ministry spokesman Marzieh A� ham was quoted as saying by ISNA.

“Any action that complicates the sit-uation in Iraq is not in the interests of the country nor of the region,” A� ham said, adding, “The people and govern-ment of Iraq will be able to neutralise this conspiracy.”

A� ham’s comments come as the United States ordered an aircraft car-rier into the Persian Gulf to help Iraqi soldiers � ght the militants. l

Militants post images of mass killing in Iraq n AP, Baghdad

The Islamic militant group that seized much of northern Iraq has posted pho-tos that appear to show its � ghters shooting dead dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers in a province north of the capi-tal Baghdad. The pictures on a militant website appear to show masked � ght-ers of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, loading the captives onto � atbed trucks before forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied behind their backs.

The � nal images appear to show the bodies of the captives soaked in blood af-ter being shot. Iraq’s top military spokes-man, Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, con� rmed the photos’ authenticity yes-terday and said he was aware of cases of mass murder of captured Iraqi soldiers. l

Spain readies legal shield for King Carlosn AFP, Madrid

Spain’s government is crafting a new legal shield for King Juan Carlos after he steps o� the throne and loses the absolute royal immunity that has pro-tected him for 39 years.

The 76-year-old king, hurt by roy-al scandals in the twilight of a reign that steered Spain from dictatorship to democracy, is handing the crown to his son Felipe who will be sworn in on Thursday. But when King Felipe VI is crowned, his father Juan Carlos will cease to be covered by Spain’s 1978 constitution, which states that the per-son of the king “is inviolable and shall not be held accountable.”

In October 2012, that immunity thwarted two legal suits demanding that Juan Carlos undergo paternity tests to show whether he was the fa-ther of two extramarital children.

It is a status that is increasingly being questioned, however, as Spain grapples with the � rst royal succession since the restoration of the monarchy after the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975. Juan Carlos himself declared in a televised address in December 2012 that “justice is equal for all” as he distanced himself from a corruption scandal swirl-ing around his son-in-law. l

Israel: Hamas kidnapped missing teens n AP, Jerusalem

Israeli troops yesterday arrested some 80 Palestinians, including dozens of Hamas members, in an overnight raid in the West Bank as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Is-lamic militant group of kidnapping three teenagers who went missing nearly four days ago.

The crisis escalated already height-ened tensions between Israel and the new Palestinian government, which is headed by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas but backed by Hamas.

Netanyahu has condemned Abbas’ agreement with the militant group, and said he would hold him responsible for the safety of the youths, who disap-peared apparently while hitchhiking in the West Bank late Thursday. The three, one of whom holds American citizenship, have not been heard from since then.

Palestinian o� cials condemned the overnight crackdown and rejected Ne-tanyahu’s contention that they are re-sponsible. Hamas, meanwhile, praised

the apparent kidnapping but stopped short of accepting responsibility.

Speaking to his Cabinet Sunday, Ne-tanyahu said there was no doubt who was responsible.

“Those who perpetrated the ab-duction of our youths were members of Hamas, the same Hamas that Abu Mazen made a unity government with. This has severe repercussions,” he said. Abbas is also known as Abu Mazen.

Netanyahu did not say how Israel determined Hamas was responsible.

Palestinian militants have repeated-ly threatened to kidnap Israelis, hoping to use them as bargaining chips to win the release of prisoners held by Israel. This would be the � rst time three civil-ians have been taken at the same time.

The overnight raid was concentrat-ed in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, in the area where the youths disappeared. A Hamas website said more than 60 of those arrested were members, including senior � gures in the movement. The Israeli military also detained supporters of Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian militant group. l

Ukraine vows to punish rebels who downed plane n AP, Novohannivka, Ukraine

Ukraine’s new president declared yes-terday a day of mourning and vowed to punish those responsible after pro-Rus-sia separatists shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane, killing all 49 crew and troops aboard.

It was a bitter setback for the Ukrainian forces — the deadliest single incident yet in their escalating battle against an armed insurgency that the government, backed by the US, insists is supported by Russia.

The downing of the plane drew condemnation and concern from the White House, European leaders and UN chief Ban Ki-moon. Analysts said it could bring a renewed emphasis on in-creasing sanctions against Russia.

“(This) will refocus attention on the fact that Russia does not seem to be do-ing very much to moderate the insur-gency (or) the cross-border resupply of separatists,” said Timothy Ash, an analyst at Standard Bank PLC. “I would expect the focus to return to sanctions next week.”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshen-ko spoke � rmly to glum-faced secu-rity o� cials at a televised emergency meeting Saturday, scolding the head of the country’s SBU security service for “omissions” in measures to protect military aircraft.

Poroshenko called for “a detailed analysis of the reasons” for the lapse and hinted that personnel chang-es were imminent. His o� ce said he vowed to punish “those responsible for the tragedy in Luhansk.”

In a conversation with French Pres-ident Francois Hollande, Poroshenko expressed hope that the European Union would decide on further sanc-tions against Russia if what he called the illegal border crossings and the supply of weapons did not cease.

Nine crew and 40 troops were aboard the Il-76 troop transport when it went down early Saturday as it ap-proached the airport at Luhansk, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s o� ce said.

The plane’s tail section and other pieces of scorched wreckage lay in a � eld near the village of Novohanniv-ka, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Luhansk. An Associated Press reporter saw a dozen or more armed separatists inspecting the crash site.

Defense Ministry spokesman Bohdan Senyk said the rebels used an-ti-aircraft guns and a heavy machine gun to down the plane, while the pros-ecutor general’s o� ce said rebels used an anti-aircraft missile. l

Israeli soldiers patrol during a military operation to search for three missing teenagers near the West Bank city of Hebron, June 15. A terror group abducted three teens, including an American, who disappeared in the West Bank, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, as soldiers searched the territory to � nd them AP

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel

This image posted on a militant website on Saturday, which has been veri� ed and is consistent with other AP reporting, appears to show militants from the al-Qaida-inspired ISIL leading captured Iraqi soldiers wearing plain clothes to an open � eld moments before shooting them in Tikrit, Iraq AP

A bleached section of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef AFP

9Monday, June 16, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

Al-Qaida video calls for jihad in Kashmirn Agencies

A new video from al-Qaida has asked Muslims in Kashmir to emulate “broth-ers” in Syria and Iraq, and wage a vio-lent jihad against India.

The video, which includes a state-ment read by Maulana Asim Umar, a senior leader of al-Qaida’s Pakistan cell, promises a “caravan of jihadists coming from Afghanistan to liberate Kashmir.”

Titled “The War Continues: A State-ment on Kashmir’s Muslims,” the vid-

eo features an audio sermon by Umar and runs footages dating back to 2010 of protests on the roads of Srinagar, in which civilians were killed during a stando� with India’s security forces.

Interestingly, the video addresses Muslims on both sides of the line of control — both on the Indian and Paki-stani side as well as to the broader Mus-lim populations of both countries.

In the video, Kashmiri Muslims are urged to join the global jihadi move-ment. It says, “Now Muslims all over the world have picked up arms, are

marching in the � eld of jihad. Even those who rejected armed jihad are now joining this path after being dis-illusioned with democratic ways of peaceful protests.”

The video mentions Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and other parts of the world where Islamic extremism has been rife. It also calls for attacks in Eu-rope and for a repeat of the Lee Rigby incident in London last year. The sol-dier was almost beheaded by two men of Nigerian origin in broad daylight outside a military barrack. l

Pakistan: Dozens killed in retaliatory strikes on militants n AP, Islamabad

Pakistani jets pounded insurgent hide-outs in the country’s northwest early yesterday, killing dozens of militants in an aggressive response targeting those believed responsible for a � ve-hour siege of the Karachi airport a week ago, o� cials said.

The Pakistani government has been under pressure to combat the resilient insurgency that has plagued the coun-try for years after the shocking attack June 8 on its busiest airport, which left 26 people and 10 assailants dead. Gov-ernment e� orts that started months ago to negotiate with the militants ap-peared to be going nowhere, and the airport violence has made the talks even less likely to succeed.

There were con� icting accounts of how many people were killed in the airstrikes in the North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan. The mil-itary said in a statement that over 50 militants were killed, although intel-ligence o� cials earlier put the toll as high as 100.

“There were con� rmed reports of presence of foreign and local terrorists in these hideouts who were linked in planning the Karachi airport attack,” the military said.

The area where the strikes occurred is remote and dangerous for journalists,

making it impossible to independently verify the accounts.

Residents in North Waziristan said they were woken up after midnight to the sound of jets roaring overhead but said the strikes happened in a remote mountainous area.

“All the family members gathered in the yard in fear,” said one local res-ident, Tawab Khan, from the village of Boyapul, about eight kilometers (� ve miles) from where the airstrikes hit. “We could hear big bangs but they didn’t come from very close to our area.”

The military said most of the dead were Uzbeks. Uzbek militants have long based themselves in Pakistan’s north-western tribal areas as do a plethora of other armed groups such as al-Qaida, the Pakistani Taliban and the Haqqani network — a Taliban a� liated group.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbeki-stan, along with the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the airport attack in what was a rare instance of the group striking within Pakistan. The mil-itant group was formed in 1991 to over-throw the Uzbek government and install an Islamic caliphate there but later ex-panded that goal to include all of Central Asia. The organization has attacked US and Nato targets in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani airstrikes targeted eight militant hideouts, two intelli-gence o� cials said. l

Roadside bomb kills 11 after Afghan vote n AP, Kabul

A roadside bomb killed 11 people in Afghanistan, including four election workers, and the Taliban cut o� the � ngers of nearly a dozen people to punish them for voting in this week-end’s presidential runo� , o� cials said yesterday.

The Taliban had warned people not to participate in Saturday’s vote. The two candidates, former Foreign Min-ister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ah-madzai, have both vowed to improve ties with the West and sign a long-de-layed security pact allowing nearly 10,000 US troops to remain in the coun-try for two more years.

The voting was relatively peaceful despite a series of rocket barrages and other scattered attacks that Interior Minister Mohammad Umar Daudzai said killed 47 people, including 20 civil-ians and an election commission work-er. He said 60 militants were killed.

Later on Saturday a minibus hit an improvised explosive device in the northern Samangan province, with the blast killing six women, one child and four men in the provincial capital Aybak, said Sediq Azizi, spokesman

for the provincial governor.Azizi said four of the victims were

employees of the election commission, which organized Saturday’s vote. It was not immediately clear if they were the target of the explosion.

In a separate incident, the Taliban cut o� the � ngers of 11 civilians on Saturday in western Herat province to punish them for voting, police spokes-man Raoud Ahamdi said.

In the southern Kandahar prov-ince police said they raided a building on Sunday that had been occupied by the Taliban the day before, setting o� clashes in which police shot dead two would-be suicide bombers but were unable to prevent another two from blowing themselves up, killing three policemen and wounding another two.

Gen. Abdul Razeq Achakzai, Kan-dahar’s provincial police chief, said his forces had surrounded the building on Saturday but waited to move in until after the voting ended.

Afghans braved threats of violence and searing heat Saturday to vote in the presidential runo� , which likely will mark the country’s � rst peaceful transfer of authority, an important step toward democracy as foreign combat troops leave. l

India: Army capable of giving a � tting reply to Pakistann Agencies

Two days after cease� re violations were reported along the Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistan, Indian defence minister Arun Jaitley yesterday said that the Indian Army is capable of giv-ing a � tting reply to Pakistan.

Jaitley, during a two-day visit to Srinagar, said that violations along the LoC must stop which in itself is a “con-� dence building measure.”

Any decision on revoking Armed

Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in J&K will depend on the progress in the situation in the state over a period of time, Arun Jaitley said.

“As far as today the situation is concerned, our armed forces and lo-cal security forces have been han-dling the situation. Over the period of time, we have to watch how the situ-ation progresses,” Jaitley told report-ers at the end of his two-day visit to the state.

He was responding to a question on

whether the Centre will consider re-voking the controversial AFSPA in the state in view of the improved security scenario. “As far as your question is concerned, today I am not in a posi-tion to make any comment on this,” he said.

“There are forces which are inimical to India, which would not like peace to continue,” Arun Jaitley said. “Talks and aggression can’t go together. For the sit-uation to normalize, it is important for the cease� re violations to stop.” l

Thai cyber police step up royal slur patrolsn AFP, Bangkok

Thailand’s military is bolstering its self-designated role as protector of the monarchy with increased “cyber patrols” to root out critics of the king following last month’s coup.

The junta has clamped down on any opposition to its overthrow of an elected government, with a crackdown on per-ceived slurs against the royals at the heart of its online surveillance operations.

“Lese majeste is our priority,” Police Major General Phisit Pao-in, head of the Technology Crime Suppression Di-vision, told AFP.

Twenty police o� cials were recent-ly sent to reinforce Phisit’s cyber patrol team of 15 civil servants, who trawl the Internet for royal insults.

“Since the coup, we were asked to intensify our surveillance and to focus on threats to national security,” said Phisit. Under controversial lese majes-te rules, anyone convicted of insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.

Phisit said his team wanted to talk to suspects to “change their attitude,” while “headstrong” campaigners would face charges.

At their Bangkok o� ces, the owl mascot of the cyber patrol unit stands opposite a gilt-framed portrait of Bhu-mibol, whose picture hangs in o� ces and homes across the country.

For many Thais, respect for the king, patriotism and religious devotion are closely intertwined, giving him an al-most divine status.

The military takeover comes as the kingdom quietly braces for the even-tual end of the 86-year-old monarch’s more than six-decade reign.

Open discussion of the succession is not possible in Thailand because of the lese majeste laws. But the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralong-korn, has yet to attain the same level of popular support as his revered father, who is the world’s longest-reigning sovereign.

‘Above conflict’Some observers see the kingdom’s long-running political crisis as a strug-gle to determine who will be in power to oversee the transition.

Since the coup, Thailand has blocked access to more than 200 Internet pages deemed a “threat to national security,” including the website of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper after it posted a video about the crown prince.

“The monarchy is above any con-� ict,” said junta spokesman Winthai Suvaree, relaying army chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha’s message to foreign dip-lomats in Bangkok last week. Laws are needed to protect the royals “because the monarchy cannot answer questions like normal people,” Winthai added.

The coup makers have set out to purge Thai politics of the dominance of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shi-nawatra. l

No curfew: Thailand’s nightlife is backn AP, Bangkok

The generals who seized power in Thai-land disrupted one of the country’s most lucrative industries — the go-go bars that were forced to close early be-cause of a curfew.

Now the junta has lifted the curfew, giving a green light for Bangkok’s red-light districts and other evening activ-ities to roar back to life. For the � rst time in a month, Saturday night free-dom returned to the Thai capital.

“This is a party city, that’s why we’re here,” said Dan Moore, a 40-year-old vis-itor from England who had arrived Satur-day morning and planned to stay up all night to celebrate a friend’s bachelor par-ty. He had � own in, just like the 1980s pop song says, for “One Night in Bangkok.”

Moore’s group started the night on one of the capital’s most infamous red-light streets, Soi Cowboy, where they toasted the curfew being lifted.

“As for what happens the rest of the night? Who knows. This is Bangkok,” said the groom-to-be, another English-man, who asked to be identi� ed just by his � rst name, Darren, to save his fu-ture marriage.

Bars featuring pole dancers are by no stretch the only nightlife in Bangkok, but they are the most notorious. The lifting of the curfew on Friday was part of a more general campaign by the jun-ta to “return happiness to the people” of this politically polarized country.

When the army staged the May 22 coup, saying it acted to end increasing-ly violent political turmoil, the gener-als’ � rst order of business was to im-pose the curfew. Initially set at 10 p.m., it gradually was eased to midnight,

and already had been lifted in several of Thailand’s popular resort areas after complaints from the tourism industry.Then the generals withdrew the curfew all over the country.

Bangkok’s backpacker haven, Khao San Road, was packed Saturday night with many soccer fans saying they

planned to celebrate the end of the curfew by pulling an all-nighter. One of them was English tourist Marc Ward, 31, who said: “We are so lucky the cur-few’s been lifted,” nursing a 3-liter beer tower as he watched the passing pa-rade on Khao San Road, a street lined with music-blaring bars, tattoo parlors

and cheap guesthouses.Critics, however, point out that the

return of Bangkok’s nightlife — and the generals’ feel-good happiness project — is being carried out alongside an en-tirely di� erent campaign. The junta has banned political protests and any criti-cism of the coup. l

Woman heads police post in Pakistan’s largest cityn AP, Karachi

Just days into her job running a police station in Pakistan’s largest city, Syeda Ghazala had to put her training to the test: she opened � re with her .22-caliber pistol at a man who shot at police when they tried to pull him over during a routine tra� c stop.

It’s not clear whether it was Ghazala’s shots that wounded the man before he was arrested, but as the � rst woman to run a police station in Pakistan’s often violent port city of Karachi, she’ll likely have many more chances to hit her mark.

When Ghazala joined the police force two decades ago, she never dreamed that one day she would head a police station sta� ed by roughly 100 police o� cers — all men. Her recent promotion is part of e� orts by the local police to increase the number of women in the force and in positions of authority. Shortly after she assumed her new job the city appointed a second woman to head another police station.

In a country where women have traditionally not worked outside the home and face widespread discrimination, the appointments represent a signi� cant step for women’s empowerment.

“The mindset of people is changing gradu-ally, and now they (have) started to consider women in leading roles. My husband op-posed my decision to join the police force 20 years ago,” said the 44-year-old mother of four. But by the time this job rolled around, he had come full circle and encouraged her to go for it. “It was a big challenge. I was a little bit hesitant to accept it.”

The station house is in Clifton, a posh area home to the elite of this sprawling metropolis of more than 18 million people. But in a city prone to family feuds, political unrest and jihadist violence — where 166 o� cers were killed in the line of duty last year — it’s by no means an easy assignment.

Crimes ranging from petty theft and mug-gings to terrorism or murder are all part of a day’s work, Ghazala says.

Running a station is a high-pro� le job in the Pakistani police, one that requires the o� cer to constantly interact with the public and fellow o� cers. It’s also a key path to

advancement. Senior police o� cer Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, said he and others in the top brass hope Ghazala’s appointment leads to more women joining the force.

“Our society accepts only stereotype roles for women. There is a perception that women are suitable only for particular

professions like teaching,” he said.The police force is also training the � rst

batch of female commandos, a group of 44 women going through a physically intensive course involving rappelling from towers or helicopters and shooting an assortment of weapons.

Currently, the two in Karachi are the only women running police stations in Pakistan. In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where women make up less than one percent of the roughly 75,000-mem-ber police force, women only run stations speci� cally designed to help female crime victims.

In the southeastern Baluchistan prov-ince, there are only 90 women on the police force and no women station heads. In Pun-jab province, only one woman has ever run a station house, back in 2005, but currently no women hold the position.

Ghazala said most people she has encountered in her new job have been sup-portive, and she’s become a bit of a celebrity in the neighborhood. She said during her career she’s only had a few instances where she’s felt discrimination. When she got the highest marks in a training course required for promotion, some of the men objected, saying that in Islam women couldn’t lead men.

But she said the commander simply told the men they should have gotten better grades.

“It was the only moment somebody objected to me as a woman,” she said. “Otherwise, all my career, fellow and senior o� cers encouraged me a lot.” l

In this May 7 photo, a Pakistani police commando participates in a training session in Karachi, Pakistan. In a country where women have traditionally not worked outside the home and widespread huge discrimination, the appointments represent a signi� cant step for women’s empowerment AP

Akha hilltribe women selling souvenir wait for customers in Bangkok’s Khaosan road. The generals who seized power in Thailand have lifted a nationwide curfew, giving a green light for the capital’s red-light districts, nightclubs and pubs to roar back to life AP

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Fruit (6)5 Obscure (3)7 Waterway (5)8 Talisman (6)10 Fly trap (3)12 Agreeable (4)13 Obtain (3)14 Petty quarrel (4)16 Prosecutes (4)17 Sailor (3)18 Inherited character unit (4)20 School of whales (3)23 Marijuana cigarette (6)24 Prejudiced person (5)25 Large (3)26 Spins rapidly (6)

DOWN1 Partly open (4)2 Immerse (6)3 Upright (5)4 Location (4)5 Early freshness (3)6 Choler (3)9 Falsehoods (4)11 Sporting item (3)14 Of sound mind (4)15 Like better (6)16 Plant juice (3)17 Dentures (5)18 Get bigger (4)19 Part of the eye (4)21 Kimono sash (3)22 Excavate (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 10 represents I so � ll I every time the � gure 10 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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Goodbye, sirJune 10

Faceless ManGood read.

WaliIndeed! Your headlines are still longer than

required! Very apt observation by late M Alam! RIP.

BreadbittenThe poignancy in this piece is o� the charts! Excellently written.

Defense allocation secrecyJune 10

SAMThis illogical and uncalled-for secrecy should no longer be practiced. What is so secret about the heads under which the defence department plans to spend the money? Is it to hide the ine� ectiveness of the defence department? Back in the 1970s, when I was an employee at a multinational, we used to supply medical plant and equipment to them. Funnily enough, all supplies had to be made through the enlisted defence suppliers, who always told us to add a 25%-30% mark-up for them.

Regarding military hardware, all our neighbours, with whom we may have an armed con� ict, if ever, know the exact number of our air force inven-tory of aircraft and helicopters, all the vessels in the navy, and all the armour (tanks etc) and heavy artillery pieces we have! So what is there to hide?

This is indeed a feudal and colonial practice that should be done away with immediately. Our “shongshod” should pass a law to this e� ect, the sooner the better.

We are all BangladeshisIt is outrageous that 10 people from what is known colloquially as

the Bihari community were allowed to burn to death in Saturday’s arson attacks at the Bihari Camp in Mirpur. In e� ect, they were

reportedly trapped in their homes, which were locked from the outside.

Attacks of violence, vandalism, and senseless killings such as this are un-called for, and perpetrators must not be allowed to go unpunished.

The main reason why the Bihari community was targeted, and has been for years, is because they are treated as second-class citizens by the govern-ment, and thereby seen as helpless by all else who want to take advantage of them. In fact, allegations have been made that the attack was a ploy to grab the Bihari Camp’s land.

The so-called Biharis have been living in this nation for years. The vast majority alive today were born here, and know no other home. And despite allegations to the contrary, they have put down roots here and almost all want to stay here.

They are full citizens of this nation, and should be treated as such. Their rights must be recognised and acknowledged by all.

As long as the government continues to treat them as sec-ond-class citizens, as long as it continues to ignore their concerns and disregard their safety, they will remain vulnerable. They will continue to be harassed and attacked.

Make accreditation a priority

In a recent seminar to mark World Accreditation Day, the indus-tries minister focused on the necessary role accreditation plays in the provision of energy, especially green energy, as well as in the

production of energy-e� cient technology. It is imperative to back up these words with appropriate actions

that incorporate accredita-tion into every process of the green industry.

At a time when the energy needs of the public have increased, green technology, such as solar energy, can be a crucial factor – as we have edito-rialised before – but every step in the process must be accredited to ensure that the end product is reliable and environmentally safe. The process must also be wholly free of the pervasive corruption we see in other industries.

The performance of all devices and technology used in the manufacturing and testing of green technology must be laborato-ry tested – the laboratory itself must be certi� ed as well – facility inspections must be carried out regularly, and the inspection bodies themselves must be accredited, as well as the certi� cation bodies.

This will assure consumers that the technology has been made in a safe environment, is reliable and functional, and its level of performance and energy-e� ciency made transparent.

The government must take the lead in ensuring accreditation for green technology. Indeed, if we are to be recognised as a credi-ble player in the global market, we cannot a� ord not to make it a priority.

Accreditation ensures the end product is reliable and environmentally safe

The Bihari community are full citizens of this nation, and should be treated as such

11 injured in Brazil-Argentina supporters’ clashJune 10

RoddersI just have to say: What a bunch of losers.

nahiyan_dhaka1Disgraceful.

5 bizarre ‘rape’ comments from IndiaJune 9

Vikram KhanI’m afraid that many so-called politicians in Bangladesh have the same “views,” and would make the same comments concerning rape.

Man jailed for raping Rana Plaza victimJune 9

VKCan it be more sick than this?!

Tiananmen matteredJune 9

Stone AgeThis is an amazing piece. Not many of us are and weren’t aware of how the Tiananmen incident had indeed had a somewhat positive e� ect on China. Not only that, other countries such as Vietnam are also following their example.

As Towheed Feroze puts it: “A glamorous hub of consumer luxuries with the hammer and sickle intact on top.”

BTRC favour lets Banglaphone dodge croresJune 9

SM Tahidul Islam“Md Giasuddin Ahmed, vice-chairman of BTRC, told the Dhaka Tribune: ‘Actually I do not have any idea about the present situation of the Bangla-phone issue. I heard that there were some prob-lems but I do not know why we are not carrying out the government’s orders.’”

Dear vice-chairman of BTRC: What do you know actually?

Militants attack Karachi airport, 27 deadJune 9

Hafeejul AlamI believe, Premier Nawaz Sharif is wise enough to understand that the terrorists understand only the language of weapons, not that of dialogue.

NCTF for review children allocation in budget

June 9

Asaduzzaman AsadThanks a lot for publishing this news.

Alleged Muslim takeover plot in UK schools

June 10

vihan“Alleged”?! Your article is clearly doubting the

good intentions of the British government. Just imagine, a non-Islamic ideology trying to in� ltrate

all schools in Bangladesh.

Increase free income tax limitJune 10

Md Ashraf Hossain The � nance minister placed the proposed national budget before the Bangladesh Parliament on June 5 for the 2014-15 � nancial year. In the last � nancial

year, the free income tax limit wasTk220,000. It has not been increased in the proposed budget. I would like to draw the attention of the � nance

minister, as well as members of parliament, to the fact that the real income of � xed-income groups,

particularly service holders, in Bangladesh have been reduced signi� cantly in the last few years,

as more than 10% in� ation (price increase of services and products) are a� ected each year. But

the � xed-income groups are helpless. They have to bear the whole burden, as their salaries do

not increase instantly in relation to the in� ation. Consequently, their purchasing power has gone

down signi� cantly. The � xed income groups are very unhappy in

having to confront the gradual and continuous price increase of all items, including essential

products and services.To reduce their su� ering, especially that of

the lower middle-class, the free income tax limit should be re-� xed at Tk300,000 per annum.

This limit is very conservative, as it is very di� cult to run a standard-sized � ve-member family on

a Tk25,000 monthly salary. I would like to urge the government to increase the free tax limit

to Tk300,000 per annum for individuals in the 2014-2015 budget.

Extortion behind Touhid murder, confesses Soumen

June 10googbro

College boy murdered yesterday in Dhaka, and then this in Sylhet? Our universities and colleges are becoming training camps for the making and

delivering of goons to society.

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

n Quazi Salimuddin

T he present anti-formalin drive in the capital can be termed as being “not enough.” The drive is

limited to checking formalin-tainted � sh, fruits, and vegetables entering the capital, but those contaminated with other chemicals will remain undetect-ed because they can only check for the presence of formalin.

This drive may create a false sense of security in consumers regarding their food. Consumers are not getting safe foods. Almost all food items are unsafe because they contain highly toxic chemicals. Toxic chemicals are present in all vegetables and fruits, at least 20 times higher than the safety limit.

This drive is nothing but a cruel practical joke on hapless people. Had the government been serious about at least containing this slow poisoning of the people, they would have taken de� nite measures long ago.

The government’s dillydallying approach to � ghting this very grave hazard to public health is apparent when we see: (a) The Safe Food Law 2013 not yet being enforced, (b) the highest punishment as per this law be-ing a maximum of � ve years’ jail-time and a � ne of Tk5 lakh, (c) the High Court’s direction of establishing one Safe Food court in every district being overlooked, (d) Safe Food Rules 2014 still in draft form, (e) Bangladesh Safe Food Authority not yet functional,(f) formalin, carbide, etc available in plenty everywhere in the country, (g) the Ministry of Agriculture apathet-ic about spraying 50,000 tonnes of chemical pesticides costing Tk50bn per year – even highly hazardous banned pesticides are being used in abundance and pesticide residue levels in agri-products are 20 times

higher than the safe limit, (h) no real government initiative to implement Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in agriculture and promote organic cultivation, (i) this anti-formalin drive is limited to the capital, when it is the whole country that is being poisoned.

It is common perception that our food items are poisoned with forma-lin only. This is only a fraction of the problem – pesticides are the main culprit. Each year, 50,000 tonnes of pesticides are making their way into the air, the water, and our bodies. In other countries, people are indirectly a� ected by environmental pollution. In Bangladesh, poisons in very high doses are directly going in to our

bodies. The public health situation will grow direr each passing day. This will also adversely a� ect our productivity and GDP. Chemical terror has gripped the nation. We are � nding it impossi-ble to get any safe foods, even for our children.

Poison in our foods is presently the number one problem facing our nation. It needs to be addressed as such by the government. Access to safe foods is a basic human right. We de-mand our rights – give us poison-free, safe foods. Please start an all-out drive before it becomes too late. l

Quazi Salimuddin is Convener, Bish Mukto Bangladesh.

n Syeed Ahamed andPushpita Prithwee

Looking at the history of black money whitening, it’s quite hard to feel assured that the provision

for it is � nally over. Irrespective of political regimes, there has been a trend of � nancial ministers � ipping decisions regarding black money, which usually starts with a determined position on “no more money whitening.” Then some chamber or association would plead for keeping the scope and � nally the � nance minister will give in.

It is also evident from public debate that most analysts and stakeholders oppose any scope for whitening black money. Yet it continues. Apparently, when all sweat over the merits and morals of whitening black money, the actual negotiation takes place behind curtains.  

Owing to the � nance minister’s frequent change of position regarding black money, coupled with the post-budget call by Bangladesh Economic Association to allow black money whitening, we can’t be assured unless clear steps are taken.

This time, the � nance minister at least admitted something that has been shouted out for years – that black money whitening provision does not have much impact on the economy. For instance, crores collected as tax from money whitening provision was only 0.03% of the total revenue (only 0.1% of total direct tax) earned by the government during FY2012-13. That is because under such a provision, only a small amount of black money gets whitened through paying a small amount of tax. Black money simply doesn’t want to become white.

The question is – if the whitening provision is really not that popular among people with black money, and if its contribution to revenue and investment really is that miniscule, then why do some quarters always demand for its continuation in one way or another?

Is it because, under existing black money whitening provisions, one can “legalise” money that is obtained through criminal means of extortion, bribery, or smuggling?

Bangladesh’s Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012 considers any activity as “money laundering” if it’s used to hide an illegal source of money. The Income Tax Ordinance

that allows black money whitening also states that this provision is not applicable for money acquired through criminal or illegal means. However, that ordinance has a loophole. It also reads, “notwithstanding anything contained in this Ordinance, source of any sum invested by any person, in the construction or purchase of any residential building apartment, shall be deemed to have been explained” if the assessee pays the required tax. If the source of money can be “deemed to have been explained” without question, how can that stop legalising money that is acquired through criminal or illegal means?

Simply put – one can get away by whitening their criminally-acquired money if they invest in real estate, under the existing provision.

Moreover, if criminals are allowed to use that money in construction or to buy apartments in residential buildings, they can legalise a large amount of money by under-invoicing the actual transaction for construction or purchase. That way, properties worth billions can be legalised by paying a fraction of the original tax. This may explain the pressure to keep the provision while o� cial record continues to show very insigni� cant amounts of money-whitening on paper.

Hence the argument for keeping the provisions only for legally-earned, untaxed, and undisclosed money is a complete red herring to distract people from the criminal aspects of money-laundering.

Black money whitening provisions may work when the law and order situation is strengthened to make illegal earnings di� cult, and only a limited period is allowed to channel the black money to the real economy. In such cases, black money holders invest that illegally accumulated capital in industries to continue their earnings.

However, just like stealing or hijacking money can be more pro� table than working for a salary, illegal or criminal sources of income will always remain more pro� table than running a business. Thus, continuous black money whitening provisions only encourage illegal earnings and will never contribute to actual investment. Arguments made by the Bangladesh Economic Association to “recover” the vast sum of black money through stringent

conditions also make little sense. When black money holders couldn’t be encouraged to invest on property under lenient conditions, why on earth would they be encouraged to invest in an industry with strict conditions?

The argument for black money whitening to stop capital � ight is another red herring. Capital � ight will only stop if returns from investment can be made more lucrative than keeping idle money in foreign banks.  

Until then, strict measures need to be taken to address the channels of capital � ights. Our neighbouring country India is trying to address this issue by taking a coordinated set of actions which include signing and revising money laundering treaties with other countries, and deploying the Special Investigative Team – consisting of CBI, RAW, and other partners – to unearth the black money sent abroad. Then again, we don’t need to look outside for encouragement. We have seen in the recent past that when there is political will, the government can bring back laundered money from abroad.

Stopping the source of black money will not be easy. But it can be made less di� cult if we can avoid those red herrings and start focusing on the real issue at hand. Instead of applying stern rules and providing scope to legalise criminal proceeds over and over again, the government needs to ensure that people do not get the scope to earn money through criminal means to begin with. As they say, prevention is better than cure.

We thus hope that the � nance minister will stand by his words, � nally putting an end to this futile provision. l

Syeed Ahamed and Pushpita Prithwee are policy analysts at the Institute of Informatics and Development (www.iid.org.bd).

11Op-Ed Monday, June 16, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Towheed Feroze

The fever has gripped every-one. So much so that I only found out that Bangladesh is playing India in a three-match cricket series while

scouring the sports section of the newspaper for World Cup titbits. Un-der the passion of football, everything else becomes secondary.

At least for the time being, but if Bangladesh, free from the usual pressure to win against higher-ranked cricket teams, manages to beat its formidable neighbour in one match, then perhaps for a few days cricket will come back in the scene.  

On the contrary, if the cricket team does not pull o� any magic, galler-ies will remain empty. After the late night World Cup matches, plus the nerve-racking tension, sleep is the most desired option.  

Football is king still. Even in the age of satellite TV, when we get to see top class league matches live, the allure of the World Cup hasn’t faded that much. It has taken some blows, but the charm remains intact.

There would not be so many � ags on rooftops, otherwise. Coming to � ying the colours of other nations, the � ag rule of our country was recently invoked and to adhere to the law of the land, a lot of them were eventually taken down. Certainly bad news for the � ag vendors who patiently wait for the World Cup to make a quick pro� t.

One � ag-seller re� ected despond-

ently: “I understand the legal issues of � ying the � ags of other nations, but when the authority underlined the rule they didn’t show an alterna-tive path in which people can show support and we can make some honest earnings.” He stressed on the word honest.

I did some thinking. Yes, the � ag-seller had a point. In a country where the black money whitening scheme is o� ered under astutely crafted methods, surely an alternative way to � aunt support for our favourite teams could be thought of. On top of everything – it’s just love for the game. Or isn’t it?

From the surface, it seems that intense addiction to football fuels the World Cup mania manifested in the almost pathological Brazil-Argentina animosity. However, this massive po-larisation of the country into two ma-jor sides, Brazil and Argentina, is but an indication of a deeper psychological agony emanating from the realisation that we, as a country, won’t be able to play in the World Cup.

In no rational calculation do I see Bangladesh making it to the � nals in

the next 50 years. Sports gurus of our country may brazenly � y the balloon of hope, but one can’t go to the Cup riding on dreams alone.

Here are the unsavoury facts: Bang-ladesh is not even the undisputed king of South Asia anymore, and cannot guarantee the regional crown for the next three SAFF football meets.

Once a team goes beyond the

region, it has to cross the hurdle of the third tier of Asian football, the Southeast region, featuring Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. A year ago, we were drubbed 5-0 by Thailand. After that, there was the lower-second tier presenting central Asian countries – Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, and Tajik-stan. When domination in this section is ensured, there are the second layer Arab teams like Oman, Bahrain, Yem-en, Jordan, UAE, and Syria. The � rst layer of Asia has Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan, Austral-ia, Iraq, Qatar, North Korea … shall I continue? Better leave it here.

So, when the World Cup comes around, and small teams with one fraction of the population of Bangla-

desh make it to the � nals, the intoler-able pain of not seeing our � ag in the meet comes back to haunt us.

Today, Abahani-Mohammedan matches do not trigger frenzied debate all over the country. The city skyline is not adorned by the colours of the once famous clubs. But deep within our psyche, the indelible memories of the Dhaka derby remain. Would I be wrong in saying that the subdued, but not forgotten, intensity of the past erupts once World Cup arrives? In our sub-conscious minds, we fervently want to relive that passion of the bygone days.

Cricket has given us a lot – prestige, fame, recognition, and a place among the elites. Today the Bangladesh team is never taken lightly by anyone, and

in that we � nd our pride.Coming back to reality once more

– cricket has become a semi-global game, not a global one. It’s football that touches a chord everywhere; hence the worldwide focus on the four yearly meet of the best. If the law of the coun-try states that � ags cannot be � own, then bring them down; but the law does not ban the plastering of posters or the placing of banners on the wall.

Let the fans do the latter, because depriving them from displaying their love for the game is tantamount to robbing someone of his/her right to enjoy a sporting event that truly unites the globe. Also good to keep in mind – at least for a month, the priority will be football, not political shenanigans.

Agreed, sometimes our support goes beyond the logical. What can be done … we are an emotional people.

Having said that, there is always something to keep in mind – sup-porting a team with single-minded devotion can be tolerated, violence in the name of a team cannot.

Show the colours, have spirited debates over who is best, enjoy the games, forget the drudgery of life for a while, and in the moments of retrospection, try to understand that the pervasive craze stems from a deep-rooted feeling of non-ful� llment from our own football team. l

Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.

Flag euphoria hides the pain withinS E R P E N T I N E D E N

Depriving fans from displaying their love for the game is tantamount to robbing them of theirright to enjoy a sporting event

Formalin is only a fraction of theproblem – pesticides are the main culprit

Black money whitening provisions encourage illegal earnings and never contribute to investment

It’s not just formalin Black money and red herrings

Does this mean we lack patriotism? SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

‘I was adamant to wear punjabi at Cannes red carpet’

n Shadma Malik

When Embassy of France in Bangladesh hosted a celebration party at the residence of France post Kamar Ahmed’s success at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, Dhaka Tri-bune in hearing the experience from the aspiring director.

The red carpet experience...It was a privilege for me and Sara to be invited to the red carpet segment. When we got the invitation to walk the “glamour walk,” of the red carpet, I found out that all the attending male guests were asked

to wear a tuxedo. I didn’t stand by these rules. I wanted to wear my traditional black punjabi and don a black shawl with Bangla texts. I was adamant about my choice of attire and faced obstacles at the security check during the event. When my name was announced, I walked down the red carpet in my black punjabi, with my head held high. Sara attended the event in a traditional white Jamdani saree.

Did you get to interact with the otherdirectors? We had very little time to spend with one another. All the directors were busy with

networking and meetings. I believe I am a very sensitive, impul-

sive and emotional person and during my interaction with the young directors, I found that we all had those features in common.

Do you think you were able to represent Bangladesh?I don’t know whether I am worthy of the claim, but it was my utmost e� ort to show-case Bangladesh through my lens.

How was the response to “Shunte Ki Pao”(Are You Listening?)?When directors of l’Institut Français and Cinémas du Monde said: “I saw your mov-ie,” it was all the reward I could hope for.

Your present projects... I am planning to make a feature � lm titled “Shonkhodhoni.” I started writing this � lm when “Shunte Ki Pao” was in the pro-duction phase. “Shonkhodhoni” is a very personal � lm for me. It is based on my own childhood when I lost one of my best friends. I will only make it, if I think I can make it in my own way...otherwise I think, I should not. l

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 201412

When will Vidya Balanwork with SRK?n Entertainment Desk

Actor Vidya Balan, who has always ex-pressed her desire to work with superstar Shah Rukh Khan, says she would love to work with Shah Rukh provided both the ac-tors’ presence in the � lm is justi� ed.

“If any good script comes where the presence of both the actors (Shah Rukh and I) is justi� ed, then de� nitely I would love to do,” Vidya said at the launch of the blog for her upcoming � lm “Bobby Jasoos”.

“If the script will be such where I won’t have much to do, then I will not do it,” she added.

The 36-year-old is currently busy pro-moting her soon to release “Bobby Ja-soos”, where she is in the lead role.

Asked if there is anything left for ac-tresses to do in � lms starring Bollywood’s Khans, the National Award winning actress said: “Not always...but most of the times there is nothing much to do.”

Directed by Samar Sheikh, produced by Dia Mirza and her � ancé Sahil Sangha, “Bobby Jasoos” also fea-tures Ali Fazal. It will hit the theatres July 4. l

I am like my father in some ways: Saif

n Entertainment Desk

Actor Saif Ali Khan, who is planning to make a � lm on late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, says his father was like a prince and he is like him in some ways.

“He is a very special person. We have a memory of an amasing role model. He never told us what to do, he had expectations and we tried to lead by it. He had a funny sense of humour. He was like a prince, digni� ed and very down to earth person, who respected money and people,” Saif said.

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was for-mer captain of the Indian cricket team. He was the titular Nawab of Pataudi from 1952, until 1971.

On making � lm on Pataudi, Saif said, “I am still working on it (the � lm). We are trying to � nd as much footage as we can, as there was not much foot-age available in those days. There are things but I haven’t found much. Once we get it we will make it,” Saif said.

Saif would like to highlight the 60s phase of his father`s life in the � lm.

“I think he liked the 60s phase. He thought it the best phase as he was playing his best cricket. I think his life was cricket and I think, he was little unhappy when he couldn’t play. He was not attached to things,” he added.

Like father, like son, the `Agent Vi-nod` actor does thinks he is like his fa-ther in some ways. l

Street magicin India

n Entertainment Desk

Magic Asia follows the celebrity magicians JB Benn & Chris Korn as they incorporate into their act, a Bolly-wood’s menagerie of top stars, conjoined twins and dancing divas. Watch them perform at a vibrant street festival complete with snake charmers, acrobats and Indian magicians.

Just as the pair stirs the city with their out-of-this-world antics and illusions, they too get a taste of be-wilderment as they are thrown into a crash course in India culture 101. Not only are they taught salsa danc-ing with a Bollywood twist, they get invited to an Indian wedding, thrust into a gaggle of Indian school kids, and are even placed up against a real traveling Indian circus.

The show will be aired on AXN today at 7:30pm l

When Nicole Kidman said no to Uday Chopran Entertainment Desk

A date clash is keeping Hollywood starlet Ni-cole Kidman from visiting India this month. Ac-tor-producer Uday Chopra had invited her for the premiere (in Mumbai) of his maiden international co-production that stars her in the lead role. But, Nicole had to decline the o� er, as she’s travelling to China during the time.

While talking to Uday, the Oscar-winning actor had told him that she loves India. “Since we were talking a lot about India, I asked her to come for the première of the movie. She asked me, ‘When are you launching it?’ When I told her it’s June 13, she said, ‘I am going for the Shanghai Film Fes-tival’ (around the same time). So, things didn’t work out, but she really wanted to come,” he says.

Uday hopes to make another � lm with Nicole and “bring her back to India.” “Nicole, in fact, mentioned to me that she has been to India a cou-ple of times and loves Goa,” adds Uday. l

Beyond the heritage of Sundarbans

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

Theatre enthusiasts will get the opportunity to watch the second successful production of the TheatrEX Bangladesh titled “Dokkhina Sundori” today at the Natmondol, University of Dhaka at 7:30pm. The play is an awareness-based theatre crouched within a musical. The combination of music, dialogues and dance pieces in perfect har-mony will surely capture the audience interest, not to mention the stage which delves into the audi-ence seating area for a more profound e� ect.

Folk-tale and history are shaped into the plot of the play which opens with a song praising the beauty and livelihood of the Sundarbans which was alternatively called Chandraban during the ancient period.

The antediluvian folk-tale of the Chandrabande race is portrayed through two main characters, Chandre and Bona, and the legendary tiger-haunter Pochabdi Gazi is an ineluctable character depicting the story. The plot moves forward with a series of dispersed incidents showing the � ght for survival of these ignored minorities against the male� cent

deeds of the antago-nists, who systematical-ly destroy the balance of life in the name of rescu-ing the forest.

The entire play has been divided into six acts including the praise of the forest, the dark moon, the full moon, the deluge, the lower tide and the dream of Bona. The continuous shift of language from the colloquial dialect to formal Bangla was a bit confusing but the overall e� ect created through the ambiance makes it worthwhile for the audience.

Written by Shahman Maishan and directed by Sudip Chakrobor-thy, the production is supported by the Brit-ish Council. Nusrat Sharmin played Chan-dre and Atiqur Rahman played Bona while Mah-jabeen Islam, Syeda I� at Ara, S M Jumman Sadik were other prom-inent characters of the production.

About the play, di-rector Sudip said: “It’s

an awareness-based production with emphasis on protecting the Sundarbans. The team of TheatrEX conducted extensive research by visiting the heri-tage site. We also went through a sea of documents to improve our knowledge about the forest.”

According to Sudip, the performance includes the lifestyle of people whose livelihood depends on the Sundarbans. It is enriched with the region-al poetry, dance and music in a unique form. “It explores the theatrical aesthetics by fusing local myths, legends, fairy tales and parables with con-temporary style of theatre performance.”l

'18' marks Kalpana Chakma's abduction n Entertainment Desk

Kalpana Chakma, a young leader of the Hill Women’s Federation, was abducted 18 years back, from her home by military personnel and civilian law-enforcers on 12 June, 1996 at gunpoint. She remains missing.

Bangladesh’s one of the most re-nowned photographers, Shahidul Alam's solo exhibition “18” is the con-tinuation of his “Searching for Kalpana Chakma,” that took place last year mark-ing the same occasion at the same ven-ue, Drik Gallery. “18” continues to ques-tion the impunity of state machineries

and the complicity of the establishment. It presents not only a visually engaging exhibition but also a detailed examina-tion and a re-enactment of an issue that has been conveniently obscured by suc-cessive Bangladeshi governments.

The exhibition is a powerful and poi-gnant essay that uses found objects, newspaper clippings, extracts from her diary and her personal belongings to produce a haunting but lyrical rendering of the deeply disturbing story.

The exhibition, part of Drik’s public awareness campaign “No More,” was in-augurated by Nurul Kabir, editor of New Age, on Thursday. l

Kamar Ahmed Simon at the Red Carpet with ten other directors selected for Cinema du Monde

Exhibition ‘18’ will continue until 8pm on 18 June at Drik SADIA MARIUM

A scene from Dokkhina Sundori SADIA MARIUM

Monday, June 16, 2014

Rain, Robin and Rahane down sorry Bangladesh

Ajinkya Rah-ane and Rob-in Uthappa’s patient � fties

guided India to a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh in the rain interrupted � rst ODI of the three-match series yesterday.

The hosts put up a challenging 272 batting � rst and India were equally up to the mark in their reply as they were cruising along having reached 100 for 1 in 16.2 overs before thunderstorm and heavy rainfall threatened to wash away the game at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

India resumed their chase after a break of 2 hors 44 minutes with the

revised target set at 150 needed from 26 overs, which meant the visitors re-quired another � fty runs from 56 balls.

Shakib trapped Cheteshwar Pujara LBW for a duck just after resumtion but that hardly put any pressure on the visi-tors as Rahane continued keep the score-card ticking. The right-handed struck � ve fours and two sixes in his 64 before being brilliantly caught by Ziaur Rahman o� Mashrafe bin Mortaza, but by then the game was almost in the bag as India needed � fteen more from four overs.

The new captain Suresh Raina safely carried them home as India cashed in mainly from the opening stand of 99 between Rahane and Uthappa. Return-ing to the side after six years, Uthappa landed his 50 in just 43 balls.

Earlier, opting to bat on a � at track the Tigers lost two quick wickets, Tamim Iqbal and Mominul Haque, before Mush� qur Rahim and Anamul

Haque repaired the damage with a 52-run partnership.

As often seen, Anamul got settled in and stroked well for 44 runs before throwing away his wicket tring to force o� -spinner Parvez Rasool out of the

park. The same mistake was commit-ted by the skipper Mush� q (59) but not before he added 47 runs with Shakib.

Shakib continued from where he left in the IPL and played sensibly to gath-er his 25th half century. He was caught and bowled o� Raina after making 52 o� 58 balls with the help of four bound-aries and a six.

Mahmudullah, promoted up the batting order, made 41 while Nasir Hos-sain (22), Mashrafe (18) and Abdur Raz-zak (16*) added 43 runs in the last � ve overs to take the home side to 272 for 9 in 50 overs.

Fast bowler Umesh Yadav bagged three wickets while leg-spinner Amit Mishra and debutant Parvez Rasool grabbed two each for the visitors. l

BangladeshTamim Iqbal c Saha b Yadav 0Anamul Haque c Rayudu b Rasool 44Mominul Haque c Saha b Yadav 6Mush� qur Rahim c Rahane b Rasool 59Shakib Al Hasan c and b Raina 52Mahmudullah b Mishra 41Nasir Hossain c Rahane b Mishra 22Ziaur Rahman c Raina b Yadav 2Mashrafe Mortaza b Patel 18Abdur Razzaq not out 16Al-Amin Hossain not out 1Extras: (lb3, w8) 11Total: (for 9 wickets, 50 overs) 272

Fall of wickets1-5 (Tamim), 2-35 (Mominul), 3-87 (Ana-mul), 4-134 (Mush� qur), 5-199 (Shakib), 6-229 (Mahmudullah), 7-234 (Ziaur), 8-235 (Nasir), 9-267 (Mortaza).BowlingM. Sharma 5.4-1-23-0, U. Yadav 9-0-48-3 (6w), R. Uthappa 0.2-0-0-0, A. Patel 10-0-59-1, A. Mishra 10-0-55-2 (1w), P. Rasool 10-0-60-2 (1w), Raina 5-0-24-1India:R. Uthappa lbw b Shakib 50A. Rahane c Ziaur Rahman b Mortaza 64C. Pujara lbw b Shakib 0A. Rayudu not out 16S. Raina not out 15Extras (w8) 8Total (for 3 wickets, 24.5 overs) 153

Fall of wickets1-99 (Uthappa), 2-100 (Pujara), 3-135 (Rahane)BowlingMortaza 5-0-25-1, Al-Amin Hossain 5-0-32--0 (w2), Shakib 6-0-27-2 (w1), Razzak 5-0-34-0 (w2), Ziaur 1-0-9-0, Mahmudullah 2.5-0-26-0 (w3)

India won by seven wickets (D/L method)

SCORECARD

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal (L) trudges back to the pavilion following his dismissal while Indian seamer Umesh Yadav celebrates during the � rst ODI between the two sides at Mirpur yesterday MUMIT M

Imrul � ays Sagicor in T20 win

A quick� re 50 o� 21 balls from Imrul Kayes � nally helped Bangladesh A to a win in their tour of the West Indies as the visitors won the � rst of two Twen-ty20s by six wickets against Sagicor High Performance Centre in Barbados on Saturday.

In pursuit of the target of 152, the Bangladesh A openers Imrul and Nurul Hasan (18) gave their side a � ying start by adding 50 runs inside the � fth over. Despite Nurul’s dismissal with the score-board reading 54, the second-string na-tional side faced little trouble chasing down the tally as the in-form Imrul was in imperious form, smashing � ve boundaries and four sixes.

Middle-order batsman Sabbir Rah-man guided the chase from the other end, remaining unbeaten on 41 from 34 balls. Earlier a three-wicket haul from paceman Sha� ul Islam restricted Sagi-cor to 151/7 in their allotted 20 overs.

Sagicor opening batsman Andre Fletcher scored the highest 57 o� 43 balls while West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell smashed a breezy 48 o� 26 balls to take the hosts past the 150-run mark.

This was Bangladesh A’s � rst victory in the tour after a barren run in the two four-day matches and the three-match one-day series. The second-string na-tional side lost the four-day series 1-0 while the visitors also conceded the one-day series 3-0. l

‘We were 20 runs short’

Bangladesh skipper Mush� qur Rahim thought they were 20 runs short plus they failed to get the things right inside the � rst 10 overs which cost them the opening ODI against India yesterday.

“We were short by 20 runs. When we bowled, our � rst ten overs didn’t go to plan. If they were 70-75 at the rain break, they would have needed a lot afterwards which could have made a di� erence,” said Mush� qur during the post-match conference.

“The set batsmen should have stayed, and that would have got us to another 20 runs. We were 30-odd in the � rst ten overs so we had to play catch up with the run-rate. We needed

285-290 in this good wicket, but un-fortunately when the set batsmen got out, runs were less,” the wicketkeeper- batsman added.

Meanwhile man of the match, In-dia’s Ajinkya Rahane said, “We’ve got that momentum now and we just want to continue with it. We just want to play this series and later on think about the other series,” said Ajinkya.

The India squad for the three-match series in Dhaka was termed as an un-der-strength side but Rahane said, “Many players in our side did well in the IPL and everyone is really talented. It’s a good platform for each and every young player to just express yourself, enjoy yourself and become a better cricketer.” l

Shameful Shakib beats spectator!

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan plunged himself into yet another contro-versy, this time by raising hands upon a spectator during an international game.

According to one and many who witnessed the incident, including two in� u-ential directors of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), the incident took place at the Grand Stand of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday during the � rst ODI between Bangladesh and India.

The sources informed Dhaka Tribune that the incident started to unfold when the game was stopped due to rain while India were chasing Bangladesh’s total.

Shakib’s wife, Ummey Ahmed Shishir, along with a few of his friends were standing at the Grand Stand when they overheard one spectator talking ill about Shakib and Shishir.

Shakib’s friends reacted promptly to this and charged towards the spectator while in the mean-time Shakib, who was in the dressing room, was informed about the issue.

As per the sources, Shakib rushed to the spot and started beating up the specta-tor � rst with his bare hands and then with his footwear. The spectator – a male – was begging for mercy but Shakib did not stop.

Later onwards, police and BCB’s securi-ty personnel intervened and took away the

male spectator. O� cer-in-charge of Mirpur Model Thana, Salauddin, informed the members of the media that the spectator was not arrested.

A couple of BCB directors con� rmed that the board came to know about the incident and assured that it will be dealt with seriously.

“The board have learnt about it and is likely to look into the matter,” said the BCB director.

The BCB director went on to say that the incident was in itself unfortunate but at the same time admitted that Shakib has committed a serious o� ence and said this is not how an international cricketer should conduct himself. l

Luck continues to desert Tamim

Call it hard luck or a nervous start, Tamim Iqbal has once again disap-pointed with the bat as the 25-year old started o� the three-match ODI series against India at home with a 11-ball duck yesterday at Mirpur. After a string of poor outings this year, Tamim had earlier expressed his desire of bounc-ing back and what could have been a potential turnaround for the dashing southpaw only ended in misery with a bad call from the umpire.

It will be interesting to see how long the selectors keep faith on the Chittagong opener who has been out-of-sorts for a long time now. Imrul Kayes had a good domestic season while Shamsur Rahman is always a viable option for the opening slot and the duo are constantly knocking at the door of the selectors

with consistent performances. Yesterday’s duck was his second in

his last six international innings which extended his nightmare with the bat. Recent scores of 0, 5, 16, 6, 5 and 0 is a sheer contrast from the Tamim who made a mockery of the famed English pace-bowling battery at their own backyard or the fearless 17-year old who announced his grand arrival in the cricketing arena by dancing down the wicket to Zaheer Khan in the 2007 ICC World Cup in the Caribbean.

Tamim started cautiously when Bangladesh went in to bat � rst after winning the toss and initially took his time. Following 10 run-less deliveries, he was beaten by an angular delivery from paceman Umesh Yadav and al-though at � rst instance it seemed that he nicked it, replays showed that the bat actually came in contact with the � ap of the pad, not the ball. l

SHPC 151/7Andre Fletcher 57, Andre Russell 48Sha� ul Islam 3/22, Robiul Islam 2/33Bangladesh A 152/4Imrul Kayes 50, Sabbir Rahman 41*Ashley Nurse 2/32

Bangladesh A won by six wickets

BRIEF SCORE

Habibul Bashar (111 matches) 18

Mohammad Ra� que (125 matches) 15

Tamim Iqbal (125 matches) 13

MOST DUCKS BY A BANGLADESHI IN ODIs

Five-star Mithun lifts Sheikh Russel

National forward Mithun Chowdhury netted � ve times in Sheikh Russel’s mas-sive 7-1 victory over Uttar Baridhara while Abahani returned to winning ways with a comfortable 3-0 win

over Brothers Union in the Nitol Tata Bangladesh Premier Football League yesterday.

On the same day, Mohammedan fell to their second consecutive defeat with Sunday Chizoba’s brace guiding Mukti-joddha to a hard-fought 3-2 win at the Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni Stadium in Gopalganj.

Nkwocha Kingsley put the home side ahead in the very � rst

minute before Sunday scored in the 30th and 54th minutes. MSC’s in-form striker Wahed Ahmed pulled back two goals in the 52nd and 57th minutes, but the Muktis made sure they hang on to the lead.

At the Bangabandhu National Stadium, Mithun slammed a sensational hat-trick in the opening half (4th, 29th and 32nd minutes) before adding two more in the 67th and 81st minutes. Sabuj also netted twice inside the last six minutes of the � rst-half. Collins scored the consolation goal for Uttar Baridhara in the 52nd minute.

Meanwhile, the Sky Blues cruised along with the strikes from Morrison and Meshu inside the half hour mark before Jamal Hossain netted in the in-jury time to hand Brothers a compre-hensive defeat. l

Schweinsteiger takes � ight to hospital

Bastian Schweinsteiger will be avail-able for Monday’s World Cup clash against Portugal after taking a 60km helicopter � ight to hospital to treat a foot injury, the German FA said.

Brazilian media reported that the 29-year-old was � own from the team’s base near Porto Seguro to a clinic in Eu-napolis on Saturday with the helicopter option preferred to a trip across the re-gion’s uneven roads. A local Brazilian website – Radar64 – claimed Schweinstei-ger was � own to hospital after taking a knock to his left foot in training on Friday.

But the German FA (DFB) insist the hospital visit was for a routine MRI scan, because of his recent knee injury, and he later rejoined the team in Salva-dor to prepare for Monday’s Group G match at the Arena Fonte Nova. l

Swiss tennis player Roger Federer holds his trophy after winning his � nal against Alejandro Falla from Columbia at the ATP Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany yesterday AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE 13Sport

Monday, June 16, 2014

Italy delivered a remind-er of their qualities of or-ganisation and patience in their 2-1 World Cup victory over England on Saturday but opposing

manager Roy Hodgson was encouraged by a display which con� rmed the po-tential of his young talents.

After Uruguay struggled in their 3-1 defeat to Costa Rica earlier in Group D’s opening game both Italy and England will still feel con� dent that they can make it to the second round.

The game in steamy Manaus may not have had the entertainment value that Costa Rica produced in their sur-prise win but there was plenty to sug-gest that the two European teams have more than enough in their arsenal to deal with the bouyant Central Ameri-cans.

Italy have a long established habit of winning games they do not dominate and Cesare Prandelli’s 2014 version are evidently no di� erent in that respect.

Inevitably, Italy’s possession play was controlled by the sublime Andrea Pirlo, who despite being a 35-year-old playing in extreme heat and humidity, once again dictated play and almost crowned his performance when he struck the bar with a late free-kick.

In Mario Balotelli, Italy also have a striker who has the invaluable knack of emerging from a largely anonymous performance to grab the decisive goal.

“It was di� cult, the climate was tough and England are strong...Italy su� er, they always su� er but the im-portant thing is to win,” said Balotelli.

The Italians took the lead through a well-executed, well-rehearsed set-piece, with Claudio Marchisio driving home after a clever dummy from Pirlo.

After England fought back to level with a Daniel Sturridge goal, Italy re-stored their advantage with Balotelli’s 50th minute header from a superb An-tonio Candreva cross.

For both goals, England’s defending could be questioned - Marchisio was given far too much space and time for his sweetly struck drive and Gary Cahill

allowed Balotelli to pull away from him too easily.

But Hodgson was rightly encour-aged by the positive play his team produced with the ball, particularly in the second half where they spent large

swathes of the game in the Italian half.“I think it was undoubtedly the

best I have seen the team play, as a team, during my time with them and it is very good to know that we have so many players who I think will help us become a much better team going for-ward,” said Hodgson.

“I thought Raheem Sterling was very dangerous throughout the game.

Sterling provided an unpredictable element that English teams of the re-cent past have lacked - his pace and directness posing the Italian defence questions they struggled to answer, particularly in the � rst half.

But Italy also o� ered up some surpris-es - Matteo Darmian, the Torino right-back, making only his second interna-tional appearance o� ering a double threat with Candreva down England’s left.

Hodgson was disappointed with En-gland’s � nal pass in the second half as they failed to turn their pressure into real scoring opportunities and that is something his team will need to ad-dress when they face a smarting Uru-guay in Sao Paulo on Thursday.

England have so often been over-hyped at home that it is a strange situa-tion for them to lose an opening World Cup game and leave the impression of encouraging progress.

But for Italy, it was business as usu-al and the tournament’s favourites will have taken note. l

Hodgson shields Rooney

England manager Roy Hodgson de-fended Wayne Rooney after the Man-chester United striker was unable to prevent his team from losing 2-1 to Italy in their opening World Cup match.

Rooney began Saturday’s game in Manaus on the left � ank to accommo-date Raheem Sterling, and although he teed up Daniel Sturridge for England’s equaliser, he occasionally left left-back Leighton Baines exposed.

The 28-year-old also endured a frus-trating night in front of goal, notably lashing one chance wide as England chased the game in the second half. Hodgson however said that he had per-formed admirably.

“We wanted to get Raheem Sterling around (Andrea) Pirlo because of his agility and that meant moving Wayne Rooney, and I thought he did well,” Hodgson said after the Group D en-counter at a humid Amazonia Arena.

“He set up the goal for us and worked hard, and did well when we moved him into the centre.

“There’s always going to be one player with a big debate around him, but I think it’s harsh for people to crit-icise his performance, because for me he played well.”

Sturridge’s goal, in the 37th minute, gave England parity after Claudio Mar-chisio had � red Italy in front two minutes earlier. But Mario Balotelli’s header early in the second period proved decisive.

Sterling played a key role in the equaliser, freeing Rooney with an in-cisive pass to the left � ank, and was a constant source of invention in the number 10 role.

The 19-year-old Liverpool forward’s willingness to run at defenders sowed disarray in the Italian back-line at reg-ular intervals, but Hodgson was reluc-tant to single him out for praise.

“We thought all the young players did well,” he said. l

Super Mario sinks England

England Italy Goals scored 1 2 Total shots 18 12 Shots on target 8 5 Corners 9 2 O� sides 1 7 Fouls committed 8 12 Yellow cards 1 0 Red cards 0 0 Ball possession 47% 53%

MATCH STATS

Tabarez says Suarez return urgent

Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said his team desperately needs star striker Luis Suarez back on the � eld after being stunned by Costa Rica

on Saturday.The South American champions

slumped to a 3-1 defeat that could kill their hopes of getting through the tough World Cup Group D.

And ahead of their clash with En-gland in Sao Paulo on June 19, Tabarez said he needs Suarez to be fully � t.

The 27-year-old Liverpool forward was kitted up on the bench on Satur-day, even warming up at one stage but Tabarez deemed he was not � t enough to throw into the fray.

“Suarez is not injured anymore, oth-erwise he couldn’t have been on the substitutes’ bench,” said Tabarez.

“We’ll see when we can take him into consideration, for us he’s a funda-mental player.

“He has the potential to bring a lot to the team he plays for.

“There are four days before the game with England, we’ll see whether or not he can play but the most import-ant thing is the person.”

Uruguay led Costa Rica 1-0 at half-time thanks to an Edinson Cavani pen-

alty. But Tabarez said his team were outfought tactically.

Second half goals from Joel Campbell, Oscar Duarte and Marcos Urena gave Cos-ta Rica a stunning World Cup upset.

“They’re a team with a lot of vir-tues,” said Tabarez.

“I don’t know what is the best of Costa Rica but today (Saturday) they played really well, they dominated tac-tically and deserved to win.”

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Tabarez, who insisted his team could bounce back against England and res-cue their World Cup hopes.

“The odds have shortened and against England we have to get back on track against a great team that will be very di� cult. With what we’ve got and the weapons we have, we have to get back on track and try to redeem our-selves against England.”

Despite starting the group as rank outsiders, Campbell, who played on loan at Olympiakos from Arsenal this last season, believes his side can reach the knock-out rounds.

“The whole team was the star, the whole team played well,” he said.

“Right from the start we knew we could win. We have a very strong men-tality and even when we were losing our heads didn’t drop. l

Futsal propels Oscar to stardom

Brazilian mid� elder Oscar credits the skills picked up playing indoor football for his virtuoso World Cup debut.

The Chelsea star played superbly in Brazil’s 3-1 win against Croatia, helping to create two goals before adding an oppor-tunistic late strike.

The 22-year-old said his inspirational performance at Sao Paulo’s Corinthi-ans Arena had its origins in ‘futsal’, the increasingly popular brand of indoor football which emphasises skill.

The futsal factor could be seen in Oscar’s delightful toe-poked � nish for Brazil’s � nal goal.

“I can’t explain it. I just shot and scored,” Oscar said when asked about his strike.

“It was like something you might do in futsal. A lot of the squad started out playing futsal.

“When you get the chance you shoot, but I was just lucky that the ball went in.”

The goal and the performance marked the coming of age of the slightly-built playmaker, just a week after he became a father for the � rst time following the birth of his daughter Julia.

Oscar says fatherhood has inspired him to perform.

“Becoming a father gave me extra strength so close to the opening game,” he said.

In the run-up to the game, some observers had called for Oscar, who made his international debut at the age of 20 in 2011 after breaking through with Sao Paulo and then Internacional of Porto Alegre to be replaced.

But coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has given Oscar’s critics, who called for him to be replaced by Chelsea team-mate Willian, short shrift.

A look at Scolari’s team selections since he returned to the helm of the Sele-cao at the end of 2012 con� rms as much.

Only Neymar has played more games for Brazil over the last 18 months and only Neymar and Fred have scored more goals than Oscar, who has six in 20 matches in that time.

“’Felipao’ has shown faith in me for a long time,” admits Oscar, before adding: “We have a great team. Nobody is an automatic starter. There is so much com-petition. Willian, Ramires and Hernanes have shown what they can do. We need to prove ourselves in every game.” l

REUTERS

REUTERS

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sport

Monday, June 16, 2014

BTV, Gazi TV, Maasranga TV

2014 Fifa World Cup10:00PMGermany v Portugal1:00AMIran v Nigeria4:00AMGhana v USA

Star Sports 2

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Probable teams:

Ghana:12-Adam Kwarasey, 23-Harrison A� ul, 20-Kwadwo Asamoah, 21-John Boye, 19-Jonathan Mensah, 5-Michael Essien, 9-Kevin-Prince Boateng, 11-Sulley Muntari, 3-Asamoah Gyan, 13-Jordan Ayew, 10-Andre Ayew.United States:1-Tim Howard; 23-Fabian Johnson; 5-Matt Besler; 20-Geo� Cameron; 7-DaMarcus Beasley; 15-Kyle Beckerman; 4-Michael Bradley; 13-Jermaine Jones; 11-Alejandro Bedoya; 8-Clint Dempsey; 17-Jozy AltidoreKey Stats:

It is the 30th World Cup game for the United States and Ghana’s 10th.

The U.S. are facing African opponents for the third straight match in the World Cup.

Natal is the closest of the World Cup venues to Africa and hosted a huge U.S. military airbase during World War II.

Previous Meetings:The teams have played twice, at the last two World Cups, with Ghana winning both matches 2-1.

FACT BOX

Defeated Japan curse Drogba

Japanese football fans erupted in joy – then dropped their heads in dismay, cursing Didier Drogba as the Blue Sa-murai went down 2-1 to

Ivory Coast in their World Cup opener.Thousands of people gathered at

sports bars and stadiums across the Land of the Rising Sun to watch the match in Recife live on television on a late Sunday morning in Japan.

“It seemed Drogba did us in all by himself,” former Japan coach Takeshi Okada, who guided the Asian cham-pions to the last-16 round at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, commented in the Brazilian city on public broad-caster NHK.

“Now it will take a tremendous amount of energy to carry on our tough job,” said the scholarly 57-year-old. “We must accept the result as some-thing which Japanese football needed. We must take it as a trial which must be overcome.”

AC Milan mid� elder Keisuke Honda, who scored twice at South Africa 2010, opened the account in the 16th minute.

But the Elephants roared to life after Drogba was sent in at the 62nd minute, with Wilfried Bony and Gervinho scor-ing in the 64th and 66th minutes.

“Drogba’s arrival turned the tide,” an NHK announcer said.

“Two nightmare minutes!” tweeted the SKyPerfect TV network as social networks were swamped with thou-

sands of messages lamenting the Sa-murai’s defeat.

“What a devastating way to lose! It really hurts to lose a World Cup opener. We must forget all about it and keep on attacking,” tweeted one Yosuke Miyake.

At the Tokyo Dome ballpark, some 35,000 people watching the match on huge stadium screens cheered their team on. Japan will face Greece on June 19 in Natal, and Colombia on June 24 in Cuiaba.

At the Saitama Stadium in To-kyo’s northern suburbs, home to the J-League side Urawa Reds, one young woman told HNK: “We will be alright next time. I believe, so ‘gambare’ (hang in there)!”

About 800 police guarded a zebra crossing in front of the main station in Shibuya, one of Tokyo’s shopping and entertainment hubs, as football fans bundled out of sports bars.

Many fans, clad in replica Blue Sa-murai shirts, were seen exchanging high-� ves despite Japan’s loss. l

Ghana will kick o� their World Cup campaign in Natal tipped to beat the United States on Mon-day, but their bid for a coveted semi-� nal place

could prove a much harder task.Ghana eliminated the USA in the

knockout round four years ago to make it to the quarter-� nals before bowing out to eventual fourth-place � nishers Uruguay.

In South Africa, Serbian coach Milo-van Rajevac, with Kwesi Appiah as as-sistant, steered the Black Stars into the last eight.

But they were cruelly denied a place in the last four when Asamoah Gyan failed to convert from the spot follow-ing a handball on the goal-line by Uru-guay’s Luis Suarez, with Uruguay going on to win the penalty shoot-out.

Four years on and the aim of Appiah, the � rst Ghanaian to coach the Black Stars at a World Cup, is to take the Af-ricans a stage further.

But with Group G rivals Germany and Portugal widely expected to grab the top two qualifying places, a healthy dose of realism may be required.

Appiah’s side features a host of big

names who ply their trade in Europe, from Juventus wingback Kwadwo Asa-moah to AC Milan mid� eld pair Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari, Schalke for-ward Kevin-Prince Boateng and striker Jordan Ayew, who plays for Marseille.

Ghana have also recently welcomed back striker Abdul Majeed Waris, who scored nine goals in 16 Ligue 1 appear-ances for Valenciennes during a six-month loan spell from Russian side

Spartak Moscow, after he returned from injury quicker than expected.

The United States, coached by former German great Jurgen Klinsmann, face atougher task to impress their critics.

Veteran mid� elder Kyle Beckerman watched Ghana in a recent 4-0 friendly win over South Korea, in which Ayew struck a hat-trick and where Majeed Waris picked up his knock, and was impressed: “They looked really good. They’re strong, fast...technically good. l

Ghana tipped for USA win

Ivory Coast’s Gervinho (L) and Didier Drogba celebrate their goal against Japan during their 2014 World Cup Group C match at the Pernambuco arena in Recife on Saturday REUTERS

VGHANA USA

Estadio das Dunas, Natal16 JUN 2014 - 19:00 Local (4:00AM BST)

Ivory Coast Japan Goals scored 2 1 Total shots 19 7 Shots on target 9 4 Corners 8 5 O� sides 3 1 Fouls committed 12 13 Yellow cards 2 2 Red cards 0 0 Ball possession 58% 42%

MATCH STATS

Last-gasp Swiss knife Ecuador

Haris Seferovic scored in the last min-ute of injury time to grab Switzerland a dramatic 2-1 win over Ecuador in their Group E game at the World Cup � nals in Brasilia on Sunday.

Seferovic’s winner capped a re-markable comeback by the top seeds in the group as fellow substitute Admer Mehmidi had taken just 121 seconds to make his mark as he levelled the game in the 48th minute.

Enner Valencia had given Ecuador the lead midway through the � rst-half as he scored for the � fth successive game for his country.

Both teams were not content to settle for a draw even as the match en-tered time added on and it was Ecua-dor who looked like they had grabbed the three points when Michael Arroyo was shaping up to shoot inside the area only for a superb tackle by Valon Behra-mi to dispossess him.

Behrami showing the hard-headed

experience of a man appearing in his third World Cup � nals, then pushed forward and although he was subject to a crunching tackle in the middle of the pitch the referee played a brilliant advantage in waving play on.

The ball was worked out to the left � ank and when it was whipped in Seferovic was on hand to tuck the ball inside the near post and send the Swiss contingent wild.

“I really thought this move was de-lightful,” said the 68-year-old German, who will be mindful that in 2010 the Swiss opened with a win over eventual champions Spain but ended up going out in the � rst round.

“We reacted intuitively and knew how to take advantage of the Ecuador-ean mistake. It is marvellous to win in the last minute as it releases positive energy and is very good for the morale of the team.”

Ecuador coach Reinaldo Rueda said he had been in the game for long enough to not be shocked by losing in that manner.

“Football is like that, you can lose in the last minute. We lost our heads a bit in the � nal minute but we know that. Of course it is a tough hit to our morale but my boys have a lot of guts and are able to bounce back. It isn’t as if the Swiss thrashed us.” l

Ballance ton turns Test in England’s favour

Gary Ballance came to England’s res-cue with a maiden Test hundred after Sri Lanka threatened to seize control at Lord’s on Sunday.

England were 267 for eight in their second innings at stumps on the fourth day of the � rst Test, a lead of 389 runs.

The 24-year-old Ballance, entrusted with the key number three position in only his second Test, was 104 not out

after going to his century in the last over of the day with a six o� spinner Rangana Herath.

Ballance had earlier added 78 for the seventh wicket with debutant Chris Jordan after a top-order collapse.

Sri Lanka now needed to surpass the highest fourth innings total to win a Test at Lord’s.

Things looked very di� erent as En-gland slumped to 121 for six after Sha-minda Eranga took three quick wickets

and left-armer Herath followed up with a double strike of his own on the way to � gures of four for 95 in 23 overs.

It was a collapse witnessed by Kevin Pietersen, watching from a sponsor’s box at Lord’s, with the South Afri-ca-born batsman, England’s all-time leading run-scorer across all formats, ditched after the 5-0 Ashes drubbing in Australia.

Sri Lanka resumed Sunday on 415 for seven, having avoided the follow-on

thanks mainly to Kumar Sangakkara’s 147 on Saturday.

Mathews, 79 not out overnight, went to a well-deserved century when he cover-drove a James Anderson full-toss for four.

But one ball after reaching three � gures, Mathews was lbw to Liam Plunkett for 102.

Sri Lanka were eventually all out for 453 to give England a � rst-in-nings lead of 122. l

Swiss Seferovic (R) celebrates with teammates after scoring during their World Cup Group E match against Ecuador at the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia yesterday AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE 15Sport

16 DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Monday, June 16, 2014

Sport13 1514 Last-gasp Swiss knife Ecuador

Tabarez says Suarez return urgent

Rain, Robin and Rahane down Tigers

Thank god for a fully clothed Andrea

I was belching halwa, particularly boot er halwa (someone please get the joke), boot world cup halwa? Thanks so much. Some newspaper journalist mistaking me as a football expert, much like the Tribune editor, called me for my predictions for the night. I con� dently told her that play-ing Uruguay was going to costa rica some pride. I also said that Greece was too disci-plined to be beguiled by the Columbian circus. Had she called me the night before I would have told her that Spain was going to cleverly make the Dutch dance to their tiki taka � amenco. How delightfully I have been proved a fool so far.

The results of the � rst four days have confounded all of us. The abundance of clothing in the stadiums has too. What is with fully clothed people � lling the stands. Are we in Qatar already?? Seriously, one of the many reasons why some of us have made it a point to watch each and every second of this tournament is to witness the wonder of how little clothing people, and particularly women, can get by with. No one performs such sartorial miracles better than the Brazilians. So my question again is, what the frog is up with all the clothes. To make matters worse, Puma has designed a good portion of the teams’ jer-seys. Brilliantly � tting stu� . You can see ev-ery sinew and every muscle of the players, which I am sure is pleasing to those who

have the taste for it. I personally don’t care one way or the other when Samuel Eto’o takes the � eld in what looks like yellow un-dergarments. What I do have an issue with is the fans wearing the same jerseys. The problem you see is that most of these fans are built more like Iresh Zaker than Samuel Eto’o. So what we have the pleasure of seeing is a bunch of middle aged men dancing away while each and every ounce of their adipose count is in full view. A far cry from the carnivalesque aesthetics that I was expecting.

Still I don’t complain, at least not too much. The games have been brilliant. The players have been brilliant, though Xavi looks like he has lost his car keys. Speaking of brilliance, I would be remiss if I did not write something about a certain Andrea Pirlo. I swear when the camera is not on him he quickly changes into an expensive stu� , pours a glass of very expensive wine, and listens to Mahler on his ipod. It is not humanly possible for a person to be that classy while running around in shorts and t-shirts for 90+ minutes. And he hardly sweats, or runs for that matter. Yet almost everything he does just reeks of class. The last free-kick against England. Thirty yards out. He did not spread his legs like Ronaldo, nor did he make the face of death like Messrs Suarez or Rohaldinho do. He just looked up, with lazy eyes, at a point that resides some place between the 16th and 19th dimensions of parallel existence. Then he stepped up and casually took the shot that bumfuzzled the ghost of Lev Yashin. After missing by an inch, he calmly resumed his usual business. This paean his hard for me to write because I am an English fan, and the Italian wine and playmaker has caused me abundant grief. But Andrea is really that good. This is his last world cup, and when the 21 is passed on to the melancholy hallways of history, the lazy eyes and graceful mien will be sorely missed. l

Germany kick-o� their World Cup campaign on Monday aiming to con-tinue their domination of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal at recent major

tournaments.The Germans enjoyed wins over

Portugal at the 2006 World Cup, plus both of the last two European cham-pionships and want to get their Group G campaign o� to a � ying start with a fourth consecutive win.

The pre-match build-up in Salvador has focused on whether or not Ronal-

do will be � t to play at the Arena Fonte Nova after a knee and thigh injury.

The 29-year-old took a full part in Por-tugal’s training session on Saturday with team-mates William Carvalho and goal-keeper Eduardo both saying he will play.

Eduardo insists the Portugal squad are highly motivated to erase memories of a “disastrous” 2010 campaign which ended in the last 16 at the hands of even-tual winners Spain. But all eyes have been on the world player of the year’s re-covery, despite Ronaldo’s return to play 65 minutes of Portugal’s � nal warm-up in their 5-1 drubbing of Ireland.

The Real Madrid forward, whose form and � tness will be vital to Portu-gal’s chances, has had a heavy strapping on his knee in training. But as Germany defender Benedikt Hoewedes pointed out: “This isn’t Germany against Ronal-do, but Germany against Portugal”.

Germany mid� elder Sami Khedira claims his Real Madrid team-mate has told him this is Portugal’s time to break their German bogey.

Arsenal forward Lukas Podolski says the Germans respect dead-ball special-ist Ronaldo, but there is no fear.

“He is certainly extremely danger-ous and can decide games, but we also have players capable of doing that. If we produce a good performance, then it doesn’t matter what he does.”

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is set to play, but has laboured with injury to his right shoulder while vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is struggling for � tness after tendinitis of the knee.

Coach Joachim Loew only has one striker in his squad with 36-year-old Miroslav Klose just one short of equalling Ronaldo’s all-time record of 15 goals at World Cup � nals.

Arsenal’s attacking mid� elder Me-sut Ozil is set to be pushed up front as a ‘False Nine’ with Bayern Munich’s Toni Kroos taking over in central mid� eld.

One factor which could play into the hands of Paulo Bento’s � eet-footed Portuguese is Loew’s decision to move captain Philipp Lahm from right-back into mid� eld.

Loew is set to play four centre-backs with Mats Hummels partnering Per Mertesacker with Jerome Boateng and Hoewedes used as wing-backs. l

Probable teams:

Germany:1-Manuel Neuer, 20-Jerome Boateng, 5-Mats Hummels, 17-Per Mertesacker, 4-Benedikt Hoewedes; 6-Sami Khedira, 16-Philip Lahm; 18-Toni Kroos, 8-Mesut Ozil, 10-Lukas Podolski; 13-Thomas Mueller.Portugal:12-Rui Patricio; 21-Joao Pereira, 2-Pepe, 3-Bruno Alves, 5-Fabio Coentrao; 4-Miguel Veloso, 8-Joao Moutinho, 16-Ricardo Meireles; 7-Cristiano Ronaldo, 9-Hugo Almeida, 18-Silvestre Varela.Key Stats:

Germany have won their opening match in every World Cup since 1990.

In the group round of the last two World Cups, Portugal conceded just once in six matches.

Germany striker Miroslav Klose is one strike away from equaling a tournament record of 15 goals held by Brazilian striker Ronaldo.

With 19 World Cup match appearanc-es, Klose could move closer to Lothar Matthaeus’ record of 25, or even pass it if Germany reach the last four and he plays every game.

This is the 100th World Cup match contested by Germany, who are the � rst team to reach this milestone.

Previous meetings:The sides square up for the 18th time and it is Germany who have fared better historically with 9 wins to Portugal’s 3.Last meeting:June 9, 2012, Lviv, Ukraine, Euro group stage - Germany 1 Portugal 0

FACT BOX

Alejandro Sabella - a sound tactician, on and o� the � eld

Argentine coach Alejandro Sabella, re-garded as a sound tactician in the � eld, is no di� erent o� the � eld also. It was evident in the pre-match presser of Ar-gentina as Sabella appeared as a � erce defender against all the attacking in-tentions of the press and stood solid till it concluded. He categorically stated that he does not like the favorite tag la-beled on Argentina.

After a successful stint as the man-ager of Estudiantes in his homeland, he took over the reins of the national team in August 2011 and achieved World Cup quali� cation while su� ering only two defeats. His � rst move as Argentina manager was to make Messi captain – a responsibility the Barcelona genius has thrived on since. He has tried to build the team around his star and has been reaping fruits.

While at Estudiantes, Sabella, a dis-ciple of Carlos Bilardo favored a robust 5-3-2 format with its defensive options while deploying a deep lying play-mak-er and hitting on the counter. And he has tried to incorporate the same with Messi lying deep. No wonder it was the most asked question thrown towards

him in the presser. The press queried nearly ten times

regarding what system Sabella would deploy. “I don’t know. I still have 24 hours to decide,” was the reply.

What do you mean? the Argentine coach does not know what will be his system on the eve of his World Cup opener?“I don’t know does not mean that I don’t know what will be my system. I have a number of options and am still to decide what to implement. I will talk with my players before taking the � nal decision. I think Messi also have some-thing to say,” was the answer this time.

You have used a couple of formations in the build-up to the World Cup. What will be there against Bosnia? “We beat Bosnia 2-0 in a friendly and now it’s the World Cup. So it’s a di� er-ent level and it should not be compared. As it’s a match of top level, the strategy would be di� erent. I can’t tell you what I am going to do as it is in the future. I am not a predictor,” said Sabella.

Argentina is the favorite to win the World Cup. “You can think it but I don’t like the words. It really means nothing. Af-ter all, nobody knows what is going to happen in the � eld. You can’t foresee a

result. I want to focus on Bosnia match. I am not focused on the trophy right now,” answered Sabella.

People say you will adopt a defensive tactic even though you have all the attacking flairs.

“Football depends on both attack and defense. You can’t attack with-out defending well and without good defending, you can’t attack also. The � tness, attack, defense as a whole are important,” he replied.

What about Messi?“He is a player to be protected for the best of the team. He is the player who can lift the team. He is a very important player,” said Sabella.

Do you think refereeing was poor in the Brazil-Croatia match?“Referees are the men who do not have any supporter in the � eld. They are human also and have to absorb enormous pres-sure. Only humans make mistake. I expect referees to be positive,” said Sabella.

Asked to comment on Spain’s 5-1 hu-miliation, Sabella said they had to start their trip to Rio for the Bosnia game and could see just two goals of the match. “It would not be respectful to comment on something I don’t know and have not seen,” concluded Sabella. l

from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Portugal’s forward Cristiano Ronaldo takes part in a training session at the team’s base camp in Campinas on Saturday AFP

VGERMANY PORTUGAL

Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador16 JUN 2014 - 13:00 Local (10:00PM BST)

THE BIG MATCH

Germany out to put a leash on Ronaldo

Super Eagles ready to soar over Iran

Planet Football looked altogether dif-ferent the last time Nigeria or Iran, who kick o� their Group F adventure at Cu-ritiba’s box-like Baixada Arena on Mon-day, won a match at a World Cup.

Back then, in another millennium, Brazil were the reigning champions while Spain wondered whether their long record of failure would ever end.

Since France 1998, when Nigeria were a power to be reckoned with after beat-ing Spain and Bulgaria to top their group, the Super Eagles have struggled to get o� the ground in the tournament proper.

Monday’s is a match both sides will see as a must-win if they are to have any

chance of progressing from a group that includes Messi’s heavily-fancied Argen-tina and exciting debutants Bosnia.

Coach Stephen ‘Big Boss’ Keshi, who captained the 1994 Nigerian side that reached the second round as winners of a group that also included former champions Argentina, is hoping to re-kindle some of that magic.

Then, as now, Nigeria arrive as the African champions and even if their current squad is unpredictable and lacking the charisma and � repower of old, they will still start as favourites.

Nigeria’s � nals record since that last victory in France stands at two draws and six defeats, even if they won the African Nations Cup in 2013.

Iran’s resume makes no better reading. Since they beat political foes the United States 2-1 in a memorable 1998 night in Lyon, a win sandwiched between two defeats, ‘Team Melli’ have been no more than World Cup makeweights. l

VIRAN NIGERIA

Arena da Baixada, Curitiba16 JUN 2014 - 16:00 Local (1:00AM BST)

Invest more in infrastructuresADB President says 3% of GDP expenditure on infrastructure not enough

n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao has urged Bangladesh to invest more in infrastructure devel-opment to become a middle income country – a vision of Bangladesh.

It spends only 3% of GDP on in-frastructure, which is not enough as compared to 15% in China, he told a press conference at ADB’s Bangladesh Resident Mission in Dhaka yesterday, following his meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

He discussed with government o� -cials about reform in value added tax and stronger enforcement administra-

tion of tax collection. Nakao arrived in the city Saturday

on a two-day o� cial visit to Bangla-desh. He is scheduled to visit some ADB projects here today.

He stressed on increasing invest-ment in infrastructure through mobil-ising increased revenue, which is still very low as percentage of GDP.

He also emphasised on the need for skills development and business climate improvement as the country targets middle-income status.

The ADB president raised the issue at a time when local economists and businessmen were taking up the issue, besides calling for political stability, with the government to help attract

private investment for becoming a middle income country.

“Bangladesh is changing very fast and it has potentiality to become mid-dle income country,” he said. “Actually it [Bangladesh] is changing very fast and growth rate has been very strong.”

He said Bangladesh enjoys stability for long compare to other neighbour-ing countries. “Security condition is stable and there is no threat of terrorist attack.” Pakistan has been facing con-sistent terrorist attacks while Sri Lan-ka concluded its decades-old civil war two years back.

“In the world, some people still re-gard Bangladesh as very prone to cy-clone and other natural disasters like

� ooding and also people might regard Bangladesh as a poor country. But ac-tually it is changing,” he said.

Investment climate is improving, growth rate is stable at 6% level and in-� ation rate has been contained, he add-ed. He, however, said people empower-ment, education quality improvement and lack of investment in infrastruc-ture are three major challenges.

Earlier, Nakao assured o� cials that ADB will continue to assist Bangla-desh’s e� orts to address infrastructure needs, including power, gas, roads, railways and urban services; and sec-ondary education and vocational training.

ADB will also strengthen support to regional connectivity and energy trade, while continuing investments to en-hance agriculture and rural productivi-ty for higher income and more jobs, he said. Since 1973, ADB provided 241 loans worth over $15 billion to Bangladesh.

In his meeting with the PM, the ADB president assured of continued sup-port to infrastructure development of Bangladesh and disaster management, saccording to a BSS report.

Hasina thanked him and said the support would contribute accelerating the development e� orts of the coun-try. She also called for ADB support to food processing and labour intensive industries.

Meanwhile, following a meeting with Finance Minister Muhith, Nakao urged the government to enhance its project implementation capacity as the ADB is increasing its capacity here too.

“ADB is also trying to improve its own internal process to accelerate pro-curement and project management, as well as delegating more authority to resident missions including the one in Dhaka,” he told reporters. l

www.dhakatribune.com/business MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

B3 Citi awards small entrepreneurs

B4 G77 summit seeks new development pledges

REHAB fair begins Wednesday in port cityn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A four-day housing fair will begin on Wednesday in the port city.

Real Estate Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) is organis-ing the fair at Table Tennis Complex at Chittagong Club premises.

State Minister for Land Saifuz-zaman Chowdhury Javed is expect-ed to inaugurate the fair featuring

quality and safety.Chittagong Development Au-

thority Chairman Abdus Salam and Chittagong Metropolitan Po-lice Commissioner Md Sha� qul Is-lam will also be present as special guests, said a statement at a press conference yesterday.

REHAB General Secretary Md Wahiduzzaman, Zonal Standing Committee Chairman Engineer

SM Abu Su� an, Fair CommitteeConvener Engineer Iftekhar Hos-sain and Joint Convener Abdul Quader Jilani were present at the presser.

The fair will continue till Satur-day.

A total of 67 stalls will be set up in the fair, of them, REHAB mem-bers will open 47, construction ma-terials � rms 16 and � nancial organi-

sations four stalls.A seminar will also be held on

the sidelines of the fair on construc-tion issues.

There will be a “Kids Day” on June 20 and other amusement pro-grammes for children as an e� ort to attract visitors.

The fair are co-sponsored by six business � rms and seven others or-ganisations. l

Rural economy expands faster in last decade n Tribune Report

The country’s rural economy has ex-panded remarkably in a decade, con-tributing to help cut the rate of pov-erty, says a study of national statistics agency.

Economic units in the rural areas grew 72% in 2013 compared to 62.61% in 2003 and, during the period, eco-nomic units in the urban areas declined to 27.96% from 37.39%, according to preliminary data on the Economic Census 2013 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Non-farm economic unit grew over more than 10% year-on-year, it said. The � nal reports will be published by June 2015. The survey covered tem-porary and permanent establishments and economic households.

An economic unit is any player that contributes to the country’s gross do-mestic product, starting from rick-shaw-pullers to large garment facto-ries. Agriculture has been excluded from the survey as the statistical agen-cy conducts a separate census for it.

The report was presented at a work-shop on Preliminary Report and Pro-posed Tabulation Plan at the BBS au-ditorium in the city yesterday. Some of statistics of the report was also pub-

lished in November last year.Conducted by the BBS between

March 31 and May 31 last year, the sur-vey found the number of economic units to be 80.75 lakh, up 118% from the previous edition of the survey pub-lished in 2003.

The total number of economic units in 2003 was 37.08 lakh, an increase of 71% from 1986, when the � rst edition of the survey came out.

Of the total economic units, the number of permanent establishments accounted for over 56% to 45.35 lakh in 2013, while the number of temporary establishments made up over 6% to 5 lakh and households 37.6% to 30 lakh, implying that the Bangladesh econo-my is getting sustainable and moving towards industrialisation, according to the report.

The highest number of economic units was set up in Dhaka, followed by Chittagong, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khul-na, Barisal and Sylhet. Dhaka has been persistently the house of the highest number of economic units with strong upward trend as the number increased to nearly 26 lakh in 2013 from 12 lakh in 2003.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Economic A� airs Dr Mashiur Rahman

B3 COLUMN 4

Economists emphasise political stability to attract private investmentn Tribune Report

Former � nance advisor to the caretaker government ABM Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday observed that achieving GDP growth in the next � nancial year would not be possible without boosting private sector investment in the country.

“Apart from now, continuation of political stability in the next 5 to 10 years is a must for attracting the pri-vate investment in various sectors,” said Azizul Islam while addressing a discussion titled “Budget 2014-15: Views of Business Community.”

Metropolitan Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (MCCI) and Policy Research Institute (PRI) have jointly orgainsed the programme at the MCCI o� ce in the city to hear from the econ-omists and businessmen from various sectors on the proposed budget.

In the new budget, the government has set 7.3% GDP growth, while it also has a target to achieve 8% GDP growth by 2015 and 10% by 2021.

To attract private investments, Azizul Islam suggested improving ef-� ciency of the government o� cials, reducing corruption, creating skilled manpower, ensuring security to life and wealth, providing utility enough services including gas and electricity.

Private investments would not be increased until and unless the bank’s interest rate is not reduced and avail-ability of the bank loans is ensured. The people don’t get any bene� t from the development projects because of the lengthy implementation process, he added.

M.A Mannan, state minister for � -

nance and planning, also blamed the political instability for the failure in achieving GDP target.

He, however, noted that the pro-posed GDP in the budget was achiev-able as the government is trying its best to ensure investment-friendly en-vironment in the country.

In response to a quarry, the minister replied: The government will consider the � xing the tax on lands and house rents on the basis of the location.

“Last year’s growth target was not achieved due to the political volatility but we sincerely hope that the govern-ment will � nd the means to implement the budget successfully to achieve the target,” said MCCI president Rokia Afzal Rahman.

She also said: The proposed budget re� ects the government’s planning for the next � ve years with a plan to ensure stability and policy continuity, which is much needed for the business community in Bangladesh as well as foreign investors to bring back the con-� dence.

She also urged to the government to � x a cap on its bank borrowing limit as the high state borrowing might put negative impact on the country’s pri-vate sector investment.

“The budget will need to have a cushion to cut the spending. One the way to that would be to withhold allocation for controversial projects like Rupur Nuclear Power Project and Rampal Coal-based Power plant and making maximum allocations for the non-controversial projects,” said executive director of Policy Research Institute Ahsan H Mansur, in his key note paper. l

Exports reach $27.37bn in July-May periodn Tribune Report

Bangladesh earnings from the ex-port sector reached $27.37bn in � rst 11 months of the current � scal year, post-ing 12.56% growth from a year earlier, showed Export Promotion Bureau data.

The amount was $24.32bn during June-May period last year.

As usual, the garment sector has made the highest contribution to the earnings.

The apparel exports registered

14.83% rise to $22.17bn, according to the data released yesterday. But the ap-parel exporters expected better perfor-mance as the country supplied jerseys worth $1bn for FIFA World Cup 2014.

“The RMG export growth is less than our expectation. As we supplied World Cup jerseys this year, the growth should have been better,” said Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Bangla-desh Exporters Association (BEA).

Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactur-

ers and Exporters Association provided the jersey export data. But according to the EPB o� cials, the export growth is quite satisfactory as the sector de� ed all odds it faced during the period.

“It’s a good news for the country that the RMG has been able to main-tain export growth despite persisting political instability and the country’s biggest factory disaster.”

The data provided by the Bureau showed the 11-month exports � gure is

slightly lower than the strategic target. In May, Bangladesh earned $2.72bn

compared to $2.53bn one year ago. In July-May, Bangladesh export-

ed knitwear and woven products of $10.91bn and $11.25bn respectively. l

During the period, frozen food earned $578.44m, tea $3.38m, phar-maceuticals $64m, leather and leath-er goods $468.63m and footwear $493.76m. They all rose in � gures com-pared to the previous year. l

PERCENTAGE SHARE OF ECONOMIC UNITS BY LOCALITY

Banks asked to help import Ramadan essentials n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked the commercial banks to facilitate opening LCs (letter of credit) to import essential commodities ahead of the holy month of Ramadan to help keep the prices at tolerable level.

Banks have been advised to provide all kinds of assistances to the importers, so they can open LCs easily, taking nec-essary loan facilities, said a BB circular issued yesterday. As the central bank continued its e� ort to keep the in� ation at tolerable rate, it has asked the banks to facilitate LC openings to ensure unin-terrupted import of the essential com-modities just ahead of Ramadan, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

“As the demand of essential com-modities will be increased during Ra-madan, we need to support the import-ers to further enhance the supply chain to meet the growing demand,” he said.

The value of LC opening increased by 14% to US$1.37bn in the � rst two weeks of May compared to $1.2bn in the same period of previous month, according to the data of BB. l

Samsung seeks handset tax reductionn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Legal supply of high and medium-end mobile phone handsets may be a� ect-ed by at least 30% if the government continues the proposed tax hike on the products, said Samsung quoting from a global study.

The handset maker presented the study report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday who assured of con-sidering the demand of withdrawal of the tax increase.

The proposed budget for FY2014-15 increased value added tax (Vat) to 15% and imposed 5% advance income tax (AIT) on handset imports.

Samsung, one of the top global high-end handset brands, sees it would have a negative impact in terms of 3G Inter-net penetration if the proposed taxes are not withdrawn.

The company also sought three-year exemption from customs duties on smartphones.

Bangladesh has been with the third generation mobile broadband for state-owned operator Teletalk since October 2012 while for private operators the service was made available only in September last year.

However, AMA Muhith told the

Samsung o� cials that he would talk to the parliamentary standing committee on � nance ministry and stakeholders.

“We tried to make him (� nance minister) understand the situation. It seems he is going to consider our de-mands,” Hasan Mehdi, head of mobile

phone section of Samsung Electronics in Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting with AMA Muhith.

Choon Soo Moon, managing direc-tor of Samsung Electronics Bangla-desh, along with some of senior execu-tives also attended the meeting.

Local handsets brand Symphony and leaders of Association of Mobile

Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AM-TOB) are also scheduled to meet with the � nance minister in a day or two regarding the same issue, said � nance ministry sources.

On 5 June, � nance minister pro-posed 15% Vat on handsets import in-creasing from the existing 10%. He also proposed 5% AIT.

If the taxes are implemented, a handset of Tk5,000 will become of Tk7,637, Samsung o� cials told the � -nance minister.

The o� cials also shared a price sen-sitivity study with the � nance minis-ter. The study, run by a leading global research agency Millward Brown, said the demand of smartphones could be hampered by approximately 35%.

“Due to the price hike, the consum-ers will opt the handset that best meets their a� ordability. This will result in the value proposition for an individu-al to the leap downward. The Mid-end consumers will shift to low-end hand-sets,” said a Samsung statement.

It said the proposed tax structure will also a� ect the government’s in-come from the sector by 18%.

Around 20% of nearly 3 crore hand-sets imported annually the country are smart phones. l

The price hike will result in the value proposition for an individual to the leap downward. The Mid-end consumers will shift to low-end handsets

Takehiko Nakao addressing a press conferemce in Dhaka yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

ANALYST

B2 Stock Monday, June 16, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks start the week on back foot n Tribune Report

Stocks fell yesterday with low vol-ume of trade as investors continued to adopt cautious mood on concern of sluggish private investment.

From the morning session, mar-ket quickly slipped away on strong selling pressure mainly on textile, pharmaceuticals and fuel stocks.

The benchmark index DSEX dropped over 47 points or 1% to settle at 4,361, extending its losing streak for the second consecutive session.

The comprising blue chips DS30 was down 20 points or 1% to 1,618. The Shariah Index DSES closed at 1,007, shedding nearly over 10 points or 1%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost 100 points to 8,309.

The volume of trade in value continued to drop as the turnover at DSE dipped to Tk314 crore, down almost 15% over the previous ses-sion.

All the major sectors ended lower except telecommunications, which gained 2.48%.

Power was the biggest loser as it edged down by 2.7%, followed by pharmaceuticals 1.7%, non-bank-ing � nancial institutions 1.6%, food and allied 1.27%, and banks 0.4%.

Peninsula Hotel Chittagong in its � rst trading day gained over 22%

to Tk36.7 on its o� er price of Tk30 a share. The stock also featured second in the liquidity chart with Tk32.6 crore, making up over 10% of the total turnover.

Lanka Bangla Securities said investors have continued their cautious mood amid concern over lower private investment and the sluggish pace of job creation.

IDLC Investments said lately in-vestors seemed focusing on market level dynamics.

In absence of any signi� cant is-sues, waves of pro� t booking � ood-ed the market, it said, adding that eventually, support level of 4,400 points had to give away, losing 47 points, succumbing to the large selling pressure.

“After neutralising budget-spe-ci� c issues, investors started think-ing about upcoming half-yearly and yearly earnings or corporate decla-rations. Besides, their persistent follow of ‘wait and see’ approach caused activity to freeze.”

Grameenphone (GP) that contin-ued to rally ahead of its interim div-idend decelerations was the most traded stock with turnover of over Tk30 crore changing hands.

After GP and Peninsula, oth-er top turnover leaders included BSRM Steel, Lafarge Surma Ce-ment, Meghna Petroleum, Delta Life Insurance and Mobil Jamuna Bangladesh Ltd. l

News from trade serverDELTALIFE: The Board of Directors has recommended 11% cash dividend and 25% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. The board has also decided to amend certain clauses of the Articles of Association of the Company to conform to the Insurance Act, 2010, Insurance Rules and the judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh dated 20.06.2013 and oth-er relevant laws subject to the approval of the shareholders in EGM. Date of AGM and EGM: 20.07.2014, Time for AGM and EGM: 9:30 AM and 10:30 AM respec-tively, Venue: Delta Life Tower, Plot# 37, Road# 45 (south) & 90 (north), Gulshan Circle-2, Dhaka-1212. Record date for AGM and EGM: 25.06.2014.PENINSULA: (Q3): The Company has reported its pro� t after tax Tk. 45.29 million and basic EPS Tk. 0.78 for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 (Jan 2014 - March 2014) as against pro� t after tax of Tk. 38.65 million and basic EPS of Tk. 0.67 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that basic EPS has been calculated based on

weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up num-ber of shares i.e. 58,016,000 shares both for 2014 and 2013. However, considering Post-IPO 113,016,000 number of shares the Company's basic EPS for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 would be Tk. 0.40. For the period of 9 (nine) months (July 2013 to March 2014) ended on 31 March 2014 pro� t after tax was Tk. 112.40 million and basic EPS was Tk. 1.94 as against pro� t after tax of Tk. 107.63 million and basic EPS of Tk. 1.86 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that the said EPS has been calcu-lated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up number shares i.e. 58,016,000 both for 2014 and 2013. However, con-sidering Post-IPO 113,016,000 number of shares, Company's basic EPS would be Tk. 0.99 for 9 (nine) months ended on 31 March 2014 (July 2013 to March 2014) and NAV per share would be Tk. 32.37 as on 31 March 2014.EMERALDOIL: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the entity rating of the Com-pany as "BB1" based on audited � nancial

statements of the Company up to 2013, bank liability (30 June 2013) and other relevant quantitative as well as qualita-tive information up to the date of rating declaration.BANKASIA: Credit Rating Agency of Ban-gladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the surveillance rating of the Company as "AA3" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2013 and other relevant quan-titative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.STANDBANKL: Credit Rating Agen-cy of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the surveillance rating of the Company as "AA3" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.ACI: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on December 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Accounts.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Wata Chemicals -A -18.60 -18.63 297.28 297.10 298.00 297.00 0.238 6.24 47.6Fareast Finance-Z -5.75 -4.70 8.31 8.20 8.40 8.10 0.179 0.12 69.3Federal Insu.-A -5.45 -5.26 19.10 19.10 19.10 19.10 0.023 1.36 14.0MBL 1st M. F.-A -5.36 -4.51 5.29 5.30 5.30 5.20 0.024 1.44 3.7Pioneer Insur -A -5.00 -5.00 49.40 49.40 49.40 49.40 0.025 5.16 9.6AIMS First -A -4.99 -3.87 38.03 38.10 38.40 37.20 0.076 5.00 7.6Bangladesh Welding -Z -4.96 -5.42 11.51 11.50 11.60 11.50 0.081 0.48 24.0Eastern Cables-A -4.91 -4.11 138.68 137.60 140.50 137.20 0.069 2.03 68.3G Next Fashions-A -4.89 -3.40 17.88 17.50 18.40 17.40 4.889 2.28 7.8Hwa Well Textiles-N -4.88 -5.39 39.50 39.00 41.20 38.90 1.402 3.99 9.9

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Jute SpinnersA -7.56 -7.56 55.00 55.00 55.20 55.00 0.055 -43.81 -veWata Chemicals -A -7.17 0.10 301.42 279.80 327.70 0.00 34.422 6.24 48.3Progressive Life-A -6.94 -6.81 122.00 122.00 133.80 118.00 1.220 2.30 53.0Grameen1:Scheme2 -A -5.52 -3.09 15.69 15.40 16.40 15.40 6.627 1.70 9.2G Next Fashions-A -5.41 -4.04 17.83 17.50 18.50 0.00 50.113 2.28 7.8Unique Hotel RL - A -5.35 -4.39 70.40 69.00 72.90 0.00 34.901 2.84 24.8National Housing Fin.-B -5.26 -2.25 27.80 27.00 28.50 0.00 1.917 2.32 12.0AIMS First -A -4.98 -2.56 38.88 38.20 40.20 38.10 3.655 5.00 7.8BD Building Systems -A -4.86 -2.91 56.15 54.80 57.20 0.00 12.791 3.01 18.7S Purbanchol Power-N -4.73 -3.11 43.00 42.30 44.30 42.10 10.097 4.24 10.1

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

The Peninsula CTG.-N 1,809,800 68.26 30.05 36.60 0.00 0.00 45.00 36.50 37.71Grameenphone-A 74,200 22.55 9.93 307.60 2.88 299.00 308.90 297.10 303.90BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 456,247 11.60 5.11 25.00 2.04 24.50 26.30 23.30 25.42BSRM Steels-A 118,605 10.77 4.74 90.10 -0.66 90.70 92.90 89.50 90.83Delta Life Insu. -A 30,950 5.95 2.62 188.50 -2.99 194.30 200.10 187.00 192.10Appollo Ispat CL -N 186,200 5.24 2.31 27.80 -3.47 28.80 28.80 27.70 28.15G Next Fashions-A 273,500 4.89 2.15 17.50 -4.89 18.40 18.40 17.40 17.88BD Submarine Cable-A 25,500 4.66 2.05 181.90 -2.73 187.00 185.00 181.20 182.75Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 193,500 4.66 2.05 23.80 -3.25 24.60 24.50 23.70 24.07Square Pharma -A 15,596 4.36 1.92 279.60 -1.17 282.90 281.90 277.60 279.86Meghna Petroleum -A 15,603 4.17 1.84 266.30 -1.30 269.80 268.10 265.70 267.36UNITED AIR-A 309,584 3.47 1.53 11.10 -4.31 11.60 11.50 11.00 11.20LafargeS Cement-Z 39,500 3.31 1.46 83.80 0.48 83.40 85.10 82.10 83.82Aftab Auto.-A 32,620 2.76 1.22 83.80 -3.12 86.50 86.50 82.60 84.69MJL BD Ltd.-A 29,750 2.63 1.16 87.10 -3.76 90.50 90.20 86.20 88.49

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Grameenphone-A 1,359,618 412.87 13.14 307.90 2.87 299.30 308.70 0.00 303.67The Peninsula CTG.-N 8,485,600 325.41 10.36 36.70 0.00 0.00 45.00 36.50 38.35BSRM Steels-A 1,170,094 106.30 3.38 90.00 -0.66 90.60 92.50 0.00 90.85LafargeS Cement-Z 1,196,500 100.38 3.20 84.10 1.94 82.50 85.40 82.00 83.89Meghna Petroleum -A 305,543 81.67 2.60 266.30 -1.52 270.40 270.80 0.00 267.30Delta Life Insu. -A 409,400 79.11 2.52 187.40 -3.35 193.90 199.50 186.20 193.23MJL BD Ltd.-A 853,122 75.78 2.41 87.10 -4.07 90.80 90.80 0.00 88.83BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 2,884,411 73.31 2.33 25.00 1.63 24.60 26.40 0.00 25.42Olympic Ind. -A 294,475 64.59 2.06 218.40 -2.54 224.10 225.00 0.00 219.35Square Pharma -A 228,545 64.03 2.04 279.80 -1.31 283.50 283.00 0.00 280.17Mithun Knitting -A 532,150 58.48 1.86 112.20 5.06 106.80 113.70 0.00 109.90Eastern Housing -A 799,780 51.22 1.63 62.90 -4.41 65.80 66.00 0.00 64.05G Next Fashions-A 2,810,089 50.11 1.60 17.50 -5.41 18.50 18.50 0.00 17.83BD Submarine Cable-A 268,648 49.12 1.56 181.10 -3.21 187.10 187.20 0.00 182.84Appollo Ispat CL -N 1,569,000 44.43 1.41 27.80 -3.47 28.80 29.00 27.70 28.32

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Samata LeatheR -Z 7.41 7.41 29.00 29.00 29.00 29.00 0.435 0.09 322.2Mithun Knitting -A 4.66 5.24 111.40 112.20 113.30 109.50 1.938 2.69 41.4Beacon Pharma Ltd.-Z 4.41 3.59 14.15 14.20 14.30 14.00 0.750 0.04 353.8Apex SpinningA 3.94 3.50 84.50 84.50 84.50 84.50 0.017 1.85 45.7NLI 1st M F-A 3.33 3.33 9.30 9.30 9.30 9.30 0.009 1.36 6.8Grameenphone-A 2.88 1.73 303.90 307.60 308.90 297.10 22.550 15.28 19.9Imam Button -Z 2.74 3.02 7.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 0.011 -1.85 -veBeximco Syn.-Z 2.04 3.80 10.11 10.00 9.90 10.00 1.096 0.76 13.3BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 2.04 6.14 25.42 25.00 26.30 23.30 11.600 0.59 43.1Shinepukur Cera-Z 1.82 3.33 11.18 11.20 11.20 10.90 0.125 0.64 17.5

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Beacon Pharma Ltd.-Z 5.15 4.09 14.25 14.30 14.50 - 6.774 0.04 356.3AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A 5.08 5.85 6.15 6.20 6.40 5.70 3.051 1.49 4.1Mithun Knitting -A 5.06 3.92 109.90 112.20 113.70 - 58.484 2.69 40.9Al-Haj Textile -A 4.60 0.90 184.26 186.30 188.20 - 40.863 2.00 92.1Kohinoor Chem -A 4.14 2.43 393.00 399.50 404.00 - 0.505 9.37 41.9Desh Garments -B 4.00 2.17 118.23 119.70 121.00 114.10 10.002 0.96 123.2Rahim Textile -A 3.76 2.76 348.41 348.10 355.00 336.00 5.052 11.16 31.2Shinepukur Cera-Z 3.64 3.28 11.32 11.40 11.50 - 2.778 0.64 17.7Samata LeatheR -Z 3.30 3.66 28.33 28.20 28.70 27.30 0.085 0.09 314.88th ICB M F-A 3.01 2.26 68.00 68.40 69.90 66.90 0.068 7.96 8.5

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 225.06 7.16 12.72 4.72 237.79 6.97NBFI 52.32 1.67 4.34 1.61 56.66 1.66Investment 49.39 1.57 2.01 0.75 51.40 1.51Engineering 342.17 10.89 24.48 9.09 366.65 10.75Food & Allied 135.48 4.31 8.78 3.26 144.26 4.23Fuel & Power 318.67 10.14 18.84 7.00 337.51 9.89Jute 1.81 0.06 0.00 1.81 0.05Textile 342.57 10.90 26.79 9.95 369.36 10.83Pharma & Chemical 275.65 8.77 13.18 4.89 288.83 8.47Paper & Packaging 0.17 0.01 12.08 4.49 12.25 0.36Service 56.62 1.80 1.91 0.71 58.53 1.72Leather 40.26 1.28 13.66 5.07 53.92 1.58Ceramic 11.05 0.35 0.92 0.34 11.97 0.35Cement 180.17 5.73 7.34 2.73 187.51 5.50Information Technology 14.95 0.48 1.37 0.51 16.32 0.48General Insurance 25.54 0.81 0.46 0.17 26.00 0.76Life Insurance 106.15 3.38 6.23 2.31 112.37 3.29Telecom 461.99 14.71 27.21 10.10 489.20 14.34Travel & Leisure 378.84 12.06 72.53 26.93 451.38 13.23Miscellaneous 122.29 3.89 14.46 5.37 136.75 4.01Debenture 0.49 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.50 0.01

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index : 4361.58647 (-) 1.07% ▼

DSE Shariah Index : 1007.71728 (-) 1.03% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1618.20573 (-) 1.21% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 13473.17420 (-) 1.10% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 10983.73750 (-) 1.28% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8309.74620 (-) 1.20% ▼

DSE key features June 15, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

3,141.61

Turnover (Volume)

65,609,271

Number of Contract 104,785

Traded Issues 291

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

54

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

230

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,283.64

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.68

CSE key features June 15, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 233.18

Turnover (Volume) 6,237,080

Number of Contract 16,280

Traded Issues 197

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

36

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

158

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,198.64

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.65

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

After neutralising budget-speci� c issues, investors started thinking about upcoming half-yearly and yearly earnings or corporate declarations

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

Dubai faces moment of truth over looming property bubblen Reuters, Dubai

“Keep calm. There’s no bubble”, pro-claimed a giant poster on a 40-storey building overlooking a Dubai highway, advertising a property � nding portal late last year. That may have been true at the time, but the risks are rising.

A leap in bank lending to the con-struction industry indicates � nancial institutions have resumed pouring money into real estate projects in the last few months, after cutting back sharply in the wake of Dubai’s 2008 crash.

At the same time, property pric-es have been soaring on the back of Dubai’s economic boom, increasing the chance of the market rising to unsus-tainable levels.

Surging supply and unsustainable demand are a risky mix - the same combination that got Dubai into trou-ble six years ago, forcing state � rms to reschedule tens of billions of dollars of debt and jolting � nancial markets around the world.

This time, authorities say they are aware of the dangers, and they have taken regulatory steps to slow demand growth. But the steps are still modest

compared to those by other global cit-ies facing the same problem, such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

“It’s too early to be calling top, but credit growth of that pace tells you that the cycle is accelerating rapidly,” said Simon Williams, HSBC’s chief econo-mist for the region.

“Such a huge increase in lending is simply not consistent with economic order and stable asset prices. The time for policy action is now, before bubbles really get going, not when they are al-ready in place.”

Dubai house prices posted the fast-est year-on-year rise of any of the world’s major markets in January-March for the fourth straight quarter, soaring 27.7%, consultants Knight Frank said. Rents rose about 30 percent on average in the same period.

The value of real estate deals in Dubai, with a population of 2.3 million, jumped 38 percent in the � rst quarter to some 61bn dirhams ($16.6bn), the Land Department said.

There are good reasons for property prices to rise, including annual eco-nomic growth around 5% and in� ows of money from Arab investors seeking safety in a turbulent region. l

China seeks spending � x as economy wobbles n AFP, Shanghai

China is unlikely to resort to the kind of spending splurge that saw it through the 2008 � nancial crisis to deal with its slowing economy, analysts say, but recent moves to ramp up state support suggest it cannot wean itself complete-ly o� the stimulus drug.

Policymakers are seeking more tools to keep growth from dipping below the key 7.5% level; worried job losses could spark social unrest. The central bank announced Monday it will slash the amount of funds some lenders, includ-ing rural banks, must hold in reserve to pump more money into the economy - the second such move in two months.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday gave details on plans an-nounced in March to transform China’s longest river, the Yangtze, into an “eco-nomic belt” by building transport in-frastructure to link the country’s west and east.

Speaking to academics in the past week, Li called for more attention to-wards a “targeted” adjustment of the economy, using the phrase for the � rst

time, though he added “� ne-tuning” was needed to keep growth on track.

But analysts said the basket of mea-sures accumulated so far this year had moved beyond their original label of small-scale pump-priming.

“It’s certainly past the so-called ‘mini-stimulus’ and the scope of ‘� ne-tuning’... but it’s not a big stimulus ei-ther,” Liu Li-Gang, a Hong Kong-based economist for ANZ Bank, told AFP.

“It might speed up China’s invest-ment growth a little but it’s not com-parable to the 4-trillion-yuan package during the � nancial crisis,” he said.

In March, Premier Li announced an economic growth target of “around 7.5%” for this year and has repeated that China can meet that goal.

China’s economy grew an annual 7.7% in 2013, the same level as 2012, which was the worst pace since 1999.

The binge of 4tn yuan - $656bn at current exchange rates - on infrastruc-ture in 2008 and 2009 still reverberates with a de� ating property market bub-ble and a multi-trillion dollar “shadow banking” sector which grew out of loose credit.

Little appetite for big stimulus This time around the government is reluctant to match those levels of spending.

“The new leadership has ruled out a repeat of the big stimulus in 2008-09,” said Jian Chang, China economist at Barclays Capital in Hong Kong.

“A highly leveraged economy with mounting � nancial and � scal risks re-lated to surging shadow bank lending and ballooning local government debt will constrain policy options,” she add-ed.

Other measures this year include speeding up infrastructure investment especially for railways, building a� ord-able urban housing and accelerating spending of already-budgeted funds.

The economy found some relief on Friday with indicators like industrial production and � xed-asset investment -- a key measure of spending on infra-structure -- remaining steady in May compared with April, which could take some pressure o� the government.

“The property sector is still putting downwards pressure on the economy but this appears to have been largely

o� set by infrastructure spending and other targeted measures, which have shored up other areas of the economy,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China Economist for Capital Economics.

Still, the government will have to do more if it wants to stabilise the econo-my, also a key driver for the world.

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew an annual 7.4 percent in the � rst quarter of this year, weaker than the 7.7 percent in the previous quarter and the worst since a matching 7.4 per-cent expansion in the third quarter of 2012.

“If economic growth for the second quarter comes in lower-than-expected, then it’s likely to see the government taking further measures,” Wendy Chen, Shanghai-based economist for Nomura International, told AFP.

China will announce GDP for the second quarter on July 16.

“We expect further stimulus poli-cies in the second and third quarters, on both the monetary and � scal sides,” she said, adding this could include an across-the-board cut in reserve re-quirements for banks. l

National Bank Limited yesterday held its 31st annual general meeting at a hotel in Dhaka. The bank’s chair Zainul Haque Sikder presided over the meeting

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited and Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) have recently signed an agreement for e-payment of membership fees and other charges through DBBL Nexus Payment Gateway using DBBL Nexus debit card, MasterCard and Visa card of any bank. The agreement was signed by Eng Miah Muhammad Quayyum, general secretary of IEB and the bank’s deputy managing director Eng Abul Kashem Md Shirin

Modhumoti Bank limited has arranged an award-giving programme titled “Freedom Campaign” to honour freedom � ghters at its head o� ce. The bank’s managing director and CEO Md Mizanur Rahman attended the programme as chief guest

BRAC Bank Limited has signed an agreement with The Westin Dhaka, which will let the premium banking customers and Platinum credit cardholders to enjoy free dining o� er at the Seasonal Taste restaurant for Sehri & Iftaar during Ramadan. Daniel Muhor, general manager of The Westin Dhaka and Firoz Ahmed Khan, the bank’s head of retail banking division signed the agreement

Shariah Supervisory Committee of Union Bank Ltd recently held its 5th meeting at its head o� ce. The committee’s chair Prof Dr Abu Reza Mohammed Nezamuddin Nadvi presided over the meeting

Mercantile Bank gets its new chairn Tribune Business Desk

Morshed Alam has been recently elect-ed as the chair at the Mercantile Bank Limited’s board of directors, said a press release.

Morshed Alam is the founder chair of the Bengal Group of Industries.

He has also been awarded National Export Trophy (silver) for the year FY1998 and (gold) trophy in the � scal years 2000, 2007 and silver in 2010 while bronze in 2011. l

Ukraine expects gas talks with Russia as deadline loomsn Reuters, Kiev

Ukraine said it expected to resume talks with Russia on a gas-pricing dis-pute on Sunday evening, with a dead-line looming for Kiev to pay a $1.95bn debt by today or have its gas supplies cut o� .

Halting Russian deliveries to Kiev could disrupt the gas � ow to the EU, which gets some of its imports via Ukraine, but prospects for a break-through have been hit by clashes be-tween government forces and pro-Rus-sian separatists in east Ukraine.

Ukraine’s energy minister had said after talks in Kiev on Saturday that dis-cussions would continue on Sunday morning, but no meeting took place.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry later said it hoped the talks, being mediated by the European Union’s energy commissioner, would resume in Kiev on Sunday evening and Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz said it expected talks at 8 pm (1700 GMT). Russian o� cials did not immediately con� rm

this.Ukrainian and Russian o� cials

failed to end the long-running dispute at talks in Kiev on Saturday but Ukrai-nian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said after leaving the meeting that the dis-cussions would continue on Sunday.

Russia and Ukraine disagree how much Kiev should pay for the natural gas it receives from Russia and Rus-sian state-owned natural gas producer Gazprom plans to switch to an advance payment system if Kiev does not start paying its bills.

Ukraine has accepted a European Commission compromise proposal of $326 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas for an interim period. Moscow has o� ered Kiev a $100 reduction to $385, around the average amount paid by Russia’s European clie nts.

Resolving the dispute and avert-ing supply cuts could help ease ten-sion over the separatist rising in east Ukraine, which Kiev blames on Mos-cow despite Russian denials that it is arming the rebellion. l

Citi awards small entrepreneursn Tribune Report

Six Micro Entrepreneurs and two Mi-cro� nance Institutions (MFIs) were awarded the 9th Citi Micro Entrepre-neurship Awards in recognition of their leadership, entrepreneurial skills and best practices of the individual en-trepreneurs in the country.

Being the chief guest, state minister for � nance and planning M Abdul Man-nan handed over the awards among the winners on Saturday at a ceremony held at a hotel in the capital.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman distributed the prize money among the winners while Rashed Maq-sood, country o� cer of Citibank NA Bangladesh, handed the certi� cates.

Terming the proposed budget an implementable one, the state minister: We are getting very positive response from all the sectors although a handful of people are still criticising the pro-posed budget,”

The proposed budget kept enough opportunities for the micro entrepre-neurships as most of the people in the country still live in the rural areas and it is not possible for them to set-up big enterprises there, the minister added.

He also urged the banks and � nan-cial institutions to come forward for helping out Micro Entrepreneurships in the rural areas.

“It is very important having self-es-teem to start a microenterprise against all odds. We have to work to remove the barriers that stand in the way of micro-enterprises from thriving,” said Atiur Rahman.

Some 170 microcredit organisations have so far lent Tk15,000 crore only in the year 2013 to help the micro-bor-rowers to be graduated to micro enter-prises. Of the loans, over Tk9,000 crore are outstanding. Under this initiative, about 2.2m micro-borrowers have graduated to micro entrepreneurs

from micro-borrowers, he added.Richard Tesvich, managing director

and regional head of corporate a� airs of Citi for Asia Paci� c region, said: Citi takes great pride in having been able to successfully continue the award.

“The contribution of microcredit in developing as well as developed economies is widely accepted today. Bangladesh being the birthplace of micro-� nance has always been at the forefront to bringing innovation in this sector,” he added.

Samsad Akter, who hailed from Baliadangi in Thakurgaon became Best Micro entrepreneur of the Year, received Tk4,50,000 as prize money while runner up of the same category Samirunnahar Begum was awarded Tk100,000. She hailed from Shaym-nagar of Satkhira.

Under the Best Woman Micro Entre-preneur of the Year, Roksana Begum from Valuka of Mymesingh received Tk3,50,000 while Zahira Begum from Mela Kochukata of Nilphamari became the runner-up in the same category,

and got Tk100,000 as prize money.Md Somed Fakir from Taltoli of Bor-

guna was honoured as the Best Micro Entrepreneur of the Year in Agriculture while Anju Sarker from Keshobpur in Jessore received the award as the runner-up in the same category. They respectively received Tk3,50,000 and Tk1,00,000.

Manabik Shahajya Sangstha won the award in the Best Micro� nance Institution of the Year category and received Tk3,00,000 as prize money. Sajida Foundation won the award as the Most Innovative Micro� nance Institution of the Year and received Tk4,00,000.

Citi Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Citigroup, has launched the Citi Micro Entrepreneurship Awards to promote micro enterprises and in-crease awareness of the � nancial ser-vice needs of micro entrepreneurs in the country. The award is being sup-ported by Citi Foundation and imple-mented by Citibank NA and Credit De-velopment Forum. l

Dacca Dyeing goes into producing knit dyeingn Tahmidur Rahman

The Dacca Dyeing and Manufacturing Company Limited has said it began commercial production of its knit dye-ing from yesterday to produce 2 lakh kilograms per year.

The home textile maker also decided to install high quality yarn dyeing plant with a capacity of 20 lakh kg per year with its own fund like knit dyeing, said the company in a statement yesterday.

However, the disclosure failed to at-tract the investors, as its share prices fell 2% at the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.

The yearly net asset value as of June 2013 stood at Tk25.86 per share with an earning of Tk0.92 per share.

In the � rst � rst nine months of FY14, the company made net pro� t of Tk11.2 crore, a drop of more than 4% a year earleir.

Its revenue income fell drastically in the calender year 2013, according to its annual reports.

The company, however, showed im-pressive performance in the third quar-ter ended on March 31 this year by mak-ing a pro� t of Tk4.7 crore, a sharp rise of over 261% in the same period last year.

The quarterly report showed that � uctuations in its sales have resulted in decreasing pro� tability.

The export sales in FY14 to date make up 5.7% of the total revenue of the company.

Presently, the company produces bed sheet, bed cover, napkin, table cloth, shirting fabrics, towels, bath lin-en, kitchen linen and all sorts of home textile products for marketing in Eu-rope and North America.

To some extent the company’s prod-ucts penetrate into the local marker as well.

The company is by far the largest supplier of linens to the major institu-tion of Bangladesh like Pan Paci� c So-nargaon Hotel, Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, Radisson Water Garden Hotel, Apollo Hospital, Square Hospital, United Hos-pital and ICDDRB etc. l

Rural economy expands faster in last decade B1 COLUMN 6inaugurated the workshop and said the report will help identify the nature of structural change and economic trend that has occurred in the economy over the last decade.

It will also provide comprehensive statistical information for economic and social development planning as well as policy making, he said.

“Poverty in the rural area, particu-larly north, has noticeably fell due to increased economic activities in the area,” he said.

FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed said the data will help make

future plan for taking investment de-cision. “It is also important to take the country further forward,” he said.

Secretary of the Statistics and Infor-matics Division Md Nojibur Rahman, BBS Director General Golam Mostafa Kamal and also others spoke.

In Bangladesh, the economic census is supposed to be conducted every 10 years on a local to national level to pro-vide data concerning products, sales, industries, economic activities, invest-ment, employers, and employees. The BBS conducted the � rst census in 1986 and the second one was done in two phases in 2001 and 2003. l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

DILBERT

Stay honestHonesty is hard. When business is challenging, it is tempting to sugarcoat the situation or be silent. Don’t. It’s the safest way to lose your best people

n Sigve Brekke

Building and running a company can be a rollercoaster ride regardless of what market or industry you’re in. Customer preferences, tastes and trends change, new technology disrupts established business models, new rules and regulations shake up your sector or your company. As a leader, it is your job to keep people motivated and excited about the journey you are on together – when you are doing well, but especially when you are struggling.

Telling people the hard truths during tough times to motivate them? Sounds counterintuitive and di� cult to follow, but it works.

When I took them helm at dtac together with Vichai, my co-CEO, we knew we had an uphill task. Not only did we have to build a new culture and change the strategy of the company, but our network was widely perceived as lagging behind competition. We had to do something both about with the perception of our network, and we had to do something with the network itself. So we invited 1,500 people – employees, part-ners and 200-300 journalists to an event where Vichai and I were the only ones on stage. We talked about our ambition to become the best quality service provider in the ten biggest cities in Thailand. Doing so would require not only our commitment, but some concrete action. Our network needed to become stronger. We promised to roll out four new base stations every single day for 76 months. That’s more than 6,500 base stations in six years.

Then, we did something that upset the marketing department. We followed up on our promise by going on TV. We did commercials that were running on nationwide TV 20 times a day. The ads were all the same: Vichai and I in front of a map of Thailand, indicating the new base stations dtac had rolled out. We reported on the commitment we had made. It was nothing fancy, just the two of us talking, but it worked – our ads had higher recall than most other TV ads, and within a few months, dtac was recognized as a leader in service quality. Our honesty and our will-ingness to put ourselves out there worked.

Fast forward to India, February 2012. I was at the helm of Telenor’s local opera-tion, in India known as Uninor. We had entered the market two and a half years earlier, and we were building momentum as the fastest-growing newcomer in the market, adding 1-2 million subscriptions every month. Then on February 2, the Su-preme Court of India cancelled all telecoms licenses issued in 2008, including all of Uninor’s, due to alleged irregularities in the allocation of those licenses. The verdict ad-dressed events prior to our entry into the company and the market, and it was clear all along that we were not at fault. Still, the consequences hit us hard. The Govern-ment was given four months to conduct a new spectrum auction. Two-thousand � ve hundred Uninor employees, a workforce of 15,000+ people as well as hundreds of thousands retailers were thrown into a situation of insecurity: nobody knew if we would be able to get our licenses back to be able to stay in business.

Facing our employees on February 3 of that year was perhaps the most grueling thing I did during my time in India. How do you “spin” a message to employees who know they might be out of work in four months? The simple answer – you don’t. People are not interested in hearing fairytales. They do not want to hear that everything is going to be OK when nobody knows if it is. Staying honest is hard, but it is the only decent, constructive, viable thing to do. So I told them, “We have lost our licenses. We will do everything we can to be able to win them back. But I cannot guarantee you that you will have a job in four months. If that means you have to look for opportunities elsewhere, you have my understanding.”

I told the employees I wanted them to focus 100% on winning in the market, and that I along with a small dedicated team would handle the license issue. Every week I updated them through townhall meetings, blog posts and conference calls on how we were doing – in the market and with government, regulators and courts.

Imagine being an employee at Uninor at this time: your foreign owners relatively

new to India and its draconian legal and ex-ecutive system. With licenses in question, you do not know if your job will be there in a few months. Your family read about your employer in the news every day – asking questions and second-guessing your pro-fessional choices. The pressure to move on to greener and safer pastures was mount-ing in the homes of many of our people.

In the end, we were without a license not just for four months, but for more than a year. We fought for a fair and transparent auction with reasonable spectrum pricing. Our people came together under the slogan “We Love Uninor” and worked harder in the market than ever before. We actually performed better after the licenses were cancelled. Most importantly: All of our key people – those who could have gotten plum positions in a safe company in a heartbeat – they stayed.

Why? Because they had signed up to be part of changing telecoms in India, and we were on the way to making it when the crisis hit us. We were accustomed to being underdogs, and the license issue became another hurdle to pass. We treated each other with the respect of staying open, honest and transparent. We didn’t spin feel-good stories. We took every opportunity to tell the truth, correct misconceptions and explain our positions, not just to our employees, but all our partners – vendors, distributors, retailers and their families.

People are stronger than we think. People can handle the truth. They want to know how they are doing in their job, and they want to see how their work contrib-utes to the company. Double messages and half-truths breed mistrust and insecurity. Transparency breeds performance, loyalty and engagement. So my clear advice is: show people the respect of always being honest. Your people can take it, and they will reward you.

Have you been in a situation where you had to guide and motivation people through testing times? Have you experi-enced the power of telling the truth? Share your experiences in the comments � eld below. l

Sigve Brekke is Head of Telenor Asia

G77 summit seeks new development pledges n AFP, Santa Cruz De La Sierra

Leaders of developing nations plus China meet here Saturday to draft a global anti-poverty agenda at a summit that also showcases Latin America’s burgeoning relationship with the Asian giant.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Bolivia’s President Evo Morales were scheduled to inaugurate the G77 summit, which marks the 50th anni-versary of the group’s founding.

It has grown from 77 developing countries in 1964 to 133 member states, encompassing two thirds of the world’s countries.

“This summit is not purely com-memorative, it will propose new social policies,” said Morales, a leader of Latin America’s radical left and the group’s current president.

The summit closes Sunday with a document that Bolivia’s Vice Presi-dent Alvaro Garcia Linera described as “the � rst draft of the post Millennium Development Goals,” a set of UN goals that are approaching their 2015 expira-tion date.

Hammered out in previous meet-ings, the G77 document sets forth am-bitious new commitments to reduce poverty and inequality, foster sustain-able development, protect sovereignty over natural resources and promote fair trade and technology transfers.

The world is still well short of ful� ll-ing the original eight Millennium goals, which include a call to halve the num-ber of people living in extreme poverty.

Other goals include guaranteed ac-cess to primary education, equality for women and girls, reduction of infant and maternal mortality and diseases like AIDS and malaria, and facilitating access to potable water.

Growing trade with China China, which is not a G77 member, is participating in the summit, partly in a nod to its expanding trade ties in Latin America, although President Xi Jinping will not attend.

Beijing will be represented by Chen Zhu, a vice chairman of China’s Nation-al People’s Congress.

Chen met with Morales ahead of the summit opening, and pledged an $80m loan to modernize Bolivian airline BOA

and purchase four new aircraft, Bolivia said.

With massive purchases of com-modities and exports of its manufac-tured goods to the region, China in recent years has emerged as a main

trade partner of many Latin American countries.

Beijing now seeks a new model of cooperation that would marshal large investments for infrastructure proj-ects needed to sustain growth in Latin America.

During a tour of the region in May, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing intends to invest more in Latin America and raise relations to a new level.

Iran’s Vice President Eshaq Jahan-giri pledged during a separate meeting with Morales a $200m line of credit for “health, the pharmaceutical industry and agriculture.”

Cuban President Raul Castro was among leaders who have already ar-rived.

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousse� , who has her hands full as host of a World Cup that has sparked street pro-

tests, is not attending. Neither are Chile’s President Mi-

chelle Bachelet, whose country is at odds with Bolivia over a maritime dis-pute, and Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, who faces tough elec-tions Sunday.

Before formally opening the sum-mit, Morales will attend a session here with leftist social activists.

Maduro, whose own leftist govern-ment faces mounting public discon-tent, was expected to attend along with his counterparts from Cuba and Ecua-dor.

Santa Cruz, the richest and second largest city in Bolivia, has pulled out all the stops for the summit, the G77’s � rst in Latin America.

It has repaved roads and upgraded infrastructure in record time, but the preparations have been dampened by torrential rains. l

US Fed in focus as investors seek reassurance n Reuters, Madrid

Investors will look to the Federal Re-serve for reassurance in the coming week, with little economic data to as-suage their concerns over the strength of the global recovery, amid signs Iraq may be sliding into civil war.

The Fed, which wraps up a policy meeting on Wednesday, is expected to keep steadily reducing its massive bond-buying stimulus by $10bn per month.

Financial markets will be listening out for any hints on when the US cen-tral bank might begin raising interest rates.

“The Federal Reserve is preparing to move to the second step of the mon-etary policy exit. With the tapering of asset purchases virtually on auto pilot – QE3 is projected to end in late summer or early autumn – the focus is gradually shifting towards actual rate hikes,” Uni-credit said in an investor note.

It said the notion that US monetary policy has reached a turning point could be strengthened if the Fed poli-cymakers’ median rate forecast for the end of 2016 stays at 2.25%, where it stood in March, up from 1.75% in De-cember.

The matrix of dots for when each rate-setter expects policy to begin tightening - and how quickly - will be keenly scrutinised, as will any com-ments about rate hikes or slack in the economy from Fed Chair Janet Yellen, who speaks after the results of the meeting are released.

While the world’s largest economy got o� to a weaker than expected start this year, many analysts believe the un-derlying trend for growth remains solid.

Global stocks are likely to stay on the back foot due to concerns over a grow-ing radical Islamist insurgency in Iraq. U.S. President Barrack Obama said he didn’t rule out air strikes to help Iraq counter the insurgency, but later said he needed several days to determine how the United States would react.

The escalating violence in Iraq drove oil prices to a nine-month high on Fri-day.

The monetary policy outlook will also be in focus in Britain after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney stunned the markets by saying rates could rise sooner than � nancial mar-kets expect.

His comments, which put the British central bank out ahead of the world’s other major policy guardians on the monetary tightening front, pushed sterling to near � ve-year highs against the dollar on Friday.

The Bank publishes the minutes of its June policy meeting on Wednesday, which will be closely watched for signs of any further division among its members on rates, and several of its policymakers will be speaking during the week.

The Bank’s new Financial Policy Committee, which has the power to rein in an overheating housing market, meets on Tuesday, although the meet-ing minutes will not be published for a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, the ECB’s � ght against de� ation via interest rate cuts and measures aimed at stimulating lending to crisis-hit companies, means few ex-pect further action from it for now.

“The ECB has bought itself some quiet time, maybe for the remainder of this year. It doesn’t want to be pushed in to any additional movements before then,” economist at Deutsche Bank Gilles Moec said.

There will be few key economic in-dicators from the euro zone, with the German Zew index for June in focus after better-than-expected industrial output data and rising con� dence in the bloc suggesting growth is accelerat-ing in the second quarter.

Bond markets will look to absorb debt supply from Spain, Germany and France after a heavy issuance last week including 9bn euros of a new 10-year bond from Spain and paper from France, Italy, Germany and Portugal.

Yield-hungry investors will be watching for news of a possible debt sale by Cyprus just a year after it bailed in bank depositors and imposed capital controls. That would make it the last euro zone member that took � nancial aid to make a market comeback.

The Bank of Japan publishes the minutes of its monthly policy meeting on Friday but is not expected to have moved from an optimistic viewpoint that the country is in the midst of a vir-tuous cycle of employment and output growth, analysts say.

“There is some support to this the-ory. The unemployment rate remains very low and job o� ers to applicants ratios are moving steadily higher. Add to this the slight improvement in cash wages, and the � rmer backdrop to the Japanese economy than that prevailing back in 1997,” said ING in an investors note.

China will issue foreign direct in-vestment data on Tuesday and house price � gures on Wednesday. A slow-down in property in� ation is likely to stoke fears about a deepening down-turn in the sector. l

Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor engineer Kenji Tsuji displays the concept model of a three-seater electric vehicle with a roadster body 'Camatte 57S Sport' at the annual Tokyo Toy Show in Tokyo on June 12. Some 160,000 poeple are expecting to visit Asia's largest four-day toy trade show AFP

The President of Bolivia and President pro tempore of the G77 + China, Evo Morales (left) and Iran's Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri during the G77+China Summit in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on June 14 AFP

The world is still well short of ful� lling the original eight Millennium goals, which include a call to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty

The ECB has bought itself some quiet time, maybe for the remainder of this year. It doesn’t want to be pushed in to any additional movements before then

US producer prices falln Reuters

US producer prices fell in May after two month of solid gains, but the decline was not enough to change perceptions that in� ation pressures are steadily creeping up.

The Labour Department said on Fri-day its producer price index for � nal demand slipped 0.2% after advancing in April by 0.6%, which was the largest gain in 1-1/2 years.

Economists, who had expected pro-ducer prices to edge up, saw the decline as a correction after gains in March and April, and said it did not change their view that prices were � rming.

“The net result is a pick-up. The net strengthening makes the modest accel-eration in the more important consum-er in� ation measures more credible,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics in Val-halla, New York.

The government revamped the PPI series at the start of the year to include services and construction. l