General good fortunen Ahmed Zayeef

Chhatra League General Secretary Sid-dique Nazmul Alam is known by the name Debu to neighbours. He comes from a lower middle-class family in Pathalia in Jamalpur.

Our correspondent has earlier re-ported that Nazmul had been con-structing a three-storey building at his village home, which used to be a brick-walled tin-shed one-storey house.

A neighbour said Nazmul’s father was now the operation-in-charge of the Dewanganj Food Depot in Jamalpur.

He used to be a fourth class employee of the government but things changed dramatically after his son became the general secretary of the ruling party’s student front.

When asked, Nazmul told the Dhaka Tribune over phone that his father had begun constructing the house in 1992 and � nished it in 2010. The house was given a coat of paint only very recently, which was why it looked new, he ex-plained.

However, a central leader of Chha-tra League claimed that he had been to Nazmul’s house and saw a new two-storey building.

Luxury flats in DhakaNazmul himself now lives in a � at in the capital’s posh Paribagh area, for which he pays Tk50,000 rent. Caretak-er Kamal Pasha said it was a duplex � at

and he had been living there for the last two months.

Nazmul, however, claims that an Awami League leader rented it out to him at half the regular rent.

Sources said Nazmul also rents a lux-ury � at in the capital’s Old DOHS. Md Joynal Abedin, caretaker of that building, said Nazmul had been living in a 1,400 square-foot � at for the last one year.

“The rent of the � at should be around Tk35,000-40,000 exclusive of the service charges and other expens-es,” he said.

According to Nazmul: “The � at is owned by Dewanganj upazila Chair-man Ishtiak Didar, who is a cousin of mine. I do not have to pay to live there.”

Bbarta.comNazmul is also the publisher of an on-line news portal named bbarta24.com.

Wishing not to be named, a sen-ior reporter of the portal said it was launched in August 2012. Nazmul be-came a partner in the beginning of 2013 and later the publisher.

Nazmul said the editor of bbarta.com had once requested him to be the publisher as they thought they could get more advertisements by using his connections. “Then I decided to get in-volved as I had a plan to be in the media industry.”

He also said: “I helped them get some advertisements but I did not make any investment.”

However, a number of Chhatra League central leaders said Nazmul in-vested around Tk30-40 lakh to become the publisher.

Wheeler dealershipsNazmul also obtained a dealership of Symphony mobile phone after he had

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

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Party posts were like magic lamps for many Chhatra League leaders. Here is the second of a series of three reports

Fake money circulated by dishonestbank o� cialsn Mohammad Jamil Khan

A group of unscrupulous o� cials from both private and state-owned banks are allegedly working in cahoots with money counterfeiters to help circulate fake notes inside the banking system.

Counterfeiters reportedly pay large sums of money to management-level banking sta� s to insert the counterfeit currencies inside ATM machines and bank lockers, which ensures that the fake notes are put to circulation with-out arousing suspicion.

The new technique that has been adopted by money counterfeiting gangs came to light after the arrest of Shambhunath Sarker, a former Sonali Bank cashier, in the capital last month.

In 2011, Shambhunath lost his job at the Sonali Bank when he was caught inserting counterfeit notes inside a bank locker. Since then, he had been working with counterfeiters until de-tectives arrested him with Tk30 lakh from Kamrangirchar on August 4.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Four of a family murdered in Keraniganjn Ashif Islam Shaon

A couple and their two children were found dead in a rented � at in Kolakandi area of south Keraniganj, on the out-skirts of the capital, yesterday morning.

Police suspected that the victims were strangled a day or two ago as the bodies had already begun to decom-pose.

As the victims were new in the area and neighbours did not know them, police could not ascertain their iden-tities as of yesterday evening. But the law enforcers and neighbours think the victims belong to the same family.

Police also suspected that the � at might have been used as a hideout of criminals.

The man who headed the family

was around 35 years old and the wife around 28; the son was around eight years old and the daughter was not over two, police said.

On information from the caretaker of the house and the neighbours, a team of south Keraniganj police station recov-ered the bodies from the � rst � oor of the six-storey building around 11:15am.

Owner of the building Mohammad Samsuddin Mia lives in Saudi Arabia.

South Keraniganj police station’s OC Jalal Uddin Mir told the Dhaka Tribune that the killers had tied the victims’ legs and hands with bedsheets and mouth with scarf before killing.

“The man’s body was under a bed and others on the � oor near the bed. The bodies on the � oor were under a mattress,” he said.

Quoting Sohel, the caretaker of the house, the OC said a local CNG au-to-rickshaw driver named Akkas had brought a youth to Sohel two months back. The youth introduced himself as Ra� que Hossain and rented the � at for Tk4,500 and an advance security de-posit of Tk10,000, saying his maternal uncle – a vegetables vendor – and his family would live there. Ra� que is a CNG auto-rickshaw driver.

“After a few days the family and three others – Ra� que, a man and a woman – started living in the � at. But later the three were rarely seen dur-ing daytime. They would go out in the morning and come back late at night,” the caretaker told police. The children would never come outside to play.

Sohel said he went to the � at to col-

lect the rent on Tuesday but he found the main door closed from the outside. Neighbours in the opposite � at also did not see them or hear any sound from the � at.

“As stink came out, we along with other tenants broke into the � at this morning and found the bodies,” he claimed.

Police picked up Sohel and the CNG driver Akkas for interrogation.

Echoing Sohel, the victims’ next door neighbour Hasina Begum said they knew that the new family had an eight-year-old child but they did not admit him to any local school.

“Perhaps they wanted to keep a low pro� le,” she said.

After the incident high o� cials of PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Nazmul got licence for two � rearms last year as a ‘special personof the state’

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

Fake money circulated by dishonest bank o� cials PAGE 1 COLUMN 6With the help of the corrupt bank o� -cials, fake currency is also reportedly being included inside bundles of notes that are handed out by banks.

Last week, a college teacher in Ra-jshahi found two fake notes in a bundle of Tk2 lakh that was provided by the district’s Sonali Bank corporate branch.

Asked about the issue, Monirul Is-lam, joint commissioner of Detective Branch of police, said they had recently found about some incidents and were now investigating the cases as well as arresting Shambhunath.

Police sources said investigators were now focusing on the areas from where the fake notes were being cir-culated. Intelligence o� cials are also reportedly keeping an eye on the banks and ATM booths where fake notes are frequently found.

When contacted, Md Habibur Rah-man, deputy general manager of Bang-ladesh Bank’s currency department, told the Dhaka Tribune that the news of Shambhunath had not yet reached the head o� ce of the bank, but added that he would now notify the authori-ties concerned.

He added that the central bank has also taken some special steps to pre-

vent note counterfeiting ahead of the festivals of Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja.

Sources from di� erent law enforce-ment agencies said 35 small and large-scale counterfeiting gangs were cur-rently busy spreading fake notes across the country ahead of the festivals. All of these gangs reportedly operated out of Dhaka and gradually spread the fake money to other districts, DB sources said, adding that the gangs have been working hard for the last one month to ensure maximum pro� t during the fes-tival season.

The Dhaka Tribune managed to con-tact a member of one of these gangs, who – on condition of anonymity – said at least Tk1 crore in fake money had al-ready been spread across the country ahead of the festivals.

Apart from seeking the service of un-scrupulous bank o� cials, the gangs also recruited young and attractive women to circulate the fake money, sources said, adding that these women were hired as they were likely to raise less suspicion among law enforcers and were more likely to be let go on the grounds of mercy even if they were caught.

DB sources said at least 50 mem-bers of counterfeiting gangs had been arrested over the last one and a half

years, but all of them were now back to their profession after securing bail.

Sources said the leaders of the coun-terfeiting gangs included Duruzzaman alais Nuruzzaman Biswash, his associate Jalal Uddin, Shanta, Mohammad Maksu-da, Lima Akther, Abdul Rahman, Khali-duzzaman, Babu Mia, Destiny Sujon and Manjurul Kamal. Several other alleged counterfeiters Humayun Kabir, Polash, Saiful Islam, Sumon, Alauddin and Shahin Akther recently secured bail from court.

A senior o� cial from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, preferring to stay unnamed, told the Dhaka Tribune that unlike other years, no special raid was carried out in the capital this year to arrest counterfeiters. The counter-feiters used the opportunity of slack vigilance to produce and circulate a large amount of fake money in recent months, he added.

However, DB Joint Commissioner Monirul denied the allegation and said raids to arrest counterfeiting gangs were under way and it was a continu-ous process.

“Like every year, we have taken top-notch security measures in shopping malls, cattle markets and also set up note detection machines to trace fake notes,” he added. l

General good fortune PAGE 1 COLUMN 2become Chhatra League general secre-tary. The outlet is located on the � rst � oor of Beauty Plaza on the Medical Road in Jamalpur town.

Nazmul’s brother Adnan Siddiqui claimed that he owned the business, not his brother. “I started it two months before my brother got the post. Nazmul Bhai does not have any stake in it and he did not help me to launch the busi-ness either.”

“State Minister for Textile and Jute Mirja Azam and I acted as references when my brother applied for the deal-ership. He got the dealership but I did not in� uence anyone,” Nazmul said.

“People in my position do not need to pursue anyone to get a dealership. An owner of a grocery shop can also get it if he ful� ls the requirements,” he added.

A top o� cial of Symphony, howev-er, con� rmed that they had given the dealership because of Nazmul in mid-2012 when he got the BCL post.

In similar fashion, Nazmul also man-aged a motorbike dealership for his un-cle by exerting his political in� uence in Jamalpur, said many local people. His uncle Ashraful Alam Siddiquee howev-er denied it: “I got the dealership three months ago without any help from my nephew.”

Generous allotmentsReportedly, both the Chhatra League president HM Bodiuzzaman Shohag

and Siddiqui Nazmul Alam each got allotments of � ve kathas of land in the government’s Purbachal New Town project.

Nazmul Alam said: “We applied long before and we got the land by ful� lling all criteria.”

Md Anwar Hossain, project director of the Purbachal project, told Dhaka Tribune: “They got the allotment in the government’s reserved quota.”

Arms licenseMoreover, Nazmul got license for two � rearms last year as a “special person of the state.” One of those arms was a shotgun and the other was a pistol. Nazmul Alam said: “I got the licenses by ful� lling all the criteria.”

Town houseLocal people said Nazmul had also bought a house on the Madrasa Road in Jamalpur town last year. The house is located just behind the Tikkapotti Central Post O� ce and registered in his uncle’s name.

Nazmul said: “I am not the owner of the house. When my uncle purchased it, I gave him a small amount of money as loan.”

He defended himself saying: “I am not an MP or a minister; I do not earn money illegally. As a general secretary of the Chhatra League, I get some mon-ey from the Awami League to bear my expenses. Sometimes former leaders of the organisation, some of whom are

now abroad, help me. But I get the main � nancial support from my family.”

New carSeveral Chhatra League leaders said General Secretary Nazmul started rid-ing a Toyota Allion the day after he got his post.

The car is registered under the name of a business organisation named Lec-ture Publication.

Sources said Nazmul had taken a car from the Lecture Publication for making sure that Chhatra League men would never come in the way of its business.

Shahidul Islam, chairman of Lec-ture Publication, said: “I know nothing about the cars.” He asked this corre-spondent to talk to Shariful Alam, chief operating o� cer of the company.

He, however, added: “As far as I know, the car was sold to Nazmul.”

Phone callThis reporter got a phone call from the Chhatra League general secretary. “I have heard that you made a phone call to the owner of my car. You could have called me if you wanted to know any-thing about my property. There was no need to call other people,” Nazmul said.

About the car, Nazmul said Mehedi Hasan, son of the chairman of Lecture Publication, was his friend.

He also said: “We live in a society. Please do not write anything that will undermine our position.” l

Four of a family murdered in Keraniganj PAGE 1 COLUMN 6police, Rapid Action Battalion, Detec-tive Branch and Criminal Investigation Department visited the scene.

Dhaka district Police Superintendent Mohammad Habibur Rahman said: “It is a planned killing. The � at might have been rented to use as a hideout for criminals which suggests that the couple might have been members of a criminal gang or they had witnessed something for which they were killed.”

Police recovered a broken mobile

phone set, a belt, a passport, a driver’s licence and a moneybag from the spot. They also found three pipes usually used by yaba addicts. The � at has two bedrooms, a drawing-dining room and a kitchen. “Six or seven people might have taken part in the murder and the murderers were known to the victims,” he said.

The crime scene unit of the CID col-lected evidence for forensic tests and prepared inquest reports on the bodies. The bodies were sent to Dhaka Medical

College morgue.No furniture or electronic applianc-

es or even a television was found on the moderate � at except a wooden cot and a clothes stand.

A tenant of the house seeking ano-nymity said the caretaker had asked the victims to shift elsewhere. So, they had been preparing to shift and had al-ready shifted some furniture.

“And surprisingly in the last couple of days we did not see three people of the � at,” she said. l

Haor-wetland board to be autonomousn Mohosinul Karim

The secretary committee on adminis-trative reform has recommended that the government should give approval to the Bangladesh Haor and Wetland Development Board as a statutory au-tonomous body under the Ministry of Water Resources.

The committee on Tuesday also suggested that the government enact Bangladesh Haor and Wetland Devel-opment Board Act to legitimate the board established on September 11, 2000 by a presidential order.

The board will devise a master plan for integrated development, consider-ing land character and ecological im-

pact of the haor area and better man-agement of its resources.

The body was � rst formed on Feb-ruary 22,1977 by an ordinance as Haor Development Board for integrated development of the haor areas. It was abolished on September 21, 1982 by the then government.

Water Resources Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that the draft of the act would be sent to the cabinet division for plac-ing in the cabinet meeting as the com-mittee approved the draft � nally.

It might be placed in the cabinet meeting after Eid-ul-Azha. The draft was placed in the committee for the third time as it was sent back for fur-

ther update earlier, he added.According to the act, the govern-

ment would form a board led by the prime minister comprising ministers and secretaries of ministries concerned and o� cials and experts.

The board would be formed led by the prime minister while the executive committee would be formed led by the water resources minister.

The director general of the board would be the chief executive of the body. It will also have necessary man-power to run its activities properly.

The committee would meet mini-mum once in every year to consult with the experts and take decision about in-tegrated development plan. l

NDP factions playing blame game n Manik Miazee

Khandaker Gulam Mortaza, the chair-man of a faction of the National Dem-ocratic Party (NDP), yesterday claimed that Awami League leaders were hatch-ing a “conspiracy” to split the BNP-led 20-party alliance.

“Alamgir Majumdar, former sec-retary general of the NDP, took mon-ey from AL leader Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya to divide the party and form a new alliance,” he said at a press conference.

But Alamgir Majumdar who claimed himself as president of the party al-leged that Gulam Mortaza took money from Research and Analysis Wing, an Indian intelligence agency, to run the party activities.

Both the leaders made the claims

without showing any evidences. Mortaza said: “The ruling Awami

League is trying to split our coalition. As part of the conspiracy, top Awami league leaders have hired Alamgir Ma-jumdar.”

When asked whether he had any ev-idence in support of his claim, Mortuza said Maya and AL Publicity and Pub-lication Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud told a programme on Tuesday that the BNP-led 20-party alliance would be split within a short time.

“Based on the statement and infor-mation from the BNP o� ce, I specu-late that Alamgir Majumdar is hatching conspiracy to split the alliance,” he said.

He further said Alamgir do not have any business or job. “He [Alamgir] or-ganised a press conference at Hotel

Razmoni Ishakha, spending over Tk2 lakh. What was the source of money?” he questioned.

“Based on these, I said Alamgir gets bene� t from the Awami League to break the BNP alliance,” Mortaza said.

When contacted, Alamgir brushed aside the allegations and claimed that Mortaza was running the party activi-ties with money from RAW.

“I have also evidence that Mortaza had adopted a resolution which was against the BNP. If he does not stop is-suing non-political statements against me, I will make the resolution public,” he said.

Mortaza said why RAW would fund his organisation. “If RAW wants to invest, they will � nance big political parties,” he said, adding that the allega-tions were baseless.

When contacted, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said he did not know Mortaza or Alamgir. “I do not believe in conspiracy-based politics.”

Press conference Mortaza at the press conference yester-day said he had expelled Alamgir from the party. “He is no more with the party.”

Earlier on September 20, the NDP, a component of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, issued a 72-hour ultimatum to BNP chief Khaleda Zia on a � ve- point demand, including practice of democ-racy within the alliance.

The ultimatum came at a time when there were allegations from the BNP that the ruling Awami League had been trying to create a rift in the alliance by luring some of the partners to break away. l

WORLD BANK REPORT

Education sector doing well despite poor governancen Mushfi que Wadud

A World Bank report released yester-day claimed that the education sector of Bangladesh is progressing day by day despite the country’s bad record in terms of governance.

“Despite its overall poor governance record, Bangladesh has made signi� -cant advancement in increasing access to education and achieving gender par-ity,” the report said.

Titled “Bangladesh Governance in the Primary Education Sector,” the report was released at a programme organised by Brac Institute of Governance and De-velopment (BIGD) of Brac University at Brac Centre Inn in the capital.

However, the report also said the challenging issues in this regard at the moment are the quality of education, the high rate of drop-out and the av-erage time it takes to complete school, adding that an improved governance could be central to addressing these issues.

According to the report, Bangladesh exhibits a poor performance at the na-tional level in each of the worldwide governance indicators, particularly in government e� ectiveness and control of corruption.

However, despite this, there was a

gross enrolment rate of 101% in 2011, according to government data, with more than 17 million students enrolled in the primary-level schools and insti-tutions across the country, without no disparity between boys and girls.

According to World Bank data, the enrolment rate was 77% in 2010.

“There are several indicators of good performance; access to schooling by the poor and by girls has improved over time,” it reads.

Speaking at the programme, Jon-athan Rose, co-author of the report, said despite the considerable � nancial resources invested in the primary ed-ucation sector by the government and development partners, there are rela-tively few systematic studies on gov-ernance challenges.

“Improved knowledge manage-ment is necessary so that governance research may have an impact,” he said.

BIGD lead researcher Mirza Has-san said there was a political will to improve primary education, but the problems lay in the implementation process.

“The members of parliament often have bad in� uence on schools, and this is impeding progress,” he said, adding that quality education is now the main challenge and concentration should be on this issue.

Manzoor Hasan, executive director of Brac University’s South Asian In-stitute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies, said research activities are often ignored in public and private universities.

He said there should be adequate funding on research activities so that universities can do researches. l

Chhatra League General Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam’s two-storey house at his village home in Jamalpur DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Improved knowledge management is necessary so that governance research may have an impact’

Third class government employees stage a sit-in at the capital’s Shahbagh intersection yesterday demanding elimination of discrimination in their pay scale SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

ACC initiates probe against former army o� cialn Adil Sakhawat

The Anti-Corruption Commission has launched an inquiry into the allegation of embezzling Tk82 crore against a fu-gitive former army personnel, Maj Gen (retd) Jalal Uddin Ahmed, which he had collected from small investors in the name of a so-called multi-purpose cooperative society.

A three-member probe body was formed yesterday by the commission at its regular meeting. Led by Deputy Director Jahangir Alam, the team in-cludes Assistant Director Debobroto Mondol and Deputy Assistant Director Saiduzzaman.

Jalal went into retirement on De-cember 31, 2003. Later, he and his wife got permission from the Cooperatives Department to run the cooperatives � rm on July 17, 2005. Its o� ce is situat-ed in the capital’s Banani area.

According to the ACC, company Chairman Jalal and Managing Director Aleya Fatema, also Jalal’s wife, col-lected Tk82 crore from 1,451 di� erent types of investors by alluring them of high interest and embezzled it. He lat-er siphoned o� the money to the bank accounts of their son and daughter in the USA.

The matter of cheating came to lime-light in June 2012 when some investors had demanded their investment back with interest, but Jalal tried to avoid them.

Even in April last year, he signed a bond in presence of senior army o� -cials that he would return all the money by the mid of July. But he did not do so. The Dhaka Cantonment Board took sev-eral measures to pay back the investors’ money but failed, an ACC o� cial said.

Jalal has been absconding since Sep-tember 17 last year. l

‘BNP hatching fresh conspiracy’n Tribune Report

Awami League Joint Secretary Mah-bub-Ul Alam Hanif yesterday said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was hatching a fresh conspiracy to unseat the gov-ernment.

“Now Khaleda Zia is plotting with the assistance of her foreign masters,” Hanif said yesterday while addressing a rally in the capital.

Bangabandu Sangskritik Jote, an AL like-minded organisation organised the

programme on the occasion of its 34th birth anniversary at Silpokola Academy in the capital. Ruling party lawmaker Hanif said that the government was more alert about the conspiracy.

“We are informed that various con-spiracy are being hatched to topple the government and attempt to murder Sheikh Hasina. Now Sheikh Hasina is very much alert about the traitors and hypocrites,” the leader said adding that Bangabandhu and Sheikh Hasina were not the same. l

Top BNP leaders’ cases deferredn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka Court yesterday deferred the charge framing hearing against 41 BNP leaders including its acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a case � led for assaulting police and torching vehicles on March 2 last year.

Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Ali Masud Sheikh � xed December 4 for next hearing following a time petition � led by defence lawyer Md Sanaullah Miah.

On August 7, another Dhaka court took into cognisance the charges against Fakhrul, Moudud Ahmed, Mir-za Abbas and 38 others in the case.

The charge sheet accuses the BNP leaders of assaulting police, torching vehicles and preventing law enforcers from discharging their duties on that day in Bailey Road area during an agi-tation programme.

Meanwhile, another Dhaka court yesterday deferred the hearing to Oc-tober 27 on charge framing against 46 leaders of the BNP-led 20-party alli-ance in a bomb explosion case.

Mirza Fakhrul and other BNP lead-ers and activists have been accused in the case for torching vehicles in front of the Prime Minister’s O� ce on April 29, 2012 during a shutdown.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ataul Haque passed the order in re-sponse to a defence petition. Defence counsel Md Sanaullah Miah � led the petition as former Dhaka mayor Sad-eque Hossain Khoka, Standing Com-mittee member Brig Gen (retd) Hannan Shah and � ve other accused could not appear before the court. l

HC rejects petitions on Altaf’s regularisation n Ahmed Zayeef

The High Court has rejected two sepa-rate writ petitions seeking its directive for regularising former additional jus-tice ABM Altaf Hossain as a judge.

The vacation bench of Justice Hasan Arif and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order yesterday.

Earlier, ABM Altaf Hossain and Su-preme Court lawyer Idrisur Rahman � led two separate petitions in connection.

The government in June regularised services of � ve additional High Court judges leaving the name of Altaf, who

was appointed as an additional judge in June 2012 along with the others. The government did not mention any rea-son for the decision.

Altaf’s lawyer Salauddin Dolon told the Dhaka Tribune: “In the case involv-ing 10 judges, the court did not give any directives about what will happen if any contradiction occurs between the chief justice’s recommendation and the executive decision. On that basis, the court has rejected the petitions today [yesterday]. We will decide on whether to appeal against the order after dis-cussing the matter with my client.”

On June 13, 2012, Altaf and � ve oth-ers were appointed for two years as ad-ditional justice at the High Court. The � ve others got permanent appointment on June 9 this year.

On July 7, a legal notice was served for regularising Altaf as a High Court judge since Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain had recommended his name.

Altaf � led the petition with the High Court on August 12. One of the judges of a two-member HC bench on August 14 felt embarrassed to hear the petition. Later the petitions were sent to the vacation bench that rejected those yesterday. l

‘Jabbar converted 200 Hindus, arranged forced marriage’n Udisa Islam

A new prosecution witness yesterday blamed war crimes accused Abdul Jabbar for ordering to convert around 200 Hindus of a Pirojpur village to Is-lam and forcing Hindu women to mar-ry Muslims during the 1971 Liberation War.

Ninth witness Ahmed Mia, a free-dom � ghter, also accused Jabbar for killing two freedom � ghters.

He told the International Crimes Tribunal 1 that former army members Motaleb Sharif and Abdur Razzak Bish-was used to run a training centre at Phuljhuri village of Mothbaria in Piro-jpur to prepare youths for the war.

Hearing this, Jabbar from a meet-ing at Tushkhali High School ground on May 16, 1971 ordered the collabora-tors to bring to him Motaleb and Raz-zak dead or alive. They were killed the same day.

The previous witnesses also gave statements on the same incident.

Ahmed, 60, a businessman by pro-fession, said the collaborators the fol-

lowing day looted and torched around 360 houses in the same village.

“After 10-12 days, Jabbar ordered razakars to convert around 200 Hin-dus of Paik Bari in Phuljhuri. Later they established a mosque in the area and forced the women to marry Muslims,” he added.

After his deposition, state-appoint-ed defence counsel MA Hasan asked him a question and the tribunal then adjourned the hearing till today.

Jabbar, the alleged chairman of Mathbaria unit Peace Committee, was indicted on August 14 on � ve charges of crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, the second investiga-tion o� cer in the trial against Maulana Abdus Subhan, Noor Hossain, ended placing deposition at the tribunal 2.

Later defence counsel Mizanul Is-lam started cross examining him and the tribunal adjourned the trial until today.

Pabna Peace Committee chairman Subhan is facing nine charges of crimes against humanity that he had commit-ted during the Liberation War. l

SC judges’ appointment law in the o� ngn Mohosinul Karim

Despite having a constitutional ob-ligation to enact a law regarding the recruitment of Supreme Court judges, the governments that ruled Bangla-desh in the last 43 years until date have failed to formulate the law.

The Law Ministry took an initia-tive in 2012, during the ruling Awami League’s previous term, but it did not materialised because of the negligence of the ministry o� cials. The ministry took the move after a draft proposal of the law, placed by an opposition mem-ber in parliament on the private mem-bers’ day, had been rejected.

As a result, the initiative of enact-ing the “Superior Judicial Commission Act” to recommend the government on recruitment of Supreme Court judges has remained unresolved.

The recommendation of the Parlia-mentary Standing Committee on Law Ministry, which cleared the bill after scrutiny, also went in vain because of the rejection.

However, the present government is set to enact the law � nally follow-ing the decision and instruction came during the government’s previous ten-ure.

Law Minister Anisul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune last week that the gov-ernment was planning to enact the judges’ recruitment law. “But it may take some time as the ministry has al-ready initiated preparing the draft law on removing the Supreme Court judges after amending the constitution.

“It is too hard to prepare two draft laws at the same time. It will never be logical too. So, we will prepare the re-cruitment draft after completing the other.”

Citing the necessity of enacting the recruitment law, former law minister Sha� que Ahmed told the Dhaka Tri-bune yesterday that the government should initiate preparing it immediate-ly in line with the constitution which was ignored earlier.

“If enacted, the new law will help the government coming out of debate and controversy regarding the recruit-ment of Supreme Court judges,” he added.

Jatiya Party leader Mojibul Haque Chunnu, now state minister for labour and employment, had tabled a draft bill on the judges’ recruitment in the House in ninth parliament. But the bill was rejected as it was a private mem-bers’ bill.

“Later, the Law Ministry instructed the ministry o� cials to prepare a draft law following the one put forward by Chunnu. Though the ministry start-ed working to prepare the draft, they failed to complete it,” Sha� que said.

He hoped that the ministry would consider Chunnu’s bill.

According to article 95(2)(C) of the constitution, a person shall not be quali� ed for appointment as a judge unless he/she is a citizen of Bangladesh and has such quali� cations as may be prescribed by “law” for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court.

Jatiya Party leader Chunnu told the

Dhaka Tribune last week that he had ta-bled the draft bill to � nd quali� ed and e� cient judges for the apex court.

After examining the bill, the Parlia-mentary Standing Committee submit-ted a report to the House with some observations. The committee members and legal experts including then law minister Sha� que praised it. “But, � -nally it was rejected in parliament since it was a private members’ bill,” Chunnu said.

Sha� que then suggested him to change the provision of judges’ entry-level age from 50 to 45 years and academic results to be all through second division or class or same level of grade point.

Chunnu said: “There was no reason to ignore the bill after getting experts’ opinion and support of the parliamen-tary watchdog. The present govern-ment may re-initiate the procedure fol-lowing the draft bill.”

According to the draft, applicants interested to become Supreme Court judges must be a Bangladesh national with minimum masters degree in law from accredited universities.

A Superior Judicial Commission

will scrutinise the applications and recommend the government to recruit quali� ed persons for the o� ce. The Law Ministry will forward the commission’s proposal, with the consent of the chief justice, to the president for approval.

The candidates must not have any relation or involvement with any political party as a member. The persons who were convicted on criminal cases or punished for moral outrage, serving in any pro� table posts of the state, declared fuddled by any court and who took citizenship of any other country would not be quali� ed for the position.

Moreover, the senior, e� cient and neutral judges of the High Court will be considered for the Appellate Division as appellate judges.

The draft proposes that the chief justice will be the chairman of the sev-en-member Superior Judicial Commis-sion. The senior-most judges from the Appellate Division and the High Court will be its members.

The speaker will nominate a parlia-ment member as its member. The other members are the chairman of Bangla-desh Public Service Commission, the attorney general and the president of Supreme Court Bar Association.

The commission will recommend two names against a post of the Su-preme Court judge to the president for recruitment. To � nalise the recommen-dations or any other reasons, the com-mission will sit every six months, says the draft bill. l

The government is set to enact the law � nally following the decision and instruction came during its previous tenure

Sramik Dal creates new nuisance for the BNP n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

At a time when the BNP is gasping for air in the face of an imminent split in its alliance, its labour front has caused a new nuisance for the party.

Only four months after a fresh com-mittee was announced, a group of ag-grieved Sramik Dal leaders, who had been left out, yesterday announced a parallel committee.

Abul Khayer Khaza, the self-pro-claimed general secretary of Sramik Dal, said in a press conference yester-day that the “illegal” incumbent com-mittee was formed to serve the agenda of the immediate past president and general secretary of the organisation.

Nazimuddin, the self-proclaimed president, however was not present at yesterday’s press conference at the Na-tional Press Club in the capital.

On April 19-20, the Sramik Dal held its national council at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital and the incumbent committee was an-nounced on May 5.

There are allegations that during the formation of that committee, many senior BNP leaders nominated their favourite candidates, ignoring the de-serving ones.

During yesterday’s press brie� ng, Khaza alleged that former Sramik Dal president Nazrul Islam Khan, gen-eral secretary Jafrul Hasan and BNP Vice-Chairman Abdullah Al Noman

installed their own people in the in-cumbent committee so that they could continue to keep their control over the organisation.

Khaza claimed their committee was � nalised at a special council of the or-ganisation on June 6.

He also claimed that they had in-formed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the standing committee members and the central leaders about the new committee.

“We have also informed the govern-ment’s labour department about the matter,” Khaza said.

In his immediate reaction, Anwar Hossain, president of the incumbent committee, said: “This committee is completely illegal and nobody has the authority to form committees in such a way. It is against the party charter.”

Claiming to have seen a list of mem-bers of the new committee, Anwar said it comprised all those leaders who had been dropped from the � rst committee.

“Sramik Dal is run as per the labour law and other relevant rules and reg-ulations. Since the law stipulates that a committee should be 35-strong, we could not accommodate all deserving candidates,” he explained.

Generally, the outgoing committee of an associate wing of a political par-ty in Bangladesh generally recruits its successors before stepping down at the end of its tenure. l

The road leading to the Gabtoli Cattle Market went under water due to heavy rainfall with the would-be market only a few days away MEHEDI HASAN

Police take away bodies of four members of a family killed in their own house in Keraniganj MEHEDI HASAN

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

Five Allah’r Dal activists remanded n Our Correspondent, Khulna

A Khulna court yesterday granted po-lice three days to grill � ve suspected members of militant group Allah’r Dal in an explosives case.

Police claim that at the time of arrest on Tuesday night, the detainees were holding a secret meeting at the house of one Ahmed Ali in Kazpur area of Phultola upazila in the district.

They were trying to organise the group in Khulna under the leadership of Matin Mehedi, the alleged chief of the little known organisation.

On information, Sub-Inspector Ya-sin Ali conducted the raid and arrested the activists.

Four hand bombs and booklets of the organisation were recovered from them. Police later � led a case against them un-der the Explosives Substances Act 1908 and the Special Powers Act 1974.

The detainees are Parvez Hossain, 28, Rahim, 28, Selim, 24, Ali Hossain, 25, and Mahin Ahmed alias Bishwajit Debnath, 25.

Police produced them before a Khul-na court seeking seven days’ remand. l

Fishermen demand end to sea robberyn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Fishermen in Barisal formed a human chain in front of the Barisal deputy com-missioner’s o� ce yesterday to press home their 6-point demand, including stern steps for preventing sea robbery.

They also called for steps to rescue the abducted � shermen and recov-ery of � shing boats, to ensure safety and security of the � shermen, and to arrange alternative means of earning livelihoods during the period when there is a ban on � shing.

They also submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner which was prepared addressing the premier.

The human chain was jointly organ-ised by two local � shermen associations.

Speakers at the programme said robbery in the bay and coastal areas marked a rise recently. In the last nine months, at least 2,000 � shing trawlers were looted, 496 � shermen and � shing boat crew abducted and more than 86 killed by the robbers.

The government distributed 40kg rice (for a single family) and cash among the � shermen as compensation for the no-� shing period but more than 60% of the � shermen did not receive that, the speakers claimed. l

Cheated migrant workers form human chain for compensation n Tribune Report

A group of cheated migrant workers formed a human chain in the capital yesterday demanding the compensa-tion that the government had assured them of, as well as urging the author-ities to take action against fraudulent recruiting agencies.

A total of 22 migrants formed the chain in front of Probashi Kalyan Bhaban from 11:30am to 2pm to press home their demands.

They urged the minister of expatri-ates’ welfare and overseas employment to take action against Al-Purbasha En-terprise and its associate Golam Rabbi International, the private recruitment agencies that had sent the migrants to Sudan promising lucrative jobs and a handsome salary.

Ershad, one of the protesters, said he along with other Bangladeshi workers was sent to Sudan in January this year with employment at a textile company in Khartoum, where they worked for eight months without proper wages.

He claimed that he had to pay Tk2,01,000 to Al Purbasha for the job, but after starting to work at the compa-ny, he realised the workers were being paid one-fourth of the wages the agen-cy had promised them.

“When we demanded our dues, the company men physically assaulted us, and even shot two of us,” he said while talking to journalists at the human chain.

Sohrab Hossain, another Sudan-returned migrant worker, said he had paid more than Tk2 lakh to Al-Purbasha and was promised a

wage of Tk32,000 a month. “But in reality, I was given Tk8,000

after one and half months of em-plyoment,” he said.

There was also no proper food and accommodation facilities for workers living there, he said.

Al-Amin Noyon, a project o� cer at Shishuk, an NGO working for the rights of migrant workers, told the Dhaka Tri-bune that Al-Purbasha Enterprise sent

some 57 migrants to Sudan, legally tak-ing manpower clearance from the Bu-reau of Manpower, Employment and Training.

Of them, some 22 migrant workers came back to Bangladesh on Septem-ber 6. Earlier, two groups of 15 migrants returned from Sudan.

Noyon alleged that the workers were promised handsome wages but were not paid so.

He also claimed that while 37 out of the 57 Bangladeshi workers had been repatriated, 20 workers were still in Su-dan or in other countries. l

Flood returns to Jamalpur and Fenin Tribune Report

Late monsoon rain raised the water level in the Muhuri river in Feni and the Brahmaputra river in Jamalpur which damaged the city protecting embankments there. The return of the � ood compounded people’s miseries in those areas by damaging their proper-ties and farmlands.

Our correspondent form Feni re-ports: Heavy rain and onrush of water from the upstream raised water level in the Muhury river which damaged the guard walls protecting Fulgazi Bazar and a 50 meter stretch of embankment in Bijoypur area of Feni. As a result, Fulgazi Bazar, Kismat Bijoypur in Sadar

union, Basura, Uttar Boroiya and Dau-latpur village areas were inundated.

Chairman of Fulgazi upazila Abdul Alim told the Dhaka Tribune that more than 500 shops were � ooded in Fulgazi Bazar and the shopowners su� ered heavy losses as stocked items in those shops were damaged by the � oodwa-ter. Many farmlands were inundated and � oodwater washed away � shes in the ponds, the chairman added.

Fulgazi UNO Mahidur Rahman said Water Development Board (WDB) was noti� ed about the required repair work on the damaged portion of the em-bankment.

Meanwhile our correspondent from Jamalpur reports that incessant raining

and onrush of water from the upstream raised water level in the Brahmaputra river and river erosion was threatening the establishments on its banks.

A 240 meter stretch of the embank-ment near the SDO Bungalow area caved in due to heavy current in the Brahmaputra river, and cracks were widening on many other portions of the embankment. District administra-tion was trying to stop river erosion by dumping sandbags.

District Commissioner Md Shahabuddin Khan visited the � ood a� ected area and told the Dhaka Tribune that the WDB was asked to take necessary measures to prevent the river erosion. l

GOPIBAGH SIX MURDERS

Four accused in 3 other cases shown arrested n Mohammad Jamil Khan and

Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Detective Branch (DB) of police showed four people arrested in the Go-pibagh six-murder case yesterday, who are already behind bars for the last one month.

The four - Sayed Ziaul Islam alias Zitu, 28, Al-Amin, 29, Azmir alias Amit, 27, and Golam Sarowar Rahan, 30 – were sent to jail in connection with three cases � led with Ramna police station. The cases were � led under the antiterrorism act, the arms act and the explosives act.

Investigating o� cer in the case Abu Al-Khayer Matubbor placed the four at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court seeking a 10-day remand for each. Metropolitan Magistrate Younus Khan placed them on four days’ remand.

Rakib Uddin, sub-inspector of court police, told the Dhaka Tribune that the investigating o� cer mentioned in the remand plea that eight people, after committing the murders, � ed and the banned militant out� t Jamaat’ul-Muja-hideen Bangladesh (JMB) were involve in the incident.

“An analysis of the incident suggests that the four people committed the mur-ders in collusion with their associates who escaped after the incident. This is why we need to quiz the four,” Rakib said, quoting the investigating o� cer.

On December 21, some assailants en-tered a house in the capital’s Gopibagh and slaughtered Lutfur Rahman Faruk, his son Sarowar Islam Faruk alias Monir, Faruk’s associate Manzur Alam Manzu, Faruk’s follower Md Shahin, Rasel and Muzibul.

Lutfur’s another son Abdullah Al-Faruk � led a case the following day with Wari police station accusing 10-12 unidenti� ed people.

The plainti� said his father was an Islamic scholar and had many followers who would often come to their house.

My father had con� icts with many because of religious issues and he sur-vived two more attempts on his life in the past, he added in the statement.

Investigators at the outset said around 10-12 people got into the house, killed the six and left the spot soon. As no goods were missing from the house, police ruled out robbery and claimed it was done by extremists.

Abu Al-Khayer earlier told the Dha-ka Tribune they interrogated nearly 50 people but obtained no clue from them. He said the involvement of some four people in the incident was sus-pected but it was hard for police to nab them as they changed their hideouts frequently.

Abu Al-Khayer yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune: “We got some clues about the four people’s involvement with the murders as well as JMB activ-ities. That is why we took them on re-mand for interrogation.” l

Proper e� ectuation of the safe food act demandedn Abu Bakar Siddique

Green activists have demanded the all out implementation of the Safe Food Act 2013 to keep in check human con-sumption of harmful chemicals, in-cluding formalin, in the food items.

The call came from a press brie� ng organised by Poribesh Banchao Ando-lon (Poba) at its o� ce, where the activ-ists said the government should bring the culprits, who mix harmful chemi-cals in foods, to book to make an exam-ple to others.

“The government has to implement the Safe Food Act 2013, which prohibits any kind of adulteration in food items, to stop the ongoing food contamina-tion,” said Md Abdus Sobhan, execu-tive general secretary of Poba.

The general secretary opined that stricter punishment should be added to the present law to discourage the unscrupulous chemical mixers.

At the conference, the Poba placed a self-conducted formalin test result of 108 food items that were collected from September 7-23 this year, stating that most of the items contained exces-sive degree of formalin.

Terming the current food adulter-ation culture in the country a “Silent Mass Killing”, Poba Chairman Abu Nas-er Khan said the process of food adul-teration has started from the produc-tion level to the retailers.

Echoing Naser, Abdus Sobhan said some unscrupulous businessmen have been adulterating most of the food items with di� erent types of chemical in the name of preservation. To check for adulteration, the government should follow the international agreement and protocols on food safety, he also stated.

The Green organisation also sug-gested the government import only the necessary amount of formalin by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) to keep in check the massive use of the chemical in food items.

It also urged that a time-worthy pes-ticide control act should be formed to control the proper use of fertilizers and pesticides. l

Committee identi� es eight rivers to export sandn Asif Showkat Kallol

Seven recommendations put forward by the committee on the sand export policy were � nalised at a meeting on Tuesday.

The meeting was held at the Com-merce Ministry with Additional Secre-tary Shawkat Hossain Warsa in the chair.

The committee recommends that the government should lift sand from eight rivers – Padma, Jamuna, Megh-na, Teesta, Dhaleshwari, Brahmaputra, Gomti and Fazilpur and Ghashia canal

and export it, o� cial sources said.It also recommends that the Com-

merce Ministry � x the price of sand and sand exporters should take permission from the ministry.

An o� cial said the committee would submit its recommendations to Com-merce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Ma-moon who returned home from abroad yesterday. If necessary, the policy pro-posal would go to the cabinet committee on economic a� airs for approval, he said.

According to the recommendations,

Water Development Board and Seaport Authority would choose sand for ex-port as the two government agencies were lifting sand regularly.

Local sand exporters could earn $1 billion from export of 10 million tonnes of sand. Ministries and divisions con-cerned would look into if it puts any negative impact on the environment for export of sand from the country’s di� erent sandbar areas.

Sand exporters would collect sand from capital dredging areas on their

own management, according to the recommendations.

Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon formed an eight-member committee in an inter-ministerial meet-ing on July 22. The committee was sup-posed to submit a report in a month.

According to sources, several sand and soil exporters had already submit-ted their proposals to the Commerce Ministry for permission to export sand to Singapore and Maldives.

The Network and Infrastructure

Company had already applied to the Commerce Ministry, seeking approval for exporting over 1.5m tonnes of sand to Singapore. The proposal, however, still remains pending.

Earlier, the government of Maldives showed interest to import sand from Bangladesh during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to that country in the middle of her last tenure.

The move could not yield any fur-ther progress due to bureaucratic com-plexities. l

Di� erent kinds of products for sale occupy the narrow lane in West Nakhalpara in the capital making it di� cult for locals and pedestrians to walk smoothly. The age-old buildings on either side of the alley also pose serious threat to the locals MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Heavy rain over the past few days and onrush of hill water washed away the embankment on the river Muhuri submerging seven villages of Fulgazi in Feni DHAKA TRIBUNE

Ershad, one of the protesters, said the workers were sent to Sudan in January this year with employment at a textile company, where they worked for eight months without proper wages

Investigators at the outset said 10-12 people got into the house, killed the six and left the spot soon. Police ruled out robbery and claimed it was done by extremists

13 points for tra� cking cattle hide identi� edIntelligence agency recommends setting up police check-posts in Savar, Joydebpur, Kanchpur bridge, Ashulia, Manikganj and Sultana Kamal bridge to prevent tra� ckers

n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Members of illegal syndicates are like-ly to use 13 points through the Bangla-desh-India border to tra� c cattle hide this year surrounding the Eid-ul-Azha festival, according to a report by a state-run intelligence agency.

The report, which was submitted last week to the Home Ministry, recom-mended law enforcement agencies in-cluding the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)remain alert on the identi� ed routes for stopping the tra� cking of cattle hide.

The intelligence agency also rec-ommended setting up police check-posts in Savar, Joydebpur intersection, Kanchpur Bridge, Ashulia, Manikganj and Sultana Kamal Bridge to prevent

tra� ckers from moving cattle hide out of the capital.

The report also mentioned that a group of Indian cattle hide traders al-ready entered the country and begun their activities by joining hands with local syndicates in the southern and northern regions.

On September 20, a special meeting in this regard was also held at the police headquarters.

In the meeting, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker directed all law enforcers to take neces-sary steps to stop cattle hide tra� cking including setting up check-posts and camps.

He added that a special monitoring cell in this regard would also operate from September 25 to October 8. The

IGP further asked the police force to stay alert round-the-clock so that no unwanted situation takes places during either Eid-ul-Azha or the Durga Puja festivities.

According to the report, cattle hide from Jessore, Khulna, Satkhi-ra, Patkolghat, Kaliganj are likely to be tra� cked through Benapole and Satkhira’s Kolaroa points, cattle hide from Jhenaidah, Magura, Shailku-pa, Kotchandpur, Maheshpur areas through Jibannagar, and cattle hide from Chuadanga, Kushtia, Allahrdorga, Daulatpur and Alamdanga is likely to be moved through Meherpur and Dar-shana points.

Cattle hide from Natore is likely to be tra� cked through Chapainawab-ganj Shona Masjid and Rajshahi’s

Godagari points, cattle hide from Syl-het and Maulvibazar through Ja� ong’s Tamabil and Karimganj points, and cat-tle hide from Dinajpur and Thakurgaon is likely to be tra� cked through their own respective districts as they share the border with India.

The intelligence report also men-tioned the names of 12 wholesale cat-tle hide markets where monitoring is needed. They are: Natore sadar, Polashbari in Gaibandha, Taraganj in Rangpur, Mataji in Naogaon, Rajarhat in Jessore, Elliotganj in Comilla, Paku-tia in Tangail, Haluaghat in Mymensin-gh, Shambhuganj, Kishoreganj sadar, Tongi in Gazipur and Aminbazar in Savar.

Seeking anonymity, a senior o� cial at the police headquarters

told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the Home Ministry had recently issued an order asking to keep an eye on 12 wholesale cattle hide market to prevent cattle hide from being tra� cked through the border within a week of Eid.

The ministry directive also included ensuring smooth passage of vehicles carrying cattle hide into the capital, the o� cial added.

Asked about the issue, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, said steps have already been taken steps to ensure that no truck leaves Dhaka with cattle hide.

However, smooth passage would be provided if any truck wanted to enter in the capital with cattle hide, he added. l

WEATHER

HEAVY RAIN

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:32am Sunrise 5:46am Zohr 11:51am Asr 4:13pm Magrib 5:54pm Esha 7:10pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:52PM SUN RISES 5:48AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW34.2ºC 23.6ºCJessore Srimangal

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 31 25Chittagong 30 25Rajshahi 31 24Rangpur 29 24Khulna 32 24Barisal 30 24Sylhet 30 23Cox’s Bazar 29 25

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

CMP commissioner asks criminals to leave port cityn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The newly appointed Chittagong Met-ropolitan Police (CMP) Commissioner Abdul Jalil Mandal yesterday asked criminals to leave the port city or face action.

He said Chittagong had no room for arms smugglers, terrorists, muggers, drug peddlers and extortionists and law enforcers would do everything possible for the sake of security.

The commissioner said criminals had to stop commiting crimes if they wanted to live in the city.

“Police are only for serving people, not the wrongdoers, criminals and an-ti-social activities,” he said this while exchanging views with journalists at CMP conference room after assuming his new assignment. The CMP com-missioner joined his o� ce on Septem-ber 21. Before joining the CMP he was serving the Dhaka Metropolitan Police as additional police commissioner.

He also worked as superintendent of police in Bagerhat, Nilphamari and Joy-purhat districts and also in UN Mission in Kosovo and Croatia. CMP Additional Commissioner Banaz Kumar Majum-der and Additional Commissioner AKM Shahidur Rahman were present. l

CU to go on 42-dayvacation from Saturday n CU Correspondent

Chittagong University (CU) will go on vacation from September 27 to Novem-ber 8 on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja.

Professor Iftekhar Uddin Chowd-hury, pro-vice-chancellor, said the de-cision was taken in a meeting of Deans Committee and Admission Commit-tee of CU, chaired by VC Prof Anwarul Azim Arif.

“All classes will remain suspended from September 27 to November 8 on occasion of Eid and Puja.”

However, scheduled examinations will be held on time during the vaca-tion, added Professor Dr Iftekhar. l

27 gold bars seized at Dhaka airportn Tribune Report

Customs Intelligence o� cials yester-day seized 27 gold bars worth Tk1.5 crore from a passenger in Shahjalal In-ternational Airport in the capital.

The arrested passenger Tarek Hos-sain, 24, returned from Dubai on � ight number EK-582. He hailed from Hath-azari upazila of Chittagong, customs sources said.

Director General of Customs Intel-ligence Department Mainul Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “The gold bars weighing 3.30kg was recovered from inside a microwave oven motor around 9am.” “Legal action will be taken against the arrestee,” he added.

A case was being � led with the Air-port police station in this regard till the submission of this report yesterday evening. l

Rana Plaza victims demand capital punishment for building ownern Our Correspondent, Savar

Rana Plaza victims formed a human chain and staged demonstration in Savar yesterday, demanding capital punishment for Rana, owner of the col-lapsed building.

The victims under the banner of Garments Sramik Trade Union held the human chain.

Injured victims of the Rana Plaza collapse and family members of those killed and missing took part in the pro-gramme.

They also took out a procession on the Dhaka-Aricha highway over the same demand.

Speakers at the rally said many vic-tims of the country’s worst industrial disaster had been su� ering as they are yet to be provided with their due com-pensation.

They also alleged that the govern-ment was not taking any e� ective measures to ease su� erings of Rana Plaza victims. The speakers also de-manded ensuring salary and bonuses of workers in all garment factories and an end to retrenching workers and tor-turing them. l

Call for an end to violence against womenn Afrose Jahan Chaity

Lawmakers from Asia-Paci� c coun-tries at the inaugural ceremony of a three-day seminar called for an end to violence against women, saying that social, religious and cultural norms could not get priority over health and security issues of women.

Birth registration could play an ef-fective role in preventing child mar-riage in the region, they said at the seminar titled “Ending the Cycle of Violence against Girls in the Asia-Pa-ci� c” that began at Sonargaon Hotel on Tuesday.

“Childhood abuse and gender inequality are the main risk factors in violence against women and girls,” said Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, adolescent sexual and reproductive health expert at World Health Organisation (WHO).

“One in every two women in the world are victims of violence and only 10-30% of them seek institutional help,” the expert said.

Birgitte Filion, programme o� cer of Programme for Partnership between Men and Women, Inter-Parliamentary Union, emphasised on capacity building, peer-to-peer engagement, mentorship and solidarity to counter gender inequality. “One

cannot prevent violence against women without addressing gender inequality.”

Elisa Scolaro, technical o� cer at De-partment of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO, presented strategies to prevent child marriage, including mo-bilising girls, boys, parents and leaders

to change practices that discriminate against girls and create social, econom-ic, and civic opportunities for girls and young women, providing girls who are already married with options for schooling, employment and livelihood skills and o� ering recourse from vio-lence at home.

She also stressed on addressing the root causes of child marriage, includ-ing poverty, gender inequality and dis-crimination, the low value placed on girls and violence against them.

While discussing domestic violence, experts said 70% of children aged be-tween 2 and 14 were subjected to vio-

lence in some forms of discipline in the Asia-Paci� c region.

Participants from India shared their strategies that helped protect female children and their rights while the delegates from Bangladesh said birth registration in the country increased from 9.8% in 2006 to 53.6% in 2009.

The participants also discussed the importance of birth registration, gen-der inequality, social, cultural and reli-gious norms, illiteracy, poverty, health education and many other factors to prevent violence against women and girls.

One of the panellists Kiran Bhatia said, “Data on sexual violence are actu-ally the tip of the iceberg; the real num-ber is much more tragic.”

In the sixth session, strategies tak-en up by di� erent parliaments were discussed. This discussion brought forward previous examples of good practice of parliamentary strategies for legislating and preparing the public to accept laws to prevent violence against girls.

Parliaments of the Asia-Paci� c countries would review, reform and formulate laws, if necessary, to prevent violence against girls, said MPs from di� erent Asia-Paci� c countries on the second day of the seminar. l

Girl rescued from boyfriend’s house after 10-hour torturen Our Correspondent, Barisal

In a harrowing tale of love and betrayal, police rescued a teenage girl on Tues-day morning after she endured 11 hours of torture in the hands of her beloved and his family in his house at Rice Re-search Institute Road in Barisal city.

With the help of the local ward coun-cillor, police rescued the victim and handed her over to her family after treat-ment at a local hospital. A case was also � led accusing � ve persons in this con-nection, sending one of them to prison.

The victim, 18, from Kurulia village in Bakerganj upazila, Barisal, lived in the same neighbourhood as her boy-friend Shahadat Hossain Mithu, 20, son of Altaf Hossian alias Shanu Hawlader, and worked in Sonargaon Textile Mills

in Rapatali area, police said.Firoz Ahmed, the ward councillor,

shared the victim’s story with the Dha-ka Tribune.

“They have been in a relationship for three years and were physically in-timate, but Mithu had no intention of marrying her,” he said.

In fact, in an attempt to shake her o� , Mithu took a job and moved to Gazipur in February, but she followed him there and took a job in a sweater factory. As she kept pressing him for marriage, he assured her that they would tie the knot soon.

However, things went downhill for the victim when her beloved tried to pass her around among his friends and force her into prostitution.

As neighbours alerted police, she

was rescued and sent to Gazipur Safe Home, and later to her family, while Joydebpur police sent Mithu to prison on charges of rape and anti-social ac-tivities on June 2.

No respite from heartbreakAfter being released on bail on Sep-tember 14, Mithu came home to Barisal and asked the victim to meet him at his house on Monday night.

He tried to coerce her into ending the relationship and withdraw the cases against him. When she did not budge, Mithu, his father, mother Hos-neara Begum, and others tied her to a tree in his courtyard around 10pm and started to torture her.

It continued until the next morning, when the ward councillor came to her

rescue. “Receiving information from journalists, I rushed to the spot around 8am and rescued the girl with the help of police around 9am,” he told the Dha-ka Tribune.

No one in the neighbourhood came forward to save the victim until then, the councillor alleged.

Shakhawat Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, said police detained his mother, and neigh-bours Palash Khan, Shipon Hawlader, Md Ripon, Abdul Huq and Delwar Hos-sain for interrogation. Everyone except for Hosneara was released after interro-gation.

Later, the victim � led a case yes-terday against Mithu, his parents and two of his associates Shamsu Khan and Ra� q Akand.

Among them, Hosneara was sent to prison after Metropolitan Magistrate Nasrin Begum denied her bail plea.

Mithu and the other three accused remain in hiding.

Delayed response from rights activistsThe delayed response to this incident from the local human and women’s rights organisations garnered criticism in the local media.

However, the local rights activists called for a human chain in the city to protest the repression of the victim and to demand immediate and exemplary punishment of all the accused, said Ra-hima Sultana Kajal, president of Barisal NGO Development Network.

The human chain is scheduled to take place today morning. l

The Jatiya Garments Shramik Federation forms a human chain in front of the National Press Club yesterday, demanding dues of Tazreen Fashions workers DHAKA TRIBUNE

Two held for killing college student in Kushtian Our Correspondent, Kushtia

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion detained two people in Kushtia yesterday on charges of killing a college student.

The detainees are Tushar Ahmed, 18, and his elder brother Nishan Ahmed, 20.

Company Commander of RAB 12, Kushtia Ali Haider Chowdhury dis-closed the matter in a press brie� ng held at RAB’s o� ce around 10am.

The o� cial said: “Tushar and his friends stabbed Aslam Jelani Zelin to death because of a feud over establish-ing supremacy in the area.”

“Tushar and his bother Nishan were detained around 10pm on Tuesday. They have confessed to their involve-ment in the killing,” he said.

On Tuesday, Zelin was stabbed to death by his friends near Babor Ali Gate in Kushtia. Family members and relatives of Tushar brought out a procession in the district town yesterday.

They demanded exemplary punish-ment for the killers of him. l

Student a� liations protest conspiracy against Gonojagoron Moncho n DU Correspondent

Left leaning student organisations Bangladesh Chhatra Union and a fac-tion of Samajtantrik Chhatra Front yes-terday demanded that all conspiracies against Gonojagoron Moncho must be stopped and urged people to be united in strengthening the movement.

They criticised the incumbent gov-ernment for being lenient towards Ja-maat-e-Islami, its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir and the war criminals and also for not meeting the six-point demand of Gonojagoron Moncho.

The activists of the two organisa-tions upheld the demands during a press meeting at Dhaka University’s Madhur Canteen in the afternoon.

Samajtantrik Chhatra Front led by Jonardon Dutta Nantu said Gono-jagoron Moncho was created with the spirit of Liberation War, so it could not be obliterated in a day or two.

Criticising the government, he said the people in power were trying to demolish the Gonojagoron movement which became clear after some speech-es from parliament members.

Among others, Chhatra Union Pres-ident Hasan Tarek, Secretary General Lucky Akhter, Chhatra Front Secretary General Imran Habib Rumon was pres-ent in the press meeting. l

Childhood abuse and gender inequality are the main risk factors in violence against women and girls

Reconstruction of Aila a� ected embankments demandedn Our Correspondent, Satkhira

Residents of Gabura, Padmapukur and Burigoalini formed a human chain at Shyamnagar upazila headquarters of Satkhira yesterday demanding meas-ures to reconstruct cyclone Aila a� ect-ed embankments to save the district from natural calamities.

People of Aila-e� ected area formed the human chain under the banner of the Janasanggathan Samannay Com-mittee, the Sundarban Students Solidar-ity Team, the Ekta Jubo Sangha and the Sangrami Jubo Foundation in front of the Shyamnagar Press Club yesterday.

The rally was presided over by Maruf Hossain, president of Sundarban students solidarity team.

Speakers at the rally said Shyam-

nagar was the most vulnerable area to natural calamities in the country.

It has been � ve years since 10 vil-lages – Parshemari, Jelekhali, Gagra-mari, Napitkhali, Lebbunia, Gurgabati, Nildumur and Kolabari a� ected by cy-clone Aila, but the government could not take comprehensive measures to save lives and property of the people of there.

They demanded immediate recon-struction of Aila a� ected embank-ments, stopping saline water intrusion in the coastal agricultural land, special allocation in the coming budget for development of coastal agriculture, exemplary punishment for the people involved in embankment damaging and forming a special policy for coastal embankment management. l

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

Nadira Amin Khan (Jolly), wife of Nurul Amin Khan (Nan-tu) - retired director, Bangladesh Petro-leum Corporation - breathed her last at 4.50am in Dhaka today, September

24. She was 67 years old. With that, a light went out of the lives of her two sons, two daughters, two sons-in-law, and four beau-tiful grandchildren, who she leaves behind.

OBITUARY

Indian clothes worth Tk6 crore seizedn Our Correspondent, Jessore

A team of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) recovered Indian clothes worth around TK6 crore from the Jessore-Benapole highway in Navaraon yesterday. Among contraband items were Indian sarees, three piece salwar suits and fabric rolls.

Commander of 26-BGB battalion Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Jahang-ir Hossain said acting on a tip o� , a team of BGB took position at the Navaron Mor area and seized a truck which was carry-ing the clothes to Dhaka. l

560 govt primary schools run without headmasterBarisal Divisional Primary Education O� ce fails to say when the problem will be solved

n Our Correspondent, Barisal

Five hundred and sixty government run primary schools in the six districts of the division, particularly in the rural and remote areas, has been operating without a headmaster for a while now.

In line with the state, 445 assistant headmasters posts have also been va-cant athough the city or town schools have no crisis of teachers.

Sources at Barisal divisional primary education o� ce said there are 3,305 government primary schools. Of them, they in August identi� ed 560 headmas-ter and 445 assistant headmaster posts there were vacant.

The district-wise scenario of vacant post is 284 in Barisal, 183 in Patuakha-li, 164 in Bhola, 107 in Barguna, 116 in Jhalakathi, and 151 in Pirojpur.

It was learnt that Badiullah Gov-ernment Primary School in Tungibaria union of Sadar upazila has a scarcity of three teachers, including the headmas-ter while the remaining ones were strug-gling to deal with the 400 students.

On the other hand, only three teach-ers instead of the eight needed have been tackling 450 students of Chandramohon Government Primary School as senior teachers are reluctant to go there owing to it being situated in a river-isolated area.

Abul Kalam Azad, headmaster of Islamia Government Primary School situated Girjamahalla area of the city centre, they have one surplus teacher who was brought on deputation as they were having trouble dealing with the 350 students with eight teachers. The same situation was seen at Kashipur Government school in the city as well.

Barisal Divisional Primary Education O� cer Mahbub Elahi acknowledged the disruption of academics in the primary schools because of the vacant posts, saying the administrative tasks of those schools have been greatly hampered.

However, the o� cer could not o� er any quick remedy or steps to solve the problem. l

Jessore banks asked to beef up security on its ownn Our Correspondent, Jessore

Police sent letters to 31 banks in Jes-sore asking them to increase security measures on their own during the holi-days of Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Azha last Tuesday.

Sources said police remain busy managing tra� c and looking after the people’s safety during the holidays. As a result, they cannot provide proper se-curity to banks and other � nancial in-stitutions during that time. If the banks let their security guards go on vacation during this season the � nancial insti-tutions remain totally unguarded and

when anything goes wrong the author-ities concerned are not informed im-mediately.

Spokesperson of Jessore police, As-sistant Police Super Reshma Sharmin told the Dhaka Tribune that the mem-bers of police carry out additional du-ties during Puja and Eid seasons, which prevents them from caring after banks except the state-owned Sonali Bank. Under these circumstances, police ad-vised the banks to not ease their secu-rity measures.

The police super also said police pa-trols will check regularly if the security guards were in their positions. l

Students attend classes in abandoned school buildingn Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

Around 229 students of Gimadanga Madhyapara Fazilatunnesa Govern-ment Primary School in Tungipara upazila under the district are attending classes amid constant fear, as the roof of the dilapidated building may col-lapse anytime.

Class V student Sultana Akter, Class III student Sumaya Akter, IV student Ali Molla allege that water comes seeping down through the roof if there it rains and their books and bags get damaged.

Shadhin Sheikh, a student of Class

II narrowly escaped a fatal accident re-cently when a big chunk of plaster fell injuring him seriously.

Rekha Begum, mother of Shadhin said: “It is unbelievable that a govern-ment primary school has been lying in such a state.”

The building was constructed in 1995. Recently it was declared aban-doned as it may collapse anytime caus-ing deaths and injuries, said upazila engineer Manjur Rashid.

The roof of three rooms in the build-ing had become so worn out that it might fall on students at anytime said an assistant teacher of the school.

Primary education o� cer of the district Mohammad Shah Alam recent-ly visited the school and ordered the teachers to take classes on the veranda of the school.

“With no alternative arrangements left, we have to conduct all academic activities on the veranda at great risk,” said Ohiduzzaman Gazi, headmaster of the school.

The students also allege that they are not safe attending classes on veranda.

The students, teachers and guardi-ans urged the government to take steps immediately in this regard. l

Gimadanga Madhyapara Fazilatunnesa Government Primary School in Tungipara upazila, Gopalganj has been declared abandoned recently. The picture shows students of the school attend classes at veranda risking life DHAKA TRIBUNE

College student drownedn Tribune Report

A college student drowned in village Tamarhajibil under Boalmari upazi-la of Faridpur yesterday morning. The deceased was identi� ed as Salauddin Sheikh, 16, the son of Muhammad Ali Sheikh from the area. He was a � rst year student in Boalmari Shah Zafar Teach-nical College. Locals said around 8am Salauddin drowned when he was on his way to College on a makeshift boat, lo-cally known as Dunga, which capsized in the � oodwater near his house. l

District-wise scenario of vacant post is Barisal 284, Patuakhali 183, Bhola 164, Barguna 107, Jhalakathi 116 and Pirojpur 151

Restructuring law enforcementPolice reform should get high priorityn Raihanatul Jannat

Worldwide, the term police de� nes “a civil force of a state, responsible for the

prevention and detection of crime, and the maintenance of public order.” However, if you ask a common man of Bangladesh to de� ne the term police, it will most likely be – “a brutal force rife with misconducts and allegations of corruption smeared throughout the whole structure.” That is the general outlook and exceptions do apply, however, the bad always weighs out the good experiences.

In order to evaluate what contrib-utes to such a dire state of the force, the history of Police in Bangladesh needs to be considered. The Brit-ish government in 1861, through enacting the Police Act, created the systematic force in the subcontinent. It was solely to use the force as a tool to further their own narrow interest. After almost 153 years, the concept has barely changed. The Police Force is still being used by the relevant authorities as a coercion of their political agendas.

Moreover, the Bangladesh Police follows a hierarchy system during their recruitment process whereby a constable enters through the grass-root level entry and the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) enters through the highest level entry. This is in contrast to the Police in Britain, where the force has a singular level of entry: as a constable. Therefore, in Bangladesh, an individual who starts his/her career as a constable might just expect to be promoted up to a sub-inspector throughout the life of his/her career, but in Britain, an individual who starts as a constable

could end up being the chief of the police force by the time they retire.

Thus being in the Bangladesh Police, especially as a constable, au-tomatically means abysmal salaries, long hours, deplorable working con-ditions, and above all unrewarded services. These factors do nothing to curb corruption and improve the overall service of the police force for the common people.

It should be noted that over 90% of the police force consists of con-stables. The government agents also fail to grasp the concept of reform in order to eliminate the fundamental � aws within the force.

This is coupled with the use of outdated laws and practices – ac-cording to section 2 of the 1861 Act, any appointments on responsible positions are determined by the government. This enables politicisa-tion of the police force and seriously undermines merit as the basis of recruitment.

In 2007, the then caretaker gov-ernment attempted a reform of the force through the draft Police Ordi-

nance 2007. The draft suggested very succinct and appropriate changes which could assist the police force in being rid of undue political interfer-ence – formulating it as a punishable o� ence, improving the e� ciency level in service, and be accountable to the common people instead. However, the draft ordinance, to

date, has failed to take the shape of a concrete law. One ray of hope is in the DFID and EU sponsored Police Reform Programme (PRP). It is a long term capacity-building initiative to support the transition from colonial style police force to a more demo-cratic policing, thereby improving human security in Bangladesh. PRP seeks to provide supports in the fol-lowing areas:

Operational, organisational and legal reforms

Building training capacity Improving the quality of investi-

gators

Operations and prosecutions; consolidation of community policing and crime prevention

Making policing more pro-wom-en, and

Introducing cost e� ective and realistic information community technology.

As of now, the programme has estab-lished Bangladesh’s � rst victim sup-port centre in Dhaka; Bangladesh’s � rst police women’s network; and up to 20,000 community policing forums all over the country.

However, it should be remem-bered that this programme is a more of a donor priority than a national one. A national solution to counter-act problems within the force would have a stronger impact in abolishing human rights abuses, corruption, vigilantism and extremism.

Therefore, the force could use a tool equipping them to perform e� ciently in a democratic society by increasing police accountability and operational neutrality. This can only come in e� ect of a new law similar to the Police Ordinance 2007.

The government also needs to allocate more funds for improved welfare and facilities of a police career than what is of today to make it more alluring. Lastly, the relevant authorities will do well to realise that a high morale of the police force and a concrete rule of law will in turn ensure the security of their constitu-ents and the government itself. l

Raihanatul Jannat is a Barrister from The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, UK.

JurisDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014 7

n Emraan Azad

Putting an end to 50 days of catastrophic destruction of infrastructure and loss of life, Israel and Palestine have agreed, on August 26

this year, to halt the war for an inde� -nite period of time. When the news of the truce � nally came out, the inter-national communities, especially the Palestinians, breathed a sigh of relief. However, a report by The Guardian suggests that before the humanitar-ian cease� re was brokered by the Egyptian Government, more than 2100 people, mostly civilians, including 500 children were killed.

The armed con� ict between these two states, over the same piece of land for decades, poses an apparent question to us – have international human rights laws and humanitarian laws been respected and maintained in this war? A yes-and-no answer to this question might result in the lack of analytical approach to address the overall situation.

However, the increasing number of Palestinian deaths indicate how humanitarian assistance and protec-tion have been neglected to the people of the occupied territory, which they are entitled to under international law. As the civilian death toll climbs up, adherence to the laws of war by these parties becomes morally and legally signi� cant.

At this day-and-age of ultra-modern military technology, a particular and controversial attack technique of the Israeli military called “knock on the roof” has struck the world’s con-science. Its pertinent practice in the armed con� ict and legality under in-ternational law has often been brought under severe question and criticism.

Speaking from a military point of view, “knock on the roof” is dropping a low-yield explosive or a non-explo-sive device on a target shortly before real bombs hit the location. In par-ticular, this war tactic is to warn the Palestinian civilians of an impending missile strike and is used extensively in the targeted Hamas sites. Since

2006, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) had been employing this practice of warning the inhabitants of a building with the motive of attacking the armed forces. Roof knocking was used during the Gaza War (2008-2009), the Opera-tion Pillar of Defense (2012), and very recently in the Operation Protective Edge (OPE). To implement this trick in war, Israel collects data on Hamas members secretly and issues warnings prior to the airstrikes.

Typically, Israeli intelligence o� c-ers and Shin Bet (Israel’s internal secu-rity service) men contact residents of a building in which they suspect storage of military assets and ask them to � ee

within 10-15 minutes prior to the at-tack. However, in some cases, the time to � ee has been as little as � ve minutes or even just 57 seconds. Through this technique, in July 12, 2014, Israeli military force launched an airstrike on the home of Gaza’s police chief, Tayseer al-Batsh, and on a nearby mosque, killing almost 18 civilians including children and injuring around 45 others.

Customary International Humani-tarian Law in its Rule 1 mandates the parties to the con� ict at all times to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Pursuant to this rule, attacks may only be directed against combatants, but not against civilians. State practice establishes this rule as a norm of customary international law applicable in both international and non-international armed con� icts. According to this rule, combatants are the individuals who would not enjoy the protection against attacks that is a� orded only to civilians.

Despite such mandates, one of the the main features of the recently conducted Israeli attacks is the escala-tion in the targeting of residential houses belonging to Hamas leaders and militants. Elements of current humanitarian crisis due to “knock on the roof” has reignited the claim that for a warning method roof knocking is not at par with sets of rule relating to means and methods of war under international humanitarian law.

The legality of aggression by Israeli military against Palestinian attacks has been a matter of criticism by the international communities. As a part of the mandate, the United Nations has passed a resolution to hold an in-dependent investigation into the war crimes allegedly committed by Hamas and Israel � ghters since OPE began in July 8 this year. Besides, human rights group Amnesty International has con-demned the practice, pointing out that in many cases the supposedly non-lethal strike has led to loss of lives.

Philip Luther, Amnesty Interna-tional’s director of the Middle East and North Africa program, curtsied by saying: “There is no way that � ring a missile at a civilian home can consti-tute an e� ective ‘warning’.” The short window between a warning shot and rocket strike does nothing more than terrify occupants of the houses.

Bombing the houses of civilians through “knock on the roof” tech-nique clearly violates international humanitarian law, which provides a narrow de� nition of what constitutes a legitimate object and permits aiming attacks only at targets that allegedly assist military e� orts. Treating civil-ian homes as legitimate targets is an unlawful, distorted interpretation of the concept resulting in harm to those very civilians, whom this body of law intended to protect.

Practice relating to advance warning in wartime situation under customary international humanitarian law re-quires that the parties involved in the con� ict must give an e� ective advance warning of attacks so that the attack itself may not a� ect the civilian popu-lation. Speaking of “e� ective advance

warning,” there is no standard gap between the delivery of the “dummy” missile and fully armed missiles under international law. Undoubtedly, Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.

Although the military does give a warning to the inhabitants and instruct them to leave the premises, the purpose of the warning is not served automatically. The military must give the inhabitants enough time to leave and ensure that all civilians have indeed evacuated the spot. But the question that is reasonable and essential to ask is whether 57 seconds are enough at all for the civilians to leave the building before the missile strikes. Logically, the answer would be in the negative.

At this backdrop, Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently claimed on the basis of their investigation that, Israeli air attacks in Gaza have been target-ing apparent civilian structures and killing civilians in violation of the laws of war. It suggested that the United Nations Human Rights Council should hold a special session to address viola-tions of international human rights and humanitarian law in the context of this con� ict.

The Council should mandate the UN O� ce of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to form a fact-� nding mission for conducting an impartial investigation, reporting promptly and publicly on violations by all sides. This o� ce is also empowered to issue sets of recommendations with the purpose of sending to the parties and the UN.

“Knock on the roof” as a military technique is not developed to protect the civilians of Gaza, rather to be used as a ploy to indiscriminately kill them. Unless the Israeli authorities can provide speci� c information showing how a house is being used to make an e� ective contribution to the military actions, deliberate attacking in civilian homes constitutes a war crime that ultimately amounts to inhumane pun-ishment against the families. l

Emraan Azad is a mooter and a legal researcher. The article was � rst published in Dhaka Law Review blog (dhakalawreview.org).

Knock on the roofLawful warning or violation of laws of war?

RIO SHUVO

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JURIS QUOTE

AFP

‘Knock on the roof’ as a military technique is not developed to protect the civilians of Gaza, rather to be used as a ploy to indiscriminately kill them

According to section 2 of the 1861 Act, any appointments on responsible positions are determined by the government. This enables politicisation of the police force and seriously undermines merit as the basis of recruitment

A national solution to counteract problems within the force would have a stronger impact in abolishing human rights abuses, corruption, vigilantism and extremism

SYED LATIF HOSSAIN

Thursday, September 25, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

N E W S B I T E SR U S S I A N P U L L B A C K EU in biggest ever crime crackdown n Agencies

Police forces in the European Union have made more than 1,000 arrests in their biggest-ever co-ordinated crack-down on organised crime, BBC reported.

Thirty Romanian children were saved from tra� cking, and 200kg (441lb) of heroin and 599kg of cocaine was seized.

Forces across the EU and elsewhere acted together in Operation Archime-des, which ended on Tuesday, the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol said.

Police arrested 170 people in con-nection with people tra� cking. About 10,000 irregular migrants were checked as part of the operation, Europol said.

Archimedes was co-ordinated by Europol from The Hague in the Neth-erlands. It involved all 28 EU member states plus police forces in six other countries: Australia, Colombia, Nor-way, Serbia, Switzerland and the USA.

Europol director Rob Wainwright told reporters that the eight-day oper-ation was the “single largest assault on organised crime we’ve seen in Europe.”

Almost all kinds of crime were target-ed, ranging from drug-tra� cking to ille-gal immigration, tax fraud, counterfeit-ing and theft. Among the illegal drugs seized were 1.3 tonnes of cannabis.

Wainwright said there was a grow-ing trend of victims being recruited and tra� cked across Europe. l

Ebola cases could reach 550,000 to 1.4m by late Januaryn Reuters, US

Between 550,000 and 1.4 million people in West Africa could be infected with the Ebola virus by January 20, 2015, according to a study published by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The top range of the estimate, 1.4 million, assumes that the number of cases, 5,864 according to the count kept by the WHO, is signi� cantly underreported, and that it is likely that 2.5 times as many cases, or about 15,000, have in fact occurred. CDC emphasized that the projections are based on data from late August. l

Snowden honoured with ‘alternative Nobel’n AP, Stockholm

Edward Snowden was yesterday among the winners of a Swedish human rights award, sometimes referred to as the “alternative Nobel,” for his disclosures of top secret surveillance programs. The former US National Security Agency contractor split the honorary portion of the 2014 Right Livelihood Award with Alan Rusbridger, editor of British newspaper The Guardian, which has published a series of articles on govern-ment surveillance based on documents leaked by Snowden. The 1.5 million kro-nor ($210,000) cash award was shared by Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and US environmentalist Bill McKibben. l

Sarkozy’s corruption case ‘suspended’n Agencies

A corruption investigation against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been suspended, French media say. They quote judicial sources as saying that Paris appeals court will now study a request by Sarkozy for the case to be dismissed. Sarkozy, 59, is still facing several other judicial investigations. Last week he said he would seek the leadership of the opposition UMP party - the move widely seen as a � rst step towards a presidential bid in 2017. His announcement ended months of speculation about the inten-tions of the former president. l

Iran photographer pays price for artistic freedomn AFP, Tehran

Iranian photographer Newsha Tavako-lian was over the moon when she won a 50,000-euro prize from a French foun-dation. She never imagined she would lose it to “censorship” by her own benefactors.

“I am very sad, disappointed. I was so happy that with this prize I � nally get a reward for working in di� cult condi-tions,” the 33-year-old photographer who won the Carmignac Gestion photojour-nalism award in October 2013 told AFP.

The brief of her project was to inves-tigate “the burnt generation... whose parents made a (1979 Islamic) revolu-tion which shocked the world, and now have to cope with its consequences.”

In her proposal, Tavakolian said “to-gether this group of 25-35-year-olds

forms a silent majority in Iran, rarely seen or heard of outside of the country. Not extremist Islamic or fashionably ‘un-derground’, they are often overlooked.”

But earlier this month, she an-nounced on her Facebook page that she was bowing out due to “irreconcilable di� erences over the presentation of my work” and was returning the award from the foundation, whose patron is French investment banker Edouard Carmignac.

The foundation denies trying to cen-sor her work and said the award was suspended because the Iranian govern-ment was exerting “heavy pressure” on the artist and her family.

Tavakolian traces the dispute back to a conversation about “artistic free-dom... when Mr Carmignac wanted to change the name of the project to ‘Lost Generation’, from her title: ‘Blank pag-

es of an Iranian photo album’.”“He wanted to change the whole na-

ture of the project, with other pictures, with another title,” she said.

“I said from the beginning that the new title would get me into trouble (with the Iranian authorities), but the most important was my artistic free-dom,” said the photographer. “I said: ‘You are trying to censor my work’.’”

Tavakolian said the foundation with-drew its o� er to exhibit her work and pub-lish it in book form on “security” grounds, but that in reality there had been a dis-agreement over artistic freedom.

Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani advocates greater cultural and social freedom within the bounds of Islamic values, but he often comes in for criticism from the country’s strong conservative wing. l

Obama forges anti-ISIL coalition, but will it hang together?n Reuters, Washington

The Arabs are in. Turkey is on the fence. Britain, still smarting from an earlier Iraq war, is cautiously edging toward expanded action. Even Greece wants to help - if someone would tell it how.

Two weeks after he announced plans to form a “broad coalition” to � ght the militant group Islamic State, President Barack Obama’s hopes for in-ternational support for actions in Iraq and Syria appear to be gelling.

But it remains to be seen whether this motley global crew, whose mem-bers have widely di� ering goals, can hang together for a mission that Obama has acknowledged could last for years,

and which is bound to encounter dif-� culties - as well as both military and civilian casualties.

“The common threat gives the presi-dent an ability to bring together a broad-er coalition,” said former US ambassador Edward Djerejian, who was involved in an earlier US-led coalition to oust Iraq’s Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991. Ironically, that coalition included Syria.

“We just don’t know how robust the coalition will be in terms of staying together. That’s a big question,” said Djerejian, director of Rice University’s Baker Institute.

Five Arab nations - Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar - joined in or supported US-

led air strikes against Islamic State tar-gets in Syria beginning late Monday.

Even though American warplanes dropped what a US general said was the “preponderance” of bombs and mis-siles, the Arab participation was signi� -cant in geopolitical terms, US and other Western o� cials said. It was meant to undercut Islamic State’s argument that it is at war with the West, they said.

The Gulf Arab states have at times backed di� erent factions in Syria’s civil war, and Washington has ac-cused private individuals in the Gulf of funneling money to Islamic State. Saudi Arabia and its neighbors could face violent retaliation from militants opposed to military cooperation with

the United States. Jordan, meanwhile, is struggling to cope with hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees that have crossed its borders.

Still, a senior State Department o� -cial said there was “total unanimity” at a meeting between the Arab nations in-volved in the strikes, Obama and Kerry. The countries committed to stick with the campaign “for the long haul” the o� cial said. US o� cials provided new details on Tuesday of how Washington, in a blizzard of meetings and phone conversations this month, secured backing from normally wary Arab gov-ernments to join air strikes over Syria.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah told US Secretary of State John Kerry during

a two-hour meeting on Sept. 11 at the king’s palace in Jeddah that the king-dom “was willing to do whatever was necessary to help with the coalition, including air strikes,” a second senior State Department o� cial said.

A few days later, Kerry pressed the United Arab Emirates to follow the Saudis’ lead in a meeting with Emirati foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed in Paris, said the o� cial, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kerry lobbied Jordan’s King Abdul-lah over dinner in Amman earlier this month and again last Friday in an unan-nounced last-minute meeting in Wash-ington. Bahrain and Qatar also partici-pated in, or supported the strikes.

Jon Alterman, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and Interna-tional Studies think tank, said Arab mil-itary capabilities are extremely limited compared to those of the United States.

“Symbolically, it’s given (the Obama administration) cover,” Alterman said. “But practically, it doesn’t really change the division of labor.”

By contrast, Washington’s frequent European wartime partners, Britain and France, have moved cautiously on the military front.

France has conducted several air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, but has said it will not do so in Syria. Britain has stayed out of combat operations so far. l

Turks leave for ‘family-friendly’ Islamic Staten AP, Istanbul

Asiya Ummi Abdullah doesn’t share the view that the Islamic State group rules over a terrorist dystopia and she isn’t scared by the American bombs falling on Raqqa, its power center in Syria.

As far as she’s concerned, it’s the ideal place to raise a family.

In interviews with The Associated Press, the 24-year-old Muslim convert explained her decision to move with her toddler to the territory controlled by the militant group, saying it o� ers them protection from the sex, drugs and alcohol that she sees as rampant in largely secular Turkey.

“The children of that country see all this and become either murder-ers or delinquents or homosexuals or thieves,” Umi Abdullah wrote in one of several Facebook messages. Living under Shariah, the Islamic legal code, means that her 3-year-old boy’s spiritu-al life is secure, she said. “He will know God and live under His rules.”

Ummi Abdullah’s experience il-lustrates the pull of the Islamic State group, the self-styled caliphate strad-dling Iraq and Syria. It also shows how, even in modern Turkey entire families are dropping everything to � nd salva-tion. While the Islamic State organiza-tion promotes itself as a family-friendly

place, it in fact has uprooted hundreds of thousands of “enemy families” and massacred hundreds of soldiers and civilians defending their homes in a wave of killings that include cruci� x-ions and beheadings.

Ummi Abdullah, originally from Kyrgyzstan, reached the Islamic State group only last month, and her dis-

appearance became front-page news in Turkey after her ex-husband, a 44-year-old car salesman named Sahin Aktan, went to the press.

Legions of others in Turkey have carted away family to the Islamic State group under less public scrutiny and in greater numbers. Earlier this month, more than 50 families slipped

across the border to live under Islamic State, according to opposition legisla-tor Atilla Kart.

Kart’s � gure appears high, but his account is backed by a villager from Cumra, in central Turkey, who told AP that his son and his daughter-in-law are among the group. The villager spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he fears reprisals.

The movement of foreign � ghters to the Islamic State group has been cov-ered extensively since the group tore across Iraq in June. The arrival of en-tire families, many but not all of them Turkish, has received less attention.

“It’s about fundamentalism,” said Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of in-ternational relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. “It kind of becomes a false heaven.”

The Islamic State group appears eager to advertise itself as a fami-ly-friendly place. One promotional vid-eo shows a montage of Muslim � ghters from around the world holding their children in Raqqa against the backdrop of an amusement park.

A man, identi� ed in the footage as an American named Abu Abdurahman al-Trinidadi, holds an infant who has a toy machine gun strapped to his back.

“Look at all the little children,” al-Trin-idadi says. “They’re having fun.” l

US conducts � ve more airstrikes in Syria, Iraq20 airstrikes launched against IS in Syria

n Reuters, Washington

The United States military yesterday con� rmed it had launched � ve more airstrikes targeting Islamic State in Syr-ia and Iraq in the latest round of attacks on the militant group.

One strike hit Syria northwest of the Iraqi city of Al Qa’im, US Central Com-mand said in a statement. Two strikes hit were west of Baghdad and two southeast of Irbil in Iraq.

The latest strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday destroyed two Islamic State armed vehicles, eight other vehi-cles, a weapons cache and � ghting po-sitions, the statement said.

Various attack, bomber and � ghter aircraft were used in the airstrikes and all aircraft were able to leave the area safely, according to the statement.

While the United States has launched nearly 200 strikes in Iraq in

recent weeks, this week’s campaign opens a new front in Syria and thrusts Washington into the country’s 3-year-old civil war. The � rst strikes in Syr-ia were carried out with help of � ve Arab nations.

So far, 20 airstrikes have been launched across Syria targeting Islamic State, Central Command said.

US o� cials on Tuesday had said the strikes were e� ective and on Wednes-day Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Penta-gon spokesman, said it was still com-pleting its overnight assessment.

“Everything we said yesterday is bearing out today,” he said in a CNN interview. “We do believe that the battle damage assessment that we’ve conducted shows that these strikes were extremely successful in terms of hitting what we were aiming at and causing the damage that we wanted to cause.” l

UN chief urges hope in world seeming to fall apartn AP, United Nations

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on global leaders yesterday to � nd “seeds of hope” in the turmoil and despair of a world that may seem like it’s falling apart.

In his state of the world address at the opening of the UN General Assem-bly’s annual ministerial meeting, Ban pointed to crises piling up, disease spreading, Cold War ghosts returning and so much of the Arab spring going violently wrong.

“But leadership is precisely about � nding the seeds of hope and nurturing them into something bigger,” the UN chief told presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers from the UN’s 193 member states. “That is our duty,” Ban said. “That is my call to you today.”

Ban cited many crises — from be-headings and the use of barrel bombs

in Syria to the volatile situation in Ukraine and Boko Haram’s “murderous onslaught” in Nigeria.

The issue certain to top the agenda at the ministerial session is the threat from Islamic terrorists intent on eras-ing borders, with the � rst US and Arab airstrikes in Syria delivered Monday night in response.

Many diplomats hope that crisis won’t drown out the plight of millions of civilians caught in con� icts in Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza; the misery of the largest number of refugees since World War II; and global support for new UN goals to � ght poverty and ad-dress climate change.

Looking at the array of complex challenges, Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende said: “It’s unprecedented in decades, that’s for sure.” l

Car salesman Sahin Aktan, whose ex-wife took their child (seen in the photo) to the territory controlled by Islamic State AP

Old tanks and APCs are parked at an armor repair plant in Zhytomyr, some 150kms west of Kiev. Nato has observed a signi� cant withdrawal of Russian forces from inside Ukraine, but many Russian troops remain stationed nearby, an alliance military spokesman said yesterday AFP

9Thursday, September 25, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

High-pro� le Chinese o� cial confesses to graftn Reuters, Beijing

The former deputy head of China’s top planning agency confessed in court yes-terday to extensive bribery involving several companies including a Toyota Motor Corp. joint venture, the court said.

Liu Tienan, 59, was sacked as deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a post that carries ministerial-level status, in May last year. He is one of the high-est-pro� le o� cials to be prosecuted for corruption since President Xi Jinping launched an anti-graft campaign.

Prosecutors charged Liu and his son, Liu Decheng, with taking 35.6 million yuan ($5.8m) in bribes in dealings with various companies, including the Toy-ota joint venture, the court said.

The NDRC is a powerful body that sets broad economic policies and ap-proves major investments. Liu was also head of the National Energy Adminis-tration regulator. “The oral representa-tion made by the defendant Liu Tienan on the allegations is: I have taken the initiative to confess to the facts of the al-legations,” the court said on its microb-log as it laid out the charges against Liu.

The closely watched trial in being held in Langfang city in Hebei prov-ince, which surrounds Beijing.

Liu was sacked after a deputy edi-tor-in-chief of the investigative maga-zine Caijing posted accusations on his microblog that Liu was involved in ille-gal activities. l

Missed call to women will lead to jail in Bihar!n Agencies

Give missed calls to women and cool your heels in jail!

According to a report by PTI, India’s CID inspector general (IG) (weaker sec-tion) Arvind Pandey on Tuesday issued a circular to all district superintendents of police (SPs) and government rail police (GRP) SPs in Bihar asking them to ensure that police investigates and takes action in such cases with utmost seriousness.

“Giving repeated missed calls to women is a serious issue. It makes them feel insecure and robs them of peace of mind. We have decided to count it as a crime of stalking under Section 354D (i) and (ii) of the IPC,” Pandey said.

Pandey, however, said that police o� cials have been told to ignore the matter if missed calls are given once or twice, but crack the whip if they are re-peated and with an intention to harass women.

The idea of taking action against ‘missed call menace’ emerged during a two-day training programme for Sta-tion House O� cers of women police stations in the state as well awareness camps on crime against women that were conducted by CID at girls schools and colleges. l

From lighter rocket to slingshot, India’s mission to Marsn Agencies

In 1981, when India’s space scientists grappled with the challenge of � nding a metal-free transportable platform for its new satellite, they turned to an improbable frugal innovation. As the world watched amazed, Indian scien-tists wheeled out their gleaming, new satellite on a creaking, old bullock cart.

More than three decades on, as the Mars Orbiter Mission slipped into the red planet’s orbit yesterday, it was still, in part, the same amazing story of end-less tweaking and recycling of delicate equipment to keep costs down and tide over technology constraints.

To many, Wednesday’s triumph un-derlined the credibility of India’s space technology, despite the country’s anti-quated industrial processes and manu-facturing record, and the brilliance of its poorly paid scientists whose only reward, perhaps, is the collective na-tional pride their work generates.

“It is a priceless feeling when an entire nation celebrates your success,” Isro chief K Radhakrishnan told report-ers after the mission’s success.

For a national space programme that saw its � rst scientists functioning out of an abandoned church, much of the workaround at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is out of sheer necessity, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

After India carried out nucle-

ar-weapons tests in 1974, its access to technical know-how and sophisticated technology was limited.

As for money, there was never enough. India currently spends $1.2bn a year on its space program. In compar-ison, US space agency NASA has a bud-get of $17.5bn for the year ending Sept 30. To keep costs down for India’s � rst inter-planetary mission, a� ectionate-ly nicknamed MOM, scientists relied on technologies they had used before and kept the size of the payload small, at 15 kg. They saved on fuel by using a smaller rocket that was adapted from a launch vehicle that � rst � ew in 1993. Only one physical model of the Manga-lyaan was built.

Isro engineers employed an unusual “slingshot” method for Mangalyaan’s in-terplanetary journey that began last No-vember. Lacking enough rocket power to blast directly out of Earth’s atmosphere and gravitational pull, it orbited the Earth for several weeks while building up enough velocity to break free. That helped avoid using a more expensive more expensive heavy launch vehicle.

Two-thirds of the craft’s parts were made by Indian companies such as Larsen & Toubro and Godrej & Boyce.

The Mars mission was delivered on a shoestring budget of $74m, less than the price of the cheapest passenger jet from Boeing. Or the cost of making the Hol-lywood blockbuster ‘Gravity’ on which about $100m was spent. l

India’s top court cancels coal allocations n AP, New Delhi

India’s top court said yesterday that private companies will have to re-turn most of the coal � elds allo-cated to them by the government since 1993 under a corruption prone bidding system.

The Supreme Court’s order comes a month after it declared that all the government allocations of coal re-serves from 1993 to 2010 were car-ried out under procedures that were arbitrary and lacked fairness and transparency.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha said the companies must relinquish the coal � elds, some of which remain unmined, by March next year.

About 218 coal blocks, or areas of unmined reserves, were allocated to companies for use in power plants and steel and cement factories between 1993 and 2010. The court exempted four blocks from Wednesday’s order: two operated by Reliance Power and one each by state owned companies NTPC Ltd. and Steel Authority of India Ltd. The exempted mines feed coal-� red power plants that are crucial to meeting India’s energy needs.

The court’s ruling extends beyond the initial “Coalgate” case in which the previous Congress party-led gov-ernment was accused of costing the treasury more than $200bn by sell-ing or allocating about 155 coal blocks in 2004-09 without competitive bidding.

A report by the country’s Comptrol-ler and Auditor General leaked to the media in March 2012 estimated those losses to have been around $210bn.

The court order also directed com-panies which didn’t mine their allo-cated coal � elds to pay compensation to the government for losses to the treasury. It accepted the � ndings of the Comptroller and Auditor General that a loss of 295 rupees ($4.84) per ton was caused by the mines not being utilized.

The scandal, along with other high-pro� le cases of alleged graft, was a key reason for the Congress party’s huge loss in this year’s elections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bhara-tiya Janata Party.

The court said in its ruling in Au-gust that between 1993 and 2010 there was “no fair and transparent proce-dure” in the coal allocation process, “resulting in unfair distribution of the national wealth.” l

India exults in Mars orbit triumphFirst country from Asia to reach Mars; mission costs fraction of similar NASA proben Reuters, New Delhi

India’s low-cost mission to Mars suc-cessfully entered the red planet’s orbit yesterday, crowning what Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi said was a “near impossible” push to become the only country to complete the trip on its maiden attempt.

The Mars Orbiter Mission was achieved on a budget of $74m, nearly a tenth of the amount the US space agen-cy NASA spent on sending the Maven spacecraft to Mars.

“History has been created today,” said Modi, who burst into applause along with hundreds of scientists at the state-run Indian Space Research Organ-isation (ISRO) when it was announced the mission had been accomplished.

“We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible,” said Modi, wearing a red waistcoat at the space command centre in the southern city of Bangalore.

India joins the United States, Rus-sia and Europe in successfully sending probes to orbit or land on Mars. Apart from India, none managed to succeed on their � rst attempt.

The mission also makes India the � rst country in Asia to reach Mars, af-ter an attempt by regional rival China failed to leave Earth’s orbit in 2011.

ISRO successfully ignited the main 440 Newton liquid engine and eight small thrusters that � red for 24-min-utes and trimmed the speed of the craft to allow smooth orbit. A con� rmation

of orbit entry was received at around 8am India time (0230 GMT).

After completing the 666 million km (414 million miles) journey in more than 10 months, the spacecraft called Mang-alyaan - meaning Mars craft in Hindi - will now study the red planet’s surface and scan its atmosphere for chemical methane. It will not land on Mars.

ISRO scientists will operate � ve sci-enti� c instruments on the spacecraft to gather data, the space agency’s sci-enti� c secretary V. Koteswara Rao said.

The expected life of the craft is six months, after which it will run out of fuel and the agency will not be able to maintain its orbit.

Modi has said he wants to expand the country’s � ve-decade-old space programme. The technological triumph is fortuitously timed for him - he will be able to � aunt the achievement on a trip to the United States starting on Friday.

Modi also holds the additional charge as India’s minister of space, and has endorsed the low-cost of the proj-

ect, saying it cost even less than the budget of ‘Gravity’. The Hollywood blockbuster cost about $100m to make.

NASA, which helped India with communications on the mission, con-gratulated ISRO. The Mangalyaan and the NASA’s Maven, built at a cost of $671m, are simultaneously orbiting the red planet.

India in space vs othersIndia’s space programme was launched in the early 1960s and the country de-veloped its own rocket technology af-ter Western powers imposed sanctions for a nuclear weapons test in 1974.

Still, the country remains a small player in the global space industry that grew to $314bn in revenues and gov-ernment budgets in 2013, according to Colorado-based Space Foundation.

Experts say Mars mission success can help change that. “ISRO will now hopefully attract a lot of business,” said Mayank N. Vahia, a scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. “We will now attract more international atten-tion and international trade for satellites.”

Two-thirds of the craft’s parts were made by Indian companies such as Larsen & Toubro and Godrej & Boyce.

With 30 Indian and 40 foreign sat-ellite launches so far, its nearest cheap competition would be China, which is armed with bigger space launchers. ISRO signed an agreement with China National Space Administration on Fri-day to cooperate in research and devel-opment of various satellites. l

Japan steps up sanctions as tensions rise with Russian BBC

Japan has imposed additional sanc-tions on Russia for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

The move comes amid signs of ten-sion between Moscow and Tokyo over their own territorial dispute.

The new sanctions curtail the activi-ties of Russian banks in Japan and step up controls on arms exports.

Japan had initially adopted light-er sanctions than the US and its allies for fear of derailing improved relations with Russia.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the new measures put the emphasis on Japan’s co-operation with other members of the G-7, whose for-eign ministers meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week.

His statement came shortly after he had protested to Moscow over the visit by a senior Russian o� cial to disputed islands seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.

“A visit like this hurts the Japanese people’s feelings and is extremely re-grettable,” he said.

The o� cial Sergei Ivanov, a close aide of President Vladimir Putin, visit-ed a new airport on one of the disput-

ed islands o� Hokkaido, known as the Northern Territories by Japan and the Southern Kurils by Russia.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made considerable e� orts to court Mr Putin since taking o� ce in 2012, meeting the Russian leader on � ve occasions.

Japan is anxious for friends in Northeast Asia, given a tense con-frontation and growing competition with China, and tension with the two Koreas.

It also wants to improve economic co-operation, given its interest in Rus-sian natural gas reserves, and hopes for an eventual negotiated settlement to the dispute over the islands.

Those initiatives now appear to be under threat as Russia responded with anger to the new sanctions.

“We regard this unfriendly step as yet another sign of Japan’s incapability of building up its foreign policy on its own,” said a statement from the Rus-sian foreign ministry.

“Tokyo is doing damage to its own geopolitical positions and is sending a wrong signal to its business commu-nity,” continued the statement, which indicated there could be little further progress in relations while the sanc-tions continued. l

Modi pilots live radio show to reach the massesn Reuters, New Delhi

India’s Twitter-savvy Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi is turning to the country’s oldest radio station to make his voice heard even in the far-thest Himalayan hamlets and most distant deserts.

On October 3, Modi will go live on public service All India Radio (AIR) from New Delhi for about 50 min-utes, in a pilot of a show he hopes will become a weekly opportunity to reach up to two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people.

The maiden radio broadcast, an-nounced on the website mygov.in, will be quickly translated into 24 Indian languages and 16 foreign ones.

“We are still working on how to get everything arranged,” said a senior o� -cial at the radio station known for news broadcasts delivered in a cut-glass En-glish accent.

“None of the prime ministers in the last three decades have used our ser-vices in this manner.”

Although eclipsed in recent years by satellite television, radio is still the main source of news and informa-tion for many Indians, particularly in rural areas.

Modi has assiduously used Face-book and Twitter, where he has about 6.4 million followers, to bypass the news media and communicate his thoughts, spurring editors to complain about a lack of two-way communica-tion and debate.

Since taking o� ce in May, the 64-year old leader has cut back on access for India’s lively commer-cial news media, and stepped up the role of state television broad-

caster Doordarshan in getting his message heard.

Indira Gandhi, prime minister for four terms spanning the late sixties until her assassination in 1984, was the last leader to have regularly used AIR to talk to the nation.

Many Indians say Modi is the � rst prime minister since Gandhi to use charisma and communication skills to carve out a more personalized leader-ship role.

O� cials at India’s broadcast minis-try said Modi was keen to turn the ra-dio address into an interactive session soon and would like to take questions from citizens.

Modi made an interactive broadcast on Teachers’ Day this month that was viewed in schools nationwide.

Hundreds of AIR employees across India will monitor Modi’s � rst address to avoid glitches in the live broadcast, variously dubbed “Ghar Ghar mein Modi” (“Modi in Every Home”) or “PM jan jan ke saath” (“The Prime Minister is with Everyone”).

Modi’s clear diction in Hindi would make him ideal for radio, said one AIR journalist who asked not to be identi-� ed. AIR is the only radio station India permits to broadcast news. l

Source: Indian Space Research Organisation

SriharikotaspaceportSriharikotaspaceport

NEW DELHI

India’s mission to Mars

PSLV

INDIA

C25

High gain antenna

Propellanttank

Antenna

Payloads

Solar panels

Reactionwheels

Sources: ISRO/AFP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Orbiter Mission“Mangalyaan”

Weight: 1.34 tonnesUnmanned probe

300-day cruise to Marsto explore the planet’ssurface features, mineralogyand atmosphere

Cost: $74 million

India’s first mission tothe Red Planet

Launched:November 5

Launchvehicle

W A D I N G T H R O U G H F L O O D W A T E R

Since taking o� ce in May, the 64-year old leader has cut back on access for India’s lively commercial news media, and stepped up the role of state television broadcaster Doordarshan in getting his message heard

A man wades through the � ood water to collect drinking water as a State Disaster Response Force person rows a rescue boat in a � ooded area during heavy monsoon rains in Gauhati, Assam state, India. The death toll from � ash � oods and landslides in India’s northeast rose to 73 yesterday as rescue workers reached homes cut o� by the rising waters, o� cials said. In Assam’s worst-hit district of Goalpara, 90 villages have been submerged and more than 150,000 people have been asked to leave their homes for higher ground AP

End patronage in politicsAs the party in power, the government has the most responsibility

towards citizens to act on their behalf to root out corruption and abuses of the law.

Our ongoing series of reports on party o� cials making personal fortunes that do not tally with their publicly stated sources of income highlights the widespread prevalence of politicians using patronage and improper in� uence to corruptly build their own wealth.

Poor ethical standards among politicians are one of the main reasons why Bangladesh languishes at 110th in the Global Competitiveness Index published by the World Economic Forum this month. It is a major factor behind corruption and deteriorating institutions in the country.

Some people have expressed little surprise at this picture and pointed out that it has been par for the course for some time among all political parties in the country.

It is also true to note that other countries have comparable problems of rent-seeking and patronage by politically connected elites.

These are not good enough reasons to ignore our laws against corruption.

The government has a duty to uphold the rule of law. It must accept responsibility for this state of a� airs and take urgent action.

It must set a positive example by punishing and preventing abuses of power among its own supporters and party o� cials.

It should lift the restriction introduced last year making it mandatory for the ACC to obtain government approval for � ling cases against judges, magistrates, and public servants.

Above all, it must empower the courts and law enforcement agencies to act against any politician or politically-connected person who engaged in unlawful activities.

Co-ordinate support for expatriate workers We are concerned by reports of a dispute between the

Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign A� airs over the assignment of more

labour attachés overseas.Remittances from the

estimated 8 million Bangladeshi migrant workers abroad are vital to our economy.

It is important the government ensures the best possible advice and representation to expatriate workers. It has a responsibility to both the workers themselves and the good image of our nation with labour-importing countries not to skimp on providing the best possible consular services and assistance.

Everyone is familiar with the hardships endured by some groups of expatriates who are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The Foreign Ministry is right to note certain countries are going through economic crises and are sending back Bangladeshi labourers. But this is no reason to prevent the Expatriates Ministry from expanding its welfare activities and setting up labour wings in more countries.

Our overseas workforce needs more co-ordinated support and joined-up thinking by the government. In the long term, this means improving education and skills at home. That way, more good jobs can be created domestically alleviating the need for emigration, and those workers who do venture abroad will be able to enter higher-value, more secure forms of employment.

Meanwhile, the two ministries must work in harmony to properly look after the welfare of our migrant workers.

There is much valuable pro-active work and assistance for the government to provide. Energy and time must not be expended on unnecessary demarcation disputes.

Fake � ghtersSeptember 17Richard ParkerCould not have summed it up better. You see, when the rot is allowed, nay, encouraged to fester, it takes over and devours the body. This pervasive corruption is nurtured by the politician-police-bureaucrat-criminal nexus, with the rest of us thrown in as willing and unwilling partners. So, your guess is as good as mine.

Nothing by way of prosecution will happen bar any eyewash. Because to do otherwise will expose the whole ecosystem of crime whose tentacles run deep into our society. This is but a manifestation of utter failure in governance. And when you cannot govern yourself, rest assured someone will.

Wake up Bangladesh.

Ahmed Mansur Richard Parker: A perfect observation. This article ought to be shared all over.

Sexual harassment: DU teacher suspendedSeptember 16humayun hyderWe don’t know what the actual cause was, but hope that the vice-chancellor and the other teachers will be able to solve the case, and if the head of the department is found to be actually guilty, then the vice-chancel-lor should hand him over to the police for punishment.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Garb (6)5 Bounder (3)7 Flightless bird (3)8 Cooking method (6)11 Prosecute (3)12 Teaching periods (5)14 Tibetan priest (4)16 Staggers (5)18 Angry (5)20 Remain (4)21 Harvests (5)23 Hill (3)24 Responds (6)27 Past (3)28 Conclude (3)29 Believe (6)

DOWN1 Vestment (3)2 Beverage (3)3 Copy (7)4 Trick (4)5 Pamper (6)6 Stylish (6)9 Bellow (4)10 Do wrong (3)13 Errand (7)14 Small (6)15 Spoiled (6)17 Final (4)19 Corn spike (3)22 Fruit (4)25 Fish (3)26 Drunkard (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 2 represents G so � ll G every time the � gure 2 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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Education damnationSeptember 16

MahaFascinating read, especially given the ambiguous nature of Digital Bangladesh. Very interesting to � nd out that its counterpart was a di� erent kind of beast, making its inclusion in an election manifesto a little ridiculous. Wonder if the government has ever been held accountable for it, or anything else for that matter.

FaridThe sad reality is that no one really wants to talk about education, because the minute you educate and empower the masses, they will then hold the ruling classes accountable.

Good piece, well-researched, and well-written. Thank you for highlighting these ignored issues.

Don’t waste energy on disputes. Ensure the best possible representation for expatriates

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 ZUphold the rule of law. Government must set a example by punishing abuses of power among its own supporters

No solidaritySeptember 16

Nina A Choudhury“Still, we visitors do not expect that we will be mistreated by our own countrymen in a foreign land.”

I’m sorry, but somehow I did not get your point. How did you feel mistreated by fellow Bangladeshis?

Sarwar KhanShouldn’t Bangladeshis everywhere help fellow Bangladeshis by promoting themselves?

Bitcoin illegal in BangladeshSeptember 17

goodbro123“A Bangladesh Bank notice says of Bitcoin transactions: ‘These unapproved transactions will be treated as a punishable o� ence under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947, and Money Laundering act, 2012.’”

Why is the Act of 1947 still applicable? Didn’t we get independence, and can’t we make our own laws?

Relaxed hartal underway peacefully

September 18

Jumman Sadiq Javelin Relaxed is right! No tra� c jams!!

FM: Dhaka keen to boost ties with India

September 18

Shefa Khan “All the pending bilateral issues between the two

countries should be resolved in order to boost ties.”

We’re expecting that too.

Gonojagoron Moncho activists dispersed by police

September 18

Zahidul Islam“Police use water cannons and tear gas canisters

to disperse Gonojagoron Moncho activists at the capital’s Shahbagh intersection, where

they gathered to protest the apex court verdict commuting war criminal Sayedee’s sentence.”

Times sure have changed!

n Saleh Md Arman

Since childhood, I have been a die-hard fan of cricket. When I used to see Sachin Tendulkar,

Steve Waugh, or Wasim Akram play, I wondered when Bangladeshi players would play cricket in the internation-al level, and the matches would be broadcast on the TV channels. In 1997, the Bangladesh team quali� ed for the cricket World Cup and grabbed One Day International (ODI) status, and eventually got Test status in 2000. But, their performance graph still � uctu-ates greatly.

Since 2000, the Bangladesh cricket team has been playing in many international matches. Yet, their performance is very amateur-like. Our players are now a joke to the elite teams. Often, legendary players raise their voices to withdraw our Test status, saying the Bangladesh cricket team lowers the value of the “Test playing nations.”

I am not a cricket specialist. But, as a cricket a� cionado, I have observed that we don’t have a long-term plan regarding our cricket. We don’t focus on the future, rather we stick to the present and engage in criticising the players. Criticism is necessary, but only criticism cannot bring any good results. When a player fails to perform well, the selection board gets rid of him and replaces him with some-one else. This may be a temporary solution, but not a long-term one. We should shift from temporary solutions to steady long-term strategies.

So, what is the long-term solution? Let me explain it with an example from football. When the German foot-ball team was ruled out from the group stages in Euro 2000, they reformed their entire football structure. They focused on age-group teams like under 10, under 12, and so on. In addition, they established football academies in the school level. They engaged both governmental and private institutions in this reformation.

Indeed, they did not get an instant result, but they planned for the future. As a result, now we see a strong German football team who demol-ished a superpower like Brazil in a 7-1 defeat in 2014. Moreover, they have a good number of substitute players in the pipeline. So, they have a strong 23-member squad, ready to handle injuries and other crises.

Like this scenario, we should reform our overall cricket structure. We have to set our goals for the 2019 or 2023 World Cup to win the champi-onship. We should focus on a speci� c age-group as part of our long-term plan. Young people below the age of 14 should be our target group. The young generation is crazy about cricket, which adds fuel to our plan.

We should establish strong cricket academies equipped with proper facil-ities. In doing so, PPP (public-private partnership) is useful. Moreover, these cricket academies should appoint quali� ed coaching sta� . They can also appoint physicians, nutritionists, com-puter analysts, and motivation gurus who will help the promising players to improve their performance. If possible, foreign coaching sta� should

be appointed periodically for special lessons.

Additionally, school authorities can play an important role in imple-menting this plan. By the same token, they should cooperate by making their playgrounds available to the academy. Furthermore, school-level cricket tour-naments should be arranged regularly and vigorously.

Subsequently, cricket academies should be established in the district level. It might be di� cult to establish academies in the village or union level, but at least every upazila should have a well-equipped cricket academy. In addition, regular competitions should be arranged in all the levels. We should keep in mind that without competi-tion, talent cannot be found.

Tournaments, like four-day match-es, ODIs, or T-20s should be arranged regularly in all the levels. By doing so, young sportsmen will be well famil-iar with every format of cricket. Zila Parishad, Upazila Parishad, Union Parishad, businessmen, local political leaders, trustees, and teachers should help to arrange such events. Besides this, the National Cricket League, Pre-mier Cricket League, and BPL (T-20) should be arranged on a regular basis.

Separate teams for Test, ODI, and T-20 matches should be formed after certain levels of assessment. It is very important because our players do not have enough temperament for Test matches or are incapable of power-hit-ting in the slog overs of ODI and T-20 matches. Similarly, all players are not equal. So, we should carefully assess their performance.

Money does matter indeed. We should revive BPL and take necessary steps to ensuring proper payment of local and foreign players. Big cor-porate houses should come forward and invest in these academies and tournaments.

A couple of days ago, someone told me: “Alas! We have only one interna-tionally-quali� ed player – Shakib Al Hasan.” Also, Mashrafe, Mush� q, Mo-minul, and Tamim have gained fame for their decent performance. But, they are not Supermen. It is impossible that Shakib can take � ve wickets and score 50 runs in every match, or for Mush� q to hit a 50 in all the innings, or Tamim to come down the track and hit sixes on every ball. We need more capable players who can improve the team’s performance. Long-term plans can produce more skilled and compe-tent players and reduce dependency on one or two players. l

Saleh Md Arman is a lecturer at Manarat International University.

11Op-Ed Thursday, September 25, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Abdullah Zobair

We, the people of Bangladesh, are now living in a fake soci-ety as we consume fake food, manage

fake academic and freedom � ghters’ certi� cates, take fake drugs, run fake companies, take fake bank loans, and many more things fake.

After busting fake freedom � ghters, fake police, RAB, and army men, we now have fake judges as well. Munshi-ganj police on Monday detained a man for passing himself o� as a judicial magistrate. The arrested fake magis-trate, Monir Hossain, introduced him-self as a judicial magistrate before the � rst joint district judge, Abul Kashem, and tried to get a favour in connection with a case.

The lives of millions are also carrying on with adulterated and chemical-contaminated food, fake textbooks, forged cosmetics, counter-feited currency notes, fake certi� cates, fake operations by RAB and police, fake assurances from politicians, and all-pervasive corruption.

Under a fake democratic regime where 154 out of 300 parliamentari-ans were elected unopposed through a fake, unfair, one-sided election, everything seems fake, not real.

The country with the most potential in the 70s is still lagging behind after 43 years of independence despite the 160 million people nurturing their hopes of a developed, democratic, pluralistic, and peaceful society.

The moral bankruptcy of a section of people, a fake government, and an opposition feed the general people a faded and fake dream of the future. As “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and the subaltern corrupt their rank and � le, the country is now su� ering from a systematic period of corruption and nearing the status of a failed state.

Society is more elastic in accepting dishonest people in every a� air, corruption in politics and administration, greed and mountebanks in business. The

social resistance against immorality, dishonesty, and corruption is not working now. Everybody now knows the shortcuts to having a job, working in government o� ces, and gaining undue privileges from the top-brass.

There is absolutely no authority except the one, and all the rest are illusions and fakes. The classic values of family and society are being evaporated due to lack of moral education, seduc-tive cultures, and paradoxical stands among the civil society, immoral social and political leaders, greedy business-men, a politicising judiciary, and the indi� erence of educated people to the ongoing lawlessness. Society is stand-ing at the edge, nearing collapse, as fake and counterfeit matters encircle our lives.

It is worth one’s time to think of ways to get back to the classic values of family, society, and religion with a view to ensuring cumulative economic and technological progress. The rules of law, democracy, human rights, and secularism are the guiding principles of the constitution, but the principles are absent from our everyday lives and governance.

Moral education and feelings of ac-countability could frame our minds to not be corrupt, along with proper en-forcement of law and order, a culture of accountability, and rule of law. And social resistance against dishonest, unscrupulous, and corrupt individuals should be raised, or our society should be left to die.

The need for social change is obvi-ous, but who will be the leader of that change? I believe the youth, who are not involved with con� icting politics, who are empowered with knowledge and moral strength, and are dedicated to bringing about this change for them-selves, will be the change-makers. There’s no alternative, social change is at our door. Let’s be ready to welcome this change. l

Abdullah Zobair is Executive Director of Bangladesh Initiative for Political Development (BIPD). He can be followed @azobair in Twitter.

SYED LATIF HOSSAIN

Everything is fake

After busting fake freedom � ghters, fake police, RAB, and army men, we now have fake judges

We don’t have a plan regarding our cricket. We don’t focus onthe future

Dead ball

n Mamun Rashid

Despite a lot of constraints and the pervasive existence of the “approval Raj,” the Bangladesh

Bank has o� ered a lot of sympathy and “hand-holding” to the growing private sector in Bangladesh.

Starting from allowing back-to-back import L/Cs for apparel exports, it continued with export retention quotas, holding foreign exchange for overseas business development, loans from foreign bilateral and multilateral agencies, parent company loans, issuance of repatriation guarantee, travel quotas, special quotas for treatment abroad, quotas for studying abroad, remittance of foreign consultants fees and technical fees, to repatriation of foreign direct investment and investment in traded securities in the bourses.

In fact, most Bangladesh Bank o� cials are busy processing approval requests for various private sector entities on a day-to-day basis. Even after 43 years of independence, almost every third inward or outward remit-tance requires central bank clari� ca-tion, or consent, or approval.

While individual remittance has gone through reasonable reforms or liberalisation, enterprise-level inward

and outward in� ow still remains an issue which warrants a lot of � ltering, making the outward � ows still quite cumbersome.

After independence, we inherited a devastated economy with a very low foreign exchange reserve. Therefore, we appreciated the slow pace of re-forms in the foreign exchange regime. In 2001, our net foreign exchange reserve dropped to lower than $1bn.

Central Bank Governor Moham-med Farashuddin contacted his many counterparts in the Middle East to provide some foreign currency liquid-ity support to take care of increasing commodity imports and imports for exports. The foreign exchange man Kazemi requested all global banks op-erating locally to put in some foreign currency deposits with the central bank.

The good thing was, despite all the challenges, our trade was happening, and L/Cs were opened, routed, and con� rmed through the global banks. Where L/Cs were being opened and settlement-monitoring was height-ened, Bangladesh Bank didn’t follow the route of RBI, such as putting up a 300% cash margin for opening L/Cs or “no export, no import” command-ments.

Bangladesh Bank is still trying to

hand-hold private enterprises through quick disposal of their FCY in� ow-out-� ow requests.

This is taking a lot of their time in the absence of clear guidelines. Emerg-ing realities also don’t allow them to take shelter under existing guidelines for foreign exchange transactions or relevant core risk management guidelines. Development partners, es-pecially the IMF, have been talking of the further liberalisation of the current account transactions and updating the archaic Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) 1947.

Although it looks vulgar for an in-dependent country like Bangladesh to chalk out its growth path to a middle income country with this 1947 cross border transaction rule, the reality tells us that we don’t know when our distinguished members of the par-liament could approve a new foreign exchange regulation act, suited more to the dreams of a forward-looking and emerging trading nation.

The 1947 act is not allowing Bang-ladesh Bank’s “very helpful o� cials” to do much in tending to emerging issues in international trade and remit-tance � ows. They have been issuing prudential guidelines to: Increase travel quota, creating space within the student quota, remittance of with-

drawal proceeds by a foreign investor, expansion of the EDF program, and extension of the deferred payment for usance L/Cs or increasing the space for e-wallets.

They have issued almost 25 circu-lars in this regard in recent times. Our foreign exchange reserve is on its way to $25bn, yet a traveler can’t deposit more than $5,000 on his/her return to his/her account if not declared at the airport, or easily buy tickets for overseas travels.

Remitting a single dollar outside the country for investment abroad still raises a lot of eyebrows. Establishing the local representative o� ce or agen-cy by the global corporations is still a tough exercise.

The consular section at the local US embassy reportedly increased the issu-ance of non-immigrant visas manifold.

When I asked the consular head the reasons behind the move, she prompt-ly replied: “Bangladesh’s economy is growing at a steady pace; its entrepre-neurship is growing fast, they need to connect with their US counterparts for their exports and raw materials or capital equipment sourcing; there are more and more Bangladeshi students qualifying for good US colleges and universities; more Bangladeshi gradu-ates are making their presence felt in

the US professional world, and these realities are convincing us to facili-tate their entry to the US for our own interest.”

The whole world has started to accept Bangladesh as a global play-er in its chosen � eld. Buyers want our capacity to increase, to see our performance improve, for out workers’ productivity to go up, and entrepre-neurs to reduce their costs. Nothing can happen if our regulatory regime does not become more friendly and helpful.

Even if the regulators are helpful, they can’t do much without the right tools and guidelines.

We need to change, revise, and upgrade our foreign exchange rules. It has to happen fast. Bangladesh not only requires continuous liberalisa-tion in current account transactions, time has come to think about capital account convertibility in order for us to be ahead of our peers. l

Mamun Rashid is a business professor and � nancial sector entrepreneur.

The needs of a global playerT H I R D E Y E

BIGSTOCK

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Thursday, September 25, 201412

War of the WorldsHBO, 2:51pm

When Ray returns home in the morning from his work, he � nds the children’s lives threatened by the invasion of aliens.

Life of PiStar Movies, 5pm

A Canadian writer visits the Indian storyteller Pi Patel and asks him to tell his life story.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds EndZee Studio, 9:30pm

Elizabeth, Will and Captain Barboss have saved Captain Jack Sparrow from the island of the dead and now they must face their enemies – Davy Jones and Lord Cutler Beckett.

Equalizer hits Dhaka on the global release dayn Entertainment Desk

Denzel Washington-starrer “The Equalizer” will be released in Dhaka on the same day of its international release, on Sep-tember 26. Star Cineplex is bringing the movie for the Holly-wood action-thriller lovers in Dhaka.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk, the � lm is based on the television series of the same name, which starred Edward Woodward.

The � lm is about crime and unrest in the city of Boston. Here Denzel plays a man with a mysterious past who seeks solace, and an ordinary life. But trouble is often nearby (most-ly in the form of Russian gangsters and crooked cops), and he must take matters into his own hands in an e� ort to make the dark side of the city a little brighter.

He meets a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, and he has a � nd a way to get rid of them. l

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

In its upcoming album, popular pop/rock band Obscure will be seen refashioning an old patriotic song as well as bringing three new ones, in a clear shift in focus to elicit pa-triotic feelings among its younger listeners.

So the highlight of the band ‘s new stu-dio album, “Obscure o Bangladesh,” set to hit stores on September 26 after a launch event, is its patriotism-themed numbers, although there will be other numbers de-signed to appeal to popular tastes.

Said Hasan Tipu, frontman and vocal of Obscure, is excited about the band’s latest venture. “The title of our new album is an indication that there will be some patriot-ic songs. We’re really excited about it,” he told Dhaka Tribune, saying the band will try more songs in this vein in future as well as refashion some old “people’s songs.”

Though the band incorporated a patrio-tism-themed track in its album “Opekkhai Theko,” Tipu said this time they took the matter further, with four tracks in total.

There are a total of ten tracks in the new album including the rock version of “Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano,” originally written by Abdul Ga� ar Choudhury and tuned by Altaf Mahmud, which pays tribute to the spirit of the Language Movement.

“The present generation knows only the � rst six lines of the track. We tried to intro-duce it in a whole new way,” Tipu said.

There is also a number on the struggles of the Palestinian people, called “Philis-tine.” Another track pays tribune to free-dom � ghter Shaheed Azad of Crack Platoon who sacri� ced his life in 1971. Other tracks include “Ish,” “Motijheel,” “Pushpadhuli,” “Badhu,” “Kokhono” and “Abol Tabol.”

The songs were written by Manirul Is-

lam, Mostafa Mahmud, Abu Said, Tanzil Rahman and Kolkata-based lyricist Amit Goswami. The band’s previous album was “Phera,” released in 2013, which it did after a hiatus of four years. The current lineup of the band is Tipu on vocals, Rajib and Shan-tanu on guitars and vocals, Binod on keys, Raaju on bass, Rabbi on drums and vocals.

The album will be available on interna-tional outlets including iTunes, Amazon-mp3, GooglePlay, Rhapsody, Emusic and other platforms from September 26. Fur-thermore, the songs will be monetized on free streaming sites including Spotify, You-Tube and Mushroom Entertainment’s own platform ME Radio, where the users can lis-ten to the songs for free. Obscure, formed in 1985, has so far released eight albums and produced numerous hit tracks including “Majhrate Chad,” “Nijhum Rater Adhare” and “Chhaira Gelam Matir Prithibi.” l

OBSCURE fashions patriotic songsfor new album

Loko Natyadal hosts Mymensingh Geetika festivaln Entertainment Desk

Loko Natyadal (Banani) will host a six-day theatre festival dedicated to Mymensingh’s folk ballads starting today, at the Bangla-desh Shilpakala Academy.

The event, titled Mymensingh Geetika Theatre Festival, will feature six theatre productions based on “Mymensingh Geeti-ka,” a collection of the region’s folk ballads shedding light on the life, culture and tradi-tion in rural Bangladesh.

Interestingly, most of the ballads are named after the female protagonists who are more vibrant and courageous than their male counterparts.

Bibhas Chakraborty, a leading theatre personality in India, will inaugurate the fes-tival at 6pm today.

On its second day, the festival will see the

150th staging of Loko Natydal’s acclaimed production Sonai Madhob, a romantic trag-edy that portrays a passionate love between Sonai and Madhab. The play is a dramatic de-piction of the agony and struggles of wom-en, featuring “Padabali Kirtan” (devotional songs) and “Jatra” (folk-theatre form) as well as a few traditional dance performances.

Prior to the show, folk-fusion singer Waqeel Ahad will present an array of Baul songs collected from greater Mymensingh area with traditional instrumentalists.

Other plays to be staged are Mohua (The-atre department of Jahangirnagar Univer-sity), Ayna Bibir Pala (Natyadhara), Chan-draboti (Shikor Natya Sampraday from Kisoreganj), Komola Sundori (Natyateertha) and Dosyu Kenaramer Pala (Jahangirnagar Theatre). The plays will be staged everyday at 7:00pm. l

n Entertainment Desk

The Avati Brothers (consisting of director Pupi Avati and his producer brother Antonio Avati) claimed the 56-year-old “Basic Instinct” star had some diva-like demands while shooting in Italy!

Per the Hollywood Reporter, it was the � lm’s director’s idea for Stone to play “an actress from the ‘90s who becomes a book editor.” He “knew there are American ac-tresses more capable than her,” said Pupi, “but I wanted a � lm icon.”

According to Pupi, his brother Antonio “asked me if I was crazy,” when he suggested the casting idea. “Then a correspondence started, enough to write a book, between her agents and our lawyers. It was a negotiation that bordered on ridiculous, concerning embarrassing details, as if Italy was a third world country. By the way, we do have elec-

tricity in Italy.”Antonio claimed to THR that when Stone arrived in Italy, she was

“on the wrong railway track sitting on her luggage and no one rec-ognised her.” But, according to the producer, “step-by-step, she

started to feel more and more like Sharon Stone.”Stone’s Golden Boy co-star, Cristiana Capotondi said it was “an

unforgettable experience” watching “the Hollywood diva-ism clashing up against the craftsmanship of the Avati brothers.”

“The funniest thing was when she was going shopping for her character with the production’s credit card,” Capo-

tondi added. “She had a production runner following her, at a distance, to tell Antonio which shops she was

going into. When the runner called to say that she was going into Bulgari, Antonio almost fainted.”

Pupi claims Stone’s diva-like behaviour only worsened as the media attention in-

creased and he was forced to halt the shoot one day after his leading lady disappeared before a kissing scene.

Despite the alleged di� culties onset, Pupi claims he wouldn’t

rule out working with Stone again - although the actress is

unlikely to take the Avatis’ comments lightly. l

SHARON STONE accused of demanding behaviour on Italian � lm set

Indian Films rank 3rd in female nudity: UN studyn Entertainment Desk

India is listed among the top countries, which has � lms that represent female bodies with nu-dity. When it comes to nudity of the females in � lms, Germany tops the list with 39.2%, fol-lowed by Australia with 37.1% and India with 35%. China with 13.9% and Korea with 10.2% are the countries with less nudity � lms.

In the list of females in sexy attires, Indian � lms are again in the third position with Ger-many and Australia in the lead. In portraying attractive females, India is again listed in the top with 25.2%, while Japan has the lower per-centage (7.2%).

The study was conducted on female charac-ters in popular � lms across the world, with the support of UN and sampled popular � lms from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, In-dia, Japan, Korea, Russia, the U.K and the U.S.

The study, commissioned by the Geena Da-vis Institute on Gender in Media, with the sup-port of UN women and The Rockefeller Foun-dation, reveals innate discrimination, invasive stereotyping, sexualisation of women and their under-representation in powerful roles in the international � lm industry.

Out of the � lms that were taken for the study, the female representation is only 30.9%. In India, the female dominance is just 24.9%, whereas countries like the UK and Brazil topped the list with 39.7% and 37.1%, respec-tively.

In terms of global female representations behind camera, only 20.5% are females, which means gender ratio behind the camera is 3.9 males to every one female. In India, the ratio becomes 6.2 male for every single female. The gender ratio is highest for France with 9.6 male for one female. l

Bob Dylan named MusiCares Person of the Year

n Entertainment Desk

Bob Dylan is poised to receive a prestigious acco-lade. The legendary singer has been named the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year, the charity organisation announced Tuesday.

Dylan, 73, will be honoured for his artistic achievements by both MusiCares and the Re-cording Academy -- the same organization which holds the Grammys each year -- during a special ceremony in Los Angeles on February 6, two days before the big awards show.

“In celebrating the 25th anniversary of our MusiCares Person of the Year tribute, it is most � tting that we are honouring Bob Dylan, whose body of creative work has contributed to Amer-ica’s culture, as well as that of the entire world, in genuinely deep and lasting ways,” said Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the MusiCares Foundation and the Recording Academy. l

Poster of Dirty Picture, a Bollywood � lm that made waves for portraying provocative and explicit scenes. The � lm won numerous accolades including three National Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards

The festival marks the

150th staging of Sonai Madhab

13DHAKA TRIBUNEThursday, September 25, 2014

Sport 1414 Torres, Honda rescue point for Milan at Empoli

Ronaldo claims four-goal haul in Elche rout

15 ‘Gala Leon not best candidate for Davis Cup job’

Did you know?Liverpool join Da-

genham & Redbridge as the only English top four tier teams

to score 14 times in a penalty shootout

Women enter Asiad semis with big winn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh women’s team made it to the semi-� nal of the 17th Asian Games Twenty20 Cricket Competition with a dominating 81-run win over Nepal in

the quarter-� nal at the Yeonhui Cricket Ground (YCG) in Incheon yesterday.

The win means Bangladesh will now have to face a tough test in their mis-sion against Sri Lanka in the semi-� nal at the same venue at 11am today.

Bangladesh bundled the Nepal-ese for just 26 runs in 15.3 overs after Ayesha Rahman’s 51 enabled them to post 107 for 4.

Batting � rst, Ayesha and Shahnaz Parvin (12) put on 38 inside nine overs before Nepal’s RC Belbashi and Sonu Khadka troubled the Bangladeshi bat-ters and tied the run-rate down.

Ayesha, however, continued to help the team with a 21-run second wicket partnership with Farzana Haque and a further 18-run fourth wicket stand with Rumana Ahmed and in the pro-cess she also registered her � fty. Sita Rana Magar and Sitara Magar bagged a brace each for Nepal conceding 24 and

19 runs respectively.The high-spirited Bangladeshi bowl-

ers left the Nepalese in tatters from the very beginning of their chase as skip-per Salma Khatun and Rumana Ahmed shared six wickets to destroy Nepal’s hope of putting up a � ght. Extras bowled for 10 runs were the highest as none of the Nepalese could reach dou-ble digits.

Jahanara Alam and Fahima Khatun grabbed two wickets apiece to play a perfect foil to Salma Khatun and Ru-mana Ahmed.

Panana Ghosh might not get a sin-gle wicket but set a record of bowling a full quota of overs without conceding a run. Her bowling � gure at the end of match read 3-3-0-0.

Bangladesh women bagged silver medal in the maiden edition of the Asian Games Cricket, held in Guang-zhou, China in 2010. Along with Paki-stan, Sri Lanka and Japan, Bangladesh received a bye of a direct entry in quar-ter-� nal stage of the Games.

Following the victory, Bangladesh women go a step forward in ful� lling the countries dream of a medal from the event. After six days of the event so far none of the country’s athlete made an impact or won any medal. l

The tonic that was Asian Games football n Shishir Hoque

In a country like Bangladesh where football’s popularity has long been over-shadowed by cricket, participation in any international football tournament is a rarity. The regional Sa� champion-ship is obviously there but taking part in the Asian Games is another experience altogether. The Asiad football competi-tion, often referred to as the continent’s World Cup, is no less charming for Ban-gladesh than the Fifa World Cup itself.

The 17th Asian Games being hosted by Incheon, South Korea is indeed Ban-gladesh’s biggest and toughest tourna-

ment in recent times. And the national footballers made it a competition to re-member by registering their � rst win in this tournament after a long hiatus of 28 years.

The Bangladesh Football Federa-tion reserved special attention for the tournament by providing the national Under-23 team a month-long, isolated training camp besides organising inter-national friendlies against Nepal last month.

Expectations surrounding the Asiad were never there to begin with, given the fact that the teams in Bangladesh’s group are all ranked higher. The tourna-

ment’s favourites Uzbekistan not only occupy 51st place in the world rankings, miles ahead of Bangladesh, but are also ranked as the third best team in Asia. To achieve a point in Incheon from the three group games would have been labeled as a great achievement for the boys in Red and Green.

Bangladesh, however, confounded expectations right from the very be-ginning of their campaign. Against the defending Sa� champions Afghanistan, Bangladesh posted a morale-boosting win, courtesy a brilliant long-range ef-fort from skipper Mamunul Islam. Ban-gladesh su� ered a defeat in their next

game against the Uzbeks, which did not, however, scupper their hopes of pro-gressing the next round.

The � nal group game against Hong Kong was a do-or-die match for them. The opponents knew that a draw would be enough for them to go through so it was never an easy task for Bangladesh. As a result, despite dominating the � rst half which ended goalless, Bangladesh went gung-ho for the all-important goal and instead, conceded the game in un-lucky fashion.

Not only the encouraging victory against Afghanistan, the overall expe-rience and con� dence gained from the competition will inspire the footballers to perform similar feats in the future, opined Mamunul after returning home on Tuesday night. “Overall we played well throughout the event. Hopefully we will keep up the momentum in future.”

The Asian Games performance also aided the development of young foot-ballers like Hemanta Vincent Biswas, Wahed Ahmed and Toklis Ahmed.

“I cannot tell you how much I learned from just being there. We played against tougher teams and came to know about our limitations and mistakes,” said an excited Hemanta yesterday.

Sheikh Jamal forward Toklis Ahmed Tonmoy on the other hand vowed to do better things in future. “We played well and the team spirit was very high. We could have done better in the last game but unfortunately we lost. If we play reg-ular international friendlies I am sure we will become the best team in Sa� .” l

Russel bow out of President’s Cupn Tribune Desk

High � ying Sheikh Russel KC were shot down to ground as the Bangladeshi club’s debut AFC President’s Cup ap-pearance came to an end with a shock-ing 0-4 defeat at the hands of North Korea’s Rimyongsu Club.

The Bangladesh Premier League side won their opening Group B game against Mongolian side Erchim FC 1-0 and needed another win in their � -nal game at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday, but Rimyongsu emerged as group champions following the victory with six points and booked their place in the � nal while the Bengal Blues � n-ished second with three points.

Ri Jin-hyok opened the scoring for the North Korea champions and skip-per Pak Song-chol doubled the lead in the opening half before Ro Hak-su and Kim Kyong-il extended the lead in the latter half to give Russel their � rst de-feat in the tournament.

Russel coach Jakaria Babu wants to take lessons from the tournament where they became the � rst Bangla-deshi club to qualify for the � nal round of AFC President’s Cup.

“I didn’t expect a scoreline like this; we made a few mistakes and got pun-ished. Rimyongsu are a very strong side and that’s why they are going to the � nal,” said the Russel coach after

the game.“We learnt a lot from this tourna-

ment and we will take on board these lessons and we will improve in the fu-ture,” he added.

Rimyongsu were the more adven-turous side from the start, with Russel looking to sit deep and hit target-man Kingsley Chigozie with long balls from the back.

Russel could have conceded more than one goal in the � rst 20 minutes but their keeper Mamun Khan pro-duced three lovely saves to deny the North Korean side.

But on the half-hour mark, Rimyong-su’s relentless pressure � nally told as Ri Jin-hyok latched onto a low, skimming cross from Ri Chang-ho with a � ying header that left Mamun helpless for the striker’s third goal in two games.

And on the stroke of half-time, Rimyongsu doubled their lead after Rezaul Karim fouled Pak 20-yards out of goal and the skipper dusted himself o� before punishing the infringement in the most clinical fashion - a sumptuous strike that � ew into the top-right hand corner with Mamun rooted to his line.

Rimyongsu made the scoreline 3-0 just � ve minutes after the re-start be-fore substitute Kim slammed the ball home from inside the penalty area to add his side’s fourth goal of the after-noon inside the hour mark. l

Grand Master Ziaur Rahman (C) took a solo lead in the points table with 4.5 points at the end of the � fth round of the Berger Paints National Chess beating FM Debaraj Chatterjee after 69 moves at the media room of the Bangladesh Olympic Association yesterday. While Zia was playing two other Grandmasters Niaz Murshed (L) and Abdullah al Rakib keenly followed the procedure MUMIT M

The Bangladesh U23 football team returned from Incheon, South Korea on Tuesday after completing their Asian Games mission COURTESY

Fed Cup TT starts todayn Raihan Mahmood

The Shamuzzaman Limited Federation Cup Table Tennis comrising 14 teams and more than 100 table tennis players across the country begins at the Paltan Ground Shaheed Tajuddin Wooden Floor Gymnasium today.

The paddlers will play in the men’s and women’s singles and the team events. Sheikh Russel are the defend-ing champions and Palolic Group are

the runners-up side. The three-day competition will conclude on Saturday.

In a press conferecne held at the Wooden Floor Gymnasium yester-day, the Table Tennis Federation an-nounced that the players’ ranking will be initiated through the tournament. The federation’s general secretary Hasan Munir, vice presidents Helen Morshed and Shasul Alam Anu and me-dia manager Ahsan Ahmed Amit were present on the occasion. l

BANGLADESH A v ZIMBABWE A, 4-DAY MATCH

Bangladesh A in driving seatn Tribune Desk

Bangladesh A � nd themselves in the driving seat heading into the fourth and � nal day’s play of the second four-day game against Zimbabwe A at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah with the hosts leading the visitors by 234 runs with � ve second innings wickets remaining.

Following the third and penulti-mate day’s play, Bangladesh A were batting on 108/5 with skipper Naeem Islam unbeaten on 13 and wicket-keep-er-batsman Nurul Hasan undefeated on nought.

Resuming the third day’s play on 91/6, Zimbabwe A earlier added a further 41 runs before losing their remaining four wickets to be dismissed for 132 in their � rst innings. Paceman Shahadat Hossain (4/33) and young leg-

spinner Jubair Hossain (4/48) were the most successful Bangladesh A bowlers.

With a healthy � rst innings lead of 126 runs, Bangladesh A began their reply with top-order batsman Marshal Ayub striking a responsible 123-ball 53. After losing openers Shadman Islam (18) and Shahriar Nafees (nought) early, Marshal and Raqibul Hasan (21) added 42 runs for the third wicket repairing the early damage. Marshal was cleaned up by Tatenda Manatsa a couple of overs before the day’s play came to an end. l

Archer Milon bows out of Asian Gamesn Raihan Mahmood

Ace Bangladesh archer Emdadul Haque Milon failed to qualify for the � nal round of the 17th Asian Games � nish-ing 36th in the Individual Recurve Bow event. Rising stars Ruman Sana and Sheikh Sojib on the other hand qual-i� ed for the � nal round � nshing 28th and 30th respectively.

In the ladies’ section of the Individ-ual Recruve Bow, Mathu Pru Marma and Shamoli Ray quali� ed for the medal � ght. In the beach volleyball discipline, Bangladesh lost to Sri Lanka by 2-0 sets.

US-based Bangladeshi gym-nast Quazi Syque Caesar will compete in the Parallel and Hor-izontal Bars medal-round today. The golf team comprising Mohammed Nazim, Mohammed Sajib Ali, Moham-med Sagor Ali and Mohammed Ismail will tee-o� today. l

BCB requests ICC to defer Al Amin’s testn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has requested the International Cricket Council to postpone Al Amin Hossain’s bowling action test by two weeks as the pace bowler is su� ering from Level 1 rib injury. The BCB cricket operations committee took the decision after thor-ough discussion with physiotherapists and national coaching sta� s.

Al Amin is scheduled to � y to the UK on October 1 to get his bowling action tested at the Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough University in Leices-tershire on October 3. However, BCB physiotherapist Dr Debashish Chowd-hury warned the cricket operations and informed that Al Amin might pick a long-term injury if he bowls on October 3. The right-arm pacer picked the injury during the second innings of the second Test match against the West Indies where he was only able to bowl four overs. l

Bangladesh A 258 and 108/5Marshal Ayub 53, Rokibul Hasan 21Sibanda 1/35, Masakadza 1/16

Zimbabwe A 132 all out 47.3 oversBrian Chari 31, Mark Vermuelen 47Shahadat 4/33, Jubair Hossain 4/49

BRIEF SCORE, DAY 3

BTTF general secretary Hasan Munir speaks at a press conference yesterday

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sport Thursday, September 25, 2014

Ronaldo claims four-goal haul in Elche routn Reuters, Barcelona

Cristiano Ronaldo continued his proli� c start to the season with four goals, including two penalties, as Real Madrid came from behind to beat Elche 5-1 in

La Liga on Tuesday.The Portuguese made a bad start by

conceding a 15th minute penalty for a foul on Pedro Mosquera, with

Edu Albacar sweeping the ball home past Keylor

Navas making his o� cial debut in the Real goal.

Gareth Bale quickly put Real back on track as he headed in a James Rodriguez cross � ve min-utes later and then the referee pointed to the spot for a foul by Mosquera on Marcelo even though there was marginal contact.

Ronaldo � red in the 28th minute penalty and headed home a Marcelo cross four minutes later to extend Real’s lead.

He was then upended by Mario Pasalic with 10 minutes to go and slotted home his second spot-kick while there was still time for another goal from Ronaldo deep in injury time where he � nished clinically in the box.

The World Player of the Year now has seven goals in four days after the hat-trick he scored on Saturday in the 8-2 win over Deportivo La Coruna.

While Real have played some brilliant football, they have looked vulnerable in defence and are three points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona who have 12 points and a game in hand. They play Malaga on Wednes-day. Champions Atletico have eight points from four games and play Almeria, also on

Wednesday.“I’ve managed to get four a few

times before but this is all down to the team. Things are going for me and it is

down to my team-mates

who help me a lot,” Ronaldo told reporters at the Bernabeu.

“It was a good game for us. We started poorly, I gave away a penalty, but we responded well with two quick goals,” added the Portuguese.

Real coach Carlo Ancelotti made several changes for the � xture with 29-year-old Ronaldo the oldest player in a youthful-look-ing starting lineup. Isco and Asier Illarramendi, who looked sharp when they came on against Deportivo, were rewarded by starts while Ronaldo and Bale were given more central roles in attack with Karim Benzema rested.

Ronaldo was unforgiving as he buried his � rst spot-kick of the evening into the top corner to put Real ahead and the home side then began to play the ball around with more con-� dence. Elche concentrated on containing Real after the break but Ronaldo still added two more and Toni Kroos was inches away from scoring as well when his shot from inside the area came back o� the crossbar.

Celta Vigo survived a late penalty scare in a 2-1 win over local rivals Deportivo La Coruna when Sergio Alvarez saved from mid� elder Haris Medunjanin two minutes from time.

Joaquin Larrivey headed Celta in front midway through the second half after Isaac Cuenca had cancelled out Nolito’s early strike but Depor had the chance to equalise when Gustavo Cabral handled in the area. Medun-janin’s spot-kick was heading for the corner but Alvarez got down to beat it away.

“It was a great moment for me but the most important thing was the win,” Alvarez told reporters. “It was a tough game as we ex-pected and a good performance from us.” l

Torres, Honda rescue point for Milan at Empolin AFP, Milan

Spaniard Fernando Tor-res scored his maiden goal for AC Milan on his full Serie A debut to help spark the � ghtback in a 2-2 draw away to Empoli

on Tuesday.Empoli had won only two of their 18

previous league meetings with Milan and never beaten the Rossoneri at their Carlo Castellani stadium.

However the Serie B runners-up made the most of a sluggish start by Filippo Inzaghi’s men to race to a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes thanks to goals from Lorenzo Tonelli and Manuel Pucciarelli.

In the end Milan escaped with a point, but having been stunned by Em-poli’s pace Inzaghi admitted

“If we want to achieve some of the ambitions we’ve set out we can’t a� ord to concede goals in such a manner,” the former Milan striker told Sky Sport Italia.

Milan could have conceded more in a busy opening period for the visitors’ defence, with ‘keeper Christian Abbiati coming to their rescue on several occa-sions before � nally awaking from their slumber minutes before the half-time break. Having waited 34 minutes for their � rst shot on goal thanks to Keis-uke Honda, Milan � nally reduced ar-rears when Torres sent a looping head-er from Ignazio Abate’s cross into Luigi Sepe’s top corner on 43 minutes.

“I’m happy to have scored but we didn’t get the win,” said Torres. “When you’re up against a team that plays its heart out then it becomes a lot more complicated.

“It was hard, but I’m satis� ed. Ital-ian defences are hard to play against, but I knew that already.” l

Liverpool survive Boro shoot-out marathon as Arsenal, Everton crashn AFP, London

Liverpool reached the English League Cup last 16 after an

extraordinary third round tie saw them beat second-tier Middlesbrough 14-13 in a penalty shoot-out on Tuesday, while Southampton knocked Arsenal out of the competition.

Both goalkeepers scored in a shoot-out at An� eld where all 22 players still on the � eld took spot-kicks before Mid-dlesbrough’s Albert Adomah � red wide to ensure eight-times League Cup win-ners Liverpool’s victory.

Earlier, 17-year-old striker Jordan Rossiter marked his Liverpool debut with a 10th-minute goal before Adam Reach equalised for Middlesbrough just after the hour.

The sides remained locked at 1-1 until the end of normal time. It seemed Liver-pool substitute Suso had done enough to give the home side victory with a 109th-minute goal that made it 2-1.

But with virtually the last kick of ex-tra-time, Boro’s Patrick Bamford scored from the penalty spot after he was brought down by Kolo Toure in the box.

That led to a remarkable 30 more penalties in the shoot-out.

Earlier, Southampton -- second in the Premier League -- came from be-hind to win 2-1 away to top-� ight rivals

Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger

made 10 changes to the side that beat Aston Villa 3-0 in the Premier League last weekend but when Alexis Sanchez put the Gunners 1-0 up with a superb 14th-minute free-kick, it seemed the

home side were on their way to victory.But the Gunners, with Saints old

boy Calum Chambers the sole survivor from the Villa victory, were pegged back by Dusan Tadic’s penalty six minutes later. Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne then scored what turned out to be the winning goal with a blockbuster 35-yard strike � ve minutes before half-time.

Another all-Premier League tie saw Swansea overwhelm Everton 3-0 at the Liberty Stadium.

Nathan Dyer opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark before Gyl� Sigurdsson made it 2-0 in the 65th min-ute. Marvin Emnes added a third goal in the closing minutes as Welsh club Swansea beat Everton for the � rst time in their history.

It was the second match in a row where Everton had conceded three goals following their 3-2 league loss at home to Crystal Palace last weekend.

Sunderland, last season’s beaten � -nalists, bowed out following a 2-1 defeat by fellow Premier League side Stoke City. Jozy Altidore’s � rst goal since De-cember put Sunderland in front but Stoke hit back thanks to left-back Marc Muniesa � rst two goals for the club.

Third Division Milton Keynes Dons, who knocked English giants Manchester United out in the last round, continued their League Cup progress as Benik Afobe scored twice in a 2-0 win over Bradford. l

Break key to Ronaldo’s stunning form: Ancelottin AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti believes Cristiano Ronaldo’s three-week break at the start of the season to ease knee and hamstring injuries is the reason for the Portuguese’s sensational form.

Ronaldo scored four goals in a 5-1 thrashing of Elche on Wednesday to register his 25th hat-trick for the club and his second in four days after also scoring three in Real’s 8-2 humiliation of Deportivo la Coruna on Saturday.

The Portuguese captain now has 12 goals in just eight appearances this season.

However, he missed his country’s em-barrassing 1-0 home defeat to Albania this month, as well as Madrid’s 4-2 loss to Real Sociedad to rest after a gruelling schedule as Los Blancos won their 10th European Cup in May before he travelled to the World Cup.

“It is clear that has helped because he needed a period of time to work with the seriousness and professionalism he has,” said Ancelotti.

“At the moment he is physically in very good shape, he is very motivated and he is scoring a lot.”

Ronaldo’s night at the Bernadene on Tuesday hadn’t gotten o� to the best start as he gave away a penalty as he tried to clear inside the area and Edu Albacar � red Elche into a shock lead from the penalty spot.

“Although I complained to the referee, it was a penalty. I have to admit it,” said Ronaldo.

“I didn’t expect it. It all went very quickly, but the referee made the right decision.”

Madrid were only behind for � ve minutes, though, as Gareth Bale headed home his fourth goal of the campaign before Ronaldo put the hosts in front with a penalty of his own.

Ronaldo doubled his tally for the evening with a towering header to make it 3-1 and added two more goals in the � nal 10 minutes as he dispatched a second penalty before slotting home from Bale’s � ne through ball.

“To score four goals is very di� cult. I thank my teammates for passing me the ball to be able to score.

“It was a very good game for us. We start-ed a little badly, I gave away the penalty, but we responded well with two quick goals.” l

Marseille thrash Reimsn AFP, Paris

High-� ying Marseille picked up their � fth straight victory on Tuesday as Ligue 1 top scorer Andre-Pierre Gignac claimed a brace in a 5-0 thrashing of Reims.

Gignac could even a� ord the luxury of a missed eighth-minute penalty, before scoring two � rst-half goals while Ghana international Andre Ayew also struck twice in a one-sided a� air at the Stade Auguste Delaune. The win takes Marce-lo Bielsa’s in-form side three points clear at the top of the French table ahead of a busy Wednesday slate, before Saint-Eti-

enne host Bordeaux on Thursday with both teams currently tied for second.

Gignac, who was left out of Didier Des-champs’ World Cup team that reached the quarter-� nals in Brazil, gave the national coach food for thought as he took his tally to eight goals in seven matches. l

Classy Bayern back on top n AFP, Berlin

Bayern Munich restored some normality to the Bundesliga table on Tuesday as the reigning champions eased past surprise early leaders SC

Paderborn 4-0 to take over � rst place.Munich also leapfrogged Ho� en-

heim and Mainz 05 - who both played out draws to slip two points behind Bayern while Schalke 04 picked up their � rst victory of the season.

Munich did not wait long to strike, taking the lead after eight minutes with some � ne passing.

Arjen Robben fed Thomas Mueller, who back-heeled to Mario Goetze and the youngster placed his shot perfectly inside the right post to make it 1-0.

Munich doubled their advantage in

the 14th minute thanks to a powerful strike by Robert Lewandowski.

The champions took their foot o� the gas but Goetze added his second goal in the 78th minute, pouncing on a loose ball in the box, before Mueller got his name on the scoresheet in the 85th minute to see Bayern to 11 points. l

Santos named new Portugal coachn Reuters, Lisbon

Fernando Santos, who led Greece to the last 16 of the World Cup in Brazil, has been appointed coach of Portugal, the Portuguese federation (FPF) an-nounced on Tuesday.

He replaced Paulo Bento, who left by mutual consent after Portugal made a calamitous start to their Euro 2016 cam-paign by losing 1-0 at home to Albania.

The 59-year-old Santos was ap-pointed even though he has to serve an eight-match touchline ban after he was sent o� at the end of extra time in the World Cup second round tie against Costa Rica, which Greece lost on penal-ties after a 1-1 draw.

FIFA’s disciplinary tribunal said he had been guilty of “several acts of unsporting conduct towards the match o� cials.” l

United player questions Van Gaal in heated dressing room exchangen Agencies

Disharmony at Manchester United is seemingly continuing to grow, with the Mail reporting that a heated dressing room exchange between the squad and their manager following the weekend’s 5-3 defeat at Leicester City led to one furious player questioning his manag-er’s decision to take o� the impressive Angel di Maria for ine� ectual substi-tute Juan Mata.

The report suggests that a source at the King Power Stadium told the Mail that an unnamed player had been heard asking his manager “why the f**k did we sub-stitute di Maria!?!” in a heated dressing room exchange following the 5-3 defeat, in which former non-league striker Jamie Vardy helped the Foxes to turn around a game that appeared to have been lost when United roared into a 3-1 lead.

The substitution of di Maria did seem to be one of a number of factors in allowing the game’s momentum to swing so dramatically in the favour of Nigel PEarson’s side.

With captain Wayne Rooney also having been caught on camera lam-basting teammates following Esteban Cambiasso’s equaliser, despite his own mistake having led to the goal, it would seem that discord is starting to grow in the Old Tra� ord camp. l

RESULTSBayern Munich 4-0 SC PaderbornGoetze 8, 78, Lewandowski 14, Mueller 85

Ho� enheim 3-3 SC Freiburg Elyounoussi 44, Frantz 31,Rudy 63, Vestergaard 90+3 33, Darida 75-pen

Werder Bremen 0-3 Schalke 04 Meyer 48, Neustädter 51, Barnetta 85

Frankfurt 2-2 Mainz 05 Meier 45+1, Hofmann 41,Seferovic 82 Okazaki 44

RESULTSArsenal 1-2 Southampton Sanchez 14 Tadic 20-P, Clyne 40

Cardi� 0-3 Bournemouth Gosling 9, 33, Daniels 22

Derby 2-0 ReadingRussell 67, Pearce 82-og

Fulham 2-1 Doncaster Ruiz 16, Burn 32 Coppinger 60

Leyton Orient 0-1 She� eld Utd Higdon 2

Liverpool 2-2 Middlesbrough Rossiter 10, Suso 109 Reach 62, Bamford 120-pen

After extra-time, 1-1 after 90 minutesLiverpool win 14-13 on penalties

Milton Keynes 2-0 BradfordAfobe 5, 86

Shrewsbury 1-0 NorwichCollins 54

Sunderland 1-2 Stoke Altidore 16 Muniesa 31, 71

Swansea 3-0 EvertonDyer 28, Sigurdsson 64,Emnes 87

RESULTSReal Madrid 5-1 Elche Bale 20, Ronaldo 28-P, 32, Albacar 15-P80-P, 90+2

Celta Vigo 2-1 DeportivoNolito 4, Larrivey 72 Cuenca 55

RESULTEmpoli 2-2 AC Milan Tonelli 13, Pucciarelli 21 Torres 43, Honda 57

RESULTSReims 0-5 Marseille Gignac 8, 20, A. Ayew 52, 59, Imbula 74

Rennes 0-3 Toulouse Pesic 42, Fallou 57-og, Ben Yedder 61

FC Goa coach Zico (2R) and marquee player Robert Pires (R) along with Nita Ambani, founding chairperson, cricketer and co-owner of the club Virat Kohli and actor Varun Dhawan during a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday AP

AC Milan’s Spanish forward Fernando Torres (C) controls the ball during their Italian Serie A match against Empoli at the Stadio Carlo Castellani in Empoli on Tuesday AFP

Liverpool players celebrate with Belgian goalkeeper Simon Mignolet after their 14-13 penalty shoot out victory in their English League Cup third round match against Middlesbrough at An� eld in Liverpool, north west England on Tuesday AFP

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15Thursday, September 25, 2014

Cook to lead England at World CupEngland captain Alastair Cook will lead the side at next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand after being named Wednesday as skipper for an upcoming one-day international series in Sri Lanka on Wednesday. He (Cook) will be our leader at the World Cup,” national selector James Whitaker told Sky Sports after the 16-man squad for a seven-match ODI series in Sri Lanka in November and December was announced. “He’s shown a huge amount of fortitude and resilience through the sum-mer, and I’d like to make it clear we are 100 percent behind him as captain,” he added. Left-handed opening batsman Cook faced questions over his form and leadership throughout all of England’s recent home campaign but answered his Test critics by leading the side to a 3-1 series win over India following a defeat by Sri Lanka. –AFP

Tajikistan footballer tests positive in AsiadThe Asian Games announced its � rst positive doping test on Tuesday and said Tajikistan soccer player Khurshed Beknazarov had been thrown out of the multi-sport event in South Korea. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said in a statement that a test from a urine sample collected from Beknazarov on Sept. 14 had shown the presence of a stimulant. “His urine specimen collected on 14 Sep-tember 2014 after the competition was found to contain methylhexaneamine, a prohibited substance in the WADA Pro-hibited List 2014,” the OCA said. The OCA said it had disquali� ed Beknazarov from the Games and withdrawn his accredita-tion. It will send the � ndings to the Asian and international soccer federations as well as the World Anti-Doping Agency.

–Reuters

Fergie stirs Europe with Ryder Cup talkFormer Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson gave European golfers an inspirational speech ahead of Friday’s Ryder Cup start, a talk that top-ranked Rory McIlroy says might make a tro-phy-winning di� erence. The 72-year-old Scotsman, who spoke for 90 minutes Tuesday night, retired last year after a 26-year career that saw him guide Man-chester United to 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles and two Cham-pions League titles. “Those things do help, those things really do. It galvanises us and brings us together,” McIlroy said. “OK, everyone might not be a Man Unit-ed fan, but at the same time, everyone has to respect what Alex Ferguson has done in his career and how successfully. These things, they help. They are little details in the bigger picture, but it would be that half a percent or one percent that helps us to get back that little trophy.” –AFP

Sri Lanka pick Atapattu as head coachSri Lanka Cricket on Wednesday appoint-ed former Test captain Marvan Atapattu as the head coach, making him the island nation’s seventh coach in the last four years. A selection committee interviewed Atapattu, 43, and one other candidate on Tuesday before recommending him for the job, a news release from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said. The SLC executive com-mittee then “unanimously approved and appointed Mr. Marvan Attapattu to the position of national head coach... with im-mediate e� ect”, the release said. Atapattu had served as the interim coach for three months before his full-time appointment Wednesday, guiding the team during the recent series against England, South Africa and Pakistan. The former batsman replaces Englishman Paul Farbrace who quit in April after just four months on the job to take over as England’s deputy coach under Peter Moores. –AFP

QUICK BYTES

Ten Sports6:00AM Asian Games 2014

Star Sports 1, 38:20PM Champions League T20 Chennai v Lahore

Star Sports 212:45AM Italian Serie A Lazio v Udinese

Star Sports 4Spanish La Liga 12:00AM Espanyol v Getafe 2:00AM Valencia v Cordoba

Ten Action1:00AM French Ligue 1 Saint-Etienne v Bordeaux

DAY’S WATCH

Hagino, Shen each collect fourth goldsn Reuters, Incheon

Kosuke Hagino cement-ed his status as Asia’s best all-round swimmer when he captured his fourth gold medal in breathtaking style at the

Asian Games on Wednesday.The 20-year-old from Japan blew

away his rivals on the � nal lap to win the men’s 400 metres individual med-ley � nal – the most gruelling event in the pool – and show why he is one of the early favourites to win gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In fourth place after the penultimate leg of breaststroke, Hagino turned on the

power on the � nal lap of freestyle, open-ing up a body length’s lead over his rivals.

He cruised to victory in four minutes 07.75 seconds, slashing almost six sec-onds o� the Asian Games record, and leaving the likes of Japan’s reigning world champion Daiya Seto in his wash.

Fresh from winning six gold medals at last month’s Youth Olympics, the 17-year-old from Changzhou, Jiangsu left her opposition dead in the water as she charged through the � rst lap under world record pace and then steamed to victory in 1:57.66.

Shen also won the 100m freestyle � nal and two relays and has a great chance of winning a � fth with the med-ley relay still to come although she has

her sights set on bigger prizes.China won four of the seven � nals

decided at the Munhak Aquatics Cen-tre on Wednesday in a further demon-stration of their bottomless depth of talent with long-distance star Sun Yang switching to sprints and scooping up a gold in the 4x100m freestyle � nal.

Jiao Liuyang, the Olympic champi-on in London two years ago, won the women’s 200m butter� y gold while Fu Yuanhui won the 100m backstroke for her second gold of the Games.

Kazakhstan teenager Dmitriy Bal-andin, another potential star who sur-faced at these Games, won his second gold in as many nights when he took out the 100m breaststroke, just dipping

under the one minute barrier.Joseph Schooling provided the small

island state of Singapore with a rare victo-ry over Asia’s traditional swimming pow-erhouses when he won the men’s 100m butter� y. Schooling, who has enrolled at the University of Texas and needed per-mission to come back for the Games, won gold in 51.76 seconds, becoming the � rst Singaporean man to win an Asian Games swimming title in over three decades.

“It is a great thing for an athlete. I am honoured that I can do that for my country,” he said.

“I tried to prepare for this as best as I could but nowhere close to where I should be or I will be doing for future events.” l

Pakistan drops Younis from Australia one-day teamn AFP, Lahore

Pakistan on Wednesday dropped ex-perienced but out-of-form batsman Younis Khan from the one-day squad for next month’s limited-overs series against Australia in the United Arab Emirates.

The Pakistan Cricket Board selection committee headed by former captain Moin Khan announced separate squads for the only Twenty20 international in Dubai on October 5 and the three subse-quent one-day internationals.

The squad for the two Tests will be announced later.

Younis Khan, 36, has had an extended run of poor form in the one-day format, with his last hundred coming in 2008.

He later told reporters in Karachi: “I will make an important announcement on Friday,” leading to speculation his re-tirement from the one-day game may be imminent.

Younis was included in the one-day squad for the Sri Lanka series last month after a gap of 17 months, but managed just three in the � rst match before he was forced to return home after his nephew died.

The most serious challenge for se-lectors was to � nd a replacement for o� -spinner Saeed Ajmal, who was sus-pended from all international cricket after his action was found to be illegal.

Ajmal had almost single-handedly shouldered Pakistan’s attack in all three formats of the game and is still the num-ber one bowler in the one-day rankings.

Left-arm spinner Raza Hasan replac-es Ajmal, a step Khan said was taken af-ter serious consideration.

“I am sure Hasan will do his best to replace Ajmal, which is not an easy task

because Ajmal’s performances are great and it won’t be easy to � ll his void,” he said.

Hasan, 22, played all seven of his previ-ous Twenty20 internationals in the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka two years ago but was subsequently sidelined due to a back problem. Left-hander Umar Amin stag-es a comeback in both teams after being dropped from the team in 2013.

Pakistan’s Twenty20 squad also includes uncapped Saad Nasim, a leg-spinning all-rounder, while dashing left-handed opener Awais Zia is also re-called.

Zia, 28, played three Twenty20 inter-nationals against England in 2012 but managed only 47 runs before being dis-carded. His recent form in the domestic Twenty20 tournament in which he hit a century earned him a recall.

Pakistan and Australia play the only Twenty20 in Dubai on October 5 while the three one-day internationals are in Sharjah (October 7), Dubai (October 10) and Abu Dhabi (October 13). l

Gala Leon not best candidate: Toni Nadaln AFP, Madrid

Rafael Nadal’s coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, has continued his criticism of the appointment of Gala Leon Garcia as Spain’s � rst female Davis Cup captain.

Toni Nadal said earlier in the week that having a female captain was im-practical as she wouldn’t be able to en-ter the dressing room at all times.

“I believe that for what they have achieved and how well-known they are, others like (Juan Carlos) Ferrero, (Sergi) Bruguera and (Alberto) Ber-asategui were more suited, nothing more,” he told Spanish radio station Ca-dena SER in a head-to-head with Leon Garcia. l

Sharapova crashes, Kvitova through in Wuhann AFP Wuhan

Fourth seed Maria Sharapova crashed out of the $2.4 million WTA Wuhan Open in two sets Wednesday, while Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and world number eight Angelique Kerber made the quarter-� nals.

Sharapova was defeated by Timea Bacsinszky in a tight game, losing the � rst set at the tie break and the second 7-5 -- a result which broke the hearts of the local crowd who were supporting the Russian world number four.

“There were a lot of, you know, times in the match where I did everything right

for the � rst few balls and then didn’t ex-ecute in the points,” Sharapova said.

“I think I always allowed her to get another ball back and to make me play another ball.

“Then obviously that didn’t help me, because I was making more mistakes.”

The tournament has already suf-fered the loss of a string of seeds, in-cluding world number one Serena Wil-liams, and local hero Li Na announced her retirement days before it started.

Switzerland’s Bacsinszky will go on to play either Casey Dellacqua of Australia or Denmark’s world number eight Caro-line Wozniacki in the quarter-� nals. l

KOOL-BSJA MEDIA CUP

ATN win big, Jamuna, Channel 71 keep hope alive n Raihan Mahmood

ATN News registered the biggest victo-ry on the second day of the Kool-BSJA Media Cup Football by thrashing New Nation 6-0 in their group game at the arti� cial turf of the Bangladesh Foot-ball Federation yesterday.

In the other matches of the day, BanglaNews 24 beat New Age 2-0 and Channel 71 outplayed UNB by the same margin. Gazi TV, Naya Diganta and Ja-muna TV registered identical 1-0 victo-ries over The Independent, Channel I and Boishakhi TV respectively.

There were also two drawn match-es and among them Channel 24 and BD News 24.com drew 1-1 while Shakaler Khabar and Daily Sangram drew goalless.

Former national footballer Satya-jit Das Rupu, National Sports Council secretary Shibnath Roy, football coach Golam Rabbani Choton and BFF gener-al secretary Abu Naeem Shohag graced the day by their presence and distribut-ed the man of the match awards. l

Pakistan’s former cricketer Shoaib Akhtar rides a bike during a Champions League T20 match at Chinanswamy Stadium on Monday AP

Qatar forfeit basketball game in hijab rown Reuters, Incheon

The Qatar women’s basketball team for-feited a match at the Asian Games on Wednesday after being refused permis-sion to wear the Islamic headscarf, taking a stand against what they say is a discrim-inatory policy against Muslim women.

The Qatari players were asked, in ac-cordance with International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules, to remove the hijab before their group game against Mongolia. The players refused, saying it violated their religious beliefs and they wanted to send a strong message to the sport’s governing federation that the ban was unfair. l

Afridi among 12 � ned for being out of shapen AFP, Lahore

Pakistan cricket authorities on Tues-day � ned 12 players, including star allrounder Shahid Afridi and batsman Umar Akmal, for failing to meet � tness standards.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) set tough new � tness guidelines in June, warning that failure to stay in shape would lead to players having their sal-aries docked.

A PCB spokesman said the players were assessed against the guidelines earlier in September, and the 12 who failed would lose 25 percent of one month’s salary.

“An assessment of 29 players’ � tness was carried out between September 6 and 8, and 12 players did not meet the � tness standards,” said the spokesman.

Along with Afridi and Akmal, those facing � nes include Khurram Manzoor, Sarfraz Ahmed, Abdur Rehman, Haris Sohail, Sohaib Maqsood, Mohammad Irfan, Sharjeel Khan, Mohmmad Talha, Raza Hassan and Zul� qar Babar.

But � ve others were rewarded with

percent bonuses for improving their � tness, including Test and one-day captain Misbah-ul Haq.

“Misbah, Ahmed Shahzad and Bi-lawal Bhatti will get ten percent bo-nus while Shan Masood and Umar Amin will get 17 percent bonus of their monthly salaries,” the spokesman said.

The new screening protocol has been divided into � ve levels, with play-ers facing 17 di� erent tests to undergo assessment.

“Those who maintained � tness levels are Azhar Ali, Umar Gul, Ehsan Adil, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Rahat Ali, Adnan Akmal, Asad Sha� q, Younis Khan, Fawad Alam and Anwar Ali,” said the spokesman.

Three players – Nasir Jamshed, Wa-hab Riaz and Saeed Ajmal – have not been tested for “personal reasons”.

All Pakistan players get monthly salaries ranging from 425,000 rupees ($4,250 dollars) to 100,000 rupees ($1,000 dollars) under central contract categories A, B C and D.

Afridi is in the A category while Ak-mal gets a B-group salary. l

Former national mid� elder Satyajit Das Rupu (C) hands over a MOM award in the Kool-BSJA media cup football yesterday COURTESY

Spain’s new Davis Cup captain, former women’s tour player Gala Leon poses for photographers after attending a news conference in Seville on Tuesday REUTERS

Twenty20 Shahid Afridi (captain), Ahmed Shahzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Sohaib Maqsood, Awais Zia, Saad Nasim, Raza Hasan, Mo-hammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Bilawal Bhatti, Anwar Ali, Sohail Tanvir.

One-day Misbah-ul Haq (captain), Ahmed Shahzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Fawad Alam, Umar Amin, Umar Akmal, Asad Sha� q, Sohaib Maqsood, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Raza Hasan, Mo-hammad Irfan, Anwar Ali, Wahab Riaz, Ju-naid Khan.

SQUAD

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

T H E F E R R Y F A I R YCattle market again at Azampur school ground Almost all city cattle markets inruling party men’s hand n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has allegedly leased the Azampur Gov-ernment Primary School ground and the adjoining residential area again to set up a cattle market ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, disregarding su� erings of locals and students of some 20 educational institutions.

A syndicate of in� uential Awami League leaders forced the city corpo-ration authorities to lease the space, DNCC sources said.

Afsar Uddin Khan, organising sec-retary of Awami League’s Uttara tha-na unit, secured the lease of the cattle market while Jubo League leader Mah-bubur Rahman got it last year.

The DNCC last year told the school authorities and the Dhaka Tribune that the cattle market would be set up elsewhere this year considering the an-

noyance to students, pedestrians and locals but it was not done.

The school headmistress Nargis Sul-tana told the Dhaka Tribune the cattle market leaves the school compound in a very bad state every year, with animal waste and holes dug in to place bam-boo sticks all around.

“The children cannot play on the ground while the foul odour of cow dung ruins the educational environ-ment. The school authorities have re-peatedly urged the DNCC to stop leas-ing the ground for the cattle market but to no avail. Besides, there is little e� ort on part of the DNCC to clean the place once the market is closed,” she said.

O� cials and students of nearby schools also described the market as a nuisance.

An o� cial of the nearby Delhi Public School, who did not want to be named, said students and guardians face di� -culty to move as � ocks of sacri� cial an-

imals block the roads.“We sometimes are forced to sus-

pend classes seven days in advance to avoid problems caused by the cattle market,” he added.

The law for conserving playgrounds, open spaces, parks and natural water-bodies was passed by the House in September 2000. The act imposes re-quirements for mandatory approval for changing the existing use of such places, and has a provision for punish-ment of up to a � ve-year jail term or a maximum penalty of Tk50,000 in case of violation.

DNCC Chief Estate O� cer Aminul Islam, however, defended the market’s location, saying it makes it easy for the locals to buy animals.

DNCC Chief Executive O� cer BM Enamul Haque echoed the same, add-ing that the city corporation workers clean the playground every year after Eid and the school authorities are also paid rent.

However, Akramul Haque, a local resident, claimed the cattle market does not serve the local people much as the city corporation sets up other markets in Sectors 10 and 11.

This year, the two city corporations are going to set up 18 makeshift cattle markets in the capital, with 11 under the DSCC and seven under the DNCC. DNCC and DSCC o� cials said tenders for eight markets were re-invited as the � rst o� ers were not suitable.

City corporation sources said the in-� uential Awami League leaders threat-ened other bidders and city corpora-tion o� cials to secure their position bypassing the tender.

All the seven cattle markets under the DNCC were leased out to Awami League and Jubo League leaders. Be-cause of the syndicate, the DSCC was forced to invite tenders for the third time. No satisfactory bid was made for � ve of the markets.

DSCC sources said most of the bid-ders of the cattle markets under it are leaders of the ruling party and its asso-ciate bodies, and the markets would be leased out to highest bidders.

DSCC Chief Estate O� cer Khalid Ahmed said: “We invited tenders for the third time. The decision whether we would need another call for tender will come from our high-ups.” l

39,000 transformer explosions cause Tk290 crore loss in one yearn Aminur Rahman Rasel

In the 2013-14 � scal year, a stagger-ing 39,000 power distribution trans-formers exploded around the country, mainly due to overloading, incurring losses worth Tk290 crore for the au-thorities, a study has found.

Because of the transformer explo-sions, consumers had to su� er elongat-ed power outage in addition to the reg-ular load-shedding and the authorities had to deal with additional system loss and revenue damages. Sometimes, the explosions result in � re incidents in the adjacent areas.

Only in August this year, a total of 4,040 transformers, worth around Tk30 crore, went o� , the study said.

The study was conducted by the Power Cell under the government’s Power Division. It included a compar-ison of power distribution characteris-tics in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Power Cell Director Md Amzad Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune: “The

damage of transformers portrays a very alarming picture. In the last three years, only three exploded in Malaysia – one because of insulation problem and the others from short circuit.”

At present, around 80,000 or 70-80% transformers installed around the country are overloaded and may ex-plode any time, the study has said.

Apart from the overloading prob-lem, the study said inadequate protec-tive measures, poor workmanship and manufacturing errors had also caused many transformers to go o� .

Professionals said the overloading is generally caused by illegal connections which lead to overheating of the trans-formers and eventually the explosions.

Current usually leaves a transformer through two di� erent lines – the high tension and the low tension. The high tension lines have fuses, better known as cut-outs, that turns the system down in case there is overload. But in Bangla-desh, the low tension lines do not have any protective measure of that sort.

The study recommended the au-

thorities concerned to install similar protective mechanisms for the low-ten-sion lines as well.

When asked why the low tension lines do not have cut-outs, an o� cial said the low-tension lines never used to get overloaded before.

Professionals also said all the trans-formers used for power distribution are made in Bangladesh with imported spare parts. One transformer should ideally operate for 20 years. A 200KVA transformer costs up to Tk5 lakh. It it goes out of order or explodes, it can be repaired for reuse at a cost of about Tk1.2-1.3 lakh.

Sometimes installing low quality imported spare parts have also result-ing in malfunctioning of the transform-ers.

According to the study, 36,776 or 5.45% out of a total of 674,787 trans-formers under the Rural Electri� cation Board (REB) went o� in FY2013-14.

The rate is 6.5% for the Power Devel-opment Board, 6.4% for Dhaka Power Distribution Company, 5.25% for Dhaka

Electricity Supply Company and 2.41% for the areas under the West Zone Pow-er Distribution Company.

These � ve companies under the Power Division have a total of 714,465 transformers around the country, of which 79,196 were overloaded, the study said.

Among the distributors, the REB has the highest 76,277 overloaded trans-formers.

Asked why the rate of overloading was so high in the rural areas, an o� -cial said the REB has little control and monitoring over the transformers and the consumers because of manpower shortage.

The study put forward 15 recom-mendations which include replacing overloaded transformers, installing proper earthing mechanism and check-ing meters.

It also suggested that the distri-bution companeis should introduce standard testing for spare parts and repairing and standardise all utilities. l

Family: Police took Tk8,000 to � le false suicide case on madrasa girln Tazlina Zamila Khan

The Lalbagh Halima Sadia Mohila Ma-drasa authorities bribed law enforcers Tk8,000 in a bid to hide the truth about the murder of one of its students on September 11.

On that fateful day, 11-year-old Su-maiya Akhter was found dead, hanging from a towel rack in a bathroom of the madrasa.

The incident was described as su-icide. Talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, Sumaiya’s brother Nurul Alam Noyon claimed that police had � led a false case of suicide and took his father’s signature in exchange for the bribe from the madrasa authorities.

“Someone from the madrasa called me on that day and said something se-rious had happened. I rushed there at 12:30pm and found my sister hanging from a towel rack with a scarf, her feet touching the � oor and her legs bent at the knees.

“But the towel rack from which she was hanging was only a bit above her head. The distance between her neck and the towel rack was in no way ideal for committing suicide.”

The family members along with peo-ple from Elephant Road area yesterday organised a human chain and brought out a procession, parading from the El-ephant Road to the National Press Club via the TSC and the High Court areas in the capital. Sumaiya often complained about a female teacher named Hajera beating her even on a simple excuse.

But the accountant of the madrasa named Aziz said Hajera and anoth-er female teacher named Salma had

left the madrasa in the morning ofSeptember 11.

Sumaiya, daughter of Mobarak Ali, a sta� of the Dhaka Medical College Hos-pital, was enrolled in the madrasa on August 15.

Mobarak Ali said: “When I went to the madrasa Sub-Inspector of Lalbagh police station Md Amzad took my sig-nature on a paper saying if I wanted to � le a case, I would have to sign. But, later I realised that it was a false suicide case.”

Sumaiya’s brother Noyon said he had noticed bruises on her neck and other wounds from beatings on various parts of her body.

Sumiaya’s mother Peyara Begum told the Dhaka Tribune: “Police sub-mitted a fake post mortem examina-tion report but we did not see it. As we wanted to see the report they refused

to show us.”The family members demanded im-

mediate arrest of the culprits involved in the “killing” of Sumaiya.

O� cer-in-Charge of the police sta-tion Md Nurul Mottakim said they were investigating the matter. “Primarily we came to know that Sumaiya’s father had married another woman, which disturbed her mind and might have been the reason behind her suicide.”

Investigation o� cer SI Md Amzad said the madrasa had opened last Fri-day. Students said Sumaiya had not wanted to study there but her parents had forced her. “We interrogated al-most all there. In the postmortem re-port it was mentioned as suicide.”

When asked about the signature of Sumaiya’s father he said: “Everything happened in front of many people and I did not take any bribe.” l

At an age when she is supposed to be at school, 10-year-old Rina is forced to sell books on the streets to help out her family. The letters on the books are unknown to Rina, who can only appreciate the colourful pictures. The photo was taken yesterday near the Banani bus stand MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

United Airways to suspend operations from todayn Mujammad Zahidul Islam

United Airways, a local private airline company, is set to inde� nitely suspend all its operational activities from to-day, apparently because of a “� nancialcrisis.”

A group of senior o� cials made the announcement at a press conference at its Uttara head o� ce yesterday, only days after major changes were brought to its top management.

The press conference was attend-ed by United Airways o� cials includ-ing Aftab Ahmed, head of marketing; Captain M Elias, director of � ight op-erations; Wing Commander (retired) Ferdous, director of administration; and Farhad, director of customerservice.

“We found no one from the man-agement to announce the carrier’s suspension of operations. We are not responsible for making the decision; but as the airline is facing a � nancial crisis it cannot operate from tomor-row [Thursday],” Wing Commander (retired) Ferdous, director of adminis-tration at United Airways, told the Dha-ka Tribune over the phone later in theevening.

Ferdous added that airline did not even have any money to buy fuel for its airplanes, and arranging on-board food was also another problem.

United Airways Chairman Moham-med Mahtabur Rahman, acting man-aging director Shahinoor Alam, and acting chief executive o� cer Ferdous

Imam were not present at the press conference.

Despite repeated attempts to reach Mahatabur over phone for his com-ments on the suspension of service, the chairman of the airline did not receive any calls from the Dhaka Tribune.

All three of these top o� cials took o� ce after Tasbirul Ahmed Choud-hury – who had served the airline as its chairman and managing director since its inception in 2007 – stepped down from his post on Monday.

Although he cited personal reasons as the cause of the step down, insiders said Tasbirul resigned to avoid con� ict with other board members who want-ed to see a change in the leadership.

Senior o� cials of the airline claimed that � ight operations su� ered asthere was no active top management in the past two days; as a result, � ights for Dhaka-Doha-Muscat, Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur and four local � ights had to be cancelled.

In the � scal year 2012-13, United Airways made pro� ts of Tk115.4 crore. During its seven years of operations, it operated 48,000 � ights, carried 20 lakh passengers and 5,000 tonnes of cargo. As of 2014, it employs over 1000 people and has a � eet of 11 aircrafts.

The airline operates domestic � ights to Chittagong, Sylhet, Jessore, Cox’s Bazar, Barisal, Rajshahi, Saidpur and Ishwardi. On international routes, it � ies to London, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Jeddah, Bang-kok, Muscat and Singapore. l

Court sends youth to seven years in jail for satirising Mujib, Hasinan Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a youth to seven years of imprisonment for writing a satirical song on Bangab-andhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his daughter Prime Minister SheikhHasina.

Judge KM Shamsul Alam of the Cy-ber Tribunal (Bangladesh) in Dhaka handed down the sentence to Tonmoy Mollick, 25, a computer operator at a shop in the Dakop upazila of Khulna.

The court also � ned the convict Tk10,000, in default of which he will have to su� er six more monthsin jail.

However, the court acquitted anoth-er accused – 24-year-old Ra� qul Islam – as the charges brought against him were not proved in the case.

According to the charge sheet, after composing the song, Tonmoy added music to it, as well as sold and dis-tributed the song on October 26 lastyear.

On the same day, the police � led a case against Tanmoy and Ra� qul with Dakop police station and submitted a charge sheet before the court on Febru-ary 18 this year.

On May 19, the court indicted the convicted under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, 2006.

The court also recorded deposition of 10 prosecution witnesses including the complainant of the case. l

DSCC: Most bidders for the cattle markets are leaders of the ruling party and its associate bodies, and the markets would be leased out to the highest bidders

Family members and neighbours of Sumaiya bring out a procession on the Dhaka University campus demanding justice for the death of the 11-year-old RAJIB DHAR

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

B3 Draghi: ECB to keep loose policy ‘for long time’

B4 ‘Cold Chain Network, the order of the day, to address post-harvest loss’

State banks asked to make selection outlines for GM, DGM n Asif Showkat Kallol

The government has decided to make an outline for the selection board tasked with promoting the general managers and deputy general managers of the loan scam-hit � ve state-owned banks.

The Bank and Financial Institutions Di-vision (BFID) under the Finance Ministry yesterday issued a circular in this regard in

the wake of recent loan scams involving the banks’ o� cials, Hall-Mark and Bismillah Groups.

The � ve state-owned banks are Sonali, Janata, Agrani, BASIC and Bangladesh De-velopment Bank.

Chairmen of the � ve state banks will be head of the � ve-member selection board with representatives from the BFID, Bang-ladesh Bank, state-owned bank’s managing

directors and deputy managing directors who are in charge of human resources de-velopment, according to the circular.

“We want to make state banks corrup-tion-free. We want to make sure that irreg-ularities and loan forgery do not occur in every layer of the banks,” Banking Secretary M Aslam Alam told the Dhaka Tribune.

He said the banking division has already come up with rules and regulations to curb

the corruption in the state banks.The Hall-Mark Group swindled Tk3,547

crore out of Sonali Bank while the Bismillah Group Tk1,175 crore.

Meanwhile, a former deputy general manager of Sonali Bank AKM Azizur Rah-man of Ruposhi Bangla Branch, who re-mained suspended over illicit lending to the Hall-Mark Group and � ve other companies, died in jail custody on August 24. l

20.48 lakh bales jute produced in northern districts n Tribune Desk Report

The farmers have produced over 20.48 lakh bales of jute � bre against the � xed production target of over 24.11 lakh bales after completing its harvest this season in northern districts, reports BSS.

According to sources in the Agricul-ture Extension (DAE), the government had � xed a target of bringing over 2.25 lakh hectares of land under cultivation of jute to produce over 24.11 lakh bales of the � bre this season in the region.

However, the farmers had � nally cul-tivated the crop on about 1.97 lakh hec-tares of land in the northern districts, nearly 28,000 hectares or 13% less than the � xed cultivation target of the

cash crop in northern Bangladesh this season.

The farmers have produced over 18.97 lakh bales of ‘Tosha’ variety jute from about 1.79 lakh hectares of land, 1.177 lakh bales of ‘Deshi’ variety from 13,635 hectares, 14,252 bales of ‘Mech-hta’

variety from 1,607 hectares and 19,042 bales of ‘Kenaf’ variety jute from 2,275 hectares of land in the northern districts this season.

Horticulture Specialist of DAE Khandker Md Mesbahul Islam said a drought-like situation initially ham-pered sowing of jute seed when the subsequent rainfalls eased the situ-ation though the jute farming target faced a little shortfall.

The farmers again faced problems in rotting harvested jute plants due to drought-like situation and recent rain-

falls eased the situation enabling them in harvesting and rotting jute plants to get better

quality � bre with colour, he added. According to sources in the bigger

jute markets, farmers, DAE, Bangla-desh Jute Research Institute (BJRI), the harvested jute is being sold at rates be-tween Taka 1,100 and 1,600 per maund (every 40 kg) depending on their varie-ties and qualities.

Farmers Mozammel, Mohinul Is-lam, Aiyub Ali and Shachindra Nath said they have already completed har-vesting and rotting of the jute pants through they faced problems in the be-ginning of the harvesting season due to drought-like situation.

Principal Scienti� c O� cer of Rang-pur Regional Station of the BJRI Dr

Ayub Ali said farmers became happy following rains in recent weeks to com-plete harvesting and rooting of jute plants and get better quality, grade and colour of the � bre with fair price.

Associate Director- Agriculture of BRAC International (South Asia and Africa) Dr M A Mazid said jute farming has got new dimension following in-creased export, revival of closed jute mills, disbursement of incentives and other e� ective steps of the govern-ment.

He called for ensuring fairer jute price for the farmers all the time to keep its production increasing side by side expansion of jute-based industries to increase exports for further encour-aging the farmers in enhancing cultiva-tion of the eco-friendly � bre. l

Airtel launches ‘Shobai Ek’ n Tribune Report

Private telecom company Airtel Bangla-desh from a city hotel programme yes-terday made a declaration of launching a new tari� plan named “Shobai Ek” for its subscribers, says a media release.

The package will allow the custom-ers to make calls at a � at rate 1 paisa/sec to any other operators round the clock. The authorities concerned informed that their irregular subscribers will en-joy the rate for 90 days and the existing

ones will get the validity for 30 days in return for Tk24.

During the launching event, PD Sharma, the CEO and MD of Airtel, said the “Shobai EK” plan is a part of Airtel’s philosophy to simplify the val-ue proposition to the customers. And they were con� dent that this initiative would contribute to the growth of the country’s mobile service.

Afterwards, they gave assurance of ensuring more sound network nation-wide in the coming days. l

Biman rejects 51k hajj kits order for pilgrims n Tribune Report

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has reject-ed 51,000 piece of hajj kits ordered for the pilgrims by canceling its order just a day before the hajj � ight, which be-gan from August 27.

Consequently, Framia Airline Sup-pliers Ltd, a Chines company, claimed a compensation worth US $230,520 as compensation at a press conference held yesterday in the capital.

Although we were awarded a tender for supplying Hajj kit bags on June 24, Biman management failed to issue its purchase order even by August 25, the day when it asked us for giving delivery of the products, Ricky Li, supply chain director of Framia Airline Suppliers Ltd told the press conference.

“We, however, delivered the � rst in-stallment of the Hajj kits on August 26, so these could be distributed among the pilgrims at the inaugural Hajj � ights,” Li also added.

But at the last moment, Biman de-clined to accept the Hajj Kits, which con-tain a prayer mat, a tasbi, a shoe holder, depriving the pilgrims, he alleged.

Framia informed, as it was a tender worth $230,520 and the company is try-ing to recover the monet from Biman.

In response to a question Ricky Li hinted that his company might go to court if Biman failed to compensate the company. l

Global fund managers eye on BangladeshStable political and economic outlook drawing entrepreneurs to investmentn Kayes Sohel

A number of global fund managers, including the New York-based world’s one of the leading � nancial manage-ment and advisory companies, Mer-rill Lynch, target their barrels towards Bangladesh, industry people have said.

Factors, including stable economic outlook, relatively calm in the political � eld and vast population have attract-ed some global top fund managers, they said.

“Global equity investors are looking for investment opportunities in Bangla-desh,” said a fund manager at a top bro-kerage � rms requesting not to be named.

He said stable economic growth over the last one decade and a vast group of young people who are poten-tials to keep contribution to the econo-my is behind the attraction.

Before putting funds on any com-pany, they usually prefer long-term in-vestment in the companies with good fundamentals and love to talk with the company management too, he said.

Chad Cleaver, fund manager at Lux-embourg-based VAM Funds, said, “We believe the frontier markets provide an ine� cient landscape.”

A frontier refers to a type of country that is not a developed market.

A day before yesterday, Cleaver told a news portal, Fund Selector Asia, the frontier markets o� er the attraction of high rates of growth and return on the capital and they are still trading at a discount in both emerging and devel-oped markets.

The company recently launched VAM Frontier Markets fund targeting countries that have a large population, favorable demographics, and are mar-ket share gainers or low cost producers.

“Two countries in Asia that � t these

criteria, where we have sizable over-weight positions, are Vietnam and Bangladesh.”

Bangladesh is well positioned as a textile producer, he said. The country is located near the large export markets like China and India. In addition, as China’s working age population peaks, a migration of its textile manufacturing business to Bangladesh is likely.

Bata Shoes Bangladesh is an exam-ple of the companies he sees bene� t-ing. It has strong brand recognition and is shifting toward branded apparel.

It is well known that inadequate energy and transportation infrastruc-tures, political in� ghting, bureaucracy, corruption and a shortage of skilled laborers contribute to a challenging in-vestment climate in Bangladesh.

“Despite this, the country’s econo-my has managed to grow more than 6% a year for much of the last decade,” said Md Moniruzzaman, managing director of the IDLC Investments said.

It indicates that Bangladesh has a promising economic growth histology, which mainly catches the eyes of for-eign fund managers, he said.

Moreover, local currency against greenback remained stable in recent period but in our neighbouring country India’s currency depreciated against it, he said, adding that political front is rel-atively calm after the national election.

“These might be the factors for at-tracting overseas investors.”

Earlier, the economists at Standard Chartered Bank believe that Bangladesh could join what have been called the “7% club” of economies that expand at least 7% annually for an extended peri-od — allowing their economies to dou-ble every decade. The current members of the “club” include China, Cambodia, India, Mozambique and Uganda. l

Public services thru’ mobile apps launched n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The government has formally launched 25 mobile applications to facilitate public services for people.

The launching came at a ceremony held yesterday at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Di-vision in the capital.

State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak for ICT Division inaugurated the 25 of 100 mobile applications to promote services. A source said as per the gov-ernment massive plan for building a “smart Bangladesh” and for promot-ing services for people through mobile phone, the initiative came into being. The services could be available on an-

droid platform only. It said the govern-ment took up the programme to devel-op 100 mobile applications and created awareness about the services.

From � ling complaints to receiving information about health services and applying for driving licences, these mobile apps will be very handy for all, it added. Of these 25 applications, 20 have been developed by MCC Ltd, and the rest remaining applications by an-other � rm, ETL.

In his address, State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak said: “We can arrange mar-keting conferences for creating aware-ness about the mobile applications.”

He also urged the mobile operators to reduce the internet service charge

and thus encourage people to use more applications.

Additional Secretary to the ICT Di-vision Kamal Uddin Ahmed said there is another Tk300 crore project for de-veloping more applications which is awaiting the government approval.

The users can also get information about the zoo, public library, prize bond and other government servic-es, plus the taxpayers can also calcu-late their income tax and other taxes through an application named “Tax Calculator.”

At the ceremony, Chief Information Commissioner Mohammad Faruqe and acting Secretary Shyam Sundar Sikder were also present. l

Samsung launches two handsets with GP-Robi n Tribune Report

South Korea-based handsets vendor Samsung has launched two di� erent types of handsets – high end and low end – alongside the market leader mo-bile operators Grameenphone and Robi.

Grameenphone has introduced Gal-axy Note 4 in Bangladesh market Tues-day through an exclusive pre-booking o� er. The handset giant, Samsung, yesterday launched another o� er with Robi that is also making a bundle o� er in conjunction with the former.

The exclusive o� er facilitates availing a Samsung Galaxy ACE NXT mobile set by the Robi subscribers and enjoy free talk time and internet services worth

Tk8,900. The campaign, which will run for a speci� c period, stipulates that any-one who purchases the Galaxy ACE NXT handset, needs to be tagged with Robi SIM to enjoy the attractive o� er.

In order to avail the o� er, one has to call 123 (Robi Customer Care) for regis-tration. Upon successful registration, Robi will activate the bundle o� er.

The enrolled subscribers will enjoy 3,300 minutes (on-net) and 675 min-utes (o� -net) free talk time spread over the � rst three months. Besides, they will get 15 GB data service for free for three months. In addition, the sub-scribers will get 100% bonus on any purchased data pack from 4th to 12th month following the registration. l

Rural women seen busy separating raw jute from rotten jute plants (File Photo) DHAKA TRIBUNE

Public services through mobile applications have been launched at a ceremony in ICT Division in the capital yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

B2 Stock Thursday, September 25, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosersFrom TradeServers:BIFC: Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has approved the Rights o� er of Bangladesh Industrial Fi-nance Company Limited for 33,559,981 or-dinary shares of Tk. 10.00 each totaling Tk. 335,599,810.00 at a ratio of 1R:2, i.e. one rights share for two existing shares. The approval has been accorded subject to the condition that the Company shall comply with the requirements embodied in the Se-curities and Exchange Commission (Rights Issue) Rules, 2006 and other relevant laws and Regulatory Requirements, and shall also adhere to the conditions imposed by BSEC under Section-2CC of the Securities and Exchange Ordinance, 1969.APEXFOOT: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Company as "AA" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term along with a stable out-look based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to December 31, 2013; unaudited � nancials up to June 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.GBBPOWER: Alpha Credit Rating Limited

(AlphaRating) has rated the Company as "AA-" in the long term and "AR-1" in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to December 31, 2013; half yearly unaudited � nancial statement of 30th June, 2014 and relevant qualitative information up to September 23, 2014.BAYLEASING: The Company has informed that the Head O� ce (Registered O� ce) of the Company will be shifted to its own premises at Eunoos Trade Centre, Level-18, 52-53 Dilkusha C/A, Dhaka-1000 with e� ect from 28th September 2014.SUNLIFEINS: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on December 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Account on September 18, 2014.BIFC: The Company has further informed that the objective behind issuance of Rights shares is to strengthen the capital base of the Company to comply with Ban-gladesh Bank DFIM Circular No. 5 dated July 24, 2011. The proceeds received from rights shares will be utilized for � nancial assistance in the form of lease and term loan.

Approval for Issuance of Prospectus: National Feed Mills Limited: Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has given consent for raising of capital through Initial Public O� ering (IPO) and issuance of prospectus by National Feed Mills Limited.Conduction of IPO lottery: Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries Ltd.: All concerned are hereby informed that the IPO lottery program of Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries Ltd. will be conduct-ed on 25 September 2014 at 10:30 am at Seminar Hall of the Institution of Engineers (IEB), Ramna, Dhaka.IPO Subscription: Hamid Fabrics Limited subscription date 28 September to 02 October 2014, NRB upto 11 October 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscrip-tion period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Re-cord date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014.

DSEX gains for 7th straight session n Tribune Report

The Dhaka Stock Exchange bench-mark index DSEX gained for the eighth consecutive session amid heavy � uctuations.

The day started with rally on � -nancial stocks, however, manufac-turing stocks ended in green at the end of the day.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange benchmark index, DSEX, closed at 4,980 with a rise of 12 points or 0.3%.

But the Shariah Index, DSES, was up 15 points or over 1% to 1,162. The comprising blue chips DS30 rose 32 points or 1.7% to 1,924.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, ended at 9,338, shedding 39 points.

Trading activities continued to remain buoyant at the DSE as DSE turnover stood at Tk932 crore, which is lower over the previous session.

Engineering accounted for 23% of the total DSE turnover.

Cement and engineering per-formed robust, driven by heavy-weight Lafarge Surma Cement and BSRM Steel that gained 9% and 4%.

The market bellwether banks broke its gaining streak over the last few sessions on pro� t booking. Life insurance fell 2.9% after the last ses-sion’s robust performance.

Power and energy edged higher. Telecommunication and pharma-ceuticals were marginally down by

0.26% and 0.22% respectively. In its second trading day, Ratan-

pur Steel Re-Rolling Mills Ltd also rose 15%, making it top both the turnover and the gainers chart. It jumped over 93% in its � rst trading day.

Lanka Bangla Securities said up-side in stocks continued to cherish the market with a sequence of win-ning streak in index.

“As the market is gaining mo-mentum amid active participation from the investors, it seems the in-vestors believe that the DSEX would cross 5,000 mark on a zigzag pattern and stocks spark more in the long run.”

IDLC Investments said the mar-ket moved ahead further with the investors’ focus on selective large cap blue chip stocks.

Additionally, the ongoing mo-mentum and sustaining activity level continued creating optimism amid clienteles, it said.

Still, the investors’ participation was maintaining satisfactory mark, remaining above Tk900 crore for the last six consecutive sessions, it added.

Zenith Investments said with signs of full recovery, the market has stabilised on the platform of bullish region, trading with signi� -cant turnover volume each day.

It said given the positive devel-opments of the capital market, stock prices were also showing robust growth along with volume. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Rangpur Foundry -A -9.97 -9.97 102.00 102.00 102.00 102.00 0.102 3.20 31.9Mithun Knitting -A -9.95 -9.76 95.17 95.00 96.00 95.00 1.256 2.69 35.4JMI Syringes MDL-A -8.47 -8.72 161.57 162.00 162.00 161.10 0.566 4.50 35.9First Lease- A -7.31 -7.82 20.39 20.30 20.70 19.80 0.307 1.38 14.8Union Capital -A -7.27 -7.74 20.26 20.40 22.20 20.00 1.137 2.08 9.7Premier Leasing-Z -6.98 -4.95 8.07 8.00 8.30 8.00 0.040 0.10 80.7FAS Fin. & Inv. Ltd-B -6.75 -1.60 16.04 15.20 16.40 15.20 0.257 0.52 30.8Phoenix Finance-A -6.69 -5.11 26.91 26.50 27.40 26.20 0.202 3.10 8.7Legacy Footwear -A -6.46 -5.84 27.73 27.50 28.70 27.40 0.721 0.28 99.0Anlima Yarn -A -6.25 -4.30 26.05 25.50 26.40 25.50 0.599 0.80 32.6

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Asia Pasi� c Insu. -A -7.76 -3.97 21.76 21.40 23.40 21.30 2.720 2.26 9.6Standard Insurance-A -7.64 -4.83 26.39 25.40 27.80 25.10 0.805 3.00 8.8Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z -6.25 -9.96 7.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 0.002 -30.63 -veProvati Insur.-A -5.69 -5.20 20.06 19.90 21.40 19.50 0.648 1.52 13.2First Lease- A -5.58 -6.20 20.73 20.30 22.00 20.00 13.452 1.38 15.0United Insur -A -5.57 -5.36 33.91 33.90 34.10 33.80 0.156 2.84 11.9Modern Dyeing -Z -5.45 -2.57 80.00 78.00 78.10 78.00 0.016 1.61 49.7I P D C -A -5.11 -5.76 17.00 16.70 18.20 16.00 6.416 0.92 18.5One Bank -A -4.96 -2.42 13.73 13.40 14.40 12.70 28.656 1.66 8.3Pioneer Insur -A -4.88 -2.10 47.19 46.80 48.90 46.60 0.991 3.12 15.1

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

Ratanpur Steel -N 1,125,600 89.77 12.80 72.50 0.00 72.50 80.00 71.00 79.75BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 730,440 33.83 4.82 45.00 0.00 45.00 48.00 41.40 46.31BSRM Steels-A 228,225 27.80 3.97 116.50 0.00 116.50 117.70 101.00 121.82RAK Ceramics-A 367,985 24.57 3.50 61.70 0.00 61.70 61.70 50.50 66.77MJL BD Ltd.-A 134,653 21.19 3.02 159.40 0.00 159.40 162.00 133.10 157.36National Bank - A 1,607,690 20.17 2.88 12.50 0.00 12.50 12.50 11.00 12.54LafargeS Cement-Z 127,500 17.63 2.51 128.90 0.00 128.90 131.10 127.50 138.28ACI Limited- A 32,700 15.76 2.25 477.80 0.00 477.80 492.00 460.00 481.82Beximco Pharma -A 199,541 13.85 1.97 67.40 0.00 67.40 70.00 65.00 69.39Golden Son -A 257,250 13.27 1.89 49.00 0.00 49.00 51.50 46.00 51.60People`s Leasing-A 605,286 13.18 1.88 22.50 0.00 22.50 23.20 19.50 21.77Aftab Auto.-A 152,068 13.04 1.86 83.90 0.00 83.90 87.40 82.00 85.76Padma Oil Co. -A 37,300 12.84 1.83 343.00 0.00 343.00 346.10 320.00 344.18UNITED AIR-A 1,050,322 12.54 1.79 12.20 0.00 12.20 12.80 10.90 11.94Delta SpinnersA 700,800 11.21 1.60 16.00 0.00 16.00 16.50 15.90 16.00

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

Ratanpur Steel -N 6,214,600 503.00 5.39 86.10 15.11 74.80 87.00 74.80 80.94BSRM Steels-A 4,001,639 489.41 5.25 121.40 4.21 116.50 125.00 105.00 122.30MJL BD Ltd.-A 2,874,479 451.95 4.84 154.90 -2.94 159.60 165.00 143.70 157.23BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 6,916,820 321.07 3.44 45.80 1.55 45.10 48.00 40.60 46.42Grameenphone-A 748,862 284.54 3.05 379.70 -0.26 380.70 384.00 370.00 379.96Beximco Pharma -A 4,035,005 279.74 3.00 68.30 1.34 67.40 70.80 60.70 69.33RAK Ceramics-A 3,743,982 248.56 2.66 67.40 9.24 61.70 67.80 56.00 66.39Titas Gas TDCLA 2,883,591 239.93 2.57 83.00 3.88 79.90 84.70 72.00 83.20LafargeS Cement-Z 1,733,000 236.49 2.54 139.40 9.85 126.90 139.50 126.90 136.46ACI Limited- A 442,240 217.69 2.33 499.40 5.23 474.60 500.70 440.00 492.24Golden Son -A 3,902,297 201.09 2.16 51.70 5.73 48.90 52.20 45.00 51.53Navana CNG-A 2,552,436 183.34 1.97 72.70 7.23 67.80 74.20 62.00 71.83Brac Bank -A 5,351,787 179.51 1.92 33.50 1.52 33.00 34.50 30.00 33.54Bengal Windsor-A 2,746,576 175.54 1.88 65.90 7.86 61.10 67.20 58.00 63.91Active Fine Chem.-A 2,085,000 156.72 1.68 75.10 0.81 74.50 76.00 69.00 75.16

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 1024.82 10.99 72.51 9.74 1097.33 10.89NBFI 488.92 5.24 34.49 4.63 523.41 5.20Investment 98.50 1.06 5.46 0.73 103.96 1.03Engineering 2140.33 22.94 193.89 26.04 2334.22 23.17Food & Allied 294.67 3.16 19.70 2.65 314.37 3.12Fuel & Power 1374.74 14.74 75.48 10.14 1450.21 14.40Jute 1.13 0.01 0.00 1.13 0.01Textile 526.12 5.64 61.05 8.20 587.17 5.83Pharma & Chemical 1207.83 12.95 68.94 9.26 1276.77 12.67Paper & Packaging 51.49 19.73 2.65 71.22 0.71Service 135.09 1.45 11.89 1.60 146.98 1.46Leather 74.14 0.79 12.39 1.66 86.53 0.86Ceramic 264.81 2.84 25.82 3.47 290.62 2.89Cement 396.20 4.25 28.72 3.86 424.92 4.22Information Technology 90.19 0.97 14.39 1.93 104.58 1.04General Insurance 66.65 0.71 3.83 0.51 70.49 0.70Life Insurance 196.92 2.11 11.49 1.54 208.41 2.07Telecom 340.34 3.65 19.17 2.58 359.52 3.57Travel & Leisure 141.50 1.52 24.93 3.35 166.43 1.65Miscellaneous 414.28 4.44 40.66 5.46 454.94 4.52Debenture 0.19 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.20 0.00

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4979.72066 (+) 0.25% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1924.22930 (+) 1.72% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 15446.62950 (+) 0.13% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12240.54020 (+) 0.09% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 9338.32000 (-) 0.42% ▼

DSE key features September 24, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

9,328.86

Turnover (Volume)

210,844,781

Number of Contract 177,384

Traded Issues 302

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

108

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

189

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,650.76

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.13

CSE key features September 24, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 705.93

Turnover (Volume) 18,655,942

Number of Contract 25,990

Traded Issues 240

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

88

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

147

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,547.44

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.88

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

Market moved ahead further with the investors’ focus on selective large cap blue chip stocks

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Ratanpur Steel -N 17.24 6.67 79.75 85.00 86.00 72.00 89.769 3.03 26.3SummitAlliancePort.-A 9.90 8.17 44.86 45.50 45.50 41.00 10.838 0.96 46.7Shurwid Ind. -N 9.86 4.47 36.72 37.90 37.90 34.10 10.336 0.75 49.0RAK Ceramics-A 9.72 10.02 66.77 67.70 67.80 55.60 24.572 1.76 37.9LafargeS Cement-Z 9.46 7.04 138.28 141.10 141.70 129.80 17.631 2.42 57.1NCCBL Mutual Fund-1-A 9.09 8.73 5.98 6.00 6.00 5.80 0.090 0.46 13.0Quasem Drycells -A 8.47 6.95 39.10 39.70 39.80 37.70 2.131 1.79 21.8National Housing Fin.-B 8.10 8.03 30.67 30.70 31.20 26.80 1.130 1.88 16.3EBL First M F-A 7.27 5.48 5.77 5.90 6.00 5.40 0.430 0.65 8.96th ICB M F-A 7.01 6.99 59.54 59.50 59.80 55.50 0.101 6.47 9.2

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Ratanpur Steel -N 15.11 6.96 80.94 86.10 87.00 74.80 503.001 3.03 26.7National Housing Fin.-B 10.00 5.14 30.27 30.80 30.80 28.50 19.045 1.88 16.1Shurwid Ind. -N 9.88 3.30 36.32 37.80 37.80 33.90 38.250 0.75 48.4SummitAlliancePort.-A 9.86 7.37 45.04 45.70 45.70 38.00 93.993 0.96 46.9LafargeS Cement-Z 9.85 6.34 136.46 139.40 139.50 126.90 236.488 2.42 56.4Sa� o Spinning-A 9.40 4.36 28.74 29.10 29.20 24.00 13.354 1.06 27.1RAK Ceramics-A 9.24 9.64 66.39 67.40 67.80 56.00 248.560 1.76 37.7Quasem Drycells -A 8.22 6.65 39.11 39.50 39.90 34.00 47.262 1.79 21.8Bengal Windsor-A 7.86 2.96 63.91 65.90 67.20 58.00 175.542 2.60 24.6Delta Life Insu. -A 7.48 4.65 168.78 170.90 173.90 150.00 133.405 2.92 57.8

ANALYST

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman has recently inaugurated the � rst day-care centre for private commercial banks operating in Gulshan area. Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh CEO Jim McCabe was present on the occasion among many high o� cials of other private commercial banks

Vice chairperson of Trust Bank Limited and adjutant general of Bangladesh Army Major General Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf has recently handed over a cheque of Tk1 crore to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the PM’s relief fund to help � ood victims, on behalf of the bank

Modhumoti Bank Limited has recently held its board meeting at its head o� ce. The bank’s Chairperson, Humayun Kabir was present at the meeting, among others

Shaikh Abdul Aziz, MD and CEO of Uttara Bank Limited, has recently inaugurated the new premises of the bank’s Khatungonj branch in Chittagong

Six Seasons Food and Beverages Ltd, a subsidiary of Uttara Group of Industries has chosen Top of Mind as its AOR agency. Dilip Kumar Modi, MD of Six Seasons Food and Beverages Ltd and Ziauddin Adil, CEO at Top of Mind have signed the agreement

Rahman Rahman Huq Chartered Accountants (KPMG in Bangladesh) and dataedge limited signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on September 17 to jointly explore mutually bene� cial business engagements in Microsoft Technologies and other IT Advisory-related opportunities in Bangladesh. KPMG’S Ali Ashfaq and dataedge’s Zahoor Hossain Mahmud signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides

Draghi: ECB to keep loose policy ‘for long time’ n Reuters, Paris

The European Central Bank will keep monetary policy loose for as long as it takes to push ultra-low in� ation in the euro zone back up closer to the two percent level, its president Mario Draghi said yesterday.

With data showing the single cur-rency zone’s economy having ground to a halt in the second quarter, Draghi told French radio the ECB would do all in its power to stimulate growth but rea� rmed that euro zone countries needed to make their economies � tter.

“Monetary policy will remain ac-commodative for a long time and I can tell you that the (ECB) Governing Council is unanimous in committing itself to using the tools at its disposal to bring in� ation back to just under two percent,” Draghi, speaking through an interpreter, told Europe 1 radio.

Referring to signs of growth else-where in the world economy, he said ECB policy would remain accommoda-tive even “while other countries’ mon-etary policy may gradually acknowl-edge recovery is taking place”.

Draghi has in recent days signalled the bank was ready to use additional un-conventional tools to spur in� ation and growth. He gave no information of these, but noted: “Interest rates will remain low because they can’t get much lower.”

On the e� orts of countries such as France to push through measures to make their economies more competi-tive, he said: “The risk of doing too little is higher than the risk of doing too much. These reforms have been

planned for years - now they must be implemented.”

Consumer in� ation in the 18 coun-tries sharing the euro rose 0.1% month-on-month in August for a 0.4% year-on-year increase, the EU’s statistics o� ce Eurostat said last week, revising

upwards its initial estimate, from Aug. 29, of a 0.3% annual gain.

In� ation has fallen steadily since the end of 2011, re� ecting a weak euro zone economy and near-record unemploy-ment, after a debt crisis nearly ripped the bloc apart. Economic growth came

to a standstill in the second quarter and Italy has slipped back into its third re-cession since 2008.

Draghi said he saw no danger of out-right de� ation in the euro zone, saying the biggest danger came from unem-ployment. l

European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi testi� es before the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary A� airs Committee in Brussels REUTERS

Britain awards � rms cash to turn the power o� this winter n Reuters, London

British companies operating at 431 sites in Britain have won contracts under a scheme that will pay them not to use electricity during some hours on week days in November to February, Nation-al Grid said on Tuesday.

Britain risks an electricity crisis this winter after several power plants in the country were hit by unexpected outag-es, forcing grid operator National Grid to take precautionary measures.

It said on Tuesday companies oper-ating at 431 individual sites, including some plants owned by Europe’s sec-ond-largest steel producer Tata Steel, had been awarded contracts under the so called Demand Side Balancing Re-serve (DSBR).

“We are encouraged by this � rst tender round and we think that the extra security these contracts provide is good value for consumers,” said Pe-ter Bingham, senior manager, National Grid, in a statement.

National Grid said later a total of 12 companies had been awarded the con-tracts. These included aggregating � rms which separately signed up individual factories or o� ces at di� erent sites.

It launched the tender for up to 330 megawatts (MW) in June, asking o� ces

and factories to shut down from 1600 to 2000 GMT on week days during the months with the highest demand so that power could instead be diverted to households.

Under the scheme the successful � rms will be paid a retainer for the pe-riod, even if they do not need to turn their power o� , and will be paid more for not using electricity if they do shut down.

The grid operator would not give a

� gure for how much the � rms would be paid under the scheme.

The contracts awarded could save up to 319 MW of capacity - or a little more than half the capacity of a typi-cal power plant in Britain - during peak times.

The grid operator has also an-nounced a scheme to encourage utili-ties to make idle capacity available this winter, something it had not planned to do until next year. l

Oil prices mixed in Asian trade n AFP, Singapore

Oil prices were mixed in Asia yester-day following the return of disrupted Libyan production to an already well-stocked global market and as dealers await the latest US inventory report.

US benchmark West Texas Interme-diate for November delivery rose 18 cents to $91.74 while Brent crude for November fell six cents to $96.79 in af-ternoon trade.

Prices had headed upwards this week after an upbeat manufacturing gauge from China and news that US-led forces had started targeting jihadist militants in crude producer Syria.

However, Singapore’s United Over-seas Bank said the restarting of produc-tion in Libya’s biggest oil� eld “added to oversupply woes in a � ush market”.

Production at Sharara, Libya’s larg-est oil� eld, restarted Monday after its closure last week, the Wall Street Jour-nal reported.

The 340,000 barrels-per-day capacity Sharara � eld was shut last week due to intense � ghting near the vicinity of the export terminal and re� nery linked to it.

The country remains in turmoil due to � ghting between militias.

A Libyan government spokesman on September 11 said the North African state expects production to reach 1.5 million barrels per day by year-end from more than 700,000 barrels currently. l

Yen up in Asia after US-led Syria strikes n AFP, Tokyo

The yen picked up in Asia yesterday as US-led strikes on militants in Syria and a survey showing further weakness in eurozone business activity fanned un-certainty.

In Tokyo afternoon trading, the greenback eased to 108.52 yen from 108.87 yen in New York and o� levels above 109 yen seen last week.

The euro dipped to 139.50 yen from 139.91 yen in US trade, while it also bought $1.2853 against $1.2850.

“The yen remains a highly sensitive barometer of risk appetite, as illustrat-ed by its gains following the start of US air strikes in Syria,” CLSA equity strat-egist Nicholas Smith told Dow Jones Newswires.

Traders tend to move into the safe-haven Japanese unit during times of economic or political turmoil.

Dealers said the dollar-yen rate may have also reacted to comments from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who expressed caution about the greenback’s recent steep ascent.

A weaker yen “has both positive and negative impacts,” he told report-ers during a trip to the US, according to Kyodo news agency.

“I would like to watch carefully (how the yen’s weakness is having the

impact on) the regional economies and small, mid-sized companies.”

While a weaker yen tends to in� ate the pro� tability of Japanese export-ers, it also makes dollar-denominated imports more expensive for domestic � rms.

In the US, Washington said it had been joined by Arab allies in unleash-ing air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

Dozens of IS and al-Qaeda militants were reported killed in the raids, which Washington said had partly targeted extremists plotting an “imminent at-tack” against the West.

In Europe a closely watched gauge of business activity in the 18-nation eurozone slipped again in September, adding to worries about the region’s stuttering recovery.

The Markit Economics composite purchasing managers index (PMI) saw a second consecutive fall in September, hitting a nine-month low of 52.3 from 52.5 points in August.

A reading above 50 suggests growth and anything below points to a contraction.

“In Europe, the � ash estimates of September PMIs made for ugly read-ing,” National Australia Bank said.

The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Paci� c currencies. l

Alibaba’s Jack Ma rises to top of China rich list as tech tycoons gain n Reuters, Beijing

Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, has become China’s richest man with a fortune estimated at $25bn, underscoring the ascension of tech tycoons over real estate peers in the world’s second biggest economy.

Ma knocked Wang Jianlin, head of the Wanda property group, into second place with $24.2bn, according to this year’s list of China’s super-rich pub-lished by Hurun Reports Inc.

Tech billionaires accounted for half of the top 10 names and included Ten-cent Holdings Ltd founder Pony Ma in � fth place with a $18.1bn fortune and Baidu Inc CEO Robin Li in sixth posi-tion with $17.5bn.

Making the top 10 for the � rst time were cellphone company Xiaomi Inc co-founder Lei Jun and e-commerce entrepreneur Liu Qiangdong who led JD.com to a New York listing this year - in ninth and tenth position respectively.

While six real estate developers oc-cupied the top 10 places in 2013, just two made the cut this year, a re� ection of a Chinese housing market that has stalled for several quarters.

Although the vast majority of the roughly 1,100 people tracked by Hurun saw their wealth grow, it’s tense times for the Chinese elite as President Xi Jin-ping’s administration continues its far-reaching corruption crackdown in both the public and private sectors.

According to Hurun, � ve members of its rich list are under investigation, two have been imprisoned, two are awaiting sentencing, one has been sen-

tenced to death, while one - the � am-boyant Sichuan businessman Li Yan - has disappeared altogether.

Hurun said it counted a record 354 US dollar billionaires in mainland China, up 13% from last year and which compares with just 65 billionaires in 2012.

“The entrepreneurial spirit that has caught China seems not to be abating, with eight self-made individuals born in the eighties making the list,” said British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief re-searcher.

Hurun said its rankings were accu-rate as of mid-August. It was not imme-diately clear what valuation it used for Alibaba. A record-setting IPO this month catapulted Alibaba’s valuation to well over $200 billion. Ma owns 7.8% of Ali-baba and also made gains of some $850 million by selling shares in the o� ering.

Despite the size of Alibaba’s IPO, only one other Alibaba shareholder, Simon Xie, made Hurun’s list, coming in at No 177. Xie is an Alibaba vice president and co-founder who holds signi� cant shares in the company alongside Ma. l

A farmer works in a � eld surrounded by electricity pylons in Ratcli� e-on-Soar, in central England REUTERS

'The entrepreneurial spirit that has caught China seems not to be abating, with eight self-made individuals born in the eighties making the list'

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, September 25, 2014

DILBERT

WTO cuts world trade growth forecasts for 2014 and 2015 n Reuters, Geneva

Global goods trade will grow less than hoped this year and next, and factors including regional con� icts and the Eb-ola outbreak are putting a quick return to stronger growth at risk, the World Trade Organization said yesterday.

Trade in goods will grow by 3.1% this year, much less than the 4.7% the WTO forecast in April. It cited “weaker-than expected GDP growth and muted im-port demand in the � rst half,” accord-ing to a statement.

Trade was likely to grow 4% in 2015 rather than the 5.3% expected previ-ously, still far below the 20-year aver-age of 5.2% and “risks abound in the form of geopolitical tensions, regional con� ict and health crises (Ebola)”.

WTO economists had previ-ously seen conditions for stron-ger trade returning after a two-year slump, but instead it stagnated in early 2014 as import demand fell in developing countries and harsh US weather and a Japanese sales tax rise also weighed.

The possibility of worse tensions over Ukraine, a deepening Middle East con� ict and increased panic caused by West Africa’s Ebola outbreak have all clouded the forecast, the WTO said.

Imports into South and Central America are expected to fall by 0.7% this year as economies are hit by a com-bination of civil con� ict, weak non-fuel commodity prices and the easing of growth in Asian export markets, the WTO said. l A man walks past a logo of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ahead of the ninth WTO Ministerial Conference in Nusa Dua REUTERS

Samdani: Cold Chain Network, the order of the day, to address post-harvest lossn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Cold Chain Network is a must to re-duce the post-harvest losses and to en-sure fair prices to the farmers, so said Ahmed Rajeeb Samdani, managing director of Golden Harvest Limited, a frozen foods processing company.

In an exclusive interview with the Dhaka Tribune, Rajeeb answered a se-ries of questions related to Cold Chain Network and his company’s role to address the food safety, alongside ob-serving that the farmers of the country su� er around 40% post-harvest loss of their produce.

What does inspire you to invest in the Cold Chain Network (CCN)? Rajeeb: Half of the people of the coun-try relies on agriculture for their live-lihood. In the horticulture industry, post-harvest losses are about 40% due to lack of management that brings loss-es to the farmers. As the farmers can-not preserve their produce, they sell those at lower prices.

On the other hand a group of farm-ers spray chemicals on vegetables and fruits to protect them from being dam-aged. This is why to reduce the post-harvest losses, ensure safe and hygien-ic foods and to pay farmers fair prices, the Golden Harvest with the help of US-AID made investment to establish Cold Chain Network in the Country.

What are the objectives of CCN? Rajeeb: The aim of CCN is to reduce post-harvest losses, deliver high-value prod-ucts to market, ensure fresh and hygienic food for consumers and fair prices for the farmers, plus improve the availability of locally produced nutritious food.

How will the farmers and consumers benefit from the Cold Chain Network? Rajeeb: 50% capacity of the installed Cold Chain Network will be used for Golden Harvest and the rest will be of-fered to the farmers and consumers. Anyone can keep their products in the cold storage paying charge on the basis of weight. Even, the consumers can also be provided with services through our refrigerated transportation to their desired destination.

How can the Golden Harvest ensure fair price for farmers? Rajeeb: In this case, the major problem is imbalance between production and consumption as after producing a huge amount of crops, the farmers cannot sell them at fair prices. To ensure fair prices, the Golden Harvest has contract farming with the farmers and it would buy products at a certain price.

How do you make foods chemical-free?Rajeeb: We have a group of farmers, who cultivate di� erent vegetable prod-ucts and poultry for the Golden Harvest under the supervision of USAID. The USAID monitors the cultivation process and recommends chemical-free food.

Where will the products stored in the CCN be sold off? Firstly, the vegetables or other products would be collected from the farmland and then taken to packaging house. Af-ter that it would be brought to the cold store and sold to the supper chain mar-

ket. The Golden Harvest will supply to the chain shop with service charge.

What is the market size of frozen foods? Rajeeb: The market size of frozen foods is over Tk600 crore and the sector is witnessing 10%-15% growth yearly. As the middle-income people are turning to the sector due to time constraint, the market size would be bigger further.

What is the capacity of CCN? The Cold Chain Network has the capaci-ty of storing half a million litres of prod-ucts. All segments of temperature-con-trolled products in Bangladesh could be accessible to the CCN. The storage facility will be initially o� ered from two centres – Dhaka and Gazipur, and the service will also be provided from Chit-tagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna very soon. When will the CCN go on in full-fledged operation? Rajeeb: The CCN will come under the

full-� edged operation by June 2015. Currently, the CCN is in operation in Dhaka and Gazipur.

What is the future plan about the CCN? Rajeeb: We would like to bring the country’s food products under a Cold Chain Network and ensure fair prices to the farmers as well as o� er the cus-tomers fresh and chemical-free nutri-tious foods.

What are the main challenges for the CCN in the country? Rajeeb: Electricity is the main challenge as it needs uninterrupted power supply while the high import duty pushes the cost of the project.

The Golden Harvest recently launched the CCN operation at Tejgaon in the capital. The entire CCN project is being implemented at a cost of $50 mil-lion which will be invested in phases. The Golden Harvest has already invest-ed $15 million while its partner USAID $4.92 million in the � rst phase. l

Home delivery or vault? Britain o� ers new gold coin service n AFP, London

Britain’s Royal Mint on Monday launched an online gold and silver coin trading service and said purchases could be stored under 24-hour military protec-tion in its vault or delivered to your door.

Use of the vault is only for clients buying a minimum of 25 gold sovereigns - worth around £4,600 (5,847 euros, $7,515). “The Royal Mint Vault resides behind the gates of our secure facility in South Wales, guarded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by the Ministry of Defence,” it said on the new website, royalmintbullion.com.

The Royal Mint said the vault of-

fered “unrivalled security and a service promising absolute con� dentiality and discretion”.

But it added that it could not accom-modate any curious customers who want to see their stash of gold for them-selves. “The Vault is one of the most se-cure facilities in the United Kingdom, in-dividual visits are not possible,” it said.

As for the home delivery service, it said bags would be “discreet and unbranded” and could be sent inter-nationally. The Royal Mint traces its history back over 1,000 years and pro-duces all the coins made in Britain, as well as working for more than 60 other countries worldwide. l

German business con� dence hits 17-month low in September n AFP, Frankfurt

Germany’s Ifo business con� dence indicator fell to its lowest level in 17 months in September, data showed yesterday, as Europe’s biggest economy continues to run out of steam.

The Ifo economic institute’s closely watched business climate index fell to 104.7 points in September, from 106.3 points in August, the think-tank said in a statement. That is the lowest level since April 2013. “Companies’ assessment of their current business fell again. And their expectations for the next six months hit their lowest level since December 2012,” said Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn.

“The German economy is no longer running smoothly.” Ifo calculates its headline index on the basis of companies’ assessments of current business and the outlook for the next six months. l

Japan’s manufacturing picked up in third-quarter n Reuters, Tokyo

Japan’s manufacturing activity picked up in the third quarter, a survey showed, but economists say they need more information on wages and con-sumer spending to determine whether the government should raise the sales tax again next year.

An improving corporate sector is certainly welcome news for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the economy contracted sharply in the sec-ond quarter following the � rst of two increases in the sales tax.

But the government, which is moni-toring third-quarter economic data to decide whether to raise the sales tax again, is likely to remain cautious for fear that consumer spending may not fully recover. Abe is to make a � nal de-cision by the end of the year.

“Conditions for Japan’s manufactur-ers are improving, and this is in line with an improvement overseas,” said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubi-shi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

“However, Abe’s policies rely more on households and the services sector.”

The Markit/JMMA � ash Japan Man-ufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 51.7 in September from a � nal reading of 52.2 in August, but remained above the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction for a fourth straight month.

From July to September, the manu-facturing PMI averaged 51.5, which is higher than the April-June average of 50.3 and shows that manufacturing is recovering, Miyazaki said.

The quarterly � gures could ease fears that manufacturers would scale back production as stocks of unsold goods piled up after the tax hike.

In another encouraging sign, the output component of the � ash PMI index rose to 53.4 from a � nal 52.9 in August to reach the highest level in six months.

Signs of rising factory output could help the economy recover from the shock of the April sales tax hike to 8% from 5%.

The increase dampened consumer spending more than many economists expected, triggering a 7.1% annualised contraction in the second quarter, and has taken some steam out of an expect-ed third quarter rebound.

The government will analyse data for July-September to decide whether to proceed with a second sales tax hike to 10% scheduled for late next year.

The tax increases are needed to pay for rising welfare spending, but some politicians worry they will do too much damage to the economy.

Consumer spending has disappointed since the � rst sales tax hike, and data next week on household spending and retail sales will show whether or not things improved in August.

Japan’s exports have also struggled to rise despite a weaker yen. Many companies have shifted production overseas, which robs the economy of an important growth engine that many policymakers were hoping would o� set the blow from the tax hikes.

The Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey is expected to show manufacturers were less optimistic in July-September and sentiment will improve only slight-ly in the following quarter.

Con� dence at Japanese manufac-turers fell the most in nearly two years in September, the monthly Reuters Tankan business con� dence survey showed last week.

The report raised fresh doubts about the e� ectiveness of Abe’s plan to re-� ate the economy, which hinges on a strong pick-up in both corporate and consumer spending. l

Stirring market seismograph relief for ailing trading industry n Reuters, London

Recent stirrings of long-dormant � -nancial market volatility have come in the nick of time for an industry that has been bleeding revenue and jobs for years, even though bankers doubt the secular downsizing of the trading world can be reversed.

The prospect of higher US interest rates, and to a lesser extent interest rates, has provided a shot in the arm for market activity and banks’ trading operations since the half year mark.

Trading in � xed income, curren-cies and commodities (FICC) has been steadily falling since the 2008 crisis, in large part thanks to a collapse and convergence of interest rates across the developed world that has crushed volatility.

Key measures of price volatility - particularly in currencies, which in large part trade on interest rate di� er-entials - have sunk this year.

Implied volatility in euro/dollar and dollar/yen, the two most liquid cur-rency pairs in the world, fell to a record low in July. US stock market volatility hit a 7-year low and bond volatility lan-guished near recent depths.

Low volatility limits price swings and narrows bid/o� er spreads, there-by minimizing banks’ scope to make money. Post-crisis regulation such as ‘Dodd-Frank’ and ‘Volcker Rule’ legis-lation in the United States and Basel III banking reforms globally also e� ective-ly restrict banks’ ability to hold, trade and speculate on � xed income and de-rivatives.

But volatility has since reversed, lift-ed by US rate speculation and a range of geopolitical � are-ups that caught mar-kets o� guard. Treasury bond and FX market volatility rose to levels not seen since January.

“Fixed income does show like it’s showing a few signs of life. But we’re not out of the woods,” said Chris Wheeler, banking analyst at Medioban-ca in London.

So far this year, the trading environ-ment has been tough for banks’ FICC operations, which critics sometimes dub “casino banking” and distinguish from traditional investment services like underwriting share issues or ar-ranging mergers and acquisitions.

Reuters data show that of 10 major U.S. and European investment banks, only Morgan Stanley and Bank of

America-Merrill Lynch raked in higher FICC trading revenue in the � rst half of this year compared with the same pe-riod last year.

The other eight saw revenues fall, from Credit Suisse and Societe Generale’s 6% decline to the 23 percent slump at Barclays. The average decline across the 10 banks was 10%.

When the trend isn’t your friend Major US and European banks will report third-quarter earnings results from next month. That quarter is usu-ally weak because it covers the sum-mer months of July and August, leav-ing September to make up the shortfall.

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s argues that while FICC trading will recover “eventually”, revenues will probably still be between 5 and 10% lower this year than last.

But there are encouraging signs as the Fed prepares the ground for what will be its � rst rate hike since June 2006, with the Bank of England to fol-low a similar path.

Yields on benchmark 10-year US Treasuries have risen more than 20 ba-sis points so far in September, on track for the biggest monthly rise this year.

And speculators last week amassed a net short position in two-year Trea-sury futures on the Chicago futures exchanges worth 98,610 contracts, the biggest bet in over seven years that shorter-term US bond yields will rise.

“If you’re big in foreign exchange and big in US rates, you will start to see things pick up throughout the rest of the year,” said Simon Maughan, prod-uct specialist at � nancial-data supplier OTAS Technologies.

But the drive to cut costs across the industry shows little sign of easing. Banks are laying o� thousands of sta� , notably the thousands of job losses an-nounced by Barclays in May.

In a report published earlier this month, London-based consulting � rm Coalition said the reduction in global FICC sta� during the � rst half of the year was far bigger than that seen in banks’ equities or investment banking divisions.

Headcount fell 9% to around 17,700 from 19,600 in the same period last year, compared with a two percent fall in equities and a one percent fall in in-vestment banking. Since the � rst half of 2011, FICC sta� ng has shrunk by more than a quarter, Coalition said. l

From July to September, the manufacturing PMI averaged 51.5, which is higher than the April-June average of 50.3 and shows that manufacturing is recovering

Ahmed Rajeeb Samdani talks to the Dhaka Tribune about the potential of Cold Chain Network in Bangladesh MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU