n Julfi kar Ali Manik, Tushar Hayat and Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court yesterday handed down death sentences to 14 people in-cluding former ministers Motiur Rah-man Nizami and Lutfozzaman Babar, and four ex-defence personnel in in-telligence agencies for masterminding the country’s largest ever smuggling of weaponries in 2004 that raised con-cerns about national security.

They have been convicted and awarded the highest punishment in both arms and smuggling cases � led in connection with the sensational sei-zure of 10-truckloads of illicit arms and

ammunition on April 2, 2004 from the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Lim-ited (CUFL), under Karnaphuli police station.

Apart from giving death sentence in the smuggling case, SM Mojibur Rahman, judge of the Chittagong Met-ropolitan Special Tribunal 1, awarded them life-term imprisonment in the arms case.

“We usually award 15 years, 20 years, 25 years jail to accused in cases for recovering one, two or three arms,” said the judge in an overcrowded courtroom adding: “It will not be cor-rect to consider these cases case with the nature of those ordinary [arms and smuggling] cases.”

About the size of the seized arms, which were brought from abroad for the Indian separatist group United Lib-eration Front of Assam (Ulfa), the judge said: “A mini cantonment can be set up with these arms.

“So, I did not � nd any reason to take the accused in a lenient view,” Judge Mojibur said. “I have decided to award highest punishment in these cases.”

There were 50 accused in the arms case and 52 in the other. Except for the 14 convicts, Judge Mojibur acquit-ted rest of the total accused from the charges.

Apart from BNP’s former state minister for home a� airs Babar and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Nizami, the 12 other convicts are Ulfa leader Paresh Barua; former director general of Na-tional Security Intelligence (NSI) Brig Gen (retd) Abdur Rahim; then director of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) Maj Gen (retd) Rez-zaqul Haider Chowdhury who was later appointed as the DG of NSI; former NSI director wing commander (retd) Sha-hab Uddin; former deputy director of NSI Maj (retd) Liakat Hossain; former NSI � eld o� cer Akbar Hossain Khan; former additional secretary of the in-dustries ministry Nurul Amin, ex-CUFL managing director Mohsin Talukder, former CUFL general manager (admin) KM Enamul Hoque, smuggler Ha� -zur Rahman Ha� z, Deen Mohammad, and � shing trawler owner Hazi AbdusSobhan.

They have also been given seven years’ imprisonment under another section of the Arms Act related to the ammunition issue. The judge also � ned them Tk5 lakh each in the smuggling case in which they have been sen-tenced to death.

Among the 14 convicts, Babar was running the home ministry as the state minister during the haul while Nizami was the boss of industries ministry which controls the CUFL.

Public prosecutor of the cases Ka-maluddin Ahmed con� rmed all the de-cisions of the court to the Dhaka Trib-une as it was hard to listen to the judge in the noisy courtroom as the judge was pronouncing the verdict without any microphone.

Among the convicts, except for PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

They knew it, they denied itn Tushar Hayat, Chittagong

Fourteen convicts including minis-ters and top intelligence o� cials were implicated in two 10-truck arms haul cases either for their involvement with the country’s largest ever smuggling attempt of weaponries or for their du-bious role after the seizure on April 2, 2004 in Chittagong.

Their part in the incident has been revealed by the statements of some witnesses and also accused in the cases � led in connection with the smuggling of sophisticated military weapons brought for India’s separatist group Ulfa using the land of Bangladesh.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rah-man Nizami, who was then industries minister, was reluctant to help in prob-ing the incident even though the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited

(CUFL) was used to unload the arms from trawlers, said a prosecution wit-ness.

The state-owned CUFL jetty oper-ates under the ministry of industries.

Witness Maj Gen (retd) Imamuz-zaman, former chairman of Bangla-desh Chemical Industries Corporation

under the same ministry, told the court that he had suggested Nizami to form a probe committee since the incident had taken place at the CUFL jetty.

“The minister refrained from mak-ing any comment in this regard and I assumed that he was avoiding the mat-ter,” he said.

Another prosecution witness Shoeb Ahmed, the former industries secre-tary, in his statement said he had met

Nizami after being informed of the sei-zure of the arms.

“I have heard about the incident before you. However, we have nothing to do in this regard. The highest au-thorities are aware of it,” Shoeb quoted Nizami as saying when he wanted to know their course of action regarding the issue.

Shoeb also said the minister had re-buked him as he proposed to launch an investigation. “Do you think that I am talking to you without consulting the higher authorities? The home ministry has been investigating the matter. The prime minister is also aware of it. So why do we have to investigate it sepa-rately?” Nizami told Shoeb.

Omar Faroque, former home secre-tary who headed the probe committee, in his deposition told the court that

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

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‘I did not � nd any reason to take the accused in a lenient view. I have decided to award them highest punishmentin these cases’

Plotters to die for smuggling arms The 14 death row convicts also get life in arms case; other accused acquitted; former home boss Babar terms verdict ‘injustice,’ curses judge

The accused unmaskedeach othern Julfi kar Ali Manik and

Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Not only the witnesses, but many of the accused in the two cases � led in connection with the 10 truckloads arms haul exposed each other’s roles in the smuggling.

This was one of the observations of SM Mojibur Rahman, judge of the Chit-tagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal 1 who delivered the verdict in the arms and smuggling cases handing down death penalty to 14 accused including some the then political and military bigwigs.

Before delivering the verdict, the judge briefed the overcrowded court-room about his observations. He said there was no chance that the cases could be considered ordinary arms and smuggling cases.

The judge repeatedly said some of the accused had been holding important po-sitions in some of the key agencies of the government. Some of their high ranked colleagues from the then administration gave depositions against them.

“This kind of witness deposition is important. And their statements were not like those given by common wit-nesses,” said the judge.

“There were both accused and wit-nesses from the same force,” he said.

“After examining all the deposi-tions, confessional statements and cross examinations, the court found out that some o� cials of the two im-portant government agencies – the National Security Intelligence [NSI] and the Directorate of General Forces Intelligence [DGFI] – who were accused in the cases, gave confessional state-ments against each other.

“... [They said] the accused had con-nection with the Ulfa and its leaders Anup Chetiya and Paresh Barua.”

The judge said: “The [then] director general of NSI, the most important of-� ce of the country, along with his wife, travelled to Dubai with an Ulfa leader. One of the [NSI] directors said that be-fore the court.

“They had dealings with PareshBarua and Anup Chetiya.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Country took risk of being backer of Indian secessionists Says security analystAbdur Rashid

n Tribune Report

Bangladesh ran the risk of being a pat-roniser of secessionist movement in northeastern India after 10 truck-loads of weapons bound for � ghters in Assam were unearthed in 2004, said security analyst Major Gen (Retd) Abdur Rashid yesterday.

The verdict on 10 trucks of arms haul case yesterday proved that several high o� cials of the government were aware about the issue which clearly in-dicates the then government’s support to the smuggling, he said.

The incident stoked the existing hostile relation between India andPakistan.

On April 02, 2004, the police cap-tured 10 trucks full of modern so-phisticated arms and ammunition in

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Convicts mostly calmn Julfi kar Ali Manik and Tarek

Mahmud, from Chittagong

Among those convicted in the sensa-tional 10-truck arms case, AKM Enamul Hoque was probably the person with the weakest nerves in the dock as the verdict was delivered by a Chittagong court yesterday.

Enamul was the general manager (admin) of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) at the time when the 10 truckloads of smuggled arms and am-munition were seized at the CUFL jetty.

He along with 11 other accused was present in the dock of the court during the pronouncement of the verdict.

Enamul fell on the � oor due to a nervous breakdown as his death pen-alty was handed out. His son, from outside the dock, tried to wake him up

saying nothing would happen to him and that they would appeal with higher courts against the verdict.

Major (retd) Liakat, who was also sentenced to death, was standing in the dock quietly ever since they were brought there.

Liakat came forward with a bottle of water to help Enamul. He poured some water on Enamul’s head to make him feel better.

Former state minster for home Lut-fozzaman Babar was busy talking with journalists. He angrily cursed the judge and his children saying Allah would try them.

Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami was quiet as well. When jour-nalists asked for his reaction he said it was an unfair trial.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Lutfozzaman Babar

Liakat Hossain

Motiur Rahman Nizami

Rezzaqul Haider Chy

KM Enamul Hoque

Akbar Hossain Khan

Shahab Uddin

Hazi Abdus Sobhan

Mohsin Talukder

Deen Mohammad

Paresh Barua

Abdur Rahim

Ha� zur Rahman Ha� z

Nurul Amin

A platoon of BGB keeps a watchful eye outside the Chittagong court during the 10-truck arms haul case verdict yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

All the 14 were convicted in the two cases related to the arms haul and were sentenced to death

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

The accused unmasked each other PAGE 1 COLUMN 6“Maj Liakat [convicted accused] used to maintain contact with the leaders of the separatist group [Ulfa]. This fact was cited in the statements and depositions of their colleagues,” said the judge.

Maj Liakat also gave shelter to the criminals in the country and maintained relations with the foreign terrorists during the Operation Clean Heart. He also used to regularly inform the higher authorities about his liaison, the court observed.

Those involved in the smuggling discouraged police o� cials as they challenged the unloading of smuggled arms at the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) jetty on April 2, 2004.

One of them told the police officials that they had the government’s

permission (for unloading illegal arms in the jetty). He said the policemen would lose their jobs if they prevented the unloading.

The judge said these observations came out from the statements given by the witnesses and the accused.

The judge also said when DGFI chief Maj Gen Sadik Hasan Rumi informed then prime minister Khaleda Zia about the matter, she did not show much reaction.

Later, the then state minister for home formed a probe committee comprising � ve members. One of the members of the committee was DGFI director Maj Gen (retd) Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury, later made accused in the cases after further investigation.

“It is a trial court. I did not make any decision on my own. I am delivering a verdict that was � nalised after examining the confessional statements of the accused, depositions and cross-examinations of the witnesses,” the court said.

Shoeb Ahmed, the then secretary of the industries ministry, and Maj Gen (retd) Imamuzzaman, then chairman of BCIC, both gave statements against the then industries minister Moitur Rahman Nizami.

The CUFL jetty of the Chittagong Port is under the industries ministry and the minister is responsible for the organisation.

Then state minister for home Babar ordered police to release the � ve Ulfa men, who were held on the spot on the

night of the arms haul. Later, he visited Chittagong to

see the arms and ammunition. He also prohibited the then Chittagong Metropolitan Police commissioner from telling much to the media about the cases. The court also considered these facts.

Babar and Nizami claimed that they had been sued from political intentions; but the court did not � nd any witness, who was an activist of any political party.

The arms and ammunition seizure was not only the biggest ever in Bangladesh, it was also unprecedented in the world, the judge said.

“A mini cantonment can be operated with the seized weapons,” the court said. l

Convicts mostly calm PAGE 1 COLUMN 3Initially Babar and Nizami sat on the bench of the courtroom, enjoying some privileges as former ministers. Their lawyers were taking their pictures on their mobile phones and iPads. Some journalists took the opportunity to speak to them.

Suddenly a group of policemen came into the courtroom and grabbed the iPad from a young lawyer who was � lming NIzami and Babar. Quickly the other defense lawyers hid their devic-es. Police asked around repeatedly for others who were taking pictures, but no one replied.

Shortly afterwards police took Babar and Nizami inside the dock.

Just after the verdict some relatives and lawyers of the convicts came to the dock to talk to their family members.

Akbar Hossain Khan told his lawyers to console his wife who was waiting outside the courtroom.

The death sentence came as a shock to Hazi Abdus Sobhan, owner of the � sh-ing trawler which brought the arms and ammunition to the jetty. He was on bail.

The verdict was shocking for his family as well. He went to the court to appear. The judge after sitting on the bench wanted to be sure whether Sobhan was present.

When Sobhan con� rmed his pres-ence police took him into the dock as per the judge’s direction.

After his verdict Sobhan’s son Os-

man and his daughter broke into tears. The daughter lost later consciousness and fell to the ground at the second � oor of the court building.

Sobhan has seven daughters and two sons. Osman said his father was not guilty as he had only rented out the trawler and was not involved with the smuggling.

When police was taking the convicts out of the courtroom to the prison van, police-men stood in two rows to ensure security.

When Liakat was coming out from the courtroom he secretly told something to a policeman who was standing in a row.

“My husband was innocent. He just discharged his duty. We will go to the High Court,” said the wife and daugh-ter of Wing Commander Shahabuddin, former director of NSI.

Wasiur Rahman, brother of smuggler Ha� zur Rahman, was seen stoic while no other member of the convict was found. He said they would take a decision after consulting with the convict’s family.

“My husband fought for the country in 1971 and he was a government o� -cer. He was not involved with the in-cident. Government brought the arms and the government is responsible for this,” said Selima Sultana, wife of con-vict Akbar Hossain Khan, former � eld o� cer of NSI.

Miwara, the wife of Deen Moham-mad, said her husband was a jetty worker; so it was not possible for him to be involved with the incident. l

They knew it, they denied it PAGE 1 COLUMN 5former state minister for home a� airs Lutfozzaman Babar had asked him for not mentioning in his report the in-volvement of a number of National Se-curity Intelligence (NSI) o� cials.

Farroque Ahmed, another member of the probe body, said he had directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the investigating agency of the cases, to send a requisition letter for quizzing NSI o� cial Akbar Hossain and informed Babar about the matter.

“He [Babar] told me that national interest was connected with many is-sues, so we will have to proceed con-sidering this aspect,” Farroque added.

Law enforcers had seized 4,930 types of sophisticated � rearms; 27,020 grenades; 840 rocket launchers; 300 rockets; 2,000 grenade launching tubes; 6,392 magazines; and 11,40,520 bullets.

Former NSI director wing com-mander (retd) Shahab Uddin Ahmed, in his confessional statement, said its for-

mer chief Brig Gen (retd) Abdur Rahim had informed him about the matter and directed to cooperate in o� oading the consignment.

According to the case document, the names of Rahim and Maj Gen (retd) Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury, the direc-tor of DGFI, � rst came in the statement of Shahab Uddin.

Shahab Uddin said he had been ad-mitted at Combined Military Hospital for physical illness on March 30, 2004. The next day Rezzaqul, accompanied by Ulfa leader Paresh Barua, visited him at the hospital.

“He left the hospital along with Paresh Barua after informing me that the date of arrival of the arms and am-munition has been deferred,” Shahab Uddin added in his statement.  

Sergeants Helal Uddin and Alaud-din, who reached the spot of unload-ing the weaponries � rst, said in their confessional statement that former NSI director Maj (retd) Liakat Hossain had monitored the o� oading of consign-

ment identifying himself as one Abul Hossain.

Sabbir Ali, former commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said Liakat had been detained from the spot during the recovery. However, they set him free following directives from the state minister for home a� airs.

Akbar Hossain, former � eld o� cer of NSI who hired trucks for carrying the arms and ammunitions, said in his confessional statement that he had hired the trucks after being directed by Shahab Uddin.

Akbar was � rst among the detained intelligence o� cials. He was held based on the confession of prime ac-cused Ha� zur Rahman Ha� z, an arms smuggler in Chittagong.

Prosecution witness Mobin Hossain Khan, former assistant security o� cer of the CUFL, told the court that former additional secretary of industries min-istry Nurul Amin came to Chittagong on the date of incident and he was tak-en to the CUFL guest house at night.

Mobin said he had informed former managing director Mohshin Talukdar about the recovery around 2am. “The MD directed me to intensify security of CUFL,” he said.

He also said none of the MD or for-mer general manager Enamul Hoque had visited the spot on the date of the incident or even the following day. “Their attitude suggested that they were informed about the incident be-forehand,” he added.

Prime Accused Ha� z in his confessional statement said after being assigned by Ulfa leader Paresh Barua, he along with Deen Mohammed, another smuggler, had gone to the deep sea near the Saint Martin’s Island and completed o� oading of the consignment on two trawlers from a mother vessel.

He said Deen Mohammed had also supplied labourers for unloading the weaponries. Of the two trawlers, one was owned by Ha� z himself while one Abdus Sobhan hired another. l

Plotters to die for smuggling arms PAGE 1 COLUMN 2Ulfa leader Paresh Barua and former additional secretary Nurul Amin, the rest 12 were present in the dock.

Abdus Sobhan was freed on bail, but as he con� rmed his appearance before the court in the beginning of the pro-ceedings yesterday, the police put him in the dock.

Shortly after the verdict, Babar ex-pressed anger from the dock: “It is in-justice. Allah will ensure justice for this injustice. The judge will be tried, his children will be tried, and Allah will en-sure the � nal justice.”

He continued saying: “It has been a stage-managed verdict, delivered to make someone happy.” When a report-er asked Babar to clarify about “some-one” and who had brought the arms, Babar stopped talking.

The other convicts in the dock ex-pressed disappointment similarly and said they all would appeal against the verdict.

Among the accused the dock, only Enamul Haque fell on the � oor, as sud-denly he was not feeling well.

Meanwhile, the prosecution natu-rally expressed satisfaction over the

verdict. Shortly after the proceedings, the pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers brought out a procession and held rally on the court premises. They chanted slogans terming the verdict “illegal.”

The judge in his very brief speech before pronouncing the verdict told the lawyers that any of the two parties in the cases would win while the other lose.

Considering sensitivity of the case, special security measures were taken on and around the court premises as well as the port city.

The judge sat on the bench at

12:20pm and gave some observations about the case. He then pronounced short order of the verdict that ended at 1:40pm.

Judge Mojibur in his introductory speech said the verdict had been pre-pared based on the depositions of the witnesses and confessional statements of the accused.

The convicts of the cases will have the scope to appeal with the higher court, which will decide on the judge-ment delivered yesterday. Death penal-ties have to be executed upon the ap-proval of the High Court. l

Country took risk PAGE 1 COLUMN 1Karnaphuli River near Chittagong port which was supposed to be delivered to the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa), an insurgent group in neigh-bouring India.

Abdur Rashid thinks that such arms smuggling by using the country’s land is a clear violation of the its foreign policy.

“Absolute secrecy was maintained by the then government about the arms smuggling,” he added.

The retired army o� cial said the punishment to the persons involved in the weapons smuggling was a must as it will give a good lesson to the author-ities concerned to refrain themselves from such secret foreign policy.

Veteran journalist and researcher at the Brac Afsan Chowdhury said the country had engaged itself in the rival-ry between Pakistan and India by giv-ing space to use its land for delivering arms to Ulfa.

The politics in South Asia is gradu-ally heading towards violence centring the hostile relation between India and

Pakistan, Afsan said. “The small countries like Bangla-

desh and Nepal have already got in-volved in their � ghts to establish su-premacy in the region. These countries should come out of the vicious cycle of India-Pakistan rivalry.”

A Chittagong special court has sen-tenced 14, including two ministers – Motiur Rahman Nizami and Lutfoz-zaman Babar – of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government to death in arms smuggling case of the 10 truck arms haul yesterday afternoon.

Nizami was the industries minister while Babar was the state minister for home of the then BNP-led alliance gov-ernment. The same court awarded life term imprisonment to 12 others in the arms case.

Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge and Special Tribunal 1 judge SM Mojibur Rahman delivered the verdict in presence of 11 accused, including Ja-maat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and BNP leader Lutfozzaman Babar. l

HC order for not harassing Fakhrul stayedn Nazmus Sakib

The Appellate Division yesterday stayed the High Court order that di-rected law enforcers not to harass BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir or show him arrested without following due process of law, in three cases.

A � ve-member bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain passed the order after granting leave to appeal of the state against the High Court order of January 16. It also � xed February 18 for the appeal’s hearing.

Earlier, the High Court bench of Jus-

tice Borhanuddin and Justice KM Kam-rul Kader told lawyer of the BNP leader that police could arrest Fakhrul any time after the submission of the charge sheet against him.

Calling for scrapping the HC order, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the HC bench that earlier had passed the “not to harass-arrest order,” had no jurisdiction to pass such an order as it did not have the authority to deal with writ petition-related matters.

SC lawyer Zainul Abedin represent-ed Fakhrul. All three cases against Fakhrul were related to killing people by torching buses.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday rejected the bail petitions of � ve BNP top brass in three cases � led with Moti-jheel police station and two with Ram-na police station.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Zohirul Hoque passed the order in the afternoon after hearing the bail plea of defense lawyers Md Sanaullah Miah and Masud Ahmed Talukder. He said their bail prayers were rejected as investigations under the cases were on.

The � ve leaders are Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and barrister Ra� qul Islam Miah, Fazlul Haq Milon and party lead-er Maj (retd) Ha� zuddin Ahmed. l

Two suspects in bank burglary remanded n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

A Kishoreganj court yesterday placed two suspects on a seven-day remand in the case � led in connection with a Tk16.40 crore robbery at a Sonali Bank branch in the district.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Ha-midul Islam, of Judicial Court 1 of Kishoreganj, granted the remand after the investigating o� cer in the case, sadar police station O� cer-in-Charge Abdul Malek, sought a 10-day remand for the two accused.

Police identi� ed the two suspects as brothers Yusuf Munshi and Idris Mun-shi, who had previously used the fake names of Habibur Rahman, alias Sohe,l and Idris Mia respectively.

Yusuf, the mastermind of the bank roberry, and Idris were arrested with

the stolen money in the capital’s Shy-ampur Balurmath area on Tuesday. An-other relative of Yusuf, Motahar Hos-sain, was also arrested from a nearby building.

Later on Wednesday afternoon, they were handed over to Kishoreganj police.

Earlier on Sunday, the authorities of the Rathkhola branch of Sonali Bank in Kishoreganj district sadar noticed that Tk16.4 crore had been looted from its vault via an underground tunnel.

On the same day, eight police per-sonnel – who were stationed in a bar-racks located in the basement of the branch – were suspended following the incident.

On Monday, some 45 people, includ-ing 12 Sonali Bank o� cials, were held in Kishoreganj for interrogation in con-nection with the burglary. l

48-hr hartal in Netrokona from todayn Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

The local unit of BNP called a 48-hour hartal in Madan upazila of Netrako-na, the constituency of Lutfozzaman Babar, protesting his death penalty in the 10-truck arms haul case.

The shutdown will be enforced in the area from 6am today, upazila BNP President MA Hares told the Dhaka Tri-bune yesterday afternoon.

Babar, the former state minister for a� airs, was awarded death sentence along with 13 others in the smugging case. He was also given life-term im-prisonment in the arms case. l

BNP mum, Jamaat decries verdict n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

and Manik Miazee

The BNP kept mum over the verdict on the 10 truck arms haul case even though the incident took place when the BNP-led four-party alliance was in power.

The party did not issue any press release nor briefed the media about their stance over the verdict although a minister of the then four-party govern-ment and a BNP leader was sentenced to death in connection with the case.

A Chittagong special court sen-tenced 14, including two ministers – Matiur Rahman Nizami and Lutfoz-zaman Babar – of the then BNP-led 4-party alliance government, to death in arms smuggling case of the 10-truck arms haul on Thursday afternoon.

Nizami was the industries minister while Babar the state minister for home of the then BNP-led alliance government.

Though the BNP did not give its re-action organisationally a number of its senior leaders gave their individual opinions.

“Everything is politically motivated and there is no rule of law in the coun-try. So question has already been raised in the minds of people over the credi-

bility of the judgment,” Amir Khoshru Mahmud Chowdhury, adviser to the BNP chairperson, said.

Abdullah Al Noman, vice chairman of the party, alleged that many innocent people were implicated and convicted in the case and the government had used the case to gain its political bene� t.

Mahbubur Rahman, a standing com-mittee member of the party and also a former army chief, declined to make any comment saying the party spokes-person might talk on the issue. “I do not want to comment on it.”

Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami in an immediate reaction condemned the death sentence handed down to its chief Matiur Rahman Nizami in the arms smuggling case, saying the “po-litical motivated verdict” was a bid to make the party leaderless.

The party acting chief (Ameer) Mok-bul Ahmed in a statement said: “We are left speechless, surprised and shocked by this judgement. We are countering this government conspiracy both polit-ically and legally.”

“From the beginning, we have been deprived of right judgement. Now our doubts have become true. Nizami did not get fair judgement,” he added. l

NHRC: State is rich-friendlyn Muktasree Chakma Sathi

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman said yes-terday that the state had become a rich-friendly institution, and was not looking after the underprivileged citi-zens of the country.

Prof Mizan also said it was now time to raise the question of whether or not the state wanted welfare for the poor sections of society.

“This state has become too pro-wealth. Does this country actually want to bring change to the lives of the under-privileged, oppressed and poor citizens of the country? Does this state really want empowerment of the citizens who have long been deprived?” he asked.

The NHRC chief also opined that most of the laws in the country were pro-rich rather than inclusive of the needs of all quarters.

“Law is not a tool which teaches people to love. But it is obviously a tool which bars citizens from expressing hatred towards one another,” he said while giving a speech at a seminar.

The seminar, entitled “Convention

on the Elimination of all forms of Dis-criminations Against Women and Dalit women: Bangladesh Context (Cedaw)” was held at Cirdap in the city. Jahangir-nagar University teacher Farzana Islam presented the keynote paper.

Pointing out Bangladesh’s opt-outs in the Cedaw, Mizanur said discrimi-nation in the country would not end if such opt-outs were not withdrawn im-mediately. “It is a mockery, particularly when we rati� ed the Cedaw to put opt-outs in its core articles.”

Bangladesh rati� ed the convention in 1984 but opted out of article 2, which says the state will condemn discrim-ination against women in all its forms and will pursue by all appropriate means introduce a policy to eliminate discrimination against women, and ar-ticle 16, which says the state will take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.

The NHRC chairman said the em-powerment of Dalit women was related to the empowerment of women in gen-eral. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

Paresh Barua – The Ulfa mann Tribune Report

Paresh Barua, the commander-in-chief of the military wing of the United Lib-eration Front of Assam (Ulfa) which is seeking sovereignty for Assam from the Indian state, uses several other ali-ases namely Kamruj Zaman Khan, Nur-uz-Zaman and Zaman Bhai.

Born in 1957 at Jeraichakali Bhar-iagaon, Assam, was a soccer player in his young life. He studied at Dibrugarh University.

He worked for the railway from 1978 to 1982 before he joined the Oil India Limited at Duliajan for some time.

He is married to Boby Bhuyan Barua and have two children named Tahshim Khan and Akash Khan.

Another source says that his elder son is named Tahsan Ankur Khan Sunlee.

Barua became a member of the Unit-ed Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) in 1979.

On May 10, 1985, he and other mem-bers of his group carried out a bank robbery by shooting to death the man-ager and robbed Rs27, 549 and � ed the

scene in a vehicle taken from someone they had kidnapped.

In 1989 he came in contact with Na-galand Rebels and Kachin rebels based in Myanmar who provided strategic training to his group. In 1990, his group became engaged in extortion.

He stayed in Bangladesh for a few years from 1990 under the pseudonym “Kamruj Zaman Khan” but after a brief stay he left in April 2004 after being charged for arms smuggling in the 10 truck-loads of arms and ammunition haul in Chittagong.

He reportedly runs big businesses in Bangladesh, including a tannery, a chain of departmental stores, gar-ment factories, travel agencies, shrimp trawlers and transport and investment companies besides a star hotel.

In September 2011, the Myanmare-se Army was able to trace Barua along with some Ulfa members in the forest of north-west Myanmar.

Barua received injuries in a � ght with them but he survived the on-slaught.

Barua on April 30, 2013, who ad-heres uncompromisingly to the de-mand of the sovereignty of Assam renamed the organisation as the Ulfa (Independent). l

‘Arms haul strained Bangladesh-India relations’ n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

The 10-truck arms haul case had an impact on Bangladesh-India relations, said former Bangladesh high commis-sioner to India Tofail K Haider.

“Now the verdict has been declared and the other party should be happy about it,” said Haider, who was the high commissioner in India during 2004.

On April 1, 2004, police seized 4,930 types of sophisticated � rearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 rockets, 2,000 grenade launching

tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets when they were being loaded on to 10 trucks from two engine boats at the jetty of the CUFL.

A Chittagong special court yesterday sentenced 14 accused, including Mat-iur Rahman Nizami and Lutfozzaman Babar of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government, to death in arms smuggling case.

Another diplomat who also served in the Bangladesh Mission in India said that time the relationship was bad.

“Everybody knows what happened

at that time. We had strained relation-ship and also we had clashes,” he said.

It was very di� cult to contain but somehow the diplomats after working very hard managed to do so, he said.

Former ambassador Mahmood Hasan, who also served in Bangladesh mission in India, said had the destina-tion of the arms been India, it would have an impact on the relations be-tween the two countries.

People who did this were appre-hended and put on trial and it was the right thing to do, he said. l

Law minister: The verdict upholds the rule of lawn Mohosinul Karim

The government pledge to estab-lish the rule of law has been ful� lled through the verdict on the sensational 10-truck arms haul case, Law Minister Anisul Huque has said.

The minister made the statement in his instant reaction regarding the ver-dict yesterday

He said the verdict on the sensation-al 10-truck arms haul case was positive.

He claimed that it was found in the investigation that the high-ups of the then government were involved in the incident.

It was an initiative of the then ad-

ministration to inspire the terrorism and the terrorists, said the minister.

“After the verdict, now the criminals will have to think twice before commit-ting such crime again. The court has given the verdict considering the evi-dence and statements of the accused,” Anisul Huque added.

Asked whether the large amount of arms haul was a threat to the coun-try’s sovereignty, the minister said: “A mini-cantonment could have been set up with the arms which were hauled. It was also disclosed who brought the arms and for whom.”

“It could disrupt the relations be-tween Bangladesh and the country

for which the arms were brought,” he claimed.

He added that the-then government had a plan to cover the incident and let go of those involved in the arms smug-gling. They would have been inspired to commit the crime again if the gov-ernment set them free.

A Chittagong special court has sen-tenced 14 accused including Matiur Rahman Nizami and Lutfozzaman Babar of the then BNP government to death in the 10-truck arms haul case yesterday.

The same 14 convicts were award-ed life term imprisonment in the arms case. l

A wake-up call for security agenciesn Tushar Hayat, Chittagong

The law enforcement agencies are now better equipped than ever to prevent incidents like the Chittagong 10-truck arms haul, o� cials have said.

In the wake of the pronouncement of the verdicts in the two cases � led in connection with the 2004 haul, of-� cials said they had taken a series of steps immediately after the incident to prevent repetition of such scams.

Shahidul Islam, regional command-er of the Coast Guard, said security had been beefed up at the outer anchorage of the Chittagong port and the coastal areas after the biggest ever arms and ammunition recovery.

“The Coast Guard was heavily un-dermanned during the incident,” he said.

However, detection capacity must be continuously upgraded so that so-phisticated and state-of-the-art vessels

and weapons could be traced, Shahidul added.

The policymakers immediately re-alised the dire needs for modernising the Coast Guard after the recovery ten years ago, he said, adding that they were yet to attain the capacity to keep vigilance over the entire coastal belt.

“It is hard for us to monitor each and every trawler during o� oading. But, we keep our informants active round the clock to gather information for pre-

venting such incidents.”Mohibul Hoque, secretary of the

Chittagong Port Authority, said there was not a chance anymore that such a huge consignment could reach the port undetected.

He also said the Chittagong port was the heart of the country’s economy and that they had been putting in all-out ef-forts to avert such incidents, thus up-holding the images of the port and the country. l

Heroes punished, villains rewardedn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Two people were punished, tortured and harassed because they did the right thing, and someone else, who did the ex-act opposite, was awarded with a presi-dential medal.

On the night of April 1, 2004, it was Sergeant Alauddin and Sergeant Helal Uddin Bhuiyan, who discovered that 10 truckloads of arms and ammunition were being smuggled through the Chit-tagong port.

They risked their lives to challenge the people o� oading the ammo onto trucks from two trawlers at the Chittagong Uria Ferliser Limited jetty.

They were told that the authorities were aware of the “goods” being o� oad-ed and threatened with dire consequenc-

es. They were also told that the arms and ammunitions were being transported for the separatist Indian group United Liber-ation Front of Assam (Ulfa).

However, Alauddin and Helal braved the threats and called in security rein-forcements to round up the smugglers and the arms stash.

However, instead of being rewarded for bravery, these two sergeants were framed in fake arms cases, � red from the force and brutally tortured in custody – during the tenure of the BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance government.

In 2005, two other men, nabbed with AK-47 ri� es in Feni and Noakhali, told law enforcers that they got the weapons from Alauddin and Helal.

“Then, we were suspended and made accused for supplying those two with

the ri� es. We were tortured in custody as part of an attempt to twist the sensa-tional cases [� led in connection with the 10-truck arms haul],” Alauddin recount-ed.

The torture in custody was so brutal that they had never been the same per-son again – neither physically nor men-tally, Alauddin said. “One of Helal’s legs was broken.”

However, the two policemen were later proved innocent and got back their jobs in 2011 – during the tenure of the Awami League-led government.

At present, Alauddin is serving as an inspector of the Special Protection Bat-talion (SBPn) at Ganabhaban – the prime minister’s o� cial residence – and Helal as a tra� c sergeant with Chittagong Metro-politan Police (CMP).

According to Alauddin, on the night of the arms haul, they, along with other policemen, picked up � ve suspected Ulfa men from the jetty area.

He and Helal later came to learn that the � ve men they had rounded up were later released from the custody of Abdul-lah Hel Baki, the then DC (port) of CMP.

“We mentioned the names of those � ve in our � rst information report. But, they were freed. Later, we were forced to tear up some of the pages of the FIR. There were some indirect pressures for concealing Ulfa’s connection with the haul,” Alauddin described.

Additional Superintendent of Police Md Moniruzzaman, investigation o� cer of the 10-truck arms haul cases, said the release of those � ve men and the fram-ing of the two sergeants were part of at-

tempts to hide the involvement of Ulfa and the higher authorities of Bangladesh with the smuggling.

Abdullah, who played an obedient role to the then government by releas-ing the Ulfa men and hiding facts, was awarded with the President Police Med-al in 2005 – the same year Alauddin and Helal were framed with false arms cases, � red from the force and tortured in cus-tody.

Sources from the police said not just the medal, DC Abdullah and his assistant Mahmudur got a number of promotions and recognitions during the BNP-Jamaat-led government’s tenure.

“We seized the biggest ever arms haul in the country’s history; yet we were made victims. Someone else took all the credits and also got all the recognitions,

although he was guilty of hiding facts and letting suspects go. He did those fol-lowing the then government’s orders,” Alauddin continued.

If the � ve Ulfa men were not released, the investigation would not have taken such a long time, said ASP Moniruzzam-an, investigation o� cer of the arms haul cases.

Abdullah Hel Baki is currently an addi-tional deputy inspector general of police and Mahmudur a superintendent of po-lice in the Sylhet range. Both have been made o� cers on special duty (OSD).

A special Chittagong court yesterday sentenced 14, including two cabinet members – Matiur Rahman Nizami and Lutfozzaman Babar – of the then BNP-led 4-party alliance government, to death in connection with the arms haul. l

Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, left, sits inside a prison van while BNP leader Lutfozzaman Babar, right, wears a blank look inside another van in front of the Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal 1 after receiving capital punishment in the 10-truck arms haul case yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Death verdict: Assam silent on Paresh Baruan Tribune Report

The government of Assam declined to give a formal reaction to the death sentence of Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua in the 10-truck arms smuggling case.

Assam’s Home Secretary GD Trip-athy said he was aware of the verdict, Mizoram-based MizoNews reported yesterday after the verdict.

“However, we are yet to receive of-� cial communication in this regard,” Tripathy said. “I can comment only after I receive formal communication.”

Paresh Barua, leader of a faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), is currently on the run and is one of India’s most wanted militants.

He along with 13 others, includ-ing Bangladesh’s former junior home minister Lutfozzaman Babar and Ja-maat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, were sentenced to death in one of the 10-trucks arms haul cases. l

WHO SAID WHAT: 10-TRUCK ARMS HAULNizami“I [Nizami] have heard about the incident before you. We have nothing to do in this regard. � e highest authorities are aware of it”

Shoeb Ahmed, former industries secretary, quoted former industries minister Motiur Rahman Nizami as saying when he wanted to know their course of action regarding the issue. Shoeb also told the court that the minister had rebuked him as he proposed to launch an investigation.“Do you think that I am talking to you without consulting the higher au-thorities? � e home ministry has been investigating the matter. � e prime minister is also aware of it. So why do we have to investigate it separately?”

Akbar Hossain“[I] hired the trucks a� er being directed by Shahab Uddin.”Akbar Hossain, former NSI � eld o� cer, said in his confessional statement. He was � rst among the detained intelligence o� cials.

Babar“He [Babar] told me that national interest was connected with many issues, so we will have to proceed considering this aspect”

Farroque Ahmed, member of home ministry probe body

Ha� zur Rahman“Assigned by Ulfa leader Paresh Barua, [I] along with Deen Mohammed went to the deep sea near the Saint Martin’s Island and completed

unloading of the consignment on two trawlers from a mother vessel.“Deen Mohammed also supplied labourers for o� oading the consign-ment of the weaponries.“Abdus Sobhan hired one trawler while another trawler used for the task was mine.”Prime Accused Ha� zur Rahman Ha� z said in his confes-sional statement

Rezzaqul Haider“He [Rezzaqul Haider] le� the hospital along with Paresh Barua a� er informing me that the date of arrival of the arms cache has

been deferred”Shahabuddin Ahmed, former NSI director, who was then admitted at Combined Military Hospital

Liakat HossainFormer NSI director Maj (retd) Liakat Hossain monitored the o� oading of the consignment identi-fying himself asAbul Hossain.

Sergeants Helal Uddin and Alauddin, who reached the spot � rst, said in their confessional statements

Liakat was detained from the spot during the recovery of arms and ammunition. However, he was freed following directives from Babar.Sabbir Ali, former commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police

S L H / DT I N F O G R A P H I C

V E R D I C T O N 1 0 T R U C K A R M S H A U L C A S E

In September 2011, the Myanmarese Army was able to trace Barua along with some Ulfa members in the forest of north-west Myanmar

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

City High Low

PRAYER TIMESFajar 5:22am

Sunrise 6:39amJumma 12:12am

Asr 4:08pmMagrib 5:44pm

Esha 7:02pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Weather to remain unchangedn UNB

Weather may remain dry with tempo-rary partly cloudy sky over the country until 6pm today.

Moderate to thick fog may occur over Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions and the river basins and light to moderate fog elsewhere over the country during mid-night till morning, Met O� ce said.

Mild cold wave is sweeping over the regions of Sitakunda, Srimangal and Kushtia and it may continue.

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

The sun sets in the capital at 5:44pm today and rises at 6:40am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 30.5 degrees Celsius was recorded yesterday in Cox’s Bazar and lowest 8.8 degrees in Srimangal.

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

Dhaka 27.4 13.5 Chittagong 27.5 14.2 Rajshahi 25.2 10.8 Rangpur 25.3 11.5 Khulna 26.4 12.2 Barisal 26.8 11.4 Sylhet 30.0 13.5 Cox’s Bazar 30.5 16.5

Loan defaulters to be barred from upazila Parishad electionn Tribune Report

The Finance Ministry has asked all banks and other � nancial institutions to provide information on loan default-ers to disqualify them from contesting in the Upazila Parishad poll slated for February 19.

The Bank and Financial Institution Division of the ministry directed the banks and � nancial institutions to pro-vide the information to the respective returning o� cers, by issuing a circular yesterday.

As per the Upazila Parishad Act 1998, loan defaulters are not eligible to contest in the poll.

Any candidate found to have failed to pay a loan instalment on time, would be disquali� ed regardless of their post, be it the upazila parisad chairman, vice-chairman or a member, said the circular.

It also said the loan defaulters’ infor-mation must be submitted within the last date for screening the nomination papers.

The circular says candidates can submit nomination papers for the elec-tions to be held in 102 upazila parisads until January 25 and withdraw until February 3.

Branch managers or authorised of-� cers of respective banks and � nancial institutions will be responsible for pro-viding any incorrect information and will be penalised, said the circular.

All o� cers concerned of the banks and � nancial institutions have been asked to be present at o� ce on government holidays and after regular o� ce hours until the completion of scrutiny of the nominations papers in order to provide the information to the returning o� cers as per requirement. l

ACC sues Tarique’s mother-in-lawn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The Anti-Corruption Commission yes-terday � led a case against Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu, the mother-in-law of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, for not submitting her wealth statement.

ACC Deputy Director RK Majumder � led the case with Ramna police station since she had not submitted her wealth statement on time as asked by the com-mission, an ACC public relations o� cer con� rmed the Dhaka Tribune.

The anti-graft body served a notice upon Iqbal Mand Banu on January 25, 2012, asking her to submit her wealth statement. Zakir Hossain, the caretaker of her house, received the notice on her behalf.

However, she acquired a stay order from the High Court on the request. Later the commission obtained an order from the Supreme Court on September 26 on stalling the High Court stay order.

Following the Supreme Court or-

der, the ACC was free to collect Banu’s wealth statement, particularly to inves-tigate the wealth of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman. However she has not complied with the ACC no-tice till date, said an o� cial.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu appealed to the anti-graft body to initiate a fresh inquiry into her wealth through her lawyer Nasiruddin Asim. The lawyer told re-porters that his client would comply with the commission’s instructions if it launched a reinvestigation.

However, the ACC said it would move ahead with its plan to � le a case against her for not submitting her wealth statement as instructed.

“If they have any objection in this regard, they should clear their position before the court,” ACC Commissioner M Shahabuddin said.

The ACC on Tuesday took the deci-sion to � le the case against Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu.

The commission, earlier on May 29, 2007, served a notice upon Tarique Rahman, asking him to submit his wealth statement. Later, analysing his statement, the commission found that Tarique had accumulated wealth worth Tk4.82 crore through illegal means and concealed information of his proper-ties valued at Tk4.23 crore.

Following the � ndings, the ACC on September 26, 2007 � led a case with Kafrul police station against Tarique, his wife Zubaida Rahman and mother-in-law on charge of concealing wealth information. Sources said of the Tk4.82 crore, the commission had found Fixed Deposit Receipts for Tk35 lakh in Zubaida’s name. But Tarique claimed that Zubaida had received the money from her mother.

The ACC, however, did not � nd any evidence supporting the claim. It rath-er got proof that Zubaida and her moth-er had aided Tarique in his attempt to show illegal income as legal. l

Bangladesh-India target broader connectivity n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Bangladesh and India have their eyes set on a whole new level of connectiv-ity beyond the traditional idea of tran-sit, said o� cials of the countries.

Indian High Commissioner to Dha-ka Pankaj Saran, after a meeting with Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yes-terday, said they were working on a “whole concept of connectivity.”

“The whole concept of connectiv-ity was discussed in the meeting. The concept of connectivity is now becom-ing broader, growing beyond the old-fashioned concept of transit.”

Expanding the sphere of connectiv-ity to such � elds as power, telecom, water and others would be “mutually bene� cial” for both the countries, he said.

“These are areas we are working on now and we are hopeful some real progress can be achieved.”

About the BCIM economic corridor, he said the matter had become o� cial after a meeting in Kunming last Decem-ber. “This is another interesting area of cooperation for us in the future.”

Pointing to the fact that Bangla-desh’s exports to India reached $560

million last year, he said it was not enough and more Indian private in-vestments should come to Bangladesh to reduce bilateral trade de� cits.

“More Indian private investments will mean more jobs and it will also help increase Bangladesh’s exports to its neighbouring countries including India.”

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said Bangladesh would bene� t from a functional BCIM economic corridor. “Bangladesh will bene� t more through the BCIM corridor rather than the Saarc.”

He also said he had proposed trans-shipment with India in 1998 but it was not materialised.

“We will have broader connectivity when we have improved infrastructure. We want to have connectivity with all countries. We have now exports to the seven-sister states and with a broader connectivity we can export more.”

About the trade problems with India, he said Bangladeshi businessmen were facing tari� and non-tari� barriers.

“When I went to India, I discussed the matter with the Indian prime minister, commerce minister, national security adviser and the business leaders.” l

8 get life for killing two n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Speedy Trial Tribunal 4 yesterday sentenced eight individuals to life im-prisonment while eight others to ten years of “rigorous imprisonment” in connection with the murder of two sib-lings in Gazipur in 2000.

It also � ned the former group Tk20,000 each, a failure to pay which will result in an additional year in prison. The � ne from those getting ten years is Tk5,000 each and a failure to pay the amount will result in additional six months in prison.

The verdict was pronounced by the tribunal’s judge ABM Nizamul Haque in the afternoon. Those receiving life sen-tences are Abdul Ali (now at large), Nu-rul Islam, Nazrul Islam, Fozlul Haque, Md Rahmat Ali Sikdar, Hasen Ali, Haz-rat Ali and Zakir Hossain.

On the other hand, those who got ten years are Bahadur Ali, Sujan Ali, Chan Ali, Shahidul Islam, Buzrat Ali, Akbar Ali, Amzad Ali and Azizul Haque.

However, � ve others accused in the double murder case were acquitted on all charges. They are Abdur Rahman Khan, Najar Ali, Md. Aminul Islam, Ra-hima Khatun and Sabera Khatun.

The case was � led after brothers Makbul Dewan and Kolimuddin Dewan were killed over a land dispute in the Golachipa area of Kaliakoir upazila on December 6, 2000.

A total of 21 individuals were ac-cused in the case � led by the de-ceased’s elder brother Md Shakhawat Hossain, of whom Abdul Ali has been absconding since the incident.

The investigation o� cer of the case Md Tofazzal Hossain submitted a charge sheet to the court on July 15, 2003. A total of 31 witnesses out of 47 were examined after the court framed charges against the accused.

However, in his immediate reac-tion to the judgment, the complain-ant expressed his discontent and said he would appeal against it in the High Court. l

EC to send six AL lawmakers’ a� davits to ACC n Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission has asked the concerned returning o� cers to send two certi� ed copies of a� davits of the six Awami League lawmakers, whose wealth statements suggest a rather unusual increase in their wealth over the last � ve years, to the commission by February 5, Deputy Secretary of EC Mihir Sarwar Morshed said yesterday.

He said the commission had direct-ed them to send the copies via special messengers.

The EC would send one copy of the af-� davit of each MP to the Anti-Corruption Commission next week while the other copy would be preserved at the commis-

sion’s o� ce, the senior o� cial said.Earlier, ACC issued a letter to the

Chief Election Commissioner request-ing him to provide copies of a� davits of the six - former Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haq, former State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Man-nan Khan, former State Minister for Water Resources Mahbubur Rahman, and three lawmakers-Abdur Rahman Badi from Cox’s Bazar, Aslamul Haque from Dhaka and Abdul Jabbar from Sat-khira.

Although ACC is investigating into the exorbitant rise of wealth of Awami League lawmaker Enamul Haque from Rajshahi, it did not request EC for his a� davit. l

Writ on political party registration rejectedn Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday rejected a writ petition that questioned the legal-ity of a provision of the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972, relating to some conditions for the registration of a political party with the Election Commission.

The joint bench headed by Justice Farah Mahbub delivered the verdict af-ter hearing the matter.

The writ challenged section 90B of the RPO, which sets several conditions for the political parties including se-curing at least one seat with its elector-al symbol during the past parliamen-tary polls, securing 5% of total votes cast in the constituencies in which its candidates took part in, and establish-ing a functional central o� ce, district o� ces in at least in one-third adminis-trative districts, and o� ces in at least one hundred upazilas or metropolitan thanas with each having at least 200 voters as members. l Jamaat to launch overseas campaign

against killings of party men n Manik Miazee

The Jamaat-e-Islami is planning to launch an international campaign to highlight the torture and deaths of its leaders and activists at the hands of the country’s law enforcement agencies, said party sources.

Jamaat has also reportedly decided not to go for any stern anti-government movement in the next two month; in-stead focusing on an international cam-paign based on a list of party activists who have been killed since the Inter-national Crimes Tribunal handed death sentence to its leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee on February 28 last year.

The party, along with its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, has pre-pared a list of 184 activists who have been allegedly been murdered between February 28, 2013 and January 5, 2014; as well as making several documenta-ries on police action against its activists.

Party insiders said Jamaat has planned to arrange processions and human chains in front of Bangladeshi embassies abroad, and showing docu-mentaries to foreign nationals and dip-lomats in a bid to present the govern-ment’s “autocratic” activities.

Sources also said the party assistant secretary general, Barrister Abdur Raz-zak, was currently abroad with the list

and the documentaries. Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher,

working committee member of Ja-maat’s central committee, said Jamaat always conducted its politics in a dem-ocratic process. The party always keeps a list of its leaders who are killed, he added.

The list of victims – who allegedly died during demonstrations to free Ja-maat leaders from war crimes charges – reportedly contains the names of 31 deceased from Rangpur, 57 from Ra-jshahi, nine from Dhaka, two from Faridpur, one from Barisal, three from Sylhet, 21 from Comilla, 33 from Khul-na and 27 from Chittagong. l

Surer Dhara congratulates Prof Anisuzzaman on his achieving the ‘Padma Bhusan’ award, the India's third highest civilian honour, in Dhanmondi’s Bengal Gallery yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Dhaka South City Corporation authorities in an eviction drive pulls down an illegal structure on the capital’s Topkhana Road yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Kutub Bagh Urs causes su� ering for visitors

n Abu Hayat Mahmud

The authorities of Kutubbagh Darbar Sharif illegally erected arches in the capital’s Farmgate Park for Urs, a giant gathering, with the permission of the Public Works Department (PWD), caus-ing untold su� ering to the visitors and inhabitants.

The PWD o� cials said they had giv-en the permission to arrange the func-tion in the park at the request of in� u-ential ruling party members.

The authorities of the Darbar Sharif also said they had arranged the pro-gramme with the permission of the au-thorities concerned.

Md Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan, chief en-gineer of PWD told the Dhaka Tribune; “We have permitted the function for two days on the recommendation of an in� uential person.”

“We do not know about the long-term programme of Kutub Bagh Dar-bar,” Kabir said.

“The month-long programme will damage the beauty of the park. If the Kutubbagh Darbar does not remove

the illegal structures, we will � le a case against them,” he said.

Residents of the adjoining areas – In-dara Road, Rajabazar Green Road and Jahanara Garden – opposed the Urs as it will hamper their normal lives.

Altaf Hossain, 58, an inhabitant of East Rajabazar told the Dhaka Tribune: “Every evening I go to the peark for refreshments and a walk. But the Urs authority has started to block the re-freshment area.”

Students of Tejgaon College also echoed the sentiment. Students of the college Saidur Rahman, Raju Das and Afroza Sultana said because of the Urs they would not be able move freely about the park.

When asked, seeking anonymity, a person of the Darbar Sharif said; “We have made tin-shed houses to store foods such as rice, pulses, cattle and other sacri� cial animals, which will be given by the pir’s murids (followers).”

Md Motaleb, a murid of Kutubbaghi, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We got per-mission from the authorities to use the park for Urs.” l

News 5DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

2nd phase of Biswa Ijtema begins today with multi-layer security n Mohammad Jamil Khan, from Tongi

The 160-acre land on the bank of the Turag river, the outskirts of the capital, is already full with thousands of devo-tees as the second phase of Biswa Ijte-ma begins today.

Police, Rapid Action Battalion and members of intelligence agencies, in uniform and plainclothes, have set up a multi-layer security system to avoid any untoward incident during the Ijte-ma, which is the second largest congre-gation of Muslims after the Hajj.

This is the fourth year that the Ijte-ma is being held in two phases on the banks of Turag, around 20km from the capital, to enable smooth management and security checks. The second phase will conclude on Sunday with � nal sup-plication – Akheri Munajat. The � rst phase of the Ijtema was held from Jan-uary 24 to 26.

The devotees who reached the Ijte-ma ground on Thursday morning did not get any space under the main tent. They had set up arrangements of their own.

In the second phase, devotees will join the Ijtema from 33 districts of the country, especially from the southern region.

Abdul Baten, police super of Gazi-pur, told the Dhaka Tribune that no for-eigner will join the second phase of the Ijtema, but some foreigners were still staying there and they would leave the area shortly.

The security system will be main-tained as usual like the � rst phase.

Abul Kalam Azad, an organiser, said Maulana Abdul Wahab of Pakistan had started giving sermons after Maghrib prayers.

A mobile court realised Tk5,000 as � nes from a hotel for selling unhy-gienic foods, said Ismail Hossain, o� -cer-in-charge of Tongi police station.

The � rst phase was participated by devotees from 32 districts of the country along with around 25,000 for-eigners from 120 countries including, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia and Palestine.

Tabligh Jamaat has been organising the annual congregation. The Ijtema features delivery of sermons on funda-mental matters of Tabligh, prayers for spiritual adulation, exaltation and wel-fare of the Muslim Ummah, and recita-tion from the holy Quran and Hadith. l

Fire at Dada Match Factory in Khulna n Our Correspondent, Khulna

A � re broke out at the Dada Match Facto-ry, at Rupsha in Khulna, during the early hours of Wednesday, burning valuables and equipment.

Reject match sticks and some vital factory equipment were destroyed, said Senior Station O� cer of Khulna Fire Ser-vice Md Masud Sarder.

He said the � re might have been start-ed by an electric short circuit.

But, General Secretary of Facto-ry Workers’ Union HM Shahadat said the � re was started by discarded ciga-rette-ends left by drug addicts. He also demanded an inquiry into the incident.

After being alerted, four units of � re � ghters rushed to the scene and brought the situation under control.

The match factory has remained closed since August 18, 2010 because of the � nancial crisis, rendering thousands of workers jobless.

Workers at the factory often stage demonstrations in front of it. They de-mand the re-opening of the factory, which under the management of Bangla-desh Chemical Industries Corporation. l

RU students protest fee hikes and evening coursesn RU Correspondent

Several thousand students of Rajsha-hi University gathered on the campus yesterday to demonstrate against in-creased fees and the introduction of new evening masters’ courses.

They gathered in front of various ac-ademic buildings, marched throughout the campus, locked all entryways for hours, and abstained from attending classes and examinations.

After a daylong protest, spurred on by the explosion of three handmade bombs earlier in the day, students de-clared a continuation of their demon-strations.

According to sources, over three thousand students gathered in front of the central library around 11am and began their march around the campus, ending with a meeting in front of the administrative building.

They also held several rallies and kept the administrative building locked between 11:30am and 2pm.

Later, a group of student represen-

tatives met with Vice-chancellor Prof Mizanuddin to discuss their points but the meeting ended in failure.

The protesters, vowing to continue their protests until the demands are met, alleged that the explosions were

orchestrated by university authorities. The bombs were exploded around

9:30am, in front the VC residence, the � rst science building, and the Rabindra Arts building.

Proctor Tarikul Hasan denied the protesters’ allegation.

The students started their protests on January 16, after being angered by a decision to increase all fees by up to � ve times, and the introduction of new evening courses in seven departments of the social science faculty – in addition to the existing ones under the BBA and law faculties.

However, in a press release signed by the Public Relations Administrator Prof Eliyas Hossain, the authorities claimed that the increased fees were “logical” and “proportionate” to the increasing prices of commodities.

It also said that the decision to introduce evening master’s courses was taken to provide opportunities of higher studies to a greater number of students. l

KU at standstill following resignation of teachers n Our Correspondent, Khulna

Administrative activities at Khulna Uni-versity have been hampered as 30 teach-ers of the university resigned en masse from 33 administrative posts, including a head of department and a hall provost, protesting against a perceived insult to one of their female fellows.

The teachers submitted their resigna-tion letters to the o� ce of the universi-ty’s registrar on 23 January, university sources said.

The sources said the teachers resigned from administrative posts because Prof Dr Afroza Parveen, acting director of the Fine Arts Institute, was insulted by Professor Mostafa Sarwar at the aca-demic council meeting held on January 18. The meeting was presided over by Vice-Chancellor Dr Fayequzzaman.

During the meeting, acting head of Development Studies Discipline Prof Dr Mostafa Sarwar raised question about the validity of Dr Afroza’s continuation

as the acting director of the institute, giv-en a senior professor joined the institute two months ago.

He then said as per the rules, the se-nior professor should be made director of the Fine Arts Institute, and that Dr Afroza had no right to attend the aca-demic council meeting as acting director.

Following the remark, Dr Afroza tendered her resignation letter to the vice-chancellor on January 22.

Meanwhile, syndicate members of the university have appealed to the teachers to restart administrative work, for great-er interest of the university, and carry on with the educational activities and examinations. “The deadlock will never end until Mostafa Sarwar apologies to Professor Parvin for insulting her,” said a teacher on condition of anonymity.

The vice-chancellor said he would sit with the teachers at any point, and requested them to restart work and re-solve the crisis in the interests of the students. l

Public Works Department allegedly permits to arrange the function

Bamboo structures are being built at Farmgate Park in the capital yesterday by Kutubbagh Darbar Sharif authorities on the occasion of Urs SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Students of Rajshahi University put the main gate of administrative building under lock and key, protesting fees hike and evening course DHAKA TRIBUNE

The security system will be maintained as usual like the � rst phase

DU BCL leader, activists beaten at Peacock barn Arif Ahmed

At least � fteen Chhatra League activ-ists of Dhaka University, including its Salimullah Muslim Hall unit president, were injured when a clash took place at Peacock Bar & Restaurant at the capi-tal’s Shahbag area yesterday night.

Witnesses said, the clash took place at midnight after the bar sta� prevent-ed Mehdi Hasan, president of Ban-gladesh Chhatra League’s Dhaka Uni-versity Salimullah Muslim Hall unit, from entering the restaurant as it was already closed for the day.

Following the denial, Mehdi had a heated debate with the bar sta� . At one stage, the bar sta� reportedly con� ned Mehdi and gave him a good beating.

Hearing the incident, BCL Salim-ullah Muslim Hall unit general secre-

tary Nizamul Islam Didar and several other activists rushed to the spot and snooped upon the bar sta� . Later, Shahbag police intervened and took control of the situation.

After the clash, seven BCL men, in-cluding Mehdi, have been admitted to the Dhaka Medical College in critical condition.

Meanwhile, when contacted, DU Acting Proctor Amzad Ali told the Dha-ka Tribune that an investigation com-mittee has been formed to probe into the matter and necessary measures will be taken after the investigation has been done.

Shahbag police station O� cer in Charge Shirajul Islam said: “We were successful in stopping the clash. No one has been detained and no case has been � led in this regard.” l

Students demand cut in extra tuition fees at DU n Arif Ahmed

Students from leftist organisations and the Progressive Student Alliance of Dha-ka University yesterday demanded the immediate withdrawal of additional tu-ition fees, which had been imposed on students enrolling on the newly intro-duced four-year bachelor’s degree course at the university’s Television and Film Studies department.

They raised their demands at a press brie� ng at the university’s Madur Can-teen in the afternoon.

Terming the additional fees part of “a scheme to privatise the public institu-tion,” they demanded the cancelation of all other such fees imposed by all depart-ments.

“The authorities should have ascer-tained what support they were able to

give the new departments, rather than depending on what the students are able to pay,” said Liton Nandi, general secre-tary of Bangladesh Students’ Union (BSU) DU unit.

Samajtantrik Chhatra Front’s DU unit President Rashed Shahriar said: “Many aspiring students were shocked to see the unusually high fees, estimated at around Tk 1.37 lakh.”

On Wednesday, protesters besieged the department o� ce, pressing home their demand. They barricaded the de-partment o� ce and halted admissions.

Later, AJM Sha� ul Alam Bhuyian, chairman of the Television and Film Studies department, rushed to the scene and held a meeting with the protesters.

The department head reportedly as-sured student leaders that he would dis-cuss the matter with the university’s au-

thorities, in line with their demands. The protesters then took out a pro-

test rally inside the campus and held a demonstration in front of Arts Faculty Bhaban.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Sha� ul Alam said: “We are compelled to intro-duce high fees as it is quite impossible for us to provide all the necessary facilities to the students from the university’s funds. I will discuss that matter with the author-ities, and if they agree to provide us with su� cient funds, we will reduce the ad-mission fees.”

According to the department, each student has to pay at least 1.30 lakh to complete their undergraduate course, which is quite rare when compared to any other public university. The department o� cials said 18 out of 30 students have already been admitted to the course. l

National Poetry Festival 2014 begins tomorrow n Arif Ahmed

A two-day long poetry festival is set to begin tomorrow on the premises of Dha-ka University’s Central Library where hundreds of poets will join and recite their poems.

Organisers of the programme said along with the Bangladeshi poets, 30 other poets from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Italy, Syria, Australia and America will join the country’s largest poetry festival.

Jatiya Kabita Parishad is organising the National Poetry Festival 2014.

Convener of the festival Prof Muham-mad Samad, at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity in city said the fes-tival would feature elaborate programs, including recitation of poems, songs on language movement, seminar and photo exhibition on poets and poetry.

He added that a colourful procession will be brought out from the venue of the programme where renowned poets and litterateurs from both Bangladesh and India will participate.

Among others, Jatiya Kabita Pari-shad’s President Habibullah Siraji, and General Secretary Aslam Sani were present at the press conference. The country has been observing the festival since 1987. l

RECRUITMENT OF FOOD INSPECTORS

HC rules illegal food directorate’s decision to increase viva marks n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court has declared illegal a decision by a government food depart-ment to increase by 10 percent the viva marks for a recruitment exam for food inspectors last year.

A joint HC bench led by Justice Far-ah Mahbub made the ruling yesterday after hearing a writ petition � led by lawyer ZI Khan Panna.

Shahdin Malik, who represented the petitioner, claimed that increasing the viva marks from 20% to 30% was made with mala � de intention.

“Through the verdict, the HC for the � rst time gave a ruling on this type of cases involving (government) appoint-ments,” Malik said.

The HC ruling also restored the orig-inally allotted 20% marks for the viva,

scrapping the food department’s deci-sion.

The petition, made in public inter-est, stated that on September 21, 2010, the Directorate General of Food under the food ministry had issued a job cir-cular for appointing 328 food inspec-tors, 175 deputy inspectors and 403 assistant inspectors.

The circular declared that a written examination would be held for 80% of marks, followed by a viva for 20%.

However, after the written exam last year, an order was issued in June in-creasing the viva marks to 30%, leaving 70% for the written test.

Earlier on October 3, the High Court had issued a rule on the food director-ate asking why the decision to increase the viva marks should not be declared illegal. l

College principal sues BCL president n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

A Sylhet-based college principal sued the institution’s Chhatra League president for extortion and vandalising his room.

Modon Mohon College Principal Prof Abul Fateh Fattah had � led the case against Arun Debonath Sagor Wednes-day night. The principal said Sagor in-cluding 10-15 of his supporters have been accused in the case.

According to the case, on Sunday, the Chhatra League president came to the college and phoned the principal, asking to meet him. At one point of the meeting, the president asked for money for Saraswati Puja. When the principal denied, Sagor and his men vandalised the principal’s room. Teachers have been observing an inde� nite strike from Monday, protesting the incident. l

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

Invitation for Tenders

GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH1 Ministry/Division Ministry of Railways.2 Agency Bangladesh Railway.3 Procuring Entity Name Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West, Bangladesh Railway

Rajshahi.4 Procuring Entity Code Not used at present.5 Procuring Entity District Western Zone.6 Invitation for Design, Supply, laying, Installation, testing & Commissioning of cable and

signalling equipment for introduction of Non-interlocked colour light Signal-ling System at Kalukhali Railway Station in western zone of Bangladesh Railway.

7 Invitation Ref. No 54.01.8100.157.02.066.138 Date 29.01.2014KEY INFORMATION9 Procurement Method Open Tendering Method (NCT)FUNDING INFORMATION10 Budget and Source of Fund Govt. of Bangladesh11 Development Partners (if applicable) Not applicablePARTICULAR INFORMATION12 Project/Programme Code (if applicable) Not applicable13 Project/Programme Name (if applicable) Design, Supply, laying, Installation, testing & Commissioning of cable and

signalling equipment for introduction of Non-interlocked colour light Signal-ling System at Kalukhali Railway Station in western zone of Bangladesh Railway.

14 Tender Package No. WR-0715 Tender Package Name Design, Supply, laying, Installation, testing & Commissioning of cable and

signalling equipment for introduction of Non-interlocked colour light Signalling System at Kalukhali Railway Station in western zone of Bangladesh Railway.Date Time

16 Tender Publication Date17 Tender Last Selling Date 23.02.2014 During offi ce hours.18 Tender Closing Date and Time 24.02.2014 12.00 PM.19 Tender Opening Date and Time 24.02.2014 12.30 PM.20 Name & Address of the offi ce (s) Address

- Selling Tender Document (Principal) Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West, Bangladesh Railway, Rajshahi.

- Selling Tender Document (Others) Divisional Signal & Telecommunication Engineer, Bangladesh Railway, Paksey, Lalmonirhat & Dhaka

- Receiving Tender Document Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West, Bangladesh Railway, Rajshahi.

- Openimg Tender Document Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West, Bangladesh Railway, Rajshahi.

21 Place/Date/Time of Tender opening Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West, Bangladesh Railway, Rajshahi.24.02.2014 12.30 PM.

22 Pre-Tender Meeting (Optional) Date TimeN/A N/A

INFORMATION FOR TENDERER23 Eligibility of Tenderer As stated in the TDS of Tender document.24 Brief Description of Related Services Design, Supply, laying, Installation, testing & Commisioning of cable and sig-

nalling equipment for introduction of Non-interlocked colour light Signalling System at Kalukhali Railway Station in wster zone of Bangladesh Railway.

25 Pack-age No

Identifi cation of Lot Location Price of Tender Doument (Tk)

Tender Security

Amount (Tk)

Comple-tion Time in

Weeks/monthsWR-07 Design, Supply, laying, Installation, testing &

Commissioning of cable and signalling equip-ment for introduction of Non-interlocked colour light Signalling System at Kalukhali Railway Station in western zone of Bangladesh Railway.

Kalukhali Railway Station

2000/-(Two Thousand

only)

1,00,000/-(One Lac

only)

2 (Two months)

PROCURING ENTITY DETAILS26 Name of Offi cial Inviting Tender MD. Abul Kalam27 Designation of Offi cial Inviting Tender Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West, Bangladesh Railway, Rajshahi.28 Address of Offi cial Inviting Tender Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West, Bangladesh Railway, Rajshahi.29 Contact details of Offi cial Inviting Tender 0721-761014.30 The procuring entry reserves the right to accept or reject all tenders.

(Benu Ranjan Sarker)Addl: Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/WestFor-Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/West,

Bangladesh Railway.RPRD No-3716, Date: 29/01/2014GC-04/14 (10”x3c)

BNP leader among two killed in ‘gun� ghts’ with RAB n Tribune Report

Two people, including a local BNP lead-er, were killed in separate incidents of “gun� ghts” with the law enforcing agencies’ men in Noakhali and Siraj-ganj in the early hours of yesterday.

Police said Touhidul Islam Touhid, a former joint convener of BNP’s Sonaimuri upazila unit in Noakhali, was killed in gun battle with police while, Mohammad Bablu, 32, a member of a robbery gang, was killed during a gun-� ght with Rapid Action Battalion mem-bers in Sirajganj, said RAB o� cials.

Our correspondent, quoting Kamal, brother of Touhid, said he had been ar-rested near the National Press Club in Dhaka on Tuesday. Later, Paltan police station handed him over to Noakhali police station from where he was taken

to local police lines. “We were unable to trace him thereafter,” he said.

On the other hand, Anisur Rahman, superintendent of police in Noakhali, told Dhaka Tribune that based on in-formation gleaned from Touhid, police along with the him conducted a raid at his Bhadragaon residence around 4am and recovered a ri� e and � ve bullets.

“When we were returning to the police station, some cohorts of Touhid opened � re on us at Modi village, prompting us to retaliate with shots of more than 40 bullets, leaving Touhid bullet-injured as he went in line of � re to escape during the gun� ght,” he said.

Later, doctors at Noakhali Medi-cal College and Hospital declared him dead.

He claimed Touhid, son of Master Nurul Islam, was accused in four cases

� led with Sonaimuri police station.In Sirajganj, Bablu, son of Abdul

Wahab of Baoitara village under sadar upazila, was killed as his cohorts alleg-edly engaged in a gun � ght with the team of RAB 12 personnel.

Bablu was the second accused in the Awami League youth and sports secre-tary Sirajganj sadar upazila unit Saiful Islam killing case.

Ashok Pal, commander of RAB 12, said a team of them conducted a raid at Kato Adda in China project area on information that a gang of robbers were holding a secret meeting. The gang members opened � re as soon as RAB team reached there.

“Bablu was caught in the line of � re during the 20-minute “gun� ght” and died on the spot,” he said.

After the gun � ght, the gang mem-

bers � ed and the Rab team recovered one Light Gun (LG), one revolver, four cocktails and some sharp weapons from the spot, he said.

Meanwhile, from Ullapara and Belkuchi of the district police arrested Shahdat Hossain Lavlu, 31, convener of upazila unit Chhatra Dal and joint con-vener of the district unit Rizon Ahmed yesterday. Police said they are accused in three cases.

On the other hand, police arrested a Jamaat leader Sariful Islam Mukul from Kotchandpur of Jhenaidah, who was accused in four cases � led in connec-tion of polls time violence.

In Lakshmipur, police arrested two Shibir men Nasir Uddin and Sha� que for their alleged involvement with torching of a Hindu family at Udmara village under the upazila. l

50 cows die from nitric poisoning n Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

At least 50 cattle have died from nitric poisoning at a dairy farm in Dorbesh-pur union of Ramganj upazila, Laksh-mipur, last week.

Md Anwar Hossain Bacchu, owner of Amy Dairy Farm, said; “I have to endure losses of around Tk one crore because of the 50 cattle that died from disease.”

He said he had acquired a loan of Tk5 crore and invested the money in the dairy. Chief scienti� c o� cer (PSO) of Feni, Dr Nurul Amin, said; “The amount of the poison has increased in the grass beside the farm.”

Chief scienti� c o� cers of Chit-tagong’s divisional, local animal dis-ease investigation laboratory and vet-erinary specialists of Feni visited the farm on Saturday. They collected sam-

ples through the autopsy of the cattle. During the visit, he advised farmers of the villages how they could take care of the cattle to fave them from the poi-sioning

According to sources, the disease had spread through the fodder.

UNO Kazi Mokbubul Alam said; “A � ve member committee was formed by appointing the upazila livestock o� cial as convener.”

“We may submit a report to the min-istry concerned to provide compensa-tion to the farm owner,” the UNO said.

District Livestock O� cer Abu Al Mansur, Sadar Upazila Livestock O� c-er Dr Md Mostafa Ashraf, Raipur Upa-zila Livestock O� cer Abdul Motaleb, Ramganj Upazila Livestock O� cer Md Zakir Hossain and Upazila Milk Vita Manager Dr Ashraful Islam paid a visit to the farm on Thursday. l

Cold wave paralyses life in northern districtsn Tribune Desk

The bone chilling cold wave, cou-pled with dense fog and mists over the northern districts, factually par-alyzed the normal life of commoners for the last 24 hours.

According to sources, the severity of biting cold forced the commoners to stay indoors a� ecting normal activities as the sun hid behind dense fogs, mists and clouds amid windy weather almost throughout the day.

According to the Meteorological O� ce sources, the minimum tem-peratures marked both rise and fall while maximum temperatures reg-istered little rise at most monitoring points in the districts.

The Met O� ce recorded the mini-mum temperature of 12.2 degrees Celsius at 6am and maximum of 18

degrees at 4 pm in Rangpur.BSS reports-the minimum tem-

peratures recorded were 10.8 degrees Celsius at Syedpur, 11.6 degrees in Bogra, 11 degrees in Di-najpur and the lowest temperature of 8.2 degrees Celsius in the country was recorded at Iswardi.

Due to the prevailing minimum gap between the maximum and minimum temperatures during the past couple of days, intensity of bit-ing cold continues causing untold miseries to the common people al-most everywhere.

“We have further intensi� ed dis-tribution of warm clothes among the cold-hit people to mitigate their suf-ferings in Rangpur like in the other northern districts,” District Relief and Rehabilitation O� cer of Rang-pur Abdus Salam said.

The district and upazila admin-

istrations, NGOs, voluntary, socio- cultural, charitable and professional organisations have also been distrib-uting warm clothes among the cold- hit people to mitigate their su� erings.

Reports reaching from the remote and sandy char areas of Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Bogra and Sirajganj districts on the Brahmaputra

basin said su� erings of thousands of people living there remained unchanged.

The number of cold- related pa-tients has increased in the northern districts making the elderly people, children and babies as the worst suf-ferers, doctors in the hospitals and health complexes said.

Civil Surgeon of Rangpur Dr Rea-jul Islam said steps had been taken in the hospitals and health com-plexes to provide proper treatment to the cold- related patients and no incident of cold- related death was reported so far.

Horticulture Socialist of the De-partment of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Khandker Md Mesbahul Islam said the situation had deteriorated during the past two days due to cli-mate change impacts causing su� er-ings to the people. l

Migratory birds coming in � ocks in Netrakonan Tribune Report

The migratory birds which popu-larly known as guests of winter have started arriving from di� er-ent countries to the down-stream areas under Khaliajury upazila of the district for the last few days.

But, the numbers of the migra-tory birds have reduced to one- third of the previous number, the reports reaching here from the areas said.

According to local bird lovers and weather experts, the migratory birds in � ocks of hundreds or thousands used to � y to various parts of the country during the winter every year coming from countries like Siberia, Mongolia, China and Nepal to escape the intolerable icy weather condition.

Local bird lovers including chairman of Khaliajury Sadar un-ion parishad Abu Ishak told the BSS that di� erent places around the haors, marshlands and swamp areas including Moragang beel, Kataljan beel, Kithonkhula haor, Bowali haor, Bora beel and Pangasia haor of Khaliajury upa-zila under the district have al-ready turned into the “heavenly

abodes” of the guest birds.The migratory birds locally

known as Dighari, Khaligori, Sarails, Balihas and Pankouri were seen glittering or hovering like small air-crafts on the blue sky over the water-bodies, some were wading across the banks of the open water-bodies and eating small � shes and many of them were seen chattering or saunter-ing on the shoals.

When asked to comment on the causes of reducing the number of the migratory birds, many local people including the bird- lovers and weather experts informed that the number of mi-gratory birds has reduced to one-third of the previous number due to scarcity of the small � shes in the natural open water- bodies and impact of climate changing atmosphere.

Many local people complained that the guest-birds are being sold every day in the local hats and ba-zaar

ncluding Lapshia, Jagannath-pur and Bowali bazaar in Khali-ajury upazila and Gaglajur, Bo-rantor and Chesrakhali bazaars under the Mohanganj upazila in the district. l

Third phase upazila polls on March 15n Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission is going to announce the third phase polls sched-ule for 74 upazila parishads in the � rst week of February, and will hold the polls on March 15.

The commission will hold meetings with all deputy commissioners, police supers, district election o� cers and returning o� cers on February 6, to dis-cuss the law and order situation during upazila parishad polls, a senior EC of-� cial told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The o� cial said the commission was planning to announce the schedule of the third phase in the evening after the meeting on February 6. The commis-sion has already sent letters about the meeting to concerned o� cials.

The EC has � nalised the list of 51,587 polling centres which will hold the third phase of the upazila polls. The to-tal number of voters in these upazilas

is 19,852,097.Earlier, the EC announced schedules

for the � rst two phases of the elections in 215 upazilas, which will be held on February 19 and 27.

The commission has decided to de-ploy the army for � ve days and also the necessary number of law enforcement personnel including Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Rab, police, Ansar, Coast Guard, VDP, EC o� cials said.

Intelligence agencies have told the EC that there will be no possibility of violence during the upazila polls, as all political parties are contesting them, o� cials also said.

They also said army was deployed for � ve days in third upazila parishad polls held on January 22, 2009. The commission will deploy 14 law enforce-ment people at ordinary polling centres and 15 at vulnerable centres, and 17 will be deployed in centres in the Chit-tagong Hill Tracts and Haor areas. l

College teacher, two others killed in road accidents n Our Correspondents

A college teacher was killed in a road accident on the Rajshahi-Naogan High-way at Mohanpur in Rajshahi yesterday. The deceased, Shomsher Ali, 42, lec-turer of Mohanpur Degree College, was residing at Saipara village.

Police said when Shomsher Ali was going to the betel leaf � eld riding a hu-man haulier, a speedy truck hit the ve-hicles, leaving six passengers injured.

He died on the way to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Two people

have been killed and two others have been injured as a bus rammed a CNG-run auto rickshaw in Koiyarpur area on Chandpur-Comilla highway yesterday afternoon. The deceased could not be identi� ed immediately.

Habiganj police station O� ce-in-Charge Shah Alam said: “A Chandpur-bound bus rammed a Habiganj-bound auto rickshaw in Koiyarpur area around 12:30pm, killing two on the spot and in-juring the others.”

The injured were admitted to a local hospital in critical condition. l

Members of Mahanagar Hawkers’ Union hold a protest rally after a mobile court evicted hawkers from di� erent footpaths of Rajshahi city yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

A health camp was held at Baliadanga Palli in Chapainawabganj yesterday. The camp provided cost-free healthcare services to 1,000 poor people DHAKA TRIBUNE

The number of cold- related patients has increased in the northern districts making the elderly people, children and babies as the worst su� erers

7DHAKA TRIBUNE Long Form Friday, January 31, 2013

n Yousuf Rahman

For the upstarts who are running the a� airs of Bangladesh cricket now, it is time for a history lesson: During the pre-1971 days,

when East Pakistan played at the high-est level of Pakistan cricket, our team that consisted of a majority of players born and raised between the southern tip of Chittagong to the northern tip of Dinajpur, competed and beat some of the best West Pakistan had to o� er.

In 1969, it was our team that played the Pakistan Under-19 � nal against a Lahore team that consisted of at least seven players who eventually played Test cricket for Pakistan, including the likes of Imran Khan, Wasim Raja, and Majid Usman. The winner was decid-ed on the basis of a � rst innings lead that we were unlucky to concede.

Cricket lost out when Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation. There were people, within the politi-cal system at that time, who opposed the game, and created un-imaginable barriers preventing the game from � ourishing.

Even then, there were many who loved the sport so dearly that they spent time and money to keep it going. When we played in the 70s and 80s, our sole objective was to keep the game alive, and we most certainly kept it alive for the future generations to pick it up and continue on the path of progress.

The path to Test Match cricket has not been an easy one; however, not many know that in the early 70s, when Bangladesh was not among the elite cricketing fraternity, Pakistan cricket chief Mr Abdul Hafeez Kardar, a former captain of Pakistan, along with his friend and counterpart, the Indian cricket chief, had made a some-what bizarre proposal to theICC: Bangladesh be considered a full test playing nation by virtue of the country being a former part of Pakistan, and that Dhaka was already a Test match venue of international stature.

We know what happened to that proposal, but it did lay the seed for Bangladesh’s entry into the world of cricket. A dramatic move by Mr Kardar, and even though the Paki-stan Board befuddled many, it placed Bangladesh on the map of Internation-al cricket even before Bangladesh had

a well constituted Cricket Board. On Mr Kardar’s initiative, Roquibul Hasan was sent to Pakistan to represent an invitational World XI against Pakistan to play in a series of one day matches in 1975.

From 1977, when we got into the ICC as an associate member, until 1999, when we beat Pakistan in the World Cup, Bangladesh has strived against all odds to continue on its path of progress. In 2000, when we were granted Test Match status, and thrown into the big league, I along with many others, had openly expressed the opinion that we were not ready, mentally or physically, to cope with the qualitative demand of Test Match cricket.

Test Match status was gifted to us through some political manoeu-vring orchestrated by India, and ably supported by Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh suddenly became an invaluable player in the cricketing world, simply because we held a vote that carried a lot of punch.

As we all know, the nature of control in the cricket world changed dramatically within the following dec-ade. Who else but India has gained the most out of Bangladesh’s Test match status! Soon enough, they had enough clout to tell the ICC what to do.

They launched a private T20-league under the banner of IPL and ensured that the ICC gives it due recognition even though it is a domestic private tournament organised and managed by a bunch of business entities, and its primary objective is making money and promoting their own players above and beyond all others. In my opinion, many Indian players getting decent pay from the IPL probably would not � t into the BPL.

For BCCI to have the gall to propose the two-tier Test system is unethical, predatory, and certainly not cricket. To top it all, for ECB and Cricket Aus-tralia to support this proposal, shows the level of cowardice in their thought process. You know the old saying, “If you cannot lick them, join them.” ECB and CA, the two giants that ruled world cricket not too long ago, � gured that they are unable to take the BCCI head on. Hence, a deal has been made. “Let us form the big three, and the rest can take a hike.”

My question is, what makes them the big three? The Indian team that contained Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, and Sehwag were treated like school-boys during their last two tours of Australia and England.

South Africa beat both Australia and England on Australian and English soil, and is the number 1 team in Test Match cricket today. Need the “Big three” be reminded of this fact? Is it � nance that makes them the “Big Three?” If such is the case, then the world of cricket needs to unite against this evil force. Boycotting the IPL would be a perfect start. Follow

the Gandhi principle, and give the Indians a taste of their own medicine! Furthermore, the ICC should (if it hasn’t already already) regulate and limit the number of sponsorships that can come from one country for all international cricketing events.

Bangladesh has come a long way, and over the years has shown signi� -cant signs of improvement. When we � rst started in 2000, the team could barely last three days in a Test Match. Questions were being asked all across the globe. Come 2009, Bangladesh surprised the West Indies in the Caribbean when we won the series, winning both Tests as well the ODI series.

Yes, it was a depleted West Indian squad, but to beat them at their game on West Indian soil required courage and skill, both aspects that our players amply displayed.

Since then, Bangladesh has been competing with dignity against most sides at this level, the most recent be-ing the drawn series against New Zea-land in the autumn of 2013. Needless to mention, we also beat them 4-0 in the ODI series. Oh yes, lest we forget – The Kiwis have given the Indians a hammering in the current ODI series, and have won the series convincingly.

Another dent for the “Big Three” self styled � efdom!

So, is it not the moral obligation of the ICC to ensure that the quality of cricket in a nation improves with a certain level of continuity? Here I wish to challenge the moral integrity of the ICC.

For Bangladesh to continue on this path of progress, our players need to compete regularly at the highest level. Sri Lanka became a Full Member in the early 80s only because they played regularly against the Pakistani and Indian Test teams.

The same opportunity almost became a reality for us when Paki-stan o� ered to develop our cricket by sending their best team to Bangladesh in 1980, only to painfully see the tour get disrupted by a group that had a vested interest in its disruption. It is Bangladeshi cricket that lost out. The dark and evil face of politics led the way that destroyed the momentum of Bangladesh cricket’s unquestionable growth.

The better opposition you have, the better you become. This is a simple fact of life. So, for the BCB to even consider aligning with the Indian proposal is mind-boggling. I can understand individuals with no

cricketing knowledge or background voting in the a� rmative, but for those individuals that represented the country to agree with the idea, is not only perplexing, but also is against all moral standards that the game of cricket stands for.

I fail to understand how Bangla-desh’s cricket will progress if they are continually made to play against the Associate Member teams. It will hurt us qualitatively and � nancially. After all, who will sponsor a series between Bangladesh and the Netherlands, or for that matter Ireland or Scotland? There go the sponsors, the TV rights etc.

Should this proposal become a reality, it will be the beginning of a journey into a black hole for Bang-ladeshi cricket. We must not allow this to happen, and it is time for the international fraternity to stand up and � ght this nonsense. BCB needs to strengthen their spine, and stand up for Bangladesh cricket, its hard-work-ing cricketers, and more importantly, the fans that follow the game with more passion than anywhere else in the world.

I would like to end this with a quote from Sir Ian Botham after Bangladesh beat Ireland in the World Cup in Dhaka: “There are 25,000 screaming fans inside the stadium and another 200,000 outside; and that too after a win against Ireland. This speaks volumes for this cricket crazy nation. There is no way you can stop their progress.”

It seems there are forces within us that want to prove Mr Botham wrong.

Yousuf Rahman is a former cricketer of the Bangladesh National Cricket Team.

Where is the sportsmanship?Bangladesh Cricket would hit a wall if the ‘big three’ have their way

For BCCI to have the gall to propose the two-tier Test system is unethical, predatory and certainly not cricket

BCB needs to strengthen their spine, and stand up for Bangladesh cricket, its hard-working cricketers, and more importantly, the fans

That famous 1999 World Cup win against Pakistan AFP

MUMIT M

Friday, January 31, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE8

CAR and S Sudan wars bog African summitn Agencies

Con� ict in Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan have weighed heavy on African leaders during Afri-can Union (AU) talks, while the o� cial theme is food security and agriculture.

State leaders gathered for a two-day summit of the continental bloc that started in Ethiopia on Thursday.

“The fact that these humanitari-an tragedies are unfolding in the two countries at a time when we are talking about ‘African renaissance’ must be painful to all of us,” Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said, speak-ing at a ministerial-level meeting on Monday.

But the 54-member bloc seems to be bogged down yet again trying to re-solve con� ict in member states.

“Unless we � nd (an) urgent solution, the situation in these two countries will

have serious implications for peace and security in the region, and indeed the whole continent,” he added.

The unfolding humanitarian di-saster in CAR, where a 5,300-strong AU force is deployed alongside 1,600 French soldiers, will be a key talking point. CAR descended into chaos ten months ago after rebels overthrew the government, sparking sectarian vio-lence that has uprooted a million peo-ple out of a population of 4.6 million.

On Saturday, after the o� cial sum-mit closes, African leaders and West-ern diplomats will also hold a pledging conference to raise cash for the African Union-led peacekeeping mission in the CAR, or MISCA.

“What we hope is strong support for MISCA, to enable it to implement its mandate more e� ectively,” the director of the AU peace and security council, El-Ghassim Wane, told AFP.

The warring parties in neighbouring South Sudan signed a fragile cease� re last week, but clashes between govern-ment and rebels continue, with thou-sands killed and over 800,000 forced from their homes in bloodshed that has now lasted for six weeks.

Peace talks led by the regional East African bloc IGAD adjourned after last week’s cease� re deal, with mediators calling for the AU to play a greater role in the peace process.

Heads of state will gather at the gleaming Chinese-built AU headquar-ters, which comes eight months after the bloc marked its 50th anniversary in May.

Peter J. Pham, director of the Afri-ca Centre at the Atlantic Council, said the AU’s slow response to the crisis in CAR points to a deeper institution-al weakness when it comes to rapidly evolving con� icts. l

Russia to wait before implementing rescue: Putinn Reuters, Moscow/Kiev

President Vladimir Putin raised the pressure on Ukraine on Wednesday, saying Russia would wait until it forms a new government before fully imple-menting a $15 billion bailout deal that Kiev urgently needs.

Putin repeated a promise to honour the lifeline agreement with Ukraine in full, but left open the timing of the next aid instalment as Kiev struggles to calm more than two months of tur-moil since President Victor Yanukovich walked away from a treaty with the Eu-ropean Union. A day after Prime Min-ister Mykola Azarov resigned on Tues-day, hoping to appease the opposition and street protesters l

Christian militias hunt down Muslims in CAR capitaln AFP, Bangui

Rudimentary weapons taken from Christian extremist militias by French troops in the capital of the Central Af-rican Republic were piled up on the ground, near the body of a young man whose ears were ripped o� .

“He was a Muslim from here, named Abaka. They killed him in the court-yard of his house,” a Christian neigh-bour, Benjamin, told AFP.

“They” referred to “anti-balaka” (anti-machete) vigilantes who � ercely target Muslims in Bangui on the pre-text of hunting down ex-rebels from the Seleka coalition. Sporadic shots could be heard Thursday around the PK-5 business hub of the capital, where numerous Muslim-owned shops at-tract looters and anti-balaka forces, who are kept at bay by armed Muslims and remaining Seleka forces. But night and day, residents from the Muslim mi-nority, like Abaka, are cut down by an-ti-balaka forces armed with machetes, hammers, slings and spades.

“We need to cover the body,” said a soldier of France’s Operation Sangaris, consisting of 1,600 troops who work

alongside an African Union peacekeep-ing force currently 5,500 strong. About 20 French soldiers sought to prevent scores of people from looting the prop-erty of the murdered Muslim.

“Don’t come close, stay where you are and back o� ,” a soldier yelled at a youth, but when the soldier stepped just three metres (yards) away, the looter came past, carrying a wooden door, while another followed with a hosepipe. Though few in number, the soldiers were holding dozens of youths at bay, half-hidden by tall grass behind the dead Muslim’s property. It was im-possible to tell whether they were an-ti-balaka forces, would-be looters or hooligans. “This isn’t normal,” Benja-min protested. “Sangaris wants to stop us from looting!”

By the roadside, the owner of a shop named “L’Arche de Noe” (“No-ah’s Ark”) took advantage of a few mo-ments’ peace to shut up his premises with a padlock, but the curious kept gathering in their hundreds.

“We won’t tell you ten times,” a sol-dier warned the new arrivals. “Get over to the other side of the road.”

Coming from the airport zone,

where the French troops and the AU’s MISCA force are based, an African mil-itary ambulance sped by with a wailing siren. Warning shots rang out as French soldiers � red over the heads of the crowd. A score of French troops backed up by two armoured vehicles on Thurs-day threatened looters in the Yangato district near the airport with the use of force unless they departed.

“Disperse or we will use force against you,” the platoon commander announced by megaphone to a crowd seeking to pillage Muslim property. “Any man who commits extortion is an enemy of the peace.”

The threat was a� ective, though de-termined looters lingered, waiting for the French troops to leave. Inter-religious violence has claimed thousands of lives and displaced a million people in the pop-ulation of 4.6 million, yet such clashes are unprecedented in the poor, landlocked country. They erupted when former strongman Michel Djotodia, brought to power by Seleka forces in March last year, proved incapable of reining in his � ght-ers, whose atrocities against Christians prompted the emergence of the anti-bal-aka and a spiral of violence and hatred. l

South Sudan frees seven detaineesn Reuters, Nairobi

South Sudan freed seven senior po-litical � gures on Wednesday who had been arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup, partially meeting a rebel de-mand at peace talks focused on ending weeks of � ghting. It handed them over to neighbouring Kenya and said four remaining detainees could be released after unspeci� ed “legal clari� cations” - raising hopes it was preparing to re-move a major sticking point in troubled negotiations. President Salva Kiir ac-cused his former vice president Riek Machar of starting � ghting between rival groups of soldiers in the capital Juba in mid December in a bid to seize power - a charge denied my Machar.

Authorities detained the 11 men, including former justice minister John Luk Jok, on suspicion of being involved, as clashes between govern-ment troops and now rebel � ghters loyal to Machar quickly spread, killing thousands. Washington, the United Nations, regional and Western powers - fearing the eruption of a full civil war in an unstable region - pushed both sides to start talks in Ethiopia and urged the government to respond to Machar’s de-mand to free detainees.

“We don’t feel bitter, we don’t feel the president is our enemy,” former jus-tice minister Jok told reporters in Ken-ya’s capital Nairobi after his release. Former � nance minister Kosti Manibe was also among the seven freed. l

Turkey removes more police o� cersn AFP, Ankara

The Turkish government on Thursday � red or reassigned some 800 police of-� cers as it pressed on with a purge of the country’s police force in response to a high-level graft probe, local media said.

Senior o� cers were among those re-moved from their posts in the latest wave of sackings in the capital Ankara and the western port of Izmir, the Hurriyet and Milliyet newspapers said on their web-sites. More than 500 police o� cers were removed in Ankara and another 274 in Izmir, they said. The Turkish media es-timate that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-leaning government has now sanctioned some 6,000 police nationwide, including top o� cers, in apparent retaliation for a corruption in-vestigation that has struck at the heart of the political elite. Since the graft scan-dal erupted in mid-December, dozens of prosecutors, including senior lawyers in-volved in the investigations into alleged money laundering, gold smuggling and bribery, have also been sacked. l

Iran rejects Obama boast that sanctions forced nuclear dealn AFP, Tehran

Iran on Thursday dismissed as “unre-alistic and unconstructive” comments by US President Barack Obama that in-ternational sanctions linked to its nu-clear programme had forced Tehran to the negotiating table. “The delusion of sanctions having an e� ect on Iran’s mo-tivation for nuclear negotiations is based on a false narration of history,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh A� ham was quoted as saying by state broadcast-er IRIB. Obama, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, said US and inter-national pressure had led to the interim deal struck in November between Iran and six global powers, under which Teh-ran agreed to scale back uranium enrich-ment in return for sanctions relief.

“American diplomacy, backed by pressure, has halted the progress of Iran’s nuclear programme and rolled parts of that programme back,” Obama said. l

Ukraine amnesty bill gives protesters 15-day deadlinen AFP, Kiev

A bill passed by Ukraine’s parliament to amnesty arrested activists gives protesters a 15-day deadline to leave occupied streets and administrative buildings otherwise it will not be im-plemented, according to the text pub-lished Thursday.

The passing of the amnesty bill was a crucial moment in Ukraine’s crisis and is expected to form the basis of negotiations and disputes between the authorities and the opposition in the days to come.

The clock will start ticking on the 15-day deadline once the bill adopted at a raucous session by the Verkhovna Rada late Wednesday is signed by President Viktor Yanukovych and is published in state media to become law.

However, in a new twist in an in-creasingly blurry situation, the presi-dent has taken inde� nite sick leave and he should only be able to sign the law when he is o� cially at work.

The opposition is furious with the bill as it makes the amnesty of dozens of activists arrested in bitter clashes with police conditional on protesters leaving key streets and buildings they

have occupied in Kiev.The votes of the majority ruling

Regions Party were enough to push the legislation through the Verkhovna Rada but the opposition deputies re-fused to cast their votes.

The text of the bill was � nally pub-lished Thursday after reports said that the draft had been so narrowly circu-

lated that some Regions Party MPs did not know what they were voting for.

It says that all administrative build-ings in Kiev and the regions, as well as other streets, seized by protesters will need to be freed for the amnesty to come into force.

This appears to include the Kiev city hall that has been occupied for two

months by protesters but not the trade union house that is their headquarters.

Protesters will have to vacate the � ashpoint Grushevsky Street in Kiev, where three activists were shot dead during bitter clashes with security forces. They also have to leave streets and squares they have been occupying “except those where peaceful protest actions are taking place.”

This opens the possibility that protesters could keep their hub of In-dependence Square in Kiev but the vaguely-worded text does not specify further.

“Such actions must be � nished no later than 15 days after the law comes into force,” said the text of the bill.

‘Never heard so much swearing be-fore’

The text was passed at a chaotic late-night session of the Verkhovna Rada dismissed as a travesty by the op-position because the Volodymyr Rybak speaker allowed no debate on the text.

He closed the session immedi-ately after the vote was taken and the opposition’s cries of “Shame!” were drowned out by the playing of the Ukrainian national anthem at full volume. l

Ukraine leader takes sick leaven AFP, Kiev

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanu-kovych on Thursday unexpectedly took sick leave from work, stepping aside from a crisis that still has no end in sight after lawmakers failed to � nd consensus on an amnesty law.

Yanukovych’s falling sick with an acute respiratory infection is the latest twist in a crisis that has already seen him accept the resignation of the prime minister in a bid to placate protesters.

The sudden announcement in Kiev came after the pro-EU opposition vowed further protests in the ex-Soviet country’s worst political crisis since its 1991 independence.

The outcome of the crisis remained unclear, with thousands of demonstra-tors still occupying Kiev’s Indepen-dence Square, key streets and munici-pal buildings in the centre of Kiev.

International concern has grown, with Russian President Vladimir Putin urging the European Union not to med-dle in the crisis but Western states un-

der pressure from protesters to consid-er sanctions against Ukrainian o� cials.

The protests started in November as a push for EU integration after Yanu-kovych under Russian pressure ditched a deal for closer integration with the bloc, but have now become an all-out drive to unseat the president who until now has de� antly refused to budge.

“The president is on sick leave,” Ya-nukovych’s o� ce said in a statement, without saying how long the leave would be for.

Citing deputy head of the State Directorate for Medical A� airs, Olex-ander Orda, the statement said Yanu-kovych had gone down with an “acute respiratory infection accompanied by an elevated temperature.”

While many Kievans have fallen sick in recent days amid frigid temperatures that have plunged to minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit), the sick leave with allow Yanukovych a break from increasingly frenzied ne-gotiations to end the crisis. Opposition fails to support amnesty bill. l

UN: No substantive results in Syria talksn Agencies

Syria’s peace talks are moving forward with greater ease but United Nations mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has warned against expecting substantive results during this round.

Brahimi said on Wednesday that the “ice is breaking,” calling the presence of both the government and the oppo-sition at the negotiating table a step in the right direction.

“These people have not sat together for three years. They do not expect that there’ll be a magic wand,” Brahimi said, insisting he was “not disappointed.”

Delegations from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition National Coalition are set to determine on Friday when they will return to Ge-neva for the next round of talks, Bra-himi said.

“I hope that the second session will be more structured and hopeful-

ly more productive than the � rst ses-sion,” he added.

Opposition delegation spokesman Louay Sa� told reporters that future talks needed to show “substantial progress.”

“We’re not going to stay here month after month just talking without prog-ress,” he said.

After days of deadlock, both sides voiced optimism on Wednesday, call-ing the talks “positive.”

“Today we had a positive step for-ward because for the � rst time now we are talking about the transitional gov-erning body,” Sa� said.

The opposition said it sees a transi-tional government as the � rst step to-wards a political solution and insisted that Assad leave power.

They claim that the Geneva I com-munique, a never-implemented road-map developed during 2012 talks, calls for a transitional government. l

Angry Birds website hacked after NSA-GCHQ leaksn UNB, Dhaka

Video game developer Rovio has con� rmed that hackers defaced its Angry Birds site with an image entitled Spying Birds, featuring an NSA logo.   The attack followed the publication of leaks that indicated the US spy agency and its British counterpart GCHQ had obtained data released by at least one of the Finnish � rm’s games. The company said it did not “collaborate or collude” with any gov-ernment spy agency.   It added it had quickly � xed its site.   “The defacement was caught in minutes and corrected immediately,” said marketing manager Saara Bergstrom. “The end user data was in no risk at any point. Due to how the internet name resolution works, for most areas it was not visible at all, but some areas take time for the correct informa-tion to be updated, reports the BBC.

“This attack looks to be similar to the New York Times attacks from last year.”   The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) – a group

supporting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad – said it carried out an attack on the New York Times last August.   After Tuesday’s at-tack, a Twitter account associated with the group posted a link to a saved copy of the spoof Angry Birds image and the message: “A friend hacked and defaced @Angrybirds website after reports con� rms its spying on people. The attack was by ‘Anti-NSA’ Hacker, He sent an email to our o� cial email with the link of the hacked website.” On Monday, the New York Times, ProPublica and the Guardian all posted copies of documents obtained from whistle-blower Edward Snowden that suggested the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ had worked together since 2007 to develop ways to gain access to information from applications for mobile phones and tablets.   They said that a GCHQ report, dated 2012, had speci� cally referred to their ability to snatch details about a user if they had installed Angry Birds on to an Android device. l

French soldiers of the Sangaris operation run during a patrol in Bangui AFP

Riot police stand opposite Pro-European Union barricades in Kiev AFP

9Friday, January 31, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE International

Hong Kong imposes sanctions on Philippinesn AFP

Hong Kong announced it was imposing sanctions on the Philippines because of its “unacceptable” failure to apol-ogise for a deadly hostage crisis more than three years ago.

The current visa-free arrangement for visiting Philippine diplomats and o� cials will be suspended from Febru-ary 5, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying told a press conference.

Currently they are able to stay 14 days without a visa. Leung described the move as the “� rst phase of sanc-

tions” and said the government may take more action if it thinks it could be “e� ective” in securing an apology over the 2010 hostage-taking.

He added that every year, 700 to 800 diplomats or o� cials visit Hong Kong from the Philippines on the existing vi-sa-free arrangement. Hong Kong has been demanding an apology for the incident in which eight Hong Kongers were killed and seven wounded. They were shot after negotiations broke down between Philip-pine authorities and a former Philippine police o� cer who hijacked a Manila tour bus in protest at his sacking. l

India gives residents more cheap cooking gas before electionn AFP, New Delhi

The Indian government on Thursday raised the subsidy on cooking gas, a populist move just months before na-tional elections but one that will fur-ther strain the public purse.

The cabinet agreed to raise the number of subsidised gas cylinders per home from nine to 12 a year after Ra-hul Gandhi, number two in the ruling Congress party, demanded the increase earlier this month to meet consumer needs.

“Today the cabinet has taken a de-cision to increase it to 12 ... and it will be e� ective from 1 February,” said Oil Minister Veerappa Moily at a press con-ference.

Asked whether cabinet’s decision was in� uenced by Gandhi’s request, Information Minister Manish Tewari said: “Rahul Gandhi is an elected rep-resentative and if he says anything, it is considered very seriously.”

Tewari denied the move was aimed at winning over voters before the gen-eral election due by May, which the Congress party is almost certain to lose after a decade in power.

The move, set to cover 99% of In-dian consumers, will cost the govern-ment 50 billion rupees ($797 million) in additional subsidies at a time of slow-ing economic growth, weak tax returns and high public spending. l

Pakistan PM pushes for talks with Talibann Agencies, Islamabad

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime min-ister, has reiterated his government’s commitment to an abortive dialogue process with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while stressing that “dialogue and terrorism cannot go to-gether.” Addressing the country’s par-liament in Islamabad on Wednesday, Sharif announced the formation of a four-member committee to initiate dia-logue with the armed group, which has carried out increasingly sophisticated

attacks against the state since 2007 and operates from Pakistan’s largely ungov-erned tribal areas.

Sharif’s comments came minutes after a series of co-ordinated attacks, claimed by the TTP, killed at least three people in the southern port city of Karachi. The new committee com-prises of Irfan Siddiqui and Rahimullah Yousafzai, two senior journalists; re-tired Major Muhammad Amir, a former intelligence operative; and Rustum Shah Mohmand, a former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan. l

Pakistani cultural festival threatens ancient ruinsn AFP, Karachi

A festival to commemorate Pakistan’s cultural heritage spearheaded by the scion of the Bhutto family could put the ruins of one of the world’s ancient civilizations at risk, experts warned Thursday.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the heir to slain former prime minister Bena-zir Bhutto, has launched a campaign to conserve the heritage of his home province of Sindh with a two-week fes-tival due to begin on February 1.

Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party su� ered a heavy defeat in the 2013 general election and observers say the event, which has seen weeks of national television spots, is part-ly aimed at raising the 25-year-old’s political pro� le.

But experts told AFP that the festi-val’s inaugural ceremony which is to be held on the ruins of the Moenjodaro settlement could endanger the UNE-SCO World Heritage site built around 2600 BCE.

Large wooden and steel sca� olds

are being erected over and around the ruins, while heavy spotlights and lasers have been installed for a light show.

Farzand Masih, head of the Depart-ment of Archaeology at Punjab Uni-versity, said such activity was banned under the Antiquity Act.

“You cannot even hammer a nail at an archaeological site,” he said.

“The laser and spotlights, secondly, will cause rapid decay at the site which is already exposed to many negative factors,” Masih added. “I was invited for the ceremony by Mr Bilawal Bhutto Zardari but I don’t approve of such kind of activity.”

The ruins, discovered in 1922 by British archaeologist Sir John Marshall, are 425 kilometres (265 miles) north of the port city of Karachi and are one of the largest settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

“This is really a matter of great concern that we treat our precious heritage so recklessly,” said Nauman Ahmed, a professor of architecture and urban planning.

“And when we need technical or � -nancial assistance for conservation we have to face embarrassment from the donors for such acts,” he added.

Qasim Ali Qasim, head of the Sindh Archaeology Department that is re-sponsible for the ruins, denied any damage was being done.

“I dont think that the structure or lights would harm the site,” he said.

“I am personally overseeing the work and it is all in accordance with the SOPs (Standard Operating Proce-dures).”

Responding to the criticism, Zardari tweeted: “inspected MD site with Di-rector Archaeology (30yrs experience). Explained how every precaution has been taken. Remains are safe.

The Moenjodaro ruins are one of Pakistan’s six UNESCO World Heritage sites that are deemed places of special cultural signi� cance.

But many of the country’s histori-cal sites are endangered by vandalism and urban encroachment, as well as a booming trade in illegally excavated treasures. l

Philippine troops kill 37 rebels in o� ensiven AP

Philippine troops have killed at least 37 Islamic � ghters and captured a reb-el stronghold with a bomb-producing facility.

Military o� cials said on Thursday that troops seized a key rebel strong-hold that spans two villages in Ma-guindanao province and con� scated materials used for making explosive devises, following a two-day o� ensive.

One soldier was killed and 12 oth-ers were wounded by bombs hidden around a mosque during the � ghting, according to Colonel Dickson Hermoso, regional military spokesman.

“It’s like a bomb factory,” Hermo-so said. “We don’t negotiate with groups like this who threaten inno-cent civilians. We run after them to enforce the law.”

President Benigno Aquino III said the military launched the assault to protect villages after Bangsamoro Is-lamic Freedom Movement � ghters staged attacks in the province.

Abu Misry, a rebel spokesman, ad-mitted part of the group’s stronghold had been taken by government forces, but denied statements that any � ghters had been killed or captured, adding that seven � ghters had been wounded by army shelling and rocket � re. l

Pro-Taliban cleric shot dead in Pakistann AFP, Quetta

An in� uential cleric who supported the Afghan Taliban in their war against US-led forces has been shot dead in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, o� cials said on Thursday.

“Two unknown gunmen on a mo-torcycle shot dead Maulana Abdul-lah Zakiri” as he was on his way to a mosque on Wednesday night, senior police o� cial Abdul Razzaq told AFP.

Razzaq said Zakiri had been living in Quetta for a long time and had no

known disputes with anyone, though his family have accused Afghan intelli-gence of his murder.

Provincial home secretary Asad Gi-lani con� rmed the killing. Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and is rife with separatist and Islamist militants and plagued by sectarian bloodshed. According to an Afghan Taliban source, Zakiri, 80, was a teacher and a close aide to Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar. The source also blamed Afghan intelligence for the murder. l

Thai army to deploy more troops amid warning of poll violencen Reuters, Bangkok

Thailand’s army will increase the num-ber of troops in the capital ahead of Sun-day’s election, it said on Thursday, as the government warned it might not be able to contain violence if anti-government protesters try to stop people voting.

The protesters, members of the Peo-ple’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), had said they would disrupt the ballot as part of their campaign to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but their leader appeared to backtrack.

The government’s decision to press ahead with the election has in� amed tension in the capital, Bangkok, where the protesters have blockaded main in-tersections and forced many ministries to close their doors this month.

“In addition to the 5,000 soldiers we have already deployed in and around Bangkok to help monitor security, we will be increasing troops around pro-test sites as there are people trying to instigate violence,” army spokesman Winthai Suvaree told Reuters.

About 10,000 police would be re-sponsible for Bangkok security on Sun-day and the troops would be on standby.

Labour Minister Chalerm Yoom-bamrung, in charge of a state of emer-gency imposed last week, urged the protesters not to disrupt the vote.

“If the PDRC do that, people will beat each other to a pulp and nobody can control a situation like that,” he told re-porters. “The police and soldiers don’t have enough manpower to take care of

(security) at every polling station.”Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban

said people should not waste time vot-ing but appeared to drop earlier plans to try to obstruct polling.

“Those who want to vote should go and vote,” he told supporters as the sun set. “We won’t block you from voting otherwise you’ll turn around and say we violated your rights.”

Demonstrators took to the streets in November in the latest round of an eight-year con� ict that pits Bangkok’s middle class, southern Thais and the royalist establishment against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yin-gluck and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

The protesters accuse Yingluck of being a puppet of former telecoms ty-coon Thaksin, a man they say is a cor-rupt crony capitalist who disrespected the monarchy and bought elections over the past decade with costly pop-ulist giveaways.

Thaksin, who denies that, went into self-exile in 2008, shortly before he was sentenced to jail on graft charges he says were politically motivated.

Ten people have died and at least 577 have been wounded in politically related violence since November 30 ac-cording to the Erawan Medical Centre, which monitors Bangkok hospitals.

A protest leader was killed and about a dozen people were injured in a clash near a polling station during ad-

vance voting on Sunday. The protesters prevented early voting in many parts of the capital and the south.

The violence is the worst since 2010 when Suthep, at the time a deputy prime minister, sent in troops to end demon-strations by pro-Thaksin activists.

Suthep faces murder charges relat-ed to his role in that crackdown, when more than 90 people were killed, and for insurrection in leading the latest protests which are also taking their toll on Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. Consumer con� dence fell for the ninth month in December, hitting a two-year low and the central bank said last week the economy may grow only 3% this year rather than the 4% it had forecast.

Tourist arrivals have been hit in the peak season and huge infrastructure projects have been put on hold.

Toyota Motor Corp, one of Thai-land’s biggest foreign investors, said it hoped for a quick solution to the polit-ical crisis.

“The region is like the Detroit of Asia and many makers are exporting from there too,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters. “We hope that the situation will be resolved as soon as possible so that the global impact will be limited.”

Thailand is the region’s biggest car-making hub.

Suthep led a march in the capital un-der a blazing tropical sun on Thursday, the start of a three-day push to demon-strate opposition to the vote and rustle up support for its cause. l

Andhra Pradesh assembly rejects Telangana Billn Agencies, New Delhi

The Andhra Pradesh assembly, by a voice vote Thursday, rejected the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2013 on creating a separate Telangana state.

Amid protests by legislators from Telangana, Speaker N Manohar an-nounced that a resolution moved by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for rejecting the bill was carried and adjourned the house sine-die.

The chief minister, in his resolution, has urged President Pranab Mukherjee not to refer the bill to parliament.

The Andhra assembly has been ad-journed sine die.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader KT Ramarao appealed the people of Telangana not to panic, saying that the assembly decision was a mere formali-ty. He also added that the Bihar assem-bly had rejected the Jharkhand bill but a new state was created.

Congress leader Renuka Chowdhary said that the centre won’t bulldoze its decision on Telangana but the bill will have to go back to the President.

CNN-IBN quoted Renuka Chow-dhary saying: ‘This is not a matter of victory or defeat. The Bill has been rejected with the best of intention and not to create problems for Seemandhra or Telangana regions of Andhra Pradesh.’

On Thursday, chief minister Kiran

Kumar Reddy dared the central gov-ernment to table the bill in the same form in parliament.

Kiran Kumar Reddy said he would quit politics if parliament admitted the bill in the same form as it was sent to the state legislature.

Kiran Reddy alleged that the central

government deceived the president by sending an incomprehensive bill to him.

“The bill in its present form will not even be admitted in parliament,” said Kiran Reddy, who is strongly opposed to formation of a separate Telangana state. l

Ruins of Moenjodaro COURTESY: BILAL AKBAR

Andhra Pradesh

Anti-government protesters take part in a rally in central Bangkok REUTERS

Labourers engaged in renovating Sirajganj � ood control embankmentJanuary 23

Anwarul Haque This photo tells me that we Bengalis can turn our situation around any time, defeating all the shackles put upon us.

Hanka Bořilová The Bangladeshi people are undoubtedly industrious.

Students forced to queue up to welcome state ministerJanuary 24

Mohammad Tanvir Khalid Once I had to do it, queue up. Spent hours under the sun. Funny part was many of us liked it because there was almost no class that day.

Nazmul Khair It should be banned. Since my childhood I have been seeing such receptions. They are a joke. A lot of changes are taking place these days, and we are becoming smarter day by day, but these “receptions” continue to take place.

What are the kids learning?January 22

laila aliYou gave a long list of things for the children of this country, but who is going to enforce such plans? The government? Or rather the education ministry? Very unlikely. What we need is child advocates in every corner of the country who will work tirelessly to ensure the birth of any such program.

For starters, education starts early at home. You seem to be making excuses for overworked and stressed parents. No one will do their job. If they are not going to start nurturing their children at home from an early age, thinking it is the job of teachers or the government, then those parents have no business bringing children into the world. Of course there are options to watching bad cartoons. Parents can fetch their young children drawing papers and coloured pencils and encourage them to draw. For those kids who have the gift of writing, their par-ents should get them journals in which to write. One has to re-channel all their energy into doing something positive that nourishes each child within their capacity. So don’t give the parents an easy pass to avoid their responsibilities onto others. I understand that during political turmoil, and due to lack of open fields and playgrounds, children cannot go outside to play. But families with children can always buy books and board games for them to enjoy when there is not much to do. So, there are lots of alternatives to bad cartons. Children

are adaptable and when they are challenged with fun alternatives they usually enjoy trying out new things. They do not have to be couch potatoes if they have educated parents with imagination.

mehrin laila ali: Thank you for reading the article but if you read it again, nowhere is it slightly mentioned that the parents need to leave the responsibility of look-ing after their children on everyone but themselves. I agree with you that education begins at home. This is the basic frontier. Children don’t directly go to school after being born! That’s common sense! But to add to the lessons at home they must be emphasised outside as well, like in schools.

Secondly any parent with even a modicum of in-telligence will not encourage their children to watch horrible meaningless cartoons, but if you are a par-ent, you would de� nitely know that no child wants to read books all the time, or do arts and crafts. They need to play, to run, to burn energy. I don’t know which country or even city you live in, but the children of Dhaka do not easily get the privilege of a safe playing venue. As a result, they either play arcades on the computer or watch horrible cartoons which are regularly aired on television. Regardless, I agree that child advocates need to be there, but that too has to be a government initiative in order to make it widespread.

Improvements should be more than skin-deep

Dhaka is about to undergo a substantial makeover, to the tune of Tk7,735 crore, as preparation for Bangladesh hosting the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup.

It is of course important for the country put its best face forward as hosts of a major international sporting event, and the planned improvements to 23km of major roads, streetlights and signage around the city’s cricket stadiums are certainly welcome.

Questions arise however about the mostly cosmetic nature of these improvements. There could for instance be more lasting e� ect on improving life in the city, if more money was spent on clean, new buses and transport facilities.

While hosting the world cup will do much to raise the spirits of the nation, the government should keep in mind that the use of public funds should always be kept proportional to the long-term bene� t for ordinary citizens.

This principle is of particular relevance, given that many planned Rajuk projects that can have much more of a real impact on improving the lives of Dhaka inhabitants, are currently languishing due to lack of funds, negligence and delays in construction.

The Purbachal Link road and New Town and residential developments at Jhilmil, and Keranigonj are just some of the much needed projects which have not been completed on time.

City authorities and government must pay more attention to ensure progress on projects that bring long-term bene� t for Dhaka’s residents.

Partnership with China should be welcomed

We welcome China’s interest in forming a separate economic zone comprising of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar. This is a great step towards economic

development and cooperation between these nations in general, and will give a boost to Bangladesh in having China as an economic partner in particular.

The statement came from the Chinese Ambassador to Dhaka, who said this new economic zone, the BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar), was a necessity of the times.

In addition to an economic partnership, this relationship may help Bangladesh � ght terrorism and militancy locally, as China has expressed an interest in helping curb unrest for economic reasons.

Our exports to China have been rising at a furious pace. While the export volume in 2008 was under $100m, by 2013 it rose to a whopping $438m. The growth was enabled by the zero-tari� access to the Chinese market, which was extended in 2010.

Apart from being the world’s largest export economy, China is also the second-largest investor to Bangladesh out of all nations, contributing two-thirds of the cost of the fertiliser factory in Sylhet.

This continuing and improving relationship with China, then, can be one of great mutual bene� t. We should welcome the strengthening of our economic ties for the betterment of both of these booming nations.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

Our exports to China have been rising at a furious pace, enabled by the zero-tari� access to the Chinese market

The use of public funds should always be kept proportional to the long-term bene� t for ordinary citizens

Holding receptions with students queued up by the roadsJanuary 28A report titled on this published in a daily has drawn my attention. Many many thanks to the media for having put this piece out. During the last few days ministers and MPs have been visiting di� erent areas, and students are being told to queue up on the roadsides to greet them for great lengths of time. This is an inhuman way to hold a reception, and also a violation of the directives of the ministry of education.

It is also not very uncommon to see students taking classes in unsafe dilapidated buildings, where their lives are being put at risk. In fact, a schoolboy from Charsripur Government Primary School in Sherpur was killed when a wall collapsed.

The PM’s and the education minister’s voice in these regard are not being heard. Khaleed Ahsan

Mother kills two-year old daughterJanuary 23Post-partum stress disorder is never talked about in Bangladesh. Why has not the media brought it up?

pleb

Biman’s DC-10 to operate last passenger � ight on February 20January 24

That’s good news! Time to get these dinosaurs out of the air!!

Mustafa Habib Chowdhury

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CROSSWORD CODE-CRACKER YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONSACROSS1 Old sailor (4)5 Kingly (5)9 Narcotic (6)10 Employ (3)11 Fasting period (4)12 Minister’s residence (5)14 Short stabbing sword (5)16 Specialised skills (4)19 Permits (4)21 Bullock (5)24 Merry frolic (5)27 Existence (4)29 Plaything (3)30 Library user (6)31 Meat dishes (5)32 Require (4)

DOWN1 Alone (4)2 Monkey (3)3 Being in direct line (6)4 Makes lace (4)5 Compunction (7)6 Weapon (3)7 Beast of burden (3)8 Blood-sucking worm (5)13 Perform (3)15 Torn clothing (7)17 Long pace (6)18 Corrodes (5)20 Compass point (init) (3)22 Dash (4)23 Company of cattle (4)25 Kitchen utensil (3)26 Cereal (3)28 Charge for services (3)

11Op-Ed Friday, January 31, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Zafar Sobhan

Well, here we are. The January 5 elections happened and the 10th parliament has been convened. The

world didn’t end and the sky didn’t fall. Closer to home, the anarchy/civil war that some were fearing and others were secretly hoping for did not transpire, and with the belated abandonment (at least for now) of the BNP hartal/blockade program, an uneasy calm reigns and things seem to be inching back to normal.

I say uneasy, but, for the most part, people far prefer this lull to what preceded it. The emotion which seems to predominate, more than anger or anxiety or rejoicing or relief, is one of resignation. More than anything else, people are weary.

They are tired of the violence and the danger. They are tired of the block-ades and the school closings. They are tired of not being able to simply get on with their lives. They are tired of the political squabbling (machina-tions seems to be too digni� ed a term) between the two sides.

Few people believe that the elec-tions were any such thing. They are a little shocked that the PM and the AL have apparently been able to get away with holding their one-sided election, but no one really knows what can be done about it, and such is the battered state of the national psyche that fewer

even seem to care.None of this is to justify the actions

of the AL. Not only were the elections one-sided and uncontested, but the AL campaigned for them on the explicit promise that they saw them as merely a constitutional necessity and that they acknowledged and recognised that the result would not give them a mandate to rule for � ve years.

It would not be far-fetched to suggest that much of the support for the January 5 elections was premised precisely on this promise, and to now attempt to move away from the pre-election understanding shows shockingly bad faith on the part of the AL.

But minister after minister is on record saying that they have a man-date to govern for � ve years, and both members of parliament and the cab-inet are certainly comporting them-selves as though they are in it for the long haul. In short, the AL has pulled a good old-fashioned bait and switch on the good people of Bangladesh, and there doesn’t appear to be much that anyone can do about it.

I don’t buy the line of argument that is doing the rounds among smug AL-ers and what passes for the sophis-ticated commentariat: That the BNP brought this upon itself and they have no one to blame but themselves for boycotting an election that they very well might have won.

It is true that the BNP did rather im-probably snatch defeat from the jaws

of victory and that they did everything wrong. But that shouldn’t blind us to the truth that they did exactly what the AL would have done, indeed did do, when the shoe was on the other foot, but whereas the AL was bailed out by the international community and the army in 2007, in 2014 the BNP was left high and dry.

In short, the only di� erence between the AL in 2007 and the BNP in 2014 was 1/11, and had 1/11 never happened, and had the BNP been able to go ahead with their one-sided elec-tion on January 22, 2007, with the AL sitting on the sidelines, we would have heard exactly the same arguments that we are hearing now, but in reverse.

I wonder whether the PM ever

thinks, as she contemplates her hap-less rival scheming and plotting her downfall from her lair in Gulshan, how that so easily could have been her sev-en years ago. Something tells me that the thought never crosses her mind or that of her supporters.

So where do we go from here? It could be that the quiet we are enjoying is the calm before the storm, and that the BNP is merely catching its breath in between rounds. But I do not see them being able to force a new election, one to their liking, any time soon.

They are in a Catch-22 situation. The only thing likely to precipitate new elections is another round of crippling hartals and blockades, but it is precisely these tactics that are the most unacceptable and that damage their support the most.

Which leaves us with the AL. The only thing the need fear right now is over-reach. If they are restrained and cautious in their approach, then they could be in power a long time. On the other hand, if they start to believe their own propaganda and mistake the public’s resignation for deep well-springs of support and enthusiasm, then they could very quickly return the upper hand to the BNP.

Of course, everything I have written only holds good for this month. Next month anything could happen that would utterly change the face of poli-tics. This is Bangladesh, after all. l

Zafar Sobhan is the Editor, Dhaka Tribune.

S T R A I G H T T A L K

L A R G E R T H A N L I F E

Gaining support with a false promise? BIGSTOCK

Hurting developmentn Mohammed Norul Alam Raju

A 45-year-old rickshaw-puller, Habibur Rahman, lost his only earning source during a block-

ade last December. The rickshaw was set on � re by demonstrators in Chit-tagong while two other people were nabbed for arson, including Habibur. Six months back, Habibur received a rickshaw from an NGO, working in Chittagong as part of their regular In-come Generating Activities (IGA) while he was supposed to reimburse the actual cost of the rickshaw in the next two years with a small installment.

Many poor people across the coun-try have also lost their lives, shelter, and assets, and been nabbed for arson and injured in strikes and blockades in the last three months.

Due to political unrest over the election, the whole economy was ad-versely a� ected while the implemen-tation of development programs has gone down, foreign aid spending has slowed, and aid e� ectiveness has lost its balance across the nation, mostly at the � eld level.

The progress of the implementation of the Annual Development Program (ADP) in this � nancial year is likely to su� er a major setback due to the ongoing political unrest and violence. The implementation progress for the donor-driven projects in the � rst four months of the current � scal year stood at 15% compared to 20% during the same of the preceding � scal.

After his oath, the � nance minister declared that the government planned to revise down the GDP growth out-look by around one percentage point, as he thought the previous target of 7.2% was too ambitious amid political volatility, while the World Bank esti-mates it will be less than 6%.

According to data from the Eco-nomic Relations Divisions (ERD) of Bangladesh, foreign disbursement increased only by 2% in the � rst � ve months of this � scal year due to slow project implementation brought about by political turmoil.

Between July and November 2013, some $987 million in foreign aid was disbursed, which is only 29% of the target. Meanwhile, with the aim of speeding up implementation, the prime minister recently formed the fast track project monitoring commit-tee to monitor the implementation of high value projects of national impor-tance. All these statistics show some national level outlook, but what about the development projects?

Apart from the national level scenar-io, the country su� ers from severe problems in the implementation of the project at the local level due to polit-ical instability which undermines the country’s development progress, and a� ects the lives of the marginalised segment of the communities directly.

Political unrest is viewed with

grave concern by donors, who fear this instability could render development programs ine� ective and are slowly reducing funds. The data reveals a signi� cant drop in foreign aid com-mitment already, an almost 28% slip from $1.6 billion to $1.2 billion in 2014 (World Bank).

It is evident that the implementa-tion of development projects are great-ly hampered by the current political turmoil, which mostly focus on mass awareness raising, capacity-building of di� erent level of stakeholders, advoca-cy, and lobbying.

Development organisations are frequently forced to postpone their scheduled programs, particularly capacity-building training, as the situ-ation does not permit them to gather people in a certain place. The political turmoil had completely broken the communications between and among the development workers and the representatives of Local Government Institutions (LGIs).

Representatives of local govern-ment institutions are not interested in organising and participating in regular meetings as they feel it is not secure. It happens mostly in areas where representatives are in place from the opposition parties, mostly in the city corporation areas except Dhaka, as most of the mayor and the councillors are being elected from the oppositions. The observations from other Commu-nity Based Organisations (CBOs) and the Volunteer Groups are similar.

The development sta� are in an im-movable position due to this abnormal situation. Their movement to the � eld level has been stopped for the contin-uous strike and the blockade. They are using alternative ways, and make trips by rickshaws, autos, and vans, which are time consuming, costly, and hazardous.

They are facing di� culties to ensure the engagement of government o� cials, representatives, and CBO leaders in the upazila and district level events at di� erent places, which create barriers to meet the objectives of the projects.

The current political unrest a� ects budget utilisation of the programs, as activities could not be implemented as per plan. Most projects have not achieved their targets while � eld teams have been forced to reorganise their plans on holidays, weekends, even strikes and blockades, which triggered their vulnerabilities in the workplace.

It is expected that a permanent solution will emerge, while govern-ment o� cials, local government representatives, and communities as a whole will regain the con� dence to participate in the development process. l

Mohammed Norul Alam Raju is Program O� cer, Urban DRR, Oxfam in Bangladesh.

A solution will emerge, and communities will regain con� dence

Donors fear this instability could harm development programs

To now attempt to move away from the pre-election understanding shows shockingly bad faith

n Ekram Kabir

A minister smoking in a public place perhaps didn’t come as a surprise to us. This is some-

thing that almost all Bangladeshi smokers do very often, no matter how tough the existing anti-smoking law is in this country.

But what came as a surprise was that he was smoking on the stage, and in front of a large number school-chil-dren. That’s what raised quite a lot of hue and cry in the media. However, the good part was that he said sorry, and promised that such an action would never be repeated in the future.

We must thank our minister for realising that his action was insensitive towards society. But he isn’t the only one who showed an insensitive attitude. Day in and day out, almost all of us commit many types of insensitive and inappropriate deeds, which we almost never think twice about before doing them, that may harm the people around us, transmit a negative message in society, and obstruct the process of nation-building.

Take our actions on the roads, for example. It’s hard to recall a day when I myself didn’t violate at least one tra� c law while driving a car, or

riding a bike or motorbike, or riding on a rickshaw, or even walking on the pavement and crossing a road. The reason for which we break these laws without thinking about the negative impacts they might have on society at large is that no one ever taught us how to be sensible on the roads.

We never learnt the tra� c norms in our schools, nor were any tra� c department educational PR materials made available to us. We learnt by watching our elders.

We also learnt to be insensitive from our national leaders (business, polit-ical, social – all kinds) and people’s representatives. If our memory serves us right, we’ve watched our prime ministers’ and MPs’ convoys taking the wrong lane. You won’t miss a day when the tra� c personnel, especially

those who ride motorbikes, aren’t taking the wrong lane.

Their attitude says it is their birth right to violate the tra� c order. And if someone is a government o� cial with a � ag � uttering on his or her car, their chau� er thinks it is his duty to violate tra� c regulations, causing problems to others.

This is an interesting aspect in our character: We cause problems for others by our actions, knowingly and unknowingly. In contrast to this,

in every enlightened society, every citizen tries to remain alert so that his or her actions do not cause any problems to the people around them. Being sensitive to others’ peace is the basic trait in those societies. Then they become habits.

We, on the contrary, seem to be

perpetually oblivious about how our actions might destabilise others’ peace. Otherwise, why would we keep spitting while we walk on the pave-ments? Don’t we have the sense to think that that might fall on somebody who is passing by?

I’ve seen many public personali-ties spit on the � oors, on the stairs. I’ve seen many educated persons approaching from all four sides of an intersection and create a point-of-no-return tra� c jam.

The worst examples of our insensi-tivity are perhaps the remarks of the politicians about each other. Civility, respect, as well as forethought are quite hard-to-� nd elements in this country’s political arena. Our leaders demonstrate a constant insensitiv-ity by pouring out personal attacks against each other.

It seems they use these personal hits as political tools to demonise each other in the eyes of the voters. Howev-er, it beats our wits as to how a � urry of slurry dictions could be of political use. Rather, these reveal their insensi-tive characters, which ultimately lead to self-demonisation.

The people, on the other hand, when they see their leaders using these dic-tions on a regular basis, think it is okay

for them to use in their own lives also. What the leaders do or practice has

a ripple e� ect on the society. They trickle down and creep into every-one’s character. And that is how the whole nation becomes prone to being insensitive.

It is our hope that our leaders would rise up to the occasion and do some-thing about the nation’s sense and sensitivity. It is they who would teach us manners, behaviour, and prudence.

We, the people, would love to follow them as our leaders, as our representatives. Leadership isn’t a trivial matter. It is a great responsi-bility which requires huge sense and sensitivity. l

Ekram Kabir is Executive Editor of Natunbarta.com.

Sense and sensitivity

Take our actions on the roads, for example. It’shard to recall a day when I myself didn’t violateat least one tra� c law

What the leaders do or practice has a ripple e� ect on the society. They trickle down and creep into everyone’s character

Bait and switch

Theatre fest honouring Syed Shamsul Haq begins todayn Entertainment Desk

A celebration is being organised by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and Shilpo Shahittho Sanskritir Shamoyiki Shamanno Kicchu honouring the occa-sion of the 79th birth year of renowned poet Syed Shamsul Haq. The event will take place today on 5:30pm at the Na-tional Theatre Hall, BSA.

The programme will open with a welcome speech from Tokon Thakur and be presided by BSA director gen-eral Liaquat Ali Lucky. The prominent poet will be presented with � owers and Uttoriyo, followed by a special choreography. A drama of Syed Sham-sul Haq will be showcased, along with poetry recitation. An issue of Shaman-no Kichhu, which has been dedicated to the distinguished poet will also be published today. The event will also feature speeches by noted personali-ties like painter Qayyum Chowdhury, author Selina Hossain, director Ataur Rahman, poet and novelist Moham-mad  Nurul Huda. The celebration will conclude with a recitation by Syed Haq himself.

Syed Shamsul Haq was born in Kuri-gram on December 27, 1935. He is one of the most in� uential Bangladeshi po-ets and writers. Haq writes poetry, � c-tion, plays, mostly in verse and essays. His literary works have been included in the curricula of primary, second-ary, higher secondary and graduation levels of education in Bangladesh. His

prominent works are Ekoda Ek Rajye, Boishakhe Rochito Ponktimala, Biroti-hin Utsob, Protidhonigon, Opor Purush and Kobita Samagra.

Syed Haq also authored some pop-ular novels such as Ek Mahilar Chhobi, Anupam Din, Seemana Chhariye, Neel Dangshon, Smritimedh, Mrigoya Kalk-shep, Stabdhotar Anubad, Ek Juboker Chhayapath, Swapna Sankranta and Brishti O Bidrohigon.

In recognition of his versatile con-tribution to Bengali literature, Syed Shamsul Haq was honoured with the Bangla Academy award, Adamjee Lit-erary award, Alakta Gold Medal, Alaol Literary award, Ekushey Padak, Jeb-unnessa-Mahbubullah Gold Medal and Padabali Kabita award. l

n Mir Naqibul Islam

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Chhayanaut, a leading cultural or-ganisation in the country, a two-day programme is starting today. The programme will not only celebrate the legacy of this historical institu-tion, but also give an opportunity to the former students to get togeth-er and reminisce their time at Ch-hayanaut.

The celebration will open with a colourful procession to be carried out by past and present students of the institute from the premises of Chhayanaut at 5pm today. After the procession, the group will convene in the auditorium for the second part of the program. Distinguished guests will give speeches highlighting the contributions of the late artists and paying homage to them. This will be followed by a musical event consisting of performances from past and present students and teachers of Chhayanaut. On Saturday, a musical event will be held again from 6pm.

In 1961, a handful of visionary peo-ple started an endeavour that they envisioned will not only preserve the

heritage of Bangla music, but also contribute in its evolution and that was the genesis of Chhayanaut Shan-geet Bidyatan. However, the scope of Chhayanaut is not just limited to mu-sic. When asked how he would de� ne Chhayanaut, Khairul Anam Shakil, general secretary of the organisation said: “Chhayanaut is not just a mu-sic school, it is rather a movement to spread the true Bangla culture and heritage as a whole.”

His words could not to be truer. Chhayanaut was initially launched as

a cultural organisation which started a music school in 1963 named “Ch-hayanaut Shangeet Bidyatan” that speci� cally garnered towards nur-turing young talents and support the torchbearers of Bangla music. During this half century, it has trained over 50 thousand students in di� erent disciples. Currently it boasts a stu-dent body of 4000, enrolled in the di� erent curriculums under Bang-la songs (Nazrul, Tagore and Folk), classical vocal, classical instrumen-tal and classical dance. l

Popy: I have a rebellious rolein Notebookn Afrose Jahan Chaity

Dhallywood megastar Popy will be seen as the protagonist in a tele� lm titled Notebook, which will air on ATN Bangla tonight at 11pm.

While talking to the Dhaka Tribune about her occasional ap-pearance on small screen, Popy said: “I am an actor, so I want to work. It really does not matter whether I am working on small screen or the silver screen.”

About the tele� lm the Dhally-wood diva said: “I have a rebel-lious role in Notebook directed by Rezanur Rahman. It is one of my best works on the small

screen. The whole story revolves around the protagonist who plays the character of a married woman.”

The play revolves around a woman who goes through a lengthy period of bad luck and struggle, due to her husband’s extra marital a� air. At one point of their marriage, they shared a relationship of mutual love and respect. But, her husband chang-es drastically and to rid himself of her, he plots on having her murdered. The situation takes dire turns when Popy is followed to Syedpur by a hired hit-man, who introduces himself to Popy under false pretence. l

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014 12

Film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Thor: The Dark World, Paci� c Rim in 3D, The Conjuring, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Escape PlanTime: 10am – 10pmStar Cineplex, Level 8Bashundhara City

ExhibitionGravity-Free WorldBy Artist A RahmanTime: 12pm – 8pmBengal Gallery of Fine ArtsHouse 42, Road 16 (New) / 27 (old) Dhanmondi

Life and Struggle of Padma By Sumon Yusuf Time: 3pm – 9pmLa Galerie, Alliance Francaise de DhakaDhanmond

Talk The Art of Collecting By Durjoy Rahman Joy and Khaled Mahmud Time: 5pmBengal Art Lounge Road No 132, Gulshan Avenue, Circle 1

TODAY IN DHAKADRAMA7:30pm Star Plus Saath Nibhana Saathiyan 10:00pm Sony Jee le zara

COMEDY 10:30am FXThe Simpsons9:00pm Z CafeThe Middle

MISC10:30am FTVF Men9:30pm AXNTop Gear

NEWS2:00pm ATN News News Now 5:00pm Boishakhi Tv Shara Desher shongbad

MOVIE7:0 0pmFox Movies PremiumSkyfall9:30pmWBTakers

ON TV

50 years of cultural legacyChhayanaut’s celebration starts today

A scene from Notebook

Chhayanaut’s teachers and students rehearse for the event

Priyanka Gope performs today at IGCCn Entertainment Desk

Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre is or-ganising a musical evening by eminent Bangladeshi classical artiste Priyanka Gope this evening at 6:30pm.

Priyanka is a leading exponent of classical vocal music who has been trained under maestros such as Anan-da Chakrabarty, Dr Asit Roy, Wahidul Haque, Professor Subir Nandy and few more.

Priyanka completed her MA from the Department of Music, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. She is pres-ently receiving training from Pandit Arun Bhaduri and Pandit Urmi Dasgup-ta. The gifted artiste has won several national and international awards such as Gold Medal in Nazrul Sangeet in the National Education Week, 2001.

Priyanka is an enlisted “A Grade” artist of Bangladesh Betar in the cat-egories of Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Sangeet and classical music. She has released a solo album “Sur-e Sur-e Dekha Hobey” comprising classical based modern songs under the ban-ner of Bengal Foundation. She has also released 7 other albums on di� erent genres of music with other artists. l

Ittadi features Murapara Jamindar Barin Entertainment Desk

One of the most attractive aspects of the popular TV show Ittadi are the di-verse locations of its staging, not to mention the spicy and humorous way of Hanif Sanket’s hosting skills that is just adored by the audience. Today’s episode of this much loved TV pro-gramme will feature a historical heri-tage of Bangladesh, Murapara Jamin-dar Bari, located in Narayanganj.

Like always, prominent and popular artistes will perform in this episode. A fun-� lled segment of short dramas

based on the predictions of astrologers is bound to amuse the audience.

On the other hand, a documenta-ry based on “Birendranath’s love for motherhood” will be showcased, fol-lowed by Andrew Kishore’s perfor-mance on a special song written by Mohammad Ra� quzzaman. NazmulHuda Bachchu, Ataur Rahman, Abdul Aziz, Kislu and many more will also appear in various segments of the pro-gramme.

The celebrated programme will air on BTV today, after the 8pm Bangla news. l

George Clooney: I have had some great memories with my � op � lmsn Entertainment Desk

The  Gravity  actor said he has not enjoyed working on some of his most successful projects, in a recent interview.

“Some of the best � lms have been the least fun expe-riences and some of the worst, I’ve made lifelong friends out of it. It’s the kind of thing where the memory of the � lm is very di� erent than how it was reviewed, because it’s months out of your life and you end up making close friends or having great experience on � lms that don’t nec-essarily work. And, that’s a tricky thing to come to terms with,” he said.

When asked about his best work-ing partner, he said: “Let me

think about this in the best pos-sible way, that does not get me murdered by all other actors

I’ve worked with. I don’t know.”Then he added: “I’ve done

six � lms with (Matt) Damon now, so I guess I do

enjoy working with him. Though, you wouldn’t know it. I’ve been really

lucky to work with people who enjoy what they do. I’ve worked with a couple of turkeys, but I’ve mostly been really

lucky.” l

Bangladesh 1st innings: 232 Shakib Al Hasan 55, Mush� qur Rahim 61, Sohag Gazi 42, S. Eranga 4-49, S. Lakmal 3-66

Sri Lanka 1st innings: 730-6 declared D. Karunaratne 53, K. Silva 139, K. San-gakkara 75, M. Jayawardene 203 not out, A. Mathews 86, K. Vithanage 103 not out, Shakib Al Hasan 3-159

Bangladesh 2nd innings (overnight 35-1)Tamim Iqbal c Perera b Herath 11Shamsur c Chandimal b Eranga 9Marshall Ayub c Silva b Lakmal 18Mominul Haque lbw b Perera 50Shakib Al Hasan lbw b Perera 25Mush� qur Rahim b Perera 14Nasir Hossain c Herath b Perera 29Sohag Gazi lbw b Lakmal 23Robiul Islam lbw b Lakmal 1Rubel Hossain c Silva b Perera 17Al-Amin Hossain not out 32Extras: (b9, lb10, nb2) 21

Total (all out, 51.5 overs) 250

Fall of wickets1-15 (Tamim), 2-35 (Shamsur), 3-50 (Ayub), 4-102 (Shakib), 5-133 (Momi-nul), 6-150 (Rahim), 7-183 (Gazi), 8-197 (Robiul), 9-197 (Nasir), 10-250 (Rubel).

BowlingLakmal 14-4-39-3 (nb2), Eranga 6-1-26-1, Herath 9-3-47-1, D. Perera 19.5-0-109-5, Mathews 3-0-10-0Sri Lanka won by an innings and 248 runs

SCORECARD, 1ST DAY 4

13DHAKA TRIBUNEFriday, January 31, 2014

SportDid you know?Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka joins his

teammate Kumar Sangakkara and Sachin

Tendulkar of India to hit � ve hundreds each

against Bangladesh in Tests – the most by

a batsman14 Man City crush

Spurs again to go top

15 Rakibul, Shuvagata strike hundreds for DhakaDAYS TO GO

0 4 4

Russell draw with BJMC, Maruf gives up hope

Defending cham-pions Sheikh Rus-sell came from behind to earn a

1-1 draw with Team BJMC in the Ban-gladesh Premier League at the Bang-abandhu National Stadium yesterday.

An early second-half screamer by Nigerian mid� elder Samson Iliasu put BJMC ahead before substitute, former national forward Md Robin equalized for Russell in the 72nd minute.

The champions’ misery in the league continued and they have drawn two and lost once in their last three matches to leave them in third posi-

tion with 11 points – � ve behind lead-ers Abahani Limited, who have played one game less. Russell coach Maruful Haque admitted his side would not be able to defend their title and would now target � nishing second or third.

On the other hand, BJMC moved to � fth place with seven points – the same as Mohammedan and Brothers Union – but BJMC lie ahead on goal di� erence.

BJMC kept the Russell defence un-der pressure from the very beginning of the game. Veteran custodian Biplob Vattacharjee produced a superb save to deny BJMC’s � rst e� ort on goal in the 10th minute, when Aminur Rahman Shojib broke into the penalty area after receiving a through ball from Ismael

Bangoura. Biplob was forced to dive to his right to deny Aminur’s angled shot.

In the 33rd minute, Hemel eas-ily saved a weak shot from Moroccan forward Youness Roux after Jamaican mid� elder Ricardo Cousins set him up from the halfway line.

Roux failed to score in a one-on-one situation with Hemel at the top left cor-ner of the box. The Moroccan also missed a sitter three minutes into the second half following a cross from Shakil.

Samson Iliasu broke the deadlock just four minutes after the resumption with a powerful strike from outside the box. Iliasu snatched the ball from Russell defender Rezaul Reza and un-leashed a fantastic strike from 20 yards

out to hit the back of the net.Rajoni Kanto Barmon saved Rus-

sell from conceding another goal in the 62nd minute. The former national cen-tre back cleared Ismael Bangoura’s lob from the six yard box.

Md Robin came o� the bench to re-store the parity for Russell in the 72nd minute. The substitute forward beat an o� -side trap and entered the penalty area before slotting the ball home un-der onrushing goalie Hemel.

Khan Md Tara tried his luck from 35 yards out with a powerful strike but saw his shot saved comfortably by Biplob. The Russell skipper made another superb save in the 87th minute when Bangoura headed a cross from Abdullah Parvez. l

New proposal bene� cial, says Nazmul

Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan categorically wiped Bangladesh out of any possible danger regarding the proposed overhauls in the International Cricket Council’s admin-istrative and � nancial infrastructures after his return from Dubai yesterday.

A ‘much ado about nothing’ atmo-sphere prevailed at the Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport premises as few hundred people, carrying banners congratulating Nazmul for his achieve-ment, chanted slogans and waited with drums. The president was also showered with � ower pulps and was presented with garlands which were received by a visibly gloomy Nazmul.

Though BCB asked the press people to be present at the airport in the morn-ing for a press conference, the presi-dent said he would talk to the press at the Mirpur stadium four hours later as he needed to talk with his executive committee members and take a deci-sion over some issues.

Nazmul cleared BCB’s stance and said, “We were not in any alliance. I said that in the meeting. If my trouble doesn’t go away, I am not with anyone. If the trouble goes away, I am with ev-eryone. This was my strategy. We have also asked for time, like the other three. We have opposed on a speci� c point.”

He also said that Bangladesh’s posi-tion will rise with the new proposals. “We will be in a better position than others. We haven’t been to India in 14 years. We will go there to play Tests, they will come here. We will go to Eng-land and Australia will also visit us. 

“FTP didn’t have a legal basis. Now, there will be Members Participation Agreement, which is enforceable by law. FTP is still in existence. The ICC

has prepared an FTP. What they are trying to say is that, for example, if a team wants to play just two Tests when they were supposed to play � ve. Then the TV broadcasters will take me to court for not playing three Tests. The MPA will come into force now to stop this,” the BCB president explained.

However he also said the media reports those suggested Bangladesh supported the Big 3, made his life dif-� cult in Dubai. “We decided to talk to individual boards, to discuss, negotiate and understand their stance. We need-ed to � nd out where our issues had to dealt with, and get support from other member boards. We didn’t want to pick sides. I wanted to go in neutral.

“It was written the next day, that we had approved it with a majority of 20 to 3. It hurt me that the Bangladesh media can give such news, after we have of-� cially given them a brief. Three coun-tries immediately cancelled their ap-pointments, I couldn’t talk with them,” said the BCB chief. 

Nazmul said he opposed the propos-als with a letter before the meeting, CSA, PCB, SLC sought time from ICC, and the atmosphere during the meeting was totally di� erent than the assumptions. There was no voting, no talks about the changes as the drafts were changed. “There were two major changes. The chairman would be between the BCCI, CA and ECB. It will be theirs for the � rst two years and then it is open for all. The ExCo will have two more members, making it � ve. They also said that the three teams wouldn’t be demoted. Now that’s open for all too. Anyone can be demoted. We saw these changes, and others, when we had gone there,” said Nazmul before adding that they  haven’t signed anything yet but hopes to in the meeting on February 8. l

Sri Lanka crush BangladeshHosts fail to put up any � ght as the match ended inside four days

By two o’clock on the fourth day of the � rst Test against Bangladesh, the Sri

Lankan players were playing football after wrapping up the Tigers’ second innings for 250 and walking away with an innings and 248 run victory – their biggest win ever over Bangladesh - at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

The result had been on the cards even before the match started, with Bangladesh electing to � eld three pace

bowlers. By the end of the � rst day, in which Bangladesh were bundled out for 232, a Sri Lankan win seemed even more likely. As stumps were drawn on day two, the direction of the match was visible to all with Sri Lanka already well ahead and threatening to go still further and the next day, the visitors had amassed 730 before mercifully de-claring with a 498 run lead.

Having endured three days of way-ward bowling, poor catching, sloppy ground � elding and irresponsible bat-ting, the home fans were at least hope-ful that the Tigers could at last put up a � ght in their second innings to prolong

the match, if nothing else, but it was not to be.

Resuming at 35/1, the Bangladesh batting line up went down like a house of cards yesterday, mainly due to Dilru-wan Perera’s � ve wicket haul, but not unaided by the batsmen themselves. The � rst to fall was debutant Sham-sur Rahman, who got a good ball from Shaminda Eranga that lifted sharply to take the edge on its way through to the keeper.

After that, none of the batsmen seemed willing to even try to dig in and they played their shots as if it were a limited overs match. The other over-

night batsman, Marshal Ayub, could only fend a short ball from Suranga Lakmal to short leg for 18, leaving Ban-gladesh 50/3.

Shakib al Hasan and Momi-nul Haque added 52 for the fourth wicket before Perera won a marginal LBW decision – which might have been sliding down the leg-side - over Shakib for 25.

Mominul went on to top score with an even 50 before Perera had him leg-before as well. On a role, the o� -spinner added the scalps of Mush� qur Rahim for 29 and Nasir Hossain for 23. The other thorn in Bangladesh’s side

was Lakmal, who added two wickets – Sohag Gazi and Robiul – to that of Marshal Ayub, to � nish with his second three wicket haul of the match.

Last man Al-Amin, who was the pick of the Bangladesh pace bowl-ers throughout the match, provided some entertainment at the death as he lashed out to strike four sixes in a 27-ball 32 not out before Perera claimed his � fth to end the match.

Bangladesh have now lost 15 out of 16 Test matches against Sri Lanka, the only draw coming in Sri Lanka last year. The loss is Bangladesh’s fourth biggest ever. l

Mush� q blames batting and catching for loss

Bangladesh captain Mush� qur Rahim was understand-ably downcast after

his side went down by an innings and 248 runs to Sri Lanka in the � rst Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) yesterday – the largest of the 15 losses the Tigers have su� ered to the islanders and the � rst innings defeat they have endured since losing to Paki-stan in Chittagong in December, 2011.

The captain attributed the loss to careless batting and poor catching, fur-ther noting that the expectations of a good outing built on solid performanc-es over the last year had been dashed.

“It is disappointing to lose a game in this way after having performed con-sistently over the last year. Our bats-men failed to be responsible while the � elding was also not up to the mark for the dropped catches,” said Mush� q at the post match media conference at SBNS yesterday.

Mush� q himself dropped four catches, “It felt really bad when Kaush-al (Silva) scored the hundred after I dropped his catch. It felt as if I had let our side down. The other drops were

maybe due to the pressure I took for dropping the � rst catch,” he explained.

Regarding the batting debacle, “Our batting was really disappointing. A bat-man will of course get out but there is a manner for that – we should correct that. It was hard for a batsman to lose his wicket on this pitch until you do a mistake. Our batsmen have got the ability to play long innings and they have done so before. We should be cautious and learn from our mistakes and also from the opponent as they (Sri Lanka) played very well.

“Our batsmen need to learn to adapt to the situation. It cannot be done by just telling them, they will need to learn themselves. This defeat should be a wakeup call for us,” said Mush� q.

Asked about the wild shot that Tamim Iqbal got out playing the day before, Mush� q said, “Everyone will play their natural game but there are times when you need to play according to the situation. We had nine overs to play in the last session yesterday (Wednesday). We might have come down to bat today (yesterday) with ten wickets if he hadn’t played such a shot and got out. He will be able rectify this things if he starts thinking a little more about the team.” l

Negre to open school hockey

President of International Hockey Fed-eration Leandro Negre, who is sched-uled to inaugurate the National School Hockey, arrives in Dhaka today.

Negre, who made his � rst visit to the country in February 2013, will open the national school hockey tomorrow. A to-tal of 102 schools from across the coun-try will participate in the meet that will be played at 10 venues. First Security Islami Bank are the sponsors.

Bangladesh Hockey Federation has handed over the 16 composite hockey sticks and nine balls to each of the schools so that the youngsters can prepare themselves for the upcoming challenge.  A total of 29 teams from will qualify for the � nal round that will be-gin in the capital on 24 February.

The inaugural ceremony will take place at the Maulana Bhashani Na-tional Hockey Stadium with 560 school girls displaying Bangladesh’s heritage.

The prize money for the tournament is Tk30,000 but the hockey federation has asked the sponsors to increase the amount. The chairman of the organis-ing committee Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman, in a bid to inspire the youngsters, has declared a monetary award of Tk100,000, 50,000 and 30,000 for the top three goal scorers. BHF will pick out 65 players for intensive training and groom them for the future.

Details of the event were given to the press by by federation general sec-retary Khwaja Rahmatullah. l

Bangladesh skipper Mush� qur Rahim gets bowled in their second innings against Sri Lanka in the � rst Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M

ICC vice-president AHM Mostafa Kamal (L) and BCB president Nazmul Hassan (C) arrive at the Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport yesterday MUMIT M

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014 14

Klopp coy over signing Holtby on loanCoach Jurgen Klopp refused to con� rm reports on Wednesday that Borussia Dortmund are poised to sign German international mid� elder Lewis Holtby on loan from English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

With Holtby out of favour at White Hart Lane, Spurs head coach Tim Sher-wood has indicated the Germany mid� elder would be allowed to leave with Dortmund poised to take him on loan, but Klopp refused to divulge whether he would take it any further.

“I have heard the name a few times,” said Klopp in a press conference with the transfer window to close at midnight on Friday. I know exactly what we will do, given the situation it would be imprudent not to look, but that doesn’t mean we will do anything.” Holtby’s agent Marcus Noack denied reports Holtby was already in Germany’s Ruhr Valley. –AFP

Keita joins, three others exit ValenciaFormer Barcelona mid� elder Seydou Keita, 34, has joined La Liga side Valencia until the end of the season, the club con� rmed on Thursday.

The Malian, who won 14 trophies in four seasons with Barca between 2008 and 2012, joins on a free transfer from Chinese side Dalian Aerbin.

“Upon completion of a medical, Seydou Keita will sign with Valencia until June 30, with the option for another season,” said a statement on the club’s website. Valencia also announced on Thursday that Dorlan Pabon, Helder Postiga and Andres Guardado were leaving the club on loan.

Colombian Pabon will return to South America to join Sao Paulo, whilst former Spurs striker Postiga is bound for Serie A side Lazio. Meanwhile, Mexican international Guardado is headed for Bayer Leverkusen in a bid to improve his chances of a starting place at this year’s World Cup. –AFP

Sassuolo appoint Malesani after Inzaghi says noRelegation-threatened Sassuolo on Wednesday appointed Alberto Malesani as their new coach after former AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi turned down the job.

The Serie A newcomers, who sit third from bottom of the table, � red coach Eusebio Di Francesco on Tuesday.

Inzaghi, who currently coaches Milan’s youth squad, was o� ered the post but said Wednesday: “I’m � attered and honored that Sassuolo, an ambitious club with clear and innovative ideas, considered me for the position. But I have to satisfy and respect Milan’s wishes for me to remain with the club as their youth coach.”

Malesani, a former coach of Parma and Fiorentina, took his � rst training session on Wednesday afternoon and is set to be unveiled by the Emilia-Romagna based club on Thursday. No details of the length of Malesani’s contract were released. –AFP

RESULTSAthletic Bilbao 1-2 Atletico MadridAduriz 41 Raul Garcia 55, Diego Costa 86

Atletico Madrid win 3-1 on aggregate

Barcelona 5-1 LevanteAdriano 28, Puyol 44, Sergi Roberto 9-ogSanchez 50, 52, Fabregas 69

Barcelona win 9-2 on aggregate

RESULTSAston Villa 4-3 West BromWeimann 12, Brunt 4, Delph 9-og, Bacuna 24, Delph 37, Mulumbu 43Benteke 64-P

Chelsea 0-0 West Ham

Sunderland 1-0 Stoke CityJohnson 17

Tottenham 1-5 Man CityCapoue 59 Aguero 15, Toure 51-P, Dzeko 53, Jovetic 78, Kompany 89

Atletico, Barca into semisn AFP, Madrid

Holders Atletico Madrid set up a mouthwatering Copa del Rey semi-� nal with city rivals Real Ma-drid after beating Ath-

letic Bilbao 2-1 on Wednesday to win 3-1 on aggregate.

Barcelona also assured their place in the last four with a 5-1 victory over Levante at the Camp Nou to seal a 9-2 rout on aggregate.

In Bilbao, Aritz Aduriz had powered the hosts into a deserved lead four minutes before half-time..

However, Atletico regrouped at the break and levelled 10 minutes after the restart when Raul Garcia smashed home Emiliano Insua’s cross.

Atletico will travel to the Santiago Bernabeu, where they beat Real 2-1 in last year’s � nal, for the � rst leg of the semi-� nal next week with the return to come at the Vicente Calderon the fol-

lowing week.Barcelona’s passage into the semi-� -

nals was far smoother as they thrashed Levante at a sodden and sparsely pop-ulated Camp Nou.

Sergi Roberto’s early own goal had given the visitors some hope of an im-probable comeback from last week’s 4-1 defeat. Two goals in quick succes-sion after the break from close range by Alexis Sanchez extended the hosts lead.Cesc Fabregas rounded o� the scoring as his low e� ort beat Javi Jimenez at his near post 21 minutes from time. l

Cabaye ready to be thrown into PSG siden AFP, Paris

New signing Yohan Cabaye says he is prepared to be thrown straight into

the Paris Saint-Germain side when the Ligue 1 leaders host Bordeaux at the Parc des Princes on Friday evening.

The 28-year-old France mid� elder completed his transfer from Newcastle United on Wednesday, penning a three-and-a-half-year deal in the capital for a fee which is reported to be worth 23 million euros (£19m, $31.4m) including bonuses.

Cabaye, who made his name with Lille and played under PSG coach Lau-rent Blanc in the French national side, faces � erce competition for places in the Paris line-up, with Blaise Matuidi, Marco Verratti and Thiago Motta considered the � rst-choice trio in a 4-3-3 system. l

City crush Spurs again to go topn Reuters, London

Manchester City scorched to the top of the Premier League with a ruthless 5-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur

as Chelsea’s title ambitions were hit by a 0-0 home draw with West Ham Unit-ed on Wednesday.

Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, Edin Dzeko, Stevan Jovetic and Vincent Kompany were on target as City fol-lowed their 6-0 thrashing of Spurs in the reverse � xture this season with an-other thrilling exhibition of attacking football.

They were helped on their way by a controversial decision to send o� Tot-tenham defender Danny Rose for a foul on Dzeko, for which City were awarded the penalty which Toure converted for the second goal.

Yet they ruthlessly exploited the ex-

tra man to move to 53 points, one clear of Arsenal and three ahead of Chelsea, who were frustrated by a � ercely resil-ient West Ham side at Stamford Bridge.

Aston Villa emerged with the spoils from the night’s most entertaining � x-ture, edging a seven-goal thriller 4-3 against midlands rivals West Brom-wich Albion having fallen 2-0 down after nine minutes.

Sunderland eased their worries by moving out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Stoke City.

Manchester City’s mauling of Totten-ham at the Etihad Stadium in November was the trigger for an unbeaten run that now stands at 20 games in all competi-tions. Aguero scored his 50th Premier League goal and ensured he became the � fth fastest to reach the milestone be-hind Andy Cole, Alan Shearer, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Fernando Torres.

Jovetic, Aguero’s replacement, scored his � rst Premier League goal

when he cut inside and curled the ball past Lloris and Kompany showed quick re� exes to add a � fth when a Dzeko shot cannoned o� Nabil Bentaleb.

Prior to Wednesday, West Ham had lost � ve of their previous six and con-ceded 19 but they found some previ-ously undiscovered steel to hold Chel-sea at bay.

Oscar had a shot that crashed

against the bar while West Ham keeper Adrian did well to repel e� orts from John Terry and Samuel Eto’o, much to the frustration of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who was scathing of West Ham’s lack of ambition.

There was no shortage of goals at Villa Park, where West Brom took the game by the scru� of the neck thanks to Chris Brunt’s fourth-minute opener and a Fabian Delph own goal.

But Villa were ahead after 37 min-utes thanks to goals from Andreas Weimann and Leandro Bacuna, while Delph found the net at the right end.

Youssouf Mulumbu equalised but Christian Benteke netted from the pen-alty spot to win it for Villa.

Sunderland have now lost only one of their last eight league games after Adam Johnson tapped home from close range against Stoke, who had Ste-ven N’Zonzi sent o� eight minutes into the second half. l

Higuain � icks Napoli into Cup semi-� nalsn Reuters, Rome

Napoli booked a clash with AS Roma in the Italian Cup semi-� nals after a late instinctive Gonzalo Higuain backheel lifted Rafael Benitez’s side to a 1-0 win over Lazio on Wednesday.

Argentine striker Higuain brilliantly � icked home Jose Callejon’s mishit shot with eight minutes left to squeeze past a well-organised Lazio side and set up a potentially � ery clash with Roma, who are six points ahead of third-placed Napoli in the Serie A table.

The goal came after a second half in which Napoli turned the screw on the away side, who still looked to hit the

hosts on the counter, even if their at-tacks o� ered little genuine threat.

One black mark on a good night for Benitez was the negative reaction from the home fans to Lorenzo Insigne when he was substituted for Dries Mertens with 20 minutes left.

Insigne, who was born and raised in Naples, has shown inconsistent form recently after a bright start to the sea-son and put in another poor display on Wednesday that drew boos and whis-tles from supporters.

The two-legged semi-� nal will take place on Feb. 5 and 12, with the Rome derby clash in Serie A scheduled for Feb. 9. l

Manchester City cut losses but risk Uefa actionn Reuters, London

England’s Manchester City halved their annual loss to 51.6 million pounds ($85.6 million) last season but appear at risk of breaching new Uefa rules reg-ulating soccer club � nances.

Although City’s � nances are heading in the right direction, UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules cap headline losses at 45 million euros ($61.5 million) in the two seasons between 2011 and 2013. Clubs who do not comply could be excluded from the Champions League. Releas-ing their annual report for 2012-13, City made no direct reference to whether they would be able to meet the FFP rules. l

Marseille earn morale-boosting winn AFP, Marseille

Marseille gave their faltering bid for Champions League quali� cation from Ligue 1 a shot in the arm with a 2-1 home victory against struggling Valen-ciennes on Wednesday.

Andre-Pierre Gignac’s � rst-half opener was cancelled out by Arthur Masuaku, but Florian Thauvin got what proved to be the clinching goal after the hour mark.

The win lifts Olympic Marseille back up to � fth place in the table, two points behind Saint-Etienne in fourth and six points behind Lille in the third and � nal Champions League spot. l

Mourinho fumes at ‘19th-century’ West Hamn AFP, London

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho angri-ly accused West Ham United of playing “football from the nineteenth century” after they secured a hard-fought 0-0 draw against his side.

Chelsea dominated a one-sided game at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, but were unable to � nd a way through the obdurate defence of Sam Allary-dce’s West Ham.

That meant they missed out on the chance to move second in the Pre-mier League table, leaving them three points behind new leaders Manchester City, who they face next at the Etihad Stadium on Monday.

“It’s very di� cult to play a football match where only one team wants to play,” said Mourinho. “Very di� cult. A match is about two teams playing. This match was only one team playing, and another team not.

“This is not Premier League. This is not the best league in the world. This is football from the nineteenth century. Too bad.” l

Pellegrini warns City not to rest on laurelsn AFP, London

Manuel Pellegrini has warned Man-chester City’s stars not to be distracted by dreams of Premier League glory af-ter they swept to the top of the table with a 5-1 demolition of 10-man Tot-tenham.

Pellegrini’s side moved one point clear of second placed Arsenal thanks to the latest in a growing list of vibrant attacking displays.

But Pellegrini knows there is still a long way to go before the destination of the title is decided and the Chilean is determined to keep his players’ feet on the ground.

“We are not thinking about the title,” Pellegrini said. “It’s always very important to be top but we have to play 15 more games.

“It depends what we do in every match, we have to � ght for 45 more points. We don’t have such a big ad-vantage that we can think the Premier League is � nished.

“Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool also have chances of � ghting for the title.” l

Bayern preserve unbeaten recordn AFP, Berlin

Two late goals preserved champions Bayern Munich’s record unbeaten league run on Wednesday as they came from behind to beat

Stuttgart 2-1 and extend the streak to 43 matches.

Thiago Alcantara’s winner, which also marked his � rst goal for Bayern, was a superb volley in the third minute of time added on to give the champions their 16th win in 18 matches.

“We tried everything right up until the end, so the victory is deserved,” said Spain star Alcantara.

“Yes, it was a beautiful goal from me, but the success of the team is far

more important.”Bayern were 14 minutes from seeing

their record run - dating back to October 2012 - come to an end before Claudio Pizarro’s headed equaliser cancelled out Vedad Ibisevic’s � rst-half goal.

This was a re-arranged � xture from December when Bayern were in Mo-rocco winning the Club World Cup, but the Bavarians did not have things their own way for a change.

Bayern are on a host of league re-cords - this was their 28th away match without defeat.

And with 50 points from 18 games, coach Pep Guardiola has made the best start of any coach in Bundesliga history.

Bayern fell behind when 17-year-old left winger Timo Werner drove in a shot, which fell to the feet of Stuttgart’s

Mohammed Abdellaoue.The Norway international, looked to

have been o� side and replays showed he was, but the � ag stayed down and Ibisevic slotted home his pass on 29 minutes.

In response to falling behind, Bay-ern raised the tempo.

Only a � ne save from Stuttgart goal-keeper Sven Ulreich � ve minutes be-fore the break denied Alcantara, who unleashed a ferocious strike from well outside the area.

Veteran Pizarro came o� the bench and Guardiola’s choice paid dividends as he headed past Ulreich.

Alcantara capped a � ne display when he volleyed home Ra� nha’s su-perb � oated cross for a stunning goal to deny valiant Stuttgart even a point. l

Manchester City's Yaya Toure scores a penalty against Tottenham Hotspur during their English Premier League match at White Hart Lane in London on Wednesday REUTERS

Bayern Munich's Spanish mid� elder Thiago (2ndL) scores the winning goal against VfB Stuttgart during their German Bundesliga match in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, on Wednesday AFP

Cabaye poses with his new team jersey at the Parc des Princes stadium REUTERS

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014 15

Condolence Mohammad Abdur Rahman Sardar, the father of the Italian expatriate sports journalist Zakaria Hossain passed away at the age of 81 at his Gopalganj residence yesterday. He is survived by a son, 10 daughters and his wife. He was buried at the new local graveyard after the namaj-e-janaza at the eidgah. Bangladesh Sports Press Association expressed deep shock over the death Rahman and prayed for the salvation of the departed soul.

–Tribune Desk

Zia wins second round gameBangladesh Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman defeated Weichelt Jens of Ger-many in the second round of the Trade-wise Gibraltar Chess Festival-2014 on Wednesday which is being held in British Island Gibraltar in UK. With one win and one draw, Zia has 1.5 points at the end of the second round. A total of 254 players, including 68 grandmasters from 49 countries, are participating at the Masters event.

–Tribune Desk

Shadharan Bima beat WanderersShadharan Bima came from behind to defeat Dhaka Wonderers Club 4-1 in the Green Delta Insurance Premier Division Hockey League at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium yesterday. Md Afsar netted twice for Sadharon Bima in the 46th and 64th minutes of the game after Mamun put Wonderers ahead in the 21st minute. Md Mostak and Md Rocky each scored one goal for Bima, in the 24th and 60th minutes respectively. It was Sadharon Bima’s third victory in the league and puts them in third place with nine points from � ve matches. Top placed Usha Krira Chakra take on Sonali Bank at the same venue at 3pm today.

–Tribune Desk

Hodge earns T20 recallVeteran batsman Brad Hodge was Thursday recalled to Australia’s Twen-ty20 squad, boosting his chances of playing in the World Twenty20 in Ban-gladesh in March-April. The 39-year-old, who has been in outstanding form for the Melbourne Stars in the domestic Big Bash League, was called up to replace all-rounder Moises Henriques, who is heading to South Africa to join up with the Test team, Cricket Australia said. He will join the squad for the � nal two Twenty20s against England, in Mel-bourne on Friday and Sydney on Sun-day. Australia won the opening match in Hobart on Wednesday by 13 runs.

–AFP

Juninho retiresJuninho, the Brazilian mid� elder who won seven consecutive French league titles with Lyon, has retired from football on Thursday, his 39th birthday. Roberto Dinamite, president of Vasco da Gama, told local media: “I want to con� rm Juninho Pernambucano’s deci-sion.” said Dinamite. Juninho, who has not played since injuring his right thigh in November, was a noted set-piece specialist, scoring 100 goals for Lyon, whom he captained. He was part of the Brazil team that made it through to the quarter-� nals of the 2006 World Cup. Juninho left Lyon, French champions between 2001 and 2008, for a two year spell in Qatar, a brief period with MLS side Red Bulls New York before returning to Brazil to Vasco da Gama, the club where his career began.

–AFP

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DAY’S WATCH

Rakibul, Shuvagata strike hundreds for Dhakan Minhaz Uddin Khan

Dhaka division’s Rakibul Hasan and Shuvagata Hom slammed centuries on the � rst day of the � rst round matches in the 15th National Cricket League yesterday. The capital side was in total control in their match against Rangpur. Eight � fties were registered while the bowlers claimed 33 wickets over the four games of the � rst round played across di� erent venues in the country.

 Dhaka v RangpurRiding on unbeaten tons from Rakibul and Shuvagata Dhaka posted 357 runs at stumps on day one at Rajshahi’s Shahid Kamruzzaman Stadium.

Dhaka lost early wickets before bouncing back with a 102-run third wicket partnership between Rakibul and Rony Talukder (73). Rakibul took Shuvagata to add unbeaten 204 runs for the � fth wicket to steer Dhaka to a strong position. In the process Rakibul scored 154 while Shuvagata made 101. 

Rajshahi v SylhetSylhet bowled out Rajshahi for 217 runs in the � rst innings before they ended the day on 95 for no loss. Sayem

Alam (61) and Imtiaz Hossain (23) will resume the second day with their side trailing by 112 runs.

Earlier, Junaed Siddique’s 63 was the highlight for Rajshahi as none others contributed to the scorecard at Fatullah’s Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium.  Sylhet pacer Abu Zayed bagged � ve wickets while veteran

left-arm spinner of the side, Enamul Haque Jr claimed four.

 Khulna v BarisalRiding on three half centuries hosts Khulna scored 252 for six at stumps against Barisal at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium.  The Barisal side lacked the threat in the bowling department as

Tushar Imran, Anamul Haque, Robiul Islam Robi scored 61, 55 and 51 runs re-spectively. Ziaur Rahman was unbeaten on 18 along with Nahidul Islam on 5. Fa-zle Rabbi picked three wickets for Barisal.   

 Dhaka Metro v ChittagongDhaka Metro and Chittagong are � ght-ing neck to neck at Bogra’s Shaheed Chandu Stadium.

Metro were restricted to 221 runs with Saikat Ali making the highest 53. Monirul Islam was the most successful among the Chittagong bowlers picking four wickets while Yasin Arafat and Af-tab Ahmed bagged two wickets each.

However, Chittagong were trail-ing by 143 runs at the end of the day as they were reeling at 84 for three. Nafees Iqbal was unbeaten on 60 with Aftab on two. Shohid picked two wick-ets for Dhaka Metro while o� -spinner Sharifullah took one. l

UAE, Scotland qualify for 2015 World Cupn AFP, Wellington

Cricketing minnows the United Arab Emirates and Scotland secured berths at the 2015 World Cup yesterday after taking the top two spots at a quali� ca-tion tournament in New Zealand.

Both teams � nished the round robin phase of the International Cricket Coun-cil (ICC) World Cup Quali� er on eight points after posting four wins and one loss, with the UAE’s superior run rate giving them the edge over Scotland.

The results mean they will play in next year’s World Cup alongside superpowers

of the game such as India and Australia.Scotland have featured in the World

Cup twice before, in 1999 and 2007, while the UAE appeared in the tourna-ment’s 1996 edition.

The Scots quali� ed after beating Ke-nya by three wickets in their � nal match with just three balls to spare, while the UAE downed Namibia by 36 runs.

Hong Kong entered the � nal day of the round robin with hopes of earning a debut World Cup appearance but re-sults did not go their way, even though they posted a three-wicket win over Papua New Guinea. l

Sk Jamal o� to Kolkatan Shishir Hoque

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club � ew to Kolkata yesterday night to take part in the 121-year-old Club Cup competition IFA Shield. The new Bangladesh Pre-mier League giants, who aimed to return home as the champions of one of the old-est club competitions in world football, will play their � rst game against Kolkata side Mohammedan SC at the Barasat Sta-dium, West Bengal on February 2 before facing United Sikkim FC on February 4.

Earlier the club was not sure of par-ticipating in the competition as their for-eign players did not receive their visas.

The Dhaka powerhouse was sched-uled to play their opening game against Mohun Bagan yesterday, but the game was postponed as Jamal denied to travel without their foreign recruits. The game has been rescheduled on February 6.   

Sheikh Jamal were pitted in the Group B of the 118th IFA Shield, which got underway on January 29, with Mo-hun Bagan, Mohammedan SC, Kolkata and United Sikkim. However, Sheikh Jamal manager Anwarul Karim Helal did not travel with the team for unavoidable problems regarding his passport. l

There were no demons in the wicket: Mathewsn Mazhar Uddin

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews credited the bowl-ers for their em-

phatic win by an innings and 248 runs against hosts Bangladesh yesterday. The island nation displayed some su-perb bowling and batting in the � rst Test match that ended inside four days at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

“I thought we played some pretty good cricket to get there. The bowlers got us there in the � rst innings, when Bangladesh was all out for 232. Once we got 700 there was no way back for Bangladesh, so it was a pretty good per-formance by the batters and the bowl-ers in the � rst innings,” said Mathews.

The all-rounder also praised his fast bowlers who came hard on the Bangla-deshis and supported the experienced left-arm spinner Rangana Herath to help earn their side the easy win.

“In the past we had Murali running through sides and in the recent past we had Rangana Herath running through sides. I haven’t been in a team where we had all four bowlers equally good. I’m very happy with the fast bowlers at the moment. They are delivering with the new ball and with the old ball. Dil-ruwan also, I’m very pleased with the way he performed today. We needed

that extra spinner who supports Ran-gana, and he did the job today,” he said.

Bangladesh played the match with three seamers that raised quite a few eyebrows. The decision turned out to be horribly wrong as the visitors posted over 700 while the Bangladesh quick-ies managed just a wicket out the six Sri Lanka lost. On the other hand, the Lankan fast bowlers had both bounce and swing. “There’s nothing wrong with the wicket. The wicket was pret-ty good at the end of the third day as well as the past two sessions as well,” Mathews said. “There were no demons in the wicket. But I thought we handled those pressure situations well, whereas they (Bangladesh) didn’t,” he added.

The 26-year old began his journey as a captain, the youngest among Sri Lankans, last year against Bangladesh and with two former captains Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara in the side Mathews said his job becomes easy when the seniors advice him in critical situations.

“It’s de� nitely easier. It’s not only the older guys, we’ve got Dilshan joining us in the one-dayers as well. Working with the three seniors plus we’ve got Rangana Herath in the bowling department. They all throw their thoughts. We all get to-gether and have chats and pick the best option. It makes it easier for me to have those seniors around,” he added. l

Sri Lanka cricket team leaves the � eld after securing an emphatic win against Bangladesh in the � rst Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M

BOA secretary general Syed Shahed Reza presents a crest to the Lanny Avi, the head of the NOC Relations and Services, 2016 Brazil Olympic Committ ee at the BOA House yesterday

Wawrinka leads Swiss, Czechs seek third Davis Cup titlen AFP, Paris

Stanislas Wawrinka, hotfoot from his Australian Open triumph, turns his mind to a� airs of national importance

this weekend as he leads Switzerland into battle against last season’s beaten � nalists Serbia in the Davis Cup World Group � rst round.

Nadal, the world number one, is one of a clutch of stars missing from this weekend’s opening salvoes of the ven-erable 114-year-old competition.

While Nadal and world number � ve David Ferrer skip Spain’s tie with Ger-many in Frankfurt, Serbia must face Wawrinka’s Switzerland without No-vak Djokovic. The Swiss in contrast are looking strong as along with the in-form Wawrinka they boast Roger Federer, who con� rmed his presence on Wednesday.

Argentina meanwhile face Italy without their top player, Juan Martin Del Potro, knocked out in the second round at Melbourne.

In Ostrava, world number seven Tomas Berdych, a semi-� nal victim of Wawrinka’s last week, leads the Czechs into battle against the Dutch, returning to the Davis Cup fast lane for the � rst time since 2009. l

FIXTURESAt Ostrava - hard (indoors) Czech Republic v NetherlandsAt Tokyo - hard (indoors) Japan v CanadaAt Frankfurt - hard (indoors) Germany v SpainAt La Roche sur Yon - clay (indoors) France v AustraliaAt San Diego - clay (outdoor) USA v Great BritainAt Mar del Plato - clay (outdoor) Argentina v ItalyAt Astana - hard (indoor) At Kazakhstan v BelgiumAt Novi Sad - hard (indoor) Serbia v Switzerland

Hughes replaces injured Marsh in Australia squadn Reuters

Australia replaced injured batsman Shaun Marsh with Phillip Hughes yesterday while clearing � t-again paceman Jackson Bird to join the team in South Africa for the three-test series starting on Feb. 12.

Though named in the 15-man squad, both Marsh and Bird stayed put in Austra-lia battling � tness issues. Bird was cleared by the medical team after the 27-year-old paceman underwent bowling sessions at Hobart under Lehmann’s observation. l

Doctors started bringing Schumi out of coman AFP, Grenoble

French doctors have started trying to bring Formula One legend Michael Schumacher out of his month-long in-duced coma, his spokeswoman said yes-terday. The drugs used to keep Schum-acher, 45, unconscious have begun to be reduced, though it may be some time yet before he comes to, the spokeswoman, Sabine Kehm, said in a statement.

“Michael’s sedation is being reduced in order to allow the start of the waking up process which may take long time,” the statement said.

“For the protection of the family, it was originally agreed by the interested parties to communicate this informa-tion only once this process was con-solidated. Please note that no further updates will be given.”

The spokeswoman asked the media to respect the privacy of Schumacher’s family and to not disturb the doctors treating him. l

Fomer Australian Cricket World Cup players Dean Jones, Brett Lee, Michael Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Damien Fleming and Adam Gilchrist pose with the the ICC Cricket World Cup trophy during the Ricky Ponting Tribute Match at Aurora Stadium

Dhaka centurions Rakibul Hasan (L) and Shuvagata Hom pose for a photograph after ending the � rst day unbeaten against Rangpur at SKS DHAKA TRIBUNE

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

Tribunal enquires Yusuf about Malik Cabinetn Udisa Islam

The war crimes tribunal yesterday grilled Jamaat-e-Islami Senior Nayeb-e-Ameer AKM Yusuf about Abdul Motaleb Malik-led cabinet where the accused had served as revenue minis-ter during the 1971 Liberation War.

The tribunal called Yusuf from the accused dock to the witness box (next to the judges’ seat) after cross-examina-tion of the prosecution’s last witness.

As the International Crimes Tribu-nal 2 Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan asked him about the size of the Malik Cabinet, the accused in a feeble voice said he could not remember.

The tribunal chairman clari� ed him saying: “Not for the purpose of the case, but for the sake of knowledge we are ask-ing you some questions as you are the lone surviving member of that cabinet.”

Justice Obaidul asked him why all the cabinet members had resigned on December 14, only two days before the country’s independence. Yusuf replied that they had decided to resign observ-ing the country’s situation.

The tribunal also enquired about his health. Yusuf, 84, said he had been bet-ter than earlier.

Later it set February 4 to begin depo-sition of defence witnesses. The tribu-nal has allowed the defence to produce three witnesses. In the beginning of the trial, the defence team had submitted a list of 56 witnesses.

According to the Bangabhaban web-site, then president and CMLA Gen Yahya Khan appointed AM Malik as

governor of erstwhile East Pakistan on August 31, 1971. He took oath of o� ce on September 3.

An ophthalmic surgeon by profes-sion, Malik had retired from diplomatic post in 1967. In August 1969, he was in-ducted as Pakistan’s Minister for Health, Labour, Works and Social Welfare and continued to hold o� ce until February 1971. In July 1971, he was appointed as special assistant for displaced persons.

Malik along with his cabinet re-signed on December 14 and sought ref-uge in Hotel Intercontinental [now Ru-poshi Bangla], seeking the protection of the Red Cross � ag.

Earlier in the day, defence counsel Mizanul Islam cross-examined Investi-gation O� cer Md Helal Uddin. He was the 27th and last prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Yusuf.

Mizanul suggested that the IO was us-ing state power and had produced false witnesses. Helal said it was not true.

Yusuf, the alleged founder of razakar force – an auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation army – and Peace Commit-tee in Khulna region, was indicted on August 1, 2012 on 13 charges of crimes against humanity. He was the sec-ond man in Jamaat chain of command during the war. The IO in his deposition said Yusuf had established peace com-mittees in every upazila and union.

Meanwhile, yesterday was � xed for passing order on the indictment of war crimes accused and former Jatiya Party state minister Syed Md Qaisar. The tri-bunal set Sunday for passing order on the matter. l

HC declares an ACC provision unconstitutionaln Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday declared sec-tion 32A of the Anti-Corruption Com-mission Act, 2004 unconstitutional which stipulates that the government approval is a must before prosecuting judges, magistrates and public servants in graft charges.

The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain delivered the verdict on a writ petition � led on November 24 by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.

The court observed that the recent-ly included provision of obtaining ap-proval of the government was contrary to the constitution as well as funda-mental rights of people and it was in-corporated with a mala� de intention.

“Though in our constitutional scheme all citizens are equal before the law, still the provision grants some forms of immunity to certain public employees, creating discrimination among the citizens,” it observed.

The amendment was passed on No-vember 11 last year in parliament and a gazette noti� cation was issued on No-vember 20 on the amendment.

Manzill Murshid, the lawyer of the petitioner, told before the court that

the prior approval provision was not in existence in the original bill.

The new provision that took away the power from the anti-graft body in prosecuting public servants without government’s permission drew � ak from many quarters including the ACC.

In an immediate reaction, ACC Chairman M Bodiuzzaman said the rul-ing will help them act strongly against all kinds of corruption. “From the be-ginning of the amendment, we pressed for annulling the provision of taking approval from the government in case of proceeding against public servants and judges,” he added.

M Shahabuddin Chuppu said the judgement will safeguard the indepen-dence of the anti-graft body.

Deputy Attorney General Biswojit Roy told the Dhaka Tribune that they would lodge an appeal against the HC verdict with the Appellate Division if the government instructed so.

On November 25, the High Court asked the government to explain in four weeks why the provision should not be declared unconstitutional.

The speaker, secretaries of cabinet division, president secretariat, prime minister’s secretariat and law ministry were asked to reply to the rule. l

Lalmonirhat Hindu family denied justice, securityn Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

Two adolescent girls of a poor Hindu family in a Muslim-dominated village under Lalmonirhat sadar upazila have stopped going to school in fear of se-curity as an alleged rapist managed to walk free after a forceful understand-ing mediated by ruling Awami League leaders at the local police station.

The four-member family, one of the two Hindu homesteads in Dhairkhata village of Kulaghat union, now plans to shift to another area selling their six-decimal land in fear of further per-secution as they have been denied sup-port both by the law enforcers and the local people.

Their two children, aged 11 and 13, are students of class VI and VII at Bhar-tibari High School.

Their mother lodged a case with Sa-dar police station on January 12 against neighbour Shamsul Haque, 45, mem-ber of local railway Sramik League’s executive committee, who allegedly attempted to rape her elder daughter at their shanty on January 8.

The night before, Shamsul and two

of his accomplices allegedly threatened the housewife with dire consequences to agree on handing over the girl to him the next day.

The matter spread in the area on January 10, but none dared to stand against the accused. Shamsul in his area is also known as a donor of BNP’s political activities.

He had earlier tried to violate the same girl at her place twice in the last three months, the family alleged.

Harassment on the two poor Hindu families, who live from hand to mouth, has not been new in the locality.

Shamsul’s younger brother was sued three years ago for raping a housewife of the other Hindu house in the village. But he too escaped legal measures after a so-called village arbitration had freed him from the charge.

“I had to sign the papers. The police and two Awami League leaders threat-ened me with arrest if I did not do so,” the housewife told the Dhaka Tribune.

“As I failed to get legal support from the police over the attacks [on January 7 and 8], we will leave the village as soon as possible to avoid further attack.”

Police say they mediated the under-standing, took place at the sadar police station on January 20, as the victim’s family wanted to withdraw the case.

However, the housewife denies that she agreed to compromise the case.

Provisional Sub-Inspector PSI Naz-rul Islam said both the sides agreed to reach a mutual understanding before he had started to investigate the alle-gation.

He said the o� cer-in-charge of the police station had con� rmed him about the mediation. “The OC is all in all at the police station.”

OC Jamir Uddin said the case had been dismissed as there had been mu-tual understanding between the two quarters.

He said the issue had been dealt by nearby Gokunda union unit Awami League’s General Secretary Khorshed Alam Maznu and local Swechchhase-bak League leader Sha� qul Islam at the police station.

The o� cial said he had helped them preparing only the documents of mu-tual understanding.

The victim said: “Though we are

poor, we never appealed for any help from the accused. But he always of-fered us educational accessories, clothes and other things. We refused him right away.”

She and her younger sister had been harassed regularly on their way to and from school.

“We have stopped going to school after the January 7 incident as Sham-sul Haque and his men threatened our family that they will kidnap us in the way to school,” she said.

When contacted, both Khorshed Alam and Sha� qul denied taking any money from the accused or threaten-ing the victim’s family. They claimed that the matter had been handled with the help of police as the a� ected Hindu family wanted it.

Accused Shamsul claimed that he had given Tk33,000 to the Awami League leaders to manage the victim’s family and the police withdrawing the case.

He, however, did not respond when the Dhaka Tribune asked him why he had to spend money to dismiss a false allegation. l

Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2014 begins tomorrown Muktasree Chakma Sathi

The month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair, the largest book fair in the country, is set to begin tomorrow on the Bangla Academy premises and at Suhrawardy Udyan in a new form this year.

One can see hundreds of decorated stalls made by bamboo, wood, plywood that are coloured with di� erent vibrant colours at the academy compound or at the Udyan.

Publishers taking their last minute’s preparation to decorate their stalls; busy people — workers who are mak-ing the stalls, owners and their associ-ates who are giving � nishing touches on decor of their stalls— are in rush to complete their shops before the open-ing ceremony of the fair tomorrow af-ternoon.

O� cials of the Bangla Academy said they are hoping to hold the largest ever gathering of book lovers this year since the venue has been extended to Suhrawardy Udyan, for the very � rst time.

Publishers appreciated the book fair extended to a more open space like Suhrawardy Udyan as the spacewill o� er relaxed movement for thevisitors.

However, a few publishers said the space could have been organised in a more systematic way.

Robin Ahsan, publisher of Srabon Prokashoni, said: “We are happy with the fact that the fair comes to compar-atively in an open place but it was not done in an organised manner.”

Robin is also hoping that, in the fu-ture, the fair authority will look into this matter.

Wishing to be anonymous, an o� -cial of Bangla Academy said the � nal list of allocations of stalls is yet to be done.

“We have a draft list, now,” headded.

However, Deputy Director of Bangla Academy Murshed Anwar said all kinds of preparations— in terms of stalls, se-curity measures and budget— for the fair are done.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is like-ly to inaugurate the fair on February 1, Murshed said.

According to the available list, 262 stalls have been allotted for the pub-lishers in three categories — 131 single units, 83 double units, 48 triple units and 11 quadruple units.

The government institutions and or-ganisations were allotted to set up their stalls on the Bangla Academy premises and the extended Suhrawardy Udyan was allotted for the publishers.

Rony, a carpenter who has been working to build the stalls since the last few days, said a number of 700 stalls have been set up.

Of them “430 only in Suhrawardy Udyan and rest of the stalls are on Ban-gla Academy premises.” l

‘Bring back Taslima’n Tribune Report

Speakers at a programme demand-ed that exiled writer Taslima Nasrin should be brought back to Bangladesh immediately.

“It was the constitutional, funda-mental and birth right of writer Taslima Nasrin to be with the soil and people of Bangladesh. She was sent to exile in fear of attack on her from Islamist militants.”

Initiatives should be taken immedi-ately to bring her back in the country, Osman Gani, publisher of the Agami Prokashani, said.

Addressing a book launching pro-gramme of Taslima Nasrin titled ‘Nishidho’ (banned) at the National Press Club, Gani in his written state-ment alleged that militants and an-ti-feminist forces had always been en-gaged in propaganda against Taslima.

Lawyer Jotirmoy Barua in the dis-cussion said there was no legal bar to Taslima’s coming back to Bangladesh.

“Even we have not had any infor-mation about her losing citizenship. The government has not also made any statement as to why she should not be allowed to come back,” the lawyer said. l

Absolute chaos at the Farmgate intersection as vehicles run at every direction just in front of a tra� c police box and people cross roads haphazardly although there is a foot over-bridge a few metres away. The photo was taken yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

A man tries to scramble to his feet after falling on the street in front of a running bus on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue in the capital yesterday, escaping a fatal accident. The man was trying to get on the bus ahead. He was lucky as the bus behind was able to brake in time

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

A NARROW ESCAPE

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

Continue to the Business section...

Business

26 DSE cos report half-yearly pro� tn Tahmidur Rahman

Twenty six out of 29 companies listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday reported half-yearly pro� t.

During the July-December period of last year, 18 of them did better than the same period of 2012, according to the reports based on unaudited � nancial statements.

The remaining 8 companies showed pro� ts during the period, butpoor than the same period of previous year.

Imam Button, Dulamia Cotton and Jute Spinners reported losses.

Several mutual funds also an-nounced their respective half-yearly results yesterday.

Three-fourths of the companies those reported pro� ts belong to “A” category.

Small investors welcomed the better performance by the listedcompanies, despite the adverse impact on the economy due to the political unrest.

Brokers said the disclosures helped the market register highest trade value of the week yesterday.

The companies made up 165.3 crore or over 19% of the total value traded at Dhaka Stock Exchange on the last trad-ing session of the week. “Preference to sector-wise and scrip-wise move-

ment backed by earnings disclosures and expectations led rebalancing their

portfolio. As a result, DSEX ended � at,” said IDLC Investment. l

www.dhakatribune.com/business FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2014

B3 Only ti me will defi ne Bernankes crisis-era legacy at Fed

B4 'No vault can provide you absolute protec-ti on'

Six to contest DSE polls n Tribune Report

Six candidates will contest for four directorship posts in the election of demutualised Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

They are Shakil Rizvi of Shakil Rizvi Stock, Ghulam Rasul of Khwaja Equi-ty Services, Mohammad Shahjahan of Jahan Securities, Sharif Anownar Hos-sain of Sahidullah Securities, Ahmad Rashid of Rashid Investment Services and Lailun Nahar Ekram of AENZ Se-curities.

Two out of eight stakeholders with-drew their nomination papers yester-day – the � nal day of nomination with-drawal.

The two candidates are Kazi Firoz Rashid of Kazi Firoz Rashid Securities and Mohammad Shamim Afzal of Desa Securities.

The election is scheduled for Febru-ary 12 to form its � rst board after the

demutualisation.The election is being held under the

regulation of DSE shareholder director election regulation – 2014.

Chairman of the DSE will be elected at the annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled for February 13. Its 250 members turned into shareholders af-ter the demutualisation.

The new board will be comprised of 13 member – four from its existing shareholders, seven from independent directors, DSE chief executive o� cer and one from strategic investor, accord-ing to the Demutualisation Act 2013.

Prior to holding the AGM, the DSE would have to send a list of indepen-dent directors to the BSEC for regulato-ry approval. The tenure of each direc-tor and the chief executive o� cer will be for three years.

The bourse has already prepared a list of 21 independent directors mostly from academicians. l

Insurance regulator goes without guardiann Kayes Sohel

Insurance Development and Regula-tory Authority (IDRA) has now turned into a guardian-less entity as four key positions, out of its top-� ve, have fall-en vacant since Wednesday.

As a result, the regulator of the insur-ance companies has already started fac-ing a setback not only in performing its routine jobs, but also failing to make any policy decisions, according to sources.

Meanwhile, the government, is-sued a circular on Wednesday with an order for bestowing the charges of the chairman to Md. Fazlul Karim, the lone existing member of IDRA. But, the reg-ulator requires at least three members, including chairman, to hold a commis-sion meeting, according to IDRA Act.

The post of IDRA chairman re-mained vacant since January 26, the day when a three-year contractual appointment of M Shefaque Ahmed expired. Contractual appointment of Naba Gopal Banik, a member of the IDRA, also expired on Wednesday last.

Nurul Islam Molla, another member, went on retirement on health grounds in December last and contractual ap-pointment of Syed Ahmed, another member, expired on April 2013.

Consequently, all the vital policy-re-lated work initiated by the regulator in 2011 to bring the disorganised and unregulated insurance sector into a regulated one, is also poised to be ham-pered largely.

The government had earlier estab-lished the IDRA in January 2011, replac-ing the department of insurance to de-velop the insurance industry through enacting an act in the parliament. Since then, a good numbers of rules and reg-ulations were amended and framed to protect the rights of policyholders.

IDRA now provides registration cer-ti� cates to insurance companies and o� ers policyholders the right to voice their complaints against insurers or in-surance companies.

It speci� es the requisite quali� cations for managing directors and sets code of conduct for insurance � rms, agents and others concerned. It � nes, levies fees and other charges to carry out the pur-poses of the insurance Act of 2010.

“Policy-related jobs as well as daily activities have badly su� ered as it is di� cult for us to make any policy deci-sions without holding a meeting of the commission, which is now also facing quorum crisis,’’ Fazlul Karim, acting chairman of IDRA, told the Dhaka Tri-bune yesterday. l

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The backward linkage industry of readymade garment sector is estimat-ed to have incurred a loss worth around Tk2,000 crore in last few months due to political unrest ahead of the nation-al election held on January 5.

An internal survey conducted by Bangladesh Garment Accessories and Packaging Manufactures and Export-ers Association (BGAPMEA) estimated the losses.

“Scarcity of new orders from appar-el makers badly a� ected the accesso-ries and packaging industry,” BGAP-MEA President Rafez Alam Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune, claiming the loss estimate.

“Received orders could not also be supplied timely due to the political tur-moil, increasing the losses.”

According to the BGAPMEA, the deemed export of packaging and ac-cessories items in the last � scal year would be around US$4bn, which is around 20% of the country’s total ap-parel exports.

The association leader said export of the accessories witnessed a sharp fall as shipments could not be made timely.

He said the overall production was badly hampered due to short supply of raw materials.

The packaging sector has also suf-fered huge losses like the others sec-tors such as pharmaceuticals, ceramics and leather, he noted.

Volatility and uncertainties, which was prevailing in the RMG sector, vir-tually led the linkage industry to fur-

ther crises as it is directly involved with the apparel sector.

Around 50% of the orders, both from home and abroad, have been dropped as the RMG sector su� ered order crises from their global buyers in last few months due to political unrest, said Syed Ziaul Haque, general manag-er of Uniglory Accessories Limited.

To get rid of the dull market, the RMG sector needs more orders as pro-duction of backward linkage industry depends on the vibrancy of apparel sector, he added.

He urged the government to ensure security of foreign buyers and bring stability into the business, so the buy-ers could visit Bangladesh and place orders.

“Currently, we don’t have su� cient orders and it would be di� cult for us to meet the monthly regular expenses to maintain operation,” said Haque.

Meanwhile, the government and apparel makers as well as exporters are trying to restore con� dence among the global retailers by assuring them of the political stability and su� cient securi-ty for them.

Bangladesh Garment Manufactur-ers and Exporters Association (BG-MEA) is going to hold a meeting with the global retailers on February 3 in an e� ort to restore con� dence that erod-ed due to the recent political turmoil and labour unrests.

“We want to inform the global buy-ers that Bangladesh has rightly come back to its own track as the overall political situation has already been im-proved,” said Shahidullah Azim, Vice President of BGMEA. l

Ministries not following guidelines in procurement proposalsn Asif Showkat Kallol

Most of the purchase proposals of the ministries do no follow the existing procurement guidelines and rules also, which causes problems for cabinet committee to take decisions and be-gets corruption, said a high o� cial.

Additional Secretary of Cabinet Division Nurul Karim recently sent a letter to the ministries and divisions in this regard.

The letter said the purchase propos-als were not made as per the Rules of Business 1996, the Public Procurement Act 2006 and the Public Procurement Rules 2008.

“We had no choice, but to send back the proposals to the respective minis-tries and divisions for rewriting,” said Nurul Karim. Development partners also insist on following procurement guidelines, he added.

Recently, a shipping ministry pro-posal on appointing � ve berth opera-

tors for Chittagong Port was sent back as it was not made as per procurement guidelines.

According to the Cabinet Division, the shipping ministry in its proposal didn’t publish tender in newspaper, skipped mentioning of the price increase of the quoted price and the quoted prices of all � ve operators were mentioned un-usually of the same amount without any explanation.

The letter observed that many pro-posal summaries are made hurriedly and with little care just to place on the table for approval.

The Cabinet Committee and the Cab-inet Division cannot judge the propos-als properly due to lack of compliance, it said, urging the o� cials of the minis-tries and divisions to follow the exist-ing procurement rules and guidelines while preparing purchase proposals.

The ministry o� cials were also asked to mention the procurement price in both number and words in the proposals.

They would also have to attach ten-der evaluation committee’s reports with the proposals.

Legally-� xed duration of tenders will also need to be mentioned in the procurement proposals, the letter said.

In 2012, an independent evaluation g roup of the World Bank visited Dhaka and found the loopholes in the coun-try’s existing public procurement rules.

The group advised the government to rearrange the rules to ensure cor-ruption-free implementation of infra-structure projects. l

We had no choice, but to send back the proposals to the respective ministries and divisions for rewriting

S T O C K SDSEX 4753.17 0.10% ▲

DSES 1660.35 -0.16% ▼

DS30 9366.97 0.37% ▲

E X C H A N G E R A T E SAverage selling rates to public in BDT

Banks Rupali Bank Sonali BankCurrencies SELL BUY SELL BUY

USD 77.4 78.4 78 79.5EURO 105.16 108.37 103.05 107.05

INR 1.16 1.31 1.16 1.26SAR 20.53 21.01 20 21

RMG losses spill over into backward linkagePolitical unrest claimed to have cost accessories and packaging industry Tk2,000 crore

A worker carries a carton of garment products ready for export at a factory warehouse in Tongi near the capital Dhaka SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Companies H2 2012 (in crore)

H2 2013 (in crore)

% change

Yesterday's change in

stock price

Volume traded

(in lakh)Desh Garments - B 0.05 0.19 280% 6.34% 96.4Central Pharma - N 2.2 6.2 182% 2.89% 1228Bangladesh Building - A 3.8 10.7 182% 9.91% 1231Tallu Spinning - A 5.31 14.6 175% 0.25% 2406Rahim Textile - A 0.66 1.59 141% 8.70% 126Quasem Drycells - A 2.08 3.81 83% -0.65% 549Keya Cosmetics - A 12.36 19.5 58% 6.25% 1839Meghna Petroleum -A 78.5 109.9 40% -1.08% 4104Bangas - A 0.75 1.04 39% -5.79% 1418Pharma Aids - A 0.5 0.66 32% 1.27% 28.3Agni System - A 2.24 2.87 28% -0.42% 80.8Kohinoor Chemical - A 2.5 3.2 28% 5.76% 36.6Malek Spinning - A 17.2 21.4 24% 0.00% 277.3Imam Button - Z -1.28 -0.99 23% 0.00% 1.1BEDL - A 10.1 11.5 14% -2.99% 613.7Prime Textile - A 1.91 2.14 12% 1.93% 33.4Delta Spinners - A 2.64 2.91 10% -0.74% 271Saiham Textile - A 11.3 11.4 1% 0.30% 350Standard Ceramic - A 0.34 0.34 0% -2.23% 7.1Power Grid - A 74 72.9 -1% -2.92% 344Fuwang Ceramic - A 2.8 2.4 -14% 1.00% 91.3Golden Harvest - N 8.1 6.6 -19% -7.49% 892.7Orion Infusion - A 2.4 1.8 -25% -0.47% 110Da� odil Computers - Z 2.65 1.5 -43% 0.72% 16.6Hakkani Pulp - B 0.47 0.26 -45% -1.80% 17.8Zahintex - A 5.9 2.2 -63% 1.46% 160DESCO - A 71.9 19.2 -73% 0.97% 196Dulamia Cotton - Z -0.8 -1.5 -88% -3.26% 1.2Jute Spinners - Z -1.16 -3.74 -222% 0.81% 2

SNAPSHOT OF DISCLOSER ON CORPORATE PROFITABILITY

B2 Stock Friday, January 31, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks end � at with higher turnover n Tribune Report

Stocks ended � at yesterday, as late pro� t taking cut early gains.

After rising more than 40 points in the morning, the benchmark DSEX index rose slightly 4 points or 0.09% to end at 4,753.

Shariah-based DSES index dropped fractionally 0.9 points or 0.09% higher to 974.The blue-chip comprising DS30 index shed 2 points or 0.2% to 1,660.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, was up by 43 points to close at 9,376.

Trading at DSE remained buoy-ant as the total turnover stood at Tk856 crore, an increase of more than 36% over the previous session and its second highest this year.

Out of 295 issues traded, 174 closed higher, 89 declined and 32 remained unchanged.

Lanka Bangla Securities in its market analysis said pro� t bagging inclination eroded most of the intr-aday gain, closing the indices mar-ginally higher.

The government approved $106m foreign credit to 13 sectors including cement, textile, telecom and other manufacturing sectors to boost up manufacturing output growth was a positive factor.

The quarterly declarations spurred sector speci� c rally, working as market trigger to hold 4,750-level on the month-end trad-

ing session, it said. IDLC Investment said upbeat

vive couldn’t sustain at the end of session as investors tried pro� t booking.

Among the major sectors, food and allied continued to post the highest gain of over 3%, led by heavyweight BATBC that rose 4.5%. It was followed by textilethat surged 1.7% and non-life insur-ance 1%.

Energy, pharmaceuticals, cement and life insurance were in red on pro� t booking.

Meghna Petroleum was the most traded stocks with a turnover of Tk41 crore, followed by Padma Oil, Generation Next, Tallu Spinning, Aamra Technologies, OlympicIndustries, Con� dence Cement, Keya Cosmetics and Grameen-phone. l

News from trade server1STPRIMFMF: The Trustee Committee of the fund has approved 10% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Record date: 11.02.2014.HRTEX: The Board of Directors has recommended 15% cash dividend for the year ended on September 30, 2013. Date of AGM: 09.06.2014, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: Trust Milonayaton, 545 Old Airport Road, Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka-1206. Record date: 20.02.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 2.30, NAV per share of Tk. 15.72 and NOCFPS of Tk. 7.10 for the year ended on September 30, 2013.APEXFOODS: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the entity rating (surveillance) of the Company as "A2" based on audited � nancial statements up to June 30, 2013; unaudit-ed three months management prepared � nancial statements, bank liability position as on December 31, 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.ICBEPMF1S1: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 19.45 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.26 as against Tk. 9.02 million and Tk. 0.12 respectively**.ICBAMCL2ND: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 21.89 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.44 as against Tk. 7.88 million and Tk. 0.16 respectively**.

ICB1STNRB: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 23.65 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 2.37 as against Tk. 16.70 million and Tk. 1.67 respectively**.ICB2NDNRB: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 73.36 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.73 as against Tk. 61.77 million and Tk. 0.62 respectively**.ICBISLAMIC: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 12.77 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 1.28 as against Tk. 6.63 million and Tk. 0.66 respectively**.1JANATAMF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 59.84 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.30 as against Tk. 38.31 million and Tk. 0.19 respectively**.EBLNRBMF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 36.39 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.22 as against Tk. 38.62 million and Tk. 0.24 respectively**.ABB1STMF: (H/Y): NPAT=Tk. 43.00 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.26 as against Tk. 46.00 million and Tk. 0.28 respectively**.FBFIF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 150.97 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.27 as against Tk. 207.97 million and Tk. 0.38 respectively**.PHPMF1: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 40.97 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.20 as against Tk. 38.66 million and Tk. 0.19 respectively**.POPULAR1MF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 63.63 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.31

as against Tk. 49.48 million and Tk. 0.24 respectively**.EXIM1STMF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 35.24 mil-lion with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.35. EBL1STMF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 20.24 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.19 as against Tk. 31.94 million and Tk. 0.29 respectively**.IFIC1STMF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 27.76 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.21 as against Tk. 37.58 million and Tk. 0.29 respectively**.TRUSTB1MF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 45.45 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.21 as against Tk. 49.33 million and Tk. 0.23 respectively**.PRIME1ICBA: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 31.00 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.31 as against Tk. 10.48 million and Tk. 0.10 respectively**.ICBSONALI1: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 79.67 mil-lion with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.80. IFILISLMF1: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 43.93 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.44 as against Tk. 6.61 million and Tk. 0.07 respectively**PF1STMF: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 18.24 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.30 as against Tk. 6.75 million and Tk. 0.11 respectively**.ICB3RDNRB: (H/Y): NPAT= Tk. 21.09 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.21 as against Tk. 11.39 million and Tk. 0.11 respectively**.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Rangpur Foundry -A -9.17 -9.17 98.10 98.10 98.10 98.10 0.049 3.03 32.4Golden Harvest Agro-N -6.40 -4.99 42.99 42.40 46.00 42.00 9.371 1.62 26.5Bangas -A -5.93 -6.76 502.82 506.00 540.00 497.60 4.173 5.70 88.2Padma Oil Co. -A -4.06 -3.68 332.07 328.80 341.00 327.20 19.550 20.68 16.1Rahima Food -Z -3.67 -0.49 68.80 68.20 70.00 67.60 0.791 -0.64 -veBarakatullah E. D.-A -3.52 -1.85 36.00 35.60 37.00 35.20 4.171 1.74 20.7Padma Islami Life*-N -3.37 -0.47 84.35 83.10 87.00 82.60 2.095 1.10 76.7National Housing Fin.-B -3.30 -1.00 35.80 35.20 36.00 35.20 0.072 1.39 25.8Anwar Galvanizing-B -3.29 -2.93 29.49 29.40 31.20 29.10 0.900 0.02 1474.5Republic Insu.-A -3.21 -1.94 48.48 48.30 49.00 48.30 0.121 3.03 16.0

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Golden Harvest Agro-N -7.49 -5.15 43.09 42.00 45.70 40.90 89.427 1.62 26.6Bangas -A -5.79 -5.57 508.42 507.20 545.00 498.10 141.913 5.70 89.2Padma Oil Co. -A -4.28 -3.80 332.24 328.60 350.00 320.00 248.540 20.68 16.1Aziz PipesZ -3.83 -4.04 22.57 22.60 22.90 22.10 0.079 0.59 38.3Brac B.C. Bond-A -3.82 -3.38 1000.00 995.50 1000.00 991.00 0.010 0.00 -Anwar Galvanizing-B -3.32 -3.47 29.20 29.10 29.70 28.80 6.059 0.02 1460.0Progressive Life-A -3.32 -0.01 147.94 145.40 151.90 142.00 5.030 2.30 64.3Dulamia CottonZ -3.26 -1.75 8.97 8.90 9.50 8.50 0.122 -4.02 -vePubali Bank - A -3.05 -0.46 38.82 38.10 41.20 36.00 21.073 2.11 18.4Prime Islami Life -A -3.04 0.70 127.48 124.20 132.00 123.20 9.395 4.95 25.8

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

aamra technologies-A 828,290 33.62 4.73 41.00 4.06 39.40 41.80 39.30 40.59Keya Cosmetics -A 923,812 26.38 3.71 28.90 5.86 27.30 29.00 27.80 28.56Generation Next-A 647,760 23.95 3.37 37.50 5.04 35.70 37.60 35.90 36.97BD Building Systems -A 313,725 22.08 3.10 71.50 10.00 65.00 71.50 59.60 70.38Padma Oil Co. -A 58,874 19.55 2.75 328.80 -4.06 342.70 341.00 327.20 332.07Appollo Ispat CL -N 502,800 18.54 2.61 36.80 0.55 36.60 37.30 36.60 36.87Meghna Petroleum -A 68,940 18.42 2.59 265.20 -1.19 268.40 270.00 263.00 267.21UNITED AIR-A 1,043,091 18.33 2.58 17.60 1.15 17.40 17.80 17.30 17.57UCBL - A 563,566 17.47 2.46 31.10 2.64 30.30 31.30 30.50 30.99Tallu Spinning -A 413,500 17.01 2.39 40.30 -0.25 40.40 42.10 40.10 41.15BD Submarine Cable-A 98,742 16.70 2.35 170.00 5.20 161.60 173.00 163.90 169.09Paramount Textile Ltd.-A 276,950 14.48 2.04 52.30 1.95 51.30 52.90 51.70 52.30Mercantile Bank -A 630,803 11.99 1.69 19.20 3.23 18.60 19.30 18.70 19.01Central Pharm-A 229,450 11.46 1.61 50.00 3.31 48.40 50.60 48.20 49.96BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 316,740 11.44 1.61 36.20 2.26 35.40 36.50 35.40 36.13

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Meghna Petroleum -A 1,537,317 410.95 4.80 266.00 -1.08 268.90 270.80 246.00 267.31BATBCL -A 131,230 254.03 2.96 1929.00 4.44 1847.00 1946.90 1820.00 1935.79Padma Oil Co. -A 748,070 248.54 2.90 328.60 -4.28 343.30 350.00 320.00 332.24Generation Next-A 6,627,460 245.06 2.86 37.40 4.76 35.70 37.70 33.70 36.98Tallu Spinning -A 5,854,369 240.67 2.81 40.20 0.25 40.10 44.00 36.30 41.11aamra technologies-A 4,972,017 202.27 2.36 41.00 4.33 39.30 41.90 35.40 40.68Olympic Ind. -A 1,055,222 191.16 2.23 180.60 1.92 177.20 184.90 160.00 181.16Con� denceCement A 1,259,403 189.27 2.21 149.80 2.39 146.30 152.10 140.00 150.29Keya Cosmetics -A 6,446,104 184.16 2.15 28.90 6.25 27.20 29.90 24.90 28.57Grameenphone-A 832,298 177.91 2.08 212.30 0.38 211.50 215.50 200.00 213.76Square Pharma -A 753,732 173.06 2.02 228.40 -1.30 231.40 236.00 215.10 229.61S Purbanchol Power-N 2,152,200 165.48 1.93 76.10 -0.52 76.50 78.80 68.90 76.89Bangas -A 279,127 141.91 1.66 507.20 -5.79 538.40 545.00 498.10 508.42UCBL - A 4,465,601 138.30 1.61 31.00 2.31 30.30 32.80 27.80 30.97LankaBangla Fin. -A 1,652,403 131.51 1.53 78.90 -2.11 80.60 81.30 73.00 79.58BD Building Systems -A 1,760,725 123.28 1.44 71.00 9.91 64.60 71.00 64.00 70.02

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Reliance Insur -A 10.00 10.00 77.00 77.00 77.00 77.00 0.039 4.59 16.8BD Building Systems -A 10.00 8.49 70.38 71.50 71.50 59.60 22.080 2.92 24.1Kay & Que (BD) -Z 6.73 7.15 22.18 22.20 22.50 21.80 0.044 -0.89 -vePrime Insur -A 6.57 6.43 37.25 37.30 37.30 37.20 0.019 2.36 15.8Keya Cosmetics -A 5.86 4.50 28.56 28.90 29.00 27.80 26.381 2.18 13.1Eastern InsurA 5.66 4.88 44.52 44.80 45.50 42.00 0.317 2.60 17.1CVO PetroChem RL-Z 5.37 4.98 791.58 794.50 799.00 780.00 0.396 -4.06 -veEastern Cables-Z 5.21 3.38 99.24 101.00 98.10 100.00 0.050 1.40 70.9BD Submarine Cable-A 5.20 4.70 169.09 170.00 173.00 163.90 16.697 3.28 51.6Generation Next-A 5.04 4.38 36.97 37.50 37.60 35.90 23.946 2.25 16.4

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

BD Building Systems -A 9.91 8.31 70.02 71.00 71.00 64.00 123.284 2.92 24.0Eastern InsurA 9.40 7.92 44.81 45.40 45.60 40.00 24.461 2.60 17.2Rahim Textile -A 8.70 7.92 299.05 302.30 302.40 280.00 12.597 11.56 25.9Libra Infusions-A 7.96 7.89 484.17 484.20 485.90 480.00 0.581 4.88 99.2Kay & Que (BD) -Z 7.46 7.20 21.60 21.60 22.00 20.00 0.489 -0.89 -veFamilytex (BD) Ltd.-N 6.62 4.60 62.37 62.80 63.80 60.00 17.183 8.29 7.5Desh Garments -B 6.34 6.95 71.54 70.40 72.80 66.70 9.643 1.18 60.6Keya Cosmetics -A 6.25 4.58 28.57 28.90 29.90 24.90 184.158 2.18 13.1Apex Tannery -A 6.10 3.82 155.49 156.50 158.50 152.00 10.449 4.86 32.0Kohinoor Chem -A 5.76 5.74 385.68 385.70 389.00 375.00 3.664 9.80 39.4

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 930.96 10.86 94.00 13.22 1024.96 11.04NBFI 555.93 6.49 52.65 7.40 608.57 6.56Investment 208.20 2.43 11.51 1.62 219.71 2.37Engineering 728.05 8.50 75.94 10.68 803.99 8.66Food & Allied 758.28 8.85 38.08 5.35 796.36 8.58Fuel & Power 1385.24 16.16 82.96 11.66 1468.20 15.82Jute 2.55 0.03 0.00 2.55 0.03Textile 1175.42 13.72 110.42 15.52 1285.84 13.85Pharma & Chemical 836.78 9.76 64.56 9.08 901.34 9.71Paper & Packaging 1.78 0.02 0.23 0.03 2.00 0.02Service 53.30 0.62 7.29 1.03 60.60 0.65Leather 63.77 0.74 6.38 0.90 70.15 0.76Ceramic 41.36 0.48 6.26 0.88 47.62 0.51Cement 368.37 4.30 20.64 2.90 389.01 4.19Information Technology 263.62 3.08 37.55 5.28 301.17 3.24General Insurance 302.57 3.53 12.82 1.80 315.39 3.40Life Insurance 285.95 3.34 13.43 1.89 299.38 3.23Telecom 285.14 3.33 27.73 3.90 312.87 3.37Travel & Leisure 181.75 2.12 25.44 3.58 207.19 2.23Miscellaneous 140.62 1.64 23.42 3.29 164.04 1.77Debenture 0.23 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.24 0.00

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index : 4753.17024 (+) 0.10% ▲

DSE Shariah Index : 974.27286 (-) 0.10% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1660.35554 (-) 0.16% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14786.2979 (+) 0.35% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12296.5788 (-) 0.15% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 9366.9767 (+) 0.37% ▲

DSE key features January 30, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

8,569.84

Turnover (Volume)

187,622,912

Number of Contract 160,255

Traded Issues 295

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

197

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

94

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,273.77

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.56

CSE key features January 30, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 711.24

Turnover (Volume) 19,470,942

Number of Contract 23,528

Traded Issues 233

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

158

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

74

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

-

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,171.68

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.32

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

ANALYSTPro� t bagging inclination eroded most of the intraday gain, closing the indices marginally higher

Out of 295 issues traded, 174 closed higher, 89 declined and 32 remained unchanged

Only time will de� ne Bernanke’s crisis-era legacy at Fedn Reuters

Ben Bernanke did not hesitate when asked whether he was con� dent that his signature response to the Great Re-cession would work.

“Well, the problem with QE is that it works in practice but it doesn’t work in theory,” the head of the US Federal Reserve quipped earlier this month during his last public appearance.

He was referring to his decision during the darkest days of the � nan-cial crisis to launch an unprecedented program of massive bond purchases, a policy known as quantitative easing, or QE. The aim was to push long-term in-terest rates lower given that overnight rates, the Fed’s main economic lever, were already near zero.

The purchases Bernanke kicked o� in late 2008 have continued, o� and on, to this day. They have already led to a quadrupling of the Fed’s balance sheet to $4tn.

On Wednesday, Bernanke, 60, qui-etly adjourned his � nal policy-setting meeting after an unusually tumultu-ous eight-year stint atop the world’s most in� uential central bank.

When he steps down on Friday, the Fed’s bloated balance sheet will hang over his legacy. Critics have warned it contains seeds that could lead to in� a-tion or asset price bubbles.

Early assessments have been most-ly positive. The former Princeton pro-fessor has been praised as the steady hand who helped steer the United States and world economies clear of a far more painful recession.

He � ooded � nancial markets with liquidity from an alphabet soup of pro-grams set up on the � y; he printed tril-lions of dollars through three rounds of QE; and he made bold promises to keep

stimulus in place for years to come, ty-ing low interest rates to particular eco-nomic outcomes in an approach emu-lated by other central banks.

As a leading scholar of the Great Depression, Bernanke had a deep the-oretical understanding of what to do in the face of a fast-moving banking pan-ic. He put that knowledge into practice when the � nancial crisis struck.

“Bernanke was willing to do cre-ative and aggressive things,” said Lau-

rence Meyer, a former Fed governor who co-founded the forecasting � rm Macroeconomic Advisers. “He put a lot of balls in the air and likely thought that not all of them will work - but some of them will. That was the kind of spirit and leadership and willing-ness to take risks.”

But like his predecessor, Alan Greenspan - who was showered with accolades when he stepped down in 2006 only to later be labeled a main

architect of the subsequent crisis - Ber-nanke’s legacy will only become clear over time.

$4Tn and countingA good part of that legacy will be written by Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, who takes the central bank’s reins on Saturday.

She inherits the job of dialing down the bond-buying and deciding when to raise rates.

Yellen will also need to � gure out

how to smoothly shrink the Fed’s bal-ance sheet to a more comfortable size of around $1n without knocking the economy o� the rails.

To Allan Meltzer, a leading Fed his-torian, no outcome looks good for Ber-nanke. “If they go too fast, we’re going to get a recession. If they go too slowly, we are going to get serious in� ation. If they do neither, we could get both,” he said.

The � rst round of quantitative easing in 2008 and 2009 was heroic, Meltzer said. But the second and third rounds were “just a mistake, a serious mistake, that will have problems.”

“History will judge his response to the 2009 crisis very well,” he said of Bernanke. “They will judge the after-math as being much too strong and unnecessary.”

‘Do what it takes’While Bernanke has defended the ag-gressive steps the Fed has taken since 2008, he has been one of his own biggest critics for missing the signs of brewing crisis in the US subprime mortgage market and over leveraged Wall Street banks.

But far from punishing Bernanke, who served a prior stint on the Fed board from 2002-2005, for taking too long to recognize the cracks in the � -nancial system, legislators intent on reforming Wall Street expanded the Fed’s supervisory authority.

By the time former President George W. Bush appointed Bernanke chair in 2006, the subprime housing bubble was already massive. When it burst in 2007, the Fed chief was slow to realize just how quickly those prob-lems could cascade around the world, infecting lightly regulated banks and sparking investor panic. l

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

In Bernanke’s � nal act, Fed cuts stimulus despite market turmoiln Reuters

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to trim its bond purchases by another $10bn as it stuck to a plan to wind down its extraordinary econom-ic stimulus despite recent turmoil in emerging markets.

The action was widely expected, al-though some investors had speculated that the US central bank might put its plans on hold given the jitters overseas.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who hands the Fed’s reins to Vice Chair Jan-et Yellen on Friday, managed to adjourn his last policy-setting meeting without any dissents from his colleagues. It was the � rst meeting without a dissent since June 2011 - a sign of how tumultuous Bernanke’s tenure has been.

In addition to proceeding with plans to scale back its bond buying, the Fed made no changes to its other main pol-icy plank: its pledge to keep interest rates low for some time to come.

The decision suggests that it would take a serious threat to the US econo-my before the Fed backs down from a resolve to shelve the asset-purchase program later this year.

Indeed, it o� ered a somewhat rosier assessment of the US economy’s pros-pects than it did last month, saying “economic activity picked up in recent quarters.” It also largely shook o� sur-prisingly soft jobs growth in Decem-ber. “Labour market indicators were mixed but on balance showed further improvement,” it said.

“They really want to move to the sidelines here and get out of the (bond buying) business,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment o� cer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

All 17 top Wall Street economists polled by Reuters on Wednesday ex-pect the Fed to wind the program down by year’s end, and nearly all be-lieve the Fed won’t raise rates until at least the third quarter of 2015.

Major US stock indexes closed down more than 1%, while yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hit the lowest level since late October. The dollar rose against the euro but was lit-tle changed against a broad basket of currencies.

Ending the purchasesImportantly, the Fed stuck to its prom-ise to keep rates near zero until well after the US unemployment rate, now at 6.7%, falls below 6.5%, especially if in� ation remains below a 2% target. Some analysts had speculated it might alter this guidance, given how close the jobless rate now is to the rate-hike threshold.

In fact, the central bank’s statement largely mirrored the one it issued after its December 17-18 meeting, when it announced an initial $10bn cut to its monthly bond purchases.

At the time, Bernanke told report-ers the Fed would likely continue to taper the purchases in “measured” steps through the year until it was fully wound down, as long as the economy

continued to heal. He did not speak to the media on Wednesday.

In its statement on Wednesday, the Fed said it would buy $65bn in bonds per month starting in February, down from $75bn now. It shaved its pur-chases of US Treasuries and mortgage bonds equally.

“The Fed’s action today represents a continuation of its resolute determi-nation to end (bond purchases) during 2014,” said Daniel Alpert, managing part-ner at Westwood Capital in New York. “The policy has hit its ‘sell by’ date.”

Focused on homeIn announcing its decision, the Fed made no reference to the sell-o� in emerging markets that has depressed US stocks in recent days.

Markets in countries with large cur-rent account de� cits, such as Turkey and Argentina, have su� ered steep losses in part because of the prospect of less US monetary stimulus.

These currencies and stocks slumped again after the Fed’s an-nouncement, o� setting aggressive in-terest rate hikes by Turkey and South Africa.

Meanwhile, economic signals in the United States - from consumer spend-ing to industrial production and trade - have suggested the US recovery closed out last year on solid ground, reinforc-ing expectations the Fed would contin-ue trimming the stimulus. The weak December jobs report has been viewed as an outlier. l

Outgoing US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke participates in a discussion at the Brookings Institution in Washington REUTERS

Oil prices mixed after Fed taper decisionn AFP, Singapore

Oil prices were mixed in Asian trade yesterday as global markets reeled from the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut its massive stimulus package.

New York’s main contract West Texas Intermediate for March delivery gained 10 cents to $97.46 in afternoon trade while Brent North Sea crude for March was down six cents at $107.79.

The mixed performance of oil prices came as Asian stock markets slumped, extending a global rout on renewed fears about emerging economies after the US central bank reduced its easing measures for the world’s largest economy.

The Fed said on Wednesday said it would reduce its massive bond-buying programme by $10bn a month to $65bn , citing a pick-up in the US economy.

David Lennox, a resources analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, said, however, that the taper was a “re� ection of the US economy which according to the Fed is growing at a better than expect-ed rate at the moment”.

While the taper creates a downward pressure on prices in the short term, it bodes well in the long term for oil demand in the world’s top crude-con-suming nation, analysts have said.

The stimulus cut, which followed a similar announcement in December, stoked fears of huge capital � ows from emerging markets that have bene� ted from the Fed’s cheap money policies, as dealers look for safer investments back home. l

Gold falls from two-month highn Reuters

Gold futures fell more than 0.5% yes-terday, retreating from two-month highs hit earlier in the week, weighed down by weak global markets, though a weaker rupee limited the downside.

At 1215 GMT, the most-active gold contract for February delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange was 0.75% lower at 28,838 rupees per 10 grams, falling from a high of 29,849 rupees hit earlier in the week, a level last seen on November 20, 2013.

Silver contract for March delivery was 1.38% lower at 44,596 rupees per kg on the MCX.

The rupee, which traded weaker yesterday, plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the dol-lar-quoted yellow metal. However, pre-miums stayed steady at $80 an ounce on London prices, amid steady demand.

“There is not heavy demand as of now ... Gold is still available at a pre-mium due to import restrictions,” said Haresh Acharya, head of bullion desk, Parker Bullion.

Gold imports may have fallen 70% in the � nal quarter of 2013 from 255 tonnes in the year-ago period and are expected to be half the usual levels at 500-550 tonnes in 2014 if new import rules are main-tained, a top trade body o� cial said. l

BRAC Bank Limited has recently signed an agreement with Navana Toyota 3S Centre. Under the deal, premium and supreme banking customers of BRAC Bank will enjoy discounts on vehicle servicing and other facilities at Navana Toyota 3S Centre. Firoz Ahmed Khan, head of retail banking division of BRAC Bank, and ABS Bhuiyan, senior general manager, Navana Toyota 3S Centre, have signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations

UCB gets new chair for its executive committeen Tribune Business Desk

Anisuzzaman Chowdhury Ronny has been unanimously elected as chairper-son of executive committee of United Commercial Bank (UCB) Limited in its board meeting on Jan 26, according to a press release.

Eminent business entrepreneur and director of UCB Anisuzzaman Chowd-hury Ronny is also a director of Ronny Chemical Industries Ltd.

He is a graduate from Palm Beach Atlantic College of USA on business ad-ministration.

He has been contributing at UCB to reach its vision through providing best banking services in the country, said the press release. l

Pubali Bank Ltd has recently given blankets to Anjuman Mu� dul Islam for distributing among the poor and helpless cold stricken people. Ha� z Ahmed Mazumder, chairperson of the bank's board handed over 1000 pieces of blanket to Al-hajj Abdus Salam, chairperson of relief committee, Anjuman Mu� dul Islam and executive director of Anjuman Mu� dul Islam, Kazi Abul Kashem

Facebook unveils social ‘new spaper’n AFP, Washington

Facebook on unveiled its new app called “Paper,” which serves as an on-line newspaper for viewing and shar-ing articles and other content from a smartphone.

“Paper makes storytelling more beautiful with an immersive design and fullscreen, distraction-free lay-outs, “ Facebook said in a blog post an-nouncing the new service.

“We’ve also made it easier to craft and share beautiful stories of your own.”

The app, the � rst product from Facebook Creative Labs, will be avail-able February 3 for iPhone users, Face-book said.

Paper presents stories and themed sections to allow people to follow top-ics ranging from news headlines to food to sports to science.

It has a tiled designed that allows users to customize the display along-side a personal Facebook feed.

“Each section includes a rich mix of content from emerging voices and well-known publications,” the blog post said.

The partners in Paper were not named, but a video released by Facebook showed a user scrolling articles and content from The New York Times, Time magazine, USA Today, the Hu� -ington Post and others.

“Storytelling and sharing have been

reimagined in Paper to show stories at their best,” Facebook said.

“Everything responds to your touch so you can pick up or thumb through stories with simple, natural move-ments. You can tilt your phone to ex-plore high-resolution panoramic pho-tos from corner to corner, and see faces and other important details up close.”

The app will allow for full-screen viewing of videos and will “make it easy to spot articles from trusted pub-lishers and decide what to read or watch,” it said.

“When you’re ready to tell your own story, you know exactly what your post or photo will look like because you see a live preview before you share it,” the blog said.

Reports in recent weeks said Face-book was hiring editors or “curators” to complement its algorithmic method of delivering content to its users. l

India raises annual limit on subsidised LPG to 12 cylindersn Reuters

The government yesterday increased the subsidy on cooking gas, acceding to popular demand as it gears up for a tough national election due by May.

The decision to increase the cap on annual sales of subsidised cooking gas cylinders to 12 from 9 per household was made days after Rahul Gandhi, vice president of the Congress, de-manded a raise in the ceiling.

The move, which will cost the ex-chequer 50bn rupees, comes at a time when government � nances are under pressure in the face of weak tax re-ceipts in a slowing economy and high public spending.

It also � ies in the face of Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh’s commitment to trim spending on fuel subsidies, which is at the heart of his struggle to balance the budget.

But Manish Tewari, information and broadcasting minister in Singh’s cabinet, said the government would not shy away from taking consum-

er-friendly decisions. “Let there be no ambiguity that the UPA (coalition) gov-ernment will not put any consumer to any hardship at all,” he said.

The Congress is racing against time to win back voters, disenchanted by a slew of corruption scandals and a dra-matic decline the country’s economic fortunes on its watch.

The ruling coalition is trailing in opinion polls and many analysts be-lieve it is unlikey to win a third term in power.

Under the subsidies, households will be entitled to buy the cylinders at less than half the market price. It is a highly popular, and sometimes vital, scheme in this country of 1.2 billion people.

The ruling party is also seeking to protect its turf from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is threatening to draw support away from the poor, Con-gress’ main voters.

The AAP government in the nation-al capital has slashed power and water prices, sparking demands by lawmakers in other states for similar reductions. l

'We’ve also made it easier to craft and share beautiful stories of your own'

B4 BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 31, 2014

n Major (retd) Nurul M Choudhury

In recent days we have observed some concerns on vault security. Vaults of some banks are successfully attacked by bank robbers. This created a scope to discuss certain things about vault security which many of us are igno-rant.

First thing we need to understand that no vault can provide you absolute protection. It can sustain attacks for a speci� c period of time as per their rating. Therefore a vault needs to pro-vide protection from � re or attacks of bank robbers for desired period of time within which a spate mechanism must be activated to detect the attack and re-sponse appropriately. In western coun-try there are organizations which test vault and provide rating. For example there is a testing company named ‘Un-derwriters Laboratory” (UL) who ba-sically rates various types of safe and vault and label them accordingly.

Typically vaults are situated at or below ground level so they do not add to the stresses of the structure housing them. If a vault must be built on the upper stories of a building, additional care must be taken to avoid building collapse which should be designed by proper architect. Doors of such vaults are normally 6 inch thick, and they may be as much as 24 inches thick where for better protection. Because these doors present a formidable ob-stacle to any criminal, an attack will usually be directed at the walls, ceil-ing, or � oor, which must for that rea-son match the strength of the door. As a rule, these surfaces should be twice as thick as the door and never less than 12 inches thick.

If possible a vault should be sur-rounded by narrow corridorsthat will permit inspection of the exterior wall of the vault but the corridor will be suf-� ciently narrow to discourage the use of heavy drilling or cutting equipment by attackers. It is important that there are no power outlets anywhere in the

close vicinity of the vault; such outlet may help the attacker to use their tools against the vault.

In a vault room there are practices to keep safes which are generally of two types; Record safes and money safes. Record safes are designed as � re resistant while money safes are burglar resistant. A record safe with an under-writer laboratory (UL) rating of 350-4 can withstand exterior temperature building to 2000*F for 4 hours without permitting the interior temperature to rise above 350*F.

Burglar resistant safes are nothing more than very heavy metal boxes without wheels, which o� er varying degrees of protection against many forms of attack. A safe having weight of 750 pound with a UL rating of TL 15 means, it can withstand attack by hand tool for only 15 minutes. Likewise there are di� erent types of rating like TRTL 30 means the safe can withstand at-tacks by torch and tool for 30 minutes. A safe less than 750 pounds of weight must be chained with the � oor wall.

As per underwriter laboratory rating vaults are classi� ed as UL 1, UL 2 , UL 3. UL 1 generally provide protection for 30 minutes while UL 2 provides 1 hour and UL 3 provides 2 hours of protection from a dedicated attackers who are us-ing torch, tools, explosives and mod-ern cutting materials.

One must understand that a vault its cannot provide protection from ded-icated and determined attackers for a prolonged period of time. Therefore a security counter measure deign, target hardening, crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), prop-er alarm system, proper CCTV system, proper security policy and procedures and proper response mechanism need to be integrated to keep a vault safe from a dedicated attackers. l

The writer, a lead consultant and CEO at ThirdEye Risk Consulting Bangladesh, is a certi� ed protection professional from ASIS International USA. Looted money from the Sonali Bank branch at Kishoreganj MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Mobile ad revenue lifts Facebookpast Wall Street targetsFacebook Inc's fourth-quarter revenue jumped 63%, beating Wall Street targets, as the Internet company's mobile ad sales continued to accelerate. Shares of Facebook surged 10% to $58.90 in after-hours trading on Wednesday. – Reuters

Euro zone morale climbs asrecovery strengthensOptimism in the euro zone about its economic prospects continued to improve in January with a jump in morale in the

bloc's two largest economies, Germany and France. Economic sentiment in the 18 coun-tries using the euro strengthened by 0.5 points to 100.9 in the ninth straight month of gains, data from the European Commis-sion showed yesterday. – Reuters

Lenovo to buy Google's Motorolain China's largest tech dealLenovo Group said on Wednesday it agreed to buy Google Inc's Motorola handset division for $2.91bn, in what is China's largest-ever tech deal as Lenovo buys its way into a heavily competitive US handset

market dominated by Apple Inc. – Reuters

Asia shares set to suffer, bonds benefit from risk aversionAsian shares seemed fated for a punishing session yesterday after strains in emerging markets returned with a vengeance and the Federal Reserve further scaled back its stimulus, sending investors scurrying to safety in bonds and the yen. Japanese shares looked set for a big fall with Nikkei futures down a sharp 430 points, suggesting it could surrender all of the previous session’s gains. Most Asian

markets had rallied on Wednesday on hopes that aggressive rate hikes by Turkey would shore up its currency and ease the risk of capital � ight. – Reuters

Lufthansa to begin Airbus A380 flights to India in 2014The head of Lufthansa said the German airline plans to begin � ying Airbus A380 superjumbo jets on routes to India later this year. On Monday, India lifted a ban on landing the aircraft in the country, enabling carriers such as Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Emirates airline to � y the

jets into the world's second-most populous nation. – Reuters

India overtakes Japan as world’sNo 3 crude importerIndia has overtaken Japan as the world’s third-biggest crude oil importer in 2013, data showed yesterday. India imported 3.86 million barrels-per-day of crude oil last year, tanker arrival data compiled by Reuters from trade sources showed yesterday. In-dia’s imports were nearly 6% higher than Ja-pan’s customs-cleared imports of 3,648,372 bpd (211,716,710 kilolitres). – Reuters

India to stay 'vigilant' to ensure � nancial stabilityn AFP, New Delhi

India said yesterday it would take whatever steps necessary to ensure stability in its � nancial markets after the US Federal Reserve again cut its monetary stimulus.

The � nance ministry said the gov-ernment and the Reserve Bank of India were remaining vigilant to the possible impact on the markets of the US Fed-eral Reserve's decision to further taper its stimulus programme.

The ministry said India's economy was prepared for the taper, pointing to India's boosted foreign exchange reserves which stand at $295 billion and robust foreign investment in� ows, among other factors.

"However, both the Government and the Reserve Bank of India will con-tinue to remain vigilant and will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that there is stability in the � nancial markets," the ministry said in a state-ment.

"This decision was expected and should not in any way surprise or a� ect the Indian markets," it said.

The US Federal Reserve stayed the course on tapering its stimulus for the US economy on Wednesday, reducing asset purchases by $10bn for the sec-ond month in a row.

The Fed said the US economy was growing � rmly enough to further trim the stimulus, which will fall to $65bn a month from February, spelling a steady tightening of global � nancial conditions.

Asian markets slumped yesterday, ex-tending a global rout on renewed fears of a capital � ight from emerging economies - including from India - as dealers look for safer investments back home.

Shares on the Bombay Stock Ex-change were down 1.08% to 20,424.65 points on Thursday on the news.

Indian shares have already seen a bit of a roil in the past few sessions on worries that US Fed tightening its mon-ey tap could hit growth in emerging market economies amid a slowdown in China.

"This (fall) is a knee jerk reaction. We need to wait for a week or two to see how much we (Indian � nancial mar-kets) have digested the Fed tapering," said Arun Singh, senior economist at the research � rm Dun and Bradstreet.

The currency fell to as low as 62.90 rupees to the dollar in early trade yes-terday before recovering to 62.75 ru-pees, from Monday's more than two-month low of 63.32. l

Emerging market currencies buckle after Fed cuts stimulusn AFP, London

Emerging markets faced intense pres-sure yesterday after the US Federal Re-serve cut its stimulus further, with cur-rencies sliding in India, South Africa and Turkey despite interest rate rises.

Asian shares fell heavily and Euro-pean stocks also retreated, extending a global rout driven by worries about emerging markets.

Concerns were stoked when the US central bank further reduced its quan-titative easing (QE) stimulus overnight.

Wall Street sank on Wednesday after the Fed said it would reduce its bond-buying programme by $10bn to $65bn per month, citing a pick-up in the US economy.

That followed a similar announce-ment in December.

Investors took � ight as the news fed fears of capital � ows from emerging markets that have bene� ted from the Fed's cheap money policy, hitting na-tions with large current account de� -cits, as dealers look for safer invest-ments back home.

The Turkish lira fell against the dol-lar and the euro, as the Fed news over-shadowed a big interest rate rise.

Turkey, where political upheaval is fuelling market fears, doubled its in-terest rate to 10.0 percent late on Tues-day giving short-lived support to the currency.

South Africa's Rand currency lan-guished close to a � ve-year dollar low, one day after the central bank announced a half-percentage-point rate rise.

"Rate hikes in Turkey and South Af-rica have failed to lift their beleaguered currencies as investors fret about the adverse impact on growth in both

countries, adding to nervousness in emerging markets," said Nick Stamen-kovic at RIA Capital Markets in London.

"Emerging market countries su� er-ing from sizeable current account de� -cits are heavily dependent on capital in� ows which are being undermined by the Fed's tapering of QE.

"Emerging market volatility looks set to continue amid ongoing uncer-tainty about the impact of continued moderate Fed tapering and slowing Chinese growth."

A country's current balance of pay-ments measures all regular payments into and out of the economy and the currency, and is a key factor in long-term con� dence.

The ruble meanwhile plunged to historic lows against the euro on mounting speculation that Russia's central bank may delay a planned 2015 free-� oat of the currency because of its rapid decline.

The Indian government vowed on Thursday it would take whatever steps necessary to ensure stability in its � -nancial markets. India has lifted rates a modest quarter-point to slow in� a-tion, but the move has had only a brief impact on the rupee.

The dollar and euro sank against

the yen as dealers sought safer invest-ments, while sentiment took a further blow from data con� rming Chinese manufacturing contracted in January.

Tokyo stocks dived 2.45% and Syd-ney shed 0.78%. Hong Kong lost 0.48% in half-day trading before the Chinese New Year holiday. In New York on Wednesday, the Dow dived 1.15%, the S&P 500 1.01% and the Nasdaq 1.14%.

No quick resolution in sight,analysts warnTrader Markus Huber, at brokerage Peregrine & Black, cautioned that the turmoil could persist for some time.

"No doubt there could be more tur-moil in emerging markets ahead," Hu-ber told AFP.

"However it needs to be seen how major central banks, world politicians and major institutions like the IMF and World Bank will react to the situation should things worsen dramatically.

"Also, it needs to be seen if central banks in countries like Turkey change course and try to � ght the decline of the currency via di� erent means, mainly through reforms which are much more likely to bring back inves-tor con� dence."

Economist Neil MacKinnon at Rus-sian � rm VTB Capital, described the outlook as "poor" for emerging na-tions, adding that rate increases were "unsustainable" and hurt growth.

"Market volatility is less a func-tion of Fed tapering and now more of a concern about some EM economies that have high current account de� -cits and thin levels of foreign exchange reserves," he told AFP, referring to the 'Fragile Five' - Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa. l

UN sounds alarm on worsening global income disparitiesn Reuters

The UN Development Program warned in a report on Wednesday that income disparities in countries around the world have been worsening, posing new risks for global economic and po-litical stability.

The UNDP warning echoes remarks from US President Barack Obama in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday, in which he said there was a widening gap between rich and poor in the world's biggest economy and that while the stock market has soared, av-erage US wages have barely budged.

The UNDP report said income in-equality increased by 11% in developing countries over the two decades between 1990 and 2010. The majority of house-holds in developing countries — more than 75% of those nations' populations — are living today in societies where income is more unequally distributed than it was in the 1990s, the report said.

The UNDP says this is a global trend that, if left unchecked, could have dire consequences since it "can undermine the very foundations of development and social and domestic peace."

The widening income gap comes as some major developing countries - such as China and India - have seen strong economic growth and an overall increase in national wealth. But that wealth has not been evenly distribut-ed, which has contributed to greater inequality in those societies.

"The sharpest increases in income inequality have occurred in those de-veloping countries that were especially successful in pursuing vigorous growth

and managed, as a result, to gradu-ate into higher income brackets," the UNDP report said.

"Economic progress in these coun-tries has not alleviated disparities, but rather exacerbated them," it said.

In an interview with Reuters, UNDP chief Helen Clark made clear that this negative trend is reversible and that one of the key components is creating quality employment opportunities.

"The key thing is the focus on jobs - jobs, jobs, jobs," Clark said, adding that it was important for governments to pay attention to ways of improving the skills of its labour force. She also touched on the subject of the widening income dis-parities in countries like China and In-dia, which have seen signi� cant levels of economic growth in recent decades.

"It's the nature of the growth," she said. "If it's uneven growth ... it does create tensions within society because people can see that others are doing much better than them."

"The China example shows that you get fast growth and poverty reduction, but you also get the growing inequali-ties," Clark said. "And this is of concern to China's leadership." The report said there was evidence that increases in in-equality over the last two decades were mainly due to trade and � nancial glo-balization processes that weakened the bargaining position of labor.

Clark said one of the problems with globalization is that it "has proceeded in a very deregulated world." She advo-cates more regulation of international trade and � nancial � ows but without eliminating risk and the ability of com-panies to generate pro� ts. l

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‘No doubt there could be more turmoil in emerging markets ahead'