47% vote for polls under current governmentn Tribune Report

Around 47% peo-ple think that the current govern-ment is su� cient enough to hold free and fair polls

while nearly two among � vepeople are either confused or think otherwise.

The observations came from a sur-vey conducted by the Dhaka Tribune that interviewed 2,438 people.

The Dhaka Tribune survey asked the interviewees if the interim government was su� cient enough to hold a free and fair election.

According to the respondents, 12.9% replied “absolutely not,” 24.7% “most likely not,” 30.4% “most likely so,” 16.9% “absolutely so” while 15.1% were not sure.

Even if it is assumed that Awami League voters will say the current gov-ernment is su� cient to hold the polls, at least one in � ve non-AL voters are also content to vote under the current government which is an interesting ob-servation, says the survey.

The observation suggests that even though there is a higher degree of dissat-isfaction within the nation and voters are broadly against the ban on Jamaat-e-Is-lami, there is also a higher degree of con-� dence in the electoral process.

According to the survey, there is an indicator that the BNP could have done well if it had taken part in the election, since it revealed slightly higher voting preferences for the BNP compared to the AL.

From the gender perspective, fe-male voters were slightly more likely than men to say the current govern-ment was su� cient.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

74% happy with war crimes trialsn Tribune Report

Although nearly three-fourths of the respondents of a Dhaka Tribune opin-ion poll expressed satisfaction with the ongoing trial of

war crimes, more than half of them are against barring Jamaat-e-Islami from contesting national elections.

Despite propaganda against the

war crimes trial and some criticism and controversy surrounding the tri-al process, 74% of the respondents of the Dhaka Tribune opinion poll have expressed satisfaction with the trial. Nearly a half of them (36.3%) said they were highly satis� ed.

Among the remaining, 9.3% de-clined saying anything because they said they were “not sure” about the issue and 16.2% have expressed dissat-isfaction with the trails. Of the latter, 10% were highly dissatis� ed.

The male respondents were slightly more satis� ed with the trials than the female. Respondents aged 35 and above were more approving to the war crimes trials than those in the 18-35 age group.

Meanwhile, 53.2% of the respond-ents replied in the negative to the question “are you in favour of barring Jamaat-e-Islami from participating in the elections?” A little of the 33% of the respondents replied “yes,” while 13.4% said they “do not know.”

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Had BNP participated, election would have been too close to call; 41% saythey will vote despite BNP boycottn Tribune Report

More than three- quarters of the peo-ple in Bangladesh think that the Jan-uary 5 general elec-tions without the

main opposition BNP’s participation will not be acceptable, according to a Dhaka Tribune opinion poll.

However, around 41% of the re-spondents say they will cast their votes even if it is not an inclusive election. Of them, 16.35% refuse to indicate which party they want to vote for.

The nationwide opinion poll based on interviews of 2,438 respondents of di� erent ages, economic status and educational backgrounds also says had the BNP participated, the 10th parlia-mentary polls could have been a neck-and-neck � ght between the two major parties – the Awami League having 36% support while the BNP enjoying 37%.

Interestingly more male voters in-dicate intention to vote for the BNP than the AL, while more women are in-terested in voting for the AL than BNP according to the survey that has error below 3%.

The survey was conducted between December 14 and 22 last year over mo-bile phones – a method which Gallup, a US-based performance-management consulting company, follows in such opinion poll.

Majority of the respondents (53.3%) say “no” in response to the question whether they will cast their votes if the

BNP boycotts the polls whereas 40.8% voters reply in the a� rmative.

Around 71% of the respondents say Bangladesh is heading towards a wrong direction, with 23.21% saying that the country is on the right track.

As many as 74% respondents are ei-ther satis� ed or highly satis� ed with the trial of the war criminals. More than 53% people have opposed the ban on Ja-maat-e-Islami’s participation in the polls while 33.3% support the prohibition.

When asked which party they think would win in their constituencies if the BNP participated in the election, most respondents choose the BNP over the Awami League (44% to 38%).

“This points to a swing [of the vot-ers] to the BNP from the last elections, fully in line with the history of anti-in-cumbent swings in the national elec-tions,” says the survey.

Also, majority people think the current government is su� cient for holding a free and fair election. Just a little less than half of the respondents (47%) think the government is capable against nearly two in � ve (38%) saying “most likely not” or “de� nitely not.”

The survey also � nds that if all the parties participate in the election, it seems in general that as income level goes up, the support swings towards the BNP.

Age profileThe BNP support is relatively consist-ent across voters aged over 25, and markedly higher for voters aged 18-25 PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

SHIBGANJ: A DEN OF JAMAAT-SHIBIR

Family of AL leader burnt alive at his shop do not dare � le casen Mohammad Jamil Khan,

from Shibganj

It was almost 10 yesterday. A balmy winter morning. Nazmin Haque, daughter of Awami League leader Enamul Haque burnt alive last Monday, was sifting through the burnt wreckage of her father’s shop.

Three days into the murder Nazmin was looking for something left behind by her father so that she could treasure it forever as a lasting memory of her father.

Enamul Haque was burnt alive inside his shop on Monday at Shibganj Upazila Bazaar of Chapainawabganj district.

Nazmin with tears welling up in her eyes said she could not even touch her father for one last time.

Eyewitness said some youths, never before seen in the area, aged between 20 and 25 appeared from nowhere at 6:30pm and started to vandalise the shop. They set � re to a motorbike parked in front of the shop.

Enamul, president of Shibganj Banik Samity and upazila Awami League ad-visor, sensing danger asked salesmen of the shop to bring down the shutter and leave the place quickly.

All of them dashed out of the shop but the owner could not make it. He stayed back inside the shop fearing attack once he is out. “He could never think that those attackers would put his shop on � re,” says Nazmin.

The shop is just within two-minute walking distance from Shibganj Police Station and � ve-minute from � re ser-

vice and civil defense o� ce but the rescue began almost one hour after the shop was sent on � re.

Before police and � re service men reached the spot Enamul was roasted alive and hardware and painting mate-rials worth around Tk50,00,000 gutted.

When asked about the delay AKM Mizanur Rahman, o� cer-in-charge of Shibganj Police Station, told the Dhaka Tribune that the � re service could not make it in time as the roads leading to the shop were narrow.

About cases in this connection he said: “We have waited for two days for the family to respond but as they have not yet � led any case we are preparing to do it and investigation in this regard is on to trace the criminals.”

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

20 pages plus 32-page weekend supplement and 8-page Opinion Survey supplement | Price: Tk10

Poush 20, 1420Rabiul Awal 1, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 1 No 280 FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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BusinessB1 With the surge in domestic air pas-sengers due to continuous blockades and shutdowns, tickets are now availa-ble in black market at higher prices.

Sport13 A goal each from Aminur Rahman Shojib and Uche Felix helped Team BJMC begin their BPL campaign with a 2-1 vic-tory over Soccer Club Feni at the Bangab-andhu National Stadium yesterday.

INSIDE

WEEKEND TRIBUNE: YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

Four bombs go o� near Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan residencen Kailash Sarkar

Four crude bombs were exploded near the residence of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the capital’s Gulshan amid presence of a huge contingent of forces from police, Rapid Action Battal-ion and intelligence agencies.

The bombs went o� one after an-other just 30 yards away from the res-idence of Khaleda Zia on the Road-70.

Witnesses said bombs were blast-ed at 6:45pm at the place where two sand-laden trucks had been parked. But the trucks were removed immedi-ately after the explosions.

After the explosion the entire area was engulfed in smoke.

Contacted, Ra� qul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station, however said the bombs exploded on the Road-70 near the American club which is far away from the residence of Khaleda Zia whose residence is

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Bomb attack injures 10 at Lalbagh election rally of AL candidaten Kailash Sarkar

More than 10 people, including three women and a child, were injured yes-terday in a bomb attack at a rally in Lalbagh, organised by Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin, Awami League’s election candidate for the Dhaka 7 constituency.

Witnesses and police said uniden-ti� ed criminals hurled three powerful bombs from the top of a building ad-jacent to the gate of Islambagh Eidgah grounds around 5:30pm, as people were preparing to bring out a proces-sion at the end of a rally.

The injured victims Monir Hossain, 20, Kamrul Islam, 20, Md Yiad, 11, Alamgir Hossain, 42, Monowara Be-gum, 30, Khaleda Akhter, 22, Helena, 35, Faruq Rahman, 27, Belal Ahmed, 25, and Imran, 20 have been admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Sources at the DMCH said three PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

BNP men campaigning for Haji Selimn Muktasree Chakma Sathi

Some BNP activists are campaigning for Haji Mohammad Selim, an Awami League leader who is contesting inde-pendently in Dhaka 7, an Old Dhaka constituency.

Wishing to be anonymous, a Jubo Dal vice-president told the Dhaka Trib-une: “We will not vote in the national elections, but we are campaigning for the independent for two reasons.

“Haji Selim is a good man and close to the people in the constituency and Awami League should be defeated.”

Independent candidate Haji Selim was allotted the symbol elephant. He is also a joint secretary of the Dhaka Met-ropolitan unit of Awami League.

Boat, the party symbol, was allotted to Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin.

The Dhaka 7 constituency consists of Lalbagh, Chawkbazar, Kotwali and Bangshal.

The BNP youths campaigning for Haji Selim are mostly the followers of local BNP leader Mir Ashraf Ali Azam. On the other hand supporters of BNP leader Nasiruddin Pintu, convicted for his involvement with the BDR mutiny, remain inactive.

Along with the BNP men, a portion of local Awami League activists is also campaigning for Haji Selim.

Greater Lalbagh Thana Shecchashe-bak league Joint General Secretary Mo-barak Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune, “We are campaigning for our leader Haji Selim, even though he did not get the party’s nomination.”

Pointing out that despite Haji Selim’s decision to � ght against the party can-didate, he did not lose his membership in Dhaka City Awami League commit-tee, Mobarak said, “It seems that our leader Sheikh Hasina will embrace him if he wins as an independent candidate

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

‘Jamaat martyr’ buried without bath, autopsy n Emran Hossain, back from

Satkhira

Jamaat-Shibir men barred farmer Sofed Ali from having his son’s post-mortem examination and bathing of the corpse before burial since he was termed a “martyr.”

Eighth-grader at a local madrasa Ar-ijul Islam, 14, was a Shibir activist. He was shot dead during violent clashes between the BGB and the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir at Goranbaria of Kolaroa on December 3.

Even his father believes that stu-dents of madrasa are meant to become Shibir activists. Sofed Ali is a � rm be-liever of Jamaat-Shibir propaganda, and is unwilling to accept a reality oth-erwise.

Despite losing his son, Sofed Ali ap-

peared to be highly spirited on Decem-ber 27 when this reporter met him.

After his son’s death, Sofed Ali had to bury his son without a bath as the Jamaat-Shibir men suggested that a “martyr” should not be subjected to the last bath before burial, let alone an autopsy.

Same was in the case of brothers Arif Billah and Ruhul Amin, who were killed in BGB � ring on March 4 after-noon at Ufapur village in Kolaroa. They were buried unbathed as “martyrs.”

Their elder brother, who preferred to be anonymous, said his brothers put spirit above everything. “They were la-bourers, who worked on condition that they would be given space when the party needs them.”

Most of the Goranbaria villagers are considered as Jamaat-Shibir supporters

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Jan 5 polls unacceptable to 77%

Monir, 16, takes rest in a DMCH bed after getting treatment yesterday. The shop employee was injured in a bomb blast in the election campaign procession of Awami League candidate Mustafa Zaman Mohiuddin for Dhaka 7 constituency MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Election without BNP not acceptable

Swing to BNP but two major parties still close

Bar on Jamaat’s participation in election

W

E

WRONG

Country going in wrong direction

Perception: who will win? Satisfaction with the war crimes tribunal

Current government su� cient for holding free fair election

If “BNP” does not participate, will you vote?

LATIF HOSSAIN/DT INFOGRAPHIC • PHOTO: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN/DT

12 TRIAL OF MALLAM ILYA 9 EGYPT CLASHES

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

Bangladeshi youth found dead in NYn Tribune Report

A Bangladeshi was found dead in New Work in the US on Wednesday mid-night.

The deceased was identi� ed as Aronno Haque, 22, a resident of Queens in New York.

Police said he was last seen on Mon-day afternoon near Union Square Par, reports CBS New York.

His personal belongings was found near the Central Park Lake on Tuesday.

Police did not disclose any further detail about the case. A report by Daily News America, however, has claimed Aronno took his own life. l

Eid-e-Miladunnabi on January 14n UNB

Eid-e-Miladunnabi, the day of birth and demise of Prophet Hazrat Muham-mad (SM), will be observed on January 14 (Tuesday) as the moon of Rabiul Awal was sighted in Bangladesh sky yesterday.

The National Moon Sighting Com-mittee took the decision at a meeting after reviewing information related to the sighting of Rabiul Awal moon.

The meeting was held at the Islam-ic Foundation’s Baitul Mukarram con-ference room with the committee’s vice-chairman and Religious A� airs Secretary Kazi Habibul Awal in the chair.l

Already won, AL MP now batsfor fellow n Tribune Report

Uncontested-elected Awami League lawmaker of Jessore 1 constituency Sheikh A� l Uddin has directed the par-ty men to “rig vote” so that the party candidate for Jessore 2 seat wins “un-opposed” in Sunday’s general elections.

A� l, who is also the vice-president of Jessore district unit Awami League, called for bringing out victory proces-sion within 11:59am on Sunday after casting “false votes by occupying the polling centres.”

He made the directives while speak-ing as chief guest at a views exchange meeting of Monirul’s polling agents on Parbazar High School premises in Jhikargachha upazila on December 30.

A video clip of his speech reached journalists yesterday.

Ruling party-nominated candidate Monirul Islam, who is also the organ-isational secretary of Jessore district unit, is contesting against independent candidate Ra� qul Islam for Jessore 2 constituency.

Ra� qul was state minister for ener-gy in Awami League’s previous term. He was also a whip in parliament. Cur-rently, he has no vital post in the dis-trict unit.

A campaigner for Ra� qul handed over a compact disc containing A� l’s speech to the district returning o� cer.

Contacted, District Returning Of-� cer and Deputy Commissioner Mo-sta� zur Rahman said an investigation committee was looking into the matter.

A� l was not available on phone to make a comment on the issue. l

47% vote for polls PAGE 1 COLUMN 6A total of 49% female respondents vot-ed for the current interim government.

They said the interim administra-tion was su� cient for holding a free and fair election while 32% female vot-ers described it as “most likely not” or “de� nitely not.” Meanwhile, 46% male respondents consider the government su� cient to hold free and fair polls while 39% are against it.

From the income groups’ perspec-tive, people from the lower income group (less than Tk5,000) mostly think the current government is able to hold free and fair polls. Of them, 52.80% rely on the government while 34.50% are against it.

Most people of higher income group who earn Tk50,000 and above cannot rely on the current government for holding free and fair polls. l

BNP men campaigning PAGE 1 COLUMN 6and will consider his dedication towards Awami League.” In the 1996 national elections, Haji Selim left BNP and won from Dhaka 7 constituency with Awami League’s nomination. In 2008, however, Selim did not get the party ticket.

Asked whether they had faced any problems from the party campaigning for an independent, Mobarak said, “Not at all. We are working for Haji Selim and our leaders know that. I informed Greater Lalbagh Thana Shecchashebak League President Debashish Biswash that I was working for Haji Selim, and he was okay with it.”

Dhaka City (south) Jubo League Vice-President Nazmul Hossain Tutul, who is campaigning for the party can-didate Mohiuddin, told the Dhaka Tri-bune Awami League was hoping to win in the constituency.

He alleged that a few days back a scu� e between Jalal and Selim’s fol-lowers took place while campaigning.

“Selim’s hired goons attacked us while we were campaigning for our party candidate,” Tutul alleged.

When asked about the incident, Mo-barak said, “Things happen. That was a petty issue. We are okay now. After all, our root is one.” l

74% happy with war crimes trials PAGE 1 COLUMN 5Those against barring Jamaat were mostly men while the breakdown was equal for those who supported the cause.

Of the respondents from the 18-35 age group, 53% were against barring Jamaat and 33% were in favour. The gap, however, was a lot narrower when it came down to the 35-50 and above age group – 45.4% against and 40% in favour.

60.4% respondents from the low income group (monthly earning of Tk5,000 or less) were against barring Jamaat while 25.3% opined in favour of imposing restrictions. The � gures are 50.6% and 37.1% respectively for those belonging to the high income group (monthly earning of Tk50,000 and above).

The government has already ex-ecuted Jamaat leader Abdul QuaderMolla for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

Appeals against the death sentences against Jamaat leaders Delawar Hos-

sain Sayedee, Mohammad Kamaruz-zaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mu-jaheed are currently pending with the Supreme Court.

The International Crime Tribunal, formed to try war crimes charges, have observed on many occasions that Ja-maat-e-Islami, a key component of the 18-party opposition alliance, was involved with war crimes as a party in 1971.

The decade-old demand for ban-ning Jamaat as a party was brought to the forefront by the Ganajagaran Man-cha, a platform of bloggers and onlineactivists that emerged to protest against the initial sentence of lifetime imprisonment handed down to Quader Molla.

The demand gained momentum fol-lowing the recent violent acts and those that Jamaat staged soon after Sayedee had been given death sentence.

Earlier this year, as per a High Court verdict, the Election Commission can-celled Jamaat’s registration, barring the party from contesting the upcoming parliamentary polls. l

4 bombs go o� near Khaleda PAGE 1 COLUMN 1located on the Road-79.

Asked, the OC said they could not identify and arrest the criminals. “We are trying to identify and arrest them.”

The OC evaded the question about

how criminals could blasted bombs and � ed away safely despite the pres-ence of a huge number of forces amid the restriction on the movement of people and transports on the roads near the residence of Khaleda Zia. l

Bomb attack injures 10 at Lalbagh election rally PAGE 1 COLUMN 2among the injured – Monir, Kamrul and Alamgir – were in critical conditions.

Pedestrians were also among the victims, said the relatives of the vic-tims.

“Two or three unidenti� ed crimi-nals hurled three bombs from the top of an adjacent building.

The bombs exploded creating heavy sounds.

But how they � ed the scene could not be seen because of heavy smoke which engulfed the entire area,” said injured victim Belal Ahmed.

Some locals claimed that local crim-inal Miah, a brother of Haji Delwar of Killarmor, and his aides might have made the attacks.

Meanwhile, Mostofa Jalal and State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam, who

was also present at the rally, visited the victims at the DMCH later in the eve-ning.

Following the visit, the AL candi-date said top ranking criminals – who were seen sitting inside the rally venue – were responsible for the attack. Jalal, however, did not elaborate who those criminals were loyal to.

He added: “The attacks were made in an attempt to reduce my sky-high popularity.”

The candidate urged the govern-ment for proper investigation and ar-rest of the real criminals as well as re-sponsible persons.

On the other hand, Abdur Rouf, pub-licity secretary of Lalbagh thana unit of Swechchhasebok League, directly al-leged rebel candidate Haji Mohammad Selim for the attacks.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Rouf alleged: “None but the cadres of Haji Selim made the attacks.”

Haji Mohammad Selim, a former lawmaker in the same constituency and a joint secretary of Awami League’s Dhaka city unit, however snubbed out the allegation, saying: “I am not inter-ested or involved in such activities. I am busy with my publicity activities. If anybody wants to involve me, it will be a wrongdoing for him.”

State minister Quamrul Islam said an investigation would reveal the crim-inals responsible and arrests would be made as per the investigation.

Contacted, Harun-ur-Rashid, depu-ty police commissioner of Lalbagh di-vision, said they were looking into the matter and trying to identify and arrest the responsible criminals. l

Family of AL leader burnt alive PAGE 1 COLUMN 4As he was asked about the reason be-hind the attack OC Mizanur blamed the cadres of BNP leader Salahuddin as what he said the attack was launched after the arrest of the BNP leader.

However, locals of the area gave a di� erent version. Many people of Shib-ganj said local Jamaat unit leader Mo-dasser and his associates asked for Tk1, 00,000 as party donation recently from Enamul but he refused to pay the mon-ey. Some businessmen, small traders and rickshaw pullers, though tight-lipped initially fearing Jamaat-Shibir men, in return for anonymity blamed the Islamist party for the murder.

When asked why the family did not � le any case Enamul’s daughter said

they were scared of further attack if the case is � led. When enquired about the identities of the attackers she � ew into a rage: “Ask police who they were.”

Tasiqul Islam, general secretary of Banik Samiti, told the Dhaka Tribune that a couple of months back some mis-creants vandalised the shop of Jamaat leader Modasser and since then his par-ty men have been demanding donation from Enamul.

He said they even threatened him.However, Abdul Aziz, general sec-

retary of upazila Jamaat, evading the question of who might have killed the Awami League man he told the Dhaka Tribune that the day Enamul was killed local people was protesting the arrest of BNP leader Salahuddin. l

‘Jamaat martyr’ buried without bath, autopsy PAGE 1 COLUMN 6who have played a key role in snapping the road communication of Satkhi-ra with rest of the country for several weeks last month.

They began staging all-out demon-strations in February last year and have been guarding the roads around the village since the month of Ramadan in July.

Moreover, even though Sofed Ali could hardly a� ord to arrange a pro-gramme on the fourth day of his son’s death, on that day he entertained over 5,000 people in a traditional ceremony of feeding locals.

As many as 33 dekchi (large pan for cooking) of Khichuri was cooked at the event when some 140 volunteers worked to serve the attendees, said Ak-bar Ali, Arijul’s next-door neighbour. The money was raised from the villag-ers by the Jamaat-Shibir men, he added.

Shibir men spent Tk28,000 for ce-menting the grave and raising a brick wall around it. The wall is covered with expensive tiles.

Sofed Ali believes that “real Koshai Quader” is still alive and currently working as a government employee. He claims that father of the executed Quad-er Molla had introduced Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman into politics.

“Delawar Hossain Sayedee is blamed for the crimes committed by one Delu

Shikder,” he said.Jamaat’s preparing the ground for

anti-government and anti-war tribunal activities worked perfectly on February 28 last year when its leader Sayedee was given death sentence for crimes against humanity. Thousands of peo-ple � ooded the district town following a rumour that Sayedee’s face had been seen on the moon as a sign of Allah’s disappointment over the verdict.

Jamaat-Shibir cadres from the dis-trict and adjacent district Jessore led the mob to the district Circuit House for setting it on � re. Seven Jamaat-Shi-bir activists were shot dead as law en-forcers tried to protect the government establishment.

After failing to set the district town on � re, Jamaat switched to its plan B – spreading violence throughout the dis-trict. Hundreds of trees were chopped to block roads, participated by ordinary villagers, who hurled bricks and crude bombs at the law enforcers. The roads were dug up to obstruct movement of vehicles, mainly those of the law en-forcers.

Loudspeakers of mosques were used in many cases during law enforcers’ drives to announce that the Indian force had intruded and the villagers should come out with arms to resist them.

At Agardari, known as Jamaat-Shibir Cantonment in Satkhira, an announce-

ment was made on December 15 ask-ing villagers to come out. The joint force convoy of about 40 vehicles had to retreat from their operation against criminals responsible for the recent vi-olence.

Political abuse of Islam in the bor-dering district evolved after the In-dia-Pakistan partition in 1947. Hindu elites from the area migrated to India and the places were � lled by the Mus-lims returning from India. Another such religious exodus took place in 1965 and an anti-India sentiment was sowed in the minds of the people by Muslim League.

Khan A Sabur, a Muslim League poli-tician, had been elected lawmaker from Khulna until 1969. Muslim League won all the three constituencies by a huge margin in the 1969 election. It is the base of Muslim League on which Ja-maat made its foundation in Satkhira.

Jamaat continued to win parliamen-tary elections from constituencies in Satkhira until 1991, when the Awami League won a seat for the � rst time. Senior Jamaat leader Shamsur Rahman was the secretary of Satkhira Peace Committee in 1971. He was a four-time lawmaker from Satkhira 2 from 1986 to 2001. Jamaat had always an upper hand in the parliamentary elections in Satkhira except for the 1996 and 2008 elections. l

Jan 5 polls PAGE 1 COLUMN 2years. Conversely, while the Awami League support is similar to that of the BNP for voters aged between 25 and 50 years, it is markedly lower for voters of 18-25 years of age and higher for those of 50 years or more.

Gender profileMore male voters (37.6%) will vote for the BNP than the Awami League (34.8%) with the preference reversed for women (37.7% for the ruling party against 34.7% for the main opposition).

Data gatheringA survey questionnaire was prepared in early December. Each of the respon-dents was interviewed over telephone for � ve to seven minutes by trainedcall centre advisers. Random mobile phone numbers were generated by a computer programme prior to making the calls. l

Anando, a police o� cial who was injured in Rajshahi bomb attack on December 26, is being taken to BSMMU for better treatment yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

EWG: EC, candidates violating code of conductn Tribune Report

The Election Working Group (EWG) has accused the Election Commission and several candidates of violation of the electoral code of conduct ahead of the 10th parliamentary elections sched-uled for January 5.

EWG, a non-partisan network of 29 leading civil society organisations, re-ported on two weeks’ of � ndings since the announcement of the election schedule on November 25 by the EC.

A total of 180 long-term observers of the network are working in 143 constit-uencies, covering all ten electoral re-gions in 55 of the country’s 64 districts.

The EWG report said before the al-location of symbols, Jatiya Party had

urged the EC to not issue the party’s election symbol plough to any other political party. The party also submit-ted a letter to the Election Commission to withdraw the symbol from the polls.

But the EC did not withdraw the nomination papers of JaPa candidates.

Awami League continued its party meetings at Ganabhaban, the prime minister’s residence, after the election schedule was announced. The party’s parliamentary board meeting was held on November 27, a day after the decla-ration of the election schedule.

EC was not seen taking any actions against this.

The report mentioned that as per the election schedule, the last date for withdrawal of nominations was De-

cember 13 but in some constituencies Awami League candidates withdrew their nominations after that time.

Citing media reports, EWG said in Cox’s Bazar 1 constituency, one of the Awami League candidates withdrew his nomination on December 14.

A majority (78%) of the candidate nominations came through recommen-dations made by the central parliamen-tary board or party high-ups of their respective parties.

Only in approximately one-� fth of the cases, recommendations for can-didate nominations came from the district or upazila party committees, which according to the Representation of the Public Order is the proper pro-cess for nomination.

The report said in violation of the electoral code of conduct, early cam-paigning by some political parties was observed in 28 of the 143 constituen-cies (20%).

Awami League candidates were in-volved in campaigning in 24 of these, according to the report.

Estimated expenditure by Awami League candidates on campaigning was also observed to be signi� cantly higher than that of other parties.

Observers noted a signi� cant in-crease in election-related violence over the last few months. Instances of political and election violence were observed in 66 constituencies (47%). A majority of these incidents were perpe-trated by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. l

AL leader killedn Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

A union-level Awami League leader was killed last night allegedly by un-known miscreants in Lalmonirhat sa-dar upazila.

Deceased Raju Ahmed, 24, of Dura-kuti village in sadar upazila, was the general secretary of Mogholhat union unit Awami Tarun League, a wing of the ruling party. His associate, Jubo League activist Swapan Kumar, 25, and his mo-torcycle had been missing since the in-cident.

The victim was � rst stabbed in-discriminately and then strangled to death, Lalmonirhat sadar police chief Jamir Uddin said. l

JaPa unveils election manifesto n Manik Miazee

A group of Jatiya Party leaders, loyal to Rawshan Ershad, yesterday unveiled their election manifesto for the 10th parliamentary election scheduled on January 5.

JaPa Presidium Member Anisul Is-lam Mahmud announced the eight-point election manifesto just two days before the polls at a conference in Hotel Sonargaon of the capital.

In the manifesto, the party demands that “full faith in Almighty Allah” be restored to the country’s constitution.

The party leader said JaPa was con-testing the polls in 64 constituencies with symbol “Plough” to protect the constitution.

The main objective of the party was to keep the constitution functional, he added.

While formally announcing the eight-point election manifesto, Anisul claimed it was the decision of Ershad and his wife Rawshan to join the polls.

The presidium member said other leaders of the party failed to attend the programme because of their hectic schedules.

No other frontline leaders except Kazi Firoz Rashid was present during the manifesto-unveiling programme.

Asked about withdrawal of nomi-nation papers, he said those who did not withdraw their nomination papers were in the polls.

In reply to a query, Anisul claimed that JaPa Secretary General ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader and Presidium Mem-ber GM Quader would also participate in the election.

He added that the duo were busy with election campaign and so they failed to attend the programme.

Earlier, both Ruhul Amin Howlader and GM Quader stated that they would stick to the party chief’s decision not to go to polls.

Anisul Islam Mahmud also de-

scribed himself as a minister because he did not send his resignation letter to the Prime Minister’s O� ce.

Seven JaPa leaders, four ministers, two state ministers and an adviser to the prime minister took oath on No-vember 18 as members in the interim cabinet.

Ershad had earlier declared that he would not take part in the upcoming elections slated for January 5.

Head of JaPa Research and Strategy Wing Bobby Hajjaj in a statement on Wednesday said he held a video con-ferencing with the party leaders and assured them that Ershad was not in the polls. l

Casualty, violence wane as elections nearn Tribune Report

With only two days to go for the national polls, the second day of countrywide in-de� nite rail, road and waterway blockade called by the opposition to resist the elec-tions passed with a loose knot yesterday.

Apart from a few sporadic clashes with law enforcers, and incidents of van-dalism and explosion, the day was domi-nated mostly by arrests of the opposition men by law enforcers in several districts.

In the capital, the impact of blockade has been fading away as the city dwell-ers braved tension. There was huge traf-� c on the roads and increased presence at educational institutions while mar-kets and malls had crowds yesterday.

Blockade supporters torched two buses, including one owned by the BRTC in Dhaka, and over 100 crude bombs were exploded during separate clashes with the police. The clashes left eight Shibir activists injured.

Around 85 leaders and activists of the BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Isla-mi were arrested in � ve districts.

Moreover, the opposition alliance has called separate hartals in Chit-tagong, Bogra and Sylhet districts from tomorrow demanding the cancella-tion of Sunday’s general election and protesting the “con� nement” of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

In Rajshahi, miscreants hurled two crude bombs targeting the motorcade of Awami League Presidium member Mo-hammad Nasim in Charghat upazila in the afternoon. He escaped the attack unhurt.

In another incident, blockaders hurled a hand bomb at a pick-up van carrying police at Daspukur in the city around 8am, said Ziaur Rahman, OC of Boalia police station. No one was injured in the attack as the bomb missed the target.

Meanwhile, the law enforcers recov-ered four crude bombs left abandoned near the residence of Shawkat Uddin, a

lawyer, around 11am at Mahishbathan of the city.

In Sonatola upazila of Bogra, at least 10 people including two police personnel were injured in a tripartite clash among the activists of the Awami League and the BNP, and the police.

The clash erupted when the BNP ac-tivists vandalised an o� ce of the ruling party in Baluarhat Bazar area around 10am, said Md Khalequzzaman, OC of Sonatola police station.

In Sirajganj town, pickets in front of the local BNP o� ce hurled two hand bombs aiming at a patrol team of the police. No one was injured.

Blockade supporters in Natore van-dalised a truck at Dighapatia and an auto-rickshaw at Station Bazar in the morning. Potato trader Mofazzal Hos-sain who was in the truck sustained injuries.

In separate drives on Wednesday night and early yesterday, the police and members of the joint forces arrested 95 activists of the BNP and Jamaat-Shibir from separate places of Joypurhat, Sat-khira, Chittagong, Khulna, Natore, Jhe-naidah and Nilphamari districts.

They were arrested on charges of carrying out vandalism and subversive activities during the recent hartal and

blockades, police said.Unidenti� ed criminals set a bus of

Mirpur-Azimpur route on � re in Mir-pur Section 2 around 10am and a BRTC double-decker bus at Gulistan around 6pm. Three passengers sustained mi-nor injuries in the Mirpur arson attack.

Four people sustained burn injuries as blockade campaigners set � re to a bus and three human haulers in separate incidents in Sadar and Muktagachha upazilas on Thursday, according to UNB.

One of the injured, driver of a hu-man hauler, Anwar Hossain, was ad-mitted to Muktagachha Upazila Health Complex.

Meanwhile, blockaders set ablaze a bus in Charpara area of the district town, leaving three people injured, said Golam Sarwar, o� cer-in-charge of Kotwali Model police station.

Meanwhile, Rab personnel on infor-mation recovered 43 abandoned hand bombs at a place in Bijli Moholla of Mo-hammadpur in the morning, said Sen-ior Assistant Superintendent Raihan Uddin Khan.

In Bhatara, police detained three Shibir men when they clashed with the law enforcers around 8:30am. The clash left at least � ve Shibir men in-jured. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

Army may stay a while in places: CECn Mohammad Zakaria

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said yester-day the Election Commission would decide whether the timeframe of army deployment would be extended after January 9 considering the situation.

“If needed, the timeframe of army deployment in some areas may be ex-tended. The commission will decide this considering the situation,” he told reporters after a meeting with the pres-ident at Bangabhaban yesterday.

Tthe CEC said the army would be in the � eld at least till January 9 to main-tain law and order during the polls.

“The commission will ensure a peaceful environment for voters to cast their votes,” he told reporters after a meeting with the president at Bangabhaban.

He was asked about the opposition’s non-stop blockade to resist the elections.

“Vehicles are not allowed to run in a constituency before the elections anyway. Only approved vehicles can run during the elections. There will be no problem in casting votes during the elections due to the blockade,” he assured.

Four election commissioners and EC Secretary Muhammed Sadique were also present at the meeting. l

1OTH NATIONAL ELECTIONS

Awami League divided in Dhaka 15 n Udisa Islam

Despite the absence of the opposition, election in Dhaka 15 (Mirpur-Kafrul) promises to be a tough contest. In this seat, the Awami League-nominated candidate will � ght with an independ-ent candidate who is also involved with Awami league’s politics.

For the 10th parliament elections, Kamal Ahmed Mojumdar MP was nominated from Awami League. Ekhlas Uddin Molla, another Awami League politician, is vying independently with the elephant symbol. Another candidate Md Saiful Islam is from ruling ally Jatiya Samajtanrik Dal (JSD).

Ekhlas Uddin Molla was with BNP in the 1996 elections. He joined Awami League in 2008 but failed to get party nomination. After that he decided to contest the polls as an independent candidate. Molla is the brother of Dha-ka 16 MP and Awami League candidate Iliyas Uddin Molla. Local Awami activ-ists who oppose Mojumdar are working for Molla openly.

“Mr Mojumdar always makes mon-ey. He has very little organisational ca-

pability. We want some changes here this time for the sake of our party,” an Awami League activist said, seeking anonymity.

Yesterday the Dhaka Tribune spoke to several voters in the area. Most of the voters are not interested in the election since there is no opposition.

A voter said this was an in-house battle, since both candidates were Awami League leaders.

Last month a mobile court � ned Ka-mal Ahmed Mojumdar Tk25,000 for vi-olating the electoral code of conduct by putting up posters.

This lawmaker received public at-tention when he assaulted a female television journalist at Monipur High School in Mirpur in 2012. The journal-ist had gone to the school to interview Mojumdar, the school committee chair-man, on the school’s decision to charge admission fees much higher than that � xed by the government.

From Taltola to Mirpur 10 intersection all roads are full with posters of Mojumdar and Molla. This seat has over three lakh voters. Some voters are concerned about security and are unwilling to cast votes. Babu

Mia, a businessman from Kazipara, said his family was not interested in voting this year, as they were concerned about security. There are eight voters in his family.

An elephant accompanied by a band marches the length of Rokeya Sarani every day seeking vote for Molla. Many voters however, said this was point-less as most of the time people did not know what it was about.

At Senpara bus stand, Rashedul Has-san, 44, said he would vote for Mojum-dar because he was the Awami League candidate.

“An independent candidate can nev-er do anything for people,” he said.

Mojumdar became an MP in Mirpur in a 1991 by-election when BNP MP Ha-run Rashid died. He was reelected in 1996 and 2008. This time he got nom-inated against three strong contenders including Jamal Mostafa from Kafrul Awami League and SM Zahid, a Jubo League central leader.

On the other hand Ekhlas Uddin Molla is from a family that has been in politics for three generations. His grandfather was the president of Mir-pur Union Parishad for 27 years. l

Many AL men back independent Awlad against JaPa’s Babla in Dhaka 4 n Mushfi que Wadud

Residents of Dhaka 4 constituency, where ruling Awami League withdrew its nominee to favour Jatiya Party in line with a political understanding, are expecting a tough contest in Sun-day’s elections as a section of local AL leaders are supporting an independent candidate in de� ance of the party’s de-cision.

Securing the south Dhaka seat will not be easy for JaPa aspirant Syed Abu Hossain Babla, as his main rival, ex-pelled city AL leader Awlad Hossain, has strong in� uence among local party supporters.

Awlad Hossain, a former personal secretary to AL chief Sheikh Hasina, decided to contest the 10th parlia-mentary polls as an independent after incumbent lawmaker Sanjida Khanam withdrew her candidacy following a party directive.

Babla, a former lawmaker and JaPa presidium member, is contesting with the “plough”, while Awlad got “ele-phant” as his symbol.

Speaking to party activists and vot-ers in the constituency, it was found that despite Sanjida’s supporters back-ing Babla, most local AL leaders were working for Awlad behind the scenes.

Raja Mia, a Jubo League leader of Shampur union, told the Dhaka Trib-une that a good number of local AL leaders and activists were supporting Awlad.

“Although you do not see them cam-paigning for Awlad Hossain because of the party’s decision, they will do their duty on election day,” Raja said.

Awlad Hossain told the Dhaka Trib-une that the general people were with him, and he would win the race.

On December 18, AL cancelled Awlad’s membership and relieved him of all party posts. The party also directed its supporters to refrain from cooperating with Awlad, who was the joint general secretary of AL’s Dhaka city unit.

On the other hand, Sajjad Hossain, a local Chattra League leader, said pro-Sanjida leaders and activists were supporting Babla.

Abdul Gafur, a tea stall owner in Ka-rimullah Bagh, anticipated a close con-test between the two candidates.

He said Babla, who was an MP dur-ing HM Ershad’s regime in the 1980’s, had made some contributions, includ-ing taking the initiative to supply piped gas to the area.

“So, Babla will have some advan-tage,” Gafur said.

Babla himself told the Dhaka Trib-une that except a few expelled local leaders, most AL activists were sup-porting him.

“The handful of expelled AL leaders who are working against me will not matter, and I am hopeful of winning,” he said.

The constituency encompasses Dha-ka South City Corporation wards 47, 51, 52, 53 and 54 and Shampur union.

There are a total of 2 28,517 voters, a good number of whom are small traders. Of the area’s manifold problems, locals deem waterlogging as the worst.

Campaign publicity in the area in-dicate that the election will likely be closely fought. Both candidates have almost the same number of posters, banners and festoons covering the walls or hanging over roads across the constituency.

However, the number of election-eering o� ces in the area are relatively small. Locals said only a small number of supporters were seen canvassing for either candidate, and very few cam-paign processions were held.

Mainul Islam, who sells tea in Dania, said during past elections, huge crowds used to gather around his stall. But this time, there were very few customers. l

Election needed to prevent illegal takeover: PMn Emran Hossain Shaikh

Awami League President Sheikh Hasi-na has said her government has intro-duced a permanent electoral system like the other parliamentary democra-cies of the world, with an aim to pre-vent unconstitutional takeover of state power.

“The [January 5] elections will be held under an independent and pow-erful Election Commission; not under any unelected individual,” Hasina said in her nationally broadcasted address to the nation yesterday.

Hasina, also the prime minister of the interim government, said her party had put in all-out e� orts to bring main opposition BNP to the elections.

She also said she had been trying to bring the opposition chief to a dis-cussion to � nd a peaceful way out to a compromise. But instead of accepting her call, the opposition chief had cho-sen the path of violence.

Referring to her party’s commit-ment to keep the democratic process in the country undisturbed, Hasina said the January 5 elections would be held constitutionally.

She urged the people of the country to vote in a festive mood just like the way did in the � ve city corporation

polls and the by-elections during her tenure.

She also called upon people to cast their votes in favour of their preferred candidates and thus give a solid foun-dation to democracy.

According to the Election Commis-sion, apart from the Awami League, the chiefs of � ve out of the 12 parties con-testing the polls will get the chance to address the nation.

In her yesterday’s address, reiterat-ing the pledge for making Bangladesh a middle-income country by 2021 and developed by 2041, Hasina said: “Just like before, we want full support from the people. We want you to vote for the boat [Awami League’s electoral symbol]. Let us come forward along the path of peace, democracy and pros-perity, forgetting all the di� erences be-tween us.”

The two-time prime minister, on be-half of her party, pledged to implement all the verdicts in the war crimes cases if elected to power again.

Referring to the Awami League’s election manifesto, Hasina said: “We will not enact any law against the holy Qur’an and the Sunnah. We will build a peaceful society in which all religious groups will coexist by ending terror-ism, militancy and communalism.” l

Speaker asks govt to ensure Khaleda’s securityn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury yesterday asked the government to ensure security of Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia and remove all barriers the BNP chief had been facing at this mo-ment as alleged by her party MPs.

Shirin talked to the state minister for home and the inspector general of police as eight BNP MPs led by Opposi-tion Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque called on her at the parliament o� ce asking her if Khaleda was arrested or under house arrest.

The BNP delegation submitted a memorandum to the speaker.

Shamsul Hoque Tuku, the state min-ister, told the speaker that Khaleda was neither arrested, nor con� ned or under house arrest – that all such actions war-ranted a legal procedure.

“Envoys of di� erent countries have been meeting her [Khaleda], which proves that she is not arrested,” the speaker told the Dhaka Tribune, quot-ing Tuku. “Security around her resi-dence was beefed up for guaranteeing her security.”

IGP Hassan Mahmood Khandkar echoed Tuku while speaking on set-ting up barricades on the entrance to Khaleda’s house. The BNP chief could not come out of her residence as the police kept sand-laden trucks parked at the entrance that obstructed the move-ment to and from the residence.

“Prioritising the security of the op-position leader, you should ensure that she does not face any inconvenience,” the speaker told the state minister and the IGP. “I can only bring the matter to the notice of the executive,” she told the Dhaka Tribune. Zainul Abdin Farro-que called the speaker on Wednesday night, seeking an appointment. l

Fire� ghters douse a burning bus after opposition activists set it on � re at Mirpur in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

City High LowDhaka 25.2 13.5Chittagong 27.0 13.6Rajshahi 25.8 11.0Rangpur 22.0 11.6Khulna 26.4 13.0Barisal 26.6 11.5Sylhet 25.6 12.7Cox’s Bazar 29.0 15.5

PRAYER TIMESFajar 5:21am

Sunrise 6:41amJumma 12:03am

Asr 3:48pmMagrib 5:24pm

Esha 6:45pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Dry weather likelyn UNB

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

Light to moderate fog might occur over the country during midnight until morning, Met O� ce said.

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

The sun sets in the capital at 5:24pm today and rises at 6:42am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 29 degree Celsius was recorded at Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf and lowest 9.2 de-grees at Srimangal yesterday.

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

Security to be maintained in uncontested seatsn Mohosinul Karim

Despite deployment of armed forces and additional law enforcers for the upcom-ing election, the government fears the deterioration of law and order situation in 153 constituencies, where the candi-dates have been elected uncontested.

Field level high o� cials and chiefs of the local law enforcing agencies have been asked to remain alert to avoid any breach of law and order situation.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hos-sain Bhuiyan yesterday told the Dhaka

Tribune: “The government is not reluc-tant about the law and order situation of those areas, where the polls would not be held.”

He said the law enforcers would work to control law and order situation and resist any miscreant, who will try to disrupt the electoral atmosphere.

He further said: “Upazila level ad-ministration will also be kept alert.”

Additional forces will be kept ready as striking forces, and would be sent and deployed in those areas, where neces-sary, the cabinet secretary added. l

Yusuf ordered annihilation of pro-liberation activistsn UNB

The defence for detained war crimes suspect AKM Yusuf yesterday cross ex-amined the 18th prosecution witness whose questioning was closed earlier by the tribunal.

Freedom � ghter Sikder Habibur Rahman told the International Crimes Tribunal 2 that razakars, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation forc-es, had setup makeshift camps at Ka-chua of Bagerhat district in April-May 1971. The Peace Committee was formed in Khulna � rst and later its branch was extended to Kachua, he said.

Asked about the meeting held in Ka-chua on April 22, 1971, the witness said accused Yusuf had been introduced at the meeting as chairman of the Peace Committee of Khulna.

Later the tribunal adjourned the proceedings until January 9.

On December 17, the tribunal allowed a defence petition to recall seven pros-ecution witnesses as their cross-exami-nation had been closed earlier, because of the conducting defence lawyer’s re-peated absence during the proceedings. Lawyer Syed Mizanur Rahman was also ordered not to enter the tribunal.

Yusuf faces 13 charges of crimes against humanity including genocide, killing, loot, arson, deportation of peo-ple and religious conversion.

Earlier, in his deposition, witness Habibur said Yusuf at the Peace Commit-tee meeting had given an in� ammatory speech asking his followers to annihilate the freedom � ghters, Awami Leaguers and people belonging to the Hindu com-munity. Following his speech, armed cadres of Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim League had looted at least 10 Hindu dominated villages surrounding Kachua and took the booties to Bagerhat.

Habibur named several villages in-cluding Bishekhola, Gozalia, Tofakhali, Bhasagram, Moukhiya and Khalishakh-ali where the atrocities had taken place.

He also said Yusuf had been a can-didate in the 1970 national election, founded the razakar force in Khulna with Jamaat members and later joined the Peace Committee.

According to the prosecution, Jamaat leader Yusuf was a member of the Malek cabinet in occupied Bangladesh, a rub-berstamp government backed by the Pakistan junta. He also acted as the chair-man of the Peace Committee in Bager-hat, Satkhira and Khulna districts. l

Ha� z sent to jail after two-day remandn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka Court yesterday ordered to send Major (retd) Ha� zuddinAhmed, rejecting his bail prayer in a case � led against him for killing police and arson attack at the capital’s Bangla-motor.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ha-run-Or-Rashid passed the order after hearing the petition for his bail.

On December 30, the same court granted a two-day remand for Ha� z.

Investigation O� cer Md Ali Hossain, sub-inspector of Ramna Police Station, produced Ha� zuddin before the court after completion of the remand.

Defence counsel Jaynul Abdin Mejb-ha submitted the bail petition in which he said the government showed him arrested to suppress the opposition movement.

Earlier, Motijheel police o� cials

showed him arrested in two other cas-es and prayed for another 20-day police remand.

The CMM court � xed the remand hearing on January 9. One case was � led on November 5 with the Motijheel Police Station.

Sub-inspector of Motijheel Police Station ASI AKM Azizul Haque � led the case for killing a police man and injur-ing a number of others in front of New Anar Bakery near Kamalapur Bazar on the second day of the previous 60-hour hartal.

In another case � led with the Moti-jheel Police Station Ha� z was accused of torching seven cars and blasting sev-eral cocktails in front of Motijheel Ideal School on September 24.

Sub-Inspector Humayun Kabir Haw-lader in the case accused 53 named and unnamed 80-90 people for the incident on September 24. l

Jaruzelski appointed as new USAID mission director to Dhaka n Tribune Report

The US Agency for International Devel-opment (USAID) appointed Janina Ja-ruzelski as its new mission director to Dhaka, the US embassy said in a press release.

Jaruzelski is set to take the respon-sibility at a time when Bangladesh is a partner country for three major US Gov-ernment development initiatives- Feed the Future, Global Climate Change and the Global Health Initiative.

Jaruzelski, a member of the senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minis-ter Counselor, has served USAID since 1995 in Washington, DC and overseas posts.

Before her assignment in Dhaka, Ja-ruzelski was the USAID Mission Direc-tor in Bolivia.

Prior to her service at USAID, Ja-ruzelski was counsel to the US House of Representatives’ Energy and Com-merce Committee. She also worked at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and at the Macmil-lan Publishing Company. l

43 hand bombs recovered in capital n Kailash Sarkar

Rapid Action Battalion personnel re-covered 43 hand bombs form capital’s Bijli Moholla in Mohammadpur yester-day morning while conducting a drive.

Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police Raihan Uddin Khan said the Rab members, acting in a tip-o� , recovered the abandoned hand bombs from near a building in Bijli Moholla around 11:30am.

He said: “The criminals had been preserving the bombs to carry out sub-versive acts.” He added that raids were being conducted in the area to arrest the culprits involved with the incident. l

Election worker of JaPa candidate held with gunn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Police held an election worker of Jatiya Party candidate in Barisal and recov-ered one pistol, four rounds of ammu-nitions and a magazine (ammunition storage attached to a � rearm) from his possession yesterday.

The arrestee is Md Mamun Rari, an election worker of JaPa candidate for Barisal-3 constituency Golam Kibria Tipu, a lawmaker of Ershad-led JaPa.

Locals said Mamun was a Jubo League cadre who came from Dhaka yesterday to work for Awami League backed JaPa candidate Golam Kibria Tipu.

Shahiduzzaman, o� cer-in-charge of Airport police station said detective branch of Barisal Metropolitan Police had arrested Mamun from the police station area under BMP.

He denied providing any further de-tail.

Sub-Inspector Ahsan Kabir of the detective branch of BMP said they had arrested Mamun during a vehicle-check at Tumchar Bazaar area where an election rally of Golam Kibria Tipu was scheduled to be held.

Shoyeb Ahmed, deputy commis-sioner (headquarter) of BMP said the arrestee would be sent to police station after interrogation.

Tipu Sultan, a Workers Party nomi-nated candidate and the only rival of Golam Kibia Tipu in the constituency, alleged that the JaPa candidate was us-ing muscle power and money.

He also alleged that since Tipe was still a lawmaker, he was using his in� uence to manipulate the election procedure.

Golam Kibria Tipu  was not reach-able over mobile phone. l

Members of Sammilito Muktijoddha Front form a human chain in front of Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday demanding trial of war criminals NASHIRUL ISLAM

Opposition lawyers protest attackn Sanaul Islam Tipu and

Nazmus Sakib

After a brief protest, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) yester-day threatened to declare further pro-grammes if an initiative to investigate into the attack made on pro-BNP law-yers was not taken within 72-hours.

SCBA President AJ Mohammad Ali made the statement after holding a symbolic hunger strike from 10am to 1.30pm at the Supreme Court premises.

The Supreme Court resumed yester-day after 20 days of winter vacation but could not conduct its sessions smooth-ly due to the ongoing opposition block-ade. Though the Appellate Division sat, the High Court did not.

On December 29, the day of opposi-tion’s Dhaka march programme, rul-ing party supporters attacked pro-BNP lawyers who were demonstrating at the main entrance of the Supreme Court. A female lawyer, Simki Imam Khan, was beaten brutally with sticks.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mah-bubey Alam lambasted the BNP-led 18-party alliance for its programmes that he said resulted in “su� erings for justice seekers.”

“Pro-opposition lawyers in the name of movement have obstructed the judiciary from performing its func-tions. Lawyers who are not involved in politics do not want such programmes. Pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers are trying to destroy the livelihoods of ordinary law-yers,” he told reporters.

The attorney general also said an in-vestigation into the untoward incident was needed.

“It cannot be allowed that outsiders use the Supreme Court for their politi-cal interests,” he said.

Bikalpa Dhara President AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Krishak Sramik Janata League chief Kader Sid-dique, Chairman of Bangladesh Kollan Party Syed Muhammad Ibrahim and Barrister Moinul Hossain, former ad-viser to the caretaker government, JSD

president ASM Abdur Rob and some pro-opposition journalists expressed solidarity with the hunger strike.

Pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers and Ban-gladesh National Lawyers Forum also organised a rally in front of the Dhaka Judge’s Court protesting the “con� ne-ment” of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her home, the attack on Simki Imam Khan and the attack on journalists and university teachers on the same day.

Lawyers brought black � ags to the event that went on till 2pm.

Ruhul Amin Gazi, the acting conve-ner of the National Professional Unity Forum, Sawkat Mahmud, Jaynul Abe-din Mejbah, AJ Mohammad Ali and other professional leaders and activists attended the programme.

Acting secretary of JatiyatibadiAinjibi Forum Md Sanaullah Miahpresided over the meeting. Some three hundred lawyers attended the pro-gramme.

Speakers at the rally demanded re-lease of all arrested opposition leaders. l

Fire damages mill, shops and valuables in three districtsn Tribune Report

A total of 16 shops, a steel mill and a car was damaged in � re incidents in Chit-tagong, Kishoreganj and Madaripur in the last two days.

In Chittagong, a steel mill and a pri-vate car was gutted in � re early yes-terday in Chittagong city’s Sher Shah, under Bayezid police station, and Teribazar area.

Fire brigade sources said the � re at Multi Steel Mill in Sher Shah had origi-nated from an electric short-circuit around 12:30am.

Md Jashim Uddin, deputy assistant director (DAD) of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters in Chittagong said a unit of Bayezid Fire Station went to the spot and doused the � re after one and an half hour attempt.

Asked about the loss, � re service sources said some of the machineries

at the mill were burnt and damaged.About the other incident, DAD

Jashim said � re gutted a private car on Katapahar Road in the city’s Teribazar area around 1:30am when the battery of the car’s engine was blasted.

A � re � ghting unit, on information, went to the spot and extinguished the � re, added the DAD.

The � re brigade o� cials estimated the loss in the incidents to be over Tk5 lakh.

In Kishoreganj, at least three shops were gutted in a devastating � re that broke out in a stationery shop in Dorga Bazar area in Pakundia upazila yester-day morning.

Fire service sources said the � re had originated from an electrical short-cir-cuit around 9:30am and soon engulfed nearby shops.

Upon receiving information, a unit of Kishoreganj � re service rushed to the spot and doused the blaze after an

hour-long e� ort with the help of locals, Kishoreganj Fire Service Station Deputy Assistant Director Prannath Saha said.

The owners of the shops claimed ap-proximately Tk30 lakh worth of goods were destroyed in the � re.

In Madaripur, at least 13 shops of Sahebrampur Market in Kalkini upazila were burnt down Wednesday night.

Owners of the shop claimed that they had a total loss of almost Tk50 lakh. About the cause of � re, they said it might have occurred from an electric short-circuit.

Locals said they saw � ames in some of the shops around 2:30am on Wednesday night and tried to douse the � re.

Later, three units of Fire Service and Civil Defence from Madaripurand Gouronadi upazila reached the spot and doused the � re after two hours attempt. l

Almost all kinds of vehicle move in the city amid non-stop blockade yesterday. The photo was taken from Farmgate DHAKA TRIBUNE

News 5DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

City Corporation, Rajuk neglect duties fearing political tensionCity dwellers deprived of services, 36 development projects in limbo n Abu Hayat Mahmud

O� cials of the two city corporations and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) are showing indi� erence to-wards their duties of serving the city dwellers fearing political instability centring the 10th parliament election slated on January 5.

Sources at the three apex govern-ment-run city service and develop-ment authorities claim that fear of possible political unrest, including programmes like hartals and blockades after the polls have retarded their op-erations.

The sources also alleged that most of the high-ups in Dhaka South City Corporations (DSCC), Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Rajuk have been appointed through political lob-bying; as a result, they were now more concerned about the result of upcom-ing polls rather than their respective responsibilities.

Visiting the o� ce of DSCC, DNCC and Rajuk in last two weeks, this cor-respondent found most of o� cials ab-

sent in the o� ce and unavailable over phone.

Prof Dr Sarwar Jahan, head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Buet, told the Dhaka Tri-bune: “Political unrest goes unabated, but it is not acceptable that the city cor-porations and Rajuk’s services would plummet showing this as a cause.”

He also said as most of the o� cials of these organisations had been ap-pointed on deputation, they might likely be anxious about aftermath of the election, but that should not stop them from serving the public.

They are holding political instabili-ty and election as a cause behind their lack of responsibility, he added.

Residents of di� erent areas in both DSCC and DNCC alleged that the pot-holes on the streets have not been � xed; no measure had been taken to � x the drainage system, garbage manage-ment and mosquito menace in the ar-eas. Especially they complained about lack of mosquito drives as mosquitoes become dominant during dry season.

The cleaners hardly follow the cor-

poration’s rules.Keramot, a cleaner in Sobhanbagh

area under DSCC, said: “The schedule for collecting wastes in this area is in the morning, I came in the afternoon because in the morning I was collecting waste in another spot.”

Rajuk is running 19 big-scale projects while DSCC and DNCC are running sev-en and 17 projects respectively-all of which are at a halt at this moment be-cause of the negligence of authorities who fear political tension as aftermath of the parliamentary polls.

However, denying such allegation, DSCC Chief Executive O� cer Md An-sar Ali Khan said: “It is not negligence

of the city corporation o� cials fearing political tension. Political unrest is cur-rently obstructing smooth run of the projects and as a result they might not be completed within schedule.”

“The non-stop blockades impede the process of providing all types of services’” he added.

DNCC Chief Engineer Brigadier Gen-eral Mohammad Abul Khayer said: “The construction of di� erent projects and services by the corporation are being hampered because of the op-positions’ movements. So, amid such political situation it is di� cult to set deadlines for the projects.”

He claimed that the corporations’ sta� s and labours are not being able to move freely because of the blockades which are creating hindrance in provid-ing public services.

Rajuk Chief Engineer (implementa-tion) Md Emdadul Islam said: “Most of the development projects are current-ly in limbo in the wake of continuous blockades and strikes.”

“All the projects will resume after the January 5 polls,” he added. l

DHAKA 6 CONSTITUENCY

Aspiring lawmaker’s aide held with � rearms n Kailash Sarkar

Rapid Action Battalion yesterday ar-rested with � rearm an aide of an aspir-ing lawmaker Saidur Rahman Shahid, alias “Shahid commissioner” vying as an independent candidate for the 10th parliamentary election from Dhaka 6 constituency.

The arrestee was Ha� zur Rahman, 50, businessman and close friend of the contestant.

The elite force made the arrest after conducting a raid on the Gandaria res-idence of the independent candidate.

Rab 10 Operation O� cer Fazle Rab-bi said: “Acting on a tip-o� , a Rab team raided the house of Saidur and arrested Ha� zur with an illegal � rearm around 11am.”

“Two more licenced � rearms were also found in his possession.”

The contestant was, however, not available in the house at that time, said Fazle Rabbi.

Meanwhile, commissioner Saidur at a press conference in Dhaka Reporters Unity claimed Rab arrested his friend based on a false allegation made by his political opponent.

The independent contestant alleged

that his opponent was trying to down-play his popularity in fear of being de-feated in the election.

Asked about this, the Rab o� cial de-nied the allegation of Saidur.

According to Rab, Police and local sources, awarded with death penalty for murder, Saidur tried to win polls ticket from the ruling Awami League to vie for the January 5 election, but failed.

The ruling party nominated Mizanur Rahman Dipu, who died of cardiac ar-rest last week, while Jatiya Party leader Kazi Firoj Rashid was also a contestant in the Dhaka 6 constituency.

Saidur Rahman Shahid was a coun-cillor of ward 38 of Dhaka City Corpo-ration. He was freed on bail from Farid-pur jail in 2010 after serving over seven years in jail.

He was sentenced to death on May 29 in 2003 on charges of shooting advo-cate Habibur Rahman Mondol to death in Chandra Mohan Basak Lane at Bano-gram in old Dhaka on August 20, 2000.

Saidur was also accused in the mur-der of Shahadat Hossain Sikder, com-missioner of ward 90, on September 29, 2003, and Juba Dal leader Sujan in Sutrapur on May 4, 1999. l

JSD-backed candidate in Barisal questions administration’s integrityn Anisur Rahman Swapan, Barisal

An independent candidate contesting the general elections from Barisal-2 constituency yesterday accused the local administration of meddling in election a� airs in favour of her Awami League rival and demanded immediate redeployment of the army.

Sabina Aktar, contesting with “pine-apple” symbol with the backing of rul-ing alliance partners Jatiya Samajtantr-ik Dal (JSD) and Workers’ Party (WP), made the allegation at a press confer-ence.

Barisal-2, comprising Ujirpur and Banaripara upazilas, is one of the three constituencies in the district where elections will be held. The remaining constituencies were won uncontested by single candidates.

In the conference, Sabina, wife of Uzirpur Upazila Chairman and Organ-ising Secretary of JSD-Barisal unit Abul Kalam Azad Badal, read out a written statement re� ecting on her election preparedness.

She began by lambasting her oppo-

nent, Advocate Talukdar Md Yunus, for using the support of administration in his campaigns, in� uencing the election commission and violating electoral codes of conduct.

“He is an outsider in the region and knows too well that a fair � ght will bear no fruit for him. So he is doing every-thing possible to make sure it does not happen,” she said.

“The local administration is work-ing in his support, putting pressure on the general voters to vote for Awami League and getting police to raid the residences of JSD and WP activists, calling them Jamaat-Shibir activists.

“He [Talukdar] even had the army withdrawn from the constituency three days ago. He did that to continue with his election intrigues uninterrupted.

“We had informed the administra-tion, police and election commission of our concerns and requested them to keep pro-AL people o� election duties. But they did nothing.”

However, Talukdar Md. Yunus, dis-trict AL secretary and the immediate past lawmaker from Barisal-1 constitu-

ency, denied all allegations and said he would welcome any decision including deployment of army and investigations into allegations against him. “All I want is a fair and peaceful election.”

Shohidul Alam, deputy commis-sioner and returning o� cer for the six constituencies of Barisal, said he had been informed of the allegations. “We will investigate them and take whatev-er steps necessary for conducting a fair election.”

In the 10th national elections, scheduled for January 5, voters of only three constituencies of the district will be able to exercise their franchise. These are: Barisal-2 (Ujirpur-Banaripa-ra upazila), Barisal-3 (Babuganj-Muladi upazilas), and Barisal-4 (Mehendiganj upazila).

A total of 780,227 voters from Bari-sal-1 (Gournadi-Agoiljhara upazilas), Barisal-5 (City Corporation and Sadar upazila) and Barisal-6 (Bakerganj upa-zila) would be deprived of voting. Two Awami League candidates and one Jati-ya Party candidate had already won in the constituencies without a contest. l

Election fever grips Khulna townsfolk n Tribune Report

Election fever has gripped the people in 3 constituencies of Khulna as seven candidates are continuing hectic cam-paigns to win the January 5 National Parliamentary Election.

Electioneering is gaining momen-tum with contestants observing vari-ous programmes to attract the elector-ates. Roads, lanes and by-lanes, look crowded with the movement of con-tenders and their supporters in their respective areas.

People from all walks of life, espe-cially party leaders, activists and sup-porters, are holding rallies in favour of their respective candidates.

Lea� ets with symbols and photo-graphs of the candidates printed on them are being distributed among the voters.

Seven Member of Parliament candidates have so far formed di� erent types of committees and been conducting their campaign under the party banner excepting Nany Gopal Mondol and Moniruzzaman Khan

Khokon as they are independent candidates.

In Khulna-2 constituency (Sa-dar-Sonadanga), Khulna city unit gen-eral secretary Mizanur Rahaman Mizan is campaigning door-to-door and hold-ing meetings in each wards under the party banner while Jatiya Party (Monju) candidate Rasheda Karim is campaign-ing in the city’s Sadar and Sonadanga thana area.

In Khulna-3 constituency (Khalish-pur-Daulatpur-Khanjahan Ali), AL cen-tral leader Begum Monnuzan Su� an is contesting with his Moniruzzaman Khan Khokon. Khokon, ex-general sec-retary of Daulatpur thana unit AL and recently expelled from the party.

In Khulna-1 constituency (Batiagha-ta-Dakop), all three candidates are en-gaged in hectic poll campaigns in their areas.

The candidates are Panchanan Biswas (Awami League), sitting law-maker Nani Gopal Mondol (Indepen-dent) and Sunil Shubho Roy (Jatiya Party-Ershad). Nani Gopal was also ex-pelled from Awami League. l

Gono forum asks government to postpone pollsn Tribune Report

Gono forum has urged the government to postpone the January 5 general elec-tion.

It also urged to hold a national dia-logue involving all political parties as well as intellectuals and professionals to � nd a way to resolve the ongoing po-litical crisis.

In a joint statement on Thursday, Gonoforum president Dr Kamal Hos-sain and general secretary Mostafa

Mohsin Montu voiced grave concern over the next general election sched-uled for January 5.

They said the upcoming parliamen-tary polls will deepen and lengthen the existing political crisis in the country.

The security of lives, property and jobs, as well as people’s struggle for survival will be at risk while thecountry’s education, trade and com-merce, and economy will collapse due to political uncertainly, the statement said. l

14-party alliance leaders to have tough contest in Satkhira 1n Our Correspondent, Satkhira

Two leaders of Awami League-led 14-party alliance are expected to have a neck-to-neck contest in Satkhira 1 con-stituency in the upcoming 10th parlia-mentary elections, as both candidates have been doing their election cam-paign in full swing.

Satkhira District Worker’s Party Sec-retary Mustafa Lutfullah has got the party nomination and will contest the polls with “boat” symbol. On the other

hand, Kendrio Sainik League Organis-ing Secretary SM Mujibur Rahman will contest the polls as an independent candidate with the symbol “deer.”

The constituency has arrangement of 146 polling centres for a total of 380,208 voters.

Local activists of Awami League have been divided into two groups cen-tring the polls.

Young supporters of the ruling party have been campaigning for the inde-pendent candidate, while elder sup-

porters have been advocating for Mus-tafa Lutfullah.

Meanwhile, supporters of BNP, Ja-maat and Jatiya Party (Ershad) are not willing to cast their ballots in the constituency as Ershad and BNP-led 18-party alliance will not take part in the polls.

However, a section of BNP and Jatiya Party supporters has been campaigning for SM Mujibur Rahman.

Locals think it is tough to predict the winner. l

225 out of 266 polling centres ‘vulnerable’ in Bogran Hasibur Rahman Bilu, Bogra

The local administration has identi� ed 225 polling centres out of total 266 as “vulnerable” and rest 41 as “normal” in two constituencies of Bogra, district Election O� cer Md Younus Ali said yesterday.

The remaining � ve constituencies will see no polls as lone candidates of those constituencies would be de-clared winner.

Younus said the polling centres were identi� ed in two groups according to the � eld level report.

Md Mozammel Hoque, superinten-dent of police, Bogra, said local admin-istration had taken initiatives to ensure security of the risky polling centres of the district.

Bogra election o� ce sources said over 7 lakh voters would cast their votes on January 5 in Bogra 6 (Gabtoli and Shahajahanpur) and Bogra 4 (Ka-haloo and Nandigram) constituencies.

The election o� ce sources said all 73 polling centres in Shahajahanpur upa-zila of Bogra 6 and 57 polling centres in Kahaloo upazila of Bogra 4 were identi-� ed as risky. l

Supporters of independent candidate for Dhaka 16 constituency Sardar Mohammad Mannan bring out an election campaign procession in the city’s Mirpur yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Election posters of MP candidates � ood a road in Kadamtali area ahead of January 5 polls. The photo was taken yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Prof Dr Sarwar Jahan, head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Buet, told the Dhaka Tribune: ‘Political unrest goes unabated, but it is not acceptable that the city corporations and Rajuk’s services would plummet showing this as a cause’

Textbooks reach schools despite all odds Education minister says Bangladesh sets a record in free textbook distributionn Tribune Report

Textbook Distribution Festival was ob-served across the country yesterday as textbooks were distributed to all stu-dents of primary and secondary level.

A total of 30 crore copies of text-books were distributed to over 3.73 crore primary and secondary level stu-dents across the country.

Dhaka Tribune correspondents across the country reported that stu-dents had got textbooks in even the remotest parts of the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday inaugurated the occasion by distributing textbooks among the students at Ganabhaban.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Na-hid formally distributed textbooks to students of Government Laboratory High School in the city yesterday.

Speaking at the programme, Nahid said Bangladesh had set a record by distributing free textbooks to a large number of students on the � rst day of

the new academic year. “Despite political instability, we

have distributed 1,213,871,172 copies of textbooks to 16 crore students from 2010 to 2014. Distributing such amount of textbooks under government initia-tive to remote parts of the country on the � rst academic day is the � rst in the history,” he said.

“We are really happy as the text-books have reached the students amid ongoing violence and subversive acts by BNP-Jamaat men,” Nahid said.

Our Jhenaidah correspondent re-ported that students had expressed their joy as they got textbooks on the � rst school day of new academic year.

The textbook distribution festival was observed at Jhenaidah Wazir Ali high school ground yesterday morning.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Sa� qul Islam inaugurated the distribu-tion.

A total of 151,500 students includ-ing 26,500 madrasa students received the textbooks. About 95% of the books

were distributed on the � rst school day.Our Chandpur correspondent says

the textbook distribution festival was observed at district Shilpakala Acad-emy. Deputy Commissioner Ismail Hossain inaugurated the programme, he reported, adding that some 17 lakh textbooks would be distributed among the students.

Our Gopalganj correspondent re-ported that Awami League presidium member Sheikh Selim inaugurated the

textbook distribution in the district. Selim said the government gave pri-orities on education and the sector was progressing.

Our Kurigram Correspondent said Deputy Commissioner ABM Azad in-augurated the textbook distribution festival at Kurigram Government Girls’ High School. Some 30 lakh textbooks in secondary schools and madrasas and 22 lakh copies of textbooks among pri-mary students were distributed.

Our Mirsarai correspondent said textbooks festival was observed at Mir-sarai Upazila TDC Auditorium. About nine lakh textbooks were distributed among primary and secondary stu-dents.

Our Rajbari correspondent reported that students of the primary and secondary schools, madrasa and vocational training institutes in � ve upazilas of Rajbari district got new books yesterday.

Rajbari District Primary Education O� cer Mohammad Fazlul Haque said in accordance with the demands of the primary schools, the books were sent to all the � ve upazilas’ education o� ces.

Our Sirajganj correspondent said the textbook distribution festival was observed at the Sirajganj Collectorate School yesterday. Deputy Commis-sioner Billal Hossain inaugurated the distribution. l

Hill cutting goes unabated in Bandarbann Our Correspondent, Bandarban

Hill cutting goes unabated in the Bhorakhali area of Bandarban Hill dis-trict as a section of in� uential people are carrying the illegal act posing seri-ous threat of landslides, alleged the locals.

By using the name of administra-tion, some unscrupulous and in� uen-tial individuals are cutting hills and selling the soil illegally.

After visiting the area, it was found that the hill beside Haji Saleh Miah Government Primary School in Bhara-khali area under the sadar union, has been cut down exposing the locals to risks of landslides.

Hilltops are being leveled to collect

soil for constructing houses, said the local administration.

A gross allegation coming from lo-cals is that, Samsul Alam, husband of Women Counselor of Balaghata Munic-ipality Ferdous Akhter, has been cut-ting hills illegally but residents of that area remain silent out of fear.

Some labourers have cut a huge hill in the area and took the earth for sale on a truck. Before cutting the hills a number of Segun trees were also cut down, claimed the locals.

When contacted, Samsul Alam said he took permission from the Deputy Commissioner, stating that he would collect the soil by cutting a portion of the hill and use it to level the land on the school premises.

However, later he allegedly cut whole of the hill and could not provide any legal document showing approval of the deputy commissioner, when asked.

A labourer Hashem said: “We have cut around 70 feet of land behind the school. We have been covering the low-er land there and selling each truck of surplus earth at Tk500.”

Locals alleged that the local admin-istration had not taken any step to pre-vent the illegal hill cutting by di� erent government and private organisations despite repeated pleas.

Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Amir Abdul-lah Md Manjurul Karim said he would inform the matter to the deputy com-missioner. l

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

Ban on carrying passengers by motorcyclists lifted n Tribune Desk

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) on Thursday withdrew the ban on the motorcyclists on carrying other persons on their vehicles.

BRTA director (enforcement) Matiur Rahman says the restriction will come into e� ect from Thursday.

Earlier on December 29, BRTAimposed the ban for checking terrorist ac-tivists and ensuring security for people.

The restriction came following re-cent observation that miscreants, who ride motorcycle as co-rider, carried out sabotage by hurling petrol bombs and blasting crude bombs targeting vehi-cles and law enforces in the capital and across the country. l

Five ‘robbers’ arrestedin GazipurPolice arrested � ve alleged robbers from College Gate area at Pubail in the city early yesterday while they were about to com-mit a robbery. Being tipped o� , a team of police conducted a drive in the area at about 1.30am and arrested the rob-bers while they were preparing to commit robbery, said police. Police also seized a foreign made pistol, two machetes, two knives and a pick-up van used in robbery from their possession. – UNB

Five brick kilns in Gazipur � ned Tk19 lakhDepartment of Environment yesterday � ned � ve brick kilns in Gazipur Tk19 lakh for the vi-olation of environment laws. After a hearing at the DoE Dhaka headquarters, its director (monitoring and enforcement) Md Alam-gir � ned the brick kilns’ owners on various grounds, including the use of older 120-foot chimney without taking the environment clearance and operating bricks kilns inside city corporation area. The brick kilns are lo-cated in Konabari and Bhawal Mirpur areas of Gazipur. The owners of the � ned brick kilns attended the hearing and vowed to replace the brick kilns from the city corporation areas within the next six months. – UNB

Union parishad o� ce gutted in SunamganjMiscreants set ablaze Islampur union pari-shad o� ce under Chatak upazila of the district this morning. The � re gutted valu-able documents of the union parishad. On receiving the information, police rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze with the help of local people. Chairman of Is-lampur Union Parishad Adv. Su� Alam Su� recorded a general diary with Chatak police station in this connection. – BSS

One held with 3kg goldin Benapole Police arrested a man along with 3kg of gold at Kagojpukur in the town yesterday evening. The arrestee was identi� ed as Mo-min Uddin, son of Hasu Morol of the village. O� cer-in-charge of Benapole Port Police Station Kaiyum Sardar said acting on secret information, a team of police conducted a drive in the area and arrested Momin along with 36 gold bars weighing 3 kg while he was going to Sadipur border from the town in an easy-bike. The market value of the seized gold would be around Tk 1.70 crore, said the OC. – UNB

CU to go on 3-day closure for pollsChittagong University will go on a three-day vacation from Saturday on the occasion of 10th parliamentary election. Farhad Hos-sain, deputy registrar of Information and Photography Department, said all academic and o� cial activities of the university would remain suspended from January 4 to 6. He also said three days of vacation had been announced considering the convenience of the students of di� erent constituencies across the country so that they can cast their votes smoothly. – Tribune Report

Couple held with yaba tablets in SavarThe Narcotic Control Department in a drive arrested a couple and recovered 1,600 piec-es of yaba tablets from Hemaetpur-Jadurchar area of the upazila on Wednesday evening. The arrested were identi� ed as Nur Moham-mad, 38, and his wife Asma Akhter, 30. On a tip-o� , a team of the department conducted a drive in the area and arrested the couple from a house of one Abdul Barek and recov-ered the tablets after searching their bodies, said NCD Inspector Jasmine Akhter. – BSS

Chhatra League activists arrestedin Maguran Our Correspondent, Magura

Three Chhatra League activists were arrested with two cans of petrol at Magura bus terminal on Wednesday.

The arrestees were Shazzad, 24 , Lemon, 22, and Rana, 19 .

MA Hashem Khan, o� cer-in-charge of Magura police station, said the arres-tees were wandering in the bus termi-nal area around 9pm.

Out of suspicion, police nabbed them and recovered two cans of petrol and a match from their possession.

Police suspected that the Chhatra League members had a plan to torch bus ticket counter of Azibar. l

Road accident kills one, hurts 15n Tribune Report

Road accident killed one in city while 15 others were injured in separate acci-dents in Narayanganj.

The deceased Abdul Mannan, 32, who died in a train accident, was an army man and hailed from Saturia, Manikganj.

Kamalapur General Railway Police said the man had been hit by a running train in the capital’s Banani around 11pm on Wednesday.

Our Narayanganj correspondent re-ports, at least 15 workers were injured as an Antim Garment industry bound bus carrying the workers of the fac-tory fell into a roadside ditch at Moikuli around 7am yesterday.

After the accident, agitated garment workers blockade the Dhaka-Sylhet highway at Barpa under Rupganj upa-zila and staged demonstration.

During the demonstration they also vandalised two vehicles.

At one stage of the demonstration, the workers attacked Altex Industry, a company near Antim Garment. Then the workers of Altex came out from the factory and a series of chase and coun-ter chase took place.

Later, Rupganj police brought out the situation under control. l

Tobacco cultivation still on in Rangpur region n Tribune Report

Despite e� orts to discourage tobacco cultivation farmers of Rangpur region are still continuing tobacco cultivation on land to earn more pro� ts.

According to Department of Agricul-tural Extension, farmers have exten-sively cultivated tobacco on the dried up riverbeds and char (shoal) land this year.

Horticulture Specialist of the DAE Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam said farmers were still showing interests in tobacco farming mainly to earn more money.

Farmers have so far cultivated to-bacco on 14,221 hectares of land in Rangpur. District wise break-up are 2,516 hectares in Rangpur, 240 hectares in Gaibandha, � ve hectares in Kuri-gram, 10,745 hectares in Lalmonirhat and 705 hectares in Nilphamari.

The farmers had cultivated tobacco on 17,828 hectares of land in Rangpur division last year against only 12,696 hectares in 2011.

Cultivation of tobacco decreased in recent years as the farmers had cultivated the crop on 33,500 hectares of land during 2009-2010

and on 19,050 hectares during 2010-2011 seasons in the region, the DAE sources said.

Farmers – Echahaq Ali, Aiyub Ali, Azizul Islam and Abdul Khaleque of Kathihara village in Rangpur – said they had cultivated tobacco on 1.5 to 2.5 acres of land this season.

“We cultivate tobacco as the tobac-co companies encourage us directly or indirectly through providing necessary inputs, cost-free seedlings and incen-tives with an assurance of lucrative prices,” they said.

Farmers Mokbul Hossain, Shamsul Haque, Abul Hossain and Yasin said they had cultivated tobacco on more land this season to earn more pro� ts than cultivating other crops.

The farmers said they generally spent Tk20,000 to 22,000 for per acre of land in farming tobacco to produce 20 maund per acre to earn a net pro� t of over Tk60,000 on an average.

Associate Director (Agriculture) of BRAC International (South Asia and Africa) Dr MA Mazid said farmers could earn more pro� ts by farming wheat, sugarcane and others in relay methods with intercropping of other crops using the latest technologies. l

Wave of attack on Hindus continuesin Lalmonirhatn Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

Inhabitants of Shalmara village under Aditmari upazila in Lalmonirhat have been living in panic as a temple was torched by some unidenti� ed miscre-ants in the early hours of yesterday.

The gang set � re to the Shalmara Sarbojanin Puja Mandir after spreading petrol over it when the villagers were sleeping, police said after visiting the temple in the morning.

Sensing the � re, locals rushed to the spot, but then the temple was burnt to ashes.

Expressing concern at the attack on the temple, President of the temple managing committee Profulla Chandra Roy said Shalmara temple was a sacred place for the villagers and they had been doing veneration there for the last 20 years.

Valuables worth about Tk2lakh were damaged in the � re, he added.

Member of Valabari union parishad Subhas Chandra Roy said unidenti� ed miscreants torched the temple to cre-

ate panic among the Hindu people. A panicked situation has been pre-

vailing in the locality as people of Hindu community are fearing that they might be attacked further.

Chairman of Aditmari upazila, also Senior Vice-President of district Awami League, Sirazul Haque said the miscre-ants tried to create panic among local people so that they would not dare to cast vote in the national polls sched-uled to be held on January 5.

O� cer-in-Charge of Aditmari po-lice station Aslam Iqbal said they were trying hard to identify the miscreants’ gang who were involved with the torch-ing of Shalmara temple. No one has been arrested in this connection yet.

On December 15, a temple of the Hindu minority was attacked in Pat-gram upazila allegedly by the Jamaat-e-Islami activists after three Shibir men died in the area.

A gang of unidenti� ed miscreants set � re to a temple of Durgaat Kakinain under Kaliganj upazila in the district on October 30. l

NEWS IN BRIEF

The hill beside Haji Saleh Miah Government Primary School in Bharakhali area in Bandarban has been cut down, exposing the locals to landslides DHAKA TRIBUNE

Three killed in 3 districtsn Tribune Report

Three people were killed in Pabna, Sirajganj and Satkhira on Tusday and Wednesday.

A man was beaten to death at Voban-ipur village of Ishwardi upazila in Pabna on Thursday morning. Police arrested a suspect in this connection, reports our correspondent. The victim was Md Abu Hossain, 50, a � sh trader of village Voba-nipur , family sources said.

Biman Kumar Das, o� cer-in-charge of Ishwardi police station, said Ra� que Mondol of the same village had a long-standing enmity with Abu. Ra� que attacked Abu around 8am and beaten him up. Abu succumbed to his injuries in Ishwardi Upazila Health Complex.

In Sirajganj, police recovered the dead body of a middle aged woman at Chuniyahati in Sadar upazila. The vic-tim, 42, was found from a crop � eld and there was a scarf around her neck, reports our correspondent.

In Satkhira, police recovered the body of a madrasa student from a pond at Godown intersection in Shyamnagar upazila on Wednesday night, reports UNB. The deceased was Mojahidur Rahman Liton, 21, a student of Shy-amnagar Alia Madrasa and hailed from Mirzapur village of the upazila. l

Cheerful students of Chikandandi Katakhali Government Primary School at Hathazari upazila in Chittagong after receiving new books yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

7DHAKA TRIBUNE Long Form Friday, January 3, 2014

n Ifty Islam

A patient in intensive care or a slow-moving train wreck – I’m not sure which of these analogies best describes the state

of democracy in Bangladesh – maybe both? There is clearly no glory on either side and Bangladesh’s democ-racy and the bulk of the people are the casualties.

The elections on Jan 5 will go ahead but with 153 seats out of 300 uncon-tested due to the opposition boycott, the ruling AL have already won what is widely recognised internally and externally as a non-credible election. The US, EU and Commonwealth have all refused to send electoral observers.

When we look ahead to what might happen in 2014, a compromise between the two major parties looks increasingly like wishful thinking and we may need an external shock to get democracy, or at a minimum the economy, back on track. Business leaders and ordinary citizens are becoming increasingly frus-trated and horri� ed by political events but the $64,000 question is what will force change and what comes next?

The economic cost from the op-position blockades has been worse than any previous round of political turmoil. So what end game to the current political impasse is in prospect for 2014?

Firstly, notwithstanding both the Dec 29 BNP March on Dhaka (which the government has successfully stopped ironically mimicking the op-position with a blockade of their own) and the call on Dec 28 by a number of leading civil society groups for the election to be postponed, it will almost certainly take place on Jan 5 and a new Awami League government will take o� ce on Jan 6. But the 153 uncontested seats and extremely low prospective turnout as a result of the BNP boycott will immediately call into question the credibility, legiti-macy and hence sustainability of this new Government. The BNP and their Jamaat allies will almost certainly resume and most likely intensify their street violence, blockades and hartals (strikes) to force new elections.

Hence once can see 5 main possi-ble scenarios:

1) An AL led government forceful-ly stays in power for its next 5 year term – this seems the least likely scenario;

2) The opposition BNP/Jamaat street agitation forces the Al govern-ment to announce fresh election in an exact replay of 1996, albeit with the AL and BNP roles reversed.

3) The President declares a state of emergency, the army is deployed. There is a new election in which all parties contest and the BNP will most likely win.

4) A new political party emerges to challenge the AL and BNP and wins the new elections in much the way that Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party did in the recent Delhi elections. Alternatively, even if they don’t win a majority, they secure enough votes to be a swing variable to the main two parties in a new coalition government.

5) After a state of emergency, we see a repeat of an army-supported neutral or technocratic caretaker gov-ernment that exercises a longer-term mandate as in 2007-08.

There is often a lot of discomfort in discussing army interventions in the domestic Bangladeshi political dialogue, as scenario 5 would be ex-tra-constitutional. But since Bangla-desh has seen army-backed regimes for almost half of the countries’ history since Independence in 1971, and the last army-backed government was only 5 years ago, it is clearly a risk if the political situation deteriorates further. What one can say is that the Bangladesh army appears to be the least partisan, or politicised, of all state institutions and enjoys a degree of respect and credibility with the population. Anecdotal evidence sug-gests they remain reluctant to become involved and it seems likely that a majority of senior o� cers would prefer the political parties to � nd a solution.

But the critical unanswered ques-tion right now is how con� dent are we that a compromise and a solution between the political leaders is likely that can defuse the current stalemate and chaos in the country?

The views of the foreign powers, most notably the US, EU and to some extent India will be important as will the attitude of the UN. India appears to be the only major country to openly support the re-election of the AL government. But the recent visit by India’s foreign secretary, a bureau-crat, to visit all the political parties in Dhaka and express a preference for Al re-election, has been perceived as unwanted intervention by India in the sovereign a� airs of Bangladesh, and has fuelled a growing element of anti-Indian sentiment among the population.

While fears of BNP election win, allowing increased Jamaat in� uence, is understandable, it is important for India to avoid having a hostile neighbour on its eastern as well as western � ank, especially given the strategic importance of Bangladesh in � ghting terrorist elements in the NE provinces of India known as the Seven Sisters. There has been at least some recognition of this in public with In-dia’s External A� airs Minister Salman Khurshid stating on Dec 29 that “We don’t take sides on what happens in elections in a friendly country. For democracy to prosper, there should at least be a commitment that violence will not be allowed to distort the dem-ocratic process.”

However, he also acknowledged that there were di� erences with the US, “particularly in the dealing of the present government (in Bangla-desh) with some of their own internal situations ...” Khurshid suggested that India’s understanding of Bang-ladesh would be “helpful” to the US, stating: “While US is at some distance from Bangladesh, we are right next to it.” However it is far from clear that India’s geographic proximity gives it either a better understanding of Bangladesh’s political dynamics or more importantly the right to dictate. Would India be comfortable about China’s foreign minister coming to Delhi and meeting Congress and BJP to in� uence their upcoming elections because they are India’s larger neigh-bour with an economy four times as big and common borders?

But political reality does still sug-gest external in� uence, particularly from the US and UN, will be important behind closed doors. A leading polit-ical commentator, David Bergman, stated in his New Age op-ed on Dec 29, the role of the United Nations will be closely watched as seven years ago Bangladesh was facing an election crisis similar to the one the country is now experiencing, when its resident coordinator in Dhaka took action that many believe instigated the army to seek a state of emergency that lasted for nearly two years. He stated: “On January 11, 2007, Renata Lok Dessal-lien issued a public statement threat-ening the Bangladesh army’s involve-ment in peacekeeping operations if it supported the elections that were due to take place later that month. In

an apparent direct response, on the same evening, the army chief Moeen U Ahmed marched into the o� ce of the president and self-appointed caretaker chief Iajuddin Ahmad and compelled him to proclaim a state of emergency.”

In this context, the emergency in South Sudan this past week and the need for additional UN Peacekeep-ing forces at short notice resulted in Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon calling PM Hasina requesting an extra battalion of Bangladeshi soldiers. So this lever does not appear to be open for now. But the political situation remains extremely � uid and inter-national pressure may shift again if political violence escalates and the law and order situation in the country deteriorates to crisis levels.

Indeed the evidence from the rest of Asia has been that the most successful economies have prospered under authoritarian regimes such as China or Vietnam currently, or South Korea under President Park. Alter-natively hybrid regimes de� ned by a democracy but one where one party stays in power, notably Singapore. The Economist Mar 27, 2013 article “Autocracy or Democracy” noted that “growth induced democracy in East Asia, democracy did not lead to growth. They compared North and South Korea, which were both poor in 1950 and under dictatorial regimes from the end of the Korean War until 1980. From 1980, per capita incomes diverged. The same year South Korea began democratising. But South Ko-rea’s better institutions developed due to dictators’ policy choices.” Moreo-ver, in a study of 100 economies from 1960 to 1990, Robert Barro found that prosperity tends to inspire democracy.

Bangladesh is also a prime illustra-tion of the “Iron Law of Oligarchies,” a theory developed by Belgian sociol-ogist Jan Michels. The political elites secure both � nancial resources and patronage while in power to secure an “iron grip” on power that is to some extent self-perpetuating or at the very least di� cult to break. Both political parties dispense money at national all the way to grass-roots levels to secure both political agitation and votes. Patronage is used quite systematically and strategically to maximise political bene� ts. It has been estimated that the cost of re-election in even a rural parliamentary seat in Bangladesh is $500,000, a massive multiple of MP salaries. A sad state of a� airs but unfortunately the realpolitk of Bang-ladesh is guilty of polarisation and vengeful power politics.

Ironically Bangladesh’s current “de-mocracy” is dominated by two ladies who rule their parties with an iron � st – in as authoritarian a manner as one can imagine. There is absolutely no tolerance for dissenting voices even among senior ministerial colleagues. While the political system was based on the British system of parliamenta-ry government with the PM “primus

inter pares,” or � rst among equals, this is as far from the truth as one can get. So internal party reforms within both the AL and BNP will require a dramat-ic change within the parties or both of the current party leaders to retire. Alternatively a third political party or force would need to emerge, but the failure of someone of the stature of Nobel Prize winner Professor Yunus to achieve this during the caretaker regime period of 2007-08 underlines the di� culties.

There have been protests in the past few months by a broad range of business and civil society groups: from FBCCI, the apex corporate trade body, to the BGMEA, which represents the powerful RMG sector. But it is patently obvious that neither political leader is listening, and the pursuit of power and the winner-takes-all nature of Bangladeshi politics is drowning out all reasonable calls for a compro-mise. An external shock is likely to be necessary to force change, rather than voluntary altruism, or concerns on the plight of their electorate and the su� ering of innocent casualties, in motivating either leader to change course and compromise.

Things remain uncertain, but the population, and indeed the economy cannot withstand more than a further 3-6 months of the current situation; something has to give and a new po-litical equilibrium needs to be found in 2014.

Let me conclude by stating my own preference: a political system that gives Bangladesh an economy that achieves 8%+ growth – this will re-quire, alongside a focus on capturing a bigger chunk of the China relocation trade in the RMG sector and increase sectoral exports to $30bn by 2015, fostering other export sectors in foot-wear, toy assembly, light engineering and shipbuilding. Foreign direct investment and the establishment of multiple economic zones have to be prioritised to deliver substantial new infrastructure projects to overcome energy and transportation/logistical blocks. Education and vocational training has to be increased to take ad-vantage of Bangladesh’s demographic dividend and see remittance growth increase to $30bn in 2020 as Bangla-deshis move into higher value-added jobs overseas.

The citizens of Bangladesh should think carefully about what kind of government best suits their interests. I’m a supporter of democratic free-doms, but democracy that is con� ned to having the right to vote only, is an insu� cient goal in itself given that the political system fails to provide a higher standard of living, and more critically, safety and security for its citizens.

My preference would be for a national government for Bangladesh that includes technocrats as well as politicians from both the AL and BNP, which would be in power until Bangladesh’s 50th anniversary in 2021, when we will have seen average growth rates of 8% and the emer-gence of a new generation of political leaders.

I accept that I don’t know how we form this national government. However, I believe we have crossed a Rubicon, or a point of no return on the need to move to a new order, and away from the politics of violent agitation that characterises the two political parties. I am upbeat about Bangladesh’s economic prospects when we look beyond the near-term political turmoil of the next 6 months.

Bangladesh’s economy has con-tinued to exceed expectations; given a stable environment, an enabling environment, and vision from a future government, a dynamic private sector powered by a young population of 160 million will likely surprise to the upside, and reward the patience of long-term investors who look beyond the current political battleground.

As the recent election of Arvind Ke-jriwal as the seventh chief minister of Delhi illustrated, the electorate is ca-pable of upturning the political order when corruption and poor governance fails to deliver. I’m not sure what the “Black Swan” event will be for Bangla-desh politics, but I am hopeful we will be surprised by the outturn.

I remain optimistic that the current political morass, characterised by mindless and pointless violence of the political parties, will be a precursor for a re-generation of a political system in Bangladesh that prioritises the welfare of its citizens over its politicians. l

Ifty Islam has worked as an economist and Banker in London, New York and Dhaka.

Democracy at crossroads

The population, and indeed the economy cannot withstand more than a further 3-6 months of the current situation; something has to give and a new political equilibrium needs to be found in 2014

We have crossed a Rubicon or a point of no return on the need to move to a new order, and away from the politics of violent agitation that characterises the two political parties

Life, and the economy at a standstill due to the ongoing political unrest RAJIB DHAR

Friday, January 3, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE8

Canadian MP threatened with arrest, expulsion from Sri Lankan AFP, Colombo

A Canadian lawmaker said Thursday she was intimidated and warned she could be deported during an ongo-ing visit to her birthplace of Ja� na, the war-battered Tamil heartland of Sri Lanka.

Rathika Sitsabaiesan, an ethnic Tamil, was subjected to “political in-timidation” and warned of possible arrest and deportation, according to a statement on her New Democratic Par-ty’s (NDP) website.

“My experiences since arriving in Sri Lanka are a reminder that defend-

ing principles of human rights is not easy,” she said in the statement, add-ing: “I was warned I could be subject to arrest and deportation.”

The statement did not say who had intimidated her, but added that Sri Lankan authorities had informed the Canadian High Commission (embassy) in Colombo that there was no order to arrest her.

However, Tamilnet.com, a group sympathetic to the former Tamil Tiger rebels, said she was virtually under house arrest at her hotel in Ja� na on Tuesday, a claim vehemently denied by police.

Sitsabaiesan, 32, said she look for-ward to “learning more about the country of my birth.”

Sitsabaiesan, who immigrated to Canada with her family when she was five years old, was elected to the House of Commons in 2011. She has been a fierce critic of the Sri Lankan government, according to Canadian media. l

Deposed CAR leader denies orchestrating violencen AFP, Paris

Francois Bozize, the former Central Af-rican leader, denied backing Christian militias that have wreaked havoc in the country and called on the current pres-ident who deposed him to resign in an interview broadcast Thursday.

The Central African Republic has plunged into chaos since mainly Mus-lim Seleka rebels staged a coup in March, prompting French forces to in-tervene last month after hundreds died in violence pitting the former rebels against Christian militias known as the anti-balaka (anti-machete).

Michel Djotodia, the Seleka leader who was installed as president of the former French colony, has accused Bozize of supporting the Christian mi-litias battling his former rebels – a claim the latter denies.

“It is the Seleka who brought disor-der to the country, misery and death. The anti-balaka phenomenon has ap-peared following abuses committed by the Seleka in the country,” Bozize – who is in exile in an undisclosed lo-

cation – said in a telephone interview on RFI radio.

“That’s what triggered the appear-ance of the anti-balaka. From my po-sition, I did not create a so-called an-ti-balaka rebellion.”

Asked whether he condemned the atrocities perpetrated by the Christian militias, he responded: “That’s what you say. I’m not on the ground. That’s what the press says. If they have committed (atrocities), then I condemn them.”

The sectarian violence in the Central African Republic, an unstable and im-poverished country, is believed to have killed more than 1,000 people last month and sent tens of thousands � eeing.

Bozize called on Djotodia to resign “so that the situation be brought under control once and for all.”

French President Francois Hol-lande, who gave the green light for 1,600 French troops to be deployed in the country, has called for new elec-tions to be held.

Bozize did not rule out returning to the country and running in any future vote. l

Rwandan ex-spy chief found ‘murdered’ in S African AFP, Johannesburg

Rwanda’s former spy chief has been found strangled after attending a meet-ing at a hotel in Johannesburg, where he had been living in exile, o� cials said on Thursday as police launched a murder probe.

The body of Colonel Patrick Kare-geya, 53, was found slumped on a hotel bed, his neck swollen, in the upmar-ket area of the city on New Year’s Day, police said.

“A towel with blood and a rope were found in the hotel room safe,” police said in a statement. “There is a possi-bility that he might have been stran-gled.”

Karegeya was the former head of Rwanda’s external intelligence service and has lived in exile in South Africa for several years.

His party was � rst to announce the death early on Thursday, saying that he was strangled after attending a meeting at the Michelangelo Towers in Johan-nesburg’s upmarket Sandton district.

It was not immediately clear if he was killed on Tuesday night or on Wednesday.

Karegeya leaves behind his wife Leah and three children. l

Kerry arrives in Israel to revive � ailing peace talksn Reuters, Jerusalem

US Secretary of State John Kerry ar-rived in Israel on Thursday in his latest bid to reenergize peace negotiations and � nd scarce common ground be-tween pessimistic Israeli and Palestin-ian o� cials.

His visit, the 10th to the region in under a year, aims to lay the founda-tions of a “framework agreement” that addresses the core issues of the de-cades-old con� ict and open the way for an independent Palestine, according to US o� cials.

But on the question of borders, se-curity, refugees and the status of Je-rusalem, leaders from both sides have sounded far apart this week.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin on Thursday rejected the creation of a Palestinian state based on the lines pre-dating the 1967 Six Day

War, in which Israel captured and oc-cupied Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“The Jordan Valley must be under Israeli sovereignty forever,” he said, re-ferring to the border area with Jordan, from which Palestinians want a full Is-raeli withdrawal.

“The 1967 borders are Auschwitz borders,” Ha’aretz newspaper quoted him as saying, suggesting that any such move would lead to the destruction of Israel.

On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas renewed a call for all Israeli settlers and soldiers within the 1967 lines to be evacuated, say-ing he would not hesitate to reject a bad deal.

“We will say “yes” to any ideas sug-gested to us which meet our rights. But we will not fear and will not hesitate for a moment ... to say “no,” whatever

the pressure, to any proposal which de-tracts from or doesn’t ful� l the higher national interests of our people,” he said in a speech.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat last month said a framework agreement could allow the talks to be continued for another year. However, earlier this week, he said the US-bro-kered talks were “failing” and threat-ened to haul Israel before the Interna-tional Criminal Court.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a senior US State Department o� cial said Kerry was not expecting a break-through during his latest visit, when he is due to see Netanyahu and Abbas separately on several occasions.

The o� cial, who declined to be named, said an eventual framework accord would act as a guideline for reaching a full peace treaty by the end of April. l

Somali Islamists claim Mogadishu bombingn Reuters, Mogadishu

Islamist militants in Somalia said on Thursday that they carried out the tri-ple bombing on a Mogadishu hotel that killed at least 11 people.

Al Shabaab, who are battling African peacekeepers for control of territory in southern and central Somalia, said its bombers had targeted intelligence of-� cials who were meeting at the Jazira hotel at the time.

“The apostates are the eyes and the ears of the invaders and these attacks

serve as a well-deserved punishment for their role in guiding and assisting the invading forces in their crusade,” al Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement.

Al Shabaab said it had killed more than a dozen people in Wednesday’s attack. A private ambulance service di-rector said his medics had recovered at least 11 bodies.

The assault on the Jazira hotel, one of the securest places in the coastal capital, underscored worries in neigh-bouring countries and beyond that

Somalia could slip back into anarchy if recent military gains against rebels are not consolidated.

An attack on a Kenyan shopping mall in September in which dozens of people were killed highlighted the mili-tants’ ability to strike beyond Somalia’s borders.

Islamist suicide bombers struck the Jazira hotel in September 2012 as Pres-ident Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was giving a news conference just two days after his election by lawmakers.

Turkey seizes arms in truck bound for Syrian AFP, Istanbul

Turkish security forces have seized a truck laden with weapons bound for Syria and arrested three people including a Syr-ian, local media reported on Thursday.

Acting on a tipo� , security forces on Wednesday stopped the truck in the southern province of Hatay on the Syri-an border, Hurriyet newspaper reported.

A signi� cant quantity of ammuni-tion and weapons were discovered in the truck, whose drivers claimed they were carrying aid on behalf of the pro-Islamic Humanitarian Relief Foun-dation (IHH).

But IHH dismissed the allegations as “slanderous.”

“Our organisation has nothing to do with this case,” a spokesman for the re-lief group told AFP.

Turkey is a vocal critic of Syrian Pres-ident Bashar al-Assad and has openly supported the rebels � ghting his regime, but has always denied arming them.

In December, local media reported that Turkey had shipped 47 tonnes of weapons to the rebels since June.

But Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz denied weapons of war had been sent to Syria, saying only hunting ri� es had been exported. l

Uganda president ‘won’t be pressured’ to sign anti-gay lawn AFP, Kampala

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni will not rush to approve a controver-sial anti-gay draft law, widely criticised internationally but overwhelmingly backed by local political and religious leaders, his spokesman said Thursday.

Uganda’s parliament adopted the bill on December 20. It will see repeat o� enders jailed for life, sparking an in-ternational outcry as lawmakers hailed it as a victory against “evil.”

Deputies voted overwhelmingly in favour of the text, which has been con-demned by rights activists and world leaders – with US President Barack Obama describing it as “odious” and Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu comparing it to apartheid.

But gay rights activists in Uganda say the legislation has widespread sup-port in the � ercely homophobic nation.

An earlier draft not approved by par-liament had proposed the death penal-ty for repeat o� enders. Some Ugandans have raised concerns that donor aid could be restricted if the bill is signed into law, while British tycoon Richard Branson has urged companies to boy-cott Uganda over the draconian bill. l

Baby dies after being shot in Philippine New Year revelryA three-month old baby boy has died after being accidentally shot during raucous New Year celebrations in the Philippines, police said Thursday. The revelry left nine other people across the country wounded by stray bullets, while 793 were injured by � recrackers, said Health Department Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag. The infant was hit in the head by a stray bullet from a gun that was being � red into the air as part of festivities in the northern town of Caoayan in the early hours of January 1. The child died in hospital later, Modequillo added. Police are looking for the person who � red the gun, while the governor of Ilocos Sur province has o� ered a reward for information that could lead to the suspect’s arrest, the police chief said. Last year’s revelry left one dead and 25 wounded by stray bullets, and a further 800 injured by � recracker explosions.

‘Only’ 1,067 vehicles torched in France over New Year’s EveSome 1,067 vehicles were torched in France over New Year’s Eve, Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced, a marked drop from last year in what has become a turn-of-the-year tradition in rundown areas. Every year, the night of December 31 to January 1 sees hundreds of cars set ablaze across the country in an orgy of vandalism – as much a tradition as champagne and oysters in more a� uent parts of France. Brie� ng reporters late on Wednesday, Valls said the number of cars torched over this New Year’s Eve had dropped by more than 10%. The Seine-Saint-Denis department that neighbours Paris, the poorest in France, was the clear winner with a total of 80 burnt cars, he added. Au-thorities had stopped publishing o� cial � gures of the number of burnt cars after it was discovered a district-by-dis-trict breakdown was fuelling a destruc-tive competition between rival gangs. But last year, Valls had promised to publish the � gures again. Some 53,000 policemen were deployed across the country during New Year’s Eve to try and avoid any violence, but three people were knifed and died, including one in Paris.

Exploding safe kills Palestinian envoy to Prague n AFP, Prague

The Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic died after a blast at his Prague home, which police said was likely caused by the explosion of an anti-theft system on a safe he was opening.

Jamal al-Jamal, 56, su� ered “very serious injuries” in the blast on Wednesday – believed to be an accident rather than a terror attack – and was

taken to Prague’s military hospital in an arti� cial coma, said Jirina Ernesto-va, spokeswoman for the emergency services.

Daniel Langer, surgeon at the Prague military hospital to which Jamal was taken, told Czech television the ambas-sador had su� ered devastating “head, belly and chest injuries following an explosion.”

Jamal, who took o� ce in October, had only recently moved to the new residence

on the northern outskirts of Prague.The Palestinian foreign ministry

said the blast occurred on Wednesday morning as Jamal “was opening an old safe which had been brought from the previous embassy (building) to the new one.”

“Minutes after opening the safe the explosion took place, causing serious injury to Jamal, who was taken to hos-pital and operated on,” the ministry said in a statement. l

Somali residents look at the wreckage of two cars on January 2, 2014 in Mogadishu after they exploded the day before AFP

OTHER NEWS

Sitsabaiesan, 32, said she look forward to ‘learning more about the country of my birth’

This long time exposure picture taken on January 2, shows the city center of the western city of Quimperle � ooded by the Laita river. Britanny is placed under � ood warning because of heavy rains and high tidal coe� cient AFP

FLOODS IN EUROPE

9Friday, January 3, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE International

Bus crash in western India kills 27n AFP, Mumbai

At least 27 people died and 17 were injured in western India on Thursday when a local bus slid o� a mountain road into a valley, police said.

“The driver lost control after a tem-po (three-wheeled vehicle] rammed into the bus along a sharp turn, caus-ing it to fall into a 250-foot (80-metre) valley,” local policeman Sangram Singh Nishandar told AFP.

The accident happened near a pop-ular picnic spot in the Thane district of Maharashtra state, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northeast of Mumbai.

Around 140,000 people were killed in Indian road accidents in 2012 – which works out to 16 an hour – according to the government’s National Crime Re-cords Bureau.

Bad roads, speeding vehicles and poor driving were among the contrib-uting factors. l

Clashes erupt between police and pro-Morsi students in Egyptn AFP, Cairo

Two people died on Wednesday in clashes between Egyptian police and student supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi protesting against the new military-installed authorities, se-curity o� cials said.

The pro-Morsi coalition spearhead-ing the Islamist protest movement, which has called for nationwide strike action, con� rmed two demonstrators were killed. One of them was shot in the head, security o� cials said. State television reported that a policeman had also been shot in the clashes, but was in a stable condition.

Police said they only used tear gas to break up the protests near the defence ministry and accused the Islamists of using arms.

However, the pro-Morsi alliance in a statement accused “militias of the putschist authorities” of killing the two men and injuring three others.

The Brotherhood, to which Morsi belongs, was designated a “terrorist” group last week by the authorities, which accused it of a bombing north of the capital that killed 15 people.

The Islamist movement denied the accusation.

Police also � red tear gas at a pro-Morsi student protest in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, the deposed leader’s home town, security o� cials said.

Pro-Morsi students have staged de� ant demonstrations at universi-ties across Egypt, and earlier Wednes-day the pro-Morsi Anti-Coup Alliance called for more protests.

“As the students’ strikes succeed in shaking the corners of the coup regime, the coalition of parties, movements and groups defending democracy in Egypt calls for a gradual, decisive na-tionwide strike,” it said.

Police seized an underground press in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria for allegedly printing lea� ets against the security forces, security o� cials said. Two people were arrested.

The Brotherhood’s designation as a “terrorist” group carries harsh penal-ties.

It could mean death sentences for convicted Brotherhood leaders and � ve years’ imprisonment for partici-pants in protests.

Promoting the group either in writ-ing or verbally can also lead to prison sentences. l

China denounces US for sending Uighur ‘terrorists’ to Slovakian Reuters, Beijing

China’s Foreign Ministry criticised the United States on Thursday for send-ing the last three Uighur Chinese in-mates at the Guantanamo Bay deten-tion centre to Slovakia, saying they were “terrorists” who posed a real security danger.

Yusef Abbas, Saidullah Khalik, and Hajiakbar Abdul Ghuper are the last of 22 Muslim minority Chinese nationals to be moved from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, according to the Pentagon.

Slovakia’s Interior Ministry con� rmed that it would take in the three. Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people from China’s far western region of Xinjiang.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokes-man Qin Gang said the three were members of the separatist East Turke-stan Islamic Movement, which Beijing labels a terror group.

“They are genuine terrorists. They not only threaten China’s security, they will threaten the security of the coun-try that receives them,” he told a daily news brie� ng.

“China hopes that the relevant country ... does not give asylum to ter-rorists, and sends them back to China as soon as possible.”

Qin added that China did not appre-ciate a recent US State Department call for Chinese security forces to exercise restraint following the latest outbreak of violence in Xinjiang, also blamed by Beijing on “terrorists.”

“These remarks neglect the facts and are feeble,” he said. “We urge the United States to abandon their dou-ble standards when it comes to ter-rorism, and immediately stop saying one thing and doing another, to avoid sending the wrong message to violent terrorist forces.”

The United States said it was grate-ful to Slovakia for its “humanitarian gesture.”

Most of the Uighurs at Guanta-namo were captured near the Paki-stan-Afghanistan border in late 2001, and were believed to have trained with the Taliban. But US officials have deemed they pose no threat to the United States.

In 2008, a US court ordered that they be released. They have been reset-tled in El Salvador, Switzerland, Ber-muda, Albania, and the Paci� c island nation of Palau.

The US government has said it will not return the Uighurs to China be-cause they would face persecution there.

Many Uighurs chafe at restrictions on their culture, language and religion, though the government insists it grants them broad freedoms.

The region has been beset by vio-lence with at least 91 people, includ-ing several police, killed in unrest in Xinjiang since April, according to state media reports.

China has blamed some of the vio-lence on Islamist militants with con-nections to foreign groups, including al Qaeda, plotting holy war. l

Cambodian troops in riot gear break up factory striken Reuters, Phnom Penh

Cambodian troops armed with batons and ri� es broke up a protest on Thurs-day by textile workers demanding a doubling of wages as part of a na-tion-wide strike by unions allied with the main opposition party.

Witnesses said around 100 soldiers wearing riot gear and carrying assault ri� es used force to clear hundreds of workers protesting outside their fac-tory about 20 km (12 miles) west of the capital, Phnom Penh.

“Soldiers beat up everyone,” said labour rights activist Chhorn Sokha of the Community Legal Education Cen-tre. “They had sticks, electric batons, slingshots and stones.”

At least 10 protesters were detained and it was not known yet how many were hurt, she added.

Photographers, including one from Reuters, were hit by batons while cov-ering the protest. Two witnesses said they also saw troops striking a Bud-dhist monk. The clashes mark a vio-lent turn after two weeks of relatively peaceful strikes, marches and demon-strations of unprecedented scale in Cambodia. Security forces, which have a reputation for zero-tolerance, have so far exercised restraint.

The garment workers, whose indus-try is a major employer worth $5bn a year to the economy, have joined pro-tests led by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which says it was cheated out of more than 2m votes in an election last July.

The CNRP has courted some 350,000 garment factory workers with the promise of a minimum monthly wage equivalent to $160, a propos-al dismissed by the government as unsustainable. Their support for the CNRP represents one of the biggest challenges to the 28-year rule of au-thoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

He has been credited with steer-ing Cambodia away from being a war-scarred failed state to a promising frontier market, but opponents say his power comes not from the people, but from the sway he has over independent institutions and allege he rigged the election, which he denies. l

Indian teenager gang-raped and burned aliven AFP, Kolkata

An Indian teenager was gang-raped in two separate attacks and then died af-ter being set on � re, sparking protests in the eastern city of Kolkata, police said on Thursday. The 16-year-old was assaulted � rst on October 26 and then again the day after by a group of more than six men near her family’s home in Madhyagram town, about 25 kilome-tres (15 miles) north of Kolkata.

The second rape occurred as she was returning home after reporting the � rst attack at a police station.

She was then set on � re on Decem-ber 23 and died in a state-run hospital late on New Year’s Eve, police said.

“She gave us a dying declaration in front of the health o� cials that she was set on � re by two persons close to the accused when she was alone at home on December 23,” local policeman Nim-bala Santosh Uttamrao told AFP.

Police made their � rst arrests on Wednesday, two months after the ini-

tial crime, local police chief Rajiv Ku-mar told AFP.

“The accused tried to kill my daugh-ter by setting her on � re to hush up their crimes,” the victim’s father, a mi-grant taxi driver from India’s poorest state Bihar, told AFP.

Neither he nor the victim can be named for legal reasons. Several hun-dred activists on Wednesday protested in Kolkata over the crime, which was shocking in its brutality, even after a year when sex crimes have been widely reported in India. Rampant rape, assault and harassment of women in India was in the spotlight in the past 12 months after the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old stu-dent on a moving bus in New Delhi in De-cember 2012 sparked nationwide outrage.

The parliament has since passed tougher laws to punish rapists.

Activists say rape victims in India often face severe threats and intimi-dation from their attackers after the assault, while police often discourage them from lodging complaints. l

Japan rescues Chinese balloonistn AFP, Tokyo

A Chinese man who tried to � y a hot-air balloon hundreds of kilometres to islands disputed between Beijing and Tokyo was rescued by Japan’s coastguard after ditch-ing in the sea, an o� cial said Thursday.

The 35-year-old took o� from China’s Fujian province on Wednesday morning in an attempt to land on one of the To-kyo-controlled islands, the Japan Coast Guard o� cial said. They are hotly disputed between Beijing, which regards them as its territory and calls them Diaoyu, and Tokyo, which calls them Senkaku. Tensions have at times reached feverish heights.

In the event the pilot sent a request for help several hours into his � ight and ditched in the sea, with a Japanese rescue helicopter picking him up 22 kilometres south of his goal, the o� cial said.

The man, who was unhurt, was handed over to a Chinese patrol ship outside Japa-nese territorial waters, he added.

Reports identi� ed the man as Xu Shuai-jun, a balloonist who in 2012 became the � rst man to pilot a hot-air balloon over northeast China’s Bohai Bay.

On his veri� ed account on Weibo, a Chi-nese version of Twitter, Xu posted a short

message declaring that he had been returned safely to the city of Fuqing in Fujian province.

“I have returned safely,” Xu wrote. “Thanks everyone for your concern.”

His supporters wrote back with words of support, with many declaring him a “hero” who had done well even if he had fallen short of his target.

“So awesome!” one user wrote. “What innovative thinking and action!”

Xu did not post any further details on his voyage and did not immediately re-spond to a request by AFP for comment.

Beijing declined to acknowledge any Japanese role in his rescue. Foreign minis-try spokesman Qin Gang told reporters that a “Chinese coast guard vessel patrolling in waters of the Diaoyu islands learned that one Chinese balloonist fell into the water.”

Some attempts by activists from both sides to land on the islands have been blocked, but in 2012 about a dozen mem-bers of a right-wing Japanese group swam ashore from a 20-boat � otilla. Earlier, 14 pro-China activists sailed to the islands from Hong Kong on a similar trip.

Regional tensions rose in late Novem-ber when China abruptly declared a new Air Defence Identi� cation Zone over the East China Sea, including the disputed islands. l

Malaysian authorities seize Bibles in ‘Allah’ rown AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian Islamic authorities on Thurs-day seized hundreds of Bibles from a Christian group and questioned two of its o� cers, one of them said, amid ten-sions over the use of the word “Allah.”

A court in October barred a Malay-sian Catholic newspaper from using “Allah” to refer to the Christian God in its Malay-language edition – a verdict which was welcomed by Muslim con-servatives but which sparked concern among Christians, a minority in the multi-faith country.

After the verdict, Prime Minister Najib Razak, walking a tightrope be-tween pleasing his conservative Mus-lim ethnic Malay base without alien-ating non-Muslim minorities, assured Christians the practice of their religion would not be threatened.

But Islamic o� cials from the central state of Selangor on Thursday seized 16 boxes containing more than 300 Bibles from the Bible Society of Malaysia, said the society’s president Lee Min Choon.

Lee said he and a colleague were also detained “under a state law, which prohibits the use of the word Allah

by non-Muslims.” They were later re-leased but must meet authorities again next week.

Most of the seized Bibles – import-ed from neighbouring Indonesia where Malay is also spoken – were in Malay. A few were in Iban, a language spoken by one of the country’s indigenous groups.

“We have been using them (the Bi-bles) ever since the society started (in 1985), and even before that,” Lee told AFP. “This is the � rst time we have been raided.”

O� cials from the Selangor Islamic Re-ligious Department did not immediate-ly return a request for comment.

The Council of Churches of Malaysia said in a statement it was “alarmed” by the raid and urged the government to “protect religious rights as provided under the Federal Constitution.”

The dispute over the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims erupted in early 2009,

when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke the publishing permit of the Catholic newspaper the Herald for us-ing the word.

Authorities said using “Allah” in non-Muslim literature could confuse Muslims and entice them to convert.

The Catholic Church sued, claiming violation of its constitutional rights.

The church says the word “Allah” is the most accurate translation for “God” and has been used for decades in Malaysia and elsewhere.

A court upheld the church’s argu-ment later that year and lifted the ban. But a higher court overturned that rul-ing in October, reinstating the ban.

The ban’s removal had triggered a series of attacks on churches and oth-er places of worship in early 2010, us-ing Molotov cocktails, rocks and paint, and sparked fears of wider religious con� ict.

Muslims make up 60% of the coun-try’s 28m people, while Christians ac-count for about 9%. Malaysia has largely avoided overt religious con� ict in recent decades, but tensions have slowly risen along with what many see as an increas-ing Islamisation of the country. l

Pakistan’s Musharraf in hospital n Reuters, Islamabad

Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf was taken to hospital with chest pains on Wednesday while on his way to face treason charges in a special court in the capital, Islamabad.

It was the third time that Musharraf has failed to appear in court to face the charges. The � rst two times he cited security concerns.

Musharraf, 70, seized power in a 1999 military coup when he was army chief. He later became president and ruled until 2008.

The treason charges relate to his imposition of a state of emergency in 2007, when he was manoeuvring to extend his rule in the face of growing opposition from the public and the judiciary.

Musharraf’s lawyers say he does not recognise the jurisdiction of the court and accuses it of bias.

A spokeswoman for Musharraf said he had been taken to a military hospital in the city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

The case is being closely watched for any impact on the relationship between Pakistan’s three power centres - the mil-itary, an increasingly assertive judiciary and the � edgling civilian government.

There is concern that the trial of the former military leader could anger the army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half its history since inde-pendence in 1947.

Musharraf recently told reporters the whole army supported him though the military leadership has given no indication that it might intervene in the trial. l

A young Indian boy joins social organisations activists during a silent protest rally condemning rape AFP

The US government has said it will not return the Uighurs to China because they would face persecution there

The church says the word ‘Allah’ is the most accurate translation for ‘God’ and has been used for decades in Malaysia

Muslim Brotherhood supporters clash with Egyptian riot police during a demonstration in the streets of El Zeitun AFP

EC rejects AL’s request to stop Dhaka marchDecember 28

Aleef KhanAs if the EC has the power to do anything to stop it when the government will be doing whatever necessary to thwart the march and colour it as violent. Any attempt to portray EC as neutral is nothing but a joke. Is there any credibility at all of this constitutional body?

TejpalI doubt if KZ will let it be free and fair. She will create problems, immaterial of what you say.

Aleef Khan Tejpal: Why doesn’t the government have the courage to let it happen as they declared to make it peaceful? When the government is making a full crackdown on the opposition, how do you now expect it to be peaceful?

A peaceful way forwardDecember 27

An editorial with an appeal to peace, which is a universal desire, albeit of all Bangladeshis too. But the government is likely to look into the minutiae of the speech ie the “March for Democracy” is being accompanied by the sworn opposition to war crimes trial, and Jamaat-Shibir, whose mayhem during the past weeks have been confused by many to be an andolon by BNP for credible election under non-party caretaker government But we know the mayhem was intended to silence the voice of war crime trial supporters of the country who could be as many as, if not more than, the supporters of non-party CTG. How would these two opposing issues be segregated in the march? People have no direction yet.

Wakho

Listen to the people

The Dhaka Tribune opinion poll published today contains good news for both the AL and BNP as well as a blueprint for a possible way forward.

All that is needed is for both sides to examine the results objectively and not try to only see what they want to see.

The key point for both sides to note is that a fully contested election would have been within the margin of error, according to the poll. Thus, both sides have a � ghting chance of winning and both sides should welcome a free and fair election process. More impor-tantly, both sides owe the general public such an election.

The AL should note that 71% of the people feel that the country is heading in the wrong direction and that al-most 77% of the public feel that an election without the BNP is unacceptable.

The BNP should note that 47% of the public feel that an interim government system for administer-ing elections would be acceptable, while the AL should note that 38% feel the opposite.

When it comes to war crimes trials, almost three-quarters of the population are satis� ed with how they are being conducted, whereas it should also be noted that the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami from partici-pating in elections is opposed by more than half of the people.

In short, there is support for positions held by both sides, and the lesson for both parties should be that there can be no alternative to working together to come to a resolution that will prove mutually acceptable to both parties as well as to the general public.

A welcome boost for jute

The long-awaited implementation of the Mandato-ry Jute Packaging Act 2010 begins this month.

According to the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, an additional 1.5m bales of jute will need to be manufactured to meet requirements. This will result in more essential products, such as paddy, fertiliser and sugar, being packaged with jute sacks and reduce the use of less environmen-tally friendly synthetic packaging.

Increased local demand will stimu-late production and help the country’s jute processors to catch up with the major jute industries of China and India, which dominate 70% of the internation-al market.

Worldwide demand for jute and jute-based products is growing due to its durability and environmental advan-tages.

The jute industry has a golden opportunity to reinvigorate itself by capitalising on this demand and taking advantage of Bangladesh’s status as a major producer. Government support for production and procurement of jute should help jute farmers to bene� t from the growing demand for the � bre and is a wel-come boost for the industry.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

10 injured in Hizb-ut-Tahrir-police clash in capitalDecember 28

As far as I know, Hizb-ut-Tahrir is not a “militant” organisation. Rather, it is a political party legal in Tunisia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Malaysia, UK, Denmark, etc.

jamil

Little known lawmaker amasses huge wealthDecember 27The best business in Bangladesh is the business of politics!

Wali

Can there be a national reconciliation?December 27

The author should be happy to learn that most other issues which he cites as impediments to a possible reconciliation are all byproducts of the impunity henceforth enjoyed by the 1971 war criminals. Hence, sooner the ICT � nish o� with their business, quicker will be the process of reconciliation. Some di� erences would be there as would be necessary to pursue two di� erent political platforms, which is expected and welcome.

WaliulHaqueKhondker

Real estate tycoon has no apartment!December 28

Zahurul Islam Why shall he own just an apartment when he lives in a sprawling bungalow?

If he is homeless then he can share my small apartment at Dhaka! :-)

ParveenPerhaps, he does not trust the quality of the apartments he builds.

Hasina announces AL manifestoDecember 28

Moon Ahsan Hahaha. Joke of the millennium.

Arch Bishop The joke is that the manifesto promised “strengthening of the ACC” just a few weeks after this regime emasculated it to protect its MPs and bureaucrats.

Wacef Chowdhury So this means there are no plans to hold an election in the near future.

Increased local demand will stimulate production and help the country’s jute processors to catch up with major jute industries

There can be no alternative to working together to come to a resolution that will prove mutually acceptable to both parties as well as to the general public

People must become united to save the countryJanuary 1

I took up the pen to write but what could I write? A deep foreboding is clutching at my heart. Only 42 years have passed since our independence, but already everything is disintegrating around us fast.

All this is happening because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is defying advice from others, unanimous-ly abolished the caretaker government system and pushed the country towards a perilous situation. And those who are protesting against it are being harassed and arrested on � imsy grounds.

We are outraged by the government’s low esteem for the people. Does it think that the public does not understand anything, or does it not care?

Prime Minister Hasina is constantly blaming Khaleda Zia for the loss of lives and property. We do not know if all the havoc is created by the opposition, but we are sure about one thing. The reason behind this turmoil is the discarding of the CTG, so is not Hasina mainly responsible for the volatile situation?

Nur Jahan

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

CROSSWORD YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Letting contracts (6)5 Jurisprudence (3)7 Added clause (5)8 More than one (6)10 Early freshness (3)12 Sail support (4)13 First woman (3)14 Small nail (4)16 Melody (4)17 Zodiac sign (3)18 O� spring (4)20 Tree (3)23 Reel (6)24 Roof’s projecting edge (5)25 Pale (3)26 Seabird (6)

DOWN1 Facial features (4)2 Quickness of perception (6)3 E� ace (5)4 Fine sediment (4)5 Was leading (3)6 Land measure (3)9 Utter wildly (4)11 Bundle of notes (3)14 Curved (4)15 Duty list (6)16 Golf mound (3)17 Unbound (5)18 Pace (4)19 Spoken (4)21 Meadow (3)22 Homo sapiens (3)

Crossword

Code-Cracker

SUDOKU

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11Op-Ed Friday, January 3, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Zafar Sobhan

Yup, that ought to do it. The pictures of not

one but two (presumably pro-BNP) women lawyers being beaten by AL mobs

on the Supreme Court premises have pretty much sunk whatever goodwill the government had gained in the past month, as the two parties try to outdo each other in their race to show who cares less for public opinion.

Back in September, the BNP was holding a winning hand. Not due to anything that they had done to merit the goodwill of the voters, mind you, but merely being in the opposition for � ve years had gifted them a solid lead in the polls. They were on the right side of the caretaker government issue, with anywhere from 70-90% of the country supporting their position.

So what did they do? They pro-ceeded to declare war on the Bangla-deshi people with an unprecedented campaign of brutality that left scores of innocent bystanders dead and the economy in ruins. The BNP campaign did more to boost the image of the AL than anything the government had done in � ve years in o� ce.

Then it was the turn of the gov-ernment again. After � ve years of steadily diminishing popularity, all of a sudden, courtesy of the opposition’s odiousness, they were starting to look good by comparison. So then what did they do?

First, they somehow managed to contrive an election with a shocking

153 uncontested seats, disenfran-chising fully 48 million, and making a mockery of the people’s right to choose. Even with the BNP boycotting, this was pretty poor stu� .

As if that was not enough, they solved the wrong problem by doubling down and forcibly keeping the JP in the election by e� ectively not allowing them to withdraw, a bizarre inversion of normative election-time thuggery.

Next, in order to thwart the BNP’s long march program, they did exactly what the BNP had been doing for the past month and which they (and the rest of us) had been complaining about bitterly, by shutting down both in-ter-city and intra-city communication networks, treating the country to what amounted to a government sponsored blockade/shut-down.

Then, just in case there was anyone left to speak well of them, they let their goons loose on protesting BNP lawyers and viciously assaulted two women lawyers on camera.

It is almost as though the two parties are in a competition to see who can make itself look the worst.

In which connection, I would be remiss if I did not mention the leader

of the opposition’s stellar turn on the 29th, threatening to rename Gopal-ganj and speaking in a demonic tone reminiscent of Linda Blair in the Exorcist. It was a salutary reminder in case anyone had forgotten (I almost had, actually) that she can be every bit as venomous and vindictive as her counterpart.

The most noteworthy aspect of the performance of the two parties over

the past month is that neither is acting much like they care what they look like to the public.

It is true that with the upcoming elections a joke, that neither really needs to solicit our votes, but, still, there has to be a new election some-time, and you would imagine that po-litical parties in a democracy would be alive to the apparently quaint notion that it makes sense to keep in with the public.

The sad truth is that the actions of the AL and the BNP, not just this past month, but for as long as I have been following politics, betray a deep con-tempt for the voting public. The par-ties consistently insult the intelligence of the people and take them for fools, because, at the only level the parties

understand and respect, that of power, that is what we are.

Thus, the AL tells us that if we don’t vote for them, the terrorists win. It doesn’t matter how poorly we rate their performance, if we want the war crimes trials to continue, we must vote for them. To do otherwise is to give the enemies of liberation free rein to run riot and wreak vengeance on us all.

The BNP tells us that if we don’t vote for them, the fascists win. It doesn’t matter how poorly they performed last time in o� ce or their crimes in opposition, we have no choice but to vote for them. To do otherwise would be to end up in a one-party state where no kind of independent thinking or dissent or deviation from party orthodoxy will be tolerated.

Both parties � gure that we have nowhere else to go. They don’t need to o� er much in the way of performance or policy other than the claim that the other side is worse, and so they don’t even try. It is this knowledge that the voters have nowhere else to turn that underpins the arrogance and contempt of the parties toward the public and public opinion.

Their message to the public is to suck it up. This is as good as it gets. There is no alternative.

But what do you do if you secretly agree with both parties when it comes to their assessment of the other?

Pick your poison. l

Zafar Sobhan is the Editor, Dhaka Tribune.

Which party can make itself look the worst? MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Their message to the public is to suck it up. This is as good as it gets. There is no alternative

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

Pick your poison

n Ekram Kabir

We must thank Towheed Feroze for bouncing the idea to have a political party

of the common people (“How about a party of the common people?” published December 30 in the Dhaka Tribune). Indeed, it’s the � nest form of wish we’ve heard in years.

Since our political parties are en-gaged in destruction and power-mon-gering that ruined our dream to have a normal, let alone decent, living in an independent country, the rise of the common people in politics would be highly welcome.

We’ve been thinking, talking, and de-siring to have a change in our country for a long time now. We always hoped someone di� erent – not those who have ruled Bangladesh so far – would be at the steering helms of the country. And now, we’re again inspired by the success of the common people in our neighbouring state.

However, despite the fact that Ke-jriwal’s AAP has swept Delhi elections and formed the government there, it needs more time to be truly called

a political party that may usher in a sustainable change in that country.

The message that we received from the AAP win in India is that the com-mon people there are quite powerful. Who are these common people? Are they community or alliance-less peo-ple? Are they socially backward fools, or disinterested in politics?

The commoners of Delhi are ex-tremely politically conscious people, but they don’t have trust in the present set of politicians. They realise they are educated, unemployed, poor and neglected lots there, and they � nd a common psychological state of mind to unify against the present elitist

political culture.They are also a lot who never were

rent-seekers by using political lobbies. AAP has given them the strength to get together. Since they are “aam admi,” they don’t have any faith in the socio-political theories that are churned out every day by politicians and analysts on TV talk shows. They simply wanted to prevent corruption and what they called “thieves” from the political arena.

The reason Bangladesh may not

get a party of aam admi is because we haven’t seen the presence of that section here. There are no aam admi that can form a political party and win polls. We have seen organised movements against the governments, area-based movements against the establishment for social or economic causes, movements against the dictator and war of independence (that doesn’t seem over yet).

It may sound quite rude, but it’s close to di� cult to identify common people in Bangladesh. The common people, who have staged movements including the freedom movement, are now lost in a jungle of intellectual poverty.

Whenever we thought of a change, as we still do, the � rst thing that popped up in our minds is the so-called “third force,” and that force has always been the defence forces of this country. This force has always used force to bring about the “change.”

And when they came, they were so far away from the dreams of the common people that they themselves became more tyrannical and they had to bow out from their own rhetorics. A few of them spoke of unifying the common people, but ended up in the same manner as the politicians did since our independence.

Of course, we have a handful of civil society representatives whom we could think of, who could organise us, the commoners. Unfortunately, our experience with our civil society reps isn’t very promising. They are so

politically active, siding with either this party or that party, that it won’t be unfair to call them “political activists” of our elite-centric politics.

At the same time, they are also seen reaping bene� ts from political lobbies. This set of people may not have the ability to organise us.

Similarly, we the common people have also lost our existence, as we are always looking up at this set of poli-ticians for our bene� ts. If any single member of these “common people” runs into any trouble, or wants to solve any problem in their personal lives, we always seek help from the same politicians, who, to our minds, have brought the country to this situation. So you see, we have lost our aptitude and courage to live without the help of the people who we want to depose through commoners’ politics.

Yes, we could think of our have-nots for bringing about a change-revolution. But there again, we have successfully fed them our micro-credit concept for losing their ability to revolt. Micro-credit, to our minds, has been the tool for killing the will to stage a revolution, as it keeps them a� oat but prevents them from becoming proletarians. So, they won’t also ever say anything in favour of change.

In that case, it seems we may have to wait for a long time to have our own aam admis. l

Ekram Kabir is Executive Editor of Natunbarta.com.

We, the common people, have also lost our existence, as we are always looking up at this set of politicians for our bene� ts

n Waseem Alim

It is sad that even after two decades of democracy, our leaders think that politics is about using hard

force to win. I will not disagree that hard force is probably the best sort of power one can have, but at the end of the day, any good strategist should know when and how to use it. The main problem is that our history is replete with so many successful uses of hard force that we � nd it impossible to exercise restraint.

For 400 years, our country has been used as a breeding ground for labour, lesser beings who are expected to do the dirty work of proper humans. The Pakistanis tried to continue in the footsteps of the British. The only problem in their design was that the world around them had changed. Slavery became unfashionable, and they had to promise us the status of “equals”, at least on paper.

We all know what happened with that grand design. We paid a steep price and we continue to pay it to this day – we became a bottomless basket. It has been 40 years since Mr. Kissinger labelled us, and we still continue to prove him right. Of course, we have made progress but it is risky progress, one that could get sucked into the basket with no bottom anytime. Our task is to build a solid foundation for the basket.

The main reason for the lack of foundation is that many of us haven’t yet learnt to treat our fellow countrymen as human beings. Given that, we do not hesitate against using hard force to control them. Our strategists still believe that they can rule by using hard force and divine right – and they can, for the most part. Unfortunately for them, the forces around the world have made it much more di� cult to use this age-tested method.

The challenge for Bangladeshi politicians has been about taking the middle path – the path between deadly competition and stupid tolerance. We must thank both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition for making it easier for our politicians to follow this path. They created the opposite poles that are so elemental to democracy. For more than two decades, they have nurtured our nascent democracy.

They have both served sel� essly, and they have acted as a bastion for what is good in the country. Most importantly, they stamped out the culture of nonsensical killings that our previous dictators thought were necessary to seize and hold on to power. They have done more for this democracy than anyone ever will.

Of course we must not forget the strategists who grouped around these leaders, making politics ever more exciting and interesting – without actually killing each other (for the most part). They moved the country forward, and continue to do so to this day. Most of them, I am sure, are patriots – perhaps a bit sel� sh, but you need to be that to achieve things. We understand, it’s a power game.

The point is that we are a more democratic nation than we ever have been. I cannot speculate on the type of government that existed more than 500 years ago – but we have better governance today than we did in known history. Our rules of society are as egalitarian as they ever have been, and we have built a strong sense of national identity – something that we sorely lacked for most of our history.

As I write this, we are about to take several steps backward from this pinnacle. People who take the backward step usually think that they are going forward. Indeed, what has been done by the government and the opposition has likely been done with the best of intentions. But it is a� ecting us, all of us. More importantly, as we progress on this war path, we quickly race towards the bottom of the basket – which as you

know does not exist.The premise that a democratic

government should not have a period of autocratic rule in between is correct. That is how a true democracy must function, our leaders know this much better than anyone else. Madam Prime Minister, you are right that the caretaker system should be abolished and that there is no logical reason to trust the caretaker government more than we trust you. Given that we have to abolish the caretaker government at some point, there is absolutely no reason why it should not be done now. It will no doubt solidify the foundations of this country.

However, Madam Prime Minister, perhaps we are too young for it. Perhaps we do not trust each other enough. We have come a long way in a very short time, but are we ready to truly trust other Bangladeshis – beings who have been bred to work at the whims of others?

Madam Prime Minister, not everyone in the country shares your vision unfortunately. Some of us are in fact brought up in a way that we do not trust anyone – not even you. Our honored opposition leader is therefore correct in her stance to challenge this position. Even if we trust you, we do not trust your men – candidates who you will put up to contest in the 300 seats. We actually doubt that you trust them fully yourself.

At the end of the day, politics is about winning, and a political party should aim to win even at the expense of higher principles. That is what political parties are created for, and that is what they will likely remain. Only once you become the government are you given the responsibility of thinking about the greater good of Bangladesh. Unfortunately for you, you are wearing both hats – you lead both the government and the Awami League.

Madam Prime Minister your many hats are a source of concern for us. We trust you a lot, but not enough. When all is said and done, we do not know which hat will rule supreme: Bangladesh or AL.

The point of this article is to o� er a solution. A solution that will not be suggested by your underlings because they fear for their status with you too much – after all, loyalty is the strongest currency in politics.

Madam Prime Minister, take the backseat. Do not personally compete in these elections, stay in power and ensure that these elections are run in the fairest manner possible. Stay at the helm of the AL and create a party that will outlast you. Put up your best candidates, and hope that you get to pick the next prime minister.

You should declare this unequivocally, and you should ask the leader of the opposition to join you in your pledge – perhaps even make your pledge conditionally. We would like the two of you to hold on to the nuclear buttons.

We need to know that you are acting in the interest of the nation, and not solely in the interest of the AL. This is the strongest signal that you could send to us.

Your minions may advise you otherwise, because of course they do not want a fair playing ground – don’t listen to them.You have a chance to end this bottomless business once and for all.

From a bigger perspective too, this is the right step for the nation. We want a healthy democracy and we cannot have that if two people are � ghting for the same seat over and over again. It does not leave room for others to develop leadership capabilities. Plus for you personally, Madam Prime Minister, you have everything to win and nothing much to lose.

You have created the orchestra – both of you actually. Now watch it play. l

Waseem Alim is a freelance contributor.

As we progress on this war path, we quickly race towards the bottom of the basket

We cannot have a healthy democracy if two people are � ghting over and over again

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

Commoners’ party? Not a chance!

The bold step forward

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 201412

MOVIE7:10pm Zee StudioThe Hunted7:12pm WBUnderworld

MISC10:00am Travel XPGreat Indian Hotels9:30pm AXN Top Gear

COMEDY9:00am Star WorldModern Family8:00pm Comedy CentralAnger Management

ONTV

Trial of Mallam Ilya premieredThe 3rd show will be held today at the same venuen Shadma Malik

Theatre troupe BotTala is presenting back to back showsings of The Trial of Mallam Ilya at the Natmandal audito-rium of the University of Dhaka from January 1 to 3. The show premiered on January 1. The story has been adopt-ed from an African play by Ghanian playwright Mohammad Ben Abdallah, translated by Soumya Sarker, and di-rected by Mohammad Ali Haider. The 3rd show will be staged today. The premiere opened with the pres-ence of 43 playwrights and the lighting of diyas on the premises of Dhaka Uni-versity. The number of playwrights at-tending signi� ed the 43 glorious years of Bangladesh’s victory.

BotTola, a leading theatre troupe, is known for re� ecting the voice of the people. During the unrest prevailing in the country, BotTola has held numer-ous events to convey social messages to the masses.

Also, the theatre has staged a num-ber of street performances in various places. This time, the troupe has fo-cused on the political unrest in the country. The � fth production of BotTo-la has added to their credit.

The play starts in complete dark-

ness — the story revolves around Mallam IIya, an unjust leader and a youth of 30, who gets captured. Act-ing against their orders, the rebels take Ilya to a secret place where they set up a court and put him on trial, accusing

him, as well as his whole generation, of corruption, sedition and treason against the state. According to the rebels, they have been exploiting and abusing power to meet their own inter-ests, while the people su� er. The play takes a dramatic turn when the shrewd Ilya manages to turn the table and put the blame on Malwal.

The director says: “The play por-trays the current political situation in the country. The drama criticises the politicians who work only for their own

bene� t rather than for the people. We believe the play relates to the recent condition of our country. The con� ict is apparently political — the so-called revolution against the so-called ill gov-ernance. The Trial of Mallam Ilya rep-resents a turbulent statehood re� ect-ing the political condition of any newly independent nation. The events of the play will remind the audience of the political instability of pre and post 1975 Bangladesh.” He adds: “Also, it was an attempt to stage a drama which is not based on the European concept. It was a challenge to convert the African cul-ture to meet the social context of our country.”

The lighting of the background is a blue-sky colour, as it depicts that with time, the colours change. Also the chorography lights were presented in bright colours. When the set was ready for the war, the lighting was red to rep-resent bloodshed.

The play features Pankaj Majumdar, Kazi Ruksana Parvin Ruma, Samina Luthfa Nitra, Imran Khan Munna, Mi-zanur Rahman, Tau� que Hasan, Ba-kirul Islam, Humaira Akhter, Abdus Salam, Hasnain Shikdar, Evan Reaz, Mohammad Rahim and Sheyuti Sheen Shahgufta. l

Chirkutt to perform at IGCC todayn Entertainment Desk

Chirkutt has carved out a name for themselves in the hearts of the mu-sic lovers of Bangladesh with their energetic live performances and powerful lyrics. The fusion band will perform today evening at the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre in Gulshan.

Chirkutt has so far released two hit albums Chirkuttnama and Jadur Shohor. Chirkutt’s numbers have

received a great deal of airplay, and they have also performed for televi-sion dramas and � lm soundtracks. Few of their highly catchy songs are: Jadur Shohor, Kanamachi, Khajna, Bondhu, Katakuti and more.

Chirkutt’s fame has transcended the borders of Bangladesh and has reached foreign shores, courtesy their performances at several re-puted international music festi-vals, such as the India Music Week and the Ja� na Music Festival in Sri Lanka where they repre-

sented new dimensions of Bangla-deshi band music to critical acclaim. They recently participated in the Chirkutt-Casa Murilo Collaboration Tour Norway’13 which featured six

widely-acclaimed concerts in six

Norwegian cit-ies. Their mu-sic videos have been featured also on MTVIndia. l

Pari airs on NTVn Entertainment Desk

Based on a true story of dream catch-ers, tele� lm Pari will air on NTV at 2:30pm today. Written and directed by Wahid Anam, the tele� lm features Lutfor Rahman George, Shatabdi Wadud, Saju Khadem, MM Morshed, Marzuk Rassel, Moushumi Hamid and many more.

The plot of the tele� lm revolves around a group of people who want to go to Malaysia by hiding themselves in a small ship.

They sold everything for this dan-gerous and life-threatening journeyin order to have a better future.They are tired of the long journeyand afraid of their unknown des-tination. l

Celebrated singer, Balam, will perform live on Maasranga Television today at 2:30pm. In this musical phono-live programme titled Ichche Ganer Dupor, Balam will sing his own favourite songs, and also songs requested by the audience

Sonali Danar Chil airs on Channel 9n Entertainment Desk

The single episode drama Sonali Danar Chil will air on Channel 9 tonight at 9:10pm. Written by Samaresh Majumder and directed by Habib, the drama fea-tures popular soap actors, such as Tawhid Abir, Aparna, Monira Yusuf Mami, Apur-bo Majumder and many more.

The story of the drama revolves around a boy named Nitul who has recently completed his A-levels and applies for higher studies abroad.Lately, he feels that he is in love with a girl named Neha who he met on facebook. Neha, however, has stopped communicating with him over the past few days.

Nitul becomes sad about it and meets his next-door neighbour Tonni. She introduces him to Bangladeshi culture and its beauty. She gives him

a poetry book written by Jibanananda Das. He becomes interested in Bangla-desh’s natural beauty. The day his � ight

is � xed, he writes a letter to his family and leaves home to explore Bangladesh and its villages. l

A scene from Sonali Danar Chil

UK TV show uncovers lost Van Dyck masterpiecen Entertainment Desk

A British television show dedicated to valuing peo-ple’s usually modest antiques said on Sunday that it has uncovered a “hidden masterpiece” worth up to 400,000 pounds.

The painting by 17th-century Flemish artist An-thony van Dyck depicts a bearded Brussels magis-trate wearing a ru� and was brought to the show by an English priest who bought it in an antiques shop for only 400 pounds.

Father Jamie MacLeod, who purchased the painting because he liked the thick gold-colored frame, plans to sell the portrait to fund the resto-ration of bells at the chapel of a religious retreat he runs in Derbyshire, England.

Philip Mould, an art expert working for the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, had suspected that the painting might be an original Van Dyck and had urged the cleric to have the canvas stripped back to its original paintwork and authenticated. l

Khans seem to rule Bollywood again in 2014n Entertainment Desk

The race to the “100 Crore Club” and be-yond will get more exciting in 2014 with Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman Khan bat-tling it out at the box o� ce, even as a crop of upcoming actors and their � lms are set to challenge the Khan reign in Bollywood.

January’s most anticipated � lm is Jai Ho, which will mark Salman’s return to the big screen after a gap of one and a half years. Slated for January 24 release, Jai Ho will see him play the role of a common man with lot of muscle power.

The actor is releasing his second � lm Kick on July 27 this year.

Aamir ended 2013 with Dhoom 3 and he looks set to have another great year in 2014. He has teamed up with his 3 Idiots di-rector Raj Kumar Hirani for PK. The story of the � lm has been kept under tight wraps and is set to release on June 6.

After the triumphant journey of ‘Chen-nai Express’ at the box o� ce, Shah Rukh Khan is also in the race with two � lms. He is back with his friend Farah Khan with the aptly titled Happy New Year and he re-cently revealed that he will star in Yash Raj Films’ Fan. The � lm where SRK will play the role of an ardent fan, will be directed by Band Baaja Baarat helmer Maneesh Sharma.

The Khan rule for over two decades is

facing � erce challenge from newcomers like Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Su-shant Singh Rajput.

Ajay Devgn is preparing himself for two big-budget � lms Action Jackson and Sing-ham 2.

Akshay Kumar also has two releases this

year with It’s Entertainment and Holiday.Priyanka Chopra has a lot to live up to

in her upcoming � lm where she plays the role of Olympian Mary Kom. Directed by Omung Kumar and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the biopic will tentatively release in July.

Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan’s Shaadi Ke Side E� ects is another � lm to watch out in 2014.

Sajid Khan is looking forward to put the debacle of Himmatwala behind him with another comedy Hamshakals starring Saif Ali Khan-Reitesh Deshmukh. l

Katrina declines Ranbir’s marriage proposaln Entertainment Desk

Even though the two have remained tight lipped about their whirlwind romance, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif’s alleged love life isn’t hidden from everyone. If re-ports are to be believed then Katrina has apparently declined Ranbir’s marriage proposal.

It seems Ranbir needs a dash of luck when it comes to convincing rumoured girlfriend Katrina. According to re-ports, Katrina said no to Ran-bir’s marriage proposal as she wants to focus on her career.

R a n b i r seems to be se-rious about his re-lationship with Kat and in an interview even spoken about get-ting married at the age of 28. Katrina and Ranbir’s marriage rumours grew stronger after Ran-bir’s cousin Kareena Kapoor teased him on Ko� ee With Karan about Kat and even addressed her as his sister-in-law. l

A scene from The Trial of Mallam Ilya SADIA MARIUM

The play portrays the current political situation in the country. The drama criticises the politicians who work only for their own bene� t rather than for the people

13DHAKA TRIBUNEFriday, January 3, 2014

SportDid you know?Manchester United

have gone the equivalent of two

full Premier League seasons without

conceding a penalty (76 games)

14 Bold Spurs leave Man United 11 points adrift

15 Bhatti’s double gives Pakistan edge in � rst Test

DAYS TO GO

0 7 2

Trainer appointed for women’s cricket team n Minhaz Uddin Khan

A trainer has been appointed for the Bangladesh national women’s cricket team for the � rst time since the team earned ODI status. The move by the BCB women’s wing has been made to follow the rules of the ICC Women’s World Twenty 2014. According to the tournament rules, every participating teams needs to have a trainer and in order to ful� ll the requirement, the BCB has appointed Kirti Bishwanath from India.

“ICC told us that the women’s team needs to have a trainer, that’s why we have appointed Kirti until the Twen-ty20 World Cup,” BCB women’s wing chairman MA Awal Chowdhury told the media yesterday.

Kirti has worked for the India Wom-en’s Athletics team and also with the India U-19 women’s cricket team.

The Bangladesh women’s team are scheduled to have few practice matches ahead of the ICC Women’s World Twen-ty20 tournament and camp is likely to resume within the next few days. l

Team BJMC goal scorers Aminur Rahman Sajib and Uche Felix (1 & 2 L) celebrate their victory over Soccer Club, Feni at the BNS yesterday MUMIT M

Woman power lifts Mohammedan Blues n Raihan Mahmood

Chittagong Mohammedan Sporting Club Blues’ all women team won the CJKS Chess League at the MA Aziz Sta-dium, Chittagong yesterday.

The two International Masters of the country Rani Hamid and Sha-mima Akhter Liza, Fide Master Shar-min Sultana Shirin, Mahmuda Haque Chowdhury Molly and Masuda Begum played for the Mohammedan Blues.

They won all seven of their matches to emerge winners of the event. Quality Sports, comprising Fide Master Abdul Malek, Candidate Master Mahtabuddin Ahmed Robin, Masum Hossain, Muji-bur Rahman and Nasir Hasan, � nished runners-up with 11 points.

In the last round, Mohammedan beat Pachlaish Juba Sangha 4-0 while Quality outplayed Agrabad Comrade Club 3.5-0.5. A total of 14 clubs partici-pated in the league. l

The triumphant Mohammedan Blues display their CJKS Chess trophy yesterday

DPL payments yet to be maden Minhaz Uddin Khan

It has been more than two months since the Dhaka Premier League concluded with Gazi Tank Cricketers lifting the title for the � rst time. However, the majority of the 12-participating clubs are yet to pay their cricketers in full for their service. It was learnt that most of the cricketers have only received 40% of their respective remuneration.

By contrast, the 56 cricketers and the team sta� from the recently concluded Amber Victory Day Twenty20 have al-ready been paid in full.

Four teams participated in the week long tournament in which Prime Bank Cricket Club emerged as the cham-pions. The Victorians received Tk2m while the runners-up earned Tk1m. The total budget of the tournament was Tk27.5m and each team had a budget of Tk4.3m.

Each side had 14 cricketers in total, o� which three were ‘A’ Category crick-eters entitled to Tk 250,000 each while the other 11 were of ‘B’ Category who received Tk150,000 each. This rounded

up to a total of Tk2.4m paid to the crick-eters for their services. Each coach was paid Tk110,000, the managers received Tk50,000, physiotherapists Tk25,000 and team boys Tk 10,000 each.

Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan assured timely pay-ments for the cricketers ahead of the tournament and has lived up to his word.

“All the cheques are ready. Prime Bank and UCB BCB XI players and of-� cials were paid right after the � nal match. Many of the cricketers from Abahani Limited and Mohammedan Sporting Club have also received their payments,” BCB game development chairman Khaled Mahmud told the me-dia yesterday.

The cricketers received payments for the Victory Day Twenty20 largely due to the commitment of the BCB president. However, the scenario is dif-ferent for the Dhaka Premier League and many of the cricketers have still not been paid for the second edition of Bangladesh Premier League which took place in February last year. l

Javed Omar bids adieu todayn Raihan Mahmood

Former national opener Javed Omar Belim will bid adieu to his long cricket career in an exhibition match between the Legends of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association at the Sahara BCB National Cricket Academy today. The Twenty20 match is billed to start at 9:30am.

Commonly known as Gollu among the cricketing circle, Javed’s memorable farewell will be given by former national stars Mehrab Hossain Opee, Habibul Bashar, Minhajul Abedin Nannu, Akram Khan, Faruk Ahmed, Khaled Masud Pilot, Khaled Mahmud Sujon, Athar Ali Khan, Enamul Haque Moni, Sanwar Hossian, Anisur Rahman, Hasibul Hossain Shanto, Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Shahriar Hossain Biddyut and Jahangir Alam . Current national star Mashrafe bin Mortaza was also consented to be present on the occasion.

Javed who made his ODI debut in 1995 played 59 ODI’s till 2007 and also featured in 40 Tests from 2001 to 2006.

Javed Omar was a regular player in the 1997 ICC Trophy that paved the way for Bangladesh in the 1999 World Cup Cricket.

Currently aged 38, Javed Omar did not o� cially declare his international or domestic retirement. l

Security meeting for upcoming eventsn Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) of-� cials � ew to Colombo, Sri Lanka to attend the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting where one of the main points of discussion will be the fate of host-ing the Asia Cup Cricket, which Ban-gladesh is scheduled to host. Before leaving the country, BCB o� cials had a meeting with the home ministry at the secretariat yesterday regarding secu-rity issues for the upcoming events in Bangladesh.

Kamal Uddin, the additional secre-tary of the home ministry, headed the

meeting and top Rab o� cials along with other highly placed people from other intelligence agencies, were also present.

Asia Cup Cricket is scheduled to take place from February 24 to March 7 in Bangladesh but recent political unrest in the country has led to secu-rity concerns and the world media has been speculating that the tournament might be shifted to another country.

It was learnt that the meeting be-tween the BCB o� cials and the home ministry was about the security plans for the upcoming World T20 Champi-onship, Asia Cup and the upcoming Sri

Lanka series starting later this month.However the CEO of the BCB Niza-

muddin Chowdhury informed that it was just routine work which took place before any home series. “It was our routine work. We always have a meet-ing with the home ministry before any home series,” he said.

According sources, the security provided for the visiting teams will be same as prime ministers and presi-dents receives, with Rab, BGB and Swat all working together.

Each team will be protected by an assistant police super with a unit of joint security force. l

BJMC edge past Fenin Shishir Hoque

A goal each from Aminur Rahman Shojib and Uche Felix helped Team

BJMC begin their Bangladesh Premier League campaign with a 2-1 victory over Soccer Club Feni at the Bang-abandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Shojib’s opener early in the second half was doubled by Nigerian mid� eld-er Uche Felix in the 67th minute before Beninese striker Wassiou Okalawon reduced the margin for Feni late in the game.

BJMC, who � nished fourth in the league last season, did everything they could do to put the ball in the back of the net in the � rst half and continued to dominate in the second half. The attacking trio of Shojib, Felix and Sam-son Iliasu constantly threatened the Feni defense and it was Shojib who ini-tiated the � rst real attack with just nine minutes on the clock.

After receiving a through ball from

Guinean striker Ismael Bangoura, Shojib broke into the penalty area and took a shot against an on rushing goal-ie, but his attempt was o� target.

BJMC was unlucky not to take the lead in the 16th minute when defender Shakil Ahmed’s header hit the wood-work from close range. A lovely cross from Shahanur Rahman Rony found Shakil unmarked in the six yard box, but his attempt hit the woodwork and bounced o� the goal-line before a Feni defender cleared the ball.

In the 40th minute, Nigerian mid� elder Samson Iliasu attempted a thunder-bolt from the edge of the box that � ew just an inch over the bar.

BJMC, who were semi-� nalist in the recently concluded Federation Cup, � nally got their reward two minutes into the second half. Aminur Raahman Shojib put the home side ahead, when he drove the ball past onrushing Feni keeper Uzzal, after a through pass from Nigerian mid� elder Uche Felix.

Feni had their � rst chance after sev-en minutes and could have equalized the level when Akbar Hossain Ridon � red the ball over the crosspiece from 10 yards after a cutback from Wassiou Okalawon.

However, BJMC maintained the pressure and doubled the lead in the 67th minute through Nigerian Uche Fe-lix. Felix comfortably beat Feni keeper Uzzal in a one-on-one situation and � nished calmly, after a long ball from Shakil Ahmed.

Meanwhile, Wassiou Okalawon re-stored some pride for the visitors in the 85th minute when the Beninese for-ward headed in a cross from the right � ank by Akrazzuman Liton to reduce the margin for Feni. l

BJMC coach Nasir relieved with the winn Raihan Mahmood

Team BJMC coach Ali Asgar Nasir ex-uded a sigh of re-lief after his team

started the Bangladesh Premier League campaign with a 2-1 victory over Soccer Club Feni at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. His counterpart Gambian Omar K Sise was categorically disappointed and said the second goal was de� nitely an o� -side goal.

Nasir said he was facing some o� -the-� eld problems and it was hard for him to gel the team together. “After the Federation Cup, I did not � nd all the players, especially the foreigners together. I could not work on some speci� c plans, I was a little worried but with a win, I am relieved,” he said.

Forward Aminur Rahman Sajib said, “I was determined to score a goal to prove I am a true professional. I want to score more and consolidate my po-sition in the national team,” said Sajib, who was in the trials but could not make it in the Sa� Championship.

Omar, the Gambian coach of Feni Soccer, said he would have liked to see the match � nish in a 1-1 tie. “The second goal was obviously an o� -side goal, the linesman was standing in front of me and he was behind the line of the ball. It was charity of from the linesman,” said Omar.

Zia drops to third placen Tribune Desk

Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman su� ered his � rst defeat at the Masters event in the 89thHasting International Chess Congress as he lost to Georgian GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili in the 5th round on Wednesday at Horntye Park, Hast-ings, East Sussex in England.

The game opened with the Colle system and Zia, playing with the white pieces, lost in 50 moves. The result saw the Bangladeshi fall from � rst to third place with 3.5 points after the 5th round. l

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

9’ Receiving a through ball from Ismael Bangoura, Shojib entered

the penalty area and took a shot against onrushing goalie that went outside the bar.

16’ A lovely cross from Shahanur Rahman Rony found unmarked

BJMC defender Shakil Ahmed in the six yard box, whose shot hit the wood-work.

40’ Nigerian mid� elder Samson Iliasu’s powerful strike from the

edge of the box � ew an inch over the bar.

47’GOAL! Aminur Raahman Shojib put BJMC ahead, slotting the ball

home past onrushing Feni keeper Ariful Islam after a through pass from Nigerian mid� elder Uche Felix.

67’GOAL! Uche Felix beat Feni keeper Uzzal in a one-on-one situation

and � nished to double the lead.

86’GOAL! Wassiou Okalawon headed in a cross of Akrazzuman Liton

from the right � ank to reduce the margin for the visitors.

Team BJMC 2-1 Soccer Club Feni Aminur 47, Felix 67, Okalawon 86

BJMC, who � nished fourth in the league last season, did everything they could do to put the ball in the back of the net in the � rst half and continued to dominate in the second half

Bold Spurs leave United 11 points adriftn AFP, Manchester

Emmanuel Adebayor inspired Tottenham Hotspur to a 2-1 win at Manchester United on Wednesday that is likely

to have ended the champions’ hopes of retaining the Premier League title.

Christian Eriksen doubled Spurs’ lead, after Adebayor had claimed his fourth goal in � ve games under new manager Tim Sherwood, before Danny Welbeck replied in vain for United.

Adebayor was stretchered o� in the 70th minute, but not even that injury could take the shine o� a Spurs perfor-mance that left United in seventh place and trailing leaders Arsenal by 11 points.

Tottenham were required to weather a bright and breezy opening from their hosts, but by the time Adebayor struck his 34th-minute opener, the London club were good value for their lead.

The goal came following a blistering counter-attack as Kyle Walker broke up a United foray and Spurs exploited space on United’s left.

Eriksen picked out Adebayor with a superb cross that the Togo international met, outjumping Chris Smalling in the process, to place an accurate header be-yond the dive of David de Gea.

Adebayor, revelling under the new White Hart Lane management, almost had a hand in a second goal minutes later as he won the ball in mid� eld and

found Aaron Lennon, whose cross was put wide by a sliding Roberto Soldado.

A two-goal advantage would not have � attered Tottenham, with Lennon squandering arguably the best chance of all as he raced onto Soldado’s 14th-min-ute pass, only to be denied by De Gea.

It was a stark contrast to the opening exchanges, when Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris appeared fortunate to es-cape after seeming to handle the ball outside his box as he thwarted a United attack. Welbeck was then denied by the Frenchman and Lloris enjoyed a slice of luck when he saved Smalling’s � erce shot with the inside of his thigh before the rebound squirmed over the byline for a corner.

But for all their early possession and swift attacking play, United failed to re-ally test Lloris in the opening hour.

Wayne Rooney’s frustration earned him a 41st-minute booking for a petulant tug at Mousa Dembele, while Welbeck dived in an unsuccessful attempt to earn a penalty after Vlad Chiriches made the slightest contact with him.

Appreciating the dire situation, Unit-ed manager David Moyes made a bold double substitution on the hour, bring-ing on forwards Shinji Kagawa and Ja-vier Hernandez for mid� elder Michael Carrick and full-back Smalling.

The move saw Antonio Valencia switch to right-back and it back-� red when he responded slowly as Spurs made it 2-0 in the 66th minute. l

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 201414

POINTS TABLETEAM P W D L GD Pts1 Arsenal 20 14 3 3 21 452 Man City 20 14 2 4 34 443 Chelsea 20 13 4 3 19 434 Liverpool 20 12 3 5 23 395 Everton 20 10 8 2 13 386 Tottenham 20 11 4 5 -1 377 Manchester 20 10 4 6 9 348 Newcastle 20 10 3 7 4 339 Southampton 20 7 6 7 3 2710 Hull City 20 6 5 9 -3 2311 Aston Villa 20 6 5 9 -6 2312 Stoke City 20 5 7 8 -11 2213 Swansea City 20 5 6 9 -2 2114 West Brom 20 4 9 7 -4 2115 Norwich City 20 5 5 10 -16 2016 Fulham 20 6 1 13 -21 1917 Cardi� City 20 4 6 10 -17 1818 Crystal Palace 20 5 2 13 -16 1719 West Ham 20 3 6 11 -11 1520 Sunderland 20 3 5 12 -18 14

Tottenham Hotspur's Danish mid� elder Christian Eriksen (R) celebrates with teammate Aaron Lennon after scoring the second goal during their English Premier League match at Old Tra� ord in Manchester, northwest England, on Wednesday AFP

Moyes furious with Webbn AFP, Manchester

David Moyes labelled a controversial decision by World Cup � nal referee Howard Webb as “scandalous” in the wake of his team’s 2-1 home defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.

The Manchester United manager was incensed by a late decision not to award United a penalty kick when Tot-tenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris chal-lenged home winger Ashley Young and questioned whether England’s most respected o� cial should be operating in the Premier League.

Despite television pundits widely backing Webb’s decision not to give United the penalty, an award that would surely also have led to the goalkeeper’s dismissal, Moyes was

adamant that the 42-year-old York-shireman should be dealt with by the PGMO, the body who appoint match o� cials.

“It was a scandal,” fumed Moyes. “It’s reckless, it’s late, it’s in the pen-alty box, I don’t know what else you can say.

“If you follow through on a player anywhere else on the pitch, foot-high, it’s a sending o� and a penalty kick. Ashley Young gets the ball and he fol-lows through. It’s an incredible deci-sion that didn’t go our way. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen.

“You only hope the people who put the referees in there look to see if the referees are doing as well as they can. But they keep picking them don’t they? The people who employ referees are

going to have to look at that.”The United manager’s angry mood

was not helped by Webb showing a yellow card to United youngster Adnan Januzaj for “simulation” in the second half.

It is not the � rst time this season the talented winger has been punished for diving but, on this occasion, Moyes believed his player was more sinned against than sinning.

“It was a terrible decision,” added Moyes. “Adnan gets bumped, the boy tried to nudge him o� the ball. That was a terrible decision.”

United have now dropped 26 points in the current campaign, one more than they squandered all of last season in winning the title in Alex Ferguson’s farewell term. l

Lampard, Ivanovic ruled out for a monthn Reuters

Chelsea mid� elder Frank Lampard and defender Branislav Ivanovic will be out of action until the end of January, the Chelsea website (www.chelseafc.com) reported on Wednesday.

Following a 3-0 Premier League win at Southampton that left his side two points behind leaders Arsenal, manag-er Jose Mourinho said the injuries they sustained in Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Liverpool would rule the pair out for about a month.

Serbian Ivanovic su� ered a knee injury and was substituted in the � rst half while England international Lam-pard sustained a muscle injury and did not come out for the second half. l

Arsenal facing striker crisis ahead of Spurs FA Cup tien Reuters, London

Arsenal are facing a crisis in attack ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup tie against rivals Tottenham Hotspur with Nicklas Bendtner injuring his ankle scoring in the 2-0 Premier League win over Car-di� City on Wednesday.

The Dane replaced the unimpressive Lukas Podolski in the second half but, having made a big impact during his 23 minutes on the pitch, he had to come o� near the end and joins � rst-choice strik-er Olivier Giroud on the sidelines.

“Unfortunately he (Bendtner) got injured today and it looks like it is not a question of days, but weeks, with a

sprained ankle. I am very sad for us, but for him as well,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told reporters. The vic-tory was wrapped up in added time by Theo Walcott at The Emirates and kept Arsenal one point clear at the top.

Without Bendtner and, more impor-tantly, Giroud for the third round clash at home to in-form Spurs, the Gunners must rely on Podolski who looked rusty and was disappointing in his � rst league start since September after injury.

Wenger added that he felt sorry for Bendtner, who was almost sold dur-ing the close season after being loaned out to Sunderland and Juventus for the two previous campaigns. l

Ex-United star Solskjaer named Cardi� managern AFP, London

Former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been appointed as the new manager of Cardi� City, the Premier League strugglers announced yesterday.

The 40-year-old joins from Norwe-gian club Molde and succeeds Malky Mackay, who was sacked on December 27 after his relationship with club own-er Vincent Tan broke down.

“Cardi� City Football Club are de-lighted to announce that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has joined the club as � rst team manager,” read a statement on the Cardi� website.

“Following discussions with Tan Sri Vincent Tan and club chairman Mehm-et Dalman, Ole, joining Cardi� City

from Molde FK, today.”Solskjaer, who attended Cardi� ’s 2-0

defeat at Arsenal on Wednesday in the company of Tan, has signed a “rolling contract”. Cardi� were promoted to the Premier League after a 51-year absence last season, but Solskjaer arrives to � nd the south Wales club one point and one place above the relegation zone. l

Oscar told me he dived: Mourinhon AFP, Southampton

Jose Mourinho re-vealed Oscar admitted diving in a failed at-tempt to win a penalty and get Southampton

goalkeeper Kelvin Davis sent o� in Chelsea’s 3-0 win at St Mary’s.

Brazil mid� elder Oscar had only been on the pitch for a matter of sec-onds after replacing Juan Mata when he went into the book for his theatrics and Blues manager Mourinho made it clear he thought referee Martin Atkin-son had made the right decision.

Oscar then went on to set up Fer-nando Torres for Chelsea’s � rst goal and scored the third himself after fel-low Brazilian Willian had made it 2-0.

Asked about Oscar’s dive, Mourinho added: “It was a fair yellow card. I

don’t like it but his explanation to me I also accept.

“He said to me; ‘when I saw the goal-keeper coming I was thinking ‘penalty, red card, goodbye’ and the goalkeeper - he is a 35 or 36-year-old man (Davis is 37) with lots of experience - thought ‘I am going to stop’.

“Oscar found himself in a moment of contradiction - and we are speaking about fractions of a second - where he thinks ‘contact, penalty, red card’ and there was certainly no contact.

“Oscar is a clean player who was waiting for the goalkeeper to come and smash him because that’s what nor-mally happens in those situations.”

Mourinho also opted against criticis-ing Mata, who reacted angrily after mak-ing way for Oscar -- a show of dissent that will inevitably intensify specula-tion that the Spanish mid� elder could

be leaving this month, with a number of sides from his home country keen to sign him. Mourinho insisted however that any move would not be instigated by him. “I want to keep him,” he said.

“I don’t want him to go. That is my opinion, my wish. But my door is open. The club’s door is open too so when a player wants to speak to us we are there waiting for them.”

Mourinho also played down Mata’s reaction to being substituted. “I think it’s frustration about the result be-cause we knew we had to win,” he said. “If we didn’t the di� erence to the lead-ers is bigger and when he came out of the team we were losing two points.

“So I think his frustration is about that because at the conclusion of the game, everybody - including him - was celebrating the victory in the dressing room.” l

I’m still Lazio coach says Petkovic as Reja runs trainingn Reuters

Vladimir Petkovic declared himself to be “proudly” continuing in his job as Lazio coach, he said in a statement on Wednesday amid media reports that his predecessor Edoardo Reja took charge of training for the last three days.

Switzerland announced on Dec. 23 that Petkovic had agreed to take over as their national team coach from next sea-son, replacing Ottmar Hitzfeld who will leave after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Italian media have reported that the appointment angered Lazio president Claudio Lotito who intends to � re the Bosnia-born coach rather than allow him to see out his contract which runs until June.

Lazio, whose next match is at home

to Inter Milan on Jan. 6, have not made any o� cial comment on Petkovic’s situation.

“The coach feels that he is proudly still the coach of Lazio,” said a state-ment released by Petkovic’s lawyer Paco D’Onofrio.

“(He) asks for a fair and direct meet-ing with president Lotito in order to clar-ify the absurd misunderstanding which has arisen, for the sake of the fans, the players and especially of the club.”

“Petkovic has learned with surprise and sadness about the news of a dis-pute by Lazio against him, as well as his closest collaborators, following his the commitment he has properly as-sumed with the Swiss federation and which starts next season,” added the statement.

“Immediately after signing the con-tract on Dec. 23, his moral commitment, as there is no sporting or legal obliga-tion in this sense, was to immediately tell president Lotito before the news became public, reiterating the obvious commitment of continuing the project with Lazio until the end of the season.”

Petkovic took over Rome-based Lazio at the start of last season, replac-ing Reja who resigned after being in charge for two camaigns.

He led them to seventh place in Se-rie A and the Coppa Italia title by beat-ing neighbours AS Roma in the � nal.

This season has been less impressive and they are 10th in the table with 20 points from 17 games. Petkovic’s future had been the subject of speculation be-fore the Swiss announcement. l

Allardyce blames 'irresponsible' Nolann Reuters

West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce laid the blame for his side’s 2-1 defeat at Fulham on “irresponsible” captain Kevin Nolan who was sent o� for lash-ing out in their key relegation clash on Wednesday.

The English Premier League London derby was level at 1-1 shortly before halftime when Nolan was dismissed by referee Mark Clattenburg after he pushed and kicked out at Fulham de-fender at Fernando Amorebieta as they chased a long ball.

“He is responsible for us probably losing the game more than anybody else,” Allardyce told reporters of Nolan after the defeat which left them stuck in 19th place in the table.

“You can expect it from a youngster ... but not Kevin,” he added. l

Manchester United manager David Moyes (R) runs onto the pitch as he appeals for a penalty for his player Ashley Young during their English Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Tra� ord in Manchester, northern England on Wednesday REUTERS

Bangladesh karate team � nish runners-up n Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh karate team � nished run-ners-up in the 4th International Karate Championship held at Mumbai India yesterday. Bangladesh earned a total of 11 gold, nine silvers and six medals bronze in the four day meet.

Hosts India emerged as the cham-pions clinching a total of 127 gold med-als. Bhutan � nished third with eight gold medals. Bangladesh earlier � n-ished runners up in the Team Kata and Kumi behind hosts India.

The meet organised by Sito Reo Ka-rate School saw a total of 387 partici-pants from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka demonstrate their karate skills. l

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014 15

Sri Lanka 1st innings 204 (A. Mathews 91; Junaid Khan 5-58, Bilawal Bhatti 3-65)Pakistan 1st innings (overnight 327-4)Younis Khan b Eranga 136Misbah-ul-Haq c Sangakkara b Herath 135Asad Sha� q c Silva b Lakmal 13Adnan Akmal c Senanayake b Eranga 6Bilawal Bhatti c Prasanna b Mathews 14Saeed Ajmal lbw b Herath 0Rahat Ali b Herath 0Junaid Khan not 4Extras: (lb2, nb2, w1) 5

Total: (all out; 129.1 overs) 383Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-59, 3-83, 4-301, 5-329, 6-342, 7-369, 8-378, 9-378Bowling: Lakmal 33-9-99-2, Mathews 13-1-43-1, Eranga 30-6-80-3, Herath 35.1-9-93-3, Senanay-ake 18-2-66-0Sri Lanka 2nd inningsD. Karunaratne b Junaid 24K. Silva c Akmal b Junaid 81K. Sangakkara c Younis b Bhatti 55M. Jayawardene c Sha� q b Bhatti 0D. Chandimal not out 24Extras: (lb2) 2

Total: (for four wkts; 61.3 overs) 186Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-146, 3-150, 4-186Bowling: Junaid 13.3-0-46-2, Ali 17-6-33-0, Bhatti 14-1-65-2, Ajmal 13-3-30-0, Hafeez 4-1-10-0

SCORE CARDShakib to play in Big Bash LeagueCountry’s leading all-rounder Shakib al Hasan is all set to touch another milestone in his career by becoming the � rst Bangladeshi to play in Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition the Big Bash League (BBL). The south paw will be featuring for the Adelaide Strikers in the popular tournament, in-formed Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Wednesday. The left-handed, who will depart for Australia as soon as he re-ceives the visa, will play for the Strikers for at least two weeks and may play lon-ger depending on his team’s progress in the competition. Shakib was chosen as a replacement for Strikers’ injured captain South African Johan Botha and the club’s director of cricket Jimmy Cox has sent an e-mail to the BCB asking for the all-rounder, con� rmed BCB. Shakib earlier featured in three di� erent T20 leagues – Friends Life T20 in England, Indian Premier League (IPL) and Carib-bean Premier League (CPL) - outside Bangladesh. The Adelaide Strikers are currently second in the BBL table with � ve points from three games. Their next two matches are scheduled to take place on January 5 and January 9 against the Sydney Sixers and the Melbourne Stars respectively.

–MU

Sheikh Jamal invited to IFA Shield New Dhaka powerhouse Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club Limited are expected to take part in the 121-year-old tournament IFA Shield in India later this month. Last year’s league runners-up received an invitation from All India Football Federation (AIFF) to participate in the tournament, which is considered the fourth oldest club cup competition in the world. The 14-day tournament is scheduled to begin on January 29 and Sheikh Jamal might play in the quarter-� nal immediately. Debu Mukharjee, director competition of AIFF, called Sheikh Jamal president Monjur Kader on the phone yesterday to invite Jamal to the tournament. This will be the � rst time in � ve years that a Bangladeshi club will participate in the one of the most prestigious tourna-ments in the sub-continent. Moham-medan participated in the invitational tournament in 2008.

–SH

Arsenal players send Schumacher get well messagePlayers from Premier League leaders Arsenal sent stricken Formula One great Michael Schumacher a get well message after their 2-0 home win over Cardi� City on Wednesday. Following the match at the Emirates Stadium, Ar-senal’s German forward Lukas Podolski posted a picture on Facebook of him and several of his team-mates holding an under-shirt bearing the message ‘GET WELL SOON SCHUMI’. In a writ-ten message, Podolski said: “Tough game, important win and we are on top position again. But our thoughts are with you, Michael. All the best wishes from AFC team to you. Poldi.” Seven-time world champion Schumacher began the new year in an induced coma in a hospital in the French city of Grenoble after hitting his head on a rock while skiing in the Alps. The German sustained severe brain injuries in the incident, but his condition was described on Wednesday as “stable”.

– AFP

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DAY’S WATCH

Bhatti’s double gives Pakistan edge in � rst Testn AFP, Abu Dhabi

Paceman Bilawal Bhatti removed expe-rienced Sri Lankan batsmen Kumar San-gakkara and Mahela Jayawardene o� his successive deliveries to put Pakistan in command of the � rst Test on Thursday.

The 22-year-old debutant removed Sangakkara (55) with the last ball of his tenth over and then had Jayawardene o� the � rst of his next to leave Sri Lanka at 186-4 in their second innings at close on the third day on a Sheikh Zayed Sta-dium pitch which had eased out for batsmen.

Junaid (2-46) built on the strikes by dismissing Kaushal Silva for 81, caught behind in the last over of the day.

Before that Silva and Sangakkara added 99 for the second wicket which had thwarted Pakistan’s pace-cum spin attack in the last session.

Dinesh Chandimal was the unbeaten batsman at close with 24 as Sri Lanka, who conceded a 179-run lead in the � rst

innings, are now seven runs ahead with six wickets in hand.

Earlier, Pakistan were dismissed for 383 runs in their � rst innings in reply to Sri Lanka’s 204.

Silva’s dismissal has given Pakistan a sni� of victory on fourth day. He hit 11 boundaries during his 275-minute stay and gave Sri Lanka a con� dent start of 47 with Dimuth Karunaratne (24).

Silva, playing only his fourth Test, used his feet well against spinner Saeed Ajmal and looked comfortable against Pakistani bowling, reaching his maiden half-century with a single o� Junaid.

The experienced Sangakkara, who hit an epic double hundred to draw a Test at the same venue against Pakistan in 2011, brought up his 43rd Test � fty with a crisp cut shot o� Bhatti for his sixth boundary.

It was Bhatti (2-65) who seeemed to have got Sangakkara on 29 when a sharp delivery trapped the left-hander leg be-fore and English umpire Richard Kettle-

borough upheld the appeal but the intel-ligent batsman challenged the decision.

Telvision replays showed the ball was pitched on leg-stump and the um-pire had to change the decision.

But Bhatti had the last laugh as he forced an edge o� Sangakkara which was smartly snapped up in the slips by Younis Khan.

Sangakkara hit six boundaries during his 98-ball stay.

Next over, Bhatti had a ball rear up from a good length which forced Jay-awardene to hand an easy catch to gully for a � rst-ball duck.

In the morning Sri Lanka’s pace and spin attack brought their team back in the game by taking the last six wickets for an addition of just 54 runs after Paki-stan resumed the day at 327-4.

Paceman Shaminda Eranga � nished with 3-80 while left-arm spinner Ranga-na Herath took 3-90 -- all his three wick-ets coming in ten balls on the day. Fast bowler Suranga Lakmal grabbed 2-99. l

Cook can take solace from Clarke’s experiencen Reuters

England skipper Alastair Cook admits to feeling less than 100 percent as he con-templates a possible 5-0 Ashes drubbing but he could look to the experience of his opposite number for an object les-son in how quickly fortunes can turn around.

Michael Clarke has certainly plumbed greater depths in the three years since he � rst took charge of Australia in a test in the � nal encounter of the 2010-11 se-ries at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

It has been England’s turn to be bat-tered physically and mentally in this se-ries, though, and Cook will lead his side out on Friday desperate to win the � fth test, avoid the dreaded series sweep and salvage a little pride.

“When you lose games of cricket, and you lose they way we have, it’s a tough place to be as a captain, certainly when you come on a big tour,” Cook told reporters at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.

“It does a� ect people, make no mis-take about it. It hurts for me, but it is what it is.

“All the criticism you get when you lose it’s always exaggerated and it’s kind of hyperbole when you win because that’s the way the media work.

“For me to say I am 100 percent right would be wrong, but I am proud of the way I’ve handled myself in this series.

“But I do know that I have a hell of a lot to learn as a player, as a captain, and I hope we can put in a good performance in this test match.”

Clarke has been showered with plau-dits for his captaincy in this series but has not forgotten that earlier this year he was pilloried when Australia were swept 4-0 in India and lost 3-0 in England.

“In the last six months we’ve gone from the worst Australian side ever to tour India, to one of the best Ashes wins in cricket history,” he told reporters at the SCG. “It’s the up and down rollercoaster that you go through as a player, and it’s no di� erent as a captain. l

Sharapova survives scare to set up Serena semin Reuters, Brisbane

Maria Sharapova rallied to beat Kaia Kanepi on Thursday and next faces Serena Williams in the Brisbane Inter-national semi-� nals knowing she must dramatically improve to end a run of 13 straight defeats against her nemesis.

World number one Williams com-fortably ousted Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-3 in 61 minutes, win-ning the � rst set without losing a point on serve - a feat the American had not achieved since she was a junior.

Sharapova was involved in an error-strewn battle, coming from a set down to defeat Estonia’s Kanepi 4-6 6-3 6-2 in two hours.

The pattern was set at the start as the match began with four successive breaks of serve.

Had 2012 champion Kanepi been in better form, the Sharapova-Williams showdown that the tournament organ-isers hoped for would have been scup-pered.

The Russian improved as the match went on and in the third set her service accuracy improved to 84 percent, nearly

double her e� orts in the � rst two sets.“You’re going up against a great

champion that’s playing great tennis at the moment,” Sharapova told reporters of her clash with Williams. “You know that you have to raise your level in order to beat her. “I think the intensity level of our matches are always high. I think she goes up and wants to play the best ten-nis against me.”

When asked about her frosty o� -court relationship with Williams, the Russian replied: “I have said everything I have to say about it”. The American played down the animosity between the pair, saying: “I don’t have anything against her”.

Elsewhere, second seed Victoria Aza-renka let slip nine match points before � nally beating Stefanie Voegele of Swit-zerland 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 6-1. The Belarusian next plays fourth-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic who defeated German An-gelique Kerber 6-7 (8-10) 6-3 6-1.

In the men’s event, unseeded Austra-lian Lleyton Hewitt beat sixth-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-5 6-3 and next faces Romanian quali� er Marius Copil in the quarter-� nals. l

ORS targeting accuracy, time saving in cricket: Taufeln AFP, Abu Dhabi

Simon Taufel, � ve-time umpire of the year, Thursday said a new trialled sys-tem will help attain more accuracy and save time on referred decisions during international cricket matches.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is trialling a new review system, called O� ciating Replay System (ORS), in which a non-match umpire is provid-ed with direct replays during a match. ICC introduced the Decision Review Sys-tem (DRS) in 2008 on a trial basis. The system allows both teams to challenge decisions made by on-� eld umpires and have them referred to the TV o� cial.

The new system, aimed at further improving the prevalent DRS, was � rst trialled earlier this year in the Old Traf-ford Test in the Ashes between Australia and England, and then in the � fth one-day international between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi last week.

The trial continues during the ongoing � rst Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi as well as the remaining two Tests in that series. Taufel, now ICC man-ager for umpires’ training and perfor-mance after his o� ciating retirement in 2012, said the ORS will help in e� ciency

and accuracy in refered decisions.“It’s a separate technology trial

which is independent of what is hap-pening with third umpire in this Test, and we are looking at di� erent options to better serve the game of cricket and have less interruptions and less breaks in play, and improve decision-making as much as we can,” Taufel told reporters.

Taufel, declared umpire of the year from 2004 to 2008, explained the sys-tem which will be provided to the third umpire after the ORS is approved.

“It is a series of monitors that will provide direct footage to those monitors in High De� nition (HD).

“I am able to say to the operator that I want to so and so replay this angle or I want to combine these two images together and he can quickly construct those images for me in what is an amaz-ing shortness of time,” said Taufel about the system.

Under the ORS it will be possible to look at a boundary check in under � ve seconds and look at the front-foot no-ball check in around two seconds, said Taufel, who o� ciated 74 Tests, 174 one-dayers and 34 T20 matches.

Taufel said the ORS will give televi-sion umpires more options. l

Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates after defeating Kaia Kanepi of Estonia at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane on yesterday AFP

Sri Lankan batsman Jayawardene leaves the � eld after being dismissed during the third day of their � rst Test against Pakistan at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi yesterday AFP

Bangladesh karate team receives the runners-up trophy at Mumbai yesterday

McIlroy targets two major wins in 2014n Reuters, London

Former world number one Rory McIlroy feels like he has his mojo back and wants to win two major championships this year to make up for a poor season in 2013.

The young Northern Irishman ruled the gol� ng roost in 2012, winning � ve titles, but a change of equipment and some o� -course legal distractions co-incided with a slump in form that has seen him slide to sixth in the rankings.

McIlroy ended a 12-month drought by landing last month’s Australian Open title and he said that victory had restored his belief going into the new season.

“I feel that my game is really com-ing back, going down to Australia and winning,” the 24-year-old told the BBC.

“Beating (world number two) Adam Scott down there was really nice and while it doesn’t make up for the other weeks during the year, it gives me some momentum for 2014. “I won a major in 2011 and 2012 but not in 2013 so I’ll try to make up for that with two this year.”

McIlroy, who announced his en-gagement to former world number one tennis player Caroline Wozniacki ear-lier this week, said he was learning to handle the pressure of competing for golf’s top prizes. l

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

Auto-rickshaw driver sues CMP DC, 2 others for briben Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver yes-terday lodged a case with a Chittagong court against three tra� c o� cials of Chittagong Metropolitan Police includ-ing the deputy commissioner (north) for seeking bribe from him.  

The court ordered Additional Com-missioner (Crime and Prevention) Banaz Kumar Majumder of CMP to in-vestigate the matter and submit the report to the court on January 28, said sources.

Metropolitan Sessions Judge SM Mujibur Rahman passed the order yes-terday after the court hearing. Plainti� CNG driver, Ejahar Mia, lodged the case with the court.

The accused are North zone DC (Tra� c) Kusum Dewan, Tra� c In-spector Mir Nazrul Islam and Tra� c Sergeant Mamunul Haq of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP).

According to the case document, the

CNG-run auto-rickshaw, Chatta Metro Tha 11-6851, which was bought in 2003 by Ejahar was stolen from the city’s Baro Quarters area under Pahartoli po-lice station in 2009.

The CMP tra� c recovered two CNGs, holding the same number plate, from the city’s Wasa intersection on April 29, 2013.

The plainti� claimed that one of the recovered CNGs was his.

When he communicated with the tra� c o� cials, including the DC, showing necessary document for tak-ing back his vehicle, the tra� c o� cials demanded bribe of Tk2,00,000.

As Ejahar did not give the bribe, the tra� c division handed over the CNG to a counter� et owner and the tra� c po-lice o� cials also sued Ejahar in a forg-ery case.

Ejahar lodged the case with the court under Anti-Corruption Act 1947 and Criminal Procedures Code, said Md Fuad Hasan, bench assistant of the court. l

ARSON ATTACK

Two friends � ghting for livesn Ashif Islam Shaon

They were not related by blood, yet their friendship was one typi� ed only by blood-brothers, developed in ear-ly years and cemented through their union as partners in business. The two childhood buddies are now struggling for their lives at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The unit received a total of three patients yesterday, including the two buddies Alamgir Hossain (42) and Lok-man Hossain (38), after a brief reprieve from the continued communication blockades that marked the immediate past month.

The three were injured as their goods-carrying covered van was torched by pickets in Gazipur on Wednesday, the � rst day of the opposi-tion-enforced non-stop blockade.

Alamgir and Lokman received burns covering 10% and 11% of their bodies

respectively – not considered critical in medical terms – but doctors say their condition could prove otherwise since the � ames had hurt their respiratory systems.

Hailing from Rangpur’s Kotowali region, the two had known each other since their childhood and come to Gazi-pur to do business together, said Saleha Begum, Alamgir’s wife.

“They were good friends and did business together. They would bring vegetables from Manikganj and sell them at Konabari.”

They chose the � rst day of the year to take their consignments of vegeta-bles, thinking the auspicious occasion would save them from any eventuali-ties on the streets.

“They were tired and went to sleep. Around 11pm when the van reached Sa� pur of Kaliakour, just one kilometre o� Konabari, a group of pickets hurled a petrol bomb in their direction,”

Saleha said.They were jolted awake by the ex-

plosion and found themselves writh-ing in pain as the � ames had engulfed them. Driver Moksed Ali, who also received a minor injury, continued to drive despite the attack and pulled o� only after he was sure there was no more danger around.

Locals then came to their rescue and had an ambulance take them to DMCH, following the advice of doctors of a local clinic. They were admitted to the burn and plastic surgery unit early yesterday.

Abdul Halim, a nephew of Lokman, said the two families had no one but the injured two to take care of them.

“We don’t want justice. We want them to recover soon. Their families need them,” he said.

Doctors at the hospital released cov-ered van driver Moksed after primary treatment. l

Recurring issues keep BNP from its focusn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The BNP has apparently failed to stick to its core demand – elections under a non-party caretaker government – in the face of “situations created one after another by the government” keeping the party away from its ongoing move-ment.

Senior and mid-ranking BNP leaders who are expected to be on the streets for the nonstop blockade programme are now busy to “free” Chairperson Khaleda Zia, whose residence has been cordoned o� by law enforcers since Saturday, the day before the opposition alliance’s “March for Democracy” pro-gramme was scheduled.

A group of BNP MPs led by opposi-tion Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque yesterday submitted a memorandum to Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and also sought an appointment with President M Abdul Hamid “to know if Khaleda was under house arrest.”

“The government is creating situa-tions one after another to divert peo-ple’s attention. But its ill motive to mis-lead the people of the country from our movement will not succeed,” a senior leader said yesterday.

BNP lawmakers who went to meet the speaker were, however, not seen when Khaleda tried to come out of her residence to join the Dhaka march.

Although the opposition leaders and

activists were heard chanting slogans in protest against Khaleda’s “con� ne-ment” – Khaleda Ziar kichhu hole jolbe agun ghore ghore (every house will be set on � re if anything happens to Khaleda) they were not seen attempt-ing to enter her house.

BNP Vice-Chairman Selima Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “Our main de-mand is an election under a non-parti-san government and, at the same time, freeing Khaleda Zia from con� nement and reopening of her o� ce and the par-ty o� ce.”The opposition lawmakers will meet the president at 4pm today at Bangabhaban.

The alliance had enforced nonstop blockades on November 26, just a cou-

ple of days before the UN special envoy Oscar Fernandez-Taranco visited Ban-gladesh and held a series of meetings with BNP and Awami League leaders to resolve the prevailing political crisis.

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quad-er Molla was executed on December 12 which forced the Islamist party to take to the street.

Khaleda announced the “March for Democracy” programme on December 28 and law enforcers have since cor-doned o� her residence.

Many BNP leaders believe that wag-ing a movement is not hard for the par-ty if the all 486 executive committee members, except some 35 who are in jail, take to the street. l

Police to use ambulances for carrying out patrolling on election day28 ambulances to be sent to di� erent police stations in Dhaka n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

The police in Dhaka city are set to use ambulances belonging to di� erent pub-lic medical establishments – for carry-ing out patrols and maintaining law and order during the 10th parliamenta-ry polls on January 5.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has issued a letter of request to di� erent medical colleges, specialized and other public hospitals for sending a total of 28 ambulances to 28 police stations of Dhaka.

The ambulances’ doctors, nurses, sta� s and the primary instrument for treatment were also told to be kept ready for assisting the police.

Dr Md Shah Newaz, director (admin-istration) of the DGHS, issued the letter on January 1, terming the issue as a “very emergency matter” in the letter.

Seeking anonymity, several se-nior o� cials of public hospitals raised

questions about the justi� cation of an emergency vehicle like ambulance be-ing used to control law and order. They also claimed that health service of dif-ferent medical colleges and specialised hospitals would be hampered, as the emergency ambulance service would not be available.

Sources said the requisitioned am-bulances included three from Dhaka Medical College Hospital, two from Chest Disease Hospital, one from Civil Surgeon’s O� ce, one from Public Em-ployees Hospital, six from National Car-diovascular Institute, one from Nation-al Mental Institute, two from Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, one from National Kidney Disease Hos-pital, three from Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, two from National Eye Institute and Hospital, two from National Cancer Research Institute and Hospital, two from National Institute of Orthopedic and Rehabilitation, one

from ENT hospital and one from Ban-gladesh Secretariat Clinic.

It has been learnt that the ambulanc-es will be sent at the following police stations: Demra, Jatrabari, Shyampur, Sutrapur, Wari, Kadamtali, Gendaria, Kotowali, Bangshal, Chalk Bazar Mod-el, Lalbagh, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Mir-pur Model, Mirpur, Pallabi, Kafrul, Rupnagar, Bhashantek, Gulshan, Can-tonment, Khilkhet, Bhatara, Banani, Dokkhinkhan, Uttarkhan, Turag, Ut-tor-Purbo, Uttor-Poschim and Airport police station.

Seeking anonymity, a DMCH o� cial said the hospital has been told to send away all its three ambulances, which are used to carry non-resident doctors, nurses and other o� cials for emergen-cy calls.

Services would be hampered by the absence of all ambulances, the o� cial said, adding that alternative initiatives would be made to continue the services.

The National Mental Institute was asked to send one ambulance, al-though it did not own any, an o� cial of the institute said.

The DGHS o� cials however later told the institute that it did not need to send any ambulance as the vehicle would now be arranged from other sources.

Despite requests made to DGHS officials, several senior hospital officials have reportedly been told that they were bound to send the ambulances as it would be used for national interest.

When contacted, Dr Shah Newaz said the divisional commissioner of Dhaka recently wrote a letter to the DGHS for arranging the ambulances.

The DGHS director however denied claims that hospital services would be hampered, saying the authorities would take alternative steps to ensure that services were not disrupted. l

Uncertain future awaiting family of Chandpur deceasedn Our Correspondent, Chandpur

The family of Faruk Patwari – who was killed during clashes between blockade supporters and Border Guard Bangladesh members in Chandpur on Wednesday – now faces a life of uncer-tainty, as they do not know who would take care of them after the death of the family’s sole earner.

“My father left the house yesterday morning to work at the crop � eld, but police [BGB] killed him,” 10-year-old Sajib Patwari, the eldest son of Faruk, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Faruk’s seven-year-old son Zahid Hasan and six-month-old daughter Jannat Akhter were too young to com-prehend the loss and seemed puzzled to see so many people at their house.

The mother of the deceased was lamenting, saying who would bring medicines for her, while Faruk’s wife Su� ya Begum was fainting frequently.

The sudden death of Faruk had also left the neighbours without proper words to console the bereaved family.

Faruk supported his � ve-member family by selling fruits from his mo-bile-store at the local Debpur Bazar and by working at other people’s crop � elds

when political turmoil did not allow him to sell fruits.

On Wednesday, Faruk was among the 20 people who were injured when BGB forces opened � re on pro-blockade activists after they hurled brick chips and vandalised the frontier guards’ ve-hicles on the Chandpur-Comilla High-way near Mahamaya Palli Bidyut area.

Faruk was later brought to Chand-pur Sadar Hospital, where the on-duty doctor declared him dead.

Following the incident, the 18-par-ty alliance staged an eight-hour strike from 6am to 2pm yesterday, protesting the killing of Faruk, who was also an activist of Juba Dal.

Shwapan Mahmud, chairman at Shahmahmudpur union under Chandpur sadar upazilla, called for proper punishment to be served for the killing.

Mahbub Morshed, o� cer-in-charge of Chandpur model police station, said police had � led a case against at least 200-300 people, including 15 named activists of the opposition alliance, in this connection.

Following a post-mortem, the de-ceased was buried at his family grave-yard yesterday afternoon. l

One arrested in AL leader Saiful killing casen Our Correspondent, Sirajganj

DB police arrested an enlisted convict on Wednesday night in connection with the killing of local Awami League leader Saiful Islam of Bayatara village under sadar upazila.

Arrestee Abu Taleb is a cousin of Joban Ali, also an accused in the case. Police arrested him in Pathrail Kendri Bazar area under Bhuapur upazila of Tangail.

Nasir Uddin, in-charge of Sirajganj detective police, said the BNP-Jamaat miscreants called Saiful Islam on De-cember 29 and hacked him to death.

Abdul Khalek, nephew of the de-ceased, lodged a case against 30 mis-creants including some BNP activists and robber Joban Ali. Later, the case was transferred to detective police.

Earlier, three people were shown ar-rested in the case after 20 people arrest-ed on the very day of the incident. l

Primary students cherish the happy moments of receiving new textbooks all over the country. The photo was taken from Rupganj in Narayanganj DHAKA TRIBUNE

Locals catch two alleged thieves at Shekherchar Panchabati area in Rajshahi city yesterday. They were accused of stealing a chair and a pressure cooker. People of the area said drug addiction pushed the young people of the locality to commit such petty crimes DHAKA TRIBUNE

Over 50% candidates own over Tk1 crore properties: Shujann Tribune Report

More than half of the candidates, in-cluding those elected uncontested, of the 10th parliamentary polls have more than Tk1 crore wealth, NGO Shu-shashoner Jonno Nagorik said in a re-port yesterday.

The report that analysed the candi-dates’ a� davits published on the Elec-tion Commission’s website, said out of the 153 candidates elected uncon-tested, 115 have more than Tk1 crore wealth.

The number is 162 from among the 387 candidates running for the remain-ing 143 seats.

Of the total of 540 runners for all the 300 seats, 103 have wealth worth over Tk5 crore.

SHUJAN Secretary Badiul Alam Ma-jumder read out the report at a press conference at the National Press Club yesterday.

He said it is unconstitutional for

lawmakers and ministers to amass wealth illegally in the name of doing business as lawmakers was unconsti-tutional.

The report also said out of the 387 waiting for contest, 50.18% submit tax returns.

Badiul said a total of 86 aspirants did not provide information, while many others did not mention the value of their properties in the a� davits that they had submitted.

He added that a total of 226 out of 387 took loan from banks while 89 out of 153 elected uncontested took loan at di� erent times.

Twenty two out of those elected un-opposed and 37 out of the 387 MP-as-pirants are facing criminal charges of various sorts, the report says.

Of the 540 aspirants, 43 have got SSC ad 60 HSC degrees while 202 are gradu-ates, 180 post-graduates and three did not mention their educational quali� -cations. l

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

Fuel oil demand drops as transport paralysed‘Disruption of diesel supply to the growers for powering irrigation pumps was also a cause’

n Asif Showkat Kallol

The fuel oil consumption has de-creased by over 24% as continuous blockades and shutdowns have dis-rupted vehicular movements across the country.

According to Bangladesh Bank data, two million tonnes of the energy was consumed in July-October period of the current � scal year – less than the usual consumption.

“Transport sector has been para-lysed by the political turmoil, which caused decline in the demand,” said a senior o� cial at the power and energy ministry.

Diesel could not be transported to the farmers to irrigate Aman and Boro paddy � elds on time during the period because of the same reason, the o� cial added.

“Disruption of diesel supply to the growers for powering irrigation pumps was also a cause (for the decreased fuel use.)”

The transport owners said they had been unable to ply their vehicles on the streets because of political violence as the continuous attacks were being per-petrated upon the vehicles.

“We are at a constant risk of facing political violence on the streets and highways. Our loss is huge for last cou-ple of months,” said Rustom Ali, gen-eral secretary of Truck-Covered Van Owners Association.

Bangladesh Bank data shows, the import also fell by 24.2% to $1.2m during the four-month period from $1.5m one year earlier.

The suspension of power genera-tion in several diesel-� red plants and the closure of the country’s lone crude oil re� ner, the Eastern Re� nery Ltd, at that time also pushed down fuel oil consumption, said a high o� cial of en-ergy ministry.

According to energy ministry, the country’s diesel consumption declined almost by 75% to around 3,000 tonnes per day during hartals and blockades. The usual consumption is around 12,000 tonnes per day.

Others like furnace oil, kerosene and jet fuel did not however face that

much impact of political unrest, ac-cording to o� cial sources, as vehicles are not run by these fuels.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation chairman Md Yunusur Rahman ruled out any fuel oil, includ-ing diesel, crisis in the country. “There is no crisis of fuel oil and no crisis of diesel.”

He hoped the vehicular movements

would increase on the highways as law enforcers are giving security there.

BPC estimated it would need to import 5.40m tonnes of crude and re-� ned oil in 2014, which is 1.9% higher than that of last year.

For this, it will require an estimated amount of $5bn. Last year, the import costs BPC the same amount.

BPC currently has term deals to

import re� ned oil products from the Kuwait Petroleum Corp, Malaysia’s Petco, Philippine National Oil Com-pany, Emirates National Oil Company, Egypt’s Middle East Oil Re� nery, Mal-dives National Oil Company, PetroChi-na and Indonesia’s BumiSiakPusako.

The corporation has also deals to im-port crude oil from Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. l

www.dhakatribune.com/business FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 2014

B3 Meghna Condensed Milk biggest gainer at DSE

B4 Bad days for printers thanks to uncontest-ed polls

S T O C K SDSEX 0.65% 4314.09 ▲

DS30 1.81% 1505.08 ▲

CSEX 0.66% 8478.37 ▲

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 78.4 77.4 80 79EURO 109.27 106.04 107.9 103.9

INR 1.33 1.18 1.28 1.18SAR 21.01 20.54 21 20

The most vulnerable workersn Asif Showkat Kallol

Jobs of the informal sector workers have a� ected seriously due to the ongoing political unrest while it is at stake in the formal sector like readymade garments, labour o� cials said.

They believe the escalating political unrest has not yet badly hit the formal sector like readymade garment, textiles and agro-based industry. But the workers of construction, transportation, hotel and restaurants are losing their jobs every day.

“The workers of the formal sector are not losing jobs in a huge number,” Labour Secretary Mikail Shiper told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “We have no authority to lend hands in the informal sector, but they are the most vulnerable to the political unrest,” he said, however.

The secretary said the government is satis� ed with the formal sector as the workers were not losing jobs as such while there is no labour unrest in the RMG sector thanks to the announce-ment of the new minimum wage.

Garment manufacturers and export-ers say a total of 11 garment factories closed down due to the prolonged blockades and hartals during last three months while production declined by 15% during the last couple of months.

Nurul Islam, a sta� of a prominent restaurant in Dhaka, said he has been forced to leave his job because poor cus-tomer presence at the restaurant these days. “We are just redundant as the sales drastically dropped.”

The truck of Manuir Hossain was set on � re in Gazipur recently as he said: “I have no choice but to sit idle with the burned truck.” He has not enough money to repair the truck. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data shows more than 40% of the total 5.41 crore employed labour are working in the informal sector. A total of 1.5 crore people are working in the construction, hotel, restaurant, transportation and communication sectors. l

Domestic air tickets in black market Airlines cash in on the in� ux of passengers as blockades paralyse highways n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

With the surge in domestic air passen-gers due to continuous blockades and shutdowns, tickets are now available in black market at higher prices.

Passengers alleged that when the airlines show all tickets sold, the black market has now become a source of costlier tickers.

Some also alleged that the airlines sta� are involved in the black market-ing of tickets.

However, the airlines refuted the allegations and said if outsiders are involved, the companies have no tool to stop them as there is no system of showing traveller’s passport like in in-ternational journey.

Apart from it, the domestic airlines have also raised fares capitalising on the in� ux of blockade-hit travellers, said the passengers.

“We have to pay higher prices for air tickets in domestic routes now,” said Murad Hossain, a regular passenger in Dhaka-Chittagong route.

“As we have no other option for travelling during the blockades and hartals, the airlines are taking the chance of it raising fares.”

He said when the fare in the Dha-ka-Chittagong route was generally Tk4,000 for an economy class ticket, it has soared to Tk6,000-6,500 after the highways are a� ected by the continu-ous blockades.

Another passenger tarvelling in the same route made the same allegations. He said the sta� are themselves com-plicit with manipulating ticket sales.

“Promotional tickets are not found now. But they do exist and the airlines sta� are selling it to the customers at higher prices,” said Yasir Adnan, a pas-senger.

When contacted, Quamrul Islam, assistant general manager of United Airlines, ruled out the fare hike.

“I can con� rm you that there has

been no increase in fares for last cou-ple of months,” he said, adding they however needed to “reorganise” fares in di� erent routes in November.

“There are � ve categories of fare on the basis of how early a passenger buys his ticket. In the range, the fair will go up as the � ight time comes closer. If someone seeks ticket just few hours before the � ight, he will have to pay the highest fare in the range.”

About the black marketing, a high executive of Regent Air ways said they do not have any mechanism to prevent it.

“In the current system, any person

can travel in a domestic route with the ticket bought in other’s name,” he said.

The airline operators said the occu-pancy rate has increased to 60-100% during the ongoing political turmoil.

In Bangladesh, four airlines operate domestic � ights – the Bangladesh Bi-man, United Airways, Regent Airways and Novo Air. Bangladesh Biman is state-owned and the three others are private companies.

“We have no tickets unsold in Dha-ka-Jessore route for next three days (till Saturday),” United Airways’ Qua-mrul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“If someone now comes to buy Sun-day’s ticket, he will have to pay the highest price,” he added.

Bangladesh Biman and Novo Air however say they see no increase in their passengers because of blockades which have paralysed road transporta-tion.

Novo Air is known to charge high-er than other competitors as it claims that it o� ers better service. According to the airlines, it’s rather losing market share during the political unrest.

“Our occupancy rate has dropped below 30% in December from 50% during October-November period,”

said a high o� cial of NovoAir, request-ing anonymity.

“On Wednesday, there were only eight passengers Dhaka-Jessore route and 15 passengers in the return � ight.”

The o� cial said: “NovoAir is a luxu-rious operator. Our regular passengers have cancelled traveling due to polit-ical unrest. When other operators are fully occupied, then some passengers come to us.”

“The political situation is making us lose.”

On the other hand, Bangladesh Bi-man is now busy operating interna-tional � ights. l

BTRC approves service quality guideline for mobile operatorsn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regu-latory Commission approved a guide-line for the mobile telecom operators to improve their service quality.

A meeting chaired by BTRC chair-man Sunil Kanti Bose gave the approv-al yesterday.

Under the guideline, the operators will have to ensure a call success rate of 75% to maintain the service stan-dard. And for data service, the opera-tors will have to maintain at least 80% speed rate of o� er announced.

The guideline says at least three call attempts out of four have to be suc-cessful in access to network to main-tain service quality.

The quality of service parame-ters for mobile telecom service has introduced a new benchmark with13 key performance indicators to as-sess mobile phone operators’ service quality.

“We have approved the guideline to-day (Thursday) and within a very short time it will be published in gazette,” BTRC vice chairman Md Giashuddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune.

O� cials said although the guideline has been approved, some of the issues

still remain unsettled. Before publish-ing the guideline in gazette, the regula-tor will settle them.

“Mobile phone operators will pro-vide monthly and quarterly reports to the regulator. They also audit the re-port,” said a BTRC high o� cial.

Generally, complaints are prevalent against the operators’ voice service in Bangladesh, so regulators concentra-tion based on it.

BTRC want to monitor the quality of river, rail and high ways side, where mainly customers usually su� er.

Parameters have also been included to � x congestion in network.

BTRC also want to monitor oper-ators customer cares, who they deal with the subscribers and what their responds.

There is customer care number 121 which was supposed to be made toll-free, but the operators didn’t.

Instead, they made a separate num-ber 158 toll-free as there was a BTRC directive to introduce charge-free cus-tomer care number. But the fact is that the customers are completely unaware of the number.

Mobile operators are concerned about the guideline but declined to make any comment on it o� cially. l

Vehicular movements become almost halted during the blockade leading to lower consumption of fuel DHAKA TRIBUNE

B2 Stock Friday, January 3, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks continue to post modest rallyn Tribune Report

Stocks registered modest rally for the third straight session amid vola-tility yesterday with persistent poor trading.

Initially hesitant market ended in green, led by institutional buying support. The benchmark DSEX in-dex gained nearly 28 points or 0.7% to settle at 4,314. The blue chip com-prising index DS30 rose 26 points or 1.8% to 1,505. The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, closed at 8,478 with a rise of 55 points.

Participation in trading contin-ued to drop, indicating lower vol-ume of trade. Turnover at the DSE stood at Tk370 crore, a fall of 10% over the previous session.

The engineering sector, led by Appollo Ispat, contributed 17.6% to the total market turnover - highest among all sectors. After a long time, telecommunications saw the high-est gain of more than 2%.

It was followed by power and pharmaceuticals, which closed 1.7%

and 1.6% higher respectively. The � nancial sectors – banks, � -

nancial institutions and insurance – performed poorly.

Lanka Bangla Securities in its dai-ly market analysis said after rising around 24 points in � rst one hour, the market became volatile.

At the end of the trading ses-sion, the benchmark index closed to a new high level extending to last one month’s peak and approach-ing towards next resistance level of 4,400, it said.

IDLC Investment said despite prevailing uncertainty, the last trad-ing session before election ended positive. Gainers took a marginal lead over the losers as out of 289 issues traded, 150 closed higher, 74 lower and 32 remained unchanged.

Newly listed Appollo Ispat was the most traded stock, followed by Lanka Bangla Finance, Sum-mit Purbanchal Power Company, Golden Son, Generation Next Fash-ion, Square Pharmaceuticals andBangladesh Submarine Cable Com-pany. l

News from trade serverICB M. FUNDS: Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) has informed that BSEC has extended the term of 8 Mutual Funds of ICB (i.e. 1st to 8th ICB Mutual Fund) up to December 31, 2014.

BEDL: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the entity rating (surveillance) of the Company as "AA2" based on audited � nancial state-ments up to June 30, 2013; bank liability position as on December 30, 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

NPOLYMAR: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Company as "A+" in the long term and "ST-3" in the short term in consideration of � nancials of the Company up to 30th June 2013 (audited) and other relevant quanti-tative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

GEMINISEA: The Company will be placed in "Z" category from existing "A" category with e� ect from January 01, 2014 as the Company did not approve any dividend for the year ended on September 30, 2013.

RNSPIN: The Company will be placed in "Z" category from existing "A" category

with e� ect from January 01, 2014 as the Company failed to hold AGM in the year 2013.

USMANIAGL: The Company will be placed in "Z" category from existing "A" category with e� ect from January 01, 2014 as the Company failed to hold AGM in the year 2013.

DAFODILCOM: The Company will be placed in "Z" category from existing "A" category with e� ect from January 01, 2014 as the Company did not approve any divi-dend for the year ended on June 30, 2013.

RIGHT SHARE: ARAMITCEM: Subscrip-tion 23.03.2014 to 17.04.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.01.2014. RUPALILIFE- Subscription 06.04.2014 to 05.05.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 16.01.2014.

IPO Subscription: Emerald Oil Industries Limited subscription date 06-12 January 2014, NRB upto 21 Januray 2014. At per, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Matin Spinning Mills Limited subscription date 26-30 January 2014, NRB upto 08 Feburay 2014. @ Tk. 37/-, face value taka 10 and market lot 200.

Dividend/AGM

ECABLES: 10% cash, AGM: 01.03.2014, RD: 29.12.2013.

USMANIAGL: 11% Cash & 10% Stock, AGM: postponed, RD: 07.11.2013.

DESCO: 10% Cash & 15% Stock, AGM: 04.01.2014, RD: 05.11.2013.

ANWARGALV: 7% Case for general share-holders, AGM: 13.01.2014, RD: 11.11.2013.

MPETROLEUM: 70% Cash & 20% Stock, AGM: 17.01.2014, RD: 28.11.2013.

POWERGRID: 15% Cash, AGM: 18.01.2014, Time: 10:00 AM. RD: 01.12.2013.

EASTRNLUB: 30% Cash, AGM: 25.01.2014, RD: 04.12.2013.

JAMUNAOIL: 90% Cash & 10% Stock, AGM: 25.01.2014, RD: 04.12.2013.

SAVAREFR: No dividend, AGM: 30.01.2014, RD: 19.12.2013.

PADMAOIL: 90% Cash, 10% Stock, AGM: 15.02.2014, RD: 23.12.2013.

SAMORITA: 30% Stock, AGM: 11.01.2014, RD: 25.11.2013.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Usmania Glass -Z -9.93 -10.73 124.34 124.30 126.00 124.20 0.093 5.68 21.9R. N. Spinning-Z -9.76 -9.23 33.64 33.30 34.60 33.30 26.961 6.11 5.5 Argon Denims Limited-A -7.20 -6.36 87.50 86.40 91.50 85.40 0.786 3.33 26.3Pioneer Insur -A -6.81 -6.81 64.30 64.30 64.50 64.10 0.064 5.75 11.2Bay Leasing.-A -6.81 -1.96 40.97 39.70 43.00 39.00 6.149 1.56 26.3Sinobangla Indu.-A -5.38 -2.88 30.70 29.90 32.40 29.60 2.840 0.64 48.0Apex Foods -A -4.91 -4.90 93.00 93.00 93.00 93.00 0.005 3.96 23.5Da� odil Computers -Z -4.29 -5.51 13.20 13.40 13.50 12.60 0.271 0.76 17.4Samorita Hospital -A -3.30 -3.30 90.90 90.90 90.90 90.90 0.045 2.24 40.6Appollo Ispat CL -N -3.27 -1.55 36.10 35.50 37.10 35.30 48.194 1.60 22.6

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

R. N. Spinning-Z -9.76 -9.16 33.61 33.30 34.60 33.30 164.561 6.11 5.5Midas Financing-Z -9.02 -9.01 35.33 35.30 36.00 35.00 0.212 -2.48 -ve Argon Denims Limited-A -8.32 -6.56 88.99 87.00 96.00 85.50 66.114 3.33 26.7Sinobangla Indu.-A -6.29 -2.66 30.73 29.80 32.10 29.60 10.816 0.64 48.0Bay Leasing.-A -6.12 -2.75 41.00 39.90 42.90 38.30 47.815 1.56 26.3Usmania Glass -Z -6.07 -7.40 131.82 133.00 137.00 127.50 6.090 5.68 23.2Reliance Insur -A -5.14 -5.12 75.60 75.60 75.60 75.60 0.076 4.59 16.5Standard Ceramic -A -5.00 -5.00 38.00 38.00 38.10 38.00 0.057 1.01 37.6Miracle Industries -B -4.59 -2.10 19.16 18.70 20.10 18.60 4.608 0.12 159.7Bank Asia -A -4.35 -0.87 22.71 22.00 24.00 20.70 5.737 1.41 16.1

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Appollo Ispat CL -N 1,335,200 48.19 11.10 35.50 -3.27 36.70 37.10 35.30 36.10R. N. Spinning-Z 801,350 26.96 6.21 33.30 -9.76 36.90 34.60 33.30 33.64Golden Son -A 349,596 22.88 5.27 63.80 -3.04 65.80 67.20 63.30 65.46Paramount Textile Ltd.-N 282,750 15.31 3.53 54.20 4.63 51.80 55.80 51.80 54.15LankaBangla Fin. -A 197,150 13.72 3.16 69.50 4.35 66.60 70.80 67.00 69.61Generation Next Fashions-A 349,060 13.28 3.06 38.10 2.42 37.20 38.70 33.50 38.06Tallu Spinning -A 277,875 10.98 2.53 39.30 2.88 38.20 40.60 38.30 39.52People`s Leasing-A 384,328 10.00 2.30 25.90 1.57 25.50 26.50 25.50 26.02IDLC Finance -A 141,327 9.49 2.19 67.90 7.61 63.10 69.30 64.20 67.18Beach Hatchery -A 299,000 9.20 2.12 30.10 -3.22 31.10 32.00 29.50 30.78UNITED AIR-A 544,933 8.98 2.07 16.40 0.00 16.40 16.70 16.30 16.48Bengal Windsor-N 130,800 8.51 1.96 63.90 1.59 62.90 66.20 63.20 65.09First Lease- A 247,000 8.39 1.93 33.80 1.50 33.30 34.90 33.30 33.97Delta Life Insu. -A 29,000 7.87 1.81 265.20 -0.71 267.10 276.00 263.60 271.53UCBL - A 295,875 7.52 1.73 25.30 0.40 25.20 25.80 25.00 25.43BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 205,512 6.70 1.54 32.40 0.93 32.10 33.20 31.00 32.59Padma Oil Co. -A 23,900 6.45 1.49 274.20 8.72 252.20 274.20 253.10 269.99Bay Leasing.-A 150,100 6.15 1.42 39.70 -6.81 42.60 43.00 39.00 40.97Summit Purbanchol Power-N 93,680 5.95 1.37 63.50 2.58 61.90 64.00 62.10 63.49Barakatullah E. D.-A 165,506 5.82 1.34 35.20 4.45 33.70 35.80 34.40 35.19

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

LankaBangla Fin. -A 3,242,348 225.81 5.48 69.30 4.21 66.50 71.00 60.00 69.64Golden Son -A 3,450,035 224.95 5.46 63.80 -2.74 65.60 68.00 60.00 65.20Generation Next Fashions-A 4,535,020 171.57 4.16 38.00 2.98 36.90 38.70 34.00 37.83R. N. Spinning-Z 4,895,983 164.56 3.99 33.30 -9.76 36.90 34.60 33.30 33.61Appollo Ispat CL -N 4,502,200 162.51 3.94 35.40 -3.28 36.60 37.10 35.30 36.10Familytex (BD) Ltd.-N 2,287,500 133.81 3.25 57.60 -0.86 58.10 59.80 57.00 58.50Delta Life Insu. -A 449,150 122.33 2.97 268.20 0.56 266.70 275.90 267.50 272.36Tallu Spinning -A 2,554,308 101.05 2.45 39.20 2.89 38.10 41.00 36.50 39.56Meghna Petroleum -A 448,661 98.91 2.40 224.10 6.21 211.00 226.00 200.00 220.46Mercantile Bank -A 4,885,845 84.02 2.04 17.20 2.99 16.70 17.50 15.20 17.20Padma Oil Co. -A 296,488 80.24 1.95 274.20 8.68 252.30 274.30 253.50 270.63IDLC Finance -A 1,106,622 74.26 1.80 68.10 8.27 62.90 69.10 58.00 67.10 Argon Denims Limited-A 742,900 66.11 1.60 87.00 -8.32 94.90 96.00 85.50 88.99UCBL - A 2,560,129 65.13 1.58 25.30 0.80 25.10 26.00 23.10 25.44Bengal Windsor-N 996,200 64.72 1.57 63.80 1.43 62.90 65.90 63.20 64.97BD Building Systems -A 901,650 63.14 1.53 69.30 2.51 67.60 71.80 61.00 70.03First Lease- A 1,818,706 61.78 1.50 33.70 1.51 33.20 34.70 30.00 33.97Paramount Textile Ltd.-N 1,118,000 60.45 1.47 54.20 4.84 51.70 55.60 51.80 54.07Summit Purbanchol Power-N 898,940 56.97 1.38 63.40 2.92 61.60 63.80 57.00 63.38BATBCL -A 30,800 52.28 1.27 1595.20 -0.49 1603.10 1700.00 1592.30 1697.27

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Rahima Food -Z 9.86 9.91 70.20 70.20 70.20 70.20 0.070 87.2 0.077Northern G Insur-A 9.84 19.95 41.30 41.30 41.30 41.30 0.062 13.5 2.052Padma Oil Co. -A 8.72 6.77 269.99 274.20 274.20 253.10 6.453 7.0 0.048ApexAdelchi Ftr -A 8.58 8.56 434.25 434.30 435.00 434.00 0.347 24.2 0.037Aramit -A 8.50 7.40 356.14 359.80 359.80 344.00 0.321 228.3 13.592IDLC Finance -A 7.61 6.15 67.18 67.90 69.30 64.20 9.495 23.0 0.092ACI ZERO Bond-A 7.50 7.50 881.50 881.50 881.50 881.50 0.002 225.0 0.869Meghna Petroleum -A 6.55 4.96 220.58 224.40 226.00 214.00 2.026 65.1 0.128Imam Button -Z 6.25 7.69 8.54 8.50 8.80 7.90 0.030 13.2 0.091Sandhani Life -A 5.20 5.29 74.90 74.90 74.90 74.90 0.037 26.0 8.232

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Rahima Food -Z 9.88 10.47 74.46 74.50 74.50 72.00 1.995 13.0 3.023Padma Oil Co. -A 8.68 7.22 270.63 274.20 274.30 253.50 80.238 45.2 0.008IDLC Finance -A 8.27 6.02 67.10 68.10 69.10 58.00 74.258 13.2 4.598Samata LeatheR -Z 8.06 7.99 22.84 22.80 23.20 22.40 0.217 225.8 141.428CVO PetroChem RL-Z 7.44 8.39 659.78 660.20 660.50 650.00 2.428 10.7 0.497Meghna Petroleum -A 6.21 4.89 220.46 224.10 226.00 200.00 98.910 87.0 1.887Aramit -A 6.10 6.60 349.61 351.10 356.00 334.00 7.237 25.0 38.822B I F C -A 5.78 3.65 18.18 18.30 18.70 17.50 8.155 12.4 5.072ApexAdelchi Ftr -A 5.73 4.28 431.66 435.70 440.00 422.00 23.396 220.0 90.785MutualTrust Bank-A 5.52 5.63 17.26 17.20 17.70 16.00 4.188 22.5 4.765The Ibn SinaA 5.23 5.43 104.64 104.60 106.00 99.40 11.764

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 360.11 8.74 36.12 8.31 396.23 8.70NBFI 733.14 17.80 77.90 17.93 811.04 17.81Investment 70.51 1.71 4.55 1.05 75.06 1.65Engineering 637.37 15.47 95.83 22.06 733.20 16.10Food & Allied 158.90 3.86 15.58 3.59 174.48 3.83Fuel & Power 389.82 9.46 29.40 6.77 419.22 9.20Jute 2.26 0.05 0.00 2.26 0.05Textile 906.54 22.00 86.46 19.90 993.00 21.80Pharma & Chemical 210.07 5.10 21.32 4.91 231.38 5.08Paper & Packaging 0.80 0.02 0.15 0.03 0.94 0.02Service 16.08 0.39 1.37 0.32 17.45 0.38Leather 31.69 0.77 3.81 0.88 35.51 0.78Ceramic 16.44 0.40 4.18 0.96 20.62 0.45Cement 88.48 2.15 8.25 1.90 96.73 2.12Information Technology 35.16 0.85 6.95 1.60 42.11 0.92General Insurance 73.77 1.79 2.46 0.57 76.23 1.67Life Insurance 173.77 4.22 8.89 2.05 182.65 4.01Telecom 88.36 2.14 8.06 1.86 96.43 2.12Travel & Leisure 57.19 1.39 10.01 2.30 67.20 1.48Miscellaneous 69.12 1.68 13.19 3.04 82.31 1.81Debenture 0.21 0.01 0.02 0.00 0.22 0.00

TUE

MON

Daily capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4286.15366 (+) 0.46% ▲

DSE - 20 Index : 1478.38058 (+) 0.83% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 13262.74620 (+) 0.45% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 10919.83590 (+) 0.74% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 8422.92310 (+) 0.54% ▲

DSE key features - January 2, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

4,119.74

Turnover (Volume)

100,101,844

Number of Contract 104,826

Traded Issues 291

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

195

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

89

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,066.68

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

25.05

CSE key features - January 2, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

434.18

Turnover (Volume)

12,460,279

Number of Contract 18,175

Traded Issues 217

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

139

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

69

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

8

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

1,984.26

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

24.05

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

REMINDERThere will be no trade on Sunday since the government has declared the day as general holiday on account of holding national election

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

DCCI Entrepreneurship project Chief and DIU Board of Trustees Chairman Md Sabur Khan conducting a motivational workshop and guideline for business and company formation for the students of Da� odil International University at DIU Auditorium recently

Milk consumer promotion programme winners receive awardsWinners of Milkman Flavoured Milk Consumer promotion programme have been awarded recently. Prize giving cer-emony arranged in this regard at PRAN-RFL Center, corporate headquarters of PRAN RFL Group recently. PRAN Dairy Assistant Brand Manager Debashish Bhakta handed over the prizes where As-sistant Product Manager Shamim Jahan and other o� cials of PRAN dairy were also present on the occasion.

Total 49 winners from week 4 to week 10 were awarded in the program. 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize winner of week 4 are Ayman Mohammad Abdullah, Di-pon Chondro das and Md Nuruzzaman, winner of week 5 Md Asif Abdullah, Md Ikbal Ahmed and Md Nur Alom, winner of week 6 Nur Alom, MdToiful Islam and Shekh Azahar Hossain, winners of week 7 Abdur Rouf, Md Rony and Saad Hossain Shaial, winners of week 8 Ishrak Rahat Arnob, Jahanara Beauty and Mahir la-bib Chowdhury, winners of week 9 Abul kasem, Shajan and Jarin Tasmeen Toaha, winner of week 10 Lupa Sultana Ifat, Mo-hit Imtiaz Emon and Tamim Hossain.

1st, 2nd & 3rd prize winner got Tab, PS2 and PSP respectively. Another 28 participants won By-cycle, scooter, Skat-ing board, Skating Shoe. l

Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital Society holds AGMIspahani Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital Society (IIEIHS) organised  and conducted its 26th Annual General Meeting - 2013 at the newly opened auditorium of the hospital recently.

Society Chairman Mirza Ali Behrouze Ispahani chaired the

event. The AGM 2013 was attended by the general members and life members.

The chairman mentioned that our main concern is to provide services at minimum/free of cost for which the hospital was built. l

Ayesha Memorial Hospital (Pvt) Ltd held its annual conference at the city recently. The chairman Preeti Chakrabarti, Director Dr Ashish Kumar Chakrabarti, GM Operation Dr Kazi Ra� qul Alam, Head of Accounts Ananda Kumar Shaha, Manager H and H Shaheda Khatun and Md Atiq Ullah Khandakar were present

Fu-Wang Ceramic holds AGMFu-Wang Ceramic Industry Limited held its 18th Annual General Meeting at Spectra Convention Centre Limited, Dhaka recently. The Meeting was pre-sided over by the Managing Director Khaled N. Kabir, FCA. Independent Di-rectors Mustafa Mohiuddin, Masudur Rahman and Nilufar Anjum along with

a large number of valued shareholders were present in the meeting. Compa-ny Secretary Nurul Islam Chowdhury conducted the meeting. Shareholders unanimously approved 10% stock div-idend for all shareholders for the year ended 30 June 2013 and also passed other agenda of the meeting. l

AB Bank appoints new MDAB Bank Lim-ited (ABBL) a p p o i n t e d Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury as President and Managing Di-rector (Acting) with e� ect from January 10.Prior to his present position Chaudhury was working as Additional Managing Director in AB Bank.

He started his banking career as a Management Trainee with American Express Bank Limited in 1980.During his career spanning more than three decades, Chaudhury has served in vari-ous capacities at home and abroad with national and multinational � nancial in-stitutions. l

BHBFC discloses impressive pro� tsBangladesh House Building Finance Corporation BHBFC achieved pro� ts Tk 857.6m during 6 months in the � s-cal year 2013-2014. From July 2013 to December 2013, the Corporation gained income totaling to Tk1,220.4m. During the same time of the last � scal year the amount was Tk1,119.7m and the amount of expenditure was Tk 362.8m. During the time mentioned above, the amount of loan sanction, disbursement and re-covery were respectively Tk 2,222m, 2,259.7m and 2,004.5m that resulting in total loan balance is Tk 29,298.4m. Compared to December/2012, it in-creased to 8.55%. l

AFC Agro gets 60 times higher IPO subscription n Tribune Report

The initial public o� ering (IPO) of AFC Agro Biotech has been oversubscribed by more than 60 times, indicating strong investor interest in the company.

Investors ordered shares worth over Tk700 crore against the o� er of Tk12 crore, according to the company o� cials. The bio-pharmaceutical and biochemical manufacturer has issued 1.2 crore ordinary shares of Tk10 each under the � xed price method.

Of the total IPO, 10% kept for non-res-ident Bangladeshis, 10% for mutual funds, 20% for the investors a� ected by the late 2010 market crash and 60% for resident Bangladeshis. Lottery draw of the IPO would be held next week.

The raised fund will be used for pur-chasing new machinery and meeting IPO expenses. The subscription started from December 8, and ended on Decem-ber 12 for general investors and Decem-ber 21 for non-resident Bangladeshis.

As per the company’s half-yearly � nancial statement for the year ended on June 30 last year, the earning per share (EPS) and net asset value (NAV) per share were Tk1.01 and Tk11.10 re-spectively. Imperial Capital and Sigma Capital Management acts as the issue managers of the company that produc-es agro-based pharmaceutical fermen-tation products.

Bangladesh Securities and Ex-change Commission approved the IPO of AFC Agro Biotech on October 8. l

Meghna Condensed Milk biggest gainer at DSEPiling up bank credit cuts its pro� tabilityn Tahmidur Rahman

Meghna Condensed Milk Industries Limited shares registered highest gain of 10% to Tk9 each on the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.

The “Z” category or junk stock swung between Tk9 and Tk8.2 during the trading hour. The company’s o� er value is Tk10 each share.

Its turnover worth more than Tk0.18 crore was changed hands, making up 0.05% of the total DSE turnover.

According to its third quarter un-audited statement, the company has made losses of Tk1.84 crore from Tk1.27 crore in the same period a year ago.

The � gure shows its losses in-creased by 45% due to higher extreme-ly high administrative and � nancing costs, according to the company’s bal-ance sheet.

The excessive administrative costs are due to higher depreciations as seen in the annual report of the year 2012.

The � nancing costs increased as the

company took loans in 2001 for � nanc-ing a project and to maintain the busi-ness operation. The � nancing cost was growing as the company failed to pay its loan interest because of the poor performance.

It borrowed Tk27.4 crore from Son-ali Bank at 8% interest per annum in 2001 to � nance the project, mortgaging

its land, buildings, plant, machinery, � nished goods and also personal guar-antees of the directors.

Currently, the amount of loan accu-mulated Tk63.6 crore as of March 31, 2013.

The company’s nine months (Janu-ary-September) losses stood at Tk102.6 crore, a sharp increase of 158% from

the losses of Tk39.8 crore it made in the same period a year earlier.

The accumulated losses are increas-ing despite rising sales because the management has to cope up with its annual � nancing cost, said an analyst.

On November 18, 2013, the compa-ny’s auditors Ahmed Zaker& Co said the company is still to be regarded “Going Concern matters” and thus it is assumed that the entity has neither the intention nor the need to liquidate or curtail materially the scale of its op-eration.

“Going Concern” is a term for a company that has the resources need-ed in order to continue to operate in-de� nitely.

Established in 2001, Meghna Con-densed Milk is a concern of Meghna Group of Industries. Fresh is also the company’s brand.

Fresh Sweetened Condensed Milk in Bangladesh is now being produced by the Group in joint collaboration with APV Nordic Dairy Denmark. l

Supun joins Robi as CEOn Tribune Report

Supun Weerasinghe has joined as the new chief executive o� cer (CEO) and managing director of the leading mobile phone operator Robi on Wednesday.

Supun Weerasinghe replaces out-going Robi CEO Michael Kuehner, who retired from full time corporate life. Michael will, however, continue to be a member of the Board of Directors of Robi Axiata Limited.

“I look forward to empowering Ban-gladesh with a� ordable, high quality wireless data and internet connectivi-ty,” Supun stated on his appointment. “I am enthused by the challenge of steering it through the next phase of growth.”

Previously Supun  Weerasinghe served as Group Chief Strategy O� cer at Axiata Group in Kuala Lumpur. l

FIs close on Sundayn Tribune Report

The � nancial institutions located in 59 districts across the country will remain closed on Sunday to facilitate o� cials franchise their votes.

The FIs in the districts of Joypur-hat, Rajbari, Madaripur, Shariatpur and Chandpur will however remain opened, said a circular Bangladesh Bank issued yesterday. l

US dollar trades near � ve-year high against yenn AFP, Singapore

The US dollar traded near a � ve-year high against the yen in thin Asian trade Thursday as investors began the new year with renewed optimism about the world’s top economy.

The greenback eased to 105.30 yen from 105.33 yen in New York on Tues-day, after touching 105.41 on Monday - its strongest since October 2008.

The euro was down to $1.3752 in Sin-gapore afternoon trade from $1.3753, and to 144.80 yen from 144.89 yen.

Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, said the dollar gained support from “upbeat US economic reports”, tracking a positive lead from Wall Street on Tuesday.

The US Conference Board on Tues-day released data showing consumers in the United States turned sharply con� dent about the economy and job market in December.

Its consumer con� dence index rose to 78.1 from an upwardly revised 72.0 in November.

The October index plunged to 72.4 during a 16-day government shut-down, from a level of 80.2 in Septem-ber.

The survey came after the gov-ernment reported in early December that the US unemployment rate had dropped to a � ve-year low of 7% last month while jobs growth accelerated.

The S&P Case-Shiller 20-city com-posite home price index also released Tuesday showed a gain of 13.6% year-over-year, the largest annual increase since February 2006, although smaller than the 13.8% rise expected by ana-lysts.

Chua said Asian trade was subdued Thursday owing to the closure of Japa-nese markets for a public holiday.

“Trading activity will pick up in Eu-

ropean hours and the rest of the day with a slew of (manufacturing) reports to jumpstart 2014,” he said.

The commodities-based Australian dollar meanwhile fell to 89.15 US cents from 89.36 cents in Singapore on Tues-day after � gures showed that factory activity in China had slowed.

China, the world’s number two

economy, is Australia’s largest trading partner according to Canberra, spend-ing billions on resources it needs to fuel its growth, while Australia is Chi-na’s seventh largest partner.

The greenback was mixed against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.

The dollar rose to Sg$1.2656 from Sg$1.2654 on Tuesday, to Tw$29.86

from Tw$29.85, to 1,051.30 South Ko-rean won from 1,049.80 won and to 32.92 Thai baht from 32.79 baht.

It eased to 12,163 Indonesian rupi-ah from 12,170 rupiah, to 61.83 Indian rupees from 61.86 rupees and to 44.32 Philippine pesos from 44.40 pesos.

The Chinese yuan bought 17.40 yen from 17.36 yen. l

Oil prices risein upbeat startto 2014n AFP, London

Global crude oil prices edged higher yesterday as investors anticipated up-beat US stockpiles data and grew more optimistic about the world’s top econo-my, analysts said.

Brent North Sea crude for February added 30 cents to $111.10 a barrel near-ing midday in London.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in Feb-ruary, won just 29 cents to $98.71 per barrel.

Sanjeev Gupta, head of the Asia-Pa-ci� c oil and gas practice at consultan-cy � rm EY, said prices were buoyed by “signs of revival in the US economy”.

Kelly Teoh, market strategist at IG Markets in Singapore, said investors were looking ahead to the release of US stockpiles data on Friday, with thin Asian trade due to the closure of Japa-nese � nancial markets.

The report, usually released on Wednesday, has been postponed due to the New Year’s Day holiday.

According to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires, the average forecast is that crude oil supplies fell 2.2 million barrels last week.

“Everyone’s just looking at the in-ventories ... I don’t think, in terms of fundamentals, anything has changed which is why the movement is very subdued,” Teoh told AFP.

Investors are also monitoring the situation in crude producer Iran after the IRNA news agency on Wednesday said experts from Tehran and world powers have chosen January 20 to be-gin implementing a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Iran and the so-called P5+1 nations - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany - have been holding technical talks on imple-menting a deal reached in November on Iran’s controversial nuclear ambi-tions.

Tehran’s crude exports have been halved to 1.2 million barrels per day following crippling international sanc-tions imposed on it for allegedly co-vertly pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian pro-gramme.

The Islamic republic, a member of the OPEC cartel, insists its uranium enrichment is for purely peaceful pur-poses. l

B4 BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, January 3, 2014

Slow start to 2014 for shares, China disappointsWorld share markets made a soft start to 2014 yesterday in the wake of disap-pointing data on Chinese manufactur-ing, while investors showed renewed appetite for commodities and the dollar as the new year got underway. Gold grabbed the limelight with a 1.5% jump to $1,220 an ounce, recouping just a lit-tle of the losses that made last year its worst in three decades. – Reuters

Asia’s manufacturers buoyant at end 2013, China a question markAsia’s manufacturing sector ended 2013 on a strong note, with expansion hitting multi-year highs in export-driven Japan and Taiwan, but signs of moderation in China raises concerns about the outlook for the new year. Both o� cial and pri-vate measures of manufacturing activ-ity in China fell in December, reinforcing views the world’s second-largest econ-omy lost some steam in the � nal quarter of 2013. – Reuters

Euro zone factories end 2013 on a high, but France a worry: PMIsEuro zone manufacturing grew at the fastest rate since mid-2011 in December on brisk business in Germany and Italy, setting the stage for a solid start to the year after a tumultuous 2013, a survey showed yesterday. – Reuters

China factory activity surveys confirm slowing momentumChina’s factory activity slowed in De-cember, o� cial and private manufac-turing surveys showed, reinforcing views that growth in the world’s sec-ond-largest economy moderated in the � nal quarter of 2013. The � nal HSBC/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Man-agers’ Index (PMI) slipped to a three-month low of 50.5 in December from 50.8 in November. Yesterday’s reading was unchanged from a preliminary � g-ure issued last month. – Reuters

BSE Sensex falls the most in nearly 1-1/2 monthsThe BSE Sensex more than 1% yes-terday, posting its biggest single-day percentage fall in nearly 1-1/2 months as pro� t-booking hit blue chips such as ICICI Bank for a second consecutive day. – Reuters

Brent edges over $111, but weak China data dragsBrent crude rose past $111 a barrel on Thursday on a drop in US inventories and output cuts in Libya and South Su-dan, but slowing economic expansion in China may hold back further gains.– Reuters

NEWS IN BRIEF

Mike andsound service businessdull toon Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

It was around 2pm yesterday. Md Faruq, an operator of Taj Mike and Sound Service at Katabon University market, was taking a nap putting his head on the table to pass his idle time as his business is going through a very bad time when he shouldn’t have any moment to waste at the fag end of the national election campaign.

He � nally woke up as the correspon-dent knocked the door. As soon as he woke up, he questioned: Sir, do you need any mike and sound service?  The operator became hopeless and annoyed as the negative answer could not make him happy in the wake of his continued dull business.

As asked about his business situation on the occasion of 10th parliament election, frustrated Faruq told the Dhaka Tribune “There has been no business at all as most of candidates have been elected unopposed elected.’

“We had to receive orders for mikes and sound services all most every day during the last general elections held in 2008, but this year, we have hardly received any order from any clients since the declaration election schedule , said Faruq.

He also said all kinds of programmes excepting government or ruling party’s ones are not being allowed to hold, which also enhanced the su� erings of this business.  Despite, we had some orders but most of them were cancelled at the eleventh hour as the authorities concern did not allowed the clients to hold the schedule programme, he added.

Habib Sound Service and Tarongo Sound Service of the area also su� ering the same in their business as like as Taj Mike and Sound Service.l

Sri Lanka cuts lending rates to further spur growthn AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka’s central bank yesterday cut a key lending rate by 50 basis points to 8% after in� ation eased to its low-est level in nearly two years and as the economy shows signs of sustained growth.

The move by the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka rep-resents the fourth consecutive reduc-tion since December 2012. The deposit rate was kept at 6.5%.

The bank said it expected the is-land’s economy grew 7.2% in 2013, up from 6.4% in 2012 after announc-ing last week that in� ation had hit a 22-month low of 4.7%.

“Economic growth is expected to accelerate further during the new year, while in� ation is projected to remain in mid-single digits,” the bank added in a statement.

It cut the two rates by 50 basis points in both October and May, while reducing them by 25 points in Decem-ber 2012.

The bank has announced a slew of recent � gures indicating a pick-up in the economy, which recorded strong growth in the two years after the end of bloody civil war in 2009, but has dipped since.

It forecast overseas trade will con-tinue to rebound as developed nations see improvements in their economies, while it also said the country’s trade de� cit had narrowed to $7.8bn by the end of 2013.

“The external sector is also envis-aged to improve further, with the ex-pected recovery in advanced econo-mies and structural measures adopted domestically to strengthen the sector,” the bank said.

The country’s balance of payments also improved to record a surplus of $700m in calendar 2013 compared to a modest surplus of $150m the previous year, it added.

Remittances from Sri Lankans work-ing abroad grew, helping the country amass foreign reserves of $7.1bn in De-cember, up from $6.8% in October.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also the � nance minister, told par-liament in November he expected the economy to grow 7.5-8% in calendar 2014, up from a provisional 7.2% in 2013 and 6.4% in 2012.

The economy recorded 8% plus growth for two straight years after troops crushed separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009. l

World manufacturing ends 2013 on a strong noten Reuters

Global manufacturing ended 2013 on a strong note as major exporters like Japan, Germany and Italy posted their fastest growth in years, although Chi-na’s performance remained modest, surveys showed on Thursday.

Years of loose monetary policy, along with soaring stock markets, ap-pear to be bolstering economic con-� dence. That bodes well for a global economy that has struggled to shake o� the e� ects of � nancial crisis and recession.

Euro zone manufacturing grew at the fastest rate since mid- 2011 in De-cember on brisk business in Germany and Italy, Markit Purchasing Manag-ers’ Indexes (PMIs) showed. Add in the fastest growth in 7 1/2 years for Japanese manufacturing and no major slowdown in Chinese manufacturing output, and the stage is being set for a solid start to the year.

“Looking ahead, the hope for the euro zone is that recent improved con-� dence will encourage businesses to lift their employment and investment plans as 2014 progresses, and will also encourage consumers to spend more,” said Howard Archer, the chief Euro-pean and UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

Markit’s Euro zone manufacturing PMI rose to 52.7 in December from 51.6 in November, above the 50 threshold for growth.

While business is showing signs of life, unemployment in many euro zone countries, particularly among young people, remains high. However, the PMIs showed almost two years of job cuts across euro zone factories nearly ended last month.

Manufacturing appears to reviving in several euro zone countries that have struggled since the sovereign debt crisis broke out more than four years ago. Factory activity expanded slightly in Spain. Irish manufacturing clocked a seventh month of growth. Even Greek manufacturing activity grew.

In Germany, Europe’s biggest econ-omy, manufacturing grew at its fastest pace since mid-2011, with its PMI ris-ing to 54.3 from 52.7. The Dutch post-ed their fastest rate in more than two years.

But the euro zone’s No 2 econo-my, France, is still lagging. Its PMI fell sharply to 47 from 48.4, a seven-month low, marking faster contraction as the year drew to a close.

Chris Williamson, the chief econ-omist at Markit, noted that euro zone manufacturers have begun raising prices, suggesting some strengthening in almost non-existent pricing power.

Weak euro zone in� ation, at just 0.9% in November, has worried policy-makers at the European Central Bank. The latest PMIs suggest disin� ation among manufacturers, at least, may be ending.

“It seems likely that the manufac-turing sector will help drive a mean-ingful, albeit still modest, recovery in the wider economy,” Williamson said.

The mood in the euro zone was further boosted last month with news Ireland emerged from its international bailout, while posting fast economic growth in the third quarter.

In Britain, which in the last several months has been outperforming the euro economies, the manufacturing PMI unexpectedly slipped to 57.3 from 58.1. Even so, manufacturing output

probably grew by 1% in the fourth quarter alone, according to Markit.

A similar report from the US is ex-pected at 1358 GMT, followed by the more closely watched Institute for Supply Management PMI at 1500 GMT. A Reuters poll of economists predicted a slight dip to 57.0 in December from 57.3.

Asian output risingIn Asia, performance was a bit more mixed. Already lackluster output slowed in India, owing mainly to weak domestic demand. But orders from abroad picked up.

“The most striking feature of today’s PMIs was the rise in the output compo-nent recorded everywhere but India,” wrote Krystal Tan, Asia economist at

consultancy Capital Economics.The HSBC/Markit PMI for China

slipped to a three-month low of 50.5 in December, consistent with a dip in the o� cial government PMI to a four-month low of 51 .

Capital Economics’ Tan noted that new orders growth in Asia, while not as strong as output, was better for most economies than it was just a few months ago.

“This � ts with our view that the re-gion’s manufacturing sectors are on a gradual road to recovery, supported by loose monetary policy and strengthen-ing external demand.”

The PMIs for South Korea and Indo-nesia, important emerging economies in Asia, both rose in December but re-mained at relatively low levels. l

Bad days for printers thanks to uncontested pollsn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Dr Didar, owner of Prime Printers, had printed around 50 lakh posters for election campaigns during the last general polls held in 2008, and made a quick buck worth Tk22 lakh amid huge festivity created due to the elec-tion-fever like situation across thecountry.

After a break of a long � ve-year, Di-dar who once again dreamed for mak-ing another quick bucks, as like as the previous electioneering, by printing huge number of posters, a head of the upcoming polls slated for 5 January, is no more enthusiastic, rather, he has become totally frustrated as his dream has already been shattered in the wake of the uncontested national polls, in which 153 candidates are poised to be elected without any election race.

As the upcoming national poll has become just a matter of maintaining formalities in the rest of the seats, the longstanding traditional competitive practices of printing posters in favour of the respective candidates has also lost its glamour as well as its impor-tance as a whole.

In the backdrop of such one-sided election of compromise, the country’s entire printing sector business faced a serious setback at a time when it was expected to be picked up.

Like Didar, many others, among the printing press owners, have mostly passed idle and frustrating time since the announcement of election sched-ule for the 10th parliament as they are entirely deprived of making such occa-sional money, failing to get any order for election posters.

Didar, also president of Metro Politon Press Owners Association (MPPOA), printed only 15,000 post-er this year. His earning came down to Tk27,000, which is a 98.77% lower compared to the earnings of last elec-tion period.

This scenario is not only for Dr Didar but also for the others who are engaged

in printing business specially during the election period as their business su� ered setback due to one alliance election to be held on January 5,2014.

“I had printed posters for 15 parlia-ment member candidates in the last election but this year I did not get a sin-gle order from any candidate as most of the MPs has already been elected unopposed,” said Md Slahuddin M Khan Uzzal, secretary of MPPOA.

In 2008 election period, a total of 100 candidates had printed posters from Nilkhet and Katabon area, which came down to only 10 this year, he added.

Commenting on the � nancial loss-es of the sector Salahuddin said, “The sector has incurred a loss of Tk200

crore this time due to the one-sided election of compromise. Those who are contesting also do not need cam-paign as there are no competitors in sense of real competition.’’

Some owners told the Dhaka Tri-bune printing business were even much better before the declaration of election schedule as aspirant cand dates from all the political parties had printed posters in di� erent ways like greetings exchange on various occ sions such as Eid, Puja and New year.

A part from that some people also printed posters seeking blessing and supports on behalf of the respective candidates, they added.

Md Aslamul Hoque, who has been elected from Dhaka-14 as unopposed in 10th parliament has printed 5 lakh

stickers before the election schedule, said printer wishing anonymity. But he did not print any posters after the announcement of schedule as he was elected uncontested, he added.

“I had an order to print 1.5lkah post-ers for a candidate, but the order has been canceled later on as the candi-date was declared elected MP unop-posed,” said owners of Modina Printers and Publishers.

On the other hand election com-mission also put restrictions on the election expenses and banning on color posters has also cast a negative impact on the printing business, headded.

Businessmen, who run their busi-ness on credit, facing more di� culties to pay installment to the banks as their

business came down by 50% due to the political unrest and no business in election-time business.

“I have bought a high quality ma-chine for my printing house taking credit from banks but cannot pay the installment due to the ongoing dull business continued for last few months, said Abdul Quddus, director of Omasis Printers.

Meanwhile, the total printing busi-ness are going through a tough time as 50% orders fall in the season due to the ongoing political deadlock.

Production came down to 50% in last three months as the overall print-ing business has fallen sharply due to the ongoing political violence, which ultimately counts huge losses, said Salahuddin Khan. l

A worker cuts a metal at a sheet metal processing company Yamada Manufacturing in Daito, Osaka REUTERS

Supporters campaign for a candidate of the 10th parliamentary election boycotted by the opposition RAJIB DHAR