EC looking for model ‘code of conduct’n Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission is looking for a “model code of conduct” to ensure a “level playing � eld” for all candidates in the upcoming national elections.

O� cials said the EC had already started analysing electoral methods followed in the United Kingdom, the United States and India.

They said these countries have the strongest parliamentary democracies in the world.

The o� cials also said the com-mission was planning to prepare an “improved” code of conduct within a month, even if the political parties fail to reach a consensus regarding the shape of the polls-time government an-ytime soon.

The concerned departments of the commission have already been direct-ed to prepare a draft code of conduct after having analysed and taking inputs from the electoral methods followed in the UK, US and India.

Election Commissioner Zabed Ali said: “The EC wants to ensure level playing � eld for all parties in the next general elections, just like the way it is done in the UK, US and India by interim polls-time governments.”

EC o� cials said the commission would have to bring drastic changes to the existing code of conduct if it was to hold the next elections according to the constitution.

They said the mechanisms in the ex-isting code were meant to work under a non-partisan caretaker government, and would probably not be as a� ective in ensuring equality under a partisan government.

In India, national elections are held under interim governments which are not necessarily non-partisan because ministers and members of parliament continue to hold their posts.

However, the Election Commission of India – powerful as it is – does not allow candidates of the ruling party to use state facilities or protocols during polls-time.

EC o� cials said that was how the Indian commission made certain all candidates were standing on an equal footing before going into the polls. They also said under the existing code of conduct in Bangladesh, ensuring that would not be possible.

Historically, ruling parties have always won polls held under partisan govern-ments in Bangladesh. Many of those elections have been marred by allega-tions of vote-rigging and manipulation in favour of the ruling party candidates.

Observers say there is no such pro-vision in the existing code of conduct that may bar the ministers and ruling party MPs from using state protocols and facilities during elections under partisan governments. They say the code allows them to use the adminis-tration in their favour during polls.

However, convincing the political parties with e� orts to ensure a level playing � eld would always be hard for the EC, o� cials said, because of the PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

News3 With the 3G spectrum auction set for Sunday, four mobile operators of the country have started their preparations to launch the next generation of (third generation) mobile services for its customers.

4 Four years into its inception, commoners as well as many educated people are still unaware about the existence of Right to Information Act and its bene� ts.Lack of steps to publicise it is considered as one of the cause.

Nation6 At least 200 goats have died in di� erent villages of Lalmonirhat in the last week alone due to an outbreak of plague, and an acute shortage of vaccines to combat the

disease. In total around 5000 goats have been a� ected across the district by the spread of Pestedes Petits Ruminant.

Metro7 President Abdul Hamid has directed authorities concerned to complete the ongoing construction of Mayor Hohammad Hanif Flyover soon to give relief to city dwellers from tra� c congestion.

Sport13 The Dhaka Premier League clubs are facing di� culties in con� rming the services of foreign players for the season that is scheduled to start September 10. A number of the clubs are blame the strained relationship between the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the Pakistan Cricket Board for the situation.

16 pages | Price: Tk10

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12 EntertainmentMohanayoker Kotha published

SportsNo Galaxy deal for Kaka

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Children break free in glee with kans grass at south Keraniganj near Dhaka. Kans grass is the harbinger of autumn in Bangladesh. The photo was taken yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Loopholes in ACC act helps accused get freedGraft charges hard to prove because people do not want to be witnessesn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

A number of provisions in the exist-ing Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 and loopholes in them make the graft-busting body weak, often result-ing in dropping of charges against ac-cused persons, observe former ACC of-� cials and anti-graft campaigners.

A bill to amend the act and strength-en the ACC was placed in parliament on January 28, 2011 for immediate pas-sage. Parliament also sent it to the par-liamentary standing committee on the law ministry for consideration, but it is yet to be passed.

Former and serving o� cials of the commission and rights organisations say passing the amended law will be time-be� tting if the government really wants to � ght corruption.

The Radar Purchase Graft Case against military dictator HM Ershad has been on trial for more than 20 years.

The case – currently awaiting judge-ment – was � led by the now defunct Anti-Corruption Bureau on May 4, 1992.

Ershad, along with four others, al-legedly bought radars from the USA, although those manufactured in France were cheaper. The purchase had alleged-ly caused Bangladesh a loss of Tk640m.

An ACC o� cial said it was often very hard to prove charges of corruption be-cause people did not want to be witness-es. Collecting evidence in graft cases was also very tough most of the times.

“There are many instances where an accused, after having been punish-ment by a lower court, secures bail from higher courts. If the new amendment is passed, corruption will be considered as a non-bailable o� ence,” the o� cial said.

He also pointed out two recent cases where loopholes in the ACC act eventu-ally helped the accused.

The � rst one is the conditional bail PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

n Tribune Report

A special court set up by India’s Border Security Force acquitted BSF Constable Amiya Ghosh of the charge of killing Bangladeshi girl Felani Khatun at the Cooch Behar border.

BSF’s 181 Battalion Constable Amiya Ghosh, the prime accused, could not be found guilty because of “inconclusive and insu� cient” evidence against him, the court said in its verdict.

A � ve-man BSF General Secu-rity Forces court headed by its As-sam-Meghalaya frontier DIG (Com-munication) SP Trivedi conducted the hearings at Sonari BSF camp near the North Bengal town of Cooch Behar from August 13.

BSF o� cials said that the verdict was given on Thursday night and the proceedings of the GSF court were for-warded to the Director General for � nal approval because the case has been seen as “extra sensitive.”

“We can make a formal announce-ment only after the DG’s decision,” said a BSF o� cial wishing not to be named as he was not authorised to talk to media.

The o� cial was reluctant to share details of the proceedings of the GSF court, but said that the charges against Amiya Ghosh could not be “clinching.”

Public Prosecutor of the Kurigam District Judge’s Court Abraham Lin-coln, who was assisting Felani’s family, told our Kurigram correspondent that justice had been compromised through the verdict.

“The possibility to stop unabated killing at the border has faded and it is a disrespect to human rights to acquit a self-confessed killer,” Lincoln added.

Decrying the verdict, Felani’s father Nurul Islam said, “A killer of such an in-human act can in no way be acquitted. I will seek justice at the International Court.”

Her mother Jahanara Begum said, “The Indian government has betrayed us. We do not accept the verdict.”

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) acting commanding o� cer Major Ab-dullah Al Mahmud said, “BSF has not informed us o� cially. We are trying to PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Jamaat leaders’ sons start polls campaignn Manik Miazee

Sons of war crimes accused Ja-maat-e-Islami leaders have started election campaigns in their respective constituencies.

A section of Jamaat leaders said if Jamaat leaders indicted for 1971 war crimes cannot contest in the national polls their sons will replace them and join the election race independently.

As a part of the campaign they are putting up poster and distributing leaf-lets in their constituencies.

They are also playing religious ser-mons of convicted Jamaat leader Del-awar Hossain Sayedee in cassette re-corders.

The party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami contested from Shathiya of Pabna in the last parliament election. His son barrister Nazib Moman is likely to take part in the polls from the same constituency.

When contacted Nazib Momen said: “Time has not yet come to say anything about it.”

He, however, said the Jamaat-e-Isla-mi chief would vie for this seat and if he cannot contest, the party would not take part in the national election.

One of the Jamaat nayeb-e-ameers Sayedee’s son Masud-Bin Sayedee is preparing to take part in election from Pirozpur-2 constituency and another son Shamim Bin-Sayedee from Pirojpur 1.

Masud-Bin Syedee told the Dhaka Tribune that Sayedee family has strong in� uence on those two constituencies and people want Sayedee family to take part in elections from those two seats.

Sayedee was elected as a member of PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

New Zealand o� cials intensify lobbying to release Fonterra milkn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The New Zealand High Commission in Delhi is trying to persuade Bangladeshi o� cials that Fonterra Milk Powder goods, a consignment of which is now on hold at the Chittagong port, have no toxic element.

Bangladeshi o� cials said they have also engaged in hectic lobbying to make the Bangladeshi authorities “be-lieve” their point so that the consign-ment get released.

A team of New Zealand’s Delhi High PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Stalker’s brutality takes one more lifen Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

After a � ve-day � ght for life, a female college student died yesterday at the

Intensive Care Unit of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH), suc-cumbing to injuries she sustained from an attack by an eve teaser.

The deceased, Afsari Akhtar Swarna, 17, was the daughter of local business-man Ataur Rahman and a � rst-year stu-dent of Bangla department in Govern-ment Ananda Mohan College.

Police and family sources said, Abdus Samad Raju, son of Abdus Salam of Naumahal Nandibari and a fourth year student of Management department in the same college, had been eve teasing Swarna for a long time.

Police quoted family sources as say-ing that on Sunday, Swarna went to the

botanical garden of Bangladesh Ag-riculture University with her friends, where Raju confronted her and began an altercation.

Raju then used a brick to hit Swarna on the head and face, giving her critical injuries, police added.

Swarna was being treated at the MMCH, before her death yesterday.

Noor Jahan Begum, an aunt ofSwarna, demanded the immediate ar-rest and exemplary punishment for the culprit.

Golam Sarwar, o� cer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station, said the suspect is yet to be arrested despite several drives by the police to detain him.

The body was sent to MMCH morgue for autopsy. No was case was lodged till � ling of this report. l

‘The possibility to stop unabated killing at the border has faded and it is a disrespect to human rights to acquit a self-confessed killer’

Drastic changes needed in the existing code to ensure equality under a non-partisan government, o� cials say

Afsari Akhtar Swarna

21 killed ineight monthsn Kailash Sarkar

The Indian Border Security Force has never quite kept its promise of bring-ing down the number of Bangladeshis killed at the borders to zero.

Uno� cial reports suggest that at least 21 Bangladeshis were killed and 60 others injured in the last eight months by the Indian Border Security Force.

At least 75 other Bangladeshis were allegedly abducted by BSF over the same period.

Apart from shooting to death, there are many instances where Bangladesh-is were picked up from the border are-as and later tortured to death, raising widespread human rights concern.

However, di� ering with the statis-tics, Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed, director gen-eral of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), claimed that only 16 people were killed in the border this year; of them, 14 by BSF men.

“Fourteen Bangladeshis were killed by BSF men this year at the India-Bang-ladesh border. Two other Bangladeshis were killed over a local feud. The BSF men were not involved in the killing of the latter two,” the BGB chief said.

“The BSF men do not use lethal weapons anymore and they did not � re at the Bangladeshis with heavy weap-ons. Those Bangladeshis were killed by rubber bullets.

“They might have received the rub-ber bullets from close ranges,” said Maj PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

BSF never kept the promise of zero killing along border

Felani killer acquitted

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

Enclave people stage demo Indo-Bangla enclave exchange accord unrealised n Tribune Report

People living in 162 enclaves, also known as the “chitmahals,” on both sides of the Bangladesh-India border took to the streets yesterday demand-ing implementation of Indo-Bangla en-clave exchange accord.

Apparently being frustrated over their respective government’s failure to implement enclave-swapping protocol, thousands of enclave residents staged demonstration at many locations and observed one hour abstention from work from 10am, according to our cor-respondents in Kurigram and Lalmon-irhat.

The residents observed the day as a “Day of Disappointment” as it marked the second anniversary of the enclave swap treaty.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh signed the protocol on Septem-ber 6, 2011 to settle the enclave issue. But the protocol does not carry a dead-line for its implementation and, there-

fore, does not guarantee when exactly the accord would be realised.

Demanding swift implementation of the agreement, a team of Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee led by its president Moinul Haque and gen-eral secretary Golam Mustafa submit-ted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina through Kurigram depu-ty commissioner yesterday.

“Promise and assurance do not guarantee our emancipation. The only path for emancipation is the path of movement,” Moinul Haque said after submitting the memorandum.

“We were forced to start demonstra-tion as the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh was not introduced in the Indian parliament for approval. The authorities should look at the issue from humanitarian perspective rather than seeing it in terms of the land size,” he said.

The enclaves’ people would to go for tougher movement if initiatives were not taken to swap the enclaves soon, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, over 2000 residents of 59 Indian enclaves, located at � ve up-azilas in Lalmonirhat district, threat-ened to initiate a tougher movement within a week to press home their de-mands which include implementation of the enclave exchange pact.

They formed a human chain and staged demonstration after holding a meeting at the 119 No baskata enclave.

In the meeting, they decided to submit memorandums to Both Bangla-deshi and Indian government on Sun-day.

The memorandum will be submit-ted to Bangladesh government through Lalmonirhat deputy commissioner and to the Indian government through Bor-der Security Force (BSF).

“As long as the enclave exchange deal remains unimplemented, we would be stuck in limbo, and our phys-ical and legal isolation would persist,” one enclave inhabitant Mahir Uddin Sarker, 72, said.

He lamented that he could not move to his country of choice as the agree-

ment remains unimplemented still now.

While presiding over the meeting, Lalmonirhat Enclave Exchange Coor-dination Committee vice-president Abdul Hamid Akhtary said both India and Bangladesh undertook numerous initiatives to solve the crisis, but the solutions merely remained on paper till date.

Bangladesh has 111 Indian enclaves in its soil - 59 in Lalmonirhat, 36 in Panchagar, four in Nilphamari and 12 in Kurigram districts – while India houses 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in Cooch Be-har district.

The total land area consisting en-claves within Bangladesh is 17,149 acres while Bangladeshi enclaves in In-dia amount to 7,110 acres of land.

A joint headcount conducted in July 2011 shows, a total of 51549 people are residing in enclaves on both sides of the border. Of them, 37,334 people are living in Indian enclaves inside Bangla-desh while 14,215 people are living in Bangladeshi enclaves inside India. l

Swelling rivers worsen � ood situationn Tribune Report

The � ood situation in the northern districts of the country has been wors-ening as the water level of the river Padma was recorded at 18.67 metres yesterday morning against the 18.50 metre danger mark.

Harun-Ur-Rashid, Executive En-gineer of Water Development Board (WDB) identi� ed � ve vulnerable points on the Rajshahi Town Protection em-bankment where the workers of WDB were working round the clock to check any breach or erosion.

He also expressed his worry at the continuous rise of water of the river Padma and said if this situation con-tinues for a week or so, it will be very tough to control the situation.

Meanwhile, among the 73 river sta-tions monitored by the Flood Forecast-ing and Warning Centre (FFWC),

56 marked rises while 17 stations re-corded falls in water levels yesterday. Sev-en were � owing above the danger level. In this situation, the river ports have been

asked to hoist cautionary signal one.According to the report, the Mohan-

anda at Chapainawabganj, the Ganges at Pankha and Rajshahi, the Kobdak at Jhikargacha, the Gorai at Kamarkhali, the Khowai at Ballah and Habiganj are � owing above their respective danger levels by 23 cm, 16 cm, 17 cm, 47 cm, 10 cm, 81 cm and 40 cm.

Meanwhile, another Met o� ce bul-letin said, rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary South or South-Easterly gusty wind at a speed of 45-60kph is likely to occur over di� er-ent parts of the country till 6 pm.

The regions are Rangpur, Rajshahi, Pabna, Bogra, Tangail, Mymensingh, Jessore, Kushtia, Faridpur, Dhaka, Khul-na, Barisal, Patuakhali, Noakhali, Comil-la, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Sylhet.

Yesterday, signi� cant rainfall was recorded at some stations in di� erent districts over the last 24-hours ending at 6am.

A total of 147.5 mm rainfall was re-corded at Panchagarh, 65mm at Syl-het, 43mm at Cox’s Bazar, 40mm at

Lorergarh, 36mm at Barisal and 29mm at Kanaighat. At Rajshahi, with the in-crease of water level, thousands of peo-ple living in the low-lying areas of the city have taken shelter on the city pro-tection embankment, and in schools.

Flood-hit people at Zia Nagar in-formed, the water of the river increased so rapidly that it entered their houses within a short time before they could even shift their belongings.

Many of the a� ected, who took shel-ter on various schools and on the em-bankments complained of not getting any relief.

They also alleged anomalies in dis-tributing relief materials and said in some cases, all four to � ve members of a family got the relief whereas in many families did not get anything at all.

Shariful Islam Babu, mayor in-charge at the Rajshahi City Corpora-tion claimed, RCC has keeping a round the clock vigilance on the vulnerable points on the city embankments and relief goods were also being distributed properly. l

Mosaddeque Hossain Bulbul, newly elected Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation, yesterday called on Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus at Yunus Centre in Mirpur in the capital DHAKA TRIBUNE

Ex UP member found dead n Our Correspondent, Bandarban

Dead body of a former UP member was found 13 days after he went missing in Lama, Bandarban.

Police found the dead body around 11pm on Thursday from a hilly area of Sonaichori in Aziznagar union under

Lama upazila. The deceased Md. Ab-dul Malek was the son of late Syed Alam of Cieurtali village of Faitong union. Malek was a former UP member of ward 1 of Aziznagar union. The members of his family lodged a general diary at the Lama police station on September 3 af-ter he went missing on August 23. l

Student died in Lalmonirhatn Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

A school student was killed after falling from a swing in Ramaniganj Govern-ment Primary School premise at Hati-bandha upazila, Lalmonirhat yesterday.

The dead was Rifat Islam, 12, a class seven student of Ramaniganj Govern-ment High School.

Witnesses said, Rifat, along with his friends, was playing in the swing of the primary school. He fell down around 5:30pm and was rushed to Hatibandha Upazila Health Complex where he died around 7:30pm.

Locals said, Primary and Mass Edu-cation Minister Motahar Hossain set up 112 swings at 112 government primary schools in his constituency at Hatiband-ha and Patgram upazilas six months ago. It was an especial project in order to ensure entertainment to the kids in their leisure. All these swings were constructed unplanned without taking any engineering design and these were risky for kids, locals alleged. l

Politicians, foreign diplomats join Debapriya’s ‘social gathering’ n Tribune report

Political leaders and foreign diplomats held a “social gathering” at the resi-dence of economist Debapriya Bhat-tacharya on Thursday evening.

“It was a social gathering. I invited them to my place,” Debapriya told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

When asked who were invited, he said, “I do not want to embarrass any-body and I do not want to name any names.”

BNP’s Acting Secretary Genral Mir-za Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Jatiya Party leader Anisul Islam Mahmud, former Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed, US Ambassador Dan Mozena, Canadian High Commissioner Heather Cruden, and Indian High Commission-er Pankaj Saran were reportedly pres-ent at the gathering.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distin-guished fellow of Centre for Policy Di-alogue, is known for his political and economic analysis. l

Loopholes in ACC act helps accused get freed PAGE 1 COLUMN 2of Jasmine Islam, accused in the Tk30bn Hall-Mark scam, because the bail has been awarded without the gravity of her o� ence being consider-ing.

The o� cial also pointed out the lengthy process of inquiry into the Tk6bn scam by the BTCL o� cials. In-vestigation took almost a year and a half and approval of � ling cases took another two months. In the process, some BTCL o� cials � ed the country.

“If corruption is made a non-bail-able o� ense, the BTCL o� cials could have been prevented from � eeing the country,” he said.

ACC Chairman M Bodiuzzaman said the commission had been trying to convince the government to pass the amendment bill in the upcoming session of this parliament starting Sep-tember 12.

“If passed, the act will have a very strong impact on combating corrup-tion. There is only one session left of the current parliament. We have been communicating with the government committees concerned to take neces-sary steps,” he said.

Former ACC chairman Ghulam Rah-man said the commission would not be successful in � ghting corruption if the complexity of its legal boundary was not identi� ed.

“The existing act is leading to drop-

ping of charges against many accused because of the loopholes in the com-mission’s legal structure. The accused can now delay proceedings by appeal-ing and having stay orders from the High Court,” he said.

O� cial documents of the ACC show that the commission has been able so far to ensure punishment to corrupt people only in a few cases.

If passed, o� ences under the amended law will become non-bail-able. The amendment also proposes � ve years’ imprisonment for � ling false corruption cases, giving the commis-sion independency to � le corruption cases against government o� cials, and making government organisations bound to provide the commission with information it seeks.

“The existing act allows an accused person to seek bail…Investigations also face barriers as many organisations do not provide us with information when needed – we have a timeframe for com-pleting investigations. Sometimes the accused are freed from charges because of lack of concrete evidence,” an ACC investigator told the Dhaka Tribune.

Some 15,000 cases – 8,089 � led by the ACC and 6,919 by the erstwhile Bu-reau of Anti-Corruption – are awaiting judgment.

Above 3,000 of these cases were stayed by the High Court while 1,331 cases were resolved in court. People

were freed of graft charges in 733 cases and verdicts were given against the ac-cused in only 598 cases.

ACC o� cials, however, could not mention the number of the accused in these cases. No data was found also on the numbers of people who were re-leased and imprisoned.

“We do not have any exact � gure on the accused since up to now we have focused only on the cases. The process of building up a complete statistics is, however, in process,” an o� cial told the Dhaka Tribune.

Transparency International Ban-gladesh Executive Director Iftekharu-zzaman alleged that the government was playing hide and seek in passing the amendment bill.

“The bill needs to be passed in the next parliament session, otherwise the Anti-Corruption Commission will face trouble in combating corruption. The government should also � rst let people know what is in the amendment before passing it.

“Since the revisions of the bill were not disclosed to public, we are doubtful about its e� ectiveness,” he said.

Asked why the bill has not been passed yet, Chairman of the parliamen-tary standing committee on the law ministry Fazle Rabbi Mia said they had already endorsed the bill and it was now awaiting the approval of the � nance ministry and Cabinet Division. l

21 killed in eight months PAGE 1 COLUMN 1Gen Aziz, adding: “Even if someone is hit by a small stone, that person may die it hits at any sensitive part of the body.”

When asked why so many people were hurt or abducted by BSF, the BGB chief said not all the reported cases could be con� rmed. Sometimes BGB was not informed of the incidents, he claimed.

“Whenever the BGB is informed of any such incident, we take proper measures. There are also many in-stances where BSF returned those it had earlier abducted or detained.” Maj Gen Aziz said.

Yesterday, a special court of BSF

in India’s Koch Behar acquitted BSF member Amiya Ghosh, the only ac-cused in the killing of Bangladeshi teenager Felani Khatun, citing him in-nocent.

15-year-old Felani was shot dead by the BSF men while she was entering Bangladesh over the barbed-wire fences along the Anantapur border point in Kurigram on January 7, 2011.

When contacted, Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed said he had heard about the verdict on media, but had no formal or o� cial information about it.

“We communicated the BSF au-thorities and other sources, but none could give us any o� cial or authentic

report,” the BGB chief said.“The trial of Felani killing was a

result of global media outcry and the initiatives taken by the Bangladesh government. If required, the trials of the other killings will also be initiated.”

Bangladesh and India share a 3,909km border.

Instances of BSF shooting, killing, torturing and abducting unarmed Bangladeshi civilians in the border areas violate international norms and treaties, which say if citizens of the two countries illegally cross the border, it would be considered trespass and as per law those persons should be handed over to the respective civilian authority. l

Felani killer acquitted PAGE 1 COLUMN 3contact and we are still expecting jus-tice of the killing from the court.” West Bengal-based rights group MA-SUM’s Kirity Ray lashed out at the BSF for unleashing a reign of terror on the border and said Felani was a victim of it.

“The BSF trial was a shame,” he added. It was the � rst instance of BSF trying any of its personnel despite fre-quent border killings.

Felani’s father M Nurul Islam and maternal uncle M Abdul Hanif trav-elled to Cooch Behar to testify at the court. Lt Col Ziaul Haque Khaled of BGB 45 Battalion and Kurigram public prosecutor Abraham Lincoln also went to assist the witnesses.

Felani, a 15-year-old girl, was shot dead by BSF while she was returning to her home in Bangladesh. As she tried to climb over the barbed-wire fencing along the Anantapur border in Kuri-gram on January 7, 2011, her clothes got entangled in the wire and the BSF � red at her, hearing her screams.

Her body was left dangling on the barbed wire for nearly � ve hours and she was reportedly alive for at least four hours after being shot.

The photograph of Felani’s bul-let-ridden body hanging from the barbed wire was published in the lo-cal and international media, following which there was an outpouring of de-mand for justice. l

EC looking for model ‘code of conduct’ PAGE 1 COLUMN 6prevalent political culture in the coun-try. The political parties do not nurture mutual trust and would therefore al-ways fear vote-rigging against them.

In some of the recently concluded polls in � ve city corporations, the par-ties that won did not stop complaining until they were sure about the win.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has made it clear many times that the next elections will be held under a parti-san government. She said her cabinet would continue holding o� ce during the election period but would not make any policy decision. Although the parliament would not be dissolved, it would not have any session.

However, the BNP has never wel-comed the Supreme Court verdict that abolished the system of a non-partisan caretaker government in 2011.

With all the leading political parties having already drummed up election-eering, the main opposition party has been complaining that the ruling party leaders, including the premier, have

been using state facility and protocol for their campaigns.

BNP has also made clear that there must be a level playing � eld before they could go into the polls.

According to the constitution, the next general elections must be held be-tween October 27, 2013 and January 24, 2014. l

Jamaat leaders’ sons start polls campaign PAGE 1 COLUMN 4parliament twice in 1996 and 2001 from Pirozpur-1 constituency.

“Now it is up to the party to take the decision to this end,” he said. He also said if the 18-party alliance decided to take part in the polls Jamaat would con-test from those two constituencies. l

New Zealand o� cials intensify lobbying PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Commission o� cials will arrive in Dha-ka next week to discuss the issue with Bangladeshi o� cials.

More than 600 tonnes of Fonterra Milk Powder goods, a product from New Zealand based dairy giant Fonter-ra, is now on hold at the Chittagong port following allegations that the imported goods were polluted with a toxic bac-teria which causes botulism, a rare but sometimes fatal paralytic illness.

The milk powder is now being test-ed by experts of Bangladesh Council of Scienti� c and Industrial Research (BC-SIR) to ascertain whether it contains Clostriduium botulinum or not.

According to commerce ministry sources, the New Zealand High Com-mission in Delhi has contacted ministry several times to pursue their point that the goods did not contain any toxic ele-ment. A high commission letter, dated August 28 and signed by New Zealand High Commissioner in New Delhi Jan Henderson, who is also accredited to Bangladesh, informed the commerce ministry’s additional secretary (im-ports) that the product stuck at the port did not have Clostriduium botulinum,

but contained Clostridium sporogenes, which is not capable of producing tox-ins that cause botulism.

Meanwhile, BCSIR Chairman Prof Ahmad Ismail Mustafa con� rmed that he received an email from the New Zealand High Commission in Delhi for an appointment to talk on the issue of Fonterra Milk.

“They are scheduled to meet me on September 8”, he informed.

It would take a few more days for the BCSIR to come up with the results of the ongoing contamination test on samples of Fonterra milk, which is now awaiting release at the Chittagong port, Prof Mustafa added.

BCSIR sources said, a four member New Zealand High Commission team, including its � rst secretary, was likely to be in Dhaka this week to meet the BCSIR chairman.

When contacted, the high commis-sion’s Second Secretary Gareth Pidgeon con� rmed that a team would meet with the BCSIR chairman next week.

Fonterra, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, was caught up in a contam-ination scare last month after it found bacteria in some of its products that

could cause botulism. It also disclosed it had to withdraw 42 tonnes of milk powder bound for China because of high nitrite levels.

Sri Lanka last month ended a ban on the sale of Fonterra milk products that had been ordered after food safety au-thorities said they found the toxic farm chemical dicyandiamide in two batch-es of milk powder.

The Chittagong Customs House last week sent samples to BCSIR for test-ing, saying they will not allow release of Fonterra milk powder from the port until the product is cleared of contam-ination.

“More than 600 tonnes of Fonterra milk remains lying at the Chittagong Port since release of the products al-legedly contains risk of diseases. We will decide on the issue as soon as we get the BCSIR results,” Chittagong Tax Commissioner Masud Sadique told the Dhaka Tribune.

The Chittagong Customs authority said that Fonterra milk importers in Bangladesh include, Abul Khair Group, Nestle Bangladesh Ltd, Sanowara Group, New Zealand Dairy and Pran Dairy. l

Boy killed in wall collapsen Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A schoolboy was killed as a dustbin wall collapsed in Chittagong city’s Hal-ishahar area yesterday.

The dead Manjurul Mawla Maruf, 14, resident of Halishahar residential area, was a class nine student Khwaja Garibe Newaj High School, said police sources.

Md Shahjahan Kabir, o� -cer-in-charge of Halishahar police station, said a cricket ball of fell into a drain when Maruf, along with some of his friends, was playing on the lane around 6:15pm.

When he attempted to take the ball from the drain holding the dustbin wall, the wall collapsed and fell on him. l

News 3DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

RMG workers demo in capital for Tk8,000 monthly wage n Tribune Report

Hundreds of RMG workers staged a demonstration in front of the capital’s press club area yesterday demanding a wage hike.

Sub-Inspector Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain, on-duty in the area, told the Dhaka Tribune they were demanding for Tk8,000 as monthly wages. “About a thousand workers demonstrated in front of the press club around 10am.”

The protesters workers took posi-tion near the Engineering Institute in the afternoon, the SI said.

However, it was unclear whether they were driven away from press club area.

They � rst gathered in Malibagh rail-gate area around 8:30am. Rampura police station O� cer-in-Charge Delwar Hossain said: “Sramik Federation was leading them. No violence took place. They headed to the press club for a demonstration,” he said.

The workers from one of the facto-ries abandoned work and called up on the fellow workers of other factories in the area to join the protest.

“The garment units were announced closed for the day,” said Delwar Hossain. l

One killed in Netrakona stormn Our Correspondent, Netrakona

A child was killed and 10 others injured on Thursday evening, when a storm lashed Singdha union under Netrakona’s Barhatta upazila.

The deceased was Suhagur Rahaman Roni, 12, of Sonaullar Char village. The injured were admitted to Barhatta Upa-zila Health Complex.

The storm, lasting 10 minutes, dam-aged over 100 houses and uprooted hun-dreds of trees, Barhatta police station Of-� cer-in-Charge Sultan Ahamed said.

The upazila chairman and UNO vis-ited the area. No relief material has reached the victims yet. l

Operators gear up to launch 3G servicesn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

With the 3G spectrum auction set for Sunday next, four mobile operators of the country have started their prepara-tions to launch the next generation of (third generation) mobile services.

Several high o� cials at di� erent op-erators said they were excited about the auction and every one of them was pre-paring to launch3G within this calendar year.

One out of four private operators con� rmed the Dhaka Tribune, they will launch 3G services within a month of getting the permission. The operator in question even sought Bangladesh Tele-communication Regulatory Commis-sion’s (BTRC) permission recently, for piloting its 3G services, but the regulator denied.

O� cials at a transmission company informed, Grameenphone, the market leader has brought a third of their total sites in the capital under � bre connec-tivity, which were previously connected

through micro web.“If we get the licence, we will try to be

the � rst to o� er 3G services to our cus-tomers. We believe in evolutionary de-velopment in telecom sector,” said Vivek Sood, CEO of Grameenphone.

He said, they have upgraded their network to adopt 3G technology, but it will take more work to actually deploy the service.

In the meantime, Robi is preparing for the capital � rst and Airtel has reached agreements with a transmission compa-ny last week, over its network infrastruc-ture development.

However, Banglalink has just started negotiations over upgrading their net-work with � bre connectivity, despite signing a deal worth $300m with Huawei in July.

“We are excited about the 3G auc-tion and are fully prepared for it,” Ziad Shatara, CEO of Banglalink, the second largest operator in the country, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He said, “We are preparing ourselves

for launching 3G services and surprise our subscribers. That’s why we would not like to mention the date at this mo-ment, but it will come very soon.”

“Banglalink subscribers will feel the di� erence,” he said.

At this moment, the operators are only thinking about 3G, not LTE. “Though the regulator is going to give us the per-mission, but it will be very challenging at this moment as LTE handsets are not available here.” the Banglalink CEO said.

Robi, the third largest operator, said they would launch the 3G service within a few months of availing the licence.

“It will take three to � ve months to launch 3G mobile phone services,” said Michael Kuehner, CEO of Robi at a press conference on Monday.

“There will not be much � ght in the market for 3G spectrum, which is good for us, but it also needs to be mentioned that the base price of the spectrum is very high,” he said.

At the spectrum auction, the BTRC will award four licences, with the same

number of players in the market. The spectrum’s base price has been � xed at $20m per megahertz (MHz).

Airtel, the fourth player of the market, however, did not make any o� cial com-ments on 3G, after several attempts. But Airtel sources said, they are also taking preparations, in and outside the country.

In India, Airtel has ordered a handset manufacturer to assemble smartphones at 3,000 rupees only.

Earlier, Teletalk launched the 3G ser-vices with a commercial test run on 14 October 2012.

Md Muzibor Rahaman, Managing Di-rector of Teletalk, informed the Dhaka Tribune recently that they have some special plans on 3G, which will be for-mally launched a day after the auction on September 9.

Teletalk, as an incumbent operator will get the licence with 10MHz spectrum according to the guideline. Currently, Teletalk is running 3G only in six districts including Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur, Chittagong, Sylhet and Cox’s Bazar. l

Intra-BNP clash kills 1, injures six in Satkhiran Our Correspondent, Satkhira

A local leader of Bangladesh National-ist Party was killed during an intra-par-ty clash in Satkhira yesterday. At least 6 people were injured during the clash at Shilpakala Academy in the district town.

The dead was Amanullah Aman, gen-eral secretary of BNP’s � shermen wing Motshojibi Dal, when rival factions of the party locked into a clash at the work-ers’ conference in the morning.

The two groups were – supporters of district unit BNP President Habibul Islam and General Secretary Syed If-tekhar Ali.

They generated the clash over seat-

ing arrangements at the stage, moder-ating the programme and speech deliv-erance, witnesses said.Injured Aman was rushed to Satkh-

ira Sadar Hospital along with other wounded, but he was later shifted to Khulna Medical College Hospital as his condition deteriorated.

Aman succumbed to his injuries while being treated at the hospital in

the afternoon. District unit BNP General Secretary

Syed Iftekhar Ali, district unit Sramik Dal (labour wing) President Adbus Sa-mad, Abdul Alim of Torun Dal (youth wing), Aminul Islam, district unit Shec-chashebok Dal (volunteers’ wing) Joint Secretary Abdus Salam and Abu Raihan were also injured during the clashes.

The clash foiled the programme that began around 11:30am. BNP Internation-al A� airs Secretary Nazimuddin Alam attended the function as chief guest.

As soon as the clash erupted, Shil-pokola Academy premises and its ad-joining areas has turned into a battle ground with both groups chasing and counter-chasing each other.

District unit BNP General Secretary Syed Iftekhar Ali claimed clashes broke out at the instruction of Satkhira BNP President former MP Habibul Islam.

“Supporters of Habib, armed with machete, Chinese axes and hock-ey-sticks, swooped on my activists and party leaders, leaving me and some others wounded,” he said.

Habibul Islam could not be reached over the phone for comments after re-peated attempts.

O� cer-in-Charge of Satkhira Sadar police station Shahjahan Ali Khan said they have made arrangements to bring Aman’s dead body to Satkhira.

“None from BNP has � led complaint in this regard so far,” he said. l

BU FEMALE STUDENT KILLING

Russell expelled, police recover suicide notesn Our Correspondent, Barisal

The absconding accused of Barisal Uni-versity student left suicide notes in his dormitory before he ventured on killing his ex on Thursday last.

A second year student Russell Mia of Management Department took the responsibility for the murder of his once-beloved Saoda Begum, according to suicide notes.

The victim was a � rst year student of Accounting Department of the same uni-versity.

Russell wrote Saoda’s parents ad-dressing them as father-in-law and mother-in-law.

In the notes, he said he would take his own life to unite with his ex in the after-world.

Police recovered the notes written in the form of three letters from Russell’s mess in Jordan road area of the city.

The killer also pinned blame on Sa-oda’s parents and her elder sister’s hus-band whose acts of humiliation insti-gated him to resort to murder, said the notes.

He said they were responsible for

forcing Saoda to break his heart.In the letters, Russell claimed that he

decided to kill Saoda as her family mem-bers – knowing a long-time physical and mental relations between the two – � rst decided to marry her to him, but later refused.

He alleged that Saoda’s family as-saulted him and also humiliated his fam-ily members citing poverty issues.

On Thursday night, Saoda’s mother Shahida Begum lodged a murder case ac-cusing Russell and two-three unnamed others.

In the case, Shahida brought the alle-gation that Russell teased her daughter, but she did not state any previous rela-tionship between them.

Police detained Bipul Baroi – a � rst year Accounting Department student of BU and close friend of Russell for inter-rogation.

The lawmen, however, were yet to know the whereabouts of Russell, and whether he was live or dead till � ling this report, said Shakhawat Hossain, Barisal Kotwali police station o� cer-in-charge.

The arrestee denied any involvement in the act of killing and also alleged po-

lice harassment in custody.Bipul said Russell was his roommate,

and everyone knew Russell’s love a� air with Saoda.

Meanwhile, Barisal University syn-dicate holding an emergency meeting Thursday night suspended Russell from the academia.

It also recommended expelling the ac-cused from the university for life, said Prof Harunor Rashid, BU vice- chancel-lor. The body of Saoda was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.

It was expected to be handed over to guardians and sent to Barisal Friday night.

Saoda’s namaz-e-janaza would be held on BU temporary campus mosque premises and later be sent to her native village in Patharghata upazila under Bar-guna district, BU sources said.

BU family is shocked at such grue-some killing of the student since the start of its academic session on January 24, 2011.

The university students, teachers and guardians demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the kill-er. Rakib and Salma – BU students – said Russell was Saoda’s private tutor and both were engaged in love for a long time.

Everybody knew their love a� air, added the students.

Russell’s mother Renu Begum said they went to Saoda’s family with mar-riage proposal on July 21, but they were refused as well as humiliated.

Since then Russell became mental-ly perturbed, and if he killed Saoda, he might also kill himself, she said over mo-bile phone.

The female student of Barisal Univer-sity Accounting Department was severe-ly chopped Thursday morning on her way to campus by Russell.

Saoda succumbed to her injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Thursday late afternoon after she was � own to Dhaka by air-ambulance. l

Movement to oust government after Eid: BNPn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The BNP-led 18 party opposition alliance has threatened that the movement to oust the government would be launched after Eid if dialogue does not take place to resolve the prevailing political crisis.

“We do not have any scope of going back. There is still time. Take initiative to restore non-partisan interim government provision in the constitution,” said Abdul-lah Al Noman, vice-chairman of the party.

He said BNP would not take part in any meaningless dialogue.

Emerging from a meeting of the sec-retaries general of the alliance at BNP’s Nayapaltan headquarters, Noman said as part of ongoing movement, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia would address a rally tomorrow in Narsingdi.

Former minister Noman alleged that the government had amended the con-stitution to turn it into party charter. “We believe that free and fair election is not possible under the incumbent gov-ernment and the politicised administra-tion,” he said. l

No way for neutral position over combating militancy: Sultana Kamaln UNB

Former caretaker government adviser Sultana Kamal yesterday said there is no scope for the citizens to take a neu-tral position over the question of com-bating militancy, communalism and fundamentalism.

“Today, there is no scope at all to stay away and take a neutral position, pro-vided the rise of militancy and commu-nalism,” she said while addressing the 2nd national convention of the Platform Against Communalism-Militancy at the Institute of Engineers Bangladesh.

Noting that communalism and mil-itancy were raiders of human rights, particularly the rights of women, Sulta-na Kamal said all the forces nourishing the dream of establishing secularism and equal rights as principles of the state must get united to root out mili-tancy from the country.

She said the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 was the result of the aspiration of a secular, disparity-free state that was gradually nourished by people since the Language Movement in 1952.

“It must be ensured that no scope is left for anyone for doing politics away from the spirit of the 1971 Liberation War.”

She also reminded political parties about any compromise with the com-munal, militant forces.

“We see that the rights of the wom-en can be compromised. The party which pledged for establishing secular-ism and rights of women is not on the track to implement it,” she said adding, “There were many other things in the manifesto. Only the manifesto won’t satisfy us anymore. We want to see the implementation.”

Chaired by the platform’s coordina-tor Ajoy Ray, the convention was also addressed by Industries Minister Dilip Barua, Workers’ Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon MP, Dhaka University teacher Prof Ani-suzzaman, Bangladesh Hindu-Bud-dhist-Christian Oikya Parishad General Secretary Rana Dasgupta, Janata Bank Chairman Dr Abul Barkat and Commu-nist Party of Bangladesh General Secre-tary Syed Abu Zafar. l

Garment workers stage a demo in the capital’s Malibagh yesterday demanding immediate payment of outstanding arrears DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Supporters of Habib, armed with machete, Chinese axes and hockey-sticks, swooped on my activists and party leaders, leaving me and some others wounded’

AL introduced ‘terrorism and militancy’: Jamaatn Manik Miazee

BNP-led opposition ally Bangladesh Ja-maat-e-Islami yesterday claimed that the 1996-2001 government of Sheikh Hasina had � rst introduced “terrorist and militant” activities in the country.

In a statement issued by acting sec-retary general Ra� qul Islam Khan, Ja-maat also claimed that the prime min-ister and acting inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Haque on Thurs-day had given “false and baseless” in-formation about the party.

Jamaat also protested the prime minister’s comment at a rally in Bag-mara of Rajshahi that “terrorism and militancy” dominated the BNP-Jamaat government in 2001-006.

Ra� qul also dismissed the premier’s claim that the BNP-Jamaat and He-fazat-e-Islam were doing politics in the name of religion.

He claimed that Jamaat had always waged movement against “terrorism and militancy.” l

In the letters, Russell claimed he decided to kill Saoda as her family members assaulted him and also humiliated his family members as they were poor

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

City High LowDhaka 34.0 27.2Chittagong 31.2 25.8Rajshahi 34.4 27.8Rangpur 32.8 26.8Khulna 34.8 27.6Barisal 33.5 26.6Sylhet 29.5 23.2Cox’s Bazar 31.2 25.0

PRAYER TIMESFajar 4:26am

Sunrise 5:41amZohr 11:57pm

Asr 4:25pmMagrib 6:11pm

Esha 7:27pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Temperature unlikely to changen UNB

Light to moderate rain or thundershow-ers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at many places over Khulna, Barisal, Chittag ong, Syl-het, Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions until 6pm today.

Moderately heavy to heavy falls are also likely at places over the country, Met O� ce said.

Day and night temperature may re-main nearly unchanged over the country.

The sun sets in the capital at 6:11pm today and rises at 5:42am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 35.2 degree Celsius was recorded yesterday at Chuadanga and lowest 23.2 degrees at Sylhet.

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

People still unaware of RTI Act n Rabiul Islam

Four years into its inception, common-ers as well as many educated people are still unaware about the existence of Right to Information Act and its ben-e� ts.

Speakers at a workshop on RTI for journalists yesterday alleged that it hap-pened because of fewer steps to publi-cise it. They also expressed discontent since many government and non-gov-ernment o� ces were yet to appoint of-� cers designated to give information.

Under the Act, every citizen has the right to seek information under certain procedure.

So far, around 13,000 designated of-� cers have been appointed in the gov-ernment and non-government o� ces.

An o� cial at the Information Com-mission said around 50,000 govern-ment and non-government organisa-tions are supposed to have designated information o� cers.

“We are sending letters to the o� ces concerned to appoint designated of-

� cers for providing people with infor-mation,” Prof Sadeka Halim, a member of the commission, told the Dhaka Tri-bune yesterday.

About publicity, she said the com-mission had held meetings in over 50 districts, but admitted that it was con-ducted at a limited scale.

According to the commission, so far, it has accepted 232 complaints out of 452 received. A total of 197 complaints were not submitted properly. Of the cases, 204 complaints were settled while the rest cases are under process.

For not giving information, the com-mission has so far � ned two organisa-tions.

Speaking at the workshop, Suraiya Begum, an assistant director of Re-search Initiatives, Bangladesh, alleged that o� cers at many government and non-government o� ces were reluctant to give information.

Dhaka Reporters’ Unity is organising the training workshop participated by 50 journalists from di� erent electronic and print media. l

Jamuna Future Park opens n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Jamuna Future Park, a shopping com-plex and entertainment park situated in the capital’s Pragati Sarani, was in-augurated yesterday after 11 years of its initiation.

Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir inaugurated the shopping complex.

At the ceremony, he congratulated Jamuna Group Chairman Nurul Islam Babul and his wife Salma Islam MP for the initiative and hoped that the estab-lishment would take the reputation of Bangladesh to a new height in the world.

LGRD State Minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Prime Minister’s Adviser HT Imam, BNP’s Vice-Chairman Shamser Mobin Chowdhury, Jatiya Party’s Gen-eral Secretary ABM Ruhul Amin How-lader and its Presidium member Kaji

Zafar Ahmed and � lm star Razzak were also present.

After the opening ceremony, the entertainment zones were opened for visitors. A large number of city dwell-ers mainly children and teenagers vis-ited the place.

The mega mall houses approximate-ly 500 shops on each � oor. Apart from the shops, level 5 hosts around 4,500 restaurants and food shops including some globally-renowned brands, said authorities.

On the same � oor, there is an enter-tainment zone “Future World” which has four indoor rides, 157 video games, rock climber, magic show and seven d-rider, three rooftop rides, double-deck-er, � oating valley and many more.

At the player’s club, it has 22 lanes of bowling alley, two pool and billiard boards, three snooker boards, eight

karaoke stations, musical � oor, block-buster cinemas including seven theatre halls, and vogue life style lounge in-cluding spa, hydro spa, sauna, make-over saloon, beauty parlour, gymna-sium and swimming pool.

In the open space outside the mall, there are six outdoor rides including a rollercoaster, tower challenger, magic windmill, pirate ship, sky droop and � ying disco.

A concern of Jamuna Group, the mall’s construction started in the year 2002 and the exterior was completed within 2008.

According to the claims of the com-plex’s authorities, it is the largest shop-ping mall in South Asia and third larg-est in the world, built on a total area of approximately 13.4 hectares (33acres) with a shopping area of more than 1.6m square feet. l

Three killed in Barisal, Chittagongn Tribune Report

The imam of a mosque Dhamua in Uz-irpur upazila, Barisal, was strangled to death on Thursday, our Barisal corre-spondent reports.

Hafez Parvez Mahmud, 31, the imam of Uttar Dhamura Jame Masjid, was found dead in a Khanka of theMaijvandari sect by police, said An-war Hossain, Uzirpur police station in charge.

Abdullah, brother of the victim, lodged a murder case accusing one Mit-hun Mia, a local drug addict hooligan and a follower of the Maijvandari sect. Police were trying to arrest him, Anwar Hossain said.

Mahmud’s dead body was sent to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Barisal Airport police station sourc-es said police had recovered the body of a man concealed in bushes in a ditch at Sona Miar Pol area in the city yester-day morning.

Shahidullah, o� cer- in-charge of the Airport police station, said the vic-tim was identi� ed as Sumon Nath, 29, night guard of a local � sh farm.

Nath was strangled to death. Po-lice lodged a case of unnatural deathand sent the dead body to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital morgue.

In Chittagong, a man was hacked to death allegedly by his neighbours at Lalmai village, Fatikchhari upazila, Chittagong yesterday morning over a land dispute.

Ong Shu Thoai, inspector (investiga-tion) of Bhujpur Police Station, told the Dhaka Tribune that Md Moslem, 30, was hacked with sharp weapons by as-sailants.

He was rushed to Feni Medical Col-lege Hospital where doctors declared him dead, the o� cer said.

No one has been arrested in the in-cident so far. A case was lodged with Bhujpur police station, but the inspec-tor refused to reveal who were ac-cused. l

Swachip doctors secure dean posts in BSMMU electionn Tribune Report

Dr ABM Abdullah, professor of Internal Medicine at Banghabandhu Sheikh Mu-jib Medical University (BSMMU), was elected the dean of BSMMU’s medicine faculty on Thursday.

His only contender, Prof Akramul-lah Sikder of the Dermatology Depart-ment, secured only 13 votes, while Dr Abdullah bagged 98. Out of 179 votes, 114 ballots were cast, with 3 votes being cancelled.

Prof M Iqbal Arslan of Basic Science, Prof Konok Kanti Barua of Surgery, and Prof Ali Asgar Moral of Dentistry facul-

ties – faced no contest in securing the position of deans of their respective faculties, as Doctors Association of Bangladesh (DAB) rejected the elec-tion.

Earlier, DAB withdrew all of its eight candidates who submitted nomina-tion papers to contest for the four dean posts.

Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad (Swachip) leaders of BSMMU, in a statement, expressed gratitude to the teachers for selecting their candidates as deans.

Professor Md Sayedur Rahman act-ed as the election commissioner. l

Drug addict ‘commits suicide’ in Barisaln Our Correspondent. Barisal

The body of a youth, who was alleg-edly struggling with drug addiction,was found hanging at his resi-dence at Vatikhana in Barisal cityyesterday.

The youth was identi� ed as Samir Devnath, 31, son of Kalachan Devnath of Lomba Dalan in Vatikhana.

Sub-Inspector Qamruzzaman, sec-ond o� cer of Kawnia police station, said Samir killed himself.

He was married to Moni Devnath of the same area, and was father to two children.

Last week, Moni left home andtook the children to her father’s house, because of Samir’s drugaddiction and torture on family mem-bers.

Samir went to his father-in-law’s house on Thursday night and demand-ed money from his wife to buy drugs, which Moni denied.

Samir later returned to his house, where police recovered his body at 2pm yesterday.

The body was sent to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital for autopsy, after a case of unnatural death was lodged, police sources said. l

Body of domestic help found in BGB hospital n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Police yesterday recovered the body of a domestic help from the Border Guard Bangladesh headquarters hospital in the city’s Pilkhana.

The deceased was identi� ed as Rima Akter, 15, daughter of Azor Ali.

Akteruzzaman Sarker, sub-inspec-tor of New Market police station,told the Dhaka Tribune Rima hailed from Biddayanpara area of Kishorgonj district.

The girl came to work as a domestic help three months ago in 15/D-1 No. � at of Taranga building, BGB o� cers living quarters in Pilkhana.

The 15/D-1 No. house belonged to Lt Col Rownak Ahad.

On Thursday night, Rima fell down from a chair on the � oor while she was trying to commit suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan, he said.

Later, the victim was rushed to BGB hospital where she succumbed to her injurers in the early hours of Friday, Rownak said.

He added: “We recovered the body of Rima around 10:30am and sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.

The BGB o� cial alleged that Rima was absent-minded and that would be

the reason behind her suicide.In the meantime, Molu Baroi, 34, a

construction worker was electrocuted around 11:30am yesterday while he was working on the roof of 260/1/A No. house in Nabinbagh area of Khilgaon in the city.

Later, house owner Mohamad Mo-dina rushed him to DMCH where the on-duty doctors declared him dead around 1 pm.

The victim hailed from Boari village under Rajoir police station of Madari-pur district.

Mozzamel Haque, inspector of DMCH police outpost, told the Dhaka Tribune they had informed the con-cerned police station of the matter and the body was kept in the hospital morgue.

Meanwhile, police recovered the body of an old man, aged around 70 from the garden of HazratShahjalal International Airport around 8:30am.

Tarequzzaman, sub-inspector of Airport police station, told the Dhaka Tribune the body was clad in black lungi and white panjabi and kept in the DMCH morgue.

A message had been sent to all in-formation centres for identifying the body, he added. l

BODY PARTS IN DHAKA DUMP YARD

Experts doubt police conclusion about originn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Forensic investigation has revealed that the body parts found in sacks from a Dhaka dump yard came from a medical college. A forensic expert, however, has expressed doubts about this conclusion.

Police have determined that the sacks came from a garbage container in Dhanmondi.

“Several human body parts and 13 bones, found in four sacks at Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) land-� ll in Matuail on last month, had been used for medical college study,” Ra� qul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Jatrabari po-lice station told the Dhaka Tribune.

The forensic report was given by Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital (SSMCH) last week.

However, the investigators are yet to � nd out from which medical college the body parts had come from. Ra� qul Islam said police were still investigat-ing to that end. Police looked into the dump yard’s records and found that the truck that had brought the sacks in entered the yard on August 22 around 2.30am. The truck was carrying con-tainer number 1202, which is kept at road no 7/A, Dhanmondi and the body parts were inside the container.

Ra� qul Islam said the medical col-leges in that area were Bangladesh

Medical College, Northern Medical Col-lege, Popular Medical College, Sikdar Medical College and Anowara Medical College Hospital.

“Primarily we are suspecting the body parts were dumped from any of those medical colleges,” OC Ra� qul added.

Further details about the body parts would be revealed after getting the re-sults of chemical and DNA tests, he said.

However, a forensic expert speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, expressed doubt about the � ndings.

“Body parts or skeletons used for ac-ademic purposes are usually processed in a very careful way, so that they are without cuts or scratches, but the body

parts that were recovered have hack-saw cuts on them,” the expert said.

The expert added that medical stu-dents who buy a skeleton during stu-dentship either sell them afterwards or keep them for life.

“Trashing a skeleton is unheard of. Besides, medical students show respect when using any human body parts in their studies, so it is unlikely they would dump them in a dustbin,” the expert said.

On August 23, some street children found eight sacks at the Jatrabari dump-ing station which contained human body parts and bones. Jatrabari police recovered the sacks afterwards. l

A group of young people travelling at at the back of a vehicle standing, risking their lives. The scarcity of transport leads people to travel like this almost daily. The photo was taken from Sutrapur yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Prescription 5DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

QUICK TIPS

FOOD THERAPY

Be an opportunist walker

We all know that walking is good for health. If you take the bus, get o� one stop earlier and walk the rest of the way.  Get the taxi to drop you a little fur-ther away than your destination.  This is a great way of getting in a daily walk. Pull in your stomach muscles when you walk.  This is a great, but simple way to help tighten those stomach muscles. l

Exercise for Heart

Take the stairs two at a time instead of one at a time.  This causes you to have to exert yourself more and increases your heart rate. For a quick exercise, lean against the wall so that your face is close and then use your hands to push your body away.  Do these three or four times to stretch. Swimming is one of the best exercises for cardio � tness and it’s low to no impact on your joints, which is great for people who have osteoporosis or joint problems. Always warm up before a workout and end with a cool down.  Your body needs to increase its heart rate gently before going into a full workout. l

IBS: Uncommon name, common occurrencen Professor ABM Abdullah

Have you ever wondered why people get butter� ies in their stomach before giving a speech on stage? Or why an upcoming appointment with a boss or before an interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? The reason is that we may have two brains.

The second brain is the gut, known as the enteric (related to intestine) ner-vous system. This could be the origin of the term “gut feeling.” This is ex-perienced by many people in a regu-lar manner. And it presents a disease called Irritable Bowel Syndrome, in short IBS.

In fact, IBS a� ects approximately 10-20% of the population. It is the dis-turbances of the colon function and is characterised by symptoms of ab-dominal discomfort or pain and altered bowel habit with diarrhea or constipa-tion or both in alteration.

IBS was called colitis, mucous coli-tis, spastic colon, nervous colon, and spastic bowel.

In our country the disease is known as Puraton Amashoy (old or chronic dysentery). The name was changed to re� ect the understanding that the disorder has both physical and mental causes and is not a product of a per-son’s imagination.

IBS can be easily diagnosed by physical exam and a complete medical history. When a person has abdominal pain or discomfort at least three times per month for the last three months without any other disease or injury that could explain the pain, may be a case of IBS. The pain or discomfort of IBS may occur with a change in stool frequency or consistency or may be relieved by a bowel movement.

What causes IBS?The causes of IBS are not well under-stood. Researchers believe a combi-nation of physical and mental health problems can lead to IBS.

Brain-gut signal problems, GI mo-tor problems, hypersensitivity, mental health problems, bacterial gastroen-teritis, altered body chemicals, food sensitivity are the possible causes.

It is said that the gut produces nat-ural pain killers and mood enhances to overcome pain or anxiety. And it is linked to dietary habits, sleep and the

trillions of friendly bacteria that coex-ist symbiotically in our gut.

It could be a combination of vari-ous disturbances in the interaction between the gut or intestine, the brain and the autonomic nervous system. So far, researches have not yet been able to pin-point the cause of this syndrome.

Another research on the causeUnknowingly, you almost certainly consume antibiotics in animal prod-ucts. Pharmaceuticals produce more than 70 million kgs of antibiotics each year and animals receive more than

65% of them. Growers routinely give big helpings of antibiotics to cattle, poultry to prevent infections from spreading. But it � nally gets into the human food chain and disrupts the normal � ora of the gut.

Researchers estimate that by con-suming just one glass of commercially processed and packaged milk, you un-knowingly ingest residues of as many as one hundred di� erent antibiotics (WX Douglass MD, the Milk Book). To augment further, 95% of children are treated with more antibiotics for sim-ple reasons.

Adults are not spared either. The an-tibiotics disrupt the intestinal bacteria ratios. This is called dysbiosis. Con-tinuous disruptions to the internal gut environment can cause diarrhea, con-stipation, IBS.

Most doctors have refused to see the connection of these diseases to the constant bombardment of microbial population in the gastrointestinal tract.

Unfortunately, people who are sick, seek out foods such as milk, biscuits or cookies, white bread, rich porridge and other ‘light foods’ laden with sugar. These are the very foods containing re� ned carbohydrate that promote the rapid growth of disease-causing bacte-ria.

How is IBS treated?Though there is no cure for IBS, with e� ective counseling, dietary and life-style intervention, and use of prescrip-tion medications, IBS can be e� ectively managed.

Treating infrequent or mild symp-toms with over-the-counter medica-tion is e� ective for most patients.

If symptoms are persistent, howev-er, it’s important to see respective phy-sician because the excessive use of pre-scribed medications can actually lead to more gastrointestinal symptoms. If symptoms do not improve with chang-es in diet and lifestyle, recommended medications are available for people with IBS. l

The writer is Dean of Faculty of Medicine of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University

IBS may be of di� erent types. Three subtypes of IBS are:

IBS with constipation (IBS-C)Hard or lumpy stools at least 25 percent of the time.Loose or watery stools less than25 percent of the time.

IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D)Loose or watery stools at least 25 percent of the timeHard or lumpy stools less than 25 percent of the time

Mixed IBS (IBS-M)Hard or lumpy stools at least 25 percent of the timeLoose or watery stools at least 25

| Compiled by: Shirsho Sikder

Fish for eyesMost of the people of our country are very fond of � sh. In course of time, sea � shes have been quite popular among us. If you su� er from dry eyes, increase your seafood intake. Salmon, sardines, and mackerel contain omega-3 fatty

acids, which the body uses to produce tears, among other things. Research suggests that people who consume higher amounts of these fats are less likely to have dry eyes. l

Eat bananasMany people think that banana is a fruit for children, but it is also very bene� cial for adults. Banana is high in potassium. People whose diets are rich in potassium may be less prone to high blood pressure. Beside reducing sodium and taking other heart-healthy steps, eat potassium-packed picks such as bananas, cantaloupe, and oranges. l

Go for garlicAdding raw or lightly cooked garlic and onions to your meals may help keep you healthy throughout the year. Both foods appear to possess antiviral and antibac-

terial properties and are believed to boost immunity. We are very lucky that most of the rich recipes of our country contain garlic and onion. l

| Compiled by:

Dr Sajol Ashfaq

Can chocolate makeyou look younger?n Gazi Kashif Yousuf

Yes it is a question that needs to be seen with much sincerity, a ques-tion that will put frown on the faces of the parents and will make children almost jump up in joy.

There was a time when young lads all over the world were cautioned against eating too much chocolate, particularly because excessive amount of it can cause harm to out dental regions. While the sugar and not the chocolate were always likely to cause most of the dam-age, if any of these chocolate induced harm were true then researchers now have come up with this ground-break-ing result that “chocolate can actually bene� t ones skin” and adding to that is the message “the darker the better.”

However, the dark chocolate we talk about is the basic procession of cocoa to

its delicious consumption form which has many physical aids besides mental ones.

Recent studies have shown that people who intake dark chocolate can stay under the sun twice as long as oth-er people without su� ering any burns or skin damage. It is believed so that dark chocolate allows powerful protec-tion against harmful UV rays.

Dark chocolate is packed full of age-resisting antioxidants and � avanoids, while remaining high in ca� eine, which is thought to prevent the onset of degen-erative brain illnesses in later life with e� ects of being optimistic as many drugs do. The higher the cocoa count, the bet-ter for having an a� rmative mindset.

It is not strange matter that opti-mism helps people retain their youth-fulness and on the plus side their desire for taste is certainly not being compromised, so swap it in instead of milk chocolate next time a sweet crav-ing takes hold. l

Source: Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 

Does whitening toothpastewhiten teeth?n Prescription Desk

Whitening toothpaste can slightly whit-en teeth by removing surface stains, caused by drinking co� ee or smoking. But whitening toothpaste can’t change

the natural colour of your teeth or re-verse the discoloration caused during tooth development and the stains due to decay.

Whitening toothpaste contains chemicals such as sodium tripolyphos-

phate that help break down or dissolve stains. It may contain few special abra-sives that gently polish the teeth.

Whitening toothpaste typically takes two to four weeks to make teeth whiter while used twice a day.

New research shows that whiten-ing toothpaste containing the chemical blue covarine that can make teeth ap-pear immediately whiter. Blue covarine adheres to the surface of the teeth and creates an optical illusion that makes teeth appear less yellow. Whitening toothpaste is sometimes used after a bleaching treatment to maintain re-sults.

Though whitening toothpaste is generally safe for daily use, excessive use damages tooth enamel. It is better to use whitening toothpaste, which is approved by reputed dental organisa-tion. To choose the best whitening toothpaste, the best option is to talk to your dentist. l

Happy marriage controls highblood pressuren Prescription Desk

A person’s diet, exer-cise habits, and stress levels can all have an impact on blood pressure, so it’s not surprising that your relationship status – and the strength of

your relationship – can, too.Researchers at Brigham Young Uni-

versity found that people in happy marriages tended to have lower blood pressure than their single counter-parts. People who were  unhappi-ly  married, however, tended to have

higher blood pressure than singles.It is said that an unhealthy rela-

tionship causes your body to release stress hormones and your heart to beat faster. And these factors can push blood pressure up over time.

The link between relationships

and cardiovascular health goes well beyond blood pressure. Studies have consistently reported that being married is associated with a  lower risk of heart attack and better out-comes after heart surgery, especially for men.

What explains this pattern? Stress and other underlying biological factors (including blood pressure) are thought to be involved, but the emotional and tangible support that partners provide likely plays a role as well. It’s the caring behaviors – a� ec-tionate touches, thoughtful actions – that really make a di� erence in a person’s recovery. l

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6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

Goat plague goes viral in LalmonirhatAcute vaccine shortage is exacerbating problemn Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

At least 200 goats have died in di� erent villages of Lalmonirhat in the last week alone due to an outbreak of plague, and an acute shortage of vaccines to combat the disease.

In total around 5000 goats have been a� ected across the district by the spread of Pestedes Petits Ruminant (PPR), known as goat-plague, according to an o� cial of Lalmonirhat District Livestock O� cer (DLO).

Local goat farmers said a scarcity of PPR vaccines held by the DLO has been an impediment in treating the deadly disease, and in protecting their una� ected animals.

Salamot Hossain, a goat farmer of Kamlabari village under Aditmari upazila, said: “I had 10 goats, of which three have already died in the last three days due to PPR, and now symptoms have started to show in the rest.”

“I went at the Aditmari upazila livestock o� ce to get PPR vaccines but the livestock o� cial said they were already out of stock,” he said.

Another farmer of Votmari village of Kaliganj upazila, Sahidul Islam, said he got only one vaccine even though the PPR disease had a� ected � ve of his goats, while Mansur Ali, a goat farmer of Kulaghat village in Lalmonirhat sadar upazila, was in despair at the situation.

“My two goats died in the morning yesterday due to the goat plague and I suspect the remaining three will die any moment if I do not vaccinate them immediately,” he said.

A Veterinary Surgeon of Lalmonirhat DLO o� ce, Dr Bazlur Rashid, said the symptoms of PPR in goats include high fever, severe cold with di� culty in breathing, diarrhea etc. If treatment is not provided on time, around 80%-85% of a� ected goats will die within a few days.

In fact, DLO doctors said there is no speci� c drug and vaccination is the only way to combat the viral disease.

DLO sources said there were at least 200,000 goats in Lalmonirhat district, but the government had sent only 20,000 doses of vaccines this year. In the last eight months, 16,500 goats had been vaccinated.

The Lalmonirhat DLO, Dr Abu Hossain Sarker, said the mortality rate of PPR a� ected goats is dropping as goat owners are gradually becoming aware of the disease. However, he admitted there was a shortage of PPR vaccines in their stock.

“I have already sent a letter to the higher authority concerned for supplying more vaccines in the district. The government should ensure the adequate supply of PPR vaccines to combat the disease,” he said. l

Aman farming target exceeds by 2.82% in northern regionn BSS

Farmers in the northern region of the country have exceeded their target of Transplanted Aman (T-Aman) by 2.82% so far, o� cial sources have said.

Despite the recent drought-like situ-ation, farmers have already brought 1,795,653 hectares of land under T-Aman cultivation, which is 49,205 (2.82%) hectares higher than the � xed farming target of 17,46,448 hectares this season.

“The farmers will bring more land under Aman cultivation as they are still continuing transplantation of some late and aromatic variety of paddies,” said Horticulture Specialist Khandker Md Mesbahul Islam, of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).

The DAE o� cials are expecting a bumper production of the major cereal crop in the northern region this season as the tender T-Aman plants have been

growing steadily following frequent and adequate rainfall in recent weeks.

According to DAE sources, a target of producing 4,607,625 tonnes of clean Aman rice has been � xed by bringing 1,746,448 hectares land under its culti-vation in the region this season.

Under the programme, 1,603,451 hectares of land were to be brought under cultivation of high yielding T-Aman, to produce 4,350,964 tonnes of rice; 126,606 hectares under local variety to produce 202,570 tonnes; and 16,327 hectares under hybrid variety to produce 54,090 tonnes of Aman rice.

However, farmers in the region have already brought 1,681,016 hectares of land under cultivation of high yielding variety T-Aman, 96,893 hectares under local variety, and 17,744 hectares of hy-brid.

Farmers Mahfuz Ali, Kamal Hossain and Abul Kalam said they have com-pleted seedling transplantation and

the tender plants are growing well fol-lowing adequate rainfall since the be-ginning of August, after a month-long drought-like situation.

Rangpur Regional Additional Direc-tor of the DAE, Sikander Ali, said T-Aman plants are growing excellently in the � elds everywhere, and predicted a bumper production of the crop this year as the climatic condition has be-come favourable now.

“The farmers are expecting to har-vest the early, short duration and drought-tolerant variety T-Aman pad-dies like BRRI dhan 33, BRRI dhan 39, BRRI dhan 56 and 57, BINA dhan 7 and BU dhan 1 from the � rst week of Octo-ber,” he said.

Associate Director (Agriculture) of BRAC International (South Asia and Af-rica), MA Mazid, said frequent rainfall largely helps better growth and the T-Aman � elds should have bumper pro-duction this season. l

100,000 marooned as Padma, Mahananda continue to swell n UNB, Chapainawabganj

The mighty � ow of Padma and Ma-hananda has engulfed about 15 unions in two upazilas of Chapainawabganj district in last 24 hours, leaving at least 100000 people stranded.

Vast tracks of land in the area includ-ing Alatuli, Debinagar, Narayanpur, Sundarpur, Charbagdanga, Islampur, Shahjahanpur, Moharajpur and Barogh-aria unions in sadar upazila and Paka, Ujirpur, Durlabpur, Mankasha, Chatrajit-pur and Ghorapakhia unions in Shibganj upazila have been inundated.

Besides, the low-lying municipality areas, including Rehaicar and Charmo-honpur and educational institutions of the district also went under water.

The � ood-hit people of the two upa-zilas have taken shelter in safer places, however, they were facing acute crisis of food and pure drinking water, said Sarafat Ali, deputy commissioner of the district. With 43,518 names, a list of � ood victims has been prepared so far.

Relieves including cash were being distributed among them. Besides, two medical teams had been working round the clock to provide healthcare to the af-fected people, he added.

Sources at the district’s Water Devel-opment Board (WDB) o� ce, said during last 24 hours, the Padma was � owing 16cm above its danger level while the Mahananda rose about 23cm above its danger level. l

Power outage makes Kaliganj people’s life miserable n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

The life of the residents of Kaliganj in Gazipur has become unbearable as they have been without power since Wednesday night due to technical glitch in the gridline, local sources said on Friday.

The locals said although they went to the Rural Electri� cation Board (REB) several times, the authority could not take measures to � x the fault.

“There was no power supply in the upazila since September 4, said Kaliganj Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Kamrul Ahsan, adding that the residents of the area are su� ering. He said yesterday: “We got power supply for just two hours since Wednesday.”

“Foods items preserved in the refrigerator have rotten as there is no power supply”, said Abdul Jabbar

Sheikh, a resident of the Kaligonj area. “My business including

photocopying, snapping and online services came to a halt due to the power cut,” said Nazmul Alam, a shopkeeper.

At a press brie� ng yesterday, Sheikh Muhammad Ali, deputy manager of REB Kaliganj zonal o� ce, said the electricity supply was disconnected as a transformer caught � re at Ghorashal in Narsingdi.

“We are trying to replace the transformer and mend the damages caused by the � re in the electric line,” he said.

“We managed to supply electricity for two hours in an alternative way and we will be able to restore electricity connection after repairing, but I cannot be sure how much time it will take to resume normal power supply,” he added. l

Four held over Zindabazar jewellry market robberyn UNB, Sylhet

Rab and police on Thursday arrested four people, in separate drives, from several parts of Sylhet for their suspected involvement in a robbery incident in a jewellry market of Zindabazar on the previous day.

The arrestees were Kabir Ahmed alias Heroin Kabir, 35, of Tilagarh Kallayanpur in the city, Abdul Jalil alias Fokra Jalil, 33, Nahid alias Kala Nahid, 30, and Omar Ali, 35, of Pathanpara in Dakkhin Surma upazila.

Acting on secret information, a team of police arrested Kabir from Tilagarh area in the city early Thursday while Jalil was arrested from Pathanpara in the city in the morning the same day.

Besides, Rab conducted separate drives in the city and arrested Nahid from Subid Bazar area and Omar Ali from Dakkhin Surma on Thursday night.

Earlier on Wednesday, Badshah Mia, a night guard was killed and over 15 people were injured in an attack by robbers on Nehar Jewellry Market in Zindabazar area of the city.The robbers looted valuables from AL-Baraka Jewellers’, ‘Kamala Bhandar Jewellers’ and ‘Poroma Jewellers’, and � ed the scene.

The robbers also hurled 20 crude bombs during the incident.

Meanwhile, Zila Babosayee Oikya Kalyan Parishad, a forum of the local businessmen, from a meeting at Shandhya Bazar in the city on Thursday night, threatened to enforce an inde� nite strike on Sunday if all the people involved in the robbery were not arrested immediately. l

Demu train to ply Chandpur-Laksham-Comilla route from Sept 13n Our Correspondent, Chandpur

The Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (Demu) train service will be introduced on the Chandpur-Laksham-Comilla route on September 13.

Railway Minister Mojibul Haque is due to inaugurate the Demu service from the Chandpur Railway station and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni will also at-tend as chief guest.

“The special train was imported from China and will ply the route four times a day,” Chandpur Railway Sta-tion Master, Sha� qur Rahman, told the Dhaka Tribune.

“The train will hit the rail tracks at 10:30am on the inaugural day, howev-er, once the service starts, it will leave Chandpur at 9:40am and reach Comilla at around 12:30pm.”

The station master said three other trips are being timetabled daily: one from Chandpur station at 5:30pm; and two from Comilla station at 6:15am and 1:45pm.

A trip from Chandpur to Laksham will cost a passenger Tk25 while for Comilla-bound passengers, the fare is set at Tk35. The minimum fare on this route will be Tk15.

Sha� qur said Bangladesh Railway East Zone has already completed prep-arations to launch the service.

“Some high-ranked railway o� cials visited the Chandpur-Laksham-Comil-la route on several occasions to ensure smooth movement of the train plying the route,” he added.

Road accidents kill two in Gazipurn UNB

Two people were killed in two separate road accidents in sadar and Sreepur upa-zilas of Gazipur on Thursday.

In sadar upazila, a college student was killed in a road accident on the Dha-ka-Mymensingh Highway in Teknog-para area of the upazila in the morning. The deceased was Farhad Hossain,23, a third year honours student of Bhawal Badre Alam Government College and a resident of Jolarpar area of the upazila.

Police and locals said a bus ran over Farhad at Teknogpara on the highway when he was going to Chandana in-tersection riding a motorcycle around 10:45am, leaving him dead on the spot.

Later, police recovered the body and handed it over to the family of the deceased. In Sreepur, an unidenti� ed person, aged around 35, was killed in a road crash on the same highway in MC Bazar area of the upazila. Police said a Mymensingh-bound truck ran over him while he was crossing the road in the area. Police recovered the body and sent it to morgue for post mortem examination.

However, the driver, along with the truck, managed to � ee the scene. l

Train passenger injured after being hit by stone thrown A passenger of a Dhaka-bound train was in-jured after being hit by a stone thrown from outside near Nayapara railway station at Madabpur upazila in Habiganj on Thursday.The injured was Sergeant M Zobayer Hos-sain, who worked at Radar unit of Bangla-desh Air Force, Moulvibazar. M Shamsher, Zobayer’s colleague, said some unidenti-� ed people threw 3-4 stones at Parabat Express train coming from Sylhet when it was just passing the railway station around 7pm.Of the stones thrown at the running train, one hit Zobayer’s head, leaving him injured. In another incident, unidenti� ed people hurled stones at the same train at Sadar upazila in Bramanbaria. There was no

report of any passenger being injured in the incident, one of the passengers said.

Man gets 14 years for abducting schoolgirl A Sherpur court on Thursday sentenced a man to 14 years’ imprisonment for abducting a schoolgirl in 2002.The convict was Mohammad Kamruzzaman,30, of Konnogar village in Nalitabari upazila. The court also � ned him Tk10,000, in default, to su� er one year more in jail.According to the prosecution, Kamruzzaman abducted a class VII student, on her way to school on July 7, 2002.Following the incident, the victim’s father � led a case against seven people, including Kamruzzaman, with Nalitabari police station. Later police rescued the victim and submitted a charge sheet accusing six people, including the

convict. After examining records and 14 witnesses, Judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, Sherpur Mohammad Rabiul Hassan handed down the jail term to Kamruzzaman.– UNB

Explosive materials seized in JessorePolice in a drive recovered 10 hand bombs and some bomb-making materi-als in Kholadanga area of Jessore town on Wednesday night. On secret information a team of police recovered 10 hand bombs and 10 kg bomb-making materials behind a fertiliser warehouse in Kholadanga, said Farruque Hossain, sub-inspector of Kotwali police station. The miscreants managed to � ee the scene sensing the presence of the law enforcers.A case was � led accusing 7-8 people with the local police station. – UNB

Traders selling Aman saplings in a � oating market in Kawkhali of Pirojpur yesterday FOCUS BANGLA

National Human Rights and Crime Reporters Foundation form a human chain in Barisal town yesterday, demanding punishment for the killers of Jasem Hauladar FOCUS BANGLA

NEWS IN BRIEFHeadmaster held for embezzlement n Tribune Report

Police arrested the headmaster of Komol-pur High School located at Chauddagram upazila in Comilla early yesterday for em-bezzling Tk1.65m from school fund.

The headmaster Moniruzzaman Mo-zumder is a resident of Ilashpur village of Ujirpur union under Chauddagram upazila of the district.

Acting on a tip-o� , a team of Chaud-dagram police station conducted a raid at his residence and arrested him from there. Komolpur High School manag-ing committee sources said Moniruzza-man had embezzled Tk1.65m from 1997 to 2006. He took the money from the

school funds on various pretexts. Afterwards, the managing committee

of the school formed an investigation committee to probe the embezzlement.

The committee found Moniruzza-man guilty and asked him to repay the money. But he did not do so.

Later, Gias Uddin, a member of the managing committee of the school, lodged a case against Moniruzzaman Mozumder in 2009 for the misappro-priation.

Sub-Inspector Mizanur Rahman of Chauddagram police station said Moniruzzaman was produced before a court yesterday afternoon and then sent to jail. l

Metro 7DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

JICA to appoint consultants for metro rail: Obaidul Quader n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader has said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will appoint consultants for the Tk220bn metro rail project, in a move which should allow construction to begin on the Dhaka city scheme.

While inspecting repair works at Chittagong’s Oxygen-Hathazari road yesterday morning, the minister said an agreement had been inked in this re-gard at his ministry on Thursday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to lay the foundation stone soon, Obaidul Quader added.

The start of construction of the met-ro rail project, which is intended to ease Dhaka city’s chronic tra� c con-gestion, remains on hold pending the appointment of consultants.

JICA has pledged about Tk166bn for the 20.1km-long rail route, which will connect Uttara with Motijheel.

The fund has been pledged at 0.01% interest rate with a 40-year repayment period and an additional 10 years of grace period.

The loan agreement was penned

earlier this year.Meanwhile, on his way to Khagrach-

hari, Obaidul Quader inspected the progress of maintenance work on the road from Oxygen intersection to Ha-thazari.

Dissatis� ed with the rate of repair, the minister ordered to show-cause Rana Priyo Barua, executive engineer of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in Chittagong.

This is the second time Barua has been show-caused regarding this matter.

The minister said the road was an important route in regard to connectiv-ity, but the repair work was progressing at a “snail pace”.

“I have visited the road seven times in the last 19 months but there is no mentionable progress,” he added. He blamed the contractor and the engineer-ing department for the situation. l

President for completing Mayor Hanif Flyover soon The president put emphasis on repairing of the old road under the � yover as the road was damaged heavily due to the construction workn BSS, Dhaka

President Abdul Hamid yesterday di-rected authorities concerned to com-plete ongoing construction of Mayor Hohammad Hanif Flyover soon to give relief to city dwellers from tra� c con-gestion.

“I requested them (concerned au-thorities) to complete the work with-in this month and to open for public transport,” the president told journal-ists while visiting the under-construc-tion � yover in the capital yesterday afternoon.

During the visit, the president put emphasis on repairing of the old road un-der the � yover as the road was damaged heavily due to the construction work.

President Hamid expressed his hope to the journalists that tra� c congestion would be reduced to a great extend after opening of the � yover as well as repairing of the road under the � yover.

He said mass su� erings have been increased during the construction pe-riod as the old wide road is narrowed down as well as damaged. “I asked them to repair the road, below the � y-over, soon as well,” he said.

“I have been here to see progress of the work as it is adjacent to Bang-abhaban.... I am not only the president,

also a citizen of the country and as the citizen, I have the right and have also interest in this regard,” he said.

Replying to a question about the on-going political situation, the president said “I am no longer in politics.”

The president visited the con-struction site on boarding his vehicle through the road under the new � yover from Gulistan to Jatrabari. He came down from his vehicle at the end point of the � yover at Kutubkhali in Jatrabari and also starting point at Gulistan.

Local government division Secretary Abu Alam M Shaheed Khan, Project Di-rector Ashiqur Rahman and chairman of Orion group Obaidul Karim briefed the President about various features of the � yover.

Obaidul Karim apprised the Pres-ident that they would be able to com-plete the work on September 23.

The 11 km long Mayor Mohammad Hanif � yover is now under construc-tion by Orion Infrastructure Ltd under the supervision of Dhaka City Corpora-tion of South.

The objective of the project is to reduce tra� c congestion of the South-ern part of the Dhaka City, establish improved and faster road connectivity with 30 districts through major gate-way of capital. l

Female commuters facing di� culties in Chittagongn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Women in Chittagong are struggling to travel on public transport due to the limited number of female reserved seats on vehicles and the non-coopera-tion of male co-passengers.

On a recent visit to the port city our correspondent found that the number of women-only seats in public vehicles is not enough for the rising number of fe-male commuters attempting to use them.

Only nine out of 52 seats are provid-ed to female passengers, whereas three to four women can travel on a human hauler which has 10 to 12 seats.

Tahmina Mahmud, an HSC � rst-year student of Government Women College in Chittagong city’s Nasirabad area, must travel to college from her residence at Halisahar on a human hauler, and then on a bus.

She said after waiting for a long time she often could not get a seat reserved for women on the bus.

“The seats are often found occupied by male commuters,” she said.

“I have to face one more hurdle

during my bus journey,” she added, “Whenever a bus stops, the male com-muters rush to the door, throwing aside female or elderly passengers.”

Tania Akhter, a garment worker, said: “When I luckily even manage to get on a bus, I have to stand among the male pas-sengers, which is embarrassing for me.”

Nasima Akhter, an engineer at a pri-vate company in the port city, has to board on a bus to go to her workplace in GEC intersection from her residence at Baluchara.

“Sometimes, I have to wait for al-most an hour to board a bus, “she said.

Taspia Chowdhury, who regularly takes a bus to go to her coaching centre in Sheikh Mujib Road area, said some-times male passengers heavily come down on female passengers when women ask them to vacate their seats.

Fatem Tuz Zohora, a Chittagong University student, said many women have to bargain with the bus helpers to board during busy hours.

Saleha Begum, a garment worker in Chittagong Export Processing Zone, said she often starts walking to her

workplace as boarding a bus can take such a long time.

The female commuters urged the government to take steps to increase the number of reserved seats for wom-en in public transport, and to arrange separate buses for female commuters.

“Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) launched special services for women in 2005 and 2009, but these were stopped due to some unavoidable reason,” said Joysen Barua, assistant engineer (me-chanical) of CCC. He did not, however, explain the reasons.

CCC Superintendent Engineer (me-chanical) MA Malek, said the city cor-poration was not currently thinking of restarting the women-only buses.

Abul Kalam Azad, president of Chit-tagong Bus, Minibus and Human Haul-er Owners Association, said: “The seats reserved for women in public transport often remain vacant. Thus, introducing separate public transport for women may not be feasible.”

“However, we will discuss with our members about increasing the number of reserved seats for women,” he added. l

Grocery shop gutted in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A grocery shop was burnt to ashes in Mohora area in the port city early yes-terday, causing the loss of Tk500,000.

However, no casualties were report-ed in the � re incident.

Md Jashim Uddin, deputy assis-tant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters in Chittagong, said the � re had originated from elec-tric short circuit at the shop, owned by Hazi Nurussafa, around 5am and soon engulfed the entire shop.

On receiving information, two � re-� ghting units from Kalurghat � re sta-tion rushed to spot and doused the � re after an-hour attempt, he added. l

Carpenter electrocuted in cityn BSS, Dhaka

A carpenter died yesterday from elec-trocution at Sepahibagh under Khilga-on police station in the capital, police and witnesses said.

The deceased was identi� ed as Monindra Mal Baroi, 34, son of Naroth Baroi, hailed from Rajoir of Madaripur district, according to hospital sources.

“He came in contact with a live-elec-tric wire while working on the rooftop of a tin-shed building at Nabinbag of Sepahibagh under Khilgaon Police Sta-tion,” house owner Golam Mawla said.

He said the accident took place at about 10 am and later Monindra was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hos-pital where doctor declared him dead at about 11 am. The body was sent for autopsy. l

Roadside garbage scattered and contaminated the area as a road, adjacent to Dhanmodi 8 Bridge, went under water after a little rain in the city yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Four cops hurt in miscreants’ attack in Sylhetn UNB, Sylhet

Four cops were injured in an attack by miscreants in the city’s Chouhatta area on Thursday night.

The injured policemen are Mridul, Nazmul, Ripon and Rahul. All are mem-bers of range reserve force of police.

Police and witnesses said some young men engaged in an altercation with the policemen in the area around 10:30pm.

At one stage, the youths attacked the policemen and stabbed them with daggers, leaving the four injured. The injured were admitted to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital. l

Cultural activists criticise the ‘conformism’ of civil society n Arif Ahmed

Criticising the “conformism” of civil society culture, academics and cultural activists yesterday slammed civil society for its attempt to prevent youths from resisting imperialism.

The views were expressed at the 13th representative council of Bangladesh Lekhok Shibir, inaugurated by litterateur Shawkat Ali, at the RC Majumder Arts Auditorium in Dhaka University.

Speakers at the programme claimed that the “conformist” civil society impedes cultural movements against colonization and dependency on powerful countries, by keeping the young generation and cultural activists busy in different activities.

Hasibur Rahman, the organisa-tion’s general secretary and also the keynote speaker, said non-govern-ment and corporate organisations act to keep the conformists occu-pied with programmes like Bandhu Shabha, debate competition, recep-tion to meritorious students, an-ti-tobacco and anti-acid movement, anti-corruption campaign, relief dis-

tribution, round table conference, human chain and token hunger strike.

Rahman said imperialism has an adverse e� ect on national politics and introduces commercialisation in every � eld, adding that “Imperialism helps spread the civil society culture or conformism.”

Theorist and historian Badruddin Umar said the spread of imperialism can be resisted with political and cultural revolutions through arts and literature.

He also expressed hopes that changes will come soon, as the force of imperialist intrusion was weakening.

Author Mohsin Shastrapani also stressed on the need for a national platform – which can strengthen a cultural revolution against imperialism.

Playwright Mannan Hira said protests should be continued by uniting talented and alienated cultural activists.

The event was presided by Bangla-desh Lekhok Shibir President Santanu Kaiser, while other speakers included economist Swapan Adnan and � lmmak-er Sajib Uddin Shaker. l

Guests at a function arranged in observance of the 160th birth anniversary of Dwijendralal Ray at the National Museum in the city yesterday FOCUS BANGLA

The start of construction of the metro rail project, which is intended to ease Dhaka city’s chronic tra� c congestion, remains on hold pending the appointment of consultants

Indian court orders bus firm to rehire driver with HIVAn Indian court has ordered a public transport authority to rehire a sacked HIV-positive bus driver in a “landmark” case for those stigmatised for having the virus, the man’s lawyer said Friday. The man was working in the western city of Pune when he became HIV positive in 2008, leading him to require a less heavy-duty job than driving, his advocate Asim Sarode said. He took the case to the Bombay High Court, arguing that “capacity to work is more important than HIV status. This is de� nitely against human rights,” his lawyer said. On Wednesday, the court said the man must be reinstated within seven days and another hearing will be held to decide on his compensation.

Somali Islamist rebels suspended from Twitter againThe Twitter account of Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents was suspended Friday, the second time this year the Islamists have been pushed o� the site. A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSMPress1 account read that the account was suspended, without elaborating. Earlier this week the group used the site to claim they had ambushed the convoy of war-torn Somalia’s internationally backed Presi-dent Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Twitter warns that accounts can be suspended if users publish “direct, speci� c threats of violence against others.”

MERS virus claims two more lives in Saudi ArabiaTwo women have died of the corona-virus MERS in Saudi Arabia, the health ministry of the country said on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities in the kingdom to 44. The victims were

identi� ed as a 41-year-old expat who was working in the health sector in Riyadh and a 79-year-old Saudi who su� ered from chronic illnesses and who came into contact with a patient stricken by the virus in the northeastern city of Hafr al-Baten.

Indian girl commits suicide for poor EnglishA pharmacy student allegedly commit-ted suicide as she was upset with the on campus ragging by senior students, alleged her parents and family members. Sumbul Ishaq received fatal injuries on her head and limbs after she had jumped o� the third � oor of her college. She was on ventilator since then. However, the college administration rubbished the allegations of ragging and said that she was weak in English and was depressed for a long time. A team of the anti-rag-ging committee of Guru Teg Bahadur Technical University reached the college after the incident and took statements from her classmates.

Some South African gold miners end strikeSome South African gold miners have ended their strike and are heading back to work after just three days of industrial action in pursuit higher wages, a union and major gold producer both said on Fri-day. “The strike is partially over,” Lesiba Seshoka, a spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), told Power FM radio on Friday. He did not in-dicate how many workers had returned.Separately, Sibanye Gold said workers at its Kloof mine near Johannesburg had ended a strike as of last night and that it hoped workers at its Beatrix mine in the Free State province would return today. The National Union of Mineworkers had launched the strike on Tuesday night over wages.

WORLD WATCH

Saturday, September 7, 20138 DHAKA TRIBUNE International

China says Syria crisis can’t be resolved with military strike n Reuters, Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart Barack Obama on Fri-day that the crisis in Syria should be re-solved through a political solution and not a military strike, state news agency Xinhua said.

“A political solution is the only right way out for the Syrian crisis, and a mil-itary strike cannot solve the problem from the root,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying said at a meeting with Obama on the sidelines of a G20 summit in St Petersburg in Russia.

“We expect certain countries to have a second thought before action.”

China, along with Russia, have been opposing US plans for an attack onSyria. l

Russian warships en route to Syria n AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that any US Congress approval for a military strike against Syria without UN consensus would represent an ‘aggression’

Three Russian warships crossed Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait Thursday en route to the eastern Mediterranean, near the Syrian coast, amid concern in the region over potential US-led strikes in response to the Damascus regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

The SSV-201 intelligence ship Pri-azovye, accompanied by the two land-ing ships Minsk and Novocherkassk passed through the Bosphorus known as the Istanbul strait that separates Asia from Europe, an AFP photogra-pher reported.

The Priazovye on Sunday started its voyage from its home port of Sevasto-pol in Ukraine “to the appointed region of military service in the eastern Med-iterranean,” a military o� cial told the Interfax news agency.

Russia, a key ally of Damascus, has kept a constant presence of around four warships in the eastern Mediterra-nean in the Syrian crisis, rotating them every few months.

It also has a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus whose origins date back to Moscow’s close relationship with Damascus under the Soviet Union.

Moscow vehemently opposes the US-led plans for military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in response to the chemical attack outside Damascus last month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that any US Congress approval for a military strike against Syria without UN consensus would represent an “aggression.” l

US, British spy agencies ‘crack Web encryption’ n AFP, Washington

US and British intelligence agencies have cracked the encryption that se-cures a wide range of online commu-nications including emails, banking transactions and phone conversa-tions, according to newly leaked doc-uments.

The documents provided by for-mer US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden to The New York Times, Pro-Publica and The Guardian suggest that the spy agencies are able to decipher data even with the supposedly secure encryption to make it private.

The US National Security Agency, working with its British counterpart, GCHQ, accomplished the feat by us-ing supercomputers, court orders, and some cooperation from technology companies, the documents indicate.

If the reports are accurate, the high-ly secretive program would defeat much of the protection that is used to keep data secure and private on the In-ternet, from emails to chats to commu-nications using smartphones.

The Guardian report said the two spy agencies had “covert partnerships” with technology companies and Inter-net providers which allows the inser-tion of “secret vulnerabilities – known as backdoors or trapdoors – into com-mercial encryption software.”

“It’s pretty shocking,” said Joseph Hall of the Centre for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights organisa-tion.

Hall told AFP that if the reports are true, “it means that the elements that keep information secure in transit are fundamentally undermined.”

Bruce Schneier, a cryptographic specialist who follows national securi-ty issues, called the revelations “explo-sive.”

“Basically, the NSA is able to decrypt most of the Internet. They’re doing it primarily by cheating, not by mathe-matics,” Schneier wrote on his blog.

Schneier, who has been working with The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, also wrote in a commentary on the Brit-ish newspaper’s website: “This is not the Internet the world needs, or the In-ternet its creators envisioned. We need to take it back.”

The reports noted that US intelli-gence o� cials asked the Times and ProPublica not to publish articles on the subject, fearing it would prompt foreign targets to switch to new forms of encryption or communications that would be harder to collect or read.

ProPublica, an independent, non-pro� t organisation devoted to in-vestigative journalism which has part-nered with The Guardian and The New York Times to review documents from Snowden, said it decided to go ahead with the article because of its impor-tance to the public. l

G20 fails to heal rift on Syria at Russia talksn AFP

World leaders at the G20 summit on Friday failed to bridge their bitter divi-sions over US plans for military action against the Syrian regime, as Washing-ton slammed Moscow for holding the UN Security Council “hostage” over the crisis.

Despite not being on the original agenda of the summit hosted by Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin outside Saint Petersburg, the leaders discussed the Syria crisis into the early hours of the morning over dinner amid the splendour of a former imperial palace.

Putin has emerged as one of the most implacable critics of military in-tervention against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over an al-leged chemical weapons attack on Au-gust 21, saying any such move without UN blessing would be an aggression.

There was no breakthrough at the dinner as leaders, including US Pres-ident Barack Obama, presented their positions on the Syria crisis which only con� rmed the extent of global divi-sions on the issue, participants said.

“The di� erences of opinions of the leaders were con� rmed during the dinner,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Rus-sian news agencies.

“Some states were defending the view that rushed measures should be taken, overlooking legitimate in-ternational institutions. Other states appealed not to devalue international law and not to forget that only the UN Security Council has the right to decide on using force,” he added.

A high-ranking source close to the talks said there was a disappointing lack of ambition at the dinner on the Syria is-sue, noting that Putin as host was keen

not to aggravate tensions further.But a French diplomatic source said

the objective of the dinner “was an ex-change between the top world leaders and not to come to an agreement.”

The dinner went on into the small hours of the morning and even after a late-night opera show, Putin and Brit-ish Prime Minister David Cameron had a meeting to discuss the Syria situa-tion, the Kremlin said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon Friday also warned that military strikes could spark further sectarian violence in the country which he said is su� ering from a humanitarian crisis “unprecedented”

in recent history.“I must warn that ill-considered

military action could cause serious and tragic consequences, and with an increased threat of further sectarian vi-olence,” Ban said.

The Syria crisis and prospect of mil-itary intervention has overshadowed the o� cial agenda of the summit of leaders of the world’s top economies and emerging markets to stimulate growth and battle tax avoidance.

It was not immediately clear if the leaders would have another chance to discuss Syria on the summit’s second day or if the main session would focus

on purely economic issues.Several Western states share Putin’s

opposition to military action and after the British parliament voted against strikes, France is the only power to have vowed it will join American inter-vention.

Obama is seeking backing from Con-gress for military action, putting back the timetable for strikes which had been anticipated even before the two day-summit got under way on Thurs-day.

The US president held a bilateral meeting Friday morning with Presi-dent Xi Jinping of China, who like Rus-

sia vehemently opposes military action against Syria.

Even as the leaders were setting out their arguments at the dinner, the US ambassador to the United Nations in New York launched a lacerating at-tack on Russia for holding the Security Council “hostage” over its backing of Assad.

“Even in the wake of the � agrant shattering of the international norm against chemical weapons use, Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirk its international responsibil-ities,” Samantha Power told reporters.

Amid a new low in US-Russia ten-sions, no bilateral meeting was been scheduled between Putin and Obama although o� cials have left the door open for some informal contact.

According to US intelligence, more than 1,400 people living in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus were killed in the August 21 chemical weapons attack, which involved the use of sarin nerve gas.

The US says the Assad regime was responsible, a claim not accepted by Russia.

Cameron told BBC TV from the G20 summit that Britain had further evi-dence of the use of chemical weapons in the attack in samples its experts had tested.

With the clock ticking down to strikes, Russia said Syria’s Foreign Min-ister Walid Muallem would travel to Moscow for talks on Monday.

The two-and-a-half year con� ict be-tween Assad and rebels, which began as a popular uprising, has left more than 100,000 people dead.

About a third of Syria’s pre-war 20.8 million population has � ed abroad or have been forced from their homes, according to the UN refugee agency. l

Taliban deny involvement in author’s killingn AFP, Kabul

The Taliban on Friday denied shooting dead Indian writer Sushmita Banerjee, whose murder Afghan o� cials blamed on the insurgent militia � ghting against the government for 12 years.

The 49-year-old was dragged out of her husband’s house by masked gun-men in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province late Wednesday and repeat-edly shot.

Police suggested her book, an ac-

count of her escape from the Taliban two decades ago that was later turned into a hit � lm, may have been the rea-son she was killed.

“Our investigation... indicates that the militants had grievances against her for something she had written or said in the past,” provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran said.

But on Friday a Taliban spokesman denied any involvement.

“We reject claims that mujahideen were involved in the killing of the In-

dian woman. It is a propaganda by gov-ernment o� cials to defame the muja-hideen,” Zabiullah Mujahid said.

The militant group, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul government since 2001, is often reluctant to claim the killings of women.

Banerjee was married to local busi-nessman Jaanbaz Khan and had re-cently moved back to live with him in Paktika, reportedly to run a health clin-ic for women there. l

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kill 15 n AFP

Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists stormed the northeast Ni-gerian town of Gajiran on Thursday, opening � re in a market and killing 15 people, residents said.

Borno state in the northeast, Boko Haram’s stronghold where the latest violence occurred, has seen a spate of similar attacks on locals in recent weeks.

Gajiran residents speaking to jour-nalists in the state capital Maiduguri said the gunmen pretended to be trad-ers attending a local market.

“Some of them came aboard trucks while others came on foot to beat the security checks at the entrance of the town,” resident Ibrahim Bulama said.

They then “blended among traders conducting business,” before opening � re in the market, killing 15 people, he

told reporters. They also set � re to a local government building and a police post, he said. Another local speaking to journalists in Maiduguri, Aisami Yusuf, also put the death toll at 15 and provid-ed a similar account.

There has been no mobile phone service in Borno since the middle of May, when Nigeria declared a state of emergency across most of the north-east and launched an o� ensive aimed at crushing Boko Haram’s insurgency.

Details of attacks have been di� cult to verify, with area police and military o� cers unreachable by phone.

The military has said it switched o� the phones to block the Islamists from coordinating attacks.

Boko Haram’s insurgency in Nigeria has left more than 3,600 dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces. l

N Korea reopens hotline n AFP, Seoul

North Korea on Friday reconnected a military hotline to the South that was cut earlier this year at the height of cross-border tensions, Seoul’s govern-ment said.

The line – one of the two remain-ing inter-Korea military hotlines – was disabled in late March weeks after the North’s third nuclear test and the fol-lowing month a joint industrial zone was shut down.

The North in early March had cut o� another line at the border truce village of Panmunjom before reopening it in July when relations showed signs of thawing.

Cross-border army hotlines in other parts of the country were severed years ago when tensions soared and left un-restored since then.

The latest re-establishment of the hotline paves the way for the reopen-ing of the Kaesong industrial zone as it is largely used to provide security

guarantees when South Korean busi-nessmen and workers visit the com-plex.The North made the � rst call to the South via the hotline since March on Friday morning, said Seoul’s uni-� cation ministry, which handles cross-border a� airs.

“Reception is still a bit shaky but at least the connection has been re-stored,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

It followed an agreement on Thurs-day at a meeting of the inter-Korea committee tasked with reviving the shuttered Kaesong complex.

The ministry spokeswoman said businessmen from the South would be able to visit the zone – 10 kilometres north of the border – to check on infra-structure and facilities left dormant for months but did not give a timeframe.

Pyongyang e� ectively shut down operations at the industrial zone by withdrawing the 53,000 North Korean workers employed at the 123 South Ko-rean plants there. l

A boy dives into a crater � lled with water in Deir al-Zor, Syria, September 4, 2013. The crater was caused by what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad REUTERS

Russiaís President Vladimir Putin (front 2L) walks past Brazilís President Dilma Rousse� (front L), US President Barack Obama (front C), Germanyís Chancellor Angela Merkel (front 2R) and Indonesiaís President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (front R) to his position for the family photo during the G20 summit AFP

InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013 9

Maldives’ Nasheed con� dent of return n Reuters, Male

Voters in the Maldives go to the polls on Saturday to elect a president after nearly 20 months of intermittent protests and sporadic violence triggered when the previous government was ousted.

Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldives’ � rst democratically elected president, was forced from o� ce in February 2012 in what his supporters said was a coup.

The instability that followed threat-ened the Indian Ocean archipelago’s image as a white-sand-and-coral holi-day paradise.

Now Nasheed, who once held a cabinet meeting underwater to high-light the threat of climate change to his low-lying country of dozens of islands,

says he is con� dent voters will put him back in power.

“There is enough support for us within the military and police now. The top brass don’t have support among the rank and � le. So we are fairly con-� dent,” Nasheed told Reuters in Male where almost every street is bedecked with election posters and � ags.

The man who replaced Nasheed as president last year, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, is also running. He told Reuters during a visit to Sri Lanka the consolidation of democracy was a very high priority.

“It is not always smooth. We have tried to stabilise that process,” he said.

But Nasheed’s main rival is expect-ed to be Abdulla Yameen, a half-broth-

er of long-serving leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years and was accused by opponents and rights groups of running the country as a dictator.

Nasheed’s ouster sparked row-dy protests by his supporters and a heavy-handed police crackdown, pushing the country into crisis. A Com-monwealth-backed commission of in-quiry later concluded that Nasheed’s removal did not constitute a coup.

“What the people need is a smooth transition of power and a strong gov-ernment which can instill democra-cy,” said Ismail Hilath Rasheed, a hu-man rights defender and blogger who has been living in exile since he was stabbed by an Islamist last year. l

Bosnia mass grave with dozens of victims uncoveredn AFP, Sarajevo

A grave with remains of dozens of Cro-ats and Muslims killed in the early days of Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war was uncov-ered in the country’s northwest, o� -cials said on Friday.

The grave is estimated to be one of the largest discovered in the past de-cade in the region of Prijedor, some 300 kilometres northwest of Sarajevo, the Bosnian prosecutor’s o� ce said in a statement.

The exact “number and identity” of the victims would be established during the exhumation and forensic procedures, it added.

First estimates showed that “several dozen victims” were buried in a grave, hidden under arti� cial embankments in the village of Tomasica.

Initial excavations unearthed a “several-metre-thick layer composed of human remains,” the statement said.

Victims were believed to be Mus-lims and Croats from the Prijedor area killed in the summer of 1992, when Bosnian Serb forces had taken control of the region.

Paramilitary units and the Bosnian Serb army expelled the non-Serb population, destroyed their homes and separated families while forc-ing thousands into detention camps where many were tortured and later executed.

Pictures of emaciated inmates at one of the detention camps, Omarska, resembling images from the Holo-caust, shocked the world in the sum-mer of 1992.

More than 3,300 people were report-ed missing from the Prijedor area.

So far the remains of more than 2,000 victims have been found and identi� ed, mostly by DNA analysis.

The UN tribunal in The Hague has sentenced six Bosnian Serbs for war crimes committed in the Prijedor area to up to 40 years in jail.

And the Bosnian war crimes court, set up in 2005 to ease the caseload of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, sentenced seven Bosnian Serbs to up to 20 years in jail.

Some 100,000 people were killed while two million � ed their homes during the war in Bosnia, a former Yugoslav republic that currently has a population of 3.8 million. l

Dutch state liable for Muslim deaths at Srebrenica n AFP

The Dutch state is liable for the deaths of three Bosnian Muslims who were expelled from a UN compound at Sre-brenica in 1995, the Dutch supreme court ruled Friday.

The � nal ruling in the long-running case means that former UN interpreter Hasan Nuhanovic, whose father, moth-er and brother were killed by Bosnian Serb forces after Dutch peacekeepers expelled them from the UN base, can seek compensation from the Dutch state.

The ruling also applies to relatives of another worker on the base, electrician Rizo Musta� c, who was also killed after being sent to certain death at the hands of Bosnian Serb forces.

The three people at the centre of the case were among almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered by troops commanded by Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who brushed aside light-ly armed Dutch peacekeepers and over-ran the supposedly safe enclave in July 1995, during Bosnia’s brutal three-year civil war.

Friday’s hearing was the culmi-nation of a case spanning a decade, lodged in 2003 by Nuhanovic and Mus-ta� c’s relatives. l

Egypt set for legal action against Brotherhood as protests promisedn Reuters, Cairo

Egypt’s army-backed government has decided to annul the Muslim Brother-hood’s legal registration within days, a newspaper said on Friday, pressing a crackdown on deposed President Mo-hammed Morsi’s movement.

While short of a formal ban, the move underlined the government’s de-termination to crush the Brotherhood. The authorities accuse the group that won � ve successive elections since 2011 of terrorism and inciting violence.

But so far they have failed to snu� out nationwide demonstrations de-manding the reinstatement of Morsi, ousted by the army on July 3 after mass protests, or stem a rise in militancy, which culminated on Friday in an at-tempt to assassinate the interior min-ister in Cairo.

The Brotherhood, sworn to peace-ful protest, condemned the attack but urged its supporters to � ll the streets of Egypt’s towns and cities again on Friday, for the third time in eight days, to reject what it calls an army coup against democracy.

Authorities are pursuing the tough-est crackdown in decades on the Broth-erhood, Egypt’s biggest political group-ing.

Since July, they have killed more than 900 of Morsi’s supporters and ar-rested most of the movement’s leaders, including Morsi, on charges of murder or inciting violence against anti-Broth-erhood protesters.

The symbolic move to cancel its le-gal status applies to the non-govern-mental organisation registered by the Brotherhood in March as a defense against legal challenges.

The privately-owned al-Shorouk newspaper said the decision would be taken within days, quoting Hany Ma-hana, spokesman for Social Solidarity Minister Ahmed el-Boraie.

The same o� cial was quoted by the state-run Al-Akhbar newspaper as saying the decision had already been taken:

“The minister’s decision has in fact been issued but it will be announced at the start of next week in a press confer-ence.”

Mahana could not be reached for comment, and a government o� cial denied a decision had been taken.

Biggest and oldest groupThe move to dissolve the NGO stems from accusations that the Brotherhood used its headquarters to � re and store weapons and explosives, al-Akhbar re-ported, adding that the Brotherhood had failed to respond to the accusa-tions.

The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and formally dissolved by Egypt’s then military rulers in 1954. It con-tinued to be grudgingly tolerated as a mass movement, however, sending legislators to sit in parliament as inde-pendents. It says it has around a mil-

lion members.There has so far been no attempt to

ban the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing that the Brotherhood set up in 2011, after the overthrow of the veteran general-turned-president Hos-ni Mubarak.

Despite the arrest of most of the Brotherhood’s leaders, its long-es-tablished grassroots network has still managed to bring thousands onto the streets, galvanised by the killing of hundreds of its supporters when se-curity forces cleared protest camps in Cairo on August 14.

One of the authors of that operation, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, survived an assassination attempt on Thursday. A massive car bomb, almost certainly the work of a suicide bomb-er, blew up his convoy as he set o� for work, and his armored car was riddled with bullets.

Staged in broad daylight, it was by far the boldest attack since Morsi’s overthrow, and its size and sophistica-tion showed the risk that Egypt’s crisis could spawn a wave of Islamist attacks like those it experienced in the 1980s and 1990s.

Radical Islamists have already stepped up an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula since Morsi was overthrown, and online calls from Islamists for an even more violent response have in-tensi� ed since August 14.

Last Saturday, militants � red rock-et-propelled grenades at a container ship as it passed through the Suez Ca-nal in the eastern Sinai, a global trade route and one of Egypt’s main remain-ing sources of foreign currency since the political turmoil of the last 2-1/2 years ravaged its tourist industry. l

Suspected US drone strike kills 7 militants in Pakistan n Reuters

Pakistan has been angered by reports of civilian casualties and what it sees as a violation of its sovereignty, and the United States has reduced their use in recent years

A suspected US drone aircraft killed at least seven militants in Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Af-ghan border on Friday, Pakistani secu-rity o� cials and residents said.

US drones have � red missiles into trou-bled and inaccessible border areas such as North Waziristan, the main stronghold for militant groups aligned with al Qaeda and the Taliban, since 2004.

Pakistan has been angered by re-ports of civilian casualties and what it sees as a violation of its sovereignty, and the United States has reduced their use in recent years.

In the early hours of Friday, drones � red two missiles on a compound in the village of Dargah Mandi in North Waziristan, destroying the house and killing seven people.

Security o� cials said all those who were killed were insurgents. The area where the attack took place is known as a stronghold for the Haqqani network, which regularly attacks US forces in Af-ghanistan from its mountain hideouts in Pakistan. l

Lennon reveals ‘torture’ of Beatles’ � nal albumn AFP, New York

Recording their 12th and last studio album was nothing short of “torture” for The Beatles, said John Lennon in a tape-recorded interview coming up for auction this month.

The Fab Four had just completed “Let It Be” in 1969, but had yet to break up, when Lennon and wife Yoko Ono sat down in Toronto with radio DJ and Village Voice critic Howard Smith for an hour-long interview.

“We were going through hell. We of-ten do. It’s torture every time we pro-duce anything,” Lennon revealed.

“The Beatles haven’t got any magic you haven’t got. We su� er like hell any-time we make anything, and we got each other to contend with. Imagine working with the Beatles, it’s tough,” he said.

“There’s just tension. It’s tense ev-ery time the red light (in the recording

studio) goes on.” Released in May 1970, and ranked by

Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time, “Let It Be” was largely recorded in London in 1969 to complement a � lm of the same name.

Its title track and “The Long and Wind-ing Road” endure as two of the Beatles’ most memorable songs.

But for Lennon, who was murdered in New York in 1980, “Let It Be” was a “strange album” that re� ected the friction that had grown between him-self and band mates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

“We never really � nished it. We didn’t really want to do it. Paul was

hustling for us to do it. It’s the Beatles with their suits o� ,” he said.

New Hampshire auction house RR Auction said the hour-long interview over two audio tape reels had lain forgotten for nearly four decades in a crate at the rear of Smith’s loft in New York.

“It’s a frank and honest interview from one of the most revered musi-cians and activists of all time,” RR Auc-tion vice president Bobby Livingston said on Thursday.

The recording is among more than 100 Beatles-related items folded into a larger “Marvels of Modern Music” memorabilia auction that runs from September 19 through September 26 online at www.rrauction.com.

It has an initial minimum bid list-ed at $300, but Livingston estimated it could sell for between $5,000 and $10,000. l

NASA spacecraft to study Moon’s atmosphere n AFP, Washington

NASA has aimed to unravel more of the Moon’s mysteries Friday by launching an unmanned mission to study its atmo-sphere, the US space agency’s third such probe in � ve years.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Envi-ronment Explorer (LADEE) was scheduled to launch Friday at 11:27pm (Saturday 0327 GMT) aboard a Minotaur V rocket – a con-verted peacekeeping missile – from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Since US astronauts last walked on the moon four decades ago, rocket scientists have learned that there is more to the Moon than just a dusty, desolate terrain.

Recent NASA robotic missions such as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have returned troves of images detailing the Moon’s cratered surface, while NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) revealed how being pummelled by asteroids resulted in the Moon’s uneven patches of gravity.

A previous NASA satellite, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satel-lite(LCROSS) discovered water ice when it impacted in 2009, the space agency said.

“When we left the Moon we thought of it as an atmosphere-less ancient surface,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administra-tor for NASA’s science mission directorate. “We have discovered that the Moon scien-

ti� cally is very much alive, it is still evolving and in fact has a kind of atmosphere.”

The Moon’s atmosphere is so thin that its molecules do not collide, in what is known as an exosphere.

Exploring that exosphere will be a $280m solar and lithium battery-powered spacecraft about the size of a small car – nearly 2.4metres tall and 1.85metres wide.

After launch, LADEE aims to hurtle itself beyond Earth’s orbit so it can circle the Moon, � rst cruising at a height of about 250km for just over a month, and then mov-ing lower to 20 to 60km from the surface for the science portion of its mission.

It is carrying an Earth-to-Moon laser beam technology demonstration and three main tools, including a neutral mass spectrometer to measure chemical vari-ations in the lunar atmosphere and other tools to analyse exosphere gasses and lunar dust grains, NASA said.

“These measurements will help scientists address longstanding myster-ies, including: was lunar dust, electrically charged by solar ultraviolet light, respon-sible for the pre-sunrise horizon glow that the Apollo astronauts saw?” NASA said.

Other instruments will seek out water molecules in the lunar atmosphere.

About 100 days into the science por-tion of the mission, the LADEE spacecraft will do a death plunge into the Moon’s surface. l

Paramilitary units and the Bosnian Serb army expelled the non-Serb population, destroyed their homes and separated families while forcing thousands into detention camps

Followers of Presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed release hot air balloons during a political rally in Male AFP

The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and formally dissolved by Egypt’s then military rulers in 1954. It continued to be grudgingly tolerated as a mass movement, however, sending legislators to sit in parliament as independents

Children stand on the � oating carcass of a juvenile whale shark at the coastline of Tanza, Cavite, southwest of Manila, September 5, The whale shark, with a length of 22 feet, was found by � shermen � oating in the sea o� Manila Bay REUTERS

‘There’s just tension. It’s tense every time the red light (in the recording studio) goes on’

A WHALE OF A TIME

Dhaka 2nd worst livable city: SurveyAugust 30

It would be interesting to see the score of the most unlivable cities as well to see where Dhaka stands.

atifsattar Mod • a day ago −

When Kabul, Karachi and Baghdad are declared better than Dhaka, the mighty EIU ( Economist Intelligence Unit’s) analysis is to a par with Rambo’s vision of Vietnam war. Please google “criticism EIU” and one can � nd out the barrage of orchestrated statistical concoction these guys can come up with.Dhaka is pretty bad...but not that bad.

Pen Muni

Politics of issuesThe BNP has demonstrated political foresight by

tagging their election pledges to the controver-sial Ramphal power plant project, signalling a

willingness to respond to oft-neglected priorities like ecological concerns.

By doing it, they also seem able to move their politics towards an issue-driven agenda and away from the cults of personality that tends to dominate Bangladeshi elections.

This is the way forward in a maturing democracy. It gives the voting public an opportunity to cast their ballot according to issues they feel strongly about, and obliges the parties they vote into power to work towards resolving them.

Taking a stand on the Ramphal issue may alienate voters that believe the pro-ject is an industrial boon for the region, but it will put the BNP in very good stead among voters that believe it will have a catastrophic e� ect on the bio-diversity of the Sunderbans.

By giving political expression to this di� erence of opinion, the BNP may well be ushering in an era where parties are measured by their ability to address the di� erent - often equally valid - sides of a complex issue.

This is just the sort of demand-driven political ma-noeuvring we would like to see more of in the future.

The facts remain

The government’s continued targeting of Odhikar and its secretary Adilur Rahman Khan is a good example of its misplaced priorities

and poor political calculation.In the run up to the election, with the question

as to who will administer the elections still unset-tled, the last thing the party needs is to reinforce the impression that it is willing to use the state apparatus against its opponents and detractors.

More problematic still is the government’s insistence that there were no casual-ties of the May 6 crackdown in the capital, something di-rectly refuted by the facts, as incontrovertibly estab-lished by any number of independent and non-parti-san sources.

That the government is more concerned with investigating Odhikar for its report on the crackdown rather than the crackdown itself, does nothing to build public con� dence in the government among the voting public.

Meanwhile, if the gov-ernment insists on pursuing on this ill-conceived course, the very least it could do would be to do so in accordance with due process and rule of law.

From the tendentiousness of the charges, to the failure to procure a court order prior to the raid of the organisation’s premises, to the refusal of division to the accused to say nothing of bail, the emphasis the government is putting on the case is seems excessive, at best, unnecessarily punitive, at worst.

Its actions against Odhikar threaten to damage the government’s reputation far more than anything that the organisation could have said or has said ever would.

Shaming is not the wayAugust 28School life should be the best part of any kid’s life. Learning comes with fun, not with punishment or abuse. But in our society abuse in front the classmates is a common scene. But does it really teach or rectify the situation or does it make it worse? In the name of dress code, how can a teacher cuts the hair of the student? Nobody has the right to abuse a kid physically, not even the parents. but its happening in our country.

Shamim Hasan

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

Army o� cer sent to jail in dowry caseAugust 28

Draconian laws are not suggestive of DEMOCRATIC STATE. Why such laws have to be enacted, is food for thought.

K Ashfaq

With the question as to who will administer the elections still unsettled, the last thing the party needs is to reinforce the impression that it is willing to use the state apparatus against its opponents and detractors

By giving political expression to this di� erence of opinion, the BNP may well be ushering in an era where parties are measured by their ability to address the di� erent sides of a complex issue

Safe in dreamsAugust 29

Nushrat Haque I wish, If I could give her a big hug and hold her in my arms. She will be in my prayer.

Banglar Babaji Nushrat Haque: Well, then you can hug 55% of our total population who share her parallel status.

Abdur Rashid real pic.in and around the city.

Nazmul Huda Pgarh R koto din ai vaba ara din kataba?????????

Moon Ahsan koshto hoi oder jonno wish we all could do something more for them

Banglar Babaji Mooh Ahsan: Sigmund Freud said about human nature:

“Men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved and who at the most can defend themselves if they are attached; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments are to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness.

As a result, their neighbor is for them not only a potential helper or sexual object but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, exploit his capacity for work without compensation, use him sexually without his consent, seize his possessions, humiliate him, cause him pain, torture and kill him.”British NEW WORLD also put FIRST NATION / Indigenous people in the pretty dire situation..same goes to the war ravaged / war torn nations......

Hasina Rahman She is dreaming , I bet .

Banglar Babaji Hasina Rahman: hahahaha... dreaming? of what?

Md Khan ai hola amar sonar bangla amra jokan sadin silam na tokan ai rokam dirso soke portao na .jodi takto ta itehase lika hota

Judge jailed for carrying phensidylAugust 28

WaliHe should have been booked for 342 years! :(

Khan Ashik the judge who dealt the case ............ only 4 years ?? Got how many bottles as gift ??

Moon Ahsan let him sleep with phensedyl shame on a crappy judge who cant judge his own values

Rose-Ruzana Samdani and that folks, is a lot of food for thought about the operators of our legal system.

Atiqul Bari Chowdhury Thanks Dhaka Court for doing justice. This upholds the Rule of Law.

Md Shahnawaz Khan hahahahahahhahaha !

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 SOLUTIONSACROSS1S pirit (3)3 Trees (6)8 Summit (4)9 Billiard rod (3)10 Make more liquid (6)11 Soft colour (6)14 Foe (5)17 Frighten from (5)20 Lubricating (6)24 S American river (6)26 Passing craze (3)27 Break suddenly (4)28 Pays another’s expenses (6)29 Unhappy (3)

DOWN1 Coarse � le (4)2 Floor coverings (4)3 Yield (4)4 Banishment (5)5 Sharp (5)6 Groove (3)7 Out of sorts (5)12 Respectful fear (3)13 Neckwear (5)15 No score (3)16 Homo Sapiens (3)17 Preliminary sketch (5)18 Commerce (5)19 Henhouse (5)21 Taverns (4)22 Little devils (4)23 Pleased (4)25 Spoil (3)

Crossword

Code-Cracker

SUDOKU

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11Op-Ed Saturday, September 7, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

T H E O T H E R S I D E

Dilapidation nation n Matthew Islam

In the face of Dhaka having been rated as the second least liveable city in the world, I was confront-ed with a lot of friends on social networks making a push back by

saying it wasn’t. I am sorry but there are days when being in Dhaka feels like hell. I love this city, for various reasons, don’t get me wrong; but I am under no illusion that living here is very hard and I am sure a lot of people reading this will agree.

All basic amenities of a modern city that one needs to access here are tremendously di� cult to do. There is a dearth of space here not unlike most growing metropolises around the world. However, the di� erence in our case being that we have no plan whatsoever to keep investing in the ideas, solutions and development pro-grammes that such a growth requires.

From simple waste management, to open trash collection areas, to drainage systems over� owing to the wondrous shapes and sizes of potholes that adorn our streets – the lack of planning in combating these problems have made the quality of life for resi-dents in Dhaka absolutely shameful. Yes, we have found a way to close our noses, tip toe on waste-water, navigate the lunar roads but why should we?

There have been countless reports on almost all media channels that keep reminding us of how risky our roads have become due to the level of dilap-idation, yet nothing concrete is ever done beyond the traditional lip service paid to those concerned. It’s a crime in how slow our city corporations react to these real problems.

There is no consistent e� ort or

common sense applied at all and when an e� ort is made to address an issue, for example, say repairing a dilapitated road, it’s done by digging mammoth holes during monsoon season, because lord knows we lack places where rain water could be naturally stored!

And in polar opposite instances, a road lacking repair for years and in dire need of addressing is ignored to repair a road that has been repaired every passing year. Who does this bene� t?

We have huge budgets allocated to remedy these matters, yet most, including me, have no understanding of where it’s being spent. When Dhaka City Corporation was split in two zones

consisting of North and South, the reason tendered to us was that of bet-ter services and solutions to our daily woes. Unfortunately, the sincerity of that claim remains doubtful.

The lack of basic common sense displayed by our city o� cials and a legendary level of procrastination to act positively on any matter of concern, has led to tragic instances of injuries and loss of life. In a rather soft example of the above, I once wit-nessed a middle-aged lady travelling with her child on a rickshaw tipping over face � rst into drain water on a busy Gulshan road.

All three were severely injured

because of the pothole that the rickshaw puller couldn’t possibly see due to the water covering the hole on the road. This one didn’t have a tree branch sticking out of it to warn of the impending danger as in other cases. Yes, I know, to cynics it’s what that poor chap deserved for being poor and driving a rickshaw but to countless others including me, it’s outrageous and unacceptable that in this digital age people are still being made to su� er like this.

This doesn’t even begin to account for the sights of trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles that I have witnessed sunken on the roads of Dhaka, being

gobbled up by the holes from hell due to a lack or repair or action. And sadly this isn’t isolated to one city; this sce-nario exists nationwide including our highways, leading to lives being lost every single day of the year.

So yes, you can thump Hatirjheel, Kuril and all the � yovers of the world at me, which by the way will not help the congestion being created by these problems; you can make me dream of metros making it less likely for me to walk on waste water again but you can’t cover any of the real problems by simply glossing over the fact with promise of a better tomorrow.

To make me believe you really have

to give a hoot, you need to display to me that you care by plugging the holes on the roads this dry season. You need to remove the open-air trash collection areas near housing estates. You need to remove the stench of human waste on our roads. You need to make sure that my child doesn’t die of a disease from having been bitten by mosqui-toes from drains nearby. You need to build or repair roads where I can travel safely. You need to make overhead electrical lines safer.

You need to remove the habit of not doing anything or, when doing something, of not causing epic incon-veniences to those you serve and you need to give me space and amenities where I can relax in a city like ours.

So giving us the excuse of a lack of resources is just not going to cut it. Our city corporations have the money for it; question is are they going to spend any of it in bene� ting the people?

To my friends who wilfully look over these problems in proclaiming Dhaka to be an awesome place to live: I urge you to open your eyes and hearts in considering sincerely the su� ering of your fellow city dwellers in not encouraging inaction on the part of o� cials who have a duty to make our lives liveable to a reasonable standard.

Because when they don’t, they sight you as an example of why everything wrong is right and then you end up being a tool in defending against the notion that Dhaka is the second least liveable city in the world. l

Matthew Islam is a Barrister-at-Law, a textile businessman and a columnist at the Dhaka Tribune. He can be contacted on twitter via @matthewislam.

Acidifying oceans add to list of CO2 dangersn Gerard Wynn

The world’s oceans will become dangerously acidic for corals and shell� sh this century if carbon

dioxide (CO2) levels continue to rise at current rates, adding to the urgency to reduce manmade CO2 emissions, according to an emerging science.

Evidence for ocean acidity may also prove less controversial than the science of global warming, as it seems likely there will be less doubt sur-rounding the chemical and biological processes involved.

That could add to the impetus to cut manmade carbon emissions, par-ticularly if signs emerge of a threat to the world’s � sheries.

In the past 200 years, people have released more than 2 trillion tonnes of additional CO2 into the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning, cement produc-tion and changes in land use such as deforestation.

That has in turn added more than 520 billion tonnes of CO2 to the world’s seas, scientists estimate, or a quarter of all emissions.

CO2 dissolves in and reacts with water to form carbonic acid (H2CO3) which disassociates to form hydrogen and bicarbonate ions. The excess hy-drogen ions combine with carbonate ions producing more bicarbonate.

Adding more CO2 to sea water therefore increases aqueous CO2, bicarbonate and hydrogen ions, the latter lowering sea water pH (a measure of acidity or alkalinity) and carbonate ions.

One e� ect has been a fall in ocean surface pH of 0.1 units compared with pre-industrial levels, to an average of 8.1.

That is equivalent to a 30% increase in average acidity of surface ocean waters worldwide.

Faster falls in pH have been ob-served in the Arctic (as colder water absorbs more CO2), with pH dropping by about 0.02 units per decade since the late 1960s in the Iceland and Barnet’s Seas, according to the “Arctic Ocean Acidi� cation Assessment 2013,” published by the Oslo-based Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Pro-gramme.

A second, related e� ect has been a drop in the level of calcium carbonate, vital for the shells and skeletons of many marine organisms.

As with atmospheric CO2, there is a lag e� ect where it will take tens of thousands of years for the world’s ocean chemistry to recover from car-bon emissions now, even if the latter were to halt today, meaning the e� ects that do emerge will be felt at least for centuries.

Geological record

One way to project the possible e� ects of ocean acidi� cation is to extrapolate from events in the Earth’s geological past, especially more recently.

For example, the authors of an article published last year in the journal Sci-ence, “The Geological Record of Ocean Acidi� cation,” analysed the end of the last glacial period, 20,000 years ago, when CO2 levels rose by a third over thousands of years.

They estimated that ocean surface pH dropped 50 times more slowly than at present (0.002 units per century), and that the shell weights of tiny creatures called foraminifera fell by 40 to 50%.

Analysis is more limited regarding the more distant past. For example,

the authors were unsure how far ocean pH fell 56 million years ago, during a period of warming, when CO2 was up to � ve times present levels.

A major extinction of tiny creatures with carbonate shells may have been caused by higher ocean CO2, falling ocean oxygen, higher temperatures, or a combination of all three.

Other studies have estimated that coral reef volumes dropped by 99% during the same period, called the Pal-aeocene Eocene Thermal Maximum.

Review

An alternative technique is laboratory analysis of existing shell� sh species in an aquarium with modi� ed chemistry.

A study published last week in the journal Nature Climate Change, “Sensitivities of extant animal taxa to ocean acidi� cation,” reviewed research on such animal impacts.

It analysed 167 studies reporting e� ects from higher ocean CO2 on the performance of 153 species.

The authors concluded that more active creatures with less calci� ed shells (less calcium carbonate) and the ability to regulate their own body � uid pH survived better.

That favoured crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, cray� sh and shrimp) and � sh, and counted against corals, echino-derms (star� sh and sea urchins) and molluscs (mussels, clams and oysters).

One contrary e� ect is for higher ocean CO2 levels to stimulate photo-synthesis (where CO2 is a raw materi-al), potentially increasing the pro-ductivity of microscopic plants called phytoplankton.

At CO2 levels that could occur by the end of this century assuming annual emissions continue to rise through 2100 (a very pessimistic out-look), most investigated echinoderm species and about half of researched molluscs would be negatively a� ected, the study concluded.

Gaps

There are several gaps and di� culties facing this emerging science.

First, the combined e� ect of other pressures on sea life, including warmer water, lower oxygen levels and over-� shing, complicates the task of unravelling and projecting their individual e� ects.

Second, sea creatures do not exist in isolation but in food chains, or eco-systems, where the disappearance of one, as a result of ocean acidi� cation, could a� ect many more; such wider analysis has hardly begun.

And third, there is a large uncertainty over how far countries will control carbon emissions this century, with some ocean acidi� cation studies to date assuming high levels of emissions which may ultimately be avoided.

An edition of the scienti� c journal “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society” dedicated to ocean acidi� cation, published last week, summed it up: “Whilst much has been learned in the past decade about the potential implications of climate change on marine organisms and eco-systems, substantial knowledge gaps still exist.”

Something to agree on is that ocean acidi� cation, like climate change, poses a serious threat, and adds to the impression that carbon emissions must be cut sooner than later. l

The author is a Reuters columnist. The article was � rst published in Reuters.

Tragic end to a welcome decisionBSF man ‘not guilty’ in Felani case: Another frustrating decision by the judicial authoritiesn Muktasree Chakma Sathi

Felani, a girl of around 15 years, hailed from the North Bengal re-gion of our country, Bangladesh.

She either decided to or was forced to choose the profession of a domestic help in our neighbouring India.

People who have even a little knowledge of “what’s going on in South Asia” know her name. If not, people can at least recall her from memory when one asks them: “re-member that image of a dead body wearing red and blue clothes ... hang-ing from the barbed wire ... sometime around a year ago?”

Yes, we DO remember. And, until the recent verdict of a special BSF (Border Security Force) court in India’s Cooch Bihar, we all knew she was killed by Indian BSF personnel.

On January 7, 2011, she was shot after her dress got caught in barbed wire while she was trying to return to her country to get married. Felani and her father Nurul Islam were attempt-ing to scale the fence at the Anantapur border point in Kurigram. Her father managed to survive the incident. Felani wasn’t so lucky.

Most shockingly, according to me-dia reports and locals, she was alive for at least four hours after being shot and asked for help and water while she was

bleeding to death. But no Bangladeshi dared to go to her aid (who would dare, huh?) and no Indian border security guard was empathetic enough to help free her from the barbs or even provide her with some water.

Felani’s body went BACK to Indian soil after � ve long hours, presumably after BSF personnel became sure that she was dead.

After this, we came to know about her marriage, her life as a domestic help in New Delhi, and her family. She was shot because she was coming back to her country, since she was at the “standard age” for getting married, according to her family and the society to which she belonged, but not accord-ing to the laws of Bangladesh.

We welcomed the decision of the Indian government when it decided to hold a trial against those accused in the Felani murder case. The people, particularly Felani’s family, had eager-ly awaited some sort of justice which could bring an end to the atrocities of BSF personnel.

We were more hopeful when BSF investigators submitted the charge sheet against BSF’s Constable Amiya Ghosh stating that he shot the Bangla-deshi girl. I, as a human being, actually hoped that India – which claims to be a better country than ours and we admit is far more developed – would ensure

justice for Felani. Throughout this case they had the chance to de-stigmatise their country’s BSF personnel, both nationally and internationally.

Sadly, nothing happened the way the aggrieved people had hoped it would. Rather, the verdict of the special BSF court in India’s Cooch Bihar became a milestone in the failures of both the Bangladeshi and Indian governments.

With this verdict, both governments actually proved how unsuccessful they are at protecting the lives of their citizens, providing them with employ-ment, and respecting neighbouring country’s citizens.

Bangladesh has a long list of fail-ures, particularly when it comes to questions of protecting citizens’ lives and livelihoods, and, of course, ensur-ing justice. That’s why the atrocities of BSF against Bangladeshis can only be labelled as simply “adding fuel to the � re.”

I am con� dent that there is a more sophisticated way for India’s legal system to solve the problem of illegal

border crossings and other border security issues. But are the Indian personnel following their laws when poor, neglected citizens of Bangladesh are violating Indian laws in Indian territories? Have the BSF started to use non-lethal weapons to protect their country from “Bangladeshi smugglers and illegal immigrants” as they prom-ised? No.

I hope we remember another example of BSF’s atrocities if the many statistics on BSF atrocities compiled by rights bodies aren’t enough – the video foot-age from December 9, 2011, where a Bangladeshi youth, Habibur Rahman, 22, was beaten and stripped on the border at Rajshahi after he refused to pay the BSF troops a bribe.

I guess the government are forget-ting Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote – “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” Well, Mr Lincoln, these exist no more. l

Muktasree Chakma Sathi is a journalist.

NASHIRUL ISLAM

Giving us the excuse of a lack of resources is just not going to cut it. Our city corporations have the money for it; question is are they going to spend any of it in bene� ting the people?

The people, particularly Felani’s family, had eagerly awaited some sort of justice which could bring an end to the atrocities of BSF personnel

‘Whilst much has been learned in the past decade about the potential implications of climate change on marine organisms and ecosystems, substantial knowledge gaps still exist’

It will take tens of thousands of years for the world’s ocean chemistry to recover from carbon emissions now, even if the latter were to halt today

Megh Brishti Autoppar airs tonightn Entertainment Desk

Single-episode play “Megh Brishti Au-toppar,” starred by Bidya Sinha Mim and Naeem will be aired tonight at 9pm. Directed by Mijanur Rahman Ary-an, the play features a sweet story of friendship and love.

The story revolves around two child-hood friends who grow up together studying in same school, college and university. Then the young man and lady join the same o� ce. Their friend-ship is both sour and sweet. Subse-quently they realise they are deeply in love. The lady prepares herself to get married to her best friend but she injures herself in a fatal accident. She becomes crippled and silently distant herself from the guy. They live sepa-rated for years and her friend keeps on searching her. Finally they meet once again and the man promises her to live together happily ever after. l

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 201312

ONTV

ConcertGrand Musical ConcertBy Shillong Chamber Choir (India)Time: 6:30pmMirpur Indoor Stadium

Commemorative programmeTribute to Kazi Nazrul Islam By ChhayanautTime: 11amChhayanaut BhabanDhanmondi

ExhibitionJol BinduBy Shahnoor MamunAlliance Francaise de DhakaTime: 3pm–9pm26 Mirpur RoadRoad no-3, Dhanmondi

Rhythm of RealityGanesh HaloiTime: 12pm – 8pmBengal Gallery of Fine ArtsHouse No 275, Road No 27, Old Dhanmondi

Loss of the Toss is Blessing of their Disguise by Firoz Mahmud Time: 3pm – 8pmDhaka Art Center,House-60, Road-7/A, Dhanmondi

FilmThe Wolverine in 3D Nishwartha BhalobasaFast & Furious 6 World War Z in 3DDespicable Me 2 in 3DStar Cineplex

TODAY IN DHAKA

Episodeswill air on

FXat 4pm

Veerawill air onStar Plus

at 10:30pm

Shongbad shomoiwill air onDesh Tv

at 2:00pm

Chhayanaut pays tribute to Nazruln Afrose Jahan Chaity

Teachers and students of Chhayanaut performed a number of Nazrul’s timeless compositions ob-serving the national poet’s 37th death anniversaryyesterday at the Chhayanaut Sangskriti BhabanAuditorium.

The soulful presentation of Nazrul’s songs per-formed by promising and prominent singers mesmer-ised a houseful audience.

The programme featured an array of Nazrul’s ex-clusive songs narrating the exquisiteness of the sea-son of monsoon. Highlighting the poet’s inspirational works, leading artistes celebrated the secularist and revolutionary spirit of Nazrul on the backdrop of the current unstable situation of the country.

The artistes started the programme with a choral rendition of the song “Esho Sharod Prate.” Noted singer and secretary general of Chhayanaut, Khairul Anam Shakil delivered a speech on the legacy of rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and the impact of his works on our daily life.

Srabonty Dhar, Sadia Islam Lata, Mahbub Ara Bi-pasha, Rezwanul Haque, Nahian Durdana Suchi and Didarul Karim performed “Mone Pore Aj,” “Se Chole Gechhe,” “Ajoar Dharay Borsha Jhore,” “Megher Do-mor Ghono Baje,” “Aj Sraboner Loghu Megher Sha-the” and “Porodeshi Megh Jaore” respectively at the event.

The lively performance of another choral number “Ambore Megh Mridongo,” “Boshonto Mukhor Aji” and “Ke Duronto Bajao Jhorer” captured the hearts

of the audience.Some timeless Nazrul Geeti on the theme of mon-

soon was especially sung by solo performers. Also, Sumona Biswas and Jahirul Haque Khan recited Naz-rul’s famous poems.

Mohit Khan’s soulful rendition of the number “Ami Chirotore Dure Chole Jabo” was worthy of the audi-ence’s admiration. Shairi Rahman Arni performed another one of Nazrul’s heartwarming song named “Amar Jabar Shomoy” in the event.

Shorna Nag, Tanvir Ahmed, Sanjida Johra Bithika, Monish Sarker, Nandita Ghosh, Nazia Mishkat Toma and Afsana Runa were the other participating artistes who lent their voice to solos at the event.

The programme wrapped up with the chorus ren-dition of the National Anthem. l

Drik marks its 24 years of journey n Shadma Malik

To celebrate 24 years of Drik’s estab-lishment, the multimedia organisa-tion held an elaborate programme on August 5 which featured lectures, � lm screening, street theatre presentation and music.

Internationally acclaimed photo art-ist Shahidul Alam, managing director of Drik, delivered a speech at the begin-ning of the occasion.

“Drik is a creative platform to ex-plore ideas and create awareness that can have a signi� cant e� ect in devel-oping the socio-cultural perspective of the country. Drik also welcomes thought provoking ideas through pho-tographs, which can change the percep-tion of an individual,” he said. On the programme, artist Mustafa Monowar commented: “Alam is an activist who showed that photographs are a strong medium and has an immense e� ect over the society.”

Drik’s anniversary day was dedicat-ed to honour a legendary Bangladeshi photographer, Golam Kasem Daddy. Also, the yearlong activities of the agency were shown in the programme.

In the show, one of the signi� cant documentaries, “Searching for Kolpo-na” was screened. Initiated by Alam, the story revolves around a girl Kolpo-na who was a leftist activist. She was aware of the tortures that are practiced over the indigenous groups.

Her speech and activities caused an uprising in the hill tracks. At the end, Kolpona was abducted by the army. Kolpona’s story was very accurately portrayed in the exhibition, which had a major impact over the society.

In the concluding session, Drik held a cultural programme. A recitation by Jhorna was presented, paying tribute to Kolpona.

The troupe Prachyanat had a street show at the gallery by presenting the exploitation on the garment employ-

ees and the dark side of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Export-ers Association.

Nazrul Baul and his group presented popular songs like “Age Ki Shundor Din Kataitam,” “Baula Ke Banailo Re Hason Rajare” and more.

Drik has been working on di� erent social issues by giving a message with an artistic perspective.

Drik’s works have been also rec-ognised in the international sce-nario by organising events such as “Chobi Mela” where prominentinternational photographers are com-ing in Bangladesh and appreciating the e� ort of Bangladeshi photography. Also “Worl Press Photo” organised by Drik is a� liated with international photo agencies.

Alam has not only con� ned pho-tos only in Bangladesh, he hasbroader the arena in the interna-tional level, where local photogra-phers taking part in the worldwide photo exhibition and representingBangladesh. “Pathshala” a photogra-phy institution has made photography as a professional and made acceptance to everyone.

Established in 1989, Drik’s major areas of expertise are advocacy and awareness campaigns, production of communication materials, multimedia trainings and many more.

Shahidul Alam, with his passion and determination has made it possi-ble to establish a signi� cant photog-raphy agency that gave birth to manypromising photographers in Bangla-desh. Shahidul Alam is the daring in-dividual who showed the extra judicial killings of the law enforcement group RAB through his courageous exhibit “Cross� re.”

At present, Drik has � ve depart-ments that include picture agency, photography, publication, audio visu-al, gallery and event management de-partment. l

Mohanayoker Kotha publishedn Entertainment Desk

Biography of the celebrated silver screen actor Bulbul Ahmed, published on Sep-tember 4 marking the occasion of his 72nd birth anniversary. The book is titled “Ekjon Mohanayok Er Kotha,” written by noted actor Bulbul Ahmed’s daughter Oindrila.

The book consists of many untold stories of the legendary actor and features how he dealt with his career as an artiste, his works on � lm, TV and radio. It also features his interviews published in various newspapers, magazines, and remi-niscences by his contemporaries.

His loved ones and others, including, Atiqul Haque Chowdhury, Razzak, Shab-nam, Babita, Champa , Morasedula Islam , Gazi Mazharul Anwar, Chashi Nazrul Islam , Kazi Hayat , Abupam Hayat shares their memory of him through this book.

The book was unveiled by Oindrila on a television phono-live programme named “Tarokakothon.” On the occasion, Oindrila shares that she is very happy to publish a biography on her father Bulbul Ahmed. The book has been published by Boipotro Prokashoni.

Before this, Oindrila also made a documentary on Bulbul Ahmed named “Ek Jon Kingbodontir Kotha.” l

Kangana plays an alien in Krrish 3n Entertainment Desk

Actress Kangana Ranaut is ready to take the next step in Bollywood and go behind the camera to direct a feature � lm.

Earlier, the 26-year-old National award winner had directed a short � lm written in collaboration with an Australian writer and shot in the US. The � lm revolves around a four-year-old boy and a dog.

Kangana will be seen next in superhero science � ction � lm Krrish 3. “It (character) is alien-superwoman-Tomb Raider-catwoman sort of a role named Kaaya. I have an unconventional look. I am sexy but wicked. A lot of e� ort was put into achieving the desired look for the � lm. It was quite challenging,” she said.

The � lm directed by Rakesh Roshan will continue the story of Ro-hit Mehra and his superhero son Krrish. This is the third � lm of the Krrish � lm series. It stars Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Vivek Oberoi and Kangana in the lead. She has also bagged a slew of inter-esting projects like “Ungli,” “Queen,” “Revolver Rani” and “Rajjo.”

“Queen” is a comedy-drama � lm directed by Vikas Bahl featur-ing Kangana and Rajkumar Yadav. “Revolver Rani” is directed by Sai Kabir and produced by Tigmanshu Dhulia and Rahul Mittra. The � lm is said to be an action with popular stand-up comedian turned ac-tor Vir Das playing the lead role. In “Rajjo” she plays a “nautch girl” which is directed by newcomer Vishwas Patil.” l

The � lm Diana premieresin Leicester Squaren Entertainment Desk

Fans of the late Princess of Wales � ocked to London’s Leicester Square to catch a glimpse of Naomi Watts at the premiere of Diana.

The � lm stars two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts as the late Princess of Wales and Naveen Andrews as her lover Dr Hasnat Khan.

Both were on Leicester Square’s red carpet to greet fans.

“Usually when you take on a character you work from the inside and then get to the outside and focus on the appearance and the walk and the voice and things like that, but in this case I did it in the reverse

direction. Starting with the look and the voice, obviously being the most important one and then getting into the interior life after,” Watts said.

For Andrews things were di� erent. The man he plays is alive, but he was unable to contact him for research as he didn’t want to be involved with the movie.

“He was very passionate about his privacy being compromised or violated in any way, and so, even though we may have wanted to make contact with him, we couldn’t. We knew that he knew the � lm was being made and it’s my hope that if he does see the � lm that he’d be able to see that we rendered him with great respect,” he said. l

Chhayanaut troupe performed a number of Nazrul’s timeless compositions observing the National Poet’s 37th death anniversary MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Oindrila and Bulbul Ahmed

A scene from Megh Brishti Autoppar

14

13DHAKA TRIBUNESaturday, September 7, 2013

SportDid you know?

14 15 Younis double ton sees Pakistan to lead of 341

Golf is the only sport played on the moon.

On February 6th, 1971, Alan Shepard

hit a golf ball

No Galaxy deal for Kaka:AC Milan

Casillas axed for easing Real-Barca tension: Del Bosque

The ‘Iron Man’ - Ali Ashfaq n Raihan Mahmood,

from Kathmandu

He is called as the “Iron Man” but his appearance and manners are soft and subtle. His game has power but is also balanced with a delicate touch and his skills have made him a true ambas-sador for Maldives football. Over the years Ali Ashfaq, the 28 year old cap-tain of Maldives has captured the at-tention of the South Asian media.

Ashfaq has been on � re since step-ping foot in Kathmandu for the Sa� Championships. He scored a record six goals in his side’s opening 10-0 demo-lition of Sri Lankan and just for good measure, added four more in the next match against Bhutan. In that light, his “failure” to score in yesterday’s game against Afghanistan was something of a surprise.

Ashfaq’s goal scoring tally now stands at 36 goals from 41 international matches and he is also all time lead-ing scorer in the Sa� Championships.

Previously, Indian star Bhaichung led the way with 11 strikes and coming into this year’s event, fellow Indian Sunil Chhetri had hopes of going ahead of that as he stood on nine goals. Ashfaq’s phenomenal form has seen him move on from the eight goals he had previ-ously collected to a tally of 14 and he is already the overwhelming favourite to clinch the award for being this year’s top scorer and best player.

Part of Ashfaq’s success might be that he is mentally at ease with hitting the back of the net. “I don’t � nd any-thing special in scoring goals, I have been doing that in every level I have played. My football dream was sur-rounded by scoring goals and I have been living with it,” said the Maldives maestro.

“Dhagande” means “iron man” in the Maldivian language and Ashfaq said he was given that nickname in his early childhood. “In my schooling days, maybe I was a little bit stronger from the others and as I have been

scoring goals, the label was inserted upon me,” he explained.

Ashfaq’s greatness goes beyond goal scoring. He is a busy playmaker and his neat passing and brilliant footwork has aided many a teammate from score or advance an attack still further. He is not a sel� sh player and has a good sense of positioning, while his wand-like left foot’s magical doings is a joy to behold.

 However he is a realistic man with reasonable targets. “People ask me whether I have the dream of playing the World Cup. Yes, I have the dream but it is not realistic. At the moment I have the target of winning the Saaf Championship and more sub-conti-nental tournaments and next qualify for the AFC Challenge Cup,” he said.

It was said that he would have been attracted more attention if he played club football outside Maldives but the maestro seemed to be content with what he is. “Yes, there were o� ers from Malaysia and others but due to di� er-

ent reasons - to be precise the payment resolution with my club - prompted me to stay in Maldives,” Ashfaq explained.

Ashfaq said that failing to win the Sa� Championship in Dhaka on 2009 was the biggest disappointment of his

career. “It was a big blow as we did not win the title and losing in penalties. We played well but maybe luck was in not in our favour.” Nonetheless, Ash-faq had no plans to prolong his career or enter into a coaching role after his

stint on the � eld was over. “I will play for next two years and I don’t have any plans to become a coach. If I remain involved with football then maybe a managerial role will be more conve-nient for me” concluded Ashfaq.” l

Football team return homen Shishir Hoque

A downhearted Bangladesh national football team returned home yesterday from Kathmandu after an early exit from the Sa� Championship after their dreams of winning the tournament ended in pieces on Thursday after a shock defeat to Pakistan.

A 15-member Bangladesh group led by Rene Koster reached in the capital at noon, while the rest arrived in the evening with head coach Lodewijk de Kruif landed in the evening.

Both the players and the coaches at-tributed their early exit to injury problems and bad luck. Bangladesh lost to hosts Nepal and Pakistan and drew against In-dia to � nish bottom of their group.

The frustration of the result showed on the players’ faces at the Shajalal In-ternational Airport yesterday. Assistant coach Rene Koster believes the tourna-ment is a lesson to take for the players.

“The players lack concentration and professionalism. Many of them didn’t play their best during the games. They have to take lessons from this tourna-ment and build on that,” said Koster.

“We couldn’t � eld our best eleven in any of our matches. It makes thing harder for any coach,” added Rene.

However, Atikur Rahman Meshu disagreed. The defender said, “We the players always try our best and give 100%. It may look di� erent from out-side the pitch,” said Meshu, who scored the only goal in the match against India.

Striker Zahid Hossain Emily, who scored against Pakistan, blamed bad luck on top of injury troubles for Bangla-desh’s results. “A tough group at the start following constant injuries. Things got worse with wrong decisions from the ref-eree. Overall, luck was not with us as we couldn’t make it into the semi-� nals.” lBangladesh national football players and o� cials at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport after they returned home from Sa� Championship yesterday BFF

DPL opening matches announcedn Mazhar Uddin

Defending champion Victoria Sport-ing Club will take on Kalabagan Cricket Academy at the BKSP 2 ground in the opening match of the Dhaka Premier League (DPL) 2012-13 season, while Gazi Tank Cricketers will face Khelaghor Samaj Kallyan Samity in Bogra and Ta-mim Iqbal’s Brothers Union will take on Prime Bank Cricket Club on the opening day of the DPL, which is scheduled to start on September 10.

The long awaited DPL 2012-13 season looks to � nally be ready to get underway after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced the venues - BKSP 2 and Fatullah Cricket Stadium in Dhaka, the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra and Shaheed Kamruzzaman stadium in Ra-jshahi – as well as the opening � xtures.

Victoria Sporting Club are the de-fending DPL champions. Last year, they were led by Shakib Al Hasan, who is playing for Kalabagan Krira Chakra this

season. However, Victoria were able to snap up star Nasir Hossain in the � rst ever lottery method of recruitment and Anamul Haque and Robiul Islam are also on the team. DPL newcomers Kalabagan Cricket Academy meanwhile, have a relatively weak side, with young players Marshal Ayub and Nadeef Chowdhury being the men to watch.

Gazi Tank Cricketers have national vice-captain Mahmudullah, Imrul Kayes and Arafat Sunny as well as oth-er experienced players amongst their ranks. Their opening day opponents, newcomers Khelaghor Samaj Kallyan Samity by contrast, do not have any re-nowned players.

Tamim Iqbal’s Brothers Union, the club from Gopibagh look to be a bal-anced side and will face last year’s runners-up Prime Bank, who possess all-rounder Ziaur Rahman and left arm spinner Enamul Haque.

All the matches have a reserve day in the case of rain disruption. l

Maldives captain Ali Ashfaq MUMIT M/ FROM KATHMANDU

BCB, PCB jeopardize Pakistani participation in DPL n Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Dhaka Premier League clubs are facing di� culties in con� rming the services of foreign players for the sea-son that is scheduled to start Septem-ber 10 and a number of the clubs are blaming the strained relationship be-tween the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the situation.

Tensions between the two cricket-ing organization � ared up after the PCB restricted their cricketers from partici-pating in the second edition of the Ban-gladesh Premier League (BPL). In re-sponse, the BCB decided not to send its national team on a tour to the cricket abandoned nation.

Pakistani cricketers, international and uncapped, have been a regular fea-ture in Bangladesh’s domestic compe-

titions. The BCB however, have stood � rm by its decision to exclude Paki-stani players from the BPL-2

The BCB now has no problem with Pakistani cricketers participating in the Dhaka League, which was given List A status this year. However, the board has chosen not to issue any let-ter to PCB asking to issue NOCs (No Objection Certi� cate) for their crick-eters. Instead, the 12 premier league clubs were told to issue letters of their own to manage NOCs from the PCB for the cricketers they were inter-ested in.

In the past, Dhaka clubs used to con-tact the players, who then sought per-mission from their respective province or department, and a letter was sent from the BCB or the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) to help with visa issues.

This year, Pakistani cricketers who were contacted by the clubs tried to enlist in the help of the PCB’s Interna-tional Cricket Operation, but the PCB stuck to its decision of not allowing their cricketers to play in Bangladesh until formal communications with the BCB clari� ed the matter.

Sources told the Dhaka Tribune that the PCB, pressured by its players, decided to communicate with the BCB on the issue but found the Ban-gladeshi administration unwilling to cooperate.

In the event, the premier league cubs have asked the BCB for help. Iqbal Yusuf Chowdhury, o� cial at the Crick-et Coaching School (CCS) - one of the twelve Dhaka Premier League clubs, told the media of how his club had pe-titioned the BCB to ease the process of bringing in Pakistani players for the

tournament. “I will submit a letter on Saturday,

to ask BCB to help me with NOCs from PCB,” informed Iqbal.

The Dhaka club also tried to rope in Indian cricketers India but faced the same issue. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to help with NOCs. A possible reason for the move is the upcoming Ranji Trophy, but it is well known that the BCCI is reluctant to allow their players to play abroad.

A few of the clubs are now trying to recruit players from Sri Lanka, Zim-babwe, Australia and South Africa. Some signings have already been all-but-sealed, and sources hinted that the likes of former Australian cricketer Mike Hussey and South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis were likely to play in the DPL. l

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 201314

Brazil's national football player Neymar (C) controls the ball during a training session in Brasilia on Thursday. Brazil will play a friendly match against Australia today REUTERS

Casillas axed for easing Real-Barca tension: Del Bosquen Reuters, Madrid

Iker Casillas lost his place in Real Ma-drid’s team under Jose Mourinho be-cause he helped calm the waters be-tween the Spanish internationals at his club and at Barcelona, according to na-tional coach Vicente del Bosque.

Several matches between the two clubs during the combative Mourinho’s stint in Spain were marred by brawling, accusations of refereeing bias and play-acting although more recent meetings have been less controversial.

“It’s true that in di� cult moments for the national team, when the Real-Barca matches got a little strange, he (Casillas) ... helped the team to move on and continue winning things like the (2012) European Championship,” Del Bosque told radio station Onda Cero.

“This did not go down well and per-haps had a detrimental e� ect also on Iker,” added the former Real coach. “He was a key � gure in fostering harmony in the national team.”

The tension reached a low point in August 2011 when Mourinho, who returned three months ago for a sec-ond spell at Chelsea, jabbed a � nger in the eye of Barca assistant coach Tito Vilanova as � ghting erupted during a Spanish Super Cup game.

Real’s Spain contingent, including goalkeeper Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa, ap-peared to fall out with Barca inter-nationals like Xavi and Carles Puyol, prompting concern it could a� ect the national team’s performances.

Casillas, the Real and Spain captain, sought to ease the tension by meet-ing Xavi and Puyol, and Del Bosque suggested this had contributed to Mourinho’s decision last season to re-place his skipper with Diego Lopez.

Even under new Real coach Carlo Ancelotti, Casillas has been left on the bench this season.

Barca keeper Victor Valdes has been in excellent form and may start Spain’s World Cup Group I quali� er against Finland in Helsinki later on Friday. l

Gerrard reveals managerial ambition n AFP, London

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says he dreams of managing the club after revealing that he intends to go into coaching when he hangs up his boots.

The 33-year-old central mid� elder signed a new contract during the close season but he says he is beginning to contemplate his future and is thinking of turning his hand to management.

“The dream come true would be to manage Liverpool, when the Liverpool job becomes available,” Gerrard told TwentyFour 7 Football magazine.

“There are world-class managers there ready already, but we’ll have to wait and see. It would be the icing on the cake.

“When you get to a certain age -- my age -- you need to start thinking seriously about a life after football. I am planning on doing my badges and quali� cations over the next 12 months.

“I de� nitely see myself as a man-ager rather than a coach, but that could change.”

Gerrard made his Liverpool debut in November 1998 and has since gone on to make over 600 appearances for the Merseyside giants, notably leading them to glory in the Champions League in 2005.

His long-term team-mate Jamie Car-ragher retired at the end of last season and now works as a pundit for Sky Sports television.

Gerrard says that Carragher had also expressed an interest in coaching, only to decide to pursue a career in the media.

“I remember speaking to Jamie Car-ragher and he really fancied it, but he’s decided media is what he wants to do,” Gerrard said.

“It’ll be strange seeing him on Sky but I’m really delighted he’s doing it. He can leave managing Liver-pool to me!” l

Prandelli has 'absolutely not' decided futuren Reuters

Cesare Prandelli has “absolutely not decided” on his future as Italy coach, he said on Thursday while pouring cold water on speculation he would quit af-ter next year’s World Cup.

The Italian media have spent the last two days debating possible succes-sors for Prandelli who revived the team after their 2010 World Cup � op and led them to the Euro 2012 � nal.

“As far as looking after my future is concerned, there is the utmost seren-ity,” he told reporters in Palermo ahead of Friday’s World Cup quali� er at home to Bulgaria.

“My thoughts are exclusively fo-cused on qualifying for the World Cup, everything else will be done with the utmost transparency. “I have absolute-ly not decided yet, we have maximum respect and concentration over what we have to do,” he added.

Unbeaten Italy top Group B with 14 points from six games and can guaran-tee � rst place, and quali� cation for the � nals in Brazil, by beating Bulgaria and then Czech Republic on Tuesday. l

Lahm relishing joining Germany’s 100 club n AFP, Berlin

Captain Philipp Lahm has said he is rel-ishing making his 100th appearance for Germany “in his own backyard” for Fri-day’s World Cup quali� er against Austria.

The Bayern Munich right-back will become only the eighth international to bring up the key milestone for the Ger-man Football Federation (DFB) and will be doing so on home turf at the Allianz Arena, home of the Bavarian giants.

“It really has come together incred-ibly well,” said Lahm, with Germany � ve points clear in Group C and the top teams from the nine European groups going through to the World Cup next June in Brazil.

“It’s a special match, and I’m privi-leged to be playing it in my own back-yard, as it were, which is fantastic.

“My family will be there, lots of my friends are coming, and plenty of ac-quaintances.”

One noticeable statistic from Lahm’s career is that since his debut against Croatia in February 2004 he has made the starting line-up for each of his 99 appearances. l

Moyes, Fellaini ready for Unitedn AFP, London

Manchester United’s assistant coach Steve Round has defended the club’s new manager David Moyes by insisting that he is ready for the challenge of life at Old Tra� ord.

Moyes succeeded the legendary Alex Ferguson in July but has endured a di� cult start to his time at United, picking up only four points from his � rst three league games and missing out on several transfer targets.

But Round, who followed Moyes to United from Everton, believes the 50-year-old Scot has the necessary at-tributes to turn his time with the 20-time English champions into a success.

“Without a doubt, David was ready for this job,” Round told regional news-paper the Manchester Evening News.

“He has an incredible desire to suc-ceed. He now has the stature and pres-ence to move to a club like this. I really do believe he will be a big success.

“Now I have been in this club and environment I can understand why Sir Alex and the board appointed him -- to keep that continuity, work ethic, drive and feeling about the club going.

“It was very important to them and I can understand now that I have been here and lived it. They were made for each other.”

Moyes’s only major signing during the transfer window was Belgian mid-� elder Marouane Fellaini, who arrived from Everton for a fee of £27.5 million ($42.7 million, 32.4 million euros).

Although mooted moves for Barce-lona’s Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara, who joined Bayern Munich from Barce-lona, and Athletic Bilbao’s Ander Her-

rera failed to materialise, Round feels Fellaini will prove his worth.

“We wanted someone who could give us strength in the middle of mid-� eld and allow one or two of the others to play,” he said.

“Technically, he is excellent. His chest control is arguably one of the best in the world. His feet are really good. He is aggressive, tackles, and has great � tness stats.

“He is one of the highest runners in matches. He will regularly do over 12 kilometres a game.

“He doesn’t have the same range of long passing as Michael Carrick, but the way he keeps the ball and his short passing is very good.

“When you are building a squad to compete on all fronts you don’t want every single player to be the same. You want options and di� erences.

“Marouane can sit in front of the de-fence, go box to box and drop o� the front man. He is ready for this step up.” l

No Galaxy deal for Kaka n AFP, Milan

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Gal-liani has ruled out any future agree-ment between the club and Los Ange-les Galaxy over an eventual transfer of new arrival Kaka.

Brazilian forward Kaka ended a frustrating few years at Real Madrid when he re-joined the Italian Serie A giants on Monday, signing a two-year contract after being allowed to leave the Spanish giants for free.

His return came four years after he quit the seven-time European cham-pions to join Real, where he fell out of favour under Jose Mourinho and was not in the plans of new coach Carlo An-celotti.

Prior to Kaka’s arrival reports sug-gested Milan would initially sign Kaka before o� oading him to Major League soccer side LA Galaxy.

But at his o� cial presentation on Thursday Galliani indicated the club had no intention of such a move:

“Can you imagine what would hap-pen if Ricky came here, played for three months and then left ? “The fans would not be happy at all.”

He added: “There is no such agree-ment with LA Galaxy. Kaka has a two-year contract with us.”

Kaka was one of Real’s most expen-sive signings in 2009 when the club paid Milan 65 million euros for him af-ter a highly-succesful six-season spell with the Rossoneri.

After being left on the sidelines under Mourinho, Kaka’s chances of more regular � rst team action at the Santiago Bernabeu faded further when his former coach at Milan, Ancelotti, took over the ‘Galacticos’ for the new season.

Kaka refused to blame either coach.“Mourinho’s not to blame. He

taught me a lot, about football and also outside the game,” added Kaka.

“And Ancelotti was very honest with me these last six weeks in Madrid. Real had other plans, new players and also with younger players coming into the squad there were fewer and fewer spots in the team.”

With Brazil hosting the 2014 World Cup, Kaka launched a public plea to leave Real last week and the Spaniards allowed the 31-year-old to return to his former club on a free transfer.

Kaka is hoping his return to the club he helped to Champions League glory in 2007, the year he was also voted Bal-lon d’Or, can help relaunch his career as well as bring back the joy of playing football. lAC Milan's Brazilian forward Kaka trains at the team's Milanello training center in Carnago on Thursday AFP

Technically, he is excellent. His chest control is arguably one of the best in the world. His feet are really good. He is aggressive, tackles, and has great � tness stats

Sport 15DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

Same four in Sa� C’ship semi� nalsHistory will be repeated at the Sa� Championship as the semi-� nal line up was � nalised by the same four teams from the 2011 edition of the tourna-ment when Maldives and Afghanistan played out a goalless draw in the Group “B” at the Dasarath Stadium yesterday. Afghanistan will face Group “A” winners Nepal on Sunday while India will take on Maldives in the other semi the next day. In the day’s other match, Sri Lanka restored some pride by beating Bhutan 5-2. Mohamed Naufer scored four goals (19’, 26’, 50’, 90’) and Pema Dorji netted the other one. The two Bhutan goals came from Passam Tshering in the 45th minute and Sonam Tenzing in the 58th minute.

– RM

Bangladesh Davis Cup team o� to DubaiA four-member Bangladesh team consisting of Sree Amol Roy, Md Anwar Hossain, Jamil Bhuiyan and Biplob Ram will leave Dhaka for Dubai today to take part in the 2013 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group-IV, scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai from September 9. Apart from Bangladesh, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kirghizstan, Myan-mar, Qatar, Saudi Arab, Singapore and Turkmenistan will also participate in the six-day meet. The games will be played in a round robin league system after the 10 teams are split into two poles. The top two � nishers from the 10 will qualify for the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group-lll, which will be held next year.

- SH

Sagar wins chess tournamentInternational Master Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar emerged as the champion of the Bishal Trade &Rupahali Sarees 39th National ‘B’ Chess Championship despite being held to a draw with Shakil in the last and 11th round at the Chess Federation hall room yesterday. Sagar, who was representing Dhaka Moham-medan, earned 9.5 points from 11 rounds to clinch the title. Fide Master Sk Nasir Ahmed of Titas Club � nished second with nine points after beating Jamal on the � nal day. International Master Abu Su� an Shakil clinched third spot and Fide Master Kh Aminul Islam of Access Group came in 4th. Eight players shared the � fth spot with eight points. Meanwhile, the top nine � nishers - Sagar, Nasir, Shakil, Amin, Debaraj, Javed, Parag, Sha� q and Jamal quali� ed for the National “A” Chess Championship-2013. Reigning Champion Grand Master Niaz Murshed, last edition’s runner-up GM Ziaur Rahman, GM Reefat Bin Sattar, GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib and GM Enamul Hossain Razib have already quali� ed for the � nal phase of the tournament.

– SH

South Africa and India try to resolve scheduling disputeSouth Africa and India cricket chiefs will meet in Dubai this month to try to resolve a dispute over the scheduling of a series between the world’s top test nation and the World Cup one-day champions. South Africa announced a schedule for the tour in July that included three tests, seven one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches, with the tour due to start in mid-November. India have since agreed to host West Indies for two tests and � ve one-day matches between Oct. 31 and Nov. 27. The second test would be an unprecedented 200th for the world’s leading run scorer Sachin Tendulkar.

– Reuters

Hamilton fastest in opening Monza practice Lewis Hamilton topped the times for Mercedes in Friday morning’s opening free practice session ahead of this week-end’s Italian Grand Prix. The 28-year-old Briton, running a revised low-downforce package following the team’s disap-pointing outing at the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced nearest rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari by just 0.035 seconds when he clocked a late � ying lap in perfect conditions.

– AFP

Quick Bytes

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10:00pm US Open 2013 LIVEMen’s Semi-� nal

Day’s Watch

Djokovic, Nadal braced for old-school assaultn AFP, New York

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal must quell a double-edged assault from mas-ters of the dying art of the single-handed backhand if they are to set up a block-buster US Open � nal.

The world’s top two men have com-fortably been the best players at the tournament with Djokovic dropping just one set in � ve rounds and Nadal not having been broken.

While they have reigned supreme, defending champion Andy Murray slumped to a quarter-� nal loss to Stan-islas Wawrinka and � ve-time champion Roger Federer was gone by the fourth round.

On Saturday, six-time major cham-

pion Djokovic, playing in a 14th succes-sive Grand Slam semi-� nal and seventh in a row in New York, where he was a 2011 winner, will attempt to make Waw-rinka’s maiden last-four appearance a painful experience.

Nadal, the 12-time Grand Slam title winner and the 2010 New York cham-pion, faces Richard Gasquet, the French eighth seed and one of his closest friends on tour.

Gasquet, like Wawrinka, has reached his � rst semi-� nal of the US Open. The two outsiders also have something else in common -- a lethal expertise in the one-handed backhand, something that neither Djokovic nor Nadal employ.

“I’m quite happy with my backhand. That’s one of my best shots,” said Waw-

rinka, who for the � rst time in his career has gone deeper into a Grand Slam than his more-celebrated compatriot Federer.

“I changed when I was 11 because my two hand backhand was not good enough.”

Wawrinka, who has made the semi-� nals for the � rst time at a major at the 35th attempt, will need that weapon on Saturday as Djokovic, who has already won the Australian Open this year, en-joys a 12-2 career lead over the Swiss.

Wawrinka’s last win was in 2006 and he was forced to retire through illness when the pair met in the fourth round in New York 12 months ago.

He was beaten again in the last 16 in Australia this year in a � ve-hour epic where he had led 6-1, 5-2. l

Eight month sentence butno jail for Tomicn Reuters, Madrid

John Tomic, father and coach of Aus-tralian tennis world number 52 Bernard Tomic, has been sentenced to eight months in prison after he assaulted his son’s practice partner in a Madrid street in May, a Spanish court said on Friday.

The 49-year-old, who said he acted in self-defence when he head-butted Thomas Drouet in the face and broke his nose, would not have to serve jail time, however, as his sentence was less than two years, a court o� cial said.

“In Spain nobody goes to jail unless their sentence is at least two years,” the o� cial told Reuters, adding that Tomic, had � ve days in which to appeal against the ruling. l

Kiwis announce squad for Bangladesh seriesn Mazhar Uddin

New Zealand Cricket announced their 15 member Test squad and schedhule for the upcoming Bangladesh series. The � rst Test between the two nations will begin on October 9 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chit-tagong.

Wicket-keeper/batsman Brendon McCullum will lead the New Zealand Test side, while Martin Guptill, Daniel Vettori and Tim Southee were exclud-ed due to injuries. Southee, who had an ankle operation in July, may join the squad if he is able to recover in time to play.

The media release by New Zealand Cricket also includes a schedule. The

Kiwis will play a three day practice match from October 4 at the M A Aziz Stadium in Chittagong ahead of the � rst Test.

The New Zealand team will move to Dhaka for the second Test starting Oc-tober 21 and the � rst two ODI’s will also be played in the capital on October 29 and November 1 at the Sher –e- Bangla National Stadium. The third limited overs match is schedhuled to be played on November 4 at the Khan Shaheb Os-man Ali Stadium Fatullah.

The sole T20 international, sched-uled for November 6 at the Sylhet Divi-sional Stadium, is still awaiting ICC ap-proval. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) however, has yet to con� rm the schedule. l

Wawrinka shocks Murray, Djokovic cruises at Openn Reuters, New York

Defending champion Andy Murray was the lat-est grand slam winner to be bundled out of the U.S.

Open and deny fans a dream match-up, while Novak Djokovic stayed the course on Thursday to complete the last four lineup.

Winds blew across Arthur Ashe Sta-dium but that did not bother top seed Djokovic, who defeated Mikhail You-zhny of Russia 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-0 to claim a berth in Saturday’s semi-� nals.

An eagerly anticipated renewal of his grand slam rivalry with Wimbledon winner Murray had already been spoiled after ninth seed Wawrinka of Switzer-land spanked the out-of-sorts Scot 6-4 6-3 6-2 in their quarter-� nal. The other semi-� nal will have French Open cham-pion Rafa Nadal against eighth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

Wawrinka stepped out from the shadow cast by compatriot Roger Fe-derer and into his � rst grand slam semi-� nal with a decisive victory over the Wimbledon champion, winning the battle from the baseline and the net.

The surging Wawrinka, who raised his 2013 record to 41-15 with the upset win, raised both arms in triumph after third seed Murray dumped a second-serve return into the net on match point.

Wawrinka broke the Briton four times and never faced a break point against a player noted for his ability to return. He cracked 45 winners past the listless Murray and won 31 of 42 forays to the net in the one-sided match.

Murray admitted to a Wimbledon hangover after ending a drought of 77 years without a British winner since Fred Perry’s 1936 triumph at the All England Club.

Much more was expected of Murray, as it was for the other Swiss player that factored at Flushing Meadows - Roger Federer.

Murray’s loss was the second seismic shocker to strike the men’s draw in the last two rounds following the straight sets dismissal of � ve-time U.S. Open champion Federer in the fourth round by Spain’s Tommy Robredo.

Robredo’s rousing victory robbed fans of a quarter-� nals match between Federer and Nadal that would have marked the � rst U.S. Open meeting be-tween the two, who have met 31 times elsewhere around the world.

Djokovic, one week younger than his friend and fellow 26-year-old Murray, would seem to bene� t from the shu� e.

The Serb has a narrow 11-8 career mark against Murray, having won their � rst four meetings at the start of their pro careers, but is 12-2 including the last 11 against Wawrinka.

Murray complained about the breezy conditions, but gave credit to Wawrinka.

“He played great. He hit big shots. He passed extremely well. He hit a lot of lines on big points. He served well. That was it,” said Murray. l

Andy Murray, of Great Britain, reacts during a break between sets after losing the � rst two sets to Stanislas Wawrinka, of Switzerland, during the quarter� nals of the 2013 US Open tennis tournament on Thursday AP

US Open resultsMen’s singles, Quarter � nalsDjokovic bt Youzhny 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0Wawrinka bt Murray 6-4, 6-3, 6-2

Pakistan batsman Younis Khan raises his bat after his � rst Test century against Zimbabwe, during the 4th day of 1st Test in Harare yesterday AP

Actor Rainn Wilson jokes around with Chris Evert (L) of the United States of America during their exhibition doubles match on Day Eleven of the 2013 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City on Thursday AFP

Younis double ton puts Pakistan on top n AFP, Harare

Younis Khan hit a double century as Pakistan wrested control on the fourth day of the � rst Test against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Friday.

Younis hit 200 not out to enable Pakistan to declare on 419 for nine, set-ting Zimbabwe an unlikely 342 to win.

Zimbabwe were 13 for one at the close, losing opening batsman Tina Mawoyo in the last over of the day, leg before wicket to Saeed Ajmal.

O� -spinner Ajmal, who took seven for 95 in the � rst innings, will be the main threat to the Zimbabwe batsmen on the last day on a deteriorating pitch.

It was a monumental performance by

Younis, who batted for 10 hours 12 min-utes and faced 404 balls, knowing for much of his innings that his side would be in danger of defeat if he was dismissed.

Pakistan were in deep trouble at 23 for three early in his innings. He shared a century partnership with captain Misbah-ul-Haq on Thursday but the tourists were still vulnerable when Asad Sha� q was bowled in the � rst over on Friday.

Another century stand, with wick-etkeeper Adnan Akmal, who made a career-best 64, steered Pakistan to-wards safety. An unbroken last wicket partnership of 88 with Rahat Ali (35 not out) took the game away from a tiring Zimbabwe team.

Patience was the hallmark of Younis’ innings until he cut loose in the last wicket stand, adding his last 51 runs in quick time.

Misbah delayed the declaration, � rst signalling two more overs as You-nis neared a double century, then in-dicating a further over when Younis was on 194 when the allotted two were complete. Younis hit o� - spinner Pros-per Utseya to reach the landmark and the declaration was immediate.

It meant Pakistan had only eight overs to bowl at Zimbabwe before the close of play. Mawoyo and Vusi Siban-da negotiated the � rst seven before Mawoyo went back in his crease and missed an Ajmal ‘doosra’ to be trapped in front of his stumps. l

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, September 7, 2013

COMPENSATION CLAIMS FOR CHATTAK BLOWOUTS

Determining Niko’s liability falls underICSID tribunal’s jurisdictionNot having Bangladesh as a party would not impact the merits of the lawsuit and compensation issue will remain open for adjudication in next arbitration proceedingsn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The International Centre for Settle-ment of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has not discarded the two cases � led by Niko Resources (Bangladesh) Ltd against Petrobangla and Bapex, involv-ing the two blowouts at the Chattak gas � eld in 2005.

The Dhaka Tribune has reached the conclusion after a complete study of the tribunal’s “decision on jurisdic-tion”, and from talking to legal experts.

However, Petrobangla at a press brief-ing on August 20 this year claimed the cases were rejected by the ICSID tribu-nal. Contrary to this claim, the proceed-ings of the two cases are yet to begin.

The ICSID is a member institution of the World Bank Group based in Washington, DC. It facilitates arbitration and concilia-tion of legal investment disputes between international investors and host states.

On August 19 this year, the tribu-nal issued a single decision on its ju-risdiction, involving the two cases (ARB/10/11, ARB/10/18) brought before it by Niko Resources against the Ban-gladesh government, Petrobangla and Bapex. Bangladesh has already ques-tioned the tribunal’s jurisdiction to

move the Niko cases.ICSID ruled that the tribunal did not

have any jurisdiction over Bangladesh state; however, it retained jurisdictions over both Petrobangla and Bapex.

Of the two cases, ARB10/11 relates to compensation for the two blowouts which owhile carrying out drilling at the Chattak gas � eld, locally known as Tengratila � eld, on January 7, 2005 and � ve months later on June 24, 2005.

Following the incidents, a govern-ment-formed investigation committee held Niko responsible for the blowouts and estimated the damage caused. On June 15, 2008, a case against Niko was � led with the Dhaka District Judge’s Court seeking Tk7.465bn in compen-sation. The proceedings of the trial are still pending.

Niko brought the case to the ICSID Tribunal, asking whether they should pay any compensation and seeking a declaration that it was not liable.

In reply, the ICSID Tribunal categor-ically stated that it has “jurisdiction to determine whether Niko has any liabil-ity for the two blowouts” and also that it has “jurisdiction to make the declara-tion of no liability if there are su� cient grounds to make such declaration.”

Under this context, the tribunal also found Bapex as the relevant petroleum exploration entity of Bangladesh.

Thus, no longer having Bangladesh as a party would not have any sig-ni� cant impact on the eventual � nal (merits) decision, leaving the issue of compensation open for adjudication by ICSID at the next stage of the arbitra-tion proceedings.

In the second suit (ARB10/18), Niko demanded $35.71m from Petrobangla as payment of gas sales from the Feni gas � eld. The amount includes $8.55m that Petrobangla owes to Bapex, according to the joint venture agreement (JVA).

Petrobangla had refrained from making any payment to Niko following a High Court order, unless the compa-ny paid the compensation of Tk7.465bn for the Chattak blowouts.

The HC gave the verdict on June 17, 2009 in response to a writ � led by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), which had brought public interest litigation against Niko and subsequently won an injunction order that barred the payments.

The Canadian � rm stopped gas pro-duction from the Feni � eld in May 2010.

Sharif Bhuiyan, an international

law expert and lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Under the ICSID Convention in respect of arbitration between for-eign investor and agencies of a state, eg Petrobangla, Bapex, there is a require-ment of making a designation by the state to the tribunal that such agencies can participate in arbitration. Bangla-desh made no such designation in re-spect of Petrobangla and Bapex. Yet, the tribunal held that it has jurisdiction over Petrobangla and Bapex.”

Moin Ghani, another Supreme Court lawyer, pointed out: “As a World Bank member institution, ICSID is supposed to follow a strong international public policy against corruption. Jurisdiction is generally not exercised by ICSID when a claimant investor does not act in good faith or comes before ICSID without [clean hands]. However, in this case the tribunal does not withstand the clear evidence of corruption com-mitted by Niko in Bangladesh.”

In 2011, a Canadian court had con-victed Niko for bribing Bangladesh’s former minister for energy and miner-al resources, AKM Mosharaf Hossain, with a Toyota Land Cruiser valued at US$188,000 and other “non-busi-

ness-related” expenses.The three-member ICSID tribu-

nal was constituted back in 2010 with Michael E Schineider of Germany as its president. The other arbitrators include New Zealand’s Campbell Mc-Lachlan, who represented Bangladesh, Petrobangla and Bapex; and Jan Pauls-son, representing Niko.

Taw� que Newaz represented Ban-gladesh in the arbitration but he was unavailable for comment on the cas-es, despite repeated attempts by the Dhaka Tribune.

H earings on the merits of the cases are yet to be held and the tribunal will now give separate order directions for the continuation of the proceedings pursuant to arbitration.

Petrobangla Chairman Prof Hossain Monsur said: “Sometimes you have to say things from a political point of view, and taking the country’s interests into consideration. However, we are hopeful of winning the arbitration.”

Niko described the ICSID’s ruling as “a positive step” in an August 21 press release and said it was “encouraged that the ICSID Tribunal will � nally be able to determine the merits of its claims.” l

Global retailers urged to compensate Tazreen, Rana Plaza victims fairlyn Tribune Report

The Clean Clothes Campaign is increas-ing its pressure on Benetton, Mango and other fashion brands to pay full and fair compensation to victims of Tazreen � re and the collapse of Rana Plaza that housed � ve garments.

All brands, including Walmart, who are linked to the Tazreen and Rana Pla-za disasters are being called on to at-tend the meetings on compensation in Geneva on September 11 (Tazreen) and 12 (Rana Plaza) convened by Industri-ALL Global Union.

The ILO will facilitate the meetings as a neutral and independent chair. Representatives of the Bangladesh gov-ernment and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exports Associa-tion (BGMEA) have also been invited.

Consumers from all over Europe are using social media to call on Mango and Benetton to come to the compensation meeting and pay Rana Plaza survivors, according to a Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) press release.

However, BGMEA Vice-President Reaz Bin Mahmood said they would not join the meeting, which he said

was “meant for the retailers and the buyers.”

Moreover, the BGMEA was not invit-ed to the meeting, he claimed.

The Tazreen � re killed at least 112 on November 24 last year while the Rana Plaza building collapse left at least 1,133

people killed on April 24. The campaign expects the brands

to make commitments to paying com-pensation and to collectively develop a mechanism with other stakeholders that will ensure the money is transpar-ently distributed, so as to ensure the people a� ected can restart their lives. Brands have been asked to con� rm their attendance by today.

The estimated long-term compen-sation for Rana Plaza will be more than $71m while for Tazreen it isat least $5.7m. These � gures include compensation for pain and su� er-

ing, as well as long-term loss of earn-ings for families of deceased workers,and injured workers unable to return to work.

The amounts are likely to in-crease once medical costs for thephysically injured workers, psycho-logical support for all workers or their families and payments for lost wag-es and legal severance payments arecalculated.

Fatima, a sewing operator at Taz-reen, has been forced to move back to her village. She says: “My husband died three years ago. Since then, I have

lived with my son, who is now � ve years old. I cannot send him to school because there is not enough money.Just when I wanted to enrol him in school, I was injured in the � re. After months of medication I can just man-age to walk, but if I work too long at a machine and use my foot for pedalling, my foot bloats.

“The BGMEA did not pay me any-thing and I did not receive anything from the government. If I could some-how manage to buy a sewing machine to use at home, I could live o� this in-come and take care of my son.” l

BTRC not happy with 3G auction softwaren Muhammad Zahidul Islam

After having arranged a number of mock auctions, the telecom regulator is not satis� ed with the performance of the software that will be used in the 3G auction in a few days.

Local � rm Amass has developed the software that Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) purchased for using in the 3G auction.

“We are not happy with the soft-ware. We still have to do many things manually. We have arranged two more mock auctions at the auction venue for Saturday [today],” said a high-ranked BTRC o� cial involved with the process.

BTRC sta� and its Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose spent a busy time yesterday trying to get a grip on the auction process.

On Tuesday, BTRC arranged a learning session on how the software worked. But all the participants report-edly were frustrated after using it.

The 3G spectrum auction will be held on September 8 in city hotel with four mobile operators.

Requesting anonymity, a BTRC o� -cial, said: “I think no software is need-ed because only four players will con-test in the auction.”

He suggested that it could be held like regular auctions where bidders raise their hands to put forward a deal. l

Facebook in fresh privacy row with new policyn AFP, Washington

Facebook is drawing � re from privacy activists again, after unveiling a new policy which could turn users’ data and pictures into advertising.

The new plan would “dramatically expand the use of personal information for advertising purposes,” said a letter this week to the US Federal Trade Com-mission by six privacy organisations.

The letter said the changes violate a 2011 consent order with the US watch-dog agency and urged the FTC to “act to enforce its order.”

If the changes take e� ect, the letter said. “Facebook users who reasonably believed that their images and con-

tent would not be used for commer-cial purposes without their consent will now � nd their pictures showingup on the pages of their friends en-dorsing the products of Facebook’sadvertisers.

“Remarkably, their images could even be used by Facebook to endorse products that the user does not like or even use,” added the letter from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Center for Digital Democracy, Consum-er Watchdog and three other groups.

Facebook unveiled the changes as part of a settlement of a class action settlement over the use of user names and images in so-called “sponsored stories.”

According to the letter, Facebook’s existing policy allowed its users to limit how their name and pro� le picture may be associated with advertising.

Under the newly proposed policy, Facebook says: “You give us permis-sion to use your name, pro� le picture, content, and information in connec-tion with commercial, sponsored, or related content.”

Activists said this allowed Face-book to turn virtually all user data into advertising.

Facebook did not immediately reply to an AFP query. Also endorsing the letter were the Privacy Rights Clear-inghouse, US PIRG and Patient Privacy Rights. l

Rights groups invite fashion brands to an ILO-sponsored meeting in Geneva on September 11- 12

Five Ansarullah activists remanded in Bargunan Our Correspondent, Barisal

Five more activists of suspected Isla-mist militant organisation Ansarullah Bangla Team arrested recently were remanded in di� erent terms for “prop-agating militancy and communalism.”

District Chief Judicial Magistrate Noman Mainuddin granted the remand prayer of the prosecution yesterday evening.

Of them, Mainuddin alias Ali Hos-sain was remanded for three days, Moniruzzaman for two, while Aiyub Ali (brother of group chief Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmania), Abdullah and Selim each placed on one-day remand.

With these, a total of 17 out of 31 leaders and activists including Muf-ti Jasim have been remanded in three phases since August 21.

On August 12, police nabbed the 31 suspected militants from the house of Mufti Jasim’s brother Jalil Master in Khejurtala area of the town.

A case was � led against them on Au-gust 12 under section 57 of the ICT Act for propagating militancy and communalism.

Hearing on remand prayers against � ve more would be heard on Sunday and would continue by rotation, said public prosecutor Bhuban Chandra Howladar and defence lawyer Abdul Aziz, Sekan-dar Ali and Siddikur Rahman. l

O� cers less enthusiastic about Russian aircraft purchase talksn Asif Showkat Kallol

O� cials at three ministries – foreign, � -nance and law – expressed unwillingness over attending the negotiations meeting between the Bangladesh Air Force and a Russian delegation, as the Awami league-led grand alliance government’s end of tenure looms, said o� cial sources.

An o� cial at the � nance division seeking anonymity told the Dhaka Tri-bune that o� cials feared they might face problems in future since these were “sensitive” deals.

The negotiations have been underway at the BAF headquarters since September 1. They will leave Dhaka on September 16.

On September 2, Wing commander Md Abdullah-Al-Mamun sent letters to secretaries of three ministries including expressing concern over the di� culties faced by them during the negotiations.

The Russian delegation is negotiat-ing over the purchase of 24 Yak-130 air-crafts by the Air Force.

On January 15, Dhaka and Moscow signed $1bn (around Tk8bn) deal under which Bangladesh will procure military weapons and equipment including ar-moured vehicles, infantry weapons, air defence systems, training aircrafts, anti-tank missiles and Mi-17 transport helicopters from Russia.

The current government has so far procured military hardware worth Tk151.04bn. Procurement of another Tk10bn military hardware and technol-ogy is in the pipeline under two deals – one signed with Russia in January and the other with Belarus last month, said sources in the army. l

Visitors enjoying a wide variety of bonsai on display at a fair in the city’s WVA auditorium organised by Bangladesh Bonsai Society yesterday RAJIB DHAR

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