13 killed, 3 injured in Mirpur plastic factory � ren Asif Islam Shaon

Thirteen people, including 10 men and three women, died and another three received burn injuries in a fi re that broke out at a plastic factory in the cap-ital’s Mirpur area yesterday.

Of the dead, four could be identifi ed - Rashia Begum, 40, Shabnam Parvin, 27, Billal Hossain, 26, and Mokhlesur Rahman Bachchu, 40.

The three injured - security supervi-sor Towhidul Islam, 50, security guard Kamal Hossain, 35, and worker Robi-ul Islam, 35 - were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and were said to be in a critical condition.

The severity of the burn made it dif-fi cult to perfectly identify the bodies but relatives gathered at the hospital at night to see if they could recognise their near and dear ones.

The factory named Aff ortade Prod-uct of Consumer Commodity Ltd (APC-CO), a four-storey building with a tin roof, is located inside the Nasim Indus-trial Estate on Zoo Road in Mirpur 1.

Fire Service Director General Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan said: “The fi re originat-ed from an electric short circuit on the ground fl oor of the building and quickly spread throughout the building after a boiler on the same fl oor exploded.”

Dr Ahmedul Kabir of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital said: “Four dead bodies were brought

to us. We have managed to identify that one of them was a man and the other was a woman.”

Set up in 2006, the factory used plas-tic and foam to make disposable house-hold goods. It used to be run on two shifts: 10am-10pm and 10pm-10am.

Factory sources said around 75-80 workers used to work in each shift.

Fire Service DG Khan said: “Around 40 people were working inside the fac-

tory when the fi re broke out.”Fire Service Operations Offi cer Maj

Shakil told the Dhaka Tribune: “The fi re broke out around 5:50pm and we managed to bring the fi re under control around 6:25pm. A total of 18 fi re fi ght-ing units worked at the scene.”

Witness Zahid Hasan, a neighbour of the factory, told Dhaka Tribune: “I was standing beside the factory when I heard two loud blasts. By the time

I went to check out what had hap-pened, two covered-vans had alreadycaught fi re.”

“The entire area was fi lled with smoke and stench of burning chemi-cal,” he said.

Sajib Islam, helper of one of the burnt covered-vans, said: “We came from Savar with our trunks full of pol-ythene materials and plastic.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

WHOSE JOB ISIT ANYWAY?

11 | OP-ED

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Magh 19, 1421Rabius Sani 11, 1436Regd No DA 6238Vol 2, No 297

20 pages | Price: Tk12

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MALAYSIASEAL LASTFOUR

12 | SPORT

I N S I D E3 | NewsThe Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2015 begins on Bangla Academy premises and in a portion of Shuhrawardy Uddyan in the capital today.

4 | NewsAn action plan detailing the infrastructure development of the country’s � rst nuclear power plant has been recently adopted by the Bangladesh-Russia working group of the joint coordination committee for implementing the nuclear power programme.

5 | NewsMore than 30,000 poor and slum households are enjoying sanitation facilities by dint of commissioning of 11,000 hygienic latrines in the metropolis.

6 | NationNew and expectant mothers are not � nding a healthy environment at the gynae ward of the Modern Sadar Hospital in Habiganj. The labour ward reeks of bad odour, making it di� cult for them to live there with newborns.

8 | WorldTens of thousands marched in Madrid yesterday to show support for anti-austerity party Podem-os, whose popularity and policies have drawn comparisons with Greece’s new Syriza rulers.

14 | SportHosts Australia won the Asian Cup after beat-ing South Korea 2-1 in extra time of an elec-trifying � nal on Saturday, substitute James Troisi smashing home a dramatic winner.

15 | EntertainmentGraceful actress Sumaiya Shimu will appear in a new TV series titled “Lake Drive Lane” which will be aired on television channel Ntv from tomorrow.

BANGLADESHIS MANIFEST IMMENSE POTENTIAL AT WORLD STAGE

7 | CAREER

Where is the rule of law?

Khaleda gets back electricity but still no phone, internetn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Eighteen hours after disconnecting power supply, the authorities restored electricity to BNP Chairperson Khale-da Zia’s Gulshan offi ce around 10:30pm yesterday.

However, all kinds of voice and data connections to the offi ce remained snapped until fi ling of this report around 10:45pm. Until then, Khaleda has been staying in her offi ce.

Earlier she said the ongoing block-ade and hartal programmes would con-tinue until “victory” is achieved.

Meanwhile, several offi ces of the Power Development Board (PDB) have come under attack in diff erent parts of the country.

Miscreants hurled crude bombs tar-getting two local offi ces of PDB in Chit-tagong and Sirajganj in the afternoon.

Until power connection was re-stored, a generator was supplying elec-tricity to Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan offi ce. Initially, the generator took a long time to get started because it was hardly ever needed before.

The water supply to the offi ce has been in tact until last evening; but po-lice did not allow the offi ce staff to take in two drums of water.

Dhaka Electric Supply Compa-ny Limited (Desco) disconnected

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

‘Only PM knows what is next for Khaleda’n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Both the ruling party and the BNP-led 20-party alliance are adamant about their ongoing steps and next course of action, the leaders say.

The BNP-led alliance is determined not to backtrack from the nationwide non-stop blockade and hartals until the government assured them of holding mid-term national election, while the Awami League-led ruling alliance has expressed resolve to control the ongo-ing “unrest” at any cost.

The Awami League high command believes that the ongoing movement would end once the top leaders of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are arrested, as it happened in 2013, ahead of the January 5 poll. The prime minister has also threatened to take stern measure against the BNP chief.

Yesterday, the authorities cut off electricity connections of BNP Chair-person Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan offi ce while the detectives arrested its Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi from a hideout.

Speculations say Khaleda, who has been staying at her offi ce since January 3, could be arrested any time and sent to CMH, Dhaka to keep her away from party activities. However, it could not be confi rmed whether any such deci-sion has already been made.

A minister, who is also a senior lead-er of the Awami League, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The government will not take a U-turn from the mass arrest of BNP-Ja-maat men. The drives will continue.

“If the violent activities cannot be controlled, the government will fi nally go tough against BNP chief Khaleda Zia.”

The leader further said the govern-ment would not want to arrest Khaleda by the police or the joint forces and that she would not be kept under custody of the law enforcers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in parliament on January 21 said it would be logical to arrest the BNP chairper-son as the key accused on charge of “aiding and abetting those who have

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

The photo on the left shows the Gulshan political o� ce of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia after power, snapped for nearly 18 hours, was restored. The photo on the right shows severed power supply cables on an electricity pole near the o� ce MEHEDI HASAN/DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Cutting power supply to Khaleda Zia’s o� ce is a political issue’n Tribune Report

The disconnection of power supply to the Gulshan offi ce of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been termed a viola-tion of law and human rights, law pro-fessionals have said.

According to the Electricity Act 1910, power supply to a consumer can be discontinued only if the consumer fails to pay the bills for two consecutive months. That too cannot be done with-out serving a notice to the consumer at least 15 days prior to disconnection. The

discontinuation can also happen if au-thorities fi nd that a connection is illegal.

When contacted, Brig Gen Md Sha-hid Sarwar, managing director of Dha-

ka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco), told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have been informed that the owner of the building [of Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan offi ce] has two months’ electricity bills due with the Desco. But I cannot tell you whether or not the power cut at Khaleda

Zia’s offi ce is a consequence of that.”However, according to the Desco,

the owner of the building has a four-year-old unpaid bill of Tk8,823 from the month of December 2010. He has also not paid the bill for December 2014, but the deadline for paying that bill has not expired yet.

When this matter was brought to the Desco MD’s attention, he refrained from making any comment. “The pow-er supply will be reconnected if the consumer pays the dues on time,” Brig Gen Shahid added later.

Around 10:30pm yesterday, 18 hours after the power supply was sev-ered, authorities restored electricity to Khaleda’s offi ce. But land and mobile phone and internet services remained snapped until fi ling of this report around 10:45pm.

“ Cutting off power supply to Khale-da Zia’s offi ce is entirely a political issue. The cause of preserving con-sumer rights has not been considered here,” said Prof Samsul Alam, an ad-viser to the Consumers Association of

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

SSC-TAKERS FEEL UNSAFEP16

Rizvi under DB custodyn Mohammad Jamil Khan

BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi was taken to the DB police headquarters yesterday afternoon, nearly 15 hours after his arrest by the Rapid Action Battalion from a hideout in the capital’s Baridhara area.

The arrest was made few hours after Rizvi had announced another 72-hour hartal amid the BNP-led alliance’s in-defi nite blockade, disregarding calls from diff erent quarters to suspend the movement ahead of the SSC exams that begins tomorrow.

Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of legal and media wing of RAB, said the BNP leader had been arrested from house 98 of Park Road around 3am. RAB 1 handed him over to Badda police an hour later.

MA Jalil, OC of Badda police, said Rizvi had been shown arrested in an arson attack case.

He was taken to the DB headquarters on Mintoo Road around 5pm and is like-ly to be produced before the court today.

Sources in RAB said the house was owned by Katar Mostafa, a worker of Chittagong district unit BNP, who is now staying in Qatar.

However, it could not be confi rmed immediately whether Rizvi had been staying at that house since January 7.

The case was fi led after a bus had been torched allegedly by the blockade

supporters in Bhatara area on January 26. As many as 28 BNP leaders includ-ing Rizvi and around 25 unnamed oth-ers have been made accused in the case.

Rizvi, also the acting offi ce secre-tary, was carrying out the role of party spokesperson after the arrest of acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. He issued several statements regarding the government-ouster movement.

On January 3, a Detective Branch team picked him up from the BNP’s Nayapal-tan headquarters. Later he was taken in an ambulance to Apollo Hospitals. DMP Deputy Commissioner (media) Masu-dur Rahman claimed that the police had not arrested Rizvi but only helped him reach the hospital.

On January 7, Rizvi “fl ed” the hospi-tal evading the eyes of the authorities and the law enforcers.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Rizvi had been living in an unknown place since January 7

Fire � ghters recover a dead body that got burnt in the � re that broke out in a plastic factory in Mirpur yesterday RAJIB DHAR

01_FRONT.indd02_News.indd16_BACK.indd

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

Fire � ghters rescue a man after a wall unable to bear the load of curious locals collapsed at the factory that caught � re in the capital yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Transport workers demand Khaleda’s arrestn Tribune Report

Some pro-government transport work-ers demanded to arrest BNP chairper-son Khaleda Zia within February 4. The ultimatum came at a rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital yesterday.

Later, the workers submitted a memorandum to Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner to arrest the BNP leader, who called an indefi nite coun-

try-wide blockade that resulted in ram-pant violence hampering the transport sector of the country.

“If our demand is not fulfi lled, we will hold another rally in front of the Jatiya Press Club. And after that we will submit a memorandum to the State Minister for Home Aff airs, Asaduzzam-an Khan Kamal to arrest Khaleda Zia,” Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik League general secretary Insur Ali told the rally.

The transport workers held the rally in protest against the on going BNP-led country-wide blockades and hartals.

Meanwhile, yesterday at a demon-stration in front of the Jatiya Press Club, Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Ma-lik Sramik Oikya Parishad urged Khale-da Zia to put an end to the blockade.

Showing images of burned buses and dead workers, they called upon the political parties to stop the violence immediately. l

Hasan demands Khaleda’s arrestn BSS

Awami League Publicity and Publi-cation Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud yesterday said BNP Chairperson Be-gum Khaleda Zia should be arrest-ed for creating anarchy across the country in the name of democraticmovement.

“Khaleda Zia should be arrested for unleashing violence, hurling bombs in the name of movement....it is the de-mand of the people to arrest her and bring her to book,” he said.

Hasan Mahmud said this at a human chain in front of the National Press Club organised by Bangladesh Awami Hawkers’ League protesting country wide blockade and hartal called by BNP led 20-party alliance.

“She [Khaleda] is continuing killing people... the death of her son did not matter Khaleda Zia, her only target is to grab state power,” he added.

He urged BNP to withdraw the na-tionwide indefi nite hartal-blockade programme during the SSC examina-tions.

Former state minister for home Ad-vocate Shamsul Haque Tuku and vice- president of Bangladesh Awami Hawk-ers’ League Sirajul Islam also spoke, among others. l

B Chowdhury: Dialogue only way to break impassen UNB

Observing that a dialogue with the par-ticipation of all parties is the only way to break the ongoing

political stalemate, Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh (BDB) president Prof AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury yesterday urged the government and BNP to take steps to this end.

“Don’t play ducks and drakes with the fate of the country’s 16 crore peo-ple. Hold talks shunning the path of an-archy,” he said.

The former President was address-

ing a seminar titled “National Dialogue to Overcome Current Political Crisis” organised by Good Governance Forum at the Jatiya Press Club in the city.

Pointing to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, B Chowdhury said if she could have sat with Santu Larma to bring peace in Chittagong Hill Tracts, then where is the problem in holding a dia-logue with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to establish peace in the country.

He also termed a “political stigma” the severing of power, internet, cable connections to the Gulshan offi ce of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia. l

4 nations discuss regional cargo, passenger movementn Tribune Report

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) have discussed possible car-go and passenger movement under a sub-regional cooperation initiative.

High offi cials of the countries dis-cussed a range of issues at the second meeting of Joint Working Groups on sub-regional cooperation among the four countries on water resources man-agement and power/hydropower and on connectivity and transit in New Del-hi on Friday and yesterday.

“The [connectivity] meeting ex-changed ideas on potential cargo [both roads and railways] and bus routes, in-volving at least three countries in addi-tion to the existing bilateral routes and also agreed to share suggestions in this regard,” says a joint press release is-sued by the Foreign Ministry yesterday.

The JWG on connectivity agreed on the signifi cance of BBIN agreements to enable movement of motor vehicles and railways, and reviewed the existing arrangements. It was also decided to ex-plore the possibility of using multi-mod-al transport to meet commercial as well as tourist needs, the statement says.

The JWG on water resources man-agement discussed the possibility of exchanging best practices on basin wide water resources management and de-velopment. “It discussed the scope for power trade and inter-grid connectivity between the four countries as well as potential for closer cooperation in future power projects,” the press release added.

It was also agreed to exchange lists

of potential future hydropower/power projects to be undertaken jointly in-volving at least three countries on equi-table basis. The BBIN agreed that joint eff orts be made to explore harnessing of water resources including hydro-power and power from other sources available in the sub-region.

The JWG took stock of the existing bi-lateral arrangements between the four countries on data sharing for fl ood fore-casting and ways of improving the same.

Exchange of experiences and best practices in other areas of power sector among the four countries were also dis-cussed in the meeting.

The JWG deliberated on the need for trade facilitation at land border stations for eff ective sub-regional connectivity.

The group exchanged views on use-fulness of sharing trade infrastructure at land border stations and harmonisa-tion of customs procedures.

The meetings also covered the terms of reference for both JWGs and decided that the next meetings would be held in the second half the current year in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh delegation was led by Tareq Md Ariful Islam, director general (South Asia) of the Foreign Ministry. l

‘Only PM knows what is next for Khaleda’ PAGE 1 COLUMN 6so far killed people in the name of movement.”

The following day Army chief Gen Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan met President Ab-dul Hamid at Bangabhaban.

However, President’s Press Secre-tary Ihsanul Karim after the meeting said the army chief had apprised the president about the fi ve medical col-leges, established by Bangladesh Army, that started academic activities recent-ly.

When contacted, State Minister for Home Aff airs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday told the Dhaka Trib-une: “We have not got any directives from the government’s high command [prime minister] to arrest BNP Chair-person Khaleda Zia. If the prime minis-ter issue orders, we are ready to arrest her [Khaleda] any time.

About sending Khaleda to the CMH, Asaduzzaman said: “I do not know an-ything about it. It is the prime minster and the higher authorities of the gov-ernment to decide on it.”

He, however, said anyone might be sent or go to the CMH for treatment.

Sources in the ruling 14-party alli-ance said the government had decided to control the BNP-Jamaat’s “anarchy” with an iron hand.

As part of the plan, the joint forces and the law enforcement agencies in separate drives arrested several thou-sand BNP-Jamaat activists and several top leaders including BNP acting secre-tary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alam-gir.

Protesting the arrests, the BNP-Ja-maat alliance has become more desper-ate and called 72-hour hartal from to-day amid the indefi nite blockade. They

Khaleda gets back power PAGE 1 COLUMN 1electricity line of the offi ce around 2:42am yesterday, said the BNP chief’s press wing offi cial Shamsuddin Didar.

One Desco staff claimed that he cut the electricity line as per instruction from Gulshan police. It was seen that a technician from a state-run power util-ity was climbing a ladder and cutting the line outside Khaleda’s offi ce.

The disconnection came hours af-ter Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan threatened to sever electrical supply to the offi ce and force Khaleda to starve to death if she did not call off the nation-wide transport blockade.

The mobile and wireless internet net-works were severed yesterday morning.

“Since yesterday [Friday] night, she has been passing sleepless hours with her two grand daughters [Koko’s daughters]. It is utter cruelty of the government. I have no word to say an-ything in this regard. I am stunned. A civilised government cannot behave like this. It is beyond imagination,” Maruf Kamal Khan, press secretary to the BNP chairperson, told reporters quoting his boss.

According to Maruf, Khaleda also said that it was a violation of human rights and the citizen charter of the Desco.

Khaleda has been allegedly confi ned in her Gulshan offi ce since January 3 after she issued a threat to rally her supporters against the government led by her arch rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the fi rst anniversary of last year’s controversial general election.

On January 12, security was relaxed, but Khaleda never came out and de-clared that she was going to stay there and blockade would continue unless the government took the fi rst steps to-wards a solution.

The relaxed blockade is underway across the country amid incidents of violence, arson, vandalism and arrests

of BNP members.On January 24, after Arafat Rahman

Koko died in Malaysia, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sent back from the gate of the Gulshan offi ce where she went to condole Khaleda.

Tens of thousands of people turned up at the Baitul Mukarram mosque the next day, in what appeared to be the big-gest showdown for the BNP in months.

The blockade, which enters day 27 today, and the associated unrest have so far left at least 40 people dead, hun-dreds injured and nearly a thousand vehicles fi rebombed or damaged.

She also called a 72-hour strike start-ing today, despite nationwide high-school examinations in which about 1.5 million students are taking part.

After the arrest of BNP’s Joint Secre-tary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi yester-day, another Joint Secretary Salahuddin Ahmed came into the scene and issued a press release alleging the incumbent government of burying democracy.

“Marshall law has been prevailing in the country in the name of democracy,” Salahuddin said in the release.

He alleged that the government has not only confi ned three-time prime minister Khaleda Zia but also confi ned the people and turned the whole coun-try into a jail.

The BNP leader condemned the power and cable cut to Khaleda’s offi ce saying: “It is a rare example in history of world civilisation.”

He asked the government to recon-nect everything immediately, other-wise consequences would not be good and the government would have to shoulder responsibility if any unto-ward situation is created.

He urged all the rights watchdogs home and abroad including the United Nations Human Rights Commission to take eff ective steps to remedy the situ-ation in Bangladesh. l

Rizvi under DB custody PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Later, the hospital authorities lodged a general diary with Bhatara police ac-cusing the BNP leader of not paying the bills for treatment and a four-day stay there. Within few hours, a representa-tive of Rizvi – who did not disclose his name to the authorities – paid the dues.

Meanwhile, police yesterday de-tained six leaders of Mohila Dal, the woman wing of the BNP, after coming out of the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan offi ce around 6:30pm and 7:20pm.

The detainees who include Khaleda Yeasmin, executive committee mem-ber of the BNP, were later taken to the Gulshan police station, OC Rafi qul Is-lam said.

Dhanmondi police around 9pm ar-rested Jahangir Sarder, a Jubo Dal lead-er, for his alleged involvement in sabo-tage activities, DMP DC Masudur said. l

Where is the rule of law? PAGE 1 COLUMN 5Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Noted lawyer Shahdeen Malik said the authorities do not have any right to cut utility services if a consumer has paid all the bills, unless there is a clear argument that the services were being used for terrorism or against the coun-try’s security.

“A 70-year-old woman, who has been prime minister three times, has been living in that place. How can the government possibly ar-gue that she was doing terrorism?”Malik said.

“No matter what the government does, it has to stay within the purview of law. What the government is doing in this case is clearly beyond law,” the lawyer said.

Taqseem A Khan, managing direc-tor of the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), said last night that he could not tell whether or not the water supply to Khaleda’s offi ce will becut or not.

No phone, internetThe Bangladesh Telecommunication (amendment) Act 2010 allows the gov-ernment to direct mobile phone and internet operators to suspend entire network services or that in a particular area if there are concerns about securi-ty threats.

According to sources, on Friday night, the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC) verbally requested all mobile phone and Wi-max operators to block the networks under which the Gulshanoffi ce falls.

In reply, the operators told the regu-lator that they cannot do so unless they are given the order in writing. Then, around 5am on Saturday, the regulator

sent a written order to the operators by e-mail.

The e-mail, a copy of which the Dha-ka Tribune has accessed, was sent from the Systems and Services Division of the BTRC.

It reads: “I am directed to instruct you to close all kinds of Communi-cation [Mobile, Data, Land phone, Radio, etc] at House#06, Road#86, Gulshan-2 from now onwards till fur-ther instructions for obvious securityreasons.”

Upon receiving that e-mail, the six mobile operators switched off a total of 60 of their base transmis-sion stations (BTSs) in the Gulshan2 area.

An operator can disconnect the land line to a particular house, but since that cannot be done with mobile phones, hundreds of thousands of residents in the area and the adjacent diplomatic zone have since been not able use their mobile phone and wireless internet connections.

Requesting anonymity, a senior executive of a mobile operator said: “The services cannot be suspended completely since those with satellite facilities and wi-fi networks, can ac-cess internet and other voice and data services.”

Among the base stations blocked, 20 belongs to the Grameenphone, 15 to Robi and 18 to Banglalink. The opera-tors have also changed the direction of some of their antennas in the Gulshan 2 area.

Mushfi que Chowdhury, a resi-dent of Gulshan, told the Dhaka Trib-une last night: “Despite repeated at-tempts, I have failed to connect an emergency call with a relative who lives abroad. This is very painful and I do not have any words to expressmy agony.” l

National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh brings out a rally for peace denouncing violence and terrorism in the capital’s Shahbagh area yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

The JWG deliberated on the need for trade facilitation at land border stations

13 killed, 3 injured in Mirpur plastic factory � re PAGE 1 COLUMN 4We were getting ready to leave after un-loading the cargo, a blast occurred and suddenly a fi reball hit our vehicle.”

Machine operator at the factory Ma-mun said he was on the fourth fl oor when he heard a bang and quickly went to the roof. “I jumped at the nearby building to save myself.”

Factory owner Anisuzzaman could not be traced since the fi re broke out, a police offi cial informed.

Fire Service offi cial Shakil said: “There is a huge stock of chemical and fl ammable substances inside the build-ing. So, the building is still not fully out of danger.” l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

Amar Ekushey Boi Mela begins todayn Nure Alam Durjoy

The month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2015 begins on Bangla Acad-emy premises and in a portion of Shuhrawardy Uddyan in the capital today.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the fair at 3:00pm. The “Bangla Academy Sahitya Award” 2014 will be given at the inau-gural ceremony where Cultural Aff airs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor and Bang-la Academy Director General Shamsuz-zaman Khan will be present.

The fair will remain open from 3:00pm to 9:00pm every day except holidays. Meanwhile, it will remain open from 8:00am to 9:00pm on Feb-ruary 21, the International Mother Lan-guage Day.

Speaking at a press conference at the Bangla Academy yesterday, Shamsuz-zaman Khan said “This is, perhaps, the world longest book fair.”

This year, more spaces have been allocated for publishers to set up their stalls at the fair. The whole premises—both the Bangla Academy and the por-tion of Shuhrawardy Uddyan— of the fair have been decorated in an artistic manner, he said.

According to organisers 351 institu-

tions are will set up their stalls at the fair. Of them, 92 institutions will set up stalls on the Bangla Academy premises, while 259 institutions in the portion of Shuhrawardy Uddyan.

However, there will be 11 pavilions for 11 publication houses, they said.

Law enforcers will be deployed in a three-layered security net in and around the fair ground. Some 75 close circuit cameras have installed to en-sure security, they added.

Cultural Aff airs Secretary Dr Ranjit Kumar Biswas, member secretary of the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela Prepara-tion Committee Dr Jalal Uddin, and Bangla Academy Secretary Altaf Hos-sain, among others, spoke at the press conference.

International Literary ConferenceOn the occasion of the fair, Bangla

Academy will organise a 4-day long In-ternational Literary Conference (ILC). The fi rst international literary confer-ence was held in 1974.

Some 38 famous writers, poets, crit-ics from 11 countries will attend the conference beginning from today and will continue until February 4.

Writers and poets will come from France, Ecuador, USA, UK, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Den-mark, Malaysia, India. l

First tender for metro rail � oated n Shohel Mamun

The fi rst tender for the per-qualifi cation of rolling stock (coach and locomotive) and equipment of Uttara depot for the 20-km-long much-expected metro rail-way project have been fl oated yesterday.

The tender have already been pub-lished on the website of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) website, and it will be pub-lished in the national dailies on the next Monday and Tuesday, said Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Proj-ect Director Mofazzel Hossain.

Under the tender, 24 locomotives and 144 coaches will be procured from manufacturers and suppliers at the cost of Tk2,700 crore. The 24 trains each having six coaches will run from

Uttara to Motijheel, according to sourc-es in the communication ministry.

On Monday, an amended Metro Rail Bill 2015 was passed in the parliament to curb traffi c jam by ensuring quick and improved transport services in the capital.

The fi rst phase of construction of the metro railway would be fi nished by the December 2019, while the whole project would be completed by 2024.

The metro rail project, the country’s second largest infrastructure project after the Padma bridge project, has faced complexities in the last few years over modifi cation of routes following objections from the air force and to avoid overlapping with the Gulistan-Ja-trabari fl yover.

The trains will run from Uttara to

Motijheel via Pallabi, the west side of Rokeya Sarani and Farmgate, Hotel So-nargaon, Hotel Ruposhi Bangla, TSC of Dhaka University, Doel Chattar and Topkhana Road. The routes would be be extended up to Sayedabad from Bangla-desh Bank through Atish Dipankar Road.

According to a Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) study, the trains will operate every three minutes and carry 60,000 passengers an hour.

The Jica has committed to provide Tk16,594.59 crore for the project, while Bangladesh government will allocate Tk5,390.48 crore.

A Japanese consortium is now work-ing on the detailed design of the proj-ect. It is also carrying out a topographi-cal, traffi c and geo-technical surveys in diff erent parts of the project. l

Rights activists urge politicians to stop violencen Arif Ahmed

Human rights activists yesterday urged political leaders to immediately re-strain party activists from perpetrating violence and not to ruin people’s lives in the name of politics.

They called on the government to ensure public safety.

Addressing a rally under the banner of National Human Rights Commission on Shaheed Minar premises, the rights activists urged political leaders to ob-serve peaceful programmes and to call off all sort programmes that could bring troubles for Secondary School Certifi cate (SSC) examinees.

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman, Honorary Member Professor Mahfuza Khanom, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad General Secretary Maleka Banu and Dhaka Uni-versity Teachers Association President Professor Farid Uddin joined the rally among others.

Mizanur Rahman said: “I beg of you [politicians], please do not ruin the lives of the commoners.”

The NHRC commissioner also warned security forces not to violate human rights in their attempt to bring peace.

“The forces that were defeated in the 1971 Liberation War began by com-

mitting atrocities in the country to de-stroy the spirit of the war in the name of democratic movement,” said Mahfu-za Khanom.

“A terrorist group began carrying out inhuman activities across the country at a time when the incumbent govern-ment cracked down on war criminals, August 21 grenade attackers and also corruption of Khelada Zia’s two sons. So it is a very clear indication that the anti-liberation forces have resorted to atrocities to press home their demand,” she added.

The indefi nite blockade imposed by the BNP-led 20-party alliance has been in force since January 6. l

RESCUE OF MALAYSIA-BOUND ILLEGAL MIGRANTS

Seven including two hotel owners sued, one heldn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Police yesterday sued seven people in-cluding two owners of the Hotel Golden Dream over the incident of rescue of 40 people who gathered at the hotel to go to Malaysia through sea route illegally.

Kotwali police station Sub-Inspector Imam Hossain lodged the case with the police station against the hotel owners, Ali Akbar and Mohammad Mostafa and fi ve others.

Earlier on Friday night, Kotwali po-lice rescued the people from the hotel in the city’s Reazuddin Bazar area.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police As-sistant Commissioner (Kotwali circle) Shah Mohammad Abdur Rouf said they conducted a raid at the hotel on receiv-ing information.

Hotel employee Saiful Afsar, was ar-rested in this connection, the SI said.

On Thursday, a trawler was capsized around eight kilometres southwest of Kutubdia Island in the Bay of Bengal due to over load.

Forty three people including six suspected traffi ckers were rescued and seven dead bodies recovered after the incident.

According to victims, the journey began by boat from Chittagong city’s Majhirghat Wednesday around 11pm.

In the last fi ve years, some 3,793 people have been rescued from Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong, according to an Anti-Human Traffi cking Special Com-mittee report.

In the last one decade, about 15,000-20,000 people have been traffi cked to Thailand and Malaysia through sea route, the report said.

The report mentioned that one Myanmar national Tajar Muluk, who came to Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar about a decade ago, fi rst started human traf-fi cking from Bangladesh to Malaysia and Thailand in 2000.

The report which was published in 2014 said 11 international human traf-fi ckers and 230 Bangladeshi others are engaged in the traffi cking who are un-der the command of one Thailand ex-patriate Malaysian woman Manaking. l

Members of Bangladesh Armed Forces inspect the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela premise to ensure security a day before the month-long fair kicks o� DHAKA TRIBUNE

Muktizoddha Command forms a human chain with a burnt bus protesting the political violence that erupted during the on going blockade. The photo was taken at the Jaitya Press Club in the capital yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Atiur: BB salvaging banks, not big entrepreneursn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rah-man yesterday came down hard on bank directors after they expressed anxiety over the central bank’s new move to restructure big loans.

He clarifi ed that the central bank was restructuring the loans not reschedul-ing them, at a seminar titled “Revisit-ing Corporate Governance Regulations for Banks in Bangladesh” organised by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) at the Westin Hotel in the capital.

“It is meant to salvage the banks, not to salvage entrepreneurs as you seem to suggest,” the governor said, visibly annoyed.

“It is your business to give the best loans to the best entrepreneurs. You failed because you lent to the wrong people. You did not do due diligence, and now, fi nally, the regulator is having to come in and save you,” he said.

The central bank has taken steps to restructure large loans of big corporate houses, which in Bangladesh Bank’s view have faced international price or domestic shocks.

“One should not be confused,” Atiur said when a director termed the latest move a “rescheduling” of the loans.

The governor said the central bank had the choice of either closing its eyes and letting the banks make provisions against bad loans or stepping in to sal-vage them.

“The big houses employ thousands of people who would be on the street if the businesses closed down and that is a consideration taken by the central bank in deciding to intervene,” he said.

Citing an example, he said on one oc-casion the large loans of a big group were

restructured for 20 years at zero percent interest and many banks still bear the burden of that decision but the group has become a strong business entity.

He said the Bangladesh Bank re-structuring circular issued last week was very stringent and that no loans suspected of being fraudulent or irreg-ular would get access to the restructur-ing facility. He admitted that the broad-er governance environment suff ered many shortcomings.

Indulgent laxities, delays in taking loan scammers and frauds to court and the abuse of process loopholes in de-laying legal redress were the main im-pediments in establishing excellence in the governance of the fi nancial sector, he said.

The governor said there should be a separate bench for dealing with fi nan-cial cases.

Citing his role in the commercial sec-tor, he said: “You have to do your busi-ness and I am just your referee. If there is a foul, I have to blow my whistle.”

Deputy Governor Shitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury made a detailed pre-sentation on corporate governance reg-ulation for banks in Bangladesh.

Vice Chairman of United Commer-cial Bank Sarif Zahir, a discussant, said there is a set guideline to appoint direc-tors to boards, but in practice boards are comprised of family members who do not give the banks suffi cient time.

The banks must take the issue se-riously and appoint qualifi ed people who can give enough time for the bet-terment of banks, said Zahir, who has two decades’ experience as a bank di-rector.

He said there was a common prac-tice among directors to take loans from each other’s banks and the reschedul-ing of large loans may have a negative impact on the banking sector.

IFC Country Manager for Bangla-desh, Nepal and Bhutan Kyle F Kel-hofer and IFC Global Manager Darrrin Hartzler also spoke at the seminar.

A large number of bank directors were present at the programme. l

You have to do your business and I am just your referee. If there is a foul, I have to blow my whistle

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

Plan for nuclear infrastructure development adopted n Aminur Rahman Rasel

An action plan detailing the infrastruc-ture development of the country’s fi rst nuclear power plant has been recent-ly adopted by the Bangladesh-Russia working group of the joint coordina-tion committee for implementing the nuclear power programme.

A statement released by the coordi-nation committee said two documents - action plan for the nuclear infrastruc-ture development and Bangladesh nu-clear power communication strategy – were signed in this regard.

The working group, consisting of 40 experts from Bangladesh and Russia, met in Dhaka from January 13 to 15.

The action plan, to be implemented in next two years, includes many im-portant steps Bangladesh needs to un-dertake in order to achieve the goals of the nuclear power programme.

The plan lays out details of nuclear safety, human resources, site selection and installation support, management, legislative and regulatory framework, electrical network, funding and fi nanc-ing, planning for emergencies, nuclear fuel cycle, and radioactive waste man-agement.

Head of Bangladesh delegation and co-chair of the working group, Rabin-dranath Roy Chowdhury, joint sec-retary of the Ministry of Science and Technology said: “The documents we signed are a step forward to implement-ing the nuclear power programme. Nu-clear infrastructure is a vital pre-condi-tion for establishing the nuclear power plant in the country. I am happy that we are proceeding steadily towards our dream.”

His Russian counterpart Yury Sokolov, Director of Department on international scientifi c and technical cooperation of “Rosenergoatom”, pow-er generation company of “Rosatom”, added: “With our long experience in the nuclear industry, we have worked out with Bangladeshi partners the ac-tion plan, which I believe completely corresponds to their needs and at the same time conforms to the guidelines set by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)”.

The fi rst meeting of the Bangla-desh-Russia working group of the joint coordination committee took place in Moscow on July 22-23 last year and was co-chaired by Director General of Rosatom, Sergey Kirienko and State Minister for Science of Technology of Bangladesh, Yeafesh Osman.

The action plan addresses the 19 IAEA guidelines as well as the needs of Bangladesh and includes examples of best practices of Russian nuclear power industry, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.

The other document signed in the meeting, the Bangladesh nuclear pow-er communication strategy addresses the needs to inform and educate peo-ple of Bangladesh, Rooppur in particu-lar, about the basics of nuclear energy, its benefi ts, safety and how eco-friend-ly and cost eff ective it is.

Bangladesh plans to produce 1,000MW of electricity by 2021 and an-other 1,000MW by 2022 from the pro-posed Rooppur nuclear power plant.

The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, under the Ministry of Sci-ence and Technology, is implementing the project. l

‘Kids Read’ event launched in Chittagongn FM Mizanur Rahaman

With a view to developing the reading skill and book reading habit among the infants, a programme titled “Kids Read” was launched in the port city’s Chandgaon area yesterday morning.

British Council hosted the event with the slogan of “Reading is Fun” in Naziria Naymia Mahmuda madrasha of BSCIC industrial area, where education secretary Md Nazrul Islam Khan was as the chief guest.

The BC launched it under its worldwide pilot project fi nanced by Hong Kong and Sanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).

Nazrul Islam Khan said there was no alternative way, except reading

extracurricular books to explore the dreamy world of knowledge while the text books contain limited knowledge.

“Over 50 percent of books have been written up in English and that is why the students have to learn the language as now it is the major medium to enter the enormous knowledge of the modern world,” the secretary continued.

HSBC Chief Executive Offi cer (CEO) in Bangladesh Francois de Maricourt termed the programme unique tool for the teachers as well as the guardians to build up reading skills and literacy behaviour of children.

The CEO went on: “The event will arouse the interest among the students to learn a lot of things when they will be attached with 50,000 kids across the

world including the Middle East and North African region.”

Six educational institutions including three madrasas there were selected for the pilot project where the secretary and the CEO handed distributed books to the respective institutional heads.

BC’s Senior Consultant Andrew Jones moderated the launching event where famous storyteller Alec Williams from the UK told the kids stories during the story telling session.

Asian Women University’s Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Fahima Aziz, BC Chittagong Manager Nahid Khan and Resource Centre Offi cer Mashudul Alam, among others, were present there. l

1,400kg of jatka seized in Barisaln Our Correspondent, Barisal

Law enforcers yesterday seized 1400 Kg of jatka (hilsa fry) worth Tk2.8 lakh from two retail markets in Barisal.

The juvenile hilsa fi shes were caught by violating eight-month restriction against netting jatka.

Maksudul Ahsan, spokesman of the zonal commanding offi ce of Bangladesh Coast Guard, Barisal Zone, said: “Coast Guard members seized the huge amount of jatka after two separate drives at two local markets.”

“We conducted the drives at Shaheber Haat bazar under Sadar upazila and Kaliganj launch ghat bazar under Mehendiganj upazila from early to late morning yesterday,” he added.

The seized fi shes were later distributed to diff erent orphanages and madrasas through the district fi sheries offi ce.

However, no one was fi ned or arrested in this regard.

Bimal Chandra Das, offi cer (Hilsa) of fi sheries directorate in Barisal, said there was an eight-month country-wide government ban from November 1 against catching, transporting and marketing of jatka, hilsa fi shes which are less than 10 inch long.

Bazlur Rashid, deputy director and divisional fi sheries offi cer, said this year around 1.6 crore mother hilsa safely and naturally laid 49,000 kg of eggs and if half of the laid eggs could be fertilised, then 31 crores of hilsa pollen

would be made. And if 10 percent of the pollen survived, 4 crore jatka could be produced.

Hilsa fries develop 2-2.5 centimetres in length each month and start to migrate to sea after reaching 15-17 centimetres in length.

They begin return journey to sweet water rivers after reaching 25-28 centimetres in length weighing about 300-450 grams to lay eggs.

If only 10-20 percent of the jatka can get the chance to reach maturity, then around 2 lakh tonnes of hilsa worth cores of Taka could be materialised this year, said the fi sheries offi cials.

However after visiting the local markets of the city on Saturday it was found that jatka sell was going unabated defying the 8-month ban.

The district and divisional fi sheries department were unable to take action against jatka catchers and traders due to fund constraint, lack of manpower, legal complications and other logistical issues, said Wahiduzzaman, Barisal district fi sheries offi cer.

Israil Pandit, president of Bangladesh Khudra Matsyajibi Samity, said: “Without implementing a full rehabilitation plan for all fi shermen, prevention of jatka catching could not be successful.”

Poverty and unemployment will push poor fi shermen of the southern districts to continue catching jatka, he added. l

Rajshahi civil society for halting ongoing political violence n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Speakers at a human chain yesterday in the city blamed the activists of BNP-led 20-party alliance for pushing the coun-try into an awful situation in the name of movement to establish the democrat-ic rights.

The event under the banner “Stu-dents-Teachers and Guardians of Ra-jshahi” was held at Shaheb bazar in-tersection around 10am demanding the withdrawal of blockade and hartal during the SSC examinations.

They also protested the arson at-tacks on the ordinary people in the in-defi nite nationwide blockade enforced

by the alliance.The civil society members opined

that the ongoing violence has turned into militant activities pushing the coun-trymen into a state of great uncertainty.

Urging legal action against the ar-sonists, Rajshahi Rokkha Sangram Par-ishad General Secretary Jamat Khan said the political parties have been burning and killing people to realise their demands in the name of political events.

Veteran journalist Advocate Mostafi -jur Rahman Khan Alam, journalist Hasan Millat and Workers’ Party General Secre-tary Debashis Pramanik Debu addressed the programme among others. l

Hok Protibad organises a programme in remembrance of those who fell victim to political violence during the on going blockade and hartals at the Central Shaheed Minar yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

BNP’s vice-president, 7 others arrested in Rajshahin Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Police yesterday arrested eight activ-ists of BNP and Jamat-Shibir, including BNP’s Rajshahi city unit vice-president Hosrat Mohini.

Spokesperson of Rajshahi Metropol-itan Police (RMP) Assistant Commis-sioner (AC) Ifte Khayer Alam told the Dhaka Tribune police nabbed Mohini yesterday at around noon from in front of Bangladesh Bank in Rajshahi city.

Mohini, also the central vice-pres-ident of Swechchhasebak Dal, was ac-cused of a petrol bomb attack on a bus

at Vodra area of the city at midnight on January 19, Ifte Khayer has said.

Mohini was sent to jail in the after-noon after being produced before a chief metropolitan magistrate court in Rajshahi.

Seven others, including two Shibir activists, were nabbed for triggering hartal violence and sent to jail, Ifte Khayer added.

Five BNP and Jamaat activists were arrested form diff erent places in Ra-jshahi city in a nightlong drive and sent to jail yesterday afternoon, the AC con-fi rmed.

Two Shibr activists – Saiful Islam, 35, and Nowshad Ali, 19 – were nabbed as they were trying to fl ee after hurling a crud bomb at the police, during a Shi-bir procession yesterday morning.

The police had gone to the spot to resist the procession, which was held at 11:30am, in front of the city’s Loknath School, Boalia police sources said.

Otherwise, the Rajshahi Jamat en-forced 36-hour hartal, which began yesterday at 6am, passed amid sporad-ic incidents in Rajshahi city.

The hartal was sponsored by Rajsha-hi Jamaat in eight districts of Rajshahi

division in protest of the killing of their party activist Nurul Islam Shahin in po-lice shootout on Wednesday.

No major incident took place during the hartal, although no buses left the Rajshahi central bus terminal till noon, Manjur Rahman Pitar, general secre-tary of Rajshahi Highway Transport Group, told the Dhaka Tribune.

However, light vehicles such as rick-shaws, auto rickshaws, motorcycles, CNG, human haulers and micro buses were seen moving on the highway in large scale. Rail communication was also usual. l

Nasrul Hamid’s mother diesn Tribune Report

Hasna Hamid, mother of State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu, passed away early yesterday. She was 76.

Hasna Hamid, wife of Hamidur Rahman, former AL treasurer, lawmaker and a close associate of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, breathed his last at a hospital in Singapore.

She had been suff ering from cancer for a long time, says a media release issued from from the Prime Minister’s Offi ce (PMO).

Her fi rst namaj-e-janaza will be held at Gulshan Azad Mosque after Johr prayers today, which followed by the second one on Keraniganj Dowleshwar fi eld after Asr prayers and the third one in Fatulla.

Later, she will be buried at the family graveyard in Keraniganj.

Meanwhile, Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh (FERB) expressed deep shock at the demise and prayed for the salvation of the departed soul. l

Fire engulfs two houses and shop in Chittagongn Our Correspondent, Chittagong

Two thatched houses and a grocery shop were gutted in separate fi re in-cidents in Chittagong city’s Teribazar area and the district’s Hathazari upazi-la early yesterday.

However, no causality was reported in this connection.

Fire Service and Civil Defense Head-quarters in Agrabad sources said a fi re broke out from an electric short circuit at a grocery shop at Afi m Lane area of Teri Bazar area at around 4am.

Being informed, a fi re fi ghting unit from Nandan Kanon fi re service rushed to the spot and put out the fi re within half an hour.

Meanwhile, two thatched houses were destroyed by fi re at midnight at Geduya area of Hathazari upazila. Fire service sources said the fi re erupted from an electric short circuit and soon spread to the adjacent house.

The fi re fi ghters from Hathazari fi re station doused the blaze after one hour. l

Etihad to o� er jobs to 6,000 Emiratisn Tribune Report

Etihad Airways has announced plans to off er job to 6,000 Emiratis over the next fi ve years as part of a development strategy, a media release has said.

This plan comes amid Etihad’s con-tinious eff orts to employ Emiratis, which has happened through several agrements for the past few years.

In 2013, Etihad Airways signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientifi c Research, with the aim to sponsor and hire United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals studying abroad.

Earlier, in 2012, the Abu Dhabi-based

airline signed a MoU with the Ministry of Presidential Aff airs to recruit 1,500 Emi-rati citizens to its global team over the next fi ve years, for which more than 900 UAE nationals have so far been recruited.

This MoU was signed as part of a ma-jor collaboration of Etihad Airways, the Absher initiative, which was planned by the President of the UAE His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Other than employment opportuni-ties, Etihad Airways also invests in edu-cational programme, such as the recent launch of a two-year Graduate Finance Development Programme, which pre-pares Emirati trainess in fi nancial ac-counting and provides them qualifi ca-

tion from the Association of Chartered Certifi ed Accountants (ACCA), the global body for accountants.

Eithad Airways is an Abu-Dhabi based airlines company that holds eq-uity investments in airberlin, Air Sey-chelles, Virgin Australia, Aer Lingus, Air Serbia, Jet Airways and Alitalia, and is in the process of formalising an eq-uity investment in Swiss-based Etihad Regional, operated by Darwin Airline.

The airline currently off ers 21 diff er-ent development programmes, includ-ing programmes in government aff airs, network planning, properties and lo-gistics, for training UAE nationals in all aspects of the aviation business. l

Guests inaugurate the National Street Theatre Festival organised by Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation at the Central Shaheed Minar yestreday MEHEDI HASAN

visit our website @www.dhakatribune.com

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

WEATHER

PRAYER TIMES Fajr 5:22am Sunrise 6:40am Zohr 12:12am Asr 4:07pm Magrib 5:43pm Esha 7:01pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:45PM SUN RISES 6:40AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW28.5ºC 6.4ºCTeknaf Srimangal

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 23 13Chittagong 25 14Rajshahi 22 11Rangpur 23 11Khulna 26 10Barisal 24 13Sylhet 26 12Cox’s Bazar 26 16

DRY WEATHER

LIKELY

30,000 slum families enjoying sanitation facilities in Rajshahi cityn Tribune Report

More than 30,000 poor and slum house-holds are enjoying sanitation facilities by dint of commissioning of 11,000 hy-gienic latrines in the metropolis.

Similarly, they are getting facili-ties of safe drinking water from 2,300 tube wells installed in the slum areas besides diff erent other settlement im-provement privileges like footpath and drains.

Various other settlement improve-ment facilities like one community latrine, 42,412 squire-kilometer foot-path, 6,708 meter drain, 34 dustbins and seven community centers were developed for ensuring improved wa-ter and sanitation among the pover-ty-prone communities, reports BSS.

The access to improved water sourc-es makes the lives of community mem-bers healthier while the constructed toilets and bathing facilities leads to improved hygiene practices and the footpaths improves settlement accessi-bility and mobility.

Ajahar Ali, chief executive offi cer of

Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC),said the infrastructural and settlement im-provement activities were executed by the direct supervision and monitoring by 173 Community Development Com-mittees under Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPRP).

Local Government Engineering De-partment has been implementing the project in association with UNDP and fi nancial and technical supports from UKaid and UNHabitat.

According to the offi cials concerned, main thrust of the project is to improve the living and livelihood condition of around two and half lakh poor and ex-

treme poor people, especially women and girls, in the city.

Under the project, the benefi ciary communities identify and priorities the environmental, social and econom-ic challenges they face as well as the required actions to address them, said Engineer Nur Islam, Town Member Secretary of UPPRP.

The slum households have also come together in an anti- poverty sav-ings scheme to raise more than Tk9.5 crore. Through the savings and credit programmes, the communities now can operate their own savings schemes and create a revolving fund from which credit operations are being managed by themselves.

The programme promotes house-hold and community level urban food production technology demonstra-tions, provides small input supports especially high yielding variety vegeta-ble and fruit seeds, saplings, ducklings, chick and poultry vaccination.

It also provides business start-up grants to extreme poor women for poultry, goat rearing, beef fattening

and agri-business allowing them to have access to regular income.

Besides, the ongoing apprentice-ships and vocational training improve the odds of youth landing decent jobs and regular income.

Rapid urbanisation in the city is a growing trend that creates various challenges particularly inadequacy of infrastructural services, basic ameni-ties, violence and socio-economic in-security like other parts of the country, said Ajahar Ali. He, however, said the community savings and credit activi-ties have been adjudged as an eff ective means of addressing some of the chal-lenges.

The approach is good for alleviating urban poverty alongside women em-powerment as many other slum com-munities intend to adopt the process after witnessing its overall successes.

The successful trend will continue even after completions of the project that will help the poor and extreme poor people bring about change within their families and communities, he ex-pects. l

'Violence against indigenous women, children went up in 2014'n Abid Azad

The number of acts of violence perpe-trated against indigenous women and children last year rose a little more than 1.5 times compared to the 2013 fi gure, according to a report of Bangladesh In-digenous Women Network (BIWN).

The report, which was unveiled at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity auditorium yesterday, showed there were 75 such cases in 2014, up from 48 the previous year.

Of the 75 incidents last year, 51 took place in Chittagong Hill Tracts area and 24 in plain lands. The incidents

involved 117 women facing sexual and physical abuse, and 57% of them were children.

The 48 cases in 2013 included 32 incidents in the CHT area and the re-maining 16 in fl at lands.

Among all the 2014 victims, 21 were raped and gang-raped, seven were killed after rape, 55 were physically as-saulted, 21 were attempted to be raped, two were sexually harassed, and 11 were kidnapped and attempted to be kidnapped, according to the report.

The total number of victims of vio-lence in 2013 was 67 while it was 75 a year earlier.

Speakers addressing the briefi ng pointed out that raising fear among the indigenous people was one of the key motives for subjecting indigenous women and children to sexual violence.

Another reason was to create ten-sion among such communities to have them evicted from their ancestral lands in order to eventually grab the proper-ties, they noted.

Other reasons mentioned for com-mitting acts of violence against indige-nous women included non-implemen-tation of the CHT Accord, culture of impunity and political infl uence.

Speaking at the press conference,

Coordinator of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha Dilara Rekha described the fi g-ures presented in the BIWN report as frustrating.

She said the civil society and the progressive groups in the country should act to bring an end to such cul-ture of impunity.

Joint Secretary of Bangladesh Ma-hila Parishad advocate Rakhi Das Pu-rakayastha said the government should take immediate steps to end violence against indigenous women.

“As citizens of the country, indig-enous women have the rights to get justice and they should demand justice

for all the violence perpetrated against them,” she said.

She also said Bangladesh Mahila Parishad would always be with the movement of indigenous women.

Sabiha Yesmin Rossy, a teacher at Dhaka University, said psychiatric re-habilitation is important for the victims of violence and the government should take relevant initiatives.

Among others, Executive Director of Kapaeeng Foundation Pallab Chakma and indigenous rights activist Rakhi Mrong were present at the briefi ng.

Joint Convener of the BIWN Chaitali Tripura gave the keynote address. l

Navy, coastguard seize Tk1.78 crore worth yaba n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Coast Guard yesterday seize a total of 32,500 yaba tablets in separate drives from Chittagong Port’s Outer Anchor-age and Teknaf upazila’s Jaliyardwip in Cox’s Bazar district respectively.

However, no was detained during the drives, said navy and coastguard sources. The yaba tablets was worth a total of worth Tk17,750,000.

Bangladesh Navy Anti-Smuggling Cell Chittagong In-Charge Commander Atikur Rahman said a team of the cell tried to approach a fi shing boat while patrolling near the outer anchorage area around 3:30am as the boat was carrying some people and its move-ment seemed suspicious. Sensing the presence of navy personnel, the boat-men and others managed rushed to the shore and fl ed the spot, he said adding that the team later searched the boat and found 30,000 yaba tablets.

Meanwhile, a coastguard team con-ducted a drive at Jaliyardwip early yesterday after receiving a tip-off and found 2,500 pieces of yaba from a boat near the shore, said Bangladesh Coast

Guard (East) Public Relation Offi cer Lt Commander M Rajibul Islam. The seized yaba were handed over to author-ities concerned and legislative measures would be taken as per as law, said both the navy and coastguard offi cials.

Since 2014, the navy and coastguard in separate drives have seized about 1,400,000 yaba pills and most of the sei-zures were from Karnaphuli estuary and Outer Anchorage area, said sources in navy and coastguard. Navy sources said smugglers mostly use fi shing trawlers for carrying the contraband items and then deliver it to local dealers.

The navy’s anti smuggling cell sourc-es said as a large number of the fi shing trawlers, apart from merchant vessels, roam in the outer anchorage it was hard to trace which vessel carries the drug.

Sources said smugglers use the sea route to bring the drug into the coun-try from neighbouring Myanmar as it is cheaper and safer.

Directorate of Narcotic Control’s Chittagong Metropolitan regional Su-perintendent Chowdhury Imrul Hasan said the drug was being smuggled from Mongdue city in Myanmar where a to-tal of 37 yaba factories are situated. l

One shot dead, 15 injured in Sylhet n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

A youth was shot dead and 15 others in-jured when a group led by a local Chha-tra League leader swooped on trans-port workers over previous enmity in Biyanibazar upazila sadar on Friday.

The deceased was identifi ed as Niju Ahmed, 18, an employee of a shop in Dakkhin Bazar area of the upazila. He is the son of Abdul Hamid Sobol Mia of Koshba village.

Four people, out of the 15 injured, were sent to Osmani Hospital. Jubo League leader Bimol Chandra Das was said to be in critical condition. Police arrested the main accused Shahjahan after a drive on the same day.

Offi cer-in-Charge of Biyanibazar police station Zubair Ahmed said they were trying to arrest the other mem-bers of the group as well.

According to local sources, local Chhatra League leader Jamal Ahmed had a long standing dispute with work-ers of upazila Sadar truck stand. On Friday, around 10:30pm, a group of fol-lowers of Jamal suddenly attacked the transport workers.

Niju Ahmed unfortunately came in the line of fi re and died on the spot. An-other 15 persons received injury when both the groups threw brick chips at each other. Upon information, Biyani-bazar police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control by fi ring blank shots.

Since then a tension has been pre-vailing in the area, where extra police men were deployed.

When contacted, Jamal Ahmed said a truck stand worker had a confl ict with his cousin over the ownership of a CNG-run autorickshaw. l

Land feud leads to college student’s murdern Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Police early yesterday found the dead body of a HSC fi rst year student who has been missing since January 23.

Initial investigation revealed that he was strangulated by hired killers after being kidnapped over a land ownership dispute between the victim’s father and a local.

The victim, Riyad Rahman Shourov, 16, was son of Chittagong Port Employee Mohammad Mostafa and a student of Chittagong Port Authority Boys School and College. He resided in Nilachol Residential area of the city.

Bandar police station Offi cer-in-Charge Jahedul Islam said police recov-ered the body after they arrested Abul Kashem, 25, in connection with the kidnapping and received information from him.

The OC said Riyad’s father Mostafa lodged a general dairy with the station on January 23 night mentioning that his son was missing since he did not return home after leaving for Magrib prayers.

Later, police investigated into the matter and arrested Kashem around 1am yesterday.

Then they found the victim’s body from an apartment in Chittagong city’s

Patenga area around 3am after receiv-ing information from Kashem.

Quoting Kashem, the OC said a local resident of Mostafa, who has dispute with him over land ownership, hired Kashem along with three others to kill Riyad in exchange of Tk8 lakh. All the kidnappers were from Barguna district, he added.

On January 23, Kashem’s cohort, Mohibur, who was known to the vic-tim, phoned Riyad and asked him to come to a place to meet. Then the kill-ers kidnapped him when he reached Mohib’s mentioned place.

Later, they took Riyad to the apart-ment in Patenga and killed him that night according to their plan. The killers kept the dead body in a drum, sealed it and kept it in a storeroom over a toilet in the apartment.

The OC said Kashem confessed to the crime during initial interrogation.

The dead body was sent to Chittagong Medical College morgue for autopsy and a case was lodged with Bandar police station, OC Jahedul added.

The police offi cial said they were conducting a drive to arrest the other killers and the mastermind of the mur-der – the local.

However, he did not disclose any names for the sake of investigation. l

Bangladesh Sahanti Parishad brings out a procession in front of central Shahid Minar in the capital yesterday protesting the ongoing violence during blockade and hartal called by BNP led 20-party alliance RAJIB DHAR

BNP activists yesterday hold a candle-lit vigil in front of the party’s Gulshan o� ce protesting snapping of power, cable and internet lines of the o� ce where BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been staying since Jan 3 midnight DHAKA TRIBUNE

The slum households have also come together in an anti- poverty savings scheme to raise more than Tk9.5 crore

DHAKA TRIBUNE Nation6 Sunday, February 1, 2015

No articulate info on Shamarukh’s death in second autopsy report Police will have to probe the case � led over Dr Shamarukh Mahjabin’s death based on the � rst autopsy report as the medical board mentioned nothing lucid about the cause of her death in the second one. But her father Nurul Islam has demanded not to carry out the investigation in light of the previous autopsy report. Addressing a press brie� ng at Jessore Press Club yesterday noon, Nurul also accused the investigating o� cer of being biased in his work and demanded that he be replaced. On November 13 last year, Shamarukh was found hanging in her in-law’s Dhanmondi residence and doctors declared her dead after she was taken to hospital. Shamarukh’s father-in-law Tipu Sultan is the former lawmaker of Jessore 5 constituency. – Our Correspondent, Jessore

40 injured in Brahmanbaria clash; 15 held At least 40 people got injured as two group of villagers locked in clash in Rajghar village in Sadar upazila yesterday. Of them, three were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition. During the clash, the unruly people set � re to 25 houses and shops as well. Police said former Natai (north) UP chairman Abdur Rauf and a local advocate named Ali Azam had been at loggerheads over a piece of disputed land. As sequel to the incident, the duo’s followers equipped with indigenous weapons engaged in clash with one another in the morning, leaving the 40 from both sides

hurt. Being informed, local police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control by � ring over 20 rounds of rubber bullet. When contacted, Sadar model police station ASP Taposh Ranjan Gosh acknowledged the incident, they arrested 15 people from the spot. – Our Correspondent, Brahmanbaria

UP member hacked to death A member of Union Parishad was hacked to death by a gang of miscreants at Borolekha upazila in the district on Friday night. The deceased was identi� ed as Md Majir Uddin, 60, member of Shahbajpur ward no: 3. Police and family members said, Majir went out of the house around 11pm by the call of a phone and he went missing since then. Locals found injured Majir in front of Sreedharpur mosque around 11:30pm. He died on the way to Upazila Health Complex. On information, police recovered the body and sent it to Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital. Borolekha police station o� cer-in-charge Md Maniruzzaman said, the body bore several injuries on head. Majir might have been killed over previous enmity, OC said. Police arrested one Faisal in this connection. – Our Correspondent, Moulvibazar

Two held with 44kg hemp Police in a drive arrested two alleged drug peddlers along with 44 kilograms of hemp at Amertal of Kathalbari area in the district town early yesterday. The arrested were identi� ed as Mahidul Islam, a resident of Gharialdanga area of Rajarhat upazila, and Shahinur Rahman Titu, a resident of Lalmonirhat district.

Sources said on a tip-o� , a team of police conducted a raid in the area and arrested them along with 44 kilograms of hemp worth Tk3.3 lakh in the wee hours of the day, said Sohrab Ali, o� cer-in-charge of the Detective Branch of police. The arrested had long been involved in smuggling hemp from India, he added. – Our Correspondent, Kurigram

Human chain demands withdrawal of blockade, hartalA section of people formed a human chain from Bangladesh Bank intersection to Dawkbangla area in the city yesterday under the banner of ‘Janatar Oikko’ demanding withdrawal of transport blockade and frequent hartals enforced by the BNP-led 20 party alliance. Leaders of Khulna Awami League, cultural personalities, leaders of several professional groups, students and mass people took part in the human chain, reports BSS. Enraged by the violent acts carried out by the supporters of the blockade professional leaders said that they want to be free from such acts and asked the leaders of the BNP led 20 party alliance to stop attacks on the innocent people. City unit president and general secretary of Khulna Awami League lawmaker Talukder Abdul Khaleque and lawmaker Mizanur Rahman Mizan, vice- president of Khulna Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) advocate Saiful Islam, journalists Md. Liakat Ali, Mokbul Hossain, Subir Roy, among others, spoke at the human chain. The speakers demanded withdrawal of hartal and blockade before the beginning of SSC examinations. – Tribune Report

NEWS IN BRIEF

52 landless people get khas land n Our Correspondent, Kurigram

Fifty-two landless people of three un-ions in Kurigram have been distributed 25 decimals of khas land each.

At a programme at the upazila pari-shad auditorium yesterday noon, ka-buliyat documents of the lands were handed over to them.

Rangpur Divisional Commissioner Md Delwar Bakht was present at the programme, which was addressed by Deputy Commissioner ABM Azad, Ad-ditional Deputy Commissioner (rev-enue) SM Abu Horaira and Upazila Nirbahi Offi cer Aminul Islam among others.

The speakers said the recipients would be able to change their luck by utilising the khas lands. l

Sunamganj clash leaves 45 injuredn Our Correspondent, Sunamganj

At least 45 persons sustained injuries in a clash between two group of locals over a disputed land in Sarokandi village in Jamalganj upazila here yesterday.

Of the injured, 12 were admitted to the local health complex. When con-tacted, Jamalganj police station OC Md Atikur Rahman said the clash took place in the morning as followers of Aiub Ali and Faruk Miah, both residents of the village, locked in clash with one anoth-er centring trying to ensure possession on a longstanding dispute land. l

Rampant mugging at varsity campus in Comilla putting students at riskn Our Correspondent, Comilla

Students of Comilla University (CU) are falling victims to frequent mugging, eve-teasing and other forms of harass-ment at the campus and nearby areas.

As such students are worried about their safety. They are also not being able to attend the classes and other academ-ic activities due to lack of security.

Students alleged that most of these muggings were committed by un-known miscreants. Sometimes ruling party men were also involved.

On January 10, Kamal Hossain, a student of anthropology got mugged by local goons at Shalbon museum area while coming to the university from Kotbari.

A day before that, Papia Sarwar Ridi of English 6th batch lost her belong-ings to unknown miscreants at Comilla Housing area.

Mohd Imam Hossain of public ad-ministration department fell victim at the campus on January 7. He alleged that the muggers were outsiders. On January 5, Mohd Nahid Hasan of Eng-lish 8th batch was stabbed while mis-creants tried to snatch his belongings.

In December last year, resident of Bangabandhu Hall Mohd Muttakin Hossain was robbed in front of the uni-versity while returning from tuition.

Rasel Hossain of Bangla department

was severely beaten by miscreants in September in front of the residence of the Pro Vice-Chancellor. His wallet and mobile phone were snatched at that time.

Student of economics Riko Chakma was mugged at the same place on Oc-tober 29.

And two days before that Biddut Kumar Sarkar of public administration lost his belongings in front of the social forestation department near the uni-versity.

In May, Fazle Shahriar, a student of anthropology was mugged at Main-amoti area on his way to the university.

On April 20, Nurul Amin Sabuj, a student who was ousted last year, en-tered exam hall with arms and tried to physically violate a female student.

On assurance of anonymity, a num-ber of students said the miscreants were protected by the local activists and leaders of the ruling party. Some-times, offi cials and teachers of the university also fall prey to these goons but they do not dare to speak up fear-ing backlash. The students also allege that female students were victim of eve-teasing at the campus.

When contacted Proctor Moham-mad Ainul Haq said: “We always take measures when we get complaints. But we need support from the administra-tion. We have requested to set up a po-lice outpost here at the campus.” l

Two workers killed in road accidentn Our Correspondent, Tangail

At least two garments worker were killed in a road accident under Mirzapur upazila of the district yesterday.

The deceased were identifi ed as Sharif,23, son of Mozibar Rahman and Rana,25, son of Kasim Uddin in Raza-bari village of the upazila.

Md Humayun Kabir, offi cer-in-charge of Gorai Highway police station said, a speedy bus ran over the two near Mirzapur Cadet College on the Dha-ka-Tangail Highway in the morning leav-ing Rana dead on the spot while they were going to their factory by bicycle. l

HABIGANJ MODERN GENERAL HOSPITAL

Gynae ward cries out for healingn Our Correspondent, Habiganj

New and expectant mothers are not fi nding a healthy environment at the gynae ward of the Modern Sadar Hos-pital in Habiganj.

The labour ward reeks of bad odour, making it diffi cult for them to live there with newborns. Besides, bathroom and toilets have not been repaired for so long. They too are not cleaned reg-ularly.

Accommodation problem is very much high as the ward remains fraught with patients around three times its ca-pacity every day.

Ruma Roy, 26, who hails from Chunarughat upazila’s Birampur vil-lage, said she had been lying on the fl oor since she was admitted there on Wednesday.

She said she had not got any food from the hospital while the authorities are supposed to give food to each and every inpatient three times a day.

Talking about the hospital toilets, she said: “I do not feel like using them because I am afraid of somebody open-ing it while I am inside. And so I have to take somebody to guard the toilet door.”

Kamrunnessa, 30, who hails from Bahubal upazila’s Kandi village, said she has been lying on the fl oor of the ward due to bed crisis for three days. What is worse, even pure drinking wa-ter is not available inside the hospital.

Kulsuma, 25, who hails from Ban-iachang upazila’s Noagaon village, said she has not seen more than one doctor for three days since she was admitted

to the hospital. Khush Banu, 30, who hails from the

upazila’s Prothomrekh village, said she has got a bed two days after getting admitted there. However, she was not happy with it since she felt like leaving the ward as soon as it was possible.

“The ward reeks of fi lthy odour. The wall looks so dirty as if it were a cow-shed. Besides, one has to go out for pure drinking water. It is tough to fetch water from outside without being ac-companied by a male person.”

Mamata Paal, who is in charge of the ward, said 60 to 70 patients remain ad-mitted to the ward every day while it has the capacity of 25 patients. They all are taken care of by four nurses round the clock.

She added that a nurse can take care of up to fi ve patients every day but they have to attend huge number of patients every day and so the nursing service could not be much better as the pa-tients expect of them.

Residential Medical Offi cer Dr Mo-hsin Karim said there are 23 beds and two more in excess at the gynecological ward while 60 to 70 patients are admit-ted here every day.

There needs a senior gaynae con-sultant and two junior gynae consult-ants to take proper medical care of them. But there is no such consultant and so two junior gynae consultants are made to work here on hire.

About keeping clean the ward, he said there are only two ayas (medical assistants) and a sweeper for the hos-pital and so it is always tough to keep it clean. l

Students of Government Girls’ School in Barisal city put up an impressive display during the annual sports day of the institution yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Candidates of the up coming Secondary School Certi� cate (SSC) examination, along with their parents, hold a human chain in Sherpur demanding an end to political violence in the country so that they can participate in the exam safely DHAKA TRIBUNE

7CareerDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

Bangladeshis manifest immense potential at world stageBangladeshis make national debating history at Malaysia Worlds 2015. Mubarrat Wassey, the � rst Bangladeshi to make it to the top 10 in the international tournament, shares his debating secretsn Tasnuva Amin Nova

On the last week of Decem-ber, more than a dozen university teams from Bangladesh fl ocked to Kuala Lumpur to partic-

ipate in World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC), the world’s most prestigious debate tournament, with 400 teams taking part in the com-petition.

Following days of rigorous discourse over several rounds of debate on con-tentious topics such as Israel-Palestine and policies of international commu-nity with participants from more than 86 countries, Bangladesh was over-whelmed with the outcome of their performances.

For the fi rst time in Bangladesh debating history, highest number of university teams reached knockout rounds of the tournament in the En-glish as Second Language (ESL) catego-ry, which puts Bangladesh in the same league with most European, South American and Asian countries.

Five teams from Brac Universi-ty, Institute of Business Administra-tion-Dhaka University (IBA-DU), Islam-ic University of Technology (IUT), and Dhaka University had secured their place among the top 64 teams of the world. Rishad Sharif and Raiha Nawal from DU went on to become runners up at the ESL fi nal debate.

Being the third best in ESL cate-gory, Saad Ashraf and Wasifa Noshin from IBA-DU broke country record as the fi rst and only team to make it to the English as Primary Language (EPL) category, where their competition were teams from Oxford, Harvard and coun-tries with English as native language.

To top the overwhelming success of the Bangladesh debating community, for the fi rst time a Bangladeshi’s team ranked top 10 in the world, and was also the only Asian team in that league beating teams from universities like London School of Economics, Univer-sity of Oxford, and Harvard University. In addition to being part of world’s top 10 team, Mubarrat Wassey, a student of International Islamic University Malay-sia (IIUM), also became the second best ESL speaker of the tournament.

With top ESL speaker titles in WUDC two years in a row and titles of being fi -nalist and semi-fi nalist at several pres-tigious international debating tour-naments like Oxford Inter Varsity and Australs, Mubarrat is now one of the most promising debaters in the world.

How did you get interested in debating?My brother used to debate. After tour-naments he would tell stories about what he did and people he met, which got me interested. Eventually in grade 10, I decided to go to Pre-Worlds de-bating tournament, which is the most prominent national tournament in Bangladesh. I found out I was not par-ticularly bad at it, especially as a begin-ner, so I decided to stick to it.

You started your debating career in Bangladesh. Why did you to move to Malaysia?I was at North South University for a year, but I decided to pursue a univer-sity that would maximize my debating

potential. Universities in Bangladesh generally suff er from a lack of funding.

That was my main motivation to go to IIUM, which has probably the best Asian debating club right now, and it is very generous about funding debaters to international tournaments. Although I had to start university all over again by going to Malaysia, it was still worth it.

What have you gained from debating beyond trophies and titles?Debating has changed my life like noth-ing else. It opens your mind, because it challenges you to think from other peo-ple’s perspectives.

This is a problem we have, espe-cially living in a homogenous country such as Bangladesh, where almost ev-eryone is of the same race and religion. We have very little diversity, and easi-ly take off ense if someone says some-thing mildly contentious. Debating challenged me to think about groups like the LGBT community and ethnic minorities – how they think, why they think the way they do, and why they must be treated respectfully.

It also opens your mind because of the kind of people you meet. Debating has allowed me travel to numerous countries, and most of the time costing nothing because debaters get funded to go almost everywhere. That opens up your boundaries.

We make friends all over the world. My Facebook friend list is really di-verse. I have friends from Palestine, Israel, and countries I have never heard of before interacting with people from there I met at tournaments. The world is full of amazing people.

How has debating affected your thinking process?What debating has taught me the most is not to be judgmental. Diff erent peo-

ple have diff erent perspectives for dif-ferent reasons. Often we do not know the context that people have been in so it is best not to judge them.

The other thing people often don’t realise is that debating is insanely com-petitive. Debating is the world’s largest non-sporting youth congregation. Ev-ery year we have WUDC with more than 400 teams participating from around the world. It really forces you to push your limits. It is not good enough that you speak good English. There is more to it than shows; you have to analyse situations with great depth.

I remember once my university’s deputy director accompanied the de-bating team to one of the tournaments. He being an erudite academician was shocked beyond his wits to see how well people were debating.

Motions are given only 15 minutes before the actual debate starts. With a team of two, you have to give seven min-ute speeches each on a single topic. You have to come up with new arguments which other teams cannot think of.

After watching our debate, he said something that really moved me: “It sounds as if these people did a PhD on that particular topic. That’s how debat-ing sounds to me.”

You have to read up a lot for coming up with the level of analysis required for diff erent kinds of arguments. Not just that, you also have to explain what you read up in a manner that people understand you.

You have to analyse in detail each and every argument that you bring in because everyone else is doing it. Debating maximises your potential in terms of how intelligent and critical you can be in terms of analysing and understanding things. It goes beyond mere presentation skills. It’s a life skill that a CGPA cannot give you.

Debating teaches me more than a classroom can. Maybe it cannot teach math, but life skills which I’d like to think can take you a long way in life.

What is your winning strategy?The biggest thing we need to under-stand is that there are no shortcuts. Your passion is what will drive you.

If you want to do well it has to be because you love doing this because, at times, it will drive you nuts. It is so competitive and diffi cult that at some point you will hit stages where you will not know whether or not you will suc-ceed. So if you don’t love the game it is not worth it.

Let me tell you about my debating partner Syed Saddiq. A few years ago he could not speak English properly, and was quite naive. He was the kind of person who debate club recruiters

would think has no future, but today he is part of one of the top ten teams in the world.

In recent history, we are the only Asian team to reach that level. Most teams who are at the top are from Sydney, Mel-bourne, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and mostly UK and Canadian teams. IIUM is the only Asian team to have reached to this level and it is because of the sheer hard work and determination we put into it. The one reason Saddiq made it to the top is because of his passion.

Not knowing English is something which you can improve with practice. I have seen Saddiq learn English words by writing them down on his hands.

Beyond learning English, you have to watch other debaters going at it to familiarise yourself with the kind of ar-guments used in debates.

Next, I would say, reading has no al-

ternatives when it comes to gathering knowledge.

Apart from that, practice speaking every day. Don’t be ashamed of speak-ing in front of the mirror and giving speeches. Record yourself to track your progress.

Take feedbacks from judges after debating sessions end. Take criticisms positively even if you don’t always agree. Work on your problems. Train with other people.

What do you think of the debaters you are training in Bangladesh?Everyone has the potential to be what they want to become. Anyone can be-come anything.

When I started debating, only a few years ago, no Bangladeshi had ever advanced to the knockout stages to the ESL category, let alone in the open category. No Bangladeshi team had made it beyond the quarter fi nals of an Asian tournament. I never thought I had enough potential to be one of the top ten teams in the world. Until now I used to idolise people in the catego-ry I am in right now. So all I would say is human potential is limitless; try to reach your potential.

Whenever I am here from Malaysia I try to reach out to debaters, not just those at school, but also in universities. The biggest problem that Bangladeshi debaters face right now is a lack of ex-posure to international debating. Un-fortunately, the Bangladeshi govern-ment does not fund school children to go abroad to participate in internation-al tournaments. Very few universities here have any formal funding.

Most debaters have to fi nd sponsor-ship on their own and most sponsors are reluctant to fund random debaters to go abroad. As a result most of the de-baters have to depend on their personal fi nance which is a barrier, especially to talented individuals from the lower or middle class.

The best training a debater can get is the opportunity to attend as many debating tournaments as possible, espe-cially international ones. In addition to very little funding, universities here im-pose a performance based selection pro-cess which bars the potential of new tal-ents. For new debaters to perform they need to learn fi rst; giving them opportu-nities to attend tournaments is the fi rst step towards enabling their learning.

I think this is the biggest challenge we are facing now and the biggest thing I benefi ted from by going to IIUM. They have given me the funding to go any-where giving me the opportunity to de-bate against learn from the best. That level of competition has challenged me to bring the best out of me.

Nonetheless, I would like to add that Bangladesh debating is much bet-ter than what it used to be. If you look at the recent performances of the Ban-gladeshi teams at Malaysia WUDC this year and at Berlin WUDC 2013 when the fi rst Bangladeshi team won the ESL championship title for the fi rst time in history, the community is making tremendous progress. Thus in terms of exposure to young debaters, we are slightly better because the communi-ty itself has better debaters now. I still think this is not enough; we can do much better with more exposure to in-ternational tournaments. l

5 Things to avoid during any interviewn Nakibul Hoq

Almost every single candidate, regardless of country, ethnicity or position, is unnerved by any

sort of interview. Be it for a position at a multinational fi rm or admission into a university, an interview is the only part of the application process that can truly distinguish you and highlight your actual talents and interpersonal, analytical and rational-thinking skills.

Candidates are only called for an inter-view once the initial parts of their applica-tion have been already reviewed. Thus this acts as an opportunity, and the only one at that, which can make or break your career.

While the ultimate decision vests on the people reviewing you, most inter-viewees do not realise that your ability to steer the interview to your favour is the only thing that matters. The interviewers are there to unnerve you and to fi nd out whether you are actually as impressive as your resume sounds. It is always better to enter the boardroom with a positive atti-tude and candor that resonates with your character, while keeping in mind that the unexpected can always take place.

From our experiences of working with both interviewers and interviewees at Grad-Connect, the following are fi ve things that should be avoided during any interview.

Possessing a wrong sense of achievement and prideYou might have attended the best school or university, hung out with the best of people and worn Armani suits, but at the end of the day the people interviewing you will have achieved more in life than you have so far. And that is perfectly fi ne, but you must not talk or behave in a way that shows you to be superior in any sort of way. Too many people try to turn their ner-vousness into overconfi dence, and when this transpires, the interview is bound to be a disaster. Hold your heads high while retaining humility and a polite attitude. Even when interviewers do their best to imply that you are naught but a worthless piece of nothingness, accept their insinua-tions and avoid getting into a fi t.

Having a shabby appearanceWhen it comes to a traditional interview for a corporation, it is important to be at your best. By the word best, I do not im-ply wedding reception-best; I mean busi-ness formal. You must dress to impress and wear the same style of clothing you would normally be expected to adorn during the offi ce hours. The only compa-nies where the shabbiness of your cloth-ing might not be a factor are startups and smaller scale tech-fi rms. Even in these fi rms, if you are applying for the post of a

marketer, a business development execu-tive or client manager, it is still important to suit up and position a smart image in the minds of the interviewers.

Lying, about absolutely anythingI will spare the moral and ethical evoca-tions and spill the universally renowned fact: almost everyone in the subcontinent lie at any sort of application process. This practice, ingrained in our culture, proves to be highly irksome to all recruiters and is also very detrimental to the candidate’s own professional career. If you think there is a lack of qualifi cations in your re-sume for the job you are applying, I will defi nitely recommend you to work to-wards these achievements and then apply for your dream job. If you are not appro-priate for the position, you won’t do well in it anyway, so spare yourself and the recruiters the trouble and use your time to focus on what suits your qualifi cations the best.

Arguing with the interviewersWe had this candidate once who quar-reled with us during the interview about a club football game. While he defi nitely raised some really valid points passion-ately, at the end of the day, we found him to be too loud for our team. Companies value all sorts of diverse opinion, but

never want loud-voiced people who can hardly be eff ective team players. This is why interviewers are always trying to test your temperament and opinionating your voice is just one, extremely eff ective means of fi nding out how good your in-terpersonal abilities are. In the aforemen-tioned case, the candidate could have simply said, “While I respect your opinion and understand the points you are trying to make, for me my team is simply the best from my perspective,” and the entire issue would have evaporated instantly in his favour.

Lastly, stammeringThose who have been stammering since birth are advised to watch The King’s Speech and if possible, take a speech training session. I am sure they are off ered in several places in Dhaka. But the gist of the idea is, if you can’t express yourself and your ideas properly, and have to be broken off during your speech while you are halfwa y through, you are defi nitely not going to make a good candidate. l

Nakibul Hoq is the Lead Manager, Content & Analytics for GradInsights, the career intelligence service of GradConnect. Find him at nakib@grad-connect.com. For our signature career-related services, simply drop us a message via email or on our facebook page.

For the � rst time in Bangladeshi history, the highest number of university teams reachedthe knockout rounds

Mubarrat Wassey, left, and his teammate, Syed Saddiq became the top 10 debating team at World Universities Debating Championship 2015 representing International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) COURTESY

Bangladesh debating contingent at the World Universities Debating Championship 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ASHIK RAHMAN

BIGSTOCK

Sunday, February 1, 2015DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

3 Chad soldiers, 123 Boko Haram militants killed in Cameroonn AFP, N’Djamena

Three soldiers and 123 Boko Haram militants were killed when the Islamist group attacked a Chadian army contin-gent in northern Cameroon, the Chad-ian military said.

Twelve soldiers were wounded in the attacks staged by the Islamists on Thurs-day and Friday near the border town of Fotokol, according to a military state-ment read out on national television.

Chad sent a convoy of troops and military vehicles into neighbouring Cameroon on January 17 to deal with the growing threat Boko Haram poses in the region.

“The enemy was repelled by our defensive forces,” the general staff ’s statement said, adding that the troops had “routed” the Islamists in the sec-ond attack.

The soldiers were killed by improvised explosive devices, the statement said.

A senior Cameroonian security source said the Chadian troops were deployed to the town, which sits oppo-site a Nigerian town under Boko Haram control and is also close to the border with Chad, on Wednesday. l

Africa agrees to send 7,500 troops to � ght Boko Haram n AP, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

An African Union offi cial says Afri-can leaders have agreed to send 7,500 troops to fi ght the Boko Haram insur-gency in northeast Nigeria.

The head of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, Samil Chergui, said yesterday the move came after the council urged heads of state to endorse the deployment of troops from fi ve West African countries to

fi ght the terror group.African leaders who are members of

the 54-nation African Union are meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for a two-day summit that ends yesterday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon earlier said he support the AU’s move to send a force to fi ght Boko Haram. Boko Haram is increasing its attacks as Nigeria prepares for Feb. 14 elections. Thousands have been killed in the 5-year insurgency. l

Egyptian court bans Hamas’ armed wing, lists as terrorist organisation n Reuters, Cairo

An Egyptian court yesterday banned the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas and listed it as a terrorist organisation.

Hamas is an off shoot of Egypt’s Mus-lim Brotherhood which the authorities have also declared a terrorist group and have repressed systematically since the army ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed Mursi, from the presidency in 2013.

“The court ruled to ban the Qas-sam Brigades and to list it as a terrorist group,” said the judge of the special Cai-ro court which deals with urgent cases.

Egyptian offi cials say weapons are smuggled from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip into Egypt, where they end up with militant groups fi ghting to topple the Western-backed Cairo government.

Islamist militants based in Egypt’s Sinai region, which has a border with Gaza, have killed hundreds of police and soldiers since Mursi’s political demise. l

Yemen Shiite militia holds widely boycotted meeting on crisis n AFP, Sanaa

Yemen’s Shiite militia and ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s party held a meet-ing boycotted by others parties Friday to discuss ending the country’s politi-cal crisis, as protests hit several cities, including the capital.

The militia, which overran Sanaa in September, seized the presidential palace and key government buildings last week, plunging the country deep-er into crisis and prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and his prime minister to resign.

Militia chief Abdulmalik al-Huthi had called for a “historic” meeting to begin Friday, urging all political forces to join.

But only Saleh’s General People’s Congress party joined what is to be a three-day conference, heavily se-cured by the militia, which the former strongman is accused of backing.

Meanwhile, opponents protested against the Huthis in several cities un-der the slogan: “Revolt until the over-throw of the coup” forces, in reference to the militia.

They also demanded the release of scores of activists and journalists who have been rounded up by the Huthis

since their overtake of Sanaa.View gallerySupporters of the

Huthi movement attend a gather-ing, …

Supporters of the Huthi movement attend a gathering, called out for by the Yemeni Shiite Huthi group …

Witnesses said the militia kid-napped the head of a students union in the universities of Sanaa and Amran, Radwan Masoud, after Friday prayers.

Sanaa University has been the focal point of anti-Huthi protests, frequently dispersed by the militia fi ring in the air and detaining activists.

Benomar said this week that Hadi and his cabinet were eff ectively under house arrest, and warned that violence could erupt at any time.

But he added that a power-sharing deal “was possible,” according to two diplomats who attended a session during which he briefed the UN Secu-rity Council by video link from Sanaa.

But a faction of the separatist South-ern Movement announced Thursday it would stop participating in the “point-less” talks brokered by Benomar, “which will lead the country into the unknown” and are taking place “under intimidation and a siege of the legiti-mate authorities.” l

Fighting rages in eastern Ukraine, 15 soldiers killedn Reuters

Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine yesterday as pro-Russian separatists sought to tighten the circle around government forces clinging on to a rail center, with 15 Ukrainian soldiers killed in the past 24 hours.

Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said separatists were keeping up in-tense pressure on Debaltseve, a major rail and road junction north-east of the big city of Donetsk, as well as on the neighboring town of Vuhlehirsk.

“The toughest situation is in the Vuhlehirsk area where the terrorists are trying to seize the town and occupy positions to move forward and encircle Debaltseve,” military spokesman An-driy Lysenko said in a separate briefi ng.

The rebels were also continuing to threaten Mariupol, a town of half a million in the south-east of the

country on the coast of Sea of Azov, Lysenko said.

“Along all the lines of confl ict our losses amount to 15 killed and 30 wounded,” Poltorak told reporters.

The renewed violence followed in-tense fi ghting on Friday in which more than 20 civilians were killed in separate shelling attacks in Donetsk, Debaltseve and other areas.

Rebel delegates meanwhile arrived in the Belarussian capital of Minsk for a new attempt to reopen peace talks with Ukrainian and Russian represen-tatives under the auspices of the Or-ganisation for Security and Coopera-tion in Europe.

The meeting of the so-called con-tact group was originally planned to take place on Friday but was called off before it started and there was no cer-tainty the talks would take place yes-terday either. l

ISIL � ghters driven back from Iraqi oil town of Kirkuk

n Agencies

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, who launched an off ensive on the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk, have been driven back from the oil-producing town by Kurdish forces.

A senior Kurdish military com-mander, Brigadier General Shirko Fa-tih, and at least 25 of his soldiers were killed in the battle on Friday in one of the most aggressive ISIL attacks for months, offi cials said.

“ISIL fi ghters took advantage of the fog and they launched their surprise at-tack, but we managed to defeat them,” Mariwan Abdel Khaleg, from the Pesh-merga 17th Brigade, told Al Jazeera.

“We are responsible for protecting Iraqi territory, inch by inch.”

The casualties near oil-rich Kirkuk

were a heavy setback for the Iraqi Kurds, who have been at the forefront of the battle against ISIL, which has captured a third of both Iraq and Syria in a blitz last year.

Home to a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, the Kurds want to incorpo-rate Kirkuk into their self-ruled region in Iraq’s north, a proposition strongly opposed by Arabs and the Turkmen.

Twin bombingsAttacks elsewhere on Friday killed

27 people, with twin bombs hitting a crowded market in Baghdad and a sui-cide bomber targeting pro-government Shia militiamen who were manning a checkpoint outside a city north of the Iraqi capital.

In the Baghdad market attack, a bomb fi rst exploded near carts used for selling clothes in the central Bab al-Sharqi area, followed by a second

bomb as people rushed to help victims from the fi rst blast.

Police and hospital offi cials said 19 people were killed and 28 others were wounded.

Also in Baghdad, mortar shells land-ed on a residential area in the Shula neighbourhood, killing four people and wounding seven others, police and hospital offi cials said.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden car into a security checkpoint manned by Shia militias near the city of Samarra, killing four militiamen and wounding 10.

The casualties come as Iraq is fac-ing its worst crisis since the 2011 with-drawal of US troops.

ISIL controls about a third of the country, including the north’s biggest city Mosul, as well as large areas of neighbouring Syria. l

Tens of thousand rally for Spain’s Podemos before elections

n Reuters

Tens of thousands marched in Madrid yesterday in the biggest show of sup-port yet for anti-austerity party Po-demos, whose surging popularity and policies have drawn comparisons with Greece’s new Syriza rulers.

Crowds chanted “yes we can” and “tic tac tic tac,” suggesting the clock was ticking for the political elite. Many waved Greek and Repub-

lican fl ags and banners reading “the change is now.”

Podemos (“We Can”) was formed just a year ago, but produced a major shock by winning fi ve seats in elec-tions for the European Parliament in May. It is currently topping opinion polls in the run up to local, regional and national elections this year.

“People are fed up with the politi-cal class,” said Antonia Fernandez, a 69-year-old pensioner from Madrid

who had come to the demonstration with her family.

Fernandez, who lives with her hus-band on a 700-euros-a-month combined pension check said she used to vote for the socialist party but had lost faith in it because of its handling of the economic crisis and its austerity policies.

“If we want to have a future, we need jobs,” she said.

Spain is emerging from a seven-year economic slump as one of the euro

zone’s fastest growing countries, but the exit from recession has yet to ease the hardship for thousands of households, in a country where near-ly one in four of the workforce is out of a job.

Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras promised that fi ve years of austerity, “humiliation and suff ering” imposed by international creditors were over af-ter his Syriza party swept to victory in a snap election on Jan. 25. l

CIA-Mossad operation killed Hezbollah � guren AFP

The CIA and Israel’s spy agency Mossad were behind an elaborate plot to kill Hezbollah commander Imad Mughni-yeh in a 2008 car bomb attack in Syria, the Washington Post has reported.

Citing former intelligence offi cials, the newspaper on Friday reported that US and Israeli spy agencies worked to-gether to target Mughniyeh on Febru-ary 12, 2008 as he left a restaurant in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

He was killed instantly by a car bomb planted in a spare tyre on the back of a parked car, which exploded shrapnel in a tight radius, the Post said.

The bomb, built by the United States and tested in the state of North Caroli-na, was triggered remotely by Mossad agents in Tel Aviv who were in com-munication with Central Intelligence Agency operatives on the ground in Damascus.

“The way it was set up, the US could object and call it off , but it could not execute,” a former US intelligence offi -cial told the newspaper.

A senior Hezbollah commander, Mughniyeh was suspected of master-minding the abduction of Western hos-

tages in Lebanon in the 1980s and of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embas-sy in Argentina that killed 29 people.

He was also linked to the bombing of the US marine barracks at Beirut airport in 1983, in which 241 American servicemen died, and the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985, in which a US navy diver was killed.

The CIA declined to comment to the Post about the report.

According the newspaper, the au-thority to kill required a presidential fi nding by George W Bush. Several senior offi cials, including the attorney general, the director of national intelli-gence and the national security advis-er, would have had to sign off on the order, it added.

The former offi cials that spoke to the newspaper said Mughniyeh was di-rectly involved in arming and training Shia militias in Iraq that were targeting US forces, and though it occurred in a country where the United States was not at war, his assassination could be seen as an act of self-defence.

“They were carrying out suicide bombings and IED attacks,” one for-mer offi cial told the Post, referring to alleged Hezbollah operations in Iraq. l

Demonstrators gather near the statue of Charles III of Spain at Plaza de Sol during the ‘March for Change’ planned by left-wing party Podemos that emerged out of the ‘Indignants’ movement, in Madrid yesterday AFP

Smoke billows in the background as Kurdish Peshmerga � ghters take positions on the side of a road in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk AFP

Sunday, February 1, 2015DHAKA TRIBUNE World 9

AirAsia captain left seat before jet lost control n Reuters

The captain of the AirAsia jet that crashed into the sea in December was out of his seat conducting an unusual procedure when his co-pilot apparent-ly lost control, and by the time he re-turned it was too late to save the plane, two people familiar with the investiga-tion said.

Details emerging of the fi nal mo-ments of Flight QZ8501 are likely to focus attention partly on maintenance, procedures and training, though Indo-nesian offi cials have not ruled out any cause and stress it is too early to draw fi rm conclusions.

The Airbus A320 jet plunged into the Java Sea while en route from Sura-baya, Indonesia, to Singapore on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board.

People familiar with the matter said earlier this week that investigators were examining maintenance records of one of the automated systems, the Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC), and the way the pilots reacted to any outage.

One person familiar with the matter

said the captain had fl own on the same plane with the intermittently faulty device days earlier. There was no inde-pendent confi rmation of this.

After trying to reset this device, pilots pulled a circuit-breaker to cut its power, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

People familiar with the matter said it was the Indonesian captain Iriyanto who took this step, rather than his less experienced French co-pilot Remy Ple-sel, who was fl ying the plane.

AirAsia said it would not comment while the matter was under investi-gation by the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) of Indone-sia. The NTSC has said it is too early to say what role either human factors or equipment may have played in the crash, which is still being investigated.

Experts say the loss of the FAC would not directly alter the trajectory of the aircraft but would remove fl ight envelope protection, which prevents a pilot from taking a plane beyond its safety limits, and require the crew to fl y it manually. l

China o� ers up to $50K in cash for terror tips in Tibet n AP, Beijing

Chinese authorities are off ering up to 300,000 yuan ($50,000) for tips on ter-rorism activities in the Himalayan re-gion of Tibet, the offi cial Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.

China’s recent eff orts to fi ght terror-ism has largely involved the neighbor-ing region of Xinjiang, where violent attacks blamed on Muslim separatists have left hundreds of people dead in the past two years.

There has been little public knowl-edge of terrorism in recent years in Tibet, although more than 130 Tibetan Buddhist monks and laypeople have set themselves on fi re since 2009 in protest of Beijing’s strict controls over the region and their religion, according to overseas international human rights

groups. The protesters also have called for the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing believes to be intent on splitting Tibet from Chi-na, a charge he denies.

Xinhua said the new rules by the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s police department encourage member of the public to report any suspected ter-ror activity, such as plotting attacks, promoting religious extremism, and transporting controlled weapons, for cash rewards.

It’s unclear from the new rules if Chinese authorities are treating self-immolation as a form of terrorism or if violence inside Tibet has escalat-ed. With journalists’ access to Tibet tightly restricted, all information from the region is extremely diffi cult to con-fi rm. Occasionally, there have been un-

confi rmed reports of clashes between state security and unarmed Tibetan demonstrators.

Earlier this week, Chinese investiga-tors announced fi ndings that 15 Com-munist Party offi cials in Tibet joined underground Tibetan independence organisations, provided intelligence to the Dalai Lama and his supporters, or participated in activities deemed harmful to China’s security.

The report was highly unusual and suggested continuing unrest in Tibet, which has had a heavy security pres-ence since a wave of riots and protests against Chinese rule in 2008.

A discipline investigator, Ye Dong-song, was quoted in state media as saying that the Tibetan regional govern-ment should focus on neutralising sepa-ratists and maintaining social stability. l

Katju: Ilmi more beautiful, should have been BJP’s CM candidate n Agencies

Retired S upreme Court Justice and former Press Council chairperson Mar-kandey Katju drew fl ak on social media on Friday after he tweeted that he con-sidered Shazia Ilmi more beautiful than Kiran Bedi and if she had been made BJP’s CM candidate, the party would have won the elections.

Going a step further, Katju said that people vote for beautiful faces, like in Croatia, and if Ilmi was the candidate, even someone like him who does not vote would have voted for her. When someone responded to him to say he should consider his age, he responded with a Hindi quotation, ‘my heart is still young.’

When the criticism started fl owing for his sexist comment, Katju said peo-ple should develop a sense of humour, it was said in a lighter vein and should be construed as such. l

India tests long-range missile from mobile launchern AFP

India yesterday succeeded for the fi rst time in using a mobile launcher to test-fi re a long-range missile capable of de-livering a nuclear warhead deep inside rival China.

Although yesterday’s launch was the third test of the Agni V missile, it was the fi rst time the weapon had been fi red from a so-called cannister mount-ed on a truck rather than from a con-crete launchpad used in previous trials.

The new delivery mechanism gives the armed forces increased operational fl exibility.

“Successful test-fi ring of Agni V from a cannister makes the missile a prized asset for our forces,” Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi said on Twitter af-ter the test on an island off the eastern state of Orissa.

The Agni V — developed by India’s De-fence Research and Development Organ-isation — was fi rst tested in April 2012.

Analysts say the Agni V has the range to strike any target on the Chi-nese mainland, including military in-stallations in the far northeast.

India sees the rocket, which has a range of 5,000 kilometres , as a key boost to its regional power aspirations and one that narrows — albeit slight-ly — the huge gap with China’s missile systems.

Agni, meaning “fi re” in Sanskrit, is the name given to a series of rockets In-dia developed as part of a guided missile development project launched in 1983.

While the shorter-range Agni I and II were mainly developed with traditional rival Pakistan in mind, analysts say later versions with a longer range refl ect the shift in India’s focus towards China.

India and China, each with a pop-ulation of more than one billion, have prickly relations and a legacy of mis-trust that stems from a brief but bloody border war in 1962.

India, the world’s biggest arms im-porter, is in the midst of a $100-billion defence upgrade programme.

The new right-wing government has cleared long-delayed projects worth over $16bn since storming to power at elections in May. l

Japan says hostage negotiations with militants ‘deadlocked’ n Reuters, Tokyo

Eff orts by Japan and Jordan to secure the release of two of their nationals held captive by Islamic State militants remain “deadlocked” and the situation remains highly unpredictable, Japa-nese offi cials said.

Militants had threatened to kill Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh unless a would-be suicide bomber be-ing held on death row in Amman was handed over by sunset on Thursday.

Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was also being held by the militants.

“The situation is deadlocked,” Ja-pan’s deputy foreign minister, Ya-suhide Nakayama, said in Jordon late on Friday according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said in Tokyo yesterday that the situation was unpredictable and that anything could happen, NHK reported.

“Anything could happen,” he said. “We can’t predict it at all. While prepar-ing for every situation, I want to make every eff ort for Mr. Goto’s release.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga arrived at the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s offi ce yesterday after-noon, and the prime minister is on standby to receive regular updates on the situation, NHK said.

Jordan’s army said on Friday state agencies were “working round the clock.”

An audio message purportedly from Goto said the pilot would be killed if Jordan did not free Sajida al-Rishawi,

jailed for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed 60 people in Amman.

The message extended a previous deadline set on Tuesday in which Goto said he would be killed within 24 hours if al-Rishawi was not freed.

The hostage crisis comes as Islam-ic State, which has already released videos showing the beheadings of fi ve Western hostages, is coming un-der increased military pressure from US-led air strikes and by Kurdish and Iraqi troops pushing to reverse the Is-lamist group’s territorial gains in Iraq and Syria.

Abe has repeatedly said Japan would not give in to terrorism and would keep cooperating with the inter-national community. l

N Korea’s Kim slams ‘rabid dogs’ after Obama commentsn AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said Pyongyang would not sit idly by “with rabid dogs barking” about toppling its socialist system, in apparent reaction to comments by US President Barack Obama that the regime was doomed, state media reported yesterday.

Kim made the remarks while over-seeing a joint naval and air force drill simulating an attack on a US carrier strike group off South Korea, the Kore-an Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

It did not give details of the venue and date of the war games, which were believed to have taken place on Friday.

“He solemnly declared that we have no willingness to sit any longer with the rabid dogs openly barking that they will bring down by the method of bringing about ‘changes’ the socialist system, the cradle which our people consider dearer than their own lives,” KCNA said.

Kim said North Korea was ready to counter “any war including a war by conventional armed forces and a nu-clear war.”

In an interview on YouTube from the White House on January 22, Obama spoke of the eventual collapse of the North Korean regime, calling it “the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on Earth.”

“We will keep on ratcheting the pres-

sure, but part of what’s happening is ... the Internet over time is going to be penetrating this country,” Obama said.

“Over time you will see a regime like this collapse,” he said, adding the US was looking for ways to accelerate the fl ow of information into the country.”

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman lashed out at his remarks

on Sunday, portraying them as “noth-ing but a poor grumble of a loser,” add-ing that attempts to topple the regime would only strengthen unity among its people.

The North has often used bombastic and sometimes racist rhetoric to slam Obama and other US leaders.

In December its top military body

chaired by Kim compared Obama to a “monkey” over his support for the screening of a Hollywood comedy hat-ed by Pyongyang.

“The Interview” – about a fi ctional plot to assassinate Kim – was released online and in theatres despite dev-astating cyberattacks on its producer Sony Pictures. l

PM Narendra Modi slams ‘backstabber’ AAP, praises Kiran Bedin Agencies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yester-day launched a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party calling it a party of ‘big talkers’ and accusing it of ‘back-stabbing’ the people of Delhi in the last assembly elections.

Modi was speaking at a rally in CBD grounds near Karkardooma court com-plex. He will address three more rallies in the Capital - one on Sunday in Dwar-ka and two rallies on February 3 and 4 at Rohini and south Delhi.

“A year ago the people of Delhi vot-ed with some dreams, but those very people betrayed you and led you to in-stability,” Modi told the gathering.

The PM said Delhi is the focal point this elections and will refl ect how India will be viewed by the world.

“Delhi needs a person who can

lead from the front. Kiran Bedi is the right person for the job and for Delhi,” he said.

Bedi, he said, knows every bylane of the city and has been a part of its history.

Modi also trained his guns at Con-gress and said he has come to reinstate Delhi and fi x the damage that was caused in the last 15 years.

He enumerated the Bharatiya Jana-ta Party’s programmes for the people and said his party is dedicated to serv-ing the poor.

“By the time we celebrate the 75th year of Independent India, we will en-sure that all slums are replaced by ce-mented houses,” he said.

Modi’s attack comes on a day the AAP released its manifesto promis-ing an all-round development for the Capital. l

Shikarpur blast: Station House O� cer suspendedn Agencies

As the nation mourns Friday’s deadly blast on Shikarpur’s Masjid-o-Imam-bargah Karbala-i-Moulla that killed at least 60 people, Station House Of-fi cer (SHO) Lakhi Gate Bashir Ahmed Khokar and the head constable have been suspended for showing negli-gence in performing their duties.

Additionally, constable Javed who had been designated the security of the imambargah has been arrested.

Businesses in almost all major cities of Sindh remained closed early yester-day while sit-ins to protest the govern-ment’s failure to aff ord protection to members of the Shia community were organised in Karachi.

A large number of people came out in protest against the attack in Shikar-pur itself and set alight tires.

A mass funeral of the victims has been planned to take place yesterday afternoon.

After the tragedy struck, Inspector

General (IG) Sindh Police Ghulam Qa-dir Thebo formulated a two member committee to investigate the bombing under the leadership of Senior Super-intendent of Police (SSP) Raja Umar Khattab.

SSP Khattab visited the site of the fa-tal blast along with SSP Mazhar Mash-wani today and observed the destruc-tion rendered by the deadly attack.

After collecting crucial evidence, SSP Khattab confi rmed to Dawn that the explosion was a suicide blast.

A counter-terrorism team of offi cers from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also proceeded to the blast site yesterday for investigation and took statements from eye-witnesses.

Police offi cials said the suicide jack-et had been fi lled with ball bearings, the use of which is aimed at magnify-ing the impact of the blast.

The investigation has moreover revealed that the explosive material used in the blast weighed fi ve to seven kilograms. l

China rebu� ed over UN move targeting NGOsn AFP, United Nations

China was forced on Friday to drop a measure at the United Nations that tar-geted non-governmental organisations seeking to be heard at the world body.

China had proposed that the United Nations refrain from naming countries that criticise NGOs during meetings of a committee that decides which groups are accredited to the UN.

The information blackout would have allowed China and other coun-tries distrustful of non-governmental organisations to air their opposition without being singled out in any UN public report.

The United States had sharply criti-cised the Chinese proposal at the UN’s NGO committee, saying it would be a setback for transparency and openness at the United Nations. l

In this handout photograph received from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) yesterday, the Agni V blasts o� from a canister mounted atop a mobile truck on Wheeler Island, o� the eastern state of Orissa AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un REUTERS

Enough is enoughWe condemn the BNP alliance’s insistence on calling a further

72-hour hartal from Sunday.Over 35 people have been killed and hundreds injured by

political violence in the past month. Each day the blockade continues brings the prospect of more unconscionable injury to innocent members of the public and harm to the economy.

The last month has shown once again that no matter what political leaders say about only supporting peaceful protests, calls for blockades and strikes invariably lead to violence.

Both sides must realise that they have made their point. The BNP has shown its willingness to enforce blockades and the government has shown its resolve in standing � rm against violent actions.

They have nothing further to prove by continuing this confrontation, which can only lead to a cycle of growing carnage and economic crisis.

Both parties owe it to the nation to take a step back from willfully prolonging the deadlock.

They must not worry about losing face, but show conclusively they are prepared to act in the interests of the public whom they exist to serve,

The BNP has to to abandon its blockade and stop following a course that in� icts loss of life and economic damage.

Similarly, it is not enough for the government to simply take tougher actions in the name of law and order, if it does not also show more � exibility in acting to resolve the deadlock. This means allowing meaningful political space to the BNP to hold peaceful rallies in the capital.

Parliament must protect Sundarbans

We welcome the important questions being asked by the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Forest and Environment about the resumption of shipping on the

Sela river barely a month after December’s catastrophic oil spill.

The committee is right to criticise the government for allowing the resumption of vessel movements last month without waiting for a full study of the long-term e� ects of the accident.

It is right to demand a formal explanation from the Ministry of Shipping about its rush to lift the ban on the plying of vessels along this environmentally sensitive route.

There is no shortage of reasons to act with the utmost caution in safeguarding the unique national symbol and World Heritage Site of the Sundarbans. Whilst the long term e� ects remain to be observed, considerable damage was clearly done to the habitats and food chains of dolphins and endangered tigers.

Parliament must take a more � rm stance in ensuring stringent protections for the Sundarbans, and in holding to account those responsible for the negligence and law breaking which led to the disaster in the � rst place.

Without accountability, the public will rightly have little con� dence in the ability of the government to ensure that even those conditions which were set for the resumption of shipping, will be upheld.

The government must act on the committee’s recommendation to ensure the earliest possible dredging of the Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel and development of new land routes to ensure less risky routes are made viable soon.

No mercy for campus killersJanuary 18

Zero-AgendaIt’s only appropriate that a nation run by thugs and butchers would breed even more of them-selves in its educational institutes.

probir bidhanZero-Agenda: Totally agree with you! The present situation is the result of politicisation at the edu-cational institutes by subsequent governments since long.

And we, the ordinary citizens, are to be sand-wiched for studying at the same institutes.

I wonder why our governments don’t just go ahead and establish political universities.

Viber, Tango blocked in BangladeshJanuary 18

Sekander BadshaThis is a conspiracy by the mobile operators. BTRC and mobile phone companies are losing interna-tional call charges because of these apps. Thats why they asked BTRC to shut them down! >.<

Kawshik AhmedSekander Badsha: That’s not actually the reason. Viber is partnered with most of the mobile oper-ators of Bangladesh and is the main source of net consumption in mobile phones.

BTRC blocked Viber and Tango because the Ministry of Home A� airs told them to block it, see-ing how the opposition is using these two services.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com

Send us your Op-Ed articles:opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com

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Both parties owe it to the nation to take a step back

Hold to account those responsible for December’s oil spill

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Laundry item (6)5 Trivial falsehood (3)7 Tracking system (5)8 Seesaw (6)10 Beak (3)12 Coarse � le (4)14 Petty quarrel (4)16 Part of a yacht (4)17 Sun personi� ed (3)18 Ill nature (4)20 Couple (3)23 Worn away (6)24 Proverb (5)25 Also (3)26 Shows contempt (6)

DOWN1 Location (4)2 Reluctant (6)3 Summit (5)4 Stringed instrument (4)5 Devoted follower (3)6 Choler (3)9 Appendage (4)11 Sporting item (3)14 Alone (4)15 Gage (6)16 Out� t (3)17 Sea nymph (5)18 Seeks charity (4)19 Says further (4)21 Pale (3)22 Strange (3)

CROSSWORD

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

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 21 represents R so � ll R every time the � gure 21 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appro-priate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZPM: Bomb makers, throwers should be burntJanuary 17

SecretaryofDemocracySaving-BALJoy Bangla! East or West, Sheikh Hasina is the best! #sheshouldhavewonthenobelprize #chief-minister #wohasinazulfowalijaneyjaha.

sirajulmo@yahoo.comIslam does not allow the burning of living beings, unless we think the Bangali public are not living beings. People should realise that the country belongs to them not certain political parties. We

should rise up against these political killings, burn-ing, looting, and property damage. That is the only way politicians will learn their lessons.

Dr Ahsan HabibIs this a new law the PM is endorsing? Then add it to the penal code.

Joshim UddinDr Ahsan Habib: She must.

BNP softens, AL sets conditionsJanuary 17roseIn my opinion, the government should really hold dia-logue with BNP in order to end the existing blockade.

Dreampierose: Damn straight brudah!

Joshim UddinDreampie: Yes, the government should also burn the terrorists.

The perfect driverJanuary 17Barely Legal AlienIf that’s the case, why hasn’t anyone � led charges for DUI against the incumbent driver?

Karl HungusAn e� ective analogy for the current state of our leadership. Lets hope the current ones at the wheel keep their collective eyes on the road.

10 reasons to become an entrepreneur in DhakaJanuary 18DonTActually, there are 10 million reasons to become an entrepreneur in Dhaka. You know, people, custom-ers, the market size. Someone advising impression-able students ought to have really started with cold hard cash rather than psychobabble about being a leader of change.

satIs there any environment to do business for the small enterprises in Bangladesh? Political instability and corruption are always prevailing. Even getting govt support requires bribes and political connections. There is no strong logic in doing business in Dhaka. The reality is totally di� erent from the reports.

roseQuite inspiring and encouraging.

PM: No delay to arrest arsonistsJanuary 1816corerajakarsAnd that is why she congratulated Dr Iqbal and Nanak for killing 11 people by setting � re to a bus in Moghbazar?

Four blockade victims may never see again

January 18

Rizwan Ahmed “One of the victims has said: ‘I am from a very poor

family and I do not know how I will make a living now.’”Seeking our honorable PM’s immediate inter-

vention here please!

Tasneem KashemThis could be me, you, or anyone in your neighbor-

hood in the near future ...

Muhith: Tk 1, 2 going o� market

January 18

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid Bad idea.

Fahmida Islam Wait, what?! I don’t understand how this will

smoothen transactions? Also, how would this a� ect the poor?

SAI am glad he didn’t go through with it, and ruled

that they would stay in the market. I hope Muhith never reconsiders this unless the situation truly

demands it. Or else, what am I going to do with all my then worthless Tk1 and Tk2 notes and coins? :-(

Democracy or peace?January 17

Evil People PoliticsIt speaks a lot about the current state of a� airs

when the average citizen has been pushed to the brink of trading his/her democratic right for one

day of peace. A damn shame.

Cheaper blissJanuary 17

DPDem turrists dun stole my freedoms!

The merchant of LondonJanuary 17

MysticMinstrelGreat read, Tim. It’s funny, you know, that it takes

an Englishman to discover our heritage.

11Op-Ed Sunday, February 1, 2015DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Aaqib Md Shatil

Mehrab Hossain, a six-year-old from Faridpur took his admission in a primary

school in his locality. On January 1, he received his books from the school and was about to attend the fi rst class of his life on January 3.

He left his home for school early morning that day, and only fi ve yards ahead of his school, the child was run over by a bus and left to die on the Dhaka-Khulna highway. The incident took place in Nagorkanda upazila of Faridpur district.

This was among the 204 deaths caused by road accidents reported in a daily newspaper. 204! The total number could be much higher than the reported number, as it is almost impossible to collect and publish all the news regarding the road accident on a daily basis.

These deaths are not linked with any of the political violence. The number was higher in December of last year, and it decreased in January due to the shortage of traffi c amid the countrywide blockade program enforced by the opposition camp.

The Guardian, published from the

UK in an article published on Decem-ber 9, 2012 termed the Dhaka-Sylhet highway “the world’s deadliest road.” But the number of deaths in other highways indicates that almost every single highway of the country has turned into a two-lane slaughter alley. And this is no less than the fact.

According to a study conducted by the Accident Research Centre of BUET, road accidents claim on average 12,000 lives annually, and lead to about 35,000 injuries. Moreover, WHO believes that more than 20,000 people are killed on Bangladesh’s roads every year.

Amid a large number of fatalities every year on the highways, the gov-ernment has shown little interest in implementing basic safety features on the roads of the country.

Apart from the bridges and link roads to those bridges, the sides of the roads have no crash barriers. There are no dividers in the middle of the road to prevent dangerous overtaking and stop the majority of the head-on collisions.

There is a lack of pedestrian footpaths, traffi c lights, or speed controls. Foot over-bridges are like a blue moon on Bangladeshi highways,

leaving no other option to the pedestrians but to cross the deadly roads at their own risk.

Some parts of society, especially the members of civil society and the media, apparently look over this alarming issue. They are even more interested to show and discuss the political violence and the burn victims instead of covering the deadly highways.

But, after the death of renowned fi lmmaker Tareque Masud and television personality Mishuk Munier in a deadly road accident, a good number of people and some members of civil society raised their voices to protest the deaths of this duo and asked the government to implement safety features on the highways. They organised a sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar on Eid day demanding the resignation of the connectivity minister.

The government, instead of increasing safety measures on the highways, lambasted the people who raised this issue that time. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came down heavily on those who arranged the sit-in program and directed intelligence agencies to gather details of the

organisers of the sit-in.Moreover, the families that suff er

due to the road accidents are denied justice in most of the cases. One of the most remarkable examples is the one of fi lmmaker Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munier.

The driver responsible for the death of this duo was granted bail after a platform of road transport owners and workers called an indefi nite bus strike in 21 southwestern districts demanding the release of the driver. A minister gave them assurance that the government would accept all their demands.

According to a news report, 23 people were killed in road accidents

singularly on January 30 in eight districts across the country. The number is higher than the total of 20 deaths due to the petrol bomb attacks in January.

The comparison is irrelevant to some extent but the numbers were

compared because the government is about to deploy 12,000 Ansar personnel in 993 troublesome points of the highway to resist the petrol bomb attacks on the roads during the blockade program.

Though the total number of deaths due to the road accidents is ten times the number of deaths due to burn injuries according to the news reports, the government seems to have no

concerns regarding the rampant deaths on the roads.

In Bangladesh, students are often asked to write essays on their fi rst day at school. Most of them express their thrilling experience of the day when they came to their schools for the fi rst time with their parents with eyes full of dreams. They write about their fi rst teacher and friends who often become their soulmates in time.

Mehrab, the six-year-old child, will never be able to write about his fi rst day at school. A reckless driver with his bus snatched away his life and all the dreams he had in his eyes. His family will probably never get justice. And this vicious circle of injustice will remain as it is.

The alleged arsonists were often paid back in their own coins; many of them had to give their lives in the “encounters” with law enforcers. The deployment of a huge number of law enforcers may put an end to such violence some day. But who will take the responsibility to save the people from these haunted highways? l

Aaqib Md Shatil is a blogger and member of Dhaka University Model United Nations Association.

Haunted highways

The number of deaths in highways indicates that almost every single highway of the country has turned into a two-lane slaughter alley

n Abak Hussain

Bangladeshis have never lost much sleep over the moral quandaries of mob-enforced street justice. It happens here all the time

– wrongdoer (alleged) gets caught, a crowd gathers, and the unlucky fellow gets the daylights beaten out of him, or even killed.

Our confi dence in our law and order system is so dangerously close to rock bottom that you can hardly blame the average person for not giving a damn about whether or not a perpetrator of a terrible crime gets his day in court. We roll our eyes when we hear Western-liberal claptrap about how even bad guys, even the ones caught red-handed, deserve fair trials.

There has long been a general feeling that the police won’t do their job. People perceive our law enforcement personnel to be incompetent, apathetic, and deeply corrupt and lacking in ethical training. Civilians would rather deal with their problems themselves, or even suff er in silence. There seems to be little hope that uniformed personnel will do anything good for the community, or improve their track record. With good reason, we are a deeply cynical bunch.

Recently, the ruling party decided to form resistance committees to crack down on violence that is currently being unleashed across the country by hartal-enforcers of the BNP-led coalition. Acts of arson, vandalism,

and sabotage have gone on unchecked, and the Awami League is hoping these resistance committees, comprising of party members in plain clothes, will come down on these subversive activ-ities with a fi rm hand before handing culprits over to the police.

Given that we are yet to see mob justice as the deeply troubling thing that it is, resistance bodies might look like a good idea. But this cannot and should not ever be the way of doing things in a nation that wants to be peaceful, progressive, and respectful of the rule of law.

No matter how daunting the task, we absolutely must fi x our broken law enforcement system. We need serious reform, and outsourcing the job of the police is not a viable solution.

There is great risk in people taking the law into their own hands. It is a dangerous practice that invites anarchy, and fl ies in the face of the democratic principles we otherwise pretend to stand for. Allowing for vig-ilante justice opens up possibilities of

all other kinds of violations of people’s rights, and the waters can get muddied very quickly.

There is no shortage of opportunists simply waiting to take advantage of a chaotic situation. During sprees of hartal-violence, there are often individuals with no actual party loyalty who join in and cause random destruction just for the fun of it.

The same danger is there when a group of people who are not actual law enforcement think they have the right to enforce justice through their strength in numbers. Situations can

easily get out of hand, and a frenzied mob is never a good thing.

Recently, seven suspected rob-bers in Narsingdi were caught while attempting to fl ee, and beaten to death by village locals. The robbers won’t be getting a whole lot of sympathy from anyone, and that’s fi ne. Howev-er, there can never be any excuse for beating people to death on the streets. Murder is murder, no matter who it is being done to.

We live in a land of laws, no matter how problematic its enforcement. The robbers, once caught, should have been handed over to the police. We cannot fl agrantly fl out the rule of law, while at the same time expecting the justice and law enforcement system to improve.

It is the job of the police to handle criminals, and it is the job of our courts to administer punishment. Everybody does, indeed, deserve a fair trial, and just because someone has instigated the anger of a mob, it does not mean they deserve to be killed right there on the spot.

Our police force needs a lot of work. Police personnel must be trained more rigorously. This includes not just train-ing on how to be more eff ective, but also ethical and sensitivity training. We need to be able to trust our police-men to maintain law and order, and to protect the innocent.

Corruption in law enforcement is rampant all over the world, but in Bangladesh the situation looks particularly hopeless. Changes need to be made everywhere, from hiring practices to salary structures. Stern disciplinary action must be taken against crooked offi cers. Given the way things are now, this might seem like a tall order. But that does not mean we should throw our hands in the air and give up.

The police, just like everybody else, have a job to do. And we must demand that they do it. l

Abak Hussain is Op-Ed Editor, Dhaka Tribune.

Whose job is it anyway?

Allowing for vigilante justice opens up possibilities of all other kinds of violations of people’s rights, and the waters can get muddied very quickly

n Iffat Nawaz

January 25Random morning thought on the way to work: Nice breezy traffi c.

Is it a blockade or strike + blockade at this moment? Someone should start a hotline providing this information, until things settle. While they are at it, they should also start providing securi-ty alerts. Why should the expats get intelligence about security and insecu-rities from the super embassies? Come on digital Bangladesh! Note to self, pitch idea to spin-off -loving friends.

January 26Late afternoon thought from an event with the privileged Dhaka: What do women do post-event with these fancy sharis they are wearing? I mean, it is obvious that some do not wear a shari twice.

So if most of these expensive sharis are one-time-use, then someone should try to pull it out of their walk-in-closets. Should I start a used shari selling website?

Sell your fancy sharis, the business gets 10% commission and 5% goes towards humanitarian purposes, preferably helping under-privileged women. Rich will be happy, poor will be happy, and I will be slightly richer. Note to self.

January 27Second thought of the morning: Where did winter go?

Mid-day pondering: Dhaka is amaz-ing, really. I mean, look at all the great things going on, Chobi Mela, Sufi Fest, friends and artists gathering on roof tops to create art and music. All these uninterrupted creations, fl owing at a fast pace, must catch the drift.

Thoughts before taking a CNG home: Which side of the CNG should I jump out of in case of a patrol bomb. Left, right? Left? The side of the sidewalk obviously, not the side of the traffi c.

Duh Iff at! Do your cocktail bomb escape plan right!

January 28Post-work thoughts at home after ordering-in: Life has changed since the launch of online food delivery services in Dhaka. Hungry no question naki.

January 29At a roadside fl ower shop: Why won’t these fl orists sell Bangladeshi fl owers? Rojonigondhas left to the side under the shadow of blue, orange, purple orchids, mums, and lilies. When I grow up I am going to open a Bangladeshi fl ower shop, kanakchapa, jobas, and seasonal kodom phool and a staple of beli.

January 30Afternoon with construction noise: Is there any trick out there that would fi l-ter/transform the noise of construction sites to music? Some trance, or even rap, though I would prefer lounge … Anything really! The soundtrack of our generation just cannot be the grind-ing of bricks, mixing of cements, and banging of metal poles. Really, it can’t!

January 31Late afternoon hunger talks: Some people live on breath, they apparently don’t need food, sometimes they take water. I like food, I cannot be a breath-arian. However, what if a spiritual leader posed this solution to eradicate hunger for ultimate food security? Where will the foreign donors spend their money?

Thoughts late evening: I don’t want to think about the 35 deaths since January 5, or the hundreds of injuries, I want to think about the book fair and spring, hope for it to rain again unsea-sonably, hence unreasonably, and still take rickshaws.

I also hope the upcoming cricket games will distract the arsonists. Here’s to February lessening fear. Take your frustration out Dhaka, then sell it for some short change and buy some-thing nice with it? l

I� at Nawaz is a writer and development practitioner.

The last days of January

BIGSTOCK

SYED LATIF HOSSAIN

12 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

Sport1413 19th Slam for Serena Williams

Afridi blitz in vain as Kiwis spank Pakistan

14 Australia break Korean hearts in Asian Cup � nal

Did you know?

India have � nished winless in an

ODI series of 3+ completed matches

for the 10th time

Malaysia players rejoice the strike of Mohammad Ridzuan (No 10) against Sri Lanka at Sylhet District Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Clarke named for Tigers warm-upn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Australian skipper Michael Clarke, who is recovering from surgery in his right hamstring, has been pencilled in to play for Australia XI against Bangla-desh’s World Cup squad in a practice match at Allan Border Field in Brisbane on February 5.

Clarke will, however, only play “as a batsman and in a limited fi elding capaci-ty,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.

Bangladesh have chalked out a plan to stretch Clarke to the limit in the prac-tice match, confi rmed bowling coach Heath Streak. “We will push the fi eld back and try to get him (Clarke) to take as many cheeky singles as he wants,” said Streak yesterday.

Ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan on the other hand thinks that the Aussies will dearly miss Clarke’s services if he is ruled out of the World Cup.

“He can score as many runs in the practice game as he wants, as long as he does not score runs against us in the World Cup. If he does not play in the World Cup, it will be a huge loss (for Australia),” said the Bangladesh ODI vice-captain.

Clarke will also play, as a batsman only, in grade cricket for Western Suburbs in Sydney this weekend and Cricket Aus-tralia is confi dent he is on track to be fi t for Australia’s second World Cup match against Bangladesh on February 21.l

New journey for disabled cricketersn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Cricket in our country is all set to see the beginning of a new chapter. While the whole nation is gripped with the ICC World Cup fever, the Bangladesh Physically Challenged cricket team will depart for India tomorrow to partici-pate in the fi ve-nation Physically Chal-lenged Asian Cricket Championship. This will be the maiden offi cial tour of the side since the formation of Cricket Association for Physically Challenged Bangladesh (CAPCB) a year ago.

In a press conference yesterday held at Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, CAP-CB president Sheikh Abdus Salam said the association was boosted with the win in the three-match Twenty20 se-ries against India.

“Following the success, Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina aided the asso-ciation. Akram (Khan) bhai has been

always with us and there are many sponsors who stood by our side and the result of such positives is now we are a proper association and we have being able to take care of our team well,” said Salam.

The CAPCB president informed the Bangladesh side received the invita-tion for the Asian Championship by the Disabled Cricket Society in Octo-ber last year. Following the invitation, talent-hunt programmes were organ-ised in Rajshahi, Natore, Bogra and Sirajganj. Several matches were played across diff erent venues amongst the selected ones from the programme and eventually 20 players were selected for the squad. A runner and a coach were also added to the team.

During the side’s tour of India, CAP-CB high-ups will meet offi cials of the International Cricket Association for the Physically Challenged (ICAPC) and

Asian Cricket Association for the Phys-ically Challenged (ACAPC) in order to strengthen ties.

During their 12-day tour of India, Bangladesh will play four T20 match-es. The side will begin their campaign against hosts India in Ranchi on Feb-ruary 4 before taking on Afghanistan and Pakistan on February 6 and 7 re-spectively in Agra. In their last game the physically disabled cricketers from Bangladesh will lock horns with Sri Lanka on February 8 in Firozabad.

The fi nal of the tournament will be held at Agra Stadium on February 9.

Dhaka University vice-chancellor AAMS Arefi n Siddique, Bangladesh Cricket Board director and former national captain Akram Khan, CAPCB advisor Hafi zur Rahman and CAPCB general secretary Maksurdur Rahman were present during the press conference.l

NCL 2nd round starts todayn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The second round of the 16th National Cricket League will begin today despite the ongoing political unrest in the capital.

However, the game between Ra-jshahi and Chittagong will be held at SBNS instead of Fatullah. In the second round, Dhaka will face Dhaka Metropo-lis, Khulna will take on Barisal at BKSP 2 while Rangpur and Sylhet will lock horns at BKSP 3.

Dhaka are currently at the top of the points table with a total of 25 points. l

Kruif seeks for the ‘rights’ to happenn Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh football head coach Lodewijk de Kruif is simply hoping to see the three “rights” click for his charges in their crucial Bangabandhu Gold Cup tie against Sri Lanka at the Bangabandhu National Stadium to-morrow.

“I want all the rights – the right feel-ings, the right touch and the right mo-ments,” said De Kruif after completing the Bangladesh practice session at the Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club ground yesterday.

“I am sorry to say that till taking the responsibilities, scoring remained as

the major headache for us.“It is not that we are not working on

it, we have been trying hard to over-come the weakness and I hope the players will give fl ashes of improve-ment against Sri Lanka,” he hoped.

The Dutchman pointed the fi rst 20 minutes of their game against Malaysia as the prime reason behind their defeat and he was certain that the players will put on a better game-face against Sri Lanka.

“The players were sorry for the loss, in fact I think we messed up the fi rst 20 minutes and we lost there. In the other parts Bangladesh were not far behind the Malaysians, we want to rectify the

mistakes and come out fresh and fo-cused,” he said.

“We are not focused upon the past, it is past and its a new day and new Sri Lanka, the temperament of the friend-lies and a full international fi xture is not the same, its far diff erent and Sri Lanka will be a hard nut to crack.”

Kruif added, “There is no room for complacency, we have to be alert in the defence and of course avail the scoring chances, that’s all we need. Hopefully we can do it,” said Kruif, who discontinued his job last year after 17 months at the helm, but only returned to Bangladesh for Bangabandhu Gold Cup duty. l

LG gives away free World Cup tourn Raihan Mahmood

Abul Kalam, a Saudi Arabia immigrant currently enjoying his vacation in Ban-gladesh, was named the lucky winner of the LG-Butterfl y “Fat is good-Free Australia Trip”, a ICC cricket World Cup customer promotional campaign, yes-terday. Abul will get free match tickets along with return tickets and accom-modation from LG.

Meanwhile, Nazma Akter came sec-ond in the contest and she, along with the third-place winner, will receive re-turn air tickets and match tickets of the World Cup in Australia.

A total of 54 winners were selected from the campaign with 51 of them re-

ceiving the match tickets of the premi-um cricket tournament in the world. The campaign will have another two phases before the conclusion of the event.

The prize distribution ceremony was held at the City Centre in the pres-ence of MA Mannan, the chairman and managing director of LG, who handed over the prizes to the winners. Also present during the event were Mus-tafi zur Rahman Shazid, director of sales and marketing, Mahbub-ur Rah-man Shajib, director of operations, Mahbubul Haque Sufyani, executive director, Mostafa Kamal Ahmed, CFO and M Tanvir Alam, creative manager. The LG-Butterfl y campaign will run till February 15. l

Malaysia keep hosts a� oatn Shishir Hoque from Sylhet

The high fl ying Malaysia U-23 side outplayed Sri Lanka national team 2-0 to make Bangladesh’s equation to move to the semifi nals eas-ier in the Bangab-

andhu Gold Cup at the Sylhet District Stadium yesterday.

A draw on Monday’s last Group A match against Sri Lanka in Dhaka will be enough to see the hosts progress to the last-four while only a win can take the island nation to the knockout stage.

Sri Lanka head coach Nikola Kavazovic fi elded an unusual formation of 3-1-4-2 and the Serbian also hinted to go un-changed against Bangladesh in the next game though he believes the hosts are in a better position to qualify for the semis.

“We know each other very well. Bangladesh know everything about us and we know about them. So there’s no secret,” he said adding, “They were prepared for this tournament while we were not prepared. Even if we give our best eff ort and they will go to semifi -nals with a draw. So they (Bangladesh) are in better position than us.”

The Lankans defended well in the fi rst half but the dominating Malaysian force broke the shackles right at the stroke of half-time to take the lead.

Termed as ‘It was almost perfection’

by Nikola, the Malaysian young guns looked more composed and organised compared to their outing against Bangladesh. They threatened more and opened up more scoring chances once Sri Lanka looked to cancel the lead.

However, the lead could have come in the 36th minute but Lankan goalkeeper Sujan Perera made a stunning save to deny Mohammad Ridzuan’s low header from inside the box following a pin-pointed cross of Syahrul Azwari.

Sri Lanka were unlucky as their free-kick specialist N Rowshan’s curling at-tempt from 25 yards out hit the wood-work in the 41st minute and further misery was added to their fate when Syahrul Azwari converted successfully from the penalty spot for Malaysia in-side the next fi ve minutes.

Malaysia piled up more pressure as the lead was eventually doubled at the hour mark with Mohammad Ridzuan smashing home from the edge of six-yard box following a corner from the right. A decent save from Perera in a one-on-one situation against Muhamad Faizat ensured Sri Lanka concede no more in the game where Malaysia could have scored at least two more. l

Con� dent Bahrain kick o� Dhaka phasen Raihan Mahmood

The Bangabandhu Gold Cup, after the opening two days in Sylhet, will hit the capital today with top seeded Bahrain taking on Singapore at the Bangaband-hu National Stadium at 5pm.

The strong contender of the 20oz gold cup, Bahrain starts their campaign today while Singapore will be fi ghting for their existence after they lost their opener by 3-2 goals against Thailand.

“We are here to win the title, the con-ditions are a little diff erent but we are ea-ger to show our worth as the top ranked team and we are ready to put the best,” said Bahrain’s coach Adrian Whitbread, a former English Premier League player.

Meanwhile, his counterpart Richard Bok said “We beat them 3-2 in Bahrain and we want to draw inspiration from it, the football is round and the chance is open, we will try our best to win,” said Bok. l

The national disabled cricket team pose for photographs after their last practice session, on the eve of their departure for India, at the Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club ground yesterday COURTESY

LG-Butter� y managing director MA Mannan hands over the ‘Free Australia Trip’ award to Abdul Malek at the compnay’s head o� ce yesterday COURTESY

Bangladesh know everything about us and we know about them. So there’s no secret

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 13Sunday, February 1, 2015

Sony Six 2:00PM Australian Open 2015 Men’s Final: Djokovic v MurrayOrange African Cup of Nations Quarter Finals

10:45PM Ghana v Guinea

1:15AM Ivory Coast v Algeria

Ten ActionIndian-League

04:30PM Sporting Club Goa v Salgaocar

7:30PM Pune v Mumbai French Ligue 1

09:30PM Girondins Bordeaux v Guingamp

2:00AM AS Monaco v Lyon

Ten Sports7:00PM French Ligue 1 SM Caen v AS Saint- Etienne

Star Sports 19:10AM ODI Tri-Series, FinalAustralia v England

Star Sports 29:30AM Ranji Trophy Punjab v Odisha

6:30PM Hockey India League Kalinga Lancers v Jaypee Punjab Warriors

1:45AM Italian Serie A Milan v Parma

Star Sports 4English Premier League

7:30PM Arsenal v Aston Villa

10:00PM Southampton v Swansea City

2:00AM Barcelona v Villarreal

DAY’S WATCH

Pakistan R BMohammad Hafeez b Mills 0 5Ahmed Shehzad c Ronchi b Boult 15 34Younis Khan lbw Mills 9 26Misbah ul-Haq c Latham b Elliott 58 87Haris Sohail c Guptill b Anderson 23 38Umar Akmal b Elliott 13 25Sarfraz Ahmed c Latham b Anderson 5 12Shahid Afridi c Guptill b Milne 67 29Bilawal Bhatti c Guptill b Boult 0 2Ehsan Adil c B. McCullum b Elliott 6 8Mohammad Irfan not out 1 8Extras (lb 3, wd 9, nb 1) 13Total (for 10 wickets, 45.3 overs) 210

Fall of wickets1-0 (Hafeez), 2-29 (Shehzad), 3-32 (You-nis), 4-81 (Sohail), 5-113 (Akmal), 6-127 (Ahmed), 7-198 (Misbah ul-Haq), 8-203 (Bhatti), 9-203 (Afridi), 10-210 (Adil)BowlingMills 10-2-29-2 (1w, 1nb), Boult 9-0-25-2 (2w), Milne 10-0-43-1 (3w), N. McCullum 6-0-37-0, Anderson 6-0-47-2 (2w), Elliott 4.3-0-26-3 (1w)New Zealand R BM. Guptill c Bhatti b Irfan 39 48B. McCullum c Shehzad b Bhatti 17 12T. Latham c Ahmed b Afridi 23 28R. Taylor not out 59 81G. Elliott not out 64 68Extras (lb 3, wd 8) 11Total (for 3 wickets, 39.3 overs) 213

Fall of wickets1-31 (B. McCullum), 2-75 (Latham), 3-101 (Guptill)BowlingIrfan 10-2-60-1 (5w), Bhatti 8-0-51-1 (1w), Adil 7.3-0-44-0, Afridi 10-0-39-1 (2w), Sohail 4-0-16-0

New Zealand won by seven wickets

NZvPAK, 1ST ODI

New Zealand paceman Kyle Mills celebrates bowling out Mohammad Hafeez of Pakistan during the � rst one-day international at Westpac Stadium in Wellington yesterday AFP

Afridi blitz in vain as Kiwis spank Pakistann Reuters

Grant Elliot’s all-round performance eclipsed Shahid Afridi’s 29-ball blitz to secure New Zealand a comfortable sev-en-wicket victory over Pakistan in the fi rst One Day International in Welling-ton on Saturday.

Elliot took three wickets for 26 runs to help the hosts bowl out Pakistan for 210 in 45.3 overs at the Westpac Stadium.

He then returned to hit an unbeaten 64, adding 112-runs with Ross Taylor (59 not out) as New Zealand romped home with 10.3 overs to spare.

Earlier, Afridi blasted a 29-ball 67 and captain Misbah-ul-Haq stroked a

patient 58 to help Pakistan overcome a terrible start and post 210.

Put in to bat, Pakistan lost their opener Mohammad Hafeez for a duck to the fi fth delivery of the day and kept losing wickets to slump to 127 for six in the 36th over.

Kiwi pacemen Kyle Mills (2-29) and Trent Boult (2-25) stifl ed the visiting batsmen and struck at regular intervals to put Pakistan on the mat before Afridi went on the attack.

Dropped on 14 by rival captain Bren-don McCullum, the fl amboyant Paki-stan all-rounder added 71 runs with Misbah in 6.2 overs to lend some re-spectability to the total.

Afridi blasted nine boundaries in his

blistering knock to go with three sixes, the third bringing up his fi fty before Adam Milne dismissed him in the 44th over.

Misbah, who was content playing second fi ddle to Afridi, perished in the 42nd over trying to accelerate.

The Kiwis were off to a fl ying start with the fi rst three overs yielding 31 runs before McCullum fell.

Tom Latham (23) could not con-vert the start he got either but Martin Guptill contributed 39 runs before the unseparated Elliot-Taylor partnership took the game away from Pakistan.

Elliot hit eight boundaries in his 68-ball knock, the last sealing the team’s victory. Napier hosts the second and fi nal ODI on Tuesday. l

Clarke denies rift with Australian teammatesn AFP, Sydney

Australian captain Michael Clarke on Saturday rejected speculation about a rift with teammates as he battles for fi t-ness ahead of the World Cup.

Speaking as he returned to the fi eld for a grade cricket match, Clarke said the six-and-a-half weeks he had spent recuperating from hamstring surgery had not driven a wedge between him and the squad.

“It certainly hasn’t been for me, it seems like it might have been for a few other people and I’m not talking about my teammates or the Cricket Australia staff ,” said Clarke.

Clarke was forced to bow out after the fi rst Test against India in December with the serious hamstring injury, with Steve Smith fi lling in as captain for the three remaining Tests.

Reports have suggested that the team have taken to Smith’s style, while

speculation that Clarke wants to have a strong say in when he is ready to return to the team has caused friction with Cricket Australia.

“I’m not going to get into it,” Clarke told reporters.

“It seems like some people in partic-ular are going to write what they want to write. I’m really happy and comfort-able with my relationship with Crick-et Australia fi rstly, certainly with my teammates. It’s water off a duck’s back for me, I’ve copped it my whole career. It’s another day, another newspaper sold. I don’t really care.”

He batted for almost three hours for his Western Suburbs team Saturday, scoring 51 from 128 balls, including two fours and a six, and said medical staff considered his recovery was ahead of schedule.

“But there’s still a long way to go be-fore I can walk out in an international and represent Australia,” he said.l

Tiger Woods shoots career-worst 82 to miss cutn AFP, Scottsdale

Former world number one Tiger Woods fi red his worst score as a professional, an 11-over par 82, to miss the cut at the US PGA Phoenix Open on Friday.

Woods stood last at 13-over 155 for the tournament, his fi rst tour event since last August after recovering from a back injury, and said he was healthy but simply needs more tournament work to try and recover his top form.

“I’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Woods said. “I’ve got to continue with the process. I’ve got to keep things in perspective. Sometimes it’s diffi cult. No doubt about it.”

Woods, a 14-time major champion chasing the record 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus, is assured of missing the cut for only the 13th time in his pro career.

He will have missed the cut at least once in each year since 2008, when he won his most recent major title at the US Open at Torrey Pines.

Woods is set to play a tour event next week at Torrey Pines, where he has won eight times but last year struggled and missed a secondary 54-hole cut.

In his fi rst event since turning 39 last month, Woods opened with a 73 Thurs-day but struggled almost from the time he began Friday off the 10th tee.

After a bogey at 11, Woods made a double bogey at the par-4 14 and triple bogey at par-5 15, then took back-to-back bogeys at 17 and 18 to make the turn 8-over, the 44 matching the worst nine holes of his career.

Woods parred the next three holes before a double-bogey at the par-3 fourth. l

Sloppy Bayern stunned at Wolfsburgn AFP, Berlin

Wolfsburg breathed life into the Bunde-sliga’s title race on Friday with a shock 4-1 hammering of leaders Bayern Mu-nich, who suff ered their heaviest Ger-man league defeat for six years.

Pep Guardiola’s Bayern also lost their fi rst league game of the season as second-placed Wolfsburg trimmed their lead to eight points.

Bayern leaked as many goals in Wolfsburg as in the entire fi rst half of the season as the home side ruthlessly exploited Bayern’s numerous errors.

“We put in a huge performance,” beamed Wolfsburg coach Dieter Heck-ing. When you want to beat Bayern, you need a day like that. The team did everything we talked about and it went 100 percent according to plan.”

Netherlands striker Bas Dost gave

the hosts a deserved 2-0 lead at the break as his thunderbolt volley crashed into off the post just before the half-time whistle following an earlier goal.

Belgium international Kevin de Bruyne made sure of the three points with two second half goals while de-

fender Juan Bernat scored Bayern’s con-solation goal. “We lost our shape and we lost too many balls, it wasn’t our day.

For the fi rst time in three years, Bayern found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on their way to their heaviest league defeat since losing 5-1 at Wolfs-burg in April 2009 - when Wolves won the Bundesliga title.l

Gervinho poised for Ivory Coast returnn Reuters, Malabo

Ivory Coast forward Gervinho is due to return to action at the African Na-tions Cup on Sunday after completing a two-match suspension in a boost to his side’s chances in their quarter-fi nal against Algeria.

“It is clear that we will face a good Algerian team. We will need to be at our maximum level if we are to advance to the semi-fi nals of the Nations Cup,” he told reporters on Saturday.

Television pictures of an animated Gervinho running a gauntlet of emo-tions while supporting his country from the stands have served as a re-minder of the passionate approach he brings to the team.

The AS Roma winger was sent off for slapping Guinea’s Naby Keita in his side’s opening match at the tourna-ment in Equatorial Guinea.l

Ginola withdraws Fifa presidency bidn Reuters, London

Former France winger David Ginola has abandoned his bid to stand in the FIFA presidential elections after failing to secure the fi ve FA nominations needed, he said on Friday.

The 48-year-old launched his sur-prise attempt to oust Sepp Blatter as head of world soccer’s ruling body un-der the slogan “Rebooting Football” two weeks ago. l

VfL Wolfsburg mid� elder Kevin De Bruyne (C) shoots to score against Bayern Munich during their Bundesliga match on Friday REUTERS

Corporate Cricket begins in two daysn Tribune Desk

The second edition of Olympic Plus In-door Corporate Cricket, organised by 3 Crics, gets underway this Tuesday at Shaheed Sohrawardi Indoor Stadium in Mirpur. Thirty-two leading corporate houses of the country will participate in the fi ve-day tournament.

The details of the competition were announced in a press conference yes-terday held at Dhanmondi Club where the key organisers of 3 Crics – former national cricketers Akram Khan, Athar Ali Khan and Khaled Mashud - were present.

Bangladesh Cricket Board’s Elite Panel umpire Masudur Rahman and Olympic Biscuit general manager Quazi Touhiduzzaman were also present in the press conference.

The participating teams will be di-vided into eight groups with the top two teams from each group going through to the Super Sixteen knockout round. The Super Sixteen will be fol-lowed by the quarterfi nals, semifi nals and fi nal. The fi nal will take place this Saturday.

The champions will pocket Tk500,000 while the runners-up will bag Tk200,000. l

Condolencen Raihan Mahmood

Sufi a Begum, the mother of Moham-med Shah M Zakaria (Saimon), assis-tant sports editor of the Daily Star, passed away due to old age complica-tions at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital yesterday. She was 71.

Following the Zohr prayers, her body will be buried at Mohammedpur graveyard after the namaz-e-janaza. She is survived by three children.

Bangladesh Sports Journalists Asso-ciation expressed deep shock over the death of Sufi a and prayed for the salva-tion of the departed soul. l

Clarke batting for Western Suburbs against Gordon yesterday INTERNET

BUNDESLIGA RESULTVfL Wolfsburg 4-1 Bayern MunichBas Dost 4, 45, Juan Bernat 55Kevin de Bruyne 53,73

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sunday, February 1, 2015

Australian Open (2015, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2005, 2003)

French Open (2013, 2002)

Wimbledon (2012, 2010, 2009, 2003, 2002)

US Open (2014, 2013, 2012, 2008, 2002, 1999)

SERENA TITLES

22 Ste� Graf (GER)19 Serena Williams (USA)18 Chris Evert (USA), Martina Navrati-

lova (USA)11 Margaret Court (AUS)9 Monica Seles (USA)8 Billie Jean King (USA)7 Venus Williams (USA), Evonne

Goolagong Cawley (AUS), Justine Henin (BEL)

5 Maria Sharapova (RUS), Martina Hingis (USA)

GRAND SLAM WINNERS

19th Slam for Williamsn AFP, Melbourne

Serena Williams won her sixth Australian Open and 19th career Grand Slam with a hard-fought win over bitter rival Maria Shara-

pova on Saturday, consolidating her place among the game’s legends.

The 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) triumph means the American world number one overtakes 18-time major champions Martina Navra-tilova and Chris Evert to go clear second on the all-time Open-era Grand Slam winners’ list, three behind Steffi Graf.

Australia’s Margaret Court, who played many of her match before the Open-era, has 24 titles. Evert, com-mentating on ESPN, backed Williams to eventually overtake Graf’s mark “if she stays healthy, if he stays motivated”.

“Standing here with 19 champion-ships is something I never thought would happen, I went on the courts with just a ball and a racquet and hope and that’s all I had,” said Williams, at 33 the oldest women to win the Mel-bourne title.

“I’m just so excited to have this ti-tle,” she added, revealing that she had been “throwing up” when she went off court during a rain delay in the fi rst set.

The American has been battling a cold all tournament and was coughing during the match.

The fi rst Australian fi nal in a de-cade to feature the tournament’s top two seeds was a one-sided aff air in the opening set, although Sharapova ral-lied to make a contest of it in the sec-ond, saving two championship points before falling to a third.

The win extends Williams’ de-cade-long run over the Russian to 16 matches, with the second seed hailing her rival’s “incredible achievement”.

An intensely focused Williams out-gunned Sharapova, cannoning down 18 aces, including a 203 kmh (166 mph)

thunderbolt and glaring at her oppo-nent during key moments as Sharapova struggled to stay in the match.

Sharapova made a disastrous start when she double faulted to go down a break in the opening game, succumb-ing to pressure as Williams aggressive-ly stood inside the baseline and easily read the Russian’s intent.

The American pounced on any ten-tative shots from Sharapova who re-sorted to drop shots in a bid to vary her tactics and avoid getting into a slugfest with the game’s most powerful hitter.

Heavy rain interrupted play at 3-2, with Williams taking shelter and tow-elling down as the roof was closed, while Sharapova sat courtside then performed warm-up exercises.

Williams emerged, later saying she had been sick before the match fi nally resumed after 13 minutes.l

Sharapova still haunted by Serena jinxn AFP, Melbourne

Maria Sharapova vowed Saturday to keep grinding away to break her jinx against Serena Williams, after she was beaten to the Australian Open title by a player who has won all 16 of their last encounters.

Despite being number two in the world, the Russian just cannot beat her bitter rival, with her winless streak go-ing back a decade.

Coming into the tournament the Russian also had the chance to topple Williams as world number one, but the opportunity also slipped from her grasp.

However, Sharapova said she was a fi ghter and would work hard to keep putting herself in the position to beat the intensely focused American.

“Yes, I haven’t won against her many times, but if I’m getting to the stage of competing against someone like Serena, I’m doing something well,” she said.

“I’m setting up a chance to try to beat her and it hasn’t happened. I’m not just going to go home without giv-ing it another chance.

“That’s just not who I am and not who I was raised to be. I’m a competi-tor. If I’m getting to the fi nals of Grand Slams and setting myself up to play a match against Serena, I mean, maybe you’re telling me I’m wrong, but I’m happy to be in that position.

“I love the competition. I love play-ing against the best, and at the moment she is.”

The fi rst Australian fi nal in a de-cade to feature the tournament’s top two seeds was a one-sided aff air in the opening set, although Sharapova ral-lied to make a contest of it in the sec-ond, displaying her renowned fi ghting qualities.

She held off a championship point at 5-4 in the second and another at 6-5 when it went to a tie-break before Williams won on her third attempt with an ace.

Sharapova admitted Williams’ huge serve -- some of them fi red down at 200 kph (166 mph) was key to her victory.

“That’s one of her biggest strengths, her serve. Maybe it’s something that has saved her in many matches, situa-tions where you cannot get the racquet on the ball,” she said.

“You have to let that go. And if you’re able to get in the point somehow, make it a little bit easy for yourself -- I didn’t feel that I had many of those chances to get in the point.

“When the games on her serve were 30-All, 40-30 or 15-30 a few times, she came up with really great serves.”

Despite being outgunned, the 27-year-old, known for her steely com-posure on court, admitted it was tough to go home the loser without adding to her fi ve Grand Slam titles.

“It’s always tough getting to a fi nal stage of an event where it’s down to two players and you end up become the one that’s going home with the smaller trophy, there’s no doubt about it,” she said

“No matter how you played, well or not, whatever the scoreline is, it’s al-ways tough. But it will be alright.”

Sharapova, who at least improved on her 6-1, 6-2 capitulation to Williams in the 2007 fi nal at Melbourne Park, said the venue was still special for her.

“I’ve had some of my best memo-ries on this court and also some of my toughest losses as well, but that’s the life of a tennis player,” she said.l

Serena Williams of the US poses for photographs holding the 2015 Australian Open trophy after her victory against Russia’s Maria Sharapova in the women’s singles � nal in Melbourne yesterday AFP

Australia captain Mile Jedinak (C) holds the 2015 Asian Cup trophy after their win over South Korea in the � nal at the Stadium Australia in Sydney yesterday REUTERS

Australia break Korean hearts in Asian Cup � naln AFP, Sydney

Hosts Australia won the Asian Cup after beating South Korea 2-1 in extra time of an elec-trifying fi nal on Satur-day, substitute James Troisi smashing home

a dramatic winner.Troisi broke Korean hearts with the

last kick in the fi rst period of extra time after Son Heung-Min had snatched a dramatic injury-time equaliser at the end of normal time.

Australia’s triumph gave the Soc-ceroos a fi rst title since defecting from Oceania nine years ago, while South Korea’s anguish continued after failing to break a hoodoo in the tournament stretching back to 1960.

Australia, runners-up to Japan in 2011, had been on the brink of victory after a stunning strike from Massimo Luongo on the stroke of half-time, triggering wild celebrations from the waves of fans in green and gold in a

crowd of 76,000.But South Korea’s superstar Son

produced a moment of sheer brilliance in injury time, bursting through to fi re past goalkeeper Mathew Ryan after a clever fl ick from captain Ki Sung-Yueng.

The Socceroos, the Asian Cup’s top scorers with 14 goals, were forced to work hard for victory in a reversal of the group tie between the teams earlier in

the tournament, which was dominated by Australia but won 1-0 by the Koreans.

Australian captain Mile Jedinak set the tone for a bruising fi nal when he clattered Son during the early skir-mishes, and right-back Ivan Franjic was then booked for a crude foul on Park Joo-Ho.

Defender Kwak Tae-Hwi headed a Ki free kick wastefully wide after 24 minutes, before Tim Cahill forced a

smart save from Korean goalkeeper Kim Jin-Hyeon at the other end as both teams came out of their shell.

Son, Australia’s tormentor in chief, almost broke the deadlock when he lashed a left-foot volley just over the bar as South Korea pushed hard for the opening goal.

But then Luongo, who has been a revelation for Australia in this tour-nament, wriggled free to blast a fi erce long-range drive past goalkeeper Kim Jin-Hyeon against the run of play.

It was the fi rst goal South Korea had conceded in the tournament on their way to a fi rst fi nal in 27 years.

With the match drifting into stop-page time, Son pounced dramatically, celebrating with the massed ranks of “Red Devils” fans behind the Austra-lian goal.

South Korea were re-energised, but in extra time Tomi Juric picked Kim Jin-Su’s pocket and when his cross was pushed out by Kim Jin-Hyeon, fellow substitute Troisi belted the ball into the roof of the net. l

PSG edge Rennes to close gap on Lyonn AFP, Paris

Ezequiel Lavezzi scored the only goal as champions Paris Saint-Germain edged Rennes 1-0 on Friday to maintain their undefeated Ligue 1 home record and cut the gap on leaders Lyon to just one point.

The win was PSG’s sixth consecu-tive home win in all competitions while stretching their Ligue 1 record at the Parc des Princes to eight wins and three draws.

However, Lyon, who face PSG in 10 days’ time, can restore their four-point lead with victory at Monaco on Sunday.

“I would have liked to have had a bigger victory, but we kept a clean sheet. That’s satisfying,” said PSG coach Laurent Blanc.

“We scored a very good goal but we expect more up front.”

Hollywood actress Salma Hayek, the wife of Rennes owner Francois-Henri Pinault, watched the game from the stands but her star quality failed to rub off on her husband’s mid-table team.

“There’s a little bit of frustration be-cause we had chances to take a point,” said coach Philippe Montanier.

“Paris scored a magnifi cent goal but when we had opportunities we were unable to take them.”

Lavezzi grabbed the decisive goal af-ter 29 minutes after a neat interchange of passes down the left between Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was involved twice, Adrien Rabiot and Javier Pastore.

Argentine star Lavezzi, who has been linked with a move to Liverpool before the transfer window shuts on Monday, was then on hand to tuck the ball past Benoit Costil in the Rennes goal for his third goal of the season.

Rennes may have gone into Friday’s game having not won a game in Ligue 1 since December 3 but they had defeat-ed PSG 2-1 on their last visit to the cap-ital in May.l

Murray, Djokovic both bidding for � rsts in Australian Reuters, Melbourne

For two men who have accomplished so much in their closely intertwined careers, the Australian Open fi nal be-tween friends Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray on Sunday could achieve a number of fi rsts.

Should Djokovic beat Murray he will become the fi rst man in the Open era to win fi ve titles in Melbourne and be one away from Roy Emerson’s record of six, won before the game went professional in 1968.

Victory will also allow him to re-claim his mantle as the king of Mel-bourne Park, having reached the fi nal in four of the past fi ve years.

“Getting to the fi nals is already a great achievement ... but now this is the match for which you have worked for now two months,” Djokovic said after he beat last year’s champion Stan Wawrinka in the semi-fi nal. “This is where you want to be.

“This is why you put all these hours on and off the court, trying to get your-self in a position to win grand slam tro-phy, because that’s what matters the most.”

Djokovic is bidding for his eighth grand slam title and has a superior 15-8 career record over Murray.

He has also won seven of the last eight matches, while in his run of three successive Melbourne Park titles, he beat Murray twice, in 2011 and 2013.

“There’s no clear favourite. But ... the record I have in fi nals against him here in Australia, we played couple times, can serve maybe as a slight mental edge,” Djokovic said. “But not much.”

While the history is against Murray, the Scot is used to rewriting it.

It would be his fi rst title at Mel-bourne Park, from his fourth fi nal ap-pearance, the most required in the Open era to win the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.

It would also end another long bar-ren streak for British men’s tennis, as he would be the fi rst British man since Fred Perry in 1934 to clinch the Austra-lian title.l

RESULTPSG 1-0 RennesLavezzi 29

ASIAN CUP RESULTAustralia 2-1 South KoreaLuongo 45, Troisi 105 Son 90+1

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Sunday, February 1, 2015 15

Film Zahir Raihan Film Fest 2015Time: 5:30pm – 9:30pmShilpakala Academy, Shegun Bagicha

ExhibitionChronologyBy Kazi RakibTine: 11:00am – 7:30pmGalleri Kaya, House 20, Sector 4, Uttara

Tarshito: Embroider the WorldTime: 12pm – 8pmBengal Gallery of Fine ArtsRoad No 16, Dhanmondi

Light, Dark, SpaceBy MD TokonBengal Art Lounge60 Gulshan Avenue , Road 131, Gulshan

Theatre Ochin Dwiper UpakhhanTime: 6:30pm – 8:00pmExperimental Theatre Hall, Shilpakala Academy

WHAT TO WATCHTELEVISION

THE DA VINCI CODEHBO Hits, 4:45pmCast: Hanks, Tautou, Jean Reno A murder inside the Louvre and clues in Da Vinci paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mys-tery protected by a secret society for two thousand years -- which could shake the foundations of Christianity.

300WB, 4pmCast: Gerard Butler, Lena HeadeyKing Leonidas and a force of 300 men fi ght the Persians at Thermo-pylae in 480 BC.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEANZee Studio, 9:30pm Cast: Depp, Bloom, Keira Knightley Captain Barbossa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must sail off the edge of the map, navigate treach-ery and betrayal, and make their fi nal alliances for one last decisive battle.

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 I PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (3D) I ROMEO V/S JULIET I BOYHOOD I BEAUTY AND THE BEAST@ Star Cineplex

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB I EXODUS 3D I THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES I THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR 3D I EK CUP CHAINTERSTELLAR@ Blockbuster Cinemas

THEATRE

Shongram to be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York n Entertainment Desk

Munsur Ali’s “Shongram”, a romantic drama set in the background of the liberation war of Bangladesh, will be screened at the Tri-beca Film Festival in New York tomorrow.

Bollywood star Anupam Kher, Bangladeshi artists Amaan Reza and Dilruba Yasmeen Ruhee, among others, stared in the fi lm.

Produced, written and directed by British Bangladeshi Munsur Ali, who made the fi lm in search of his roots and to share the story of the liberation war to a global audience.

The Shongram was premiered at the Lon-don Indian Film Festival.

The fi lm was also screened at the Darpan Singapore Film Festival, LA Indian Film Fes-tival and Keswick Film Festival.

“It’s not enough to make fi lms for a Ban-gladeshi audience only, we need to export Bengali stories to share our experiences and to compete on the world stage,” says Mun-sur Ali.

Munsur Ali is now planning his new fi lm called “Cinema,” which will be shot in India, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom. l

DREEK coming soon with their debut album

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

Dreek, one of the hard rock bands of the country, is all set to bring out their self-titled debut album in Febru-ary. Though the release date has not been fi nalised yet, the band members expect the album’s post-produc-tion work would be completed within a couple of week as they are passing hectic time in the Bengal Studio.

The band, infl uenced by the popular internation-al hard rock acts of the 80s and 90s, will have a col-lection of some great numbers in the album for the

hard rock enthusiasts. Hasibul Hossain Upal, band’s founding member

and drummer, told to the Dhaka Tribune: “We are putting together nine versatile tracks, mostly hard rock with two romantic ballad, in the album. Be-sides, we have placed four tracks of the genre which we relish to perform on stage.”

Drawing a huge fan base with the release of three songs - “Tarunner Michile”, “Notun Alo” and “Golok Dhadhaye” - on Radio Foorti last year, the band has already made an impression with their kind of music.

About the album release plan Upal added: “As there is a decline in physical album sales, the album will see online digital release primarily, and later we will bring out a physical version of collector’s edition CD .”

In 2007, Dreek came out on top six in Djuice DRockstars competition and have released four singles since then. They are “Opurnota”, “Adhar Manush,” “Khuji Tomaye” and a tribute to Kazi Naz-rul Islam’s song “Jhornar moto Chonchol.”

The band’s current line up beside Upal includes Saif on vocal, Ratul on guitar and Rahi on bass. l

SUMAIYA SHIMU assigns to steal legal wills n Shadma Malik

Graceful actress Sumaiya Shimu will appear in a new TV series titled “Lake Drive Lane” which will be aired on television channel Ntv from tomor-row. In the drama, she shared screen with Ziaul Faruq Apurba.

The television series will be aired on every Monday and Tuesday at 8:20pm.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Su-maiya said: “In the TV series I am playing the role of a simple girl who has come to Dhaka from a small town. She is struggling to earn livelihood. She needs to earn money to maintain her family as her father was disap-peared.”

“Due to desperate need of money, I got involved in such tasks which is questionable in term of morality,” she explained her character.

The plot of the story revolves around a house where Sumaiya works as a ghost-writer and she writes the biography of a person named Lutfar Rahman. But Lutfar’s son lured her to work for him in exchange of huge amount of money. At one stage, she agreed to do so. Then the son hired Sumaiya to steal a will paper from the house as his father wants to give his assets to one of his nephew.

“The story talks about moral val-ues of doing such thing, on the other hand it also gives an insight story of a girl who is struggling to earn money and doing such tasks she expresses her pain and guilt. In a way the char-acter is negative but looking the other side there is a meaning to commit a crime,” Sumaiya said.

“We have fi nished shooting eleven episodes and there will be hundred and four episodes.” l

WINSLET, DANIELS join Steve Jobs biopic

The newest additions to the Steve Jobs biopic have been

announced. Kate Winslet and Jeff Daniels have signed

on to star as former Mac-intosh marketing boss Joanna Hoff man and former Apple CEO John

Sculley. Michael Fass-bender will portray Steve

Jobs with Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak.

Other cast members in-clude Katherine Waterston,

who will play Steve Jobs’ ex-girl-friend Chrisann Brennan. Michael Stuhlbarg will play Andy Hertzfeld,

one of Mac’s original developers. Sarah Snook is set as Andrea Cunningham, project leader of Apple Macintosh, and Adam Shapiro as Avie Tevanian, Apple Computer Senior VP of software

engineering.The fi lm is being directed by

Danny Boyle with Aaron Sorkin is penning the script. l

GAME OF THRONES season � ve trailer releasedn Entertainment Desk

“Game of Thrones “season fi ve is nearly here, and the trailer has fi nally been re-leased. There is plenty to be excited for, and the trailer even teases something that many fans have wondered. It may be that Daenerys taking over the Iron Throne is the endgame after all.

“Game of Thrones” did something that no other TV show has done this year. It shared the fi nal two episodes of season four in the IMAX last week, and then shared the season fi ve trailer just afterwards. It took some time, but the offi cial teaser has now been released.

The tagline for season fi ve is “justice has a price,” and there are certainly clips of prices while the song Heroes by David Bowie plays. All the major players were on

the screen, including Tyrion Lannister, the Stark sisters, Jon Snow and the Lannister twins. One of the most dramatic clips has to be the one between Sansa and Littlefi nger, when he tells her to avenge “them,” pre-sumably her parents and brother. He also tells her that the only justice is one that “we make.”

Daenerys is also becoming the powerful leader she showed that she could be in the earlier seasons of the show. There are going to be a number of new characters in season fi ve of Game of Thrones, and the newly re-leased trailer certainly showed them. Alex-ander Siddig will take on the role of Doran Martell, and it is clear that he is after re-venge for his brother’s death.

The show will return to HBO on April 12.Link of the offi cial trailer: http://www.

hbo.com/game-of-thrones#/ l

KATE BOSWORTH talks about Still Alicen Entertainment Desk

Hollywood actress Kate Bosworth talked about her role in Still Alice and opened up about not being in hurry to have kids with hus-band Michael Polish.

She talked about “Still Al-ice,” wherein she stars in a small but meaty role. The fi lm revolves round Dr Alice How-ard, a professor, played by Julianne Moore who comes to terms of having Alzhei-mer’s. Kate plays the role of her daughter, Anna.

Kate reveals that she read the book and was so moved by its story that she asked her manag-er if anyone was mak-ing a movie out of it and that is when she found out about the men behind “Still Alice,” looking for an actress to play the role of Anna. l

n Entertainment Desk

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

Police-BGB to secure SSC exam venuesn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Bangladesh Police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have said their forces would provide security for Secondary School Certifi cate (SSC) exam candi-dates amid the BNP-led alliance’s hartal and transport blockade programmes.

The BNP coalition’s declared 72-hour hartal overlaps with the fi rst day of the SSC exam scheduled to start tomorrow.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque, at a press brief-ing at police headquarters yesterday, said if the government decides to hold SSC examinations during the opposi-tion programmes, police would pro-vide security.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) of Police Mokhlesur Rahman, AIG (Me-dia) Jalaluddin Ahmed and other top police offi cials were present.

The IGP said that besides providing security for exam halls, police would also provide security for localities hav-ing more than 50 candidates.

The police chief said: “Being a father and a common citizen of the country, I request the BNP alliance to withdraw the programmes for the sake of the students.”

Barring a withdrawal of the block-ade, he the opposition coalition to keep SSC examinees outside the purview of their programmes.

The police chief said profession-al saboteurs were hurling petrol and

crude bombs for money and many of these paid troublemakers were in po-lice custody.

Asked about the arrest of top BNP leaders for sabotage, the police chief said that was up to the investigation offi cers of the specifi c cases.

A special meeting held at police headquarters to plan for SSC exam se-curity decided to deploy metropolitan police, district police, highway police, armed police battalion and Rapid Ac-tion Battalion forces along with regular police at exam venues and on the roads and highways.

BGB chief Major General Aziz Ahmed, Ansar chief Major General Md Nazimuddin, Special Branch Addition-al IGP Dr Jabed Patowari, RAB Director General Benazir Ahmed, Additional IGP Mokhlesur Rahman and DMP Commis-sioner Asaduzzman Miah were present at the meeting.

A DMP press statement signed by Commissioner Asaduzzaman yester-day banned the entrance of the general public within 200 yards of exam halls, ordered under section 28 and 29 of the DMP Ordinance.

BGB Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that the BGB would be deployed near examina-tion centres two or three hours before and after exam times, so that exami-nees can sit the exams and return home safely, he said. l

SSC examinees, guardians feel insecure, victimisedThe education minister has called for the BNP alliance to suspend its programmen Tribune Report

Around 1.5m students across the coun-try are set to sit for the SSC and equiva-lent examinations tomorrow amid fear of sudden violent attacks by the block-aders, as the BNP-led 20-party alliance has not yet lifted the indefi nite block-ade.

Students as well as the guardians express fear despite the government’s assurances of providing adequate se-curity. The government is adamant not to reschedule the exam dates.

Uncertainty has gripped them main-ly because of reports on the violent in-cidents centring the government-oust-er movement. Many said they felt like hostages by the political parties. It has hampered their preparations too while the students say their results would not be what they expected.

Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque yesterday promised full security for the Secondary School Certifi cate (SSC) examinees if the blockade continued.

Border Guard Bangladesh chief Maj

Gen Aziz Ahmed said: “The BGB will arrange special patrol during the exam-inations to ensure safety of the exam-inees.”

Fatema Binte Mohsin will have to go to Motijheel Government Girls’ High School from Rampura to sit for the exams. She has to take a bus to reach Motijheel. Her father Sheikh Mohsin is now scared of attack on their way to the exam centre.

“We have learnt about the assurance of the state minister and the law en-forcing agencies. But they can ensure safety only in and around the centres. How will they manage the street at-tacks?” he asked.

Demanding withdrawal of the blockade and hartals during the SSC examination, another guardian Rehana Begum said the government’s resched-uling the examination would also aff ect the students’ preparations.

She was not convinced by the pledg-es of the authorities. “This types of assurances come from them [govern-ment] always. But nothing keep the miscreants away from doing misdeeds.”

Our Habiganj correspondent report-ed that the guardians of around 17,000 examinees of the district were tensed about their children.

Alima Begum, an examinee from Shastipur Girls’ High School in Bahu-bal upazila, will have to travel 10 kilo-metres to attend the exam.

His father Mohim Uddin said: “Stu-dents will go to exam halls. But can they keep their minds tense-free from sudden attacks?”

Deputy Commissioner of Chapa-inawabganj Jahangir Kabir told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have taken every possible measures to ensure that the examinations are held properly.”

Sahabul Islam from Kansat area un-der Shibganj upazila, where many inci-dents of violence were reported in the last couple of days, thinks violence is obvious during blockade and hartals, our Chapainawabganj correspondent reports.

Similar reactions came from Chit-tagong, Sylhet, Tangail and Gaibandha districts as reported by our district cor-respondents.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid too urged the BNP-led alliance to withdraw the blockade and hartals considering suff erings of the SSC ex-aminees.

Businessman Nasir Chowdhury, res-ident of Chittagong city’s Halishahar area, expressing his anxiety, said his el-der daughter’s exam centre was about 10 kilometres off their house.

“I have a car but I cannot run it on the streets during hartal,” he said add-ing that the public transports or hired vehicles were low in number and tar-geted by the blockaders very often.

A candidate of PDB High School, Mohammad Rahi, fears that he might not reach the exam centre in time due to bad transportation during hartal hours. His mother Shahana Begum is more concerned about Rahi’s safety.

CMP Additional Commissioner (crime and operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder said they would deploy additional forces in every risky andimportant points of the city while spe-cial teams to patrol around the exam centres. l

Violence kills two more menn Tribune Report

A bus driver and an autorickshaw pas-senger died in petrol bomb attacks in Lakshmipur and Sirajganj yesterday, the 26th day of the indefi nite blockade imposed by the BNP-led 20-party alli-ance across the country.

Besides, a policeman was injured in a crude bomb attack in Chittagong, two vehicles were torched in Narayanganj and Chapainawabganj and two Chhatra Shibir activists were caught red-hand-ed while fl eeing after hurling crude bombs at police in Rajshahi.

Our Lakshmipur correspondent reported that the bus driver, Md Su-mon, 30, was injured when Molotov cocktails were thrown at the vehicle on Lakshmipur-Noakhali highway around 11:45pm on Friday. He died on the way to hospital late at night.

Sumon lived in Senbagh of Noakha-li, said Humayun Kabir, offi cer-in-charge of Chandraganj police station.

In Sirajganj, Ganesh Das, 45, was in-jured along with four others when a pet-rol bomb was hurled at the autorickshaw they were travelling by around 9pm. He died after being taken to hospital.

In Chittagong, police constable Md Shamim of Kotwali police station, was injured in a crude bomb blast near Di-dar market area at noon. He was ad-mitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital where doctors said his injuries were minor and he was out of danger.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police As-sistant Commissioner (Kotwali circle) Shah Mohammad Abdur Rouf said

some Shibir activists blasted fi ve crude bombs aiming at police in the area.

Police detained Ekramul Haq Su-man, 23, from the scene and nabbed another 35 students from Darul Ulum Madrasa with some explosives, he said.

Besides, police in separate opera-tions arrested 10 BNP and Jamaat-e-Is-lami activists from diff erent areas in the district for their alleged involve-ment in subversive activities.

Four people were detained on charge of setting fi re to a truck in Go-mastapur of Chapainawabganj late on Friday night.

In Rajshahi, two Shibir activists – Nawshad Ali and Saiful Islam Selim - were caught red-handed when they were trying to escape after throwing crude bombs at police, said Alamgir Hossain, offi cer-in-charge of Boalia po-lice station.

A crude bomb was blasted on Jagan-nath University campus at noon while police recovered an unexploded bomb from the scene.

Maasranga Television staff reporter Jahid Selim and cameraman Moazzem Hossain were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital after they were in-jured in a crude bomb blast at TSC area of Dhaka University around 7:30pm.

Sharif, who hurled the bomb, was given a mob beating before being hand-ed over to police.

A policeman was injured when a petrol bomb was hurled at New Market police station at 8:15pm but the miscre-ants could not be captured, said Duty Offi cer Asaduzzaman. l

DMCH doctors nearly send live newborn to graven Mohammad Jamil Khan

Negligent doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) nearly caused a newborn to be buried alive yesterday, after they issued a death certifi cate to an unresponsive one-day-old who was still alive.

Preparations for the neonate’s fu-neral had been completed and the grave site was being dug when pas-sers-by noticed the shrouded fi gure moving and halted the burial.

But when the relieved but upset family was back at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with the newborn at 1:30pm, a DMCH doctor snatched away the death certifi cate and tore it up, family members said.

The baby is now undergoing treat-ment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

In December last year, a DMCH pa-tient, reported to have been neglected by doctors because she appeared to be a vagabond, was declared dead but came back to life while being carted off to the Dhaka Medical College morgue.

Declared dead Jahangir Alam was moments away from committing his one-day-old son Sobahan to the earth at Azimpur Graveyard around noon yesterday when students of Sha-heed Begum Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Government College, who were passing by, noticed the tiny fi gure moving.

Oni Islam, a fi rst-year student of the college, said: “We stopped the father

from burying the infant after we no-ticed it moving inside its shroud.”

According to the DMCH admission registrar, the infant’s mother, Sultana Akther, 28, of Cunkutia in Keraniganj was admitted to the hospital around 10pm Friday with labour pains.

Two hours later, she gave birth to a three-month premature baby. The newborn required oxygen support.

The infant’s maternal grandmother, Hanufa Begum, said, soon after the birth, DMCH doctors suggested that the baby be admitted to the Children’s Hospital.

“But it was night, so we decided to keep the baby at DMCH with oxygen sup-port and wait for morning so the boy’s father, a worker of a steel factory, could arrange money for treatment,” she said.

“At 9am, the baby was unresponsive so we contacted the doctors and they, without checking anything, issued a death certifi cate and told us the baby had died,” Hanufa said.

Sultana was being treated at ward 212 under the MAT-II unit in the gynae-cology department of DMCH under su-pervision of Prof Dr Iff at Ara.

Asked how this could have hap-pened, DMCH Director Brig Gen Mustafi zur Rahman said: “Undoubted-ly, this was a great mistake. The doctor should not have issued the [death] cer-tifi cate without a proper check-up.”

“We have taken steps to move against those responsible for this and a four-member probe body will give its re-port within the next fi ve days,” he said.

The committee, headed by surgery

department Associate Prof ABM Jamal, includes Medicine department Associ-ate Prof Dr Sudip Ranjan Day, Gynae-cology resident surgeon Chowdhury Taslima Nasrin and DMCH Deputy Di-rector ASM Sahidullah.

Probe in progressBrig Gen Mustafi zur said the commit-tee would investigate exactly how the death certifi cate came to be issued.

He said according to hospital protocol, only the on-duty assistant registrar has the authority to issue death certifi cates.

But the hospital director would not name who was responsible.

Sources at the hospital confi rmed to the Dhaka Tribune that Assistant Reg-istrar Dr Meherunnessa was on duty at the time. She was not available to com-ment about the matter.

Professor Dr Ferdousi Islam, head of gynaecology at DMCH, said: “The woman gave birth to the child prema-turely and could not give a clear idea about her pregnancy.”

“Besides, she had not gone to a doc-tor during the six months of her preg-nancy which caused confusion leading to a misunderstanding,” she added.

“Despite all this, because the neo-natal ICU had no vacancies, we asked the baby’s parents to shift the child to another hospital but they would not listen to us,” Dr Ferdousi said.

“In medical terms, a 24 to 26 week premature birth is described in medical terms as ‘clinically dead’,” she said.

Dr Ferdousi said in these cases, a

baby might be unresponsive for up to 48 hours. Doctors, failing to see a re-sponse from the infant, might have is-sued the death certifi cate.

Still at riskProf Dr Abid Hossain Mollah, head of the paediatric unit of DMCH, said the baby was born 28 weeks prematurely and weighed just 1200 grammes which means it will be diffi cult for it to survive.

“The baby is now in an incubator and if he survives, it will be a rare case,” he added.

The chief of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Prof Dr Eklasur Rahman, said: “The baby is breathing with the support of ventilation machine, a very costly treatment. At any other hospital, it would cost nearly Tk50,000 per day.”

“The baby was born prematurely and was hypothermic. The machine keeps him warm. If he can survive in-side there, his brain and other organs will mature,” Dr Eklas said.

This is the second time in recent memory that DMCH doctors mistaken-ly declared a living patient dead.

In early December last year, doctors mistakenly declared a woman dead but four hours afterwards, she started mov-ing while being taken to the morgue.

She died a day after her apparent revival, but was only declared dead af-ter proper pathological tests were con-ducted.

This time, three hours after doc-tors declared him dead, little Sobahan showed signs of life. l

Since the BNP-led 20-party alliance announced a fresh 72-hr hartal across the country for Sunday onwards, candidates of the upcoming SSC examination and their guardians took to the streets protesting the decision.(Left) General students hold a human chain in front of the BNP’s Gulshan o� ce yesterday urging the party to recall its decision. l (Top right) Meanwhile, guardians of the SSC examinees bring out a rally and form a human chain in the capital’s Gulshan area. l (Bottom right) Students, teachers and guardians form a human chain demanding no political programmes during the SSC examinations. The photo was taken in Rajshahi city’s Shaheb Bazar area yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE/AZAHAR UDDIN

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015

B3 Russian central bank makes surprise interest rate cut

B4 OPEC oil output rises as key members stand � rm

Current account de� cit likely for 1st time in 2 yearsn Tribune Report

The current account balance is likely to plunge to defi cit for the fi rst time in two years in the current fi scal year with imports exceeding exports.

The defi cit is projected to be $1,348m in the fi scal year 2014-15, ac-cording to the latest monetary policy statement.

Until the fi rst quarter of the fi scal, the current account had been in the black since FY2011-12.

The current account balance record-ed a defi cit of $1,316m during the Ju-ly-November period of 2014 compared to a surplus of $1,127m in the same pe-riod a year ago, according to the Bang-ladesh Bank data.

“The current account balance was negative during the period, particular-ly owing to import growth outstripping export growth,” said the central bank statement.

On projection of current account for this fi scal, it said there will be a correc-tion in the pace of export growth as the existing outcome of export earnings appears to be the lag eff ect of cancel-lation of garments order followed by political deadlock in the fi rst half of current fi scal year and collapse of Rana Plaza, along with a pick-up in imports as investor confi dence grows.

Imports rose by 11.59% to $17.8bn in the fi rst half of this fi scal when exports rose 1.56% to $14.91bn compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Export Promotion Bureau.

A banker said imports might in-crease further with the start of Padma Bridge construction works, the coun-try’s largest infrastructural project.

Political unrest might dampen ex-port growth, which would put the bal-ance of payments under pressure in future, he added.

For this fi scal year, the central bank projects an overall export growth of 8%, import 15% and remittance 12%, which will lead to having a reasonable

balance of payment surplus. However, starting from FY2015 in

order to retain external sector stabil-ity it will be important for export and growth to pick up as imports are likely to grow further, Bangladesh Bank said in policy statement.

“This will require coordinated ac-tivities to boost export diversifi cation, change in destination, manpower ex-ports, upgrading skills of migrants and enhanced incentives to use formal channels to remit and invest funds. Bangladesh Bank will continue its ef-forts in this regard,” it said.

Despite a reasonable remittance growth of more than 10% in the fi rst six months of this fi scal year, the defi cits in trade balance ($4.48bn), services account ($2.05bn) and primary income account ($1.21bn) exacerbate the cur-rent account balance to a defi cit, ac-cording to BB.

It said fortunately, remittances and other secondary income to the tune of $17bn are expected to cushion against the defi cits of trade, services, and pri-mary income, limiting the amount of current account defi cit to $1.35bn for FY2015 – which appears to be normal and serviceable for a growing economy like Bangladesh.

Aiming at keeping exchange rate stable, Bangladesh Bank will continue to buy greenback.

“Intervention in the foreign ex-change market have protected export-ers by slowing the appreciation or in turn, helping depreciation of the taka.”

The central bank anticipates further buildup in foreign exchange reserves in the second half of FY2015 though at a more moderate pace than FY2014 due to the balance of payments assump-tions.

Foreign currency reserves are hov-ering over around $22bn – enough to cover imports of more than six months.

After a period of appreciation since early 2012, the exchange rate remained stable since mid-2013. l

Banks’ Return on Assets hits 10-year lowSpillover e� ect of loan scams continues in the banking sectorn Jebun Nesa Alo

The country’s banking sector wit-nessed lowest return on assets in 10 years due to the rise in default loans.

Return on Asset (ROA) was declin-ing since December 2010 from 1.8% to 0.6% in June 2014 thanks to maintain-ing higher provision against the bad assets, according to Bangladesh Bank monetary policy statement that an-nounced on Thursday last for H2.

The banks, however, bagged highest return on assets above 1.5% during the year 2010 and 2011 when the private sector credit growth was also highest ever 24.2% and 25.8% respectively ac-cording to the Bangladesh Bank data.

The return on asset witnesses a sharp fall in the year 2012 as several loan scams took heavy toll on the bank-ing sector.

Loans over Tk4,500 crore have been taken away from the banking

sector through forgery by Hallmark and Bismillah group between the year 2010 and 2012. Loan forgery of around Tk4,500 crore took place in BASIC Bank during the same period.

The spillover eff ect of the loan scams continued in the banking sector with eroding its earnings, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

The ROA increased to 0.9% in De-cember 2013 mainly because of the temporary relaxation of loan resched-uling policy, according to the central bank monetary policy statement.

The required provision against bad debt for the year 2013 came down to Tk4,600 crore compared to Tk8,640 crore for 2012 thanks to huge loan rescheduling under the relaxed policy that was given from December 2013 to June 2014.

The earning ratio declined again to 0.6% at the end of June 2014 due to further increased amount of default loans and the net losses made by state-

owned commercial banks, said the statement.

The private sector credit growth also remained in slower pace ranged between 10% and 12% during last one and a half year.

The return on asset of the state-owned commercial banks, including Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali be-came negative in June 2014 from 0.6% in the year 2013, according to the cen-tral bank data.

The return of these four banks grew consistently since the year 2008 and reached to the highest 1.4% in the year 2011. Later, it turned negative in the year 2012 due to the huge corruption in loan disbursement.

The banks showed artifi cial return of 0.6% in the fi nancial statement of the year 2013 through regularising huge amount of default loans under relaxed policy. But it did not sustain as clients fail to continue installment

amid political unrest. As a result, the ratio of return again turned to negative in June last year.

The default loan rate also pushed the capital adequacy ratio of banking sector down to 10.6% at the end of Sep-tember last year from 11.5% in Decem-ber 2013. The private commercial bank though successfully maintaining the CAR standard of 10% since December 2010 but the state-owned commercial banks are still struggling to fulfi ll the regulatory requirements.

The rise of default loans continued during the fi rst three quarter of 2014 because of the implementation of the new guideline for loan classifi cation and rescheduling, Bangladesh Bank ex-plained in its monetary policy stance.

In addition, the lack of profi tabili-ty due to the uncertainties emanating from political factors contributed to this increased volume of default loans, said the policy. l

FY15 exports may fall short of target

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Bangladesh is unlikely to reach its ex-port target set for the current fi scal year in the wake of the prevailing political unrest that has already undertaken heavy toll on the country’s economy.

The government has set US$33.2bn export target for the fi scal year 2014-15 to earn $27.5bn from the nation’s potential garment sector. The target is 8.85% higher than that of the last year’s earning of $30.19bn.

According to Export Promotion Bu-reau (EPB), in the fi rst half of the current fi scal year, Bangladesh earned $14.9bn, which is 4.42% less than that of the ex-port target of $15.6bn for the period.

On the other hand, the export growth had showed a slower trend to 1.56% in July-December period, the lowest in the last fi ve year.

In the fi rst half of the current fi s-cal year, Bangladesh has witnessed over 1.5% growth against the target of around 10%, former fi nance adviser to a care taker government ABM Mirza Azizul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.

“If we want to meet the target, we have to achieve over 15% growth in next six month, which is not possible due to the ongoing political unrest as it has already disrupted both the supply and the demand sides,” said Islam.

In this regard, he also reminded that the buyers were unwilling to place or-ders in Bangladesh amid political unrest.

“The export target for the FY2014-15 is under great threat due to the ongoing political turmoil since January 5 and if the present situation does not improve, it will be quite impossible to meet the target,’’ Mohammad Hatem, former fi rst vice president of Bangladesh Knit-

wear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told the Dhaka Tribune.

A confi rmed order worth $3.8m has fi nally been withdrawn as the buyer is not willing to take any risk placing or-ders in Bangladesh under the current state of political unrest, he added.

If there is not enough work orders for the export-oriented industry, espe-cially the apparel industry, how come it would be possible for us to ship the products under police escort? ques-tioned an exporter, commenting on the government’s initiative to keep the supply and delivery chain smooth at any cost.

The country’s supply chain has been shattered since 5 January and if it con-tinues any further, production at the export oriented factories will come to a halt, he added.

After the X-mas, it is the high time for the buyers to place orders but they are placing at least 30% to 40% less or-ders due to the political unrest, he fur-ther said.

As there is no suffi cient orders, a good number of factory owners is run-ning their factories partly, said BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim.

“It would be quite impossible to reach the export target by any means under the current situation and conse-quently, it would badly hit the export target of $50bn by 2021,” he added.

According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Associa-tion (BGMEA), the RMG sector has lost more than 30% orders as the buyers are not even coming to Bangladesh to place their orders.

Bangladesh mainly depends on garment, leather, agricultural prod-ucts, shrimp and jute and jute goods to achieve its export target.

Among the major export sectors, Knitwear sector failed to reach the tar-get by 2.41% followed by Woven 7.27%, leather and leather products 12.80%, home textile 7.19%, specialised textile 12%, frozen fi sh 10.47% while vegeta-ble 26%. l

Initiatives taken to cement bilateral ties with Irann Asif Showkat Kallol

Bangladesh wants to strengthen bilat-eral ties with Iran focusing on trade and business, said offi cial sources.

The governments are likely sign a trade agreement and a number of mem-orandums of understanding at Joint Economic Council Meeting in May in Tehran to boost bilateral relations.

Bangladesh and Iran signed an MoU on signing a bilateral trade agreement at the meeting held in 2013.

Besides, there is a preferential trade agreement signed in 2006 between the two countries which has remained not functional for last nine years.

The proposed joint council deal is expected to increase Bangladesh’s ex-port to Iran as the latter has good de-mand of jute and jute goods.

“Bangladesh government also plans to provide some trade facilities to ex-porters to Iran. The issue will be dis-cussed with the Iranian authorities,” said an offi cial.

Senior commerce secretary Heday-etullah Al Mamoon said Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) has already evaluated cost and benefi ts of the pro-posed trade deal with Iran.

He, however, is not sure that the

deal will be signed in the next Joint Economic Council Meeting.

Of the MoUs, an MoU will be signed on the import of wheat from Iran, offi -cials said. An MoU on agriculture sector signed at the 2013 meeting will be ex-tended till 2020.

About the PTA, offi cials said the countries have failed to settle dispute of rules of origin of products in last nine years of signing of the agreement, which has kept it non-functional.

Meanwhile, Iran asked Bangladesh to regularly pay instalments of a loan taken from the country in the 1980s.

An ERD letter sent to foreign aff airs ministry recently cited the develop-ment.

B a n g l a d e s h took the loan to construct Ashu-ganj Fertiliser and Chemical Company Ltd, but later faced problems to con-tinue repayment of instalments after the sanc-tion was im-posed on Iran in 2006. l

BANGLADESH – IRAN BALANCE OF TRADEYear Export Import Balance

2008-09 46.51 38.40 8.11

2009-10 77.44 36.80 40.64

2010-11 97.15 63.30 33.85

2011-12 83.01 12.70 70.31

2012-13 75.42 7.10 68.32

2013-14 59.80 7.80 52.00

2014-15 28.27(July- Dec) ----- ----Source: Export Promotion Bureau (million US dollar)

NBR forms units to block duty dodgingn Tribune Business Desk

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has formed three risk management units, aiming to block duty dodging, a major concern of the government in revenue collection.

The three units – National Committee (NC), Technical Unit (TU) and Local Unit (LU) – have been constituted recently with the view in mind the high risk of duty evasion following the repeal of the mandatory pre-shipment inspection system, a senior NBR offi cial told UNB.

Duty evasion and money laundering – purportedly using under-and over-in-voicing of goods as a tool – has been a major disquiet for the government amid the rise of international trade volume.

Of the three units, incorporating the NBR top offi cials, he said, the TU would play an important role in curb-ing the duty dodging as it will collect information and data from local and in-ternational sources and review as well.

He further said, the TU formed with the Director General (Commissioner of Customs or equivalent post holder) as its head, will also preserve risk register, identify the mode of risk management, handle the risk-related selectivity mod-ule of the ASYCUDA World and target the highest risk matters.

He said the revenue collection author-ity decided to establish Customs Control at its custom offi ces across the country under the risk management units. l

Political unrest has already slowed export growth in the current � scal DHAKA TRIBUNE

B2 Stock Sunday, February 1, 2015DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosuresAGM/DividendGSPFINANCE: The Board of Directors has recommended 55% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2014. Date of AGM: 23.02.2015, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh, IDEB Bhaban, 160/A, Kakrail, Dhaka-1000. Record Date: 05.02.2015. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 1.58, NAV per share of Tk. 22.77 and NOCFPS of Tk. (6.50) for the year ended on December 31, 2014.

Fixed Assets/Right/Investment:BXPHARMA: The Company has informed that it has entered into a new Loan Agree-ment with BHF-Bank Aktiengesellshaft, Frankfurt, Germany to borrow up to US $51.559 million to partially � nance the purchase of new plant and machinery to expand its production facilities it will be covered by Hermes (German Export Credit Agency Euler Hermes Aktiengesellshaft, Hamburg) guarantee. The Loan, which is secured on the plant and machinery being purchased, will be drawn down in four tranches against delivery and installation of the plant and machinery commencing now and due for completion in June 2016, with commissioning to be completed by Sep-tember 2016. The Loan will attract interest at the rate of 2.25% per annum above LIBOR in addition, the Lender will receive management fees and commitment fees.

Repayment will be made over � ve years, in 10 semi-annual payments commencing for US $5.597 million from the earlier of six months after delivery and Installation or 15 January 2016, with repayment of the balance commencing from the earlier of six months after commissioning or 30 March 2017.The Loan Agreement, the terms of which were agreed by the Company and the Lender in December 2014, was subject to formal approval by the Board of Invest-ment, Bangladesh. The BOI in its meeting held on 20 January, 2015 has approved the agreement.MTB: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to issue Subordinated Bond of Tk. 3,000.00 million as Tier II Capital of the Bank subject to approval of regulatory authorities and General Meeting of the valued shareholders.BENGALWTL: The Company has informed that Bengal Petrochem and Synthetic Tex-tiles Ltd. (BPSTL), a subsidiary company of Bengal Windsor Thermoplastics Limited (Holding 80% shares of BPSTL) is going to install ten (10) injection molding machines for producing garments hangers and accessories with a production capacity of 2.5 lac pieces per day. The new machines will go into production within March 2015. The yearly revenue of BPSTL will increase approximately by BDT 40.00 crore.ARGONDENIM: BSEC has expressed its in-

ability to approve the rights issue of Argon Denims Limited as per Commissions Direc-tive No. BSEC/Enforcement/2137/2014/20 dated January 27, 2015.

Audited/unaudited Financial Reports:DESCO: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 846.62 million with EPS of Tk. 2.24 as against Tk. 191.94 million and Tk. 0.51 respectively.PADMAOIL: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk 884.26 million with EPS of Tk. 9.00 as against Tk. 1,015.30 million and Tk. 10.34 respectively.EASTRNLUB: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 1.55 million with EPS of Tk. 1.56 as against Tk. 2.99 million and Tk. 3.01 respectively.MEGCONMILK: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. (35.33) million with EPS of Tk. (2.21) as against Tk. (36.65) million and Tk. (2.29) respectively.MEGHNAPET: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. (2.63) million with EPS of Tk. (0.22) as against Tk. (7.77) million and Tk. (0.65) respectively.APEXSPINN: (Q3 Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 14.38 million with EPS of Tk. 1.71 as against Tk. 11.69 million and Tk. 1.39 respectively.NLI1STMF: (H/Y Un-audited): NPAT= Tk. 44.80 million with earnings per unit of Tk. 0.89 as against Tk. 23.54 million and Tk. 0.47 respectively.

Bearish mood grips stock marketn Tribune Report

Bearish mood gripped the stock mar-ket for the third consecutive week as deepening political unrest has per-sistently hit investor sentiment.

The market witnessed lower vol-ume of trade throughout the past week that ended Thursday, as even some good corporate earnings failed to generate buying spree.

In the past week, the benchmark index DSEX ended at 4,724, shed-ding 74 points or 1.8%, which is low-est in more than four months.

The comprising blue chips DS30 index moved down 31 points or 1.8% to 1,747. The DSE Shariah Index, DSES, was down over 20 points or 1.9% to 1,115. The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Categories In-dex, CSCX, lost almost 189 points or over 2% to settle at 8,736.

There is no sign of political recon-ciliation yet, leading investors to hold back investment, said an analyst. “Unless political dust is not settled, no positive news like good corporate earnings will buoy up investor mood.”

Boiling political situation faced by the country since early this month has forced investors to re-main inactive, pushing down the daily turnover in the past week av-eraged Tk217 crore, registering a drop of nearly 16% over the previous week’s average of Tk257 crore.

The turnover fi gure was very poor compared to the market depth. Inves-tors’ attention was mostly focused on textiles and power sectors, account-ing for more than 30% together of the

week’s total turnover value. “Amid worsening political condition and con-tinuous blockade, market lacked any motivation to stay optimistic,” said IDLC Investments in its weekly mar-ket analysis. Consequently market en-tered the downtrend, which has con-tinued for the last three weeks, it said.

It said as political stability was the prime concern for investors, expectation of the Monetary Policy Statement for the second half of FY 2015 announced on Thursday hardly cast any impact on the market.

Lanka Bangla Securities said mar-ket went farther down amid uncer-tain political situation. The market continues its bearish sentiment in the week amid countrywide political instability and lingering political un-rest in the country, which suppressed investor’s confi dence, it said.

“Bearish stance in the market made the investors cautious amid the quarterly earnings season.”

Almost all the sectors closed in red in the week except food and al-lied sector which gained 3.8%, driv-en by heavy weight BATBC that rose more than 10% during the week.

Telecommunication suff ered most posting a loss of over 5%, fol-lowed by power 2.5%, cement 1.4%, pharmaceuticals 0.5%. Banks and non-banking fi nancial institutions also closed marginally lower.

Newly listed C & A Textiles domi-nated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth Tk78.2 crore chang-ing hands, followed by Grameen-phone, Lafarge Surma Cement, Alltex Industries and CVO Petrochemical. l

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

National Feed-N -14.25 -9.53 31.99 31.30 37.90 31.10 60.904 1.37 23.4Eastern InsurA -13.35 -13.35 29.20 29.20 31.10 28.00 0.025 2.31 12.6Hamid Fabrics -N -12.01 -9.30 30.04 29.30 33.50 28.90 17.616 1.88 16.0Bangladesh Lamps -A -11.53 -10.28 104.21 102.80 110.00 102.10 0.310 1.13 92.2Sonargaon Tex -Z -11.30 -8.96 10.47 10.20 11.00 10.00 0.172 -0.84 -veGSP Finance-A -10.93 -8.79 28.22 27.70 35.90 27.50 29.160 1.58 17.9National Life I -A -10.79 -10.79 202.50 202.50 220.00 185.00 0.042 12.46 16.3Prime Textile -A -9.95 -9.74 17.24 17.20 19.00 17.10 0.582 1.04 16.6Midas Financing-Z -9.64 -9.69 15.00 15.00 15.00 15.00 0.000 -3.24 -veUsmania Glass -A -9.17 -8.48 100.00 100.00 109.00 100.00 0.211 -0.88 -ve

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

National Feed-N -15.14 -9.08 31.93 31.40 37.80 31.10 226.921 1.37 23.3Shampur Sugar -Z -13.04 -13.04 8.00 8.00 8.90 7.50 0.104 -52.72 -veHamid Fabrics -N -12.87 -9.36 30.12 29.10 33.90 28.80 102.681 1.88 16.0GSP Finance-A -12.06 -10.51 28.09 27.70 33.90 27.40 271.496 1.58 17.8Usmania Glass -A -11.75 -11.32 98.99 99.10 111.90 97.00 7.281 -0.88 -veAl-Haj Textile -A -11.64 -11.12 89.23 88.80 102.00 87.30 41.757 0.98 91.1National Tubes -A -11.11 -10.86 94.99 95.20 106.00 93.20 16.896 -1.36 -veModern Dyeing -Z -9.44 -10.43 94.49 95.00 106.00 95.00 0.189 -0.50 -veKhan Brothers-N -9.06 -8.55 28.25 28.10 31.00 27.90 68.713 1.36 20.8Mercantile Insur -A -8.93 -9.51 15.22 15.30 16.60 15.00 2.286 1.48 10.3

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

C & A Textile -N 6,013,644 152.59 15.02 25.10 -2.71 25.80 27.40 23.60 25.26National Feed-N 1,812,201 60.90 5.99 31.30 -14.25 36.50 37.90 31.10 31.99Alltex Industries -Z 1,333,140 41.70 4.10 29.00 -8.23 31.60 33.50 28.60 29.07WesternMarine -N 704,050 34.72 3.42 48.50 -4.53 50.80 51.00 48.10 48.74GSP Finance-A 923,355 29.16 2.87 27.70 -10.93 31.10 35.90 27.50 28.22BD Submarine Cable-A 254,611 26.22 2.58 108.80 10.91 98.10 112.30 89.10 109.34BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 828,749 25.71 2.53 30.80 -3.45 31.90 32.00 30.30 30.93LafargeS Cement-Z 207,404 25.52 2.51 124.50 -1.19 126.00 126.00 120.50 123.24SummitAlliancePort.-A 401,720 25.47 2.51 62.80 -4.41 65.70 67.90 59.20 63.59Jamuna Oil -A 102,444 20.76 2.04 200.90 -0.59 202.10 208.80 191.20 203.48Grameenphone-A 52,645 17.63 1.74 329.60 -5.59 349.10 352.90 326.00 329.57

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

C & A Textile -N 30,796,442 781.20 7.20 25.10 -4.20 26.20 27.50 23.70 25.22Grameenphone-A 1,152,679 384.21 3.54 329.30 -5.59 348.80 348.10 325.50 329.38LafargeS Cement-Z 2,739,604 337.18 3.11 124.50 -1.19 126.00 126.30 120.50 123.70Alltex Industries -Z 9,798,862 307.80 2.84 29.00 -8.81 31.80 33.50 28.70 29.18CVO PetroChem RL-A 566,620 295.25 2.72 500.90 -1.92 510.70 559.00 498.30 504.74GSP Finance-A 8,756,731 271.50 2.50 27.70 -12.06 31.50 33.90 27.40 28.09SummitAlliancePort.-A 4,214,781 266.64 2.46 62.60 -5.15 66.00 67.70 59.60 63.40Brac Bank -A 6,681,120 266.30 2.45 39.50 0.00 39.50 40.50 38.90 39.40DESCO Ltd. -A 3,440,276 235.74 2.17 68.30 -0.29 68.50 71.00 65.80 68.13National Feed-N 6,728,147 226.92 2.09 31.40 -15.14 37.00 37.80 31.10 31.93WesternMarine -N 3,967,782 195.20 1.80 48.50 -4.34 50.70 51.30 47.80 48.68

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Phoenix Fin. 1st MF-A 23.26 22.40 5.30 5.30 5.30 4.30 0.458 0.84 6.3 Prime Bank-A 11.11 11.05 18.99 19.00 19.30 17.70 0.562 1.87 10.2BD Submarine Cable-A 10.91 11.24 109.34 108.80 112.30 89.10 26.220 0.76 143.9Brac B.C. Bond-A 10.68 10.68 1010.00 1010.00 1010.00 1010.00 0.005 0.00 -Aziz PipesZ 9.47 9.26 20.76 20.80 21.00 17.70 0.034 -0.37 -veFareast Islami Life -A 8.75 8.54 75.64 75.80 76.00 71.60 0.357 4.60 16.4Pragati Gen. I -A 8.00 8.00 37.80 37.80 37.80 36.00 0.010 2.47 15.3Bengal Windsor-A 7.56 11.30 62.56 62.60 63.40 58.00 1.548 4.10 15.3Rangpur Foundry -A 6.67 6.78 100.81 100.80 103.00 94.00 0.179 3.23 31.2AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A 6.67 6.22 4.78 4.80 4.80 4.60 0.058 0.11 43.5

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Phoenix Fin. 1st MF-A 20.45 27.36 5.54 5.30 5.60 4.20 13.905 0.84 6.6Aziz PipesZ 15.14 14.04 21.20 21.30 21.70 18.20 0.827 -0.37 -veBD Submarine Cable-A 11.20 10.01 108.39 109.20 112.10 89.00 113.422 0.76 142.6Fareast Islami Life -A 6.95 6.60 75.74 76.90 77.40 70.60 27.706 4.60 16.5Monno Sta� lers -A 6.51 5.65 299.85 302.50 306.80 278.40 5.917 1.17 256.3BATBCL -A 5.72 5.52 2,930.29 2,934.40 2,957.30 2,780.00 35.020 94.59 31.0Kohinoor Chem -A 5.00 4.06 345.28 348.90 359.00 330.00 2.097 10.10 34.2Fareast Finance-Z 4.94 3.88 16.86 17.00 18.20 16.50 35.874 1.08 15.6FarEast Knitting -N 4.94 4.33 25.31 25.50 26.20 23.00 33.897 1.96 12.9National Polymer -A 4.84 2.52 68.43 69.30 70.40 61.00 42.463 3.30 20.7

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 1196.83 11.03 72.80 6.78 1269.62 10.65NBFI 889.52 8.20 59.24 5.52 948.75 7.96Investment 167.10 1.54 21.66 2.02 188.76 1.58Engineering 1140.00 10.51 106.92 9.96 1246.92 10.46Food & Allied 375.74 3.46 33.27 3.10 409.01 3.43Fuel & Power 1440.65 13.28 91.58 8.54 1532.22 12.85Jute 11.99 0.11 0.00 0.00 11.99 0.10Textile 1925.78 17.75 288.34 26.87 2214.12 18.57Pharma & Chemical 924.58 8.52 57.85 5.39 982.43 8.24Paper & Packaging 43.49 0.40 25.51 2.38 69.00 0.58Service 470.34 4.33 43.45 4.05 513.79 4.31Leather 48.62 0.45 17.26 1.61 65.88 0.55Ceramic 141.15 1.30 16.48 1.54 157.63 1.32Cement 416.83 3.84 36.03 3.36 452.86 3.80Information Technology 386.05 3.56 25.07 2.34 411.12 3.45General Insurance 65.60 0.60 3.04 0.28 68.64 0.58Life Insurance 112.21 1.03 3.30 0.31 115.51 0.97Telecom 497.63 4.59 43.85 4.09 541.49 4.54Travel & Leisure 95.65 0.88 21.25 1.98 116.90 0.98Miscellaneous 500.28 4.61 105.94 9.87 606.22 5.08Debenture 0.00 0.00 0.09 0.01 0.09 0.00

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4724.04933 (-) 1.54% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1747.75509 (-) 1.75% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14427.1057 (-) 2.06% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 11743.2557 (-) 1.64% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8736.0301 (-) 2.12% ▼

DSE key features January 25-29, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

10,850.04

Turnover (Volume)

303,417,938

Number of Contract 351,205

Traded Issues 313

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

69

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

242

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,525.76

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.62

CSE key features January 25-29, 2015Turnover (Million Taka) 1,024.22

Turnover (Volume) 35,547,685

Number of Contract 62,938

Traded Issues 264

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

59

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

200

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,433.90

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.50

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

Unless political dust is not settled, no positive news like good corporate earnings will buoy up investor mood

ANALYST

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

CORPORATE NEWS

Modhumoti Bank Limited has recently held an annual conference for its managers at Modhumoti Training Institute. The bank’s chairperson, Humayun Kabir, was present at the conference as chief guest

Managing director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Brigadier General Md Nazrul Hasan (retired) has recently received ICMAB Best Corporate Award 2014 from Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith

BRAC Dairy & Food Enterprise and The Chars Livelihoods Programme (jointly funded by UK Aid, Australian Aid and implemented through Maxwell Stamp PLC) have recently signed an agreement genetic improvement of dairy cattle in rural area of Bangladesh. Director of BRAC Dairy & Food Enterprises, Tau� qur Rahman and team leader of The Chars Livelihoods Programme, Matthew Pritchard signed the agreement

Southeast Bank Limited has recently launched its mobile � nancial services named TeleCash at Banani in Dhaka. The bank’s chairperson Alamgir Kabir, FCA accompanied by its other directors inaugurated the new service

DMD of Sonali Bank and chaiperson of its management committee, Md Khorshed Hossain has presided over the committee’s meeting on business planning held on Thursday at the bank’s conferance room

Russian central bank makes surprise interest rate cutn Reuters, Moscow

Russia’s central bank unexpectedly cut its main interest rate on Friday as fears of recession mount in the country fol-lowing the fall in global oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

The central bank reduced its one-week minimum auction repo rate by two points to 15%, a little over a month after pushing it up by 6.5 points to 17% after a run on the rouble.

The bank had been widely expected not to change the rate. Following the decision, the rouble extended losses to trade as much as 4% on the day against the dollar, though it later clawed back some of the losses.

The move implies a shift in the bank’s priorities away from clamping down on rising infl ation and support-ing the rouble, towards trying to sup-port economic activity, which the bank expects to fall sharply in the coming months.

“Today’s decision to lower key in-terest rate by 2 percentage points is intended to balance the goal of curbing infl ation and restore economic growth,” the bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, said after the announcement.

In an emailed statement, the banks’s press service quoted her as saying the rate remained high enough to allow the Bank of Russia to reach its infl ation tar-get in the medium term.

The decision will also fuel specula-tion that recent changes in the bank’s senior management have shifted the bank towards more dovish monetary policy, possibly under pressure from the Kremlin, banks and business lobbies.

“The decision appears to be political-ly driven, since it is a cut that shows the central bank is worried about the risks to the banking sector. It looks like the central bank’s hand has been forced,” said Nicholas Spiro, managing director

of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London.Earlier this month the bank’s head

of monetary policy, Ksenia Yudayeva, an anti-infl ation hawk, was replaced

by Dmitry Tulin, a central bank veteran seen as more acceptable to bankers, who have been called for lower interest rates.

But the shift in policy may also re-

fl ect the realisation that Russia’s econ-omy is heading for a hard landing as low oil prices look set to persist and the confl ict in Ukraine has worsened, defy-

ing hopes of an early end to Western sanctions.

Macroeconomic data released earli-er this week showed real wages slump-

ing by 4.7% year-on-year in December and real disposable income slumping by 7.3%, boding ill for economic growth in the months ahead.

In an accompanying statement, the bank said it expected gross domestic product to fall by 3.2% in annual terms during the fi rst half of 2015, following growth of 0.6% in 2014.

Analysts had nevertheless expected the bank to hold rates this month, as the bank had previously said it would cut rates when infl ation is on a sus-tained downward trend. Infl ation has instead been shooting up as a result of the slide in the rouble.

The bank said that it saw conditions for lower infl ation in the medium term, but eff ectively acknowledged that in-fl ation would stay in double-digits throughout this year.

It said it expected infl ation to fall below 10% in January 2016. Infl ation was 13.2% as of Jan 26, the bank said, up from 11.4% in December.

“I see big risks in today’s decision,” said Rosbank economist Evgeny Ko-shelev.

“Now the geopolitical background is unclear and infl ation pressure remains quite strong, as well as signals for the outfl ow of capital... This (rate cut) is probably a reason to sell the rouble more in the short term.”

However, Renaissance Capital econ-omist Oleg Kouzmin said he welcomed the move: “It’s good that they are low-ering now. This is a sensible step. This will help the economy and allow stabil-ity to be preserved.”

He added that high interest rates do not especially help the rouble as capital outfl ows are largely linked to debt re-payments.

“Will the capital outfl ow be stron-ger? Yes, but there will be a weaker rouble and a stronger current account, which means it won’t be necessary to spend more forex reserves.” l

Japan in� ation puts pressure on BOJn Reuters, Tokyo

Japan’s core infl ation slowed for a fi fth month in December and is seen pres-sured further by collapsing oil, putting more distance to the central bank’s 2% price target even as other data point to a steady recovery for the recession-hit economy.

The Bank of Japan will be encouraged by data showing a rise in factory out-put thanks to a much-awaited rebound in exports, while household spending showed signs of bottoming out.

The big question for policymakers is whether Japan can skirt the faltering economies in Asia and Europe with-out having to ease for a third time in as many years, which some fear could trigger a damaging decline in an al-ready weakened yen.

“The downward pressure from crude oil falls on Japan’s infl ation is far bigger than the boost from higher im-

port costs from a weak yen,” said Yoshi-ki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, who is expect-ing a further slowing in core infl ation over coming months.

The price data on Friday appeared to back Shinke’s views.

Excluding the eff ect of a sales tax hike in April last year, core consumer price index (CPI) - which excludes vola-tile fresh food but includes oil products - stood at 0.5%, just a quarter of the way in achieving the BOJ’s 2% target.

Core consumer prices rose just 1.1% last year when stripping away the tax-hike eff ect.

Still, the BOJ hopes to hold off on easing and look through the pressure on prices from lower oil costs, an ap-proach that found backing from pre-mier Shinzo Abe’s advisers who once pressured the bank to take bolder steps to beat defl ation.

For one, the BOJ can aff ord to take a

cautious approach on policy given the brighter outlook for the United States, Japan’s major export market.

The pick-up in output also backs up the BOJ’s argument that a solid econom-ic recovery will help accelerate infl ation toward its ambitious target early next year, although oil price falls will contin-ue to weigh on infl ation in the short run.

“Consumption and production will likely keep recovering this year as the impact of last April’s sales tax hike fades. Cheap oil prices also help boost consum-ers’ purchasing power,” said Taro Saito, an economist at NLI Research Institute.

Factory output rose 1% in December, boosted by brisk shipments of smart-phone parts to Asia and solid domestic car sales.

Manufacturers surveyed in the data expect output to rise 6.3% in January, prompting the government to raise its assessment to say production is “pick-ing up moderately.” l

Euro falls as Greece rejects bailout talks with troikan AFP, New York

The euro retreated against other major currencies Friday as struggling Greece refused to meet with its international creditors and rejected fresh loans, and the eurozone showed weaker infl ation.

The fi nance minister of Greece’s new anti-austerity government, Yanis Varoufakis, said that despite warn-ings Greece would shortly run out of money, his government preferred to do without the instant fresh cash, and instead renegotiate the entire bailout package.

“This government was elected on the basis of analytically questioning the very logic of the program now be-ing applied,” he said, referring to the reforms and budget cuts demanded by Athens’s international troika of credi-tors -- the European Union, the Euro-pean Central Bank and the Internation-

al Monetary Fund.“Our fi rst act as government will not

be to reject the logic of questioning this program by requesting to extend it,” he added.

At a strained press conference with Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Varoufakis said Athens was willing to negotiate with its lenders but not with the troika auditors who he said were merely a “committee built on rotten foundations.”

Athens had been promised another 7.2bn euros in funds from the troika if it completed reforms required by its lenders by February 28.

“Greece is clearly creating more headaches for the eurozone because if they do not allow the troika into the country, they may not receive the next aid disbursement that they desperately need to avoid default,” said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management. l

Fed’s Fisher: S tronger dollar good for US jobsn Reuters, San Francisco

Sharp gains in the US dollar are good for the US labor market, a top Federal Reserve offi cial said on Friday, down-playing a crescendo of complaints from top executives over the dent to their profi ts.

“CEOs that have international op-erations complain about it,” Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told Reuters in an interview. “I hear from every one of them - it off sets their powerful earn-ings here domestically.”

Fisher takes those complaints with a grain of salt.

“It brings to my mind the vision of Edward Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’,” he said, adding, “It’s not the end of the world.” l

US economic growth in 2014 fastest in four yearsn AFP, Washington

The US economy grew at its fastest pace in four years in 2014, outpacing all of the other major developed coun-tries as consumers gained confi dence helped by sinking oil prices.

But a slowdown in the fourth quar-ter bared some of the persistent chal-lenges - like the strong dollar - to lock-ing the world’s largest economy into higher gear.

While the halving of fuel prices clearly gave American consumers the power to spend more at the end of the year, businesses slowed invest-ment and the government cut back on spending, especially for defense, drag-ging down momentum.

The Commerce Department report-ed Friday that US gross domestic prod-uct grew at an annual 2.4% pace last year, up from 2.2% in 2013, as the Unit-ed States distanced itself from the sag-ging economies of Europe and Japan.

The fi rming recovery from the Great Recession of 2008-2009 was marked by improved consumer confi dence, the best year of job creation since 1999, and a surge in business profi ts.

By comparison, Japan and the eu-rozone continue to battle with reces-sionary pressures; China - the other key motor of global growth - is slowing more than expected; and other emerg-ing economies are also struggling with slumping activity, partly because of the crash in commodity prices.

That has put the US on a divergent policy course with the others: while their central banks are implementing measures to stimulate demand and head off defl ation, the US Federal Re-serve is moving to tighten monetary policy and raise interest rates in the coming months.

Strong dollar a challengeEven so, the Commerce Department’s fi rst estimate of fourth-quarter activity showed the United States is not com-pletely in the clear.

Following a bristling 5% pace of ex-pansion in the third quarter, GDP grew at a 2.6% rate in the October-December period, slower than the 3.2% expected by economists.

On the positive side, consumer spending accelerated as shoppers took advantage of the savings on cheaper gasoline to spend elsewhere.

On the other hand, businesses - like-ly including companies in the oilfi eld - pulled back in the October-December period and government spending con-tracted, especially on defense.

Moreover, the dollar, which has gained about 15% against a basket of currencies over the past year, likely spurred a pickup in imports and held back exports, a negative for GDP growth.

“There is a clear dichotomy between consumers, benefi ting from cheap gas and a strong dollar, and businesses, suf-fering from cheap oil and the strong dol-lar,” said Chris Low of FTN Financial. l

A woman waits before inserting a 50-rouble banknote into an ATM bank machine at a branch of Sberbank in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia REUTERS

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, February 1, 2015

DILBERT

Oil price will average less in 2015 than during � nancial crisisn Reuters

Crude oil will likely continue falling be-fore posting only a mild recovery in the second half of this year, a Reuters sur-vey of analysts showed on Friday, with prices set to average even less in 2015 than during the global fi nancial crisis.

The survey of 33 economists and analysts forecast North Sea Brent crude would average $58.30 a barrel in 2015, down $15.70 from last month’s poll, in the biggest month-on-month forecast revision since prices last collapsed in 2008-2009.

If the forecasts for 2015 prove correct prices will average the lowest since 2005, even if they recover after June, illustrating the impact of OPEC’s deci-sion to maintain output in the face of fast-growing U.S. shale output.

“It should be a year of diff ering halves. The likelihood of further near-term fund selling will see Brent trade down to $42 per barrel and WTI at $40 per barrel by the end of Q1 2015,” ANZ analyst Mark Pervan said.

“The mood will remain cautious for the remainder of the fi rst half of the year, before high-cost US supply disci-pline starts to emerge in the third quar-ter,” he added.

Twenty seven of the 28 analysts who contributed to data for both the December and January Reuters polls have slashed their forecasts.

More than half of those lowered their projections by $15 a barrel or more from last month.

European investment bank Bar-clays, which has the lowest forecast according to the poll, cut its 2015 price outlook for Brent by almost 40 percent to $44 per barrel.

Goldman Sachs, widely-seen as one of the most infl uential banks in com-modity markets, sees WTI hovering around the $40 per barrel mark for much of the fi rst half of this year. It has slashed its 2015 Brent forecast by $33.40 to $50.40 per barrel.

Most of the analysts were in agree-ment that the Organization of the Pe-troleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would maintain its stance of not cutting production despite oil prices touching multi-year lows, with any tightening of supplies expected to come from high-er-cost producers outside the group.

“Low crude prices negatively aff ect (US) shale oil profi tability,” Intesa San-paolo analyst Daniela Corsini said.

Brent has averaged $49.57 so far in January, consolidating over the past two weeks after hitting a near six-year low of $45.19 a barrel on Jan 13. It was trading around $48.75 on Thursday.

The poll forecasts US light crude will average $54.20 a barrel this year and $64.90 in 2016. WTI has averaged $47.24 a barrel so far in 2015, hitting a post-2009 low of $43.58 on Thursday.

Brent’s premium to US crude, known as the Brent-WTI spread, is expected to widen to $4.10 a barrel in 2015 from around $2.20 so far this year, the poll showed. l

OPEC oil output rises as key members stand � rmn Reuters, London

OPEC’s oil supply has risen this month due to more Angolan exports and steady to higher output in Saudi Ara-bia and other Gulf producers, a Reuters survey showed, a sign key members are standing fi rm in refusing to prop up prices.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at a November meeting decided to focus on market share rather than cutting output, despite concerns from members such as Iran and Venezuela about falling oil revenue.

Supply from OPEC has averaged 30.37 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, up from a revised 30.24 mil-lion bpd in December, according to the survey based on shipping data and

information from sources at oil compa-nies, OPEC and consultants.

At the Nov 27 meeting, OPEC re-tained its output target of 30 million bpd, sending oil prices to a four-year low close to $71 a barrel. Crude since fell to a near six-year low of $45.19 on Jan. 13 and was trading above $49 on Friday.

OPEC Secretary General Abdulla al-Badri, speaking in London on Monday, defended the no-cut strategy and said prices may have reached a fl oor, de-spite oversupply. Other OPEC delegates have since echoed this message.

“Prices are stabilizing,” said a del-egate from a Gulf producer. “But the world economy is not very strong and stocks are too high.”

The largest boost this month has come from Angola, which pumped 1.80

million bpd and exported about 57 car-goes, up 160,000 bpd from December. Output would have been higher with-out some cargo delays, including of new crude Sangos.

OPEC’s other West African producer, Nigeria, also managed to boost exports, the survey showed, although the in-crease was restrained by outages of the Forcados and Nembe Creek pipelines. Smaller increases have come from Ku-wait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Output in top OPEC exporter Saudi Arabia has been fl at to slightly higher, sources said. Saudi Aramco Chief Ex-ecutive Khalid al-Falih said on Tuesday production was currently at 9.8 million bpd, although it was unclear if that was the daily rate or the January average.

“Steady is what I’m seeing,” said an

industry source who tracks Saudi sup-ply. “Exports are a bit lower and this is most likely off set by slightly higher re-fi nery runs.”

The largest reduction this month has come from Iraq, where southern oil exports slipped from December’s re-cord high and fl ows from northern Iraq also declined, according to loading data and an industry source.

Exports are likely to hit new records in coming months, technical problems and weather delays permitting. A load-ing program schedules record southern exports in February.

OPEC’s other country with a notable decline in output this month is Libya, where ports and oilfi elds have been shut due to fi ghting and supply fell fur-ther in January to 350,000 bpd. l

World investors’ cash holdings highest since 2012

n Reuters, London

World investors increased cash hold-ings in January as they braced for a choppy year with markets buff eted by confl icting forces such as diverging monetary policy and rising geopolitical risks, a Reuters poll shows.

A monthly survey of fund managers in the United States, Japan, Europe and Britain found the average allocation to cash in balanced portfolios jumped 1-1/2 percentage points to 7% - the high-est since May 2012. Forty-four institu-tions took part in the poll.

Investors typically increase hold-ings of cash when they expect markets to fall, often at the expense of more volatile assets such as stocks.

The average allocation to equities remained unchanged at 48.2%, though bond holdings fell to 36.6% from 38.2%. Holdings of property were down to 1.9% from 2.6% while exposure to alter-native assets, such as hedge funds and private equity, rose to 6.4% from 5.3%.

“The overriding feature for 2015 will be bouts of higher volatility and risk-off episodes that mean investors will need to be far more wary,” said Ashok Shah, investment director at British invest-ment manager London & Capital.

The polling period was dominated by the European Central Bank’s an-nouncement last week that it would start buying bonds under a 1tn euro quantitative easing program from March with the aim of stimulating euro

zone growth and infl ation. In contrast, monetary authorities in the United States are widely expected to start rais-ing interest rates, bringing an end to an era of monetary stimulus launched in response to the 2008-9 fi nancial crisis.

UnpredictableDivergent monetary policies in major economies, geopolitical risk around Russia, a slowing Chinese economy and political uncertainty in Europe after Greeks elected an anti-austerity government, make markets unpredict-able, investors said.

“Our portfolios have been long the dollar for some time,” said Andrew Mil-ligan, head of Global Strategy at Stan-dard Life Investments. “With the ECB’S announcement on QE we are debating the extent of euro weakness in 2015-16, which partly refl ects the decision the Fed will need to take on interest rates in a few months.”

The poll was taken from January 16-29, during which time world stocks rose around 1.5%. The ECB’s QE an-nouncement, which had been widely expected, was on Jan. 22.

The US S&P 500 index .SPX was little changed over the survey period, having retreated more than 3% from a record high set at the end of 2014.

Emerging market stocks hit a six-week high and advanced more than 1.5% during the survey period, despite fallout from Russia’s economic and political situation and worries about slowing Chinese economic growth.

US fund managers recommended increasing cash allocations to their highest in over seven years, to 10.1% from 5.1% last month, the highest since at least May 2007. British fund manag-ers also boosted the amount of money kept in safe-haven cash as well as alter-native investments.

Hedge funds and other alterna-tive assets can benefi t from volatile markets, in part because they are able to profi t from falling prices through mechanisms not available to conven-tional funds, such as short selling.

Meanwhile, European investment managers placed their bets fi rmly on stocks in January, anticipating an im-minent lift to corporate profi tability from the ECB’s stimulus measures.

Japanese fund mangers still want to put more than half their assets un-der management into bonds, despite falling yields, expecting a prolonged period of low interest rates around the world, the Reuters survey showed. l

German retail sales grow for � fth year in rown AFP, Berlin

German retail sales, a closely watched measure of household confi dence, showed solid growth last year compared to 2013 despite rounding off the year with a modest rise, data showed Friday.

The 1.4% increase for 2014 as a whole marked the fi fth consecutive year that German retailers posted real and nominal year-on-year sales in-creases, the federal statistics offi ce De-statis said in a statement.

Retailers’ sales went up by 0.2% in December compared to the previous month when they rose by 0.9%, the statisticians said. Retail sales data are

subject to frequent revision.“Average monthly retail sales in the

fourth quarter rose by a whopping 1.6% over the third quarter average, sug-gesting that consumption made a ma-jor contribution to GDP growth in the fourth quarter,” said analyst Christian Schulz at Berenberg bank.

A poll this week found that con-sumer confi dence in Germany was at its highest since late 2001, as rising op-timism over the economy and income expectations persuade German shop-pers to open their wallets.

The German government has raised its forecast for economic growth this year to 1.5% . l

India’s economic growth revised up by almost 50%n Reuters, New Delhi

India’s economy grew almost 50% fast-er in 2013/14 than earlier thought, the government said on Friday after chang-ing a formula, a reminder of the chal-lenges that unreliable statistics present to Indian policymakers.

In the year leading up to the elec-tions that brought Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi to power last May, the economy grew 6.9%, not the 4.7% re-ported earlier, chief statistician TCA Anant told reporters. Modi’s campaign succeeded partly because of the wide-spread feeling that his predecessors from the Congress party had plunged the economy into the country’s longest deceleration in growth in a generation.

The revised formula, showing a fast-er recovery, includes under-represent-ed and informal sectors as well as items such as smartphones and LED televi-sion sets in gross domestic product.

That could boost India’s growth fi g-

ure in the year ending in March 2015, which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has projected to be around 5.5%.

Some in government predict the change will help bring down the fi scal defi cit as a share of gross domestic prod-uct, making it easier for Modi to trim the gap to a seven-year low of 4.1% in the year to March despite a shortfall in revenue.

However, Anant said the overall size of India’s $1.8tn economy had not changed enough to shift the ratio sig-nifi cantly, adding: “Our ranking in GDP terms will not change as the size of econ-omy has almost remained the same.”

The new methodology moves India more in line with global standards by measuring the economy at market pric-es, and by tracking consumer rather than wholesale infl ation.

“This will help lower market distor-tions and give better representation to the manufacturing sector,” said Sou-mya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic ad-viser at State Bank of India. l

A picture illustration shows US 100 dollar bank notes and Japanese 10,000 yen notes taken in Tokyo REUTERS

'With the ECB’S announcement on QE we are debating the extent of euro weakness in 2015-16, which partly re� ects the decision the Fed will need to take on interest rates in a few months'

The mood will remain cautious for the remainder of the � rst half of the year, before high-cost US supply discipline starts to emerge in the third quarter

A table with OPEC logo is seen during the presentation of OPEC's 2013 World Oil Outlook in Vienna REUTERS