Six months ago the majority wanted fresh election soonn Tribune Report

In a dramatic turn of public opinion, three-fourths of the population are more or less happy with the perfor-mance of the current government led by Sheikh Hasina which came to pow-er through a one-sided election eight months ago.

A signi� cant majority also believes that the country is heading in the right direction, according to a Dhaka Tribune opinion poll conducted last month.

But, in an earlier opinion poll con-ducted immediately after the January 5 election, more than three-fourths of the respondents wanted fresh elections as early as possible, or within a year. In last month’s poll, only a fourth of the respondents wanted fresh election.

A few months back in December, just before the parliamentary election, seven out of 10 people thought that the coun-try was headed in the wrong direction.

However, no matter how satis� ed

the 75.3% respondents may be with the current government’s performance, an almost equal percentage (71.5%) do not support Prime Minister Sheikh Hasi-na’s stance about not sitting in a dia-logue with the BNP.

On behalf of the Dhaka Tribune, a reputed polling company conducted the survey between August10-22, in which a total of 1,217 were interviewed over phone using mostly structured questionnaires.

When asked what the most impor-tant issue for the government was right now, the responses were rather limited. Just over 21% said it was law and order, 16.2% said controlling price hike and 13.8% said retrieving democracy.

Nearly two-thirds of the respond-ents said the government had been suc-cessful in controlling the law and order situation in the country; only 11.1% said the government had totally failed.

Interestingly, six months ago, hold-ing a free and fair election and stopping hartal and violence were clearly the two biggest challenges for the government.

The respondents were aged 18 years or above, including both rural and ur-ban men and women, spanning across all socio-economic classi� cations.

Around 53% said the next election should be held after this government completes its full term in o� ce.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

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20 pages plus 8-page tabloid Opinion Poll | Price: Tk12MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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THE URANIUM CONSPIRACY

11 | OP-ED 13 | SPORT7 | LONG FORMB1 | BUSINESS

8 | WorldCrowds sang and danced in the streets of a seaside neighbourhood in Liberia on Saturday as the government lifted quarantine measures designed to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

5 | NewsThe Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has failed to meet several deadlines for the com-pletion of projects involving construction and repair of roads and footpaths in Mirpur area of the capital.

12 | EntertainmentAnjan Dutt was more popular as a musician than as a � lm personality to the Bangaldeshi audience until very recently – since when DVDs of Tollyganj � lms have been readily available here.

15 | SportNovak Djokovic and Andy Murray stayed on course for a mouth-watering US Open quar-ter-� nal showdown Saturday as � ve-time women’s champion Serena Williams stood alone as America’s last singles title hope.

4 | NewsEducation Ministry’s fear of losing a share of authority has created uncertainty over the formation of a Higher Education Commission proposed by Minister Nurul Islam Nahid.

6 | NationThe Gram Adalat, an alternative dispute reso-lution system, is severely underutilised in the Union Parishads of Moulvibazar district. Salish, the traditional system of arbitration, is more preferred by UP chairmen and justice seekers in rural areas than the Gram Adalat.

I N S I D E

Most people satis� ed with government

Around 53% said the next election should be held after this government completes its full term in o� ce

People not happy with BNP, but they want dialoguen Tribune Report

More than half of the respondents of a Dhaka Tribune opinion poll have said they were not happy with the BNP’s performance since January, but said the ruling party should engage in a di-alogue with the opposition party which does not have any representation in the current parliament.

Nearly 52% of the respondents said they were not satis� ed with BNP’s per-formance while 36.2% said they were satis� ed.

However, despite the dissatisfaction with the BNP’s performance, a signi� -cant majority of 71.5% believe that the ruling Awami League should conduct a political dialogue with the BNP.

A reputed polling � rm conducted the survey from August 10-22 on be-half of the Dhaka Tribune during which they interviewed a total of 1,217 people – both urban and rural male and fe-male – over telephone using structured questionnaires.

Nearly four-� fths of the interviewed said they disagreed with the BNP’s threat to launch an agitation move-ment. Of them, 29.3% strongly disa-greed with the BNP’s stance. Only 20% of the respondents said they believed that the BNP should go for agitation.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Myanmar losses 9 million in census, Rohingyas denied recognition n Tribune Desk

Myanmar’s � rst exercise to determine the size and composition of its pop-ulation in over 30 years has produced worrying results, with 9 million people missing.

Figures extrapolated from the last census in 1983 estimated the current population to be in the neighbourhood of 60 million people.

But the new census in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, showed the country had just 51.42 million people.

The country’s state-run media an-nounced the preliminary results on Fri-day, saying complete results, expected to include detailed information about religious and ethnic minorities, would be released next year.

Conducted with help from the UN Population Fund, the census was car-ried out from March 30 to April 10.

Correspondents said the poll ran smoothly everywhere except Rakhine state in the west of the country, and Kachin state in the north.

Rakhine’s long-persecuted 800,000 member Muslim minority were denied the right to identify themselves as “Ro-hingya,” Al Jazeera reported.

In parts of Kachin state controlled by rebels, some people were not count-ed, the AP news agency reported.

Question number eight on ethnic-ity was the most controversial on thecensus.

Rejecting UN calls to include“Rohingya” as an option in the ques-tionnaire, the 41-question census of-fered 135 possible ethnic identities to choose from, but Rohingya was not one of them.

Myanmar contends that Rohingyas PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

36th founding anniversary notthe happiest for BNPn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The last time the party boycotted na-tional elections during the rule of a military dictator, it got the upper hand to win the next. However, another boy-cott nearly three decades later, when there is democracy in the county, has done the exact opposite.

With a directionless movement, frustrated grassroots, ever worsening fund crunch and little democracy with-in, the BNP – one of the two most pop-ular political parties in Bangladesh – is now heading towards an uncertain fu-ture, which is seen as the deepest crisis in 36 years of its existence.

Until the 2014 national election and

except for the two-year tenure of the army-backed interim government in 2007-08, the BNP has never been out of parliament since the country returned to democracy in 1990.

The party has been in power thrice: in 1991-96; a very brief term following a controversial election that the Awa-mi League boycotted in February 1996; and in 2001-06.

Following success in a number of local government elections in the past few years, many BNP leaders were hop-ing for another victory had it taken part in the January 5 election.

Since the provision for non-partisan polls-time government was scrapped through the 15th amendment to the

constitution in 2011, the BNP and the Awami League have been at logger-heads.

While the Awami League was deter-mined to hold the 2014 national elec-tion under a partisan arrangement, the BNP had been in the streets for more than two years, demanding restoration of the caretaker provision. The BNP claimed that a fair election was possi-ble only under a non-partisan govern-ment.

BNP’s street movement took an ex-tremely violent turn after it had failed to press home its demand and the Awa-mi League government looked all set to hold the election.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Myanmar agrees to repatriate Rohingyasn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Myanmar, in a breakthrough agree-ment, has agreed to start the repatri-ation process of veri� ed Rohingyas stranded in two camps in Cox’s Bazaar within two months.

“We agreed to start work towards re-patriation of veri� ed Myanmar nation-als within two months,” Foreign Secre-tary M Shahidul Haque said at a press conference yesterday.

He was talking about the outcome of the 8th foreign secretary level talks which he led from Bangladesh side while Deputy Foreign Minister U Thant Kyaw led the Myanmar side.

“I think it is a breakthrough as no re-patriation has taken place after 2005,” he said.

A working group will be formed to start the process in the next two months and after that they will be re-patriated, he said.

In 2004-05, a total number of 2415 were veri� ed, and now they have chil-dren and the working group will adjust them for repatriation, he explained.

“We have long been demanding for their repatriation and this time the My-anmar delegation has come here with proper preparation,” the foreign secre-tary said.

Since 1991 over 0.25 million Rohing-yas illegally entered Bangladesh and over 0.23 million of them were repat-riated to Myanmar till 2005, when the process halted.

The foreign secretary said Bangla-desh had � agged the issue of undocu-mented Myanmar nationals living out-side the two camps.

“The Myanmar side said let’s start the repatriation process and then grad-ually we will look into the issue, which I think is very good step.”

About 0.3 million to 0.5 million un-documented Rohingyas are living in Bangladesh illegally.

“We informed them that we are con-ducting a census on Rohingyas in Bang-ladesh and we will hand over the report to them,” he said.

Qualitative changeThe foreign secretary said there is a qualitative change between seventh and eighth foreign secretary level talks.

“The Myanmar government wants to alleviate the relationship to a high-er level,” said the secretary who had a tete-e-tete with Myanmar deputy for-eign minister before the o� cial talks which continued for about four hours.

“I had tete-e-tete with Myanmar depu-ty foreign minister and discussed can-didly on the hiccups that emerge time-to-time between our relationships. He was also very open on how to resolve the problems,” Shahidul said.

The secretary said the Border Guard of Bangladesh and Border Security Po-lice of Myanmar are in regular contacts and now both the countries are think-ing of having home secretary leveltalks in addition to the foreign o� ce consultation.

About holding the � rst Joint Com-mission meeting of the two foreign ministers, Shaidul said Myanmar pres-ident is likely to visit Bangladesh early next year to have the meeting.

Both the countries agreed to have PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Foreign Secretary: It’s a breakthrough; repatriation process stalled since 2005

DT NATIONAL OPINION POLLHIGHLIGHTS OF THE POLL

Are satis�ed with the government’s perfor-mance in its �rst 6 months

Said the country is headed in the right direction

Want the current government to complete its full tenure

Do not support PM’s stand on dialogue between two parties

75.3%

69.4%

53%

71.5%Highly

dissatis�ed

Dissatis�ed

Neithersatis�ed

nordissatis�ed

Satis�ed

HighlySatis�ed

16.7%

35.1%

12%

30.9%

5.3%

Are not satis�ed with BNP’s performance

51.8%

Are satis�ed with BNP’s performance

36.2%

HOW DO YOU RATE BNP’S PERFORMANCE IN THE LAST 6 MONTHS?

Don't know/Can't say

StronglyDisagreeDisagree

Indi�erentAgreeStrongly

Agree8.4% 11.6%

2.1%

48.6% 29.3%

0.1%

Do not want anyagitation movement77.9%

HOW DO YOU VIEW BNP’S THREAT TO LAUNCH AN AGITATION MOVEMENT?SHOULD BNP CUT ITS TIES WITH JAMAAT?

Don't know/Can't say

Don't leaveJamaat 37.6%

6.9%Leave Jamaat 55.5%

SLH

/DT

INFO

GR

AP

HIC

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

People not happy with BNP, but they want dialogue PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Regarding BNP’s ties with Jamaat-e-Isla-mi – a party often blamed for committing war crimes as an organisation during the 1971 Liberation War – more than half of the respondents said they were against it.

Some 55.5% said BNP should leave Jamaat, but 37.6% believe that the two parties should remain together. The re-spondents were also asked about what they thought about BNP’s longstanding

demand for immediately holding what it said was “free and fair election.”

More than half that is 53% said the next parliamentary election should be held after the current Awami League government, which came to power through a unilateral election on Janu-ary 5, completes its tenure.

A little over 17% said fresh election should be held within a year, 8.4% said as soon as possible and 1.7% said with-

in three years.In the last Dhaka Tribune opinion

poll conducted right after the January 5 election, roughly 77% said they wanted a fair and fully participatory election as early as possible or within the year.

Nearly 44% said they were dissat-is� ed with the January 5 election, and 43.8% said holding fresh election was the most pressing issue facing the country. l

Myanmar losses 9 million in census PAGE 1 COLUMN 6are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and calls them “Bengalis.”

The UN has said everyone in My-anmar ought to be allowed to choose their own ethnicity and has described the Rohingyas as the most persecuted minority in the world.

Myanmar o� cials told Muslim Ro-hingya they must identify themselves as Bengali or they would not be registered.

The Myanmar government views

Rohingyas as immigrants and denies them citizenship.

The Rohingya say they are part of Myanmar and claim they are being per-secuted by the state.

Buddhist hostility towards Rohing-yas has come to a head in recent years, leading to full-scale violence in 2012 that depopulated Rohingya settle-ments in Rakhine state and contribut-ed to a growing refugee crisis.

Violence has continued and interna-

tional aid agencies working in the state came under attack last week.

The ethnicity question on the cen-sus proved to be a � ash point in the ethnically fractured province, with Buddhist Rakhines pledging to boycott the poll if the Rohingya ethnicity was recognised on the census.

“If a household wants to identify themselves as ‘Rohingya’, we will not register it,” the BBC reported govern-ment spokesman Ye Htut as saying. l

Most people satis� ed with government PAGE 1 COLUMN 2Nearly half of the respondents said in-frastructure development was the big-gest success of the government in its � rst six months.

However, there is not much to choose between the replies when asked what the biggest failure of the government was. The highest 17.7% said corruption, 16.7% said uncon-trolled law and order situation, and

15.3% said price hike.With a margin of error of 3%, the

data collected is quantitative. The re-spondents were selected on the basis of multi-stage sampling. The sampling frame was the mobile users of the country and the current market share of the mobile phone service providers were used for sample distribution.

A little over 60% of the respondents said the government’s economic per-

formance over the last six months had been fairly successful; 18.7% said the government had not been successful enough, and a meagre 4.1% thought the government was not economically successful at all.

When asked about BNP’s threats about launching an agitation move-ment, nearly four-� fths of the re-spondents said they did not want any such movement at the moment. l

Myanmar agrees to repatriate PAGE 1 COLUMN 5joint commission meeting in 2011 but no meeting has yet been taken place.

Gas importDhaka has requested Nay Pye Taw to export gas to Bangladesh.

“Myanmar in principal agreed to share gas if they � nd any new reserve,” the secretary said.

The Myanmar side in the meeting said that nobody in their team had enough knowledge on the issue but they would welcome if a team from Bangladesh visits Myanmar.

However, they also said their energy demand is also growing and now they are in a de� cit, he said.

A consortium of China, India, My-anmar and Daewoo of South Korea has developed Shwe gas � eld in Rakhine state and about 800-km long pipeline was installed to supply gas from Rakh-ine state to Kunming in China in 2013.

Connectivity Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to revive the negotiation to have road connectivity between the two countries.

The secretary said it was great achievement as the negotiation was suspended till 2008.

A Bangladeshi team will soon vis-it Myanmar about the proposed road connectivity and � nd out if there is any other alternative route, he said.

About BCIM initiative, he said the next working group meeting of the initiative will be held at the end of October and Myanmar agreed to join

the meeting. “They are also planning to hold a

BCIM Forum meeting in February next year in Myanmar.”

Framework ArrangementBangladesh has � oated an idea to have broader collaboration framework be-tween the two countries.

“We shared a document on Frame-work Arrangement on Trust and Coop-eration for Development with the My-anmar side,” Shahidul said.

The arrangement has eight compo-nents and it is the same cooperation model that Bangladesh has with India and the US, he said.

The eight components are strength-ening trust; security and cooperation dialogue; trade and connectivity; ener-gy, environment and natural disaster; agriculture and rural development; education, health and culture; sub-re-gional cooperation; and collaboration in the Bay of Bengal.

Myanmar said they would analyse the proposal by Bangladesh and it would be reviewed in the joint com-mission meeting next year, he said.

Hasina-Sein meetingBangladesh has shown interest in hav-ing a bilateral meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sein at the sideline of the UN general Assembly.

“Our foreign minister has already expressed that if Myanmar president goes to UNGA, our prime minister is interested in having a bilateral meeting with him,” Shaidul said. l

36th founding anniversary not the happiest for BNP PAGE 1 COLUMN 3The fruits of the decision to boycott the election were heavily dependent on the success of what the party called the “election resistance movement.”

Eventually, failing to resist the elec-tion and prevent Awami League from forming a government for the second time on the trot meant that the BNP, which had already been out of power for � ve years, was now out of the par-liament because of the boycott.

In 1996, the Awami League, through a strong “non-cooperation” move-ment, toppled the BNP government soon after it had come to power through a “unilateral” election.

The situation might have been simi-lar to that of 1996 to a large extent, but the BNP is in the middle of nowhere at the moment, especially in terms of the organisational strength required for staging a strong movement, let alone coming to power anytime soon by top-pling the current government.

The failure of the so-called election resistance movement was largely at-tributed to the leaders and activists of the Dhaka city unit, who were scared to come out on the streets fearing ar-rest. Most of the top central leaders of the party, who were wanted in scores of political cases, were not on the streets either out of the same fear.

Many young leaders and activists of the BNP, who worked with dedication in the streets across the country over the past few years, got frustrated. Their family lives were in tatters because of the cases � led against them. Many of them had been put behind bars.

But the senior leaders were nowhere to be found. Most of them remained in safe hideouts when dedicated grass-roots leaders and activists were facing the wrath of the law enforcers on the streets.

That especially hurt the momen-tum of the so-called election resist-ance movement because those on the streets lacked the guidance that the senior leaders could have given them.

All these coupled with the already existing frustration associated with be-ing away from power for seven years.

It is particularly frustrating for the supporters of a party that was formed when its founder Gen Ziaur Rahman was already in power.

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is true that the BNP is in the deepest crisis ever. More than an-ything else, it is due to the fascist be-haviour of and the repression by the autocratic government.”

From Fakhrul’s point of view, the situation in 1986-88 and the situa-tion now are completely di� erent. Al-though it was a regime of a non-dem-ocratic ruler, the level of repression at that time was nowhere near what the current Awami League government is doing. “As of today, a total of 300,000 leaders and activists of the BNP have baseless cases against their names. Even I have 26 cases against my name.”

Little democracy withinFor a political party, holding regular councils at all levels is not only an im-portant indicator of its organisational strengths, but also a key to keeping up the morale of those at the grassroots.

The BNP held its last national coun-cil more than � ve years ago on De-cember 8, 2009, contrary to its charter that stipulates holding of the councils every three years. Mirza Fakhrul has been serving as the acting secretary general of the party since his predeces-sor Khandakar Delwar Hossain died in March 2011. Because there has been no council, the party has not got the op-portunity to elect a full-time secretary general.

The party has not held the councils of its local level committees such as those at the thana, upazila, district, di-visional and city levels for many years. The Dhaka city unit has not seen a new committee in 17 years. Only recent-ly, the party has formed a convening committee tasked with forming the full committee for the city unit.

Just like the central executive com-mittee, those at the local levels have not seen the much needed change of leadership for years, giving rise to widespread grievances and organisa-

tional gridlocks. And because there has been no council, the grassroots have not got the opportunity to let the central leadership know about their complaints and suggestions.

That has eventually led to an ever widening gap between the top brass and the grassroots which can be det-rimental to any organisation that calls itself democratic.

In March this year, BNP Vice-Chair-man Ha� zuddin Ahmed slammed leaders and activists for chanting an-ti-government slogans from inside an air-conditioned auditorium.

He said: “Why are you chanting slo-gans here inside the room against the arrest of BNP leaders? Have we arrest-ed them? Why are you not going to the PM’s residence Ganabhaban? Do not shout slogans like ‘direct action’ from inside the room. You should go out on the streets and chant slogans there.

“I fervently request you, the young leaders and activists of the BNP, to take to the streets, show all your strength and enthusiasm there. The BNP should not wait for the Almighty’s wrath to descend upon the oppressive Sheikh Hasina government. Rather, the party should wage a movement to bring an end to the oppression.”

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has talked about forming a “legal aid com-mittee” that would help leaders and activists from all levels to � ght politi-cal cases. However, the committee has never been formed.

Besides, the noted lawyers asso-ciated with the BNP have been busy � ghting cases for the stalwarts instead of the grassroots leaders, who need the help most.

Tareque Shamsur Rahman, pro-fessor of international relations at Jahangirnagar University, said: “[The lack of democratic practice] is seen vir-tually in all political parties. It is a fact that BNP’s politics revolves around Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman. The political parties in Bangladesh rarely practice democracy themselves.”

Dominance of ex-bureaucrats Party chief Khaleda Zia, who is now 69

years old, stays ill most of the times and hence cannot regularly attend political programmes and gatherings. Most recently, she missed the BNP-led 20-party alliance’s rally in the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan earlier last month.

BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, Khaleda’s eldest son, who is thought to be the next chief, has been away from the country for nearly sev-en years. He has several corruption and criminal cases against his name.

Party insiders said since the time Tarique surfaced strongly in politics about a decade ago, there appeared to be two centres of power within the party – Khaleda Zia and Tarique. His controversial political o� ce Hawa Bhaban, which is said to have been the alternate centre of power during BNP’s 2001-06 rule, has been associated with many crimes and conspiracies in re-cent years.

This has allowed a section of ex-bu-reaucrats-turned-politicians to gain prominence in decision making, eclips-ing some of the career politicians.

In recent times, the ex-bureaucrats, who are not hardened politicians, are surrounding the party chief and mak-ing her take imprudent decisions. Many have said Khaleda’s decision to not meet Indian President Pranab Mukherjee when he came to Dhaka before the January 5 election was mo-tivated by these ex-bureaucrats.

Directionless movementOver the last few months, the BNP has been talking about a strong movement to press home its demand for non-par-tisan polls-time government.

Before Eid-ul-Fitr in July, the party leaders, including chief Khaleda Zia, said they would wage a strong move-ment after the vacations. However, it has been more than a month after Eid and the party is still to “wage a strong movement.”

After the vacations, leaders said they were still reorganising the party ranks from the top to the grassroots to gain the organisational strength for a so-called strong movement.

In the recent weeks, the BNP and its

allies organised rallies and black-� ag processions across the country to pro-test against the broadcast policy and the Israeli atrocities in Gaza, none of which are strong national political is-sues in true sense.

Analysts say the BNP is now try-ing to raise voice regarding genuine pro-people issues to regain its connec-tions with the public.

Not that the party is failing to press strongly at the government only now; it failed to capitalise on many issues and mistakes made by the Awami League government over the past � ve years or so.

One such incident was in 2010 when the government evicted Khaleda Zia from her cantonment residence. The government cleverly timed the evic-tion right before an Eid vacation. The BNP stepped into that “trap” and its agitation programmes such as hartals back� red badly because they made homebound people su� er.

Professor Tareque Shamsur Rah-man said: “The BNP should present a roadmap before the nation. More im-portantly, it should present a roadm-ap for its leaders and activists, tell-ing them what they should do in the changed situation. This is because, only toppling a government through a movement is not good for politics. The BNP needs a vision for cheering up its leaders and activists.”

Fund crunch With prospects of coming to power again anytime soon looking bleak, the party is now faced with an acute fund crunch.

The BNP has recently submitted its yearly � nancial report to the Election Commission which showed that its expenditure was way more than its in-come.

Because the party has not been in power for many years, its income sources are gradually narrowing down. The expenditures associated with years of street protests have apparent-ly had their toll on the party’s income statement.

Mirza Fakhrul told the Dhaka Trib-

une: “It is very normal for a democrat-ic political party. Basically, our party is run by members’ subscription fees, donation from expatriates and pro-ceeds from the sale of nomination pa-pers. As we could not hold the national council [in time] and boycotted the national election, there is a little fund crisis; but it is not severe at all.”

Image crisisBNP’s decision to form an election al-liance with Jamaat-e-Islami – often accused of committing war crimes as an organisation during 1971 Liberation War – turned out to be a good one after the partnership won a landslide victo-ry in the 2001 election.

But before the 2008 election, the Awami League banked on the war crimes trial issue in its campaign and the ties with Jamaat badly hurt BNP’s image. The result this time was a land-slide defeat for the party.

The trial of top Jamaat leaders on war crime charges and the subsequent street violence staged by Jamaat-Shibir men did not help BNP’s cause either although it remained almost entirely silent on the issue.

Moreover, widespread allegations of corruption, patronising militancy and the role of Hawa Bhaban during its 2001-06 tenure earned the BNP huge bad names and it is still paying for it.

Much later in 2013, BNP’s decision to extend support to the fanatic Isla-mist group Hefazat-e-Islam, which gave rise to massive anarchy in the capital, also did not go in its favour.

Months of street protest that preced-ed the January 5 election, in which scores of people were killed and hun-dreds of vehicles were destroyed in ar-son attacks, also had a massive contri-bution in further worsening its image.

A founding member of the BNP and now the chief of the Liberal Democrat-ic Party, Col (retd) Oli Ahmed said: “Af-ter Ziaur Rahman’s death, the BNP saw both good and bad times under the leadership of Khaleda Zia. Things have been particularly tough for the party after 2007. But I believe the party will eventually come out of the crisis.” l

Blue Economy Workshop begins in capitaln Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

A two-day international workshop on the blue economy will begin today to discuss smart, sustainable and inclu-sive growth and employment opportu-nities in Bangladesh.

“We want to identify courses of ac-tion to develop a maritime policy and a strategy for Bangladesh. We need the help of foreign experts to do this,” For-eign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune.

The government emphasises the preservation, protection and utilisa-tion of ocean resources as Bangladesh exercises its right to explore marine resources in the Bay of Bengal, he said.

The settlement of a maritime bound-ary delimitation dispute with India and Myanmar has awarded Bangladesh a ter-ritorial sea covering 118,000 square kilo-

metres and an exclusive economic zone extending out to 200 nautical miles.

The country was awarded undeni-able sovereign rights over the sea bed extending as far as 354 nautical miles from the Chittagong coast on the Bay of Bengal, including both living and non-living resources.

“Bangladesh wants to establish links and build relations with countries and or-ganisations working in the � eld of ocean research and resources,” Shahidul said.

Thirty-two experts, academicians and government o� cials from 20 coun-tries are taking part in the international workshop. “We want to explore the re-sources with the help of international players,” he said.

Discussions at the workshop would be aimed at mapping out the work al-ready done and identifying further projects that need to be undertaken to

secure inclusive and balanced promo-tion, protection and conservation of marine resources, he said.

The Bay of Bengal will be Bangla-desh’s “super highway” for boosting trade and investment, and ensuring se-curity, he added.

The ocean o� ered business poten-tial in areas including � sheries, energy, transportation, aquaculture, tourism and health care products.

The workshop has three working sessions - Ocean Resources For Sus-tainable Development, Access To Ac-quire Ocean Resources, and Unclos: The Framework For A Sustainable Ocean-Based Economy.

The inaugural programme will be attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while the concluding session will be chaired by Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali. l

MOGHBAZAR TRIPLE MURDEROne more placed on remand n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday sent Jakir Hos-sain alias Jony on a � ve-day remand in Moghbazar triple murder case � led with the Ramna police station.

Metropolitan Magistrate Muham-mad Tareq Moinul Islam Bhuiyan passed the order after Investigation O� cer Bahauddin Faruk, sub-inspec-tor of Ramna police station produced him before the court seeking a 10-day remand for interrogation.

Police arrested Jony from Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Saturday night.

The same day another Dhaka court sent Faruq Hossain and Sohel Khan, two close associates of the prime ac-cused of the case Kala Babu, on a � ve-day remand.

On Thursday, unidenti� ed criminals gunned down three people including a woman and injured another at a house in Sonalibagh of Moghbazar area fol-lowing rivalry with local land grabbers and extortionists.

The deceased were identi� ed as Ranu Akhter Brishti, 28, Munna, 20, and Billal Hossain, 25.

Later, Brishti’s brother Kalachand � led a case with Ramna police station accusing 15 people including Kala Babu on Friday night. l

5 hurt in BCL factional clash n Tribune Report

Five Chhatra League activists were in-jured in a clash between two factions of the ruling party’s student wing at a rally in the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday.

Chhatra League activists of Amar Ekushey Hall unit and Fazlul Huq Hall unit of Dhaka University got into an argument with Jagannath University Chhatra League men over occupying seats in the front row at the rally.

During the clash, they broke some chairs. The situation later became nor-mal when senior leaders intervened.

Meanwhile, Commerce Minister To-fail Ahmed left the rally quickly as the organisers did not arrange any special seating arrangement for him.

Chhatra League General Secretary Siddiqui Nazmul Alam denied this, saying Tofail was not on the list of the invited guests.

“He left after receiving an emergen-cy phone call,” he said. l

JS goes into third session todayn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Parliament’s third session, which is likely to see the tabling of the consti-tutional amendment bill for empower-ing the legislature to impeach the apex court judges, starts today.

The House is set to start at 5pm preceded by the Business Advisory Committee meeting that will decide the tenure of the third session of the 10th parliament.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will chair the meeting at 4pm to be at-tended by both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the opposition leader Raushan Ershad.

“We have been informed that the con-stitution amendment bill will be placed in the upcoming session, though the draft law is yet to reach the parliament secretariat,” Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told the Dhaka Tribune at her o� ce.

The Jatiya Party has already decided

that they will in principle oppose the 16th amendment to the constitution.

Ten bills tabled in the previous two sessions have been awaiting passage in the legislature.

Shirin Sharmin said more bills would come to the next session, which may be shorter in nature unless serious issues came into the fore. “But everything will be decided at the business adviso-ry committee meeting,” she said.

The opposition MPs hinted that the upcoming session would be serious for the country as they were set to discuss the impeachment of the judges by parlia-ment and the national broadcast policy.

Since its � rst sitting on January 29, two sessions have so far have taken place. The second session started on June 3 and ended on July 3.

According to the constitution, the president must convene a session within 60 days of the last day of the last session and the � rst day of the next session. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

Vehicles and pedestrians have to be really careful when they cross this massive pothole on a road at Pallabi in the capital’s Mirpur. The photo of the dilapidated road was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Local people try to evacuate the employees of Cordial Fashion in the capital’s Mirpur yesterday after the readymade garment factory catches � re MEHEDI HASAN

‘Walkout, if necessary, in protest of judges impeachment bill’n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The main opposition Jatiya Party (JaPa) yesterday decided that it would, in principle, oppose the 16th constitution amendment bill that would authorise the legislature to impeach the judges of the Supreme Court for misconduct, charter violation or incapability.

While discussing its role in the third session starting today, the JaPa decided that it would examine the bill thorough-ly and walk out of the House, if neces-sary, to protest the government decision on judges impeachment and the nation-al broadcast policy.

The JaPa is very conservative in vio-lent protest in the assembly and hardly stages walkouts since it started playing the role of opposition since 1991.

During the last 23 years, JaPa staged at best 10 walkouts and never boycotted the parliament. They staged the only walkout on March 23 in the two sessions of the current 10th parliament.

“We have decided to oppose the bill (the 16th constitution amendment) in principle, as the opposition parties do. After getting the copy of the bill we will examine every proposal and strong-ly oppose. Even we would walkout, if necessary,” Tajul Islam Chowdhury, the chief whip of the opposition, told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting at the parliament building.

But, he said his party would also sup-port the government if the bill contained something good.

“Our ideal position is to oppose the bill and the national broadcast policy,” Mashi-ur Rahman Ranga, state minister for local government, told the Dhaka Tribune.

In parliamentary practices, a minister cannot oppose a government decision as the decisions are collective in nature.

The government decides to restore the original article 96 of the constitution that authorised parliament to impeach the judges with a two-third majority. After the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Gen Ziaur Rahman in-troduced a new mechanism, the Supreme Judicial Council that is the authorised body to impeach the judges for o� ence and charter violation and incapability.

Chief justice is the head of the council having two senior judges as its members.

AKM Mayeedul Islam, another law-maker, told the Dhaka Tribune the JaPa opposed the government decision to hold talks with the stakeholders while imple-menting the national broadcast policy. l

NARAYANGANJ SEVEN MURDERS

Probe body questions Dhaka DIG Mahfuzuln Mohosinul Karim

A government probe body, formed as per a High Court directive, yesterday questioned Dhaka Range Police DIG Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman in con-nection with Narayanganj seven mur-ders.

The questioning lasted from 2:30pm-4pm in the Secretariat o� ce of the chief of the probe body.

The seven-member committee, led by Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration Shahjahan Ali Mollah, comprises of representatives from the Home, Law and Public Ad-ministration Ministries.

Nuruzzaman later told reporters: “They asked me about the actions and directives I took as the supervising of-� cer of the law enforcement agency. I have told them everything I know.

“The probe body also wanted to know my suggestions and recommen-dations for preventing such incidents.”

Meanwhile, the probe body chief Shahjahan Ali Mollah told reporters: “He told us in detail. We will examine the information that he has provided us,” he added.

Saying that more time will be re-quired to conclude the probe report despite having su� cient information, he also added: “It is a critical and sensational cases. So, we are moving forward slowly. We are getting new information at every step of the inves-tigation. So, we will seek four weeks more after submitting our progress re-port on September 9.”

The investigators are also set to question Dhaka Divisional Commis-sioner Zillar Rahman at 10.30am Tues-day this week regarding the case.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told the media yesterday that the prime ac-

cused of the case, Nur Hossain, will be brought back from the Indian city of Kolkata soon as the government has al-ready began the process in this regard.

“Nur Hossain will be brought back to the country. You will see that soon because the government is serious about his repatriation.”

Earlier, Nur Hossain was arrested by Kolkata police for illegally entering India.

“The meeting of home secretaries of Bangladesh and India will begin from September 2 in Dhaka. The issue of Nur’s repatriation tops the list of dis-cussions from the Bangladesh side, he added.

“A legal process needs to be com-pleted to get him back to Bangladesh. We are trying to complete the process. We can get him back even after his con-viction in the illegal entrance case. He will be brought back soon without any condition.”

When asked if the condition of re-patriation will be an exchange of pris-oners, he said: “India did not request us to return any prisoner in exchange of Nur Hossain. So, despite having an extradition treaty between the two friendly countries, there is no question of exchanging prisoners.”

On May 6, as per the High Court di-rective, the public administration min-istry formed a seven-member probe body to investigate the abduction and killing of the seven people in Narayan-ganj.

Narayanganj City Corporation panel mayor Nazrul Islam and noted lawyer Chandan Sarker, along with � ve others, were abducted on April 27. Later, their bodies were found � oating in River Shitalakkhya on April 30.

Nazrul’s wife � led an abduction case against Nur and four others on April 28. l

PM: People loyal to Yahya still out theren Emran Hossain Sheikh

There are still people in the country who are subservient to Yahya and their collaborators are still active, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

We need to be careful about them, she said yesterday while addressing a discussion organized by Chhatra League at Suhawardy Udyan in the capital. It was organized to mark the 39th death anniversary of Bangaband-hu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who along with other family members were as-sassinated on August 15, 1975.

Hasina, also the Awami League president, said: “Those who had a hand in the August 15 and August 21 killings still want to destroy the coun-try’s independence and impede the prosperity.”

She said Ziaur Rahman established a reign of terror following the killing of Bangabandhu.

“He [Zia] brought back the perpe-

trators and returned the al-Badr men their voting rights through military or-ders,” Hasina said.

Speaking of the March 7 speech of Bangabandhu, the premier said: “Be-fore delivering the speech, my mother told my father that thousands of peo-ple would be in front of him and he would lead them by saying what he had in mind.”

“The speech inspired the country-men. It has been branded as one of the best speeches in the history of 2,500 years,” she said.

Hasina said Bangabandhu formed Chhatra League in 1948 for establish-ing Bangla as the state language.

“Chhatra League was involved in every movement that helped the coun-try achieve independence. That is why Bangabandhu said Chhatra League is the history of the Bangalees,” she said.

Referring to Chhatra League activ-ists, she said they have to be in politics with a mentality to sacri� ce.

“The history did not remember those who joined politics driven by the greed for wealth, and those who will do so in the future will face the same fate,” the prime minister said.

She suggested that Chhatra League men strengthen the organisation.

Hasina talked about her role in re-storing democracy in the country from the rule of the previous army-backed caretaker government. She said she was able to restore democracy in 2009 but the conspiracy for destroying the democratic practice was still on.

“E� orts were made to foil the 10th parliamentary polls and destroy de-mocracy. However, the election was held and we were able to form the gov-ernment,” the prime minister said.

Communication Minister Obaidul Quader, Chhatra League leader Sid-diqui Nazmul Alam and several others addressed the programme chaired by Chhatra League president HM Bodiuz-zaman Shohag. l

Five DU students thrown out of hall for refusing to join BCL rallyn Arif Ahmed

Members of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) on Saturday night threw � ve female students out of Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall at Dhaka University for refusing to join its rally yesterday.

The students who were thrown out used to reside in Room No 105 of the residential hall. Their names could not known immediately.

Witnesses said BCL activists were reportedly asking students to join the rally at the hall on Saturday, when these � ve female students told them that they would not be able to attend the rally only to be physically assaulted.

They just did not stop there. They also locked up the room of the � ve students and then threw them out of the hall.

Provost Sabita Rezwana Rahman con� rmed the incident and said the room was opened at around 11am by contacting the proctor. Moreover, the dispute on a trivial matter had also been settled between them.

Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall BCL unit General Secretary Nabila Marufa however denied the involvement of any BCL activist in the incident.

Other halls have not experienced such unpleasant things, but general

students of those halls were on Saturday night asked to join the BCL rally at Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday. They were also warned that they would be made to leave hall in case they failed to join the rally.

Seeking anonymity, a Mohosin Hall unit BCL activist said: “We went to each and every room to tell all the students that they must attend the rally. We even registered the names of the students who were at the hall on Saturday night to see who skips the rally.”

Preferring anonymity, a masters student who lives at at Sir F Rahman Hall said: “I had to hide myself to ensure that I would not have to go to the rally. Leaving my studies, I did not even run personal errands, let alone join the BCL rally.”

A BCL central committee organisation secretary, preferring not to be named, said: “We wanted to hold a mammoth ral-ly and so some allegations of forcing the students to join the rally have cropped up.’

DU BCL unit President Mehadi Hasan Mollah and General Secretary Omar Sharif said it was true that all the halls units leaders were asked to urge every student to join the rally. But it was not that they were asked to force the general students to join the rally.

They added that action would be taken against any student found guilty

of forcing the students to join the rally. Thousands of leaders and activists

of BCL from di� erent parts of the country stayed at the hall without the permission of the hall or university authorities on Saturday.

According to the university ordinance 1973, if an outsider wants to stay with any student as guest, he/she must be permitted by the hall provost or university vice-chancellor.

But none of them (who came on the occasion of the rally) took the permission from the hall administration, even the hall authorities neglected this.

Sir F Rahman Hall Provost Abdul Aziz said: “It has been going on for 35 years. However, I admit that nobody should enter the hall without being permitted by the hall authority.

“However, it is not possible for me alone to implement this rule. The uni-versity authorities should also come forward in doing this,” he added.

Dhaka University Vice Chancellor AAMS Are� n Siddique had several times announced that no outsider would be allowed in the hall. However, he was yet to take any action regarding this.

When the vice chancellor was phoned about this, he said he was at a programme and so could not talk about it right then. l

Faruqi murder suspect list preparedPolice narrow down the possible motives behind killing; two arrestees placed on two-day remandn Tazlina Zamila Khan and Md

Sanaul Islam Tipu

Police have created a list of 20 people suspected of being involved with the killing of Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi, a popular TV presenter and leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat.

Wahidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner of Tejgaon division, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Around 20 people are in the suspect list. Already we have been successful in arresting three peo-ple.”

However, Biplob Kumar Sarkar, dep-uty commissioner of DMP’s Tejgaon division, admitted that the police have not yet found the motive behind the killing.

“Primarily, we considered around ten motives; but we have narrowed it down. Now we are assuming that the killing might have happened because of family and business-related disputes or because of opposition to his religious ideology.”

“We already questioned around 100 to 150 people in this case. We found some names who might be involved in the killing. Police are searching for the prime suspect who is now staying out of the capital. So, our mobile team is also working inside and outside of the capital. We might arrest a person very soon,” Biplob said.

However, he did not mention the name of the prime suspect as the inves-tigation was ongoing.

On the other hand, Deputy Com-missioner of Detective Branch of Police (west) Nazmul Alam told the Dhaka Tri-bune: “It was a cold-blooded murder. The killer had planned the murder for a very long.”

He also did not mention the name of the suspected killer.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday granted a two-day remand against two people for their alleged involvement with the murder of Faruqi.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Waez Kuruni Khan Chowdhury placed Mahmuda Khatun and Md Shariful Is-lam under remand after Investigation O� cer Md Julhas Uddin Akand, also a DB inspector, produced them before the court with a seven-day remand

plea.Defence counsel Md Mahadul Hos-

sain Sikder � led a remand rejection petition before the court, claiming that the accused were not involved with the incident but were only victims of cir-cumstances.

On Saturday, law enforcers detained Mahmuda, who visited Faruqi’s house only hours before his murder last Wednesday, and detained Shariful from the Murapara area in Narayanganj’s Rupganj. Another suspect, Abu Yusuf, has also been held from Nayapara area of Chauddagram upazila of Comilla.

Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station Sub-Inspector Munshi Sabbir Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune: “26-year-old Abu Yusuf owns a dish [cable TV]

business. We are yet to � nd any proof against him.”

On Wednesday night, unidenti� ed armed assailants slaughtered Faruqi, a presenter of religious programmes on Channel i, at his residence in the capi-tal’s Purbo Rajabazar area.

On Thursday, Faruqi’s son Faysal Faruqi � led a case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station, accusing 10 un-named people.

Faruqi was a Presidium member of the Islamic Front Bangladesh as well serving as the international a� airs secretary of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat – an organisation known for opposing the views of Jamaat-e-Islami and He-fazat-e-Islam. He was also the imam of Supreme Court mosque. l

Actor ATM Shamsuzzaman’s son gets life for killing brother n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday awarded life imprisonment to actor ATM Shamsuz-zaman’s younger son, ATM Khalequz-zaman Kushol, 36, for murdering his elder brother.

Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 1 Judge Shahed Nuruddin pronounced the ver-dict in the presence of the convict.

Terming the murder heinous, the court awarded Kushol life-time rigor-ous imprisonment. The court also � ned him Tk50,000, in default of which he would have to serve another year.

On March 13, 2012, Kabir, then 35-years-old, the eldest son of Sham-suzzaman was stabbed to death by his youngest brother, ATM Khalequz-zaman Kushol, then 33-years-old, at the family residence in Dhaka’s Sutra-pur neighbourhood.

On June 25, 2012, police submitted charge sheet and on October 31 of the same year, the court indicted Kushol.

ATM Shamsuzzman � led a case with Sutrapur police station following the murder. Shortly after the incident, po-lice arrested Kushol from the house.

ATM Shamsuzzaman gave a depo-sition before the court against his own son on January 30, 2013.

“It was around 2:30 or 3pm when I heard a sound at the entrance to our res-idence and rushed to � nd a locksmith picking the lock.

“When I asked who had for sent him, he said it was Kabir. I found Ka-mal [Kabir] standing by the entrance and told him that this would have been unnecessary had he simply knocked.

“I had a quarrel with Kabir. He was in a foul mood and started insulting me. At one stage, I slapped him, and he knocked me over. Kushol came out of his room and asked him [Kabir] why he had raised his hand against me.”

“At one stage of the quarrel, I found Kabir on the bed bleeding profusely. I fainted.”

“Then I heard Kushol saying ‘I will not escape, save the life of Kabir bhai,” Shamsuzzman said. l

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

1.65 crore Indian rupees seized at Dhaka airport n Tribune Report

Customs Intelligence o� cials yester-day held a man with 1.65 crore of In-dian rupees at Shahjalal International Airport in the capital.

The detainee, Khalil Bepari, 35, came from Dubai on an Emirates Air-lines � ight around 7:45am, customs sources said. The seized rupees were worth Tk2.06 crore.

Director General of Customs In-telligence Mainul Islam said: “Khalil brought the money from Karachi, Paki-stan via Dubai. He hid the rupees inside a pillow, a blanket, a woman’s bag and a paper packet in a total of 164 bundles.”

“After examining his passport we no-ticed that he had travelled in the Dha-ka-Dubai route 14 times,” he added.

Khalil told the customs o� cials that he was not the owner of the money. He just brought it from Dubai. However, he did not disclose the name of the real owner to the o� cials. l

Green groups demand stop to Bt brinjal cultivationn Abu Bakar Siddique

Environment activists yesterday de-manded the cancellation of the govern-ment’s decision to move extensively for further demonstrating genetical-ly modi� ed brinjal. known better as Bt brinjal, at the farmers-level as the farmers who cultivated the variety last season faced a huge � nancial lose.

“The government should not decide on promoting the Bt brinjal varieties further as it has already proved harm-ful for the farmers and did not get any good output regarding production,” said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief ex-ecutive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA).

She made the remark in a press con-ference at Dhaka Reporters Unity audi-torium, jointly organised by di� erent

civil society organisations led by BELA.In February this year, Bangladesh

Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) distributed seedlings of four Bt brin-jal varieties among 16 farmers in four di� erent regions – Gazipur, Jamalpur, Rangpur and Pabna – to cultivate on one bigha each; however, most of the farmers produced poor results.Out of 16 farmers who cultivated Bt brinjal last season, seven farmers joined yesterday’s press conference and expressed the di� culties they had to face by cultivating Bt brinjal.

“I received huge � nancial loss by cultivating Bt Brinjal as I could produce brinjal worth only Tk5,000 by spending Tk8,000 [provided by the government] and all of my labour,” said Babul Khan, a farmer from Melandeh of Jamalpur.

Allegations of Bt brinjal’s various

production challenges were also admit-ted by BARI Director General Ra� qul Islam Mondol, who told the Dhaka Tri-bune a few days ago that farmers ex-perienced some di� culties including dead seedlings and pest attacks near the end of season last year.

However, Mondol said the govern-ment planned to extensively demon-strate Bt brinjal at � eld level in the upcoming season to make the product popular among farmers.

BARI would also try to distribute seedlings to around 100 farmers for one bigha of land each in four districts during October-November, which is the appro-priate season for brinjal cultivation.

The government failed to maintain the labelling of Bt brinjal – a major con-dition set by the bio-safety committee regarding the variety’s release – while

marketing it last October, said Syeda Rizwana. She also alleged that the gov-ernment was yet to con� rm the health and environmental hazards of the trans-genetic variety.

The activist groups also said the government had violated the constitu-tion and two international protocols – Convention on Biological Diversity and Cartegena Protocol – by releasing four genetically modi� ed (GM) brinjal vari-eties at farmers-level.

“The article 18 of the constitution states that the government has to protect the biodiversity and natural resources; however, it [the government] fails to fol-low the guideline of the bio-safety rules and international conventions while re-leasing the varieties,” said Pavel Partha, a biodiversity and ecology researcher, while addressing the programme. l

Ministry’s unwillingness blamed for Higher Education Commission limbon Mushfi que Wadud

Education Ministry’s fear of losing a share of authority has created uncer-tainty over the formation of a Higher Education Commission that was pro-posed by Education Minister Nurul Is-lam Nahid two years ago.

Seeking anonymity, some Universi-ty Grants Commission o� cials made the claim to the Dhaka Tribune.

They said the Education Ministry did not want a Higher Education Com-mission as they feared that the minis-try’s power might be shared.

UGC o� cials claimed that the High-er Education Commission was in limbo mainly because of the unwillingness of the Education Ministry.

Under the present structure, Edu-

cation Ministry mainly takes decision regarding universities, however, the UGC can make recommendations to the ministry, they said.

Although on September 16, 2012, Nahid said in parliament that the gov-ernment had planned to set up a higher education commission in order to wid-en the scope of higher education in the country, such an organisation is yet to see the light of day.

Meanwhile, the minister has spoken about the commission in many of his speeches at di� erent times.

Despite his assurance, little progress has been made regarding the commis-sion so far.

Earlier University Grants Commis-sion (UGC) submitted a draft propos-al of the commission to the ministry,

following which, Nahid held a meeting with the top brass o� cials of UGC on Thursday to discuss the modi� cations made in the draft.

Source in the meeting said UGC had objected some of the modi� cations claiming that under such structure the Higher Education Commission could not function properly.

UGC o� cials said by the modi� ca-tion, power of the commission was curtailed. Upon their objection Nahid requested them to state the objections in a written form.

So far the ministry have discussed the draft with UGC o� cials several times but nothing was � nalised.

On the other hand, UGC, that was formed at a time when there were a few public universities and no private uni-

versities, is currently struggling to mon-itor 79 private and 37 public universities.

At present, the commission is op-erating with the same structure it was born with.

UGC chair AK Azad Chowdhury said they were facing di� culties to properly monitor universities as the higher educa-tion sector had expanded over the years.

He said he was hopeful that the Higher Education Commission would be set up soon.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Na-hid said the process was delayed be-cause the ministry was extra careful about it.

“It is delaying as we are extra care-ful. We are working on it and it will be set up soon,” Nahid said while speaking at a conference last week. l

Protests over � sherman’s death by BSF in Panchagarh n Our Correspondent, Panchagarh

Locals formed a human chain in front of the district press club yesterday protesting the recent killing of a Ban-gladeshi � sherman by a team of Indian Border Security Force (BSF).

The human chain followed a discus-sion programme where the speakers demanded exemplary punishment for the BSF men who were involved in the brutal killing that took place along the Shing road border area in Sadar upazila on August 22.

In the event, they urged upon the government to take necessary steps immediately to lodge a complaint with the BSF high-ups for bringing the al-

leged Indian border force members to book.

Hundreds of villagers of the district also joined the programme to express their solidarity with the demand.

On August 21, a patrol team fromBSF Sakati camp 14 picked up � sher Akhtarul Islam, 30, a resi-dent of Prodhanpara village in theupazila, from the border before dawn while he was catching � sh and theydid not return him despite re-quests from the local BGB campauthorities.

On the following day, locals spotted Akhtarul’s body a� oat on the Chhoto Jamuna River, which bore many injury marks. l

Police regret assault on DU teachern DU Correspondent

Four members of the police force re-gretted their actions for assaulting a professor of Dhaka University (DU).

The police o� cials met with the DU vice-chancellor yesterday morning and admitted that the act was a mistake.

O� cer in-Charge of Badda police station MA Jalil along with Ramna zone ADC Shibli Noman, AC Anwar Hossain and O� cer in-Charge of Shahbag police station Sirajul Islam went to see the vice-chancellor with a written state-ment, in which they termed their act incorrect and inhumane and regretted the misdeed.

Shibly Noman told this correspon-dent that there had been a sheer mis-understanding and he hoped that the subject was settled.

He, however, denied the claim of asking for a pardon in the statement.

On August 6, Samina Lutfa, assis-tant professor of Sociology Depart-ment, was physically assaulted when she went to express solidarity with the Tuba garment workers, who were on hunger strike demanding due wage. l

Scholastica team awarded at the 6th Odyssey International 2014n Tribune Report

A team of � ve Scholastica students re-ceived an award in the category of best aesthetics at the 6th Odyssey Interna-tional 2014 organised by City Montes-sori School, Lucknow.

The � ve class IX students were from Scholastica’s Mirpur campus in the capital. A total of 70 schools from 13 countries participated in the presti-gious event which took place from Au-gust 23 to August 26.

The students participated in exciting contests such as philharmonic (song), la-mascarade (skit) and a ramp show titled ‘Galactica’. The team achieved award for the ramp performance.

The objective of Odyssey is to wid-en the importance of English language and relationships, irrespective of cul-tural and language barriers. Odyssey provides a platform for children to enhance both their literal as well as linguistic skills so that they develop an aptitude for English which will help them in future endeavors. l

Locals besiege Savar Titas o� cen Our Correspondent, Savar

Savar and Ashulia residents yesterday laid siege to the local Titas gas o� ce, demanding cutting o� gas illegal con-nections to ensure uninterrupted gas supply in the areas.

The hour-long incident took place at 11 am at the Titas regional o� ce situat-ed in Jaleshwar area of Savar.

Sources said locals from Jamgora and Simultola areas brought out sep-arate processions in the morning. The participants united and held a human chain programme along the Dhaka-Ari-cha highway after ending the siege.

Protesters alleged that gas pressure required to light up stoves properly has decreased signi� cantly for the several months due to above 800 illegal gas con-nections given by corrupt Titas o� cials.

The angry demonstrators blockaded the highway, as well as the Abdullahpur bypass road, and insisted they would not budge unless the illegal collections are disconnected without any delay. l

5th death anniversary of Khurshed Alamn Tribune Report

Today is the � fth death anniversary of � ction writer and former additional secretary Khurshed Alam.

He was a BCS admin cadre (1982 batch).

Alam passed away at the age of 53. He wrote a total of 19 books.

All are requested to pray for his de-parted soul. l

A mobile court � nes 17 brokers after arresting them from Rajshahi Passport O� ce yesterday. These brokers have been cheating people seeking a passport for a long time AZHER UDDIN

A schoolboy ducks to pass a bamboo barricade used to separate a portion of the capital’s Agargaon Road used by Dhaka Metropolitan Police for dumping abandoned vehicles. This picture was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

SCC o� ce declared smoking free n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

The authorities of Sylhet City Corpo-ration (SCC) yesterday announced its premises to be smoking free.

Mayor Ariful Haque Choudhury made the declaration in a programme arranged jointly organized by the SCC and an NGO named Simantic Tobacco free project in its conference hall.

In the event, the mayor said the pro-cess on the way to make the whole city corporation areas smoking free has just started with the move, where many distinguished personalities of the dis-trict were present. l

Human tra� cking MoU with India on the cardsn Asif Showkat Kallol and

Rabiul Islam

The government is planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India to prevent human tra� cking and bring back woman and child victims of tra� cking, o� cial sources have said.

The Home Ministry’s proposal for the MoU is likely to be placed before the cabinet committee today. Accord-ing to the proposal, Bangladesh and India would form a joint task-force to stop human tra� cking.

Sources at the Home Ministry said the MoU would be signed during home secretary-level meetings that are set to be held in Dhaka from September 2-4.

State Minister for Home Asaduz-zaman Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have already received assurance from our Indian counterparts on bring-ing back human tra� ckers under this MoU, who have stayed in India prisons for a long time.”

Some children and women victims of human tra� cking would also be brought back after penning the MoU, he added.

According to the proposed draft, the authorities concerned from the two neighbouring countries would provide protection, security and ensure proper human dignity for victims of human tra� cking. The authorities would also take legal action against human traf-� ckers and work under a standard op-erating procedure as per the MoU.

The draft of the MoU also read that the deal would limit human tra� cking practices between the two countries as the governments would raise the num-ber of border guards and improve coop-eration between countries’ public and private stakeholders.

If the proposed MoU is penned, human tra� cking victims, especially women and children, would be reha-bilitated by the authorities of their re-spective countries

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has recommended to the Home Minis-try to include in their mid-term budget, the request for extra allocation needed for operations of rescue, recovery, re-patriation and integration of victims of human tra� cking under this MoU. l

WEATHER

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:23am Sunrise 5:39am Zohr 11:59am Asr 4:29pm Magrib 6:17pm Esha 7:34pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:17PM SUN RISES 5:40AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW33.5ºC 23.3ºCSylhet Dinajpur

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 32 26Chittagong 31 25Rajshahi 31 25Rangpur 31 25Khulna 30 25Barisal 30 25Sylhet 34 24Cox’s Bazar 30 25

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Dhaka North yet to � nish facelift projectsDreadful condition of streets in Mirpur causes pedestrians and commuters to su� er intolerablyn Abu Hayat Mahmud

The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has failed to meet several deadlines for the completion of pro-jects involving construction and repair of roads and footpaths in Mirpur area of the capital.

Its o� cials are yet to issue a time frame by which the projects would be completed.

The dreadful condition of most of the streets, parts of main roads and footpaths in Mirpur causes pedestri-ans and commuters to su� er intoler-ably. There are frequent potholes on the roads and the poor condition of the drainage system results in waterlog-ging during the rainy season.

Indiscriminate parking of vehicles and the ever-increasing tra� c have also added to the woes of people.

“The condition of most of the roads in Mirpur area is too bad to describe. Bumpy and dilapidated roads make it di� cult for both vehicles and pedes-trians to move. The locals have been living with the ordeal for a very long time,” said Md Sabuj, a resident of Pal-labi in Mirpur 12.

“The city corporation dug the roads and footpaths three to four monthsago but are yet to � nish the work,” he added.

The Mirpur area has seen no reno-vation for a while allegedly because of negligence and a lack of sincerity on the part of the city corporation author-ities.

Roads in block A, B and D under sec-tion 11 in Mirpur were found to be in need of immediate repair. Other roads found to be in similar conditions in-clude Manikdi Road, Paris Road, Ben-aroshi Palli Road, and also roads in Bi-hari Palli in section 10 and 11.

Two repair projects in Mirpur were

initiated in October and December last year, and were scheduled to be complet-ed by June this year. However, the im-plementation of both are still underway.

Besides, another project undertaken to give the capital a facelift before the ICC T20 World Cup has not � nished yet. More than four months have gone

by since the curtain fell on the event but the beauti� cation work in Mirpur is still going on at a snail's pace.

The road stretching from Mirpur 11 to Kalshi was regularly used by visitors staying at the Radisson and Regency Hotel to reach Mirpur stadium during the world cup. However, the project to

widen and repair the road has not � n-ished yet, with the deadline expiring in about six months ago.

Alim, who lives in Kalshi, said: “Negligence on the contractor's part and the lack of supervision by the city corporation are to be blamed for the unnecessary delay.”

The beauti� cation work was initiat-ed in early February, following approv-al from the government on January 19, and was supposed to be completed by March 8.

Under the project, 23km road was supposed to be widened, lampposts and tra� c signs were to be installed on 23.5km road, and 20.5km road was to be beauti� ed.

The Local Government Division is implementing the Tk115 crore project, with Tk92 crore from the government exchequer and the remaining amount from DNCC funds.

DNCC chief engineer Brigadier Gen-eral Md Gazi Firoz Rahman could not be reached for comment on the delay in the implementation of the projects.

On June 1 this year, DNCC former chief engineer Brigadier General Md Abul Khair told the Dhaka Tribune: “We were given only four to � ve weeks before the world cup to implement the beauti� cation project. We did not have enough time which is why we could not complete the whole project on time.”

Interestingly, Khair told the Dhaka Tribune in February that he was con� -dent about the implementation of the projection by the March 8 deadline. l

CU crippled by students’ inde� nite striken FM Mizanur Rahaman

The academic and administrative ac-tivities of Chittagong University (CU) were on hold yesterday on the � rst day of an inde� nite strike enforced by resi-dential students and countrywide half-day hartal enforced by Islami Chhatra Sena, a student wing of the Islamic Front Bangladesh.

The residential students of Shah Amanat and Suhrawardy Hall observed that strike under the banner of “General Students of CU” with a call to reopen two dormitories which were closed after clash-es between two student organisations.

The protesters also demanded ar-rangement for accommodation for the

residential students of Shah Jalal hall. They also alleged that the Bangla-

desh Chhatra League activists had oc-cupied the hall after driving out them.

Administrative sources said no class and examination was held and the campus-bound shuttle train servic-es also remained suspended from the morning. No teachers’ bus plied city routes, said CU transport sources.

The CU sources said a section of stu-dents brought out a procession from the Central Student Union building area in the morning.

Meanwhile, two crude bombs were exploded from another procession in the CU College area at 12 noon.

On receiving information, police

rushed to the spot and recovered an unexploded bomb from there, said Md Moin Uddin, o� cer-in-charge of CU po-lice outpost.

Earlier, a section of activists of Chhatra Sena, CU unit halted a cam-pus bound shuttle train and locked the room of the station master in the morn-ing at Sholoshahar Railway Station.

Md Shahbuddin, station master of Sholashahar Railway Station, said a numbers of students also threatened that they would attack the train, if its service continues. Later, considering the entire situation the train services were suspended, he said.

CU Proctor Siraj Ud Dowla said they would not tolerate further unrest on

campus. “We will take all kind of steps to run the campus smoothly,” he said.

The CU had closed the Suhrawardy Hall after a gun� ght which took place between the ruling party student’s wing men and Shibir on 24 August.

The Shah Amanat Hall was closed on January 12 after another � erce � ght between the activists of BCL and Shibir that left Mamun Hossain, a 4th  year student of Soil Science department and also the hall unit president of Shibir, killed.

The two closed halls were dominat-ed by Islami Chhatra Shibir while Shah Jalal is under control of ruling party students’ wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), said campus sources. l

Updating of DCC voter list starts todayn Rafe Sadnan Adel

The Election Commission will start up-dating t6he voter list of Dhaka City Cor-poration from today.

Supervisors will start making door-to-door visits and the process will con-tinue until September 10.

The process for taking photographs of new voters of Dhaka South City Cor-poration (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) will start from Sep-tember 18, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed said at a press conference in his o� ce yesterday.

He said: “It is a continuous process. If anyone fails to update his information within the deadline they can update that after the session. And Bangladeshi nationals who are residents in foreign countriescan also enlist themselves an-ytime before the election by going to the upazila or thana election o� ces in they happen to be in the country.”

The CEC con� rmed that during the � rst phase of updating, 181 upazila have

already been covered and now they are in the third phase where they are going to start updating information of voters in 120 upazilas. Ninety-two upazilas are yet to be covered under the second phase, he said.

CEC warned everyone to avoid having dual voter enlistment. Anyone found doing so would be penalised.

The Election Commission has found that the number of female voters are decreasing daily.

Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed said the reasons behind this are, � rstly parents tend to avoid mentioning the age of their daughters, secondly most of the rural female voters are conservative and thirdly, some of them deny being pho-tographed because of religious reasons.

Day labourers will not be included in this updating process as they create confusion while providing permanent address. The local governments have been informed about the issues, he said.

According to CEC’s statistics, 3,082,287 new voters have been enlist-ed so far of whom 17,59,233 are male l

Most battery-run auto-rickshaws stay o� streets67 vehicles seized on � rst day of eviction driven Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The � rst day of eviction drive against battery-run auto-rickshaws could not achieve its expected results as most of these vehicles remained o� the city roads to avoid penalty.

The joint team of Chittagong Met-ropolitan Police (CMP), Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and Chittagong district administration, seized a total of 67 battery-run rick-shaws in the port city on the � rst day of the eviction drive yesterday.

Deputy Commissioner (tra� c-north zone) Faruk Ahmed of the CMP said they had seized 67 battery-run rick-

shaws till 4pm adding that the rick-shaws would be given back to the own-ers after removing their motors and batteries.

The owners and drivers of bat-tery-run rickshaws in Chittagong city have been instructed to run their vehicles on the city roads afterremoving the battery and motor with-in August 30 according to the order of the ministry concerned and the High Court.

The authorities concerned after a meeting on August 25 announced that they would seize battery-run vehicles if those ply road after the deadline.

CMP Additional Commissioner (tra� c, � nance and administration)

AKM Shahidur Rahman said additional tra� c inspectors and sergeants were deployed at 26 points to conduct the drive.

About one hundred thousand bat-tery-run rickshaws are now plying the port city streets under 13 di� erent asso-ciations. Apart from them, 70,000 rick-shaws were licensed by the Chittagong City Corporation.

Meanwhile, the plying of battery-run auto-rickshaws was remarkably low on the � rst day of eviction. While visiting di� erent points of the city, it was found that most of the battery-run auto-rick-shaws stayed o� the streets.  

Talking with a number of rick-shaw-pullers, Dhaka Tribune found

that they did not ply their rickshaws because of drive.

Asked whether they are obeying the authorities’ instruction, Vice President Firoz Alom of Chittagong Rickshaw and Battery-run Rickshaw Malik Sangram Parishad said they did not ply their rickshaws because of the hartal.

On Saturday, they issued 48-hour ultimatum to the CCC Mayor M Mon-jur Alam to resign from his post. They also threatened to siege CCC O� ce, on August 3 if their seven-point demands were not met within 48 hours.

The seven-point demands include providing license to the rickshaw-own-ers and stopping the harassment of rickshaw-drivers. l

Locals demand construction ofa concrete roadn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Locals formed a human chain at Dhar-madi-Raipasha intersection in Barisal demanding to turn a 200-year old mud-dy road into a concrete road.

Hundreds of locals of Raipa-sha-Karapur union under Barisal Sadar upazila participated in the programme organised by the local union parishad.

The rally was presided over by Khadiza Begum, female member of lo-cal union parishad.

The speakers said two kilometers road from Mollar Bazaar of Purba Dhar-madi to Raipasha has been dilapidated for the last 200 years even it was located near Barisal City Corporation area, caus-ing immense su� ering to commuters.

Hundreds of people of ward 5 and 6 of the union have to use the old muddy road as it is the only way to connect to

outer world, including union parishad, educational institutions, business en-terprises, working places, government and non-government o� ces at district and divisional city.

Every year during the monsoon sea-son, the road becomes unusable not only for transport but also for pedes-trians.

The participants said they had sub-mitted applications to several minis-tries to construct the road, but failed to convince them about the necessity of a concrete road.

“I often fail to go to work on time as I have to cross the marooned road every day, said Ekhlas Ali, a day labour.

Among the participants, Kabir Hos-sain, a local resident, said school stu-dents were worst a� ected by the dilap-idated road.

Many students of the locality have stopped going to school mainly be-cause of the state of the road, he said.

Naim, a class III student, said they failed to attend school on time due to the severely damaged road.

Sumaiya Begum, a student of class IV, said students had to keep two-set of clothes to cross the dilapidated road as they often fall onto mud. l

SUST teachers to observe work strike todayn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

The teachers’ association of Shahjalal University of Science & Technology (SUST) shifted yesterday’s work ab-stention and black badge programme to today because of Sunday’s hartal.

The teachers were scheduled to observe the programme yesterday to protest the assault on the association’s vice president and professor of social work department Dr Niaz Ahmed by a student.

Professor Faruk Uddin, general sec-retary of the association and associate professor of social science department, con� rmed the matter to the Dhaka Tribune.

He said: “As part of the programme, we will hold a rally around 11am wear-ing black badges and also submit mem-orandum to the vice-chancellor.”

On August 28, Oyes Ahmed, a Mas-ter’s student, stabbed Professor Dr Niaz Ahmed leaving him critically injured. He is now receiving treatment at Osma-ni Medical College and Hospital.

A case had been � led with Jalalabad thana in this regard. A 3-member com-mittee had also been formed to look into expelling Oyes from the university and cancelling his Honours certi� cate. l

Worker electrocuted in Chittagongn Tribune Report

A worker was electrocuted at Fakirhar area under Sitakunda upazila in Chit-tagong early yesterday.

The deceased was identi� ed as Md Roni, 25, the son of Monir Hossain, from Faridganj upazila of Chandpur district, said police sources.

Nayek Jahangri Alam of Chittagong Medical College (CMCH) police outpost said the youth came in contact with a live wire when he was lifting sand at Kalushah area of Fakirhat.

Co-workers rushed him to CMCH where the doctors on duty declared him dead around 4am, said Nayek Ja-hangir. l

Bricks are kept on a roadside as the Dhaka North City Corporation is yet to � nish the facelift work in Mirpur area of the capital. The beauti� cation project began before the ICC World Cup tournament in January this year ABU HAYAT MAHMUD

Indigenous leader Bichitra Tirki, centre, who has been tortured by a group of land grabbers recently, being taken to home after she was released from hospital yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

'Students had to keep two-set of clothes to cross the dilapidated road as they often fall onto mud'

DRIZZLE

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

51 sent to jailn Our Correspondent, Rangpur

A district court in the district yesterday sent 51 alleged criminals to jail rejecting bail prayers. Sources said police arrest-ed them on special drive from Saturday night to Sunday morning.

They were produced before the court in the morning. Kotwali police station O� cer-in-Charge Abdul Kader Zilany said they were accused of sev-eral cases, including murder, mugging, robbery, and smuggling. l

Idols, valuables lootedn Our Correspondent, Feni

Robbers have looted three idols of a Hindu goddesses, gold ornaments and furniture from Lemua Jaladash para temple in Feni.

O� cer-in-Charge of Feni model po-lice station Mahbub Morshed said the incident took place early Sunday. The looters broke the lock of the temple and took all the valuables. President of the temple committee Nandi Das said police did not reach the place as of 1:50pm. The incident has created anxiety among the people of the Hindu community in the locality.

In-charge of Bogdadia police out-post, Motahar Hussain said he heard about the incident and his force was preparing to visit the spot when the re-port was � led. l

Robbers attempt to loot Brac Bank n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

Robbers tried to loot Brac Bank of Natun Bazar branch yesterday in My-mensingh by breaking its vault.

Police sources said the robbers en-tered the bank by making a hole in the wall behind it and tried to loot all the money.

In the morning, the guards of the bank went to the o� ce and found the vault broken. On information, police went to the spot. No one was arrested in this connection. A general diary was � led.

Kotwali police station O� cer-in-Charge Fazlul Karim said the police tried to investigate into the cause of the matter. l

Abducted bank o� cial rescued in Sirajganjn Tribune Report

Detective Branch of police in a drive rescued a bank o� cial and from Jhaoil area in Kamarkhanda upazila on Satur-day night, two days after his abduction by miscreants.

The DB also arrested two of the al-leged abductors during the drive.

The arrested are: Sumon, 28, son of Saiful Islam of Kandapara village and Salauddin, 27, son of Jamat Ali of Chakli village in Sadar upazila.

O� cer-in-charge of Sirajganj DB Nasir Uddin said a group of miscre-ants abducted Mahbubur Rahman, 28, an o� cial of Trust Bank’s Enayetpur Branch and son of Akmal Hossain of Chak Binod village in

Kahalu upazila in Bogra district, at gunpoint from Kaddar Mor area in Sa-

dar upazila around 4am on Friday.Later, the abductors demanded a

ransom of Tk 10 lakh from the victim’s family members over phone.On a tip-o� , a team of DB police con-

ducted a drive at Jhaoil area around 10:00 pm on Saturday.

Sensing the presence of the law enforcers, the criminals opened � re towards the police, forcing them to re-taliate. Two of the abductors, Sumon and Salauddin were injured during the gun� ght and arrested by the DB.

Later, the law enforcers rescued the bank o� cial from the spot.

However, other members of the gang managed to � ee the scene.

Four policemen - sub-inspectors Tozammel and Benu, and constables Kamal and Sha� -were also injured and admitted to Sirajganj Sadar Hospital. l

Experimental gas extraction begins from Shahbazpur gas � eld n Our Correspondent, Bhola

The state-owned Bangladesh Petrole-um Exploration and Production Com-pany Limited (Bapex) started extract-ing gas yesterday from the third well of Shahbazpur gas � eld in Bhola on an experimental basis.

Bapex Project Director Abdul Halim said, Bapex had completed the drilling with its own initiative and technology. He hoped that formal gas extraction would begin within a few days.

Shahbazpur gas � eld was discov-ered in 1994 with an estimated reserve of 0.465 trillion cubic feet of gas, out of which 0.35 trillion cubic feet is extract-able from the � rst and second well.

Bapex Asisstant Manager Shahadat Hossain said: “The gas already extract-ed is supplied to the 34.5MW rental power plant of Bhola’s Venture Ener-gy Resource Ltd. And the third well is being prepared as more gas would be needed once the 225MW power plant in Borhanuddin begins operation.” l

Fake dentists posing health hazardn Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

A number of fake dentists are running businesses in Gopalganj.

Claiming themselves as “doctors,” they are operating chambers in di� erent upazilas under the district without legal registration or approval.

According to Gopalganj health department, at least 30 such illegal dental clinics are in operation in the district where services like tooth scaling and polishing, � lling etc are delivered in an unhygienic environment.

Same unsterilised equipments are used to treat a number of patients, exposing them to being infected with Hepatitis B and C virus.

On Sunday a mobile court led by Executive Magistrate SM Manjurul Haque and medical o� cer for the Gopalganj Civil Surgeon O� ce Dr

Humayun Kabir raided di� erent areas of the city to nab the fake dentists.Sensing the raid, many of the fake dentists � ed, closing down their chambers.

The mobile court sentenced Sukumer Sarker in Arambagh area with two months imprisonment and charged Tk20,000, in default to serve an extra month in jail while Tapas Hira of Borashi village was charged Tk10,000, in default to serve one month imprisonment.

Requesting anonymity, one fake dentist admitted to treating patients in an unhygienic environment. He said he had no idea about proper medicine and drugs and could not even write down a prescription.

He said there were many doctors who abused antibiotics.

Dr Humayun Kabir said none of these fake chambers could properly sterilise medical utensils. Also, there was no alternative arrangement for sterilisation either.

Now there is a high chance that patients might get infected with Hepatitis B or C, he said.

“These doctors are cheating people. Because of their wrong treatment, other diseases are a� ecting the patients. Health department is active in dealing with them,” said the medical o� cer. l

Former UP member shot deadn Our Correspondent, Rangamati

A former union parishad member has been shot dead by miscreants at Ramhari Para in Naniarchar upazila early Sunday.

The deceased was identi� ed as Shanti Kumar Chakma, a former mem-ber of Ghilachhari union parisahd.

Ghilachhari UP Chairman Omar Jibon Chakma said a group of miscreants called Shanti out of his house around 12:30am and shot him dead near his residence. Locals and Shanti’s family members noticed the body early hours on Sunday and informed police.

Naniarchar police station second o� cer Abdul Awal told the Dhaka Tribune that they have sent police force to recover the body. l

State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited starts extracting gas yesterday from the third well of Shahbazpur gas � eld in Bhola on an experimental basis DHAKA TRIBUNE

One fake dentist admitted to treating patients in an unhygienic environment

Gram Adalat dysfunctional in MoulvibazarUP chairmen and justice seekers prefer the traditional system of arbitrationn Rajat Kanti Goswami, Moulvibazar

The Gram Adalat (village court), an al-ternative dispute resolution system, is severely underutilised in the Union Parishads (UP) of Moulvibazar district.

Salish, the traditional system of arbitration, is more preferred by UP chairmen and justice seekers in rural areas than the Gram Adalat.

Locals allege that UP chairmen and members of Moulvibazar spend a signi� -cant amount of time each week attending salish but not many cases of Gram Adalat.

Talking to various concerned peo-ple, The Dhaka Tribune found many reasons behind the unpopularity of Gram Adalat. Among them worth men-

tioning are the lack of knowledge of merit and importance of Gram Adalat, poor outreach among rural people, in-terference of so called local heads, in-adequate infrastructure, and disinter-est of UP chairmen in the system.

Most of the UP o� ces in di� erent upazilas of Moulvibazar are running without a trial room for Gram Adalat. According to Union Parishad sources, of the 12 UP under Moulvibazar sadar upazila, trial rooms have been set up in only four UP o� ces.

Stressing on the importance of the sys-tem, Mizanur Rahman, Sylhet Division-al Coordinator of the Mass Line Media Centre, an NGO working with local gov-ernment, said: “The rural people could

bene� t a lot by Gram Adalat. It could help dispense justice at the door steps of the villagers without going through a long-drawn formal legal process.”

The procedure to seek justice to Gram Adalat is not a very complicated one. One has to just lodge a written complaint to the UP chairman and pay Tk4 fees for civil matter and Tk2 for criminal matter. Upon receiving the application, the UP chairman will issue notices to the parties involved in the dispute to attend the Gram Adalat on speci� c date and time for hearing.

According to the Gram Adalat Ain formulated in 2006, the highest pen-alty it can impose is Tk25,000. Any ag-grieved side of the case, however, can

appeal against the verdict of the Gram Adalat to a � rst class magistrate court for criminal cases and in the assistant judge court for civil cases.

Sujit Kumar Das, chairman of Am-toil UP under Sadar upazila said: “The objective of the Gram Adalat is to save the rural people from expensive and time-consuming traditional justice system.” He further added that the jus-tice seekers in rural areas in most cases habitually depend on salish as it was more informal and quicker than the Gram Adalat.

In the meantime, the Jatiya Sang-sad passed an amendment to the Gram Adalat Ain on September 2013 with a provision to incorporate several new

clauses into the existing act for the smooth carrying out of judicial activi-ties at the village level.

Clash, theft, damaging of crops, harming livestock, breach of monetary deal, and poisoning � sh in ponds etc. can be settled in the village court as per the law. The amended act strengthens the institutional sustainability of the Gram Adalat and increases the pecu-niary jurisdiction of the court from Tk25,000 to Tk75,000.

Describing the inception of Gram Adalat as a praise-worthy initiative, Ru-mel Ahmed, chairman of Mostafapur UP laid emphasis on bolstering the out-reach of Gram Adalat for the system to become popular and widely used. l

Police o� cials di� er over the escape of an accused n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

High level police o� cials in Gazipur gave contradictory statements regarding an incident of an accused � eeing from a police van yesterday.

Sources said the accused Delwar Hossain, � ed from the police van while he was being taken to Kaliakoir upazila on Saturday night.

Acting on a tip o� , police detained Delwar and Liton with 300gm of cannabis at Baliadi Bazar area on Friday night.

Later, a mobile court led by Kaliakoir upazila Assistant Commissioner Jinat Jahan sentenced them to six months’ imprisonment. They were sent back

from Gazipur jail due to some issues with legal papers. Delwar � ed from the van while being taken to Kaliakoir around 10pm.

Kaliakoir police station O� cer-in-Charge Omor Faruk had earlier con� rmed the incident. However, when contacted in the morning, he said: “The accused did not � ee, he is in jail.”

On the other hand, endorsing the incident, Superintendent of Police Harun-Ur-Rashid said they were trying to rearrest the escaped accused.

Gazipur Additional Superintendent of Police Delwar Hossain said: “I had visited Kaliakoir police station as per the order of the police super soon after the incident but I did not � nd the accused there.”

About the OC’s statement, he said: “Why would he [the accused] be in the police station? He has � ed and there is no hiding it. I have ordered the OC to rearrest him as soon as possible.”

Senior Jail Super of Gazipur District Jail Shubhash Chandra Ghosh said: “In spite of having a system of separate arrest warrants for di� erent accused, police had brought only one arrest warrant for the two of them.” l

'Why would he [the accused] be in the police station? He has � ed and there is no hiding it. I have ordered the OC to rearrest him as soon as possible'

Local people at Sidhirganj in Naraynganj bring out a procession in the area yesterday demanding punishment to the killers of Delwar Hossain Morsalin, who has been killed by miscreants recently DHAKA TRIBUNE

7Long Form Monday, September 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Faiz Sobhan

The Islamic State or IS, and until recently known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq

and Syria (ISIS), has stunned and alarmed both governments and people all over the world by its sudden and meteoric rise.

Leaders from around the globe have voiced their fear and concern about the serious danger IS poses to the international community in gener-al and to Iraq and Syria, in particular. The US president, Barack Obama has remarked, and it has become even more apparent in recent months, that the Islamic States’ “extreme ideology poses a medium and long-term threat” to citizens of the United States.

After the fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in June, the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared that he had established the Caliphate and re-branded the group as the “Islamic State.” The New York Times estimates that the group now controls 90,000 square kilometres of land in an area that stretches from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq.

Most recently, it captured the al-Tabqa air base in the Raqqa province in Syria, bordering Turkey. IS today has artillery, tanks, � ghter planes and other military equipment that it has acquired in various ways. Much of this has been taken over or seized from the Syrian and Iraqi armed forces.

In fact, the IS has been steadily growing for the past few years, right under the nose of the Iraqi government. Unfortunately, Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was too busy developing his own myopic agenda for Iraq, and supporting his fellow Shiite constituency, at the expense of the interests of the Sunni population.

As a result large sections of the Sunni community have been forced to pledge their support to the Islamic State in the large swathes of land they have captured thus far. Additionally,

the Syrian civil war has helped to make the IS stronger and larger than any oth-er rebel group involved in the con� ict.

The appeal of the IS has rapidly gone global. Young men from all over the world are � ocking to join its ranks in Iraq and Syria. This has sent shock waves all over the world, particular-ly in the United States and Europe, since many of those joining the IS are citizens of the United States, the United Kingdom and several European countries.

An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 of its � ghters are said to be of Europe-an origin. It is however unclear the actual number of � ghters the IS has in Iraq and Syria. In Iraq alone, the IS is estimated to have more than 15,000 � ghters together with militias allied to them. In Syria, they are thought to have at least 6,000 to 8,000 � ghters.

Al-Baghdadi, who emerged as the leader of the IS in 2010, can today assume the credit for making the IS the world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation. Al-Baghdadi, in com-parison to his old friend and mentor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who headed al-Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed by US forces in 2006, is considered a far more intelligent, and pragmatic individual.

Unlike Zarqawi, al-Baghdadi is also said to be highly educated and has a PhD in Islamic theology. A large part of his strength lies in the support he has secured from a group of old Baath Party o� cials who served under Sadd-am Hussein.

The IS is estimated to be the richest and most powerful terrorist group in the world today. Defeating them or degrading their strength will be a formidable task for any country. After the capture of Mosul, the IS looted the central bank of $429m (500bn Iraqi dinars) in cash. In addition, the group generates income from collecting taxes from the local areas under its control and reportedly sells 40,000 barrels of oil a day.

Furthermore, millions of dollars in donation have come from Saudi

Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf States in the past few years. Due to their large resources in the areas under their control, the IS has continued to pay local workers and even o� ers social security bene� ts. The group’s earnings are estimated at $1-$4m a day. It is believed that IS today controls more than $2bn.

In the short-term, the following options may be required in order to contain the IS:

Military option

While the US air strikes have tempo-rarily checked the advance of IS forces in Iraq, it is evident that air strikes alone can only serve as a short-term measure. While the IS � ghters have acquired a number of sophisticated weaponry, including its recent capture of SA-16 MANPADS at the al-Tabqa air base in Raqqab, they are not as well-trained or fully equipped as the US, European or some other military forces in the region. However, recent events have shown that IS forces are highly motivated and will not be easy to defeat.

Support to Sunni tribes

Iraq’s new Shi’ite Prime Minister, Haidar al-Abadi would need to repair much of the damage done by his predecessor and bridge the ever-ex-panding gap between the Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq. What has been viewed as a positive development by many observers is the fact that several Sunni tribes have stated that they are willing to negotiate with Prime Minister al-Abadi. It is evident though that if the IS is to be weakened and eventu-ally defeated, Shiites and Sunnis need to come to terms and agree to work together.

Bolstering allied forces

US President Obama correctly stated that the United States cannot “play whack-a-mole” and send its troops to all the countries where the IS emerges. The United States and its partners can instead help to bolster their allies in the region such as Turkey and Jordan, especially the Iraqi armed forces, to enable them to e� ectively confront the forces of the IS.

Diplomacy

The United States and its European allies, fully aware of the threat from the IS, need to turn to their partners in the Middle East to get their full sup-port and help. This means persuading those countries that have been fund-ing the IS to stop channelling funds to the group. Those states would also need to pledge their support of reaching out to their contacts and networks in Iraq and Syria to try and

work together to stop the onslaught of the terror group. The sharing of any intelligence between these countries will also play a critical role in the � ght against the IS.

The role of the international community

In the � nal analysis, the IS can only be contained and ultimately defeated if the United States and their allies have the absolute resolve and political will necessary to vanquish this extremely violent and dangerous group. While it is positive news that the United States has begun surveillance � ights over Syria which may be a prelude to air strikes, it has tough decisions to make in the coming weeks and months including whether to work with the

Assad regime; an idea not particularly favoured by Obama and members of his administration. Equally important will be the role played by Iran, Russia and China. The United States will need to reassess its policies towards all these countries in the larger interest of forging a global coalition.

The need for an effective counter radicalisation policyHowever, a major factor that could help to erode the strength of the IS will be for the Sunni tribes in Iraq and Syria to withdraw their support for IS, which will then lose a major source of its lifeblood and potentially decline over time. Equally important for the international community will be to develop an e� ective counter radicali-sation policy. Central to such a policy

will be to ensure that Muslims wheth-er in the United States, Europe, in OIC member states, or indeed all over the world, do not become extremists and militants, who then end up not simply rallying to the cause of the IS but actu-ally join its ranks as � ghters. l

Faiz Sobhan writes on international a� airs.

Can IS be stopped?

President Obama correctly stated that the United States cannot ‘play whack-a-mole’ and send its troops to all the countries where the IS emerges

A masked Islamic State militant holding a knife speaks next to man purported to be US journalist James Foley at an unknown location in this still � le image from an undated video posted on a social media website. Britain is close to identifying a suspected British national shown beheading American journalist James Foley in a video released by Islamic State militants REUTERS

Mosul Dam

The jihadist group now controls large areas of Syria and IraqIslamic State

5%

95%

25% 40%

Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi

IS leader

The rise of the IS

100 km

BAGHDADBAGHDADDAMASCUSDAMASCUS

Rutba

SinjarArbil

Rawa

IRAN

TURKEY

S Y R I A

I R A Q

Fallujah

Najaf

BasraNasiriyah

Amarah

Karbala

Kirkuk

Makhmur

Hawija

Jalawla

Baquba

Mosul

Samarra

Sharqat

Iraqi government forcesSyrian government forcesOther rebel groups

Kurdish peshmergafighters

Islamic State jihadists

Areacontrolled by:

Autonomous Kurdish region

Haditha

Aleppo

IdlebLatakia

Hama

Ar Rai

Raqa

Homs

DamaQuneira

Deir Ezzor

2006Created in Iraq at al-Qaeda’s instigation

Spreads to Syria

Is disavowed byal-Qaeda. At warwith al-Nusra Front(al-Qaeda’s officialbranch in Syria)

Launches offensivein Iraq, seizes Mosul.Declares creationof caliphate interritories it controls

Beheads US journalistJames Foley

July 2011

Feb 2014

June 2014

Aug 2014

Fighters(estimate)

Territorycontrolled

Funding

GulfStates

Extortion,oil smuggling,ransoms,Mosul banks

Syria Iraq

8,000 to 10,000

inc. 3,200-4,000foreigners

50,000inc. 20,000

foreigners (fromthe Gulf, Chechnya,

W. Europe)

SuleimanBeg

BukamalAmerli

Tabqa

Monday, September 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

N E W S B I T E S

Celebration in Liberia slum as Ebola quarantine liftedn Reuters, Monrovia/Conakry

Crowds sang and danced in the streets of a seaside neighbourhood in Liberia on Saturday as the government lifted quar-antine measures designed to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

Faced with the worst Ebola outbreak in history, West African governments have struggled to � nd an e� ective re-sponse. More than 1,550 people have died from the hemorrhagic fever since it was � rst detected in the forests of Guinea in March.

Residents of the impoverished sea-side district of West Point in Monrovia

were forcibly cut o� from the rest of the capital in mid-August after a crowd attacked an Ebola centre there, allow-ing the sick to � ee.

The quarantine sparked protests and security forces responded with tear gas and bullets, killing a teenaged boy.

But at dawn on Saturday, the com-munity woke up to � nd the soldiers and barricades gone.

“I tell God thank you. I tell every-one thank you,” said Ko� a, a female resident of West Point. Others danced in the streets chanting slogans like “we are free” while others rolled about on the asphalt pavement in celebration.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a US-educated Nobel Peace Prize winner, has sought to quell criticism of the gov-ernment’s response by issuing orders threatening o� cials with dismissal for failing to report for work or for � eeing the country, and has ordered an inves-tigation into the West Point shooting.

Liberia, where infection rates are highest, plans to build � ve new Ebola treatment centres each with capacity for 100 beds, government and health o� cials said on Saturday.

In neighbouring Sierra Leone, Pres-ident Ernest Bai Koromo dismissed his health minister Miatta Kargbo on Friday

over her handling of the epidemic which has killed more than 400 people there.

Her replacement Abubakarr Fofana on Saturday con� rmed that a third doc-tor in the county had died from Ebola, further hampering its ability to respond to the outbreak.

“It is with a deep sense of sadness that we have lost one of our � nest phy-sicians in the line of duty at a time like when we need a lot of them to help in out � ght against Ebola,” he said.

Physician Dr. Sahr Rogers caught the disease while treating outpatients in the same hospital where a doctor died last month. l

Iraqi forces break two-month siege of Amerlin Agencies

Iraqi security forces backed by Shi’ite militias yesterday on Sunday broke the two-month siege of Amerli by Islamic State militants and entered the north-ern town, o� cials said.

The mayor of Amerli and army o� -cers said troops backed by militias de-feated � ghters from the Islamic State (IS) to the east of the town. Fighting continued to the north of Amerli.

“Security forces and militia � ghters are inside Amerli now after breaking the siege and that will de� nitely relieve the su� ering of residents,” said Adel al-Bayati, mayor of Amerli.

“I can see the tanks of the Iraqi army patrolling Amerli’s street now. I’m very happy we got rid of the Islamic State terrorists who were threatening to slaughter us,” said Amir Ismael, an Amerli resident, by phone.

The advance of the Iraqi forces comes after the US military carried out air strikes overnight on IS militant po-sitions near the town and airdropped humanitarian supplies to the trapped residents there, Reuters reported.

President Barack Obama had autho-rized the new military action, broadening US operations in Iraq amid an interna-tional outcry over the threat to Amerli’s mostly ethnic Turkmen population.

US aircraft delivered over a hundred bundles of emergency supplies and more aid was dropped from British,

French and Australian planes, o� cials said, signaling headway in Obama’s ef-forts to draw allies into the � ght against Islamic State.

On Saturday, Iraqi army and Kurdish forces closed in on Islamic State � ght-ers in a push to break the Sunni mili-tants’ siege of Amerli, which has been surrounded by the militants for more than two months.

Armed residents of Amerli have managed to fend o� attacks by Islam-ic State � ghters, who regard the town’s majority Shi’ite Turkmen population as apostates. More than 15,000 people re-main trapped inside.

“At the request of the government of Iraq, the United States military to-day airdropped humanitarian aid to the town of Amerli, home to thousands of Shia Turkmen who have been cut o� from receiving food, water, and med-ical supplies for two months by ISIL,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said, using an alterna-tive name for Islamic State.

“In conjunction with this airdrop, US aircraft conducted coordinated air strikes against nearby ISIL terrorists in order to support this humanitarian assistance operation,” he said, adding that a key objective was to prevent a militant attack on civilians in the town.

Warplanes hit three Humvee patrol vehicles, a tank and an armed vehicle held by militants in addition to a check-point controlled by the group, accord-ing to the military’s Central Command, which runs US operations in the Mid-dle East. “All aircraft safely exited the area,” it said in a statement.

When Obama ordered the � rst air strikes and air drops in Iraq earlier this month, he justi� ed the military opera-tion in part to prevent a humanitarian ca-tastrophe for thousands of ethnic Yazidis trapped by Islamic State militants on Sin-jar mountain in northern Iraq. l

Israel appropriates West Bank land for possible settlement usen Reuters, Jerusalem

Israel announced yesterday a land ap-propriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestin-ian o� cial said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war.

Some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared “state land, on the in-structions of the political echelon” by the military-run Civil Administration.

Israel Radio said the step was tak-en in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants in the area in June. The notice published by the military gave no rea-son for the decision.

Peace Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank - territory Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live

adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.

Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as “Gevaot,” has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.

Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45 days to appeal. A local Palestinian may-or said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.

Israel has come under intense inter-national criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israel to

cancel the appropriation. “This deci-sion will lead to more instability. This will only in� ame the situation after the war in Gaza,” Abu Rdainah said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-tanyahu broke o� peace talks with Ab-bas in April after the Palestinian lead-er reached a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the Gaza Strip.

In a series of remarks after an open-ended cease� re halted a sev-en-week-old Gaza war with Hamas on Tuesday, Netanyahu repeated his posi-tion that Abbas would have to sever his alliance with Hamas for a peace process with Israel to resume.

Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the es-tablishment of a new settlement be-cause the site is o� cially designated a neighbourhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several km (miles) down the road. l

Lesotho’s deputy premier in charge after PM � ees ‘coup’n Reuters, Maseru

Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Tha-bane accused Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing of helping to plan a coup by the army that forced the prime minister to � ee the country. Metsing took charge of the government once Thabane had � ed the country for neigh-bouring South Africa. Thabane left on Saturday, after the army surrounded his residence and police stations in Leso-tho’s capital, Maseru. ID:nL5N0R003Z].

Gunshots were heard in Maseru on Saturday, where one policeman was shot dead and four others wounded, said senior police superintendent Mofokeng Kolo. But the army denied trying to force out Thabane, saying it had moved against police suspected of planning to arm a political faction in the small southern African kingdom. Diplo-mats in Maseru told Reuters the army was largely seen as loyal to the deputy prime minister and the police force mostly supported the prime minister.

Regional power South Africa con-demned the army’s actions and invited the deputy prime minister to talks there. l

Polls say Scotland will spurn independence, but are they right?n Reuters, London

Opinion polls, � nancial markets and bookmakers are unanimous - Scotland will reject independence in a historic referendum next month and the Unit-ed Kingdom will endure. But what if, as Scots nationalists believe, the polls are wrong? Experts say it is a possibility.

The September 18 vote, the � rst of its kind in British history, has thrown up unique circumstances which make forecasting the outcome unusually dif-� cult. Surveys are consistent on trends but diverge when it comes to the size of the gap between the two campaigns.

Few are ready to exclude an upset.“Pollsters are particularly nervous

given the disparity between them,” John Curtice, a professor at Strathclyde Uni-versity and a leading authority on poll-ing, told Reuters. “Some of the polls are de� nitely wrong because they don’t agree. We just don’t know which ones yet. This is a pretty tough call for the polling industry.”

Scots pollsters recall 2011, when the pro-independence Scottish National

Party confounded expectations to win its � rst overall majority in the Scottish parliament. That election was conduct-ed using a di� erent electoral system to the referendum, but the memory of what was a major political shock lingers.

Pollsters are also haunted by two oc-casions when they called national Brit-ain-wide elections spectacularly wrong - in 1970 and 1992, won by Edward Heath and John Major respectively.

“The dates are etched on pollsters’ hearts,” said Curtice. Yet the current pic-ture, if averaged out, looks unambiguous.

The most recent “poll of polls,” on Aug. 15, based on an average of the last six polls and excluding undecided respon-dents, put support for independence at 43% against 57% for staying in the United Kingdom, a hefty 14-point gap.

And only one poll in the last year, in August 2013, gave the pro-inde-pendence campaign a lead over the anti-independence side (by a slender 1%). The validity of that survey, re-garded as an outlier, was questioned by some experts. l

Putin calls for talks on ‘statehood’ for eastern Ukrainen AFP, Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin yes-terday dramatically raised the stakes in the Ukraine con� ict by calling for the � rst time for statehood to be consid-ered for the restive east of the former Soviet state.

“We need to immediately begin sub-stantive talks ... on questions of the political organisation of society and statehood for southeastern Ukraine

with the goal of protecting the lawful interests of the people who live there,” Putin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on a TV show broadcast in the far east of the country.

Russia has previously only called for greater rights under a decentralized federal system to be accorded to the eastern regions of Ukraine, where pre-dominantly Russian-speakers live.

In the programme, taped on Friday, Putin did not directly address addition-

al Western sanctions on Russia. Putin however blamed the crisis

in Ukraine on the West, accusing it of supporting a “coup” against pro-Krem-lin president Viktor Yanukovych in February.

“They should have known that Rus-sia cannot stand aside when people are being shot almost at point-blank,” said Putin, adding that he did not have in mind “the Russian state but the Rus-sian people.” l

15 Russians swapped for 63 Ukrainiansn Reuters, Moscow/Mariupol

Ukraine and Russia swapped soldiers who had entered each other’s territory near the battle� eld in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev says Moscow’s forces have come to the aid of pro-Russian insur-gents advancing for an assault on a major port.

Ukrainian troops and local residents were reinforcing the port of Mariupol on Sunday, the next big city in the path of pro-Russian � ghters who pushed

back government forces along the Azov Sea this past week in an o� ensive on a new front.

The new rebel advance has drawn increasing concern from Ukraine’s Western allies, who say its success is a result of reinforcement by armoured columns of Russian troops.

European Union leaders agreed on Saturday to draw up new econom-ic sanctions against Moscow, a move hailed by the United States, which is planning tighter sanctions of its own

and wants to act jointly with Europe.Some residents of Mariupol have

taken to the streets to show support for the Ukrainian government as the pro-Russian forces gain ground. Many others have � ed from the prospect of an all-out assault on the city of nearly 500,000 people.

“We are proud to be from this city and we are ready to defend it from the occupiers,” said Alexandra, 28, a post o� ce clerk wearing a ribbon in blue and yellow Ukrainian colours. l

Residents of West Point celebrate the lifting of a quarantine by the Liberian government. Crowds sang and danced in the streets of the seaside neighbourhood of West Point in Monrovia as the government lifted quarantine measures designed to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus REUTERS

A Palestinian woman takes part in a rally celebrating what organizers say was a victory by Palestinians in Gaza over Israel following a cease� re, in the West Bank city of Ramallah REUTERS

‘I’m very happy we got rid of the Islamic State terrorists who were threatening to slaughter us’

9Monday, September 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

P A K I S T A N O N F I R E : 3 P E O P L E K I L L E D A N D N E A R L Y 4 0 0 W O U N D E D A S A N T I - P M P R O T E S T S T U R N E D V I O L E N T

China rules out open Hong Kong pollChina sets tight nomination rules on 2017 election, democrats plan mass protests

n Reuters, Beijing/Hong Kong

China’s parliament said yesterday it will tightly control the nomination of candidates for a landmark election in Hong Kong in 2017, a move likely to trigger mass protests in the city’s Cen-tral business district by disappointed democracy activists.

The Standing Committee of the Na-tional People’s Congress (NPC) said it had endorsed a framework to let only two or three candidates run in a 2017 vote for Hong Kong’s next leader. All candidates must � rst obtain majority backing from a nominating committee likely to be stacked with Beijing loyalists.

The relatively tough decision by the NPC - China’s � nal arbiter on the city’s democratic a� airs - makes it almost im-possible for opposition democrats to get on the ballot.

“This is a legal, fair and reasonable decision. It is a digni� ed, prudent de-cision, and its legal e� ect is beyond doubt,” Li Fei, the deputy secretary general of the NPC standing commit-tee, told reporters after the decision.

Hundreds of “Occupy Central” ac-

tivists, who demand Beijing allow a real, free election, will this evening hold a small protest to formally launch their campaign of civil disobedience, that will climax with a blockade the city’s business district.

Political reform has been a constant source of friction between Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the mainland since the former British col-ony was handed back to Communist Party rulers in 1997.

In nearby Macau, another special administrative region, leader and sole candidate Fernando Chui was “re-elect-ed” on Sunday by a select panel of 400

largely pro-China loyalists in the tiny but wealthy former Portuguese colony.

Girding for actionThe activists in Hong Kong stressed that they wouldn’t paralyze the Cen-tral district immediately but would this evening lay out plans for smaller actions in the coming weeks leading up to a full-scale protest in the main busi-ness district.

Scores of police vehicles and hun-dreds of o� cers were deployed outside Hong Kong government headquarters as people began to gather, some chant-ing slogans.

Key government buildings, includ-ing the Chief Executive’s o� ce and a People’s Liberation Army barracks nearby, were also ringed by high fences and barricades.

“It (the NPC decision) leaves no room for us to � ght for a genuinely democratic system, and we will begin our campaign for peaceful, non-violent struggle,” said Joseph Cheng, the con-venor of the Alliance for True Democ-racy, a coalition of groups advocating universal su� rage in Hong Kong.

“We want to tell the world we ha-ven’t given up. We will continue to � ght,” he said.

On the surface, the National People’s Congress’ decision is a breakthrough that endorses the framework for the � rst direct vote by a Chinese city to choose its leader. Beijing is already hailing it as a milestone in democratic reform.

However, by tightly curbing nom-inations for the 2017 leadership poll, some democrats said Beijing was push-ing a Chinese-style version of “fake” democracy.

The NPC statement said all nomina-tions would be carried out according to “democratic procedures” and each candidate would need “the endorse-ment of more than half” of a nominat-ing committee that will be similar in composition to an existing 1,200-per-son election committee stacked with Beijing loyalists.

The proposed electoral framework will still have to be endorsed by two-thirds of Hong Kong’s 70-seat legisla-ture. With pro-democracy lawmakers holding more than a third of the seats, the proposal will likely be shelved. l

Fukushima fallout: Resentment grows in nearby Japanese cityn Reuters, Iwaki, Japan

Like many of her neighbours, Satomi Inokoshi worries that her gritty hometown is being spoiled by the newcomers and the money that have rolled into Iwaki since the Fukushima nuclear disaster almost three and a half years ago.

“Iwaki is changing - and not for the good,” said Inokoshi, 55, who echoes a sen-timent widely heard in this town of almost 300,000 where the economic boom that followed the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl has brought its own disruption.

Property prices in Iwaki, about 60 km (36 miles) south of the wrecked nuclear plant, have jumped as evacuees forced from homes in more heavily contaminated areas snatch up apartments and land. Hundreds of workers, who have arrived to work in the nuclear clean-up, crowd downtown hotels.

But long-time residents have also come to resent evacuees and the government compensation that has made the newcom-ers relatively rich in a blue-collar town built on coal mining and access to a nearby port. Locals have stopped coming to the enter-tainment district where Inokoshi runs a bar, she says, scared o� by the nuclear workers and their rowdy reputation.

“The situation around Iwaki is unsettled and unruly,” said Ryosuke Takaki, a profes-sor of sociology at Iwaki Meisei University, who has studied the town’s developing divide. “There are many people who have evacuated to Iwaki, and there are all kinds of incidents caused by friction.”

Hosts weary, guests frightenedResidents across Fukushima prefecture hailed the first wave of workers who arrived to contain the nuclear disaster in 2011 as heroes. Cities like Iwaki also welcomed evacuees from towns closer to the meltdowns and explosions. At the time, Japan’s stoicism and sense of community were praised around the world for helping those who survived an earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 and triggered explosions at the nuclear plant.

But that solidarity and sense of shared purpose has frayed, according to dozens of interviews. Many Iwaki residents say they have grown weary of hosting evacuees in temporary housing. And the newcomers

themselves are frightened, says Hideo Hasegawa, who heads a non-pro� t group looking after evacuees at the largest tem-porary housing complex in Iwaki.

“When they move in to an apartment, they don’t talk to neighbours and hide,” said Hasegawa, who works from a small o� ce located between rows of grey, prefabricated shacks housing the evacuees. “You hear this hate talk everywhere you go: restaurants, shops, bars. It’s relentless.”

The 2011 nuclear crisis forced more than 160,000 people in Fukushima prefecture to evacuate and leave their homes. Half of them are still not allowed to return to the most badly contaminated townships within 20 kms (12.4 miles) of the destroyed plant known as the exclusion zone. l

N Korean leader’s money manager defects in Russian Reuters, Seoul

A senior North Korean banking o� cial who managed money for leader Kim Jong Un has defected in Russia and was seeking asylum in a third country, a South Korean newspaper reported on Friday, citing an unidenti� ed source.

Yun Tae Hyong, a senior represen-tative of North Korea’s Korea Daesong Bank, disappeared last week in Nak-hodka, in the Russian Far East, with $5m, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.

The Daesong Bank is suspected by the US government of being under the control of the North Korean gov-ernment’s O� ce 39, which is widely believed to � nance illicit activities, including the procurement of luxu-ry goods which are banned under UN sanctions.

The bank was blacklisted by the US Treasury Department in 2010.

The newspaper said North Korea had asked Russian authorities for coop-eration in e� orts to capture Yun.

It was not clear how Yun traveled to Russia or what he was doing before he defected. Russia and North Korea share a 17-km (10.5 miles) land border.

South Korea’s Uni� cation Ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, told Reuters it had no knowledge of the matter.

Kim Jong Un, in his early 30s, came to power in December 2011 when his fa-ther, Kim Jong Il, died of a heart attack, leaving him little time to consolidate his powerbase and prepare for succession. l

What dispute? India and China ignore land squabblen AP, New Delhi

For more than 50 years, it has pitted India against China — a smoldering dis-pute over who should control a swath of land larger than Austria. Two mili-taries have skirmished. A brief, bloody war has been fought. And today, thou-sands of soldiers from both coun-tries sit deployed along their shared frontier, doing little but watching each other.

But as Beijing confronts countries across the South China and East China seas, displaying its diplomatic and stra-tegic strength in a series of increasing-ly dangerous territorial disputes, the India-China stando� results in almost nothing beyond regular diplomatic talks and professions of international friendship.

Because the last thing the world’s two most populous countries want right now is war with each other. Not when things are going so well.

“The territorial issues and the sov-ereignty issues have not gone away,” said Sujit Dutta, a China scholar at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University. “But the Chinese are not pushing fur-ther (into the disputed regions) and neither are the Indians.”

“Today, India and China have a new context for their relationship,” he said.

That context comes down to two key components: An understanding that the disputed land has lost its strategic luster. And money.

Just a couple decades ago, India and China were dismissed as nations hob-bled by widespread poverty and hope-lessly lagging behind the West. Today, China has the world’s second-largest economy, an immense, well-equipped military, an increasingly educated pop-ulation and a vision for itself as one of the leading nations on earth. India, while economically far behind China, has become a global center for infor-mation technology and sees itself as a major player in Asia and elsewhere.

If both countries still struggle with widespread internal troubles — pover-ty, corruption, ethnic divisions, grow-

ing class divisions — the rest of the world can no longer write them o� .

When it comes to turf wars, Beijing today is largely focused on expanding its maritime in� uence in East Asia and Southeast Asia, with its vast untapped mineral reserves and importance to global trade.

So in the East China Sea, China cre-ated an air defense perimeter to back up its claims to a speckling of unin-habited islands also claimed by Japan. In the South China Sea, Beijing tempo-rarily moved an oil rig into waters also claimed by Vietnam, setting o� a series of naval confrontations.

At � rst glance, the Himalayan border that India and China share seems ideal for similar clashes. China says the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, an immense territory of nearly 84,000 square kilo-meters, is part of China. India, mean-while, insists China is illegally occupy-ing the region of Aksai Chin, a rocky and largely empty 37,000-square-kilometer region far to the east.

The two fought a monthlong bor-der war in 1962 that left some 2,000 soldiers dead following a surprise Chinese attack that still embarrasses India, and skirmishes along the fron-tier continued into the 1970s. While border squabbling occurs every year or so, there have been few serious show-downs since the late 1980s.

While experts believe diplomatic infrastructure has helped keep things calm — there are now regularly sched-uled border talks, military hotlines and designated meeting areas deep in the Himalayas to ensure that unexpected incidents do not � are into warfare — both countries have more to gain by increasing trade and cooperation.

However, China’s military presence along the border with India has been growing for years, and India has recent-ly rushed to catch up: refurbishing air strips, deploying more armored units and frantically constructing new roads high in the Himalayas.

It’s not what you’d expect from true allies. And, many note, that’s not what India and China are. l

Clockwise from top left: A Pakistani supporter of Canadian cleric Tahir ul Qadri (C) returns a tear gas shell towards police during clashes with security forces near the prime minister’s residence in Islamabad on August 31. Pakistani riot police try to chase the supporters of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan during clashes near the prime minister’s residence. Tahir ul Qadri addresses supporters at the protest site following clashes with security forces. Protesters rest on the lawn at the Parliament premises following clashes with police in Islamabad. A protester uses a slingshot to lob a stone towards riot police during clashes with security forces near the prime minister’s residence. Story on page 1 AFP

Indo-China border, Arunachal Pradesh

A girl lights candles during a candlelight memorial held in remembrance of victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Iwaki REUTERS

Senior Chinese o� cials have repeatedly warned activists against their ‘illegal’ protests and say they won’t back down

Bread and butter issues countAround three-quarters of people have expressed satisfaction with the

economic performance of the government over the last six months.Dhaka Tribune’s nationwide opinion poll conducted this August

found 77.2% of respondents saying they were more or less satis� ed with the economy and nearly seven in 10 (69.4%) say the country is heading in the right direction.

This represents a reversal of the � ndings of our pre-election survey, when 71% of the population said the country was headed in the wrong direction.

Economic factors and the more peaceful political environment, compared to the violence in the run up to the January 5 election, appear to be the biggest factors in� uencing this turnaround.

While infrastructure development is cited by 43% as the biggest success of the government’s � rst six months, a greater number (63.8%) said they are satis� ed with initiatives to control law and order.

This indicates that public relief, that the violence and economic disruption caused by strikes and blockades has declined, may be as big a factor as any particular economic policy behind the improved government ratings.

It highlights the importance of guaranteeing law and order and economic progress as the public’s top priorities. Controlling law and order and price hikes are the top two concerns noted by the survey.

This tallies with past survey � ndings showing that an overwhelming majority reject violence in politics and demand more improvements in law and order. All parties should take note of the public’s abhorrence for violence and its desire for a prosperous and peaceful society.

Public demands peaceful dialogue

For the � rst time since the January 5 election, around half of the population (53%) want to see the government serve out a full � ve-year term.

Since February, the proportion of people wanting to see a fully participative election within the year or as early as possible has declined to around 25% from 77%.

However, this does not mean the public does not also want the government and BNP to swiftly renew constructive dialogue. While there is some satisfaction that the law and order climate is not as bad as it was late last year, and there is more con� dence in the economy, the public also wants a fully participatory democratic process.

Regardless of their satisfaction with the current government’s performance, some 71.5% of the public disagree or strongly disagree with the PM’s no dialogue stance. This hardly di� ers from the 77% who previously said that elections without the BNP are unacceptable.

The public clearly wants both the two largest parties to engage in peaceful dialogue. It has no appetite for the accusatory and divisive rhetoric in which both major parties frequently indulge.

Both parties must take heed of lessons from the survey. Over 77.9% of respondents indicated that they do not want any agitation movement by the BNP and around 56% want it to cut ties with Jamaat.

Likewise, the AL needs to demonstrate that it will put acting in the interests of the country ahead of partisan issues. It must rethink actions which limit democratic space and freedom, and as the ruling government, should take a statesmanlike lead in creating a conducive atmosphere for dialogue.

The country deserves and demands politicians to act in the common interest to take the country forward.

Drive against battery-run rickshaws in ChittagongAugust 26

Sanzida Rahman “If the authorities � nd any battery-run rickshaw, they will seize its battery and motor and take legal actions after the deadline.”

The government is doing it only because they can get more revenue from petrol; otherwise, autorickshaws are more safe for the environment. The government should develop them and make them safer for the roads.

First Hajj � ight leavesDhaka for MaccaAugust 28

Shorif Uddin Fi’amanillah! Wish them a safe � ight.

Families demand missing persons’ listAugust 25

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid It’s already been one year and four months since the Rana Plaza disaster!

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Partly open (4)3 Put away (4)7 Monkey (3)8 Top card (5)11 Dry (4)12 Intended (5)13 Correct (5)15 Small drinks (4)18 Covering for wound (4)19 Indian monetary unit (5)20 Sheeplike (5)21 Cat’s contented sound (4)23 Thick (5)24 Greek letter (3)25 Precious stones (4)26 Timber-dressing tool (4)

DOWN1 Real (6)2 Keen insight (6)4 Sailor (3) 5 Narcotic (6)6 Marry (3)9 Wise counselor (6)10 Cushion (3)11 Bring into accord (6)14 Very small (6)16 Laid bare (6)17 Calm (6)19 Disencumber (3)21 Laundry item (3)22 Male sheep (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 1 represents S so � ll S every time the � gure 1 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appro-priate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

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PM: Media don’t run without policyAugust 28

Ahsan HabibIn a free-market, the government does not dictate policy. Media creates its own policy and the people decide if it is acceptable or not. Let the people of Bangladesh decide what kind of media it patrons. Let the government stay out of it.

Jahangir KhanAhsan Habib: Fundamentalists and alleged razakars own a lot of the media. Misinformation and lies are told constantly. You don’t want “dosho chakre bhagaban bhoot.”

Rupok KabirAhsan Habib: is it possible to speak or write illogically about the UK government or the British media? If not, then � rst stop it there and then come here to tell us. Thanks.

No mercy for the fake journalists.

Ahsan Habib Writing for a newspaper is no di� erent than speaking in public anywhere. If anyone spreads falsehoods, he or she can be legally challenged. But the way the Bangladesh government is misusing the legal and judicial system, this unnecessary new law will give them an extra weapon.

In the USA, anything which is true can be written against the president or the government. Many governors and congressmen are in jail for their wrongdoings reported in the press.

Can you name one single politician in Bangladesh in prison for corruption or misuse of power? So there is no use saying that this is done in the UK, so we are no di� erent. We never imitate the admirable cultures and practices of the West, but cite those that help our ulterior motives.

Both parties must act in the common interest to take the country forward

The shattered dreamAugust 27

Salim Aurnab Very often, developed countries raise their voices against extrajudicial killings in other countries, and even take strict steps to put an end to such violations of human rights. In early 2014, the United States refused to train any Bangladeshi Rab o� cial because of the spate of allegations of human rights violations against the force.

JU employees demand favourable admissionrules for their childrenAugust 27

Depressed TownExcellent report Mahadi Al Hasnat. There have been incidents of o� ce sta� and even professors wanting their children to take the seats o� ered for deserving students. It happens at RU too.

Nahid: Quality of educationstill not up to the markAugust 27RIMr Minister, you have something more important to do. Start fact-� nding and researching so that the problems can be analysed thoroughly and solutions implemented. Giving thousands of students A+ won’t make our country educated.

E-Govt: Bangladesh ranked5th in Saarc

August 25

Zubair Ahmed “Bangladesh has been outstripped by Bhutan in

the Saarc region.”There must have been sabotage involved!!

SKSri Lanka has a knowledge-based economy and

hence can implement things better and easier. So let us educate ourselves better, please.

HCA lot to improve and it will happen, insha’allah.

‘Rice bucket challenge’ an India charity chain

August 26

SM“The rice bucket challenge is an ‘Indian version

for Indian needs.’”They’ve caught on to it really too fast!

Touhid AkramIt’s a great initiative.

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 ZAll parties should take note of the public’s desire for a prosperous and peaceful society

n Abdul Matin

There was a time when the coup d’etat was an apparently accept-able form of change of govern-

ment, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Central America. According to one source, 33 countries experienced 85 such transitions, 42 of them in western Africa between 1952 and 2000. Once in full control, it was easy for the new re-gime to get recognition from the inter-national community. One superpower (no names mentioned) was very liberal in extending such recognitions.

It was common for military dicta-tors to blame the civilian politicians when they came to power. They prom-ised to restore democracy as soon as possible but in the process they ruled, by hook or by crook, as long as they could. Most of them were indulged in corruption and nepotism, and are now looked down upon in history.

At the beginning of the 21st century, military rule practically disappeared even though dictatorship in other forms prevailed in some countries. A preference towards changing gov-ernments through democratic means was evident in many countries which once experienced traumatic military dictatorships.

We, however, noticed some omi-nous signs recently. Mohamed Morsi was the � rst civilian to be democrati-cally elected president of Egypt since the revolution of 1952. He was in power for only one year. Following the protests in June 2013, he was ousted by Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who later resigned from the army and was elected president. He took o� ce on June 8, 2014.

Like Egypt, Thailand has had a tur-bulent history since 1932 with frequent takeovers of the civilian administra-tion by the military. The latest coup

d’etat took place on May 20, 2014. On August 21, the national assembly elect-ed the army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister. Among other countries, Fiji has been under military rule since 2006.

Pakistan was under military rule for nearly 30 out of 67 years of its exist-ence. Former East Pakistan emerged as independent Bangladesh through a bloody war in 1971, when Pakistan’s military dictator General Yahya Khan carried out genocide in its eastern part.

Plagued with terrorism and ethnic violence, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, who helped to depose former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf, is under threat by two opposition political parties to leave o� ce. Protesters have camped outside the parliament claiming that the election which swept him to power last year was rigged.

A nervous Nawaz Sharif met the army chief twice recently. The army chief now occupies the centre stage as the arbitrator between the government and the opposition. It is speculated that a “soft coup” has perhaps already taken place. The world is eagerly waiting to see the fate of civilian rule in Pakistan.

Bangladesh, which always fought against military dictatorship, has also had its share of military rule under Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, Ziaur Rah-man, and HM Ershad. Their regimes were declared illegal by the highest court in the country. The usurpers are now liable to be tried for treason as per existing laws.

The recent comeback of military dictatorship may send the wrong sig-nal to many countries, particularly to those with bitter experiences of such rule. The support of any superpower to a new military regime encourages other aspirants to stage similar coups, and this may be a matter of concern to the civilian rulers in some coup-prone countries like Pakistan.

Coup d’etat is a menace which should be nipped in the bud by all people who love and cherish democ-racy. Last but not the least, no military regime deserves any recognition or support from any democratic govern-ment, in particular from a superpower claiming to be the custodian of democ-racy in the modern world. Without their support, no military regime can survive for too long. l

Abdul Matin is a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.

11Op-Ed Monday, September 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Ifti Rashid

Heartiest felicitations to all our Malaysian friends on their 57th Independence Day. On August

31, 1957, the Federation of Malaya gained its independence from the British. Malaysia today is a vibrant and modern multi-cultural country – in fact, it is a model of economic growth for other developing countries like Bangladesh.

For those of us who have lived in Malaysia, this great country will al-ways hold a special place in our hearts. I was born in Malaysia and lived in Kuala Lumpur cumulatively for over a decade as an expatriate child and teenager. Every time I visit Malaysia, I realise it is not my “second home” but in fact “home” for a 3CK (third culture kid). There is no doubt that our core values have been shaped by our lives in Malaysia, including a deep appreci-ation for multicultural diversity (not to mention rendang, dumplings, and paratas, maybe all in the same meal).

I was lucky to grow up in the Malaysia of the 90s, characterised by growth, harmony, and unity under a visionary political leadership. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad followed a development model of peace, stability, and continuity for national progress. Other developing countries, like Bangladesh, can do the same.

It has been a tough year for Malay-sia, with the MH370 and MH17. I would like to dedicate my Merdeka wishes speci� cally for Malaysia Airlines, the national airliner. The all-familiar greet-ing after Malaysia Airlines lands in KL has always been extra special for me:

“To all visitors, welcome to Malay-sia; and, to all Malaysians, welcome home.” After all, I can identify with both groups addressed by the pilot.

Malaysia Airlines has just an-nounced its restructuring plans to overcome its current woes. As a frequent traveller, I reiterate my loyalty to Malaysia Airlines. The fact is, MH has one of the best safety records in the world, notwithstanding the tragedies this year. It is has given us frat service, carrying us afar and bringing us back home, it is natural we stand by it during this di� cult time. I am not giving up on MH, I hope others will do the same.

To all my Malaysian friends, I hope you will come together to celebrate your rich diversity and remarkable achievements as a nation. Having grown up in Malaysia, I have no doubt that the next generation of Malays, Chinese, and Indians will stand proud of their nation and consider themselves as Malaysians � rst. Malaysians must stand up against extremists in respec-tive communities who want to divide the country and harm its social fabric. There are bigots in every society, but they must not get any political space.

Is everything perfect in Malaysia? Of course not. The truth is, there is no country in the world where everything is rosy, and that includes Malaysia. It is inevitable that there will be challenges in the nation-building process for any country, particularly the diverse ones. What is important is that the people must come together as a nation to address those challenges and emerge stronger from it.

I hope my Malaysian friends will look at the glass as half full rather than half empty – the future looks bright for you to build an even more inclusive and dynamic society, but you have to unlock the power in each and every one of you to make that happen. Malaysia must remain united amidst its diversity – you should never forget that multiculturalism isn't your weakness, but your greatest strength as a nation.

Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka! Saya Cinta Malaysia! l

Ifti Rashid is a political and security analyst, currently pursuing a PhD in the Faculty of Arts, Monash University, based in the National Centre for South Asian Studies.

n Towheed Feroze

Step into the murky world of Jason Bourne – not in some freezing, exotic European city, but right here in cacoph-onous Dhaka. The issue at the

centre of interest is reportedly a leath-er bag containing uranium. Sounds intriguing? You bet.

We hear that the police have already arrested 11 persons who have admit-ted that they acquired the leather box containing the highly sought after material from a UN o� cial.

Must admit, with the UN reference, the plot takes an international twist. Meanwhile, there is belief that a doctor is also involved. Blimey! Talk about a cold war espionage thriller unfolding right here in Bangladesh. Someone get George Smiley.

The doctor in question is in hiding in Bogra, where the pouch was handed over to the group of 11 in a hotel to be sold to the right bidder for crores. Now this has all the angles of a saucy spy thriller. Of course, if the materi-al inside the pouch is found to be a harmless substance, then a very novel method of swindling has to belooked into.

However, we now know that the pouch has instructions written in both English and Russian. How delectable! Where is my Walther PPK?

Maybe someone would like to make a link to the war-torn region of Ukraine. How about this for a possible

premise – in the war-ravaged zone, a person with rights to access guarded areas comes across a box containing uranium and decides to take it.

Since Bangladesh is not under the gaze of international espionage opera-tions, he or maybe she (why not let the imagination go wild?) decides to bring it to Bangladesh.

If someone from customs asks what the bag holds, the credible answer can be – an under-research vaccine which may prove e� ective against Ebola. The o� cial is not convinced? Hand him your duty-free Jack Daniels bag.

Then, a group is hired in the coun-try to get a buyer. All this sounds excit-ing, though Bangladesh is not a place where one can go around shouting: “Uranium lagbo ni bhai, uranium?” Or maybe post an online advert: “Ha bhai, ashen, gala sale of uranium, buy it and make a bomb in your home and remain radioactive for life!”

Whatever the case, the bag itself seems to have all the right equipment – anti-radiation masks and gloves, a metal container, a radiation measuring instrument, and so on.

Have I seen it? Nope. But the newspaper report was very particular about describing the container. In the middle of the box, a leather bag was placed, which reportedly carried the substance integral to making a nuclear device. Some papers have said that the uranium is in powder form whereas others have mentioned capsules.

For arguments sake, let’s � rst take this to be a genuine case. If this is the real McCoy then a serious inves-tigation is essential because taking advantage of the absence of specialist knowledge about nuclear substanc-es, the country can be used as a safe selling point. Extend the range of thoughts, and the fanatic link won’t seem far o� .

But then, chances are very high that this whole set up was elaborately planned to fool people into parting with a substantial amount of money.

Reportedly, the gang was caught after it had swindled a large amount

from certain people, allegedly luring them with the line that once they had the so-called uranium, they would be able to sell it for 100 times more the amount paid to the original seller.

One cannot deny, there is a sort of John Le Carre appeal to the o� er. An educated man who has read too many spy novels might be tempted to part with a few lakhs to buy it in the hope of selling it for crores in the end.

This is exactly what happened, and once law enforcers received several complaints they went into action and nabbed the gang. If this is proved to be a hoax, then hats o� to the man who planned it in the � rst place. Is it the elusive doctor from Bogra? Or is it someone who has spent all his/her life

reading Frederick Forsyth and Robert Ludlum?

One thing is certain – if proven a scam, the law needs to look out for an educated fraudster. Meanwhile, a so-ciological analysis of current day ideol-ogy becomes a must, since learned people are tilting towards crime.

However, there are two categories of criminals here – one which planned the whole thing, and the other which, tempted to make a quick million, was motivated to fall for the scam. Natural-ly, the latter parted with money with the view of making a huge bumper.

Beyond the jocular dimension to the whole issue, we come across what can be deemed a social more, where fast pro� tmaking supersedes all con-

cerns. The police were informed after some people were duped, and not by a person who thought it to be his/her duty to stop an illegitimate transaction from taking place.

The moral of the story: As long as we harbour the desire to make a swift buck, irrespective of the nature of the method, con� dent tricksters will carry on orchestrating complex (read plausible) plans.

Today it’s uranium, tomorrow someone may come to the market with the o� er to sell stolen Coltan at a low rate. Just to refresh your memory, Coltan is a dull, black, metallic product used in almost all electronic devices, including mobile phones. A highly sought-after product, this has resulted

in sustained con� ict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fraud is slowly coming of age in Bangladesh. Long gone are the days when the most talked-about swin-dle in town was the hurried sale of low-quality lungis with an eye catch-ing bag and cover in Gulistan.

In this new age of trickery, suave people conjure up the most appetising of backdrops. Surely in a few days, scams will almost always have a sen-suous touch. For the time being, the current uranium brouhaha just needs a feminine involvement to turn it into a super-delicious episode. l

Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.

S E R P E N T I N E D E N

The uranium conspiracy

F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

Merdeka re� ectionsThe comeback of the coup d’etat?

Gone are the days when the most talked-about swindle in town was the hurried sale of low-quality lungis

Despite recent adversity, Malaysia stands tall REUTERS

Fraud taken to another level? MEHEDI HASAN

The future looks bright for Malaysia to build an even more inclusive and dynamic society

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Monday, September 1, 201412

n Punny Kabir

Anjan Dutt was more popular as a musician than as a � lm person-ality to the Bangaldeshi audi-

ence until very recently – since when DVDs of Tollyganj � lms have been read-ily available here. Many of us might not be aware of he fact that the living icon of contemporary Bangla music, actual-ly began his career as an actor through Mrinal Sen’s 1981 � lm “Chalchitra.” Later, with the legendary song “Bela Bosh,” in his � rst album “Shunte Ki Chao, Anjan Dutt-er Gaan,” he evolved as one of pioneers who wrote the histo-ry of contemporary Bangla music.

Anjan, who, through his directorial projects like “The Bong Connection,” “Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona,” “Dutta Vs Dutta” to name a few, made his mark as one of the most demanded directors for the urban audience of Kolkata, is here in Bangladesh to direct a new � ick titled “Mon Baksho.”

The � lm is going to be an entirely Bangladeshi production in which quite a few of Dutt’s close co-workers and singers from Kolkata will work along with Bangladeshi actors, singers, and crewmen.

Dhaka Tribune had the opportunity talk with the accomplished artiste in his visit to Dhaka.

What made you make a film in Bangladesh?I was getting bored of making Kolk-

ata based � lms, and was thinking of making � lms outside Kolkata. I even thought of making a � lm in Bollywood. That is when Tushar Abdullah ap-proached me with his script. The script itself convinced me to do so. It has many shades of gray and a director like me is always allured by such features in a script.

Is it going to be an ‘arthouse’ urban film?I’m not here to make a bizarre � lm, which will be praised in festivals only. I make � lms for my audience who are modern, who welcome experiments and also look forward to being enter-tained in the theatre.

Not a typical art � lm. I admit that Rituparno’s � lms inspired me to make � lms like “The Bong Connection.” And if you observe Ritu’s � lms, those are not typical arthouse � lms. There is a � ne blend of commercial and artistic elements. Just like Suman or my songs did in the early ‘90s. No one ques-tioned about the artistic value, and our albums sold over a million copies.

Similarly, in my � lms you will � nd big stars beside good actors, meaning-ful lyrics with funky music, sensible story with amusing presentation. I term my � lms “commercial art.”

Why don’t you do music in your own films?I always assign my son Neel with the task because he knows how to make commercial music for � lms. Films al-

ways have a commercial interest, and I don’t want to fail my producers.

How could a group of modern, off-beat film-makers create a market in Kolkata?It is because there was a huge gap in the market, the audience identi� ed it, and they demanded for the “change.” From my realisation, the demand should be addressed by the audience � rst, then you can make a di� erence. The next level is how you are making the mix-ture of the mainstream way of enter-tainment and your original thought.

Do you think such change is possible in Bangladesh too?Yes, ovbiously. I saw a few brilliant Ban-gladeshi � lms, like Matir Moyna and Bachelor. A bunch of talented directors are here, and how the urban audience here loves our � lms prove that there is a growing demand of such a chage. Its just a matter of time.

The exchange between Bangladesh and Kolkata is always a hot topic in the media. What is your opinion?We speak the same language, and our artistic orientations are also similar. This, obviously, demands exchange that bene� ts both sides of the border. But the governments of the two coun-tries stick to some issues that are not helping the exchange. We really want governments to solve the issues, and create a larger market. l

Durotto talks about social impositionn Entertainment Desk

Mega serial “Durotto” will be aired today at 8pm on ATN Bangla. The TV serial features Syed Hasan Imam, Masud Ali Khan, Laila Hasan, Are� n Shuvo, Bidya Sinha Mim, Hasan Masud, Khaleda Akhter Kolpon and oth-ers.

The sto-ry talks about distance in re-lationships. It shows the life of hardworking Bangladeshi immi-grants whose remuneration is con-tributing to the overall improvement of the country’s economy. People wants to know about the life of immi-

grants, this drama series is a window to the life of those individuals who stay away from friends and family in order to provide a better life to their

loved ones. Written by Fazlul Karim and di-

rected by Ehsanul Haque Selim, the series will be aired from Sunday to Tuesday every week. l

‘I’m not comfortable romancing girls on designer clothes’n Entertainment Desk

Sushant, who with just three � lms, has prepared a ros-ter of character-portraits rather than star-vehicles for his career, is all set to make a 110-year journey in the course of two � lms.

While in Dibakar Banerjee’s “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy,” Sushant Singh Rajput plays a detective in Kol-kata in the 1940s, and in Shekhar Kapoor’s “Paani,” he is cast as a ghetto-boy from Mumbai in the year 2050.

The cultural and chronological leap is tremendous. And Sushant is revelling in every bit of the challenge.

Sushant said: “I’m ready to make a 110-year leap from my last � lm to the next. In ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’ though, I had to go back in time to the 1940s, I had solid reference points. I watched a lot of � lms from that era. Then of course, Dibakar was there to guide me. With ‘Paani,’ there are no reference points. I’ve the freedom to interpret my character in any way I like. In the rehearsals and workshops, Shekhar Kapoor has al-lowed me complete freedom to do what I like with the character. Such supreme freedom is also a kind of captivity, as you tend to go over-

board. With Shekhar’s help, I am trying to make my character in ‘Paani’ believable.”

“I don’t think I’d be comfortable playing the typical lover-boy romancing pretty girls in de-signer clothes. I’d die if I’ve to play stereotyp-ical characters. I may fail with some of my unconventional choices. But I’d rather die with spectacular fail-ures than mediocre s u c c e s s -es.” l

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

Last Saturday, Classical Music Academy (CMA) arranged a show in the Chhayanaut au-ditorium. For the � rst time in Bangladesh, a chamber orchestra rendered a story on stage through music. The musical was fragmented into two portions: Visiting musician Ricardo Elias Rodriguez’s solo performance with his violin, and a production of orchestra theatre titled “Raham Ali’r Putul Nach.”

Ricardo Elias Rodriguez, a music professor who teaches the violin in University of Vera-ruz in Mexico, commenced his performance with three classical music pieces followed by renditions of Bangla songs including “Gram Chara Oi Ranga Matir Poth” and “Khanchar Bhitor Ochin Pakhi.”

Ricardo made an immediate impression, drawing a soft, glowing, almost gauzy sound from his string section in the concert’s open-ing bars. Later, he and the Chamber Orches-tra played a DL Roy track “Dhono Dhanne Pushpe Bhora.” Ricardo came to Bangladesh,

at the invitation of CMA, to conduct a per-formance workshop with the students of the academy earlier this week.

After the Ricardo’s solo performance, the audience saw the rendition of an orchestra theatre titled “Raham Ali’r Putul Nach” by the Classical Music Academy Chamber Orchestra; Ricardo also joined the orchestra. Narrator of the story Heera Chowdhury commanded the audience’s attention to the story of Raham Ali, a man who recently arrived at Dhaka from his village, where he used to do puppet shows.

His venture to the big city does not turn out as expected, thanks to forgery, mistrust and other traumatising experiences. He re-turns to his village and continues his puppet show as before. His brilliant work draws the attention of newspapers, but he denies name and fame, choosing to stay in the village to continue to do what he loves.

Written by Iftekhar Anwar, Md Akash and Smaron Prottoy, the story is accompanied by music created by the chamber orchestra for the entire 40 minutes of the show. l

New � ick ‘Haider’ prompted the demand of a cinema hall in Kashmir

MADONNA’S new song slams Gagan Entertainment Desk

The Queen of Pop, Madonna, 56, has recorded a song called “Two Steps Behind Me” which ap-pears to be directed at Lady Gaga, 28, calling her a copycat.

“You’re a copycat, Where is my royalty? You’re a pretty girl, I’ll give you that. But stealing my recipe, it’s an ugly look,” she sings. “Did you study me hard enough? You’re never gonna be, you’re just a wan-nabe me. Like a sister all messed-up, who’s gonna help you out? In your fantasy, you can try it all. But you can’t be me.”

The pop divas started feuding when Ma-donna criticised Lady Gaga, saying her song “Born This Way” was a rip o� of her song “Express Yourself.”

The stoush even dragged in Elton John, who has named Lady Gaga the godmother to his chil-dren, who hit out at Madonna for being jealous.

“She’s such a nightmare. Her career is over, I can tell you that,” he said. “Her tour is a disas-ter and it couldn’t happen to a bigger crap.”

Lady Gaga however isn’t the only per-son Madonna attacks on her up-coming 13th album with ex-hus-band Guy Ritchie also getting a dressing down on her song “Heartbreak City.” She accuses the Layer Cake director of only being with her for the fame.

“...You said I was your queen. I tried to give you everything. And now you want your free-dom,” she sings. l

n Entertainment Desk

Bollywood � lmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj hopes to bring a mov-ie theatre to Kashmir for the screening of his upcoming re-lease “Haider.”

A request for special screen-ings of his adaptation of “Ham-let” in the valley is now with the state’s Chief Minister Omar Ab-dullah in the lead up to its global release on October 2. The � lm was shot in Kashmir.

“We have sent a proposal to Omar Abdullah because there are no working theatres in Kashmir and I really want Kashmiris to experience this � lm on a bigger screen,” Bhardwaj told PTI during a visit to London this week.

“We are proposing a kind of moving theatre which can be set up in an outdoor location where Kashmiris can catch maybe one show a day once it’s dark. I re-ally hope the proposal gets ac-cepted,” added the writer-direc-tor-musician.

“Haider” was shot during “chillai kalan” (40 coldest days in December and January in Kashmir) with many of the locals doubling up as part of the crew. The � lm completes Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean trilogy, following “Maqbool” (2003), adapted from “Macbeth,” and “Omkara” (2006) which was based on “Othello.”

Shahid Kapoor plays the lead role of “Haider” based on Shake-speare’s tragic Danish prince. l

Special request placed for Kashmiri audience

OblivionStar Movies 11:59pm

In a spectacular future, Earth has evolved beyond recogni-tion, one man’s confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.

Special request placed for Kashmiri audience

I’m not here to make a bizarre

film: Anjan

DuttKHAN HASAN MUHAMMAD RAFI

KHAN HASAN MUHAMMAD RAFI

Chamber Orchestra’s powerful and convincing act wows audience

13DHAKA TRIBUNEMonday, September 1, 2014

Sport 1514 Zimbabwe record famous win over Australia

Balotelli makes winning debut as Reds rout Spurs

15 Djokovic, Murray sail on as Serena stands up for US

Did you know?Fernando Torres took

39 games to score four PL goals for

Chelsea; Diego Costa has reached that total

in three matches

National Sports Council secretary Shibnath Roy, Citycell HR director Suman Bhattacharjee, Citycell head of corporate communications and PR Taslim Ahmed and Bangladesh Basketball Federation general secretary Lt. AK Sarker (retd.) hand over prizes to the Citycell 3on3 Basketball Championship winners Dhaka All Stars at the Dhanmondi Indoor Basketball Gymnasium on Saturday COURTESY

Ansar bag boxing titlesn Tribune Desk

Bangladesh Ansar were crowned cham-pions in both Walton Refrigerator Na-tional 13th Men’s Intermediate and

1st Women’s Junior Boxing Champion-ship yesterday.

In the last and � nal day of the four-day event, Ansar bagged a total � ve medals, four gold and one silver, to become the cham-pions in the intermediate men’s group while BKSP � nished runners-up with two gold and one silver medal.

Meanwhile in the women’s junior boxing event, Ansar clinched four gold and one bronze medal to secure the ti-

tle with Golabaria Jubo Sangha � nish-ing second with only one gold medal.

Shamima Akter, who took part in the 45kg event, was adjudged as the best female boxer in the tournament while gold winner Azharul Islam of BKSP was named the best male boxer in the 49kg event.

Zahid Ahsan Russel, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on Youth and Sports Ministry, distributed the prizes among the winners as chief guest. Walton’s additional director and head of games & sports FM Iqbal Bin Anwar Dawn and Shibnath Roy, secre-tary of National Sports Council (NSC) were also present on the occasion as special guest. l

Luck – Mithun’s nemesis? n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Wicketkeeper-batsman Mithun Ali will be one of the cricketers return-ing to Dhaka after the � rst phase, the three-match ODI series and the one-o� Twenty20, of the Tigers’ ongoing tour of the West Indies. However, what separates him from his fellow returnees is that he is � ying back home without playing a single game for the Tigers.

Bangladesh, in the � rst phase of the 38-day long tour, have already played four limited-over matches - three ODIs and a Twenty20 international. The tour began with the ODI series in which Bangladesh were whitewashed 3-0. After the � rst two straight defeats, it was expected that the selection panel will make change to the playing XI with Mithun replacing either Imrul Kayes or Shamsur Rahman at the top of the Tigers’ batting order as Imrul could only score 10 runs in the two games while Shamsur managed only 12 from the same number of games.

But that wasn’t what it actually turned out to be as Mithun missed the third game too and although the 24 year old’s wait was over after he made it to the playing XI for the lone Twenty20 game, his luck ran out as heavy rain led to the abandonment of the match.

Finally, the bell of his departure tolled once and for all which now sees

him return home without getting an opportunity to justify his selection for the tour.

With Mithun withdrawn, chief of national selection panel Faruk Ahmed said,“Both Imrul and Shamsur scored a century each in Bangladesh’s last Test against Sri Lanka in January this year. How can they be replaced?”

Imrul scored 115 while Shamsur scored 106, in his second Test for Ban-gladesh, which helped the Tigers draw the game and avoid a series sweep against Sri Lanka at hoome.

But then again, both Imrul and Shamsur’s poor score in the limit-ed-over games illustrate that they are not in the best of form and this might have been a good time to replace ei-ther of them with someone new like Mithun.

But that’s not how the system runs necessarily. Experts believe in giving players chances and being persistent with them for a certain period of time so that they can be nurtured and turned into ‘key members’ of the squad.

Mithun got his � rst call in the national team for the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009. But it took another � ve years for him to make his ODI debut for Bangladesh – against India in June this year at home when regular wicketkeeper and captain Mush� qur Rahim su� ered a � nger injury in early 2014. l

Sunny � ies to WI tomorrown Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh left-arm spinner Elias Sunny will be leaving for the West Indies tomor-row ahead of the two-match Test series scheduled to begin on September 5 at Kingstown. Sunny will replace o� -spin-ner Shohag Gazi in the Test squad.

Gazi’s bowling action was recently called into question by the Internation-al Cricket Council after the conclusion of the second ODI against the West In-dies and will now be scrutinised at the Metropolitan University in Cardi� on September 19.

Sunny has scripted his comeback to the Test side after more than a year. The last of his four Test matches came against Sri Lanka in Galle last year in March when he remained wicketless which will no doubt keep him under pressure if given the opportunity to perform.

“Obviously there will be some pres-sure and it will be quite challenging for me to return to international cricket after a while. Recent performances will also add extra pressure upon me,” Sun-ny told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The 28-year old spinner though will have fond memories of the upcoming opponents as it was against the Windies that he made his Test debut at home three years ago. Sunny made the occasion a memorable one as he was awarded the man-of-the-match after picking up seven wickets on his debut, including a career-best 6/94 in

the � rst innings. “Facing the West Indies will give me

con� dence as I was successful against them on my debut. I am hopeful of re-peating my performance this time,” he said.

Although a tough task awaits the bowlers, Sunny believes Bangladesh will be able to perform to their poten-tial in the Test series. “I am con� dent that we can make a good comeback in the Test series after struggling in the one-day series but we have to play good cricket,” he said.

However, there is a possibility that young left-arm spinner Taijul Islam might get the nod to play ahead of Sun-ny. Taijul was successful in picking up regular wickets during the Bangladesh A team’s recent tour of the Caribbean and was also one of the best bowlers in domestic cricket last season.

Sunny though was quietly con� dent and said he will give his best provided he gets the chance in the playing elev-en. “I am not thinking about who will be playing the � rst Test but whenever I get the opportunity I will try to give my best shot,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mashrafe bin Morta-za, Taskin Ahmed, Abdur Razzak and Mithun Ali will reach Dhaka today after taking part in the limited-over leg of the tour – three ODIs and a lone Twenty20 international. Robiul Islam, Sha� ul Is-lam, Taijul Islam and Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury have replaced the quartet for the Test matches. l

Bangladesh skipper Mush� qur Rahim plays one over the long-on region during their � rst day of the three-day game against St Kitts & Nevis at Warner Park yesterday COURTESY

Zahid Ahsan Russel (5L), chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on Youth and Sports Ministry and Walton additional director FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn (6R) pose with the winners of the National Men’s Intermediate and Women’s Boxing C’ship yesterday

Di Maria learns money doesn’t always talk in Premier Leaguen Reuters

There was little fanfare but a few lessons per-haps learnt as the most expensive player in the history of English foot-

ball - Angel di Maria - lasted 70 minutes on his Premier League debut for Man-chester United in their goalless draw at Burnley on Saturday.

Although Di Maria, a British re-cord 59.7 million pounds ($99 million) signing, showed a few � ashes of his undoubted talent on Saturday, United again looked disjointed and lacking in con� dence against a determined Burn-ley, who earned their � rst point since returning to the Premier League.

For the Argentine mid� elder, who was a Champions League winner with Real last season, his Premier League debut was a reality check.

Naturally he was heralded by United’s travelling support among the wooden seats in the Cricket Field stand at Turf Moor, but his � rst misplaced pass was greeted with jeers from the Burnley fans and later mistakes led to mocking chants from them of “What a waste of money”.

The spotlight will shine the bright-est when Di Maria faces the title-chas-ing teams from the top end of the table but the Argentine will have learnt on Saturday that even the most modest clubs in the English top � ight will not roll over - as he discovered when he left the � eld after what his manager called

a “kick to the calf”.In this transfer window, so far, Unit-

ed have spent 132 million pounds on new players - Burnley have invested four million.

But on Saturday, Burnley showed that, sometimes at least, for 90 min-utes, the working class can match the super rich. Burnley mid� elder Scott Ar-� eld, who plays a similar role to Di Ma-ria, was signed for nothing by Clarets manager Sean Dyche after Hudders� eld Town released him just over a year ago.

The di� erence in resources between the two clubs will show in the end - as will Di Maria’s quality. Ar� eld will wake up with his adrenalin still pumping while Di Maria will have a sore calf as a remind-er of his � rst trip to East Lancashire.l

Mush� q, Nasir shine in warm-upn Tribune Desk

Middle-order batsman Nasir Hossain returned to runs as he shared a 144-run seventh wicket partnership with Ban-gladesh skipper Mush� qur Rahim to reconstruct their innings and land a de-cent total on the � rst day of their three-day warm-up match against Saint Kitts & Nevis on Saturday.

Bangladesh won the toss but made a stumbling start losing three wickets with only 60 runs on the scorecard. Look-ing to guide the ball to � ne-leg, Sham-sur Rahman (10) was the � rst to depart caught down the leg in the fourth over.

Tamim Iqbal’s patient stay in the middle soon ended as he to walked back after a modest 20 runs. Mominul Haque and Mahmudullah returned cheaply before Imrul Kayes (44) and Shuvagata Hom (48) put up some resistance.

However, after both Imrul and Shu-vagata fell before reaching their � fties, suddenly the visitors were reeling at 186 for six before Mush� qur and Nasir took charge. The duo assured they don’t su� er any more casualties on the day as Bangladesh � nished on 330 for six.

In the process, Mush� qur was un-beaten on 82 o� 126 balls with � ve boundaries and three sixes while Nasir complimented him with an unbeaten 78 that saw him strike six fours and two over boundaries.

Fast bowler Quinton Boatswain and Jeremiah Lewis were the main trouble maker for the Tigers as they � nished the day with 2-35 and 2-36 respectively.

In one signi� cant event, 20 years and 156 matches after his Test debut, Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his de-but for St Kitts & Nevis with this game.l

VH Basketball beginsn Raihan Mahmood

Kainans overpowered Mavericks 45-17 in the VH Basketball Championship which got underway at the Dhanmondi Basketball Gymnasium yesterday. Suad Khan of the winners was adjudged as the best player. In the other match of the day Blitzkriegs outplayed Rene-gades 47-28 with Tamzeed Amin pro-ducing an exhilarating performance for the winners. The tournament in its second edition has seen more teams than the last and students and players cheered the atmosphere up. l

Kagawa returns to Dortmundn AFP, Berlin

Japanese international Shinji Kagawa has re-signed for former club Borussia Dortmund for a reported fee of 8mil-lion euros ($10.5million, £6.3million) ending an unhappy two year spell with Manchester United German publica-tion Bild claimed on Sunday.

The 25-year-old mid� elder - who played 71 games for United including 39 in the Premier League after moving there for 16million euros - has signed a four year contract with the German giants, with whom he won the 2012 domestic double as well as the 2011 league title. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sport Monday, September 1, 2014

Atletico struggle past Eibar for � rst winn AFP, Madrid

La Liga champions Atlet-ico Madrid recorded their � rst victory of the cam-paign with a hard-fought 2-1 win over newly-pro-moted Eibar on Saturday.

First-half headers from Miranda and Mario Mandzukic ultimately proved decisive, but Atletico were given a scare after Abraham’s brilliant strike had brought Eibar back into the game.

The visitors had a great chance to level the game three minutes from time, but Angel’s e� ort trickled inches past the far post as Atletico held on.

“Games at the beginning of the season are always di� cult,” said Atletico boss Diego Simeone, who was serving the sec-ond of an eight-match touchline ban.

“The start of the match was good, we went in front but we lacked rhythm after that.

“In the second-half we were anxious to get the three points and they were the better side.

“We are aware that we have to work and improve. I didn’t like the game, but it is always good to win.”

Simeone’s men had been held 0-0 at local rivals Rayo Vallecano in their league opener on Monday, but normal service appeared to have been resumed by two set-piece goals inside the � rst 25 minutes.

Earlier, Athletic Bilbao celebrated their quali� cation to the group stage of the Champions League with a comfort-

able 3-0 win over Levante.Two-goal hero from their triumph

over Napoli in midweek, Aritz Aduriz headed home the opener just after the half-hour mark.

Ander Iturraspe doubled the Basques’ advantage just after the break before Iker Muniain rounded o� the scoring. Celta Vigo also continued their unbeaten start to the campaign despite the absence of departed coach Luis En-rique as they drew 1-1 at Cordoba. l

Costa must respect opponents, says Martinezn Reuters, London

Chelsea striker Diego Costa needs to learn to show respect to opponents af-ter the Spaniard goaded Everton play-ers during their pulsating 6-3 English Premier League win on Saturday, Tof-fees coach Roberto Martinez said.

New signing Costa taunted Seamus Coleman after the Irish defender’s own goal put Chelsea 3-1 ahead at Goodison Park which prompted an angry reaction from a number of Everton players, in par-ticular American goalkeeper Tim Howard.

“There are certain foreign players who come to the Premier League who need to understand the ethics and the culture,” Everton boss Martinez told reporters.

“The behaviour in the British game is unique. The last thing you want to see is disrespect from a player to an-other player and I am sure he will learn that very quickly.

“There is a real professionalism and respect in the league so you can under-stand why the players weren’t happy with that, in the same way as trying to buy free kicks with the way he plays.”

Costa has been impressive in � ring Chelsea to the top of the table after scor-ing four goals in his � rst three games since signing from Spanish champions Atletico Madrid in the close season.

But he has also been accused of gamesmanship. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho thought his Brazilian-born striker was being unfairly targeted.

“To be chasing cards against a play-er who once more had good behaviour and was just here to play football is dis-appointing,” the Portuguese said.

“At the end of the story, Diego is maybe the best player in the Premier League in the � rst three matches and he has two yellow cards - one against Burnley where he didn’t simulate, it was a penalty, and one against Everton, when everyone was chasing him to get him in trouble. That is disappointing.” l

Chelsea seal deal for striker Remyn AFP, London

France international striker Loic Remy has joined Chelsea from Queens Park Rangers on a four-year contract, the two Premier League clubs announced on Sunday.

The announcement came a day af-ter Chelsea reportedly triggered a £10.5 million ($17.4 million, 13.3 million eu-ros) release clause in the 27-year-old’s contract, prompting him to withdraw from QPR’s squad to face Sunderland.

“I feel very happy and very proud,” said Remy, who was pictured on the Chelsea website posing with a club shirt.

“When I heard Chelsea wanted to sign me I said ‘Let’s go’ straight away, because they are one of the best clubs in the world.”

Remy has been signed to replace Fernando Torres, who has joined AC Milan from Chelsea on a two-year loan deal, and to provide competition for fellow strikers Diego Costa and Didier Drogba. l

Pellegrini expects better from beaten Man Cityn AFP, Manchester

Manchester City man-ager Manuel Pellegrini said his side were en-tering the internation-al break dissatis� ed

with their start to the season following a surprise 1-0 home defeat by Stoke City.

City were well short of the form that delivered the Premier League title to the Etihad Stadium last season, falling to a � ne second-half goal from former Manchester United forward Mame Bi-ram Diouf in Saturday’s game.

“It is always serious to lose three points at home,” he said. “It was very im-portant for our team to try and win nine points before the international break.

“It is not good to start this break with a defeat, but these types of game happen once a year and it has hap-pened to our team. We will continue playing and working the same way we

are doing now. Exactly the same.”While goalkeeper Joe Hart appeared

to allow Diouf’s shot to pass between his legs too easily, Pellegrini refused to blame the England international, but he did admit that his team had lacked their usual creative spark.

“I don’t analyse players in particu-lar,” said the Chilean when asked about Hart’s attempt to save Diouf’s e� ort.

“I analyse as a team and, as a team, they all could have done more. We were very patient and tried to create space, but Stoke defended very well. We couldn’t create space and had a bad day in our creative play.

“I don’t think we could lose this game 1-0. It was too easy, the way they scored their goal: a counter-attack from a corner in their own box, and (Diouf) ran 70 metres to score the goal.

“In these games you have to be pa-tient and try to create space until the last minute.”l

Van Gaal demands more from spluttering Unitedn AFP, Burnley

Louis Van Gaal admit-ted Manchester Unit-ed are playing well below the standards he demands after his

spluttering side were held to a 0-0 draw by Burnley on Saturday.

Van Gaal heads into the internation-al break still waiting for the � rst victory of his United reign after two draws and a defeat in the Premier League, as well as a humiliating loss at third-tier Milton Keynes Dons in the League Cup.

Managers often complain about the � rst international break, resenting the intrusion that interrupts their schedule and momentum before it has barely had chance to pick up speed.

But van Gaal could be forgiven for relishing the opportunity to re� ne his plans for United over the next two weeks following their latest lacklustre e� ort against a Burnley team, who cost just £5 million ($8.3m) to assemble, at Turf Moor on Saturday.

The former Netherlands boss had already warned it will take several months at least to � x the fallen giants following the ill-fated reign of David Moyes and he o� ered a distinctly un-impressed review of United’s current status after they failed to break down newly-promoted Burnley.

Van Gaal, whose team will Queens

Park Rangers on September 14, admit-ted: “We don’t look world-class at the moment.

“We shall have to wait and believe it will happen. We shall see where we are in a month or so.”

However, having scanned the � x-ture list to reveal games against Leices-ter City and West Ham United before the end of September, the Dutchman will expect his team to have hoisted themselves towards the right end of the table sooner rather than later.

By then he should have been joined by compatriot Daley Blind, the 24-year-old Ajax star who was a key part of van Gaal’s Netherlands team at the World Cup and is expected to sign imminently for around £14 million.

Blind’s arrival will continue van Gaal’s £150 million overhaul of the United squad following the debut of Angel Di Maria on Saturday.

The Argentina mid� elder, who cost a British record £59.7 million from Real Madrid, lasted 69 minutes before mak-ing way for Anderson after taking a kick to his calf. Di Maria showed one or two nice touches at Turf Moor, but van Gaal said: “He was not the world-class play-er we have seen in Madrid.

“He needs to adapt to English culture and the English way of playing. And his team-mates need to adapt as well.”

At least there was no further defeat for van Gaal to face.l

I must get best out of Torres: Inzaghin Reuters

Filippo Inzaghi is hoping he can bring back the glory days for Fernando Torres when the Spaniard completes his two-year loan move to AC Milan, the club’s new coach said on Saturday.

The 30-year-old Chelsea striker has yet to pass a medical and agree person-al terms at the San Siro but Inzaghi is keen to start working with the Spanish international who had a disappointing 3-1/2 year spell at Stamford Bridge.

“I’ve spoken to Torres even if he still has to do the medical,” the former Italy forward told the club website.

“I found out what kind of person he is and it all seems very positive. It is up to me to get him back to the levels he is capable of and I will study his best position.”

Torres, pictured on the Milan web-site wearing the club’s red and black number nine jersey, said he was look-ing forward to joining the seven-times European champions.

“It’s an honour and a privilege to wear this shirt,” added the former Liverpool and Atletico Madrid player. “I want to take the side back into the Champions League and perhaps stay here for many years. I know the history of the club and it is illustrious. I want to make the fans happy. I can’t wait to arrive and start the new season.”

Milan, who � nished eighth in Serie A last term, launch their campaign at home to Lazio on Sunday. l

Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling (C) celebrates with teammates Alberto Moreno (L) and Joe Allen after scoring the opening goal during their English Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in London yesterday REUTERS

RESULTSCordoba 1-1 Celta VigoCartabia 59 Orellana 52

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 LevanteAduriz 32, Iturraspe 51, Muniain 76

Atletico Madrid 2-1 EibarMiranda 11, Abraham 33Mandzukic 25

Espanyol 1-2 SevillaStuani 61 Bacca 33, Iborra 56

Atletico Madrid’s Mario Mandzukic (L) celebrates his goal against Eibar during their Spanish � rst division match at Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on Saturday REUTERS

Bayern Munich players pose during a photo call for a sponsor in Munich yesterday REUTERS

Reds rout Spurs, Arsenal heldn AFP, London

Liverpool reasserted their Premier League title credentials with a breezy 3-0 win at Tot-tenham Hotspur on

Sunday, but Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw at Leicester City.

Raheem Sterling, Steven Gerrard and Alberto Moreno scored the goals for Liverpool at White Hart Lane to give Brendan Rodgers victory in his 100th game as manager and end Tottenham’s 100 percent record.

Mario Balotelli made his Liverpool debut after his £16 million ($26.5 mil-lion, 20.1 million euros) move from AC Milan on Monday and he produced an enterprising display before being with-drawn in the 61st minute.

The result saw Liverpool bounce back from a 3-1 defeat at Manchester City in their previous outing and means that they have now scored 12 unan-swered goals in their last three encoun-ters with Spurs.

After former City striker Balotelli had tested Hugo Lloris with an early header, Liverpool went ahead in the eighth minute.

Daniel Sturridge released Jordan Henderson with a ball down the right � ank and the England mid� elder played a low cross across the box that Sterling tucked away at the far post.

Gerrard doubled the visitors’ lead from the penalty spot in the 49th minute after Eric Dier had held back Joe Allen and Moreno sealed victory on the hour with a memorable � rst Liverpool goal.

The Spanish left-back, a close-season arrival from Sevilla, dispossessed Spurs substitute Andros Townsend on halfway and surged into the box before drilling a shot into the bottom-right corner.

With Olivier Giroud sidelined by a broken tibia, Yaya Sanogo started up front for Arsenal at promoted Leicester and he played a central role in the visi-tors’ 20th-minute opener.

The French striker could not � nd a way past Kasper Schmeichel from Santi Cazorla’s dinked pass, but Alexis San-chez followed up to slam home his � rst league goal since signing from Barcelona.

Arsenal’s lead was to last only two minutes, however, as Je� Schlupp mo-tored down the left wing before deliv-ering an inviting cross that Leonardo Ulloa powered past Wojciech Szczesny with a � rm header.

Arsenal centre-back Laurent Kosci-elny hurt himself in a clash of heads with Schlupp when the score was still 0-0 and he made way for Calum Cham-bers shortly after Ulloa’s goal.

Leicester came closest to scoring a winner, but Ulloa clipped an e� ort into the side-netting after cutting inside Chambers and Szczesny produced a diving save to thwart substitute Jamie Vardy.

The result left Arsene Wenger’s side four points below leaders Chel-sea in seventh place in the table, while Leicester moved up to 15th.

In the day’s other game, Aston Villa won 2-1 at home to Hull City to main-tain their unbeaten start to the cam-paign and climb to third place in the early-season standings. l

RESULTSLeicester 1-1 ArsenalUlloa 22 Sanchez 20

Aston Villa 2-1 HullAgbonlahor 14, Jelavic 74Weimann 36

Tottenham 0-3 Liverpool Sterling 8, Gerrard 49-P, Moreno 60

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15Monday, September 1, 2014

World Cup will decide who’s number one, say ClarkeNext year’s Cricket World Cup will decide the kings of the 50-over game whatever happens in the race to top the ICC world rankings between now and then, according to Australia captain Michael Clarke. Australia top the rankings going into Sunday’s triangular series match against Zimbabwe in Harare but, depending on results, could be overhauled this week by India or South Africa, who they face on Tuesday. Clarke believes that the de� nitive ruling on the best one-day side will not come until Australia and New Zealand host the World Cup from Feb. 14-March 29 next year. “Whoever wins that tournament will be seen as the number one one-day team in the world,” Clarke told the Cricket Australia website in Zimbabwe. “That’s the way I’ve always looked at one-day rankings. I guess you love being number one in any form of the game but ... you get a great indicator who is the number one team in the world in six months time playing in a World Cup.

–Reuters

Mitroglou set to re-join OlympiakosGreek champions Olympiakos Piraeus are set to re-sign Kostas Mitroglou on loan from English second tier club Ful-ham after the striker arrived in Athens for talks on Sunday. An Olympiakos spokesman told Reuters the Piraeus club were scheduled to hold talks with their former player and that an agreement could be completed within 24 hours. Mitroglou signed for Fulham on the last day of the January transfer window for a reported fee of £12.4 million pounds ($20.6 million) after scoring three hat-tricks at the start of the Greek campaign and � ring his country to the World Cup. But injuries hampered his spell in London and he was rarely used by Fulham coach Felix Magath, starting only one match as the side slumped to relegation from the Premier League in May. According to reports, Fulham want a £2.5 million loan fee for the 26-year-old.

–Reuters

Kalou joins Hertha Berlin from LilleIvory Coast international striker Salo-mon Kalou signed for Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin from French Ligue 1 out� t Lille for a reported fee of between 2.5 and 3million euros ($3.2-3.9million) on Sunday. The 29-year-old -- a Cham-pions League winner with Chelsea in 2012 -- signed a three year contract and will be paid 3million euros a year according to local media. “It is done. Salomon Kalou is now a ‘Herthaner’. Welcome,” tweeted Hertha manager Michael Preetz. Kalou, who had been at Lille since 2012 after a six year spell with Chelsea, will � ll the vacuum left by the departure of Colombian striker Adrian Ramos to Borussia Dortmund. Kalou, who opted to play for the Ivory Coast after he failed to receive Dutch citizenship while playing for Feye-noord, enjoyed a successful time with Chelsea winning the FA Cup four times and one Premier League title. Hertha have just one point after two games of the season, losing 4-2 to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.

–AFP

Kramer left with no memories of World Cup � nalGermany mid� elder Christoph Kramer has admitted he will probably never regain his memory of the time he spent on the � eld before coming o� with con-cussion during the World Cup � nal. “The doctors are certain that my memories of that part of the World Cup � nal will not come back,” the Borussia Moenchengla-dbach player said in an interview with the weekly magazine Focus. Kramer, 23, was brought into Germany’s starting line-up to play Argentina at the Ma-racana at the last minute to replace the injured Sami Khedira but lasted just 31 minutes before a violent collision with the shoulder of Ezequiel Garay left him concussed. He had to come o� and was left with no recollection of the � rst half hour. The match referee, Italy’s Nicola Rizzoli, told media after the � nal - which Germany won 1-0 - that Kramer had come to see him after the incident and asked him: “Referee, is this the � nal?”

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Ten Sports, Ten HD US Open 20149:00 PMDay 8: Day session Round of 165:00 AMDay 8: Night session Round of 16

DAY’S WATCH

Djokovic, Murray sail on as Serena stands up for American AFP, New York

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray stayed on course for a mouth-water-ing US Open quar-ter-� nal show-

down Saturday as � ve-time women’s champion Serena Williams stood alone as America’s last singles title hope.

But as the heavyweights of the sport eased into the fourth round, the wom-en’s draw was blown open again when Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova became the � fth top 10 seed to exit in the � rst week.

Djokovic, the 2011 champion, brushed aside Querrey for the eighth time in nine meetings, with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win taking the world number one into the fourth round at a major for the 22nd consecutive time.

Wimbledon champion and sev-en-time major winner Djokovic will next face Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber who ended US hopes with a 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4) win over Isner despite the American 13th seed � ring 42 aces and 77 winners. Williams racked up her 75th victory at the US Open when she eased past her third successive

American compatriot, Uzbekistan-born left-hander Varvara Lepchenko, 6-3, 6-3 and will tackle tough Estonian Kaia Kanepi for a quarter-� nal berth.

Murray, the 2012 champion, hit 47 win-ners in a 6-1, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Rus-sia’s Andrey Kuznetsov, the world 96, to book a seventh appearance in the fourth round and goes on to face French ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Third seeded Stan Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, reached the fourth round without hitting a ball when Slovenian opponent Blaz Kavcic withdrew with a right foot injury.

Women’s third seeded Kvitova lost her third round tie 6-4, 6-4 to pint-sized Serbian, 21-year-old Aleksandra Krunic, who came through qualifying.

Also going through to the last-16 of the men’s singles for a third successive year was Canadian � fth seed Milos Ra-onic who beat Victor Estrella Burgos, the 34-year-old tournament debutant from the Dominican Republic, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3).

He will face Japanese 10th seed Kei Nishikori who reached the fourth round for the � rst time since his 2008 debut with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. l

Imperious Marquez wins 11th race of the seasonn AFP, Silverstone

Runaway world championship leader Marc Marquez made it 11 wins from 12 races this season on Sunday as he won the British MotoGP at Silverstone.

The 21-year-old Spanish Honda rider - who on Saturday claimed his 10th pole position of the campaign - prevailed in a stunning duel with compatriot and two-time world champion Jorge Loren-zo on a Yamaha.

Lorenzo’s team-mate Italian legend Valentino Rossi was third in what was a record 246th MotoGP appearance while Marquez’s fellow Honda rider Dani Pe-drosa, who won the Czech GP last time out, was fourth. It was the third succes-sive race Yamaha had � led the minor podium placings.

Marquez has 288 points with Pedro-sa, who signed a two year extension with Honda, second on 199 and Rossi, who has also committed himself for another two years to Yamaha, third on

189 while Lorenzo has 157 with six rac-es remaining.

Lorenzo got a terri� c start shooting into the lead ahead of Marquez, whose weakest part of his armoury has been his starts, while Pedrosa got an awful one dropping to sixth.

After four laps Marquez started eating into Lorenzo’s lead while Rossi moved seamlessly past compatriot An-drea Dovizioso into third.

Pedrosa continued his recovery from the poor start by passing Dovizioso and pressurised Rossi, who he succeeded in getting past with 11 laps remaining and set o� after the leading two who were almost three seconds clear.

Lorenzo kept Marquez at bay toy-ing with him at times forcing the younger Spaniard to go out wide and costing him ground but Pedrosa was unable to make any inroads into their lead and indeed was four seconds down with eight laps to the chequered � ag. l

Pakistan’s defeat sparks World Cup fearsn AFP, Karachi

Former cricket greats said Sunday they fear Pakistan’s one-day defeat in Sri Lanka will hurt preparations for the World Cup just � ve months away.

Pakistan were beaten by seven wick-ets in the third and � nal one-day interna-tional against Sri Lanka in Dambulla on Saturday after being bowled for a mere 102, losing the three-match series 2-1.

They also lost the preceding two-match Test series 2-0.

Ramiz Raja, who took the catch that won Pakistan the 1992 World Cup, criti-cised preparations for next year’s tour-nament.

“I don’t think team’s preparations for the World Cup are in the right di-rection,” the former skipper said. “We need to � nd new talent if we want to succeed. It seems our batsmen have forgotten how to stay at the wicket and no one has consistency in his perfor-mance.”

Former captain Rashid Latif said the one-day defeat would hurt World Cup preparations.

“The Pakistan cricket board relied on old players for the last two years in their preparations for the World Cup and they simply don’t trust young play-

ers - and that’s why our (performance) graph is going down with every series,” he told AFP.

Latif said he feared Misbah-ul Haq, appointed captain until the World Cup, would come under pressure.

“I think Misbah’s future is in doubt. He didn’t perform in seven innings of the tour and his captaincy was defen-sive,” said Latif of the one-day and Test captain.

Pakistan next play a Twenty20 in-ternational, two Tests and three one-day internationals against Australia in the United Arab Emirates in October, before taking on New Zealand in three Tests, � ve one-dayers and two T20s.

“Maybe Shahid Afridi will replace Misbah as one-day captain,” said Latif, who thought four to � ve players may be changed for the next series.

Another former captain, Moham-mad Yousuf, also criticised Misbah’s captaincy.

“If the captaincy remained with Mis-bah you can’t expect improvement in results,” said Yousuf. “He has been the captain for four years and has not been able to � nd a proper combination.”

“I think it is imperative we have Af-ridi as captain who is aggressive and can lead in a better way.” l

Honda MotoGP rider Marc Marquez (C) of Spain celebrates winning the British Grand Prix with second placed Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo of Spain (L) and third placed Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi of Italy at the Silverstone Race Circuit yesterday REUTERS

AustraliaA. Finch b Nyumbu 11P. Hughes c Nyumbu b Utseya 10M. Clarke not out 68G. Bailey b Williams 1G. Maxwell b Waller 13M. Marsh c Utseya b Tiripano 15B. Haddin c Waller b Tiripano 49J. Faulkner c Nyumbu b Utseya 0M. Starc b Williams 3B. Cutting run out 26N. Lyon not out 8Extras (2lb, 3w) 5Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) 209

Fall of wickets1-11 (Finch), 2-38 (Hughes), 3-39 (Bailey), 4-57 (Maxwell), 5-97 (Marsh), 5-147 (Clarke, retired not out), 6-147 (Faulkner), 7-150 (Starc), 8-201 (Cut-ting), 9-202 (Haddin).BowlingChatara 8-0-56-0, Nyumbu 10-1-30-1, Utseya 10-0-45-2, Tiripano 6-1-34-2, Williams 10-2-21-2, Waller 6-0-21-1.ZimbabweT. Mawoyo b Lyon 15Sikandar Raza c sub (Smith) b Lyon 22H. Masakadza b Starc 18B. Taylor b Lyon 32M. Waller c & b Maxwell 11S. Williams c Clarke b Lyon 4E. Chigumbura not out 52D. Tiripano b Starc 3P. Utseya not out 30Extras (2b, 3lb, 18w, 1nb) 24Total (7 wkts, 48 overs) 211

Fall of wickets1-42 (Sikandar Raza), 2-44 (Mawoyo), 3-100 (Masakadza), 4-102 (Taylor), 5-106 (Williams), 6-142 (Waller), 7-156 (Tiripano).BowlingStarc 10-3-41-2, Marsh 4-2-13-0, Cutting 6-0-18-0, Faulkner 7-0-28-0, Lyon 10-1-44-4, Finch 2-0-19-0, Maxwell 8-0-41-1, Clarke 1-0-2-0.ResultZimbabwe won by 3 wickets

SCORECARD

n Reuters, Harare

Captain Elton Chigumbura hit a � uent half-century as Zimbabwe secured a shock three-wicket win over Australia in the triangular series on Sunday.

Zimbabwe’s only previous success against the world’s top-ranked 50-over side came in their very � rst meeting in Nottingham in 1983 and since then have endured 27 defeats and one aban-doned match.

After Australia elected to bat, the tourists were restricted to 209 for nine in their 50 overs, a target Zimbabwe chased down with two overs to spare.

Chigumbura came to the wicket

with his side � oundering on 106 for � ve at the halfway point of their innings, and along with number nine Prosper Utseya (30 not out), added 55 in an un-beaten eighth wicket partnership.

The Zimbabwe skipper was unbeat-en on 52 from 68 balls and provided the anchor for the win.

Utseya scored the winning runs by belting a six o� Mitchell Starc that prompted a � eld invasion by jubilant fans who had never seen a day like it at the Harare Sports Club.

Adding to Australia’s misery, skipper Michael Clarke had to battle through the pain barrier to score an unbeaten 68 after he su� ered a recurrence of his

hamstring injury.Clarke, returning to the side after

missing Australia’s � rst two games of the series, retired hurt in the 43rd over as he battled with his hamstring, but returned for the � nal two balls of the innings to ensure the tourists were not bowled out.

Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin scored 49 to help the visitors pass 200 as he put on 50 with Clarke before the latter retired hurt, and 51 with number 10 Ben Cutting (26).

The home spinners managed to both contain and pick up wickets, with Sean Williams recording excellent � gures of two for 21 in his 10 overs, as Australia stuttered to their lowest ever score

against Zimbabwe of 209 for nine in 50 overs. Utseya � nished with two for 45 in his 10 overs.

Zimbabwe took a patient approach to their reply but looked in trouble as they slipped to 106 for � ve before Chigum-bura grafted to get his side home.

Nathan Lyon used the conditions well to record � gures of four for 44 in 10 overs, with all of the regular bowl-ers economical in restricting the home batsman.

The � fth match of the series will be on Tuesday when Australia face South Afri-ca at the same venue. South Africa lead the table with nine points, Australia sec-ond on � ve and Zimbabwe with four. l

Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura is mobbed by teammates after wining their ODI match against Australia at the Harare Sports Club yesterday AFP

Zim clinch famous win over Aussies

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

DU ADMISSION TEST

46 candidatesto compete forone seatn DU Correspondent

Around 46 applicants will compete for each seat at the upcoming admission test of Dhaka University in the 2014-15 academic session, sources said.

A total of 301,138 students will ap-pear in the test for 6,582 seats in � ve units for the � rst-year Honour’s courses.

Last year, the ratio of applicants against seats were around 39:1, with 262,907 applicants competing for 6,668 seats at the university.

Professor AAMS Are� n Siddique, vice-chancellor of the university, gave the statistics at a press conference at the university’s Old Senate Building yesterday at 2pm.

A total of 81,948 students seat in the admission test for 1,640 seats in Ka unit, 42,417 students for 2,221 seats in Kha unit, 49,976 students for 1,170 seats in Ga unit, 111,665 students for 1,416 seats in Gha unit, and 14,755 stu-dents for 135 seats in Cha unit.

The admission test of Ka unit will be held on September 12, Kha unit on September 19, Ga unit on September 05, Gha unit on September 26, and Cha unit on September 13, 2014. l

Con� icting laws weaken the environment courtn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The Environment Ministry and the par-liamentary watchdog on the ministry yesterday agreed that the environment courts could not be e� ective because of con� icting laws.

The environment act and the en-vironment court act con� icted each other on the question of the authority to � le cases on charges of damaging en-vironment.

The Forest Conservation Act 1995 permits any aggrieved person to � le cases against environmental damages while the Environment Court Act 2010 authorises the Department of Environ-ment to � le lawsuits, Hasan Mahmud, chairman of the parliamentary watch-dog, told the Dhaka Tribune after a meeting at the parliament building.

“So, we have recommended making the two laws uniform. The aggrieved per-sons should be allowed to � le lawsuits for environmental damages,” he said.

The 10-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Environ-ment and Forest Ministry also dis-cussed the implementation of the brick kiln regulation act that came into e� ect on July 1. The law strictly prohibits the operation of traditional brick kilns with polluting chimneys.

According to a report of the depart-ment of environment, around 40% of the 10,000 kilns have been turned into environment-friendly zigzag chimneys that reduced pollution drastically.

The brick kiln owners do not want to invest more money for installing zigzag chimneys.

“Our recommendation is that there is no scope for giving further conces-sion to the brick kiln owners. The De-partment of Environment will send let-ters to all deputy commissioners asking them to execute the act. l

Flood situation remains static in 3 districtsBrahmaputra in Sherpur and Padma in Shariatpur see a fresh risen Tribune Report

Flood water in two districts has risen with river erosion taking heavy toll on arable land and properties while in two other districts it has remained static.

Our correspondent from Sherpur re-ports that rise of the water level in the Brahmaputra river and river erosion continues in the district.

Water was entering through the damaged part of the � ood controlling dam near the Sherpur sadar upazila. If the rise in the water level continues like this, the diversion of the Sherpur-Ja-malpur road would be submerged within two days, which would leave the district disconnected from the northern districts and Dhaka.

Charpakkhimari UP Chairman Ak-bar Ali said villages on the bank of the Brahmaputra river were inundated and people in those villages were ma-rooned. He also informed that rice cul-tivated in the huge area of Shatpakia Bil went under water.

Shuvash Chandra Debnath, assis-tant director of agricultural develop-ment corporation in the district, said 350 hectares of rice � elds were sub-merged by the � ood water.

Our correspondent from Shariatpur reports that many villages were inun-dated in the district and many schools were closed down because of the � ood.

Water Development Board sources said onrush of water from the upstream raised the water level in the Padma river, where the water is � owing 38cm above the danger level. Over the last 24 hours, more than 200 villages were inundated.

Sources from the district’s educa-tion o� ce said � ood water entered 83 educational institutions, 20 of which were closed down.

The Headmaster of Kedarpur High

School Abu Taleb Miyan said the school was closed since Saturday.

Meanwhile, river erosion continues due to the heavy current in the Padma river. Over the last 15 days around 500 families in Naria and Uttar Tarabunia upazilas became homeless after their houses were devoured by the river.

Additional District Magistrate Asib Ahsan told the Dhaka Tribune � ve tonnes of rice was distributed among the � ood victims in the area and 55 tonnes more was allocated by the ad-ministration.

Meanwhile UNB reports: The � ood

situation in Bogra, Sirajganj, Faridpur has remained unchanged yesterday with two major rivers – Padma and Jamuna – still � owing above the danger mark.

In Bogra, the Jamuna was � owing 82cm above the danger level yesterday although the water level in the mighty river saw a 6cm fall.

About 200 villages of Sariakhandi, Dhunat, and Sonatala upazilas have been inundated by � ood water, said sources at the district administration.

Meanwhile, 225 metric tonnes of rice and cash Tk 4 lakh have been al-located for the a� ected people of the

three upazilas.In Sirajganj, despite a fall in the wa-

ter level of the Jamuna, the � ood situa-tion has seen no improvement.

The river in the district was still � owing 37cm above the danger mark while its tributaries were also swelling yesterday morning.

As a result, surging water from the river has left several lakh people of � ve upazilas in the district marooned.

Alongside � ood, continuous rainfall on Saturday night added to the woes of the � ood-hit people.

Gushing water entering through

breached portion of Meghai Ring Em-bankment inundated freshly three vil-lages of Kazipur upazila.

Academic activities at more than 100 schools remained suspended due to � ood.

In Faridpur, onrush of water from upstream hills has caused the Padma

River to swell further, inundating fresh areas of the district.

Sources at the WDB o� ce in Farid-pur said the water level in the river saw a 5cm rise in the last 24 hours and it was � owing 27cm above the danger level at Goalandu point.

The low-lying areas of Sadar, Char Bhadrasan and Sadarpur upazilas have remained submerged by � ood water over the last two weeks, marooning thousands of people.

In Chandpur, the Town Protection Embankment has developed a crack at a point creating threat of erosion among locals.

WDB in Chandpur has taken imme-diate measures to prevent the dyke from developing cracks.

In Rangpur, though the � ood water started receding, erosion by the Teesta River has taken a serious turn in Gan-gachara upazila rendering about 350 fam-ilies homeless and eating away vast tracts of arable land over the last few days.

The a� ected areas are Alambiditor, Luxmitary Nohali, Kolkond, Gojoghon-ta, Mornea and Gangachara Sadar.

The homeless people have now tak-en shelter on high lands or safer places.

A portion of the � ood protection embankment at Mohipur point has also been eroded by the river, creating panic among the local people.

Locals said though the Water Devel-opment Board is dumping sand bags and setting bamboo pilings, the Teesta erosion goes on unabated. l

Survey: Only 13% of international migrants live below poverty linen Rabiul Islam

A recent survey has concluded that in-ternational migration not only plays a signi� cant role in reducing poverty but also contributes to local development, which includes employment and living standards.

The study, conducted by the Ref-ugee and Migratory Movements Re-search Unit (RMMRU) based at Dhaka University, was unveiled at a workshop on “Impact of Migration on Poverty and Local Development” at Brac centre in the capital yesterday.

According to the survey, only 13% of the international migrants live be-low the poverty line whereas 40% of non-migrants live below the pover-ty line in the country. As per national data, 26 percent of people live below the poverty line.

The survey was conducted in 17 dis-tricts, representing all seven divisions, and interviewed 5,084 individuals from 102 villages.

RMMRU Chairperson Tasneem Sid-diqui presented the key � ndings of the study while Dhaka University Econom-ics Department faculty Selim Raihan

presented another paper at the pro-gramme.

The report also claimed that interna-tional migrants create new employment opportunities for non-migrants of their respective neighborhood by o� ering a section of their land for share cropping.

At the same time, they also employ workers from non-migrant families to help manage their poultry farms, live-stock and other small-scale enterprises.

It also concluded that a total of 79 percent of the areas with high interna-tional migration rates regularly experi-enced inter-district seasonal migration.

The report also includes many other

components including living standard, ownership of homestead and agricul-tural land, education and healthcare where international migrants have done better in comparison to non-migrants.

Speaking as the guest of honour, World Bank's lead Economist Zahid Hussain observed that the � ndings are not conclusively established.

“We need to ask who are these mi-grants? How do they � nance?” he asked while saying that those who cross the age of 40 have less than 10 percent chance for migration.

The poor people have no direct access to international migration, Zahid said adding the average migration cost was between Tk 2,00,000 and Tk 3,00,000.

According to the survey, average mi-gration cost is Tk 2,65,000.

Speaking as chief guest, Expatriate Welfare Secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain said: “We have to establish dis-cipline in migration sector.”

“If we cannot manage this properly, the workers' money would go to some-one else's pockets,” he noted.

During the panel discussion, Bangla-desh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Research Director Binayak Sen

said things should be examined closely.He, for example, citing the � ndings

said international migrants had been donating to madrasa, mosques, and temples.

“Do such donations encourage a conservatism outlook?” he asked.

Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Musta� zur Rahman said: “We should do something about returnee migrants.”

“What are these returnee migrants doing? How can we use their skills? However, there is no data concerning returnee migrants,” he said.

Brac Executive Director Mahabub Hossain said: “We should look into the additional costs for sending remittance.”

“Are intermediaries gobbling a handsome amount? We know that in some places 12% to 13% is charged for sending remittance whereas some countries charge only 4%,” he said.

Former advisor to the caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman suggested exploration of new labour markets.

“Around 18 to 20 hundred thousand new jobs seekers are entering the labour market every year,” he informed. l

Militia says it 'secured' US compound in Libya n AP

An Islamist-allied militia group has "se-cured" a US Embassy residential com-pound in Libya's capital Tripoli, more than a month after American personnel evacuated from the country, one of its commanders said yesterday.

An Associated Press journalist walked through the compound yester-day after the Dawn of Libya, an umbrel-la group for Islamist militias, invited onlookers inside.

A commander for the Dawn of Libya group, Moussa Abu-Zaqia, told the AP that his forces had entered and been in control of the compound since last week, a day after it had seized control of the capital and its strategic airport. Abu-Zaqia said the rival militia was in the compound before his troops took it over.

A video posted online showed men playing in a pool at the compound. In a message on Twitter, US Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones said the video appeared to have been shot in at the embassy's residential annex.

She also said it appeared the com-pound was being "safeguarded" and was not "ransacked. l

Flood-a� ected people in Bogra’s Sariakandi upazila wade through waist-high waters yesterday to collect drinking water from higher grounds near the Chandanbaisha embankment FOCUS BANGLA

Water over� owing from the sewer just outside their school premises has been a constant di� culty faced by students of Kuril-Kuratoli Model High School for the past one month. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Anti-PM protests in Pakistan leave three dead, 400 wounded n A P, Islamabad

Thousands of anti-government protest-ers tried to raid the o� cial residence of Pakistan's prime minister, sparking clashes with police that killed three people and wounded nearly 400 amid cries for the premier to step down, o� -cials said yesterday.

The overnight violence has raised the stakes in the two-week sit-in led by opposition politician Imran Khan and � ery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, which earlier saw demonstrators march past roadblocks to set up camp outside of Pakistan's parliament. They demand Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif step down over their allegations of massive voting fraud in the election that brought him into o� ce last year.

Backed by parliament and many po-litical parties, Sharif has refused to step down as negotiators tried to convince Qadri and Khan to end their protests.

When the crowd started removing shipping containers used as barricades, police � red salvoes of tear gas that

forced the crowds back. Authorities said they had no choice but to use force.

Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak said protesters were armed with large hammers, wire cutters, axes and even a crane.

The protesters started regrouping at daybreak yesterday and made repeated attempts to make their way through heavy deployment of police and barri-cades to reach the premier's residence. Police strengthened their lines and re-sponded by lobbing tear gas canisters.

Nearly 400 people — including wom-en, children and police o� cers — were admitted to local hospitals, o� cials said. The injured had wounds from tear gas shells, batons and rubber bullets, said Dr Javed Akram, who heads the capital's main hospital.

One person drowned in a ditch after he was in a crowd bombarded with tear gas while two others died from wounds related to rubber bullets, said Dr Wasim Khawaja, a senior o� cial at the hospital.

Police also beat local journalists covering the protests with batons, in-

juring some, Railways Minister Saad Ra� q said. Ra� q said he intervened to stop the police assault and said that he would ask the government to investi-gate the o� cers' conduct.

The protests began with a march from the eastern city of Lahore on Paki-stan's Independence Day on August 14.

Khan described the police action against the crowd as illegal. Qadri said he'd been up all night praying for a res-olution.

"If they think their brutality will force us back, they are wrong," he said in a choked voice.

The demonstrations signify the starkest threat to Sharif's third term as prime minister. His previous term end-ed with a military coup and his even-tual exile. Sharif vowed Saturday he would not step down.

"The biggest question: Can Nawaz Sharif survive? The answer, in these frantic hours, must surely be a miser-able, despondent no," read an editorial in Dawn, one of the country's leading English-language newspapers. l

‘Are intermediaries gobbling a handsome amount? We know that in some places 12% to 13% is charged for sending remittance whereas some countries charge only 4%’

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 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

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B4 Why risk and uncertainty are not the same

Bangladesh to get ITPEC membership today n Tribune Report

Bangladesh is set to avail the membership status of Information Technology Profes-sional Examination Council today.

Japan-based Information Technology Pro-motion Agency, a regulatory body for evalu-ating the Information Technology Engineers Examination (ITEE), will confer Bangladesh the membership at a function to be held at

Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC). Post, Telecommunications and Infor-

mation Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddique, came up with the declaration at a press brie� ng hosted by the BCC yesterday.

Latif said once Bangladesh avails itself of Information Technology Professional Exami-nation Council (ITPEC) membership, it will be able to conduct ITEE examinations every year and award internationally recognised certif-

icates to the IT professionals and graduates. The state-run institution has already initiated such kind of examination in April this year.

At the event, Bangladesh will sign mem-orandum of understandings (MoU) with the current ITPEC member countries including Philippines, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

An agreement with the Japan government will also be signed. Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state

minister for ICT division, said the ITEE plays an important role in building con� dence in IT engineers for contesting IT jobs worldwide.

ICT Division Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan and BCC Executive Director Asraful Islam were present at the press conference.

The IT examination is conducted twice a year, sometime in April and in October. It is one of the largest national quali� cation ex-aminations in Japan. l

ADP begins with poor show n Kayes Sohel

The government has spent only 2% of its ADP (annual development pro-gramme) in the � rst month of the new � nancial year.

The � gure is one percentage point lower compared to the same period a year earlier when it was 3%.

Poor development expenditure in July was traditionally attributed to the preparatory work by the di� erent min-istries and divisions, analysts say.

But this year additional causes, in-cluding recent heavy downpour across the country and dealing with big pro-jects like Padma Bridge construction, is behind the sharpest fall in expendi-ture, they viewed.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Ka-mal earlier said it is normal to see lower ADP implementation in the � rst month of a new � scal year, as ministries remain busy taking preparation for starting the development work during the period.

Traditionally in the country, the im-plementation of ADP remains sluggish in the � rst month due mainly to delay in fund release and appointment of project sta� and land acquisition. But it becomes faster with the � nal months of a � scal year approaches, making room for wastage of public money, ac-cording to o� cials and experts.

Out of the total ADP outlay of Tk 80,315 crore for the current � scal year, 55 di� erent ministries and divisions spent only Tk1,847 crore in July, accord-

ing to data of Implementation Monitor-ing and Evaluation Division (IMED).

The actual ADP size, however, was Tk80,315 crore without own � nancing of the corporations and autonomous bodies.

Of the total July spending, Tk1,458 crore or 3% was spent from govern-ment exchequer and Tk389 crore or 1% from foreign loans and grants, the IMED data showed.

Civil aviation and tourism ministry spent the highest amount of 30% from its allocation, followed by � nance di-vision with 13% and � sheries and live-stock ministry with 11%.

Only 15 ministries and divisions spent 2% or more of their respective allocations and 30 ministries and di-visions like railway, health, water re-sources, science and technology, ed-ucation, primary and mass education ministry, and roads division, failed to spend even 1% of their total allocation for the new � nancial year, data showed.

Bangladesh Institute of Develop-ment Studies research director Zaid Bakht said delay in fund release, pre-paratory work like appointment of project sta� and land acquisition in the beginning of the � scal year were behind the reason of slow progress in ADP implementation.

But this year delay in dealing with mega projects like Padma Bridge Construction is the additional cause for poor development expenditure, he said. l

Investor appetite for mutual funds continues to lose n Kayes Sohel

Investors continued to lose appetite for mutual funds during last three years, despite the stock regulator’s e� orts to make them popular by giving enough leeway.

Currently, more than 70% of 41 list-ed closed-end mutual funds are being traded below their face value, accord-ing to the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

Net asset value (NAV) of most of them has also gone below their face val-ue, meaning they incurred accumulat-ed losses and thus lost capability to give dividend payout to their unit holders.

A mutual fund is a professionally managed collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors and invests them in stocks, bonds and short-term money market instruments.

Analysts and fund managers say in-vestors invested virtually no new mon-ey on the mutual funds over the years, as their con� dence eroded over the funds due to ine� ciency of fund man-agers and ongoing dull market.

Return from the stock market is not higher than the bank interest rate, forc-ing them to divert their fund, according to fund managers.

Minimum dividend declaration this year also failed to bring buying enthu-siasm among the investors. Almost all the mutual funds except LR Global Asset Management declared dividend this year after two years.

Former chairman of Bangladesh

Securities and Exchange Commission Faruq Ahmed Siddiqui said mutual fund remained unpro� table for long, making investors’ con� dence to erode.

Expertise and professionalism fail to grow up to the mark so far, as most of the mutual funds hit in the market in 2010—the time when the market boomed.

Like any other investors, mutual fund investors took a jolt of market de-bacle in early 2011, he said.

“There remained a high level of skepticism about the rally of mutual funds and skepticism was bullish.”

Managing Director of AIMS of Bang-ladesh, Yawer Sayeed said: “Mutual fund industry has been passing di� -cult time over the last three years.”

He said if you look at the history of dividend payout, you will � nd that al-most all the mutual funds failed to give any dividend over the last two years.

But this year they declared mini-mum dividend, which is almost equal to the bank interest rate. Return from stock market should be much higher than bank interest to attract investors.

“NAV at cost of mutual funds is higher than the current market value, indicating that its prospect is question-able in the long run,” he said.

He, however, said sound operation of mutual funds also depend on fund man-gers’ ingenuity, capability and alertness.

Prime Finance Asset Management Company Limited Managing Director and CEO Moin Al Kashem said mutual fund is yet to get recognition to our investors who always want to get windfall pro� t.

“It is a fund that always ensures moderate pro� t with moderate risk but not higher pro� t. It’s not a cup of tea.”

Yesterday, out of 37 mutual funds traded at the DSE, 27 were being traded below their face value.

B3 COLUMN 6

Problem bank � outs rules to lend lawmaker n Jebun Nesa Alo

A section of o� cials of the state-run Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd has allegedly violated credit rules to lend Tk102.95 crore to a Jatiya Party law-maker, according to an investigation by the central bank.

Shawkat Chowdhury, MP from Nilphamari-4 constituency, borrowed the amount in phases from Bangshal branch in Dhaka from April 2013 to April 2014.

The loan was taken in favour of his company Jamuna Agro Chemical.

Branch manager Habibul Gani al-legedly helped the MP get the money which even exceeded single borrower exposure limit.

BCB has already suspended its eight o� cials, including Additional Managing Director Mohammad Assaduzzaman and Bangshal branch manager Habibul Gani, over the alleged irregularities.

The Bangladesh Bank is conducting an investigation into the alleged fraud and prepared a primary report. The Dhaka Tribune has obtained a copy of the report.

BCB, which has been making losses for years and identi� ed as a problem bank, sent a letter to Anti-Corruption Commission to launch investigation into the incident.

A board meeting held on April 17 this year also discussed the matter in presence of a central bank observer.

On May 06, the observer requested the Department of Bank Inspection-1 of the central bank to inspect the loan account of Jamuna Agro Chemical and prepare a report. But the inspection is yet to be made even though three months have passed since the request.

Bangladesh Bank has now decided to ask BCB authorities to submit a detailed report on the alleged loan forgery.

The BB observation report said BCB approved revolving LC (letter of credit) limit of Tk12 crore including LTR (loan against trust receipt) of Tk10 crore on April 16, 2013 to Jamuna Agro Chemical.

But Bangshal branch gave money beyond that limit to the lawmaker sev-eral times and the total amount stood at Tk102.95 crore as of April 10, 2014.

This loan � gure is 28.53% of the bank’s capital worth Tk361.44 crore though single borrower exposure lim-it is 15% of the capital. The report said the branch manager worked beyond his authority to give the loan.

Furthermore, the manager paid back four FDR worth Tk30 crore of Shawkat although he (the manager) was sup-posed to retain them against the loan.

The MP, who imports fertiliser, was allowed to withdraw Tk31 crore government subsidy against fertiliser import. But the subsidy amount was supposed to be adjusted with the loan.

Shawkat Chowdhury denied any ir-regularity and claimed that the amount was less than Tk102.95 crore.

He has � led a writ petition with High Court challenging the bank’s claim and is waiting for court order.

“The bank is demanding a huge amount. I didn’t take it. I will repay as the court orders,” Shawkat said.

The MP said he gave “su� cient col-lateral” to the branch against the loans.

When contacted, BCB Managing Director Abu Sadek Md Sohel denied making any comment.

The bank has failed to make pro� t in past 14 years since its launch in 1999.

The bank has been identi� ed as “problem bank” since 2004 by the cen-tral bank due to its continued losses.

The capital shortfall of the bank, however, reduced to Tk38.56 crore in June this year from Tk130.83 crore in 2013 and Tk211.97 crore in 2012, accord-ing to a central bank statement.

The bank also su� ered a provision shortfall of Tk5.35 crore in June, falling from Tk71.28 crore in 2013 and Tk56.63 crore in 2012.

Classi� ed loans also dropped to Tk108.79 crore in June from Tk191.82 crore in 2013 and Tk155.30 crore in 2012.

Of the total 43 branches of the bank, eight branches are incurring losses. l

Ruposhi Bangla shuts to be reborn as InterContinental It is scheduled to be reopened after 16 months from now n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

State-owned � ve star hotel Ruposhi Bangla, previously known as Hotel Sheraton, will be closed from today for 16 months for renovation purpose.

The country’s one of the oldest hotels will remain shut for the entire renovation work with a cost of above US$43m before it begins its new jour-ney as InterContinental Dhaka from January, 2016.

The renovation work will start as per a 30-year management deal, which was signed between its owner, the state-run Bangladesh Services Limit-ed (BSL), and Intercontinental Hotels Group in February, 2012.

Since the beginning of its journey in 1966, the hotel is going to face clo-sure from tomorrow for the � rst time although it remained open even during the liberation war in 1971, said a senior worker, who has been working before liberation war.

Meanwhile, the new management has imposed embargo on the employ-ees of the hotel not to talk with the me-dia about the hotel renovation work.

After the renovation work, Inter-Continental will have 231 guestrooms instead of the existing 272, and the room size will also be expanded from 26 to 40 square metres, said am o� cial of the hotel.

According to the deal, BSL needs to renovate the hotel rooms and the work should start form July, 2013. But later on, the renovation work was shifted to May, 2014 and it is again rescheduled for September, 2014.

Although the workers of the Ruposhi Bangla had earlier demanded partly renovation of the � ve-decade-old hotel, the management outright rejected their plea.

“We need to change every pipe, every cable, every toilet [� tting] and every bathtub to turn this hotel into a world-class one. It is impossible to of-fer the service and carry out the reno-vation work at the same time,” James P. McDonald, General Manager, earlier clari� ed his position.

As the proposal went to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s table, she � nally gave nod in favour of complete shutdown of the hotel for the

renovation work. As yesterday was the last day ser-

vice of the Ruposhi Bangla hotel, there were only 28 guests although the hotel has earned huge revenue in August, ac-cording to sources.

Though management decided to shut down the hotel services from to-

morrow, it has so far failed to award the renovation work to any company till today.

“As it will take eight more weeks for awarding the renovation work, by this time we will continue asset disposal and o� ce reallocation process,” a sen-ior executive told the Dhaka Tribune.

“After the closure, the hotel will take six weeks for asset disposal and o� ce reallocation. Then we will start the physical renovation work,” Sahidus Sadiq, manager, marketing and com-munication of Ruposhi Bangla, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He said the permanent employees and o� cials of the hotel will be rehabil-itated to Ruposhi Bangla’s subsidiary companies that operate Bangabandhu International Conference Centre and Balaka Lounge.

In this regard, a contract signing ceremony was held yesterday at the hotel to give relief to the anxious workers.

The contract was signed between Ruposhi Bangla Hotel Management and the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel Sram-ic-O-Karmachari Union for ensuring the employees of their continued em-ployment, salary, service charge and other bene� ts of the employees in the light of the endorsement of the BSL Board.

James McDonald and executive committee of the hotel signed on be-half of the management while Sho� Uddin, president of the union, signed the contract on behalf of the employ-ees. The other members of a 14-mem-ber committee signed the contract.

The dining hall and the swimming pool will be relocated under the reno-vation plan, which will o� er some add-ed services and bene� ts.

BSL earned Tk19 crore pro� t from Ruposhi Bangla in 2013 while the � g-ure was above Tk47 crore in 2012 and Tk40 crore in 2011. The hotel earned more than Tk20 crore revenue during the last two months, an executive also informed.

InterContinental had earlier ran the state-owned hotel in between 1966 and 1983. In late 1983, Sheraton took over its operations and management for the next 25 years, ending its tenure in De-cember 2008.

The agreement with Sheraton was extended up to April 30, 2011 as Star-wood, owner of Sheraton, and BSL disagreed over renovation issues.

After the disagreement, the BSL took over the operational charge of the hotel with the name of Ruposhi Bangla. l

The government is spending US$47m only for interior renovation of the hotel before handing over its operations to InterContinental. A dummy kept at the lobby shows the exterior to remain unchanged RAJIB DHAR

Fund name Price /NAV Fund name Price /NAV

1JANATAMF 53% GREENDELMF 48%

1STICB 57% ICB1STNRB 101%

1STPRIMFMF 143% ICB2NDNRB 76%

2NDICB 86% ICB3RDNRB 60%

3RDICB 59% ICBAMCL2ND 57%

4THICB 65% ICBEPMF1S1 57%

5THICB 62% ICBISLAMIC 99%

6THICB 78% ICBSONALI1 70%

7THICB 79% IFIC1STMF 51%

8THICB 71% IFILISLMF1 55%

ABB1STMF 52% LRGLOBMF1 47%

AIBL1STIMF 51% MBL1STMF 47%

AIMS1STMF 75% NCCBLMF1 53%

DBH1STMF 54% NLI1STMF 64%

EBL1STMF 57% PF1STMF 60%

EBLNRBMF 50% PHPMF1 49%

EXIM1STMF 57% POPULAR1MF 51%

FBFIF 64% PRIME1ICBA 57%

GRAMEEN1 105% RELIANCE1 64%

GRAMEENS2 75% SEBL1STMF 63%

TRUSTB1MF 55%

UNIT PRICE OF MUTUAL FUNDS AS A PERCENTAGE OF ITS NET ASSET VALUE

B2 Stock Monday, September 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, Analysis and Recent DisclosersFrom TradeServers:SAIHAMCOT: The Board of Directors has recommended 10% cash dividend for the year ended on April 30, 2014. Date of AGM: 23.10.2014, Time: 11:30 AM, Venue: Mill Premises, Noyapara, Saiham Nagar, Madhabpur, Habigonj. Record date: 17.09.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 1.48, NAV per share of Tk. 24.17 and NOCFPS of Tk. 8.93 for the year ended on April 30, 2014.EXIMBANK: The Company has further informed that due to unavoidable cir-cumstances the 9th EGM of the Company will now be held on September 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM at Emmanuelle's-Banquet Hall, House No. 4, Road No. 134-135, Gulshan-1, Dhaka instead of EXIM Bank Training and Research Academy (EBTRA), BGMEA Complex (2nd Floor), 23/1 Pan-thapath Link Road, Karwan Bazar, Dhaka. Other information of the EGM will remain unchanged.COMPANY NEWS: Tung Hai Knitting & Dyeing Limited: Trading of the shares of Tung Hai Knitting & Dyeing Limited will commence at DSE from September 01, 2014 under 'N' category. DSE Trading Code for Tung Hai Knitting & Dyeing Limited is "TUNGHAI" and DSE Company Code is 17463.FARCHEM: As per Regulation 30 of DSE Listing Regulations, the Company has informed that a meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on September 01, 2014 at 3:30 PM to consider, among

others, audited � nancial statements of the Company for the year ended on June 30, 2014.IPO Subscription: Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries Ltd. subscription date 24-28 August 2014, NRB upto 06 September 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Western Ma-rine Shipyard Limited subscription date 10-14 August 2014, NRB upto 23 August 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscrip-tion period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. Dividend/AGMBSCCL: 10% cash, AGM: 12.10.2014, Record date: 04.09.2014. PRAGATILIF: No dividend, AGM: 30.09.2014, Record date: 14.09.2014. GPHISPAT: 15% cash and 5% stock, AGM: 10.11.2014, Record date: 22.09.2014. Dividend of Mutual Funds: 1JANATAMF: 12.50% 'Re-Investment' Units. EXIM1STMF: 12% 'Re-Investment' Units. IFIC1STMF: 9% 'Re-Investment' Units. FBFIF: 10% 'Re-Investment' Units. TRUSTB1MF: 10% Re-Investment Units.

EBL1STMF: 7% cash dividend. PHPMF1: 10% Re-Investment Units. EBLNRBMF: 10% Re-Investment Units. ABB1STMF: 10% Re-Investment Units. POPULAR1MF: 12% Re-Investment Units. DBH1STMF: 0.60% cash dividend. GREENDELMF: No dividend. GRAMEENS2: 15% reinvestment units, GRAMEEN1: 30% reinvestment units. AIMS1STMF: 50% 'Re-Investment' Units as dividend, RELIANCE1: 11% cash dividend . Record date. Record date: 01.09.2014.APEXFOODS: 20% cash, AGM: 28.09.2014, Record date: 21.08.2014.APEXTANRY: 45% cash, AGM: 23.09.2014, Record date: 27.08.2014. DELTASPINN: 10% cash, AGM: 30.08.2014, Record date: 14.08.2014.NAVANACNG: 15% cash, AGM: 25.09.2014, Record Date: 10.08.2014. SUNLIFEINS: 5% stock, AGM: 15.09.2014, Record Date: 07.08.2014.SQURPHARMA: 30% cash and 15% stock, AGM: 25.09.2014, Record Date: 26.08.2014. NAV of Tk. 22,277.52 million, EPS of Tk. 8.36.APEXSPINN: 20% cash, AGM: 28.09.2014, Record date: 07.08.2014. EPS Tk. 2.24, NAV per share of Tk. 49.75.SANDHANINS: 25.50% stock, EGM and AGM: 06.09.2014, Record Date for EGM and AGM: 16.07.2014.SALVOCHEM: 10% stock, AGM: 27.08.2014, Record date: 25.06.2014.

Stocks slide for 2nd day in dull trade n Tribune Report

Stocks dropped for the second con-secutive session yesterday in dull trading.

The market was in positive ter-ritory in the � rst session, but prof-it-taking selling pressure particular-ly large cap issues pulled down the market.

The benchmark DSEX was down 28 points or 0.7% to 4,549, hitting highest 4,594 in the morning and lowest 4,549 in the � nal session.

The Shariah index, DSES, dropped almost 9 points or 0.9% to 1,057.

The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,713, falling 12 points or 0.8%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, shed 74 points to 8,584.

Trading activities took a jolt as turnover at DSE dipped below Tk500 crore mark and stood at Tk494 crore. It was the lowest in the last two weeks and was 21.9% lower over the previous session.

Rally in textile, food and allied, and telecommunication saved the market from falling sharply.

Pro� t booking took place in bank, non-banking � nancial institutions, cement, energy and pharmaceuti-cals stocks.

Lanka Bangla Securities said the market lost 28 points amid weaker participation by investors.

This lower participation by inves-tors can be attributed to the half-day nationwide strike, it said.

IDLC Investments said since scrip-wise swings sustained for sec-ond consecutive session, with 59 of the total traded scrips changing more than 3%, investors extended their meticulous tone.

Zenith Investments said market trimmed gains from early morning trade.

Some major stocks which bul-lied the market for quite some time, were severely hammered by the pro� t-taking activities of the inves-tors, it said.

It said a few multinational com-panies on the other hand showed nifty gains at the last moment, but failed to create any signi� cant im-pact on the overall market.

Beximco Limited continued to top the turnover chart for the eight straight sessions with shares worth Tk40 crore changing hands, fol-lowed by Beximco Pharma, Mobil Jamuna Limited Bangladesh, Gold-en Son, Bangladesh Building and Grameenphone. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

FarEast Knitting -N -9.31 -7.42 42.19 40.90 44.70 40.60 25.697 2.13 19.8Agni Systems -A -5.71 -4.10 27.15 26.40 28.50 26.10 1.171 1.27 21.4Salvo Chemicals-B -5.29 -1.08 21.98 21.50 23.00 21.30 4.714 1.10 20.0Sa� o Spinning-A -5.13 -2.09 22.96 22.20 23.50 22.00 0.331 1.06 21.7Fu-wang Ceramic-A -4.82 -2.45 15.92 15.80 16.40 15.60 1.290 0.49 32.5EXIM Bank 1 MF-A -4.62 -4.62 6.20 6.20 6.20 6.20 0.003 1.28 4.8BD Submarine Cable-A -4.45 -3.78 145.70 143.70 152.00 143.50 8.860 2.42 60.2Beacon Pharma Ltd.-Z -4.23 -3.25 13.69 13.60 15.00 13.50 0.487 0.04 342.3FAS Fin. & Inv. Ltd-B -4.17 -4.17 16.10 16.10 16.10 16.10 0.008 0.52 31.0AMCL 2nd MF-A -4.00 -4.98 4.77 4.80 4.90 4.60 0.045 0.99 4.8

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

FarEast Knitting -N -8.81 -6.44 42.59 41.40 45.00 41.10 91.190 2.13 20.0ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A -6.32 -6.24 23.75 23.70 25.30 23.00 0.285 4.57 5.2Kay & Que (BD) -Z -6.25 -6.25 12.00 12.00 12.20 11.80 0.036 -1.24 -veNational Tea -A -5.86 -5.90 781.05 781.40 790.00 775.00 0.742 -27.68 -veEXIM Bank 1 MF-A -5.71 -5.71 6.60 6.60 6.60 6.60 0.017 1.28 5.2Agni Systems -A -5.36 -3.74 27.27 26.50 28.30 25.50 46.075 1.27 21.5BDCOM Online-A -5.04 -5.25 24.91 24.50 26.00 23.60 1.904 1.43 17.4Salvo Chemicals-B -4.89 -0.86 21.84 21.40 22.80 20.30 43.493 1.10 19.9BD Submarine Cable-A -4.72 -3.83 145.67 143.30 151.00 136.00 64.061 2.42 60.2Renwick Jajneswar-A -4.46 -5.37 249.98 246.20 256.50 245.10 5.312 3.92 63.8

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 1,024,254 43.80 12.57 41.90 -3.68 43.50 44.10 41.50 42.76FarEast Knitting -N 609,000 25.70 7.37 40.90 -9.31 45.10 44.70 40.60 42.19Khulna Printing-N 439,500 14.81 4.25 33.90 1.19 33.50 34.40 33.00 33.71Golden Son -A 226,875 11.41 3.27 49.30 -2.38 50.50 51.80 48.80 50.30Appollo Ispat CL -N 352,400 10.68 3.06 30.10 1.69 29.60 30.60 29.70 30.30UNITED AIR-A 796,853 9.91 2.84 12.30 -2.38 12.60 12.90 12.20 12.43BD Submarine Cable-A 60,811 8.86 2.54 143.70 -4.45 150.40 152.00 143.50 145.70LafargeS Cement-Z 83,000 8.78 2.52 105.80 -1.67 107.60 107.90 105.00 105.78Beximco Pharma -A 152,392 8.71 2.50 55.70 -3.97 58.00 59.00 55.50 57.16FAR Chemical-N 148,500 8.59 2.47 58.70 8.70 54.00 59.10 54.90 57.85

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 9,468,032 403.35 8.16 41.70 -3.25 43.10 46.00 38.90 42.60Beximco Pharma -A 4,235,005 240.59 4.87 55.70 -4.13 58.10 60.00 52.30 56.81MJL BD Ltd.-A 2,057,802 237.41 4.81 115.10 3.79 110.90 117.00 100.00 115.37Golden Son -A 4,313,619 218.19 4.42 49.40 -2.18 50.50 52.00 46.00 50.58BD Building Systems -A 2,319,100 155.25 3.14 65.70 -0.30 65.90 68.00 60.00 66.94Grameenphone-A 467,498 150.48 3.05 323.70 0.81 321.10 325.80 300.00 321.89BSRM Steels-A 1,442,725 139.86 2.83 97.50 2.96 94.70 98.70 85.30 96.94LafargeS Cement-Z 1,166,060 123.22 2.49 105.30 -1.03 106.40 107.80 99.00 105.67FAR Chemical-N 1,923,500 111.39 2.25 58.50 5.98 55.20 58.90 55.70 57.91Appollo Ispat CL -N 3,416,800 103.64 2.10 30.30 2.71 29.50 30.70 29.70 30.33

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 219.09 4.43 15.68 4.09 234.77 4.41NBFI 151.20 3.06 7.95 2.07 159.15 2.99Investment 60.99 1.23 8.61 2.25 69.61 1.31Engineering 802.34 16.24 41.83 10.91 844.18 15.86Food & Allied 197.15 3.99 12.67 3.31 209.83 3.94Fuel & Power 637.25 12.90 27.20 7.10 664.45 12.48Jute 1.36 0.03 0.00 1.36 0.03Textile 632.66 12.81 66.77 17.42 699.43 13.14Pharma & Chemical 817.76 16.55 43.63 11.38 861.39 16.18Paper & Packaging 69.65 20.57 5.37 90.22 1.69Service 96.88 1.96 6.52 1.70 103.39 1.94Leather 35.13 0.71 7.07 1.84 42.20 0.79Ceramic 24.10 0.49 2.43 0.63 26.53 0.50Cement 204.54 4.14 15.05 3.93 219.59 4.12Information Technology 92.35 1.87 18.37 4.79 110.72 2.08General Insurance 53.81 1.09 2.22 0.58 56.04 1.05Life Insurance 37.74 0.76 1.87 0.49 39.61 0.74Telecom 214.54 4.34 17.41 4.54 231.96 4.36Travel & Leisure 91.96 1.86 15.49 4.04 107.44 2.02Miscellaneous 499.86 10.12 51.99 13.56 551.85 10.37Debenture 0.30 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.31 0.01

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4549.5191 (-) 0.62% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1713.82636 (-) 0.73% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14039.9021 (-) 0.90% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 11420.3139 (-) 1.97% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8584.0158 (-) 0.86% ▼

DSE key features August 31-2014Turnover (Million Taka)

4,940.64

Turnover (Volume)

118,818,184

Number of Contract 116,540

Traded Issues 298

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

87

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

205

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

6

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,400.54

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.10

CSE key features August 31-2014Turnover (Million Taka) 351.39

Turnover (Volume) 10,500,697

Number of Contract 16,038

Traded Issues 220

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

58

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

151

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

11

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,298.72

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.86

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

Some major stocks which bullied the market for quite some time, were severely hammered by the pro� t-taking activities of the investors

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

FAR Chemical-N 8.70 4.82 57.85 58.70 59.10 54.90 8.591 3.92 14.8Alltex Industries -Z 8.57 4.39 7.61 7.60 7.70 7.40 0.266 -1.24 -veMoza� ar H.Spinning-N 7.76 6.42 34.17 34.70 34.90 33.00 8.492 2.27 15.1Sonargaon Tex -Z 7.14 3.40 8.81 9.00 9.00 8.60 0.168 -0.96 -veMarico BD Ltd-A 6.25 6.25 1125.70 1125.70 1125.70 1125.70 0.056 59.28 19.0Bata Shoe Ltd. -A 5.75 5.75 1057.53 1057.50 1062.50 1050.10 0.317 40.74 26.0SummitAlliancePort.-A 5.33 4.50 31.35 31.60 32.30 30.40 4.956 0.96 32.7Dacca Dyeing-A 4.95 6.68 21.25 21.20 21.70 20.80 3.026 2.08 10.2AB Bank 1st Mutual Fund-A 3.08 2.77 6.67 6.70 6.70 6.30 4.874 0.64 10.4AMCL (Pran) -A 2.52 1.58 224.00 224.00 224.00 224.00 0.045 5.85 38.3

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

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Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Moza� ar H.Spinning-N 7.41 6.56 34.44 34.80 35.20 32.90 96.214 2.27 15.2Dacca Dyeing-A 7.00 6.18 21.32 21.40 21.70 19.50 33.686 2.08 10.3Marico BD Ltd-A 6.15 6.16 1,125.11 1,133.50 1,134.50 1,085.00 13.220 59.28 19.0FAR Chemical-N 5.98 4.29 57.91 58.50 58.90 55.70 111.389 3.92 14.8SummitAlliancePort.-A 5.69 5.67 31.49 31.60 32.30 27.50 61.399 0.96 32.8Asia Pasi� c Insu. -A 4.41 3.67 21.18 21.30 21.80 20.20 2.393 2.26 9.4Reckitt Benckiser -A 4.18 4.59 1,013.00 1,012.60 1,020.00 975.10 1.013 36.36 27.9BD. Autocars -Z 4.08 1.92 24.93 25.50 25.80 24.50 0.349 0.08 311.6Janata Insur -A 4.07 3.30 17.86 17.90 18.10 17.00 0.891 1.00 17.9BATBCL -A 4.00 6.54 2,734.10 2,737.10 2,750.00 2,677.00 36.637 95.74 28.6

ANALYST

A few multinational companies on the other hand showed nifty gains at the last moment

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

Rupali Bank has recently held its half yearly business conference. The bank’s chairperson, Dr Ahmed Al-Kabir was present at the conference as chief guest along with its managing director M Farid Uddin

First Security Islami Bank - Children Science Congress has recently been opened at National Museum of Science and Technology. The inaugural programme was presided over by Md Humayun Kabir Khan, general manager at National Museum of Science and Technology

BRAC Bank has recently signed a scholarship agreement with BRAC University for providing � nancial support to meritorious but � nancially challenged students to pursue higher education at the university. The bank’s managing director Syed Mahbubur Rahman and Sukhendra Kumar Sarkar, treasurer of BRAC University exchanged the agreement documents after signing

What’s Europe’s best hope for avoiding a second euro crisis? n Anatole Kaletsky

This week’s theatrical resignation threat by Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, combined with deep European anxiety about de� ation, sug-gest that the euro crisis may be coming back. But a crisis is often an opportuni-ty, and this is the hope now beginning to excite markets in the eurozone.

Investors and business leaders are asking themselves three questions: Will European governments and the European Central Bank recognize the unexpected weakness of the eurozone economy as an opportunity to change course? If they do, will they know how to grasp it? And will they be allowed to do what is necessary by the true eco-nomic sovereign of Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel?

First, the opportunity. Europe still has a chance to save itself from a Jap-anese-style lost decade of stagnation and de� ation. And this may well be a last chance, because a lost decade in Europe could produce some very un-Japanese social rebellions and politi-cal upheavals. Europe, after all, lacks Japan’s social consensus, national unity and � nancial cohesion. It is far from clear that Europe could survive 10 years of recession without up the euro-zone breaking up and even perhaps the European Union.

Second, what must Europe do to save itself from stagnation and disintegra-tion? The obvious answer is to follow something similar to the “three arrows” program popularised (though not genu-inely implemented) by Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Abe’s “three ar-rows” were: aggressive monetary stim-ulus; � scal easing requiring suspension of de� cit and debt targets, and struc-

tural reforms to correct long-term weak-nesses in both supply and demand.

Judging by ECB Chairman Mario Draghi’s speech at Jackson Hole, Wyo., all three of these policies are becoming feasible. The central bank is hinting at more growth-oriented monetary pol-icy, the European Commission seems willing to interpret its � scal rules more � exibly, and national governments are promising to undertake more structur-al reforms.

The problem is that all these hints and promises are hedged with too many conditions, uncertainties and caveats. Even if the ECB decides to experiment with U.S., British and Jap-anese-style quantitative easing, or QE, its record suggests that it will probably do too little, too late - just enough to prevent a collapse of the euro but not nearly enough to pull the European economy out of its slump.

The prospects for � scal and struc-tural reforms are even more discour-aging, judging by this week’s political upheaval in France. President Fran-cois Hollande responded to his prime minister’s resignation threat by sack-ing Arnaud Montebourg, the left-wing economy minister, along with several allies. But Montebourg was calling for budget � exibility and � scal re� ation, policies very similar to those suggest-ed by Draghi. And Montebourg rightly stressed the importance of “sequenc-ing” monetary, � scal and structural re-forms correctly, a fair point also made by Draghi and before him by Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund. What matters is not just the policies that governments and central banks implement, but the order in which they do so.

Misguided sequencing has arguably

been a root cause of European’s eco-nomic malaise. Monetary expansion, for example, is much more e� ective if it is combined with � scal stimulus, either through temporary tax cuts or injections of public spending. But if monetary expansion is contradicted by premature � scal consolidation, both policies can be doomed to failure.

Structural reforms are very slow to act and cannot generate growth in the short-term. They should thus be viewed as complementary to macro-economic policy, not as a pre-condition for monetary and � scal expansion. Major reductions in public spending,

which reduce growth in the short term even though they may increase long-run e� ciency, should come at the end of the reform process, instead of being “front-loaded” ahead of tax cuts, as the European Commission and the German government tend to demand.

For all these reasons, and many oth-ers, skepticism is certainly justi� ed about Europe’s willingness to pull itself out of stagnation. That raises the third and most important issue: Will Merkel allow Europe to save itself?

To judge by Merkel’s public state-ments, the answer is “no.” O� cially, the German government refuses even

to discuss any loosening of the EU bud-get rules. Nor does it accept the eco-nomic logic of sequencing espoused by the IMF, the United States, Japan, Chi-na and every other major economy. But is that really her position - and even if it is, can she sustain it much longer?

With the German economy weaken-ing due to the recession in France and southern Europe, as well as sanctions against Russia, Merkel is becoming less adamant about imposing German ideas. At the same time, the pressure for change coming from France, Italy and Spain is growing as Hollande, Mat-teo Renzi and Mariano Rajoy all face

challenges to their leadership. In this sense, the rebellion against Hollande could be a useful cautionary tale for Merkel. If she remains too obstinate, she could lose all her allies and face some truly frightening hostility from openly anti-German politicians such as Marine Le Pen, Montebourg and Silvio Berlusconi. This is not a legacy Merkel will want.

It is thus quite possible that this week’s political upheaval in France was actually coordinated, at least in-formally, by Hollande and Merkel. Let us assume that Hollande and Merkel � nally recognize, because of the recent slump in European economic indica-tors, that � scal and monetary re� ation are urgently �necessary for Europe. For Merkel, this would be a very di� cult concession since she has vehemently opposed any loosening of EU budget-ary targets and expressed deep reser-vations about monetary “experiments” such as QE. To avoid losing face, she would require a diversionary tactic. Montebourg’s demand for � scal re� a-tion, which he combined with an attack on Merkel’s domination of European economic policy, provided a perfect distraction.

By sacking Montebourg, Hollande was able to signal that he would ac-cept German economic dominance and abide by the EU � scal rules. Hav-ing done this favor for Merkel, he could then go ahead and discretely break the rules. It is a measure of the EU’s po-litical and economic dysfunctions that such twisted Machiavellian logic now o� ers Europe its best hope. l

Anatole Kaletsky is an award-winning journalist and � nancial economist. The article was initially published at Reuters.

Carmakers force the smiles at Russian car show n AFP

Hostesses in cocktail dresses and high heels fawn over the cars as they do every year, and sober-suited execu-tives boast about the newest features, but the smiles seem somewhat forced at this edition of the Moscow Interna-tional Automobile Salon.

More than one million people are expected to visit the show, which clos-es on September 7, but Russians are doing more looking than buying, to the disappointment of carmakers.

In recent years Russia has become an important growth market for many automakers, and in 2012 it became Eu-rope’s number two market behind Ger-many, with 2.9 million vehicles sold.

Carmakers were already expecting a fall in sales as Russia’s oil-fuelled growth boom of the previous decade exhausted itself. But the con� ict in Ukraine has sent the market into free fall.

Rising tensions between Moscow and the West have pushed the Russian economy to the brink of recession, and as the uncertainty persists consumers are hesitating before making big pur-chases.

Sales plunge The slow slide of the ruble is also push-ing up prices on foreign cars.

According to the Association of Eu-ropean Businesses (AEB), which com-piles car sales � gures in Russia, sales plummeted by 23% in July from the same month a year ago.

No-one is expecting a quick rebound and carmakers are instead looking fur-ther into the future: Russia’s emerging middle class is still under-equipped for wheels.

The situation is “very challeng-ing, but we believe in a recovery in the demand in the future,” said Yong-Key Koo, who heads up operations for South Korea’s Hyundai Motors in for-mer Soviet states.

Opel, the German unit of US auto gi-ant General Motors (GM), says Russia is key to its ambitions to become Eu-rope’s number two carmaker by 2022.

“Our objectives in Europe cannot be achieved without Russia,” said Matth-ias Seidl, Opel’s executive sales direc-tor for central and eastern Europe.

“Russia continues to play a vital role in our strategy despite the recent mar-ket challenges,” he added.

A number of foreign companies have invested in assembly lines in Russia in recent years, both to insulate against swings in the value of the ruble and of-fer models adapted to the local climate and tastes.

Opel unveiled a new model of its In-signia saloon, its most popular vehicle in Russia. Ford displayed a “made in Russia” version of the Fiesta, a top-sell-ing subcompact in the rest of Europe, which it hopes can help lift sales which are at just half the level of last year.

Renault-Nissan, in addition to its own factories, also assembles its models on assembly lines of the top Russian car-maker Lada, which it recently took over.

The alliance is resurrecting its low-cost brand Datsun, which will sell only vehicles produced locally.

“The car industry is nervous,” ac-knowledged Vincent Cobee, who is leading the global revival of Datsun.

He said the current situation over Ukraine is “anxiety-provoking”, but expressed hopes it would be temporary “as everyone has an interest in seeing things stabilise”.

A strategic market Even in the worst-case outlook, Russia is still predicted to remain Europe’s sec-ond-biggest market and the only ques-tion is when it will take over the top spot.

“Yes, the Russian market will grow and become the largest in Europe,” said Nissan’s Guillaume Cartier. “When? That is where the uncertainty is.”

Meanwhile, factories have been shifted into a low gear. GM has halted operations at its facility until mid-Sep-tember, according to Russian media.

Citroen has also extended the sum-mer break at its factory in Kaluga to the south of Moscow as sales are down for � rst time since the French carmaker set up in Russia � ve years ago.

“Russia remains a strategic mar-ket ... which will continue to develop strongly in the coming years even if there is a heavy price to be paid today,” said Jean-Louis Chamla, the brand’s di-rector in Russia.

On Thursday, the government an-nounced a new cash-for-clunkers pro-gramme to jump-start sales. l

New valuations for equity sale proceeds of non-residents n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank will follow three new valuation approaches instead of au-dited � nancial statements to repatriate funds of non-residents after selling eq-uity of the unlisted companies.

Bangladesh Bank will accept fair value of the shares as of the date of sales based on appropriate combina-tion of three valuation approaches.

The approaches include asset value

approach, market value approach and discount cash � ow approach depend-ing on the nature of the company, said a BB circular yesterday.

Currently, the sale proceeds of non-residents’ equity investment in unlist-ed companies and private limited com-panies can be repatriated abroad with prior approval from Bangladesh Bank to the extent of net asset value of the shares as of the date of sales based on latest audited � nancial statements. l

India’s Arun Jaitley sees economic growth speeding upn Reuters, New Delhi

A day after the best economic growth � gures in more than two years greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s � rst three months in o� ce, the � nance minister on Saturday predicted faster growth to come.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said he expected GDP growth higher than the 5.7% it clocked in the three months until June as a series of government measures take e� ect.

The GDP numbers were released on Friday.

“With the long-term impact of all the initiatives we have taken, I am sure, the impact in the coming quarters will be much larger,” Jaitley said, citing ris-ing manufacturing orders and renewed investor interest in India.

Since taking o� ce in May, the gov-ernment has loosened restrictions on foreign investment in defence, moved to reduce red tape for business and started tentative labour reforms.

Speaking late on Friday, Modi said the measures had resulted in economic stability and India would “very soon” achieve “greater heights”.

Jaitley said in� ation was on a downward trend and that he was more con� dent now of meeting a tough � scal de� cit target of 4.1% set in the budget in July, despite having breached the target in the � rst four months of the year.

“What was then accepted as a chal-lenge, with the � rst quarter (GDP) re-sults, I think, it is something that is certainly achievable,” he told reporters.

“My con� dence today of achieving this target is much more.” l

A 2015 Ford Mustang is on display during the Moscow International Automobile Salon in Krasnogorsk outside Moscow REUTERS

Investors’ appetite B1 COLUMN 1Total market capitalisation of mutual funds accounts for only 1.6% or Tk37bn of the total DSE market capitalisation.

Presently, 17 asset management companies are operating 41 closed-end mutual funds. Race Asset Management is the market leader, managing 45% of the total mutual fund industry, fol-lowed by LR Global at 18%, ICB AMCL at 14% and AIMS of Bangladesh at 13%.

In January last year, Bangladesh Secu-rities and Exchange Commission allowed mutual funds to give stock dividends to their unit holders by bringing amend-ment in the Mutual Fund Rules 2001.

Under the rules, fund managers are allowed to pay out at least 70% of their pro� ts as dividends. Stock dividends, popularly known as bonus dividends, is a payment made in the form of addi-tional shares in place of a cash payout.

The commission also brought down the mutual funds’ mandatory invest-ment quota in the stock market to 60% from the existing 75%, with the remaining 40% to be invested in the money market. l

Air Arabia launches Ctg-Ras al-Khaimah � ightsn Tribune Business Desk

Air Arabia will operate three � ights per week from its new hub in the UAE’s Ras al-Khaimah to Chittagong from tomorrow.

Chittagong, Bangladesh’s second-largest city with a population of over 6.5m, is located on the country’s coast-line and becomes the 98th destination serviced by Air Arabia worldwide and second in Bangladesh. l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, September 1, 2014

DILBERT

Why risk and uncertainty are not the same n KM Saqiful Alam

I have made it a habit to talk about risk and uncertainty in many social and academic gatherings over the span of the last two years, when the contem-porary and relatively new theories of risk management became areas of great interest to me. But the more I talk, the more I feel the necessity to truly under-stand the di� erence between risk and uncertainty. Let’s think of a simple ex-ample that I picked from the book Flaw of Averages by one of my favorite writ-ers - Dr Sam L Savage.

We say “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” proponents of this idiom give the following example: Imagine being in the middle of an inaccessible woods, a very rare and a beautiful � ow-er blooms, and there is no one to see it. Would it still be beautiful? A good topic to debate over, but let’s not devi-ate. I will give a similar example. Let us consider the same inaccessible woods, where right in the middle there is a tall oak tree, and on the branch of the tree sits a coin, hanging precariously in bal-ance, ready to drop any time. Which of its two sides will be facing up? Ei-ther heads or tails. That’s uncertainty - the possible range of things that can happen. But does anyone care? Since it’s inaccessible, we may never know whether it’s heads or tails; and we will also not be much interested as none of our � nancial and non-� nancial gains or losses are tied to the outcome.

Now consider this scenario: I have a bet with you that if the facing up side is heads, I get Tk10 from you, and you get the amount from me if it’s tails. Now I would be very interested at the outcome, as I risk losing money if tails comes up and I am compensated for taking this risk with the gaining of money if heads come up.

This example highlights the di� er-ence between risk and uncertainty. Uncertainty refers to the possible set of outcomes for any scenario. But if we have nothing to lose in these uncertain outcomes, then this uncertainty does not lead us to be at risk. And this brings us to one very important principle of risk management - the objective is to minimise risk not uncertainty, by a clear understanding of the possible un-certain outcomes. And the latter part of the previous sentence is the hardest

thing to achieve. The identi� cation of all possible out-

comes should be the most important exercise for any risk manager, whether that risk be � nancial or non-� nancial. As best-selling writer Nicolas Nassim Taleb puts it in his famous book The Black Swan, the biggest challenge is to iden-tify these outcomes, as sometimes we may never know some of the outcomes unless it really takes place, and in which case it will be too late already. And more than any set of fancy calculations, any intricate set of models, detailed soft-ware, I believe the � rst and the most fundamental step of risk management is to take a step back, look at the picture as a whole, and try and identify all the pos-sible (no matter how unlikely) outcomes of any scenario. After all, a calculation or a model based on false assumptions will lead to an unreliable result.

The principle discussed in the last paragraph brings up another very im-portant set of questions: why minimise risk only? Why not uncertainty? Isn’t uncertainty bad as well? Not necessar-ily. See, uncertainty is just the possible set of outcomes and their probabilities. As in the coin in the tree branch ex-ample, if you have nothing to do with these outcomes, then the uncertainty means nothing to you. But what if you have � nancial or non-� nancial assets tied to the uncertain outcomes. Even then, uncertainty is not something that is always bad, given that you have tak-en proper precautions to protect your-self from the possible outcomes.

Let’s take a very simple example: Say you own a piece of land, which may or may not have oil underneath it. You can dig up the land, and then know whether the oil is there or not. Here lies the uncertainty, in the possible pres-ence of oil, and the risk is the cost of digging, which you risk to lose if you do not � nd oil. But we can do better. We can lease our land to a company, which is in need of oil and can a� ord to dig for it. Let’s say we lease it for � ve years. So what are the scenarios now? Either the company � nds oil and enjoys the prof-its for � rst � ve years, after which the pro� ts become yours, plus the amount you generated from the yearly lease amount. Or, the company digs and does not � nd anything, in which case, you do not lose the cost of digging.

In fact, you stand to gain money in

the form of lease payment. So, here the uncertainty does not bother you, as you are in a situation that leads to your gains in both possible outcomes. In fact, there can be cases where un-certainty can actually be good, where you can gain from uncertainty. Such is the � eld of hedging, � nancial options, real options, and derivatives. A word of caution though, before being blinded by the outcomes these fancy names

give you, be wary of understanding all the possible future states and their probabilities. Because only knowledge of future outcomes can help you pre-pare for the uncertainty, and if possi-ble, take advantage of that uncertainty.

This article was more based on the fundamental side of the real di� erence between uncertainty and risk. And through this di� erentiation, we looked into the true essence of risk manage-

ment - not only to minimise risk, but to understand and identify the possible outcomes that any event can have, and then make proper plans for all these outcomes. l

KM SaqifulAlam is a lecturer (risk and operations management) at the business school of North South University, who holds an MSc degree in operations, projects and supply chain management.

Risk uncertainty and planning a new journey as a businessman walking on a tight rope that getets tangled and shaped as a question mark as a metaphor for confusion at the road ahead as a business concept of � nding solutions to change for success BIGSTOCK

Booming electric car sales under � re in Norway n AFP

Ministers in Norway - a major and rich oil-producing country - are under increasing public pressure to reduce perks and tax breaks for booming elec-tric car sales.

“It’s become a problem,” said Erik Haugstad, a bus driver in the Oslo re-gion who complains about the numer-ous electric cars clogging bus lanes, which they have the right to use in Norway.

The cars are also exempt from urban toll payments or fees at public parking spaces, where they can recharge batter-ies without cost.

But above all, they are exempt from Norway’s sky high sales taxes and VAT.

Norway brought in the generous in-centives to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions from tra� c, which accounts for 10 percent of total emissions in the Nordic nation.

The policy has been so successful that 32,000 electric cars are now on the road - by far the highest rate per capita in the world, in a country with a 5.1 mil-lion population.

“I’m a bus driver and I want to trans-port my passengers as quickly as pos-

sible. So, I’d like electric cars to leave the bus lanes, where they’re getting in my way,” Haugstad said.

“These delays have a cost for so-ciety. Time lost by thousands of our passengers in tra� c is far greater than that gained by a few dozen electric car drivers.”

He said the cars can create a vicious circle - tired of being stuck in tra� c, bus users could be tempted to buy an electric car themselves, worsening the congestion problem.

13% of sales Electric cars already represent 85% of tra� c in bus lanes during rush hour, according to a study by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration on a busy stretch of road outside Oslo.

“It’s a subject we discuss very often with colleagues during lunch break. Many of them are far more aggressive and don’t measure their words as much as me,” Haugstad said.

No decision has been made so far, but it looks increasingly likely that authori-ties will take action to unclog congested areas - especially during rush hour.

In the meantime, electric car sales keep growing. From the popular Leaf

by Japan’s Nissan to high-end US-made Tesla S, they have accounted for 13% of new car sales since the beginning of 2014, far ahead of the rest of the world.

In March, the Tesla became the highest selling car in a single month in Norway’s history, despite its relatively high price.

Although a basic model costs about 60,000 euros ($79,000), it still sounds like a bargain considering that a price in-cluding taxes would be roughly double.

The popularity of electric cars has caught the authorities o� guard, as they expected to keep the incentives in place until 2017, or until they number 50,000.

At the current pace, that � gure could be reached in the beginning of 2015, forcing the government to rethink its costly policy.

The tax exemptions alone account for up to 4bn kroner (500m euros, $650 million), according to the state’s own estimates.

m”We might make lowering adjust-ments in the future,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg recently told Norwegian newspaper VG.

“But I can promise drivers that there will still be � scal advantages to driving an electric car.” l

Indian start-up launches shoes that show you the way n AFP, New Delhi

“Wizard of Oz” heroine Dorothy only had to click her ruby red slippers to-gether and they would spirit her home to Kansas.

Now, an Indian high-tech start-up is promising to do the same in real life with a new, GPS-enabled smart sports shoe that vibrates to give the wearer directions.

The � ery red sneakers, which will also count the number of steps taken, distance travelled and calories burned, will go on sale in September under the name LeChal, which means “take me along” in Hindi.

The shoes come with a detachable Bluetooth transceiver that links to a smartphone app to direct the wearer using Google maps, sending a vibrating signal to indicate a left or right turn.

They are the brainchild of 30-year-old Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharma, 28, two engineering graduates who founded their tech start-up Du-cere in a small apartment in 2011 with backing from angel investors and now employ 50 people.

“We got this idea and realised that it would really help visually challenged people, it would work without any au-dio or physical distractions,” said Law-rence in an interview with AFP.

“But then we were trying it out on ourselves and suddenly we were like, ‘wait a minute, even I would want this,’ because it felt so liberating not having to look down at your phone or being tied to anything.”

“The footwear works instinctively. Imagine if someone taps your right shoulder, your body naturally reacts to turn right, and that’s how LeChal works.”

Growing sector Smart shoes aimed at speci� c demo-graphic markets - such as dementia suf-ferers and children whose parents want to keep track of their movements - are already commercially available.

But Lawrence and Sharma believe theirs will be the � rst to target mass-market consumers, and have focused on creating stylish rather than purely functional footwear.

As well as the red sneaker, they are

marketing an insole to allow users to slip the technology into their own shoes.

“Earlier, wearable technology was always seen as machine-like, nerdy glasses or watches, but now that is changing,” said Lawrence.

They say they have 25,000 advance orders for the shoes, which will retail at between $100 and $150.

Demand has so far mostly been through word of mouth and through the lechal.com website. But the com-pany is in talks with retailers to stock the shoes ahead of the holiday season in India and the United States.

It forecasts it will sell more than 100,000 pairs of the shoes, which are manufactured in China, by next April.

Wearable technology is a growing global sector. Market tracker IDC fore-cast in April that sales would triple this year to 19 million units worldwide, growing to 111.9 million by 2018.

The industry’s rapid growth has giv-en rise to fears about privacy, although Ducere says it will record no data on us-ers and maintains robust security.

The company still hopes its prod-uct will be useful for visually impaired people, and experts at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in the southern city of Hy-derabad are testing its suitability.

“It’s a perfect intuitive wearable item. You may forget to wear a belt or a helmet, but shoes you can never leave the house without,” said Anthony Vipin Das, a doctor at the institute.

“LeChal solves orientation and di-rection problems, it’s a good assistant to the cane.”

Possible problems include battery failure or loss of Bluetooth connectiv-ity, which Das says could be � xed by providing a live feed of a user’s posi-tion to a friend or relative, with their consent. l

Worried EU leaders call jobs, growth summit for October n Reuters, Brussels

European Union leaders are set to hold an emergency summit on promoting growth and jobs in October at the sug-gestion of Italy, highlighting their con-cerns over the fragile economic recov-ery in the 28-country bloc.

“In recent weeks economic data have con� rmed that the recovery, particularly in the euro area, is weak, in� ation exceptionally low and unem-ployment unacceptably high,” read the statement issued after all 28 EU leaders met in Brussels late on Saturday.

The emergency summit will focus on “employment, especially youth em-ployment”, which remains a big thorn in Europe’s side as it seeks to revive a stagnating economy.

Italy has been at the forefront of calls for greater � exibility from strict EU rules on budget de� cits, alongside countries such as France, arguing that an excessive focus on German-style austerity has hampered Europe’s re-covery.

“Europe must be more than the (bond) spread, rules and economic budgets,” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told reporters after the meeting in Brussels.

The latest in� ation data for the euro zone showed that the single currency area was inching ever closer to zero in� ation, a worrying situation consid-ering its double-digit unemployment rate, stuttering growth and increasing signs of reform fatigue among euro zone governments.

A spokesman for Renzi said the emergency summit to tackle the eco-nomic situation would be held on Oct. 7.

A separate summit for the 18 euro zone members would also be held in the autumn. l

Electric cars crowd the bus lane (left) during the morning rush hour towards Oslo AFP

Chief Executive O� cer of Ducere Technologies, Krispian Lawrence poses with the inner soles (L) and a pair of GPS-enabled smart sports shoes, to be marketed under the name 'LeChal' - which means 'take me along' in Hindi - in his o� ce in Hyderabad AFP

'Europe must be more than the (bond) spread, rules and economic budgets'