Tra� c constable burnt alive in capital n Kailash Sarkar

A constable of tra� c police was burnt alive and two other constables sustained burn injuries as unidenti� ed criminals set the vehicle there were in on � re by pouring petrol in the capital’s Bangla Motor intersection late last night.

The arson attack came hours af-ter BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia an-nounced the Dhaka March programme for December 29 from a press confer-ence and the 83-hour � fth spell of the opposition-sponsored countrywide blockade ended.

Witnesses said a group of sever-al men, two riding a motorcycle, set the requisitioned bus on � re around 11:15pm.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

7 Long FormPolitics is about choosing sides

Hasina’s relatives pile up assets in 5 yearsn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Four relatives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who were elected MPs in the last elections have amassed huge re-sources during the last � ve years, rais-ing question about the in� uence of the Sheikh family and its relatives who apparently dominate the ruling Awami League’s policymaking.

Hasina, also the Awami League pres-ident, in parliament announced that the people should not consider anyone as her family members other than her two children, sister Sheikh Rehana and her three children.

She urged people to hand those try-ing to capitalise her family identity to the police. The premier also gave her mobile numbers and email addresses to inform her about such incident.

But the latest a� davits of her two cousins and two nephews submitted to the Election Commission show that for personal gains her relatives may have in� uenced the family identity.

Sheikh Helal Uddin (Bagerhat 1), Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury Liton (Ma-daripur 1) and barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh (Dhaka 12) have been elected lawmakers of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad unopposed while Sheikh Faz-lul Karim Selim (Gopalganj 2) is seeking re-elections.

Sheikh Helal’s income rose 11 times In his a� davit submitted to the EC

for contesting the by-polls in Bagerhat 1 constituency, which left vacant in early 2009, Sheikh Helal said his an-nual income from agriculture, house rent, business and others sources was Tk8,08,300.

According to the latest a� davit he turned in for contesting the January 5 polls, he said his annual income was

Tk91,93,830 which is more than 11 times higher than what he had men-tioned � ve years back.

He and his wife had around Tk31 lakh cash in hand while the bank de-posit was only Tk7,325, said the 2009 a� davit. According to the latest one, their cash in hand rose to over Tk1.78 crore from the previous Tk31 lakh reg-istering an around 600% hike.

Their bank deposit also shot up to over Tk49.48 lakh from Tk7,325 – an increase of around 700% - in � ve years.

Earlier, Sheikh Helal had no invest-ment in postal and other saving certi� -cates. At present, he has investment of Tk40 lakh in such deposit schemes.

In 2008, he had owned shares of several companies worth Tk1.6 lakh, but no plots. The couple had two vehi-cles valued Tk31.5 lakh. His wife had a piece of land in Joar Shahara of the cap-ital worth Tk93,000.

However, the latest a� davit states PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

13 SportRejuvenated mid� eld key to Russell’s BPL charge

20 pages plus 8-page Treehouse children’s supplement | Price: Tk10

Poush 11, 1420Safar 21, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 1 No 271 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2013 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

BusinessB1 Bangladesh Export Pro-cessing Zones Authority has set Tk5,600 as the minimum wage for the readymade garments workers employed by the factories located in the country’s EPZs.

Nation6 Farmers of Rajshahi region are expecting a good yield of mustard as they have got agri-output and seeds in time and favourable climatic condi-tions also helped them during cultivation. According to local sources, the cash crop is now growing well everywhere in the region, including its vast Barind tract.

International9 China has committed $6.5bn to � nance the con-struction of a major nuclear power project in Pakistan’s port city Karachi, as it seeks to strengthen ties with its strategic partner, Pakistani o� cials said.

INSIDE

MUHITH DEFENDSP3

TreehouseTales Fromthe City

Uncle admits raping, killing Antaran Ashif Islam Shaon

The detained maternal uncle of 9-year old Antara, whose dead body was brought to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Monday, has admitted that she died after he had raped her.

Amir Hossain, 38, gave a confes-sional statement under section 164 be-fore Metropolitan Magistrate Md Nuru Miah’s court yesterday saying he was waiting for a chance to rape the girl. He thought that since the girl was from a “broken family,” she would not dare to announce the matter.

Police on Monday recovered the dead body of Antara, a second grad-er, from her maternal aunt’s house at Khilgaon in the capital. After autopsy, Dhaka Medical College morgue sources said the girl could have bled to death after being raped.

Antara and her sister Mitu, 18, had been living in the two-bedroom tin-roofed house of her childless mater-nal aunt Fatema Begum for nearly � ve years. During the incident, Fatema’s husband

Anowar Hossain, a garment factory worker, was not home. Amir, Fatema’s brother and Antara’s maternal uncle, came from Narayanganj on Sunday to stay over for the night.

Antara’s father Ali Hossain and now-expatriate mother Kulsum Begum got divorced around � ve years ago. Both of them have got married again and have been living with their second spouses.

“Amir, who slept in the same room as Antara [on Sunday night], tried to vi-olate her. As she woke up, he shoved a piece of cloth in her mouth. She could not cry or make any sound and died from excessive bleeding,” said Sirajul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Khilgaon po-lice station.

“During interrogation, Amir admit-ted on Monday night that the girl had died when he was torturing her. He took the cloth out of her mouth sensing that she might have died,” the OC added. Antara’s father Ali Hossain, CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver who lives in Si-pahibagh with his second wife, � led a

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Law enforcers askednot to ‘do excesses’n Rabiul Islam

Law enforcement agencies have been asked not to “do excess” during the parliamentary election scheduled on January 5, in the interest of creating a peaceful environment so that the vot-ers could cast their votes smoothly.

Law enforcers would act judiciously during the election time, avoiding any kind of violence, a high o� cial at the home ministry said.

The home ministry yesterday held a meeting on maintaining law and or-der during the election. Home ministry Senior Secretary CQK Mustaq Ahmed presided over the meeting.

“We have given directives to the law enforcement agencies so that they do not do any excess during the elections,” Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune at his o� ce yesterday.

Among others, home ministry’s Additional Secretary (political) Kamal Uddin Ahmed, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Director General Moklesur Rah-man and representatives from police and BGB were present.

O� cials said the agencies, however, would take adequate measures so that the voters can come to the voting cen-tres and cast their votes.

Law enforcement o� cials at the PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Khaleda: March to Dhaka This is not an election It is unabashed selection Postpone polls schedule

She is hurt by Pakistan resolution on Mollan Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yester-day said she had been “hurt” by the resolution adopted by the Pakistan par-liament on the execution of war crimi-nal Abdul Quader Molla.

“The Pakistani legislature on this has hurt us as citizens of Bangladesh,” she said at a press conference at her Gulshan o� ce in an apparent reac-tion to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s seeking a clear statement on the issue

from the BNP chief. “Even responsible sections of the Pakistan society have been critical of this [the resolution]. The views of the BNP on this have been stated already.”

The BNP chief also said Pakistan was now a far-o� and a separate coun-try. “The Awami League government signed the tri-nation agreement in 1974 and forgave the Pakistanis accused of these crimes…After that all issues between Pakistan and us should be

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Hasina: BNP chief realised her mistaken UNB

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yester-day said Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia now realised that she had made a mistake by not participating in the 10th general elections.

“The opposition leader now realis-es what a blunder she has done by not participating in the election. That is why she is now killing people by setting � re and enforcing blockades,” she said, describing the opposition’s movement as a militant act.

Hasina was addressing a meeting PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

With less than two weeks to go before the 10th parliamentary elections, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday called upon people from all walks of life to march towards Dhaka with na-tional � ags in hand on December 29 to say no to the “farcical” polls.

“To give our movement greater mo-mentum and take it to the next level, I call upon all of you… to march to Dha-ka on December 29 to say no to farcical election and to say yes to democracy,” she said while addressing an over-crowded press conference at her Gul-shan o� ce, an hour after the opposi-tion sponsored 83-hours countrywide blockade ended.

As is usual with Khaleda’s press conferences, she did not entertain any question from journalists. The senior leaders of the party, most of whom had been on hideout to avoid arrest in re-cent times, were present at the much-hyped conference.

The roads around the Gulshan of-� ce came out of the deserted look that has become usual in recent times, with hundreds of party leaders and activists gathering in the area.

The nearly one-hour speech was a juxtaposition of two separate messag-es: � rstly, Khaleda’s inclinations for a compromise was clear; and secondly, if the compromise did not happen, she made it clear that the opposition was ready to take the hardline.

She asked people in the hills and the plains and also the residents ofthe capital to gather in front of the par-ty’s Nayapaltan headquarters on De-cember 29.

Urging the government to not im-pede the march by any means; to not block roads, transport and hotels; and

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Mozena: Too late for talks on 10th pollsn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena yesterday said any dialogue for the 10th parliamentary polls was quite late but a meaningful dialogue to agree on a way forward to hold free, fair and credible election was important.

“I should think at this point it is getting very late for the 10th elections. So, whether the 10th or 11th, whatever the two parties decide that’s really not so much the question as is the issue of coming together in meaningful di-alogue to agree on a way forward,” he said after a meeting with Communi-cation Minister Obaidul Quader at the Secretariat in the city.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Hanif seeks security during campaignn Mohammad Zakaria

Awami League Joint General Secre-tary and Kushtia 3 candidate Maha-bub-Ul-Alam Hanif has sought security during his campaign for the 10th parlia-mentary elections.

A senior o� cial of the Election Com-mission yesterday said Hanif had sub-mitted a letter to Chief Election Com-missioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad making the request.

Tarique Ul Islam, Hanif’s PS, said the southwest region was known for

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Clockwise from left: Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury Liton, Sheikh Helal Uddin

MPs will not be considered legitimate representatives

of the people

Dialogue drama was only for buying time

All parties urged to join the ongoing movement

Strengthen polling center-based local resistance committees; forming

committees for preserving democracy and sovereignty

Zero tolerance for any formof communalism

An evil attempt is on to make the army controversial

A � re� ghter covers the burnt dead body of tra� c constable Ferdous at Bangla Motor intersection last night RAJIB DHAR

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Hanif seeks security PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

criminal activities and Hanif had ap-plied to the EC seeking arrangements for his security during campaign. “He also sought security for his family.”

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, former railways minister Suranjit Sengupta and a number of other candi-dates have also applied to the commis-sion for security. l

Law enforcers asked PAGE 1 COLUMN 3meeting warned that there may be out-breaks of violence in the 154 constitu-encies where candidates were elected unopposed.

As the BNP-led 18-party alliance was boycotting the elections, demanding restoration of the caretaker govern-ment system, the law enforcement agencies would not neglect the areas where the election would not take place, a senior o� cial said.

Meanwhile, the home ministry sent a draft proposal for vetting to the Elec-tion Commission about the deploy-ment of law enforcement during the election-day.

“We have no plans to conduct

special drives to recover illegal arms,” a high o� cial told this correspondent preferring not to be named.

The o� cial, however, said a combing operation was going on and if there were illegal arms they would be seized. “Where is the additional manpower to recover illegal arms?” the o� cial asked.

O� cials said BGB and Rab would work as a striking force.

On December 20, the Election Commission at a meeting decidedto deploy the army as an aid tothe civil authorities for 15 daysfrom December 26 to January 9 to maintain law and order during the election. l

Mozena: Too late for talks on 10th polls PAGE 1 COLUMN 1Mozena believes the need for having a constructive dialogue between the two major parties is more important than ever to � nd a way forward towards free and fair elections that are credible in the eyes of Bangladeshi people as soon as possible.

“I told the government and all the political parties to have political space so that they can have their rallies, pro-cessions and human chains,” he said.

“I explained the US’ view that the opposition parties have their responsi-bility to use political space responsibly and peacefully to avoid violence.” l

Uncle admits raping PAGE 1 COLUMN 4case yesterday accusing Amir of the rape and murder after Amir gave the confessional statement.

On Monday, after Antara was brought the DMCH, neither Fatema nor Mitu nor Amir said they knew anything about how the girl had died. Ali Hossain said he could not tell anything because he had not been living with his daughters. Although none of them mentioned the name of any suspect, police detained Amir. l

Hasina’s relatives pile up assets in 5 years PAGE 1 COLUMN 6that Sheikh Helal owns a 10 katha land in Bashundhara Residential Area in Dhaka costing over Tk2.8 and anoth-er 10 katha land in Purbachal worth around Tk35 lakh.

Sheikh Helal’s father-in-law has donated a 60 katha land in Bashund-hara Residential Area for his wife, says the 2013 a� davit, having no mention about the value of the land.

He had liability of around Tk4.55 crore in two banks. But now he has now liabilities.

330 times higher income for NoorThe prime minister’s nephew and

whip of Jatiya Sangsad, Noor and his dependents have an annual income hike of 330 times than that of the 2008.

In the 2008 a� davit, he did show the annual income to be Tk4.48 lakh from his business. Now his annual income is over Tk14.79 crore, according to the 2013 a� davit he submitted to the EC.

He earns around Tk8.9 crore and his dependents Tk3.87 crore from shrimp business every year. He also gets over Tk1.31 crore from bank interest alone.

According to the previous a� davit, his and his dependents’ bank deposit

was over Tk1.65 lakh. Five years later, now his bank deposit stands at over Tk53.97 crore while his wife maintains a deposit of over Tk35.92 crore.

He has invested Tk20 crore in the newly-launched Modhumoti Bank, in which his another cousin Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh has major shares.

Noor has shares of companies worth Tk12.5 lakh and his wife over Tk81.82 lakh. She has bank investment as � xed deposit receipt of over Tk2 crore.

The monetary value of the shrimp farm and the stocks stands at around Tk8 crore. His wife has over Tk5.20 crore as investment in the shrimp busi-ness and the capital market.

Noor had been detained by the mil-itary-backed interim government in 2007-08 on corruption charges.

Taposh’s deposit sees 600% hike Fazle Noor Taposh in his 2008 a� -

davit had mentioned about house rent, interest from bank deposit and saving certi� cates, and legal practice as the sources of income. His annual income was around Tk24 lakh – over Tk14.13 lakh from rent, Tk4.25 lakh from his profession and over Tk3.5 lakh as inter-est. His wife had an income of Tk2 lakh

from business.Five years later, the annual income

shot up from Tk24 lakh to over Tk2.33 crore including Tk1.14 crore from pro-fession. Soon after the Awami League formed government in January 2009, many big corporate houses turned to him to resolve legal disputes with dif-ferent government agencies.

In 2013, he earns over Tk78.53 lakh while his wife Tk3 lakh from the inter-est against bank deposit, savings and earnings from shares. In 2008, Taposh and his dependents had around Tk96 lakh as cash.

Now, the family has over 600% more in bank deposit, Tk6.27 crore, than what he had � ve years back.

His family members’ investment in the bond, LC and capital market rose by 1,073 times to around Tk35.42 crore from Tk3.30 lakh mentioned in the 2008 a� davit.

The couple has Tk3.66 crore as in-vestment in the postal and other saving schemes – 10 times than the previous amount of Tk33.77 lakh.

Taposh and his wife own two agricul-tural farms costing over Tk12.9 crore and over Tk1.02 core. He also owns a new

apartment costing over Tk1.04 crore.

Sheikh Selim had no incomeAccording to the latest a� davit, the prime minister’s cousin and Awami League Presidium member’s assets did not go up like the three others.

Referring to shipping business as his profession, Sheikh Selim before the 2008 elections said he had been meeting the annual expenditure from his previous income as he had no income that year.

But after � ve years, his statement says the income rose to over Tk26 lakh per annum, mainly from the allowance as a lawmaker of the ninth parliament. A parliament member gets over Tk1 lakh as allowance every month.

In 2008, Sheikh Selim and his wife had bank deposits of Tk3.34 lakh which has risen to around Tk1.37 crore – more than 40 times higher.

The leader, who had been the min-ister during the Awami League’s 1996-2001 government, and his dependents have now shares of both listed and unlisted companies worth over Tk1.39 crore. Previously his dependents had 110 shares of Air Reliance that cost Tk1.1 lakh.l

Khaleda: March to Dhaka PAGE 1 COLUMN 1to not arrest or harass those coming to Dhaka, she said: “Any attempt to deny the people this right will be resisted and we will be forced to announce even stronger action programmes. My appeal to the law enforcement personnel... Do not obstruct this peaceful gathering.”

After the conference, it appears that the BNP-lead opposition combine does not have any other major programme before the Dhaka march.

The former premier unveiled a four-point approach to intensify the move-ment: (1) strengthening coordination among the people participating in the movement; (2) shunning the path of division and unite for the greater na-tional interest and strengthening the politics of resolving all national issues through people’s participation, dia-logue and referendum; (3) strengthen-ing the activities of the local resistance committees based at the voting centres and form committees for preserving democracy and sovereignty at the dis-trict, upazlia and town levels; and (4) reinforcing actions for maintaining law and order and protect the lives and properties of all citizens by forming neighbourhood watch groups. The BNP chief also said: “There shall be no tol-erance for any form of communalism.”

Khaleda said: “This is arrogance, not rational thinking. This is not reality; it is an expression of mal intention.” She was referring to the prime minister’s

claim that there could be no discussion on the 10th parliamentary elections but on the 11th elections.

“I am urging her [Hasina] to leave the path of intransigence. Democratic politics is the art of compromise. One does not become small in seeking a compromise. In 1996, we accepted your demand in the greater national interest. Now you are in power. Accept the peo-ple’s demand and sit for dialogue. Post-pone the schedule for this one-sided election. There is no need to not waste public money by holding a candidate-less, voterless, meaningless election. This will not only stigmatise your gov-ernment, it will destroy democracy.”

Defending the controversial Febru-ary 15, 1996 elections, Khaleda said as all the opposition MPs had resigned from the parliament, the then government was left with no option but to pass a bill on caretaker government in parliament.

Khaleda also said any attempt by the “subservient” Election Commission to declare the 154 uncontested and the rest, who are not facing any credible competi-tion, as members of parliament will not mean that they would be legitimate peo-ple’s representatives. “No servant of the republic is obliged to follow the orders of such an illegitimate government.”

The ex-premier alleged that to form a government with a majority, it would not be necessary to obtain people’s mandate. “This is not an election. It is unabashed selection.”

She alleged that the government’s agents had been carrying out acts of ar-son and burning of people to stop their movement for justice and fair play.

She also alleged that the joint forces, who were being formed in the name of protecting law and order, were being blatantly abused for lodging attacks on selected targets; now plans were on to involve members of the country’s Armed Forces in these illegal activities.

“I am appealing to all those that are concerned not to involve our Armed Forces in a fraudulent election and make them controversial,” she said.

The Election Commission has al-ready announced that armed forces personnel would be deployed on De-cember 26 for two weeks to maintain law and order during polls.

She held the government and the Election Commission “fully respon-sible” for the act of extreme atroci-ties, and drew the attention of human rights activists and groups at home and abroad to these “deplorable” acts of state-sponsored terror and violation of human rights.

The former premier appealed to all the political parties to join in themovement.

Slamming the prime minister for her remarks, Khaleda asked leaders and activists to build resistance to protect the lives and properties of all members of every community, especially the mi-norities. l

She is hurt by Pakistan PAGE 1 COLUMN 3resolved through diplomatic channels. Any attempt to do otherwise is an expres-sion of the diplomatic failure of this gov-ernment,” she said. Reiterating the party’s stance on the trial of war criminals, Khale-da said those who had killed, torched, raped and looted the people of Bangladesh in an organised manner during the Libera-tion War had to be brought to justice.

“The BNP has all along stated those who committed crimes against humanity have to face the trial and that the trial pro-cess must be transparent and meet inter-national standards, that the issue should not be used for narrow political purposes.”

The verdicts of the international crimes tribunals was “cunningly coordi-nated” and “timed in a pre-planned way to create diversion,” the BNP chief said.l

Hasina: BNP chief realised PAGE 1 COLUMN 4with the members of the Christian community at her o� cial residence Ga-nabhaban on the eve of Christmas.

About the opposition’s agitation pro-grammes, she said, “This is not a mass movement at all; this is just a militant act, this is a terrorist act.” The Awami League president also questioned the opposition leader’s intentions behind such activities.

On the opposition’s election boycott, Hasina said they had not participated in the election because they were afraid of facing the people.

Blasting Khaleda for enforcing con-tinuous blockades and hartals, Hasina said any movement was usually for the welfare of people. “But, she [Khaleda] kills people during her movement,” she said, referring to the killing of people in buses, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, felling trees, and damaging roads and uproot-ing rail lines.

Regarding her repeated calls since

2011 to the opposition leader to � nd out a peaceful way to hold election, the Awami League chief said the opposition never responded to that.

“I requested her in parliament, I of-fered her to join the polls-time govern-ment to remove all sorts of confusions, and even I requested her to take the home ministry, but she did not respond. Whenever I requested her to join dia-logue, she always turned back.”

In this connection, Hasina recalled the torture and repression of the BNP-Ja-maat activists during their rule follow-ing 2001, and said her government had ensured an environment for the people of all religions so that they could per-form their religious rites freely.

Bangladesh Christian Association President and State Minister for Social Welfare advocate Promod Mankin, Arch Bishop Patric D Rozario and Bangladesh Christian Association Secretary General Nirmol Rozario also spoke at the meeting. l

Bangladesh to send more peacekeepersto South SudanPM gives nod to UN chief's requestn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman and

Emran Hossain Shaikh

Bangladesh has given consent to send-ing more troops to the UN peacekeep-ing mission in South Sudan at the request of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ban had made the request in a tele-phone call to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday evening, PM’s Infor-mation Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowd-hury said.

“The prime minister has given her approval to the proposal,” Iqbal Sobhan said.

Bangladesh Permanent Represen-tative to UN Abdul Momen said the UN needed immediate deployment of more troops in the African nation and asked if Bangladesh could help.

“I contacted Dhaka and asked for their opinion,” Momen told the Dha-ka Tribune over telephone from New York.

“They need about 5,000 troops, but it is not possible for Bangladesh to meet their requirement,” he said, adding: “It is expected Bangladesh will send 1,000 troops.”

In reply to a question, Momen said

the present political situation in Ban-gladesh was not discussed with the UN side. “They only talked about troop de-ployment.”

Momen also said he had no knowl-edge of the report submitted to Ban Ki-moon by UN Assistant Secre-tary-General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco following his recent visit to Dhaka.

“Taranco briefed me on his visit, but he did not say anything about the re-port,” Momen said.

Taranco visited Dhaka on Decem-ber 6-11 to try and resolve the political stalemate over the formation of a polls-time government.

In the report, Fernandez-Taranco stressed that the UN should stay en-gaged with the stakeholders in Bangla-desh.

During the visit, he had a series of meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad and other political leaders.

Awami League and BNP leaders held two meetings in his presence to dis-cuss the interim government issue but failed to reach a consensus. l

BCL man dies n Our Correspondent, Feni

A Chhatra League activist, who was injured in an attack by his fellow party men, died on Monday after � ghting for his life for four days in Feni.

The deceased Shahdat Hossasin Sha-hin, 20, of Poshchim Shilua village un-der Chhagalnaiya upazila in the district.

On Friday, Shahdat was chopped and critically injured by his party men, while Shadat was trying to stop the group form committing a robbery in the district. l

Hefazat to decide on next plan todayn Manik Miazee

Leaders of radical Islamist group He-fazat-e-Islam will hold a meeting in Chittagong today to set its next course of action as it did not get permission to hold a rally in Motijheel yesterday.

Hefazat’s Dhaka unit Convener Nur Hossain Quashemi, also its central nayeb-e-ameer, made the disclosure during a Doa Mah� l at a madrasa in the capital’s Baridhara yesterday.

The Chittagong-based group, which comprises teachers and students of a faction of Qawmi madrasas, had called

the rally at Shapla Chattar demanding implementation of its 13-point demands that include an anti-blasphemy law.

The programme was called at a time when the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance is enforcing countrywide agi-tation programmes protesting the Jan-uary 5 parliamentary elections.

Their other demands include a ban on “free-mixing” of men and women, demolishing sculptures and monu-ments, release of all arrested leaders and activists and a judicial probe into the law enforcers’ action during its May 5 rally at Motijheel. l

Two shot dead by police n Our correspondent, Sirajganj

Two youths were shot dead by police for their alleged involvement in a rob-bery in Sirajgonj on Monday night.

The deceased are Al Mamun, 25, and Munsur Ali, 23, the driver.

Family members of the youths said they were cousins.

Abdul Halim, West Bangabandhu Bridge police station inspector, said on a tip-o� they came to know that a group of at least 8-10 were robbing a bus at

Baniyagati. He said: “Since it was dark, we were not sure whether anybody was shot or not.” Police, however, later re-covered Mamun’s body from the high-way and Munsur’s body from a sugar-cane � eld near his home.

The bodies were sent to hospital for post mortem.

M Liton Sarkar, up member of Vadraghat, said: robbery and arson is a common phenomenon in the area.

After the incident extra force were deployed in the bridge area. l

Hefazat holds a rally at Kamrangirchar yesterday against the government decision to bar its rally MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

The programme was called at a time when the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance is enforcing countrywide agitation programmes

Tra� c constable PAGE 1 COLUMN 2The bus was on its way to Rajarbagh carrying the three policemen.

The criminals also exploded 10-12 crude bombs in the area before � eeing the scene, witnesses said.

The deceased was constable Md Fer-dous. The injured constables are Faizur Rahman and Bayezid Ahmed, who was driving the requisitioned bus. All of them were between the age of 40 and 45.

Fredous was burnt to death on the spot while Faizur and Bayezid were tak-en to the Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital in critical conditions and were later shift-ed to the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Kongkon Mondol, an employee of the Dhaka Tribune, said he had seen the bus was burning under the foot over bridge at the Bangla Motor intersection. Vehic-ular movement remained suspended in the area until � ling of this report.

Sirajul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Shahbagh police station, said: “We are trying to identify and arrest the crimi-nals, who set the bus on � re.”

Fire Service and Civil Defence o� -cials said it took two � re� ghting units to douse the � re.

Since October 27, at least 14 people have been killed in arson attacks while around 132 people have taken treat-ment from the burn and plastic surgery unit of the DMCH. l

EC website gets slothn Mohammad Zakaria

As the Election Commission explores options about Awami League’s request to stop publishing the a� davits of can-didates of the elections, its website, too, appears not to be allowing visitors to download the a� davits.

However, the website appears to be working properly for the links to the af-� davits of candidates of other parties.

Sources said the commission had held several meetings yesterday to stop pub-lishing candidates’ wealth statements.

They said the commission had start-ed examining the court directive on pub-lishing personal information of and also asked its legal wing to examine the laws.

“It is not possible to stop publishing the information suddenly. But the com-mission may discuss amending relevant laws,” a senior EC o� cial said.

Meanwhile, EC website visitors com-plained that the pages were taking too long to load although the pdf � les con-taining the a� davits of candidates from other parties were loading normally.

EC System Manager Ra� qul Hoque told the Dhaka Tribune that there had been an upsurge of tra� c.

EC Systems Analyst Farzana Akhter said there was no pressure from the commission.

ABM Riazul Kabir Kauser, mem-ber of a subcommittee of the Awami League election steering committee, yesterday met with senior o� cials of the EC’s legal wing. He told reporters that there was no reason to stop pub-lishing the a� davits.

RPO stipulates that every nomination paper should be delivered along with an a� davit signed by the candidate con-taining eight types of information. l

One killed on the last day of blockaden Abu Bakar Siddique

At least one person was killed in Sat-khira yesterday, as the � nal day of the countrywide 83-hour long blockade by the BNP-led 18 party alliance ended amid stray incidents of violence, clash, arson and vandalism in a number of districts.

Meanwhile, truck driver Nazrul Is-lam, who su� ered 20% burn in an ar-son attack in Gazipur on Monday, died at the DMCH burn unit last night.

Local police in Satkhira said pro-block-ade activist Ha� zul Islam was killed yes-terday morning during a clash between joint forces and BNP-Jamaat activists.

Police sources said the members of joint forces were attacked by demon-strators near Jhaodanga-Gobindokathi of the district, where the pickets had blocked the road by felling trees.

Law enforcers opened � re in de-fense, killing Ha� zul on the spot, in-formed Kazi Moniruzzaman, assistant police superintendent of Satkhira circle.

However, Ra� qul Islam, union pari-shad chairman of Jhaodanga union, said Ha� zul was a van driver who was killed while sitting on his van during the clash. But he could not con� rm whether Ha� -zul was a Jamaat activist or not.

Joint forces also arrested seven Jamaat activists from di� erent parts of Satkhira.

Meanwhile, in Dhaka, the district ad-ministration o� ce came under a crude bomb attack yesterday, which left a court employee injured. Witnesses said two bombs exploded in front of two court room doors of an executive magistrate while another was exploded in the corri-dor of the administration o� ce building.

The magistrate was not present in the courtroom during the attack but employees and others were present.

Court employee Abul Kashem was injured and later taken to the nearby National Medical College Hospital for treatment.

Advocate Rezaur Rahman, a witness, said: “the doors of the courtrooms were burnt and window glasses shattered be-cause of the bomb explosion.”

In this connection, Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate Court’s O� cer-in-Charge Prosecution Md Asaduzzaman

told the Dhaka Tribune that police were trying to identify the perpetrators.

With the exception of this incident of violence, the Dhaka streets regained their tra� c volume as the day in-creased. Tra� c congestions were seen in the intersections of Mirpur-10, Mo-hakhali and Sonargaon.

Train and launch services on all routes remained normal but only a small number of long-distance buses,

especially the BRTCs, left the capital. Meanwhile, in Faujdarhat area of

Chittagong’s Sitakunda upazila, seven cattle were burnt alive when pickets hurled petrol bombs at a truck laden with 26 cows.

Iftekhar Uddin, o� cer-in-charge of Sitakunda police station, said pickets hurled petrol bombs at the truck around 5:20am, causing the driver to lose control and crash into � ve nearby shops – which

were also burned down in the blaze. Besides, Sitakunda police nabbed

four persons from di� erent areas of the upazila for their alleged connection with the sabotage on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in recent times, said the OC.

Meanwhile, a pedestrian was in-jured when pickets hurled several crude bombs at police in the city’s Muradpur intersection, said Shah Mohammad Abdur Rouf, assistant commissioner of Panchlaish circle in Chittagong Metro-politan Police. Later, police and blockade supporters locked into a clash near Bibir-hat area, where police nabbed a Shibir man with six crude bombs, he said.

In Comilla, 10 people including four police personnel were injured during a clash between police and opposition activists at Langolkot area.

In Chandpur, seven blockade activ-ists were detained while trying to block the railway and the Comilla-Chandpur highway.

At Roumari of Kurigram district, 15 people were injured in a clash between BNP and Awami League activists. The BNP activists vandalized a truck and � ve motor-bikes and attacked a proces-sion by Awami League MP Jakir Hos-sain. The police detained Abdur Razzaq, organizing secretary of Rowmari upazi-la BNP, in connection with the attack.

In Natore, joint forces arrested seven pickets at Ahammadpur Bazar. Out of them, � ve were awarded one month’s jail by a mobile court.

In Sirajganj, the joint forces of RAB, BGB and police in two separate drives arrested at least 42 activists of Jamaat.

At Sailkupa of Jhenaidah district, the election o� ce of Awami League candidate Abdul Hyee was vandalized and the furniture set on � re by un-known miscreants on Monday night. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

‘Nobody can foil the Jan 5 polls’n Emran Hossain Shaikh

Nobody would be able to foil the Jan-uary 5 polls and Sheikh Hasina would become the country’s prime minister for the third term, said leaders of the Awami League-led 14 party alliance yesterday.

At a rally in front of the Awami League headquarters yesterday, the leaders also urged the opposition to stop killing and burning people and warned that otherwise the government would take the necessary measures.

The rally was organised to protest the violent activities of the BNP-led opposition alliance and the censure motion passed in Pakistan parliament regarding the execution of war criminal Quader Molla.

Awami League Advisory Council mem-ber Amir Hossain Amu said the opposi-tion movement was against the consti-tution and the country’s sovereignty.

“If Khaleda Zia continues her move-ment to save the war criminals, she may be convicted as an associate to them,” he said.

Hasanul Haque Inu, president of ruling government ally Jatiya Sama-jtantrik Dal, said: “If you [Khaleda Zia] miss the train of Bangladesh, you must be sent to Afghanistan or Pakistan.”

Pointing at the countries and foreign organisations, who con� rmed not send-ing observers to the polls, Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, said: “We do not need any observer. The people of Bangladesh are enough. They will observe the polls.” l

‘Khokon killed my mother’n Udisa Islam

The 19th prosecution witness in the case against absconding war crimes accused Zahid Hossain Khokon alias Khokon Razakar yesterday said the accused had killed his mother Chhoto Khatun during the 1971 Liberation War.

Abdul Gafur Molla, 82, of village Purapara of Nagarkanda in Faridpur, told the International Crimes Tribunal 1 that Khokon Razakar along with his accomplices and the Pakistani occupa-tion forces had attacked their village on Jaisthya 16 (the second month of Bang-la calendar) in 1971.

He had to bury the body without maintaining any ritual, the old man said in tears.

On completion of his cross-exam-ination, the 20th witness, a woman, testi� ed in camera. Before her deposi-tion, the prosecution pleaded that the witness wanted to testify in camera for security reasons as many of the war crimes witnesses had been facing has-sle after giving depositions.

The tribunal accepted the appeal and ordered everyone, except for coun-sels of both sides, to leave the court-room. After recording her testimony, the tribunal adjourned the proceeding until January 14.

In his deposition, Gafur said on that

day in 1971 he, his children and mother Chhoto Khatun had gone to the canal which was on the west side of their house. But she failed to cross the canal. They had plans to go to the adjacent village to hide from the persecution of the collaborators and the army.

The witness said he had later heard from Guru Das of his village that Khokon shot his mother dead.

On Monday, the prosecution’s 17th and 18th witnesses also told about the same incident where they mention the name of Chhoto Khatun.

During the cross-examination, Gafur said he had � led a complaint with the local police station after the war, but there had been no further de-velopment.

As the defence counsel suggested that he had testi� ed to get some advan-tage from others, Gafur boldly denied the allegation and said: “We never do this type of work. We never did.”

Meanwhile, in the case against war crimes suspect AKM Yusuf, the defence cross examined two more prosecution witnesses which were earlier closed by the tribunal because of the conducting counsel’s repeated absence.

Yesterday the defence questioned 13th and 14th witnesses Shudhangsu Mandal and Babul Kumar Mistri who gave depositions on December 1 and 2. l

Muhith: Wealth-income increase of MPs, ministers usualn Asif Shawkat Kallol

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has termed the increase in the wealth and incomes of lawmakers and ministers in the past � ve years a “usual” fact con-sidering the country’s trade and busi-ness boom.

Muhith also said the wealth and in-come statements and a� davits of the public representatives should be made public.

“If you look back at the history of previous governments you will see increase in the wealth and income of those in power has been normal,” he told reporters after submitting his in-come tax return yesterday.

On making public the wealth and in-come statements of ministers and MPS, he said: “These should be like open-

book accounts.”Following publication of the a� davits

submitted by party’s candidates vying for parliament membership in the me-dia, a team of the ruling Awami League went to the Election Commission two days ago and requested it to see if it was really necessary to publish those.

Meanwhile, the o� cial website of the EC has been acting up since yester-day. The links to the a� davits of the Awami League candidates are taking too much time to load. Links to the documents of candidates from other parties are, however, working � ne.

On the investigation into such in-crease by the Anti-Corruption Commis-sion, he said the ACC was an independ-ent organisation and could investigate the matters on its own, but it would have to take the government’s per-

mission for submitting charge sheets against government o� cials and high-ups.

“But I have already placed my ob-jection [to the provision of taking per-mission] to the commission in writing,” the � nance minister said, adding that the National Board of Revenue was also responsible for the matter and would investigate it.

According to Muhith’s income tax return, which he submitted online, his taxable income stands at Tk11.50 lakh and he got rebate on an income of more than Tk14 lakh.

Muhith paid the NBR Tk85,536 in taxes for the 2013-14 � scal year.

He said his total asset had been worth Tk1.14 crore when the Awami League assumed power and it had increased 7.94%, now standing at Tk1.57 crore. l

UGC accuses scores of public university teachers of ‘negligence in duty’n Mushfi que Wadud

The University Grants Commission (UGC) in its 39th annual report published last week, revealed that a signi� cant number of public university teachers were not taking classes regularly and re-mained absent from scheduled classes,

Accusing these teachers of “negli-gence in duty,” the report claimed that they often cancelled classes without notifying the students. Many teachers, in the meantime, would delay checking examination scripts, ultimately defer-ring publications of results, the UGC report read.

It also pointed out that in many public universities, class rooms and teachers’ rooms would remain under the lock as early as afternoon, giving a negative impression about academics among general people.

According to the UGC, in 2012, there were around 10,568 teachers in the

public universities in Bangladesh, of who, only 8,391 were on duty, leaving out as much as 21% of the total.

In 2012, almost 1,499 teachers were on education leave, 174 were on depu-tation, 106 were on leave without pay, 25 were on unapproved leave and 373 were working in contractual jobs.

The UGC pointed out that most of the students who go to foreign uni-versities for post-graduation studies do not return to Bangladesh,which de-prives the country of talented students.

As a possible solution to the brain drain, it recommended increasing re-search facilities and scholarships for students. The report recommended re-vising the University Act 1973, and ob-served that the reforms be carried out in line with the university’s autonomy while making the activities of students, teachers and employees more account-able and transparent.

Meanwhile, the UGC raised its eye-

brows over the quali� cation of gradu-ates of some private universities and those of National University, saying though 48% of the total number grad-uates each year were from NationalUniversity a� liated colleges, their quali-� cations were not up to its expectations.

The annual report observed that the admission process in private universi-ties should be more accountable, trans-parent and talent based.

The UGC in its report also expressed concerns over the teachers’ agitations in some public universities and said teachers should be more responsible to avoid such activities.

UGC Member and Chief Editor of the report, M Muhibur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune:“Alongside taking class-es, public university teachers have oth-er tasks including research, adminis-trative and students counselling. There should some rules, as how many hours they would remain on the campus.” l

Mahfuz appears as tribunal threatens with arrest warrantn Udisa Islam

After remaining absent during several hearings on a contempt notice, jour-nalist Mahfuz Ullah at last appeared be-fore the war crimes tribunal yesterday.

Also secretary general of the Cen-tre for Sustainable Development, he is among eight people who were served the notice on September 26.

Mahfuz, Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury, � ve top o� cials of Channel 24, and its Mukto-baak talk-show host Mahmudur Rah-man Manna were issued the notice as the former two made remarks on the war crimes case against Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury on September 18.

Though Zafarullah appeared at the International Crimes Tribunal 1 on every due date, Mahfuz did not. Through counsel, he had always sought time to place his explanation for com-menting on the then subjudice case.

Zafrullah along with his family members was at the tribunal since yes-terday morning. But when the tribunal enquired about Mahfuz, his counsel Tarikul Islam Tarique submitted an ad-journment plea for two weeks saying that his client could not appear before the tribunal for personal di� culties.

Then the tribunal ordered the law-yer to place Mahfuz before 2pm and said it would issue a warrant if he did not appear at the court.

Mahfuz came to the tribunal at 1:35pm. Later it asked his counsel about the ground of the adjournment petition. Rumeena Farhana, another counsel for Mahfuz, said senior coun-sel Zainal Abedin would conduct the hearing. So they needed two weeks.

The tribunal said Mahfuz’s conduct was not appropriate. At the same time, it accepted the adjournment plea and set January 28 for further hearing.

Moreover, the tribunal rejected a plea of Mahfuz seeking exemption from per-sonal appearance. It said the court would consider such an application in future af-ter observing Mahfuz’s conduct.

Meanwhile, the same tribunal yes-terday � xed January 23 for Khandker Mahbub Hossain, vice-chairman of Bangladesh Bar Council, to explain why a contempt of court notice should not be issued against him for the com-ments he had made after the verdict in Salauddin Quader case.

The three-member tribunal 1, head-ed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, � xed the date as Mahbub’s lawyers pleaded for a four week adjournment.

Earlier, the tribunal observed that the allegations brought against the lawyer – also an adviser to the BNP chairperson – were logical as his statement had been “threat to the judiciary.”

The tribunal, however, exempted him from appearing before the court personally since he was a senior Su-preme Court lawyer. l

Maheen, 5, and his mother cry at the RMCH after doctors conduct a surgery on his eyes on Tuesday. His left hand was blown away in a crude bomb explosion on December 21. Doctors say his eyes are also at risk of permanent damage DHAKA TRIBUNE

Ambassadors raise security issuesn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Ambassadors of several countries yes-terday raised security concerns with the foreign minister, in the backdrop of demonstrations in and around the dip-lomatic enclave located in Gulshan and Baridhara areas of the capital.

The issue was raised as Foreign-Minister, AH Mahmood Ali, briefed ambassadors from the US, Canada, Bra-zil, Norway, Russia, China, Japan, UN Resident Coordinator and OIC member countries yesterday on the current po-litical situation of the country and se-curity situations for the embassies.

Earlieron Monday, he had briefed Saarcand ASEAN envoys who had raised similar questions regarding their missions, sta� sand nationals.

“The minister admitted that there

was some demonstration, but now se-curity has been beefed up in the dip-lomatic zone,” said an o� cial at the ministry.

Norway and Brazil, which maintain small operations in Bangladesh, asked for more protection for them.

“They argued that they do not have big operations and do not have vast security. They can only control pas-sers-by and they feel insecure,” he said.

One of the diplomat, meanwhile, asked about the 11th parliamentary, which the prime minister talked about recently.

“The prime minister recently said there could be 11th parliamenta-ry election if there was a consensuswith BNP.A diplomat wanted to know what she had actually meant,” the o� -cial said. l

Army personnel patrolling the city streets as part of their winter exercise. The photo was taken from Gabtoli area yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

’If you [Khaleda Zia] miss the train of Bangladesh, you must be sent to Afghanistanor Pakistan’

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

City High LowDhaka 26.4 17.0Chittagong 25.6 16.0Rajshahi 26.7 13.0Rangpur 24.2 13.1Khulna 28.0 18.0Barisal 28.0 17.2Sylhet 24.5 14.1Cox’s Bazar 28.0 17.1

PRAYER TIMESFajar 5:17am

Sunrise 6:37amZohr 11:58am

Asr 3:42pmMagrib 5:18pm

Esha 6:39pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Weather likely to remain unchangedn UNB

Weather is likely to remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country until 6pm today.

Light to moderate fog might occur at places over the country during mid-night till morning, Met O� ce said.

Night temperature may fall by (1-2) degree Celsius and day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.

The sun sets in the capital at 5:19pm today and rises at 6:39am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 28.2 degree Celsius was recorded at Pat-uakhali and Bhola and lowest 11.4 de-grees at Dinajpur yesterday.

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

2 youths killedn Tribune Report

Two people were killed in Rajbari and Chandpur yesterday. Of the deceased, one was abducted and later found dead, report our correspondents.

Police recovered the body of � sh trader Md Abul Kalam Azad, 40, of village Moishala Mottidangi in Pangsha upazila, Rajbari early yesterday. Some labourers and � shermen found his body while catching � sh.

He was abducted on December 20. Victim’s son Abu Nasher � led a case against � ve suspected miscreants with Pangsha police station the same day.

In Chandpur, Munaf Kha, 42, was killed allegedly by his cousin over smoking cigarette in Sachkirapara village of Hajiganj upazila.

Police and witnesses said while smoking at a tea stall, Munaf’s younger cousin Mizanur Rahman asked him to quit smoking. At one stage, they enaged in an altercation, and Mizan started punching his cousin and threw him to a canal. Locals rescued Munaf but he died on the way to hospital.

Police said Munaf had cardiac complications. l

EC appoints 3 lakh election o� cials n Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission has appoint-ed around three lakh election o� cials to conduct the 10th parliamentary elec-tions scheduled to be held on January 5.

These election o� cials include pre-siding, assistant presiding and polling o� cers.

The commission is set to spend over Tk61.5 crore for appointing the election o� cials to hold the elections and the training of these o� cials had been started since Tuesday, a senior EC o� cial told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Elections to only 146 constituencies would be held as 154 lone candidates were set to be elected uncontested.

Around 4.37 crore voters are expect-ed to cast their votes in this elections, Election Commission statistics shows.

According to the EC, a total of 18,123 polling centres would have 90,724 poll-ing booths for holding the polls. l

EC seeks withdrawal of Brahmanbaria DCn Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission yesterday asked the public administration min-istry to withdraw the Brahmanbaria deputy commissioner, who is also the district’s returning o� cer, as he cre-ated anomalies in preparing the � nal list of candidates for Brahmanbaria 3 constituency.

Brahmanbaria Returning O� cer Noor Mohammad Majumder dropped the name of Jatiya Party candidate Rezaul Islam Bhuiyan from the list al-though his candidature was neither cancelled by the EC, nor did he with-draw his nomination for the upcoming national polls.

An EC o� cial said the DC had also included the name of Awami League-nominated candidate RAM Obaidul Moktadir Chowdhury in the list of � -nal candidates even after Obaidul had withdrawn his nomination.

The EC decision came following JaPa candidate Rezaul’s petition de-manding that the EC declare him the valid candidate in the constituency and allocate an electoral symbol to him. l

Khoka, Hannan on two-day remandn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday placed de-tained BNP Vice-Chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Standing Commit-tee member ASM Hannan Shah on two days’ remand each in a murder case � led in connection with the May 5 He-fazat mayhem.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mosta� zur Rahman passed the order, rejecting their bail pleas.

Police produced the two senior BNP leaders before the court in a case � led with Motijheel police station for the death of Sub-Inspector Shahjahan during the He-fazat-e-Islam’s May 5 rally in the capital.

Police sought seven days’ remand for Hannan and Khoka in the case.

They also sought 20 days’ remand for Hannan Shah in two more cases � led with the same police station.

After hearing, the court granted two days’ remand for Khoka and Hannan in the murder case. The court rejected the other remand plea for Hannan and or-dered the authorities concerned to in-terrogate him at jail gate within 10 days.

Hannan claimed that the video foot-age based on which police arrested him was fabricated. l

HRW: Protect war crimes witnesses n Tribune Report

Human Rights Watch said the Bangla-deshi authorities should urgently set up an e� ective mechanism to protect witnesses in cases before the Interna-tional Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

“War crimes trials have become � ashpoints for political tension and violence in Bangladesh,” said Brad Ad-ams, Asia director, yesterday.

“The killing of a prosecution wit-ness will frighten past and future war crimes trial witnesses, and some may choose not to testify,” Adams added in the statement.

The statement was issued following the attack incidents on ICT witnesses.

He died on December 10, 2013, after being attacked in his home. Howlader appeared in the case against Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a leading � gure in the Jamaat-e-Islaami party.

Howlader’s family members re-ported to Human Rights Watch that the

attacker had � rst attempted to “chop” Howlader’s wife, seriously injuring her in the arm, before proceeding to attack Howlader with a machete.

But an initial police statement claimed that it was a botched burglary. Police subsequently said preliminary investigations suggest that the attack-ers were Jamaat members. Six people have been arrested in this regard.

However, Jamaat has denied any in-volvement in the attack.

“Witnesses, who often live in re-mote villages, are owed a serious pro-tection program before, during, and after they give testimony to the court,” Adams said in the statement adding: “The state has failed Howlader and his family. A genuine witness protec-tion system should not ask victims to choose between their safety and feed-ing their families.”

Ranjit Kumar Nath, who testi� ed against Jamaat Secretary General Ali Mo-hammed Mujaheed, reported that petrol

bombs had been � ung at his shop and at his home around midnight on December 15. His shop was partially burnt, but the bomb at his home did not explode. Nath had reported threats against him. Al-though he had � led an o� cial complaint, he was not given any protection.

The HRW has received reports of threats against other witnesses. Bangla-desh media have reported attacks on the houses of Justice Fazle Kabir and Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, who were on the panel of judges that sentenced Jamaat leader Abdul Qader Molla to death.

On December 10, ICT judge Kabir, commenting speci� cally on Howlad-er’s death, called on the prosecution to ensure witness security, saying that, “It is not acceptable in an independent country that a witness is killed for tes-tifying in the court.”

Human Rights Watch and others urged for the establishment of a formal witness protection program before the trials began in 2010. l

Embargo on plastic sought at HCn Nazmus Sakib

Two Supreme Court lawyers introduced a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court yesterday asking a ban on usage of plastic in marketing and packaging of food items and beverages.

Plastic contained chemicals highly detrimental to human health, the plea highlighted.

The lawyers, Sharif U Ahmed and Mirza Al Mahmud, � led the writ on behalf of Supreme Court lawyer JR Khan Robin.

Robin told the Dhaka Tribune that the court would roll on the litigation after January 1.

The secretaries of health, law, the food ministry, director general of health department and director general of Bangladesh Standards and Testing In-stitution were respondents of the PIL. l

Writ questions legality of Shirin’s speaker post n Nazmus Sakib

A Supreme Court lawyer has chal-lenged the post of Speaker Shirin Shar-min Chaudhury by registering a writ petition with the High Court yesterday.

Eunus Ali Akond � led the plea, ar-guing that a lawmaker who was not di-rectly elected by the vote of the people should not be made the speaker as per the spirit of the constitution.

He quoted the Article 74 of the con-stitution as saying: “Parliament shall at the � rst sitting after any general elec-tion elect from among its members a Speaker,” adding that whenever the post becomes vacant that has to be � lled by a directly elected lawmaker.

He also said Shirin was selected a lawmaker for the reserved seats by the ruling party and she was not eligible for the post of speaker.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin, parliament secretary, cabinet secretary and law secretary were made respondents to the petition.

The plea sought a rule why the ga-zette noti� cation issued on April 30 stating Shirin, a lawmaker from the women’s reserved seats, as speaker should not be held unconstitutional. Pending disposal of the rule and stay over the execution of the noti� cation were also sought in the petition.

When asked, Eunus told the Dhaka Tribune that though it was late by eight months he � led the plea to uphold the constitution, adding that he would try to move the petition with a vacation High Court bench, if not possible, after vacation.

The Supreme Court went on vaca-tion from December 13 and will resume on January 2. l

BPC seeks support to transport fuel n Aminur Rahman Rasel

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has sought support from law en-forcement and district administrations for fuel transportation, especially die-sel, during the Boro season because of continuous nationwide blockades.

“We have sent letters to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division to en-sure police escort and the help of dep-uty commissioners for fuel carrying ve-hicles because of the violence and risk on highways during blockades,” BPC Chairman Md Eunusur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Boro season started in December and will continue till May.

“A total of 8% fuel oil is supplied

through rail wagons for transportation. So we have wanted especially measure in this regard,” he said.

“Around 90% petroleum fuel is usually transported across the country through waterways. Only 2% goes through road ways,” the BPC chairman said.

The BPC, the country’s lone oil im-porter and distributor, used to sell oil to refuelling stations through its sub-sidiaries, Padma, Megna and Jamuna Oil companies.

“A bumper production will not be possible if we cannot ensure the supply of diesel and timely irrigation. We have plenty of fuel in stock. Our chief con-cern is uninterrupted supply for farm-ers,” he said.

Eunus said on days without any po-litical programmes, the BPC had been supplying up to three times the usual amount from the depots.

“Transportation of fuel oil through trucks and tankers has been suspended for the past few days because of the blockades,” he said.

According to the BPC, 44% of pe-troleum products are consumed in the communication sector, 22.47% in power generation, 20.95% in agricul-ture, 4.43% by industries and 8.15% in

households and others.“We have started planting Boro but

there is a shortage of diesel for the pump. If this situation continues, it will be a tough time ahead,” Abu Taher, a farmer of Sirajganj, told the Dhaka Tribune.

The BPC is working to stock 90,000 tonnes of diesel between December 2013 and May 2014 and another 60,000 tonnes for bu� er stock in the Eastern Re-� nery Limited during irrigation season.

The BPC also plans to continue to stock one lakh tonnes of diesel at the main instalments in the fuel distribu-tion companies and ERL during the Boro season.

The demand for diesel in the agri-culture sector was about 4 lakh tonnes in the last � scal year. l

‘Transportation of fuel oil through trucks and tankers has been suspended for the past few days because of the blockades’

‘Take strict measures against criminals in Satkhira’n Tribune Report

Prominent rights activists, journalists and academics yesterday called upon the government to take strict measures against perpetrators of the ongoing atrocities in Satkhira.

Speaking at a views exchange pro-gramme in the city, they also demand-ed that Jamaat-e-Islami be banned and observed that Jamaat believed in vio-lence, was anti-liberation and still did

not believe in this country’s existence.Bangladesh Rukhe Darao, a plat-

form of pro-liberation and progressive forces, organised the programme after visiting the a� ected areas of Satkhira.

Rights activist Sultana Kamal said, “Jamaat is doing the same sort of atroc-ities they did back in 1971. They had at-tacked pro-liberation and pro-Awami League people in 1971, and now they are attacking the root level activists of Awami League and the Hindu people.”

“Out of our obligation, we need to demand that the government ban such a violent party from our political arena,” Kamal said, stressing that the victims were also in need of legal rem-edies.

Journalist Abed Khan said while vis-iting the area they had come to know that attacks on the minorities had been going on since the last week of Febru-ary.

He also observed that the level of

atrocities were much higher than what the media had portrayed.

“Although root level members of Awami League are su� ering, the cen-tral leadership so far has not provided them any sort of help. The government needs to take strict measures immedi-ately,” Abed Khan said.

Sadeka Halim, Sanjida Akhter and trustee of Liberation War Mu-seum Sarwar Ali was present at theprogramme. l

Ikram sworn in as PSC chairmann Nazmus Sakib

Ikram Ahmed, the newly made Public Service Commission chairman, took his oath yesterday.

Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hos-sain administered the oath at the Judg-es’ Lounge of the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Registrar AKM Shamsul Islam and o� cials of the PSC were present at the programme.

Ikram earlier served as a member of Bangladesh Public Service Commis-sion.

PSC Secretary Chowdhury Babul Hasan said as the tenure of AT Ah-medul Huq Choudhury as chairman had expired on December 19, Ikram was appointed as the new chairman. l

Environmental activists under the banner of Poribesh Bikkhon form a human chain at Shahbagh yesterday to protest against the destruction of roadside trees by pickets during the opposition’s recent blockades DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sultana Kamal speaks at a program organised by Rukhe Darao Bangladesh at the Liberation War Museum yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

News 5DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Fear of session jam grips CU studentsn FM Mizanur Rahaman

Students of Chittagong University are fearing that they would have to su� er a lot for on session jam in near future as they can neither take part in classes nor take examination for the ongoing political unrest sponsored by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.

Campus sources said academic ac-tivities of the university virtually came to halt because of the opposition spon-sored continuous blockade and hartal programmes.

According to university authorities, they could not conduct academic activ-ities since November 22 till yesterday as the country is going through a political turmoil.

Yearly examinations of di� erent departments were postponed for sine die. However, a few number ofdepartments are holding their ex-aminations in weekend day, campus sources said.

Professor Khan Tawhid Osman, act-ing proctor of CU, told Dhaka Tribune that the political unrest were looming session jam for at least six months at the university.

Besides, the university was closed for 70 days for Eid and other scheduled vacations this year.

Moreover, several departments have stopped continuing examinations con-sidering security of students.

Shahadar Hossain, a second year student of Communication and Jour-nalism Department said: “Our exam-ination was scheduled to start from De-cember 17, but now it was postponed.”

Despite a ban on political pro-gramme two student groups often carry out political programmes on the campus on di� erent occasion, making students panicked.

In this circumstances, activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League and Shi-bir men demonstrate showdown on the campus, triggering chase, counter chase and also gun battles.

Students of the university said they could not dare to come to the campus fearing untoward incident as there were not su� cient law makers on the campus.

Some students expressed dissatis-faction saying that although govern-ment had deployed a number of law enforcers, including personnel of Bor-der Guard Bangladesh, Rab and police, few numbers of law enforcers had been deployed on the campus.

In fear of more political violence, many students have already left the campus with bag and baggage.

Tania Aktar, a third year student of Bangla Department and also a resi-dent student of Pritilata Hall, said “Our classes were suspended for political turmoil, I have taken decision go to my home to keep myself secured.” l

Limon yet to be spared from ‘false’ charges n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The charges against maimed Limon Hossain in a case � led for obstructing government duty, attempted murder and injuring Rab personnel, is yet to be withdrawn, � ve months after the gov-ernment’s withdrawal announcement, as the court concerned has no judge to hold a hearing.

Yesterday, the hearing was deferred, for the � fth time, until February 5 as the  chief judicial magistrate of Jhal-akathi was transferred in August.

The acting judge, who is also a senior judicial magistrate, has no jurisdiction to hear such appeal, said additional public prosecutor M Alam Khan Kalam and defence lawyer Akkas Shikder.

Charges against Limon in the other case, lodged for possessing arms, was withdrawn on July 30. The home min-istry on July 9 ordered withdrawal of charges only against  Limon  in both the cases. Other accused in the cases are members of local “Mizan-Morshed gang.”

Limon, who used to work at a brick kiln to bear his educational expenses, was shot by Rab at a place adjacent to

his house at Jamaddarhat in Rajapur upazila of Jhalakathi on March 23, 2011. Later his left leg had to be amputated from the thigh as the tissues were to-tally damaged due to excessive bleed-ing caused by delay in treatment after the shooting.

The elite force, who conducted the raid to arrest the gang members, � led two cases the same day with Rajapur police station against the teenager and seven others.

On the other hand, Limon’s mother Henoara Begum � led a case against six Rab personnel for attempted murder, causing severe injuries and maiming her son. But the police later in the � nal report, � led secretly, claimed that they had found no evidence and witnesses against the Rab.

Henoara then � led a “no con� dence” petition which was rejected by the Jhal-akathi senior judicial magistrate on Feb-ruary 13. She later � led a review petition with the Jhalakathi District and Sessions Judge’s Court against the order.

On November 27, hearing of the pe-tition was deferred, for the � fth time, until January 15. l

Christmas todayn UNB

The Christian community of the coun-try, as elsewhere across the world, will celebrate Christmas today, commemo-rating the birth of Jesus Christ.

According to Christian belief, God appeared on earth through his son, Je-sus Christ, on this day.

Christmas, the biggest religious fes-tival of the Christian community, is a celebration of rebirth, new beginning, forgiveness and peace, and renewing relationship with God and humans.

The celebrations start on the eve of the day with singing of carols in public places like lobbies, restaurants and lounges.

Marking the carnival, Christians will

o� er special prayers at the churches. The prayer houses and adjoining ar-

eas have already been decked out with colourful tiny blinking lights. Illumi-nated Christmas trees have been placed with a star standing right on top. Santa Claus will hand out Christmas gifts to the children on the occasion.

Special dishes will be prepared in the families of members of the community and the children will seek blessings from the elders. The day is a public holiday.

President Abdul Hamid, Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia have issued separate message greeting membersof the Christian community on the oc-casion. l

Capital gets old look back with crowded buses, roads, mallsThose who had been stuck in the capital for days thronged at the bus terminals, launch terminals and rail stations to go back homen Ashif Islam Shaon

The city has got her old look back with a large number of vehicles on roads, bustling o� ces and crowds in shopping malls, but most dwellers seemed to be in panic fearing troubled days ahead.

After the � fth countrywide rail, roads and waterways blockade, which ended at 5pm after 83 hours yesterday gave people a chance to pass a normal day.

Those who had been stuck in the capital for days thronged at the bus ter-minals, launch terminals and rail sta-tions to go back home. Many went out home for shopping and to � nish piled up un� nished work.

“Our test exams started in the last half of November. To � nish the four pa-pers we had to wait more than a month as the college authority kept deferring the dates,” said Khademul Bashar, a

masters’ student of Titumir College.Six of them were waiting at the

Gabtoli bus terminal to go to Khulna, their village home.

“We have calculated that we will probably get at least three days to make a trip back home. I think there will be no blockade on Christmas and the op-position will spare Thursday as the next day is the weekend,” Bashar ex-plained.“God will save us if anything happens on the highway,” he said.

Like him hundreds of passengers thronged at the inter-district bus ter-minal. Many of them said they were fed up with the political confrontation that has already claimed more than 120 lives. After the blockade, buses started plying from the evening to the districts.

A home going crowd was also seen at the Komalapur railway station and

they su� ered as the trains were late and in some aspects, it was uncertain whether they would arrive at all. The trains reached as much as one and a half hour to eight hours late, much to the su� ering of the passengers.

Dr Azharul Islam, a passenger who was waiting for Rangpur Express, said his train was supposed to start around 12noon but at 4pm it still had not reached the station from Rangpur.

“I do not take food outdoors due to my illness. Since morning I have only been drinking water,” he said.

A second year student of Dhaka Commerce College, Isanul Hasan, said Khulna-bound Provati Express was supposed to leave at 5:30am but it had not reached the station yet.

“I was supposed to be at home with-in 1pm. My parents are anxious and keep calling. So, I have switched o� my

phone,” annoyed Isanul said. The Railway authorities said trains

failed to maintain schedule due to the fear of sabotage.

“We have set the maximum speed for all trains to 40 kilometres per hour which was maximum 72 kilometres. So every train misses the schedule,” said Khairul Bashir, the station manager of Kamalapur railway station.

He said trains were also halting at junctions for the escort trains which in-spected the rail lines � rst. The process needed extra time.

“We are trying to keep the schedule. But if the sabotages do not stop it will be hard,” he said.

Meanwhile, a huge crowd was also seen at the Sadarghat launch terminal since morning. BIWTA o� cials said 32 launches had left the ghat to the north-ern destinations till 2pm. l

Barisal University intake test todayn Our Correspondent, Barisal

The 2013-14 entrance examination of Barisal University, the only general public university in the division, will be held today.

A total of 29,690 students registered for this year’s test in the university – the third since its establishment – av-eraging about 25 contenders for each of the seats available.

There are a total of 1,160 seats this year, divided among 16 departments under six faculties, said Sha� ul Alam, chairman of the admission committee.

The one-hour written test will be held in MCQ (multiple choice ques-

tions) system with 120 marks; one must score a minimum of 48 in order to be eligible for admission. There are an additional 80 marks reserved for a candidate’s performance in his or her SSC and HSC examinations.

The selection would be held on the basis of marks obtained from the MCQ test as well as SSC and HSC results.

Arranged in three shifts, the test would be held at a total of eleven dif-ferent points, including the temporary and permanent campus of BU, seven government educational institutions and two private colleges in the town.

“The detailed seat-plan for the ap-plicants will be available on our web-

site (www.barisaluniv.edu.bd),” Dr Md Muhsin Uddin, acting registrar of BU, said.

Classes would primarily begin at the temporary campus of the university on the Barisal Zilla School premises. The permanent campus, sprawled on a 50-acre land on the eastern bank of Kirtonkhola, is currently under con-struction and could be available for academic purpose by next January, of-� cials said.  

According to a source, 5,170 stu-dents applied for the 370 seats avail-able in the departments under ‘Ka’ unit, including 80 seats in Mathemat-ics, 80 in Chemistry, 50 in Computer Science and Engineering, 80 in Soil and

Environment Science, and 80 in Bota-ny and Crop Science.

In the ‘Kha’ unit, 6,688 students will vie for the 490 seats available, includ-ing 70 in the Economics department, 70 in Political Science, 70 in Social Sci-ence, 70 in Public Administration, 70 in Bangla, 70 in English and 70 in Law.

The ‘Ga’ unit registered the largest number of applicants compared to oth-er units, with 10,675 students against the 300 seats available. The seats are divided among Management Studies (75), Marketing (75), Accounting and Information Systems (75) and Finance and Banking (75) – all under the busi-ness faculty. l

A nun prepares for the Christmas celebration. The photo was taken from Kakrail Church yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

11 get life in prison for murdern Tribune Desk

A tribunal yesterday convicted 11 peo-ple and sentenced them to life impris-onment for killing a man in Habiganj district in 2009.

The convicts were identi� ed as Ab-dul Manaf, Abdul Latif, Abdul Haque, Abdur Rashid, Abdul Aziz, Abdul Kud-dus, Abdul Kadir, Abir of Balumara village and Siddik Ali, Ali Hossain and Jakir Hosain of Alinagar village in Chu-narughat upazila of Habiganj district.

According to the prosecution, Milon Mia, son of Abdur Rahman of Balumara village, was stabbed to death by the convicts following a dis-pute over the ownership of a piece of land on September 28, 2009. A case had been � led with Chuanarughat po-lice station against 11 people. After ex-amining the records and 20 witness-es, Judge Dilip Kumar Debnath of the tribunal handed down the verdict. l

An army pick-up patrols Dhaka-Chittagong highway yesterday. The photo was taken from Nizampur area, Mirsarai upazila, Chittagong DHAKA TRIBUNE

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Rajshahi farmers await for superb yield of mustard n Tribune Report

Farmers of Rajshahi reg ion are expect-ing a good yield of mustard as they have got agri-output and seeds in time and fa-vourable climatic conditions also helped them during cultivation.

According to local sources, the cash crop is now growing well everywhere in the region, including its vast Barind tract.

More farmers are interested to culti-vate the crop as they got excellent yield and market price during the last harvest-ing season when most of the big corpo-rate organisations purchased mustard seed from farmers directly.

According to Department of Agricul-ture Extension, harvest of the mustard will begin next month. After that, farm-ers will start cultivation of boro paddy on the same quantity of land.

The DAE has set a target of bringing 177,885 hectares of land in eight districts of the region during the current season but the farmers cultivated the crop on 174,951 hectares of land.

Besides the DAE, various other re-search and development organisations like BARI, BARC, BADC and many NGOs have taken adequate steps in collabora-tion with other departments this season to achieve the � xed production targets.

BARI has released 16 high yielding mustard seeds and two of those- BARI

Sharisha-15 and Tari-7 have become popular among the growers’ level, par-ticularly in barind tract comprising 25 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts.

The DAE and NGOs have provided quality seeds, necessary inputs and trainings on the latest technologies to farmers so that they could cultivate the oil seed on their land without any hassle.

The landless and marginal farm-ers have also brought vast tracts of the sandy char land under mustard cultiva-tion in the Ganges basins and the crops are growing excellent everywhere now in the region.

Deputy Director of DAE, Rajshahi Nu-rul Amin and Principal Scienti� c O� cer of Regional Wheat Research Centre Dr Is-rail Hossain said the region had immense prospects to achieve self-reliance in oil seed productions.

In this regard, they underscored the need for using the latest agro-technol-ogies and disseminating proper knowl-edge to the farmers for increasing mus-tard seed to achieve self-reliance in edible oil to reduce the dependence on import.

They laid emphasis on the need for increasing mustard, groundnuts, soy-bean and palm farming to move further forward in achieving the goals using the latest agro-technologies in the country’s food granary of the northern region. l

Intern doctors of Mymensingh Medical College go on strike n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

The intern doctors of Mymensingh Med-ical College Hospital went on strike for inde� nite period on Monday night, pro-testing misbehavior of patient’s atten-dant with two female interne doctors.

Dr Mithun Sutradhar, president of In-terns Doctors Association, said an atten-dant named AKM Emdadul Haque, 75, who admitted a patient to Coronary Care Unit with cardiac problems on Saturday.

He heavily came down on the two on-duty intern doctors while they were dis-charging duties, expressing dissatisfac-tion over treatment of the patient around 9pm on Monday.

Soon after the incident, a total of 180 intern doctors at the hospital started the strike. The agitated doctors also ran-sacked the room of the hospital’s direc-tor, demanding stern action against the

attendant. Initially, the intern doctors decided

that they would stop providing all kind of services to the patients, including emergency services.

But later, they agreed to continue emergency services after holding a meeting with the hospital authorities and Bangladesh Medical Association Mymensingh (BMA) unit yesterday.

Dr Mithun said they had demanded immediate arrest of the person who mis-conducted with the doctors. Otherwise, they will continue their strike to press their demand, he added.

Dr Motiur Rahman Bhuiyan, secre-tary of BMA local unit, said they were trying to solve the problem through dis-cussions with the interns. Brigadier Gen-eral Md Fasiur Rahman, director of the hospital, said the strike could not ham-per treatment at the hospital. l

‘Use of children for political gains must be stopped’n Tribune Desk

Enhanced and coordinated e� orts of government and non-government or-ganisations and civil society should be engaged in stopping use of the children in the activities of violence for political gains, speakers told a discussion.

They were addressing a dialogue organised by National Children Task Force and Bangladesh Shishu Academy for the child students with guardians, government o� cials, teachers and per-sons engaged for bringing up and wel-fare of the children.

Divisional Commissioner Muham-mad Dilwar Bakht addressed the dia-logue as the chief guest with Deputy Commissioner Farid Ahammad in the chair at the latter’s conference room in the city.

Coordinator of NCTF Sadika Naw-rine, Civil Surgeon Dr Reajul Islam, Dis-trict Children A� airs O� cer Zahedul Islam and General Secretary of District Shilpakola Academy Tauhidur Rahman Tutul were special guests.

Sadika Nawrine in her speech said 414 children were killed in 2012 in di� erent violent incidents including, political violence, domestic violence, abduc-tion for ransom, terrorism, enmity, robbery, illicit sexual relations, rape, dowry, eve-teasing and attacks by Bor-der Security Forces of India.

Expressing concern over the huge number of deaths from violent activi-ties, the speakers called upon all con-cerned to ensure safety, security, con-genial atmosphere and other rights of children as per children’s policy of the government.

In his speech, the chief guest asked everybody for thinking about every child as their own son or daughter with a view to ultimately saving them from being used by various in� uential quar-ters in terrorist and violent activities for their political gains.

He stressed the need for coordinated e� orts of all concerned to ensure equal opportunity for every child for educa-tion, health and medicare services and other facilities for � ourishing their la-tent talents in becoming worthy citizens to lead the nation in future, he said. l

Two ‘robbers’ die in Sirajganj police � ring n Tribune Report

Two alleged robbers were killed and � ve including a policeman injured as police opened � re while they were con-ducting robbery in Baniagati area of Kamarkhand upazila early yesterday.

The deceased were identi� ed as Munsur Ali, 28, and Al Mahmud, 26.

Aminul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Bangabandhu Bridge west police sta-tion, said a group of robbers were com-mitting burglary on the trucks on Dha-ka-Dinajpur highway around 1:30am. The robbers attacked on police when the law enforcers obstructed them. Then, police opened � re on them.

Of the deceased, police recovered one body from the spot after the inci-dent while another body was recovered by the locals, said the OC. l

KMP launches drive against criminals n Tribune Report

With 10 days left for upcoming 10th par-liamentary elections scheduled to be held on January 5, Khulna Metropolitan Police started a series of combing drives yesterday to arrest the listed criminals in the city.

Meanwhile, Khulna district police started raids on Monday night to arrest identi� ed criminals ahead of the na-tional election.

The KMP authorities have taken the decision on Sunday in a meeting held at the conference room of the KMP head-quarters with Commissioner Sha� qur Rahman in the chair.

The drives planned in the wake of alarming growth of criminal activities in the city over the couple of days.

According to the senior detectives and o� cer-in-charges of � ve police sta-tions of KMP, more than 800 culprits are out in the � eld and planned to carry out subversive activities before and af-ter the elections.

Deputy Police Commissioner of KMP Rashida Begum said all o� cers-in-charge of eight police stations had been asked to take necessary steps for special drives. “Armed police will also assist thana police,” she added.

KMP Commissioner Sha� qur Rah-man said special drives would start for curbing violence, reports BSS.

Assistant police super (B-Circle) of Khulna Abdul Kader Beg said district police had started special drive on Monday at nine upazilas specially Da-kop and Batiaghata upazila for curbing criminal activities. National parliamen-tary elections will be held for 3 constit-uencies out of 6 as three Awami League candidates in Khulna-4, Khulna-5 and Khulna-6 constituencies have already been elected unopposed.

The remaining Khulna-2 and Khul-na-3 constituencies are under the KMP while Khulna-1 constituency is under the district police. l

Locals for steps to stop gambling in Gaibandhan Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

Locals formed a human chain in Gai-bandha yesterday, demanding arrest of the local gamblers to save the young generation and restore peace in the lo-cality.

In protest against the gambling, the locals formed a human chain in Ja-malpur area of Gobindaganj upazila at 12noon. Around three hundred people joined the programme and demanded urgent initiative to stop the gambling in the area.

According to sources the gamblers, coming from far � ung areas, have been committing the gambling at twelve spots in Jamalpur and its adjoining ar-eas including Sundail, Shalmar � eld, Nodapur, Kalitala, Mathurapur Bazaar and Jamalpur Bazaar of the upazila. These illegal activities have been con-ducted for the lase couple of months being led by Amirul Islam, Abidul Is-lam, Masud Miah and Thanda Mia.

Jahidul Islam, a public representa-

tive, in his speeches, alleged that the gambling was motivated the common people including the school and col-lege going students to the bad practice. They were being victims and looser through selling their valuables assets including land.

Shirin Akter, a local social worker, said none could dare to protest against the gambling as the gamblers were organ-ised and powerful. They warned the locals by prosecuting false cases.

However, the locals urged the au-thorities concerned to take necessary initiatives to stop the gambling in the areas to restore peace as early as pos-sible.

O� cer-in-Charge of Gobindaganj police station SM Moynul Haque said e� orts had been taken to nab the gam-blers. l

Rail link on Bonarapara-Shantahar route to remain suspended n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

Railway services along the Bonarapara-Shantahar route will remain suspend-ed for the next 24 hours as the rescue operation of a locomotive, which skid-ded o� the track, will be underway till 6am Wednesday.

Gaibandha Station Master Abdul Wahed Mondal con� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune about the 24-hour schedule suspension on the route.

On December 4, miscreants pried out the � sh plates and clips from the railway line on the route leaving � ve

people dead and more than 40 others injured.

Although railway communications resumed along the route 32 hours af-ter of the incident, the locomotive re-mained lying on the nearby ditch for last 20 days.

The authorities concerned launched the operation on Tuesday to rescue the derailed engine with heavy weight relief train causing the suspension of railway communications on the route.

The rescue operation was going on in full swing until the � ling of this re-port at 4:30pm. l

Young man chopped to death in Jessore A young man was chopped to death by miscreants at Machna-Khanpur village in Monirampur upazila of Jessore yesterday. The deceased was identi� ed as Ha� zur Rahman, 28, son of Shahor Ali of the same area. But reason behind the murder could not be unknown immediately. Family members of the deceased said some unknown assailants numbering 7 to 8 chopped Rahman with sharp weapons. Locals took him to Jessore Medical College Hospital with critical condition where he succumbed to his injuries. A murder case was � led with the police station in this connection. –UNB

20 opposition men arrested in Bogra Law enforcers in separate overnight drives arrested 41 people, including 20 activists of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, in di� erent areas of six upazilas. Assistant Superintendent of Police (Media) Gaziur Rahman of Bogra said several teams of police and Rapid Action Battalion members jointly conducted separate drives in six upazilas - Sadar, Shahjanpur, Shibganj, Sonatala, Dupchachia and Sherpur,-- of the district from Monday midnight to Tuesday morning and arrested the 41. The 20 opposition activists were held for their alleged involvement in subversive activities in the six upazilas during the ongoing blockade. –BSS

Jamaat leader arrested in SylhetPolice arrested a local leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami from Kamargaon area of Chhatak upazila on Monday in several cases � led for subversive activities during the political agitation programme, including blockade. The arrestee was identi� ed as Maulana Mansur Ahmed, 35, assistant secretary of Chhatak upazila unit Jammat, and a teacher of a local high school. O� cer-in-charge of Chhatak police station Shahjalal Munshi said a team of police arrested Mansur from the area around 5:30pm. There were several cases, including those for attack on police and arsons, against the leader, the OC added. –BSS

Discussants made the observation while speaking at a dialogue on children’s right in Rangpur city yesterday

A man cuts a log to remove it from Chandpur-Matlab-Dhaka Highway in Munsir Haat area yesterday. Activists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance put the log on the road to disrupt communication DHAKA TRIBUNE

NEWS IN BRIEF

Vandalised by pickets, a goods-laden truck loses its control and enters a � lling station yesterday in Chakrampur area of Natore FOCUS BANGLA

Gamblers, coming from far � ung areas, have been committing the gambling at twelve spots of the district

7Long Form Wednesday, December 25, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Asif Saleh

A friend told me the other day that in Bangladesh the worst label for any public � gure was “atheist,” and for an intellectual – “par-

tisan.” This reminded me that three years ago I was going to a conference with a current talk show celebrity.  He quite proudly said that being anti-es-tablishment sells and as a result, he will remain forever “neutral” and anti-establishment.

This is not the case in most mature democracies. In America alone, one can name a rich tradition of liberals from John Kenneth Galbraith to Sa-mantha Powers, who made their name in academics and then served for Democratic presidents. Columnists on opposite poles – from Krauthammer to Krugman – also wear their political colours on their sleeves without com-promising their credibility.

In Bangladesh, one has become trained to re� exively regard non-par-tisan as a pre-condition for anything that is objective. What’s worse is that positions that may be objectively defensible can also be used to label a person as partisan, if it is seen to ben-e� t or inconvenience one party more than another.

People are more anxious to main-tain their putative “neutrality” than to argue for beliefs or ideas. This culture of dismissing valid viewpoints as “partisan” has contributed to an entire generation feeling shy about engaging with the political process.

As Bangladesh erupts into unprec-edented violence, ignoring that there are vital di� erences between the two parties is no longer either innocent or harmless.

Politicians, incredibly enough, too play a role in development

The categorical denial of any contri-butions by politicians or either party serves to de-legitimise the entire po-litical process. The formula goes that they are both corrupt, both incompe-tent.

The two parties are indeed similar in certain key respects. They are both ruled by two families. The leaders enjoy absolute power within their respective parties – which is not the case in healthy democracies. They both depend on cadres who are noto-rious for running extortion and tender rackets when their side is in power. Both have ministers or MPs who have been known – if not always caught or proven – to be corrupt.

All that may be true, but it is during the alternating tenure of these very politicians that Bangladesh has gone on to overtake both India and Pakistan in a dozen critical social and human development markers. Since the advent of democracy in the country, income has nearly quadrupled in PPP terms. Life expectancy has increased by 10 years and infant mortality dropped by 60%. Maternal deaths have dropped to one-fourth the levels. To achieve all this in an incredibly populous, small and resource con-strained country is no mean task.

Macro-economic policies set by them, and sustained even when it came from the other party, has been critical in enabling this development along with the work of the NGOs. Compared to many countries with which Bangladesh once kept company, these leaders did a better job of com-mitting public spending for key areas.

At the grassroots level, if one spent a day with a upazila or union chair-man, they would never need to take a con� ict resolution training in future. It is easy to dismiss the entire lot as “thugs” but the reality is that they too ful� l a crucial role that us, the elites, will not and more importantly cannot. If it were not for the daily work of these “con� ict negotiators” the coun-try would be a lot less peaceful and development thwarted.

Media everywhere focuses on negatives, political and otherwise. When a road or bridge or � y-over is completed, it’s headline for a day. But scandals make the headline for

weeks and months. That is the nature of media everywhere and stokes anti-incumbency in a way that’s built into coverage styles. But there must be a balancing, evidence driven view somewhere that gives citizens reason to stay engaged with politics and policies. And information with which to do so.

The information, the way its pre-sented in major dailies most times, paints a rather grim picture of our public o� cials and representatives which is somewhat of a partial picture. So, let’s talk politics.

 The two are not the ‘same’ – and differences matter

The kind of democratic debate I would like to see renewed and legitimised will have to wait till we can get to an all-party polls again. Meantime, we have a crisis of democracy. Yes, this too is a fault mainly of the two parties – and a serious one at that. But even a durable solution, right now, has to in-volve the two parties. We need to hold AL responsible for showing sincerity in its o� er to compromise and similarly hold BNP responsible for reneging violence and engaging with a process of negotiation.

Currently, the blame is shifting towards AL for not holding an inclu-sive election. But is the government alone responsible for bringing us to a ludicrous poll like the one about to take place on January 5? Why did BNP refuse to engage in negotiations in an open and sensible manner for so long?

We must neither play the game of blaming only one side, as partisans will do, or blame both sides, as false neutrals like to do. Real political dis-course is about apportioning of duties and blames in a precise and justi� ed manner. The importance of such exact accounting has hit home for me after reading a recent commentary in a leading English daily, which contends: “If these deaths are to be laid at the door of the opposition, so must it be laid at the door of the government and the ruling party.”

We understand that both parties are to blame for the political impasse. But the speci� c wave of violence un-leashed by Jamaat, and condoned by BNP, this too is AL’s fault?

AL lived out of power for 21 years from 1975-1996. I doubt if at any point did it subject law enforcers or ordinary citizens to such outlandish violence because it was not getting its way.

Laying the blame of the recent violence – with the even-handedness of self-proclaimed neutrals – is worse than wrong; it is a deliberate misdirec-tion of the public.

One has to ask why BNP is talking now on premises today that it rejected outright just a few weeks ago? If they were going to engage on these very premises, why the delay that put the constitution in jeopardy and, worst of all, why this wanton violence in the intervening period?

In a parliamentary democracy, the opposition is as responsible as the governing party to uphold the constitution. In any society, a main-stream party is expected not to in� ict violence on citizens. On both counts, BNP has been less than responsible and downright reckless.

And labelling such contentions as “partisan” is also the kind of intellec-tual cop-out or bullying that should be resisted. One should counter such arguments with counter facts and logic, but not with ad hominem attacks – least of all the partisan tag.

This time is different

This country has seen many political movements. Let’s take the two biggest movements of the post-democratic

era – 1996 and 2006 – both led by AL, when positions were reversed. During those election years, political killing stayed at few dozen. What’s also important is when and how those lives were lost. Most of the deaths occurred during clashes with police or political rivals in pre-designated times and sites of action. Consequently, the dead were mostly political workers of dif-ferent parties and police. Any civilians happened to be tragic by-standers – wrong place, wrong time.

No one wants even the kind of vi-olence we have seen during past elec-

tion years. But within the context of our political realities, one understands a political worker dying in the middle of severe clashes with rival activists or cops. It is not a death we want to accept, but it is one we can fathom.

What we cannot fathom this time is either the scale or, especially, the nature of the violence. Death toll this year has crossed into the hundreds. Only the number of innocent civilians burnt by petrol bombs or cocktails has crossed hundred.

These attacks are marked by two features wholly unprecedented in our long history of struggles: a) targeted attacks and killings of political leaders and workers, and law enforcers, and b) attacks on civilians. Never before in our history, there has been a polit-ical movement which has been so anti-poor and anti-democratic.

On winning the 2001 elections, BNP-Jamaat went on a rampage against the minority Hindus and opposition activists. In the years that followed, one saw the rise of terror-ist groups like Bangla Bhai and JMB, Huji and a few others. One saw bomb attacks that left the former Finance Minister SAMS Kibria dead and the British high commissioner injured.

One saw an attempt on the life of the poet Shamsur Rahman, and also on progressive thinker Humayun Azad. A grenade attack in 2004 tar-geted the entire leadership of Awami League that left senior leaders dead. Sheikh Hasina survived narrowly.

The very political Islam BNP once used as a tool has gone out of its control. The curbing of terror began during the Emergency of 2007-08 and continued even more strongly during this past tenure of Awami League. Thus to impute that all this violence is mainly – and unavoidably – due to electoral impasse is plain wrong.

This is, however, exactly what the article from the English daily did. It asks if it wasn’t Sheikh Hasina who “re-opened the settled question of the caretaker government” and goes on to suggest that that is the prime cause of the recent violence.

Arguably, it is this sort of argument that has also led the international community to support, virtually and

perhaps inadvertently, the defeat-ed side of ’71, who again are killing our own people now. Those who are meddling too can be found guilty of a false even-handedness. The US cannot refuse to talk to Hamas but receive Ja-maat leaders in Congressional or State department o� ces.

Terror cannot be a primary concern when it comes to the US and a side issue when it comes to Bangladesh. If the US and the international com-munity want us to take international terror seriously, then they must take terror in our land seriously too and condemn it outright and support any government e� orts that � ght it. Keeping silent for fear of o� ending one party is unseemly. Either don’t get involved, or if you do so, then do it in a manner that respects the safety and dignity of the people of this land.

What that line of thinking leaves out is that the only peaceful hand-over of power from an elected government that occurred in our history was in 2001. That happened because AL handed over power to a caretaker as it was supposed to. BNP rewarded that with a communal carnage and AL nev-er received any credit from the civic crew that was so in� uential during the last Emergency for its relatively better attempts at playing by the rules of our democracy. It is not inconceivable to think why AL refused to maintain a system which has been abused by others and served it so badly?

Choosing sides: Is it necessary?

Both parties leave much, much to be desired. They are similar in certain respects. But they are di� erent too in crucial aspects. And have become more so since 2001.

One cannot ignore this govern-ment’s serious failings. Its greatest failure has been in the � nancial sector. It should have reined in the bull-run of a patently over-heated market a

lot sooner. It should have caught and curbed the bank scams sooner. Lack of control over its student wing has hurt it greatly and rightly so. The Bishwajit murder remains the ultimate symbol of their excess (though the verdict in that case marks a measure of self-cor-rection on AL’s part whose equivalent can’t be found in the terror-� lled last tenure of BNP).

Despite all its faults, AL is the only political force here who can and will – despite occasional mis-steps – stick to the founding principles of our country. It is inconceivable, especially after Khaleda Zia’s appalling silence over the Pakistani parliament’s gross au-

dacity, that BNP will continue the war crimes trials. People who say that the trials are causing too much trouble are basically advocating that we are held hostage to violence.

There is a lot of deliberate obfusca-tion that goes on in any political cul-ture. In ours some of the critical ones take the form of equating non-partisan with neutral, and neutral with objec-tive. More speci� cally blaming the scrapping of the caretaker system for the violence – not just the impasse – is another egregious misdirection.

To say that trials of a better standard may have obviated Jamaati violence is the most ludicrous of the specious new contentions. To lay the full blame of an admittedly empty election – that achieves nothing but the technical sanctity of the constitu-tion – on the government alone too is a false judgment that’s easy to sell. And � nally, to say that asking BNP to leave Jamaat and its violence is a “partisan” demand is absurd.

All of this we feel can be said objectively, even if it seems to favour one party over another. Besides, there are issues on which “neutrality” is not a viable or moral option. Razakars in 1971 were not necessarily malevolent people. They were scared to take sides, they wanted the safety of not having to choose. Making any kind of excuse for Jamaat’s violence is to fail a much smaller test.

There is a crisis in democracy today which is hurting the national interest and jeopardising the lives of the most average citizens. Rather than generi-cally blaming “politics” and “democ-racy,” one must appropriate responsi-bility where it is due. We cannot but blame BNP for keeping company with Jamaat for so many years, not just because of its role in ’71 but especial-ly after it has opened attacks on our country and people again.

We will hold AL responsible too for stating clear and convincing terms for

an interim government – along with transfer of prime ministerial powers in election times to other ministries or to the EC to have level playing � eld for all parties. AL must o� er terms that it would accept when it is in opposi-tion someday. It must also assure the opposition and voters of new polls as soon as BNP calls o� the violence and agrees to the terms of an interim gov-ernment deemed reasonable by most citizens. These are all calls one can and should make without the fear of being labelled “partisan” or the false prestige of being “neutral.” l

Asif Saleh is a freelance contributor.

The culture of dismissing valid viewpoints as ‘partisan’ has contributed to an entire generation feeling shy about engaging with the political process

Politics is about choosing sides

Real political discourse is about apportioning of duties and blames in a precise and justi� ed manner

There is a lot of deliberate obfuscation that goes on in any political culture. In ours some of the critical ones take the form of equating non-partisan with neutral, and neutral with objective

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

MIDDLE EAST MIDDLE EAST

MIDDLE EAST

ASIA

Wednesday, December 25, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE8

EUROPE EUROPE

Car bomb kills 14 at Egyptian police compoundn Reuters, Mansura

A car bomb exploded at a police com-pound in Egypt’s Nile Delta on Tuesday, killing 14 people, including at least 12 policemen, in one of the deadliest at-tacks since the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July.

Security o� cials said the overnight blast in the city of Mansoura, north of Cairo, had also wounded more than 130 people.

The army-backed government vowed to � ght “black terrorism”, saying the attack would not upset a political transition plan whose next step is a Jan-uary referendum on a new constitution.

“We heard a loud noise and I found blood all over my body,” one wounded man told state television, speaking from a hospital bed with his head wrapped in bandages. “We all ran downstairs to � nd our colleagues on the ground in blood.”

The attack prompted a cabinet state-ment declaring Mursi’s Muslim Brother-hood a terrorist organisation, though of-� cials did not directly accuse the group of staging the attack.

The Brotherhood, which is already outlawed, condemned the bombing as “an attack on the unity of the Egyptian people.”

The blast underlined the risk of mili-tancy moving to the densely populated

Nile Valley from the Sinai Peninsula, where attacks have killed some 200 sol-diers and police since July.

“We face an enemy that has no re-ligion or nation,” Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, the survivor of an assassination attempt in Cairo in Sep-tember, said at the scene of the blast.

The army said a car bomb had been used, while the presidency said such attacks “only increase the state’s deter-mination to uproot terrorism”. Police “combat units” would deploy across the country with orders to use live ammuni-tion, state TV reported.

Egypt has endured the bloodiest in-ternal strife in its modern history since the army removed Mursi, the nation’s � rst freely elected leader, on July 3 after big protests against him.

The security forces have killed hun-dreds of his supporters as part of a campaign to repress his Muslim Broth-erhood, until then Egypt’s most power-ful political and religious organisation, while lethal attacks on the security forc-es have proliferated.

Some analysts say Egypt could face a sustained Islamist insurrection, a risk compounded by a � ood of weapons smuggled out of neighbouring Lib-ya since the uprising against Muam-mar Gadda� began there almost threeyears ago. l

Russia to host talks on eliminating Syria chemical arsenaln Reuters, Moscow

Russia will host international talks on Friday on the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

The meeting in Moscow will draw together experts from Russia, the Unit-ed States, Syria, the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ryabkov told Voice of Russia radio on Tuesday.

Syria agreed to abandon its chemical weapons under a deal proposed by Rus-sia to avert potential US military action after a deadly August 21 sarin gas attack the United States blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

A plan adopted by the OPCW in The Hague last month called for the most critical chemicals to be transported out

of Syria by December 31 and destroyed by mid-March. All other declared chemical materials would be eliminat-ed by June 30.

“We are certain that we will be able to complete this process within the agreed time-frame, meaning in the � rst half of the coming year,” said Ryabkov.

Russia sent trucks and armored ve-hicles to Syria last week to transport toxins to the port city of Latakia for shipment out of the war zone by sea.

Russia has been Assad’s most pow-erful supporter during the Syrian con-� ict, blocking attempts to push him from power or punish him with sanc-tions. Along with the United States and the United Nations, Russia is help-ing to organise a peace conference scheduled to start on January 22 inSwitzerland. l

Thai protesters vow to hound PM, cling to promise to thwart polln Reuters, Bankok

Thai anti-government protesters aban-doned e� orts to block candidates from signing up for a February election on Tuesday but vowed to hound Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and thwart a poll she is expected to win.

The protesters want Thailand’s frag-ile democracy to be suspended, fearing the February 2 election would only en-trench the power of Yingluck’s billion-aire family, which is hugely popular among the rural poor of the populous north and northeast.

At their peak, rallies seeking to over-throw Yingluck and install an appointed government have attracted more than 200,000 people, with strong backing from Bangkok’s middle classes. Many among

the Bangkok elite believe rural voters have been bought o� by populist policies that have fuelled government graft.

Thirty-� ve parties have signed up for the poll, despite attempts by pro-testers to stop them when registrations opened at a Bangkok sports stadium onMonday.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy premier famed for � ery speeches, called o� the blockade yester-day but promised to ramp up the cam-paign and chase Yingluck from o� ce.

Yingluck, the sister of self-exiled for-mer premier Thaksin Shinawatra, called a snap poll two weeks ago to try to de-� ate the protests. The noisy but mainly peaceful protests are driven by anger over Thaksin’s in� uence over his sister’s government. l

Syria’s Assad ‘has secret Iraq oil lifeline’Illegal oil imports from Iraq have helped Damascus government keep country running, Reuters news agency reports.n Reuters, Damascus

The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has received substan-tial imports of Iraqi crude oil from an Egyptian port in the last nine months, shipping and payments documents show, part of an under-the-radar trade that has kept his military running de-spite Western sanctions.

Assad’s government has been black-listed by Western powers for its role in the two-and-a-half year civil war, forc-ing Damascus to rely on strategically Iran as its main supplier of crude oil.

An exclusive Reuters examination based on previously undisclosed com-mercial documents about Syrian oil purchases shows however that Iran is no longer acting alone.

Dozens of shipping and payment

documents viewed by Reuters show that millions of barrels of crude deliv-ered to Assad’s government on Iranian ships have actually come from Iraq, through Lebanese and Egyptian trad-ing companies.

The trade, which is denied by the � rms involved, has proven lucrative, the documents appear to show, with companies demanding a steep premium over the normal cost of oil in return for bearing the risk of shipping it to Syria.

It also highlights a previously undis-closed role of Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon in Assad’s supply chain, despite those countries’ own restrictions on assisting his government.

There was no evidence that the Iraqi or Egyptian governments were involved in shipping Iraqi oil through Egypt’s port, as crude can change

hands after � rst being exported.Both the Syrian national oil company

that received the oil, Sytrol, and the Ira-nian shipping operator that delivered it, the National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC), are on US and EU sanctions lists.

The cache of documents describing the trade between March and May this year was shown to Reuters by a source on condition of anonymity.

Many details were corroborated by a separate Middle Eastern shipping source with long-standing ties to the Syrian maritime industry.

Publicly available satellite tanker tracking data was used to con� rm the movements of ships.

The documents refer to at least four shipments by four tankers named Ca-mellia, Daisy, Lantana and Clove, each of which is operated by Iran’s NITC

and, say the documents, carried Iraqi oil from Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir to Syria.

According to the documents, Bei-rut-based trading � rm Overseas Petro-leum Trading (OPT) invoiced Syria for arranging at least two of the shipments and was involved in a third, while a Cairo-based � rm, Tri-Ocean Energy, was responsible for loading Iraqi oil into at least one.

An EU country government source said Tri-Ocean is already under scruti-ny by the US for suspected violations of sanctions against Iran, giving no fur-ther details.

Syria imported up to 17 million bar-rels of crude oil between February and October, of which roughly half came di-rectly from Iran and half from Egypt’s Sidi Kerir port. l

Gul vows no cover-up in corruption scandaln Reuters, Ankara

President Abdullah Gul sought to salve Turkish furor over a high-level corrup-tion case yesterday by assuring the public there would be no cover-up and that the courts were free to investigate.

The remarks by Gul, a unifying � gure in an increasingly polarised society, fol-lowed fresh curbs on the police and judi-ciary by the government of Prime Minis-ter Tayyip Erdogan, who has blamed the week-long scandal on a shadowy foreign plot.

The sons of two cabinet ministers and the boss of state-run Halkbank are among the 24 people in police custody on graft charges. TV news images of cash-� lled shoeboxes allegedly seized at suspects’ homes have trans� xed Turks still sim-mering from summer mass-protests against Erogan’s rule.

“Turkey is not the same place com-pared to 10 or 15 years ago. Many reforms have been carried out, in politics as well as in the law,” Gul said in his � rst remarks about the a� air.

“In a country where such reforms have taken place, if there were corruption and mistakes they would not be covered up,” he told reporters. He added that “the independent, objective and democratic legal system [will] adjudicate the allega-tions in a manner that will not leave any question marks”.

Erdogan responded to the arrests by sacking or reassigning some 70 police of-� cers, including the chief of the force in Istanbul.

At the weekend the government changed regulations for the police, re-quiring o� cers to report evidence, in-vestigations, arrests and complaints to commanding o� cers and prosecutors. Journalists have also been banned from entering police buildings.

Erdogan has won three straight elec-tions in Turkey, which has blossomed eco-nomically during his rule, and has trans-formed the country by curbing the power of the secularist military establishment.

He has also angered some Turks over what they see as an authoritarian streak, leading to mass demonstrations this year.

The Halkbank a� air and his retaliation against the police have earned him newly vocal enemies, including an in� uential cleric with followers in the police and ju-diciary. l

Ukraine receives � rst tranche of Russian bailoutn Reuters

Russia told Ukraine on Tuesday it had transferred the � rst $3bn tranche of a $15bn bailout, part of plans to keep Kiev � rmly within Moscow’s or-bit and out of the European Union’sembrace.

President Vladimir Putin o� ered Ukraine the lifeline last week, along with a big cut in the price Kiev pays for vital Russian gas supplies, as he tries to persuade Russia’s Slavic neighbour to join a customs union of ex-Soviet re-publics.

“Yesterday ... the � rst tranche of Ukrainian sovereign debt was acquired for $3bn,” Russian Prime Minister Dmi-try Medvedev told his Ukrainian coun-terpart Mykola Azarov at a meeting in Moscow, according to Interfax News Agency.

“The money went to the central bank of Ukraine yesterday.”

President Viktor Yanukovich’s pivot back towards Moscow and away from an o� er of closer trade ties with the EU

has sparked huge protests in Ukraine, sometimes swelling to hundreds of thousands, and the creation of a tent camp in central Kiev.

The protesters accuse Yanukovich of selling out to Ukraine’s Soviet-era overlord with the deal on debt and gas prices.

The Kremlin said it had invited Aza-rov to join Putin and other leaders for a meeting of former Soviet republics taking part in trade alliances Russia is building, part of Moscow’s drive to restore its in� uence in its formerempire.

Ukraine has so far resisted joining a Russia-led customs union that includes Belarus and Kazakhstan - a big step be-cause membership would scupper any lingering possibility that Kiev might re-verse course and sign a free trade deal with the EU.

Any signal that Ukraine might join the customs union would re-invigorate protests in Ukraine, which have started to show signs of � agging despite a con-stant crowd of a few thousand people

at the tent camp in Kiev’s Indepen-dence Square.

About 100,000 people gathered at the square on Sunday to demonstrate for the � fth weekend in a row, but the number was the lowest this month, and around half the previous week-end’s turnout.

Putin has made closer integration among ex-Soviet states a priority of his third term after 14 years in power. He is using the customs union as a foun-dation for a Eurasian Economic Union, due to come into existence in 2015.

Putin has won victories with de-cisions by Kyrgyzstan and Armenia to move toward joining the customs union, but the leader of oil-producing Kazakhstan yesterday repeated a warn-ing that Putin’s post-Soviet integration plans must not go too far.

“I don’t want to repeat myself, but the politicisation of the union that is being created is inadmissible,” Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a meeting with Putin before the broad-er gathering. l

A damaged car is seen after an explosion near a security building in Egypt’s Nile Delta city of Mansoura REUTERS

Ukrainian pro-EU demonstrators warm themselves near a � re burning in a steel drum during a rally in Independence Square in central Kiev yesterday REUTERS

File photo Syrian president Bashar al-Assad REUTERS

9Wednesday, December 25, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE International

Xi’s dilemma: Military is more challenging to controlRise of nationalist leader comes as China’s military prepares to ‘win wars’

n Reuters

It’s part of the lore of modern China. When paramount leader Deng Xiaop-ing was handing over power a genera-tion ago, a widely recounted tale goes, he had some advice for his successor. For every � ve working days, spend four with the top brass of the People’s Liber-ation Army.

The latest leader of China, Xi Jinping, shows every sign of applying that les-son. A month after assuming power in November last year, Xi visited the prov-ince of Guangdong on his � rst major political tour. Of the � ve days he spent there, three were at a military base, ac-cording to o� cial coverage of his trip.

The son of a Communist revolution-ary commander, Xi built his career as a friend of the army, and at times an of-� cial in it. But he still feels compelled to ask his generals for something in return: loyalty. “First, we must keep in mind that the military must unswerv-ingly adhere to the party’s absolute leadership and obey the party’s or-ders,” he said on one of his many mil-itary inspection tours.

Xi’s injunction that the party comes � rst is a sign of the insecurity modern Chinese leaders feel at the top of their nation’s huge and increasingly powerful armed forces, military experts say. As it grows mightier, the People’s Liberation Army is growing trickier to govern.

The PLA’s rising global pro� le is in-tegral to Xi’s stated vision for the na-tion: the “China Dream,” a rejuvenated country that’s both peace-loving and militarily powerful.

But Xi is less a true military man than Deng and the founder of the Peo-ple’s Republic, Mao Zedong. He is fun-damentally a career bureaucrat, like his immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin.

Like them, Xi has to win over the force that keeps the Communist Party in power. But he must do so at a time when the PLA is more self-con� dent than ever, mounting the � rst serious challenge to the naval dominance of the United States since the end of the Cold War.

“It will take time for Xi to take con-trol of the military,” says Huang Jing, an authority on the PLA at the National University of Singapore. “Most of the senior generals were not appointed by Xi. Instead they were all appointed by his predecessors.”

The rise of a nationalistic leader with military leanings comes as the People’s Liberation Army, with 2.3 mil-lion men and women under arms, is the hard edge of a rising China.

China’s annual military spending is now second only to that of the U.S. armed forces. The PLA navy is project-ing power further into the Paci� c. Years of buying, copying and sometimes stealing technology have helped the PLA narrow its capability gap with the United States and other rivals in Asia.

BEYOND BORDERSXi, as chairman of the Central Military Commission, is commander-in-chief alongside his roles as party general secretary and president. He now over-sees armed forces that are in� uencing events far beyond China’s borders.

Fleets of Chinese warships patrol disputed territories in Asian seas. On Dec. 5, a Chinese warship forced a U.S. guided missile cruiser, the USS Cowpens, to take evasive action in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy said. The incident, in international waters, appeared to be an attempt to prevent

the U.S. ship from observing sea trials of China’s new aircraft carrier, the Lia-oning, naval experts said.

PLA � ghters now scramble to guard the controversial air defense zone that Beijing imposed last month o� its east coast. The Chinese navy also cruises the Indian Ocean, contributing to inter-national anti-piracy e� orts, while PLA peacekeepers are on duty in Africa and the Middle East.

In hardened silos and on mobile transporters, the PLA’s Second Artil-lery Corps is modernizing China’s mod-est but expanding armory of nuclear missiles, Chinese and foreign military analysts say. During Xi’s tenure, likely to last another nine years, this force is expected to be bolstered with China’s � rst e� ective ballistic-missile nuclear submarines. If PLA engineers can make them stealthy, these subs will be capa-ble of retaliating if China comes under nuclear attack, according to Chinese and foreign military assessments.

All this has been a dramatic change. In the late 1990s, visiting foreign mili-tary o� cers sco� ed at China’s poorly equipped army. After more than three decades of soaring military spending, infusions of foreign and domestic tech-nology and improvements in training, the PLA is transformed.

“There is no question China’s power is growing,” says Li Nan, an analyst of the Chinese military at the United States Naval War College. “That is contributing to a higher level of con� dence.”

Re� ecting the more complex mil-itary challenges China faces, Xi has moved to establish a national security commission, thought to be modeled on the U.S. National Security Council.

No details about the proposed new body have been released. Foreign diplo-mats believe it is aimed at tightening co-ordination between China’s sprawling military, intelligence, diplomatic and internal security agencies. Xi is likely to head the new body, according to several people familiar with the move.

Xi is keeping his generals close. The military’s top two commanders are almost always photographed at his el-bow on his frequent visits to exercises, frontline units and military schools: army General Fan Changlong and air force General Xu Qiliang.

He has also been quick to begin put-ting his own men at the top of the PLA hierarchy. Within days of taking over from Hu Jintao as head of the Central Military Commission in November last year, Xi promoted Wei Fenghe, commander of the Second Artillery Corps and member of the CMC, to full general. In late July and early August, he promoted six o� cers to the rank of four-star general, and 18 to lieu-tenant-general.

Eleven of those 24 o� cers are polit-ical generals, said Bijoy Das, a Chinese expert at India’s Institute of Defence Analysis. “In essence it indicates that the Party is co-opting a section of the PLA echelon to ensure that the ‘Party holds the gun,’” he said.

Xi is shown mixing with the low-er ranks, too. Dressed in plain mili-tary-style khaki slacks and shirt, the solidly built 60-year-old stands in mess lines, selects a plate and chopsticks from a stack and is � lmed eating and chatting with soldiers and sailors.

MILITARY PRINCELINGXi, like all of China’s Communist lead-ers, insists the PLA is bound with the party’s fortunes. The army delivered political power with its civil war victory in 1949 over the Nationalists. It fought

the U.S. to a prestige-enhancing stale-mate in Korea. It bu� ered tumult at home in the early decades of the Peo-ple’s Republic and ended the 1989 Tian-anmen protests in a bloody crackdown.

In his task of cementing ties with the generals, Xi had a head start.

His father, Xi Zhongxun, was a Com-munist guerrilla � ghter who became a senior political leader and an architect of the market reforms that ignited Chi-na’s economic boom. That makes Xi a “princeling” of the leadership, and he rubbed shoulders with other o� spring of Communist China’s founding elite.

Throughout his career, Xi has ap-peared to march in step with the PLA. In his � rst job after graduating from Ts-inghua University, he was a key aide in the general o� ce of the Central Military Commission, the top military council he now runs. Xi was secretary to Geng Biao, a defense minister and former military subordinate of Xi’s father.

He held no rank, but his duties were considered military service. “The mili-tary sees Xi as one of their own,” says a person with ties to the leadership.

As he climbed the rungs of China’s provincial bureaucracy, Xi had a par-allel career as a political commissar in local army headquarters, units of the PLA and the People’s Armed Police, the party’s paramilitary internal security force.

He was careful to defer to important old soldiers. About 10 years ago, when Xi was party chief in Zhejiang Province, a retired vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Zhen, visited Zhejiang Province to celebrate his birthday. Xi, then provincial party chief, broke with his o� cial duties for several days to accompany the civil war veteran.

“Zhang Zhen was very touched with Xi’s respect for old cadres,” said the in-dividual with leadership ties. “Those who came to o� er their birthday felic-itations all saw Xi next to Zhang. It was a plus for Xi.” Zhang Zhen’s own prince-ling son, general Zhang Haiyang, is now political commissar of the Second Artil-lery Force.

As China has grown richer and bet-ter educated, the middle ranks of the PLA have � lled with technically trained

specialist o� cers. Along with that have come consistent if muted calls for China to have a fully professional army: one loyal to the state rather than the party, and free from the parallel supervision of political commissars who monitor the forces at virtually every level.

Amid these rumblings, the army re-mains deeply politicized, military an-alysts say. The PLA has long-standing internal factions and loyalties divided between rival political benefactors and regional commands.

While Xi was working his way up, Deng’s successor, Jiang Zemin, was promoting dozens of senior o� cers who remain in positions of power to-day. Jiang was the man Deng advised to tend to the generals. In retirement, Jiang remains one of China’s leading power brokers. His military appoint-ments made sure his in� uence would outlast his term.

Hu Jintao, who replaced Jiang, like-wise sought to anchor his position through military promotions and pa-tronage before handing over to Xi. Both Jiang and Hu kept the funding tap wide open for new military hardware and substantially improved pay and condi-tions for the troops. Xi appears set to maintain heavy military spending de-spite competing needs.

A hundred million Chinese still live in poverty, according to o� cial mea-sures, and there is growing pressure to spend more on health, education and pollution control. O� cial defense spending is set to climb 10.7 per cent this year to $119 billion. Much spend-ing takes place outside the budget, however, and many analysts estimate real outlays are closer to $200 billion, second only to the United States. The U.S. Defense Department’s 2012 budget totaled $566 billion.

FRIENDLY GENERALSAs Xi came to power at the 18th Party Congress in November last year, there was substantial turnover in the Central Military Commission. Eight of 10 uni-formed members of the council were replaced.

It isn’t clear if there is close patron-age or loyalty between Xi and his top commanders. But other princelings,

Chinese military analysts and foreign military attaches identify several gen-erals with whom Xi is on especially good terms.

One is Central Military Commission member Zhang Youxia. Also close are two o� cers outside that top body: army General Liu Yuan and air force General Liu Yazhou. (The two Lius are not related).

Like Xi, these o� cers are prince-lings. Zhang Youxia is the son of Gener-al Zhang Zongxun, a celebrated senior commander in PLA’s wars against the Japanese and the Nationalists. The el-der Zhang fought civil war battles with Xi’s father in north-western Shaanxi Province, according to people familiar with both men’s family background.

People close to the military say Xi last year wanted to nominate Zhang, now head of the PLA’s General Arma-ments Department, as one of the two vice chairmen of the CMC. Retired leaders Jiang and Hu vetoed the move, these people say.

Liu Yuan and Liu Yazhou are en-gaged in what they have described as an undeclared war by subversive for-eign forces to unseat the Chinese Com-munist Party. They have also warned of the danger that unchecked corruption poses to the party’s survival.

Liu Yuan, 61, is the son of former president Liu Shaoqi, once designated to succeed Mao before he was brutal-ly purged in the Cultural Revolution and died in custody. The elder Liu was posthumously rehabilitated after Mao’s death, clearing the way for his son’s life of privilege.

In a late start to a military career, Liu Yuan joined the People’s Armed Police as a political commissar at 41 before transferring to the army. He is now commissar of the PLA’s General Logistics Department. Xi has publicly acknowledged his friendship with Liu on a number of occasions.

Liu Yuan was also close to the pow-erful regional party chief Bo Xilai. Bo was sentenced to life imprisonment in September for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

Liu � rst attracted wide attention for a rambling essay he wrote as a preface for a friend’s book in 2010.

He called for China to reject import-ed political models, including Western democracy, and extremes of the left and right. In convoluted language, Liu nevertheless appeared to be suggesting a more open political system that would allow more robust debate without chal-lenging the leadership of the party.

More recently, Liu has led a rhetori-cal assault on corruption in the military. “Liu Yuan himself has become the an-ti-corruption poster child,” says Huang from the National University of Singa-pore. The campaign mirrors Xi Jinping’s declared attack on graft, in which he has threatened to go after “tigers and � ies” - corrupt o� cials big and small.

Liu Yuan helped bring down Lieu-tenant General Gu Junshan, who was sacked last year as deputy director of the PLA’s logistics department and is soon expected to be court-martialed for corruption, according to three sources in Beijing. In an online discussion on the o� cial People’s Daily website on Aug. 1, the military con� rmed Gu was under investigation.

Liu Yuan may have paid a price for his zeal. “He was passed over for pro-motion because of this, and also be-cause he was too close to Bo Xilai,” said a person with ties to the leadership who is familiar with the anti-corrup-tion drive.

“SILENT CONTEST”General Liu Yazhou, also 61, is the son-in-law of Li Xiannian, who became president in the Deng era. Liu Yazhou, too, is a political o� cer rather than a military professional. One of the most outspoken senior o� cers, Liu became well known as a writer of � ction early in his career. He later turned to politics and strategy, writing frequently about the decisive role that air power plays in modern warfare.

For a time, he was widely regard-ed as one of the most liberal PLA o� -cers. He once dared suggest that China needed a democratic political system to stamp out corruption and provide an environment where the best talent could get to the top. China routinely persecutes dissidents for airing similar views. His articles indicate he is an avid analyst of the U.S. military and the Pen-tagon’s strategic thinking.

More recently, however, Liu has writ-ten about the party’s “absolute leader-ship” over the PLA. He also appears to have hardened his views on America.

In his current posting as political commissar of the National Defense Uni-versity in Beijing, Liu this year co-pro-duced a documentary � lm, “Silent Contest.” The documentary, thought to have been prepared for an internal mil-itary audience, appeared on Chinese websites for a couple of days in late Oc-tober before being removed.

The � lm warned of an American “soft war” against China aimed at top-pling the party. “They con� dently be-lieve it would be easier to divide or split China by approaching and engaging China and integrating it into the U.S.-led international political system,” Liu says in the � lm.

The documentary includes similar warnings from other uniformed senior o� cers. And to clinch the message, General Liu rolls out his heaviest weap-on: the commander-in-chief of the PLA and leader of the Communist Party.

“Western countries’ strategic goal of containing China will never change,” Xi Jinping is quoted as saying. “They absolutely don’t aspire to see a big so-cialist country like us achieve peaceful development.” l

US envoy says South Sudan president open to talksn Reuters

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir is committed to begin talks with rebel lead-er Riek Machar, the country’s former vice president, to end � ghting, a senior US of-� cial said after meeting Kiir in Juba.

“President Kiir committed to me that he was ready to begin talks with Riek Machar to end the crisis without pre-conditions as soon as his counterpart is willing,” said US special envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth on Monday.

It was not immediately clear how soon a meeting could be arranged.

Booth was sent to South Sudan at the weekend to seek a diplomatic solution to avoid the violence spiralling into an ethnic civil war. Earlier, Machar told Reuters news agency he was ready for dialogue but Kiir must � rst release his detained political allies.

The violence began last week when

Kiir, a member of the majority Dinka ethnic group, accused Machar, a mem-ber of the rival Nuer ethnic group, of at-tempting to seize power by force.

Kiir also detained 11 politicians, some of them former ministers, in connection with the “foiled coup.” Booth said he visited the detained o� cials who were “secure and well taken care of.”

US deploys marines“These individuals communicated to me their desire and their readiness to play a constructive role in ending the crisis through peaceful political dialogue and national reconciliation,” he said.

President Kiir said on Monday that the army will step up the � ght against rebels with imminent strikes in Bor and Bentiu, but it is not clear whether this will still take place.

Meanwhile, the US military deployed about 150 marines to a base in the Horn

of Africa to prepare for possible further evacuations of US citizens from the deepening con� ict in South Sudan, US o� cials said on Monday.

The deployment of a special cri-sis-response team of marines, who are normally stationed at Moron Air Base in Spain, follows a thwarted evacuation at-tempt in South Sudan over the weekend in which four US soldiers were wounded by gun� re.

Three US o� cials, speaking to Reu-ters on condition of anonymity, said the Marines were sent to a base in Djibouti, a move that would allow them to deploy to South Sudan more quickly, if asked.

Meanwhile, United Nations (UN) chief Ban Ki-moon asked the UN Secu-rity Council on Monday to send 5,500 more peace-keepers in South Sudan to better protect civilians from vio-lence that threatens to plunge Africa’s youngest country into civil war. l

China commits $6.5bn forPakistan nuclear projectn Reuters

China has committed $6.5bn to � nance the construction of a major nuclear power project in Pakistan’s port city Karachi, as it seeks to strengthen ties with its strategic partner, Pakistani of-� cials said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif broke ground on the $9.59bn project last month but o� cials have provided few details of how they planned to � nance it.

Financing documents seen by Re-uters showed that the China Nation-al Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) had promised to grant a loan of at least $6.5bn to � nance the project which would have two reactors with a capaci-ty of 1,100 megawatts each.

Two members of the government’s energy team and three sources close to the deal con� rmed this. CNNC was not

available for comment.“China has complete con� dence

in Pakistan’s capacity to run a nuclear power plant with all checks in place,” said Ansar Parvez, chairman of the Paki-stan Atomic Energy Commission which runs the civilian nuclear programme.

“As things stand, the performance and capacity of nuclear power plants in Pakistan is far better compared to non-nuclear plants,” Parvez said.

Parvez declined to give more de-tails on the funding but said it would be completed by 2019 and each of the two reactors would be larger than the combined power of all nuclear reactors then operating in Pakistan.

As part of the deal, China has also waived a $250,000 insurance premi-um on the loan, said two sources in the Energy Ministry with knowledge of the project. They declined to be identi� ed as they are not authorised to speak to

the media about the � nancing.Pakistan and China, both nucle-

ar-armed nations, consider each other close friends and their ties have been underpinned by common wariness of India and a desire to hedge against U.S. in� uence in South Asia.

Pakistan sees nuclear energy as key to its e� orts to solve power shortages that have crippled its economy. Pakistan generates about 11,000 MW of power while total demand is about 15,000 MW.

Blackouts lasting more than half a day in some areas have infuriated many Pakistanis and sparked violent protests, undermining an economy already beset by high unemployment, widespread poverty, crime and sectar-ian and insurgent violence.

Under its long-term energy plan, Pakistan hopes to produce more than 40,000 MW of electricity through nu-clear plants by 2050. l

AFRICA

SPECIAL

ASIA

Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects an honour guard, � le photo REUTERS

Westin hotel annexes a public roadDecember 20

RWHotel guards also stop rickshaws from entering that part of the road, when they have no authority to do so.

Shammi Huda They’ve attempted to stop me riding on that bit of road whilst on my bicycle. For diplomatic installations, I can easily understand having their roads blocked off for security reasons. 5-star hotels could also be an understandable target, but the way this is done is no more than the hotel owner’s projection of his ego.

Sakhawat Husain Well, there are many such places in Dhaka where footpaths and even roads are blocked. The US, Canadian, and Australian embassies, Airtel road in Banani, and Dhanmondi 32, for example.

Mithun Musabbir This is just a footpath. Some places block the whole road around the building, nearly half a kilometer at the Indian High Commission, for instance.

Anwarul Mamun Thanks for publishing such news that shows how things truly are.

Nazmul Khair Yes, I have been seeing this for a long time.

PM blasts Pakistan resolution on Mollah’s executionDecember 19

Mahmood SaleemIt is the right of the Pakistani government to make such a resolution, so why is she blasting Pakistan? Why? She should know the reason behind the Pakistani Parliament’s action.

BVRI was not even born when Zul� qar Ali Bhutto and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman divided my country. My parents have never told me a single bad thing about Bengalis, rather they still cherish their memories and friends from Bangladesh or East Pakistan. But both these leaders are responsible for the deaths and atrocities. As it is more of a dynastic rule in both countries now, I am convinced that both families should be penalised. They should be tried by war tribunals. But the million dollar question is, should we keep � ghting or should we aim to promote love and prosperity?

At least I will not be part of this political muck. History has already credited Indira Ghandi for getting Pakistan divided, so what are we � ghting about?? When will we understand?? I will always tell my children to love and treat all Bengalis like their brothers and sisters. I wish them luck.

A welcome moment of unity

In a wonderful display of solidarity, local BNP leaders and ac-tivists joined a human chain organised by local Awami League activists in Nilphamari on December 23, protesting the recent

Jamaat attack on actor and AL lawmaker Asaduzzaman Noor. The attack on Mr Noor, a popular public � gure on the national

level, sparked outrage and protests from local people who joined the human chain and protest and demanded exemplary punish-ment of the perpetrators.

However, what is particular-ly remarkable is that local BNP leaders and activists of BNP also joined the protests and the human chain despite the fact that Jamaat is a key political ally of the BNP. The BNP politicians not only con-demned the attacks but they also vowed to resist such attacks in the future.

In a time when violence has become the norm, rather than the exception in our hostile political atmosphere, it is heartwarming to see local politicians take a stand against it, and it gives us hope that perhaps our political environment has not been polluted beyond re-pair by mindless animosity. The lo-cal BNP activists in this case stood up for principles that transcend petty party politics and for this they must be commended.

We can only hope that this act of unity and solidarity for the greater good by local politicians and activists will set an example for the leaders of AL and BNP. It is time that they also follow suit and come together to act on principles that serve the country, instead of tearing it down.

RMG exporters are open for business

The garment industry is reporting fall o� s in export orders as overseas buyers have been deterred from visiting due to the ongoing political unrest.

In response some suppliers have been incurring additional costs by arranging to negotiate contracts abroad. When added to the ex-tra costs imposed by delays caused by blockades and hartals, this creates a gloomy � nancial outlook and increases the risk of workers being laid o� .

It is vital that the industry works together with government and overseas embassies to assure RMG buyers that their safety will be guaranteed.

The BGMEA and BKEMA also need to be more pro-active in promoting the industry and re-minding buyers of the signi� cant commitments made by stakehold-ers to improve the industry. The legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has been signed by over 100 compa-nies from Europe, North America and Asia, and has the backing of global trade unions and NGOs.

Likewise the complementary Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety brings together 17 major North American retailers who have agreed to make $100 million of loans available to improve factories.

Such initiatives show there is a widespread shared interest in developing the future of the industry. The political crisis must not be allowed to jeopardise these positive moves.

Escorted protection for RMG shipments should be made more available as required and visiting buyers need to be reassured of their personal safety. The country’s export industries should lead the way in reminding the world that they are open for business and seeking new orders.

Editorial10

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DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

There is a widespread shared interest in developing the future of the RMG sector. The industry should lead the way in reminding the world that they are open for business

We hope that this act of greater good by local politicians and activists will set an example for the leaders of AL and BNP

The government must not let the people downDecember 22

In the di� erent talk shows, participants, when speaking about the present political unrest, declare the situation has come to this point because one political party wants to remain in power and the other wants to come to power. But, I think this is half true; the � rst part is correct, the second is not.

The Awami League-led government is trying to remain in power at any cost. They have become des-perate and are behaving most unusually on many important issues. On the other hand, the opposition is reiterating their one and only demand of a free, fair and credible election.

From the very day the CTG was abolished, the opposition demanded it be re-established, even if un-der another name. As the opposition cannot make people vote for them, is it not unreasonable that their agitation programs are only to come to power? They have said they will accept the verdict of the people, they only want a neutral poll-time government.

The government claims to have run the country exceedingly well, then why is it afraid to hold the election under a neutral government system?

The country is heading towards a horrible fate; the government must immediately restore the CTG and save the country from destruction.

Nur JahanChittagong

EU envoy’s behaviour against normsDecember 19Muntasir Mamun, Shahriar Kabir and their cohorts have a mission which, by itself, is not wrong. The raise a good question: Why is their fervour only on one issue. The nonpartisan mind will wonder if they have an agenda. Their pronouncement that Awami League is pro ‘71 proves the point further. Awami League may be remotely so. I have heard one say: There is only one “chetona,” that is justice. If that be so, then these cohorts may look at the misrule perpetrated by the present gov-ernment. The killings, looting of banks, and the stock market scam, to name a few, have not been noticed by Muntasir and Shahriar. The public, however, can see through it.

Tandua ketra

Election without voting not good for democracy: MuhithDecember 19You don’t say!

Akhtar Shah

Crossword

Sudoku

CROSSWORD CODE-CRACKER YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Tracking system (5)4 Female deer (3)6 American state (4)8 Fruit of the oak (5)9 Body of water (4)11 Not at home (4)12 Encounters (5)15 Anaesthetic (5)18 Location (4)20 Tribe (4)21 Eat greedily (5)22 Worshiped image (4)23 No score (3)24 Water pitchers (5)

DOWN1 Kingdom (5)2 Male honey-bee (5)3 Ladder steps (5)4 Arab vessel (4)5 Whirlpool (4)7 Separated (5)10 Nominate (4)13 Wicked (4)14 Tendency (5)15 Bird of prey (5)16 Multitude (5)17 Staggers (5)18 Scrutinise (4)19 Appendage (4)

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11Op-Ed Wednesday, December 25, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

How about a national referendum?n Tarek Kamal

A teacher had taken one of his students to task because the stu-dent had stated in a report that

the population of Bangladesh was 300 million. The student had replied to his teacher that as the BNP claimed that 150 million people were backing them, and the AL claimed that 150 million people were backing them, it was only logical to add the two � gures to arrive at the correct population � gure of 300 million.

All parties are saying they represent the people’s wishes. I’m one of the people, and I can tell you none of them represent my wishes. I want peace and safety because I want to make a living, to feed my family, to educate my chil-dren, to know that when I leave home in the morning I will come home safely in the evening.

The accepted practice for govern-ance around the world is where the populace votes in representatives to take decisions on their behalf after considering all issues. For exam-ple, congresspersons, senators, and

members of parliament are elected by their constituencies to look after the interests of the constituencies. In the worst case scenario, this can be abused to the point where the electorate is grouped together by political parties as they say whatever they want in the name of their constituencies.

It is important for our opposition parties to realise that when a hartal or blockade is called, I don’t necessarily support your cause because I don’t bring out my car on the streets – it is

because I don’t want my car broken or burned. Similarly, if I do bring out my car during a hartal or blockade, the government should not think I support them in each and every cause either. As I mentioned before, I am just trying to make a living.

As a person who is on the receiv-ing end of bad governance regardless of who is leading the country, it is time for a little direct democracy – a referendum is the best way to resolve contentious issues. A referendum is a general vote by the electorate on a sin-gle political question which has been

referred to them for a direct decision. A national referendum would be

a good way to resolve the impasse that we seem to have arrived at. We have quite a few that need to be asked directly to the people, and the results to be irrevocably inserted into the constitution: Number one (as it is foremost on everyone’s minds these days) would be on how we want elections to be held – under a caretaker government, under the sitting PM with reduced powers, or something else that smarter people than myself can think of to protect people’s interests.

Another would be on a term limit for elected positions – and hopefully not like what happened in Russia with Putin back in the saddle after two terms. Another would be on whether to have a “none of the above” choice on the ballots. The list could go on but let’s start with these.

When more than one man claims paternity over a child, a DNA test can resolve the issue. With all political par-ties claiming to represent the people’s wishes, a referendum can be the DNA test to resolve the con� ict.

Who would conduct this referen-dum? Well, that is another big issue. Another is the drafting of the ques-tions. The wording is critical and in my humble opinion, it needs to be understood by all, ie written in very easy-to-understand Bangla – language a 10 years old can understand.

Yet another, although this could be

done by all concerned, is the aware-ness-building on the issues related to the question and impact on the answer voted on. For this we ask the army to conduct this or we could turn to the UN as was done in East Timor – both with signi� cant international obser-vation.

There are many reasons why referendums have been criticised. Namely, ordinary citizens have neither the analytical skills nor the information to make wise decisions, decisions by elected o� cials involve weighing the intensity of preferences and melding the legitimate interests of many groups into policies that will give all groups something of what they want, decisions made by repre-sentatives are more likely to protect the rights of minorities; by allowing elected o� cials to be bypassed and by encouraging o� cials to evade divisive issues by passing them on to voters, referendums weaken the prestige and authority of representatives and the representative government.

If we can be trusted to elect a repre-sentative, we can be trusted to answer some simple questions. What these criticisms do is question whether, at all, the “one person one vote” – the most beautiful part of democracy – should continue. This is dangerous territory. l

Tarek Kamal is CEO, iNFiNiTi HR Company Limited.

N O T H I N G I F N O T S E R I O U S

Catching the conscience of the kingn Shawkat Hussain

Once upon a time, within my living memory, the term “honest politician” was not an oxymoron. I actually knew and saw

people who were politicians and honest as well. Now they are all dead. I have boyhood memories of some of these poor politicians who would sometimes come to our house after dusk, shadowy underground � gures from a banned political party who would straggle in, one by one, and hold meetings in hushed voices to plan movements against Ayub Khan’s decade of reform.

The connection with our house was tenuous and accidental; it was just a safe house where you could have occasional meetings without getting arrested. This was more than � fty years back. These were men who were � red by an ideology, who believed in a cause, and sacri� ced their lives for what they believed in.

There were men and women like this in later years as well, people now in their sixties or seventies, who too were inspired by their own political ideologies and struggled without thoughts of pro� t and gain. In later years, some of these politicians abandoned the gods who failed them, adopted new gods, adjusted, com-promised, changed colours, and the rottenness set in.

They gave up their ideals and beliefs, joined this or that major party, became important, and quickly

set about making up for time lost as struggling honest politicians. Just look around and see what I mean. Or just read yesterday’s newspapers.

Newspaper revelations of the wealth and assets of politicians are laughable (if you are in that kind of mood), and at once startling and predictable: Possession of landed property for some jumped from � ve acres in 2008 to � ve hundred in 2013, cash from two crores to two hundred, ownership of buildings and � ats from one to one dozen, just to put it in ball-park � gures.

The gains appear astronomical, surreal, and so very depressing. For me, often just the sight of the sofa in the house of a former minister (not the towel), the car she uses, crystal vases crowding the table, is enough to indicate whether he or she has become a person of substance.

During the last military-backed caretaker regime, daily revelations of corruption of people in politics and in other professions were initially exciting and then mind-numbing. Now I often wonder whatever happened to the senior forest o� cial who stole millions by selling government-owned

trees and sleeping in cash-� lled pillows. Is the guy in jail, out on bail, or simply enjoying his wealth in some exotic location?

There were many others like him whose stories I no longer remem-ber mostly because they were later eclipsed by the Hallmark hero, the Destiny people, and yes, the Padma Bridge brokers. The list is too long.

On December 9, I got this sms, probably sent to everyone with a mobile phone. “Sobai Miley Gorbo Desh, ‘Durniti Mukto Bangladesh’ –Anti-Corruption Commission.” What a

wonderful, uplifting idea this is! And how very hollow too! Most of us (at least my generation) had Victorian maxims like this stu� ed down our throats. “Honesty is the best policy” and “Lekha pora kore je, gari ghora chore shey”, stu� like this that many were stupid enough to believe. When you are cursed with honest genes (that is what recent scienti� c research indicates) then you are doomed to the kind of life you lead.

I was in a roomful of people exam-ining scripts when this sms message diverted us. One person muttered a curse when she read it, another said

she wanted to throw her mobile away when she got messages like that. I read mine and had the seed of an idea for my column because there is nothing else that I can do.

What exactly can the ordinary, hard-working person trying to make an honest living do to construct a “corruption-free” nation? What was the point of sending this message to millions of mobile phone users who have nothing to do with the corruption that envelops the nation?

Instead, I think it would be a good idea to send this message repeatedly, day and night, every day, every week, to every person who is or has been a minister or aspires to be one, to all ad-visers, all members of the parliament, past and present, to all government o� cers, from the petty bureaucrat who reads your electric meter, to the man at the top who might negotiate a 1% commission from a billion dollar contract.

Send this message repeatedly to all garment factory owners and other captains of industry, to all sycophantic professors who have become VCs of public universities, to powerful trustee board members of private universities who take cash to admit students, to all heads of all corporations, and to all bank managers.

The sms message might be the thing wherein you might catch the conscience of the king. l

Shawkat Hussain is former Professor and Chair of English, Dhaka University, and now teaches at State University of Bangladesh.

A lame duck governmentn Prem Shankar Jha

Seldom have any state elections given so unambiguous a pointer to what is likely to happen in the

elections to parliament. The BJP has gained eight seats in Delhi, has lost only one seat and stayed in power in Chattisgarh, registered a substantial gain in seats – from 143 to 165 – in Madhya Pradesh and scored its most staggering gain, from 78 to 162 out of 200 seats, in Rajasthan.

By contrast, except in Chhattis-garh where it has gained one seat, the Congress has been soundly thrashed. It has lost 75 of its 96 seats in Rajast-han, 13 out of its 71 seats in Madhya Pradesh, and 35 out of its 43 seats, and been shoved into third place in Delhi. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the BJP is crowing about a Modi wave and looking forward to a return to power in Delhi next May, and stock market prices have skyrocketed in anticipation.

But in elections based upon the � rst-past-the-post voting system, swings in the number of seats are deceptive because they invariably exaggerate the winning margin of the largest party. A more accurate measure of the popular mood is the change in the share of the votes.

In the recent elections, this points to a far more complex shift in public opinion. It is a shift that bodes well for Indian democracy and the future of the country, if it is understood and acted upon. It can become a precursor to violence and a breakdown of gov-ernance, if it is not.

The voting pattern con� rms that the Congress has lost ground but, ex-cept in Delhi, it has not been decimat-ed. In Chattisgarh, its share of the vote has increased by 2%. Had the BJP too not increased its vote at the expense of local and minor parties, it would have overtaken the BJP and swept to power.

But the BJP too increased its vote by 2%. So in the end, the Congress gained only one seat and the BJP remained in power. The losers in Chhattisgarh have been independents, and local parties whose supporters have learned to shy away from wasting their vote by giving it to someone who stands no chance of coming to power. This consolida-tion has worked equally in favour of both the major parties. So if there is a Modi wave, it is certainly not visible in Chhattisgarh.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP in-creased its share of the vote by over 9% to 47%. But here too, the Congress has also increased its share by almost 6% to 38% at the expense of local par-ties and independents. Given Shivraj Chauhan’s record of good governance, it is di� cult to � nd much of a Modi e� ect in the 3% higher consolidation in favour of the BJP.

The only place where a “Modi wave” is discernible is Rajasthan, but it is not the mighty tsunami that his followers have been claiming and the 12% rise in the BJP’s vote suggests. 8% of this has come at the expense of mi-nor parties and independents. But in sharp contrast to MP and Chattisgarh, the remaining 4% has been wrested directly from the Congress.

The most signi� cant results have come from Delhi. The rejection of the Congress has gone far beyond any-thing that can be attributed to normal anti-incumbency sentiment. In Delhi the party has lost an unprecedented

15% of its vote, and it has done so in spite of a 10.33% rate of growth during the past � ve years, a budget in which two thirds goes into social welfare programs, and perhaps the highest rate of delivery to intended bene� ciar-ies in the entire country. This impres-sion is strengthened by the debacle in Rajasthan, where too a government with a good record for the delivery of social bene� ts has lost more than a tenth of its support base.

Delhi, and to a lesser extent Rajast-han, show that the Congress’ strategy of ignoring the middle classes and the modern sector of the economy and re-lying upon handouts to the poor under the rubric of ‘inclusive development’ has failed.

But the elections also show that there is no signi� cant Modi wave either. Despite Narendra Modi’s hectic personal campaigning, and the BJP leaderships pulling out of all stops in his favour, the party’s share of the vote has actually fallen by 3.2%, and with 31 seats in a 70 member house, it has little chance of forming a government.

The strong anti-incumbency sentiment against the Congress has not therefore translated into a wave in favour of Modi and the BJP. One swallow does not make a summer. But the Delhi results at least suggest that where voters have a credible third choice, those disliiusioned by the Con-gress will prefer it to the BJP.

There are profoundly important implications for the strategy that the so-called Third Front needs to follow. So far, they have believed that a pre-election coalition between them will serve little purpose except to expose the huge � ssures that exist between their ambitious leaders. They have, therefore, been content to wait till after the elections to explore the possibility of forming a government.

This strategy must change. The AAP’s landslide arrival onto the Delhi political scene has shown that by cre-ating an explicit alliance (not coalition) and announcing a clear cut, responsi-ble common program of action before the elections, the Third Front will acquire the power to in� uence the voters’ choice in their favour in each of their home states. They need therefore to sort out their leadership and policy issues now, well before the elections are announced.

What should these policies be? To understand that, they need to examine the causes of the Congress debacle more closely. It could not be more apparent that whatever has made the voters turn so sharply away from the Congress in these two states has very little to do with the performance of their governments. The anti-incum-bency wave must therefore arise from deep dissatisfaction with the policies of the Congress at the Centre, ie, of the UPA government.

Sonia Gandhi has blamed the price rise for the debacle. Sharad Pawar has blamed it upon the weak government at the centre. The AAP sees it as a re-ward for its championship of the poor man against a corrupt elite. But the most important cause has, strangely, been left unvoiced. This is the total collapse of the economy in the past four years, and the conviction that it has been brought about by a govern-ment that is totally out of touch with India’s reality. l

Prem Shankar Jha is a journalist and author.With all political parties claiming to represent the people’s wishes, a referendum can be the DNA test to resolve the con� ict

Newspaper revelations of the wealth and assets of politicians are laughable (if you are in that kind of mood), and at once startling and predictable

The ‘Modi wave’ is not the mighty tsunami that his followers have been claiming

Strong anti-incumbency sentiment against the Congress has not translated into a wave in favour of the BJP

AFP

Dhaka Moulik Natyadal staged Britte Biproteepn Shadma Malik

Dhaka Moulik Natyadal staged their very � rst production Britte Biproteep at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on December 23. Written by Shahidul Huq Khan Shanon and directed by Shaju Ahmed, the drama shows the intricate relationship of a boy with his guardians.

The story opens with a conversa-tion between a husband and a wife. Mrittika, one of the lead characters, sits by the window, waiting for some-one. When her partner Azad sees her,he is gripped by irrational jealousyand an argument breaks out between them. The � rst part of the story is quite perplexing, but it gradually becomes clear.

Britte Biproteep is a story about a couple who live under the same roof but never got as far as marriage. Twenty years ago, Mrittika was raped, and later gives a birth to a boy. At the time of the incident, Azad killed the rapist to rescue Mrittika. For social recognition, Azad takes responsibility of Mrittika and her son Shadhin.

The drama depicts Azad as a person with high morals and values. But time and again, Azad gets frustrated as he is still traumatised by the experience of killing someone. In the drama, Azad showed his immense love and respect for Mrittika.

When Shadhin grows up to be a young man, he gets involved in cam-pus politics. His relationship with Azad was always very cold and their ideolo-gy was always at odds. Shadhin knew

that he was illegitimate and despised Azad for killing his biological father. He attempts to kill Azad to avenge his father’s death. Too late, Mrittikashares the truth of Shadhin’s parentage with him and he leaves home.

Raised by Mrittika and Azad, Shadhin never adopted Azad’s philosophy in life. Bearing the illegitimate status made Shadhin bitter and wounded. With a de-sire to prove himself, he chooses the life of a criminal. l

Purno Doirgho Prem Kahini and Poramon top Movie Bazaar chartn Entertainment Desk

Designed and hosted by Saikat Sala-huddin, Movie Bazaar airs regularly every Thursday at 9pm on Asian TV. The show features celebrities and di� erent aspects of Bangladeshi � lm industry, and calls upon people to express their comments through its Facebook page.

Dhallywood’s two big movies, the Jaya Ahsan-Shakib Khan starrer Pur-no Doirgho Prem Kahini and the Ma-hia Mahi-Saimon starrer Poramon, topped Asian TV’s popular show Mov-ie Bazaar’s survey for 2013, conducted through social networking site Face-book.

The result of the survey features Shakib Khan as the best male actor and Mahia Mahi as the best female actor of the year 2013. The results name Misha Saudagar as best villain, Bappy and Are� n Shuvo asbest promising male actors, Jaya

Ahsan as best promising female actor, SI Tutul and Habib as best male singers, Nancy as best female

singer, best romantic couples Salman Shah-Shabnoor and Shakib Khan-Apu Biswas and more. l

MOVIE7:00pm Star MoviesUp9:30pm HBOThe Parent Trap

DRAMA9:30pm Star PlusDiya Aur Bati Hum11:30pm ColorsBalikaVadhu

COMEDY12:30pm Star WorldThe Big 8:00pm Z CafeThe Middle

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 201312

ExhibitionCity of RhythmSecond phase of Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed Time: 12-8pm Shilpangan, House 7Road 13 (New) Dhanmondi

Eternal JapanBy Monzurul HuqTime: 12-8pm Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts House 42, Road 16 (New) / 27 (old) Sheikh Kamal SaraniDhanmondi

Return to EdenBy Nasima Khanam QueenieTime: 10am – 8pmAlliance FrancaiseDhanmondi

FilmPaci� c Rim in 3DEscape PlanThe ConjuringThe Hunger Games: Catching FireStar Cineplex, Level 8Bashundhara City 13/3 KaPanthopath

Ki Prem DekhaileUdhaoBalaka Cineworld

TODAY IN DHAKA

ON TV

Jennifer Lawrence beats Miley Cyrus for Entertainer of the Year

n Entertainment Desk

There were a lot of people who made headlines in 2013, but Jennifer Lawrence came out on top as the Associated Press’s Entertainer of the Year. The voters consist of AP’s newspaper and broadcast members, and Lawrence won the prize by only one vote.

The 70 votes came from news directors and editors across the country, who were asked: “Who had the most in� uence on entertainment and culture in 2013?,” according to the Associated Press.

Lawrence won the title with 15 votes. Miley Cyrus came in second with 14, and Net� ix came in third with 13. The online and DVD giant has changed the landscape of how TV shows are produced and brought to the public.

Lawrence was a favorite because of her many, and very diverse, roles, as well as her win for an Academy Award for Best Actress to start o� the year. She has since been nominated for both a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for American Hustle.

Miley Cyrus also made headlines in 2013, but for di� erent reasons. She made her � rst splash in August during the MTV Video Music Awards, but kept her twerking ways for the rest of the year. Cyrus later smoked pot onstage in Europe, continued to undress in many di� erent situations and went through a very public breakup with � ancé Liam Hemsworth. l

Jennifer Lawrence had an amazing year, and a lot of people seem to agree. She beat out the rest of pop culture to be called the Entertainer of the Year

n Entertainment Desk

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring and directed by Ben Stiller, is adapted from James

Thurber’s classic short story that � rst appeared in The New Yorker in 1939. Since then, Walter

Mitty – a mild-mannered man who enlivens a mun-dane day with a series of fantasies – is been synon-ymous with daydreams and � ights of imagination.

Stiller, too, hopes for something a little di� erent for his life: He wants to direct more movies and

make � lms outside of the comedies he’s best known for. The Secret Life

of Walter Mitty, a kind of re-make of the 1947 Danny Kaye

version, is a big-budget, big-scale shift for the 48-year-old Stiller. It’s his � fth time directing a movie, but his � rst time helming

a � lm that, while funny, isn’t quite a comedy.In a recent interview in New York, Ben

Stiller shared his aspirations about his up-coming � lm. When asked about his upcom-ing movie releasing during the crowded Christmas season, Stiller said: “Honestly, I think I feel the same thing that I feel ev-ery time a movie comes out — which is: It’s a lot of pressure and, at same time, it’s really, totally out of my hands.”

In answer to his comfort level about directing and acting at the same time, Stiller shared: “I don’t think you ever get totally comfortable with it. You get

into a rhythm with it. But I always feel like every time

you start up, it’s always � g-uring it out.” l

Stiller hopes for something di� erent in life

Are� n Shuvo and Jaya Ahsan

Arjun Kapoor talks about stepmom Sridevi n Entertainment Desk

Actor Arjun Kapoor has been in the news lately for his upcoming � ick Gunday which is making quite an impression on the people. The actor got candid and spoke at length about his relationship with Sridevi and Boney Kapoor in a popular talk show. Arjun is the son of famous � lm maker Boney Kapoor and the stepson of actress Sridevi.

Arjun spoke about his mother’s illness which was followed by her demise, and the tough times regarding his father’s relationship with Sridevi. He reavealed that after a lot of e� ort the relationship between him and his father is smooth now and that he has immense respect in his heart

for Sridevi as well. “My mother taught me to be

respectful to everybody. My mother allowed me to develop my own equation with each and every person including her. She never fed it in me to be a certain way. I went on holidays with my father even after they separated and my father`s family was along. He has two other children as well. The dynamics will be complicated. It will never be normal `We Are Family’ concept. It doesn’t end like � lms do. You’ll never live happily ever after but life goes on. I’m respectful towards her because she is my father’s wife. She will always remain that. My father is very happy with her and for me that is important,” he added. l

Christmas special musical show Beje Uthuk Gaane airs tonight at 4:45pm on Desh TV. The programme will telecast live from the studio and popular singers Bappa Manjumder, Parvez and Joy Shahriar will present songs to the audience

Nagorik to pay tribute to late Khaled Khann Entertainment Desk

Nagorik Natya Sampradaya will hold a commemorative programme to-day evening at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in homage to the troupe’s senior member Khaled Khan, who re-cently passed away.

The eminent cultural personality’s untimely death plunged not only his family, but also his fans, colleagues and thousands of admirers into deep grief.

Khaled Khan joined Nagorik Natya Sampradaya in 1978. His extraordinary acting in theatre productions such as De-wan Gazir Kissa, Nurul Diner Sara Jibon, Galileo, Roktokorobi and Dorpon will be remembered for years.

He acted in over 30 plays for Nagorik and directed over 10.

The troupe’s chief Ataur Rahman informed the Dhaka Tribune that they would hold a discussion session where senior theatre activists from di� erent troupes will talk about various aspects of the extraordinarily talented artist’s life and work. The programme will also feature music, recitation and a photo projection presenting signi� cant mo-ments of Khan in the theatre. l

Tisha and Shakib Khan set the silver screen asizzlen Punny Kabir

Popular actor of the small screen Nus-rat Imroz Tisha will be seen opposite Dhallywood’s “king” Shakib Khan for the � rst time in an upcoming � lm titled Prem Kore Ami Morbo directed by Sha� -uddin Sha� . It seems movie lovers may have a pleasant surprise ahead with the chemistry between Shakib and Tisha. She made her mark in the � lm Third Person Singular Number and Television, both directed by her husband, eminent director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.

This will be her � rst � lm that is not directed by Farooki. Talking about this new phase, Tisha shared with the Dhaka Tribune: “I wanted to work with other directors for a long time, and I had gotten a few o� ers before, but I wanted to start with something really groundbreaking. This time, the script of the � lm really charmed me and I am excited to act in it.” The

shooting of the � lm is scheduled to start in February next year.

This will also be the � rst commer-cial movie for Tisha. However, the talented actor has her own opinion about commercial � lms: “I don’t be-lieve in the terms ‘commercial’ or ‘art’ � lms. There are good � lms and bad � lms. I found the script really good and signed for it. I can ensure that I won’t do anything in the � lm that my fans don’t expect from me.”

About Shakib Khan, Tisha said: “Of course Shakib Khan is a big star and I hope it will be a good experience to work with him.”

Regarding the story of the � lm, Shakib Khan said: “The � lm is about our social and family values. It rep-resents the beautiful side of our tra-dition and culture.” The Dhallywood megastar’s comment on Tisha: “She is a talented actor and I believe she will add signi� cant value to the � lm.” l

SADIA MARIUM

Mehidy Hassan Miraz (capt), Shadman Is-lam, Najmul Hossain, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Musaddek Hossain , Saeed Sarker, Joyraj Sheik, Mohammed Jasim Uddin, Abu Hider, Rifat Pradhan, Musta� zur Rahman, Nihad-Uz-Zaman, Jubair Hossain, Rahatul Ferdous, Prosenjit Das

Stand byZakir Hasan, Sifat Islam, Nahid Hasan, Munim Shahriar, Mohammad Sumon

SQUAD

13DHAKA TRIBUNEWednesday, December 25, 2013

SportDid you know?

The team top of Premier League at Christmas have won the title in each of the last four seasons. But the last

three times Liverpool have been top at

Christmas they have failed to win the title

(90-91, 96-97, 08-09)14 Gunners held

by Chelsea in goalless draw

15 I felt like a clown but I’m still in form: Pietersen

DAYS TO GO

0 8 1

Sheikh Russell’s Uruguayan recruits Francisco Andres Usucar Pasquetta and Mohamed Amine (Left) and goalkeeper Biplob attend a practice session at Buet � eld yesterday MUMIT M

Rejuvenated mid� eld key to Russell’s BPL chargen Raihan Mahmood

A rejuvenated mid� eld comprising an eclectic blend of Uruguayan Francisco Pasqueta, Frenchmen Maxim Rogers, Jamaican Ricardo Cousine and Moroc-can Mohammed Amine will hold the key for defending champions Sheikh Russell as they take the � eld to defend the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) title on Friday.

This mid� eld can be dubbed as one of the best in the market as it has the � air to invade opposition territory while simultaneously restricting the oppositions chances of attacking. Af-ter the early departure in the last eight stage at the curtain raising Federation Cup, Sheikh Russell will now be looking

to defend the BPL title – the most pres-tigious football event of the season.

Coach Maruful Haque oversaw a grueling training session at the BUET ground yesterday and the defending champion’s attitude was visible in ev-ery move. “They will � ght it out in the � eld, the players were shocked with the early exit from the Federation Cup and this time the message is clear. We will do our best to retain the title,” said the coach, who guided Russell to three titles last season.

Uruguayan mid� elder Pasqueta will be holding the center while Ricardo will be distributing the ball with his neat through passes and crosses to set up the forward line.

Maruf admitted that his squad this

year was not as formidable as last sea-sons. “To be frank, this year’s squad is not as like last year’s squad. However I am determined to go ahead with what I have and I have doubled my work load and hope team spirit moves us ahead.”

As per the declaration of the BFF, the BPL is set to begin from Friday. Maruf will be handicapped in the � rst match as his Moroccan forward Younnes Raux is out with an injury and French mid-� elder Maxim will arrive on Friday af-ter enjoying his Christmas holiday.

Speaking about the weak points, Maruf said he still lacks a seasoned striker that � ts in with his system. “My system requires a lone striker upfront and I have still not acquired it. Raux is injured and another Haitian forward

Pascal is out. I hope Raux recovers fast as that will help the team,” said Maruf.

In this regard, manager Habibur Rahman Mannu said Pasacal is enjoy-ing a holiday and his agent is still to lo-cate him. However the club has submit-ted all the necessary documents to the BFF and if Pasacal arrives in the middle of the league, he will be eligible to play.

Captain Biplob was also con� dent of putting good � ght. “We have experienced names like Hasan al Mamun, Rajani Kanto Barman, Mithun Chowdhury and players like Mamun Mia, Anwar are raring to go. With the mixture of youth and experience and the � air of the foreign recruits, Sheikh Russell is a force to reckon with,” said the skipper. l

Under-19 Asia Cup squad announced n Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday announced a 15-member squad for the Asian Cricket Council U-19 Asia Cup UAE 2014. 

Bangladesh are placed in Group B along with Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Malaysia. The young Tigers will begin their campaign against Malaysia on December 28 at Abu Dhabi Oval. In their second game on December 29 they will face Afghanistan at the same venue followed by the last game against Sri Lanka on December 31 at Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.

The � nal of the tournament will be held on January 4 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Bangladesh U-19 team will leave for Dubai on December 26.l

Hockey clubs shift focus from Pakistani players n Shishir Hoque

The growing anti-Pakistan sentiments in the country forced the local hockey clubs to look for alternative options of recruiting foreign players for the sea-son.

Pakistani players have been a popu-lar choice among the big Dhaka Pre-mier League clubs like Abahani, Mo-hammedan and Usha, but now they are looking for other options.

“We almost � nalised our talks in recruiting Pakistani players, but the ongoing relationship between the two countries are making us look to sign al-ternative players,” said Abahani coach Mahbub Harun.

“We are monitoring the whole situ-ation. If the situation continues to be like this we might recruit players from India,” he added.

Usha KC manager Ra� qul Islam Ka-mal said apart from signing Pakistani players they also planned to bring in a coach from the country, “But we have to think about alternatives if country’s current situation gets worse.”

“We are in touch with Indian and players from other country for alterna-tive options. We have to take a decision soon,” added Kamal.

The season’s � rst tournament Club Cup Hockey is expected to begin in the � rst week of January followed by the league.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh crick-et was left stunned after the West Indies Cricket Board withdrew their Under-19 side from a seven-match youth ODI series following the ongoing political unrest here. The incident raised many eyebrows around the world concerning the security in Bangladesh. l

Political unrest threatens cricketing calendarn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The expectation that political unrest will harm upcoming cricket events is being realized in the eyes of many cricket experts. At least three cricket boards so far have expressed concern about sending their respective teams for the events scheduled in Dhaka early next year. The ICC has not yet shown any o� cial but the Asian Cricket Coun-cil (ACC) – event rights holder of the Asia Cup - has.

  ACC CEO Syed Ashraful Haque in-formed the media three days ago of their concern about the ongoing unrest in Bangladesh. The organisation will not

send an inspection team but instead, follow the media to monitor the situa-tion before making a decision at their meeting in the � rst week of January.

 “We will make an e� ort to help crick-et in every manner. The BCB (Bangla-desh Cricket Board) will communicate with the political parties o� cially and request them to keep cricket o� their program,” BCB acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury told the media yesterday. 

“ACC will meet in Sri Lanka on Janu-ary 4 and we will try to con� rm by then with the political parties that the up-coming events are kept o� from their

demonstration,” he added. BCB president Nazmul Hasan re-

cently requested political parties to keep cricket out of the purview of dem-onstrations, but with the political situ-ation getting worse and worse, cricket has not been helped at all. 

“We have a busy schedule of cricket starting with the bilateral home series against Sri Lanka in January followed immediately by the Asia Cup. Then we have the mega event of the ICC World Twenty20. The board president has already requested the political parties through the media to make sure that the unrest doesn’t harm the game,” said Nizamuddin. 

Withdrawal of the West Indies U-19 from their tour of Bangladesh earlier this month due to security concerns gave light to the political unrest in the country. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was concerned about their young cricketers after a crude bomb exploded a short distance from the ho-tel the team was staying at. 

“There is no particular way to ar-range the security, rather it will be done as per the risk assessment. We have given the top security possible to a few teams in the recent past on the basis of government commitment,” Nizamuddin informed. 

When queried if there has been any communication between the BCB and the ICC regarding the issue, Nizamud-din said, “We and the department con-cerned with security are constantly communicating with the ICC on the situation and hopefully, the joint e� ort will get us some fruitful results.” l

Fahad continues to impress, climbs to fourthn Tribune Desk

The youngest Fide Master of the country Fahad Rahman climbed to fourth position after beating Iranian K Saberi Mahan in the 7th round, Under-10 Open Classic section, of the World Youth Chess Championship at Al-Ain, UAE on Monday.

Fahad now has six points after the end of 7th round. He was scheduled to face Abdashev Arlen of Kazakhstan in the 8th round game yesterday. l

Challenge Cup third round todayn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Amber Victory Day Twenty20 Chal-lenge Cup at the Syl-het Divisional Sta-dium will see Prime Bank Cricket Club take on Abahani Sporting Limited today fol-

lowed by the game between UCB BCB XI and Mohammedan Sporting Club in the evening. 

All teams have a win under their belt after two matches and it’s the net run-rate that put Abahani top of the four-team table. 

The tournament will move to Dhaka after tomorrow’s encounters and all the remaining matches including the � nal will be held at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. 

The Bangladesh Cricket Board through a media release yesterday in-formed that all the matches in Dhaka will be televised live on Bangladesh Television.

The board also announced the ticket prices for the Dhaka matches. The tickets will go on sale from today at the Media Ticket Counter near the Northern Entry gate at SBNS. The ticket counter will remain open from 11am to 5pm every day. l

We will make an e� ort to help cricket in every manner. The BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) will communicate with the political parties o� cially and request them to keep cricket o� their program

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (L) and bowler Pragyan Ohja play football during a training session ahead of the second Test against South Africa at the Sahara Stadium Kingsmead in Durban yesterday AFP

Philander deposes Steyn as world’s best bowlern AFP, Dubai

South Africa paceman Vernon Philan-der has ended compatriot Dale Steyn’s four-year reign as the world’s top-ranked bowler.

The 28-year-old took top spot in the latest ICC Rankings after out-shining Steyn in the dramatic drawn � rst Test against India in Johannesburg where South Africa fell just short of chasing down a world record run chase.

Philander claimed seven wickets in the match while Steyn, who had taken over from Sri Lanka o� -spinner Muttiah Muralitharan as the world’s top bowler in July 2009, managed just one wicket. l

FIXTURE (DHAKA PHASE)28 Dec

Abahani v Mohammedan 1pm Prime Bank  v UCB BCB XI 5pm

29 Dec Prime Bank v  Abahani 1pm

  UCB BCB XIv Mohammedan 5pm31 Dec Final 4pm

TICKET RATES  Ticket Type Price (Tk)VIP Grand Stand 300Shaheed Mushtaque Stand 100Shaheed Jewel Stand 100Northern Stand 70Southern Stand 70Eastern Stand 50

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 201314

POINTS TABLETeam GP W D L GD Pts1 Liverpool 17 11 3 3 23 362 Arsenal 17 11 3 3 16 363 Man City 17 11 2 4 31 354 Chelsea 17 10 4 3 14 345 Everton 17 9 7 1 13 346 Newcastle 17 9 3 5 2 307 Tottenham 17 9 3 5 -5 308 Man United 17 8 4 5 8 289 Southampton 17 6 6 5 4 2410 Stoke City 17 5 6 6 -4 2111 Swansea City 17 5 5 7 0 2012 Hull City 17 5 5 7 -6 2013 Aston Villa 17 5 4 8 -6 1914 Norwich City 17 5 4 8 -14 1915 Cardi� City 17 4 5 8 -12 1716 West Brom 17 3 7 7 -5 1617 West Ham 17 3 5 9 -8 1418 Crystal Palace 17 4 1 12 -16 1319 Fulham 17 4 1 12 -17 1320 Sunderland 17 2 4 11 -18 10

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech challenges Arsenal mid� elder Mesut Ozil (3rd R) during their English Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium in London on Monday AFP

Gunners held by Chelsea to goalless drawn AFP, London

Arsenal missed their chance to return to the top of the Premier League after being held to a bruising 0-0 draw

by title rivals Chelsea in a spiteful Lon-don derby on Monday.

This was the � nal English top-� ight � xture before Christmas, but there was little festive cheer on display at the Emirates Stadium as Chelsea battered Arsenal with a series of bruising chal-lenges.

John Obi Mikel was fortunate to avoid a red card after the Chelsea mid-� elder crunched into Mikel Arteta, while Arsenal also complained they should have had a penalty for Willian’s challenge on Theo Walcott.

It was a frustrating night for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who failed to

secure his � rst win over Jose Mourinho at the 10th attempt and as a result saw his side waste an opportunity to climb back above leaders Liverpool.

Instead, second placed Arsenal go into the Christmas programme level on points with Liverpool but behind the An� eld out� t on goal di� erence.

“We should have won it,” Wenger said. “They came here to defend and catch us on the break. We were a bit edgy at the start but we took control in the second half.

“It was 100 percent a penalty when Theo Walcott was fouled. I don’t know why it was not given.”

Chelsea, who moved up to fourth and are two points behind Liverpool, � nished the more satis� ed side after sti� ing Arsenal with ease and creating the better of the few chances on o� er.

“We controlled the game defen-sively. It was a tactical match, a match

where neither side wanted to lose,” Mourinho said.

“We want creative players who use the ball and kill opponents. But there are some matches where we have to take one step backwards and play with a di� erent philosophy.”

Mourinho sent Chelsea out in a 4-5-1 formation, with Fernando Torres as the lone striker, and that cautious ap-proach worked impressively as Arsenal struggled to � nd any rhythm.

It didn’t help that torrential rain and gale-force winds lashed the Emirates throughout the match, making passing something of a lottery.

Frank Lampard made a typically intelligent run to meet Cesar Azpilicu-eta’s cross in the early stages, but for once the Chelsea mid� elder’s clinical � nishing deserted him and he scu� ed a mistimed e� ort well wide.

Mourinho’s men � nally cast o�

their defensive shackles just before the break and almost took the lead when Lampard met Eden Hazard’s pass with volley against the crossbar.

Wenger was growing increasingly vexed on the touchline and he was fu-rious when referee Mike Dean refused to even book Mikel for his aggressive lunge on Arteta.

Mikel’s eyes were on the ball when he went into the tackle and Arteta slid in with equal intent, but it was the Chelsea mid� elder whose follow-through contained more menace and could easily have left the Spaniard nursing a serious injury.

Arsenal’s anger increased when they appealed in vain for a penalty af-ter Willian’s challenge caught Walcott on the foot without making contact with the ball.

Arteta was the victim of another crunching tackle from Ramires, but the

Brazilian escaped with just a booking.By now Walcott, usually so mild

mannered, had had enough and the winger responded by chopping down Azpilicueta, earning a yellow card of his own.

The tone of an already � ery match became ever more combustible after Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic caught Mesut Ozil and then started a bout of shoving with an incensed Ki-eran Gibbs.

Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky sought ret-ribution and went into the book for a crude foul on Ivanovic.

It was Arsenal who � nished the stronger, with Giroud � ring into the side-netting and then forcing Cech to block at his near post.

Bacary Sagna’s header was cleared o� the line by Azpilicueta, but neither side deserved to take the points on an ugly night. l

Barkley not for sale at any price: Martinezn AFP, London

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has claimed that his club would not sell breakthrough Premier League star Ross Barkley even if they received a world-record o� er for him.

Barkley, 20, has been one of the most impressive performers during the � rst half of the season and hit the head-lines again on Sunday when his � ne late free-kick gave Everton a 2-1 win at Swansea City.

The mid� elder made his England debut in September and is being tipped for a place in the squad for next year’s World Cup, while Martinez has com-pared him favourably with Michael Ballack and Paul Gascoigne.

However, the Spaniard has warned potential suitors that even a fee com-parable to the £86 million ($141 mil-

lion, 103 million euros) that Real Ma-drid reportedly paid for Gareth Bale would not be enough to prise Barkley away from Goodison Park.

“Ross is in a moment of his career where � rst, he knows that he needs to carry on developing and this is the per-fect place to do that,” Martinez said, in comments reported by several British newspapers on Tuesday.

“Second, he is a mad Evertonian and enjoying every single second. And third, we are in the middle of a season where we would never, ever consider disrupting what we have got in our squad now.

“It is not the right time for the player or the club to consider anything. Even if we got a Gareth Bale-size valuation we would never even consider it in January (when the transfer window re-opens).”l

Boring? I know, says Mourinhon Reuters, London

“Boring, Boring Chelsea” chanted the Arsenal fans at Jose Mourinho after Monday’s drab 0-0 draw in the Premier League, and the Portuguese coach did not disagree.

“I agree, I’ve played against (Arse-nal) 10 times and never lost, what more do you call me?” Mourinho, who once again won the tactical battle against Arsene Wenger at a rainswept Emirates Stadium, told reporters.

“What are they going to say? ‘Funny, Funny Jose’? Ten times and they don’t win once.

“I think Arsenal fans should just be happy, Arsenal are doing very well, they are in the Champions League and they have every reason to believe they

can be back challenging for the title,” added Mourinho.

Arsenal manager Wenger was also left frustrated after his 10th failure to beat Mourinho, feeling his side should have had a � rst-half penalty when Willian appeared to catch the ankle of Theo Walcott.

“I think it was a penalty on Walcott, 100 percent,” Wenger said. “After that we played with great focus and con-centration but in the second half we couldn’t get the goal we deserved.

“They defended well, we didn’t � nd our zippy moments. They were happy with a point and we weren’t.”

After a barnstorming start to the season Arsenal have picked up only two points from the last nine available, and the scars of a 6-3 defeat by Man-

chester City were still visible on Mon-day as they played without their usual freedom.

“Four games without a win doesn’t help (con� dence),” Wenger, whose side also lost to Napoli in the Champions League, told reporters. “We were a bit edgy at the start of the game but in the second half we took control.

“The defeats at Napoli and Man city left a little weight in our heads but we want to be strong enough to deal with.”

Mourinho, who left creative talents Oscar and Juan Mata on the bench, said that suited him just � ne as Arsenal passed the ball around without pen-etrating.

“Arsenal were playing Arteta to Sa-gna, Sagna to Arteta, Arteta to Gibbs, Gibbs to Arteta and my players were

just compact and had no problems,” Mourinho said.

“The public were frustrated because they were expecting goals, chances and saves but nothing was happening. "

Mourinho also played down Ar-senal’s complaints about John Obi Mikel’s bone-jarring tackle on Arteta in the � rst half, which referee Mike Dean ruled fair.

“They like to cry,” Mourinho said. “This is English football. It was a hard one, an aggressive one, but football is for men or women with fantastic at-titude. It’s true, there are other sports without contact. I respect them but football is a game of contact."

“English football, winter, water on the pitch, sliding tackles at speed but be proud. I think the referee did well.” l

Michu out for six weeksn Reuters

Swansea City striker Michu faces ankle surgery that will rule him out for six weeks and may push the injury-hit Welsh club to seek a replacement in the January transfer window.

The Spaniard underwent a scan on his injured ankle after missing Sun-day’s 2-1 home defeat by Everton. The 27-year-old, who has scored six goals in all competitions this season, has had ankle and knee problems in recent months.

“It’s not good news,” manager Mi-chael Laudrup told the club website on Tuesday. “Unfortunately it has been con� rmed that he will need an opera-tion. The good news is that it can be done in the next week - and he should be back playing in around a month and a half."

Laudrup said he could sign Spanish forward Iago Aspas, 26, on loan from Liverpool.l

Sherwood appointed as Spurs coachn AFP, London

Tim Sherwood was on Monday appoint-ed head coach of Tottenham with a con-tract to the end of the 2014-2015 season, the Premier League club announced.

Sherwood had been named as inter-im coach after Andre Villas-Boas was sacked earlier in December following a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool.

“Following the departure of Andre Villas-Boas, the Club can announce that Tim Sherwood has been appoint-ed Head Coach with a contract to the end of the 2014/15 season,” said a club statement.

The 44-year-old Sherwood had overseen a 3-2 over Southampton on Sunday. Chris Ramsey, Les Ferdinand and Ste� en Freund will work alongside the former England international mid-� elder.

“We were extremely reluctant to make a change mid-season, but felt we had to do so in the club’s best inter-

ests,” said Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.“We have a great squad and we owe

them a head coach who will bring out the best in them and allow them to � ourish and enjoy a strong, exciting � nish to the season.

“We are in the fortunate position of having within our club a talented coach in Tim Sherwood. We believe Tim has both the knowledge and the drive to take the squad forward.”

Sherwood played 93 matches for Spurs between 1999 and 2003 and also turned out for Blackburn, Norwich, Portsmouth, Watford and Coventry be-fore hanging up his boots in 2005.

He made his mark on Sunday when recalled striker Emmanuel Adebayor, left out in the cold by Villas-Boas, scored twice. The win left Tottenham in seventh place, four points o� the Champions League places.

Sherwood had said after Sunday’s game that he wanted his future sorted out as soon as possible.l

Spanish international Andres Iniesta gives a thumbs up after signing to extend his Barcelona contract until at least 2018 at the club's o� ces in Barcelona on Monday AFP

Suarez is best player in world, says Gerrardn Reuters

England captain Steven Gerrard has ac-claimed Liverpool team mate Luis Su-arez as the best player in the world on current form.

In 12 appearances this season the red-hot Uruguay striker has scored 19 goals to � re Liverpool to the top of the Premier League. That is six more than his nearest rival, Argentina and Man-chester City forward Sergio Augero.

Suarez’s proli� c streak has earned him a new long-term contract at An-� eld where he has overcome wide-spread misgivings after several con-troversial incidents including one last season when he bit the arm of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic.

“On current form he’s the best play-er in the world,” Gerrard said of Suarez.

“Lionel Messi’s out injured and Cris-tiano Ronaldo’s had a bit of an injury of late,” the Liverpool skipper told Sky Sports television, referring to the num-ber one players at Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.

“He (Suarez) is certainly the best striker out there. He’s proving that with his minutes-to-goals ratio.”

The 27-year-old Suarez has this sea-son become the � rst Liverpool player to score at least twice in � ve consecu-tive home matches.

He is on course to surpass the Pre-mier League record of 34 goals shared by former England strikers Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.l

15SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Granny blames ‘nasty’ Aussies for Swann exitGraeme Swann’s grandmother has blamed unwelcoming Australians for the spinner’s sudden retirement and said something “nasty” must have hap-pened to convince the England star to turn his back on the Ashes. Swann quit cricket after the third Test defeat as Australia reclaimed the Ashes, ending an international career which had yielded 255 wickets for the o� -spinner. “There is something gone wrong there and I blame the Australian players. Not all the Australian players, a certain one,” Mina Swann, 89, told The Journal newspaper in Newcastle. “I do not think they have been (made) very welcome, the team. He is not easily upset, there is some-thing nasty happened.” Mina spoke of her disappointment at her 34-year-old grandson’s decision. “He was as happy as Larry. He adored his cricket. It is a damn shame, he has lived for that game, he has done everything for that game.”

–AFP

Spain’s Olaso handed � ve-year match � xing banSpain’s world number 236 Guillermo Olaso was banned for � ve years and � ned $25,000 on Monday after be-ing found guilty of match-� xing. The 25-year-old from Bilbao, who plays on the lower level Challenger and Futures circuits, was sanctioned on three charges under the Uniform Tennis Anti-Corrup-tion Program (UTACP). A spokesman for the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) said that all the o� ences took place in 2010. “The � nal 18 months of the � ve-year period of ineligibility will be suspended providing that the player has attended authorised anti-corruption education and rehabilita-tion programs, that the $25,000 � ne has been paid in full by that time and that he commits no further breaches of the UTACP,” said a TIU spokesman. “The � ve-year ban applies with immediate e� ect and means that Mr Olaso is not eligible to participate in any tournament or competition organised or sanctioned by the governing bodies of professional tennis from the date of this statement.”

–AFP

Capello set to sign new contract with RussiaRussia coach Fabio Capello is set to sign a new contract after agreeing the � nal details of the deal, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Monday. Mutko did not give further information about the na-ture of the new contract but Russia have been keen to secure the former England manager’s services up to the 2018 World Cup, which the country will host. “The last touches to Capello’s contract have been made and now the Russian Football Union should set a date for the signing and I think that this should happen after the New Year holidays,” said Mutko. “Nothing can stop it, all the questions have been agreed,” Mutko added, quoted by the R-Sport news agency. Capello has in the past been linked with a return to club coaching and was rumoured to be a target for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur after the recent sacking of Andre Villas-Boas. The former AC Milan coach led Russia to quali� cation for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, providing a huge boost for the country whose failure to reach the � nals in 2006 and 2010 was seen as a national humiliation.

–AFP

Gomis on his way out of LyonFrench striker Bafetimbi Gomis is on his way out of Ligue 1 club Lyon at the end of the season, French radio station RMC reported. Gomis, 28, made his intentions clear when he told a private gathering in his hometown Toulon: “I’m in my � fth season with Lyon and I think at the end of the season, it’s time for me to go elsewhere, see if the grass is greeener.” The announcement is sure to rekindle interest in the player from Marseille as well as Premier League Newcastle, who already have a strong French contingent in their squad and inquired about Gomis in the last transfer window. It could also trigger an o� er once the next window opens in January if Lyon decide to cash in on the player who cost them 15 million euros ($20.5 million) from Saint-Eitienne in 2009 rather than let him walk away on a free transfer at the end of the season.

–AFP

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Australia's Steven Smith (L) dives for the ball as wicket-keeper Brad Haddin looks on during a � elding drill in Melbourne yesterday INTERNET

Federer at 2014 crossroads, Serena eyes historyn AFP, Paris

Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray open the 2014 season in Abu Dhabi on Thursday with Roger Fe-derer hoping his absence isn’t an indi-cator of more misery ahead.

World number one Nadal provided the comeback story of 2013, winning 10 titles, including a record eighth French Open and a second US Open which took his majors haul to 13.

Djokovic defended his Australian Open crown while Murray claimed Britain’s � rst Wimbledon mens’ title in 77 years.

But while the big three start their new campaigns with a leisurely three-day stroll in the Gulf, record 17-time major winner Federer begins his 17th season as a professional in Brisbane and with his career at a crossroads.

In 2013, the world number six failed to reach a Grand Slam � nal for the � rst time since 2002 and his second-round defeat at Wimbledon ended his run of 36 consecutive Grand Slam quarter-� nal appearances.

Federer will turn 33 in August but is acutely aware that his great hero, Pete Sampras, quit at 31 and at the top of his game, having secured a � fth US Open.

His record against the sport’s big

three also makes for worrying reading – he is 10-22 against Nadal having lost all four matches against the great Span-iard this year and 9-11 when up against Murray, losing their one clash in 2013.

The WTA Tour starts in Brisbane and Auckland and will conclude with a new home in Singapore for the season-end-ing championships.

Six of the world’s top 10 will be in Brisbane led by defending champion Serena Williams.

The American will be 33 in 2014 but her rock-solid con� dence and iron will are as intimidating as ever.

Williams ended 2013 with 11 titles while triumphs at the French and US Opens took her Grand Slam haul to 17,

one o� the mark shared by Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and just � ve away from Ste� Graf’s Open Era re-cord of 22. Williams enjoyed a match record of 78 wins against just four de-feats, claimed the season-ending WTA Championships title and became the oldest number one player.

Victoria Azarenka, comfortably Wil-liams’ biggest rival, also features in Brisbane as does Maria Sharapova who was forced to shut down her 2013 cam-paign at Cincinnati in August because of a shoulder injury.

Sharapova has hired Sven Groeneveld, the former coach of Moni-ca Seles, in an e� ort to knock Williams o� her perch. l

New Zealand prodigy Ko splits with coachn Reuters

New Zealand’s Lydia Ko has split with long-time coach Guy Wilson, who started working with the gol� ng prodi-gy as a � ve-year-old novice and helped take her to number four in the world 11 years later. Ko was given the green light in October to become a full member of the LPGA Tour from the start of the 2014 season after the governing body waived the 18-year-old age limit clause.

Ko, who was born in South Korea and has already won � ve professional titles, four as an amateur, became the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour when she captured last year’s Canadi-an Open at the age of 15. In statement to Fairfax media, Wilson said he was “incredibly disappointed” that their partnership had come to an end.

“We’ve spent a lot of time together over the past decade and during that time I’ve become very close to Lydia and her family. While I’m incredibly dis-appointed that our 11-year partnership is over, I respect Lydia and her team’s decision,” Wilson said in the statement.

“When I � rst met her the golf clubs were taller than she was and she didn’t know the � rst thing about a driver or a putter but now she has one of the most envied swings in the women’s golf world.” l

Pay back India for their wicket ways: NZ coachn Reuters

New Zealand cricket coach Mike Hes-son has called on the country’s cura-tors to serve up green pitches when India tour for their two-test series in February.

New Zealand were belted 2-0 on In-dia’s dry wickets last year and Hesson said it was only fair to prepare bouncy tracks for the Auckland and Wellington tests which might trouble the visitors’ batsmen and blunt their spinners.

“I think everyone is aware of the type of surfaces we like,” Hesson said in comments published by New Zea-land media on Tuesday.

“We’ve been in India before and they’ve changed the pitch the day be-fore a game because it wasn’t as dry as

they’d like. We certainly don’t get any favours when we travel overseas, so I’d be disappointed if we provide any at home.”

New Zealand have not beaten India in a test series since their 2-0 win in 2002-03, when the visitors’ star-stud-ded batting lineup, which included Sa-chin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, crumbled on two fast, green pitches presented at Wellington’s Basin Reserve and Seddon Park in Hamilton.

In the next home series in 2008-09, New Zealand’s curators were slammed for preparing more docile pitches as the hosts lost 1-0.

New Zealand thrashed West Indies 2-0 in their recent three-test series, with their seamers Trent Boult and Tim Southee taking most of the wickets. l

Samuels out of Windies ODI squadn AFP, Wellington

An injured wrist has ruled batsman Marlon Samuels out of the West Indies one-day squad to face New Zealand, with Chadwick Walton called in as cov-er, team o� cials said Tuesday.

West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson said Samuels would return home to

see if surgery was required on his right wrist, in a major blow for the tourists as they look to bounce back from a 2-0 Test series defeat.

“Marlon’s injury is unfortunate at such a tough time for the team, but it gives another player the opportunity to make a name for themselves in this series. He has been working hard and growing as a player, and I feel con� dent that when his opportunity comes he will make the most of it,” the coach said. The � rst of � ve ODIs between New Zea-land and the West Indies will take place at Auckland’s Eden Park on Dec 26. l

Steyn upset by criticism from own fans, says De Villiersn Reuters, Cape Town

South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn was left distressed after being heavily criticised by his own fans for opting against chasing victory in the drawn � rst test against India, the team’s vice-captain AB de Villiers said.

The hosts � nished eight runs short of a world record target of 458 as they cau-tiously played out the � nal three overs at the Wanderers on Sunday, settling for a draw with three wickets in hand.

Victory would have comfortably eclipsed the current world record of 418 runs chased down by West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2003.

Steyn was at the crease with Vernon Philander and was seen instructing his batting partner to be cautious, which led to the duo being booed o� the � eld by their own supporters despite salvag-ing an excellent draw from a game that India dominated for the � rst four days.

“Dale was really upset, he struggled to handle it,” AB de Villiers, who leads the team in limited-overs matches, told reporters.

“It really took Graeme (Smith) and a few guys to help him handle it immedi-ately, because of the crowds, the boo-ing and everyone criticising him and Vernon (Philander). They took a lot of strain and it was up to the team to pull through that but it was really tough.”

De Villiers, who made 103 in a 205-run stand with Du Plessis (134) to set up the chance for an unlikely victory, reassured Steyn that he made the right decision.

“A lot of people are blaming Dale and Vernon but I honestly believe that the numbers nine, 10, 11 should never be going for the runs. It’s up to the top six to score the runs,” he said.

“If responsibility is going to be thrown around, it’s on me, Faf (du Ples-sis) and JP (Duminy) and maybe a little bit on Vern at the end there.

“The minute Dale walked to the crease, the right thing to do was to save the test match and I thought they did that brilliantly well.” l

I felt like a clown but I’m still in form: Pietersenn Reuters, Melbourne

Kevin Pietersen felt like a “clown” after getting out in the � rst innings of the sec-ond test but maintained on Tuesday he has been in prime form during England’s heavy defeats in the opening three Ash-es matches. The � amboyant right-hand-ed batsman has averaged 27.50 in the three games, way below his career test average of 47-plus, and been criticised for the manner of his dismissals.

Pietersen, though, scotched the idea that he was thinking of following spinner Graeme Swann into early retirement.

“I’m 33 years of age,” he told report-ers ahead of the fourth test against Aus-

tralia that starts on Thursday. “I’m bat-ting as well as I’ve ever batted.

“I’ll retire when I can’t get up to play for England but I’m as good as gold at the moment. I felt like a clown in Ad-elaide when I hit that ball to mid-wicket o� Peter Siddle. “I just didn’t feel good at the crease at all. Some days you have them,” said Pietersen.

“Every other time I’ve batted on this trip, I’ve felt really, really good. I’ve got myself ‘in’ every time I’ve batted and a couple of times I’ve got out and a couple of other times fortune didn’t favour the brave.”

Pietersen � icked Siddle straight to George Bailey at short mid-wicket in the

second test in Adelaide in an attempt to dominate the seam bowler after Eng-land had lost two early wickets.

But the South Africa-born cricketer said he felt no need to make adjust-ments to his approach in the future.

“It’s just a case of making sure I keep doing what I do because it’s proved successful,” added Pietersen.

“If the situation dictates a certain way that I play, I’ve proved over the last however many years that I’ll play to the situation of the game.

“I haven’t got 100 in this series. Who knows? I might get one on Thursday and we might be sitting here all nice and happy.” l

Roger Federer Serena Williams

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

ILLEGAL VOIP BUSINESS

43 placed on remand n Kailash Sarkar and

Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday granted two days’ remand for 42 and one day for an-other accused in a case � led in connec-tion with illegal VoIP business.

The Taiwanese authorities have sent two of its high o� cials to deal with the legal matters following the arrest of its 32 nationals along with � ve Chinese and � ve Bangladeshis for operating VOIP business in Uttara of the capital, said of-� cials of Rab and BTCL.

According to sources, earlier in Sri Lanka another group of Taiwanese peo-ple were arrested two years ago on charge of same illegal VOIP business. The two o� cials were sent to ensure the punish-ment of the arrestees as the same busi-ness in Sri Lanka had tarnished the image of Taiwan.

One of the Taiwanese high o� cials was Sophi Chiung of the Economical and Cultural Centre of Taiwan in New Delhi who also deals with matters related to immigration and passport of the coun-try. The other o� cial is Woodi Wang, the Director of Taiwan Trade Centre.

Dhaka metropolitan Magistrate Rezaul Karim passed the order after po-lice produced the 43, including 37 for-eign citizens, before the court seeking seven days’ remand. The court also re-jected defence’s bail plea.

In the remand prayer, investigation o� cer Sub-Inspector Mamunur Rah-man said: ‘‘We need remand for collect-ing information about their business. We also need to know whether they are running business in other places in the country as well.”

According to the case statement, on Sunday night, law enforces arrested the

43 accused including the 37 foreigners, and recovered a huge stash of equip-ment used for illegal VoIP business from a house in the capital’s Uttara.

Of the foreigners, � ve were Chinese and the remaining 32 were Taiwan na-tionals. Of them, eight were women. None of them had any work permit for operating in Bangladesh.

On Monday, Nayek Subeder Abu Reza Mustafa Kamal of Rab 1 � led the case against a total of 45 people under the amended Bangladesh Telecommunica-tion Act 2001.

O� the accused, Faruk Hossein and Dr Latifunnessa Shamsuddin are on the run.

In the bail plea, defence lawyer Aminul Gani Tito said police produced the ac-cused before the court 42 hours after they had been detained. Moreover, the ac-cused had been detained on Sunday but were shown arrested the next day.

In reply, assistant commissioner of prosecution Mirash Udding said since most of the accused were foreign na-tionals, they took a little bit of time for going through various procedures in or-der to show them arrested. Apart from detained � ve Bangladeshis, a large num-ber of people who have expertise and study in networking programmes were involved with the foreigners in the illegal VOIP business, said Rab o� cials.

Experts in bilinguals were also as-signed to interrogate detained Taiwanese and Chinese O� cials from Rab. Police said they had assigned several bilingual experts for the purposes of interrogation of the Chinese and Taiwanese nationals.

Besides, the bilingual experts have been assigned as the Chinese and Tai-wanese nationals have submitted their written statements in their own lan-guages. l

Nipah still a major health concern Specialists warn against the drinking of raw date palm sap n Moniruzzman Uzzal

The spread of Nipah virus (NiV) infec-tion has become a major public health concern for Bangladesh, with thou-sands of people lacking the proper awareness about the deadly virus.

Epidemiologists and health spe-cialists of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) expressed their deep concerns and said a fresh outbreak of NiV could happen any mo-ment with the arrival of winter.

Dr M Mushtuq Husain, principle scienti� c o� cer of Institute of Epide-miology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told the Dhaka Tribune that top priority was being given to NiV, as the fatality rate from the disease was extremely high.

As a precaution to the disease, he urged people not to drink raw date palm sap (Khejurer Rosh).

The NiV – an enveloped RNA virus belonging to genus Henipavirus – is a highly pathogenic paramyxovirus, which is transmitted by the drinking of virus-contaminated raw date palm sap or through close physical contact with Nipah infected patients.

Human Nipah virus (NiV) infection was � rst recognized in a large out-break of 276 reported cases in Malaysia and Singapore from September 1998 through May 1999.

As of May 15, 2013, there have been 21 fatalities out of 24 reported cases of NiV infection in Bangladesh since the beginning of 2013, according to IEDCR statistics.

These cases were from 13 di� er-

ent districts (Gaibandha, Jhinaidah, Kurigram, Kushtia, Magura, Manik-ganj, Mymensingh, Naogaon, Natore, Nilphamari, Pabna, Rajbari, and Ra-jshahi). The age distribution of cases was from 8 months to 60 years, while 16 cases were male and eight were fe-males.

The NiV infection has a fatality rate of 78%, with 148 people out of the 189 reported cases between 2001 and May 2013 – succumbing to the disease.

Prof Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, director of disease control at the DGHS, said an all-out preparation has been taken to overcome the high risk of the life threatening NiV disease.

The DGHS has been carrying out awareness campaign in the Nipah-prone areas, and holding meeting with local authorities and society elites to let them know about the risks of NiV.

Health messages about the NiV have also been prepared, especially for the

people who sold raw date palm sap.A list of date palm trees and its

workers in 25 upazilas and villages in the Nipah-belt was being prepared for a programme to make Nipah-free vil-lages, Dr Be-Nazir informed.

Dr Mushtuq from the IEDCR, mean-while, said they had arranged a train-ing programme titled “Communica-tion for Behavioral Impact (COMBI) training and strategy for prevention of Nipah virus infection in Bangladesh” for 100 health education o� cers from 64 districts and 100 more medical of-� cers and doctors from upazilla health complexes.

Moreover, the hospital-based surveillance at three medical colleges in Rangpur, Rajshahi and Faridpur, and two district sadar hospitals at Tangail and Rajbari – have been advised to send reports on the meningo-encephalitis diseases including: (1) Japanese Encephalitis, (2) Nipah, (3) Dengue, (4) Other bacterial causes of encephalitis.

The concerned surveillance physi-cians, directors and superintendants of the selected hospitals are responsible for conducting the surveillance locally and sending the reports bi-weekly.

It has been learnt that the median incubation period of the secondary cases that had a single exposure to Nipah case was nine days (range 6–11 days) but exposure to onset of illness varied from 6-16 days. The median incubation period following single in-take of raw date palm sap to the onset of illness was 7 days (range: 2-12 days) in Bangladesh. l

Dhaka medical burn unit receives fresh arson victims n Mohammad Jamil Khan

After a respite of a couple of days the burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) has once again started to receive victims of arson attacks of mindless violence resorted to by opposition activists.

Truck driver Nazrul Islam, who sustained 20% burn on Monday night in an arson attack in Gazi-pur, succumbed to his injuries last night at the burn unit.

Even dumb animals have not been spared from the cruelty of

dirty power politics. Seven cattle died following an

arson attack in Chittagong area on Tuesday while the driver and his assistant of a truck are � ghting for life at the burn unit of the DMCH.

Saiful Islam, 30, the helper of the truck is su� ering from 41% burn injury while the respirato-ry track of the driver Mohammad Abu Mia, 40, received 10% dam-age.

The duo was going to Chit-tagong after loading cattle on the truck from Aricha ferry terminal on Monday evening. As soon as

they reached Baroaulia Mazar area pickets threw petrol bombs target-ing the vehicles that left them in-jured while seven cattle died.

The driver and helper were ad-mitted to the DMCH around 5pm yesterday.

Saiful, Son of Abdur Rahman, has a two-year-old son and a daughter. As his wife Hasi Be-gum received the news she just went into a � t of hysteria as with-out Saiful the family would ruin, Faruk Bhuyia, brother-in-law of Saiful, said.

Akter Hossain, son-in-law of

Abu Mia, says Abu is the only earning member of his family and support of his father and mother. His wife Tara Banu, a son and father Abdul Aziz were crying incessantly soon after the accident.

Contacted Taslima Sultana, at-tending doctor of the burn unit, told the Dhaka Tribune that the condition of both the victims was critical. They were kept under ob-servation.

Hailing from Kalihati of Tangai he has one son, Nure-e-Alam, a student of Class III and a two-year-

old daughter Shampa. Besides, another truck driver,

who also came to the DMCH burn unit on Monday night, Mohammad Kamrul Islam with 35% burn injury is undergoing treatment at the burn unit. Hailing from Sahiprotap area of Narshingdi he has two sons – Rasel, 9, and Ripon, 5.

Jahanara Begum, mother-in-law of the victim, in an emo-tion-choked voice told this cor-respondent: “Please tell them to stop such violence. We will leave the country never to return. Is this a hartal that put people on � re? l

Blockade arson victims su� er at the CMCH n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Lying on the bed of the burn and plas-tic surgery unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) with 30% burn injuries, Mohammad Selim Ud-din, a truck helper from Chhotopul area in Chittagong city, has been pass-ing the worst days of his life.

He sustained the burn injuries on December 13 when blockade support-ers hurled petrol bombs at his vehicle at Mohipal area in Feni.

Liza Akhter, daughter of the victim, told the Dhaka Tribune that Selim is the lone earning member of the sev-en-member family, adding that the family had already spent Tk30,000 for his treatment.

In the same burn unit, Ali Akbar, a truck driver, has also been undergo-ing treatment for severe burn injuries since December 9, after being attacked by blockade supporters on the Dha-ka-Chittagong highway at Boro Awlia area in Sitakunda upazila of the dis-trict.

His wife Nazma Begum said she had already spent Tk40,000 for Akbar’s treatment, adding that she had failed to shift her husband to Dhaka for bet-ter treatment because of � nancial re-straints.

Family members of both the victims said they had not received any � nan-cial help from the government; howev-er, some ruling party members visited the burn victims several times.

Like Selim and Akbar, at least sev-en blockade arson victims have been admitted to the hospital since Novem-ber 26, while three of them had suc-cumbed to their injuries, said sources in the CMCH burn unit.

The families of the victims alleged that they were not getting standard treatment at the hospital; but the doc-tors attributed it to the lacking of dif-ferent facilities.

Misma Islam, a physician of the unit, said shortage of doctors, nurses, necessary equipments and medicines were causing hindrance in providing treatment and also in deteriorating the conditions of the burn victims.

“Three victims were sent to Dhaka because of the lack of treatment facil-ities; however, two of them died,” he said, adding that another blockade vic-tim had died at the CMCH.

Only four doctors have been work-ing in the unit, while there were seven nurses on deputation from other wards to provide for 49 patients at the 26-bed unit.

“A burn unit must be well-equipped, as treatment for burns is quite di� er-ent,” said Dr Mrinal Kanti Das, head of the unit, adding that their unit did not even have an intensive care unit (ICU), an imperative for treating the burn vic-tims. 

He said the operation theatre was not also well-equipped and had no des-ignated sta� . 

“We have to refer many of the pa-tients to Dhaka. But the health condi-tions of few of them deteriorate on the way, while few others cannot go there because of � nancial insolvency,” said Dr Mrinal.

According to the CMCH sources, Ah-san Ullah, a truck driver who was being shifted to Dhaka as he required imme-diate ICU support, died on his way on Sunday. l

Rajshahi Wild Life Management and Natural Preservation Department rescued four Gri� on vultures in injured state and sent them to Gazipur Bangabandhu Safari park DHAKA TRIBUNE

Pir, others killed for controversial practices, claims DBn Kailash Sarkar

The contentious religious practices and views of self-proclaimed command-er-in-chief of Imam Mahdi’s forces Lut-for Rahman Faruk can be behind the kill-ing of six people including Faruk and his son in the capital on Saturday, say police.

Any of the militant or fanatic Islamist organisations like Harkat-ul-Jihad al Is-lami (Huji), JMB and Hizb-ut-Tahrir or any other quarters that were fuming over Faruk’s claims and activities might have been involved in the murders.

Lutfor, his son Sarwarul Islam Monir and four disciples were slaughtered at

his house by a gang of some eight killers. His younger son Abdullah Al Faruk � led a case with Wari police station accusing 10-11 unknown killers, but suspecting the militants.

The law enforcers have not detained or arrested anybody in this connection although they questioned many of the disciples and people in the Ramakrishna Mission Road area.

“From the information gathered so far, we are con� dent that the controver-sial religious views, practices and his claims to be the self-proclaimed pir and commander-in-chief of Imam Mahdi’s forces were behind the killing of Lutfor

along with his son,” said Jahangir Hos-sain Matubbar, DB deputy commissioner (east). He said they had not found any con� ict or feud in his family, not even any � nancial dealing, apart from the con� icts centring Faruk’s religious views and practices.

Jahangir claimed that they were yet to identify the killers and specify the quar-ters responsible for the killings.

“We are suspecting the Islamist out-� ts as responsible for the murders since activists of some of the organisations earlier had made attacks on Lutfor and staged demonstrations protesting his ac-tivities and demanding his punishment.”

Lutfor had been vocal against the ac-tivities of some of the militant and Isla-mist organisations and their leaders, he said while adding that anyone else could take advantage too.

Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam claimed that they considered three banned Islamist out� ts for the incident – Huji, JMB and Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

Meanwhile, disciple Anwar Hossain, who was present at the house during the killings, and the house’s security guard Sarwar Hossain had been missing since the incident, said Jahangir adding that Anwar was also a brother-in-law of one of the deceased Manjurul. l

Only four doctors have been working in the unit, while there were seven nurses on deputation from other wards to provide for 49 patients at the 26-bed unit

The list of 189 reported cases and 148 deaths Year Districts Number of cases Number of deaths

2001 Meherpur 13 9

2003 Naogaon 12 8

2004 Rajbari, Faridpur, 58 47 Joypurhat, Manikganj and Naogaon

2005 Tangail 12 10

2007 Thakurgaon,Kustia 15 8

2008 Manikganj, Rajbari 10 9

2010 Faridpur 8 7

2011 Rajbari, Dinajpur, 37 31 Rangpur and Lalmonirhat

2012 Joypurhat and Rajshahi 11 8

2013 Bhaluka, Natore,Nilphamari, 13 11 Naogaon and Manikgonj

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

Continue to the Business section...

Business

www.dhakatribune.com/business WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2013

B3 Appollo Ispat makes hap-py debut in depressed market

B4 70% rice millers sus-pend milling

S T O C K SDSEX -0.85% 4228.91 ▼

DS30 -0.89% 1459.26 ▼

CSEX -1.00% 8308.99 ▼

C U R R E N C I E SAverage selling rates to public in BDT

Rupali Bank Sonali BankSELL BUY SELL BUY

USD 77.4 78.4 77.4 78.4EURO 105.391 108.605 105.377 107.827

INR 1.181 1.338 1.18 1.28SAR 20.537 21.005 20.532 21.01

EPZ RMG workers' minimum wage Tk5,600New wage structure will get retrospective e� ect from December 1

n Tilka Binte Mehtab

Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) has set Tk5,600 as the minimum wage for the readymade garments workers employed by the factories located in the country’s EPZs.

The workers would also enjoy a yearly increment of 10% on the basic wages.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yes-terday approved the new wage struc-ture, BEPZA o� cials said.

The workers will get salary on the basis of current dollar value, but the wages will in no way decrease if the dollar devalued against the local cur-rency, an o� cial told the Dhaka Tri-bune, requesting anonymity.

As per the new wage structure, the basic salary for entry level workers will be Tk3,600 and medical allowance would be Tk560.

The new wage structure will get ret-rospective e� ect from December 1 this year.

The workers will also enjoy food,

medical, transport and attendance bonus. Besides medical allowance, workers will also enjoy free medical services from the EPZs.

Of 3.82 lakh workers employed in the eight EPZs across the country, over 3 lakh in the RMG factories.

According to BEPZA, eight EPZs ex-ported products worth US$ 2110.48m during July-November period this year. The EZPZA contributes 18% to total export earnings of which about 16% comes from RMG unit of the EZPs.

Meanwhile, on November 21, the government-formed wage board � nal-ised Tk5,300 as the minimum wage with a basic of Tk3,000 for entry-lev-el workers. The yearly increment for them set at 5% of the basic wages.

“It is good the workers would get food and transport allowances apart from the salary,” said Musta� zur Rah-man, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

But the government should also pro-vide RMG factories outside the EPZs with similar facilities. He, however,

urged the government to remove dis-crimination between the factories in the EPZs and DTAs (domestic tari� areas).

The RMG factories within the EPZs enjoy more facilities than ours that include uninterrupted utility services

that gave them an extra mile to o� er better wages, said Abdus Salam Mur-shedy, former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

A BEPZA o� cial said the EPZ work-

ers deserve better wages that oth-ers due to their better productivity while the factories in the EPZs gettingbetter services than the factories out-side the EPZs that help reduce the pro-duction cost. l

$40m fund to compensate Bangladesh garment factory victimsn AFP

Four global retailers, along with man-ufacturers and labour groups, have agreed to set up a $40m compensation fund for victims of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza disaster that killed 1,135 people, o� cials said Tuesday.

Retailers Primark, El Corte Ingles, Loblaw and Bonmarche have pledged to contribute to the fund following the collapse of the garment factory com-plex in April, the world’s worst indus-trial tragedy, the o� cials said.

“A fund has been established to com-pensate the victims, injured workers and dependants of the deceased, of the Rana Plaza collapse,” said Lejo Sibbel from the International Labour Organ-isation which helped broker the agree-ment reached last month. “An estimat-ed $40m will be required to compensate the victims and their bene� ciaries,” said Sibbel, who is based in Dhaka.

“To � nance the payments to vic-tims, international brands and retail-ers are making voluntary contributions into the fund, which is also open to contributions from any other interna-tional donors,” he told AFP.

The agreement comes after talks be-tween owners of clothing brands and labour activist groups on a compensa-tion deal ended in failure in Geneva in September.

The collapse of the nine-storey complex on the outskirts of Dhaka, where workers stitched clothes for top Western retailers, highlighted the often appalling conditions and lack of rights for workers at Bangladesh’s 4,500 garment factories.

Bangladesh’s $22bn garment in-dustry is the world’s second largest after China’s and employs four million workers, most of them women.

More than 100 European and US re-tailers pledged to improve safety in the wake of the tragedy, but a deal on com-pensation for families of workers and those injured has remained elusive.

Families have received some short-term compensation from Anglo-Irish retailer Primark as well as from the Bangladesh government.

Under the new agreement, families are expected to receive the � rst pay-ments in February, according to Ineke Zeldenrust of Clean Clothes Campaign, an Amsterdam-based textile rights

group which also signed the arrange-ment.

Although Spanish-based giant El Corte Ingles, Primark, Canadian com-pany Loblaw and British retailer Bon-marche have signed up, it is not known how much they will contribute.

The four retailers could not be con-tacted for comment.

Roy Ramesh, head of the Bangla-desh chapter of international worker association IndustriALL, hailed the agreement as a landmark step towards ending “decades of injustice” for Ban-gladeshi garment workers. But Ramesh said he hoped more retailers whose clothes were made at the Rana Plaza complex would also come on board.

“We hope all 29 brands who have had their clothing made at the � ve fac-tories at Rana Plaza would contribute to the fund,” said Ramesh, whose asso-ciation has also joined the fund.

“It is the least they could do for the workers and their families who lost everything while making apparel for them.”

Families will receive payments for lost wages “on a case by case basis” while compensation for injured vic-

tims will depend on the outcome of a medical assessment under the fund to be chaired by the International Labour Organisation.

“The exact amounts that the vic-tims (will get) will di� er, as it will depend on the bene� ciaries’ age and the family composition, and for the injured also on the outcomes of the medical assessment,” Zeldenrust said.

The Bangladesh Garment Manu-facturers and Exporters Association, which represents the nation’s textile factories, and the Bangladesh Employ-ers Federation have also signed up.

But the Bangladesh government, which has also joined the agreement, said it would not contribute to the fund. It has already paid 180m taka ($2.2m) in total to 777 victims of the disaster.

“We’ll compensate the other vic-tims very soon,” the government’s la-bour secretary Mikail Shipar told AFP.

The government has compensated only the families of those who died in the tragedy and those who lost one or more limbs. Around 1,500 people who su� ered injuries ranging from broken spinal cords to concussion have not been given anything. l

POLITICAL TURMOIL

Port city exporters a bit fortunate n Tushar Hayat, Chittagong

While factories in other parts of the country are struggling to ship their products because of the current polit-ical turmoil, the port city manufactur-ers are enjoying a bit of advantage.

The products manufactured in and around the Chittagong city constitut-ed the largest part of shipment during the last couple of weeks marked by the continuous hartals and blockades, ac-cording to Chittagong Port Authority.

Some export goods from other parts including Dhaka, however, could be transported to the country’s biggest seaport under police escorts.

“The exporters in Chittagong are a little lucky in this unabated political turmoil as the country’s largest seaport is located here,” said Abdul Wahab, acting � rst vice president of Bangla-desh Garment Manufacturers and Ex-porters Association. “But the export-ers outside Chittagong are struggling to reach port. Even police protection sometimes failed,” he added.

A large number of garment fac-tories are based in Dhaka, Savar and Narayanganj.

However, it does not mean that all of the export goods manufactured in Chittagong could be shipped.

The industry people in Chittagong said although the port was close to them, they always didn’t take risk of transport-ing goods as “violence could happen anytime in such a political situation.”

Truckers are also not willing to risk violence during the adversities.

“On Saturday last, I needed six trucks to carry goods to port, but could manage only two with a payment al-most double the usual fair,” said Sheikh Sadi, managing director of Satabdi Gar-ments at DT Road in the port city.

He said they had to depend on oth-er factories for various purposes like printing and washing, but could not do that at the day time fearing damages.

“We can at least send our goods despite higher payments, but the ex-porters based in other districts cannot reach on time, miss shipment, and

then face order cancellations from buyers,” said Sheikh Sadi.

Mohammed Nasir, managing direc-tor of the Evergreen Sweaters Ltd at Banani in Dhaka, said 100 to 150 trucks and covered vans leave Dhaka daily for Chittagong Port under police escorts while the number during normal time is 4,000 to 5,000.

But the cost of this transport is more or less four times higher, he said. The exporters have to pay Tk90,000 to Tk100,000 to hire a covered van for car-rying goods to Chittagong port. But the usual charge was Tk25,000 to Tk30,000 before the spate of blockades and hartals.

Despite the high payment, the exporters are not getting adequate number of vehicles to transport their products as the fears of sabotage didn’t evaporate even after the special polic-ing initiative on the highways.

They, along with others beyond the port city, demand an immediate solu-tion to the current political crisis to let the country’s exports that contributes 12.5% to GDP go smoothly. l

DITF deferredn Tribune Report

The government deferred the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2014 by 10 days due to ongoing political deadlock ahead of the national polls.

The 19th DITF-2014 will now start on January 11 instead January 1 as the gov-ernment has changed the schedule in response to requests by the participant, said a statement the commerce ministry issued yesterday. The month-long trade show titled “Dhaka International Trade Fair-2013” to be held at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka is scheduled to be inau-gurated at 11 am on the day.

A large number of foreign and local business houses have decided to refrain from taking part in the fair due to political unrest, which prompted the authorities to defer the country’s biggest trade fair, said a high o� cial of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). Earlier, nearly 100 domes-tic and foreign participants had threat-ened not to participate the event unless it is deferred beyond the general election.

Small businessmen have also de-cided to stop construction of pavilions and stalls if there is no immediate an-nouncement to defer the event. l

Apparel workers are seen at a factory in an export processing zone in the country DHAKA TRIBUNE

BTRC halts operationsof 4 IGWsn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The telecom regulator has blocked four more International Gateway Operators (IGWs) from mid-night yesterday as they owe around Tk150 crore to the na-tional exchequer for a period of July to September this year, o� cials said.

They are Mos5 Tel Limited, First Communications Limited, SM Com-munication and Cel Telecom Limited.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) sent a letter to the operators as well as the mobile and land phone operators ear-lier in the afternoon, asking them to suspend the operations.

Ranks Telecom Limited and Sigma Engineers Limited, however, escaped the suspension as they made the payments immediately after getting the letter.

“These IGW operators haven’t shared their revenue as per the guide-line … the regulator directed all the mo-bile phone and land phone operators not to terminate these operators’ calls,” a senior o� cial quoted from the letter.

The BTRC took the action following a request by the Post and Telecommuni-cation Minister at a meeting on Sunday.

Mos5 Tel Limited owned by former Health Minister A F M Ruhal Haque. First Communications Limited owned by the Prime Minister’s advisor Ziaud-din Ahmed Bablu.

According to the guideline, the IGWs earn $.03 for per minute of incoming international calls and they have to share 51.75% of it with the regulator.

Earlier in September, BTRC had blocked six IGWs having an outstand-ing of Tk613 crore – most of the compa-nies were politically powerful.

Total outstanding amount of IGWs revenue sharing stands nearly one thousand crore taka so far, sources said. l

DBBL also repays LC money of IDB a� liateThe bank was in default of LC moneyfor a couple of weeksn Asif Showkat Kallol

After weeks of default, Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd has repaid the money of let-ters of credit opened by a subsidiary of Islamic Development Bank (IDB), said o� cial sources.

DBBL managing director informed it in a letter to the secretary of Bank and Fi-nancial Institutions Division last week.

The money was repaid to the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation.

Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) opened the LC worth US$75,240 to im-port instruments for implantation of an IDB project in Bangladesh.

Prime Bank, which also opened LC for the ICIEC, repaid money this week after being on default.

According to a Banking Division of-

� cial, DBBL sent the letter after it was asked if the LC money was repaid.

Earlier, ICIEC sent a letter to the government’s economic relations di-vision on the non-repayment of LCmoney. ERD issued a letter to the bank-ing division along with forwarding IC-IEC letter.

It expressed concerns over the non-payment by the two local banks.

The letter said LC con� rmation cost would increase if the banks continued to be default on LC payment.

It said the local banks should regu-larly repay loans of foreign � nancial in-stitutions and banks to protect uphold image of themselves and the country as well.

DBBL MD K Shamshi Tabrez’s letter read: “We made the repayment on De-cember 12 through HSBC New York by cancelling the earlier arrangement with Mashreq Bank, New York.”

“Our HSBC New York account has been debited on December 13. Ac-knowledgement was also received from the bank supposed to receive the money.”

He said it may be mentioned that DBBL always tried to keep the commit-ment to the bank’s overseas counter-parts to uphold the national image.

“We assure of continuing the best banking practice in future.” l

'Our HSBC New York account has been debited on December 13. Acknowledgement was also received from the bank supposed to receive the money'

B2

Stocks fall for 2nd day amid laclustre tradingTraders face di� culties in executing debut-stocksn Kayes Sohel

Stocks extended losses for the sec-ond straight session yesterday amid laclustre trading, as negative senti-ment persisted over deepening po-litical crisis.

The benchmark DSEX index lost 36 points or 0.9% to close at 4228, hitting highest 4281 in midsession. The blue chip comprising DS30 in-dex fell 13 points or 0.9% to 1459.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, was down 83 points to 8308.

In another development, inves-tors and traders alleged that they faced di� culties in most of the trad-ing hour while betting on Appollo Ispat Complex stocks in its � rst trad-ing day. A Dhaka Stock Exchange of-� cial said huge purchasing order hit the server, resulting in hanging up the system. “We are working to re-move such problem as early as pos-sible,” he said.

A broker said they failed to exe-cute buy-sale order that was reject-ed by the system for most of the time during trading hour.

“This is unexpected. The per-formance of the MSA Plus software since the very beginning of its instal-lation was not satisfactory as it failed to execute transactions on a number of occasions when a new company made debut,” said a stock broker.

The total DSE turnover came down to Tk374 crore after three weeks, indicating that investors were reluctant to bet on stocks.

The turnover of Tk374 crore is a decrease of 18% over the previous session and lowest since December 1 this year. Of the total turnover, the debutant Appollo Ispat accounted for 19%. The newcomer gained more than 73% from its issue price of Tk22 before rising as high as Tk40.

None of the sectors gained. Among the major sectors, power and textile posted the highest losses of more than 1% each, followed by � nancial institutions 0.8%, banks 0.8%, telecommunications 0.6% and pharmaceuticals 0.4%.

“The day’s session was disap-pointing for the investors without any glimmer of positivity in any front. Struggling in the initial hour, the bourse surrendered to pessi-mism, steadily losing in the later part of the session,” said IDLC In-vestment in its market analysis.

Zenith Investments said, “Market eyes further contraction assisted by a number of headwinds. Investors are now approaching towards short term orientation. After continues decline, market needs a fair amount of consolidation in turnover, in or-der to get back to a stable stage.”

The massive turnover in Appol-lo Ispat helped engineering sector topple textile sector from the top turnover list for the � rst time in the last 28 sessions. After Appollo Is-pat, other turnover leaders included Golden Son, Generation Next Fash-ion, RN Spinning, BD Building, Pad-ma Oil, Delta Life Insurance, Para-mount Textile and Argon Denim. l

ANALYST

News from trade serverEHL: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on July 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Accounts on December 23, 2013.

APOLOISPAT: (Q1): The Company has reported its net pro� t after tax Tk. 98.86 million and basic EPS Tk. 0.66 for the 3 (three) months ended on 30 September 2013 (July 2013- September 2013) as against pro� t after tax of Tk. 96.67 million and basic EPS of Tk. 0.64 for the same pe-riod of the previous year. It is to be noted that basic EPS has been calculated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up number of shares i.e. 150,000,000 shares both for 2013 and 2012. However, consid-ering Post-IPO 250,000,000 number of shares the Company's basic EPS for the 3 (three) months ended on 30 September 2013 would be Tk. 0.40. However, consid-ering Post-IPO 250,000,000 number of shares, the company's NAV would be Tk. 24.20 as on 30 September 2013.

SONALIANSH: (Q1): As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 1st quarter ended on 30th September 2013 (July'13 to Sep'13), the Company has reported net pro� t after tax of Tk. 0.68 million with EPS of Tk. 0.25 as against Tk. 2.65 million and Tk. 0.98 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

RIGHT SHARE: RUPALILIFE- The Compa-ny has further informed that the subscrip-tion period for rights issue will be from 06.04.2014 to 05.05.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 16.01.2014.

Dividend/AGMECABLES: 10% cash, AGM: 01.03.2014, RD: 29.12.2013.

BDCOM: 10% Stock, AGM: 25.12.2013, RD: 17.11.2013.

FUWANGCER: 10% Stock, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 13.11.2013.

STANCERAM: 10% Cash, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 19.11.2013.

MONNOCERA: 5% Cash, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 13.11.2013.

LIBRAINFU: 20% Cash, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 12.11.2013.

FUWANGFOOD: 10% Stock, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 20.11.2013.

OLYMPIC: 10% Cash and 50% Stock, EGM and AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 21.11.2013.

ZAHINTEX: 5% Cash, 15% Stock, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 07.11.2013.

PHARMAID: 15% Cash, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 04.12.2013.

RAHIMAFOOD: 10% Cash to the share-holders other than the Sponsor share-holders, Directors and Deposed Directors, AGM: 26.12.2013, RD: 28.11.2013.

USMANIAGL: 11% Cash & 10% Stock, AGM: 27.12.2013, RD: 07.11.2013.

PRIMETEX: 10% Cash, AGM: 28.12.2013, RD: 12.11.2013.

DELTASPINN: 10% Cash, AGM: 28.12.2013. RD: 21.11.2013.

ATLASBANG: 50% Cash, AGM: 28.12.2013, RD: 01.12.2013. EPS of Tk. 9.14, NAV per share of Tk. 222.05.

DESHBANDHU: 5% Stock, AGM: 29.12.2013, RD: 29.10.2013.

METROSPIN: 10% Stock, AGM: 30.12.2013, RD: 17.11.2013.

DAFODILCOM: No dividend, AGM: 30.12.2013, RD: 21.11.2013.

HAKKANIPUL: 5% Cash, AGM: 30.12.2013, RD: 13.11.2013.

GEMINISEA: No dividend, AGM: 30.12.2013, RD: 04.12.2013.

PTL: 12% Stock, AGM: 30.12.2013, RD: 12.12.2013.

DESCO: 10% Cash & 15% Stock, AGM: 04.01.2014, RD: 05.11.2013.

ANWARGALV: 7% Case for general share-holders, AGM: 13.01.2014, RD: 11.11.2013.

MPETROLEUM: 70% Cash & 20% Stock, AGM: 17.01.2014, RD: 28.11.2013.

POWERGRID: 15% Cash, AGM: 18.01.2014, Time: 10:00 AM. RD: 01.12.2013.

EASTRNLUB: 30% Cash, AGM: 25.01.2014, RD: 04.12.2013.

JAMUNAOIL: 90% Cash & 10% Stock, AGM: 25.01.2014, RD: 04.12.2013.

SAVAREFR: No dividend, AGM: 30.01.2014, RD: 19.12.2013.

PADMAOIL: 90% Cash, 10% Stock, AGM: 15.02.2014, RD: 23.12.2013.

SAMORITA: 30% Stock, AGM: 11.01.2014, RD: 25.11.2013.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Yearly

highYearly

lowTurnover in million

Padma Oil Co. -A -12.33 -11.72 266.00 264.40 277.00 263.00 489.0 153.0 6.623Kay & Que (BD) -Z -9.55 -9.55 18.00 18.00 18.00 18.00 25.1 13.0 0.054Rangpur Foundry -A -8.99 -8.94 83.00 83.00 83.00 83.00 130.0 54.0 0.042Rahima Food -Z -8.88 -10.16 71.83 69.80 77.80 69.00 92.9 13.0 2.011Eastern Cables-Z -6.73 -7.37 73.45 73.50 73.50 73.40 99.9 46.2 0.015Miracle Industries -B -6.73 -6.58 19.60 19.40 20.00 19.20 23.9 11.0 0.764Anwar Galvanizing-B -5.83 -4.35 31.22 30.70 33.00 30.50 37.5 12.7 0.297Deshbandhu Polymer-A -5.60 -5.11 23.96 23.60 24.80 23.00 28.0 15.4 4.268H.R. Textile -A -5.50 -1.92 42.33 41.20 43.00 41.10 48.9 19.0 0.529ICB AMCL IslamicMF-A -5.41 -5.41 17.50 17.50 17.50 17.50 26.0 17.5 0.018

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Yearly

highYearly

lowTurnover in million

Padma Oil Co. -A -11.84 -11.56 266.51 265.80 272.00 263.00 492.0 155.0 73.637Rahima Food -Z -10.55 -9.33 72.73 70.40 78.90 69.90 92.9 13.0 7.528Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z -10.00 -9.75 7.22 7.20 7.50 7.20 10.3 6.9 0.026Northern Jute -Z -10.00 -10.00 54.00 54.00 54.00 54.00 60.5 16.2 0.022Samata LeatheR -Z -9.09 -8.64 18.09 18.00 20.00 17.90 27.5 10.7 2.515Anwar Galvanizing-B -6.40 -5.47 31.10 30.70 32.90 30.50 36.3 12.9 3.079Beach Hatchery -A -6.36 -5.65 31.25 30.90 33.00 30.00 36.8 14.5 27.668Legacy Footwear -A -6.26 -4.38 42.13 41.90 43.70 40.00 51.1 12.4 6.860Miracle Industries -B -6.22 -5.03 20.03 19.60 21.70 19.50 23.5 10.4 5.300Desh Garments -B -5.71 -3.70 63.42 62.70 64.80 62.10 108.0 20.0 0.945

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Appollo Ispat CL -N 7,707,200 286.18 43.68 38.40 0.00 0.00 40.00 35.10 37.13R. N. Spinning-A 571,512 21.79 3.33 37.90 -1.81 38.60 39.00 35.00 38.12Paramount Textile Ltd.-N 236,000 13.23 2.02 55.20 -2.99 56.90 58.00 55.00 56.05BD Building Systems -N 180,950 13.11 2.00 70.80 3.21 68.60 74.90 64.50 72.45Golden Son -A 190,075 11.45 1.75 60.30 2.20 59.00 61.20 53.10 60.22Beach Hatchery -A 351,500 11.08 1.69 31.20 -4.88 32.80 33.00 30.50 31.52Generation Next-A 256,960 9.58 1.46 37.10 -1.33 37.60 38.30 34.00 37.28BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 258,048 8.53 1.30 32.90 -2.08 33.60 35.00 32.00 33.07Tallu Spinning -A 206,500 8.03 1.23 38.50 -4.23 40.20 40.50 38.10 38.87UNITED AIR-A 444,588 7.50 1.15 16.80 -1.18 17.00 17.10 16.00 16.88

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Appollo Ispat CL -N 19,170,000 710.67 18.98 38.10 0.00 0.00 40.00 32.00 37.07Golden Son -A 2,184,365 131.03 3.50 60.20 2.38 58.80 61.00 56.00 59.99Generation Next-A 3,315,640 124.01 3.31 37.00 -3.14 38.20 38.90 35.00 37.40R. N. Spinning-A 3,083,354 117.67 3.14 37.90 -2.57 38.90 38.80 36.00 38.16BD Building Systems -N 1,479,450 106.32 2.84 71.70 3.46 69.30 75.00 64.00 71.86Padma Oil Co. -A 276,300 73.64 1.97 265.80 -11.84 301.50 272.00 263.00 266.51Delta Life Insu. -A 253,500 65.90 1.76 257.90 -1.41 261.60 263.90 257.00 259.98Paramount Textile Ltd.-N 993,750 55.77 1.49 55.20 -3.33 57.10 58.20 54.80 56.12 Argon Denims Limited-A 567,480 55.46 1.48 98.20 0.82 97.40 98.80 88.00 97.72LankaBangla Fin. -A 836,819 54.24 1.45 64.10 -2.14 65.50 65.80 61.00 64.81

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Yearly

highYearly

lowTurnover in million

Pioneer Insur -A 9.69 9.73 70.23 70.20 70.40 69.90 87.4 64.0 0.211Samorita Hospital -A 6.70 6.76 94.00 94.00 94.00 94.00 146.4 60.0 0.094Apex Foods -A 6.12 6.12 104.00 104.00 104.00 104.00 128.0 69.0 0.052Brac Bank -A 5.48 4.41 32.89 32.70 33.30 32.00 38.0 22.8 4.588LR Global BD MF1-A 4.55 6.21 7.01 6.90 7.10 6.70 8.8 6.6 0.379Bank Asia -A 4.31 3.99 21.39 21.80 22.00 20.00 22.9 14.4 1.425GreenDeltaInsu -A 4.00 8.61 105.89 104.00 110.00 90.00 138.0 49.2 1.331Bangas -A 3.97 3.62 479.99 482.00 485.00 463.50 714.7 162.5 1.056BD Building Systems -N 3.21 3.56 72.45 70.80 74.90 64.50 82.0 35.1 13.110Bay Leasing.-A 2.86 1.82 35.72 36.00 36.50 32.50 43.5 23.0 5.306

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Yearly

highYearly

lowTurnover in million

Aziz PipesZ 7.07 4.83 20.85 21.20 21.60 19.70 25.0 14.3 0.295Kohinoor Chem -A 5.07 6.39 383.52 383.50 392.80 375.00 570.0 145.0 2.512Kay & Que (BD) -Z 4.55 (0.92) 18.33 18.40 19.30 18.00 25.2 12.5 0.055AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A 4.35 7.30 7.50 7.20 7.50 6.90 8.5 4.7 0.015Pioneer Insur -A 3.78 6.13 69.57 68.70 71.00 65.00 96.0 60.0 13.440Bank Asia -A 3.76 4.02 21.75 22.10 22.30 20.00 23.0 14.5 16.451Eastern Cables-Z 3.65 (1.53) 79.81 82.40 83.30 76.30 111.0 46.0 1.700Rangpur Foundry -A 3.56 2.75 95.51 96.10 97.80 93.80 131.9 53.0 4.298BD Building Systems -N 3.46 1.91 71.86 71.70 75.00 64.00 81.7 35.1 106.316Golden Son -A 2.38 0.12 59.99 60.20 61.00 56.00 65.0 34.7 131.033

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 244.35 6.53 43.49 6.64 287.84 6.54NBFI 260.05 6.95 32.41 4.95 292.46 6.65Investment 94.30 2.52 7.38 1.13 101.68 2.31Engineering 1177.21 31.44 337.95 51.59 1515.15 34.44Food & Allied 151.46 4.05 26.37 4.02 177.82 4.04Fuel & Power 282.70 7.55 26.95 4.11 309.64 7.04Jute 1.83 0.05 0.00 1.83 0.04Textile 675.47 18.04 85.41 13.04 760.88 17.30Pharma & Chemical 208.53 5.57 24.64 3.76 233.17 5.30Paper & Packaging 0.44 0.01 0.12 0.02 0.56 0.01Service 23.07 0.62 3.03 0.46 26.09 0.59Leather 27.25 0.73 5.09 0.78 32.35 0.74Ceramic 14.36 0.38 2.45 0.37 16.81 0.38Cement 57.76 1.54 3.66 0.56 61.43 1.40Information Technology 45.41 1.21 10.64 1.62 56.04 1.27General Insurance 124.82 3.33 3.75 0.57 128.58 2.92Life Insurance 174.16 4.65 8.96 1.37 183.12 4.16Telecom 65.33 1.75 5.94 0.91 71.27 1.62Travel & Leisure 42.90 1.15 10.33 1.58 53.23 1.21Miscellaneous 72.15 1.93 16.54 2.53 88.69 2.02Debenture 0.24 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.24 0.01

Daily capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index 4228.90 (-) 0.85% ▼

DS - 30 Index 1459.26 (-) 0.89% ▼

CSE All Share Index 13114.15 (-) 1.00% ▼

CSE - 30 Index 10688.45 (-) 0.97% ▼

CSE Selected Index 8306.62 (-) 1.02% ▼

DSE key features - December 24, 2013Turnover (Million Taka)

3,743.77

Turnover (Volume)

94,243,809

Number of Contract 149,609

Traded Issues 286

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

43

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

236

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,042.98

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

24.76

CSE key features - December 24, 2013Turnover (Million Taka)

655.11

Turnover (Volume)

18,701,209

Number of Contract 43,901

Traded Issues 219

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

26

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

190

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

1,973.50

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

23.92

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

The day’s session was disappointing for the investors without any glimmer of positivity in any front. Struggling in the initial hour, the bourse surrendered to pessimism, steadily losing in the later part of the session

StockDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Indonesia eases foreign investment rules to boost economyn Reuters

Indonesia announced yesterday it will allow increased levels of foreign investment in the country’s power plants, advertising, and pharmaceu-tical industries as part of government e� orts to boost the slowing economy.

Policymakers are scrambling to tempt back jaded investors who have � ed Southeast Asia’s largest economy due to the country’s sizable current ac-count de� cit, which has helped make the rupiah skid more than 20% against the dollar this year.

Indonesia fears further foreign out� ows due to political uncertainty ahead of next year’s elections and the reduction of US monetary stimulus, which long fuelled demand for risky assets in emerging markets.

“The commitment is to maintain Indonesia’s economic growth and an-ticipating a slowdown in the global economy by encouraging investment, particularly in domestic and foreign investment,” Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa told reporters.

After months of delays, ministers amended Indonesia’s “negative invest-ment list” of sectors in which foreign investors are either barred or restrict-ed. The list, which has existed for de-cades, limits foreign involvement in

areas deemed sensitive.No date was given on when the

changes will become e� ective since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must still formally sign the decree.

“This (list) will boost the investment climate during a political year, provid-ing more legal certainty from a better negative investment list,” said So� an Wanandi, head of the Employers’ Asso-

ciation of Indonesia (APINDO).Under the new policy, the govern-

ment increased the maximum foreign investment in pharmaceutical compa-nies to 85% from 75%, and in advertis-ing agencies to 51% from 49%.

That means more competition could be in store for Indonesian phar-maceutical � rms Kimia Farma, Indo-farma and Kalbe Farma, as well as for

advertising agency Fortune Indonesia.Indonesia also allowed foreign in-

vestment of up to 100% from 95% for power plant projects carried out as a public-private partnership. Under the partnership terms, a foreign investor now can own an entire power-plant during a concession period, after which some equity transfers to the government.

At the last minute, the government dropped its earlier proposal to let for-eign investors to fully operate airports and ports, dealing a blow to India’s GVK Power & Infrastructure, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp and others looking for a bigger presence in Indonesia.

Economists said the changes were a good � rst step to attracting invest-ment, but more was needed.

“The main problem is not the vari-ation in investment types, but how comfortable for them to invest in In-donesia,” said Lana Soelistianingsih, chief economist at Jakarta-based fund manager PT Samuel Aset Manajemen.

The World Bank and Internation-al Monetary Fund earlier this month warned the world’s fourth mostpopulous country to implement more profound economic reforms if it has any hope of returning to stronger growth. l

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Appollo’s share is now in marketThe Signing Ceremony of Listing be-tween Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited (DSE) and Apollo Ispat Complex Ltd (AICL) was held on Tuesday. DSE CEO Dr Swapan Kumar Bala, AICL Chairman Deen Mohammad and other senior of-� cials of both the organisations were present in the ceremony. l

NCCBL receives awardNCC Bank Ltd (NCCBL) Managing Di-rector and CEO of Mohammed Nurul Amin receiving the ‘Certi� cate of Mer-it’ awards from Finance Minister A M A Muhith at the 13th ICAB national award

giving ceremony on ‘Best Presented Annual Reports-2012’ arranged by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) at a city hotel re-cently. l

OBL signs agreementONE Bank Limited (OBL) has signed an agreement with Planning Ministry IMED Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) at CPTU Bhaban recently. Under this agreement, clients will be able to participate in the government electronic tender under CPTU e-GP (electronic Government Procurement) system. CPTU Director General Amulya Kumar Debnath and OBL Managing Di-rector M Fakhrul Alam signed the agree-ment on behalf of their respective or-ganisations. Director Aziz Tahir, CPTU System Analyst Md Mosharraf Hossain, OBL Additional Deputy Managing Di-rector Rozina Aliya Ahmed and other high o� cials of both the organisations were also present in the ceremony. l

Rotary extends hands for global fellowshipRotary in Bangladesh, for the � rst time is hosting its District Team Training Seminar (DTTS) for Rotary Year 2014-15 jointly with the Rotary clubs in Nepal. The purpose of DTTS is to provide the necessary training and tools for the Ro-tary District Leaders to carry out the mission of Rotary. Rotary Bangladesh District Governor Rtn Sa� na Rahman along with her team welcomed the del-egation of Rotary International Nepal who are on a three day visit to Bangla-desh to plan the joint event. The del-egation from Nepal includes District Governor Elect Rabindra Piya, District Secretary Designate Nughal Anada Vaidya, Incoming Chief District Train-er Gopal Sundar Lal Kakshyapati and Incoming District Project Coordinator Kiran Lal Shrestha. During their visit, the delegation will meet the coordinat-ing team for DTTS, Council of Gover-nors, Rotarians of Bangladesh and visit various tourist spots and attend a tradi-tional wedding. l

Summit Power receives awardThe Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) has awarded Summit Power Limited (SPL) the Cer-ti� cate of Merit in the Manufacturing Sector Category under ICAB National Award for Best Presented Annual Re-

ports 2012.Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul

Muhith, MP handed over the awardto SPL Finance Director AyeshaAziz Khan in a function at a local hotel recently. l

Mutual Trust Bank Limited DMD Md Hashem Chowdhury was seen inaugurating the 87th branch of Mutual Trust Bank Ltd at Mirpur. Head of Dhaka Division Branches Syed Ra� qul Hossain, Mirpur Branch Manager Md Zahidul Ahasan were present at the inauguration programme.

City Bank has recently signed a ‘Term Sheet’ with IDLC Finance Limited for issuing of a Coupon-Bearing Subordinated Bond. City Bank MD & CEO Sohail RK Hussain and IDLC CEO and MD Selim RF Hussain signed the Term Sheet on behalf of their respective organisations

Rtn Gopal Sundar Lal Kakshapati

Rtn Rabindra Kumar Piya

Hwa Well Textiles IPO approved n Tribune Report

Hwa Well Textiles Ltd got nod from the securities regulator to go public.

The company will issue two crore ordinary shares of Tk10 each to raise Tk20 crore from the stock market.

The commission has approved the company’s initial public o� ering (IPO) for purchasing and developing land, constructing factory building, chang-ing existing machines and meeting IPO expenses, said Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) in a statement yesterday.

The company’s earnings per share stood at Tk3.66 each and net asset val-ue of Tk28.25, according to its � nancial statement at the end of June 30 this year.

It will be 34th textile company to be listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The commission has also given consent to the Premier Bank to issue non-convertible variable coupon rate bond valued Tk200 crore through pri-vate placements.

The rate of interest of the bond will be 11.5% and the bond is renewable af-ter three months.

The raised fund will be used to strengthen the bank’s capital adequacy ratio in line with regulatory require-ment for meeting the condition of BA-SEL-II. l

Deadline to convert ICB mutual funds extended n Tribune Report

Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) is allowed to convert its eight mu-tual funds from closed-end to open-end ones by next one year.

The time has been extended up to De-cember 31 next year in response to the request by the ICB, Bangladesh Securi-ties and Exchange Commission (BSEC) said in a statement yesterday.

The conversion time of the eight mutual funds— First ICB Mutual Fund, Second ICB Mutual Fund, Third ICB Mutual Fund, Fourth ICB Mutual Fund, Fifth ICB Mutual Fund, Sixth ICB Mutual Fund, Seventh ICB Mutual Fund and Eighth ICB Mutual Fund —

will expire this month.In November, the BSEC allowed the

ICB to convert its closed-end mutual funds into open-end ones as per new mutual fund rules – 2001.

The ICB earlier sought permission of the commission to merge its closed-end mutual funds with the Bangladesh Fund, but the BSEC rejected the plea as no rules permit such merger.

As per the mutual fund rules, a de-cision of conversion will be e� ective after getting approval by two-thirds of the unit holders of a fund in an extraor-dinary general meeting.

In 2009, the BSEC asked the mutual funds with 10-year maturity period to redeem by December 2011.

Later in September last year, the regulator extended the maturity peri-od of the closed-end mutual funds to December 2013.

Redemption means the unit holders of a mutual fund would get back the net asset value (NAV) per unit of the fund in cash, upon maturity or cancel-lation by the issuer. l

HALL-MARK SCAM

Sonali Bank DMD sacked n Tribune Report

The government has suspended dep-uty managing director of Sonali Bank, Atiqur Rahman, for his alleged involve-ment in the much-talked-about Hall-Mark Group credit scam.

Atiqur Rahman is now under police custody to face trial of the country’s biggest-ever � nancial scandal.

As per the public service rules, Atiqur Rahman has permanently been suspended due to his link with the ir-regularities, said a circular Bank and Financial Institutions Division issued Monday.

Soon after the Tk3,547 crore scam was revealed, his job was attached to the Bank and Financial Institution Di-vision.

In July this year, after arresting Atiqur, police handed him over to An-ti-Corruption Commission (ACC). On September 4, 2012, Atiqur was made o� cer on special duty (OSD).

ACC � led 11 cases against 27 people of Hall-Mark Group and Sonali Bank of-� cials, including Atiqur. l

A money changer holds stacks of Indonesian rupiah notes in Jakarta REUTERS

BB extends time for banks to submit quarterly reports on green bankingn Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank has extended the time for commercial banks in imple-menting the second and third phases of green banking policy up to December 31, 2014 and June 30, 2015 respectively.

Earlier, the deadlines were Decem-ber 31, 2012 and December 31, 2013.

The central bank took the decision based on the experience from on-site and o� -site supervision, said a circular issued yesterday. It also extended the deadline by 15 days for submitting the quarterly reports on green banking by the 47 commercial banks.

The scheduled banks have earlier been provided with uniform reporting format to submit quarterly reports on green banking activities within next 15 days of the respective quarter-end.

Now it has been decided that the banks will be required to submit their quarterly report as of December 31, 2013 within January 30, 2014 and sim-ilarly they will continue submitting re-ports of the subsequent quarters with-in the next 30 days of the respective quarter-end.

Banks will keep their annual reports and websites updated with the disclo-sures on green banking initiatives. All other existing instruction will remain unchanged, said the circular. l

The commission has approved the company’s initial public o� ering (IPO) for purchasing and developing land, constructing factory building, changing existing machines and meeting IPO expenses

Appollo Ispat makes happy debutin depressed market n Tahmidur Rahman

Appollo Ispat Complex Ltd yesterday made a happy debut at the bourses de-spite current volatile market caused by the protracted political unrest.

The stock closed at Tk38 each, reg-istering a gain of over 73% on its o� er value of Tk22 in the Dhaka Stock Ex-change. Its price movement ranged between Tk32 and Tk40 during the trading session.

Its shares worth more than Tk71 crore was changed hands, making up a surprising 19% of the total DSE turn-over.

The company made a happy but sur-prising debut amid ongoing depressed market sentiment due to prolonged political chaos, said an analyst. “Debut pricing of the company is unexpected-ly higher,” he said.

Annual pro� t of the company in 2012 was Tk35.4 crore, an increase of 25% from Tk28.2 crore recorded in 2011 due to higher turnover and decreased in the � nancial expenses, according to the company’s IPO prospectus.

The corrugated iron sheet manu-facturer has also experienced an an-nual increase in turnover of more than 2% by maintaining a lower growth of around 1% in the cost of goods sold. The company accounts for 20% of the total market share of the iron sheet in-dustry.

Earlier, deputy-managing director of the company, Abdur Rahman said

the company exports its product to Thailand, Myanmar and African coun-tries and thus the business model is well diversi� ed as well.

“At present, the country has a ca-pacity to produce 10 lakh tonnes of CI sheet whereas we have 50,817 tonnes despite having a capacity to produce 85,000 tonnes and the e� ciency will go up as time passes.”

Previously, the company used around Tk153 crore from the IPO pro-ceeds to repay bank loans that resulted may result in even lower � nancial ex-pense for the upcoming years, said the company in its prospectus.

On June 30, 2012, the company had Tk135 crore as long term borrowings (interest rate of the loans varies from 13%-17%) while a short term borrow-ings of Tk134 crore.

According to the IPO prospectus,

the company invested Tk60 crore for project development and the remain-ing to bear the IPO expenses. Current-ly the shareholders’ equity is around Tk550 crore against public issue of IPO of Tk220 crore.

According to its quarterly � nancial report ended in September this year, the company reported net pro� t over Tk9.8 crore, which is marginal pro� t from Tk9.7 crore in the same period a year ago.

During the period, the company’s earnings per share (EPS) is Tk0.40 against Tk0.64 calculated based on weighted average pre-IPO paid-up number of shares. The stock’s price to earnings ratio stood at 23.81 as of yes-terday.

Currently the sponsors hold 30.47%, public 36% and institutional investors rest stake of the company. l

As per the mutual fund rules, a decision of conversion will be e� ective after getting approval by two-thirds of the unit holders of a fund in an extraordinary general meeting

70% rice millers suspend milling Unrest-hit food supply chain fuels in� ation n Kayes Sohel

Abdul Quddus had no other option but to close down his rice mill three weeks ago. His business takes heat of the lin-gering political violence.

He usually collects paddy from Naogaon and Dinajpur districts to feed his mill located at Modina area in Joy-purhat town. But he failed to continue operations due to transport crisis.

“I have never faced a situation like this,” said the miller, who runs the business for nearly 10 years.

The agreement he made with rice a trader of Badamtoli in Dhaka to supply the staple food has been suspended due to failure in delivery.

“My investment is about to vanish as I have to continue to pay labour wages and bank interest,” said Quddus, who invested Tk10 lakh for this full season of “aman” paddy.

Like every sector, the rice sub-sec-tor also facing the setback due to the blockade enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance across the country, demanding the general election under caretaker government.

“Around 70% mills have now been shut because of transport shortage. Losses are mounting as days passing,” said convener of Bangladesh Auto, Ma-jor and Husking Mill Owners Associa-tion KM Layek Ali.

There are more than 17,000 rice mills across the country and most of them are located in the northern re-gion of the country, he said.

Closure of rice mills also hit whole-salers’ bu� er stock in the city and oth-er areas of the country.

“Rice stock is depleting fast,” said wholesaler Nizam Uddin, who fails to bring rice from the northern region.

During this time his stock of rice remains usually at 10,000 tonnes. “Now it comes down to half,” said Ni-zam, who is also general secretary of Badamtoli and Babubazar Rice Whole-salers Association.

Some rice-laden trucks enter into the city at the dead of night from near-by Sherpur area, but it is not enough. “We are just breathing. It can stop any time,” he said.

Nirod Baran Saha, president of Naogaon Chal Aratdar Samity (an as-sociation of rice wholesalers in the district), said nearly 3,000 tonnes of rice are usually sent to di� erent dis-tricts per day from Naogaon. The vol-ume lately reduced only to around 400 tonnes, he said.

Saha said the truck fare has in-creased by more than 250% in the re-cent days, as truckers feel insecure to rent out their vehicles fearing vandal-ism and arson attacks.

The shattered supply chain have thrown knock-on-e� ect at the con-sumer level as rice price has started to rise in the city, adding an extra burden to the � xed and lower income groups of people.

In the city markets yesterday, coarse rice was selling at Tk36 a kilogram, up from Tk30 a month ago, while the price of � ne varieties ranging between Tk47 and Tk60 per kilogram, up from Tk44 and Tk56.

Economists apprehended that the rising prices of staple food might in� u-ence in� ation to go up in coming days.

Zaid Bakht, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, warned that prolonged dis-ruption in the supply chain of essen-tials would fuel in� ation.

Food in� ation, though, has started peaking up already, as November � g-ures show that food in� ation stood at 8.55% from 8.38% recorded in Octo-ber, according to data of Bangladesh

Bureau of Statistics.Particularly a� ected were the urban

areas, the worst casualty of the dis-

ruption in supply chain, where food in� ation rose 0.03 percentage points to 9.67% in November. In the rural ar-

eas, it climbed 0.2 percentage points to 8.06% compared to October.

“If we don’t do our best in order

to overcome the situation now, it willbe a disaster in the near future,” said Bakht. l

B4 BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 25, 2013

A wholesaler says rice stock is depleting fast RAJIB DHAR

Japan’s 7-Eleven kingpin looks to USto inspire online revolutionn Reuters

The 81-year-old Japanese executive who built 7-Eleven into the world’s big-gest convenience store chain has a new mission: turning more than 50,000 bricks and mortar stores in Japan into portals to a new online retail empire.

To do it, Toshifumi Suzuki, the chief executive of department store to mail order retailer Seven & I Holdings Co, is once again seeking inspiration in the United States. It’s over 40 years since he kickstarted a revolution in Japa-nese retail by bringing 7-Eleven stores

across the Paci� c, eventually buying the US owners after they sought bank-ruptcy protection.

In Suzuki’s future vision, goods or-dered online from Seven & I’s depart-ment stores and supermarkets, as well as outside partners, will be delivered to and picked up from the thousands of 7-Eleven stores spread across  Ja-pan  at customers’ convenience. Most are open 24 hours a day.

“I’ve been talking for a while inside the company about integrating the real (bricks and mortar) side with the Inter-net, but nobody was taking it serious-

ly,” Suzuki told Reuters. In September, the Japanese retail guru decided to change all that.

He dispatched about 50 heads of the group’s companies - his top lieutenants - on a mission to the US He instructed

them to visit retailers like  Macy’s Inc, shopping malls and Internet compa-nies, examples of what he called “omni-channel” integration that are beginning to yield results - with orders to � gure out how to apply it in Japan. “In the US they observed, they listened and they realized that this was possible, and now they’re all motivated,” Suzuki said.

Seeking partnersSuzuki said the company is already in discussions on point-of-pickup ar-rangements for Japan with online re-tailers, including major players.

“We’ve had lots of approaches from people wanting to be partners,” Suzu-ki said, although Amazon.com  is not among them.

At the moment, 7-Eleven’s stores in Japan don’t o� er the range of e-com-merce services available at their US counterparts. On the other side of the Paci� c, for example, 7-Eleven maintains dedicated lockers for picking up mer-chandise ordered online from Amazon.

Amazon does have point-of-pickup arrangements with 7-Eleven’s chief Japan rivals, FamilyMart Co Ltd and Lawson Inc. But 7-Eleven only o� ers such services for limited online prod-uct o� erings, such as upscale cosmet-ics, purchased from other Seven and I retailers.

With no plans to step down any time soon, Suzuki has a reputation for a willingness to innovate and make big plays. In 1991, his company acquired a majority stake in its US mentor and original 7-Eleven Inc owner Southland Corp.

The Japanese company then turned its US unit around, transferring sophis-ticated data systems developed in the US but re� ned in Japan, to manage in-ventories and optimize merchandise strategy at individual stores.

The company also pioneered many of the services and products - freshly prepared “bento” box meals, 24-hour banking and bill payments, a premium private label brand - that made Japan’s convenience stores and especially 7-Eleven among the most pro� table in the world.

To bolster its o� erings in other re-tail segments, this month it acquired a 49.9% stake in the operator of 10 Bar-neys New York high-end apparel stores in Japan. l

Tokyo stocks open 0.54% higherTokyo stocks opened 0.54% higher yesterday following record-breaking advances on Wall Street. “The Nikkei will be supported by US shares’ strong performance, continuing yen declining trend, and cash � ow into risk assets on the back of globally low interest rates,” said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equities at SMBC Nikko Securities. – AFP

Ukraine receives $3bn firsttranche of Russian bailoutUkraine yesterday received $3.0bn in the � rst tranche of a � nancial res-cue plan from Russia that has been denounced by the pro-European oppo-sition, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said. – AFP

BlackBerry deal bolstersFoxconn’s makeover gambitFoxconn’s BlackBerry Ltd deal marks the Taiwanese � rm’s biggest step up the value chain - a chance to not just assemble smartphones, but help design them, too. The agreement to design and market phones starting in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country but an under-penetrated market, is a boon to a mega-manufacturer trying to grow its margins while making a play for a bigger slice of the global mobile devices market. – Reuters

China to aim for 7.5% growthin 2014 as exports recoverChina will likely stick with this year’s growth target of 7.5% for 2014 as top leaders balance the need to keep the economy on an even keel while pushing through necessary structural re-forms, sources at top government think tanks said. Growth will be supported by a steady recovery in China’s exports next year thanks to stronger demand from developed economies, the commerce ministry’s think tank said. – Reuters

Banks pay for past sins as US, Europe levy record finesUS and European regulators � ned banks record amounts this year, imposing penalties and settlements of more than $43bn as authorities work more closely across borders to clean up the � nancial sector. Banks in the United States and Europe are paying for misconduct that includes mis-selling US mortgage bonds, rigging interestrates, and risky transactions such as JPMorgan’s “London Whale” trades.– ReutersToshifumi Suzuki, chairman and CEO of Seven And I Holdings Co Ltd speaks during an intewview with Reuters at its headquarters in

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NEWS IN BRIEF

‘If we don’t do our best in order to overcome the situation now, it will be a disaster in the near future’

RBI likely to reboot policy, focus on consumer in� ationn Reuters

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could soon unveil a major change in mon-etary policy to explicitly make man-aging consumer in� ation, rather than wholesale prices, its main objective.

The shift would be a signi� cant one in a country that’s long struggled to contain retail prices. It is expected as part of a deep review of monetary pol-icy that RBI Raghuram Rajan ordered, after his September appointment, to sharpen the central bank’s focus and increase its accountability.

The report, due by the end of the month, could also recommend making price stability the main objective of the central bank, while keeping but trim-ming the focus on its two other objec-tives: economic growth and � nancial stability.

If these changes are made, they would be the biggest overhaul at the RBI since 2011 when it adopted the repo rate as its main interest rate while intention-ally keeping cash conditions tight to al-low for more e� ective monetary policy.

The RBI is already making in� ation a priority, having raised interest rates twice since September, but that is rais-ing concerns about an economy grow-ing at a decade-low pace and stuck in what some analysts call a stag� ation-ary environment.

Historically, India’s central bank has relied on the wholesale price index (WPI), which is based on the prices of traded goods and services and thus has a bias towards businesses.

In the coming report, “the main expectation is RBI will put in place an in� ation-targeting framework, and the choice will be between WPI and CPI in� ation and also between head-line and core,” said A. Prasanna, chief economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership.

“I expect the headline CPI to be the nominal anchor,” he said.

The focus on consumer prices would come as annual retail in� ation hit 11.24 percent in November, its highest lev-el on record, as vegetable prices have surged because of India’s poor infra-structure and transportation methods.

Consumer prices are typically the key in� ation gauge in most developed economies, but in India the focus has long been on wholesale prices because of the unreliable retail data. l

Suzuki has a reputation for a willingness to innovate and make big plays. In 1991, his company acquired a majority stake in its US mentor and original 7-Eleven Inc owner Southland Corp