Will Paris be a turning point?n Meer Saiful Islam

from Paris

While the presi-dents of Russia, China, France and Germany highlighted the importance of reaching a le-

gally binding agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius, the US president declined to say anything de� nitive about it.

As many as 147 world leaders gathered at the open-ing of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Conven-tion on Climate Change in a heavily guarded convention centre at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris.

The presence of so many heads of state and govern-ment highlighted the glob-

al consensus that curbing greenhouse gas emissions and staving o� the adverse e� ects of climate change was a crucially important goal, but di� erences of priority were also in evidence.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said for the � rst time “we have an oppor-tunity to attain this goal of an agreement. We are more than aware that the small is-land nations feel this is not su� cient.”

She said more than 170 countries had submitted their national commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, representing 95 per cent of global emissions.

The bad news, she said, was that “we won’t be able to obtain the two degree target currently, so we need to work out how to do so in the next

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

SECOND EDITION

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015 | Agrahayan 17, 1422, Safar 18, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 225 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

KHALEDA GETS BAIL IN NIKO GRAFT CASE PAGE 4

PAKISTAN DENIES LINKS TO 1971 ATROCITIES PAGE 32

18 GET DEATH PENALTY IN THREE DISTRICTS PAGE 3

Finally, the EC says no to alln Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Putting o� recent discussions on what its course of action would be in the face of vari-ous demands placed by political parties, the Election Commission yesterday o� cially said that it would entertain none.

On Saturday, main political opposition BNP and ruling alliance parters Workers Par-ty of Bangladesh and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) sought more time to prepare for the � rst ever partisan municipality elections, slated for December 30.

On Sunday, the ruling Awami League re-quested the Election Commission (EC) to let parliament members to take part in election-eering – something that the BNP opposed.

The same day, main opposition in parlia-ment Jatiya Party requested the EC to ex-tend the December 3 nomination submission deadline by 15 days.

Over the last two days, delegations from all these parties met with the EC and placed their arguments.

Yesterday, after a marathon meeting of the commissioners, the EC decided that it would not entertain any demands.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

DB: Foreign intelligence agency pulling JMB strings n Mohammad Jamil Khan and

Arifur Rahman Rabbi

In what sounds like a scene from a James Bond � lm, investigators say a foreign intel-ligence agency provided a local Islamist ex-tremist out� t with a spy telephone to evade increased surveillance operations by local law enforcement agencies.

A high o� cial of the Detective Branch (DB) of police, asking not to be named, yes-terday con� rmed the development to the Dhaka Tribune.

He added that the recent bombing of the Hussaini Dalan, an important Shia shrine, was carried out by banned militant out� t Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) ac-cording to the instructions of the unnamed foreign intelligence agency.

The DB source said a foreign agency was de� nitely involved in the attack and added that investigators were searching for the in-volvement of other groups.

The link between a foreign intelligence

out� t and the JMB was discovered after the arrest of four JMB men last night and the analysis of their spy cell phone records.

The arrestees have been identi� ed as Md

Idrish Shaikh, Md Makbul Sharif, Md Salam and Md Mostofa Zaman.

“After conducting a drive in the Khilgaon PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Detectives escort four members of banned militant out� t Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to the Detective Branch o� ce yesterday. These men were arrested with jihadi books, foreign currencies and passports during DB raids in the capital MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

News2DTTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

EC says no to all“We have discussed in detail the demands placed by the political parties. We actively considered the demand for allowing MPs to take part in electioneering. But it is not pos-sible for us to change the election code of conduct at this stage,” Chief Election Com-missioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed told re-porters.

He also said that despite knowing that there was “no scope to defer the elections,” they actively considered the demands.

The CEC also said that they had an-nounced the polls schedule giving as much time as legally possible to let the political parties prepare.

Yesterday, a Workers Party delegation met with the EC and like their alliance part-ner Awami League, placed a demand for al-lowing MPs to take part in campaign. It also placed its standing request for a rescheduling of the local government polls.

On Sunday, following meetings with Awa-mi League, BNP and Jatiya Party delegations, the commission said it would consider the demands. l

DB: Foreign intelligence agency pulling JMB stringsand airport areas, DB arrested the four men last night and recovered a huge stash of jiha-di literature, Indian, Pakistani and Bahraini currency, a spy mobile phone, two Pakistani and one Bangladeshi passport,” Monirul Is-lam, joint commissioner of DB police, said.

Addressing a brie� ng at the Dhaka Met-ropolitan Police’s media and community centre, Monirul said whenever the JMB oper-atives communicated with each other using the spy phone, a copy of their voice and im-age was automatically sent to foreign intelli-gence o� cials.

“Idrish Shaikh used the spy mobile and we have found evidence of a relationship be-tween him and a female o� cial of a foreign embassy in Bangladesh,” Monirul said.

Monirul declined to disclose the name of either the foreign intelligence agency or the foreign embassy implicated in the investiga-tion.

Monirul, also the DB chief, said Idrish went to India with the aid of brokers in 1985 before travelling onward to Pakistan. He re-

ceived Pakistani citizenship after marrying a Pakistani woman in 1990.

Idrish became involved in Pakistani poli-tics and took part in national elections there in 2002 under the banner of the “Pak Muslim Alliance.” He lost the election.

Idrish returned to Bangladesh in 2007 and, after providing a false address in Bager-hat, procured a new Bangladeshi passport, Monirul said.

Idrish later began working with the JMB. An analysis of his passport shows that he en-tered Pakistan at least 48 times over the last two years, Monirul said. JMB member Makbul Sharif also has con-nections to Pakistan. He went to Pakistan through brokers in 1985 and repeatedly vis-ited the country as a cloth trader.

“He was a JMB operative working in the guise of a trader,” Monirul said, adding that Makbul used a fake passport to visit Pakistan.

During his visits, Makbul established good relations with a Rohingya man living in Paki-stan, Abdul Kuddus.

Makbul helped Rohingya based in Bangla-desh by providing fake passports and helping to send them to Pakistan, Canada and Australia.

The funds he collected for these activities went into the JMB’s co� ers, Monirul said.

Of the two other arrestees, Salam lived in the Bihari camp in Dhaka and also visited Pakistan. Mostofa worked as an assistant tra� c inspector for Pakistan International Airlines.

Monirul said they not only worked for the JMB but operated as currency traders, using their pro� ts to fund militant activities.

Asked about the recent attacks on the Shia community, Monirul said the attacks were de-signed to create uncertainty in the country. He said a foreign power was behind the attack.

Police have � led two cases with Airport police and another with Khilgaon police station against the four arrestees. The four were later placed in court where police sought a 10-day police remand. The court granted three days’ remand for each of the arrestees. l

Members of Sector Commanders’ Forum hoist up the national � ag at 12:01am today to mark the beginning of the Month of Victory in front of Oporajeyo Bangla at Dhaka University MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

State minister gets death threatn Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Ansar al-Islam has released a fresh list of tar-gets, this time issuing death threats against State Minister of Foreign A� airs Md Shahriar Alam and seven other eminent personalities in or from Rajshahi city.

A letter carrying the letterhead of Ansar al-Islam, containing the names of the targets, was sent to the o� ce of the Daily Sunshine, a local daily in Rajshahi city, yesterday, sourc-es said.

The other targets are former Rajshahi mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, Rajshahi University Vice-Chancellor Dr Mizanuddin, writer Azizul Haque, Rajshahi police range’s Deputy Inspector General Iqbal Bahar, Rajshahi Education Board Chairman Prof Dr Abul Hayat, Rajshahi city Awami League General Secretary Dablu Sarkar and the Daily Sunshine’s Editor Yunus Ali.

A copy of the letter has reached the o� ce

of the state minister of foreign a� airs, his as-sistant personal secretary, Sirajul Islam, con-� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune.

Titled “Our targets in Rajshahi city,” the letter says that the al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) – represented by Ansar al-Is-lam in Bangladesh – has started their activi-ties in Rajshahi, and death threats have been issued against those who are against Islam.

At the bottom of the letter, the name of Mufti Abdullah Ahram is mentioned as the AQIS chief, while Rajshahi College’s Principal Prof Habibur Rahman is mentioned as Ra-jshahi city chief of the militant out� t.

However, when contacted, Prof Habib ve-hemently denied having anything to do with the letter or the AQIS.

Receiving the letter, former mayor Khairuzzaman Liton and Awami League leader Dablu Sarkar � led general diaries (GD) with Boalia police station in Rajshahi city last night, police sources said. l

Will Paris be a turning point?ten years to reach far-reaching de-carbonisa-tion of our economies.”

She said developing nations must take the lead. “We caused emissions in the past so we must be at the vanguard in the future.”

South African President Zuma called for richer nations to stump up the promised cash, and more, for climate funding.

“The Paris agreement cannot focus only on mitigation. A global goal on adaptation must be part of the agreement,” he said, urg-ing developed countries to take the lead and honour their existing commitments. “Cli-mate � nance must be scaled up signi� cantly beyond the $100bn for the post-2020 period.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Paris should end in “a legally binding agree-ment.”

He said that by 2030, Russia would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent compared with 1990 and predicted that Rus-sia would cut carbon dioxide in 2030 by 160-180 million tonnes.

United States President Obama did not focus on the target to limit temperature rise or on a legally binding commitment as he ad-dressed the Leaders Event.

But he conceded that the United States was at least partly to blame for the life-threat-ening damage that environmental change has wrought and urged world leaders to join him in � xing the problem. “The United States not only recognises our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.”

Speaking at the Leaders Event, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the conference must “lay emphasis on practical results” and “must not deny the legitimate demands of developing countries to diminish poverty.”

Emphasising that developed countries must honour their commitments on � nance, he looked forward to the “full and e� ective implementation” of the agreement, and pushed for $100bn per year for developing countries by 2020.

Civil society members from Bangladesh expressed frustration that the US president had tiptoed around the issue.

“There was no speci� c commitment in his speech,” said Manjurul Hannan Khan, joint secretary and project director at CASE.

Dr Ainun Nishat, an environment expert, said: “I cannot be hopeful about Obama’s speech as he focused only on what his coun-try was doing.”

Dr Kazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed, PKSF Chairman, said: “His speech was nothing but rhetoric.”

Shortly after his arrival, Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a meeting of the leaders of the world’s two largest car-bon-polluting countries.

Citing climate change as “a huge chal-lenge,” Xi said it was “very important for Chi-na and the United States to be � rmly commit-ted to the right direction of building a new model of major country relations.”

Sitting beside Xi, Obama said the partner-

ship between the two men on climate discus-sions had been an essential part of the lead-up to the global conference. “As the two largest economies in the world and the two largest carbon-emitters, we have both determined that it is our responsibility to take action.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, ad-dressing the opening session, expected that most of the leaders to depart Paris within days, leaving behind ministers who will ne-gotiate an accord over the next two weeks.

Besides the o� cials from all over the world, the event is expected to get a lift from prominent business leaders and philanthro-pists, some of whom are using the talks to announce substantial donations to help the cause of reducing emissions.

French President Francois Hollande said that aside from wanting carbon emissions to have a price everywhere, he wanted to see a deal that limits temperature increase to 1.5 to 2 degrees, di� erentiated commitments for each country a united commitment from all. l

News 3D

TTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Harmony-loving Bogra Shias ignored police warningn Kamrul Hasan

Police had sensed a possible attack on the Shia Muslims living in several villages in Bogra’s Shibganj upazila after the Hussaini Dalan attack and asked them to take special security measures.

Police o� cials told the Dhaka Tribune on Sunday that they had repeatedly asked the Shias to arrange security at their mosques, especially Al Mostafa Jame Mosque in Hari-pur village where three youths launched a gun attack on November 26.

However, the Shia community, which has been living in harmony with others for dec-ades, thought they had no enemy. They were proud of the religious harmony that prevailed in the area since long despite having di� er-ences with the Sunnis in terms of rituals.

Muezzin Mozammel Hossain, 70, died and three other devotees were injured in the at-tack carried out by three unidenti� ed youths. O� cials of the Police Bureau of Investigation have collected blood and other evidence from the spot. They also found eight bullet shells of a 0.22-bore revolver.

Law enforcers and Shia community lead-ers suspect that members of the banned militant group Jama’atul Mujahideen Bang-ladesh (JMB) or some radical Islamists in Qawmi madrasas might have conducted the attack on Thursday.

The police are now interrogating three suspects in the case. One of the trio is a for-mer JMB organiser while another is the prin-cipal of a local Qawmi madrasa.

One of the three remanded on Saturday, Anwar Hossain, 48, is a former JMB mem-ber. Police said he had been arrested earlier in 2010 and came out two years later on bail.

Meanwhile, police yesterday formed a � ve-strong probe body led by Additional Su-perintendent of Police Arifur Rahman Man-dal. Sources said two members of the Special Branch also went to Bogra to assist in the case.

The shooting incident took place one month after the bomb attack at Hussaini Dalan that left two people dead and several others injured. Detectives have found the in-

volvement of JMB men in the attack. Police said they had alerted the Shia leaders about a possible attack.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Bogra attack, but the government brushed aside the claim, saying local mili-tants backed by Jamaat-e-Islami conducted the gun attack.

Shia leaders in Bogra told the Dhaka Trib-une that they had taken some security meas-ures after the Hussaini Dalan attack but they relaxed the measures considering that the lo-cal Shias had a strong bonding with the Sun-nis of the area.

“Police warned us about a possible attack. They arranged tight security measures for Ashura and perhaps that is why there was no attack at that time,” Mohammad Amir Hamza, nephew of injured Imam Shahinur Rahman, said.

O� cer-in-Charge of Shibganj police Ahsan Habib said he had conveyed a security warn-ing to the local Shia people centring Ashura.

According to a police source, o� cers sat with the Shia leaders several times at the Imambara, near Al Mostafa mosque.

They had instructed the Shia leaders to

keep two or three persons outside the mosque during the prayers. They were also asked to arrange lights around the mosque all night.

Mosque committee Secretary Moza� ar Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that they had been warned by the police, “But I could not believe that someone could attack us as there is a strong religious harmony among the locals.”

According to locals, some 20-30 youths were deployed at several points of the Shia villages during Ashura. They kept vigil in the area for several more days.

“The criminals attacked us as soon as we relaxed security,” Hamza said.

Local Shia and Sunni Muslims think that the attack was launched by some radicals who wanted to destroy the non-communal relationship between the two groups. Haider Ali, a local Sunni, said they would not stop saying prayers at the Shia mosque.

The Imam of a local Sunni mosque said they had never asked people not to say prayers at Al Mostafa mosque. “All the mosques are for praying to Allah. Those who launched the attack will never be forgiven by the Allah,” he said. l

18 given death penalty for murders in Three districtsn Tribune Report

A total of 18 people were condemned to death yesterday in three murder cases in three districts.

Eleven of the 18 were given the death pen-alty for killing Jubo League leader Jalal Uddin Sarker in Gazipur in 2003.

Judge Fazle Elahi Bhuiyan of Gazipur Addi-tional District and Sessions Judge Court 1 pro-nounced the verdict. The court also � ned the convicts Tk10,000 each.

Milon Sarker, elder brother of the victim, said the convicts hacked Jalal to death in broad daylight when he was talking to his friends at a � eld near Bolkhela Bazar in Kapasia upazila on August 17, 2003.

In Narayanganj, four men were sentenced to death after a court found them guilty of kill-ing a 13-year-old boy in 2014.

The convicts – Saifur Rahman alias Saiful,

23, Tofazzal Hossain, 22, Jamal Hossain, 22, and Shahjahan alias Jibon, 21 – were also sentenced to seven years in prison and � ned Tk50,000 each on abduction charges in the case.

Narayanganj Additional District and Ses-sions Judge Miazi Mohammad Shahidul Islam handed down the verdict.

Narayanganj court’s Additional Public Prosecutor MA Rahim said the four men were sentenced as their involvement in the killing of Rakibul Hasan Imon, son of Nuru Miah of Kamtal Malibhita area in Narayanganj, was proved.

Imon, a ninth-grader at a school in Sonar-gaon, was abducted on January 29 last year over previous enmity.

APP Rahim said the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Tk10 lakh but the boy was killed on the day of his abduction as the money was not paid.

After the murder, Imon’s body was dumped

at a poultry farm in Madanpur Malibagh area. Imon’s mother Ferdousi Begum later

lodged a case accusing � ve people of killing her son.

The accused were detained and police re-covered Imon’s body a week later based on in-formation obtained during interrogation.

Al Amin, the � fth accused in the case, was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years on May 14 this year.

Also, three persons were given the death sentence by Sylhet’s Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal for abducting and killing nine-year-old boy Abu Sayeed in March this year.

The convicts are Nurul Islam Rakib, 26, general secretary of Olama League’s Sylhet district unit, Ebadur Rahman alias Putul, 24, former constable of Sylhet Airport police sta-tion, and Ataur Rahman alias Geda, 33, a police informer.

Judge Abdur Rashid also � ned the three Tk2 lakh (Tk1 lakh for abduction and Tk1 lakh for murder) each, and acquitted Mahib Hos-sain Masum as charges against him could not be proved.

All three convicts confessed to the murder, saying that they abducted the boy for ransom.

Special Public Prosecutor of the tribunal Abdul Malek said the convicts would have to serve two more years (one year for abduction and one year for murder) in jail upon failure to pay the � ne.

Sayeed’s father Abdul Matin said he was content with the verdict. He also demanded that the verdict be executed soon.

Sayeed, a fourth-grader, was abducted from Sylhet’s Rainagar area on March 11 this year and police recovered his body two days later from the attic of Ebadur’s house.

The boy was killed as he could recognise the abductors. l

Tk50,000 reward for info on Shia mosque attackersn Tribune report

Local authorities in Bogra’s Shibganj have announced a Tk50,000 reward for anyone with authentic information about the cul-prits who attacked a Shia mosque there last Thursday.

Acting upazila vice-chairman Beauty Be-gum made the announcement yesterday following a meeting presided by the district Deputy Commissioner Ashraf Uddin at Hari-pur village.

She said the attack had damaged the im-age of the upazila, adding that the perpe-trators should be arrested immediately to prevent any such incident from ever taking place again.

The DC, Ashraf, said all measures have been taken to arrest the culprits. The fami-ly of the deceased, Moazzem Hossain, have been given Tk20,000 and the families of the two injured – Abu Taher, 70 and Aftab Ali, 42 – have also received Tk10,000 each as assis-tance.

Local police, on the other hand, assured that innocent civilians would not be har-assed during the investigation of the case.

Additional Superintendent of Police Arifur Rahman Mondol said only those with links to the case or anyone with information would be held.

Meanwhile, the mosque’s imam, Shahinur Rahman, who was also shot during the attack has now been referred to the DMCH by doc-tors in the district.

The imam’s elder brother Tofazzal Hos-sain told the Dhaka Tribune that doctors at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hos-pital had suddenly released his brother in the afternoon and referred him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

However, he could not comment on whether his brother’s condition had deterio-rated or not.

The family would take Shahinur to Dhaka later in the day, Tofazzal said last evening. l

Qari Mohammad Arikullah cried out while talking to the reporters about deceased Moazzem in front of Al Mostafa Mosque DHAKA TRIBUNE

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015News4DT

BNP leader killed in Meherpurn Our Correspondent, Meherpur

A local BNP leader was killed in a gun battle with police in Meherpur early yesterday.

Ramjan Ali, 42, son of late Amir Sheikh of Rajnagar village in Meherpur Sadar upazila, was the vice-president of BNP’s Pirojpur union unit.

Meherpur Sadar police station O� cer-in-Charge Ahsan Habib said police took Ramjan along to recover arms on Sunday night.

“But Ramjan’s associates � red at police after the latter reached Shashan Ghat area, prompting law enforcement o� cials to � re

back. Ramjan sustained bullet injuries as he tried to � ee the spot during the exchange of gun� re,” he said.

Ramjan was taken to Meherpur General Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

Police recovered � rearms and two rounds from the scene.

Ramjan had been accused in seven cases lodged with Meherpur Sadar police station on several charges, including attacking RAB members and police o� cials, said police.

His wife Sharifa Begum said police arrest-ed him on Saturday morning. l

Annisul: Truck-stand musclemen can’t be stronger than usn Tribune Report

The musclemen who wreaked havoc during the eviction of the truck stand in Tejgaon industrial area on Sunday cannot be stronger than people if they step forward to support the government, said Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq.

“These culprits attacked us when we were evicting the illegal truck stand from the area. They will not be able to escape the law,” he said at a press brie� ng in the capital’s Karwan Bazar yesterday afternoon.

“These land grabbers tried to provoke me, but I did not react to their antics; my team and I were silent the whole time. They also misled truck workers and made them join in

the clash.“We had police with us who did nothing

wrong. Everyone who was there for the evic-tion drive maintained calm as the culprits raged on the street,” he said.

He said these musclemen are those who actually constructed that illegal establish-ment and ran their drug business from there.

The eviction put their illegal source of in-come at risk, and with it gone, their strength will diminish too, he added.

“We have requested the Ministry of Home A� airs and the police authorities to bring them to the book.”

With the eviction of the illegal truck stand, tra� c movement on the Tejgaon Road will be better now, the mayor added. l

Draft bridges authority act okayedn Tribune Report

The cabinet has given the � nal nod to the draft of Bangladesh Bridges Authority Act 2015.

The council of ministers has also approved a Cabinet Division proposal to form a secre-tarial committee for settling disputes among government enterprises over legal issues.

The approvals came at the regular meeting of the cabinet held yesterday at the Secretariat

with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.Brie� ng journalists after the meeting,

Cabinet Secretary Md Sha� ul Alam said that the Bangladesh Bridges Authority, under Bridges Division, would build bridges longer than 1500 metres.

Regarding the other approval, he also said that the government agencies would com-plain to the secretarial committee if a dispute arose between two agencies. l

SC upholds Fakhrul’s bail ordern Tribune Report

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the bail granted by the High Court to BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in three cases of violence � led with the capital’s Paltan police station.

The Appellate division’s order will � nally clear legal bars for the BNP acting secretary general Fakhrul to be released from jail.

The four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha upheld

Fakhrul’s bail order, said his counsel Sabir Hossain Leon.

On Nov 24, the HC granted Fakhrul a three-month bail in three cases after resolving a pre-vious rule over bail. Later the state moved to the SC’s chamber judge challenging the order.

The chamber judge forwarded the appeal to the appeal bench for hearing.

During the hearing yesterday Addition-al Attorney General M Momtajuddin Fakir stood for the state and Joynul Abedin repre-sented Fakhrul. l

Khaleda gets bail in Niko graft case n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday granted BNP Chair-person Khaleda Zia bail upon her surrender in the Niko graft case.

Judge Md Aminul Islam of the Special Judge’s Court 9 granted the bail after Khale-da appeared before his court in response to a High Court order that discharged petitions challenging the legality of the reopening and proceeding of the case.

Judge Aminul placed the former prime minister in custody of her legal counsel for a Tk1 lakh bond fee.

The judge also � xed December 28 for the next hearing in the case, when the charge

will be framed against the accused. The ACC � led the case against Khaleda

and 10 others on December 9, 2007, for al-legedly causing a loss of Tk13,777 crore to the state by awarding a gas exploration job to Canadian company Niko Resources. The job was awarded when Khaleda was prime min-ister between 2001 and 2006.

Appearing before the court yesterday, Khaleda � led a bail petition detailing why the case against her was politically motivated.

Her counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain told the court that the BNP chief had never misused her bail. He also alleged that the case was politically motivated as it was � led by the military-backed “1/11 government.” l

A missed opportunity? n Meer Saiful Islam

from Paris

Bangladesh has missed an unprecedented opportunity to present its case as a climate vulnerable country, as the leaders of 147 countries raised their concerns and pledged to face the challenges of climate change at the climate conference that began in Paris, France yesterday.

Bangladesh missed the opportunity as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, following the terrorist attacks in Paris, cancelled her plan to attend the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP21/CMP11).

“A political moment like this may not come again,” United Nations Secretary Gen-eral Ban-Ki Moon told the inaugural session of the event, which aims to strike an agree-ment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen adaptation measures to face the negative e� ects of climate change.

“But neither have we encountered such great opportunity,” he told the world leaders gathered together in one room for a single cause.

The heads of state and government of the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, India, Germany and Brazil were present at the conference.

With the huge number of leaders sched-uled to address the Leaders Event, the or-ganisers arranged two meeting rooms to

accommodate all of the speeches within the stipulated time.

Global leaders expressed solidarity with the people of France in the wake of the ter-rorist attacks in Paris on November 13 and vowed to � ght against terrorism, which they said was no less critical an issue than the im-pacts of climate change.

Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju is leading the Bangladesh del-

egation to the two-week event, but the Lead-ers Event was only for the heads of state and government.

A large number of civil society represent-atives from Bangladesh, who are taking part in the event, expressed frustration over the prime minister’s absence.

They said world leaders would have ea-gerly listened to what the leader of one of the most climate vulnerable countries had to say.

They expressed disappointment over miss-ing the chance to let the world know what this least developed country had so far achieved as far as climate vulnerability was concerned.

“We missed an opportunity,” said a civil society member from Bangladesh, who is a climate change expert. “This was an oppor-tunity to highlight Bangladesh and the vul-nerable LDCs,” he told the Dhaka Tribune, asking not to be named. l

Some 150 heads of government and state yes-terday kicked o� a high-stakes negotiation to curb global warming and help poor countries cope with its impacts.

The Paris conference runs until December 11. The objective? The � rst-ever universal cli-mate deal to include all of the 195 nations un-der the umbrella of the UN Framework Con-vention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Dozens of issues have stymied the negoti-ations, now into their third decade. Here are some of the key points of contention –

Mitigation All countries agree that greenhouse-gas emissions which drive warming must be curbed. But by how much? The United Na-tions has endorsed a global warming ceiling of 2°C over pre-industrial levels. But more than 100 poor countries and low-lying, small-island states – many of them in a bloc called the Climate Vulnerable Forum – are

calling for a tougher goal of 1.5°C. Timing is important too: To have a 50-50 shot at 2°C, global CO2 emissions must peak by 2025 and drop dramatically thereafter, scientists say.

FairnessThe 1992 UNFCCC charter enshrines the prin-ciple that rich countries – historically respon-sible for warming – should do more to � x it. That divide was codi� ed in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which went into force in 2005 and placed emissions-curbing targets on indus-trialised nations. The US did not ratify the plan. Much has changed since the principle of “di� erentiated responsibility” was set in stone nearly 25 years ago. Fast-growing China and India have become the world’s number one and four carbon emitters, and other erst-while “developing” countries have scaled the economic ladder. At the same time, the Eu-ropean Union and US have reduced their per capita carbon emissions. Developing nations

insist that industrialised countries should do more to cut emissions, having polluted for much longer. But rich countries insist that the burden must be shared more evenly to reach the 2°C target.

MoneyOne of the few concrete decisions to come out of the 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen was a pledge from rich economies to muster $100bn a year in � nancial support for poor countries from 2020. The money will help develop technology and build infrastructure to cut emissions. It will also be used to adapt to climate impacts like rising seas and spreading deserts. Exactly where that money will come from and how it will be distributed have yet to be worked out. Developing nations want at least half of it to come from government sources, and oppose including loans in the mix.

ReviewThe proposed Paris accord will have as its backbone a roster of voluntary national pledges for reducing carbon emissions. Chi-na, the US and the EU – which together ac-count for more than half of global CO2 pollu-tion – have submitted theirs, along with more than 170 other nations. But scientists say the sum of global commitments will not meet the 2°C objective.

Long-term goalSome countries say the Paris agreement must articulate a longterm goal of decarbonising the world economy to encourage a shift in policy and investment away from fossil fuels. The 2°C target, they say, will otherwise remain out of reach. But poor nations and some emerging economies counter that they should not be expected to abandon cheap energy needed to fuel growing economies and populations.

Source: AFP

Cox’s Bazar 29 24Dhaka 30 22 Chittagong 29 22 Rajshahi 31 17 Rangpur 29 17 Khulna 30 19 Barisal 31 22 Sylhet 29 16T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:10PM SUN RISES 6:25AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW31.0ºC 13.3ºCTeknaf SrimangalTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1

DRY WEATHER

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Fajr: 5:04am | Zohr: 11:47am Asr: 3:50pm | Magrib: 5:11pmEsha: 6:31pm

PRAYERTIMES

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 20155

DT

PARIS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

FACTBOX

Climate summit: The crunch issues

Perhaps suggesting that climate change adaptation rests on the collective action of all countries, pillars bearing the � ags of the countries of the world decorate the venue of the COP21 climate change conference in Paris, France MEER SAIFUL ISLAM

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015News6DT

Clash between police, students leaves 12 hurt n Tribune Report

At least 12 students of International Univer-sity Business Agriculture And Technology (IUBAT), at Kamarpara,Uttara, in the capital were injured yesterday after a clash between them and the law-enforcers.

Two groups of students got locked in an altercation over wearing Borqa and Panjabi on the campus around 2pm. At one stage, they started demo and blockaded roads in

the area, said Ali Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Uttara West police station.

On information, police went to the spot and tried to move away the students from the roads. But they hurled bricks at them, he said.

Later, police charged batons and � red tear shells to bring the situation under control, leaving 12 students injured.

Muntasirul Islam, DMP deputy commis-sioner, said: “We have asked the university authority to investigate the incident.” l

Run-away SI sent to jailn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court yesterday ordered to send suspended sub-in-spector Md Rezaul Karim Patuari to Jail in a case � led with Kotwali police station.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ali Masud Sheikh passed the or-der yesterday afternoon, rejecting the bail petition � led by Rezaul’s counsel Shahadat Hossain Adil Talukder.

Suspended sub-inspector Rezaul escaped from the prison cell of a Dhaka Court on Sun-day after his bail plea was rejected.

Kotwali Police Station Sub-Inspector Hayat Ali Khandoker produced him before the court and sought the court’s order to

send him to custody. The former sub-inspector of Kafrul po-

lice station was arrested yesterday morning while he went to his lawyer’s chamber in the court area.

The defense counsel in the bail plea said his client was mentally disturbed and ran away from the court and sought bail.

The court, however, rejected the bail plea and ordered to sent him to the jail.”

On Sunday, the court framed charge against Rezaul Karim Patuari, a former sub-inspector at Kafrul police station, for-mer sub-inspector Nuruzzaman and local police informer Ratan Babu for the murder of sub-contractor Faroque Hossain Kamal in the capital’s Kafrul area. l

Jute Ministry conducts drivesn Tribune Report

The Ministry of Textile and Jute conducted drives in the capital yesterday to enforce us-age of jute sacks for transporting paddy, rice, corn, sugar, wheat, fertiliser, etc.

The drive, led by State Minister for Tex-tile and Jute Mirza Azam, started around 12:30pm in the capital’s Karwan Bazar and ended in Old Dhaka’s Badamtoli area.

Executive Magistrate Mohammad Moshiur Rahman, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation Chairman Brig Gen (Retd) Hossain Khaled and Jute Department Director General Moazzem Hossain also participated in the drives.

During the drive, a businessman was � ned Tk5,000 for not using jute bags. The state

minister then urged all businessmen in the area to use jute bags or sacks instead of pol-ythene bags to keep the environment clean.

He also told reporters that such drives were being conducted in all levels across the coun-try in accordance with a law passed in 2010 which made the use of jute bags mandatory.

The state minister said the drives will con-tinue for six more days.

He further said: “Primarily we are con-ducting the drives to keep check on the usage of 50kg capacity plastic or polythene sacks used for transporting goods on trucks, pick-up vans, etc.”

Later, the team went to Badamtoli and were pleased to see the situation as around 90% businessmen were using jute bags. l

n Tribune Report

Brig Gen Moinuddin has been re-appointed as the chairman of Bangladesh Rural Electri� cation Board (BREB) for another term.

Currently the BREB chief, Moin Uddin was re-appointed in the post on Sunday, said a press note issued by the BREB’s pub-lic relations o� ce yesterday.

O� cials of the BREB ar-

ranged a ceremony in honour of Moin Uddin, where they ex-pressed their appreciation and gratitude for years of his service.

Thanking for the new ap-pointment, Moin Uddin asked for everyone’s cooperation in bridging the gap between the urban and rural parts of the country, which was a dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. l

Brig Gen Moin Uddin re-appointed BREB chairman

INSIDE

7D

TWorldTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

World leaders launch bid for climate breakthrough in ParisWorld leaders launched an ambitious attempt on Monday to hold back the earth’s rising temperatures, with French President Francois Hollande saying the world was at “breaking point” in the � ght against global warming. PAGE 8

Cash, visas and talks: Key points of EU-Turkey pact on refugeesEuropean Union leaders signed an agreement with Turkey on Sunday, o� ering cash, visas and closer ties in exchange for Turkish help in stemming the � ow of refugees to Europe. PAGE 9

‘Northern Irish abortion laws breach human rights’Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws are in breach of human rights by failing to provide exceptions in the case of fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crime, Belfast’s High Court found in a landmark ruling on Monday. PAGE 10

Climate change: The basics

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015World8DT

SOUTH ASIAUnicef: Nepal shortages put millions of children at riskSevere shortages of food and vaccines due to border protests have left millions of children in quake-hit Nepal at risk of disease or death this winter, Unicef said Monday. “More than three million children under the age of � ve in Nepal are at risk of death or disease during the harsh winter months due to a severe shortage of fuel, food, medicines and vaccines,” the UN Children’s Fund, said in a statement. “The risks of hypothermia and malnutrition, and the shortfall in life-saving medicines and vaccines, could be a potentially deadly combi-nation for children this winter,” said Anthony Lake, Unicef’s executive director.” -AFP

INDIAIndia launches injectable vaccine to prevent polio re-emergenceIn the wake of re-emerging polio, the Indian government launched an injectable vaccine on Monday to be administered in addition to polio drops to double the protection from the deadly virus which has chances of coming back. The inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) will be introduced in the routine im-munisation programme of the government to do away with the risk of re-introduction of the disease. India was o� cially certi� ed polio-free on March 27, 2014. - HT

CHINAChina plans to launch carbon-tracking satellites into spaceChina plans to launch satellites to monitor its greenhouse gas emissions as the country, estimated to be the world’s top carbon emitter, steps up its e� orts to cut such emissions, o� cial news agency Xinhua said on Monday. According to the Xinhau report, the country’s � rst two carbon-monitoring satellites will be ready by next May after four years of development led by Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and Physics. No launch date was given. -REUTERS

ASIA PACIFICS Korea legislature approves free-trade pact with ChinaSouth Korea’s parliament Monday rati� ed a free-trade agreement with China, author-ising the expansion of relations with the country’s biggest trading partner. The pact, signed by the two countries in June and set to take e� ect as early as this year, will reduce barriers to commerce, but leaves in place curbs on rice and automobiles. - REUTERS

MIDDLE EASTTwo months of Russia raids in Syria kill 1,500Russian air strikes in support of the Syrian government have killed more than 1,500 peo-ple, a third of them civilians, since they began two months ago, an activist said Monday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian raids that began September 30 have killed 419 IS � ghters as well as 598 from al-Qaeda a� liate al-Nusra Front and other re-bel groups. The raids also killed 485 civilians, including 117 children and 47 women. -AFP

World leaders launch bid for climate breakthrough in Parisn Reuters, Paris

World leaders launched an ambitious attempt on Monday to hold back the earth’s rising temperatures, with French President Francois Hollande saying the world was at “breaking point” in the � ght against global warming.

Some 150 heads of state and government, including US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, urged each other to � nd common cause in two weeks of bargaining to steer the global economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

They arrived at United Nations climate change talks in Paris accompanied by high expectations and armed with promises to act. After decades of struggling negotiations and the failure of a summit in Copenhagen six years ago, some form of landmark agreement appears all but assured by mid-December.

Warnings from climate scientists, de-mands from activists and exhortations from religious leaders like Pope Francis have cou-pled with major advances in cleaner energy sources like solar power to raise pressure for cuts in carbon emissions held responsible for warming the planet.

Most scientists say failure to agree on strong measures in Paris would doom the world to ever-hotter average temperatures, bringing with them deadlier storms, more frequent droughts and rising sea levels as polar ice caps melt.

Facing such alarming projections, the leaders of nations responsible for about 90% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have come bearing pledges to reduce their national carbon output, through di� erent measures at di� erent rates.

For some, climate change has become a pressing issue at home. As the summit opened in Paris, the capitals of the world’s

two most populous nations, China and In-dia, were blanketed in hazardous, choking smog, with Beijing on “orange” pollution alert, the second-highest level.

Over the next two weeks, negotiators will hammer out the strongest international climate pact yet. The deal will mark a mo-mentous step in the often frustrating quest for global agreement, albeit one that - on its own - will not be enough to prevent the earth’s temperatures from rising past a dam-aging threshold.

“What should give us hope that this is a turning point, that this is the moment we � -nally determined we would save our planet, is the fact that our nations share a sense of urgency about this challenge and a growing realization that it is within our power to do something about it,” said Obama, one of the � rst leaders to speak at the summit.

The last attempt to get a global deal col-lapsed in chaos and acrimony in Copenha-gen in 2009. It ended with Obama forcing his way into a closed meeting of China and other countries on the gathering’s last day and emerging with a modest concession to limit rising emissions until 2020 that they at-tempted to impose on the rest of the world.

Anxious to avoid a re-run of the Copen-hagen disaster, major powers have tried this time to smooth some of the bumps in the way of an agreement before they arrive. A handful of the world’s richest entrepre-neurs, including Bill Gates, have pledged to double the $10bn they collectively spend on clean energy research and development in the next � ve years.

“To resolve the climate crisis, good will, statements of intent are not enough,” Hol-lande said. “We are at breaking point.” l

Visitors walk at the information booth of India during the COP 21 United Nations conference on climate change on Monday at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris AFP

Indian ruling party, opposition lock horns in Lok Sabha over ‘intolerance’n Tribune Desk

Indian parliament (Lok Sabha) have been wit-nessing uproar over heated ‘intolerance’ de-bate and the latest edition on Monday stooped to an all time low after an opposition lawmak-er attributed a statement to central govern-ment home minister Rajnath Singh during a debate on ‘rising intolerance’ in India.

CPI(M) leader Mohammad Salim, who initiated the debate, accused Singh of mak-ing the statement to a news magazine in the course of his speech.

According to Salim, Rajnath, during an interview last year after Narendra Modi be-came prime minister, said: “India had the � rst Hindu ruler after 800 years.”

Singh, however, denied having ever hav-ing made such a statement and demanded an apology over Salim’s remarks.

“I have never been hurt as much as I have been today in my entire Parliamentary career. This is a huge allegation. He should prove it or

apologise,” Singh told the Lok Sabha.Salim after reading out the comment

from the magazine said: “I was quoting Ra-jnath Singh from a magazine, if he is deny-ing then let him send a legal notice to the publication house.”

The arguments led to an uproar in Lok Sabha and the Speaker later expunged Sal-im’s comment.

Earlier, the leftist leader also alleged that “we are straying from our culture of toler-ance” and that “we want a rational India, secular India.”

“This isn’t a fascist country, it’s a demo-cratic country. We want rational and secular India,” said Salim.

The debate comes two days after Modi met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh at his resi-dence, setting aside a history of mutual bitterness amid signs that the government is reaching out to the opposition to avoid a repeat of the monsoon session washout.

It is being seen as a conciliatory move by the government that has in the past, dog-gedly refused to comment on the issue, pointing the � nger at the Congress for trying to stoke discontent against the NDA.

Since the beginning of the session, the opposition parties, led by Congress, have been giving the ruling NDA alliance a hard time by initiating debate over ‘intoler-ance’ in society and action against some ministers for their alleged provocative remarks.

On Sunday, Indian Parliamentary A� airs minister M Venkaiah Naidu had said the government was ready for a debate on intol-erance if the opposition allowed the House to function but defended the government’s record, indicating the debate was likely to be stormy.

A lot is at stake in the month-long winter session as the government has lined up an am-bitious list of bills led by the goods and servic-es tax bill, a landmark tax reform initiative. l

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015World 9

DT

USABen Carson: Syrian refugee facilities ‘quite nice’Republican presidential aspirant Ben Car-son said on Sunday that he found facilities at a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan to be “really quite nice” and that people there would rather stay or return home to Syria than come to the US. But Carson, one of the leaders in the polls in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, offered few details in a round of television interviews from Jordan about how he would work to defeat IS militants and stabilize Syria to enable the refugees’ return. -REUTERS

THE AMERICAS16 prisoners killed in Guatemala jail riotAt least 16 prisoners were killed in a riot in an overcrowded Guatemalan prison on Sunday, and some of the inmates were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, officials said. The prison, 65km south of Guate-mala’s capital city, houses 3,092 prisoners but has capacity for just 600. “All the dead are prisoners, we have ruled out any guards among the dead,” Rudy Esquivel, spokesman for Guatemala’s prison system, said on Monday. Special police forces and the army were sent to take control of the prison on Sunday. - REUTERS

UKSyria air strikes: Corbyn gives Labour MPs free voteUK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn is to o� er a free vote to MPs on David Cameron’s proposals for Britain to bomb Islamic State in Syria but will make it clear that Labour party policy is to oppose air strikes. The La-bour leader will also press Cameron to delay the vote until Labour’s concerns about the justi� cation for the bombing are addressed, as part of a deal he has thrashed out with the deputy leader, Tom Watson, and other senior members of the shadow cabinet over the weekend. - THE GUARDIAN

EUROPETurkey PM: Won’t apologise for downing Russian jetTurkey will not apologise for downing a Russian � ghter jet on the Syrian border but Moscow should reconsider retaliatory sanc-tions, Turkish premier Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday as he held talks at Nato head-quarters. .”If the Russian side wants to talk, we are ready; if they want more information, we are ready; if they want to normalise rela-tions, we are ready to talk,” he said. -AFP

AFRICAFighting in DR Congo between army, rebels kills 30At least 30 people including one UN peacekeeper were killed in clashes pitting the army and UN troops against Ugandan Islamist rebels in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said on Monday. The violence on Sunday underlines persistent instability in an area where local activists say at least 500 civilians have been killed since October 2014, most in overnight raids by rebels carried out with machetes and hatchets. - REUTERS

FACTBOX

Cash, visas and talks: Key points of EU-Turkey pact on refugeesEuropean Union leaders signed an agree-ment with Turkey on Sunday, o� ering cash, visas and closer ties in exchange for Turkish help in stemming the � ow of refu-gees to Europe.

Here are the key points of the deal--

Cash for refugeesThe EU will provide “an initial” €3bn for Turkey to improve conditions for the 2.2m or so Syrian refugees in the country. A key element is to provide Arabic-speaking schools and other services to encourage ref-ugees not to head to Europe. Turkey want-ed €3bn per year. The EU o� ered it over two years. The agreement does not specify, but ties the payments to Turkey’s performance in reducing the numbers travelling. There are, however, no precise benchmarks on those numbers. EU states have not agreed where the money will come from. The EU executive has suggested it put up €500m from central funds and that the 28 mem-ber states pay the rest, according to their means. States may also see their contribu-tions exempted from EU � scal rules if their overall spending on refugees is considered extraordinarily high by the European Com-mission. But richer states, including Germa-ny and France, want the whole amount paid centrally, even if that means eating into re-serves in a budget that has been � xed until 2020. That would avoid potentially di� cult parliamentary processes in some countries. Others, especially net recipients of EU aid in the east, are wary of draining the EU budget.

Accession chaptersEU foreign ministers will formally approve at their next meeting on December 14 the opening of Chapter 17 of EU accession talks with Turkey. In other words, negotiations

will formally start on bringing Turkey’s eco-nomic and � nancial policies and standards into line with the EU -- one of 35 chapters states must complete before being allowed to join the European Union.Turkey also won a pledge, alongside the vague promise to “re-energise” the membership process formally launched a decade ago, that prepa-rations would start to open other chapters. There is talk of, among others, Chapters 23 and 24, on judicial and rights issues. But Cyprus, engaged in delicate negotiations to re-unite the island by securing a peace deal with Turkish-backed Northern Cyprus, has vetoed discussion on several chapters since a falling-out with Ankara over shipping treaties, and wants to hold Turkey to condi-tions before seeing accession talks progress further. Hence the pact says preparations for opening chapters beyond 17 are “with-out prejudice” to member states’ positions. The European Commission has told Turkey that it could complete by the � rst quarter of next year the preparatory work for opening chapters 23 and 24, as well as 15 (energy), 26 (education) and 31 (foreign and defence pol-icy). Many in the EU, and in Turkey, ques-tion whether Turkey ever will, or should, join the European bloc, whose membership now stands at 28 states. The migration cri-sis could speed up the admission of a hand-ful of small Balkan states which had been expected to be delayed well into the next decade. Turkey, with a fast-growing popu-lation of 78m, would be the biggest state in the Union, yet much poorer than average. As a Muslim country, it would be the only nation in the bloc not founded on Christian traditions. Few expect Turkey to join the EU within a generation, but a more active rela-tionship is broadly welcomed on both sides.

Visa liberalisationThe EU and Turkey already have an agree-ment dating from 2013 under which Turks should start being able to enter Europe’s Schengen open travel zone without a visa once Ankara implements a pact to take back Turks and others who reach the EU from Turkey but fail to qualify for asy-lum. Turkey is also supposed to tighten controls on Afghans, Pakistanis and other Asians coming across its borders, some them hoping to reach Europe. Sunday’s accord pledges to accelerate new visa terms so that they can be active by October 2016 if Turkey meets set benchmarks. EU o� cials expect only a small number of the 78m Turks to bene� t at � rst from visa-free travel, most likely those given new-style, electronically readable passports. Groups to bene� t would probably include busi-ness travellers and possibly students.

EU-Turkey summitsThis is the � rst substantive point in Sunday’s joint statement. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wants to intensify top-level dia-logue with Europeans, who have increasingly shunned his company due to concerns about human rights in Turkey. Sunday’s deal sets twice-yearly Turkey-EU summits “in an ap-propriate format.” EU o� cials say a frequent repeat of all 28 EU leaders meeting President Erdogan or his prime minister is highly im-probable. As with existing similar summits, such as with the United States or China, EU-Turkey summits are likely to involve only the heads of EU institutions in Brussels from the European side - Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, the presidents respectively of the European Council and Commission. l

Source: REUTERS

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons in civil warn AFP, The Hague

Syria on Monday denied ever using chem-ical weapons in its four-year civil war, tell-ing a global watchdog it is cooperating fully with the destruction of its toxic stockpile.

“We wish here to state categorically that we have never used chlorine or any other toxic chemicals during any incidents or any other operations in the Syrian Arab Republic since the beginning of the crisis and up to this very day,” Deputy Foreign Minister Fais-al Moqdad told the annual meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Damascus’s denial comes as a growing number of countries including the European Union, the US and Canada have cast doubt on whether the Syrian regime is truly mak-ing e� orts to destroy its lethal arms.

There are “many uncertainties regard-ing the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, notably the gaps and

contradictions contained in Syria’s declara-tions,” EU representative Jacek Bylica told the meeting, attended by delegates from the OPCW’s 192 states.

“These uncertainties lead to doubts as to compliance by Syria with its obligations un-der the Convention,” Bylica said at the open-ing of the � ve-day assembly in The Hague.

This “makes it impossible to have con-� dence that its chemical weapons pro-gramme has been irreversibly dismantled,” Bylica said.

Last week the OPCW itself voiced “grave concern” at the continued use of toxic arms in Syria.

The OPCW investigations did not directly blame any of the parties in the four-year civ-il war, aimed at ousting Assad and in which civil groups say more than 250,000 people have been killed.

Under a deal hammered out in 2013 be-tween Russia and the United States follow-ing a sarin gas attack on the outskirts of Da-mascus in which hundreds died, the regime joined the UN Convention against chemical weapons and pledged to hand over all such arms to the OPCW for destruction. l

World10DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

‘Northern Irish abortion laws breach human rights’n Reuters, Belfast

Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws are in breach of human rights by failing to provide exceptions in the case of fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crime, Belfast’s High Court found in a landmark ruling on Monday.

Unlike other parts of the UK, abortion is banned in North-ern Ireland except only where the life or mental health of the mother is in danger. Doctors who perform abortions outside the limitations face up to life in prison.

Like in the Irish republic where the law is just as strict and debate by both sides just as � erce, the restrictions have led to

thousands of pregnant women travelling across the Irish Sea to Britain for abortions each year.

After four months of deliberation, Judge Mark Horner up-held a challenge by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Com-mission that the laws breached the European Convention on Human Rights. He asked the parties to consider whether the ruling can be applied under current legislation.

If not, it would be referred to Northern Ireland’s devolved assembly which to date has refused to extend legislation and whom the judge criticised, saying the issue was “unlikely to be grasped by the legislature in the foreseeable future.”

Without citing any source, Irish national broadcaster RTE

said it understood Northern Ireland’s Attorney General would challenge the ruling.

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission welcomed what they called a landmark ruling.

The ruling is likely to have an impact on the debate south of the border where a complete ban on abortion was only lifted in 2013 when terminations were allowed if a mother’s life was in danger.

With abortion law reform gaining momentum, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said last week that if re-elected he would institute a citizens’ convention to debate the issue and allow his members of parliament a free vote on any recommended changes. l

INSIDE

We welcome the government’s approval of a plan for Dhaka North and Gazipur City Corporations to construct 22 U-loops on the main highway passing Shahjalal airport between Dhaka and Gazipur.

The project aims to cut congestion by over 25% through smoothing tra� c � ows by facilitating turns for cars and larger vehicles without interrupting other drivers.

At an estimated cost of Tk50cr, this o� ers a cost-e� ective way to ease the crippling congestion that often a� icts this and other crucial routes in the capital.

In order to work e� ectively, this must not be a standalone project. Projects such as this need an overall improvement in lane discipline and

compliance with tra� c laws and lights, to allow them to work properly and reduce the risk of gridlocks merely being squeezed into other places, rather than resolved altogether.

The current situation, in which rules and regulations are not enforced and the bus services on which most commuters rely have little infrastructure in the way of set bus stops and stands, is simply a recipe for more chaos.

The project’s approach of providing di� erent lanes for cars and buses to make loop turns is certainly a step in the right direction to bring about more predictability and to smooth tra� c � ows for all users.

A similar approach should be taken in other areas to prevent the huge delay and inconvenience su� ered by commuters and pedestrians alike in movement on Dhaka’s roads. As we have editorialised before, introducing and enforcing public transport-only bus lanes on major thoroughfares is a must to help bring about the improvements to the city’s bus services and to make a long-term dent into reducing congestion.

Dhaka’s chronic congestion problems need a comprehensive approach to bring about a city-wide solution. A piecemeal approach will not be enough.

This project can help make a di� erence, but it is vital that its advantages and risks are properly analysed so continuing improvements can be made to help manage Dhaka’s tra� c in the the most e� cacious manner.

The U-loop plan is a cost-e� ective idea. To work properly it needs to be part of a comprehensive approach to improve compliance with road rules

Comedy of terrors

Bans and band-aidsAnyone who remembers the political violence of the pre-2004 era will know that political violence is very much possible without Facebook. Miscreants move within our society, and like everyone else, always � nd a way to communicate

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Expectations from ParisIn this context, a global demand needs to be raised in COP21 for a legally binding long-term agreement that would ensure that the rise in global temperature is restricted to 2C above the temperature that prevailed in the pre-industrial period

But what can one do except watch as the show goes on? People die, history rehashes itself, narratives are diluted, distilled, turned into propaganda. But if we’re in a good enough mood, maybe we can provide the laugh track

Go faster on moves to curb tra� c congestion

11D

TEditorialTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

BIG

STO

CK

n SN Rasul

What has the world come to? That is not a rhetorical

question -- I’m really asking. Once again: What has the world

come to? There is a farcical element in the air, a certain ridiculous je ne sais quoi that has been, of recent, pervasive in the political and social rhetoric which has continued to permeate the global conscience.

And how does one react to this nonsense? If the world wasn’t so intent on spinning itself into a whirlpool of dung, perhaps, just perhaps, we could watch it as we do a sitcom rerun, remove ourselves from the mix and laugh.

Let us begin at where we all began: At home. Bangladesh, home to such endearing titles as the Most Corrupt and the Most Densely Populated, is no stranger to comedy.

The entire nation is an homage to slapstick, with the soft Bengali language having disintegrated into a plethora of staccato bursts and the people and tra� c swerving away from each other to constantly, somehow, miraculously, not hit each other and erupt into a ball of � ames and death.

But the government and the overall political nexus aren’t free from ridicule. First, there was the Facebook, WhatsApp, and Viber ban. Instagram, too, was not spared.

This move is an apparent attempt by the government to “nab militants and prevent terrorist activities in the country.” The PM herself has gone on to say that this will allow us to “arrest the perpetrators.”

Really? This article, if I am lucky enough for it to

have made the cut, I will share on Facebook for all my friends and 13 followers to see. I am not a hacker, nor some tech whiz, nor some 180-IQ, computer source code programming Mark Zuckerberg-esque prodigy who has sneakily bypassed the block.

I will use a simple VPN software -- one of thousands -- that does some magic (I presume it reroutes the IP address or other some thingamajig) and voila, I am on Facebook as if the Bangladesh government’s power over my social media domain had never existed.

Then, for the state minister for posts and telecommunication to go on and say this “saves lives” and that the Paris attacks could’ve been avoided if Facebook had been blocked is nigh on ridiculous and worthy of further ridicule.

Not to mention the fact that modes of communication are not restricted to these more popular apps. I wonder what sexy photo these religious extremists are sharing over Instagram to bring our young children over to the dark side.

Moving on, but sticking, still, close to home, a few days ago, some “youths” (aren’t they always the ones carrying out the fantasies of violence of the old?) opened � re on a Shia mosque, killing the muezzin and injuring a plethora of others. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, though this has since then been refuted by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

They had also taken the credit for the previous attack on the Hosaini Dalan previously in the year. And the foreign killings. And the attack on the Christian priest, too, if I’m not mistaken?

And, if I’m allowed to move out of the country and into Beirut, IS has made its presence felt there with a few suicide bombings just recently. And further still, across the European border and into Paris, IS seems to have carried out France’s most horri� c terrorist attack in decades.

Is it just me, or is ISIS kind of an attention-seeking, credit-stealing diva? I am, of course, not claiming that IS was not responsible for any of these attacks; a perfunctory foray into the Paris and Beirut attacks leaves one with enough knowledge to make a justi� ed accusal against ISIS. After all, the terrorists had screamed Syria’s name before blowing themselves to bits and some, though EU nationals, had come into Europe with the refugees.

If all of ISIS’ claims are true, then they have a reach that is bordering on universal. Everywhere and anywhere you turn, there is ISIS, like some creepy, distantly related uncle. Their almost apocalyptic motto pencils them in less as terrorists and more as caricatures of what the West wants to believe

they look like, and how they act. They kill more Muslims than non-

Muslims, welcome Western intervention within their own country, recruit soldiers with Nutella, convince teenagers in cushy, � rst-world homes to leave and become wife-slaves (redundant?), burn jazz instruments, and have a cat-themed Twitter account that literally says “I can haz Islamic State, plz.”

I cannot be the only one who recognises the absurdity of the existence of such a laughable group. And one that has succeeded in scaring the pants o� of the West.

Speaking of the West, if again I am allowed to make the venture, and this time across the Atlantic, we � nd a dialogue regarding our supposedly brave IS heroes between the latest GOP candidates. On one hand, we have Herman Cain, but on the other hand, there is this: The wig-wearing, TV show-hosting, Rosie O’Donnell-feuding, racist, bigoted, unapologetic Donald Trump.

One must ask oneself (no, they really must): How has such a man been allowed to go to the top of the Republican polls? This is a man who has repeatedly made a fool of himself, and it seems that the more shenanigans he participates in, the more percentage points he accumulates (though there has been a recent dip). Has the

American right completely lost its head? This guy “retweets” facts and � gures

without checking them, mocks disabled people while his supporters cheer, ridicules a man for being fat because he was protesting his pledge to remove food stamps, makes the insane, unproven claim that Muslims were cheering during 9/11 (which he says he saw with his very own eyes), has called Mexicans “rapists” for which he recommended a “border wall,” and has imitated, mockingly, how Asians speak.

Come. On. What is truly scary, though, is that Trump

has been successful in hoarding a signi� cant batch of supporters. Logic suggests that this kind of popularity won’t last, but the direction in which the world seems to be headed doesn’t leave much room for that kind of objective analysis. Scarier still is some of the overheard talk at one of Trump’s rally, which included calling an Indian guy “ISIS” and the regular vein of “Kill all Muslims.”

The cause for all this insanity, not just in the States, but across the rest of the world and in our own homes, may be a lack of free and open spaces in which people can exchange ideas objectively, thereby creating a culture of fear and duality. Too many stupid and arrogant people have been allowed to rise to power and to control the minds of other similar people and make them stupider still.

But what can one do except watch as the show goes on? People die, history rehashes itself, narratives are diluted, distilled, turned into propaganda. But if we’re in a good enough mood, maybe we can provide the laugh track.

To quote Aravind Adiga’s protagonist from The White Tiger (censored): “What an e� ng joke.” l

SN Rasul is a writer. Follow him @snrasul.

Comedy of terrors

But what can one do except watch as the show goes on? People die, history rehashes itself, narratives are diluted, distilled, turned into propaganda. But if we’re in a good enough mood, maybe we can provide the laugh track

Perhaps the best course of action is to grab some popcorn and provide the laugh track to all this BIGSTOCK

The entire nation has become an homage to slapstick

Opinion12DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Opinion 13D

T

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

n Adnan R Amin

I recently read the op-ed titled “In defense of the ban” in the Dhaka Tribune, written in support of the government’s ban on Facebook. It was a response to

a response to a state minister’s op-ed that advanced the ban as a means of saving lives. Typically, readers may consider a fourth installment on the topic “too much,” but there is much more at stake here than mere smileys.

A defense of government censorship is always intriguing, in that there are not many ways to defend heavy-handed media regulation by the state, without resorting to appeals to “security,” “protection” (eg from cultural imperialism) or “loyalty.” Arguments that go beyond these political tropes often make for interesting reading. The ban defense piece, however, was a disappointment.

The piece opens with a gruesome, moving description of BNP-Jamaat violence and tragedy, narrating the story of di� erently-abled Shohag, 18, who was burned to death earlier this year.

While deeply tragic, the story has little to do with the ban. Invoking the death of Shohag to justify a ban on social media was in poor taste (as it is to do in the service of any political agenda).

Especially when it cannot be rationally argued that social media bans could have prevented such tragedy.

Also in poor taste were allusions to “snobbery” and “elitism” of the previous author -- because it betrayed contempt for the writer instead of a desire to rationally critique the contents.

It is with the leveraging of tragedy and an ad hominem attack that the piece moved on to its main arguments.

Firstly, the formulation of Facebook as a place for likes and smileys unnecessarily undermines the intellectual discourse that has opened up in the aftermath of 1/11 and

Shahbagh.In fact, Facebook was much more pivotal

in spreading the message of Shahbagh than were blogs.

The social media platform also rose to the occasion during the collapse of Rana Plaza, the death of Rajon, the anti-VAT protests, and in a general sense, during the process of the war criminal trials.

Mainstream media now regularly source opinions from Facebook.

To collectively enjoy the bene� ts of a rapid-sharing platform and then deny its utility to defend a government-enforced ban is disingenuous to say the least.

Secondly, the writer terms “absurd” and “pathetic” the proposition that miscreants/terrorists could possibly switch platforms to keep communications up. His argument seems to be that miscreants are “just enough” tech-savvy to use Facebook, but not other applications.

This may be construed as an underestimation of ideologically or � nancially motivated actors who seek to create chaos and fear to gain power.

Anyone who remembers the political violence of the pre-2004 era will know that political violence is very much possible without Facebook. The recent incident at Tejgaon involving a Dhaka mayor also testi� es to this fact.

Miscreants move within our society, and like everyone else, always � nd a way to communicate: The assumption that miscreants are not tech-savvy or cannot adapt to a changing social media landscape is baseless.

Not to mention that almost every newspaper has alluded to “alternative methods of accessing Facebook” in the past week.

Throughout the piece, it is posited that non-events should be accepted as indicators of (anti-terrorism) success.

While “evidence of absence” is not necessarily “absence of evidence” -- mass

arrests, weakening of grassroots, back� ring of previous violence, disintegration of leadership, or shifts in tactics could each account for the lack of violence.

Next, consider this line: “The writer assumed that the rationale behind banning Facebook temporarily lies in the fact that it can kill people.”

On the contrary, a reading of the state minister’s piece and the rebuttal would have revealed that the argument came from the former and was framed as “banning Facebook saves lives.”

In moving on to a patriotic concluding note, the writer ba� ingly argues that questioning government bans could only stem from the infantile need to update statuses at the cost of working-class lives.

This leap of reasoning hints at a limited understanding of the role of Facebook as a public discourse platform, the role of free media in the democratic process, and the constant citizen activism needed to preserve such platforms.

Incompleteness constitutes a fourth

weakness of the article.The op-ed fails to address at least

three critical points raised in the piece it counters: Namely, the claim that many developed countries, eg France, the US, the UK, did not ban their social media even after attacks (perhaps because it is a discredited anti-terrorism strategy, though it may have limited application in counter-insurgency measures).

Next, it ignores the proposition that protesting government censorship is not in any way unpatriotic or subversive.

There is much more to democracies than applauding every government move, and in fact, challenging the ruling-elites must be a constant preoccupation of the modern citizen.

Also missing was any acknowledgement of the value of digital evidence in identifying and prosecuting criminals.

Last but not the least, the issue of economic losses and plummeting data usage too went unanswered and was dismissed with rhetorical questions about why this hue and cry did not emerge when BNP-Jamaat were exacting their deadly vengeance earlier this year. 

Ignoring this dated line of sentimental

reasoning, perhaps we can agree that there is little scope to defend economic losses in the name of a strategy that has no evidenced e� cacy.

Treading cautiously, I will just say this: It is unwise to compare costs of BNP-Jamaat’s violence and murders to that of the government’s regulation of media space. Their moral, legal, political, and social statuses are not the same.  

In the end, let us not forget that the current ban will have to be lifted at some point -- what happens then?

For seasoned, entrenched, and manipulative political actors, it is not uncommon to lay low for a while and start anew once the dust settles. Bangladesh will still be left with the same challenges as before.

It is for this very reason that banning SMS services or mobile money transfers would not make particularly good counter-measures to violence.

Bans are no more than band-aid measures that cover the wound without healing it.

They more likely prevent smileys than they deter motivated perpetrators of violence.

Criminals may use the same services/amenities as us, but it doesn’t mean we should jettison critical communications infrastructure altogether.

Note that Twitter wasn’t shut down to combat the misnomer Islamic State (neither Islamic, nor a state), which regularly tweets its propaganda and videos.

A medium is a medium. It brings ideas to surface and creates exchanges, it generates critical analyses and reinforces impetus for righting social evils.

Societies stagnate and ossify in the absence of new ideas, propositions, debates, and analyses.

Simply think about how the state minister’s op-ed has spawned a complex, but necessary discourse about security-freedom tradeo� s.

Without digital and social media, where would these conversations take place?

In choosing to shut down communications to inconvenience miscreants, we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. l

Adnan R Amin is strategy and communications consultant.

Bans and band-aids

Anyone who remembers the political violence of the pre-2004 era will know that political violence is very much possible without Facebook. The recent incident at Tejgaon involving a Dhaka mayor also testi� es to this fact. Miscreants move within our society, and like everyone else, always � nd a way to communicate

The ban on Facebook doesn’t do anything to bolster our security and safety

Facebook doesn’t pull the trigger BIGSTOCK

Long Form14DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

n M Zakir Hossain Khan

Storms, � oods, cyclones, river erosion, droughts, and extreme temperatures are on the rise in terms of frequency and magnitude in the least developed

and small island countries including Bangladesh. These are the most vulnerable to climate change, although 48 of the least developed countries that are a� ected by climate change emit only 1% of the total greenhouse gas emission globally.

Scientists believe that an increase in the global temperature by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius would cause irreversible damage to climate-vulnerable countries.

Although the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its � fth Assessment Report in 2014 predicted a rise in global sea levels from one to three feet by the end of the century, a report by NASA has warned that the sea level would rise as much as 10 feet by the end of this century.

It is estimated that the projected global warming will lead to about 14, 32, and 88 centimetre rises in sea level by 2030, 2050, and 2100 respectively, which would cause inundation of about 8%, 10%, and 16% of total land masses in Bangladesh (Govt of Bangladesh, FPMU, 2010).

By 2050, 150 million people globally including 27 million Bangladeshis may become environmentally displaced due to coastal � ooding, bank erosion, drought, and agricultural inversion (IPPC, � fth Assessment Report, Chapter 13). However, there is a gap between commitment and reality.

Limiting global temperatureIn order to tackle the detrimental e� ects of global climate change, there is no alternative to ensuring that commitments

made by all countries, especially the industrialised nations at the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992, UNFCCC the Cancun Agreements, Bali Action Plan, and Rio +20 United Nations Sustainable Development Conferences, are properly met.

In this context, a global demand needs to be raised in COP21 (Conference of the Parties) being held in Paris for a legally binding long-term agreement that would ensure that the rise in global temperature is restricted to 2C above the temperature that prevailed in the pre-industrial period, based on the principle of “common but di� erentiated responsibility” as laid down in Article 3 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Providing ‘new’ and ‘additional’ development assistanceUnder the Copenhagen Accord in 2009, the industrialised countries are supposed to provide $100bn in long-term compensation each year to least developed economies as “additional” and “new” development assistance up to 2020 for both adaptation and mitigation purposes, and subsequently, until 2030, they are supposed to provide climate funds.

However, in reality, the industrialised countries have so far (from 2010 to September 2015) disbursed a total of only $2.6bn (7.5%) against the committed amount of around $35bn.

According to the information released by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 2014, at least $150bn is needed annually up to 2025 for adaptation globally. According to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), 34 industrialised countries and countries of emerging economy have given only 50% of the committed amount of $10.2bn to the GCF

until August, 2015.Moreover, many industrialised countries

are reducing development assistance on the pretext that they are providing climate � nance, which is not acceptable.

This contribution, even if properly made, would still be negligible compared to the potential damage resulting from climate change.

Grant vs loanAccording to “polluters pay” principles in environmental law, which have been agreed upon in di� erent declaration like Copenhagen and Cancun agreements, the a� ected country will get compensation-based climate � nance and it should be a grant.

The fact that Para 6(4) and 6(9)(a) of the Paris Agreement draft refer to loans as sources of climate � nance is unacceptable as climate funds provided by industrialised countries as compensation are supposed to be given as grants from public sources only.

It may be mentioned that there is no legally binding provision in the draft Paris Agreement to the e� ect that priority will be given to grants for adaptation. The use of climate funds for pro� t-making or

doing business is a clear violation of the commitment.

Meagrely focused adaptation fundIn a� ected countries like Bangladesh, � nance for adaptation is more required than mitigation. Performance of the industrialised countries in mobilising the committed funds to least developed countries has fallen short of expectations in mobilising required adaptation funds as public grant.

Although France, UK, and Germany have pledged $19bn every year up to 2020 and China has pledged $3.1bn up to September, 2015, the amount committed is inadequate compared to the need of vulnerable countries like Bangladesh for implementing adaptation projects.

According to the INDC report submitted to the UNFCCC in September 2015 by Bangladesh, it was estimated that a total of $40bn (around $2.5bn per year) is required for adaptation for the period 2015 to 2030.

However, in reality, Bangladesh received only around $ 1.074bn of which 64.2% came from the contribution of the industrialised countries from Fiscal Year 2009-2010 to 2015-2016 (up to August).

Disturbingly, fund � ow to the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund developed from the government’s own fund and the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund created with funds from industrialised countries and budgetary allocation, has alarmingly decreased and has created uncertainty about fund allocation for adaptation.

The shortfall in the “new” and “additional” development assistance required for adaptation as committed by the industrialised countries will increase if a universal carbon reduction agreement based on scienti� c data is not reached at COP21 in Paris.

It is important to note that, although the Adaptation Fund, established to help least developed countries adapt to climate change and the LDCF are currently blank, there is no indication of this in the Paris Agreement draft. l

The concluding part of this long form will be published tomorrow.

M Zakir Hossain Khan works for Transparency International Bangladesh on climate � nance governance.

Expectations from ParisA number of creases in the Paris Agreement need to be ironed out for COP21 to succeed. This is part one of a two-part long form

In this context, a global demand needs to be raised in COP21 for a legally binding long-term agreement that would ensure that the rise in global temperature is restricted to 2C above the temperature that prevailed in the pre-industrial period

It is up to the whole world to shoulder our climate change challenges REUTERS

15D

TBusinessTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

IMF’s yuan inclusion signals less risk taking in ChinaWhen the International Monetary Fund agrees yesterday to add the Chinese yuan to its reserves basket in the biggest shake-up in more than three decades, the IMF can a� ord itself a congratulatory nod. PAGE 17

Turkmenistan in race against time to become global gas playerWhile the golden domes of Turkmenistan’s presidential palace hint at the country’s fantastic gas wealth, the reclusive Central Asian country remains a slumbering giant in the high stakes game of energy politics. PAGE 18

Barvida demands Tk2 lakh duty slab to release each of stranded cars at MonglaReconditioned vehicle importers have recently urged the government to � x a duty slab of Tk2 lakh each for the release of around 1,000 units of imported vehicles stranded for long at Mongla port. The cars were imported between 2009 and 2013. PAGE 16

Capital market snapshot: MondayDSE

Broad Index 4,581.0 0.0% ▲

Index 1,102.4 0.2% ▲

30 Index 1,734.1 0.2% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 4,555.6 12.5% ▲

Turnover in Mn Volume 120.3 -1.8% ▼

CSEAll Share Index 14,005.9 0.2% ▲

30 Index 12,291.5 0.0% ▲

Selected Index 8,522.9 0.2% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 317.7 9.0% ▲

Turnover in Mn Volume 8.8 -8.5% ▼

INSIDE

Bangaldesh, EU to form joint business council by 2016 to boost trade n Tribune Business Desk

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said Bangladesh will form a joint business coun-cil with the European Union (EU) next year to boost the country’s trade links with its member countries.

“We’ve decided to form the EU-Bangla-desh Business Council. The � rst meeting of the joint council will be held in February..,” Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed told re-porters after the meeting with EU Ambassa-dor in Dhaka Pierre Mayaudon at the Secre-tariat yesterday, reports UNB.

Some 25 members from the EU, an eco-nomic block of 28 countries, will be the members of the joint business council, the Commerce Minister said.

Representatives from the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and In-dustry (FBCCI), Bangladesh Garment Man-ufacturers and Exporters Association (BG-MEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), Dha-ka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Chittagong Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and oth-er stakeholders concerned will represent Bangladesh side, he said.

Tofail said the council will play a role in resolving the trade and investment-related problems through taking proper steps.

Expressing satisfaction over his discus-sion with the Commerce Minister, the EU envoy said the joint business council will be a successful one in boosting trade and in-vestment between Bangladesh and the EU.

Mayaudon laid emphasis on putting together the ‘relevant agenda’ to encour-age more investment in Bangladesh from the European countries. “We’ve our success stories,” the diplomat said citing the deal recently signed between Bangladesh and French company on Satel-lite Bangabandhu-1.

Mayaudon also said the joint business council will help boost investment in Bangladesh from European countries through ‘mean-ingful dialogue’ between the business people of the two countries. Appreciating

Bangladesh’s economic growth, the envoy said the EU will continue to help Bangladesh through enhanced trade and investment. l

RIVERINE TOURISM

Plan to sign river protocol with India this year n Ishtiaq Husain

Bangladesh and India may sign a river pro-tocol this year to boost transboundary river-ine tourism, o� cials said.

If signed, the protocol will allow tourists from both countries to travel through trans-boundary rivers. The initiative has been taken ahead of the Tourism Year 2016.

“We are trying hard to sign a river proto-col with India soon to introduce transbound-ary river tourism,” said Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan. “Once signed, Bangladesh can tap its huge potentials to attract tourists from the neighbouring country.”

He said the protocol would o� er tourists an a� ordable cost in inter-country travel and Bangladesh could also bene� t from the rise of visitors coming from India.

Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed

Khan Menon said the two countries would bene� t from the protocol as it would help to create increased movement of tourists.

“We set the 2016 as a base year to expand our tourism sector. The campaign titled ‘visit Bangladesh’ will also continue until 2018, in which the river protocol can play a vital role,” Menon said.

Under the 2016 tourism year plan, the government targets to attract 1m foreign tourists in the year.

“Every year a lot of tourists visit Kolkata travelling through Hooghly river. If we can also take the opportunity in carrying tour-ists through rivers, that would be great” said Masud Hossain, managing director of Bengal Tours Ltd.

Mahbub Alam Bulu, a member of Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB), said: “Undoubtedly, this is a good

initiative. We can easily increase the num-ber of tourists visiting Bangladesh using the river communication system.”

He said tourists from Dhaka could also easily visit Barisal, Sundarbans, Mongla, Khulna and Srimangal through rivers.

Bangladesh currently has around 24,000 km of rivers. The inland waterways still carry over 50% of all arterial freights and 25% of to-tal passengers, according to o� cial estimates.

Masud Hossain said the waterways are more comfortable and a� ordable for tour-ists than other communication systems. “Considering all the aspects, we can take the chance.”

Lamenting the lack of such e� orts in the past, he said: “Despite having all kinds of facilities to promote ways for carrying tour-ists, no attempts were made previously in this regard.” l

Tofail Ahmed says the council will help to resolve trade and investment-related problems

Business16DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

STRANDED CARS AT MONGLA PORT

Barvida demands Tk2 lakh duty slab to release each of vehiclesn Tribune Report

Reconditioned vehicle importers have re-cently urged the government to � x a duty slab of Tk2 lakh each for the release of around 1,000 units of imported vehicles stranded for long at Mongla port. The cars were imported between 2009 and 2013.

The stuck cars could be released shortly only if the demand is accepted and the cars are exempted from all other taxes and duties, said Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle Im-porters & Dealers Association (BARVIDA).

The association leaders, however, de-manded 95% depreciation facility for those cars, if the government did not accept the proposal of Tk2 lakh as � xed duty. The asso-ciation came up with the latest call during a meeting with � nance minister AMA Muhith held yesterday in the capital.

The association made the move as the Prime Ministers’ O� ce (PMO) on October 7 decided to hand over all the piled up cars at Mongla Port to Bangladesh Police by Decem-ber 31, this year to help enhance the strength of the force.

However, the PMO decision sparked huge protests among the reconditioned car im-porters.

They had earlier requested the govern-ment to implement the July 2014 order of the PMO that instructed the commerce and ship-ping ministries and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to take necessary measures on releasing the stuck cars.

The PMO has recently asked NBR, Bangla-desh Bank and Shipping Ministry to provide in-formation related to the cars. The information

sought includes-bank liabilities and losses of importers, total amount of customs duty and outstanding duty, port charges and demurrag-es, waiver of demurrage and other � nancial and legal aspects of the stuck up vehicles.

Currently, some 2,079 reconditioned cars have remained stuck at the port for years due to various problems including valuation complexities and unauthorised import of more than � ve-year old cars.

Among them, a total of around 1000 units of reconditioned cars, imported between 2009 and 2013 are remain stuck up at the Mongla Port due to complexities in customs valuation. The association has demanded Tk2 lakh as � xed duty for speedy release of those cars.

For another 512 unit of cars, which are � ve years old and were imported violating import policy, BARVIDA has suggested the government to provide clearance permit to those cars, so either the importers can re-lease these cars or the custom authorities can arrange the � nal auction of those cars.

For rest of the cars, that were imported be-fore March 2015, BARVIDA said the importers could not release those cars mainly due to political unrest during that period.

“ Release of these cars were delayed due to political turmoil situation in the country,” said the association, urging the government to release these cars through providing nor-mal clearance after the payment of regular duties. l

Prime Minister’s O� ce decision to hand over stranded reconditioned vehicles to Bangladesh Police sparks protests among importers DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sheltech’s year-ending housing fair begins today n Tribune Report

Sheltech (Pvt) Ltd, a real estate and housing company, has organised a 15-day “Year End-ing Housing Fair-2015” from today at its cor-porate o� ce in the capital’s west Panthapath.

Dr Tou� q M Seraj, managing director of the company, addressed a press conference on the occasion yesterday.

He said: “In the fair, Sheltech is going to sell apartments and commercial spaces at prime locations of the capital Dhaka, as well as in Ashulia and Singair at reduced prices.”

M Seraj said the � ats would be sold at � xed prices though there were earlier some dis-count o� ers. “However, o� ers will be availa-ble for those paying the whole price at a time in the fair.” “There will be also be facility for borrowing 70-80% of the � at price. Payments can be made in long-term instalments.”

Launched in 1988, Sheltech has so far handed over 3,000 apartments to customers on demand. Of them, over 322 apartments were given out in 2014 and 210 in 2015.

Sheltech took another project of building 150 more apartments in 2015. l

Doreen Power Generations gets IPO nod n Tribune Report

Doreen Power Generations and Systems Lim-ited has received green signal from the secu-rities regulator to go public.

The commission has approved the compa-ny’s IPO worth Tk58 crore for setting up two power plants in its two subsidiary companies, bank loan payments and meeting IPO expens-es, said the Bangladesh Securities and Ex-change Commission in a statement yesterday.

It will issue two crore ordinary shares worth Tk29 each, including premium of Tk19.

According to its � nancial statement ended in June, 2014, its � ve-year weighted average earning per share is Tk3.19 and net asset val-ue Tk34.87.

The BSEC also approved First ICB Mutu-al Fund and AIMS First Guaranteed Mutual Fund for converting them to open-end funds from closed-end mutual funds.

However, it asked the fund manger of Grameen One: The First Scheme of Grameen Fund One to wrap up the fund’s operation as shareholders did not approve its conversion from closed-end to open-end.

The commission also approved Tk200 crore non-controvertible subordinated bond of Premier Bank. l

More time likely for retail investors’ IPO quota n Tribune Report

Retail investors a� ected in 2010-2011 share market crash is likely to enjoy IPO quota for another one year until June 2017.

This is the third time the Bangladesh Se-curities and Exchange Commission has taken the decision to extend the time.

“The commission has decided to send a proposal to the Finance Ministry to extend the time from July 2016 to June 2017 for 20% quota allocation in all IPOs for the a� ected retail investors under special scheme,” said BSEC in a statement yesterday.

As compensation, around 9.33 lakh inves-tors are now enjoying an allotment of 20% quota in all IPOs since 2012 when the govern-ment had decided that the a� ected small in-vestors who incurred losses on their deposits of Tk10 lakh or less in the market’s free-fall would get IPO quota until December 2013.

Later, it was extended till June 2014 for the � rst time and July 2016 for the second time. But those small investors could not ap-ply in the general quota for IPOs.

Along with the IPO quota, small investors were given a 50% waiver of loan interests ac-crued in the calendar year of 2011 or � scal year 2011-12. The government also gave the inves-tors scope to pay the rest 50% of the interest through quarterly installments in three years.

On November 22, 2011, the SEC unveiled a 21-point market stabilisation package, in-cluding a special scheme on compensating the retail investors.

In another decision, BSEC has extended suspension of margin rules to December 2016 from January in response to the request of Dhaka Stock Exchange and investors. l

Trade licence renewal deadline extended till Dec 31n Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The government has decided to extend the deadline for renewal of trade licences till De-cember 31 as part of its process to resolve dis-putes between businesses and city corporation authorities on the steep rise in renewal fees.

The proposal has already been sent to the Law Ministry for vetting, and a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) will be issued within a day or two with regard to the deadline ex-tension and reduction in existing fee hikes, o� cials con� rmed.

Although the deadline for trade licence re-newal ended on September 30, the government earlier extended the period of time till No-vember 30 after businesses, including leading chambers like Federation of Bangladesh Cham-bers of Commerce and Industry, protested the government decision on the excessive fee hike.

On March 2, the Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry is-sued a gazette, hiking trade licence fees by an average of 263%, setting o� opposition from traders and leading business chambers.

According to the new rates, some traders

have to pay six times the current amount to renew their trade licences. Business lead-ers have been protesting the hike, saying it would adversely a� ect entrepreneurship, particularly small and medium enterprises.“The Local Government Division has again extended the deadline till December 31, con-sidering the plea from businesses. In addi-tion, the fee hike on trade licence will also see a reduction. The average fee hike will be maximum 80% whereas the sector-wise fee hike may be increased by di� erent amounts, ranging from 60% to 100%,” Bangladesh Do-kan Malik Samity President SA Quader Kiron told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He said the government had made the decision following recommendations from the seven-member committee consisting of three government o� cials and four business leaders and headed by an additional secre-tary to rationalise the hike.

“As the renewal rates did not see any rise since 2002, we will comply with the govern-ment decision if it rises up to a maximum tolerable range of 80%,” said Kiron, also a member of the committee. l

Business 17D

TTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

IMF’s yuan inclusion signals less risk taking in Chinan Reuters, Shanghai

When the International Monetary Fund agrees yesterday to add the Chinese yuan to its reserves basket in the biggest shake-up in more than three decades, the IMF can a� ord itself a congratulatory nod.

By acknowledging the yuan as a major global currency alongside the dollar, euro, yen, and pound, as is widely expected, IMF members will endorse the e� orts of China’s economic reformers and by doing so hope that will spur fresh change in China.

But Chinese policy insiders and interna-tional policymakers say reforms may not continue at the breakneck pace of recent months. In addition, Chinese sources sug-gest adding the yuan to the IMF basket leaves economic conservatives better positioned to resist further signi� cant reform in a reminder of the period following China’s entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

A slowing in the pace has implications for those who bet that making the yuan a glob-al reserve currency will give it a boost. The yuan has fallen almost 3 percent against the dollar this year, on course for its biggest an-nual fall since its landmark 2005 revaluation.

The IMF decision will remove a key in-centive – bolstering national pride – that reformers used to push otherwise reluctant conservatives to support reforms.

More importantly, however, are worries in Beijing that the rickety economy can’t handle more aggressive reform that allows a freer � ow of currency across China’s borders.

Beijing is already rapidly losing a taste for more experimentation with capital � ows, say the sources - economists involved in policy discussions who declined to be identi� ed be-cause of the sensitivity of the subject.

After the stock market buckled more than 40% in the summer – which many blamed on nefarious foreign capital – regulators have made it harder for money to leave China to counter yuan selling pressure and have inter-vened heavily in onshore and o� shore curren-cy markets. Not just conservatives, but more

liberal economists are calling for a pause.“Our ability to control � nancial risk has

yet to be improved,” said a senior economist at the China Centre for International Eco-nomic Exchanges (CCIEE), an in� uential Bei-jing think-tank.

“Any rush to open up the capital account completely could be unfavourable for con-trolling � nancial risks ... we will de� nitely be very cautious.”

The IMF’s executive board, representing the Fund’s 188 members, is likely to approve inclu-sion of the yuan in the reserve basket, known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR). An IMF sta� re-port and Managing Director Christine Lagarde have endorsed the idea. The United States has suggested it will not stand in the way.

The SDR basket determines the currency mix countries like Greece receive when the IMF disburses � nancial aid. Some economists predict inclusion will boost demand for the yuan, or renminbi (RMB), by

more than $600bn.Chinese media predicted entry will draw

over 1tn yuan ($156bn) of foreign money into China bonds. Both predictions rest on as-sumptions more capital account opening is on the way.“The RMB (will be) included so the re-form-oriented forces can keep the upper hand; there’s no way back now for the con-servative members in the party,” said an IMF policymaker from an advanced economy, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Seeing the SDR decision as the goal of Chi-na’s reforms is “as if the tail were wagging the dog,” said Otaviano Canuto, who represents Brazil and other Latin American and Caribbe-an countries on the IMF board.

“The expectation is that the eventual inclu-sion of the RMB is a moment in the process ... (which) is being undertaken and implemented for itself, because it’s part of the development of the Chinese economy,” he said. l

A woman takes pictures of new 100 yuan banknotes she withdrew from a bank in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China REUTERS

Euro weak ahead of hotly-anticipated ECB meetingn AFP, Tokyo

The euro weakened yesterday as traders bet that the European Central Bank will turn on the monetary stimulus taps this week, while key US jobs data were also in focus.

A solid reading for Friday’s employment � gures would add to already strong expec-tations that the Federal Reserve will raise near-zero interest rates as early as December.

As US policymakers get ready for a rate hike, the ECB appears set to move in the op-posite direction with extra stimulus to boost growth in the eurozone economy.

The measures could be unveiled as early as Thursday when it holds a policy meeting.

“After last week’s doldrums, this week’s agenda will come as a shock to the system,” Raiko Shareef, currency strategist at the Bank of New Zealand, said in an email to clients.

“Front of mind will be the ECB’s policy decision. The US employment reports will garner interest, but only a disastrous result would likely derail the (Fed policy board) from raising rates next month.” l

Stock tribunal acquits another man n Tribune Report

The special tribunal for stock market yester-day acquitted Kutubuddin Ahmed on the charge of illegal private placement share trade.

This is the � fth verdict of the tribunal that has been dealing with 22 stock market-relat-ed cases since June this year, when the tribu-nal began to function. The cases were trans-ferred to the tribunal from di� erent courts.

In 2000, Bangladesh Securities and Ex-change Commission had � led a case against Kutubuddin Ahmed who is a former man-aging director of Saudi Bangladesh Indus-trial and Agricultural Investment Company Limited, popularly known by its acronym SABINCO.

In the case, the regulator alleged that he, in league with some other o� cials, made money by trading shares at a time through

di� erent brokerage � rms to in� uence the share prices.

“Shamim was found not guilty, as the BSEC has failed to produce any proof against him, ” said the tribunal judge Humayun Ka-bir while giving the verdict.

In his reaction, defence lawyer Md Bour-han Uddin said the accused even did not know about the case and the main plainti� of the case was not produced before the tribunal.

But BSEC assistance lawyer Musta� zur Rahman said the accused was freed as the securities regulator failed to present its sur-veillance department report on share scam.

Earlier, the BSEC investigative team found that during June-July 2000, Kutubuddin Ahmed invested Tk3 crore in the stock mar-ket and arti� cially jacked up share prices.

On October 27 this year, the special tri-bunal in its fourth verdict freed Shattaruz-

zaman Shamim from the charge of unlawful placement share trade.

On August 31, it sentenced the managing director and a director of Chic Textiles to four-year imprisonment in its third verdict in a 1996 stock market scam case.

On August 17, the tribunal handed down three-year jail to Bangladesh Welding Elec-trodes Managing Director Nurul Islam and the then Weekly Industry Editor Enayet Ka-rim for share price manipulation in 2007.

It also � ned them Tk20 lakh each and said they would need to serve six more months in jail if they failed to pay the � ne in time.

On August 3, the tribunal delivered its � rst verdict with two-year imrisonment to stock tipster Mahbub Sarwar for illegally in� uenc-ing the stock market through blogs and web-sites during the market bubble and bust in 2010-11. l

Stock markets continue to end � at n Tribune Report

Stock markets continued to end � at yester-day as investors remained cautious following persistent volatility.

After crossing 4,600-mark in the morning, the benchmark index DSEX witnessed a frac-tional gain of 0.3 points to 4,581.

The Shariah index DSES inched 2 points up to 1,102. The blue chip comprising index DS30 closed at 1,734, gaining over 3 points.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selec-tive Category Index CSCX was slightly up 16 points to settle at 8,522.

Like previous few sessions, the market swung between positive and negative, as in-vestors continued to remain concerned over the ongoing weak economic data and securi-ty, according to brokers.

Continued strong buying and selling pres-sure boosted volume of trade in value as the DSE turnover stood at Tk455 crore, up more than 12% over previous session.

The heavyweight telecommunication sector continued to rally as the sector added 3.4% led by Grameenphone.

The low-cap engineering sector rose 1.5%, driven by BSRM Steels surging 4.8%.

Food and allied sector had a bad day fall-ing 1.4%. Bank, non-banking � nancial insti-tutions, power and insurance edged lower after ending � at in previous session.

Lanka Bangla Securities said the market showed lack of zeal in intraday trading. The in-dex, however, saw almost no change in index as selling frenzy in � nancial stocks � zzled out by the rally in engineering and pharma stocks.

It said stocks mostly attempted to stabi-lise after seeing a number of up-and-down swings in the past few trading sessions.

IDLC Investments said another attempt to breakout 4,600 points level was foiled as the market has been constantly � nding a large supply of scrips at that level. l

Business18DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

CORPORATE NEWS

First Security Islami Bank Limited (FSIBL) has recently achieved an award of excellence from Bangladesh Bank for being named the best stalls out of 56 banks at Banking Fair Bangladesh 2015. Parliament member, Dr Md Abdur Razzak handed over the award to Syed Waseque MD Ali, managing director of FSIBL

Dutch-Bangla Bank has recently opened its 150th branch at Maijdee Court in Noakhali. The bank’s managing director, KS Tabrez inaugurated the branch

National Bank Limited has recently opened its 183rd branch in Manikgonj. The bank’s managing director (current charge), Md Badiul Alam inaugurated the branch

Agri-business for Trade Competitiveness Project (ATC-P) branded as Katalyst has recently organised a workshop on private sector’s opportunities in Local Agri-business Network (LAN)

Turkmenistan in race against time to become global gas playern AFP, Ashgabat

While the golden domes of Turkmenistan’s presidential palace hint at the country’s fan-tastic gas wealth, the reclusive Central Asian country remains a slumbering giant in the high stakes game of energy politics.

An ex-Soviet republic of � ve million, Turk-menistan boasts more gas reserves per capita than any other country bar Qatar. But it has so far proved unable to bring its energy boun-ty to a competitive market as low prices and technological improvements have expanded options for importers elsewhere.

And time may be slipping away for the au-thoritarian regime in Ashgabat with pressure coming not only from more producer nations but also the growth of lique� ed natural gas.

Once hailed as a missing piece in energy security puzzles from Brussels to Delhi, only China has established a � rm grip over the hermit-like country’s strategic hydrocarbon wealth, while former chief buyer Russia has seemingly turned away.

Beijing’s China National Petroleum Com-pany (CNPC) imports over 30 billion cubic metres of Turkmen gas annually via a pipe-line it threaded through neighbouring na-tions Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in 2009.

Russia’s Gazprom, meanwhile, announced earlier this year its decision to wind down long-standing energy imports from its former Soviet ally, leaving the undiversi� ed Turk-men economy pegged to Chinese demand.

“Here the leverage in terms of any future contract negotiations is very much in favour of the buyer,” says Andrew Ne� , senior energy analyst at the global IHS Energy consultancy.

“As long as China keeps ramping up im-ports, the Turkmen government will keep buying itself marble palaces. If it stops or decides to drive the price down, that country will face real problems.”

‘Ambitious projects’Low prices for hydrocarbons and the rise of alternatives to piped gas such as shale and LNG have cast a shadow over two mul-ti-country pipeline projects analysts say would establish Turkmenistan as a key play-er on the global energy market.

The $5 billion-plus Trans-Caspian pipe-line that would funnel gas along the seabed of the Caspian Sea towards markets in Eu-rope and the $10bn Turkmenistan-Afghan-istan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline slated to feed energy-starved populations in South Asia would have a combined capacity of over 60 billion cubic metres of gas annually.

While both links have been endorsed by participating countries they lack critical commercial backing and face competition from other potential links originating in gas-rich Russia and Iran.

At an annual investment conference held in Ashgabat this month, Turkmen o� cials tried to restore faith in both mega-projects.

Oil and Gas Minister Muhammetnur Haly-

lov described Turkmenistan as a “reliable, stable and responsible partner with a good reputation and high international standing.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the confer-ence Charles Hendry, Britain’s former energy and climate change minister, credited “the drive of the Turkmen government” in mov-ing to complete its own sections of both links.

“Europe is going to go on needing gas well into the future,” Hendry, who now chairs the London-based Eurasia Partners Ltd consul-tancy, told AFP of the Trans-Caspian proposal.

“The more we have that through estab-lished, stable routes of supply, the more that will be bene� cial.”

But other industry analysts, like Laurent Ruseckas, a senior advisor at Veracity World-wide, remain sceptical.

“Political will alone does not bring mul-ti-billion dollar projects into fruition. What is the gas price? Subtract from that the trans-portation costs and factor in construction,” Ruseckas told AFP by telephone.

“Both projects face signi� cant challenges right there before questions of political risk even enter the equation.”

Missing the boat?The glut on the global gas market is particu-larly signi� cant for Turkmenistan, which counts on hydrocarbons for over 80% of total exports and has a debt to CNPC for the con-struction of the Central Asia-China pipeline still outstanding. l

France, India to launch global solar alliancen Reuters, Paris

French President Francois Hollande and In-dia’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will yes-terday launch an international solar alliance aimed at eventually bringing clean and af-fordable solar energy within the reach of all.

The launch will coincide with a summit of world leaders at the start of two weeks of talks on the outskirts of Paris to seek a new global deal on curbing climate change, by shifting from fossil fuels towards renewable energy.

An Indian government statement on Sun-day said there were well over 100 solar-rich countries in the tropics that could be mem-bers of the International Solar Alliance to de-velop clean and a� ordable solar energy.

“Solar energy is a practical and e� cient way to reduce the greenhouse gas emis-sions,” it said. Aware of the shadow cast by the failure of the 2009 Copenhagen summit, the last attempt to reach a global climate deal, the United Nations is placing as much weight on the e� orts of individual govern-ments as on an overarching UN agreement.

More than 180 nations have submitted na-tional action plans, but they are not enough to achieve a goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times - the cap scien-tists say is essential to prevent the most dev-astating consequences of global warming.

India’s national plan focuses on solar, say-ing it is expected to grow signi� cantly. The aim is to reach capacity of 100 gigawatts by 2022, to be scaled up further in the future. l

News 19D

TTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Panchagarh abuzz with election fevern Our Correspondent, Panchagarh

Panchagarh, a municipality of 30,000 voters, is abuzz with speculations about the upcom-ing local elections set to take place on De-cember 30.

Following the announcement of the election schedule, aspirants for the mayor and councillor seats have been busy trying to secure endorsement from their political parties; but there is high likelihood thatthe election might see multiple rebel candidates.

According to local sources, several hope-fuls are vying to get backing from the Awa-mi League, while single candidates from the BNP, Jamaat, and JaSad are now campaign-ing in the area.

The incumbent mayor, municipality BNP’s President Md Towhidul Islam, will re-

portedly run again this time to retain his seat. Towhidul, also the district BNP vice-presi-dent, has consecutively won the past four municipality elections and is popular among the voters.

His main challenge is likely to come from any of six individuals � ghting for Awami League’s backing. Among them, district Awa-mi League’s former organising secretary Ad-vocate Mirza Sarwar Hossain is leading the race.

District AL General Secretary Anwar Sadat Samrat told the Dhaka Tribune that based on popular support, district AL president and Panchagarh 2 lawmaker Advocate Nurul Islam Sujon has already recommended Sar-war’s name to the party headquarters.

However, he did not comment on wheth-er any rebel candidate might run against the party-endorsed candidate.

On Friday, a section of local Awami League protested MP Sujon’s decision to pick Sarwar as a candidate.

District Mohila AL General Secretary Za-kia Anwar, who is also hoping to secure party candidacy, said the district president ignored the opinion of the grassroots and made the selection on his own.

Looking at other parties, Jamaat’s Panchagarh Amir Mawlana Abdul Khalek is likely to run as the only candidate for Jamaat, while Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSad) is likely to extend its support to its district president, Freedom Fighter Abdul Majid Babul.

From both the major political alliances, aspirants for councillor seats are also active lobbying and campaigning to secure their candidacy.

Enthusiasm among the locals is high, with the upcoming polls dominating conversa-

tions at most tea stalls and public places.Aspirants for Awami League and JaSad’s

nominations are campaigning in public – holding meetings, discussion and visiting di� erent mosques and temples to garner the support of the voters.

On the other hand, candidates supported by the BNP and the Jamaat are treading care-fully out of fear of being arrested or facing attacks. But they continue communicating with local activists and well-wishers to or-ganise and build their campaigns.

District Election O� cer Dewan Md Sarwar Jahan said two nomination papers for the mayor’s o� ce and 47 more papers for coun-cillor and reserved women councillor seats have been served so far.

The local election authorities have all nec-essary preparations to successfully arrange the polls, the o� cial added. l

BCL leader, 3 others placed on remand in arms case n FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

A court in Chittagong yesterday put four per-sons, including a former leader of the Bang-ladesh Chhatra League (BCL), on four-day re-mand in connection with a � rearms recovery case.

Assistant Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Nirmalendu Bikash Chawkrabatry (prosecution) said police had produced the four, including Saiful Alam Li-mon, former leader of CU unit BCL, before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Farid Alam with seven-day remand prayer, but the court granted four-day remand.

Other accused are Towhidul Islam, 29, Saddam Hossain, 23 and Azizul Haque, 27.

Earlier, the Rapid Action Battalion ar-rested BCL leader Saiful Alam Limon and his three associates with a foreign pistol,

three one-shooter guns, four magazines and bullets from Limon’s house located at Chit-tagong city’s Lalkhan Bazar area on Wednes-day night.

RAB later � led an arms case with Khulshi police station on Thursday evening.

Former student of Chittagong University (CU) Limon is loyal to Chittagong City Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin.

Following the arrest, a section of BCL leaders staged demonstration in the port city, demanding immediate release of him.

Terming the arms case � led by RAB as conspiracy and fabricated, a total of 101 for-mer BCL leaders of CU unit yesterday sent an email to media.

The email demanded withdrawal of what they said fake and fabricated case imme-diately and unconditional release of Saiful Alam Limon. l

4 to die, two get life-term for killing driver n FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

A court in Chittagong yesterday sentenced four persons to death and two others to life-term imprisonment for killing a CNG-run auto-rick-shaw driver after snatching his vehicle in 2008.

The death penalty convicts are Nurul Alam, Abul Kalam, Md Rubel and Md Kawar while life-term jailed convicts are Ariful Is-lam and SM Naimuddin, said court sources.

Judge of Chittagong Public Security Tribu-nal Sayeda Hosne Ara handed down the ver-dict against the six persons after examining all the records and taking the deposition of 17 witnesses, said Public Prosecutor Md Ja-hangir Alam.

Of the condemned, Md Kasar and Md Rubel were behind the bar while two other convicts went into hiding after coming out from the jail on bail, he said.

The court also � ned Tk50,000 each of the death penalty convicts while the life-term convicts were also � ned with Tk50,000 each, in default to su� er six months more in im-prisonment.

According to the prosecution, the con-victs had hired a CNG-run auto rickshaw of Md Yusuf from Chandgaon area in the Chit-tagong city in a bid to visit Shrine of Baizid Bostami and Mohsen Awlia Mazar in Bansh-khali upazila on May 3, 2008.

Later, the six had killed the driver Yusuf at Boalkhali upazila on the way to Banshkali and snatched his vehicle. Later, they dumped the body under a bridge at Gomdandi.

On the following day, deceased’s cousin Hatem Tai had lodged a murder case accus-ing six with Boalkhali police station.

The court farmed the charge sheet against them on January 29 in 2012. l

Two forest robbers killed in gun� ght n Our Correspondent,

Bagerhat

Two suspected forest robbers were killed in an alleged gun-� ght with members of Rapid Action Battalion in Urubaria Khal area, Chandpai Range of the Sundarbans East Zone in Mongla upazila, Bagerhat yes-terday morning.

Major Adnan Kabir, deputy captain of RAB 8, told the Dha-ka Tribune that a gang of for-est robbers had opened � re on the members of the elite force while they were patrolling the area, forcing RAB members to take retaliation that triggered a gun � ght.

After the gun� ght, RAB

members entered into jun-gle and found two bodies of the robbers' gang and a good number of home-made weap-ons and � rearms.

The deceased were identi-� ed as Monir Khalifa, 32, chief of the forest robbers' gang ‘Monir Bahini’ and his deputy commander Nur Mohammad alias Bhola Mama, 37, both residents of Morrelganj upazi-la in Bagerhat.

They also recovered 18 � rearms, 300 rounds of bul-lets and some sharp weapons from the spot.

Monir and his gang mem-bers were accused in several cases with Sharonkhola and Mongla police stations. l

News20DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Unauthorised battery-run vehicles � ood Munshiganj townn Our Correspondent,

Munshiganj

Hundreds of unauthorised battery-run three-wheelers, locally known as easy-bikes have � ooded Munshiganj district town violating gover-ment rules.

According to the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983, no motor vehicle can run without six documents-registration, � tness certi� cate, tax token, route permit, insurance certif-icate and driving license while the easy-bikes have none of these.

The drivers of the bikes stop their vehicles in the mid-dle of the street whimsically to drop passengers creating unnecessary jams.

It is alleged that police give the easy-bikers chances to ply their vehicles on the roads in exchange of money. Many have alleged that police are given Tk20-30 per easy-bike everyday.

The vehicles are not only il-legal but also risky due to their shaky structure, said locals.

Driver Md Rajon said: “I have no license, but I have learnt how to operate an the bike.

“Police do not disturb me as I give them Tk20 per day,” he said.

Driver Nayan said: “Some union council chairmen would give registration num-ber to the easy-bikes taking

Tk600. But those papers are invalid now.”

“Earlier, police would pre-vent us from running the ve-hicles on the town roads, but after we agreed to pay them Tk20 per vehicle daily they stopped interfering. And so, easy-bikes are plying the main roads of the district without any obstruction,” said another driver Russel.

However, Kamrul Beg said, tra� c sergeant of the district, termed the allegation of tak-ing bribes as baseless.

He said: “There are some 1000 easy-bikes in the town. Though the roads are narrow here, the commuters like to ride the vehicle.”

According to BRTA sources, an easy-bike is run by � ve re-chargeable batteries that need to be charged eight hours dai-ly. With the amount of elec-tricity needed for the purpose, some 34 energy bulbs of 23 watts each can be lit for eight hours,” he added.

Municipality Mayor AKM Iradat Manu said: “There are 1500 easy-bikes in Sadar upazila. We do not give regis-tration to these vehicles.”

“Some union council autho-ries give them licence.As a re-sult, the number of easy-bikes is increasing,” he also said.

“Many suggest to ban the easy-bikes. But, if we ban it, how the poor drivers will live with their family members,” the mayor added. l

Man gets death penalty for killing n Our Correspondent, Barguna

A court sentenced a man to death for killing his brother-in-law in Sadar upazila in 2011.

The condemned convict was identi-� ed as Motaleb Bepari, 57.

According to the persecution, Mot-aleb stabbed his brother-in-law Sohr-ab over a land dispute at Jakir Tabak village in Sadar upazila on February 19, 2011, leaving him dead on the spot.

Nurjahan, wife of the deceased, � led a murder case accusing her broth-

er Motaleb on the same day.Police submitted charge sheet ac-

cusing Motaleb.After examining the witnesses and

documents, Judge of the District and Session’s Judge’s Court Barekujjaman handed down the verdict. l

Nandail mayor arrestedn Tribune Report

Police arrested Mayor of Nan-dail municipality AFM Azizul Haque Pikul from his Chara-nipara residence at Nandail yesterday morning.

O� cer in Charge of Nandail police station Ataur Rahman said Pikul was an accused of two cases � led under Explo-sives Act.

The OC said police had ar-rested him after issued war-rant in two cases earlier. He was produced before a court in Mymensingh in the after-noon and sent him to jail, re-ports BSS. l

Indo-Bangla border confce concludes n Our Correspondent,

Moulvibazar

A 3-day long Indo-Bangladesh border conference titled 'Dep-uty Commissioner-District Magistrate level Indo-Bangla-desh border conference- clus-ter-6’ held in the district con-cluded yesterday.

Sources said Md Qumrul Hasan, Deputy Commissioner of Moulvibazar led the 13 mem-ber-team of Bangladesh while, Sri S Biswanathan, District Magistrate (DM) of Cacher dis-trict of Assam, state of India led eight member-team of India. l

Tech 21D

T

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

The 8th Mate

Samsung Tab S2

n Mahmood Hossain

With so many darn smartphone brands you might end up losing your mind trying to decide which suits your needs. Well, we’re going to be a little cruel and throw in a new hat into the ring. The new Huawei Mate 8 is an absolute beast.

Get to know your MateHuawei is recently riding o� their huge success of the Nexus 6P. Now, whether this phone is a replacement to the 6P is a tag we will not entertain. Even though it rocks a 1080p 6-inch LCD, it’s not something you want to compare with, let’s say, the Galaxy Note 5 or even the older Nexus 6. The reason for this is the resolution only produces 367 pixels per inch. Not really a spec you’d want to boast, while other phablets like the Note 5 cranks out 518ppi.

Putting the display aside, under the hood, you’ve got yourselves an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 950 processor, with a 2.3GHz Cortex A72 chip and four 1.8GHz Cortex A53 chips. Backing up all the action is 3GB of RAM and

your choice of either the 32GB or 64GB of storage. Running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the company has its own Huawei Emotion 4.0 skin for its interface and navigation. And it also has a decent 8-megapixel front-facing camera, while the 16-megapixel sits comfortably in the rear. It’s also comforting to know it possesses image stabilisation with a f/2.0 aperture.

The biggest advantage of this phablet by Huawei is its monstrous, 4,000mAh powerhouse of a battery. Even better, it has quick charging. So you can keep that large screen lit up as bright as you want. Although, we recommend you don’t for obvious reasons. First, less strain on the eyes, and of course, save even more energy from that huge battery.

Your Mate’s looksThere are hints and elements from other � agship phones in the market, which isn’t too surprising. In fact, you could easily confuse this with LG’s � agship, if it weren’t for the Huawei logo at the bottom of the phone. The key focus, however, should be

n Chisty Rahim

The new Samsung Tab S2 features the android 5.0 Lollipop and packs an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2.1-megapixel snapper in the front.

Samsung’s latest tablet is super-thin, incredibly fast, and one of the best-looking tablets around, while Samsung’s software layer allows for multi-tasking and pop-up windows to make switching between apps easier.

No matter which of the two sizes one decides on, the � rst thing one will notice when they pick up the Tab S2 is how slim it is. Both devices are just 5.6mm thick. The TABs are even thinner than the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and the unnervingly thin Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet.

The Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 dimensions are 169×237.3×5.6mm and it weighs 389g for the Wi-Fi model. However, the LTE variant, which is 392g, isn’t much heavier. The new Galaxy Tab S2 8 measures out to be 134.8×198.6×5.6mm with 265g (Wi-Fi) and 272g (LTE) on the scale.

From the speci� cations, it is easy to say that the sacri� ces that had to be made by the developers and designers are battery capacity, which is 5,870mAh (down from 7,900 mAh) on the 9.7-inch tablet and 4,000mAh (down from 4,900 mAh) on the 8-inch version.

Under the hood, one ought to � nd an octa-core processor (four 1.9GHz cores and four 1.3GHz cores) paired with 3GB RAM and 32GB or 64GB of on-board storage, depending on the variant you choose. There’s also a micro SD slot for an additional 128GB of space. Both versions of the Tab S2 are using the outdated Android version 5.0.1, sensitive

with Samsung’s dire Touch Wiz UI, however, they are both e� cient and powerful.

The Tab S2 camera retains the same resolution as before, however the rear camera has been improved. It includes the same low f/1.9 aperture which is found in the S6 and S6 Edge. l

Huawei tries to pack a punch in its new phablet

gadget

review

on its premium look. Yes, it does look and feel premium. It may not be able to match the specs of other phablets or even � agship smartphones, but it does look like it belongs in a room full of dancers doing the Viennese

Waltz. And the convenient � ngerprint sensor on the back, under the camera, puts in a sophisticated, � nishing touch.

The Mate 8 goes on sale, starting in China, for the � rst three months of 2016. l

News22DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Universal Children’s Day at JAAGO

NS Hut helps raise online sales

Exclusive pizza o� er at Hotel Sarina Tiger prawns at The Dining Room

JAAGO Foundation recently celebrated Universal Children’s Day in 32 districts of Bangladesh. Thousands of volunteers took to the streets to raise awareness about children’s rights. As part of the event, the organisation held a programme at Banani Society Field. Among others, the programme was attended by Robert W Gibson CMG, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh; Alif Rahman from Northern Tosrifa Group; and Shah Maksudul Gani from Rahimafrooz Bangladesh Ltd. l

NS Hut, an online marketing e-commerce directory has been launched for the � rst time in the country to bring relief to the consumers who make online purchases.

The directory will provide information about online market places and a list of e-commerce portals on the basis of categorised products, details of the related websites, contact addresses, website addresses, feedback of the customers and online chat service.

Besides, source reveals that there will be special features in the directory.

The directory has been launched keeping in mind that the buyers do not know where they can buy their required items. They

usually take decisions based on information they obtain from di� erent advertisements and individuals.

Only large portals can make wide-range advertisement by spending huge budget to popularise their services. As a result, these portal owners are able to make sales on a large scale, but small and medium entrepreneurs su� er slow sales.

The new directory is believed to help small portals make their service popular. The company sources said that this initiative will trigger the sales of such small and medium portals.

The directory can be visited at www.nshut.com. l

Hotel Sarina brings exclusive pizza o� er “Buy One Get One Free” for all pizza lovers. One will get a regular Pizza with a family pizza during this o� er, where di� erent pizzas will be served. The o� er will commence from December 1-10 at

Risotto Restaurant in Hotel Sarina. One can avail this o� er from 12pm – 3pm and 6pm – 11pm. Take away is also available.

For more details, please call: +88 01982 700 700. l

Bengali culinary choreography at its best. Tiger prawns, locally known as “Bagda Chingri,” with their mellow sweetness are lovingly cooked in smooth and creamy green coconut milk. Perfectly balanced with a delicate mix of chilli and mustard pastes along with a blend of traditional Bengali spices, it creates a delicious

symphony for your taste buds. The Dining Room’s (TDR) Daab Chingri is presented with a visually irresistible appeal so that one may experience the true beauty of this dish. Unlock the cherished secrets of Bengali cuisine that have been passed on through centuries in the � ne dining ambience of The Dining Room. l

For reservations at The Dining Room, please contact us at:

Email: reservations@thediningroombd.comTel: +880 2 9895729Mobile: +880 1984-332299 / +880 1984-221199www.thediningroombd.com

Insight 23D

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Take it outside

n Rounak Ahmed

While the global marketplace faces increasing competition in the field of technology, creativity and innovation, the HR department faces a similar hurdle in dealing with which work units a business has to choose, and deliver them in a manner that is in the best interest of the organisation.

The training service, in particular, which is an important function of the HR department, has been growing in importance at an unprecedented level in the last few years, with companies making huge investments and energy in availing quality training products and services for the employees in their organisations.

Factors such as speed, flexibility, creativity and innovation are the prime drivers of sustained competitive advantages. The role of outsourcing becomes critical for businesses in design, development, and reformulation to stay alive.

What is it?In short, as Chaudhuri and Barlett rightly stated, training outsourcing means that an employer is hiring a third-party service provider or a vendor to deliver training activities that would normally be provided in-house.

The employee’s stanceFrom the employee’s perspective, having training and development outsourced also involves a change in the process of learning which, most of the time, signi� cantly changes work processes, control, and organisational design, all of which a� ect employee attitudes and morale. Therefore, for managers, it is not just about deciding whether to outsource or “insource,” but also to make sure that the organisational structure is ready to implement the changes that will brought about by training.

Moreover, employees feel more obligated towards the organisation when they frequently engage in outsourced training programmes. The quality and customisation of the training, and especially, supervisory support towards outsourced training are also good predictors of how committed the employee will be to the company. Give and take, really.

TypesTraining services can be di� erentiated into two main categories - generic training programmes and job-speci� c training programmes.

Generic, or frequently called “o� the shelf,” training programmes are on specialised expert subjects that do not require the outsourced training vendor to accommodate with the � rm’s inner strategy and needs. They are packages which will teach generic and necessary skills to the employee.

On the � ip-side, job-speci� c or “tailor-made programmes’’ require the trainer to make major adjustments with the organisation’s needs and goals when

designing the training itself, to make it speci� c to the � rm’s objectives.

Getting results Whereas traditional HR activities are mainly administrative and transactional in nature, training and development are more strategically aligned with the company.

The growing trend towards outsourcing has strategic implications for an organisation as training and developmental needs must be tailored to meet the needs and goals of the � rm.

Gainey and Klaas’s (2003) study finds that there is a positive relationship between contractual specificity and satisfaction with outsourcing. The study also found a positive relationship between socially-oriented trust and client satisfaction with outsourcing, which “is consistent with the idea that trust in a relationship deters opportunistic behaviour, encourages client receptivity regarding vendor advice, and reduces monitoring costs for clients.” In other words, the more specific the training requirements, the better the results for the business.

The involvement process starts pre-training and continues post-training. Therefore, � rms should consider identifying their needs, assess their capacity and capability of the � rm, prepare contractual agreements, standards and needs that need to be met by the training outsourcing suppliers. Moreover, it is important to manage the relationship with proper communication, sharing of expectations, measuring of results, and improving processes together. l

The good, the bad, and the trouble of outsourcing training programmes

Why do it?Recent research studies indicate that the motives for choosing outsourcing training have shifted from an emphasis on reducing costs to quality, knowledge expertise of the potential vendor in question, and increasing the strength of relation between your business and the vendor.

The most important qualities to consider

when looking for training outsource units are expertise and subject matter experience.

Other factors arise when potential vendors act as business partners, for a good cultural � t between the customer and vendor which are required. Developing these qualities, being possibly harder to assess in the proposal process, are key attributes for a successful relationship.

How does it help reduces costs

access to qualified training

anchors channel relationships

training service providers have a better understanding of the market

improves use of scarce resources

more focus to others areas

it leverages the cost of technology

Photo: Bigstock

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Downtime24DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 17 represents N so � ll N every time the � gure 17 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Spoil (3)3 Sport (4)6 Jump rope (4)7 Become � rm (3)9 Sell (4)10 Cereal (3)11 Golf club (4)13 Mechanical man (5) 16 Measuring instrument (5)18 Brave man (4)19 Little devil (3)20 Outer covering (4)21 Colour (3)23 Biblical quotation (4)24 Unwanted plant (4)25 Armed con� ict (3)

DOWN 1 Niggard (5) 2 Copy (3)4 Frank (4)5 Strange (3)6 Liquid part of blood (5)8 Rome’s river (5)9 Ballot choice (4)12 Rotating part (5)14 Augury (4)15 Storehouse (5)17 Added clause (5)18 Employ (4)20 Tool (3)22 Greek letter (3)

SUDOKU

25D

TSportINSIDE

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Barisal spoil Chittagong’s homecomingA complete team e� ort and tactical approach from Barisal Bulls enabled them to stun Chittagong Vikings and hand the latter their fourth defeat in the Bangladesh Premier League 2015 by a handsome 33-run margin yesterday. PAGE 26

Murray on ‘top ofthe world’British newspapers declared Andy Murray was on top of the world as they ecstatically hailed Great Britain’s Davis Cup victory. Britain won the Davis Cup for the � rst time in 79 years in Ghent on Sunday when Murray defeated David Go� n 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 to take an unbeatable 3-1 lead over Belgium. PAGE 27

Cairns cleared of match-� xing perjury ‘hell’A British jury yesterday cleared former New Zealand cricket captain Chris Cairns of perjury charges over match-� xing and he said the trial has been “hell”. After a nine-week trial the jury of seven women and � ve men at Southwark Crown Court in London found Cairns, 45, not guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice. PAGE 28

Sanchez injured in Arsenal draw, Liverpool climbArsenal lost Alexis Sanchez and Laurent Koscielny to injury during a 1-1 draw at Norwich City on Sunday that prevented them drawing level with Premier League leaders Manchester City. Sanchez set up Mesut Ozil for Arsenal’s 30th-minute opener at Carrow Road, but after Lewis Grabban had equalised just before half-time, the in� uential Chilean left the fray clutching his right hamstring. PAGE 29

Barisal Bulls captain Mahmudullah (C) rushes towards Al Amin Hossain (R) to congratulate him following the dismissal of Chittagong Vikings skipper Tamim Iqbal during their 2015 Bangladesh Premier League tie at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

‘We can buy a player, not the performance’Dejected Chittagong captain Tamim slams teammates for downfalln Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

The look on Tamim Iqbal’s face explained all the dejection Chittagong Vikings are go-ing through at the moment. Halfway to the league, Tamim and his side have experi-enced several jittery moments on the � eld and have been close to wining on as many as three occasions.

Fielding has been terrible for the side as they leaked runs in the middle overs which eventually cost them heavily. After another humiliating defeat to Barisal Bulls yester-day, Chittagong’s golden boy Tamim ex-ploded and urged his colleagues to step up and contribute for the franchise.

Disappointing run continues, what went wrong?I thought we started o� beautifully, we can’t expect more from the bowlers, especially in the � rst six overs. Same old story - catches, run outs. I think that cost us a lot, Mahmud-ullah was on 25 when we missed an easy run out and [Seekkuge] Prasanna’s was an easy catch too. And that over from Elton [Chigumbura], I think that’s when they took the game away.

What do you have to say about the extras conceded?I really can’t teach every player how to bowl and in this level, you need to understand

what you need to do. And I think that is the main lacking in my team. People need to un-derstand what they need to do. I may be the captain, but I can’t tell them where to ball or what to do because when I bat nobody comes and tells me how to bat.

Chigumbura was very wayward. What was the chat before the 19th over?I just asked him where he was going to bowl but what happened was the opposite of what I was looking for. But you just can’t blame a bowler for conceding 22 runs, that happens in cricket.

Your thoughts on the way Kamran Akmal was run out?I thought our body language was good from the start, at least till the 11th over it was good but when we started dropping catches and missing run outs, I thought we were coming down from that point. The way Kamran got out I can only say it was a schoolboy error.

Lack of killer instinct in your team?To me, we have only one bowler who is a wicket-taker, that’s [Mohammad] Amir. Sha� ul [Islam] is bowling well but apart from them I don’t see any wicket-taker in my team. The name on their back does not justify their actions on the � eld. I am saying something and they are doing something else.

Apart from Amir, Chittagong’s bowling has been below-par, and now the batting?Look, when we play we get paid a lot of money and when we bring a foreigner they are all professionals and they all want to do well. But somehow performance is a thing you really can’t control but they could have done much better. Like you said, Kamran’s run-out, I have nothing to explain there. Same with [Tillakaratne] Dilshan.

Dilshan, [Chris] Gayle are rated among the top players in Twenty20 if you see the records and if he could have continued his innings, things would have been di� erent. We have lacked in taking responsibilities. They are world-class cricketers and they need to perform well.

Reputation of the foreigners?Kamran, Dilshan and Chigumbura - they are world-class cricketers. We can buy a player, not the performance and we expect them to perform. We had plans with [Kevon] Cooper as he loves to score through cover. I told El-ton to bowl in the square area as it was a long boundary but we were unable to execute.

Any suspicious reason behind the downfall despite having a great start?Look, it’s not suspicious so don’t point to anything that is not necessary. We played poor cricket including myself, did wrong things that caused the result. l

BPL 201526DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Vikings bowl 22 oversChittagong bowlers gave away seven wides and six no-balls, adding up to 13 extra deliveries, in the match. Two of the free-hits went for a six and a four, which immensely helped Barisal towards their march to recovery after being reduced to 63 for � ve with eight overs to spare. With each no-ball resulting in a free-hit, one must say the Chittagong bowlers were wayward in their planning.

Mahmudullah wins tactical battle with TamimThe home side started the game brightly by reducing Barisal to 12/3 inside three overs but Chittagong were not able to hold on to the momentum. Instead of piling more pressure, Tamim shu� ed his bowlers and looked to run through the overs by introducing Enamul Haque Jr, Elton Chigumbura and Ziaur Rahman in quick succession. This allowed Mahmud-ullah to settle down and pick up the odd boundary when required as the Bulls made a vital recovery to eventually post a winning 170 on the scorecard. The Barisal skipper later showed how to handle and maintain consistent pressure by shu� ing the bowlers as the Vikings were not given any cushion to relax in their run-chase.

Butter fingersGround � elding has been up to the mark, but it is the catching that’s proving costly for the Vikings. So far in this BPL, the Vikings � eld-ers grassed at least seven catches, including the two yesterday that went over the rope for maximums. Naeem Islam and Ziaur Rah-man were the culprits yesterday while Asif Ahmed and Yasir Ali are also on the list.

TALKING POINTS (CVvBB)BARISAL BULLS INNINGS R BLewis lbw b Dilshan 4 3Rony lbw b Amir 0 2Maruf c Asif b Ziaur 28 25Sabbir lbw b Sha� ul 0 5Mahmudullah c Kamran b Chigumbura 51 45Nadif lbw b Ziaur 7 7Prasanna c Chigumbura b Amir 36 20Cooper not out 21 11Sami not out 9 4Extras (lb 1, w 7, nb 6) 14 Total (7 wickets; 20 overs; 108 mins) 170

FoW:1-4, 2-10, 3-12, 4-52, 5-63, 6-124, 7-159BowlingDilshan 1-0-9-1, Amir 4-0-20-2, Sha� ul 4-0-34-1, Asif 3-0-18-0, Enamul Jr 3-0-26-0, Chigumbu-ra 2-0-38-1, Ziaur 3-0-24-2CHITTAGONG VIKINGS INNINGS R BTamim c Cooper b Al Amin 6 7Dilshan c Sami b Taijul 19 12Kamran run out (Cooper) 0 1Anamul c Nadif b Al Amin 12 13Naeem b Cooper 38 40Chigumbura c Rony b Cooper 5 11Ziaur c Cooper b Sami 13 13Amir b Cooper 20 12Sha� ul run out (Al Amin) 12 6Enamul Jr b Mahmudullah 3 3Asif not out 0 0Extras (b 2, lb 3, w 4) 9 Total (all out; 19.5 overs; 105 mins) 137

FoW1-7, 2-19, 3-36, 4-40, 5-51, 6-77, 7-122, 8-129, 9-137, 10-137BowlingSami 4-0-19-1, Al Amin 4-0-34-2, Cooper 4-0-28-3, Taijul 3-0-20-1, Prasanna 4-0-25-0, Mahmudullah 0.5-0-6-1

Barisal Bulls won by 33 runsMoM: Kevon Cooper (Barisal Bulls)

CV v BB

Barisal Bulls captain Mahmudullah executes a delightful pull shot during their 2015 Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 encounter against Chittagong Vikings at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Barisal spoil Chittagong’s homecomingn Reazur Rahman Rohan from Chittagong

A complete team e� ort and tactical approach from Barisal Bulls enabled them to stun Chittagong Vikings and hand the latter their fourth defeat in the Bangladesh Premier League 2015 by a handsome 33-run margin yesterday.

Desperately seeking for a win, Chittagong made three changes for their � rst home game as Elton Chigumbura came in for Jeevan Mendis, Kamran Akmal for Saeed Ajmal and young left-arm spinner Asif Hasan replacing Yasir Ali. However, the move to play with six batsmen back� red pretty badly once Tamim Iqbal returned for a single-digit score in pur-suit of the big total. Eventually, the home side were bundled out for a mere 137.

Compared to the � rst phase in Dhaka, 170 was a humongous total which came large-ly on the back of another calculative knock from Barisal skipper Mahmudullah. The right-hander entered to bat with his side tot-tering at three for 12 in 2.2 overs after being put into bat � rst on a pitch where neither captain were sure of how it will behave. But the pressure slowly wore o� , courtesy of some wayward bowling from the hosts as Barisal managed to bag 98 runs from the last seven overs.

Tamim took � ve balls to get o� the mark,

but opened the run-chase with a perfect � ick over mid-wicket o� Mohammad Sami. However, he lasted just eight balls as he top-edged in-form pacer Al Amin Hossain in an attempt to clear the on-side � eld.

When Akmal was found short, while la-zily jogging for a single following a push to mid-on in his � rst ball, from a direct hit from Kevon Cooper, Chittagong’s fate could be predicted as Tillakaratne Dilshan’s four fours only entertained the full-packed Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium for a short time.

Barisal, unlike Chittagong, were a superb � elding side as the runs dried up and despite batting for more than an hour Naeem Islam only managed 38 from 40 balls before be-coming Cooper’s third victim on the night.

Before the 3-28, Cooper was also instru-mental in Barisal’s batting as the West Indi-an struck two sixes to remain unbeaten on 21 from 11 balls. The momentum however, was handed to the Barisal unit after Tamim made some poor decisions while shu� ing his bowlers in the early stage.

Despite triggering a collapse and restrict-ing the Bulls to 63-5 under 12 overs, Chit-tagong failed to capitalise on the situation as the hosts leaked runs and Mahmudullah, who started o� slowly, opened up and carved an invaluable 45-ball 51 for his side.

Rony Talukdar did a decent job behind the

wicket in place of Brendan Taylor but failed to get o� the mark with the bat while Evin Lewis’ BPL debut lasted just three deliveries as Dilshan trapped him with a slider in the � rst over.

Instead of going for the kill, Tamim for some unknown reasons saved his key bowlers and looked to run through the overs with Enamul Haque Jr and Ziaur Rahman, which allowed Barisal to crawl back in the game and eventually nail their third win of the campaign.

Mehedi Maruf, who replaced Shahriar Na-fees in the opening slot, initiated the early progress by adding 40 runs with Mahmudu-llah for the fourth wicket. After hitting two exquisite sixes o� Enamul Jr and Chigumbu-ra, Maruf’s 28-run cameo ended when Asif took a brilliant diving catch at deep backward square-leg o� Ziaur’s o� -cutter.

Later, Sri Lankan Seekkuge Prasanna dented Chittagong further with a whirlpool 36 that included four sixes before Chigumbu-ra was introduced again in the penultimate over where he gave away 22 runs before pick-ing the consolation wicket of Mahmudullah.

Chigumbura gave away 38 runs from his two overs as Cooper took full toll of the ordi-nary bowler and struck two sixes along with a four to slowly push Chittagong out of the contest. l

Gayle, Afridi, others to join BPL 3 soonn Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

Before the start of the 2015 Bangladesh Pre-mier League, the country’s fans were eager-ly waiting for the arrival of the poster boys of world Twenty20 cricket – West Indian hard-hitter Chris Gayle and Pakistan super-star Shahid Afridi.

The Bangladesh fans however, had to wait for a little bit longer than usual for Gayle as the giant left-hander will not be available for BPL franchise Barisal Bulls before December 4.

Some good news though has � nally ar-rived in the shape of “Boom Boom” Afridi, who is all set to arrive today to join his side, the Sylhet Super Stars.

Following the conclusion of the Paki-stan-England three-T20I series yesterday in Sharjah, the remaining foreign cricketers are ex-pected to reach the port city, starting from today.

Opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad and all-rounder Shoaib Malik are expected to play the next match for Comilla Victorians.

Fast bowler Wahab Riaz is expected to feature for Rangpur Riders in their upcoming game against Chittagong Vikings while tall paceman Mohammad Irfan is likely to play for Dhaka Dynamites in their forthcoming clash against the Bulls. Another Pakistani batsman Umar Akmal is also expected to join the Vikings soon. l

Sport 27D

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Sylhet open their account, � nallyn Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

An all-round performance from English cricketer Ravi Bopara helped Sylhet Super Stars to their � rst win of the 2015 Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20, beating Comil-la Victorians by four wickets at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium in Chittagong yesterday.

After picking up four wickets with the ball, man-of-the-match Bopara scored highest 50 o� 38 balls, featuring a six and four bound-aries, before being dismissed at the end but Sylhet still went on to ensure their � rst win after Comilla posted 164/5 in 20 overs.

Sri Lankan opening batsman Dilshan Mu-naweera started o� well and scored 36 o� 26 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes while his partner Mominul Haque failed after scoring only nine runs.

But skipper Mush� qur Rahim gave

great support to Bopara as the pair added a match-winning 87-run partnership for the third wicket with the former scoring 47 o� 31 balls, featuring four boundaries, before he too departed o� the bowling of Lankan pacer Nuwan Kulasekara.

Young left-arm paceman Abu Haider Rony picked up four wickets for the bowling side.

Earlier, the Victorians made a good start to their innings, riding on a half-century opening stand between Liton Kumar Das and Imrul Kayes. The pair added 56 runs before Liton returned to the side after scoring 42 o� 24 balls with the help of half a dozen fours and a six while Imrul departed after scoring 48 o� 45 balls, featuring two sixes and a four.

Sylhet however, returned to the game and picked up two quick wickets, that of Mukhtar Ahmed (one) and Shuvagata Hom (nought) but Pakistani-born English cricketer Ashar Zaidi held the ship for the batting side.

Zaidi smashed � ve fours and two sixes and remained not out on 53 runs facing 36 deliv-eries as the Victorians scored 55 runs from their last � ve overs to go past the 150-mark.

Sylhet’s English all-rounder Bopara was the most successful bowler as the medium-pacer picked up 4/18 from his four overs. l

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Barca � le complaint against ex-Real playersBarcelona have � led a formal complaint against two former Real Madrid players turned pundits after they suggested Barca forward Neymar deserved the kick he received from Real mid� elder Isco in this month’s La Liga “Clasico”. Isco, who had come on as a substitute 10 minutes into the second half of Barca’s 4-0 win at the Bernabeu, lashed out in apparent frustration at Neymar in the 85th minute and was shown a straight red card.

REUTERS

Djokovic top of the world at the end of the yearNovak Djokovic has � nished the year on top of the ATP world rankings, according to the � nal list of 2015 published yesterday. The Serb, who also topped the rankings at the end of 2011, 2012 and 2014, � nished a massive 7,500 points or so ahead of his closest rival, world number two Andy Murray, who at the weekend helped Britain win the Davis Cup for the � rst time in 79 years.

AFP

N. Korea seeks to host 1st global event for decadesNorth Korea is reportedly close to securing its � rst signi� cant global sports event for almost 40 years, in line with leader Kim Jong-Un’s plans to turn the reclusive country into a sporting powerhouse. According to Inside the Games, a website specialising in the organisation of international sporting events, Pyongyang hopes to host the world junior judo championships in 2017, and the world weightlifting juniors a year later. The last major global sports event to be held in the North was the world table tennis championship way back in 1979.

AFP

Kiwis seek ICC clari� cation on DRS ‘clanger’New Zealand have contacted the Interna-tional Cricket Council seeking answers over a contentious review that went against them at a crucial time in the � uctuating day-night Test against Australia, coach Mike Hesson said yesterday. Hesson is still fuming over the much-criticised decision by TV umpire Nigel Llong on Saturday’s second day to turn down a Decision Review System DRS referral for a catch o� Australia’s Nathan Lyon. Lyon survived after the “Hot Spot” thermal imaging revealed a mark on the back of his bat before he had scored.

AFP

Starc o� ers no timetable for returnAustralia’s pace spearhead Mitchell Starc said yesterday it could be up to four weeks before he knows when he can bowl again after an-other injury setback in the Adelaide day-night Test. Starc bowled only nine overs in New Zealand’s � rst innings before he heard a crack in his right foot and left the � eld for treatment. Scans revealed a stress fracture and he is wearing a protective boot so the foot can heal.

AFP

QUICK BYTES

BPL POINTS TABLETeam Mat Won Lost Pts

Comilla 5 3 2 6

Barisal 4 3 1 6

Rangpur 5 3 2 6

Dhaka 4 3 1 6

Sylhet 5 1 4 2

Chittagong 5 1 4 2

COMILLA VICTORIANS INNINGS R B Liton lbw b Bopara 42 24Imrul c Nazmul b Bopara 48 45Mukhtar c & b Bopara 1 4Shuvagata b Bopara 0 2Zaidi not out 53 36Kapali run out (Bopara/ Azam) 2 2Mashrafe not out 10 7Extras (b 2, lb 2, w 4) 8 Total (5 wickets; 20 overs) 164

FoW1-56, 2-66, 3-66, 4-128, 5-132 Bowling Shahid 4-0-28-0, Rubel 4-0-48-0, Azam 2-0-19-0, Munaweera 3-0-26-0, Bopara4-0-18-4, Jayasuriya 3-0-21-0SYLHET SUPER STARS INNINGS R BMunaweera c Sunzamul b Hider 36 26Mominul c Liton b Hider 9 14Bopara c Kayes b Hider 50 38Mush� q b Kulasekara 47 31Hammad c Shuvagata b Kulasekara 13 6Jayasuriya b Hider 1 2Nurul not out 0 0Nazmul not out 6 1Extras (w 6) 6 Total (6 wickets; 19.4 overs) 168

FoW1-32, 2-52, 3-139, 4-157, 5-162, 6-162 Bowling Mashrafe 4-0-26-0, Kulasekara4-0-31-2, Santoki 3-0-31-0, Hider 3.4-0-28-4, Sunzamul 2-0-28-0, Zaidi 3-0-24-0

Sylhet Super Stars won by 4 wickets MoM: Ravi Bopara

COV V SSS

Sylhet Super Stars captain Mush� qur Rahim (L) and all-rounder Ravi Bopara run between the wicket during their 2015 Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 tie against Comilla Victorians at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Murray on ‘top ofthe world’n AFP, London

British newspapers declared Andy Murray was on top of the world as they ecstatically hailed Great Britain’s Davis Cup victory.

Britain won the Davis Cup for the � rst time in 79 years in Ghent on Sunday when Murray defeated David Go� n 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 to take an unbeatable 3-1 lead over Belgium.

Several newspapers focused on the con-trast with decades of British underachieve-ment in tennis. l

28DT Sport

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

AFC ANNUAL AWARDSMember Association of the YearInspiring: Japan FADeveloping: Hong Kong FAAspiring: Bangladesh FF

Dream Asia Award Chinese FA, Japan FA, Vietnam FF

National Team of the YearMen: Australia National TeamWomen: Japan Women’s National Team

Coach of the YearMen: Ange Postecoglou (AUS)Women: Asako Takakura (JPN)

Player of the YearMen: Ahmed Khalil (UAE)Women: To be announced at a later date

Awards for Grassroots FootballInspiring: Japan, Developing: Vietnam, Aspiring: Brunei Darussalam

Fair Play Association of the Year: JapanClub of the Year: Guangzhou (CHN)Futsal Player of the Year: Shamsaee (IRN)Futsal Team of the Year: Daryaei (IRN)

Youth Player of the YearMen: Dostonbek Khamdamov (UZB)Women: Rikako Kobayashi (JPN)

Foreign Player of the YearRicardo Goulart Pereira (BRA)

Asian International Player of the YearSon Heung-min (KOR)Bangladesh Football Federation general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag (L) poses proudly with the ‘Aspiring Member Association of the Year’ award during the

AFC annual awards night in New Delhi, India yesterday COURTESY

Cairns cleared of match-� xing perjury ‘hell’n AFP, London

A British jury yesterday cleared former New Zealand cricket captain Chris Cairns of perju-ry charges over match-� xing and he said the trial has been “hell”.

After a nine-week trial the jury of seven women and � ve men at Southwark Crown Court in London found Cairns, 45, not guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

In an emotional statement outside court, Cairns said he had been through “hell” and would not be returning to cricket.

“It has not been a victory as such, because in a case like this there are no winners. It’s been hell for everyone involved.”

Asked if he would work in the sport again, he replied: “No, no, no.”

He added: “It’s my choice. I think it would be quite a hard environment to go back into. There has been a lot of damage done and I think that’s unfortunate.”

The cricketer fought back tears as he de-scribed the strain of being away from his family for nearly three months.

Charges were brought against Cairns af-

ter he sued Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi for libel in 2012 over a 2010 tweet in which the administrator accused him of match-� xing. The allegations against Cairns resurfaced in December 2013 when the In-ternational Cricket Council con� rmed it was investigating match-� xing claims involving three former New Zealand internationals.  

Cairns won £90,000 ($135,000, 128,000 euros) from the libel case, but he was alleged to have lied to the court when he said he had “never, ever cheated at cricket”.

The retired all-rounder was said to have perverted the course of justice by trying to convince   fellow cricketer Lou Vincent to provide a false witness statement.

Cairns’ friend and “legal adviser”, barris-ter Andrew Fitch-Holland, was also cleared of perverting the course of justice.

After 10 hours of deliberations the jury was directed to acquit the lawyer by Mr Justice Sweeney in light of the cricketer’s acquittal.

The pair stood to hear the verdicts with their arms crossed behind their backs, breathing audible sighs of relief as they heard they were cleared. l

Shastri defends dusty pitchesn AFP, New Delhi

India’s team director Ravi has defended the dry, spin-friendly wickets prepared for the Test series against South Africa, saying batsmen should be blamed instead for not playing well.

“Nothing wrong with it,” Shastri told the Cricinfo website ahead of the fourth and � nal Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi from Thursday.

“I would hope the one in Delhi is absolute-ly the same. I have no qualms about it.”

India enjoy a decisive 2-0 lead in the four-match series after clinching low-scoring wins in the � rst Test in Mohali and the third in Nagpur. The second Test in Bangalore was washed out after the � rst day.

Several former Test captains like Michael Vaughan of England called the under-pre-pared Nagpur pitch “diabolical” on which batting was di� cult from the � rst day as the ball turned and kept low.

India’s last � ve wins at home since 2013 have all been achieved inside three days, indicating pitches were tailor-made for their spinners. l

BFF recognised in AFC annual awardsn Tribune Desk

The Bangladesh Football Federation has been adjudged the “Aspiring Member Association of the Year” in the AFC annual awards 2015 in New Delhi, India last Sunday evening. Bhutan and Brunei’s football governing bodies were

among the nominees along with the BFF.BFF and SAFF president Kazi Salahuddin

was present in the award night but general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag received the award on behalf of the federation. The pres-tigious award was given “in recognition of its professional administration and governance

as well its exceptional contribution to the de-velopment and promotion of the game at all levels within the country”.

The Asian Football Confederation in 2013 introduced three winners for the Member Association of the Year award and its 46 member associations are divided into three

categories, namely “Inspiring”, “Develop-ing” and “Aspiring”, based on their overall footballing prowess.

Points are given for an MA’s hosting of AFC qualifying and � nals tournaments as well as their national and club teams’ placing in AFC and FIFA competitions throughout the year. l

Sport 29D

T

Bale, Ronaldo give stuttering Real Madrid relief at Eibarn AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid got their La Liga title challenge back on course despite an underwhelming performance as goals from Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo handed them a 2-0 win at Eibar on Sunday.

In front of a capacity 6,000 crowd at Ip-urua, Madrid did little to dispel the doubts caused by their 4-0 thrashing by Barcelona last weekend but Bale’s � rst-half header and a late penalty from Ronaldo were enough for

all three points.Madrid remain in third, but victory takes

Rafael Benitez’s men back to within six points of league leaders Barca and two points of city rivals Atletico Madrid.

“The important thing was to get the three points and do so with this spirit of sacri� ce,” said Madrid boss Rafael Benitez.

“The fans know that the most important thing when you have players of this quality is that they also work as they did today.

“That is the key if we want to continue be-ing strong in the future.”

Eibar have enjoyed a stellar start to just their second season in the top � ight, but as against Barcelona and Atletico in their only other two prior defeats this season, they didn’t have enough quality to trouble Madrid in the � nal third. After a slow start, Ronaldo was pre-sented with a great chance to open the scoring on 15 minutes from James Rodriguez’s � ne through ball, but he couldn’t lift the ball over the advancing Asier Riesgo and Mateo Kovacic wastefully � red the rebound over. l

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Channel 92:00PMBangladesh Premier LeagueRangpur Riders v Chittagong Vikings6:30PMBarisal Bulls v Dhaka DynamitesTen Sports12:00AM French Ligue 1 Angers v Paris Saint-Germain 1:45AM Capital One Cup Middlesbrough v EvertonTen Action1:45AM Capital One Cup Manchester City v HullSony Six6:30PM Champions Tennis League Raipur v MumbaiStar Sports 19:00PM Men’s FIH Hockey World League Great Britain v Belgium Star Sports 27:20PM Indian Super League Chennai v MumbaiStar Sports 47:00PM Men’s FIH Hockey World League Australia v Canada

DAY’S WATCH

Genoa 1-2 CarpiFigueiras 8 Borriello 57, Zaccardo 80

Roma 0-2 Atalanta Gomez 40, Denis 82-P

Frosinone 3-2 VeronaCiofani 22-P, 40, Viviani 69, Moras 75Dionisi 48

Chievo 2- 3 UdinesePaloschi 26, Inglese 72 Frey 42-og, Thereau 46, 80

Empoli 1-0 LazioTonelli 5

Palermo 0-3 Juventus Mandzukic 54, Sturaro 89, Zaza 90+3

RESULTS

Getafe 2-0 VillarrealLa� ta 21, Alvaro Vazquez 51

Eibar 0-2 Real Madrid Bale 43, Ronaldo 82-P

Rayo Vallecano 0-3 Athletic Bilbao Aduriz 1, 23, 59

Sevilla 1-0 ValenciaEscudero 50

RESULTS

Borussia Dortmund 4-1 VfB StuttgartCastro 3, Aubameyang 19, 90+1, Didavi 40Niedermeier 65-og

Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Schalke 04Riether 85-og Choupo-Moting 50

Augsburg 0-0 VfL Wolfsburg

RESULTS

Liverpool 1-0 SwanseaMilner 62-P

Norwich 1-1 ArsenalGrabban 43 Ozil 30

Tottenham 0-0 Chelsea

West Ham 1-1 West BromZarate 17 Reid 50-og

RESULTS

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp tries to return a ball during their Premier League match against Swansea City at An� eld on Sunday REUTERS

Aubameyang double sees o� Stuttgartn AFP, Berlin

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted twice on Sunday as second-placed Borussia Dort-mund returned to winning ways with a 4-1 win at home to VfB Stuttgart, despite drop-ping captain Mats Hummels.

Gabon striker Aubameyang cemented his status as the Bundesliga’s top scorer with his 16th and 17th league goals in 14 games this season after Gonzalo Castro had headed Borussia into an early lead.

Daniel Didavi pulled a goal back for strug-glers Stuttgart with half-time approaching.

But a Georg Niedermeier own-goal left the visitors 3-1 down before Aubameyang grabbed their superb fourth goal and his second to in-� ict a third straight defeat on Stuttgart. l

Juve sink Palermo to con� rm � ghtbackn AFP, Milan

Mario Mandzukic, Stefano Sturaro and Si-mone Zaza struck in the second half as cham-pions Juventus moved up to � fth place in Se-rie A with a convincing 3-0 win at Palermo on Sunday.

Juventus had claimed a third consecutive league win for the � rst time only last week and on Wednesday beat Manchester City for the second time in succession to secure pas-sage to the last 16 of the Champions League.

Those wins con� rmed Massimiliano Al-legri’s men, who sat only four points above the relegation zone six weeks ago, had � nally turned the corner after a disastrous start to their title defence. l

Sanchez injured in Arsenal draw, Liverpool climbn AFP, London

Arsenal lost Alexis Sanchez and Laurent Ko-scielny to injury during a 1-1 draw at Norwich City on Sunday that prevented them drawing level with Premier League leaders Manches-ter City.

Sanchez set up Mesut Ozil for Arsenal’s 30th-minute opener at Carrow Road, but af-ter Lewis Grabban had equalised just before half-time, the in� uential Chilean left the fray clutching his right hamstring.

Centre-back Koscielny had already de-parted by that stage, having been replaced by Gabriel in the 11th minute, leaving Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger with eight senior players on the treatment tables.

Defending his decision to select Sanchez, who had complained of a tight hamstring after Tuesday’s 3-0 Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb, Wenger told Sky Sports: “At the moment on the striker front we have not much choice because (Theo) Walcott is out, (Danny) Welbeck is out.

“I would have rested him [Sunday], but he felt perfectly alright before the game. He de-clared that he had no problem.”

Wenger also revealed that mid� elder Santi Cazorla had � nished the game nursing a leg problem and said that he, Sanchez and Ko-scielny would all undergo tests yesterday. l

n Abdullah Al Nayem

A total of 170 � lms, including full-length features, shorts and documentary from around the world have been selected in the line-up of the forthcoming Dhaka International Film Festival. Organised by Rainbow Film Society, the 14th edition of the country’s prestigious � lm festival will take place from January 14-22 next year. Primarily four locations in the capital, National Museum Auditorium, Central Public Library Auditorium, Alliance Francaise de Dhaka and EMK Center have been selected for the screening of the � lms.

Rubaiyat Hossain’s second feature � lm about a woman struggling to � nd herself in the sprawl of urban Bangladesh will be the festival’s opening � lm. Other features include Morshedul Islam’s Anil Bagchir Ek Din, Abu Shahed Emon’s Jalal’s Story and Proshoon Rahman’s Sutopar Thikana. Four � lms made by female � lm-makers from Bangladesh made it to the line-up; the rest are Jannatul Ferdous Ivy’s Nirobey, Farzana Boby’s Bishkanta and Humaira Bilkis’ I Am Yet To See Delhi.

A press conference held at the guest house of Dhaka Club yesterday Ahmed Muztaba Zamal, the festival director, gave a complete overview of the international event. Mo� dul Huq, trustee of the Liberation War Museum; Adam Dawla, � lm-maker; Kalimullah Khan, journalist; and Samia Zaman, � lm-maker and

journalist were present on the occasion among others.

After its 2006 edition, the festival is going to include yet another exciting session - the Nordic Film Session, in which 14 � lms from Scandinavian

countries will be screened. The rest of the seven sessions will feature competitions, retrospective, cinema of the world, children’s � lms, spiritual � lms, women � lm-makers’ and short and independent � lms. In the competition section, 20 � lms from the Asia and Oceania region will be selected while the best � lm-maker from the section would be awarded with a generous amount of prize money.

The second edition of International Women in Cinema Conference is also scheduled during the festival which will be welcoming female � lm-makers and scholars in the related � eld.

Zamal, the festival director, said: “We are expecting more co-operation, in organising the festival, from the � lm-related establishments in the country and beyond. To meet the expenditure we are still open to consider any business � rms as co-sponsors as well.”

The festival is co-sponsored by IFIC Bank in co-operation with the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, Reelport (Germany), EMK Center, Alliance Francaise de Dhaka and ULAB.

Rainbow Film Society has organised the International Film Festival as part of the � lm society movement since 1992. To promote cinema culture in the country, the society is also publishing a � lm-journal titled Celluloid. l

Bangladeshi rock band, Indalo, is gearing up for their second solo gig at Krishibid Institution Bangladesh (KIB), organised by Livesquare Ltd on December 4, with Radio Foorti as radio partner.

The band was initialy formed in 2012 with Jon and Zubair. With time, Bart and Dio joined in to make the club complete. Soon enough, they presented ISD, their � rst single and an anthem in the underground rock scene, along with Antonogor, a song true to re� ect the global instability. In September, Indalo released their debut album, Kokhon Kibhabe Ekhane Ke Jane, a 13-track collection, along with new videos for tracks Tomar Shokal and Obosheshe yet to be released.

Join the event on Facebook and Instagram and look out for contests with tickets, lockets, and more as prizes.

Tickets for the gig are being sold at Tk500 The gates will open at 4:30pm. Tickets are available online at www.thelivesquare.com

Physical ticket outlets include Just Juice in Gulshan 2, Dhaka Republic outlets in Gulshan Avenue and Uttara, Upstairs Lounge in Banani, Coentro in Badda and Cilantro in Dhanmondi.

Agents are also available at East West University (01674030301), North South University (01682208209) and BRAC University (01674222457). l

The grungy post-apocalyptic poster was done by inker Sayeef Mahmud, with typography by Saria Saguaro from Pretty Shitty Art. The poster is also available for sale at all outlets for Tk150.

Showtime30DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

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DIFF to kick-o� in mid January

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Co-Sponsor: News Partner: Media Partner: Festival Partner:

celebrating India’s 60th anniversary of independence in New York, Seattle, Dallas, Geneva, London, Los Angeles, Berlin, amongst many others. His album Rain, with Ghazal Ensemble, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004.

Rashid Khan

Ustad Rashid Khan is trained in the arts of Hindustani music tradition. He is also a master of the tarana but prefers to sing them in his own manner, favouring the khayal style rather than the instrumental stroke-based style. Khan was awarded the Padma Shri, as well as the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006.

Hariprasad ChaurasiaPandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is an internationally renowned exponent of the bansuri. Chaurasia is considered to be one of India’s most-respected classical musicians; earning him several prestigious awards and honours – which included the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Padma Vibhushan, amongst many others.

Other performers of tonight are: Animesh Bijoy Chowdhury and troupe, Bhawani Shankar, Sameehan Kashalkar and Murad Ali. l

Showtime 31D

TTUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

Alarmel ValliIndian classical dancer and choreographer Alarmel Valli is an exponent of her personal style and the Pandanallur Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam. She has performed in almost all the major festivals in India and has also displayed her talent in cultural festivals around the world.

Irshad KhanBased in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada,

Irshad Khan is internationally recognised as an exceptional sitar player and a prominent surbahar exponent of his generation. Having emerged as a child prodigy, he was the youngest solo artist to perform at one of the most prestigious international music festivals held in London, known as the Indian All Night Concert at the Proms.

Shujaat KhanShujaat Husain Khan is a renowned Indian vocalist and sitar player of the Imdadkhani gharana. Khan was featured in the concerts

Tonight’s performersat the Bengal Classical Music Festival 2015

Bengal Classical Music Festival 2015 in photos Day 3

Warda Rihab and her troupe dancing their way into the hearts of the audience during a Manipuri dance performance PHOTOS: DHAKA TRIBUNE Guru Karaikudi Mani Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar

Yousuf KhanVidushi Shubha Mudgal Vidushi Shruti SadolikarDr N Rajam

Back Page32DT

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015

DIFF TO KICK-OFF IN MID JANUARY PAGE 30

PLAN TO SIGN RIVER PROTOCOL WITH INDIA THIS YEAR PAGE 15

‘WE CAN BUY A PLAYER, NOT THE PERFORMANCE’ PAGE 25

Salinity drives rise of debt bondage n Abu Bakar Siddique

Increasing levels of salinity in Satkhira and Khulna districts has spurred a wave of mi-gration to the capital where many labourers from the coastal districts are becoming en-snared in indentured servitude.

Unemployed men from the south-western coastal areas of the country commit to a sea-son of work in the brick � elds that ring Dhaka city in exchange for advance pay. They agree to receiving the remainder of their pay at the end of their contract term.

While not the most cruel example of debt slavery, the retention of pay is certainly a compulsion for labourers to ful� l their con-tract terms.

The true enforcer in this coercive work arrangement is environmental degradation: unchecked salinity.

The encroachment of salt water has decimated agriculture and � sheries in the south-western coastal belt, generating the migration of unemployed labourers who � nd work and credit at the brick � elds surround-ing Dhaka city.

Kiln owners outsource the management of labour to a “vata sardar” whose job it is to recruit and retain, by means of withheld pay, labourers to work the brick kilns.

Often from salinity-a� ected areas them-selves, vata sardars, recruit unemployed men by o� ering them up-front advances of about a third of their pay at the beginning of the brick � ring season. The remainder is made over to the labourers at the end of the season.

These wages are the only source of in-come for the kiln workers � eeing unemploy-ment in their home districts. Money made in half a year of work at the kilns sustains their families for the entire year.

Work gangsThe average size of a work gang under a vata sardar is 24 labourers.

Ashraf Hossain Gazi, Nur Hossain, Ishar Ali and Amirul Islam work as kiln labourers in the Ashulia area on the outskirts of Dhaka city.

Satkhira native Mohammad Asad is la-bourer Ashraf Hossain’s vata sarder. He has been recruiting and managing labourers for brick kilns for 12 years.

“Putting together a team for the brick kilns is now easier than it was a few years ago. Many villagers are interested now that increasing salinity has ruined the agriculture and � sher-ies in Satkhira and Khulna districts,” he says.

Ashraf Hossain says: “I joined the brick kiln with the others last week and will stay here for the next six months.” He has worked seasonally at the kilns for the last six years.

Ashraf says he and his fellow workers can-not � nd work in their home districts.

“I have contracted for 6 months of work for Tk45,000. I received Tk20,000 as an ad-vance payment three months ago while I was at home. The vata sardar contacted me and paid the advance, which I have given to my family who live in Kashibari under Shyam-nagar in Satkhira,” he says. “The rest will be paid after I complete the contract period.”

The brick � elds are the labourers’ home for the next six months. Nobody will leave the workplace before the brick � ring season ends in May. They will work, sleep and eat there while they ful� l their labour contract.

Causes and effectsKiln owners invest several crores of Taka in their factories and are hit hard by � uctuations in the labour supply. The loss of even a few la-bourers mid-season can result in huge losses.

“To ensure continuous production, we manage the labourers via their vata sardars. If somebody is absent, the vata sardar is liable. That is why the vata sardars are harsh and pay the full wage after the season is done,” said Habibur Rahman, a brick kiln owner.

A few years ago when the level of salinity was not as bad as it is currently, Satkhira did not supply very much labour.

Now, boys like 15-year-old Nur Hossain

from Kaliganj upazilla of Satkhira are work-ing as labourers in the brick � elds of Ashulia.

Nur Hossain says: “It is di� cult for my old father to support our family of four from his income from a half-acre shrimp farm. He sent me here to work in the brick � elds to help the family.”

According to the � fth assessment report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Bangladesh is identi� ed as being at speci� c risk from climate change due to its exposure to sea-level rise and extreme events like salinity intrusion, drought, erratic rainfall and tidal surges.

Hydrology expert Professor Ainun Nishat says the reasons for increases in this type of bonded labour are “both economic and cli-mate change-related.”

According to a study titled “Saline Soil of Bangladesh 2009” conducted by the Soil Resource Development Institute in 2009, around 1,020,000 hectares of land are af-fected by salinity in the Bangladeshi coastal areas. In 1973, the a� ected area was 833,000 hectares in the 19 coastal districts.

Currently, some 79,000 hectares of arable land out of 148,000 hectares salinity-a� ected arable land in Khulna district has been iden-ti� ed as being at the S3 level of salinity, or 8.1-16 dS/M.

Like Khulna, 62,000 hectares in Patu-akhali; 99,000 hectares in Satkhira; 62,000 hectares in Bagerhat and 38,000 hectares of salinity-a� ected land in Barguna have been identi� ed as being at S3 level. l

Brick kiln workers � eeing unemployment in their salinity-a� ected home districts in the south-western coastal belt shape bricks at a brick � eld in Ashulia on the outskirts of Dhaka city ABU BAKAR SIDDIQUE

Pakistan denies links to 1971 atrocitiesn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Pakistan has denied its involvement in crimes and atrocities during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

It yesterday summoned the acting Bang-ladesh high commissioner in Islamabad to convey its rejection of what it said “baseless and unfounded assertions” of Bangladesh against Pakistan.

“It is regrettable that attempts have been made by the government of Bangladesh to malign Pakistan, despite our ardent desire to develop brotherly relations with Bangla-desh,” the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued yesterday.

On November 23, Bangladesh had sum-moned Pakistan High Commisionner in Dha-ka Shuja Alam and formally protested a Paki-stan Foreign Ministry statement issued after the execution of war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Moham-mad Muzahid.

The Bangladesh high commissioner was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign A� airs, said a press release of the Pakistan Foreign Ministry.

Pakistan believes that the peoples of both countries not only want to maintain but also further strengthen the bonds of friendship and brotherhood. However, sadly, the gov-ernment of Bangladesh does not seem to re-spect these sentiments, said the release.

Pakistan reiterates its desire for further en-hancing relations with Bangladesh, because it believes that the hearts of the people of Pakistan beat in unison with the people of Bangladesh.

It is important for the two countries not to forget the role played by their people in the struggle for the establishment of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the South Asian sub-continent. It is, therefore, imperative to move forward in the spirit of goodwill, friend-ship and harmony for the collective good of the peoples of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The statement claimed that the 1974 tri-partite agreement is the bedrock of relations between the two countries.

As regards the Bangladesh government’s contention that Pakistan presents a mislead-ing interpretation of the Agreement of 1974, it needs to be emphasised that, as part of the agreement, the government of Bangladesh had “decided not to proceed with the trials as an act of clemency.” l

BPL 2015

FIXTURES2PM, CHITTAGONG

Rangpur Riders v Chittagong Vikings

6:30PM, CHITTAGONGBarisal Bulls v Dhaka Dynamites

MATCH-1 MATCH-2

VBarisal Bulls

Mahmudullah 51, Prasanna 36,Maruf 28, Amir 2/20, Ziaur 2/24

Barisal Bulls won by 33 runs

170/720 overs

137 all out19.5 overs V

Sylhet Super StarsBopara 50, Mush� q 47, Munaweera

36, Haider 4/28, Kulasekara 2/31

Chittagong VikingsNaeem 38, Amir 20, Cooper 3/28,

Al Amin 2/34, Mahmudullah 1/6

Comilla VictoriansZaidi 53*, Kayes 48, Liton 42,

Mashrafe 10*, Bopara 4/18

Sylhet Super Stars won by four wickets

168/6 all out19.4 overs

164/520 overs

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