16 Oct, 2015

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SECOND EDITION FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 | Kartik 1, 1422, Moharram 2, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 180 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages plus 24-page Weekend | Price: Tk10

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Transcript of 16 Oct, 2015

Page 1: 16 Oct, 2015

SECOND EDITION

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 | Kartik 1, 1422, Moharram 2, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 180 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages plus 24-page Weekend | Price: Tk10

Page 2: 16 Oct, 2015
Page 3: 16 Oct, 2015

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 | Kartik 1, 1422, Moharram 2, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 180 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages plus 24-page Weekend | Price: Tk10

'HACKING MORE PIOUS THAN SHOOTING' PAGE 32

STUDENTS CALL OFF HUNGER STRIKE PAGE 5

BANGLADESH SEEKS $1.8BN FROM IDB PAGE 15

Govt’s coal power miracle on the rocksn Aminur Rahman Rasel and Asif Islam

The government’s promise to deliver on the country’s ener-gy needs is on shaky ground as just � ve of 23 approved coal-� red power plants have completed the paperwork to begin construction.

None of the proposed workhorses of the government’s en-ergy miracle have actually been built yet. The 23 plants are expected to add 20,865 MW to the national grid.

The � ve on-track plants are scheduled to be commissioned between 2018 and 2024, and are expected to bring 4,927 MW to the national grid.

The remaining 18 projects have seen little activity after the initial signing of agreements with the government or of PAGE 4 COLUMN 1

MP Liton sentto jailn Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

A Gaibandha court has sent local MP Manjurul Islam Liton, accused of shooting a child in the leg, to jail after rejecting his bail petition.

The Cognisance Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Md Mainul Hasan Yusuf passed the order yesterday after hearing argu-ments from both sides.

The court ruling came as the Awami League lawmaker’s supporters clashed with the police in front of the court; at least 25 peo-ple were injured in the violence.

During the court hearing, Liton’s counsels placed bail petitions in two cases – one for the alleged shooting of the child and another case on charges of vandalism and looting. The court sent the accused to jail after the prose-cution did not place any remand petition.

People were barred from entering the court premises when the lawmaker from Gaibandha 1 constituency was brought to the court under a security blanket, while journalists were also not given any chance to take photos.

The Awami League lawmaker was arrest-ed from his relative’s house in Dhaka’s Uttara late Wednesday; from there he was transport-ed to the Gaibandha DB o� ce early yesterday.

25 injured in clashesAt least 25 supporters of Liton were injured when the police yesterday � red rubber bul-lets and tear shells to disperse a procession, claimed Sundarganj upazila’s Awami League General Secretary Golam Mostofa.

Gaibandha Sadar police station O� cer-in-Charge AKM Mehedi Hasan con� rmed the news of the violence, and said the police � red 19 rounds of rubber bullet and shot three rounds of tear shells. Sources said the law en-forcers had acted after the MP’s supporters ignored police orders and tried to march onto the court premises.

PAGE 4 COLUMN 4

Rajon’s killer taken to Sylhetn Kamrul Hasan

Bangladesh Police with the assistance of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) yesterday brought back Saudi Ara-bia immigrant Kamrul Islam, the prime ac-cused in teenager Rajon murder case.

A three-member police team led by Ad-ditional Superintendent Mahbubul Karim reached Dhaka with Kamrul in the afternoon, produced him before the media and left for Sylhet after an hour.

The other members of the team are Syl-het Metropolitan Police Additional Deputy Commissioner Md Barkat Ullah and Assistant Superintendent of Police AFM Nizam Uddin. They went to Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Kamrul, who � ed to Saudi Arabia on July 10, was caught by expatriate Bangladeshis in Jeddah on July 13 and handed over to the po-lice after they came to know about a video on Facebook. The video showed how 13-year-old boy Samiul Alam Rajon was beaten to death in Sylhet’s Kumargaon area by Kamrul and his cohorts on July 8, falsely accusing him of stealing a rickshaw van.

Rajon was brutally tortured in front of a work-shop near Sultan Ali Market beside Dhaka-Suna-mganj road. His father � led the murder case.

So far, 35 prosecution witnesses out of 38 have testi� ed in the case at the Sylhet Metro-politan Sessions Judge’s Court. The trial be-gan on October 1.

Police said that Kamrul would be produced before the court today. Two of the 13 accused in the case are still absconding.

Kamrul is the 10th accused to be brought back home with the help of Interpol.

The National Central Bureau (NCB) of the Police Headquarters on July 21 issued a red notice against Kamrul through the Interpol. The Saudi government allowed the extradi-tion even though the two countries have no extradition treaty at the request of the Bang-ladesh government.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina too ex-pressed her resolve to try the perpetrators of child abuse. Moreover, Home A� airs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that stern ac-tion would be taken against the police mem-bers if their negligence in arresting the mur-derers of Rajon is found.

Assistant Inspector general of Police Naz-rul Islam yesterday told reporters that Mah-bubur Rahman Bhuiyan, AIG of the NCB (In-terpol), had played an important role to bring back Kamrul.

He said that the police were trying their best to arrest the two fugitives.

In reply to another question, Nazrul said that some police o� cers had been suspended for negligence in duties. “Bangladesh Police

cannot take responsibilities for such types of police members,” he added.

The o� cer-in-charge and two sub-inspec-tors of Jalalabad police were suspended after Rajon’s father alleged that they had taken bribes from Kamrul to allow him to � ee the country.

Rajon’s father Sheikh Azizur Rahman al-leged that when he had gone to � le a case over the murder of his son, Kamrul’s family o� ered him Tk5 lakh to settle the issue without pur-suing any legal action.

Azizur also said that he had found OC (in-vestigation) Alamgir Hossain and SI Aminul Islam holding a private meeting with Kamrul when he � rst went to Jalalabad police station. SI Aminul also misbehaved with him, Azizur added. l

Kamrul Islam, the prime accused in Rajon murder case, is escorted out of Dhaka airport by police yesterday following his extradition from Saudi Arabia MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015NEWS4DT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

Govt’s coal power miracle on the rocksmemorandums of understanding (MoUs) be-tween the government and its private and public sector joint venture partners.

Project directors have not even been ap-pointed to several joint venture and public power projects, even though the plans were conceived three years ago.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Min-eral Resources Nasrul Hamid is scheduled to chair the “Coal-based Power Plant Project Im-plementation Progress Meeting” to be held at Bidyut Bhaban today.

The Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, who expressed dismay at the slow implementation of the projects at a meeting on Tuesday, is also expected to at-tend the meeting.

Large and medium Independent Power Producer-operated power plants will also be under review at the meeting.

Experts doubt that the progress report on any of the projects, which are being set up under private, commercial, joint venture and public initiatives, will earn very high marks.

The Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry portfolio is held by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The government plans to set up series of coal-� red power projects to generate 20,000MW of electricity by 2030.

Good newsFive projects are currently on track. They are the joint venture projects Maitree Super Ther-mal Power Plant in Rampal and Payra Power Plant in Patuakhali, each with a capacity of 1,320 MW; the 1,200 MW state-owned Matar-bari Power Plant in Cox’s Bazar; and private company Orion Group’s 565 MW plant in Rampal and 522 MW plant in Munshiganj.

The Maitree plant is a joint venture of Bangladeshi state-owned Power Develop-ment Board (PDB) and Indian state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd.

The Payra plant is a joint venture of Chi-nese power company CMC and Bangladeshi state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Limited. Bangladesh-China Power Company (Pvt) Limited Managing Director AM Khurshedul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “We have invited tenders for the Payra 1,320 MW plant and are determined to start producing power by 2019.”

The Matarbari plant is owned by state-

owned Coal Power Generation Company of Bangladesh Limited. Abul Kasem, managing director of the Coal Power Generation Com-pany of Bangladesh Limited that owns the Matarbari plant, said: “We have had two pos-itive responses to our invitation for tenders and hope to sign one of them soon.”

Orion Group is a Bangladeshi-owned diver-si� ed business conglomerate with interests in a number of sectors. Orion Group’s chairman is Obaidul Karim.

Plodding enterpriseFor the two projects undertaken by S Alam Group – both 612 MW plants in Chittagong – only agreements with the government have been signed, no other action has been taken.

BSRM has not yet even signed an agree-ment with the government after getting ap-proval to operate the country’s lone commer-cial power plant.

Commercial plants are power plants that supply most of their energy to their own in-dustrial operation, selling a limited portion to the government to supply the national grid.

India’s privately held Adani Power Ltd has done little more than signing a memorandum of understanding with the government to generate 1,600 MW electricity.

The Orion Group has left three of its � ve projects – a 635 MW plant and a 282 MW, both in Meghnaghat, and a 282 MW plant in Chit-tagong – idle, with little action taken other than signing agreements.

Orion Group spokesman Chowdhury Khaled Masud told the Dhaka Tribune: “Two of our projects are now in the pipeline and we are hopeful that the remaining three will rap-idly follow suit.”

Many memorandumsA memorandum of understanding has been signed between the PDB and Malaysia’s con-sortium of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Powertek Energy Sdn Bhd (PB) to set up the 1,329 MW coal-based power plant in Mahesh-khali, Cox’s Bazar.

Similarly, a MoU has been signed between China Hudian Hong Kong (CHDHK) company and the PDB for a 1,320 MW coal-� red power plant in Anwara upazila in Chittagong district.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) and PDB have signed an MoU for a 1,320 MW coal-� red power plant in Anwara upazila.

Anwara upazila is also the site of a Singa-pore-Bangladesh 1,320 MW coal � red power plant for which an MoU has been signed.

Rural Power Company Limited is currently

seeking approval from the Power Division to sign a joint-venture agreement.

Public plansThe public sector plans to add an ambitious 6,135 MW to the national grid. But the fol-low-up to the planning has been disappointing.

Ashuganj Power Station Company Ltd is planning a 1,320 MW coal-� red power plant, but has not even decided on a site for the project. The company has another plan for a 1,200 MW plant speci� cally for northern Bangladesh, but this has not been sited either.

PDB has two projects planned for Chit-tagong, each with a planned capacity of 1,320 MW. Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh has a 1,320 MW plant planned for Cox’s Bazar.

The PDB is also planning the proposed Barapukuria 275 MW (3rd Unit) Coal-� red Thermal Power Plant Project.

The status of the public sector projects? They are all in the planning stage. Barely any-thing has yet been done to take them forward.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Professor Ijaz Hossain says the government’s conception of the projects is itself � awed.

He asks whether coal mining sites and the coal distribution network was adequately planned for when these mega projects were proposed. l

MP Liton sent to jailOn the other hand, locals in Sundarganj dis-tributed sweets and celebrated the news of MP Liton being sent to jail.

On October 2, eight-year-old Sourav, son of Sazu Miah of Gopalcharan village, was injured with stray bullets allegedly � red by Liton at the village. The father � led a case against Liton the following day and the legis-lator went into hiding after that.

On October 8, another case was � led against MP Liton on charge of vandalism and looting.

Liton was � nally arrested on Wednesday, only hours after the Supreme Court issued a stay order on a High Court ruling that rejected an anticipatory bail petition by Liton and or-dered him to surrender before the trial court by October 18. l

Bankers testify in Zia Charitable Trust graft casen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

Three more prosecution witnesses gave dep-ositions in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case yesterday, in the absence of the prime ac-cused – BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Standard Chartered Bank o� cials Nowshad Mahmud, Amirul Islam and Alok Kanti Chakrabarty testi� ed before Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 3. They were posted in the bank’s Motijheel branch on September 29, 2011.

With this, the court has recorded deposi-tions of 13 prosecution witnesses out of 36.

The court adjourned the trial until October 21, granting a time petition � led by the de-

fence to cross examine the witnesses.Earlier in the day, the defence cross ex-

amined three witnesses who testi� ed the previous day. They are then assistant general manager of Sonali Bank Prime Minister’s Of-� ce branch Amir Uddin, Deputy General Man-ager Dr Ha� zur Rahman and Executive O� cer Paritash Chandra Dey.

The court accepted two separate petitions regarding Khaleda Zia’s non-appearance be-fore the court. She is in London for treatment.

Khaleda’s lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hos-sain alleged that the government was rushing the proceedings for political reasons which was denied by public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajal. l

SQ Chy verdict leak case deferred for seventh timen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Cyber Crime Tribunal yesterday deferred for the seventh time the hearing on charge framing in a case � led over the leak of draft verdict in BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s war crimes case.

Tribunal judge KM Shamsul Alam set No-vember 29 granting a time petition � led by the defence. The court also mentioned that it would be the last adjournment in the in-dictment hearing. It also rejected the bail petitions � led on behalf of two accused – Sa-lauddin’s manager Mahbubul Ahsan and war tribunal employee Faruk Hossain.

The time petition submitted by counsel of

Salauddin’s son Hummam Quader Chowd-hury said that he could not appear before the court due to illness.

The other charge-sheeted accused are the convicted war criminal’s wife Farhat Quad-er Chowdhury, his counsel barrister AKM Fakhrul Islam, Fakhrul’s deputy Mehedi Hasan and International Crimes Tribunal em-ployee Nayan Ali. Of them, Hummam and his mother are on bail.

DB Inspector Md Shahjahan, also inves-tigation o� cer of the case, submitted the charge sheet on August 28 last year accusing the seven of stealing information from the tribunal chairman’s computer before Salaud-din’s verdict on October 1, 2013. l

Power plant project type No. of projects Capacity Private 8 5,110 MW

Commercial 1 150 MW

Joint venture 7 8,270 MW

Public 7 7,335 MW

Total 23 20,865 MW

PLANNED COAL-BASEDPOWER PLANT

PROJECTS

Source: Power Division

Page 5: 16 Oct, 2015

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015NEWS 5

DT

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:32PM SUN RISES 5:57AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

33.1ºC 21.1ºC

Sylhet Srimangal

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 32 23

Chittagong 31 24

Rajshahi 30 22

Rangpur 30 21

Khulna 30 22

Barisal 30 22

Sylhet 32 19

Cox’s Bazar 30 26

PRAYER TIMESFajr 4:39am

Sunrise 5:55amJumma 11:44am

Asr 3:54pmMagrib 5:32pm

Esha 7:02pm

WEATHER

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16

THUNDERSHOWER LIKELY

ICDDRB releases urban health mappingn Abid Azad

The ICDDRB has recently prepared a compen-dium of maps and information on the compo-sition and distribution of health facilities in urban Bangladesh.

GPS coordinates of each facility were re-corded and located on updated road networks and basic facility data gathered according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s guid-ance on the creation of what is said to be a Master Facility List.

As part of the study, the urban mapping � eld team identi� ed all public, NGO and pri-vately owned and managed facilities, inclu-sive of informal or non-medically trained pro-viders, displaying visible signage indicating their services.

The compendium was prepared by the Ur-ban Health Group of the Centre for Equity and Health Systems of the ICDDRB, led by Prof Alayne Adams and supported by DFID, Bang-ladesh and GIZ.

The associated report, published in pro-gramme in Dhaka yesterday, summarises maps and facility information gathered to produce the Urban Health Atlas.

The atlas maps the area-wise location of various medical care facilities, which com-prise hospitals, clinic, diagnostic centres, drop in centres, blood banks, pharmacy, EPI centres, delivery centres, satellite clinics and doctors’ chambers.

This is an interactive tool that has been developed to assemble, display and query health facility data in a visual fashion.

The study report says that the rich set of data gathered could be useful to policymak-ers, health planners and researchers.

It also claims that the work-in-progress atlas has summary data on the health facili-ties in Dhaka, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Narayanganj cities. But the interactive web-site only has data for the two city corporations of Dhaka and those of Sylhet and Rajshahi.

The report also says a total of 58 � eld

workers surveyed more than 19,000 facilities across urban Bangladesh between 2012 and 2015.

Based on a survey conducted among a sam-ple size of 3,892 facilities, the study reached a generalised conclusion that only 0.9% of the facilities in Dhaka North City Corporation are owned by the government. In this part of Dha-ka, the study located a total of 7,378 facilities.

For Dhaka south, only 1.2% of the facilities is owned by the state and the sample size was 2,830. In this part of Dhaka, the study located a total of 5,431 facilities.

Both these calculations include the around 5,000 privately owned pharmacies currently operating in the two city corporations of Dhaka.

However, the report does not have any elaboration on the methods of sampling and data collection.

These � ndings just give an idea of the own-ership and does not say anything about how much of the total number of patients the facil-ities of various ownership serve. l

Secretaries to meet on Padma River bankn Shohel Mamun

In a one-of-a-kind event, the government secretaries will have a meeting tomorrow at a unique venue – on the bank of the Padma River.

Bridges Division Secretary Khandker An-warul Islam con� rmed it yesterday.

“All government secretaries will come to-gether on the bank of the Padma on Saturday morning for a meeting, following which they will visit the Padma Bridge project,” he said.

The secretary meeting is usually held at the Cabinet Division in the Secretariat. This is � rst time that it will take place outside of the secretariat, and the capital.

Earlier, the BNP-led coalition government had attempted to hold a meeting of secretaries in Chittagong, but it eventually did not happen.

“We were invited by the Bridges Division to visit the Padma Bridge project. So we decided to have the meeting near the river,” said Cab-inet Secretary M Musharraf Hussain Bhuiyan.

“If the meeting is held at Padma, the [pro-ject] o� cials will work sincerely,” he added.

According to the o� cial notice, the secre-taries will gather at the state guest house Ja-muna on early Saturday morning, from where they will go to Padma Bridge project by bus. They will return the same day. l

For the second consecutive day, students staged their hunger strike at Dhaka’s Central Shaheed Minar yesterday, protesting the question leak of the recent medical college admission test Mehedi Hasan

Med school aspirants call o� hunger strike n Arif Ahmed

Student protesters yesterday called o� what had been described as a “fast unto death” to demand fresh medical and dental college ad-mission tests.

Protester Tanzira Biswas Tandra told the Dhaka Tribune that a group of seven well-known public � gures, including Syed Abul Muksud and Anu Mohammad, requested the students to withdraw their hunger strike over the leaking of medical and dental college ad-mission exam questions.

The public intellectuals assured protesters that they would conduct a “people’s investi-gation” on October 19 to weigh the claims and

evidence brought by protesters regarding the alleged exam question leak.

The situation was becoming increasingly grim yesterday, the second day of the hunger strike, as 10 out of 50 strikers at the Central Shaheed Minar fell ill.

One of the coordinators of the student movement, Mohaiminul Neon, said: “The sick students were given saline … two were sent to their residences because their condi-tion had deteriorated.”

The mood yesterday was one of increasing frustration, with many guardians requesting the prime minister to get involved.

Guardian Shahida Khatun asked the prime minister to intervene, saying: “Where will we

go and what will we do if the prime minister and health minister want to hide the question leak issue?”

Until the decision to withdraw the hunger strike was made around 7:15pm, protesting students showed no signs of giving up, with one protester declaring: “We will not go home until we get results … we will protest until we are dead.”

The growing desperation of the situation spurred the intervention by the public � gures.

Prospective medical and dental students have been demonstrating since admission tests, held on September 19, were called into question following widespread reports of ques-tion papers being leaked on social media. l

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015NEWS6DT

Container seized in Ctg for false declaration of goodsn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

Chittagong Custom House o� cials seized a container at Chittagong port which was car-rying brown sandy powder under the guise of copper wire and other goods yesterday evening.

Chittagong Custom House Joint Commis-sioner Gias Kamal said sandy powder was found after o� cials opened the container, which measures 20 feet in length, at the port yard for physical inspections before its depar-ture.

“The importer imported the container from China under false declaration. The ma-terials will be sent to lab for chemical tests for detailed information on their properties,” he said.

Following the incident, the clearance pa-per of the container and other documents of the C&F agent were blocked.

“Further actions will be taken after we re-ceive the lab test results,” said Gias.

Sources said the container was carrying nearly 20 tonnes of goods. l

Rashed made IUB trustee board chairmann Tribune Report

The Board of Trustees of Independent Uni-versity, Bangladesh (IUB) has again picked Rashed Chowdhury as its chairman for a peri-od of two years, says a media release.

He is the chairman of Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) Ltd, Banga Garments Ltd. and ABC Building Products Ltd. He is also a director of Associated Builders Corporation, ABC Real Estate and Shamsuddin Towels Ltd.

Rashed Chowdhury is a member of the Chartered Management Institute, UK and also vice-president of Bangladesh Squash Rackets Federation.

He obtained post graduation in business management from Kingston University, UK. l

2 die in Chittagong road crashesn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

Two persons were killed in road accidents in Chittagong’s Sitakunda and Hathazari upazila yesterday morning.

One of the victims was Faruk Ahmed, 50, a trader, while the other could not to be iden-ti� ed.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Bazlur Rahaman, in-charge of Sitakunda railway station po-lice outpost, said an unidenti� ed youth aged around 32 died after a train ran over him near the station around 6am.

He said the youth was wearing a black jack-et on a T-shirt and pants and the body was sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital for autopsy.

Nazir Hat highway police outpost In-Charge Md Jahangir Alam said Faruk was killed and three others injured when a bus rammed into a CNG-run autorickshaw at Natun Bridge area of Hathazari in the morning. l

Grameen China to set up branch in Shenzhenn Tribune Report

Grameen China is going to open a branch in the commercial city of Shenzhen in the coun-try for its microcredit programme.

An event was hosted in Shenzhen Citizen’s Centre to make the opening announcement and Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus ad-dressed it where local prominent political and business leaders were present, says a media release issued by Yunus Centre on Wednesday.

Welcoming the noble laureate to China Mr Bai Li Chen, deputy chairman of Chinese Peo-ple’s Political Consultative Conference, a top ranking national leader of the Chinese Com-munist Party, thanked P-to-P Company Hepai.com for working with Grameen China to bring � nancial services according to Yunu’s advice.During the addressing, Prof Yunus explained the need to create a new civilization by redis-covering ourselves as full human beings, and come out of the present one which is based on sel� shness of people.

Mr Xu, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen in charge of � nance, welcomed Professor Yunus on be-half the city and assured all assistance to the programme of Grameen China. He said Shen-zhen is a dynamic city known for its friendli-ness to start-ups. More than 2000 online � nan-cial start-ups are in operation from Shenzhen.

Professor Du Xiaoshan, father of Chinese microcredit and also adviser of Grameen China, a long time promoter of Grameen Pro-grammes in China, and a social activist, spoke the forum about the Chinese experience in microcredit. He has been appointed as the Advisor to Grameen China. l

Students fall sick while continuing their hunger strike protesting the leak of the medical college admission test at Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka for the second consecutive day yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

PM: Kurigram to get university, special economic zonen UNB

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said a university and a special economic zone would be set up in the district for the welfare of the people of frontier districts.

“A university will be set up in Kurigram either in public or private initiative, and also there will be a special economic zone here to spur industrialisation. I’ve already direct-ed the Deputy Commissioner to � nd suitable lands,” she said.

The prime minister was addressing a mam-moth public rally at Kurigram Government College Ground organised by the district unit of Awami League in the afternoon.

She also promised to build Second Dhorla Bridge and another bridge over the Dudhku-na River to connect the district with Lalmon-irhat, and carry out river dredging here to restore navigability, set up a children’s park beside the Dhorla Bridge and develop the Kurigram-Teesta Road.

Turning to enclave swap, Hasina said those enclaves are now part of Bangladesh with the swap and the people here now could move with Bangladeshi identity.

Urging the people of the bordering districts to accept the former enclave dwellers as their near and dear ones, Hasina said her government has launched various projects for their welfare.

She said although Kurigram was once re-garded as a Monga-prone area, now there is

no monga in the district due to her govern-ment’s farsighted steps.

The prime minister said khas lands will be provided to landless people while houses will be made for the hapless people here under the Ashrayan Project.

Noting that Bangladesh is now a role mod-el of development, Hasina said Awami League knows it very well what should be done for developing a country, as there is no need to place demand before it.

“AL knows it very well what the problems of people are and how those should be re-solved. Since we’ve liberated the country, we know it better and this is our duty,” she re-minded her audience.

Renewing her allegation that BNP chief Khaleda Zia is conspiring from abroad to tar-nish the country’s image through killing for-eigners, the prime minister warned that her government will not allow the emergence of militancy in the country in any way.

“We’ve taken strong steps to curb militan-cy, and we won’t allow its emergence in the country in any way,” she said.

Chaired by Kurigram district AL president Alhaj Aminul Islam Monju Mondol, the ral-ly was addressed, among others, by AL joint general secretary Dr Dipu Moni, State Minis-ter for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid, not-ed writer and son of Kurigram Syed Shamsul Haque, and Kurigram district AL general sec-retary Md Zafar Ali. l

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INSIDE

7D

TWorldFRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Will RSS eventually succeed in selling Hinduism? This is the � nal part of a two-part analysis on India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) goal and political ambition. The � rst part was published yesterday

n Reuters, Kolkata

Until a few years ago, the RSS had focused on achieving its vision of a Hindu nation from outside the electoral realm. RSS volunteers would meet weekly at thousands of sbranches, around the country to talk about Hinduism and civic duty, and practice martial exercises and discipline. Those interested in electoral politics traditionally migrated to the BJP and its predecessor, Jan Sangh, which shared much of the RSS’ ideology.

That changed in July 2013. At a meeting in Amravati in the western state of Mahar-ashtra, RSS leaders decided it was time for the group to start using its network to more systematically help the BJP come to power, according to Ramapada Pal, the RSS chief preacher for West Bengal and Odisha states. His account was con� rmed by several other RSS and BJP leaders who attended the meet-ing.

After the Amravati meeting, BJP president Shah enlisted an army of RSS volunteers in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, to campaign for the BJP in the federal elec-tions of 2014. The state is electorally impor-tant, accounting for 80 of 543 elected seats in the lower house of parliament. The BJP won 71 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh - a record for the party.

Now, the RSS and BJP are hoping to repli-cate the Uttar Pradesh playbook in state elec-tions. Bihar, an impoverished eastern state that is currently governed by a coalition of BJP rivals, started voting in a state election on Monday. RSS volunteers have run a grass-roots campaign in the state.

Acid testBut the acid test for the RSS-BJP alliance will be next year’s elections in West Bengal, a state where the BJP is traditionally weak and

which for decades was ruled by an alliance headed by Communist parties.

RSS o� cials have met at least � ve times this year with BJP President Shah, who many credit as the architect of Modi’s election tri-umph, to coordinate political strategy in West Bengal, said a party o� cial present at the meetings in New Delhi and Kolkata. The BJP did not win a single seat in the last elec-tion for the 290-seat state assembly in 2011.

Shah described West Bengal as a gateway to forging political control in India’s north-eastern states that border China, senior par-ty o� cial Sidharth Nath Singh quoted the BJP president as saying in a meeting.

In April, the RSS was deeply engaged in the municipal election campaign in West Bengal. For the � rst time, the BJP � elded candidates for every seat in the local elec-tions. It more than quadrupled its seats in the vote, albeit from a low base - from 16 to 74 out of a total of 1,943.

When the leader of the party in West Ben-gal is chosen for the state elections, that per-son could be from the BJP or the RSS, said Kailash Vijayvargia, who was appointed in July to manage the BJP’s political expansion in West Bengal. It needs to be someone who can � ght against “appeasing Muslims” and against “allowing Islamic terror groups to � ourish in our country,” he said.

Religious riotingCommunal violence is never far from the surface in places like West Bengal. Some of the worst religious rioting in Indian history followed the partitioning of British India into predominantly Hindu West Bengal and Mus-lim East Bengal, which in 1971 became the new country of Bangladesh. More recently, Hindu-Muslim riots erupted in West Bengal in 2007, 2010 and 2013.

In the months after Modi’s victory, leaders of hardline Hindu groups launched a drive

to have India o� cially declared a nation of Hindus. They also stepped up a campaign against what they called “Love Jihad” - a term used to describe what they claimed was an Islamist strategy to convert Hindu wom-en through seduction, marriage and money. And they began a push to convert Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, through a puri-� cation ritual called “ghar vapsi,” or “home-coming,” a concept central to the RSS since its founding.

Cow slaughter, another touchstone issue for the RSS and the source of many lethal riots, has again shaken India this month af-ter a Muslim man was lynched near Delhi on suspicion he had killed a cow, an animal holy to many Hindus. His death at the hands of a Hindu mob was deemed “an accident” by Modi’s culture minister.

Economic reformsModi and the RSS share a long-term vision of making India the world’s leading power but they don’t always see eye-to-eye on how to get there.

Modi has at times asked lawmakers from his party and RSS members to stop promot-ing controversial issues. He wants to keep the focus on economic reforms.

At an early September meeting in New Delhi organised by the RSS and attended by Modi, however, relations appeared harmoni-ous. Senior government ministers presented their plans and were quizzed about the steps they were taking in their respective minis-tries, according to two federal ministers who were both present.

Two long-awaited government plans were discussed that had strong RSS backing - the launch of a sovereign gold bond and improved pension rights for retired army personnel.

Shortly afterwards, the government pub-licly unveiled them. l

A Sadhu wears a badge with an image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside an ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya. Modi is an active member of the Hindu fundamentalist organisation REUTERS

Beijing warns against US South China Sea moveTensions have mounted since China transformed reefs in the area – also claimed by several neighbouring countries – into small islands capable of supporting military facilities, a move that the US says threatens freedom of navigation. PAGE 8

NYT: Putin sees Syria as testing groundTwo weeks of air and missile strikes in Syria have given Western intelligence and military o� cials a deeper apprecia-tion of the transformation that Russia’s military has undergone under President Vladimir Putin, showcasing its ability to conduct operations beyond its borders and providing a public demonstration of new weaponry, tactics and strategy. PAGE 9

Germany passes controversial asylum seekers billThe main aims of the amended asylum package are to speed up asylum proce-dures and ensure that rejected asylum applicants quickly return to their home country. As part of the reforms, refugees allowed to stay in Germany should also be provided with better means to inte-grate into society. PAGE 10

Page 8: 16 Oct, 2015

Beijing warns against US South China Sea moven AFP, Beijing

Beijing warned Thursday that it would “� rm-ly oppose” infringement of its sovereignty after indications Washington will soon send warships close to its arti� cial islands in the South China Sea.

Tensions have mounted since China trans-formed reefs in the area – also claimed by several neighbouring countries – into small islands capable of supporting military facili-ties, a move that the US says threatens free-dom of navigation.

Senior o� cials in Washington have sig-nalled that the US military could sail close by the islands in the coming days or weeks to demonstrate that Washington does not rec-ognise a Chinese claim to territorial waters around them.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that the country respect-ed freedom of navigation and over� ight in the South China Sea, but would “� rmly op-pose infringement of sovereignty under that pretext.”

Beijing insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters close to the coasts of other states.

Hua’s comments came after US Defence Secretary Ash Carter warned Beijing follow-ing a meeting of American and Australian of-� cials Tuesday that Washington will continue to send its military “wherever international law allows,” including the South China Sea.

An editorial in the Global Times, which is close to China’s ruling Communist party, condemned Washington’s “ceaseless provo-cations and coercion.”

“China mustn’t tolerate rampant US viola-tions of China’s adjacent waters and the skies over those expanding islands,” it said, adding that its military should “be ready to launch countermeasures according to Washington’s level of provocation.” l

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015WORLD8DT

SOUTH ASIA

AUSTRALIA & PACIFIC

AFRICA

EAST ASIA

MID EAST

China reopens border crossing with NepalChina has reopened a border crossing with Nepal that had been closed since the spring after being damaged during an earthquake, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. The Nepali government had asked Chi-na to hasten the reopening of two border crossings. They have been closed since two earthquakes killed more than 9,000 people in Nepal in April. -REUTERS

Amnesty slams Indonesian justice system for executionsIndonesia violated international human rights laws by executing 14 drug o� enders this year, exposing its weak criminal justice system, Amnesty International said on Thursday. Indonesia, one of the region’s big-gest markets for narcotics, has harsh penalties for drug crimes but in 2008 put a hold on the use of the death penalty for � ve years. It called on the govern-ment to reinstate the moratorium “as a � rst step to-wards abolition of the death penalty.” The report said four of the executed prisoners “did not have access to legal counsel from the time of arrest and at di� er-ent stages of their trial and appeals.” -REUTERS

US troops to be deployed to Cameroon tackle Boko HaramUS President Barack Obama will deploy up to 300 military personnel to Cameroon for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations against militant Boko Haram insurgents, he informed Con-gress on Wednesday. In a letter released by the White House, Obama said 90 personnel had already been deployed, marking a modest but signi� cant escala-tion of US involvement in the � ght against the Islamic State-allied group. The White House decision comes as Boko Haram steadily expands operations beyond its traditional base in northern Nigeria. An uptick in vi-olence is expected in the coming weeks with the end of the rainy season and amid growing resistance to a nascent multi-national joint task force. Cameroon has been among those coalition countries hit. -AFP

Japan restarts 2nd reactor despite oppositionJapan on Thursday restarted a second nuclear reactor after a shutdown triggered by the 2011 Fukushima cri-sis. Utility Kyushu Electric Power said it restarted the number-two reactor at Sendai, about 1,000km south-west of Tokyo at 10:30am (local time). The same power plant’s number-one reactor was restarted in August, ending. About 70 people gathered in front of the Sendai plant to protest the latest reactor restart. -AFP

US: Violence hurts Israel-Palestinian peace movesViolence and settlement activity are undermining the viability of a two-state political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian con� ict, the US State Department said on Wednesday, Speaking at a brie� ng, State De-partment spokesman John Kirby said the US Foreign Secretary John Kerry had been consistent in “not trying to a� x ... blame for the recent violence” but had discussed “the challenges that are posed on both sides by this absence of progress towards a two-state solution.” . -AFP

?WHAT’S NEXTThe dispute between the United States and China is likely to escalate to some degree.If the United States wavers, it will risk perpetuating the im-pression, among US partners and allies, that it lacks resolve in light of its policy in the Middle East, Iraq, and Ukraine. If the Chinese government blinks, it could su� er domestically due to the loss of face for the Communist Party.The stakes are high for both sides, as is the risk of a miscal-culation.

US OPPOSITION TO CHINA’S EFFORTSlThe US had building by Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea, but has vigorously opposed China’s e� orts.lIt helped boost its allies’ intelligence gathering and surveillance capabili-ties, and provide them with updated military hardware to counter China’s technical advantages in both quantity and quality.lJapan, in close coordination with the United States, is to supply military hardware to the Philippines and Vietnam.

ORIGIN OF CHINA’S CLAIMChina’s claim to the South China Sea dates back to the Xia and Han dynasties. China delineates its claims via the nine-dash line, which Chinese political and military leader Chiang Kai Shek advanced in 1947. During China’s republican era, China surveyed, mapped, and named 291 islands and reefs in the region.

UNITED STATES’ ARGUMENTUnited States contends that the South China Sea is International water, and sovereignty in the area should be deter-mined by the United Nations Convent on Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS states that countries can’t claim sov-ereignty over any land masses that are submerged at high tide, or that were pre-viously submerged but have been raised above high tide level by construction.

THE PERKS OF CONTROLLING WEST PHILIPPINE SEAl Dominate major trade routel Deny access to foreign military forcesl Energy security/independence be-

cause of South China Sea’s possible massive oil and natural reserve.

CONSTRUCTION IN WEST PHILIPPINE SEAVietnam- As per UNCLOS regulation, Vi-etnam has not put troops on what it calls “� oating islands”- those constructed on submerged sandbars, reefs and other land masses.Taiwan- Stationed military forces on at least some of its islands.China- In the last 18 months, China has reportedly constructed more new island surface than all other nations have constructed throughout history. Unlike other claimants, China has, at least brie� y, placed military equipment on one of its arti� cial islands, and o� cials have said that the government plans to do so again.

DHAKA TRIBUNE

FACTBOX

South China Sea: Whom do you belong to?The followings are some facts on the South China Sea, the maritime rules governing its waters, and major players embroiled in dis-putes within it–

GeographyThe South China Sea covers an area of more than 1.7m sq-km, containing more than 200 mostly uninhabitable small islands, rocks and reefs. It borders China and Taiwan to the north, Vietnam to the west, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore to the south and southwest, and the Philippines to the east.

Strategic importanceThe shortest route between the Paci� c and Indian oceans, it has some of the world’s bus-iest shipping lanes. Over half the globe’s oil tanker tra� c passes through it. Most ship-ping is of raw materials, such as crude oil from the Gulf to East Asian countries. The sea holds valuable � shing grounds, and as-yet

largely unexploited oil and natural gas � elds.

DisputesSix parties are involved in a complex set of historically based territorial disputes in the sea – Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philip-pines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China’s claims, the broadest, cover all of the Spratly and Paracel islands and most of the South Chi-na Sea. China’s military occupies all of the Paracel Islands, and some nine reefs in the Spratly Islands, including Johnson South Reef, Hughes Reef and Subi Reef. Vietnam occupies dozens of Spratly atolls and reefs and has military bases on several more. Tai-wan holds Itu Aba island and Ban Than Reef in the Spratlys. Its former president Chen Shui-bian visited Itu Aba in 2008, with a na-val � otilla. Taiwan has built an airport there. Malaysia has built an air strip and diving re-sort on Layang Layang, also known as Swal-low’s Reef. The Malaysian navy maintains a

base here too. The other atolls it occupies are Ardasier Reef, Marivales Reef, Erica Reef and Investigator Shoal. The Philippines occupies several Spratly islands, most signi� cant-ly Thitu island, which it renamed Pagasa (Hope). Brunei occupies none of the islands.

International lawThe 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allows coast-al states to establish sovereignty over two areas: 1. Territorial seas – adjacent waters spanning a maximum of 12 nautical-miles from their coastlines, including the coast-line of o� shore islands, and 2. Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) – extending 200 nautical miles from the coast. UNCLOS says overlapping claims should be resolved through ad hoc arbitration or submission to international courts. l

Source: REUTERS

A QUICK LOOK AT THE SOUTH CHINA SEA CONFLICT

M Razon/

Page 9: 16 Oct, 2015

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015WORLD 9

DT

GERMANY

UNITED KINGDOM

REST OF THE EUROPE

THE UNITED STATES

REST OF THE AMERICAS

German secret services spied on France, USGermany’s secret service, already under � re for hav-ing allegedly spied for Washington, had also spied for its own account on allies including France, German media claimed Thursday. The German intelligence agency BND has already been accused of eavesdrop-ping on o� cials at the French foreign ministry and presidency, as well as the European Commission, on behalf of its US counterpart, the NSA. But public ra-dio RBB and Spiegel Online claimed Thursday that the BND had also spied on its own account on several em-bassies and administrations of “European states and allies.” Spying targets include French and US o� cials, they reported, without citing their sources. -AFP

UK refuses to grant Assange safe passage for medical checkBritain has refused Ecuador’s request to give Julian Assange safe passage for a medical checkup after he had a sharp pain in his right shoulder, Quito’s top diplo-mat said Wednesday. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden. -AFP

Ukraine threatens legal war with Russia over debtUkraine threatened Thursday to launch a “legal war” with Russia after Moscow held out on a vital debt re-structuring agreement to stop the crisis-torn nation from hurtling into default. The Ukrainian government gave Moscow a strict October 29 deadline to either accept the same terms as its other debt holders or face it in the international courts. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in a televised government meeting, said the deal at talks on Wednesday in Lon-don would provide his cash-strapped country with an immediate write-down of $3bn and restructure future debt worth $8.5bn. -AFP

US: Sailing in South China Sea not provocativeUS naval vessels sailing through international waters in the South China Sea, including areas claimed by China, cannot be considered provocative, the US Navy’s most senior uniformed o� cer said on Thursday. “It should not come as a surprise to anybody that we will exer-cise freedom of navigation wherever international law allows,” John Richardson, the US chief of naval opera-tions, told reporters in Tokyo. “I don’t see how this can be interpreted as provocative.” US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter said on Tuesday the US military would sail or � y wherever international law allowed. -REUTERS

Panama prosecutor to charge ex-president with political espionageA special Panamanian prosecutor is planning to charge former President Ricardo Martinelli with run-ning an illegal political espionage ring during his ad-ministration using public funds. Prosecutors say that Martinelli, 63, used taxpayer money and government employees to listen to calls, read messages and have activists, politicians, union members, lawyers, doc-tors and other civil groups followed. Local media say he is currently living in Miami. -REUTERS

Myanmar signs limited truce with rebelsn AFP, Yangon

Myanmar on Thursday signed a cease� re with eight ethnic minority armies in a step towards ending decades of civil war, a move weakened by the refusal of several other rebel groups to join the deal.

The truce is the fruit of more than two years of negotiations and was a key goal of reformist President Thein Sein ahead of No-vember elections, which are likely to sweep his army-backed party from power.

But hopes for a full nationwide cease� re before the November 8 election crumbled recently after several rebel groups baulked at any deal without the inclusion of all insurgent forces -- notably smaller organisations locked in con� ict with the army.

In a statement, the US State Department welcomed “a critical � rst step” in building sustainable peace, but raised concerns over continuing � ghting in northern Kachin and Shan state.

The deal enables the groups involved to begin political dialogue with the government -- a longstanding demand of ethnic minorities calling for greater autonomy.

But much depends on the actions of My-anmar’s army, which is not under civilian control.

Myanmar’s military held the country in an

iron grip for decades and retains signi� cant political clout, including holding a quarter of parliament’s seats.

Aung San Suu Kyi did not attend the cease-� re ceremony in person, but insists any gov-ernment led by her National League for De-mocracy is committed to peace.

Myanmar has been torn by civil wars since the end of British colonial rule in 1948.

The army used the con� icts to justify its grip on power and has been accused of wide-spread abuses across ethnic areas.

The government has sought to reward groups signing the deal by removing them from lists of unlawful organisations, meaning their members can now travel freely and take part in politics.

These include the Karen Nation Union, whose armed wing battled government forc-es in Myanmar’s east from 1949 in one of the world’s longest civil wars.

But with � ghting still raging in parts of the country, election o� cials this week said polls can not be carried out in areas battered by con� ict or outside government control.

Major rebel groups in the north, including the Kachin Independence Army, have refused to sign the cease� re.

In Kachin more than 100,000 people have been displaced since a cease� re between re-bels and the state army collapsed in 2011. l

Obama halts troop withdrawal from Afghanistan n Reuters, Washington, DC

President Barack Obama said on Thursday Afghan troops were still not as strong as they needed to be as he announced his decision to maintain 9,800 US troops in the country through most of next year.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Obama said at the White House. “As commander in chief I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again.”

Obama said the decision should show the Taliban that the only way to achieve a full drawdown of US troops was to reach a settle-ment with the Afghan government.

Thursday’s move is the latest in a series of adjustments Obama has made to winding up the American presence in Afghanistan.

The decision follows months of deliber-ations between Obama, Afghanistan’s lead-ers, Pentagon o� cials, � eld commanders and White House advisers about how best to support Afghan forces, senior administration o� cials said.

It also comes amid gains by Taliban mili-tants.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan ended its combat mission after 13 years of war at the end of 2014, and Afghan troops have since been in charge of the nation’s security, with help from US and Nato troops. l

ANALYSIS

NYT: Putin sees Syria as testing groundn Tribune Desk

Two weeks of air and missile strikes in Syria have given Western intelligence and military o� cials a deeper appreciation of the transfor-mation that Russia’s military has undergone under President Vladimir Putin, showcasing its ability to conduct operations beyond its borders and providing a public demonstra-tion of new weaponry, tactics and strategy, analysed New York Times.

The strikes have involved aircraft never be-fore tested in combat, including the Sukhoi Su-34 strike � ghter, which Nato calls the Fullback, and a ship-based cruise missile � red more than 900 miles from the Caspian Sea, which, ac-cording to some analysts, surpasses the Ameri-can equivalent in technological capability.

Russia’s jets have struck in support of Syrian ground troops advancing from areas under the control of the Syrian government, and might soon back an Iranian-led o� ensive that appeared to be forming in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday. That coor-dination re� ects what American o� cials de-scribed as months of meticulous planning be-hind Russia’s � rst military campaign outside former Soviet borders since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Taken together, the operations re� ect what o� cials and analysts described as a little-noticed — and still incomplete — mod-ernisation that has been underway in Russia for several years, despite strains on the coun-try’s budget. And that, as with Russia’s inter-vention in neighboring Ukraine, has raised alarms in the West.

Russia’s � ghter jets are, for now at least, conducting nearly as many strikes in a typical day against rebel troops opposing the gov-ernment of President Bashar al-Assad as the American-led coalition targeting the Islamic State has been carrying out each month this year.

The operation in Syria — still relatively lim-

ited — has become, in e� ect, a testing ground for an increasingly confrontational and de� -ant Russia under Putin. In fact, as Putin him-self suggested on Sunday, the operation could be intended to send a message to the United States and the West about the restoration of the country’s military prowess and global reach after decades of post-Soviet decay. l

Page 10: 16 Oct, 2015

WORLD10DT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Bridge isn’t sport after alln Reuters, London

British lovers of bridge lost a legal battle on Thursday to have their card game recognised as a sport, thereby denying it access to fund-ing enjoyed by the likes of darts, model air-craft � ying, and angling.

The English Bridge Union (EBU), which has 55,000 members, went to London’s High Court to argue that Sport England, a public body that provides grants to activities to help the nation get � tter, was wrong not to classify the card game as a sport.

The EBU said that the level of physical ac-tivity involved in playing bridge was not that dissimilar to that required to playing darts.

But the court rejected the EBU’s demand for a judicial review.

“The question that arises in this case is not the broad, somewhat philosophical, question as to whether or not bridge is a sport,” said Judge Ian Dove, saying the ruling was merely focused on whether Sport England had acted lawfully.

His conclusion said the case had centred on the phrase “physical training and recrea-tion” which appeared in a 1937 parliamentary act and similar language used in a Royal Char-ter which set up Sport England.

He backed Sport England’s case that this did imply an element of physical activity. l

Germany passes controversial asylum seekers billn Tribune Desk

Germany’s lower house of the parliament, the Bundestag, has passed a new asylum seekers policy which opposition parties and various refugee organisations have criticised harshly, reports DW.

The main aims of the amended asylum package are to speed up asylum procedures and ensure that rejected asylum applicants quickly return to their home country. As part of the reforms, refugees allowed to stay in Germany should also be provided with better

means to integrate into society. Speaking in the Bundestag on Tuesday,

Germany’s Left Party member Jan Korte crit-icised the policy’s preference of non-cash bene� ts for refugees upon their initial arrival in Germany and deemed the planned with-drawal of bene� ts from rejected asylum ap-plicants, if they do not leave the country, as “unconstitutional.” Criticism has also been heard from several refugee and social organ-isations. Pro Asyl said in a statement that the aforementioned bene� ts cuts were an “open violation of the constitution.” l

Page 11: 16 Oct, 2015

INSIDE

We agree with the Asian Development Bank that improving connectivity is key to unlocking the untapped potential our region has to grow trade and prosperity.

Bangladesh’s geographical location between the large and growing economies of South and South-East Asia, places it in a strong position to bene� t from the rapid growth in trade between these markets.

Since 1990, trade between the eight countries of South Asia and 10 nations in South-East Asia has multiplied rapidly from only $4bn, to over $90bn by the end of 2013.

The ADB reports that the time is ripe to invest in enhancing transport infrastructure to increase integration between the South and South-East Asian regions.

It expresses con� dence that addressing the bottlenecks caused by low port capacity and improving poor rail and road links between Bangladesh, South-West China, India, Myanmar, and Thailand is key to growing a regional market of over 2.3 billion people.

The government should look to drastically increase the proportion of GDP, currently only 3%, which is invested in infrastructure. Overhauling our existing overstretched transport networks and power supplies is vital to release existing bottlenecks to growth and to attracting more FDI.

Investing in improving our ports and transport connections clearly has huge potential to help Bangladesh become a major driver for future growth in the Asian economy. The government should strongly advocate further e� orts to boost integration via regional initiatives such as BCIM and pursue the new funding sources becoming available via new institutions such as AIIB to boost investment in infrastructure.

With our own large domestic market, strategic location, and relatively small � at-land area, we have good reason to invest now in building faster railway and road networks and expanding our deep sea port facilities.

This is vital to improve the attractiveness of our economy to investors and make it easier to draw trade from improvements to regional connectivity. It is essential that the government pays heed to the need to improve infrastructure to help keep growing our economy so it can provide the future jobs we need to keep reducing poverty.

With our own large domestic market, strategic location, and relatively small � at-land area, we have good reason to invest now in building faster railway and road networks and expanding our deep sea port facilities

Make ends meat

What do you want to do with your life? But, what if you do not have the perfect plan in place? What if, by the end of your third year of undergraduate studies, you fail to be certain on where you stand?

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Western decline This was all enabled by the failure of the US strategy in Syria, and in my opinion, it is not an entirely bad outcome if the US doesn’t, in all its wisdom, either directly or indirectly � ght the Russians on this. The goals are the same if you take away the US obsession with toppling Assad -- a decision for the people of Syria to make

From Boston to Bombay, through idioms created and perpetuated by mass media, a community is being created whose religious pantheon is dictated by that pathetic yearning for uniformity that only a nation-state can display. This is where portable religion, meat-bans, and “Hindi nahi aata?” come together as symptoms of the same disease

Build connectivity to boost growth

BIGSTOCK

11D

TEditorialFRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Page 12: 16 Oct, 2015

OPINION12DT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

n Matthew Islam

“Cry ‘Havoc!’ said he who fought chaos with chaos, and let slip the dogs of war,” said an ex-asperated Frank Underwood

looking straight into the camera from the TV series, House of Cards, in one of its most dramatic moments. The quote itself, though lifted and modi� ed from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, � ts like a glove for what’s happening in Syria today. You really couldn’t make this up. 

The US administration, through a unique concoction of propaganda, terribly miscalcu-lated and naive series of intentional geopo-litical moves, decided to topple one of its last eye sores in the Middle East buoyed in some preposterous way by the “surge of democra-cy” it claims to have instigated in the region, apparently for its own good by having sup-ported the Arab spring when it did.

This policy in Syria despite fresh history of similar escapades in the region being expen-sive in terms of � nance and dead bodies on all sides and the counter-productive nature of it in the long term has enabled the letting loose of more than hundreds of di� erent grouped breeds of those mutated rabid ca-nines that comprises various terrorist out� ts that operate within Syria and Iraq today. 

This has, amongst other things, resulted in a complex chess game of loyalty, allied anti-Assad � ghters and terrorist rebel war-lords combined, the equations related to which, change constantly, not only putting US interests at harm in the long term, but keeping it blindsided as to who the imminent threat is at any given point. In constantly calculating and recalibrating it’s alliance, the US is slow to react to changes on the ground. This is to not even consider the threat these groups pose to world security at large, if they migrate their goals to that direction. 

The Obama administration’s persistent fondness of the Bush doctrine notwith-standing; its inaction, on and o� apathetic attitude, propensity to make up information, confusion and inconsistency in the region has led to a considerable decline in its ability to in� uence and control outcomes in the Middle East.

The lack of a clear direction in combat-ing ISIS as the number one present threat to peace and civilisation including the US � nancing, munition, arms and intelligence support to “moderate Syrian rebels” some of whom openly work in nexus with other at terrorist rebel groups in the region has led to criticism and confusion around the world. By pursuing a “distant” combat and control pol-icy, the US and its allies have yielded space enough for Putin to gain signi� cant control of the future of the region’s foreign policy by virtue of a more simple and direct agenda in Syria, but more on that later.

It’s undeniable that Syria continues to experience a brutal civil war but US policy in my opinion, has made it bloodier, more ghastly, messy, and complicated. While the approach to peace should have been a balanced one, the West found in all its inter-ventionist wisdom, very much in the spirit

of Reagan contras era policy, the need to pick sides and assist its own insatiable appetite to bring down dictators as a priority instead of defeating ISIS, regardless of the cost to its own citizens, the people of the country they purport to help, and world peace at large. The rhetoric should have been: “Violence must cease immediately from all parties or else” instead of “The Assad regime must cease to exist.” This was a strategic mistake.

The US policy of arming, training, and � nancing of “moderate rebels” in Syria too has faced major blows over the last few years and more recently because of defections to the notorious Al-Nusra from Division 30, a US favoured rebel group trained in Turkey to take on ISIS that included munitions, in-telligence; not to mention the disbanding of Harakat Hazm, one of the most well known and e� ective moderate rebel groups in Syria that now no longer exists because Nusra decimated it.

US delay in formalising a strategy in Syria has allowed for al-Nusra, a monstrous al-Qaeda a� liate in Syria that targets US, Russian, ISIS and any other forces that threaten its sphere of in� uence to consolidate their hold in parts of Syria quite

strongly. They have successfully recruited large numbers of demoralised elements from most of the major moderate rebel groups due to US inaction.

The numbers of moderate Syrian rebels have continued to decline and with the recent US decision, which I think is a late but prudent one, to cut the funding to many rebel groups. It is likely that more defections will happen, bringing the US strategy in Syria to a very narrow approach limited to air strikes only, that is no longer about winning the � ght but to keep its stakes going in this region and the � ght against ISIS. 

For Putin, now an active player in shaping the Syrian future, a di� erent more simple approach is afoot, as the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov asks: “Well, if it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it � ghts like a terrorist -- it’s a terrorist, right?” 

Russia’s actions, while primarily in support of Assad’s strategy in Syria, is according to reports from the media making great progress in decimating the capabilities of al-Nusra, the Syrian rebels and ISIS. So perhaps, despite US warnings to the contrary, maybe this is a good strategy in Syria to help

bring about some notion of a pause in the growth of the in� uence of these terrorist groups. Simply because nothing else worked. 

Unlike the US-UK and allied intervention in Syria, one which has no UN mandate or o� cial Syrian plea for help, making it illegal, Russia didn’t barge in uninvited. In a reference to possible expansion of Russia’s actions in Syria to Iraqi territories, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister taunted: “We are polite people, we don’t come if not invited.”

It remains to be seen how e� ective, consistent, and committed the Russians are in Syria. One would hope it doesn’t take this move in stabilising Syria lightly, as recent terrorism attempts in Moscow demonstrates the resolve of ISIS in harming Russia also. The world is watching what Russia is doing, and perhaps hopes are, it will succeed in becoming an alternative solution to the now tired, declining, and re-adjusting US strategy in Syria and the Middle East at large. 

Having seized control of the agenda in Syria, Russia has successfully divert-ed attention away from problems such as Ukraine, strengthened its close ally Assad, gained stronger relations with Iraq and Iran, and ensured a strong approach to combating ISIS, which is being reluctantly welcomed by observers.

This was all enabled by the failure of the US strategy in Syria, and in my opinion, it is not an entirely bad outcome if the US doesn’t, in all its wisdom, either directly or indirectly � ght the Russians on this. The goals are the same if you take away the US obsession with toppling Assad -- a decision for the people of Syria to make. l

Matthew Islam is a writer, entrepreneur, Barrister-at-Law, and a columnist at the Dhaka Tribune. He can be contacted on twitter via @matthewislam or www.facebook.com/thematthewislam.

Western decline Has US intervention made the situation in Syria messier?

This was all enabled by the failure of the US strategy in Syria, and in my opinion, it is not an entirely bad outcome if the US doesn’t, in all its wisdom, either directly or indirectly � ght the Russians on this. The goals are the same if you take away the US obsession with toppling Assad -- a decision for the people of Syria to make

Did Russia come to the party uninvited? REUTERS

Page 13: 16 Oct, 2015

OPINION 13D

TFRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

n Mashiat Nawal Chowdhury

What do you want to do with your life? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? What’s your plan after graduation?

These have recently become the three dreaded questions of my life. And the horror lies in the fact that they only grow in strength as one nears graduation.

To the enquirer, it’s a perfectly logical question to pose. After all, graduating from university literally means stepping into the next phase of your life -- the “serious” phase where you get a job or decide you want more academic medals and therefore sail west for a Master’s degree -- preferably somewhere reputed like Simon Fraser. Or perhaps Prince-ton, if you happen to be that good.

But, what if you do not have the perfect plan in place? What if, by the end of your third year of undergraduate studies, you fail to be certain on where you stand? You’ve decided to major in � nance. But you’re not certain that you even like � nance. Must you stick to it, simply because that’s the direction you’ve been half-heartedly pursuing since enrolling in a BBA program, because every-one told you that it’s the ideal major for the academically gifted?

The system mounts the pressure up to an un-bearable level. A renowned professor abroad once said: “Unless you have changed your subject at least twice, how on Earth would you know what you like best?”

Wait a moment for the statement to sink in.

Now, consider the decisions in life for a typical Bangladeshi student -- you -- the decisions which act as turning points in your life. In grade eight, you must decide -- sci-ence, commerce, or arts? If you’ve chosen

commerce, that’s the train you’ll board. Or your school decides it for you based on your grades.

If you have poor grades, you’ll nev-er become an engineer; your grades as a 14-year-old act as a forecast for your future, older-self’s grades. No sir, you must go to business school or learn to love the arts.

Grade 10: You’ve just passed your SSC/“O” levels. If you managed to study science the last two years, this time you have a choice. Science, or must you board a di� erent train? You’re 16 now, you know. You really should � gure out what you want from life.

And then comes the last, crucial decision point of your life, at 18 -- choosing your undergraduate program. Once that has been selected, you’ve set up your roadmap for the future. Of course, you’re free to choose your majors from within that � eld -- that’s a given. How can you not know what you want, despite being given three years to make a choice? That’s ridiculous.

And then the train’s brakes fail, and it only continues to accelerate. You must now sketch at least a two-year plan for your future and know exactly what you want -- and convince people that this is what you want. It’s a lot like what you’re asked to do in a business competition. If you don’t have a plan, you don’t stand a chance. You’re a fool if you don’t have a goal, if you cannot decide and be opportunistic.

Furthermore, your avenues are shut o� . If you don’t have the pockets available for supplying private education to change tracks, you’re staying just where you are and dealing with your problems.

And when you’ve failed at making the “right” decision at each of those decision points of your life, you’re branded a loser.

Don’t despair, so am I.I neither know what I like best nor what

I want to do with my life. I despaired for months, tried out every opportunity that crossed my path. And I have yet to know. Perhaps we were too young to make the right decisions during the decision-points in our lives. It was a 50/50 gamble. If we didn’t win, we still have that � nal decision-point loom-ing ever closer -- completion of undergradu-ate studies.

If you fail even then to make a decision, don’t lose hope. There will come a point when something interests you long enough to devote your life to, however later in life that may be. Till then, simply make sure whatever choices you make leave you � exible to switch to other related � elds in the future that you at least possess some degree of interest in. And try out every opportunity that comes your way. You never know when it’ll hit you.

Abroad, it’s absolutely normal to not know. In Bangladesh, they’ll tell you you’re stupid if you don't. Ignore them and that deep pit of fear the statement opens up in your stomach every time.

Destiny isn’t set in stone. You’re not in the best of positions by not knowing, but all is not lost, either ... yet. l

Mashiat Nawal Chowdhury is a freelance contributor.

What do you want to do with your life? It is unfair to expect young people to know what they want so early in their lives

But, what if you do not have the perfect plan in place? What if, by the end of your third year of undergraduate studies, you fail to be certain on where you stand?

Are you sure you chose the right degree? BIGSTOCK

Page 14: 16 Oct, 2015

LONG FORM14DT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

n Garga Chatterjee

Mumbai and Delhi are the sanctum sanctorum of the Indian Union’s anglicised and privileged cool set. Apparently, these two urban

areas represent that highest form of the cosmopolitan ethos with a “desi” touch. That ethos is also a stand-in for a celebratory form of atomised individualism (whose boring moments are “artistically” expressed as urban ennui) and is characterised by a near-complete alienation from the street and the social life of real people.

These are precisely the kinds of cities where “illegal” settlements of the urban poor can be removed and political processions are reduced to a “tra� c problem.” Hence, it is not surprising that beef-ban unites these two cities in their apartheid-based cosmopol-itanism and that a general meat-ban can be promulgated in Mumbai and Gurgaon. The powerful classes of such cities have always made separate private provisions for them-selves and hence, only rarely anything public impinges on their lives.

Mumbai’s municipal corporation had promulgated a four-day ban on the sale of all kinds of meat and working of its slaughter-houses to respect the perceived heightened religious sensitivity of the Jains during their festival of Paryushan. Strong protests from Marathi-dominated organisations like the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Shiv Sena have resulted in the shortening of the ban period to two days.

However, a two-day meat-ban around Paryushan has been around from 1964. While the wealthy business class of Mumbai has always arm-twisted the municipal corpora-tion to serve its special interests, the 1964 resolution represents a more powerful group.

It is not surprising that many of the Hindu business tycoons of Mumbai in 1962 were also vegetarians and that is still true. Thank-fully, I don’t live in the jurisdiction of the Bri-hanmumbai Municipal Corporation but that of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation where chickens, goats, and cows can be slaughtered all the time and are sold throughout the city. Now that several other BJP-ruled states have also come up with meat-bans to respond to their political backers, this advancing front of animal slaughter ban and meat-selling ban is worrisome.

I come from a clan of Shaktos (devotees of the Mother goddess or Shakti) and we are strongly into the worshipping of Ma Durga and Ma Kali. My home is just across the nearly-dead Adi Ganga (the original � ow of the Ganga) river from the powerful divine seat of Ma Kali called Kalighat.

It is one of the most important sites of our Shakto universe. Here, from time immemo-rial, our people have been o� ering animals as sacri� ce to our divine mother. For those who can’t a� ord to sacri� ce a whole goat, the meat of animals that have been o� ered to the goddess is sold from small outlets near the temple.

When parts of Ma Sati’s dead body fell on Earth, each of those sites became a Shakti-peeth -- a space of divine signi� cance. Of the

51 Shakti-peeths on Earth, Bengal is blessed with 16, of which East Bengal has � ve. Some are in Assam and some in Nepal. At almost all these holy sites, animal sacri� ces are almost a daily a� air.

When we make an animal sacri� ce, we are not perturbing other religious communities. By pushing a certain Hindustan region con-sensus of certain communities, people like us are being reduced to second grade Hindus in the “pan-Indian” set of things. This is also why our religion and its practises need to be protected from this brand of nationalist poli-tics, that privileges certain religious practises over others.

Our clan has been Bengali shakto by faith for as long as we can remember. Ma Durga, the mother goddess, will come alive in Patu-ligram -- my clan-abode -- as “Moter Ma,” the name by which she is known there.

Many traditional Durga pujas or religious rites in Shakto families or out-of-turn personal o� erings to the goddess have animal sacri� ce as an integral part. Does one not have the right to observe Shakto religious rites during the time of Paryushan of the Jains if one happens to live in one of these slaughter-ban zones? When certain religious types give patronising sermons on vegetarianism, are our religious sensitivities not hurt?

Why is that okay? Is it because in the birat Hindu conception of highbrow religious practise, our practises are second-class? When we are judged on the basis of other

people’s attitude’s towards meat and their religious sensitivity, are we to understand that our faith is something that perturbs the religious sensitivity of others? We must remember that all attitude is reciprocal. Tanmay Mukherjee, a friend and an astute chronicler of contemporary West Bengali urban culture, says: “What’s true for you, may be vegetarian for me.”

I remember a time, not so long ago, when my very Bengali Brahmin family would travel outside Bengal. The visits would include religious places. Their attitude towards these places was clear -- these were divine, but it was clearly understood within the family that these places were not “ours.” “Our” gods lay elsewhere.

Who are these � rst citizens of the Indian Union whose sensitivities take precedence over the practices of others? This Savarna-Jain halalisation of the public sphere is a creeping danger, because they now seem to exert political in� uence far beyond their numbers.

In “unity in diversity” land, some diversities are necessarily silenced or are labeled “superstitious.” The list of the silenced and the superstitious is predictable. Not all diversities have been domesticated enough to be featured at the Mumbai airport or Noida’s Great India Place for yuppie Indian consumption. Some diversities retain elements that bite back when trampled upon.

The no meat-ban regions have to realise the long-range political aim of the Hindi-Hin-

du-Hindustani multi-headed hydra of homo-geneity. It has many faces -- some are about beef ban, some are about the cosmo-liberal “idea of India” and so forth. New Delhi sarkar’s Air India serves eggless cake and onion-less paneer pu� s to general passengers like me on a � ight to Srinagar from Delhi.

Kashmir is home to a largely meat-eating non-Muslim culture. What’s the message here? Who’s being served by what is being served here? Even in Kolkata, I recently visited a private hospital, part of a chain owned by a vegetarian Krishna-worshipping business family. In that health-care facility, no eggs or meat or � sh is allowed even if they are usually medically and nutritionally indi-cated in other places, like public hospitals.

And even if they are medically indicated, nutritionists working there never prescribe anything non-vegetarian. Does religious sen-sitivity also allow one to molest the lifestyle, health and food-choice of one’s customers? What is the nature of this emergent politics that empowers a business group to enforce its religious beliefs in health-care facilities and deny � sh to a convalescing Bengali in Bengal?

A new nation-state is evolving; a new con-sensus is being beaten out of the badlands of the sub-continent. Our gods and goddesses are not una� ected in this scheme of things. In this new religious world view, older “superstitions” are avoided and even con-demned, with a mishmash of scriptures and lifestyle demands of modern urban society forming the bedrock of “eternal values.”

These stances have wide currency among the rootless urban folk who may be religious or irreligious, but are Siamese twins when it comes to being self-servingly contemptuous of the rustic and the fantastic. This is the reli-gion where certain gods have stolen a march on many other gods, creating a poor and sad “national” pantheon of sorts -- dreams of a “uni� ed Hinduism” � nally bearing some fruit.

From Boston to Bombay, through idioms created and perpetuated by mass media, a community is being created whose religious pantheon is dictated by that pathetic yearning for uniformity that only a nation-state can display. This is where portable religion, meat-bans, and “Hindi nahi aata?” come together as symptoms of the same disease. I thank Ma Kali that my municipal ward in Kolkata is not under the sway of forces of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan and I believe that my benevolent and powerful divine mother will keep it that way. We Shaktos aren’t worshipper of man-made gods nor of dead gods. Our goddesses are alive and are on guard. They’ve always been.

One � nal question from a resident of an area that hasn’t had a major communal riot for some time -- when many followers of a uber “ahimsa” religion supports and funds organisations that save cows but kills human beings of other faiths, do the religious senti-ments of those vegetarians get hurt? l

Garga Chatterjee is a political and cultural commentator. He can be followed on twitter @gargac.

Make ends meatThe meat-ban in India is an attempt to homogenise the nation

From Boston to Bombay, through idioms created and perpetuated by mass media, a community is being created whose religious pantheon is dictated by that pathetic yearning for uniformity that only a nation-state can display. This is where portable religion, meat-bans, and ‘Hindi nahi aata?’ come together as symptoms of the same disease

Who to worship and who to sacri� ce? REUTERS

Page 15: 16 Oct, 2015

15D

TBusinessINSIDE

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Asia’s hunger for bread and pastries boosts wheat demandAsia is losing some of its appetite for rice in favour of wheat, a trend that is nowhere more pronounced than South Korea where bread and pastries have become a new staple. PAGE 17

Stocks decline further amid volatility Stocks extended losses for the second con-secutive day yesterday, sending the bench-mark index to three-month low as investors were worried about the slowing economy. PAGE 16

Fed: US growth modest strong dollar weighsThe strong dollar weighed on manufactur-ing and tourism spending in the US while the economy continued “modest expan-sion” in recent weeks, the Federal Reserve said in a report early yesterday. PAGE 18

Daily capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index 12714.06510 (-) 0.84% ▼

DSE - 30 Index 1766.50380 (-) 1.22% ▼

CSE All Share Index 14319.18260 (-) 0.86% ▼

CSE - 30 Index 12714.06510 (-) 0.38% ▼

CSE Selected Index 8711.71410 (-) 0.88% ▼

DSE key featuresTurnover (Million Taka) 4,044.93

Turnover (Volume) 115,000,188

Number of Contract 104,135

CSE key featuresTurnover (Million Taka) 355.48

Turnover (Volume) 8,908,664

Number of Contract 18,940

Construction of Gazipur Hi-Tech Park begins n Tribune Report

The construction and development works of much-awaited Hi-Tech Park kicked o� yesterday to promote Foreign Direct Invest-ment, nurture entrepreneurs and support techno-based start-up companies.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, yesterday laid the foundation stone of the park at a function at Kaliakoir in Gazipur.

Hosne Ara Begum, managing director of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority, and Mo-ynul Hoque, managing director of Fibre@home, parent company of TechnoSity, were present, among others, at the event.

The TechnoSity Limited and Hi-Tech Park Authority signed an agreement on August 11 to expedite the construction and develop-ment works.

Sources said TechnoSity and Malaysia’s IRIS Corporation Berhad Technology would jointly develop the project.

TechnoSity will invest $25m for construc-tion initially, and if necessary, the invest-ment would be increased by 10 to 12 times.

Bangladesh TechnoSity Limited, one of the developers of the park, is tasked with developing Block 3 of the Hi-Tech Park.

TechnoSity will develop 40 acres of land

under the block on a design, build, � nance, own, operate (DBFOOT) basis between 6 and 10 years.

Following the development, it will op-erate the block for 40 years, which can be extended later for another 20 years. After 60 years, the block will be handed over to the government.

The target industries of Block 3 include IT/ITES, BPO and software, hardware manu-facturing, multimedia and animation, elec-tronic and robotics, bio-tech, robotics en-gineering, telecommunication, renewable energy, auto-mobile, education and training institutes, venture capitalists and incuba-tors.

On June 28, Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Au-thority also signed an agreement with Sum-mit Technopolis to develop block No. 2 and 5, which span over 65 acres and 29 acres of land respectively.

The Hi-Tech Park Authority itself will de-velop Block 1 on 65-acre land for administra-tive purpose. The tender evaluation process for developing Block 4 is yet to � nish.

Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park, the � rst ever in the country, is located at Kaliakoir upazilla in Gazipur, 40km north of Dhaka with 232-acre area. l

NBR o� cials performance to be assessed monthlyn Tribune Report

The National Board of Revenue has introduced a new system to assess performance of its o� -cials more intensively and transparently.

Under the system, the performance will be evaluated on monthly basis while the month-ly reports will be a basis for preparing Annual Con� dential Report (ACR).

As per the change, the NBR has recently in-troduced monthly and annual report cards to record the o� cials’ performance.

The report card system will be applicable to the o� cers - ranging from assistant reve-nue o� cers to members. Promotions and transfers will be decided according to the re-cords in report cards.

O� cers will be graded in a 100-point scale under the system. The performance criteria will include quali� cation, reputation, disci-pline, honesty and innovative approach.

Of the 100 points, 50 will be for workplace performance and 50 for attaining di� erent qualities.

In performance assessment, 40 points will be allotted for budget implementation (achieving the revenue target) activities and 10 points for administrative, policy and other matters includ-ing timeliness, quality and quantity of works. l

Bangladesh seeks $1.8b loan from IDBn Kayes Sohel

Bangladesh has proposed Islamic Develop-ment Bank (IDB) to provide $1.8 billion for implementing 24 development projects re-lated to power, rural development, agricul-ture, health and education.

Under the second Member Country Part-nership Strategy (MCPS), the government has made the proposal to implement the pro-ject from 2017 to 2019, according to o� cials at the Economic Relations Division (ERD).

To � nalise the deal, a � ve-member team, led by the Director of IDB Country Pro-grammes Department, Mohammad Jamal Al-Saati, is expected to pay a three-day visit to Dhaka from October 19.

During the visit, the proposed projects and ongoing 13 projects under the IDB support will come up in the discussion with imple-menting ministries and agencies concerned.

Moreover, the development of Narayan-ganj City Corporation will also be included in the discussion.

The deal will help implement Public Pri-vate Partnership (PPP) projects and lend funds to private sector for improving the country’s infrastructure, said an o� cial.

He said the funds will come in the form of mixed credit, as some of the loans will be soft in nature and others relatively hard.

Usually, IDB gives loan at less than 2% interest rate with a seven-year grace period and loan payment period is 25 years.

Under the � rst MCPS 2013-16, IDB had signed an agreement to give $1.2 billion to execute 22 projects, but so far, it approved $451 million against � ve projects.

Besides, IDB promised to give $2.2 million for Ashuganj (east) Power Plant as part of its support for the development programme in Bangladesh.

Currently, Bangladesh is implementing 13 projects worth $873.93 million under the bank loan.

The projects include power grid expan-sion, regional submarine telecommunica-tion, capacity enchantment of Sylhet Power Plant, vocational education and improving water supply situation in the city corpora-tion areas. l

Banks to remain closed on October 22n Tribune Report

Banks will remain closed on October 22 on the occasion of Durga Puja, the religious festival of Hindu community.

All scheduled banks will be closed on Thursday instead of October 23

in line with the general holiday an-nounced by the government, said a circular Bangladesh Bank issued yes-terday.

Earlier, the government holiday for celebrating the festival was an-nounced on October 23, but later it was rescheduled the day before. l

Page 16: 16 Oct, 2015

BUSINESS16DT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Chevron Asia-Paci� c boss opens school building construction in Bibiyanan Aminur Rahman Rasel

The President of Chevron Asia-Paci� c Explo-ration and Production Bangladesh, Melody Meyer, recently laid the foundation stone of a new � ve-storey building for Nadampur High School located near Chevron’s Bibiyana Gas Plant.

The construction costs of the � rst � oor have been jointly borne by Chevron and some of its master contractors engaged during the Bibiyana Expansion Project.

The � oor will house three classrooms, ac-commodating up to 150 students, and a teach-ers’ common-room.

Chevron will be bearing 68% of the con-struction costs, with the remainder being provided by eight master contractors, viz., Basic Engineering Ltd, Dipon Group, MAS, Mir Akhter Hossain Ltd (MAHL), Mir Traders, Pipeline Engineers & Associates Ltd (PEAL), Pipeliners and Plexal Group.

Melody Meyer said: “We have had a long-standing association with Nadampur High School since 2006 from when the Bibi-yana Gas Field had been developing.”

“I’m glad I have this opportunity to con-gratulate you on your recognition by the Syl-het Education Board as the Best Secondary School in Nabiganj Upazila. To consistently achieve a 100% pass rate over four successive years is a great accomplishment, and it is so gratifying to learn that Chevron’s support has played a role in your success.” She added.

Among others, Chevron Managing Director for South Asia, Brad Middleton, its President for Bangladesh, Kevin Lyon, External A� airs Director for Bangladesh, Naser Ahmed, and lawmaker Abdul Munim Chowdhury (Babu) of Habiganj 1 were present at the programme. l

Palak: Once Walton may turn into private Hi-Tech Parkn Tribune Report

Junaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for Infor-mation and Communication Technology, has categorically said the government will con-sider declaring the Walton Hi-Tech Industries as a private Hi-Tech Park in line with the rules and regulations of the government Hi-Tech Park guidelines.

He also assured Walton of providing it with all privileges of Hi-Tech Park.

The junior minister made the assurance while brie� ng the media yesterday after vis-iting di� erent production units of Walton Hi-Tech Industries, especially refrigerator, air conditioner, television and motorcycle units, and the display centre at Chandra in Gazipur.

Palak also inaugurated the Walton’s E-com-merce site as the chief guest.

During the inauguration, Walton also pre-sented a video documentation, highlighting production processes of its di� erent products.

In his address, Palak termed Walton Bang-ladesh’s national pride.

The local company has achieved tremen-dous popularity at home and abroad by man-ufacturing world-class consumer-based elec-tronics products, he said.

As Mitsubishi exposed Japan to the tech world and Samsung South Korea, one day Walton will re� ect a positive image of Bang-ladesh in the global market, said the minister.

Making investment in the country’s ICT sector, Walton has set an example before the country’s youth and its successful stories

would be followed by other entrepreneurs of this sector, he added.

The local company has already created employment opportunities for about 15,000 people, he said, hoping that it would employ nearly one lakh people by 2021.

He also assured the company that the gov-ernment would provide all kinds of support for its expansion.

Dwelling on the opening of E-commerce site, Walton Sr. Additional Director (IT) Ariful

Ambia said the site was opened so that the buyers can easily purchase Walton products through online without going to the compa-ny’s outlets.

In addition, the buyers will also enjoy home delivery services, he said, adding that in future, the company will o� er a special dis-count on the online purchase of its products.

The desired customers would be able to make their online purchase by visiting www.waltonbd.com. l

Stocks decline further amid volatility n Tribune Report

Stocks extended losses for the second consec-utive day yesterday, sending the benchmark index to three-month low as investors were worried about the slowing economy.

The market moved between positive and negative heavily in early trading, making in-tra-day volatility around 60 points.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange benchmark in-dex DSEX was down 63 around 40 points or 0.9% to 4,676—its lowest since July 14 this year.

The Shariah index DSES lost 12 points or 1.2% to 1,114.

The blue chip comprising index DS30 dropped 21 points or 1.3% to 1,766.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX slid 77 points to 8,711.

Strong buying and selling pressure helped turnover cross Tk400-crore mark as the DSE turnover stood at over Tk400 crore, which is more than 31% higher over the previous ses-sion’s value.

KDS Accessories in its � rst trading day jumped 329% to over Tk85 a share on its of-fer value of Tk20 per share. It opened at Tk75 before reaching its peak at Tk93 and as low as Tk64.

KDS was also the most-traded stocks of the session and topped the liquidity chart with a turnover worth nearly Tk46 crore, making up 11% of the total DSE turnover.

Almost all sectors remained in negative territory except food and allied and pharma-ceuticals, which gained marginally.

Cement was the worst su� erer tumbling more than 4%, driven by Lafarge Surma Ce-ment dropping 6.7%.

Telecommunication also su� ered heavy losses of almost 4%, led by Grameenphone, shedding 4.2%.

IDLC Investments said panic sale contin-

ued in the market, despite support from the buyers in early morning.

It said buyers were blown o� by the massive supply of instruments as the session passed.

Lanka Bangla Securities said stocks saw signi� cant weakness on the heels of the dis-appointing market sentiment.

“The markets went back to the risk o� mode to safeguard their position amid such downfall in market.” l

Olympic Accessories added to DSE broad indexn Tribune Report

Dhaka Stock Exchange has included Olym-pic Accessories to its broad index with e� ect from October 18 as part of its semi-annual re-balancing of the indices.

In accordance with DSE Bangladesh Index Methodology, designed by S&P Dow Jones In-dices, Olympic Accessories has been quali� ed as eligible constituents of DSE Broad Index (DSEX), said a DSE statement yesterday.

DSEX re� ects around 97% of the total equity market capitalisation. Criteria for inclusion in DSEX, a company must have a � oat–adjusted market capitalisation above Tk10 crore and for DS30, a company must have a � oat-adjusted market capitalisation above Tk50 crore.

At each semi-annual rebalancing, if a cur-rent index constituent falls below Tk50 lakh but is no less than Tk30 lakh, the stock re-mains in the index provided it also meets the other eligibility criteria.

In addition, all eligible stocks for the DSE indices are required to trade at least half of normal trading days each month for three months prior to rebalancing reference date. l

State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak vists Walton Hi-Tech Industries in Gazipur yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Page 17: 16 Oct, 2015

BUSINESS 17D

TFRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Asia’s hunger for bread and pastries boosts wheat demandn Reuters, Seoul

Asia is losing some of its appetite for rice in favour of wheat, a trend that is nowhere more pronounced than South Korea where bread and pastries have become a new staple.

From working mothers, who � nd toast more convenient to prepare for breakfast, to city dwellers � ocking to new eateries for ba-guettes, South Koreans are at the forefront of an Asia-wide trend that has seen wheat demand climb at nearly twice the rate of rice consumption since 2008.

And while Asia is largely self su� cient in rice, demand for bread and noodles from Mum-bai to Manila has made Asia the largest and fast-est growing market for wheat imports, shipping in more than 40 million tonnes annually for the past � ve years or 25% of world imports.

“I eat bread with co� ee almost every morning,” said Lee Seung-Hee, a 47-year-old working mother of two, who often gives her children bread as a snack between meals.

“My husband likes to have rice meals, so I try to cook rice for him. But when I’m too busy, I just give him bread.”

South Koreans spent an estimated 6.36tn won ($5.37bn) last year on bread, sandwiches, bagels and pastries, according to SPC Group, owner of the Paris Croissant and Paris Baguette chains, which has even opened two stores in the French capital Paris as part of global expansion.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s rice consump-tion hit a record low of 65.1 kg per person last year, while � our consumption was the high-est since 2006 at 33.6 kg, according to indus-try and o� cial data.

“Housewives are increasingly having bread and co� ee for brunch late morning instead of

rice and kimchi,” said Kang Byung-Oh, a busi-ness professor at Chung-Ang University, refer-ring to the spicy local side dish.

SPC Group, which runs Asia’s biggest bread making plant and has about 5,000 bakeries in South Korea, said the local bread market has grown at an average of 15% per year since 2005.

“You can � nd this trend across Asia, as Asian countries become westernised...Food products from wheat � our are quick, convenient,” said Koh Hee-Jong, an agriculture and life science professor at Seoul National University.

NoodlesRising wheat consumption has been focused on large cities where an emerging middle

class is exposed to a proliferation of conven-ience foods from pizzas to sandwiches.

In Indonesia, noodle consumption has helped increase wheat demand in the world’s second-biggest importer by more than 60% since 2005 to nearly 8 million tonnes annu-ally.

Even in India, the world’s second-largest wheat grower, consumption is projected to surpass output by more than 5 million tonnes this year, sparking the largest imports in eight years.

Indian wheat demand is especially strong in the Northern Plains where it is grown, but is rising in the south where naan bread and chap-attis vie with traditional rice consumption.

Bangladesh is expected to import around 3 million tonnes of wheat a year to help meet 4 million tonnes of local demand.

“We used to take rice three times a day. Now we are taking rice only once a day,” said Humayra Ahmed, a bank employee and mother of two children in Dhaka.

China has also seen wheat demand soar and consumed a record 118 million tonnes in 2014.

Along with record pizza sales and noodle consumption, demand for cakes and pastries is also increasing.

“It’s a symbol of lifestyle, consumers pair them (cakes and pastries) with co� ee and chatting, and hanging out with friends,” said Linda Li, senior research analyst at Mintel China.

ProducersWith wheat production relatively low in some Asian countries - South Korea only produces about 1-2% of its consumption - there is little alternative but to import more.

Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, the United States and Europe have been the chief bene� ciaries of Asian wheat demand, seeing collective exports swell by over 40 percent since 2005.

But the relentless climb in wheat con-sumption does place a strain on exporters in places such as Australia to keep up.

“When you look at wheat consumption, it is to a very large degree driven by general in-crease in consumption as well as swap out of rice and other staples,” said Ole Houe, an an-alyst at brokerage IKON Commodities in Syd-ney. “We need to produce a record crop every year just to meet the demand.” l

Women chooses a sandwich during lunchtime at a bakery in central Seoul, South Korea REUTERS

China to extend onshore FX trading to overlap with Londonn Reuters, Beijing

China’s foreign exchange market will soon ex-tend trading hours for the yuan to 11.30 pm EDT to overlap with European trading hours, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The change is expected to help Beijing advance its project to encourage more international use of the yuan and support China’s case for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to include the yuan in its currency basket.

“The move will be a big boost to the yuan’s inclusion in the IMF’s SDR basket,” said Joey Chew, Asian FX Strategist at HSBC in Hong Kong, referring to the special drawing rights basket, which the IMF uses as an internal unit of exchange and which currently comprises just the dollar, euro, yen and sterling.

“The IMF has mentioned that it had con-cerns on yuan liquidity during London trad-ing hours because it calculates the FX value of SDR basket currencies at 12 pm. London time when there is no trading in China’s onshore

market at present.”The China Foreign Exchange Trade Sys-

tem, managed by the central bank, currently closes at 4.30 p.m. EDT, keeping the onshore market out of sync with London.

Dealers with Chinese banks said the change would also give international and Chi-nese markets more chance to react together to events.

O� shore yuan trade through London is al-ready booming. One major venue for banks to trade currencies with each other, ICAP-owned EBS, said on Wednesday the yuan CNH= was now its third most traded currency after the euro and yen.

Some of their in-house data also showed that daily trade in the o� shore market, which a year ago tended to peak around 1900 EDT at the start of the Asian day, now instead sees its biggest spike when London wakes up.

“If you look at what has been happening over the past few years, (Chinese bank) CCB has been appointed as the � rst clearing bank in London. Other Chinese banks have been setting up and expanding their trading desks

in London,” said Jessica Roberts, who super-vises a growing yuan business at EBS.

“(That) perhaps suggests something about where the main RMB trading hub will be.”

LiberalisationTraders in London said the extension would not a� ect them immediately, because they currently trade the yuan through the o� shore market and via non-deliverable forwards as most foreign traders cannot directly access the onshore currency.

“It may raise question marks about CNH going forward...and it may mean that over time there’ll be less need for non-deliverable forwards, but we’re still a way from that be-cause they’ve not fully opened the market,” said Ian Gunner, a currency fund manager at Altana in London.

“The next move now would be to have more freedom to partake in onshore trading.”

The People’s Bank of China did not im-mediately respond to requests seeking com-ment. The sources declined to be named due to the con� dentiality of the matter. l

ECB: Fed rate hike could have greater global repercussions than in the pastn Reuters, Frankfurt

A rate hike by the Federal Reserve could have greater global repercussions than in the past because the economy has changed and cen-tral banks have little experience moving away from interest rates of zero, European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio said.

A Fed hike would have a bigger impact be-cause emerging markets, particularly China, are now integrated in the global economy to an unprecedented degree, countries are more interlinked in production, cross-border cap-ital � ows have increased, and forward guid-ance has become a crucial monetary policy instrument, Constancio said yesterday.

“The truth of the matter is that given the lack of historical precedents on what the impact of a major economy departing from a zero lower bound environment is, market analysts and policy makers do not have much of a choice other than ‘learning in real time’,” he said in prepared remarks for a speech in Hong Kong. l

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CORPORATE NEWS

Rashed Chowdhury has recently been re-elected as chairperson at the Board of Trustees of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) for a two year term. Chowdhury is also the chairperson of Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) Ltd, Banga Garments Ltd and ABC Building Products Ltd. He obtained his post graduation in Business Management from Kingston University, UK.

Director of National Bank Limited & chairperson of the bank’s executive committee, Parveen Haque Sikder has recently handed over a cheque worth Tk1 crore to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as donation to PM’s Relief & Welfare Fund

Chairperson of Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited, AK Azad has recently handed over a cheque worth Tk1 crore to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a donation to PM’s Relief and Welfare Fund

Vice chairperson of Meghna Bank Limited, Abdul Alim Khan Salim and the bank’s director, Md Kamal Uddin have recently handed over a cheque worth Tk25 lakh to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a donation to PM’s Relief and Welfare Fund

Fed: US growth ‘modest’, strong dollar weighsn AFP, Washington

The strong dollar weighed on manufactur-ing and tourism spending in the US while the economy continued “modest expansion” in recent weeks, the Federal Reserve said in a report early yesterday.

Eleven of the central bank’s 12 districts re-ported growth, according to the Beige Book survey of economic conditions from mid-Au-gust through early October.

One district hit hard by the fall in oil prices, the Kansas City region, reported a slight dip in economic activity.

The Beige Book, a collection of anecdotal information, said that a number of districts cited the strong dollar “as restraining man-ufacturing activity as well as tourism spend-ing.”

However, consumer spending, driver of two thirds of the US output, grew moderately, led by sharper gains in auto sales.

Non� nancial services activity mostly strengthened and the housing market, which has been a bright spot in the economy, im-proved.

Overall, the report was upbeat about the economy. “Business contacts across the na-tion were generally optimistic about the near-term outlook,” the Beige Book said.

But there were pockets of concern. Man-

ufacturing generally weakened, in part due tot he downturn in energy sector activity in a number of districts.

Though there was some strength in the auto, aerospace and transportation equip-ment industries, metals industries were hit by the strong dollar and competition from China.

Dollar dragThe Fed report was sprinkled with referenc-es to the strong dollar’s negative impact, whether in manufacturing, ports or in New York, where it “has adversely a� ected sales, particularly in areas frequented by foreign shoppers.”

In Montana, on the border with Canada, Canadian tourist spending fell as much as 15% because of the greenback’s appreciation.

In the Dallas district, petroleum products exports su� ered slightly from the currency headwind.

The stronger greenback also heightened the competition from Chinese imports, steel industry o� cials in several districts said.

In the agriculture sector, in addition to the dollar’s restraints on exports, some producers have not yet adjusted crop plans to account for the slowdown in the Chinese economy, the report said.

The Fed decided at its September policy meeting to leave its federal funds rate near zero, where it has been pegged for nearly seven years, citing concerns about the poten-tial impacts to the US economy from China’s slowdown and the strong dollar.

“While the tone of the report was some-what more upbeat than recent economic re-ports, it was not likely upbeat enough to alter expectations for no rate hike in October and only a 50/50 (at best) chance of a hike in De-cember,” said Omer Esiner, chief market ana-lyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange, in a research note.

The signs for the central bank’s dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability were little changed in the latest Beige Book. l

An advertisement for job openings is seen outside a Burger King franchise in Port Washington, New York REUTERS

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TIB urges govt to seek compensation for climate vulnerable countriesn Nure Alam Durjoy

Bangladesh must seek a legally binding treaty to ensure compensation for climate countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change at the upcoming Paris climate summit, o� cials of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference in the cap-ital’s Dhanmondi area, the TIB o� cials made 10 demands regarding distribution of climate change fund and urged the Bangladesh del-egation set to attend the conference to take the demands into accounts when negotiating with developed countries.

The Conference of Parties (COP21), under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will be held at Paris from November 30 to December 11 this year.

Addressing the press conference, TIB Sen-ior Programme O� cer Zakir Hossain Khan said there is no clause on the draft of Paris accord to specify whether the pledges made by the polluter countries are legally binding.

“According to United Nations Environment Programme, $150 billion is needed worldwide for climate change adaptation by 2025. But from 2010 to September 2015, industrialised countries have donated only $2.6 billion where-as it should have been $35 billion,” he said.

Bangladesh has been deprived of its share of the fund too, Zakir said. “Bangladesh needs around $40 billion to run adaptation pro-grammes in the next 15 years, but until Au-gust this year, the country has received only $1.074 billion.”

He further said the draft mentions loans to be the source of climate fund, which would be a violation of the pledges made by the devel-oped countries.

Another violation is investment of nearly $73 billion in coal-based industries by coun-tries such as Japan, China, India, Russia and Australia, Zakir added.

Even Bangladesh is investing in the Ram-

pal coal-based power plant, he said.TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzam-

an said the government should reconsider its stance regarding Rampal and allow another environment assessment to be done by inter-national experts.

“We do not want our government to be em-barrassed about Rampal at the Paris summit,” he said.

The TIB demands also include leagally bind-ing treaty among the richer countries to keep temperature rise under 2°C, continued alloca-tion of development fund for sustainable devel-opment, inclusion of climate vulnerable com-munities in the adaptation programme, etc. l

ACC sues nine physicians of CMCH n Tribune Report

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday morning sued nine doctors of Chittagong Med-ical College Hospital (CMCH) in connection with irregularities in appointment process.

Deputy Director of the ACC AKM Mejbah Uddin � led the case with Panchlaish po-lice station against the nine doctors around 9:30am, said O� cer-in-Charge of the police station Mohiuddin Mahmud.

The accused are CMCH’s Deputy Director (health) Kazi Sa� qul Islam, assistant director (hospital) Khorshed Shirin, residential doctor of Medicine department, Momen Sarkar, gynecol-ogist outdoor department’s residential surgeon Kamrun Nesa Begum, infant outdoor depart-ment’s Md Giash Uddin, radiotherapist Md Ali Asgar Chowdhury, senior store o� cer, Sheikh Jamal Mostafa, world health Organisation’ medical o� cer, Debasis Dutta and Medical of-� cer (store) Nazmul Akhtar, said police sources.

The case statement said they had appoint-ed sta� at the hospital through irregularities during 2010-2012 � scals. l

35,000 yaba seized n CU Correspondent

Members of Bangladesh Coast Guard in a drive recovered 35,000 yaba pills from a � sh-ing trawler in Chittagong early yesterday.

Captain Shahidul Islam, Commander of Coast Guard East Zone told the Dhaka Tribune that on a tip-o� , a team of the law-enforcers conducted a drive at the outer anchorage near the Kutubdia Channel of the Bay of Bengal.

Sensing the presence of the team, the drug peddlers anchored the boat at an island and managed to � ee the scene, leaving the yaba in abandoned condition.

Later searching the boat, the pills worth Tk1.75 crore were recovered, the o� cial said.

Shahidul said the drug peddlers have been peddling the contraband behind the � shing while the tablets are brought from neighbor-ing country Myanmar and handed to the sec-ond party in water route.

With the latest seizure, Coast Guard recov-ered more than 14,00000 yaba tablets this year, he added. l

Anti-dengue procession Sundayn Abu Hayat Mahmud

The Dhaka North City Corporation authori-ties will bring out a procession on Sunday to aware people about the measures to prevent dengue fever.

Led by DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq, the awareness procession will start at 11am from its Gulshan o� ce in the capital. Health Min-ister Mohammad Nasim will join the event as the chief guest.

Dhaka Tribune published two reports on the present condition of dengue fever, mainly in Dhaka City, on October 12 and 13.

With the lengthy monsoon this year, DNCC and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) have not been able to bring the capital’s mos-quito problem completely under control, leaving the residents vulnerable to the threat of dengue fever and malaria.

According to data updated yesterday by the Control Room of the Directorate General

for Health Services (DGHS), as many as 2,322 patients have been infected with dengue in the capital so far this year.

Despite Tk14 crore allocated by the DNCC and Tk12 crore earmarked by the DSCC for mosquito control in the current � scal, resi-dents complained that the two city corpora-tions had not done enough to tackle the pub-lic health menace.

The DGHS data seems to suggest that den-gue infections had spiked in September but was declining in October, but the recorded in-fections this year is clearly higher than in the previous years.

The DNCC authorities will resume the drives to remove unauthorised billboards on both sides of Airport Road at 10:30pm today, says a press release sent by DNCC Public Re-lations O� cer Md Monwar Hossain yesterday.

The drives � rst began at the same place on October 8, two days ahead of the scheduled date, and later suspended. l

US ambassador visits BIPSOTn Tribune Desk

Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, US ambas-sador to Dhaka, along with a 5-member del-egation team, visited Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) at Rajendrapur Cantonment in Gazipur yester-day.

The team exchanged views on various is-sues with the Commandant of BIPSOT, says press release.

Bernicat and the delegation members ex-pressed their satisfaction on the standard of training and facilities o� ered at BIPSOT.

She also praised the Bangladeshi peace-keepers highly for their contribution in main-taining global peace for about three decades.

BIPSOT is a premier training institute of Bangladesh Armed Forces responsible to train the United Nations Peacekeepers home and abroad. l

A rickshaw-puller struggles to make his way through this road in front of Dhaka Medical College Hospital that has become almost unusable. The layer of asphalt has become thin creating potholes that are � lled with water whenever it rains. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

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Conservative outlook hinders growth of women in agriculturen Our Correspondent, Barisal

Conservative socio-religious outlooks and scarce of fund are two hurdles in empower-ing women in the � eld of agriculture, female peasant leaders observed at a discussion in Barisal Reporters’ Unity yesterday.

They stressed stressed on recognising and evaluating the role of women in agriculture sector and enacting the Rights to Food Act.

Marking the International Day of Rural Women Barisal Women Farmers Forum ar-ranged the discussion in association with GROW, OXFAM Bangladesh and their local partner AVAS.

They speakers called for training more women to increase their participation in the sector to check migration of rural population to urban areas, in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Leaders of Barisal Women Farmers Forum – Maksuda Begum, Zayeda Begum, Nurjahan Begum, Munira Parvin Minu, Jannatul Begum spoke on the occasion.

The leaders highlighted that about 50% of the total population are female and more than 70% of them are directly or indirectly involved

with di� erent kinds of agricultural farming.In developing countries like Bangladesh,

rural women represent approximately 43% of the agricultural labour force, and produce lion share of the food available. So, they should be grown into a responsible force to ensure food security.

However, role of rural women, majority of whom depend on natural resources and agri-culture for their livelihoods, is yet to be recog-nised, they said.

They stressed that trainings be provided to the workforce and research be done on wom-en’s role in agriculture for generating interest in them and develop skills.

Journalists called for � eld level investiga-tion and information collection to demonstrate a clear picture of women’s role and contribu-tion to the sector and identifying the obstacles they face in this sector of the country.

The � rst International Day of Rural Women was observed on 15 October in 2008 to recog-nise the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in en-hancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty. l

1,600 JSC certi� cates still missingn Our Correspondent, Comilla

More than 1,600 JSC certi� cates of 16 schools under Comilla Board could not be found yet though it went missing three days back.

According to sources, students of 21 schools sat for Junior School Certi� cate (JSC) exams in 2014 at L M Model High School in Raipur centre.

The certi� cates of the students went miss-ing from Hajiganj area in Chandpur on Mon-

day while those were being taken to Raipur centre from the board by a pickup van.

Later, a general diary was � led with Raipur police station and lea� ets were distributed among people. But, the certi� cates could not be found yet.

Bahadur Hossain, deputy controller of the board, said proper steps would be taken in this connection soon.

“Re-exams might be arranged for the students whose certi� cates went missing,” he said. l

Haphazardly installed electric poles pose threat to localsn Our Correspondent, Madaripur

Electric poles have been installed in an un-planned way in Madaripur, with locals fearing that such disorganised arrangement could lead to accidents.

Most of the poles tilted to a side and locals say those were not properly installed.

They also allege incompetence on the part of the contractor that installed the poles and also engineers in charge of supervising installations.

Bashar Mahmud, a local old man, said the poles should have been organised well while being set up but those now have just created a mess.

The newly-installed poles are larger than the previous ones and have been installed in 21 southern districts as part of a power devel-opment project.

Golam Azam Irad, who lives in Badamto-la area, said a pole in his locality remains in a vulnerable state and could fall on the road any time.

“There was an accident when another pole completely tilted and touched a house,” he said.

Poles carrying electricity from Madaripur to Shariatpur, Gopalganj and Barisal have also been installed in the same way. Locals claimed that unskilled workers were paid Tk500 per day to do the job while no project o� cial supervised the task.

Some workers told the Dhaka Tribune that the allegation was true but the contractor re-fused to comment.

Madaripur power division’s Executive Engineer Asadur Rahman conceded that the poles do not look good because of the way those had been installed. l

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Bangladesh in Paris arts exhibition:Photographs capturing impact of climate change in Nuit BlancheOn October 3, Bangladesh was celebrated in Paris’s yearly arts festival, “Nuit Blanche,” which translates as “The Sleepless Night.” Nuit Blanche is a contemporary arts festival held from Saturday evening to the early hours of Sunday morning. This year, the work of 30 international artists were showcased at the exhibition, including the work of Munem Wasif - a Bangladesh born photographer whose shots captured the impact of climate change in Bangladesh’s south-western district of Satkhira.

The key themes for 2015’s Nuit Blanche were “the relationship between nature and the city” and “the climate question.” Artworks presented at the festival refer to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change/Conference of Parties (COP21) taking place in Paris this December. Bangladesh is going to be considered as a priority country (as it is one of the most vulnerable countries) for climate change impacts during the climate negotiations in the Conference of Parties.

To represent Bangladesh in Nuit Blanche, award-winning photographer Munem Wasif worked with Action Contre la Faim (also known as ACF International or Action Against Hunger), an international non-government organisation of French origin. Action Contre la Faim has been working in the southwest of Bangladesh since 2007, following cyclone Sidr, and continues to work with vulnerable communities in Sakthira and Barguna districts. Photographs taken by Munem Wasif presented at the Nuit Blanche arts festival were taken in Satkhira.

Strengthening people’s resilience capacity to climate changeIn Satkhira, waterlogging is a recurring problem. Signi� cant parts of Southwest Bangladesh are inundated by water every year since 2000. Sometimes it takes up to six months for water to recede. The entire coastline of Bangladesh su� ers the consequences of climate change: rising sea levels, salination of water sources and extremely strong cyclones. Satkhira district has experienced two mega cyclones since 2007.

In July and August 2011, the South West of Bangladesh was hit by heavy rainfall (413.8mm against a monthly average of 332.1mm). Although this has not resulted in � oods in the rest of the country, there was massive waterlogging in Satkhira, Jessore and Khulna - three coastal districts. In October 2013, heavy rains again caused localised � ooding and water stagnation in many areas of the Southwest. The rainfall in October 2013 was 3.7 times higher than 2011.With the support of donors such as European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection (ECHO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) along with local partner NGOs and other I/NGOs, Action Contre la Faim intervened urgently to respond to the immediate needs of food security for more

than 32,000 households in the districts of Satkhira, Jessore and Khulna. 

Waterlogging e� ects the poorest communitiesStagnant water most severely a� ected the poor and the most vulnerable population including children, women, men, elderly and di� erently abled people. “There were days when we did not even have enough money to buy food,” stated Sonabhan Dasi who comes from one of the ultra-poor households. A short story of Sonabhan Dasi, a widow of 55 years, can help us understand how small contributions can have a bigger impact in � ghting the consequences of climate change. Sonabhan Dasi lives in the village of Rishipara in Satkhira district with her only son. She joined the humanitarian assistance programme by Action Contre la Faim for people a� ected by the � oods and chronic waterlogging that hit southwestern Bangladesh in 2013. Through the programme, she decided to invest in ducks. Now she owns ducks and sells eggs in the local market. “I will buy more ducks as soon as I save enough money to invest again.” Why ducks instead of chickens? To this question Sonabhan responds, “The ducks lay eggs earlier than the hens, and mostly they swim. At the next � ood, they will follow me.” 

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A call to actionClimate change acts as an aggravating factor of existing threats and risks, rolling back progress made in the � ght against hunger. By decreasing agricultural production, it results in a scarcity of resources and a decline in the nutritional quality of food. Increased competition and a loss of jobs and income in the impacted populations further weaken local populations and reduce their resilience. Thus, if current climate trends continue, global yields of wheat production will decline between 1.3 and 9% by 2030, and this decrease could reach up to 29% in 2080. As a result, one of the consequences will be rising prices of food globally in the near future and catastrophic impact of it on the most vulnerable households. Water resources are also under threat exposing thousands of people to water shortages with disastrous consequences in both agriculture and health and well-being. According to the 2007 Special Report on Emissions Scenarios of socio-economic development by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is estimated that 1.1 to 3.2 billion people will be experiencing water scarcity by 2080. Thus, it is expected that nations will collectively agree on practical solutions to address the adverse e� ects of climate change in the upcoming Conference of Parties (COP21). l

Local communities � rst to respondAction Contre la Faim has learned from experience that local communities are always the � rst to respond to in case of disaster and are best placed to � nd adequate solutions to the problems raised by each disaster. That is why Action Contre la Faim always focuses its support to develop and enhance the skills of local communities in the management of risks related to natural calamities. In addition to its programming in Satkhira, Action Contre la Faim has also implemented a pilot risk reduction project in ten villages in cyclone prone Barguna district. The project targeted female-headed households and vulnerable populations exposed to cyclones, high tide and salinity. In May 2013 during cyclone Mahasen, communities were found to have set-up preparedness measures and women played a key role in decision-making which led to better protection of lives.

Southwestern region at highest riskThe population living in the southwestern region of Bangladesh has become increasingly vulnerable due to recurrent natural disasters and the ongoing impact of climatic change. The local economy is no longer able to cope with repeated and cumulative e� ects of previous water stagnation. In addition, the majority of livelihoods depend entirely on the weather. From experience, it was found that Action Contre la Faim’s assistance programmes enabled people to restore their livelihoods and invest in an income generating activity which eventually help them to become resilient to climate change e� ects.

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

n Syeda Samira Sadeque

As the four-month long journey of Longitude Latitude 6 (LL6) hits its last month, there are grand stories brewing in the space that has become extremely popular among many in Dhaka.

This past week featured an excellent array of music, art, writing and photography.

Most notably, there was a “Raga Tasting” event held last evening, where JOG, a newly formed group of young musicians working for the cause of serious music, conducted a demonstration-style interactive session on listenership, in anticipation of the many musical events that engulf Dhaka in the winter.

Today, the week draws to an end with “The Jungle Stories”, hosted by the iCan Foundation which works with survivors of child abuse.

“The Jungle Stories”, an interactive activity with puppets, will Koko Jungli, the monkey, Raja, then Shundorban tiger, and Rocky, the world traveler and magician parrot from the Amazon.

Arif Asgar, Magician and ventriloquist, will be leading the session with three puppets, starting from 11am.

“Although there is storytelling involved, the main aspect is for puppets to interact with the children,” Arif told the Dhaka Tribune.

“They seem real because they talk,” he said, explaining that the age-range of participants is 4-10years old.

Arif says he chose to focus on jungles because of his love for animals.

Arif’s stories will not be limited to mere entertainment, but will include fun informative facts such as the science of � ying, and what can be found in the Amazon.

Arif, despite being in the � eld for 10

For this year’s World Mental Health Day, the slogan is “Dignity in Mental Health.” Almost 450 million people around the world su� er from mental illnesses while 350 million of them su� er from depression alone.

In general, teenage girls experience depression more than others, often leading to suicide, the second largest cause of death among people in the 15-29 age bracket. This statistic gives us insight into a dire problem - we are unable to ful� ll our younger generation’s hopes for a good life or rather, we have failed to make the world livable for them.

A census conducted by National Mental Health in 2003 to 2005 shows that 16.1% of adults and 18.4% of children in the country su� er from mental illnesses. Sadly, women and children su� er the most, which can lead to serious consequences for future generations. According to statistics by Bangladesh police, every year, hundreds of people commit suicide. While these are the stats alone, we can only imagine how much worse the real situation must be.

The census also revealed that almost 25-30% of patients who reach out to health specialists for treatment for mental ailments are usually confronted by specialists who treat their illness as a physical one. Eventually, they are unable to � nd treatment and have to su� er without respite.

A research shows that 23% of expectant mothers in Bangladesh su� er from pre or post-natal depression. If left untreated, this can turn into a chronic problem. It should be

kept in mind that, a mother’s mental stability is vital for her child’s growth.

Unfortunately, in Bangladesh mental health issues have not been properly addressed. Only 0.5% percent of the national health budget is allotted for the mental health sector. Only 200 psychiatrists are

Away from the now, o� to the old – and new

Dignity in mental health

LL6 activities and exhibitions to take children away into the wilderness, and adults on nostalgic ride

years, is excited about today’s workshop since this is the � rst time with the jungle theme as well as three puppets.

“This is a new structure and I hope after the � rst show, it’ll grow. My main aim is for children to be introduced to the animal kingdom,” he said.

While this session will take children on a journey away from the concrete madness of Dhaka, artist Naeem Mohaimen’s ongoing exhibition, which began on Sunday, will be taking its viewers on a nostalgic ride to the past.

“Our intent is not to sink into melancholia alone,” says Naeem of his exhibition featuring photos found of his family elders, aptly named “Baksho Rohoshyo: (Chobi, Tumi Kar?)” (The mystery of the box: (Where do photographs belong?).

“These photos are our archaeological record, and a key to untangling our present,” says Naeem. “This country is

capitalism with the seat-belts o� , driven by a lust to emulate Asian “miracles.” My father’s photographs hint at other possibilities, other lives. This Rankin Street was once our possible future.”

Naeem’s exhibition will end tomorrow, as the iCan Foundation will kick o� its weeklong “iCan Heal” programme in partnership with LL6. This will be a series of activities with the focus on “healing”, and have been designed for people from all age groups.

This is part of a four-month long event LL6 which has been featuring artworks of di� erent genres since July, with the core philosophy: “any space is a good space to interact with art.” It is curated by Shehzad Chowdhury, who, with his team, has been organising the series since 2003. It is open everyday from 2pm – 9pm. For further information, visit their page: www.facebook.com/LaitudeLongitude6. l

available in the country, ful� lling one percent of the country’s demand.

Generally, derogatory words and phrases are used to describe mental illnesses in our country, like “psycho”, “pagol”, “matha kharap” and “screw dhila”, fostering negative perceptions about mental illnesses. Moreover, many people also have superstitious beliefs, considering the illness to be a curse, or the result of supernatural phenomena or even a curse from God.

It is important to educate the masses about the seriousness of this issue. Mental illnesses are not the result of supernatural

forces, and certainly isn’t a curse from God. It is an illness like any other and patients need to be given proper treatment to allow them to heal.

Research also shows that immediate treatment to patients su� ering from mental illness reaps better and more e� ective results.

If you know anyone who has the following symptoms of mental illnesses, it’s advisable you immediately contact a psychiatrist and seek medical attention for the patient.

Some signs and symptoms of mental illnesses include:• Feeling sad or down• Confused thinking or reduced ability to

concentrate• Excessive fear or stress, or extreme

feelings of guilt• Extreme mood changes that range

between highs and lows• Withdrawal from friends and activities• Signi� cant tiredness, low energy or

problems sleeping• Detachment from reality (delusions),

paranoia or hallucinations• Inability to cope with daily problems or

stress• Trouble understanding and relating to

situations and to people• Alcohol or drug abuse• Major changes in eating habits• Excessive anger, hostility or violence• Suicidal thinking

Marking this year’s Mental Health Day reminds us that we’ve even failed to constitute a modern mental health law at this stage. We are still following the Lunacy Act 1912. We hope that we’ll get a just National Mental Health Act in the near future and we can ensure that mentally ill patients receive the proper treatment they deserve. l

health

Page 24: 16 Oct, 2015

newsFEATURES24DT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

On October 14, First Security Islami Bank Limited donated 1, 10,000 blankets to Prime Minister’s relief fund in a simple ceremony. Chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam, vice-chairman Alhaj Mohammed Abdul Maleque, director Farzana Parveen, managing director

Syed Waseque Md Ali, and additional managing director Quazi Osman Ali of First Security Islami Bank Limited handed over the blankets to Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Prime Minister’s o� ce. l

First Security Islami Bank Ltd donate 1,10,000 blankets to Prime Minister’s relief fund

Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden has announced the arrival of interntational band Freemind. The band’s specialties include outstanding vocal capabilities, professional choreography and close rapport with the crowd while playing a wide range of standard, evergreen,

broadway, soul, rythm and blues. They also play music from the top forties, sentimental and rock and roll numbers.

The band is present at Blaze everyday except for Friday from 2115 - 0100 hours at Blaze Bar in the lower lobby of Radisson. l

International band Freemind now at Radisson Blu

The Westin Dhaka organised a children’s programme with their new Italian Star Chef Carmine De Filippo. The Italian chef took an initiative to organise an event where 50 children could learn about pizza’s along with interactive activities that included colouring, face painting, playing with indoor kids park and children’s mascots.

Carmine with his authentic hand crafted pizza was entirely dedicated to educating the kids on the importance and the fun of eating smart and healthy while the mothers were enjoying a rejuvenating lunch where their kids were the protagonists. This event was hosted at The Westin Dhaka’s Prego Restaurant, Level-23 from 11am to 3pm on October 17, 2015 at attractive package of Tk1,500.

The Italian-born and internationally trained chef was clearly enjoying his time

with the children while they were learning to make delicious pizzas. The children, aged 6-13 were asked to identify various ingredients by tasting them and then answering questions. Parents took part in kid’s interactive contests as well.

Daniel Muhor, general manager of Westin said, “Our goal is to help guests take the stress out of eating well through a series of fun but engaging initiatives such as the Westin Junior Super Chef in helping to combat the challenges parents face and inspire families to cook together and lead smart and healthy lifestyles. Prego is the new Pizza destination which will o� er delicious authentic di� erent verities of pizza at an a� ordable price for the corporate and the families can for a quick lunch bite. So join with your family and kids and enjoy the o� er!” l

While celebrating the Carnival of Joy, Samsung customers had a chance meeting with Mr Dependable – Mush� qur Rahim. Customers greeted the cricketer and took pictures with him at Samsung Smartphone Café in Banani. Mush� qur is the wicketkeeper and test team captain of Bangladesh National Cricket Team and the Brand Ambassador of Samsung.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd inspires the world an d shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies, rede� ning the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras, digital appliances, printers, medical equipment, network systems, and semiconductor and LED solutions. They employ 319,000 people across 84 countries with annual sales of US$196 billion. To discover more, please visit

www.samsung.com or log onto their o� cial blog at global.samsungtomorrow.com l

Westin organises “Fun Learn with Pizza Day” for 50 children

Mush� qur Rahim’s surprise visit to Samsung Cafe

Page 25: 16 Oct, 2015

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SCORECARD, DAY 3PAKISTAN 1ST INNINGS 523-8 declared (Shoaib Malik 245, Asad Sha� q 107, Mohammad Hafeez 98; B. Stokes 4-57)ENGLAND IST INNINGS R B(overnight 56-0)A. Cook not out 168 329 Moeen Ali c Ahmed b Khan 35 131I. Bell c Hafeez b Riaz 63 199 M. Wood b Riaz 4 7J. Root not out 3 3Extras: (b2, lb3, nb9, w3) 17Total: (for three wkts; 110 overs) 290

Fall of wickets1-116 (Ali), 2-281 (Bell), 3-285 (Wood)BowlingRahat 16-1-43-0, Khan 15-3-39-1, Babar 38-15-67-0, Riaz 19-1-79-2 (9nb, 3w), Sha� q 7-0-19-0, Malik 15-2-38-0

INSIDEFRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Shoaib inspired by Sania title sweepsPakistan batsman Shoaib Malik said his sparkling double hundred against England was inspired by seeing his Indian wife Sa-nia Mirza sweep to a series of tennis titles in 2015. Malik hit a career-best 245 to cap a remarkable return to Test cricket after � ve years on the sidelines. PAGE 26

Zaheer retires from international arenaZaheer Khan, one of India’s most success-ful fast bowlers, announced his retirement from international cricket yesterday but says he will continue to play the domestic T20 for one more season. He last played for India in a Test match in New Zealand in February last year. PAGE 27

Nepal skipper held in World Cup � xing probeThe captain of Nepal’s football team, Sagar Thapa, was among � ve current and former international players who have been arrested over match-� xing allegations, including during quali� ers for the last World Cup in Brazil, police said yesterday. PAGE 28

Incredulity as Belgium top world soccer rankingsA rare case of unity is breaking out in Belgium, where the country is about to take over at the top of FIFA’s world rankings after winning their � nal Euro 2016 quali� er against Israel on Tuesday. But while the modest-sized nation celebrates, there is widespread doubt about the value of the honour. PAGE 29

England captain Alastair Cook in action during the third day of their � rst Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi yesterday REUTERS

Captain Cook keeps Pakistan at bayn AFP, Abu Dhabi

England captain Alastair Cook dished out a resolute century to lead his team’s remark-able � ghtback in the � rst Test against Paki-stan in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

Cook knocked 168 not out for his 28th hundred - � fth against Pakistan - to anchor England to 290 for three at close on the third day on a � at Sheik Zayed Stadium pitch.

Cook added an invaluable 116 for the � rst wicket with opener Moeen Ali (35) and an-other 165 for the second wicket Ian Bell who made a hard-fought 63.

Joe Root was the other unbeaten batsman on three as England still trail Pakistan’s mammoth � rst innings total of 523 for eight declared by 233 runs with seven wickets intact.

Pakistan were hoping their big total would put England under pressure but Cook, regarded a better batsman against spin than his other team-mates, took the � ght to the Pakistani bowlers who managed just three wickets in the day.

It could have been only one wicket but paceman Wahab Riaz (2-79) dismissed Bell and nightwatchman Mark Wood (four) in

successive overs for consolation wickets. It was Cook who took the honours with

some determined batting.He drove Riaz for an exquisite cover

drive for his tenth boundary to complete his century in Tests before tea, raising his bat in

celebration.When on 93 the England skipper also

completed 1,000 runs in his 11th Test this year, only the second batsman to reach 1,000 runs in 2015 behind team-mate Root.

On 101, Cook survived a con� dent leg-be-fore appeal as he missed a sweep o� left-arm spinner Zul� qar Babar with Pakistan unsuc-cessfully challenging Australian umpire Paul Rei� el’s decision.

Babar was again unlucky when substitute � elder Fawad Alam failed to hold on to Cook’s uppish sweep, with the bats-man on 147.

Cook took two on that lapse and two balls later completed his 150 o� 282 balls with a single. In all he has so far hit 15 boundaries o� 329 balls.

Pakistan also used Shoaib Malik and Asad Sha� q but it turned out to be a nightmarish pitch for the slow bowlers, with 130 overs of spin failing to buy a single wicket. Eng-land spinner Adil Rashid, Ali, Root and Ben Stokes (one over as spinner) also failed to get a single wicket in a combined 70 overs.

Pakistan’s bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed admitted the team missed leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who is out with a back trouble. l

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Fans irked with foreigners getting paid more than locals in BPL

n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Many are � nding it hard to accept that the star Bangladesh cricketers will be paid way less compared to a Grade A category foreign play-er in the upcoming third edition of the Bang-ladesh Premier League Twenty20.

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan, opening batsman Tamim Iqbal, paceman Mashrafe bin Mortaza, wicketkeeper-batsman Mush� qur Rahim, middle-order batsman Nasir Hossain and all-rounder Mahmudullah feature at the top of the BPL local cricketers' list.

These leading cricketers of the country have been labelled as “Icon cricketers” and will be duly handed over to their respec-tive franchises by the BPL governing council prior to the players' draft, set to be held on October 26.

However, what has perhaps raised a few eyebrows is with regards to the payment of the icon cricketers. Each icon cricketer will

receive Tk35lacs for their services, almost Tk21lacs less than a Grade A foreign cricketer.

To make matters worse, most of the Grade A foreign cricketers are preferring going into direct contracts with the franchises which will no doubt increase their base price in the draft.

For instance, Netherlands cricketer Ryan ten Doeschate, one of the Grade A players, is rumoured to have agreed a deal which is far more than his base price.

BPL GC member secretary Ismail Haider Mallick defended the system in which the star foreign cricketers opt for direct contracts with the franchises.

Mallick, also a Bangladesh Cricket Board director, added that the remuneration of the local cricketers was set considering what they receive in other domestic tournaments, main-ly the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League.

“Yes, it is true that Shakib, Tamim and a few other cricketers could have got more. But I hope the situation will get better as the tour-

nament progresses. It is actually tough for us to pay the local cricketers highly at the mo-ment,” said Mallick before adding, “Instead, we thought is would be better for them if they get paid fully rather than not getting paid at all after being roped in for a high remunera-tion. So, we wanted to minimise the irregular-ities. I believe there is room for their payment to increase in the future.”

Former BCB director Khondoker Jamil Ud-din however, di� ered from Mallick's senti-ment and informed that the local stars have been neglected.

“BCB should have taken this step careful-ly, I believe. It is true that the foreign cricket-ers should be paid more or else they will not come to play but still, our cricketers should have got more. It would have been acceptable if our icons were paid Tk50lacs. And, I reckon the lowest grade's amount (Tk5lacs for Grade D) is too less. You see, paying our cricketers more will only encourage them,” Jamil told the media yesterday. l

FM Fahad gets Niaz on boardn Rashad Banna

Mahindra Comviva, a global leader in provid-ing mobility solutions, has joined hands with Grandmaster Niaz Murshed in a bid to groom the talented Fide Master Fahad Rahman as the next GM of Bangladesh.

Besides providing a monthly stipend to Fahad, Mahindra Comviva will also cover all the expenses whenever the 12-year old partic-ipates in any international tournament within the next one year. Niaz, south Asia's � rst GM, on the other hand will train Fahad for the same duration.

The details of the agreement were an-nounced in a press conference at a city hotel in the capital yesterday.

Niaz expressed excitement with his new role as the mentor of Fahad, who achieved the Fide Master norm two years ago, and said he is very much looking forward to working his magic with the child prodigy.

“I noticed Fahad facing some problems

with his opening moves while his theoretical aspects also need some improving. His rat-ing is currently 2131. Within a year, I aim to increase it to 2250. But I am sure that he will shine and become a GM eventually,” Niaz told the media.

“It's been more than a decade since a Bang-ladeshi became GM. I hope Fahad will be able to bring an end to the drought,” he added.

Fahad also echoed the same sentiment and said, “My ultimate target is to become the next GM of this country. Before that though, I have to achieve the norm of International Master. I will work harder in order to achieve my dream and I thank Mahindra Comviva for their assistance.”

Fahad's parents and siblings accompanied him in the press conference where the State Minister of Youth and Sports Sri Biren Sikder was present as the chief guest.

Reyad Hasnain, Bangladesh's country manager of Mahindra Comviva, was also pres-ent in the programme.l

Fide Master Fahad Rahman (2L) poses alongside GM Niaz Murshed (L) and the State Minister for Youth and Sports, Biren Sikder (2R) during a press conference yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Yes, it is true that Shakib, Tamim and a few other cricketers could have got more. But I hope the situation will get better as the tournament progresses. It is actually tough for us to pay the local cricketers highly at the moment

Shoaib inspired by Sania title sweepsn AFP, Abu Dhabi

Pakistan batsman Shoaib Malik said his spar-kling double hundred against England was inspired by seeing his Indian wife Sania Mirza sweep to a series of tennis titles in 2015.

Malik hit a career-best 245 to cap a remark-able return to Test cricket after � ve years on the sidelines and four days after Mirza clinched the China Open in Beijing alongside Martina Hingis.

Since returning to the limited overs squad in May, Malik has been averaging 100 in ODIs, rousing performances which earned him a Test recall.

Now he is happily competing for bragging

rights with his wife who this year has collect-ed Grand Slam doubles titles with Hingis at Wimbledon and the US Open.

She has also won tour crowns at Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Guangzhou, Wu-han and Beijing.

“A double hundred does not come every day,” Malik told AFP.

“Naturally when Sania wins in tennis, it motivates me a lot and inspires me to do well in cricket.

“It’s healthy that both husband and wife play sports. On my double hundred, she was ecstatic much like the same way I celebrate her wins,” said Malik.

From 5-1 Malik lifted Pakistan to 523-8

in their � rst innings on Wednesday, adding 168 for the second wicket with Mohammad Hafeez (98) and 248 for the � fth with Asad Sha� q (107).

Malik’s 647-minute vigil ended only after he su� ered cramps. He was then on a drip af-ter the match due to dehydration.

“It was really tough but since it was my comeback innings I negotiated everything with a smile,” said Malik.

Malik’s last Test was against England, a few months after his high-pro� le 2010 marriage to Mirza in the Indian city of Hyderabad Deccan.

But Malik’s career nosedived and he not only lost his place in the Test team but did not get regular chances in limited over matches. l

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Zaheer retires from int’lsn Reuters, Mumbai

Zaheer Khan, one of India’s most successful fast bowlers, announced his retirement from international cricket on Thursday but says he will continue to play the domestic Twenty20 form of the game for one more season.

The 37-year-old left-arm paceman, who was part of India’s 50-overs World Cup win-ning team in 2011, last played for his country in a Test match in New Zealand in February last year.

“As I was training for the upcoming sea-son, it dawned on me that my shoulder may not last the rigours of bowling nearly 18 overs a day, and that’s when I knew it was time,” Za-heer said on his o� cial Facebook page.

“With immediate e� ect, I bid adieu to my career in international cricket. I look forward to signing o� my last season in domestic cricket at the conclusion of Indian Premier League season nine.”

Zaheer, who played the � rst of his 92 Tests against Bangladesh in 2000, has been ham-

pered by injuries in recent years.He took 311 Test wickets and 282 in one-

day internationals, the fourth highest totals in both formats for India. He is the second-most successful Indian seamer in Tests behind Ka-pil Dev, who took 434 wickets.

“Cricket has been my only life over the past two decades and is in fact ... the only thing I know well,” Zaheer added. “Cricket has made me the individual I am, giving me everything in life and much more.

“I walk away with fantastic memories, life

de� ning experiences and great friendships.”While India’s pitches are traditionally tai-

lor-made for batsmen and mostly assist spin-ners, Zaheer burst onto the scene with a pen-chant for swinging the ball both ways and a potent yorker.

Over the years he also mastered the art of reverse swing, a must-have for fast bowlers in the subcontinent.

He inspired India to their World Cup win four years ago, a feat he counts as his greatest crick-eting moment. Zaheer took 21 wickets in the tournament, � nishing joint highest wicket-tak-er with Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

“The BCCI appreciates Zaheer Khan’s out-standing service to Indian cricket,” Shashank Manohar, the president of the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) said in a statement. “He served Indian cricket with remarkable passion and commitment.

“Being a fast bowler in the Indian sub con-tinent is challenging but he led the bowling attack with distinction and contributed sig-ni� cantly to the success of Indian cricket.” l

CAREER STATISTICS (BOWLING)

Mat Inns Wkts BBI Ave 5w

Tests 92 165 311 7/87 32.94 11

ODIs 200 197 282 5/42 29.43 1

T20Is 17 17 17 4/19 26.35 0

Page 28: 16 Oct, 2015

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Easy for Djokovic, Nadal but Murray claws past Isnern Reuters

Novak Djokovic sauntered past Spaniard Fe-liciano Lopez to reach the quarter-� nals of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday but Andy Murray had to claw past big-serving American John Isner after losing a � rst-set tiebreaker.

Dominant world number one Djokovic, twice a champion in Shanghai, eased to a 6-2 6-3 victory to stay on track for a ninth title of the year having picked up his eighth last week in Beijing where he dropped only 18 games in � ve matches.

The Serb, who could face Murray in the semi-� nals, looks unbeatable, but warned there is still room for improvement.

“I still believe there are shots in my game that can be better. I think that’s one of the things that keeps me going. It motivates me to play more,” Djokovic told the ATP website.

Murray, playing his � rst tournament since helping Britain into the Davis Cup � nal last month, had to produce some of his best ten-nis in the face of 22 Isner aces.

The 28-year-old world number two � nal-ly preserved his perfect record against the American, winning 6-7(4) 6-4 6-4.

Murray managed a crucial break of serve at 5-4 in the second set and broke a tiring oppo-nent in the seventh game of the � nal set on his way to victory.

“His serve is tough to read, obviously,” Murray said. “He has a great serve. It’s hard to return in perfect conditions.

“So when the ball’s coming in and out of the shade, and his ball toss, as well, it’s di� -cult. When the sun went away, the court was in the shade, I found it easier to see the serve.

“I created a lot of chances in the second and third sets.”

While Djokovic is beyond his reach in the rankings this year, Murray believes he can have a tilt at top spot next year.

“Obviously this year I have a good chance to � nish at number two, which would be the � rst time for me,” he said.

“This year, although I’m a long way behind Novak in the rankings, a few matches can change that signi� cantly. Grand slam semi-� -nals and � nals, they’re the matches that are for big, big points.

“That’s something, if I want to get to num-ber one in the world, I need to win a couple more of them. So hopefully next year I’ll be able to do that.”

Rafa Nadal, seeding eighth in Shanghai, continued his recent resurgence that saw him reach the Beijing � nal, moving through to the quarter-� nals with a 6-3 7-6(3) win over Cana-da’s Milos Raonic.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori, the sixth seed, was beaten 7-6(10) 7-6(3) by South Africa’s Kevin Anderson who still has his eye on a place in the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Anderson will face Frenchman Jo-Wil-fried Tsonga next after he beat Roger Feder-er’s Spanish conqueror Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-7(5) 7-5 6-4. l

Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return against Milos Raonic of Canada during their men’s singles third round match at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai yesterday AFP

Cairns made � xing approach: McCullumn AFP, London

Former New Zealand captain Chris Cairns approached current skipper Brendon Mc-Cullum with a “business proposition” about match-� xing, McCullum told a London court on Thursday.

McCullum, 34, told Cairns’ perjury trial that Cairns made the approach in a hotel in Kolkata, India in April 2008, explaining to him that other players “did not have the balls to do it”.

McCullum said he was “shocked” by the approach and was contacted by Cairns regard-ing the matter a further two times that year before eventually reporting him to the cricket authorities in February 2011. Wicket-keeper batsman McCullum was playing alongside Australia’s Ricky Ponting for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the time of Cairns’ alleged approach.

Asked by prosecutor Sasha Wass QC if it was a “legitimate” way to play cricket, Mr Mc-Cullum said: “No, it was not an honest game of cricket.”

He added: “I was shocked. I sort of thought he may have been joking, but I quickly be-came aware that he was not joking. He said that everybody is doing it, all the big boys are doing it. Will you take it on?”

McCullum said that then-New Zealand in-ternationals Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram were both mentioned, but Cairns said “they did not have the balls to do it”.

McCullum said that Cairns had masked his income from spot-� xing by using it to buy property in New Zealand. l

Nepal skipper held in World Cup � xing proben AFP, Kathmandu

The captain of Nepal’s football team was among � ve current and former interna-tional players who have been arrested over match-� xing allegations, including during quali� ers for the last World Cup in Brazil, po-lice said Thursday.

Skipper Sagar Thapa was detained in Kath-mandu on Wednesday as part of a coordinat-ed series of arrests in the capital, which also saw four current or former team-mates on the national side taken into custody.

Detectives said the arrests came after in-vestigations found signi� cant sums of money had been deposited in the players’ bank ac-

counts from suspected match-� xers.“We’ve recorded banking transactions ...

between them and international match-� xers, including in Malaysia and Singapore,” Sarben-dra Khanal, chief of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division in Kathmandu, told AFP.

“Our investigations will continue and we are discussing what charges they will face,” he add-ed. Khanal said matches involving Bangladesh and Afghanistan, played as part of a regional competition, were also being investigated.

The arrests come a year after the head of Nepal’s football federation Ganesh Thapa was forced to step aside over allegations that he embezzled millions of dollars and accepted bribes during his 19-year tenure.l

Prince Ali registers FIFA bidn AFP, London

FIFA presidential contender Prince Ali bin al Hussein on Thursday formally registered his candidacy for the election to replace Sepp Blatter at the head of world football’s scandal rocked governing body.

The Jordanian prince, a former FIFA vice president, said he had the necessary backing from � ve of FIFA’s 209 member associations but declined to name them. With Blatter and two of his rivals - UEFA president Platini and South Korean Chung Mong-Joon - either suspended or banned, the prince said he had sent a message to all members setting out his case for change. l

Man City post � rst annual pro� t in Sheikh eran Reuters, London

Manchester City, who were sanctioned last year for breaching UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, have posted an annual pro� t for the � rst time since the club was bought by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed in 2008.

The Premier League club released its annu-al report for the 2014-15 season on Wednesday.

“Of most signi� cance in this reporting pe-riod, is the posting of a 10.7 million pounds ($16.52 million) bottom line pro� t, the club’s

� rst to have been achieved since the 2008 ac-quisition,” City said in a statement.

The report also stated that the club had posted record annual revenues of 352 million pounds.

“To put things in their simplest terms, we are now a pro� table business with no debt and no outstanding restrictions,” chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in the statement.

City have been notoriously high spenders in the transfer market since Sheikh Mansour bought the club seven years ago. l

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SCORECARD, DAY 2SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS R BDimuth Karunaratne c and b Samuels 186 354Chandimal c Blackwood b Taylor 151 298Angelo Mathews c and b Holder 48 65Milinda Siriwardana c Ramdin b Taylor 1 8Kusal Janith Perera b Gabriel 23 31Dhammika Prasad c Holder b Bishoo 13 35Rangana Herath lbw Bishoo 0 1Tharindu Kaushal not out 9 12Nuwan Pradeep c Gabriel b Bishoo 0 6Extras: (b4, lb5 w5 nb6) 20Total: (all out; 152.3 overs) 484

Fall of wicket1-56 (Silva), 2-101 (Thirimanne), 3-339 (Karuna-ratne), 4-425 (Chandimal), 5-427 (Siriwardana), 6-448 (Mathews), 7-467 (Prasad), 8-467 (Her-ath), 9-475 (Perera), 10-484 (Pradeep)BowlingTaylor 20-4-65-2, Roach 19-3-57-1, Holder 21-4-36-1, Gabriel 20-2-76-1, Samuels 27-4-84-1, Bishoo 40.3-2-143-4, Brathwaite 5-0-14-0WEST INDIES 1ST INNINGS R BKraigg Brathwaite lbw Herath 19 24Shai Hope b Herath 23 49Darren Bravo not out 15 39Marlon Samuels not out 7 16Extras (nb2) 2Total: (2 wickets: 21 overs) 66

Fall of wicket1-33 (Brathwaite) 2-49 (Hope)BowlingPrasad 4-3-4-0, Pradeep 5-0-29-0, Herath 8-2-14-2, Kaushal 4-1-19-0

Star Sports 29:50 AMRanji Trophy: Round 3, Day 2Punjab v Gujarat 7:20 PMIndian Super League Mumbai City v Chennaiyin 12:30 AMFSV Mainz 05 v Borussia DortmundStar Sports 411:30 AMATP 1000 Masters Shanghai Rolex Masters Qfs9:00 PMBWF World Super Series Yonex Denmark Open Ten Sports 12:45 AMSky Bet Championship Bristol City v Nottingham Forest Ten Cricket12:00 PMEngland Tour of Pakistan (UAE) 1st Test, Day 4 Ten Action10:15 AMWest Indies Tour of Sri Lanka1st Test, Day 3 12:20 AMFrench Ligue 1 AS Monaco v Olympique Lyonnais

DAY’S WATCH

Herath strikes after centurions lead Sri Lanka to 484n Reuters

Opener Dimuth Karunaratne missed out on a maiden double hundred but his 238-run stand with fellow centurion Dinesh Chandimal set up Sri Lanka’s � rst-innings total of 484 on day two against West Indies in the opening Test at Galle on Thursday.

West Indies launched a comeback through leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo, who picked up 4-143, and restricted the hosts below 500 by taking the last seven wickets for 59 runs.

But left-arm spinner Rangana Herath had West Indies in early trouble in their reply by dismissing openers Kraigg Brathwaite (19) and Shai Hope (23) cheaply to send the tour-ists to stumps on 66-2, trailing Sri Lanka by 418 runs. Darren Bravo (15) and Marlon Sam-uels (seven) were unbeaten at the crease for the tourists.

Earlier, with the slow pitch o� ering little assistance for the bowlers, left-hander Karun-aratne, unbeaten on 135 overnight, and Chan-dimal continued to plunder runs for the hosts who won the toss and chose to bat.

Karunaratne hit 16 fours and a six in his 354-ball knock and was � nally out when he o� ered a return catch to part-time o� -spinner Marlon Samuels.

Right-handed batsman Chandimal made the most of his luck and completed his � fth hundred in Tests with a lofted drive over mid-o� against Gabriel. He hit 16 fours and two sixes in his stroke-� lled 298-ball knock before falling for 151 to paceman Jerome Taylor.l

Sri Lanka batsman Dinesh Chandimal executes a delightful cut shot during the second day of their opening Test against the West Indies at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday AFP

Joy and incredulity as Belgium top world Fifa rankingsn Reuters, Brussels

A rare case of unity is breaking out in Bel-gium, where the country is about to take over at the top of FIFA’s world rankings after win-ning their � nal Euro 2016 quali� er against Is-rael on Tuesday.

But while the modest-sized nation cele-brates, there is widespread doubt about the value of the honour, which many argue skews the real strengths of teams.

The Red Devils will clinch the number one spot when the contentious rankings are pub-lished in November, following second-placed Germany’s loss to Ireland and Ecuador’s sur-prise win over current leaders Argentina in the past week.

“Becoming number one was something the whole country had been looking forward to,” said Pieter Jan Calcoen, soccer journalist for daily Het Laatste Nieuws. l

Klopp fuels England’s cult of the managern AFP, London

With Jurgen Klopp’s arrival at Liverpool, the Premier League has acquired another larger-than-life personality to add to the A-list cast of characters who occupy the dug-outs at England’s elite clubs.

Be it mid-season sackings, touchline spats between Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger or press conference outbursts from Louis van Gaal, the story of English football is one told through the prism of the country’s managers.

It is a tradition that encompasses � gures like Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson, and the huge interest sparked by Klopp’s appointment shows that it is not likely to diminish anytime soon.

After a weekend of football it is rare for the back pages of British newspapers not to fea-ture Mourinho, Wenger or Van Gaal, the men on the touchline serving as weathervanes for the climates at their clubs.

That is particularly true at the present time, with Mourinho one of several managers under scrutiny, in his case due to Chelsea’s dismal start to their Premier League title defence.

Ferguson has been doing a series of talks to publicise the release of his new book, “Lead-ing”, while Clough is the magnetic focus of a new � lm about Nottingham Forest’s back-to-back European Cup wins in 1979 and 1980.

Whereas clubs on continental Europe have

generally moved away from the old model of an all-powerful manager, with sporting direc-tors widespread and coaches’ remits often ex-tending little further than the boundaries of the training ground, the notion prevails in the Premier League.

But while England still clings to the im-age of the authoritarian manager of yore, the profession is evolving rapidly. With Ferguson two years retired, Wenger, now in his 20th year at Arsenal, is the last of the long-serving autocrats in the Premier League.

The new generation - young managers like Swansea City’s Garry Monk and Bourne-mouth’s Eddie Howe - have much more tight-ly de� ned roles than the men who went be-fore them. l

PROJECTION OF HOW THE TOP 10 WILL LOOK ON NOVEMBER 5

1. Belgium (+2)2. Germany3. Argentina (-2)4. Portugal5. Chile (+4)

6. Spain7. Colombia (-2)8. Brazil (-1)9. England (+1)10. Austria (+1)

Page 30: 16 Oct, 2015

DOWNTIME30DT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 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 16 represents V so � ll V every time the � gure 16 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 Exploded mildly (6)5 Passize craze (3)7 Unbending (5)8 Appropriate (6)10 Archer’s weapon (3)12 Agreeable (4)13 Obtain (3)14 Hurried (4)16 Untidy state (4)17 Knight’s title (3)18 Certain (4)20 Wicked (3)23 Summits (6)24 Soviet forced labour camp (5)25 Vast age (3)26 Register (6)

DOWN1 Church leader (4)2 Tines (6)3 Build (5)4 Dreadful (4)5 Trivial falsehood (3)6 Fuss (3)9 Filled pastries (4)11 Bundle of notes (3)14 Horse’s father (4)15 Quickly (mus) (6)16 Unruly crowd (3)17 Rolling swell (5)18 Cicatrix (4)19 Employed (4)21 Past (3)22 Mouse-coloured (22)

SUDOKU

Page 31: 16 Oct, 2015

SHOWTIME 31D

TFRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Self-proclaimed “18+only” Run Out releases today

WHAT TO WATCH

Jackie Shro� defends daughters “topless” instagram photo

Battleship 9:30pm Star MoviesA � eet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals.Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, Taylor Kitsch

Clash of the Titans5:30pm HBOPerseus, mortal son of Zeus, battles the minions of the underworld to stop them from conquering heaven and earth.Cast: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Flemyng

Despicable Me 29:30pm Movies NowWhen Gru, the world’s most super-bad turned super-dad has been recruited by a team of o� cials to stop lethal muscle and a host of Gru’s own, He has to � ght back with new gadgetry, cars, and more minion madness.Voices: Steve Carell (Gru), Kristen Wiig (Lucy), Miranda Cosgrove (Margo), Russell Brand (Dr. Nefario)

Rush Hour 37:39pm WBAfter an attempted assassination on Ambassador Han, Lee and Carter head to Paris to protect a French woman with knowledge of the Triads’ secret leaders.Cast: Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Max von Sydow, Hiroyuki Sanada

Eden Lake11:35pm Z StudioRefusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences. Cast: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis, Jack O’Connell

n Showtime Desk

Usually, Krishna Shro� tries to maintain a low pro� le, away from the glam and glitz of Bollywood. However, the star kid doesn’t shy away from posting photos and sharing details of her life on social media, especially Instagram, a photo sharing app. Recently, she shared a rather bold pro� le shot of herself, in what looks like a topless shot but isn’t. The photo broke the internet as several media reports claimed that the star kid had posted a “topless” photo.

Rushing to his daughter’s defense, Shro� said: “Let me clarify one thing - she is not topless in the pictures. For a picture to be topless, you won’t be wearing anything. You should have checked the picture a little more clearly. She has a towel wrapped around her.

How can you even call it a topless picture?” While his response should have warded o� media reports that tried to oversell the article, it did quite the opposite. Despite it all, daddy Shro� continues to defend and support his cubs, be it in the case of son Tiger or daughter Krishna.

Unlike her sibling Tiger Shro� , Krishna has showed no interest in joining Bollywood, rather, has expressed her desire to work behind the scenes, preferably directing. Meanwhile Tiger Shro� continues to work his way through Bollywood after the critical reception his last movie Heropanti received. l

n Shuprova Tasneem

Following Legendary and Warner Bros successful reboot of Godzilla in 2014, the companies have come together to continue to bring legendary monsters of old back to modern screens, creating a mythology that brings together Godzilla and King Kong in an ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new.

Kong: Skull Island is already poised to hit theatres in 2017, followed up by the release of Godzilla 2 in 2018. As soon as these � lms were announced, fans all over the world began to speculate about an ultimate showdown between the two. Yesterday, these hopes were con� rmed in an announcement by Legendary CEO, Thomas Tull and Kevin Tsujihara, Chairman and CEO, Warner Bros, who reassured fans that Godzilla “was only the beginning of an epic new entertainment universe”, and Godzilla v King Kong will de� nitely happen in 2020.

Monarch, the human organisation that uncovered Godzilla in the 2014 � lm, will expand their mission across these movies. Classic Toho monsters including King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan may also join the Legendary pantheon of giant monster mayhem. l

Godzila faces o� with King Kong in 2020

n Showtime Desk

Run Out, a brand new crime-thriller will premiere in cinemas around the country today. The � lm’s producer has labelled it as a movie for 18+, mature audiences, leading to

several controversies. Apparently, the censor board approved

of the movie without any cuts. Some claim that the label is the director’s idiosyncratic promotional tactic. Tanmoy Tansen has rubbished these claims, stating that he

made the � lm from a very ethical standpoint where the plot focuses on the underworld, crime, sex and conspiracy. Based on this underlying theme, Tansen has suggested viewers below the age of 18 not to watch it.

Sajal Noor and Moushumi Nag have been paired together for the big screen while Romana Shwarna, Tariq Anam Khan, Omar Sani and Misa Sawdagar play supporting roles. The sizzling Naila Nayem will be seen performing an item song in the � lm as well.

Ra� qul Islam has written the original story while the director conducted the � lm’s cinematography. Vikings, a popular rock band from the

90s lead vocalist and songwriter will compose and gives music direction for all the songs and the background music.

A source from the � lm production con� rms Run Out will release in 67 cinema theatres throughout the country. l

Page 32: 16 Oct, 2015

BACK PAGE32DT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

SELF-PROCLAIMED ‘18+ONLY’ RUN OUT RELEASES PAGE 31

CONSTRUCTION OF GAZIPUR HI-TECH PARK BEGINS PAGE 15

CAPTAIN COOK KEEPS PAKISTAN AT BAY PAGE 26

MURDER OF EX-PDB CHIEF

Suspects: Hacking a more pious act than � ring gunsn Tribune Report

Two suspected killers of slain ex-PDB chief Khijir Khan have told the police they believed that hacking someone to death was a more pi-ous act than murdering them with a gun.

The suspects told this to the police after their arrests; they also confessed of commit-ting similar murders by hacking over the last couple of years as part of a JMB sleeper cell.

Tarikul Islam alias Mithu – the alleged mas-termind of the Khijir killing – was detained from Tangail and his associate – Alek Bepari – from the capital’s Mirpur area on Wednesday.

Although the microbus used in the killing was yet to be recovered, two laptops and two cameras looted from Khijir’s house have now been recovered.

The suspects were both placed under a three-day remand yesterday by a Dhaka court.

In a press conference, DB Deputy Com-missioner (north) Sheikh Nazmul Alam said: “The murder [of Khijir] was committed over religious ideology.”

During primary interrogation, the detain-ees informed that Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was regrouping by killing the “pirs” who ran “majars,” according to DB sources.

Former Power Development Board chair-man Khijir Khan, 66, was a freedom � ghter, and a pir or holy man who operated his own khanqa sharif – a religious meeting place.

Investigators said they would now ques-

tion the suspects to � nd out whether Khijir’s death and the Gopibagh six-murder case – in which a pir and his followers were murdered – were somehow connected.

On October 5, the killers went to meet Khijir Khan at his residence in the capital’s Madhya Badda around 7pm, the police said.

There, they divided in two groups: one hacked and killed Khijir Khan on the � rst � oor where he ran his khanqa sharif, the oth-er group headed up to the third � oor to loot his home.

Looting the crime scenes or abducting peo-ple were now some of the primary sources of funding for the banned militant out� t, police sources said.

Suspects placed under remandA Dhaka court yesterday placed the detainees under a three-day remand.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Rashed Talukder issued the order after Detective Branch Inspector Md Azizur Rahman pleaded for a 10-day remand for the arrestees.

The plainti� of the case, Khijir Khan’s son Md Ashraful Islam, was present at the court, while no lawyer was there to defend the arrestees.

Police sources said Tarek had previously been in jail for � ve years in connection with the 2005 series bomb blasts. Alek, meanwhile, drove the microbus used in Khijir’s killing.

Investigators said they were both follow-ers of Farooq, the alleged mastermind of the snatching of JMB prisoners in Trishal. l

NID cards must for online salary � xationn Asif Showkat Kallol

Moving away from the paper-based lengthy system of updating employees’ salaries, this year the government has decided to carry out the “Pay Fixation” process through online forms.

The public servants have been told that their salaries will not be updated under the upcoming 8th pay scale unless they input their national identity (NID) card numbers in the online form.

Yesterday, Budget Wing 1 of the Finance Division under the Ministry of Finance issued a circular, signed by Additional Secretary Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, making the digital pay � xation process o� cial.

The circular says that this new system will be launched immediately after a gazette no-ti� cation is published for the 8th pay scale, slated to be implemented in a few months’ time.

Until now, every time there has been a new pay scale, public servants had to get their salaries updated by � lling up and submitting printed forms to the O� ce of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh.

The auditor general’s o� ce scrutinised the forms and veri� ed the information with ex-isting records before approving the updated salaries. Only then the public servants started getting updated pays.

The Dhaka Tribune has learned that pay � xation took more than two years after the ongoing 7th pay scale was put into e� ect in 2009.

There are many cases of employees being not truthful in entering their salaries and des-ignations. According to sources, many em-ployees have falsely entered higher salaries in the � xation forms and enjoyed the additional amounts for years before getting caught.

There have also been cases where an em-ployee – by bribing o� cials of the auditor gen-eral’s o� ce – kept drawing salaries from more than one government o� ces, sources said.

An o� cial of the Finance Division told the Dhaka Tribune: “Corruption and time consumption in pay � xation will be reduced under the online system. In the past, we have seen pay � xation take more than two years due to corruption in the auditor general’s of-� ce.”

According to the circular, civil servants

will � ll up an online form with their personal data. The information gathered thus will be entered into a database. The auditor general’s o� ce will use this database to scrutinise and verify the information.

The circular has made it mandatory for the 2.1 million existing government employees to input their NID numbers and dates of birth in the online form which will have to match the corresponding information they gave while joining civil service.

Those government employees who do not have NIDs, have been asked to get their na-tional identities. Those who have faulty infor-mation in their NID cards have been asked to get them corrected.

The circular does not specify any deadline for getting these done, but the since the circu-lar mentions that the online pay � xation sys-tem will come into e� ect along with the pay scale, the public servants would probably get until then.

According to the Finance Division, they would soon sign an agreement with the Elec-tion Commission so that the commission’s data could be used for pay � xation.

Will this not put a lot of pressure on the

system for amending NIDs? The Finance Di-vision o� cial said: “Yes, it would. But we will be bene� tted in the long-run if we endure the temporary inconvenience.”

Two days ago, M Sirajul Islam, secretary to the Election Commission, told media that the commission would hand over machine-read-able “smart NID cards” to 96.2 million voters by June next year.

The commission has already signed a Tk796.26 crore contract with a French company for making the smart ID cards. The EC said that before making the digital cards, voters will be given the chance to get mistakes in the existing analogue NID cards corrected, if any.

For getting faulty information corrected in an NID card, a voter would have to collect a prescribed form from the thana or upazila election o� ces, � ll it up and apply for correc-tion.

The application form will have to be fur-nished with necessary documents and a Tk200 fee will have to be attached in the form of a bank pay order. The recommended banks are Sonali Bank, Trust Bank and Dutch-Bang-la Bank. l

A team of detectives arrests Tarequl Islam Mithu (R) in Tangail and Alek Bepary (L) in Dhaka’s Mirpur yesterday for their suspected involvement in the murder ex-PDB chairman Khijir Khan MEHEDI HASAN

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: [email protected], [email protected], Website: www.dhakatribune.com