n Tushar Hayat, Chittagong

A massive explosion rocked Jamia-tul Uloom Al-Islamia Lalkhan Bazar, aQawmi madrasa run by senior nayeb-e-ameer of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangla-desh Mufti Izharul Islam, yesterday morning leaving at least � ve personscritically injured.

The police recovered three home-made grenades and huge quantity of grenade manufacturing materialsfrom the spot in the afternoon, and arrested nine people including three teachers. Four of them were arrested from two private hospitals while un-dergoing treatment.

Police, however, could not con� rm how many grenades were blasted.

During raids in the night, law en-forcers recovered 18 bottles of acid on the madrasa premises, eight of which were found at the residence of Mufti Izhar, principal of the madrasa.

While visiting the spot, windows of a side of the room were found blown away, window grills bent and the ceil-ing fans smashed badly. Cracks devel-oped on the wall of the room while plasters in the ceiling and walls also buckled in some places.

The madrasa students dumped some damaged materials at a bush adjacent to the building soon after the incident where several � ngers of a human hand were found attached with wrist skin.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

BusinessB3 Businesspeople have urged banks to lower the lending rates as they � nd it di� cult to run business viably paying 18% interest. Bankers endorsed the concerns, but shifted the blame on the government for raising interest rates of saving instruments and not reducing corporate tax on banks.

Nation7 Sugarcane farmers in Rajbari are unlikely to bag pro� ts this season because of excessive rainfall and resultant water stagnation in sugarcane � elds

International8 Suspected militants killed nine people in attacks in Egypt yesterday, a day after clashes between Islamists and police left dozens dead and dashed hopes of restored calm

Sport14 Champions Juventus overcame conceding a � rst-minute goal at home to AC Milan to stun bitter rivals 3-2 and move to within two points of Serie A leaders Roma on Sunday.

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13 SportTamim hopefulin ownbackyard

EducationEquity, justice and climate change

5 InternationalTyphoon Fitow slams into China, � ve dead

9

Extradition treaty with India to be rati� ed soonn Mohosinul Karim

The cabinet yesterday approved a pro-posal for ratifying an extradition treaty with India, paving Bangladesh’s way for requesting its neighbour to send back a few killers of Bangabandhu be-lieved to be there.

The treaty will enable the two coun-tries to request extradition of “crimi-nals” detained in each other’s jails.

“According to the treaty, the two countries will be able to exchange crim-inals or prisoners convicted for over a year as per each other’s request,” said Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Moshar-raf Hossain Bhuiyan after the cabinet meeting that approved the ratifying proposal.

“However, anyone having political involvement will not come under the treaty,” he told reporters at a brie� ng.

“Also, the countries will have the au-thority to deny any request,” he added.

The home ministers of Bangladesh and India signed the treaty last Jan-uary, but it has to be rati� ed in the

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

HALL-MARK LOAN SCAM

Bigwigs spared from ACC charge sheetsn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Anti-Corruption Commission yes-terday pressed charge sheets with a Dhaka Court in 11 cases against 25 peo-ple, including o� cials of the Hall-Mark Group and Sonali Bank, for their al-leged involvement in a Tk15.7bn scam.

However, the charge sheets did not include the names of any politically connected bigwigs whose names had been often linked with the scam.

There were allegations that Syed Modasser Ali, one of the advisers to the prime minister who used to frequent the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank, could have used his position to in-� uence the bank to give away the loans to Hall-Mark Group and its associates.

He even had to face questioning by a parliamentary body regarding the alle-gations, although both the parliamen-tary body and an ACC probe committee found him not guilty.

Despite allegations, none of the board members of the state-owned bank has been made accused in the cases either.

Hall-Mark Group Managing Di-rector Tanvir Mahmud, his wife and group Chairman Jasmine Islam, Gen-eral Manager Tushar Ahmed, Sonali Bank GM Mir Mohidur Rahman, DGMs Sheikh Altaf Hossain and Sha� z Uddin Ahmed, former managing director Hu-mayun Kabir, and former manager of the bank’s Ruposhi Bangla branch AKM Azizur Rahman, along with 17 others, were made accused in the cases.

Seven of them are currently in po-lice custody; Jasmine has been out on conditional bail. The remaining 17 have been absconding.

The charge sheets were placed be-fore the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ataul Haque under the penal code, the Money Laundering Pre-vention Act 2012 and the Corruption Prevention Act 1974.

The investigation o� cers have in-cluded a total of 80 prosecution wit-nesses in the 11 cases.

According to a Bangladesh Bank probe report released in May last year, Hall-Mark and � ve other companies, conniving with some Sonali Bank of-� cials, took out Tk35.5bn as loans from the bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch using forged documents.

Hall-Mark alone swindled around Tk26bn while its business entities swindled billions more.

Following an inquiry, the ACC � led 11 cases against seven top Hall-Mark executives and 20 Sonali Bank o� -cials on October 4 last year for embez-zling Tk15.7bn of funded and around Tk12.8bn non-funded money.

The Sonali Bank branch lent Tk36.06bn to the Hall-Mark Group, T and Brothers, Paragon Group, Nakshi Knit, DN Sports and Khanjahan Ali, vi-olating banking rules.

On the basis of several petitions � led by the ACC, a Dhaka Court on June 26 ordered the freezing of all the 260 bank accounts of the various Hall-Mark busi-nesses. l

Explosion rocks Hefazat madrasaThree live grenades, huge raw materials recovered from the institution

Lalkhan madrasa: A den of Hujin Julfi kar Ali Manik

The Qawmi madrasa in Chittagong, which came under spotlight after ex-plosion of locally made hand grenades on its premises yesterday, has long been known as a den of banned Isla-mist militant out� t Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (Huji).

Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury, founder of Jamiyatul Ulum Al Islamia Madrasa – otherwise known as Lalkhan Bazar Madrasa – played a signi� cant role in spreading the network of the radical out� t across the country since early 1990s with the ultimate goal of launching a jihad.

A source in Chittagong, who has

close links with these networks, told the Dhaka Tribune last evening that the madrasa had even trained Huji mem-bers in operating arms so they could � ght in the battle� eld as trained jihadis.

The source also con� rmed that Muf-ti Izhar, founder principal of Lalkhan madrasa, had very close links with

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

‘Tribunal CCTVs do not have pre-Sept 20 records' n Udisa Islam

The close circuit cameras installed at the tribunal building can keep records of only 12 days. So the investigators of the leak incident have no footage be-fore September 20.

Tribunal Registrar AKM Nasiruddin said they knew the cameras generally keep records of at least 30 days. But af-ter the leak of the draft verdict of BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chow-dhury, when the detectives tried to check the footage they came to know that those store memory of 12days only.

The technical support at the tribunal was provided by the Special Branch of police, said the tribunal registrar. “Only 16 CCTVs are installed for the tribunal area and they do not cover the whole place.”

He thinks whatever footage is found, it would be helpful to trace the accused because primary accused Nayan Ali, who is on remand now, lived at the tri-bunal building. And as a resident, he can go anywhere of the building.

Nasiruddin also said the matter would not be unearthed until the Detective Branch (DB) of Police caught another ac-cused Mehedi Hasan, junior to Fakhrul Islam Chowdhury, counsel of the death-row convict Salauddin Quader.

The tribunal o� ce stopped record-ing footage of the CCTVs since the ver-dict day on October 1 as experts direct-ed to do so. But the DB o� cials could not able to collect the footage yet.

The registrar spoke to few journal-ists yesterday at his o� ce when he said: “Mehedi can con� rm how the leak happened and who communicat-ed with him.” He also con� rmed that security at the tribunal was intensi� ed.

Asked why not the footages were stored, he said: “We were not sincere to store the footage because this type of situation never happened earlier. And we thought that if anything hap-pens, then the footage of previous one month will be in our hand. But now we came to know that we have footage of just 12 days.”

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Pellets used in making grenades lie outside a hostel of Jamiatul Uloom Al Islamia Madrasa. Police suspect the explosion occurred when grenades were being made at the madrasa run by Hefazat-e-Islam’s Nayeb-e-Ameer Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury DHAKA TRIBUNE

Cabinet discusses role of judiciary, bureaucracy n Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee

A number of ministers and secretaries have found the judiciary standing in the way of the civil administration and holding back the development works. They at a meeting yesterday also viewed that many administrative tasks were hampered due to the interference of the judiciary.

They expressed such views at the regular cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, meeting sources told the Dhaka Trib-une.

Law Minister Sha� que Ahmed rec-ommended that the attorney general’s o� ce become more active to resolve such problem.

LGRD Secretary Abu Alam Moham-mad Shahid Khan raised the issue and a number of ministers and secretar-ies participated in the discussion and shared their experiences citing exam-ples, a number of cabinet members said.

The meeting discussed that the

court gave “directives” to the govern-ment if it “transferred a peon” after the employee � led a writ petition with the court. They said the administration had to abide by the order which creat-ed “problems” in “smooth” operation of the administration.

The meeting also discussed about the face-o� between parliament and judiciary.

They referred to the dispute be-tween formed speaker and incumbent President Abdul Hamid and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik centring a Supreme Court land then oc-cupied by the Roads Division.

Hamid on May 29 last year told parliament that people would resist if a government turns autocratic; they would protest if a parliament enacts a law against their interests and likewise, they “stand against a court if it delivers verdicts against them.”

On June 5, the High Court bench of Justice Manik said the speaker had pro-voked people against the apex court

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Lalkhan madrasa: A den of Huji PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

Osama Bin Laden and Mollah Omar of the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda. Izhar travelled to Afghanistan on sever-al occasions and met Laden, Omar and many other Taliban leaders.

He has described his trips to Afghan-istan and meetings with the Taliban leaders in di� erent publications, which are circulated within the Huji network.

About 70 years old, Mufti Izhar is one of the senior leaders in the Islamist parties in the country. He is the ameer of a faction of the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) and also the chairman of a faction of Nezam-e-Islam.

He and his madrasa have close ties with the fundamentalist Islamist out� t Hefazat-e-Islam and its headquarters Hathazari madrasa in Chittagong.

Some Islamist leaders and also the source close to the radical network said Izhar claimed himself as the nayeb-e-ameer (vice-president) of Hefazat, but his rival groups opposed his claim.

Two sons of Izhar are central lead-ers of Hefazat. None of them could be reached yesterday over phone as their mobile phones were switched o� .

Citing local people, the source said Izhar had been available at the madra-sa until 5pm, but he had since been missing and his mobile phone was also found switched o� .

Izhar was arrested in December 2010 in connection with two criminal cases in Chittagong, but he came out on bail after a few months. The Criminal Inves-tigation Department in Dhaka at that time showed Izhar arrested in a case to investigate his Huji links. A CID o� cial, on condition of anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the investigation had stalled after Izhar had got out on bail.

Huji was launched through a press conference at the National Press Club

in the capital in 1992. The press con-ference was addressed by a group of Bangladeshi Afghan war veterans who had gone to Afghanistan in the 1980s to � ght with local Mujaheedins there against the then Soviet occupational force.

Establishing a network based in Qawmi madrasas, Huji carried out a number of terrorist attacks and also planted bombs to kill Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina at Kotalipara, Go-palganj, in 2000 during her � rst term as the prime minister.

Huji even carried out grenade at-tacks on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004 to assassinate Hasina, who nar-rowly escaped death, but the attacks killed 24 Awami League leaders and ac-tivists and maimed 300 others, accord-ing to police investigation.

Huji used smuggled Arges grenades, a military weapon, in the attack.

The out� t was banned in October 2005 for its anti-state activities.

After yesterday’s explosion inside Mufti Izhar’s madrasa, a police o� cial in Chittagong con� rmed that the gre-nades had been locally made.

“The explosion occurred when they were making grenades inside the ma-drasa,” Mohammad Shohidullah, ad-ditional deputy commissioner of Chit-

tagong Metropolitan Police, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

The multi-storey madrasa was es-tablished in a hilly region in Chittagong in 1980, accommodating around 1,500 students and 50 teachers.

After yesterday’s explosions, police o� cials in Chittagong started inves-tigating Izhar’s involvement with the radical groups home and abroad.

After the countrywide simultaneous blasts of about 500 bombs by another militant out� t – Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) – in 2005, the then government had to launch a crackdown on militant out� ts. Arms training at Lalkhan madrasa also stopped at that time, police sources said.

After yesterday’s blast, madrasa people and leaders of Islamist parties started propagating that the explosion was caused by a CPU and a UPS of a computer, trying to hide the making of grenades.

Police were raiding the madrasa and arrested nine people including three teachers and four of them were arrest-ed from two private hospitals while un-dergoing treatment.

The source con� rmed that one of them was a diploma engineer from Chittagong Polytechnic Institute and he was providing technical support to make grenades. l

Kamalapur murder: One detainedn Kailash Sarkar

Two days into the murder of railway ticket booking-clerk Isra� l Hossain inside the vault room at Kamalapur Railway Station, police claimed to have detained one of the suspects making a signi� cant progress in unveiling the mystery.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Naz-rul Islam, superintendent of Railway police, who is supervising the case in connection with the murder, admitted that they had detained a suspect in the station area yesterday. But he declined to disclose the identity or other details of the person.

He, however, hinted that the detain-ee was not a railway employee, but had access to the restricted areas.

“We have detained that person as a suspect. Hopefully, we would be able

to make a disclosure tomorrow [Tues-day] through the arrest of more people involved,” Nazrul said.

Asked, he said the investigators had questioned many people, in-cluding some suspects, but could notarrest them as they were railway em-ployees.

“We are trying not to arrest anybody unless we are sure of his involvement, as almost all of them are railway em-ployees,” he added.

Some of the employees at thestation suspect the involvement ofanother booking-clerk, Md Jah-angir, who was suspended by theauthorities for an attempt to sell tick-ets in the black market. Isra� l Hossain was the one who had uncovered hiscrimes.

SP Nazrul said they had also spoken to Jahangir and he was under surveil-

lance. Asked, he said none of the 60 em-

ployees at the ticket booking section were absent at the o� ce.

Replying to a query, the senior railway police o� cer said although the railway authorities had claimed that Tk1.7m was looted from one ofthe lockers at the vault room where Is-ra� l was killed, there was much more money in several other lockers in the room.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, de-ceased Isra� l’s daughter Dr Taniya Akhter said she was not aware whether her father had any role in the suspen-sion of Jahangir.

“My father never discussed his work with us,” Taniya said. “Whatever hap-pened, the murder is linked to my fa-ther’s o� ce and its employees are in-volved in it,” she claimed. l

10 High Court judges take oathn Nazmus Sakib

The newly regularised 10 judges of the High Court took oath yesterday.

Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain administered the oath at the Supreme Court Annex building auditorium.

At present, the Supreme Court has 100 judges; nine in the Appellate Di-vision while 91 in the High Court Divi-sion. There are eight additional judges in the High Court.

They newly-appointed judges are Justice SH Md Nurul Huda Jaigirdar, Justice KM Kamrul Kader, Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah, Justice Mus-tafa Zaman Islam, Justice Mohammad Ullah, Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar, Justice AKM Shahidul Huq, Justice Shahidul Karim, Justice Md Jahangir Hossain and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman. l

Maudoodi son to help try Jamaat for war crimesn Tribune Report

Syed Haider Farooq Maudoodi, son of Jamaat-e-Islami founder Syed Abul A’la Maudoodi, said he would help the International Crimes Tribunal in pros-ecuting Jamaat as a political party by providing books written by his father and other Jamaat publications, said a press release. He visited the o� ce of Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee yes-terday.

“As an illegitimate son cannot have right to his father’s wealth, likewise Jamaat cannot have any moral or con-stitutional right to do politics in Ban-gladesh,” said Syed Haider Farooq Maudoodi.

If Jamaat beseech mercy for their

activities back in 1971, then their issue can be considered. There are many ways of helping people except politics, he said.

Later, Syed Haider Farooq Mau-doodi placed � oral wreaths at the por-trait of Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman at his Dhanmondi No 32 res-idence and visited the Bangabandhu Museum.

The meeting was attended by pres-ident of Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Commit-tee, Mohammad Golam Rabbani, Ex-ecutive President Shahriar Kabir, Vice President Professor Muntasir Mamun, General Secretary Kaji Mukul, Law Sec-retary Tureen Afroz and central com-mittee member Professor Mohammad Selim. l

Rab busts Huji’s regroup attempt in Dhakan Kailash Sarkar

Outlawed Islamist militant out� t Har-kat-ul Jihad al-Islami, better known as Huji, has been trying to regroup under the name Tamir-ul Ad-Dwin,Rab said.

The elite crime busters in a press conference yesterday claimed to have arrested four alleged Huji leaders, in-cluding a charge-sheeted accused of the August 21 Grenade Attack Case, from Ashulia near Dhaka.

Rab also seized a huge stash of am-munition, explosives and “jihadi” pub-lications from their possession, with which they were planning massive subversion.

“Huji leaders and activists had been trying to be reorganise under the ban-ner of a di� erent organisation named

Tamir-ul Ad-Dwin to dodge the law enforcement agencies,” said Lt Col Zi-aul Ahsan, director of Rab intelligence wing.

Rab said they had seized 1,135 rounds of SMG bullets, 32 pistols, one blasting machine, two power gel explo-sives, 110 feet long cordex, � ve detona-tors and eight crude bombs.

Among the four arrested, Moulana Khalilur Rahman alias Shahrier is one of the 19 absconding charge-sheeted accused of the August 21 Grenade At-tack Case.

Sources in the Rab and the Detective Branch of police said after the August 21 grenade attacks, Khalilur Rahman went abroad.

But after the arrest of Huji chief Mou-lana Abdur Rouf, he came back to the country despite being a charge-sheet-

ed accused in the grenade attack case, they said.

The 2004 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in the capital left at least 24 people dead and over 300 injured.

Rab o� cials said Khalilur Rahman had been coordinating the militant ac-tivities of the banned out� t under the cover of Tamir-ul Ad-Dwin.

He had been running Huji following directives from the Huji leaders, who are detained in di� erent jails. Rab o� -cials said he was mainly taking orders from Moulana Abdur Rahman.

Among the other arrested, Sharifuz-zaman alias Liton is Huji’s � nance secre-tary; Moulana Abdul Kader is said to be a close aide to Huji chief Moulana Abdur Rouf; and Maksudur Rahman alias Rana is an active member of Huji. l

Tribunal CCTVs PAGE 1 COLUMN 3According to sources, after the 12th day, the footage from the � rst day will be deleted automatically.

The security measures at the tri-bunal was questioned after the arrest of two tribunal employees – cleaner Nayan Ali and stenographer of the reg-istrar Faruque Hossain for their alleged involvement with the leak.

The registrar said as many as 29 SB personnel perform their duties at the tribunal by rotation. “We increased height of the walls outside the tribu-nal, deployed security personnel at the main gate and placed here a temporary police camp to ensure security.”

Enquired by the Dhaka Tribune why the o� cials were concerned about out-side security measures when the leak happened by insider, the registrar did not say anything but laughed.

He said at least 23 people worked at the tribunal as cleaner, of them � ve are for the registrar o� ce. “The other cleaners serve the judges and the regis-trar o� ce does not have much informa-

tion about them,” he added.“Now we are suspecting that there

are some loopholes at the tribunal,” said the registrar.

When asked whether the employees appointed as cleaners were known by the tribunal o� ce, the registrar would not answer directly, but said: “You know better.”

He also said security was hampered sometimes since the o� ce of the prose-cution and the tribunal are on the same premises and that the prosecution has to deal with di� erent kinds of people.

The registrar said they would solve the problem soon after discussing with the prosecution. He added: “We cannot make any structure or wall to separate the prosecution o� ce from the tribu-nal building as this building is declared as heritage.”

Mentioning about the leak of Skype conversations between former tribunal 1 chairman Justice Nizamul Huq and Bel-gium-based legal expert Ahmed Ziauddin last year, Nasiruddin said: “We should have � xed the matter sincerely.” l

Extradition treaty with India PAGE 1 COLUMN 1cabinet of the two countries before it comes into e� ect.

The Indian parliament has already rati� ed the treaty.

“After ratifying the treaty in parlia-ment, it will be e� ective soon as the Indian cabinet has already rati� ed it,” Mosharraf Hossain said.

Kamal Uddin Ahmed, additional secretary of the political wing of the home ministry, last night told the Dha-ka Tribune that once rati� ed in Ban-

gladesh parliament, the two countries would exchange the rati� cation docu-ments to make the treaty e� ective.

Asked about the issue of Anup Chetia, a leader of United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), Cabinet Secre-tary Mosharraf Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that after the treaty came into e� ect, any of the two countries could request extradition of any of its citizens detained in the other country.

“But, the host country will � nally decide on extradition of a person.” l

Explosion rocks Hefazat madrasa PAGE 1 COLUMN 1About 200 lead-coated marbles were also found in the pile of rubble.

Sha� qul Islam, commissioner of Chit-tagong Metropolitan Police, while vis-iting the spot in the afternoon said the explosion and recovery of the grenades and raw materials were a matter of con-cern as the prime minister was sched-uled to visit the port city on October 12.

“We have already launched investi-gation and persons responsible behind the incident will be brought to the book immediately,” he added.

The CMP commissioner also said they were con� rmed about a large stockpile of explosives at the madrasa during the blast.

The police conducted a raid at the campus residence of Mufti Izhar around 8:15pm when eight bottles of acid were recovered. Izhar and his family mem-bers were not present during the drive.

Later in a drive on the campus, police arrested � ve others including teachers of the madrasa and recovered 10 bottles of acid from their possessions.

Harunur Rashid Hazari, deputy com-missioner of the CMP’s north zone, said explosives and crime scene experts had collected samples from the spot soon af-

ter the blast for investigation. Mohammed Shahidullah, additional

deputy commissioner of the north zone, said the explosion was a big one as the window grills and ceiling fans of the room had been smashed badly when cracks had also developed on its walls.

He said they had recovered three live grenades, one attached to a mobile phone apparently to blast the bomb us-ing remote control, and huge quantity of materials used to make grenades.

He suspected that the explosion occurred during manufacturing of the grenades.

“We have arrested four of the in-jured from two private hospitals in the city,” Shahidullah said adding that a number of their teams had been con-ducting drives at di� erent parts of the city to nub the other persons responsi-ble for the incident.

Of the four, one was Mohammad Nurun Nabi, a student of Chittagong Polytechnic Institute, while the po-lice could not con� rm identities of the three others immediately. Nabi suf-fered 90% burn injury and was taken to Dhaka for better treatment.

Maulana Abu Sayeed, a teacher of the madrasa, said the blast was caused

by an IPS explosion and that � ve stu-dents – Abdullah, Karim, Khaleque, Amanullah and Zabbar – were injured.

A student, Jahirul Islam, said he was in an adjacent room during the explo-sion and saw � re after he had come out hearing a big bang.

Soon after the explosion, Mufti Izhar told reporters that he had heard a big bang from the Darul Iftah depart-ment’s dormitory at about 11am when he was working at his o� ce room. He then sent several students to see what had happened.

“The students returned to my room after a few minutes and informed me that an explosion took place from a laptop,” he claimed adding that � ve students of masters’ class of the Darul Ifta department had sustained injuries during the incident.

Within few seconds of the com-ment, Izhar shifted from his stance and claimed that the explosion was from an Instant Power Supply (IPS) device.

The Hefazat leader stayed at his of-� ce room until afternoon. However, later he was not found there to make further comments after the recovery of grenades and other materials.

A huge contingent of police and Rab

personnel had been deployed on the madrasa campus since the explosion.

Hefazat is a Hathazari-based radi-cal Islamist organisation comprising teachers and students from Qawmi madrasas. Formed in 2010, the group resurfaced in February this year de-manding death penalty for the organ-isers of Shahbagh movement terming them “atheists.”

Youths active in social media launched the Shahbagh movement in February protesting “lenient” life term punishment handed down to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quad-er Molla for war crimes he committed during 1971 Liberation War. The Shah-bagh youths had also demanded high-est punishment to all war criminals and banning of Jamaat.

Having support and representation mainly of the opposition alliance led by the BNP and Jamaat in its central and unit committees, Hefazat launched a long march and a Dhaka blockade in April and May as they put forward their 13-point demands that include enact-ing anti-blasphemy law. The controver-sial demands include repeal of anti-Is-lamic laws and stopping free mixing of men and women. l

Mufti Izhar

Cabinet discusses role of judiciary PAGE 1 COLUMN 3and such comment amounted to se-dition. The judge’s comment created huge uproar in the parliament where a number of senior ruling party MPs criticised the judge and even proposed forming supreme judicial council to impeach the judge.

Hamid later in a ruling said Justice Manik had violated the constitution through his comments on the speaker and parliament.

Yesterday, the ministers for � nance, LGRD, food, civil aviation, and secre-taries of the law, LGRD and public ad-ministration ministries took part in the discussion, meeting sources said.

But, the prime minister kept mum on the issue, con� rmed the meeting sources.

The meeting also discussed about the way out to address the problem considering the issue of contempt of court. However, they could not reach

any conclusion to address the issue.LDRG Minister Syed Ashraful Islam

said judges always show their judicial authority, on the other hand, the secre-taries show their administrative power.

Food Minister Abdur Razzak referred to the verdict of an Indian court that said: “Once when India produced sur-plus food grains there was storage crisis. Then the Indian Court ordered to distrib-ute surplus food among the poor. But then the administration responded say-ing that it was not an issue of the court.”

Sources said at the meeting Finance Minister AMA Muhith suggested that to bring an end to the prevailing crises, the president might hold a meeting with all concerned.

He said the law minister too could take initiatives to address the issue.

Replying to Muhith, the law min-ister said the attorney general’s o� ce should be more active in this regard, the source said. l

Rab detains four suspected activists of Huji from Ashulia, Savar with huge arms and ammunitions yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

News 3DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

BNP to resist one sided polls: Fakhruln Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said his party’s only target was to resist the government plan to hold one sided polls.

He made the remark at an extended meeting of Jatiyatabadi Sechhasebak Dal at a city hotel yesterday.

Mentioning BNP Chief Khaleda Zia’s announcement that “struggle commit-tees” would be formed, Fakhrul said: “Polls are not our concern right now. Our only aim is to prevent the govern-ment from assuming o� ce again.”

The party chief had asked all activists to form poll centre-based struggle com-mittees, he said adding that BNP’s main concern was to oust the government and then go for election nomination.

He alleged that the government was spreading propaganda against the op-position to hurt BNP’s unity.

“We want to say � rmly that conspira-cy will not come true,” he said.

Fakhrul warned that if the govern-ment did not listen to the demand for polls under a non-partisan government by October 24, it would be forced to go.

The BNP leader said as the govern-ment politicised the administration and judiciary, free credible elections would not be possible.

Criticising the Information and Communication Technology Act, Fakhrul said: “This law is against the freedom of thought and expression.”

He added that the government was also formulating broadcasting policy to gag media. Terming Sechhasebak Dal the vanguard, Fakhrul asked the leaders to prepare to wage a tough movement. l

Role of Nizami in 1971 was political: Defencen Udisa Islam

Cross-examination of the investigation o� cer in Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami case ended yesterday after the defence side questioned him for six days.

Defence counsel Mizanul Islam cross examined Abdur Razzaque Khan at the International Crimes Tribunal 1. He later pleaded for time to place wit-nesses in favour of the accused. The tribunal will set date of producing de-fence witnesses today.

The IO was the 26th and last prose-cution witness against former minister Nizami. The Jamaat ameer is facing 16 charges of murders and torture of unarmed people, and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Pabna and Dhaka in 1971.

The defence claimed that Nizami’s role during the Liberation War had been political, and he did not do any crime.

The IO answered in the negative. Razzaque also said witness Samar

C Kundu had told him that Nizami had been caught by freedom � ghters Anil and his fellows in August 1971 and tor-tured in con� nement for couple of days. The IO submitted a written statement of the witness.

The defence also suggested that the IO had submitted a made-up probe re-port. Razzaque denied the allegation.

In response to a query, the IO said he had submitted the probe report on Oc-tober 30, 2011. Last time he investigated the case was July 24 this year. “But as there is no provision to submit advance probe report, so I did not submit it.”

The tribunal asked the defence to place the � rst witness by October 10. Defence counsel Tajul Islam then pleaded for time saying the witness would not be ready to come before Eid.

The tribunal today will hear two pe-titions from both the parties. l

TIB suggests 30-year coordinated plan for a better DMCHn Moniruzzaman Uzzal

The Transparency International Ban-gladesh has suggested that the gov-ernment should take-up a 30-year plan to ensure good governance, mitigate corruption and raise the standard of healthcare services at the Dhaka Med-ical College Hospital.

TIB also said a coordinated e� ort would be needed in the next thirty years between the health ministry, the health directorate and the DMCH au-thorities for improving human resource management and infrastructure.

The suggestions came out of a sem-inar styled “DMCH: The Advancement of Good Rule, Challenge and the Way to Get Rid of it,” organised in the Biam Au-ditorium in the capital yesterday. TIB published the report on a study that it had conducted at the DMCH during the last few years.

The corruption watchdog identi� ed a number of factors that had been ob-structing the establishment of good rule at DMCH: insu� cient infrastruc-ture; lethargy in repairing out-of-or-der equipment; shortage of expert and adequate manpower; ine� cient distri-bution of manpower; irregularities in � nancial matters; nepotism in recruit-ment, and so on.

According to the research paper, the DMCH has been running amid a severe shortage of manpower. In 1984 the hos-pital was an 800-bed facility, which has recently been upgraded to 2,300 beds, but the number of sta� s has not been

increased accordingly.TIB researchers collected the data

used in the study from the biggest healthcare facility in the country from April 2010 and August 2013.

According to the report, the DMCH has been facing a number of challeng-es: huge pressure of patients; limita-tion of space; only 20 beds in the ICU; shortage of anaesthesiologists leading to under-utilisation of the operation theatres; only one trolley for 12 pa-tients; just the one ambulance to serve 654 patients, and so on.

The report also said the 1:37 doc-tor-to-patient and 1:12 nurse-to-patient ratios have been badly crippling ser-vices in the hospital.

Moreover, there is generally one doctor for 80 patients in the outdoor and one for 52 in the emergency. The 1:138 nurse-to-patient ratio in the out-door is even more staggering.

The report, however, appreciated some of the initiatives taken by the

DMCH authorities since 2010, which in-clude expansion and modernisation of the emergency; procurement new equip-ment for dialysis, digital x-ray machines, ventilator in the neo-natal ward, and echocardiography machines, and so on.

Moreover, the addition of the new departments such as the Thoracic Surgery, Respiratory Medicine, Endo-crinology, Herpetology, Gynaecology ward, expansion of post-operative fa-cilities, the Burn Unit, and so on.

The chief guest of the seminar Pro-fessor Dr Khandakar Md Sifayetullah, director general of the Directorate Gen-eral of Health Services (DGHS), said the highest budgetary allocation that the health ministry has got in the last eight years was 7.4%. The World Health Or-ganisation recommends that the health sector should get at least 14%.

Prof Dr Rashid-e-Mahbub, president of the Health Rights Movement Nation-al Committee, said with the existing manpower, it was impossible for the DMCH to ensure optimum standards. He also suggested that the government should come up with strict laws to check corruption at the hospital.

Prof Dr Nazmunnahar, director gen-eral of Birdem hospital, suggested that the DMCH should go for automation for ensuring quality services and checking corruption.

DMCH Director Musta� zur Rahman claimed that despite all the constraints, the hospital happened to be the only one in the country form where no patient went back without getting admitted. l

MLM regulation bill passedGovernment can appoint administrators to companies found guiltyn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Parliament enacted a law to stop the swindling of people’s money through promotion of the pyramid structure marketing by the multi-level marketing (MLM) companies yesterday.

The House approved the Multi-Lev-el Marketing Activities (Regulation) Bill-2013 as the commerce minister GM Quader proposed its passage in absence of the main opposition BNP.

The bill seems tough to the compa-nies, which came under criticism for their techniques to sell products through the social network in pyramid structure.

According to the new law, the multi-level companies must take prior license from the government or face maximum jail term for 10 years and a � ne of Tk5m for running the business without license. Anyone transferring the licenses to others will face maxi-mum two years of imprisonment and a � ne of Tk500,000 for transferring any license, totally or partially.

  For marketing substandard prod-

ucts, the marketers will face maximum � ve years of imprisonment and a � ne of Tk500,000.  

  Besides, there are provisions for punishment for violation of packaging rules, and for charging prices consid-ered as “illogical” by the authority.  

  Those who are already running multi-level marketing activities will require applying to the government for the license within 90 days.  

  The law will authorise the govern-ment to appoint administrators to the companies if found guilty of fraud, ha-rassment, or ill motives.

  Again, the law has the provision according to which the government, through gazette noti� cation, in the future can prohibit the use of certain goods and services of the multi-level marketing businesses.

 The law has been in force as the pres-ident on September 12 promulgated an ordinance, which the commerce minis-ter on September 30 tabled as a bill.

  Passage of the law will abolish the ordinance. l

A slum woman collects milk from a lactating cow brought to the makeshift cattle market at Gabtoli. Supply of sacri� cial animals to Dhaka from di� erent parts of the country starts as Eid-ul-Azha nears SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

DMCH has been facing a number of challenges: huge pressure of patients; limitation of space; only 20 beds in the ICU; shortage of anaesthesiologists leading to under-utilisation of the operation theatres; only one trolley for 12 patients; just the one ambulance to serve 654 patients, and so on

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

City High LowDhaka 29.0 24.7Chittagong 27.2 24.4Rajshahi 30.0 23.8Rangpur 29.5 24.3Khulna 28.5 24.0Barisal 29.8 25.4Sylhet 24.7 23.2Cox’s Bazar 27.5 24.5

PRAYER TIMESFajar 4:38am

Sunrise 5:52amZohr 11:46pm

Asr 4:01pmMagrib 5:40pm

Esha 6:55pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Light to moderate rain likelyn UNB

Light to moderate rain or thundershow-ers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at many places over Khulna, Barisal, Chittagong, Dha-ka, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Rangpur divi-sions until 6pm today.

Moderately heavy to heavy falls were also likely at places over the coun-try, Met O� ce said.

Day and night temperature may re-main nearly unchanged over the country.

The sun sets in the capital at 5:40pm today and rises at 5:53am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 32.0 degree Celsius was recorded at Khepu-para and lowest 23.1 degrees at Tangail yesterday.

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

BNP censures government over Rampal project n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Main opposition BNP yesterday claimed that the 1,320MW coal-based power plant in Rampal was initiated to serve the interest of a neighbouring country not Bangladesh and its people.

“The prime minister laid the foun-dation stone of Rampal power plant without conducting any survey and ignoring experts’ opinions because she can sacri� ce the country’s inde-pendence and sovereignty for her own interests and to protect another coun-try’s interest,” Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the BNP joint secretary general, said at a press brie� ng at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inau-gurated work of the plant on Saturday, nearly two months after the Depart-ment of Environment approved the project’s Environmental Impact As-sessment report. India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Company will build and operate the plant.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia while addressing mass rallies in Khulna and Sylhet also lambasted the government for the project. On Saturday in Sylhet she said: “We will not allow anyone to set-up the power plant in Rampal.” The BNP chief also extended her support to the National Committee that observed a long march last month against the project.

However, during the BNP rule in 2006, law enforcers opened � re on the protesters in Phulbari when they were

agitating under the banner of the Na-tional Committee against an open-pit coal mining project. There people in-cluding a teenager were killed in the August 26 � re when over 200 injured.

The Awami League chief then support-ed the demonstrators.

Before the party chief, BNP spoke on the project only a couple of times and never staged any demonstration pro-testing the move. In 2011, the party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir asked the government not to implement the project near the Sundarbans. On September 5, Stand-ing Committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan said the BNP would scrap the project if voted to power.

At another programme yesterday, Standing Committee member Ra� qul Islam Miah alleged that the government agreed on the project to get unconditional support from India

to stay in o� ce. Addressing a discussion at Jatiya

Press Club in the capital, he observed that the project would be suicidal for Bangladesh because the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, would be destroyed and ecology of Bangladesh would be under threat.

He also criticised the government for not paying a heed to the concerns of the country’s environmentalists, sci-entists and people from cross sections of life.

The BNP leader also called upon the Indian citizens to mobilise mass sup-port against the Rampal power plant project to protect the people of Bangla-desh and the environment. l

Unilever’s Lifebuoy leads pledges of schoolchildrenn Tribune Report

Unilever’s health soap brand Lifebuoy announced the start of a new cam-paign called “Help a Child Reach 5” to defeat diarrhoea in Bangladesh on the sixth Global Hand Washing Day to raise awareness of hand washing with soap as a simple but lifesaving habit.

Through this program, Lifebuoy aimed to reduce the number of pre-ventable diarrheal deaths in the schools through hygiene interventions like hand washing with soap, said a press release yesterday.

Managers from Unilever Bangladesh Limited visited schools to spread the message of hand washing to the school-children through interactive hand washing demonstrations all over Ban-

gladesh on the occasion of GHD 2013. The visits concluded with school-

children’s pledging to wash their hands with soap on 5 important times, these were – before eating breakfast, lunch & dinner, after using the toilet and while taking a bath.

UBL Barnd Building Director K S M Minhaj said: “Hand washing with soap is one of the most e� ective and low cost ways to prevent diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea which stop 1.7m children every year reaching their � fth birthday. We know from clinical research that hand washing with soap at key occasions can reduce the risk of diarrhoea by up to approximately 45%. This means that hand washing with soap could help a lot more children reach their � fth birthday.” l

Boot camp urges youths to become future leadersn Syeda Samira Sadeque

University students from all over the country gathered over the weekend for an intense and exciting training on lead-ership organised by Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre (BYLC) in Chittagong.

The three-day-long BYLC boot camp, which started on Friday evening and ended yesterday, aimed to encour-age the 93 participants to focus on lead-ership as a solution to many of Bangla-desh’s current problems.

“I want something that will teach me how to imagine, and help me to ob-serve,” said one of the participants from the crowd regarding his expectation.

“People only learn what they are

ready to learn. You have to be ready for learning. Leadership can be learned,” said Ejaj Ahmed, the founder and presi-dent of BYLC, at the inaugural session on Saturday morning.

Among others, Wahid Malek, the man-aging editor of Dainik Azadi, and Neal Walker, the UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, spoke at the boot camp.

Besides speeches, speakers also arranged activities ranging from ice-breaking to intense, hands-on ses-sions. An activity on negotiations on Day 2, which required the partici-pants to mimic the society with eachparticipant playing a di� erent role: sell-ers, buyers, police, thieves, goons and or-dinary people, was particularly popular.

On Day 2, participants also visited various factories and o� ces of compa-nies such as Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, Standard Chartered Bank, AK Khan and Company Ltd, Brac, MM Ispahani Ltd and Western Marine Shipyard Ltd.

Participant Maisha Mowazzaim, who visited Brac’s education pro-gramme, said: “Though it did not look that exciting from the outside, once we went inside we realised how innova-tive the programme was. I do not think I have seen many other students who learn as enthusiastically as them.”

Sadia Afroze, who visited the Cus-toms House, said: “I had a very wrong impression of the public sector but now I can relate it to my law background.”

On the third and � nal day, partici-pants heard stories about BYLC’s jour-ney and Ahmed’s personal story be-hind the founding of the organisation.

“Pain and frustration are the crucibles of leadership. Because from these come inspiration,” he said. He added: “Our so-ciety has many who have the means but not the wish to work for society, and many who have the wish but not the means. So we have to � nd the right combination.”

The three-and-half day event was organised and hosted by various volun-teers from both Dhaka and Chittagong, and sponsored by the US Embassy, RSRM and Green Delta Insurance Com-pany, and many partners including Brac who hosted the whole team. l

BLF demands fair wages for extra work of tannery workers n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Labour Welfare Founda-tion (BLF) demanded fair wages for ex-tra work of tannery workers.

The demand was raised at a human chain organised in front of the National Press Club yesterday.

Speakers said tannery workers have to do extra work, but do not get fair wages. The production would be in-creased, if the owners ensured work-er’s right. Rights of workers should be con� rmed for the development of the society and nation, the speakers added.

The other demands are providing proper training of workers to avoid ac-cidents, ensuring better work environ-ment for workers and rehabilitation of victims of accidents.

President of BLF Abdus Samad pre-sided over the meeting. Among others, Secretary General ZM Kamrul Anam, member Rani Khan and tannery own-ers and workers were also present at the programme. l

City housewife succumbs to burn injury at DMCH n Mohammad Jamil Khan

A man in the city allegedly set � re on his wife in the early hours of yesterday. The person, allegedly a drug abuser, � ed as the police raided on his house at the city’s Jurain area.

The victim Laboni Akter, 25, a moth-er of two sons, died at Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) around 11pm.

According to Mohammad Helal Khan, father of the victim, Laboni got married to Mohammad Manik Chand 12 years ago. Helal could not refuse the proposal of the marriage as Manik be-longed to an in� uential family. Howev-er, Manik treated Laboni well enough in the � rst eight years of their marriage,

but he started torturing her as soon as he started to take drugs.

Laboni, with a low voice, said her husband threw kerosene on her while she was asleep. She got awaken and ask him why he was doing so. Manik, with-out listening to her, lit up a � ame with a matchbox and set her on � re.

Samantalal Sen, coordinator of DMCH Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit, said Labo-ni got admitted in the hospital with 53% burn injury in her body and it was quite a challenge for them to save her life.

Majharul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Kadamtali police station, said on infor-mation, they raided on the house of the accused but he managed to � ee. Their team was investigating into the inci-dent to arrest him shortly and the pro-cess of � ling a case was under process, he added. l

Bangladesh Shishu Kalyan Parishad forms a human chain in front of the National Press Club yesterday to mark World Children Day 2013 MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Police allegedly covering up Gaibandha gang rapen Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

Allegations have been raised against Gobindaganj police station authorities that they were covering the suspected gang rape committed by their � ve po-lice o� cials.

Di� erent women’s rights groups in the district have demanded that the-task of probing the incidentbe trans-ferred to an independent taskforce.

Currently, a police investigation team is tasked with investigating the alleged rape.

The 14-year-old girlwasalleged to have been violated on September 29 night inside the police station after a police team picked her up from Fashi-tola area where she had been left by her step mother, according to the victim’s statement.

O� cer-in-Charge Sheikh Md Delwar Hossain of the police station declined to disclose the names of policemen on duty of September 29 night after being approached by this correspondent.

Instead, he requested this corre-spondent to take bribe and not to run any report on the issue.

“According to the case statement, the girl is at least 17 years old while Gaibandha district prison mentioned that her age might be between 13 and 14,” said Delwar.

The police o� cer added that some of his rivals were trying to use the girl against him in order to transfer him from the police station.

“Or, it might so be that the girl came up with rape story so that she could

put us into di� culty and realise some money from us,” added Delwar.

Earlier, the victim in her recorded statement to senior judicial magistrate’s court said: “After the police patrol team picked me up and took me to the station, � ve police members tied my hands up and raped me for about 3-4 hours.”

“They didn’t take me to any doctor or even get me any medicine. When I was being taken to the court on Sep-tember 30, the police members asked me to keep mum, and warned if I spoke of the rape, they would implicate me in a false case,” the case statement read.

“This is why I didn’t tell the court about the rape that day. However, I told a female jail guard and a jailor about the rape after being placed into a pris-on,” added the statement.

Meanwhile, a medical team that car-ried out physical examination of the girl 11 days after the incident said they found no evidence of gang rape on the girl.

Listening to the details, the court observed that it was unlikely that a girl of 13-14 would be in a good physical condition and act normal after being gang raped for 3-4 hours at a stretch.

However, the alleged incident sparked an outrage among the wom-en’s rights activists in the district who demanded formation of a judicial com-mittee to investigate into the incident.

Women’s rights organisation Mohila Parishad and Nari Mukti Kendra yester-day formed a human chain in Gaiband-ha city and urged the government to form an independent judicial commit-tee for probe into the rape. l

Garment worker kills self in cityn Asif Islam Shaon

A garment worker allegedly killed him-self at Pallabi area, Mirpur on Sunday.

The dead was Md Maruf, 24, a work-er of Top Text Fashion Limited. Maruf, from Jhalokathi, lived with his wife in a rented house at section 12 in Mirpur. He got married two and a half months back, said sources.

Police said Maruf went to the bath-room in the evening and hanged him-self from the towel stand. His genital was found parted when the body was recovered. l

Neuro Disabilities Act 2013 approvedn Mohosinul Karim

In a bid to ensure the rights and wel-fare of the autistics, the cabinet yester-day approved the draft of the National Trust for Rights and Protection of Per-sons with Neuro Developmental Dis-abilities Act 2013.

The proposed law highlighted the issues related to providing assistance to autistics, their nurture, security and rehabilitation.

The cabinet secretary said under the law, there will be an advisory council, headed by the prime minister. A total 13 ministers and state ministers will be the members of the council.

Besides, there will be a trustee board comprising experts and other stake-holders, headed by an eminent person.

The board of trustees will mainly look after the enforcement of the law and will provide registrations to organ-isations interested to work on autism.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pre-sided over the cabinet meeting. l

The PM inaugurated Rampal power plant without conducting survey and ignoring expert opinions because she can sacri� ce the country’s independence and sovereignty for her own interests

5DHAKA TRIBUNE Long Form Tuesday, October 8, 2013

n Farah Kabir

Many would disagree with me that climate change is non-discrim-inatory. The shocks and stresses induced

by climate change are felt in coastal belts of Bangladesh as well as Colora-do, USA, Maldives and Manhattan to name a few. However, the impacts on the communities vary with the mar-ginalised and disadvantaged bearing the greater brunt of the impact. Not to mention the availability of resources and alternatives being greater than in countries like Bangladesh or other parts of the global south.

This is why one is of the view that it calls for a renewed discussion and deliberations to put equity and justice back on the centre stage with a rigour. It needs a shift from � gures and quan-titative economic arguments to rights-based thinking and approach, backed by serious political commitment.

The disparity that we � nd emerged and sharpened due to existing repli-cation of the proposed and accepted model(s) of development which are heavily dependent on fossil fuel. Developing countries opting for fossil fuel dependent growth, ie using coal for energy, drilling for oil and in addition all the hydrological mega infrastructure projects at the behest of global � nancial institutions and business lobbies have not been the solution to climate change.

Instead they disrupted the life and rights of rivers, oceans, destroyed soil, a� ected agriculture, biodiversity and human lives. The way out of the eco-nomic crisis was supposedly to extract the oil and coal out of the earth with-out reference to the serious environ-mental cost and undertake growth in lines of the developed countries.

The land has been taken away from indigenous communities, existing agricultural practices and norms ignored, deforestation has been on the rise and oceans and rivers interfered with harming biodiversity.

On the human level, the impacts of climate change analysed and ex-plained from existing lenses and argu-ments are not gender sensitive given the dominant patriarchal discourse and world view. Climate change dis-course and negotiations till date have only delivered unsatisfactory results when it comes to the issue of gender and equity.

Gender-related inequalities are pervasive in the developing world. A substantial majority of the 1.3 billion people in the developing world, living below the threshold of poverty are women. In Bangladesh alone, where it is estimated that 30% of the popula-tion are living below the poverty line, making up for some 30 million people, half are women.

Climate change poses new challenges to already-vulnerable populations. It is important that the consequences of climate change should not lead already-marginalised sections of communities into further deprivation. However, key development issues that may help address these concerns have been at best sidetracked, and at worst blatantly omitted, from policy debates on climate change.

The threats posed by global warm-ing appear to have failed to impress on policy-makers the importance of plac-ing women at the heart of their vision of sustainable development and equi-table and fair share of opportunities for growth. I would like to argue that if climate change policy is about ensur-ing a sustainable future by combining development and environment issues, it must take into account the interests of all stakeholders, especially women. It must also ensure that all women are not categorised as one, instead recog-nised for their diversity as well.

Development practitioners and ac-tivists recognise that it is essential to develop an understanding of how men and women are di� erently vulnerable to, and able to cope with, the impacts of climate change.

By addressing the inequality between men and women’s access to resources, our work in � sheries, for-estry and agriculture can contribute to better adaptation practices, more sustainable livelihood. and coping strategies for all involved.

All socioeconomic systems (es-pecially climate-dependent systems such as agriculture, pastoralism, forestry, water resources, and human health) are in a state of � ux in reaction to changing climatic conditions. The evidence shows that there is consider-able potential for adaptation to reduce the impacts of climate change and to realise new opportunities.

The global South is more vulnera-ble to climate change, which impacts especially harshly the poor women and children in these countries. Coun-tries in the North have to agree to

major emission cuts along with some of the countries in the South who have adopted energy-heavy development models and joined the global league of polluters in this race.

Denial has come with such a cost that even if we stopped using energy totally for a while we could not restore the earth to the agreed target of CO2 emission. There has been total

violation of the rights of the oceans, rivers, all other species in the world by promoting the fossil-fuel-dependent development model. Such disregard for biodiversity and land rights and rights of water has sharpened the existing imbalances in society.

It is observed that social institu-tions and arrangements governing the allocation of power and access to resources within a nation, region, or community need to work in a manner to assure that access to resources is equitably distributed because the presence of power di� erentials can contribute to reduced adaptive capacity.

It is important for climate negoti-ators to be cognizant of and integrate this knowledge into climate change negotiations and policy. This will contribute to e� orts to make policy decisions more e� ective and able to reach the goal of helping the poor to adapt. Rural men and women’s ability to protect themselves from climatic changes threatening their food securi-ty at household and community levels depends on the resources they have.

Frequent and intense � oods, cyclone, rise of salinity in water, river erosion, drought bring in a set of challenges di� cult to cope with in any situation. In the coastal belts of Bangladesh and India, or Maldives, many have been rendered homeless, have lost existing livelihood options and professions, having to migrate, living in the open with no prospects for tomorrow.

In women-headed households, the impact is considered to be higher. Women have to struggle to provide food and water, ensure that the resources are protected which is why their role in homestead gardening, social forestry, seed conservation, and indigenous knowledge crop up in any conversation that is related and their wisdom needs to be adhered to.

That women and marginalised communities are the most a� ected by climate change can no longer be open for debate. Yet, we have observed

reservations in how it is re� ected in the United Nations Framework Con-vention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiation documents and processes. This is also noticeable in the bodies and instruments that have evolved as an outcome of these processes.

Do the negotiations so far truly re� ect the predicaments of the dis-advantaged, poor and marginalised women? Or for that matter of margin-alised communities at large? Should we be concluding that the climate and gender dimension debates are an “add on” in global negotiations as well as at the national level?

The question I am trying to raise is that while many of us may agree on the urgency of taking action to address climate change and reduce emissions, have we understood that it needs to be grounded in the principles of equity? Are we going to hide behind the argument of creating opportuni-ties for the poor and marginalised by accepting the development paradigm and growth models proposed by the major emitters?

Or will we invest in developing alternative development models that respect nature and listen to tried and tested common sense principles we have available to us through our indig-enous and traditional practices? This is not to be read as replacing fossil fuel with bio-fuel and threatening food security of communities!

To the best of my understanding so far equity discussions and debates have mainly tried to address emissions. It now needs to account for a human rights perspective of climate change. The politics of power driven by major energy corporations and their demands have overshadowed the dis-cussions around equity and equitable processes even before it gained suf-� cient ground in negotiations. These accounts need to be meaningfully added to the negotiations globally and nationally.

National policies must facilitate the process of equitable develop-ment opportunities. At ground level, increasing broad-based economic development by promoting female education, employment and economic and political empowerment is one of the ways to progress. It is most likely to prove as one of the most promising strategies for climate change adapta-tion, with women as key agents.

However, we � nd that the ODA

and development policies are very convoluted given the state of interna-tional relations and corporate lobbies. One cringes at the dependency on such bodies knowing that the interests of the poor and marginalised are not being prioritised.

A broad-based development approach requires gender-sensi-tive growth strategies that invest in women and empower them to more e� ectively contribute to economic development. All regions will need to recognise that women need to be sup-ported in their dual roles as care-giv-ers and active economic agents.

This will involve lightening their care burden through access to improved household technologies, extended public social protection systems, and strategies that increase women’s bargaining power. The success of a post-MDG development framework depends on formulating policies and translating existing policy promises into actions that re� ect a view of the world that embraces gen-der equality and women’s empower-ment.

Other issues such as migration and its impact have to be central to think-ing on any policy or programmatic intervention we may propose. There is need for ensuring gender analysis and women’s participation in policy formulation and decision-making without further loss of time. This is

applicable to adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage discussions/ne-gotiations.

The Global Environment Facility and the Clean Development Mecha-nism of the Kyoto Protocol can play a role in ensuring sustainable develop-ment provided they are implemented in a way that does not disadvantage women and the poor.

Would it be too much to expect COP 19 in Warsaw, and the multiple initiatives and processes around post-2015 and SDGs to pave the way for equity and justice? Will global leaders be able to demonstrate transformative leadership and challenge the existing “mono culture of the mind,” to borrow from Dr Vandana Shiva, and attempt to comprehensively save and protect the environment and humanity by looking at this as also an issue of equi-ty and justice? l

Farah Kabir is the country director of Action Aid Bangladesh.

Equity, justice and climate changeAre they in the centre of environmental and development discourse?

Should we be concluding that the climate and gender dimension debates are an ‘add on’ in global negotiations as well as at the national level?

I would like to argue that if climate change policy is about ensuring a sustainable future by combining development and environment issues, it must take into account the interests of all stakeholders, especially women

The politics of power driven by major energy corporations and their demands have overshadowed the discussions around equity and equitable processes even before it gained su� cient ground in negotiations

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

6 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

DWELLING IN CAPITAL

40 % people lack formal habitationn Abu Hayat Mahmud

About 44% of people living in the capi-tal are deprived of any sort of housing facilities which is very alarming for the country, according to a survey con-ducted by Center for Urban Strategies in 2007.

Citing the study, Iqbal Habib, direc-tor, VITTI Sthapati Brindo Limited, said: “In some areas of the capital, about 10,000 people live in per square kilometre with some 40% of them hav-ing no formal habitation while an infor-mal habitation constitutes 60%.”

Of the 44% homeless, 35% stay in slums while 8%-9% � oating section of them beside roads, rail lines and parks, observed Iqbal Habib.

The observation came at a seminar held at the Da� odil International Uni-versity (DIU) in the capital yesterday to mark the World Habitat Day 2013.

The theme of this year’s programme was Urban Mobility.

Department of Real Estate of the university hosted the programme on “Problems and Prospects of Real Estate Sector in Bangladesh”.

In his address as the chief guest, Architect Iqbal Habib said the capital Dhaka emerged as an unplanned city where the homeless live in the city’s 47% � ood-prone low-lying areas in-cluding Bhasantek, Shahjahanpur, Badda and Demra.

The lack of government initiatives and negligence are attributed to the mega city’s failure to accommodate the city dwellers well enough.

The architect added that di� erent private real estate companies and even the government’s own agency – Ra-jdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) – � lled up water bodies in and around the capital for housing project.

The water bodies are giving way to the housing projects which are also are contributing to deforestation, all put-ting a bad e� ect on ecological balance.

The member secretary of the Ur-banisation and Governance Commit-tee of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolonstressed utilising the “Urban Hydro Ecological” facilities for a sustainable city life.

“Real Estate Companies provide housing facilities only for 14% people of upper class in the society, but they do not take any steps for the poor,” he said, adding that the government also did not have any steps for slam dwell-ers and � oating people in the capital.

He urged the students to come up with an innovative approach to ad-dressing the crisis caused by the real estate sectors.

Prof Dr M Mizanur Rahman, acting vice-chancellor of DIU, chaired the pro-

gramme which was also addressed by Prof Dr M Zakir Hossain, director (stud-ies), Prof Ra� qul Islam, dean, Faculty of Business and Economics, Dr Mo-stafa Kamal, adviser, and Mohammad Sakhawat Hossain of the Department of Real Estate.

At the beginning of the programme, Md Shahadat Hossain, student of DIU Real Estate Department, gave a mul-timedia presentation of an overall situation of the real estate sector in Bangladesh in comparison with other developed countries.

In observance of the day, an essay competition on Real Estate sector of the country was held in which students from di� erent colleges in the capital participated.

Jannat E Jahan of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College became champion while Md Tanvir Shahed of Notre Dame College � rst runner-up. l

ADB Vice President visits Kurail slumin capitaln Tribune Desk

Visiting Vice President (Administra-tion and Corporate Management) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Bruce L Davis yesterday visited the le-gal water connections of Dhaka WASA in Kurail Slum of city’s Gulshan.

Dhaka WASA with the assistance from ADB has brought 290 families of Kurail slum out of the 500 families un-der legal water network. Dhaka WASA is also working to give legal water connec-tion to rest of the Kurail slum families by December 2013, said a press release.

ADB Deputy Country Director Ste-fan Ekelund and Head of Portfolio Management Oleg Tonkonojenkov were present during the visit. Dhaka WASA managing director Engr Taqsem A Khan briefed the delegation on Dha-ka WASA programme.

Earlier, the ADB delegation met with Dhaka WASA managing director and high o� cials of Dhaka WASA at WASA Bhaban in the capital. l

Blood crisis keeps patients in a � x in Khulnan Tribune Desk

Acute crisis of pure blood keeps criti-cal patients in the district’s hospitals in a complete quandary when its need arises.

The patients feel the pinch of its shortage sharply especially because they have to depend only on the blood transfusion sections of Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) and Khulna General Hospital, reports UNB

Although Sahheed Sheikh Abu Naser Specialised Hospital has got the ap-proval to open a blood transfusion sec-tion, they are yet to start its operation.

Besides, a number of organisations are working with blood but they have no scope of preserving blood.

Sources at the KMCH blood trans-fusion section said they collect and

distribute around 60 bags of blood on an average daily while Khulna General Hospital 15 to 20 bags.

The two public hospitals on an aver-age collect and distribute 75 to 80 bags of blood after grouping, cross-match-ing, screening and other tests.

Besides, di� erent clinics in the city without government approval collect and supply blood.

There is also allegation that some private clinics receive blood from do-nors without carrying out any malaria, HIV, B-virus, C-virus or any other nec-essary tests on their bodies.

Once only volunteer organisation Sandhani was meant for blood dona-tion and collection.

But Sandhani Donor Club was abol-ished due to internal con� ict.

The patients have no con� dence in it like the past.

However, Sandhani Clubs’ vice pres-ident Amirul Islam Mukul said there is a demand for 25 bags of blood every day from them but it is not possible to supply blood according to the demand.

It is now di� cult for commoners to collect blood from KMCH, which is now controlled by pro-government Bangla-desh Chhatra League, he added.

In Khulna city Quantum Founda-

tion, Khanjahan Ali Blood Foundation, Khulna Blood Donor Club, Juba Red Crescent Society and Badhan of Khulna University are working with blood but these are information-based organisa-tions.

It means that these organisations have a list of their members and if any one needs blood, they send donors to the patients.

Khulna Civil Surgeon Dr Golam Mor-taza Sikdar said there is no scope of do-ing business with blood.

“If anyone needs blood, he/she can collect it from Khulna Medical College Hospital or General Hospital according to requirement and any group of blood will be available,” he added.

If any allegation is found against anyone, actions will be taken promptly, he warned.

Blood transfusion section medical o� cer Dr Tozammel Hossain Zoardar of KMCH said for blood transfusion service, license is to be obtained from the o� ce of the director general of the health directorate.

In Khulna, there are only two organ-isations which have the licence.

One is Khulna Medical College Hos-pital while another is Khulna General Hospital, he added. l

Dean Awards given to 17 DU researchers n Tribune Desk

The Faculty of Science of Dhaka Univer-sity has conferred the Dean’s Awards on three teachers and 14 students for their outstanding performances in their respective � elds.

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Are� n Siddique handed over the awards and gold medals to the teach-ers and the students at a function held at Nawab Nabab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban on the campus yesterday, re-ports UNB.

The award recipient students are Na� s Istihaq (Physics), M Hasib Uddin Mollah (Mathematics), AZM Moinul Islam Majumder (Chemistry), Khandokar Akib Mohammed (Statistics), M Murshedul Islam (Biostatistics), Fatima-tuj Johara (Informatics), M Saddam Hossain Bagmar, Mohammad Shamsul Alam, Farjana Misu, Amina Amrin, Fatima Johura and Tahrima Faruq.

They were given the awards for their outstanding results in the BSc exami-nations in 2011.

On the other hand, the three teach-ers who received the Dean’s Awards for their outstanding achievement in the research are Prof Dr Ferdaus (Math-ematics), Associate Prof Dr Mominul Islam (Chemistry) and Associate Prof Dr Israt Raihan (Statistics, Research).

DU Pro-VCs Prof Dr Nasreen Ahmad (Education), Prof Dr Shahid Akther Hossain (Admin), Chairman of the Statistics, Biostatistic and Informatics department Prof Dr Khaleda Banu, among others, were present on the occasion with the Dean of Science Faculty Prof Dr Yousuf Ali Mollah in the chair. l

DU, VSOB team up for disaster volunteerism n Tribune Desk

In order to promote research, knowl-edge and volunteerism in the disaster management, a memorandum of un-derstanding has been signed between the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies of Dhaka Uni-versity and Voluntary Service Overseas Bangladesh (VSOB).

DU Pro-VC (administration) Prof Dr Shahid Akhtar Hossain and Country Director of VSOB Shahana Hayat signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations at the o� ce of DU vice-chancellor recently, says a UNB report.

DU VC Prof Dr AAMS Are� n Sid-dique addressed the function as the chief guest. Director of the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerabil-ity Studies Prof Dr Mahbuba Nasreen, Head of Funding of Asia Paci� c of the VSOB Iftikhar Ahmad and Funding Ad-visor of the organisation Chris Wardle and Acting Registrar of DU Syed Rezaur Rahman were present on the occasion.

The objectives of the MoU are to pro-mote volunteerism among students of the Institute of Disaster Management

and Vulnerability Studies, build capac-ity of the community youth to respond to the impact of the climate change through appropriate adaptation strat-egy, create an opportunity of IDMVS students to conduct research, thesis and internship in VSOB working areas, create opportunity to make bridge be-tween academic knowledge and com-munity practice, organise national and international seminars, symposia and workshops for disseminating empirical knowledge of disaster, resilience, risk, coping mechanism, adaptation and vul-nerabilities of disaster a� ected people.

Besides, IDMVS students will work as volunteers under ‘Clean and Green Dhaka University Campus Project’ with the technical and � nancial support of Voluntary Service Overseas.

DU VC Prof Dr AAMS Are� n Sid-dique highly expressed the hope that the students of the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Stud-ies would be bene� ted in the � elds of knowledge on climate change, envi-ronment, global warming, green house e� ect, volunteerism, ethical and moral education. l

Leading University’s stage torchedn Tribune Report

A groups of people have torched a stage of Leading University at Ragibnagar under Biswanath in Sylhet on Monday.Witnesses said the stage was made to inaugurate the university’s new cam-pus at Ragibnagar. Abul Kalam Azad, o� cer-in-charge of Biswanath police station, said police rushed to the spot and doused the � re. Leading University is the � rst private university in Sylhet. The university have two other campuses at Rang Mahal in Bondor Bazar area and at Taltola Super Market in the city. l

Man gets life for rape in Ctg n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A man who had raped an 18-year-old deaf-mute girl in 2001 was found guilty by a Chittagong court yesterday and sentenced to life plus a � ne of 100,000. The court also ordered the state to take responsibility of the victim’s daughter.

Judge of Women and Children Op-pression Repression Tribunal-1 Md Rezaul Karim gave the verdict. Convict Nimai Chandra Dey, 38, who hailed from the Chandanaish upazila in Chit-tagong, had been at large since getting a bail earlier, said a court source.

Chandan Talukdar, a public pros-ecutor of the tribunal, told the Dhaka Tribune that the court gave the ver-dict under sections 9(1) and 13(C) of Women and Children Oppression Re-pression Act.

According to the case statement, Nimai took the girl near a pond adjoin-ing his house at the Purbo Pathandandi area of Chandanaish around 7:00pm on April 4, 2001 and raped her.

About one month from the incident, her father lodged a case with the Chan-danaish police station bringing rape charges against Nimai, who initially denied culpability when police nabbed him.

However, he was found guilty after a DNA test and a charge-sheet was sub-mitted before the court on July 4, 2001.

The court framed the charge against Nimai on June 8, 2002 and gave the verdict after questioning � ve prosecu-tion witnesses. l

Barisal city looks festive as new mayor takes chargen Anisur Rahman Swapan, Barisal

Former district BNP President Ahsan Habib Kamal would take up charges as the mayor of Barisal  City Corpo-ration today, 128 days after beingelected in the third BCC election held on June 15.

On the occasion, the Nagar Bhaban and di� erent areas of Barisal city have been decorated with lightning and bill-boards.

Acting BCC mayor Altaf Mahmud Sikdar would hand over the charges to the newly elected BCC Mayor, Ahsan Habib Kamal at a ceremony at the Na-gar Bhaban in the afternoon.

After working 100 days as the acting mayor, Altaf was bidden farewell by the BCC o� cials yesterday.

Ahsan Habib Kamal was the 18-party alliance backed mayor candidate in the last BCC election where he defeated Shawkat Hossain Hiron, city Awami League president and 14-party alliance supported Sammilito Nagorik Commit-tee nominated mayoral candidate, by 17,000 votes.

The number of voters was 210,482 in the last BCC election.

Kamal was defeated in the BCC Elec-tions in 2003 and 2008.

He had performed as a ward com-missioner, administrator andchair-

man of Barisal Municipality for18 years.

The divisional headquarter of Ba-risal  municipality  was upgraded to a city corporation by gazette noti� cation of the BCC Act on April 4, 2001.

It was extended to 30 wards within 45 square kilometer area previously, which was 20 wards in 25 square kilo-meters of area.

Sources said Ahsan Habib Kamal is taking up charges as the Mayor at a time when the salaries and bonus for Eid-ul-Azha for the employees of BCC worth over Tk30m is due.

Besides, BCC has a debt of around TK10m, said sources. l

Nimai took the girl near a pond adjoining his house at the Purbo Pathandandi area of Chandanaish around 7:00pm on April 4, 2001 and raped her

In Khulna city Quantum Foundation, Khanjahan Ali Blood Foundation, Khulna Blood Donor Club, Juba Red Crescent Society and Badhan of Khulna University are working with blood but these are information-based organisations

BIWTA evicts illegal establishments on the bank of the Buriganga River yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

JU teachers announce fresh programmen JU Correspondent

The agitating teachers of Jahangirnagar University (JU) have declared a fresh agitation programme from today of boycotting all administrative activities for three consecutive days.

Besides the demand of Vice Chan-cellor Anwar Hossan’s removal, they demanded that Pro-VC of JU Prof MA Matin be o� cially appointed for hold-ing the admission tests.

They expressed worries regarding the upcoming admission test for 2013-14 academic sessions, as the authori-ties are yet to ful� ll their demands.

General Teachers’ Forum, the plat-form of the agitating teachers yesterday arranged a press conference in front of VC’s residence where its general sec-retary Prof Kamrul Ahsan said besides boycotting classes and examinations, they would remain abstained from the administrative activities during the three day strike according to their fresh agitation programme.

This is the fourth time, the agitating teachers have called abstention from work in last six months demanding VC’s removal bringing over a dozen of allegations against him.

“We have called the strike as the VC is yet to resign from his post. Earlier, we were boycotting only classes and examination and now we have decided to boycott all kinds of administrative activities as well,” he said.

They highly criticised the last meet-ing of university’s central admission test management presided by VC. l

Nation 7DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Rajbari to su� er big dips in sugarcane production n Our Correspondent, Rajbari

Sugarcane farmers in Rajbari are un-likely to bag pro� ts this season because of excessive rainfall and resultant water stagnation in sugarcane � elds, which substantially impeded the growth of crops and decimated them.

The amount of rain that fell in the past three months has been measured to be three times higher than which fell over the same period last year, accord-ing to a source at the department of ag-riculture extension (DAE).

There has also been a higher in-cidence of what is generically called “red-heart disease” (in which case the inner part of a cane turns reddish and decays) as a result of pest attacks. Pests cause to reduce crop yield by eating roots.

Rajbari, despite being one of the top sugarcane growing regions in the coun-try, recorded dips in cultivation acre-age too. Sugarcane was cultivated on about 999 hectares of land against the target of 1,232 hectares.

On the other hand, about 1107.73 hectares of land were brought under cultivation against the targeted 1840 hectares in the areas covered by Farid-pur Sugar Mill, which processes raw sugarcanes produced both in Rajbari and Faridpur.

“Heavy rainfall in the last three month in � ve upazilas of the district in-undated vast areas of sugarcane � elds. It has been very frustrating for farm-ers who had been patiently waiting to reap the fruits of their labour,” said Md Ra� qul Islam, regional director of Faridpur Sugar Mill.

It takes usually 14/18 months to grow sugarcanes which is much longer compared to other crops, he added. “Because of this time factor as well as lack of pro� ts, farmers are increasingly turning to other crops.”

During a recent visit to several sug-arcane � elds, it was found that many plants had been decimated by pest at-tacks against which farmers had little protection.

Hasan Ali Sardar, a farmer at the En-draw Narayapur village in Rajbari Sadar upazila, cultivated sugarcanes on two acres of land.

“Insects partly damaged my � eld. If you take a closer look, you will see many sticks bearing marks of the dam-age inside,” he said.

Rokon Uddin Mollah, another farm-er, was nearly in tears when he de-

scribed how he might not be able to repay loans that he had taken for plan-tation. “I borrowed TK10,000 to culti-vate sugarcane on 15 decimals of land. As things stand now, after months of rain and pest attacks, I see no hope of having any pro� ts at all.”

Several farmers also alleged that no agriculture experts or o� cers from DAE visited their areas even after reporting the incidence of red-heart disease.

Mohammad Golam Kibriya, dep-uty director of the department at Ra-jbari, however, denied the allegation, explaining how the red-heart disease came to being in the � rst place.

“The problem arose mainly because of incessant rainfall which started from before August. The disease takes place when water remain stranded in a � eld for a long time.” l

Money stolen from bank counter n Our Correspondent, Barisal

A bag carrying Tk180,000 was stolen from National Bank Barisal branch of-� ce yesterday.

Babul Shikadar, a clerk of the ac-counts department of Crescent Flow-er Mill, went to the bank to deposit Tk180,000 in the afternoon.

When Babul was writing the depos-it-slip leaving the money carrier bag by his side, suddenly someone stole the bag within few seconds.

Shahidul Islam, manager, NBL Bari-sal Branch, acknowledged the incident and said they will check there close circuit camera records to � nd out the person who stole the money. l

Abducted schoolgirl rescued in Jessoren Tribune Desk

Police rescued a schoolgirl from Shiro-moni area in Khulna city on Sunday, 12 hours after her abduction from Barandi Mollapara area in Jessore town.

The law enforcers also arrested Man-iruzzaman, 40, son of Akkel Ali of Ba-ropata village in Khulna city, in connec-tion with the abduction, reports UNB.

Police said Khoka, son of Akkel Ali, and his associates picked up the girl on Saturday evening and took her to Khu-lna city. The victims’ father Tofayel Hossain � led a case against them with Kotwali Model Thana in Jessore.

Later, on secret information, police rescued the girl from the area and ar-rested Maniruzzaman, brother of Kho-ka, on Sunday morning. l

Girl Guides for empowering girls to change societyn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Participants at a Girl Guides camp yesterday discussed the role of girls in achieving the millennium devel-opment goals and stressed on em-powering them to change society.

The day-long event was held at the Barisal Islamia College as a part of the celebrations marking “girl-child day” with the theme “girl-child in leadership”. An oath- taking ceremony of Girl Guides Rangers was also held at the col-lege campus.

The camp was conducted by regional trainer Shamsun Nahar, junior trainer Sumaiya Tabassum and Ranger Tanima Rahman Khan.

The oath ceremony was led by Faizun Nahar, regional commis-sioner of Bangladesh Girl Guides Association.

Mohsin Ul Islam Habul, acting principal of the college, was chief guest at the closing ceremony, while Rangers Dinara Begum and Jebunnesa Begum were present as special guests.

The guests and participants said the girls of today are future mothers, so they should be extended special care for their proper physical, psy-chological and social development.

The participants received di� er-ent types of life-skill training, with emphasis on attaining leadership skills and self-su� ciency not only

in family matters, but in all spheres of social life and national activities. They also stressed on the role of girls in achieving the millennium develop-ment goals of eliminating hunger and poverty. They also called for ensuring women’s equal participation in de-cision-making in all � elds to end all sorts of gender discrimination.

Identifying lack of skills, con-� dence and opportunities as the main reasons for backwardness of girls and women in Bangladesh, they recommended spreading Girl Guide activities for ensuring their education, leadership and skill development, employment, eco-nomic emancipation and political empowerment. l

Headmistress canes over 100 primary students over trivial matter in Gaibandhan Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

The headmistress of a government pri-mary school in Gaibandha caned over 100 students for allegedly laughing at her as she fell o� a veranda on Sunday.

More than 100 students of South Dopadanga Government Primary School in Sundarganj upazila of the district have become ill due to the cruel punishment, leaving their angry par-ents to demonstrate against the head-mistress.

According to sources, the headmis-tress, Lainunnahar Begum, usually buys fresh milk from a house near the school. On the day of the incident, she sent a student, Akhitara, to collect the milk.

When Akhitara returned to the school with the milk, the head teacher’s three-year-old child suddenly pushed his mother o� the veranda where she had been waiting, causing her to fall to the ground.

Witnessing the scene from their classrooms, the students of classes one and two allegedly started laugh-ing, which infuriated Lainunnahar. At one stage, the enraged woman shut the

doors of the classrooms and reportedly caned the students, leaving over 100 youngsters injured.

When the students informed their guardians about the beating upon re-turning home, they gathered at the school yesterday and staged demon-strations demanding exemplary pun-ishment of the headmistress.

The guardians also confronted Lainunnahar, but the headmistress failed to give them any satisfactory an-swer and left the school premises.

Despite repeated attempts, the headmistress could not be reached for comments as her mobile phone was switched o� .

In August 2010, the government banned corporal punishment in all ed-ucational institutions across the coun-try, describing it as inhuman. Under a directive issued by the education min-istry, teachers who beat children will face disciplinary action by district ed-ucation o� cers.

When contacted, upazila primary education o� cer, Akteruzzaman, said disciplinary action would be taken against the headmistress if she is found guilty after an investigation. l

Case-counter cases harassing innocent people in Gazipurn Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Filing of cases and counter cases regard-ing land disputes has become a common phenomenon in Gazipur that has been causing harassment to the local people.

The allegation was brought at a meeting organised by Sripur Upazila Agriculture Training Center on Sep-tember 30. Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan, upazila assistant commissioner (land) presided over the meeting.

The speakers also alleged that the local people were harassed because of these false cases, adding that creating probe report without proper investiga-tion was yet another concern.

Sheikh Humayun Kabir Babul, a member of an upazila committee, said the number of counter cases had been gradually increasing and those cases were mainly � led centring land dis-putes. As a result, the true justice seek-ers were being harassed, he added.

If any victim � le a case with a local police station regarding any land dis-pute, the o� enders � le a counter case with false information against the vic-tim in order to harass him, he said, add-ing that usually, a third party was made complainant for the counter cases.

Speakers asserted that the o� enders � led counter cases in order to force the actual victims to withdraw the cases.

Mentioning a recent incident, Hu-mayun Kabir said a local inhabitant Rubel, son of deceased Hashem Mas-ter, � led a case with Sripur police sta-tion on September 27. After one hour of � ling the case, another local inhabi-tant Sadikul Samad � led a counter case against Rubel and eight other people with the same police station, he added.

Seeking anonymity, an inhabitant of Sripur Thana road said a section of dis-honest o� cers in the police station � led false cases by making the complainant as defendant on the same incident.

Emdadul Haque, a lawyer of Gazi-pur district Judge Court, said � ling of counter cases had eventually increased corruptions in the area. As a result, in-nocent people were harassed, he added.

Chairman of Gazipur Union Parish-ad Akram Hossain mentioned an inci-dent where a tenth grade student was made defendant of a false case. Later, the student was arrested and produced before the court, he said.

In this regard, O� cer-in-Charge of Sripur police station Amir Hossain said: “Sometimes court gives order to � le a case.

“Dhaka Medical Collage provide medical certi� cate for counter cases, while Sripur Upazila Helath Complex provide medical certi� cate for original case if any clashes took place over any incident,” he claimed. l

Jewellers on street to protest robbery n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

Hundreds of jewellery shop owners brought a procession and kept their shops closed yesterday protesting the robbery at a jewellery shop on Sunday in Mymensingh town.

They demanded immediate arrest of the robbers and recovery of the looted gold of M Hossain Jewellers.

During the demonstration, protes-tors threw bricks aiming at police when the procession was stopped at Gangi-narpar intersection.

Chandan Kumar Ghosh, secretary of Bangladesh Jewellers Samity of My-mensingh unit, said three robbery inci-dents took place in Mymensingh since February this year but no looted gold was recovered.

But this time they want back the looted gold, otherwise they would go

for tougher programme, he added. A gang of robbers exploded 20 to 25

crude bombs before storming into M Hossain and Brothers Jewellers owned by Kabir Hossain on Sunday evening.

The gang looted gold ornaments and cash worth about TK20m, claimed Ab-dul Quiyyum, the son of the proprietor of the shop. Four people— Kabir, pro-prietor of M Hossain and Brothers Jew-ellers, while three employees Gadash-war Karmaker, Abu Taleb, and Russell were injured in the incident.

The injured were admitted at My-mensingh Medical College Hospital.

In last month on September 3, rob-bers looted gold ornaments worth TK1.5m from the volt of Labonya Shil-palaya at Durgabari. Another robbery took place at Alim Jewellers in the same town from where robbers looted gold worth Tk2om on February 11 this year. l

Phensidyl, sex stimulants seized in two districtsn UNB

Detective Branch of police and mem-bers of Border Guard Bangladesh in separate drives seized a total of 984 bottles of Indian Phensedyl syrup and 3,000 pieces of sex stimulating tablets from di� erent places of Jessore and Satkhira early Sunday.

In Jessore, BGB members seized 529 bottles of Phensedyl and 3,000 pieces of sex stimulating tablets from Gon-ga and Dulatpur border areas under Benapole Port police station.

Commanding O� cer Tayef-Ul-Haque of BGB battalion 23 said acting on secret information a team of BGB conducted separate drives in Gonga and Dulatpur areas around 12:30am, and recovered the drugs and tablets from a sack in an abandoned condition.

Sensing the presence of BGB team, smugglers might have � ed the scene leaving the sack behind, he added.

In Satkhira, a team of DB police seized 455 bottles of Phensedyl from Alipur Ball� eld area of sadar upazila early in the morning. l

Youth jailed for 17 years for keeping arms in Fenin Our Correspondent, Feni

A Feni court yesterday sentenced a youth to 17 years rigorous imprison-ment for possessing arms.

The convict was Alamgir Hossain Babu, 25, of Rampur village under Feni Sadar.

Magistrate Jebunnahar Ayesha of Feni District Joint Judge Court deliv-ered the verdict at 11am.

Court sources said acting on a tip-o� , a team of police led by Town Sub-Inspector Manjurul Alam raided a hotel beside Mohipal Plaza on February 26 in 2004.

Police seized foreign pistols, eight round of bullets and magazines from Alamgir’s possession.

Alam � led a case as a complainant with Feni Sadar Police Station against Alamgir under the Arms Act. Later, police submitted a charge sheet to the court. Of a total list of 12 witnesses, six have given statement before the court.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Enamul Karim Khandekar said the court sentenced the convict to seven and ten years in prison under two di� erent sections. l

Mohila Parishad forms a human chain in front of Gaibandha Press Club protesting the rape of a teenager at the Gobindaganj police station DHAKA TRIBUNE

BSF � res rubber bullets in Phulbari, 8 injuredn Our Correspondent, Kurigram

At least eight Bangladeshi cattle busi-nessmen were injured as the Indian Border Security Force � red rubber bul-lets indiscriminately in the Khalishako-tal border area early yesterday.

Sources said the BSF member of Boskotal camp was responsible for the incident.

Locals said a patrolling troop of the BSF � red rubber bullet to a group of cattle businessmen, who were return-ing to Bangladesh from the border, near sub pillar 5 of the international main pillar 934 of the border.

It was learnt that the group of cattle businessmen was a joint black marke-teer syndicate of Bangladesh and India.

The injured were identi� ed as Ja-hangir Alam alias Hando, 25, of East Phulmoti village, Ra� qul, 24, and Shah Alam, 30, of Gojer Kuti village, Sujat, 24, and Adam Ali, 30, of Gorok Mondol village, Momin, 25, Nuru, 27, and Shya-mal, 26, who are now receiving medical treatment at di� erent local hospitals.

The BSF members also seized 18 cows from their procession.

BGB Naeb Subedar Zakir Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune: “I heard the news, but the injured are missing. Patrolling in the border has been intensi� ed.” l

Tuesday, October 8, 20138 DHAKA TRIBUNE International

Milkshake murderer Kissel appeals against second convictionAmerican expatriate Nancy Kissel ap-peared in a Hong Kong court on Monday seeking to overturn her conviction for the murder of her Merril Lynch banker husband. Kissel, 49, has been in jail in Hong Kong since 2005 when she was found guilty of murdering her husband after giving him a drug-laced milkshake and then clubbing him to death with a metal ornament in their luxury home. She was convicted for a second time last year following a retrial.

Hobbit feet, Frodo’s sword among ‘Lord of the Rings’ auction itemsFans of Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy � lm series “The Lord of the Rings” will have the opportunity to bid on rare movie memorabilia, a Beverly Hills auction house said on Monday. Props from Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy will be up for sale at Julien’s Auctions on December 5, including a pair of prosthetic hairy Hobbit feet worn by one of the � lm’s main characters, Samwise Gamgee. Other highlights from the fantasy realm of Middle Earth include the sword of lead character Frodo Baggins, played by Elijah Wood, estimated between $100,000 and $200,000, and a wizard sta� belonging to Gandalf the White (played by Ian McKellan), expected to fetch between $50,000 and $70,000.

Spanish shepherds guide 2,000 sheep through MadridShepherds led a � ock of 2,000 sheep through Madrid on Sunday in defence of ancient grazing, droving and migration rights increasingly threatened by urban sprawl and modern agricultural practices. Tourists were surprised to see downtown tra� c cut to permit the ovine parade to bleat — bells clanking — across some of Madrid’s most upmarket urban settings. Modern farming practices and the use of faster road transport are increasingly con-� ning animals to barns or trucks, because shepherding is costly and time-consuming, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, which has promoted the colorful annual Transhumance Fiesta in Madrid since 1994. Spaniards are proud of their centuries-old sheep rearing traditions and hold the na-tive Merino breed of sheep in high esteem.

Yale searches for stinker adding feces to dryersYale University is hoping to identify the stinker who has been soiling students’ laundry by sticking human feces inside clothes dryers. The culprit has been dubbed the “poopetrator” and is being blamed for at least four incidents in the past month in the laundry room at Saybrook College. Saybrook Master Paul Hudak said Yale police are investigating. O� cials at the Ivy League school also are considering changes to laundry room access. Yale police declined to comment in the investigation.

WORLD WATCH

New Da Vinci painting identi� edn AFP, Rome

An Italian weekly said in its Friday edition that a new painting by Leonar-do da Vinci of Renaissance noblewom-an Isabella d’Este has been reliably au-thenticated with carbon dating.

The portrait, which was believed to have been either lost or never even painted, belongs to an Italian family which kept it in the vault of a Swiss bank, the Sette magazine reported.

It measures 61 by 46.5 centimetres (24 by 18 inches) and depicts the prom-inent Italian marquess, who was a pa-tron of the arts, in pro� le.

It is “a faithful transposition of the famous sketch hanging in the Louvre,” said Sette, which belongs to the Corriere della Sera daily. This is a sensational dis-covery although it is still short of con� r-mations,” it said. It quoted Carlo Pedret-ti, a world expert in the Tuscan painter (1452-1519), saying: “I can immediately recognise Da Vinci’s handiwork, partic-ularly in the woman’s face.”

Only around 15 works have been reliably attributed to Leonardo, includ-ing the “Mona Lisa” – the most famous and popular painting in the world. l

Wave of deadly attacks in Egypt kills 8n AP, Cairo

A drive-by shooting killed six Egyp-tian soldiers east of Cairo on Monday, shortly after a massive explosion, pos-sibly from a car bomb, hit the security headquarters in a town near the area’s tourist resorts in southern Sinai, killing at least two and wounding dozens.

Also Monday, at least two rocket propelled grenades slammed into a compound housing the country’s ma-jor satellite earth station in a southern Cairo suburb, security o� cials said.

The attacks came a day after dozens were killed when holiday celebrations marking the start of the 1973 Mideast war turned into deadly clashes across Egypt, though it was not immediately clear if Monday’s violence was related.

The dawn attack on the earth station

in the leafy suburb of Maadi in Cairo caused only minor damage to one of the giant satellite dishes in the complex. But its signi� cance was far wider, in part be-cause it struck at the heart of the nation’s telecommunications center, making it the most serious attack in the capital since last month’s assassination attempt against the country’s interior minister outside his home in eastern Cairo.

The o� cials said the six soldiers were on patrol in a pickup truck when masked gunmen in another vehicle opened � re at them in an area west of the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. The six included an o� cer, a lieutenant, said the o� cials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not au-thorised to talk to the media.

The explosion at the security head-quarter in the town of el-Tor killed two

people and wounded nearly 50, signal-ing what could be the spread of attacks by Islamic militants, already active in northern Sinai. Daily attacks against security forces in the volatile north-ern Sinai Peninsula have increasingly resembled a full-� edged insurgency. But the region of southern Sinai, which includes the popular diving resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, has been mostly qui-et since a series of deadly attacks in 2005 and 2006.

The four-story building sustained serious damage and the o� cials said the blast was likely caused by a car bomb detonated by remote control.

Monday’s attacks come a day after at least 51 people were killed in clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist president Moham-med Morsi across much of Egypt. l

Attacks after deadly Egypt protests shatter relative calmn AFP, Cairo

Suspected militants killed nine people in attacks in Egypt on Monday, a day after clashes between Islamists and po-lice left dozens dead and dashed hopes of restored calm after president Mo-hamed Morsi’s ouster.

In south Sinai, a car bomb killed three people when it exploded outside provincial police headquarters, and gunmen shot dead six soldiers near the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya.

The attacks came a day after Isla-mists, hoping to galvanise their � ag-ging protest movement, clashed with police as they tried to march on a Cairo square steeped in symbolism.

Assailants � ring rocket propelled grenades on Monday also damaged a satellite communication dish in Cairo

that routes international calls, police said.

At least 51 people were the previous day killed in clashes, mostly in Cairo, in the worst violence in Egypt since mid-August when police dispersed two Islamist protest camps.

Police, joined by civilians opposed to the Islamists, � red tear gas and shots at the protesters when they tried to reach Tahrir Square in central Cairo.

Police say the Islamists protesters used � rearms in the clashes.

The renewed violence appeared aimed at frustrating plans by the mili-tary-installed government to move on three months after Morsi’s overthrow by the military.

With its economy propped by aid from Arab Gulf countries, the interim government has sought to persuade

investors and tourists to return to the country.

But following several weeks of rel-ative calm, the violence in the past 48-hours in the capital and south Sinai, which is dotted with tourist resorts, has shattered the appearance of re-stored security.

The Islamist coalition behind Sun-day’s protests has called for further protests on Friday to converge on the same square, Tahrir, in central Cairo.

“No one will prevent us from going there, regardless of the sacri� ces,” the Anti-Coup Alliance said in a statement late Sunday.

The square, where the military had held celebrations on Sunday to mark 40 years since the Arab-Israeli war, is highly symbolic for both supporters and opponents of Morsi. l

In focus: Egypt’s bad old daysn Brenda Stoter, Al Jazeera

Features

When Egyptians revolted against former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, it re� ect-ed their unhappiness with government cor-ruption and police brutality. Many Egyptians are now receiving the same treatment after Mohamed Morsi’s ouster amid a series of vi-olent incidents and arbitrary arrests.

More than 1,000 people, mostly Mor-si supporters, have been killed in political violence since mid-August, according to human rights organisations. The arrests, meanwhile, highlight Egypt’s intensi� ed crackdown on critics of the military since Morsi’s ouster.

The most common allegations against those detained in Egypt are for carrying weap-

ons or espionage. But others are being arrest-ed on the streets for small o� enses such as ignoring curfew, chanting slogans against the army, or simply “acting suspicious.”

The police crackdown hasn’t only a� ect-ed Egyptians. Two Canadians were held for seven weeks by police, but released from prison on Sunday.

John Greyson, a renowned Canadian doc-umentary � lmmaker, and Dr Tarek Loubani were arrested during violent unrest in Cairo on August 15. Loubani had treated some wounded protesters at a demonstration that turned deadly and Greyson had � lmed it.

They were accused of “participating with the Muslim Brotherhood” in an attack against police, but were never formally charged. The men said they were beaten and subjected to degrading treatment.

Their release came after a 16-day hunger strike, and high-level pressure from the Ca-nadian government.

Last month, the 24-year-old French na-tional Nevine Sana was detained for several hours because she broke curfew. Having a French passport “saved” her from spending a night in jail, she said.

“They body searched me, but when they found out I didn’t have any Egyptian papers, they let me go. My Egyptian friend got ar-rested too. Police o� cers were shouting at her, even threatening her with virginity tests,” Sana said.

A lot of people in Egypt are living in fear these days, said Sana. “Police o� cers are brutal and corrupt, just like before. Making sure you don’t give them any reason to ar-rest you is the only thing you can do.” l

Ethical issues as scientists peek into baby genesn AP, Washington

Little Amelia Sloan is a pioneer: Short-ly after her birth, scientists took drops of the healthy baby’s blood to map her genetic code.

Amelia is part of a large research project that is decoding the DNA of hundreds of infants. New parents soon can start signing up for smaller studies to explore if what’s called genome se-quencing — fully mapping someone’s genes to look for health risks — should become a part of newborn care.

Should parents be told only about childhood threats? Or would they also want to learn if their babies carried a key gene for, say, breast cancer after they’re grown? Could knowing about

future risks alter how a family treats an otherwise healthy youngster? And how accurate is this technology — could it raise too many false alarms?

This is the newest frontier in the ge-netic revolution: how early to peek into someone’s DNA, and how to make use of this health forecast without causing needless worry.

“This was something that was loom-ing over the horizon,” said Dr Alan Gut-tmacher, a paediatrician and geneticist at the National Institutes of Health. Last month, NIH announced a $25m, � ve-year pilot project in four cities — Boston, San Francisco, Chapel Hill, and Kansas City — to start answering some of the questions before the technology is widely o� ered for babies. l

Nobel medicine prize awardedn AP, Stockholm

Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman and German-born research-er Thomas Suedhof won the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for dis-coveries on how hormones, enzymes and other key substances are transport-ed within cells.

The Nobel committee said their research on “vesicle tra� c” — the transport system of our cells — helped scientists understand how “cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time” inside cells.

Disturbances to the system can con-tribute to diabetes and neurological and immunological disorders, the com-mittee said.

Rothman, 62, is a professor at Yale Uni-versity while Schekman, 64, is at the Uni-versity of California, Berkeley. Suedhof, 57, joined Stanford University in 2008.

The university said Schekman’s research led to the success of the bio-technology industry. Schekman stud-ied normal and defective yeast to iden-tify the process of vesicle transport, the university said.

The Nobel committee said Schekman discovered a set of genes that were re-quired for vesicle transport, while Roth-man revealed how proteins dock with their target membranes like two sides of a zipper. Sudhof found out how vesicles release their cargo with precision. l

Italy boat disaster: More bodies foundn AFP, Lampedusa

Divers in Italy recovered 17 more bod-ies on Monday from a shipwreck in which over 300 African asylum seekers may have died, as EU states prepared to address the growing refugee crisis.

Hundreds of rescuers and army personnel have been deployed to the island of Lampedusa whose seas were described as a “giant cemetery,” with 211 bodies now pulled from the water.

A � shing boat packed with around 500 Eritrean and Somali migrants cap-sized and sank on Thursday after its captain set � re to a T-shirt to signal dis-tress to coast guards, sparking panic on board. Emergency services managed to save 155 people.

Divers have described the horri� c sight of the bodies trapped in the wreck under water at a depth of around 50 metres (160 feet), many still in the con-torted poses in which they drowned.

“There are a lot of young people. You imagine seeing your own children. It is really a tragic scene,” said Angelo Vesto, an army o� cer responsible for transporting the black body bags.

Some 30,000 asylum-seekers have landed in Italy so far this year – more than four times the number from 2012, although still below the 50,000 in 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring revolts.

The majority are Eritrean, Somalis and Syrians. l

Suspected Islamist � ghters attack northern Mali cityn Reuters, Bamako

Suspected Islamist militants hit the northern Malian city of Gao with artil-lery � re on Monday, in the � rst attack on the insurgents’ former stronghold in months, city residents, military and local government o� cials said.

Gao was the � rst city freed from Islamist occupation by a French-led military intervention that drove al Qae-da-linked � ghters from the country’s north earlier this year.

While it bore the brunt of the guer-rilla-war waged by remnants of the defeated insurgents in the months following the January o� ensive, until Monday’s violence the area had not seen an attack since May.

“This morning from around 06:30 a series of four explosions hit the town. One Malian soldier was wounded and a house was damaged,” Idrissa Cisse, a municipal o� cial in Gao, told Reuters.

Cisse and Gao residents said Islamists had � red mortar bombs from outside the city, though a military o� cial said the ex-plosions had been caused by rockets. l

Egyptian security forces and civilians detain a supporter of ousted Egyptian President AP

Hot air balloons are prepared before taking � ight during the 42nd annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico October 5 REUTERS

A WHOLE LOT OF HOT AIR

9Tuesday, October 8, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE International

Maldives pro-opposition TV station set on � ren AP, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Masked men set a � re that gutted the studio of a pro-opposition television station early Monday in the second at-tack there in two years, the owner said.

About six men on motorbikes threatened and chased away a security guard before setting � re to the station, Akram Kamaludeen said. Other o� ces in the building also were damaged.

Kamaludeen said there was no ev-idence that pointed to a suspect. He said President Mohamed Waheed Has-san’s government and his allies have been upset with the station’s coverage.

Last year, attackers broke into the building and cut cables, disrupting the station’s broadcasts.

The television station backs the op-position Maldivian Democratic Party, and authorities have barred it from covering government events.

“This is a dark day for press freedom in the Maldives,” said Kamaludeen, saying police did not protect the sta-tion despite prior threats and has not investigating the previous attack.

Police were patrolling the neighbour-hood at the time of the attack and are in-vestigating how the group broke in, said police spokesman Hassan Hanif.

The Maldives is facing political turmoil, with a court postponing a presidential runo� election that was expected to be favorable to MDP can-didate, former President Mohamed Nasheed.

Nasheed secured more than 45 percent of the first round votes on Sept 7 but fell short of the 50 percent needed. A runoff between him and his closest rival Yaamin Abdul Qa-yyoom, brother of the country’s for-mer autocrat, was postponed by the Supreme Court after the third-placed candidate alleged fraud in the first round. l

16 killed in car crash in Thailandn AP, Bangkok

At least 16 people, most of them con-struction workers, were killed when a pickup truck crashed into a tree on a rural road in Thailand’s northeast on Monday, police said.

The pickup truck was carrying a number of construction workers in the back when it hit the tree next to a road in Ban Dan district in Buriram province, 300 kilometres northeast of Bangkok, police Col Suthee Set-thawong said.

He said that 10 men, including the 24-year-old driver, and 6 women, were killed, while at least � ve others were injured and taken for hospital treat-ment.

“The accident happened on a straight stretch of the road and there was no rain. No other cars were in-volved. At this point, it’s likely he was falling asleep while the car was trav-eling at high speed,” Suthee told The Associated Press in a telephone inter-view.

Police also found a tablet of meth-amphetamine in the driver’s pocket and a bottle of alcohol next to his seat, Suthee said. l

32 dead in India lightning strikesn AFP, Patna

At least 32 people including nine chil-dren were killed over the weekend by lightning strikes in the eastern Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand, o� cials said Monday.“About 24 people includ-ing seven children were killed Saturday and Sunday by bolts of lightning across Bihar,” State Disaster Management Min-ister Renu Kumari Kushwaha said.

In neighbouring Jharkhand, eight peo-ple including two children died, Puran Mahto, an o� cial in the state’s Dhanbad district said. Torrential rains accompanied by strong winds uprooted trees, damaged houses and brought down power cables across the region on Sunday night. lTaliban linked across

Afghan-Pakistan bordern AP, Waziristan

The Afghan Taliban are � nancially sup-porting Pakistani militants at war with Islamabad and providing sanctuary for them in neighbouring Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban’s spokesman said, highlighting the risk both groups pose to the Pakistani government.

The disclosure, which the spokes-man made Saturday in an interview with a small group of reporters, is meaningful because Pakistan has long been accused of pursuing a policy of di� erentiating between the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban as so-called “good” and “bad” militants — even though Is-lamabad denies this.

Pakistan has historical ties with the

Afghan Taliban, and many analysts be-lieve Islamabad views the group as a useful ally in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

But the Taliban spokesman’s com-ments illustrate the dangerous nexus between the two groups. This link could become even more dangerous for Pa-kistan as the US withdraws most of its combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. “The Afghan Taliban are our jihadi brothers,” Shahidullah Shahid said in an interview in Waziristan, the Taliban’s main tribal sanctuary in Paki-stan along the Afghan border. “In the beginning, we were helping them, but now they are strong enough and they don’t need our help, but they are now supporting us � nancially.”l

2 killed in Pakistan anti-polio driven AP, Peshawar

A bomb exploded next to a van carry-ing Pakistani security guards tasked with protecting workers involved in an anti-polio drive in the country’s north-west on Monday, killing two people, according to o� cials.

The attack was the latest incident of violence against the government- and UN-backed e� ort to eradicate polio from Pakistan.

The bomb killed a police o� cer and a member of a volunteer peace commit-tee, said senior superintendent of police operations for Peshawar district, Najeeb ur-Rehman. Police initially reported that six people died but ur-Rehman said that � gure was later revised to two.

The attack happened in the village of Malikhel, about 20 kilometres out-side the provincial capital of Peshawar. The victims were supposed to be pro-tecting workers administering anti-po-lio vaccine to local residents.

In 2011, Pakistan had 198 con� rmed polio cases, the highest number of any nation in the world. It was able to bring that number down to 58 in 2012 through an aggressive vaccination program.

But the success has come at a steep cost. Militants who oppose the vacci-nations often target workers delivering the vaccine and threaten people who want to get their kids vaccinated.

Two powerful Pakistani Taliban militants have banned vaccinators from two tribal regions in the coun-try’s northwest, North and South Wa-ziristan, over roughly the past year because of their opposition to US drone strikes. l

Typhoon Fitow slams into China, � ve dead n AFP, Beijing

Typhoon Fitow barrelled into China’s east coast Monday, packing winds of more than 200 kilometres an hour, af-ter hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated and bullet train ser-vices were suspended.

At least three people were reported killed, all of them near the city of Wen-zhou in Zhejiang province, the state broadcaster CCTV said.

Parts of Zhejiang, which borders the commercial hub Shanghai, saw nearly 29 centimetres of rain over 17 hours from Sunday to early Monday, while areas in Fujian to the south saw up to 16 centimetres, the o� cial China News Service said.

In the hard-hit county of Cangnan in Wenzhou, more than 1,200 homes collapsed and damages amounted to hundreds of millions of yuan, China National Radio said.

One of the victims, 55-year-old Ni Wenlin, died “after strong wind blew him o� a hill” late Sunday, Xinhua news agency said, citing municipal � ood control authorities.

Another person died of electric shock, CCTV reported.

In Fujian the typhoon snapped elec-tricity poles in half, leaving power lines on the ground, and bent iron road signs out of shape, the radio reported.

In the coastal city of Ningde, a vil-lage leader told the Beijing Times that huge waves had damaged a 200-hect-are seaweed farm, on which nearly 100 families depended for their livelihood.

At least 59 bullet trains in Zhejiang were cancelled, along with 22 � ights from the provincial capital Hangzhou and 27 in Wenzhou, Xinhua said.

Sections of highways were shut and more than 350 buses from Wenzhou were cancelled.

Forecasters said the storm was expect-ed to move northwest but weaken quickly.

But continued rainstorms were ex-pected due to another typhoon, Danas, which was set to hit Japan’s main is-lands on Monday.

Packing winds of up to 180 kilometres per hour near its centre, Danas was batter-ing the southern Japanese chain of Okina-wa, where more than 50 � ights at Naha airport were cancelled while schools were shut, according to local media.

The Japanese meteorological agency issued an alert for strong winds and high waves, while urging residents to remain

on guard for � oods and landslides as well as lightning and tornadoes.

Local authorities in Okinawa and Kagoshima separately issued evacua-tion advisories to some 6,500 house-holds, public broadcaster NHK said.

In China, authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands and issued the country’s highest alert on Sunday as Fi-tow approached the mainland.

The storm was packing winds of up to 151 kilometres an hour Sunday night as it moved towards the coast.

Winds rose to 201 km per hour in parts of Wenzhou, Xinhua reported lat-er, citing local � ood control authorities.

Zhejiang has so far evacuated more than 574,000 people, while in Fujian 177,000 have been displaced, it said.

Two port workers in Wenzhou were missing and may have fallen into the sea, the agency added.

The storm also forced the suspen-sion of bullet train services in several cities in Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, Xinhua said.

Wenzhou’s airport cancelled 27 � ights Sunday, the agency said.

Xinhua quoted the weather centre as saying it was unusual for a typhoon

to come ashore in China’s southeast during October, at the end of the storm season.

Chinese maritime authorities also is-sued red alerts, warning of storm tides and waves. Fishermen were urged to

return to port and local authorities told to prepare harbour facilities and sea walls for high tides.

In Zhejiang more than 35,000 boats returned to harbour while in Fujian nearly 30,000 vessels were called back,

according to Xinhua. Named after a � ower from Micro-

nesia, Fitow has hit just two weeks after Typhoon Usagi wreaked havoc in the region, leaving at least 25 dead in southern China. l

Asian � oods leave many deadn AFP, Phnom Penh

More than 150 people have died in � oods drenching swathes of Southeast Asia in recent weeks, o� cials said Monday.

Heavy rains have waterlogged homes and farmland across the region as recent typhoons worsened the an-nual rainy season.

In Cambodia, the death toll from � oods since mid-September stood at 83 on Monday, nearly half of them chil-dren, according to the National Disas-ter Management Committee.

More than 10,000 families have been evacuated, while hundreds of schools and dozens of homes have been deluged.

Heavy rain and strong wind also

uprooted a 30 metre tree and sent it crashing into the ancient Preah Khan temple in the country’s famed Angkor complex in northeastern Siem Reap province on Friday.

In Thailand authorities said 34 peo-ple have been killed and 1.9 million have seen their homes or livelihoods damaged by the � ooding.

Typhoon Wutip left a trail of destruc-tion in Vietnam in late September, with high winds that ripped the roofs o� nearly 200,000 houses according to state media. The country has seen some 40 deaths in � ooding since early September.

Cambodia’s � oods have prompted the government again to cancel the an-nual water festival in front of the royal palace in Phnom Penh. l

Kerry assures CEOs on US role in Asia-Paci� cn AP, Bali, Indonesia

Filling in for an absent US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday sought to as-sure Asia-Paci� c business leaders that nothing will shake America’s commit-ment to the region and that the cur-rent government shutdown in Wash-ington will soon be over and forgotten.

In an address to executives at an Asian economic summit in Indonesia, Kerry said that the shutdown is simply a “moment in politics.” He guaranteed America will move beyond it quickly and will come back more resilient than ever.

Obama was scheduled to deliver the speech but was forced to cancel his par-ticipation to deal with the shutdown. Kerry, who unsuccessfully ran for the White House nearly a decade ago, joked that his appearance did not exactly ful-� ll his former presidential ambitions.

“In 2004, obviously, I worked very, very hard to replace a president. This is not what I had in mind,” he said to laughter and applause from a packed auditorium at a luxury hotel on the re-sort island of Bali.

Turning to the shutdown, which has led to speculation that American lead-

ership and its place in the world may be faltering, Kerry warned against reading too much into it.

“No one should mistake what is happening in Washington as anything more than a moment in politics. We’ve all seen it before and we’ll probably see it again,” he said. “But I guarantee you we will move beyond this and it and we will move beyond it with strength and determination.”

Kerry told the executives that Amer-ica’s resilience “will continue well be-yond this moment being considerably forgotten by all of you” and maintained that the Obama’s administration de-termination to focus on Asia would re-main unchanged.

The shutdown and Obama’s cancella-tion of his planned four-nation Asian tour has raised concerns that other nations, particularly China, may � ll a vacuum left by US preoccupation with domestic trou-bles. Kerry rejected those fears.

“I want to emphasize here that there is nothing that will shake the commit-ment of the United States to the re-balance in Asia that President Obama is leading,” he said, before urging the region’s business leaders to push their governments for wide-ranging reforms.

Kerry called on them to press for the elimination of corruption and the promotion of rule of law as ways to en-courage investment and spur develop-ment. He also said climate change had to be addressed to prevent humanitari-an and business catastrophes. l

Woman plants bomb near Iraq schooln AFP, Baghdad

A guard caught a woman planting a bomb next to a primary school in Iraq on Monday, while two blasts killed four Sah-wa anti-al-Qaeda � ghters, o� cials said.

The woman was trying to plant a bomb next to the wall of a school in Madain, south of Baghdad, but was dis-covered by one of the school’s guards, who turned her over to the army with the help of a second guard, an interior ministry o� cial said.

The attempted bombing came a day after a suicide bombers attacked a pri-mary school and a nearby police station in northern Iraq, killing 18 people, in-cluding 10 children.

A total of 36 people were killed in attacks across Iraq on Sunday. North of the capital, two roadside bombs killed four Sahwa anti-al-Qaeda � ghters and wounded � ve on Monday. The Sah-wa, who joined forces with the United States from late 2006 and helped bring about a sharp reduction in violence in Iraq, are frequently targeted by Sun-ni militants, who consider them to be traitors.l

Al-Qaeda a� liate claims attack in Iraqi Kurdistann Reuters, Arbil, Iraq

An al Qaeda a� liate claimed responsibil-ity for a rare bomb attack in Iraq’s usually peaceful Kurdistan region and said it was in revenge for the enclave’s support for fellow Kurds � ghting Islamists in Syria.

At least six people were killed when militants tried to storm the headquar-ters of the security services in the Kurdish capital Arbil last month in the � rst big attack there since 2007.

In recent months, a Kurdish militia has been � ghting mainly Arab rebels and Isla-mists in northern Syria, opening an ethnic front in a civil war that has increasingly

been fought along sectarian lines.Iraqi Kurdistan’s President Masoud

Barzani said in August his well-armed region was ready to defend Kurds in Syria, but his chief of sta� later clari-� ed there were no plans to send troops across the border.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Le-vant said in a statement it had carried out the attack in response to threats by Barzani, whom the group described as a “criminal apostate.”

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Le-vant (ISIL) was formed in April through a merger between al-Qaeda’s Syrian and Iraqi a� liates. l

Damage of a burnt studio is seen at the pro-opposition television station after masked men set a � re in Male, Maldives AP‘There is nothing that will shake the commitment of the United States to the rebalance in Asia ‘

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, right, arrives with his bodyguard for an interview at an undisclosed location in Pakistani tribal area AP

huge waves send people � eeing for cover as Typhoon Fitow makes landfall on Monday AFP

Bangladesh to award Pakistani politicians for 1971 roleSeptember 30

Siam AshrafulRole? Why will they be awarded?

Aurnov HasanovicBoth of them rebelled against the British. Ga� ar Khan was a close friend of Gandhi and he opposed the All India Muslim League and the Partition, even opposed the creation of Pakistan. Even India awarded him its highest civilian honour. And his son Wali Khan was one of the very few Pakistanis who was on Bangladesh’s side. He even hates Pakistan. Both of them are Pakistanis and were imprisoned because they were against Pakistan.

Govt to build 1,148 � ats for DCC cleaners October 2

Shuvo Saha Wow, seriously?

Tanveer Rouf Only if they get built properly. I am guessing massive corruption will result from this!

Rampal requires more than justassurancesWe have already editorialised on the bad ideas that

are Rampal and Rooppur. Despite serious opposi-tion from a wide cross-section of the nation, the

government has been unmoved and has inaugurated the project without any regard for the public’s qualms.

It is not the case that the government is unaware of the concerns or the lack of public support for Rampal; rather, there have been attempts to simply trivialise and dismiss opinions against the projects from the prime minister herself.

The evidence suggests that Rampal continues to pose an undeniable threat to the Sundarbans. It is worth pointing out, as we have before, that if Rampal is established, and its operations do eventu-ally end up damaging the environment, a non-trivial likelihood, we will not then be in a position to halt pro-duction from Rampal, considering our power shortage and the signi� cant economic e� ort that will go into it.

The PM simply stating that Rampal poses no threat to the Sundarbans is just not good enough to satisfy the people’s concerns, as overwhelming evidence suggests otherwise.

Considering the track record of the current government, and the air of secrecy around the signing of the project, it is di� cult for the people to blindly trust the prime minister’s blithe assurances.

Even though the Indian premier has also assured us that Rampal will not harm the Sundarbans, we cannot forget that similar coal-based projects are still illegal in India, which is why the project has been located in Bangladesh in the � rst place.

Banks need to be free of political pressures

There has to be a set policy on which loans can receive an interest exemption, and what the � nancial institu-tions do about the outstanding non-performing loans.

Wiping Tk6.8bn from the banks’ accounts receivables in the last 3 years, and not being able to recuperate Tk223bn in bad debt, cannot be a way forward for any emerging economy.

That the contribution of bad debt to our total loans taken out has risen 4 points, from 6% to 10%, makes the situation all the worse. It means that the sector has failed to put a leash on people misusing private savings at their whim, provided they have the correct in� uence.

We are all in for the growth of the business sector, and we would like to see businesses being al-lowed easy access to credit to facilitate expansion, pro-vided they use it properly. And interest exemptions due to legitimate causes are not a bad thing. However, the fact remains that it is the people’s money that the banks lend.

Default loans and exemptions mean that the sector’s e� -ciency and the people’s returns from capital decreases, and the banks become conservative in sanctioning more loans. Hence, business growth is hampered.

The downside to this trend is that the people defaulting loans or taking exemptions are politically connected and use the connections for leverage. So, the business sector has to bear the brunt of the misdeeds of a select few people, who in actuality are re-sanctioned loans due to their lobby anyway.

This malpractice cannot be sustained and banks need to be empowered so that they can eradicate this problem. A reasonable, updated policy has to be put in place; more importantly, it has to be implemented properly.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

Bangladesh-India relations under the microscope

October 2

Bangladesh needs to focus on economic growth – from there will arrive the seeds for future military growth.

Any planned military expansion will only be sustainable through stable economic growth. There needs to be diversi� cation amongst our economic sectors. We cannot just rely on garments and remittances. We will need to increase our economic complexity index. An interlocked web of economic sectors that support each other (eg steel/metals and electronics) so that they can help each other to grow and expand the overall economy. This economic complexity has proven to be the most e� ective indicator of economic growth, more so than even education and welfare.

Talking about being a strong military without strong future economic growth is futile and doomed to failure. Spending less on the military means that we have more money left over to spend on infrastructure and education – factors that almost guaran-tee future economic growth. We can a� ord to spend less on the military if we have one basic neighbour to take care of, (ie India) rather than have border issues with many (like India does – China, Pakistan, Bangla-desh, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma etc). You can talk about whether our money is spent ef-fectively; that is a better question to ask. For example, how much bang-for-our-bucks are

we getting from di� erent military contracts and equipment? Are they serviceable for our needs, maintenance costs etc?

To spend $5m on one particular item or another is a good question. For this, we need transparency. But simply asking for a large hike in spending is utterly silly. Remember that the military in-and-of-itself is not going to expand the future economy. Therefore we need a rough focus on industries that will.

Countries like India and Pakistan are spending billions on defence and related items. Given the state their respective populations are in, you have to ask how wise a decision it is (especially in the case of Pakistan). Bear in mind both these countries have resources well in excess of BD in absolute terms, and probably per capita too.

A reasoned discussion, not just jingoism, sir.You have to have realistic goals. We must

provide healthcare, infrastructure, trade op-portunities and education � rst. We de� nitely need a specialised military. But more in terms of skill than just out-of-control spend-ing. In other words, let’s be the best military per taka spent, rather than attempt to be a military juggernaut, in any real sense.

More emphasis on skill – less on spending more money. Especially since we are certain-ly not yet a developed nation.

BanglaAzif

Khandaker’s comment ‘absolute contempt of court’: QuamrulOctober 2

Very pathetic comment by a Home Minis-try o� cial! The cyber crime team should have launched into action as soon as the GD was lodged with the police.

Waliul Haque Khondker

Wiping Tk6.8bn from the banks’ accounts receivables in the last 3 years, and not being able to recuperate Tk223bn in bad debt, cannot be a way forward for any emerging economy

We cannot forget that similar coal-based projects are still illegal in India, which is why the project has been located in Bangladesh in the � rst place

This is how it isOctober 4

We cannot buy apples, grapes and all kinds of fruits due to formalin and some other chemicals. Can we buy fresh � sh? Obviously not. Because of high fees charged by specialist doctors, we cannot visit them for treatment.

Along with that, travel costs have increased signi� cantly; CNG and taxicabs have not been using the meter for a long time. Educational expenses are also high, as the students have to go to private tutors, coaching centres, and buy many guides to � nd creative ques-tions with answers. They have no time for play, or meeting relatives.

The Buriganga has become an industrial waste area; the Hazaribag leather factories worsen it. Nothing improves; rather it deteriorates day by day. House rents have spiked, as have living costs over the last few years. The law and order situation has been deteriorating for a long time. The Chhatra League student leaders are out of hand, and, in some areas, people live in great fear.

Yet, the incumbent government claims it has made signi� cant progress here, and will continue if they are voted back into power. Meanwhile, the people have proved, with their votes in � ve city corporation elections, that they are very unhappy with the incumbents.

Sheuly HaqueSirajgonj

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Sudoku

CROSSWORD CODE-CRACKER YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Needy (4)6 Floor covering (3)7 Silent (4)9 Spoken (4)10 Musical note (5)11 Singer (5)12 Self (3)14 Lukewarm (5)17 Birds (5)20 Fuss (3)21 Keen to do (5)23 Employed (5)25 Circle (4)26 Soon (4)27 Distress signal (3)28 Given shoes (4)

DOWN1 Drive forward (6)2 Public speaker (6)3 Govern (4)4 Mouse-coloured (3)5 Precious stone (3)7 Deep mud (4)8 Shy (5)10 Pithy saying (3)13 Street urchin (5)15 Church district (6)16 Obstinate (6)18 Sharp-edged (4)19 Unhappy (3)22 Love god (4)23 Poor actor (3)24 Fish eggs (3)

11Op-Ed Tuesday, October 8, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

R A M B L E O N

Qatar 2022 and labour rightsn Niaz Alam

We live in an age in which public relations professionals � ght a never ceasing battle to “spin” the 24 hour

news cycle in favour of their clients.Advertising agencies, (on whom

newspapers and, for that matter, free at point of use email and social media services largely depend) are the biggest practitioners, and politicians are the most notorious.

It was once said that academic poli-tics “is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low” and many now say this of conven-tional western politics as the war of ide-ologies has long since coalesced around a middle ground of � oating voters.

However, the stakes in the case of world sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup are any-thing but low. The lure of prestige, jobs and money is so large that governments will invest millions and commit to sign-ing draconian laws to protect the rights of the IOC and FIFA, just to secure the right to bid to host their events.

Nothing though could have quite prepared the Qatar 2022 World Cup committee for the furore that erupted among football fans following a British newspaper’s investigation into the desperately poor working conditions and slave-like service contracts en-dured by Nepali workers constructing foundations for the $45bn Lusail City development, a new city being built from scratch in the desert, which will include the 90,000-seater stadium that

will host the 2022 World Cup � nal.The conditions: death and inju-

ry from unsafe conditions, forced overtime, delayed pay, and a lack of recourse because employers hold pass-ports, plus the fact that workers have often borrowed thousands of dollars to travel there – will be familiar to a large number of Bangladeshi workers in the Middle East.

Although the � nding of poor condi-tions was predictable, the International Trade Union Confederation’s claim, that about 12 labourers will die each week between now and 2022 unless action is taken, came as a shock to Western football fans. Poor labour conditions and labour rights are (sadly but not surprisingly) often expected of poorer countries, but the Guardian’s report in September sparked mass outrage about the disconnect between the oil-state’s wealth and the conditions of workers.

Social media comments expressed an understandable distaste for a cash rich society promoting itself as a lux-ury business and travel destination for Westerners, whist building state of the art facilities on the backs of exploited Third World labourers.

Both FIFA and Qatar are taking this criticism seriously, and one can expect many discussions in the years ahead, not least because the 2022

event already faces huge hostility be-cause of the financial ramifications, should it force the most lucrative European football tournaments to truncate their seasons if, as is suggested, the world cup that year is moved to winter.

Of course FIFA, which has been lobbied by - and sometimes worked with - campaigns on working conditions in supply chains in relation to clothes, trainers and footballs since the early 1990s - had no excuse not to be able to anticipate exactly this type of criticism of abuse of workers. But then the BGMEA’s work with the ILO and UNICEF during the same period on child labour did not prevent the negligence and abuses that led to Rana plaza and Tazreen either. One must now expect FIFA to make much play of commitments to corporate responsibility in its discussions with the media and Qatari authorities.

Although like other international sport-ing bodies, it is plagued by allegations of poor governance and accountability and operates as a law unto itself, FIFA has unlike the IOC assiduously culti-vated support in developing countries, so European calls for a boycott of 2022 are likely to fall on deaf ears and be put down to the sour grapes of countries like England whose World cup bids failed.

The biggest winner in all this is Qatar itself, which, by becoming the � rst Muslim state to hold such a tourna-ment, stands to gain huge kudos.

The Qataris have been smart with some of their money. By investing in the news channel Aljazeera, and guaranteeing editorial freedom to the original sta� from the BBC who had tried and failed to set up an Arabic BBC station in 1990s Saudi Arabia, the tiny emirate gained far more “soft power” than any amount of political broking or prestigious western holdings would have bought.

This was further consolidated when, for a record breaking amount of money, the Qatar foundation purchased the right to display its logo alongside UNICEF on the shirts of Barcelona FC in 2010. For such a pro� table fan-owned club which had resisted commercial displays on its shirts for over 100 years, this was a sad indication of how money has come to dominate sport. Indeed, the worst has come to pass, as latterly, FCB shirts and branding have become indelibly linked with Qatar Airways.

I do not doubt that Qatar 2022 will skilfully make use of such associations to de� ect criticisms of their host status. But one can still hope that as a nation highly aware of its image, the glare of the global media spotlight will at least make this and other oil rich states sit up and take note of the urgent need to improve labour rights and working conditions in their midst. l

Niaz Alam has worked on ethical business issues since 1992 and is a former vice-chair of War on Want.

A martyr isn’t shaheed? Please.n Ekram Kabir

The gonosradho (mass respect) ceremony for the martyrs, who were Hindus, scheduled on

October 4 has been cancelled, seem-ingly, due the case � led against it by Awami Ulemma League chief Mujibur Rahman Chishti. Shahbagh police station o� cials have verbally asked the organisers to back away from it.

According to Chishti, “no Hindu can be called a ‘shaheed’” and per-haps that’s why the government had to stop the organisers to stage such a prayer ceremony.

We have no language to condemn such an explanation for the word “shaheed” and the mentality of a certain section towards our mar-tyrs. A question could also be raised as to why the government had to bow down to that section who has seemingly no respect to our valiant freedom fighters belonging to Hindu community. If the government truly had been scared away by AL’s ulem-ma chief, it, perhaps, should have asked the Islamic Foundation for the interpretation of the word.

To our minds, anyone who has sacrificed his/her life for our freedom is shaheed, no matter which religion they might have belonged to. The Oxford Dictionary says: shaheed is a noun meaning “a Muslim martyr.” And I quote from Wikiepedia: “The word ‘shaheed’ originates from the Qur’anic Arabic word meaning ‘wit-ness,’ which is used in the context of ‘those who bear witness.’ Its appli-cation to Muslim martyrs originates from the context of the martyr having died in the way of Islam and, therefore, having become a ‘witness’ to the ‘shahada,’ ie, ‘I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammod is the Messenger of Allah’.”

The Wiki further adds that the word “shaheed” in Qur’an is used to denote “witness,” not martyr. An example is verse 16:89 of the Qur’an: “And on the day when We will raise up in every nation a witness against them from among themselves, and We will bring you (Muhammad) as a witness against these (your people or the oth-er witnesses); for We have revealed (sent down) to you a Book (Scripture) expounding all things clearly, and a guidance, and a mercy, and glad tid-ings for those who have Surrendered unto Allah (Muslims).”

Then again, in verse 3:98, Allah

calls Himself a ‘shaheed:’ “Say, ‘O People of the Book, why do you reject the word of Allah when Allah is a witness to all that you do?”

So, we see that the etymology of the word “shaheed” suggests that it primarily means “witness” and the same word began to be used by Mus-lims as an respectable title for Muslim martyrs who died � ghting for Islam. As a result, and over time, the same word was adopted by non-Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia such as Arab Christians, South Asian Hin-dus and Sikhs to denote their martyrs.

Interestingly, according to the Wikie-pedia, the English word “martyr” orig-inates from the Greek word “martur,” which also means “witness” in Greek. So, in both Arabic and Greek languag-es, the origin for the word “martyr” is “witness.”

Now, if we, in several countries across the world, have adopted the word to honour the humans who died for a great cause, such as a liberation war, we shouldn’t apply the word only for the Muslims. Limiting the word’s meaning only to Muslims would, to our minds, reveal ourselves as reli-gious bigots.

This could also mean a murky attempt politicise our society on the basis of religion, which we whole heartedly don’t want. Chishti’s act and interpretation are clear evidence of that attempt.

As a secular political party that had led the nation during the war of independence - we believe - needs to rethink whether it should nurture think-tanks such as Mujibur Rahman Chishti, who would be doing more harm than good to the party itself.

People like him want to create a divide through religious hypes and give the country a bad name. They would always want to hide the true spirit of religion. They would only try to exploit religion as a political tool for their own earthly gains.

As the party that has miles to go for this country needs to be careful about these elements; it needs to be courageous enough to weed out the characters who might misguide it and the people on religious issues. At the same time, we also urge the govern-ment to reorganise the gonosradho programme and pay respect to our Hundu martyrs. l

Ekram Kabir is the executive editor of Natunbarta.com.

n Mohammad Ali Sattar

Once again, in less than ten years, America � nds herself in severe economic crunch. The

most powerful and the richest country of the world, America slipped into � nancial crisis just before the start of its � scal year in October. Suddenly things went wrong and many areas of the government were shut down.

What triggered the crisis? The legis-lature failed to provide funds for the federal government. Therefore (may be for the � rst time in � scal history of US) the government has no budget and the president is in a hopeless situation. The legislature has, in a way, made the president hostage and stalled the wheels of the government.

Think now. The state and govern-ment machinery coming to a grind-ing halt! But the primary task of the

legislature was to ensure the necessary fund to keep the country running.

Popularly elected for the second term and now enjoying a majority in the Senate the president and the Dem-ocrats are caught in the wrong foot. The deadlock over critical legislation was not unexpected though. Analysts believe that this short-lived crisis will be over sooner than later. Because they know that the US presidents and their colleagues in the government and the opposition all are strong proponents of democracy and has the intense urge to keep the US power and position atop all. They will not allow the inner squabble to smear the US image in the outside world. Moreover, a strong economy is the keyword for any US administration.

If we take a closer look at the American spending habit, we � nd that not only the American people are addicted in “over-spending;” it is also the successive governments that spend in non-productive sectors (arms race and engaging in wars). The amount the governments squander for arms and weapon building - can easily be diverted to socio-economic development causes. That could help the economy grow stronger. But that’s not happening.

Last time during 2008, President Obama and the Americans were caught in “titanic” economic depres-sion. The government had to pump

in billions of dollars to salvage the drowning economy.

The crisis was somehow averted. Again by the time the nation recovered from the initial shock, the US press started screaming that America would soon be a spending nation again. Are the average Americans (or just a few) happy to be spending (not saving) citizens? The fact is, there is no serious attempt or parleys to bring about change in the � scal and economic policies (specially spending) to make it more realistic.

However short term may be the crisis, the impact could be crushing. If the crisis persists for couple of weeks it will be dangerous. According to an es-timate, 800,000 government sta� s are already out of work. Only a few weeks hold could take the amount of unpaid wages to more than 300m dollar mark. The impact will be multiple.

The Republicans, who enjoy a majority in the House of Representa-tives, has for now, blocked the passage of the budget on the plea that it has to undergo some amendments. It could be, mainly to give Obama, a hard time. Obama’s new image, just when he embarked as presidential prospect in 2006, took his oppositions by surprise.

Not only were those, his party members were also skeptical about his coming to limelight. They were envi-ous with the glare of publicity. Prom-ising change, Barack Obama swept all

the critics aside. Even his own Hillary Clinton was elbowed out.

However, it was great to watch Hillary working under the president as the secretary of state. Not only the Americans created history by electing the � rst colored president, the world looked on him as a possible friend of those who were thus far ignored by the previous presidents. The Islamic states and Muslim population were expect-ing a big turnaround in the US foreign and other global policies. But that did not happen!

Ever since his entering the White House, he has come up with number of social development proposals for, what he said, greater bene� t of the people. He had to work hard to get them accepted.

Obama’s initiatives were mostly his personal, and he rode on his personal achievements to win the second term. Obama desperately tried to make the Senate and others realise that there was urgent need to reform the US health care system. After all, there are millions of Americans who simply do not fall within the bracket of rich. They are unusually unemployed, un-der paid, many without jobs, sick and can’t a� ord medical attention. Life has become tougher over the days.

By creating obstacle or standing on the way cannot help anybody. The people will be left to su� er more and the country is expected to plunge into

another crisis. This political move might have “serious” socio economic impact. This the Republican should understand.

Apart from this, there are other issues, which need serious attention. To avoid a wider and serious impact resulting due to the current shutdown, Congress ought to agree to raise the ceiling on government borrowing once again. If not done the whole country might witness more locks hanging and rise of unpaid government sta� . The global � nance will rock along with US. This will not bode well for the people living in distant shores.

The US economy has been in the shadows of crisis that will take a long time to end. Or might not see any end. May be from now on, it will be for the leaders and � nance managers of the country to make piecemeal arrange-ments just to make things move ahead. They will need to evolve new theories of “cutting expenses” and “spending on priority areas” in other words. They will have to come up with pragmatic � nance plans, for the world will never be the same again.

Americans should know that the earn-ing and spending ways and means have been undergoing massive transformation. The world won’t be easy to handle. l

MA Sattar is a journalist, columnist and peace activist. He can be reached at: malisattar@hotmail.com

Here we go again

The deadlock over critical legislation was not unexpected though. Analysts believe that this short-lived crisis will be over sooner than later

FIFA had no excuse not to be able to anticipate exactly this type of criticism of abuse of workers

As a secular political party that had led the nation during the war of independence - we believe - needs to rethink whether it should nurture think-tanks such as Mujibur Rahman Chishti

According to Chishti, “no Hindu can be called a ‘shahid’” and perhaps that’s why the government had to stop the organisers to stage such a prayer ceremony

Protesters demonstrate against the perceived exploitation of workers in Qatar, the location of the 2022 World Cup, before a UEFA Congress in central London on May 24 AFP

Tow� qur Rahman connects art and lifen Shadma Malik

Tow� qur Rahman’s fourth solo exhibition, in his “concept of life” series, is going on at Gallery Shilpangan till October 12. His current exhibition is titled “Connecting Art, Life and Living,” and is an attractive display for art lovers to speculate on, as it is a conceptual exhibit that explores the connection between art and life.

Tow� q has been working in this series for quite some time now and the theme of the exhibition encircles on the philosophy that, art is not con� ned within the walls of a gallery, but can be discovered as we go through the process of living in everyday life.

“Artworks can be displayed anywhere and everywhere, it is best displayed in places where people can open up their mind and relate to the art,” says Tow� qur Rahman.

The artist has combined drawing, along with  the twenty sculptures in one platform in his ongoing exhibition. According to the artist, the purpose of displaying mixed medium of art in one platform is to give the display an essence of being inside an artist’s studio and feel the way an artist feels in his own world.

All his drawings are done with a pen, when asked about it, Tow� q shares: “I do not go for formal materials. Pen is an object we use in our everyday life, therefore, when I use it to create art, I can use it as a connecting medium of art and life.

Also, it enhances my imagination and the creative process.”

Tow� q further states: “Drawing is the foundation of all medium of art, an artist initially draws on paper or in his mind. It is an important skill, it enables an artist to delve into the depthsof an artwork. Drawing is also the

primary stage of creating a sculpture.”“The sculptures in my recent display

are all works of welded iron and are of faces with di� erent expressions.” He also adds: “Every individual has two faces, the outer face is a mask with which we deal the aspects of our everyday life.”

The artist is inspired by the philosophy of Buddhism, his sculpture “Seated Buddha” is about peace and the values and teachings of Buddha. Also, he is in� uenced by the dynamism of soldiers on horseback that is consistent in his artworks. l

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 201312

ExhibitionDhamrai Metal CraftBrass and bronze sculptureexhibitionEMK Centre, Dhanmondi 27

I amGautam ChakrabortyTime: 1:00am – 7:30pmGalleri Kaya, Sector 04, Uttara

Invitation to the DanceCarel RichterTime: 12 - 8pmBengal Art Lounge, Gulshan

TUMI (YOU)Mostofa Jamil Akbar Shamim Time: 6:30 pmInstitute of Asian Creatives Road 36, House 9, Gulshan 2

Group Photography ExhibitionPOV_Prime 50’s: Season 1Time: 3pm – 8pmDhaka Art Center (DAC) House-60, Road-7A Dhanmondi R/A

FilmNari Cholochchitra Nirmatader Cho-lochitra Utsab 2013Time: 3pm – 9pmNational Art Plaza Auditorium, BSA

TODAY IN DHAKA

ONTV

MOVIE7:00pm Star MoviesGoal!10:20pm Fox Movies PremiumSafe

DRAMA11:00pm Star PlusVeera11:30pm ColorsBalika Vadhu

COMEDY2:30pm Comedy CentralAnger Management11:00pm Star World2 Broke Girls

MISC2:30pm FTVPhotographers9:30pm National GeographicChef On The Road

President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Md Abdul Hamid (fourth from right), and distinguished persons unveil the cover of the book ‘Great Masters of Bangladesh: Zainul Abedin’ on October 6 at a programme at Radisson Hotel. The book, jointly published by Bengal Foundation and Italian publisher Skira, consists of biography and works of the master painter Zainul Abedin. The programme also o� cially opened Bengal Foundation’s year-long programme celebrating the internationally acclaimed artist’s 100th birth anniversary

Wahid’s new album coming out on Eidn Entertainment Desk

After seven years of hiatus, popular Bangladeshi pop singer Ferdous Wahid is bringing out his solo album “Madhu-ri” this Eid.

About the much awaited album, Wahid states: “In this album, I did a cover song of the famous singer Abbas Uddin’s ‘Amay Bhashaili Re Dubaili Re.’ great emphasis is also put on the folk pieces. I really hope that this album and its melodious songs will leave its mark on the audience.”

The album consists of four songs, “Ahare Khoddar Banda,” “Nil Duiti Chokh,” “Bone Bone Horinie,” and “Ek Chhilo Tona,” composed by the popular musician himself and written by Mo-zammel Haq, Rakib, and veteran singer Robi. The music has been arranged by To� Reinar.

Popular folk tracks “Chabi Maira”

and “Sadher Lau” are also featured in the album.

The music video shoot of “Madhuri” will be starting from next week and is directed by Bappi and Polash. It will air on di� erent channels before Eid. l

Omar Sunny and Moushumi pair upfor Eid-ul-Azhan Entertainment Desk

One of the popular silver screen cou-ples of Bangladesh, Omar Sunny and Moushumi is paired up together this Eid. Their chemistry is much appre-ciated by the audience of the country and both of them are talented in their own niche.

Tele-� lm “Ami Nayoker Bondhu,” is directed and written by Ashutosh Sujon and features, Moushumi-Omar Sunny, Miju Ahmed, Swapan, Tareq and many more. It will air on Maasran-ga Television on the seventh day of Eid.

The story opens with a � lm crew

shooting their current project in a cor-porate o� ce as required by their script. The director of the team gets to talking with the head of that o� ce. They start to get acquainted, and after a while, the boss (head) tells him about his own ex-perience of acting in a movie.

A while ago, he got the chance to work in a � lm and reaches for early to look impressive. But, the assistant di-rector, he shares, shouted at him and he forgets dialogues and other issues of acting when he was in presence of superstars. The story of the tele-� lm moves forward with the boss’s tale of acting as the hero’s friend in a � lm. l

Popular silver-screen couple Moushumi and Omar Sunny

Seated Buddha (Welded Iron) 2010 Past (Pen Drawing) 2011

TV play Facebookairs tonightn Entertainment Desk

Single-episode play “Facebook,” the � rst episode of “Blu� master” series, in which each installment tells a new story, will be aired tonight at 8:25pm on Channel 9. The play represents how Facebook can be a platform to cheat in-nocent people.

The story is about a young girl Rimi who is a university student and belongs to a respected family. She meets Abir through Facebook and he impresses her by presenting himself as an estab-lished businessman and a respectable member of the society.

He also says that his family mem-bers stay in America, which is an at-tractive aspect to people in our society.

Soon Rimi falls for the man and they

develop a romantic relationship.Gradually, the couple prepares for

getting married. Rimi informs her fam-ily and friends about Abir and he en-sures her about his family’s consent.

One day Abir calls Rimi to meet him at a shopping mall. They buy a lot of things in the mall and before they came close to the payment counter, Abir asks for Rimi’s mobile phone for a while and slowly leaves the mall while Rimi was busy otherwise.

The innocent girl � nally under-stands that she was a victim of fabrica-tion. The drama highlights the new kind of frauds that is integrated in our society due to the proliferation of the social media, that is a dominant part of the mass media now a days. l

A scene from single episode play FacebookAamir Khan decides to unwindn Entertainment Desk

The perfectionist that he is, Aamir Khan who will be soon seen in Yash Raj Film’s “Dhoom: 3,” seems to have worked beyond his limits to get the right look for his character.

A source close to the actor reveals that along with strenuous exercise, he had to ensure that his body was � exible and that the training for this role has been very di� erent from the others. “In fact, Aamir had to go for regular foot massage sessions to � ex his mus-cles. He visited the spa regularly,” says the source.

Aamir would end up spending about 45 minutes in the spa, because he didn’t want to su� er any side ef-fects due to the demanding work outs. Aamir’s spokesperson con� rms the news and says, “Aamir has been on a vigorous workout regimen for ‘Dhoom: 3’ so he was recommended massages to relax his muscles.” l

Artworks can be displayed anywhere and everywhere, it is best displayed in places where people can open up their mind and relate to the art

Gravity tops US and Canadian box o� cen Entertainment Desk

“Gravity,” a new 3D thriller about two stranded astronauts � oating through space, soared to the top of weekend movie charts, setting a box o� ce record for the month of October by pulling in $55.6m at US and Canadian theaters.

The � lm, which stars Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney and wowed critics with its special ef-fects, added $27.4m from sales in inter-national markets, for a combined debut of $83m, distributor Warner Bros said on Sunday.

Last week’s box o� ce winner, ani-mated “Cloudy with a Chance of Meat-balls 2,” dropped to second place with $21.5m from Friday through Sunday. “Runner Runner,” a new drama about the dark and murky world of online gambling, � nished third after earning $7.6m.

In “Gravity,” Bullock plays a novice astronaut and engineer alongside Cloo-ney as a mission commander. After an accident caused by � ying debris, the pair are sent hurtling into space with depleting oxygen and remote chances of returning to Earth.

“It’s great because it’s a � lm that’s played well with the press and also equally well with the public,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. president of do-mestic distribution.

Critics raved about the visual e� ects in the � lm, which cost close to $100m to make and reproduced space and zero gravity in ways never seen on screen. Eighty percent of “Gravity” � lmgoers purchased the higher-priced 3D tickets, Warner Bros said.

Overall, 98% of critics recommend-ed “Gravity” in reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website, with many suggesting Bullock will be a con-tender for another best actress Oscar.

The week’s other top � lms included “Prisoners,” a drama starring Hugh Jackman as a father searchingfor his missing daughter, which took in $5.7m. Car racing drama “Rush” took the number 5 slot with $4.4m.

Also this weekend, Sony released “Captain Phillips” in 800 theaters on Saturday to build advance buzz ahead of its wide release next Friday.

The � lm stars Tom Hanks as the leader of a ship hijacked by Somali pi-rates. A Sony spokesman said he did not have a dollar estimate for Satur-day’s showing but said theaters were 75% full. l

NEWS4:00pm Desh TvShongbad Shomoi7:00pm Channel iShondhar Shongbad

14

13DHAKA TRIBUNETuesday, October 8, 2013

SportDid you know?

14 15 Taylor wary of Bangladesh

Manchester United have picked up

more yellow cards (17) than any

other team in the English Premier

League this season

PSG battle back to down Marseille

Juve defeat depleted Milan

BCB ELECTIONDirectors from category-2 set to be elected unopposed n Raihan Mahmood

All the 12 directors of the category-2 of the Bangladesh Cricket Board elections are set to be declared winners unop-posed as nine candidates among the 21 nomination paper submitters withdrew their names yesterday.

Nazmul Hasan, the councilor of Aba-hani Ltd, Ahmed Sajjadul Alam Bobby, the councilor of Sheikh Russell, Ismail Haider Mallik, the councilor of Broth-ers Union, Salahuddin Chowdhury of Kathalabagan Green Crescent Cricket Club, Rakib Haider of Prantik KC, Zik-rul Huq Akash of Sheikh Jamal Cricket-ers, Zahir Ahmed and Azizur Rahman of Victoria Club and Lutfor Rahman Badal of Gazi Tank Cricketers withdrew their names from the category-2 to pave the way for the other 12 candidates.

Thus leaving the other 12 candi-dates - Gazi Golam Mortuza (Gazi Tank Cricketers),Tanzil Chowdhury (Prime Bank CC), Shawkat Aziz Russell (Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi), Najib Ahmed (Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi), Lokman Hossian Bhuiyan (Dhaka Mohammed-an), Mahbubul Anam (Dhaka Moham-medan), Najmul Karim Tinku (Kala-bagan KC), Enayet Hossain Siraj (Azad Sporting), Ahmed Iqbal Hasan (Young Pegasus), Afzalur Rahman Sinha (Surjo-

Torun), Hanif Bhuiyan (Rapid Founda-tion), Jalal Yunus (Rayer Bazar Athletic Club) to be elected unopposed.

However, there will be elections in category-1 and category-3 as the number of the candidates remained more than the available slots.

Category-1 that comprises the district and divisional cricket organisers was thrown to the election process as Mirza Zillur Rahman of Jamalpur DSA kept his nominations alive while Saniat Khan Bappa of Tangail withdrew. There are two director posts for the Dhaka division and former cricket skipper Naimur Rah-man Durjoy, the councilor of Manikganj, Monjur Kader, the councilor of Mun-shiganj and Mirza Zillur Rahman will be � ghting for the two slots. The number of voters of Dhaka is 18.

Rajshahi division will also see the election process as Ra� us Shams Paddy of Rajshahi district and Saiful Alam Swa-pan of Pabna will also be appearing in the election for the one director slot.

However, the most competitive at-mosphere will prevail in the category-3 where two former national captains Gazi Ashraf Hossain and Khaled Mahmud will be vying for the lone slot. Debabrata Paul, the councilor of Jahangirnagar Uni-versity, withdrew his name to throw the former captains in the path of elections. l

Tamim hopeful in own backyard n Minhaz Uddin Khan

from Chittagong

Opening batsman Tamim Iqbal is look-ing forward to play at his home ground and believes they have a good chance of getting positive results in the � rst of the two-match Test series against New Zealand starting from October 9 at Chit-tagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Sta-dium (ZACS). With a new out� eld and spin friendly wicket at ZACS, the local boy expects a competitive game.

“I am more hopeful about this Test series than the last ten Tests. It is our home ground, where we have started to push teams. Results recently have been very close. We hope to turn those results towards us. We know their weaknesses, so we will have to take ad-vantage of it,” said Tamim to the media at ZACS yesterday.

“My feelings are the same as every-one else when playing at a new venue, but it is my home venue where I will play in front of family and friends. Ban-gladesh’s history at this ground is very good. We want to make a good start on the � rst day, which will set the tone for the rest of the game,” he informed.

Last time around it was the Tiger’s spin attack that had put the Kiwis into trouble and this time things are no dif-ferent. Tamim informed that his team is working of the weaknesses of the New

Zealand batsmen against the spin attack.“We are thinking positively, but this

is a di� erent ball game. We have a lot to improve on. We know what their weak-nesses are. At most times we haven’t taken advantage of the opposition’s weakness, but here we are working on their weakness. We hope it will be a spinning wicket in which we can sti� e them, like we did the last time,” said the hard-hitting batsman.

Tamim was benched due to injury in the ODI series against the same op-ponents in 2010 where the Tigers went on to write history by winning the se-ries 4-0. He was a mere spectator at the dressing room when the glory was achieved and the 24-year-old believes those winning memories will keep his team on front foot and work as a con� -dence booster. 

“I was in the dressing room. I want to be a part of the happiness like 2010. But for that, we need to work very hard. I think we have better chances if we do our job properly. 

“We are thinking positive because of the results of the previous series, but then again we also need to think that it was ODI matches and what we have ahead is two Test matches. We know that we still have room to im-prove in the longer version, but still we are hoping for some good cricket ahead,” said Tamim. l

Bangladesh’s captain Mush� qur Rahim, fourth right, and teammates warm up during a practice session ahead of the � rst Test match against New Zealand at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday. The � rst Test starts on Wednesday. AP

Abahani continue in reverseSheikh Jamal move to top of tablen Mazhar Uddin

Traditional giants Abahani extended their losing streak at the Walton Dhaka Premier League (DPL) to six matches as Gazi Tank rode on New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram’s three wicket haul to snatch a 13 run victory at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium yesterday.

In other seventh round action, Af-ghan Ghulam Naib’s four wickets and Sri Lankan Dilshan Munaweera’s blis-tering 95 were the highlights in Sheikh Jamal’s eight wicket win over Prime Bank CC. Upul Tharanga’s 73 guided Mohammedan to a 42 run win against Victoria Sporting Club.

Abahani v Gazi TankAbahani skipper Shahriar Nafees’ deci-sion to bowl � rst looked to be a good one after the Abahani bowlers put in a disciplined performance to bowl Gazi out for 189. Rakibul Hasan top scored with 42, while Imrul Kayes weighed in with 39.

For Abahnai, Al-Amin took three wickets while Zander De Bruyn, Nabil Samad and Alauddin Babu picked up two each.

Abahani struggled in reply and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Sri Lankan Talina Kandambi top scored with 44 and towards the end, young

Al-Amin made 37. With his dismissal, Abahani were unable to handle the pressure and � nished with 176/8 to lose their sixth straight match.

Sheikh Jamal v Prime Bank Sheikh Jamal’s Tushar Imran won the toss and asked Prime Bank to bat. Af-ghani Gulbadin Naib bagged the � rst four wickets to leave Prime Bank tot-tering at 48/4.

English player Ravi Bopara helped his side recover with a 78-ball 74 and Taibur Parvez’s unbeaten 48 took Gazi to 200 all out from 46.4 overs.

In reply, Dilshan Munaweera and national discard Junaid Siddique put on 130 for the � rst wicket to put Jamal � rmly in command and they eventually reached the target comfortably for the loss of two wickets. Man-of-the-match Dilshan Munaweera made 95 runs from 57 balls (� fteen fours, three sixes) and Junaid Siddique scored 74 o� 79 balls in the victory that put Sheikh Jamal on the top of the league table.

Mohammedan v VictoriaMohammedan captain Mashrafe Mor-taza chose to bat � rst after winning the toss. Mohammedan batted well to make 240 all out in 50 overs with Sri Lankan Upul Tharanga making 73. Left arm spinner Monir Hossain claimed

four wickets for Victoria.After a bad start, Victoria’s middle

order put up a � ght with Soumya Sarkar making 57, Sri Lankan Milinda Siri-wardana 43 and Rasel Al Mamun 32 but it proved to be in vain as the team were dismissed for 198 in 45.1 overs. Left arm spinner Murad Khan bagged three wickets as Mohammedan claimed their fourth win in the league. l

Brief ScoresAbahani v Gazi TankGazi Tank 189/10 in 49 overRakibul 42, Imrul 39, Styris 30Al-Amin-2 27/3, Nabil Samad 28/2Abahani 176/8 in 49 overKandambi 44, Al-Amin-2 37, Oram 39/3Gazi Tank won by 13 runs

Sheikh Jamal v prime Bank Prime Bank 200/10 in 46.4 overRavi Bopara 74, Taibur parvez 48Gulbadin Naib 31/4, Nahidul Islam 23/2Sheikh Jamal 203/2 in 29.5 overDilshan Munaweera 95, Junaid Siddique 74Sheikh Jamal won by eight wickets

Mohammedan v VictoriaMohammedan 240/10 in 50 overTharanga 73, Shamsur 44, Monir 50/4Victoria 198/10 in 45.1 overSoumya 57, Siriwardana 43, Murad 26/3Mohammedan won by 42 runs

World Cup coming to Bangladeshn Shishir Hoque

The football Word Cup is coming to Ban-gladesh. While hosting the tournament remains a distant dream, the actual tro-phy will be in Dhaka on December 17 and Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin believes the event will give Bangladesh football in-spiration as they plan for 2022.

This year the original World Cup trophy will be touring the country, con-� rmed both the Fifa website and the BFF president yesterday. The trophy will be in Dhaka from December 17 to 19.

The tour schedule of the 36.5 cen-timeter trophy in Bangladesh was of-� cially revealed at a press conference at the capital yesterday. BFF chief Kazi Salahudin expressed his excitement at the development. “It will be a histori-cal moment to view the ultimate award of the sports world in Bangladesh and give a golden opportunity to the football fans of the country. I hope it will add ac-

celerate the development of the game in the country and encourage people to become involved with the game,” said the BFF boss. “We will start fresh from December 17. I’m still upset about the Sa� debacle like everyone. We will double, treble our e� orts in the future,” he added. Debashish Dev, the country manager of Coca Cola, had similar feel-ings. “We are proud to sponsor the Fifa World Cup trophy tour of Bangladesh. It will be staying in the country for three days and football lovers will relish the extraordinary moments,” he said.

Fans will get the chance to view the most recognized trophy in the world close-up when it is showcased at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. They will have the opportunity to have a sou-venir photo taken of them with the tro-phy, view a special hologram animation showcasing memorable moments in World Cup history, participate in inter-active displays and enjoy other forms of entertainment. l

Bti International GolfJamal, Saiyum share leadn Raihan Mahmood

Jamal Hossain Mollah and Md. Saiyum of Bangladesh clubbed � ve-under-par scores top the standings at the end of the � rst day of the bti International Golf Championship at the Kurmitola Golf Club yesterday. Jamal Hossain Molla struck eight birdies, out of which � ve were in the back nine in a row.

Indian golfer Ranjit Singh is closely following them with a score of four-under-par. Besides, Shiva Ram Shries-tha and Raju Ali Mollah posted three-under-par.

Shamim Khan, another Indian golf-er, shot a two-under-par. Bangladeshi golfer Shahid and Sohel played one-under-par. Meanwhile, Indian rising golfer Harendar Gupta clubbed four birdies against three bogies to � nally end the day with one-under-par.

A total of 70 professional golfers from the SAARC countries are partici-pating in the four-day event. l

Koster wants best from bootersn Shishir Hoque

Bangladesh U-19 football team head coach Rene Koster wants his team to be at its best when they take on hosts Iraq in the inaugural match of the AFC U-19 Quali� ers at the Francouse Al-Hareeri Stadium in the Erbil City, Iraq today.

The squad had their � rst practice ses-sion at the Ankawa Sports Centre after ar-riving safely in Iraq yesterday. Bangladesh – who are in Group C - will face Kuwait on October 10 and Pakistan on October 12.

Ahead of facing the toughest oppo-nents in the group, who also happen to be former U-19 Asian champions, Koster said he was more concerned about the devel-opment rather than the result.

“We have tough opponents in this group. Our team had two months camp and we played some local practice match-es. We saw the match videos of Iraq, Kuwait and Pakistan and they are pretty good. So we want to play our best against them. And of course in the age level tour-nament, you should be more concerned about the development not result,” said the Dutchman. Iraq were keen to keep up their winnings ways. “We have some good teams in this group but we will try to continue our winning run in this com-petition, as we were the champions in the last edition. So tomorrow’s match is very important for us and we want to start the tournament securing full point,” said the Iraqi coach. l

BFF president Kazi Salahuddin speaks at the presser of the FIFA World Cup arrival at Dhaka at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel yesterday MUMIT M

PSG battle back to down Marseillen AFP, Paris

Paris Saint-Germain hit back from a goal down and being reduced to 10 men to beat bitter rivals Marseille 2-1 Sunday and move onto the shoulders of Ligue 1 leaders Monaco.

The defending champions trailed to a � rst-half penalty scored by Ghana’s Andre Ayew.

They also had Thiago Motta red-carded for a foul which led to the spot-kick.

But Maxwell levelled on the stroke of half-time before skipper Zlatan Ibra-himovic slotted home a second-half penalty to silence the Stade Velodrome crowd and preserve PSG’s unbeaten start to the season.

PSG have 21 points but trail Monaco on goal di� erence while Marseille drop to fourth behind Lille on goal di� er-ence, four points o� the lead.

Just after the hour, Dmitri Payet un-leashed a powerful, swerving drive that Sirigu � apped away as Marseille looked to make their one-man advan-tage count.

But it was PSG who were celebrat-ing in the 66th minute when they were awarded a penalty for Andre Ayew’s needless challenge on Marquinhos who was heading away from the danger zone.

Up stepped Ibrahimovic to calmly steer home the penalty for his third goal of the Ligue 1 campaign.

Sunday’s win also extended PSG’s overall unbeaten record to 20 games in Ligue 1, a run stretching back to a 1-0 loss at Reims on March 2.

Beleaguered Lyon’s desperate form continued as the former Ligue 1 giants fell 5-1 at Montpellier.

Montpellier could largely thank the double act of strikers Victor Hugo Mon-tano and Remy Cabella for their suc-cess.

Colombian striker Montano scored his third goal of the season after16 minutes and just before the break Anthony Mounier added a second with a header.

Monaco had gone three points clear at the top on Saturday after a late Lucas Ocampos winner gave them a 2-1 vic-tory over Saint-Etienne. l

Juve defeat depleted Milan to close gap on Roman AFP, Milan

Champions Juventus overcame con-ceding a � rst-minute goal at home to AC Milan to stun bitter rivals 3-2 and move to within two points of Serie A leaders Roma on Sunday.

Title contenders Napoli had heaped the pressure on Juventus after a 4-0 rout of Livorno which moved Rafael Benitez’s men up to second place in the table.

But after being stunned by Sulley Muntari’s � rst-minute opener in Turin, Antonio Conte’s men were soon level thanks to Andrea Pirlo’s sublime free kick.

In a pulsating encounter played in torrential rain, Juve upped the pace af-

ter the interval when Sebastian Giovin-co gave the hosts a 2-1 lead and Giorgio Chiellini added a third following the expulsion of Milan defender Phillip Mexes.

The shine was taken o� a convincing win, however, when Muntari struck his second of the match and Juve escaped dropping two precious points when Cristian Zapata saw a bullet header go just over at the death.

Roma host Napoli in two weeks’ time following a break for World Cup quali� ers, and Benitez was clearly buoyant with his side’s performance following a 2-0 Champions League de-feat to Arsenal last week.

“It was important to get back to win-ning ways,” said the Spaniard.

“Roma have won seven out of seven but we’ve won six and drawn one, so we’re on a level playing � eld.”

Inter, stunned 3-0 at home by Roma on Saturday, are seven points o� the lead, � ve shy of Napoli and Juventus and only one ahead of Verona, who won 4-1 win away to struggling Bolo-gna.

Francesco Totti scored a double in Roma’s rout, and while he was careful not to make mention of the word scu-detto, he admitted: “This squad can go far and although the season is long and we will come up against teams that are stronger than us we have to � ght for a Champions League place.

“That is our objective.”Mazzarri, meanwhile, was philo-

sophical after a defeat which he put down to Inter’s failure to take their chances.

“Sometimes things don’t your way.” l

ResultsMontpellier 5-1 Lyon Montano 16, 68, Lacazette 47Mounier 45,Cabella 59-pen, 66

Bordeaux 4-1 Sochaux (Saivet 21-pen, Jussie 38, Diabaté 70, 89) (Con-tout 17)

Marseille 1-2 Paris SG A. Ayew 34-pen Maxwell 45, Ibrahimovic 66-pen

ResultsNuremberg 0-5 Hamburg (Van der Vaart 17, Lasogga 60, 63, 67, Arslan 74

Freiburg 1-1 Eintracht Frankfurt Hoe� er 85 Guenter 64-og

ResultsParma 3-1 Sassuolo Palladino 32, Rosi 70, Berardi 45+6-penCassano 76

Bologna 1-4 Verona Diamanti 52-pen Cacciatore 22, Iturbe 29, Toni 56, Jorginho 93

Catania 1-1 Genoa Barrientos 59 Legrottaglie-og

Napoli 4-0 LivornoPandev 3, Inler 26,Callejon 54, Hamsik 83

Sampdoria 2-2 Torino Sansone 41, Immobile 66,Eder 90+3-pen Cerci 76-pen

Udinese 2-0 CagliariDanilo 33, Di Natale 53

Juventus 3-2 Milan Pirlo 16, Giovinco 69, Muntari 1, 90Chiellini 75

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 201314

Tottenham fan arrested over alleged ‘Yid’ chantn AFP, London

A Tottenham fan was arrested after al-legedly chanting the word “Yid” during his team’s 3-0 defeat against West Ham at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Yid is a term for Jew which is often considered derogatory, but fans of the north London club chant the word as an act of de� ance against those who taunt them because of their links with the Jewish community.

Metropolitan Police had issued a pre-match warning to supporters of both teams that they could be arrested if they used the in� ammatory word during the London derby.

Despite the police warning, large sections of the Tottenham crowd sang “Yid Army” and “we’ll sing what we want” before kick-o� and the chants did not cease throughout the match. l

Verona arrive late, fans ignore minute’s silencen Reuters

Hellas Verona arrived late for their match at Bologna on Sunday after trouble out-side the ground and their supporters then sang through a minute’s silence for victims of the Lampedusa migrant boat disaster.

The kicko� of the Serie A match was delayed by 20 minutes which Italian me-dia said followed � ghting between fans outside the ground which left three in-jured. Verona’s team bus was caught in the tra� c and arrived late.

Like the weekend’s other Serie A matches, the game was preceded by a minute’s silence for the victims of Thursday’s disaster when a boat carrying around 500 migrants sank o� the island of Lampedusa. The Italian authorities say 181 bodies have been recovered and more than a hundred are still missing.

Television sound and pictures showed Verona fans chanting through-out the minute’s silence. l

Wenger hails Wilshere strength of charactern AFP

Arsene Wenger hailed Jack Wilshere’s character as the mid� elder put a test-ing week behind him by scoring the goal which sent Arsenal back to the top of the table.

England international Wilshere was reprimanded by his manager after pic-tures emerged last week of him with a cigarette outside a London nightclub.

Yet he responded by scoring his � rst league goal in over three years to earn a 1-1 draw at West Brom on Sunday as the Gunners climbed above Liverpool by virtue of having scored more goals. “He is an honest guy and when he is wrong he knows it,” Wenger said. “He learns very quickly. What is more interesting for England and Arsenal is that he shows the right approach on the pitch. l

Juventus' Andrea Pirlo scores a free kick against AC Milan during their Italian Serie A match at the Juventus stadium in Turin on Sunday REUTERS

Paris Saint Germain's Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates after scoring a penalty against Olympique Marseille during their French Ligue 1 match at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille on Sunday REUTERS

Boca silence River in ‘superclasico’n Reuters, Buenos Aires

Striker Emmanuel Gigliotti scored his third goal in two games to give Boca Juniors a 1-0 win at River Plate in the ‘superclasico’ and lift them to third in the Argentine ‘Inicial’ championship on Sunday.

The 23rd-minute goal and Boca’s victory celebrations met with an eerie silence from the crowd of 60,000 at the Monumental stadium, with away fans banned at � rst division matches since the end of last season in an e� ort to curb hooligan violence.

Boca, who have gone four matches without conceding a goal and picked up 10 points in the process, are on 19, four behind leaders and title-holders New-ell’s Old Boys halfway through the � rst of two championships in the season.

River dropped to seventh, nine points o� the pace, after Racing Club’s woeful

season worsened with a 1-0 home loss at El Cilindro to Atletico Rafaela, who are now � fth. Racing are bottom with two points and have a 3-18 goals record in 10 matches.

Boca, who weathered an early storm of River attacks, went ahead when Juan Roman Riquelme sent a pass out wide to the right, Juan Manuel Martinez crossed low and Gigliotti de� ected the ball past goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero into the net. River coach Ramon Diaz said: “To-day the best team didn’t win ... A fairer result would have been a draw.

Both sides hit the post, Martinez to-wards the end of the � rst half and River substitute Rodrigo Mora with a header in the dying minutes as the visitors de-fended their lead.

River had more possession and cre-ated some good moves but were guilty of errors with the � nal ball against a gen-erally tight defence. l

Michu gets maiden Spain call-upn AFP, Madrid

Swansea City forward Michu has been called into the Spain squad for next week’s World Cup quali� ers against Belarus and Georgia after David Villa was forced to pull out due to arthritis in his left ankle.

It is a � rst ever international call up for Michu, who has scored � ve times for the Welsh side this season follow-ing an incredible debut campaign in the Premier League with 22 goals last season.

Villa, who is Spain’s all-time leading international scorer, was forced o� just before the hour mark of Atletico Ma-drid’s 2-1 win over Celta Vigo on Sun-day.

“He went o� with some problems in his ankle. I imagine that in a short while it will respond and he will be � ne,” said Vicente Del Bosque. l

Hamburg out of bottom threen AFP, Berlin

Hamburg powered out of the Bundes-liga’s bottom three with a stunning 5-0 win at Nuremberg on Sunday to give Bert van Marwijk his � rst victory as their coach.

Germany Under-21 striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga needed just eight second half minutes to claim his � rst Bundesliga hat-trick in a devastating spell as Hamburg scored four goals in just 14 minutes.

This was only the second game for Van Marwijk, 61, who coached Holland to the 2010 World Cup � nal.

Dutch mid� elder Rafael van der Vaart opened the scoring with a superb scissor-kick volley on 17 minutes.

The Hamburg captain then provid-ed the � nal passes for Lasogga to � re home his � rst two goals while the ex-Hertha Berlin forward completed the hat-trick when he pounced on a loose ball and smashed his shot inside the inside post. Mid� elder Tolgay Arslan bagged the � fth 16 minutes from time to leave Nuremberg reeling. The rout lifts Hamburg up to 14th, while Nurem-berg slip into the bottom three. l

Players let Moyes down: Rooneyn AFP, London

Manchester United’s players have let down new manager David Moyes af-ter making the club’s worst start to a season since 1989, according to striker Wayne Rooney.

“Obviously the manager is under a bit of pressure but we know as a team it’s us who have let him down,” he said, in comments reported by several Brit-ish newspapers on Monday.

“We have to pull together for the manager and show the sort of � ght we have done here (in Saturday’s 2-1 win at Sunderland) and we’ll be � ne.

“This will be a transition season be-cause it’s a new manager with di� erent styles and we have to adapt to them. More importantly, we need to do better for him than we have been.”

Moyes gambled by handing 18-year-old winger Adnan Januzaj his � rst league start at Sunderland and the Belgium-born youngster rewarded his faith by turning the match around with a pair of � ne second-half goals.

Rooney believes the decision to play Januzaj was testament to Moyes’s brav-ery.

“There was big pressure on us but the manager has trusted him (Januzaj) and he has repaid that,” he said.

“He’s very con� dent, that’s great to see. A lot of the young players who come through are a little bit timid and shy, but he looks comfortable and he’s con� dent in his own ability, which you need to be.l

Boca Juniors' Fernando Gago (L) is challenged by River Plate's Ariel Rojas as his teammate Juan Roman Riquelme (back) watches during their Argentine First Division match in Buenos Aires on Sunday REUTERS

Taylor wary of Bangladeshn Minhaz Uddin Khan from

Chittagong

Yesterday was the � rst time since the New Zealand team arrived in Chittagong that the sun came out. The Kiwis are scheduled to lock horns with Bangladesh in the � rst Test at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) starting October 9 but continuous rain and waterlogged � elds have denied both teams from practice opportunities – including a three-day warm up game. Nonetheless, the sun shining bright came as a relief to the visitors.

The visitors were allowed onto the ZACS � eld for the � rst time and with couple of days to go before the Test, they were glad to have a chance to assess the conditions.

“Yes, didn’t expect to wake up and see the sun this morning to be honest. But it’s nice to get out outdoors and face some bowlers on grass,” New Zealand middle-order batsman Ross Taylor told the media at the ZACS yesterday.

Though frustrating, Taylor was philosophically accepting about the warm up match being rained o� .  “It is what it is, you can’t control the weather. The guys have prepared well indoors but it’s refreshing to come outside and play on grass, but it was a good test for our players being indoors, and hopefully the sun comes

out tomorrow (today) and help us in our preparation,” said the former New Zealand skipper.

Bangladesh have a reputation of struggling against the new ball and good seam bowling and the Tigers have been preparing themselves for the challenges of combating New Zealand’s trio of left-arm pacemen – Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Corey

Anderson. Taylor however, warned that New Zealand’s spin attack could also pose a surprise or two for the hosts.

“Bangladesh wouldn’t have seen a lot of them (New Zealand spinners). You know Oshe (Ish Sodhi) is yet to make his Test debut as well, and if he does I am sure he will relish it.

“Any leg spinner is going to be

dangerous, if they put the ball in the right areas for a long time. Bruce Martin has been around for a long time, and has been very successful in domestic cricket, I am sure he will looking to cement a spot in the test arena and what better place than to do that than in Bangladesh?” said the 29-year old.

The last time New Zealand toured Bangladesh was in 2010 and the visitors went down 0-4 in the � ve match ODI series. Asked if there was a sense of looking for revenge, Taylor shook his head.

  “Oh, until you mentioned it I forgot all about it. No I mean, as I said before, Bangladesh play very well in their home conditions and we need to be at the top of our game to not only compete but to putpressure on them as well.

“We are focusing on the Tests and we know that Bangladesh are a very good side in these conditions,” he said.

When asked if there is any particular cricketer in the Bangladesh line-up that New Zealand is worried about, Taylor said, “Well 1 to 11. Obviously Tamim (Iqbal) is a world class player and Shakib (al Hasan), there’s Abdur Razzak who has had a lot of success against us in the past. And (Sohag) Gazi we have seen a lot of him through footage. And Mahmudullah has played very well against us as well, scored a hundred in Hamilton.” l

Sport 15DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Maasranga lift Walton-DRU Media Cricket Maasranga TV emerged as the champi-ons of the Walton-DRU Media Cricket beating NTV by 10 runs in the � nal held at the Hockey Stadium yesterday. Batting � rst Maasranga posted 96 for one with Mahfuz scoring the highest 30 while Rakib and Zobayer added 29 and 23 respectively. In reply, NTV managed to score 86 for four in the stipulated six overs. Fahad’s 30 and Rashed’s 21 runs were not enough to take NTV past the target. Zobayer who took 2 for 28 was adjudged as the man of the � nal and he was also announced as the man of the tournament. Naimur Rahman Durjoy, the former national cricket captain distributed the prizes as the chief guest. National Sports Council secretary Shivnath Roy, Walton’s executive direc-tor SM Zahid Hasan, additional secretary AFM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, DRU presi-dent Shahed Chowdhury, acting general secretary Elias Hossain, sports secretary Morsalin Ahmed were also present on the occasion.

–RM

School chess The country’s youngest Fide Master Mohammad Fahad Rahman, Mossam-mat Zhorna Begum and Junayed Al Sami became the unbeaten champions of their respective groups in the Sheikh Russell Memorial Chess Tournament at the federation hall room yesterday. Fa-had topped the group C (senior group) with Fatematuzzohor Shraboni second and Sumaiya Khandokar third. Zhorna � nished top of group B with Amit Bikram Roy runner-up and Kazi Fahim Wahid in third place. Sami emerged top of group A. A total of 50 school students are par-ticipated at the event, which had three, age-based groups. Earlier, Gazi Shayiful Tarique, general secretary of Bangladesh Chess Federation inaugurated the day-long event as chief guest.

-SH

Lokman’s mother passes awayMember of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), chairman of the BCB grounds committee and the director in charge of Mohammedan Sporting Club Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan’s mother Ozifa Khatun passed away yesterday from old age complications. The President and Members of the Ad-hoc Executive Committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board expressed profound sadness at the news of her passing. Ozifa Khatun was born on 1920 and was 93 years old when she died in Dhaka in the early hours yesterday.

-MU

Botha under renewed bowling action scrutinyFormer South Africa allrounder Johan Botha has been ordered to undergo biomechanical testing again after once again being cited for a suspect bowling action, Cricket Australia said Monday. The 31-year-old South Australia captain will still be eligible to play and bowl but would face suspension if the analysis proves his action is illegal. Cricket Australia said that three umpires in a match must agree on a suspect bowling delivery, but it did not say in which game Botha had been reported. South Australia have played one domestic one-day cup match this season, a six-wicket loss to Victoria on Fri-day in which the o� spinner � nished with no wicket for 39 o� nine overs.

– AFP

New no.1 Nadal eyes Masters record in ShanghaiNewly re-crowned world number one Rafael Nadal can smash the record for Masters titles claimed in a year in Shanghai this week, as his great rival Roger Federer � ghts to save his season. Nadal has enjoyed one of the best spells of his career after he came back from seven months out to win two major titles, but he is still seeking further accolades. After replacing Novak Djokovic at the top of the ATP rankings – despite his loss to the Serb in Sunday’s China Open � nal -- Nadal can now become the � rst man to win six Masters trophies in the same season. And the remorseless Mallorcan said he’s also motivated by the target of � nishing the year as world number one for the third time in his career. “If I am able to be number one at the end of the season, then that’s an important achievement because I will be the best of the year,” he said.

– AFP

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Mush� q praises Afghan triumph n Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh skipper Mush� qur Rahim praised Afghanistan cricket team for qualifying for the next 50-over World Cup on Friday. The Afghans beat a strong Kenya side by seven wickets at the ICC World Cricket League becoming the sec-ond best team of the tournament.

Mush� q said, “Afghanistan is getting much stronger as a team and it’s a great achievement by them and its good news for the whole world.

“The process in which Afghanistan came up is very entertaining and they have came so far in a very short time and the way they quali� ed for the World Cup is the example of their good cricketing sense,” added the wicketkeeper-batsman.

Afghan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi has played for Sylhet Royals under Mush-� q’s captaincy in the Bangladesh Premier League-2 while hard-hitters like Moham-med Shahzad and Gulbadin Naib have also played with Mush� q along with Nabi in the ongoing Dhaka Premier League. “They always try to give their hundred percent and they try to learn as much as they can and naturally they are very tal-ented,” said Mush� q.

Australia and New Zealand will jointly host the 2015 World Cup where Bangla-desh and Afghanistan are in Group A.

“I am waiting to meet against Afghan-istan in the World Cup and I hope they will become more experience and better side,” said Mush� q. l

India’s top court suggests new spot-� xing proben AFP, New Delhi

India’s Supreme Court on Monday sug-gested a fresh enquiry into the spot-� xing scandal surrounding the Indian Premier League, further delaying N. Srinivasan’s return as the country’s cricket chief.

The court proposed a three-member panel headed by a former judge to in-vestigate the scandal that has rocked the popular Twenty20 league run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Patnaik also told the court that the BCCI’s lawyers must reply to the proposal at the next hearing on Tuesday.

The probe will be separate from contin uing investigations by police, who have � led charges in court against a string of o� cials, players and bookmakers in the scandal.

Srinivasan, 68, widely regarded as

the most powerful man in world cricket, has been barred by the court from taking charge since his election as the BCCI chief for a third year on September 29.

A cricket body in the eastern state of Bihar which is not a� liated to the BCCI had asked the court to prevent Sriniva-san’s return on moral grounds because his son-in-law had been charged in the scandal. The son-in-law, Gurunath Mei-yappan, was the team principal of the Chennai Super Kings, the IPL franchise owned by Srinivasan’s India Cements company and captained by national skip-per Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Srinivasan, who has not himself been accused of any wrongdoing, stepped aside temporarily as BCCI president in June when Meiyappan was named in the scandal.

The Bihar association had argued in court that an internal BCCI probe panel

had absolved Srinivasan, Meiyappan, India Cements and other IPL o� cials of wrongdoing even before police had � led charges in court.

Former Australian star Mike Hussey, who has played for the Chennai Super Kings since the inaugural IPL season in 2008, recently dismissed Srinivasan’s suggestion that Meiyappan was only a “cricket enthusiast”.

Hussey asserted in his new autobi-ography that Meiyappan was running the team since Srinivasan was busy with BCCI a� airs. “Our owner was India Ce-ments, headed by Mr Srinivasan,” Hussey wrote, according to excerpts published on the ESPNCricinfo website.

“As he was also on the board of the BCCI, he gave control of the team to his son-in-law Mr Gurunath (Meiyappan).

“He ran the team along with Kepler Wessels, who was (then) coach.” l

Sore Tiger seals Cup win, still Jack’s pick for 19 majorsn AFP, Columbus

Tiger Woods ignored an aching back at the end of a marathon golf weekend Sunday to clinch a dramatic Presidents Cup victory for the United States over the Internationals.

The 14-time major champion scored the clinching point in an 18 1/2-15 1/2 triumph by edging South African Richard Sterne 1-up in singles at rain-soaked Muir� eld Village, then said he has had enough of golf for a while.

“I’m a little bit sore and certainly I’m looking forward to not touching a club for a while,” Woods said.

Sterne took a bogey at 16 to put Woods 1-up and the US star halved the last two holes to win, knowing that singles matches before the Cup is clinched go extra holes to decide a winner.

“I wasn’t feeling my best coming down the stretch and happened to get a 1-up lead. I was just trying to hang onto

that,” Woods said.“I knew I wasn’t feeling good and if I

happened to mess up 18 and we had to continue playing until it was decided -- I was like, I really don’t want to play any more, just can I win, can I halve this last hole, and it ended up being that way.”

Heavy rain fell all four days of the event, playing havoc with the schedule and making the course a muddy slog for players while forcing Woods to play 31 holes over three matches Saturday and 27 holes on Sunday.

“It has been a long week for all of us,” Woods said. “Our physios did a hell of a job this week of keeping us out there and keeping us going, especially with all the starts and stops and so many holes -- I’ve never played three matches in a day before.”

Woods is chasing the all-time record of 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus, who hosted the Cup at the site where he hosts the US PGA Memorial tournament, an event Woods has won � ve times.

Nicklaus expects Woods, who turns 38 in December, will reach his career goal of breaking the major win record even though Woods has not won a major since the 2008 US Open.

For now, Woods will enjoy having won the trophy-clinching point for the third Presidents Cup in a row, all under US captain Fred Couples.

It didn’t come easily. The Americans needed four points in singles and took three with seven matches remaining, but Woods was the only US winner in those last matches.

It was an eventful week for Woods, whose girlfriend, US ski star Lindsey Vonn, startled him by putting a baby squirrel on his right shoulder.

Vonn found herself stuck in a golf cart on a muddy hillside Sunday before Amy Mickelson and Matt Kuchar rescued her.

And Woods was tested by 41st-ranked Sterne, an unfamiliar face to most US fans. l

Pakistan ready for South Africa, says Misbahn AFP, Lahore

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq said Monday his side was ready to take on the mighty South Africans, despite missing an opener and enduring a wretched re-cent run of form.

The sides meet for a two-Test series in the United Arab Emirates starting next week, with Pakistan coming o� the back of an embarrassing drawn series against minnows Zimbabwe.

South Africa, rated number one Test team in the world, whitewashed Paki-stan 3-0 at home earlier in the year, but Misbah insisted his men would rise to the challenge.

“Our preparations and moral are good,” the 39-year-old skipper said as the team left for the UAE. “We have to forget the past and play competitive cricket in this tough series.” Pakistan have won only one of their last eight Tests, with their batsmen letting them down repeatedly.

They go into the series with just one specialist opener in the 12-man squad

as regular Mohammad Hafeez was dropped after scoring just 102 in his last � ve Tests. “No doubt Hafeez is a senior player but because he is out of form it was di� cult for him (to get into the team) but I am sure others are also ca-pable to do well,” said Misbah.

Misbah said a three-day practice match between Pakistan ‘A’ and a South Africa XI, starting in Sharjah on Tues-day, would give them the chance to identify a replacement.

“We will use a regular opener, there will be no makeshift arrangements and I am sure that we will � nd another opener from the three-day match,” said Misbah.

With the experienced Hafeez, Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar left out, it is a fresh-faced Pakistan top order that will take on the might of South Africa’s four-man pace attack.

The selected opener Khurram Man-zoor has played only nine Tests while two other candidates for the second opening berth – Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood – have yet to make their Test debuts. l

Masranga TV celebrate their Walton-DRU Media Cricket title at the hockey stadium yesterday COURTESY

I’m beatable, says China champion Williamsn AFP, Beijing

World number one Serena Williams de-nied there is a widening gulf between her and the other leading players after she claimed her tenth title of the year at the China Open Sunday.

The power-hitting American has had another season of domination, be-ing con� rmed as the top ranked year-end player last month, when she also become the � rst women to win more than $9 million dollars in a season.

The top seed eased to her second ti-tle in Beijing with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 demolition of Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic.

But the 32-year-old said she was still being challenged by the other top-ranked women’s players.

“Everyone is beatable I think at some point. I know I am,” she said.

“Everyone is a threat, you know. I don’t feel like I’m above anyone. I’m just

playing and doing the best I can. That’s all I can do. “I’m just happy that I’m just working hard to be the best right now. Soon it will be someone else.”

Williams is on a career total of 56 titles with 17 major wins.

She became only the � fth women to hold all four Grand Slam titles simulta-neously at the 2003 Australian Open, and has � nished the year at number one previously in 2002 and 2009.

Williams joins Justine Henin and Martina Hingis as a three-time year-end number one, with only Ste� Graf (8), Martina Navratilova (7), Chris Evert (5) and Lindsay Davenport (4) ahead of her. When she arrived in Beijing last week, Williams told reporters she was not the greatest ever women’s player, but that she was “maybe top � ve.”

Williams won all of the 12 sets she competed in on her way to her victory in Beijing. l

US Team members (L-R) Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker, Bill Haas, Jordan Spieth, Hunter Mahan, Davis Love III and Jay Haas after the US Team defeated the International Team 18.5 to 15.5 at the Muir� eld Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio on Sunday AFP

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Groom children as future leaders: PM

n Tribune Desk

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all including teach-ers and guardians to groom the children as worthy citizens of the country so that they could lead the nation in the future.

She urged them not to give chil-dren physical punishment and unnecessary rebuke that put psy-chological pressure on the kids and hamper their proper growth.

The prime minister emphasised projecting the true history of the country’s Liberation War to the children as well as to inspire them with patriotism.

“Today’s children will lead the world in future and be the architect of the changing days,” she said at a

function, marking the World Chil-dren Day 2013, at the Osmani Me-morial Auditorium in the capital.

Chaired by State Minister for Women and Children A� airs Meher Afroz Chumki, the function was also addressed, among others, by Secretary of the Ministry Tariqul Islam.

The prime minister reiterated her government’s � rm commit-ment to build Bangladesh as the safe home for children as well as to ensure a children-friendly atmo-sphere and establish their rights in family and society.

Mentioning the assassination of her 10-year-old younger broth-er Sheikh Russell along with most of the family members, the prime minister said her government had

been working relentlessly to stop the recurrence of such heinous in-cidents.

She recalled that the Bangab-andhu’s government had enacted Children Act in 1974 much before the UN adopted the Children Rights Charter in 1989. The present gov-ernment formulated the National Children Policy 2011 and ensured rights and development of children through bringing them in the main-stream of country’s development.

Terming autistic children an inseparable part of society, the prime minister urged all including non-government organisations to come forward along with the government in transforming the autistic children as human resources.

Hasina highlighted the other ini-tiatives taken by her government for the welfare of children.

She said by making primary ed-ucation compulsory, the present government had expanded and de-veloped its activities to a great ex-tent while pre-primary school had also been introduced.

Besides, four work plans – Spe-cial Need Children, Gender, Trib-al Children and Vulnerable group Children – were undertaken to bring all children under education programs, she added.

As a result, the premier said 99% enrollment of children had been ensured and dropout rate reduced signi� cantly thereby enabling Ban-gladesh to win the MDG 2 award.

Besides, she said her govern-ment distributed free textbooks and provided stipends up to sec-ondary level students while var-ious steps were also taken to ex-plore their talents in socio-cultural activities and sports.

Later, the prime minister en-joyed a cultural programme pre-sented by the children. l

COUNTERTERRORISM, DRUGS CONTROL

Cabinet approves treaties with USn Mohosinul Karim

The cabinet yesterday approved sign-ing of two agreements on enhancing cooperation with the USA on counter-terrorism and drugs control.

A meeting of the cabinet approved the signing of the “Bangladesh-US Counter Terrorism Cooperation Initiative” and the “Memorandum of Cooperation between Ministry of Home A� airs of Bangladesh and United States Drug Enforcement Ad-ministration for Mutual Cooperation in the Sphere of Drug Control.”

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told re-porters that the approval had taken a long time for examining the treaties thoroughly.

He said the Bangladesh-US Counter Terrorism Cooperation Initiative would be an o� cial document, but it would not be considered as a legally-binding one.

“If the agreement is signed, coop-eration between the two countries on resisting terrorism, exchanging technologies and information will be strengthened. It will play an e� ective role in getting legal aid, preventing ter-ror � nancing and money laundering in the country,” he added.

On the other hand, if the drugs con-trol agreement was signed, it would help Bangladesh government to get US assistance in preventing misuse of drugs and strengthen cooperation on investi-gation, he said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting. l

Family receives Sukhia’s murder news after four years n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Almost four years after her murder, Sukhia Begum’s family on Sunday came to learn that their daughter was strangled to death by her husband Sazzad Hossain, 28, in Bandarban’s Lama upazila.

The family of Sukhia Begum, 20, got the news of her death from police after they recently detained and interrogat-ed Sazzad on Sunday.

Sazzad was arrested from his work-place at a printing press at Zia Bhaban in Chittagong city’s Anderkilla area on Sunday following complaints from the Sukhia’s family, said police.

Sub-Inspector Md Kamruzzaman of Kotwali police station told the Dhaka Tribune that Sukhia’s family members from Pashchim Bakalia area in the port city � led complaints with his station after they grew anxious that Sukhia might be in danger as they could not communicate with Sazzad over the last few months.

Later, police nabbed Sazzad and interrogated him about Sukhia. But, he primarily denied knowing anyone called Sukhia.

However, after repeated attempts, Sazzad confessed to killing Sukhia near a hilly creek at Faitong village of Lama in Bandarban on September 27, 2009 and leaving the body at the scene.

Sazzad in his confession, said he and Sukhia worked together at a printing press in Chittagong city’s Anderkilla area back in 2008.

Following a love a� air, they mar-ried each other in 2008, ignoring their objections from both families, at Shah Amanat’s Majar (Mausoleum), keeping it as a witness, and without any social and legal document.

They lived at the port city’s Shulok-bohor area till June, 2009 before shift-ing to Bahaddarhat area in the city.

They left Chittagong city for Saz-zad’s village, but, the couple got down at Chokoria in Cox’s Bazar while Sazzad and Sukhia continued to quarrel.

At one point of altercation, Sazzad took Sukhia near a creek, not far from his village home where he strangulated Sukhia to death at around 5pm.

SI Kamruzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune, Sazzad kept communication with Sukhia’s family even after four years of the murder.

He even went to her in-law’s house often and borrowed money many times naming di� erent causes, Kamru-zzaman said.

In the meantime, Sazzad stopped contacting his in-laws for the last few months and got involved in a relation-ship with one Poly.

SI Kamruzzaman said Lama Police had recovered Sukhia’s body from the creek on September 28, 2009 but did not � nd any clue.

An unnatural death case was lodged with Lama Police Station on that day and submitted a � nal report of the case to court on March 10, 2011, without any identi� cation of the body or the motive of the killing.

Kotwali police produced Sazzad be-fore the court of Second Metropolitan Magistrate, Muhammad Lutful Majid Noyonte, where he gave confessional statement yesterday.

Sukhia’s elder brother Tajul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that his family was so upset on hearing the news. “We want exemplary punishment for Saz-zad,” he said. l

A noble way indeed!n Our Correspondent, Chandpur

What is the best way to start your day at work? Singling out one as the best would be di� cult. O� cials at the Chandpur municipality made a judgement call when they were on the lookout for the most perfect way and how wonderfully they did that!

They decided to begin the day by standing in queues in front of the full-mast national � ag before their o� ce building and singing the national anthem – with the belief that doing so would give them a head start for the day.

While the initiative is one of its kind, it speaks of a deep sense of patriotism and awareness of national values at a time when paying tribute to the anthem has become something of a perfunctory ritual.

Except in the primary and high schools, no other institution has arrangements for the practice.

The impassioned act has also positively inspired many in the neighbourhood, who came to join the chorus with the hope to make a perfect start.

Many shop-owners would not open up without singing the anthem.

Municipality Mayor Nasir Uddin Ahmed took the initiative about seven years ago, said its Secretary Abul Kalam.

“The municipality has 18 councillors and 280 employees at present. Before starting their work, they all come to join the congregation and sing the anthem.

“This also gives an opportunity to exchange greetings with our colleagues before we get down to business. It refreshes our mind,” Kalam added.

The mayor told the Dhaka Tribune: “Through this, we wanted to show our respect to all that the song evokes – our history, tradition, collective struggle for independence. And we have had our rewards too. This municipality has already been recognised as a corruption-free institution.”

If the practice could be introduced at all public and private institutions, it would have a positive impact on the employees and professional integrity would be enhanced, he said. l

JS enacts safe food billn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Parliament yesterday passed a law to stop widespread food adulteration through commissioning of separate courts for the disposal of food-related crimes.

The Safe Food Bill 2013 has catego-rised 23 o� ences for which criminals will face maximum 5 years in jail or Tk1m � ne. Thirteen of the o� ences arenon-bailable.

The House enacted the law by voice vote in absence of main opposition BNP.

The Pakistan government in 1959 promulgated the Pure Food Ordinance. But the law had no mention of speci� c guidelines of punishment. The ordi-nance will be scrapped when a gazette is published enforcing the new law.

Food ministry o� cials said they held meetings with businessmen, who were opposed to higher punishment for food-related crimes.

The maximum punishment for add-ing radioactive ingredients or heavy metals to food stu� s is four years in jail or the Tk800,000 � ne or both.

The highest punishment for adding insecticides, hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals above permissible limits is three years in jail or a � ne of Tk600,000 or both.

Owners of restaurants and hotels, causing health hazards to consumers, will face maximum three years of jail or a � ne of Tk600,000 or both.

The bill, however, says public ser-vants failing to discharge duties stipu-lated in the law would face departmen-tal disciplinary actions.

According to the bill, the govern-ment will form a 30-member Nation-al Safe Food Management Advisory Council, headed by the food minister, comprising of 14 secretaries, 11 heads of government entities and representa-tion from other stakeholders.

Any aggrieved person can lodge complaints with the chairman of the Bangladesh Safe Food Authority. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina meets disabled children at Osmani Memorial Auditorium yesterday to mark the World Children Day 2013 PMO

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed at Romask Limited, 184, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1215. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207.Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

Businesswww.dhakatribune.com/business TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013

Youths display their products

GP launches 3G commercially today

B3

B2

Paira seaport law gets cabinet nodn Mohosinul Karim

The cabinet has approved Paira Seaport Au-thority Act, 2013 to build the country’s third sea port at Kalapara upazila of Patuakhali district.

The Act is expected to be passed in the current session of the parliament.

O� cial sources said the Paira seaport project will be implemented under the pub-lic-private partnership.

The approval came at a regular meeting of the cabinet yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, cabinet secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the reporters after the meeting.

The project will be named as “Paira Sea Port” as it will be set up at the Paira River in the Rabnabad channel of the southern coast-al belt. Feasibility study will be carried out before the construction works begin.

As per the proposed law, an executive board of six members will be formed to op-erate the activities of the port.

There will also be di� erent panels of spe-cialists and advisory councils to assist the board.

On August 5, the cabinet approved the act in principle. After the meeting, additional secretary of the cabinet division Khondakar Iftekhar Haidar told the reporters that the pri-mary works of implementation would begin

by placing pontoons at the Rabnabad channel.Sources said the Chittagong Port Authori-

ty (CPA) will begin will provide technical and � nancial supports to the establishment of the Paira seaport.

The distance between Ramnabad channel and entry point of the sea is 31 kilometres, said Iftekhar Haidar.

He said such distance in Chittagong port is 16km and in Mongla port is 130km.

The third seaport project is intended to improve the country’s export-import trading and infrastructures of the region where the new sea port will be built.

Earlier, the prime minister had announced at a public meeting the government’s deci-sion to launch a third seaport.

In the proposed port area, a � sh process-ing zone is likely to be introduced, which is expected to increase exports of � sh and agro-products.

Iftekhar Haider said the PPP o� ce will start a detailed feasibility study soon to be-gin the work of this port at the soonest pos-sible time.

The total expenditure of the project will be estimated after completing the study.

The expenditure will be borne from the authority’s own fund, government’s excheq-uer and foreign sources. The authority will have the power to issue bonds, shares and taking loans from others. l

Lending rates to go down soon: Atiurn Tribune Report

The lending rates would soon come down further due to continued cut in deposit rates by the commercial banks and falling in� a-tion, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman.

“The recently approved new nine banks will increase competition among the banks for providing better services to the clients. This will also help reduce borrowing and lending rates,” he told a function in Dhaka yesterday.

He said introduction of automated clear-ing house, electronic fund transfer and on-line CIB (credit information bureau) service will help cut operational costs of the banks.

The overall interest spread, the gap be-tween credit and deposit rates, decreased to 5.01 percentage point in August, which was 5.02 percentage point in July, 5.13 percentage point in June, according to the BB data.

Over the last several months, Atiur said, the deposit rates continued to decline. As of September, term deposit rate of most banks was 11.5% and industrial term loan 15.5%.

In the last four years from 2010 through October 2013, the central bank allowed pri-vate � rms to borrow $3.64bn or Tk279.6bn from foreign sources at lower interest of around 5%. Most of the credit goes to the tel-ecommunication, power and textile sectors.

“Borrowing from foreign sources at lower interest rate will also help interest rate in the country’s � nancial market,” said governor. If this credit added to the total borrowing, the weighted average advance interest rate will stand at 13% from existing 13.56%, he added.

The return on asset (ROA) and return on earnings (ROE) of the banks stood at 0.64% and 8.2% respectively in 2012, which was 1.78% and 20.97% in 2010. But neighboring country in India during the same period, ROA and ROE is 0.26% and 3.16%, indicating that we are in a better position, said Atiur.

He said the interest rate depends on banks fund collection costs, expenses of ad-ministration, provision, pro� t margins and so on. “Banks e� ciency is still lower than expected, which increases operational costs. Higher operational costs have led banks to � x higher interest rate,” he said. l

High lending rates hold back growthBusinesspeople ask banks, BB, � nance ministry to act uponn Tribune Report

Businesspeople have urged banks to lower the lending rates as they � nd it di� cult to run business viably paying 18% interest on loans.

Bankers endorsed the concerns of the business community, but shifted the blame on the government for raising interest rates of saving instruments and not reducing cor-porate tax on banks.

They came up with the arguments at a seminar on Banks’ Interest Rate and Charges, organised by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers Commerce and industry (FBCCI) in the city yesterday.

“It is impossible to achieve desired level of development and industrialisation paying such a high interest on loans,” said FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, adding that high interest regime hindered economic growth and employment generation.

“It is very tough to do business with bank loan after paying 16-18% interest and almost impossible to pay o� loans,” said Nazrul Is-lam Majumdar, president of the Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB).

The central bank governor and the � nance minister should take the responsibility to bring the interest rate down to a tolerable level, he added.

“Interest rates should come down theo-retically as there are huge surplus funds held by the bank sector against low demand for loans,” said Bangladesh Bank Governor Ati-ur Rahman. Interest rate depends on repay-ment of loans as banks tend to o� er lower rate to those who pay o� in time, he added.

The government has succeeded in taming in� ation and ensured smooth � ow of fund for the private sector, said Finance Minis-ter AMA Muhith. The corporate tax regime needs reforms and the government is work-ing on that, he added.

Bankers urged the government to lower interest rate of savings instruments, which, they felt, would lure depositors away from banks.

“Nobody will deposit money with banks if government’s savings instruments o� er higher rates,” said AK Azad, former president of FBCCI who chairs Shahjalal Islami Bank’s board. The government is taking away our pro� ts through 42.5% corporate tax, he added, suggesting that

the government and the central bank should � x the lending rates for banks.

State-owned and private banks should lower interest rate to help the country’s ex-port sector stay a� oat since competitors like those in India enjoy loans at 4%, said Rubel Aziz, managing director of Partex Group.

“We will consider the demands of lower-ing interest rate considering the interest of fund managers, depositors and fund users,” said Bank and Financial Institutions Division Secretary M Aslam Alam.

“We have to bring 80% population, who are currently out of the bank’s network, under banking system. It will help to bring more deposit and reduce interest rate,” said Alam.

Participants at the seminar urged the Bangladesh Bank governor to cap interest rate again and demanded that the banks should cut their maintenance costs so that they can lower interest rates.

“Saving instruments’ interest rate should not be more than 8%. Banks too should re-duce lending rates but there must be a mech-anism,” said Ahmed Al-Kabir, chairman of Rupali Bank. l

Number of CIPs increased to 188n Mohosinul Karim

The government has increased the number of commercially important persons (CIPs) to 188 from 165, but the share for the trade bod-ies reduced to 38 from 40.

The decision was taken at a regular meeting of the cabinet at Bangladesh Secretariat yes-terday as it amended the existing “CIP (Export) Guideline” with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting that the decision is to increase the number of CIPs from export sector, which has expanded substantially. It will promote the ex-porters to expand their export business.

According to the amended guideline, a to-tal 188 persons will get the status of CIPs from now-onward. Of them, 150 individuals and 38 leaders of trade bodies will get the status.

Out of 150 individuals, at least � ve per-sons will come from Export Processing Zone (EPZ) based ‘C’ category exporters, he added.

Meanwhile, the cabinet has decided to provide TK6b for development of jute sector.

Bhuiyan said the prime minister asked the � nance minister to provide TK6b as bank loan for the development of the thrust sector. The � nance ministry will provide bank loan for the sector shortly for developing the sector by importing technologies and research. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE Business2 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013

EU works on next development cooperationn Tribune Business Desk

The European Union has started preparing its next development cooperation programme for a seven-year period stretching from 2014 to 2020. The EU and the Economic Relations Division of Bangladesh government organ-ised an inter-ministerial consultation yes-terday in Dhaka to discuss further about the proposed intervention, reports UNB.

To align with the development priorities of the government of Bangladesh, the EU has se-lected three strategic areas from Vision 2021, the Sixth Five-Year Plan and relevant national

strategies. The future programme will support democratic government and human rights, food security and nutrition, and education and skill development programmes.

It aims to contribute to Bangladesh’s in-clusive growth, poverty reduction and re-silience focusing on the poorest and most vulnerable portion of the population, while at the same time promoting people’s poten-tials, particularly that of women.

The EU delegation is also consulting with civil society, international organisations, private sector, parliament and EU member states to re� ne its proposed interventions. l

First BSRS MF to be redeemed on October 24n Tribune Report

First BSRS Mutual Fund will be redeemed this month as the closed-end fund will com-plete its 10-year tenure.

With the wrapping up of the fund, it would be delisted from the stock market and transaction of the units would be discontin-ued from October 24, said Bangladesh De-velopment Bank, sponsor of the fund, in a statement yesterday.

Redemption means the unit holders of a mutual fund would get back the netasset value (NAV) per unit of the fund in cash, upon maturity or cancellation by the issuer.

The redemption of a mutual fund is new for Bangladesh’s stock market and First BSRS Mutual Fund would be the second of its kind after ICB AMCL First that was redeemed last month.

October 23, 2013 will be the last trad-ing day for transaction or transfer of unitof First BSRS Mutual Fund and the fundwill be de-listed from both the stockexchanges.

The unit holders, whose name will be available on CDBL record on October 24, will be the owners of the redemption fund.

On the close of operation on October 03, 2013, the NAV per unit of the fund was Tk98.58 and the market price was Tk85.80 per unit against its face value of Tk10 each.

Seven other mutual funds would also be redeemed within this year in line with a reg-ulatory directive.

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) in 2007 had asked the ICB to bring its mutual funds under the regu-lator’s mutual fund rules to control the funds under a set of rules to protect investor inter-ests.

Following applications from the ICB, the BSEC in September last year extended the maturity period of the mutual funds up to December 2013. l

Oil prices down on US debt ceiling concerns

n AFP, Singapore

Oil prices edged lower yesterday in Asian trade on growing concerns the US budget crisis could spiral into a devastating debt de-fault and ravage the global economy.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in November fell 49 cents to $103.35 in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for November eased 35 cents to $109.11. The US government shut-down looks set to drag into day seventh on Monday, as a series of marathon talks between Democrats and Republicans in Washington failed to reach a resolution to the stand-o� .

US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned Sunday that Congress was “playing with � re” as Republicans raised the threat of a US default if President Barack Obama refuses to negotiate on spending.

Lew said the United States will run out of cash on October 17, and with only $30 billion in hand to meet obligations that can run to $60 billion a day, it will quickly default.

Fears are growing that the shutdown could threaten a fragile economic recovery in the US, with some analysts suggesting it could push the country’s economy back into recession. l

Youths display their productsUddokta Haat draws 25 projectsn Tribune Report

A two-day fair of products manufactured by fresh young entrepreneurs concluded in Dhaka yesterday, aimed at spreading new ideas of business across the country and de-veloping new entrepreneurs.

The fair styled “Uddokta Haat” was or-ganised to establish a sharing platform and encourage young entrepreneurs.

A total of 25 projects including electron-ics and computer products, online courier, e-commerce sites, website development, clothing and handmade products were dis-played at the fair venue.

The fair attracted huge crowd on the clos-ing day as many young people exchanged ideas on small business and shared thoughts on development of the projects.

Initiated by Bangladesh Open Source Net-work (BdOSN) and organised by facebook based group “Chakri Khujbo Na Chakri Debo.”

The young entrepreneurs were seen com-municating and sharing views with the other entrepreneurs and visitors at the fair venue.

Organisers said a major portion of the population is youth and many of them do not have suitable jobs. “To solve the problem, entrepreneurship is one such solution and to make a platform for the young entrepre-neurs. The haat is one such arrangement,” said one of the organisers. Program coordi-nator at BdOSN Promi Naheed told the Dha-ka Tribune that the organisation is working towards promoting entrepreneurship and spreading the ideas across the country.

“Aiming to help develop skill, we are working since 2006 with the freelancers. But after a certain period of time, we realised the

freelancers are only being bene� tted with our organization. But they have more to do for employment generation for others,” he said.

“To make an information and idea sharing platform for the upcoming entrepreneurs, we are here with the haat,” he added.

Naheed said the fair is here to give entre-preneurs a chance to exhibit their projects, to interact with others, and to help them with all sort of supports.

An entrepreneur Shahed Mehbub, director at 24haat.com, said: “Such fairs are very nec-essary to exhibit ideas of small entrepreneurs like us. I have exhibited my products and re-ceived good responses from the visitors. With-out such programme, I may not get chances to

exhibit my ideas to the mass people.”He emphasised on arranging such pro-

grammes from the government side to sup-port the fresh entrepreneurs.

BD Venture Limited, a venture capital company, was o� ering � nancial supports at the fair to help entrepreneurs tap their po-tentials and ful� ll their dreams.

“We support the entrepreneurs to help develop their project by � nancing their en-terprises as a shareholder of the company,” said Mohammad Nowshad Chowdhury, an executive of the company. “If any young en-trepreneur looks for expansion of their busi-ness, we are here to develop entrepreneur-ship by � nancing their companies.” l

Young entrepreneurs talking about their innovative ideas at Uddokta Haat in Dhaka RAJIB DHAR

Q1 exportssurge 21% n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The country’s export earnings rose 21% to US$7.6bn in the � rst quarter of the current � scal year as compared to the same period of previous � scal year despite having unrest in the readymade garments sector.

According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) statistics, the earnings were US$6.29bn in the � rst quarter of 2012-13.

The export earnings increased due to the execution of orders placed before the deadli-est incident of Rana Plaza, said Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Exporters Associa-tion of Bangladesh (EAB).

He said the impact of the incident would a� ect the export � gure in the next quarter as the order trend from buyers already su� ered setback.

It is a good sign for the country, but the � gure should have been more, said Musta� -zur Rahman, executive director of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD). l

BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE 3TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013

Group backed by Internet giants seeks cheaper access for the poorn AFP, Abuja

Accessing the Internet in the developing world is unnecessarily expensive, partly due to government policies that hinder competi-tion and should be scrapped, a new alliance backed by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft said yesterday.

The Alliance for A� ordable Internet, which launched in Nigeria’s capital, said it will push for an “open, competitive and in-novative broadband market” to boost access, especially in Africa, where only 16% of the population is online.

Other members of the alliance include the British and US development agencies, as well as Facebook and the inventor of the World Wide Web, Britain’s Tim Berners-Lee.

“There is simply no good reason for the digital divide to continue,” Berners-Lee said in a statement, arguing that the infrastruc-ture and technology needed to fully connect poorer countries was increasingly in place.

“The real bottleneck now is anti-competi-tive policies and regulations that keep prices una� ordable. The alliance is about removing that barrier,” he added.

The initiative’s executive director, Sonia Jorge, told AFP that Ethiopia’s telecommuni-cation policy “is an example of exactly what you don’t want to see.”

The state operator, Ethio Telecom, holds a near monopoly as a broadband service pro-vider and the cost of connection is among the highest in the world when compared to monthly income, according to the US watch-dog Freedom House.

Despite its roughly 90 million people, Ethiopia had only 27,000 broadband sub-scriptions in 2011. Signi� cant price reduc-tions were announced last year in an e� ort to boost access, however. The alliance said its goal is to reduce the cost of access to below � ve percent of monthly income worldwide.

In developed countries, people in 2012 spent on average 1.7% of monthly income for broadband while in the developing world the � gure was 30.1%, according to the new group.

Prices have gone down in several areas, in part due to infrastructure improvements, including under-sea cables.

Following its Monday launch in Nigeria, the group will begin working in four countries, campaigning for liberal, open-market policies where private � rms freely compete to provide lower cost broadband services. “It is important that the playing � eld is level,” Jorge told AFP.

In some African countries, despite a � urry of new players in the market o� ering a range of services many feel “that prices haven’t real-ly changed that much,” Jorge said, adding the competition policies may need to be re� ned so that people actually “reap the bene� t.” l

Stocks drop for third consecutive dayn Tribune Report

Stocks continued to fall for the third session in a row in a volatile trade yesterday amid poor trading activities.

The market moved between positive and negative in early trading but from mid-ses-sion the sale pressure accelerated, pushing down the indices.

The benchmark DSEX index was down 25 points or 0.7% to 3,857, further down from previous session’s seven-week low. The blue chip index DS30 dropped 14 points or 1% to 1,403.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Se-lective Categories Index, CSCX, declined 40 points to 7,543.

Turnover remained dry at the bourse –

the total market turnover stood at Tk2.3bn, which was 5.4% lower over the previous ses-sion.

“No positive surprise in political frontier kept future direction of capital market inde-cisive ahead of long closure to celebrate fes-tivals. This put down investors’ sentiment during the session,” said IDLC Investment in its market analysis.

Majority of issues closed negative as out of 284 issues traded, 86 advanced, 166 de-clined and 32 remained unchanged.

Dragged by pro� t booking on selected stocks in major sectors like bank, non-bank � nancial institutions (NBFIs) and power, index continued to remain under pressure for the third consecutive session, said Lanka Bangla Securities.

Market capitalisation of food and allied sector advanced 2.52% followed by Jute, tex-tile and pharmaceuticals.

NBFIs sector was the big loser with a fall of 7.8%, driven by heavyweight ICB which saw a price decline of 14% due to its less than expected corporate declaration of 40% cash dividend.

It was followed by fuel and power that was down 1.6%, engineering 1.5%, power 1.7% and banks 0.52%.

The positive performers were food and al-lied, textile and pharmaceuticals.

Argon Denims was the most traded stock of the session with a turnover of Tk88m, followed by CMC Kamal, BATBC, Delta Life, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd, Sqaure Pharmaceutical and Padma Oil. l

GP launches 3G commercially todayBaridhara, Bashundhara and Gulshan-2 will be the � rst areas n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Grameenphone is set to commercially launch the third generation mobile broadband ser-vice today, which will make the operator � rst in Bangladesh to reach the customers with high-speed wireless communication facility.

The initial launch will be limited to Baridhara, Bashundhara residential area and some parts of Gulshan-2 in the city, said high o� cials of GP.

“Though we have launched 3G earlier, the commercial service is going to be o� ered from tomorrow (today),” said Tahmeed Azi-zul Huq, head of Corporate Communications of Grameenphone, told the Dhaka Tribune.

“The service will initially be limited to three areas of the city, but will soon cover the larger area,” he added.

On the occasion, Grameenphone organis-es a bicycle rally and a 3G experience zone at the Basundhara area and Baridhara today.

Although the state-owned Teletalk made test commercial launch last year, the GP is going to make the � rst full-� edged commer-cial launching.

Banglalink, Robi and Airtel are also in the process to come up with 3G service for their customers in a shortest possible time, said the o� cials of these three operators.

A high o� cial of GP’s technological de-partment said they have made 100 BTS 3G-enabled while another 50 BTS with such facility will be installed before Eid-ul-Azha.

“Commercial launching of 3G service is a part of a continuous process to reach our customers with the high-speed facility. Within months, the service will be available in di� erent areas of the city,” a high o� cial of Grameenphone told the Dhaka Tribune.

He added: “We are desperate to bring the service. And we are very serious to meet our customers’ satisfaction.”

Grameenphone said they will hold launching in di� erent places of the country.

There will be such a function on 12th this month at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police head-quarters to launch 3G service at Ramna area.

After that, the GP’s priority areas for 3G launching in the city are Uttara, Dhanmon-di, Banani, Badda, Mirpur and Motijheel,

said operator sources. Late of last month, Grameenphone made a soft launce limited to the o� cials and some customers. During the soft launch, Tanveer Mohammad said the operator would be able cover 70% Dhaka city and 50% of Chittagong city by November.

In a statement yesterday, Grameenphone said their 3G would reach Gazipur and Narayanganj within few weeks.

“It’s a proud moment for Grameenphone as we now start serving customers with 3G-packages,” said Allan Bonke, CMO of Grameenphone.

“By o� ering a seamless experience with instant internet access on the best network we will provide our customers with the com-

petitive mobile service they expect from Grameenphone,” he added.

Grameenphone, the country’s largest op-erator with 45.6 million subscribers’ base, got approval for 15 packages.

Of them, the major plans include 6 Giga-byte (GB) data at Tk1,400 with 1Mbps (Mega-bits per second).

The operator has more � ve packages with 1Mbps speed, that included 1MB for Tk650, 2MB Tk850, 3MB Tk1,000, 4MB Tk1,200 and 5MB Tk1,300.

Besides, the company has di� erent kinds of small packages like 5-day package. The op-erator has also 512Kbps and 800Kbps speed packages.

A video call to other 3G-enabled GP num-bers will cost Tk1.20 per minute with 10-sec-ond pulses. The video calls to other opera-tors will be made possible in the next.

In the September auction, Grameenphone bought 10 megahertz spectrum at $221m while other three other operators – Robi, Airtel and Banglalink – bought 5 megahertz each. l

Grameenphone launched 3G test run in Dhaka on September 29 NASHIRUL ISLAM

By o� ering a seamless experience with instant internet access on the best network we will provide our customers with the competitive mobile service they expect from Grameenphone

In developed countries, people in 2012 spent on average 1.7% of monthly income for broadband while in the developing world the � gure was 30.1%, according to the new group

DHAKA TRIBUNE Business4 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013

China grabs limelight as US hobbledat Asia-Paci� c summitn AFP, Nusa Dua

China took centre-stage yesterday as Asia-Pa-ci� c leaders opened an annual econom-ic summit in the shadow of global growth clouds that are darkening by the day with the US government paralysed by in� ghting.

The US federal shutdown has stopped President Barack Obama from attending the two-day Asia-Paci� c Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, and another summit this week of East Asian leaders in Brunei.

US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed anew Obama’s determination to remain en-gaged with the Paci� c Rim region, but his absence has left the arena clear for the leader of one-party China to trumpet the mounting heft of the world’s second largest economy.

Interviewed by the Jakarta Post, Presi-dent Xi Jinping said the “world economy has entered a period of deep readjustment” but China was ready to lead the way to a brighter day as part of “the world’s most dynamic and most promising region”.

The communist leader has been touring Southeast Asia, where there is much disquiet about China’s territorial ambitions, and also touted the bene� ts of free trade pacts after securing commercial deals worth tens of bil-lions of dollars in Indonesia and Malaysia.

China is involved in talks on a trade agree-ment grouping 16 East Asian nations just as Washington’s rival “Trans-Paci� c Partner-ship” (TPP) of 12 countries appears to be run-ning into trouble.

While sympathetic to Obama’s political plight, the leaders of US allies in APEC such

as Singapore expressed disappointment that he had been unable to throw his presidential weight personally behind the TPP and Wash-ington’s stop-start “pivot” towards Asia.

Foreign friends and rivals alike, as well as � nancial markets, are worried by a threat bigger even than the shutdown: the possibil-ity that the US government might default on its colossal debts unless Congress raises the federal borrowing limit by October 17.

An unprecedented default by the holder of the world’s reserve currency would a� ect “the entire planet, and not just those coun-

tries with a strong geographical and eco-nomic linkage to the US”, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said at an APEC business summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed similar sentiments to the business leaders gathered for the event.

“The dollar of the United States is still the biggest reserve currency in the world, so it is of utmost importance to all of us,” he said.”

But Kerry, taking Obama’s place at APEC, said the president’s epic tussle with the Re-publicans was merely “a moment in politics” that did not de� ect the United States from its

strategic goals.“I want to emphasise that there is nothing

that will shake the commitment of the rebal-ance to Asia that President Obama is lead-ing,” Kerry told the business forum.

The United States is stumbling politically at a moment when, according to a statement by APEC foreign and trade ministers, the world economy can ill a� ord more instability following the 2008 � nancial crisis.

Previewing Tuesday’s � nal summit decla-ration in Bali, the ministers said that “global growth is too weak, risks remain tilted to the downside, and the economic outlook sug-gests growth is likely to be slower and less balanced than desired”.

Before he called o� his foreign travel, Oba-ma intended to throw his presidential weight behind a top-level round of talks among the TPP countries in Bali on Tuesday. But doubts about the TPP are gathering pace, and also about Obama’s vaunted “pivot”.

Attending APEC “would have been a gold-en opportunity for America and President Obama himself to show leadership in that context of the new emphasis towards Asia”, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said.

Obama was also forced to cancel visits to Malaysia and the Philippines due to the shut-down.

The perennial disputes that hobble all trade agreements, such as market access and protection of intellectual property, are rear-ing anew in the TPP negotiations and Najib sees the end-of-year deadline as “very tight”.

But Kerry said a deal was still achievable in the timeframe, as he sought to sell the merits of the pact. l

China’s President Xi Jinping applauds the crowd after speaking at the Asia-Paci� c Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Nusa Dua on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali AFP

Stakes start rising over Washington gridlockn Reuters, London

The world is watching Washington’s show-down over the federal budget and debt ceil-ing with the same feelings of horror, disbelief and ghouli sh fascination that a slow-motion car crash produces.

The Republican-led House of Representa-tives is on a collision course with the Dem-ocratic White House. Both sides know the damage that would be in� icted on the coun-try if the Treasury runs out of money later this month, risking an unprecedented debt default.

So one of them is sure to blink and swerve away. Aren’t they?

Well, they haven’t yet. Hard-line Republi-cans opposed to Obama’s healthcare reform have already forced a shutdown of non-es-sential government functions since October 1 by blocking new spending authority.

“They’re doing that, I would say, at the great expense of the average American, the US economy and, to some degree, the global economy,” said Jason Ware, chief analyst at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City.

After media reports that House Speaker John Boehner would work to avoid default,

even if it meant relying on the votes of Dem-ocrats, as he did in August 2011, Boehner stressed that his party would continue to in-sist on budget cuts as a condition of raising the borrowing authority.

For the issuer of the world’s reserve curren-cy, whose interest rates form a global bench-mark, to default would be nothing short of catastrophic, according to the US Treasury.

That is why investors, though they have been selling stocks as a precaution, still be-lieve a deal will be struck.

“You can come back from a government shutdown. You cannot come back from a de-fault on the debt,” said Ware.

The stando� is already damaging Ameri-ca’s standing - a point that US policy makers can expect to hear this week from � nance ministers attending meetings in Washington of the Group of 20 leading economies and the International Monetary Fund.

“In view of the latest political failure, a re-play of the 2011 summer drama seems likely, which is certainly a concern for US foreign creditors,” China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency said in an editorial last week.

The United States would join non-exalted company if the unthinkable were to happen.

Angola, Argentina, Cote d’Ivoire, the Do-minican Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Greece, Grenada, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Paraguay, the Solomon Islands, Venezuela and Zim-

babwe have all defaulted or restructured their debt in the past decade, according to the GlobalWorks Foundation, a pro-trade non-pro� t group in Washington. l

A general view of the US Capitol Dome in Washington REUTERS

BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE 5TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013

Canceled EU-US talks complicate trade ambitionsn Reuters, Brussels

Even before the cancelation of the latest round of EU-US talks, negotiations to create the world’s largest free-trade deal were get-ting into di� culty territory.

France won a concession to leave Europe-an movies and entertainment out of the pact, to shield them from Hollywood and Silicon Valley, raising concerns Washington may pursue opt-outs for its shipping industry on security grounds.

Then the � rst round of talks in July were overshadowed by reports the United States had bugged European Union o� ces under its surveillance program made public by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Now, just before negotiators were due to get down to the nitty gritty in the search for a deal by the end of next year, the US gov-ernment’s partial shutdown has forced next week’s talks in Brussels to be scrapped.

If that were not enough, a split is emerg-ing between Europe and the United States on one of the most critical areas of the proposed pact: � nance.

“This delay is not fatal, but if the US shut-down drags on and you are taking things o� the table like culture and � nancial services, it is not a good way to start,” said Stuart Eizen-stat, a former US ambassador to the Europe-an Union.

“This postponement may complicate the timetable of completing the talks by the end of 2014,” Eizenstat said.

EU and US o� cials say the deal, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment

Partnership, could boost economic output by some $100bn a year on each side of the Atlan-tic, creating a market of 800 million people.

After � ve years of crisis, both see a deal as a way to reinvigorate their economies that account for a third of world trade when Chi-na’s might threatens their global standing.

So it was with some frustration that US Trade Representative Michael Froman rang his EU counterpart Karel De Gucht on Friday to cancel the second round of talks because of the e� ects of the Congressional budget dispute.

De Gucht, who handles trade for the EU’s 28 countries, said the postponement “in no way distracts us from our overall aim of achieving an ambitious trade and invest-ment deal.”

Assistant US Trade Representative Dan Mullaney is expected in Brussels to � nd a date for a second round of talks. Much de-pends on the US shutdown, while Congress must act by October 17 in to avoid a US gov-ernment debt default.

Agreeing a deal by the end of 2014 is the goal of both sides, because the European Commission’s term ends in November next year and the United States holds mid-term elections.

Since tari� s between the EU and United States are already low, around 80% of the gains of any agreement will come from cre-ating common rules for business.

The great, hoped-for bene� t is that by agreeing shared regulatory standards, many costs and hurdles hindering transatlantic business will be removed, making the two

economies even more dynamic and speeding the wheels of trade and industry.

However, an emerging dispute is over � -nance.

The EU wants � nancial regulation to be a central part of the deal, whereas Washington is resisting, worried about losing control over its � nancial industry.

Financial ties between Europe and the United States are already huge, accounting for 60% of world banking. EU investors own $2.7tn of US stocks and bonds, while US resi-dents hold almost as much in Europe.

However, the United States and European countries regulate banks, insurers and trad-ers in very di� erent ways, particularly in the $630tn derivatives industry.

Never was the di� erence more evident than during the � nancial crisis, when Wash-ington moved quickly in 2008 to tackle prob-lems at its banks. Five years on, the Europe-an Union is still struggling to impose order on its � nancial system and has had to give emergency aid to � ve countries.

This is mirrored in regulation, where the two sides have also clashed over the control of derivatives, with Washington demanding that global trading involving US � rms be sub-ject only to US rules, regardless of where it happens.

Europe wants a pact that spells out which regulators are responsible for what activities. Some EU o� cials even talk about creating new EU-US institutions to oversee � nance.

The United States’ Froman, a former ad-viser to President Barack Obama, has ex-pressed Washington’s reluctance. l

US Trade Representative Michael Froman speaks during a news conference during the Asia Paci� c Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali island REUTERS

China says ‘clock is ticking’ on US debt ceiling n AFP, Beijing

A senior Chinese o� cial voiced concern over a looming deadline for raising the US debt ceiling Monday, saying the “clock is ticking” to avoid a default that could seriously harm China’s economic interests.

“As the world’s largest economy and the issuer of the major reserve currency in the world, it is important for the US to maintain the creditworthiness of its Treasury bonds,” vice � nance minister Zhu Guangyao told re-porters.

“It is important for the US economy as well as the global economy.”

Zhu spoke with the United States govern-ment in a partial shutdown since the begin-ning of this month, due to a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over funding President Barack Obama’s signature health care programme that has prevented the pas-sage of key spending legislation.

An even more serious problem is the pros-pect that the US government will not have enough cash to pay its bills if an agreement to raise its debt ceiling is not reached by Oc-tober 17. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Sunday the US will have reached the maxi-mum it is allowed to borrow on that date, and with only $30bn cash in hand to meet obligations that can run to $60 billion a day, it will quickly face default.

Zhu, one of three Chinese o� cials brief-ing reporters ahead of Premier Li Keqiang’s departure for a regional summit this week in Brunei - which Obama plans to miss due to the stando� in Washington - called on the US to take quick and decisive action.

“We hope that before October 17, the US will take credible steps to address its dis-putes over the debt ceiling in a timely fash-ion, avoid a default and ensure the safety of Chinese investments in the US and ensure the process of global economic recovery will not be seriously a� ected by this,” he said.

Zhu added that as the world’s two largest economies, the US and China are “insepara-ble”, stressing their annual bilateral trade of $500bn, US direct investments in China and China’s possession of a “vast number of US Treasury bonds”, without giving a total.

Over the years, China has recycled some of its trillions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves, the result of huge trade surplus-es, by investing in US Treasury. As such it has become a signi� cant creditor of the US, which runs chronic de� cits.

Zhu said that the two sides have been in close contact on the issue and the US was clearly aware of China’s concerns about the gridlock.

He also acknowledged that Obama and Lew were working to avoid a possible de-fault. “But we have to see that the clock is ticking,” Zhu said. “It is only one week away before the deadline on the 17th.

“The executive branch of the US govern-ment has to take decisive and credible steps to avoid a default on its Treasury bonds,” he said.

Only the US can work out what is a do-mestic issue, he said, “but it also has global implications so that’s why we say that the government and the Congress have to speed up their negotiations”. l

BANKABBANK | 2.95 | 32.60 | Vol. 226811 D: 22.50 ⇓ 0.88% | 22.56 | 24.00 / 20.50 C: 22.20 ⇓ 1.33% | 22.31 | 22.60 / 22.00CITYBANK | 1.15 | 25.97 | Vol. 407606 D: 15.30 ⇑ 0.66% | 15.29 | 16.00 / 14.00 C: 15.10 ⇓ 1.31% | 15.13 | 15.30 / 15.00IFIC | 1.10 | 18.34 | Vol. 60688 D: 19.60 ⇓ 1.01% | 19.80 | 20.00 / 18.00 C: 19.60 ⇓ 0.51% | 19.71 | 19.90 / 19.30ISLAMIBANK | 3.78 | 27.16 | Vol. 263907 D: 35.80 ⇑ 0.56% | 35.73 | 36.00 / 33.00 C: 35.80 ⇑ 1.13% | 35.38 | 35.80 / 32.00NBL | 1.05 | 15.76 | Vol. 1758568 D: 9.90 ⇓ 1.00% | 9.99 | 10.10 / 9.00 C: 10.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 10.05 | 10.20 / 9.50PUBALIBANK | 1.92 | 21.18 | Vol. 393992 D: 31.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 31.22 | 31.70 / 28.50 C: 31.00 ⇑ 0.32% | 30.94 | 31.30 / 30.80RUPALIBANK | 6.70 | 64.27 | Vol. 954 D: 57.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 57.65 | 60.00 / 55.90UCBL | 1.90 | 21.72 | Vol. 568397 D: 17.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 17.27 | 17.40 / 16.00 C: 17.20 ⇓ 1.15% | 17.21 | 17.40 / 16.00UTTARABANK | 3.42 | 26.97 | Vol. 113278 D: 25.00 ⇓ 0.40% | 25.00 | 25.20 / 23.50 C: 24.80 ⇓ 1.20% | 24.79 | 25.30 / 24.60ICBIBANK | -1.60 | -13.03 | Vol. 63500 D: 5.70 ⇓ 1.72% | 5.72 | 5.80 / 5.70EBL | 3.91 | 28.22 | Vol. 85195 D: 26.10 ⇓ 0.76% | 26.30 | 26.40 / 24.00 C: 26.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 26.00 | 26.00 / 26.00ALARABANK | 2.03 | 14.91 | Vol. 456569 D: 13.40 ⇓ 2.19% | 13.54 | 14.00 / 12.50 C: 13.70 ⇓ 0.72% | 13.74 | 14.00 / 13.60PRIMEBANK | 2.89 | 22.40 | Vol. 157077 D: 16.80 ⇓ 0.59% | 16.93 | 17.00 / 15.50 C: 17.10 ⇑ 2.40% | 17.04 | 17.50 / 16.90SOUTHEASTB | 1.89 | 22.66 | Vol. 560832 D: 14.10 ⇓ 2.08% | 14.25 | 14.60 / 13.00 C: 14.30 ⇓ 0.69% | 14.23 | 14.30 / 13.00DHAKABANK | 1.46 | 18.08 | Vol. 167179 D: 17.20 ⇓ 1.15% | 17.24 | 17.50 / 17.10 C: 17.50 ⇑ 1.16% | 17.15 | 17.50 / 16.20NCCBANK | 1.90 | 15.88 | Vol. 330193 D: 10.60 ⇓ 0.93% | 10.68 | 11.00 / 9.80 C: 10.60 ⇓ 0.93% | 10.71 | 10.90 / 10.60SIBL | 2.05 | 14.47 | Vol. 468206 D: 10.90 ⇓ 1.80% | 11.02 | 11.50 / 10.00 C: 11.00 ⇓ 1.79% | 11.01 | 11.10 / 10.90DUTCHBANGL | 11.57 | 54.27 | Vol. 5540 D: 88.40 ⇓ 0.34% | 88.32 | 88.50 / 83.00MTBL | 1.17 | 17.27 | Vol. 142220 D: 14.20 ⇓ 0.70% | 14.22 | 14.40 / 13.00 C: 14.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 14.00 | 14.00 / 14.00STANDBANKL | 2.33 | 14.41 | Vol. 352331 D: 12.40 ⇓ 1.59% | 12.50 | 12.80 / 11.50 C: 12.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 12.48 | 12.50 / 12.00ONEBANKLTD | 2.35 | 15.34 | Vol. 255099 D: 13.90 ⇓ 0.71% | 13.93 | 14.10 / 12.60 C: 14.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 13.99 | 14.10 / 13.00BANKASIA | 1.35 | 20.80 | Vol. 710436 D: 18.60 ⇓ 1.06% | 18.71 | 19.00 / 17.00 C: 19.10 ⇑ 0.53% | 18.80 | 19.10 / 18.60MERCANBANK | 2.07 | 16.59 | Vol. 487487 D: 11.20 ⇓ 0.88% | 11.33 | 12.40 / 10.20 C: 11.10 ⇓ 0.89% | 11.09 | 11.30 / 11.00EXIMBANK | 1.80 | 14.31 | Vol. 465078 D: 10.50 ⇓ 1.87% | 10.60 | 10.80 / 9.70 C: 10.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 10.48 | 10.70 / 10.40JAMUNABANK | 2.47 | 18.56 | Vol. 40516 D: 12.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 12.76 | 13.00 / 11.90 C: 12.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 12.83 | 13.10 / 12.80BRACBANK | 1.51 | 24.87 | Vol. 219337 D: 27.30 ⇓ 0.73% | 27.39 | 27.90 / 25.00 C: 27.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 25.00 | 27.60 / 27.60SHAHJABANK | 2.61 | 14.47 | Vol. 106252 D: 13.60 ⇓ 0.73% | 13.64 | 14.00 / 12.80 C: 13.50 ⇓ 0.74% | 13.52 | 13.60 / 13.50PREMIERBAN | 1.18 | 13.95 | Vol. 375918 D: 8.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.90 | 9.10 / 8.10 C: 9.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.94 | 9.10 / 8.70

TRUSTBANK | 0.50 | 18.00 | Vol. 61953 D: 16.70 ⇑ 1.21% | 16.56 | 16.80 / 14.90 C: 16.30 ⇓ 3.55% | 16.29 | 16.30 / 16.20FIRSTSBANK | 1.85 | 13.89 | Vol. 259957 D: 10.90 ⇑ 0.93% | 10.88 | 11.00 / 9.80 C: 10.70 ⇓ 1.83% | 10.75 | 11.30 / 10.60

NON BANKING F IIDLC | 4.43 | 29.18 | Vol. 101655 D: 55.00 ⇓ 1.08% | 55.12 | 55.60 / 52.00 C: 55.30 ⇓ 2.12% | 55.27 | 56.00 / 55.00ULC | 1.80 | 14.90 | Vol. 29200 D: 25.20 ⇓ 1.95% | 25.38 | 25.70 / 25.20UTTARAFIN | 7.16 | 41.54 | Vol. 46209 D: 71.60 ⇓ 0.56% | 71.70 | 72.10 / 68.00 C: 71.90 ⇓ 0.14% | 71.85 | 72.00 / 71.50MIDASFIN | 0.16 | 10.21 | Vol. 43185 D: 33.00 ⇑ 3.13% | 32.95 | 33.50 / 30.00 C: 31.90 ⇑ 10.00% | 31.90 | 31.90 / 31.90FLEASEINT | 2.34 | 13.93 | Vol. 152060 D: 23.90 ⇓ 0.83% | 23.98 | 24.20 / 22.00 C: 23.80 ⇓ 1.65% | 23.93 | 24.50 / 23.60PLFSL | 1.37 | 17.48 | Vol. 301395 D: 21.30 ⇓ 1.39% | 21.36 | 22.00 / 19.50 C: 21.30 ⇓ 2.29% | 21.49 | 21.80 / 21.20PRIMEFIN | 0.87 | 17.88 | Vol. 146360 D: 21.90 ⇓ 0.90% | 22.04 | 22.50 / 20.50 C: 22.10 ⇓ 0.90% | 22.27 | 22.80 / 22.00PREMIERLEA | 0.10 | 11.37 | Vol. 63567 D: 10.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 10.32 | 10.50 / 9.20 C: 10.20 ⇓ 0.97% | 10.23 | 10.30 / 10.20ISLAMICFIN | 1.03 | 15.48 | Vol. 151575 D: 15.40 ⇑ 0.65% | 15.47 | 15.60 / 14.20 C: 15.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 15.50 | 15.50 / 15.50LANKABAFIN | 1.61 | 31.07 | Vol. 116532 D: 54.10 ⇓ 1.64% | 54.33 | 56.00 / 50.00 C: 54.10 ⇓ 1.64% | 54.24 | 55.00 / 53.90BIFC | 0.15 | 18.58 | Vol. 94427 D: 15.90 ⇓ 3.05% | 16.04 | 16.50 / 14.80 C: 16.00 ⇓ 2.44% | 16.11 | 16.20 / 16.00IPDC | 1.23 | 19.43 | Vol. 42380 D: 17.70 ⇓ 1.67% | 17.82 | 18.30 / 16.20 C: 18.00 ⇑ 0.56% | 17.93 | 18.30 / 17.80UNIONCAP | 0.54 | 17.85 | Vol. 24082 D: 28.90 ⇓ 0.69% | 28.86 | 29.10 / 26.60BDFINANCE | 0.57 | 14.77 | Vol. 149609 D: 20.00 ⇓ 3.38% | 20.08 | 21.50 / 18.70 C: 19.90 ⇓ 4.33% | 19.98 | 20.40 / 19.80ILFSL | 0.35 | 12.19 | Vol. 278500 D: 13.90 ⇓ 1.42% | 13.98 | 14.30 / 13.80 C: 13.90 ⇓ 0.71% | 13.88 | 14.00 / 13.70PHOENIXFIN | 2.46 | 19.39 | Vol. 73304 D: 27.50 ⇓ 2.14% | 27.62 | 28.00 / 27.00 C: 28.40 ⇑ 1.07% | 28.40 | 28.40 / 28.40FASFIN | 0.19 | 13.56 | Vol. 347000 D: 14.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 14.22 | 14.50 / 12.80 C: 14.00 ⇓ 0.71% | 14.05 | 14.20 / 14.00DBH | 4.47 | 21.27 | Vol. 28000 D: 53.00 ⇓ 2.39% | 53.19 | 54.80 / 53.00 C: 52.50 ⇓ 3.14% | 52.52 | 52.60 / 52.50NHFIL | 0.57 | 12.70 | Vol. 123700 D: 29.60 ⇑ 2.42% | 29.18 | 29.90 / 26.50 C: 29.50 ⇑ 1.03% | 29.21 | 29.70 / 28.80BAYLEASING | 0.72 | 25.55 | Vol. 84904 D: 25.50 ⇓ 1.16% | 25.58 | 26.00 / 23.50 C: 25.50 ⇓ 0.39% | 25.54 | 26.00 / 25.20ICB | 89.23 | 607.74 | Vol. 19256 D: 1597 ⇓ 13.96% | 1627 | 1698 / 1587 C: 1748 ⇓ 8.11% | 1748 | 1895 / 1605GSPFINANCE | 1.63 | 22.23 | Vol. 20464 D: 23.90 ⇓ 0.42% | 23.94 | 24.20 / 22.00 C: 23.90 ⇑ 0.84% | 23.97 | 24.00 / 23.90FAREASTFIN | 0.68 | 13.64 | Vol. 783500 D: 16.10 ⇑ 1.90% | 16.20 | 16.60 / 15.70 C: 16.30 ⇑ 2.52% | 16.25 | 16.60 / 16.00

INVESTMENT1STICB | 75.63 | 942.30 | Vol. 50 D: 860.0 ⇑ 1.18% | 860.00 | 860.0 / 860.03RDICB | 26.16 | 235.16 | Vol. 600 D: 175.0 ⇑ 1.10% | 175.00 | 175.0 / 175.04THICB | 29.24 | 229.24 | Vol. 1100 D: 174.7 ⇑ 1.87% | 174.55 | 175.5 / 172.0

6THICB | 10.99 | 60.14 | Vol. 7600 D: 45.20 ⇑ 0.44% | 45.14 | 45.60 / 44.80 C: 44.20 ⇑ 1.14% | 44.20 | 44.20 / 44.208THICB | 12.47 | 70.07 | Vol. 6000 D: 49.40 ⇑ 0.41% | 49.50 | 49.90 / 48.501STBSRS | 14.43 | 161.88 | Vol. 155000 D: 83.80 ⇓ 2.33% | 83.46 | 87.90 / 81.00 C: 87.30 ⇓ 9.81% | 87.33 | 87.40 / 87.20AIMS1STMF | 3.02 | 15.70 | Vol. 407000 D: 36.60 ⇓ 2.92% | 37.05 | 37.80 / 36.50 C: 37.10 ⇓ 1.07% | 37.20 | 37.70 / 36.20ICBISLAMIC | 2.21 | 26.81 | Vol. 23000 D: 16.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.70 | 17.10 / 16.00GRAMEEN1 | 6.26 | 33.23 | Vol. 204000 D: 43.90 ⇓ 1.57% | 44.26 | 45.00 / 43.80 C: 43.60 ⇓ 2.02% | 43.60 | 44.00 / 43.00ICB1STNRB | 4.06 | 35.31 | Vol. 16500 D: 21.70 ⇓ 1.81% | 21.76 | 22.50 / 21.50ICB2NDNRB | 2.49 | 16.24 | Vol. 127500 D: 8.90 ⇓ 1.11% | 9.00 | 9.20 / 8.90 C: 9.20 ⇓ 1.08% | 9.17 | 9.20 / 9.10GRAMEENS2 | 2.17 | 16.41 | Vol. 651000 D: 15.90 ⇓ 1.24% | 16.01 | 16.30 / 15.90 C: 15.90 ⇓ 1.24% | 15.94 | 16.30 / 15.801STPRIMFMF | 0.64 | 11.63 | Vol. 1046000 D: 21.40 ⇓ 4.89% | 21.97 | 23.00 / 21.30 C: 21.70 ⇓ 3.13% | 22.22 | 22.70 / 21.40EBL1STMF | 0.55 | 12.62 | Vol. 287368 D: 6.60 ⇓ 2.94% | 6.73 | 7.00 / 6.60 C: 6.70 ⇓ 1.47% | 6.70 | 6.80 / 6.70ICBAMCL2ND | 0.60 | 12.12 | Vol. 41500 D: 5.40 ⇓ 3.57% | 5.41 | 5.50 / 5.30 C: 5.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.50 | 5.50 / 5.50ICBEPMF1S1 | 0.52 | 11.32 | Vol. 127500 D: 5.60 ⇓ 3.45% | 5.71 | 5.80 / 5.60 C: 5.50 ⇓ 3.51% | 5.50 | 5.50 / 5.50TRUSTB1MF | 0.75 | 11.65 | Vol. 810711 D: 7.50 ⇓ 1.32% | 7.53 | 8.00 / 6.90 C: 7.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.45 | 7.50 / 7.00PRIME1ICBA | 0.42 | 11.18 | Vol. 86000 D: 5.10 ⇓ 1.92% | 5.12 | 5.20 / 5.10 C: 5.10 ⇓ 1.92% | 5.13 | 5.20 / 5.10DBH1STMF | -1.12 | 10.15 | Vol. 194500 D: 5.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.42 | 5.50 / 5.40 C: 5.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.41 | 5.50 / 5.40IFIC1STMF | 0.83 | 11.88 | Vol. 1096337 D: 6.20 ⇓ 1.59% | 6.28 | 6.40 / 6.00 C: 6.30 ⇑ 1.61% | 6.30 | 6.30 / 6.30PF1STMF | 0.51 | 11.11 | Vol. 165000 D: 5.20 ⇓ 1.89% | 5.27 | 5.40 / 5.20 C: 5.30 ⇓ 1.85% | 5.31 | 5.40 / 5.20ICB3RDNRB | 0.00 | 10.60 | Vol. 117000 D: 4.90 ⇓ 2.00% | 4.96 | 5.00 / 4.90 C: 4.90 ⇓ 2.00% | 4.95 | 5.00 / 4.901JANATAMF | 0.78 | 10.68 | Vol. 265500 D: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.73 | 5.90 / 5.70 C: 5.70 ⇓ 1.72% | 5.70 | 5.70 / 5.70GREENDELMF | -0.82 | 9.72 | Vol. 791500 D: 5.00 ⇓ 1.96% | 5.05 | 5.20 / 4.90 C: 5.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.04 | 5.20 / 5.00POPULAR1MF | 0.77 | 11.38 | Vol. 302478 D: 5.80 ⇓ 1.69% | 5.81 | 6.30 / 5.40 C: 5.80 ⇓ 1.69% | 5.80 | 5.80 / 5.40IFILISLMF1 | 0.00 | 10.45 | Vol. 75000 D: 5.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.13 | 5.20 / 5.10 C: 5.10 ⇓ 1.92% | 5.10 | 5.10 / 5.10PHPMF1 | 0.63 | 10.92 | Vol. 909500 D: 5.20 ⇓ 3.70% | 5.30 | 5.50 / 5.20 C: 5.20 ⇓ 5.45% | 5.30 | 5.50 / 5.20AIBL1STIMF | -0.07 | 9.25 | Vol. 4500 D: 6.30 ⇓ 1.56% | 6.30 | 6.30 / 6.30MBL1STMF | -0.16 | 9.08 | Vol. 165000 D: 6.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.28 | 6.40 / 6.20 C: 6.80 ⇑ 6.25% | 6.80 | 6.80 / 6.80SEBL1STMF | 0.94 | 11.85 | Vol. 745900 D: 8.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.20 | 8.40 / 8.10 C: 8.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.05 | 8.20 / 8.00EBLNRBMF | 1.07 | 10.88 | Vol. 500 D: 7.40 ⇓ 2.63% | 7.40 | 7.40 / 7.40RELIANCE1 | 0.95 | 10.33 | Vol. 394200 D: 8.20 ⇓ 2.38% | 8.29 | 9.10 / 7.90 C: 8.20 ⇓ 2.38% | 8.22 | 8.30 / 8.10LRGLOBMF1 | 0.50 | 10.82 | Vol. 566000 D: 7.70 ⇓ 6.10% | 7.81 | 8.20 / 7.50

ABB1STMF | 0.92 | 10.63 | Vol. 168000 D: 6.70 ⇓ 2.90% | 6.71 | 6.90 / 6.70 C: 6.70 ⇓ 1.47% | 6.67 | 6.70 / 6.60NLI1STMF | 1.17 | 12.22 | Vol. 971750 D: 9.00 ⇓ 4.26% | 9.19 | 9.50 / 9.00 C: 9.10 ⇓ 3.19% | 9.20 | 9.30 / 9.10FBFIF | 1.30 | 10.27 | Vol. 2000 D: 8.60 ⇑ 4.88% | 8.50 | 8.80 / 8.50NCCBLMF1 | 1.16 | 10.48 | Vol. 20000 D: 9.60 ⇓ 4.00% | 9.60 | 11.00 / 9.10ICBSONALI1 | 0.00 | 10.39 | Vol. 688500 D: 6.60 ⇓ 2.94% | 6.54 | 7.00 / 6.30 C: 6.60 ⇓ 4.35% | 6.64 | 6.90 / 6.50

ENGINEERINGAFTABAUTO | 4.29 | 52.65 | Vol. 185478 D: 104.0 ⇑ 1.07% | 103.50 | 105.0 / 93.00 C: 103.8 ⇑ 0.68% | 103.96 | 105.0 / 103.1AZIZPIPES | 0.39 | -42.04 | Vol. 9600 D: 19.40 ⇓ 8.92% | 19.78 | 21.10 / 19.40 C: 21.40 ⇓ 9.70% | 21.51 | 22.00 / 21.40OLYMPIC | 5.94 | 14.91 | Vol. 87593 D: 199.9 ⇓ 2.30% | 201.51 | 206.0 / 192.0 C: 202.9 ⇓ 0.54% | 202.86 | 205.1 / 200.1BDLAMPS | -5.31 | 37.07 | Vol. 13300 D: 143.8 ⇓ 1.91% | 144.48 | 147.1 / 143.0 C: 145.1 ⇓ 1.43% | 145.01 | 145.1 / 145.0ECABLES | 2.04 | 18.87 | Vol. 4800 D: 71.70 ⇑ 1.85% | 71.70 | 72.00 / 70.10 C: 65.50 ⇓ 8.65% | 65.50 | 65.50 / 65.50MONNOSTAF | 5.31 | 44.78 | Vol. 650 D: 320.1 ⇑ 0.82% | 320.00 | 337.9 / 300.0SINGERBD | 9.99 | 45.74 | Vol. 55250 D: 190.9 ⇓ 1.29% | 192.49 | 195.0 / 183.0 C: 191.9 ⇓ 0.78% | 192.03 | 192.2 / 191.7ATLASBANG | 11.98 | 207.70 | Vol. 5533 D: 166.3 ⇓ 0.72% | 166.81 | 169.9 / 151.0BDAUTOCA | 0.25 | 6.23 | Vol. 21100 D: 42.20 ⇓ 1.40% | 42.89 | 44.20 / 41.90QSMDRYCELL | 1.17 | 57.54 | Vol. 130620 D: 32.80 ⇓ 2.67% | 33.05 | 33.80 / 32.00 C: 32.40 ⇓ 1.82% | 32.59 | 33.00 / 32.40RENWICKJA | 5.62 | -90.00 | Vol. 7550 D: 142.2 ⇓ 3.66% | 143.18 | 146.0 / 140.0NTLTUBES | -2.52 | 312.10 | Vol. 17500 D: 71.50 ⇓ 1.24% | 71.37 | 72.90 / 70.60BDTHAI | 0.43 | 39.35 | Vol. 355298 D: 28.20 ⇓ 2.42% | 28.37 | 29.20 / 26.20 C: 28.20 ⇓ 1.40% | 28.20 | 28.40 / 28.00ANWARGALV | 0.51 | 8.08 | Vol. 146000 D: 27.80 ⇑ 5.30% | 27.59 | 28.50 / 26.70 C: 27.90 ⇑ 3.72% | 27.85 | 28.30 / 27.00KAY&QUE | -3.89 | 6.03 | Vol. 7650 D: 17.00 ⇓ 5.03% | 16.98 | 17.10 / 16.20 C: 17.00 ⇓ 2.86% | 17.00 | 17.00 / 17.00RANFOUNDRY | 2.84 | 18.62 | Vol. 38000 D: 91.60 ⇓ 1.72% | 92.54 | 94.80 / 91.50 C: 92.00 ⇑ 0.77% | 92.00 | 92.00 / 92.00SALAMCRST | 3.31 | 20.00 | Vol. 67900 D: 38.20 ⇓ 1.80% | 38.42 | 39.10 / 36.00 C: 38.30 ⇓ 0.52% | 38.12 | 38.30 / 38.00GOLDENSON | 3.70 | 28.70 | Vol. 261049 D: 39.50 ⇓ 1.25% | 39.52 | 40.30 / 36.00 C: 39.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 40.65 | 42.40 / 39.30BSRMSTEEL | 3.06 | 19.53 | Vol. 71515 D: 62.40 ⇓ 2.19% | 62.77 | 64.00 / 57.50 C: 62.60 ⇓ 2.19% | 62.95 | 63.50 / 62.20NAVANACNG | 4.09 | 27.04 | Vol. 49105 D: 63.10 ⇓ 0.79% | 63.31 | 64.00 / 58.00 C: 63.40 ⇑ 0.16% | 63.44 | 64.00 / 63.00DESHBANDHU | 0.26 | 10.67 | Vol. 339323 D: 17.50 ⇓ 1.13% | 17.69 | 18.10 / 16.00 C: 17.60 ⇓ 2.22% | 17.79 | 18.00 / 17.50GPHISPAT | 2.11 | 15.27 | Vol. 52200 D: 40.30 ⇓ 1.71% | 40.45 | 41.20 / 39.00 C: 40.90 ⇑ 2.00% | 40.65 | 41.00 / 40.10BENGALWTL | 2.42 | 20.72 | Vol. 69400 D: 43.10 ⇓ 1.82% | 43.46 | 44.30 / 43.10 C: 43.20 ⇓ 0.92% | 43.23 | 43.50 / 43.10NPOLYMAR | 2.01 | 324.37 | Vol. 29930 D: 54.10 ⇓ 0.92% | 54.51 | 55.90 / 50.00 C: 53.00 ⇓ 3.81% | 53.00 | 53.00 / 53.00

FOOD & ALLIEDAPEXFOODS | 2.54 | 90.81 | Vol. 15900 D: 91.40 ⇓ 1.08% | 91.37 | 92.10 / 91.00 C: 90.20 ⇓ 3.43% | 90.17 | 90.20 / 90.10BANGAS | 7.20 | 50.27 | Vol. 46475 D: 448.6 ⇓ 0.58% | 453.25 | 460.0 / 440.0 C: 450.7 ⇓ 0.33% | 455.32 | 464.9 / 448.0BATBC | 65.69 | 117.22 | Vol. 241713 D: 1590 ⇑ 5.02% | 1595 | 1600 / 1420NTC | 29.88 | 110.05 | Vol. 550 D: 791.6 ⇓ 1.16% | 791.43 | 792.0 / 791.0 C: 810.0 ⇓ 1.22% | 810.00 | 810.0 / 810.0ZEALBANGLA | -23.01 | -193.09 | Vol. 1100 D: 9.00 ⇓ 4.26% | 9.09 | 9.30 / 9.00AMCL(PRAN) | 6.53 | 53.37 | Vol. 42610 D: 241.9 ⇓ 3.28% | 244.94 | 255.2 / 239.3 C: 241.9 ⇓ 4.35% | 244.85 | 250.0 / 240.2SHYAMPSUG | -36.87 | -355.85 | Vol. 3700 D: 8.10 ⇓ 1.22% | 8.11 | 8.20 / 7.80FUWANGFOOD | 1.26 | 12.37 | Vol. 227376 D: 24.30 ⇓ 0.82% | 24.47 | 25.20 / 22.50 C: 24.40 ⇓ 0.41% | 24.48 | 24.70 / 24.00MEGHNAPET | -0.58 | -1.02 | Vol. 12500 D: 8.60 ⇓ 7.53% | 8.72 | 8.90 / 8.40MEGCONMILK | -6.68 | -16.22 | Vol. 8500 D: 8.00 ⇓ 3.61% | 8.00 | 8.20 / 7.90BEACHHATCH | 1.01 | 12.48 | Vol. 660269 D: 24.50 ⇓ 3.92% | 24.88 | 25.70 / 23.00 C: 24.50 ⇓ 3.16% | 24.44 | 25.50 / 24.00FINEFOODS | -0.11 | 10.58 | Vol. 434520 D: 27.40 ⇓ 6.16% | 28.27 | 29.80 / 27.00 C: 27.90 ⇓ 3.79% | 28.59 | 29.90 / 27.20RDFOOD | 0.91 | 16.84 | Vol. 1088410 D: 22.10 ⇓ 1.34% | 22.16 | 22.90 / 20.50 C: 22.20 ⇓ 0.89% | 22.40 | 23.60 / 22.00GHAIL | 1.01 | 22.08 | Vol. 228780 D: 42.60 ⇓ 0.47% | 42.50 | 43.00 / 39.00 C: 42.50 ⇓ 0.93% | 42.18 | 42.50 / 42.10

FUEL & POWERLINDEBD | 31.71 | 144.00 | Vol. 5250 D: 642.9 ⇑ 0.14% | 639.43 | 644.0 / 635.0PADMAOIL | 16.38 | 43.67 | Vol. 160546 D: 303.1 ⇓ 3.78% | 307.59 | 315.9 / 290.0 C: 302.4 ⇓ 3.57% | 306.01 | 315.0 / 302.0EASTRNLUB | 6.32 | 68.68 | Vol. 400 D: 326.0 ⇓ 4.79% | 325.00 | 330.1 / 325.0BDWELDING | 0.33 | 16.82 | Vol. 320597 D: 22.10 ⇓ 1.34% | 22.29 | 22.90 / 21.00 C: 22.30 ⇓ 0.45% | 22.17 | 22.50 / 22.00SUMITPOWER | 3.17 | 19.26 | Vol. 323726 D: 30.70 ⇓ 2.54% | 31.04 | 31.70 / 28.40 C: 30.90 ⇓ 1.28% | 31.31 | 33.60 / 30.80DESCO | 2.80 | 35.25 | Vol. 45875 D: 70.70 ⇓ 1.53% | 71.03 | 72.70 / 66.00 C: 71.10 ⇓ 0.84% | 71.10 | 71.10 / 71.10POWERGRID | 2.56 | 48.08 | Vol. 30720 D: 53.90 ⇓ 0.37% | 53.94 | 55.00 / 50.00JAMUNAOIL | 22.78 | 50.24 | Vol. 164834 D: 218.2 ⇓ 1.89% | 219.39 | 221.9 / 215.0 C: 218.9 ⇓ 1.57% | 219.66 | 220.2 / 218.5MPETROLEUM | 16.98 | 40.41 | Vol. 185706 D: 253.2 ⇓ 2.28% | 254.31 | 260.0 / 237.0 C: 254.5 ⇓ 1.93% | 254.78 | 260.0 / 253.0TITASGAS | 9.01 | 36.56 | Vol. 379377 D: 80.90 ⇓ 1.22% | 80.97 | 82.90 / 74.00 C: 80.20 ⇓ 1.35% | 80.32 | 80.50 / 80.10KPCL | 4.73 | 15.86 | Vol. 113381 D: 43.80 ⇓ 2.01% | 43.93 | 45.00 / 41.00 C: 44.20 ⇓ 1.12% | 44.09 | 44.90 / 43.70BEDL | 1.48 | 19.43 | Vol. 403354 D: 26.20 ⇓ 4.38% | 26.61 | 27.70 / 24.70 C: 26.30 ⇓ 4.01% | 26.86 | 27.50 / 26.20MJLBD | 2.73 | 30.24 | Vol. 38268 D: 69.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 69.25 | 70.00 / 63.00 C: 68.70 ⇓ 1.01% | 68.38 | 69.00 / 63.00GBBPOWER | 1.86 | 22.63 | Vol. 332132 D: 25.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 25.15 | 27.00 / 22.60 C: 25.30 ⇑ 0.40% | 25.18 | 25.40 / 25.00SPPCL | 3.81 | 23.34 | Vol. 301420 D: 48.90 ⇓ 1.81% | 49.09 | 50.10 / 44.90 C: 49.30 ⇓ 1.40% | 49.46 | 50.20 / 48.80

DHAKA TRIBUNE Share TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 20136 DHAKA TRIBUNE Share6

DSE Broad Index: 3857.25 ⇓ 0.65%, Turnover: 2332.67 M.Tk ⇓ 5.40%, PE: 12.22 Turnover 2,515.84 MTk. ⇓ 4.85% October 7, 2013 MarketCap. 1,880.93 BTk. ⇓ 0.96% CSE All Share Index: 11955 ⇓ 0.53%, Turnover: 183.17 M Tk. ⇑ 2.86%, PE: 12.04

Combined Turnover Leader Vol. TO M.

Tk.% of TTL Avg. P

BATBCL -A 241713 385.57 15.33 1,595.16

Argon Denims Limited-A 2283160 105.66 4.20 46.28

CMC Kamal Tex. -A 2170120 71.92 2.86 33.14

Square Pharma -A 364580 62.78 2.50 172.19

BD Submarine Cable-A 259930 54.61 2.17 210.09

DSE Gainer C % A % CP

Progressive Life-A 9.26 9.80 114.50

CMC Kamal Tex.-A 7.96 3.34 33.90

PragatiLife Insu.-A 6.84 3.43 120.30

Prime Islami Life-A 6.26 4.47 98.40

Jute Spinners-A 6.01 2.84 119.90

DSE Loser C % A % CP

ICB-A -13.96 -14.58 1597.25

Imam Button -Z -9.82 -10.86 10.10

Aziz Pipes-Z -8.92 -7.96 19.40Meghna PET Ind.-Z -7.53 -4.49 8.60

Fine Foods-A -6.16 -8.30 27.40

CompanyCode | EPS | BV | Volume Traded (Share)DSE/CSE: ClosePrice ⇓/⇑ Chn % | Avg.Price | Hi / Lo

ShareDHAKA TRIBUNE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013 7ShareDHAKA TRIBUNE 7

October 07, 2013 Sectotal Index: BANK: 31,160.53 ⇓ 0.11% NBFI: 19,082.10 ⇓ 0.87% INVS: 4,651.90 ⇓ 1.00% ENGG: 5,675.22 ⇓ 0.62% FOOD: 9,919.01 ⇓ 0.90% F&P: 9,888.47 ⇓ 1.56% TEXT: 3,053.08 ⇑ 0.32% PHAR: 16,737.65 ⇓ 0.49% PAPR: 1,084.11 ⇓ 1.52% SERV: 2,847.26 ⇓ 1.25% LEAT: 5,139.58 ⇓ 0.05% CERA: 491.30 ⇓ 0.09% CMNT: 4,312.83 ⇓ 0.71% INFO: 7,294.82 ⇓ 1.92% GINS: 9,454.99 ⇓ 0.41% LINS: 110,843.60 ⇑ 1.30% TELC: 1,316.45 ⇓ 0.95% MISC: 5,979.64 ⇓ 1.05%

JUTEJUTESPINN | 2.06 | 17.42 | Vol. 8900 D: 119.9 ⇑ 6.01% | 117.08 | 124.0 / 109.0SONALIANSH | 5.54 | 218.80 | Vol. 11750 D: 142.7 ⇓ 2.06% | 142.72 | 145.1 / 141.2

TEXTILEAL-HAJTEX | 1.35 | 15.64 | Vol. 69210 D: 91.00 ⇓ 2.57% | 92.39 | 96.00 / 90.50RAHIMTEXT | 0.51 | 73.88 | Vol. 150 D: 267.3 ⇓ 1.22% | 266.67 | 270.0 / 263.0SAIHAMTEX | 2.75 | 29.50 | Vol. 373500 D: 30.90 ⇓ 0.32% | 30.97 | 31.50 / 30.80 C: 31.30 ⇑ 0.97% | 31.02 | 31.40 / 30.30MODERNDYE | 0.91 | 10.37 | Vol. 600 D: 106.0 ⇑ 1.73% | 106.67 | 114.6 / 102.0DSHGARME | 0.72 | 12.00 | Vol. 37000 D: 75.60 ⇑ 1.34% | 74.78 | 78.90 / 72.00DULAMIACOT | -8.46 | -27.78 | Vol. 2700 D: 9.00 ⇓ 3.23% | 8.89 | 9.20 / 8.90TALLUSPIN | 2.56 | 12.06 | Vol. 674791 D: 43.20 ⇓ 0.69% | 43.49 | 44.10 / 42.80 C: 43.30 ⇓ 0.23% | 43.35 | 43.80 / 43.10APEXSPINN | 2.01 | 49.32 | Vol. 4400 D: 69.10 ⇓ 2.68% | 69.09 | 69.50 / 68.30MITHUNKNIT | 4.54 | 30.39 | Vol. 71600 D: 93.90 ⇓ 3.89% | 94.72 | 98.50 / 92.20 C: 92.60 ⇓ 5.12% | 92.74 | 93.60 / 92.30DELTASPINN | 3.06 | 18.12 | Vol. 154100 D: 32.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 32.27 | 33.50 / 32.00 C: 32.40 ⇓ 0.61% | 32.32 | 32.80 / 32.10SONARGAON | 0.27 | 34.50 | Vol. 181770 D: 19.00 ⇓ 2.06% | 19.12 | 20.00 / 18.50 C: 19.00 ⇓ 2.56% | 19.07 | 19.60 / 18.60PRIMETEX | 1.01 | 63.54 | Vol. 158500 D: 27.00 ⇓ 0.37% | 27.13 | 28.80 / 26.70 C: 27.50 ⇑ 0.73% | 27.12 | 27.90 / 26.60ALLTEX | -0.11 | 23.81 | Vol. 41500 D: 8.70 ⇓ 1.14% | 8.80 | 8.90 / 8.60 C: 9.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.71 | 9.00 / 8.60ANLIMAYARN | 1.19 | 11.01 | Vol. 164000 D: 36.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 36.12 | 36.60 / 35.70 C: 36.70 ⇑ 2.51% | 36.18 | 36.70 / 36.00HRTEX | 2.08 | 14.92 | Vol. 152700 D: 39.50 ⇑ 3.13% | 39.07 | 40.60 / 37.50 C: 40.50 ⇑ 3.85% | 41.30 | 41.70 / 40.50CMCKAMAL | 1.37 | 19.31 | Vol. 2170120 D: 33.90 ⇑ 7.96% | 33.14 | 34.40 / 29.00SAFKOSPINN | 0.95 | 21.78 | Vol. 312800 D: 24.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 24.67 | 25.20 / 23.00 C: 24.90 ⇑ 0.81% | 24.64 | 25.50 / 24.20SQUARETEXT | 4.32 | 31.82 | Vol. 144805 D: 89.30 ⇑ 0.45% | 88.85 | 89.50 / 88.30 C: 88.30 ⇑ 0.23% | 87.91 | 88.30 / 87.50METROSPIN | -1.00 | 19.59 | Vol. 221890 D: 17.00 ⇓ 1.16% | 17.10 | 17.90 / 16.00 C: 17.00 ⇓ 1.16% | 17.04 | 17.20 / 16.90MAKSONSPIN | 0.16 | 20.55 | Vol. 880753 D: 15.70 ⇑ 1.29% | 15.70 | 16.00 / 14.00 C: 15.80 ⇑ 1.28% | 15.74 | 16.50 / 14.10DACCADYE | 1.21 | 31.13 | Vol. 212599 D: 26.50 ⇓ 0.75% | 26.56 | 27.10 / 24.50 C: 26.60 ⇓ 0.75% | 26.46 | 26.70 / 26.30RNSPIN | 2.80 | 16.58 | Vol. 1095084 D: 28.20 ⇓ 1.05% | 28.35 | 28.80 / 25.90 C: 28.30 ⇓ 0.70% | 28.37 | 28.60 / 28.10BXSYNTH | 0.93 | 25.42 | Vol. 234812 D: 15.30 ⇓ 1.29% | 15.45 | 15.80 / 14.00 C: 15.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 15.50 | 15.90 / 15.40MALEKSPIN | -1.44 | 46.87 | Vol. 283515 D: 24.70 ⇓ 1.20% | 24.86 | 26.00 / 23.00 C: 24.70 ⇓ 1.20% | 24.76 | 25.20 / 24.60ZAHINTEX | 1.91 | 35.25 | Vol. 205250 D: 30.30 ⇑ 0.33% | 30.37 | 30.70 / 27.90 C: 30.50 ⇓ 0.33% | 30.49 | 30.60 / 30.40SAIHAMCOT | 1.92 | 23.62 | Vol. 369250 D: 23.80 ⇓ 0.83% | 24.00 | 25.50 / 23.80 C: 23.80 ⇓ 0.83% | 23.98 | 24.20 / 23.80GENNEXT | 1.68 | 15.15 | Vol. 1715926 D: 21.70 ⇓ 1.36% | 21.85 | 22.30 / 20.00 C: 21.80 ⇓ 1.36% | 21.85 | 22.30 / 21.60ENVOYTEX | 3.26 | 39.26 | Vol. 500300 D: 53.10 ⇓ 0.38% | 53.05 | 53.50 / 48.00 C: 52.90 ⇓ 0.19% | 52.92 | 53.00 / 52.30ARGONDENIM | 1.89 | 38.86 | Vol. 2283160 D: 47.20 ⇑ 5.12% | 46.32 | 48.40 / 40.50 C: 47.10 ⇑ 5.84% | 46.07 | 48.00 / 45.00

FAMILYTEX | 3.72 | 14.68 | Vol. 725000 D: 37.70 ⇑ 5.60% | 37.19 | 38.00 / 35.90 C: 37.40 ⇑ 5.95% | 36.87 | 37.50 / 36.00

PHARMACEUTICAL & CHEMICALAMBEEPHA | 3.94 | 26.15 | Vol. 8000 D: 267.2 ⇓ 2.98% | 270.13 | 273.5 / 266.3 C: 271.2 ⇓ 2.09% | 271.15 | 271.2 / 271.0BXPHARMA | 3.77 | 52.55 | Vol. 123878 D: 42.20 ⇓ 1.86% | 42.42 | 44.00 / 38.70 C: 42.30 ⇓ 2.98% | 42.63 | 43.10 / 42.20GLAXOSMITH | 20.25 | 123.32 | Vol. 450 D: 877.6 ⇓ 0.50% | 877.78 | 899.9 / 870.0ACI | -5.82 | 126.42 | Vol. 12170 D: 159.6 ⇑ 0.69% | 158.75 | 161.0 / 150.0RENATA | 33.57 | 138.83 | Vol. 4252 D: 717.7 ⇑ 2.40% | 713.08 | 720.0 / 670.0PHARMAID | 5.06 | 26.30 | Vol. 19300 D: 175.7 ⇓ 1.01% | 176.63 | 180.0 / 175.0IBNSINA | 3.44 | 34.02 | Vol. 38860 D: 104.5 ⇓ 0.85% | 105.28 | 107.2 / 97.90 C: 103.5 ⇓ 2.08% | 103.68 | 105.1 / 103.1LIBRAINFU | 4.64 | 1565.37 | Vol. 1200 D: 448.6 ⇓ 2.33% | 448.33 | 479.0 / 422.0ORIONINFU | 8.72 | 1.73 | Vol. 81800 D: 43.70 ⇓ 1.58% | 44.00 | 44.70 / 43.10 C: 44.00 ⇓ 1.35% | 44.07 | 44.30 / 43.80SQURPHARMA | 6.93 | 37.18 | Vol. 364580 D: 172.5 ⇑ 0.29% | 172.21 | 182.0 / 157.0 C: 171.9 ⇑ 0.41% | 171.89 | 173.0 / 170.8IMAMBUTTON | -1.68 | 5.67 | Vol. 50500 D: 10.10 ⇓ 9.82% | 10.10 | 10.10 / 10.10KEYACOSMET | 1.55 | 21.54 | Vol. 357819 D: 24.10 ⇓ 0.41% | 24.16 | 24.50 / 21.80 C: 24.00 ⇓ 0.83% | 23.97 | 24.20 / 23.60BERGERPBL | 32.46 | 100.20 | Vol. 1950 D: 813.6 ⇓ 1.76% | 812.31 | 820.0 / 805.0ACIFORMULA | 3.33 | 38.08 | Vol. 10000 D: 76.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 76.92 | 77.50 / 76.10 C: 77.10 ⇑ 0.13% | 76.48 | 77.10 / 75.20MARICO | 27.53 | 62.47 | Vol. 4850 D: 775.7 ⇑ 0.19% | 793.05 | 815.0 / 769.9 C: 770.0 ⇓ 0.88% | 770.00 | 770.0 / 770.0BEACONPHAR | 0.33 | 11.97 | Vol. 126100 D: 14.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 14.25 | 14.40 / 13.70 C: 14.30 ⇓ 0.69% | 14.40 | 14.50 / 14.30ACTIVEFINE | 3.23 | 13.89 | Vol. 286434 D: 90.40 ⇑ 0.67% | 89.90 | 91.00 / 81.00 C: 89.40 ⇓ 0.89% | 89.42 | 90.00 / 89.00SALVOCHEM | 0.68 | 10.57 | Vol. 244526 D: 21.00 ⇑ 0.48% | 21.00 | 21.30 / 19.00 C: 21.10 ⇑ 0.48% | 21.09 | 21.30 / 20.80GHCL | 2.14 | 57.31 | Vol. 32000 D: 46.00 ⇓ 0.22% | 45.97 | 46.60 / 45.50 C: 46.20 ⇑ 1.09% | 46.10 | 46.20 / 46.00ORIONPHARM | 5.02 | 68.68 | Vol. 611900 D: 62.70 ⇓ 0.95% | 63.25 | 63.90 / 57.00 C: 62.70 ⇓ 0.79% | 63.16 | 64.00 / 62.60JMISMDL | 1.12 | 12.83 | Vol. 146500 D: 251.0 ⇑ 2.03% | 247.83 | 253.8 / 236.0 C: 249.1 ⇓ 1.93% | 246.27 | 255.0 / 240.0

PAPER & PACKAGINGHAKKANIPUL | 0.64 | 11.02 | Vol. 11500 D: 31.70 ⇓ 1.25% | 31.73 | 32.90 / 31.30 C: 31.00 ⇓ 3.73% | 31.18 | 31.40 / 30.30

SERVICESAMORITA | 2.31 | 17.25 | Vol. 23188 D: 104.4 ⇓ 1.60% | 105.84 | 109.7 / 102.0

SAPORTL | 1.23 | 38.39 | Vol. 82027 D: 25.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 25.19 | 25.50 / 24.50 C: 25.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 25.12 | 25.20 / 25.10EHL | 2.87 | 18.48 | Vol. 103640 D: 54.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 54.08 | 54.70 / 48.70 C: 54.00 ⇓ 0.74% | 53.99 | 54.50 / 53.80

LEATHERAPEXTANRY | 6.57 | 69.38 | Vol. 77500 D: 115.5 ⇑ 0.00% | 115.46 | 117.0 / 113.2 C: 114.6 ⇓ 0.09% | 114.67 | 120.0 / 114.0BATASHOE | 49.12 | 135.53 | Vol. 2500 D: 703.5 ⇓ 0.13% | 703.60 | 706.9 / 702.1APEXADELFT | 23.01 | 203.26 | Vol. 7600 D: 365.4 ⇑ 0.16% | 366.32 | 374.0 / 363.1SAMATALETH | -0.07 | 12.08 | Vol. 3000 D: 11.80 ⇓ 0.84% | 12.00 | 12.00 / 11.60LEGACYFOOT | 0.63 | 17.19 | Vol. 253841 D: 40.70 ⇓ 0.25% | 40.85 | 41.90 / 36.80 C: 40.50 ⇓ 0.98% | 40.62 | 42.00 / 39.80

CERAMICMONNOCERA | 0.71 | 96.33 | Vol. 124700 D: 36.90 ⇑ 4.53% | 36.66 | 37.20 / 35.80 C: 36.10 ⇑ 0.28% | 36.10 | 36.10 / 36.10STANCERAM | 1.07 | 15.97 | Vol. 4500 D: 38.30 ⇓ 2.79% | 38.44 | 40.90 / 38.00FUWANGCER | 1.43 | 13.25 | Vol. 174705 D: 19.30 ⇓ 0.52% | 19.40 | 19.80 / 18.50 C: 19.10 ⇓ 2.05% | 19.16 | 19.30 / 18.80SPCERAMICS | 0.62 | 30.92 | Vol. 150788 D: 15.90 ⇓ 0.63% | 15.98 | 16.30 / 15.00 C: 16.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.06 | 16.20 / 16.00RAKCERAMIC | 1.98 | 16.76 | Vol. 120697 D: 49.40 ⇓ 1.00% | 49.61 | 50.90 / 45.00 C: 50.20 ⇑ 0.40% | 49.99 | 53.00 / 49.60

CEMENTHEIDELBCEM | 22.85 | 111.50 | Vol. 51100 D: 359.7 ⇑ 0.28% | 361.06 | 365.0 / 358.0 C: 358.4 ⇓ 1.78% | 377.65 | 384.0 / 355.1CONFIDCEM | 6.23 | 90.76 | Vol. 73815 D: 114.9 ⇓ 1.88% | 115.67 | 118.3 / 107.2 C: 115.9 ⇓ 0.86% | 115.89 | 116.5 / 115.2MEGHNACEM | 6.28 | 33.81 | Vol. 56100 D: 130.9 ⇓ 0.46% | 131.29 | 133.0 / 129.6 C: 130.0 ⇓ 3.70% | 130.00 | 130.0 / 130.0ARAMITCEM | 3.03 | 14.65 | Vol. 65400 D: 70.30 ⇓ 4.35% | 71.34 | 75.00 / 66.50 C: 74.90 ⇑ 1.49% | 74.90 | 74.90 / 74.90LAFSURCEML | 1.60 | 7.22 | Vol. 449000 D: 33.70 ⇑ 0.30% | 33.72 | 33.80 / 33.60 C: 33.80 ⇑ 0.30% | 33.77 | 33.80 / 33.60MICEMENT | 4.14 | 40.00 | Vol. 125111 D: 91.00 ⇓ 0.98% | 91.22 | 92.20 / 84.00 C: 90.90 ⇓ 0.76% | 90.42 | 91.50 / 90.60PREMIERCEM | 3.59 | 22.92 | Vol. 85000 D: 102.7 ⇓ 0.48% | 102.87 | 104.5 / 101.5 C: 102.0 ⇓ 1.26% | 101.91 | 103.0 / 101.3

IT IINDUSTRIESISNLTD | 0.28 | 17.31 | Vol. 137016 D: 19.20 ⇓ 2.54% | 19.54 | 20.30 / 18.00 C: 19.30 ⇓ 2.03% | 19.45 | 20.80 / 19.00BDCOM | 1.00 | 14.91 | Vol. 278535 D: 26.00 ⇓ 1.52% | 26.26 | 27.10 / 23.80 C: 26.00 ⇓ 5.11% | 27.48 | 27.90 / 25.80INTECH | 0.94 | 10.08 | Vol. 212136 D: 16.90 ⇑ 1.81% | 16.79 | 17.80 / 15.50 C: 17.00 ⇑ 1.80% | 17.08 | 17.90 / 16.60AGNISYSL | 1.07 | 25.52 | Vol. 135577 D: 22.70 ⇓ 1.73% | 22.85 | 23.40 / 21.50 C: 22.90 ⇓ 0.43% | 22.97 | 23.40 / 22.70

DAFODILCOM | 1.12 | 11.14 | Vol. 135000 D: 17.90 ⇓ 0.56% | 18.05 | 18.90 / 17.80 C: 18.00 ⇓ 1.10% | 17.99 | 18.00 / 17.90AAMRATECH | 1.46 | 21.90 | Vol. 556350 D: 33.00 ⇓ 2.65% | 33.42 | 34.20 / 30.00 C: 33.00 ⇓ 2.94% | 33.31 | 34.40 / 32.90

GENERAL INSURANCEBGIC | 1.65 | 20.33 | Vol. 204774 D: 28.50 ⇓ 2.73% | 28.68 | 31.00 / 26.40 C: 28.70 ⇓ 4.33% | 28.90 | 29.00 / 28.70GREENDELT | 4.05 | 64.44 | Vol. 17499 D: 97.60 ⇓ 0.20% | 98.12 | 100.0 / 94.00UNITEDINS | 2.47 | 21.04 | Vol. 3600 D: 44.40 ⇓ 0.67% | 44.44 | 44.80 / 44.20PEOPLESINS | 2.05 | 20.72 | Vol. 397430 D: 34.20 ⇓ 0.29% | 34.58 | 35.20 / 32.00 C: 34.30 ⇑ 0.29% | 34.38 | 35.10 / 34.00EASTERNINS | 2.22 | 35.88 | Vol. 6000 D: 38.80 ⇓ 1.52% | 38.83 | 40.90 / 38.20JANATAINS | 7.84 | 170.69 | Vol. 14990 D: 265.0 ⇓ 2.66% | 267.97 | 283.8 / 250.0 C: 267.0 ⇓ 3.96% | 267.30 | 270.3 / 265.3PHENIXINS | 2.70 | 20.96 | Vol. 26995 D: 40.50 ⇓ 0.25% | 40.49 | 40.70 / 38.00EASTLAND | 4.06 | 23.29 | Vol. 121600 D: 46.50 ⇓ 1.06% | 46.80 | 47.70 / 46.40 C: 47.50 ⇑ 3.04% | 46.80 | 47.50 / 46.30CENTRALINS | 1.54 | 19.04 | Vol. 7112 D: 29.10 ⇓ 1.02% | 29.13 | 29.50 / 27.00 C: 29.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 29.00 | 29.00 / 29.00KARNAPHULI | 1.56 | 19.42 | Vol. 74600 D: 23.70 ⇓ 2.47% | 23.91 | 24.50 / 23.50RUPALIINS | 2.76 | 23.38 | Vol. 52579 D: 31.90 ⇓ 1.54% | 32.14 | 32.70 / 30.00 C: 31.80 ⇓ 2.15% | 32.12 | 32.50 / 31.50FEDERALINS | 1.10 | 10.98 | Vol. 154450 D: 23.40 ⇑ 0.43% | 23.38 | 23.90 / 21.00 C: 23.50 ⇑ 0.43% | 23.54 | 24.00 / 23.20RELIANCINS | 3.93 | 61.52 | Vol. 1500 D: 72.80 ⇓ 3.96% | 72.67 | 72.90 / 72.80PURABIGEN | 1.05 | 18.71 | Vol. 140190 D: 22.40 ⇓ 0.88% | 22.47 | 23.10 / 21.50PRAGATIINS | 2.01 | 50.30 | Vol. 13000 D: 55.00 ⇓ 1.79% | 55.04 | 55.30 / 55.00 C: 55.00 ⇑ 3.38% | 55.00 | 55.00 / 55.00PRIMEINSUR | 2.14 | 14.14 | Vol. 45816 D: 32.00 ⇓ 0.31% | 32.08 | 32.70 / 29.90PIONEERINS | 3.11 | 23.84 | Vol. 36000 D: 66.20 ⇓ 1.49% | 66.25 | 67.00 / 65.80MERCINS | 1.53 | 14.50 | Vol. 100459 D: 30.20 ⇓ 0.33% | 30.36 | 33.30 / 27.30 C: 29.00 ⇑ 0.35% | 29.37 | 31.00 / 29.00AGRANINS | 1.73 | 14.39 | Vol. 73928 D: 28.50 ⇓ 0.35% | 28.37 | 28.90 / 26.00GLOBALINS | 1.09 | 11.78 | Vol. 41862 D: 30.00 ⇑ 0.33% | 30.00 | 32.00 / 28.00NITOLINS | 2.59 | 15.41 | Vol. 12494 D: 35.00 ⇑ 1.16% | 34.98 | 35.50 / 32.00ASIAPACINS | 1.84 | 13.76 | Vol. 80500 D: 30.20 ⇓ 2.27% | 30.72 | 31.10 / 29.90SONARBAINS | 1.68 | 13.38 | Vol. 67000 D: 25.80 ⇓ 0.39% | 25.85 | 26.50 / 25.50 C: 25.50 ⇓ 1.54% | 25.50 | 25.50 / 25.50PARAMOUNT | 1.26 | 13.19 | Vol. 40129 D: 24.00 ⇓ 1.64% | 24.00 | 25.00 / 22.00CITYGENINS | 1.65 | 14.26 | Vol. 130923 D: 28.70 ⇓ 1.71% | 28.86 | 29.60 / 28.50 C: 28.90 ⇓ 3.02% | 28.92 | 29.00 / 28.80CONTININS | 1.41 | 15.68 | Vol. 223223 D: 32.50 ⇓ 1.52% | 32.61 | 33.60 / 30.00 C: 33.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 33.70 | 33.70 / 33.70TAKAFULINS | 2.19 | 15.17 | Vol. 44032 D: 44.60 ⇑ 0.22% | 44.81 | 45.50 / 41.70 C: 43.70 ⇑ 1.16% | 43.46 | 44.20 / 43.50STANDARINS | 2.58 | 13.99 | Vol. 626 D: 40.60 ⇑ 3.31% | 39.88 | 40.60 / 37.00NORTHRNINS | 1.77 | 11.15 | Vol. 55060 D: 44.40 ⇓ 1.77% | 44.64 | 47.80 / 40.70 C: 44.20 ⇑ 0.45% | 44.20 | 44.20 / 44.20REPUBLIC | 2.14 | 12.42 | Vol. 43579 D: 44.30 ⇓ 4.94% | 44.78 | 46.50 / 44.00 C: 44.40 ⇓ 9.20% | 44.36 | 44.70 / 44.10ASIAINS | 1.56 | 17.34 | Vol. 57438 D: 28.00 ⇓ 2.10% | 28.05 | 29.00 / 26.00 C: 27.80 ⇓ 5.76% | 27.80 | 27.80 / 27.80

PROVATIINS | 1.90 | 14.30 | Vol. 59185 D: 29.30 ⇑ 0.34% | 29.55 | 30.00 / 28.00 C: 28.50 ⇓ 1.72% | 28.47 | 28.50 / 28.40DHAKAINS | 2.84 | 18.02 | Vol. 71500 D: 38.90 ⇓ 0.77% | 39.14 | 40.00 / 38.70 C: 38.80 ⇓ 0.26% | 38.78 | 39.50 / 38.50

LIFE INSURANCENATLIFEINS | 12.34 | 80.99 | Vol. 3461 D: 249.8 ⇓ 0.60% | 250.08 | 253.0 / 235.0 C: 248.9 ⇑ 3.28% | 248.93 | 249.9 / 247.0DELTALIFE | 38.53 | 189.40 | Vol. 8925 D: 5485 ⇓ 3.74% | 5557 | 5700 / 5485 C: 5671 ⇓ 3.43% | 5671 | 5689 / 5660SANDHANINS | 2.39 | 28.22 | Vol. 75812 D: 71.10 ⇑ 2.01% | 71.99 | 73.60 / 66.00 C: 71.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 71.89 | 72.00 / 71.90POPULARLIF | 3.70 | 715.41 | Vol. 1788 D: 172.4 ⇑ 0.41% | 172.26 | 172.8 / 165.0FAREASTLIF | 9.21 | 60.79 | Vol. 60575 D: 94.10 ⇑ 1.84% | 94.30 | 95.40 / 90.00 C: 93.90 ⇑ 3.87% | 93.97 | 94.70 / 93.50MEGHNALIFE | 10.82 | 48.87 | Vol. 45200 D: 101.6 ⇑ 0.69% | 102.61 | 104.7 / 99.90 C: 102.5 ⇑ 3.12% | 102.48 | 99.00 / 101.1PROGRESLIF | 2.30 | 31.45 | Vol. 90901 D: 114.5 ⇑ 9.26% | 114.89 | 115.2 / 104.0PRAGATILIF | 0.60 | 30.15 | Vol. 101067 D: 120.3 ⇑ 6.84% | 122.21 | 123.8 / 108.0 C: 125.0 ⇑ 8.51% | 125.00 | 125.0 / 125.0PRIMELIFE | 5.51 | 27.10 | Vol. 40369 D: 98.40 ⇑ 6.26% | 97.15 | 101.0 / 92.80 C: 96.30 ⇑ 7.00% | 93.86 | 99.00 / 93.00RUPALILIFE | 3.75 | 31.25 | Vol. 153583 D: 103.2 ⇑ 5.09% | 104.49 | 107.0 / 93.00 C: 103.3 ⇑ 7.60% | 103.30 | 103.6 / 103.0PADMALIFE | 1.63 | 25.76 | Vol. 26000 D: 62.90 ⇑ 0.16% | 63.12 | 63.90 / 62.30 C: 63.50 ⇑ 1.28% | 62.86 | 63.50 / 62.10SUNLIFEINS | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 273525 D: 56.50 ⇑ 1.44% | 56.48 | 58.10 / 50.50 C: 56.00 ⇑ 0.54% | 56.61 | 57.80 / 54.20

TELECOMGP | 12.96 | 26.26 | Vol. 203996 D: 185.2 ⇓ 0.27% | 185.81 | 187.0 / 175.0 C: 185.0 ⇓ 0.43% | 185.18 | 186.9 / 184.5BSCCL | 5.82 | 26.38 | Vol. 259930 D: 208.8 ⇓ 1.83% | 210.04 | 213.7 / 199.4 C: 208.8 ⇓ 2.29% | 210.41 | 213.7 / 207.5

TRAVEL & LEISUREUNITEDAIR | 1.10 | 12.87 | Vol. 3316290 D: 15.40 ⇓ 2.53% | 15.53 | 16.50 / 14.50 C: 15.40 ⇓ 2.53% | 15.51 | 15.90 / 15.30UNIQUEHRL | 4.02 | 86.29 | Vol. 337035 D: 84.80 ⇓ 0.82% | 85.32 | 86.70 / 77.00 C: 85.00 ⇑ 0.35% | 85.01 | 85.80 / 84.70

MISCELLANEOUSARAMIT | 16.07 | 99.93 | Vol. 24700 D: 307.0 ⇓ 3.79% | 306.76 | 320.0 / 298.0BSC | 1.77 | 565.82 | Vol. 79310 D: 510.0 ⇓ 1.40% | 513.76 | 522.0 / 506.0 C: 512.0 ⇓ 1.16% | 514.41 | 525.0 / 511.0GQBALLPEN | 6.55 | 250.45 | Vol. 31400 D: 148.6 ⇓ 0.87% | 149.29 | 151.0 / 145.0 C: 148.2 ⇓ 0.87% | 148.86 | 154.8 / 148.0USMANIAGL | 0.50 | 26.03 | Vol. 30200 D: 136.8 ⇓ 1.08% | 137.72 | 141.0 / 136.0 C: 137.1 ⇓ 1.30% | 137.85 | 139.0 / 136.5BEXIMCO | 3.24 | 86.74 | Vol. 852147 D: 28.00 ⇓ 2.44% | 28.19 | 30.00 / 26.00 C: 28.20 ⇓ 2.08% | 28.29 | 29.00 / 28.00SINOBANGLA | 1.75 | 21.01 | Vol. 159500 D: 22.80 ⇓ 1.72% | 23.08 | 23.70 / 22.60 C: 23.20 ⇓ 0.85% | 23.23 | 24.30 / 22.90MIRACLEIND | 0.14 | 14.90 | Vol. 168516 D: 16.60 ⇑ 1.22% | 16.70 | 17.00 / 15.00 C: 16.20 ⇓ 0.61% | 16.21 | 16.80 / 16.00

BONDIBBLPBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 90 D: 955.5 ⇑ 0.08% | 955.56 | 956.3 / 952.8ACIZCBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 38 D: 870.0 ⇑ 0.00% | 870.00 | 870.0 / 870.0 C: 861.5 ⇑ 0.00% | 861.20 | 862.0 / 860.0

8 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE Business

‘Consumers talk about brands at all times’Prasun Basu, an expert in the � eld of innovation, new product development, brand communication research and consultancy, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, an author, and the Managing Director of the South Asia region of Millward Brown, shares his secrets on customer satisfaction and innovation with Murshidul HasanAs Millward Brown has only recently opened its branch in Bangladesh, in July, what is its vision? How do you plan to cater to the local market?We will work extensively with local com-panies. We have gathered knowledge and learning through working in 60 countries, including a very large footprint in Asia and Africa. In the last 20 years, we have learnt signi� cantly about developing markets. Combined the understanding of Bangladeshi consumers, we are con� dent of assisting lo-cal companies to excel in marketing, brand-ing, advertising, and media standpoints.

In the last 10 years, how has consumers’ in-teraction with brands changed?Earlier, interactions were only one-direction-al, brands would speak to consumers. Now, it’s a two-way dialogue with the advent of so-cial media. Consumers talk about brands at all times. There are forums where custom-ers share their experiences and in� uence the paths that brands tread.

The second largest change is the increased number of touch points that brands have with consumers. 10-15 years ago, companies would be running marketing e� orts and campaigns on one or two mediums, primarily on television, print, or on the outdoor. Nowadays, brands run their campaigns simultaneously on television, outdoors, print, retail interface, digital, and social media.

What role does social media play in devising brand strategy?Considering the depth of the engagements, social media is stronger as it brings consum-ers and brands closer. Interactions between brands and consumers are direct. Consumers in� uence brands’ positioning and what they stand for. However, the number of relations formed in traditional media is still larger of the two considering the reach it has.

Companies are underspending in digi-

tal and social media with only 5-7% of their marketing budget going to social channels. Although it may reach 15-20%, there will still be another 80% spent on traditional media.

Are companies in South Asia slow in under-standing the role social media can play for them?It’s probably slower here than many parts of the world, but not because companies are slow to understand. It’s an evolutionary jour-ney. Earlier, social media was only accessed through desktops, laptops, and cyber-cafes. Social media today although is accessible on cell phones, but the bandwidth and handsets at certain prices are not readily available.

Hence, there is an a� ordability and distribu-tion side to it.

If distribution and a� ordability is not widespread, marketers can’t do much. It’s a question of technology enabling social me-dia, which is happening for the last 2-3 years. For this, we are going mobile and hence so-cial media is reaching the masses.

Companies are also starting to take advan-tage of social media, but many are still slow given where mobile technology is heading. Companies could be more aggressive and faster to move into the platform. There is an opportunity and companies are moving to reap the bene� ts at a regular pace whereas it could be far dramatic.

How has brand perception and loyalty of Generation Z changed towards companies?It can be argued that loyalty levels were strong-er earlier, or that observed loyalty has de-creased. Competition has increased and there are good quality alternatives available. This is possibly the determinant of low behavioural loyalty seen today. Nonetheless, when con-sumers � nd something that � ts their needs, they will still show a fair degree of loyalty.

Generation Z are more discerning, clear, and focused about what they want. They are smart and able to � gure out the value of a brand. They could ideally stay with a brand unless another brand comes along and dis-lodges that position. If a brand dislodges some other brand from an established position that’s because they are o� ering a better alter-native, not because consumers are less loyal.

Would you say that product has to be supe-rior as well?The product and the whole proposition should be superior. Product today does not mean “only product.” It satis� es a certain need – rational, physical, emotional, a need of trust, or something a person wants to asso-ciate with. If another brand comes and does that well, consumers would switch. This is because a company has done a better job in connecting and bonding. Millward Brown’s work also shows that there is fragmentation of brands, less observed behavioural loyalty, which may or may not be attitudinal.

How has your experience been in participat-ing in Commward?I was very impressed with the quality of the fellow speakers. They are experts in their own � elds. They brought relevance and knowledge to the market. The audience has got some engaging knowledge that they can use in everyday life and improve the quality of business and advertising. The presenta-tion of the nominations around the venue and the aesthetics were praiseworthy. l

Prasun Basu speaking at Commward 2013

World Bank cuts China, East Asia growth forecastsn Reuters, Singapore

The World Bank lowered its 2013 and 2014 eco-nomic growth forecasts yesterday for China and most of developing East Asia, citing slower growth in the world’s most populous nation as well as weaker commodity prices that have hurt exports and investments in countries such as Indonesia.

“Developing East Asia is expanding at a slower pace as China shifts from an export-oriented econ-omy and focuses on domestic demand,” the World Bank said in its latest East Asia Paci� c Economic Update report.

“Growth in larger middle-income countries

including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand is also softening in light of lower investment, lower global commodity prices and lower-than-expected growth of exports,” it added.

The Washington-based development bank now expects developing East Asia to expand by 7.1% this year and by 7.2% in 2014, down from its April estimate of 7.8% and 7.6%, respectively.

On China, the World Bank said the massive, investment-heavy stimulus program supported by credit expansion had run its course, and policy-makers must focus on containing the rapid growth of credit and tighten � nancial supervision.

It added local government debt was a concern,

given the complexity and opacity of municipal � nances, and said they should be reformed “with clear rules on borrowing, on allowed sources of borrowing, on debt resolution, and on the disclosure of comprehensive � nancial accounts by local gov-ernments”.

“The rapid expansion of shadow banking poses serious challenges, since shadow banking is closely linked to the banking system, is less regulated, and operates with implicit guarantees from banks and local governments,” the World Bank said.

But it added local governments in China had signi� cant assets to meet liabilities as they held land reserves worth 10% of gross domestic

product (GDP) as well as shares in state-owned enterprises worth a similar amount.

China had shown some progress in rebalancing its economy, it added, with consumption contrib-uting more to quarterly growth than investment in the two years up to the � rst quarter of 2013 and services accounting for a larger share of GDP.

“Still, the economy has yet to make the deci-sive turn toward consumer-based growth,” the World Bank said.

The World Bank now expects the Chinese econ-omy to expand by 7.5% this year, down from its April forecast of 8.3% and below the International Monetary Fund’s most recent forecast of 7.75%. l