SECOND EDITION

SPECIAL SECURITY FOR BLOGGERS AT BOOK FAIR PAGE 3

‘THIS IS OUR DREAM JOB’ PAGE 32

GOVT TO ERADICATE CHILD LABOUR BY 2019 PAGE 5

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016 | Magh 19, 1422, Rabius Sani 21, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 286 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

Jagriti, Shuddhashar to bring fewer new booksn Mohammad Jamil Khan

and Kamrul Hasan

As the law enforcers re-main clueless regarding the attacks on publishers and writers, Jagriti Pro-kashoni and Shuddhashar will publish fewer books during the Amar Ekushey

Boi Mela this year due to persistent security concerns.

“Earlier we had plans to publish around 100 new books from Jagriti Prokashoni dur-ing this year’s book fair. My son used to look after the procedure. In his absence, we have decided to publish only 16 books,” said Prof Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque, father of slain publisher Faisal Are� n Dipan.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

JaPa leadership dispute heating upn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The leadership brawl among the Jatiya Par-ty’s top brass have become more prominent after a meeting of the party’s presidium council yesterday.

After the meeting in which HM Ershad was present, GM Quader, new co-chairman of the main opposition party in parliament, announced that most members have agreed to quit the Awami League-led cabinet, but the decision was up to Chairman HM Ershad.

However, another group of leaders who skipped the meeting said they had heard that the meeting had discussed quitting cabinet

but did not know of any decision being made in this regard.

They also questioned the legality of the meeting of the party’s highest policymak-ing council. They claimed that the secretary general of the party could not convene such a meeting; only the chairman can.

The second group of JaPa leaders are loyal to the party’s presidium member and the lead-er of the opposition in parliament, Rawshan Ershad, also wife of HM Ershad, who himself is a special envoy to the prime minister.

The group that attended the presidium council meeting yesterday are known as Er-shad loyalists.

Quader, younger brother of Ershad, said the meeting had been convened mainly to endorse him as the co-chairman and Ruhul Amin Hawlader as the secretary general.

“At the meeting, many members ex-pressed their willingness to quit the cabinet to uphold the characteristics that make the party the main opposition in parliament. However, they also agreed that the party chairman [HM Ershad] has the authority to make a decision,” he said.

The dispute over leadership surfaced af-ter Ershad made Quader the co-chairman in Rangpur on January 17. One day later, then party secretary general Ziauddin Ahmed Ba-

blu and some leaders loyal to Rawshan de-clared her the acting chairman.

On January 19, Ershad replaced Bablu with Hawlader as secretary general, intensifying the dispute. On January 28, after a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Raw-shan ruled out possibilities of JaPa ministers’ withdrawal from the coalition government.

Party sources said 23 out of the 37 “active presidium members” joined the meeting.

Secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Haw-lader, Mohammad Kashem, Golam Habib Dulal, Sahidur Rahman, Sheikh Muhammad Sirajul Islam, M Rashid Chowdhury, Syed

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

1.6 million to sitSSC tests todayn Tribune Report

The Secondary School Certi� cate (SSC) and equivalent examinations under ten educa-tion boards will begin today.

A total of 1,651,523 students from 28,119 educational institutions will take the tests this year. Of them 842,933 are males and 808,590 females.

Compared to the previous year, the num-ber of examinees increased by 172,257.

For the � rst time, seven autistic students will be taking the examinations and they will be allowed an additional 30 minutes in each test.

Written exams will continue until March 8, while practical tests will be held between March 9 and 14.

On January 30, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told a press conference in his of-� ce at the Secretariat that there was no pos-sibility that question papers would be leaked ahead of exams this year.

“The government has stepped up sur-veillance and there is no way that question papers would leak out from BG Press, where they are printed,” he said.

Nahid also said teachers who would check the answer scripts had been asked not to give candidates any extra mark. “The govern-ment is trying to increase the success rate in the SSC examinations in recent years.”

As exams will begin at 10am, Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina will set o� for her of-� ce at 10:30am, her Deputy Press Secretary Ashraful Alam Khokan wrote on Facebook yesterday.

The prime minister made the change to the schedule so that the examinees can reach their exam venues in time without getting stuck in tra� c jam in the capital, Khokan said in the post. l

Workers are busy repairing the Central Shaheed Minar yesterday, only a day before the Ekushey Boi Mela is due to begin. The Shaheed Minar lies uncared and unattended throughout the year; the authorities concerned do the repair job only when the month of February approaches RAJIB DHAR

Ekushey Boi Mela begins today n UNB

The month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela be-gins in the capital today amid foolproof se-curity.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inau-gurate the book fair on the Bangla Academy premises at 3pm.

British poet and Jibanananda transla-tor Joe Winter and Czech Republic writer-

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3AMAR EKUSHEYBOOK FAIR 2016

News2DTMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

JaPa leadership dispute heating upAbdul Mannan, Syed Abu Hossain Bab-la, Masud Parvej, Habibur Rahman, Sunil Shubha Roy, SM Faisal Chisti, Mir Abdus Sabur, Mahnudul Islam Chowdhury, Saifud-din Ahmed Milon, Mohammad Azam Khan, ATU Taj Rahman, Solaiman Alam Sheith and Masuda Begum also attended the meeting.

However, several other senior presidium members including Leader of the Opposition in parliament, Rawshan Ershad, Anisul Islam Mahmud, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu and Mujibul Haque Chunnu, did not attend the meeting.

Dhaka Tribune caught up with Rawshan at the Jatiya Sangshad premises after yester-day’s session.

“Two of our parliament members have talked to the secretary general. I have heard that there has been a discussion on quitting the cabinet. But as far as I know, no decision has been made,” Rawshan told the Dhaka Tribune.

Asked if she and her followers would agree if any such decision is made, the leader of the opposition said: “Let time come. Then we will see.”

Asked why she skipped the presidium meeting, Rawshad said she had another per-scheduled programme.

Dhaka Tribune also talked to Water Re-sources Minister and Rawshan-loyalist Anisul Islam Mahmud on the parliament premises.

Asked about the meeting, he said: “Who took the decision? Secretary general cannot convene a presidium meeting. The decision was made public by GM Quader, not Ershad. So, it was not a proper meeting.”

The party is set to hold its national council in Dhaka on April 16 and after the completion of the district-level council sessions, a party press release said. JaPa has also formed a cen-tral committee for coordinating the upcom-ing union council elections. l

Jagriti, Shuddhashar to bring fewer new books“In addition, we will not reprint or sell the books that drew debate,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

On Saturday, Bangla Academy Director General Shamsuzzaman Khan asked the publishers not to publish any book that might create controversy. The authorities last year banned a book of Rodela Prokashoni and shut down its stall in the face of outrage by religious fanatics against a new book on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Dipan, who had published two books of slain secularist writer Avijit Roy, was hacked to death in the capital’s Aziz Super Market on October 31 last year, a few hours after anoth-er of Avijit’s publishers, Ahmedur Rashid Tu-tul, and two other writers came under similar attack in Lalmatia area. Tutul left the country in mid November fearing for his life.

Police blame outlawed militant out� t Ansarullah Bangla Team for the attacks, but

have so far failed to identify or arrest any of the attackers.

Prof Abul Kashem said that the investi-gators had not given them any update re-garding the probe. “It will be injustice if the government fails to arrest the killers and try them,” he added.

Shuddhashar publication would publish only four books this year whereas the owner, Tutul, had preparation to complete 26 books until he came under the attack. Two of the new books are written by Ranadipam Basu, one of the two writers injured in the attack on Shuddhashar o� ce.

The law enforcers are now analysing the CCTV footage collected from the market. They have so far identi� ed three suspects in Dipan murder case but are unsure about their details.

Masruqur Rahman Khaled, deputy com-missioner (south) of DB police, said: “It is ba-sically a clueless case. But we are doing our

best with support from di� erent sources.”From the footage, police found a youth

checking the number plate of Dipan’s car parked in front of the market and talking over his mobile phone suspiciously. But he could not be traced.

On the other hand, Sazzadur Rahman, DB DC (west), told the Dhaka Tribune that there had been no progress in the case � led over the attack on Tutul and two writers.

When contacted, DMP Commissioner As-aduzzaman Miah without disclosing any de-tails claimed that they had made some pro-gress in the case.

The investigators said that they were try-ing to trace the attackers from a sketch pre-pared based on clues given by injured Tutul, Ranadipam and Tareq Rahim. They have also found that the perpetrators had claimed re-sponsibility for the attack from Jatrabari and Wari areas.

Science writer Avijit, who had been living in the US for the last couple of years, came to Dhaka in February last year along with his wife Ra� da Ahmed Bonya as two of his books got published by Shuddhashar despite fac-ing threats by radical Islamists. They came under attack by some radicals on February 26 near the TSC intersection. Avijit died in a hospital the same night while Bonya received critical injuries.

Tareq’s elder brother Adel Rahim said that the writer was still unwell. “He [Tareq] cannot do his own tasks properly as the left hand does not function. He may need anoth-er surgery for total cure,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

Ranadipam’s brother Pallab Barman ex-pressed concerns over the security of the family. “He used to pass busy time during the book fair. But this year he is not going out of the house,” Pallab said. l

Ekushey Boi Mela begins today researcher Ribek Martin will be present at the programme as distinguished guests while Cultural A� airs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor as a special guest.

The Bangla Academy Award will also be distributed at the opening ceremony.

The theme of this year’s fair is the dia-mond jubilee of Bangla Academy, marking the 60 years of the institution.

There will be a seminar at the main stage of the fair at 4pm every day from tomorrow until February 29.

Like the previous year, the venue of the fair has been extended to the nearby Suhrawardy Udyan.

The authorities have allotted a total of 651 units – 111 at the Bangla Academy ground to 82 organisatons and 540 at Suhrawardy Udyan to 320 organisations.

Besides, 15 pavilions have been allocated for 14 publishing houses, including Bangla

Academy. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has tak-

en all-out security measures in and around the book fair venue to avert any unpleasant incident in the upcoming fair.

A four-tier security has been arranged on the occasion.

There will be enough lighting in and around the fair venue as the spot where blog-ger Avijit Roy was killed last year had the shadows of darkness.

Special security will be provided to writ-ers, bloggers and publishers if they feel inse-cure during the book fair, said DMP Commis-sioner Asaduzzaman Mia on Sunday.

“We have changed this year’s security sys-tem in the wake of previous incidents. There will be enough light in and around the book fair for security reasons,” he told a press brief-ing about the fair security at DMP Media Cen-tre. l

Pohela Boishakh accused sent to jailn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday sent Md Kamal Hos-sain, the lone arrestee in Pahela Baishakh sexual assault incident, to jail after he re-fused to give confessional statement in the case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Nuru Miah passed the order.

Earlier, DB Sub-Inspector Dipak Kumar Das, also investigation o� cer (IO), produced Kamal before the magistrate with a petition to record his confessional statement.

In the petition the IO mentioned that Ka-mal admitted to them that he was involved in the incident and he would give a confessional statement to a magistrate in this connection.

Later, following Kamal’s refusal, the mag-istrate ordered to send him to jail. Earlier on Thursday another metropolitan magistrate placed him on a two-day remand for interro-gation.

DB arrested the � rst accused from a house of the capital’s Chawkbazar over the sexual assaults on Wednesday.

The arrest of Kamal, 35, came just into a little over a month after the investigators sub-

mitted the � nal report in the case to a Dhaka court, saying they had failed to identify or ar-rest anyone in connection with the incident.

The latest development has now prompt-ed them to seek revival of the case. IO Dipak, on Thursday submitted an application to the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Pre-vention Tribunal-3 seeking revival of the sex-ual assault case.

The court � xed February 23 to pass an or-der on the appeal.

On April 14, last year, gangs of unruly youths swooped on around � ve to seven women and sexually harassed them when thousands of people joined the Pohela Boishakh celebrations in the DU’s TSC and Suhrawardy Udyan gate areas.

The joyous celebration of the Bangalee’s biggest festival was tainted by the incidents that sparked a wave of protest throughout the country with people from all quarters.

Later, police � led a case with Shahbagh police station over the incidents on April 17.

Although the police initially denied the incident, they later released photos of eight suspected o� enders and announced bounty for providing information about them. l

Draft of new citizenship law goes to cabinet todayn Asif Showkat Kallol and Shohel Mamun

The government has decided to formulate a new citizenship law to keep pace with the complex world of immigration.

According to Home Ministry o� cials, the proposed law will allow dual citizenship but restrict the number of citizenships awarded to those born in Bangladesh to non-Bangladeshi parents.

A ministry o� cial said: “We have amended the 65-year old Citizenship Act of 1951 to help future citizens in the complex immigration world.”

The draft Bangladesh Citizenship Act 2015 is likely to be placed at the week meeting of the cabinet for � nal endorsement, the o� cial said.

Currently, two more laws deal with citizen issues in Bangladesh: the Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provisions) Order 1972 and the Foreigners Act 1946.

If the new law is eventually passed in parliament, it will repeal the 1951 and 1972 laws.

Under the existing laws, an adult and able citizen of Bangladesh can give up his or her citizenship.

But the draft law proposes that a Bangladeshi citizen can also be a citizen of any other country – except for the Saarc counties and Myanmar – as long as he has not given up his loyalty to Bangladesh while taking oath as the citizen of that country.

Regarding citizenship by birth, the new law proposes that a person, born in Bangladesh, can only get citizenship by birth, if both of his or her parents are Bangladeshi nationals.

Moreover, a person will have citizenship cancelled if he or she stays outside Bangladesh for more than 10 years at a stretch since the day of getting the citizenship. l

News 3D

TMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

'Militant � nanciers to face music'n Mohammad Jamil Khan

The government would soon take legal ac-tion against the persons and organisations responsible for funding militants in the country, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu said yesterday.

“We held a series of meetings on mili-tant � nancing and identi� ed a number of � nanciers. Soon we will take punitive action against some of them based on the proven al-legations,” Amu, also the chief of the cabinet committee on law and order, told reporters.

He said that details of the � nanciers would be made public later.

The minister also said that they were working to address the legal loopholes so that the detained militants cannot get bail easily.

“We will also ensure that the identi� ed criminals do not enjoy unauthorised facili-ties inside the jails. We have learnt that the local civil surgeons favour the criminals and bring them outside the jail in the name

of better treatment. Sometime they suggest that the criminals be sent abroad in parole,” Amu added.

The rise in drug tra� cking and abuse was also discussed in the meeting attended by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, LGRD Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hos-sain, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, Senior Home Secretary Dr Mozammel Haque, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque, BGB Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed and high o� -cials of other law enforcement agencies.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed ex-pressed frustration for not achieving the de-sired goal of containing drugs business.

He said that the law enforcers had seized huge consignments of drugs, especially yaba pills, and arrested some criminals, but they were yet to bring the situation under con-trol. He suggested that stern action be tak-en against the godfathers to bring a visible change, meeting sources said.

Later, the meeting decided that necessary action would be taken against the persons responsible for drug smuggling disregarding their identities or political a� liations.

Amu claimed that the government was suc-cessful in curbing phensidyle smuggling due to stern action by local administrations, Border Guard Bangladesh and Indian government.

“The Indian government is assisting us regarding the issue. They have shutdown a number of phensidyle factories, set up along the border, as per the list provided by us,” the minister added.

The meeting also discussed the issue of blogging platforms and religious fanatics in-stigating attacks on secular activists.

The participants unanimously agreed that action must be taken for hurting religious sentiment through wrtite-ups and for giving false explanation of Islam to incite militancy.

Amu also said that the law enforcers were on high alert to ensure tight security during the Amar Ekushey book fair. l

SC upholds stay on Kallyanpur slum evictionn Tribune Report

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court stay order on the eviction of Kallyanpur slum in the capital.

It also issued an order to dispose of the High Court ruling on the eviction within four weeks. A High Court bench led by Justice Moyeenul Is-lam Chowdhury will dispose of the ruling.

A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha gave the order.

In 2003, when the Ministry of Housing and Public Works took an initiative to evict the slum, legal aid organisation Ain o Salish Kendra and two slum dwellers � led a writ pe-tition with the High Court.

On December 28 that year, a vacation bench of the court stayed the eviction and issued a ruling.

The following year, a regular bench of the court also passed the same order.

In 2006, the ministry again issued a let-ter to evict the slum and Ain o Salish Kendra

again moved to the court, which on June 25 gave a stay order on the eviction.

The stay order was extended several times and on January 17, 2007 the High Court ex-tended the stay order until the disposal of its previous ruling.

As the ministry on January 10 this year again issued a letter to police for assistance in an eviction drive, the petitioners moved to the High Court with a supplementary pe-tition which � nally led to the fresh stay order on January 21. l

Police: Special security for bloggers at book fairn Tribune Report

Dhaka Metropolitan Police authorities are going to provide special security for bloggers and writers at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela.

“We have list of bloggers and we are en-suring security for them. Even after that if any blogger feels insecure, we will arrange special security for him as well,” said DMP Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Miah.

For the � rst time, there will have a four-tier security arrangement for the visitors in the fair.

The commissioner said this at a press con-ference held in the DMP Media Centre yester-day morning.

Asaduzzaman also said special security was ensured for foreigners and their stalls in the fair.

Even a female police team has been as-signed there to prevent sexual harassment while the entrance to Suhrawardy Udyan would be restricted after 5:30pm as part of the measures.

Besides, seven police watch towers, two RAB watch towers, metal directors, arch ways, and sweeping team would be deployed as part of the security measures.

Two police control rooms in Suhrawardy Udyan and Bangla Academy and a RABcontrol room in the adjacent area have been set up.

In reply to a query, the o� cial told the reporters that police patrolling has been en-sured inside the fair so that criminals cannot escape.

About the ongoing investigation into the murders of writer Avijit Roy outside the book fair venue last year and his publisher Faisal Are� n Dipan in his o� ce a few months ago, the DMP commissioner claimed to have im-portant headway in those cases. He, howev-er, did not clarify the development.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) yesterday claimed that police had made a considerable progress in all cases excepting Avijit Roy murder case.

IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque, yesterday made the remark replying to a query of re-porters in Suhrawardy Uddyan area while he was observing security measures taken by law enforcers ahead of Ekushey Book Fair.

Asked if police could identify the killers of Avijit the IGP said a number of them were arrested. Of them, some have already given confessional statement.

Avijit murder was the only exception. He claimed that attackers were identi� ed from CCTV grabs but they could not locate them. l

visit our website @www.dhakatribune.com

Bangladesh Army and RAB personnel with canines from the dog squad conduct a search operation on the premises of Amar Ekushey Boi Mela yesterday. The government has taken fool-proof security measures in and around the book fair venue to avoid untoward incidents MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016News4DT

Government mulling over defamation lawn Tribune Report

The government is actively considering enact-ment of the Liberation War defamation law.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary A� airs Minister Anisul Huq yesterday told parlia-ment replying to a starred question from Awami League MP Waresat Hussain Belal, Bir Protik (Netrakona-5).

Tendency of distorting history of the Lib-eration War has turned into a habit of some irresponsible politicians after the gruesome killing of the Father of the Nation Bangab-andhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his fami-ly members in 1975,” the minister said.

In this context, if any person defames the great Liberation War by providing unnecessary or untrue information, or delivering untrue re-

marks or publishing misleading information about the Liberation War and its history, it will be tantamount to a crime, he noted.

To take punitive action against the per-son concerned, the government is actively considering enactment of the Liberation War defamation law, he went on.

Meanwhile, the government is also con-sidering an amendment to the International

Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 for trying Jamaat as a terrorist organisation, Anisul said.

In reply to another question from AL MP Abul Kalam, the law minister said the govern-ment is determined to try those who were in-volved in killing people by resorting to arson at-tacks. Those who killed people indiscriminately resorting to arson attacks, they will be brought to justice following investigation, he said. l

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016News 5

DT

PRAYERTIMES

Cox’s Bazar 26 18Dhaka 30 14 Chittagong 26 17 Rajshahi 30 12 Rangpur 25 14 Khulna 30 16 Barisal 32 18 Sylhet 27 12T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:44PM SUN RISES 6:39AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW27.8ºC 9.8ºC

Khepupara RajarhatMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Fajr: 5:21am | Zohr: 12:13amAsr: 4:09pm | Magrib: 5:45pmEsha: 7:15pm

FOGGY

Indictment hearing against 51 Destiny o� cials endsn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The hearing on charge framing against Des-tiny Group Managing Director Ra� qul Amin, Destiny 2000 President Lt Gen (retd) Har-un-Ar-Rashid, and 49 others in two money laundering cases � led concluded yesterday.

The cases were � led for their alleged in-volvement in swindling around Tk4,200 crore.

Judge Md Kamrul Islam Molla of Dhaka Senior Special Judge � xed February 11 to pass the order on the indictment.

On July 31,2012, the Anti-corruption Com-mission (ACC) � led two cases with Kalabagan police station in the capital against 22 Destiny o� cials on charge of laundering the money.

After running probe for nearly 22 months, two ACC investigators – Mozahar Ali Sarder and Taw� qul Islam – submitted the charge sheets against 51 Destiny o� cials on May 4, 2014.

According to the charge sheets, the ac-cused misappropriated about Tk4,200 crore through its tree plantation project and the cooperative � rm, and laundered money abroad.

The accused embezzled the money in the name of paying salaries, honorarium, com-mission, incentives and promotional costs. They transferred the money to their bank accounts and those of the group’s 20 compa-nies. says the charge sheets

Five accused – Ra� qul, Mohammad Hos-sain, Didarul Alam, Ziaul Haque Mollah and Saidul Islam are now in jail while Har-un-Ar-Rashid is on bail.

The remaining 46 accused are still on the run. l

Govt to eradicate child labour by 2019n Mohammad Jamil Khan

The government is now aiming to eradicate child labour from the country within 2019, after failing to meet the 2015 target set under the National Child Labour Policy.

“We are accepting the fact that we have failed to ful� l our promise to remove child la-bour, but we are hopeful to achieve the target within 2019,” said Abul Kashem Masud, joint secretary to Labour Ministry, yesterday.

The decision was made following an inter-national conference in Sri Lanka on Decem-ber 8 last year, where it was proposed that all kind of child labour be eradicated from South Asian countries by 2019.

Directives regarding the conference have already been forwarded to the ministry, Masud said.

Bangladesh is hoping to set an example for other countries that are working to reach

the sustainable development goal’s (SDG) global target of eradicating child labour from all countries within 2025, Masud told a dis-cussion at the capital’s Daily Star Bhaban.

The ministry has formed a child labour eradication council – with the labour minis-ter as the president, the joint secretary said, adding that the council was now working to form district-level committees and monitor-ing teams.

Syeda Munira Sultana, national project coordinator for International Labour Organ-isation, said it was high time for the govern-ment to ensure a budget and a time frame to eradicate child labour. The previous 2015 tar-get could not be met because of fund short-age, she said.

Sabira Sultana, national advocacy coordi-nator at World Vision, mentioned a 2014 sur-vey of 803 families in the capital, in which they found 48.5% children from the families

were working in the informal garment sector, even though the government had removed child labour from established RMG factories.

Besides, 16.5% children were working in transport sector, 14.8% in waste manage-ment, 11% were street children and 5.6% were working as household helps.

Last year’s policy on domestic workers was yet to be published as a gazette, Sabira said.

She also pointed out that even though every police station is supposed to have a child service desk in accordance with the Children Act 2013, most stations in the cap-ital had no clue about the issue.

Social Welfare Secretary Tariq-ul-Islam, the chief guest at the programme, admitted that child-friendly o� cers were rare in the police stations. “We have talked to police au-thority and they have assured us that work is under way regarding this.” l

5 companies drop seismic survey papersn Aminur Rahman Rasel

Five international geophysical companies yesterday submitted tender documents for conducting a 2D multi-client seismic survey to hunt o� shore hydrocarbon reserves of Bangladesh’s areas.

On December 10, Petrobangla, on be-half of the government, invited re-tender to conduct the survey. Sector insiders said the invitation for re-tenders would delay the ex-ploration and extraction of oil and gas in the country’s o� shore areas.

The � rst survey of its kind in the country’s history, the survey is deemed necessary follow-ing the settlement of Bangladesh’s maritime boundary issues with Myanmar and India.

The objective of the survey is to provide the oil and gas industry with 2D seismic data of the o� shore areas of Bangladesh to aid basin evaluation, prospect generation and robust bid-round participation.

“Five interested companies submitted tender documents to conduct 2D seismic survey,” a Director of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, commonly known as Petrobangla, told the Dhaka Tribune.

“We have formed a tender evaluation committee headed by a director to evaluate the documents. After evalutaion, Petrobang-la will select a company and sign a 10-year deal. Petrobangla will share the pro� ts from selling the data,” he said.

The � ve companies are: Norway-US joint

venture TGS-NOPEC and Schlumberger; Chinese company BGP; Russian Dalmorneft-egeophysica (DMNG); Russian Marine Arctic Geological Expedition (MAGE) and UK-Based Spec Partners Ltd.

After a several-year pause, the govern-ment planned to formulate a fresh produc-tion sharing contract (PSC) to award o� shore hydrocarbon blocks in the Bay of Bengal.

The settlement of the maritime border issues with the neighbours awarded Bangla-desh a territorial sea covering 118,000 square kilometres and an exclusive economic zone extending to 200 nautical miles.

The coverage area in the Bay of Bengal is around 118,000 sq-km with water depth ranging from 20 metres to greater than 2,500 metres. l

Hortex DGM Mesbahuddin no moren Tribune Report

M e s b a h u d d i n Mahmood, deputy gen-eral manager of HRD, � nance and accounts, and logistics at Hortex Foundation under the Ministry of Agricul-ture, died on Friday night. He was 71.

He was undergoing treatment at the Apol-lo Hospitals Dhaka in the capital’s Bashund-hara Residential Area when he passed away, sources close to the family said.

Mesbah was the younger brother of Ka� -luddin Mahmood, former � nance adviser to Shahabuddin Ahmad’s caretaker government.

His � rst namaz-e-janaza was held on Sat-urday after Fazr prayers at his residence in Pink City in Dhaka. Later, he was buried in his family graveyard at South Dharmapur vil-lage in Fulgazi upazila, Feni. Mesbah is sur-vived by his wife and two daughters. l

Villagers of Bhabaniganj in Rajshahi’s Bagmara upazila show o� the Boal � sh that were netted yesterday as people of all ages joined forces throughout the day and caught a large number of � sh from the local Rani River AZAHAR UDDIN

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016News6DT

Bandit killed in a ‘gun� ght’ with RAB in Sundarbansn Our Correspondent, Bagerhat

A forest bandit was killed in a “gun� ght” with a team of Rapid Action Battalion 8 (RAB) members in Chandpai range of the Sundar-bans in Bagerhat yesterday morning.

The deceased was identi� ed as Moshiur, 35, one of the leaders of Moznu Bahini, an infa-mous gang of bandits active in the Sundarbans.

When contacted, RAB 8 Deputy Com-mander Major Adnan Kabir said the team was patrolling Chandpai range when they noticed human activity in a particular spot. It later

turned out to be a den of bandits.When they approached the spot to take a

better look, the bandits, taking notice of the law enforcers, opened � re at them and trig-gered the gun� ght, the RAB o� cial said.

“After around half an hour of shooting, the bandits retreated. The RAB team went to the spot and found one of the bandits’ body.”

They also recovered 11 locally made and foreign � rearms and 450 rounds of bullets.

Later, local � shermen identi� ed the ban-dit as Moshiur, chief of one of the wings of Moznu Bahini, Adnan said. l

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016News 7

DT

Family alleges doctor’s negligence for newborn’s deathn Tribube Report

A new born baby died on Saturday hours af-ter its birth at Memon Maternity Hospital, run by Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), due to alleged negligence of doctors.

Al Amin, father of the victim said he had admitted his wife Rokeya Begum to the hos-pital in the morning for delivery.

“At 12 noon, Rokey gave birth to a baby boy through a caesarian operation. The doc-tors informed us both mother and the baby were well. But half hour later, the hospital authorities informed us the condition of the newborn was not well. The hospital authori-ties advised us to take the baby to Chittagong Medical College Hospital or Agrabad Mas O Shishu Hospital if we want to save its life,” said the father.

He demanded an ambulance. The hospital authorities said no ambulance was available at that moment.

“They also tried to put o� the oxygen musk but I resisted them which also trig-gered an altercation,” added the father.

“At one stage, I took my baby to CMCH where the on-duty doctors declared him dead around 1:30pm,” he said.

Blaming the physicians and the authori-ties of Memon Maternity Hospital, Al Amin said the delay at the maternity hospital was responsible for his son’s death.

“The Hospital authorities did not keep my baby in incubator after its birth.

The physicians claimed the incubator was out of order,” added Al Amin.

After completing the funeral rites on Saturday, the locals, family members and parents of the deceased rushed to thehospital and demanded an explanation from the hospital authorities about the death of the baby. l

Meter use mandatory for CNG-run auto-rickshaw in Ctg from todayn Tribune Report, Chittagong

The newly-� xed fare of CNG-run auto-rick-shaws is coming into e� ect from today in the port city.

Authorities of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) said around 13,000 registered CNG-run auto-rickshaws would have to charge fares from commuters as per metre from today.

The afresh fare for CNG-run auto-rick-shaws was � xed at Tk40 for the � rst two kilometres and Tk12 for each additional kilo-metre. The waiting charge for the CNG-run auto-rickshaws has been � xed at Tk2 for per minute.

Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of Passengers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh, however, expressed doubt whether the decision of mandatory metre use in the CNG-run auto-rickshaws in Chit-

tagong would be implemented or not. “According to Bangladesh Road Transport

Authority, 13,000 CNG auto-rickshaws are permitted to ply in Chittagong city. Around 7,000 more CNG auto-rickshaws ply in the city without registration. However, we know that only 2,000 CNG auto-rickshaws were calibrated till today,” said Chowdhury.

“The commuters’ rights have seriously been trampled by the newly � xed fares. It is discriminatory to � x same amount of fares in Chittagong. Moreover, the fares have been � xed without any concern of the commuters. We demand re-� xing fares for greater inter-est of the commuters of Chittagong,” said Chowdhury.

“The mandatory use of metre will become successful only when a monitoring body will be formed involving all stakeholders,” he added.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Masud-ul-Hasan, deputy commissioner of CMP

(tra� c-north) said they would take punitive measures against the drivers if metres were not found in the CNG auto-rickshaws.

Responding to a query about the suc-cessful implementation of mandatory metre use, the deputy commissioner said CNG au-to-rickshaw drivers were given a deadline for calibration (installation of metres) by Febru-ary 1.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader reiter-ated that no CNG-run auto-rickshaw could ply in the capital and premier port city with-out metre from today.

The minister came up with the announce-ment yesterday while addressing as the chief guest a youth conference in the city.

Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised the youth conference at � ve-star hotel at Radisson Blu as part of cel-ebrating its 100th anniversary programme. l

‘Appearance of Ctg to be changed after 3yrs’n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yes-terday said Chittagong city would be devel-oped to such an extent that people would � nd it di� cult to recognise the city after three years.

The minister also stressed the need for building tunnel, LNG terminal, special eco-nomic zone, Matarbari Energy Hub, deep sea port, Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar rail link and eco-friendly ship-building industry in Chit-tagong.

The minister made the comment while

addressing an international business seminar held at Radisson Blu in the city. Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) organised the seminar as a part of observing its � ve-day centenary programme beginning from January 28.

“Di� erent mega projects, including Lique-� ed Natural Gas Terminal, economic zones, power plant and Karnaphuli Tunnel, have been undertaken,” said the minister.

The CCCI President Mahbubul Alamb chaired the international seminar where Saludin Kasem Khan, managing director of AK Khan Group, presented the keynote pa-

per titled ‘The Bay of Bengal growth triangle and the maritime silk route.’

In his paper, Salauddin presented the prospects and prospective sectors of invest-ment in Chittagong.

The seminar was also addressed by Cana-dian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Be-noit Pierre Laramee, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata President Sutanu Ghosh, FBCCI � rst Vice-President Sha� ul Islam Mohiuddin, Senior Represent-ative of Japan International Cooperation Agency Hitoshi ARA and ADB Country Direc-tor Oleg Tonkonojenkov. l

Five SUST students suspended for raggingn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Five students of Shahjalal University of Sci-ence and Technology have been suspended by SUST authorities in connection with an incident which saw a female student fainting while being ragged on the campus.

The suspended students are: Nazrul Islam Rakib, Mosharraf Hossain and Mahmudul Haque from mathematics department, Mos-harraf Hossain Raju from chemical engineer-ing department, and Asim Bishwash from social work department.

SUST Proctor Prof Kamruzzaman Chowd-hury told the Dhaka Tribune a three-member team has also been formed to probe the incident and to submit a report within 10 working days.

On the afternoon of January 28, a � rst-year female student of mathematics de-partment was ragged allegedly by Rakib, Mahmud, Mosharraf and Raju on the roof of the SUST central cafeteria. At one point, she lost consciousness.

The incident also led to scu� es between the perpetrators and other students who pro-tested the ragging. l

Industrial discharge through water pipeline � ows directly into the Shitalakkhya River in Naraynganj turning the water murky. The picture was taken yesterday from Naraynganj Sadar SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

News8DTMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

West railway in dire state with expired locomotivesn Moazzem Hossain,

Lalmonirhat

Rail communication in West Zone Railway Division may collapse anytime as well as bring disastrous consequences for commuters since train ser-vices in the area are being run with date expired locomotives

Locals said a shutdown of 20 trains for two years had been hampering the e� orts by railways to move the growing amount of grain, rice and oth-er goods on their tracks.

At present 42 trains are operated in six routes under Lalmonirhat West Zone Rail-way Division with the date ex-pired engines.

The routes are Lalmon-irhat-Burimari, Lalmon-i r h a t -T i s t a - R a m n a b a z a r, L a l m o n i r h a t - S h a n t a h a r, Parbatipur-Biral Border and Kanchan-Panchagarh.

A section of railway experts said the train services in these routes might halt anytime due to locomotive shortage.

According to railway time-

table, 24 mail trains, 26 local and 12 intercity trains should be operated in these routes.

But due to shortage of lo-comotive and manpower, four mail expresses, 16 local trains remained inoperative.

20 mail expresses, 10 lo-cal-mixed and 12 inter-city trains run in theses routes in irregular basis.

Railway o� cials said they need at least 62 locomotives to run trains in the routes timely.

They have only 32 locomo-tives in the place of 62 to run the services, the o� cial al-leged.

Of the 32, six engines also lied unused due to technical fault.

Sazzad Hossain, assistant o� cer of Lalmonirhat divi-sional railway, said: “In the division, there are 12 in-in-tercity, 20 local and 20 mail trains.”

“At least 42 locomotives are essential in these routes. But, we have only 18 engines to op-erate 42 trains,” he said.

Beside the locomotive

4 die in road accidentsn Tribune Report

Three people were killed and 10 others were injured as a bus and a micro-bus collided head-on on the Dhaka-Ma-wa Highway at Keutkhali of Shreenagar upazila, Munshi-ganj yesterday afternoon.

The deceased were Md Azhar, 55, of Louhajong upazi-la, his wife Su� a Begum, 40, and his sister Rahima Begum, 35. All of them were passen-gers of the micro-bus.

Police said a Mawa-bound bus of Swadhin Paribahan and

a micro-bus collided head-on at about 12:30apm. Azhar and his wife died on the spot while Azhar’s sister Rahima Begum died after she was taken to Lauhajong Upazila Health Complex.

In-Charge of Hashara Police Outpost Sub-Inspector Moham-mad Hasan said bodies were kept at Hashara police outpost.

In Gopalganj, a seven-year-old boy was killed as a car knocked down him from behind while he was crossing the Dhaka-Khulna Highway at Kashiania in the morning. l

2 die in B’baria clashn Our Correspondent,

Brahmanbaria

Two people were killed and 15 other injured in a � erce clash that took place between two groups of villagers at Kalikapur village, Banchharampur upazila, Brah-manbaria yesterday morning.

O� cer-in-Charge of Banch-harampur police station Ang-shu Kuman Dev told the Dha-ka Tribune that an altercation took place between relatives of Abdus Salam and Anu Mia over playing music on a loud-erspeaker on the occasion of marriage ceremony of latter’s son on Saturday night. A case was also � led in this connec-

tion yesterday morning. As a sequel to the alterca-

tion, the supporters of Lal Mia swooped on the house of Abdus Salam, 65, and beat him up mer-cilessly around 11am yesterday, leaving him critically injured.

Salam was rushed to Hom-na Upazila Health Complex in Comilla where doctors de-clared him dead.

In retaliation, the support-ers of Abdus Salam stabbed Lal Mia, 50, a supporter of Anu Mia, leaving him dead.

The deaths triggered a clash between the rival groups, leav-ing 15 people injured from both sides. Later, police brought the situation under control. l

shortage, crisis of manpower hampers the train services seriously.

More than 51 posts have been lying vacant out of 80 in Loco Master (LM) posts for many years.

In the posts of Assistant Loco Mas-ter (ALM Grade-II), 25 posts remain va-cant out of 51.

Locals, businessmen, teachers and people of several other sections ex-pressed their dissatisfaction for the shut down of trains in several routes.

Traders Momtajuddin of Burimari, said a train named Burimari Com-muter was operated from Lalmonir-hat-Burimai.

The businessmen of the area have to su� er now as the service has been halted recently, he added.

Teacher Atikur Rahman, farmer Mi-zanur Rahman Dulal echoed the voice of Momtajuddin.

Sazid Alam, member of Lalmon-irhat Chamber and Commerce, said: “We are facing a di� cult situation due to shutdown the service of Parbabit-pur Commuter from Lalmonirhat to Dinajpur.”

“We urge the government to re-strat the service,” he said.

Md Momtajul Isalm, engineer of the railway, said: “The train service in the

region may collapse permanently due acute crisis of loco master and short-age of engines.”

“I have informed the situation to concern authorities several times, but there is no response,” he alleged.

Chief Power Controller Adam Ali said: “The engines, which are oper-ated in several routes now, are out of date, they may collapse anytime.”

When contacted, Md Najmul Hos-sain, manager of the railway, said: “Members of Parliament (MPs) in the region should take steps in this regard as the subject is under the policy of the government.” l

IELTSdates and locations

Education 9D

T

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Venue: Banani

Test date: February 13, 2016Module type: IELTS AcademicRegistration deadline: February 6, 2016

Test date: February 20, 2016Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: February 13, 2016

Test date: February 27, 2016Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: February 20, 2016

Venue: Dhanmondi

Test date: February 13, 2016Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: February 06, 2016

Test date: February 20, 2016Module type: IELTS General TrainingRegistration deadline: February 13, 2016

Test date: February 20, 2016Module type: IELTS Academic Registration deadline: February 13, 2016

Venue: Bashundhara, Baridhara

Test date: February 13, 2016Module type: IELTS AcademicRegistration deadline: February 20, 2016

Test date: February 13, 2016Module type: IELTS General TrainingRegistration deadline: February 20, 2016

Test date: March 05, 2016Module type: IELTS General TrainingRegistration deadline: February 27, 2016

Test date: March 05, 2016Module type: IELTS AcademicRegistration deadline: February 27, 2016

Venue: Uttara

Test date: February 13, 2016Module type: IELTS AcademicRegistration deadline: February 06, 2016

n Nakib Ul Hoq

In the developing world, government funding for academic research and development has always been miniscule. In fact, the top students in core academic subjects studying in natural sciences have a tendency to go for their higher education and subsequent employment in developed economies. After all, in countries like Bangladesh where the demand for limited resources are high, education that does not impart skills needed in the workplace hardly bears fruition.

But this lack of appropriate academic research has created a massive hole in the knowledge economy. Many university teachers do not have proper publications in their relevant � elds, and possess little up-to-date knowledge on what is going on in the rest of the world. Although public universities – by virtue of having access

to the best and brightest talent across the spectrum – do employ teachers who are renowned in their � elds of study, the lesser-known private universities su� er are forced to � ll in the gaps by bringing in non-resident Bangladeshis with North American degrees.

However, it is these private institutions that have proved to be an enormous driver of the knowledge ecosystem in Bangladesh. Producing huge numbers of graduates each year, these universities are grooming young graduates in a market-centric approach. They are providing skills to their students that can be marketed for success in the corporate world and beyond.

One important issue postulated by education experts in the country is the absence of appropriate practical experiences. A business major for instance needs to learn how businesses function not just in the classroom but also in the world outside. As such, for future success and

marketability they must have hands-on experiences at companies, startups, smaller and medium-sized business ventures such as restaurants, departmental stores, fashion outlets and similar enterprises. Although three-month long internships are a prerequisite for many Bachelors and Masters programs, students abroad have more exposure to the world outside.

This gap in practice has largely taken place due to the absence of proper university and industry alliance. While leading business schools like the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka do have strong, constructive relationships with the corporate world, it is not on par with the global standards. Research funding, scholarships and academic endeavor must be sponsored by the corporations working locally; and universities in turn must reciprocate such e� orts by creating a space for these companies to take a leading role in producing high quality professionals who can contribute towards the future development of the country. In the long run, initiatives like these will create win-win situations for all parties.

It is widely recognised that inadequacy of talent is not something which characterises Bangladesh. After all, even with decades of political rancor, generations of mass immigration of educated change-makers, bureaucratic ine� ciency and poverty, we have moved forward and invalidated all pessimistic forecasts. What is currently needed both from the government and the private sector development experts is a comprehensive education system that places adequate emphasis on both academic research and marketability, and in the process, a strong alliance between academics and real-life corporations to facilitate the growth of the nation as a whole. lReprinted: www.grad-insights.com

Bridging academics and real life

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

IELTSPractice with us to step up your IELTS game.

Here’s a sample of the IELTS General Training Writing.

Read the instructions for each task carefully.

Write at least 250 words.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Popular events like the football World Cup and other international sporting occasions are essential in easing international tensions and releasing patriotic emotions in a safe way.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Writing Task

Feature10DT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016Feature10D

T

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

n Features Desk

It’s common to stock our groceries with food cans and bottles marked “diet” or “low-fat” when we’re on a mission to lose the extra kilos. In fact, that’s one of the most natural and immediate changes we make after deciding to go on a diet – switching to “low-fat” or “sugar-gree” or “diet,” Some consider these to be ultimate game changer, while some use these as transitions into eventually healthier diets.

But are these diets loyal with the promises they make in advertisements or in their packaging? Not really, as research shows.

Recent research shows that in these kinds of food, the ingredient used for “dietary” purposes themselves cause more harm than good. While the manufacturers putt in the diet ingredients, they are simultaneously putting in other ingredients to compensate for the lack of sugar etc, which end up doing more harm than good.

Here’s a list of “diet food” that, despite the lack of sugar or diet ingredient, only add to your calories (Source: Active Beat):

Diet Coke: Most diet drinks that are carbonated contain Aspartame, a kind of arti� cial sweetness that is 200 times sweeter than sugar. While this may make up for the lack of sugar in these drinks, brain scans show that they are far more addictive and prolong sugar cravings which means you’re likelier to go back for more sips.

A University of Texas study found that across a decade, diet coke drinkers had 70% more increase in waist

circumference than non-drinkers. Furthermore, intake of diet coke has been associated directly with obesity, high blood-pressure, and other syndromes that lead to heart diseases.

This might be quite a leap, but try replacing your diet coke with water. Studies have shown that drinking a pint of water before a meal can help reduce weight.

Low fat yoghurt: Studies show that low-carb diets are better nutritionally than low-fat diets, as those in the latter group have shown to lose more abdominal fat and body mass, better cholesterol, and less in� ammation. Furthermore, in manufacturing low-fat food, often the main � avours of the food have to be extracted to ensure the low-fat quality. Manufacturers often put high levels of sugar to compensate for this lack of � avor.

Check the nutritional label on low-fat food and make sure you can stay within the WHO-recommended parameters of 6tsps (25grams) of sugar per day.

Low-calorie cereal bars: Interestingly, although low-calorie cereal bars are often advertised as a healthy alternative to regular cereal bars, they are anything but healthy. They often contain just as much sugar or chocolate, and usually have carbohydrates – ingredients which highly contribute to the fat in the body.

To avoid being tricked into the wrong kind of diet cereal bars, make sure you check both the nutritional label and ingredients to check if, and how much, sugar it has. Sugar sometimes may appear as: rice syrup, maltodextrin, glucose-fructose syrup, raw cane sugar, fructose, honey or a mixture of these. l

Is your diet lying to you?The ingredients used to make food low-calories or no-sugar lead, indirectly, to more

Science blurpsn Raisa Rahim

Have you ever wondered what came � rst, chicken or egg? Scientists have � nally found answers to your dilemma. It is the chicken that came � rst, not the egg. This is because the protein that is found in egg shells can only be produced by hens.

The word “scientist” � rst appeared in the year 1833. Ever since then, the word has changed our lives. It is estimated that scientists discover 41 new species every single day. Not just that, scientists have also found a way to turn venom into painkillers by a method called “toxineering.”

One may wonder if there’s anything that scientists can not do, perhaps there is, however, what they can and are able to do is simply ingenious. For instance, did you know that scientists have discovered a way to charge mobile phones using urine. How so? Let’s not get there. Urine can also be used to

grow teeth. Better we leave it up to that, yes?From cancer to tumour, science has

found a cure for even the toughest of death-centric diseases.

Recently, scientists have developed a microparticle � lled with oxygen that, if injected into the blood stream, can help a person live without breathing.

For this shocker fact, let’s start by saying “to err is human” and scientists are mere humans. The world’s oldest known creature is a mollusc (about 507 years old). Unfortunately, some scientists killed it by mistake. Let’s just say that some things are quite inevitable.

Did you know that sun� owers can be used to clean up radioactive waste? And also that earthquake can turn water into gold. Pretty psyched, aren’t you? Now this one might sound like many of Adele’s songs but did you know that you could start � re with ice?

Science works in mysterious ways, agreed.l

INSIDE

This year’s Amar Ekushey Boi Mela promises to be the biggest in its history.

As a showcase for Bangladeshi culture and literature, the month-long book fair at Suhrawardy Uddyan is a key part of

the nation’s cultural calendar. With this year marking the 60th anniversary of Bangla Academy,

the event which will be inaugurated with the distribution of the Bangla Academy Literary Award and an international poetry festival is expected to be attended by record crowds.

It is reassuring to see that security preparations are well in hand. Authorities are right to take extra special precautions to protect writers and attendees after last year’s shocking murder of Avijit Roy.

A total of 417 publication houses and institutions will be taking part in this month’s book fair.

We hope as many people as possible will attend to draw inspiration from the best of our nation’s language and literature. The book fair provides a unique opportunity for authors, publishers, and readers to build links and nurture new interest in Bangladesh’s rich culture.

Every opportunity should be taken to encourage and spread translations of Bangla works internationally to grow the festival’s role in drawing more attention to Bangladesh on the world stage.

As the country progresses on the path to becoming a middle-income nation, it is more important than ever to celebrate cultural creativity and nurture new authors to inspire new generations.

It is very encouraging then to see that the Boi Mela will be complemented later this week by the Dhaka Art Summit and the Muslin festival organised by the National Museum. Such events are vital to grow Dhaka’s reputation as a vibrant city of culture.

It is more important than ever to celebrate Bangladesh’s rich culture and nurture new talent

When looks don’t kill

Why our tourism sector is so weakIt is quite natural that Bangladesh, being a developing country, may not be capable of allocating su� cient amount of budget for tourism. Hence, it needs foreign investment desperately. Without foreign investment, it may not be possible to improve the nation’s tourism industry up to a good enough level

PAGE 13

PAGE 12

PAGE 14

Yet another list of Davos takeaways?You know that the geo-political winds are shifting when you see people take sel� es with the Iranian foreign minister

Shakespeare’s line from Macbeth came to mind: ‘Look like the innocent � ower but be the serpent under it!’ In our society, nay, in fact in all societies, there is a tendency to judge someone by their looks. While this may prove to be correct sometimes, it is not infallible

Let Boi Mela inspire the next generation

11D

TEditorialMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

MEHEDI HASAN

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207

Send us your Op-Ed articles:opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.comJoin our Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune.

The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors

alone. They do not purport to be the o� cial view of Dhaka

Tribune or its publisher.

n Towheed Feroze

The CNG wallah wore a dark jacket, half his face was covered by a mu� er, and the eyes glinted in the early evening mist. Not the sort

you would want to have as a driver, but after waiting on the road for over half an hour, I decided to ignore the rather sinister appearance.

After I got in, he blithely ignored my request to take the Hatirjheel by-pass road, opting for the Tejgaon road instead. “I need to pick up someone, urgently!” he said. A bit disconcerting indeed.

When we read about “oggan parties” who immobilise passengers either by innocuously o� ering food laced with sedatives or by forcefully applying some pungent balm on the eyes, one cannot but be a little cautious.

Anyway, near Ahsanullah University, the CNG stopped and a man in jeans and jacket got in. He sat by the driver, gave me a long probing look, and then fell silent.

I decided to appear busy with my mobile and took out my o� ce smartphone to surf the net.Bits and pieces of brief conversation often wafted into my ears: “Hospital,” “injury,” “no time,” etc.

Finally, I got home and my domestic help came and took my bags and other things. As I was preparing for the evening ahead, the gate guard came to my door, wanting to see me.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. A bit overwrought, he said: “The CNG wallah who dropped you 20 minutes ago has come back and wants to see you.” Taking a breather, he added: “I asked him to tell me the reason but he wants to talk to you speci� cally.”

In that single moment, one hundred things passed in my mind, but in a � ash, I

could sense the reason. In a state of disbelief I ran down. The two men stood there in the evening mist, looking ominous. “Bhai, you left your phone in the CNG,” the driver said, his mu� er still in place.

I was speechless for a second -- it was my o� ce smartphone.

The other guy took out the phone from the driver’s compartment and handed it over, saying: “When you got o� , I went to the backseat and felt something touching my feet -- I picked it up and found out that it was a phone.”

I embraced both of them and said: “For people like you, we can still brush aside cynicism and carry on hoping.”

While running down from my apartment, I had swiftly taken a Tk1,000 note with me and handed it to the driver: “It’s nothing compared to the phone but please take it as a token of appreciation.”

Believe me, both refused vociferously saying: “That’s too much, just give us something for tea and a few puris.” But I insisted. In the frenzy of excitement and facing something totally unexpected, I forgot to take a sel� e with these noble men,

but that evening left an indelible mark.There is way too much corruption around

us -- maybe eight out of every 10 people lead their lives along an unscrupulous path, not � inching to exploit a situation. However, for every eight vices, there are two virtuous deeds. And looks do not always re� ect a

character.Shakespeare’s line from Macbeth came

to mind: “Look like the innocent � ower but be the serpent under it!” In our society, nay, in fact in all societies, there is a tendency to judge someone by their looks. While this may prove to be correct sometimes, it is not infallible.

I have been unlucky with lost items in the past, when no one came back to return a misplaced possession, though the most expensive item which could have gone missing, was returned.

This reminds me of another incident when, one day, failing to � nd a CNG on the road, agreed to the proposition of a driver in what appeared to be a private car. He want-ed some money, I needed to get to work. Interestingly, as I was talking to the man, a young woman, looking a bit � ustered, was

also on the road, searching for a CNG, and occasionally glancing in my direction.

The driver of the car also noticed this and told her: “Come, you can take a lift with this brother.” In an impetuous � t of chivalry I added: “Please come over, we are going the same way, I suppose.”

The woman got in and we were o� . In a few minutes the bravado was being replaced by some rational thinking. What if the woman and the driver are in league?

With my peripheral view, I checked the woman closely: She wore jeans, the trainers appeared dusty, and there was an air of Bohemian desperation about her.

There have been reported incidents where such traps were set to snare unsuspecting men who later found themselves embroiled in a mortifying situation with the police getting involved and the woman claiming harassment.

To give more credence to my fears, the driver stopped the car near Karwan Bazar and disappeared to “drop a � le.”

We were seated in the car, silent, my mind racing.

Anyway, the man came back, the rest was smooth sailing and near my o� ce, the woman and I parted ways.

Oh, by the way, I found out the woman was an avid mountain climber and had been busy lately preparing for an adventure in the hill districts -- which explained the rough look. Well, do you think I am lucky? For many people, the two situations mentioned above could have easily ended with unforgettable disasters.

So, perhaps the prayers I mutter before I leave home every day must have some power. l

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

Opinion12DT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Goodness can be found where you look for it SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Shakespeare’s line from Macbeth came to mind: ‘Look like the innocent � ower but be the serpent under it!’ In our society, nay, in fact in all societies, there is a tendency to judge someone by their looks. While this may prove to be correct sometimes, it is not infallible

Small acts of kindness make the city feel like home

When looks don’t kill

Opinion 13D

T

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

n Ziaul Haque Howlader

What if you have many innovative ideas and good planning but no money to implement those ideas?

Obviously, all that planning will become shelved, cursed to gather dust for time unknown. Bangladesh’s tourism industry is more or less like that.

The concerned tourism o� ces as well as the private sector have lots of ideas and plans, but tangible implementation is almost negligible, as su� cient budgetary allocation is simply not there. We need proper planning.

But, at the same time, we need money, whether it’s through Foreign Direct Investment or local investment. It is our reality that planning and investment never go hand in hand.

Tourism in Bangladesh is a nascent industry; therefore, it needs properforesight with su� cient investment in order to improve it.

Here, policy-makers are yet to convince the concerned authorities that tourism can be an e� ective tool to reduce poverty and also act as a strong wheel for economic progress.

There is su� cient evidence which shows that many countries in the world ameliorate their poverty margins through the tourism industry.

They made su� cient budgetary allocation for two or three consecutive years, but have seen incredible returns -- double, or in some cases triple, within a few years.

In 2013, India made a budgetary alloca-tion of around $200 million to its tourism in-dustry, and in return, it earned $17.97bn. In the same year, Sri Lanka invested $5m and in return earned $1.039bn. Malaysia invested

$604m and earned $20.25bn.In comparison to the statistics of these

countries, ours is very insigni� cant. All tourism-developed countries are convinced that more investment in the tourism sector bears more pro� t and generates more employment.

Unfortunately, we are yet to convince ourselves with this idea, and so our progress is just as lagging.

It is quite natural that Bangladesh, being a developing country, may not be capable of allocating su� cient budget for tourism. Hence, it needs foreign investment desperately.

Without foreign investment, it may not be possible to improve the nation’s tourism industry up to a good enough level.

For attracting foreign investment, both the public and private sectors should be

working in harmony.Here, the apex bodies of the private

sector like FBCCI, DCCI, and foreign chambers of Bangladesh can work and collaborate with the government. A tourism investment fund can also be created in Bangladesh so that both the local and foreign investors enhance con� dence in investing in Bangladesh’s tourism sector.

The media can also work in demonstrating the positive aspects of the tourism industry of Bangladesh and co-operate with the government to enliven this nascent industry.

We need to create a body for providing one-stop service to extend all kinds of support to the foreign investors. We must encourage foreign investors that the tourism industry in Bangladesh -- a less trodden country -- has a lot of potential to bring healthy returns within a short period of investment.

The countries which developed their tourism industries to a satisfactory level were able todo so by attracting foreign investors to back up mega projects.

Maldives, Malaysia, Thailand, and even Brunei are glaring examples before us. We

can decide on the areas and location where foreign investment can come in without any ambiguity.

At present, we need foreign investment for developing exclusive tourist zones, creating international standard hotels, motels, resorts, casinos, cable cars, lagoons, marinas, sea-aquariums, watch towers, and sea-cruising services, the list is nigh endless!

If we can attract more and more foreign investment, it can bring forth a good competition in the sub-continen, bene� tting tourists in the long run.

On the other hand, the foreign investors themselves will market tourism in Bangladesh for their own businesses.

Thus, a good marketing drive and standard tourism services will enable a qualitative change in the tourism industry of Bangladesh.

We can take the initiatives mentioned above and put in a great e� ort in attracting foreign investment in the tourism industry of Bangladesh. l

Ziaul Haque Howlader is a tourism development activist of Bangladesh. He can be reached at ziabpc@gmail.com.

We have the sights and sounds, but lack the audience

It is quite natural that Bangladesh, being a developing country, may not be capable of allocating su� cient amount of budget for tourism. Hence, it needs foreign investment desperately. Without foreign investment, it may not be possible to improve the nation’s tourism industry up to a good enough level

There is no reason for Bangladesh to miss out on the economic bene� ts of a healthy tourism industry

Why our tourism sector is so weak

Opinion14DT

n Lutfey Siddiqi

At Davos, there was a lot to observe. But this is what I took away from the meetings:

1. The set-piece panels on � nance and economics were virtually replays from previous years. The world is de-growing and de-in� ating faster than it is de-leveraging. “Looser money for longer” seems to be the only game in town, to provide air-cover for structural reforms to take place. We hope.

2. I enjoyed the session with Mario Draghi. He stuck to his refrain: “I will do what my mandate demands.” Most of the sessions can be found on the website and snippets of the new Argentine � nance minister or the Indian central bank governor are worth watching.

3. As Klaus Schwab puts it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution “holds great promise or great peril.”

4. In our jargon, it means that the tail of outcomes has become fatter on both sides and we are in a period of structural dislocation. It’s a revolution not just in terms of economic systems (Uberisation versus Fordism) but a displacement of social, political, and belief systems. As I argue on CNBC, I believe it’s one reason why markets are so jittery. In terms of “great promise,” I spent some time with the folks from health care, arti� cial intelligence, 3-D printing, and robotics. This is where real growth could come from. Hubo the Robot was wearing a badge similar to mine and Yonatan Adiri demonstrated how your smartphone can be an incredible medical device. Joe Biden set the tone at the start of the meeting with his “moonshot call to action” in the � ght against cancer.

5. You know that the geo-political winds

are shifting when you see people take sel� es with the Iranian foreign minister! There was a heavy US presence -- secretaries of state and defence, apart from the VP. John Ker-ry spent an hour in an o� -the-record session with the YGL community. His exposition on the Iran deal and US foreign policy (whether you agree with it or not) was impressive.

6. Geo-politics is important for markets because it introduces a non-diversi� able source of risk, ie it adds to the baseline risk premium in a capital asset pricing model. There are at least four � ashpoints: (a) Russia/Ukraine (my debate from last year), (b) Europe and Brexit, (c) the Middle East and oil, (d) the China-US relationship in the theatre of the South China seas.

7. I hosted a session on Europe (under Chatham House rules) with HSBC Chair Douglas Flint, Professor Helene Rey, and Deputy PM of Turkey Mehmet Simsek amongst the speakers. I think we agreed that the base case for European markets is moderately positive but determined that the “state of the union” (Brexit, Migration, Greece) will be weaker in a year’s time.

8. Earlier in Zurich, at an LSE forum, we heard how Brexit could now be the likely outcome. For the swing voter it is a vote on immigration. It was argued that, in order to avert Brexit, Labour will need to run a vigorous stay-campaign.

9. Middle East: I recall last year, it was during the meeting at Davos that Saudi King Abdullah passed away. There is recognition for diversifying sources of growth. Together with Yonatan, I got to know Fahd Al-Rash-eed when we spent a couple of weeks to-gether on a course in 2014. He has built and now runs the King Abdullah Economic City. Nonetheless, the issue with the Middle East is whether the social compact can withstand a phase of relative austerity. A fast-dropping

price of oil can make them more internally combustible and externally collision-prone.

10. China (economics): We spent a lot of time on China. Market moves during the meeting forced us to confront concerns about a potentially disorderly slowdown and its implications for others. I felt that views were polarised between the alarmist and the dismissive. At a private roundtable over dinner, we were asked to o� er input for the Chinese G20 presidency. Some of my Chinese friends felt that they are misunderstood and that Western commentary is too sweeping.

11. On a related note, I was asked to join a group of discussion leaders along with the � nance ministers of Indonesia and South Africa to talk about emerging markets. I expanded on the Mars-Venus relationship that apparently exists between markets and policy-makers. We concluded that intervention in currency markets is not a sustainable policy option -- other measures are required to address the convexity of foreign in� ow and out� ow.

12. China (Geo-politics): I joined a dinner discussion on “The future of China-US rela-tionship” led by David Rhodes of CBS News. Kevin Rudd provided the � re-starter with excellent contributions from Oxford’s Rana Mitter and the LSE’s Keyu Jin. Take a look at Kevin Rudd’s Harvard publication and Ted Talk on “constructive realism” if you haven’t done so already. I think we agreed that China-US relationship will always need to be managed -- acknowledging that some di� erences will remain irreconcilable. It’s in the interests of both to keep the focus on common interests, but there will be hairy moments along the way.

13. Predictably, things � ared up when the conversation moved to China-Japan relationship! The historical and socio-cultur-

al perspective that each side brings to this is fascinating, and perhaps underestimated. Having observed the (non-existent) dynamic between the leaders of Japan and Korea during a previous Davos, I was pleasantly surprised to see the two countries resolve one of their long-standing issues recently.

14. I attended the session with Minister Amari from Japan. He didn’t take questions. If he did, I’d have asked if the three arrows are hitting against these four shields: (a) Limited action from corporations to either engage in Capex or create “expectation of continuous wage hikes,” (b) a prospective consumption tax hike which blurs the message, (c) the proposition that womenomics and drones are su� cient for Japan to avoid foreign workers, (d) the suggestion that 2% is still a credible in� ation target in the presence of global disin� ationary forces. Credibility is earned, not demanded. Takeshi Niinami and Adam Posen were direct as always.

15. Angela Merkel’s absence was clearly felt. It reinforced the perception of di� used political leadership in Europe. Also absent was the equivalent of “� agship speeches” like that of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s last year or Japanese PM Abe’s the year before.

We saw a lot of Justin Trudeau.16. Finally, whether it is for enlightened

self-interest or genuine compassion, the subjects of inclusion, values, and norms joined the mainstream dialogue in a major way. On Saturday, I was asked to lead an o� -beat discussion on the values that should shape technology in the fourth industrial revolution. 

17. In a personal capacity, and together with some other YGLs, I continue to explore the role of constructive con� ict and a proactive pursuit of diversity in averting extremism. We held a “hackathon” on this last year. Unfortunately, the topic is even more relevant this year and we’ve taken the conversation forward. True diversity goes beyond gender. As I said to Edie Lush, we need to look beyond visual diversity and look for diversity of cognition, background, and approach. l

Lutfey Siddiqi is Adjunct Professor at the Risk Management Institute, National University of Singapore and a Managing Director at UBS Investment bank. He is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. This article � rst appeared on weforum.org.

The Davos diaries

You know that the geo-political winds are shifting when you see people take sel� es with the Iranian foreign minister

Thoughts from this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

The course of the future is set in Davos every year REUTERS

15D

TBusinessMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

China grapples with contradictions over currencyChina is struggling to reconcile its push for economic reforms and a freely traded currency with curbing massive out� ows of capital sparked by worries over its slowing economy - and a lack of communication is fuelling fear. PAGE 18

BTRC to hold public hearing on Robi and Airtel merger issue Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will hold a public hear-ing on merger issue of Robi Axiata and Airtel Bangladesh Limited on February 17. PAGE 16

Reuters survey: Iran pushes OPEC oil output to new high as sanctions are liftedOPEC oil production has jumped to its highest in recent history in January as Iran increased sales following the lifting of sanctions and its rivals Saudi Arabia and Iraq also boosted supply, a Reuters survey showed. PAGE 17

Capital market snapshot: SundayDSE

Broad Index 4,540.9 -0.7% ▼

Index 1,095.3 -0.7% ▼

30 Index 1,719.2 -0.6% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 3,967.9 -2.0% ▼

Turnover in Mn Volume 123.3 -2.2% ▼

CSEAll Share Index 13,987.3 -0.8% ▼

30 Index 12,329.9 -0.3% ▼

Selected Index 8,497.7 -0.8% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 302.9 1.3% ▲

Turnover in Mn Volume 14.1 0.8% ▲

INSIDE

Exhibitors reject DITF export order claimn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The month-long Dhaka International Trade Fair ended yesterday with mixed reactions from exhibitors and fair organiser.

The organiser claimed that the fair fetched an export order of Tk235 crore from global retailers while it was Tk85 crore in the previous expo.

But the exhibitors said they have hardly witnessed foreign buyers or their represent-atives at the fair.

They also alleged that the annual trade assembly turned into a mess as some non-manufacturing items lacking interna-

tional standards were put on the show. Unlike the previous export order trend at

DITF, the 2016 international trade expo wit-nessed an abnormal hike of 176% in export order.

“We did not see any foreign buyers at the fair,” Anisur Rahman, of Asian Textile told the Dhaka Tribune.

The buyers do not come here as arrange-ment is not up to the mark while publicity to attract buyers is not enough, he said.

Asked about the turnout of buyers, Md Yousuf Ali, secretary, Export Promotion Bu-reau, said: “We do not have any statistics about it, but foreign buyers show up every year.”

Like Asian Textile, several exhibitors echoed the same sentiment while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.

Meanwhile, addressing as the chief guest of the DITF closing ceremony, Commerce Minister Total Ahmed said: “Dhaka Interna-tional Trade Fair has turned a festive occa-sion as tens of thousands of visitors make their ways into the fair.”

“We have received Tk235 crore export or-der this year,” said Tofail.

The minister attributed the existing po-litical stability in the country to the robust growth in export order.

PAGE 18 COLUMN 4

EXPORT ORDER TREND AT DIFT IN TK CRORE

0

50

100

150

200

250

223

2543

157

80 85

235

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

DHAKA TRIBUNE INFOGRAPHICSource: EPB

Business16DT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

E-commerce in Bangladesh

n Ahmed Saad Ishtiaque andAdib Sarwar

Demographic and business trends in the Bangladesh e-commerce sector are also noteworthy, as revealed by a recent report published by Kaymu, another up-and com-ing e-commerce portal:

Online-shoppers still comprise the primary tra� c in the Bangladesh ecommerce sector.They are usually within the age bracket of 25-34 years. Over 80% of e-commerce tra� c in Bangladesh comes from three locations; Dhaka (35%), Chittagong (29%), and Gazipur (15%) Gender disparity is evident as the user base com-prises of 83% male users and 17%female users. New online shopping visitors stand at 49% of the total tra� c, while returning visitors are 51%. Cash-on-delivery is still the most popular mode of payment for ecommerce transactions. Cash-on delivery constitutes 95% of all the payments that take place, followed by bank/wire transfer (2%), bKash/Ucash (2%), and credit cards (1%). These statistics are expected to change in the next 5-10 years as regulations for online payments with credit cards mature, and overall � nancial literacy of citizens, increase.Most online shoppers appear to search for and purchase consumer electronics and mobile phones. With regard to devices used, 71% of shoppers use either a desktop or a laptop, followed by mobile phones and tablets. About 69% of consumers use Windows operat-ing systems for ecommerce.Google and Facebook-paid advertisements are primary click through points for online shoppers.

Future Growth Areas There are other signi� cant drivers of growth of e-commerce of Bangladesh, which are expected to play a more major role in the next 5-10 years, according to the study on e-commerce in Bangladesh published by the Centre for Enterprise and Society at the Uni-versity of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh.

Most of these drivers are applications and services being conceptualized and im-plemented by the � nancial services sector and the telecommunications sector. Notable among them are e-banking, mobile � nancial services, mobile agricultural services, rural e-commerce, and f-commerce.

E-banking has begun to gain traction in Bangladesh as more users gain comfort in banking through online portals, allowing banks to cut costs on their services.

Customer satisfaction and future growth

of e-banking depend primarily on assur-ance, visibility and responsiveness of e-banking ortals.

However, for increased adoption rates, security of payment continues to be an im-portant consideration. Ease of operability, se-curity and status are the key drivers for adop-tion of Internet banking while accessibility, time and cost are also important factors.

According to industry experts, frequent use of credit cards for online payments is correlated with the use of e-banking portals by citizens, pointing to further growth op-portunities in this area.

Although there is much hype with re-gard to mobile � nancial services (MFS), and tangible business growth to justify the hype, for service providers such as bKash and Dutch-Bangla Mobile, there are several products o� ered by MFS providers that are yet to grain traction. As for now, the most popular uses of mobile � nancial services include:

Cash exchangeInward remittancePersonal paymentsP2B payments (e.g. utility bills)B2P payments (e.g. salary) Government payments

However, MFS products such as depos-it schemes and loans are still not popular among users and this is expected to change in the coming years. User openness to these services is also correlated to their overall � nancial literacy, according to industry ex-perts interviewed for this report.

Mobile agricultural services are also ex-pected to play a larger role in the lives and livelihood of farmers and agricultural sector workers in Bangladesh. As it stands, tele-communications service providers such as Robi, Banglalink and Grameenphone have

services related to agriculture market infor-mation, news and weather updates.

However, penetration is quite low at present, and as of 2012, it was only 1%. It is also envisioned that for critical issues such as disaster preparedness and disaster response management, call-data records may provide useful information to tele-communication companies. Information may also be gleaned with regard to rural or remote population displacement, while top- up frequency after disasters can re� ect � nancial status after a disaster (by enabling comparison between pre- and post-disaster top-up trends). Thus agriculture-related services are expected to grow in popularity and scope in the future, and gradually con-nect to online portals of information and feedback on smart phones. A related driver for this is the popularity and penetration of smart phones, which continues to increase as cost of manufacturing these phones go down

Facebook has become a pervasive meta-phor for the demographic dividend in Bang-ladesh and its concomitant potential. Face-book has seen several important social and business applications. Social applications have ranged from coordinated movements of certain sections of the citizenry, buoyed by di� erent causes and motives, while on the commercial side, several retailers have either used Facebook as a platform for sales e� ectively, transitioned their entire busi-ness to Facebook, or from the outset, used Facebook as the primary mode of communi-cation with customers.

Businesses such as Style World initi-ated their journey through Facebook and Shoptobd later moved to designated web-pages. With 25% penetration among the citi-zenry and contributing to majority of the In-ternet tra� c, the potential for F-commerce remains quite signi� cant. l

According to industry experts, frequent use of credit cards for online payments is correlated with the use of e-banking portals by citizens, pointing to further growth opportunities in this area

Depressed trading activities intensi� ed as the DSE turnover came down below Tk400 crore

DSEX slips to six-week lown Tribune Report

Stocks continued to fall for the eighth con-secutive session yesterday with DSEX slip-ping to almost six-week low.

The benchmark index DSEX lost over 32 points or 0.8% to 4,540—its lowest since De-cember 20 last year.

The Shariah index DSES was down 7npoints to 1,095. The blue chip comprising index DS30 shed 10 points to settle at 1,719.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX ended at 8,511, shed-ding 55 points.

Depressed trading activities intensi� ed as the DSE turnover came down below Tk400 crore.

Except food and allied and pharmaceuti-cals that gained 2.5% and 0.6% respectively, almost all the sectors su� ered selling pressure.

Large cap non-banking � nancial institu-tions declined more than 2% followed by telecommunications 1.8%, engineering 1.6%, power 1.2% and banks 0.5%.

Stock prices of around 80% issues closed red as out of 326 scrips traded, 237 declined, 60 advanced and 29 remained unchanged.

IDLC Investments said as the listed com-panies began to disclose their quarterly earn-

ings, investors started to reshu� e their port-folio holdings.

Accordingly, Fu-wang Ceramic was the biggest gainer rising 9.5%, as the company posted 175% year on year growth in its earn-ing per share (EPS) during second quarter of this � scal year.

The low cap IT sector went down 6.7%, as Aamra Technology and Agnai System posted 9.9% and 8.2% negative growth in their quar-terly EPS.

Textile sector also closed in red though some companies were top gainers. They are Rahim Textile and Zahin Textile.

Square Pharmaceuticals—one of the country’s leading drug makers—was the most-traded share with a turnover worth Tk16.3 crore.

It was followed by All Textile, ITC, Saif Powertec, Emerald Oil Industries, RAK Ce-ramic, Orion Infusion, IFAD Autos and Tallu Spinning. l

BTRC to hold public hearing on Robi and Airtel merger issue n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will hold a public hear-ing on merger issue of Robi Axiata and Airtel Bangladesh Limited on February 17.

The regulatory body yesterday formally announced the public hearing date and invit-ed the people from di� erent strata interested to participate during the hearing.

Interested persons are requested to � ll-up a prescribed form through online to partici-pate the hearing by February 8, according to a BTRC circular issued yesterday.

BTRC is going to arrange the public hear-ing on merger issue as per Bangladesh Tele-communication law 2001.

On January 29, Robi and Airtel signed a merger agreement to venturing into a joint business operation in Bangladesh. The joint venture will be recognised as Robi.

The Malaysia-based Axiata Group Berhad and India-based Bharti Airtel Limited inked

the deal at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Prime Minister’s ICT A� airs Advisor Sa-

jeeb Wajed Joy directed the BTRC to take public opinion before � nalising its Robi and Airtel merger in December last year while he sat with the high ups of the telecommunica-tions division at secretariat.

Joy also directed to form a committee to analyse the market at the same meeting. The commission already formed a two-member committee comprising two teachers.

The regulatory body also sought opinion from others mobile operator in Bangladesh who submitted its opinion.

After their last September agreed merger talks, the two cell phone companies submit-ted their joint application to Bangladesh Tele-communication Regulatory Commission that is now carrying out the review of the merger’s impact on the existing telecom market.

Rob and Airtel expect that they would get their required approval within the � rst half of 2016 to set foot in the market jointly. l

ANALYSIS PART-IV

Business 17D

TMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Reuters survey: Iran pushes OPEC oil output to new high as sanctions are lifted n Reuters, London

OPEC oil production has jumped to its high-est in recent history in January as Iran in-creased sales following the lifting of sanc-tions and its rivals Saudi Arabia and Iraq also boosted supply, a Reuters survey showed.

Rising output in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries further ag-gravates the market share battle between top global producers. In the past year this has � ooded the market with new barrels, creat-ing one of the worst oil gluts in history and helping send prices to a 12-year low.

The January supply � gures contrast with statements from multiple OPEC o� cials and recent comments from non-OPEC Russia about the need to cooperate and possibly re-strain supply to help oil prices to recover.

“Genuine production cuts are still a very long way o� ,” said Barbara Lambrecht, an an-alyst at Commerzbank.

“Although we are convinced that prices will rise in the long term, we nonetheless warn against short-term price falls. After all, Iran and Iraq will soon be opening up new sources of supply which will pump addition-al oil onto the market.”

Iran provided the biggest increase in sup-

ply among the OPEC members, the survey found. Sources familiar with the matter say Iran is reluctant to restrain supply as it wants to recover market share and feels that the economic bene� ts of lifting sanctions o� set the drop in oil prices.

Punitive measures imposed by the United Nations and European Union, and some but not all US sanctions, were lifted on Jan 16 in return for steps by Iran to scale down its nu-clear program under an agreement it struck with world powers last year.

“We have to go back to our share of the market,” said a source familiar with Iranian thinking. “Our economic situation is maybe less a� ected by the oil price decline, because of the lifting of sanctions.”

OPEC supply has risen in January to 32.60 million barrels per day (bpd) from a revised 32.31 million bpd in December, according to the survey, based on shipping data and infor-mation from sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants.

December’s total was revised higher be-cause of the return of Indonesia as an OPEC member on Dec. 4. January’s output from the other 12 OPEC members, at 31.90 million bpd, is the highest in Reuters survey records, starting in 1997. l

US economy loses momentum in fourth quarter n AFP, Washington

The US economy slowed sharply in the fourth quarter of last year to a 0.7% pace of growth, due to the oil price crash and the strong dol-lar’s drag on exports.

Consumer spending slowed somewhat but spending on homes held up in a sign of some tenacity amid a global economic slow-down and market turbulence.

It was the second straight quarterly decel-eration, and a bit worse than the 0.9% rate that analysts had forecast.

Gross domestic product expansion was

2% in the third quarter of 2015 and a brisk 3.9% in the second.

The slowdown came on the back of slumping business investment in buildings and equipment, related in part to the deep contraction in the oil sector.

Also hitting growth was a drop in exports, linked to the strong dollar and slowing de-mand abroad.

Imports also fell, helped by the lower cost of imported crude oil, but overall the net trade de� cit was a larger drag on GDP growth than in previous months.

Supporting growth was consumer spend-

ing on durable goods, which slowed slightly, and services, which was barely changed from the previous quarter.

Also strong was home building and buy-ing, and government spending. Falling fed-eral government spending has been a per-sistent drag on economic output for several years; in the fourth quarter a surge in espe-cially defense-related spending made a solid contribution to overall growth.

The quarter rounded out a year that was somewhat disappointing, after early esti-mates forecast that economic activity might expand by as much as 3% .

In the end, for the full year the economy mustered a 2.4% expansion, the same as in 2014.

Analysts took the data as a warning that the economy could be at the start of a soft patch. But the growth estimate for the peri-od, the � rst from the Commerce Department, is subject to often signi� cant revisions as more data comes in.

Chris Low of FTN Financial pointed out that consumption weakened despite cheaper energy costs, a sign that consumers and busi-nesses are not quickly spending their savings from cheaper gasoline. l

An Iranian woman refuels her car at a petrol station in Tehran, Iran REUTERS

Business18DT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

CORPORATE NEWS

Fozlul Haque, vice president of BTMA and managing director of Ishraq Group has recently received an award from Heinrich Truetzschler, managing director of Truetzschler GmbH & Co, Germany, as recognition of his contribution in spinning sector of Bangladesh during the past 18 years

Syed Abu Asad has recently joined Sonali Bank Limited as its deputy managing director, said a press release. Prior to his joining, he was general manager at Rupali Bank Limited

Standard Chartered Bank has recently signed an agreement with Total Air Services Limited for providing discounts to the bank’s credit and debit cardholders on tickets of Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur – Dhaka routes, said a press release. The bank’s head of brand & marketing, Md Mahiul Islam and CEO of Total Air Services Limited, Morshedul Alam Chaklader were present at the signing ceremony

China grapples with contradictions over currency n AFP, Beijing

China is struggling to reconcile its push for economic reforms and a freely traded curren-cy with curbing massive out� ows of capital sparked by worries over its slowing economy - and a lack of communication is fuelling fear.

The thorny problem represents the so-called “impossible trinity”, as China’s ruling Commu-nist Party seeks to control the exchange rate and monetary policy, while at the same time moving to freer capital � ows, analysts said.

Around $1tn left China last year, accord-ing to Bloomberg Intelligence. In December alone capital out� ow from the country was nearly $160bn, it said.

The cash haemorrhage re� ects growing concern about the economy against a back-drop of volatility in the stock and currency markets, which has led both investors and savers to shed their yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB).

“The recent � ood of capital leaving China has been driven primarily by increased scep-ticism that the People’s Bank (the central bank) will hold to its pledge to keep the ren-minbi stable,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics.

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, billionaire investor George Soros told Bloomberg TV that the world’s second largest economy, where growth has already slowed to a 25-year low, was heading for more trouble.

“A hard landing is practically unavoida-ble,” he said, pointing to de� ation and exces-sive debt as a reason for China’s slowdown.

His remarks angered the Chinese media, which accused him of “declaring war” on the currency.

Soros - whose enormous trades are still blamed in some countries for contributing to the Asian � nancial crisis of 1997 - in the 1990s led speculators in bets against the Bank of England, which unsuccessfully sought to de-fend the pound’s exchange rate peg.

No policy to devalue The yuan has retreated against the dollar by 1.3% since the start of January, having al-ready slid more than 4.5% against the green-back in 2015.

Beijing keeps a grip on currency � ows and the yuan can only move up or down against the dollar by two percent daily from a mid-rate set by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank.

But after a surprise devaluation last August - a move intended to bring it closer to its market value according to Beijing - the yuan is being dragged down by the vast out� ows of capital.

Chinese citizens are allowed to convert the equivalent of $50,000 from the domes-tic currency under an annual quota, though many seek ways to evade the barrier. A pop-ular method is borrowing the quota of other people, such as family members.

When the PBoC in mid-December signalled a change in the way it manages the yuan’s val-ue by measuring the unit against a basket of currencies instead of pegging it to the dollar, the move increased the level of anxiety.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the lack of “clear and transparent” rules for the basket led to confusion in the market. At the same time, the decision by the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates has put down-ward pressure on the yuan.

Chinese o� cials deny plans to devalue the currency, amid fears Beijing is seeking a cur-rency war to help boost its � agging exports.

“The � uctuations in the currency market are a result of market forces and the Chinese

government has no intention and no policy to devalue its currency,” Vice President Li Yu-anchao told Bloomberg.

But Beijing faces a dilemma, he said. On the one hand, China wants to expand use of the yuan internationally. At the same time, the government needs to ensure the unit re-mains stable.

Declining reserves To keep its currency steady, China has been diving into its foreign exchange reserves - already the world’s largest - to buy massive amounts of yuan.

But it is a bitter pill to swallow. China’s for-eign exchange reserves fell $108bn in Decem-ber - the biggest monthly decline on record - to $3.3tn.

“The PBoC has enough reserves to keep selling at December’s rate until mid-2018 but it would presumably throw in the towel be-fore they were all exhausted,” said Williams of Capital Economics.

The central bank has also refrained from loosening monetary policy by cutting reserve requirements - the amount of funds that banks must put aside - on fears of exacerbat-ing the yuan’s depreciation, analysts said.

Some say China will need to devalue the yuan, and have even called on Beijing to move rapidly towards a free � oat of the currency. l

A clerk counts Chinese yuan and US dollar banknotes at a branch of Bank of China REUTERS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

Exhibitors reject“We have high quality products, but there is a lack of initiative to attract foreign buyers,” Mahfuz Alam, manager of Bexi Fabrics at DIFT, told the Dhaka Tribune.

If EPB wants to draw attention of interna-tional buyers for the export-oriented prod-ucts, it has to ensure enough facilities for the retailers, said Alam.

The buyers do not come here to place their orders, it is done though direct contract, said Md Bablu, Majestic Footwear.

Bublu suggested holding a small scale and separate trade expo for the export-oriented products. According to EPB, the fair witnessed a sale of Tk121.47 crore, which is Tk71 crore higher compared to that in previous year.

In 2015 trade fair, exhibitors were unhap-py as the turnout was very low due to po-litical unrest, which caused lackluster sale, but this year was an exception. The traders looked happy due to higher turnout of visi-tors at the fair and increased sale.

“We have received a good response from our local buyers,” Masud Rana, sales execu-tive of Gazi Toys, told the Dhaka Tribune.

In his address as a special guest at the concluding ceremony of DITF, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) President Abdul Matlub Ahmed urged the government to organise the fair also at divisional levels.

Matlub also showed interest to be a part of the expo organiser.

Senor Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon said: “We are considering the proposal of the apex trade leaders about the arrangement of fair through Public Private Partnership.

Walton Hi-Tech Park has been awarded for paying the highest tax at the fair while Novo Nordisk for their contribution to � rst aid and providing ambulance to the expo authority to ensure quick treatment facilities in case of emergency.

Tajul Islam, chairman of Parliamenta-ry Standing Committee on the Ministry of Commerce, and EPB Vice-Chairman Mafruha Sultana, were, among others, present at the closing event.

The month-long 21st Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2016 was hosted jointly by the Export Promotion Bureau and the Ministry of Commerce to display new products to attract global buyers as well as local consumers.

The fair ended yesterday with a huge turnout of local visitors and higher sales. l

Biz Info 19D

T

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

The employees of BRAC Bank organised a mini marathon titled “BRAC Bank DAUR 2016 – Kolyaner Pothochola” to raise fund for community service.

Annisul Huq, Mayor, Dhaka North City Corporation, attended as the chief guest at the annual mini marathon for humanity at South Plaza area of Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on January 29.

Selim R F Hussain, managing director and CEO of BRAC Bank Limited, and the employees of all BRAC Bank branches across the country took part in the marathon for a social cause. This year, the o� cials of private banks, corporate houses and media celebrities also participated in and attended the marathon.

The marathon started at 7:00 in the morning. More than 4,000 employees of BRAC Bank and other organisations participated in the marathon that started from Manik Miah Avenue and continued towards Khamar Bari, crossing Rokeya Shoroni, Agargaon, Mirpur Road Shishu Mela, Asad Gate and � nally � nished at Manik Miah Avenue again.

On the occasion, the employees raised a fund of Tk10,000,000, which was doubled to Tk20000,000 from its CSR fund.

BRAC Bank donated Tk10,000,000

to Bangladesh Thalassaemia Samity and Hospital that treats thalassaemia patients and also creates awareness about prevention of the disease. After the marathon, Selim R F Hussain handed over the cheque to Omar Golam Rabbani, president at Bangladesh Thalassaemia Samity and Hospital.

Earlier this winter, a portion of the fund was utilised to distribute 2,700 blankets to cold a� icted people in Rangpur and the newly reclaimed enclaves in Panchagarh.

In this memorable event, Selim R F Hussain said: “As a follower of 3P Philosophy – People, Planet and Pro� t – social welfare initiatives are embedded in the DNA of the people who work at our bank. I am enlightened to see the passion in our people who contribute to the welfare of the society.”

“This year we are inviting guests from outside the bank to take part in the marathon. We hope that this will take the annual marathon to a newer level and we strongly believe that together we can make a di� erence in people’s lives,” he added. l

Nando’s, the South African Restaurant Chain brought to Bangladesh by MGH Group, is setting a romantic stage for all the lovers to make a memorable mark in their romantic stories in this month of love.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Nando’s has launched their month long campaign from February 1 to 29. In addition to that, they have also introduced a Valentine’s meal based around their butter� y chicken steak. Along with it, other o� erings include chicken wings, designer drinks, wedges, corn on

the cob, peri bites, caesar salad and special valentine dessert. The o� er is charged at Tk2,016 and it is for couples.

On January 28, Nando’s organised a press event to introduce this campaign to its customers where their high o� cials were present. The meal was inaugurated in presence of famous and popular celebrities including Azra, John Kabir, Nabila, Hridi and so on.

Two lucky couples will win diamond rings in the Valentine’s celebration. Besides, they can also win lucrative prizes by participating in various in-house games and photo contests.

Throughout February, the restaurant will be decorated in a majestic fashion, making it a unique place to be.

The chain hopes to touch lives and this Valentine, and wishes to make the peri-lovers Valentine’s celebration special with great chicken and adorable prizes. l

This Valentine’s Day, Six Seasons Hotel, better known as the luxury boutique hotel, is celebrating love with grand and romantic gestures. The meticulously planned dinners with attractive and fun-� lled events will supplement the ever-romantic location in Gulshan 2 and facilities of Six Seasons Hotel. Guests will be treated with scrumptious set-menus and the bountiful all-you-can-order along with scenic city and lake views.

On February 14, the rooftop Sky Pool Restaurant will o� er exclusive candle light couple’s “prix � xe” dinner for TK5,999. Apart from the exquisite dinner, the Bunka Restaurant on the 13th � oor will o� er a special Valentine’s all-you-can-order

dinner at Tk2,999 per person. Satisfying your taste buds is only the appetiser on the special day. Experience of the guests will be heightened with a contest for best dressed, live singing, attractive ra� e draw prizes, photo memorabilia, Valentine-themed photo booth, and interactive couples’ games such as “How well do you know your partner?”

Moreover, for the � rst time in Bangladesh there will be a Valentine’s Eve dinner at Sky Pool Restaurant on February 13. Couples can enjoy a high-value set-menu dinner for only Tk5,499.

For further details or to make reservations, please call: +88 01987009810. l

BRAC Bank organises a marathon for humanity

Nando’s Valentine Celebrate love at Six Seasons Hotel

Downtime20DT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 1 represents D so � ll D every time the � gure 1 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

Across 1 Emphasise (6)4 Headwear (3)7 Motif (5)8 Tempt (6)11 Lair (3)12 Hawaiian garlands (4)13 Bearing (4)15 Camping equipment (5)16 Ballot choices (5)20 Prophet (4)23 Soothe (4)24 Male sheep (3)25 Esculent (6)26 Assumed name (5)27 Not dry (3)28 Essay on a theme (6)

Down 1 Kind of wheat (5)2 Letter (7)3 Slender support (4)4 Yield (4)5 Prayer ending (4)6 Female swan (3)9 Born (3)10 Metal (3)14 Worship (7)17 Bath (3)18 Old cloth measure (3)19 Snow vehicles (5)20 Auction (4)21 Send out (4)22 Repose (4)24 Uncooked (3)

SUDOKU

INSIDE

21D

TWorldMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Britain seeks stronger emergency brake from EU British Prime Minister David Cameron asked for stronger powers to curb immigration from the European Union at a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk on Sunday.

PAGE 22

Over 10,000 Europe-bound migrant children missingOver 10,000 unaccompanied migrant children have disappeared in Europe, the EU police agency Europol said on Sunday, adding that it fears many have been whisked away into sex tra� cking rings.

PAGE 22

Dae’sh bombings in prophet’s granddaughter tomb kill 50Bombings claimed by the Dae’sh group killed more than 50 people and wounded dozens on Sunday near a revered Shia shrine outside the Syrian capital Damascus.

PAGE 23

Q&A

The ABCs of primaries and caucusesIowa kicks o� the primary season with its caucus today, and New Hampshire fol-lows with its pri-mary on Febru-ary 9. After that,

all the states will hold either caucuses or pri-maries (or, like Nebraska, both) by mid-June.

What are the differences between primaries and caucuses?A primary is an o� cial election, where vot-ers cast their ballots for their preferred can-didates in secret, as they would for any other election. But in caucuses, participants typi-cally discuss the candidates in an open fo-rum (picture a gymnasium, public library or even a living room). In the Iowa Democratic caucus, voting is public and participants try to sway others in the room to switch loyal-ties. In the state’s Republican caucus, voting is instead done by secret ballot.

What are the classifications and categories of primaries?Primaries come in two main categories-- partisan and non-partisan.

In a partisan primary, each state holds mini-elections for each major political party before the general election date. Candidates of the same political a� liation face o� to de-termine who will receive the party nod and advance to compete with the candidate of the other major political party in the general election. Who can vote in a partisan primary depends on the law.

There are three types of partisan prima-ries-- open, closed, and semi-closed.

In an open primary all voters can select a ballot for any party, regardless of their po-litical registration, but they can only vote in one contest. Most states require that vot-ers be registered with some political party. Open primary supporters argue more peo-ple can participate when independent vot-ers are encouraged to cast ballots.

Closed primaries are only open to those registered with that party. But some states opted for semi-closed primaries to avoid ex-

clusion of independent voters. In that case, independents are allowed to cast ballots in either party’s primary.

California and Washington state hold non-partisan primary election, sometimes called a “jungle” primary. In these states all candidates for o� ce run on the same ballot in one primary, and the candidate who wins a simple majority of the vote wins. If nobody wins more than 50% of the vote, then the top two candidates advance to a runo� election.

Who organises these and how? Both primaries and caucuses are run at the state level, though caucuses are actually con-trolled by state party organisations — Demo-crats and Republicans — while primaries are run by state governments. Some primaries and caucuses are “closed,” meaning that only registered party members can take part; others are “semi-closed” and open to unaf-� liated voters; and still others are “open,” so any registered voter can participate.

Voting in a primary is generally a quick activity, and can take place at any point dur-ing scheduled voting hours. Participating in a caucus can literally take hours, and if one is not available when it takes place, then he/she can’t participate.

Given the time commitment required and the open nature of the format, caucus participants tend to be much more political-ly active than an average primary voter. But as a result, far fewer people end up taking part in the process.

Why Iowa and New Hampshire races are so important?Iowa and New Hampshire do have outsize in� uence on the nomination process sim-ply because they both go � rst. If a candidate wins in Iowa or New Hampshire, they prove their viability in the larger nomination con-test and gain valuable momentum as they head into the rest of primary season. In fact, since 1980, all of the eventual Democrat-ic and Republican nominees won in either Iowa, New Hampshire or both, with the ex-ception of Bill Clinton in 1992.

Not only do these two state-wide con-tests help to propel the winners, they also

winnow the � eld. Candidates who perform poorly will face growing pressure to drop from the race. So the candidates, political parties, donors and media all pay close at-tention to what happens in Iowa and New Hampshire.

How did these two states earn the right to go first? Iowa earned it by accident in 1972, but New Hampshire has held the title since the Pro-gressive Era. Now both states have written their � rst-in-the-nation status into law, and the national parties have drafted rules pro-tecting that status — at least for the time being.

How does the party nominating process work? After Iowa and New Hampshire, the South Carolina primary and Nevada caucuses fol-low. And then on March 1, so-called Super Tuesday, things really get rolling when 14 states (and one territory) hold their primary or caucus all on the same day. By mid-June, all the states will have held their primaries and caucuses. Each state-wide contest earns delegates for winning candidates, and those delegates will formally choose the party nominee at the national party conventions to be held during the summer.

How do the primaries and caucuses lead to eventually choosing a party nomination?

Most of the delegates are “pledged” — or bound by the rules — to vote for the candi-date selected by state voters. A minority of delegates, however, are “unpledged,” mean-ing they can vote for whomever they want at the nominating convention. Since 1968, when the primary system was reformed, the presumptive party nominees have typically been declared even before the � nal prima-ries have been held because the front-run-ner candidates have garnered a majority of delegates. But, there is always the unlikely possibility that by the start of a party con-vention, no single candidate has secured a majority of delegates from the primaries and caucuses. Then things can really get eventful. l

Source: NEW YORK TIMES, PBS, HISTORY.ORG

6

Super Tuesday

5 3 7 10 17 24 54 7 148 12 22 2615 19

The primaries and caucuses that will elect the two main parties’ presidential candidates

C

Alabama

Iowa

NewHampshire

CNevada*

PuertoRico

C

VirginIs.

NorthernMarianas

NorthernMarianas

District ofColumbia

FloridaIllinoisMissouriNorth CarolinaOhio

NevadaArizona

CAlaskaHawaii

Washingtonstate

C Indiana

District of Columbia

Kentucky

SouthCarolina

SouthCarolina

*Non-bindingSource: AFP, thegreenpapers.com

Timetable for the US presidential race

Minnesota

CC

C Kansas

C

C

Nebraska

PuertoRico

Washington state

HawaiiC American

Samoa

C

P

California

C

P

RepublicanC

Democrat BothPrimaries

Caucuses /Conventions

1OklahomaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginia

Arkansas

Colorado

GeorgiaMassa-chussetts

5 9 19 26

Wisconsin

New York

Connecticut

MarylandDelaware

PennsylvaniaRhode Island

MontanaNew JerseyNew Mexico

Idaho

WestVirginia

MississippiMichiganKentucky

NebraskaLouisiana

1 9 2320 27

February JuneMarch April May

C

P

PP

P

P P

PP

P

P

P

P

P

PP

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

PP

UtahIdaho

C

AmericanSamoa

CMaine

Oregon

Maine

C

C

Wyoming

Guam

VirginIslands

C

C

North Dakota

C

C

N. Dakota

South Dakota

AlaskaWyomingC

C

Britain seeks stronger emergency brake from European Union n Reuters, London

British Prime Minister David Cameron asked for stronger powers to curb immigration from the European Union at a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk on Sunday.

Cameron insisted that a proposed “emer-gency brake” to deny bene� t payments to working migrants needs signi� cant strengthening, and argue it must be trig-gered immediately after Britain’s referen-dum on EU membership.

Cameron has promised to reform Brit-ain’s ties to the EU and hold a public vote on EU membership before the end of 2017. He is hopeful of reaching a reform deal at a sum-mit next month, with a view to holding the referendum as early as possible, possibly by next September.

According to reports on last week, EU o� ered the emergency brake for up to four years as an alternative to Cameron’s pro-posal to bar EU immigrants from in-work bene� ts for at least their � rst four years in Britain.

The British premier, who wants Britain to stay in a reformed EU but has not ruled out campaigning for an exit if he doesn’t get what he wants, believes the EU’s counter-of-fer should be applicable for as long as is nec-essary to solve the underlying problem and only treated as a stop-gap measure before a permanent mechanism can be established, British government sources said.

Finding a way to curb migration has proved to be the most troublesome element of Cameron’s renegotiation, which also seeks to address voter concerns over com-petitiveness and sovereignty.

Leaders of several of the EU’s 28 member countries have said they would block any measure that discriminated against their citizens or undermined the core EU princi-ple of free movement of people. l

WorldMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

22DT

SOUTH ASIASri Lanka ex-Predident’s son arrested for � nancial crimesA son of former Sri Lankan president Ma-hinda Rajapaksa was arrested on Saturday under the country’s money laundering act and remanded in custody until February 11, the police said. Several members of the Rajapaksa family are facing police investi-gations for alleged � nancial crimes include Rajapaksa, who was president for a decade until 2015. Yoshitha, a 27-year-old naval o� cer, was arrested with four others, in-cluding Rakapaksa’s spokesman and a broth-er of Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga. -REUTERS

INDIADisabled passenger claims Air India made her crawlA disabled passenger said Sunday she was forced to crawl on New Delhi airport’s tar-mac after Air India failed to provide a wheel-chair when her plane landed, an allegation the carrier denies. Anita Ghai, 53, a leading disability rights activist, said after being helped down steps from the plane by airline sta� and a friend, no wheelchair was availa-ble for her to reach the terminal-bound bus several metres away and she had to crawl on the tarmac to board the coach. -AFP

CHINAChina sentences 2 men to death in slaying of Tibetan monkA Chinese court sentenced 2 men to death in the 2013 killing of Akong Rinpoche, a well-known religious � gure who founded the � rst Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West and built an international network of spiritual re-treats. Thubten Kunsal, a Tibetan man who had worked at Akong’s monastery in the UK as an artist for nine years, fatally stabbed Akong, his nephew and his driver after confronting him at his home in the Chinese city of Chengdu. -AP

ASIA PACIFICResearchers say Zika case found in IndonesiaAn Indonesian research institute said Sunday it had found one positive Zika case on Su-matra island, adding that the virus has been circulating in the country for a while. Indone-sia’s health ministry could not immediately comment on the report by the Eijkman Insti-tute for Molecular Biology. The institute said a 27-year-old man living in Jambi province on Sumatra island who had never travelled overseas had been found to be infected. -AFP

MIDDLE EASTIsrael rejects French ultimatum on Palestinian statehood Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu called on Sunday for a more sober approach towards the Israeli-Palestinian con� ict in dismissing a French peace ini-tiative as only encouraging Palestinians to shun compromise. In public remarks to his cabinet, Netanyahu did not explicitly reject the notion of an international conference - an aide said Israel would examine such a request once it was received - but he made clear that reported details of the plan made it a non-starter. -REUTERS

Over 10,000 Europe-bound migrant children missingn AFP, The Hague

Over 10,000 unaccompanied migrant chil-dren have disappeared in Europe, the EU police agency Europol said on Sunday, add-ing that it fears many have been whisked away into sex tra� cking rings.

Europol’s press o� ce con� rmed to the � gures published in British newspaper The Observer.

The agency’s chief of sta� Brian Donald told the newspaper that the � gures are for children who disappeared from the system after registering with state authorities fol-lowing their arrival in Europe.

“It’s not unreasonable to say that we’re looking at 10,000-plus children,” Donald said, adding that 5,000 had disappeared in Italy alone.

“Not all of them will be criminally exploit-ed; some might have been passed on to family members. We just don’t know where they are, what they’re doing or whom they are with.”

More than 1m migrants and refugees, many � eeing the con� ict in Syria, crossed

into Europe last year. Europol estimates that 27% of them are

children, the Observer said.“Whether they are registered or not,

we’re talking about 270,000 children,” Don-

ald told the paper.“Not all of those are unaccompanied, but

we also have evidence that a large proportion might be,” he said, adding that the 10,000 is likely to be a conservative estimate. l

FACTBOX

How EU o� er to UK shaping upA draft EU reform package to help keep Britain in the European Union could be circulated on Mon-day following meetings between Prime Minister David Cameron and top EU o� cials.

The following are key points of could be the proposal European Council President Donald Tusk will send to EU governments--

The formNegotiators worked through the weekend to craft a single document laying out legislative and other measures responding to Cameron’s No-vember demands for reforms so he campaigns to keep Britain in the EU in a referendum by the end of next year. The document set out in more or less detail a classic EU negotiating text, including blank spaces and alternative wordings in brackets, to be haggled over up to and during a summit chaired by Tusk in Brussels on Febru-ary 18-19. A deal, needing all 28 national leaders’ assent, could pave the way for a referendum as early as June. The EU sees its proposals as le-gally watertight, safe from challenges in court and not requiring amendments to treaties now- something hard to pull o� quickly across all 28 EU states. On some issues, it will o� er binding guarantees that treaties will be amended later if that is required to enact proposals.

MigrationCameron wants to discourage other Europeans coming to Britain by excluding them from the tax credits, child allowances and other non-contrib-utory social bene� ts attached to low paid British jobs for at least four years. Without changing EU treaties guaranteeing free movement of labour and barring national discrimination, EU lawyers propose an “emergency brake”, limiting those fundamental rights where vital national inter-

ests or economic stability are at risk. Legislation would give any state to curb in-work bene� ts for up to four years - if agreed to the European Council of fellow governments. Allowances for children could also be reduced long term. EU negotiators speak of “indexing” so that workers whose children live in cheaper states than the parent would receive less.

Euro zoneCameron wants more legal safeguards for Brit-ain’s sterling-based economy and big � nancial industry from a risk of the euro zone countries writing EU rules to suit them. The EU proposes another “emergency brake” where Britain could object in the Council of all EU ministers. London and euro zone leaders all say Britain should not have a blanket veto.

National sovereigntyCameron wants assurances Britain need not hand more power to Brussels and to enhance the say of nations in the EU. The EU will be pro-posing a “red card”, letting national parliaments acting in concert block EU legislation. Britain wants it made clear that an EU treaty phrase call-ing for “ever closer union” among peoples does not mean more political integration. The EU will o� er a binding decision by the European Coun-cil, echoing a reassurance it gave in 2014.

CompetitivenessThe least contentious area of Cameron’s four reform “baskets”, calling for less red tape and more economic dynamism has broad backing so a set of declarations will echo EU policy, but with elements to show Britain Brussels is listening. l

Source: REUTERS

This � le photo taken on November 4 last year shows refugee and migrant children, living in a � eld next door to the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, wait to be registered AFP

PORTRAYAL

Hillary’s lifelong ambition: The presidencyn AFP, Des Moines

Since her school days, Hillary Clin-ton has chased success, earning honors and acco-lades that could � ll a bookcase.

The ambitious Mid-westerner has managed it all in her lengthy career -- all except the presidency, her decades-long obsession.

Clinton might have been forgiven for ex-pecting a glide path to her party’s nomina-tion in 2016, after losing out to Barack Oba-ma eight years earlier.

She and husband Bill Clinton have not just endured but su� ered and thrived in symbiotic tandem under the political spot-light since 1977, the year before Bill’s elec-tion as governor of Arkansas.

Now she is in the � ght of her life against chief rival Bernie Sanders, who is seeking to imitate Obama and snatch victory from Clinton’s grasp in Iowa, the state that votes � rst in the presidential nomination battle.

Clinton has changed tack for this new campaign. She promotes her status as a new

grandmother, but also as the torchbearer of America’s women, a commitment that dates back to her early years as a lawyer and child advocate.

Embracing her reputation as a “� ghter,” Clinton is keen to shed the has-been label and emerge as the nation’s � rst female pres-ident.

She su� ered intense humiliation when news of Bill’s a� air with White House intern Monica Lewinsky surfaced in 1998. But her popularity has never been higher than the 67% approval rating she enjoyed in Decem-ber 1998, according to a Gallup poll at the time.

Pressured by friends and associates, Hillary launched herself into politics, win-ning a US Senate seat for New York in 2000.

She laid low during the 2004 presiden-tial race, but four years later she entered the fray to challenge fellow senator Barack Obama, who savaged her vote supporting the Iraq war.

Clinton chose to run on her experience, refusing to campaign on gender. But Amer-icans opted instead on the 40-something political neophyte Obama, bringing hope of change after eight years of George W Bush.

After a detente with his party rival, Oba-ma appointed Clinton secretary of state.

Her critics argue she can claim no ma-jor diplomatic successes, but her four globe-trotting years in the post cemented her image as a powerful stateswoman.

Her use of a personal email account in-stead of an o� cial government one proved a crippling scandal for her last year, fuelling suspicions that the Clintons see themselves as above the law.

But her years of diplomacy have cement-ed her image. For the last 14 years, she has remained the most “admired” woman in America in an annual Gallup survey. l

Dae’sh bombings in prophet’s granddaughter tomb kill 50n AFP, Damascus

Bombings claimed by the Dae’sh group killed more than 50 people and wound-ed dozens on Sunday near a revered Shia shrine outside the Syrian capital Damascus.

The blasts, which came as the UN’s Syr-ia envoy struggled to convene fresh peace talks in Geneva, tore a massive crater in the road, overturning and mangling cars and a bus and shattering windows.

Syrian state media said more than 50 people had been killed in three blasts near the Sayyida Zaynab shrine, with some 100 people wounded.

Sayyida Zaynab, south of Damascus, contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed Zaynab bint Ali is par-ticularly revered as a pilgrimage site by Shia Muslims.

O� cial news agency SANA said the � rst blast was caused by a car bomb that deto-nated at a bus station near the shrine. It said two suicide bombers then set o� their explosive belts when people gathered at the scene.

In a statement circulated on social me-dia, Dae’sh claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying two of its members had det-onated suicide bombs.

The shrine has continued to attract pilgrims from Syria and beyond, particu-larly Shias from Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq, throughout the nearly � ve-year war.

Sunni Muslim extremist groups such as Dae’sh consider Shias to be heretics and have frequently targeted them in attacks.

The area around the shrine has been tar-

geted in previous bomb attacks, including in February 2015 when two suicide attacks killed four people and wounded 13 at a checkpoint.

More than 260,000 people have been killed so far in Syria’s con� ict, which has also displaced upwards of half the country’s population internally and abroad.

It has evolved into a complex, multi-front war involving rebels, jihadists, regime and allied forces, Kurds and air strikes by both government ally Russia and a US-led coali-tion battling against Dae’sh.

In a new e� ort to � nd a political solution to the con� ict, UN Syria envoy Sta� an de Mistura has invited regime and opposition

delegations to Geneva for fresh talks.But while the opposition agreed to travel

to Geneva after days of delays, it has so far refused to engage in indirect talks with the government.

It is demanding that UN Security Council resolutions on ending sieges and protecting civilians be implemented � rst.

On Sunday, De Mistura held informal talks with the main opposition delegation, saying afterwards that he remained “opti-mistic and determined”.

The Damascus delegation’s chief negoti-ator, Syria’s UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari, ac-cused the opposition of being “not serious” about the talks. l

WorldMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

23D

T

USANew York Times endorses Clinton, KasichThe New York Times on Saturday endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic pres-idential nomination and Ohio Governor John Kasich for that of the Republicans. The liberal newspaper’s picks come just two days before voters in Iowa cast ballots in the � rst nominating contest of the 2016 presidential election season. The Times editorial board opted for a front-runner and a moderate underdog in endorsing Clinton for the Dem-ocrats and Kasich for the Republicans. -AFP

THE AMERICASMore than 2,100 pregnant Colombian women infected with Zika virusMore than 2,100 pregnant Colombian wom-en are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, the country’s national health institute said on Saturday, as the disease continues its spread across the Americas. The virus has been linked to the devastating birth defect microcephaly, which prevents fetus’ brains from developing properly. There is no vaccine or treatment. -REUTERS

UK9 arrested as UK immigration protests prompt clashesPolice in Britain arrested 9 people Saturday as pro and anti-immigration protests in the English Channel port town of Dover spilt over into violence. Far-right and left-wing protes-tors held rival demonstrations but police in riot gear and dog handlers were forced to intervene when bricks and smoke bombs were thrown. Three men were arrested, one on suspicion of possessing an o� ensive weapon, a second for allegedly breaching the peace and a third suspected of a public order o� ence. -AFP

EUROPEMasked mob threatening migrants in StockholmA gang of masked, black-clad men rampaged through the streets of Stockholm on Friday night after handing out lea� ets threatening to attack migrant street youths, to make a state-ment, with police saying on Saturday two arrests had been made. The incident high-lights the growing tensions over immigration in Sweden, a country of 10 million which received 163,000 asylum seekers last year. Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said the in-cident on Friday as well as an anti-immigrant demonstration in Stockholm on Saturday, which local media said later resulted in some scu� es with counter-demonstrators, were a worrying development. -REUTERS

AFRICAAt least 65 people killed in attack in NigeriaAt least 65 people were killed on Saturday during an attack by Islamist militant group Boko Haram near Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri. A Nigerian military spokes-man, Colonel Mustapha Ankas, said that Boko Haram militants attacked the commu-nity of Dalori, about 5 km east of Maiduguri, on Saturday evening. It was the third attack this week suspected to have been carried out by the insurgent group. -REUTERS

Sayyidah Zaynab shrine is a tomb located in southern suburbs of Damascus, contains the grave of Zaynab, the daughter of Prophet Mohammad’s daughter Fātimah and Alī. The tomb became a centre of Shia religious studies in Syria and a destination of mass pilgrimage by Shia Muslims from across the Muslim world, beginning in the 1980s. The present-day shrine that hosts the tomb was built in 1990 WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

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Namibia take Under-19 World Cup by stormNamibia Under-19 took the U-19 World Cup by storm when they shocked de-fending champions South Africa by two wickets in a Group A tie at Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium’s Academy Ground yesterday. In the process, Namibia sealed their berth in the quarter-� nals alongside hosts Bangladesh. PAGE 26

Djokovic masters Murray for sixth Australian titleNovak Djokovic crushed Andy Murray 6-1 7-5 7-6(3) yesterday to match Roy Emerson’s record of six Australian Open titles and leave the Briton heartbroken again at Melbourne Park. The defending champion was at his ruthless best under the lights at Rod Laver Arena, mauling Murray in the baseline duels. PAGE 27

Bando beats Neo to IC7s gloryBando Design Ltd emerged as champions in the inaugural International Corporate 7s football tournament on Saturday after they beat Neo Zippers in the � nal by 3-0. Meanwhile, hosts International Turkish Hope School lifted the Plate trophy beating British Council 5-1. PAGE 28

India clinch thriller to complete sweepShane Watson’s unbeaten hundred could not prevent Australia falling to a seven-wicket defeat to India in the third and � nal Twenty20 match yesterday as Suresh Raina hit a four on the last ball to complete a 3-0 clean sweep in the series. India were chasing 198 to win and needed 17 runs in the � nal over. PAGE 29

BANGLADESH UNDER-19S R BSaif Hassan b Rao 49 108Pinak Ghosh lbw b Gha� ar 0 3Joyraz Sheik c Brown b Gha� ar 13 17Nazmul Hossain Shanto not out 113 117Mehedi Hasan c McCreath b Gha� ar 51 48Md Saifuddin c Johnston b Brown 3 3Saeed Sarkar c Flack b Gha� ar 16 6Zakir Hasan not out 0 0Extras (lb 1, w 8, nb 2) 11 Total (6 wickets; 50 overs) 256

Fall of wickets1-1, 2-17, 3-118, 4-218, 5-226, 6-244Bowling Brown 10-4-48-1, Gha� ar 10-0-60-4,McCreath 7-0-30-0, Aslam 10-1-39-0, Rao 8-0-43-1, Azeem 2-0-15-0, Flack 3-0-20-0SCOTLAND UNDER-19S R BND Flack c Shanto b Miraz 28 41RA Johnston lbw b Ariful 20 52Owais Shah run out (Shanto) 0 0Azeem Dar c Shawon b Saifuddin 50 89JS Waller c Shawon b Ariful 24 38FDW McCreath lbw b Shawon 8 27H Aslam c Zakir b Shawon 2 12RG Brown b Shawon 2 4HG Carnegie b Saifuddin 1 6MD Rao b Saifuddin 2 8Mohammad Gha� ar not out 1 8Extras (lb 2, w 1, nb 1) 4 Total (all out; 47.2 overs) 142

Fall of wickets1-48, 2-48, 3-56, 4-89, 5-113, 6-119, 7-129, 8-135, 9-139, 10-142Bowling Halim 3-0-15-0, Saifuddin 7.2-0-17-3, Miraz 9-1-27-1, Shawon 10-2-27-3, Ariful 10-0-28-2, Saeed 8-1-26-0

Bangladesh Under-19s won by 114 runsMoM: Nazmul Hossain Shanto (BD)

SCORECARD

Shanto hundred propels Bangladeshn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Cox’s Bazar

Bangladesh Under-19 quali� ed for the Qua-ter-� nals of the U-19 World Cup yester-day. Inspired by Nazmul Hossain Shanto’s unbeaten ton, the junior Tigers defeated Scotland by 114 runs at Sheikh Kamal Inter-national Cricket Stadium. The second win in Group A, with the upset Namibia pulled o� on the same day by beating defending champions South Africa, sealed a quar-ter-� nal slot for the home side.

Bangladesh will face high-� ying Namib-ia, also on two wins, in their last group game which will also determine their standings. One more win will see Bangladesh � nish as the Group A champions.

Bangladesh recovered from a shaky start against Scotland after losing two wickets for just 17 runs but Shanto continued his good work with the willow as he smashed the re-cord books on his way to 113 o� 117 deliveries.

Batting at No 4, Shanto � rst topped the

most runs scored in youth ODIs when he was on 61 before becoming the � rst Bang-ladeshi centurion in the ongoing edition. His composure at the middle saw him stitch two hundred-run partnerships – 101 with Saif Hassan (49) for the third wicket and exactly 100 with Mehedi Hasan (51) for the fourth wicket – which carried Bangla-desh to a strong position in the match. The left-hander hammered 10 boundaries dur-ing his unbeaten knock.

Scottish right-arm pacer Mohammad Gha� ar took four of the six Bangladeshi wickets as the hosts eventually made 256.

The target was always going to be hard to chase given Bangladesh’s bowling prow-ess. Despite a solid looking 48-run opening stand between Neil Flack and Rory Jhon-ston, Scotland stood no chance in front of seamer Mohammad Saifuddin and spinner Saleh Ahmed Shawon who bagged three wickets each. Azeem Dar’s 50 was the best in the Scottish innings that ended on 142. l

Sanjit suspended from bowlingn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Cox’s Bazar

In their bid to clinch the � rst ever Under-19 World Cup title, the Bangladesh U-19 camp re-ceived a jolt yesterday when o� -spinner Sanjit Saha was suspended from bowling in interna-tional cricket owing to an illegal bowling action.

The International Cricket Council through an event bowling action review panel anal-ysis revealed that the bowling action of the right-arm spinner is illegal.

The 18-year old, a key part of the Bangla-desh U-19 bowling attack, was reported follow-ing their opening group-stage match against South Africa last Wednesday in Chittagong.

The ICC verdict however, did not come as a surprise to the Bangladesh U-19 team management. It is understood that the junior Tigers’ think tank were informed of the � nd-ings by the review panel last Saturday night. Consequently, Sanjit sat out their previous match against Scotland yesterday.

The ICC review panel determined that Sanjit breached the elbow-extension toler-ance level of 15 degrees permitted by the world cricket governing body. Sanjit will now have to rectify his action and undergo lab-testing in order to bowl again. l

Bangladesh U19’s Nazmul Hossain Shanto goes wild after reaching his century during their ICC U19 World Cup match against Scotland in Cox’s Bazar yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

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BRIEF SCORESEngland U-19 288/4 (Burnham 106*, Magarira

2/36) beat Zimbabwe U-19 159 (Ives 91, Mahmood 4/39) by 129 runs

West Indies U-19 340/7 (Springer 106, Tikoisuva 6/59) beat Fiji U-19 78 (Vuniwaqa

29, Pope 4/24) by 262 runs

Namibia U-19 137/8 (Louwrens 58*, Whitehead 2/27) beat South Africa U-19 136 (Ludick 42, Van Lingen 4/24) by two wickets

Shanto adds feather to already illustrious capn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Cox’s Bazar

The Bangladesh Under-19 camp might have been shaken slightly with the news of Sanjit Saha’s bowling suspension but Nazmul Hos-sain Shanto gave the nation some reason to feel cheerful as he emerged as the highest run-scorer in youth ODIs yesterday.

The left-handed batsman reached the milestone during his unbeaten century against Scotland in a Group A encounter of the U-19 World Cup at Sheikh Kamal Interna-tional Cricket Stadium.

Shanto’s heroics saw him surpass the pre-vious record-holder, Pakistan’s Sami Aslam, who now features for the senior side. In their opening match against South Africa last Wednesday in Chittagong, Shanto bagged the player of the match award after scoring a � ne 82-ball 73. Ahead of yesterday’s clash against Scotland, the southpaw required 61 runs to make the record his own and he ac-

complished it in some style. Shanto went to the middle with the junior

Tigers reeling on 17/2 inside the eighth over. But thanks to his 117-ball 113, the hosts even-tually posted a challenging 256/6.

Later, Shanto had double cause for joy when Scotland were bundled out for 142, thus taking the home side through to the Super Eights for only the third time in 11 editions.

And following the end of the game, the 17-year old informed that the more dire a situa-tion is, the more he enjoys batting.

Shanto added that since the wicket was tough to bat on, he resorted to singles more often than not.

In total, the Rajshahi youngster took 49 singles, which will no doubt delight the pur-ists of the game.

“It was a pressure situation when we lost two early wickets. The wicket was not good to bat on so I decided to rotate the strike,” Shanto told the media.

“I enjoy batting in situations like this. You always do not � nd the kind of situation we

were in [yesterday]. So, I always try to pro-pel my team by putting up some runs on the board in situations like this. There have been ample times when I could not � nish it right so I am happy that I have been able to con-tribute for the team [yesterday],” he said.

Junior Tigers captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz was at the middle with Shanto when the latter reached the milestone. Mehedi ran in to congratulate Shanto not once but twice. When asked to explain the moment, Shanto said, “We are very good friends. I think he got a little emotional at that moment. He has al-ways been a great support to me.”

With 1615 runs in 40 youth ODIs, the pre-vious record belonged to Pakistan opener Sami. In contrast, Shanto took 54 matches to outshine Sami. The left-hander attained the glory in the 38th over, bowled by Scottish captain Neil Flack, when he � icked the ball towards the mid-wicket region. Shanto now has 1787 runs to his credit. l

England, WI win bign Tribune Report

Jack Burnham’s second century in three matches, complemented by a combined bowling e� ort, guided England Under-19 to the U-19 World Cup Super Eights with a 129-run victory over Zimbabwe at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday.

Meanwhile, Shamar Springer’s century and Gidron Pope’s excellent all-round perfor-mance helped the West Indies seal a massive 262-run win over Fiji in their Group C match at MA Aziz Stadium in the port city.

England v ZimbabweBurnham slammed an unbeaten 106 from 104 balls as England made 288 for four before bowling Zimbabwe out for a paltry 159 in 43.3 overs. While Burnham scored the bulk of the runs, there were half-centuries from Dan Law-rence (59 o� 67 balls) and Max Holden (51 o� 90 balls) as well. Once the batsmen were done, Saqib Mahmood led the England bowling with four for 39, while Callum Taylor took three for 14 in his four overs. England will face either Pakistan or Sri Lanka in the quarter-� nals.

West Indies v FijiPut in to bat, West Indies piled up a massive 340 for seven wickets and then rolled Fiji over for just 78.

Pope and Tevin Imlach, the West Indies openers, got their side o� to a rollicking start, carving into the inexperienced Fiji bowling attack with relish. The pair added a brilliant 120-run partnership before Imlach fell to Cakacaka Tikoisuva, the right-arm pacer, for a 40-ball 36. Pope fell for a 77-ball 76, be-coming the second of Tikoisuva’s victims but Springer, who came in at No 5, and Jyd Goolie all but put an end to such ideas with a 157-run partnership for the � fth wicket at better than a run-a-ball.

Goolie played the supporting role and scored 66 but Springer smashed a magni� -cent ton and ended up on 106 from 78 balls, with 10 fours and four sixes, becoming Tikoi-suva’s � fth victim. Tikoisuva picked up one more wicket in the � nal over, that of Keemo Paul, to � nish with � gures of six for 59 in his 10 overs. Later, Pope claimed four and Alzarri Joseph took three wickets to deliver Fiji’s third straight defeat in the tournament. l

Namibia Under-19s celebrate their two-wicket win over South Africa Under-19s which sealed their quarter-� nal spot in Cox’s Bazar yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

MOST RUNS IN YOUTH ODIsPlayer Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave 100/50Nazmul Hossain Shanto (BAN) 2013-2016 54 53 8 1747 113* 38.82 2/12Sami Aslam (PAK) 2012-2014 40 39 2 1695 134 45.81 6/10Q de Kock (SAF) 2010-2012 30 30 1 1409 146 48.58 4/7Vijay Zol (IND) 2012-2014 36 36 3 1404 128 42.54 4/7Anamul Haque (BAN) 2009-2012 38 38 1 1326 128 35.83 3/8

Namibia take WC by stormn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Cox’s Bazar

Namibia Under-19 took the U-19 World Cup by storm when they shocked defending champi-ons South Africa by two wickets in a Group A tie at Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Sta-dium’s Academy Ground yesterday.

In the process, Namibia sealed their berth in the Super Eights alongside hosts Bangladesh while the reigning champions of the age-level tournament exited in the � rst hurdle.

Associates Namibia were considered one of the minnows prior to the start of the tour-nament but following yesterday’s display they are now within touching distance of topping Group A, having also defeated Scot-land in their opening group-stage game.

However, their task will be anything but straightforward as they prepare to face the formidable home side, who also have two wins to their credit, in their last group-stage clash tomorrow which will determine the

group champions.Batting � rst, the junior Proteas were in all

sorts of trouble, eventually managing only 136 for the loss of nine wickets from their stipulated 50 overs. The run rate was well be-low three runs per over in the face of some devastating bowling by the Namibian young-sters, led by Michael van Lingen (4/24), who also bagged a creditable three-wicket haul in the previous game against Scotland.

In reply, Namibia were slightly under the cosh, losing wickets at regular intervals but middle-order batter Lohan Louwrens’ pains-taking 97-ball 58 guided them home.

Following the end of a dramatic chase by the Namibian youngsters, player of the match Van Lingen said, “With all the support of my team mates, I really wanted to show South Africa that we are Namibia and we are here to play. We are not here just to be here, but show the world that we can play cricket.”l

Today’s Matches9:00AM

India v Nepal, Dhaka LIVE* Ireland v New Zealand, Fatullah Afghanistan v Canada, Sylhet

*On Star Sports 1

Sport 27D

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Former Brazil striker Adriano back in actionFormer Brazil and Inter Milan striker Adriano has signed for fourth-tier regional league American club Miami United, the team said. His last competitive appearance was for Brazilian club Atletico Paranaense in 2014 and his career nose-dived after a successful time at Inter where he scored 47 goals in 115 appearances.

–REUTERS

Sunderland complete signing of Tunisian KhazriPremier League strugglers Sunderland have completed the signing of Tunisia international Wahbi Khazri from French club Girondins Bordeaux for an undisclosed fee, the club said on Saturday. No � nancial details were given but British media reported a fee of nine-million pounds ($12.89 million) had been agreed.

–REUTERS

Watford sign Mario SuarezSpanish international mid� elder Mario Suarez has joined Watford from Italian side Fiorentina on a four-and-a-half-year deal, the Premier League club announced on Saturday. Capped three times by Spain, the 28-year-old former Atletico Madrid player has signed for an undis-closed fee reported to be around £4 million.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

LAST 10 WINNERS2016 Djokovic bt Murray 6-1 7-5 7-6 2015 Djokovic bt Murray 7-6 6-7 6-3 6-0 2014 Wawrinka bt Nadal 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-3 2013 Djokovic bt Murray 6-7 7-6 6-3 6-2 2012 Djokovic bt Nadal 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 7-5 2011 Djokovic bt Murray 6-4 6-2 6-3 2010 Federer bt Murray 6-3 6-4 7-6 2009 Nadal bt Federer 7-5 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-2 2008 Djokovic bt Tsonga 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6 2007 Federer bt Gonzalez 7-6 6-4 6-4

Novak Djokovic of Serbia waves as he walks around the Rod Laver Arena after defeating Andy Murray of Britain in the men’s singles � nal at the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday AP

DJOKOVIC 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) MURRAY 7 Aces 12 3 Double Faults 5 31 Winners 40 41 Unforced Errors 65 5/12 Break Point Conversions 2/6 123 Total Points Won 99

Time: 2hr 53min

Beaten Murray in a rush for the exit doorn Reuters, Melbourne

With another Australian Open title having slipped through his � ngers after a tournament plagued by o� -court dramas, Andy Murray could not wait to see the back of Melbourne Park after losing his � fth � nal yesterday.

He became only the second man since tennis went professional to lose � ve � nals at the same grand slam but the other, Ivan Lendl, sandwiched his � ve losses at the U.S. Open with a hat-trick of wins from 1985-87.

Also runner-up to Roger Federer in 2010, Murray battled hard in the second and third sets against Djokovic but the loss will do lit-tle to convince fans that the Scot can one day break his hoodoo against the Serb.

By any measure, Murray had a taxing two weeks and was constantly worried about his heavily pregnant wife back in Britain.l

Djokovic masters Murray for sixth Australian titlen Reuters, Melbourne

Novak Djokovic crushed Andy Murray 6-1 7-5 7-6(3) yesterday to match Roy Emerson’s re-cord of six Australian Open titles and leave the Briton heartbroken again at Melbourne Park.

The defending champion was at his ruth-less best under the lights at Rod Laver Arena, mauling Murray in the baseline duels and clos-ing out the match in two hours and 53 minutes.

Murray succumbed to his � fth loss in � ve Australian Open � nals, and fourth against the Serbian world number one, who claimed his 11th grand slam title to draw level with the totals of Australian Rod Laver and Swede Bjorn Borg.

Having fended o� Murray in a marathon second set, Djokovic again had to put down some sti� Murray resistance in the third as the Scot refused to go quietly.

But having been dragged into a tiebreak, Djokovic sealed the title on his third match point with a clinical ace down the T.

For a man who has owned the year’s � rst grand slam for � ve of the past six years and won his � rst in 2008, Djokovic’s celebrations were subdued and he gave Murray a consol-ing pat on the chest as they shook hands.

After walking around the court and pumping his � st at clutches of thrilled Serbian fans, Djok-ovic ripped o� his shirt and � ung it to a young woman who jumped up and down in delight.

“Andy, you are a great champion, a great person and a great friend and I’m sure you

are going to have more opportunities to � ght for this trophy,” Djokovic said at the trophy presentation.

“It’s a great privilege to match the record of one of the greatest players to play the game,” he added, referring to Laver who was watching on.

Murray, whose wife Kim is heavily preg-nant at home in Britain and was rocked by a medical emergency involving his father-in-law at the tournament, was magnanimous in defeat.

“I feel like I’ve been here before,” Murray said jokingly as he took the microphone. l

MOST GRAND SLAMS (MEN) Aus Fre Wim U.S TotalFederer 4 1 7 5 17Nadal 1 9 2 2 14Sampras 2 - 7 5 14Emerson 6 2 2 2 12Borg - 6 5 - 11Djokovic 6 - 3 2 11Laver 3 2 4 2 11Tilden - - 3 7 10Agassi 4 1 1 2 8Connors 1 - 2 5 8Lendl 2 3 - 3 8Perry 1 1 3 3 8Rosewall 4 2 - 2 8

Kader set to stay as Sk Jamal presidentn Tribune Report

In what is slowly turning out to be a dramat-ic u-turn, Manjur Kader is set to stay as the president of Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi after the club’s executive committee yesterday ex-pressed its desire to keep him at the post.

The executive committee and the football committee sat for an emergency meeting yesterday at the club premises where the concerned parties did not accept Kader’s resignation letter.

“The committee did not accept his resig-nation letter. We requested him to withdraw his decision. He wanted to stay as a member only but we felt there is no one at the club in his level who can ful� l the responsibility. If he is not here, none of us will stay. We all want to stay at the club together,” said Sheikh Jamal manager Anwarul Karim Helal.

Kader cited “personal and health reasons” for his resignation and was scheduled to leave here for Singapore for medical treatment. Helal expressed his hope that Kader would return to the club following his treatment.

Helal also informed that the Bangladesh Premier League champions will contest the � nal round of the AFC Cup after the club pre-viously hinted of boycotting the event.

Earlier last Saturday, Kader decided to resign as Sheikh Jamal president, reported-ly sending a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A couple of days before that, Kader gave the Bangladesh Football Federation a 48-hour ultimatum, threatening with legal action if nine of their previous players do not return to the club. l

28DT Sport

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

n Tribune Report

Bando Design Ltd emerged as champions in the inaugural International Corporate 7s football tournament on Saturday after they beat Neo Zippers in the � nal by 3-0. Mean-while, hosts International Turkish Hope School lifted the Plate trophy beating British Council 5-1.

Shakil of Bando scored a goal and assist-ed the other two to be named as the player of the � nal.

10 renowned names from six countries competed in the three-day tournament. The teams were – Bando, Neo and Grameen-phone (Bangladesh), British Council (UK), ITHS (Turkey), H&M (Sweden), Highlife Man-agement, Cognizant TG and Tex Corporation (India) and Perfetti van Melle (Italy).

Imranur Rahman, managing director of Bando, scored 26 goals to become the high-est scorer. Bando’s Mridul was named as the

Most Valuable Player and received a Mac-Book Pro courtesy Sterling Group. Nirmalya Karmakar from Cognizant was named as the best goalkeeper while Ratan Postwala from Highlife received the best defenders award.

The tournament organisers also named a Dream Team consisting 11 of the best players in the tournament.

BGMEA president Siddukur Rah-man graced the Gala Night with his pres-ence alongside Nuria Lopez, President Spain-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce, Aritz, CEO of Porcelanosa, former national cricket Samiur Rahman, Epyllion Group di-rect Abu Saleh Musa Junaed and few other dignitaries.

Abdul Monem Group, New Auto Galaxy, CFC, Sailor, CBL Munchee, Anchorage Res-idence, Dhaba were among the associate sponsors in the tournament organised by Leo Entertainment and Highlife Management. Dhaka Tribune were the media partner. l

BGMEA president Siddikur Rahman hands over the International Corporate 7s champion trophy to Bando Design Ltd captain Imranur Rahman and his team at the International Turkish Hope School auditorium on Saturday PHOTOS: LEO ENTERTAINMENT

Tex Corporation (India) earned the Fair Play award Mridul from Bando receives the MVP award

Players named in the IC7s Dream Team pose for a group photo.

(Standing L-R) Imran, Mamun, Farhan, Shatadru, Mobarak, Ratan(Front L-R): Enes, Mridul, Adnan, Anirban, Nirmalya

Plate champions International Turkish Hope

School players pose with the

trophy

Bando beats

Neo to IC7s

glory

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AUSTRALIA R BU. Khawaja c Dhoni b Nehra 14 6S. Watson not out 124 71S. Marsh b Ashwin 9 12G. Maxwell c Raina b Singh 3 5T. Head b Jadeja 26 19C. Lynn c Jadeja b Bumrah 13 9C. Bancroft not out 0 0Extras (lb2, w4, nb2) 8Total (5 wickets: 20 overs) 197

Fall of wicket1-16 (Khawaja), 2-69 (Marsh), 3-75 (Maxwell), 4-168 (Head), 5-193 (Lynn)BowlingNehra 4-0-32-1, Bumrah 4-0-43-1 (2nb), Ashwin 4-0-36-1 (1w), Jadeja 4-0-41-1, Singh 2-0-19-1, Pandya 2-0-24-0 (3w)INDIA R BR. Sharma c Watson b Boyce 52 38S. Dhawan c Bancroft b Watson 26 9V. Kohli b Boyce 50 36S. Raina not out 49 25Y. Singh not out 15 12Extras (b1, w7) 8Total (three wickets: 20 overs) 200

Fall of wicket1-46 (Dhawan), 2-124 (Sharma), 3-147 (Kohli)BowlingTait 4-0-46-0 (4w), Boland 3-0-34-0 (2w), Watson 4-0-30-1 (1w), Tye 4-0-51-0, Boyce 4-0-28-2, Maxwell 1-0-10-0

Result: India won by seven wicketsIndia won series 3-0

Man of the match: S. Watson (Aus)

SCORECARD, 3RD T20I

DAY’S WATCHCRICKET

STAR SPORTS 18:30AM

ICC U19 World Cup 2016India v Nepal

FOOTBALL SONY ESPN

1:30AMSpanish La Liga

Deportivo La Coruna v Rayo Vallecano

Indian batsman Suresh Raina plays a shot during their T20 International against Australia in Sydney, Australia yesterday AP

Clarke eyes T20 after con� rming returnn Reuters

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke will end his self-imposed exile from cricket with a club match next month, opening the way for a possible return to � rst class action, primarily in the Twenty20 format.

Clarke retired from international crick-et last August following the Ashes series defeat by England, having already stepped down from the limited-overs format after the World Cup win on home soil earlier in 2015.

The 34-year-old batsman then opted against taking up the � rst year of a two-year deal with Big Bash League (BBL) franchise Melbourne Stars and announced he was taking an extend-ed break from the game in September.

Yesterday, Clarke con� rmed he would play for Sydney grade side Western Suburbs on Feb. 20-21, saying he missed the competi-tive side of the game and any possible return at senior level would concentrate on T20s.

“My focus is de� nitely the Twenty20 for-mat,” the injury-prone Clarke told Australian Associated Press on Sunday.

“I was so focused when I was playing in-ternational cricket on Test and one-day crick-et that I said ‘no’ to a lot of IPL (Indian Pre-mier League) opportunities.

“Now I have the chance if I do enjoy it, that I can really focus on the shorter form and changing parts of my game to suit that form of cricket. It’s the one area that I cer-tainly feel like I haven’t ful� lled my poten-tial,” Clarke said.

“If I miss it and enjoy it, that will be my fo-cus to come and play some Twenty20 cricket and try and master that format.” l

India clinch thriller to complete sweep despite Watson tonn Reuters, Sydney

Shane Watson’s unbeaten hundred could not prevent Australia falling to a seven-wicket defeat to India in the third and � nal Twen-ty20 match yesterday as Suresh Raina hit a four on the last ball to complete a 3-0 clean sweep in the series.

India were chasing 198 to win and needed 17 runs in the � nal over as Yuvraj Singh hit a four and a six o� the � rst two balls from pace-man Andrew Tye and Raina hit the � nal ball through point with his team needing two.

All-rounder Watson, leading Australia in the absence of the injured Aaron Finch, pow-ered the hosts to 197-5 with an unbeaten 124 after winning the toss and opting to bat.

Australia made � ve changes to the side that lost the last match in Melbourne to con-cede an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, handing debuts to batsman Usman Khawaja and part-time wicketkeeper Cameron Ban-croft. Watson, named player of the match, was the fulcrum around which the hosts’ batting revolved and it was due to his 71-ball knock, which was studded with 10 fours and six sixes, that Australia posted a strong total.

India replied with half-centuries from in-form opener Rohit Sharma (52) and Virat Kohli (50), who was named the player of the series, and then Raina’s 25-ball 49 to chase down the steep target.l

Kiwis win rain-hit thriller, bag series against Pakistann Reuters

Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson hit brisk � fties and combined in a record stand of 159 to power New Zealand to a thrilling se-ries-clinching three-wicket win against Pa-kistan in the third and � nal one-day interna-tional in Auckland yesterday.

Babar Azam (83) and Mohammad Hafeez (76) laid the platform for a big total with a stand of 134 for the third wicket after Paki-stan won the toss and opted to bat. But the touring side, needing to win the match to tie the series at 1-1, su� ered a mid-innings col-lapse to be shot out for 290 in the 48th over.

Brendon McCullum, returning from a back injury to lead the side, fell on the � rst delivery he faced from Mohammad Amir but Guptill (82) and Williamson (84) steadied the

chase with their stand, the highest for the second wicket for the hosts.

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali dismissed both batsmen in quick succession with his part-time leg spin to bring his side back into the match and New Zealand were quickly re-duced to 210-5. But a rain interruption dis-rupted play and when New Zealand returned their target had been revised to 263 o� 43 overs by the Duckworth-Lewis method. l

New Zealand players celebrate winning the series 2-0 after their third ODI against Pakistan at Eden Park in Auckland yesterday

AFP

‘Auba’ on 20 goals as Dortmund trim Bayern’s leadn AFP, Berlin

Borussia Dortmund trimmed Bayern Mu-nich’s lead in the Bundesliga with a 2-0 win over Ingolstadt on Saturday as Pierre-Emer-ick Aubameyang scored twice to leave him with 20 league goals.

Aubameyang has already reached his goal for the season having bet Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel he would score 20 goals be-fore the campaign started.

“It’s true I’ve achieved my goal, but I haven’t yet managed to ful� l my bet with the coach, you’ll have to be patient,” he told reporters when asked for details of his bet with Tuchel.

Gabon international Aubameyang is the top scorer in Germany’s top � ight, three ahead of Bayern’s Poland striker Robert Le-wandowski. l

BRIEF SCOREPakistan

290 (Azam 83, Hafeez 76; Milne 3-49)New Zealand

265 for 7 (Williamson 84, Guptill 82; Amir 2-39) New Zealand win by three wickets (D/L)

Showtime30DT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

SAG awards:Diversity is the night’s winner

Prince Mahmud’s latest comes out

The Screen Actors Guild awards provided a counterbalance to the much-protested lack of ethnic diversity in the Oscar nominations on Saturday as the actors union honoured four black actors: Idris Elba (who won two awards), Viola Davis, Uzo Aduba and Queen Latifah.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to diverse TV,” said Elba, presenting an award after Davis’s win. The British actor won outstanding performance in a supporting role for Beasts of No Nation, and outstanding performance in a TV movie or miniseries for Luther. Controversially, he has been overlooked entirely at the Oscars.

The top award went to Spotlight for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, about the Boston Globe’s expose of a network of paedophile priests. Michael Keaton dedicated the award to “the disenfranchised everywhere, for every Flint, Michigan in the world, for the disadvantaged and the powerless”. He added: “There’s fair and there’s unfair and I’m always going to vote for the good guys.”

However, the film’s rival for the best picture Oscar, The Big Short, is still the hot favourite, as it won the Producers Guild award – a reliable bellweather for the top prize at the Academy awards.

It was also a good night for British actors, with Downton Abbey winning outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series. Meanwhile Australian

Ruby Rose won as part of the Orange is the New Black ensemble, and Mad Max: Fury Road took home best performance by a stunt ensemble.l

Source: theguardian

DiCaprio wins for ‘Spotlight’Leonardo DiCaprio’s trajectory to his � rst Oscar looks unassailable as the actor picked up the outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role for The Revenant, to add to the Golden Globe he won earlier this month. On the red carpet, DiCaprio described the � lm as “epic arthouse” and said that it was the kind of � lm he’d like to make more; despite a famously gruelling shoot that saw the actor eating raw bison liver, an incident mocked by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey when presenting the lifetime achievement award to Carol Burnett.

“So you slept in a horse, and you ate bi-son liver, big whoop,” said Poehler. “Car-ol would have slept in that horse, worn it, done a song and a dance and made a much funnier face after eating something very disgusting.” l

SAG Awards 2016: Complete list of winnersFilm AwardsOutstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Motion PictureSpotlightOutstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading RoleLeonardo DiCaprio, The RevenantOutstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading RoleBrie Larson, RoomOutstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion PictureAlicia Vikander, The Danish GirlOutstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion PictureIdris Elba, Beasts of No NationOutstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion PictureMad Max: Fury Road

Television AwardsOutstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Drama SeriesDownton AbbeyOutstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Comedy SeriesOrange Is the New BlackOutstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama SeriesKevin Spacey, House of CardsOutstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama SeriesViola Davis, How to Get Away with MurderOutstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy SeriesUzo Aduba, Orange Is the New BlackOutstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy SeriesJe� rey Tambor, TransparentOutstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or MiniseriesIdris Elba, LutherOutstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Movie or MiniseriesQueen Latifah, BessieOutstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television SeriesGame of Thrones l

Burnett gets Life Achievement AwardCarol Burnett is loved by people around the globe, and that was certainly proved on Saturday night when she took the stage to receive the SAG Life Achievement Award from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The funny ladies even commented on how in� uenced they were by Burnett and her long-running variety show.

“Carol has been such a huge part of our

lives for 50 years,” said Poehler. “Carol is better than all of us.” Fey and Poehler both grew up watching The Carol Burnett Show and loved that she wasn’t only the star, but was also the “boss.”

The 82-year-old received a great standing ovation both before and after the award giving ceremony. l

n Showtime Desk

Kheyalpoka, a mixed album for which Prince Mahmud penned lyrics and composed music, was supposed to come out in mid 2015 but somehow it did not meet the expected release date. Finally, the album came out yesterday with a launching ceremony at a restaurant in the capital.

The album features prominent and aspiring singers like Tahsan Khan, Topu, Mahadi, Kona, Elita Karim, Imran, Minar, Shamim, Ismat Ara Eva and Nandita, � ve of whom lent their voices to a Prince Mahmud musical endeavour for the � rst time.

Upon working with the young artists, Mahmud said: “For the album, I prioritised young singers not for any particular reason, but for I felt comfortable working with the singers whose voice really enticed me.”

Brought to the market by music label G-Series, the album holds mainly romantic numbers keeping Valentine’s Day in mind. Before releasing the physical copy, Robi Radio had launched an online release of the album while audience has also been able to listen it by dialling 487877.

Spanning over more than two decades, Mahmud’s illustrious musical career produced numerous popular tracks. He

emerged as a lyricist and composer through releasing a mixed album Shokti in 1995. Later, he worked in nearly 50 mixed albums which garnered more attention than any other musician in his generation. His notable works include Khoma, Shesh Dekha, Ekhono Duchokhe Bonya, Dewal, Daag, Piano, Deshe Bhalobasa Nei and Keya Patar Nouka. l

Showtime 31D

TMONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Black Sabbath: The End WHAT TO WATCH

Wildest AfricaAnimal Planet 8:30pmWildest Africa’ is a celebration of Africa’s most spectacular locations, showcasing the full African experience. The 4-part series journeys from the cradle of human civilisation to the most awe-inspiring natural wonders of the world by going on safari to see the continent’s Big Five - lion, elephant, leopard, black and white rhino and Cape bu� alo. Wildest Africa discovers their secret locations, their cultural and wildlife issues, as well as how the natural wonders they live in are being threatened and what is being done to overcome these environmental pressuresNarrated by: Danny Maseng

Final Destination 4HBO 2:32pmOn what should have been a fun-� lled day at the races, Nick O’Bannon has a horri� c premonition in which a bizarre sequence of events causes multiple race cars to crash, sending � aming debris into the stands, brutally killing his friends and causing the upper deck of the stands to collapse on him. When he comes out of this grisly nightmare Nick panics, persuading his girlfriend, Lori, and their friends, Janet and Hunt, to leave escaping seconds before Nick’s frightening vision becomes a terrible reality. Thinking they’ve cheated death, the group has a new lease on life, but unfortunately for Nick and Lori, it is only the beginning.Cast: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Stephanie Honore, Lara Grice

VolcanoStar Movies 9:30pmMike Roark is a by the book emergency management director who is spending the weekend with his daughter, Kelly. During this time previously unknown volcano blows. Sassy, brainy scientist Dr. Amy Barnes is the � rst to warn of the threat, which begins by sucking one of her co-workers into a steaming � ssure. As the lava starts to turns into red hot � reballs, Kelly is injured, and Mike sends her to the hospital in order to attend to his duties, rescue citizens, and run the city’s emergency response. Eventually, Roark and Barnes team up to battle the eruption. Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Don Cheadle, Gaby Ho� mann, Keith David, John Corbett l

Shots � redPapon back in Dhaka

n Showtime Desk

The B-town is buzzing with the rumours of Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut’s secretive love a� air. The gossip is that Hrithik and Kangana have been dating and it is allegedly one of the reasons why the Dhoom star’s marriage with Sussanne Khan ended. While no one had much proof reagrding the allegations, the stars went out of their way to deny them. The two, who worked together in Krrish 3 have been linked for quite sometime now. So it was obvious for the media to ask Hrithik on the rumours of the hush-hush a� air at some point.

On being asked who he would like to dedicate this song to, he said: “No one! Be-cause there is no one in my life right now.” However, when prodded about his link up with Kangana Ranaut, Hrithik went all: “Oh my god! Mind blowing.” That’s when Sonam Kapoor intervened saying: “He just said he is single.”

Known for her outspoken nature, Kangana made an explosive confession to entertainment website Pinkvilla on

Thursday, when she called Hrithik Roshan her “ex-boyfriend.”

But not anymore. When asked if Hrithik had her dropped as the heroine of Aas-hiqui 3, Kangana was scathing: “Yes, many lame rumours are doing rounds, and even a dumb person can tell where these ru-mours are coming from. I don’t know why exes do silly things to get your attention. For me, that chapter is over and I don’t dig graves.”l

n Showtime Desk

Renowned Indian singer Papon will perform live at the concert named “Ethnicity,” organised by Cignal Events, on February 25, at the Noboratri hall of Bashundhara Interna-tional Convention City.

Ethnicity, a high-end entertainment platform for the young and corporate elite section, brings in a unique musical experience with Papon himself, East India Company and Bangladeshi new age folk singers Arnob & Friends from Dhaka.

After his � rst performance at the Dha-ka International Folk Fest, Papon is back with his heart-touching voice behind songs like Humnava (Humari Adhuri Kahani), Darbaan (Bombay Velvet) , and Tu jo mila - Reprise (Bajrangi Bhaijaan). Tickets for the concert will be available in three categories - Gold at Tk2,000, Gallery at Tk2,500 and Platinum at Tk3,000.

Registration at www.helloeventz.com/ethnicity and call 01716118351 or 01722721661 for more details.l

n Milu Aman

The � nal tour by the greatest metal band of all time

Black Sabbath, who pioneered heavy metal more than four decades ago, announced a � nal tour, which would be the band’s last. Metal’s founding fathers are saying goodbye,

but they’re not leaving without a bang. Black Sabbath started their journey in 1968 with original members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward; they released their � rst album in 1970. It was considered as the beginning of heavy metal music. Ozzy left the band after recording � rst 8 studio albums with the band.

Black Sabbath has sold over 70 million records worldwide. The original line-up of the band members reunited with Ozzy in 1997, to release a live album Reunion. They recorded another studio album, 13, which features all of the original members but Bill Ward; the album was released in June 2013. Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave drummer played drums in the album.

Bill Ward said: “I wish them well” 13’s greatest strength is sound, which

is stupendously heavy, as if it’s a 70s Sabbath original! The � rst all-new full-length Sabbath album in 35 years to feature original members, also became their chart topping album in the US.

Tony Iommi was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, but the band still was on the road with extensive 2013 world tour. Black Sabbath is currently touring again for the last time. Their farewell tour “The End”, is truly its last because he is not physically capable of going on tours any longer. Drummer Tommy Clufetos, who plays in Ozzy’s solo band and also with Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, has been touring with the group.

Ozzy Osbourne said: “It’s The End Of BLACK SABBATH, Believe Me!”

Ozzy has said previously that the group would also be recording their � nal album. So far, Black Sabbath has released an album The End recently with four new songs, which were recorded during 13, the album that also featured a handful of live tracks. The four unheard tracks has Brad Wilk on drums, and Tommy Clufetos on vocals.

On Black Sabbath’s � rst show of “The End” tour, Ozzy told the audience: “Thank you all for your loyalty over the years.” Then, after the � nal song, he dropped to his knees and bowed down.

Farewell Metal Gods. l

Back Page32DT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016

SAG AWARDS: DIVERSITY IS THE NIGHT’S WINNER PAGE 30

EXHIBITORS REJECT DITF EXPORT ORDER CLAIM PAGE 15

SHANTO 100 PROPELS BANGLADESH PAGE 25

Frustrations at Dhaka airportn Ishtiaq Husain

Travellers who have passed through Dhaka airport are no strangers to the frustration of waiting in hour-long queues in front of the baggage collection belt, often to � nd that their belongings has gone missing or that its contents had been stolen.

Airport sources said a huge number of baggage are stolen each year at Hazrat Shah-jalal International Airport.

Many suitcases or packages also get dam-aged because of rough handling by ground sta� .

Often during the peak time of ground ser-vices, there are no workers available due to changing of shifts, an executive of a foreign airlines said requesting anonymity.

There should not be any gap between the time when a team ends its shift to return home and another team arrives to start their new shift, he said, adding that only better co-ordination could solve the problem.

Even if a passenger is lucky to � nd bag-gage in one piece, they have to go through a gruelling wait to collect their luggage.

“It took over 11 hours to reach Dhaka from Milan airport. But after a long journey, I had to face over two hours of a painful long queue to collect my luggage,” said Mizanur Rahman, a professional.

Mizan is one of many passengers who often express dissatisfaction over the poor service. They alleged that the attitude and performance of Biman sta� s are not up to the mark because most of them are recruited temporarily.

Admitting limitations in providing prop-er ground handling services, Biman acting managing director and CEO M Asaduzzaman said the shortcomings were the result of lack of manpower and equipment.

“The highest policy making body of Biman has already approved to purchase ground handling equipment. We will overcome this problem soon after recruiting adequate man-power and purchasing equipment,” he added.

But in the meantime, passengers continue to su� er and put the blame on airlines who have no involvement in handling the luggage.

Kamrul Islam, general manager (PR & marketing support) of US-Bangla Airlines, said it was painful for di� erent airlines to be accused of something which they were not even responsible for. It happens because most passengers do not know who operates the ground handling services, he said.

Currently, 34 airlines are operating their � ights from Dhaka airport. Everyday, around 200 � ights arrive and depart from this air-port, while over four million passengers pass through this airport annually.

Aviation expert and former member of Biman board of directors Kazi Wahidul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune that the national � ag carrier receives money from all foreign and local airlines, but it does not provide quality services. Biman should provide services it is paid for, he added. l

‘This is our dream job’n Kamrul Hasan

It was 2:37pm yesterday when a white sedan suddenly stopped in front of a police box at Dilkusha in the capital’s Motijheel area. The elderly couple who came out of the car seemed nothing short of ecstatic.

The reason for their excitement – three female tra� c sergeants who were on duty in the area at the time.

Shahana Rahman, former director of med-ical records at American Hospital Dubai in the UAE, was heartily congratulating the traf-� c sergeants when the Dhaka Tribune caught up with her.

“It is wonderful to see these young women making the brave decision to join the tra� c police force,” Shahana told the Dhaka Trib-une. Her husband, Aminur Rahman, agreed.

“We are delighted to see women engaging in professions like this in Bangladesh. More wom-en need to come forward like them,” she said.

The retiree couple wished the policewom-en the best before driving away.

The three tra� c sergeants – Haimanti Sarker, Panna Akhter and Tanjila Khatun – were evidently overwhelmed by the praise, but welcomed it.

Haimanti, Panna and Tanjila are part of the � rst batch of female tra� c sergeants who were accepted to a tra� c policing training session last year. The batch comprised 28 recruits.

The new tra� c sergeants have been on the job for only a month – they started on De-cember 26. Of the 28 new sergeants, 21 have been deployed in the capital.

A novel experience on both sidesHow has the experience of working as traf-� c sergeants been so far? “It is exciting,” all three said. “This is our dream job.”

“We have always wanted to make some-thing of ourselves. We were all constables before we applied to join the tra� c police,” Panna said.

“But sometimes we get strange looks. People look astonished … some even turn their head to look at us when they pass us by,” she added.

“We have been getting all kinds of atten-tion. Some people appreciate that we are here; like Shahana ma’am, many women have congratulated us. But some have yet to grasp the idea of seeing women in this uni-form. They stare at us as if we are aliens,” they laughed.

Making a statement“I thoroughly enjoy people’s astonishment,” said Tanjila, who said becoming a tra� c ser-geant was a challenge for her, coming from Rajabagan village in Satkhira district.

“Growing up in a village, I was subjected to taunts and criticisms for wanting to have a

career,” she told the Dhaka Tribune. But Tanjila found her biggest support in

her family. “My brothers-in-law, especially, encour-

aged me to ful� l my dream to join police.” Her brothers-in-law are also in police.

“So those who used to taunt me, now admire me. My eagerness to take up such a challenging profession has helped me build my own identity,” said a proud Tanjila.

Haimanti and Panna also said their families supported them in achieving their dreams.

Besides the job, Haimanti and Tanjila are studying for master’s degree at city colleges. Panna has already completed her master’s.

They are currently living in the female dormitory at Rajarbagh Police Lines as they are still in their probationary period.

“We also do not have our motorcycles yet. We have to travel here by rickshaw,” said Haimanti.

Mohammad Shahjahan, the inspector sta-tioned at the police box, said they would get their motorcycles soon.

The sergeants have faced some di� cul-ties, but overall they have been enjoying their job and want to continue doing it with honesty and sincerity, they said.

“Because that is what people expect from us. That was what Shahana ma’am’s parting advice to us was: ‘Girls, be honest in your work.’” l

Shahana Rahman, a former expatriate, (2nd-R) gives a congratulatory hug to recently appointed tra� c sergeant Haimanti Sarker (2nd-L) yesterday for taking up the challenging job of tra� c policing as a profession. Haimanti, Tanjila Khatun (R) and Panna Sarker (L) are a part of the country’s � rst batch of female tra� c sergeants who were assigned in December last year SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com