05 March, 2015

Govt to create online platform for commodity info

PAGE 7Chhatra League a terror for RU students

PAGE 4Kamaruzzaman to � le review petition today

PAGE 9Beekeeping a game changer for jobless youths

OPERATORS CAN’T TAKE PART IN SPECTRUM AUCTION PAGE 3

BRTC SEEKS TK10CR FOR DAMAGED BUSES PAGE 5

AL: NO DIALOGUE BEFORE 2019 PAGE 2

SECOND EDITION

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015 | Falgun 21, 1421, Jamadiul Awal 13, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 2, No 329 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

Farabi commends Avijit murder n Mohammad Jamil Khan

On the � rst day of a 10-day remand Sha� ur Rahman Farabi yesterday denied his involve-ment in the killing of writer-blogger Avijit Roy but welcomed the murder.

“I fully support this killing [of Avijit],” Farabi, the prime suspect in the Avijit murder case, told detectives during an interrogation.

A high o� cial of the Detective Branch of Police involved in the interrogation said Fara-bi told them that Avijit was previously known to him.

Both of them used to write posts in di� er-ent blogs. There was no personal enmity be-tween them, says the o� cial, quoting Farabi.

“I just gave death threats to Avijit, as he used to write anti-religious statements in a blog, in a bid to stop the publication of his books. I have no connection with the killing at all,” he quot-ed Farabi as telling the interrogators.

Farabi was arrested in the Avijit Roy mur-der case and taken on remand on Tuesday.

On February 26, some assailants chopped Avijit to death and injured his wife Ra� da Ahmed Bonna near the TSC on Dhaka Uni-versity campus when they came out of Amar Ekushey Book Fair after attending a book launching ceremony.

The DB o� cial further said: “As Farabi put up photographs of Avijit and Bonna in Face-book along with instigating posts, we are treating him as a prime suspect.”

Hasan Arafat, assistant commissioner of PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

PM’s reply to Ban Ki-moon unlikely to mention dialoguen Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Dialogue with the BNP-led alliance very like-ly will not be mentioned in the government’s forthcoming response to United Nations Sec-retary General Ban Ki-moon’s letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The response will say the government will not seek assistance from the UN to resolve the crisis, a senior o� cial of the government said.

“We appreciated that the secretary general sent a letter to the prime minister and we will send our response very soon,” the o� cial said.

“We would say the next election will be held in due course of time as Bangladesh is a democratic country and the government

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

A policeman hastens to inform others as smoke � lls up the area after a crude bomb was blasted near the heavily secured Bakshibazar court during the hearing on the arrest warrant withdrawal plea of Khaleda Zia yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Gulshan police yet to execute o� ce search warrantn Ashif Islam Shaon and Munir Momtaj

A Dhaka court said yesterday BNP chief Khale-da Zia’s arrest warrants would remain in force and refused to even entertain her petitions for withdrawing the orders.

Special Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar had issued the warrant for Khaleda’s arrest on February 25 as she had skipped several court dates. He said yesterday she had become a fugitive for not having turned up at court to surrender.

A former prime minister, Khaleda Zia is on trial for corruption in Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust at Special Judge’s Court 3 in Dhaka.

The court � xed April 5 for the next date of hearing.

The arrest warrants, however, had not reached Gulshan police station as of yesterday.

As for the three-time premier, she did not step out of her o� ce. Khaleda’s lawyers had said she might indeed surrender to the court only if she were given adequate security and allowed to return to her o� ce where she has been living for two months now.

Khaleda’s elder son Tarique Rahman is also on trial at the same court and the judge had also ordered his lawyers to produce Tarique at the court. Tarique has been living in London since 2008 after being released on parole.

The court convened proceedings at a makeshift court at Bakshibazar Alia Madra-sa playground in Dhaka around 11:30am, an hour after the scheduled time. The proceed-ings ended two hours later.

Prosecutors told journalists that they had information about a possibility of Khaleda’s surrender by the end of the day. The judge waited at the court until 5pm.

The proceedings continued even as three crude bombs went o� about a few hundred feet from the court premises around 12:20pm, said the police.

Speculations have been widespread since last week that the BNP chief might be arrested anytime. A senior lawyer and also an adviser to Khaleda, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain told the press that she would surrender before the court only if she were allowed to return to her o� ce.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Khaleda arrest warrant upheld

High Court to hear petitions for withdrawal of arrest warrants and a motion of no-con� dence in the trial court’s judge today

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

NEWS2DTTHURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015

Eight to receive Swadhinata Padak 2015 n UNB

Eight distinguished personalities of the coun-try have been selected for the Swadhinata Padak 2015 in recognition of their outstanding contributions in their respective � elds.

The awardees include late Commandant Manik Chowdhury, who made signi� cant con-tributions towards organising the Liberation War in 1971 in Sylhet; late Mamun Mahmud, who was a police o� cer in 1971 and killed by Pakistani occupation forces for helping the free-dom � ghters; late Shah AMS Kibria, who played an important role in the campaign for Bangla-desh’s war of independence in Washington; and late Prof Moza� ar Ahmed, who was an adviser to the war-time government of Bangladesh.

Besides, educationist and Prof Emeritus of Dhaka University Anisuzzaman; renowned � lm actor Abdur Razzak; agricultural scientist and former director general of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute Mohammad Hossain Mondol; and journalist late Santosh Gupta have also been nominated as recipients of the award, said a Cabinet Division release.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over the awards to the recipients at the Osma-ni Memorial Auditorium on March 25. l

Mamata writes to Modi on Teesta, LBA issuesn Tribune Report

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Indian Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi informing him that she wants to co-operate with the central government for set-tling Teesta and LBA issues with Bangladesh, according to Indian media.

Kolkata’s Ananda Bazar Potrika reported that Mamata wrote to Modi to let him know she was not against the Teesta deal with Bangladesh.

In a letter written after her recent Dhaka visit, Mamata described the outcome of her

trip as “positive,” UNB reports.Indian media also reported that Mamata

is likely to meet Modi on March 10 – her � rst meeting with the prime minister – and is ex-pected to discuss on economic issues con-cerning her state and Bangladesh-India rela-tions.

During her recent visit to Bangladesh, Mamata promised to cooperate on the Teesta water accord and the Land Boundary Agree-ment (LBA) between the two countries.

The Ananda Bazar report said the Indian prime minister wants to visit Dhaka in April. l

AL: No dialogue before 2019 n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Awami League leaders yesterday reiterated their vow that no election would be held be-fore 2019.

The ruling party presidium member Mo-hammed Nasim said dialogue would be held only with the Election Commission and that too on how to conduct a fair election, but it can not be held with the BNP.

Nasim said this while addressing a 14-par-ty alliance’s rally protesting BNP-Jamaat’s nationwide violence. The Awami leader also addressed a rally at Hazaribagh in the capital yesterday evening.

Addressing Khaleda, 14-party spokesper-son Nasim further said: “You depend on your foreign masters but they also told you to stop violence.”

In another programme Nasim termed BNP an underground party like that of militant out-� ts in Middle Eastern countries. The fate of BNP would be the same as other underground parties in this sub-continent, he warned.

Nasim said this while addressing a press conference at AL President Sheikh Hasina’s po-litical o� ce at Dhanmondi after a joint meet-ing. The meeting was held to discuss the prepa-ration for the March 7 rally at Suhrawardi Udyan.

Leaders of Awami League central commit-tee, Dhaka city unit and the districts adjacent to the capital were present at the meeting.

Responding to a question about BNP Chair-person Khaleda Zia’s arrest, ruling party sen-ior leader Nasim said it is the matter of the court and law enforcement agencies.

“They will take the decision as per the law of the country. However, she (Khaleda Zia) has no respect for the court,” he said. l

40 truckloads of fake cosmetics seized n Tribune Report

A factory of fake cosmetics in Dhaka’s Demra was busted yesterday in a joint drive by Cus-toms Intelligence (CI) and RAB o� cials.

The law enforcers seized 40 truckloads of adulterated cosmetics; however, no one was arrested in this regard.

Umme Nahida, assistant director of CI, said the Customs team with the help of RAB 10 and VAT East o� cials conducted the raid at a facto-ry owned by Moonstar Limited and seized the cosmetics worth around Tk40 crore. Nahida said workers at the factory were found � lling containers of renowned brands of body spray and perfume with local, low grade chemicals. l

Farabi commends Avijit murderDB police, said Farabi is yet to admit his in-volvement in the killing. He also said he even did not know who murdered Avijit.

“However, we are interrogating him pre-senting various information to him,” he added.

Once an activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, Farabi later joined Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Krishna Pada Roy, deputy commissioner of DB police, said they were analysing Farabi’s

statements.Meantime, six days have elapsed but the

detectives are yet to arrest any other suspects in the murder case.

Investigators said they were taking techno-logical support to hunt down the killers but as the criminals were frequently changing their hideouts the police have not been able to trace them. A source in the police said the killer group opened a Facebook account under the

name of Ansar Bangla 7 from abroad and put up a post taking the responsibility of the murder.

The page was opened just two days before the killing and it was closed a day after the murder, the source said.

Fazlur Rahman, inspector of DB police and the investigation o� cer of the case, said they were keeping an eye on the fanatic religious group along with interrogating Farabi to trace the killers of Avijit. l

Khaleda arrest warrant upheldKhaleda had skipped court hearings, citing lack of security when activists of her own political alliance, e� ectively the main politi-cal opposition, enforced countrywide shut-downs or blockades.

After about a two-hour hearing of Khale-da’s pleas to withdraw the warrant, to uphold her bail and defer the hearings, the judge said his previous orders remained e� ective.

Judge Jamadar said no one could � le such a petition on behalf of a fugitive according to law. But he allowed Sanaullah Mia to rep-resent Tarique Rahman in the two charges. However, the judge had the petitions includ-ed in the case documents. The court did not proceed with the deposition of the cases al-though seven witnesses were present.

Explaining the court order, Anti-Corrup-tion Commission’s prosecutor Mosharraf Hos-sain Kajal told reporters on the court premis-es that Khaleda had become a fugitive as she did not surrender despite the arrest warrant. “There is no way a court can hear a fugitive’s

petitions, but the court heard the matter as senior lawyers represented her.” He said the court had merely included the pleas in the case dockets. “They were not accepted.”

Citing the BNP chairperson’s petition, which was � led with the High Court, over withdrawal of the arrest warrants and a no-con� dence motion on the trial court’s judge that is due to be heard today, defence counsel AJ Mohammad Ali said: “This is a media trial which is evident from the judge’s orders. We have � led a no-con� dence motion and the matter is yet to be resolved.”

As for the no-con� dence motion, the judge said he had not done anything to hinder the trial.

“There is nothing else to do but continue with the trial since the defence is yet to secure an or-der from the higher courts,” the judge said.

The defence lawyers engaged in a heated exchange with the ACC prosecutor when he argued that a fugitive could not � le the peti-tions.

The prosecutors also opposed the petition

to allow lawyers to represent Khaleda at the court as there were no such provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Kajal argued that Tarique’s physical pres-ence might be dispensed with since his law-yer had informed the court that he was still sick and living in London.

Although the week-old arrest warrant has yet to reach the Gulshan police, they received a court order to search Khaleda’s o� ce for communication devices hours after it was issued on Sunday. But they had not executed the search warrant as of yesterday evening.

Khaleda and � ve others were charged with misappropriation of Tk2.1 crore in the orphan-age trust case between November 13, 1993 and March 28, 2007. Investigators said they could not � nd existence of any such trust.

In the Zia Charitable Trust case, Khaleda and three others are accused of collecting Tk3.15 crore illegally from various sources, using the in� uence of the Prime Minister’s O� ce and later misappropriating the funds. l

PM’s reply to Ban Ki-moon unlikely to mention dialoguewould continue to uphold the spirit of democ-racy,” he added.

The communication will say the BNP made a mistake by not taking part in the last general election and that the whole country should not be penalised for its error, he added.

The response, which is being prepared by the Prime Minister’s O� ce, will be � nalised within days, he added.

The UN secretary general sent a letter to the Prime Minister in the last week of January but it was received by her two weeks after it was sent.

The government’s response will highlight that the government is trying to contain the ongoing BNP-Jamaat-led violence, which is � nally declining, the o� cial said.

Ban Ki-moon also sent a letter to BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her party has already replied.

Earlier, State Minister for Foreign A� ars Md Shahriar Alam said Ban Ki-moon’s letter condemned the ongoing violence and ex-pressed hope the government would ensure that violence does not occur during the next general elections.

Khaleda’s meeting with diplomats The top diplomats who met Khaleda Zia on Tuesday evening urged her to put an end to violent programmes, diplomatic sources said.

The country has been racked by political violence for over two months leaving over one hundred people dead in arson attacks, murders and extra-judicial killings.

The members of the diplomatic corps ex-pressed grave concern over the economy at the meeting, one diplomat said.

In response, Khaleda told them she wanted general elections as soon as possible, he added.

The top diplomats of Australia, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Ger-many, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the Re-public of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States were at the meeting with Khaleda Zia.

After the meeting, they issued a statement calling for an end to violence and encouraged con� dence-building measures – including the de-escalation of Bangladesh’s political con-� ict – in the interest of fostering safety, stabil-ity, growth, human rights and democracy. l

NEWS 3D

TTHURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015

Operators express inability to take part in spectrum auctionn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The parent companies of the four leading mo-bile operators of Bangladesh have expressed their inability to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction as some of the outstanding issues are still to be resolved.

They sent a joint letter to Finance Minister AMA Muhith on March 1 saying they are in-terested to acquire more spectrum for better services, but investors are not.

The letter was signed by the top bosses and chief executive o� cers of the parent compa-nies. Copies were sent to the Prime Minister’s O� ce, the state minister for ICT division, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the telecommunication secretary and some other high o� cials.

Axiata Group Berhad’s President and Group

CEO Dato Sir Jamaluddin Ibrahim, Telenor’s President and Group CEO Jon Fedrik Baksaas, VimpelCom Limited’s CEO Jo Launder and Bharti Airtel Limited’s Chairman Sunil Mittal signed the letter.

Robi, Grameenphone, Banglalink and Air-tel are the four sister concerns in Bangladesh of these four global companies respectively.

The outstanding issues include SIM re-placement tax, VAT on spectrum fee, intro-duction of technology neutrality in all bands, spectrum roadmap, and updated national tel-ecom policy.

A number of senior executives from the Bangladeshi operators have con� rmed the sending of the letter. The Dhaka Tribune has also obtain a copy of the letter.

The letter says that the government was supposed to resolve the disputes after the 2013 3G auction. The CEOs said they are still

to see these outstanding issues resolved.In January, the Bangladeshi mobile oper-

ators sent a similar letter to the government through the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (Amtob).

The government plans to hold the auction on April 30 for the 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz bands and has already � nalised guidelines.

The � oor prices have been proposed at $30m and $22m per MHz respectively. March 29 has been � xed as the last date for � lling ap-plications.

According to the guideline, operators who provide voice services and have less than 20 MHz spectrum in the GSM bands – 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz – will be eligible to participate in the auction.

Market leader Grameenphone is the only operator that has more than 20 MHz spectrum in those bands. l

Militants prefer bu� ers to save their leadersn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Detectives suspect that Islamist militant organ-isations, especially the notorious Ansarullah Bangla Team, have been using “sleeper cells” or “cut outs” for killing missions, to keep their leaders from incriminating themselves.

In this style, believed to be applied � rst during the murder of blogger-architect Ahmed Rajeeb Haider in 2013, the top leaders delegate responsibility of an operation to a � eld-level commander who picks up members to form the execution team through co-workers.

During a mission, the foot soldiers commu-nicate with the commander through special coded messages.

Even if the killers get arrested, the law en-forcers cannot glean information from them about the mastermind since the arrestees have no idea about the top leaders, a high o� cial of the police intelligence told the Dhaka Tribune requesting anonymity.

“This way, the killers never know the names

of the leaders,” the o� cial added.Ansarullah Bangla Team was the � rst mil-

itant out� t to use bu� ers to insulate their top leadership from � eld operations, according to intelligence o� cials.

Although ABT chief Jasim Uddin Rahmani is now in jail, other leaders of the fanatic group have been carrying out killings and attacks in full swing with support of some technological-ly-savvy members of the group, o� cials say.

Ansarullah claimed responsibilities for the killing of blogger Rajeeb, Rajshahi University teacher Prof AKM Shariful Islam, Da� odil Uni-versity student Ashraful Islam and latest victim blogger-science writer Avijit Roy.

They made their claims through Twitter and Facebook accounts under Ansar Al Islam, Ansar Al Islam Bangladesh 2 and Ansar Bangla 7.

Law enforcers suspect that US citizen Avi-jit and his wife Ra� da Ahmed Bonna were at-tacked by several sleeper cells, each having three to seven members, in TSC area of Dhaka University on February 26.

“No matter who executed the plan, the mas-termind of the attack belongs to ABT,” a senior o� cer of DB police said.

Ansarullah’s name also came up following attack on bloggers Asif Mohiuddin and Rakib Mamun.

Sources in the DB police explain that mil-itant out� ts generally collect members from madrasas. But the ABT and banned group Hizb ut-Tahrir target private university students who belong to well-o� families and are more tech-nologically adept.

Law enforcers have gathered this informa-tion from seven ABT members, students of North South University who were arrested in 2013 after Rajeeb’s murder. One of the master-minds, Redwanul Azad Rana, still remains be-yond the police radar.

Rana is a suspected mastermind in Avijit killing too. He got a coded SMS around 8pm on February 26 when Avijit and Bonna were about to leave the book fair. Rana passed on that mes-sage to two members of the cell ordering them

to launch the attack. The former NSU student got a con� rmation

once the mission was complete. Investigators are now trying to arrest him.

Intelligence sources say Ansarullah current-ly has around 300 university students, especial-ly from private universities.

Ansarullah ban likelyAsked about taking action against the ABT, DB chief Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that they were thinking about having the out� t banned. “We are now working to trace the root of the out� t,” said the DB joint commissioner, who has been dealing with the militant issues for long.

A total of eight cases were � led against An-sarullah since 2013, of which � ve were under the Information and Communication Technol-ogy Act. A total of 23 members were arrested, but seven are out on bail.

So far � ve Islamist groups have been banned namely Shahadat-e-al Hikma, JMB, JMJB, Huji, and Hizb ut-Tahrir. l

Wealth statement of 4 Titas o� cials soughtn Adil Sakhawat

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday asked four employees of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited including its managing director to submit their wealth statements.

The ACC is now carrying out an enquiry into the allegation of amassing illegal wealth by four Titas employees, said an ACC o� cial.

The accused are Titas Managing Director Engineer Md Nowshad Islam, Deputy General Manager of Gazipur Circle Ra� qul Islam, Deputy Assistant Engineer Mofazzal Hossain and Titas sta� Nurul Haque Mollah. The anti-graft body sent the notice to them on February 25.

Meanwhile, the ACC will also probe claims of amassing illegal wealth by Executive Engineer of Water Development Board (WDB) Abdur Razzak and two WDB engineers.

An ACC o� cial said the accused men would be summoned after collecting necessary documents regarding the issue.l

Withstanding the sudden spring drizzle, TV journalists gear up to telecast live from the o� ce of BNP chief Khaleda Zia yesterday morning, when hearing on an appeal to withdraw the arrest warrant against her was expected to be held at a Dhaka court RAJIB DHAR

Sedition case � led against Manna and Khoka n Tribune Report

The police yesterday � led a sedition case against Nagorik Oikya Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna and BNP Vice-Chairman Sad-eque Hossain Khoka with the Gulshan police station.

The case was � led after getting an approval from the Home Ministry on Tuesday. Ra� qul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Gulshan police sta-tion, con� rmed the � ling of the case.

A general diary was also � led with the po-lice station, accusing the two politicians of conspiring against the state.

Earlier, Manna was shown arrested in a case � led with Gulshan police for his alleged involvement in inciting the army to take over power. Manna is currently placed in a 10-day remand under the custody of the Detective Branch. l


Kamaruzzaman to � le review petition todayn BSS

Advocate Tajul Islam, counsel for death row convict Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, yester-day said his client will � le a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict that up-held the death sentence given to him by the International Crimes Tribunal 2, today.

Tajul told reporters in front of Dhaka Central Jail, after he along with his four colleagues met the senior assistant secretary general of Jamaat this morning. After meeting Kamaruzzaman, Tajul said: “We have discussed matters regard-ing the review petition with him,” Tajul said. l

BNP: Arrest warrant shows govt’s bankruptcyn Tribune Report

The arrest warrant against Khaleda Zia would be unable to restrain an uprising while the move only proved the illegal government’s bankruptcy, the BNP said yesterday.

Hinting at a Dhaka court’s decision to uphold the arrest warrant against the BNP chair-person in two graft cases, the party’s Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed said: “It is

nothing but a bankruptcy of the ruling party to stop peo-ple’s spontaneous movement by issuing arrest warrant.”

In a press release, Salahud-din called upon the PM to step down from her o� ce accepting people’s demand and also to assist in restoring real dem-ocratic ruling system in the country.

“Otherwise a brutal fate has to be accepted like the history’s hated autocrats,” he warned. l

3% migrants understand healthcare materialsn Abid Azad

International Organization for Migration (IOM) said only 3% of migrant workers com-prehend healthcare materials. The rest do not, since the materials are not produced in their native language.

IOM revealed their baseline survey and preliminary � ndings in the inauguration session of the “Regional Consultation of Mi-gration Health: Strengthening government’s capacity of selected South Asian countries to address the health of migrants through a mul-ti-sector approach” conference yesterday in Dhaka.

19% of respondents knew nothing about healthcare abroad while 28% knew of its availability, and 49% found it una� ordable.

In order to assist with implementing the World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution in South Asia, IOM recently completed the region-al research study “Baseline assessment of the health vulnerabilities of inbound and outbound migrants in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.”

The study included an assessment of mi-grants’ access to healthcare and other social services, a mapping of governments’ respons-es to address these vulnerabilities, and rec-ommendations for action.

IOM Bangladesh chief of mission Sarat Dash

said: “Not only on labour migrants, but also in-clusive of other migrating populations, such as cross-border mobility, irregular migrants and environmental migrants, to move forward and identify core elements of a national strategic plan to address migration health.”

Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Over-seas Employment secretary Khandker Md If-tekhar Haider, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare secretary Syed Monjurul Islam, World Health Organization representative to Bangla-desh Dr N Paranietharan, national programme o� cer of IOM Nepal Bishwa Rai and Migration Health Physician IOM Pakistan Dr Waqar Ah-mad were also in attendance. l

NGO worker found deadn Our Correspondent,

Gaibandha

An employee of a local non-government organisation was found dead by the Brah-maputra River in Kochkhali area of Fulchhari upazila under Gaibandha district yesterday.

Golam Mostafa, 39, a fourth-grade employee of Friendship NGO, went missing seven days ago.

Coordinator of Friendship NGO Gaibandha o� ce said Mostafa collected his salary on Thursday and left the o� ce to

go home in Mollar Char by the Brahmaputra River.

After he reached a spot called Charshidhai near the riv-er, miscreants abducted him, said the coordinator, quoting the deceased’s family members.

Mostafa’s elder brother Nurul Islam had lodged a GD on February 27 after his brother went missing.

Fulchhari police station OC Moshiur Rahman said yester-day morning, police recovered Mostafa’s body from Kochakhli area which bore marks of inju-ry on head and face. l

PM: Population control is not prime issuen BSS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasi-na yesterday told the Jatiya Sangsad that her government has undertaken various pro-grammes to transform the country’s population into hu-man resources and control population growth.

Awami League government believes that the people are the driving force of develop-

ment and has adopted prag-matic plans to materialise the Vision-2021 and make Bangla-desh a middle- income country.

The government has set a target of achieving 72% contraceptive prevalence rate by 2016 under Health Population Nutrition Sector Development Programme and ensure an adequate stock of contraceptives at all healthcare service centres. l

NEWS 5D


BRTC seeks Tk10 crore compensation for damaged busesn Shohel Mamun

The BRTC has sought Tk10 crore compensa-tion from the prime minister, in order to re-pair the buses that had been vandalised or set ablaze during political violence since January 2013.

Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) recently sent a letter to the Prime Min-ister’s O� ce (PMO) seeking � nancial assis-tance, claiming 205 of its buses were damaged in attacks that caused losses of more than Tk10 crore.

Their request came after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on February 25, handed over cheques totalling Tk4.20 crore as � nancial assistance to 146 private vehicle owners who had been a� ected during the ongoing block-ade. The maximum of Tk10 lakh compensa-tion was given to individual owners by the premier.

“Private bus owners received compensa-tion. So why should not we get � nancial sup-port from the PMO fund?” BRTC Chairman Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.

“We have estimated the compensation ac-cording to our existing law,” he added.

According to the BRTC letter, 121 buses were vandalised and 46 buses were torched between January 2013 and January 2014, causing losses worth Tk9.88 crore; since Jan-uary 5 this year, 28 BRTC buses had been van-dalised and 10 buses set on � re, causing Tk80 lakh in losses. The total loss stands at more than Tk10.68 crore.

“BRTC is a state-owned organisation that operates buses during any type of political unrest. So we should get priority for receiving � nancial assistance,” Mizanur said.

“If the government does not ful� l the de-mand, we will face troubles in providing the proper services,” the BRTC chairman added. l

Bangladeshis stuck in Nepaln Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Hundreds of Bangladeshis were stuck in Kath-mandu as a Turkish Airbus skidded o� the runway at Tribhuvan International Airport early yesterday.

“All the international � ights were cancelled and all the passengers who wished to leave Kath-mandu, including Bangladeshis, are stuck here,”

Bangladesh Ambassador to Nepal Mashfee Binte Shams told the Dhaka Tribune. The runway, where the plane is still lying, is expected to be cleared by this evening, she said. Until last night, nobody contacted the embassy in Nepal.

Asked about the Bangladeshi passengers, she said they must be taken care of by the air-lines. She did not specify the exact number of Bangladeshis stranded there. l

Jubo League man shot deadn Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

The family of a Lakshmipur Jubo League leader, whose body was recovered yesterday morning, suspected that he might have been killed because of intra-party feud.

Arifur Rahman Farhad, son of Nurul Amin of Mirikpur village under Bhangakhan union, was shot dead early in the morning, and his body was found in front of a sawmill in Mirik-pur Bazar hours later.

The 35-year-old was the joint convener of Jubo League’s Bhangakhan union unit, said Mizanur Rahman Patwary, joint convener of Lakshmipur Sadar upazila Jubo League.

Farhad’s father said his son was hacked by some party men because of political in� ght-ing in August last year and a case was lodged in this connection.

“Police on Tuesday arrested Md Rashed, one of the accused in the case. My son might have been killed because of that arrest,” said Nurul.

On Tuesday night, Farhad returned home after attending the Lakshmipur district Awami League council, but again went out around 3am with some people who came and asked for him.

“I got the news of my son’s death from lo-cals who spotted his body,” Nurul said.

But police did not comment on whether Farhad had to die because of contention with-in the party.

Nasim Mia, assistant superintendent of po-lice (circle) of Lakshmipur, said Farhad’s body was recovered around 8am.

He said the body was sent to Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy, and an op-eration had been launched to nab the killers. l

14 vehicles, upazila o� ce torched in arson attacksn Tribune Report

Pickets set � re to 14 vehicles in di� erent plac-es of the country yesterday as the BNP-led 20-party alliance’s shutdown continued.

At least six people were injured in these inci-dents; an upazila land o� ce was also attacked.

Nine vehicles were torched in Chapain-awabganj, when pickets set ablaze stationed trucks at a terminal in Sonamasjid area around midnight. None were injured in the incident.

Four people were injured in Panchagarh when a BRTC bus and a truck were vandalised before being set ablaze. O� cials at Boda police station said injured Al Amin, Lalon, Suman, Shakhawat were sleeping inside the vehicles when the attack took place around 4am.

In Chittagong’s Hathazari upazila, an au-

torickshaw driver and his passenger su� ered burn injuries when pickets hurled a petrol bomb at the vehicle at around 10:30pm.

In the capital’s Jurain, a bus was torched an hour after dusk.

The RAB recovered 15 crude bombs from Ra-jshahi’s Kharkhari Bypass road, when a group of four to � ve youths abandoned the explosives after being approached by a patrol team.

In Moulvibazar, miscreants set � re to a bus in Bhobanigaon bus stand area of Juri upazila around midnight.

The Upazila Land O� ce in Lakhsmipur was set on � re around 4am. Documents were burned in the incident.

Meanwhile, the BGB recovered � ve petrol bombs left unattended in a Dhaka-bound mail train waiting at the Chittagong Rail Station. l


Govt to create online platform for commodity infoPrimarily, the village market associations will be engaged with the initiativen Abu Bakar Siddique

The government plans to set up an internet-based platform for sharing commodity information and promotion of products by micro-entrepreneurs in the country.

The initiative has been taken under the Promoting Agricultural Commercialisation and Enterprise (PACE) project of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), a government organisation that provides funds to organisations for their microcredit schemes to help the poor who have no land or other

valuable possession.Addressing the project’s launching

ceremony yesterday at PKSF auditorium in the capital, PACE Coordinator Akhand Md Ra� qul Islam said the platform would be a virtual marketplace like Bikroy.com and other similar platforms, where the entrepreneurs and growers would be able to sell and buy products.

“The aim of this initiative to promote the local entrepreneurs so that they can easily get access to market,” he said.

As per the concept, the virtual marketplace

will contain various information about the local produces, including the price lists and availability.

Primarily, the existing village market associations will be engaged to facilitate the virtual marketplace from where the local growers could access the information without any cost.

The six-year project, estimated to cost $92.85m (more than Tk722 crore), is supported by International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), Korean grant, the PKSF and its local partner organisations.

Of them, the Korean grant of $360,000 (around Tk2.8 crore) will be used to develop the virtual marketplace.

Beside the platform, the project will also promote around 70,000 micro-entrepreneurs – those who run businesses � nanced by microcredit schemes – through � nancial assistance and also develop market value chain system for the agriculture and other rural products to enhance the livelihood options and living quality of rural people, including the non-poor, poor and ultra-poor. l

Koko’s chehlum observedn Tribune Report

Chehlum of Arafat Rahman Koko, the younger son of BNP chief Khaleda Zia, was held at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan o� ce where Khaleda has been holed up since January 3.

The chehlum, a religious ritual for a deceased, coincides with the hearing in two graft cases against the former prime minister.

Khaleda along with her close relatives prayed for Koko at the programme, said Maruf Kamal Khan, press secretary to the BNP chairperson. Sixteen students and teachers from the capital’s

two madrasas recited from the Holy Qur’an at the programme since morning.

BNP leaders including Selima Rahman, Shirin Sultana, MA Qa-yyum, Nazrul Islam Khan and members of Khaleda’s security personnel attend the prayer. Eminent jurist Ra� que-Ul Haque and former BNP leader Maj (retd) Akhtaruzzaman also par-ticipated in the event. The sen-ior lawyer left the programme soon after end of the prayer. He, however, did not talk to journal-ists waiting outside the o� ce.

Koko died of cardiac arrest in Malaysia on January 24. l

Rizvi now on 2-day remandn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed was placed on a fresh two-day re-mand yesterday in connection with an arson case � led with Mirpur police.

Dhaka Metropolitan Mag-istrate Md Mizanur Rahman passed the order after Sub-In-spector Ra� qul Islam produced

him before the court seeking a seven-day remand. He was pro-duced before the court on com-pletion of his four-day remand in another arson case � led with the Mohammadpur police.

Until now, Rizvi has been placed in a total of 25 days of re-mand in seven cases on charges of vandalism, arson attacks and blasting cocktails during the on-going blockade and hartals. l

Ex-ETV journo Konok on � ve-day remand n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday placed Konok Sawrar, former sen-ior reporter of ETV, on a � ve-day remand in a sedition case lodged with Tejgaon police.

Additional Chief Metropoli-tan Magistrate Alamgir Kabir Raj passed the order when police produced Konok before the court with a 10-day remand petition.

On Tuesday, detectives ar-rested Konok in the capital’s Shahbagh in the case. But po-lice said his arrest was based on a confessional statement of the detained ETV chairman, Abdus

Salam, in the sedition case. On January 8, the case was

� led against Salam and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman in connection with a “false, fabricated and provoca-tive” speech of the BNP leader aired on ETV on January 5.

Salam was detained on Jan-uary 6 from outside his o� ce in Karwan Bazar area, and shown arrested in another case � led un-der the Pornography Control Act.

On February 10, the High Court granted Salam interim bail in the pornography case. He was later shown arrested in the sedition case. l

NEWS 7D

T

BCL men a terror for RU studentsn Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling Awami League, have become a cause of fear for the general students of Rajshahi University.

In the last two months BCL activists have beaten up at least eight students, two sta� s and a canteen manager on the campus.

The impunity enjoyed by Chhatra League men has made them all the more high and mighty, alleged the students.

Yesterday, BCL RU unit Organising Sec-retary Shariful Islam alias Saddam allegedly beat up Shahadat Hossain, a third year stu-dent of Finance Department as he refused to give in to an extortion demand of Tk50,000.

Shahadat told the Dhaka Tribune that due to a long standing enmity, his classmate Irfan Habib alias Ridoy made a pact with Saddam and threatened him of dire consequence if he did not give the money.

“As I refused to meet their demand, Sadd-am and Ridoy came to my hall around 3:30pm yesterday and beat me up,” he said.

Earlier on March 2, a group of BCL activists led by RU BCL committee member Sakibul Islam alias Bakee allegedly beat up two stu-dents on the campus over a silly issue.

The victims, Shovon Kausar and Ramijul Islam, are � rst year students of Economics and History Department respectively.

Shovon said he and his friend Ramijul were studying at the university library when some students, reportedly BCL men, were loudly talking causing disturbance to others.

“When I requested them to be quiet, they got furious and threatened to beat us up,” he continued.

“When we came out of library around noon, Bakee called over us at Tukitaki Chattar on the campus and beat us indiscriminately.”

On March 1, a group men led by BCL RU unit organising secretary Faisal Ahmed Runu and Koushik Ahmed and joint secretary Golam Ki-bria allegedly beat up three students for not re-sponding to their call to join the organisation.

The students were identi� ed as Shaon Ud-din, Sajib Hossain and Tonmoy of Finance and Banking Department.

Rasel Ahmed, a fresher of the same depart-ment faced harsh beating when he did not greet Tawshik Taj, a BCL activist and a second year stu-dent of the Bangla Department on February 17.

On January 27, BCL activists Ershadur Rah-man Rifat, Arafat Hossain, Raihan and Ra� allegedly beat up Nuruzzaman, a third year student of Management Studies Department for delayed presence at a rally on the campus.

Several students wishing anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune that BCL activists beat up stu-dents for no major reasons but to show o� their power. Socialist Student Front RU unit Presi-dent Sohrab Hossain said: “As BCL men are al-ways spared by the university authorities, they are encouraged to do whatever they wished.”

Contacted, RU Proctor Professor Tariqul Hasan said: “We can only take action after speci� c complaint from a victim.”

BCL RU unit President Mizanur Rahman Rana brushed aside his responsibilities just by saying that he would look into the matter. l

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015

WEATHER

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:03PM SUN RISES 6:17AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW31.4ºC 16.6ºC

Chittagong Srimangal

THURSDAY, MARCH 5

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 29 17Chittagong 30 20Rajshahi 29 14Rangpur 28 13Khulna 29 14Barisal 29 16Sylhet 28 13Cox’s Bazar 29 20

PRAYER TIMESFajr 5:04am

Sunrise 6:18amZohr 12:11am

Asr 4:24pmMagrib 6:02pm

Esha 7:17pm

DRY WEATHER

LIKELY

Poba: 67% brick kilns illegal n Tribune Report

Sixty-seven percent of a total of 8,500 brick kilns in the country are operating illegally, Poribesh Bachao Andolon said.

It also said these brick kilns were posing serious threats to public health and were re-sponsible for environmental disasters.

“It is crucial to take immediate steps to shut such brick kilns down,” said engineer Md Abdus Sobhan, executive secretary of Poribesh Bachao Andolon, while addressing a press brie� ng at the social organisation’s of-� ce in the capital yesterday.

He said the number of brick kilns operating without the permission of the Department of Environment or the local authorities was on the rise across the country.

“According to information collected from the Department of Environment and � eld surveys of Poribesh Bachao Andolon, a total of 1,900 brick kilns still use drum chimneys.

Manjur Hasan Dilu, secretary of Poribesh Bachao Andolon, and Abul Hasnat, its assis-tance secretary, were present at the brie� ng among others. l

NEWS8DT

Peanut farming brings smiles on farmers’ face n Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

Farmers of Chokoria in Cox’s Bazar have pocketed a good pro� t after cultivating pea-nuts on their land instead of tobacco which was the main crop a few years back.

Farmers of charlands in the district used to cultivate tobacco on their land earlier, but being encouraged by the Deaprtment of Ag-riculture Extension and an NGO they started farming of groundnut on their land with a hope to earn more money and obviously they have become successful in their e� orts.

Taking the advantage of a lack of e� ective tobacco farming control policy, tobacco cul-tivation is grabbing an increasing acreage of croplands across the country.

According to the Department of Agricul-tural Extension Department, Cox’s Bazar about 42 acres of land had been brought un-der peanut cultivation in Halkakara village this year which is 20 acres more than the last year.

The DAE sources said farming of ground-

nut had marked a substantial boost in recent years in the sandy-barren charlands in the district bringing fortune to many landless farmers.

Coordinator of the Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni Gobeshona, the Policy Re-search for Development Alternatives (Ubinig) Ra� qul Haque Tito told the Dhaka Tribune that it was good that farmers of the coastal district had been involved in the peanut culti-vation and it would help gaining food securi-ty of the country.

Deputy Assistant Agriculture O� cer (in-formation and public relation) farmers of charlands mainly cultivate two varieties of groundnut on their land. One was Chinese and another was ingenious.

He said: “A farmer needs Tk10,000 to 12,000 for farming groundnut in one acre char land to earn pro� t of Tk35,000 to 40,000 by producing 22 maunds of the crop per acre on an average.”

Now, one kilogram peanut being sold at Tk60 to Tk80 at local markets while produc-

tion cost of the quantity is Tk20 to Tk30, he added.

Farmers of Hazianer, Batakhali, Halkaka-ra, Amainnar, Kazirpara, Ghaittar and Kakara chars have cultivated peanut on their land year.

Nurul Kabir, a resident of Halkakara char, told the Dhaka Tribune that they could pock-et more pro� t farming peanut rather farming another crops.

“For a last few years, I have been cultivat-ing peanut on my land,” he said.

“I have already purchased 2 acres land, built a building and solving educational ex-penses of his three sons to lead a meaningful life through cultivating groundnut in sandy land successfully over the years,” said Saidul Islam with pride.

Md Atikullah, Chakoria upazila agriculture o� cer, said cultivation of peanut was gainign grounds in the area day by day. He claimed positive campign by the DAE had help farm-ers to chage their mind-sets.

He said: “In future no farmer will cultivate tobbacco on their land.” l


13 shops gutted At least 13 shops were gutted as a � re broke out at Charfashion Bazar in Charfashion upazila yesterday. Charfashion � re station o� cer Siraj Mridha said the � re originated from a stove at ‘Nirala Hotel’ in the area and soon engulfed 12 other adjoining shops. On information, two � re � ghting units from Charfashion and Lalmohon � re stations rushed in and doused the � re after one hour of frantic e� orts with the help of locals. A� ected shop owners claimed that the loss caused by the � re could go up to Tk2 crore. – Our Correspondent, Bhola

Heroin worth Tk4 crore recoveredBorder Guard Bangladesh in a drive recovered heroin worth about Tk4 crore from Noapara area in the district yesterday. Major Mohammad Ataulla Jami said in press brie� ng that a team of law enforcers raided the area around 8.30 pm and recovered the contraband worth about Tk4 crore. – Our Correspondent, Comilla

NEWS IN BRIEF

Farmers stockpile groundnuts after harvest in Halkakara village of Chokoria upazila, Cox’s Bazar recenlty. Cultivation of the nutrious item has gained ground in the locality as it requires small investment DHAKA TRIBUNE

Ruling party men grab minority school teacher’s land n Our Correspondent, Magura

Three men of ruling Awami League have alleg-edly grabbed 57 decimal land worth about Tk10 lakh belonging to a retired minority school teacher at Angordoha village in the district.

Akhil Chandra Biswas, former teacher of Vabonhat Govt Primary school, said that his father had bought the land 54 years ago.

“After the death of my father I along with my � ve brothers have been living in the land,” said Akhil.

Hapizer, Moshlem and Akkash the AL men in the village took a portion of the land as lease for their business for two years. But, now they claimed that it was their own land. They said that they had bought the land from one Prem Chand. Akhil said that the trio contentiously forced them to go to India.

“They also threaten us saying this if we do not go to India, they will kill us,” said he.

When contacted, Hapizer, one of the al-leged grabber, denied the allegation and told that they had bought the land from Prem Chand of the village. He also failed to show any documents in favour of his speech.

Prem Chand said: “I never owned the 57 decimal land. So, I cannot sell it.”

“A complain has been lodged into addi-tional district magistrate Rahat Anwar in this regard,” said Akhil. Rahat said: “We have got an allegation in this regard.” “After investiga-tion, we will take necessary steps,” he said. l

Students attend classes outside decrepit school buildingn Our Correspondent, Kurigram

Teachers at Umananda Modhyopara Gov-ernment Primary School in Ulipur upazila, Kurigram are taking classes under the open sky because the rickety school building has become too risky to hold the classes inside.

Visiting the school on Monday, this corre-spondent found 155 students being taught by four teachers on the front yard of the school. “It has been like this for the past six months,” said the school headmaster, Ruhul Amin.

Four classrooms were found in a decrep-it condition, with chunks of the ceiling and beams missing.

“Plaster and concrete pieces from the ceiling have been falling o� for the past two years, but it became severely dangerous six

months ago. The authorities paid no heed to our repeated requests to take care of this issue, and we don’t have a spare building ei-ther,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

School sources said the school building was built on 1994, � nanced by the Local Gov-ernment Engineering Department. However, cracks started to appear in the roof and on the beams after only a few years of construction. In 2013, bits and pieces of the ceiling and the beams started to collapse.

“After several reports on the school’s dilap-idated condition were published in May 2013, we went to several government departments and � led requests for repair work, but no one responded. In fact, no one from the authori-ties even came to visit the school.”

Moreover, a list of primary schools at risk

was compiled by the upazila education com-mittee in January, which did not contain the name of this primary school, sources said.

“Many guardians are now pulling their children out of the school because of this sit-uation,” the headmaster said.

Fazlar Rahman, president of the school management committee, said: “Our school is 9km from the upazila headquarters, which is perhaps why the authorities have not re-sponded to our pleas for so long. But their negligence may cause a severe accident any moment now.”

The Dhaka Tribune contacted Ulipur upazila acting education o� cer Abu Saleh Sarkar in this regard, who said: “Steps will be taken after an inspection of the school building.” l

Three robbers held n Our correspondent, Magura

Police arrested at least three robbers in the town while they were committing robbery. Magura police station O� cer-in-Charge Ja-hangir Hossen said locals con� ned Uzzal 20 , Al Amin 21 and Shabbir, 22, while they tried to rob in the market of the town .Locals also beat up the criminals leaving them critically injured. On information, police went to the spot and arrested them. Later, they were sent to hospital under police custody. l

NEWS 9D


4 students hospitalised being victimof corporal punishment n Our Correspondent, Barguna

Four students of a high school in Sadar upazila have been hospitalised being allegedly beaten up by a nearby primary school’s headmaster and a teacher there together over trivial mat-ter, local education o� cer con� rmed.

The incident of corporal punishment took place at Hajarbigha Chutalabangula Primary School around 2:30pm on Tuesday.

All of the victims – Rakib, Isha Ahmed, Md Kibria and Limon – are class-VI students of Hajarbigha Chutalabangula High School. Both schools are situated on a premise.

The injured were undergoing treatment in Barguna General Hospital where they re-mained admitted as of � ling this report yes-terday.

Witness sources said the primary school’s headmaster Dilip Kumar Nath dragged out the students of their classroom after ti� n period on charge of breaking his motorcycle’s lights parked on the premise and con� ned them to a room where he along with another teacher named Noren beat up them mercilessly with cane.

When their condition appeared to be bad, the teachers got admitted them to the hospital.

When contacted, the high school’s head-master Mir Mizanur Rahman said: “Since the students are guilty of breaking the lights, it is my responsibility resolve the matter because they are my students. Headmaster Dilip Ku-mar caused the incident without any logical reason.”

On the other hand, Dilip Kumar said the

students broke his motorbike’s lights and that was why he just slapped them.

In a query on con� ning the pupils to a room and hurting them there, Dilip denied the allegation.

When asked, Barguna Primary Education O� cer Md Toiubur Rahman acknowledged the allegation, telling that the incident was really remorseful.

“I will take legal action against the teachers on � ling complaint in this regard,” the o� cer added.

On January 13, 2011, the High Court banned all sorts of corporal punishment such as can-ing, beating, chaining, forced-haircut and con� nement in all primary and secondary schools and madrasahs stating that the penal-ty is a violation of children’s rights. l

Beekeeping a game changer for jobless youthsn Our Correspondent, Madaripur

Mobile honeybee farming on the rabi or winter crop � elds has turned the jobless youths into self-su� cient entrepreneurs in Madaripur.

Hectares of land producing various nec-tar-rich rabi crops like mustard, coriander and Nigella are perfect honey collecting grounds for honeybees.

Previously bee keeping was only popular in Satkhira, Bagerhat, the Sundarbans and its adjacent areas. But recently youths in Madari-pur, Shriatpur and Gopalganj have also picked up this pro� table business.

A recent visit to Madaripur’s Shibchar area saw a huge stretch of lands growing coriander plants. The � elds were abuzz with honeybees � ying from one coriander � ower to another to collect nectar.

Though farmers in this area had misconcep-tions about bee keeping, they have now also extended support to the young entrepreneurs.

Resident of Uttor Baheratola area of Shibchar, Laal Mia, said some youths had set up temporary bee hives near the � elds and had been collecting honey for some years now. This has led to better yield because of natural pollination, he explained.

Farmer Amjad Hossain said: “We cultivate a huge amount of coriander. Bee farmers have been collecting honey from here in a natural process. We used to think negatively about it but now we have realised how bene� cial it is for our crops.”

Mobile bee farmers, mostly youths who roam from one place to another to collect honey, prefer Sirajganj for mustard � elds while they come to Madaripur, Shariatpur and

Gopalganj for coriander. A bee farmer can collect about 40-50 kilo-

gramme of honey from 100 boxes of bee hives in a week. The current wholesale market val-ue of this amount of honey is Tk15,000.

Javed Ali, hailing from Shibchar, said he could not � nish his BA because of � nancial constraint. And failing to � nd any jobs, he picked up bee farming as a livelihood.

He said he could earn about Tk3 lakh in six months, the main honey collecting season, just from selling honey.

Meanwhile, another honeybee farmer Ak-tar Hossain said he had been involved in this profession since an early age. Despite a few hurdles, he had been able to live a good life with the money earned from selling honey.

The major problem, he said, was the ex-tortion he faced while transporting the hon-

ey. “Not only political goons but also police would stop me frequently on the roads and demand extortion. They harass us in the name of searching the vehicle,” he said urging the authorities to take action in this regard.

Abbas Ali, a veteran honey collector of Satkhira, said many bee farmers were facing problem because of a poor transporting and marketing structure. “We demand the gov-ernment to buy honey from us directly and help expand our market.”

Deputy Director of Madaripur Department of Agricultural Extension, Abdur Razzak as-sured of government assistance to the grow-ing bee farming.

“We have trained about 30 youths in Ma-daripur and have also helped them secure pri-mary investment. Our support will continue,” he added. l

Husband sentenced to death for killing wife n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

A court in the district sentenced a man to death yesterday for killing his wife.

According to the prosecution, Uzzal Kumar Sutradhar, of Nayapara village under Karim-ganj upazila strangled her wife Moni Rani Sutradhar to death on 10 July, 2002. Later, he hanged the body from the branch of a tree and said she had committed suicide by hanging herself.

On 17 July, Uttam Kumar Modak, brother of Moni � led a case accusing Uzzal and his mother Gita Rani in this connection.

Police submitted charge sheet after inves-tigation the incident.

After examining the witnesses and re-cords, the court led by Judge Golam Sarowar handed down the verdict. l

Though the scorching summer is yet to set in completely, groundwater level in many parts of the country have already dipped making it di� cult for irrigation-intensive Boro cultivation. Farmers now solely rely on the water supplied by shallow tube wells, which, in the photo, is protected by a thatched house. The photo is taken from Gopinathpur village of Patnitola upazila in Natore yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

Suspected robber lynched in Chittagong n Tribune Report

A mob beat an alleged robber to death when a robbers’ gang entered into a house for committing robbery in Somitirhat area of Fatikchhari upazila in Chittagong early yesterday.

Police recovered the body from the area in the morning and sent it to Chittagong Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy, but the law enforcers could not ascertain the identity of the deceased.

O� cer-in-Charge of Fatikchhari police sta-tion Md Mo� z Uddin said a robbers’ gang had gone to Kamal’s residence located in Somitir-hat area in the early hours of the day.

Then, the house residents informed their neighbour about the robbery over phone.

Being informed, the neighbours through loud speakers of a mosque called the locals to help the victims.

Sensing the presence of local people, sev-en to eight members of the gang except the deceased managed to � ee from the scene, he said.

The mob beat the alleged robber indiscrim-inately that left him dead on the spot.

The OC said they would take lawful meas-ures in this connection. l

WORLD10DT


Iran and Obama dismiss Netanyahu speech to US Congressn Agencies

Tehran h as called the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the US Con-gress on Iran’s nuclear talks deceitful and a desperate attempt to impose an irrational agenda.

In his speech to Congress, Netanyahu said that the world must stand together to stop Iran from gaining access to a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies accusations it wishes to pro-duce such a weapon and is currently in talks with the US and other powers over its nuclear programme.

Massoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s vice president, said on Tuesday that Netanyahu was trying to derail the negotiations.

“I don’t think it carries much weight. Well, they’re [Israeli government] making their e� orts to somehow derail the deal...,” Ebtekar said.

“But I think the more logical lobbies in both sides are looking forward to a solution.”

US President Barack Obama dismissed Ne-tanyahu’s speech, saying the Israeli leader did not o� er any alternatives.

In a similar speech in 2012, Netanyahu warned the UN General Assembly that Iran was 70% of the way to completing its “plans to build a nuclear weapon.”

However, a secret cable obtained by Al Ja-zeera’s Investigative Unit revealed last month that at the time of the UN speech Mossad - Is-rael’s intelligence service - believed that Iran was “not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons.”

Obama says ‘nothing new’In the speech on Cogress, which escalated the Israeli leader’s campaign against Obama’s diplomacy with Iran, Netanyahu said on that there was a need to “stand together to stop Iran’s march of conquest, subjugation and terror.”

In response, Obama said: “I am not fo-cused in the politics of this. I am not focused on the theatre.

“As far as I can tell, there was nothing new.

“On the core issue, which is how to pre-vent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon which would make it far more dangerous, the prime minister did not o� er any viable alternatives.”

Iran and international powers have set a deadline of late March to reach a framework agreement and June for a comprehensive � -nal settlement.

The powers want to curb Iran’s nuclear programme to ensure it cannot develop an atomic bomb, and Iran wants crippling eco-nomic sanctions to be lifted.

Obama said there was no deal with Iran yet, but if the negotiations turned out to be successful, the agreement would be “the best deal possible.”

However, Netanyahu said that the pro-posed Iran nuclear deal would leave Iran with a “vast” nuclear programme and that the world should demand that Tehran stops its aggression towards its neighbours before lifting restrictions.

“If the deal now being negotiated is ac-cepted by Iran, that deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons - it will all but guarantee that Iran will get those nuclear weapons - lots of them.”

Netanyahu was greeted at the Congress by a long standing ovation.

However, at least 50 Democratic mem-bers refused to attend the speech to protest against what they see as a politicisation of Israeli security, an issue on which Congress usually unites.

Following Netanyahu’s speech, Mitch Mc-Connell, the US Senate majority leader, said on Tuesday the Senate would begin debating next week a bill that would require Obama to submit any � nal nuclear deal with Iran for ap-proval by Congress.

“We think it will help prevent the admin-istration from entering into a bad deal,” Mc-Connell said.

“But if they do, it will provide an opportu-nity for Congress to weigh in.”

However, the White House has said Obama would veto the bill. l

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks about Iran during a joint meeting of the United States Congress in the House chamber at the US Capitol on Tuesday in Washington, DC. At the risk of further straining the relationship between Israel and the Obama Administration, Netanyahu warned members of Congress against what he considers an ill-advised nuclear deal with Iran AFP

Russia’s Putin calls Nemtsov’s murder politicaln Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yester-day that the murder of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov was a shameful tragedy that carried a political subtext.

Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was shot dead as he walked with his girlfriend on Friday night near Red Square. He was the most prominent opposition � gure to be killed in Russia during Putin’s 15-year rule.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement, saying that the killing was a “provocation” designed to discredit Putin and strengthen his opponents, but Nemtsov’s friends say the Kremlin is to blame for fomenting an atmos-phere of hatred towards its opponents.

“The most serious attention should be paid to high-pro� le crimes, including the ones with a political subtext. Russia should be devoid at last of the kind of shame and

tragedies that we have recently endured and seen,” he said in a speech during a meeting with o� cials from the interior ministry.

“I mean the murder, the audacious mur-der of Boris Nemtsov right in the centre of the capital,” he said.

Law enforcement o� cials have said one lead they were exploring was that the killing was linked to Nemtsov’s personal life or busi-ness dealings. Putin’s comments indicated that version is now being discarded.

Authorities have not made any arrests. Earlier yesterday, the director of Russia’s Fed-eral Security Service said that an investiga-tion had identi� ed several suspects, without giving details.

Russian news agencies reported that in-vestigators were seeking a car in connection to the killing that may be connected to the � nance ministry.

The ministry said in a statement sent to

Reuters that the car, a Ford, does not belong to the ministry itself but was owned by a state enterprise which provides security to gov-ernment institutions, including the � nance ministry.

The vehicle drove past the spot where Nemtsov was shot after the killing and when police patrol cars had already arrived at the scene, the statement said.

Russian security service chief says several suspects in Nemtsov case The director of Russia’s Federal Security Service said yesterday that an investigation into the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov had identi� ed several suspects, Russian news agencies reported.

FSB boss Alexander Bortnikov said, how-ever, that the suspects were only one version that investigators were considering, Interfax news agency said. l

Egypt upholds police sentence over death that stirred Mubarak revoltn Reuters

An Egyptian court upheld a 10-year prison sentence yesterday imposed on two police-men for torturing an activist to death in 2010, judicial sources said, an incident that helped trigger the uprising that toppled veteran auto-crat Hosni Mubarak.

Witnesses and rights groups said 28-year-old Khaled Said died after police beat him outside an Internet cafe Alexandria.

Activists launched an online campaign against police brutality that, alongside other strikes, meetings and rallies, morphed into nationwide marches calling for the dissolu-tion of parliament and the disbanding of the state security agency.

The policemen were sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011, but a court canceled the ruling after an appeal and ordered a retrial. l

WORLD 11D


China increases military budgetn Agencies

China’s military budget will grow by about 10% in the coming year, a legislative spokes-woman said yesterday to AP.

Despite slowing economic growth that fell to 7.4% last year, and which is expected to further decline in 2015, the � fth year in a row double digit increase will bring the total mili-tary budget to about $145 billion.

Beijing says the bigger budgets are merely aimed at modernising and improving condi-tions for the 2.3 million members of the Peo-ple’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s larg-est standing military.

However, the Pentagon and global arms bodies estimate actual spending may be an-ywhere from 40 to 50% more because the budget doesn’t include the costs of high-tech weapons imports, research and development, and other key programs.

The higher spending is seen as a re� ection of China’s growing economic might and its desire to assert itself in the region and inter-nationally. The planned increase of about 10%

- to be con� rmed Thursday at the opening of the National People’s Congress (NPC) - is in line with the overall increase in government spending planned for 2015, NPC spokeswom-an Fu Ying told a news conference

China’s spending draws instant compari-sons to trends among other countries in the region, many of which have been unnerved by China’s rise.

Japan increased its defense budget by 2.8% this year to a record $42 billion, the third con-secutive year of increases following 11 years of declines prior to hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s rise to power in 2012. Planes and naval vessels to counter China’s growing capabilities top the Japanese military’s shop-ping list.

Similarly, India, the world’s biggest arms importer in recent years, increased its spend-ing this year by 17% to $40bn, with big in-creases for the navy and air force.

China and India have a disputed land bor-der and New Delhi has expressed concern about the PLA navy’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean. l

India bans broadcasting of � lm showing gang-rapistn AFP

India has banned the broadcasting of a con-troversial documentary in which one of the men who gang-raped and murdered a student is shown blaming the victim – a move the � lm’s maker called “arbitrary censorship.”

Home Minister Rajnath Singh told par-liament yesterday the comments of Mukesh Singh, one of � ve men convicted over the 2012 attack in New Delhi, were “highly derogatory and an a� ront to the dignity of women.”

“The government condemns it,” he said of the documentary made by award-winning British � lm-maker Leslee Udwin, who won rare access to New Delhi’s Tihar jail to inter-view the prisoner on death row.

“It will not allow any organisation to lev-erage such an incident and use it for commer-cial purpose,” he said.

Singh’s comments in the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house, came after a New Del-hi court late Tuesday issued an order ban-

ning media from showing the � lm, “India’s Daughter.”

Spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the New Delhi police had petitioned the court for a ban on the grounds that the � lm’s “objectionable content” could cause public disorder.

The December 2012 gang-rape of a young physiotherapy student as she travelled home from a visit to the cinema triggered violent protests in India.

The woman died from her injuries 13 days after the savage attack, which high-lighted the frightening level of violence against women in the world’s second most populous country.

It led to a major reform of India’s rape laws, speeding up trials and in-creasing penalties, although many cam-paigners say little has changed for most ordinary victims.

India’s NDTV network was due to have shown the documentary to mark Internation-al Women’s Day on Sunday, when it will also be broadcast in six other countries including Britain. l

EDITORIAL12DT


The government and BNP alliance must engage in dialog to bring a long term resolution to the deadlock underlying the political violence of the last two months.

On its own, the litigation brought by the FBCCI, BGMEA,BKMEA, and BTMA to make the ongoing blockade and hartals illegal, is not enough to provide the long-term politi-cal solution the country needs.

Scores of people have been killed and over a thousand injured as a result of political violence. The economic damage in� icted is huge even without taking into account the op-portunity costs caused by continuing political uncertainty.

Realistically, we can only expect political dialog and solutions to remove the political roots of this crisis.

Nonetheless, the petition brought by the business bodies raises important questions, and it is important that the government and political parties answer the questions being asked of them by the High Court’s ruling on this case.

It is clear that there can be no tolerance of vandalism and violence. The culture of coercion and intimidation that accompanies calls for strikes and blockades and frequently leads to violence, has to end. Participation in political protests must be purely voluntary. Businesses and citizens need to be freed from fear of violence if they choose to ignore calls for strikes.

Finding ways to hold parties liable for losses caused by political disputes may help address this in the long term.

But what is needed most urgently is dialog to end the violence and ensure a settlement that brings long term stability.

Long-term stability requires urgent dialog to e� ect a political solution

HC rule no substitute for dialog

The countrywide transport blockades called by the BNP-led alliance are estimated to have cost the country’s tourism sector Tk20,000cr in losses this year.

Along with direct � nancial losses, the damage done to tourism is taking a toll on the country’s image by spreading fear and uncertainty among business visitors and foreign tourists.

Many visitors have canceled plans and bookings in Bangladesh, hugely harming ho-tels and transportation services, and also the many small businesses which rely on tourist spending. It is disappointing that at a time when we should be taking advantage of the sector to stimulate the nation’s economy, the spell of blockades is taking us backwards.

Occupancy rates in hotels catering to tourists have more than halved. These losses must stop.

Helping revive con� dence in tourism is im-portant to help the economy overall. Foreign destinations such as Singapore and Thailand are becoming more popular among the a� uent, and there are reports of more business meetings being scheduled outside the country at the expense of local tourism.

Businesses should take a lead in reviving con� dence by holding more meetings and seminars at prominent Bangladeshi tourist sites around the whole country instead of just in central Dhaka or at foreign destinations.

We must do whatever we can to minimise these fears, not just by taking sensible precautions, but by also seeking normality. Showing support for our tourism sector is one way to send a message that it is still okay to travel within Bangladesh and to put tourists at ease.

Show support for the tourism sector

Reviving con� dence in tourism is vital to the economy

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207Email [email protected]

Send us your Op-Ed articles:[email protected]

www.dhakatribune.comJoin our Facebook community:

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Writer Avijit Roy hacked to deathFebruary 27

Srimanthan PramodanWhat a tragedy. This is what religion does. Followers of murderous death cults, stop brainwashing kids with religion now. It has destroyed India, and has totally destroyed Bangladesh. Pakistan is already a failed state.

FreeSrimanthan Pramodan: Whose religion? You mean how Hinduism is destroying India? Look at VHP, RSS. Just the other day I saw a video of those people mercilessly beating up a young Hindu girl just for talking to a boy.

Koko LokoFree: Stop being a part of the problem.

MichaelFree: All religions revel in violence, always have. They are the scourge of the planet. The faster people grow up and stop believ-ing in such obvious rubbish the better it will be for everyone ...

AdityaMichael: I don’t know whether religions “revel in violence,” but yes, dogmatic ways are best abandoned.

ArthurMichael: Your comment is woefully black-and-white, and the sort of thing that makes me cringe at the mentality of so many of my fellow atheists. We may not be dogmatic about a religion, but that does not exempt atheists from intellectually lazy team psy-chology.

I expect this will be lost on you, but some of the best people I’ve met are religious and some of the worst are not. Some of the worst people I’ve met are religious and some of the best are not. It’s not that hard to see if you open your eyes, get out into the world, and meet people.

By the way, some of the greatest mass murderers in history were atheists.

Mujtahidul HaqueIn Bangladesh, the “religion of peace” murders another innocent man for daring to question the status quo. I am never going back to that country. And this is why.

MoinMujtahidul Haque: Grow up kid. “Religion of peace” is not an individual who can be brought to justice. The criminal should be arrested and tried. The number of people being killed for political reasons in this country is astronomically high, compared to killings like this one. By your logic, you should not come back to Bangladesh until politics has been banned and banished from this country.

SpMoin: Politics and Islamists are linked together in bangladesh -- so most political killings in Bangladesh have Islamist links. Stop lying to yourself.

fulham2014Mujtahidul Haque: Yes, one more victim of the religion of peace.

Debapriyo SarkarMujtahidul Haque: It really feels good to see someone speaking sense. I wish such things didn’t happen in your country. Everyone has a right to question the status quo. To deprive someone of that right is to make yourself blind.

AbbieWhy can’t people be a bit more relaxed about questioning certain religious practices?

Why does it always have to end like this?

MickAbbie: Because religion attracts control freaks -- and once they gain control they push it to the limit. For them, the pinnacle is reached when they have the power to decide who lives and who dies.

AbbieMick: I guess if you really believe you have the power of a wrathful, vengeful, and judgemental God � owing through your veins, then you can be capable of doing anything.

Any vengeful act you do has a divine sanction, and criticism of Islam, or the Prophet, is sanctioned in the Qur’an as punishable by death.

Doesn’t seem very forgiving.

OPINION 13D


n Mamun Rashid

Bangladesh has 56 commercial banks. I don’t know whether anyone has done any “optimum capacity modeling”

for Bangladesh banking. Our economy is growing, the rural economy is becoming more vibrant, and policy planners are being quite loud about inclusive banking and � nance.

If our per capita income is $1,190, the size of the formal economy becomes $187bn. With our much discussed large informal economy, the size would be much bigger. Three years ago, The Economist Intelligence showed our economy size as being $137bn. Therefore, many in the government showed the need for a few more banks in 2009. Even some economists close to the government started to champion for more banks, considering the size of the economy and Awami League’s commitment to creating synergy in the rural economy.

I even had a sweet debate with today’s planning commission member Dr Shamsul Alam. While he thought that, considering the size of the economy and the sizeable increas-es in economic activity, the market could accommodate some more commercial banks.

The World Bank, in 1999, thought Bangla-desh had too many commercial banks, with many granted licenses on political consid-eration. In 2002, while the government of that time again came under pressure to grant more licenses to banks loyal to the business-men, � nance minister Saifur Rahman very loudly said enough is enough: “Let us create pressure on the existing ones to go to the villages, improve their system, process, and platform to serve their clients better.”

I like � nance minister Muhith not only for his simplicity but also for his knowledge and for being so articulate. He made a tes-timony in parliament, in 2011, that the nine new commercial banks were being granted licenses based on political consideration. He was cursed by his party men for being so candid, or maybe for not being very political. Bangladesh Bank, at the very outset, was quite reluctant about licensing too many new banks. We were made aware that one or two of their very competent deputy governors, who didn’t feel good about too many new banks, were summoned to the highest o� ce and cursed for being “anti-government.”

They of course cowed down; � le notes changed and the central bank board came out with the same old logic -- the economy

has grown larger, clients need better service, entrepreneurs need more � nance, and the country’s fast-growing SME sector needs banking services at their door steps.

Bank executives were happy they had many places to go and bargain, some of us were o� ering consultancy services to the new political leaders-cum-bank owners, most of whom were clueless about banking. Large application books were prepared but the central bank scrutinsers were not given any time to look into the details. The country could witness a “supersonic approval process.”

Though the approval process was “highly intervened” by political seniors, the present condition of most of the nine new banks, tells us it is not so easy for a bank to move on. Banking is a technical business, and sustain-able growth is a tough game here. Most of them are su� ering, even with large amounts of “insider lending.”

The other day, a journalist friend ap-praised me for the “quick arrival” of Samudra Bank, to be set up by the Bangladesh Navy. The lady sitting next to him almost loudly said, “then what is the problem with ‘Akash Bank’ being established by Bangladesh Air Force?”

We are aware, our lady entrepreneurs have been talking of a “women’s bank” for the last few years, so are the freedom � ghters. This time, in the Digital World 2015 conference, people highlighted the � nancing problems faced by IT entrepreneurs with some talking about the necessity of an “IT bank.”

I don’t know where this would take us. All businessmen close to governments, or these days, political leaders and other pressure groups, obviously want to get something from prime ministers. Our prime minister, being so kind and so helpful, easily granted licenses to new banks.

Nobody in the central bank or the � nance ministry dared ask the question: “Do we improve the present banks’ conditions, cajole or in� uence them to extend to rural areas to compete with the MFIs, improve their product o� ering or governance model, or succumb to the pressure to grant new bank licenses?”

These days, I � nd myself subscribing to the idea of “the Almighty being the most prudent, has given you two ears and one mouth.” Listen more and talk less. l

Mamun Rashid is a business professor and � nancial sector entrepreneur.

Too much of not enough

n Muhammad Taif Ul Islam

Emotion has strange ways of expressing itself; we cry when we are sad or hurt, laugh when happy, and so on. But, of-

ten, we express our emotions with contrast-ing outbursts: In fear, we act strong, we cry in victory, we laugh hysterically when all hopes crumble …

The death of 32 patients on February 10 at the Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College and Hospital left us numb with shock. It’s understandable that in any hospital, the life-death balance is 50-50. But the nation was left dumbstruck at the response of the hospital management and physicians during the crisis. The deliberate ignorance of the hospital authority which resulted in the deaths is actually a syndrome, a� ecting the whole healthcare system.

This is neither the � rst nor the last inci-dent of such monumental callousness. The problem is, we experience the trauma and then we forget about it. So, nothing changes.

While Bangladesh has made phenomenal progress in health and development over most of our neighbouring countries in last 25 to 30 years, we are still plagued by glaring failures. Lack of adequately skilled medical attendants is one of the prime reasons for inconsistencies in our healthcare system. Still today, in a country of 160 million people, only four hospital beds are available for every 10,000 with one doctor for every 2,800 persons.

There are around 39,000 doctors, 15,500 nurses, and 1,700 hospitals including 678 government facilities in the country. Not surprisingly, 85% of births in Bangladesh still continue to take place at home, 80% of child-births are managed by unskilled attendants who can neither recognise related complica-tions nor provide e� ective interventions.

An absence of a revamped policy and failure to ensure quality medication are the main challenges. Food adulteration, indis-criminate usage of chemical fertilisers and hormones in crops, fruits, and vegetables place us in a vulnerable position. As the state of healthcare in the entire country su� ers, commercial Dhaka-centric healthcare facili-ties without consistent service quality have started mushrooming.

Let me share one of my recent experienc-es: A person close to me had to take dental treatment in one of the city hospitals, widely extolled for top-class service. After a few days of treatment, he started to feel weak. Local doctors, following a protracted check, identi� ed infections in his liver and asked him to be hospitalised immediately. Luck-ily, he was supposed to go to a mission in another country at that time, so he decided to get a second opinion in a foreign hospital. It was Hepatitis C and further examinations discovered that he got the infection when he was being treated in the local hospital.

Every day, such in-hospital infections get to patients. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

One of the key pillars for any healthcare system is � awless diagnostics and there is no shame in accepting the fact that lack of proper diagnostic services is one of our major challenges, making e� ective treatment di� cult.

There is a common joke regarding our di-agnostic services. A man got a urine test done

as part of his regular health check-up; and his report con� rmed his “positive” pregnancy. The problem with Bangladesh is that we are inured to the loss of human lives, be it from some accident, natural disaster, or medical condition.

On an average, 20 people die and many more become victims of fatal road accidents every day. For the road accident victims outside the capital, most divisional hospitals don’t have the basic facilities. When injuries are serious, they need to be transferred to Dhaka.

Bangladesh has been growing at 6% GDP per year for the last 25 years, harbouring an ambition of joining the developed economy club soon. But higher economic development requires reliability of medical services. The blunt fact is we don’t have that yet.

But it’s never too late. Like any other system, we need a management team as administrators and appropriate tools/instru-ments including, hospital facilities, modern diagnostic technologies, trained nurses and physicians, plus appropriate motivation for the entire system to work well. To make this system work, we need an up-to-date policy.

It’s also di� cult to ignore that all eminent politicians, bureaucrats, academics, celebri-ties, businessmen -- whoever has the money that is -- are going to foreign hospitals for their child birth, immunisation, even regular health check-ups, relying only on foreign medicines. They know what is needed, but promises have not translated into action. As long as they are in good shape, the worry is for the common people. But this apathy can hardly take us on a road to economic ascendancy.

A comprehensive plan for this struggling health care system should be considered as one of the top priorities for the country. Beyond any politics and business, a relia-ble healthcare system and private medical institutions that put service before pro� t are a must. l

Muhammad Taif Ul Islam is a development practitioner and an Energy Specialist for the International Finance Corporation, Bangladesh.

Heal our healthcare

BIGSTOCK

BIG

STO

CK

OPINION14DT


n Raihan Hadi

I see picketers on the streets, and petrol-bombers too, burning alive the souls, of me and you, and I think to myself … what a wonderful world!

Parodies aside, where are we headed right now? Is the ultimate solution for sane people in this country to � ee abroad to live as third-grade citizens with odd jobs for mere sur-vival? I guess so; because, remember those Bengalis they used to make once, who were ready to stand up against evil power and give their lives away � ghting, yet never giving up on justice and peace for all?

Yeah, they don’t make those anymore I guess. Because everyone seems � ne waking up every morning with news about how the nice next-door neighbour got caught inside a bus into which a petrol bomb was thrown and got cremated alive within minutes. What do we do when we hear about that aged lady who came from Barisal for treatment and got treated for life with � re all over her body? We simply do that “tsk tsk” thing and then sip our tea and run o� to work.

On the one hand, we have tremendous construction work going on, not just with the � yovers, but the whole nation, in all sectors. On the other hand, arsonists (whose loyalties to their respective parties are very questiona-ble) are burning it all down.

Some might be thinking that it’s actually helping us reduce the population, since it is so large. Well guess what? You might be next! And then you won’t be around to see how much pain it causes your family members to lose you.

And not just the burning and destroying of things, but this whole ridiculous situation where strikes have become a daily thing is

actually hurting the whole education system of this country. Kids can’t go to school or sit for their exams, and given the fact that they have so much time to study and no idea when the next exam will be held and how, many of them have probably given up study-ing right now.

We surely wanted a country where kids will always experience laughter and fun, right? They will grow up knowing that a party and their minions mastering in blockades, strikes, and petrol bombs destroyed their future, and their predecessors had done nothing about it.

And speaking of going to work, the lives of daily labourers and garment workers and such, who have only two ways of travelling, either by using public transport or on foot, are most at risk.

Given the current situation where the po-licemen have been ordered to shoot arsonists on sight, imagine, for instance, a situation on the streets where a bunch of workers are caught up in a cross� re and many of them lose their lives. What happens to their little kids at home? Who will take care of their

ill elderlies, and who will ensure that more beggars will not be created out of them?

The government is already doing so well in tackling these arsonists with both hands full, that it would be unjust to ask them to take care of regular people (although they have provided for some, as we all know).

Instead of putting all the pressure on them, we should buckle up, get some guns and knives (and if needed, some cooking utensils too -- who cares?) to answer that call where we, the mango public, are asked to stand against corruption and help catch miscreants. That way, we can all be a bit like Batman, minus the billion dollars, the immense training in martial arts, the detective skills, the cool gadgets, the cool bat suit, and the super cool Batpod. Sounds cool, huh?

So, we know what is wrong, and we also know that it will keep being wrong for an uncertain period. Clearly, someone does not want the BNP to exist anymore, and that might as well be the party itself. Otherwise, why would they continue to burn the nation down when their � ght is not really against the nation or the citizens? Why would they lack the brains to understand that working against the nation is exponentially decreas-ing their popularity?

Of course, some might argue that they are being framed and it is someone else doing the devil’s deed. But then, why isn’t anyone from the party trying to stop these acts of terror? By murdering countless numbers of people, are they not actually reducing their votes and, thereafter, any seats they might avail in the parliament in the future?

Tolerance nowadays is a rare gift to pos-sess, and it seems like we Bangladeshis have too much of it as far as caring for the country

is concerned. Other cases, for instance watching mind-blowing (yes, literally) mega serials on Star Jalsha, are things to be hyper about, but 60 people being burnt to death in one day amounts to nothing. And why not? The Gonojagoron Moncho in Shahbagh is there to take care of the nation, right? Of course they are, it is because of them that blogger Avijit Roy is still alive, safe and sound with his family, right?

In my opinion, we need to form a proper sense of righteousness in our minds and think about our future here. Today, some people like me are ranting about this, many others are talking about it at their o� ces, tea-stalls, restaurants -- but talk is not enough right now. Talking is not going to save us from petrol bombs, neither will gathering at one spot to protest and show that we care. That actually gives potential murderers a chance to identify which one of us is the next target.

We really have to devise sane ways to save our country along with the people and the economy, and we have to get rid of foreign political parties interfering in our politics in the name of religion. And we have to come forward and request the appropriate author-ities to involve the general public in � nding solutions to this matter to avoid further dire consequences for anyone at all.

Although this is the politicians’ job, things have become too personal for regular people. So maybe the politicians can indulge in some educated discussions with ordinary citizens and end this war immediately, before the remnants are nothing but ashes. l

Raihan Hadi is Founder, Ideas for Bangladesh, and Deputy Secretary, Korea-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Cremation of a nation

Tolerance nowadays is a rare gift to possess, and it seems like we Bangladeshis have too much of it

DHAKA TRIBUNE

15D

TBusiness THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015

RMG buyers cancelling trips due to political unrest n Kayes Sohel

Several global apparel retailers have re-cently canceled trips to Bangladesh as po-litical stando� continues, which analysts say could result in shift of orders to other competitors.

Over the last two months, represent-atives from retailers such as GAP, Amer-ican Eagle, Pinkie, Okidi and Promote suspended scheduled visits, industry in-siders said.

The visit suspension has created fear among local manufacturers of taking away orders from Bangladesh and shift-ing to competitors like Vietnam, accord-ing to them.

“It is a chilling message for the in-dustry and the economy as well,” said Anwarul Alam Chowdhury, former pres-ident of Bangladesh Garments Manufac-turers and Exporters Association.

The $24bn industry, which accounts for more than 80% of the country’s total export earnings and globally the second largest exporters after China, is the main-stay of the Bangladesh economy.

Cheaper cutting and manufacturing cost in Bangladesh RMG sector is the main attraction for the reputed clothing brands across the world.

Former FICCI president Ershad Ahmad said a delegation from GAP was sched-uled to come to Bangladesh on January 5.

They had to canceled the tour as the validity of VISA expired in the long wait for the political calmness in Bangladesh.

Like GAP, some other leading buyers have postponed their trips, according to Ershad.

“They are scared and cancellation of trips may create scope for choosing an-other country for sourcing,” he said.

Bangladesh is now facing a vicious po-litical strife, as BNP-led 20-party alliance enforced countrywide non-stop transport blockade along with shutdowns to press home its demand of national election un-der a caretaker government system.

But the longest ever programme has almost paralysed the country.

The bout of fresh political strife was triggered as the government had not al-lowed the opposition alliance to hold rally on one year completion of January 5 controversial election.

The longest stretch of shutdown has ever been seen by the country.

Vietnam is Bangladesh’s strong rival in ready-made garment exports. It is like-ly to overtake Bangladesh in the global apparel export market share in next 10 years once the Trans Paci� c Partnership (TPP) takes shape, according to a study of Standard Chartered Bank.

On this basis, Vietnam would beat Bang-ladesh to become the second-biggest ap-parel supplier after China when its apparel exports swells to US$115bn, it said. l

Bangladesh to procure ten ocean-going ships n Tribune Report

Cabinet committee on public purchase has ap-proved proposals of home and shipping minis-tries to procure 10 ships from China and Italy.

The cabinet committee meeting, chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday, gave the approvals to meet the demand of Shipping Corporation and Coast Guard.

Of the ships, procurement of six will be � -nanced by the Exim Bank of China and these ships will be imported from China while home ministry will buy four ships from Ita-ly with the government fund for Bangladesh Coast Guard, said Cabinet Division Secretary Mosta� zur Rahman.

“The cost of six ships from China will be Tk1,811 crore as four ships from Italy will cost Tk963 crore,” he told reporters after the meet-ing.

Besides, the cabinet committee has asked the public works ministry to seek opinions from law and parliamentary a� airs ministry on duty waiver proposal for the import of con-struction materials by Malaysian consortium.

The committee made the suggestion as public works ministry placed the duty waiv-er proposal. The consortium will construct 8,400 flats at a cost of Tk5,285.55 crore in the capital’s Uttara.

Malaysian private construction � rms Gemilang Land Development SDN Berhad and ALM-Gemilang Construction Ltd form the consortium and will construct 100 16-sto-rey buildings.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be Tk5,285.55 crore to construct 15.3 mil-lion square feet of new housing space. The proposed cost of per square foot in the apart-ments is Tk3,450.

The Malaysian consortium would be ex-pected to build a total � oor space of 15 million square feet at blocks B and C of the Utarra Apartment Project meant for the lower and middle-income groups.

In October 2011, the government approved the approximately Tk9,030 crore project for the construction of 20,160 units.

It will be built on a design-build-transfer ba-sis under the technical and � nancial manage-ment of the Malaysian government by 2016. l

RBI surprises with early post-budget rate cut

Pay gap widens most in North America, Asia

NBR asks business leaders to get e-TINs, submit tax returns

201716

RMG exports brave supply chain chaosn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Apparel export earnings showed 2.56% growth in the � rst eight months of the cur-rent � scal year, EPB provisional data shows, despite supply chain disruptions in last two months in the wake of the countrywide polit-ical violence.

Police escort has helped the RMG exporters to a large extent to ship their products on time.

Although the RMG manufacturers claimed that they had to face setback in sending prod-ucts to Chittagong for shipment due to securi-ty problem. The � gures, however, showed the positive growth in export earnings.

Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) sources said Bangladesh earned about US$16.55bn through exporting readymade garments in July-February of FY2014-15. This � gure is 2.56% higher than $16.14bn of the same peri-od in the last � scal.

The knitwear exports during the period stood at US$8.13bn, while woven products earned $8.41bn growing at 1.22% as the previ-ous year’s � gure was $17.17bn, shows EPB data.

“Though the export earnings showed about 2.56% growth, it was expected to reach 7%, and if the supply chain was not disrupt-ed, the export growth could be even more,” BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim told the Dhaka Tribune.

Commenting on the negative impact on the ongoing political unrest Azim said: “The impact of the political turmoil will be re� ect-ed in May-June period as we’ve failed to grab the work orders as per our expectation.”

“As we remained cautious about the pos-sible negative impact due to the supply chain disruption, the RMG sector witnessed less im-pact than last year, thanks to the police escort for carrying our products safely to the port city for shipment,” he added.

Bangladesh has witnessed continues coun-trywide blockade and hartals since January 6, which was sponsored by BNP-led 20 par-ty alliance. BNP and its allies called the blockade and hartals to mount pressure on govern-ment to hold a fresh election.

Meanwhile, the business community, especially the ex-port-oriented sector, demand-ed incentives and policy sup-port from the government to recover losses incurred due to the political disturbance. The $24.5bn RMG industry alone employed over 40 lakh work-ers, of which 80% are women mostly from the rural area. l

A woman works at a Bangladesh garment factory. Despite weeks-long political unrest, the country’s biggest export sector continues to grow its earnings RAJIB DHAR

Export earnings marked over 2.5% growth, and if the supply chain was not disrupted, export growth could have been even higher

BUSINESS16DT


Oil prices mixed in Asian tradeOil prices were mixed in Asia yesterday ahead of the release of a key US supply report and as dealers eyed escalating violence in crude producer Libya, analysts said. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for April delivery gained two cents to $50.54 while Brent crude for April fell 29 cents to $60.73 in afternoon trade. Tetsu Emori, commodity fund manager with Astmax Investments in Tokyo, said the o� cial US stockpiles report for the week to February 27 to be released later Wednesday will show an increase in crude reserves, indicating weak demand in the world’s biggest economy. “This will be negative for price recovery,” Emori told AFP. Crude oil stockpiles likely rose 3.95 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Overall reserves meanwhile currently stand at 434.1 million, the most since the start of o� cial stockpiles data compilation in 1982, Bloomberg said. Emori said dealers are also closely monitoring unrest in crude producer Libya. Islamist militants seized control of at least two oil � elds in central Libya on Tuesday, a spokesman for the country’s oil industry security service told AFP. – AFP, Singapore

Dollar eases ahead of key US dataThe dollar eased against the yen yesterday as investors await a key US jobs report later this week. In Tokyo, the greenback slipped to 119.68 yen from 119.74 yen in New York, coming o� levels above 120 yen earlier Tuesday. The euro was at $1.1166 from $1.1178 in US trade. Traders see the dollar as “top heavy” around 120 yen, a bank dealer told Jiji Press news agency, while another currency dealer said it was “di� cult to build large positions” ahead of the US employment � gures. The data later this week will supply the next clue about the state of the world’s top economy, and the Fed’s timeline for an interest rate hike, widely ex-pected by mid-year. In other trading, the euro slipped to 133.61 yen from 133.85 yen ahead of a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday. The ECB council will unveil the details of the bond purchase programme it is embarking on later this month. The Chinese yuan remained weak in the wake of the central bank’s interest rate cut on Saturday. The unit was quoted at 6.2719 against the dollar, stronger than 6.2766 in New York but still down from 6.2650 on Friday before the 0.25 percentage point cut was announced. – AFP, Tokyo

NEWS IN BRIEF

RBI surprises with early post-budget rate cut n Reuters, Mumbai

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lowered its policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.5% yesterday, its second inter-meeting cut this year on the back of easing in� ation and what it said was the “weak state” of parts of the economy.

Although markets had broadly expected the RBI to cut rates again after its surprise January easing, few had expected a move as early as this week, just days after the gov-ernment presented its annual budget for the coming � scal year.

“Given low capacity utilisation and still-weak indicators of production and credit o� -take, it is appropriate for the Reserve Bank to be pre-emptive in its policy action to utilise available space for monetary accommoda-tion,” RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in a statement.

The cut comes days after the government and the Reserve Bank of India agreed to for-mally adopt in� ation targeting, although the central bank had been e� ectively using tar-gets since early 2014.

Analysts said the RBI’s rate cut appeared to give backing to the government’s � scal plans and its pledge to exercise responsibility de-spite a delay in meeting a � scal de� cit target of 3% of gross domestic product by a year to 2017/18.

“The Reserve Bank of India is expressing its con� dence on in� ation outlook,” said Ra-dhika Rao, economist at DBS in Singapore. “This also means that despite a higher � scal de� cit, the quality of � scal consolidation has satis� ed central bank’s expectations.”

Indeed, in an otherwise cautious policy statement, central bank governor Raghuram Rajan said � scal and monetary policy would work “in a complementary way”: “The � scal consolidation programme, while delayed, may compensate in quality, especially if state governments are cooperative,” Rajan said.

Indian bonds and rupee rose sharply after the cut. The benchmark 10-year bond yield dropped to as much as 7.61%, its lowest level since July 15, 2013. The partially convertible rupee gained to as much as 61.65 to the dollar, its strongest level since Feb 4.

More to come? while Rajan signalled positive trends in in� a-tion, analysts cautioned that the prospect of slashing rates was reduced, given the new in-� ation targets and a statement that contained words of warning as well as encouragement.

“I feel another 25 bps is possible, maybe in the April policy but after that there will be a pause,” said Rupa Rege Nitsure, group chief economist at L&T Financial Services.

Indian in� ation has moderated sharply as oil prices slumped since last year. In January, consumer prices INCPIY=ECI rose an annual 5.11%, having fallen from double digity levels as recently as November 2013.

That was well within the in� ation target of 4 percent, with a band of plus or minus 2 percentage points, agreed by the RBI and the government, which will be set starting from the � nancial year ending in March 2017.

Rajan said in the statement the RBI would seek to bring the in� ation rate to 4%, the mid-point of that band by the end of the two-year period starting in 2016/17.

The statement also noted that the rupee’s relative strength added to disin� ationary pressures, although Rajan said the RBI does not target exchange rates or have a target for currency reserves.

Rajan also cast doubt on the government’s revision to its data methodology last month that resulted in the economy showing growth of 7.5% year-on-year during the last quarter, higher than China, when previously India’s economy was regarded as struggling to get out of a rut.

“The picture it presents of a robust econ-omy, with growth having picked up signif-icantly over the last three years, is at odds with still-low direct measures of growth of production, credit, imports and capacity uti-lisation as well as with anecdotal evidence on the state of the economic cycle,” Rajan said.

“Nevertheless, the picture of a steadily re-covering economy appears right.”

The RBI had � rst lowered interest rates this year on Jan 15, in a similarly unexpected move. Both rate cuts took place outside of the central bank’s scheduled policy review meetings. l

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan prepares to read the bi-monthly monetary policy statement at a news conference at the RBI headquarters in Mumbai REUTERS

US study: Old-economy sectors are now tech too n AFP, Washington

Forget about old economy and new economy. Everything is now part of the tech economy, a prominent US research panel said Monday.

New technologies ranging from cloud com-puting to data analytics are transforming vir-tually all industries, including old-economy sectors like manufacturing, said the report by the National Academy of Engineering.

Manufacturing can no longer be consid-ered separate from the system of technolog-ical innovation used in new economy sectors, said the report by the NAE, part of the Nation-al Academy of Sciences, a research organiza-tion created by Congress.

“Technological developments, reengi-neered operations, and economic forces are changing the way products and services are conceived, designed, made, distributed, and supported,” it said.

“Developments in data collection and analytics, digital manufacturing, and crowd-sourcing have opened up a wealth of possibilities for companies and entrepreneurs to better understand customer needs and desires, optimize design and production pro-cesses, discover new market opportunities, and acquire new investment funds.”

The pharmaceutical sector, the report said, is being a� ected by apps and services to help people take their medicine on schedule.

The automotive industry, meanwhile, is changing with new software and services ranging from entertainment and apps to vehi-cle maintenance monitoring.

Adapting the workforce For some US companies, this new paradigm has led to moving some manufacturing op-erations back onshore to better integrate re-search and new product development, the report said.

The nature of jobs is changing as well, the researchers said, with repetitive manual jobs consisting of repetitive tasks “largely disap-pearing,” according to the report.

“Factory work in the United States is shift-ing to favor specialty skills in areas such as robotics-controlled maintenance, advanced composites, and radio-frequency identi� ca-tion of parts.”

At Boeing’s factory in the state of Washing-ton, for example, workers control high-tech machines that use indoor GPS and laser-po-sitioning systems to assemble components of the 787 aircraft.

The report said some estimates indicate almost 50% of US jobs are at risk for “disrup-tion” by technological change.

It noted that an automobile manufacturing plant can now be run by one-third as many people as in 1965, even with huge improve-ments in the quality and sophistication of products.

US manufacturing employment dropped from 19 million in 1980 to 11.5 million in 2010, according to government statistics.

But the study said there is a “mismatch” of the skills available by many worked and those needed: many high-paying jobs require engi-neering and computer programming, and not enough people are acquiring these skills.

The new environment requires companies to adapt with new emphasis on technology re-search, along with better training for employ-ees. Government programs and higher educa-tion need to change as well, the report noted. l

BUSINESS 17D

TTUHRSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015

Build-your-own Google handset reconstructs smartphone n AFP, Barcelona

With a smartphone that slots together piece by piece like Lego, US Internet giant Google is trying to reinvent the mobile as most phone makers are honing sleeker handsets.

The company aims to challenge its rival Apple’s thin iPhones with the Google Ara project, giving smartphone a� cionados the option to build their phone themselves.

Anlysts say tech bo� ns will love it but remain cautious about how popular it may be compared to polished conventional smartphones that sit snugly in the palm.

Google says the Ara phone is part of its bid to widen Internet access to users in developing countries and could create a new industry for assembly-ready handset parts.

Google’s associate, US � rm Yezz, presented a prototype of the build-your-own device this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world’s biggest wireless telecom trade fair.

The phone consists of a base structure on which various square, magnetic modular parts can be attached: screen, battery, camera, speakers and more. Google plans to release it in three sizes.

Ara would allow users to replace individual components rather than throwing the whole thing away and buying a new handset. It says the base unit will last at least � ve or six years.

“That is good for the environment,” said An-nette Zimmermann, a telecom specialist at German consultancy Gartner.

Emerging markets Ara “could reshape the mobile landscape,” said Paul Eremenko, director of the Ara Project, in a presen-tation to experts in January.

He said it aimed to gain six billion potential cli-ents - the current billion people who currently use smartphones “and � ve billion future users”, most of them in emerging markets.

Google says a mid-range Ara phone could cost between $50 and $100 to produce, but has not given details of the likely sales price, leaving ques-tions marks over how sustainable such a product would be.

“Google is not looking to make money directly with Ara,” said Jerome Colin, a telecom expert at French consultancy group Roland Berger.

“It is basically looking to spread smartphones in countries with low purchasing power, and to unify the telecom world around its Android system.”

‘Paradox of choice’ Tech fans and bloggers queued up to see the prototype presented in Barcelona, but analysts were sceptical.

“The trend in mobile phones is to have small, thin, really integrated products. If you make a product modular it immediately means that you’re going to have to make compromises on that,” said Ben Wood, head researcher at consultancy CCS Insight.

“The other question mark I have is: beyond geeks, who really knows” about components? he added.

“If I said to you, which processor do you want in your smartphone, I think you could stop people in the street and they’d just look at you like you’d landed from Mars.”

Eremenko acknowledged that consumers risked being overwhelmed by too many technical options when it comes to choosing components.

“We need to resolve the paradox of choice,” he said in January.

Google plans a test launch of the device in Puerto Rico by the end of this year.

“We will have to see if the public takes to it,” said Zimmerman.

Google dominates the world of Internet searches and its Android operating system can be used on 80 percent of the world’s smartphones. It also holds a large market share in wireless tablet devices.

Its senior vice-president Sundar Pichai said in Barcelona on Monday that it was in talks with telecom companies about possibly using their networks to operate its own mobile phone services in the United States. l

‘It is basically looking to spread smartphones in countries with low purchasing power, and to unify the telecom world around its Android system’

Pay gap widens most in North America, Asia n Reuters, London

The pay gap between senior managers and lower-level employees has widened much more sharply in North America and Asia than in Europe since the � nancial crisis, a study showed yesterday .

The report by Hay Group, a global manage-ment consultancy, showed that pay disparity between the likes of clerical or graduate-en-try jobs and senior managers had increased in

every region worldwide since the start of the global recession.

In North America the pay gap rose by 7.2% between 2008 and 2014, while the gap in Asia increased by 12.5%. Europe experienced the smallest widening at 2.2%. “Despite an average global increase in the job-level pay gap, Europe and America have diverged, in part due to local employment practices,” Hay Group consultant Ben Frost said.

The International Monetary Fund warned last year that income inequality could lead to slower or less sustainable economic growth.

Many companies in Europe introduced

across-the-board pay cuts to avoid job losses while businesses in the United States cut jobs more often and raised senior management pay to re� ect increased duties, the Hay report showed.

The pay gap in the United States widened by 10.6% between 2008 and 2014, with work-ers in senior management roles paid an aver-age of four times the amount earned by work-ers in lower-level jobs last year.

Within Europe, the gap in Britain increased 5.3% to 3.3 times but by only 0.3% in Germany to 2.8 times.

In Asia, the gap in China grew by 7.8% to

12.7 times and in Japan it rose by 2.1% to 3.3 times.

Hay Group said the increase in the pay gap was driven by the increasing automation of low-level jobs or their transfer to lower-pay countries. Such cost-cutting resulted in in-creased competition for remaining jobs, keep-ing pay down.

In contrast, senior management pay has risen to re� ect increased responsibilities and more complex work, it said.

Hay Group said the data used for the study was drawn from more than 16 million em-ployees in 24,000 organisations. l

People make transactions at the ATM machines outside bank branches REUTERS

The combined wealth of the richest 1% will overtake that of the other 99% of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, according an international agency, Oxfam

Apple edges Samsung, retakes smartphone throne n AFP, Washington

Apple overtook Samsung to regain the top po-sition in global smartphone sales in the fourth quarter, a market tracker said Tuesday.

The survey by Gartner found Apple grabbed a 20.4% share of smartphone sales to end users, boosted by the introduction of its large-screen iPhones. The California giant sold some 74.8 million handsets, the survey found.

South Korea’s Samsung meanwhile saw its share tumble to 19.9%, as its smartphone sales dropped to 73 million units.

Other surveys showed Apple and Samsung in a virtual tie, but Gartner showed a clear lead for the US � rm.

“Samsung continues to struggle to con-trol its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung’s share of pro� table premium smartphone us-ers has come under signi� cant pressure,” said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.

Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza said Apple is dominating the premium phone market and Chinese manufacturers gaining an increasing share of the market for low-cost handsets.

Cozza added that Samsung needs “a sol-id ecosystem of apps, content and services unique to Samsung devices” to gain loyalty and make inroads in the higher end.

Samsung this week unveiled its new Galaxy S6, its � agship device aimed at competing with the iPhone 6, as well as a new S6 Edge “phab-let” which takes aim at the iPhone 6 Plus.

Gartner reported global smartphone sales rose 28.4% in 2014 to 1.2 billion units, and represented two-thirds of global mobile phone sales.

China’s Lenovo - which acquired US-based Motorola last year - was the third largest ven-dor both in the fourth quarter and the full year, with fellow Chinese maker Huawei in fourth place. l

BUSINESS18DT


SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 316.12 14.25 17.09 7.51 333.21 13.62NBFI 97.91 4.41 5.84 2.57 103.75 4.24Investment 20.81 0.94 2.84 1.25 23.65 0.97Engineering 271.98 12.26 51.53 22.65 323.51 13.23Food & Allied 117.97 5.32 4.92 2.16 122.89 5.02Fuel & Power 349.27 15.74 31.43 13.82 380.70 15.56Jute 3.27 0.15 0.00 3.27 0.13Textile 182.52 8.23 13.50 5.93 196.02 8.01Pharma & Chemical 240.22 10.83 23.37 10.27 263.59 10.78Paper & Packaging 4.20 0.19 0.94 0.42 5.15 0.21Service 107.77 4.86 6.82 3.00 114.59 4.68Leather 20.63 0.93 0.19 0.08 20.82 0.85Ceramic 23.14 1.04 0.73 0.32 23.87 0.98Cement 128.53 5.79 14.45 6.35 142.98 5.85Information Technology 46.46 2.09 5.52 2.42 51.97 2.12General Insurance 12.33 0.56 1.51 0.66 13.84 0.57Life Insurance 37.63 1.70 2.22 0.98 39.86 1.63Telecom 149.48 6.74 22.94 10.08 172.42 7.05Travel & Leisure 12.61 0.57 5.43 2.39 18.04 0.74Miscellaneous 75.53 3.40 16.20 7.12 91.73 3.75Debenture 0.11 0.00 0.03 0.01 0.14 0.01

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to [email protected] or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

News, analysis and recent disclosuresTRUSTBANK: The Board of Directors has recommended 5% cash dividend and 10% stock dividend for the year ended on 31.12.2014. Date of AGM: 30.03.2015, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Trust Milonayaton, 545, Old Airport Road, Bir Srestha Shaheed Jahangir Gate, Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka. Record date: 15.03.2015. The Company has also reported consolidat-ed net pro� t after tax of Tk. 1,298.07 m., consolidated EPS of Tk. 3.05, consolidated NAV per Share of Tk. 19.85 and consoli-dated NOCFPS of Tk. (3.92) for the year ended on 31.12.14.DUTCHBANGL: The Board of Directors has recommended 40% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2014. Date of AGM: 30.03.2015, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: Ballroom of Pan Paci� c Sonargaon Hotel, Dhaka. Record date: 15.03.2015. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 11.03, NAV per share of Tk. 72.59 and NOCFPS of Tk. 273.05 for the year ended on December 31, 2014.SOUTHEASTB: The Board of Directors has recommended 15% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2014. Date of AGM: 29.03.2015, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: Bashund-hara Convention Centre-2, Block-C, Umme Kulsum Road, Bashundhara R/A, Baridhara, Dhaka-1229. Record date: 15.03.2015. The Company has also reported Consolidated EPS of Tk. 4.18, Consolidated NAV per share of Tk. 26.77 and Consolidated NOCFPS of Tk. 6.09 for the year ended on

December 31, 2014.BIFC: Alpha Credit Rating Limited (AlphaRating) has rated the Company as A in the long term and AR-3 in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited � nancial information of the Company up to December 31, 2013, man-agement report of 6 months up to June 30, 2014 and relevant qualitative information.DESHBANDHU: BSEC NEWS: BSEC has expressed its inability to approve application for issu-ance of rights shares of the Com-pany as the Company has failed to comply with the Condition No. 3(e) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Rights Issue) Rules, 2006.UNITEDFIN: As per Regulation 30 of DSE Listing Regulations, the Company has informed that a meeting of the Board of Direc-tors will be held on March 05, 2015 at 3:00 PM to consider, among others, audited � nancial statements of the Company for the year ended on December 31, 2014.IPO Subscription: Tosrifa Industries Limited Subscription March 24, 2015 to March 31, 2015; NRB UPTO April 09, 2015. O� er Price per share Tk. 26.00, Market Lot (Shares) 200.Dividend/AGMALARABANK: 14% cash, AGM: 31.03.2015, Record Date: 15.03.2015.PRIMEBANK: 15% cash, AGM: 30.03.2015, Record Date: 10.03.2015. PUBALIBANK: 10% cash, AGM: 31.03.2015, Record Date: 10.03.2015.

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Peoples Insur -A 7.82 6.87 19.13 19.30 19.60 17.50 0.016 2.25 8.5Reckitt Benckiser -A 6.16 6.16 1327.00 1327.00 1327.00 1327.00 0.001 42.33 31.3Sinobangla Indu.-A 5.20 3.28 25.53 26.30 26.50 25.00 0.751 1.27 20.1Shahjibazar Power-N 4.81 6.07 217.10 220.00 221.00 213.00 17.778 8.68 25.0BD Building Systems -A 4.77 2.80 43.33 43.90 44.10 42.10 1.062 2.52 17.2Bank Asia -A 4.57 4.56 18.34 18.30 18.50 18.00 0.029 2.64 6.9Salvo Chemicals-B 4.57 3.12 18.17 18.30 18.50 17.60 6.223 1.15 15.8Janata Insur -A 4.14 4.48 15.15 15.10 15.20 15.10 0.011 0.37 40.9Bengal Windsor-A 4.06 4.14 59.05 59.00 59.30 59.00 0.004 4.10 14.4Saiham Cotton-A 3.80 3.81 19.09 19.10 19.40 18.20 0.234 1.43 13.3

DSE GAINER


Aver-age (%

Change)


in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Libra Infusions-A 8.61 8.61 385.90 385.90 385.90 385.90 0.000 3.38 114.2Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z 8.22 7.78 7.90 7.90 7.90 7.90 0.003 -46.80 -vePragatiLife Insu. -Z 6.71 5.05 107.27 109.70 110.90 100.50 2.806 2.38 45.1Shahjibazar Power-N 5.00 6.75 217.24 218.40 221.00 211.00 155.300 8.68 25.0Saiham Cotton-A 4.95 2.56 18.84 19.10 19.30 18.30 2.945 1.43 13.2Sinobangla Indu.-A 4.84 3.36 25.53 26.00 26.50 24.90 10.853 1.27 20.1FAR Chemical-N 4.63 3.51 26.85 27.10 27.40 26.20 9.916 2.76 9.75th ICB M F-A 4.44 4.44 188.00 188.00 188.00 188.00 0.002 16.18 11.6Eastern Lubricants -A 4.24 7.25 400.00 388.80 388.90 388.80 0.016 3.12 128.2BD. Thai Alum -B 4.10 1.86 37.72 38.10 38.20 36.70 18.218 1.09 34.6

CSE LOSER


Aver-age (%

Change)


in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Central Insur -A -9.69 -7.45 20.50 20.50 20.50 20.50 0.000 2.96 6.9Rupali Bank - A -9.01 -6.74 50.50 50.50 50.50 50.50 0.006 2.04 24.8Imam Button -Z -6.67 -6.09 11.25 11.20 11.70 11.00 0.190 -1.48 -veDutch Ban. Bnk- A -5.80 -4.39 91.11 90.90 93.00 90.60 0.093 11.03 8.3Phoenix Insur -A -5.67 -8.02 28.31 28.30 28.40 28.10 0.013 3.88 7.3ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A -5.61 -5.80 18.50 18.50 18.50 18.50 0.009 2.86 6.5Quasem Drycells -A -5.03 -6.26 58.74 58.50 64.00 57.00 0.201 2.16 27.2 Trust Bank-A -4.95 -4.17 17.48 17.30 18.20 17.30 1.356 3.05 5.7Apex Footwear-A -4.65 -4.65 410.00 410.00 410.00 410.00 0.029 20.48 20.0Mercantile Insur -A -4.64 -4.95 14.40 14.40 14.40 14.40 0.011 1.48 9.7

DSE LOSER


Aver-age (%

Change)


in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Trust Bank-A -5.43 -4.95 17.46 17.40 18.20 17.30 7.731 3.05 5.73rd ICB M F-A -5.24 -5.24 235.00 235.00 235.00 235.00 0.047 24.64 9.5SonarBangla Insu. -A -5.23 -5.44 16.33 16.30 17.30 15.70 0.098 1.77 9.2Imam Button -Z -5.08 -5.42 11.16 11.20 11.30 11.20 0.072 -1.48 -veUnion Capital -A -4.81 -4.37 17.95 17.80 18.70 17.60 1.144 0.89 20.2Dutch Ban. Bnk- A -4.61 -4.14 91.45 91.00 93.00 90.60 6.582 11.03 8.3Shampur Sugar -Z -3.75 -6.25 7.50 7.70 7.80 7.70 0.012 -52.72 -veLafargeS Cement-Z -3.09 -0.62 115.63 112.90 118.30 112.00 98.843 2.43 47.6National Tea -A -3.08 -3.08 714.29 714.60 744.90 700.00 0.180 -6.49 -veBrac Bank -A -2.70 -2.09 36.56 36.00 37.00 35.60 43.128 3.83 9.5

DSE key features March-4, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

2,218.47

Turnover (Volume)

53,313,791

Number of Contract

63,813

Traded Issues 310

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

163

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

144

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,530.14

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.67

CSE key features March-4, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

227.50

Turnover (Volume)

6,123,967

Number of Contract

10,201

Traded Issues 228

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

117

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

105

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

6

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,451.18

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.71

BUSINESS 19D


Stocks extend losses amid choppy tradingn Tribune Report

Stock markets extended losses amid choppy trading yesterday, as concern over the current political unrest was rising.

The market moved be-tween negative and positive throughout the entire ses-sion but bears beat bulls at the end of the day.

The benchmark index DSEX lost over 14 points or 0.4% to close at 4,681, ex-tending its losing streak for the fourth straight session.

The Shariah Index DSES dropped marginally 4 points 0.4% to 1,111. The comprising blue chips DS30 was down 11 points or 0.7% to 1,737.

Chittagong Stock Ex-change (CSE) Selective Cat-egories Index, CSCX, settled at 8,722, rising only 1 point.

Investors seemed to ig-nore some good dividends declared by banks due to po-litical risk, said a stock bro-ker. “Most investors dared not to bet on stocks for long term as still there is no sign of political settlement.”

Like previous sessions, trading activity remained downbeat. Turnover at the Dhaka Stock Exchange was only Tk221 crore, which was Tk220 crore in the previous session.

Cement were the worst

su� erers falling more than 2%, breaking previous day’s rally. Telecommunication, food & allied, banks and non-banking � nancial insti-tutions continued to decline.

A few of the sectors, in-cluding textile and engi-neering, closed marginally higher.

Lanka Bangla Securities said the market extended losses amid choppy trad-ing. “As fear-casting politi-cal events have left the city dwellers breathless at this moment, we have seen its impact on capital market,” it said.

It said selling pressure continued to fade out the possible positive impact of corporate declarations of � -nancial stocks.

SPCL topped the turno-ver list followed by LAFSUR-CEML, GP, SAPORTL and SIBL.

IDLC Investments said slow bleeding continued causing painful erosion in investors’ capital.

It said resultantly, chron-ic depression eclipsed mar-ket sentiment turning par-ticipants reluctant to take further moves. “Many in-vestors deviated from the fundamental path, leaving large cap that shed 0.8% to test their luck in micro cap that slipped 0.4%. l

As fear-casting political events have left the city dwellers breathless at this moment, we have seen its impact on capital market

ANALYST

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4681.53745 (-) 0.30% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1737.72198 (-) 0.64% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14316.67260 (-) 0.02% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 11836.39300 (+) 0.24% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8722.66390 (+) 0.09% ▼

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

GPH Ispat Ltd-A 500,205 21.01 9.23 42.00 -0.71 42.30 42.00 42.00 42.00BD Submarine Cable-A 143,298 19.88 8.74 136.70 -0.58 137.50 141.80 136.00 138.72Shahjibazar Power-N 81,890 17.78 7.81 220.00 4.81 209.90 221.00 213.00 217.10BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 375,386 12.03 5.29 31.80 0.00 31.80 32.60 31.60 32.04LafargeS Cement-Z 92,083 10.60 4.66 113.00 -2.84 116.30 117.50 111.50 115.06Singer BD -A 47,432 10.35 4.55 218.50 0.83 216.70 220.80 215.10 218.26WesternMarine -N 154,108 6.52 2.87 42.30 1.93 41.50 43.20 41.40 42.29Salvo Chemicals-B 342,430 6.22 2.74 18.30 4.57 17.50 18.50 17.60 18.17SummitAlliancePort.-A 78,865 5.03 2.21 64.20 2.23 62.80 64.60 63.00 63.77MJL BD Ltd.-A 35,931 4.40 1.93 122.00 0.58 121.30 123.50 120.20 122.40Ifad Autos -N 79,751 4.19 1.84 52.70 1.35 52.00 53.50 51.60 52.51Square Pharma -A 15,413 4.02 1.77 260.40 -0.08 260.60 262.50 259.50 260.62Agni Systems -A 127,110 3.87 1.70 30.40 1.33 30.00 30.70 30.10 30.43ACI Formulations-A 26,408 3.58 1.57 135.80 3.27 131.50 137.00 132.80 135.65UNITED AIR-A 423,303 3.49 1.53 8.20 -1.20 8.30 8.30 8.20 8.24

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW Avg-Price

Shahjibazar Power-N 714,887 155.30 7.00 218.40 5.00 208.00 221.00 211.00 217.24LafargeS Cement-Z 854,838 98.84 4.46 112.90 -3.09 116.50 118.30 112.00 115.63Grameenphone-A 255,521 84.34 3.80 329.40 -0.99 332.70 333.00 328.00 330.06SummitAlliancePort.-A 1,265,890 80.72 3.64 63.90 1.75 62.80 64.80 62.60 63.76Social Islami. B-A 4,750,242 75.98 3.42 15.90 0.00 15.90 16.10 15.80 15.99BD Submarine Cable-A 468,452 65.14 2.94 136.60 -0.65 137.50 141.80 136.00 139.06Olympic Ind. -A 292,527 63.71 2.87 216.40 -1.68 220.10 221.90 215.00 217.79MJL BD Ltd.-A 412,364 50.54 2.28 121.80 0.33 121.40 124.00 120.80 122.56Square Pharma -A 191,494 49.93 2.25 259.40 -0.73 261.30 263.00 258.10 260.71ACI Limited- A 112,897 47.73 2.15 422.20 1.81 414.70 428.10 414.00 422.75Brac Bank -A 1,179,684 43.13 1.94 36.00 -2.70 37.00 37.00 35.60 36.56BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 1,242,476 39.68 1.79 31.80 0.32 31.70 32.40 31.60 31.94Southeast Bank-A 2,020,844 39.00 1.76 19.70 -2.48 20.20 19.70 19.00 19.30WesternMarine -N 867,609 36.77 1.66 42.40 2.66 41.30 43.30 41.30 42.38Titas Gas TDCLA 484,182 36.24 1.63 74.50 -0.40 74.80 75.20 74.30 74.84

BUSINESS20DT


NBR asks business leaders to get e-TINs, submit tax returnsn Tribune Business Desk

National Board of Revenue (NBR) asked the members of di� erent chambers and trade associations to obtain e-TIN (electronic Tax Identi� cation Number) and submit tax re-turns.

The revenue authorities in a press state-ment on Wednesday said many of the mem-bers of di� erent chambers and trade bodies

did not obtain e-TIN despite the fact that the income tax ordinance made it mandatory for them to have one, reports BSS.

In some cases, many of the members of var-ious chambers and trade associations do not submit their income tax return, the NBR said.

The statement followed the letter of the NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman to 351 mem-bers of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and other

trade associations. In the letter the NBR chief urged cooper-

ation from the chambers and trade associa-tions so their members get e-TIN and submit income returns accordingly.

According to NBR, the number e-TIN hold-ers is still below 16 lakh while the ratio of taxpayers is very low against the size of pop-ulation and compared to the neighbouring countries. l

SME � nancing hits new recordn Tribune Business Desk

The commercial banks and � nancial institu-tions (FIs) set a new record in lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) disbursing Tk1,00, 910 crore in a single year.

The impressive � gure for 2014 represents a phenomenal increase in lending from the full spectrum of � nance providers including state-owned banks, private banks, foreign banks and non-banking � nancial institutions, reports BSS.

Of the total amount disbursed up to De-cember 30 last year, banking sector laid out Tk 98,032 crore when the FIs shared the rest Tk2, 877 crore. The annual growth in SME lending was over 13%.

“The central bank has expanded SME � -nancing to create new entrepreneurs and

employment opportunities in addition to em-power women,” Bangladesh Bank (BB) Gover-nor said earlier when he was talking about the objective of accelerating SME � nancing.

Last year banks provided loans to over 5 lakh, of which 42, 730 were women, according to BB. A BB document also shows that the SME loan programme so far created around 1.5 mil-lion new employment opportunities across the country.

“The banks and FIs increased their lend-ing programme for SME sector as advised and encouraged by the central bank,” said general manager of SME and Special Programmes De-partment Swapan Kumar Roy.

Roy said the quality of SME � nancing also improved due to constant and e� ective moni-toring of the central bank.

He said the loan recovery also increased phenomenally last year, which stood 64.95 percent higher at Tk69, 172 crore at the end of December.

BB latest data also showed that the major share of the total disbursed SME loan goes to business, with receiving Tk62, 767 crore or 62% of the total lending to SME. Industrial sector got the second highest amount of loan of Tk30, 246 crore, which was nearly 30% of the total disbursement. l

Kamal to IMF: Bangladesh economy performing welln Tribune Report

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yes-terday said the country’s economy was per-forming well despite the ongoing nation-wide political unrest.

“Pace of GDP growth in the � rst eight months of the current � scal year is much bet-ter compared to the same period of a year be-fore,” the minister told the visiting IMF team while responding to a query made by the del-egation at his o� ce in the capital.

He, however, declined to disclose the current GDP growth � gure for, what he said, the sake of keeping stability in the country’s economy.

Visiting delegation of International Mon-etary Fund (IMF) inquired about the present economic condition of the country that has been su� ering from countrywide non-stop blockades and series of strikes being enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.

However, Finance Minister AHMA Muhith has recently expressed his utter doubt over achieving 7.3% GDP growth target in the cur-rent � scal year.

After holding the meeting with the visit-ing IMF delegation led-by its deputy division chief, Asia and the Paci� c Department, Rod-rigo Cubero, at the planning commission, the minister told the reporters that IMF team fo-cused on six major issues to be addressed for increasing the GDP growth.

The issues are-timely implementation of fast-track infrastructure project, removal of land crisis, risk management in � nancial sector, boosting revenue collection, e� ective policy and its implementation on energy sec-tor and tackling climate change.

Regarding the six issues, the planning min-ister said, “The four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensing will be completed this year while the Padma bridge construction work is also going on in full swing.”

The government is making its utmost ef-forts to generate more electricity, as works for setting up power plants in Rampal, Payra and Matarbari are underway, said the minister.

He said the government was also working hard to remove land-related crisis by using the unused public land.

Other issues, including debt to GDP ratio and millennium development goals, were also discussed at the meeting. The minister also briefed the IMF delegation about the gov-ernment’s 7th � ve-year plan for the economic development of the country.

The IMF delegation, which arrived on Febru-ary 25 in Dhaka is expected to leave on March 10.

During the visit, the mission will also meet other ministers concerned and high o� cials to discuss implementation of new VAT Act, which is supposed to be e� ective from July this year, but the government might seek time extension for implementing the new act. l

Workers unload vegetables from a boat on the River Buriganga near the capital’s Shyam Bazar. As the non-stop transport blockade has dragged on for the past two months with violence on the streets, some traders prefer carrying goods to the market by the waterways. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

The banks and FIs increased their lending programme to the SME sector as advised and encouraged by the central bank

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IONEloquently

eclecticPhoto : Sohail Anwar

Scratching out the surface:There’s a � ne line between stewardship and leadership. Find out which one you’re cut out to be.

Modern � air:Aarong’s latest line of rattan furniture items to add to your shopping cart.

INSIDEDear Readers,Thank God it’s Thursday, right? With the weekend in sight, it’s time to make that last push. Join us as we talk about burning teen issues. If you need some shopping inspiration, check out Ticket for all the latest buy lines.

Sabrina Fatma AhmadFeatures Editor

EDITOR’S NOTE

Leaders are made, not born And they’re made by YOUNo, they don’t just pop out with bulletproof bat-suits or rectangular mustaches. They are made through failure, e� ort, learning and experience

Hot TopicTHURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015

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First things � rst, who is a leader? It’s easy to be misled when trying to understand who a leader is, specially when comparing against managers and supervisors. But it’s simple - a leader is a person who initiates actions, or makes the � rst move. They have their own style, their own � air, and pave the road before others walk them. Got it? Now...

How are they di� erent from managers? Managers are those who are the � rst to walk that road constructed by the leaders, and they walk it well. What they do is make an invention into perfection, accompanied by the leader. The manager maintains, imitates, and develops, whereas the leader originates, inspires and challenges. A � ne line, but you get the gist.

How do I know if I’m a leader?It becomes a bit di� cult when you’re trying to identify thyself, hence we advise a bit of help from a friend. Now that you understand what makes a leader di� erent, you could (from a

third perspective) try to � gure out how you made changes in your life, your workplace, your circles and your home. Remember, by default, you are your own leader, but to lead others means you have to show them a better path and be the marginal change maker.

A common criticism of leaders is the fact that they aren’t real leaders because they didn’t start anything new or fresh, but things already established elsewhere. Uh no. Not at all fellows! They still are real leaders, and the fact that matters is that they initiated change in the � rst place. So, take a screenshot of your memory and answer solemnly to the following self-question:

Am I a leader? If yes, there’s no need to state that there is still more room for development, even if you’re Mahatma Gandhi. If no, keep reading. There is a hidden leader in everyone, but only a few can release the beast inside. If you wish to uncage your Mandela, we highly suggest a pen and paper.

Misconceptions

Why become a leader? Seriously dude, what’s the point? Yes, you have every right to ask, and take heed that it’s a personal choice entirely. Let’s put it out there why it may be cool to be a leader, okay? The choice is yours, and not choosing to be a leader has NO consequences whatsoever. Managers are cooler in more aspects, they earn much, much more in numerous instances, and it’s in fact less stressful.

So why? Because you’re doing what you love. Steve Jobs didn’t sit in his garage week after week thinking of ways to make the coolest phone in the world if he didn’t love what he does. He could have made sandwiches and organise his turtle-

necks. But he didn’t. He chose to make something di� erent and impress everyone around him, because A, he could and B, he was driven. They are one in hundreds, these leaders, and they are in a class of their own. It is a pleasure of ultimate bounds to have made a real change with your own hands, to have made a di� erence (for better or worse, whatever � oats your boat) and do something no one around you (there’s always a dude/dudette in China though) thought to be possible. You become an icon of development, of creativity and will be remembered for your contribution. It’s usually not about the money for a leader, but the outcome which makes all the di� erence.

n Rad Sharar Bin Kamal

Hot Topic T-JUNCTION 23D

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Now this part here you have to decipher according to your own world. You want to make a change? Start small. Plan it out according to what you can do now with your current capabilities. The cause has to be driven by passion, by love. Smooshy words, yes, but if you don’t love what you do, you won’t stick to it till the end. Comparing it to your love life? Perfect! That’s exactly it, really. Pick one, pick well, and live with it till the end.

When trying to initiate change, people always assume you know all about the subject in question. It’s shattering to disappoint them on that regard. Be knowledgeable, studious and nerdy. Can’t fake it forever, can you?

Respect here means to regard others on equal ground. No one pops out as an empire ruling, sword wielding Batman. You have to learn � rst, and the experience is heightened by respecting what others do and learning from everybody. What can I learn from the troll that steals my lunch money? That size matters, and fear is one way of gaining power. See?

When in danger, against opposition of intimidation or something genuinely scary, even a lion let out a pint. It’s natural to be afraid, scared and intimidated. Solution? Fake it. Practice your poker face and don’t ever let ‘em see you sweat!

A big part of a leader comes from being on good terms with everybody. A simple step? Be genuine with your compliments, cherish the little things, and be annoyingly, nerve-rackingly, pain-in-the-bum jolly!

Nothing is worth it if there isn’t fun involved, right? Learn to put a smile on your face and let it slide once in a while. No one takes a serious guy seriously anymore.

Have a cause, that you love

Know you stu� , fully

Be respectful, genuinely

Fake courage, hold the wee

Be kind, in everything

Seriously, have fun

But...how?Steps to leadership

Looking back, they say

Quotes from established young leaders around us

Con� dence in abundanceLeaders are magnets of positive thinking. Leaders know well how hard it may become for them and what awaits, but it only brightens their � ame. They exuberate in con� dence and nothing can stop them from their “out-of-their-minds” goals,

Me! Me! Meee!Leaders love to stand up and take responsibility. This doesn’t necessarily mean those frontbenchers aka Hanna Montanas are leaders, mind you. It means they know their part and will willingly take accountability for it. When it comes to them, slacking o� is never an option.

They have enough pillars to balance the sunFailure is the pillar of success, and leaders collect them like matchsticks. Not that they fail willingly, no. They have tried and weren’t able to hit the mark, and they learnt from it. Failure motivates them to get up even harder, till they succeed.

Loyalty is their novelty Leaders know what they want, and they don’t stop till they get it. They’re noble to the cause, and get the job done.

What sets leaders apart Characteristics of good leaders

“In order to attain any success, you have to be loyal and honest to yourself and to everyone around you.” - Riyad Shahir Ahmed Husain, Magnito Digital

“After a few decades when you are sitting on a hospital bed, you are not going to regret the things you did, but the things that you didn’t do.” - Bijon Islam, LightCastle Partners (quote taken from Bollywood movie “3 idiots”)

“Read a lot of books. Seriously, read a lot of books! There’s no such thing as the power of knowledge. Knowledge is the most amazing thing on earth and the best way to gain and retain knowledge is to read a lot of books. That, however, doesn’t mean that you have to be a book-monkey and a socially awkward person. Even a small amount of leadership quality will take you far in life.”- Muhammad Saimum Hossain, Geeky Social

TicketT-JUNCTION24DT


n Sabiha Akond Rupa

This spring, Aarong launched their new line of rattan furniture available at all their outlets. Keeping comfort and the aesthetics of your home in mind, Aarong introduced a wide range of rattan furniture items for your living, dining, bed and store rooms. Durable, lightweight and reasonably priced, they are available in a wide range of colours as well that will surely add that extra oomph to your household.

Rattan Furniture by AarongGoing light and vibrant this spring

25D

TTHURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015SportIn the highest scorer

section of the World Cup 2015, till now, there’s

Gayle, Sangakkara and Amla in the top 5 but the

name that tops the list is UAE’s Shaiman Anwar

who scored 270 runs in 4 matches. “Anwar’s

such a con� dent individ-ual that we call him ‘Sir

Viv’ in the dressing room - that’s his nickname,”

UAE captain Tauqir said

‘SIR VIV’ ANWAR!

RECORD-BREAKING AUSTRALIA ROUT AFGHANISTAN

MUKTIS EYE TO BREAK JAMAL DOMINANCE

27 28

Mazhar Uddinfrom Nelson

Fans, media exposure inspire Mashrafe n Mazhar Uddin from Nelson

In the context of Bangladesh, electronic and print media have always played a huge part in bringing cricket close to the fans and promot-ing its players. Although at times the players criticised the media for making news that created extra pressure on them, but Bangla-desh skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza yesterday hailed sports journalism of our country and said it helps them focus more in the game.

The Bangladeshi media has been the bridge between the Tigers and their fan base which spread all over the world in the last decade.

“People in our country started to follow the game mostly when we started doing well back in 1997-1999 and achieved the Test sta-tus in 2000. So I think the journalists played a big role in that and if you guys (journal-ists) did not portray the real enthusiasm, we would have never gotten the attention,” said Mashrafe ahead of their crucial World Cup en-counter against Scotland.

“People will get to know more if the media covers us more. I think this is an inspiration because we would have never enjoyed with-out these exposures and that is when emo-

tion gets in,” said Mashrafe.So far Bangladesh played three matches in

Australia and the support they received has been unconditional. Thousands of fans drove miles from Brisbane to Canberra which sur-prised even the players while a few hundreds turning up at the Gabba, despite knowing cy-clone Marcia will have the last laugh, was a pleasant sight.

“I think our fans made this game very close to their heart and if they were not supporting us then we would never get the inspiration.

“The Australian side won the World Cup four times but still the other sports in their country get more support. In Bangladesh, we haven’t been able to do anything (in cricket) but still people come and support us and even after losing badly they continued their support.

“Playing in Bangladesh is di� erent atmos-phere where people come and support and yes there have some pressure but we enjoy that. In Nelson we won’t get that support but it hap-pens. Hopefully we can play our best cricket and people will support from back home while there are few supporters who came here. I think they will support and the journalists brothers are here too, they will also cheer for us.”l

Tigers to bank on spinners

Bangladesh’s spin-bowling department, es-pecially left-arm spin, has been their main strength over the past few years. Consequent-ly, the Tigers’ spin prowess will very much be in focus today when they take on Scotland in their fourth Pool A game at Saxton Oval.

Alongside Shakib al Hasan, another left-arm spinner in Arafat Sunny is expected to be given the nod against the Scots, meaning Bangladesh will � eld two specialist spinners for the � rst time in this World Cup.

The Bangladesh think-tank has apparent-ly decided to play an extra spinner keeping Scotland’s weakness against the slow bowlers in mind. Over the years, the European side have been more comfortable facing the seam-ers as opposed to the slow bowlers.

Sunny is a seasoned campaigner, with the ability to bowl a nagging line and length. Alongside the ever-dependable Shakib, Sun-ny can also play a vital role today on his World Cup debut.

On the other hand, the Scotland camp, very much aware of the Tigers’ spin strength, has been preparing themselves accordingly under the guidance of former England wick-et-keeper Matthew Maynard.

And according to Scotland skipper Preston Mommsen, they are all set to face the Bangla-desh spinners come what may.

“In the last twelve months, we’ve spent a lot of time training in sub-continental con-ditions against spin. We had a 10-day batting camp with Matthew Maynard in Dubai where the main focus was playing against spin,” said Mommsen yesterday.

“We’re fully prepared. We’ve ticked all the boxes we need to tick, and again, we’ll do one more � nal session today (yesterday) with a fo-cus on playing spin, getting away left on spin, making sure our batters know where our ones are and know where our boundary options are.

“I think it’ll be important for us to stay composed through those middle overs. Ob-viously, there are some very good spinners in the Bangladesh line-up. So, it’s important that we get partnerships going, and as I said, we should go into those last 10, 15 overs with wickets in hand.”

Spin or pace, Bangladesh captain Mashrafe

bin Mortaza will not care which de-partment comes up trumps as long as they turn out victorious on the day. Mashrafe, however, add-ed that even if the Tigers lose today, they can still make it through to the quar-ter� nals provided they win their remaining two matches, against England and co-hosts New Zea-land.

“If we win against Scot-land and l o s e against England, we will still have that f i n a l g r o u p - s t a g e m a t c h against New Z e a l a n d . And, if we lose this match, we will have two more opportunities to win two match-es,” said Mashrafe yesterday.

“Having said that, it is important for us to focus on this match. We should do whatever it takes for us to win (today). We will earn two points and at the same time, our con� dence will be high. There is no other alternatives to winning as it gives you con� dence.” l

Bangladesh batsman Nasir Hossain (R) shares a light moment with a security o� cial at Saxton Oval in Nelson last Monday BCB

Sport26DT


Tigers looking for 1999 repeat

When Bangladesh face Scotland today at Sax-ton Oval in a Pool A � xture, the Tigers will surely recall the sweet memory of their � rst ever World Cup win against the same opposi-tion back in 1999 in Edinburgh.

Following their memorable ICC Trophy tri-umph in 1997, the Tigers got the right to strut their stu� against the established orders for the very � rst time in the biggest cricket com-petition of the world.

Not much was expected of the Tigers in their � rst two matches in 1999, and it was no

surprise when Bangladesh went down to twin defeats against New Zealand and the West In-dies.

However, in their third match against Scot-land, the Tigers were no doubt harbouring ex-pectations of their maiden World Cup win.

Bangladesh did just that, beating the Scots by 22 runs, sparking wild celebrations not only on the dugout but throughout the entire Grange Cricket Club Ground.

Asked to bat � rst, Bangladesh posted 185/9 on the board in their 50 overs. Minhajul Abe-din’s 116-ball 68 was the cornerstone of the Tigers’ competitive total.

Khaled Mahmud, who is now the manager of Bangladesh, also played his part, scalping two wickets conceding 27 runs from his nine overs, including two maidens.

On the eve of their match against the Euro-peans today, Mahmud cherished the memory of that win, which paved the way for many more World Cup wins in the following years.

“Not only me, that match against Scotland is a memorable one for all the cricket lovers of our country as it was our � rst ever win in the World Cup. The amount of joy and hap-piness which I felt after winning that match was something I cannot explain in words. It was one of the most memorable wins of my career,” said Mahmud yesterday.

Mahmud added that he is quite con� dent of another World Cup victory against the Scots today.

“Our team are in very good shape and I believe that we are going to win this match against Scotland tomorrow (today).” l

(L-R) Bangladesh cricketers Anamul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Tamim Iqbal and Mominul Haque take a look at the picturesque Saxton Oval in Nelson last Monday BCB

Mazhar Uddinfrom Nelson

Bangladesh beat Lebanon in Davis Cupn Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh beat Lebanon 3-0 in the Junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Pre-Qualifying Round at Kuching, Malaysia yesterday.

Kawser Ali gave Bangladesh the perfect start beating Snibee Karim 6-3, 6-4. Rubel Hossain continued the winning streak beating Baostani Mars 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 while Kawser and Mohammed Ishtiak outplayed Samaha and Karim 4-6, 6-4, 4-3 (retired) in the doubles.

Bangladesh have been grouped with Paki-stan, Lebanon and Turkmenistan in Group D. Bangladesh will take on Pakistan today. l

Shehzad leads Pakistan to morale-boosting winn Reuters, Napier

Ahmed Shehzad anchored Pakistan’s innings and his bowlers then ensured UAE never seri-ously challenged it as their World Cup hopes continued for another day after a 129-run vic-tory at McLean Park on Wednesday.

Misbah ul-Haq’s side had been under im-mense pressure before the Pool B clash in Napier, having been hammered by India and West Indies in their � rst two games and then lurching to a 20-run victory over Zimbabwe.

While they were hardly explosive on a wicket that is considered the best batting sur-face in New Zealand, they did patiently build an innings of 339 for six.

Their bowlers then kept the shackles on UAE, though there was some doubt as to whether they had any real interest in pushing

for an unlikely victory as they batted out their 50 overs to � nish on a pedestrian 210-8.

Pakistan’s towering opening bowler Mo-hammad Irfan was virtually unplayable for his � rst three overs in tandem with Sohail Khan, who took two wickets as UAE slumped to 25-3 in the 10th over.

Khurram Khan (43) and Shaiman Anwar (62) combined for an 83-run partnership but they were unable to score quickly enough as the overs ticked away and the game went through the motions. Anwar has now scored 270 runs during the World Cup with two half centuries and a century.

The victory should reduce some pressure on Pakistan, who had been facing intense criticism from former players and pundits for the manner in which they had played during the tournament. l

POOL BTEAMS M W L NR P NRRIndia 3 3 0 0 6 +2.630South Africa 4 3 1 0 6 +1.950West Indies 4 2 2 0 4 -0.313Pakistan 4 2 2 0 4 -0.385Ireland 3 2 1 0 4 -1.137Zimbabwe 4 1 3 0 2 -0.723UAE 4 0 4 0 0 -1.691

PAK v UAEPAKISTAN R BJamshed c Khurram b Guruge 4 12Shehzad run out (Shaiman/Patil) 93 105Haris c Shaiman b Naveed 70 83Maqsood c Rohan b Guruge 45 31Misbah c Rohan b Guruge 65 49Akmal c Amjad b Guruge 19 13Afridi not out 21 7Riaz not out 6 1Extras: (lb 3, w 12, nb 1) 16Total: (6 wickets; 50 overs) 339

Fall of wickets1-10 (Jamshed), 2-170 (Haris), 3-176 (Shehzad), 4-251 (Maqsood), 5-312 (Akmal), 6-312 (Misbah)BowlingNaveed 10-0-50-1, Guruge 8-0-56-4, Javed 9-0-76-0, Tauqir 10-0-52-0, Khurram 3-0-21-0, Chandran 8-0-58-0, Rohan 2-0-23-0 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES R BAmjad b Rahat 14 30Berenger c Akmal b Sohail 2 13Chandran c Akmal b Sohail 0 11Khurram c Riaz b Maqsood 43 54Shaiman c Jamshed b Afridi 62 88Patil b Riaz 36 68Rohan c Shehzad b Afridi 0 2Javed c Sohail b Riaz 40 33Naveed not out 0 0Tauqir not out 0 1Extras: (lb 1, w 12) 13Total: (8 wickets; 50 overs) 210

Fall of wickets1-19 (Amjad), 2-19 (Berenger), 3-25 (Chandran), 4-108 (Khurram), 5-140 (Shaiman), 6-140 (Ro-han), 7-208 (Javed), 8-210 (Patil)BowlingIrfan 3-1-2-0, Sohail 9-2-54-2, Rahat 10-0-30-1, Riaz 10-1-54-2, Afridi 10-1-35-2, Maqsood 5-0-16-1, Haris 3-0-18-0Man of the Match: Ahmed Shehzad

Pakistan won by 129 runs

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HIGHEST WC TOTALSTEAMS TOTAL OPP VENUEAustralia 417/6 Afg Perth (2015)India 413/5 Bermuda PoS (2007)S Africa 411/4 Ireland Canberra (2015)S Africa 408/5 WI Sydney (2015)Sri Lanka 398/5 Kenya Kandy (1996)

BIGGEST WINNING MARGIN (RUNS)

Margin Teams Venue Year290 NZ v IRE Aberdeen 2008275 AUS v AFG (WC) Perth 2015272 SA v ZIM Benoni 2010258 SA v SL Paarl 2012257 IND v BER (WC) PoS 2007

HIGHEST WC INDIVIDUAL SCORES

PLAYERS SCORE OPPChris Gayle (WI) 215 (147) ZimGary Kirsten (SA) 188* (159) UAESaurav Ganguly (IND) 183 (158) SLViv Richards (WI) 181 (125) SLDavid Warner (AUS) 178 (133) Afg

AUS v AFGAUSTRALIA R BD. Warner c Nabi b Shapoor 178 133A. Finch c Nawroz b Dawlat 4 9S. Smith c Najib b Shapoor 95 98G. Maxwell c Nabi b Dawlat 88 39J. Faulkner b Hassan 7 6M. Marsh c Najib b Nawroz 8 9B. Haddin not out 20 9Extras: (b2, lb5, w7, nb3) 17Total: (for 6 wickets, 50 overs) 417

Fall of wickets1-14 (Finch), 2-274 (Warner), 3-339 (Smith), 4-382 (Faulkner), 5-390 (Maxwell), 6-417 (Marsh).BowlingDawlat 10-1-101-2 (2nb, 3w), Shapoor 10-0-89-2 (1nb, 2w), Hassan 10-0-70-1 (1w), Nabi 10-0-84-0 (1w), Samiullah 5-0-34-0, Javed 4-0-18-0, Nawroz 1-0-14-1AFGHANISTAN R BJaved Ahmadi c Clarke b Hazlewood 13 24Usman Ghani c Faulkner b Johnson 12 19Nawroz Mangal c Finch b Johnson 33 35Asghar Stanikzai c Smith b Johnson 4 10Samiullah Shenwari c Johnson b Clarke 17 31Mohammad Nabi c Clarke b Maxwell 2 10Najib Zadran b Starc 24 31Afsar Zazai c Haddin b Hazlewood 10 40Dawlat Zadran b Starc 0 4Hamid Hassan c Warner b Johnson 7 18Shapoor Zadran not out 0 4Extras (b4, lb5, w10, nb1) 20Total (all out, 37.3 overs) 142

Fall of wickets1-30 (Usman), 2-32 (Javed), 3-46 (Asghar), 4-94 (Samiullah), 5-94 (Nawroz), 6-103 (Nabi), 7-131 (Najib), 8-131 (Dawlat), 9-140 (Afsar), 10-142 (Hamid)BowlingStarc 6-0-18-2, Hazlewood 8-1-25-2 (3w), Johnson 7.3-0-22-4 (5w), Clarke 5-0-14-1, Marsh 3-0-25-0 (1w), Faulkner 4-0-8-0 (1nb, 1w), Maxwell 4-1-21-1

Australia won by 275 runsAustralia’s David Warner raises his bat after reaching his 100 during their 2015 Cricket World Cup Pool A match against Afghanistan in Perth yesterday AFP

No choice but to drop Watson, says Aussie selector Marshn AFP, Perth

Australia’s chairman of selectors Rod Marsh said Wednesday that Shane Watson’s poor form with the bat meant they had little choice but to drop the experi-enced all-rounder.

The 33-year-old, who averages 50.89 with the

bat in career World Cup matches, was axed from the side to face Afghanistan at the WACA and replaced by fellow all-rounder James Faulkner, returning from a side strain.

“(It) is a big decision but it’s one we thought we had to make because in Shane’s last 10 one-day games he’s got 220 runs at an average of 22 and unfortunately he’s been get-ting starts but he hasn’t been going on with it,” said Marsh.

“We had to � t James in and someone had to go. I’m not saying it was a choice between any players but just happened to be it was Shane’s time to go for this particular match.”

However, Marsh said it was far from the end of Watson’s ODI career.

“It doesn’t mean anything going forward except that he’s not in the XI at the moment,” he said. “If things change then there’s no rea-son he won’t be back in the XI.

“He’s a � ne, � ne player, he’s averaging 40 in one-day cricket and it was a tough deci-sion. He’s in the 15 still, that’s the thing, and hopefully he’ll � nd himself back in the team at some stage.

“If hard decisions have to be made we have to make them.” l

Record-breaking Australia rout Afghanistan by 275 runsn AFP, Perth

Australia hit the highest World Cup score in tournament history on Wednesday as they thrashed Afghanistan by a record 275 runs, a result which was also the greatest winning margin in tournament history.

The home team made 417-6 at the WACA led by opener David Warner’s 178-run blitz, his fourth one-day international century and his country’s highest individual World Cup score as the four-time champions went past the previous best of 413-5 made by India against Bermuda in 2007.

It was the third 400-plus total at this World Cup after South Africa twice went through the barrier -- 408-5 against the West Indies and 411-4 in the game with Ireland.

In reply, Afghanistan could manage just 142 from 37.3 overs, although Nawroz Man-gal, who top-scored with 33, gave their smat-tering of fans at the ground something to cheer about when he hit Mitchell Marsh for successive sixes.

Johnson did much of the damage to claim 4-22 from 7.3 overs.

Fellow left-armer Mitchell Starc continued his amazing vein of World Cup form with 2-18

and has 10 wickets in the World Cup at just 9.3 runs apiece.

Australia were sent in to bat by Afghan-istan captain Mohammad Nabi, a decision greeted by a chorus of cheers from the crowd,

and then tormented the minnows.There was a surprise at the toss, with ex-

perienced all-rounder Shane Watson dropped to allow James Faulkner to return after a side strain, but the onslaught that followed was extremely predictable.

The dashing Warner led the way and accel-erated markedly after reaching three � gures

from 92 balls.Dropped on 114, the left-hander seemed

set to compound Watson’s misery by pass-ing his Australian ODI record of 185 not out against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2011 only to sky a delivery to mid-on from the bowling of Shapoor Zadran (2-89).

He had faced 133 balls, hitting 19 fours and � ve sixes. Although Warner fell shy of the overall ODI individual record, he passed the previous mark for the highest innings by an Australian at the WACA, which previously be-longed to Damien Martyn for his 144 against Zimbabwe in 2001.

Warner and Steve Smith, who made 95, also set a new benchmark for an Australian partnership in ODI cricket with their 260-run second-wicket stand from 209 balls.

The pair passed the previous record of 252 set by Watson and Ricky Ponting against Eng-land in South Africa in 2009.

All-rounder Glenn Maxwell then chimed in with a quick� re 88 o� 39 balls, including seven sixes, before being well caught at mid-o� from the bowling of Dawlat Zadran (2-101) in the 48th over.

Australia face Sri Lanka at the SCG in their next match on Sunday.l

POOL ATEAMS M W L NR P NRRNew Zealand 4 4 0 0 8 +3.589Sri Lanka 4 3 1 0 6 +0.128Australia 4 2 1 1 5 +1.804Bangladesh 3 1 1 1 3 +0.130England 4 1 3 0 2 -1.201Afghanistan 4 1 3 0 2 -1.953Scotland 3 0 3 0 0 -1.735

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Muktis eye to break Jamal dominancen Shishir Hoque

The stage is all set for the Federation Cup grand � nale. Bangabandhu National Stadium will once again host Sheikh Jamal Dhanmon-di Club, the defending champions, who are con� dent of retaining their title, and Mukti-joddha SKC, who are desperate to undo last year’s result and lift the trophy come today evening.

The match kicks o� at 5:15pm and Jamal are clear favourites, but one shall also not rule out the Reds. The current Premier League champions, Jamal also won the King’s Cup in Bhutan earlier this year which clearly points to their strength. Meanwhile, 0-1, 0-2 and 3-4 defeats in the last three meetings between the sides will also not help the Muktis’ con-� dence.

However, Sheikh Jamal’s experienced coach Maruful Haque brushed away their “favourites” tag and said, “Stats never in� u-enced me. This is a new year, new season, new environment so we are only concentrat-ing on playing good football and becoming champions.”

“Muktijoddha came here beating Moham-medan and Abahani so they have the con� -dence and we also played against such clubs who played with high spirit and gave their best. But we are con� dent of retaining the ti-tle,” he added.

Captain Nasir Uddin, who scored the only goal in the last � nal and also played a key role in their road to the � nal this year, believes they “have a good understanding among the players in the team.” He said, “The con� dence and power we have, we can lift the title.”

Meanwhile, Muktijoddha coach Abu Yousuf is relying on the tactical side and said, “Muktijoddha are a tested team and they proved it by reaching the � nal. Although we couldn’t perform the way we wanted but there is many ways to create the di� erence

against Sheikh Jamal.”“We will try to beat them tactically. If the

players can perform on the � eld according to the plan and strategy then we will win the � nal,” said the former national coach and player.

His skipper Enamul Haque is oozing with con� dence as he said, “We defeated big clubs like Abahani and Mohammedan on our way to the � nal. If we continue the way we played in the tournament we will become champions.” l

Sk Jamal captain Nasir Uddin (L) and Muktijoddha skipper Enamul Haque pose with the Federation Cup at BFF House yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Razzak takes � ve on rainy dayn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Rain, bad light and wet out� elds marred ma-jority of the action on day three of the sixth round National Cricket League matches yes-terday. Dhaka division, Khulna and Baris-al held the upper hand in their resptective matches but overall situation hints they are all heading for draws.

Barisal v Rajshahi, BKSP2Only 63 overs were played on the day where Barisal extended their second innings lead to 326. Resuming on 59 for 2 they propelled to 338 for seven riding on three half centuries from Mosaddek Hossain (88), Fazle Rabbi (75) and Al Amin (67).

Metro v Khulna, BKSP3Mehrab Hossain Jr and Sharifullah’s e� ort to push Metro back in the game was unsuccess-ful as Khulna skipper Abdur Razzak bagged a � ve-for to bundle Metro out for 341. Mehrab and Sharif scored 81 and 57 runs respectively.

Later, Khulna faced four overs in their sec-ond innings to reach 26 without any casualty as they lead by 101 runs.

Chittagong v Sylhet, FatullahChittagong’s batting misery continued to make them su� er as they were placed at 157 for six, still trailing by 350 runs. Nazim Ud-din’s 48 were the highest among the port city cricketers while Ahmed Sadiqur scalped three wickets for Sylhet.

Dhaka division v Rangpur, SBNSDhaka pacers Shahadat Hossain and Md Sha-rif rattled Rangpur to bowl them out for 306 in the � rst innings. Rangpur resumed on 231 with half the batters remaining, but quick dis-missals cut short their promise of registering a big total. Wicketkeeper-batsman Dhiman Ghosh scored 81 followed by Ariful Haque’s 68 as Shahadat and Sharif bagged four wick-ets each.

Later, Dhaka posted 63 for two and extend-ed their lead to 92. l

BRIEF SCORE, DAY 2Barisal v RajshahiBarisal 235 allout & 338/7 in 79 oversMosaddek 88, Fazle 75, Al Amin 67*; Sanjamul 3/116, Muktar 2/28Rajshahi 247 allout

Barisal lead by 326 runsDhaka Metro v KhulnaKhulna 416 allout & 26/0 in 4 oversDhaka Metro 341 allout in 119 oversMehrab Jr 81, Sharifullah 57; Razzak 5/135

Khulna lead by 101 runsDhaka v RangpurDhaka 335 allout & 63/2 in 16.4 oversRangpur 306 allout in 97.3 oversDhiman 81, Ariful 68; Shahadat 4/86, Sharif 4/64

Dhaka lead by 92 runsChittagong v SylhetSylhet 507/8 decChittagong 157/6 in 64 oversNazim 48; Sadiqur 3/48

Chittagong trail by 350 runsDhaka paceman Mohammad Sharif bowls against Rangpur in the National Cricket League at SBNS in Mirpur yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

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BTV, Gazi TV, Maasranga TVStar Sports 1, 34:00AM ICC World Cup 2015Bangladesh v Scotland Ten Action1:45AM Coppa Italia 2014/15 SFs: Juventus v Fiorentina

DAY’S WATCH

Last-gasp Benteke gives Sherwood � rst winChristian Benteke scored a nerveless stop-page-time penalty as Aston Villa edged West Bromwich Albion 2-1 on Tuesday to earn new manager Tim Sherwood a precious � rst Premier League victory. The Belgian striker’s goal gave Villa their � rst league win since December 7, shooting the club three points clear of the relegation zone and ending a run of seven consecutive defeats. Sherwood, who succeeded the sacked Paul Lambert last month, celebrated jubilantly at the � nal whistle after what could prove a turning point in his bid to prevent Villa succumbing to a � rst relegation in 28 years. “We have conceded late against Stoke (in a 2-1 loss on February 21) and it is a real body blow, but to score one late is an excellent feeling and I thought it was thoroughly deserved,” Sherwood said.

–AFP

Guardiola dimisses Man City rumoursPep Guardiola said Tuesday he will only decide his Bayern Munich future at the end of the season and dismissed rumours of a move to Manchester City. Guardiola has been tipped as a possible candidate to replace City coach Manuel Pellegrini, but the Spaniard poured cold water on any speculation. “I have had no o� ers and I am not waiting for any,” he said in Tuesday’s press conference. “I’m very happy here, this is an outstanding club. “I want to ful� l my contract and do my job well, that is all I am thinking about at the moment. “I still have a year and a half left on my contract. We will sit together in the summer and then we’ll see how things go,” added the 44-year-old. Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummeigge has said he wants to extend with Guardiola as soon as possible. But the Spaniard is notorious for balking at long-term contracts with his current deal to expire in June 2016. Guardiola won four titles last season in his � rst year in charge and is on course to steer Bayern to a third straight Bundesliga title in May. Having won the Champions League title twice with previous club Barcelona, Guardiola is desperate to bring the title to Bavaria having lost in last season’s semi-� nals to eventual winners Real Madrid.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Afridi joins 8,000 ODI run clubn AFP, Napier

Swashbuckling Pakistani allrounder Sha-hid Afridi joined the 8,000 one-day run club during his 21 not out against the United Arab Emirates in the World Cup at Napier on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old became the fourth Pakistani

after Inzamam-ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Saeed Anwar to make 8,000 one-day runs and the 27th of all time. Afridi, who also took 2-35 in the 129-run win, needs � ve more wickets to complete 400 one-day wickets.

If he takes those � ve wickets, he will be-come the only allrounder to score more than 8,000 runs and take 400 wickets. l

Kohli faces media backlashn Reuters, Mumbai

Virat Kohli has delighted Indian fans with his exploits in the middle but reports of an ugly spat with a journalist at the World Cup will only enhance his reputation within the press corps of being volatile and tetchy.

As the team’s media manager moved quickly to limit the damage of an embarrass-ing encounter involving India’s test skipper, a contradictory view of events in Perth was emerging from the nation’s cricket journalists.

The incident took place at the Murdoch Oval, where India were training ahead of Friday’s Pool B match against the West Indies at the WACA.

After � nishing his net session, the 26-year-old batsman started swearing at an Indian national daily reporter over a story about the cricketer’s private life, according to reports from journalists covering the World Cup.

Kohli, currently India’s best batsman across all formats, later realised it was a case of mistaken identity and apologised to the target of his abuse through another journalist.

“There was a misunderstanding and no abusive language was used, Virat has spoken to the concerned gentlemen immediately and that ends the matter,” the team’s media manag-er R.N. Baba said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a column published in the Hindustan

Times, the journalist subjected to Kohli’s ti-rade said he was still in “shock”.

“Go and tell him that he is an international player and he should learn how to behave,” Jasvinder Sidhu told the intermediary to in-form Kohli after receiving the apology.

“How can he abuse and intimidate some-one? I would like to add that Kohli did not apologise to me directly.”

Kohli has often polarised opinion over his regular run-ins with opposition players and was � ned half of his match fee in 2012 for responding to barracking from the crowd by gesturing at them with his middle � nger dur-ing a Sydney test.l

Immobile double lifts Dortmund into quartersn AFP, Berlin

Borussia Dortmund eased to a 2-0 victory at third-division Dynamo Dresden on Tues-day to book their place in the German Cup quarter-� nals thank to Ciro Immobile’s sec-ond-half goals.

The Italy striker pounced on a mistake by Dresden captain Michael Hefele to give Dortmund a 50th-minute lead and lit up a dull third-round tie to put the 2012 cup win-ners into the last eight. Immobile then add-ed Dortmund’s second when he � red home a superb cross from Poland winger Jakub Blaszczykowski on 90 minutes.

“These are tough games, in which the op-ponents � ght until they fall, in a great atmos-phere,” said Immobile. “It was important for me to score and help the side try and get to the Berlin � nal.” Having failed to make his mark in the Bundesliga this season since join-ing from Turin, Immobile is turning into Dort-mund’s European and Cup king having netted four goals in six Champions League games with three in two Cup matches. l

Dortmund striker Marco Reus (C) lies on the pitch after being wounded during the German football Cup DFB Pokal round of 16 game against Dynamo Dresden in Dresden, eastern Germany, on Tuesday AFP

Player Country RunsS. Tendulkar India 18,426K. Sangakkara Sri Lanka 13,961R. Ponting Australia 13,704S. Jayasuriya Sri Lanka 13,430M. Jayawardene Sri Lanka 12,625Inzamam-ul Haq Pakistan 11,739J. Kallis South Africa 11,579S. Ganguly India 11,363R. Dravid India 10,889B. Lara West Indies 10,405Mohammad Yousuf Pakistan 9720T. Dilshan Sri Lanka 9620A. Gilchrist Australia 9619

MD Azharuddin India 9378A. de Silva Sri Lanka 9284C. Gayle West Indies 9139Saeed Anwar Pakistan 8824S. Chanderpaul West Indies 8778D. Haynes West Indies 8648M. Atapattu Sri Lanka 8529M. Waugh Australia 8500Y. Singh India 8329M. Dhoni India 8298V. Sehwag India 8273H. Gibbs South Africa 8094S. Fleming New Zealand 8037Shahid Afridi Pakistan 8019

EPLAston Villa 2-1 West BromAgbonlahor 22, Berahino 66Benteke 90-P

Hull 1-1 SunderlandN’Doye 15 Rodwell 77

Southampton 1-0 Crystal PalaceMane 83

DFB POKALLeverkusen 2-0 KaiserslauternCalhanoglu 102, Kiessling 114

VfR Aalen 0-2 Ho� enheim Polanski 16, Volland 56

Freiburg 2-1 CologneUjah 17, Darida 19 Deyverson 89

Dresden 0-2 Dortmund Immobile 50, 90

DOWNTIME30DT


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 10 represents P so � ll P every time the � gure 10 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropri-ate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Stopper (4)3 Destructive insect (4)7 Anger (3)8 Lift up (5)11 Dash (4)12 Sea nymph (5)13 Uneven as if gnawed away (5)15 Diplomacy (4)18 Transmitted (4)19 Niggard (5)20 Cast out (5)21 Main actor (4)23 School periods (5)24 Vast age (3)25 Specialised skills (4)26 Kill (4)

DOWN1 Money bags (6)2 Complete agreement (6)4 Lubricant (3)5 Catalepsy (6)6 Female bird (3)9 Sibling (6)10 Before (poet) (3)11 Tempt (6)14 Clergyman (6)16 Starry (6)17 Reliable (6)19 Encountered (3)21 Briny (3)22 Insect (3)

SUDOKU

SHOWTIME 31D


NEIL PATRICK HARRIS @ActuallyNPH I kinda like that this winter storm is called Thor. #avengers

SHRADDHA KA-POOR @ShraddhaKapoor What a birthday!!! Family,friends,-shoot & you guys!!! Night shoot done,time to crash. Thank you all SOOO much for all your love & wishes

HUGH JACKMAN @RealHughJackman Bumped into this guy whilst in Moscow. @jtimberlake #ChappieMovie

CELEBS ON SOCIAL

Dui Banglar Natyamela-2015 commences at Shilpakala

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

Nuna Afroz, actor and theatre director is con� rmed to come up with her two acting and a directorial venture in the upcoming Prangonemor theatre fest. She opens up to Dhaka Tribune about her upcoming staging, benchmark performance and a bit more.

What can you tell us about Tagore’s Shesher Kobita staging?As a widely read novel, Tagore’s Shesher Kobita is a di� cult context to give it the-atrical adaptation but I tried to do so. It’s the readers’ perception and imagination, who demand to stage the story in their own imaginative way. It raises more possi-

bility to slip away from their expectations. This play creates challenges for the

actors, as he or she has to play multiple characters who possess directly contrast-ed personalities.

What have you learned about yourself playing Labonyo?If you’re not skilful as an actor, you can � nd yourself at a certain point, which makes it di� cult to play the role. What I appreciate about Labonyo is you’re forced to measure the role’s temper. But I � nd it rather challenging to portray the other character, Ketoki, as she appears for a short period but leaves a lasting e� ect on the audience’s psyche.

Which of your performances has left a lasting mark on you?The Nishi role from “Swapnabaz.” Getting to do that part, I was � rst largely appre-ciated as a stage actor at home and India. It paid o� because I got a peek into what was possible to experience as an actor.

What’s been your most challenging role?Nandini from Roktokobori.

When did you know you wanted to be an actor?From the school days, I was so inclined to reciting and acting. Those days I got my � rst theatre role, Jamila in “Lalshalu.”

Who do you have an acting crush on?I would say Debshankar Haldar from Kol-kata, who is phenomenal to watch, and Bindiya Ghosh who mesmerises me when she plays. l

WHAT TO WATCHTELEVISION

STAR MOVIES 9:30pm The MummyCast:Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold VoslooAn American explorer � nds himself accidentally awakening a mummy when on an archaeological dig in the Sahara Desert.

WB 8:30pm The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Cast: Noel Appleby, Ali Astin, Sean Astin, David Aston, John Bach, Sean BeanJ R R Tolkien classic comes to an epic close in the � nal movie that traces Frodo’s and Sam’s e� orts to destroy the “one ring.”

Starting this week, theatre takes centre stage on Showtime. We put you up front close to where the stars are, and then take you behind the scenes to see how the magic happens. So kick back with your copy of our compact and let us put on a show for you

THEATRE THURSDAYS

n Showtime Desk

A week-long theatre festival ti-tled Dui Banglar Natyamela-2015: Robindranatya o Onyanya will commence at the Bangladesh Shil-pakala Academy from March 6 in the capital. Arranged by theatre troupe Prangonemor in-cooperation with Cultural A� airs Ministry and Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre, the festival is dedicated to famous TV and stage actor Khaled Khan.

The sixth edition of the festival features 12 stage productions in which four are from India. Pran-gonemor, the sole theatre troupe of the country which prefers to stage Rabindranath Tagore’s play since it’s emergence, introduces non-Tagore plays for the � rst time in their festival.

Debshankar Halder and Gautom Halder, renowned theatre actors and activist from Kolkata, are con� rmed to join the fest with their respective productions. l

Australian dancers challenge ‘body image’ issues in unapologetic theatre production

n Showtime Desk

An Australian dance production called Nothing to Lose premiered at the Sydney Festival in late January. This captivating show had Artistic Director Kate Champion collaborate with artist and fat activist Kelli Jean Drinkwater to celebrate the beauty and bounty of a fat dancing body.

Kate Champion stated, “I want to strip away all the judgment that people have around fat bodies.”

The dance production incorporated real life experiences that challenged norms surrounding people with larger bodies. This new work was a bold theatre production that completely abandoned stereotypes and changed the way people look at heavier bodies.

The Sydney Morning Herald gave it rave reviews saying, “A seamless production...Finally though, it is the performers' show. They own every move they make whether voluptuous and sensual or busting out with thrilling, demanding choreography. Champion and her team have given them an opportunity to shine in this provocative, unpredictable and inspiring new work.”

The production was the ultimate tribute and celebration of the movement of larger bodies that are unabashedly comfortable in their skin. The show is scheduled to continue through March at Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse Theare, Australia. l

Greenroom confessional:Nuna Afroz

BACK PAGE32DT


RMG EXPORTS BRAVE SUPPLY CHAIN CHAOS PAGE 15

GREENROOM CONFESSIONAL: NUNA AFROZ PAGE 31

TIGERS TO BANK ON SPINNERS PAGE 25

l A respiratory disease caused by a strain of the in� uenza type A virus known as H1N1, which � rst appeared in Mexico in 2009

l Originated in pigs, but is now a human disease spread by coughing and sneezing

l Symptoms similar to those produced by standard, seasonal � u – fever, cough, sore throat, body aches and chills

l Vulnerable groups include pregnant women, children under � ve, the over-65s and those with serious medical conditions

l The symptoms of swine � u are similar to most in� uenza infections like fever (100 F or greater), cough, nasal secretions, fatigue, and headache, with fatigue being reported in most infected individuals.

l Some patients may also get a sore throat, rash, body aches, headaches, chills, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

l Stay home if having any � u-like symptoms

l Wash hands frequently

l Carry hand sanitiser

l Avoid touching public handles and pens

l Be cautious while travelling by air

l Clean vegetables and fruits as best as possible

l Avoid crowds

l Avoid using utensils used by others without sanitising them well

l Get to a doctor immediately if symptoms develop

What is swine flu?

Symptoms

Precautions

Bangladeshi mobile VoIP solutions provider, REVE Systems, upholds the potential of Bangladesh as a software exporting country to the clients at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nasim: No need to worry about swine � un Abid Azad

Health and Family Welfare Minister Moham-mad Nasim has urged the people of the coun-try not to worry about swine � u.

“People should not be worried as we are su� ciently equipped for swine � u treatment in case anyone is detected with the virus in the country,” he said yesterday at the inaugu-ration of a regional consultation programme organised by International Organisation for Migration in the capital.

“Several teams are working at every interna-tional port in the country to detect anyone car-rying the virus,” he said. “We have already taken every possible and necessary steps.”

However, he asked people to remain cau-tious about the disease.

Eight people died and nearly 1,500 were in-fected with H1N1 in Bangladesh in 2009. This year, no one has been reported to be infected yet.

India’s swine � u outbreak has killed more than 875 people nationwide since it took hold in mid-December, BBC reports. l

REVE Systems looks to brand Bangladesh as a software-exportern Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Bangladeshi mobile VoIP solutions provid-er REVE Systems has established a � agship service for branding Bangladesh as a soft-ware-exporting country across the world.

REVE is the only VoIP solutions provider from the entire South Asia to be attending this year’s mobile world congress in Barcelona.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has come across as a negative telecom term in Bangladesh because of its widespread illegal use. But REVE brought it up for Bangladeshi users because of the service’s popularity around the globe.

Although founded in Bangladesh, the company has over the years sidelined some high-pro� le operators from the race.

“We serve global customers. Operators are very happy with our solutions because they can make the cheapest of o� ers to their customers,” said Rezaul Hassan, founder and group CEO of REVE Systerms.

In this year’s congress, REVE has a stall in hall 5. The Dhaka Tribune reporter got hold of Rezaul in front of that stall.

“Our company is based in Singapore, but most of our manpower are from Bangladesh,” said Rezaul.

In Bangladesh, REVE has a development centre with 350 sta� . Another 150 people work in a similar development centre in India.

“I have always wanted to have all of our development centres in Bangladesh. But be-cause VoIP and similar services are banned in Bangladesh, testing our software becomes a problem,” Rezaul said.

Headquartered in Singapore, the company has o� ces in Hong Kong, UK, USA and a few other important places. It has been attending the mobile world congress since 2009.

“I am not complaining but it would have been really good for us if we could have our head-quarters in Dhaka. It would have really helped if people knew that this is a Bangladeshi com-pany,” Rezaul said.

REVE’s free VoIP solutions app is available on Apple’s App Store for those who want to

make calls from iPhone, iPad or iPod.According to REVE Systems, the global

VoIP industry is expected to get a signi� cant share of the estimated $1bn voice market by 2015 and the Bangladeshi IT outsourcing in-dustry is more than ready to grab this oppor-tunity.

They believe that if the regulatory au-thorities in Bangladesh can ensure a busi-ness-friendly environment, the fact that VoIP is considered unethical will not hurt the bil-lion-dollar business opportunities.

Imran Ahmed, chairman of the parliamen-tary watchdog on telecom ministry, said: “It could be that Bangladesh is the only country where VoIP is a negative word. This is unfor-tunate; the local market has not been able to � ourish because of this.”

REVE has also developed smart services such as REVE Chat.

Other popular services include Softswitch and Billing, Carrier Grade Platform, Instant Messaging, Peer-to-Peer calls, mobile top-up and Bandwidth Optimisation and Tunnel-ling. A new security domain service will be launched in May.

Rezaul expects that other Bangladeshi companies will soon start attending the mo-bile world congress.

Some 230 service providers from 78 coun-tries have taken VoIP solutions from REVE Systems. l

According to REVE Systems, the global VoIP industry is expected to get a signi� cant share of the estimated $1bn voice market by 2015 and the Bangladeshi IT outsourcing industry is more than ready to grab this opportunity

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], Website: www.dhakatribune.com

05 March, 2015

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