Six yaba traders killed, 10 injured in a month n Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

Six top yaba traders were killed and an-other 10 received gunshot wounds over the span of a month in crackdowns ini-tiated after the State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan’s Cox’s Bazar visit, though three brothers of the Cox’s Ba-zar 4 lawmaker Abdur Rahman Bodi still remain at large.

The three – Md Abdul Shukkur, Moulavi Mujibur Rahman and Abdul Amin – have their names listed in the Home Ministry as top yaba traders.

Sources say the 2012 list of the Home Ministry contained names of 554 yaba traders while more than 1,200 names appeared on a recent list prepared by the BGB, RAB, police, di� erent intel-ligence agencies and the Narcotics Control Department. Apart from Bo-di’s three brothers, his brother-in-law Akhter Kamal, Shahed Kamal, uncle Haider Ali, cousin Kamrul Islam Ra-sel, nephew Nipu and several other

relatives have also been listed as yaba traders.

The list has identi� ed some of the accomplices of the lawmaker, includ-ing Md Rashed, son of former Awami League lawmaker Professor Md Ali; Nur Hossain, Teknaf upazila Jubo League general secretary and former upazila chairman; Zafar Ahmed, an Awami League leader and former chair-man of Teknaf Sadar union; Ali Ahmed, Cox’s Bazar district Chhatra League president; Khurshida Karim and Abu Bakkar.

Most yaba pills produced in 37 fac-tories, located in Mongdu, Myanmar, are being marketed in Bangladesh, ac-cording to sources. For a very long peri-od, the pills have been being smuggled into Bangladesh through more than 50 channels in Cox’s Bazar. Apart from heightening patrol in the areas, BGB authorities have also taken initiatives to set up new camps.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Eternal winter in Narayanganjn Mohammad Jamil Khan with our

Narayanganj correspondent

In recent months, the city of Narayan-ganj – a key business hub – has seen murders, abductions and forced disap-pearances spike signi� cantly, for which scared residents blamed the adminis-tration’s insincerity.

In the last three months alone, at least 45 dead bodies have been recov-ered from various points in the city – that has been turned into a corporation a couple of years ago – and its outskirts.

When counted from March 2013, the number of reported incidents of

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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BusinessB1 An idea was � oated in a Dhaka seminar to create a fund for � nancing factory upgrading and general improvement in working standards in Bangladesh.

News3 Thailand has claimed that around 400 suspected Bang-ladeshis are now in di� erent detention centres there.

3 Return of chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal to o� ce after a 15-day leave yes-terday created much hype within his team on whether his joining was authorised or not.

5 The Rapid Action Battalion wants to take possession of seven acres of land in Kamrangir Char area to set up its o� ce, but a task force has suggested that the government allot only 2.41 acres of land to the elite force.

Nation6 The prevailing drought-like con-ditions have reduced soil mois-ture, a� ecting the growth of tea plants, leaving di� erent gardens in Panchagarh all dried up.

World9 Narendra Modi looked trium-phant after voting on Wednesday in the eighth stage of the world’s largest election, but the man tipped to be the next prime min-ister is still not assured of winning an outright majority.

Op-Ed11 The historic May Day is being observed today throughout the country and elsewhere in the world to show respect to workers who shed their blood for the establishment of the rights of the working class in 1886.

INSIDE

THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

8 | IRAQ VOTES DESPITE VIOLENCE7 | THE LAW SAYS IT ALL 4 | DREAMS OF JOBS TURN INTO NIGHTMARE 13 | BCB: TURNING LEAKS INTO RIVERS

Thursday, May 1, is a national and news-paper holiday on the occasion of May Day. Therefore, the Dhaka Tribune will not be published tomorrow. However, our online version will keep updating.

HOLIDAY NOTICEKhaleda renews call for talksn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has re-newed her call for holding fresh elec-tions under a neutral administration, saying the door for talks with the gov-ernment is still open.

“The door for discussion is still open. I am urging for talks to hold free, fair and participatory elections under a non-partisan government. If they (the government) think they are popular, they should take the chance to prove their popularity. There is no pleasure in winning a voter-less election,” Khale-da said at a function in the capital,yesterday.

Expressing concerns over recent ex-

tra-judicial killings and abductions, the former prime minister said such crimes would stop only if a people’s govern-ment was established in the country.

The BNP chief said the “illegitimate government” led by the Awami League cannot stop the killings and abductions as members of the ruling party and its associates are perpetrating the crimes.

Khaleda was addressing an event to mark the 34th founding anniversary of the Jatiya Ganatantrik Party (Jagpa), a member of the BNP-led former oppo-sition alliance. Jagpa President Sha� ul Alam Prodhan chaired the function.

Claiming that the government did not have any control over its leaders

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Jr minister: Abduction rate has gone downn Rabiul Islam

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yester-day summoned the state minister for home, hours after he had claimed that the abduction rate in the country had “gone down.”

She also directed the junior minister to take necessary measures for arrest-ing those involved in the abduction and murder of six people in Narayanganj.

Following a meeting with the pre-mier at her state residence Ganabhaban at 9pm yesterday, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters that the prime minister was strict regarding the issue.

“Those involved in the abduction and killings will be hunted down,” he said, assuring that results would be vis-ible soon.

Earlier in the day, the junior min-ister had termed the recent abduc-tion spree an “alarming incident,” but claimed that the current abduction rate has gone down when compared to pre-vious years.

Speaking at a press conference at the ministry, he said: “Although we are considering the recent abduction spree as an alarming incident, we have found that the current abduction rate has de-

creased since previous times.”Referring to the “success” of the law

enforcers regarding the Milky murder case, Kamal said: “The big cities in-cluding Dhaka will be brought under security measures such as CCTV cam-eras, which will soon be placed at im-portant points to ensure security and to trace crimes like abduction.

“Special check posts have already been set up at both entry and exit points of the capital and also in other

cities. Moreover, any private or public vehicle � tted with black tinted glass will not be allowed to run in the capi-tal,” he added.

Meanwhile, the government has banned the use of tinted glass on mi-crobuses, in the wake of a recent series of abductions where kidnappers used microbuses with glasses tinted with dark window � lms.

The ban will be e� ective from May 10, according to an order issued by the Home Ministry. l

‘Jubo League man’ detained linked to JMB hijackingn Kailash Sarkar

A suspected member of banned mil-itant group Jama’at-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) yesterday blamed a leader of Mymensingh unit Jubo League for leading the safe passage of one of the three convicted JMB leaders who were hijacked from a prisons van in Trishal on February 23.

The accused, Ataur Rahman Kamal alias Juboraj, is the joint secretary of Bhaluka thana unit Jubo League, youth wing of the Awami League. His father is also a ruling party leader in Bhaluka.

The disclosure came at a press brief-ing at the RAB headquarters following the arrest of eight suspects in the last few days for their alleged involvement in the incident.

According to the elite force o� cials, six of them were arrested for their di-rect links with the hijacking incident and making safe route for one of the militants while the two others for help-ing them in their attempts to leave the country.

There were several other groups active on the spot to bring out the two PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Narayanganj city ward councillor Nazul’s wife Selina wails in front of his dead body, recovered from the Shitalakkhya River yesterday afternoon DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Mohammad Jamil Khan with our Narayanganj correspondent

Days of suspense surrounding the ab-duction of seven people, including a city corporation ward councillor, reached its climax yesterday afternoon as six of their bodies had been recov-ered from the Shitalakkhya River.

Narayanganj police said local people � rst spotted the body of ward coun-cillor Nazrul Islam in the river around 3pm at Bandar Upazila. Later, � ve other bodies were seen � oating in the river.

As news spread, hundreds of people thronged the banks of the river and the ambience took an elegiac turn with the wailings of the family members.

Police recovered the bodies from the river and kept them on the bank where Nazrul’s brother Abdus Salam and his wife Selina Islam Beauty identi� ed him. Lawyer Chandan Sarker’s body was identi� ed by his daughter Shejuty.

The remaining four were identi� ed as Nazrul’s chau� er Moniruzzaman Swa-pan and associates Liton and Tajul Islam, and Chandan’s chau� er Ibrahim. Naz-rul’s associate Jahangir is still missing.

Akhter Morshed, OC of Bandar police station, said the bodies would be handed over to the families after autopsy.

The hands and legs of all the de-ceased were tied up. The dead bodies were all attached with heavy bricks and cement sacks. They might have been killed somewhere else and dumped into the river at least 24 hours before they had been recovered, Morshed said.

Local policemen said the corpses were all in wretched conditions; some had severed � ngers, toes, limbs and even penis while one of them had a ripped-apart belly. They also said the victims might have gone through se-vere torture before dying.

Soon after news spread that Naz-rul’s body had been found in the river, his supporters took to the streets and blockaded the Dhaka-Chittagong High-way in protest. They laid bricks and PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Unnatural death of MP Nixon’s wifen Kailash Sarkar

The death of the 33-year-old wife of independent lawmaker Mujibar Rahman Chowdhury alias Nixon Chowdhury at a hospital in the capital on Tuesday night remains as something of an enigma.

The mystery deepened as con� ict-ing information began to pour in over the cause of the death of Muntarin Chowdhury, the wife of the lawmaker of constituency-4 in Faridpur.

Meanwhile, Nixon Chowdhury was also admitted to the United Hospital immediately after the death of his wife.

Khandaker Zahidur Rahman who claimed himself to be the personal as-sistant of Nixon Chowdhury said Mun-tarin did not commit suicide. She had slipped o� the building top.

He also said that Nixon Chowd-hury had been kept at the ICU after hefell sick.

Kawsar Hossain, the personal sec-retary of the lawmaker, however said Muntarin had fallen sick after a

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Supporters of ward councillor Nazrul set a � lling station ablaze on the Dhaka-Narayanganj Highway yesterday after news of recovery of his body spread DHAKA TRIBUNE

Abduction ordeal unwindsBodies of six missing men from Narayanganj found in Shitalakkhya River

PM directed the junior minister to take steps for arresting the abductors

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

15 ex–Ctg port sta� s sent to jail n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court sent 15 former em-ployees of the Chittagong Port Author-ity (CPA) to jail yesterday in a case re-garding the misappropriation of fabrics from an export-bound container in the port yard.

Judge Farida Parvin of the Metropol-itan Magistrate Court passed the order when the accused surrendered before the court, according to court sources.

The accused are: former clerks Hu-mayun Kabir, Adhir Kanti Chakraborty, Pradip Kumar Mohajon, Mosta� zur Rahman and Shyamol Kumar Bhow-mik, former junior clerk Md Atikur Rah-man, former assistant tra� c inspector Saleh Jahur, former security guards Sir-ajul Haq Molla, Ali Azam Chowdhury, Monir Ahmed, Kamaluddin Chowd-hury, Nazrul Islam and Sagir Ahmed, and former assistant sub-inspectors

Harun Chowdhury and Mizanur Rah-man.

Advocate Mahmudul Haque Mahmud, counsel for the Anti-Cor-ruption Commission, told the Dhaka Tribune that the 15 accused were on bail from the High Court and they sur-rendered before the Metropolitan Mag-istrate Court after their bail period end-ed, asking for a bail extension.

“The court rejected their petition and sent them to jail,” he said.

ACC Deputy Assistant Director Sira-jul Haq � led a case with the Port police station accusing 17 former employees on February 27, 2004 which is still un-der investigation, Mahmud said.

The accused, allegedly collaborat-ing with one other person, had stolen 90 bundles of fabrics from a container for export, kept in Yard No 1 of the port from February 1, 2000 to April 12, 2000, said the ACC counsel. l

Body to create posts, � ll vacancies in bureaucracy n Mohosinul Karim

Following a recent government order, the cabinet division has taken several initiatives to address the personnel cri-sis in the civil ad ministration.

Last month, the cabinet asked min-isters and senior government o� cials to prepare lists of vacant posts, recom-mend new posts after reviewing the administration’s needs and � ll up all posts by recruiting new public serv-ants.

The cabinet division yesterday is-sued a gazette noti� cation on forming a high-level committee, led by the Cab-inet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, to expedite the creation of new posts and � ll up the vacancies.

Nurul Karim, additional secretary of the cabinet division, said the commit-tee was instructed to resolve the crisis regarding appointments to the vacant posts at di� erent government o� ces.

It was also authorised to take the initiative to amend existing laws, rules and policies.

Other members of the committee include senior secretaries to the PM’s o� ce and the public administration ministry, as well as education, health and parliamentary a� airs division sec-retaries.

After a cabinet meeting on April 21, Musharraf told reporters that the cabi-net division will take necessary steps to comply with the cabinet’s decision and the prime minister’s order.

He also said a high-level committee will be formed to execute the deci-sions. l

Telecom specialists demand coordinated ‘digital policy’ n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The country’s 16-year-old outdated tel-ecom policy should be revised in a co-ordinated manner to include telecom, ICT and transmission systems as well as re-� xing its goals, said telecom and ICT specialists yesterday.

Speaking at a roundtable on “Revi-sion of Telecom Policy,” organised by the Telecom Reporters’ Network Bang-

ladesh in a city hotel, they added that the formulation of a digital policy was needed to bring all digital systems un-der a single umbrella.

Telecommunications Minister Ab-dul Latif Siddique, also the chief guest of the programme, hinted that the gov-ernment was going to revise some old policies.

“The telecom policy will be revised… You [BTRC and stakeholders]

take initiatives and prepare a precise proposal after holding discussions on it. If you can convince me, I will go to the prime minister regarding the issue,” said Siddique. He also admitted that the ICT policy was being reformed.

The telecom policy of the country was formulated in 1998 and was now unable to address many issues, speakers at the programme said.

Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), said a complete telecom policy was needed as soon as possible, as “local or foreign investors want to invest here after seeing the policy.”

The BTRC chairman also said the policy should target covering the next 15 to 20 years, with both achievable long-term and midterm goals. l

Police attackedn Our Correspondent, Comilla

Criminals attacked police personnel in the Shashongacha area of the city yes-terday to help release a prisoner from custody. According to sources, the po-lice went to the area in the morning to arrest Kaosar, an accused involved in 10 cases.

Kaosar’s cohorts attacked the police personnel when they were going back with Kaosar in custody. l

‘Jubo League man’ detained PAGE 1 COLUMN 6other militants and ferry them to safer places, said RAB.

The six detained are Kamal Hossain alias Sabuj, Sohel Rana, 28, Ilias Uddin, 34, and Morshed Alam, 22, of Panch-gaon under Bhaluka upazila; Yusuf Ali alias Sohagh, 20, of Panibanda village; and Abu Bakar Siddique, 27, of Morchi village under the same upazila.

Anwar Hossain, 40, of Tentulia vil-lage under Naogaon sadar upazila, and Bachhar Uddin, 20, of Bonkuwa village under Bhaluka upazila, were detained for helping the six other persons.

Of the detainees, Sabuj and Sid-dique – teachers at a coaching centre in Bhaluka – were earlier claimed to have been abducted by the law enforc-ers. RAB yesterday con� rmed that they were detained by the elite crime bust-ers for their links to the hijacking.

Sabuj, who is the general secretary of a ward unit of Jubo League in Panchgaon union, owns a coaching centre named “Jagoron Tutorial Home” at Bhaluka.

However, Wing Commander ATM

Habibur Rahman, director of RAB’s Le-gal and Media Wing, ruled out the claims Sabuj had made at the press bringing.

“All the eight detainees are mili-tants. Whenever any criminal is arrest-ed, he or she opts for political shelter as a technique,” he said.

Police at di� erent times arrested at least 11 persons in connection with the incident. JMB Majlish-e-Shura mem-bers Rakib, Salauddin alias Salehin and Zahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan had been hijacked from a prison van while they had been taken to a Mymensingh court from Gazipur jail. Rakib had been arrested a day after the incident and was killed in a shootout by the police.

The hijackers also killed one of the policemen escorting the van. Of the three, Salauddin and Rakib were death row convicts while Boma Mizan a lifer.

At the press brie� ng, Sabuj said: “The hijacking of Hafez Mahmud alias Rakib Hassan was carried out under the directives and leadership of Ataur Rah-man Kamal alias Juboraj.”

Talking to journalists in Mymensin-

gh and locals in Bhaluka, it was learnt that Kamal’s father Mujibor Rahman is a vice-president of the upazila unit Awami League. Mujibor is a former vice-chair-man of Bhaluka Upazila Parishad.

Sabuj said Kamal had informed them about the plan and each of them were giv-en Tk20,000 for the purpose. He claimed that six persons had taken part in the op-eration while Kamal was present near the crime scene on a black microbus.

“We helped Rakib Hassan to reach Fulbaria from Trishal and then he chose his own way,” he added.

Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rahman claimed that separate groups had taken part in the hijacking and each was tasked with di� erent duties. They did not know each other. “The hijacking of the JMB leader was a long-term plan. The group led by Sabuj was tasked with the safe escaping of Rakib Hasan only.”

Habibur said they were trying to identify members of the other groups.

Asked about action against Kamal, the o� cial said they had started inves-tigating into the allegation. l

Eternal winter in Narayanganj PAGE 1 COLUMN 4murder and abduction stands at a stag-gering 119, police said.

Although police claimed to have made good progress in probing some of these incidents, local residents said absolutely nothing had been unearned about the 45 dead bodies found this year; neither had law enforcers succeed-ed in rescuing any of the abducted.

The most cases of abductions have been reported from the Fatullah, Shid-dhirganj, Rupganj, Sonargaon and Arai-hazar areas in the city. Sources in the local police said most of these disappearances were results of land disputes, collision of � nancial interests, personal and political con� icts and extramarital a� airs.

The residents of the city, who have until now been passively experiencing the criminal activities, � nally took to the streets to express their anger after the dead bodies of six people, including local ward councillor Nazrul Islam, were found in a canal in the city yesterday. Furious protesters blockaded an impor-tant city road, vandalised buses and set � re to several petrol pumps, yesterday.

The six people were allegedly ab-ducted from the city on Sunday and police reportedly had no clue regarding their whereabouts until their bodies had been found.

Not all cases of alleged abduction, murder and forced disappearance get equal focus. The recent abduction of AB Siddique, husband of environmental lawyer Syeda Rizwana Hassan, fetched a lot of media focus.

Two weeks ago, Siddique, who was in-volved with the garments-making busi-ness in Narayanganj, was dramatically abducted from Fatullah in broad daylight and released a few days later in Dhaka.

He said he did not have any idea why he was abducted; neither did police have any idea about the identity of the abductors.

On March 8 last year, teenager Tanvir Ahmed Twoki’s dead body was found in the Sitalakkhya River, adjacent to the city. He was the son of one of the organ-isers of the local Gonojagoron Moncho. Not much progress has been made in the probe of that death either.

Ra� ur Rabbi, convener of the Twoki

Moncho – formed to protest the un-solved murder mystery – blamed the lo-cal administration and the government for the spike in criminal activities in the city.

“None gets punished for their crime. This is encouraging the criminals to commit further misdeeds,” he said.

Three months ago, Awami League leader Kamal from the Sonargaon area disappeared. Law enforces are yet to trace anything about his disappearance.

In January, police recovered the body of 14-year-old schoolboy Rakibul Islam Imon, packed inside a sack, from a pond in the city 35 days after he had been ab-ducted.

On the 21st of the same month, schoolchildren Jahidul Islam and Sakin Alam were allegedly abducted from the Kachpur area of Sonargaon. Five days later, police recovered their dead bodies from inside a sack at the Sadipur area of Vargaon Bheribadh.

On February 1, police recovered the dead body of schoolchild Nayem Mia, 14, from the Bhingrab area of Rupganj of the city. On April 4, the body of univer-

sity teacher Rajib Ahmed was recovered from the Rupganj area.

The 8km stretch of land beside the road linking the Dhaka-Narayanganj Highway and Rupganj was a safe place for dumping dead bodies, sources said.

Refuting the allegations, Shahidul Islam, an additional police super of Narayanganj, said police had uncovered the mystery surrounding most of the criminal cases that took place last year and claimed to have arrested a number of criminals.

He however did not make any clear comment when asked about the mur-ders and abductions that took place in the last three months.

Shahidul also told the Dhaka Tribune that: “Around seven to eight lakh people work in this small city. It is very di� cult to know the identities of these people. Moreover, it gets even more di� cult to track down crimes when factory work-ers and day labourers get into con� icts centring extra-marital a� airs.”

He said local police had strengthened vigilance and that the situation was now under control. l

Unnatural death of MP Nixon’s wife PAGE 1 COLUMN 1cardiac arrest before she was rushed to the hospital.

Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been kept at the mortuary of the United Hospital where she died, said Khandaker Lutfu lKabir, deputy commis-sioner of the Gulshan Division of Police.

The hospital sources said Muntarin Chowdhury was declared dead around 9:50pm Tuesday by the doctors of the United Hospital immediately after she was rushed to the hospital from her husband’s Gulshan residence around 9:30pm.

Sabbir Hossain, a duty o� cer at the administration branch of the United Hospital, said Muntarin died after her admission to the hospital but the cause of the death could not be known.

The family members of lawmaker Nixon Chowdhury and his personal sta� claimed that Muntarin had slipped o� the building during the storm on Tues-day night and then she was rushed to the hospital where the doctors declared her death.

But a source close to the family of the lawmaker said Muntarin jumped from the top of the � ve-storey building after the couple had a quarrel.

On information of the death, a num-ber of acquaintances of Nixon thronged the hospital and the residence of the law-maker.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, many of them said they heard that Muntarin died of a cardiac arrest.

But the hospital authorities are yet to make any formal declaration over the

cause of the death of the wife of the law-maker. But some of the o� cials of the hospital said the cause of the death could be known after the autopsy is done.

They said the decision on the autopsy depends on the opinions of the parents and family members of the deceased.

DC Khandaker Lutful Kabir of Gul-shan Division told the Dhaka Tribune: “The body of the deceased has been kept at the mortuary for the arrival of her parents and other family members from abroad. On the basis of their opinions the autopsy would be conducted.”

“So far we have been informed that the family members of the deceased are scheduled to arrive in Dhaka tomorrow (today),” the DC said. He said nobody had lodged any case over the death of the wife of the lawmaker.

Inspector Ra� qul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of the Gulshan police station, said they had information about the death of the wife of lawmaker Nixon Chowdhury but they could not say for sure if she killed herself or she was pushed o� the building top.

Nixon and Muntarin got married 18 years ago when Muntarin was a student of class VIII. Muntarin left behind a nine-year-old daughter who is a class-V stu-dent.

Nixon, who comes from Madaripur district, is brother of ruling party law-maker Nur-e-Alam Chowdhury alias Liton Chowdhury.

Nixon was elected as a lawmaker from Faridpur as an independent candi-date defeating Awami League presidium member Kazi Zafrullah. l

Khaleda renews call for talks PAGE 1 COLUMN 3and activists, including ministers and MPs, Khaleda said killings and abduc-tions are now a common phenomenon.

“Huge corruption has been taking place in the administration. Killings and abductions will stop only when a people’s government is established in the country,” she said.

Branding the Anti-Corruption Com-mission as blind, Khaleda said: “It only sees the opposition party. It takes ac-tion against those who raise their voice against the government. The govern-ment even controls the courts.”

The former prime minister said there is no e� ective opposition party in parliament now, and nothing useful takes place in the House.

“The government also does not have control over the so-called oppo-sition party,” the BNP chief said, refer-ring to the Jatiya Party.

“The so-called opposition party is part of the illegal government,” she said, adding, “Stop the drama and take immediate steps for talks to hold an in-

clusive election under a non-partisan interim government.”

Khaleda said the present govern-ment was “illegitimate” as it was not elected through people’s votes.

“I do not know how independent this country is. People are being killed at the border every day, but the govern-ment does not have the courage to pro-test…. This government is a slave gov-ernment. They cannot run the country because a slave government cannot protest against anyone,” she said.

The BNP chief said not only the people of Bangladesh, but foreign countries have also stressed on early elections to restore democracy in the country.

Regarding the recent escape of the JMB militants from a prison van, Khaleda claimed that a member of the Jubo League, the ruling party’s youth front, was behind the incident.

“It proves that Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League patronise militancy. How will the country be safe in their hands?” she questioned. l

Six yaba traders PAGE 1 COLUMN 3“We have 23 camps in border areas and 15 new camps are being set up. Con-struction is proceeding fast as we have directives from the top administration to show zero tolerance for drugs,” Cox’s Bazar BGB Sector Commander Colonel Khandaker Farid Hasan told reporters.

Surveillance along the 54km border with Myanmar has been beefed up and yaba traders will be brought to book, said Lt Col Md Abujar Al Jahid, Com-mander of Teknaf 42 BGB.

“The drive against drugs has been given the highest priority in accord-ance with the list from the Home Min-istry. In addition to conducting drives, district police are being rearranged,” Additional Police Super of Cox’s Bazar Tofael Ahmed said.

Of the six traders killed in anti-yaba drives last month, Nur Mohammad was killed in a gun� ght with RAB on March 20; Amin, Md Kalu and Jahir Ahmed in a gun-� ght with Coast Guard on April 25; and Jahed Hossain Jaku and Farid Alam in a gun� ght with RAB and BGB on April 27. l

Abduction ordeal unwinds PAGE 1 COLUMN 1drums on the highway and set a � lling station ablaze in the Mouchak area, halting tra� c for hours.

A group of lawyers from Narayanganj observed work abstention for the third consecutive day, protesting the abduction and death of Chandan Sarker.

On Sunday, councillor Nazrul, his chau� er and three associates, and senior lawyer Chandan Sarker and his chau� er Ibrahim were abducted. Soon after, authorities withdrew Narayanganj deputy commissioner, police super, commander of local RAB and two OCs.

According to sources, councillor Nazrul, known as a supporter of the ruling Awami League, had 18 cases � led against him; at least 10 of those were murder cases. Even Nazrul’s chau� er Swapan and associate Tajul

have several cases against them for various criminal o� ences.

However, senior lawyer Chandan Sarker is known as a well-mannered man with a clean image. When Naz-rul was being abducted, Chandan’s car was reportedly also coming out of the court premises. The abductors might have thought that he saw the ab-duction, Chandan’s family members said.

Sajjadur Rahman, assistant police su-per of Narayanganj, told the Dhaka Trib-une that he could not disclose anything for the sake of the ongoing investigation.

The situation in the city had been tensed with additional law enforcers deployed at various points in the city to avert any further untoward incident.

Protesters were still occupying the Dhaka-Narayanganj Highway as of � l-ing of this report last night. l

'Telecom sector customer services have improved'n Aminur Rahman Rasel

Speakers at a workshop yesterday said the customer relationship manage-ment practices have comparatively improved at telecom sector than power sector in Bangladesh.

LIRNEasia, a Sri Lanka-based re-search organisation, in collaboration with pi Strategy Consulting, a Dha-ka-based management consulting � rm specialising on strategy and innova-tion, examined the CRM practices of power and telecom sectors in Bangla-desh, India and Sri Lanka.

LIRNEasia and pi Strategy Consult-ing jointly organised the workshop at a city hotel.

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman AR Khan who attended the programme as the chief guest said, “If such kind of practices keeps going, all sectors will develop.”

He observed that power sector had im-proved the customer service than earli-er and increased the energy e� ciency while its system loss also reduced.

“There are pockets of innovative experimentation taking place at power sector. These needs should be objec-tively evaluated and further re� ned before deploying them on large scale,” said Pial Islam, managing partner of pi Strategy Consulting.

“Not doing so might lead us to settling with an ‘almost great’ set of products, and losing an opportunity to create and adopt ‘really great’ set of products,” he said.

Helani Galpaya, CEO of LIRNEasia, emphasised on the depth of the study. She said, “The study was done through surveys on low income MEs (India - 1279, Bangladesh – 915, Sri Lanka - 986) and detailed interviews with service providers.” l

Two buses are placed on the middle of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway as part of a road blockade programme by Narayanganj residents yesterday, protesting the recent abduction of seven people MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

Drama surfaces as tribunal’s chief prosecutor returns n Udisa Islam

Chief prosecutor of the Internation-al Crimes Tribunal Golam Arif Tipoo returned to o� ce after a 15-day leave yesterday, but it created much hype within the prosecution team on wheth-er his joining was authorised or not.

On April 20, the Law Ministry issued a gazette noti� cation which mentioned that prosecutor Syed Haider Ali would act as the chief prosecutor of in the ab-sence of Golam Arif Tipoo who was al-lowed a one month leave on April 13 for medical treatment in Singapore.

Tipoo yesterday went to the prose-cution o� ce around 11am and stayed there until noon. He also submitted his joining letter, con� rmed Rheshikesh Saha, a senior prosecutor. But he could

not say anything about the next pro-ceedings or who to forward the letter to in the ministry.

An insider said when the chief pros-ecutor had greeted all the prosecutors present in the room, no one responded.

Neither Tipoo nor the acting chief prosecutor could be reached for com-ments.

A junior prosecutor seeking ano-nymity said since Tipoo was the se-nior-most prosecutor, he must join the ministry.

However, a senior government o� -cial disagreed with him, saying that if anyone went on leave or joined o� ce after leave, he or she must inform the ministry concerned. “There is no rea-son to go to the ministry,” he said ask-ing not to be named.

According to the gazette signed by Mohammad Shahin Uddin, senior deputy secretary of the Law Ministry, the government granted Tipoo a one-month leave but after 17 days, her re-turned and wished to join work.

Family sources said Tipoo was feel-ing better after treatment and so he re-turned home early.

When contacted, prosecutor Sayedul Huq said: “I do not know whether he is back or not. However, as the ministry issued a gazette over the acting chief prosecutor, it has to dis-solve the order with a new one.”

Mokhlesur Rahman, another senior prosecutor, said: “There is no barrier for him to come to o� ce. But it is the matter of the ministry to decide when and how he can take over his duties.” l

HC orders action against petitioner, lawyer for forgery n Tribune Report

The High Court ordered legal action against a former sta� of Crescent Jute Mills of Khalishpur in Khulna yesterday, for submitting fake documents regard-ing his age in order to retain his job.

It asked the Supreme Court Registrar O� ce to � le a case against Abul Hos-sain, and ordered the Bar Council to take action against AZM Farid, the law-yer for the petitioner, for professional misconduct.

While passing the order, the bench of Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan told Farid not to de-� le the dignity of the High Court.

The court directed the � ling of the case against Abul under sections 195 and 476 of the penal code for which the maximum punishment is life-term imprisonment while the minimum sen-tence is seven years in jail.

The bench also ordered Dhaka’s chief metropolitan magistrate to issue an arrest warrant against Abul after the � ling of the case.

Abul moved to the High Court chal-lenging a decision of the jute mills which asked sta� members born in 1952 to retire on December 31, 2012.

However, the petitioner submitted a certi� cate to the court which stated that he was born in 1962. Following the peti-tion, the High Court, on February 3 last

year, issued a rule asking why sending Abul to retirement should not held illegal.

In the certi� cate, it was also stated that in 1969 Abul was promoted to class IX from class VII at the age of seven for which the bench, led by Justice Moinul, doubted the credibility of the docu-ment. The court then ordered Farid to produce the petitioner before it, but he failed to obey the order three consecu-tive times.

When the lawyer apologised yester-day, the court observed: “Lawyers think deeply before submitting counterfeit documents to a magistrate court. But they are not afraid of the High Court and submit bundles of documents and obtain rules.”

Earlier on Monday, another High Court bench ordered the Supreme Court registrar to take legal action after inves-tigating the two sons of accused war criminal Mir Kashem Ali, who � led a petition seeking discharge from a fraud case by concealing information.

The two accused are Mohammad Bin Kashem alias Salman and Ahmed Bin Kashem. Salman is facing an arrest war-rant in the fraud case � led for misap-propriating Tk1.5 crore. But the petition said he had been let out on bail.

Concealing information about the warrant, lawyer Ahmed Bin Kashem � led a discharge petition with the High Court in favour of his brother. l

HC seeks explanation from JU PR director n Tribune Report

The High Court issued a rule seeking explanation yesterday as to why legal actions should not be taken against the Jahangirnagar University public re-lations director who issued a press re-lease regarding the conversion to Islam by a Hindu sta� and his family.

It also wanted to know why the press release issued on April 25 should not be declared illegal.

Considering a media report, the bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain, on its own volition, ordered the JU VC, regis-trar, Syndicate and public relations di-rector to respond to the rule by May 15.

The university authorities have re-portedly been under pressure follow-ing the incident. l

MAIMING OF LIMON

Hearing on case withdrawal deferred for seventh timen Our Correspondent, Barisal

Charges against Limon in a case lodged by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) after maiming him has not yet been with-drawn even after eight months of the home ministry order.

The hearing on the withdrawal of the case has so far been deferred for the seventh time yesterday.

The hearing was deferred to June 23, 2014 as Chief Judicial Magistrate of Jhalokati had been transferred in August 2013 and acting chief judicial magistrate Md Arifuzzaman had no jurisdiction to hear such appeal, explained advocate M Alam Khan Kalam, additional public prosecutor of Jhalokati.

Limon Hossain was a college stu-dent who used to work in a brick kiln to bear his educational expenses and allegedly maimed by RAB shooting in the leg after he was taken to a place ad-

jacent to his house at Jamaddarhat in Rajapur Upazila of Jhalokati on March 23, 2011.

Limon’s left leg was amputated from the thigh on March 27 at Dhaka National Institute for Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NI-TOR) Hospital.

The RAB after maiming Limon � led two cases – one under the arms act and the other for obstructing RAB person-nel from discharging their duty – with Rajapur police station accusing Limon and seven others of attempting to mur-der and injure RAB personnel.

Two separate charge sheets were framed against Limon on April 24, 2011 and July 1, 2012 under the juvenile crime prevention act.

As there was huge uproar from human rights activists and media the home ministry on July 9, 2013 or-dered to withdraw the charges brought against Limon by the RAB. l

Thailand claims to have detained 400 Bangladeshis Police identify 68 of 214 whose documents reached Foreign Ministryn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Thailand has claimed that around 400 suspected Bangladeshis are now in dif-ferent detention centres there.

“The Thai authorities have noti� ed Bangladesh Embassy that about 400 suspected Bangladeshis are now in their detention centres,” Foreign Ministry Secretary (Bilateral) Mustafa Kamal told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The Bangladesh Embassy imme-diately asked for consular access and interviewed many of them. “So far the embassy sent us identi� cation docu-ments of 214 and we are verifying it,” he said.

Another Foreign Ministry o� cial

who attended an inter-ministerial meeting yesterday told the Dhaka Tri-bune: “Police have so far identi� ed 68 of the 214 as Bangladeshis and hope-fully the whole process will complete by next week.”

About 200 of them had been arrest-ed at di� erent times since November and are now in di� erent immigration detention centres in Songkhla prov-ince.

The victims told the embassy of-� cials that they had been cheated by agents in both Bangladesh and Thai-land and that the Thai agents had even beaten them to extract money, Musta-fa Kamal said.

The Foreign Ministry had sent the documents to the Home Ministry for

veri� cation and after its clearance, the embassy would ask for the Thai authorities’ permission to take charge of the identi� ed Bangladeshis, Kamal said.

“We will bring back everyone ver-i� ed and con� rmed as Bangladeshis through proper authorities,” he said.

“We do not want such an issue to become an irritant in our relationship with any country,” he added.

Asked when the repatriation pro-cess could begin, he said it was di� cult to say. “Di� erent ministries and agen-cies are involved in the process and we also need fund for the repatriation,” he said.

According to the Rules of Business, repatriation was a subject of the For-

eign Ministry and it had already sought fund from the Finance Ministry for the repatriation, Kamal said, adding that the repatriation process could be expe-dited if the ministry had the fund.

Meanwhile, family members of seven victims had already submitted plane tickets to the foreign ministry, requesting the authorities for smooth repatriation of their relatives, the min-istry o� cial told the Dhaka Tribune af-ter the inter-ministerial meeting.

Requesting not to name, the o� cial said it did not take more than Tk25,000 to bring back a person from Thailand.

About 80 people were repatriated from Iran, one from Israel and about 10 from Lebanon in the past three months. l

PROCUREMENT OF EQUIPMENT FOR CTG PORT

JS body to investigate alleged � nancial graft n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

In the face of allegations raised by an Awami League MP, a parliamen-tary watchdog yesterday formed a three-member subcommittee to inves-tigate � nancial corruption in the pro-curement of port handling equipment in last � ve years.

The parliamentary standing com-mittee on shipping ministry at its � rst meeting formed the subcommittee, headed by Abdul Latif, lawmaker for Chittagong 10. At the meeting, he al-leged that corruption was there in the procurement of equipment, involving Tk1,200 crore.

The other two members of the sub-committee are Nurul Islam Sujon and Anwarul Azim.

Latif who earlier scu� ed with po-

lice in Chittagong port apparently to establish ‘control’ also alleged that � -nancial transactions took place in giv-ing jobs in the port.

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told the meeting that the committee should inquire and � nd out whether � nancial dealings took place.

“We have formed the subcommittee

to examine whether the allegations of � nancial corruption raised by Mr Latif were right. As the government main-tains zero tolerance for corruption, we will look into it,” Nurul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting at the parliament building.

The shipping minister said the alle-gations of � nancial corruption in the procurement of equipment were not true, but ‘some deviations’ could be there on appointment of sta� in the port.

“The honourable MPs very often recommend for their candidates. But it does not mean � nancial dealings were there,” Shajahan told the committee on the allegations of Abdul Latif. He said the watchdog should � nd out cor-ruption, if any.

Referring some news reports, Abdul

Latif said the Chittagong Port Authori-ty procured excavator, ambulance boat and other port handling equipment, costing over Tk1,200 crore.

He said New Mooring Container Terminal was constructed with huge amounts of public money, but it was still inoperative.

Committee’s Chairman Major (retd) Ra� qul Islam said: “We have formed a subcommittee as allegations have come.”

Shajahan Khan, also a member of the committee, said he would cooper-ate with the subcommittee to carry out investigation and take actions against the persons, if found guilty.

Committee members Abdul Hye, Talukder Abdul Khaleque, Ranjit Ku-mar Roy, Md Anwarul Azim and Mom-taz Begum attended the meeting. l

58 countries agree on migration cost cutn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Fifty-eight rich and poor countries have agreed that human rights of mi-grants must be protected and costs of migration as well as transfer of remit-tances must be lowered.

After a two-day hectic discussion, these countries agreed on some recom-mendations on migration so that origin and destination countries as well as migrants can be bene� tted, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque told a press brie� ng held at a city hotel on Tuesday evening.

A total of 88 government o� cials from 58 countries and 27 o� cials from di� erent international and civil society organisations took part in the two-day “Global Expert Meeting on Migration and Post-2015 Development Agenda”.

The meeting also endorsed a set of recommendations to be put forward to the UN Secretary General for discus-sion in the open working group meet which would decide on the future de-velopment model.

The meeting acknowledged that mi-gration is an integral component of de-velopment and migrants are the agents of development, the foreign secretary said. “We also agreed that rights of migrants must be upheld and agencies must oper-ate in a socially responsible manner.”

There are some risk factors, includ-ing human tra� cking and smuggling, and there are certain recommenda-

tions on the issues, he added. “We want safe and a� ordable migration and rights of migrants must be upheld be-cause it will help the origin and desti-nation countries and migrants as well,” Shahidul said.

When asked about di� erent stances of rich and poor countries on migration issue, he said all the countries must � nd a common space. “Bangladesh and Switzerland will organise a side event on migration at the 69th UNGA session in September,” he said.

In the concluding session of the meeting, the foreign secretary said mi-gration is still perceived as a political issue and hurdle of politics needs to be crossed. “Let it be a development is-sue, not a political issue,” he said.

Swedish Special Ambassador for In-ternational Cooperation on Migration Issues Eduard Gnesa said the meeting covered di� erent issues like health, education, decent work, economic growth and means of implementation.

“These recommendations will lead us now in two weeks to the Global Fo-rum of Migration and Development which is chaired by Sweden and Ban-gladesh,” Gnesa said.

Nikhil Seth, director of the Division for Sustainable Development at the United Nations, said all countries must be very vigilant that the recommenda-tions articulated in the meeting and other meetings would not be excluded from the post-2015 agenda. l

Lawmaker Abdul Latif alleged that corruption was there in the procurement of equipment, involving Tk1,200 crore

A rickshaw-puller recharges his battery-run vehicle in the capital’s Rayer Bazar recemtly. Even though the government has taken decision to ban the battery-run rickshaws, many drivers are still unaware of it while the authorities concerned also have not taken initiatives to withdraw the tri-cycles RAJIB DHAR

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

Seven fresh proposals to develop Kaliakoir hi-tech park n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Seven new proposals from di� erent foreign � rms and their joint ventures with local ones have been submitted for the development of the country’s � rst hi-tech park in Gazipur’s Kaliakoir, following a re-tender invitation by the authority concerned.

The re-tender invitation was made after the government won an appeal in January against a previous High Court order that had stayed the appointment of the Kuala Lumpur-based Kulim Technology Park Corporation, which won the previous round of tenders of the public-private partnership project in 2012.

Sources inside the park authority said the Kulim Technology Park Corpo-ration again applied in the latest round of tenders, both as a single entity and also jointly with another Malaysian company named Fibercom Ltd.

Mir Telecom, one of the major inter-national gateway operators in the coun-try, also applied the development work.

Jibon Technology, a US-based com-pany applied both as a single � rm and also jointly with a local � rm named Reza Com.

Summit Communications, a local telecom giant, also submitted a solo application as well as a joint one with an Indian company named Info Tech.

Hosne Ara Begum, managing di-

rector of the Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority, admitted that they had re-ceived seven fresh proposals, but re-fused to disclose the names of the com-panies.

“We are currently evaluating the proposals and within the � rst week of May, the [evaluation] committee will request proposals,” Hosne Ara Begum told the Dhaka Tribune.

She added that they would need to give a time span of 42 days to the companies, meaning that they want to award the work order within August.

The project had seen little progress in 15 years, with o� cials concerned blam-ing the sluggish pace on frequent shifts in government decisions and interference

from the World Bank, which was provid-ing Tk200 crore toward the project.

The park, which was initiated in 1999 but has yet to be completed, is set to be expanded after it had recent-ly received 40.47 hectares of acquired land, bringing its total coverage to 132.8 hectares.

In 1999, the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina decided to establish the park on 232 acres of land at the Kalia-koir Surface Satellite Station. Howev-er, the following four-party alliance government did not carry on with the project, while its Science and ICT Min-istry initiated a new project at Kaliakoir in 2004, where they did nothing other than acquiring land. l

Probe into Jamuna bridge rail mishap begins

n Our Correspondent, Sirajganj

Investigation into the derailment of nine bogies of a Dinajpur-bound train on the Bangabandhu Bridge is underway. Satel-lite images have indicated that the train was caught in a sudden cyclone.

The cyclone, however, hit the train for a very short period, said Additional Director-General of railway and chief of the probe team Amjad Hossain. Forma-tion of the team followed a directive is-sued by the Railways Minister Mujibul Hoque right after the accident.

Information derived from the images shows that the water in the Jamuna River just beneath the bridge swelled up when the cyclone hit 5-6 minutes before 11pm on the night of the inci-dent, said Amjad. He said a gust of wind hit the train within two minutes from the north and also the bottom of the bridge, thus lifting it.

“That is why it tilted to the south and got stuck on the concrete railings. Train drivers usually reduce the speed to 15 kilometres while crossing bridges. However, during the cyclone, the driv-er was driving at 8-10 kilometres,” Am-jad explained.

He continued: “The locomotive reports of a train gives authentic ev-idence of its speed, reasons for acci-dents or whether the driver was being careless. We will examine the locomo-tive report to see whether the driver or the director or the locomaster had ne-glected their duties. Besides, there are a variety of electronic devices in the train communication and control cell of the railway division that record in-formation about accidents. We will also look into that. However, it is certain, to a reasonable extent, that the accident happened because the train was caught in a cyclone.”

The report will be submitted within 2-3 days, he added.

Around 10:54pm on Sunday, the train, while crossing the Bangabandhu Bridge, was suddenly hit by a cyclone as it reached near pillars no 7 and 8. Of the 14 bogies, nine tilted at 60-70 de-grees and were stuck on the railings, while four others and the engine stayed on the track.

Many passengers were hurt while at-tempting to get out quickly, though no large-scale damage was caused. More than 700 passengers were on the train and they all narrowly escaped fatality.

Meanwhile, two rail accidents, sep-arated by 15 days, on the Dhaka-Sir-ajganj-Ishwardi route have caused pan-ic and apprehension among hundreds of passengers who frequently journey on the route.

Two passengers were killed and 30 others injured in a collision between the Dhaka-bound Ekota Express and the Lalmonirhat-bound Lalmoni Express at the Ullapara rail station on April 13. l

Two top Jamaat leaders among 10 arrestedn Our Correspondent, Jessore

Police arrested 10 leaders and activ-ists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, including Jamaat’s present and immediate past district unit amirs, last night.

The arrested were incumbent Jamaat amir Prof Abdur Rashid, immediate past amir Maulana Azizur Rahman, Islami Chhatra Shibir activist Abul Kalam Azad, Jessore district unit Jamaat amir’s driver, Luvlu, and six other Jamaat-Shibir men.

Reshma Sharmin, assistant superin-tendent of police, said police arrested six of them earlier in an overnight raid in Rupdia under the district’s Sadar upazia where they were holding a clan-destine meeting.

Police claimed that they also recov-ered four bombs, bomb-making mate-rials and a machete from their posses-sion. The party, however, denied the allegations.

Mohammad Shahabddin, public-ity a� airs secretary, Jessore city unit Jamaat-e-Islami, said the two Jamaat leaders were over 70 years of age and were retired schoolteachers. “They cannot carry bombs,” he added.

The remaining four were arrested Tuesday night in Jessore’s Ghope area when they were returning from the res-idence of Tariqul Islam, BNP standing committee member.

An online media reported all this soon after the arrest, and the police disclosed their information yesterday morning. l

Chikungunya fever new health concernn Moniruzzaman Uzzal

Vector-borne chikungunya fever, carried mainly by mosquitoes, is emerging as a public health concern in the capital.

Around 33% chikungunya seroprev-alence was detected among the Dhaka dwellers living in highly vector-prone areas, namely Dhanmondi, Mohakhali, Sutrapur and Motijheel. Besides, the number of Aedes aegypti, known as yellow fever mosquito, was found to be very large in the areas. This mosquito spreads both chikungunya and dengue fever.

Professor Dr Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiolo-gy, Disease Control and Rehabilitation (IEDCR), revealed the information at a seminar on chikungunya in the capital, yesterday.

He said it was beyond his thinking that prevalence of chikungunya would

be so high. “We have to address it or it will turn into a threat to public health.”

“It is not a deadly disease but there is currently no e� ective treatment for chikungunya. Treatment is purely based on symptoms,” he added.

In 2008, an outbreak of the fever was � rst detected in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj. It was then detect-ed in Shathia, Pabna, in 2009, and then in 2011 in Dohar, Dhaka, and Shibganj, Chapainawabganj.

IEDCR conducted a survey styled “Entomological and Clinical Attributes and Seroprevalence of Chikungunya” in August and September last year.

A group of doctors and � eld epidemiology training programme (FETP) fellows collected blood samples from 621 people, aged 15 to 60, from every ten houses selected randomly in Dhanmondi, Mohakhali, Sutrapur and Motijheel, areas known to have a high prevalence of dengue for the last nine

years.Of the 621 blood samples, evidence

of recent infection was found in 207. Besides, 16 samples contained evi-dence of past infections when the sero-prevalence rate was 3%.

A total of 1,780 larvae from 640 houses were also collected and 1,725 con� rmed the presence of aegypti. The survey was conducted with technical assistance from the climate change and health promotion unit of the Health Ministry.

It was learnt that the chikungunya fever is a viral disease and is transmit-ted to people when the mosquitoes bite. It causes a sudden onset of high fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain and headache.

Additional symptoms include fa-tigue, nausea, vomiting, conjunctivitis, myalgia and cervical lymphadenopa-thy.

The � rst chikungunya epidemic was

recorded in Tanzania in 1952-1953. It is also commonplace in the Indian sub-continent. Since December 2005, it was estimated that India has witnessed more than 14 lakh chikungunya cases.

Speaking about prevention and control of the fever, Mahmudur Rah-man mentioned a number of measures including entomologic surveillance, community awareness, early detection and e� cient vector control.

He said there are three laboratory tests available to detect chikungun-ya cases – virus isolation, serological test and molecular technique of poly-merase chain reaction.

Professor Dr Din Md Nurul Haque, director general of the Directorate Gen-eral of Health Services (DGHS) was the chief guest at the seminar. Dr Md Shah Newaz, director (administration) of DGHS, and Dr M Mushtuq Husain, prin-cipal scienti� c o� cer of IEDCR, were present, among others. l

Dreams of jobs on ships turn into nightmare Cheated 22 migrants return from Iran n Rabiul Islam

Jinarul, a 19-year-old HSC passed boy, did not want to miss the opportunity for a job in Iran as he was o� ered a job on a ship by a middleman in his locality of Meherpur.

With the assistance of SH Tourist and Travel located in Amena Bhaban at Banani in the capital Jinarul went to Iran on January 12, 2014 to work on a ship by spending Tk3,50,000.

But when he reached Iran his dream turned into a nightmare.

He said if he had known he would have to face such hardship he had never gone there, said Jinarul in a voice of frustration while talking to the Dhaka Tribune at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) o� ce in the capital yesterday.

He thought the work on a ship would be good with a handsome salary Tk1, 00,000 after one year.

“My uncles are rich and their sons stay in European countries including Italy. I dreamt of becoming rich unlike my father,” Jinarul said.

Before � ying to Iran he demanded his visa but his recruiter told him he had nothing to do with the visa as he was going there for work.

He along with four other ill-fated migrants landed at Shiraj, an Iranian airport. An Iranian received them and handed them over to a Bangladeshi who said: “We would be given jobs on ships.”

“We were taken to Minar which is a city of Iran and I along with four others were con� ned to an underground room and all of our belongings were taken away. Our visas along with other doc-uments were torn,” Jinarul said: “They stripped us and we were frisked.”

After three days he was given one bread. He was served with curry of cab-bage and water twice a day sometimes

every � ve to seven days. “I, however, was allowed to have a bath.

“They began to torment us for money and my father gave them Tk2, 50,000 through the SH Travels. They took away 1,000 dollars I carried with me for a training to work on ship.

“After one month and 10 days the middlemen sold us to other people and during the handover the CID of Iran rescued us and we were sent to jail.”

Zia who works with Bangladesh Embassy in Iran helped their release and kept them in a house and provid-ed them necessary food for about two months before their repatriation.

Like Jinarul 21 Bangladeshi migrants

who were taken hostage by a gang of human tra� ckers in Iran returned home yesterday morning. A number of workers told this correspondent har-rowing stories during their stay in Iran.

A scheduled � ight of Emirates carry-ing the migrant workers arrived at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 8am, Binoy Krishno, execu-tive director of the Rights Jessore, said.

They were brought back home with the assistance of Bangladesh Embas-sy in Iran. The Criminal Investiga-tion Department and Rights Jessore, a non-governmental organisation, helped the repatriation of the victims of human tra� cking, he said.

The victims are Abu Sayed Khan of Chandpur, Aminul Islam of Jamalpur, Md Delu and Aminur Islam of Tangail, Ro� qul Islam of Bogra, Arman Hossain of Companiganj in Noakhali, Jinarul and Md Shahin of Gangni in Meherpur, Aktaruz-zaman of Chowgachha in Jessore, Ataur Rahman of Bagerhat, Kamrul Hasan Bhu-iyan of Kishoreganj, Akram Fakir of Go-palganj, Sohel Miah of Char Chaburiapara in Narsingdi, Akmal Hossain of Kushtia, Ruhul Amin of Rajbari, Md Tahaz Uddin of Meherpur, Md Nazrul of Sakhipur in Tangail, Mamunur Rashid of Dhamurhat and Shahidul of Badalgachhi in Naogaon and Abdur Razzak, Rohidul Islam of Ra-jshahi and Sallahuddin. l

RAILWAY RECRUITMENT SCAM

Former railway o� cial jailedn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court sent Bangladesh Railway (BR) east zone former senior Welfare O� cial Golam Kibria, accused in di� erent cases over the railway re-cruitment scam, to jail yesterday.

The court of Divisional Special Judge SM Ataur Rahman passed the or-der when Kibria surrendered before it.

Sources said two corruption cases over the recruitment of an assistant chemist and a fuel checker were � led against Golam Kibria.

Advocate Mahmudul Haque Mah-mud, counsel for the Anti-Corruption Commission, told the Dhaka Tribune the former BR o� cial pleaded for bail from the court but the court rejected his request and sent him to jail.

SM Rashidur Reza, ACC assistant di-rector, lodged the cases on September

13 last year while the charge sheets were submitted on October 2, 2013, he said.

On October 20, a Chittagong court issued an arrest warrant against the for-mer GM Yusuf Ali Mridha of BR (East) and seven others in the two cases.

Regarding the recruitment scam, a total of 13 cases were lodged on Sep-tember, 2012 and February, 2013.

The Border Guard Bangladesh per-sonnel seized Tk70 lakh from the car of the Assistant Personal Secretary Omar Faruk of the then rail minister Suranjit Sengupta on April 9, 2012.

Mridha, Kibria and Railway Nirapat-ta Bahini Dhaka Divisional Comman-dant Enamul Haque were in the car.

The driver of the car, Ali Azam, had been missing since he unfolded the inci-dent. The then minister Suranjit resigned following the incident while his APS, Mridha and Enamul, were suspended. l

‘The locomotive report of a train gives authentic evidence of its speed, reasons for accidents or whether the driver was being careless’

Law enforcers take the 22 Bangladeshi overseas workers from the Dhaka airport yesterday, after they were brought back from Iran. They were deceived by the brokers and were living inhumane life there SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

‘Increasing number of unpaid women a challenge’n Tazlina Zamila Khan

A vast number of working women hold unpaid jobs in the country which is a challenge, said speakers at a workshop at the Brac Centre in the capital’s Mo-hakhali area, yesterday.

Yet, the female labour force partic-ipation rate has increased from 4% in the 1970s to 36% in 2010, they said.

Titled “‘Gender dynamics in the la-bour market in Bangladesh: A puzzle and a challenge,” the workshop was or-ganised by the BRAC Institute of Gov-ernance and Development (BIGD), the Centre for Gender and Social Transfor-mation (CGST) and the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.

A three-year research programme under the BGID and CGST was launched at the event. The research will focus on how job markets for men and women from di� erent socio-economic groups work in Bangladesh.

Sultan Hafeez Rahman, executive director of the BIGD and country di-rector of International Growth Centre (IGC) Bangladesh, said: “In Bangla-desh, women’s participation in the la-bour market has happened via unpaid work, rather than salaried employ-

ment. Around 77% working women are involved in unpaid work.”

Naila Kabeer, professor of Gender and Development at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, said: “Women spend much of their time on domestic chores or unpaid work, which is around 60% of their daily time alloca-tion. Gender segmentation in the labour market is not unique in Bangladesh. People think the primary responsibility of women is household chores and child care, rather than working outside.”

Speakers agreed that money brought women respect and recognition both in their families and the society. Some case studies on paid and unpaid working wom-en were also presented at the workshop.

Lily, a 24 year old NGO worker said: “Women were neglected when they did not work. Earning husbands some-times did not give their wives any mon-ey, or did not give them enough. But even if their husbands are millionaires, there is still a need for women to earn their own income because otherwise they are not valued by society. They should have some means of strength-ening their positions.”

Simeen Mahmud, leading research-er at the BIGD and coordinator at the

CGST, said: “Women in paid work are more likely to value their own work and feel that their families value their contribution and have a greater voice

within the family. They also get the op-portunity to have savings of their own.”

Speakers said most of the women did not prefer to take paid work due to

bad work environments and potential harassment. The current challenge is to � nd a solution to overcome the barri-ers, they said. l

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:03am Sunrise 5:24am Zohr 11:56am Asr 4:32pm Magrib 6:27pm Esha 7:48pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Source: Accuweather/UNB

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 36 27Chittagong 34 26Rajshahi 38 27Rangpur 36 25Khulna 38 26Barisal 37 27Sylhet 37 22Cox’s Bazar 34 27

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:27PM SUN RISES 5:24AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW39.0ºC 20.3ºCJessore Dhaka

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

EC frustrated over split DCC polls n Mohammad Zakaria

Expressing frustration over pending Dhaka North and South City Corpora-tion elections, Election Commissioner Md Shah Newaz said yesterday that the commission could not hold the much hyped spilt DCC polls as the local gov-ernment and rural development min-istries did not take the EC order under consideration.

“The polls are not being held as the ministry is not solving the demarcation problem. The commission is prepared to hold the polls,” he told reporters at his o� ce in the capital.

Referring to the violent incidents surrounding the upazila parishad polls, Newaz said the commission has learnt many things from those polls, and blamed the political parties for the violence.

“I hope that there will be no vio-lence in the upcoming upazila polls to be held on May 19,” he added.

The DCC elections were originally scheduled for May 24, 2012, but the High Court issued a three-month stay order because of complexities regard-ing the voter list and the demarcation of the two city corporations, after a petition was submitted by Manzil Mur-shid.

However, on May 13, 2013, the HC cleared the way to hold the elections by withdrawing the stay order.

The Dhaka City Corporation was split into two—South and North—on November 30, 2011 through a bill that amended the Local Government Act 2009.

The capital witnessed the city cor-poration election last in April 2002. l

Chhatra League blames Shibir for attack on its activistsn Tribune Report

Bangladesh Chhatra League, the stu-dent wing of the ruling Awami League, yesterday blamed the Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Is-lami, for the recent attack on their ac-tivists on the Rajshahi University cam-pus and vowed a “stern revenge.”

Unidenti� ed miscreants attacked two Chhatra League activists on the RU campus and severed their limbs in broad day light on Tuesday.

Acting Chhatra League President Joydeb Nandi said at a protest gather-ing in front of the DU Arts Building yes-terday: “The Chhatra League will not sit idle from now on. We will avenge blood with blood.”

The organisation’s Acting General Secretary Mosta� zur Rahman Mostaq condemned the Shibir for the attack

and demanded the immediate arrest and punishment of the responsible Shibir activists.

Abdullah Al Masud and Tagar Mo-hammad Saleh, second year students of the RU History and Folklore depart-ments, respectively, were attacked near the Ziaur Rahman Hall, said Alam-gir Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of the Motihar police station.

The victims were admitted to the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital in critical conditions. The OC also said drives were being conducted continu-ously to nab the true culprits.

Earlier on Tuesday, police arrested � f-teen Shibir activists in several drives for their alleged involvement in the attack.

No case was � led in this regard till the � ling of this report, the OC added.

Meanwhile, the RU unit of the Chhatra League also staged demonstrations on

campus yesterday, protesting the attack.Over a hundred Chhatra League lead-

ers and activists, led by its RU unit Pres-ident Mizanur Rahman Rana, brought out a procession around 11:30am.

Addressing the rally, Rana termed Shibir “a terrorist organisation,” and demanded that Shibir be banned from politics on campus. He also demand-ed the punishment of the attackers as soon as possible.

Teachers and students of the Histo-ry and Folklore departments separate-ly brought out silent processions and formed a human chain on the campus, protesting the brutal attack on Masud and Tagar.

Speakers at the programmes urged the university authorities to take stern steps to identify the miscreants and to ensure the security of the students on the campus. l

Hajj � ights to start from August 27 n Mohosinul Karim

Flights for Hajj this yearare expected to start from August 27 and continue until September 28, while return � ights are scheduled to run between October 8 and November 8.

The tentative dates for Hajj � ights were � xed at a meeting held at the civil aviation ministry yesterday to discuss preparations for the annual pilgrimage to Makkah, said Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon.

A total of 125 � ights will be operated to carry about 101,758 Hajj pilgrims from Bangladesh this year, Menon said. The meeting also decided to form a special taskforce, headed by Joint Secretary Join-al Abedin Talukdar, to ensure smooth travel arrangements for the pilgrims.

Under the two Hajj packages o� ered by the government, Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines will each carry half the number of pilgrims.

Biman will add its four new air-crafts to the Hajj � eet, instead of hiring planes like in previous years.

The minister said a “city check-in”ar-rangement will also be made so that the airlines authorities can receive luggage from the pilgrims at di� erent points across the capital for convenience. l

14 gold bars seizedin Chittagongn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Customs o� cials at the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong city seized 17 gold bars worth Tk70 lakh yesterday from seven passengers of two � ights that came in from Saudi Arabia and Oman.

However, the custom o� cials freed the passengers as per the law, said Moshiur Rahman Mandal, assistant commissioner of Chittagong Customs House.

He said they found 10 bars, weighing 1.633 kg, on � ve passengers (two from each) on a Biman Bangladesh � ight from Saudi Arabia and on four others, again two from each, on an Oman Air-lines � ight from Oman.

The � ights landed in the airport at 4:30pm and 5:15pm, respectively.

“We found the bars by searching their luggage and their bodies,” he said. “The gold bars were in customs custo-dy and the passports of the passengers were seized,” he added.

Existing laws allow a person to carry a maximum 200 g of gold from abroad after paying the necessary duty fees at the airport. Passengers can also bring in a maximum of two kg of gold by giving early notice to the authorities concerned and paying the duty fees ac-cording to a Bangladesh Bank circular, the AC added.

The customs sources said with yes-terday’s recovery around 2,000 gold bars worth around Tk90 crore were seized from the airport in 60 drives in 2014 while a total of 686 gold bars worth Tk35.30 crore were seized from the same airport in 16 drives in 2013. l

11 houses gutted in Chittagongn CU Correspondent

A fi re gutted 11 thatched houses in the Rangipara area in Chittagong city’s Hal-ishahar, yesterday.

Sources at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters in Agrabad said the fi re started at a kitchen oven at the residence of Selina Aktar at 4pm and soon engulfed the adjacent houses.

A unit of fi re fi ghters from the Agrabad Headquarters rushed to the spot on being informed and doused the fl ame after one hour of frantic efforts.

The extent of losses caused by the fi re has been estimated to be around Tk2 lakh, said the sources. l

Chittagong road accidents kill threen CU Correspondent

Two persons were killed and anoth-er sustained injury in a road accident, while another person was killed in a separate road accident at the Sitakunda and Mirsharai upazilas, respectively, in Chittagong, yesterday.

The deceased of the Sitakunda acci-dent are: Anwar Hossain, 25, the son of Abdur Rashid of Motobi village under the Senbagh upazila in Noakhali, and Md Tareq, 18, son of Abdul Kader of vil-lage Shibpur in Feni. Md Forkan, 25, the maternal uncle of Tareq, was injured.

Sergeant Zillur Rahman of the Ku-mira Highway police outpost said the accident took place at around 4am in the morning when a Chittagong bound speeding pickup van, on which they were travelling, hit a covered van from behind, killing them on the spot.

Police seized the pickup with heavy damages to its front, but its driver man-aged to escape, said Zillur adding that a case had been � led. Meanwhile, in the Misharai upazila, a person was crushed under the wheels of a train on Tuesday.

Yasin Faruk, o� cer-in-charge of Government railway police said Md Rezaul, 63, was crushed to death in the Baraiarhat area of the upazila while he was crossing the rail track. l

Task force recommends 2.41 acres of land for RAB at Kamrangir Char The government has allotted seven acres of land to the elite force n Mohosinul Karim

Though the Rapid Action Battalion wants to take possession of seven acres of land in Kamrangir Char area to set up its o� ce, the task force on river protection has suggested that the gov-ernment allot only 2.41 acres of land to the elite force.

The task force came up with the suggestion at a meeting held at the Shipping Ministry yesterday with Task Force Chief and Shipping Minister Sha-jahan Khan in the chair.

Earlier, the government had allotted seven acres of land to RAB 10. An o� cial who attended the meeting said the RAB

authority sought help from the authori-ties concerned, including the Dhaka dis-trict administration, to take possession of seven acres of land at Kamrangir Char.

After getting an application from the RAB authority, the district admin-istration had formed a technical com-mittee and a technical coordination committee and asked them to visit the site and submit reports. The commit-tees did not � nd enough space which could have been allocated to the RAB.

During the visit, the committee members found that there are hospi-tals and other structures, city protec-tion dams, wetlands and canals in the area. The government had also allot-

ted the lands of the hospital and other structures to the RAB.

The report said, “A plot of 2.4044 acres of land might be allotted to the RAB.”

After the meeting, Shajahan Khan told reporters that the spaces would be given to the RAB authority, taking its physical position into account. The task force asked the authorities con-cerned to immediately take steps after inspecting the site.

The meeting decided to hand over the authority to Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority from the district administration to maintain the boundary pillars installed on the banks

of the Buriganga, Shitalakkha, Balu and Turag rivers.

The district administrations of Dhaka, Narayanganj, Munshiganj and Gazipur had recently installed around 12,000 boundary pillars to demarcate these rivers. The pillars had been in-stalled after evicting illegal grabbers.

The meeting also took decision to remove waste from the rivers and build third terminal in Shashanghat area, the minister added.

The meeting was informed that the authority had reclaimed some 131.34 acres of land since 2009 after demol-ishing around 2,554 permanent and makeshift illegal structures.

Hundreds of activists of Chhatra League Rajshahi University unit stage demonstration yesterday, protesting the recent attack on two Chhatra League activists by unidenti� ed miscreants on the campus DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sultan Hafez Rahman, BIGD executive director, addresses a workshop on gender dynamics at Brac Centre yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

Dry weather taking toll on tea production n Our Correspondent, Panchagarh

The prevailing drought-like conditions have reduced soil moisture, a� ecting the growth of tea plants, leaving di� er-ent gardens in Panchagarh all dried up.

As the district did not have rainfall in the last three months, previously green tea leaves in many gardens have dried up, even though the growers are trying to irri-gate their � elds through deep tube wells. All of their e� orts have become futile.

Growers said su� cient rainfall is needed for good tea harvest in the month of February and March, but there was no rainfall in the district during that period.

They said many tea gardens are being attacked by red spider pests as the tem-perature is increasing day by day.

During a recent visit to a few Tea Gar-dens in Panchagarh, this correspondent saw that many tea plants and tea sap-lings in the gardens have dried up in this

dry weather. Tea leaf plucking is getting delayed this year due to the absence of expected rainfall and the lack of irriga-tion facilities, many growers told the cor-respondent.

They said tea saplings need bal-anced rainfall and sunshine, espe-cially during the period from March to September-October, while a minimum rainfall during October-December and February-April periods is also very im-portant for its growth.

Moreover, the processing of the tea leaves is being severely hampered cur-rently at all six tea processing factories in the district following the drastic re-duction in the supply of green tea leaves.

Most of the water reservoirs have dried up because of the lack of seasonal rainfall. This is adversely a� ecting the normal growth of tender tea leaves and the growth of the newly pruned branch-es and saplings in the gardens in recent

weeks, said Sayed Shoaib Ahmed, chief operating o� cer of the Kazi&Kazi Tea Estate in Tetulia.

He said there was almost no rainfall at the beginning of the year. The sensi-tive crop su� ered much from the � uctu-ating temperatures and sunshine.

Soil nutrients are also gradually falling. Tea planters also need to arrange for water reservoirs to manage irrigation, he said.

Manager of the Karatoa Tea Garden & Factory Mozahidul Hannan Nipun told this correspondent that if the situation continues, production targets will not be met in the current season.

Manager of the Saliland Tea Estate in Panchagarh Abdus Salam said they have put their all facilities in operation around the clock, but are still failing to provide adequate irrigation to their tea gardens.

Manager of the North Bengal Central Tea Industry Sheikh Jahid Hossain said they have closed down the tea process-

ing due to the inadequate supply of green tea leaves. For this reason the fac-tory is running only two days in a week.

Tea cultivators demanded that the Bangladesh Tea Board help tea growers to irrigate their � elds as tea cultivators in Panchagarh are not solvent enough.

Tea growers Motiar Rahman and Moklesur Rahman called upon the au-thorities concerned for the irrigation of small-scale tea � elds as they are unable to purchase costly machines to irrigate their larger tea � elds. As tea cultivation is a promising industry, the government should take proper initiatives to pro-mote and expand the export oriented tea production, they opined.

President of the Bangladesh Small Tea Garden Owners’ Association Abdul Jabbar said “We are demanding the ar-rangement of irrigation by the Tea Board to boost production of this export ori-ented produce.”

BAU gets new proctor amid Saad killing protestn Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) authorities have appointed a new proctor and a student a� airs ad-viser, according to a press release is-sued yesterday.

The press release was issued by Dr Aminur Rahman Chowdhury, director of the BAU’s public relations o� ce.

Professor Dr Harun-or-Rashid of the Dairy Science Department replaced Professor Dr Md Shahidur Rahman Khan as proctor, while Professor Dr Jahirul Haque Khandakar of the Ani-mal Nutirition Department took over the post of student a� airs adviser, the press release said.

Meanwhile, the inde� nite strike called by the university’s students con-tinued until the � ling of this report.

As part of their protest, students gathered in front of the administrative building and staged a sit-in programme since yesterday morning.

A section of the students gathered under the banner “Students’ Associa-tion,” and took to the streets in front of the BAU’s VC’s residence, demanding immediate resuming of classes, the ar-rest of Saad’s killers, and the VC’s res-ignation.

Faisal Islam Joy, leader of the Stu-dents’ Association, said they would continue the protest until all their de-mands were met.

Saad Ibne Momtaz, a � nal-year stu-dent at the university and leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League’s BAU unit, was killed in an attack allegedly made by a rival group on the campus on April 1. l

Minor girl brutally raped n Our Correspondent, Madaripur

An eight year old girl, who was a stu-dent of Class III at a local madrasa in the district, was brutally raped by a physician, yesterday.

Police said Shariful Sarder, 40, a physician from the Boalia-Chandibordi area in the Dutkhali union of the Sadar upazila lived in a rented house beside the girl’s home.

The girl went out of her house in the early morning and when she was head-ing back inside, the accused physician dragged her to his house and raped her.

The girl was admitted to the Madaripur Sadar Hospital in a critical condition. Abu Bakar Siddique, additional superintend of police con� rmed the incident. l

Land dispute clash leaves 26 injured n Our Correspondent, Jhenaidah

At least 26 persons were injured in a clash over a dispute about land that occurred between two brothers from the Hakimpur village in the Sailkupa upazila of the Jhenaidah district, yes-terday.

Police said there had been a long-standing con� ict between Abbas Ali and his brother Akter Hossain over the possession of a piece of land.

On the day, the supporters of the two brothers attacked each other with local weapons, leaving 26 injured.

Of them, 12 were admitted to the upazila health complex in critical con-ditions.

When contacted, the Sailkupa police station O� cer-in-Charge Maniruzza-man Mollah said additional police forces had been deployed in the village to avoid any untoward situations from occurring. No case was � led, said the OC. l

Bandarban union council polls on June 2n Our Correspondent, Bandarban

The polls of the three union councils under the Naikhongchhari upazila in Bandarban will be held on June 2.

Sources at the election o� ce said the District Election O� ce declared the schedule for the election of the Sa-dar, Dhumdhum and the newly formed Sonaichhari union councils on April 27 saying it would take place on June 2.

Naikhongchhari Upazila Election O� cer Riazul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune that the deadline for submis-sion of the nomination forms for elec-toral candidacy is May 5, scrutiny of the nomination forms will be on May 7, withdrawal of candidacy will be till May 14 and the election will take place on June 2.

The number of voters of these coun-cils is 20,231 and the number of polling centres is 27.

The o� ces of the union councils have remained vacant for a long time but the elections of these councils could not be held in 2010 due to the demarcation of boundaries, since the polls of the countrywide union coun-cils were being held at that time. l

Fugitive held in Sirajganjn Our Correspondent, Sirajganj

Police arrested a dacoit on Tuesday in Sirajganj who had been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in an arms case.

The arrested, Bablu, 45, is the son of Osman Ghani who is a resident of the Bahulee village under the Bahulee un-ion in the Sadar upazila, Sirajganj.

Sources said a total of � ve cases in-cluding 4 cases under the arms act and robbery had been � led against him so far.

Habibul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of the Sadar police station said Bablu was arrested on Tuesday night from the Razapur area under the Bahulee upa-zila in the district. He was ordered to be jail yesterday morning by the court, after the necessary interrogation.

Kidney smugglers active in Sirajganj n Our Correspondent, Sirajganj

Members of a gang of kidney smugglers have been very much active in collect-ing kidneys through killing the chil-dren of Ullahpara upazila here.

Sources in the district said local agents and a Savar-based gang of kid-ney smugglers have been kidnapping children from the upazila and cutting o� their kidneys, leaving them dead.

Later, their bodies are dumped into di� erent areas of the district.

Most victims of the gang are the boys who are from poverty-stricken families and the gang is paying their agents Tk10 lakh for every kidney.

Two such types of incident were recorded last year at Tarafdia village in

the upazila. Khalilur Rahman Khalil, 22, son of

Kalu Promanik, of Tarafdia village in the upazila, who was arrested on April 27 on charge of child abduction, kidney smuggling and then killing.

Later, he gave a confessional state-ment before a court of Kohinur Arju-man, judge of Sirajganj Senior court under the section 164.

During interrogation, Khalil con-fessed that he, Chand Ali, 25, son Belal Hossain, of the village, Matin, 30, son of Manto Pramanik, and Delwar, son of Dulal, of the village, work for the gang of kidney smugglers and they are given Tk10 lakh for every kidney, said sourc-es at the court.

The ring leader of the gang is a doc-

tor who resides in Savar. However, he could not elaborate the identity of the physician.

On April 22, the members of the gang kidnapped a six-year-old boy of day labourer Abdul Hannan, a resident of Tebaria village, and collected both kidneys. Later, the boy died in the op-eration that conducted by the Savar doctor.

In the incident, Mannan lodged a case and on April 27 Khalil was arrested in the lawsuit.

Ullahpara police station SI and also investigator of the case said Abdul Jalil confessed that he along with two bro-kers on April 22 kidnapped a child by alluring with money and food and later killed him to collect his kidneys.

Later, his body was dumped into a pond, which was found four days after abduction.

On a query about the murder of another child named Saim in the same way, Ullahpara police station OC Tajul Huda said they were investigating into whether there was any relation between the killing and the gang.

Police were trying to arrest the oth-ers accomplices of the kidney smug-gling gang, the OC added.

When the correspondent visited the houses of the victims, the parents burst into tears and urged the government to track down the gang and to arrest the miscreants involved in the misdeed. l

One construction worker killedn Our Correspondent, Dinajpur

A construction worker named Masud Rana was killed, while six others were injured, in an accident at a railway bridge construction site at the Pan-chagarh-Dinajpur railway in Dinajpur on Tuesday night.

The injured are: Mamtajul Islam, Delwar Hossain, Nazrul Islam, Jahangir Islam, Mohirul Islam and Mahbub.

According to the witnesses, a section of the under-construction dual-gauge railway bridge over Punarbhava River

collapsed on seven construction workers at 10pm. Among them, Rana died, while receiving treatment, at around midnight.

Mamtaj, Delwar and Nazrul were taken to the Dinajpur General Hospi-tal and Jahangir, Mohirul and Mahbub were taken to the Dinajpur Medical College Hospital.

Three among them remain in critical conditions.

Rana, 27, was from the Nafanagar vil-lage in Bochaganj, Dinajpur. His body was handed over to his family after a post-mortem yesterday. l

Bidi workers for substitute job n Tribune Report

Hundreds of bidi work-ers organised protest pro-cession, human chain and rally in Rangpur de-manding substitute em-ployments for them to earn livelihoods instead of working in bidi factories amid harmful environ-ment.

The bidi workers, under the banner of ‘Bikhhubdha Bidi Sramik’, brought the protest procession bearing placards and banners from Paira Chattar area in the city, organised a human chain and later, a protest rally on Press Club premises.

Bidi workers Motaleb Hossain, Ansarul Haque, Rashedul Islam, Haider Ali and Sirajul Islam addressed the protest rally and forwarded their � ve-point demand for arranging substitute employment to save them for harmful jobs at the bidi factories, reports BSS. l

Businessman’s body recovered in Jamalpurn Our Correspondent, Jamalpur

Police recovered the body of a busi-nessman, who had been missing since Tuesday night, from a paddy � eld in the Baksiganj upazila, Jamalpur.

The deceased was identi� ed as Ak-kas Ali, a resident of the Charkauriapar area under the Baksiganj upazila, Ja-malpur.

Mostasinur Rahman, o� cer-in-charge of the Baksiganj police station said Akkas Ali left his home at around 11:30pm on Tuesday night but did not return.

Locals found his body lying in a paddy � eld in the Kuthibari Ghat area of the upazila yesterday morning and informed police. Police sent the body to the morgue for an autopsy after re-covering it from the spot, the o� cer added.

The victim had signs of haemorrhag-ing on his face, the o� cer informed.

Journo held for drug dealing in Rangpur

Our Correspondent, RangpurRab 13 men arrested a journalist

from a local newspaper in Rangpur yes-terday for allegedly dealing drugs.

The arrested, Zafe Faruque Shirin, works for a local newspaper, sources said.

Rab sources said Zafe Faruque was arrested yesterday morning from the railway station area in Rangpur. Later he was handed over to the Kotwali po-lice.

The in-charge of Rab 13 told the Dhaka Tribune that Zafe Faruque has been involved in drug dealing in the area for a long time, using journalism as a cover. l

1,600 bottles of phensidyl seized, two heldn Our Correspondent, Sirajganj

Police of the Bangabandhu Setu West Thana detained two persons in a car in Sirajganj and seized 1600 bottles of phensidyl from them.

The detained are Shamim Ahmed, 25, a phensidyl dealer from the Ma-daripur district and Fahim Ahmed, 30, the dealer’s car driver.

Aminul Islam, officer-in-charge of the Bangabandhu Setu West police station said they searched a suspicious looking Dhaka-bound private car and seized the phensidyl bottles which had been hidden inside the car in an unprecedented manner.

A case was � led, the o� cer added. l

Students of Community Development Centre School at Naikhangchhari upazila attend a class under open sky yesterday as their school building has been damaged by a storm which swept over the district on March 25 DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Raju Mollah

May 1 is international labour day, a day which commemorates a time of civil unrest in the late 19th century when workers in industri-alised countries demonstrated for improved working conditions, wage raises and the es-

tablishment of a maximum working day and week. Many of the demonstrations were suppressed with force. The rights that demonstrators fought for at that time are crystallised in many labour legislations.

Bangladesh Labour Code, 2006 has provided detailed provisions related to working hours, working conditions and leave.

Here is a brief account of the laws relating to em-ployment of labours, workings hours, leave and childlabour, etc:

Working hoursDaily working hours No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in an establishment for more than eight hours in any day.

Interval for rest or mealA worker is entitled to:• An interval of at least one hour for rest or meal if he

works more than six hours in any day• An interval of at least half an hour for rest or meal if he

works more than � ve hours in any day• An interval of at least one hour or two intervals of at

least half an hour if he works for more than eight hours

Weekly hours No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in an establishment for more than 48 hours in any week.

Extra-allowance for overtime Where a worker works in an establishment on any day or week for more than the hours � xed by the law, he shall be entitled to allowance at the rate of twice his ordinaryrate of basic wage and dearness allowance and ad-hoc or interim pay.

Limitation of hours of work for women No women shall, without her consent, be allowed to work in an establishment between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

LeaveCasual leave Every worker shall be entitled to casual leave the full wages for ten days in a calendar year, and such leave shall not be accumulated and carried forward to the succeeding year

Sick leave Every worker other than a newspaper worker, shall be en-titled to sick leave with full wages for fourteen days in a calendar year. Every newspaper worker shall be entitled to sick leave with half wages for not less than one-eighteenth of the period of services.

Festival holidaysEvery worker shall be allowed eleven days of paid festival holiday in a calendar year.

Working conditionsHealth and safety of the employeesIf the government is satis� ed that any operation carried on in an establishment exposes any person employed in it to a serious risk of bodily injury, poisoning, or disease, it may make rules applicable to such establishment or class of es-tablishments in which such operation is carried on:• specifying the operation and declaring it to be hazardous

• prohibiting or restricting the employment of women, adolescents or children in the operation

• providing for the periodical medical examination of persons employed in the operation and prohibiting the employment of persons not certi� ed as � t for such em-ployment

• providing for the protection of all persons employed in the operation or in the vicinity of the places where it is carried on and the use of any speci� ed materials or processes in connection with the operation

• notice specifying use and precautions regarding use of any corrosive chemicals

Child labour • No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any

occupation or establishment.• No adolescent shall be employed or permitted to work

in any occupation or establishment unless a certi� cate

of � tness in the prescribed form and granted to him by a registered medical practitioner

Labour CourtA labour court consists of a chairman and two members. The chairman of the labour court is appointed by the gov-ernment from amongst the district judges or additional dis-trict judges.The terms and conditions of appointment of the chairman of the labour court shall be determined by the government. A labour court has exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate and determine and industrial dispute or any other dispute re-lated to labour or any question which has been brought be-fore it. l

Raju Mollah is an advocate at Dhaka Judge Court and author of several law books.

JurisDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014 7

JURIS QUOTE

Laws or ordinances unobserved, or partially attended to, had better never have been made.

RIO SHUVO

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George Washington (1732–1799)

First president of the United States

The law says it all The lobour code details how organisations are to treat their sta�

State sponsored legal aid for those in needn Raisul Islam Sourav

In Bangladesh, litigants have to spend a lot of money to get justice or to enforce their rights that have been breached. The reason is, in civil suits each litigant has to pay a prescribed court fee to commence his proceed-ing. In addition to this, he/she will also need to appoint

a lawyer who will proceed the suit on behalf of him/her be-fore the court. Apart from this, there are many other costs and fees involved in a court case, eg collecting and copy-ing necessary documents, serving the notice/summons, adjournment fees, fees to appoint commission, etc. Hence enforcement of legal rights or getting justice is expensive.

Many poor villagers of our country cannot seek legal rem-edy due to their � nancial crises. A popular perception ex-ists in our society that one needs money to get legal remedy. Many people cannot even think of coming to the Supreme Court because of heavy fees of those lawyers and huge costs of court fees and other expenses. Consequently, in many circumstances common people are deprived from getting justice only for lack of � nancial ability.

To become a welfare state and to resolve this problem, our parliament had enacted a law entitled the Legal Aid Act in 2000 to provide free legal support to the people of this land. The government has already made rule under this Act and constituted National Legal Aid Providing Committee. A district legal aid committee is also formed in every district under the national committee to disseminate legal aid for the poor. Now the committee extends to upazila, and to some extent to unions.

Who are eligible to get free legal aid

Only � nancially defeated persons are entitled to get free of cost legal aid under the Act. As per the provision of this law the following persons are eligible to get free legal aid from the government:• The person who earns less than Tk50,000 in a year• Disabled, partially disabled or unemployed free-

dom � ghters whose income is not more than

Tk75,000 in a year• Person who gets old-age allowance or VGD card holder

poor mother• Abducted children/women or acid victim children/

women• Poor widow, women abandoned by husbands and mar-

ginal women• Unemployed and poor disabled persons• The person who cannot establish his legal right before

the court for lack of money• The person who is detained in jail without trial and

who is unable to defend himself• Person declared insolvent by competent court• Persons recommended by prison authority as unable to

maintain case for lack of money

How to apply

Now in every district there is a legal aid o� ce at the district

court. Application forms to apply for legal aid is available there and any eligible person can collect an application form from the legal aid o� ce. In addition, a prisoner can take this form from designated prison o� cer.

Apart from this the form is also available at the o� ce of secretary of local bar association, bench assistant (peshkar) in each district court, district and upazila o� ce of national women forum, etc. An applicant will have to � ll up the form duly and submit it at the district legal aid o� ce. An appli-cant may apply on a white paper mentioning his full name, address and reason for seeking legal aid addressing the chairman of district legal aid committee or if the matter is concerned with any division of the Supreme Court then to the chairman of the national legal aid committee.

After scrutinising the application, the authority will ap-point a lawyer on behalf of the petitioner to conduct his/her case for free of cost. The government will pay the hon-orarium to the advocate appointed for the case instead of the litigant. If district committee is declined to provide le-

gal aid then the aggrieved appellant can � le an appeal be-fore the national committee within 60 days from the date of the decision of the district committee. In addition to this, there are three dedicated contact numbers, ie 01761222222-4 from which any interested person can get more information about free legal aid service. In addition, a pauper (an insol-vent person) is also entitled to enforce his rights under the provision of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

When legal aid may be granted

A litigant can seek legal aid from the government before or after the commencement of the proceeding of his/her case. Legal aid may be provided in both civil and criminal cases. Even a legal aid may be granted to pay the remuneration of a mediator or arbitrator appointed under the Code of Civil Pro-cedure, 1908. The government will fund all relevant costs to conclude a legal proceeding. Usually legal aid is allowed to conduct suit relating to custody and guardianship of minor children, remarriage by a husband without taking permis-sion from arbitration council, torture by husband, dowry or torture for dowry, acid throwing, kidnapping, abduction, rape, arbitrary arrest by law enforcing agencies, etc.

Moreover, legal aid may also be awarded to maintain civil suits, eg divorce, maintenance, recovery of dower, recovery of possession, cancellation of deed, perpetual injunction, parti-tion, declaration or suit arising out of breach of contract, etc.

The lawmakers should bear in mind that this state has a constitutional obligation to ensure equality before law and equal protection of law to all citizen of the territory under Article 27 of the Constitution. Hence mere enactment of a law to provide legal aid is not su� cient to guarantee equal-ity and to protect legal rights of marginal people and it is also not the last task for them. Rather, implementation of the provisions of the enacted law has to be ensured for the commoners to get justice and to uphold the true spirit of the constitution. l

RaisuL Islam Sourav is a prasticing lawyer at Dhaka Judge Court and a rights activist.

Section O� ences Maximum punishment

284If any person employs any child or adolescent or permits any child or adolescent to work in contravention of any provision of the law

Fine which may extend to Tk5,000

289Any employer who pays any worker wages at a rate lower than the rate declared under the law

Imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with � ne which may extend to Tk5,000, or with both

294Any worker who commences, continues or otherwise acts in furtherance of an illegal strike

Imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with � ne which may extend to Tk5,000, or with both

296If any person takes part in or instigates or incites others to take part in, or otherwise acts in furtherance of, a go-slow

Imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with � ne which may extend to Tk5,000, or with both

298If any person dishonestly embezzles or misappropriates or converts to his own use any money of the workers, provident fund

Imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to � ne

BIGSTOCK

OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENTS RELATED TO EMPLOYMENT OF LABOUR

RAJIB DHAR

Thursday, May 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

British terror convict emailed as ‘sacri� ce72@yahoo.com’n AFP, New York

A British convict who plotted to blow a US passenger plane out of the sky was so de-termined to die for Al-Qaeda that he used the email address sacri� ce72@yahoo.com.

Saajid Badat, 35, told the New York trial of British hate preacher Abu Hamza on Tuesday that he used the Yahoo account while researching Jewish targets in South Africa.

The word sacri� ce was a nod to his determination to die in the cause of violent jihad and 72 a reference to the number of virgins that Al-Qaeda preached a “martyr” is entitled to de� ower in heaven.

Badat said he went to Pakistan in mid-2001 to use the Internet to research Jewish targets, which included a Holocaust museum, synagogues and the diamond industry.

Under cross-examination from Abu Hamza’s lawyer Jeremy Schneider, he said he spent two days preparing a “detailed”

report for Al-Qaeda bosses on the targets. He admitted he was willing to see women and children killed should the attacks have gone ahead.

When Al-Qaeda asked him instead to blow a US jet out of the sky and murder hundreds of people in late 2001, he con-fessed that he felt “honored” and “proud.”

Badat � ew back to Britain from Paki-stan, via the Netherlands and Turkey, with a shoe bomb strapped to his foot but backed out of the plot in December 2001.

Schneider told the court during cross-examination that Badat had received

75,000 pounds ($125,000) in total bene� ts from the British government since agreeing to testify against his former Al-Qaeda associates.

The bene� ts included rent, a TV licence, utility bills, travel and hotel expenses, Schneider said.

Badat said he received “very minimal money” and insisted he was “predomi-nantly self-su� cient.” He entered a formal co-operation agreement in 2009.

He was released from prison in 2010 after serving 6.5 years for conspiracy to harm an aircraft.

Britain also interceded to free up his assets frozen by UN sanctions, Badat admitted. The November 2003 Istanbul attacks, blamed on Al-Qaeda targeted two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank, killing 63 people.

Blind in one eye and with both arms blown o� in an explosion in Afghanistan years ago, he sat quietly in the courtroom in tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt. l

Death toll from attacks in Syria’s Homs now at 100n AFP, Beirut

Twin car bombs claimed by jihadists on a government-held district of Syr-ia’s third city Homs killed at least 100 people, mostly civilians, a monitoring group said yesterday, sharply raising an earlier toll.

Tuesday’s attack was the deadli-est of its kind in Homs since the Syr-ian con� ict erupted three years ago, and came as government forces make a new attempt to overrun the hand-ful of remaining rebel enclaves in the city centre.

It also came a day after President Bashar al-Assad registered to stand in a controversial June 3 election which is expected to return him to o� ce despite the raging violence.

Al-Qaeda’s Syria a� liate, Al-Nus-ra Front, said it carried out the twin bombings against the city’s Abbasiyeh neighbourhood, which is mainly in-habited by members of Assad’s Alawite minority community.

“God allowed the Al-Nusra Front’s � ghters to achieve a feat despite draco-nian security measures,” the hardline Sunni group said.

“It is so that they (the residents of pro-government areas) taste the hell that our brothers have tasted,” it add-ed, referring to the repeated bombard-ment by the army of rebel-held dis-tricts of Homs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had initially reported a toll of at least 51 dead and scores wounded from the bombings but raised that Wednes-day to at least 100 dead.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rah-man said the bombers had not come from inside the city’s rebel enclaves but from elsewhere.

“It’s a message from the rebels to Assad that there won’t be any safe zones to hold the election in,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, mortar � re killed 14 people in Damascus, the state SANA news agency reported, blaming rebels in the outskirts of the capital. l

Masked gunmen seize buildings, tighten grip on eastern Ukraine n Reuters, Horlivka, Ukraine

Masked gunmen in military fatigues took control of a government building in another Ukrainian town yesterday, as pro-Russian separatists tightened their grip on a swathe of the coun-try’s industrial east largely unopposed by police.

Local media reports said the gun-men turned up at � rst light, and were later seen by a Reuters photographer to be controlling entry to the building in the town of almost 300,000 people. They refused to be photographed.

The heavily armed men wore the same military uniforms without insig-nia as other so-called “green men” who have joined pro-Russian protesters with clubs and chains in seizing control of a string of towns across Ukraine’s Donbass coal and steel belt abutting the border with Russia.

A police o� cial in nearby Donetsk, the provincial capital where separatists have declared a “People’s Republic of Donetsk,” said separatists were also in control of the Horlivka police division, having seized the regional police HQ earlier in April.

Wednesday’s takeover followed the fall of government buildings on Tues-day further east in Luhansk, capital of Ukraine’s easternmost province, driv-ing home just how far control over the densely populated region has slipped from the pro-Western central govern-ment in Kiev.

“They’ve taken them. The govern-ment administration and police,” the police o� cial said of Horlivka.

The town sits just north of Donetsk, where mainly Russian-speaking sep-aratists have called a referendum on secession for May 11.

Many hope to follow Crimea’s break from Ukraine in late March and subse-quent annexation by Russia, follow-ing the overthrow of Ukraine’s then

Moscow-backed president Viktor Ya-nukovich in late February in a tug-of-war between the West and Russia over the strategic direction of the former Soviet republic.

The Donbass region is home to giant steel smelters and heavy plants that produce around a third of Ukraine’s in-dustrial output.

An armed uprising began there in early April, with Kiev almost powerless to re-spond for fear of provoking an invasion by tens of thousands of Russian troops massed on the border.

Oleksander Turchynov, Ukraine’s acting president until an election on May 25, reiterated on Wednesday that police were incapable of reasserting control in the region.

“Our main task is to prevent the ter-rorist threat from spreading to other regions of Ukraine,” he told a meeting of regional governors in Kiev.

“The Russian leadership is doing everything to prevent the election. But the election will take place on May 25,” he said.

Authorities in Kiev said security forces had “liquidated” three separat-ist checkpoints near the eastern town of Slaviansk, a separatist stronghold, and the gunmen manning them had disappeared. The information could not be independently con� rmed. l

Iraq votes despite violenceThe surge in violence has failed to keep voters away from casting their votesn AP, Baghdad

Unshaken by the latest surge in vio-lence, Iraqis braved the threat of bombs and attacks to vote Wednesday in key elections for a new parliament amid a massive security operation as the coun-try slides deeper into sectarian strife.

Hu ndreds of thousands of troops and police fanned out to guard voting centers in the � rst nationwide balloting since the 2011 American pullout. Scat-tered attacks still took place north of Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding 16.

Pr ime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has held power for eight years, faces growing criticism over government corruption and persistent bloodshed as sectarian tensions threaten to push Iraq back toward the brink of civil war.

Th e 63-year-old Shiite leader’s State of Law party was widely expected to win the most seats in the 328-member parliament but to fall short of a major-ity. That would allow al-Maliki to keep his post only if he can cobble together a coalition — a task made more di� cult given the divisions with former Sunni Arab and Kurdish allies.

Even some of al-Maliki’s Shiite back-ers denounce him as a would-be dicta-tor, amassing power for himself, but most in the majority sect see no alter-native. Al-Maliki also has the support of neighboring powerhouse Iran, which aides have said will use its weight to push discontented Shiite factions into backing him for another term.

Polls opened across the energy-rich nation at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT, midnight Tuesday EST) and were to close at 6 p.m. There were 22 million eligible vot-ers, choosing from among some 9,000 candidates.

In central Baghdad, police and army manned checkpoints roughly 500 me-ters (yards) apart, while pickup trucks with machine-guns perched on top roamed the streets. Much of the city looked deserted without the normal traf-� c congestion. Most stores were closed.

Voters are being subjected to mul-tiple searches before being allowed inside polling centers and surrounding streets were blocked by police trucks

and barbed wire.“I decided to go and vote early while

it’s safe. Crowds attract attacks,” Azhar Mohammed said as she and her hus-

band approached a polling station in Baghdad’s mainly Shiite Karradah dis-trict. The 37-year-old woman said her brother — a soldier — was killed last week in the northern city of Mosul.

“There has been a big failure in the way the country has been run and I think it is time to elect new people,” she said, shrouded in black.

Not far away, 72-year-old Essam Shukr broke into tears as he remem-bered a son killed in a suicide bombing in Karradah last month. “I hope this election takes us to the shores of safe-ty,” he said. “We want a better life for our sons and grandchildren who cannot even go to playgrounds or amusement parks because of the bad security situa-tion. We want a better life for all Iraqis.”

In Baghdad’s mostly Shiite Sadr City district, for years a frequent target of bombings blamed on Sunni insurgents, elite counterterrorism forces were de-ployed and helicopters hovered above the sprawling area. Double-decker bus-es ferried voters to polling centers.

Authorities also closed Iraq’s air-space for the elections, and banned vehicles from the streets to reduce the threat of car bombings.

Soldiers and police cast ballots on Monday to enable them to provide secu-rity for the rest of voters on Wednesday. Iraqis living in about 20 other countries voted on Sunday and Monday.

Initial and partial results from Wednesday’s vote were expected to start trickling out next week, but it was unclear when the � nal outcome would be announced.

Al-Maliki rose from relative obscu-rity to o� ce in 2006, when Iraq’s sec-tarian bloodletting began to spiral out of control, with Sunni militants and Shiite militias butchering each other’s communities.

Over the years that followed, Sunni tribes backed by the Americans rose up to � ght al-Qaida-linked militants, while al-Maliki showed a readiness to rein in Shiite militiamen — and by 2008, the violence had eased. l

Top Sunni cleric’s group slams Egypt death sentencesn AFP, Doha

A Qatar-based Sunni Muslim group led by in� uential cleric Sheikh Yusef al-Qa-radawi has condemned as “politicised” an Egyptian court’s decision to sen-tence hundreds of Islamists to death.

The court on Monday imposed death sentences on 683 suspected Isla-mists – including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie – amid a crack-down on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The Association of Muslim Scholars responded by saying it “rejects these verdicts coming from a court that takes orders from those who came to power in a military coup and govern Egypt us-ing coercion and repression.”

In a statement issued late on Tues-day, the Qatar-based organisation said the sentences were “politicised and considered an insult to justice” in Egypt.

The Minya court in southern Egypt is set to con� rm the death sentences on June 21.

It reversed 492 of 529 death sentenc-es it passed in March, commuting most of them to life imprisonment. l

Two millennia on, Rome celebrates legacy of Emperor Augustusn Reuters, Rome

Rome, a city that thinks in millennia, is going through a bout of “Augustus fever” to mark the 2,000th anniversa-ry of the death of its � rst emperor, who left his mark on Rome and Western ci-vilisation like few others.

The Eternal City is staging shows, exhibitions, debates and seminars on Augustus, who died on August 19, 14 AD at the age of 75 after a 41-year reign that was the longest in Roman history.

The celebrations will also explore the dark side of a legacy that inspired mod-ern-day dictators, including Italy’s own Benito Mussolini, who followed Augus-tus in using monumental architecture as propaganda to buttress their rule and studied his techniques of gaining, con-solidating and masking power.

Augustus vastly expanded the Ro-man Empire, established a period of relative peace known as the “Pax Ro-mana” and sponsored an explosion of creativity and innovation in architec-

ture, law and literature whose e� ects were felt far beyond the capital.

He also made Rome a world-class city with infrastructure projects that vastly improved its liveability after the discord and violence that marred the preceding period of the Republic.

“The peace he brought meant that a lot of the longstanding problems could be resolved and one of the � rst ones he tried to resolve was the city of Rome it-self,” said Valerie Higgins, programme director of archaeology and classics at the American University of Rome.

On his deathbed, according to the historian Suetonius, Augustus said: “Marmoream relinquo, quam lateri-ciam accepi” (I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble).

Monuments that endure to this day, including the Forum of Augus-tus, the Pantheon, the Theatre of Mar-cellus, aqueducts and his own mas-sive family tomb were either built on his direct orders or were � nanced or encouraged by him. l

Ukraine ‘on full combat alert’ against possible Russia invasionn AFP, Kiev

Ukraine’s military is “on full combat alert” against a possible invasion by Russian troops massed on the border, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said in a ministerial meeting in Kiev yesterday.

“Our armed forces are on full com-bat alert,” he said. “The threat of Rus-sia starting a war against mainland Ukraine is real.”

His comments came as Ukraine’s army and police appeared to be making little progress in a high-pro� le operation to stop pro-Russian rebels expanding their grip over towns in the restive east.

Russia deployed an estimated 40,000 troops to its shared border with Ukraine in March. Moscow initially said they were mobilised for exercises but last week said they were ready to respond to Kiev’s military o� ensive against pro-Kremlin rebels. l

Iraqi women smile after voting in the central Shiite holy city of Najaf during the country’s general elections on April 30. Iraqis streamed to voting centres nationwide, amid the worst bloodshed in years, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki seeks reelection AFP

An image projected on the walls of the Forum of Augustus displays a view of ancient Rome in Rome. The project is one of many initiatives to mark this year’s 2,000th anniversary of the death of Augustus, Rome’s � rst emperor REUTERS

‘The Russian leadership is doing everything to prevent the election. But the election will take place on May 25,’ Turchynov said

9Thursday, May 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE WorldAfghan, foreign forces kill 60 militants near Pakistan bordern Reuters, Kabul

Afghan troops backed by Western air power have killed at least 60 militants near the Pakistan border, Afghan secu-rity o� cials said yesterday, in one of the single biggest assaults against the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.

US o� cials say Washington has in-tensi� ed its drive against the network in an attempt to deal a lasting blow to the militants before foreign combat forces depart at the end of the year.

The National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s main intelligence agen-cy, said in a statement that about 300 Haqqani insurgents and foreign � ghters came under intensive � re on Monday when they tried to storm Afghan bases in Ziruk district of Paktika province.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Afghan forces were al-ready in position after receiving infor-mation about imminent attacks by the insurgents.

“Hundreds of insurgents tried to take over the district centre but we were there and hit them with a huge blow,” Sediqqi told Reuters, adding that � ve Afghan policemen were wounded.

“Dead bodies, wounded � ghters, their weapons and pick-up trucks were left on the battle� eld,” Sediqqi added.

The Nato-led international force de-clined to comment.

Haqqani crackdown The Haqqani network, which profess-es obedience to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, is believed to have been involved in some of the most deadly attacks of the Afghan war.

The group has been blamed for at-tacks on hotels popular with foreigners in Kabul, the bombing of the Indian embassy in the capital, a 2011 attack on the US embassy and several big at-tempted truck bombings.

The United States blacklisted the group as a terrorist organisation in

2012. It also accuses Pakistan’s power-ful spy agency of supporting the net-work and using it as a proxy in Afghan-istan to gain leverage against growing in� uence of its arch-rival India. Paki-stan denies that.

Monday’s battle occurred in the southeast province of Paktika which shares a long and porous border with lawless areas in Pakistan where foreign � ghters and the Haqqani network are believed to be based.

The Obama administration has creat-ed a special unit based in Kabul to coor-dinate e� orts against the militant group. The US-led military operation in Afghan-istan is due to end on Dec. 31, although the United States wants to keep a small force in the country for counter-terror-ism support and training. Outgoing Pres-ident Hamid Karzai has declined to sign a security agreement allowing US forces to stay, but the two front runners to re-place him as president in an election say they will enact the pact. l

Church demolition illuminates China’s religious tensionsn AFP, Wenzhou

The destruction of a towering church by Chinese authorities has sown fear in a thriving Christian community and highlighted tensions between a rapidly growing number of worshippers and the Communist state.

Massive slabs of concrete on a hill-side were all that remained yesterday of the Sanjiang Church after an army of excavators smashed into the build-ing this week, following government claims it was an illegal structure.

The church stood above the village of Pudong, part of the city of Wenzhou.

The metropolis has a reputation for greater leniency towards religion and is known as China’s Jerusalem with more than a million Christians, as well as be-ing a freewheeling centre of capitalism.

In Pudong, Christian households are openly marked out by posters with a red cross and a Bible verse from John: “In him was life and that was the light of men.”

The church was built in part with donations from the hundreds-strong congregation.

“We are crying inside, there is noth-ing more to say,” a middle-aged man who had been a member told AFP.

“It’s gone now,” added his wife. They declined to give their names for fear of reprisals by authorities.

The couple said some Christians liv-ing in the area have � ed while others have been visited since the demolition by government “work teams” criticis-ing them for their religious beliefs.

China’s ruling Communist Party keeps a tight grip on religion for fear it could challenge its grip on power, re-quiring followers to worship in places approved by the state and under gov-ernment supervision.

But the Sanjiang church was reg-istered with the authorities, unlike “underground” or “house” churches which seek to exist outside govern-ment control.

Activists believe the demolition was part of a wider crackdown on Protes-tant Christians, cloaked in a campaign against structures violating building codes in Zhejiang province.

The government has ordered at least � ve churches in Zhejiang – four of them in Wenzhou – to be demolished or to remove prominent crosses from their rooftops, state media has reported.

“I suspect it is a well-orchestrated campaign in order to contain the rap-id growth of Christianity,” said Bob Fu, president of the China Aid Association, a US-based religious rights group.

“The deliberate wounds will take years to heal and the remaining little trust between the Chinese government and Chinese religious communities is gone,” he said.

‘What can we do?’ Despite the constraints, the number of Christians has grown. The state-linked China Christian Council estimates the

country has around 20 million Chris-tians – not including Catholics – 70 per-cent of them living in rural areas.

But the true number of worship-pers could be higher, at least 40 mil-lion to 60 million, according to some estimates.

Academics said authorities had tightened control over religion since Xi Jinping took power in late 2012.

“There has been a noticeable tight-ening in the religious atmosphere,” said Carsten Vala, an assistant profes-sor at Loyola University Maryland and a specialist on Christianity in China.

At the same time a younger gener-ation of church leaders has sought to push the boundaries, he added. “The registered churches are becoming more active and evangelical – that kind of exuberance.”

There have been previous cases of churches in China going under the wrecking ball, but largely in the 1980s and 1990s, Vala said. l

Crisis-hit Thailand to hold new election on July 20n AFP, Bangkok

Thailand will hold a new general elec-tion on July 20, a top poll o� cial said yesterday, in an e� ort to resolve a deadly six-month political crisis.

Election Commission (EC) secre-tary general Puchong Nutrawong said the new voting date had been decided during talks with Prime Minister Yin-gluck Shinawatra.

“We agreed that the most suit-able election day is July 20 and the EC will draft the royal decree for the prime minister to submit to the king for royal endorsement,” he told reporters.

The kingdom has been without a fully functioning government or parlia-ment since December. A general elec-tion held in February was voided after opposition demonstrators disrupted voting.

It was not immediately clear if the main opposition Democrat Party would take part in the new vote.

The opposition protesters want

Yingluck to resign to make way for an unelected “people’s council” to over-see political reforms before elections are held.

Yingluck is pushing for new polls as soon as possible to shore up her position in the face of a series of legal threats that could force her from o� ce.

She is accused of dereliction of duty linked to a loss-making rice subsidy scheme and the improper transfer of a senior civil servant.

The nation has been shaken by months of political violence that has left 25 people dead and hundreds wounded, including many anti-gov-ernment protesters, in grenade attacks and shootings.

Thailand has been bitterly divid-ed since a coup in 2006 ousted Yin-gluck’s brother Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister.

He still wields huge in� uence from his self-exile in Dubai, where he lives to avoid prison for a corruption conviction. l

Jubilant Modi votes, Congress � ghts to deny BJP majorityn Reuters

India’s Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi looked triumphant after voting on Wednesday in the eighth stage of the world’s largest election, but the man tipped to be the next prime min-ister is still not assured of winning an outright majority.

Some 139 million people were reg-istered in the 89 constituencies that polled on Wednesday in a race pitting Modi against the Nehru-Gandhi dy-nasty-led ruling Congress party and a pantheon of satraps. Results are due on May 16.

Casting his vote in his home state of Gujarat, the leader whose pro-busi-ness policies have delighted investors brandished his party’s lotus symbol and taunted Congress heavyweights for shying away from the � ght.

“The prime minister himself is not � ghting the election. The � nance min-ister is not � ghting the election. All its

top leaders have run away,” Modi said to cheers from a large crowd gathered at the polling station in the state’s larg-est city, Ahmedabad.

India is sometimes described as a collection of countries united main-ly by a common currency. The re-sults of its elections are notoriously hard to predict, with block voting by caste and religion. Dramatic last-min-ute swings can confound experts, with opinion polls getting the result wrong in 2004.

In a reminder of the di� culties in converting Modi’s popularity into seats, Arun Jaitley, a possible future � -nance minister, risks losing a contest in the state of Punjab over anger with the state government headed by a BJP ally.

The BJP’s president, Rajnath Singh also faces a tough � ght in Lucknow, the capital of the mammoth state of Uttar Pradesh, where voters lined up at schools despite the blazing summer sun on Wednesday. l

Power plants blamed for deadly India � oodsn AFP, New Delhi

Hydropower projects in northern India were partly to blame for devastating � oods last year that killed thousands, a government report has concluded, in a warning to other Himalayan nations in-vesting in the alternative energy source.

Floods and landslides caused by early monsoon rains tore through the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand last June leaving more than 5,500 people dead or missing, and destroying villag-es and towns.

The world’s second most populous country has turned to hydropower projects in the Himalayas for electricity as it seeks to curb its reliance on coal-fed plants as well as reducing its crip-pling power shortages.

Pakistan, China, Bhutan and Nepal are also eyeing expansion of hydropow-er in the Himalayan range to varying de-grees, often in ecologically fragile areas.

In a report commissioned by the Indian government, a panel of experts said some of the more than 30 hydro-power projects had caused a build up of sediment in Uttarakhand’s rivers, including soil dug up during construc-tion and dumped on the banks.

When record-high rainfall hit the re-gion, rivers burst their banks, sending tonnes of water as well as the sediment downstream, exacerbating the � ood-ing that washed away roads, bridges and whole buildings.

The report, which was handed to the government and the Supreme Court this month, called for a single government department to manage conservation issues in the Himalayas.

It also recommended studies be conducted across the region to bet-ter understand the impact of multiple plants, the e� ects of deforestation, tunnelling, blasting and reservoirs on the environment. l

India’s biggest loser: 158 - 0n AFP, New Delhi

Indian shop owner K Padmarajan (pic-tured above) doesn’t feel like a loser. In fact, he sees much to celebrate in the 158 times he has stood for public o� ce and failed.

Starting out in 1988, he had a point to prove – to those who laughed at the ambitions of a man who repaired tyres for a living and to the cynics who scorned Indian democracy with all its � aws and ine� ciencies.

“Back then, I owned a cycle punc-ture repair shop and a thought struck me that I, an ordinary man with an or-dinary income and no special status in society, could contest the elections,” he told AFP.

He lost. And then lost again and again. Over 26 years, he has competed hopelessly for local assembly seats and parliament, often standing against big names such as prime ministers A.B. Va-jpayee or Manmohan Singh.

In all, he says he has forfeited 1.2 million rupees ($20,000) in deposits tendered in his lonely pursuit, in the process earning a place in the Limca Book of Records, the national reposito-ry of India’s eccentric record-making.

“I have never contested an election to win and the results just don’t matter to me,” laughs the entrepreneur whose tyre shop has � ourished alongside his other business, a homeopathic medical practice. l

Pak minister slams Modi’s ‘irresponsible’ statement on Dawoodn Agenceis, Islamabad

Pakistan’s interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday condemned Narendra Modi’s statement on un-derworld don Dawood Ibrahim and warned that BJP’s prime ministerial candidate could become a great threat to regional peace.

Modi had recently said that he will bring back Dawood from Pakistan if he comes to power.

“Before making such an irrespon-sible statement, Modi should have � rst con� rmed the whereabouts of Dawood,” Pak’s interior minister said.

Nisar said that those who are giv-ing statements that Islamabad shelters Dawood Ibrahim and are talking about launching operation against him on Pakistani soil, should realise that Paki-stan is not so weak that it will be afraid of such threats. l

Claims of MH730 wreckage in Bay of Bengal dismissedn Reuters, Malaysia

A private company said it had found what it believes is wreckage of a plane in the Bay of Bengal that should be investigated as potential debris from missing Malaysia Airlines ( MASM.KL) Flight MH370, but the possibility was dismissed by search coordinators.

The Joint Agency Coordination Cen-tre (JACC) managing the multinational search for the missing plane said it be-lieved that the plane came down in the southern Indian Ocean o� Australia.

“I think that we have been looking in the right place,” Angus Houston, the head of JACC, told Sky New Australia. “I’m con� dent the aircraft will be found.”

A massive search operation involv-ing satellites, aircraft, ships and so-phisticated underwater equipment capable of scouring the ocean � oor has failed to turn up any trace of the Boe-ing 777, which disappeared on March 8. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday the chance of � nding � oating debris was now remote. l

South Korea ferry disaster: Con� rmed death toll hits 212n AP, Mokpo, South Korea,

Two weeks after a ferry sank o� South Korea’s southern cost, divers have re-covered 212 bodies from the wreckage, but they fought strong currents and � oating debris inside the ship Wednes-day as they searched for 90 passengers still missing.

Meanwhile, family members of high students killed in the sinking dismissed as insincere President Park Geun-hye’s apology for the government’s handling of the disaster. They called for the quick retrieval of the missing. The ship carried 476 people, mostly from a single high school. Only 174 people survived, in-cluding 22 of the 29 crew members.

After several days of sluggish search e� orts because of bad weather, divers on Tuesday retrieved more than a doz-en bodies from the ship, which lies on the ocean � oor, triggering a fresh out-pouring of emotions by family mem-bers waiting for the return of their loved ones. l

Narendra Modi holds up his ink-marked � nger and the party symbol as he poses for a photograph after casting his vote at a polling station in Ahmedabad AFP

Afghan wrestlers compete at an outdoor arena in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif on April 29. Wrestling is a popular sport in Afghanistan, and is traditionally practiced among poorer members of Afghan society AFP

WRESTLING IN AFGHANISTAN

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

ACROSS1 Settle cosily (6)5 Liable (3)7 Anger (3)8 Annul (6)11 Play on words (3)12 Venomous ill will (5)14 Swimming organs (4)16 Concise (5)18 Foreign (5)20 Bring up (4)21 Devotional song (5)23 Faucet (3)24 Balances (6)27 Had a meal (3)28 Blushing (3)29 Rubs with oil (6)

DOWN1 And not (3)2 Drink slowly (3)3 Long locks (7)4 Bound (4)5 Electrical unit (6)6 O� er (6)9 Wicked (4)10 Ignited (3)13 White ant (7)14 Waver (6)15 Pinched (6)17 Wise man (4)19 Short sleep (3)22 Fertile soil (4)25 Briny (3)26 Distress signal (3)

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

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a dif-ferent letter of the alphabet. For ex-ample, today 10 represents A so � ll in A every time the � gure 10 appears.

You them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in 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.

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALV

IN A

ND

HO

BBES

PEAN

UTS

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Rajuk asked to identify unauthorised buildingsApril 23Dr Ahsan HabibWhy does the committee have no mandate to ask for demolition? In Bangladesh, parliament under the PM can do or undo anything. Saying that it does not have mandate appears to be skirting the issue. Also, what about the mother of all illegal constructions, the BGMEA building? Will some-thing be done about it? Who let that spring up in Hatirajheel?

Election Commission probe � nds ‘no irregularity’ in upazila pollsApril 23

deep purple blueHow is it that the EC probes its own irregularities and determine that the upazila polls were free, fair, peaceful, and participatory with no untoward incidents? What came in the print and electronic media were lies fabricated by some journalists. Seriously? The EC is clearly trying to fool people all the time. Dumb!

Man seeks green card after American husband diesApril 23

Rajeeb39 years of marriage but never got state recognition! No matter what sex people belong to, their love must be equal under the law. Wishing the best for Anthony Sullivan. And thanks DT for carrying this story.

Dhaka experiences highest temperature in 54 yearsApril 25RonnieFunny how this paper has been, for the past week, daily forecasting a temperature of 40 degrees in Dhaka, while a few of the other papers have been printing the highest temperatue in Dhaka every day, in the range of 37-39 degrees. At any rate, it’s lately been a hellish heat spree, and a few of the days, including yesterday, actually felt even hotter than the 40.2 degrees reported here. It’s easy to believe it’s the hottest period in the living memories of very many Dhaka denizens. Just like a lengthy cold wave in winter – January, 2013 – was clearly the chilliest it’s been in Dhaka, in decades.

Who will form the next government in India?

April 23Vimal

BJP will get more seats in UP than you believe. I have worked on the ground. Has the

author done so?

ndsWhy this beating about the bush? A few

days’ wait will make everything clear. Why this lack of patience which only makes unwanted

room for making money by the fake political an-alysts on speculative article in national dailies?

Dilip T T KrishnanUPA will at least 150 seats. No way BJP/NDA

will form next government.

rsmnr Dilip T T Krishnan: You must be mad to make

that assessment.

NC ShuklaI am an agricultural researcher in UP. The

analysis that you people do sitting in front of your laptops is meaningless. In UP, it is possible

for BJP to readily win more than 50 seats.

Negotiator: Japan has not narrowed trade di� erences

with USApril 23

Berkeley Yellow CabJapanese o� cials on Tuesday said there

was still a signi� cant way to go before reaching a broad agreement on trade with the United

States, a day before President Barack Obama visits for a summit.

‘2 joint secretaries’ enmity leaks scam over golden crests

for foreigners’April 25

rutland watersWhen so much gold is being smuggled in, why

did they have to fake the crests?

A better solution

Last year alone, over $828m in tari� s was paid to the US on goods, primarily RMG products, exported there from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh pays the second-highest rate of tari� duty (15.6%) for exports to the US market. This is almost twice the rate of other developing countries such as Vietnam and roughly � ve times the rate of China and India.

The Ticfa talks this week suggest there is no sign of this discriminatory rate changing soon. As RMG exports do not come under the suspended bilateral GSP arrange-ment, even restoration of GSP will not make a di� erence.

We call on policy-makers in both countries to give urgent attention to the elegant proposal made by the chief economist of the Bangladesh Bank for a Tari� s for Standards fund.

A portion, say a quarter of the $800m plus that Bangladesh pays the US to export garments, could be invested by the US in a fund administered by a third party such as the World Bank, to � nance factory upgrades and improvements in working standards in Bangladesh.

The RMG industry needs substantial long-term investment to allow more modern factories to be built. Reports such as the 10 point plan issued by the RMG Action Group last year indicate that a $1bn fund is needed to make substantial progress.

While some overseas investors are reportedly raising money for factory up-grades, a multilateral government supported fund would make this much easier.

Tari� s for standards can address both countries concerns, by applying money which is already being collected to improve factories and working conditions.

End political protection for railway tree looters

Both AL and BNP members are alleged to have been involved in recent inci-dents of a syndicate illegally cutting down and selling o� a large number of trees belonging to Bangladesh Railways in Chittagong.

The case sadly once again demonstrates mismanagement and corruption among public o� cials and politicians.

Sources in the railway department have admitted that it has no reliable data on the number of trees that it owns, creating the perfect opportunity for outside forces to appropriate these public properties. In addition, large swaths of land owned by the railway department are currently being illegally occupied.

There are persistent allegations of collusion between railway management and local politicians that enable these crimes to take place. What is particularly disturbing is that both political parties are implicated in these incidents.

Although a probe body has been formed to investigate these incidents, there is little indication thus far that this will be performed impartially. The head of the probe body has dismissed the connection of an Awami League leader to these incidents even though the investigation indicated their involvement.

The lethal combination of mismanagement, corruption, and collusion between railway o� cials and local politicians is leading to the squandering of valuable and scarce public assets in Chittagong.

Urgent action now needs to be taken by appropriate higher authorities within Bangladesh Railway, both political parties and law enforcement bodies, to ensure that this is stopped immediately and those responsible are held accountable.

Investigate these incidents and ensure those responsible are held accountable

The RMG industry needs substantial long-term investment to build more modern factories

Fakhrul: No water, no relationsApril 24

OneBNP must begin preparing a politically pragmatic but equally assertive stance in dealings with India when the party is again elected to govern Bangladesh. Meantime, I applaud BNP’s march to the Teesta, their principled efforts to highlight the gravity of the issue and demands for a just and enduring resolution of this with India.

Akhtar ShahIf only international relations were that simple!

Traveller_23 Akhtar Shah: Exactly! I believe we need to learn to stand up to India and assert our position but cannot be done as simply as Nazrul puts it.

These words and the march to Teesta are more about populism. When they come to power I doubt they will manage to summon the diplomatic � nesse needed to solve these problems.

Instead they’ll just sour our relationship with our powerful neighbour.

n Zia Rahman

The historical Chicago Movement gave rise to many signi� cant practices directly or indirectly,

including eight-hour standard work days, improved workplace environ-ments, standard overtime payment, standard maternity leave, festival bonuses, compensations for work related injuries, trade union rights, etc, although we sometimes erroneously forget the historical workers’ sacri� ces.

Bangladesh’s workers are classi� ed to two major sectors – formal and informal. While the majority of the workers work as informal labour, a large number of female workers have lately been engaged in the readymade garment industry in the name of so-called formal workers. That the hawk-ers, rickshaw pullers, street vendors, and the many others depending on informal labour have been outside the workers’ rights, acknowledged in the country’s labour law and international conventions, is well-known.

People in Bangladesh have been so accustomed and familiar with the mis-eries of informal labour that they have somewhat complied these workers’ mis-eries as their fate and reality. But what about the formal workers who are sup-posed to be regulated by the country’s la-bour law and international conventions in the industries like the RMG?

Apart from the historical jute, cotton, and textile industries that emerged during the 1940s-60s, the RMG industries became the popular formal industry, starting in the late 1970s, in terms of the percentage of workers employed in this sector and of earning foreign currency. The military regime that initiated the export-led apparel industries under the aegis of the World Bank and the capitalist core by attracting hundreds of thousands of illiterate young rural women often hymned this venture as “women’s empowerment” or “women and devel-opment.”

The hardcore reality of the de-velopment of the RMG industries in Bangladesh seems capital’s incessant hunting for cheap labour, the reloca-tion of capitals in a safe place having union-free environment, the introduc-

tion of neoliberal globalisation, the use of docile and allegiant rural unskilled women workers, and the international hegemonic power-military autocrat nexus.

From the very beginning of the journey, the impoverished and so-cially excluded rural women entered the industry, often stigmatised due to breaking down the traditional “purdah” system. Gradually, more poverty-stricken young women joined in the industries while more industries appeared and more internationally recognised brands came to the fore. The initial conditions of the workers were like what we encountered in Bombay, Lancashire, Manchester, Boston, or New York.

The horri� c conditions of the work-place in terms of the absence of safe exits, and washroom and dining facilities, low wages and unregulated long working hours, no facilities of housing and transportation, notorious physical, psychological, and sexual repression by the managements, ini-tiatives of organising unions slapped by the local thugs recruited by the factory owners, idiosyncratic overtime rates and violations of most other labour rights occasionally rendered a few sporadic, contingent, and ad-hoc movements, including street agita-tions, factory blockades, and factory ransacking that could not save the innocent women workers from the rapacious owners whose main thrust was to make absolute pro� t without providing the standard bene� ts of the workers, let alone the legal ones.

In the past decades, informally or formally, some labour unions have emerged. Most of them have very little union experience but they signed many accords with the owners associ-ation, ie the BGMEA, which has been

intermittently bypassing the country’s labor laws and international labour conventions. But most of the workers’ demands remained unful� lled for a long time. It is interesting to note that the issues related to the demands of the workers are prototypical to the demands placed by the workers of the Bombay cotton and textile mills work-ers, most of which were ful� lled in the First and Second Factory Acts of India in 1881 and 1891 respectively.

Imagine, after more than one hun-dred years of the history of industri-alisation in this region, the workers of Bangladesh are � ghting for the same issues! Meanwhile some international unions came to the fore establishing their sponsored local unions in the

name of so-called international labour solidarity movements while some NGOs emerged to assist the vulnera-ble workers. It is interesting to note that while the international labour unions are meticulously ful� lling their own agendas serving the imperialist interests, the NGOs are providing aids and services to the workers. In a true sense, few, though not all, NGOs are providing some telling services to the Bangladeshi workers.

The RMG industry is almost close to ending its so-called � rst generation industrial era. Still the workers are ex-ploited; still the workers are deprived of all kinds of rights even though Bangladesh has its own labour law, and it rati� ed major fundamental con-ventions of the International Labour Organisations.

In addition to the violations related to building structures and factory conditions mentioned in the Bangla-desh Labour Act, the other common violations of the Bangladesh Labour Act are Section 100-102, Section 108, Section 109, Section 123 while the

common violations related to ILO conventions are conventions No 87 and conventions No 98. As a result, the workers in this trade have been facing many horri� c accidents intermittently starting from Saraka � re accident in 1990 to Spectrum Garment Industry in 2005, to the Tazrin Fashion accident in 2012. The infamous and tragic Rana Plaza incident in 2013, snatching 1,138 lives and injuring more than 2,500 workers, left us stunned, terri� ed, and speechless.

The industry is thriving day by day in terms of attracting more “industrial reserve army,” in terms of the development of a proud entrepreneur with eight industries employing 4000 workers – someone who once lived in a rented shack shared with three co-workers spending only TK600 a months, or was a local political urchin with nothing, or a chef in the Middle East, or a corrupt police o� cer, in terms of earning foreign currency, in terms of providing more clubs and industries for the recreation of the national bourgeoisie, in terms of boosting up the export capacities despite the horri� c Rana Plaza incident, in terms of developing trade union bureaucracy patronised by the international unions, of having American citizenship or being the proud owner of an NGO who was once a factory operator now receiving $100,000 from a donor agency.

This might be the process that Karl Marx once labeled as the “primitive accumulation of capital.” Contrarily, living in the era of so-called “global village” or “global city,” the workers endure their lives in the same manner that a street hawker or a rickshaw-puller endures. She has an incessant risk of being raped, assaulted, and killed. She lives in the same squatter, walks without any transportation, and she is deprived of all kinds of bene� ts vividly acknowledged in the country’s labour law and ILO’s conventions. This industry, thus, I label as a formal one in the paper while informal in the everyday practices. l

Zia Rahman is Professor and Chairperson, Department of Criminology, University of Dhaka.

11Op-EdOp-Art

Thursday, May 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Kazi Liakat Hossain

The historic May Day is being observed today throughout the country and elsewhere in the

world to show respect to workers who shed their blood for the establishment of the rights of the working class in 1886. On this day 128 years ago, the workers of the Hay Market of Chicago, USA, sacri� ced their lives to ensure eight-hour working days for workers. Since then, the day has been observed all over the world as the day for soli-darity with working people.

A major new step in the labour front was the establishment of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) three decades after the decision to observe May Day internationally. The ILO was established in 1919 to promote social justice for the working class. It formulates international policies and programs to improve working and living conditions, and creates international labour standards to serve as guidelines for national authorities in putting those policies in action.

Consciousness about labour rights did not come overnight. In the be-ginning, everyone worked with their own hands. Then society came to be divided between the rich and poor, the exploiter and the exploited. The exploited were put to hard labour. Though slavery was formally abol-ished, vestiges remain. The dignity of labour is yet to be fully restored.

The labour movement has a proud heritage in Bangladesh. The country is a signatory to the ILO convention and has a number of legislations for labour welfare.

The government is also keen on improving the lot of the working class, and their concern extends to spheres where the labour is not organised. Self-styled labour leaders, particularly after the emergence of Bangladesh, have sprung up only to give lip service to some parties.

On this great day, some questions haunt the minds of those who really feel for just causes of the working class. Why have extraneous elements found place as representatives of labourers? Why have bargaining agents failed to occupy their rightful position, and are not representing the workers? Why has the government in the past � ddled with the fates of the helpless

lot by creating more than one union? What is the achievement of the past BNP government in creating con� -dence and restoring industrial peace and harmony? These questions need to be answered.

This concept must be changed for the restoration of a congenial envi-ronment conducive to uninterrupted operations of all industrial establish-ments. Labour unions, in most cases, have become unreasonable and come up with fantastic demands only to help in the closure of the units. It must be understood that better employer-em-ployee relations can only ensure pro-ductivity and welfare of the workers.

They cannot always think in terms of agitation, strikes, and “gherao-jalao” tactics. The wages invariably have to be linked with productivity, and the demand for higher wages cannot rea-sonably be pressed without increasing output.

The working atmosphere has to be made conducive and peaceful, espe-cially for women workers. The e� orts to remove economic and social causes for the swelling number of children en-gaged in labour have to be identi� ed. Corruption in the labour directorate has to be handled very seriously.

Last year’s Savar disaster has jolted the country and the world. In our country, poor labourers are always neglected; they don’t get their wages properly and in time. RMG workers should be given their rights to open trade unions in all sectors.

To stop this type of disaster, particularly in the garments sector, garment owners should be made to follow the government’s building code. Violators should be brought to book. Labour unrest in Bangladesh should be brought under control by paying workers their dues regularly and on time. l

Kazi Liakat Hossain is a senior journalist.

n Mushfi ka Jahan

Every year, Bangladeshi rights-based organisations, civil society, and the media highlight workers’

rights and welfare on Labour Day. Street demonstrations are arranged, seminars are held, talk shows are aired, and various activities take place to emphasise the spirit of the day.

But International Labour Day 2013 was completely di� erent in Bangla-desh. Rana Plaza collapsed on April 24, just six days prior to the day. Accord-ing to the government, more than 1,100 people died and about 2,500 were rescued from the disaster. A total of 3,565 people – dead and alive – were pulled out of the rubble.

In the aftermath of the disaster, various international multi-stakehold-er initiatives were created, bringing together global brands, trade unions, NGOs, and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The goal was to im-prove building and � re safety codes of textile factories in Bangladesh, as well as to compensate Rana Plaza survivors and victims’ families.

Non-government organisations and multinationals took supportive meas-ures after the accident. The govern-ment, BGMEA, and many development partners, international organisations, and retailers made a host of pledges, some immediate and some long-term, to the victims and the garment sector at large. BRAC programs also took on supportive initiatives on a long-term and short-term basis.

In response to such a great loss, ma-jor support initiatives were anticipated from the government and the BGMEA. The BGMEA has formed a supportive

fund, which asked each member to contribute a minimum amount of Tk25,000. But only about a quarter of the members contributed to the fund. Later, BGMEA became silent regarding this supportive initiative. Considering the slow progress for supportive meas-ures, requests have been placed recent-ly to international garment brands to help mitigate the damage by assisting with the full restitution of those who were injured or the families of those who lost their lives.

Labour Day is not only signi� cant for the original eight hours’ work demand, but it gives an opportuni-ty to honour the workers and the labour movement for their hard work, dedication, and their contribution to economic and social growth and devel-opment. It also forces many others to think about securing workers’ rights and to ensure worker’s safety and security at the workplace.

The international community has declared the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse as Fashion Revolution Day to commemorate this tragic event. But the question is, why are we compelled to � nd separate days for di� erent welfare issues for workers? Fashion Revolution Day is not completely unwanted or unnec-essary. It’s always better to identify a date to remember the lessons from tragic events. But then what about the signi� cance of International Workers’ Day?

This day promises to remember and consider the issues around workers’ welfare. Though Bangladesh observes the day annually, the Rana Plaza tragedy took place close to Labour Day. What does this say about us? Have we been dishonest with the promises we made while observing International Workers’ Days in past years? This might be the reason behind inadequate results in the endeavour to have policies ensuring secure and safe workplaces for Bangladeshi workers. Do we need another day to remember secure workplace rights for workers? Let’s think about that before the next tragedy strikes. l

Mush� ka Jahan is Field Coordinator, Migration Program, BRAC.

Unanswered questions

Broken promises Formal industries, informal practices

In our country, poor labourers are always neglected

The Rana Plaza tragedy took place close to Labour Day. What does this say about us?

Still the workers are exploited; still the workers are deprived of all kinds of rights

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 201412

MusicAcoustic Guitar NightTime: 5.00pm- 8.00pmBlue Horizon, Level 5, Block AJamuna Future Park, Bashundhara

ExhibitionGermany – A Sporting Nation Time: 11am – 6pmGoethe Institut BangladeshRoad 9(new), House 10, Dhanmondi

‘Water Rhymes-2’Time: 11am – 8pmGalleri Kaya, House 20, Road 16, Sector 04, Uttara

Bonded Stitches & StruggleTime: 3pm – 8pmDrik GalleryHouse 58Road 15A (New)Dhanmondi

Film Captain America: The Winter Soldier (3D & 2D) Jonakir AloThe Legend of Hercules 3DAvatar in 3DFrozen in 3DEnder’s GameTime: 10am – 10pmStar Cineplex, Level 8Bashundhara City

TODAY IN DHAKA

‘I am waiting for a � lm like Agnee’n Milan Afridi

Bobby’s debut � lm Khoj:The Search made her one of the most popular heroines of recent time. Her second � lm Dehorokkhi made her an A-list actor in the Bangladesh � lm industry. Recently, Dhaka Tribune in-terviewed the bold actor about her progress in the glamour world.

Tell us about your journey in the media industry. It was my childhood dream to make my way to stardom and I made my debut in a commercial for Ruchi chanchur when I was still a school student. I kept on working as a model. Later, I got propositions to act in TV plays and � lms. I became more involved, dedicated and hopeful when the audience gave me love. I started getting o� ers from brands like Airtel, Walton and others to act as their ambassador. My career as a suc-cessful model enabled me to create a strong foothold in the media. Iftakar Chowdhury’s Khoj:The Search was my � rst big break. You can call it the turning point of my career.

Tell us about Khoj: The Search.Khoj: The Search was a one-man show. Ananta Jalil was the producer of the � lm and also the protagonist. Barsha and I shared screen space as the two female leads and our roles were quite muted com-pared to that of Ananta Jalil. I was dressed in risque out� ts in the movie, as it was the director’s decision to portray my character in that light. Back then, I was unaware that I would receive negative reviews for my at-tire. After the experience, I become conser-vative and choosy about my costumes and appearance.

Dehorokkhi and Inchi Inchi Prem were commercial failures, why do you think the audience did not take to the films? The blame of a � lm’s failure goes to the entire cast and crew. It is not my sole re-

sponsibility, neither is it possible for me to ensure that a � lm will be successful. Dehorokkhi was a hit in terms of business, but I believe that a di� erent male actor in the leading role would have made the mov-ie more popular. I thought that the plot of Inchi Inchi Prem was quite admirable and I am clueless as to why the audience did not appreciate the � lm.

How much hopeful are you about your upcoming films?I am really hopeful about my recent proj-ects including Iftakar Chowdhury’s One Way, Sha� que H a s a n ’ s S h o p n o Chhoa and

Badiul Alam Khokon’s Hero The Superstar . I am optimistic that they will appreciate my appearance in these � lms. The songs are very entertaining as they are shot in a variety of locations and I request everyone to watch my upcoming movies.

The audience was also hopeful about Iftakar Chowdhury’s Rajotto, what went wrong?I was hopeful about Rajotto as well. The � lm’s failure broke my heart. But it was not my fault, the instable political sit-uation and the state of the movie the-atres were most likely responsible for thedownfall.

If you are right, then why was Agnee a huge commercial success?

Agnee is a marvelous � lm. If I had the chance to work in Agnee, I would have

taken the golden opportunity. I am waiting for a � lm like that.

What happened to your modeling career?I have every intention of con-tinuing my career in the mod-eling industry and will de� -

nitely sign up with high-end brands to promote their

products. Let’s see what the future holds for

me. l

Lenin’s debut album out in the market n Shadma Malik

Mujahidul Haque Lenin’s debut al-bum Gondhoraaj Ar Ekti Bimurto Raatri released on February 7. The

album is comprised of eight tracks and the music is arranged by Ibne Rajon.

Lenin, who is inspired by Tago-re’s literature and music, expresses his philosophy of life in an interview with the Dhaka Tribune.

“The album explores romanti-cism. It talks about relationships, passion and many other emotions. A melodic and raaga centric album, Gondhoraaj Ar Ekti Bimurto Raatri is a contemporary musical album for all ages.”

Talking about the title song, the musician said: “When I started my career in 1996 as a struggling musi-cian, the scent of Gondhoraj from a nearby bloom use to enchant me at night. I use to relate the smell with the essence of love and companion-ship. My title song is about that par-ticular feeling.

“I received good response from

my listeners. I am not interested in the commercial success of the al-bum. I am hopeful that in this era there will always remain a market for melodious songs.”

Talking about his upcoming proj-ects, the musician is gearing up to re-lease an EP album as a tribute to his beloved motherland, Bangladesh.

Lenin was a student of Ch-hayanaut and completed his musical training under prominent Ustads. Apart from being a musician, Lenin has completed his honours in Phys-ics from the Dhaka University. In 1990, Lenin was an activist and pro-moted democracy through various extracurricular activities. He was also actively involved with the Dha-ka University Shangskritik Dol and was a member of the Lokyo Natyo Dol. He participated in cultural shows as a recitation artiste and was keen on writing poems. l

Jibondhuli duo appears in Muktahin Jhinuk n Entertainment Desk

Shatabdi Wadud and Jyotika Jyoti, the leading ac-tors of the recently released Liberation War based feature � lm Jibondhuli, have paired up again in a tele� lm titled Muktahin Jhinuk. It will be aired to-night at 7:50pm on Maasranga TV.

Written by Golam Rabbani and directed by Ra-sel Azam, the story is about the negative impact of Hilla marriage (interim marriage). According to some ancient Islamic clerics, if a Muslim divorced couple want to remarry, the woman is required to enter into a Hilla marriage with another man, have the marriage consummated, and then her

new husband must divorce her. Only then, she can go back to her former husband.

In the play, Kajol (Shatabdi) and Alo (Jyoti) ties the knot after having an a� air for a long period. But, one day, in a � t of rage, Kajol utteres the word Talak (divorce) thrice. The village headman immediately declares the couple divorced. Later, Kajol admits his mistake when he realises that he cannot live without Alo. Then he � xes Alo’s Hilla marriage with his best friend Kashem who prom-ises Kajol that he would divorce her shortly. But, he breaks the promise. After three days of the marriage, Kajol goes to Kashem’s house to stage a confrontation in the hope of bringing Alo back. l

Kareena makes Shahid Kapoor speechless

n Entertainment Desk

Ever since their break-up in 2007, each time the Bollywood superstars crossed paths, they drew a lot of media attention.

But when they met at the recent-ly-concluded IIFA Award function in Florida, Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor o� ered a new twist to the story. Kareena, who was accompanied by her husband Saif Ali Khan, greeted her ex cordially, leaving him speechless, mo-mentarily.

Revealed an eyewitness: “When Ka-reena and Saif stepped on to the stage to present an award, Shahid, who was co-anchoring the segment with Farhan Akhtar, was standing at the the far end. Kareena greeted him graciously and even complimented the duo on the

brilliant job they were doing. Saif who was standing beside his wife, smiled too. Shahid responded to Kareena’s “Hi” courteously but after the couple had stepped o� the stage, he turned to his co-host with a grin and asked: “Did she say ‘Hi’ to me?”

When Shahid and Kareena ended their four year-long relationship ac-rimoniously, few believed that they would ever manage to put their past behind. But a couple of years ago, at the Filmfare Awards, the two had met and exchanged similar plesantaries. But Saif was not present on that occasion.

While the two actors have always maintained that if an interesting script pops up, they’d be happy to work to-gether again, industry seniors have al-ways believed otherwise. l

A week-long dance programme organised by Bangladesh Nritya Shilpi Sangstha came to an end with vibrant dance recitals of di� erent genres on April 29 at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy SADIA MARIUM

British actor Bob Hoskins dies aged 71

n Entertainment Desk

British actor Bob Hoskins, who rose to fame for his performance in the � lm Who Framed Roger Rabbit and dozens of others, has died after a bout of pneumonia at the age of 71, his publicist said on Wednesday.

A statement issued on behalf of his wife Linda and his children said: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Bob. Bob died peacefully at hospital last night surrounded by family, following a bout of pneu-monia. We ask that you respect our privacy during this time and thank you for your messages of love and support.” l

An attractive fashion show will be telecast live on RTV at 6:30pm tomorrow. Renowned fashion designers Emdad Haque and Shahrukh Amin out� tted the models and the makeup was done by beauty experts Kaniz Almas Khan and Kaji Kamrul Islam. A total of 24 models will participate in the fashion show

Star Wars: Episode VII cast unveiledn Entertainment Desk

After months of carefully guarded secrecy and endless Internet specula-tion, the cast of the latest incarnation of the space epic was unveiled recent-ly on the o� cial Star Wars website by Lucas� lm and the Walt Disney Co.

Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serk-is, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fish-er, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new � lm.

The companies declined to name the characters each will play, though Driver, the breakout star of HBO’s

Girls, is widely expected to be playing the � lm’s feature villain.

They join returning Star Wars vet-erans Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

“It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again,” director and co-writer Abrams said in a statement. “We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.”

Disney will release Star Wars: Ep-isode VII, which will be set 30 years after 1983’s Return of the Jedi, in De-cember 2015. Disney acquired Lucas-� lm in 2012, and immediately put a

new Star Wars trilogy into develop-ment.

The Episode VII cast is a mix of fresh faces, up-and-comers and estab-lished names. The 22-year-old British actor Boyega is best known for the 2011 science � ction monster movie Attack the Block. Ridley, also a young British actor, is largely unknown. She has appeared in several British TV se-ries, including Mr Selfridge.

Like Driver, Isaac is a recent break-out star, following his acclaimed performance in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. The 30-year-old Irish actor Gleeson has appeared in numerous � lms, including 2012’s Anna Karenina and both parts of Har-ry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. l

13DHAKA TRIBUNEThursday, May 1, 2014

Sport 1414 Ronaldo sets sights on � nal after scoring record

Real rout holders Bayern to reach Lisbon � nal

15 Senna more life than death for movie maker

Did you know?Liverpool have

made more errors (41) leading directly

to goal attempts than any other

side in the Premier League this season

BCL set to resume tomorrow

Bangladesh Cricket League season 2013-14 resumes with the last round matches tomorrow after a break of over two months. The � rst-class competi-tion went in to hibernation in January as the national team and the country was committed to international duty which started with Sri Lanka’s arrival for a full series followed by the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20.

The last round was earlier scheduled for April 28, but upon requests from the franchises, who wanted some more time in order to get the squad ready, Bangladesh Cricket Board agreed to de-lay the resumption by four days.

However, with only a day left before the match only two teams – Walton Central Zone and BCB North Zone – were found holding a full team practice session yesterday.

Prime Bank South Zone coach Khaled Mahmud, who is also a board director, cited the hot and humid weather for not holding any practice sessions though they will train today ahead of their match against Islami Bank East Zone tomorrow at Fatullah.

“We didn’t want to risk any of our players getting ill due to the extreme heat. The players have been asked to re-port and we will move to Narayanganj tomorrow (today) morning and hold a practice session,” informed Mahmud to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Their opponents Islami Bank East Zone was found in a more haphaz-ard condition as the players are yet to receive a call from the team manage-ment regarding their game, let alone any practice session. Their manager Hasibul Hossain Shanto, however, also echoed Mahmud’s sentiment and said, “Everything is set and we will soon start contacting our cricketers to re-port. Because there is no time for us to hold a practice session, we will directly get down for the game on Friday (to-morrow).”

The former national fast bowler Shanto also said “no practice” will not be an issue as majority of the players was involved in the recently concluded National Cricket League.

Walton Central Zone lead the league table with 31 points from two match-es with a win and a draw. BCB North Zone is in second position after play-ing as many matches with a solitary point separating them from the table toppers. Prime Bank South Zone stand third position with 17 points while win-less Islami Bank East Zone are at the bottom with two points. l

Dhaka lift women’s kabaddi title

Dhaka emerged as the champions in the Marcel Inter Divisional Kabaddi Championship beating Narail by 23-16 points in the � nal at the Kabaddi Stadi-um yesterday.

In the third place decider Jamal-pur overpowered Panchagarh by 41-23 points. Shahnaz Parvin Maleka of Dha-ka was adjudged as the best player in the tournament while Narail’s Sharmin Sultana Rima was declared as the play-er of the � nal.

Post and Telecommunications min-ister Abdul Latif Siddiki distributed the prizes as the chief guest. AFM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the additional director of Walton, and Kabaddi Federation gen-eral secretary Nazrul Islam were also present among others. l

Mosharraf Rubel returns to cricket

Left-arm spinner Mosharraf Rubel is all set to resume his cricket career afresh in the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) after being named in Walton Central Zone’s revised squad for the last round game starting tomorrow.

Rubel was one of the nine individu-als who were accused of involvement in match-� xing in Bangladesh Premier League 2. However, the BCB Anti-Cor-ruption Tribunal acquitted him from all charges brought by the ICC’s Anti-Cor-ruption and Security Unit (ACSU).

In the wake of Tribunal’s short-ver-dict, BCB lifted the ban imposed on Rubel and allowed the cricketer to take part in the domestic cricket league. The BCL will be his � rst assignment after the BPL-2 of 2012.

“I was far away from cricket for one year. I can’t say how I spent the time without cricket. I can’t express it in words. Nobody can imagine how tough the life was without cricket,” said Rubel to the media yesterday. “I always be-lieved I can prove myself innocent since I didn’t engage in any wrongdoings. Now it’s like a new start after a year. I’ve

to prove my credential once again.”“I went to gym, practiced and kept

myself � t because deep inside me, I knew I would make a comeback,” he added.

“I played my last match for Walton in the � nal of last year’s BCL. There-after, I didn’t get to play any match. Everybody accepted me so easily which I have never thought of. Every-one clapped and I feel so good on my comeback.”

Rubel, however, was not sure whether Walton included him in the squad after he was cleared from all

charges as he wasn’t involved in any form of cricket.

“I wasn’t sure that I could play in BCL after returning. I thank Walton for including me in the team again. I also thank the board (BCB) at the same time.”

Rubel was the captain of Walton in the last edition. This year Mahmudul-lah is leading the side and Rubel said he will assist his captain in all aspects so that Walton can retain the title.

He also advised the youngsters to keep faith and to be honest in all as-pects of life which he thought could bail them out from all dangers.l

BPL produces goals worth remembering

Spectacular strikes stimulate the passion for the game and its mode and approach remain as a topic of discussion among all football fans. The ongoing Bangladesh Premier League has so

far produced some spectacular goals, which, though little in number, are surely impregnated with abundance of quality one can ever hope for to savor them forever.

Nigerian defender Eleta Benjamin scored one of the � nest goals in Bangladesh Premier League’s history when his bicycled e� ort fooled the Team BJMC’s defense as well as the goalkeeper on April 22.

On the hour mark and with Muktijoddha leading 1-0, skipper Maruf Ahmed whipped in a low corner from the left � ank which landed on the edge of the box to Eleta on the left edge who toe-poked the ball in the air, turned his body and � red in a back volley into the near post. Team BJMC defense and the goalkeeper were left bamboozled in disbelief.

Muktijoddha coach Sha� kul Islam Manik later admitted that he had seen Sheikh Md. Aslam score a similar goal about twenty years ago. Such is the beauty of Eleta Benajmin’s goal that it is bound to occupy a special corner in the hearts of all those

fans who were fortunate enough to witness it.

Just a week later Team BJMC mid� elder Abdullah Parvez netted an audaciously outrageous goal to sink Dhaka Mohammedan.

In the dying minutes of the match, Parvez, who is well known for his left footed antics, was standing just a few yards in front of the opposition half when his stunning lob caught Mohammedan goalie Mamun Khan o� guard.

The specialty of the goal was it dipped perfectly and deceived Mamun Khan in the air. It hit the inside edge of the crosspiece and Mamun failed to keep it out although he did make a desperately vain attempt to prevent the ball from going in.

Scoring a goal from 40 yards out in a competitive match is undoubtedly hard, unique and unprecedented and all these superlatives � ttingly justify Parvez’s goal.

The lethally left footed Parvez scored another superb goal against Uttar Baridhara on Januray 19. It was a Banana Kick’ from 25 yards out. Receiving the ball at the top of the arc, Parvez cut the ball with his side foot, it spun right and swerved in the air to crash into the net.

Stunning goals create attraction and public awareness for the league and BPL has surely delivered a few pieces for the fans to cherish and relish for a long time. l

Turning leaks into rivers

What do Manchester United and the Bangladesh cricket team have in common? They both have dodgy boards, they’ve both underperformed this season and embar-rassingly as of this week they have both found themselves without a full time coach for the near future.

While David Moyes was sacked and Shane Jurgensen quit, both their positions were made untenable by the boards that should have looked out for them.

News of Moyes’ sacking was made public a day before he even met the MUFC board with the leaks emanating directly from the board itself. The situation turned so toxic that the League Managers Associa-

tion (LMA) even issued a statement where they said, “The LMA is very disappointed with the nature of David’s departure from Manchester United and to read extensive reports in the press, con� rming David’s sacking, before David himself had been spo-ken to o� cially by the club.  

“Throughout his time at United, David, as he always does, has conducted himself with integrity and professionalism, values that he believes in and that have been strongly associated with the club and its rich tradition. It is therefore sad to see the end of David’s tenure at United being han-dled in an unprofessional manner.”

Replace David Moyes with Shane Jurgensen and Manchester United with the Bangladesh cricket team and the same

holds true in Bangladesh. But while Moyes was pushed out, Jurgensen decided to resign before the board pushed him.

A few days before his resignation, mem-bers of the board requesting anonymity said they were looking for a new head coach, possibly someone with a batting background. The leaks continued until Jurgensen decided to take his fate into his own hands and step away.

The situation was shambolic for a number of reasons. Firstly, members of the board were openly talking about and looking for replacements for a coach who has served the team honorably. And secondly, they leaked it to the press, thus piling pressure on a man who still had a year to run on his contract. The pressure would

have been justi� ed had he heard it directly from the board, but he didn’t. Exactly like Moyes he had to read the tea leaves in the morning papers.

Let’s not forget this is a man who stood by the team when they needed him. After Stuart Law left the team, it was Jurgensen who stepped into the breach, took over the reins and performed above and beyond the call of duty.

The players look up to and respect him, and while the team has performed well below their expectation in the past three months, that alone does not justify ques-tioning his position. In the past year and a half, Bangladesh has punched above its weight and there has been a certain pomp to their play which was previously lacking.

The board should have looked back fur-ther than a few months while also keeping an eye on the upcoming World Cup before they started discussing the search for a new coach. Most importantly, they should have spoken to him directly instead of using the media as an unprepared midwife. He deserved better.

The professional coach circuit is full of ringers - consultants who come for the money and leave just as quickly. Shane Jurgensen is not one of them. He may not have a few hundred international wickets or 10,000 international runs but what he brought to Bangladesh cricket was his dedication and loyalty.

Loyalty goes a long way for those who value it. Which begs the question, what does our cricket board value? l

BCB TV rights moving in right direction

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) � oated the worldwide media rights tender on April 24 and it was learnt the feedback has been encouraging so far with few international and local broad-casters showing interest by purchasing the tender.

“I am happy to say several international and local broadcasters already purchased  the tender documents. The international channels are major Asian cricket broadcasters. There is a lot of interest in this property as  Bangladesh cricket is improving and the recently concluded WT20 showed we have the best neutral fans,” said Kazi Inam Ahmed, chairman of the BCB Marketing and Commercial committee.

According to sources, two of the most popular sports channels - Ten Sports and Star Sports - along with local TV channels Gazi TV and Medi-acom (Maasranga TV) have already purchased the tender documents for the TV rights for six years starting from May 1 2014 to April 30 2020.

In an emergency board meeting re-

cently, a � ve-member committee was formed to handle the TV rights. Led by Inam, the committee also consist other BCB directors Afzalur Rahman Sinha, Mahbub Anam, IH Mollick and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud.

Tenders can be dropped till May 5 before an open auction on May 12. Prior to that the tenders received will be ex-amined on May 8.

Earlier, the BCB inked a $56.88m deal with Nimbus Sports Internation-al in 2006 which fell in ruins before the Nimbus-BCB relationship ended in 2012 with the latter � ling a case of $20m over the non-completion of the deal.

However, BCB has relaxed the rules this time around in order to allow the local TV channels to participate in the bidding. A local broadcaster with a year’s experience in the business can take part in the bidding to win the rights.

Bangladesh will play a total of ap-proximately 90 international matches - 31 Tests, 43-47 ODIs and 14 T20Is - till May 2020. During the period Bangla-desh is also scheduled to host India in 2014 and 2016. l

Dhaka team celebrates their Inter Divisional Women’s Kabaddi title at the Kabaddi Stadium yesterday COURTESY

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Banana-throwing fan faces charges Spanish police said Wednesday they have laid criminal charges against a football fan for throwing a banana at Barcelona defender Dani Alves, a slur that

has sparked a global storm of anti-racist protest. The Spanish authorities arrested the young man Tuesday unleashing condemnation worldwide including from Brazilian President Dilma Rousse� and FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The suspect, who has been named and pilloried on social media but has not been identi� ed by the authorities, was charged on the same day with an o� ence against civil rights and liberties before being released, a police spokeswoman said. –AFP

Clippers owner banned for lifeThe NBA came down hard on Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Tuesday, banning him for life for “deeply o� ensive and harmful” racist

comments that sparked a national � restorm. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hit Sterling with every penalty at his disposal, � ning him a maximum $2.5 million dollars and calling on other owners to force him to sell his team. The swift, sharp reaction drew praise from around the league and buoyed Clippers players, who defeated the Golden State Warriors 113-103 on Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference � rst-round playo� series. –AFP

Everton identify site for new stadium Everton have identi� ed a site in Liverpool with a view to building a new stadium, chief executive Robert Elstone revealed during the Premier League

club’s annual general meeting. “The stadium remains a big priority,” Elstone said. “We’re not ruling out any of the sites that we’ve identi� ed and that the council has presented to us, but there is one site which is getting more attention and has been getting more attention for a number of months. “We hope it comes to fruition and, if it does, I think it’s something that the city and our fans will be very proud of.” –AFP

FACTS & STATS Bayern lost by four goals at home in

European competition for the very � rst time

The last time Bayern lost a home match with a di� erence of 4 goals was in 1979 in Bundesliga (0-4 v Bielefeld)

Real beaten Bayern Munich on route to their last two Champions League victories

Real have reached a CL � nal for the � rst time since 2002

Ancelotti has won two of his previous three CL � nals as a manager

Cristiano Ronaldo has now netted 16 goals this season, the highest tally in a single European Cup or Champions League campaign

Sergio Ramos (2) and Cristiano Ronal-do (1) have made 3 touches in Bayern’s box during the � rst 45 minutes: 3 goals

Ancelotti has never lost against Bayern Munich as manager in CL (W5 D2)

Bayern beaten Real eight times, more than any other side in CL

Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos (C) celebrates scoring his side’s second goal during the Champions League semi� nal second leg against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in Munich, southern Germany on Tuesday AP

Ancelotti close to delivering ‘decima’

In mild-mannered Italian Carlo Ance-lotti, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez may � nally have found the man capable of sculpting his expensively assembled squad into a unit capable of delivering an elusive 10th European crown.

Ancelotti’s side produced a devas-tating performance at Bayern Munich on Tuesday to humble the holders 4-0 and advance 5-0 on aggregate to their � rst Champions League � nal since they won a record-extending ninth conti-nental title in 2002. l

Pep picks up pieces after Real ‘debacle’

Pep Guardiola has been left picking up the pieces amidst the fall-out from Bay-ern Munich’s historic 4-0 hammering at home to Real Madrid which dethroned the Champions League holders.

Bayern su� ered their heaviest home defeat in European competition on Tuesday, losing the semi-� nal 5-0 on aggregate, with Guardiola admitting he made mistakes with both his tactics and selection in Munich.

“Debacle” was how chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge described the defeat and most of the shell-shocked players expressed their “deep disap-pointment” in the mixed zone.

Germany’s media did not pull their punches.

Bild ran the headline “Real humil-iate Guardiola” and Munich-based

tabloid TZ echoed Rummenigge with “debacle Dahoam”, using the Bavarian word for ‘home’.

Bayern had never previously lost in Europe by more than two goals in Mu-nich and the defeat made a mockery of their dream to become the � rst team to successfully defend the Champions League title.

Even with their European crown now gone, Guardiola has still won three titles this season and the German Cup can yet be added to their league, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup triumphs.

But with their coveted Champions League hopes in tatters, Guardiola has already faced criticism of his fast-pass-ing ‘Tiki-Taka’ football and over reli-ance on posession after Real hit them on the counter-attack.

Having cryptically questioned whether his players were up to playing

his style of football, Guardiola then in-sisted he was “proud” of what they had achieved this season prior to the Real drubbing.

“We need to think if this is the best system for the players,” said Guardiola, who is under contract until June 2016.

“I made a mistake with the tactics, the trainer wasn’t good today.

“I made a mistake with our tactics.“We are at the highest level in Eu-

rope where such errors are punished.”Such talk can only come from a head

coach who feels secure in his position, but that will change quickly should there be any challenge to Bayern’s posi-tion at the top of German football.

Guardiola has the chance to redeem himself on May 17 when holders Bayern face arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in the Ger-man Cup � nal. l

Juve, Ben� ca in slugfest for � nal

While they close in on re-taining the Serie A title, Ju-ventus are con� dent they can overturn a 2-1 de� cit in the second leg of their Europa League semi-� nal

against Ben� ca on Thursday.The teams, both two-time Europe-

an champions in the past, meet at the Juventus Stadium in Turin looking to clinch a place in the � nal, which will be played at the same venue on May 14.

That is a huge source of motivation for Juve, who are looking for a � rst European title in 18 years and are eyeing a trophy double after beating

Sassuolo 3-1 on Monday to move to within two points of securing a third consecutive Serie A title.

“We are obviously satis� ed with the victory against Sassuolo, but our thoughts move immediately to another important game against Ben� ca,” said Juve mid� elder Claudio Marchisio.

“It will be a di� cult match, but we already showed in the � rst leg that we were up to the task. We will give every-thing on the � eld and we are counting on the support of our fans.”

Home advantage could be crucial for Juve, who have not lost in front of their own fans since a 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quar-ter-� nals in April last year.

Portuguese champions Ben� ca hold the slight edge thanks to Lima’s smash-ing late strike at the Estadio da Luz last Thursday, but Carlos Tevez’s away goal for Juve could be vital.

Jorge Jesus’ Ben� ca side have been beaten just once in their last 37 match-es in all competitions - and that was an ultimately inconsequential defeat to Porto in the � rst leg of a Portuguese Cup semi-� nal that the Lisbon club won - but this is set to be their biggest test in a long time.

And Ben� ca are furious at UEFA for agreeing to open a disciplinary process against their Argentinian mid� elder Enzo Perez following a clash with Juve defend-er Giorgio Chiellini in the � rst leg. l

Real rout holders to reach � nal

Real Madrid reached their � rst Champions League � nal for 12 years with an histor-ic 4-0 win at Bayern Munich in Tuesday’s

semi-� nal, second leg to knock the hold-ers out.

Having won last week’s � rst leg 1-0 in Madrid, Real won the semi-� nal 5-0 on aggregate as Pep Guardiola’s Bayern su� ered their heaviest home defeat in European competition.

Bayern had previously never lost at home by more than two goals in Europe as the Bavarian giants saw their dreams of reaching a fourth Champions League � nal in � ve years crushed.

“We have witnessed a debacle, we didn’t put enough passion into it,” said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rum-menigge.

“We have to keep our nerve and stay rational.”

Real are now one game away from ‘La Decima’ - their 10th European title - and will face either neighbours Atletico Ma-drid or Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the May 24 � nal in Lisbon.

Real centre-back Sergio Ramos pro-duced two early bullet headers to dis-miss Bayern’s dreams of becoming the � rst team to defend the Champions League title. World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo made it 3-0 at the break before the Real superstar netted his 49th goal of the season with a free-kick just before the � nal whistle.

Having now netted 16 times in this season’s Champions League, Ronaldo set a new record for the most goals in a single European campaign, bettering the previous mark of 14 set by Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and ex-AC Milan forward Jose Alta� ni.

“Today Madrid have gone to a lev-el that will be recognised across the world and to score two goals is a dream,”

said Ramos.“The � nal in Lisbon is a dream. It has

been a long time coming.”The only downside to Real’s stun-

ning win in Germany was the loss of Xabi Alonso for the Lisbon � nal after he picked up his third booking of the campaign for a � rst-half foul on Bastian Schweinsteiger. But there was no deny-ing an historic night for Real, especially for coach Carlo Ancelotti, who has now never lost to Bayern in eight matches, six times with former club AC Milan and twice with Madrid.

The Italian is through to his fourth Champions League � nal as a coach, equalling the record.

There was a minute’s silence before kick-o� for former Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova, who died on Friday at the age of 45, and Vujadin Boskov, the former Real coach who passed away on Sunday aged 82. The Munich crowd soon saw their dreams of a repeat of last season’s treble of Champions League, Bundesli-ga and German Cup swept away as Real � oored the Bavarians in a devastating � rst-half spell.

Real needed just 16 minutes to take the lead at the Allianz Arena as Ramos powered home his � rst header from Luka Modric’s corner to silence the home support.

It was the start of a miserable � ve minutes for Bayern as centre-back Dan-te was shown a yellow card for clumsily scything down Ronaldo just before Ra-mos struck again. When Angel Di Maria swung in a free-kick, centre-back Pepe � icked it on for Ramos to head home his second goal in just four minutes to leave Bayern reeling. Real then compounded Bayern’s misery as Di Maria played Karim Benzema into space and the Frenchman found Bale, who accelerated away.

His pass was drilled home by Ronaldo on 34 minutes, the Portuguese forward breaking the record for most Champions League goals in a campaign, to leave the hosts 3-0 down at the break. Guardiola responded at half-time by swapping Ma-rio Mandzukic for Javi Martinez, aban-doning his 4-2-3-1 formation for a 4-2-4 system and pushing Schweinsteiger fur-ther forward with Thomas Mueller.

Despite Bayern’s best e� orts, Real’s defence held � rm and then Ronaldo put the � nal nail in the holders’ co� n with his second of the game when his free-kick went under the Munich wall on 90 minutes.

“This is a big disappointment which we have to analyse, but there is no need to speak ill of what we have achieved over the last two years,” said Bayern cap-tain Philipp Lahm. l

Ronaldo sets sights on Lisbon after scoring record

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ron-aldo has turned his sights on winning the Champions League in his native Portugal after setting a record for goals scored in a single edition of Europe’s elite club competition.

Ronaldo’s brace in Wednesday’s 4-0 drubbing of holders Bayern Mu-nich, which sent Real through to next month’s � nal in Lisbon 5-0 on aggre-gate, took his Champions League tally for the season to 16 in 12 matches.

The 29-year-old had equalled Barce-lona forward Lionel Messi’s record of 14 scored in the 2011-12 edition with a goal in the quarter-� nal � rst leg against Borussia Dortmund and has 66 overall in 102 appearances.

Former Real striker Raul is the lead-ing marksman with 71 goals, with Messi second on 67.

“I was looking for it (the record) and I knew I needed one goal but I was not going to be mad if it didn’t happen,” Ronaldo told reporters.

“I’m really happy to break the Cham-pions League record but what I want is to win it and we’re very excited,” added the Portugal captain.

“A � nal is always complicated. It will be in my country and I want to win the Champions League.”

“We showed a very good attitude and we deserved to reach the � nal,” he said. l

Spain dreams all-Madrid � nal

Spain dreamed Wednesday of an un-precedented Madrid derby � nal to the Champions League, as the nation’s sporting press gloated over Real Ma-drid’s demolition of the mighty Bayern Munich.

“Worst thrashing in history!” boast-ed the front-page of Spain’s biggest selling sports daily Marca after Real Madrid wreaked havoc in Munich with a 4-0 away leg win delivering a 5-0 ag-gregate crushing of Bayern.

Many papers recalled Bayern chair-man Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s pre-match warning to Real Madrid that the

German ground would be an “inferno” and “Munich will burn”.

“Rummenigge was right. Munich burned,” ran the front-page headline of Madrid-based sports daily AS after Pep Guardiola’s Bayern su� ered their heaviest home defeat in European competition.

“What a night! The best Madrid I can remember in Europe, a night to banish once and for all the phantom of Bayern, to wipe away all the bad times su� ered before the Bavarian giants,” said AS football analyst Alfredo Relano.

Real are now one game away from their longed-for, yet elusive “La Deci-ma” – their 10th European title. l

0 4

POSSESSION(%)

TOTAL ATTEMPTS

ON TARGET

CORNERS

OFFSIDES

FOULS COMMITTED

PASSES

64

19

10

9

0

13

822

36

13

7

3

3

7

414

Ramos 16, 20, Ronaldo 34, 90

Real win 5-0 on aggregate

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring the 0-3 and breaking the record for the most goals in a European Cup or Champions League season in Munich, southern Germany on Tuesday AFP

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Thursday

Uefa Europa League, SF-Leg 21:05AM Ten ActionJuventus v Ben� caTen Sports Valencia v SevillaSony Six

NBA Play O� 2013-145:00AMSan Antonio v Dallas7:30AM Houston v PortlandFriday

Sony Six

Indian Premier League8:30PM Chennai v Kolkata

NBA Play-o� 2013-146:00AM Oklahoma City v Memphis8:30AM La Clippers v Golden StateStar Sports 4

La Liga1:00AMRayo Vallecano v Athletic Bilbao

Salim Malik seeks life ban review Pakistan’s cricket authorities have promised to review the life ban im-posed in 2000 on former Test captain Salim Malik for match-� xing, an o� cial said Wednesday. The 51-year-old Malik met Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi to seek to over-turn the sanction. Malik was banned for life in May 2000 after an inquiry commission found him guilty of o� ering bribes to Australian cricketers Shane Warne, Tim May and Mark Waugh to under-perform in matches during Australia’s tour of Pakistan in 1994. Malik’s name also featured in separate inquiries which resulted in life bans on Mohammad Azharuddin of India and Hansie Cronje of South Africa.

–AFP

England to name WC squad on May 12 England manager Roy Hodgson will reveal his squad for the World Cup on May 12, a day after the Premier League season ends, the Football Association announced on Wednesday. “This will be an important day for Roy and the players ahead of an exciting summer in Brazil,” said Club England managing di-rector Adrian Bevington in a statement. Hodgson is expected to announce a 23-man squad and name up to seven players on standby in case of injury. The � nal list of 23 players must be submit-ted to FIFA on June 2. England have been drawn to face Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica in World Cup Group D and will open their campaign with a match against the Italians in the Amazonian city of Manaus on June 14.

–AFP

PCB chief backs Misbah as captainPakistan’s cricket chief on Wednesday backed Misbah-ul-Haq as one-day captain, saying he would lead the side to next year’s World Cup. Chief selector Moin Khan on Tuesday hinted at a possible change of one-day captain, saying discussions were in progress and if there was a consensus, a change could be made. But Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi gave his support to Misbah, who has led the side in 71 one-day internationals since taking over in May 2011, winning 39 of them. “I stand by my decision to retain Misbah as captain until the World Cup,” Sethi told AFP. Australia and New Zealand co-host the 11th World Cup in February-March next year.

–AFP

Sangakkara excited by Durham challenge Celebrated Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara refused to rule out a return to Durham after being unveiled as the English county side’s latest overseas signing on Wednesday. The left-handed batsman has agreed a short-term two-and-a-half-week contract to join the reigning county champions, but hinted that he is open to a more long-term return in future. “If I can have another year here, where I can be successful, I would love that,” said Sangakkara, who helped his country to lift the World T20 crown earlier this year. “The real key is the relationships that you build up over time. Durham were one of the few counties with an opening for an overseas player. Sangakkara will make his Durham debut in the four-day game against Yorkshire in the County Cham-pionship on Sunday. –AFP

DAY’S WATCH

QUICK BYTES

Fahad continues winning streak in int’l school chess

Fide Master Mohammad Fahad Rahman, Rafshan Bin Omar, Arka Sengupta of India, Akib Jawad and Subrata Biswas registered their second consecutive victory in the Open Group section of the Mohammedan International School Chess Championship yesterday.

Fahad, the youngest Fide Master of the country, defeated Muhit while Raf-shan beat Kungsuk. Arka and Akib beat Miraj and Rabbi respectively in the sec-ond round.

Arpita Mukharjee and Asmita Das of India and Fatematuzzohora Sraboni of Bibi Marium School won their respec-

tive second round games in girls’ class 6-10 group with two points each. Say-antan Mukharjee of India, Mehrabud-din Ahmed, Moshtafa Amir Faysal, Nova Tasha and Dihan Mashroor Niloy earned maximum two points each in the boys’ class 5-7 group.

Jannatul Ferdous, Jarifa Nawer Rah-man, Rumaisa Hasnat and Mayabi Mar-zan earned victories in the girls’ class 3-5. Abdullah Al Raihan Saikat, Ramim Ahmed, Denial Murad and Niloy Mitra Barua earned maximum two points each in the boys’ class 3-4 group while Tahsin Tajwar Zia, Swarnova Choud-hury, Sultan Z Yasin and Mush� qur Rahman Tamim won their matches in the kids section (KG-class 2). l

Death timeline Friday, April 29In the � rst qualifying session, Jordan driver Rubens Barrichello hits a kerb at the Variante Bassa corner at 140 mph (225 km/h). He is knocked unconscious while his car comes to rest upside down. After treatment at the Imola medical centre and Bologna’s Maggiore Hospital, the Brazilian returns to the track nursing a broken arm and nose. He does not race over the weekend.Saturday, April 30Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger fails to negotiate the Villeneuve curva in his Simtek and crashes into a concrete bar-rier wall head-on. The force of the crash causes a basal skull fracture. Ratzen-berger is airlifted to Maggiore Hospital where he dies from multiple injuries. It is the � rst Formula One race weekend fatality since the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix when Riccardo Paletti was killed.Sunday, May 1The start of the race sees the cars of Pedro Lamy and JJ Lehto collide on the grid leading to deployment of safety car to allow debris to be removed. The cars proceeded under the safety car for � ve laps. On lap seven, Senna’s Williams car leaves the track at 190 mph (310 km/h) at the Tamburello corner and careers into a concrete barrier. Senna is airl� ted to Maggiore Hospital but he pronounced dead at 6:40pm local time. l

Hamilton, Alonso salute legacy of tragic Senna

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have paid emotional tributes to Ayrton Senna on the 20th anniversary of the death of the maverick Brazilian super-star and three-time world champion.

Senna, widely regarded as the great-est racing driver of all time, died when his car careered o� the Imola track in the early stages of the San Marino Grand Prix on May 1, 1994.

He was 34 years old.It was Formula One’s blackest

weekend which also saw Austrian rookie Roland Ratzenberger killed and Senna’s compatriot Rubens Barrichello injured.

“When I was a kid I had all the books, all the videos, he was the driver I looked up to,” said Hamilton, who was just nine at the time of Senna’s death.

“He inspired me to be a driver and on the day of his passing, his death was... it was very di� cult for me to show my emotions so I went o� to a quiet place and it was very di� cult for several days to really... your hero’s gone.”

Senna, the outspoken world cham-pion of 1988, 1990 and 1991, was lead-ing in San Marino on lap seven when his Williams car veered spectacularly o� the racing line at 190mph (307km/h) at the Tamburello corner and straight into a concrete wall.

He received emergency treatment at the scene before being airlifted to Bo-logna hospital where he was later de-clared dead.

“He was an incredible legend. You like to think that one day you may be recognised as someone that was able to drive similarly to him,” added Hamil-ton, the 2008 world champion. l

Senna legacy lives on: sister

Viviane Senna recalls a conversation she had with her brother, motor racing legend Ayrton, in March 1994. He told her how he wanted to contribute to a better future for Brazil by helping to open up opportunities for children.

Weeks later, aged just 34, he was dead, killed in a May 1 crash at Imola in Italy which shocked Formula One to the core.

Viviane, who now chairs the Ayrton Senna Institute, told AFP in a telephone interview that the values her brother transmitted to Brazilians earned him a mythical status she says is deserved.

“He turned in incredible perfor-mances in this sport, making him one of the all-time best, though I don’t think that su� ces to explain his ongo-ing importance 20 years later.

“What is remarkable is the way he won, performance aside.

“He did so adhering to values which people still admire – discipline, tenacity, persistance, passion, courage ... I think Ayrton rose above the celebrity fray.

“He is in a mythical category, tran-scending time and space,” Viviane as-serts of a man who won three world

titles to impose his mark on the history of the sport while also putting Brazil in the limelight.

“Ayrton was very important in terms of the moment he triumphed -- at the time Brazil was not well regarded or fashionable as it is today.

“People saw Brazil as a country of theft and fraud and not worth much, with myr-iad problems and one that did not func-tion well economically, socially or politi-cally. “In that sense, Ayrton was the � rst to feel pride in being Brazilian and lifting the Brazilian � ag” on the podium.

“What’s more, he scored victories in the developed world. He won over there without cheating, with tenacity and de-termination, and that’s what makes him a source of inspiration for today,” she asserted. On his continuing legacy, she added his fame endures even in coun-tries outside Formula One’s race orbit.

“Once, I received a letter from a child in Latvia who told me he had stuck a photo of Ayrton on his cup-board door and that every day when he got up he looked at it and told himself: ‘I am going to � ght as you did, not let go, and overcome the di� culties I am going through.” l

Senna more life than death

The helicopter swoops down, its tele-vision camera following the lines of a sunlit track below, as the words ‘San Marino GP, Imola’ appear on screen.

Twenty years on from the fatal acci-dents of Formula One great Ayrton Sen-na and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger at the Italian circuit, the moment in the award-winning documentary ‘Senna’ still makes the heart beat faster.

What followed on that 1994 week-end, and particularly on May 1 when the Brazilian crashed his Williams, is as familiar to most F1 fans as the waving of a chequered � ag.

For screenwriter and executive pro-ducer Manish Pandey, who will attend a showing of his 2010 � lm in Imola this week as part of events marking the an-niversary, the focus will be more on marking an extraordinary life than a tragic death.

In an interview with Reuters, he re-called how director Asif Kapadia asked him early on what he wanted to achieve with the � lm.

“I said ‘My big ambition for the � lm is whether you know what hap-pened to him or don’t know what hap-pened to him, you forget for a while’,” Pandey said.

“And that’s where I think the � lm is very successful. Even if you know, you get so caught up in it you kind of forget. And then when it suddenly says Imola ev-eryone knows and it hits them very hard.”

Imola, Pandey said, was not a week-end he particularly wanted to remem-ber and nor was it one to be taken out of context.

“You can’t tell people how great a something is lost, whether it’s humani-ty or talent or whatever you want to de-scribe it as, until you show people what that was in the � rst place,” he said.

“I think a less salubrious � lm maker

may well have just gone for the death of Ayrton Senna. I’m really glad that we went for his life.”

The producer said that, for him, the most emotional moment of the � lm was not Imola but Senna’s victory at his home grand prix at Interlagos in 1991 - the champion’s � rst win in Bra-zil. Senna, who had to be lifted out of his McLaren after taking the chequered � ag with only sixth gear still function-ing, declared afterwards: “God gave me this race”.

“You see a man at the very top of his game, you see the drama of what it is

to be a motor racing driver...there the context of Imola is properly de� ned,” said Pandey.

“You can see what he did, what he went through to win that race and what the stakes were and what the context was. He couldn’t come second in that race. Not this year. He had to win it and it didn’t matter what was taken out of him.”

A quali� ed orthopaedic surgeon, who established an immediate rapport with the late Formula One medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins, Pand-ey saw Senna race only three times in his life and never met him. But he was hooked nonetheless.

“I was brought up a Hindu and those values are very important to me. For me the whole � lm is a metaphor about man’s struggle to � nd God. But not to � nd God in another universe but on this earth....it’s a spiritual struggle,” he said.

“Professor Sid Watkins said he (Sen-na) had an inner peace. Because he could take the cigarette companies, the oil companies, the fumes, the smoke, the girls, all of that noise and just transform it into this thing that was so sublime.

“This man right on the very edge, just doing something better than anyone else had ever done before. And doing it day after day, keeping that edge. That for me is what the � lm was about.” l

Senna, a man who really cared

Ayrton Senna da Silva: is his legacy to be recalled in statistics or memories? Numbers on a page or emotions stirred? Sporting supremacy – or rare humanity?

The stories of his on-track talent, the utter determination and all-consuming passion are well chronicled. Indeed, 161 Grands Prix, 64 pole positions and 87 front row starts re� ect all that. To cap it all o� 42 Grands Prix victories and three world titles - in 1988, 1990 and 1991.

His � erce rivalry with McLaren-Honda team-mate Alain Prost, concern for drivers’ safety and the humility that was so visible with children and ordinary motor racing fans con� rm the passion and personality of a man whose death 20 years ago, in 1994, will be remembered again, and so vividly, on May 1.

That afternoon, at Imola, capped a tragic, black weekend at the San Marino Grand Prix, where he started his � nal race from pole position.

Saturday’s qualifying had brought the brutal death of Austrian Roland Ratzenberger, a shock that sent a shudder of apprehension and misery through an overcrowded paddock.

Friday had seen Senna rush to the bedside of his protégé Rubens Barrichello, then only 21 and in his second season of Formula One, after he had survived a massive airborne crash during afternoon practice. It was the � rst huge shock. And Sunday delivered more.

But in this anniversary year, as Honda prepare their comeback, it is Senna the man that many, including this correspondent, will remember: the smiles, jokes and kindnesses that were a part of his unique charisma

along with the intensity and single-minded passion.

Memory can play tricks on us, but not when so many remember the same things at the same place.

In a rush at the Hungaroring in 1987, he stopped to answer a question with a serious frown. In Lotus overalls, he smiled and then ran on to catch lost time.

Later that year, at Monza, he shu� ed shyly in slanting late-summer sunshine as he stood with Prost at a McLaren announcement to con� rm the formation of a dream team - Prost and Senna, McLaren and Honda.

In Paris, where the sport’s ruling body celebrated 500 Grands Prix, he agreed to sign, for my son, a menu printed for the occasion. ‘Joshua? How do you spell that?’ he asked after mistaking the name for George, more common in English at the time. He duly signed and remembered. l

Brazilian F1 driver Ayrton Senna concentrates in the pits on May 1, 1994 before the start of the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola. Senna died after crashing in the seventh lap AFP

Ayrton Senna: a Formula 1 legend

(1960-1994)

Brazilian born Sao Paulo

Grand Prix entered

TeamsDebut in F1: Brazil 1984

First victory: Portugal 1985 (Lotus)

Last victory: Australia 1993 (McLaren-Ford)

161Pole positions

Fastestlaps

World Drivers Championship ranking

1 May 1994: killed in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix

Toleman (1984)

Lotus (1985-1987)

McLaren (1988-1993)

Williams (1994)

Podiums80

1

2 3

65

19

23 16

1st

(1988, 1990, 1991)

2nd

(1989,1993)

3rd 4th 9th

(1987) (1985, 1986, 1992)

(1984)

41

Khagrachari and Gaibandha win in women’s football

Khagrachari beat Noakhali by 2-0 goals in the KFC National Women’s Football at the Laxmipur stadium yesterday. Eli Pru Marma scored both the goals in the 11th and 21st minutes to seal the win for Khagrachari.

Meanwhile, Gaibandha defeated Joypurhat by 3-1 goals in the shoot-out after the stipulated time ended goal-less at Rajshahi stadium Tithy, Saleha and Mitu of Gaibandha scored from the spot for the winners.

The 43 team KFC National Women’s Football Championship is sponsored by global fast-food franchise KFC who has provided a purse of tk. 1.5 million. l

An action from the match between Joypurhat and Gaibandha in the KFC women’s football yesterday COURTESY

THE LAST RACE

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

BAF training plane catches � re in Ctg n Tushar Hayat, Chittagong

A training aircraft of Bangladesh Air Force caught � re while landing at the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong, yesterday.

Chittagong Airport Manager Wing Commander Nur-e-Alam told the Dha-ka Tribune that the � re started in the plane’s landing gear when the pilot was landing the aircraft at the airport around 12:23pm. The pilot, Flight Lieu-tenant Adib, managed to evacuate him-self using the ejector switch, he added.

“We managed to douse the � re soon after the incident,” the airport manag-er said, adding that the pilot sustained minor injuries and was rushed to the hospital immediately.

Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, addi-tional deputy commissioner (immigra-tion) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police at the airport, said two units of the � re bri-gade had been deployed to douse the � re.

Sources at the Jahurul Hoque Base of BAF said the � re started due to a technical glitch. However, no o� cial comment was available regarding with the incident. l

Man gets death penalty forkilling pregnant wife n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court sentenced a man to death and � ned him Tk1 lakh yesterday for killing his pregnant wife in 2010 for dowry.

The court also ordered Chittagong district collector to collect the � ne within six months from the defence side and hand over the money to the victim’s family, said court sources.

Judge Md Rezaul Karim of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 1 gave the verdict when the accused, Fazle Karim, 38, was present-ed before the court, the sources said.

Advocate Chandan Talukder, pros-ecutor in the tribunal, told the Dhaka Tribune that the court had sentenced the death penalty to the accused under

section 11 (A) of Women and Children Repression Prevention Act as the alle-gation against him was proved beyond reasonable doubt.

The convict was sent to the Chit-tagong Central Jail after the verdict, he said.

According to the case document, Fa-zle, of Pashchim Boroghona village of the Banshkhali upazila in Chittagong, had tortured his wife, Bilkis Akhter, of the same village, for dowry since their wedding in 2009.

On June 21, 2010, the convict beat a pregnant Bilkis to death in his residence demanding a dowry ofTk2 lakh.

He had attempted to establish the murder as suicide by pouring poison into Bilkis’s mouth, which was discov-

ered during the post-mortem, accord-ing to the case document.

Jannat Khatun, Bilkis’s mother, � led a case before the tribunal accus-ing � ve persons including the convict on August 2, 2010 after receiving the post-mortem report. Banshkhali po-lice took the First Information Report on September 8, 2010 after completing judicial investigation according to the order of the tribunal.

Later, police submitted a charge sheet against Fazle before the tribunal on March 22, 2011. The court framed charges against the lone accused on September 18, 2012.

The court sentenced the verdict after taking statements of 10 prosecu-tion and two defence witnesses at thetrial. l

May Day todayn UNB

The historic May Day will be observed in the country as elsewhere across the world today with a fresh vow to estab-lish the rights of workers.

The May Day, also known as Inter-national Workers’ Solidarity Day, com-memorates the historic uprising of working people in Chicago, USA, at the height of a prolonged � ght for an eight-hour workday.

Trade unions and professional groups have taken up various pro-grammes to observe the day to press for improving the working conditions with better wages for the workers and job security.

On the occasion, the Labour and Employment Ministry will arrange a discussion at Osmani Smriti Auditori-um in the capital at 10am today. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be present as the chief guest at the discussion to be held with State Minister for Labour Mujibul Haque Chunnu in the chair.

The ministry will also bring out a rally at 7am from Shram Bhaban, which will end in front of the Jatiya Press Club.

Besides, two seminars will be held on May 4 at the Jatiya Press Club, mark-ing the May Day. State Minister Mujibul Haque Chunnu will be the chief guest at the two seminars to be held at 10am and 4pm respectively.

Meanwhile, the premier will address a rally in Gazipur today on the occasion of the historic day.

President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have issued separate messages ahead of the day.

On May 1, 1886, at least 10 workers were killed when police opened � re on a demonstration in Chicago near Hay Market. The demonstration was staged demanding an eight-hour work-ing day instead of a 12-hour shift. On the height of agitation, the authorities had to accept the workers’ demand and the eight-hour day has been introduced universally.

On July 14, 1889 in Paris, an inter-national workers’ rally declared May 1 as the International Workers Solidarity Day in recognition of the Chicago work-ers’ sacri� ce and achievement and since 1890, the day has been observed globally as the International Workers Solidarity Day. l

Shiuli blooming in summer!n Parimal Mazumdar

It is summer and yet Shukur Mahmud and Aleya Khatun wake up every morning thinking it is just anoth-

er autumn day. That’s because they wake to the mind-blowing smellof Shiuli.

The couple remain astonished that Shiuli, an autumnal � ower, is blooming in this summer season.

Freedom Fighter Shukur Mahmud, a retired professor told the reporter that he had planted a Shiuli tree around eight years ago. The � ower blooms every autumn, since two years after he planted it.

But in this summer season, the � ow-er has been blooming every day for a month and it is shed in the early hours of every day.

Aleya Khatun, a school teacher by profession, thinks that the tree must have misread the weather as autumnal weather has been prevailing in these summer nights. Whatever the case is, the couple has been enjoying this rare incident of nature.

The couple’s home has been show-ered with a lot of visitors after the news of this unusual incident spread.

Bipradas Barua, a � ower researcher, said it might happen due to the cool weather and dewfall during the night in that region. l

Boy returned to mother’s lap after 16 days n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Police have returned a six-year-old boy to his mother after rescuing him from abductors. He was held for 16 days.

Kadamtali police recovered Moham-mad Mizan and handed him over to his family yesterday, said Masudur Rah-man, deputy commissioner (media and publication) of the DMP. He said Mizan was abducted on April 14 as the nation was celebrating Pahela Baishakh.

Police also arrested four people in connection with the abduction – Joy Ahmed Sujon, 22; Sha� qul Islam, 36; Ra� qul Islam Rasel, 19; and Rahima Ak-ther Rahi, 28. They planned the abduc-tion for days in order to get the ransom money, the DC said while addressing a media brie� ng.

Mizan lives in Jurain, Alambagh, with his mother Sajeda Akther. His fa-ther Shahin Mollah is an expatriate in Oman. The mastermind of the abduc-tion, Sujon, used to visit Mizan’s house with Rahi, Mizan’s paternal aunt.

On April 14, Sujon went to the house to chat with Mizan and at one point took the boy outside, saying he would buy him toys. Rasel was waiting on the ground � oor of the building and as Mizan, accompanied by Sujon, came

down, he was taken to Tongi. While in Tongi, Sujon contacted his

relative Sha� q and introduced Mizan to him as his nephew. Sujon, who said Mizan’s mother had died, urged Sha� q to take Mizan to a place where the boy could get some fresh air.

Sha� q took Mizan to Faridpur and kept him at the house of his father-in-law Ha� z Chowdhury. The boy stayed there for 11 days and Sujon gave Sha� q Tk500 every day to take care of the boy.

Meanwhile, the abductors demand-ed a ransom of Tk1,000,000 from Mi-zan’s family and threatened that they would kill him if the money was not paid.

Kadamtali police, along with mem-bers of the Detective Branch of police, were investigating the abduction and nabbed Rahi in Shibchar.

Based on Rahi’s information which she revealed during interrogation, po-lice arrested Sujon and others and res-cued Mizan from Faridpur.

“For a few days, they tortured me but then became friendly. I was given a bat and ball to play with. They also gave me food whenever I demanded but would beat me if I wanted to know about my mother,” Mizan told the Dha-ka Tribune. l

TIB: BTCL a house of corruptionTk2,000 crore corruption every year at the state-owned telecom company n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

State-owned telecom company BTCL is becoming a house of corruption, since crores of taka are being drained out of the company ever year, claimed Trans-parency International Bangladesh (TIB), yesterday.

The watchdog said govern-ment-backed musclemen and political-ly in� uential persons, in collusion with BTCL o� cials, were involved in cor-ruption worth around Tk2,000 crore, every year.

“Corruption and irregularities of the BTCL is happening openly,” said Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the TIB, while releasing a report titled “BTCL: Challenges of Good Govern-ance and Way Forward” at a press con-ference in the capital’s Brac Centre Inn.

He said proper plans and regulations were absent when the government re-structured the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) into the Bangladesh Telecommunications Com-pany Limited (BTCL) as a company.

“Although it was believed that after forming a company, the BTCL will be e� cient and pro� table, but the reality says something di� erent,” Iftekharuz-zaman said.

Recommendations placed by the TIB included reducing the Telecom Ministry’s interference in the BTCL, facilitating the employees, and the for-mation of proper rules and regulations.

“We also recommend that the gov-ernment should merge the stare-run telecom companies Teletalk, Bangla-desh Submarine Cable Company [BSC-CL] and BTCL for better governance,” Iftekharuzzaman added.

According to the � ndings of the TIB, the company lost Tk1,500 crore because of call record tampering, as it showed only 5.79 billion call minutes instead of the original 8.5 billion min-utes.

The TIB also said the BTCL failed to

produce the machine-generated call re-cords for international calls in 2011-12, because of corruption among thw o� -cials of the BTCL and Telecom Ministry.

While presenting the � ndings, TIB researcher Dipu Roy said the BTCL of-� cials were tampering call records, fa-cilitating the private companies with logistics beyond authorisation, engag-ing in illegal VoIP business and renting BTCL-owned land to other people.

“Currently, the private and foreign carriers have sent outstanding bills to the BTCL worth Tk965 crore, of which the company will never be able to pay back even Tk500 crore since the o� -cials are facilitating the private � rms,” she added.

They added that the post and tele-com minister and other senior ministry o� cials were using cars taken from the BTCL and there was a huge misappro-priation of funds regarding this.

Only 60% of the total expenditure on maintenances and operation was spent on real claims, according to the TIB.

Dipu said the pool car drivers were also renting the vehicles to private car renting companies.

“The drivers are getting Tk15,000 every alternative month for repairs,” she said.

In the report, Dipu alleged that the BTCL o� cials were involved in illegal VoIP business by dodging the telecom regulator’s monitoring system.

Dipu also said the government should take initiatives to make the BTCL a public limited company in six months time.

M Ha� zuddin Khan, TIB member and adviser to the immediate past in-terim government, said corruption had increased after the formation of BTCL as a company.

“I was a telecom secretary 16 years back and at that time, the BTTB was more pro� table than the BTCL is now. There was corruption also back then, but now it has increased,” he said. l

Prosecution for policy to cover war crime trials n Udisa Islam

International Crimes Tribunal prosecu-tor Tureen Afroz sought the formula-tion of a media policy on how to cover its proceedings, yesterday.

During the hearing on a contempt al-legation against Channel 24 over com-ments made by participants of a talk show, she said: “When we have many directives on how to act on women is-sues or violence, then why not for the International Crimes Tribunal?”

Following the hearing, the tribu-nal 1 led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim set June 12 for the passing of an order whether the contempt proceedings would start or not.

On September 26 last year, respond-ing to a prosecution plea, the tribu-nal asked eight persons including the top management of private television

Channel 24 to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated for airing the “scandalous” talk show titled “Muktobaak” on September 18.

Talk show participants Zafrullah Chowdhury of Gonoshasthaya and Mahfuz Ullah of the Centre for Sustain-able Development made comments about the case against war criminal Sa-lauddin Quader Chowdhury while his trial was underway.

In the order, the tribunal asked the two participants to appear before the court in person. The six others were asked to submit written explanations.

Zafrullah and Mahfuz appeared at the tribunal in person yesterday, along with other parties. Except for Zafrul-lah, everyone made unconditional apologies for doing anything that the tribunal may consider as contempt.

Without engaging a lawyer, Za-

frullah himself submitted a written reply and asked for his acquittal from the charge. He also urged the tribu-nal to allow him to read out the reply. He claimed, sticking to his position, that he had expressed his views as he had the right to freedom of speech. He said several times: “I did not com-mit any o� ence by making an openstatement.”

The tribunal then criticised him for his language: “We respect you for your work but in your reply you have written the name of a judge without prefacing it with ‘Justice.’ We did not expect this from you.

“The language you used is alright for your living room, but when you are replying against a contempt notice, you should be sincere about it.”

Tureen Afroz then submitted that an apology must come from the heart, not from the pen. She mentioned about

some linguistic faults in the reply. She also criticised the sentence where Za-frullah stated that freedom � ghters do not fear to be tried but get angry about facing intentional allegations.

The prosecutor said freedom of ex-pression had some limitations too.

Tajul Islam, counsel for Mahfuz, submitted that his client just said a few words at the show following Zafrullah’s speech.

Tureen claimed that Tajul’s state-ment was not true as his client had made some comments too.

Asaduzzaman, counsel for Channel 24, submitted that in a live programme they have nothing to do. But acknowl-edging the matter, they apologised.

Tureen then raised the issue of me-dia policy, mentioning that every live programme did not have the some pol-icy to run it. l

A motorcyclist de� es the signal of an oncoming train and ducks through the iron bar at the Karwan Bazar rail crossing in the capital yesterday. Earlier on Tuesday, three people were killed when a train rammed a bus in Dhaka. However, people continue to risk their lives by ignoring the signal, only to save a few minutes MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Shiuli, a � ower that usually blooms in Autumn, has bloomed in summer in Kurigram because of the recent climate change trends. The photo was taken on Tuesday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Mizan’s mother embraces him after law enforcers handed him over to her DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2014

B3 IMF says Russia is in recession

B4 Social Business: Chang-ing how world does business

Job creation main challenge for SMEn Tribune Report

Employment generation is the key challenge for the country’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector as more than two million young people are joining the labour force every year.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman yesterday made this obser-vation while inaugurating an interna-tional seminar on “Sustainable SME Development in Bangladesh,’’ held in CIRDAP auditorium in the capital.

The seminar was jointly organised by Bangladesh Bank, Cirdap, BIBM and Midas (UK) in association of Prime Bank, Trust Bank and Islami Bank.

Attending the seminar panelists dis-cussed on two key-note papers titled “Cluster, Technology & Innovation: Global Perspective and relevance of Bangladesh” and “Making SME Financ-ing Sustainable and Pro� t-able: Indian Experiences.”

The moderator of the panel discussion was Dhaka University Professor Sayed Munir Khasru and Bangla-desh Institute of Bank Man-agement (BIBM) Director General Dr. Tou� c Ahmed Chowdhury. High o� cials from the central bank, dif-ferent banks and � nancial institutions, other national and international institu-tions attended the seminar.

Sustained inclusive eco-nomic growth is the key to job creation, poverty reduc-

tion and journey towards achieving the goal of middle income country by this decade. As we are not a highly in-dustrialised country, we need to rely on our capacity to create employment and self-employment at the lower end of our economy’’ said BB Governor in his inaugural speech.

“To achieve this objective, we should focus on SMEs, which are considered to be the backbone of our economy. Ban-gladesh has selected SME development as a strategic priority for industrial and economic growth,” he added.

He also noted that the major advan-tage of the SME sector was its potenti-ality in creating new jobs at low-cost capital investment.

“Bangladesh is facing the challenge of attaining sustainable economic growth by dealing with high population growth, high rates of unemployment

and poverty reduction,” he added. SME lending portfolio of banks are

steadily growing while lending to pro-ductive and labor intensive business-es, to cottage, micro and small seg-ment and to women entrepreneurs are on the increasing trend.

In 2010 when BB started this fo-cused SME � nancing initiative SME loan portfolio in the banking sector was 21% of the total loan where as at the end of 2013 the portfolio increased to 24%, according to the central bank.

Total lending to SME sector in-creased by 59% from 2010 to 2013. Lending to productive sectors (man-ufacturing and service) increased by 55% for the same period. Financing to women entrepreneurs increased from 3% of the total SME lending to 4%. During 2013 Tk13,198 crore has been disbursed to 65,504 new businesses. l

IMPROVING LABOUR & FACTORY STANDARDS

New idea � oated to build fund with tari� s Bangladesh pays to USn Tribune Report

An idea was � oated in a Dhaka seminar to create a fund for � nancing factory upgrading and general improvement in working standards in Bangladesh.

The fund is proposed to be built up on the tari� s Bangladesh pays the US and other tari� -imposing countries.

Bangladesh pays $850m or so of tar-i� s to export garments to the US market.

“They (the fund) could be used for measures which improve worker welfare in developing countries,” Bangladesh Bank Chief Economist Hassan Zaman � oated the idea at SAARC � nance semi-nar held in Dhaka on Tuesday.

He raised the issue a day before local trade experts urged the govern-ment yesterday to appoint lobbyists to try getting the duty-free and quota free (DFQF) market access in the US.

They raised the issue after the USTR made it clear after the maiden meeting of the Trade and Investment Coopera-tion Forum Agreement (Ticfa) in Dha-ka on Monday that the issue should be settled in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Bangladesh Garments Manufac-turers and Exporters Association (BG-MEA) had earlier appointed lobbyists for about a three-year period since 2005, but their success was limited to only raising a bill in the US congress seeking the DFQF. The “expensive” ef-forts had yielded no positive results for Bangladesh.

“The � rst best principle is to allow DFQF, and the developing countries like Bangladesh should keep pressing for this,” Zaman told the seminar.

At the same time, he said: “Why can’t this $850m, or even a portion of that, be placed by the US in a fund which � nances factory upgrading?”

This “Tari� s for Standards” fund could be administered by a third party such as the World Bank by collecting contributions not only from the US but from other tari� -imposing countries too, he added.

The argument for this fund, he add-ed, is strengthened by the fact that aid from the US to Bangladesh has only averaged $150 million in the last � ve years – so contrast that to the $850 million “we are contributing to the US Treasury.”

He said this type of fund has been set up for di� erent initiatives in the past such as 15 years ago when devel-oped countries contributed to a fund which reduced the external debt levels of low income countries and there are other examples. “The issue of labor and factory standards is now as im-portant as debt relief was back then.”

The central bank chief economist personally pitched the idea at a meeting between Commonwealth countries and G20 representatives two weeks ago, be-fore placing it at the seminar in Dhaka.

He stressed the need for even high-er level concerted advocacy, and rec-ommended the idea to take up by the SAARC to the likes of the G20.

BGMEA President M Atiqul Isalm and former president Annisul Huq urged the government to appoint lob-byists to deal with the Generalised Sys-tem of Preferences (GSP) suspended by the US government.

They raised the issue at the � rst meeting of the business advisory com-mittee of the Commerce Ministry at the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) in Dhaka yesterday, with Commerce Min-ister Tofail Ahmed in the chair.

Aftabul Islam of American Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry in B3 COLUMN 1

Bangladesh ranked world's 6th least exp ensive economyn Tahmidur Rahman

Bangladesh has been ranked 172nd ex-pensive economy out of 177 countries, according to a new World Bank report released yesterday.

The country scored 40.3 on the Price Level Indexes (PLIs) whereas the most expensive economy scored 209.6 based on the ratio of nominal expenditures to real expenditures in terms of USdollar.

Ahead by only 1.4 points, the neigh-bouring country India ranked 171 with Pakistan falling behind to number 176 with a score of 36.4 points.

Economies falling at the bottom of the PLIs are the ones with the lowest prices, still having a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita among the smallest in the world even though the purchasing power parity-based (PPP) real expenditures are more than double the exchange rate–basednominal expenditures within these countries.

PPP is the measure of an identical goods in di� erent economies using the same currency to observe how much more expensive is the same elsewhere in the world.

Apart from PLIs, the report also

mentioned Bangladesh being the 144th position in a ranking by PPP-based GDP per capita, meaning per citizen of the country.

According to World Bank data, Bangladesh had a GDP per capital of $731.9 in 2011 while PPP-based GDP percapital was around $2,000 during the same year.

Compared to the last time the re-search was done in 2005, middle-in-come countries gained a bigger share of the world economy at the expense of both high and low-income peers.

The report said: “Middle income economies’ share of global GDP is 48% when using PPPs and 32% when using exchange rates.”

Such phenomenon is seen in the economies, whose linkage to the glob-al trade is not at its most � uent and therefore the gap between PPP-based and currency-based GDP per capitaldi� ers signi� cantly, said Shahidul Islam, a chartered � nancial analyst and CEO of VIPB Asset ManagementCo Ltd.

According to the ranking, products in India are generally more expensive than in Bangladesh while cheaper in Pakistan.

The International Comparison

Program (ICP), the world's largeststatistical initiative has released new data yesterday, showing the world economy produced goods andservices worth over $90tn in 2011 based on PPP which was $70tn if measured by exchange rates, outof which, Bangladesh has contributed $111.88bn.

Almost half the world’s $90.6tn in total economic output in 2011 came from low- and middle-income coun-

tries, the World Bank said.Switzerland and Norway are the

world's most expensive economies, followed by Bermuda, Australia and Denmark.

The economies with the lowest prices are Egypt, Pakistan, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Laos, according to the re-view of economic data, which seeks to compensate for exchange rate e� ects and measure spending power across countries. l

Ghulam: Achieving 22% growth in revenue collection ‘challenging job’ n Tribune Report

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain has said achieving the tax revenue target worth Tk149,000, crore with a 22% growth set for the � scal year 2014-15 will be a challenging job.

The NBR has to ful� ll the reve-nue collection through establishing a bridge by o� ering more bene� ts for the businesses to collect more rev-enue from them, NBR chief told a pre-budget meeting held on Tuesday at the NBR headquarters in the capital.

“We have to set a � ve-year long revenue collection plan for the gov-ernment. This year, we have to col-lect Tk149,000 crore, which will be doubled to Tk300,000 crore in the concluding year of this government,” he said.

“Although the tax base was mini-mal earlier, we have to push it up to a now height and also have to work hard together to achieve the target. As we are dreaming to become a mid-income country within 2021, we need to have more tax contribution as the dream will never come true with-out achieving the target of highest revenue collection.”

Regarding the government’s dif-ferent policies, Ghulam Rahman said the government should work for en-couraging businesses to invest more in the domestic market.

“As the existing policy structure encourages businesses to launder money abroad, many companies and people are siphoning money abroad.

There have been so many incident of money laundering cases while few of them were traced out and most of them remain untraced,” said Hussain.

The government should encour-age the businesses to invest for the development of di� erent domestic industries, which will need policy support as well, he added.

The NBR chief urged the busi-nessmen to raise their voices at the consultative committee meeting to be held on May 8, for pressing home their demands on investment policies and environment friendly businesses.

“We are yet to achieve one-fourth of our development goal, which should be achieved fully in the last 42 years. Bangladesh is even still lagging behind Myanmar in terms of achiev-ing economic growth.”

The government has been provid-ing many facilities for the betterment of the readymade garments sector as it has employed over 40lakh people and over 43 other sectors and services are directly or indirectly depends on the garments businesses, he said.

“I have discussed with the Prime Minister and � nance minister as both of them had earlier asked me to think about some dynamic and productive plans for earning more revenues,” he said.

Coming down heavily on tradition-al education, he urged the people not to stick to the existing traditional edu-cation system. Rather he suggested for choosing technical education, which will be ultimately helpful for them to get a support in getting a job abroad. l

NBR: Undisclosed money should be relaxed for investmentn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The government should relax the conditions to allow undisclosed mon-ey not only for investing in setting up new industries but also for prevent-ing money laundering abroad.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Ghulam Hussain yesterday came up with the observa-tion while addressing a pre-budget discussion with the Economic Re-porters Forum (ERF) held at the NBR headquarters in the capital.

Many developed countries have gone far away in terms of � nancial and social development, just allow-ing undisclosed money in invest-ments with trouble-free conditions, whereas Bangladesh lacks in such facilities, said NBR chief.

“Since there have been tougher conditions for allowing undisclosed money in investment, the wealthy people are now busy in siphoning o� those black money abroad.’’

“The money was supposed to be used in developing industries in Bangladesh but other countries are developing their industries with the money laundered from Bangladesh. The country is not only losing the money but also being deprived from a scope of creating new jobs,” he said.

The NBR chairman made the re-sponse while ERF former general secretary Abu Kawsar proposed the NBR to allow investment of undis-closed money with 2% penalty and also relax the conditions to evade money laundering from the country.

B3 COLUMN 5

Business urges government to remove FDI barriersn Tribune Report

The local businessmen urged the gov-ernment to remove all the barriers in doing business to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country and at-tain higher growth.

They urged the government to pro-vide gas, water and electricity connec-tions, lower lending rates, ease tari� and tax system, removing double tax-ation, and provide land for setting up factories to make the RMG sector com-pliant through relocation.

They made the appeal in the � rst meeting of Business Advisory Com-mittee, formed to recommend � nance minister to expand and develop the country’s trade and commerce.

“I will talk to � nance minister and form sector-based committees to iden-tify problems and � nd out e� ective solutions,” Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said, in response.

He said the government would take all necessary steps to keep prices of es-sentials at a reasonable level during the holy month of Ramadan, he added.

Former BGMEA president Annisul Haque it is quite impossible to make the RMG sector compliant with reloca-tion. The government should manage land for factory relocation, he added.

He said small factory owners do not have enough fund to relocate factories

and that’s why the government should allocate fund to provide loan at lower rate.

He also urged the government to provide gas connection to those fac-tories immediately, which already has built buildings and imported machin-ery, but cannot go for production due lack of power connection.

Aftabul Islam of American Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bangla-desh urged the government to enact coal policy to remove the power crises as there are enough coals in the mine through which country’s demands can be met. The public private partnership exists only in the papers. It should be activated to expedite the investment, he added.

BGMEA President M Atiqul Islam urged the government to provide lands at Korea EPZ to the factory owners of Chittagong as they are doing business in shared buildings.

Mir Nasir Hossain, managing direc-tor of Mir Group, urged the government to include the country’s think tanks in research for the development of busi-ness and to strengthen the WTO cell of Commerce Ministry, Bangladesh Tari� Commission and Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute to ease the process of doing business.

“We have several times raised our problems, but were not addressed,”

said Tapan Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Employers Federation, adding entrepreneurs are being ha-rassed in the name of environmental issues and others.

Former FBCCI President Ak Azad urged the government to provide ag-riculture loan at lower rate, particu-larly for the jute sector, as the sector is struggling.

If all the facilities, including export development fund (EDF) provided to the apparel sector, is provided to the other sector, it will help diversify products and increase exports, said Saiful Islam, chair-man of Western Marine Shipyard.

Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) President Abdus Salam Mur-shedy demanded uni� ed exchange rate for the exporters and to keep allocation in the national budget for construction of deep sea port as the exporters have to chase lead time.

Yousuf Abdullah Harun, former pres-ident of FBCCI, suggested the govern-ment to form sub-committee to identify problems and take initiative to resolve the problems with combined e� orts in collaboration with all ministries.

“We have enough supply of essen-tials and the prices would remain sta-ble during Ramadan,” said Mostofa Kamal, chairman of Meghna Group. He urged the consumers not to buy in bulk before Ramadan. l

PMO forms body to probe SOEs privatisation deals n Tribune Report

The government has formed a 5-mem-ber committee to examine the legal process of privatising the state-owned enterprises and see whether thedeals complied with the law, o� cials said.

Prime Minister’s O� ce (PMO) is-sued a circular yesterday of forming the committee.

PMO Director General-1 has been made chairman of the committee while four other members are from minis-tries of textile and jute, and law, PMO and Privatisation Commission.

The committee has been asked to examine the deals, particularly under the Ministry of Textile and Jute. l

ANALYST

B2 Stock Thursday, May 1, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks � nish � at with volatility n Tribune Report

Stocks � nished � at with volatility yesterday, as late buying spree on pharmaceuticals and telecommu-nication o� set early losses.

The market was in positive ter-ritory throughout the session but it recovered all the points lost in early trading due to rally in heavy weights – Grameenphone and Square Pharmaceuticals – helped market end marginally lower.

After previous session’s steep fall, the benchmark index DSEX witnessed fractional losses of 0.2 points to close at 4,567.

The comprising blue chips DS30 rose 3 points or 0.2% to 1,671. The Shariah index DSES gained 5 points or 0.6% to close at 1,018.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, dropped 24 points to 8,771.

Trading recovered slightly with 12.6% increase in DSE turnover. The total market turnover stood at Tk440 crore. Other major sectors, including banks and non-banking � nancial institutions, power and, food and allied, closed down. Ce-ment, textile and insurance sectors edged higher.

IDLC Investments said despite a depressed start up, closing session of the week ended � at.

“Following tri-session’s toll of 135 points, sale pressure started

beating market sentiment at open-ing. But, lucrative prices prompted some witty investors to come up-front with some late hour buying spree.”

The market was very much sen-sitive to corporate declarations. Seemingly, more than expected earnings of ACI stimulated inves-tors much, with 21.57% gain.

Meanwhile, no dividend dis-closure of Shinepukur Ceramics and Beximco Synthetic put them in ‘Z’ category which disappoint-ed investors and helped the scrips emerge as top losers of the day.

Lanka Bangla Securities said after rising more than 103 points in last week, market wrapped the week eroding gains and closed � at over jerky participation of investors.

It said throughout the week, market breadth was weak and in-dex performed mixed.

On the last trading day of the week some large cap stocks, spe-cially bank and � nancial stocks took correction in large volume, while ral-ly in other large and mid-cap stocks got a strong footing. Thus, market was a bit volatile with corrective mood closing the index down.

Multinational pharmaceutical company Renata topped the turn-over’s chart following its dividend declaration of 75% cash and 25% stock. Its shares worth almost Tk29 crore was changed hands. l

News from trade serverISLAMIINS: The Board of Directors has recommended 15% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 09.07.2014, Time: 12:00 Noon, Record Date: 12.05.2014. Venue of the AGM will be noti� ed later. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 1.93, NAV per share of Tk. 13.83 and NOCFPS of Tk. 4.54 for the year ended on December 31, 2013.BXPHARMA: The Board of Directors has recommended 10% cash dividend and 5% stock dividend for the year ended on De-cember 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 21.06.2014, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Bexico Industrial Park, Sarabo, Kashimpur, Gazipur. Record Date: 18.05.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 4.01, NAV per share of Tk. 56.45 and NOCFPS of Tk. 6.08 for the year ended on December 31, 2013.STANDARINS: The Board of Directors has recommended 15% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 18.06.2014, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Spectra Convention Centre Limited, House # 19, Road # 7, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212. Record Date: 15.05.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 3.05, NAV per

share of Tk. 16.85 and NOCFPS of Tk. 7.18 for the year ended on December 31, 2013.SONARGAON: The Board of Directors did not recommend any dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 07.06.2014, Time: 12:00 Noon, Venue: Barisal Club, Barisal. Record Date: 15.05.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. (0.81), NAV per share of Tk. 33.69 and NOCFPS of Tk. (1.69) for the year ended on December 31, 2013 as against Tk. 0.28, Tk. 36.22 and Tk. (2.72) respectively for the year ended on Decem-ber 31, 2012.BAYLEASING: The Board of Directors has recommended 17% cash dividend and 15% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 29.05.2014, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB), IDEB Bhaban, 160/A, Kakrail, VIP Sarak, Dhaka-1000. Record Date: 12.05.2014. The Company has also reported consolidated net pro� t after tax of Tk. 137.52 million, consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.21 and consolidated NAV per share of Tk. 25.45 for the year ended on Decem-

ber 31, 2013. The Company has further informed that the consolidated NOCFPS of the Company is Tk. (2.25) for the year ended on December 31, 2013.JMISMDL; The Board of Directors has recommended 15% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 24.07.2014, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: White House Hotel, 155, Shantinagar, Dhaka-1217. Record Date: 22.05.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 2.95, NAV per share of Tk. 46.03 and NOCFPS of Tk. 3.16 for the year ended on December 31, 2013ACIFORMULA; The Board of Directors has recommended 25% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 10.06.2014, Time: 9:00 AM, Venue: O� cers Club, 26 Baily Road, Dhaka. Record Date: 12.05.2014. The Company has also reported net pro� t of Tk. 129.23 million, EPS of Tk. 2.87, NAV per share of Tk. 38.45 and NOCFPS of Tk. 9.38 for the year ended on December 31, 2013 as against Tk. 149.96 million, Tk. 3.33, Tk. 38.08 and Tk. 2.63 respectively for the year ended on December 31, 2012.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Shinepukur Ceramics-A -35.03 -34.63 10.27 10.20 9.00 10.00 2.600 -0.08 -veSonargaon Tex -A -33.09 -32.66 9.34 9.30 9.80 10.00 0.159 -0.81 -veBeximco Syn.-A -30.88 -29.69 9.78 9.40 9.90 10.00 4.239 -0.40 -veActive Fine Chem.-A -13.49 -15.02 66.73 68.00 68.20 65.00 0.734 4.85 13.8Premier Leasing-Z -12.64 -12.84 7.60 7.60 8.20 7.50 0.240 0.04 190.0City G Insu.-A -12.50 -11.92 21.29 21.00 21.60 20.80 0.015 1.73 12.3BD. Thai Alum -B -9.78 -9.92 20.44 20.30 21.00 20.30 0.607 0.77 26.5Legacy Footwear -A -8.81 -11.12 23.65 23.80 24.30 23.50 1.999 0.36 65.7GSP Finance-A -8.22 -6.51 20.10 20.10 20.10 20.10 0.070 1.34 15.0Hakkani P& Paper -B -8.21 -8.10 25.77 25.70 27.20 25.30 0.425 0.28 92.0

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Shinepukur Ceramics-A -33.33 -34.15 10.20 10.20 10.80 9.50 19.478 -0.08 -veBeximco Syn.-A -28.89 -29.86 9.75 9.60 10.20 9.00 9.737 -0.40 -veSonargaon Tex -A -27.74 -30.40 9.57 9.90 11.80 8.60 2.565 -0.81 -vePremier Leasing-Z -14.77 -14.27 7.63 7.50 8.60 6.50 2.601 0.04 190.8Active Fine Chem.-A -13.53 -15.14 66.83 68.40 68.80 64.00 41.418 4.85 13.8City G Insu.-A -12.18 -11.41 21.11 20.90 21.40 20.50 1.368 1.73 12.2Agrani Insurance -A -10.39 -10.38 20.80 20.70 21.10 20.40 0.208 1.83 11.4BD. Thai Alum -B -9.87 -11.36 20.21 20.10 22.40 20.10 7.082 0.77 26.2Hakkani P& Paper -B -9.72 -10.74 26.17 26.00 27.60 26.00 0.785 0.28 93.5Fine Foods A -9.52 -9.26 15.38 15.20 16.40 15.20 2.353 -1.01 -ve

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

BD Submarine Cable-A 194,163 34.10 10.77 180.70 -0.99 182.50 182.50 168.50 175.63UNITED AIR-A 1,266,428 15.24 4.81 12.00 -4.76 12.60 12.60 11.90 12.04Matin Spinning-N 341,000 14.03 4.43 42.10 9.07 38.60 42.40 40.00 41.13Grameenphone-A 49,400 13.31 4.20 268.90 0.60 267.30 272.00 265.50 269.43ACI Limited- A 48,238 11.40 3.60 240.10 22.00 196.80 247.00 215.00 236.26Square Pharma -A 38,720 10.88 3.44 281.40 1.77 276.50 283.70 276.60 281.09LafargeS Cement-Z 157,500 10.35 3.27 67.30 4.83 64.20 69.90 63.70 65.68Meghna Petroleum -A 33,568 10.05 3.17 299.60 -1.35 303.70 303.00 295.40 299.40BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 349,086 9.37 2.96 26.80 -1.47 27.20 28.30 26.10 26.84National Bank - B 690,224 9.01 2.85 13.20 0.00 13.20 13.50 12.80 13.06HeidelbergCement -A 12,450 7.34 2.32 589.40 -1.55 598.70 600.00 580.00 589.91LankaBangla Fin. -A 133,300 6.86 2.17 51.40 -1.15 52.00 52.10 50.50 51.47AFC AgroBiotech-N 113,500 6.50 2.05 58.80 9.29 53.80 59.10 54.00 57.30BD Building Systems -A 97,575 6.31 1.99 67.30 2.59 65.60 68.00 62.10 64.62Delta Life Insu. -A 28,950 5.99 1.89 207.20 0.44 206.30 213.00 201.10 206.98

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Renata Ltd. -A 312,194 373.97 8.57 1240.00 5.72 1172.90 1399.00 1155.00 1197.87Grameenphone-A 1,049,790 283.11 6.49 268.90 0.37 267.90 271.70 260.00 269.68Meghna Petroleum -A 673,381 201.91 4.63 300.50 -1.05 303.70 305.40 279.00 299.84ACI Limited- A 846,850 198.33 4.55 241.20 21.57 198.40 250.00 180.00 234.20Square Pharma -A 575,842 161.92 3.71 281.70 1.70 277.00 283.30 270.00 281.19LafargeS Cement-Z 2,369,500 156.58 3.59 67.70 5.45 64.20 69.50 63.80 66.08HeidelbergCement -A 214,060 126.15 2.89 590.10 -1.30 597.90 604.00 578.10 589.33Olympic Ind. -A 474,153 112.77 2.58 240.30 1.82 236.00 241.70 222.00 237.83Padma Oil Co. -A 299,460 103.34 2.37 346.40 0.79 343.70 350.00 340.00 345.09BD Submarine Cable-A 538,545 94.48 2.17 182.10 0.00 182.10 184.50 170.00 175.44Delta Life Insu. -A 400,650 82.58 1.89 208.40 1.12 206.10 214.00 202.60 206.12Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 69,050 79.27 1.82 1133.70 2.89 1101.90 1164.90 1120.00 1148.05Matin Spinning-N 1,697,200 70.32 1.61 42.10 8.79 38.70 42.50 40.40 41.43UNITED AIR-A 5,416,563 65.22 1.49 12.00 -3.23 12.40 12.50 11.20 12.04Southeast Bank-A 2,715,527 58.48 1.34 21.70 -0.46 21.80 22.00 19.70 21.54

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

ACI Limited- A 22.00 20.39 236.26 240.10 247.00 215.00 11.397 5.28 44.7Bay Leasing.-A 14.38 12.42 33.86 34.20 34.80 32.90 0.783 1.21 28.0AFC AgroBiotech-N 9.29 7.30 57.30 58.80 59.10 54.00 6.504 1.54 37.2Matin Spinning-N 9.07 5.73 41.13 42.10 42.40 40.00 14.026 4.55 9.0JMI Syringes MDL-A 9.03 4.54 159.58 167.80 167.80 145.10 2.553 2.08 76.7Orion Infusions -A 8.78 7.93 44.63 44.60 45.10 42.40 0.732 4.81 9.3Sa� o Spinning-A 7.28 5.70 22.05 22.10 22.10 20.00 0.203 1.04 21.2Samata LeatheR -Z 6.79 2.25 28.63 29.90 29.90 28.00 0.043 -0.04 -veApex Tannery -A 4.95 4.34 141.95 144.30 147.30 136.00 0.894 4.35 32.6ACI Formulations-A 4.87 7.92 86.44 84.00 89.00 83.10 1.063 6.28 13.8

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

ACI Limited- A 21.57 18.88 234.20 241.20 250.00 180.00 198.330 5.28 44.4Bay Leasing.-A 16.67 13.48 33.93 34.30 34.90 27.00 16.331 1.21 28.0Orion Infusions -A 9.98 7.94 44.99 45.20 45.20 40.60 53.212 4.81 9.4Matin Spinning-N 8.79 6.34 41.43 42.10 42.50 40.40 70.315 4.55 9.1AFC AgroBiotech-N 8.70 6.34 57.23 58.70 59.40 54.20 56.230 1.54 37.2JMI Syringes MDL-A 8.38 4.36 158.44 163.00 169.00 136.00 23.212 2.08 76.2PragatiLife Insu. -A 7.52 6.20 184.98 187.30 189.80 177.30 4.162 2.38 77.7Apex Tannery -A 7.49 3.72 140.09 146.30 149.00 135.00 16.895 4.35 32.2Kohinoor Chem -A 6.47 6.92 364.78 363.70 371.40 315.00 5.137 9.37 38.9Apex Footwear-A 6.05 4.02 437.67 443.50 447.00 416.00 11.292 23.61 18.5

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 420.35 9.63 38.50 9.40 458.85 9.61NBFI 138.46 3.17 13.15 3.21 151.61 3.18Investment 87.52 2.01 4.90 1.20 92.42 1.94Engineering 268.50 6.15 20.24 4.94 288.75 6.05Food & Allied 223.88 5.13 20.73 5.06 244.61 5.12Fuel & Power 583.89 13.38 41.59 10.15 625.47 13.10Jute 1.74 0.04 0.00 1.74 0.04Textile 286.63 6.57 49.04 11.97 335.67 7.03Pharma & Chemical 1096.55 25.13 42.47 10.37 1139.02 23.86Paper & Packaging 0.79 0.02 26.99 6.59 27.77 0.58Service 61.99 1.42 2.75 0.67 64.74 1.36Leather 87.96 2.02 31.33 7.65 119.29 2.50Ceramic 30.57 0.70 3.92 0.96 34.49 0.72Cement 347.84 7.97 20.79 5.07 368.63 7.72Information Technology 42.30 0.97 6.78 1.65 49.07 1.03General Insurance 32.74 0.75 0.76 0.19 33.51 0.70Life Insurance 113.58 2.60 6.49 1.59 120.07 2.52Telecom 377.59 8.65 47.41 11.57 425.00 8.90Travel & Leisure 73.12 1.68 15.90 3.88 89.02 1.87Miscellaneous 87.28 2.00 14.61 3.57 101.88 2.13Debenture 0.33 0.01 1.28 0.31 1.61 0.03

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index : 4566.85991 (-) 0.004% ▼

DSE Shariah Index : 1018.20429 (+) 0.58% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1671.92800 (+) 0.18% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 14043.3203 (-) 0.11% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 11688.6101 (-) 0.45% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8771.0460 (-) 0.27% ▼

DSE key features April 30, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

4,363.58

Turnover (Volume)

84,850,457

Number of Contract 94,713

Traded Issues 292

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

84

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

201

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,347.27

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

28.45

CSE key features April 30, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 329.95

Turnover (Volume) 9,542,167

Number of Contract 13,548

Traded Issues 214

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

50

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

158

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,240.64

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.16

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 biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

After rising more than 103 points in last week, market wrapped the week eroding gains and closed � at over jerky participation of investors

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

Rezaul Hossain, chief commercial o� cer of bKash is recently seen handing over Tk100,000 to Mushanna Jahan, winner of the Facebook based photo competition named ‘bKash Smile Contest’

Rupali bank limited has recently won the best corporate award 2013 from Institute of Cost and Management Accounts of Bangladesh (ICMAB). Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has handed over the crest and certi� cate to the bank’s chair Dr Ahmed–al Kabir and its managing director, M Farid Uddin

Ahmad Mohamed Ali, president of Islamic Development Bank seen speaking at a seminar on shariah banking that was organised by the Islamic Banks Consultative Forum at a hotel in Dhaka recently

Pubali Bank Limited has recently won the best corporate award in the category of private commercial bank (traditional operation) from the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB). The bank’s MD and CEO, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury received the award from the Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith

Da� odil International University organised an international seminar on sustainable SME development and creating new entrepreneurs in Bangladesh on Tuesday at its auditorium. Speakers including Md Sabur Khan, former president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the seminar stressed on the importance of networking, collaboration and clustering for sustainable SME development and creating new entrepreneurs in the country

RFL recently inaugurated two new exclusive showrooms in Bogra and Sirajgong. The company’s brand ambassador, Mousumi launched the exclusive showrooms at the presence of the company’s exclusive outlets’ assistant general manager, Md Gias Uddin Biswas

Crude prices down in Asian traden AFP, Singapore

Oil prices eased in Asian trade yes-terday on expectations of another in-crease in US crude stockpiles, which would suggest weak demand in the world’s biggest economy.

New York’s West Texas Intermedi-ate (WTI) for June delivery dropped 80 cents to $100.48 in afternoon trade, and Brent North Sea crude for June eased 32 cents to $108.66.

Analysts expect data due later Wednesday to show US crude stock-piles rose by 2.2 million barrels last week, according to a Wall Street Jour-nal survey.

Tan Chee Tat, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore, said an announcement by Libya that it will resume oil exports from the Zueitina port is also likely to push prices lower as there would be more supply in the market.

“Libya is also a cause for downside after the announcement that their sec-ond port is ready to take on their � rst oil tanker,” Tan told AFP.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation is set to resume exports from Zueitina after declaring an end Tuesday to a force ma-jeure imposed on the eastern port, which was blocked by rebels for nine months.

The measure was imposed in Au-gust to clear NOC of any liability for failure to honour contracts. l

Euro zone bonds reverse as in� ation rises, takes heat o� ECBn Reuters, London

Euro zone bond yields reversed ear-lier gains yesterday after euro zone in� ation cooled expectations that the European Central Bank would need to immediately loosen monetary policy to support the bloc’s � edgling growth.

Consumer prices nudged above 2009 lows in April, although at 0.7%, in� ation fell short of forecasts of 0.8% and remain well below the ECB’s target of just under 2%.

Markets had earlier been position-ing for in� ation to fall even further be-low forecast, after � ash estimates for Germany - the bloc’s largest economy - released on Tuesday were 0.2% below economists’ predictions.

“Market expectations changed after the German reading. So today’s reading was actually at the higher end of what was expected,” said Luca Jellinek, Eu-ropean head of � xed income at Credit Agricole.

While the threat of de� ation keeps alive the chances of a more accommo-dative stance from the ECB, strategists say more evidence is needed to spur action.

“One set of data is not enough,” said Eric Oynoyan, Europe rates strategist at BNP Paribas. “If in� ation falls back again, that will up the pressure.”

The ECB next meets on Thursday May 8, although few in the market pre-dict any surprise policy action then.

However, ECB policymaker Chris-

tian Noyer added further fuel to the speculation by saying he was person-ally in favour of one or two further measures, for example injecting more liquidity.

Strategists say such measures are likely to include a further cut in o� cial rates or an end to a process whereby the ECB drains euros from the bank-ing system equal to its own holdings of government bonds bought at the

height of the crisis, or sterilization of its Securities Markets Programme.

A programme of asset purchases, or quantitative easing, which the ECB has referenced as a possible tool, is also on the cards. Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan reiterated on Tues-day, however, that the implementation of such a programme would prove dif-� cult.

Immediate pressure on the ECB from money markets is expected to ease, with the euro zone overnight bank-to-bank lending rate tipped to fall from multi-year highs as 100bn euros

that was injected into the euro zone banking system on Tuesday � lters through.

Timing crucialEuropean market participants will now turn their attention to events in the US, seeking clues for when the world’s larg-est economy will raise rates, a move that is likely to be felt across conti-nents.

Later on Wednesday, US Federal Reserve o� cials are not expected to deviate from continued tapering of its massive bond-buying stimulus at the end of its two-day meeting. Neither is it likely to provide any more guidance on rates rises, predict strategists, leav-ing ADP employment data as the key indicator.

“The Fed is on autopilot regarding tapering, thus the labour market data will be key regarding the market’s take on the timing of the � rst interest rate move,” said Commerzbank analyst Al-exander Aldinger said. l

IMF says Russia is in recessionn AFP, Moscow

The International Monetary Fund said yesterday that Russia is already in re-cession and slashed its growth forecast for 2014 citing the e� ect of the Ukraine crisis on investment.

“If we de� ne recession as negative growth in two quarters in a row, then Russia from that point of view is ex-periencing recession,” IMF economist Antonio Spilimbergo was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

The IMF has lowered its 2014 growth forecast for Russia to 0.2% from the 1.3% � gure it issued on April 8, Spilim-bergo said.

“We have clari� ed our forecast on Russia’s economic growth. We expect growth at the level of 0.2% this year.”

The IMF’s decision came taking into account “the di� cult current situation and the signi� cant level of uncertainty related to geopolitical tensions and sanc-tions,” Spilimbergo was quoted as saying in comments translated into Russian.

“This all has a very negative e� ect on the investment climate,” he said.

“We expect that the fall in invest-ments that already took place in 2013 will increase further this year.”

Russia’s economy contracted by

about 0.5% in the � rst three months of the year compared with the previous quarter.

The � nance ministry warned this month that the economy could tip into recession in the second quarter.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said this month that Russia could see growth of 0.5% in 2014 but warned growth could be only “around zero”.

Standard and Poor’s ratings agency on Friday downgraded Russia’s ability to repay debt to BBB-, one notch above junk status, and retained its negative outlook.

Russia’s economy has already seen colossal capital � ight since the start of the Ukraine crisis as investors have pulled out their funds.

Spilimbergo said the IMF “expects capital out� ows this year at a level of $100bn,” but that a “high degree of un-certainty” remained.

Russia’s government has predicted capital out� ows over 2014 of between $70 and $100bn. Russia’s central bank said that capital � ight in the � rst quar-ter alone amounted to $50.6bn.

Spilimbergo said the IMF was fore-casting 1% growth in Russia in 2015, down from its previous forecast of 2.3%. l

Yen rises in Asia after BoJ holds � re on new easingn AFP, Tokyo

The yen ticked up in Asia yesterday as the Bank of Japan held o� fresh mon-etary easing, despite fears that Japan’s recovery is faltering on the back of tep-id data and a recent sales tax rise.

In afternoon Tokyo trade, the dollar weakened to 102.50 yen, down from 102.64 yen in New York on Tuesday.

The euro was also weaker at $1.3807 and 141.51 yen, from $1.3811 and 141.75 yen in New York.

Bank of Japan (BoJ) policymakers also lowered their growth expectations for the world’s number three economy, saying it would expand 1.1% in the � scal year to next March, down from an earlier 1.4% forecast, according to the BoJ’s semi-annual outlook report which gauges the median of members’ views.

However, their feeling that in� ation would come in at 1.3% over the same time period was unchanged from a previous forecast. Some analysts ques-tioned the upbeat in� ation view.

“I wonder how they would explain the price increase while revising down the growth forecast,” Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute, told Dow Jones Newswires. l

Tripartite MoA signs to resolve disputes between owners and workersn Tribune Report

Bangladesh Frozen Foods Export-ers Association (BFFEA), Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) and Solidarity Center - Bangladesh yesterday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to resolve the dis-putes between the employers and the workers in an alternative dispute reso-lution process.

BFFEA President Md Amin Ul-lah, BSFF Chairman Syed Mahmudul Haq and SCB � eld Programme Spe-cialist Jennifer Kuhlman signed the

agreement on behalf of their respec-tive organisations to resolve disputes between employers and workers of shrimp and � sh processing industry.

Under the agreement titled “Rules of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mechanism”, the employers and the workers will be able to resolve their disputes in number of steps through bi-partite negotiation, mediation and arbitration, said a statement of the BSFF issued yesterday.

The workers and the employers will be able to resolve the disputes in a comparatively shorter period avoid-

ing the lengthy process of formal legal system through courts, it added.

“Both the workers and the employ-ers will use this procedure in good faith, which will help to sustain a good working condition in shrimp and � sh processing industry,” said the Country Program director of Solidarity Center Alonzo Suson.

The Memorandum of Agree-ment was funded by USAID through Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL) and undertaken by the trio inassociation with Department of Fish-eries (DoF).

Before the development of this pro-cess, 14 pending cases of the Labor Court in Khulna had been resolved through the negotiation between the respective workers and employers.

Earlier on March 24, 2013 BFFEA, BSFF and Solidarity Center signed a tripartite Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to work together to promote Bangladesh Labor Law and ILO Core Labor Standards in the Shrimp and Fish Processing Industry in Bangla-desh and the Rules of ADR Mechanism was developed in the pretext of that MoA. l

Market expectations changed after the German reading. So today’s reading was actually at the higher end of what was expected

NBR: Undisclosed money should be relaxed for investment B1 COLUMN 3NBR chairman also said if the govern-ment allowed investing undisclosed money with relaxed conditions, there would be a rise in setting up new in-dustries and money laundering could also be prevented.

Referring to an example of the Ready-Made Garments (RMG) sector, he said as the government had allowed investing undisclosed money to the RMG sector in 1989 and the sector now became the largest industry with creating employment for 40 lakh poor women while lives of around 2 crore people have also been changed remarkably.

ERF President Sultan Mahmud pro-posed the NBR to eliminate discrimi-natory tax system as people having Taxpayers Identi� cation Number (TIN) were paying 15% tax while people without TIN number were paying only 10% taxes under the existing system.

Forum leader Sheikh Abdullah al-leged that the people were evading taxes through transitions of land.

Urging the NBR to address policy-level loopholes, former NBR presi-dent Khaza Mainuddin said fast food, sweetmeat, hotel-restaurant business-es were evading Value Added Taxes (VATs).

In response to the proposal of ERF, NBR chairman said NBR would bring some major changes in the revenue collection system, particularly in the income tax collection system.

“Corporate tax rate will be brought down to almost same level of individu-al level income tax to encourage more investments,” he said.

He also noted that special emphasis would be given on income tax than the customs and VATs. “Large and medi-um industries from the rural areas will also be brought under the tax net,” he added.

Hussain said that the taxes on health hazardous products would see a sharp rise in the upcoming budget whereas NBR was also working towards bring-ing house owners, doctors, engineers, lawyers and other professionals under tax net.

Responding to queries made by ERF leaders, Hussain mentioned that though NBR was a big organisation but it lacked in su� cient numbers of inspectors that was hindering the � eld level inspection process.

“To ensure an e� ective tax collec-tion system, we will need a tax inspec-tor in each circle, although most of the circles lack in inspectors. A tax zone needs at least 27 inspectors, whereas currently there are only 7 inspectors in each zone,” he added.

Regarding the pending cases at courts, NBR chief said: “Around 10000-12000 cases have been remained pending at courts involving around Tk25,000 crore revenue as people se-cured stay orders from the High Court once the cases were � led against them for tax dodging. l

New idea � oated to build fund with tari� s Bangladesh pays to US B1 COLUMN 2Bangladesh, however, argued for strengthening economic diplomacy, in-stead of appointing lobbyists.

“It’s not that the e� orts through appointing lobbyists would yield re-sult,” Annisul Huq, who led the apex apparel trade body when BGMEA had appointed lobbyists, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “But, it would cre-ate an impression among the custom-ers that Bangladesh is trying hard to get the DFQF.”

He added: “No one can give you a guarantee that things will be done if lobbyists are appointed.” l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, May 1, 2014

DILBERT

Social Business: Changing how world does businessn Sazzad Hossain

“For thousands of years, business ex-isted only at the fringes of society. Society thought little of people in business, and people in business expected little of society. Pro� t was their only reward because power, social status, and even social acceptability, were closed to them. In this context, the idea that making a pro� t was the only goal of business might have some sense.” But in a time when the values of the business world largely in� uence the values of society as a whole and the possibilities of future generations, the purposes and goals of business need to be questioned and ex-panded. And so did Muhammad Yunus, the only Nobel Prise winner from Bangladesh who came up with a theory of micro� nance to question the status quo and to change the way the world does business.

The way the present world does businesses and its true colourModern day businesses are based on the core concept of making pro� ts and maxi-mising the wealth of its shareholders – an outcome of the free market economy aka capitalism. Theoretically, capitalism was supposed to do a favor to the society as a whole, which it did to some extent after the fall of mighty Soviet Union in 1991. Still today, capitalism is � ourishing as businesses are growing and so is the world trade.

However, not everyone is reaping the fruits of success. It is as clear as crystal when we look at the real picture of the global income distribution: 94% of world in-come goes to only 40% of the people. Just imagine how devastating the real scenario is when 60% of the world’s population has to � ght among themselves to get a share out

of this tiny, little 6% of world income!This gets scarier when you convert the

� gure into dollar terms: Half of the world lives on two dollars a day or less, while almost a billion people struggle with their lives severely with less than one dollar to spend per day! The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer throughout the world. Imbalance in power and wealth is dividing the world into uneven halves, destroying the core values of humanity. As a result, several unprecedented, major crises such as high food prices, energy crisis, � nancial crisis, and the ever-worsening environmental crisis have combined forces to bring even greater misery and frustration to the world’s bottom 3 billion people.

Social business is redefining human nature from selfish to selflessHowever, there are still many people left in this world for who it’s very hard to envisage

a world where words like “humanity” and “sel� essness” are ruled out of the dictionary and replaced by “greed” and “sel� shness”. Dr Yunus is one of those men who not only faced di� culty in imagining such a world but also tried to get rid of it by bringing up a revolutionary theory of social business which is said to be capable of changing the face of the world.

Dr Yunus believes that economic theo-ries have so far interpreted human beings as sel� sh, ignoring the spirit of sel� essness among individuals. To him, explaining hu-mans from only the sel� shness perspective is a “fundamental � aw” in the whole struc-ture of economic theories that maintain that business is only for making money.

“We have misinterpreted humans. People are sel� sh; at the same time, they are sel� ess too. Theoreticians have never looked into that,’’ he said.

With the idea of social business, Prof

Yunus has introduced a new dimension for capitalism: A business model that does not strive to maximise pro� ts but rather to serve humanity’s most pressing needs. According to him, social business is a non-loss, non-dividend enterprise and dedicated entirely to achieving a social goal, where an investor aims to help others without taking any � nancial gain for him/herself, contrasting the core concept of traditional businesses.

At the same time, unlike today’s not-for-pro� t organizations, ie INGOs and local NGOs, which depend on donations or on private or public grants to survive and to operate, social business generates enough income to cover its own costs which makes it sustainable; any surplus is invested in expansion of the business or for increased bene� ts to society. According to Prof Yunus,”A charity dollar has only one life; a Social Business dollar can be invested over

and over again.”To remove disparity in income and

wealth distribution throughout the world, it is high time that the world embraced social business as a tool that cares for its inhabit-ants and can turn the current � nancial woes around. As the microcredit pioneer says: “There is no alternative to social business to solve social problems. We cannot continue destroying our planet. If we can come up with an idea, we will be able to change the world. We have to do that before the world reaches a point of no return.”

The difference between traditional business model and social business modelThe business model concept o� ers a con-sistent and integrated picture of a company and the way it generates

revenue and pro� t. But social businesses cannot be based on simply replicating con-

ventional for-pro� t business models. New value propositions and new value constella-tions have to be created so as to match into a positive pro� t equation.

The � gure, one can easily identify the basic di� erence between these two. In the social business model, there are three changes: Addition of social pro� t equation (Impact Investment) to the conventional model, putting a condition in economic pro� t equation to ensure total recovery of capital employed and replacing the customers with stakeholders in the value proposition to broaden the scope of social businesses. l

SazzadHossain is a business analyst at LightCastle Partners, an emerging market specialised business planning and intelligence � rm. The article was originally published in the LCP Blog (lightcastlebd.com/blog)

Passengers walk at a terminal upon their arrival at the new Hamad International Airport (HIA) on April 30 in Doha, Qatar. The � rst commercial � ight chartered by Qatar airways landed at HIA, greeted by water cannons AFP

China pushes for rival trans-Paci� c trade dealn AFP, Beijing

China is pressing for a vast Asia-Paci� c free trade agreement, a senior o� cial said yesterday, as a rival US-led deal that excludes the Asian giant runs into snags.

Wang Shouwen, an assistant com-merce minister, told reporters at a brie� ng that China has proposed set-ting up a working group to study the feasibility of an Asia-Paci� c Free Trade Agreement (FTAAP).

The proposal comes ahead of a meeting in May of trade ministers from the Asia Paci� c Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum, which China will host.

“The feasibility study will look into the potential economic bene� ts if APEC members reach a free trade agreement, how to make use of ex-isting FTAs ... and whether we can use the similar aspects of the various FTAs to serve the general FTA within the Asia-Paci� c region,” he said.

“We think there will be no con� ict between the FTAAP and the region’s other FTAs under discussion.”

The idea for the FTAAP was raised in 2006 by leaders of APEC, Wang said. That group has 21 members including both China and the United States.

The US has been trying to secure agreement on a Trans-Paci� c Partner-ship (TPP), a grouping of 12 nations in-cluding Japan, Australia, Malaysia and Mexico. All belong to APEC.

But the US-led trade talks have become snagged on issues related to Japan’s tightly guarded auto and agri-cultural sectors.

There had been hopes that To-kyo and Washington might break the impasse during US President Barack Obama’s visit to Japan last week, but they failed to clinch a deal and nego-tiations continue.

Chinese President Xi Jinping in October said at the APEC business fo-rum in Indonesia that his country will “commit itself to building a trans-Pa-ci� c regional cooperation framework that bene� ts all parties”.

The comments were interpreted by Chinese media as criticism of the TPP - a key part of Obama’s economic and strategic policy.

Wang said the composition of the

working group has yet to be decided but will possibly comprise govern-ment o� cials, business people and academics from di� erent countries.

It will come up with suggestions on whether the FTAAP is desired and whether negotiations should start, he said.

The proposal “has won positive reactions from some APEC member countries”, he added, though he did not identify them.

Separately, China and Indonesia, which would also be excluded from the TPP, are involved in plans for another trade agreement involving 16 countries around the Asia-Paci� c region and spearheaded by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Wang told reporters that the FTAAP can eventually be developed based on that pact and the TPP.

Previously when commenting on the TPP, the commerce ministry has said that China thinks all parties should be open, inclusive and transparent while setting up free trade deals.

“They should be � exible, particu-larly when dealing with economies at di� erent stages of development, so that all economies can have more options” on the road to ultimately reaching an all-encompassing FTA, commerce ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said last year. l

OECD: Top income earners take too much, pay too littlen AFP, Paris

People with the highest incomes in ad-vanced countries have grown dispro-portionately richer despite the recent � nancial crisis and should pay their fair share of the tax burden, the OECD said yesterday.

The lowest wage earners have scarcely progressed and some may even have fallen behind in real terms in the last 30 years, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment said.

The gap will widen without policy action on the way tax systems work, it said, probing facts, trends and causes of a perpetually hot subject in politi-cal debate which took centre stage as governments ramped up taxes to cope with a banking crisis, and then in Eu-rope with a debt crisis.

The richest 1% of wage earners had captured a “disproportionate” share of overall income growth in the last three decades, it said.

In the United States the real in-comes of the top one-in-a-hundred people had grown by 47% and in Can-ada by 37%.

Noting that in the last 30 years, top income tax rates had fallen markedly in most OECD countries, the organisa-tion suggested that death duties, or inheritance tax, could feature among measures to correct the imbalance.

The 34-member OECD grouping

advanced democracies is known for providing hard-hitting policy advice recommending competition and open markets as the key to rising prosperity and welfare for all.

It’s mission slogan is “Better poli-cies for better lives”.

Commenting on new analysis on how the top one percent of income earners have shot ahead in good times and held onto gains in bad times, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said: “Without concerted policy ac-tion, the gap between the rich and poor is likely to grow even wider in the years ahead.”

He said: “Therefore, it is all the more important to ensure that top earners contribute their fair share of taxes.”

The analysis concluded: “Even in countries which have a history of more equal income distribution, such as Fin-land, Norway and Sweden, the share of the top 1% increased by 70%, reaching around 7-8%.

“By contrast, top earners saw their share grow much less in some of the continental European countries, in-cluding France, the Netherlands and Spain.”

The poorest households had not kept pace with the overall growth of incomes and many were no better o� than they were in the mid 1980s.

The recent � nancial crises had temporarily halted the trend but top

income earners had held onto their gains.

“On average, real incomes of the top 1% increased by 4% in 2010, while the lowest 90% of the population saw their real incomes stagnate.”

In the last 30 years most OECD coun-tries had cut tax rates for top incomes, on average from a rate of 66% to 43% in 2013, and this had been tracked by a rise in the share of wealth taken by top incomes.

Other taxes a� ecting top incomes had also fallen. The average baseline rate of tax on companies had fallen by nearly half from 47% to 25% and taxes on local dividend payments from 75% to 42%.

The analysis suggested various re-forms to ensure that top income earn-ers made a fairer contribution to shoul-dering the tax burden.

Among these were: abolishing or reducing tax advantages; taxing all forms of income, fringe bene� ts and stock options as ordinary income; weighting taxation towards “immov-able property”; and reviewing wealth taxes such as inheritance tax.

The OECD also suggested interna-tional cooperation on tax rules to dis-courage high earners from organising their a� airs to bene� t from di� erent rules, so-called “treaty shopping”.

It also pressed for further progress on e� orts led by the OECD to � ght cross-border tax evasion. l

US economy stalls on inventories, traden Reuters, Washington

The US economy barely grew in the � rst quarter as exports tumbled and busi-nesses accumulated stocks at the slow-est pace in nearly a year, but activity already appears to be bouncing back.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 0.1% annual rate, the slowest since the fourth quarter of 2012, the Com-merce Department said on Wednesday.

That was a sharp pullback from the fourth quarter’s 2.6% pace and was worse than economists’ expectations for a slowdown to a 1.2% rate. The slowdown partly re� ected an unusu-ally cold and disruptive winter, marked by declines in sectors ranging from business spending to home building.

The Commerce Department’s � rst snapshot of � rst-quarter growth was re-leased just hours before the Federal Re-serve wraps up a two-day policy meeting.

While harsh weather partially ex-plains the weakness in growth, the magnitude of the slowdown could complicate the US central bank’s mes-sage as it sets to announce a further reduction in the amount of money it is pumping into the economy through monthly bond purchases.

US stock index futures fell slightly on the report, while US Treasury debt prices trimmed losses.

The � rst-quarter stall in growth, however, is likely to be temporary and recent data have suggested strength at the tail end of the quarter. l

'The feasibility study will look into the potential economic bene� ts if APEC members reach a free trade agreement, how to make use of existing FTAs'