N’GANJ SEVEN MURDERS Exercising the right to know made onean accusedn Our Correspondent, Narayanganj

Administration o� cials in Narayan-ganj were infuriated when Sheikh Ali Ahmed, a resident of the city’s Masdair area, sought information on the wrong-doings that Nur Hossain was conduct-ing in the name of jatra (theatre) at the Shimrail truck stop.

Ali asked Narayanganj former deputy commissioner Monoj Kanti Boral and former police super Syed Nurul Islam to disclose the information in accord-ance with to the Right to Information Act. He also petitioned to stop indecent acts, gambling and drugs trade from continuing at the Shimrail truck stop.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

20 pages plus 16-page T-Mag tabloid | Price: Tk10TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Joishthya 13, 1421Rajab 27, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 57

NAZRUL’S BROTHER:HANG THE KILLERSP2

5 The construction of several footbridges at key points of the capital has remained suspended, or has been going on at snail’s pace, because of alleged negligence by the authorities concerned.

Sport15 Maria Sharapova reached the French Open second round on Monday at a damp and chilly Roland Garros as Japanese hope Kei Nishikori became the tournament’s � rst major casualty.

World8 Stunning victories in European Parliament elections by nationalist, Eurosceptic parties from France and Britain left the European Un-ion licking its wounds on Monday and facing a giant policy dilemma.

9 In October last year, the Prime Minister’s O� ce was in a tizzy. The Ministry of External A� airs as well as the security establishment was keen that PM Manmohan Singh attend the CHOGM in Colombo in November.

BusinessB1 The default loans of BASIC Bank growing abnormally fast in the recent months as loans the bank had disbursed through irregularities are getting matured.

News3 Banned in 2009 for its controversial activities, Islamist out� t Hizb-ut Tahrir has now been integrating Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees, staying in the coastal district, under its umbrella to strengthen the group and keep its key players o� the law enforcers’ radar.

4 The Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts A� airs has been given the authority of management and control of the secondary schools operating under three hill districts.

INSIDE

11 | NO BED OF ROSES FOR MODI 13 | WE NEEDED THIS BREAK: TAMIM7 | JINNAH MADE A MISTAKE

More questions ‘leaked’ on Facebookn Mushfi que Wadud

While the government is continuous-ly snu� ng out the allegations, one “leaked” HSC question paper after an-other is popping up on Facebook.

The latest rumour on the socialnetworking site is that the question for the Mathematics Second Paper, sched-uled to be held tomorrow, is available for free.

A Facebook page titled “Porikkhar Ager Raate Prosno Nao” – meaning, take your question on the eve of the exam – had a post around 8:40pm yesterday that gave the solutions to the problems of what appeared to be a mathematics question paper.

The post, dated May 24, was titled “hsc -2014 Dhaka Board.” This page had a staggering total of 13,333 likes as of 8:55pm yesterday.

One of the posts on this page says: “I have real questions of Mathemat-ics Second Paper examination. Please send me message and you will get the question.”

Another page titled “Swapno Chho-

wa Pakhi” – meaning, dream touching bird – had posts on Friday, May 23 with photographs of what appeared to be handwritten copies of the next day’s Mathematics First Paper questions.

On the same day, the page put up another post telling its members that more “leaked” questions would be up-loaded once it got “225+” likes.

“##Poro Tomar Probhur Naame Jini Shrishti Korechen##” – meaning, study in the name of your lord the creator – is yet another page o� ering the question paper for the Mathematics Second Paper examination. This page has 1,394 likes.

One of the posts from Sunday reads:

“I gave you suggestions in three photo-graphs before the math paper 1 exam of the Chittagong board and inshallah 95% came out common. Now I am once again giving free suggestions for the second paper of the Chittagong – four photographs in total.”

In all these pages, various Facebook users, who appeared to be HSC exami-nees, made posts requesting questions of all kinds of papers of the ongoing ex-aminations.

When asked how and from where the Facebook groups were collecting the questions, Dhaka Education Board

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Defence allocation to grow 12.71%n Asif Showkat Kallol

The Defence Ministry is going to get a budgetary allocation of Tk16,400 crore this year, a raise of 12.71% from that of the outgoing � scal year.

The allocation will be Tk16,400 core for the coming � scal and Tk14,565.51 crore was allocated in the revised budget of the outgoing FY2013-14.

O� cials said the additional Tk1,849 crore would be needed for forming a new brigade, setting up new canton-ments and sending troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.

Ministry o� cials said accommoda-tion and housing crisis in the three de-fence forces has reached an acute level and the additional allocation would be largely used to address that problem.

Besides, some extra cash would be needed for purchasing more aircrafts, arms and ammunitions from Russia with the residual $200m o f the $1bn defence purchase deal, they said.

O� cials also said a bulk of the PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Modi sworn in as Indian prime minister n AFP

Narendra Modi promised to forge a “strong and inclusive” India afterbeing sworn in yesterday as the 15th prime minister of the world’s largest democracy.

Ten days after his right-wing party won the � rst electoral majority in three decades, the 63-year-old former tea boy took the oath of o� ce at a lavish cere-mony conducted by President Pranab Mukherjee and attended by leaders of India’s neighbours, including Pakistan.

Modi, leader of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has a rep-utation as a hard-line Hindu national-ist. But in a statement released as he took the oath, he promised to govern for all of India’s 1.25 billion people.

“As we devote ourselves to take In-dia’s development journey to newer heights, we seek your support, bless-ings and active participation,” Modi

said in the statement on the prime min-ister’s website.

“Together we will script a glorious future for India,” he added.

“Let us together dream of a strong, developed and inclusive India that ac-tively engages with the global commu-nity to strengthen the cause of world peace and development.”

After Modi took the oath of o� ce, senior BJP � gures who have been ap-pointed to his cabinet were sworn in.

Although their exact portfolios were not announced, they included Sushma Swaraj who is expected to become for-eign minister and Arun Jaitley, tipped to be � nance minister.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sha-rif and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were among the regional leaders who attended the ceremony outside the Indian president’s o� cial residence in New Delhi.

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Members of Kadamtali unit Bangladesh Mohila Parishad form a human chain in front of RAB 11 o� ce in Narayanganj yesterday, demanding exemplary punishment to the culprits behind the sensational seven murders DHAKA TRIBUNE

No more search, checkposts for RABn Kailash Sarkar

The Rapid Action Battalion authorities have decided not to engage its person-nel in any additional duties includ-ing search, guard or patrol in addition to the duties the elite force has been tasked with.

“In future, RAB will not perform the duties additional to the seven spe-ci� c duties we are tasked with, unless the government asks us or we feel so,” Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rah-man, director of RAB’s legal and media wing, said.

The decision was made at a meeting held last week at the RAB headquar-ters, chaired by its chief.

“We feel that guarding tender boxes, controlling tra� c, setting up check posts at entrances of the capitals, intervening in issues relating to land, money and family matters,and guarding cultural functions

are not part of our duties,” he said. “Now RAB will concentrate on its

own tasks,” Habib said. Asked about the reasons behind

making such a decision, the RAB of-� cial said: “Additional duties create extra problems. Sometimes a section of RAB o� cials get involved in illicit acts causing image crisis for the whole force.”

In response to another query, he admitted that the seven murders in Narayanganj prompted them to make such a decision.

The elite force was formed in 2004 during the BNP-led alliance govern-ment’s tenure to combat domestic crimes and terrorism, and given seven speci� c tasks. Those are – internal se-curity duties; recovery of unauthorised arms, ammunitions, explosives and similar items; apprehending armed gangs of criminals; assisting other law enforcement agencies in maintaining

law and order; intelligence gathering regarding crimes and criminal activi-ties; investigation of any o� ence upon the directives of the government; and similar duties following the govern-ment’s directives.

RAB, a special police unit, has widely been criticised for violating human rights and extrajudicial killings in the name of “cross� re, gun� ghts and encounter,” custodial deaths and torture.

The alleged involvement of its three o� cers in the abduction and killing of seven men in Narayanganj last month triggered calls for reforms within the force and even disbanding the out� t entirely.

So far, around 2,000 of its members penalised in the last 10 years.

RAB has members from six forces – the three armed forces, the police, the BGB and the Ansar – and some civil of-� cials. l

New suspect identi� ed inEkram murderBodyguard Belal allegedly provided information to killers n Mohammad Jamil Khan and Our

Correspondent from Feni

Investigators have reportedly found a new key suspect for the murder of Fulgazi upazila chairman Ekramul Haque, whereas o� cials concerned claim that they are nearing the end of investigation.

The gruesome killing was committed over establishing political dominance in the district, they hinted, adding that the name of Mosta� zur Rahman Dulal, pres-ident of Dhaka-based Feni Association, emerged as the new lead in the case.

“We have almost sorted out the mystery behind the killing and kept some people under watch,” said Abul Kalam Azad, inspector of Feni model police station and investigation o� cer of the case.

Claiming that “sensational informa-tion” has been gathered from the arres-tees during interrogation, he told the Dhaka Tribune that a court had placed Jihad Chowdhury – a “planner” of the murder – under eight-day remand. Af-ter collecting further information from Jihad and verifying them, raids would be carried out to arrest the others re-sponsible, he added.

According to investigators, Dulal, who unsuccessfully attempted to se-cure Awami League nomination for the 2009 national poll from Feni 1 constit-uency, allegedly played a major role in planning the murder.

Dulal reportedly also tried to con-test in January 5 national election, and organised a programme in Fulgazi

upazila last Ramadan for publicity. As-sociates of slain leader Ekram, howev-er, reportedly foiled the programme by setting � ve vehicles on � re as well as harassing Dulal.

Following the incident, Dulal left the district after publicly declaring that Ekram must su� er for the act, our Feni correspondent reported.

According to information provided by the arrestees, Dulal later contacted and planned the murder with BNP lead-er Mahtab Uddin Chowdhury Minar, who lost twice to Ekram in upazila polls.

BNP’s Fulgazi unit Secretary Nurnabi Master told the Dhaka Tribune that Mi-nar, the president of local Tanti Dal unit, was never active in district politics. Rid-ing on the political strength of his broth-er – BNP’s upazila unit Secretary Didar Chowdhury, Minar stood as a candidate in the upazila polls, he added.

Acting president of BNP’s district unit advocate Abu Taher admitted that Minar was not actively engaged in poli-tics. But it did not mean that he had any involvement with the murder.

A senior o� cial of Feni police, who is involved in the murder probe, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that during remand plea, Ward Commissioner Shib-lu, Abid and others arrestees mentioned Dulal’s name as Jihad Chowdhury was supposed to contact for getting the full Tk2 crore payment for the murder.

When contacted, Dulal said he had moved away from politics since 2009, adding that he considered Ekram as a younger brother and had already for-given the slain leader’s attack on his programme. About the killers, he said almost all the arrestees belonged to the Awami League.

He suspected that the killing might have been committed over intra-party feud.

Investigators said Minar mainly communicated with his cousin Jihad – the joint general secretary of Fulgazi

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Directives have been sent to the borders so that no one involvedin the murder can escape

TMAG | PRESENTS THE ARCHIES

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

N’ganj councillor Nila remanded in murder case n Our Correspondent, Narayanganj

Police yesterday were allowed three days to interrogate Jannatul Ferdaus Nila, the councillor of wards 4, 5 and 6 in Narayanganj City Corporation, in a murder case � led last year.

Siddhirganj police OC Alauddin said they were given the permission upon a seven-day remand petition � led with the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Jabid Hossain.

He said they had arrested Nila on Sunday night related to a 2013 murder case, not in the seven-murder case.

Nila was picked up on May 18 and in-terrogated over the seven murder case for three hours.

Alauddin said they had arrested Nila based on confessions made by the ac-cused arrested in the case � led over the murder of a youth named Jewel.

Police recovered the body of Jewel with a severed head on October 27 last year. His identity was con� rmed around a month later.

A case was � led later and as such, criminals, who had alleged link in the murder, were also arrested. l

Nazrul’s brother: Hang the N’ganj 7-murder killersn Our Correspondent, Narayanganj

Abdus Salam, the brother of murdered Narayanganj City Corporation panel mayor Nazrul Islam, demanded death penalty for those responsible for the sensational killings that drew country-wide criticism.

“The miscreants who are directly or indirectly at fault for the gruesome sev-en-murder case should be hanged. The � nancers of the killing also should be brought to book,” Salam said.

He made the remarks while address-ing a human chain formed in Adamji area under Siddirganj police station here in the morning.

Speaking about the leaked conversa-tion between Awami League lawmaker Shamim Osman and Nur Hossain, the prime accused in the case � led for the

sensational seven-murder case in the district, Salam questioned the Prime Minister, saying: “If Nur Hossain is not considered a criminal after killing sev-en people then how many murders is he required to commit in order for him to be considered so.”

In the programme arranged by the Narayanganj Mahila Parishad, leaders of the organisation opined that the in-dustrial city has turned into a city of rampant abductions and killing.

“Since justice was ensured in the previous killings there, the seven-mur-der could have been evaded,” the lead-ers continued.

Narayanganj City Corporation pan-el mayor Nazrul and lawyer Chandan Sarkar along with � ve others were killed following their abduction on April 27. l

BNP: Undeclared emergency prevailing in the country n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi yesterday claimed that an undeclared emergency situation was prevailing in the country.

Party Chairperson Khaleda Zia would address a rally at launch ghat in Munshiganj tomorrow and the prepa-rations for holding the rally had been completed, he told a press brie� ng at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters in the capital.

“The current ruling system has crossed all the records of the world’s repressive rulers. The country’s prime minister is saying and doing whatever she wants. She thinks the constitution and organs of the state as her toy kits.”

The BNP leader alleged that the government had been snatchingh peo-ple’s fundamental rights one after an-other after evil plan for the January 5 elections.

“The government is using state mechanism to resist democratic and fundamental rights for holding rallies and processions. They have become anxious and frightened of allowing the BNP to hold rallies and meetings. They are su� ering from psychological insecurity,” Rizvi said.

The Awami League had already been branded as the party of killing, abduc-tion and forced disappearance, he said, adding that the Awami League did not take lessons from the history, rather it betrayed the history. l

HC: Why Safe Food Act should not be enforced n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday asked the food secretary to explain in two weeks why he should not be directed to make the Safe Food Act 2013 e� ective through a gazette noti� cation.

The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf  Hos-sain gave the ruling upon hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) � led by lawyers Syed Mohidul Kabir and Azam Khan on Sunday.

It directed the food secretary to sub-mit a compliance report over the mat-ter within June 16.

The lawyers, however, told the me-

dia that the High Court had directed the food secretary to implement the law within two weeks by publishing a gazette noti� cation.

On Sunday, Azam said their ulterior motive behind � ling the PIL – on behalf of the Legal Action Bangladesh – was to advance their careers.

The lawyers yesterday told the Dha-ka Tribune that the bench had issued a ruling also asking why a directive should not be passed on constituting an independent inquiry committee to � nd out reasons behind non-enforce-ment of the Safe Food Act.

However, o� cials concerned said the court had not passed any such order. l

Police bring Jannatul Ferdous Nila out of a Narayanganj court yesterday after their remand prayer was granted DHAKA TRIBUNE

1 held over Sylhet gang rape n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Law enforcers yesterday arrested a per-son in connection with the gang rape of two sisters in front of their parents at Beanibazar upazila of the district early Sunday.

Police arrested Nazrul Islam, 40, in the afternoon suspecting him to be in-volved in the incident, Abul Kalam Azad, OC of Beanibazar police, said. Nazrul hails from Jalalpur of the same upazila.

Father of the victims � led a case on Sunday accusing one and several other unknown people. He could only recognise Joynul, son of Makdam Ali from Pailgram among the eight to ten masked criminals.

The victims were admitted to Osma-ni Medical College Hospital. The doctors yesterday examined them. Deputy Direc-tor of the hospital Tonmoy Bhattacharya told the Dhaka Tribune that the report would be prepared in a day or two. l

No Buriganga land for RAB 10 n Mohosinul Karim

The government has decided to cancel the allotment of land for setting up the headquarters of Rapid Action Battalion 10 in the Buriganga River at Kamrangir-char aiming to recover the main chan-nel of the river.

The decision was taken in an in-ter-ministerial meeting held at the Housing and Public Works Ministry yesterday with Housing Minister Mos-harraf Hossain in the chair. Five senior ministers were also present.

Terming the existing laws insu� -cient, the meeting decided to amend the laws to protect the environment and prevent river pollution.

The meeting was held as the prime

minister in the last cabinet meeting gave instructions to save the rivers and protect the environment.

Earlier on Sunday, the ministers vis-ited Kamrangirchar area where land was allotted to RAB 10.

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan said the meeting had decided to cancel the allotment of land for RAB to save the river and its main channel. “We have decided to demolish the buildings and infrastructures which were con-structed grabbing the rivers.”

A 13-member subcommittee, headed by the BIWTA chairman, was formed at the meeting. Three representatives from leading environmental organisa-tions Bapa, Poba and BELA, the dep-uty commissioner of Dhaka and o� -

cials from other ministries concerned will be its members. Shajahan said the committee would demarcate the main channel of the Buriganga, remove the infrastructures and dredge the river.

All infrastructures such as RAB of-� ce, housing company o� ce and fac-tories would be removed from the riv-er by June. The committee would also seek directives from the higher court in this regard. Physical work would start within next seven days, he added.

The minister also said house owners living beside the river would be issued notice to close the canals which were used for dumping waste into the rivers.

“A RAB representative has informed the meeting that they have no objec-tion if the government allots land to

them elsewhere for building the RAB 10 headquarters. The committee will � nd out new site to be allocated to the elite force. It can be in Kamrangirchar or any other area,” he added.

The RAB authorities wanted the dis-trict administration of Dhaka to allocate seven acres of land at Kamrangirchar to them. The administration later allocat-ed the land. But it was not handed over to them as there was no su� cient land and it was inside the river. A technical committee proposed that a plot of 2.40 acres of land be allocated to RAB.

Water Resources Minister Anisul Is-lam Mahmud, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sharif, Food Minister Quamrul Islam and local MP Haji Selim attended the meeting. l

Exercising the right to know made him an accused PAGE 1 COLUMN 6For trying to exercise his right to in-formation, Ali was made an accused in three cases � led against BNP and Ja-maat-e-Islami activists with Narayan-ganj Sadar, Fatullah and Siddhirganj police stations. Former police super Nurul played a role in including Ali’s name in the cases.

Ali, an employee at a private or-ganisation, is not associated with any political party. Yet, he realised he had enraged law enforcers by seeking in-formation about Nur’s wrongdoings when his details appeared in the case statement.

Along with six former policemen, Ali too had to give a deposition at the hearing yesterday which was organ-ised by the probe committee formed by the Public Administration Ministry following a higher court directive.

He said he had sent letters to Monoj and Nurul on September 11 last year asking for the information. In response to the query, the deputy commission-er, replied on September 17, saying the district administration had not permit-ted any such jatra.

On October 3, Ali received a letter

signed by District Administration As-sistant Commissioner Tasnim Jebin Binte Sheikh which said proceedings of a higher court writ petition (no 3694/2013) in this regard were under-way.

Another letter from the o� ce of po-lice super was sent to Ali on September 18, which carried the same response. After receiving the letter, Ali, wrote anonymously to the police super on the same day, asking him to take ac-tions to stop Nur’s illegal acts.

Nurul, however, did not take any step and kept mum.

When Ali saw his name in the three cases with the other accused, he in-formed Nurul of it over the phone. Nurul told him he would look into the matter.

Ali said yesterday that the seven lives would not have been lost if the administration had taken action at the time.

Six policemen quizzed The probe committee interrogated

six police o� cials, including two sus-pended o� cers-in-charge of Fatullah Model and Siddhirganj police stations, yesterday, regarding the gruesome

seven murders in Narayanganj. The six were Akter Hossain, former

o� cer-in-charge of Fatullah Model police station, Abdul Matin, former o� cer-in-charge of Siddhirganj police station, Saiful Islam, former inspec-tor (investigation) of Fatullah Model police station, Abdul Awal, former in-spector (investigation) of district de-tective branch of police, Fazlul Haque, former sub-inspector of Fatullah Mod-el police station, and Jahirul Islam, for-mer sub-inspector of Fatullah Model police station.

They were questioned by the sev-en-member probe committee, headed by Additional Secretary of the Public Administration Ministry Shahjahan Ali, at the district circuit house around 3:15pm.

On Sunday, the committee interro-gated Nurul and Monoj at the Secretar-iat.

On April 27, seven people, including Narayanganj City Corporation council-lor Nazrul Islam, were abducted. The abductors impersonated RAB o� cials.

Nazrul’s family alleged Nur paid RAB Tk6 crore to kidnap the seven. When they went to Fatullah Model

police station to � le a case in this con-nection, police refused to take the case and did not take any instant action.

Akter Hossain and Saiful Islam are thought to have been quizzed by the probe committee because of police in-action.

Fazlul Haque was � rst tasked with investigating the case but was later replaced by Abdul Awal. When incum-bent police super Khandakar Mahid Uddin took his post, Nazrul’s family al-leged Awal was acting as Nur’s accom-plice and a probe conducted by him would not be credible.

In response to this allegation, the investigation o� cer was changed once again and Mamunur Rashid Mondol, o� cer-in-charge of Narsingdi district DB police, was given the task.

Sources said Jahirul was in charge of patrol police when the incident oc-curred and many think he did not dis-close any information despite having knowledge of RAB’s complicity in it.

Abdul Matin’s intimacy with Nur has also been alleged. Many said they were harassed by him following his suspension and that Nur directed him to do this. l

Defence allocation to grow 12.71% PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Tk16,400 crore allocation would go into the construction of a new canton-ment in Sylhet. Besides, big amounts would be needed for sending army personnel, arms and motor vehicles to Mali under the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission (MI-NUSMA).

The UN, however, will pay the mon-ey spent back to the Bangladesh gov-ernment. In April, a 112-member team of the Bangladesh Army went to Mali to join the MINUSMA for the � rst time.

A total of six contingents compris-ing 1,446 members, including a battal-ion and naval unit, will be deployed in the African country in phases.

Till date, the Bangladesh armed forces have made the biggest contri-bution to the UN peace missions. In FY2012-13, they earned $72m from these missions.

Traditionally, the prime minister holds the Defence Ministry in Bangla-desh.

Citing resource constraint as a rea-son, the Finance Division has not al-located any fund in the outgoing � scal for manufacturing and exporting light-er arms. However, according to sources

in the Prime Minister’s O� ce (PMO), in the coming � scal, Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory is going to get Tk10 crore for the purpose.

Former � nance adviser of a care-taker government AB Mirza Azizul Islam said: “Over 10 years, the de-fence budget has grown from less than Tk4,000 crore in 2003-04 to over Tk14,600 crore in 2013-14.

“The important question today is not how much should be spent for defence. Rather questions should be asked about the decision-making pro-cess. Transparency in procurement and resource distributions is vital. At a time when we have serious resource constraints, 6.5% of budget going to defence will surely raise some eye-brows,” he said.

The ratio of defence expenditure to total GDP will stand at 1.2% in the com-ing � scal. The government has allocat-ed 2.8% of the GDP outlay for agricul-ture and rural development, 2.3% for education and 1.8% for transport and communication.

In FY2006-07, the Defence Ministry got Tk4,904 crore from the budget. In FY2008-09, the amount was Tk6,306 crore. l

New suspect identi� ed in Ekram murder PAGE 1 COLUMN 2unit of Awami League – who later con-tacted arrestees Shiblu to lay out the plan.

Jihad also sought advice from dis-trict Awami League Joint Secretary Ja-hangir Mohammad Adel, who report-edly assured him of managing the side of local MP Nizam Uddin Hazari and gave a � nal shape to the plan.

Investigators also tracked the mo-bile phone records of the suspects to � nd that Adel had directed Shiblu, Ji-had, arms trader Mamun and district AL leader Ziaul Alam Mister over the phone to carry out the crime.

The killers also allegedly managed to convince Ekram’s bodyguard Belal Hossain to not accompany the upazila chairman on the day of the incident. He also provided the culprits with information on Ekram’s movement, which helped the killers to plan the murder on May 20.

Meanwhile, Ekram’s supporters vandalised and set � re to Belal’s house yesterday. Inspector Abul Kalam Azad con� rmed the news and said the po-lice were trying to trace Belal, who had gone into hiding soon after the inci-dent.

During interrogation, the arres-

tees also reportedly told the inves-tigators that former Feni MP Joynal Hazari knew about the killing as Minar and Dulal maintained linkswith him.

Only a day before the murder, a weekly newspaper owned by Joynal Hazari, Shaptahik Hazarika, published a report which predicted that Ekram might be abducted or killed anytime.

Paritosh Ghosh, superintendent of police in Feni, told the Dhaka Tribune that directives had been sent to the borders and key points in the country so that no one involved in the murder could escape.

According to sources in the dis-trict unit Awami League, lawmaker Nizam was also aware about the plan and had backed the killing. However, the investigators are yet to verify theallegation.

Both Joynal and Nizam Hazari, on the other hand, have denied claims about their involvement with the mur-der, but blamed each other for being responsible for the murder.

Meanwhile, the Feni district units of Chhatra League and Chhatra Dal organised separate press brie� ngs yes-terday and blamed each other for the killing. l

Modi sworn in PAGE 1 COLUMN 5In an interview shortly before the in-auguration, Sharif said Modi’s arrival in power represented “a great oppor-tunity” for the nuclear-armed rivals to forge a new era in their troubled rela-tionship.

“This is a chance to reach out to each other. Both governments have a strong mandate,” Sharif told India’s NDTV network, according to a tran-script provided by the Pakistan High Commission.

“Both countries should rid the re-

gion of instability and security that has plagued us for decades,” he added.

The invitation to Sharif was seen as a signi� cant olive branch to India’s Muslim neighbour and it marks the � rst time that a leader from either country has attended his counter-part’s inauguration since independ-ence in 1947.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars and bilateral ties broke down after the 2008 attacks by Paki-stani gunmen in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. l

More questions ‘leaked’ PAGE 1 COLUMN 3Chairman Taslima Begum said on Sun-day: “Only Allah knows where they are getting these questions from.”

This correspondent talked to some guardians and learned that the ex-aminees under their care had been spending more time sur� ng the social networking sites, looking for leaked questions, instead of studying or doing last minute revisions.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said at a programme yesterday: “There is no chance of question leak-

age. A quarter may be doing this to tar-nish the ministry’s image.”

Earlier this month, the Dhaka Ed-ucation Board postponed the English Second Paper examination after ru-mours of leaked questions spread.

Two committees were formed to probe into the rumour. One of the com-mittees submitted their report without specifying the sources of the leakage.

The government has given 15 more days to the second committee, which was supposed to submit its report this week. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Moudud, brother charged in graft case n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Anti-Corruption Commission yes-terday pressed charges against former minister and BNP Standing Committee member Moudud Ahmed and his expa-triate brother accusing them of grab-bing a government land in 1978, worth around Tk300 crore now, by making fake documents.

ACC Deputy Director Md Harun-ur-Rashid, also the investigation o� cer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the o� ce of General Recording O� cer of the Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Mag-istrate’s Court.

The charge sheet says Moudud and his brother Manjur Ahmed were found guilty during the ACC inquiry for grab-bing a government property valued Tk300 crore on Gulshan Avenue by producing di� erent fake documents and abusing power.

The IO also submitted a prayer for is-suing warrant of arrest against Manzur, who is now staying in England.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Nuru Miah saw and signed the charge sheet.

A total of 20 people have been made witnesses in the case.

On Wednesday, the ACC at a regu-lar meeting approved a charge sheet

which was prepared after a � ve-month-long investigation. The case was � led on December 17 last year.

The case says the house belonged to Mohammad Ehsan and his wife Inze Maria Flatz, two Pakistani nationals who left the country before the 1971 Liberation War.

Following their departure, the house on 1.13bigha (0.374 acre) land was in-cluded in the list of government’s aban-doned properties on January 21, 1972.

On August 2, 1973, Moudud pre-pared a fake power of attorney of Ma-ria Flatz to grab the land and used it to

gain his own interest. Since then, he has been living in the house showing himself as a tenant of Maria Flatz, the case document says.

While holding di� erent posts as minister during 1978-2006, Moudud tried to grab the house misusing his power, and made the fake documents in the name of his brother.

Terming the case motivated, Moudud on May 22 at a press conference claimed that before approving the charge sheet, the ACC should have recorded his state-ment as per the Anti-Corruption Com-mission Rules, 2007. l

‘Bangladesh not ready for COP20’ n Rabiul Islam

Speakers at a national dialogue ex-pressed concern yesterday that Bangla-desh might lose its earlier key position at the next UN climate conference in Lima, Peru this year because of lack of preparation.

The country played a leading role on behalf of the LDCs at last year’s negotiations of the Conference of Par-ties (COP19) in Warsaw, Poland, and achieved a better position.

BIDS Professorial Fellow M Asaduz-zaman said the Environment Ministry must take initiatives to prepare the coun-try’s position before the COP20, to be held in December, as per rules of business.

PKSF Chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said the developed countries were not implementing the commit-ments they had made with regard to providing assistance to the poor and de-veloping nations vulnerable to climate change e� ects.

Executive Director of Coast Trust Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said Ban-gladesh is not on the right track. “We fear that we may lose what we have achieved,” he said mentioning that the Environment and Forest Ministry is not working properly.

The discussion was jointly organ-ised by Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad and Dhaka School of Economics at the National Press Club. l

HC seeks report on youth’s death in police custody n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday directed the Dhaka superintendent of police and of-� cer-in-charge of Ashulia police station to submit by June 18 reports on what actions have been taken against the policemen for the alleged torture and death of a youth in custody.

It also sought a report from the three-member committee, formed by the government to investigate the mat-ter, by this time.

The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain passed the order following a writ pe-tition � led by rights body Ain O Salish Kendra.

According to the petition, tea ven-dor Ripon Sikder, 30, was allegedly tortured to death in police custody at Nabinagar of Ashulia on May 21 as he could not meet their undue demand for Tk1,000.

“Torturing a person physically or mentally is a gross violation of funda-mental rights enshrined in the consti-tution,” the petition said.

In a rule, the court asked the author-ities concerned as to why they should not be directed to take departmental and punitive actions against the per-sons responsible for alleged torture and custodial deaths of citizens, including Ripon.

It also asked the authorities con-cerned as to why they should not be directed to pay adequate compensa-tion to Ripon’s family. The court asked the respondents to explain why they shall not be directed to refrain from abusing power that results in custodialdeaths.

Abantee Nurul, a lawyer for ASK, told the Dhaka Tribune that the home secretary, the IGP, the Dhaka SP and the Ashulia OC were asked to respond to the rule by one month.

Assisted by Abu Obaidur Rahman, Supreme Court lawyer ZI Khan Panna pleaded for the petitioner while Depu-ty Attorney General Biswojit Roy stood on behalf of the state. l

Tribunal welcomes chief prosecutorn Udisa Islam

Chief Prosecutor Golam Arif Tipoo appeared at the International Crimes Tribunal yesterday, nearly a month after his joining o� ce. The tribunal 1 enquired about his health and greeted him warmly.

Tipoo was on leave since April 13 on health ground and went to Singapore for better treatment. The Law Ministry allowed him one month leave from that day and made senior prosecutor Syed Haider Ali the acting chief.

Tipoo returned to the prosecu-tion o� ce on April 30 and submitted a joining letter. However, he was not welcomed warmly by most of the pros-ecution members present in the room that day.

Confusion created within the team recently as the acting chief prosecutor continued to convene meetings despite Tipoo’s joining o� ce. Several members of the team also questioned whether his joining was o� cial since the minis-try did not withdraw the gazette noti-� cation.

In Tipoo’s absence, the prosecution at a meeting on May 11 asked for the documents of Jamaat-e-Islami’s war crimes case. The seven-member team

dealing with the case to prepare formal charges in reply wrote to the chief pros-ecutor seeking his directives and men-tioning that the documents had been kept there.

Yesterday, Tipoo entered the tribunal 1 courtroom around 10:45am and stayed there during the whole proceedings.

At the end of the proceedings, Jus-tice M Enayetur Rahim, chairman of the three-member tribunal, enquired about his health. Tipoo said he was bet-ter but the progress was not fast. Later he exchanged greetings with reporters at the courtroom and said he would come to the tribunal whenever he felt better.

Before that, a member of investi-gation agency testi� ed against Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam. Md Sajal Mahmud, a police constable who works as an assistant of Md Idris Ali, investi-gation o� cer of the case, submitted his deposition as the 14th prosecution witness.

Appearing as the � rst seizure list witness, Sajal said on May 3, 2012, he had attested photocopies of three documents including a police abstract report collected from the agency’s li-brary.

After his short deposition, defence lawyer Abdus Subhan Tarafder cross examined him and the tribunal ad-journed the hearing until tomorrow.

Meanwhile at the tribunal 2, defence counsel for war crimes accused Syed Mohammad Qaisar ended cross-examination of the prosecution’s 16th witness.

In his deposition on Sunday, Abdul Matin alias Jalal, 63, claimed that the accused and his cohorts, with the help of Pakistani occupation forces, had burnt at least 25 Hindu villages and killed around 100 people in a day during the 1971 Liberation War in Habiganj.

The same tribunal yesterday ad-journed cross-examination of eighth prosecution witness Ashraf Uddin Mia, 57, in the case against Maulana Abdus Subhan following a defencepetition.

He testi� ed on Sunday saying that the accused had ordered the abduction and torture of his father and an uncle during the Liberation War.

The defence pleaded for time men-tioning that their senior counsel Mi-zanul Islam was facing some personal di� culties. The tribunal adjourned the trial until Thursday. l

IFC may invest in deep sea port, power projectsn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

The International Finance Corporation is interested to invest in the proposed deep sea port and in power infrastruc-ture projects in Bangladesh.

“We intend to provide investment and advisory services for deep sea port and gas- and energy-based projects,” IFC Country Manager Kyle F Kelhofer said at a launching ceremony, held at the Dutch Embassy in the capital yesterday.

The Textile Technology Business Centre was set up by the BGMEA with support from the IFC, the private sec-tor lending wing of the World Bank, and the Netherlands Embassy in Bangladesh.

The centre, located at the BGMEA head o� ce in Karwan Bazar, would as-sist textile factories to adopt the best practices and technologies for cleaner production and better business.

Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen said the textile sector contrib-uted to the country’s growth, but at the

same time, it posed risks to its workers and the surrounding communities.

“Ine� cient use of water leads to groundwater depletion, and the discharge of inadequately treated waste contributes to waterborne diseases, depletes local � sh stocks and decreases the productivity of local agriculture,” said the minister, who arrived in Dhaka on Sunday.

Ploumen said she came to Bangla-desh to assess the progress made thus far in improving the working conditions in the RMG industry. “Together with the private sector, we want to help improve the working conditions and lower the environmental pollution caused by pro-duction processes,” she said.

According to a presentation made by IFC Programme Manager Mrinal Sircar, about 1,700 processing plants use 1,500 billion litres of underground water to pro-cess � ve million tonnes of cloth annually.

IFC provided Bangladesh with near-ly $800m last year, and a major portion of the loan went to the textile sector as working capital, Kelhofer said. l

SC cancels acquittal of Aman, his wife from graft casen Nazmus Sakib

The top court yesterday cancelled a High Court verdict that had acquitted senior BNP Aman Ullah Aman and his wife Sa-bera Aman from a corruption case � led by the ACC.

A � ve-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Md Mu-zammel Hossain cancelled the acquit-tal order and sent the case back to the High Court for further hearing, ACC counsels told the Dhaka Tribune.

The case was � led by the Anti-Cor-ruption Commission in 2007 for ac-quiring wealth beyond the defendants’ known source of income and for con-cealing information.

On June 21, 2007, a lower court im-posed 13 years of imprisonment for Aman – the BNP’s joint secretary gener-al – and three years for Sabera. On Au-gust 16, 2010, the High Court acquitted the duo following a petition.

On September 15 last year, the ACC � led a petition seeking permission to lodge an appeal against the acquittal. l

Migrants going abroad for jobs on student, tourist visas n Rabiul Islam

Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Em-ployment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain admitted yesterday that a good number of Bangladeshis were going abroad for jobs on student or tourist visas.

He also remarked that the immigra-tion department should stop such fraud-ulent activities in the greater interest of sustaining the overseas labour market for genuine migrant workers.

“It does not fall under the purview of my ministry to check unethical mi-gration. If the immigration o� cials at the airport watch properly, they can check it easily,” Mosharraf told report-ers at his ministry.

O� cials at the Immigration De-partment and the Expatriates’ Welfare Desk at Dhaka airport also con� rmed that many people were using student or tourist visas to go abroad for work.

“As per the law, we cannot bar any-body from going abroad,” an immigra-tion o� cial said, seeking anonymity.

The minister briefed reporters about his recent trip to Sweden to attend the Global Forum on Migration and Devel-opment conference, held May 14-16. “We placed a proposal for migrant workers to go abroad free of cost, with employers bearing all the costs,” Mosharraf said.

He claimed that di� erent interna-tional organisations had supported Bangladesh’s proposal.

“I also met the ILO director general [Guy Ryder] and he assured me of play-ing a role so that migration can happen with zero migration cost,” he added.

According to ILO Convention 181, migrant workers should not have to pay to go abroad for jobs.

Expatriates’ Welfare Secretary Shawkat Hossain and BMET DG Sham-sun Nahar were also present. l

Hizb-ut Tahrir now incorporating Rohingyas n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Banned in 2009 for its controversial activities, Islamist out� t Hizb-ut Tahrir has now been integrating Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees, staying in the coastal district, under its umbrella to strengthen the group and keep its key players o� the law enforcers’ radar.

Police have found that members of the banned organisation, divided in several groups, are contacting the Mus-lim refugees, who enter the country il-legally on a regular basis, and engaging them in its activities by providing them with housing, job and educational as-sistance.

Latest, Kotwali police detained sev-en activists of the group from Andork-illa Shahi Jame Mosjid area on Friday

when they attempted to bring out a procession. One of them was Mobarak Hossain, 24, who stays at the Letha Refugee Camp in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar.

Police say apart from Mobarak, many other Rohingyas are being trapped by Hizb-ut Tahrir these days.

During initial interrogation, Mo-barak said he had entered the country about a year ago paying Tk500 to the border guards of both Bangladesh and Myanmar. One Moinuddin, student of a madrasa at Hathazari in Chittagong, took him to a students’ mess at the up-azila’s Forer Bari area after a week of his arrival.

Moinuddin got him admitted to the madrasa where he is now studying. But Mobarak says he wanted to study sci-ence. Moinuddin later helped him to

take admission at Memory Computers in the port city’s Chawkbazar area eight months ago.

Moinuddin also engaged Mobarak with the activities of Hizb-ut Tahrir saying that its activities meant “� ght for establishing Islam.”

“Like Mobarak, 10 other Rohingyas are being nurtured by Moinuddin,” Shah Mohammad Abdur Rouf, assis-tant commissioner of Kotwali circle, told the Dhaka Tribune. “Police are trying to arrest all the members of the banned group who are using the Myan-mar refugees for its illegal activities,” he said.

A top-ranked police o� cial, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that around 1,000 Rohingyas had already joined Hizb-ut Tahrir in exchange of

di� erent bene� ts. “The group’s high command uses them to establish its controversial ideology amongst the people,” the o� cial said.

AKM Mohiuddin, o� cer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, said the ac-tivists arrested previously were highly educated and fully brainwashed about the group’s activities. So they did not give any mentionable information during interrogation.

CMP Additional Commissioner (crime and operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder said they were looking into the matter seriously as the police had already found information that the Rohingyas were getting involved with the banned group directly andindirectly.

According to its website, an Islam-

ic scholar named Sheikh Muhammad Takiuddin al-Nabani of Jerusalem formed Hizb-ut Tahrir in 1953. It has branches in 87 countries including Bangladesh.

The government banned the organ-isation on September 24, 2009 as its objectives are contradictory with the country’s constitution.

According to sources in Hizb-ut Tahrir and the police, about 10,000 members of the organisation are work-ing actively across the country.

Even though the group is not blamed for committing any subversive activ-ities elsewhere in the country – like what the JMB and the Huji do, its mem-bers often publish anti-state, commu-nal and militant statements through posters, lea� ets and Jihadi books. l

Pedestrians jaywalk on the street at the capital’s Sonargaon intersection yesterday, ignoring a banner urging them to follow tra� c rules SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

High Court stays REHAB election n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday stayed fur-ther proceedings of the election of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh’s executive committee for three months.

The High Court bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hos-sain passed the order in response to a writ petition � led by Prof Abu Yusuf Md Ab-dullah, chairman of Prashad Nirman Ltd, as his candidature was cancelled.

The election for the term 2014-16 was set to be held on May 31.

The bench asked why exclusion of Ab-dullah should not be declared arbitrary and illegal. The commerce secretary, the trade organisation director of the minis-try, the FBCCI chairman, the chairman of REHAB’s election appeal board, the election board chairman and the REHAB president were asked to respond to the rule within four weeks. l

CHT Ministry gets authority over secondary schoolsn Mohosinul Karim

The Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts A� airs has been given the authority of management and control of the sec-ondary schools operating under three hill districts in line with the CHT Ac-cord signed in 1997.

The Education Ministry hand-ed over the responsibility to the hill district councils of Rangamati, Kha-grachhari and Bandarban yesterday by signing separate agreements with the chairmen.

There are around 279 secondary schools in the three hill districts. Of those, 18 are government schools and 261 are non-government a� liated schools. As many as 154 non-government schools are under the government’s monthly payment order (MPO) scheme.

Education Secretary Mohammad Sadique and chairmen of Rangamati District Council Nikhil Kumar Chakma, Khagrachhari’s Chai Tow Aong Marma and Bandarban’s Kyaw Shai Hla Mar-ma signed the agreements. CHT A� airs Secretary Naba Bikram Kishore Tripura signed the papers as an observer.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, PM’s International A� airs Adviser Gowher Rizvi and CHT State Minister Bir Bahadur Ushoi Singh were present at the ceremony held at the CHT Ministry.

According to the agreements, the secondary education activities of the three districts will be operated under

the district councils. The Khagrachhari Technical School and College will also be handed over to the district council.

Bir Bahadur said the hand over pro-cess was conducted in line with the agreement signed between the gov-ernment and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samity in 1997.

After the agreements, the councils will now control the management, development, operation, supervision and coordination of the secondary in-stitutes.

The agreement says the budget, in-cluding salaries and other bene� ts of the teachers and o� cials of the district education o� ces, and the public and government-a� liated schools will be given to the hill district councils for disbursement.

The councils will also have the au-thority of forming managing commit-tees and holding up or cancelling the committees. Those will be able to re-cruit, transfer and promote the class III and class IV o� cials and employees of the district education o� ces and the schools.

The chairmen of the councils will approve the leave and write the annual con� dential report of the o� cials and employees concerned.

Bir Bahadur said the government had already handed over several divi-sions and o� ces to the hill councils: 25 in Rangamati, 23 in Khagrachhari and 22 in Bandarban.

“It is a continuous process to complete the handover of the divisions and o� ces to the councils. There are some legal obstacles to the handover and some other issues which require the amendment of laws. The government is trying to resolve the issues within the shortest possible time,” he added.

Education Minister Nahid urged the authorities to run the institutes e� -ciently to ensure proper education for the people in the hill tracts. l

Five BCL activists expelled from CUn CU Correspondent

Chittagong University authorities have expelled � ve CU Chhatra League activ-ists from the university yesterday for di� erent periods on charges of physi-cally assaulting an Awami League cen-tral committee leader on April 5.

The decision was made at an emer-gency meeting, around two months af-ter the incident.

The expelled students were English department students Rubel Dey, Sohel Khan and Shahrid Shuvo, Asifuzzaman Asif of Islamic history and culture depart-ment, and ASM Meraj Hos-sen of computer science and engineering department. All the expelled students were activists of Bangladesh Ch-hatra League CU unit.

Con� rming the decision, Professor Siraj Ud Dowla, CU proctor, said the decision was made on the basis of the three-member probe com-mittee report. The universi-ty’s disciplinary committee had suspended Rubel and Shuvo for six months, while

Meraj, Asif and Shohel were expelled for three months, said Professor Siraj. The committee also issued show-cause notices against the accused students asking why they would not be expelled permanently for their involvement.

Professor Khan Tawhid Osman, dean of Biological Science Faculty at CU, said their involvement with the assault incident was proven, and the committee had submitted its report ac-

cusing the students on Sunday.A faction of Chhatra League activists

had assaulted Nasir Haider Babul, as-sistant secretary of the Awami League, on the CU campus when he was attend-ing a meeting commemorating late CU VC Abu Yusuf.

Following the incident, the central Chhatra League had expelled � ve of its activists from the organisation after visiting the CU campus on April 22. l

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Jarin Tasnim Sara. May your birth-day and every day be fi lled with the warmth of sun-shine, the happi-ness of smiles, the sounds of laugh-ter. May you have a

fantastic birthday and many more to come... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

– Your Family Members

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Protesters dismantle a CNG-run auto-rickshaw near Shiroil bus stand area in Rajshahi city during the second day of the transport strike yesterday AZHAR UDDIN

GIST Demo Day held in Dhakan Tribune Report

The US Embassy in Dhaka, in association with Startup Dhaka, organised the Glob-al Innovation through Science and Tech-nology (GIST) DEMO Day in Dhaka on Saturday, welcoming 365 members of the country’s entrepreneurship community.

Starting with lectures on key entre-preneurship topics in the morning, the event saw seven top Bangladeshi startups pitching their business ideas based on sci-ence and technology to the audience and showcasing their innovative ventures.

A two-day boot camp was also ar-ranged ahead of the event, where GIST and Startup Dhaka worked with 30 Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, provid-ing intensive training aimed at honing skills to advance their startups.

Mentors like Jim Bagnola, Jim Chung and Thor Ernstsson travelled to Dhaka from the US to share their exper-tise with the young innovators.

Bagnola, president of Leadership Group International, worked with the participants on building relationships and the startup teams. Chung, exec-utive director of Entrepreneurship and Technological Transfer in George Washington University, discussed cost structure, revenue streams and negoti-ating with investors. Ernstsson, found-er of Casual Corp, talked about raising capital for startups.

Each of the 30 participants also took part in one-on-one discussions with both the local and the visiting mentors.

A partnership led by the US Depart-ment of State and CRDF Global, GIST was launched in 2011 and focuses on em-powering young science and technology innovators through capacity building, mentoring and networking. l

According to the agreements, the secondary education activities of the three districts will be operated under the district councils

WEATHER

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 3:47am Sunrise 5:12am Zohr 11:56am Asr 3:17pm Magrib 6:40pm Esha 8:05pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:40PM SUN RISES 5:12AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW36.7ºC 24.3ºC

Rajshahi Rangamati

TUESDAY, MAY 27

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 34 27Chittagong 33 26Rajshahi 34 25Rangpur 33 25Khulna 34 25Barisal 34 26Sylhet 36 24Cox’s Bazar 33 27

Half-built seven footbridges await completionn Abu Hayat Mahmud

The construction of several footbridges at key points of the capital has remained suspended, or has been going on at snail’s pace, because of alleged negli-gence by the authorities concerned.

Under the World Bank-funded Clean Air and Sustainable Environ-ment (CASE) project, seven footbridges have remained under-construction for more than a year. Since the project was launched in mid-2009, authorities con-cerned have, however, completed the construction of 13 footbridges, while the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has also installed an escalator as part of a footbridge in the capital’s Banani.

Md Shehab Ullah, director of the CASE project, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have already completed 13 foot-bridges and the construction of seven other footbridges is going on at full swing and it would be hopefully com-pleted by December this year.”

On the other hand, a World Bank report on the implementation status of the CASE project, published in April 2014, read that 40% construction of the footbridge project had been completed as of March 24 this year. Around 75% work of the project – the construction work for which began in November 2009 – is expected to be completed by December 2016, the report added.

However, recently visiting the con-struction sites, the Dhaka Tribune found that construction was halted for the footbridges at Satmasjid Road adjoining the Chhayanaut, at Pantho-path Road adjoining Bashundhara City shopping mall, and at Mirpur road ad-joining Sobhanbagh Mosque.

The construction of four other foot-bridges under the CASE project was go-ing on, albeit at a snail’s pace.

Residents of the respective areas expressed their discontent at the slow progress in constructing the footbridges.

Su� a Begum, a resident of Shankar, said: “Women, children and elderly people face di� culties in crossing the Satmasjid Road as there is a large vol-ume of tra� c on the road… We cross the busy road with fear. Vehicles run on the road at high speed.”

Ashikur Rahman, a resident of Green Road, said: “The authority concerned started the construction of the nearby footbridge more than a year ago, but is yet to complete it.”

Ashikur added that the construction had halted since six months ago.

The Environment Ministry, with as-sistance of the World Bank, has under-taken the CASE project to address the issue of urban air pollution. The CASE project is run by a Project Implementing Unit (PIU) consisting of o� cials from both the city corporations of Dhaka. l

Port city residents lay siege to Wasa o� ce for water supply n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Several hundred residents of Chit-tagong city’s Halishahar area under the banners of di� erent social organi-sations yesterday besieged Chittagong Wasa o� ce demanding regular supply of water in the area.

Residents of Halishahar’s A, B, I, J, New A, New-I and H blocks, Notun Ba-zar and Eidgaon area have been su� er-ing from water crisis for the last couple of weeks as Wasa did not consistently supply water to these areas.

Demonstrations were carried out with placards, posters and pitchers, in front of the Wasa o� ce from 11am to 12 noon.

During the demonstration, the res-idents also broke earthen pitchers and chanted slogans protesting the incon-

sistent supply of water. The demonstrators also warned that

they would be compelled to take tough-er measures if the situation does not im-prove before Ramadan. The residents complained that around six lakh peo-ple in Halishahar area have been facing acute water crisis for the last 10 years.

“We cannot cook food and clean our houses, let alone take a shower because of the acute water crisis”, said Omar Faruk, an inhabitant of the area, adding that they have repeatedly in-formed the authorities concerned to � x the problem, but to no avail.

“Though we pay our bills regularly, we do not get a consistent supply of wa-ter. The crisis has become so severe that the tenants are leaving their houses”, said another resident Nabil Hossain.

Later, they submitted a memoran-dum to Managing Director Engineer AKM Fazlullah of Wasa.

Because of the demonstration, the CWASA authorities formed a 14-mem-ber committee comprising of its chief engineer, the local ward councilors and the residents of Halishahar area to address the problem.

AKM Fazlullah, however, assured locals of mitigating the crisis within a week. Having had his assurance, the protesters withdrew the programme.

“The Chittagong Wasa can meet only 42% of the total demand. To mitigate the persistent water crisis, we have undertaken a number of big projects. But, we could not implement them within the deadline because of last year’s political unrest” he said. l

RMG workers stage demo for due wages in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Workers of a ready-made garment factory in Chittagong took to the streets demanding their due pay in the city’s Sagarika Road yesterday afternoon.

While demonstrating, the ag-itated workers vandalised the insides of BO Monde Garments Ltd as well as two vehicles on the street. They also attempted to block the road, but were thwarted

by the Industrial and Pahartoli po-lice who took control of the situa-tion within an hour.

The workers, however, with-drew their demonstration around 4pm as the factory’s owner as-sured payment by Thursday.

Inspector Arifur Rahman of Industrial Police (Intelligence) in Chittagong said the workers start-ed demonstrating yesterday in and out of the factory as the factory owner failed to pay their due wag-

es despite repeated requests, as they had been unpaid since April.

“The factory owner was sched-uled to come to the factory yester-day and meet the workers, but he did not, which triggered the agita-tion,” he said, quoting the workers.

At one stage of the demonstra-tion, the workers started to de-stroy the windows and doors of the factory, while some of them at-tempted to block the city road van-dalising two vehicles, he added. l

100 illegal shops evicted in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The Estate Department of Bangladesh Railway (East Zone) evicted around 100 illegally established shops on the Railway Station Road in Chittagong city yesterday.

Jamal Hossain, executive magis-trate and assistant commissioner of Chittagong district administration, led the eviction drive.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police and Government Railway Police (East) as-sisted in the drive where Jashim Uddin,

divisional estate o� cer of the railway, was present along with other o� cials.

“We served notices to the owners of those illegal shops to remove them,” said Jashim, “but they did not comply.”

“That is why the eviction drive was conducted,” he said. l

Savar dental students threaten with tougher movementn Our Correspondent, Savar

Students of the 11th batch of Savar Gonosastho Samaj Vittik Dental College (GSVMC) threatened yes-terday that they will put forth a tougher movement if the college does not get the approval of Ban-gladesh Medical and Dental Coun-cil (BMDC) immediately.

They made the threat at a hu-man chain yesterday, which they had formed after stopping their seven-day boycott of classes and the sit-in programmes that they had also been holding.

The students alleged that they had been deceived when they got admitted into the college, because they were told the college had the

approval of the Council, but later, they found this claim to be false.

They said ever since they learnt that this college did not have the approval of BMDC, they had fre-quently requested the college au-thorities to arrange for the approv-al soon.

But the authorities seemingly did nothing except assure them that the approval for the college would be arranged and made them wait, they said.

Now, almost 18 months have gone by since they were admitted to this college and they are tired of waiting. “The authorities must manage do something that can en-sure our future,” they said.

The agitating students further

alleged that they had been threat-ened by Registrar Delwar Hos-sain and Deputy Registrar Golam Mortuza Babu that they would be killed by hired goons if the move-ment continued.

Delwar could not be reached on the phone and Mortuza said he had not made any such threat.

Principal Jahurul Maula of the College said, “We have told our students a few times to stop their movement and to attend classes because we applied for the approv-al and we will get it very soon.”

“I have no idea about the threat that the registrar and deputy reg-istrar allegedly made toward the agitating students for launching the movement,” he added. l

Reopening of Holling Bery Hospital demandedn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Local people, stakeholders and sta� of Holling Bery Syed Moazzem Red Crescent  Hospital yesterday formed a human chain and held a rally in front of Ashwini Kumar Hall in the city de-manding immediate resumption of medical services at the hospital by solving management problems.

Dr ANM Enayet Karim, chief execu-tive o� cer of the hospital, Dr Habibur Rahman, health rights activists, Ebaid-ul Haque Chan, president of districtBNP addressed the programme among others.

The speakers said the hospital was built with contribution from business-man Syed Moazzem and was inaugu-rated on February 5 last year. The � f-ty-bed, four-storey hospital was a key healthcare service provider for people belonging to low-income group in the

northern part of the city.However, since October 2013,

Moazzem has stopped providing fund-ing because of disputes over the man-agement and service charges.

Most of the doctors have left the hospital early this year while other employees have been without salaries since December 2013 and are in � nan-cial hardship, speakers said.

Participants of the human chain demanded immediate resumption of medical services by clearing overdue payment and ensuring regularisation of service facilities for the hospital sta� .

At a meeting on July 7, 2012, Gov-erning Committee of the hospital de-cided to raise service charges in order to bear the minimum management ex-penditure without making any pro� t.

Some locals, however, protested the move and funding was suspended in the wake of that, said Moazzem, also the executive chairman of the Govern-ing Committee.

Iqbal Hossain Forkan, acting presi-dent of Red Crescent Barisal unit, said construction of the four-storey build-ing, installation of modern medical equipment and some other tasks de-mand big funding which could not be borne by the Red Crescent alone. l

RHD sta� demand more service bene� tsn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Employees of the Roads and Highways Department in Barisal, are on a strike. They staged a demonstration and held a rally at Barisal Sarak Bhaban area yes-terday noon demanding an increase in service bene� ts.

The programmes were organised by the Sarak Janapad Sramik Karmachari Union’s Barisal unit to bring attention to their four-point demand.

The demands included a payment of at least Tk 10 lakh in pension or death compensation, a rise in salaries of the sta� paid according to their work, a pay rise for employees on master role and the regularisation of computer opera-tors’ jobs.

Central unit President of the union Golam Kibria Dulal presided over yes-terday’s programmes while Kamal Ud-din Ahmed Faruk, secretary general, Akhter Faruk, joint secretary, Faridud-din Ahmed, assistant secretary, and other local leaders of the organisation were present.

Demonstrators said they would con-tinue holding protests in di� erent units of the organisation, they would also hand over memorandums to the minis-tries and o� ces concerned, and would observe a two-hour work abstention programmes across the country on working days from June 11 to 25 to bring further attention to their demands.

Sterner programmes would be an-nounced if the demands were not met, they warned. l

Pedestrians cross Sat Masjid Road nea r Chhayanaut at Dhanmondi 27 amid risks as a foot over bridge over the road is yet to be completed ABU HAYAT MAHMUD

At a meeting on July 7, 2012, Governing Committee of the hospital decided to raise service charges

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology UniversityOffi ce of the Director

Planning, Development & Works.

Memo No: BSMRSTU/PD&W/344/2013-2014 Date: 25/05/2014

Invitation for Tender (IFT No-08)Sealed tenders are hereby invited from the bonafi de Suppliers/Importers or their authorized Local Agents/Distributors/Representatives for Supplying, Installing & commissioning of Brand Computer & computer Accessories, Gopalganj:

1 Ministry/Division Ministry of Education (MOE)2 Agency Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology University, Gopalgonj-8100.3 Procuring Entity Name Director, Planning, Developments & Works, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Science & Technology University.4 Procuring Entity District Gopalganj.5 Invitation for Supplying, Installing & commissioning of Brand Computer & Computer Accessories.6 Invitation reference No BSMRSTU/PD&W/343/2013-147 Date 25/05/20148 Procurement Method Open Tendering Method (OTM)9 Budget and Source of Funds GoB10 Tender package No GD-2411 Tender Publication Date Within 28/05/201412 Tender Selling Date 28/05/2014 to 08/07/2014 During Offi ce hour.13 Name and Address of the offi ce for

Receiving Tender documentOffi ce of the Director, Planning, Development & Works, BSMRSTU, Gopalganj-8100

14 Last date and time of receiving tender Date: 09/07/2014, Time: 12.00 Noon (Tender may be submitted on or before 09/07/2014 through physically/post/courier service during offi ce hours. No Tender Document will be received after deadline for submission)

15 Tender Opening Date & Time Date: 09/07/2014 Time: 12.30 PM16 Selling Tender Document Offi ce of the Director, Planning Developments & Works, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman Science & Technology University, Gopalganj-810017 Eligibility of Tenderer (i) Up-to-date trade license

(ii) Vat registration certifi cate(iii) Up-to-date income Tax clearance certifi cate(iv) Experience certifi cate in similar & general mentioned as TDS.(v) Bank solvency certifi cate & Bank Statement as mentioned in TDS.(vi) Competency certifi cate after sale service as motioned in the TDS & must follow the

other criteria mentioned in the TDS.(vii) Money receipt of purchasing tender document shall have to be submitted along with

tender documents(viii) A Duplicate Copy shall be submitted along with Tender Document.

18 Brief Description of Goods or works Supplying, Installing & Commissioning of Brand Computer & Computer Accessories.19 Tender document price Tender Document can be purchased by submitting either Pay Order or bank draft

amounting Tk. 3000/- in favor of Registrar BSMRSTU, Gopalganj.20 P. No Identifi cation of Package Location Tender Security Completion Time

GD-24 Supplying, Installing & Commissioning of Brand Computer & Computer Accessories.

BSMRSTU, Gopalganj

3.00 % of quoted Amount

Within 30 days from the date of

Work OrderTender Security shall be in favor of Registrar, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology University, Gopalganj.

21 Name of offi cial inviting Tender Engineer S.M. Eskendar Ali22 Designation of offi cial inviting Tender

& AddressDirector (in-Charge), Planning, Development & Works, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology University, Gopalganj.

23 Contact details of Offi cial Inviting Tender

Tel. No: 02-6682258, Fax: 02-6682173, email: director.pdw@bsmrstu.edu.bd, Website: www.bsmrstu.edu.bd (Tender notice available in website)

24 Special Instruction:1. Lowest rate will be evaluated package wise under packages.2. If it is not possible to receive & open the tender on the Scheduled date for any unavoidable circumstances, the same will be

received and opened on the following working date and same time and same place.3. If the tenderer submits any false/incorrect/fake/fabricated/manipulated certifi cate with tender document, tender security shall

be forfeited without assigning any reason.4. The procuring entity reserves the right to accept or reject any or all tenders without assigning any reason whatsoever and

also reserve the right to omit, increase and/or decrease the quantity of any item from the tender. The bidders must abide by the decision of authority. Tender form schedule of items of supply, tender notice and terms and conditions etc. are integral part of the tender. The bidders should write the name of the package and the name of their fi rm on the envelope clearly, VAT, Income Tax and other taxes, if any imposed by the govt. will be deducted form their bill as per govt rules.

5. All sorts of correspondence shall be remained suspended from 15.06.14 to 19.06.14 due to summer vacation of the university.

Engineer S.M. Eskender Ali Director (In-Charge)GC-66/14 (11× 4) Planning, Development & Works.

Mango business faces setback for strike n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

The mango growers and traders in Ra-jshahi have become frustrated as busi-ness came to a standstill due to the inde� nite strike enforced by bus-truck owners and workers since Sunday.

According to sources, the supply of the popular summer fruit from Rajsha-hi and Chapainawabganj districts has been badly hampered during the peak harvest season due to the strike.

Orchard owners and traders are suf-fering huge losses as the price of the perishable item has drastically fallen due to a lack of buyers.

Traders and transporters at a loss as to how to run the mango business dur-ing the current peak season in the two districts, which are famous for mango

production and marketing. “Many people work hard and ea-

gerly wait for a long nine or 10 months to harvest the cash crops and this is the prime time to gain pro� ts from it,” said Abu Bakker Ali, president of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said: “The strike is detrimental to business.”

At present, mango trading and transporting is in peak season, espe-cially because varieties of mango such as Fazly and Ashwina are in markets everywhere in the region.

All the markets in the region are � ooded with varieties of mango and the wholesale buyers as well as the retailers have been pouring into the wholesale mango markets and bargain-ing hard to settle the price.

Around 30 tonnes of mangoes are being supplied and transported from the two districts to di� erent parts of the country, including the capital, every day.

Passenger-coaches, trains, trucks and other private vehicles are being used to transport the mangoes.

“We alone transport around 2,000 baskets mangoes from here to di� erent parts of the country, especially Dhaka, every day,” said Monzurul Kabir, as-sistant general manager of Sundarban Courier Service.

The strike has created a rift between the mango marketers and the transpor-tation workers.

Rahmat Ali, a mango-trader from Shaheb Bazar said: “Buying and selling has been badly a� ected throughout the region due to the prolonged strike.” l

Youth to die for killing girl after rapen Our Correspondent, Gazipur

A court here yesterday sentenced a young man to death in a case � led for killing a girl after rape about three years ago.

Fatema Nazib, district judge of Gazipur Women and Children Oppres-sion Prevention Tribunal, convicted Jahangir, 22, son of Md Ali, a resident of Bandabari village in Kaliakair upazila of the district, in the case.

The court also � ned him Tk1 lakh and directed the authorities concerned to give the money to the victim’s family members after collection.

According to the case statement, Jahangir in 2011 had developed a ro-mantic relation with a girl promising to

marry her. However, at one stage, the girl became pregnant and she started pressing Jahangir to marry her.

On September 4 that year, the convict met her on the Amtali-Boaliroad in the upazila and later he mur-dered her by strangulating with her scarf in the nearby deep forest of the road.

On the following day, locals recov-ered the body and informed police who sent the body to Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.

In the incident, the girl’s father � led a case with Kaliakair police station, in which the court pronounced the ver-dict to him after examining all witness and evidence. l

25 injured in clash n Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

At least 25 people were injured in a clash over a triviality in Kazulia village of Sadar upazila yesterday.

According to sources, Siraj Haolad-er’s cow damaged Maola Sheikh’s paddy � eld at 7am. Later, supporters of both groups engaged in a clash, using local weapons, over the issue.

Upon receiving information, police went to the spot and opened � re to bring the situation under control. 25 people were injured during the clash.

They were admitted to Gopalganj Sadar Hospital and Kotalipara Upazila Health Complex. The police also ar-rested six people. Sadar police station O� cer-in-Charge Zakir Hossain con-� rmed the incident. l

Jubo League man found deadn Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

A Jubo League activist was slaughtered by assailants in Sadar upazila.

Locals found the body of Roman Hossain, 24, in Madanpur area around 6am and informed police.

Dattapara police outpost in-charge Sub-Inspector Wahiduzzaman said the body was on the spot till the � ling of the report at 10am.

“Roman was an extortionist. He was accused in several cases,” said the SI.

Mahbubul Haque Mahbub, joint convener of Lakshmipur sadar Jubo League, claimed Roman was a Jubo League activist.

Bashikpur union Awami League president AmirHossain said the miscre-ants took Roman away atgunpoint from Abdul Man-nan’s house early in the morning. l

Chuadanga petrol pump owners on striken Our Correspondent, Chuadanga

Petrol pump owners of Chuadanga yes-terday called for an inde� nite strike, demanding security at the pumps.

A total of 18 petrol pumps of the dis-trict remained shut as the strike began at 6am, causing su� erings to the trans-port owners and labours of the district.

General Secretary Habil Hossain of Chuadanga district Fuel Transport Own-ers’ Association said recently there had been several incidents of robbery at the petrol pumps, adding that in the latest incident a gang of 10-12 robbers looted

around Tk2.5 lakh from the Jibon Nagar Filling Station. The robbers exploded a bomb and tied up the security guard be-fore looting the pump, he claimed.

He asserted that the strike was called as police and administration could not ensure security at the pumps.

Chuadanga Police Super Md Rashidul Hasan said three people were arrested in connection with the Jibon Nagar Filling Station incident. ASI Pro-shad Kumar and four constables were transferred to Chuadanga Police Line from the Jibon Nagar police station in this connection, he added. l

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

An art competition was held at Comila Shilpakala Academy yesterday, marking the birth anniversary of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam DHAKA TRIBUNE

Minor girl’s body exhumed 2 and half months after burialn Our Correspondent,

Panchagarh

Body of a minor girl was ex-humed on Monday afternoon noon for a post-mortem two and half months after burial at Mareya Prodhanpara village in Boda upazila of Panchagarh.

Following a court order, police exhumed the body of Sharmin, 9, daughter of So� ul Islam of Mareya Prodhanpara village in Boda upazila of the district from their fam-ily graveyard in presence of Executive Magistrate Sanwar Hossain at about 12:30pm.

Later, it was taken to Pan-chagarh Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy and buried back in the afternoon after examina-tion, OC Mojnur Rahman of Boda police station said.

Police sources said Sharmin had been found dead in one Shahinur’s pond nearby their house on 8 March.

Victim’s father So� ul � led a murder case with Pan-chagarh Senior Judicial Mag-istrate Court accusing seven persons, including victim’s neighbour Mazed Ali.

After hearing of the case, Senior Judicial Magistrate SM Sha� qul Islam passed the or-der of exhuming the body for autopsy on 18 May. l

Shibir leader wounded in police � ring in Rajshahin Tribune Desk

A local leader of Islami Chhatra Shibir sustained bul-let wounds in a police � ring during a clash in Chauddopai area near Rajshahi University in the city on Sunday night.

Alamgir Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Matihar Police Station, said on secret in-formation that Shibir leader Afzal and activist Babu were staying in the area, a team of police conducted a drive there at about 11:15 pm.

Sensing the presence of police, the Shibir activists started hurling crude bombs at them, leaving three police-men injured, reports UNB. l

7Long Form Tuesday, May 27, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Mahwash Badar

Anyone who has ever trav-elled abroad will tell you that no matter where you go, no matter how devel-oped a country it is that

you’re travelling to – if you’re a British national or a Caucasian American, the doors become friendlier. The security becomes less pressurising. Visa queues are shorter. Procedures are simpler.

If you’re a brown Pakistani man (or even woman) who is travelling to another country – that’s a whole other story. You’re working in the Middle

East, chances are your salary is just a little bit above the basic working wage – or anything that will get you a bed-space with seven other human beings. Respect is minimal.

You’re not supposed to ru� e any feathers. Or demand for rights. Your children are thousands of miles away studying (because you can’t a� ord education for them here), your wife probably has another job to help make ends meet and your job squeez-es every drop of your blood into a tiny container that helps build the skyscrapers and that little container is thrown away quicker than you can say “burj” as soon as your company decides to say bye bye.

Pretty much the equivalent of … well, I don’t know. What is that the equivalent of? What analogy do I draw to represent the utter misery that is being a Pakistani in this super-power dominated world?

As if the current state of the coun-try, what with its years of dictatorship and lack of infrastructure, hasn’t driven us insane enough, there is the added bonus of inviting religious extremists and letting them destroy everything we hold near and dear.

Sure, apologists will reason it saying “this is not true Islam” and whatnot. But my question is when – seriously – when do we set aside the debate of what is true Islam and what isn’t?

Let the clerics and the religious scholars sit in their mosques. But once and for all, eliminate and annihilate

the savage, beastly, cowardly, immoral men who buy the bodies of fragile, poverty-stricken, desperate men, strap them with explosives and send them into markets � lled with innocent wom-en and children. Finish these abhorrent elements in the society that attempt to throw us back to the Stone Age.

A recent article in the New York Times reported on the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaration of the polio emergency in Pakistan.

Last year, a polio worker was killed in Peshawar, as well as another who was shot dead in Khyber Agency. Sever-al were kidnapped in Bara. In January this year, gunmen killed three health workers taking part in a polio vaccina-tion drive in Karachi, not Kabul, not Sierra Leone, not Riyadh, Karachi.

My heart boils and burns as more devastating news and reports � ood the channels. The New York Times article further stated that according to a report, the highest refusal rates for polio vaccination were recorded in wealthy neighbourhoods of Karachi because they had “little faith in public health care.” In North Waziristan, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have had vaccination forbidden for years. Pakistan thus has 59 polio cases to report, the highest in the world.

Being a mother, it scares me. It keeps me awake at night. It reminds me that even if I run far away from the borders of my own land, its demons will continue to haunt me and my future generations. I Google “Paki-

stan” on the news and everything that is reported is about death, destruction, squabbling politicians, ailing children, extremists blowing up things and a struggling economy.

I raise my eyes to our neighbouring country and see what could have hap-pened if we were still a United India.

Maybe we would have been polio free too. We would have been a uni� ed part of a process of being the world’s next big force to reckon with, of being a part of the next blazing economy.

I � nd myself deeply wishing that Jinnah hadn’t made this mistake – that he had thought about the future of Pakistan. He didn’t think of the obscu-rantist mindset that he had propelled forward, the countless millions that

died at the hand of this vague agenda that fails to unite us as a nation. I look at the years of struggles that Pakistan faces, the fall of Dhaka, the provincial wars, the stark separatist mindsets and I wonder what Mr Jinnah was thinking when he decided to leave the Indian National Congress (INC).

We share more with our Indian brothers than our ancestral DNA. Our food, language, clothes, lifestyles are

more like them than the Arabs we so badly want to mimic and ape. I stare at the green passport with the same self-loathing as the fat 16-year-old girl with pimples on her face who is told that she cannot get married because she will always be blind, diseased and fat and her elder, stronger, prettier, better-educated sister will snag all the good catches because she ended up with the better caretaker after the divorce of their parents.

I am ashamed of being a Pakistani today.

I am ashamed that I belong to a country that kills human rights law-yers and sitting governors, and issues death threats to university professors.

I am ashamed that we believe in spaghetti monster theories and pie in the sky conspiracies and risk the future of our children.

I am ashamed that we have rejected our scientists just because they believe in a di� erent dogma.

I am ashamed that we cannot protect our women, we cannot protect our children and we cannot protect our men from the evil that is extrem-ism, fundamentalism and the foolhar-dy idea that Pakistan is a great nation. Pakistan is a � edgling, � ailing state.

And those 59 children, whose legs can never work anymore, the family

of Raza Rumi’s driver, those who shed tears for Salman Taseer, for Perveen Rehman, for Rashid Rehman, for Dr Murtaza Haider and his 12-year-old son – every single person who went out to have a normal day and never made it home alive – are all paying the price of the empathy, respect and awe YOU show cowards like Mumtaz Qadri. l

Mahwash Badar is a clinical psychologist.

Jinnah made a mistake and I am ashamed of being Pakistani

Mahwash Badar is a clinical psychologist by profession and one of a handful of liberal Pakistanis who dare to speak the truth. On May 12 she wrote an opinion piece for Pakistan’s Express Tribune Blogs, titled ‘Jinnah made a mistake and I am ashamed of being Pakistani.’ However, due to the invisible hand of the ISI both this article and her Twitter pro� le @MahwashB have vanished. Below is a reproduction of the original article

Jinnah didn’t think of the obscurantist mindset that he had propelled forward, the countless millions that died at the hand of this vague agenda thatfails to unite us as a nation

I am ashamed that we cannot protect our women, children and men from the evil that is extremism, fundamentalism and the foolhardy idea that Pakistan is a great nation

Pakistan is always plagued with one form of chaos or another REUTERS

The media in Pakistan is under stringent scrutiny by the regulatory authority. Geo TV’s license being suspended is an example of the authority’s diminishing tolerance REUTERS

I Google ‘Pakistan’ on the news and everything that is reported is about death, destruction, squabbling politicians, ailing children, extremists blowing up things and a struggling economy

Tuesday, May 27, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

Egypt votes in poll seen sweeping Sisi to powern AFP, Cairo

Egyptians voted for a new president Monday in an election expected to sweep to power the ex-army chief who overthrew the country’s � rst demo-cratically-elected leader and crushed his Islamist movement.

The two-day election is the � rst since the frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, a move that unleashed the bloodiest violence in Egypt’s recent history.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood is boycot-ting the vote, as are revolutionary youths who fear Sisi is an autocrat in the making.

But the 59-year-old retired � eld marshall is expected to trounce his sole rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, amid widespread calls for stability.

Polling stations opened at 0600 GMT for 53m registered voters, with Sisi arriving early at one in Cairo to cast his ballot amid a throng of jostling re-porters and supporters.

“The entire world is watching us, how Egyptians are writing history and their future today and tomorrow,” Sisi said.

“Egyptians must be reassured that tomorrow will be very beautiful and

great,” he said, as supporters shook his hand and kissed his cheeks.

Many view the vote as a referendum on stability versus the freedoms prom-ised by the Arab Spring-inspired popu-lar uprising that ousted veteran strong-man Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Since the revolution, the country of 86m people has been rocked by sporadic unrest and a tanking economy.

Mubarak’s successor, the Islamist Morsi, lasted one year in o� ce, win-ning Egypt’s � rst democratic presiden-tial election only to quickly alienate many who held mass rallies demanding his resignation.

“We need someone who speaks in a determined and strong way. The Egyp-tian people are frightened by this and respect those who are like this,” said Milad Yusef, a 29-year-old lawyer wait-ing to vote in Cairo.

Yusef said he had voted for Sabbahi in the 2012 election that Morsi won, but that he would now back Sisi.

“We need someone strong, a mili-tary man,” he said.

Sisi has said “true democracy” would take a couple of decades, and suggested he would not tolerate pro-tests disrupting the economy. l

Eurosceptic election surge gives EU a headache

n Reuters, Brussels

Stunning victories in European Parlia-ment elections by nationalist, Euro-sceptic parties from France and Brit-ain left the European Union licking its wounds on Monday and facing a giant policy dilemma.

Across the continent, anti-establish-ment parties of the far right and hard left more than doubled their represen-tation amid voter apathy, harnessing a

mood of anger with Brussels over aus-terity, mass unemployment and immi-gration.

While the centre-right and cen-tre-left will continue to control more than half of the 751 seats in the EU leg-islature, they will face an unprecedent-ed challenge from noisy insurgents determined to stop business as usual in the 28-nation bloc.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the breakthrough by Marine Le

Pen's anti-immigration, anti-euro Na-tional Front, which topped a national vote for the � rst time and pushed his Socialists into third place, a political “earthquake.”

He rapidly countered by o� ering more tax cuts to spur an economy which is � atlining.

Another tremor on the other side of the Channel raised new doubts about Britain's long-term future in the EU. Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party, which advocates immediate withdraw-al, defeated the opposition Labour par-ty and Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives.

The anti-EU vote was ampli� ed in many countries by a low turnout of just 43.1%, but the pro-European centre ground held � rm in Germany, the EU's biggest member state with the largest number of seats, as well as Italy and Spain.

France is one of the EU's founder members and the weakness of Presi-dent Francois Hollande may leave Ger-man Chancellor Angela Merkel without a strong partner for the next leg of Eu-ropean integration which economists say is vital to underpin a single curren-cy but leaves voters, who want hope of better times to come, cold.

“The legitimacy of Europe is weak-ened, the legitimacy of France in Eu-rope is weakened further,” said Domi-nique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations.

“To function, Europe needs a strong balance between France and Germa-ny. But France is moving the way of Italy or Greece in economic terms and moving the way of Britain in its

relationship with Europe.”Earlier, a jubilant Le Pen told cheer-

ing supporters the French people had made clear “they no longer want to be led by those outside our borders, by EU commissioners and technocrats who are unelected. They want to be protect-ed from globalisation and take back the reins of their destiny.”

In Britain, Cameron rebu� ed UKIP leader Nigel Farage's call for an ear-ly referendum on an EU exit, stick-ing to his plan to renegotiate mem-bership terms if he is re-elected next year, and put the result to an in/out plebiscite in 2017.

However, some analysts said UKIP's surge may force the prime minister to toughen his stance on Europe and could scare more pro-European voters in Scotland into opting to leave Britain in a September referendum.

Renzi bucks trendCentre-left Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi bucked the trend of an-ti-EU, anti-incumbent votes, scoring a stunning 41% to beat populist Beppe Grillo's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement by a wide margin, with disgraced ex-premier Silvio Berlus-coni's centre-right Forza Italia trailing a weak third.

Renzi vowed to use his mandate from voters to press for an easing of the EU's budgetary straitjacket to allow more public investment in growth and jobs, posing a policy challenge for Merkel, the guardian of � scal orthodoxy.

“I consider this a vote of extraordi-nary hope for a country that has all the conditions to be able to change, and

that can invite Europe to change,” Ren-zi told reporters.

The Democratic Party leader said he would serve out his term until 2018 to press ahead with economic reforms rather than using his popularity to call an early general election.

A French o� cial said Hollande would back Renzi's call for more pro-growth policies and tell EU leaders who meet on Tuesday evening that Europe had reached “the alarm level.”

With France in a malaise, Renzi's hold on the rotating six-month EU pres-idency in the second half of the year gives him an opportunity to become a major player in the bloc if he can � nd common cause with Merkel.

The centre-right European People's Party, led by former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, was set to win 214 seats, provisional results is-sued by the parliament showed.

Juncker claimed a mandate to lead the executive European Commission, swatting away questions about Camer-on's reported opposition to his bid and saying he was sure of Merkel's “crystal clear” support.

“I don't care,” the 59-year-old vet-eran federalist told a news conference, mopping his brow under the television lights. “I'm not on my knees. I won the election.”

The centre-left Socialists, led by outgoing European Parliament Presi-dent Martin Schulz of Germany, were in second place with 189 seats followed by the centrist liberals on 66 and the Greens on 52. Eurosceptic groups were expected to win about 142 seats, ac-cording to a Reuters estimate.

Pressure to tack rightThe political fallout may be felt more strongly in national politics than at EU level, pulling mainstream conservative parties further to the right and raising pressure to crack down on immigration.

The anti-immigration far right Peo-ple's Party topped the poll in Denmark and the extreme-right Jobbik, widely accused of racism and anti-Semitism, � nished second in Hungary.

In the Netherlands, the anti-Islam, Eurosceptic Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders - which plans an alliance with Le Pen - underperformed but still � nished joint second in terms of seats behind a pro-European centrist opposi-tion party.

Average turnout was only fraction-ally higher than the 2009 nadir of 43% despite e� orts to personalise the elec-tion with the main political families putting forward a leading candidate, or “Spitzenkandidat.”

In Germany, Merkel's Christian Democrats secured 35.3% of the vote, down from a 23-year-high of 41.5% in last year's federal election but still a clear victory.

In Greece, epicentre of the euro zone's debt crisis, the radical left an-ti-austerity Syriza movement of Alexis Tsipras won the vote but failed to deliv-er a knockout blow to the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

The two parties in the coalition, New Democracy and PASOK, won a combined vote larger than that of Syri-za, and political analyst Theodore Cou-loumbis said the government's survival was not at stake despite its narrow two-seat majority. l

Moscow ‘ready’ to work with Poroshenkon AFP, Moscow

Russia said Monday it was ready to talk to Ukraine’s new president Petro Poros-henko, raising hopes that after months of tensions Moscow sees in the billion-aire a leader it can work with.

“We are ready for dialogue with Ki-ev’s representatives, with Petro Poros-henko,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Russia’s � rst reaction to his vic-tory in Sunday’s vote.

Lavrov was cautious, saying Mos-cow was ready for “pragmatic dialogue, on an equal footing” and warned that for Kiev to continue its military oper-ations against pro-Russia rebels in the east would be a “colossal mistake.”

But Poroshenko – a billionaire with strong Russian business interests and a history of working with both pro-West-ern and Moscow-backed Ukrainian gov-ernments – is the kind of � gure analysts say the Kremlin can see as a partner.

“Poroshenko is an extremely attrac-tive president for the Kremlin... This is a person who will be able to negotiate with Moscow and � nd compromise,” said Alexander Konovalov, president of the Institute of Strategic Assessments.

“There was a camp in the Kremlin that wanted to feed the � re in Ukraine. Now I think they will move into the shadows,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet reacted himself to Poroshenko’s victory, but he did say he will “respect” the result of the vote and promised to

work with Kiev’s new authorities.Putin and Poroshenko have met

several times, from the confectionery tycoon’s stints as foreign minister un-der former pro-Western leader Viktor Yushchenko and economy minister un-der ex-president Viktor Yanukovych.

Strong Russian business ties It was Yanukovych’s ouster in February – after he refused to sign a partnership agreement with the European Union – that kicked o� the crisis which even-tually led to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and pro-Moscow rebellions in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow, which still o� cially recog-nises Yanukovych as Ukraine’s leader, has been careful not to explicitly recog-nise the results of Sunday’s vote.

In a statement on Monday, Yanu-kovych said he had “respect” for the re-sult but cast doubt on its legitimacy after voting was blocked in rebel-held parts of the east. Still, analysts said Moscow will have little choice in dealing with Poros-henko, who early results showed win-ning close to 54% of the vote. l

Turkish court orders arrest of Israeli soldiersn AFP, Ankara

A Turkish court on Monday ordered the arrest of four former Israeli mil-itary chiefs over a deadly 2010 mar-itime assault that plunged relations between the former allies into crisis, a lawyer working on the case said.

The court will ask Interpol to is-sue international arrest warrants for the four men, lawyer Cihat Gokdemir told AFP.

No one at the Israeli embassy in Ankara was immediately available for comment.

Turkish prosecutors are seeking life sentences for the commanders, who went on trial in absentia in 2012.

They are former military chief of sta� Gaby Ashkenazi, former navy chief Eliezer Marom, former military intelligence head Amos Yadlin and former air force intelligence chief Avishai Levy.

Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish-� agged Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in a � otilla dispatched by Turkish relief agency IHH to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, on May 31, 2010, leaving nine Turkish activists dead. l

Wives of jailed opposition mayors win Venezuela ballotsn Reuters, Caracas

The wives of two opposition mayors jailed over protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro won landslide victories in elections on Sunday for their spouses’ vacant posts.

Though the women’s victories were widely expected in cities that are hotbeds of opposition to Madura, they still brought some cheer to a movement divided over the strategy of protests and smarting from repeated defeats in national elections.

Patricia Ceballos, whose husband Daniel Ceballos was sacked in March and received a 12-month sentence for failing to remove protester’ barricades in the streets of San Cristobal, took the mayorship there with 74% of votes.

The western city near the border of Colombia was the birthplace of demon-strations that began in early February and quickly spread across Venezuela, causing the OPEC nation’s worst unrest in a decade and leading to 42 deaths.

Rosa Scarano, whose husband Vicencio Scarano also lost his job and received a 10-month jail sentence in March for the same o� ence in central San Diego city, won an even larger 88% of votes to take the vacant mayorship there.

Both women represented the oppo-sition Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition against ruling Socialist Party candidates.

“The result of these elections has shown that power and abuse have received a big lesson,” the MUD said in a statement.

The socialists still control about 70% of Venezuela’s 335 local mayorships, however.

Maduro, who seems to have weathered the worst of the protests, said he would recognise the new mayors, but warned he would not tolerate more unrest in their cities.

“If they go crazy and start burning the municipality again, the authorities will act ... and elections will be called every three months until there is peace,” he said.

Maduro, a 51-year-old former bus driver who replaced the late Hugo Chavez last

year, says this year’s wave of protests are a cover for a US-promoted coup attempt against him.

Opponents say that is nonsense, and protests are borne out of Venezuelans’ frustration with a repressive government and economic hardships including scarcities of basic products and the highest in� ation in the Americas.

At the height of the protests, masked youths faced o� daily with security forces. But numbers have dwindled in recent weeks. l

Patricia de Ceballos, opposition candidate and wife of jailed former mayor Daniel Ceballos, casting her vote during mayoral election REUTERS

Pope Francis (R) meets Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) at the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem yesterday. Pope Francis navigated the mine� eld of the Israeli-Palestinian con� ict and humbly bowed to kiss the hands of Holocaust survivors on Monday, the last day of a Mideast trip laden with bold personal gestures REUTERS

POPE PROPAGATES PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The logo of the European currency is pictured in front of the European Central Bank AFP

Battle at donetsk airportn Reuters, Kiev/Donetsk

Ukraine launched air strikes and a paratrooper assault against pro-Rus-sian rebels who seized an airport on Monday, as its newly elected leader rejected any talks with “terrorists” and said a robust military campaign in the east should be able to put down a separatist revolt in “a matter of hours.”

Ukrainians rallied overwhelmingly in an election on Sunday behind Petro Po-roshenko, a political veteran and billion-aire owner of chocolate factories, hoping the burly 48-year-old can rescue the na-tion from the brink of bankruptcy, civil war and dismemberment by its former Soviet masters in the Kremlin.

Monday's rapid military response to separatists who seized the airport in Donetsk was a de� ant answer to Mos-cow, which said it was ready for dia-logue with Poroshenko but demanded he � rst scale back the armed forces' campaign in the east.

Even as the � ghting was getting un-der way, Poroshenko held a news con-ference in Kiev where he said the gov-ernment's military o� ensive needed to be “quicker and more e� ective.”

“The anti-terrorist operation should not last two or three months. It should last for a matter of hours,” he said.

As for the rebel � ghters: “They want to preserve a bandit state which is held in place by force of arms,” he said. “These are simply bandits. Nobody in any civilised state will hold negotia-tions with terrorists.” l

9Tuesday, May 27, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

Thai coup leader threatens crackdown if protests resumen Reuters, Bangkok

Thai coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Monday he had been formally endorsed by the king as head of a military council that will run the country, and warned he would use force if political protests � are up again.

Prayuth seized power on May 22, saying the army would restore order af-ter nearly seven months of sometimes deadly street demonstrations. The mil-itary has taken into custody scores of politicians, activists and others.

“Will we go back to where we were before? If you want to do that, I will need to use force and impose the law strictly,” Prayuth said in a statement he read on television. “You will have to forgive any tough measures as they are necessary.”

He did not set a timeframe for how long the army would stay in power, al-though he said he hoped to hold elec-tions soon.

The royal endorsement is a signif-icant formality in Thailand, where the monarchy is the most important institution.

But Prayuth’s address would have provoked con� icting reaction in a country polarized by nearly a decade of rivalry between the royalist estab-lishment, of which Prayuth is a mem-ber, and Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist tycoon who broke the political mould.

Prayuth, wearing a formal white dress uniform, said he would set up a council of advisers but gave no details on the form of a government that will run the country under his military junta, the Na-tional Council for Peace and Order.

“The country needs a prime minis-ter,” he said.

The military ousted the remnants of a government that had been led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, until she was removed by a court on May 7 for abuse of pow-er. Thaksin was ousted as premier in a 2006 coup.

The military has taken over with a heavy hand, throwing out the consti-

tution, dissolving the Senate and cen-soring the media. Anyone who insults the monarchy or violates the military’s orders will be tried in a military court.

Despite warnings, small crowds of people voicing opposition to the coup have been gathering daily in Bangkok since the takeover, as well as in the north and northeast, strongholds of the ousted government. There have been no serious clashes.

On Monday, several hundred people gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Mon-ument where about 1,000 protesters massed on Sunday.

Some shouted “we want elections” and “coup get out,” others held up signs saying “we want democracy,” a Reuters reporter said.

Police and soldiers turned in force to block the protesters and there was jeering and some scu� es but no se-rious trouble. Soldiers in a van with a loudspeaker urged people not to join the protesters, saying they were being paid, and blamed foreign media for try-ing to damage the country.

While the protests are a nuisance for the army, a more serious threat would be armed resistance from Thaksin’s “red shirt” loyalists. They have always threatened to � ght a coup but with so many of their leaders detained or in hiding, activists say they have no plan for opposition.

Authorities seized weapons and detained activists in the northeast last week. On Monday, an army ranger was killed in Trat province, near the Cam-bodian border, in a clash with sus-pected pro-Thaksin gunmen during a search, the army said.

Earlier on Monday, Suthep Thaug-suban, a former pro-establishment politician who led protests that under-mined Yingluck’s government, was re-leased on bail, his lawyer said. He had been held since the coup.

The army has also allowed Yingluck to go home, although she remains un-der military supervision with soldiers guarding her residence, a military o� -cial said on Sunday. l

In control, Modi will not allow veto on foreign policyn Agencies

In October last year, the Prime Minis-ter’s O� ce was in a tizzy. The Ministry of External A� airs as well as the secu-rity establishment was keen that PM Manmohan Singh attend the Common-wealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo in November.

A highly placed o� cial had then said, “The PM is keen too. We believe leverage can only come through en-gagement with Mahinda Rajpaksa.

The problem are the parties from Tamil Nadu, as well as some senior ministers from the state, who fear for

their electoral fortunes. Let us see if the Dr Singh succumbs or stays on course.” The PM succumbed to pres-sure, did not go for the meet, and in-stead sent External A� airs Minister Salman Khurshid.

Contrast this with how Narendra Modi has acted, even before taking oath. He decided he wanted SAARC leaders to be a part of Monday’s cere-mony, passed on instructions, and the MEA implemented it. Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa expressed her unhappiness at President Rajpaksa be-ing invited.

While Modi is known to have good

personal ties with her and could do with AIADMK support in the Rajya Sabha, he paid no heed. Neither did complaints by NDA ally Vaiko make Modi budge. He es-tablished a clear line - no one would be allowed to exercise veto on foreign poli-cy, and the PM would remain the centre of decision-making.

The decisiveness was also in play with the invitation to Pakistan PM, Nawaz Sharif. If it was southern par-ties who would have an issue with Sri Lanka’s presence, Modi’s own support base - including the RSS - could have frowned upon such a move, especially since it came after a campaign marked

by belligerence against Islamabad. But not only did Modi not let such calcu-lations deter him, he also ensured that hard line elements of the Sangh even welcomed the move.

The last time PM Singh asserted his authority on matters relates to foreign policy was during the nuclear deal. But the Modi era will be marked by the clear dominance of the PM on external relations. With his invitation, Modi has already sent a message to his party, his allies, states, Delhi’s bureaucracy, and the region at large that he is the man in charge, the man who would take the � nal call. l

Obama back home after surprise visit to Afghanistann AFP, Washington

President Barack Obama was back in Washington on Monday after a light-ning 32-hour trip to Afghanistan to visit US troops.

Monday is Memorial Day in the United States, when military war dead are remembered and military personnel and veterans are hon-ored. The president is scheduled to host a White House breakfast for veteran groups with top mili-tary brass in attendance, the White House said.

Obama landed at Andrews Air Force Base in nearby Maryland at 1040 GMT and soon after arrived in the White House via helicopter.

The president is also scheduled to deliver remarks and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Sol-dier in Arlington National Cem-etery, the US military’s principal cemetery.

Vice President Joe Biden will be at the event along with his wife Jill and Obama’s wife Michelle. The two women are known for their work helping military families.

Obama made a covert night-time trip from the White House to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan aboard a darkened Air Force One on a Sunday visit meant to hail the sacrifices of US soldiers.

His four-hour visit provoked a new spat with outgoing Afghan President

Hamid Karzai, with whom Obama has a strained relationship.

US officials said Obama offered to see the Afghan leader at the sprawling US base but decided not to go to his palace in central Kabul. They did not say how much notice they had given the Afghan leader.

Karzai interpreted Obama’s invi-tation as a snub. “The government of Afghanistan is prepared to warmly welcome the US president in the pres-idential palace, but it does not intend to go to Bagram to meet Obama,” read an Afghan statement.

Obama later telephoned Karzai as he flew out and the pair talked for 15 to 20 minutes, a senior administra-tion official said. l

Modi and I can easily work together, says Nawaz Sharifn Agencies

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Shar-if said on Monday he could easily work with India’s new government led by Narendra Modi, hoping that their personal focus on boosting busi-ness could help “turn a new page” in bilateral ties.

In an exclusive interview with HT hours before participating in Modi’s inauguration, Sharif said he was carrying a message of good-will, love and friendship for the Indian people.

“I am here to turn a new page in In-dia-Pakistan relations,” said the Paki-stan prime minister who had fought o� sti� opposition from hardliners in his country to make the trip to India. He will hold a bilateral meeting with Modi on Tuesday.

“We (India and Pakistan) have a historic moment to open a new chap-ter. The new government under Mr Modi has a strong mandate and I look forward to picking up the relationship from where I and (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee left it in 1999.”

In February 1999, then Prime Minister Vajpayee crossed the bor-der at Wagah for summit-level talks with Sharif, raising hopes of last-ing peace between the two coun-tries, but relations nosedived soon after with the two sides � ghting a short but brutal war on the heights of Kargil.

On his � rst o� cial trip to India as prime minster (he last came for Rajiv Gandhi’s funeral), Sharif looked set to drive an agenda of “trade and eco-nomics” at his bilateral meeting with Modi on Tuesday.

“I am regarded as a friend of busi-nessmen and we are regarded as a busi-ness-friendly government. Modi too is perceived as a business-friendly per-son. He has a model of development,” Sharif said.

“We can easily work with each other.”From time to time, leaders from

both sides have identi� ed boosting business and trade as a way to reduce hostility. In particular, Pakistan’s crip-pling energy de� cit has been viewed as a lucrative opportunity for Indian businesses. lA white peacock opens its plumage at the Nogeyama zoo in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on May 25 AFP

Top: People commute through a � ooded road after heavy rain in Guwahati, Assam, yesterday. Bottom: This picture taken on May 25, shows a car being driven through a � ooded street in Liling, Hunan, China. The province is on red alert

SOUTH ASIA DRENCHED

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes his oath at the presidential palace in New Delhi REUTERS

THE CORONATION

JOY FOREVER

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Untidy state (4)5 Nothing (4)10 Minute particle (4)11 Tree (3)12 Sea green (5)13 First woman (3)14 Thick (5)16 Sampled (6)18 Little wave (6)21 Explosion (5)23 Neckwear (3)24 Golf clubs (5)26 United (3)27 Fowls’ enclosure (4)28 Throw (4)29 Nidus (4)

DOWN2 Deserves (5)3 Pigs’ enclosure (3)4 Fusible alloys (7)6 Facial features (4)7 Make known (6)8 Be indebted (3)9 Encourage in crime (4)15 Publication (7)17 Lacking pigmentation (6)19 Supports (5)20 Direction (4)22 Liquor dregs (4)23 Small drink (3)25 Fish eggs (3)

CROSSWORD

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.

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a dif-ferent letter of the alphabet. For exam-ple, today 3 represents M so � ll M every time the � gure 3 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in appropri-ate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

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Watered-downMay 20

SHWe put our faith in the state so that things don’t seem like the Wild West, but then the tanks roll in and governments hose down their own people. We’ve seen this again and again.

NSWhere there is government discontent, this is bound to prevail. One is a sine qua non for the other. Without some sort of coercion visible or invisible, physical or mental, there can’t be the existence of any government. The difference that exists between the governments is of degree, nothing substantive.

ShababaI did not know that this was happening in the UK – really goes to show how little the media wants to, or

is allowed to, cover it. Water cannons are terrifying and the unaccountable authoritarianism with which governments are rolling them out the world over is even more terrifying.

ShamsWhat is particularly disturbing is global govern-ments’ propensity to steer away from what they are actually supposed to do – serve the people. The water cannon example here is an excellent one because it is happening across countries, across sys-tems of government, and across political ideologies, and I applaud the writer for choosing it because it takes out the whole East vs West and democracy vs autocracy dimension. Make no mistake, this is happening everywhere in various forms and it must be noticed and countered.

BJP or RSSMay 20RonnieArticles like these � t a recent pattern; an overkill of pseudo-analyses by our media and laymen of the election in India, and the imagined consequences of BJP’s landslide victory in India, on Bangladesh.

This article reads almost as if Bangladesh were really a state in India. Even people in West Bengal seem to be far less � ustered about Modi’s victory than the self-styled pundits here in Bangladesh. The “communal” angle to BJP’s politics, predictably, has been foolishly overplayed by too many neophytes in this country.

Bottom line: BJP has been given an em-phatic mandate to govern India, which sadly, isn’t remotely the case with the incumbent government in Bangladesh. This gross mismatch in political/electoral legitimacy between the governing regimes in India and Bangladesh presents an immediate impediment to achieving progress on the festering issues between the two countries. At any rate, can we all just catch our breath and settle down?

VHS BJP and RSS are just labels. If you really want to understand his politics, just look at his day to day actions.

How to get BASIC Bank on track Bangladesh Bank has rightly removed BASIC Bank’s managing

director from his position after he admitted involvement in the disbursement of fraudulent loans totalling over Tk 4,500 crores.

The bank’s Gulshan branch has also had to be shut down after investigations showed BASIC Bank gave a large number of loans to non-existent companies and new clients without following proper procedures.

It is clear that such a pattern of large scale fraud must have involved a large number of bank o� cers.

The bank was originally set up as a joint venture to help the private sector � nance small scale Industries and has been 100% state-owned since 1992.

In order to get it back on track, Bangladesh Bank needs to root out the systemic � aws which have allowed fraud to � ourish within this organisation. Getting rid of sta� found to have been involved in fraud and negligence alone will not be su� cient to solve its problems.

The most e� ective way to prevent further fraud is to stop BASIC Bank from making any further loans to private industrial or trading companies.

BASIC Bank should only be allowed to lend money to private banks. Private banks have proven management systems in place which prevent their managers from making fraudulent loans. Their management systems are zealously monitored on behalf of the owners of the banks, because private banks understand that foolproof systems are necessary to safeguard their equity capital.

Allowing BASIC Bank to lend to small industries via loans to private banks, will allow it to continue its mission while preventing fraud and safeguarding funds on behalf of the taxpayer.

Sustain solar installations growthAccording to a recent report from the International Renewable

Energy Agency (IRENA) Bangladesh is the world leader in small solar power home installations.

In the last ten years, the number of solar systems in Bangladesh has jumped from 25,000 to 2.8 million. Currently 114,000 people are employed in assembling, selling, installing and maintaining solar panels. The number of solar related jobs doubled between 2011 and 2013 and the associated green workforce in Bangladesh is now the sixth equal largest in the world alongside Spain’s.

While still small compared to the 3.5 million such jobs housed by the top two countries, China and Brazil, the rapid rate of growth proves renewable energy holds huge potential for Bangladesh, not only in terms of providing power to those o� the grid but also as a job creator and perhaps even as an export power-house.

The government should boost investment in renewables - both in production and research and development – in order to meet our power needs, rather than spending more on expensive rental plants and risky nuclear power.

Strategic investment in renewable energy can help foster economic growth, and perhaps just as importantly, establish Bangladesh’s name as a leader in non-RMG related manufacturing.

As the country moves up the economic development ladder, that is certainly a worthy goal.

To achieve it, the government needs to make cut fossil fuel subsidies. Taxing fossil fuels at a market rate, rather than subsidising gas and diesel, would both help reduce waste and stimulate private sector investment in renewables.

Tax fossil fuels at a market rate to stimulate private investment in renewables

Root out systemic � aws by only allowing it to lend to private banks

PM’s son urges boycott of Prothom AloMay 20

The BasherI thought he had some sense in his head. With time, he is proving himself and proving me wrong. It is not a surprise to me to see such words from his mouth, for he is the next generation of politi-cians in BD.

nds The Basher: What he has said is absolutely cor-rect. Prothom Alo and its editor are just doing a great disservice to this country.

SammyWhat a surprise that the heir to the Baksal dynas-ty is wanting to shut down newspapers for going slightly out of the party-approved nomenclature. I am shocked, I tell you, I am shocked! Not!

KKBYes, let’s ban everything. Hail self-righteousness and ignorance. Let’s throw the baby out with the bath-water.

Snr CitizenThe gross mistake that the Prothom Alo has made needs to be reviewed, if it is a transliteration of news that appeared in an Indian newspaper. Fact is, even India and Pakistan (both involved countries) say the same, that it was an Indo-Pak war that Pakistan lost (I am only trying to recollect what I had read years ago). While the surrender was being signed, there was no Bangladeshi rep-resentation! Where were the Muktis? Where was General MAG Osmani? So, I am afraid, the wrongs have never been corrected. I hope this is a chance to do the corrections.

Waterway safetyMay 20

TJWe read the news of people dying in launch and road accidents, feel bad for a couple of minutes, and then move on to read the more “important”

news like the Indian election. Is this really the way we are supposed to react when our own people

are dying in accidents which can be prevented very easily?

PM orders immediate arrest of Ekram’s killers

May 20

KBStrange order – doesn’t the police have enough

sense to go at criminals without a prime ministe-rial command?

Our greatest wealthMay 21

vhsIt is a shame that the whole concept of healthcare

is treated so badly in our country. if we’re not a healthy people we are nothing.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

DU students demand Prothom Alo editor’s apology

May 21

Dr Ahsan HabibSo many gross violations of the “spirit of the � ght

for freedom” happen in Bangladesh, including the heinous commercialisations of the term, and the

DU students pay no attention. Now they are stag-ing demonstrations over this minor issue, which happened in a foreign country. My advice to the DU students: “Pay attention to the treatment of the ‘� ght for freedom’ issue inside Bangladesh.”

11Op-Ed Tuesday, May 27, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Uday Sankar Das

Little did I realise when I wrote on the Indian elec-tions a few months ago that the Indian voters would cre-ate history by giving the BJP

an unprecedented mandate to make its leader Narendra Modi the 15th prime minister of India .

The former chief minister of Guja-rat, Narendra Modi, a staunch believer in Hindutva, will be sworn in as the prime minister of India in a grand ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, having won an astounding victory on the planks of change, devel-opment, and stability.

But despite having such a comforta-ble cushion of 336 seats in the 543-seat lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, will it all be a bed of roses for the Modi administration?

One of the biggest challenges to be faced internally is the threat posed by the Maoists. The outgoing prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, had described the Maoists as the biggest internal security threat to the country. It is widely believed that Modi will handle the question of security in a tit for tat way. He is quite aware that the people of India would love to see tough measures being taken, be it against the Maoists or the “jihadis.”

It must be remembered that Narendra Modi has been given a huge mandate, and that carries huge expectations. The changes promised cannot come overnight and so “management of expectations” would be important. His decision-making capability is well-known and this could give him a head-start in kick-starting the economy and give India the status of a large “economic” power.

On the economy, Dr Jagdish Bhagwa-ti, a free-market advocate, has been brought in as an adviser, and this could help get more FDIs. It is a good omen that the stocks are rising and the rupee has also seen an increase in its

value. Modi is known to be indus-try-friendly and so there could well be more investment in this sector. He has to show visible progress in develop-ment, notably in industrial infrastruc-ture throughout the country.

In� ation is a major issue. Price hike of essential commodities has to be tackled. Added to that is the price of fuels. The government has to cough up a huge amount in the form of subsidies for diesel. Change in the price of diesel has a spiral e� ect on the domestic economy. Bringing the economy back on track would be one of his biggest priorities.

One of the biggest criticisms of the UPA 2 government was that it was inactive and very slow in making decisions. It is thought that with the induction of the Modi government, the policy paralysis era in India will come to an end.

Another problem that would need attention is the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, where the NDA is poorly represented. Out of the 250 seats in Rajya Sabha, � ve seats are now vacant. The UPA presently holds 102 seats (Congress 68) while the NDA has only 65 seats (BJP 46). The NDA, therefore, would have to depend on the regional parties, mainly BSP, Trinamool Congress, and AIADMK, for attaining majority. All these parties are opposed to the NDA, though AIADMK has since softened its attitude. It is felt that this would not be a big hurdle, as the opposition with such paltry num-bers in the other house, the Lok Sabha would not like to rock the boat.

Modi would have to, on the one hand, give some freebies to some states, and, on the other, riding on the present wave, reap the bene� ts in a number of upcoming state assembly

elections. Victories in the state assem-bly elections would help the NDA get more Rajya Sabha seats. One-third of the seats of Rajya Sabha are up for elec-tions in 2016 and only then could the NDA bring the situation in its favour.

In� ltration from Pakistan is a major issue that Modi needs to take care of and this is an ongoing issue. Modi also promised during his election cam-paign in the east and north-east of the country that he would � rmly handle in� ltration from Bangladesh. Whether this was election rhetoric or not is yet to be seen.

Relations with neighbours and for-eign policy would be the two matters that need a closer look when the new administration takes o� ce.

Inviting Saarc leaders to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony was a bold and smart move. He is trying to show that he is extending a hand of friendship to all the neighbouring states and also making it absolutely clear that India is an emerging power in this part of the world. While Modi’s move has been appreciated in India, it came under

sharp criticism as well from some quarters. About inviting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, cynics ask what Modi’s reaction would have been if Congress had sent a similar invitation. Others try to remind the BJP leader that in an election rally, he ridiculed the former government for serving “chicken biriyani” to a former Pakistani prime minister.

Inviting Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse did not go very well in Tamil Nadu. BJP’s ally MDMK’s leader Vaiko and also the state’s chief minister Jayalalitha, vehemently op-posed the Sri Lankan president’s visit.

Regarding the Indian foreign policy outline and relations with its neigh-bours, there has always been a broad consensus, irrespective of which party comes to power. But things have changed in this election campaign and

so Modi’s moves would be very closely watched.

On the question of relationship with Bangladesh, the problem relating to river water-sharing between the two countries would need the help of the state governments concerned. Finding a solution to this problem would be complex. On the Afghanistan-Pakistan situation, this could be a foreign policy thorn to look out for more because of the impending withdrawal of US and allied troops.

Finally, it must not be forgotten that Narendra Modi is a staunch supporter of Hindutva and came up from the ranks of Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangha (RSS).

There is a fear that there could be a remote button to be pressed by RSS in the running of the government. As one RSS leader said, they would “inspire”

the Modi government but would not “interfere” with it. Modi may have toned down on this issue after the election, but hardcore Hindutva lead-ers around him may not cool o� . One has to see what happens in reality.

Narendra Modi must also remem-ber that he is to become the prime minister of the whole country, and he rightly said that the government is “of the country” and as such, he needs to govern keeping social inclusion in mind.

The whole world’s eyes are now closely focused on Narendra Modi, the next prime minister of India, and how he tackles the economy and shapes the country’s foreign policy. l

Uday Sankar Das is a senior journalist who worked for BBC World Service radio. This article was written from Kolkata.

No bed of roses for Modi

n Ikhtisad Ahmed

More than 200 Nigerian school-girls have been missing for six weeks. Some of those

abducted managed to escape, but the rest remain in captivity. Rescue e� orts, including a vigourous social media campaign that has seen Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafzai involved to “Bring Back Our Girls,” have yielded a video released by the captors on May 12. Showing around 130 of the girls, it was a demand by Boko Haram to release imprisoned militants if the forcibly converted children were to be freed.

This was followed by two terrorist attacks by the Islamist group on May 20, that claimed 118 lives in the central city of Jos. Additionally, gunmen belonging to the same group killed 10 people in the village of Shawa and 17 in Alagarno. After taking over three weeks to acknowledge the disap-pearance of the girls, the presidency that aggressively guards information pertaining to its War on Terror by cracking down on citizen journalism and online activism pointed the � nger at the named enemy as soon as the latest attacks took place.

The administration quali� ed the sharing of this information by vehe-mently asserting that it was not losing the battle against Boko Haram. Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan is intolerant of criticism about the government’s record on security and corruption, increasingly so with a general election approaching.

The belief in the country is that the current government is desperate to stay in power post-February 2015. The intimidation of journalists, activists, bloggers et al using a law passed last year that criminalised the incitation of terrorist violence online supports this claim. Silencing critical voices is the government’s main concern. Using the spectre of terrorism to enact draconian laws and cling on to the throne with

the tips of � ngernails only to derive the iron hand bene� ts of power is a familiar political tale.

George W Bush was the trailblazer in the US. Bangladesh saw an unsuc-cessful attempt in 2006, and a success-ful one this year. The AL government, born from the ninth general election, had to be given another term to root out extremism and prevent Bang-ladesh from sliding closer towards becoming a terrorist state, so the argument went.

An audio clip, allegedly a battle cry from the al-Qaeda chief that suppos-edly echoed the sentiments of political organisations that had been painted as the enemy, surfaced a month after the tenth general election, and three detained operatives of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh escaped from police custody shortly after that.

The threat of terrorism continuing to loom large vindicated the earnest contentions in favour of re-electing the AL. Indeed, another banned Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, has started to stir again, further intensifying the very real fears. The incumbent government is the only one capable of � ghting the epitome of evil that was aided by the poisonous socio-political environment cultivated by its elected predecessor, so goes the narrative.

Recent months have seen fractures

appear on the pristine façade of this perfect and necessary government. Divisions within its ranks – prevalent during the upazila elections – have become a recurring theme, marked by constant fracases amongst its various student wings largely devoid of students, but adversely a� ecting universities nonetheless.

There is also the small matter of a celebrated member of parliament being involved – if not central to the plot, then certainly in some capacity – in the abduction and murder of one of his generals by another of his generals using law enforcement o� cers (at least one of whom has links to another member of parliament), and its aftermath. These examples alone make it far from an absurd suggestion that a cancer is spreading through the party in power, which it seems oblivious to and unwilling to counter. It intimates that the government and its people may have misjudged the real enemy.

Terrorism, however, steadfastly re-mains the face of evil. Further violent incidents are, unfortunately, going to continue to occur. Every single one of them will be perpetrated by fringe Islamist organisations that seem intent on turning all nations into what they perceive as being Islamic states. Each detestable murder and deplorable kid-napping done in the name and service of their God will be denounced as an act of terror by the rest of the world.

Elevating the status of these common, albeit barbaric, criminals is an e� ective political manoeuvre that distracts from the failures of govern-ments. Their citizens submit to uncon-scionable, illegal, unjust laws and acts for the sake of their own safety. The worldwide misunderstanding of a faith marginalises its followers and deprives them of their religious rights. l

Ikhtisad Ahmed is a writer and an erstwhile lawyer. He can be contacted on Twitter via @Ikhtisad. 

n FS Aijazuddin

There is a storm in a teacup that, taken at a � ood, leads on to the prime minister-ship of India. No

one – not even his numerous detrac-tors – should begrudge Narendra Modi the quality of his success.

Throughout the world, political pundits and social savants have made much of his almost perpendicular rise to power, from tea boy to tea-pot politics. It has been spectacular, perhaps unprecedented in the annals of democracy. The largest electorate in history has given its collective decision – quietly, and without the mayhem that Western observers cross continents to audit. It has voted for the party it wants and the policies it espouses; equally unequivocally, it has signi� ed which parties it does not want.  

In essence, the BJP stands to-day where the Congress Party once did, except that it has chosen to occupy Rama’s sandals just as the Con-gress once shu� ed about in Mahatma Gandhi’s leather chappals.

The BJP has come a long way over the past 30 years. In 1984, it secured only two seats in the Lok Sabha; today, it has 280 more. This could not have been possible without the determina-tion and perseverance of its leader-ship, especially former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He and other members of the old guard (notably LK Advani) have been relegated to icon-hood. Like Catholic saints, they should expect to receive their homage from afar.  

For Congress, this election has been as traumatic as November 1963 was for the Kennedy dynasty. On November 22, someone in New York rushed into a bar and shouted: “The President’s been shot!” At which one of the per-sons replied: “Yes, but is he dead?”

The Congress Party has been e� ec-tively buried by the BJP. It has only 44 seats, a presence of less than 10% of

the Lok Sabha. Buried, but some might ask, is it dead?

The enduring truth is that the Indian National Congress has been in existence too long for it to become ex-tinct after just one round of elections. It may be a huge political pachyderm but it has not yet petri� ed into a fossil. It will continue to survive, an opposi-tion without conviction, a lumbering elephant without tusks.

The shape and identity the Congress Party adopts following this electoral defeat will depend upon how quickly it can disassociate itself from Rahul Gandhi and his fellow pall-bearers. Of the two sons of his grandmother Mrs Indira Gandhi, Rahul inherited his father’s physical DNA but the political genes of his uncle Sanjay. The conde-scension he demonstrated to those whom he led was at its worst when he neglected for whatever reason – and he must have had a good one – to attend the farewell dinner given for the outgoing prime minister of his own party.

Manmohan Singh endured that � nal slight with the same stoic silence as he had previous humiliations at the hands of his employers. Rahul’s haughtiness was reminiscent of that famous cartoon Dropping the Pi-lot by Sir John Tenniel (Punch, March 1890) that showed the ageing Chan-cellor von Bismarck being o� -loaded

from the ship of state by the younger, arrogant, and impetuous Kaiser Wil-helm II of Germany.

While Manmohan Singh has de-clared that his ten year prime minister is “an open book,” it is unlikely that he will do the Sanjaya Baru on himself. His digni� ed reticence was once his greatest virtue; to his critics, it is now his unforgivable vice. He can take comfort from the fact that few techno-crats have survived for so long on what Benjamin Disraeli once described as “the top of the greasy pole.”

On many occasions, Manmohan Singh had expressed a desire to revisit his birth-village of Gah (now in Pa-kistan). That may at last be possible, now that the gilded manacles of his o� cial position have been removed. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would probably welcome such a trip, perhaps more than he might wel-come a visit (his diplomatic invitation notwithstanding) from Mr Modi and BJP hardliners who have not forgotten Lahore, Kargil, or Agra.  

Will the new BJP government have any time for Pakistan, for Bangladesh, or for Jammu and Kashmir? Only a determined optimist will see a silver lining in the swirling cloud of sa� ron. When it comes to fence-mending, though, the United States is already ahead of Pakistan in the queue. Presi-dent Barack Obama’s tele-call to Modi was more than a diplomatic courtesy; it was an act of political contrition.  

Not far from the White House, in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, a poster is on display showing Uncle Sam embracing a turbanned Sikh, in apology after the murder of a sardar mistaken for a Muslim after 9/11. That poster needs to be updated, now that Uncle Sam has embraced Modi. l

FS Aijazuddin lives in Lahore and is a columnist for Dawn, Pakistan’s main English-language newspaper. This article was � rst published in Dawn.

All eyes on Modi REUTERS

Inviting Saarc leaders to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony was a bold move. He is extending a hand of friendship to all the neighbouring states

Each detestable murder and kidnapping done in the name of their God will be denounced as an act of terror

Will the new BJP government have any time for Pakistan, for Bangladesh, or for Jammu and Kashmir?

The enemy withinF R O M T H E M A R G I N S

Storm in a teacup

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 201412

Azizul Hakim: I will start shooting for my � lm at the end of this year

n Afrose Jahan Chaity

Azizul Hakim began his acting career on television with a small role in the 80s. The acclaimed actor-turned-director is also an active performer in theatre troupe Aranyak. He has directed more than a dozen TV plays which bagged him critical reviews and positive response from the audience. His � rst directorial debut on small screen was “Ja Hariye Jay” and on theatre, “Pathor.”

Dhaka Tribune caught up with the actor to learn about his experiences and future ventures.

What you are up to nowadays?Recently, I have completed the shooting of an Eid special drama series which is the sequel of “Genduchora.” Along with that, I have also done some some single-episode plays and tele� lms. At present, a few of my TV plays are airing on various channels including Anjan Aich’s “Jol Phoringer Gaan,” Amirul Islam’s “Songsar Simante,” Fahim Sarker’s “Prothom Prem,” and Shotirtho Rahman’s “Udor Pindi Budhor Ghare.”

What about television plays?Banglavision recently completed airing one of my drama series “Nij Grihe Porobashi.” Right now I am on the look-out for an interesting story for my next directorial venture. I want to � nd something unique for the audience and am looking forward to presenting them with a new plot.

Any � lm projects in the pipeline?I have already selected a story and at the moment, I am working on the pre-production phase of the movie. Film is a big venture, therefore, I am taking my time to move ahead with the project. Hopefully, I will start shooting for my � lm at the end of this year.

So what is the current tally?So far I have directed 6 drama series and approximately 5 tele� lms and single episode plays.

Favourite roles?All of my acting projects are in my favourites list. When I am working in a play, every role is dear to me and I try to deliver my best every time. But, I have really enjoyed my role as Nil-moni in a TV play titled “Sundori,” which is based on a story in Sundarban. Other roles I will always remember are from “Kon Kanoner Phul,” and “Somoy Oshomoy.” As a director, my fa-vourite directorial work is “Pathor,” which is a theatre play.

How do you always manage to get into the character you play?Acting is my passion and profession. I always try to blend in with the role and think of nothing else during that peri-od. While acting, I give all my priority and attention to that particular role.

Based on your experience over the years, how do the new generation actors compare?They are all doing a great job. Nowadays, the newcomers enter the entertainment industry after learning or studying about their speci� c interest in the � eld of work. Their dedi-cation and e� ort is appreciable.

What are your observations regarding the state of televi-sion today? Our TV industry has grown over the years. Small screen has a big market and that is why so many praiseworthy and creative productions are coming forward. Now, a director can work on experimental projects and newcomers are un-dertaking contemporary pieces which add something new every day. I think good works should be promoted by all and receive critics’ and audience recognition. l

Bhalobashar Chotushkon to air its 99th episode

n Entertainment Desk

Drama series “Bhalobashar Chotushkon,” will air its 99th episode tonight on NTV at 9:45pm. Directed by Shihab Shahin, the drama series features popular actors includ-ing Moutushy Biswas, Moushumy Hamid, Naim, Ferdousy Lina and many others. Popular actors Apurbo and Momo lent voice in the title song of drama series. The plot of the series revolves around three couples who are brought together by the hand of fate and become close to one another. But, slowly their friendship falls apart when complications arise. The 99th episode will feature Nila, a career conscious woman who gets a promotion. She is overjoyed by her success and becomes very estatic about her new cabin and career breakthrough. l

Insightful saga on man-woman interrelationship

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

In Bangladesh, contemporary German plays are scarcely practiced on stage and when the theme tackles the psy-chology of relationships, then certainly it demands ex-ceptional attention. Reetu Sattar, a theatre activist and Prachyanat member, adapted Sibyllie Berg’s work “Dog, Woman, Man” which is being staged consecutively at the Berlin Hall of Goethe Institut Dhaka till May 31.

Sibyllie Berg is a contemporary German playwright whose story “Dog, Woman, Man” centers around three characters, a dog, a woman and a man, and the evolution of the relationship from the dog’s perspective. A 38 year old man who once preferred had “no strings attached” � ings meets a woman and slowly they become inter-twined in a complex relationship. Stages of the a� air in-cluding burning passion, trust, grief, denial, dependence, jealousy, rage, despair, and in the end, submission, are brought out as the play progresses. The dog plays the neutral observer, and also narrator for the drama.

The story is skillfully showcased, revealing what is happening beneath the surface in an adept manner. The � nal message of the play is quite refreshing as it portrays that an open and fair relationship is better than one which entails submission and con� nement.

A psychological drama demands special treatment in

sound, light, set and props department, to convey the playwright’s perception to the audience. The stage ar-rangement of the play was successful in achieving the perfect ambiance for the story. The use of transparent blinds in various e� ects, with the audience concentration focused on elements (like pillows on the wall, depicting “vertical” beds) and the use of stage was very refreshing. The pre-arranged visuals to heighten the narration (like Facebook posts appearing on projector screens, pre-re-corded sub-textual monologue, and use of video footage and ambient audio) are all signature elements of contem-porary theatre. The background music, arranged by Rahul Anand was also immaculate, as were the light, set, props, and choreography.

The production truly relied on the performances of the characters as Shahadat Hossain (from Centre for Asian Theatre) and Samina Luthfa (from BotTala) bril-liantly acted to keep the audience on their seats and supported well by Shahriar Ferdous Sazeeb (Prachya-nat), who played the dog. The leading duo’s chemis-try on stage, timing and body language deserve ap-preciation. Sazeeb’s act was more challenging than it seemed, and he also gave an impressive performance. The ambitious project was set in such a manner that the audience got the � avour of contemporary European stage in a local one. l

BSA celebrates Nazrul’s birthday n Entertainment Desk

Celebrating the National Poet’s 115th birth anniversary, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) organised a cultural programme on May 25 at the National Theatre Hall of the academy. The celebration was a lively a� air of a colourful cultural programme featuring musical soirée, recitation and dance presentations. A discussion session was also held on the life and work of the rebel poet.Leading Nazrul singers of the country took part in the event including Khil Khil Kazi, the grand daughter of Kazi Nazrul Islam who opened the event by presenting a popular Nazrul number. Then, Sujit Mustafa, Yakub Ali, Shahid Kabir Polash, Sumon Chowdhury, Nasima Shaheen Fancy, Onindita, Jannat-e-Ferdous Lucky, Pradip Kumar Nandi, Krishna Acharya, and Babu Rahman followed suit. Syed Hasan Imam, Ahkamul, Ashraful Alam and Mahmuda Akhtar recited poetry of Nazrul. Group performances were staged by Nobocheton and Bangladesh Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA) . The function was graced by Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, Director General of Shilpakala Academy Liaquat Ali Lucky, author Rashid Haider and BSA’s secretary Jahangir Hossain Chowdhury. All the guests present at the event took part in the discussion session. l

Deepika and Ranveer are just good friends?n Entertainment Desk

The “Ram-Leela” hero himself clari� ed his equation with co-star Deepika Padukone. Recently, Ranveer Singh cleared the air by stating that he is not in a relationship with the statuesque actress and they are just good friends.

Ranveer pointed out that there is nothing between them and it is the gossip mongers' way of assuming things. Al-though he calls Deepika a very special person and consid-ers her as a most wonderful person, the actor said that it is wrong to assume that they are romantically involved. He added that it is natural that co-actors spend time with each other a lot while working together.

"I have great admiration and respect for her as an artist and as a professional. That's it," remarked Ranveer, who is currently working on Zoya Akhtar's � lm “Dil Dhada-kne Do.” l

X-Men overpower Godzillan Entertainment Desk

The “X-Men” mutant superheroes smashed into US and Canadian theaters and collected $90.7m in ticket sales through Sunday, keeping monster hit “Godzilla” at bay and heading toward a decisive win over a long holiday weekend.

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” was ex-pected to bring in $110m by the end of the US Memorial Day holiday on Monday, distributor 20th Century Fox said. The movie has already earned a global total of $261.8m. It is running in 119 countries around the world.

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” is the seventh movie in the blockbuster Marvel Comics franchise about mutant superhe-roes.

In the latest installment, Hugh Jack-man’s sharp-clawed Wolverine travels back in time to try and save the mutants from future destruction.

To alter history, he is drawn into battle with the blue, shape-shifting Mystique, portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the

$200m � lm.The movie scored the � fth-biggest Me-

morial Day weekend opening in history. l

Somay Natyodal to stage Bhager Manush todayn Entertainment Desk

Somoy Natyodal will stage “Bhager Manush” today at the Experimental The-atre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Acade-my at 6:30pm.

The play was premiered in 1997 and so far has been staged over 150 times. Man-nan Heera adapted the play from a popu-lar Urdu short story “Toba Tek Singh” by Saadat Hasan Manto.

A satire of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 which brought im-mense su� ering to the people living in the border areas of India and Pakistan, the play highlights the “exchange agreement of the lunatics” between the two gov-ernments soon after the partition (1947). Directed by Aly Zaker, it shows many his-torical characters like Gandhi, Jinnah and others.

They are represented as a contrast to those who are labeled insane by society. Legendary Sikh religious � gure Tek Singh is featured as one of the central characters in the play. Singh strongly opposes the partition that has separated people of a nation in the name of religion. l

Exhibition Bornil PandulipiTime: 12pm – 8pmGallery Shilpangon Second SightTime: 12pm – 8pmThe Daily Star Centre, 64-65Kazi Nazrul Islam AvenueDhaka

Mukh O Mukhosh 5Time: 11am – 8pmGalleri Kaya, House no. 20Road no. 16, Sector no. 4, Uttara

TheatreDog, Woman, ManTime: 7pm – 9pmGoethe Institut BangladeshRoad 9(new), House 10Dhanmondi

TODAY IN DHAKA

A scene from play Dog, Woman, Man TANVIR MURAD TOPU

13DHAKA TRIBUNE

Con� dence is the key believes Imrann Bangladesh’s new assistant coach Sarwar Imran believes the main challenge ahead of the home series against India will be to bring back the con� dence in the players. The national side began their training camp at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

“Our team had the believe of winning every match just six months back but the poor performance in the last two series changed the whole scenario and it’s important to bring back the con� dence in them and if we can do that everything will be � ne again,” said Imran who carried the role of the head coach in Bangladesh’s inaugural Test match against India in 2000.

“Tamim was not getting runs and our two � nishers Nasir and Mahmudullah were also struggling at the end which was the reason of the

poor performance,” he added.Two of India’s key players - skipper

MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli - might not be with the touring party and though Imran said Bangladesh have beaten India previously, he also said they still have to give their hundred percent to put up a good show against their neighbours.

He added it will be possible only when the cricketers regain their self con� dence and the team spirit will be key.

The national squad underwent a � tness test on the opening day of their camp. However, Bangladesh captain Mush� qur Rahim was among the seven absentees in the camp as the skipper was granted a leave for his wedding shopping in India.

It was learnt, Mahmudullah will be joining the camp from the start of next month while � ve other cricketers are in West Indies with the Bangladesh “A” team. l

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Sport 1414 15 Sharapova shines, Nishikori crashed out at French Open

Did you know?‘Victory’ was the

original name of the � rst FIFA World Cup

trophy. It was re-named the Jules Rimet

Trophy in 1946.

Snubbed Donovan becomes MLS all-time top scorer

Japan edge Australia to win Women’s Asian Cup

Araf SC move into Pioneer � naln Araf Sporting Club progressed into the � -nal of the Pioneer Football League defeat-ing Tangail Football Academy 3-2 in the second semi� nal held at the Bangaband-hu National Stadium yesterday. The win also ensured a promotion to the 3rd divi-sion football league for Araf next season.

Araf displayed true character as they absorbed the shock of falling behind twice and � nished as the victors. Su-mon Mia of Tangail scored in the 10th minute but Uzzal restored parity in the 13th minute. Ruhul put Tangail ahead again in the 16th minute but Uzzal again equalised in the 38th minute. Eight minutes before stipulated time, Shanto slammed in the winner. Araf will play the � nal against Narinda Junior Lions while Tangail are set to take on Kallol Sangha in the third-place decider. l

MPCA U-19 in strong positionn Madhya Pradesh Cricket Academy (MPCA) U-19 side gained the upper hand in their three-day encounter against Bangladesh U-19 as the visitors trailed the hosts by 54 runs with seven wickets in hand after the second day’s play at BKSP yesterday.

Bangladesh, who ended the rain interrupted � rst day on 217 for nine, added just two runs to their tally in the morning before Gaurav Patel dismissed Rifat Pradhan to complete his � ve-wicket haul.

Rain once again halted the play for 2 hours and 15 minutes in the afternoon which saw MPCA face just 62 overs. The opening pair of Arpit Gaud and Krishna Soni looked solid in their 105-run stand which set the perfect platform for the visitors.

Aprit made 64 o� 114 balls with

the help of 10 boundaries and two sixes while Krishna added 41 to facing 126 deliveries. He struck � ve boundaries.

Mohammed Saifuddin, Saleh Ahmed and Sanjib Sahan of Bangladesh claimed a wicket each as MPCA gathered 167 runs losing three wickets at the end of second day.

Rain ruined any possibilities of a result in the match as Shahbaz Khan, on nine, and Nitish Lashkari, on � ve, will resume the third and � nal day for the visitors today. l

Streak appointed Bangladesh’s bowling coachn

Former Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak has been appointed as Bangladesh’s bowling coach until 2016. Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) media and com-munications committee chairman Jalal Younus announced the successful re-cruitment of Streak yesterday.

“Heath Streak’s experience and re-cord speak for him. He has played 65 Test matches and 189 ODIs and as a coach he has worked with some top bowling coaches in the international arena. He told us that coaching was his passion and we really appreciate that kind of desire,” said Jalal while an-nouncing Streak’s appointment.

Jalal further informed that Streak has agreed a two-year term with BCB during which his services will be avail-

able for 450 days based on the schedule of the Bangladesh team.

“He (Streak) will primarily work with the national side and is expected in Dhaka in the � rst week of June,” said Jalal.

The 40-year-old former Zimbabwe-an all-rounder will form a coaching partnership with head coach Chandi-ka Hathurusingha. Chandika was ap-pointed for the Bangladesh job earlier this month following the resignation of former Bangladesh coach Shane Jur-gensen.

The contract with Streak will see him available three weeks before ev-ery series as well as an extended stay with the national team prior to the 2015 World Cup.

“I look forward to the challenge of working with the Tigers and thank BCB for the opportunity,” said Streak, who is currently in Bulawayo, through a BCB statement. It was further said in the statement that the former Zimba-bwe captain was relishing the prospect of working with the Bangladesh team.

“It is exciting for me to be back into the International coaching arena again. It is my passion to coach at an elite lev-el and I hope I can bring my experience as a former player and coach to the Bangladeshi bowlers. I look forward to teaming up with the new coaching sta� and mapping the future for this excit-ing team,” he said.

Streak is one of Zimbabwe’s most acclaimed cricketers who had also worked as the bowling coach of Zimba-bwe national team between 2009 and 2013. He is Zimbabwe’s all-time lead-ing all-rounder with 4933 runs and 455 wickets in international cricket.

Besides a season of domestic cricket in the country in the 1990s, he played 6 of his 65 Tests and 10 ODIs against Ban-gladesh. l

We needed this break: Tamimn Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal believes the absence of India’s regular captain MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in the upcoming three-match ODI series in June will be an added advantage for the home side.

It has been widely reported in the media that both the key players – Dhoni and Kohli – might be rest for the short series in Bangladesh keeping their long tour to England in mind.

“It will be of help to any side playing against an Indian side which

do not have key players like Dhoni and Kohli. But this doesn’t mean that we will be relaxed in the series,” said Tamim yesterday after the � rst day of national team’s practice session since the ICC World Twenty20 ended in April.

“They will have other players who also play the game very well. We (Bangladesh team) will have to play our best cricket to do well - let it be any opponent,” Tamim added.

Close defeats, irresponsible batting and poor catching skills covered a huge portion of the Tigers’ busy � rst quarter this year which started with the full

series against Sri Lanka before they moved on with the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20.

The seniors of the team were blamed behind the dismal performance and they were highly criticised too. The southpaw Tamim also had a quiet time with the bat but he thinks “There are ups and downs in cricket.”

“One should also take the o� form positively and think how to overcome the bad patch rather than only thinking that you are having a bad time. I am trying my best to over come it and working in the nets on my mistakes. Hope I don’t repeat the mistake I

made in the World Twenty20,” said the 25-year-old.

“We have a very important series (against India) coming up. I will be happy if I am able to contribute for the team in that series,” added the cricketer from Chittagong.

The national side members returned to practice after a break of almost 45 days and Tamim said, “I think we needed this break. I hope we will come up as a team again, � nd and mend the mistakes we had made and try not to repeat those in the India series. We can expect a positive result from the series if we play up to our potential.” l

Sky Blues falter and � ounder againn

Abahani Ltd. failed to break the wicked jinx of settling for a point as they drew goalless for the third consecu-tive time in their Ban-gladesh Premier Foot-ball League encounter against Chittagong

Abahani at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. Abahani su� ered from the same scoreline against Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell in their previ-ous two matches.

Yesterday’s match also marked the end of Abahani’s second phase in the league with 34 points from 18 matches as they lie 2nd in the points table. How-ever, Mohammedan is sitting 3rd with 29 points having played two games less.

It was the same old tale of Abahani

dominating the proceedings without actually succeeding in scoring a goal as their attackers again appeared to be going through motions. Their mis� ring performance has now gifted Abahani with the undesirable record of failing to � nd the back of the net in three consec-utive matches in the league for the � rst time in the club’s illustrious history.

Abahani could have taken the lead in the very � rst minute if their Cam-eroonian forward Ekele Patrick,even though unchallenged, had not shot wide from the middle of the box.

Abahani mounted ceaseless pres-sure and opened up their opponent’s defense in the 20th minute when mid-� elder Pranotosh saw his cracking shot punched away to safety by Chittagong Abahani custodian Nahiduddin. Prano-tosh was left cursing his luck again in the 61st minute when his goal-bound header from a curved in corner by Por-tuguese forward Suares was punched

away for another corner by the out-stretched Nahiduddin who had a good match under the bar.

With frustration gripping Abahani gradually, Chittagong Abahani started to invade their opponent’s defense as Guinean forward Osmane Cherrif unleashed a � erce left-footed drive from the top of the box in the 72nd minute, only to see the ball slam the crosspiece after kissing the gloves of Abahani goalie Shahidul Alam Sohel on its way.

Abahani Ltd. survived a major scare in the 75th minute when skipper Md. Sujon cleared a goal-bound shot from Chittagong Abahani forward Sohel Mia. This proved to be Chittagong Abahani’s

best and last opportunity of salvag-ing anything other than a point from an otherwise dull performance.

Chittagong Abahani now have 10 points from 18 matches and is languish-ing at the bottom of the point table. l

Bangladesh national cricketers share a light moment during their training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday COURTESY

Bangladesh U19 1st inns221 all out in 59.2 oversMPCA U19 1st inns167/3 Arpit 64, Krishna 41; Saleh 1/26

MPCA U19 trailed by 54 runs

BRIEF SCORE, DAY 2

Abahani forward Awdu Ibrahim (R) takes a shot against Chittagong Abahani during their Bangladesh Premier Football League match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Ronaldinho hoping to rent out homeLooking for somewhere to stay in Rio de Janeiro during the World Cup? Ronaldinho can help -- if you can a� ord $15,600 a night. The 34-year-old former Brazil and Barcelona star has joined the ranks of his countrymen who are hoping to cash in on next month’s footballing extravaganza by renting out their homes to foreign visitors. Former world footballer of the year Ron-aldinho took to Twitter to post an Airbnb advert for his seven-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion in the upmarket district of Barra da Tijuca. – AFP

Australia struggle in drawAustralia’s Socceroos failed to raise their World Cup hopes with a struggling 1-1 draw against South Africa in a warm-up match for Brazil in Sydney on Monday. Both goals were scored one minute apart early in the opening half and chances became fewer as the match petered out to a stalemate before 50,000 fans at the Olympic stadium. Tim Cahill, leading his country for the

� rst time in his 69th international, equalised for the Socceroos in the 14th minute after Ayanda Patosi opened the scoring a minute earlier. – AFP

‘Camp does not resemble a hospital’Germany coach Joachim Loew on Monday dismissed reports his pre-World Cup camp resembled a hospital due to the number of injured players, including captain Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger, and said all would be � t “within days”. Lahm and keeper Manuel Neuer are recovering from injuries and have yet to start training, while playmaker Schweinsteiger

and defender Marcel Schmelzer train alone at their northern Italy training camp. – Reuters

Germany eager to end World Cup third-place cursen AFP, Berlin

Germany head to Brazil aiming to end their 24-year wait for a fourth World Cup title with captain Philipp Lahm in-sisting he is sick of � nishing third.

Consecutive semi-� nal defeats have led to Germany taking bronze at both of the last two World Cups with Lahm in the side and it is 12 years since the Germans lost the 2002 � nal to Brazil in Yokohama, Japan.

“I do not want to go out in the semi-� nals again or visit Brazil just to soak up the sun,” insisted Lahm after a decade in the Germany team.

“I have a clear goal, to achieve the biggest possible success and win the World Cup.”

In order to break their duck, improved counter-attack and a tighter defence are the key areas coach Joachim Loew wants to improve. The squad is packed with at-tacking potential, but there have been rumours of discontent in the past with disgruntled stars disrupting the squad’s harmony from the bench at both the 2012 European Championships and in the World Cup quali� ers.

“We have the necessary punch to

win the title, but we must be sure that the talent and ego of every individual provides only for the team’s bene� t,” said Lahm with team building also a priority in their south Tirol camp.

The 24-year wait for a fourth World Cup title is Germany’s longest since � rst winning the global crown in 1954.

Younger members of the squad, in-cluding mid� eld star Mario Goetze, were yet to be born when West Germa-ny won Italia 1990 -- the last time they were world champions.

In the past, Loew’s strength has been to instill impressive cohesion into his side by hours of drilling. But injuries and a lack of � tness in his � rst-choice stars could hamper the process.

“We need to work on our � exibility and variation,” said the 54-year-old.

“You always need a ‘what-if’ strat-egy during matches, but we also need to improve our counter-attacking when we have won the ball back.

“We haven’t done that as consistent-ly well as we did at the South African World Cup and immediately after.”

Germany have made a habit of suf-fering from injuries going into World Cup campaigns. l

Hertha sign Japan forward Haraguchi on four-year dealn Reuters, Berlin

Hertha Berlin have signed Japan for-ward Genki Haraguchi from J.League leaders Urawa Red Diamonds on a four-year contract, the Bundesliga club said on Monday.

The 23-year-old Haraguchi, who has won three caps but is not a member of his country’s squad for next month’s World Cup, scored 33 goals in 162 J.League games and will join former Urawa team mate Hajime Hosogai in Berlin.

“Genki Haraguchi is a versatile for-ward who can play both left and right or in the centre,” Hertha sporting director Michael Preetz said in a statement. l

General view of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium during the celebration of Real Madrid’s 10th Champions League title in Madrid on Sunday, a day after Real Madrid CF beat Atletico Madrid 4-1 at the Luz stadium in Lisbon, Portugal AFP

World champions Japan edge Australia to win Women’s Asian Cupn AFP, Ho Chi Minh City

World champions Japan edged Austra-lia 1-0 to win their � rst Women’s Asian Cup title in a hard-fought � nal in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday.

Azusa Iwashimizu got the game’s only goal from a corner in the � rst half and despite waves of attack from the defending champions, Japan’s Nade-shiko held � rm.

The win swelled Japan’s already im-pressive list of honours which includes the 2011 World Cup and Olympic silver at the 2012 London Games.

Defender Iwashimizu was also the heroine in the semi-� nals, when she scored at the end of extra time to settle a thriller against eight-time winners China.

On Sunday, the 27-year-old was on target in the 28th minute for a goal which was ultimately enough to relieve Australia’s Matildas of the Asian title.

Mid-way through the second half, Yuika Sugasawa’s shot cannoned o� the underside of the crossbar and onto the line, and shortly afterwards Yuri Kawamura cleared the ball o� the Japa-nese line to deny Australia an equaliser.

But there was to be no more scoring and as the � nal whistle blew, the Na-deshiko hugged each other in delight while Australia’s players sat glumly on the pitch.

Earlier, China rallied from their heart-breaking semi-� nal loss to Japan to beat South Korea 2-1 and claim third place.

Yang Li headed the winner in the

dying seconds as the Steel Roses re-covered from Thursday’s rollercoast-er semi, settled by Iwashimizu’s ex-tra-time winner.

“Especially after playing 125 min-utes on Thursday it was very special to win this game,” said China’s coach Hao Wei, according to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) website.

“And we did so well in the mental and physical aspects of the game that it gives me hope that there’s a great foun-dation to improve upon in the future.”

The competition’s top � ve � nishers – Japan, Australia, China, South Korea and Thailand – all won berths to next year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada, where the Nadeshiko will defend their title. l

Japanese players celebrate with the trophy after they defeated the Australian team 1-0, winning the Women’s Asia 2014 Football Championship on Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City AFP

Pique renews with Barca, sees return to topn AFP, Madrid

Gerard Pique extended his Barcelo-na contract by four years on Monday, praising new coach Luis Enrique and predicting their return to the top after a season with no silverware.

The 27-year-old centre-back signed with Barcelona up to the end of the 2018-19 season, the club said, without providing � nancial details. His previ-ous contract ran until June 30, 2015.

“Feeling that I will live out my whole career here is really important to me. I hope for many successes, as many as we have had in these last years,” Pique, a key member of Spain’s World Cup squad, said in a statement released by Barcelona.

The departure of veteran Carlos Puyol has left Pique as Barcelona’s lynchpin central defender.

But he lauded Barcelona’s new 44-year-old coach Enrique, who vowed last week to strengthen the team “in ev-ery area” as he replaced Argentine Ge-rardo Martino after a trophyless season.

“I am really hopeful,” Pique said.Enrique showed he had “very clear

ideas”, he added. “He knows the club and I think he will give us a lot.”

Barcelona can regain its premier spot in world football, Pique said.

“Barcelona has to be at the top, win titles and feel important in the Euro-pean and world elite,” he added. “We have got the team, the coach, we have got all the ingredients to do it again.” l

Snubbed Donovan becomes MLS all-time top scorern AFP, Los Angeles

Landon Donovan o� ered a stylish re-sponse to his World Cup snub on Sun-day, becoming Major League Soccer’s all-time leading scorer in the LA Gal-axy’s 4-1 win over Philadelphia.

The 32-year-old scored twice, seizing the MLS scoring record with his 135th career goal with his � rst strike of the night, four minutes into the second half.

Donovan launched the move with a pass to Galaxy teammate Robbie Keane in the box. The Irishman squared across the face of goal for the onrushing Don-ovan, who was left with a tap-in for his � rst goal of the season.

It came days after US coach Jurgen Klinsmann left Donovan o� his � nal 23-man squad for the World Cup � nals in Brazil.

“It’s been an emotional three days,” Donovan told a television interviewer after the game. “A lot of down and a lot of up honestly.

“The love I’ve received from every-body here, including when I walked out for warm-ups with signs and peo-ple staying stu� , has been amazing. And I’m really happy it ended this way for this week.”

Donovan, a veteran of three World Cups, is already the all-time USA scor-ing leader with 57 international goals. l

AFC ask associations to hire match-� xing watchdogsn Reuters

The Asian Football Confederation has asked its member associations to ap-point integrity o� cials to report any issues of match-� xing as they battle to clear up corruption in the sport.

The AFC, which has 46 full members and one associate member in Northern Mariana Islands, has set a deadline of June 30 to make the appointments, with those hired reporting to the or-ganisation’s integrity o� cer Hassan Haider Khan.

“Responsibilities of the integrity o� cer are to establish and maintain

integrity initiatives within the MA (member associations), receive infor-mation related to match-� xing matters within the MA and conduct inquiries or investigations as an administrative ‘fact � nder’ in coordination with AFC and relevant national law enforcement agencies.” AFC Director of MAs and De-velopment Sanjeevan Balasingam said in a statement.

AFC members have long battled match-� xing issues with China, South Korea, Lebanon, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore among countries to have been hit by the problem.

AFC President Sheikh Salman bin

Ebrahim Al Khalifa, elected to the po-sition last year, promised to tackle the issue upon taking o� ce but problems have continued.

Last month, Vietnam Cup holders Vissai Ninh Binh were kicked out of the domestic league for the remainder of the campaign after 11 of their players admitted to taking money to � x a match in the regional AFC Cup tournament.

Despite the admission, Vissai have been allowed to continue in the AFC Cup and will � nd out their quarter-� -nal opponents in the competition this week. The AFC said they were commit-ted to clearing up the problems. l

France not at full strength for Norway friendlyn AFP, Paris

France’s World Cup squad will emerge from the isolation of their secluded training base to play Norway on Tues-day in the � rst of three friendlies before departing for Brazil.

Didier Deschamps’ squad have spent the last week working at Claire-fontaine, the national football centre hidden away in the woods an hour’s drive south of the capital.

Such peaceful surroundings could hardly feel further removed from what awaits them in Brazil, but when they take to the � eld against the Norwegians at the Stade de France they will start to

feel like the World Cup is � nally just around the corner.

Les Bleus begin their Group E cam-paign against Honduras in Porto Alegre on Sunday, June 15, before going on to face Switzerland and Ecuador.

To prepare, Deschamps’ side have three friendlies lined up on home soil, with the Norway clash followed by en-counters with Paraguay in Nice next Sunday and Jamaica in Lille on June 8.

“It is the biggest competition that any player can imagine taking part in. It is a boyhood dream come true,” admitted the Newcastle United mid� elder Moussa Sissoko when asked what it means to par-ticipate in a World Cup on Brazilian soil. l

Di Canio keen on Celtic jobn AFP, Glasgow

Former Celtic forward Paolo Di Canio has declared an interest in taking over the manager’s job at Celtic following the departure of Neil Lennon, accord-ing to his Italian agent.

Di Canio has been out of work since he was sacked by Sunderland last Sep-tember. The player’s UK representative Phil Spencer was quoted by several newspapers as saying that the 45-year-old would be keen to be considered for the job at Celtic Park.

“Paolo would be keen to speak to Celtic,” he claimed.

Di Canio joined Celtic from AC Milan in 1996 and went on to win the Scottish Professional Footballers’ Associations’ player of the year award in his � rst season. l

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

U-17s take on Madhya Pradesh today The Bangladesh Under-17 cricket team will play the � rst three-day match of their month-long tour of India against the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Associa-tion (MPCA) U-17 side in Indore today.The junior Tigers will be taking part in four three-dayers against MPCA in In-dore before visiting Delhi to play three one-day matches against Coca Cola India XI. The Bangladesh U-17 side will be led by Mohammed Saif Hassan with Sha� ul Hayet acting as his deputy. The junior Tigers will return to the country on June 18.

– MU

Menzis, Narinda post dominating winMenzis Krira Chakra outplayed Victoria Sporting Club by 38-19 goals in the Cute Premier Division Handball League at the handball stadium yesterday. The winners led the � rst half 19-8. Robiul of Menzis set the court on � re scoring 19 goals steering his team to the facile vic-tory. Sohel of Victoria netted six goals. In the other match of the day, Narinda Pragati Sangha prevailed over Bangla Club by 31-14 goals. Narinda led the � rst half by 17-8 goals. Shamser Singh of Narinda grabbed the highest 12 goals of the match while Bangla Club’s highest scorer was Titon who bagged six goals.

–RM

Open women’s volleyball begins todayThe � rst edition of the Cute Open Women’s Volleyball designed to boost women’s volleyball in the country begins at the Paltan Ground handball stadium today. Eight teams - BJMC Green, Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Jagannath University, BJMC Red, Dhaka University, Bangladesh Police, Naba Jagoroni Sangha and Scholastica - will be participating in the meet. In a presser held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium conference room yesterday, additional police superintendent Ashikur Rahman Miku and chairman of the federation of women’s volleyball committee Syeda Jannat Ara disclosed the details of the tournament. –RM

Croatia’s Kranjcar ruled out of World CupCroatian mid� elder Niko Kranjcar will miss the World Cup after picking up a leg injury in Queens Park Rangers’ Championship play-o� win over Derby at Wembley, o� cials said on Monday. Local media reported that Croatia coach Niko Kovac was “in shock” after learning the news, as the 29-year-old became the third player to be ruled out of the � nals in Brazil in the past week. “An MRI scan showed that Kranjcar has a rupture of leg upper muscle,” Croatia squad doctor Boris Nemec told AFP. A Croatian football federation spokesman said that the injury would sideline Kranjcar for “two to four weeks”, adding that it was “too long a period to wait for him”. “I’m extremely sorry for Niko ... he is one of the most experienced players in our squad and he deserved to be part of it in Brazil,” Kovac said. “I needed Niko with his experience and good shape ... (but) we have to go on,” the former Croatia captain stressed. Kranjcar was replaced in the 33rd minute of Saturday’s clash at Wembley with a left leg injury.

–AFP

Scott holds on to top spotAdam Scott’s win in the Colonial tournament in Texas on Sunday has bolstered his hold on the world top ranking. The Australian had been in danger of losing the position to Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, who was competing in the European PGA Championship at Wentworth. But after Stenson � nished tied for seventh, Scott was left needing to place in the top 13 in Fort Worth to extend his stay at the top. That he did in some style, defeating Jason Dufner in a playo� for his � rst title of the year. Scott now has 8.94 points with Stenson in second on 7.79 points and Tiger Woods third on 7.65 points. Former world number one Rory McIlroy improved to sixth place on the back of his win at Wentworth, his � rst title of the tear.

–AFP

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DAY’S WATCH

Nat’l Junior TT starts todayn The South Bangla Bank 2nd Nation-al Junior Table Tennis comprising 110 boys and 50 girls starts at the Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium today.

The paddlers will � ght for the ti-tles of the boys’ Under-18 team, girls’ U-18 team, boys’ and girls’ U-18 sin-gles, boys’ and girls’ U-18 doubles in the � ve-day meet. The total number of teams taking part are 44.

State minister for youth and sports Biren Sikder will inaugurate the tour-nament as the chief guest.

In a presser held at the conference room of the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday, Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation (BTTF) president Abdul Karim presented the meet to the media. BTTF general secretary Zobera Rahman Linu and South Bangla Bank vice president Mannan Bapari were also present on the occasion. l

Blake at the double as Kenya smash recordn Yohan Blake made up for the absence of Usain Bolt by claiming a second gold at the IAAF World Relays, anchoring his Ja-maican team to 4x100m victory in a sec-ond day of scintillating action Sunday.

Kenya earlier ensured another $50,000 came out of the bonus co� ers as their middle-distance maestroes smashed another record, this time in the men’s 4x1500m.

But it was traditional powerhouses the United States who dominated the second and � nal day of the inaugural World Re-lays in the Bahamian capital, winning four of the six � nals raced in a carnival atmosphere at a sell-out 15,000-seater Thomas A. Robinson stadium.

There was also heartbreak for Blake’s female teammate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce as the reigning two-time Olympic sprint champion was left with too much to do on the � nal leg of the 4x200m.

After two ropey baton exchanges, the “Pocket Rocket” who also claimed world 100m gold in Moscow last year and world indoor 60m gold in Sopot in March, could

only look on as she ran her quartet home in third behind the winning US team and silver medallists Britain.

There was no such drama for Blake, the 2011 100m world champion steam-ing his team of Nesta Carter, Nickel Ash-meade and Julian Forte home in 37.77 seconds, the US missing out on the � nal after being disquali� ed in the heats.

Ashmeade will also depart the Baha-mas with a brace of golds after running alongside Blake in the world record-set-ting 4x200m e� ort on Saturday.

“After our world and olympic golds, we wanted to con� rm our number one position today,” said Blake, who missed last season with a troublesome hamstring but is now mulling a sprint double at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The performances of the Jamaican men’s sprint team more than made up for the absence of sprint legend Bolt, who is nursing an injury and only due back in competition in mid-June.

The United States took some solace from their strong women’s 4x400m team, who won the event in convincing fashion in 3min 21.73sec. l

Morgan ba� ed by sorry show against Sri Lankan Eoin Morgan, England’s captain in place of the injured Alastair Cook, was left bemused by the scale of their de-feat in the second one-day internation-al against Sri Lanka at the Riverside.

England were beaten by 157 runs af-ter scoring only 99 - their � fth-lowest score in ODI cricket in reply to the tour-ists’ 256-8.

“It’s just about as bad as we can play - and certainly as bad as we can bat,” said Morgan. “It was one of the worst performances I’ve been a part of in an England shirt.

“I can’t really explain why we played that badly. The pitch was a little bit tacky and the ball nipped around a bit, but we’re good enough to negoti-ate those sort of skills. We would have been happy with the score they got, but we lacked partnerships throughout the whole innings and never seemed to get going. We just haven’t played well.”

“To be honest, I don’t think this is going to be a huge setback. I think it would have been a bigger setback if we had fallen 40 runs short and had sub-stance through the whole innings, if we looked like we were going to win, but then not got there. l

Sharapova shines, Nishikori crashed outn Maria Sharapova reached the French Open second round on Monday at a damp and chilly Roland Garros as Jap-anese hope Kei Nishikori became the tournament’s � rst major casualty.

Sharapova, seeded seven and the 2012 champion, needed just over an hour to beat fellow Russian, Ksenia Pervak, the world’s 156th-ranked play-er, 6-1, 6-2.

The 27-year-old, who lost last year’s � nal to Serena Williams, looked com-fortable under the cloudy conditions on the Philippe Chatrier court, break-ing her opponent � ve times. Sharapova will next face Bulgaria’s 2010 Wimble-don semi-� nalist Tsvetana Pironkova.

Japanese ninth seed Nishikori was left feeling as misrable as the Paris weather as he crashed out in the � rst round, clearly still su� ering from his recent back injury. Nishikori, 24, and coached by 1989 cham-pion Michael Chang, was the � rst Japa-nese man in 75 years to make the fourth

round in Paris in 2013.But on Monday, there was never any

sign that he would repeat that feat as he went down 7-6 (7/4), 6-1, 6-2 to Slova-kia’s Martin Klizan.

Nishikori won the Barcelona clay-court title last month but then had to quit the Madrid Masters � nal against Rafael Nadal with a back injury that also forced him out of the Rome Masters.

The world number 10 looked dis-tinctly half-� t on Court 1 where he was broken 10 times, hit 10 double faults and committed 40 unforced errors

Left-handed Klizan, 24, one of six former junior champions in the main draw, goes on to face Robin Haase of the Netherlands.

After rain delayed the start of Mon-day’s programme by more than an hour, play was halted again barely two hours later at 1230GMT when the heav-ens reopened.

But there was still time for Dominika Cibulkova, the Slovak ninth seed, Italian 12th seed Flavia Pennetta and German

16th seed Sabine Lisicki to progress.Meanwhile, defending champion Na-

dal remained at the centre of a French Open scheduling row on Monday.

Nadal, who has a phenomenal re-cord of eight titles, 59 match wins and just one loss in Paris, had his opening match against US wildcard Robby Gine-pri, the world number 279, shifted out to Suzanne Lenglen court.

However, Roland Garros’s showpiece Philippe Chatrier court will stage title ri-val Novak Djokovic’s match against Joao Sousa and Stan Wawrinka’s clash against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Nadal claimed at the weekend that he found conditions on Chatrier to be di� erent this year.

Djokovic defeated 25-year-old Sou-sa, the world number 44, for the loss of just four games in the third round of the US Open in 2013.

Third seed and Australian Open champion Wawrinka, who achieved his best result in Paris in 2013 when he made the quarter-� nals, has a 4-2 lead in career meetings with Garcia-Lopez.

Lauda moves to defuse Mercedes ‘star wars’n Mercedes team chief Niki Lauda on Monday acted to defuse the ‘star wars’ rivalry between his drivers and rein-troduce cordiality and good manners between them before next month’s Ca-nadian Grand Prix.

In the wake of Nico Rosberg’s triumph ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, Lauda said he and Mercedes were not prepared to tolerate the sullen behaviour that was seen on the podium and in the aftermath of the race.

Lauda, who acts as the team’s non-ex-ecutive chairman, said the pair had over-

stepped the mark by refusing to behave in a sporting manner and by not speaking.

“I spoke to the drivers before the race and it is not � nished,” said Lauda. “I understand all the comments and I have to wait two or three days, but be-fore it goes to Canada it will be solved.

“I will speak to them like I always do. They always call me when they have problems, so I think it will sort itself out. It is normal. I had the same with [Alain] Prost. I hated the guy, but at least I said hello in the morning. There are certain limits and these certain limits I can rein-troduce because I speak the drivers’ lan-guage, and they do understand me. l

Workers sweep water o� a tarp as rain interrupts the match between Novak Djokovic and Joao Sousa in the French Open at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris yesterday REUTERS

President of Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation Abdul Karim, general secretary Zobera Rahman Linu and vice president of South Bangla Bank Mannan Bapari attend a press conference at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday COURTESY

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Human rights state in Dhaka jail unmonitoredDespite repeated requests, no inspection teams formed in six yearsn Tazlina Zamila Khan

In violation of the jail code, the Dhaka Central Jail has not seen a single non-o� cial visitor inspecting its premises in the past six years to monitor the condition of the prisoners.

Non-o� cial visitors – whose duties include observing the human rights condition, food quality, and prisoner treatment inside the jail – are a team of 12 members of civil society, headed by two local lawmakers, who are appointed in the role for two year terms.

The team’s recommendations for the betterment of the jail and its prisoners are supposed to be discussed in a meeting, led by the district magistrate concerned, every three months, while the jail authorities are then required to act on the observations made by the non-o� cial visitors.

Mahbub-ul-Islam, jailer of Dhaka Central Jail, the largest jail in the country, told the Dhaka Tribune: “There has been no visitor in this jail for many years. It is good to have a visiting committee. Prisoners can express their problems to them easily.”

He added that the authorities concerned including the Social Welfare Department, district magistrate and civil surgeons could also visit the jail – which currently houses 7,246 prisoners against the capacity of 2,682 detainees.

Dhaka Central Jail Superintendent Forman Ali said: “Earlier in March 20, 2009, we sent a letter to the divisional commissioner for appointing non-o� cial visitors. A couple of months agowe again sent another letter to the authorities but no reply has been received so far.”

The last team of non-o� cial visitors was formed for the Dhaka Central Jail in 2008.

Additional Inspector General of Prisons Colonel Mohammad Iftikharul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune: “There are non-o� cial visitors in other jails, but only this jail lacks it. As there is a provision in the law, it should be implemented. Prisoners will be bene� tted through this.”

When asked about the issue, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Dr Mizanur Rahman said: “There are non-o� cial visitors in jails of India and Pakistan. But, the situations of the neighbouring countries are similar to ours. However, in Scandinavian countries and Nepal the system is operating perfectly without any � aw.

“If there is no visitor to the jail, then that is a serious violation of the provision and human rights. Accountability has become weak in our country. But we have a plan to visit the jails. I demand an immediate action against the situation and will inform the matter to the authorities of Home Ministry,” the NHRC chief added.

“I think the Jail Code should be amended and the human rights commission will provide all support to the government to solve the issue. Many new jails will be constructed. So, better toilet and food facility and other infrastructure for the prisoners should be ensured,” the chairman said.

According to the section 56 of the jail code, the team members are proposed by the deputy commissioner concerned, while it is � nalised by the divisional commissioner who then sends the list to the Home Ministry, which publishes a gazette for appointing the visitors.

The team could visit the jail any time it wants, but only after notifying jail authorities over phone about their visit. l

DU teacher terminated for thesis fraud102 students suspended for cheating in examsn DU Correspondent

Authorities at the University of Dha-ka have � red a teacher for resorting to fraud in his PhD thesis and suspended 102 students for di� erent periods from the university and its a� liate institu-tions for breach of rules.

The syndicate body of the universi-ty sacked political science teacher Nur Uddin Alo for providing false informa-tion in his PhD thesis, Proctor Amzad Ali said yesterday.

“Apart from that, 102 students of the university and its a� liate institutions have been suspended for various terms for cheating and adopting unfair means in examinations. Some were � ned, too,” he said.

The decision was made at a meeting of the university’s syndicate commit-tee chaired by Vice-Chancellor AAMS Are� n Siddique on Sunday night, he added.

“We have taken action against the

students to prevent recurrence of such incidents in examinations and also to warn others so that they do not dare to indulge in such activities,” the proctor said.

Nur Uddin was awarded a PhD in 2010 for his thesis styled “The prac-tice of Marxism and its impact onmodern world: The case of objecti� ca-tion.” Professor Shawkat Ara Hossain of the same department supervised the research and the thesis evalua-tion committee comprised ProfessorAbdul Mannan of government andpolitics of Jahangirnagar Universi-ty, and Moqsudur Rahman, a teacherof political science at RajshahiUniversity.

Nur Uddin claimed that he had in-terviewed over a million people in 80 countries for his thesis.

However, in 2012, several teachers of political science, including Em-ran Hossain, Dil Rawshan Jinnar Ara Naznin, Farid Uddin Ahmed, Shariful

Islam and Sabbir Ahmed petitioned for re-evaluation of Nur’s thesis.

In the wake of the petition, the university authorities formed a probe committee headed by Professor Nasrin Ahmed, pro-VC of the university.

During the investigation, the com-mittee found more evidence of erro-neous information in the thesis and recommended cancellation of the PhD degree conferred upon Nur.

On September 12 last year, Nur’s de-gree was � nally invalidated at the syn-dicate meeting.

“It was proved that Nur had present-ed incorrect information in his thesis. He said he had surveyed 12.74 lakh peo-ple as part of the research but he failed to substantiate his assertion with any reliable evidence,” said Farid Uddin Ahmed, a syndicate member and dean of the Social Science Faculty at Dhaka University.

“He had presented fabricated data and information,” he added. l

MRP setback exposes migrant workers to riskn Rabiul Islam

The issuing of machine readable pass-ports (MRPs) to Bangladeshi nationals in Malaysia and some other regional passport o� ces within the country faced a setback at the very beginning of the project.

The project is getting delayed due to some technical glitches but the govern-ment is trying to get it � xed as soon as possible, o� cials said.

Unless the problem can be solved within a short period of time it will cause immense su� ering for the peo-ple who wish to travel to and from the country since the existing passports will not be accepted for immigration clearance after November next year.

Non-resident Bangladeshis and mi-grant workers will su� er the most as they are unlikely to be able to replace their existing manual passports with the MRPs by then. It is feared that they may be stranded abroad.

Even the foreign diplomats in Dha-ka have often raised concerns that the Bangladeshi citizens now working in their countries might have to face bad consequences when returning home if they are not provided with MRPs by now.

It will also create a roadblock for workers willing to go abroad.

The country lacks accurate data of migrants. However, the government claims there is around one crore people working in di� erent countries includ-ing Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Singa-pore and Kuwait.

“The aspirant migrants will not be able to go abroad for jobs and those working abroad cannot return home without MRPs,” Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone on Sun-day.

“On my part, I have done the job,” he said.

The government has taken the Ma-laysia project on a pilot basis. Upon its successful completion, it has a plan to

spread the project in other countries where there are Bangladeshi migrant workers.

The Malaysia project faced the set back at the beginning as it could not be started within the stipulated time-frame.

The Malaysia job was contracted out to a private company Dataedge-i-peo-ple Consortium on February 12 with the condition that they would start issuing the MRPs within one month of the con-tract date. The whole project would be implemented in 18 months.

It has now been more than four months, and still they could not start it, o� cials said. Dataedge has also been assigned to issue MRPs from 33 region-al passport o� ces (RPOs) but it has so far failed. They said people are col-lecting MRPs from their neighbouring passport o� ces.

“It is true the company could not start the job in time,” Additional Secre-tary (security and passport wing) of the Home Ministry Md Sha� qul Islam said on Saturday.

“There is a problem of integration,” he said, adding Dataedge’s software and system needs to be integrated with the ones of IRIS Corporation, a Malay-sian company that has long been pro-viding Bangladesh with software solu-

tions for passports under the � rst MRP project in 2010. It had set up its central system at the Department of Immigra-tion and Passport (DIP) at Agargaon in Dhaka.

According to the agreement, IRIS would provide technical support for future expansion of the MRP issuance centres at home and abroad.

Projector Director of MRP and MRV of DIP, Brig Gen Masud Rezwan said a problem had surfaced in issuing MRPs. “There are two parties. One party is claiming that they have given all the information, but another part is alleg-ing that they are not getting su� cient information,” he said.

“It is not true that much time has al-ready passed,” Dataedge Director Noor A Alam Chowdhury told this corre-spondent over the phone on Saturday. Starting the job has been delayed as the government is taking time to make a decision in this regard, he said.

“We have to face problems in inte-grating with the existing system, and IRIS has not extended cooperation properly,” he alleged adding that docu-mentation by IRIS was not as proper as it should have been.

“As part of contractual obligation, we provided all support to Dataedge. And there is no question of non-coop-eration,” Senior Manager of IRIS Cor-poration Bahjat Aman told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone from Malaysia on Sunday .

“Beyond the contract, we o� ered our software free of cost to Dataedge,” he said.

“As it is a technical matter, we are not sure who is responsible – it may be IRIS or Dataedge. We have engaged a Swedish audit company to identify who is responsible,” said Sha� qul Islam while his attention was drawn to the al-legation and counter allegation of IRIS and Dataedge.

“We will get the report soon,” he said.

The project director, however, said that the report had already been sub-mitted. l

Japan pledges$6 billionn UNB

Japan has pledged an assistance of 600 billion yen (equivalent to US$6 billion) to Bangladesh over the next � ve years, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday.

Shinzo Abe’s announcement came at a joint press conference with his visiting Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina after the two leaders held formal talks at Japanese Premier’s o� ce in Tokyo.

Hasina is on a four-day visit to Ja-pan. The promised aid will be given through implementation of the con-cept of the Bay of Bengal industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B), proposed by the Japanese Premier. Earlier the two lead-ers signed a joint statement.

The Japanese Premier said his coun-try has proposed the formation of Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt to help Bangladesh realize its huge economic po-tentials and expedite its growth. He said Japan and Bangladesh will start a foreign secretary-level dialogue in enhancing co-operation in politics and security. l

Security lax at 150 northern archaeological sitesn Our Correspondent, Bogra

Out of a total of 164 protected archaeolog-ical sites in 16 northern districts, at least 150 have been devoid of required security measures for a long time.

Regional Director (RD) of the Depart-ment of Archaeology in Rajshahi Md Badrul Alam says a large number of posts meant for security guards at the sites, including Paharpur Bihar in Naogaon which is a Unesco World Heritage Site, have remained unoccupied for a long period of time.

“We are trying to ensure security in monuments in several districts using our limited resources,” Badrul said.

“Several letters were sent to o� cials concerned, requesting them to � ll the va-cant positions and also to create new ones to ensure better security,” he added.

Sources at RD o� ce in Bogra said security at a number of sites is currently maintained by security personnel the department appointed on the master roll but some of the monuments, like “Potazia” in Sirajgang, are still unguarded.

Only 232 security o� cials have been protecting the 164 sites in the 16 districts, though the required � gure is 820, sources said.

Md Sadekuzzaman, custodian of Ma-hasthangarh Archaeological Museum, said there are 44 protected sites in Mahasthan-garh and the adjacent areas.

The department only has 18 people on the master roll to protect the sites but they need 264 people, sources said.

There is a need for at least 51 perma-nent security guards to ensure security in Mahasthangarh but a mere four are there

to guard one of the most prominent ar-chaeological sites in South Asia, according to sources.

A similar situation prevails in Paharpur Bihar and the 11 other sites that surround it. There is a need for at least 72 security o� cials but only 24 have been deployed.

The department has installed lighting facilities in some parts of Paharpur Bihar a few years back in the wake of the theft of many terracotta objects.

Meanwhile, 14 monuments in Puthia, Rajshahi lie unsecured as there are only six guards there when there should be 84, said a senior o� cial of the Archaeology Department.

A large number of terracotta items were stolen from the site a few years ago because there were no guards, according to the department. l

Being accompanied by the her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina receives guard of honour in Tokyo yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

The country lacks accurate data of migrants. However, the government claims there is around one crore people working in di� erent countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore and Kuwait

Lack of fund impeding the maintenance of the Anhik temple in Putia of Rajshahi. The Department of Archaeology has announced the temple as a heritage site 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

BASIC Bank default loans growing fastThe loans disbursed through irregularities are taking the toll on the banks � nancial health n Jebun Nesa Alo

The default loans of BASIC Bank growing abnormally fast in the recent months as loans the bank had dis-bursed through irregularities are get-ting matured.

In March only, it rose by Tk1,140 crore or more than 80% to stand at Tk2,557 crore from Tk1,417 crore in February as the newly classi� ed loan increased by Tk1,539 crore in March.

Maximum of the loan the bank dis-bursed violating the rules and without proper documents in the year 2009 to 20012. This resulted in the abnor-mal growth of the default loans every

month, said a senior executive of Ban-gladesh Bank.

The increasing trend of the classi-� ed loan is the continuous e� ect of earlier loan forgery which has eroded the � nancial health of the bank gradu-ally, he said.

The amount of new classi� ed loan was Tk217.5 crore in December last and it rose to Tk343.6 crore in January, Tk403.6 crore in February and Tk1,539 crore in March, according to the latest statement (unaudited) BASIC Bank

submitted to Bangladesh Bank. The total classi� ed loan of the bank

increased by 99% to Tk2,557 crore in March from Tk1282 crore in December 2013.

The outstanding loan with the top 20 defaulters stood at Tk915 crore in March from Tk880 crore in December, against almost zero recovery from the defaulters.

Bangladesh Bank signed a MoU with the bank to recover its � nancial health in September last year but the bank

could not come out from the sorry state due to drastic increase of classi-� ed loans, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

Moreover, all the � nancial indica-tors of the bank became negative day by day due to further irregularities in loan disbursement after signing the MoU.

As a result, the deposit growth fell sharply as the depositors lost con� -dence on the bank, he said.

The deposit growth of the bank was 58% in July 2013, but came down to 1.65% in December last year. The growth turned negative by 2.49% in January, 0.43% in February and 0.61% in March.

The bank also took the highest ad-vantage of relaxed loan rescheduling rules to reduce the burden of classi� ed loan in December last.

The bank rescheduled classi� ed loan of Tk1,151 crore in December. As a result, the total classi� ed loan of the bank reduced to 11.82% in December from 18.43% in September last year. But the amount of classi� ed loan fur-ther rose to 23% in March due to the increasing newly classi� ed loans, ac-cording to the Bangladesh Bank data. l

www.dhakatribune.com/business TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2014

B3 US businesses urge tough line over China antitrust policy

B4 IMF calls for closer cooperation among central banks

Tax on � sheries may go upn Tribune Report

The government is likely to hike in-come tax on � sheries business to prevent the politicians and other businessmen from whitening their black or undisclosed money, abusing existing lower tax bene� ts.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has reportedly taken up an ini-tiative to � x 5% income tax on � shery sector form existing 3% as it found many people have been investing their undisclosed money in this sec-tor just to evade taxes, while many of them even don’t have any such busi-ness, said an NBR o� cial.

“Many people are showing huge incomes from their � sheries business in their income tax return � les where-as most of them do not have any such business,’’ he added.

As of existing tax structure, around 25% tax is set for the other businesses while only 3% taxes is imposed on the � sheries business.

“As the NBR inspector cannot in-spect the rural areas due to lack of manpower, a section of people have been investing small amount of mon-ey in � sheries to show huge income

as a means to evade tax or to whiten-ing their undisclosed or black mon-ey,” the o� cial added.

“The NBR is bound to accept those � gures they come up along with their return � les due to lack of � eld inspec-tion and thus a good amount of tax is evaded,” he said.

The NBR is expected to stop all the loopholes in the tax collection from the coming budget.

The government in FY2011-12 had imposed 5% taxes on � sh farming, which was later reduced to 3% in the budget for FY2013-14 to enhance the revenue by promoting this sector.

The reduction was made for the next two years as tax incentives to en-

courage people to invest in this sector with good potentials.

The issue of evading taxes through � sheries came into light when the NBR � nds many politicians showing their main source of income as � sher-ies in their a� davit placed before the Election Commission for vying at the January 5 poll.

Awami League leaders Sheikh Fa-zle Noor Taposh, Nur-e-Alam Chow-dhury, Elias Uddin Mollah, Mannan Khan and Hanif, ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury, Didarul Alam, and Ta-lukder Abdul Khaleque has made a huge amount of wealth from their � sh farming, they have claimed in their respective a� davits. l

Banglalink sees revenue up in � rst quartern Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Mobile phone operator Banglalink posted a revenue growth of 7.5% year-on-year, according a � rst quar-ter report.

Per user revenue and usage also marked rise in the January-March period this year, said the report pub-lished by the operator’s parent com-pany Vimplecom.

The growth was the outcome of

rise in customers base, launch of 3G services and restoration political sta-bility, the company mentioned.

After having passed a unrest-hit year of 2013, the increase in revenue is considered a respite for the opera-tor, a senior executive told the Dhaka Tribune. Banglalink su� ered 11% rev-enue drop in 2013 over the previous year due to political unrest which crippled the country for weeks.

The mobile operator’s total rev-

enue totalled Tk1,000 crore after three months of 2014, which was Tk930 crore one year ago.

Banglalink is the second largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh in terms of the number of subscribers. The report showed the number of sub-scribers of the operator also grew 13% year-on-year to 2.94 crore.

It added the number was driven by the launch of 3G services, reactivation of o� ers and handset o� er on recharge.

“Mobile customers growth is sup-ported by strong additions in Bangla-desh,” Jo Lunder, Chief Executive Of-� cer (CEO) of Vimpelcom, said while commenting on the report.

According to the report, the Aver-age Revenue Per User (ARPU) of Ban-glalink declined 2% year-on-year to TK117 due to the impact of political turmoil in January, more competitive pricing and a change in the mix of on-net and o� -net tra� c. l

BASIC BANK FOLLOW UP

DMD made MD in-charge, lending by 3 branches barredn Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank has imposed a re-striction on three branches of BASIC Bank in Dhaka to sanction new loans considering the recent credit scam in the braches.

The central bank took the decision at a meeting yesterday, with Governor Atiur Rahman in the chair.

The decision emerged on the day after the removal of the state-owned bank’s Managing Director Kazi Faqurul Islam on Sunday due to irregularities and corruption in the banks.

Bangladesh Bank also asked the bank yesterday to appoint a new managing director (current charge) within a day through following the rules. Follow-ing the instruction, BASIC Bank board called an emergency meeting on the day and appointed its deputy managing di-rector-1 Fazlus Sobhan as MD in-charge.

New loan disbursement activities by the bank’s Gulshan, Dilkhusha and Shantinagar branches have been sus-pended in the awake of massive irreg-ularities, said Bangladesh Bank Execu-tive Director Mahfuzur Rahman.

A letter has been served to the bank

yesterday, asking suspension of the lending.

It also asked the branches to take permission of the EC committee be-fore disbursement of the loans already granted.

The central bank also warned the bank of similar consequence for its other branches if it � nds any irregular-ities in lending.

Of the total 68 branches of the bank, the suspended three branches hold 61% loans of the total outstanding, ac-cording to Bangladesh Bank data.

The amount of total disbursed loan of BASIC Bank stood at Tk11,180 crore in March this year, of which Tk6,900 crore has been disbursed through the three branches.

BB inspections found last year that the bank approved loans of Tk4,500 crore, mostly without proper docu-mentation and scrutiny.

Most of the irregularities took place in BASIC Bank’s four branches — Moti-jheel, Shantinagar, Dilkusha and Gul-shan — that granted loans of about Tk4,425 crore between December 2009 and November 2012 on poor doc-uments and in� ated mortgages. l

$169m foreign loan approved for private sector n Tribune Report

Board of Investment Scrutiny Com-mittee has approved foreign loans of $169.15m for the private sector. The de-cision came at a meeting of BoI scrutiny committee held at Bangladesh Bank yes-terday, chaired by its convenor and Ban-gladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman.

The committee approved $169.15m for 13 (thirteen) projects such as $100m for Airtel Bangladesh Limited, $25m for Summit Meghnaghat Power Co. Limit-ed, $14m for Mawna Fashions Limited, $5m for International Trading Services Limited, $7m for Standard Stitches Ltd, $5m for Standard Group Ltd & rest of the amount for seven other companies.

The highest interest rate of the ap-proved proposals is 3-month LIBOR plus 4.75% per annum. The committee ap-proved foreign loan of $1,821m in FY2013, which was 43% higher than $1,040m in FY 2012. There was a continuous growth in in� ow of foreign loans over the last � ve years, said a statement. The main purpose of the foreign loan is to import capital machinery and equipments of the project, said the committee o� cials.

The committee hoped the foreign � nancing will be helpful to keep the dollar price in stable, the de� cit of the country’s “Balance of Payment” will decrease and it will create more job op-portunity, it said. l

Proposed SEZs to get Tk300cr for land acquisition n Asif Showkat Kallol

The government has decided to allo-cate Tk300 crore in the upcoming bud-get for acquisition of lands for the pro-posed special economic zones.

Against the backdrop of huge com-plaints lodged by the foreign investors on land crisis, the � nance division has � nally decided to allocate of the afore-said amount in the next budget to ac-quire lands, said a � nance division of-� cial.

The o� cial also said the the ac-quisition works would begin soon to develop seven economic zones in the country.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith had earlier mentioned that both local and foreign investments would come to Bangladesh only if the government

could provide land to the investors.“But we are not in a position to pro-

vide them with valuable lands right away. However, the government has a plan to allocate money in next � s-cal budget for land acquisition for the projects.”

Board of Investment data shows Bangladesh had received foreign direct investment worth $1.78bn in 2013, reg-istering 37.5% growth from the previ-ous year.

According to several government agencies, the local businessmen have allegedly transferred their capital to countries like Malaysia, UAE, USA and Canada as the investors have been losing their con� dence and private sector credit growth has dropped to a record low of 10.73% in February this year.

The economists and experts said the lack of government plans had already caused colossal damage to the indus-trialisation process in a land-hungry country like Bangladesh.

They said absence of facilities such as road connectivity and power and gas supplies in the countryside have forced the entrepreneurs to set up their indus-trial plants close to major cities, even at the heart of the capital city Dhaka and Chittagong.

In its recent report, Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) mentioned that one of the major constraints to at-tract foreign direct investment in Ban-gladesh is shortage of lands and infra-structural facilities.

Last year, the previous government set a priority to arrange over 10,000 acres of land for industrial plots across

the country over the next three years and launch � ve special economic zones (SEZs) by the end of its tenure. The last government ended its tenure in early this year.

However, the new industry ministry later stopped the process of the acqui-sition of 10,000 acres of land.

“Insu� ciency of land for setting up industries at appropriate locations has come up as a major obstacle to the country’s industrial expansion and � nding out industrial lands with nec-essary facilities has appeared as anoth-er key problem,” Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, former � nance adviser to last caretaker government, said.

“The government won’t be able to attract foreign and domestic investors until it provided proper land facilities to them,” he said. lLabour unrest feared if

closures continuen Tribune Report

Labour and Employment Minister Mujibul Haque Chunnu has expressed concerns over the RMG factory clo-sures and feared that it might spark la-bour unrest ahead of Ramadan.

He said workplace safety and job se-curity are equally important and must be considered as basic rights of the workers.

“Safety is a basic right, but it cannot be done making workers jobless,” the sate minister said while addressing a workshop on managing occupational safety and health.

He even raised questions about experience and quali� cation of the engineers employed by the Accord to inspect factories.

The workshop was jointly organised by Bangladesh government and Inter-national Labour Organisation (ILO), which was aimed at raising awareness about the issue in the garment facto-ries to reduce risk of accidents.

“Thousands of RMG workers lost their jobs after safety shortfalls were unearthed,” Mujibul Haque mentioned hinting at the Accord and Alliance in-spections.

Besides, factories are witnessing decline in orders from international buyers, leaving the owners at the risk of facing further shutdowns, he said.

Mujibul urged the buyers to increase orders and give better price so that the industry can ensure safety for workers.

Netherlands Minister for Foreign

Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen stressed the need of well-functioning occupational safety and health committees in factories.

She hoped that the new committees were formed in a fair and transparent manner with appropriate representa-tion of workers including women.

“It is important how to enable factory owners to implement the new occupa-tional safety and health policy,” she said.

In November 2013, Bangladesh gov-ernment adopted a National Occupa-tional Safety and Health Policy as part of its response to the commitments made in the National Action Plan on Fire and Building Safety in July last year.

The government and ILO are imple-menting a three-and-a-half year proj-ect of $24.21m funded by Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to improve working conditions in the Bangladeshi RMG industry.

Srinivas B Reddy, ILO Country Direc-tor for Bangladesh, said, “The aim of the workshop is to protect workers from incident creating awareness among the representatives of employers, especial-ly the mid-level management.”

Reddy said the workshop would di-rectly contribute to having safe work-places.

“Active functioning of the mandato-ry occupational safety and health com-mittees and the trade unions, whatev-er exist, should contribute to greater participation of workers in workplace safety measures,” he emphasised. l

State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu speaking at a workshop on managing occupational safety at a city hotel yesterday. He vented anger over garment factory closures after safety inspections by Accord and Alliance MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

‘The increasing trend of the classi� ed loan is the continuous e� ect of earlier loan forgery which has eroded the � nancial health of the bank gradually’

ANALYST

B2 Stock Tuesday, May 27, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks continue to end � at ahead of budgetn Tribune Report

Stocks closed � at for the second consecutive session with volatility yesterday, as investors were cau-tious ahead of national budget to be placed in the parliament on June 5.

The market was in positive ter-ritory till mid-session and modest buying pressure mainly on tele-communications helped it close marginally higher.

The benchmark index DSEX witnessed fractional gains of 0.09 points to close at 4,378.

The comprising blue chips DS30 rose 2 points or 0.2% to 1,589. The Shariah index DSES gained 4 points or 0.5% to close at 978.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, dropped 21 points to close at 8,417.

Total DSE turnover stood at Tk236 crore, which was over 29% higher over the previous session’s 7-month low.

“Remaining largely unchanged, investors’ sentiment turned more cautious, this session,” said IDLC Investments in its market analysis.

Since perfect con� rmation of trend reversal lagged, skepticism prolonged further. The overall sit-uation kept bourse in � at region and DSEX beneath 4,400 points for

third session, it said.However, after hitting 7-month

lowest in last session, the pace of trading activity picked up a bit. Amid which, scrip speci� c central-isation was notable, the IDLC said.

Lanka Bangla Securuties said market moved up marginally, sup-ported by buying interest in large cap. DSEX elevated a bit to its morning high of 4,393 along with the movement in large cap, it said.

Though trading activities moved up slightly, volume remained at an anemic level. A con� rmed up or down move in index for near future is yet to be observed, so investors are mostly remained neutral and conservative, said Lanka Bangla.

Zenith Investments said traders are looking forward for some posi-tive signs, as the market lingers in such a position that it is di� cult to predict for how long the market de-cides to remain drab.

Out of 294 issues traded, 127 de-clined, 108 advanced and 59 closed unchanged on the DSE � oor.

Among the major sectors, tele-communications gained the most with a rise of over 2%. Pharma-ceuticals and banks closed � at. Non-banking � nancial institutions, food and allied and fuel and power declined marginally. l

News from trade serverBSC: (Quali� ed Opinion): The auditor of the company has given the following Quali� ed Opinion in the audit report of the company for the year ended on 30 June 2013: "Quali� ed Opinion" 1. Deferred taxes on temporary di� erence on PPE and gra-tuity provision have been considered for deferred tax calculation. However, these items were neither recognised in pro� t and loss as per para 58 and nor recognised outside pro� t or loss 61A of IAS 12 Income taxes and we are not in a position to calcu-late the amount to be charged in pro� t or loss and outside pro� t or loss i.e. directly in equity. 2. As disclosed in note # 15 to the � nancial statements, BSC operates a de� ned bene� t plan for gratuity scheme and makes provision as per the corpora-tion's policy. But no actuarial valuation as per BAS 19 has been done, and hence it is not possible to con� rm whether the yearned provision agrees with, or approx-imates to, the provision that would have been required by actuarial valuation. 3. An amount of Tk. 24,445,441 receivable from 70 parties have been carried forward since the year 2007 under the head Sundry

Debtors C/A Tk. 759,197,256. It is very un-likely that these amounts will be recovered but no provision has been made against such doubtful debts as per BAS 8. 4. Loan of Sonali Bank A/C Banglar Shikha Tk. 39,827,709 has been carried forward from 2010-2011. We have sent balance con� r-mation letter to con� rm the balance and duly received. As per con� rmation letter of Sonali Bank Limited dated 01-12-2013 the balance stands at Tk. 665,332,431.23 which needs reconciliation for incorpo-ration in the accounts. 5. Bangladesh Government loan Tk. 103,200,000 the balance has remained unpaid since 2002 and no interest also been charged upon the said loan. 6. Interest on term loan of Agrani Bank Limited is Tk. 23,973,202 has been shown in the books of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation which has been car-ried forward from 2008-2009. We have sent balance con� rmation letter to con� rm the balance and duly received. But as per balance con� rmation letter, bankers claim in favour of the loan against Bangladesh Shipping Corporation is Tk. 378,841,233 as on 30/06/2013.

PHENIXINS: Shamima Rahman, one of the Sponsors of the Company, has further reported that she has completed her sale of 1,25,000 shares of the Company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange as announced earlier.POPULARLIF: The Company has informed that it is going to be the sponsor of UFS-Popular Life Unit fund. Size of the fund is 80 crore and Sponsor portion is 20 crore subject to the same being duly approved by the regulatory authority. IPO Subscription: Tung Hai Knitting & Dye-ing Limited subscription date 18-22 May 2014, NRB upto 31 May 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Far East Knitting & Dyeing Industries Limited subscription date 15-19 June 2014, NRB upto 28 June 2014. @ taka 22, face value taka 10 and market lot 200. Shurwid Indus-tries Limited subscription date 08-12 June 2014, NRB upto 21 June 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Saif Powertec Limited subscription date 06-10 July 2014, NRB upto 19 July 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 30 and market lot 200.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

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change)

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in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Islami Ins.BD-A -12.94 -22.26 22.56 24.90 24.90 24.90 0.003 1.92 11.8Rupali Life Insur.-A -9.78 -9.76 83.92 83.90 87.00 83.70 3.105 5.33 15.7BD. Thai Alum -B -7.08 -6.33 21.16 21.00 21.60 21.00 0.127 0.84 25.2Marico BD Ltd-A -6.21 -6.21 1,088.00 1,088.00 1,088.00 1,088.00 0.054 43.99 24.7BGIC -A -5.98 -8.33 22.00 22.00 22.00 22.00 0.011 1.36 16.2BSC-A -5.76 -4.63 511.01 503.50 528.00 502.00 5.355 23.48 21.8Reliance1 M.F.-A -5.26 -5.26 9.00 9.00 9.00 9.00 0.288 1.86 4.8JMI Syringes MDL-A -5.19 -3.54 161.73 159.00 165.00 159.00 0.243 2.08 77.8Prime Islami Life -A -4.42 -4.21 97.22 97.20 97.30 97.20 0.049 4.95 19.6NLI 1st M F-A -4.21 -3.67 9.18 9.10 9.20 9.00 0.106 1.36 6.8

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Rupali Life Insur.-A -9.68 -8.46 82.22 81.20 95.00 81.00 42.672 5.33 15.4BSC-A -5.99 -5.23 508.68 502.00 527.00 500.00 46.023 23.48 21.7Progressive Life-A -5.82 -5.76 113.28 113.20 116.80 113.00 2.209 2.30 49.3Kay & Que (BD) -Z -5.30 -4.69 12.61 12.50 12.90 12.50 0.273 -0.92 -ve5th ICB M F-A -5.01 -5.21 180.10 180.10 180.10 180.10 0.036 18.67 9.6BD. Thai Alum -B -4.89 -6.16 21.32 21.40 22.20 19.40 2.302 0.84 25.4JMI Syringes MDL-A -4.59 -4.45 162.20 160.20 169.80 159.80 14.517 2.08 78.0Kohinoor Chem -A -4.38 -3.98 349.00 349.00 349.00 349.00 0.349 9.37 37.2Monno Sta� lers -A -4.23 -3.14 301.96 299.00 310.50 298.00 0.770 1.12 269.6Midas Financing-Z -4.21 -4.26 18.19 18.20 19.00 18.00 0.282 -6.91 -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

Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 378,500 10.77 6.31 27.90 2.57 27.20 29.10 27.70 28.46Appollo Ispat CL -N 314,800 8.73 5.12 27.60 1.47 27.20 28.10 27.20 27.74BSRM Steels-A 102,384 7.67 4.49 74.10 -0.40 74.40 76.90 73.60 74.91Square Pharma -A 28,841 7.61 4.46 266.60 2.03 261.30 267.40 260.00 263.72Hwa Well Textiles-N 177,000 7.53 4.41 42.10 -0.94 42.50 43.20 42.00 42.53Grameenphone-A 21,800 5.71 3.35 263.70 2.61 257.00 264.70 257.00 261.90BSC-A 10,480 5.36 3.14 503.50 -5.76 534.30 528.00 502.00 511.01Mercantile Bank -A 291,348 5.19 3.04 17.90 2.29 17.50 18.00 17.50 17.81Salvo Chemicals-B 170,630 4.00 2.35 23.40 4.46 22.40 24.00 22.80 23.46Orion Pharma-N 74,380 3.73 2.19 50.30 -0.79 50.70 50.80 49.80 50.21BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 142,666 3.28 1.92 22.90 -2.14 23.40 23.70 22.80 22.99Rupali Life Insur.-A 37,000 3.10 1.82 83.90 -9.78 93.00 87.00 83.70 83.92Matin Spinning-N 68,600 3.06 1.79 44.30 -0.67 44.60 45.10 43.70 44.57UNITED AIR-A 260,240 2.99 1.75 11.50 -0.86 11.60 11.60 10.50 11.48LafargeS Cement-Z 43,000 2.95 1.73 68.70 -0.43 69.00 69.20 68.20 68.66

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 4,613,000 130.33 5.52 27.70 2.21 27.10 28.90 27.60 28.25Square Pharma -A 478,439 126.22 5.35 266.20 2.46 259.80 267.00 250.00 263.82LafargeS Cement-Z 1,742,000 119.80 5.07 68.80 -0.43 69.10 69.50 68.30 68.77CMC Kamal Tex. -A 4,288,273 101.90 4.32 24.30 4.29 23.30 24.70 21.00 23.76Grameenphone-A 338,475 88.58 3.75 264.10 2.60 257.40 264.90 256.00 261.71BSRM Steels-A 907,262 67.81 2.87 73.90 -0.67 74.40 76.40 70.00 74.74Mercantile Bank -A 3,007,637 53.77 2.28 17.90 1.70 17.60 18.00 16.00 17.88Salvo Chemicals-B 2,227,393 52.38 2.22 23.70 5.33 22.50 24.10 21.00 23.52Appollo Ispat CL -N 1,810,200 50.27 2.13 27.50 1.10 27.20 28.10 27.20 27.77BSC-A 90,475 46.02 1.95 502.00 -5.99 534.00 527.00 500.00 508.68HeidelbergCement -A 87,330 45.37 1.92 517.60 0.78 513.60 523.30 500.00 519.49ACI Limited- A 213,023 44.61 1.89 213.10 4.46 204.00 214.00 195.00 209.40Meghna Petroleum -A 154,415 43.10 1.83 278.40 -0.50 279.80 281.00 256.00 279.09Rupali Life Insur.-A 519,018 42.67 1.81 81.20 -9.68 89.90 95.00 81.00 82.22Matin Spinning-N 817,000 36.33 1.54 44.50 -0.45 44.70 45.10 43.90 44.46

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Rahima Food -Z 9.94 6.12 56.54 57.50 57.50 54.00 0.650 -1.01 -ve ICB -A 5.72 5.72 1829.00 1829.00 1829.00 1829.00 0.274 53.53 34.2Salvo Chemicals-B 4.46 4.92 23.46 23.40 24.00 22.80 4.002 1.16 20.2Bangas -A 4.19 3.84 498.46 500.10 504.00 494.00 1.221 5.87 84.9Asia Pasi� c Insu. -A 4.07 4.07 23.00 23.00 23.00 23.00 0.012 2.48 9.3ACI Limited- A 3.80 1.76 208.61 212.80 214.00 202.50 1.335 5.28 39.5Central Insur -A 3.70 3.81 28.04 28.00 28.80 28.00 0.118 3.64 7.7Delta Brac HFCL-A 3.65 3.58 62.50 62.50 62.50 62.50 0.031 5.05 12.4Dutch Ban. Bnk- A 3.60 3.66 86.30 86.30 86.30 86.30 0.043 6.72 12.8Sun Life Insurance-N 3.02 2.38 58.00 58.00 58.00 58.00 0.029 0.00 -

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Rahima Food -Z 8.68 5.52 56.56 57.60 58.00 53.20 8.824 -1.01 -veSalvo Chemicals-B 5.33 4.77 23.52 23.70 24.10 21.00 52.380 1.16 20.3ACI Limited- A 4.46 2.43 209.40 213.10 214.00 195.00 44.608 5.28 39.7CMC Kamal Tex. -A 4.29 2.81 23.76 24.30 24.70 21.00 101.897 1.32 18.0Rupali Bank - A 4.03 1.78 61.23 61.90 62.50 57.00 1.234 3.96 15.5Libra Infusions-A 3.51 3.59 442.00 442.10 454.50 429.00 0.884 4.20 105.2Stylecraft -A 3.14 3.14 985.00 985.00 985.00 985.00 0.197 47.83 20.6Bangas -A 2.84 2.84 497.90 500.20 504.70 470.00 18.989 5.87 84.8Grameenphone-A 2.60 2.41 261.71 264.10 264.90 256.00 88.583 15.28 17.1Square Pharma -A 2.46 1.91 263.82 266.20 267.00 250.00 126.220 11.36 23.2

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 249.32 10.56 23.89 12.61 273.21 10.71NBFI 56.67 2.40 5.07 2.67 61.73 2.42Investment 41.15 1.74 1.42 0.75 42.57 1.67Engineering 249.86 10.58 25.12 13.26 274.98 10.78Food & Allied 140.28 5.94 6.41 3.38 146.69 5.75Fuel & Power 145.59 6.17 11.59 6.12 157.18 6.16Jute 0.74 0.03 0.00 0.74 0.03Textile 464.29 19.67 36.90 19.47 501.19 19.65Pharma & Chemical 395.61 16.76 24.67 13.02 420.28 16.48Paper & Packaging 0.10 0.00 5.46 2.88 5.56 0.22Service 36.40 1.54 1.27 0.67 37.67 1.48Leather 39.03 1.65 8.57 4.52 47.60 1.87Ceramic 5.45 0.23 0.82 0.43 6.27 0.25Cement 191.40 8.11 9.08 4.79 200.48 7.86Information Technology 13.76 0.58 0.92 0.48 14.67 0.58General Insurance 34.36 1.46 0.95 0.50 35.31 1.38Life Insurance 97.36 4.12 5.19 2.74 102.55 4.02Telecom 109.74 4.65 8.49 4.48 118.23 4.64Travel & Leisure 17.90 0.76 3.93 2.07 21.83 0.86Miscellaneous 71.67 3.04 9.76 5.15 81.42 3.19Debenture 0.15 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.18 0.01

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index : 4378.34167 (+) 0.002% ▲

DSE Shariah Index : 977.87136 (+) 0.44% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1589.40822 (+) 0.13% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 13523.13150 (-) 0.25% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 11103.92930 (-) 0.17% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8417.43080 (-) 0.25% ▼

DSE key features May 26, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

2,360.81

Turnover (Volume)

58,390,675

Number of Contract 59,158

Traded Issues 295

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

97

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

188

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

10

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,244.12

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.20

CSE key features May 26, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 173.33

Turnover (Volume) 5,167,761

Number of Contract 7,885

Traded Issues 211

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

72

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

134

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,158.78

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.17

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

Remaining largely unchanged, investors’ sentiment turned more cautious, this session

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

US businesses urge tough line over China antitrust policyn Reuters, Beijing

US companies are crying foul over Chi-na’s oversight of monopoly and pricing issues, as antitrust enforcement threat-ens to further sour Sino-American business ties already damaged by a row over cyber espionage.

The US Chamber of Commerce, in a private letter sent last month to Secre-tary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, urged Washing-ton to get tough with Beijing on its use of anti-competition rules, noting that “concerns among US companies are in-tensifying.”

Beijing’s increasing use of its 6-year-old anti-monopoly law (AML) and price competition rules to weigh-in on global mergers and take action against for-eign companies is set to further stoke tensions after Washington this week indicted � ve Chinese military o� cers with hacking US companies to steal trade secrets.

The Chamber urged U.S. o� cials to use annual bilateral talks scheduled for July to “secure commitments from China” to address the issue, noting that e� orts to compel China had been “in-su� cient.”

“There is signi� cant risk to the US economy that US companies will in-creasingly be coerced into abandoning deals that would be good for markets and consumers because AML enforce-ment in China has no principled basis in competition law or economics and is informed by China’s industrial policy goals,” said the US Chamber letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

The US State Department and US Treasury Department declined to com-ment. The US Chamber of Commerce con� rmed the letter.

'Promoting industrial policies'In another sign of the deterioration in Sino-US ties, the o� cial State Internet Information O� ce said on Thursday that China will investigate providers of important IT products and services to protect “national security” and “eco-nomic and social development”, the Xinhua news agency said. Products that don’t meet security requirements will be banned.

China has also prohibited central government o� ces from using Micro-

soft Corp’s latest Windows 8 operat-ing system over concerns the software exposes computers to the risk of being controlled remotely, the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper said on Thursday.

“It has become increasingly clear that the Chinese government has seized on using the AML to promote Chinese producer welfare and to ad-vance industrial policies that nurture domestic enterprises, rather than the internationally accepted norm of using competition law to protect consum-er welfare and competition,” the US Chamber’s letter said.

Last year, China imposed conditions on Glencore’s $29bn takeover of Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata, citing concerns the merged company would have too much power over the copper market. A group led by China Minmetals Corp last month bought Glencore’s Las Bambas copper mine in Peru for $5.85bn.

Highly political game Up to last year, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) reviewed 740 merger proposals, blocking one - Coca-

Cola’s bid to buy top juice maker Hui-yuan - and imposing conditions on 22 others, Shang Ming, MOFCOM’s anti-monopoly bureau director-general, told reporters in February.

“Antitrust can be a highly political game especially in sectors seen as of strategic signi� cance,” said Mark Wil-liams, a law professor and antitrust ex-pert at University of Melbourne. “Bei-jing has come late to the game. Other countries have had various forms of ‘national interest’ protection for years.”

Separately, the National Develop-ment and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Chinese government’s main plan-ning body, has used the anti-monopoly law to target technology companies for practices that could lead to what it calls “unreasonably” high prices.

Xu Kunlin, director general of NDRC’s price supervision and anti-mo-nopoly bureau, told Reuters the AML was instituted “to protect market order and fair competition”, along with con-sumer welfare. “The NDRC gives equal treatment to all market participants,” Xu said. “Those who have been penal-ized include state-owned enterprises,

private companies, and foreign-owned enterprises, and industry associations.”

On Thursday, the NDRC suspended its investigation of InterDigital Inc af-ter the U.S. wireless technology patent developer pledged to change its pric-ing structure. The Delaware-based � rm agreed to change its licensing terms for Chinese manufacturers, in a move that may save Chinese companies as much as 500m yuan ($80.2m).

Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest cellphone chip maker, is facing penalties that may exceed $1bn in another Chinese antitrust probe.The NDRC, which raided Qualcomm’s Beijing and Shanghai o� c-es last year, said in February it suspected the San Diego-based � rm of overcharg-ing and abusing its market position.

On Friday, MOFCOM’s Shang launched a spirited defence of his or-ganization’s activities. “For a merger involving several jurisdictions, or mul-tiple jurisdictions, everybody doesn’t see the problem the same way,” he told an antitrust conference in Beijing.

“You can’t say that if there’s not a problem in another jurisdiction, then there won’t be a problem in China.” l

A combination photo shows the logo of Glencore (L) in front of the company's headquarters in the Swiss town of Baar and the logo of Swiss mining company Xstrata (R) at their headquarters in Zug REUTERS

Euro down in Asia on weak German business con� dencen AFP, Tokyo

The euro extended its losses against the dollar in Asia yesterday after hit-ting a three-month low last week in response to a soft reading in a German business con� dence index.

In afternoon Tokyo trading, the euro fetched $1.3618 and 138.80 yen, down from $1.3632 and 138.91 in New York on Friday.

The dollar was � at at 101.93 yen from 101.92 in New York Friday but well up from the 101.72 yen seen also on Friday in Tokyo.

Germany’s Ifo business climate in-dex for May dropped to 110.4 from 111.2,

data showed Friday, after a gain the previous month, underscoring ongoing concerns about the European economy.

Markets are growing increasingly convinced that the European Central Bank will take steps to loosen mon-etary conditions at its June meeting, in turn putting downward pressure on the euro.

ECB chief Mario Draghi is scheduled to speak at a conference later in the day.

“Markets will be looking for more clues as to what may be on o� er follow-ing next Thursday’s ECB council meet-ing,” National Australia Bank said.

A strong showing by nationalist and anti-European Union parties in EU

parliamentary elections may also be weighing on the euro, it added.

“The reality is that these results - in France especially - won’t mean a whole lot in practice but optically it’s an ob-vious pretext for some pressure on the euro and the pound,” NAB said.

It also said the dollar held � rm against the yen after Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda told the Wall Street Journal that the Japanese currency was “still quite strong”, and added that Tokyo needs to do more in its � ght to boost growth and raise in� a-tion.

in other trading, the Thai baht rose to 32.59 from 32.53 on Friday after

Thailand’s king formally appointed the army chief as head of the nation’s new military junta following a coup in the crisis-hit nation.

The dollar rose to Sg$1.2537 from Sg$1.2522, and to 1,023.85 from 1,023.79 South Korean won, and to 43.69 Philip-pine pesos from 43.61 pesos.

The greenback also strengthened to 11,615.00 Indonesian rupiah from 11,555.80 rupiah but weakened to $30.09 from Tw$30.12 and to 58.46 In-dian rupees from 58.48 rupees.

The Australian dollar slipped to 92.36 US cents from 92.41 cents while the Chinese yuan bought 16.34 yen against 16.28 yen. l

News Corp to publish newspapers for ‘decades and decades’ n AFP, Sydney

The head of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp yesterday said the group will be publishing newspapers for “decades” and hit out at the “morbid mindset” of those who say print is dead.

Chief executive Robert Thomson, who oversees more than 100 newspa-pers including The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London, rejected fears the medium was � nished as the industry battles a slump in advertising and circulation revenues.

“It’s a sign of a morbid mindset that af-� icts not just in this country but, interna-tionally, some media groups,” Thomson told The Australian broadsheet, a News Corp. newspaper. “Fatalism can be fatal. I think people have failed to articulate enough the power of print as a platform.”

He added that News Corp’s newspa-pers would be in print for “decades and decades and decades ... print will con-tinue to evolve in the same way that digital is evolving”.

His comments came just days after he extolled the value of newspapers in a me-dia and advertising event in Sydney, say-ing they played an important role in his company’s multimedia future and that

advertisers were still attracted to print. Thomson added on Monday that his

support for print did not indicate a lack of understanding of digital media.

“It’s because we get digital that we ful-ly appreciate the power of print,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s as if the executive doesn’t stick up for print because he’s almost personally embarrassed. It’s not about the image of the executive, it’s about the fundamentals of the sector.

“You need to have the platform per-mutations that suit the reader and ad-vertisers.”

News Corp., which was founded in Australia, was broken up into two � rms last year as the company sought to in-sulate its pro� table entertainment as-sets from newspapers.

One � rm retained the News Corp. name and focuses on news and publish-ing while the other company, 21st Centu-ry Fox, manages its television and � lm as-sets. Murdoch remains in control of both.

News Corp. reported a stronger-than-expected quarterly pro� t of US$48m earlier this year despite a fall in newspaper revenues. Its shares in New York have strengthened since the split to add about US$2.0 billion to its market capitalisation. l

Oil prices down in Asian trade n AFP, Singapore

Oil prices edged lower in subdued Asian trade yesterday but retained sup-port from concerns about a crisis in Lib-ya as well as an upbeat demand outlook in the United States, analysts said.

The US benchmark, West Texas In-termediate for delivery in July, fell 32 cents to $104.03 per barrel in afternoon trade. Brent North Sea crude for July delivery dropped 64 cents to $109.90.

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank said “trading action may be limited” with � nancial markets in the United States and Britain closed for public holidays.

“European geopolitical concerns and signs of improving US crude de-mand” provided a lift to prices, it said in a note to investors.

Traders are closely watching the situation in Ukraine, where chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko on Sunday

claimed a resounding victory in the country’s key presidential election

The polls were triggered after pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February. Poroshenko imme-diately vowed to end a bloody upris-ing against Kiev that thwarted voting across swathes of the separatist east.

Washington and its European allies supporting Ukraine’s Western-friendly government have accused Russia of fo-menting unrest in the country, allega-tions Moscow denies.

A full-blown armed con� ict in the ex-Soviet state - a major conduit for Russia’s gas exports to Europe - could disrupt supplies and send energy pric-es rocketing, analysts say.

Prices have been propped up by fears of a supply disruption in OPEC member Libya, where escalating lawlessness has been aggravated by power struggles be-tween politicians and militias. l

The Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BGCCI) yesterday held a farewell lunch for the German Ambassador to Bangladesh Dr Albrecht Conze who has been asked by the German Government to take up a new position at very short notice. The President of BGCCI Shakhawat Abu Khair and its executive director Daniel Seidl were present at the lunch among many others

Rancon Motors Limited, the authorised general distributor of Daimler AG in Bangladesh launched a weeklong free service campaign of the vehicles under the guidance of a Mercedes-Benz foreign expert at its Service Centre in Tejgaon, Dhaka yesterday. Nasser Shahrear Zahedee, chair of Radiant Pharmaceuticals Limited inaugurated the service campaign

Green Delta Insurance Company Limited yesterday launched a training institute named ‘Professional Advancement Bangladesh Limited (PABL)’ in association with Chartered Insurance Association (CII), UK. Chair of Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), M Shefaque Ahmed was the chief guest while Sheikh Kabir Hossain, President of Bangladesh Insurance Association (BIA) was the special guest at the event

Union Bank Ltd has inaugurated its branch at Badarkhali at Rashid Shopping Complex in Cox’s Bazar yesterday. The bank’s senior executive vice president SAM.Salimullah inaugurated the branch

Modhumoti Bank Limited recently held a board meeting at its head o� ce. The board’s chair Humayun Kabir along with the other directors were present at the meeting

Bangladesh Commerce Bank Training Institute recently organised a training course on SME � nancing and strategy. The bank’s CEO and MD, Abu Sadek Md Sohel inaugurated the course as chief guest

First Security Islami Bank Limited’s Regional Training Institute, Chittagong recently organised a workshop on foreign exchange for the bank’s � fty o� cers working in various branches of its Chittagong division. Mohammad Masum Kamal Bhuiyan, executive director of Bangladesh Bank, Chittagong inaugurated the workshop

Rupee sees biggest single-day fall in a monthn Reuters

The rupee saw its biggest decline in a month yesterday as investors covered short dollar positions ahead of the swearing in ceremony of Prime Minis-ter-designate Narendra Modi, with all eyes set on the allocation of key port-folios.

Investors are particularly keen on knowing who the country's new � nance minister is - likely to be ex-Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley, who is seen as the only obvious candidate for that role, according to two sources

in the ruling party.The BSE Sensex and Nifty ended � at

in a volatile session, giving up earlier gains of nearly 2% due to pro� t-taking in blue-chips such as IDFC while cau-tion ahead of Modi's ministerial ap-pointments also weighed.

"We could see the pair target a high of 59.27-30 levels this week. We have the GDP data this week, but that is likely to be ignored. Market will bewatching Modi and his team for cues," said Hari Chandramgethen, head of foreign exchange trading at South In-dian Bank. l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, May 27, 2014

DILBERT

IMF calls for closer cooperation among central banksn Reuters, Sintra

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, called on Sunday for closer coopera-tion among the world's central banks to cope with the challenges of increas-ingly interlinked and complex � nancial systems.

Speaking at a dinner in Sintra, Por-tugal, to kick o� the � rst annual ECB Forum conference, Lagarde said the potential gains from cooperation could be huge in times of distress as seen dur-ing the � nancial crisis.

"If policies are viewed only from a national perspective, we may end up in a world of ad hoc intervention, less re-balancing, and the potential to export � nancial instability," she said in the text of her speech.

"This would be a world of possibly large welfare losses in many countries, with not just spillover e� ects — from advanced to emerging market econo-mies, but also 'spillbacks' — feedback e� ects from emerging market to large advanced economies."

The � nancial crisis has shown that coordinated international action helped prevent disruption spreading to

economies around the globe, she said. And these upsides should not be for-gotten as the crisis subsides.

"We need a concerted e� ort to ex-amine the e� ectiveness of cooperative

policy responses, their spillover ef-fects, and their global welfare implica-tions — also in light of the evolution of the � nancial system," Lagarde said.

She also said advanced economies could help reduce volatility by com-municating clearly the course of their monetary policy.

Discussing the link between � nan-cial stability and in� ation, Lagarde said the current environment in the euro zone was a sobering reminder of how balance sheet weakness could con-strain the ability of banks to support credit and investment, ultimately con-tributing to low in� ation. l

BOJ's Iwata signals chance of tapering if economy overheatsn Reuters, Tokyo

Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kikuo Iwata signalled yesterday the possibil-ity of withdrawing the central bank's massive monetary stimulus if the econ-omy overheats and nudges up in� ation well above its 2% price target.

Iwata voiced con� dence that Japan was making steady progress in meeting the central bank's in� ation goal with prices rising not just because of a weak yen, which in� ates import costs, but

strength in domestic demand.He also said heightening in� ation

expectations in Japan would help prevent excessive rises in the yen, which had weighed on the export-reliant economy during 15 years of de� ation.

While he stressed the BOJ's resolve to maintain ultra-loose monetary con-ditions for as long as needed to beat de� ation, Iwata said the central bank's current stimulus programme also aims to prevent excessive in� ation.

"The BOJ's current policy intends to prevent not just de� ation but in� ation from well exceeding 2%, such as to 4% or 5%, for a medium- to long-term pe-riod," Iwata told a seminar.

"If the economy overheats and in� a-tion exceeds 2% on a permanent basis, we will adjust policy," he said. "On the other hand, if our price goal is distant and prices don't seem to be approach-ing the target, we will adjust policy the other way" by expanding stimulus, he added.

Since deploying its "quantitative and qualitative easing" (QQE) programme in April last year, the BOJ has remained silent on when it could consider with-drawing the stimulus for fear of dilut-ing its message that it is determined to end nearly two decades of economic stagnation.

Iwata's comments, the � rst from a senior BOJ o� cial directly mention-ing the chance of withdrawing QQE, re� ects the growing con� dence within the central bank that Japan is winning

the battle against de� ation.The BOJ has repeatedly said the

economy is recovering strongly enough for consumer in� ation to hit its 2% tar-get by around April next year, when its two-year time frame for meeting the goal expires.

While core consumer in� ation has reached 1.3% in March, market play-ers remain sceptical on whether price gains will accelerate from here as quickly as the BOJ predicts.

Still, the BOJ's optimistic view of the

economy and prices have led market players to scale back expectations of imminent monetary easing.

Iwata said that while the BOJ will support the economy by stimulating demand, it was the government's job to boost Japan's long-term growth po-tential by implementing structural re-forms.

Economic growth will remain sub-dued even if the BOJ achieves its price target, unless the government proceeds with structural reforms, he warned. l

Draghi: ECB 'alert' to de� ation riskn AFP, Sintra

The European Central Bank remains "alert" to the dangers of eurozone in� a-tion undershooting the central bank's medium-term targets, president Mario Draghi said on Monday amid widespres concern about de� ation risks.

His comments come against a back-ground of speculation over whether the central bank will take new steps to ease monetary conditions at its next meeting early in June.

"At present, our expectation is that low in� ation will be prolonged but gradually return to close to 2%," Draghi told a central banking forum organised by the ECB in Sintra, Portugal.

"Our responsibility is nonetheless to be alert to the risks to this scenario that might emerge and prepared for action if they do," Draghi said.

"What we need to be particularly watchful for at the moment is, in my view, the potential for a negative spi-ral to take hold between between low in� ation, falling in� ation expectations and credit, in particular in stressed countries," he said.

In� ation in the 18 countries that share the euro is currently way below the ECB's 2% target, picking up only fractionally to 0.7% in April. According to the ECB's latest forecasts, area-wide in� ation is projected to accelerate to 1.6% in 2016.

But the ECB's chief economist Peter Praet recently pointed out that since the beginning of the year in� ation tend-ed to come out lower than expected.

The persistently low level of in� a-tion has raised the specture of de� ation in the single currency area, a phenom-enon where households and business-es put o� expenditure in antipation of falling prices.

At its policy meeting in Brussels earlier this month, Draghi had said the ECB's governing council was "comfort-able" with the idea of easing monetary conditions next month.

While council voted to hold its key interest rate steady at its current all-time low of 0.25% for the seventh month in a row thi s month, Draghi gave the strongest hint yet that further easing is on the cards. But a decision would depend on the central bank's latest in� ation forecasts before taking concrete action.

One of the campaign arguments of anti-Eurpean Union or nationalist par-ties in the European parliament elec-tion on Sunday was that the ECB is too distant, too bureaucratic and too tight with its monetary policies. l

German consumer con� dence steadyn AFP, Frankfurt

Consumer con� dence in Germany re-mains steady following recent gains, a new poll found yesterday.

"Consumer sentiment remains in good shape this month. But, as in pre-vious months, no clear trend is discern-ible," market research company GfK said in a statement.

"The good piece of news this month is that consumers' economic expecta-tions are gaining momentum, despite the crisis in Ukraine. That is helping make them more willing to spend, al-beit only modestly," the statement said.

"By contrast, income expectations could not match the post-war high reached the previous month and gave up most of its gains from April."

Looking ahead to next month, GfK's headline household con� dence index was forecast to stand at 8.5 points in June, unchanged from May.

This reading is based on responses from about 2,000 households regard-ing their expectations about pay and the economy as a whole in the coming months, as well as their willingness to spend money.

Sentiment in Europe's top economy is currently positive, but appears to be stalling amid uncertainty about possible fallout from the crisis in Ukraine.

Last week, the Ifo business climate survey fell more than expected. l

India aims to recover 228m euros in Finmeccanica bank guaranteesn Reuters, New Delhi

India will move to recover bank guar-antees from an aborted 560-million-euro helicopter deal with Italy's Fin-meccanica, the defense ministry said, after an Italian court lifted a freeze on 228m euros held with European banks.

New Delhi scrapped the deal with Finmeccanica's AgustaWestland unit in January, after graft allegations made against the company almost a year earlier. The delay highlights the slow headway the Congress party then in power was able to make on vital defense contracts.

Congress su� ered its worst ever de-feat in India's general election in April and May. Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is due to be sworn in as prime minister on Monday night.

The overall value of the guarantee scheme with Deutsche Bank SpA DB-KGDE.UL, Deutsche Bank AG, Intesa Sanpaolo and the State Bank of India was around 300m euros, Reuters re-ported in January.

India said in February it had cashed in two small bank guarantees but an Italian judge later blocked its e� orts to recover the remaining 278m euros. On Friday, an Italian court revoked the freeze on 228m euros of that � gure.

"The ministry is studying the or-der and will take immediate steps torecover the amounts fully," India's de-fense ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Details will only emerge after the new defense minister takes o� ce, a ministry spokesman told Reuters yes-terday.

Finmeccanica has said it will seek to protect the guarantees through an arbitration process launched this year after the contract for a dozen high-end helicopters was cancelled.

Defense is one of four key portfolios, including � nance, home a� airs and for-eign a� airs, over which speculation is mounting ahead of the swearing-in of Modi's cabinet, set for Monday night.

Modi is an extremely private � gure who has kept even senior party leaders in the dark about his choices. l

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde addresses the Bretton Woods Committee annual meeting at World Bank headquarters in Washington REUTERS

The headquarters of Italian defence and aerospace company Finmeccanica is seen in Rome REUTERS

‘If policies are viewed only from a national perspective, we may end up in a world of ad hoc intervention, less rebalancing’

Report: Pork DNA found in two chocolate products of Cadbury Malaysian Reuters

Chocolate maker Cadbury Malaysia, a part of Mondelez International Inc yesterday recalled two chocolate prod-ucts after they tested positive for traces of pork DNA, the Nikkei Asian Review website reported.

The traces were found during a peri-odic check for non-halal ingredients in food products by the Ministry of Health, which on Saturday said two of three samples of the company’s products con-tained pork traces, the website said.

The two products, Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut and Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond, were readily available in stores throughout the country, Nik-kei said.

Cadbury Malaysia, like most food makers in the country where Muslims make up more than 60 percent of the population, has all of its products cer-ti� ed halal to conform with Islam’s dietary restrictions, one of which is a

prohibition on pork. The company said it was undertak-

ing a full review of its supply chain to ensure halal standards, according to the report, and the Malaysian govern-

ment said it will conduct inspection of all Cadbury Malaysia’s products.

Cadbury Malaysia was not immedi-ately available to comment on the Nik-kei report. l

Sony to sell PlayStation in newly opened China marketn AFP, Shanghai

Sony will bring its PlayStation consoles to China through two joint ventures, the Japanese gaming giant and its Chi-nese partner both said Monday, as they seek to tap a newly opened market.

China in January formally autho-rised the domestic sale of game con-soles made in its � rst free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, opening up a market with an estimated 500 million players to foreign companies including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

The Japanese � rm’s newest games console - PlayStation 4 - has seen re-cord demand since its launch in late 2013 with sales topping seven million units globally last month.

The opening of the huge Chinese market could be a major boost for So-ny’s videogame business, its chief ex-ecutive said Monday, as the � rm looks to cast o� years of losses.

“The Chinese market, just given the size of it, is obviously potentially a very large market for videogame products,” Kazuo Hirai told reporters at Sony’s headquarters in Tokyo.

“I think that we will be able to rep-

licate the kind of success we have had with PS4 in other parts of the world in (China).”

Generating localised games would be key to success in the vast market, he added.

“Initially, we will start with non-Chinese games, that’s � ne because that’s all we have,” Hirai said.

“But (longer term) it’s about getting involved in the local content creation market, which I think is very important for real success in the Chinese market.”

Earlier Monday, Shanghai-listed tourism and culture � rm Oriental Pearl said it would set up two joint ventures with Sony in the FTZ, one for hardware and one to handle software and servic-es, according to a statement � led to the stock exchange.

Sony will take a 49% stake in one venture and a majority 70% in the other, the statement said, to make and market PlayStation consoles and relat-ed software in China.

Despite the news, Oriental Pearl stock closed down 0.54% yesterday. Sony shares ended up 3.12% in Tokyo trading. The ventures will help intro-duce “quality and healthy” gaming

products to Chinese players, the Ori-ental Pearl statement said, one of the requirements of authorities for selling in China.

Some foreign industry o� cials fear that such regulatory approval - con-ceivably to censor game content which China deems too violent, obscene or politically sensitive - could be used as a potential trade barrier.

Competitor Microsoft said in late April that it will start o� ering its Xbox One game console in China from September through a joint venture in the FTZ.

The relaxation of the decade-long sales ban does not apply to console im-ports, though the devices are already widely available through uno� cial sales channels after being smuggled into China.

China’s game revenue jumped 38% year-on-year to 83.2bn yuan in 2013, according to one industry estimate, al-though the market was dominated by online computer games.

Analysts say Chinese consumers are unlikely to want to pay high prices for foreign consoles and authorised soft-ware, especially if it is slow coming to the market. l