Saran: India’s Bangladesh policy not subject to change in government n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Indian policy towards Bangladesh would remain the same, irrespective of whether there was a change in gov-ernment at New Delhi or in Dhaka, said Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pankaj Saran yesterday.

“If our government changes after May 17 or the life of your current gov-ernment expires, we are not going cut down power lines or shut down Moitree Express, say for example,” Saran said at a lecture titled “India and India-Bang-ladesh Relationship,” organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies in the capital.

“In my view, the relationship be-tween two countries depends a great deal on what our mutual interests are and, I mean, interests really do not change with governments,” he said.

Claiming that substantial progress had been made through New Delhi’s interactions with several Bangladeshi governments over the past four dec-ades, Saran said: “Our national interest would be to try and give it our best shot to deal with any government that is in Bangladesh at a given point in time.”

Asked about the popular perception that India gave preferential treatment to a speci� c group of people in Bangla-desh, Saran said: “With regard to popu-

lar perception about India-Bangladesh relations and our assessment to that - we are doing our job. Now it is a judge-ment call.”

The Indian high commissioner can-didly admitted that Dhaka and New Delhi knew each other, but did not un-derstand each other.

He also suggested that the relationship should expand beyond governments and politics and reach out to all spheres of life.

Pankaj said big power rivalries in the region would not contribute to regional peace and stability. “It is up to you to choose a strategic partner. India has nothing to say in the matter,” he said.

The diplomat said India wanted to see a regional structure where all countries in the region contributed to an environ-ment of peace, stability and prosperity. In that vein, India has taken an initiative

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Imran about forming party: Timeand people will sayn Tribune Report

Gonojagoron Moncho, a youth-led platform which was formed last year protesting the life-term sentence of war criminal Abdul Quader Molla, is likely to form a political party in future.

Imran H Sarker, spokesperson of the platform, made the disclosure while talking to private television Channel i on Sunday.

Imran said: “The movement of Gonojagoron Moncho is going ahead in three ways simultaneously – it is a po-litical movement, a social movement and a cultural movement.

“Time will say in which way the movement will move forward and where to end in the future. We cannot rule out the possibility that Gonojagoron Moncho may form a political party. If the people want, the Moncho will certainly go in such a way,” he said.

When the Dhaka Tribune contact-ed him over phone yesterday, Imran said: “We are yet to make a decision on whether to form a party or not. We also do not discuss it within any forum.

“But there is a demand among the leaders and activists of the platform to form a political party,” he said.

“Last year we arranged a national convention when leaders and activists from 480 platforms [formed expressing solidarity with the Shahbagh-based movement against war criminals] across the country gathered at the Senate Bhaban of Dhaka University. The demand to form a political party was raised at the programme.”

A similar demand came later dur-ing an open discussion at Shahbagh,he said.

“We will continue our move-ment, and time and the people willdecide what we should do,” Imranadded. l

THE BATTLE BEGINSP16

20 pages plus 16-page T-Mag tabloid | Price: Tk10

Chaitra 25, 1420Jamadius Sani 7, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 10 TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

9 | NEW ‘PINGS’ BEST LEAD YET 14 | CHELSEA SEEK NAPOLI REPEAT TMAG | RAISE YOUR VOICES 7 | IF THE HOUSE COULD SPEAK

BusinessB1 The budget de� cit for the current � scal year would go beyond the target, forcing the government to borrow more from the banks and crowding out the private sector.

News3 The � rst prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Maulana Abdus Subhan yesterday described the killing of three members of his family during the 1971 Liberation War.

5 Rajdhani Unnayan Kar-tripakkha had taken a plan two years ago to improve the lake in posh Uttara Residential Model Town of the capital.

Nation6 Lalmonirhat : The tobacco processing facilities in the district pose health hazards, with at least 200 such installations built in three upazilas under the funding of tobacco companies.

Op-Ed11 Like a lot of people, I was somewhat taken aback by Begum Khaleda Zia’s recent brazen attempt to re-write the history of Bangladesh.

Entertainment12 At present, the feeling of patriotism is quiet prom-inent among the people of Bangladesh and many � lm-makers are addressing the glorious history and coming up with � lms consisting pa-triotic messages and stories.

INSIDE

Requests sway transfer ordersMeddling by in� uentials disrupts grassroots healthcare servicesn Moniruzzaman Uzzal

With the country’s health sector already struggling with a shortage of doctors in the rural areas, rampant interference by in� uential � gures in meddling with transfer orders are further plaguing ef-forts at ensuring healthcare for all.

Di� erent quarters – including cabi-net members, lawmakers, bureaucrats,

political and doctor leaders – were al-legedly imposing their interference on authorities concerned to sway deci-sions on the transfers, posting and ed-ucation leaves for junior doctors.

O� cials at root-level health facili-ties told the Dhaka Tribune that despite holding junior posts, some doctors of-ten called in favours from in� uential � gures to exempt themselves from be-ing transferred.

Recently, a senior health o� cial of Rangpur division had transferred

a junior doctor from Lalmonirhat to a Nilphamari hospital, after local lawmaker and Cultural A� airs Minis-ter Asaduzzaman Noor submitted a semi-o� cial letter to the authority con-cerned seeking recruitment of doctors at Nilphamari to meet the shortage of health o� cials.

However, no sooner than the post-ing order was given, several in� uential o� cials from the Prime Minister’s Of-� ce allegedly began to try and cancel the posting order. When the senior Rangpur o� cial mentioned Noor’s let-ter and the health minister’s directive on not cancelling any posting without his direction, the PMO o� cials report-edly threatened him with dire conse-quences if he failed to cancel the post-ing order.

Following the threat, the health of-� cial noti� ed the issue to a director of the DGHS and sought his suggestion.

Such scenarios of exercising in� u-ence were common throughout the country, said several senior o� cials of the health ministry and the Directorate General of Health Services.

Seeking anonymity, they added that � eld-level o� cials have failed to follow repeated instructions from the prime minister and the health minister to

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Dhaka and New Delhi knew each other, but did not understand each other

Field o� cials fail to follow repeated instructions to not tolerate meddlingby in� uentials

Businessmen continue to dump tar and other hazardous chemicals in a roadside ditch in Narayanganj. The impact of such practice on the land, water and trees is clear. The photo was taken recently near Kanchpur Bridge MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

BJP manifesto pledges fencing along Bangladesh bordern Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yes-terday announced its election man-ifesto for 2014, where the party said it would complete all pending fenc-ing work along the India-Bangladeshborder.

On foreign policy, the BJP manifesto read: “In our neighbourhood we will pursue friendly relations. However, where required we will not hesitate from taking strong stand and steps.”

About regional forum, the BJP said: “We will work towards strengthening regional forums like Saarc and Asean.”

The manifesto also attached high priority to a controversial project of in-ter-linking of rivers based on feasibility.

The Indian water resources minis-try, in a press release issued in 2012, said the National Water Development Agency had already identi� ed 14 links under Himalayan component.

Out of the 14 links, survey and in-vestigation in Indian portion had taken up for Manas-Sankosh-Tista-Ganga link and Jogighopa (at Brahmaputra)-Tis-ta-Ganga at Farakka link.

Survey and investigation had al-ready been completed for Ganga

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

What went wrong with Gonojagoron Moncho?n Ahmed Zayeef

Although it dates back nearly to the birth of the platform in February last year, the con� icts of interests among various groups centring the Gonojagoron Mon-cho have become obvious recently.

According to people close to the Moncho, there have always been two broad streams of interest surrounding its activities.

On one side, there was the ruling Awami League’s student front Chhatra League, who had from the very � rst day been trying to establish its absolute command over the platform.

On di� erent ocassions, it got sup-port from the JSD Chhatra League, Chhatra Moitree and Chhatra Andolan, whose mother organisations are all al-lied to the ruling party.

On the other hand, the student

fronts of the leftist organisations out-side the Awami League-led alliance – Chhatra Union, Chhatra Front, Chhatra Federation, Biplobi Chhatra Moitree, Chhatra Oikya Forum – tried to hold onto their in� uence over the Moncho.

As a result, there has always been disagreements surrounding the pro-grammes, duration of the movement and leadership since the time the Mon-cho was formed.

The Chhatra League-led groups have repeatedly accused the other groups of undermining their activists, nontrasparently managing funds and blamed spokesperson Imran H Sarkar for his autocratic attitude.

Uncon� rmed sources said trade bodies, individuals and organisations closely linked with the ruling party have on di� erent ocassions donated

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

BULLYING LAWS AND NATURE

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

BSF hands over bodies of Tripura mob victimsn Tribune Report

Indian Border Security Force yesterday handed over the bodies of three Ban-gladeshi nationals who were killed by a mob in Khowai city in the Indian state of Tripura on Sunday.

Direndra Bayetri, second-in-com-mand of BSF Tripura camp, handed over the bodies to Border Guard Ban-gladesh 14 Battalion Commander Lt Col Saif Uddin Kawser and Balla border camp Subedar Nayek Osman Gani near the Chunarughat border.

Later, the family members of the deceased took the bodies from Chunarughat police station O� -cer-in-Charge Amullya Kumar Chow-dhury. Local UP Chairman Tajul Islam was present at the time, reports our Habiganj correspondent.

On Sunday, � ve Bangladeshi nation-als were caught by locals in Khowai – some six kilometres inside Tripura border – when they had gone there to lift cattle, said Lt Col Kawser.

Three of the suspected cattle traders were killed by a mob, while two man-aged to escape with injuries.

The victims are Siddiq Ali, 60, of Hapter Haor under Gazipur union of Chunarughat, Anwar Mia, 30, of Man-

ikbhandar village, and Shundor Ali, 40, of Osmanpur village under the same upazila.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has con-demned the deaths of the three Bangla-deshi nationals at the hands of Indian civilians and expressed its deep con-cern over the matter.

“The Ministry of Foreign A� airs has o� cially lodged a strong protest with the Indian side against the atrocious killing of three Bangladeshi nationals by Indian civilians yesterday [April 6, 2014] in the state of Tripura, India,” said a press release of the foreign min-istry.

The Indian authorities have also been requested to conduct an inquiry into the incident and take appropriate action at the earliest against those re-sponsible.

It is learnt from the Indian side that some Indian nationals have already been arrested in Tripura by the local authorities in this connection.

The matter is being followed up with the Indian authorities both from Dhaka and New Delhi.

India’s Border Security Force has regretted the incident and said they would take legal action against those responsible. l

Civil Service Act to be activatedn Mohosinul Karim

The government has � nally taken up initiatives to enact the civil service act – after four years of � nalising the draft – and start decentralisation of the ad-ministration.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yes-terday asked secretaries to examine the inconsistencies in the draft and � nalise it for passage in parliament.

The instruction came at a four-hour-long meeting with the secretaries of di� erent ministries at the Secretariat – her � rst meeting with the secretaries after assuming o� ce.

Twenty-two out of 61 secretaries attended the meeting and took part in the open discussion. They heard and o� ered to the prime minister sugges-tions on di� erent issues.

Hasina also asked the secretaries to prepare plans and implement devel-

opment projects giving priority to the government’s election manifesto.

She had briefed the bureaucrats on the vision, philosophy and policies of the present government and given them necessary guidance and instruc-tions, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting.

He said the prime minister had laid emphasis on enacting the civil service act soon to accelerate the activities of the civil administration. The secretaries concerned would � nalise the draft of the act, updating it according to demands.

The draft was prepared in 2010 in con-sultation with the stakeholders and was sent to the Prime Minister’s O� ce for ap-proval. But, it was stuck at the PMO.

Musharraf said the administrative system of the country would also be de-centralised to eliminate people’s su� er-ings. It would help the government take

services to people’s doorsteps.The premier instructed the secretar-

ies to work on the civil service act on a priority basis so the government could pass the law shortly.

Regarding the power supply sys-tem, Hasina said: “We have produced adequate electricity for the people. But, the people are not getting power because of a shortage of transmission lines. So, the o� cials concerned should emphasise projects to establish power transmission lines on a priority basis.”

The power secretary complained about not getting payments for elec-tricity bills.

The premier also gave instructions for preventing food adulteration and pre-paring a database for social safety net to prevent overlapping of the programmes.

The prime minister asked the � -nance secretary to arrange money for the defaulting ministries and o� ces. l

HC summons Gayeshwar, two DAB leaders n UNB

The High Court yesterday summoned BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and two leaders of Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh (DAB) over a contempt of court charge.

An HC bench comprising Justice Kazi Reza-UlHaq and justice ABM Al-taf Hossain passed the order following newspaper reports. The DAB leaders are Vice-President Prof Dr MA Salam and Secretary General Prof Dr AZM Za-hid Hossain.

The court asked them to appear before it on April 20. On Sunday, Gayeshwar said all courts were con� ned to Mujib coat.

The court also issued a rule asking them to explain why legal steps would not be taken against them for making such a comment. l

IMF mission for releasing $140m ECF tranche n Tribune Report

The International Monetary Fund would release a credit instalment of $140.5m as its mission concluded the fourth review early this month under a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement of about $1bn.

The sta� -level agreement is, how-ever, subject to review by the manage-ment and the executive board of the IMF, said a statement issued yesterday.

Upon the completion of the review, expected in May, the instalment would be made available to Bangladesh – the � fth of the seven-instalment credit.

An IMF mission, led by Rodrigo Cubero, visited Dhaka during March 19 to April 2 to conduct the review. They met the min-isters of � nance and planning, the secre-taries of � nance and banking, the central bank governor, and development partners.

The mission reached agreement on the quantitative targets and policies needed to complete the fourth review

based on sound macroeconomic pol-icies, the government’s on-track eco-nomic programmes and progress on structural reforms.

“Real GDP growth is expected to be below 6% for � scal year 2014 as unrest and uncertainty in the run-up to the January 2014 general election have tak-en a toll on the Bangladesh economy,” Cubero said in the statement.

Imports, remittances, tax collections and credit growth have all slowed. In-� ation has edged up, largely due to food supply disruptions. Exports, however, have proven resilient, helped by Ban-gladesh’s growing share of the global textile market. “Provided political sta-bility continues and uncertainty abates, growth should rise above 6% in FY15.”

He said the authorities’ programme continued to be suitably focused on maintaining � scal prudence, consolidat-ing debt management, strengthening the � nancial sector, and promoting growth and improving labour conditions. l

What went wrong with Gonojagoron Moncho? PAGE 1 COLUMN 6amounts ranging from Tk20 lakh to Tk10,000 to the Moncho.

The leaders of the second group have always said as soon as the Mon-cho started raising voice against vari-ous irregularities, it lost its utility to the ruling party, who since then had been trying to eliminate it, mainly using its student front.

However, activists close to the Mon-cho believe that the Shahbagh move-ment has been extended more than was needed.

They said the Moncho should have given a pause soon after the initial de-mand for amending the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act was realised, that eventually ensured capital punish-ment for Quader Molla. The movement should from then onwards be taken forward in phases.

They also said lack of foresight of the top leadership of the platform was another vital reason why things started going wrong and the Moncho lost most of the overwhelming public support it

got initially. The reference was to Im-ran H Sarkar, who, they said, failed to see the importance of not elongating the movement.

Sources said Imran used to be an ac-tive member of the Chhatra League when he was a student of the Rangpur Medi-cal College. There are rumours that the Awami League government orchestrated his rise to the leadership of the Moncho becuase he had been loyal to the party. At that time, the student groups decided to accept him becuase they thought a fresh face would help their cause.

The � rst issue that reportedly led to a con� ict between the Moncho and the Chhatra League was surrounding its slogan. The Moncho wanted it to be “Joy Bangla, Joy Janata” (meaning hail Bangla, hail people), which sounded much neutral. The Chhatra League, which till then was working closely with the Moncho, wanted the platform to adopt Awami League’s slogan – the famed “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu.”

The next con� ict arose when Chha-tra League wanted the Moncho to slow

down after the government on Febru-ary 17 last year amended the ICT act keeping provision for the state side to appeal against tribunal verdict. But the other anti-Chhatra League groups wanted the movement to continue.

Seeking anonymity, one of the co-ordinators of the Moncho said Chhatra League President Badiuzzaman Sho-hagh last attended a meeting of the Moncho in March last year. He walked out of that meeting protesting a de-cision to gherao the prime minister’s o� ce in support of the Moncho’s six-point demand. He has never been seen with the Moncho again.

More recently, Moncho acitivists got involved in a scu� e with the Chhatra League men on the internet after the Moncho strongly criticised the gov-ernment for taking money from the Jamaat-owned Islami Bank for organis-ing the national anthem event on Inde-pendence Day.

On March 26, the Moncho was forced to stage its scheduled programme in front of the Public Library after a

pro-Chhatra League group named “Gourob Ekattor” took possession of a temporary shade in Shahbagh that was until then being used by the Moncho.

On the very same day, the Chhatra League brought allegations of defam-ing the national � ag against the Mon-cho. The next day, it brought out a anti-Moncho procession on the Dhaka University campus.

On April 4, the Gonojagoron Moncho and another pro-Chhatra League group named “Muktijoddha Santan Com-mand” called programmes at Shahbagh at the same time. When the two groups gathered there, their members got into a scu� e. Soon after, the groups � led separate cases against each other with the Shahbagh police station.

FM Shahin, general secretary of Gourob Ekattor, was the general secre-tary of a local unit of Chhatra League in Narail district from 2008-10. Meanwhile, Mehedi Islam, president of the Mukti-joddha Command Council, have been seen on various ocassions attending Chhatra League programmes actively.

Chhatra League chief Shohagh said: “We do not have any con� ict with the Gonojagoron Moncho. We are also car-rying our own movement forward in the same demand that they have.”

He also claimed none of the mem-bers of his organisation had ever been involved with attacking Moncho activ-ists.

Seeking anonymity, another organ-iser of the Moncho said spokesperson Imran had recently been ignoring some of the other � gures, who had been there with the movement since the be-ginning.

Instead he had been trying to form another structure of his own along with some new faces such as Nabend-hu Saha Joy, Reshmi Akhter, Sayeeda Sultana Anny and Imrul Kayes. Sources said none of these people have any cre-dential as organisers.

A former student leader said the Moncho had lost all the spirit that it had started with; now everyone was busy reaping their own bene� ts such as grabbing media limelight.

Bappaditya Basu, president of Bang-ladesh Chhatra Moitree, told the Dhaka Tribune that Imran had been taking most of the decisions on � nancial mat-ters and most other things on his own.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Imran said the ruling party has been unhap-py with the Moncho becuase it had on di� erent ocassions strongly criticised some of the government actions.

Regarding allegations about � nan-cial nontransparency, he claimed that he had never taken any money from anyone personally. “Whoever wanted to donate money, had to come to Shah-bagh and do it in front of people,” he said.

He however did not say anything about not having an o� cial bank ac-cout for managing the Moncho’s � -nances.

Claiming that misunderstanding were natural to arise surrounding a movement that had been going on for so long, Imran expressed hopes about being able to resolve the existing con-� icts through discussions. l

Saran: India’s Bangladesh policy not subject to change in government PAGE 1 COLUMN 3to bring the region’s navies together for a forum – the Indian Ocean Naval Sym-posium, he said.

Pankaj also admitted that the Indian security apparatus once treated Bang-ladesh in a similar way as it treated Pakistan, but added that this view was changing fast.

On a separate note, the Indian envoy expressed regret that agreements could not be reached over Teesta water-sharing and a rati� cation of the land boundary.

“We regret the fact that we are not being able to agree on Teesta sharing agreement and it is unfortunate that we are not being able to ratify the land boundary agreement,” he said.

About the prospect of ratifying the land boundary agreement in the

post-election period in India, he said it was di� cult to say. “I think we just have to wait and see,” he said.

The envoy admitted that a trade im-balance was a big problem in the trade relations between the two countries.

“You should target normal trade with Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad where the cash cows are and where the consumers live,” he said.

About duty-free access to India, Sa-ran said a decision was made to open up the Indian market to all Bangladeshi products except 25 tari� lines, with an expectation that the opportunity would be grabbed by the Bangladesh business and industry.

“The process has begun and some are early starters and they are aggres-sively entering the Indian market,”he said. l

Requests sway PAGE 1 COLUMN 2show “zero tolerance” on such issues. The crisis had worsened in the root-level in re-cent years, reportedly because of falling number of doctors working at local health facilities. The vacuum had been created as a large number of root-level doctors had moved to cities on deputations, as at-tachments, or for higher studies.

Meanwhile, according to the DGHS’ annual bulletin for 2013, the country cur-rently had 6,198 vacant posts for doctors.

Asked about the pressures coming from in� uential people, Dr Md Shah Newaz, director (administration) of the DGHS, said all senior o� cials at division-al, district and upazila hospitals have been told to contact the health minister if they received any illegal recommendation. On another note, the director said the shortage of manpower in the health sector would be overcome after 6,000 new doctors are re-cruited through the 33rd BCS exams. l

BJP manifesto pledges fencing along Bangladesh PAGE 1 COLUMN 1(Farakka)-Sunderbans link and Gan-ga-Damodar-Subernarekha link.

The Indian ministry formulated aNational Perspective Plan for water resources development in 1980 envisaging inter-basin transfer of water from surplus basins to de� cit basins/areas which comprises two components, namely, Himalayan Rivers Development Component and Peninsular Rivers Development Component.

The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) was set up under the ministry in 1982 for carrying out vari-ous technical studies to establish the feasibility of the proposals of NPP and to give concrete shape to it. l

Now they queue for Shamim Osman n Tribune Report

More than 200 students of an institu-tion in Narayanganj were made to line up under the scorching sun for one hour yesterday to welcome ruling par-ty lawmaker Shamim Osman, defying a recent directive of the education minis-try against such practice.

The Awami League MP fell sick due to the heat wave. He was later taken to

United Hospital in the capital, his wife Lipi Osman con� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune.

He was invited as chief guest at an award giving ceremony of Rebati Mo-han Pilot School and College in Shid-dhirganj for its annual sports competi-tion and among meritorious students.

Also head of the institution’s govern-ing body, the lawmaker arrived at the venue 30 minutes after the scheduled

time. The students were seen standing in queue on both sides of the road from the institute’s gate up to Shiddhirganj Bazar from 10:30am to 11:30am.

When asked, Principal Nur Islam brushed o� the allegation saying that the students had been lined up on the institute’s premises.

To greet the lawmaker, students of MW School in Adamjeenagar of Shid-dhirganj were lined up on March 22. l

Govt for � scal measures to stop capital � ight n Tribune Report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said the government is likely to take � scal measures to stop capital � ight from the country considering the trend is rising.

“We have seen that investment rate is low while savings rate is high. So it is assumed that a large sum of money was transferred abroad in the last cou-ple of years,” Muhith told journalist after a pre-budget meeting with econ-omists and former bureaucrats at the state guest house Padma.

He also said the government would conduct a new survey on the country’s black money, which would be techni-cally sound compared to the one con-ducted � ve years ago.

Former � nance minister M Syeduz-zaman, former � rst � nance secretary Matiul Islam, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan, Executive Director Musta� zur Rahman and Distinguished Fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya attended the meeting.

Regarding the sluggish implementa-tion of Public Private Partnership initia-tives, the minister said the economists and former secretaries had suggested him that the World Bank’s land acquisition rule should be executed in Bangladesh for smooth operation of the PPP projects.

Muhith also said the government might introduce urban tax from the next � scal year to enhance revenue earnings. The economists advised him to allocate more funds for higher edu-cation to face global challenges. l

HC: Submit police reports on � ring on RU studentsn UNB

The High Court yesterday directed the authorities concerned to submit before it probe reports on police � ring on the students of Rajshahi University.

The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khur-shid Alam Sarker asked the inspector general of police, the Rajshahi Metro-politan Police Commissioner and the OC of Matihar police station to come up with the reports within one week.

It also issued a rule upon the author-ities concerned asking them upon what authority the police opened � re on the agitating students. The rule also wanted to know why they should not be direct-ed to submit the reports already submit-ted to the higher authorities as per the Police Regulations of Bengal, 1943.

The home secretary, the IGP, the RMP commissioner and the Matihar OC were made respondents to the rule.

The court orders came upon a writ petition challenging the legality of the police � ring on the students. Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua � led the petition on behalf of 14 university teachers and several rights organisa-tions on February 18.

On February 2, police and Bangla-desh Chhatra League activists swung into action while the agitating students were demonstarting on the campus in protest against fee hike and evening master’s programmes.

Police � red rubber bullets and lobbed teargas canisters as they refused to disperse, leaving over 50 injured. Besides, the BCL men joined the police during the attacks on the students. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

BCL activists beat up 3 JU studentsn JU Correspondent

Two members of Bangladesh Chhatra League, armed with sticks and bats, allegedly beat up three residents of Ja-hangirnagar University’s Mir Moshar-rof Hossain hall on Sunday night for refusing to collect money from fellow students.

The Chhatra League activists raided a room at the dormitory around mid-night, and beat up three � rst-year stu-dents of biochemistry, sources said.

The sources claimed that BCL leader Jabed Sajal, a student of economics, had asked Alamgir, Yasir and Masud to col-lect donations from other residents to al-legedly help an old acquaintance of his.

As they refused, Jabed, along with his friend Jamil, a student of urban planning, allegedly attacked the freshmen with wooden sticks and cricket bats.

Senior students of the hall rescued the injured victims and sent them to the university’s medical centre. l

Mohiuddin exempted from NBR case n Tushar Hayat, Chittagong

A Chittagong court yesterday exempt-ed former Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin from a case � led by the National Board of Revenue for hiding information in his wealth statement and dodging tax.

Judge SM Ataur Rahman of Chit-tagong Divisional Special Judge Court passed the order, accepting a recom-mendation of the Home Ministry, in a case � led against Mohiuddin for evading Tk27.58 lakh in taxes and hiding infor-mation of around Tk1.13 crore wealth.

Income Tax Additional Assistant Commissioner Ziaul Haque lodged the case against Mohiuddin on July 7, 2008.

The High Court, however, stayed the case on December 3 the same year. l

Cabinet approves Surplus Public Servants Absorption Actn Mohosinul Karim

The cabinet yesterday approved the draft of Surplus Public Servants Ab-sorption Act- 2014, subject to the vet-ting of the law ministry.

The approval was given at the week-ly cabinet meeting held at the secretar-iat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The law, which has been formulated to legalise the repealed ordinances pro-mulgated during two military regimes, will be sent to the parliament for pas-sage after getting approval of the law ministry.

“We have to prepare a fresh draft of the law as the court has declared illegal the acts of two military rulers,” Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhui-yan told reporters after the meeting.

The new law has been enacted in Bangla. There is no major change in the new law except linguistic changes, he added.

Bhuiyan said the government usually announces public servants

as surplus during reforms of the administration.

He said the public servants can be declared surplus for dissolving any public o� ces or posts and reorganising the structures or if any post seems unnecessary. The government usually places the surplus public servants under the public administration ministry.

“The ministry gives them posting. It has the authority to allow any other ministry to assign the surplus public servants,” he said, adding that they have enough vacancies than the sur-plus public servants.

“But a surplus public servant has no option to choose another post after get-ting posting. Once anyone is posted, it is � nal as his new assignment.”

Meanwhile, the cabinet was in-formed of the outcomes of the BIMS-TEC meeting held in Myanmar and the governing council meeting of Interna-tional Fund for Agricultural Develop-ment (IFAD) held in Italy recently. Seen by Mizan. l

Fakhrul bailed, ‘no bar to release’ n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday granted BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir six-month interim bail in a case � led against him with the Ramna police station.

The HC bench of Justice Borha-nuddin and Justice KM Kamrul Kader passed the order upon a plea.

The court also issued a rule upon the government to explain why Fakhrul should not be granted permanent bail in the case and asked a reply to the rule in four weeks.

Lawyer Ehsanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that Fakhrul had se-cured bail in all the cases � led against him and there was no bar to release him from jail.

The BNP leader was accused to have instigated a bomb-attack in capital’s Malibagh during pre-election violence in November 30 last year. A case was � led against 50-60 unidenti� ed per-sons in connection with the killing of Habibur Rahman who died in the at-tack. Initially the leader’s name was not included in the case FIR but was later added as the instigator of the incident.

Mirza Fakhrul is currently at Kashimpur jail in Gazipur in four cases, including this Ramna police case. l

Witness describes Azhar’s involvement in war crimesn Udisa Islam

A new prosecution witness in the case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam claimed that the accused had directly been involved in the Jha-ruar Beel massacre in Rangpur where around 1,200 unarmed civilians were killed during the 1971 Liberation War.

Mujibor Rahman Master, then teacher of Shyampur High School in Badarganj of the district, yesterday told the International Crimes Tribunal 1 that Azhar used to take part in the meetings of Peace Committee to plan atrocities.

After his deposition, defence coun-sel Abdus Sobhan Tarafder started questioning him and the tribunal ad-journed the proceedings until today.

Several witnesses have so far de-scribed the Jharuar Beel genocide. Al-leged al-Badr commander of Rangpur, Azhar is facing six charges of crimes against humanity including genocide.

Witness Mujibor said on April 16, 1971, the accused had gone to Tekshor-haat railway station along with the

Pakistani Army men. On the way to Muksedpur village, they set � re to ev-ery house beside the road and killed at least 15 unarmed civilians. Mujibor said he had heard about Azhar’s presence during the incident from locals.

Later, they had gone to Jharuar Beel and killed civilians and also captured many. He heard about the incidents from Meser Uddin, an organiser of freedom � ghters. He also named some martyrs including Pran Krishna Master.

Mujibor said after April, members of the Peace Committee had arranged reg-ular meetings at the house of Jagadish at Badarganj. Bachcha Mia, Ohidul Huq Chowdhury and Mir Afzal had been the leaders of that committee and Azharul participated in those meetings.

He said on December 2, he had gone to Rangpur Town Hall and saw many dead bodies in a well inside the hall and blood stains on the walls. He came to know that the Pakistan Army per-sonnel had tortured women there and Azhar was involved with the abduction process. l

RAB detains 12 for blackmailingn Kailash Sarkar

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested 12 members of an extortion gang from the capital’s Baridhara area yesterday.

RAB claimed that the gang used to blackmail businessmen out of large sums of money.

Major Mohammad Asif Kuddus of Rab 1 said three other alleged crimi-nals, including the gang leader, man-aged to � ee.

The drive was conducted from 10am to 4:30pm yesterday. The gang had been running its ilicit activities from an o� ce at House 448, Road 7, Baridhara.

The RAB o� cials said during pri-mary interrogation, the detainees ad-mitted that they used to develop close relations with businessmen and indus-trialists they considered their targets.

Later, they lured the businessmen into coming to their o� ce and caught them secretly on camera with women, said Major Mohammad Asif Kuddus.

The youth then blackmailed the men into giving them large amounts of money.

“We are trying our best to arrest the three who � ed when RAB approached,” said Major Asif.

He said they discovered the network and its o� ce following an allegation by one Khalilur Rahman from Taltoli upazi-la, Barguna district and a resident at Kuril in the capital. Khalil said the gang cheat-ed him out of his fortune and he was forced to part with a large sum of money.

The 12 detainees are Omar Faruq, 20, a resident of Shibbari Sta� Quar-ters, Dhaka University; Al Imran Hos-sain, 24, Atiqur Rahman alias Raihan,

25, a resident of Baridhara DOHS; Nihar Ranjan Das, 25; Montaser Rahman alias Rajeeb, 23, a resident of DU Shahid-ullah Hall; Tuhin Hossain; Sakhawat Hossain, 33, a resident of Utttarkhan in Uttara; Anwar Hossain, 34, a resident of Dakkhinkhan in Uttara; Al Amin Hossain, 17, a resident of Cantonment area; Aiyub Ali, 35, a resident of Mad-hubagh in Moghbazar; Moinul Islam, 22, a resident of Baridhara DOHS; and Mohammad Mostofa, 31, a resident of North Shahjahanpur in the city.

The elite force claimed to have seized � ve computers, 4 laptops, 2 i-pads, 1 scanner, 1 netbook, 2 CCTV-cameras, 1 still camera, 7 pendrives, 38 cartridges, 9 modems, 15 passports, 1 DVD writer, a magazine and a metal detector from their possession during the raid on the building. l

First witness refuses to call Subhan a ‘Maulana’ n Udisa Islam

The � rst prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Maulana Abdus Subhan yesterday described the killing of three members of his family during the 1971 Liberation War, where the accused led the slaughter with a sword in his hand.

ATM Shahiduzzaman Nasim, then a secretary of the Bangladesh Students’ Union in Ishwardi, Pabna said address-ing a war criminal as a ‘Maulana’ (reli-gious scholar) was a sin.

Nasim works as a journalist at a na-tional daily. He was cross examined by the defence counsel before the tribunal adjourned for the day.

The witness said on April 12, 1971, Subhan went to the Ishwardi Central Mosque and asked villagers who had taken shelter there from Pakistani forc-es to prove their religious convictions.

“On April 13, the Pakistani Army will come here and you all should give an account of your religious beliefs. If you work in favour of [united] Pakistan, then you will not face any danger,” the witness quoted Subhan as saying.

On April 17, Nasim went to the cen-tral mosque to rescue his uncle, broth-er-in-law and nephew who had taken shelter there. “When I reached, I saw Subhan and his cohorts dragging my uncle, Moazzem Hossain, out of the mosque forcefully. They took him to a nearby coal depot. Subhan rolled up his sleeves and hit my uncle with a sword before his cohorts chopped him up.”

The witness told the tribunal that Subhan had killed his brother-in-law and nephew on April 18 in the same way. He saw the incidents while hiding in a nearby bush. Nasim further claimed that his cousin Tohurul Hossain, son of Moazzem, told him that he also saw his father’s death from another bush.

After his deposition, the witness identi� ed the accused in the dock, say-ing that he looked the same as he did during 1971. “I don’t want to call him a Maulana because of his war crimes. But as the case is against Maulana Abdus Subhan, I have uttered the word.”

Defence counsel Mizanul Islam started cross examining the witness. He asked Nasim whether the prosecu-tion had forced him to call the accused

Maulana. The witness dismissed the suggestion.

The trial against Subhan began on April 2 by, nearly two months after his indictment.

The accused was indicted by Tribu-nal 1 on December 31 on nine charges of crimes against humanity and he is liable for individual and as well as joint criminal responsibility. The case was transferred to Tribunal 2 on March 27.

The accused was the acting chief of Jamaat Pabna unit during the war. The prosecution said: “Subhan led and in some cases accompanied anti-libera-tion forces that committing atrocities from April 11, 1971cin and around Pab-na. He was the secretary of Pabna unit Peace Committee that was formed in May, 1971.”

Subhan was also accused in 1972 by a special tribunal of collaborating with the Pakistani occupation forces and was summoned. However, he did not face trial as he had already � ed to Paki-stan with former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam. He became a member of parlia-ment in the 2001 national elections, from Pabna 5 constituency. l

CHIEF WHIP UNDER ACC SCANNER

Tk13.5 crore loan forgery allegedly exempted prior polln Tribune Report

The Anti-Corruption Commission has initiated an inquiry against the chief whip of Jatiya Sangsad, ASM Feroz, and his brother ABM Reza over their alleged involvement with loan forgery from the state-owned Sonali Bank Limited by abusing power.

The state agency was set to ques-tion them and Sonali Bank Managing Director Pradip Kumar Dutta yesterday. However, the two brothers did not ap-pear before the ACC investigators at its headquarters in Segunbagicha.

Instead, the elder brother of Feroz, Abul Moksud Mohammad Farhad ap-peared before the commission. He told reporters: “I informed the o� cials that my brothers will contact with the An-ti-Corruption Commission after their return from abroad.”

Emerging from the ACC interroga-tion, Pradip told reporters that Patu-akhali Jute Mills Limited, owned by Feroz, had taken a loan in 1989, but the owners rescheduled the loan one after another.

“I am not aware about the matter as I have become involved in the matter recently.”

He also said Feroz was required to pay Tk1.50 crore as down payment to meet his bank liability.

The chief whip with support of the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank got remission on interest rates over Tk13.51 crore against the loan, he said.

It is alleged that Feroz managed the board to get the facility on November 4 last year - before the January 5 national election since loan and utility default-ers cannot participate in parliamentary election as per the Representation of the People Order, commonly known as RPO.

According to the rules, a person will be disquali� ed for participating in the election if he/she is a loan borrower, other than the small loans for agricul-tural purposes, from a bank or an in-stitution and has defaulted the repay-ment of the loan before seven days of the last date of submission of nomina-tion papers.

ACC o� cials said they were sur-prised over the matter as the banks usually scrutinise their loan databases to identify the defaulters prior to the poll and inform the list of defaulters to the ACC. It was not done for the case of Feroz, a lawmaker from Patuakhali 2 constituency.

The o� cials said Patuakhali Jute Mills Limited Managing Director Feroz borrowed Tk1.20 crore from the Sonali Bank’s foreign exchange corporate branch in 1989 for running up the mill and mort-gaged the mills against the loan. l

Villagers gather at the site of a derailed train at Mirsarai in Chittagong yesterday. Story on Page 4 DHAKA TRIBUNE

Dhaka University students celebrate their graduation at the foot of the Aparajeyo Bangla on the campus yesterday RAJIB DHAR

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Indian gambler now arrested by RABn Kailash Sarkar and

Sanaul Islam Tipu

Mystery as well as contradictions shrouded over the arrest of an Indian national for his alleged links with gam-bling centring the ICC World T20 crick-et tournament in Dhaka.

RAB personnel claims that they ar-rested Atanu Datta on Sunday after-noon in the capital’s Gabtoli.

But the Immigration Police in Benapole disclosed his arrest on April 3 and it was published in local and interna-tional media on April 4 and 5. It said after the arrest, the detainee had been taken away by the RAB and other agencies for interrogation, according to BBC Bangla.

Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rahman, the director of RAB’s legal and media wing, said they had no idea about

Atanu’s arrest by any other agency. Meanwhile, the court of Dhaka’s

Metropolitan Magistrate Mahabubur Rahman yesterday granted Atanu bail after Mirpur police produced him before the court seeking seven days’ remand.

“We arrested Indian national Atanu Datta at Gabtoli in Mirpur on Sunday af-ternoon,” Sub-Inspector Kazi Abul Hasan of RAB 1 said adding that he had � led a case with Mirpur police station under the Information and Communication Act.

He said Atanu had been taking part in gambling while staying inside the Mir-pur stadium but left the venue sensing police surveillance. “We arrested him when he was trying to � ee. He was stay-ing at Grand Prince Hotel in Mirpur.”

Habibur said: “If the Indian national was arrested by any agency, then how could we get him?” In another reply,

he said they could not inform media about the arrest due to work pressure although the elite force always informs media about all of its success.

The BBC Bangla Service on April 4 reported that Atanu Datta, son of Manindra Datta, from Dinesh Palli Mu-nicipal Park in 24 Pargana of West Ben-gal, was arrested by the Immigration Police at Benapole border on April 3.

Quoting Mohammad Moniruz-zaman, OC of Benapole Immigration Police, the report said Atanu had en-tered into Bangladesh on March 15, but he did not return to India though his visa expired on March 31.

The OC on April 3 told media that they had instruction from the higher authorities so Atanu could not cross the border for his “suspicious activities.” l

27kg gold recovered from a house n Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

A joint force of Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) and Chokoria police re-covered 27kg gold worth Tk10 crore and Tk11 lakh in cash from a house in Chokoria upazila, Cox’s Bazar yester-day, arresting three.

The detainees are: Nondo Ramdhor, 50, gold businessman from Chiringa and the house owner, and his sons Su-mon Ramdhor, 30, and Polash Ramd-hor, 27.

Lt Col Khondokar Saiful Alam of BGB’s Cox’s Bazar 17 unit said: “Acting on a tip-o� , Chokoria police and BGB jointly conducted a raid in Nondo’s house and recovered 27.765kg gold, 700.42 gram silver and Tk11,45,952 in cash.”

Mohammad Farhad, o� cer in-charge of Chokoria police station, said:

“Police and BGB, along with the execu-tive magistrate, raided Nondo’s house. Nondo tried to escape when he was shot at his leg by BGB members. After receiving treatment at Chokoria upazi-la health complex, he was handed over to the police. A case was � led in this regard.”

Parul Bala Dhar, Nondo’s wife, said: “My husband is a gold businessman. Jewellery owners used to mortgage their gold to him in exchange of money. So he kept all that gold at the house. Po-lice and BGB broke into our house and seized that gold without any reason.”

Convener of Chokoria Upazila Jew-ellery Malik Samity Sonadhor Mohajon and former vice-president Roton Boron Dash said: “Police and BGB are harass-ing Nondo illegally.”

The leaders also said Nondo paid

taxes regularly and had legal licence for his business.

Protesting the arrest, Cox’s Bazar Jewellery Malik Samity and Chokoria Upazila Jewellery Malik Samity sepa-rately called for a strike.

Gold traders in di� erent upazilas of the district staged the protest by keep-ing their shops closed for the day, start-ing at 11am yesterday.

In a press conference, President of District/Cox’s Bazar Jewellery Owners’ Committee Jhontu Dhar and General Secretary Osman Gani demanded for proper investigation of the matter. Oth-erwise, they threatened to continue their strike.

Md Ruhul Amin, deputy commis-sioner, said: “A big incident could oc-cur at any moment if there were such a huge amount of gold in a house.” l

BCL leader arrested with ‘Shibir links’n Du Correspondent

A leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Dhaka University unit was picked up by Shahbagh police early yesterday for his alleged involvement with Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.

The arrestee Shazidur Rahman was a second year student of DU and also the secretary for information and research a� airs of BCL’s FR Hall unit.

Shahabag police station O� -cer-in-Charge Shirajul Islam said: “FR Hall BCL had handed over the student to us early Monday night on suspicion of being a Shibir activist, but we re-leased him in the afternoon as we found no link with him and Jamat-Shibir.”

However, when asked, BCL’s FR Hall unit President Sayem Khan said: “I have handed over a student to police on an allegation of theft, not for his in-volvement with any political party.” l

ROUNDTABLE ON WORLD HEALTH DAY 2014

‘Standardise private sector healthcare’ n Tribune Report

To ensure quality healthcare for a large section of the Bangladeshi people, private sector healthcare needs to be standardised and a healthcare budget needs to be implemented.

In addition, to protect domestic private sector health care endeavours from the in� ux of foreign capital, prop-er legislation needs to be implemented while the private sector itself needs to ensure that consumers will get the ser-vice they pay for.

These were the views expressed by the participants of a roundtable discus-sion arranged on occasion of the World Health Day 2014 styled “Private medical services: Scopes and opportunities”. The discussion was organised by the Dhaka Tribune in tandem with Ayesha Memorial Specialised Hospital yester-day afternoon at the conference hall of Dhaka Tribune’s Panthapath o� ce.

“It is next to impossible for the govern-ment to provide proper healthcare for the humongous population of 160 million. Stimulating growth for the public sector has to be the way to go. In this regard, the government needs to implement a health budget,” one of the speakers said.

“In most cases, patients don’t have an idea of how much a certain service may cost them. This � gure varies from hospital to hospital. The industry therefore needs to standardise prices of services.”

On the rapid growth and success of telemedicine, speakers opined: “It has catered for the marginalised people in the rural region with specialist opinions. Besides, we are building disease pro� les and health statistics for the country.”

The participants, however, asked for

legal protection from the in� ux of for-eign capital, saying the domestic pri-vate sector runs the risk of being eaten up by large global players.

Nearly Tk5-7 billion is already ex-ported out of Bangladesh as many patients prefer to treat themselves in India, Thailand or Singapore, speakers said. They agreed that the best solution to this lies in upgrading the healthcare system, improving the quality of ser-vice and ensuring that patients, at the very least, are provided with the ser-vices they pay for.

Fazilatun Nessa, MP; Dr Ahmed al Kabir, chairman, Rupali Bank; Pri-ti Chakrabarty and Dr Ashis Kumar Chakraborty from Ayesha Memorial Hos-pital; Dr Arif Mahmud, Apollo Hospitals; Dr Dabir Uddin Ahmed, United Hospitals; Dr Reza bin Zayed, Telemedicine Work-ing Group of Bangladesh; Debashish Roy, head of CSR, Grameenphone; and Shahriar Karim, chief news editor at the Dhaka Tribune attended the programme.

The discussion was chaired by Sha-hidul Alam Chowdhury, planning edi-tor at the Dhaka Tribune. l

Ex-railway o� cial denied bail n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court yesterday ordered to jail a former Bangladesh Railway of-� cial for his alleged involvement in a recruitment scandal.

Chittagong Divisional Special Judge SM Ataur Rahman passed the order when Ha� zur Rahman, former addi-tional chief mechanical engineer of BR’s east zone, surrendered before the court in two cases of corruption regarding re-cruitment to the posts of assistant chem-ist and fuel checker, court sources said.

Mahmudul Haque Mahmud, a pros-ecutor for the Anti-Corruption Com-mission, said Ha� zur, who was on the run, pleaded for bail after surrendering to the court yesterday. But the presid-ing judge rejected his bail plea and sent him to jail.

Ha� zur, along with Yusuf Ali Mridha, former general manager of BR (East), are accused in 13 cases involving irregularities in recruitment to di� er-ent railway posts. The cases were � led in September 2012 and February 2013.

On April 9, 2012, Border Guard Ban-gladesh personnel in Dhaka seized Tk70 lakh from a car belonging to Omar Faruk, assistant personal secretary of Suranjit, the then railway minister. Mridha and Enamul Haque, Dhaka di-visional commandant of Railway Nira-patta Bahini (security forces), were in the vehicle at the time.

Suranjit resigned following the scandal, while his aide was suspended.

Two out of the 13 cases, in which Ha� zur and Mridha have been indict-ed, are now under trial. Golam Kibria, a former senior welfare o� cer of BR, and four jobseekers are also accused in the cases.

On March 3, another Chittagong court sent Mridha to jail in one of the cases. The same court on February 3 also jailed two other accused, Abul Kashem and Anisur Rahman, who allegedly bribed railway o� cials to get jobs.

BR’s east zone had issued seven ad-vertisements in October and November 2010 to � ll up 3,419 vacant posts in 38 categories. l

SAAD KILLING

Teachers express solidarity with students n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

Teachers of Fisheries Science Faculty of Bangladesh Agricultural University yes-terday expressed solidarity with the de-mands placed by the general students.

They expressed the solidarity at a press conference where Professor Dr Idris Ali, dean of the faculty, read out a written statement.

The teachers demanded proper se-curity measures for both students and teachers to maintain congenial aca-demic atmosphere on the campus.

At the press conference, they also ex-pressed no-con� dence over the six-mem-ber probe committee formed to investi-gate the killing of Saad Ibne Momtaz.

Professor Idris Ali said provost of Ahraful Hall and also assistant proctor of the university was a member of the committee and he might halt the inves-tigation as he were accused of negli-gence of duty.

He said they had already informed about their no-con� dence to the vice-chancellor, but he did not take any measures in this regard.

Saad, 21, a � nal year student of Fish-eries Faculty of BAU and organising secretary of BCL Ashraful Haque Hall unit, was killed in an attack by friends who are also BCL men on April 1.

Meanwhile, hundreds of agitating students observed their scheduled pro-grammes for the seventh consecutive

day yesterday, protesting the killing. The agitating students held a rally at

the altar of Bijoy’71 monument on the campus around 11:30pm.

Their demands included arrest of Saad’s killers and to make their names public, cancellation of their student-ship and permanent expulsion of the accused from the university.

The students have been continuing di� erent programmes protesting the death of Saad since Tuesday.

The programmes included protest procession, ‘mass signature collection campaign’, and formation of human chain, candle lighting at Bijoy’71 prem-ises and drawing paintings on BAU campus. l

Woman killed, seven injured in Chittagong train derailmentn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

One woman was killed and seven other persons injured when three compart-ments of a Dhaka-bound train from Chittagong city derailed at Abu Nagar area of Mirsarai upazila yesterday noon.

The deceased was identi� ed as Nasi-ma Akhter, 35, hailing from Ramu upa-zila in Cox’s Bazar district.

Yasin Faruk, o� cer-in-charge (OC) of GRP police station at Chittagong Rail-way Station, said the victim’s body was recovered from under one of the top-pled compartments and added that Na-sima was sitting at the compartment’s door when the accident took place.

Sources at the Government Railway Police (GRP) said the injured were receiv-ing treatment at the upazila hospital.

Mahbubul Alam, chief engineer of Bangladesh Railway (BR) East Zone, told Dhaka Tribune that three rear com-partments of Dhaka-bound Karnaphuli Express, which left Chittagong Railway Station at around 11:00am, derailed at the area at around 12:30pm.

“The accident left a female passen-ger dead on spot and injured seven

commuters,” he added.He further added that initially au-

thorities suspect that the derailment was caused when the gear box cover of a compartment was opened.

Receiving the information, a rescue train from the port city rushed to the spot and was working to clear the rail tracks,” A Samshul Alam, station man-ager of Chittagong Railway Station said while � ling this report at 6:00pm.

He also said rail communication between Dhaka-Chittagong and Chit-tagong-Sylhet remained suspended for a short time; however, no train from Chittagong city to elsewhere in the country was delayed.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway has formed two probe committees to inves-tigate the incident.

One committee, consisting � ve members, will be headed by Mahbubul Alam, will submit its probe report with-in the next three days.

The second four-member com-mittee, formed by railway tra� c de-partment, will be headed by BR Chief Transport O� cer Firoj Iftekhar and will submit its report by the same time. l

BGB seizes 38,987 yaba n Tribune Report

The Border Guard Ban-gladesh (BGB) yesterday seized around 38,987 piec-es of yaba and arrested one youth in separate drives in Bandarban and Cox’s Ba-zar districts of the country.

In Cox’s Bazar, BGB re-covered 10,000 pieces of yaba and arrested a youth Foyez Uddin, 25. A CNG-run auto-rickshaw was also seized.

Cox’s Bazar 17 BGB’s cap-tain Lt Col Khondokar Saiful Alam said they had checked the CNG acting on a tip-o� and found 9,852 pieces of yaba with the youth.

In Bandarban, a team of 31 BGB battalion seized 29,535 pieces of yaba from a remote area in Puranjhiri of Naikhangchhari upazila in Bandarban Hill District.

BGB sources said no one was arrested as the drug was found in abandoned state during a drive. l

Speakers take part in a rountable marking the World Health Day 2014 at Dhaka Tribune Seminar Hall yesterday SADIA MARIUM

n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha had taken a plan two years ago to improve the lake in posh Uttara Residential Model Town of the capital. But there is no re� ection in reality as a key part of the water body has gradually been oc-cupied by more new grabbers.

Meanwhile, the mindless release of untreated waste water from house-holds and industries, and sewage and e� uents into the lake through scores of drains has been continued in a way that in future it would be quite impossible to treat the water.

Rajuk, the apex authority to oversee the city’s development, has been ignor-ing its responsibility to continue regu-lar maintenance of the water and free-ing the lake from grabbers for which there is budget allocation every year.

The project was initiated in 2012 upon directives from the Department of Envi-ronment to free the lack from occupants in the part of Sector 9 to Abdullahpur. The lake stretches from the airport’s run-way and ends at Abdullahpur of Tongi.

Even though the state-run agency already starte d development projects on the capital’s two other lakes, it is yet to begin work on the Uttara one.

Rajuk initiated integrated devel-opment of Hatirjheel area including Begunbari Khal, and improvement and beauti� cation of Gulshan-Ba-nani-Baridhara Lake. So far, two-thirds of the development work on Hatirjheel canal – inaugurated last year – is com-plete while work on the Gulshan Lake has been underway at snail’s pace be-cause of legal tangles.

During � eld visit, the Dhaka Tri-bune has found that furniture shops, a rickshaw garage, a makeshift mosque, automobile workshops by renowned � rms and other illegal structures have encroached on a large portion of the water body on and around Sonargaon Janapath Road.

Local residents said the illegal estab-lishments had been built in broad day-light but the authorities did not stop the grabbers.

Saiful Islam, a resident of Sector 9, said: “At � rst, the grabbers � ll up a small por-tion of the lake with waste and debris, and then they raise the structures.”

Besides, the lake water has turned dark and poisonous, and stinks.

Unabated discharge of domestic and industrial e� uents, sediments from under-construction buildings and liq-uid sewage through Wasa drains has made the lake a dumping ground.

Residents blamed the absence of an improved sewerage system and waste treatment facility in the Rajuk plan for the sorry state.

Halima Khatun, a resident of Sector 13, said: “The lake is being � lled up ev-ery day. The dumping of sediments and waste is creating scope for setting new infrastructures on the lake side. But Rajuk has no steps for re-excavation of the lake.”

When contacted, Rajuk high-ups ad-mitted the incidents of land grabbing and water pollution. They also said ac-tion would be taken against the exist-ing encroachers immediately. But they

have no concrete plans.Khondkar Salahuddin, member

(planning) of Rajuk, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have sent a proposal re-garding the lake’s improvement to the

Planning Commission for approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec).”

Rajuk would start the development project after getting the approval.

Asked about the land grabbing, he said: “The occupied land will be recov-ered from illegal possession, and all the illegal structures will also be demol-ished.” l

Looming session jam worries RU teachers, students n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Students and teachers of Rajshahi Uni-versity fear that the university may face prolonged session jam because of the ongoing strike enforced by the Bangladesh Chhatra League in protest against the killing of its leader Rustom.

Rustom Ali Akondo, a fourth year student of Political Science Depart-ment and also acting general secretary of the BCL Shaheed Suhrawardy Hall unit, was allegedly shot dead on Friday afternoon inside his room at the RU dormitory.

Following the incident, the BCL ac-tivists went on strike for an inde� nite period accusing Islamic Chhatra Shibir activists of the killing.

Campus sources said academic ac-tivities of the university had virtually come to a halt because of the strike as

the agitators had been preventing dif-ferent department from taking not only classes but also examinations.

Students said the strike will de� -nitely delay the completion of their courses which would have a negative impact on their academic as well as on their professional lives.

Last year, students of the RU could not either take part in classes nor take examination for back-to-back block-ades and hartals sponsored by the BNP-led alliance. Then, almost all the departments had to change the exam-inations date for several times.

As the opposition parties refrained themselves from calling blockade and hartal in the beginning of this year, the university authorities hoped they would able to hold the examinations in time. But their dream resulted in vein when students enforced strike, pro-

testing fees hike and evening courses in February.

On February 2, police along with BCL, the student fronts of the ruling party, swooped on a students’ rally that led a sporadic clash.

Later, the university authority closed the university for a month.

After the resumption of classes, a good number of departments resched-uled examinations’ date, but the ongo-ing strike also become a barrier in the way of smooth educational activities.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune stu-dents of 2007-2008 session of Psychol-ogy Department said their honours � -nal examination were scheduled to be held in 2013, July. They fear they would not be able to take examination in time.

A student of BBA Faculty said, “Our honours � nal semester’s examinations were scheduled to be held in 20 March,

2013 but it is April 2014 and we are still in the seventh semester.”

“Unfortunately, the university au-thority is not doing anything in this re-gard,” the student complained.

RU BCL Secretary Touhid-al-Tuhin told the Dhaka Tribune that they would continue their strike until the accused in Rustom murder case was not arrested.

Rajshahi University Vice-Chancellor Professor Mizanuddin said they were train to reach a mutual understanding with Chhatra League men to withdraw the strike.

Moreover, many students blamed unnecessary involvement of teachers and students in politics for session jam.

There is a common situation that some departments publish their exam-ination results after nine months, a de-lay which is against the university rules.

When asked about the matter, chair-

men of several departments blamed student politics for the situation.

They also accused examination con-troller o� ce responsible for delaying publishing the results. Rajshahi Uni-versity Examination Controller Anowar Hossain refused the allegation.

He said they were not responsi-ble for the delayed result publica-tions as they normally publish themwithin three to four days after receiv-ing the results from the respective de-partments.

He also said many departments could not � nish the examination on time and this was the main problem behind the session jam.

Rajshahi University Vice-Chancellor Professor Mizanuddin said they were trying to reach a mutual understanding with Chhatra League men to withdraw the strike. l

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:27am Sunrise 5:41am Zohr 12:00am Asr 3:28pm Magrib 6:17pm Esha 7:33pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Source: Accuweather/UNB

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A Y

Dhaka 36 26Chittagong 33 26Rajshahi 40 26Rangpur 34 23Khulna 39 25Barisal 35 26Sylhet 34 22Cox’s Bazar 33 26

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:17PM SUN RISES 5:43AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW38.0ºC 19.7ºCKhulna Dinajpur

WEATHER

TUESDAY, APRIL 8

PARTLY CLOUDY

Another perfume factory � revictim dies n Kailash Sarkar

Another victim of a � re at a perfume factory in the city’s Chawkbazar area succumbed to his injuries yesterday, after � ghting for life for � ve days.

Identi� ed as Azizur Rahman, 36, an employee of the factory, died around 6:30am at the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit at Dhaka Medical College and Hos-pital. Hailing from Matlab upazila in Chandpur, Azizur had received 40% burn injury.

Azizur along with two other em-ployees of the factory Kabir Hossain had sustained burn injuries after a � re broke out at the warehouse of the fac-tory located on the 4th � oor of a build-ing at Chawkbazar on April 2.

On April 3, Kabir died at the DMCH as he received 90%burns.

The � re reportedly had originated from a burning cigarette.

Meanwhile, the condition of anoth-er victim Ma� zur Rahman was also stated to be critical.

Partha Shankar Paul, a surgeon at the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit, said Ma� zur had received 45% burns. l

President urges DU students to practise positive politicsn DU Correspondent

President Abdul Hamid urged the Dha-ka University students to practice pos-itive politics for creating a congenial and peaceful atmosphere in education-al institutions.

“The nation expects much from the studetns of Dhaka University, you will � ll up the desires of the countrymenthrough your work,” he said.

The president made the comment while addressing the 48th convocation at the Dhaka University’s central play-ground yesterday.

The ceremony began at 12 noon with President and also Chancellor of the university Abdul Hamid in the chair.

Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the director gen-eral of European Organisation for Nu-clear Research (CERN), was the lead speaker at the convocation.

He was awarded with a Doctor of Science degree at the convocation.

A total of 8,312 graduates participat-ed in the convocation.

Among them, 4,015 male and 4,297 female students were conferred for graduation, post-graduation and PhD degrees.

A total of 34 students received gold medals for their outstanding results in honours and masters’ examination while 38 received PhD, 25 M Phil and 34 MD-MS degrees at the event.

In his speech, Rolf-Dieter Heuer emphasised on more science and ed-ucation sector for development and progress.

VC Are� n Siddique urged the stu-dents to devote themselves more on higher education for the welfare of the country. l

n Kailash Sarkar

Yet another illegal factory, which had been manufacturing fake saline under the ICDDRB tag, was busted in the capi-tal’s North Badda yesterday by a mobile court.

The factory was sealed o� and � ve people, including the owner, were sen-tenced to jail of di� erent terms along with � nes.

The incident comes 17 days after an-other such factory was sealed o� in the capital’s Babubazar.

The mobile court, led by executive magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha who was accompanied by Rapid Action Battal-ion personnel and drug administration o� cials, raided the factory set up in a tin-shed house at Abdullahbagh of Sa-tarkul in North Badda around 11am.

The magistrate said that apart from sealing o� the factory during the three-hour drive, over 20,000 packets of low-quality saline were seized.

Md Abdul Siddiq, owner of the fac-tory and a former employee of ICD-DRB, was sentenced to prison for two years. The 35-year-old was also � ned Tk100,000 and would have to serve an-other three months upon failure to pay the money.

His brother Nabin Khan, who had been overseeing the marketing section, was jailed for a year. Like Abdul Sid-diq, he received a monetary penalty of Tk100,000 and another three-month term, provided he fails to pay the � ne.

Apart from the two, three of their employees – Kabir Hossain, Md Swa-pan and Masud Akand – were � ned Tk10,000 each and a one-monthjail term in default of payment of the � ne.

Law enforcers found the workers manufacturing saline in an unhygienic environment using raw materials that are perilous to human health. The fac-tory authorities chose the substandard

materials for saving cost and making extra sum.

Owner Siddiq admitted that he had been running the factory inside the tin-shed house, which would cost him Tk24,000 in monthly rent, for the last one year after leaving his job at ICD-DRB.

“We would manufacture around 800 packets of fake saline every day using the label of ICDDRB,” he said.

The owner also said he had quit ICD-DRB after acquiring knowledge of man-ufacture of saline. He said he would print fake ICDDRB labels in a press in Paltan.

Nabin said he approached some drugstores in Mitford, Khilgaon, Pal-tan and in some other areas and they would sell the fake product at dis-counted prices compared to the genu-ine ICDDRB saline.

“Those pharmacy owners were in-formed of the quality of our product,” the owner said.

Magistrate Anwar Pasha said that ICDDRB itself has no legal right to manufacture and market the saline as the institute had not obtained registra-tion from the drug administration. He said employers’ association of ICDDRB manufacture the saline and market the products. l

Another fake saline factory busted, � ve jailed

A mobile court unearths a fake saline factory in the city’s Badda area yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Uttara Lake yet to be freed from encroachers Rajuk’s negligence, ill-judgment blamed for the waterbody’s failure to serve its purposes

The recent photo shows that illegal establishments still exist on Uttara Lake despite Rajuk drives NASHIRUL ISLAM

‘The occupied land will be recovered from illegal possession, and all the illegal structures will also be demolished’

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Lalmonirhat tobacco processing facilities a health hazard n Our Correspondent

Lalmonirhat : The tobacco processing facilities in the district pose health hazards, with at least 200 such instal-lations built in three upazilas under the funding of tobacco companies.

It was alleged that the commercial enterprises lured the simple-minded tobacco cultivators into setting up facili-ties with all kinds of necessary support.

A section of conscious farmers and locals strongly protested against the installations, but to no e� ect.

The villagers alleged that the mus-clemen in the area had been working as tobacco companies’ representatives.

Monowar Hossaun – a schoolteacher in Vatapara village of Aditmari upazila – said at least 20 facilities emerged in the village for processing tobacco leaves.

The installations posed serious threats to the environment, he added.

“Nicotine from the facilities a� ects all of us in the village and we can’t move easily during the tobacco har-vesting period.”

Montu Miah, a worker in tobacco processing facility in Vatapara village, said green tobacco leaves were heated by � re in the facility and it took at least six hours to do that. “A pipe is used for bringing out a cloud of smoke from the factory which a� ects human living.”

Mazidul Islam, 50, a tobacco grower in Sarpukur village of Aditmari upa-zila, said tobacco companies bore all expenditure related to installation of tobacco facilities.

“We process tobacco leaves easily, and so we are interested in it,” he said.

Azizul Islam, a college student in

Dhadogachh village in Lalmonirhat Sadar, alleged that locals were keen on smoking from tobacco facility which was run round the clock.

Seeking anonymity, a tobacco com-pany’s representative in Lalmonirhat said the farmers were running these tobacco processing units beside their homesteads as they were receiving at-tractive o� ers from the company.

He, however, admitted that smoke emitting form the facilities were harm-ful to the environment and human health including child health.

Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila Agricul-ture O� cer Mohammad Nuruzzaman said the agriculture department was working in � eld levels to raise aware-ness among farmers against setting up of tobacco processing facilities in order to save environment and agriculture. l

BGB detainssix at Benapolen Our Correspondent, Jessore

Members of Border Guard Bangladsh on Sunday evening arrested six Bang-ladeshis while they were coming to Bangladesh from India without any proper documents.

The six were detained from Putkhali frontier along Benapole port police station.

Of the six, two are women, three men and a child.

Farid Uddin, Putkhali camp in-charge, Bboder Guard Bangladesh told newsmen that the six were arrested while they were entering Bangladesh from India without required documents.

Later, the six were handed over to Benapole port police.

A case was lodged. l

Northern Rajshahi irrigation project demandedn Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

A group of human rights activists yes-terday demanded immediate imple-mentation of a modern irrigation pro-ject targeting northern Rajshahi for using surface water in irrigation during dry season in the country’s northern districts.

Organised by Rajshahi Rakkha San-gram Parishad, the pressure group to protect rights and resources of Rajsha-hi people, raised their voice at the rally on the premises of the deputy commis-sioner’s o� ce.

The speakers stressed for modern and scienti� c irrigation-system in the area as their livelihood and earnings depend on agriculture.

Chaired by Rajshahi Rakkah Son-gram Parishad president Liakot Ali, the programme was among others ad-dressed by social welfare activist She-heen Akter Reny, CPB city unit presi-dent Abul Kalam Azad, JSD secretary Abdullah-al-Masud Shiblee, general secretary of Rajshahi Rakkah Sangram Parishad Jamat Khan.

They also demanded immediate steps for establishing Ganga Barrage to protect the River Padma, River Padma Bank Protection work and dredging of the Padma.

Later they submitted a memoran-dum to the prime minister through the deputy commissioner.

DC Mezbah Uddin Chhoudhury con-� rmed the matter. l

Members of the Bangladesh Coast Guard destroy a huge quantity of illegal liquor at Boalkhali in Khulna DHAKA TRIBUNE

Offi ce of theBHOLA POURASHAVA

District: Bhola

Memo No: Bho-Pou/PPNB-2/B/2014/284 Date: 27/03/2014

INVITATION FOR TENDER (IFT). NO. 06/2013-14(WORKS)

1 Ministry/Division Local Government Rural Development and Co-operatives/ Local Government Division.

2 Agency Bhola Pourashava.

3 Procuring Entity Name Mayor, Bhola Pourashava.

4 Procuring Entity Code Not used at present

5 Procuring Entity District Bhola

6 Invitation for Package 01 Walkway Guidewall & Fountain Works

7 Invitation Ref No Memo No. Bho-Pou/PPNB-2/B/2014/284

8 Date 27/03/2014

KEY INFORMATION

9 Procurement Method National Open Tendering Method.

FUNDING INFORMATION

10 Budget and Source of Funds PPNB.

11 Development Partners None.

PARTICULAR INFORMATION

12 Project/ Programme Code N/A

13 Project/ Programme Name “Programme for Beautifi cation & Environment Protection of Bhola Pourashava”.

14 Tender Sub project No. W-BP-PPNB-2/2014/BE-01

15 Tender Sub project Name As described in Sl. No 26

16 Tender Publication Date 27/03/2014

17 Tender Last Selling Date and Time

Date Time

15/04/2014 Up to 5.00 PM

18 Tender Closing Date & Time 16/04/2014 1.00 PM

19 Name & Address of the offi ce(s) Name:Address:

Selling Tender Document Offi ce of the Executive Engineer, Bhola Pourashava, District: Bhola.Offi ce of the Deputy Commissioner, District: Bhola.Offi ce of the Executive Engineer, LGED, District: Bhola.

Place of Receiving Tender Document

Offi ce of the Executive Engineer, Bhola Pourashava, District: Bhola.

Place of Opening Tender Document

Offi ce of the Executive Engineer, Bhola Pourashava, District: Bhola.

20 Time of Opening Tender Date Time

16/04/2014 3.00 PM

21 Pre-Tender Meeting Date Time

- -

INFORMATION FOR TENDERER

22 Eligibility of Tender A satisfactory completion of at least one work of similar nature and complexity in the last three (3) years as prime contractor.

23 Brief Description of Works As Stated in SL. no 26

24 Brief Description of Physical Services

Earth work, Sand fi lling, BFS, CC, RCC, MS, Parking Tiles, CC Curb block, Grill, PVC pipe etc.

25 Price of Tender Document As mentioned in SL no 26

26 Sub-Project No Indentifi cation of Lot Price of tender document

Tender Security

Amount (Tk)

Completion Time in Days

W-BP-PPNB-2/2014/BE-01

Cons. of Ghatla, Walkway & Fountain in the pond between Bhola Pourashava & Zila Parishad.

3,000.00 2,65,000.00 120

PROCURING ENTITY DETAILS

27 Tender validity period 120 Days.

28 Name of offi cial inviting tender Md. Zasim uddin Arzu.

29 Designation of offi cial inviting tender Executive Engineer.

30 Address of offi cial inviting tender Executive Engineer, Bhola Pourashava, District: Bhola.

31 Contact Details of offi cial inviting tender Tel. No. Fax No. e-mail

0491-62737 0491-62155 zuarzu@gmail.com

32 The procuring entity reserves the right to reject all the Tenders or annul the Tender Proceedings.

(Md. Zasim Uddin Arzu) Executive EngineerGC – 44/14 (15″×4) Bhola Pourashava

7Feature Tuesday, April 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Chowdhury Abd-Allah Quaseed

Indeed if a house could speak, it would not only tell the story of the family that lived in it, but also narrate fragments of history that it may have witnessed.

There could be events which have escaped the limelight of mainstream records, which such old houses would love to share with the world. Indeed some buildings and residences have almost been like a living but silent spectator to the great dramatic evolu-tion of our nation.

One such house, that holds a treas-ure trove of stories, history and anec-dotes, is the house that “came to life” in 1885, standing on about 10 acres of lovely lawns, gardens and tree groves, almost adjacent to the Circuit House of Faridpur. Originally the home grounds were comprised of over 30 acres, but in the early 1900s, the British had some roads fork through the property, carving o� some parts on all sides.

The main residence is comprised of about 30,000 square feet of � oor space across � ve buildings with almost 40 rooms (excluding two fabulous-ly decorative and � oral relief work embellished mausoleums and a six minaret mosque). The home is pop-ularly referred to as the White House of Faridpur (not just for its bedazzling whiteness, but as it was the seat of governance of Faridpur).

It is listed by Wikipedia among the notable palaces of Bangladesh, and by some publications as a heritage loca-tion of the country. This is the house which bears the name of Moyez Man-zil, and which was made by the much fabled Zamindar of Faridpur, Chow-dhury Moyezuddin Bishwash, who was not only one of the pioneers of kindling the anti-colonial sentiments among the elite of Bengal, but was also one of the founding patrons of All India Congress and of the � rst political party of what is today Bangladesh, called the People’s Association of Faridpur. He had also been a staunch pillar of protest during the Anti-Indigo movement of 1859 and who had even rallied his forces to aid the valiant ini-tiators of the Sepoy Revolution of 1857.

The house, the main building of which consists of a two-storied Victo-rian mansion of 20 rooms, made in a combination of Victorian and Islamic architecture, with a strange simplicity of layout and austerity of style, devoid

of the labyrinthine style of palace architecture with a complex layout of interconnected rooms and passages, and rather standing in resplendent glory with a simple row of rooms lined up between of over 300 feet of veran-dahs, would indeed ask which other home in Bangladesh, may have had the honour of having such luminaries as its guests, in those years that laid the foundation of our nation?

The house would surely talk about all the major historic events that took place in its grounds, of the famous people that visited it over the years, and about the people who lived there and of the lifestyle, which would portray the story of a bygone era. It would narrate with pride that it was the venue for many con� dential meetings of the core committee of Congress, in the early 1900s, organised mostly by Ambika Charan Mojumdar (16th President of the Indian Congress, and a close friend and legal advisor of Chowdhury Moyezuddin).

These were aimed at the reuni� ca-tion of Bengal, between 1906 and 1911, of which Chowdhury Moyezuddin was a strong advocate, during the tempo-rary splitting of Bengal. It would also describe about several other meetings of Congress held across the 1920s, and 30s and attendees are known to have included Maulana AK Azad and Dr MA Ansari, both of whom were Presidents of Congress at di� erent times.

Surely the event to be mentioned with highest emphasis would be the Annual Conference of Congress in 1924, which had been hosted in Faridpur town, at the Ambika Hall, by the eldest son of Moyezuddin, called Chowdhury Abd-Allah Zahiruddin Lal Mia (previously known as Chowdhury Muazzem Hussain Lal Mia), with the post-lunch and evening sessions of the conference being held within the grounds of Moyez Manzil.

This event, which had been chaired by Chittaranjan Das, was attended by Madame Sarojini Naidu (the � rst female political leader of India), Netaji Shubhash Chandra Bose (who was a Congress President), the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and even by Mahatma Gandhi himself. A few opine that Gandhi may have departed after the morning sessions though. Poet Kazi Nazrul had even stayed over at the house for several days and composed a couple of poems inspired by the house and its pond and gardens.

The house would speak about Lal Mia, who in time rose to be one of the leading stalwarts of the central nation-al committee of the Indian Congress party, member of the Upper Legisla-tive Council of Bengal representing greater Faridpur, and a member of the Rajya Sabha, went on to organise and host many more events there, and who had also been the Chief Whip in the 1960s and Central Cabinet Minister for Health, Labour and Social Welfare from the turn of the 60s to his demise in 1967, not to mention an innumera-ble portfolio of other positions held.

The house would also state how it feels proud to also have been the resi-dence of Chowdhury Yusuf Ali Mohon

Mia (the second son of Moyezuddin) who had been the chief architect of the Jukto Front of 1954, and subse-quently who came to be known as the King Maker of Bengal, along with having been an eminent parliamentar-ian at the state level and a provincial minister as well.

The house would also express pride of having been the residence of Chow-dhury Enayet Hossain Tara Mia the youngest son of Moyezuddin who was also a Member of Legislative Assembly of the Central Parliament across the 60s. And the house would mention that it continues to be the ancestral home of two more persons who have held Ministerial positions of present Bangladesh for a number of tenures and several more parliamentarians and upazila chairmen.

In talking about events, the house would chronologically discuss about the many events such as the All India Literary Conference, hosted within its grounds, also in 1924, which had been chaired by the celebrated novelist Sharat Chandra Chatterjee, and at-tended by many of the greatest literary personalities of India and Bengal. Ra-bindranath Thakur, who was a family friend and like an uncle to Lal Mia had been invited for the event too.

It may be mentioned the Nobel laureate’s uncle Prosonnokumarnath Thakur had been a business partner of Chowdhury Moyezuddin and members of both families visited each other’s homes many a times. Here, the resolution was taken that every author would try and inculcate the message of independence in everything they would write be it in a subliminal manner.

The house would proceed to share about the Bengal Education Policy Conference held in its grounds in 1929, which was attended by great Sher-e-Bangla, and almost every Minister of the Provincial Government of Bengal, where it was resolved to promote female education and equal literacy opportunities for all communities, which was a milestone in the develop-ment of the nation. The house would not overlook mentioning that at the end of the conference, they inaugu-rated the Halima Girls High School, named after the wife of Chowdhury Moyezuddin, as one of the � rst schools providing female education in present Bangladesh.

Then would come the story of All India Nationalist Muslim Conference, held in its northern courtyard in 1931, Chaired by the Nawab of Mahmud-abad from Uttar Pradesh, India, and attended by the Muslim politicians, scholars and aristocrats from across India, where it was agreed that a united move would have to be taken by all Muslims for independence, as till then, a large section of the Muslim political elite had preferred to make fa-vorable compromises with the British government.

And then we would get to her story of the very � rst Science Agriculture & Technology Fair of what is Bangla-desh today, held in the home grounds in 1933, the predecessor of all trade and industrial fairs where stalls were set up by prominent industrialists across Bengal, promoting new agri-cultural technology and equipment, an event chaired by Jagadish Chandra Bose, the most noted scientist of India, till date.

The house would excitedly share the account of the 1935 All India Motion Picture Conference, which had started on the new years eve of

1934, held in the southern lawn of the house, and attended by Promothesh Borua (the � rst actor to play Devdas in a movie, and who was also the Crown Prince of Assam), noted producer BN Sarker, super stars of the time - Leela Desai, Kanon Devi, Ashok Kumar and even Prithvi Raj Kapoor, (the father of Raj Kapoor and the great grandfather of current Bollywood icons Kareena and Ranbir Kapoor).

The resolutions of this conference included the decision to form an acad-emy of motion pictures and to launch national awards to celebrate acting tal-ent as well as honour the e� orts of the people who worked behind the scenes. I am sure the house would add that the next morning, these celebrities inaugurated the � rst movie theatre of Faridpur, (and possibly of Bangladesh) established by Chowdhury Moyezud-

din’s sons, which was named Maya. But movies were already famous

in Faridpur, even before the theatre was launched, for the house would tell you that cinemas were screened in the front yard of Moyez Manzil for hun-dreds of guests invited from across the district, on special occasions, which were always considered to be evenings of great festivity for the townsfolk.

The house would surely narrate about those wondrous evenings when celebrated Indian singer KL Saigel would visit as a guest and enthrall au-diences with his melodious voice and teach a few notes to the grandchildren of Moyezuddin; of the excitement that pulsated through the home, when stars like Solil Chowdhury, Bollywood actor Murad, and many great icons of stage and theatre would come and perform in stages built in the north courtyard, with the female members of the family looking on from the arched balconies above.

The house would share the stories of the myriad plays and dramas enact-ed by local artists, often supported by great celebrities from the stages of Cal-cutta and the night-long excitement, applause and feasting with sometimes members of the family joining in as supporting cast.

The house would surely describe the 1941 all India Rabindra Memorial Conference held after the demise of the great poet, attended by about 50,000 people; about the series of meetings held in 1945 and early 1946, involving top political leaders of India including Sher-e-Bangla and Suhrawardy, debating over the di� er-ent theories related to the partition, that they could feel was drawing near as was the independence.

These lawns which are now over-grown with grass and which remain unattended most of the time, was

where in 1946, several meetings were held to develop strategies for and nominations of candidates for the famous elections of that year, which led to the subsequent partition and in-dependence in 1947, as the eldest son of Chowdhury Moyezuddin had been the chief nominator of candidates and political architect of the election.

Indeed, the walls of the house and even the trees in its gardens could bear testimony to so many political strate-gies that laid the foundation of India and Pakistan. l

Chowdhury Abd-Allah Quaseed is the founder of a non-partisan democracy promoting youth focused organisation called Force of Tomorrow, and the creator of a number of development oriented TV programmes, a columnist, and an HR professional in a leading local organisation.

If the house could speakA house that holds a treasure trove of stories, history and anecdotes in this region. This is the � rst part. The concluding part will be published tomorrow

Lal Mia seen at the far right, standing at the bottom of the stairs, with Neta Shubhash Chandra Bose (2nd from left) and other eminent leaders of Congress at the Annual Conference of Bengal Congress held in Faridpur in 1924 at the Moyez Manzil COURTESY

The south face of Moyez Manzil COURTESY

In 1946, several meetings were held to develop strategies for and nominations of candidates for the famous elections of that year, which led to the subsequent partition and independence in 1947

The Annual Conference of Congress in 1924, which had been hosted in Faridpur town, at the Ambika Hall, by the eldest son of Moyezuddin

Tuesday, April 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

Ban: ‘Shame still clings’ to UN over Rwanda genociden AFP, Kigali

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday said the world body was still wracked by shame over its failure to act against the genocide in Rwanda 20 years ago.

“Many United Nations personnel and others showed remarkable bravery. But we could have done much more. We should have done much more. In Rwanda, troops were withdrawn when they were most needed,” Ban said in a speech at commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the genocide.

“One year later in Srebrenica, areas proclaimed ‘safe’ by the United Nations were � lled with danger, and innocents were abandoned to slaughter,” he add-ed, saying: “The shame still clings, a generation after the events.”

He termed the genocide, during which at least 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis were killed in the space of 100 days, as “one of the darkest chapters in human history.”

But he said there was progress, in that governments “can no longer claim that atrocity crimes are only a domes-tic matter” and “leaders and warlords alike face the growing likelihood of prosecution for their crimes.”

The UN was widely criticised in 1994 for only belatedly recognising that a genocide was in progress and therefore shirking its responsibility to intervene. l

Row in Lebanese Palestinian camp turns deadlyn Agencies

At least eight people have been killed in � ghting between Palestinian fac-tions in a refugee camp near Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon, sources from the military told Al Jazeera.

The sources said the � ghting broke out on Monday between � ghters from a group orginally linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group and a rival organisation.

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, said among those killed was Ahman Rashid, a leader of a new armed group Al Awda Brigade in the camp. Also killed as Rashid’s brother Rashid Rashid and a bodyguard.

Sources said the clashes was trig-gered by factional rivalries in the Pal-estinian camp. At least 11 people were wounded.

The camp remains cordoned o� by the Lebanese military. Tensions in the camps and in Lebanon as a whole have been been exacerbated by the con� ict in neighbouring Syria. l

Two UN workers killed in central Somalian AFP, Mogadishu

Two UN workers, a Briton and a French-man, were shot dead yesterday as they disembarked from a plane at an airport in Galkayo, central Somalia, o� cials and witnesses said.

United Nations sources con� rmed the two men were international con-sultants with the United Nations O� ce on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Britain’s Foreign O� ce con� rmed one was a Briton, and sources identi� ed the sec-ond victim as a Frenchman.

“Two white men have been shot in-side the airport as they got o� a plane,” local security o� cial Mohamed Mire said. An airport o� cial said the attack-er was dressed in a police uniform.

“One of them died inside the airport and the other one was rushed to hospi-tal where he later died of the injuries. Both of them were white men,” said witness Hassan Ahmed.

“We are aware of the death of a Brit-ish national in Somalia on 7 April. We stand ready to provide consular as-sistance to the family at this di� cult time,” a Foreign O� ce spokesman said.

The two men had reportedly � own into Galkayo to meet with Somali of-� cials on the issue of regulating the money transfer services that replace a formal banking system in Somalia.

Some accounts from the airport said the two had been shot close to the im-migration o� ce and the killing seemed to be a targeted assassination carried out by two assailants.

Condemning the killings, UN Special Representative for Somalia Nicholas Kay said: “I condemn the brutal murders. Our UN colleagues were working in support of the Somali people’s aspiration for a peace-ful and stable future. There can be no jus-ti� cation for such a callous attack.” l

First women joining Palestinian commando unitn AP, Jericho, West Bank

Palestinian women in combat fatigues and headscarves rappelled down a six-story tower, � red assault ri� es at imaginary terrorists and in a drill straight out of the movies bundled a would-be VIP into a car and sped o� after a shooting.

The 22 future commandos are trailblazers in a still largely male-dominated society, set to become the � rst female members of the Presidential Guards, a Palestinian elite force of 2,600 men. Their inclusion is the result of grad-ual changes in the West Bank in recent years.

Some gender barriers have fallen, with a few women assuming posts as mayors, judges and Cabinet ministers or starting their own businesses. At the same time, unemployment is on the rise, and families are more open to women entering non-tra-ditional jobs if it means another paycheck.

Women make up just 3 percent of 30,000 members of the Palestinian police and other security agencies in the West Bank, but there’s a push to recruit more, said Brig. Rashideh Mughrabi, in charge of gender issues in the National Security Forces.

The female Presidential Guards recruits

were picked from last year’s graduating class of Independence University, a four-year security academy in Jericho that trains future o� cers.

For graduate Kurum Saad, the appeal was immediate. As a female o� cer, her traditional

role would have been in administration, but she wanted adventure. “I didn’t want to sit in an o� ce,” the 23 year old said. “Since I was a little girl, I loved shooting and sports.”

On Sunday, Saad and the others in her group put on black combat boots, camou-

� age uniforms and pulled black ski masks over the headscarves to show journalists what they’d learned in their special training.

Several women, including non-swim-mers, were asked to jump into a pool as a show of courage. They dove in in full uniform, including boots, and one had to be pulled out by a lifeguard.

Six women, including Saad, rappelled down the six-story tower in pairs. Saad said she excels at sharp shooting but for months was terri� ed of heights. She said that during training in Jordan with local commandos, she overcame her fear. Sunday, she swiftly made her way down, smiling as she touched ground.

Saad said she relishes her role of opening doors for other women. Her father is proud of her and her little sister is eager to join the Guards, she said.

All but two of the female Guards, includ-ing Saad, wore black headscarves, re� ecting a growing trend among Palestinian women to cover their hair because of tradition, Muslim religious observance or social pressure.

As the women performed their drills at the walled Presidential Guards training complex in Jericho — having been called back from a break for the occasion — hundreds of young men

waited in line outside in the brutal desert sun. They had responded to ads announcing

the Guards wanted recruits, but faced a tough selection process, with only a few dozen of the tallest and � ttest being chosen.

The Presidential Guards were estab-lished under the late Yasser Arafat, the globe-trotting Palestinian leader. Arafat spent most of his life in exile but returned to the Palestinian territories in 1994, as part of interim peace deals with Israel, and set up a self-rule government.

Under Arafat’s often-chaotic rule, vari-ous security branches grew in size, with of-ten overlapping or competing assignments. After Arafat’s death in 2004, the US and Europe stepped in, training and equipping some of the units as part of an attempt to rein in vigilantes and militants.

Under Arafat’s successor, President Mahmoud Abbas, the Guards are engaged in personal protection, including of visiting dignitaries, but are also trained for anti-ter-rorism missions. For now, the female Guards are only being drawn from the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas, about 400 women serve in the 16,000-strong security forces. l

Iran hopes nuclear talks will pave way for drafting of dealn Reuters, Vienna

Iran hopes enough progress will be made at talks with major powers this week to let negotiators start drafting an accord to settle a dispute over its nu-clear program, a top Iranian negotiator was quoted as saying by o� cial media.

The Islamic Republic and six world powers will hold a fresh round of talks in Vienna on Tuesday and Wednesday intended to reach a comprehensive agreement by July 20 on how to resolve a decade-old stando� that has stirred fears of a Middle East war.

Iran says its enrichment program is a peaceful bid to generate electricity and has ruled out shutting any of its nuclear facilities.

But the United States and some oth-er Western countries have accused Iran of working on developing a nuclear bomb capability and Israel has threat-ened to attack its long-time foe Iran if diplomatic e� orts fail.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, a top negotiator, was quoted as saying by Press TV on Sun-day: “We hope that in the upcoming talks, we would be able to bring the views closer and narrow the di� erenc-es regarding major issues, so we could get to the details ... and start writing the text.”

His relatively upbeat comments ap-peared designed to underline Tehran’s commitment to reach a comprehen-sive deal by the July deadline, though Western o� cials say wide di� erences remain between the two sides.

The six powers - the United States, France, Russia, China, Britain and Ger-

many - want Iran to scale back its nu-clear program to deny it any capability to quickly make a nuclear bomb, if it decided to pursue such arms.

A senior US administration o� cial, speaking on Friday, said both sides had intended to spend March and April going over “every single issue that we believed had to be addressed in a com-prehensive agreement” before work started on drafting in May.

“We are on pace with that work plan, looking toward beginning draft-ing in May,” the o� cial said.

Russia’s chief negotiator said Mos-cow had no special expectations for this week’s meeting. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said talks on a number of issues were still in early stages and the meeting should produce a basis for further talks, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

‘Useful’ Technical TalksThe aim of the talks is to hammer out a long-term deal to define the permis-sible scope of Iran’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions that are damaging its oil-dependent economy.

In November, Iran and the six na-tions agreed an interim accord to curb Tehran’s atomic activities in exchange for some easing of sanctions. The six-month deal, which took e� ect on Jan-uary 20, was designed to buy time for talks on a long-term deal.

Iran has said it had useful ex-pert-level nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna last week, addressing all major technical issues in the way of a � nal settlement. l

Pro-Russians declare Ukraine’s Donetsk independent n AFP, Donetsk

Ukraine faced a fresh secessionist crisis yesterday when pro-Russians occupy-ing the Donetsk government seat pro-claimed independence from Kiev and vowed to hold a referendum on joining Kremlin rule.

The declaration and subsequent ap-peal for Russian military help should Kiev’s new pro-Western leaders resist their independence drive put the na-tion of 46 million in danger of disinte-gration, and added still more pressure on Western powers to act.

The ex-Soviet nation on the EU’s eastern frontier continues to be watched by tens of thousands of Rus-sian troops who had already annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in response to last month’s ouster in Kiev of a Moscow-backed regime.

Several heavily Russi� ed eastern re-gions now want to stage referendums on joining Russia when Ukraine holds snap presidential polls on May 25 that feature two frontrunners who both want to tie the vast country’s future to Europe and break its historic depen-dence on its eastern neighbour.

The political pressure on Kiev’s em-battled leaders reached boiling point on Sunday when thousands of activists chanting “Russia!” seized administra-tion buildings in Kharkiv and Donetsk as well as the security service headquarters

in the eastern region of Lugansk.The Donetsk activists went one step

further yesterday by proclaiming the creation of a sovereign “people’s re-public” in the region of about � ve mil-lion people.

Footage posted on YouTube showed one bearded Russian speaker telling the packed assembly from a podium: “Seeking to create a popular, legiti-mate, sovereign state, I proclaim the creation of the sovereign state of the People’s Republic of Donetsk.”

The industrial eastern region’s Ostrov (Island) news website reported that the activists later resolved to join the Russian Federation in a move similar to the one taken by Ukraine’s Crimea pen-insula last month. The news site said the resolution was met with a huge roar and chants of: “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin, help!”

The Interfax news agency reported that the self-proclaimed leaders had

also vowed to hold a regional sovereign-ty referendum no later than May 11.

More footage aired on Ukraine’s Channel 5 television showed an un-identi� ed speaker asking Putin to send a “peacekeeping contingent of the Rus-sian army” to Donetsk to help the re-gion stand up to Kiev’s rule.

Ukraine’s latest bout of political tur-moil prompted Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to send his deputy Vitaliy Yarema to the region in order to estab-lish a semblance of control.

The Donetsk administration build-ing on Monday was surrounded by about 2,000 Russian supporters – some of them armed.

Pro-Russian protesters also re-mained in control of the headquarters of the security service of the eastern region of Lugansk. Activists freed the administration building in Kharkiv on Monday after occupying it overnight.

“People were tired and many went home to get some rest. Now we are waiting for the Kharkiv people to gath-er again and then we will see what we will do,” said a 28-year-old pro-Russian activist named Andriy.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s 39-year-old prime minister bluntly accused Russia of helping orchestrate the occupations in order to � nd an excuse for a full-out invasion that would punish Ukraine for its decision to seek a political and eco-nomic alliance with the West. l

Putin orders crackdown on NGOsn AFP, Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a crackdown on “destructive” non-government organisations, say-ing such groups were behind the mass protests that brought down Ukraine’s government.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the new authorities in Kiev and the protest-ers who toppled pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych of being extremists, nationalists and even “Nazis.”

Putin yesterday told senior o� cials at Russia’s FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, that “nationalist

and neo-Nazi structures and � ghters” in Ukraine had been � nanced from abroad through non-government or-ganisations (NGOs).

“Russian legislation creates every condition for transparent free activities by NGOs, but we will never let them be used for destructive aims the way it happened in Ukraine,” Putin said.

“We need to see a di� erence be-tween civilised opposition to the au-thorities and serving others’ national interests to the detriment of one’s own country,” Putin said in remarks re-leased by the Kremlin.

Since returning to the Kremlin for a

third term in 2012, Putin has tightened controls over NGOs, signing legisla-tion forcing those with international funding to register themselves as “foreign agents.”

In February, seven activists who took part in a rally against Putin’s re-turn to the Kremlin were jailed for up to four years and a prominent environ-mentalist who criticised the impact of the Sochi Olympics was jailed for three years over a protest.

Putin, who served as a KGB agent in East Germany, headed the service’s post-Soviet successor, the FSB, be-tween 1998 and 1999. l

UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon lays a wreath of � ower at the the Gizosi Genocide Memorial in Kigalia, marking the 20th anniversary of Rwanda’s genocide AFP

Several heavily Russi� ed eastern regions now want to stage referendums on joining Russia

Pro-Russian activists guard a barricade set at the Donetsk regional council o� ce building on the eastern city of Donetsk. Ukraine’s embattled prime minister yesterday accused Russia of trying to ‘dismember’ his country by plotting seizures of government buildings in eastern regions that are seeking to break away from Kiev AFP

9Tuesday, April 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

BJP releases delayed election manifesto, shuns global retailersn Reuters, New Delhi

India’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pledged yesterday to revise the country’s nuclear doctrine, whose central principle is that New Delhi would not be � rst to use atomic weap-ons in a con� ict.

Unveiling its delayed election man-ifesto hours after polls opened in the world’s biggest election, the party gave no details, but sources involved in drafting the document said the “no-� rst-use” policy introduced after India conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998 would be reconsidered.

Arch-rival Pakistan, which respond-ed within weeks that year by conduct-ing tests of its own, does not profess “no � rst use.”

The BJP, which was in power at the time of India’s underground blasts, appears to be on the cusp of returning to government under the leadership of Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist many expect would adopt a muscular foreign policy.

Two aides to Modi told Reuters in the run-up to the vote that if he becomes prime minister, India would get tough-er in territorial disputes with China and more robust with Pakistan over attacks by Islamist militants based there.

In the 52-pag e manifesto, the party said it would seek friendly relations with neighbours, but - without nam-ing any country - vowed to “deal with cross-border terrorism with a � rm hand” and take a “strong stand and steps” when required.

India adopted a no-� rst-use policy at a time when it was under pressure from punitive embargoes by Western nations for its nuclear tests, but since

then it has been uno� cially accepted as a nuclear power.

Meanwhile, Murli Manohar Joshi, head of a committee that framed the BJP’s nuclear policy, declined to spell out whether no-� rst-use could be discarded. “Read the manifesto,” he told Reuters.

There was no immediate reaction from the Pakistan government or its military, which controls the country’s foreign and defence policy.

A former Pakistani national security adviser, retired Major-General Mah-mud Ali Durrani, said he would not be concerned if India revised the central tenet of its nuclear doctrine.

“I don’t think it will be of great con-sequence,” he said. “The nuclear doc-

trine here is MAD (mutually assured destruction). If one side does it, the other side has enough to cause unac-ceptable damage in response.”

The BJP manifesto also set out its Hindu nationalist leanings, with a vow to explore building a temple at the site of a mosque in northern India that was torn down by zealots 22 years ago, po-tentially putting a deeply controversial issue back into play.

The party also made a commitment to withdrawing a special autonomous status accorded to Jammu and Kash-mir state, India’s only Muslim-majority region, which many believe prolongs ambiguity over the status of a territory claimed by Pakistan. l

Clashes between Pakistani militants kill 20n AFP, Miranshah

Clashes between two Pakistani Tali-ban factions have left at least 20 dead, security o� cials and militant sources said yesterday, in a sign of the intense rivalries within the umbrella grouping.

The � ghting took place in the tribal regions between supporters of Khan Said Sajna, a senior commander once tipped to lead the group, and those of former leader Hakimullah Mehsud who was killed in a US drone strike last November.

A security o� cial in Islamabad told AFP that at least 15 militants were killed in an overnight clash between the groups along the border of the North and South Waziristan tribal agencies.

Another security o� cial and two militant sources in North Waziristan con� rmed the clash. Fighting broke out once again on Monday, killing a further � ve militants.

The reason for the clashes was unclear. But the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki-stan (TTP) group which was formed in 2007 has long been riven by in� ghting. l

EC issues notice to Amit Shah over ‘revenge’ remarkn Agencies

The Election Commission of India yesterday issued notice to BJP general secretary Amit Shah over his contro-versial ‘vote for revenge’ comment, following a complaint registered by rival Congress.

The commission felt Shah’s remarks violated the model code of conduct and asked him to reply within two days.

The BJP leader, who is a close aide of the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, last week sparked con-troversy with a reported appeal to ‘vote for revenge’ against Muza� arnagar ri-ots in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, in Kolkata, Chief Elec-tion Commissioner VS Sampath told reporters that action would be tak-en against the BJP leader if he was found guilty of making the alleged hate speech.

Sampath said that the commission would take action against Shah after watching the CD of the event where he delivered the alleged speech. l

UN envoy raises alarm over west Myanmar ‘persecution’n AFP, Yangon

Acute shortages of water and medical treatment in western Myanmar follow-ing attacks on humanitarian groups are the latest hardships imposed on Ro-hingya Muslims that “could amount to crimes against humanity,” a UN expert said yesterday.

The United Nations’ human rights envoy to the country, Tomas Ojea Quin-tana, said a wave of attacks against aid organisations had choked o� health, water and food supplies, increasing the vulnerability of the Rohingyas.

“Recent developments in Rakhine State are the latest in a long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya community which could amount to crimes against humanity,” he said in a statement.

More than 170 aid workers were pulled out of the state as a result of last

month’s unrest – the � rst time they have been forced to leave en masse – and there are fears that the entire relief infrastruc-ture has been severely damaged.

The exodus has deepened an al-ready dire health situation for hun-dreds of thousands reliant on inter-national medical relief, with some 140,000 in the camps, as well as more than 700,000 vulnerable people in iso-lated villages severely a� ected.

Quintana said water supplies could reach critical levels within a week in some camps for displaced people, the vast ma-jority of whom are Muslim, and urged the authorities to do more to ensure the safe-ty of humanitarian personnel.

Rakhine has been almost complete-ly segregated on religious lines after long-standing animosity between Buddhists and Muslims erupted into bloodshed in 2012, leaving dozens dead in clashes. l

Malaysia, Indonesia ban biblical epic ‘Noah’n AP, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Malaysia and Indonesia have banned the biblical epic “Noah,” joining other Muslim nations that forbid the Holly-wood movie for its visual depiction of the prophet.

Film censors in both countries said yesterday that the portrayal of the ark-building prophet by Russell Crowe was against Islamic laws. Depictions of any prophet are shunned in Islam to avoid worship of a person rather than God.

“The � lm ‘Noah’ is not allowed to be screened in this country to protect the sensitivity and harmony in Malaysia’s multiracial and multireligious commu-nity,” Film Censorship Board chairman Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid said in a statement.

Malay Muslims make up about 60 percent of Malaysia’s 30 million peo-ple, and Christians about 9 percent.

In the world’s most populous Mus-lim nation, the head of Indonesia’s cen-sor board Muchlis Paeni said the plot of the � lm directed by Darren Aronof-sky contradicted both the Quran and the Bible.

“We have to reject Noah to be screened here,” Paeni said. “We don’t want a � lm that could provoke contro-versies and negative reactions.”

Much of the Muslim world, includ-ing the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, has already banned the � lm, which is a box-o� ce hit in the US Some Christian conservatives also have complained of its inaccurate portrayal of the biblical account of the � ood.

Paramount Pictures added a dis-claimer to its marketing material, say-ing “artistic license has been taken” in telling the story. l

New ‘pings’ best lead yetn Reuters, Perth

An Australian ship searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner picked up signals consistent with the beacons from aircraft black box re-corders, in what search o� cials said was the most promising lead yet in the month-long hunt.

The US Navy “towed pinger locator” connected to the Australian ship Ocean Shield picked up the signals in an area some 1,680 km (1,040 miles) northwest of Perth, which analysis of sporadic sat-ellite data has determined as the most likely place Boeing 777 went down.

“I’m much more optimistic than I was a week ago,” Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency coordinating the search, told a news conference in Perth in western Australia, while cau-tioning that wreckage needed to be found for a con� rmation.

“We are now in a very well-de� ned search area, which hopefully will even-tually yield the information that we need to say that MH370 might have en-tered the water just here.”

If the signals can be narrowed fur-ther, an autonomous underwater ve-hicle called a Blue� n 21, will be sent to � nd wreckage on the sea � oor to verify the signals, said Houston, who noted that the potential search area was 4.5 km (2.8 miles) deep, the same as the

Blue� n range.The black boxes record cockpit data

and may provide answers about what happened to the Malaysia Airlines plane, which was carrying 227 pas-sengers and 12 crew when it vanished o� radar on March 8 and � ew thou-sands of kilometres o� its Kuala Lum-pur-to-Beijing route.

Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur he was “cautiously hopeful” that the signals picked up would lead to a positive � nding soon.

The � rst “ping” signal detection was held for more than two hours before the Ocean Shield lost contact, but the ship was able to pick up a signal again for about 13 minutes, Houston said.

The black boxes, thought be to lying on the ocean � oor, are equipped with locator beacons that send pings but the beacons’ batteries are thought to be running out of charge by now, a month after Flight MH370 disappeared.

“We still have got di� cult, pains-taking work to do to con� rm that this is indeed where the aircraft entered the water,” said Houston.

Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 re-ported receiving a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5 kHz, consistent with the signal emitted by � ight recorders, on Friday and again on Saturday. l

Pakistan military will ‘preserve dignity’ despite ex-chief’s trialn Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistan’s military will protect its digni-ty “at all costs,” the army chief said yes-terday in an apparent show of irritation over the treason trial of former army chief and president Pervez Musharraf.

Such talk from the army chief, General Raheel Sharif, the most powerful � gure in Pakistan, is likely to raise concern about political intervention by the army, which would set back hopes for the develop-ment of democracy and civilian rule.

Last month, a Pakistani court indicted Musharraf on � ve counts of treason over his suspension of the constitution and imposition of emergency rule in 2007, when he was trying to extend his rule.

Musharraf, who � rst seized pow-er as army chief in a 1999 coup and later became president as well, faces the death penalty if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

The case again Musharraf high-lights the competition for in� uence between Pakistan’s three power cen-tres: an increasingly assertive judicia-ry, the � edgling civilian government and the powerful military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 67-year-history.

Musharraf’s indictment has broken an unwritten rule that the top ranks of the military are untouchable.

“The Pakistan army looks at all in-stitutions with respect,” Sharif said on a visit to a military base in response to questions from soldiers about recent criticism of the army, including, a mili-tary source said, one about the trial.

“But it will also preserve its own dig-nity and institutional pride at all costs.”

Sharif, speaking at a base in Tar-bela, about 70 km (44 miles) north-west of the capital, Islamabad, did not elaborate. l

Rivals cry foul as � rst results put Abdullah ahead in Afghan voten Reuters, Kabul

Preliminary tallies from Afghanistan’s presidential election showed former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah leading in parts of Kabul yesterday, but with ballot counting likely to last weeks it was far too early to predict a winner.

The two other frontrunners alleged serious fraud in the April 5 vote, which all being well will lead to Afghanistan’s � rst democratic transfer of power as incum-bent Hamid Karzai prepares to step down after more than 12 years in the o� ce.

Trucks stacked with plastic ballot boxes began to trickle into the capital on Monday, as o� cials prepared to open a centre to tally votes from across the rugged country.

Given the United State’s plan to withdraw most of its troops by the end of the year, the longer Afghanistan has to wait before a new leader is installed the greater is the risk of instability ei-ther from the Taliban insurgency, or rivalries between factions in a country riven by ethnic and tribal fault lines.

“We are trying to start the process as soon as possible,” said Noor Moham-mad Noor, a spokesman for the Inde-pendent Election Commission. “It’s a long process. It will take time.”

If none of the candidates score over 50 percent it will take even longer be-fore a winner is declared, as there will be a second round run o� at the end of May at the earliest.

Preliminary results are not due until April 24, but a tour of Kabul polling sta-tions showed that Abdullah was � rm-ly in the lead, con� rming the suave

former anti-Soviet resistance � ghter’s popularity in the capital.

Running second came Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank o� cial with a pro-gramme of radical economic reform. Former � nance minister Ghani should score well in the north, as his running mate is Abdul Rashid Dostum, a feared former warlord who holds sway over much of the region.

Trailing in third was another former � nance minister, Zalmai Rassoul. He is believed to have Karzai’s backing, and as a consequence is expected to do bet-ter in the Pashtun-dominated south, where the Karzai family has strength-ened its in� uence over the years.

As part of Afghanistan’s e� orts to make the election more transparent, polling stations at schools and o� ces across the country post results on the door for the public to see. At the Sayed Jamaluddin High school polling station in western Kabul, for example, Abdul-lah had received 190 ballots, Ghani 23 and Rassoul 11.

The picture was similar at about a dozen other schools visited by Reuters in the west and north of Kabul.

Kabul accounts for at least 20 per-cent of Afghanistan’s electoral base, so a strong result in the capital could be key to deciding the elections’ outcome. There are 28,500 polling centres across Afghanistan.

Rekindling memories of the mass fraud that marred the previous pres-idential election in 2009, both Ghani and Rassoul said they had received re-ports of violations and submitted them to the election commission. l

More than 100m new voters

Roughly 814.5m people registered to vote

Over 23m of new voters between 18-19 years old

Counting on May 16, results expected on the same day

Voting to be held in nine stages, over � ve weeks

‘None of the Above’ option available on the ballot papers and electronic voting machines

Transgender voters can mark their gender as ‘Others’

India Election Highlights

A handout photo released yesterday shows the HMAS Success readying a Rigid Hull In� atable Boat (RHIB) near dusk following a reported sighting of potential debris in the vicinity during the search for missing Malaysia Airlines � ight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The NDV Ocean Shield has detected new underwater signals consistent with aircraft black boxes, the search chief said, describing it as the ‘most promising lead’ so far in the month-old hunt for missing Flight MH370 AFP

Modi-fying Bangladesh-India relationsApril 1

AzIt doesn’t help that the BNP is shifting to the far-right day by day, instead of being a progres-sive centre-right force.

Modi’s China policy will have a greater impact on Bangladesh. DT could shed some light on that as well.

Mohammad MunshiThe article displays a total misunderstanding of Indian foreign policy. It does not matter which party comes to power in India. They will all adopt an India-first outlook and seek hegemony over their South Asian neighbours. While the Congress prefers subtlety and the use of proxies to achieve these objectives, the BJP will be more direct and overt. On the question of India’s position in the region and in the world there is no difference between the political parties. While the Congress has seemingly pretended to appease Bangladeshi concerns over Teesta and the LBA, it has actually done nothing tangible on these issues. The BJP, on the other hand, will likely completely ignore Bangladesh altogether, regardless of which party is in power in Dhaka.

WaliulHaqueKhondkerMr Modi ought to understand that the basic need for a democratic government is not only about forming a government and becoming the prime minister; it is also about taking di� erent groups and communities that make a nation along with him!

I do not know about Modi, but will our leadership ever pay heed to this basic need for a democratic government? Perhaps not. Hence we will go down rather than progress in times to come.

Tensions as Myanmar embarks on censusMarch 31

Why does our government stay silent? The labeling of Rohingyas as Bengali will intensify the already serious security problem in the southern region of Bangladesh struggling with the thousands of illegal Rohingya “refugees!” Myanmar only seems to be pushing the prob-lem they face with an ethnic minority onto the back of Bangladesh.

Vikram Khan

Tarique sued for ‘defaming’ BangabandhuApril 2

These silly stunts by random publicity-seekers have my undying scorn. I expect this “case” to be swiftly shot down in court, just like the one against Begum Zia was, yesterday

One

A yearning for earningApril 2This is a revealing read. A lot of young people (certainly the urban crowd who read this paper) ought to take heed. There’s clearly a mutually reinforcing range of factors that perpetuate the situation that the author describes. The stigmati-sation of non-formal, wage-earning work is a mas-sive deterrent to more young people striking out on their own. When the stereotypical o� ce job of a salaried person remains the societal ideal, it’s small wonder that many educated young people in this country still struggle to defy the norm.

The author correctly identi� es the abso-lutely shambolic state of our education system. Education reform is crucial and unavoidable, as is individual initiative, in the modern, very � uid economy of today, to self-educate and acquire the skills-set necessary to be highly employable and remain employable, over time. This even boosts the prospects for self-employment, which has traditionally proven a spur to econom-ic growth and upward mobility among the young and working.

Apart from the abysmal standards of edu-cation dooming legions of our young graduates to periods of under-employment and unem-ployment, there are other factors at play, too. In Dhaka, for example, voluntary unemployment is not uncommon. From the decline of paid work that is deemed beneath the prestige of young graduates (as the author already stated), there’s also among the wealthy a false sense of entitlement, inevitable complacency, and a lack of a genuine work ethic that combine to swell the ranks of the unemployed and make the job environment even bleaker.

There’s obviously a lot more to paid work than holding a conventional o� ce job. But for a more diversi� ed jobs market and varied avenues of a living income to become a reality, superior standards of education, training and an enabling economic environment rewarding hard work and talent are indispensable.

Ronnie

A great way to end the T20 World CupCongratulations to Sri Lanka for the decisive manner in which

they beat favourites India to win the ICC T20 World Cup on Sunday.

By becoming the � fth nation in � ve tournaments to win the event, they further con� rmed T20’s reputation for competition and excitement. In addition, the � nal provided a � tting international farewell to the team’s two 36-year-old stalwarts Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

History was also made by the victorious women’s team Australia, who have now managed to win the T20 World Cup on three out of the four occasions it has been held.

For the home fans who have provided a passionate atmosphere throughout the tournament in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet, there are of course some mixed feelings. The Tigers performed disappointingly, while the Bangladesh women’s team put on a terri� c performance to beat Sri Lanka in their last Group appearance.

All Bangladeshis can be proud of the positive impression created by stadiums being � lled with enthusiastic cricket fans on television broadcasts to hundreds of millions around the world.

With open air big screens and � ash mobs, adding to the atmosphere, it has been a highly enjoyable tournament. The tournament even received the accolade of a Google Doodle celebrating the T20 World Cup � nal date on the search engine’s home page.

Bangladesh’s successful hosting of a World Cup should encourage more events to the country and boost the case for having a Bangladeshi-owned franchise in the IPL. Most of all though, we hope it will inspire more people to take part in and excel at sports across the nation.

Celebrate health sector successes

At a seminar hosted by Dhaka Tribune to mark World Health Day on Monday, senior health professionals from leading private hospitals met with policy-makers to discuss

opportunities for the health sector in Bangladesh.The country has achieved many successes in the � eld of

healthcare in the past decade, which have helped it to meet targets set by the Millennium Development Goals. In the past � ve years, Bangladesh has witnessed a 70% reduction in the number of malaria patients down to 26,000 and is on course to bring it down totally by 2020.

The role of preventative health measures was a key theme as the focus of this year’s World Health Day is raising awareness of threats from vector-borne diseases, under the slogan “Small bite, big threat.”

Experts discussed innovative ways, including recent successful telemedicine projects, in which private healthcare providers, with help from voluntary organisations and corporate CSR programmes, can make a positive di� erence in remote and rural communities

With news of more hospitals performing cutting edge operations in the country and the pharmaceutical sector being boosted by a global Japanese health company opening a new centre this month, there is plenty of positive activity to report.

These types of progress should not be overlooked by the media when it holds to account shortcomings in health services, whether public or private.

Huge amounts are spent annually by Bangladeshis travelling abroad for healthcare, often in cases where top quality care is available at less cost within the country. Consumer awareness should be raised, so that more such funds are spent domestically.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

Achievements should not be overlooked by the media

We hope it will inspire more people to take part in and excel at sport across the nation

‘Political violence kills 41 children in 2013’April 3

How do we protect the children and put an end to the political violence in our nation when they’re being recruited to get involved in politics from adolescence?

Raihan Hadi

Crossword

Sudoku

CROSSWORD YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Easy talk (4)4 Stories (5)8 Incentive (6)9 Fruit (4)11 Heathen (5)12 Consumer (4)14 Had a meal (3)15 Colour (6)19 Inferior (6)21 Printers’ measures (3)22 Storm (4)24 Flowed back (5)27 Musical group (4)29 Egg dish (6)30 E� ace (5)31 Lacerated (4)

DOWN1 Drinking vessel (3)2 Entertains (6)3 Large volume (4)4 Gratuity (3)5 Be of value (5)6 Limb (3)7 Tendons (6)10 Old stringed instrument (4)13 Cereal (3)14 Assert without proof (6)16 Do wrong (3)17 Smooth and even (mus) (6)18 Augury (4)20 Slender supports (5)23 Encourage in crime (4)25 Serpent (3)26 Scottish river (3)28 Clamour (3)

How to solve Sudoku: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 num-ber repeating.

SUDOKU

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n Brian Shoesmith

Like a lot of people, I was somewhat taken aback by Begum Khaleda Zia’s recent brazen attempt to re-write the history of Bangladesh.

On re� ection, I thought it may be an act of maternal love, supporting her er-rant son, currently exiled in England, who seem to have been in � rst in mak-ing the claim that in reality General Ziaur Rahman was the � rst president of Bangladesh.

The response of the Dhaka intel-ligentsia was swift and decisive; the evidence was martialed, the facts presented, and the claim demolished. All well and good, but few people have sought to mine this outrageous claim for deeper meanings.

Why, at this point in time did Khale-da make this claim? Was this some spur of the moment utterance devised to distract attention from the parlous state the BNP currently � nds itself inhabiting, or does it herald a new agenda whereby the BNP (or rather the Zias) reclaim what they have come to see has their patrimony?

When and if we have a general elec-tion in 2019, the BNP will have been out of power for 12 years, suggesting that the Zias’ grip on power will have slipped away.

Not only has the name Zia been expunged from the name of the inter-national airport, but Tarique will have been out of country for a considerable period of time. Together, these con-note that the Zia aura is waning.

The answer is to defend the dimin-ishing patrimony by attacking the key foundational myths of Bangladesh’s historical narrative; the respective role of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s in achiev-ing independence and the sacri� ce and martyrdom of the Bangladeshi youth in confronting the ruthless Pakistani enemy.

Challenging stu� at the best of times, and potentially incendiary in their impact. Interestingly, the claims have been greeted with derision and consigned to the dustbin of history. Even more interesting is the fact that we haven’t seen the BNP apparatchiks

racing to the barricades to defend their leaders and assert their interpretation of history to be the correct one. All of which leads us to ask: Why was the claim made in the � rst place?

A quick and super� cial answer could be that the BNP is in disarray and the Zias have to re-impose their authority in order to retrain control over the party, which has become marked by a division between the Dhaka wing and the regional organi-sation. In one deft move, the name Zia is inserted back into the headlines and reminder issued on what really counts here.

Alternatively, the BNP policy cupboard is bare, bereft of new ideas, strategies, or tactics. Consequently, the claims about General Zia can be seen as a desperate e� ort to shore up BNP con-� dence in the context of the upazila elections.

Either of these interpretations is plausible, but I think it possible to o� er a di� erent and ultimately deeper analysis of events. Khaleda’s claims contained an implied threat; accept this interpretation because in the future we will write the true history of Bangladesh, and if you want a place in this narrative, then begin to believe.

In short, this is an attempt to capture, for want of a better word, the soul of the nation. It is an attempt to set out new parameters for a history of Bangladesh, which is revisionist and partisan.

In attempting to capture the historical highground, Khaleda fails to recognise one salient point, but at the same time grasp another. Anyone engaged in doing history will tell you that history is a very tricky subject that should be approached with caution – what appear to be facts have a habit of turning on their interpreters, that history is always provisional, open to reinterpretation and reassessment.

History is not a claim uttered endlessly in the belief that if you say it often enough someone will accept it as fact, as the Zias seem to believe. On the other hand, they have grasped, with great clarity, that history is usual-ly written by the victors and it is this, I think, that worries them.

Despite the continuing call by the

BNP for a new and fair election, and the seemingly never-ending electoral abuses of the recent local elections, there seems to be very little interest in the wider community for a new national election.

The Awami League has no need to call one and in the community there seems to have been a huge communal sigh of relief as street life returns to normal. There is little stomach for a return to the violence and disruption of the continuous hartals.

The prospect of the BNP returning to power at this point seems remote. Herein lies the problem, which leads

the Zias to make two fundamental errors of judgment. A further � ve years of governing provides the AL with even more opportunities to expunge the Zia name from the historical narrative. The claims made in respect to General Zia, then, represent one last desperate attempt to remind Bangladeshis of his role in the nation’s history, which is now well documented and accepted in broad terms by the country as a whole. General Zia’s importance is acknowledged and understood and to try to make more of it is an egregious mistake.

At another level, Bangladesh has changed markedly over the last decade. It is more prosperous, better educated, and much better informed about events. Thus, to attempt a rever-sal of history displays a fundamental misunderstanding of contemporary Bangladesh.

You need more than slogans to maintain party loyalty. In attempting to re-write history, the BNP fails to grasp that the AL is vulnerable on a number of fronts; its failure to control the triumphalism of its student wing and grass roots organisations who seem to interpret electoral victory as license to settle scores are foremost. But rather than counter these excesses with well thought-out policies, the BNP, through its leader, continues to make foolish claims. Unfortunately for Bangladesh, the BNP seems to have neither the capacity nor the political will to change. l

Brian Shoesmith is Dean, Academic Development, University of Liberal Arts.

n Rumi Ahmed

The controversy over the con-tributions and commitment to our 1971 war of independ-

ence, especially those of the civil and military leadership, in nothing new in Bangladesh. There has been con� ict-ing historical description of the early hours of the war of independence of Bangladesh.

The point of contention has been the question – who � rst declared independence of Bangladesh, was it late President Ziaur Rahman – the most prominent military leader of Bangladesh’s war of independence, or the most prominent political leader championing Bengali nationalism, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also called Bangabandhu and credited to be the founding father of the country?

This article, for good reasons, will not revive that decades-old debate again; rather it will try to deal with a very recent new dimension that has been added to that controversy. BNP’s exiled leader, and son of opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia, Mr Tarique Rahman, suddenly came up with a casual one-line comment in a political speech, which claimed that late pres-ident, then Major, Ziaur Rahman was the � rst president of Bangladesh. Mr Rahman’s speech started a � restorm of rhetoric war.

While the discussion of the fact about the historical claim may not be of much speculation and analysis, the discussion on the reaction from both the sides of the political divides may require in-depth study of the current

state of Bangladesh politics, its past, and may potentially be a forecast of future of this politics.

First let’s discuss Tarique Rahman’s claim. Is he wrong?

No, he is not wrong. He is techni-cally correct. Over the last decade, there has been a great push towards restoration of the correct and detailed history of our war of independence. And for the sake of the correct history, it is extremely important that the younger generation knows the details of the early hours of our war of inde-pendence.

And the truth is that on the night of March 25, 1971, when Bangladesh was under attack – when genocide was being committed on Bengali civilian, police, EPR, sepoys, students –when the top political leadership either were already in Pakistan military custody or in hiding or on the run – when every-one pulled down the newly designed � ag of Bangladesh they were hoisting on their rooftop all across Bangladesh – when people even dared not keep

the � ag hidden at home for a moment, one military o� cer came on radio, he declared him provisional head of the new country called Bangladesh and declare independence and war against the perpetrator of the genocide.

To Bangalis, on the face of unprec-edented brutality and genocide, that declaration meant that the brutal at-tack will be replied to – we will not lie and get beaten. That declaration from Major Ziaur Rahman and his modi� ed follow up announcements spread the � re of mutiny among the Bangali o� cers and soldiers across the military installations in erstwhile East Pakistan and showed the people of Bangladesh the ray of hope.

During his follow up announce-ments, yes – Major Zia reiterated the declaration of independence on behalf of our “great national leader Bang-abandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” but not on behalf of acting president/prime minister Sheikh Mujibur Rah-man.

Bangabandhu, by that time had become the spiritual leader and in-spiration of our war of independence. Being in the custody of an occupation army, in a foreign prison he could no longer be the acting president or prime minister or even supreme commander of armed forces engaged in a war. Zia, declaring on behalf of “great national leader Bangabandhu,” does not make Bangabandhu our acting president or supreme commander. Gandhi was In-dia’s “great national leader” post-inde-pendence without any portfolio.

On March 26, 1971 – until April 10, 1971 – Zia probably was the sen-

ior-most army o� cer engaged in reg-ulation warfare. Brigadier Majumdar was out of command responsibility. MAG Osmani, a retd colonel later and Lt Col Abdur Rob later joined Mujib Nagar government. If we consider Bangladesh as independent start-ing March 26, 1971, and at war with Pakistan starting that day, we must also have a leader to lead this new-ly-formed government and � ght the war.

Other than Zia and his declaration – we do not see anyone taking respon-sibility as the leader of the resistance until April 10 when Syed Nazrul Islam was declared the acting president. Zia, during his follow-up announcements, never retracted his claim and until April 10 no political leader claimed the job. During a war, the senior-most military o� cer involved in combat can take over civil administration in the absence/inability of civilian leadership.

It will be of extreme historical importance to accept the provisional leadership role Zia played between March 26 and April 10, 1971. Zia did not have the hindsight that Bang-ladesh would be independent in 9 months. What he did was pure and simple treason against Pakistan, and if Pakistan had their way, Zia would have been court martialed and summarily executed.

It is also very important to under-stand that the value of Zia making way to civilian political leadership and go-ing back to their command as an active soldier is much more important than Zia being the de facto war time leader/provisional president of this newly

independent state or 15-days until the political leadership could get the time to re-organise.

At the same token, a senior major of the army taking charge of the newly independent state on which a war is imposed, does not make the role of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the founding father of our nation-alist autonomy movement any bit smaller.

This undeniable fact also does not re-duce the credit due to exiled leadership of Bangladesh Awami League, espe-cially Mr Tajuddin Ahmed and Mr Syed Nazrul Islam, as the political and civil leadership of the newly-created state.

While the claim of Zia’s role during the � rst weeks of independent Bangla-desh faced a chorus of harsh criticism among Awami League-leaning com-mentators, none of the commentators could deny that fact that Zia indeed took the charge as head of state while declaring independence and war, tell any alternative name who was in charge of newly independent Bangla-

desh until April 10, 1971, and tell that Bangabandhu, in his independence declaration speech, nominated anyone the supreme commander, or disagree with the fact that Bangabandhu, while in Pakistani custody, could not be the head of the state and supreme com-mander of the armed forces at war.

The main spirit of our war of inde-pendence was democracy, and it was extremely important that at the ear-

liest possible time a political civilian body with a clear democratic legitima-cy takes over control of every resource of the new state (including its armed forces). Mujibnagar Government had that legitimacy and it indeed re-assert-ed itself at the earliest possible time. This is equally one of the greatest mo-ments of the history of our independ-ence struggle, as is the de� ant stand of Major Zia and his shouldering of the historical responsibility at the moment of nations’ need. l

Rumi Ahmed is a blogger and writes from USA.

11Op-Ed Tuesday, April 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Reinventing history: To what ends?

Setting the record straight

That declaration from Major Ziaur Rahman and his modi� ed follow up announcements spread the � re of mutinyIf Pakistan had their

way, Zia would have been court martialed and summarily executed

This is an attempt to capture, for want of a better word, the soul of the nation. It is an attempt to set out new parameters for a history of Bangladesh

You need more than slogans to maintain party loyalty

AFP

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 201412

FilmJibondhuliShongramFrozen in 3DBoishomyoAvatar in 3D Star Cineplex, Bashundhara CityPanthapath, Dhaka

ExhibitionSerenading SuchitraTime: 12pm – 8pm

Shilpangan Gallery, House-7, Road-13,Dhanmondi

Crossing ThroughTime: 3pm – 8pmDhaka Art Center (DAC) House-60, Road-7A Dhanmondi R/A

Neel Megher Kabbo By Mahbubul HaqueTime: 8am – 11pmBronia Cafe & GalleryGulshan Avenue

TODAY IN DHAKA

n Afrose Jahan Chaity

At present, the feeling of patriotism is quiet prominent among the people of Bangladesh and many � lmmakers are addressing the glo-rious history and coming up with � lms con-sisting patriotic messages and stories. Sha� Uddin Sha� ’s upcoming � lm Fand – The Trap is such a � lm, it has both the elements of pa-triotism and a complicated love story, set in the backdrop of a foreign country. The 130 mints movie will hit the cinemas on April 25.

Dhallywood king Shakib Khan and Achol will be seen romancing on screen for the � rst time in The Trap. Both of them are play-ing the lead roles while Amit Hassan and international casts from Malaysia and Singa-pore also will be seen in the � lm.

Dhaka Tribune caught up with the direc-tor recently. He shared his outlook of the � lm: “It is a complicated but entertaining script. It does follow the stereotypical ‘boy meets girl’ love story, but there is a twist.

It focuses on both nationalism and also the

relationship of the lead characters. The � lm explores both thriller and action in the plot. After the announcement of an important sci-enti� c theory in a press conference, it gets sto-len. The protagonist struggle to rescue the in-formation from getting into the wrong hands. In short it encompasses love and patriotism.”

About the title of the � lm, the director said: “One of the main focus of the � lm is about trapping international criminals and rescuing national property, that is where the inspiration of the title came from.” l

Shakib Khan rescues nationalproperty in The Trap

n Entertainment Desk

For the � rst time, contemporary small screen actors Richi Solaiman, Apurba and Farah Ruma performed together in a television dra-ma titled Amar Majhe Tumi. As the antecedent title was not � nalised, actor Apurba changed it to Amar Majhe Tumi at the time of shooting. Chayanika Chowdhury has written and direct-ed the drama.

Presented by Redbox, in the drama Apurba and Farah Ruma pair up on screen and Richi appeared in a signi� cant guest role. About her appearance, Richi said: “I have con� dence in Chayanika’s work. For this reason, I acted in a role which was suppose to be played by anoth-er actor.

The opportunity came my way when she fell ill and I

grabbed at it. I enjoyed working in the role and hope the audience will like it.” Apurba said: “The experience of working with Richi and Ruma was fantastic as both are cooperative and immensely talented. When we get a stan-dard story we try to illustrate it wholehearted-ly.”

The director Chayanika informed that the drama is going to air on a private television channel in the forthcoming Eid.

Few years ago Richi worked with Farah Ruma in a television drama.

That was the duo’s � rst and last work to-gether but Apurba worked with Richi and Fa-har Ruma separately in a few television dra-mas.

Apurba is quite busy with his � rst � lm Gangstar Returns while Farah Ruma is

back in the small screen from her hia-tus of couple of years.l

Richi, Apurba and Farah Ruma acts togetherfor the � rst time

Minu Haque: Bismoye Jage Pran features � ve major

elements of naturen Afrose Jahan Chaity

Dance academy Pallavi Dance Center is going to stage a premier show of Bismoye Jage Pran at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on April 8.

The new dance drama is directed by one of the leading exponents of classical dance of Bangladesh and one of the � nest and most cre-ative choreographer and dance director of the time, Minu Haque, assisted by Anik Bose.

The dance drama is based on � ve major ele-ments of nature, earth, � re, air, water and sky. About the show, Minu Haque said: “These � ve elements of energy are always in movement and in synchronization. We are also part of this nature and it’s our duty to protect it. Nowa-days, the entire world is � ghting with natural disaster. This dance drama is an idea towards

protecting the nature.”Kosturi Mukharjee, Shahidul Islam, Anik

Bose, Salma Begum and Nipa Dey will perform on the major part of this drama while total eighteen performers will perform the dance drama. Music of the dance drama is directed and composed by Swaoan Pakrashi. Bulbul Is-lam, Mita Haque and team lends their voice on the backdrop.

The dance drama features songs, poetry and small parts of narrations. Rabindra dance Style, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Manipuri and Contem-porary dance styles has been used in di� erent part of the choreography.

Pallavi Dance Center’s one of the resound-ing work is Tagore’s dance drama Shapmochon which received warm accolade and high appre-ciation at its premier show in New Delhi, India in early April, 2012. l

n Shadma Malik

A solo art exhibition titled Crossing Through by Shawket Ahmed Apu is being held at the Dhaka Art Cen-tre. The exhibition explores many facets of his journey as a traveler. His canvases portray subjects like social changes, environmental de-struction and human emotions. Although the artist does not have any institutional background in � ne arts, his keen interest in graphics, designing, visual art and paintings makes him a self-taught artist whose potentiality is vivid in the current exhibition.

In the debut exhibition, he ex-perimented with di� erent medi-ums and mostly preferred to use acrylic on canvas and paper. Ab-stract, semi-realistic, � gurative and surrealistic genres of art are visible on the displayed artworks.

The versatile artist wrote small poems related to the subjects of his artworks and these poems add extra dimension to the

show. A mentionable work, Block Together, is a metaphoric painting which depicts the horror of the Savar Tragedy. The canvas is full of building blocks which are collapsed

and are presented with di� erent colours , but the colour red repre-senting bloodshed of the victims is highlighted in the painting.

Similar subject has been present-ed in another artwork Unexplainable Su� erings which tells a story of an innocent man who was hit by a pa-trol bomb during the recent political turmoil.

But the artist with his poetic soul shows a euphoric conclusion in the artwork where the body of the victim metamorphoses into that of a butter-� y. This painting symbolically says when a man dies he merges in nature through the wings of a butter� y.

Another artwork From Nature is about his quest to know the secrets of nature and life. The artist sees beautiful elements in nature such as stones, dry leaves and soil. His com-passion towards the natural world is evident in few more works. Yellow

Flooding is another such work that is a treat for the nature lovers.

The show will continue till April 10. l

Shawket Ahmed Apu’s Crossing Through

Dhaka BluesFest on April 11n Entertainment Desk

Dhaka Blues Society will hold their � rst annual Dhaka Blues Fest 2014 in association with the Embassy of the Russian Feder-ation in Bangladesh on April 11.The participating bands and mu-sicians are, Mahaan, The A Train, Pashan-Bedi, Circus Police, The Blues Brothers’ project, Mono-shoroni, 42, 12am, Murshed and Feel Bangla Jam, Aronno, Pandu, Bogey and Friendz and Dhaka Blues Society. Celebrated musicians like Mac Haque, Nakib Khan, Pilu Khan, Rezaur Rahman, Jahan (Black), Faisal (Metalmaze) and many others are also scheduled to join the show. “Bangladesh has a rich history in music and there are many talent-ed musicians and keen listeners who carry the colour of ‘blues’ in their minds and hearts. With that being mentioned, the Dhaka Blues Society is going to be the ultimate platform for those blues lovers,” said Sha� at Ahmed Dipto, General Secretary of Dhaka Blues Society.   The Dhaka Blues Society is a non-pro� t organisation found-ed in January 2012 with the goal to promote the world of blues music genre in Bangladesh. A ticket to the show costs Tk200 and is available at Cuppa Co� ee (Gulshan-2) and Live Kitchen (Ba-nani). l

A fashion ramp show titled Rang RTV 20-20 Colours will air at 7:30pm tonight on RTV. The show focuses on model search competition for 2014. Designed by Biplob Saha, choreographed by Kamrul, a guest judge and actor Bijori Barkatullah are in the judging panel. Produced by Shahriar Islam, around 22 models wearing colourful attires will perform in ramp shows and will be selected through competitions

Parineeti looking for loven Entertainment Desk

Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra put end to rumours of her dating anyone during her appearance at the � nale of celebrity talk show Ko� ee With Karan recently. The Ish-aqzaade actor further said that she is ready to fall in love and get into a relationship.

Parineeti Chopra made her Bollywood debut in 2011 with Ladies vs Ricky Bahl and later her breakthrough came with Ishaqzaade in 2013, for which she won a National Award.

Parineeti Chopra said: “I really want to be in love. I gen-uinely want to be in a relationship.”

The talented actor has been linked with Ladies vs Ricky Bahl and Shuddh Desi Romance director Maneesh Sharma .

Parineeti said she respects Maneesh.” For me Maneesh is like Adi (Aditya Chopra). I respect them both too much. They have given me my whole life. Maneesh and me is just

wrong and my respect for him is something else,” she said.Parineeti Chopra will be next seen with Aditya Roy

Kapur in Daawat-e-Ishq. n

13DHAKA TRIBUNE

Farbrace thanks Bangladeshn Sri Lanka head coach Paul Farbrace ac-knowledged the fact that his side’s stay in Bangladesh for last three months played a key role in their success in the ICC World Twenty20. Sri Lanka broke the 18-year old jinx and won ‘a world cup � nal’ defeating India by six wick-ets in the World Twenty20 on Sunday.

Farbrace also added that the bilat-eral series against Bangladesh gave Sri Lanka the momentum. “Bangladesh could have won the two Twenty20s in Chittagong and the two ODIs in Dhaka. Those close wins got us the momentum which aided us in the Asia Cup and the World Twenty20,” admitted the English-man to the media in Dhaka yesterday.

Farbrace termed the winning night to be the most memorable one in his coaching career so far. “I was the assis-tant coach of Sri Lanka in 2009 when the team lost to Pakistan in the � nal. I was really upset then but I am a happy man now,” said the 46-year-old.

Frabrace never played for England. The highest success he had as a wick-et-keeper batsman was playing in the English county for Kent and Middle-sex. But he is now coaching a world champion side with Sri Lankan greats like Marvan Atapattu and Chaminda Vaas as his assistant coaches. When enquired whether this has ever been

an issue, Farbrace replied, “Never. We have a very good understanding. This success came due to collective e� ort, not individuals. I will get to see 15-20 cricketers but they (Atapattu, Vaas) know the local cricketers well. So it was a team e� ort.”

Frabrace praised Bangladesh as the host of the tournament. “We got ev-ery kind of assistance. Never had any trouble in the hotel, � eld or at practice and on top were the supporters. We saw supporters at every venue that we went to – Chittagong, Dhaka, Fatul-lah; everywhere. This is very positive for the cricket of Bangladesh. Bangla-desh hosted the tournament very well. Nearly all the games had the stands packed. I was very happy to see people coming to watch the games even after Bangladesh were out of the tourna-ment,” said Farbrace. l

Salma in ICC XIn

Bangladesh women’s cricket team skipper Salma Khatun emerged as the number-one ICC women’s Twenty20 bowler with 650 points

and claimed the third spot in the ICC women’s Twenty20 all-rounder ranking. The batting all-rounder also secured a spot in the ICC World Twenty20 2014 women’s Team of the Tournament. This is the � rst instance of a women cricketer from Bangladesh achieving such illustrious milestones.

“This is a great news for me and a huge achievement,” told Salma to the media yesterday. “Before the tournament, I had said that my aim was to get into the rankings but what I have achieved is way more than I expected and I never imagined so much, to be honest. My hard work has paid o� ,” said Salma.

Finalists England and Australia contributed a total of six players in the team led by England’s Charlotte Edwards for the second consecutive time.

An ICC release said, chosen by a selected group of experts, “the team was selected for its suitability for Bangladesh conditions and on the basis of performances in the tournament only. Statistics were used but were not the sole basis for selections.”

Apart from Salma from Bangladesh, the team includes two players from champion Australia, four from England, two from West Indies and one player each from India and New Zealand.

The Bangladesh women were not

supposed to participate in the world event after it was initially decided that the competition will be held between 8 nations. But the women’s team’s dream of playing in a World Cup came true after the proposal by the former Bangladesh Cricket Board president AHM Mostafa Kamal to include the host nation in the tournament got approval of the ICC (International Cricket Council). Including Ireland, the tournament then became a 10 nation tournament.

“We knew Bangladesh will host World Twenty20 and we will not be able to play because we didn’t qualify. But later we were informed of playing in the tournament as the host nation. We had a good preparation ahead of the tournament playing against India and Pakistan. However, I am a little disappointed as far as the team’s performance is concerned. Performing well would have helped us in the next edition of the tournament,” regretted Salma.

Salma now aims to make it into the rankings of all the three formats of cricket. But for this to come true, “Bangladesh will need to play more international cricket,” said Salma. l

VENI, VIDI, VICIn Sri Lanka cricket team set foot on Ban-gladesh on January 24 and after 73 days of continuous cricket,the proud Lankan unit � nally returned home yes-terday to their family and loved ones with their heads held high after win-ning every trophy that has come their way during their long stay.

Having won all three formats in the bilateral series against Bangladesh, they triumphed unbeaten in the Asia Cup also. However, the biggest of the lot – the World Twenty20 title is the one that will please the island nation most which quenched their 18-year thirst for a global title, the last and only of which came way back in 1996.

If there was an example to be set for a “survivor series”, the Sri Lankan team would de� nitely be up the con-testants’ list. It may be said the condi-tions are sort of similar in both coun-tries, but still it needs tremendous dedication and concentration and the ability to ada pt to keep the same rou-tine going every day for almost three months.

While in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka re-corded 100% win in the eight ODIs, lost only two, which includes a warm up match, out of the 10 Twenty20 match-es, not to mention a win and a draw in the two Tests they played against the Tigers.

Even before the curtain of World Twenty20 was raised, Mahela Jay-awardene and Kumar Sangakkara an-nounced that they would retire from the shortest format after the event which made the Lions even more dedi-

cated to win the trophy and gift the two living legends of their cricket a grand send-o� . Regular captain Dinesh Chandimal’s voluntary abstinence from the team due to his lack of form just sums up the kind of dedication this Lankan team has for their team. So if they aren’t the worthy winners, who else is?

Without the exception of the World T20, batman Kumar Sangakkara was, arguably, the major architect of Sri Lanka’s triumphant odyssey in Bangla-desh. His total of 1002 runs across the three formats just speaks volumes for the legend’s contribution to Sri Lan-ka’s success-ladenstay in Bangladesh. Perhaps destiny also wanted a perfect farewell for him and Mahela as the two old guardssigned-o� in the best possi-ble manner by contributing once again to the team’s glory.

The dependant duo, Mahela and Sangakkara, stirred their side out of trouble on numerous occasions in the last decade and they did it one more time on, probably, their last � nal, a � -nal that was missing from their shelf. Run-a-ball 24 was all they added against India on Sunday but it was enough to see Sri Lanka to a safer route to victory.

The win not only poured colours of celebration in Sri Lanka, but end-ed their title draught also and gave the cricket world a new lordof World Twenty20. The win becomes even more signi� cant if we consider thatit broke the jinx of emerging as the sec-ond best in Bridgetown, Lord’s, Mum-bai and Colombo in the four � nals that Sri Lanka has lost in the recent past. l

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Sport 1414 Struggling Norwich sack manager Hughton

Chelsea seek Napoli repeat in PSG rescue bid

15 Siddikur eyes golf as the brand of Bangladesh

Did you know?Kumar Sangakkara has become the 4th player after Sachin Tendulkar,

Ricky Ponting & Jacques Kallis to score 25,000

international runs

Bangladesh could have won the two T20s in Chittagong and the two ODIs in Dhaka. Those close wins got us the momentum which aided us in the Asia Cup and the World T20

Meg Lanning and Lasith Malinga, the skippers of Australian women and Sri Lankan men’s cricket team display their ICC World T20 trophies sitting on a rickshaw yesterday ICC

Curtain falls on cricket extravaganza n Three months of cricket extravaganza in the country, that also included two multi-nation cricket tournaments, � -nally came to an end on Sunday with Sri Lanka lifting the World Twenty20 trophy. Apart from the bilateral home series the major challenges – the ACC Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20 – in the last 41 days were ful� lled with utmost satisfaction one can tell.

It is best left for the critics to judge the arrangements, but overcoming the pre-tournament speculations and suc-cessfully completing the formalities and the love of the game, even when the home team is not playing, among the nation was something that even the critics would not dare to deny.

The security concern was raised

due to the pre-national election unrest in Bangladesh which also made some participating teams think before com-ing here. However, after assurance from the Bangladesh Cricket Board, the security agencies, political parties and in fact from the government of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka made its cru-cial visit to Bangladesh on January 24 which was important for holding the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20.

And by the time the Lankans took the Asia Cup title home defeating Paki-stan on March 8, all doubts were dis-carded and the curtains of the World T20 were raised.

The level of enthusiasm shown by the general public during games which did not even involve the home team staged the rich value and true sense of the World event to Bangladesh.

The packed stands at the three ven-ues – Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowd-hury Stadium and Sylhet National Sta-dium even in the games that did not in-clude Bangladesh came in as a surprise even for the events right-holder ICC. According to them this was something ‘unique’ in the world of cricket.

“They actually never thought that the arrangements will be so � ne in Bangladesh. And more to that they were surprised to see the turn-up in the stadium even if it was a women’s play-o� game,” BCB president Nazmul Hasan said couple of days back while ICC president Alan Issac was full of appreciation of the arrangements. ICC CEO Dave Richardson also praised the security arrangements for the teams.

For Meg Lanning, the captain of the

Women’s World Twenty20 champions Australia, the experience in Bangla-desh will be something which she will remember for a long time.

“I was amazed to see so much of crowd in the stands in our games in Sylhet to be honest. It was really nice to see the women’s games are also given so much importance. The hos-pitality was overwhelming,” said Meg after clinching their hat-trick World Twenty20 title.

The foreign visitors – journalists and supporters were left impressed by the e� cient nature that has character-ised almost every aspect of the tourna-ment. The majority was not impressed by Bangladesh’s poor showing on the � eld, but o� the � eld they left with the knowledge of how competent Bangla-desh are as hosts. l

Feni Soccer, Brothers ready to � ght it outn

Soccer Club, Feni and Brothers Union lock horns in the � rst semi� -nal of Modhumoti Bank

Independence Cup Football at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at 5:00 pm today.

Feni Soccer and Brothers Union have never reached the � nal of the Indepen-dence Cup till date and they will be � ex-ing their muscle to their limit to set a new mark. It is interesting that both the teams ousted superior opponents on their way to the semis. Brothers Union beat Team BJMC 2-1 in the quarter� nals while Feni Soccer ousted defending champion Sheikh Russell in a penalty shoot-out to secure a place in the semis. Both the teams will surely be drawing

a lot of inspiration from those victories. The Gambian trio of Kabba Jobe,

Landing Darboe and Mathew Mendy were pivotal as Feni Soccer Club pulled o� the upset to throw Russell out of the meet. Tall, nimble and speedy, the trio roams through opposition’s defense while dominating the mid� eld and making cheeky runs down the � anks, not to mention their admirable compo-sure. Landing has been the most admi-rable and impressive among them so far.

Brothers Union relies on their quick counterattacks with Jewel Rana and Rubel Miah operating in the mid� eld and the right � ank respectively. The team, clad in orange out� t also � elds Nigerian forward Simon to add an extra razor-sharp edge in their attacks. Feni Soccer skipper Ashraful Karim admit-ted that they will have special plans

to cut the supply of Jewel Rana in the mid� eld.

Brothers Union coach Syed Naeemuddin termed that the match is very important for them. “We respect Feni Soccer and we know that we have to be stronger to win against them. We are aware of their abilities and we hope to put our best and win the semi� nal,” said an upbeat Naeemuddin.

His counterpart, the Gambian coach of Feni Soccer, Omar K. Sisse said that his team was looking forward to be in the � nal. “Reaching the semis is a great achievement for us and we don’t want to stop here. We want to be in the � nal and I know it’s not going to be easy. We are ready to � ght it out,” said Omar.

All in all, a cracking match in pros-pect as the sports loving nation recov-ers from the World T20 hangover. l

SRI LANKA IN BANGLADESH (2014)

Overall Match Win Loss D/NRTests 2 1 0 1ODIs 8 8 0 0T20s 8 7 1 0Total 18 16 1 1

January 24Arrived in BangladeshFebruary 8Won the bilateral Test series (1-0)February 14Won the bilateral T20 series (2-0)February 22Won the bilateral ODI series (3-0)March 8Won the Asia Cup beating PakistanMarch 9Back to homeMarch 15 Returned to DhakaApril 6Won the World T20 trophy beating IndiaApril 7Back to home

Suzie Bates (NZ), Charlotte Edwards (Eng- cap), Meg Lanning (Aus), Sarah Taylor (Eng - wk), Stafanie Taylor (WI), Deandra Dottin (WI), Ellyse Perry (Aus), Natalie Sciver (Eng), Salma Khatun (Ban), Poonam Yadav (Ind), Anya Shrubsole (Eng), 12th Player: Shabnim Ismail (SA)

ICC WOMEN’S XI

The four old musketeers of Sri Lanka, Mahela, Herath, Sangakkara and Dilshan share a light moment after their

ICC World T20 triumph ICC

Parma stun Napoli, boost Euro hopes n

Parma kept the pres-sure on mis� ring Europa League rivals Inter Milan with a 1-0 Serie A win over Napoli which dented the Partenopei’s hopes of an

automatic Champions League qualify-ing place on Sunday.

Parma were missing several regulars with Antonio Cassano, Nicola Pozzi and Walter Gargano all injured while Am-auri and Alessandro Lucarelli were out through suspension.

However Roberto Donadoni’s men made light of their absences to get back to winning ways following defeats to Juventus and Lazio.

Marco Parolo scored a 55th minute winner to seal Parma’s second win over Napoli this season and pull level with � fth-placed Inter, who were held 2-2 by Bologna at home on Saturday.

Napoli remained third but after Ro-ma’s 3-0 win at Cagliari earlier they are now 12 points adrift of the Giallorossi.

Parma came racing out of the blocks in the second half and after seven min-utes Pepe Reina had to intervene with a spectacular diving save to push Jona-than Biabiany’s inviting cross into the box to safety.

Three minutes later Reina was left

clutching at thin air after Parolo, un-marked on the edge of the box, ran in to drive Gabriel Paletta’s cutback from the right � ank � rst-time into the net.

Parma spurned the chance to double their lead when a long cross from mid-� eld found Ezequiel Schelotto but after chesting down, the Italian opted, in vain, to try and set up Biabiany.

Napoli striker Gonazalo Higuain was replaced by Duvan Zapata on 68 minutes and shortly after the Colombian thought he had won a penalty after crumbling under a challenge from Mirante.

Although the ‘keeper appeared to make no contact with the ball, Na-poli were denied a penalty and Zapata earned a caution for his trouble.

Seven minutes from time Insigne � red wide of Mirante’s far post from a tight angle after � rst-timing a cross from the right. Zapata then saw his header from Insigne’s delightful cross tipped over by Mirante in the closing minutes. l

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Cagliari sack Lopez, reappoint Pulga Serie A strugglers Cagliari on Sunday con� rmed the sacking of Diego Lopez, who

will be replaced by former coach Ivo Pulga. Cagliari on Sunday su� ered a 3-1 home defeat to Roma and although seven points clear of the drop zone club president Mas-simo Cellino announced Pulga’s return. In a telephone call to domestic news agency ANSA, Cellino said: “I’ve sacked Lopez, Pulga will be returning.” Cellino, who recently saw his bid to take over Leeds United thwarted by a court decision over unpaid tax on an imported yacht, said recent results had left him with no choice. – AFP

Five-star Anderson back in swing James Anderson did his best to put a disappointing Ashes tour of Australia

behind him by enjoying yet more success at Trent Bridge as he took � ve wickets on the � rst day of the 2014 County Championship season. England seamer Anderson, who has taken 49 wickets in seven Tests at Trent Bridge, took � ve for 54 for Lan-cashire as they held Nottinghamshire to 270 for nine. Samit Patel, looking to revive his England career, made 93 while England T20 specialist Alex Hales contributed 61 before becoming Anderson’s � fth wicket of the day. – AFP

Force India prove to be new power Mercedes are the kings of Formula One, but it’s unheralded Force India who have

assumed the role of heir apparent, leaving mighty Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari in their slipstream. As Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg powered to another Mercedes one-two in a gripping Bahrain Grand Prix wheel-to-wheel duel on Sunday, Force India celebrated a third place for Sergio Perez and a � fth-place � nish for Nico Hulkenberg. It put Force India, owned by Indian business tycoon Vijay Mallya, into an unlikely second place in the constructors championship after three races of the 2014 season. – AFP

SERIE A Team GP W D L GD PTS1 Juventus 31 26 3 2 45 812 Roma 32 23 7 2 47 763 Napoli 32 19 7 6 26 644 Fiorentina 32 16 7 9 17 555 Inter Milan 32 12 14 6 16 506 Parma 32 13 11 8 11 507 Lazio 32 13 9 10 2 488 Atalanta 32 14 4 14 -4 469 Verona 32 14 4 14 -5 4610 Torino 32 12 9 11 6 45

Norwich sack manager Hughtonn Norwich City sacked manager Chris Hughton on Sunday and gambled on inexperienced youth team coach Neil Adams in an e� ort to reverse their � ag-ging fortunes and scrap their way clear of relegation.

The Premier League club took ac-tion after a 1-0 defeat on Saturday to fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albi-on left them hovering one place above the relegation zone with � ve matches of the season remaining.

Norwich face a crucial visit to 18th-placed Fulham, � ve points below them, next Saturday.

“The Norwich City Board has taken the decision to give the club the maxi-mum chance to secure the points re-quired between now and the end of

the season to ensure retention of our Barclays Premier League status,” a club statement said.

“The recent run of four defeats in our last six Premier League games and six consecutive away league defeats, left the club with no choice but to act, with � ve games still to play in the cur-rent campaign.”

Hughton, 55, had been at the club since the start of last season, after pre-vious managerial spells at Newcastle United and Birmingham City, and his � rst season in charge ended in an im-pressive 11th-place � nish.

It all turned sour, however, as the club have failed to build on last sea-son’s achievement despite spending heavily in the transfer market on play-ers such as attacking pair Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Gary Hooper. l

Pressure on City as Reds back to top n

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers insists all the pressure will be on Manchester City when his

Premier League leaders take on their title rivals in a crucial showdown at An� eld next weekend.

Rodgers’ side returned to the top of the table with a contentious 2-1 win at West Ham on Sunday that showed they can cope with the stress of challenging for their � rst English league title in 24 years.

The Reds’ ninth successive league victory moved them two points clear of second placed Chelsea and four ahead of third placed City, who have two games in hand on the leaders.

Liverpool’s red-hot run is the best in

the division since Manchester United recorded 11 consecutive victories in 2008-09 and Rodgers’ team will end their long wait to be crowned champions if they win their last � ve matches.

City’s visit to An� eld on Sunday

will play a major role in deciding the destiny of the title, but Rodgers is convinced Liverpool should be able to play with freedom because, compared to Manuel Pellegrini’s expensively-assembled side, his players have nothing to lose.

“The pressure is on City because they have spent money. They have invested well to win the league and win the Champions League,” Rodgers said.

“They have world class players, but it’s about us as well. We have young players and there’s no pressure on them so they can just go out and play.

“In all the big games this year we have played really well. We should have won at City this season and we were leading in the home game as well.” l

Chelsea seek Napoli repeat Ronaldo returns, Dortmund pray for miraclen

Chelsea will hope to draw inspiration from their 2012 Champions League triumph when they attempt to over-turn a 3-1 de� cit in

their quarter-� nal against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund insist they have not given up hope of a Cham-pions League miracle in quarter-� nal, second-leg against Real Madrid, even with the Spaniards holding a 3-0 lead.

Last season’s � nalists Dortmund stand on the verge of a Champions League exit as they need to over-turn the huge de� cit at their Westfalensta-dion after last Wednesday’s defeat at Madrid’s Bernabeu.

Cristiano Ronaldo is set to start after he was forced o� with a slight knee prob-lem towards the end of the � rst leg, hav-ing scored Real’s third goal, and was rest-ed for Saturday’s 4-0 win to Sociedad.

The 29-year-old Portugal star trained with the Madrid squad on Sunday and looks set to travel to northern Germany.

On the other hand, Javier Pastore’s 90th-minute solo goal in last week’s � rst leg at Parc des Princes gave PSG a two-goal advantage that puts them � rmly in control of the tie ahead of the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Only 24 percent of the teams to have lost 3-1 in the away leg of a UEFA tie since 1970 have gone on to reach the next round, but Chelsea can take heart from the fact that they pulled o� just such a feat two years ago.

A 3-1 defeat at Napoli in the last 16 precipitated the sacking of coach Andre Villas-Boas, but his successor, Roberto Di Matteo, oversaw a 4-1 win after extra time in the return leg, before leading the west London club to victory on penalties over Bayern Munich in the � nal.

Mourinho has never lost a European quarter-� nal, and defeat by PSG would be doubly di� cult for the Portuguese to swallow in the light of Di Matteo’s achievement in 2012 and last year’s Eu-ropa League success under Benitez.

Furthermore, with Chelsea’s Pre-mier League title challenge wobbling, success in the Champions League has taken on even greater importance. l

Chelsea's Brazilian mid� elders Oscar (L), Eden Hazard (C) and Willian arrive to attend a training session at training ground at Cobham, Southwest of London, England yesterday ahead of their forthcoming Uefa Champions League, quarter � nal second leg match against Paris Saint-Germain AFP

‘Japanese Only’ banner sparks intolerance debaten For nearly two decades Shunji Usui has been a � xture at Urawa Red Diamonds matches at the Saitama Stadium in the suburbs of Tokyo, a face in the crowd among the most avid - and sometimes rabid - fans of any Japanese soccer club.

In recent weeks, though, Usui’s pride in the former Asian champions has been tempered by embarrassment that the team he loves has been held up as a symbol of the kind of intolerance critics say has been emboldened by the conservative politics of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

On March 8, a banner with “Japanese Only” scrawled on it was hoisted on a stadium gate behind one goal, an area packed with thousands of the club’s

hardcore fans. Despite complaints from onlookers, it remained in place until the end of the game.

In response, the Mitsubishi Motors-owned club was given the harshest punishment in the two-decade his-tory of professional football in Japan - a J-League order that it play before an empty stadium. That cost Urawa over $1 million in lost ticket sales. In addition, more than 10 Reds supporter groups, including UB Snake, the group respon-sible for the banner, were disbanded.

When the Reds returned home for a domestic cup game this week, � ags and drums were banned, essentially putting fans on probation. The only banner al-lowed was one held up by a club o� cial warning fans against discriminatory be-haviour. l

PREMIER LEAGUE# Team GP W D L GD PTS1 Liverpool 33 23 5 5 50 742 Chelsea 33 22 6 5 41 723 Man City 31 22 4 5 55 704 Arsenal 33 19 7 7 16 645 Everton 32 18 9 5 21 636 Man United 33 17 6 10 18 577 Tottenham 32 17 5 10 -4 568 Southampton 33 13 9 11 6 489 Newcastle 33 14 4 15 -13 4610 Stoke City 33 10 10 13 -11 40

Sevilla thump Espanyol to trim gap to Bilbaon

Sevilla kept up the pressure on Athletic Bilbao in the battle for Spain’s fourth Champi-ons League spot when Kevin

Gameiro struck twice in a 4-1 win at home to mid-table Espanyol on Sunday.

The victory for � fth-placed Sevilla at a festive Pizjuan trimmed the gap to Bilbao to three points ahead of the Basque club’s game at Levante on Monday.

Mid� elder Stephane M’Bia powered in a header from a corner to open the scoring for the home side in the 18th minute before Gameiro netted his � rst of the game moments before halftime when he controlled the ball on his chest and volleyed low into the corner.

Espanyol pulled a goal back two min-utes after the break after Sevilla defend-er Federico Fazio brought down Chris-tian Stuani in the area and Sergio Garcia clipped home the spot kick. Gameiro’s second and Sevilla’s third in the 84th minute was the pick of the goals. The Frenchman exchanged passes with Mar-ko Marin and raced into the area before curling a shot in the Espanyol goal. l

LA LIGA Team GP W D L GD PTS1 Atlético Madrid 32 25 4 3 48 792 Barcelona 32 25 3 4 66 783 Real Madrid 32 24 4 4 58 764 Athletic 31 16 8 7 19 565 Sevilla 32 15 8 9 12 536 Real Sociedad 32 14 8 10 6 507 Villarreal 32 14 7 11 13 498 Valencia 32 11 8 13 -1 419 Levante 31 10 10 11 -9 4010 Espanyol 32 11 7 14 -5 40Injured Falcao hopeful of making WC

n

Colombia striker Radamel Falcao says he is hopeful he can compete in the World Cup as he recovers from a seri-ous knee injury.

Falcao, 28, ruptured cruciate liga-ments in his knee during a French Cup tie for club side Monaco on January 22 and was operated on days later by pio-neering Portuguese surgeon Jose Carlos Noronha in Porto. The striker said he is recovering faster than expected follow-ing the surgery using a new technique to treat cruciate ligament damage.

“I hope that I can play in the World Cup, but it’s still too soon to be cer-

tain,” said the Colombian.“I’m recovering quickly. Physiother-

apy is going very well. I’m going to re-

turn to Spain to continue my recovery.“The knee has responded very well,

which allowed me to gain momentum in the work. I’m happy because the evolution is very positive. I’m a little ahead of what was expected.”

The Colombian said he was delight-ed with Monaco’s form in the French championship where theya are second to Paris St Germain.

“I’m delighted for Monaco, we keep winning. The win (Sunday) was very important. We’re still on track to achieve our objective -- Champions League quali� cation. I hope to play Champions League with Monaco next season,” he added. l

J-League's Urawa Red Diamonds players hold a banner before their match at Saitama Stadium in Saitama, near Tokyo on Wednesday last REUTERS

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15

Only one Sri Lankan in ICC’s Best XI n

Paceman Lasith Malinga was the only member of Sri Lanka’s World Twen-ty20-winning side to earn a place in the International

Cricket Council (ICC) team of the tour-nament, as vanquished Indian players dominated the selection.

Sri Lanka broke a � nals-losing jinx to lift a maiden World Twenty20 title on Sunday with a comfortable six-wicket victory over 2007 champions India.

However, only the blond-mopped Malinga, who led the side after Dinesh Chandimal opted to keep himself out of the starting lineup, made the ICC team named on Monday. 

Four Indian players made the side, captained by wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with two from South Africa and West Indies, and one representative each from Australia and the Netherlands besides champions Sri Lanka.

“It was a very di� cult task for the

panel to pick a team of 11 from the ex-citing players who featured in this tour-nament,” former Australia batsman David Boon, the chairman of the ICC selection panel, said in a statement. 

“As the selection criteria for the team of the tournament are the performances of players in the conditions during the ICC World Twenty20 2014, some of the best players in world cricket had to be left out of the team.  Bowlers, in particular, performed strongly throughout this tournament and the side we have selected includes three of the most impressive bowlers in Dale Steyn, Samuel Badree and Lasith Malinga.” l

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

UEFA Champions League, QF Leg 2

Ten Sports12:45AM Dortmund v Real Madrid

Ten Action12:45AMChelsea v PSG

DMP lift Police Kabaddi title Dhaka Metropolitan Police emerged as the champion of the Bangladesh Police Kabaddi beating Armed Police Bat-talion by 44-16 points with two Lonas at the POM Police Line Ground, Mirpur yesterday. Ahaduzzaman of DMP was nominated as the best player of the meet. Benazir Ahmed, the commission-er of Dhaka Metropolitan Police distrib-uted the prizes as the chief guest. The DG of Industrial Police Abdus Salam, additional DIG Gazi Md. Mozammel Haque, deputy police commissioners Anwar Hossain and Atika Islam were also present on the occasion.

– RM

Sri Lankan su� ers heart attack after betting on India A Sri Lankan fruit seller su� ered a massive heart attack and died after he lost a $300 bet that India would win the cricket World T20 tournament, police said Monday. S. P. Kumara placed the 40,000-rupee bet on the eve of Sunday’s � nal, wrongly predicting that Sri Lanka would repeat its “chok-ing” performance at three previous international tournaments and lose to India. “He had gone to a bookmaker at Gampaha (town) and placed a fairly large bet on an Indian win and watched the match from there,” a local police o� cial told AFP. “When Sri Lanka won the match, he could not believe it.” It was the second time the vendor had backed the wrong team. Police said he bet $1,100 on Sri Lanka to clinch the last World T20 title in 2012, only to see his home country lose to the West Indies. Sri Lanka beat India by six wick-ets in Dhaka on Sunday. The vendor collapsed and was pronounced dead on admission to hospital in Gampaha just outside Colombo, said the police o� cial who declined to be named. An inquest Monday was told that the man had no known medical condition, and police suspect the shock of losing the bet triggered the heart attack.

–AFP

Todt dismisses rule changes FIA president Jean Todt has promised to look into improving the sound of For-mula One’s new engines but dismissed a change in the rules demanded by some stables. Todt, the head of the world sport’s governing body, said that those who were complaining about the lack of noise from the engines were more vocal than those in favour. But he said he was ready to meet with reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel who bluntly swore when asked about the sound of the new engine. “Vettel made a negative comment about the engine noise, but not on the engines,” said Todt. “He’s an icon of our sport, four-time world champion ... if he came to me about the noise problem I would listen because he is quali� ed to talk about it. “We’re examining this problem with three engine manufacturers involved in F1. We’re seeing if we can make it noisier.” The Frenchman said however that for the rules to be changed mid-season it would require the unanimous approval of all teams. “We need the unanimous agreement of stables, otherwise we can’t change anything. We are in a competitive world, those in front don’t complain and others complain, making more noise than those who are happy."

–AFP

Gasquet back in top ten as Nadal stays No 1Frenchman Richard Gasquet broke back into the top ten of the ATP rankings released on Monday while there were no other changes in the top 20 after Davis Cup competition dominated the weekend. Gasquet, a former Wimble-don and US Open semi-� nalist, swops places with big serving Canadian Milos Raonic who drops to number 11. Spaniard Rafael Nadal maintains a 2,050-point advantage over Serb Novak Djokovic at the top, while Roger Federer is now only 405 points behind compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka after the two men were forced to work hard to carry Switzerland into the Davis Cup semi-� nals. Scotland’s Andy Murray remains eighth after losing his second singles match against Italy which cost Great Britain a place in the Davis Cup semi-� nals for the � rst time since 1981.

–AFP

DAY’S WATCH

QUICK BYTES

Siddikur eyes golf as the brand of Bangladeshn Siddikur Rahman, the gol� ng legend of the country, expressed his desire of making the sport as a notable brand of Bangladesh in the near future. The gol� ng ace of the country was speaking in a felicitation programme organised by Bangladesh Professional Golfers Association at the National Press Club yesterday.

“I observe that the garments sec-tor and cricket has branded Bangla-desh to a notable level in the overseas countries, I � rmly believe that golf can also reach the height if properly nur-

tured,” said Siddikur who made his way through to the Asian team in the Eurasia Cup last month.

Siddikur thought Bangladesh have the base of talents. “There are a lot of talents but they are not getting the ideal opportunity to play golf, we need golf coaches to groom our future stars, I urge the government and the spon-sors to step up and extend their hands to develop golf,” he opined.

The chief guest of the programme state minister for water resources Md. Nazrul Islam praised Siddikur’s e� ort and said, “Siddikur proved that with true commitment and determination

success can be attained, the govern-ment will insert more assistance to golf in the future.”

Brig. Gen Salim Akhter, the presi-dent of Bangladesh Professional Golf-ers Association, wished Siddikur more success. Syed Shahed Reza, the secre-tary general of Bangladesh Olympic Association was also present on the occasion.

Siddikur Rahman has a packed schedule in the coming days as he will appear in the Malaysian Open from 17-20 April, Indonesian Masters from 24-27 April and The Championship Tour-nament at Korea from 1-4 May. l

Bangladesh gol� ng legend Siddikur Rahman receives a crest from state minister for water resources Muhammad Nurul Islam at his felicitation programme yesterday COURTESY

Distraught Pistorius apologises to girlfriend’s family n A tearful Oscar Pistorius apologised Monday to Reeva Steenkamp’s family, telling the court he had “terrible night-mares” since the night he killed his girl-friend and often woke up smelling blood.

Stammering and with his jaw trem-bling as he took the witness stand in his defence, Pistorius said he did not intend to kill his 29-year-old lover.

The Paralympic gold medallist is accused of premeditated murder, but claims he shot the model though a locked toilet door believing she was an intruder.

“I want to take this opportunity to apologise to Mr and Mrs Steenkamp,” he said, at times barely audible as he sobbed. I was trying to protect Reeva, I want people to know that she was loved when she went to bed that night.”

In the tribunal Steenkamp’s mother June, � anked by other relatives, stared at him stony-faced during the apology.

She has for weeks sat through grue-some evidence, including brutal images

of her dead daughter.“I tried to put my words on paper to

write to you but no words can ever suf-� ce,” Pistorius continued.

The athlete cut a broken and emo-tional � gure as he spoke publicly for the � rst time about events on the fateful Val-entine’s Day Steenkamp died.

“I’ve had terrible nightmares,” he said since the night of the shooting, adding: “I wake up at night smelling blood.”

He also said that since the shooting he has taken sleeping pills and anti-de-pressants.

Pistorius told the court that on one occasion after waking in the middle of the night he crawled into a cupboard be-cause he was so scared. After � ve weeks of prosecution testimony, Monday was the � rst day of Pistorius’s defence.

The court broke early for the day af-ter defence lawyer Barry Roux said his witness was exhausted by a lack of sleep and the day’s ordeal.

“Well he does look exhausted, he sounds exhausted,” said Judge Tho-kozile Masipa, granting the defence an

adjournment until Tuesday.Pistorius used his testimony to out-

line his problems since the shooting and his early life growing up disabled and without his father present.

“My mother had a lot of security con-cerns, we grew up in a family where my father wasn’t around much, she would often get scared at night, she would phone the police.”

“My mother had a pistol,” he added. “She kept her � rearm in a padded bag under her pillow.” l

Sri Lanka brace for biggest party after war n Sri Lanka was preparing to throw its biggest party since the end of the coun-try’s ethnic war Monday after beating India in the � nal of cricket’s World T20 tournament.

Government o� cials said that ar-rangements were being made to � y the team home early from Bangladesh to at-tend a ticker-tape parade in central Co-lombo after an outpouring of jubilation in a country that has been at war for much of its post-independence history.

The victory on Sunday night in Dha-ka came 18 years after Sri Lanka’s tri-umph in the 50-over World Cup, which had been followed by a series of defeats in the � nals of major tournaments.

Newspapers hailed the victory as a “� tting farewell” to a golden genera-tion, including former skippers Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara who have already announced their re-tirement from T20 cricket.

Pundits also joked that the victory was only made possible by President Mahinda Rajapakse’s decision to stay away from the � nal after he had ap-parently “jinxed” the team in previous

tournaments.The Sri Lankan cricket board has

asked fans to line the 35-kilometre (21 mile) highway that stretches from the international airport to downtown Co-lombo on Tuesday evening although that � ag-waving parade could be brought forward if the team � y back ahead of schedule.

“Sri Lanka Cricket invites all loyal cricket fans to line the roads up to Mai-tland Place, Independence Square and welcome our champion national crick-eters,” it said in a statement.

On the eve of the � nal, the board an-nounced the team would get a million dollar bonus if it could � nally throw o� its reputation for choking.

The Daily Mirror newspaper said the victory was a dream come true for the country’s two best players who will now concentrate only on Test match and 50 over cricket. Sangakkara top-scored with a quick� re 52 while Jayawardene weighed in with a run-a-ball 24.

“Sangakkara and Jayawardene ended their T20 international careers with a dream script, playing the team’s best two innings as Sri Lanka ended their world title drought in style,” the paper said.

Rajapakse phoned team members and o� cials to congratulate them shortly after the six-wicket win which triggered an outpouring of joy unseen here since the crushing of the Tamil Ti-ger separatist � ghters in May 2009.

Fans said the team may have thanked Rajapakse for being absent af-ter he watched them lose the last World T20 tournament – hosted by Sri Lanka in 2012 – and their defeats in the � nal of the 2007 and 2011 World Cups.

“Given bad omens of the past, Lank-an fans wished President Mahinda Ra-japakse to watch the hot � nal from Sri Lanka (rather) than from Mirpur, Ban-gladesh,” the private Daily FT paper said.

“Thankfully”, the president was busy opening a � ve-star hotel outside Colombo, the paper said. l

A selection of Sri Lankan newspapers carrying front-page coverage of the country's win in the ICC World T20 cricket tournament are pictured in Colombo yesterday AFP

Rohit Sharma (Ind), Stephan Myburgh (Neth), Virat Kohli (Ind), JP Duminy (SA), Glenn Maxwell (Aus), MS Dhoni (Ind - cap, wk), Darren Sammy (WI), Ravichandran Ashwin (Ind), Dale Steyn (SA), Samuel Badree (WI), Lasith Malinga (SL), 12th Player: Krishmar Santokie (WI )

ICC MEN’S XI

Switzerland, Italy, France in semisn

Switzerland, Italy and France all staged thrilling comebacks

on Sunday to reach the Davis Cup semi-� nals.

Roger Federer, the 17-time Grand Slam title winner, and Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka won their reverse singles as Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 3-2 in Geneva.

In their � rst semi-� nal since 2003 they will face Italy who defeated Great Britain 3-2 in Naples.

France came back from 2-0 down to see o� underdogs Germany 3-2 in Nancy and will face two-time defend-ing champions Czech Republic who crushed Japan 5-0.

World number four Federer, who had never played a decisive Davis Cup rubber, cruised past world 64 Andrey Golubev 7-6 (7/6), 6-2, 6-3 for the win-ning point.

Earlier, world number three Waw-rinka beat Mikhail Kukushkin, the world 56, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to bring Switzerland level.

Italy foiled Britain’s dream of a � rst

semi-� nal appearance in 33 years with a battling 3-2 quarter-� nal win on the Naples clay.

The British were in control, leading 2-1 going into Sunday’s closing two re-verse singles.

But world number 13 Fabio Fognini stunned Wimbledon champion Andy Murray 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 with Andreas Sep-pi securing the decisive point with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over James Ward.

The Italians, who last appeared in the semi-� nals in 1998, will now travel to Switzerland in the September 12-14 showdown. l

Belgium’s Casteels to miss World Cupn Koen Casteels, Belgium’s third-choice goalkeeper, will miss the World Cup af-ter breaking his shinbone, his German team Ho� enheim con� rmed on Mon-day. Ho� enheim revealed on Twitter that Casteels, 21, will undergo surgery in Berlin and is expected to be out of action for several months.

Casteels was stretched o� in the 73rd minute of Sunday’s Bundesliga clash with Hertha Berlin, after colliding with Colombian Adrian Ramos. l

Clemon Indoor Uni-Cricket starts April 10n Clemon Indoor Uni- Cricket 2014 com-prising 40 private universities of the country commences at the Mirpur In-door Stadium from Thursday.

The meet is organised by Three Cricks, owned by three former national cricketers Akram Khan, Khaled Masud Pilot and Ather Ali and sponsored by Akiz Food and Beverages Ltd. The meet

is scheduled to conclude on April 17. The champion s of the meet will re-

ceive a purse of Tk. 500000.00 while the runners-up team will collect Tk. 200000.00.

The meet was presented to the press by the Akram Khan, Khaled Masud Pi-lot and Ather Ali in a presser yesterday. Shafokul Islam Tushar, the DGM of marketing Akiz Food and Beverages Ltd was also present on the occasion. l

Akram Khan, the former national captain speaks in the press conference of the Clemon Uni-Cricket yesterday COURTESY

Kamaluddin Jacky, the karate instructor receives his life achievement award from information minister Hasanul Huq Inu on Sunday COURTESY

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

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PM: Examine Khaleda’s � nances Government moves to make the details of her bank accounts public n Mohosinul Karim

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yes-terday asked the ministers and high o� cials concerned to examine the � -nancial situation of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

She gave instructions during an infor-mal discussion with the cabinet mem-bers after the weekly cabinet meeting held at the secretariat with Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The BNP chief on Sunday claimed that she was not in a position to pay house rent as the National Board of Revenue (NBR) had frozen her bank accounts.

Some cabinet members urged the prime minister to allow Khaleda to draw money from those bank accounts, sources said. The prime minister nei-ther gave her consent nor rejected the proposal, the minister said.

She, however, asked the ministers and o� cials concerned to examine the statement of Khaleda if there was any conspiracy or other motives, he said, adding that the decision might be tak-en after examining the issue.

He said Khaleda could now draw

only TK50,000 a month from those ac-counts for her daily needs. She has to pay house rent from the amount as she stays in a rented house at Gulshan, leav-ing the cantonment house.

Liberation War A� airs Minister AKM Mozammel Hossain, Information Min-ister Hasanul Haq Inu, Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon and State Minister for Foreign A� airs Shahriar Alam took part in the discussion.

Law Minister Anisul Haque at the discussion said: “We believe that there must have any hidden meaning behind the statement. Either they are trying to pressurise the government to release her bank accounts or trying to get assis-tance from their foreign aids.”

Meanwhile, the government has tak-en a move to make public the details about the bank accounts of Khaleda Zia.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu have been entrusted with the task of � nding out all her bank accounts, ex-amining the details and making it pub-lic soon, State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu con� rmed. l

53 gold bars seized at Chittagong airport, one heldn Our Correspondent, Chittagong

Chittagong Customs authorities at Shah Amanat International Airport seized 53 gold bars, brought in illegally, from a Dubai-returned passenger yes-terday morning.

Moshiur Rahman Mondol, assistant commissioner of Chittagong Customs House, told Dhaka Tribune that the cus-tom o� cials found the bars tied around the knees of a passenger named Anisur Rahman Chowdhury, 32, when they searched the Bangladesh Biman (BG-048) � ight after it landed around 7:30am.

The seized bars weigh around

6.182kg and have the estimated value of Tk 2.65 crore, according to Moshiur, who said the bars were handed over to Bangladesh Bank.

The � ight was from Dubai to Dhaka via Chittagong, said the custom o� cial.

The existing law allows a person to carry not more than 200g of gold from abroad paying necessary duty at the air-port, said the assistant commissioner.

As many as 1,700 gold bars worth around Tk83 crore have been seized from the same airport in 49 drives in 2014 so far, according to customs of-� cials. Last year, 686 gold bars worth Tk35.3 crore were seized in 16 drives. l

Illegal, substandard drugs recoveredn Moniruzzaman Uzzal

The drug administration authorities carried out separate drives in the cap-ital’s Shahbagh and Lalbagh areas yes-terday to recover unregistered, fake, smuggled and substandard drugs worth around Tk3 lakh from nine pharmacies.

Selim Barami, director of Directo-rate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), con� rmed the Dhaka Tribune about the drives.

He said a team headed by Aiyub Hos-sain, an assistant director of the DGDA, conducted a drive at di� erent pharma-cies in Shahbagh, recovering Tk2 lakh worth of unregistered, fake and smug-gled drugs from � ve pharmacies.

Another team, headed by DGDA Assistant Director Sha� qul Islam, con-ducted a drive at Lalbagh and recov-ered unregistered, fake, smuggled and substandard drugs worth around Tk1 lakh from four pharmacies.

Earlier on Sunday, another drive at the city’s Joykali Mondir area recovered banned drugs worth around Tk2 lakh from � ve homeopathic pharmacies.

The health ministry has reportedly directed the DGDA authority to con-duct drives across the country in a bid to detect and recover illegal and sub-standard drugs. l

Over 3,400 vehicles with yellow plates ‘traceless’n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Many of the donor agencies, interna-tional NGOs and multinational compa-nies working in Bangladesh, have used thousands of vehicles brought under the government’s duty-free scheme in violation of the rules for use, the Dhaka Tribune has found.

Bangladesh Road Transport Au-thority (BRTA), the leading agency for registering the duty-free vehicles with yellow number plates, has failed to trace over 3,400 vehicles that included costly utility automobiles such as Nis-san Pajero and Land Cruisers and mo-torcycles registered with special serial numbers for the donor agencies, caus-ing huge revenue loss to the state.

At present, duty-free import of one Pajero utility vehicle exempts at least Tk4 crore. According to the rules, the vehicles were given registration for speci� c durations, under the condition that the organisation must re-register them for extended use. In case of hand-over to any individual, they must have clearance from the National Board of Revenue, ensuring payment of the du-ties exempted deducting the deprecia-tion in line with the NBR rule.

For donor-funded projects, the au-thorities must handover the vehicles to the respective ministries after the com-pletion of the projects.

But a very small percentage of the vehicles registered with specialised sumbers since 1972 were handed over or sold out in line with the conditions.

For example, Saipem S.p.A, an Ital-ian oil and gas contractor, imported 174 costly vehicles such as 4,000 cc Prime Mover, Land Cruiser, Nissan Patrol,

Toyota Pickup, FIAT Truck, microbus and other vehicles under the duty-free facility and registered with the BRTA with yellow plate between 1989 and 1990. But the vehicles were not regis-tered yet.

The Dhaka Tribune reporter tried to trace the o� ce of Saipem S.p.A at Road

no 30, Park Road in Baridhara, follow-ing BRTA’s ledger, mainly to get its ver-sion. But it was found that the house was rented to an o� cial of the Indian High Commission.

Failing to track the vehicles for re-registration or � tness renewal, the BRTA cancelled the registrations of

some vehicles. The authority has also stopped issuing registration numbers with “SAS” and “Jha” serials.

BRTA records show that it has reg-istered at least 4,710 vehicles between 1972 and 1994.

Examining 14 registration ledgers, this correspondent counted that 1,281 vehicles were either handed over prop-erly or saw cancellation of registration. The remaining 3,410 vehicles are still traceless.

“We have issued letters several times to the organisations or agencies to re-port us on the status of the vehicles with SAS and Jha plates. We are yet to get any response from them. We have cancelled the registration of many vehicles,” Ra� qul Haque Talukder, BRTA director (engineering), told the Dhaka Tribune. “This is really frustrating,” he said.

Mahbub-e-Rabbani, a deputy direc-tor of BRTA, told the Dhaka Tribune that: “May be the vehicles registered in 1970s have become scrap. But the issue is foreigners’ disobedience towards lo-cal laws. As law abiding citizens in their countries, they were supposed to abide by our laws.”

Humayun Rashid Khalifa, a former BRTA director (engineering), who � rst initiated the process to trace the ve-hicles, told the Dhaka Tribune that: “What has happened to the vehicles is that the foreigners have sold the vehi-cles to the local people without inform-ing the NBR or the BRTA. And the local buyers have been using those without paying the duties exempted.”

Again, he said, police had been very generous to not check the papers of the vehicles, fearing that those must belong to foreigners or powerful people. l

Women still largely absent in decision-making processesn Udisa Islam

Development professionals and govern-ment o� cials have blamed the “typi-cal mindset” of a patriarchal society for the slow pace at which women in Bangladesh are getting involved in deci-sion-making processes at various levels.

Although the government has been trying to ensure the participation of women in various spheres of the state and it is said that Bangladesh can be

a role model for even many devel-oped countries in terms of empower-ing women, there is still nothing to be complacent about, activists have said.

According to the website of the pub-lic administration ministry, only four out of the 70 secretary position of the government are held by women. Out of the 290 additional secretaries, only 18 are women.

According to a report of the NGO Coa-lition on Beijing Process (NCBP), in 2004, out of 301 joint secretaries, only 13 were women. At present, 68 out of a total of 923 joint secretaries are women which marks only a 0.3% rise in a decade.

Professionals, who deal with devel-opment issues, have always said the country’s overall progress depended on the extent to which the government manages to ensure equality of employ-

ment between men and women. In Bangladesh, although men and

women constitute roughly equal pro-portions of the population, women are still far behind men in terms of partic-ipation in decision-making processes.

Over the last 10 years, the govern-ment had been trying to ensure great-er participation by allocating quota for women in state recruitments. How-ever, according to the Public Service Commission, the 10% quota for women in public service has hardly ever been � lled up in recent years.

Seeking anonymity, a female govern-ment employee said it would become hard for a women if she was posted to a remote area. “When the female em-ployee expresses reluctance to go to the remote areas, the authorities say ‘wom-en are not interested in doing their jobs.’ That is why participation of women has not been increasing,” she explained.

According to existing rules, govern-ment employees from most of the de-partments must work outside the capi-tal for a certain number of years during his or her service term.

Right activist Sultana Kamal, also an advisor to the caretaker government, said: “At the time of posting, the au-thorities have to think about the situa-tion in our society. Why does a woman have to go to a remote area?”

Development activist Shipra Bose held fundamentalist groups like He-fazat-e-Islam responsible for hold-ing women back. She said: “We must stop thinking that ‘women cannot do everything.” l

BRTA records show it registered at least

4,710vehicles between 1972 and 1994.

1,281vehicles were either handed over properly or saw

cancellation of registration. The remaining

3,410vehicles are still traceless

TRACELESSVEHICLES WITH YELLOW PLATES

SLH/

DT IN

FOGR

APHI

C

SOURCE: BRTA

Post Number of womenSecretary 4 out of 70Additional Secretary 18 out of 290Joint Secretary 38 out of 923Assistant secretaries 300 out of 1152

LOK SABHA POLLS IN INDIA

The battle begins in the northeastn Agencies

The battle for supremacy between BJP’s prime ministerial nominee  Nar-endra Modi  and Congress’ GenNext leader  Rahul Gandhi  began from six constituencies in the unlikeliest of places – the northeast.

The stakes for both Congress and BJP are high in the eight-state north-east with 25 seats that could prove cru-cial in the numbers game. While the former is desperate to improve upon its 2009 show of 13 seats, the latter has campaigned aggressively to nudge the Congress out of its bastion.

Voting in Tripura and Assam picked up yesterday as voters in the two north-eastern states of India became the � rst ones to kick-start the nine-phase 16th Lok Sabha elections in the country. Around 60% of the electorate had cast their votes till 2pm on Monday as poll-ing was held in Tripura West, one of the two constituencies in Left-ruled Tripu-ra, an o� cial said.

The BJP has channelled its energy on Congress-ruled Assam, where the party feels it has the best chances in the region despite demographic con-straints. The state’s ethnic diversity be-

sides the Congress hold on three major vote banks – Muslim migrants, indige-nous tea plantation workers and myr-iad tribes – prevented it from bagging more than four seats.

The Congress and BJP too have a token presence in the left-dominated Tripura West constituency.

Around 1.2 million people are eligi-ble to vote to pick a Lok Sabha member from among 13 candidates, almost all of whom are � rst-time contenders.

This time, chief minister Manik Sarkar, BJP candidate and president of the party Sudhindra Dasgupta, state secretary of CPI(M) Bijan Dhar and trade union leader Sankar Prasad Datta, Congress’ Arunoday Saha, Tri-namool Congress’ state chief Ratan Chakraborty and Aam Aadmi Party’s Salil Saha are among the aspirants.

The Left has won from West Tripura 11 times since the � rst Lok Sabha elec-tion of 1952 and the Congress four times.

The ruling CPI-M this time dropped both its sitting members – Khagen Das and Bajuban Reang (Tripura East), who has won the seat a record seven times since 1980. It is focusing on the devel-opment work it has done in Tripura, while attacking the Congress-led union

government for poor governance, price hike and corruption.

The opposition is focusing on the Left’s ill-rule, unemployment and ris-ing crimes against women. Polling in the tribal reserved Tripura East constit-uency will be held April 12.

In Assam, over 49% of voters cast their ballot in the � rst six hours of poll-ing for � ve Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam, o� cials said.

The Congress, BJP, Trinamool Con-gress, AIUDF, AGP, AAP, SUCI, CPI(M), AIFB and SP are contesting in the � ve seats during the � rst phase of elections in the Congress-ruled state.

Among the 51 candidates are union ministers Ranee Narah and Paban Sin-gh Ghatowar, sitting MP Bijoy Krishna Handique, Gourav Gogoi and Bhupen Kumar Bora from the Congress.

For the BJP, its unit president Sorb-ananda Sonowal and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa are contesting, while AGP’s nom-inees are Arun Kumar Sarma, Pradip Hazarika and Joseph Toppo.

For the � rst time in the northeast region and the third time in the coun-try after Kashmir and Bihar, all polling booths in Assam have been declared smoking free. l

Hindus o� er prayers to the Sun God at Langalbandh on the river Brahmapurtra on the occasion of the Aushtami Snan, the holy bath, yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

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www.dhakatribune.com/business TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014

B3 Lafarge and Holcim outline merger deal

B4 A two-wheel robot 'MiP', carrying a water bottle on a tray

ICT sector demands tax cut on internet servicesn Tribune Report

Business leaders of the country’s in-formation and communication tech-nology sector have requested the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to withdraw 15% value added tax (VAT) on internet use and data transmission services.

They also sought VAT exemption from the transactions under any e-commerce service for at least 10 years to promote this growing sector.

They came up with the plea while attending a pre-budget meeting with the NBR o� cials held last week at the NBR headquarters in the capital.

As a part of the ongoing discussion on the preparation for the budget of the � scal year 2014-2015, the NBR of-� cials held a separate meeting with businessmen from computers, infor-mation and communication technol-

ogy and telecommunications sector.Bangladesh Association of Soft-

ware and Information Services (BASIS) president Shamim Ahsan demanded for the exemption of VAT imposed at the rate of 4.5% on the information technology-enabled services.

He also sought corporate tax ex-emption from the ICT and data trans-fer services for the next 10 years.

Bangladesh Computer Samity di-rector Ali Ashfaq urged the NBR o� -cials to continue the tax holiday facil-ities till 2021 as it will expire on June 30, 2015.

Akhtaruzzman Manju of Internet Service Providers Association of Ban-gladesh demanded tax exemption on import of all network equipments, vat exemption on transmission link, internet and data transmission.

Telecommunication Infrastruc-ture Operators of Bangladesh leader

Mir Nasir Hossain demanded contin-uation of tax holiday for the ICT and telecommunication sector.

“As the facility came to an end in 2013, it should be further continued irrespective of any area,” he added.

The association leader also urged the NBR to reduce tax deduction at sources to 0.6% for all call related income as it lies in the form of other taxes.

“There had been no VAT at the time when we got the license, now we have to pay 15% VAT whereas mobile companies are paying only 5% VAT,” said Nasir .

“We are demanding only 5% VAT on the telecommunication and ICT for the betterment of this sector.”

NBR member Syed Aminul Karim, however, assured that NBR would consider their proposals while pre-paring the budget-related recommen-dations. l

Telcos want Vat-free mobile service for ‘internet revolution’ n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The mobile phone operators want no value added tax (Vat) on their service as the Internet use is poised for a “revolution” in Bangladesh with the launch of the third generation (3G) and mobile � nancial services.

The demand came as Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Ban-gladesh (Amtob) placed their budget proposals recently at a pre-budget meet with National Board of Revenue.

Amtob said the government could see 2-4% jump in economic growth if all people have access to mobile ser-vice and 3G mobile broadband.

“If data use increases, the coun-try can reach its digitalisation goal even before 2021 where Internet will be the key driver taking the country towards its destination,” TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of Amtob told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“The mobile operators are now launching campaign ‘Internet for All’ after 3G comes to market. Internet is the thing which can most bene� t people now.”

According to Amtob, if 10% of 2G subscribers shift to 3G service, per capita GDP will increase by 0.15%.

The association also proposed

withdrawal of Vat and other taxes from Internet modems which are mostly used by the rural population for having access to data usage.

“Internet modem is an unparal-leled mean for boosting internet use by involving mass population,” Am-tob proposals paper reads.

“Like mobile handset, Vat on modem should be exempted in all stages which will expedite the implemen-tation of Vision 2021 through digi-talisation– and reciprocally increase NBR revenue by a good deal from this source.” Amtob said present ATV rate is 4% at import stage, Vat at sup-ply stage is 4% and Vat at the selling stage to customers is 15% or 4% (sub-ject to 26.67% value addition).

According to mobile operators’ platform, despite the availability of high speed data after 3G is intro-

duced, the data market has not ex-panded to the expectation due to lack of a� ordable modems.

It said the data use is still below what was expected after the launch of wireless broadband.

The association further proposed withdrawing 15% Vat from mobile � nancial services as the Vat is paid ultimately by the service recipients.

Mobile � nancial services are an invention of the modern world which will boost up the � nancial sec-tor through ensuring engagement of mass population, said Amtob.

“Government should suspend Vat collection, especially from these two (modem and mobile � nancial service) at least for now. It will help expand data service and bene� t the people,” said Nurul Kabir.

Further, Amtob reiterated a long-standing demand of withdraw-ing tax from SIM cards. If SIM tax be-comes zero by 2015, the tele-density will increase to 85% from 72% now, said Amtob.

It also said the mobile connectiv-ity will help about 97% of total pop-ulation, who are yet to come within banking service, have the facility of banking and � nancial services in-cluding the receiving of remittance. l

If SIM tax becomes zero by 2015, the tele-density will in-crease to 85% from 72% now

BB forms body to punish corrupt MDs of banks n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank has formed a com-mittee to review corruption allegations against managing directors of the coun-try’s commercial banks and recommend possible actions if they found guilty.

Governor Atiur Rahman formed the four-member body, headed by Dep-uty Governor Nazneen Sultana, onSunday. Other members are Executive Director Ahsan Ullah, Chief Economist Hassan Zaman and General Manager Nasiruzzaman.

The governor has got the power to take necessary actions if found guilty, but he does not want to take such deci-sion alone, said Nazneen Sultana.

She said the committee was formed to help the governor take decision based on the committee � ndings.

The loan scam of BASIC Bank and two consecutive burglary incidents in Sonali Bank have caused raising questions about the role of MDs.

The central bank recent-ly show-caused the BASIC Bank MD as to why puni-tive action will not be taken against him for irregulari-ties in disbursing loans.

The central bank planned to take punitive action against the MDs al-legedly involved in corrup-tion, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank. l

Destiny wants more time for hearing n Asif Showkat Kallol

The controversial multi-level market-ing (MLM) company Destiny2000 Ltd has sought more time from commerce ministry to present its document to ob-tain licence, o� cial sources said.

On March 9, the company’s licence appeal was rejected along with 16 oth-ers by Registrar of the Joint Stock Com-panies and Firms (RJSCF).

The commerce ministry o� cials said the ministry’s appellant commit-tee did not allow the Destiny to operate in the country because the matter is now pending in court as the Anti-Cor-ruption Commission (ACC) has already � led several cases against activities of Destiny high-ups.

“We have asked the Destiny author-ities to present their status as the MLM company on April 13 and the hearing will be held on April 27,” said an o� cial.

Destiny’s lawyer Md Selim Reza said they will get more time for more hearing.

He said he was only making sure that the Destiny is complying with the company law.

The commerce ministry’s � rst hear-ing of controversial MLM Company Destiny was on April 6 but the Destiny o� cials wanted more time for hearing.

On March 5, the government award-ed licences to four MLM companies to operate their business in the county.

RJSCF issued licences to MLM com-panies on the same day and sent sep-arate letters to the � rms. It rejected licence appeals of 17 others including the Destiny. The companies who got licences included Sadhin Online Pub-lic Limited, World Mission 21 Limited, Rich Business System Limited and MXN Modern Herbal Food Limited.

A total of 21 � rms had applied for the licence. l

LTE service to hit Bangladesh by Decembern Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The country’s internet subscribers are likely to start enjoying the facili-ties of the ultrafast speed data service through using LTE technology by the end of this year, as Bangladesh Internet Exchange Ltd. (BIEL) is now set to be the � rst operator for o� ering such ser-vice under a test case.

The world’s � rst publicly available LTE service was launched by Telia-Sonera in Stockholm and Oslo on De-cember 14, 2009.

LTE, an acronym for Long-Term Evo-lution, commonly marketed as 4G LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for handset devices, which also can transmit voice service.

It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, in-creasing the capacity and speed using a di� erent radio interface together with core network improvements.

The BIEL will initially o� er the ser-

vice in the capital city Dhaka and in-dustrial city Khulna by December, this year, a senior executive of the operator told the Dhaka Tribune.

“As we are obliged to introduce the network and o� er the services to the subscribers within a stipulated time frame as per the license condition, ini-tially, we will go for the operation in Dhaka and Khulna to meet the dead-line,” Igor Grakovich, Chief Executive O� cer of BIEL told the Dhaka Tribune.

Currently BIEL covers major areas of Dhaka including Uttara, Gulshan, Ba-nani, Mohakhali, Dhanmondi, Motijhe-el and its surrounding areas.

The operator is now working on di� erent packages and also � xing the prices without � nalising the brand names, said the CEO of BIEL.

“Actually the brand names are not yet � nalized. Though, we have a partner in Wi-max operation under the brand of ollo, we are not yet sure whether it will

B3 COLUMN 5

WB to give $210m loan for developing food storage systemn Tribune Report

The World Bank will give US$210m loan for the construction of a modern food storage system in Bangladesh to enhance the country’s capacity for fur-ther ensuring foods for 10m people.

A � nancing agreement was signed between the government and the In-ternational Development Association (IDA), a part of the World Bank, yester-day at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) o� ce in the capital.

Additional secretary of ERD Arastoo Khan and acting country head of the World Bank Bangladesh, Christine Kimes signed the agreement on their respective behalf, said a World Bank statement.

“The modern food storage facilities project will construct steel silos with a storage capacity for 535,500 tons of rice and wheat and also support the distri

B3 COLUMN 6

Garment workers in the dark about jobs n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

As more and more factories contin-ue to be found structurally � awed and face resultant suspension orders, jobs of an increasing number of workers have remained at stake.

On the basis of Accord’s and a buy-er’s inspections, 10 garment factories have so far been asked to suspend their productions. Nine of them employed a total of more than 11,000 workers.

The factories were located in Dhaka and Chittagong. Two of them however were told to resume production after reducing loads on the � oors while oth-ers were asked to just suspend produc-tion and details will be told later.

“Production suspensions put both owners and workers at a di� cult state. We cannot pay the workers as business gets halted,” said a factory owner.

Another factory owner who also faced suspension said � nal decision about the payment of workers’ during the temporary closure would be taken after detailed engineering assessment of the building.

“The production of our factory was suspended immediately after the in-struction of Accord’s inspection review panel,” said Md Abul Akter, manag-ing director of Men’s Apparel in Chit-tagong.

“But a detailed engineering assess-ment of the building would be con-ducted again and decision about the building’s fate will be taken then. The matter of workers’ wages will also be

taken following that assessment,” he said.

According to BGMEA and factory owners, a total of 11,230 workers were employed in nine factories.

Owners want buyers’ contribution to the remediation works of the build-ings and the payment of workers’ wag-es in the interim periods.

“If the buyers contribute 50% of re-mediation cost and wages of workers, it would be possible to relocate the fac-tory in another building,” BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim told the

Dhaka Tribune yesterday.“Otherwise it would be very tough

for factory owners to restart produc-tion,” he said.

He preferred relocation to retro-� tting old buildings as cost would be same.

“We can build another factory build-ing by the expense estimated for reme-diation works.”

According to the BGMEA leader, rules should be introduced by the gov-ernment to ensure basic salaries for the workers during suspension times.

He alleged that the buyers were ful-� lling their commitment of providing fund for retro� tting works and work-ers’ wage.

Roy Ramesh Chandra, secretary general of IndustriAll Bangladesh Council, said as the remediation is a new issue in Bangladesh, so stakehold-ers have to take initiatives so that not a single worker becomes jobless.

He said: “I will put the matter to steering committee meeting to be held on April 9-10 in Dhaka.”

Wishing anonymity, owner of one of 10 factories said the initiative by the global retailers to improve safety stan-dards at the country’s RMG sector was a good one but they took some “con-troversial decisions” like in the case of Liberty Fashion.

The Liberty Fashion was detected as � awed by the Accord inspection, al-though BUET team certi� ed the factory as “okay,” he said.

“The Accord should be pragmatic as their decision can even turnish image of a factory and thus destroy the busi-ness leaving workers in danger.”

On February 20, the Accord, a platform of 150 European retailers, launched the � rst phase of inspection and inspected over 225 factories for � re and electrical safety and over 180 factories were inspected for structural safety.

On the other hand, the Alliance for Workers Safety in Bangladesh had in-spected 305 factories and found no faults. l

Production suspended factories Employed

Liberty Fashion 4,000Softex Cotton 3,500Fame Sweater 580Day Apparel and Day Design 1,500Men’s Apparel and Bayazid Fashions 450All Weather and Crystal Apparel 1,200[Source BGMEA and factory owners]

RMG JOBSAT RISK

A H MAMUN/DT INFOGRAPHICS

FY14 budget de� cit may reach to 5% of GDP Government’s bank borrowing may rise, which is apprehended to crowd out private sector

n Asif Showkat Kallol

The budget de� cit for the current � scal year would go beyond the target, forc-ing the government to borrow more from the banks and crowding out the private sector.

The apprehension over the in-creased bank borrowing, which might reach to 5% of GDP, was expressed at a meeting at the � nance ministry yester-day, o� cials attended the meeting said.

Usually the country’s budget de� cit remains around 4.5% and for the cur-rent budget it was set at 4.6%.

The o� cials said the new de� cit es-timate was based on revenue shortfall so far as well as the revised expenditure on annual development programme (ADP), which has been set higher than the rational level.

The meeting between Finance Min-ister AMA Muhith and members of Planning Commission considered that the revised ADP of Tk60,000 crore is higher by Tk5,000 crore than what it

should have been set. “The most part of the increased de� -

cit would come from the bank borrow-ing,” Planning Commission member Shamsul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune.

He, however, defended it would be better to borrow from the banks as little amount of money has so far been taken from the banking system.

As per the � nance division data, bank borrowing stood at Tk8,730 crore at the end of December 2013, compared to Tk7, 213 crore from the same period a year ago.

Sources said � nance ministry o� -cials tried to convince a visiting IMF review mission last week that the gov-ernment would reduce the bank bor-rowing target to Tk24,000 crore from the Tk25,993 crore target set under the current budget.

Shamsul Alam said the big church of the extra Tk5,000 crore in the revised ADP would go to the local government and cooperative divisions, water resources ministry, power and energy

B3 COLUMN 1

ANALYST

B2 Stock Tuesday, April 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Heavyweights pull stocks up n Tribune Report

Stocks gained yesterday as inves-tors have injected fresh funds on heavyweight stocks.

The benchmark index DSEX gained 19 points or 0.5% to close at 4,608. Shariah Index DSES was 15 points or 1.6% to 1,019. The blue-chip comprising DS30 rose 22 points or 1.4% to end at 1,682.

Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, closed at 8,942 with a gain of 17 points.

The total turnover at DSE ad-vanced by 9.6% from the previous session and stood at Tk505 crore.

Telecommunication sector, led by Grameenphone (GP) and Ban-gladesh Submarine Cable Company that rose more than 4% and 2% re-spectively, accounted for over 15% of the total turnover.

“Large and mid-cap scrips’ up-swing kept the market positive de-spite majority of the traded scrips’ price correction,” said IDLC Invest-ments.

It said the search for safer in-vestment during ongoing market downtrend turned large cap and few mid cap scrips most preferred to the market participants.

“In the line, liquidity of those stocks improved signi� cantly cross-ing the historical boundaries, some-times. As a result, probably, histor-

ically renowned safer corridor for investment was growing as expen-sive at valuation level, silently.”

Lanka Bangla Securities said equity market exhibited positive momentum yesterday amid cue of positive data and � ow of foreign money. It said DS30 strongly out-performed the benchmark index gaining 1.34% as buyers continued to pump in fresh fund on index heavyweight stocks.

While many of the major sectors ended the day showing only mod-est moves, substantial strength was visible among pharma, teleco and tannery stocks with 3.1%, 4.3% and 6.6% gains respectively.

Cement and oil stocks also moved to the upside while modest weakness was visible among � nan-cial stocks.

Zenith Investment said market once again con� rmed its bullish trend after pausing for a break from the session day before yesterday.

“Notable movements from the index heavyweight have fuelled the growth of the index and market turnover, boosting the con� dence of investors.”

GP was the most traded stock of the session with a turnover of almost Tk62 crore. It was followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, Padma Oil, Olympic Industries, Heidelberg Cement and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation. l

News from trade serverPHOENIXFIN: The Board of Directors has recommended 20% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 29.05.2014, Time: 11:30 AM, Venue: Muktijuddho Smrity Milonayaton (1st � oor), Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangla-desh, 160/A, Kakrail, VIP Road, Dhaka-1000. Record Date: 17.04.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 2.58, NAV per share of Tk. 20.96 and NOCFPS of Tk. 0.61 for the year ended on December 31, 2013.Board Meeting: FASFIN on April 07, 2014 at 5:30 PM. NITOLINS on April 08, 2014 at 4:00 PM. BSC on April 13, 2014 at 7:00 PM. PRAGATIINS on April 13, 2014 at 3:30 PM. TAKAFULINS on April 15, 2014 at 3:30 PM.Matin Spinning Mills Ltd.: Trading of the shares of Matin Spinning Mills Ltd. will commence at DSE from April 08, 2014 under 'N' category. DSE Trading Code for Matin Spinning Mills Ltd. is "MATINSPINN" and DSE Company Code is 17460.CENTRALPHL: The Company has informed that M/S Malek Siddiqui Wali & Co., Chartered Accountants completed valuation of land property of the Company and submitted their valuation report which is Tk. 57,57,87,500.00

after valuation and before valuation, it was Tk. 6,09,39,411.00. The revaluation reserve of the Company stands on Tk. 51,48,48,089.00 according to the valuation report as on 31 March, 2014. The Board of Directors of the Company has accepted the valuation report on 07.04.2014 and the revalued � gure of land will be included in the � nancial statements.DESCO: After getting consent from Bangla-desh Securities & Exchange Commission (BSEC), Erstwhile Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA), one of the Sponsors of the Company, has expressed its intention to transfer 2,92,81,130 shares (Bonus shares) of the Company in favor of "Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB)" by way of trans-fer outside the trading system of the Stock Exchange within April 30, 2014.From BIASL Desk: Impact after declaration: PHOENIXFIN price dropped 1.75%, close at taka 28.00 with PE 10.85. Price Correction after Record Day: UT-TARABANK’s price correction was 14.19% (taka 4.30) against 15% Cash and 10% stock Dividend (taka 4.53 per share approx.). After record day restated EPS is taka 3.30 and NAV

per share is taka 25.38. RIGHT SHARE: ARAMITCEM: Subscription 23.03.2014 to 17.04.2014. RD for entitlement of rights share: 09.01.2014. RUPALILIFE- Subscription 06.04.2014 to 05.05.2014. RD for entitlement of rights share: 16.01.2014. BRACBANK: Subscription 20.04.2014 to 15.05.2014. RD for entitlement of rights share: 10.02.2014. GENNEXT: Subscription 18.03.2014 to 09.04.2014, RD: 25.02.2014.IPO Subscription: The Peninsula Chittagong Limited subscription date 30 March-03 April 2014, NRB upto 12 April 2014. @ taka 30, face value taka 10 and market lot 200. Shahjibazar Power Co. Limited sub-scription date 06-04 April 2014, NRB upto 19 April 2014. @ taka 25, face value taka 10 and market lot 200.Dividend/AGMNORTHRNINS: 10% stock, AGM: 08.06.2014, Record Date: 16.04.2014.BDLAMPS: 20% cash, AGM: 20.05.2014, Record Date: 17.04.2014.ARGONDENIM: 6% cash & 15% stock, AGM: 24.04.2014, Record date: 10.04.2014.HEIDELBCEM: 380% cash, AGM: 22.05.2014, Record Date: 17.04.2014.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Uttara Bank - A -13.40 -13.41 26.29 26.50 26.70 25.90 0.457 3.30 8.0Rahima Food -Z -9.74 -7.44 45.63 44.50 48.50 44.40 0.411 -1.00 -veJanata Insur -A -7.06 -2.75 24.09 23.70 24.80 23.60 0.072 0.76 31.7Dutch Ban. Bnk- A -7.00 -7.00 93.00 93.00 93.00 93.00 0.047 10.00 9.3Bay Leasing.-A -6.87 -6.84 31.20 31.20 31.20 31.20 0.016 1.56 20.08th ICB M F-A -6.62 -6.62 63.50 63.50 63.50 63.50 0.032 8.32 7.6Union Capital -A -6.34 -2.50 26.13 25.10 26.90 25.00 0.080 1.17 22.3PragatiLife Insu. -A -6.09 -6.09 216.00 216.00 216.00 216.00 0.108 2.38 90.8AramitCementA -5.92 -4.04 55.11 54.00 56.00 54.00 0.386 2.56 21.5Hakkani P& Paper -B -5.54 -4.33 32.92 32.40 33.60 32.00 0.198 0.28 117.6

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Uttara Bank - A -14.19 -13.66 26.16 26.00 28.00 24.80 18.796 3.30 7.9Rahima Food -Z -8.00 -7.58 44.61 43.70 48.10 43.00 4.885 -1.00 -veZeal Bangla Sugar -Z -6.00 -6.20 9.38 9.40 9.50 9.30 0.061 -25.08 -veHakkani P& Paper -B -5.59 -4.36 32.70 32.10 33.60 32.00 1.455 0.28 116.8Rupali Life Insur.-A -5.15 -2.55 116.33 114.30 123.70 110.00 19.622 5.33 21.8Janata Insur -A -4.78 -5.13 24.23 23.90 25.00 22.70 0.189 0.76 31.9Dhaka Ins. Ltd.-A -4.56 -3.88 36.13 35.60 37.50 35.40 1.797 2.43 14.9Meghna PET Ind. -Z -4.29 -4.29 6.70 6.70 6.70 6.70 0.027 -1.30 -veUnited Insur -A -4.28 -3.74 38.13 38.00 38.50 38.00 0.122 2.77 13.8Asia Insur. Ltd.-A -4.23 -3.57 25.09 24.90 25.60 24.80 0.882 1.56 16.1

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

BATBCL -A 24,100 58.91 13.93 2512.40 0.30 2505.00 2600.0 2460.0 2444.38Grameenphone-A 191,400 45.58 10.78 240.70 4.52 230.30 242.10 232.00 238.12BD Submarine Cable-A 128,100 27.40 6.48 216.30 2.27 211.50 217.80 211.00 213.88Padma Oil Co. -A 73,388 26.77 6.33 366.40 2.00 359.20 368.50 357.60 364.75Square Pharma -A 72,216 20.43 4.83 284.80 3.19 276.00 285.20 276.00 282.91HeidelbergCement -A 31,450 17.35 4.10 557.80 6.37 524.40 563.50 530.00 551.70BSC-A 24,055 15.43 3.65 637.30 -1.69 648.25 656.80 635.00 641.43Meghna Petroleum -A 44,931 12.99 3.07 289.90 1.79 284.80 291.00 285.80 289.15Emerald Oil Ind. -N 54,699 12.25 2.90 47.60 -3.45 49.30 51.30 47.30 223.90Jamuna Oil -A 34,360 8.00 1.89 233.80 1.21 231.00 234.50 231.20 232.78RAK Ceramics-A 125,372 6.44 1.52 51.80 5.71 49.00 53.00 44.10 51.34UNITED AIR-A 436,195 6.09 1.44 13.90 -1.42 14.10 14.10 12.70 13.97Singer BD -A 25,850 5.88 1.39 232.20 5.31 220.50 237.00 222.00 227.53Delta SpinnersA 138,600 5.46 1.29 38.40 -1.79 39.10 40.30 38.00 39.38aamra technologies-A 131,600 4.87 1.15 36.70 -2.39 37.60 37.70 35.00 37.01

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

Grameenphone-A 2,629,000 626.12 12.39 240.70 4.43 230.50 242.20 232.00 238.16Square Pharma -A 1,325,391 375.67 7.43 286.20 3.55 276.40 287.20 255.00 283.44Padma Oil Co. -A 825,306 300.50 5.95 366.20 1.98 359.10 368.00 335.00 364.11Olympic Ind. -A 1,324,000 294.19 5.82 225.60 4.01 216.90 227.00 200.00 222.20HeidelbergCement -A 365,160 201.05 3.98 559.80 6.77 524.30 563.60 500.00 550.57Meghna Petroleum -A 654,130 188.85 3.74 290.00 1.90 284.60 291.00 260.00 288.70BSC-A 246,920 158.67 3.14 637.50 -1.58 647.75 655.00 635.25 642.59BD Submarine Cable-A 631,884 135.00 2.67 216.20 2.61 210.70 217.90 193.00 213.65Singer BD -A 474,501 108.58 2.15 232.60 5.44 220.60 237.00 205.00 228.83Mercantile Bank -A 4,895,168 94.30 1.87 18.90 -1.56 19.20 19.60 17.50 19.26Jamuna Oil -A 361,425 84.13 1.66 233.60 1.13 231.00 234.70 215.00 232.78Apex Footwear-A 167,300 82.12 1.62 501.50 5.76 474.20 505.00 470.00 490.87Eastern Housing -A 1,247,313 71.73 1.42 56.30 -2.93 58.00 58.90 54.90 57.51Usmania Glass -A 323,244 69.09 1.37 217.50 5.94 205.30 219.90 199.90 213.73Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 69,043 67.79 1.34 995.80 6.63 933.90 996.30 890.00 981.90

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Apex Tannery -A 8.59 5.33 170.36 173.20 175.40 164.00 4.208 4.86 35.1HeidelbergCement -A 6.37 6.74 551.70 557.80 563.50 530.00 17.351 26.09 21.1RAK Ceramics-A 5.71 5.12 51.34 51.80 53.00 44.10 6.436 2.03 25.3Bata Shoe Ltd. -A 5.68 4.15 965.84 980.00 980.00 944.00 0.773 52.75 18.3Apex Footwear-A 5.40 6.04 504.34 505.90 508.90 492.00 0.706 23.61 21.4Usmania Glass -A 5.34 3.38 212.85 217.00 220.00 206.00 3.631 5.10 41.7Singer BD -A 5.31 3.69 227.53 232.20 237.00 222.00 5.882 6.23 36.5Marico BD Ltd-A 4.78 4.78 1239.60 1239.60 1256.80 1215.00 0.806 46.53 26.6Grameenphone-A 4.52 3.91 238.12 240.70 242.10 232.00 45.576 10.23 23.3Berger Paints-A 4.16 4.16 969.95 970.00 970.00 969.90 0.097 37.13 26.1

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Samata LeatheR -Z 9.39 10.00 34.00 33.80 33.90 33.80 0.085 -0.04 -veApex Tannery -A 8.68 4.68 169.00 172.70 174.00 152.00 52.187 4.86 34.8RAK Ceramics-A 6.80 3.82 51.12 51.80 52.20 44.00 31.782 2.03 25.2HeidelbergCement -A 6.77 6.40 550.57 559.80 563.60 500.00 201.047 26.09 21.1Berger Paints-A 6.77 5.70 977.25 983.00 983.20 944.00 20.962 37.13 26.3Bata Shoe Ltd. -A 6.76 3.07 952.75 978.80 979.30 920.00 59.398 52.75 18.1Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 6.63 4.72 981.90 995.80 996.30 890.00 67.793 48.55 20.2Meghna Con. Milk -B 6.25 6.10 10.26 10.20 10.50 10.00 0.195 -4.58 -veMarico BD Ltd-A 6.25 3.99 1,228.25 1,236.50 1,236.50 1,183.00 16.827 46.53 26.4GlaxoSK (BD) -A 6.21 4.33 1,485.88 1,505.70 1,506.20 1,420.00 19.465 45.35 32.8

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 357.28 7.07 26.52 5.29 383.80 6.91NBFI 123.69 2.45 8.39 1.67 132.08 2.38Investment 60.80 1.20 3.69 0.74 64.49 1.16Engineering 423.67 8.38 27.49 5.49 451.16 8.12Food & Allied 457.10 9.04 90.45 18.05 547.55 9.86Fuel & Power 754.38 14.92 67.48 13.46 821.87 14.79Jute 3.96 0.08 0.00 3.96 0.07Textile 344.57 6.82 39.61 7.90 384.17 6.91Pharma & Chemical 675.30 13.36 35.00 6.98 710.29 12.78Paper & Packaging 1.46 0.03 22.57 4.50 24.03 0.43Service 92.51 1.83 4.01 0.80 96.51 1.74Leather 196.97 3.90 29.37 5.86 226.34 4.07Ceramic 41.15 0.81 7.53 1.50 48.68 0.88Cement 262.02 5.18 22.63 4.51 284.64 5.12Information Technology 32.58 0.64 5.72 1.14 38.30 0.69General Insurance 44.84 0.89 0.97 0.19 45.81 0.82Life Insurance 106.20 2.10 4.66 0.93 110.86 2.00Telecom 761.13 15.06 72.97 14.56 834.10 15.01Travel & Leisure 37.84 0.75 7.48 1.49 45.32 0.82Miscellaneous 270.88 5.36 24.61 4.91 295.50 5.32Debenture 6.21 0.12 0.06 0.01 6.27 0.11

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index : 4608.29433 (+) 0.43% ▲

DSE Shariah Index : 1019.67794 (+) 1.53% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1682.24789 (+) 1.34% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 14212.0579 (+) 0.16% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 11990.0025 (+) 0.43% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 8941.8892 (+) 0.19% ▲

DSE key features April 7, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

5,054.52

Turnover (Volume)

70,396,789

Number of Contract 96,671

Traded Issues 289

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

63

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

221

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,335.21

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

28.31

CSE key features April 7, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 434.09

Turnover (Volume) 6,405,383

Number of Contract 12,312

Traded Issues 220

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

48

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

167

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,226.21

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.98

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

Large and mid-cap scrips’ upswing kept the market positive despite majority of the traded scrips’ price correction

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

GM � les 200,000 pages of documents about recall to safety agencyn Reuters, Detroit

General Motors Co said it has submit-ted most of the answers that US safety regulators sought from the automaker about a defective ignition switch linked to at least 13 deaths.

In response to the National Highway Tra� c Safety Administration, GM sent some 200,000 pages of documents to the safety agency by a Thursday midnight deadline, GM spokesman Greg Martin said on Friday. The company has pro-vided answers to nearly 65% of the 107 questions that the NHTSA asked, he said.

“GM is cooperating fully with NHTSA and is keeping the agency apprised at ev-ery step of its progress as it works to re-spond to the remaining questions within the special order,” Martin said in an email.

NHTSA said in a statement it has been receiving documents from GM and “will take appropriate action based on the agency’s review.” The agency did not provide a timetable for making the documents public.

In addition to the NHTSA, the US Senate and House of Representatives are investigating why GM took more than a decade to recall 2.6 million cars to replace the faulty switches. The larg-est US automaker also faces a criminal probe by the Department of Justice.

Without warning, the switches can make vehicle engines stall while oper-ating, stop air bags from deploying, and power steering and power brakes from operating.

GM Chief Executive O� cer Mary Barra endured a withering attack at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that opened with accusations that the com-pany fostered “a culture of cover-up.” Barra also faced a House panel.

Since February, GM has recalled 2.6 million vehicles. And so far this year,

GM has recalled a total of nearly 7 mil-lion vehicles, or about the same num-ber recalled in the previous four years combined.

GM also con� rmed the hiring of Je� Eller, a crisis management adviser, to help in its response to the recall. Eller declined to comment, referring ques-tions to GM.

Eller was chairman at Public Strat-egies Inc, which represented Bridge-stone Corp’s Firestone during its tire recall in 2000. He was also director of media a� airs during President Bill Clin-ton’s administration.

“As we have from the start, we are drawing upon those who have deep ex-perience and expertise in these matters,”

GM’s Martin said. “Je� will join a team who is helping us guide our response.

It is GM’s third high-level outside hire since the defective switches came to light.

On Tuesday last week, Barra said GM had hired attorney Kenneth Feinberg to examine what steps the company might take for families of crash victims. Barra said this week GM would take up to 60 days to evaluate the matter.

Feinberg administered funds to compensate victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the BP Plc oil spill, and Boston Marathon bombing.

Safety advocates said the move indi-cated the company was exploring set-ting up a victims’ compensation fund,

although GM has not con� rmed that.GM has also hired former US Attor-

ney Anton Valukas to lead the com-pany’s internal probe of why it took so long to discover the defective switches. Barra said this week that would wrap up in 45 to 60 days.

Valukas was the court-appointed ex-aminer in the Lehman Brothers bank-ruptcy. His probe resulted in a report in 2010 that detailed the causes of the � rm’s spectacular collapse.

The automaker has said it would take a charge of $750m in the � rst quar-ter, mostly for the recalls announced in that period, including ones linked to the defective ignition switch. That was increased from $300m. l

Duty on sugar and tea imports surgedn Reuters

Bangladesh has increased regulatory duty on imports of raw and re� ned sugar and on tea to discourage overseas buying amid a drop in local prices due to ample supplies, a senior tax o� cial said yesterday.

The duties on imports of raw sugar

will now be 2,000 taka ($26) a tonne from Tk1,500 earlier, said the o� cial at the customs wing of the National Board of Revenue. Duties on re� ned sugar imports will be raised to Tk4,500 from Tk3,000.

The duty on imports of tea has been increased to 15% from 5% earlier, the o� cial added. l

Oil price ‘fair’ despite geopolitical factors: Kuwaitn AFP, Kuwait City

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Ali al-Omair said yesterday that current oil prices are “fair” despite strong geopolitical fac-tors impacting the region.

OPEC member Kuwait is the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, pumping around 3 million barrels per day, of which at least 2.6 million bpd are ex-ported in the form of crude oil and pe-troleum products.

“There are geopolitical factors im-pacting oil prices... which are not only controlled by output levels and produc-tion capacity but also by political chang-es,” Omair told reporters on the sidelines of the second Gulf Petroleum Forum. l

WB to give $210m loan for developing food storage system B1 COLUMN 6bution of smaller household silos to 500,000 households in disaster-prone coastal areas,” said the statement.

The credit from IDA has a 40 year term, including a 10-year grace period, and carries a service charge of 0.75%.

Bangladesh faces � oods and cy-clones almost every three years and climate change could increase the fre-quency and intensity of these extreme-weather events,” said Christine Kimes.

“This modern food storage system, combined with an e� ective distribu-tion system, will help to ensure food security immediately after a natural disaster. The project will reduce the vulnerability of people living in natu-ral disaster prone areas and help Ban-gladesh build a stock of food to meet emergencies,” said Kimes.

The modern steel silos will be able to store food grains for up to three years while retaining the nutritional quality of the rice through computerised con-trol of humidity and temperature.

The � at-bottomed steel silos can be constructed quickly and occupy much less space than conventional concrete warehousing. In comparison, traditional concrete warehousing can store grains only up to a maximum of one year.

The project will also provide domes-tic silos for grain and seed to around 500,000 households in � ood and cyclone-prone coastal area to ensure food security during and after natural disasters.

Manufactured in Bangladesh, these household-level silos, or grain storage bins, are specially designed 70-liter, food-grade plastic bins with a water-tight lid that prevents water intrusion from surges and � oods. The bins can hold about 40kg of paddy. l

Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited inaugurated its central trade processing unit recently. Yousuf Ali Howlader, the bank’s inaugurated the unit as chief guest

Etihad Airways and its Abu Dhabi home-base continue to bene� t from the airline’s strategy of working closely with network partners which, in turn, is supporting economic growth in markets around the world. Details of the successful expansion strategy were shared by James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ president and chief executive, during his keynote address to delegates at the Global Aerospace Summit being held in Abu Dhabi that is to end by today

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman and Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury recently visited the stall of Standard Bank Ltd at the School Banking Conference-2014 at a hotel in Khulna. SBL Khulna Branch Manager Zaglul Pasha was present on the occasion

Dutch-Bangla Bank gets new chairSayem Ahmed has been elected the chairperson of Dutch-Bangla Bank at a board meeting of directors held yester-day. Ahmed is a sponsor director of the bank and was chairman of the board’s ex-ecutive committee. In addition, he is also director of a number of renowned textile and spinning industries in the country.

He has completed his Bachelors of Software Engineering from the Univer-sity of Toronto, Canada and is a Certi-� ed Management Accountant (CMA) from the same university. l

Lafarge and Holcim outline merger deal n Kayes Sohel

Holcim and Lafarge, the world’scement giants, yesterday an-nounced outline for their proposedmerger to become the world’sbiggest cement maker, projecting a com-bined annual sales of 32bn euros ($44bn).

The $40bn deal was described in a statement yesterday as “a merger of equals.”

Holcim of Switzerland would take over Lafarge of France, o� er-ing one Holcim share for one Lafargeshare.

The new entity would be called “La-fargeHolcim” with underlying pro� ts on a basis of earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation, of 6.5bn euros, the � rms said in a joint statement.

The new � rm’s chairman will be Hol-cim’s Wolfgang Reitzle, with Lafarge’s Lafont becoming its chief executive of-� cer. Holcim and Lafarge will each have seven seats on the new � rm’s board.

The companies are aiming to com-plete the deal by the � rst quarter of 2015. Shares in the new � rm will be listed on stock exchanges in Paris and Zurich.

The combined group will have a unique position in 90 countries and will be evenly balanced between de-

veloping countries and countries with strong growth.

Bruno Lafont, chief executive of Lafarge, will take up the same role in the combined group, while Holcim’s chairman designate Wolfgang Reitzle becomes group chairman.

The merger, under discussion since January, is set to trigger big compe-tition issues in many countries, in-cluding in Europe, North and South America and Asia, where the industry has long been the subject of antitrust concerns.

Figures in the statement show that the new giant will employ 136,000 people across the countries where it operates.

Holcim Chairman Rolf Soiron said the merger o� ered “a once in a lifetime opportunity to deliver substantially better value to customers with more innovation, a wider range of products and solutions” and to raise returns for the shareholders.

The LafargeHolcim would be “uniquely positioned to takeadvantage of growth in developed markets and the world’s fastestgrowing economies,” he said in a state-ment.

Lafarge chief executive Bruno Lafont said by combining Holcim’s experienced teams, complementary geographies

and innovative expertise with ours, “We propose to set up the most advanced group in the construction

industry, for the bene� t of ourclients, our employees and our shareholders.” l

CEO of the world's biggest cement maker, French Lafarge, Bruno Lafont (right) and Rolf Soiron, chairman of the Board of Directors of its Swiss rival, Holcim, gesture as they pose before a press conference yesterday AFP

LTE service to hit Bangladesh B1 COLUMN 5also run the LTE technology or not.”

CEO of BIEL also said: We have been developing our network with the help of ZTE, a Chinese equipment company. We have already invested US$50m so far and another big chunk of invest-ment is underway. Earlier, BIEL and New Generation Graphics Limited (NGGL) had launched ollo, which is also a common brand of Wi-max ser-vice provider.

BIEL yesterday held a program at city hotel for sharing the real experi-ences about the upcoming LTE service.

O� cials of BIEL demonstrated the LTE service quality, upload and down-load speeds.

Chief Technical O� cer of the op-erator Md Mizanur Rahaman informed that their upload and download speed

would be up to 150 Mbps, which is fast-er than the wired connections.

BIEL has a target to cover all the major cities across the country before 2015, according to o� cial sources.

Both the two di� erent local internet service provider (ISP) BIEL and NGGL, were bought by a Russian company in 2009.

BIEL got LTE license in November last, with 20 megahertz spectrum on 2.6 band at a cost of Tk245.71 crore. However, NGGL had earlier got 20 megahertz spectrum on 800 band without any charge.

Before BIEL, two Wi-max operators Banglalion and Qubee also got the per-mission for introducing LTE services, but both the operators are yet to come up with any speci� c plan in this regard, said the o� cials of the two operators. l

Export-import halts at Benapole land portn Our Correspondent, Jessore

The export and import activities came to a total halt yesterday at Benapole-Petrapole land ports as the Indian truck workers enforced an inde� nite period of strike to protest the missing of their fellow colleagues.

The Indian truck workers are alleging that a driver and a helper of an Indian truck laden with goods went missing since mid-March from Benapole land port in Bangladesh.

However, the port authority of Ban-gladesh outright rejected the allegation as saying, “The workers went back to India safely after unloading goods at Benapole port.”

Indian National Trade Union Congress

(INTUC), Bangaon sub-division, West Bengal, Prodip Saha told the newsmen at Benapole that a driver and his helper of a truck bearing the number WB-23-9675 did not enter into the Indian territory from Benapole land port since March 11.

“We have already informed the Be-napole port authority about the mat-ter, but the authority is yet to take any steps, which has forced the Indian truck workers to call strike for inde� -nite period,” he said.

Director of tra� c of Benapole Port Authority Mallik Anwar Hossain said the port authority record showed that the truck had gone back to India on March 18. He, however, said the inci-dent of missing of a truck driver and a helper is mysterious.

“We are yet to receive any written complaint from the Indian side about the matter,” he added. Cargo o� cer of Benapole customs Sirajul Islam said truck workers at Bangaon started the strike for an inde� nite period in protest against the missing of two truck work-ers of India. l

'We are yet to receive any written complaint from the Indian side about the matter'

FY14 budget de� cit may reach to 5% of GDP B1 COLUMN 2division, and agriculture ministry while the remaining amount would go to 17 other ministries and divisions.

Concerns have been raised within the � nance ministry that the bank bor-rowing might exceed Tk40,000 crore in the current � scal year because of a shortfall in revenue earning and an in-crease in the revised ADP, o� cials said.

The country fought all odds and prolonged political unrest to maintain a sound macro and � scal economic sit-uation during the last couple of years, but the strong position of the country might become weak this time, said one of them, seeking anonymity.

He said local business and trade might face di� culties in getting bank loans over the next four months be-cause of the extra government borrow-ing of around Tk15,000 crore. l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Shale oil discovery and impact on global oil marketn Taosif Khan

Conventional sources of energy, such as crude oil, have been dominating the global energy market for centu-ries. The demand for oil is substan-tially high, given that most industries depend on it for ful� lling energy re-quirements. Even with the advent of renewable energy, economic realities enforce the use of fossil fuels. As a result, countries that extract crude oil and process it into usable fuels have been widely bene� tted – Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, for instance. Unfortunately enough, the glory of monopolizing the energy sector will soon become a shattered dream for OPEC. This is due to the discovery of shale oil.

Shale oil is a source of energy quite similar to conventional oil. It is extracted from oil shale, which is an organic � ne grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a mixture of organic compounds). The pyrolysis of oil shale produces a vapour, which can then be used to produce shale oil and shale gas. Oil shale is discovered using drilling rigs by a method called

“hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking”. The high production cost of this fuel is compensated by the high abundance of oil shale in countries such as USA, Brazil, China and Russia.

The United States is currently the largest manufacturer of Shale Oil (and Shale Gas), with an estimated reserve of 1.5 to 2.6 trillion barrels, which is over 62% of the global reserve.

Both the government and private companies have made an active ef-fort to utilize this newly discovered resource. Some of these e� orts were rather drastic.

For instance, 90 new wells were added every month in Dakota’s Bak-ken to maintain a production of 770,000 barrels per day. The United States currently employs 60% of the drilling rigs available globally, among which 95% can conduct hydraulic fracturing.

There are other countries, such as China and Estonia, which also manu-facture shale oil. However, these na-tions have certain limitations which disallow them to produce on such a large-scale. US has an advantage in the production of shale oil for the fol-

lowing reasons:l Most of the regions containing

Kerogen have low population den-sities. Therefore, the socio-eco-nomic costs of relocating citizens is avoided.

l The government puts in a great amount of e� ort in facilitating the extraction of Shale Oil, starting from the setting up of universities and training facilities to removal of

environmental restrictions.l The mineral extraction rights of

corporations is relatively high.Furthermore, US also manages to

reduce production costs by increas-ing drilling intensity. The resultant increase in supply permits necessary price drops. Leonardo Maugeri of Harvard Kennedy School claims that “Forecasts show that the USA just might become the largest oil extractor in the world in a few decades”.

The impact on the global oil market and the world economy is paramount. First and foremost, the United States will become more self-su� cient in its energy requirements over a few decades. This would mean that US oil imports will drop signi� cantly. There are two major e� ects of this:l Exports from OPEC nations will

reduce sharply. The highest eco-nomic damage will be experi-

enced by Saudi Arabia, the largest oil importer to USA. Saudi Arabia is already under the potential threat of a growth in the Iranian oil market. If USA removes its oil interests from Saudi Arabia, the largest oil extractor in the world will slowly lose its economic and political hegemony over the Mid-dle East. It is also important to note that China, Brazil, Russia and many other nations are also mov-

ing towards Shale Oil. This game theoretical phenomenon will fur-ther hurt the OPEC nations.

l Since US imports will drop, it will lead to the inevitable appre-ciation of the dollar. The e� ect of this ranges from a (theoretical) decrease in US exports to favor-able balance of payments for US backed nations. Since USA is an integral component in the world economy, there are spillovers in a wide range of areas.

The ability of USA and other Shale oil producing nations to increase production and reduce prices will increase their share of the global oil market.

This market shift, however, can only occur if shale oil can be made more commercially feasible. Of course, the discovery of the cheaper methods to extract crude oil can cause a strong hindrance in the growth of the shale oil industry.

One topic that has not yet been discussed is the environment. The ex-traction of shale oil and shale gas are quite detrimental to the environment, even more so than crude oil. This

brings a new trend in mind. More and more nations are moving

towards green technology and reduc-tion of carbon footprints. A success in the move towards green technol-ogy might repress the potential of shale oil. However, a drastic change in global environmental regulations is quite unlikely, and hence, should not be much of a worry.

The demand for fuel will keep increasing, since an increasing number of countries are becoming more industrialised. China, for instance, are on the brink of becoming the world’s largest importers of oil.

This means that both shale oil and conventional oil have the opportunity to grab a fair share of the energy market.

All we know is that the discovery of Shale oil will certainly leave its mark on the energy sector and the world economy. l

Taosif Khan is an analyst at LightCastle Partners, an emerging market specialised business planning and intelligence � rm. The article was originally published in the LCP Blog (lightcastlebd.com/blog)

Japan, Australia reach deal on free traden AFP, Tokyo

Japan and Australia yesterday said they had reached “substantive agreement” on a long-awaited free-trade deal, in a rare opening of Japan’s protected mar-kets, even as talks to ink a huge Asia-Paci� c agreement run into trouble.

The deal was announced in a press statement as Japanese Prime Minis-ter Shinzo Abe and visiting Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott held a brie� ng in Tokyo yesterday evening.

It “will create signi� cant new trade and investment opportunities for the two countries”, the statement said, adding that e� orts would be made to sign a � nal deal “as early as possible”.

The announcement comes with Canberra also set to sign a free trade pact with Seoul on Tuesday after four years of negotiations. Abbott will head to China after South Korea as part of an East Asian tour.

Under Abe, Tokyo has entered into talks on the massive Trans-Paci� c Partnership, a proposed free-trade deal that would encompass 12 nations including the United States and Japan.

But there are major sticking points among various nations, including the opening of protected domestic markets such as agriculture and automobiles.

Japan has long been accused of pro-tecting its domestic industries - includ-ing the politically powerful agricultural sector - with high trade barriers, while

many of its own exports, including ve-hicles and electronics, enjoy big sales overseas. The US has expressed frustra-tion with Japan over its stance on keep-ing certain sectors out of the Trans-Pa-ci� c Partnership, as talks continue.

Tokyo is also in separate free-trade negotiations with the European Union.

Australia would become the � rst major exporter of farm produce, in-cluding beef, to conclude a free-trade accord with Japan, Kyodo news agency said, with a deal expected to give Aus-tralian exports a signi� cant competi-tive edge over US rivals.

‘The Asian century’ There were few details announced in the statement released Monday.

But Japanese media have reported that Australia would drop its � ve per-cent duty on small and mid-sized Japa-nese cars while Tokyo is ready to lower its tari� on Australian beef, currently sitting at 38.5%.

Abe and his Australian counterpart also talked about cooperation in secu-rity, including joint development of defence equipment, after Japan last week loosened a self-imposed ban on weapons exports to boost Tokyo’s global role in a move which unnerved neighbouring China.

The Australian premier attended a national security council meeting in Tokyo on yesterday afternoon, a � rst for a foreign leader. l

A two-wheel robot 'MiP', carrying a water bottle on a tray, keeps balance on the desk as Japanese toy maker Tomy introduces the new toy robot in Tokyo on April 7. The 19cm tall robot, developed by Canadian toy maker Wowwee, can perform dancing and running, operated by smartphone AFP

WB maintains East Asia growth at 7.1%n AFP, Singapore

The World Bank said yesterday devel-oping countries in East Asia will record economic growth of 7.1% in 2014, as they bene� t from a stabilising global economy and withstand the impact of US stimulus cuts.

The estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) expansion remains un-changed from last year, making East Asia the world’s fastest-growing re-gion, the bank said in its East Asia and Paci� c Economic Update report.

However, the 7.1% forecast growth rate for this year represents a slowdown from an average growth rate of 8% from 2009 to 2013. Growth in regional power-house China will ease to 7.6% from 7.7% as it undergoes structural reforms.

Excluding China, the developing countries in the region will grow by 5%, down from 5.2% last year.

“East Asia Paci� c has served as the world’s main growth engine since the global � nancial crisis,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank East Asia and Paci� c regional vice president.

“Stronger global growth this year will help the region expand at a rela-tively steady pace while adjusting to tighter global � nancial conditions,” he

added in a statement.The bank said the region’s reaction

to the US Federal Reserve’s decision to begin scaling back its quantitative easing programme demonstrated how “� exible currencies will help East Asia deal with external shocks including po-tential capital-� ow reversals”.

“In addition, most countries have adequate reserves to cover temporary trade and external shocks,” it said.

Despite a major sell-o� in emerging markets earlier this year, Asia-Paci� c economies have withstood the initial capital out� ow risks resulting from the Fed’s move. “The tailwinds from improving global trade will o� set the headwinds from the tightening of glob-al � nancial markets,” the report said.

‘Risks remain’Bert Hofman, the World Bank’s East Asia and Paci� c chief economist, said risks remain for the region.

“A slower-than-expected recovery in advanced economies, a rise in global interest rates, and increased volatil-ity in commodity prices on account of recent geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe serve as reminders that East Asia remains vulnerable to adverse global developments,” he said.

Larger Southeast Asian economies, including Indonesia and Thailand, will face tougher global � nancial condi-tions and higher levels of household debt, the report said.

Thailand, projected to grow 3% this year compared with 2.9% in 2013, will face slowing domestic demand due to a protracted political crisis, it said. l

The right agenda for the IMF’s biannual meetings n Reuters

The world’s � nance ministers and central bank governors will gather in Washington this week for the twice yearly meetings of the International Monetary Fund. Though there will not be the sense of alarm that dominated these meetings after the � nancial cri-sis, the unfortunate reality is that the global economy’s medium-term pros-pects have not been so cloudy for a long time.

The IMF in its current World Eco-nomic Outlook essentially endorses the secular stagnation hypothesis - noting that the real interest rate nec-essary to bring about enough demand for full employment has declined sig-ni� cantly and is likely to remain de-pressed for a substantial period. This is evident because in� ation is well below target throughout the industrial world and is likely to decline further this year.

Without robust growth in indus-trial world markets, growth in emerg-ing markets is likely to subside - even without considering the political chal-lenges facing countries as diverse as Brazil, China, South Africa, Russia and Turkey.

Facing this inadequate demand, the world’s key strategy is easy money. Base interest rates remain essentially at � oor levels across the industrial world and central banks signal that they are unlikely to increase anytime soon. Though the United States is tapering quantitative easing, Japan

continues to ease on a large scale and Europe seems to be moving closer to starting it.

This all is better than the tight mon-ey policy of the 1930s that made the Great Depression great. But it is highly problematic as a dominant growth strategy.

We do not have a strong basis for assuming that reductions in interest rates nominal or real from very low levels will have a major impact on spending decisions. We do know that they strongly encourage leverage, that they place pressure on return-seeking investors to take increased risk, that they in� ate asset values and reward � nancial activity.

The spending they induce tends to come at the expense of future de-mand. We cannot con� dently predict the ultimate results of the unwinding of massive central bank balance sheets on markets - or on the con� dence of investors.

A strategy of inde� nitely sus-tained easy money leaves central banks dangerously short of responsecapacity when and if the next reces-sion comes.

A proper growth strategy would rec-ognize that an era of low real interest rates o� ers opportunities as well as risks. It should focus on the promo-tion of high-return investments, rather than seeking to encourage invest-ments that businesses � nd unworthy at current rock bottom rates.

This strategy would have a number of elements. In the United States, the

case for substantial investment pro-motion is overwhelming. Increased infrastructure spending would likely reduce burdens on future generations. Not just by spurring growth, but by ex-panding the economy’s capacity and reducing deferred maintenance obli-gations.

As just one example: Can it pos-sibly be rational for the 21st-century US air tra� c control system to rely on vacuum tubes and paper tracking of � ight paths? Equally important, gov-ernment could do much at no cost to promote private investment - includ-ing authorizing oil and natural gas ex-ports, bringing clarity to the future of corporate taxes and moving forward on trade agreements that open up for-eign markets.

With Tokyo’s introduction of the value-added tax on April 1, Japan is now engaged in a major � scal contrac-tion. Yet it is far from clear whether last year’s progress in reversing de� ation is durable or a re� ection of one-o� ex-change rate movements.

A return to stagnation and de� a-tion could rapidly call its solvency into question. Japan takes a dangerous risk if it waits to observe the consequences before enacting new � scal and struc-tural reform measures to promote spending.

Europe has moved back from the brink. Defaults or devaluations now look like remote possibilities. But no strategy for durable growth is yet in place and the slide toward de� ation continues. Strong actions are impera-

tive to restore the banking system to the point where it can be a conduit for a robust � ow of credit as well as measures to promote demand in the periphery nations where competitive-ness challenges remain.

If emerging markets capital in� ows fall o� substantially, and they move further toward being net exporters, it is hard to see where the industrial world can take up the slack. So reform measures to bolster capital � ows and exports to emerging markets are es-sential.

These include, most importantly, political steps to reassure against pop-ulist threats in a number of countries and provide investor protection and backstop � nance.

In this regard, the U.S. Congress’s passage of IMF authorization is cru-cial. Creative consideration should also be applied in mobilizing the tril-lions of dollars in public assets held by central banks and sovereign wealth funds, largely as safe liquid assets, to promote growth.

In an interdependent global econ-omy, the collective impact of all these measures is likely to be substantially greater than the sum of their individ-ual e� ects.

In similar fashion, the consequenc-es of national policy failures are likely to cascade.

That is why a global growth strat-egy framed to resist secular stagnation rather than simply muddle through with the palliative of easy money should be this week’s agenda. l

All we know is that the discovery of shale oil will certainly leave its mark on the energy sector and the world economy

East Asia Paci� c has served as the world’s main growth engine since the global � nancial crisis