South America vs Europe: Round 1

At the moment the football world is di-vided into two sides: South America and

Europe as two nations each from those two continents have booked their plac-es in the � nal four of this engrossing edition of World Cup in Brazil. The � rst face-o� of the continental supremacy will take place between the hosts Bra-zil and Germany, the European power-

house at the Stadium Mineirao in Belo Horizonte today.

Any duel between Brazil, � ve times world champion and Germany, three times world champion, needs no elabo-ration of its depth, level of prestige and the thirst for success it warrants. On top of that, if the duel is of as high mag-nitude as a World Cup semi� nal, every single atom of prestige, rivalry, success and tension intensi� es.

Brazil is larger than Neymar and football is not a one man show, that’s the message Brazilian people have con-veyed to the Brazilian team and it is a

fact duly realized by none but Joachim Loew, the German coach. “No Neymar, but Brazil will be a harder opponent than the team when he was with them,” opined the coach while explaining his

point of view. “Of course he is a play-er of exceptional talent, but his team-mates after this tragedy will be more united and put their best for success.”

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

ACC to assist Canadian police in questioning Mahmudur, Morshed n Tribune Report

The Anti-Corruption Commission yes-terday said it would help the Royal Ca-nadian Mount Police (RCMP) in investi-gating BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s alleged involvement in Niko graft case.

The decision was made as the RCMP recently sought support from Bang-ladesh in questioning the former pre-mier’s then energy adviser Mahmudur Rahman and then foreign minister M

Morshed Khan.ACC Commissioner M Shahabuddin

Chuppu told the Dhaka Tribune the ACC had decided to assist the Canadian police as a facilitator in the interroga-tion process.

“The commission has taken the de-cision to help them in the legal process as our investigation o� cer suggested to comply with the request from the Canadian police,” he said yesterday.

On January 10, the Department of

Justice of Canada served a letter to the attorney general’s o� ce of Bangladesh seeking support. The Canadian inves-tigators want to interrogate the duo to

investigate the alleged involvement of Khaleda in the case. ACC received the letter on March 30.

A High Court bench on July 9, 2008 stayed the case proceeding against

Khaleda following her petition. Before extending support to the Ca-

nadian authorities, the ACC investigators have suggested that the anti-graft body seek permission from the High Court.

The Canadian police started their in-vestigation in June, 2005.

While travelling to Bangladesh, Ca-nadian senator Mahmoud (Mac) Harb misused his position as a Canadian senator to lobby senior Bangladeshi government o� cials on behalf of Niko

resources, according to the summary letter sent by the Canadian authorities.

The senator travelled to Bangladesh at least four times to lobby local o� -cials about the contract with Niko, a Calgary-based oil and gas company.

The company had reportedly in� u-enced former state minister for ener-gy AKM Mosharraf Hossain by bribing him with a luxury sports utility vehicle worth Tk1 crore.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

20 pages plus 16-page T-Mag tabloid | Price: Tk12TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Ashar 24, 1421Ramadan 9, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 98

NIKO GRAFT CASE

T-MAG | EYES BEHIND LENSES

8 | HAMAS VOWS REVENGE FOR 7 KILLED

11 | TO THE SOUND OF TRUMPETS7 | THE STEADY PURSUIT OF JUSTICE AND FREEDOM

RAIHAN MAHMOODfrom Belo Horizonte, Brazil

INSIDE4 | News Seven days after a ready-made garments worker was abducted and raped in the capital’s Mirpur area, police have failed to arrest Farid, the main accused in the case.

4 | NewsViolating a prime minister’s directive, a contractor of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), in the name of beauti� cation, has been illegally cut-ting down trees on the median of Mirpur road at Sobhanbagh area.

6 | NationA two-year-old baby girl has been unclaimed at the Chidlren’s Ward of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra as her mother died in a road accident on Saturday.

9 | WorldRival Afghan presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani yesterday held last-minute talks to try to resolve a stando� over the outcome of a troubled election, as o� cials once again delayed the announcement of preliminary results.

12 | EntertainmentProva and Mosharraf Karim will be seen in a six episode drama “Layek Chan The Great” this Eid on RTV.

SEHRI & IFTAR TIME

Day Sehri IftarRamadan 9/July 8 – 6:54pm

Ramadan 10/July 9 3:46am 6:53pm

Shakib slapped with banNazmul says the star cricketer’sdamn-care attitude promptedBCB to impose the punishmentn Minhaz Uddin Khan

National all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been sanctioned a six-month sus-pension from competitive cricket and will not get permission to play in over-seas events for the next 18 months due to misconduct.

This means the star cricketer who regularly plays in Indian Premier League and other international competitions will not be able to play in those tourna-ments until December 31 next year.

This is the highest punishment received by a national cricketer after Mohammed Ashraful who was banned recently from cricket for eight years for his involve-ment in match-� xing in the second edi-tion of Bangladesh Premier League.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) handed down the punishment to Shakib, a left-handed all-rounder, because of his misbehaviour with new-ly-appointed national coach Chandika Hathurusingha and also for his scu� e with a spectator during the � rst ODI against India at Mirpur last month.

“We have a series of allegations and

reports against him [Shakib] which clearly shows that he has a severe atti-tude problem and the extent of which is such that we never received a player with such a disciplinary issue ever in the history of Bangladesh cricket,” BCB President Nazmul Hasan told the me-dia after the board meeting yesterday.

Nazmul said the decision to suspend Shakib had been taken unanimously by the board members.

“Those who attended the meeting said they never saw anyone with such an extent of attitude problem. We also talked with players and coaches at dif-ferent levels to know where the prob-lem is,” the BCB boss said.

“The issues that we found out was not only regarding his NOC [to play in Caribbean Premier League] but of mul-tiple incidents. His behaviour is as such that it a� ects our team directly – not only regarding the team combination but also the performance,” he said.

Shakib’s o� ences in the recent past include leaving Dhaka for the CPL Twenty20 tournament without acquir-ing a valid No-Objection Certi� cate. The 27-year old also threatened to quit playing Tests and ODIs for the Tigers after he had been told by Hathurusing-ha to return early from the CPL T20 and join the national camp.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

More cars,more taxn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

Owners of motor cars, sport utility ve-hicles (SUVs) or microbuses have to pay an extra 50% advance income tax (AIT) on renewal of � tness certi� cates and registration fees if they possess more than one vehicle.

The National Board of Revenue has issued a noti� cation, � nalising the new AIT rates on renewal of � tness certi� -cates and registration of the three motor vehicles with the introduction of three new slabs that took e� ect from July 1.

According to the noti� cation, if any-one owns more than one vehicle men-tioned above, he/she will have to pay 50% extra tax apart from the tax paya-ble on the vehicle.

“No matter whether people buy the vehicles on single ownership or jointly with some other persons, they have to pay additional tax,” an NBR high o� -cial told the Dhaka Tribune.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Cabinet approves EPZ Labour Act n Mohosinul Karim

The cabinet yesterday approved in principle the draft of Bangladesh Ex-port Processing Zones (EPZ) Labour Act, keeping the provision of forming ‘EPZ Workers’ Welfare Association’ and protection of “EPZ Labour Court” for violation of the law.

After the cabinet meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhu-iyan told media that new draft of the act was prepared following the existing labour act after consulting with the in-vestors, owners and stakeholders of the industries established in the EPZ areas.

“The terms and conditions of ap-pointing workers, system of appoint-ment, working environment, working hours, leaves, compensations for ac-cidents, independence of forming or-ganisations, joint business, provision of forming EPZ labour court and EPZ labour appeal court have also been in-cluded in the draft,” he said.

The government has to formulate the law according to the conditions set by the foreign investors who have

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

2nd Round Details on page-15

‘This will destroy the future of our cricket if we let this continue’

A circumspect Shakib Al Hasan looks on moments before the BCB decision to ban him was announced yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

MARITIME DISPUTE WITH INDIA

Dhaka receives arbitration court’s verdictn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Dhaka has received the verdict of the case related to maritime dispute be-tween Bangladesh and India from the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Foreign Ministry DG Salahuddin No-man Chowdhury said the verdict had been handed over yesterday afternoon and was now being examined.

The court will issue a press release and a summary of the verdict today and Bangladesh will give its formal reaction after that as per the court’s instruction.

The court verdict is binding to all par-ties and there is no option for appeal.

The � ve-member court based in The Hague pronounced the verdict. It will act an instrument to settle the maritime delimitation dispute between the two countries and resolve how much area Bangladesh will get in about 25,000 square-kilometres disputed area in the Bay of Bengal.

Immediately after assuming power in 2009, the Awami League-led gov-ernment had made a political decision to resolve the maritime dispute with India through an international court as Dhaka and New Delhi could not come to a solution in the past 40 years.

The arbitral proceedings at the court started in 2009.

According to the rules of procedures of the case, if any party needs any inter-pretation of the verdict, it can make a request to the court within 30 days of re-ceiving the verdict and the interpretation would be made available within 45 days.

In the case, Bangladesh agent was former foreign minister Dipu Moni while Indian agent was Neeru Chadha,

joint secretary and the legal adviser of the Indian Ministry of External A� airs.

Rüdiger Wolfrum was the President of the � ve-member court.

In October 2013, the arbitral tribunal visited the site’s relevant areas.

In 2009, Bangladesh also initiated the arbitral process to settle maritime delimitation dispute with Myanmar in the same court. The case was, however, shifted to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos) upon request from Myanmar.

Following Itlos’ verdict in 2012, Bangladesh got over 110,000 sq-km area including the disputed 25,000 sq-km.

In 1974, Bangladesh government awarded six blocks in shallow sea to several international oil companies but India and Myanmar claimed that the blocks were inside the boundary of their maritime territories.

Bangladesh continued bilateral ne-gotiation with India until 1980 and with Myanmar until 1986 but no results were achieved.

In 2005, the government took the in-itiative to award 28 blocks in the Bay of Bengal, but Myanmar claimed that 17 of the blocks fell inside its territory while India claimed 10 blocks.

The government � oated tender in 2008 without any consultation and ConocoPhillips was awarded eight blocks. But the international oil com-pany signed agreement for only one block in the face of strong protest from the neighbouring countries.

When the Awami League govern-ment came to power in 2009, it decid-ed to resort to the Permanent Court of Arbitration to resolve the disputes. l

Khaleda: United movement after Eid n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yester-day warned that “united movement” would be launched after Eid to resist all sorts of repression.

“After Eid, united movement will be waged against all sorts of repression of the government. People are with us and the victory is ours,” she told an iftar party hosted by Jagpa, an ally of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, at a city hotel.

Khaleda said the country was in deep crisis as illegal and unelected gov-ernment took o� ce forcefully. “They are busy with looting, corruption, abduction, killing and repressing the opposition leaders and activists. They do not bother about people’s develop-ment and that’s why unemployment rate is increasing day by day,” she said.

She alleged that intelligence person-nel of RAB and police had tried to ab-duct Dhaka Reporters Unity President Shahed Chowdhury. “But he was saved

in the face of people’s resistance.”The former premier also said the

government would not ensure fair trial of Narayanganj seven-murder case.

Khaleda said Awami League leaders and cabinet members' statements indi-cated that they wanted to stay in o� ce forever through killings and abductions. “But none can cling to power by doing so and this government cannot too.”

She asked the government to create democratic atmosphere in the country, saying that there was still time. l

Four abducted in Khagrachharin Our Correspondent,

Khagrachhari

Four construction workers were alleg-edly abducted from a bridge construc-tion site at Bangmara in Matiranga upazila, Khagrachhari on Sunday night.

Quoting the locals, Mohammad Mainuddin Khan, o� cer-in-charge of Matiranga police station, said an armed group raided the site around 11pm, opened � re at the workers and

took bulldozer driver Faruq Ahmed, 25, helper Mohammad Hasan, 24, helper Raju Ahmed, 22, and Liyakat Ali, 40, hostage at gun point.

He alleged that United Peoples Dem-ocratic Front (UPDF), a regional party, might be involved with the incident.

The abductors took the workers deep into the jungle, said the OC, add-ing that police and the army had joined forces to rescue them.

When contacted, Niron Chakma,

press secretary of UPDF’s Khagrachhari unit, denied the allegation of their in-volvement in the abduction.

Meanwhile, Engineer Abdul Majid, joint secretary of Parbatya Chattagram Bangali Chhatra Parishad (PBCP), con-demned the abduction of the Bangali workers in a press release and demand-ed their immediate release.

They also threatened to start tough-er movement if the workers were not released within 48 hours. l

2 cops held over businessman’s deathn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police last night arrested two police o� cials in connection with the death of a businessman in police custody on June 19.

The arrestees are SI Amir Hos-sain and constable Moslem Uddin of Panchlaish police station. Abu Jafor Mohammad Omar Faruk, OC of the po-lice station, said the two had been kept at the DB o� ce following their arrest in the city around 8pm.

Md Rokunuzzaman, 45, a housing businessman, died after he had been picked up from his residence on Syed Shah Road in the city’s Bakalia area. A police team led by Amir detained him claiming that the victim had been ac-

cused in a rape case � led on June 5 with the same police station.

Later the family was informed that Rokunuzzaman’s body was kept in Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said his wife Shimu Akhter. She alleged that her husband had been beaten to death in the police vehicle.

Harunur Rashid, cousin of the de-ceased, claimed that the police mem-bers and source Jamal had kicked and beat Rokunuzzaman after entering the house.

Refuting the allegation, police claimed that Rokunuzzaman fell sick during the arrest as he had been a patient of diabetes and high blood pressure. An unnatural death case was lodged with Panchlaish police station. Jamal was ar-rested following the incident.

On June 25, Shimu lodged a murder case with a Chittagong court accusing SI Amir, Assistant Sub-Inspector Enay-et Hossain of Bakalia police station and eight others.

Taking the case into cognisance, the court ordered the DB deputy com-missioner of DB police to investigate the matter and submit a report within July 23. It also ordered the DB o� cial to seize evidences, record statements of witnesses under section 161 and if nec-essary, conduct further post mortem examination.

“According to the autopsy report, Rokunuzzaman was beaten before his death. The arrests were made after getting the report,” Additional Com-missioner (crime and operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder said. l

More cars, more tax PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Though the board had � nalised the new tax structure with a hike on vehi-cles having higher engine capacity, it has kept the tax rate on vehicles having the capacity from 1500cc to 2000cc un-changed.

The NBR also rationalised the duties imposed on the cars and SUVs by keep-ing the system of calculating the duties as per the same engine capacity, which was earlier calculated under separate

slabs of taxes, o� cials concerned said.They said the NBR had decided to

raise duties on luxury vehicles as it had calculated that the board could collect a handsome amount of revenue from the sector.

“If people can a� ord to buy luxury vehicles, they should pay more taxes as they are capable of spending a huge amount of money,” the NBR o� cial added.

The highest slab of AIT was set at

Tk1.25 lakh for motor cars and jeeps above 3500cc (cylinder capacity). The other slabs were Tk1 lakh for cars and jeeps having the engine capacity of 3000cc-3500cc and Tk75,000 for cars and jeeps having the capacity of 2500cc- 3000cc.

In the last � scal year, the board was charging Tk50,000 as the highest slab of AIT on private cars over 2000cc, but peo-ple having cars and jeeps from 2000cc-2500cc will now have to pay Tk50,000.

The lowest two slabs for 1500cc and 2000cc vehicles remain unchanged at Tk15,000 and Tk30,000 respectively.

As per the new rule, the AITimposed on the microbus was set at Tk20,000, up Tk5,000 from the previ-ous rate.

On behalf of the revenue author-ity, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) collects the AIT for registration and renewal of � tness cer-ti� cates. l

Cabinet approves EPZ Labour Act PAGE 1 COLUMN 6invested in the EPZs as the workers of the EPZs were not included in the existing labour law of the country.

As a result, the government has to prepare the draft to protect the rights of the EPZ workers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the meeting asked the ministers and o� -cials not to be worried over the Gener-alised System of Preferences issue as the US government is yet to renew the GSP facility for Bangladesh which was suspended June last year.

The premier told the cabinet that without extending the authorisation of the GSP programme, the US govern-ment cannot allow the GSP facility for Bangladesh.

Several initiatives, including amendment of labour law and enact-ment of Bangladesh EPZ labour law, had already been taken to get back the GSP facility, State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chun-nu quoted Hasina as saying.

The state minister told the Dhaka Tribune that the government had pre-pared the draft of the new act due to the pressure from the International La-bour Organisation and the US govern-ment. Bangladesh had already agreed to implement all the conditions of la-bour rights. The initiative is one of the conditions.

According to the draft act, the EPZ workers will have the right to forming workers’ welfare association with the

written consent of 30% workers of an industry. They will apply to the Bangla-desh Export Processing Zones Author-ity for registration. The authority will give them permission for organisation and registration.

Each of the industries will have an association that would be elected from the workers of the industry. The leaders of the association’s committee will be elected by direct votes of the workers of the industry. It is mandato-ry to get minimum 50% of total casting votes for the elected committee. If a panel fails to get the votes, the authori-ty will arrange further voting to ensure 50% votes for the elected committee, Chunnu said.

A labour court and a labour appeal court will be set up as per the law. The workers and owners will have the right to go to the courts for any kind of viola-tion of the law.

The BEPZA will have the power to cut the hospitality services and impose ban on export or import for the indus-try in case of any violation of the law.

At the same time, the BEPZA gener-al manager will have the power to take steps against any worker or workers wel-fare association for violation of the law.

Now there are about 12 export pro-cessing zones in the country including seven public EPZs. Around 300,000 workers are working in those EPZs.

The cabinet secretary said the draft of the law was prepared comprising 16 sections and 204 articles. l

ACC to assistCanadian police PAGE 1 COLUMN 5The bene� t was given to the state min-ister allegedly to manage the situation after protests had sparked following explosion in one of Niko’s gas � elds at Tengratila on January 8, 2005.

The minister resigned from his po-sition after the allegation of taking the SUV surfaced.

The Canadian authorities also pro-vided Bangladesh with a compact disk that contains a 2009 interview of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rah-man’s business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun.

For their alleged involvement to award Niko the contract, the ACC on December 9, 2007 prosecuted both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia. They were detained during the mili-tary-backed emergency regime.

Because of signing of the contract, the state allegedly lost Tk23,650.50 crore. The allegation have it that now Prime Minister Hasina was behind making a loss of Tk13,630.50 crore while Khaleda Tk10,000 crore.

The charge against Hasina was dropped in March 2010 following court order. l

Shakib slapped with ban PAGE 1 COLUMN 2The board with immediate e� ect or-dered Shakib, who was in London then, to come back to Dhaka.

Nazmul, while giving an example, clari� ed the severity of the problem which had initiated through the dress-ing-room incident.

“Our security guards, who brought that boy, had the report that Shakib had hit him. He [Shakib] even told the team manager that he had a � ght with that person. But when we called him for the hearing, he said, ‘no, he did not hit him.’

“Then when he was asked as to why he left the dressing room he said he did not know the rules. The board believes that his damn-care attitude will not work here.”

The six-month suspension means Shakib will not be a part of Bangla-desh’s tour of the West Indies next month that includes three ODIs, a T20 and two Tests and also the home series against Zimbabwe in October.

The player will also miss domestic

tournaments during this time. Shakib will only be allowed to return to action around a month before the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia-New Zealand.

The BCB president said there were some other cricketers “who have start-ed to act like Shakib.

“This will destroy the future of our cricket if we let this continue,” Naz-mul said. “This is why we believe that he obviously deserves a strict punish-ment.”

Nazmul said he had met Shakib yes-terday morning and felt that the player deserved forgiveness. However, the BCB boss later changed his mind.

“Bangladesh cricket is not for Shakib. Shakib, whatever he is today, is because of Bangladesh cricket. We had no option but to punish him,” said Nazmul.

On the other hand, the BCB also de-cided that the cricketers would have to inform the board before striking en-dorsement deals. Also, the contract of national ground curator Gamini de Sil-va has been extended by a year. l

South America vs Europe: Round 1 PAGE 1 COLUMN 5Luiz Felipe Scolari, on the other hand, has been trying to gear his team up with a refreshed approach without the suspended Silva and injured Neymar. However, Scolari has the history on his side as his previous Brazil side brought Brazil their last World Cup success in 2002 with a 2-0 victory over Germa-ny in the � nal in Yokohama, which surprisingly, happens to be the lone duel between the two giants in World Cup history. Interestingly, Germany is ahead of Brazil in terms of consistency as today’s semi� nal will be Germany’s fourth consecutive World Cup semi� -nal while it is Brazils � rst since 2002.

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men have been

tested thoroughly throughout the group stage and again in the knockout matches against stubborn South Amer-ican opponents like Chile and Colom-bia, but they have stood tall and have been able to come out on top although not in a convincing fashion which we normally associate with a Brazil team. However, the hosts � rmly believe they are just 180 minutes away from their sixth world championship and an as-tonishing fact worth mentioning here is, Brazil have not lost any of their 41 matches in Brazil since 2002.

Joachim Low’s Germany will sure-ly have something up their sleeves to counteract whatever Big Phil throws at them. This German team have con-

ceded only one goal in their last three matches and that also in the dying mo-ments of extra time against Algeria. Combined with Neymar’s absence and such a solid display of German defense with three of the four being tall and magni� cently complementing each other, Germany surely have a signi� -cant advantage backed up by the excel-lent Manuel Nuer in goal who has nev-er been afraid to come out of his box to help out his defenders.

It will be a “physical” match as Loew says the hosts will not play in the the typical Brazilian way. Brazil now play a more robust and hard game, trying � rst to destroy the opponents and only from there trying to attack. Till date

they have committed 96 fouls and re-ceived 10 yellow cards in this edition.

Brazil’s defense, has more attacking � air than solidity. Germany’s excellent runners led by Muller, Ozil and Goetze will be trying to � nd and exploit the gaps, and cause trouble.

However, Germany can’t help but encounter another enemy – the vocif-erous Brazilian fans at the 58 thousand capacity stadium in Belo Horizonte. Germany, as ever, will surely be hun-gry for their � rst title in 24 years while Brazil have been equally hungry for 12 years. Only perfect teamwork, availing the chances, a little touch of luck will see either of the team emerge as the victors. l

Although hospital materials need to maintain the highest level of hygiene, Dhaka Medical College workers wash the hospital's bedsheets using unclean water yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

DCs place proposals for conferencen Mohosinul Karim

The deputy commissioners have sug-gested the government to give them the authority to take action against un-ion parishad chairmen or members if they are found guilty of being involved in illegal activities.

The suggestion appeared in a work-ing paper that included many other pro-posals the DCs will discuss in the three-day annual conference starting today.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the conference at her of-� ce. Around 20 DCs will get scope to place their proposals and suggestions in presence of the premier. A total of 307 proposals will be discussed in the 20 sessions of the conference.

According to the working paper, the DCs also suggested starting an online general diary (GD) system for the police stations to accelerate services. l

Next hearing on Nur Hossain July 21 n Tribune Report

Nur Hossain, the prime accused in Narayanganj seven-murder case, did not � le bail petition before an Indian court yesterday. The court set July 21 for hearing in the case � led for illegal entry.

He was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Barasat of West Bengal along with associates Ohi-dur Zaman Shamim and Khan Sumon, public prosecutor of the court Pallab Chowdhury said.

Khan Sumon’s counsel, however, � led a bail petition and the court asked police to submit his passport-related informa-tion before it on the next hearing date.

Meanwhile, the court yesterday did not give any order on the request of Bang-ladesh government for Nur’s repatriation.

The trio were arrested on June 14. The next day they were produced before a court and put on eight-day remand each. On June 23, the court added the application of Bangladesh government to the case dockets. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Tribunal allows four witnesses for Azharn Udisa Islam

The International Crimes Tribunal 1 yesterday allowed four witnesses to defend Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam in the war crimes case against him.

The tribunal set the number from a list of 15 witnesses and asked defence lawyer Abdus Sobhan Tarafder to sub-mit the � nal list by July 10. It also set July 13 to begin deposition of the witnesses.

The order came after the tribunal heard both the sides on a prosecution petition seeking cancellation of the list of 15 witnesses.

Earlier, 19 prosecution witnesses testi� ed in the case where Azhar, the alleged al-Badr commander of Rang-pur, is facing six charges of crimes against humanity.

While passing the order, tribunal Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim told Tarafder: “The way you submitted the list, without any particulars and detail of the witnesses, it should have been rejected. Yet, we are accepting the plea.”

Meanwhile, the same tribunal set August 20 for submitting the � nal re-port on investigation in the case against three war crimes suspects – Abdul Latif

Talukder, Khan Akram Hossain and fu-gitive Sirajul Haque alias Siraj Master.

Prosecutor Syed Sayedul Haque sought six more months to prepare the report. The prosecutor also pleaded to grill Khan Akram in safe home and the tribunal allowed the plea.

M Sarwar Hossain, defence counsel for Latif, sought bail for his client say-ing that the accused had been inno-cent. “He lives an ordinary life in his village and never tried to intervene in the investigation.”

After a hearing, the tribunal accept-ed his other plea to have privilege com-munication with Latif in jail. l

Criminals try to abduct prosecution witness in SQ Chy’s war crimes casen Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A prosecution witness against war crimes convict Salauddin Quader Chowdhury escaped from being ab-ducted at Mohammadpur in Chittagong city on Sunday night.

The victim was identi� ed as Abbas Uddin, chairman of Purbo Gujra Union Parishad of Raozan upazila in Chittagong.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Ab-bas said: “I gave deposition against Sa-lauddin Quader Chowdhury in the war crimes case and, for that reason, crimi-

nals might have tried to abduct me.” Panchlaish police station O� -

cer-in-Charge (OC) Abu Jafor Moham-mad Omar Faruk said six to seven criminals had tried to force Abbas into a microbus at around 8:30pm, when he was returning home.

Abbas began shouting for help. When the criminals saw passers-by rushing forward, they ran away. Abbas added that his neighbours brought him to the police station.

He said Abbas had recognised four – Babul, Hannan, Farid and Syed - of the criminals who had tried to abduct him. l

IO testi� es in Qaisar casen Udisa Islam

The investigation o� cer of the war crimes case against former Jatiya Party state minister Syed Mohammad Qaisar completed giving his deposition yes-terday.

Monowara Begum began testifying at the International Crimes Tribunal 2 last week. Yesterday the defence began cross examining her.

Later the tribunal adjourned the proceedings until July 13 leaving the cross-examination incomplete. It asked the defence to conclude the questioning session in two days.

The IO exhibited some documents and books as evidence against Qaisar. She shortened the deposition because of her illness. l

TIB: Do not make immediate past ministers watchdog chiefsUrges updating of the parliament’s Rules of Procedure to ensure transparencyn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Transparency International Bangla-desh has suggested that the govern-ment should amend existing rules to bar immediate past ministers from heading parliamentary standing com-mittees.

TIB said the Rules of Procedure of parliament should be updated to en-sure transparency and accountability of the executive.

In its maiden report on the perfor-mance of the � rst session of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad, the Berlin-based NGO’s Bangladesh chapter said main oppo-sition Jatiya Party had been su� ering from an identity crisis.

While unveiling its report at the Brac Centre in the capital’s Mohakhali, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the 10th legislature was not fully functional although the culture of op-position boycott had gone.

He said the crisis created by the ab-sence of MPs had eased; but the speaker had not played an assertive role in stop-ping the use of “unparliamentary” words.

“Immediate past ministers should not be made the chairmen of the stand-ing committees on the ministries they had headed. Because, they can in� u-ence the discussions on the unpleasant issues from their tenures,” Iftekhar told journalists.

Twelve ministers of the previous government were made chairmen of the 10-member watchdog bodies on the ministries they had headed in the immediate-past term.

Former state minister for liberation war a� airs AB Tajul Islam is currently the head of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Libera-tion War A� airs.

An investigation has found Tajul’s links with the scandal related to poor

quality of gold in the crests given to foreigners to honour them for their 1971 roles.

However, on Sunday, a sub-com-mittee of the Tajul-led parliamentary body, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had not found any involvement of the former minister.

On Jatiya Party, Iftekhar said: “They have been su� ering from identity cri-sis because they are opposition on one hand and part of the government on

the other.”He said there could not be a stone-

gold pot. “Either it is stone or it is gold.”TIB also pointed out in the report

that unlike the previous parliament, no opposition MP had been made the chief of any standing committee.

In the � rst session, on an average, 64% of the MPs turned up in a sitting; the ratio was 68% in the 9th parlia-ment.

The research also said only 18% of the members of the � rst parliament in 1973 were businessmen; in the current parliament, 59% MPs are also business-men.

RecommendationsThe Members of Parliament Code of Conduct Bill 2010, which Awami League MP Saber Hossain Chowdhury tabled in the last parliament, should be enacted. The parliamentary stand-ing committee concerned also recom-mended its passage.

The government must place all in-ternational deals and protocols with foreign countries at the House.

The ruling party should take neces-sary measures to investigate the allega-tions of con� ict of interest at the parlia-mentary standing committees.

There should be a provision for electing the deputy speaker from the opposition. l

‘Shamim attacked over business con� ict, not politics’ n Ashif Islam Shaon

The attack on AKM Enamul Hoque Shamim, former president of Chhatra League and now a central leader of Awami League, was over a feud involv-ing his business but not politics, an in-vestigation o� cer said yesterday.

He said detectives had already iden-ti� ed the shooters, planners, and arms as well as � nanciers in the incident that happened on June 19.

“Shooters were hired by a second party who was given the task by the � nanciers in exchange of a handsome amount. We will disclose the � ndings very soon. The whole ring is under sur-veillance,” the o� cial, also a member of RAB, said seeking anonymity.

“Detectives have detained Md Ha-run, Rana and Monir Hossain, alias Russel from Benapole yesterday who were trying to cross the border into In-dia. The three were in the group of the attackers of Shamim,” he said.

“During interrogation, the three said the attack was planned for June 13 but was delayed till June 19 as they were hired,” he said.

“A group hired them to kill Shamim over a tri� e matter, who survived the attack but received bullet wounds. De-tectives are conducting drives to arrest people who hired the three in order to have a clear idea about the motive for the attack,” he added.

Of the detainees, Monir is the ex-vice president of Tejgaon thana ward 39 unit of Chhatra League. He is also an

accused in trader Faruque killing case in Tejgaon. He was bailed out a few months ago.

“Monir, who came from Patuakhali, coordinated the attack. On the other hand, local goon Harun is from Jamal-pur. A total of ten people took part in the attack,” said the o� cial.

Although the miscreants took position on road 10/a in Dhanmondi at 7am on June 13, they failed to execute the plan.

On the morning of June 19, three youths including Rana and Harun took position a few yards away from Sham-im’s house on a motorbike, with Rana in the driving seat. Two other groups on two motorbikes also took position near Ibn Sina Diagnostic Centre on road 9/a.

The group followed Shamim’s car as it came out of his residence. They took six seconds to � re three shots at the car when it reached in front of the diagnostic centre.

Following the shooting, they called the people who hired them and said it was done.

Detectives found two small � rearms were used in the attack, which was rented for Tk10,000.

Shamim was on his way to his Stam-ford University o� ce when he was at-tacked. He was sitting beside the driver and his uncle Nasir Ahmed was in the back of the car.

Two bullets broke through the glass of the vehicle and hit Shamim in his hand but he survived.

Shamim and his family members said they had no idea who shot him and why. l

A BSTI o� cial (left) shows an executive magistrate a can of burnt edible oil that was being used for cooking at the Cafe Baghdad restaurant in Topkhana Road. Unhealthy food items were also seized during a drive at the site yesterday RAJIB DHAR

TIB Trustee Board Chairperson Sultana Kamal addresses a press conference at the Brac Inn Centre yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

Lack of witnesses letting drug o� enders freen Udisa Islam

With the prosecution failing to produce any witness before the court concerned, most drugs-related cases are reportedly being disposed of without the suspect being handed any punishment.

Many of the accused also remain out on bail as the courts are backlogged with drugs-related cases. Repeated deferrals of the cases also lead to the number of such cases to keep climbing, said legal specialists.

Home Ministry sources said e� orts were on to introduce mobile courts for tackling the narcotics trade, while the ministry was also working on the draft of the Narcotics Control (amendment) Act 2013 to introduce sterner control over the growing hazard.

Sources said the Department of Nar-cotic Control (DNC) � led 10,111 cases against 10,990 people in 2013, while over 50,000 drugs-related cases remain pending with di� erent courts. Each year, around 2,000 drugs-related cases were being disposed of on an average, the sources added.

Court o� cials said at least 50,000 drugs-related cases are � led each year.

Three years ago, a person alleged of carrying phensidyl was arrested; while a charge sheet against him was submit-ted to a Dhaka court within 21 days of his detention; however, since then, the prosecution was unable to produce any witness before the court.

After three years of the case being deferred continuously, the court � nally disposed of it. During the entire time,

the suspect remained out of jail after securing bail from the court.

According to the Narcotics Control Act 1990, the probe report must be placed before the court within 21 work-ing days. If not, the suspect will auto-matically be able to get bail.

In a similar case, Jahanara – a tea stall owner who was arrested for al-legedly carrying marijuana – faced court proceedings for six years before the court � nally dismissed the case against her. At every hearing during the entire trial, the prosecution told the court that it had found no witness against the accused.

In most such cases, courts report-edly end up regularly deferring pro-ceedings as the prosecution teams are usually unable to � nd or produce any witness before the court.

Prokash Chandra Biswas, lawyer at the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s

Court, expressed hopes that the passage of the amended law would help reduc-ing the backlog of drugs-related cases in the court system as mobile courts will be able to carry out on-the-spot trials for small-scale drugs-related crimes.

On the other hand, anti-narcotics campaigners alleged that corrupt law enforcers were colluding with drug dealers; and as a result, the prosecu-tion was failing to seek out witnesses against suspects.

Riadul Kabir, a campaigner work-ing with anti-drugs body Tarunnyo, said the drug abuse prevention pro-grammes will not succeed unless the government took initiatives to reduce supply. E� ective initiatives would automatically lower the number of drugs-related cases, Riadul said, while also admitting that there was also lack of coordination among the groups that were working to prevent drug abuse. l

Sanzida’s petition for scrapping abduction case rejected n Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday rejected a plea made by Sanzida who sought to scrap a case against her on accusations of abducting a girl whom she reported-ly “married.”

Sanzida and Shrabanti Roy Puja, who was allegedly abducted, came to Dhaka from Pirojpur on July 14 last year. Puja’s father Krishnakanti Shil on July 20 registered a case with Pirojpur

sadar police station claiming that her daughter had been abducted.

The two were picked up by the law enforcers on July 24. Later, in April this year, a lower court framed charges against Sanzida in the case.

Sanzida, assisted by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), � led a plea on July 6 under the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking the High Court order to annul the case against her.

Petitioner’s lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua yesterday told the court that Puja had not been abducted rather the two girls came to Dhaka upon consent, “thus the case is not tenable as per relevant law.”

In reply, the bench of Justice Md Shawkat Hossain and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam said the trial court would decide on the matter of consent.

The High Court could not weigh in evidence, thus the petition was reject-ed, the bench ordered. l

Student raped at a coaching centre in Narayanganj, accused releasedn Our Correspondent, Narayanganj

A student was raped inside a coach-ing centre at Allama Iqbal Road area in Narayanganj on Saturday. Police ar-rested the coaching centre’s teacher and owner Md Shahin on charge of the rape, but later he was released.

SM Manjur Quader, o� cer-in-charge of Narayanganj Sadar Model police station, said Shahin was arrested in a case � led under Section 9(3) of Women

and Children Repression Prevention Act.

But they let him go following a dis-cussion with the high police o� cials, as well as to better investigate the case properly after receiving the victim’s medical test, he said.

In her statement, the victim said she went to Lens English Coaching Centre at 2pm on Saturday to take admission, where she met Shahin. He took her inside a room to � ll-

up an admission form. When she went inside, Shahin locked the gate and raped her along with two other unidenti� ed men. They let her go around 3pm and threatened her not to tell anyone about the rape.

The victim went to Narayanganj Sadar Model police station on Sunday and � led a case against the culprits. Her medical test was done at Narayanganj General Hospital in late afternoon the same day. l

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

MIRPUR RMG WORKER RAPE CASE

Victim’s family threatened, police yet to make any arrestn Tazlina Zamila Khan

Seven days after a ready-made gar-ments worker was abducted and raped in the capital’s Mirpur area, police have failed to arrest Farid, the main accused in the case.

The victim’s family claims that the accused has threatened them after the rape.

“Farid threatened me to withdraw the case over phone yesterday morn-ing. He said otherwise the consequence wouldn’t be good,” the victim’s aunt, Parul Akhter, told the Dhaka Tribune.

She claimed that Farid was roaming the streets in broad day light, but the police had not arrested him.

“It seems as though the police are helping the accused,” she said.

Sub Inspector of Mirpur Police Sta-tion Moinul Islam, who is the case Investigation O� cer, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have not yet traced the accused. The victim couldn’t give us details about the criminals. We are try-ing our best to solve the case.”

“I have not heard about threats to the victim’s family. If it has occurred, the police should be noti� ed,” he said when asked about the recent threats.

He could not give any information about the possible involvement of kid-napping gangs in abducting the victim.

The victim gave her deposition un-der section 164 in the Chief Metropol-

itan Magistrate Court on Sunday. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sabrina Ali was present there.

In her deposition she said, “While taking a rickshaw home, Farid blocked my path and pressed his hand over my mouth so that I could not shout. He forced me into a microbus, blindfold-ed and gagged me and tied my hands. There were two other people inside the vehicle. Farid called one of them ‘Su-mon’, but I don’t know him. The three of them raped me and then � ung me behind a bridge. Later, I managed to get home.”

“Farid used to tease my niece every day for the last six or seven months. Although he is married, Farid proposed

to my niece but she refused,” Parul told the Dhaka Tribune.

All the standard medical tests of the victim had been done, con� rmed Dr Bilkis Begum, coordinator of the One-Stop Crisis Centre.

The victim, who is an orphan and lives with her aunt, was kidnapped and raped on July 1 while on her way home to Paik Para after 10pm. She works at Creative Garment in the Darus Salam area of Mirpur.

“A case was � led against four peo-ple, including two named and two unnamed persons. The names of the accused are Farid and Sumon,” Sub-in-spector of Mirpur Police Station Matiur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune. l

HC: Why Barisal by-poll should not be cancelledn Nazmus Sakib

The High Court yesterday ordered the Election Commission to explain in four weeks why the by-election proceedings of Barisal 5 constituency should not be cancelled.

The bench of Justice Zinat Ara and Justice SH Md Nurul Huda Jaigirdar came up with this order upon a writ petition � led by BNF candidate Saiful Islam Liton, who complained on June 8 that he had been threatened by Awa-

mi League candidate Jebunnesa Afroz over contesting in the by-poll.

The bench also wanted to know why the failure of the EC to disqualify Afroz as a candidate for her alleged threat should not be declared illegal.

Liton’s lawyer Rughul Kuddus Kazal said two benches of the High Court had earlier felt embarrassed to hear the writ petition made by his client.

Afroz, wife of deceased lawmaker Shawkat Hossain Hiron of the constitu-ency, won the by-election on June 15. l

Cabinet approves Export Promotion Bureau and nuclear energy actsn Mohosinul Karim

The cabinet yesterday � nally approved the drafts of the Export Promotion Bu-reau Act and Bangladesh Nuclear Ener-gy Control (Amendment) Act on condi-tion of vetting from the Law Ministry.

The approval was given in the reg-ular cabinet meeting held at the sec-retariat yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hos-sain Bhuiyan told the media that the cabinet okayed The Export Promotion Bureau Law, 2014, subject to the vet-ting of the Law Ministry, with minor additions to the existing ordinance.

The drafts aimed to legitimate the existing ordinance.

Holding of four EPB Board meetings

in a year instead of one per month is the new provision.

The provision also suggests inclu-sion of two new members –- one from the Environment and Forest Ministry and another from the ICT Ministry –- on the EPB Board.

The cabinet also gave the � nal nod to the draft of The Bangladesh Nuclear Energy Control (Amendment) Act 2014, relaxing quali� cations for nominating chairman and members of the Nuclear Energy Control Authority.

An individual with 10 years work-ing experience in nuclear sector would be considered eligible for the post of chairman.

To be a member of the Nuclear Ener-gy Control Authority, one must be ex-pert or quali� ed in electrical science. l

Newspapers distributed in Khulna after seven days n Our Correspondent, Khulna

Hawkers in Khulna yesterday started distributing national newspapers in the district after seven days of going on a strike.

The hawkers called of the strike yesterday after a negotiation meeting was held with newspaper agents at the Khulna Press Club in the presence of lawmaker Mizanur Rahman on Satur-day.

On June 29, newspaper agents of the district asked hawkers to buy pa-pers with cash from July 1. The hawk-ers protested the decision and stopped distributing newspapers in the district from the next day. They also barred the agents from distributing newspapers.

Hearing both the groups at Satur-day’s meeting, MP Mizanur Rahman said the dispute had to be resolved through mutual understanding, but distribution of newspapers could not be stopped.

He said: “Hawkers can take news-papers as payable from agents. They will pay the due price by the 16th of the next month and will buy newspapers with cash after three months.”

Later, representatives of newspaper agents, hawkers and bureau chiefs of di� erent newspapers came to an un-derstanding and the hawkers decided to call o� the strike. l

Police given 48 hours to arrest newsman’s would-be kidnappersn Tribune Report

At a gathering in front of the Nation-al Press Club, press leaders yesterday issued an ultimatum to the police to arrest those involved in the attempted kidnapping of Shahed Chowdhury.

The police have been given a 48 hour deadline to arrest the would-be kidnappers of Dhaka Reporters Unity president Shahed Chowdhury. Chow-dhury is the city editor of the Bangla language daily, Shomokal.

The attempted kidnapping took place at Bijoy Sarani on Sunday. When

the kidnapping attempt failed, death threats were made against Chowdhury.

“Shahed Chowdhury could be ab-ducted or killed. The police have failed to give journalists any protection. The police have 48 hours to arrest the crim-inals. If they are not arrested within 48 hours, tougher programmes will be announced,” Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) President Shawkat Mahmud said.

The last few years have seen the murder of 24 journalists, including the slaying of Sagor and Runi.

Shahed Chowdhury attended the

event along with leaders and mem-bers of the National Press Club, Dhaka Union of Journalists, Bangladesh Fed-

eral Union of Journalists, Dhaka Re-porters Unity, Crime Reporters Associa-tion, Photo Journalists Association and Diplomatic Journalists Association. l

Khaleda questions HC rulings in graft cases n Nazmus Sakib

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has chal-lenged the High Court rulings that re-jected petitions to stop trials against her and others in two corruption cases.

Lawyers for the former premier � led separate petitions with the Appellate Division yesterday. Mahbub Uddin Khokon � led petitions seeking permis-sion of the apex court to � le appeals against the High Court rulings.

Asaduzzaman lodged petitions seeking a stay on the High Court orders that rejected Khaleda’s pleas question-

ing the appointment of a lower court Judge Basudev Roy who indicted her in the cases.

The bench of Justice Borhanuddin and Justice KM Kamrul Kader on April 23 rejected the BNP chief’s pleas chal-lenging indictment orders in Zia Char-itable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust corruption cases.

By a majority view, the High Court on June 19 rejected the pleas challeng-ing the appointment of the judge.

Basudev on the same day deferred for the third time the recording of tes-timonies until tomorrow. l

A BRTA mobile court stops a motorbike rider after he tried to evade the lawmen’s initial call to stop at a checkpost in Tejgaon yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Police challenge muggers � eeing with Tk59 lakh in the cityn Tribune Report

At least two people, including a police-man, sustained bullet injuries after a gun� ght between a gang of muggers and the law enforcers in the capital’s Eskaton area last night.

DMP Ramna Zone Assistant Com-missioner Shilbi Noman said a police team, lead by sub-inspectors Iftekhar and Monir Hossain, were patrolling on the road near Janakantha Bhaban around 8:45pm. They heard some pe-destrians screaming “muggers, mug-gers.”

When police approached the scene, they saw three youths � eeing on a mo-torcycle with a bag. Being chased, the muggers opened � re on the law enforc-ers.

“One of the bullets � red by the snatchers hit SI Iftekhar. A youth named Liton, who was on the motorcy-cle, was hit in his leg and fell from the bike with the bag,” he said.

Injured Liton was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Police found Tk59 lakh from the bag. Until 11:30pm, no one claimed owner-ship of the money. A case would be � led in this connection. l

PM joins Armed Forces Iftar n Tribune Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended an Iftar party arranged by Bangladesh Armed Forces in her honour at Sen-akunja of Dhaka Cantonment yester-day.

The PM exchanged greetings with the hosts and guests at the programme, according to the lea� et handed out.

Before Iftar, a special prayer was also o� ered seeking divine blessings for the continued peace, progress and prosperity of the nation as well as the development of the armed forces.

Earlier, PM’s Security Adviser Maj Gen (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, chiefs of the three services and the Principal Sta� O� cer of the Armed Forces Division received Hasina on her arrival.

Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, members of the cabinet division, advisers of PM, dip-lomats of di� erent countries and high civil and military o� cials were present at the ceremony among others. l

A python swallows a fox after encircling in its grasp at Dhamraihaat in Naogaon yesterday. The rare sight attracted hundreds while also caused panic in nearby villages AZAHAR UDDIN

Factory worker electrocuted in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A shoe factory worker was electrocuted at his workplace in Chittagong city yes-terday morning.

Sources in Chittagong Medical Col-lege Hospital (CMCH) said the ill-fated Md Shamim, son of Md Mijan, came in contact with an electricity wire while working at the factory, Rubina Shoe, at Aturar depot area of the city at around 4:00am.

Critically injured, the 22-year old was rushed to the CMCH, where the at-tending medics declared him “brought dead” at around 5:00am, the sources added. l

Call to bring street children into mainstreamn UNB

Speakers at a national seminar yester-day called for bringing street children into mainstream of the society through proper rehabilitation, and urged for checking the causes that force chil-dren into street and taking preventive measures so that children are not com-

pelled to lead an unwanted life.Presenting the keynote paper at thr

city’s DAM auditorium, Ahsania Mis-sion Director Quazi Ali Reza said pover-ty, family feud and lack of social aware-ness were reasons which drove out children of their homes. He also sug-gested adopting a child-friendly policy to build up child-sensitive society. l

The last few years have seen the murder of 24 journalists, including the slaying of Sagor and Runi

WEATHER

LIGHT RAIN

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 3:50am Sunrise 5:16am Zahr 12:04am Asr 4:44pm Magrib 6:50pm Esha 8:17pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:50PM SUN RISES 5:17AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW34.6ºC 24.0ºC

Sayedpur Hatiya

TUESDAY, JULY 8

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 33 28Chittagong 30 26Rajshahi 34 28Rangpur 32 27Khulna 33 27Barisal 33 27Sylhet 30 26Cox’s Bazar 30 26

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

DNCC contractor chops down trees inside DSCC areaChief executive of the DSCC says he is not aware of the trees felling incident n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Violating a prime minister’s directive, a contractor of the Dhaka North City Cor-poration (DNCC), in the name of beau-ti� cation, has been illegally cutting down trees on the median of Mirpur road at Sobhanbagh area.

Though the area falls under the ju-risdiction of Dhaka South City Corpo-ration (DSCC), the DNCC contractor, namely Defence Ad, has been directing workers to chop down trees of di� erent species on the road median.

During a visit to the area yesterday, this correspondent found two workers had uprooted three trees on the medi-an and chopped down most of branch-es of a few other trees.

Asked why these trees were being felled, a worker named Yasin told the Dhaka Tribune that they have been instructed to take down the trees by a DNCC contractor Md Mujibur.

“The trees are being cut for the beauti� cation work of DNCC. Md Mu-jibar is a contractor for the city corpo-ration and he has directed us to chop down these trees. We will cutting down branches on the top level of all the trees from Russel Square to Ganabhaban,” he added.

The worker, however, failed toprovide a contact number of their em-ployer.

Locals said most of these trees were around 10 years old and expressed their discontent with the indiscriminate fell-ing of trees on the road median.

Humayun Kabir, a student of Daf-fodil University and resident of Indira Road said: “Dhaka city is full of con-crete structures, and lacks trees. So the government should take measures to increase vegetation in the city. But it seems that the city corporation is doing the opposite by taking down trees on the road median in the name of beau-

ti� cation.”Earlier in March, the DNCC had de-

molished concrete structures on the road dividers from Jahangir Gate to Ka-koli intersection of Banani as the prime minister wanted green beauti� cation instead of those decorated with bricks, tiles and stones.

Concerned o� cials of the beauti-

� cation project of DNCC said Mujibar is the owner of Defence Ad which has been given the responsibility to beauti-fy the road median from Dhanmondi 27 (Old) to Ganabhaban.

DNCC chief waste management o� -cer and concerned o� cial of the beau-ti� cation project Captain Bipon Kumar Saha told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have

strictly told contractors not to cut any tree in the median. I will collect infor-mation about the matter; if Mujibar [the contractor] chops down any tree at the said area then steps will be taken against him.”

Answering to a question, he said the development work is part of the beau-ti� cation project of ICC T20 World Cup 2014.

“Defence Ad will carry out the beau-ti� cation processes from Dhanmondi 27 to the PM’s residence, and Da� odil will do the same from Russel Square to Dhanmondi 27 using its own funds,” he added.

On the felling of trees near Sobhan-bagh Mosque, Bipon claimed the area to be under DSCC and said: “I will con-tact Mujibar to stop it.”

When contacted, DSCC Chief Exec-utive O� cer Ansar Ali Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have not been in-formed about this matter. I will direct concerned o� cials to look into the matter and steps will be taken as per the results.”

According to the DNCC beauti� ca-tion cell under the waste management department, the local government body had permitted a total of 48 dif-ferent companies and persons for the beauti� cation of the city’s 49 roads, tra� c islands, parks and key points by their own funds in June last year.

Though the project was supposed to be completed before starting the ICC T20 World Cup, the project still contin-ues in the monsoon. l

Touts busy in ticket scalping in Chittagong ahead of Eid n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Train ticket scalpers are preparing to cash in on an arti� cial crisis of tickets ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr while Bangladesh Railway (BR) and Railway Nirapatta Bahini (RNB) o� cials are collaborating with the scalpers to secure a slice of the pie, according to an intelligence report.

Violating railway rules, Mohammad Arafat, ticket booking o� cer at Chit-tagong Railway Station, is selling tickets to scalpers in exchange for a large sum while Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Jasim Uddin of RNB (general branch) in Chittagong is not taking any action against scalpers but is taking money from them instead, the report said.

The report also found involvement of booking o� cers Kazi Matinul Islam alias Raihan and Noyon at Chittagong Railway Station in the o� ence.

Names of 48 scalpers were men-tioned in the report along with 11 RNB o� cials and the three booking o� cials of the railway station.

The RNB men are Nayek Moham-mad Ha� z and Nayek Shoyaib of RNB (arms), ASI Jasim Uddin, ASI Solaiman, Nayek Yusuf Ali, Nayek Jasim, Nayek Akhter, Habildar Ra� q, Habildar Sha-hin, Mahfuzur Rahman and Alamgir of RNB general branch.

Arafat told the Dhaka Tribune he receives the money if someone, out of their own will, gives him Tk5-10 after getting the ticket.

He said he was not aware of other o� cials involved in the act because he had joined recently.

Noyon, however, refuted the alle-gation against him while Raihan could not be reached for comment.

Ishaq, a fabric store owner at Chit-tagong Shopping Complex who had his name on the list, admitted to his involvement in the scalping without any hesitation. Terming it a “secondary business,” he said he works in collusion with RNB men.

“If someone gives me an additional Tk200 with the actual price of the tick-

et, I can manage him a ticket a day be-fore he makes the journey,” said Ishaq.

Like Ishaq, Rana Enterprise owner Mahmud, Manashi store owner Siraz, ABC Garment o� cial Yusuf, Nabil Fash-ions employee Ershad, Sobhan Hotel sta� Anwar, Ra� q, Jahangir, Jasim and Delwar Hossain are involved in scalping beside their regular job for the extra cash.

“Scalpers collect tickets from book-ing o� cials from the counters at the railway station with the assistance of station and RNB men. These tickets then go to di� erent shops where peo-ple like Ishaq work. These people sell the tickets to passengers at a higher price who fail to get it from counters,” ASI Jasim of RNB, who is involved in scalping, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Besides, some senior BR o� cials are

involved in ticket touting, said Ishaq. General Manager Mojammel Hoque

of BR (east) said the railway authori-ties always maintain a strict approach against scalping.

“Sometimes allegations are raised against BR o� cials and employees. If we receive a particular complaint, we will take action. None would be spared in such cases,” he said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Babul Akhter of Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police said there is an overwhelming demand for tickets during Eid and the scalpers use the situation to their advantage.

“We have kept an eye on them and will take necessary action,” he said.

Abul Kalam Azad, station manager of Chittagong Railway Station, said the practice of ticket touting was there in the past and it still exists but the rate of the o� ence has gone down because of strong vigilance by the authorities.

“We have already installed addi-tional CCTV cameras at the station for heightened surveillance,” he said.

On June 3, Md Salauddin, 23, son of Chief Operating Superintendent Kazi Md Shoeb of BR (east), was held with 20 tick-ets while three other scalpers Al-Amin, Mohammad Amin and Mohammad Shakil were detained by RAB on May 22.

The arrestees mentioned the name of Assistant Commercial O� cer Abul Kashem, Tra� c Inspector (commer-cial) Maniruzzaman Mamun, Goods As-sistant Mujahid and railway employee Narayan Babu, claiming their involvent in scalping. l

COLLEGE STUDENT ABDUCTED IN UTTARA

Police clueless, slow progress of investigationn Mohammad Jamil Khan and

Tazlina Zamila Khan

Police have yet to solve the mystery be-hind the abduction of a college student that took place in the capital’s Uttara area four days ago.

The investigators claim that they have not been able to make much progress because of mismatched in-formation given by the victim and her mother.

However, sources claim that police are “mysteriously silent” after alleged-ly taking bribe from the accused listed as suspects by the victim’s family.

When asked about the investiga-tion’s progress, SM Mohidul, sub-in-spector of Uttara East police station and the case’s investigation o� cer, said: “If you are so interested, you in-vestigate it. I have other work to do. Be-sides, I don’t have time to talk to stupid people.”

When Shahadat Hossain, o� -cer-in-charge of the police station and Mohidul’s supervisor, was noti� ed about Mohidul’s response, he said he was not liable to explain Mohidul’s be-haviour.

When asked about the case, he said: “It is not possible to say anything as the investigation is still under way.”

The 19-year-old college student was abducted on Friday by unidenti� ed miscreants from Sector 4 in Uttara. They also shot and killed a security guard and injured one of the victim’s friends as they came to her rescue.

The victim was set free around an hour later in the same area.

Police arrested Rumman, owner of Asian Sky Shop in Uttara’s jashimuddin area, as a suspect in the case. During interrogation, Rumman confessed to having a relationship with the victim, which was broken o� by her father ear-lier last year. He also said he was upset by a recent relationship of the victim.

However, he denied the allegation of being involved in her abduction.

“Rumman has given us some infor-mation that we are cross-checking, and they cannot be revealed for the sake of investigation,” said Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (media) of po-lice, to the Dhaka Tribune.

Police are also suspecting Biplob, a teacher at Cambrian College, of being involved in the abduction because of his alleged interest in the victim.

Mahbub Hasan Lincon, associate professor in Cambrian College, said the teacher had been suspended as soon as his name came up during the investiga-tion.

“We have temporarily suspended him from the college. Whether he will be allowed to resume his position or not depends on the probe report by po-lice,” he said.

When contacted, Mohammad Nisa-rul Arif, deputy commissioner of Dha-ka Metropolitan Police, Uttara Division, said: “We do not know if the abductors are a part of any gang. The case has be-come a little complicated, but we hope to solve it soon.” l

n Ashif Islam Shaon

If you simply throw away an empty shampoo bottle or body spray contain-er, or sell it to a scrap dealer without crushing it, it will return to the store shelf a few days later, re� lled.

Customers having no experience about “re� lled” cosmetic products will buy those but they will be cheated be-cause the containers are genuine but the material inside is fake. Shampoo sold in such bottles is produced by mix-ing colour and aromatic elements with cloth-washing chemicals usually used in garment factories.

Likewise, fake body spray is man-ufactured by mixing spirit, colour and aromatic components.

In a raid conducted at Malitola in Old Dhaka, RAB yesterday recovered 10 trucks full of such fake cosmetics.

They sealed 18 warehouses and fac-tories where empty bottles and con-tainers were being re� lled. The re� lled bottles were to be sent to thousands of cosmetic stores across the country where each of the items would be sold at a mere Tk10-15.

RAB mobile court � ned two peo-ple Tk2 lakh each and also gave them

a two-year sentence for their involve-ment in such business.

“The drive began around 11:30am. To traders, the place is known as the den of fake cosmetics factories,” said AHM Anwar Pasha, executive magis-trate of RAB.

“The empty containers were collect-ed from di� erent parts of the country and were brought to the factories here,” he said, adding: “Md Hawlader and Md Sanwar Hawlader were subjected to � ne and jail term.”

Hawlader confessed that he started working as a scrap collector in 1992 and got into the wholesale business of emp-ty cosmetics containers 12 years later. He then started the fake cosmetics business.

“He said he got several others as partners. Together, they produced fake cosmetics,” said the RAB executive magistrate.

Hawlader would supply empty cans to other factories and he also owns a factory himself. The empty bottles are mainly collected by street urchins and homeless garbage collectors.

The re� lled cosmetics are mainly sold in towns and rural areas where customers do not have much idea about fake cosmetics, said Pasha. l

BCL men force students to pay iftar fundn RU Correspondent

Students at Nawab Abdul Latif resi-dence hall at Rajshahi University (RU) alleged that members of the ruling par-ty's student wing were compelling resi-dents to pay iftar fund.

Residents of the dormitory alleged that a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists led by Mizanur Rahman forcibly collected Tk50 from each residents on Sunday night, appar-ently to pay for an iftar party.

“When we refused to pay because we had a separate iftar party to attend outside of the hall on the same day, BCL activists threatened us,” several students speaking on the condition of anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune.

They alleged that BCL activists also threatened the students, saying: “At-tending the Chhatra League iftar party is compulsory, otherwise you will be punished.”

“BCL activists noted down the room numbers and addresses of those of us who refused to pay,” several students said.

When contacted, BCL activist Mi-zanur Rahman denied the allegations and said no one had been compelled to attend the iftar party.

BCL RU unit general secretary SM Tawhid Al Hossain alias Tuhin said that he would look into the issue.

Hall Provost Professor Biswanath Shikder told the Dhaka Tribune that he was not aware of the matter and would make inquiries into the matter. l

Narayanganj ward councillor arrested for cheque forgeryn Our correspondent, Narayanganj

Narayanganj police arrested Alamgir Islam, councillor of Narayanganj City Corporation ward 17, in the early hours of Sunday in a case � led for forging bank cheque.

Police arrested him from city’s Mas-dair area. In the last one year, this is the fourth time ward councillor Alamgir was arrested, according to sources in Narayanganj police station.

Abul Bashar, sub-inspector of Narayanganj Sadar police station, led the arrest drive following a case � led by Mo� zul Islam of the same area.

Mo� zul Islam’s son Selim Mahmud, said Alamgir owed Selim’s father Tk1.60 crore.

Alamgir had taken Tk1.60 crore from Mo� zul, selling one bigha land near the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road. Howev-er, he did not hand over the land.

Alamgir handed Mo� zul bank cheques to return the money thrice, but the cheques bounced back. After failing to retrieve the money despite several attempts, Mo� zul � led the case, said Selim. There are 17 cases pending against Alamgir for not paying electric-ity bills, 14 for cheque forgery and one for other illegal acts with the Narayn-ganj and Fatullah police stations. l

RAB busts 18 fake cosmetic factories, two � ned in capital

A RAB member examines a container of a shampoo during a drive at Malitola in Old Dhaka yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Employees of the Dhaka North City Corporation in the name of beati� cation cut down a tree in the median of Mirpur road in Sobhanbagh area yesterday ABU HAYAT MAHMUD

BR sta� , RNB o� cials collaborate with ticket scalpers

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Illicit sand lifting poses threat to Jhenaidah bus terminaln Our Correspondent, Jhenaidah

Illegal and rampant sand extraction from a pond has pushed the district bus terminal as well as its nearby dwelling buildings to the verge of collapse, al-leged environmental activists and lo-cals.

The 14,400 square feet pond be-longed to local Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and a man named Mominur Rahman had leased the pond about eight years ago and, for sever-al years, had been running the illegal sand lifting work with a dredger and selling the sand.

The bus terminal, also known as Pabohati-Udoypur bus terminal, and

the Jhenaidah-Magura highway are both situated on the pond.

Consequently, the highway, the lone passage to south-western parts of the country via the district, has also fallen on the verge of collapse as well.

The authorities of RHD and the municipality are not paying any heed to the illegal extractions, locals alleged.

Sources at the RHD said the lease contract with Mominur had expired three years ago and he had not renewed the contract.

Local people said Mominur had been selling sand for Tk6 per CFT and had earlier declared that he would be using another sand dredger there.

Sources at the Jhenaidah RHD said the lease contract with Mominur was cancelled a few years ago, but he has continued running the illegal work.

When contacted, Mominur Rahman denied the allegation brought against him, saying that he was extracting sand for the sake of the locals.

Jhenaidah RHD Executive Engineer Ra� qul Islam said he visited the site on Wednesday and found the illegal activ-ities happening there.

“We leased the pond to Mominur earlier for � sh cultivation, although the contract was cancelled few years back,” the engineer continued.

Masud Ahmed Sanju, president of environment and bio-diversity pres-

ervation committee Jhenaidah unit, and Haider Ali, an activist of Unnayon Dhara, alleged that the illegal extrac-tion was going on under the very nose of the local administration.

Jhenaidah Municipality Mayor Saidul Karim Mintu said the sand ex-traction could bring about a disaster at the nearby dwelling buildings as well as the terminal at any time.

He urged the authorities concerned to take necessary actions immediately and halt the misdeed.

Jhenaidah Deputy Commissioner Sa� qul Islam said nobody has the right to lift sand from the pond and he has already noti� ed the department con-cerned about this matter. l

Barisal healthcare service in a shambles Over 66% posts of doctors lie vacant at di� erent hospitals and clinics in the regionn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Thousands of people living in rural areas of Barisal have been deprived of proper healthcare services as 708 out of 1,057 posts open for  doctors  in 95 public hospitals, heath centres and clinics have been lying vacant .

According to Barisal divisional health directorate o� ce sources, over 66%  posts  for  doctors  are vacant and only 349 out 0f 1,057 doctors are work-ing in six districts and 42 upazila health complexes in the region.

Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical Col-lege Hospital, however, is excluded from the statistic, said the sources.

The sources said 121 out of 221  post for doctors  in Barisal, 162 out of 226  posts  in Patuakhali, 139 out of 199  posts  in Bhola, 119 out

of 168 posts  in Pirojpur,  110 out of 141  posts  in Barguna,  57 out of 102  posts  in Jhalakathi hospitals, upazila health complexes and specialised health centres have been lying vacant.

People living in rural areas and un-privileged members of society, who do not have ability to use the health ser-vices provided by the only medical col-lege hospital, are the worst su� erers of the situation.

 Most of patients avoid upazila lev-el health centres and rush to district or divisional level hospitals because of a shortage of  doctors, said Anowar Zahid, district coordinator of health rights movement.

A good number of doctors, who are working at district and upazila level hospitals, health centres and clinics

do not stay at their workplaces past afternoon and on weekends because of poor monitoring by the authorities concerned, he said.

Almost all the ambulances of gov-ernment hospitals have remained out of order for a while, said  Dr Habibur Rahman, district president of health right movement.

Dr Saidur Rahman, divisional health director, acknowledging the facts  said Barisal division had 42 upazila health complexes, one 250-bed, four-100-bed district level general hospitals,  thir-ty-� ve 31-bed, � ve 20-bed, three 10-bed health centres, four chest and tubercu-losis hospital and centres, one school health clinic and hospitals in Barisal division.

Besides 70 sub-health centres and 267 union health and family planning

centres also giving limited medical ser-vices through health assistants to peo-ple in public sector in the division with acute crisis of health workers, nurses, the divisional health director told the Dhaka Tribune.

In this circumstance, general pub-lic health services in Barisal division is insufficient as only one physician has to serve more than 37,000 people on average in  Barisal  division with a population of more than 13 million, the divisional health director ac-knowledged.

However, Barisal divisional health director said appointment of doctors stopped a long time ago and he hoped that posting  of recently passed-out BCS doctors may ease the crisis.

He said the crisis of doctors would reduce to a great extent soon. l

Eight sued for throwing acid on a family n Our Correspondent, Kushtia

At least eight people were sued for hurling acid on three members of a family in Gopalpur village under Kush-tia Sadar upazila.

Ayub Ali, father of a college girl Sonia Khatun, � led a case with Islami Univer-sity police station yesterday morning.

Shariful Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Islamic University police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had start-ed a drive to arrest the culprits.

Three people su� ered severe burn injuries on Saturday as some miscre-ants hurled acid on them while they were asleep at their residence.

The victims of the gruesome attack are Saleha, 60, and her two children So-nia Khatun, 18, and Titumir. They were

admitted to Kushtia General Hospital in critical conditions.

Quoting family members, police said some unidenti� ed culprits had thrown acid on the trio through a win-dow around 10:30pm while they were asleep and then � ed the scene imme-diately.

Hearing their cries of pain, their neighbours rushed to the spot and took them to the hospital.

Dr Amio Kumar, medical o� cer of Kushtia General Hospital, said they had referred Sonia, who is a student of a local college, to Dhaka for better treat-ment as her burns were comparatively worse than the others.

Police visited the spot and arrested Nayeb Ali for his alleged involvement with the incident. l

One killed over land dispute n Our Correspondent, Pirojpur

A man was beaten to death allegedly by his son- in-law yesterday in Sadar upazila over a land dispute.

According to sources, there had been a longstanding dispute between Bahar Ali Sheikh and his son- in-law Jabbar Mallik possessing over a piece of land.

On the day, both argued over the issue and at one stage Jabbar beat up his father-in-law leaving him critically injured.

He was admitted to local hospital and later sent to Khulna Medical Col-lege and Hospital as his condition de-teriorated.

Local UP chairman Akbar Hossen said Bahar died in the hospital.

On information, police recovered the body and sent it to the hospital morgue. l

Five abducted � shermen rescued in Barguna n Our Correspondent, Barguna

Coastguard members rescued � ve ab-ducted � shermen yesterday after three days of their abduction at Laldiachar area in Pathorghata of the district.

According to sources, a gang of pi-rates abducted 26 � shermen includ-ing Yusuf, Selim, Faruk, Ayub Ali and Selim on 3 July in the area while they were � shing.

On information, Coastguard mem-bers conducted a drive at the den of the robbers in the area and rescued the � shermen.

Sensing the presence of the law en-forcers, the robbers managed to � ee the scene. A pipe-gun and one � shing boat were recovered in the area.

Earlier, three robbers were arrested in this connection. l

Protest against public exams without interval n Our Correspondent, Barisal

Students formed a human chain in front of the Ashwini Kumar Hall in Barisal city yesterday, protesting the announcement that all public exami-nations will be held without any inter-vals.

They also demanded exemplary punishment for people involved in ler-aking question papers.

Hundreds of students under the banner of Sachetan Shikkharti Brinda (the conscious students) took part in the human chain addressed, among others, by Manisha Chakraborty, Ara-fat Islam, Mihiran Jabir, Ali Joheb, Idid Alam, Atik Mahmud , Shovan and Wa-hid.

The speakers said students were not responsible for question paper leakage, but they were the worst su� erers of the situation; for this reason, students al-ways demand the punishment for the

culprits.Condemning the new rule that all

public examinations will be held with-out intervals, they said if the Education Ministry did not keep the option of an interval in between two examinations, students would not get expected re-sults.

Although several probe committees have been formed over � nding real culprits behind the question paper leakage, none liable for the leakage has been brought to book.

The Education Ministry has recently taken a decision to hold public exami-nations without any interval except on public holidays in a bid to check ques-tion paper leakage.

This decision will only a� ect the students and would be bene� ted by those who are liable for question paper leakage, they said, adding that it would also damage the healthy educational atmosphere on campuses. l

3 die in Sunamganj trawler capsizen Our Correspondent,

Sylhet

Three people died as a sand-lad-en trawler capsized in the Surma River in Sunamganj Sadar upazila in the early hours of yesterday.

Police said the sand-laden trawler carrying six workers had started for Weskhali from

Dhopazan area of the upazila around 4am.

When the trawler reached Mollikpur area, it suddenly sank in the Surma River after being hit by a strong wave amid heavy rainfall around 4:30am.

Three workers managed to swim ashore, but three others – Sayemul, 25, son of Abdus

Salam of Shripur village, Jamir Ali, 26, son of Muluk Mia and Foy-ez Uddin, 30, son of Abdul Kai-yum – drowned. A rescue team rushed to the spot and recovered three bodies after a frantic search.

The incident took place be-cause of excessive rains and turbulence in the river, police said. l

Two kids burnt aliven Our Correspondent, Bandarban

At least two kids from a family were burnt to death at Lama upazila in the district yesterday.

According to local sources, Sumi ,4, and Naima Akter,1, daughters of Elias Ali were burnt alive when � re broke out at their residence in Kumarichakkata area of the upazila.

The parents were out of the house when the incident took place.

When contacted, Shah Jahan Khan, o� cer-in-charge of Lama police station con� rmed the incident.

Local UP chairman Oann Thong Marma visited the spot.

A gloomy atmosphere is prevailing the village after their death in the � re incident. l

Youth stabbed over admission trade n Our Correspondent, Barisal

A youth was stabbed over admission trade in Battala area under the district yesterday.

According to sources, Sefan Haola-dar Hasan, 28, son Anwar Haoladar un-der ward No15 of the city were severely stabbed while he was hanging out with his friends.

Hasan was rushed to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital where he was referred to Dhaka Medical Col-lege Hospital as his condition deterio-rated, said Dr. Moinuddin, attending physician at surgery unit of SBMCH.

Hasan passed his HSC exam from Government Syed Hatem Ali College few years ago. He might have come un-der attack by rivals connected with ad-mission trade, said Rezaul Islam Bappi , BCL leader in the college.

A case was � led in this connection.Sub Inspector Golam Kabir of Barisal

Kotwali police station said police o� -cials had visited the spot. l

Students form a human chain in Barisal city yesterday, protesting government’s move to hold public examinations without any interval DHAKA TRIBUNE

Baby girl unclaimed after mother’s death in road accident in Gaibandhan Our Correspondent,

Gaibandha

A two-year-old baby girl has been unclaimed at the Chidlren’s Ward of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra as her mother died in a road accident on Saturday.

The child, who had her leg bro-ken, has been admitted in the hos-pital since she and mother was in an accident in Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha, says Gobindaganj Highway Police Station’s O� cer-in-Charge Masud Parved.

He says her mother was carry-ing the child when she was walk-ing along Dhaka-Rangpur High-way, when a truck ran over them at Hawakhana area adjoining Ka-

takhali Bridge of Kamardah Union Parishad.

The mother died on the spot while the child had a leg broken in the accident.

OC Masud says two days after the woman (30)’s body goes un-claimed, it was handed over to Anjuman Mufidul Islam, an wel-fare organisation that also buries unclaimed bodies.

The child, has been crying re-lentlessly, but there was nobody but nurses to tend to her sometimes. She was calling out for her mother, little understanding that her mother had died, he says.

OC Masud adds that they tried high and low to � nd out the wom-an’s relatives, but their e� orts had gone in vain. l

A two-year-old baby girl remains unclaimed at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College and Hospital since her mother died in the accident in which she was injured at Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj upazila on Saturday

7Long Form Tuesday, July 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Kerry Kennedy

Last week, at the invitation of my friend Muhammad Yunus, I traveled to Bangla-desh, a truly humbling and inspiring experience. I met

so many incredible people struggling to improve their country and their lives. I wrote a letter to my daughters about my travels, which follows:

Dear Cara, Mariah and Michaela,

Visiting Bangladesh has been a lifelong dream of mine, but all that I had heard about a people who love freedom so much, that they have withstood great armies, famine and intractable pover-ty, could not prepare me for what I’ve seen in the last three days.

The Bangali patriots’ courage and endurance in the face of the Paki-stani army 40 years ago is the stu� of legend in our family. I remember your Great Uncle Teddy telling us about his visit to the Calcutta (Kolkata) refugee camps, where tens of thousands lived not in tents but in sewer pipes.

The people in these camps had � ed the mass killings - some would say genocide - that the United States had failed to stop, as the Nixon Adminis-tration’s o� cial policy was to choose our relationship with Pakistan over those who shared our love of freedom.

Great Uncle Teddy promised to

return when the country gained independence, and a few months later, he and Uncle Joe were among the � rst international visitors to the newborn country of Bangladesh.

Given what I’d heard from Uncle Ted-dy, I suppose I should not have been surprised by the inspiring people that my colleague Lydia Allen and I met in Bangladesh, people who endure extreme hardship for the freedom that they love and demand for their country.

In a small wooden room packed with women in bright saris, we met a proud shareholder of Grameen Bank - the transformative microlending in-stitution founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus - who borrowed Tk5,000 (about $80) and bought a rickshaw, and then Tk20,000

($240) and bought a cow, and then Tk30,000 ($480) and bought land.

Thanks to her hard work and Grameen Bank, she now has a house full of furniture, a � eld full of food,

water, a working toilet, and a tel-evision set. She saves Tk100 per month, and this year she will receive Tk100,000 ($750) from her savings.

We met a store owner and her hus-band, who borrowed from Grameen to buy solar panels, which have allowed them to expand their storefront and provide light to the brick house they share with three siblings and their in-laws.

We met a young woman on a Grameen scholarship who will be the � rst woman in her family to go to college. She is majoring in computer science and plans to start a business

in the IT sector that will transform her neighbourhood.

We met 10 women who sit on the board of the Grameen Bank, borrowers all. They’re angry at the government and concerned for the future of the bank. The government recently ousted Dr Yunus from the board of his own bank on the pretense that he had overstayed the mandatory retirement age of 60.

Then, � nding no other legal way to do so, the government cajoled the rubber-stamp parliament to change a banking law for the speci� c purpose of ousting the impoverished women from the Grameen board and replac-ing them with ruling party toadies, who, the women fear, will transform the multibillion-dollar bank that has helped so many escape poverty into just another slush fund for kleptocrats to draw upon.

We met a dozen women, many of them lawyers, all of them leaders of NGOs that address pressing issues like indigenous rights, due process of law, violence against women, dowry bat-tles, rape, and environmental justice. Many have been arrested, and many live under daily threat.

One said her husband had “disap-peared” in apparent retaliation for her work. They are scared of the nation’s security forces, which are known for kidnappings, torture and extrajudicial executions. And yet they wake up in the morning, kiss their children and their husbands, and return to work, a daily show of quiet courage.

We met a woman who worked at the collapsed Rana Plaza sweatshop who said she never wants to work in the apparel industry again. I met another who said the same thing, but added, “But we are poor, and we must work.”

They were among a crowd lining the hallway and sitting at intake tables at the o� ces of the Rana Plaza Claims Administration, the nonpro� t group charged with addressing reparations for the victims of the Rana Plaza collapse.

It is an impressive operation, manned by a team of dedicated pro-fessionals in labour, law and computer science, intent on making payouts to every single victim for physical and psychological injuries and to the scores of dependents who lost the family breadwinner in the tragedy.

They have $17mn to hand out, and calculate the need will be closer to $40mn, but the fund is voluntary and no law compels the brands to pay their fair share. While some have been gen-erous, too many others have refused to participate, because no law compels

them to do so.We met US Ambassador Dan

Mozena, a man singularly committed to advancing US interests abroad by protecting basic rights and increasing the prosperity of the people of Bang-ladesh.

He invited me to visit the Edward M Kennedy Center and the Ted Cafe, a gathering place created by the em-bassy for NGOs to meet and speak in safety, and for young people to learn about our country.

Michaela, the book shelf of one en-tire room was jammed with SAT prep books, looking all too familiar. Thanks to Ambassador Mozena, you will have plenty of competition from young Bangladeshis as you apply for college, determined to gain an education at US

schools, and return to their homeland with new hope for the future.

We met Adil Rahman Khan, who has organised a team of 400-plus human rights monitors and defenders across the country to investigate and report on violations of voting rights; on crackdowns on free speech and assembly; and on torture, extrajudicial execution, disappearances, and more - holding the government accountable for its failures to protect the freedom that the Bangladeshi people won at such great cost over 40 years ago.

Adil seeks accountability in a country where 197 anti-corruption o� cers are presently under investi-gation for corruption themselves. For his actions, Adil lives under a constant threat of death. Last year, after issuing a report doc-umenting a massacre by government forces of 61 protestors, he was taken away and held without trial for 62 days in a � lthy cell, ridden with bedbugs and rotten food.

How proud Uncle Teddy would be to know that this man, who person-i� es all the values that Teddy and Grandpa Bobby so admired, will receive the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award later this year.

And, of course, we met with my dear friend Dr Yunus. He invited us to come to Dhaka for Social Business Day, where people from scores of countries across the globe gathered to share their

designs and experiences with creating businesses which seek not pro� ts for shareholders but solutions to problems like housing or food access.

You were still in diapers when Dr Yunus came to our home nearly 15 years ago and I interviewed him for my book Speak Truth to Power. I have always been struck by the sense of peace and joy he conveys in the many lectures I have since seen him deliver.

But I never appreciated how incredible that was until I saw him in Bangladesh. He is under unremitting pressure from a government that seeks to destroy all he has given his life to build. And yet he endures, and invites us to somehow � nd peace amidst the chaos in our lives and � nd our joy through service.

His steady bearing reminded me of these lines from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”:“If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,If you can watch the things you gave your life for, broken,And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools...If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with Kings - nor lose the com-mon touch...If you can � ll the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it...”By this measure, Dr Yunus has achieved the world.

What an amazing place, what an amazing country. As we in America celebrate our own Independence Day this week, I hope we can take inspi-ration from the people of Bangladesh and rededicate ourselves to democ-racy and freedom, knowing that the price may be high, but the sacri� ce is well worthwhile.Love,

Momma l

Kerry Kennedy is the president, Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights

The steady pursuit of justice and freedom

Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F Kennedy Center (third from right), with Grameen Bank members COURTESY

Bangladesh despite all its corruption and calamities � nd the strength to face every day with courage and hope SAYED LATIF HOSSAIN

We met a young woman on a Grameen scholarship who will be the � rst woman in her family to go to college

I hope we can take inspiration from the people of Bangladesh and rededicate ourselves to democracy and freedom

Tuesday, July 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

N E W S B I T E SHamas vows revenge after 7 members killedn AP, Jerusalem

The Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza vowed revenge on Israel for the death of seven of its members killed in an airstrike early yesterday morning in the deadliest exchange of � re since the latest round of attacks began weeks ago. Hamas’ said “the enemy will pay a tremendous price,” referring to Israel.

The group said its men were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a tunnel used by the militants. Two militants from a di� erent group were also killed in a separate strike. The men were involved in rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities, the Israeli military said.

Israel said it carried out airstrikes on at least “14 terror sites” including “con-cealed rocket launchers” in Gaza over-night in retaliation to a recent spike in attacks from Gaza.

About a dozen rockets were � red at

Israel from Gaza overnight the military said. One injured a soldier.

Gaza militants � red 25 rockets at Isra-el on Sunday the military said. The mili-tary says Palestinian militants have � red more than 200 rockets at southern Isra-el in recent weeks, and it has responded with scores of airstrikes targets in Gaza.

Lt Col Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the rocket attacks are “unbearable and unacceptable.” “We will continue to act in order to debili-tate and incapacitate the Hamas terror infrastructure striking its warehouses, rocket manufacturing capabilities and those that endanger the well–being of the Israelis in the south of the country.”

Gaza militants have been bom-barding Israel with daily rocket � re for weeks, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. The nine militants killed overnight Monday made it the deadli-est day of � ghting so far. l

Inside Obama’s secret schedulen Agencies

On May 29, US President Barack Obama had lunch at the White House with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The likely 2016 presidential contender has been to hundreds of West Wing meetings, � rst as � rst lady, then as senator, and � nally as the top American diplomat. But this face–to–face was unusual. Unlike dozens of presidential meetings every week — and a similar Obama–Clinton meeting in July 2013 — it was not announced in advance.

Instead, reporters who cover Obama learned about the secret visit from a People magazine tweet, and ultimately managed to wring a terse sentence from an anonymous White House o� cial grudgingly con� rming that the world’s most powerful person had met with the woman who is arguably the front–runner to succeed him. The topic of their discussion was not revealed.

This is how the White House works. A week before the secret lunch, the schedule failed to mention that the US president was hosting a bipartisan delegation of senators for what one Republican attendee later described as a “bizarre” foreign policy meeting. A month before that, there was no advance word that Obama would wel-come a group of Japanese-American World War II veterans in the Oval O� ce — on the eve of the anniversary of FDR signing the infamous order to put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps, no less.

All of those meetings fall well within the president’s duties. But not one appeared on the public presidential schedule posted online the night before and distributed to the press. Instead, all were on the only White House schedule that really matters: the

president’s private schedule.It’s a document so closely held that

Obama aides, like their counterparts under George W Bush, are expected to dispose of it at day’s end in “burn bags” typically reserved for documents so sensitive they cannot be consigned to mere shredding. Where the public schedule blares “for immediate release,” every page of the private schedule warns: “This schedule contains sensitive information and is provided for your informa-tion only. It may not be distributed, forward-ed, or printed without the express written permission of the Director of Scheduling.”

Yahoo News spoke to current and former aides to Obama, George W Bush, and Bill Clin-ton to try to � nd out how the White House puts together the most important document you’ve probably never thought twice about. None wanted to be quoted by name as sharing details from the behind-the-scenes process. The private schedule embodies a president’s political and public-policy prior-ities, the full range of challenges or crises he faces at home and abroad. It blends the White House’s needs and wants as the president balances foreign threats against dinner with the kids and meetings with friends. The public schedule is what the White House wants people to know about the president’s day. The private schedule is what he actually does with one of his most scarce resources.

“The most valuable asset in any White House is not money, it’s the president’s time,” explains Josh Bolten, who served as George W Bush’s chief of sta� from 2006 to 2009.

Here’s how that time is blocked out: Every night, around Obama’s 6:30 p.m. target time for dinner with his family, senior aides get a fairly complete schedule for the next day. l

Iraq chaos fuels Kurds’ independence dreamn Reuters, Kele Bi, Iraq

A grave, freshly dug and adorned with pebbles, is the modest tribute to one more sacri� ce in the long his-tory of struggle for an independent Kurdish state.

Hogir Fathi was looking forward to home leave in his village in autono-mous Kurdistan when the 24-year-old, a � ghter in the Iraqi region’s peshmerga forces, was killed by a bomb while on the frontline against Islamist militants who last month drove the Iraqi army from most of the north outside the Kurdish zone.

“I am proud my son was martyred,” said his father, Mehdi, himself a pesh-merga, who fought the army of Saddam Hussein. “There is no sacri� ce too great for an independent Kurdistan.”

A century after the Kurds lost out

in the carve-up of the Ottoman empire after World War One, denied a state of their own and left scattered across four others, that dream is suddenly closer as � ghting among Iraq’s Arabs – minority Sunnis and the Shi’ites in power – fuels talk of the country being partitioned.

The Kurds of Iraq, who have gov-erned themselves since US air pow-er pinned back the Sunni dictator Saddam after the 1991 Gulf War, have already exploited the chaos to ex-pand their territory by as much as 40%, including the oil� elds and city of Kirkuk, which they claim as their national capital.

Their president last week called for a referendum on secession. And there is little doubt it would overwhelming-ly back independence, as an uno� cial plebiscite did in 2005. But economics and external pressures, from Baghdad

but also from rival allies in Turkey, Iran and Washington, may well hold Kurd-ish leaders back from risking a � nal break any time soon.

“All the Kurdish people support it, but the leadership must consid-er whether the time is appropriate or not,” said Kurdistan Vice President Kosrat Rasul Ali, a veteran peshmer-ga commander. “If the political cli-mate is not ripe, perhaps we will have to wait years. Otherwise it will be a misadventure.”

As it has for a decade, the threat alone of secession may o� er greater bene� ts to the Kurds in the three-way bargaining with Shi’ites and Sunnis that has de� ned post-Saddam politics.

Hostility from Turkey, which fought its own Kurdish revolt for decades, may no longer be the obstacle it once was to full independence for Iraqi Kurdistan.

Though wary of the impact that might have on its own Kurdish minority and o� cially committed the unity of Iraq, Ankara has worked with Iraq’s Kurds to bu� er Turkey against the chaos to the south and become a buyer of their oil. Many Kurdish leaders are quietly con� dent Ankara would not block their sovereignty.

More problematic may be Iran, a sponsor of the Shi’ite parties which now hold power in Baghdad and which view Kurdish secession as a bid to grab an unfair share of Iraq’s wealth.

Tehran and Ankara have long sup-ported competing factions within Iraqi Kurdistan, factions which fought a bitter civil war almost as soon as they were free of Saddam’s control in 1991. Divergent interests between Iran and Turkey make for tensions within Kurdish politics that a� ect attitudes to independence. l

Merkel: US spying allegations seriousn Reuters, Beijing

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday allegations that a German man worked as a double agent for US intelligence were serious and, if true, were a clear contradiction of what cooperation between partners is sup-posed to be about.

The case risks further straining ties with Washington, which have been sorely tested by revelations last year of large-scale snooping on Germany by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

“If the reports are correct it would be a serious case,” Merkel told a news conference in Beijing, standing next to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

“If the allegations are true, it would be for me a clear contradiction as to what I consider to be trusting cooper-ation between agencies and partners.”

The White House and State Depart-ment have so far declined to comment on the arrest of a 31-year-old employee of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency. According to intelligence and political sources, the man admits pass-ing documents to a US contact.

Those include information about a parliamentary committee looking into allegations by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that Washington carried out major surveil-lance in Germany, including monitor-ing Merkel’s phone.

SuspicionsGerman Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was on a trip to Mon-golia while Merkel was in China, said the spying case would have consequences if the circumstances are con� rmed.

“We haven’t � nished clearing this up yet. But if suspicions are con-� rmed that American secret services were involved, it will become a politi-cal issue and we can’t just get back to business as usual,” he told reporters in Ulan Bator.

Surveillance is a sensitive issue in a country where memories of the Nazi’s Gestapo secret police and communist East Germany’s Stasi ensure the right to privacy is treasured.

As Merkel visited China, where she oversaw the signing of agreements in-volving Airbus Group NV’s helicopter division selling 100 aircraft to Chinese companies, a German intelligence chief warned that some � rms in China faced a growing threat from industrial espio-nage by Chinese government agencies with huge resources.

“Germany is against that – regardless of where it comes from,” Merkel said, in reference to industrial espionage.

“We have a duty as the state to pro-tect our economy ... We are for the pro-tection of intellectual property.”

China’s premier repeated his gov-ernment’s denial that it was involved in such activities. l

Netanyahu phones father of murdered Palestinian teenn Reuters, Jerusalem

Israel’s prime minister phoned the father of a murdered Palestinian teenager yester-day to promise that the attackers would be prosecuted, the government said, as anger over the killing fuelled Arab street protests. The burnt body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair was discovered in a Jerusalem forest last week. Six Jews have been arrested in what police suspect was a revenge attack for the abduction and killing of three Jewish youths.

“I wish to express my shock and the shock of Israel’s citizens over the despicable murder of your son,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the father, Hussein Abu Khudair, according to the statement. “The murderers will be brought to trial and prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” the right-wing leader added, according to the statement, a day after Israel announced that six Jewish suspects were in custody. l

Girl killed, eight people hurt in Iraqi airstriken Reuters, Baghdad

A 12-year-old girl has been killed and eight other civilians wounded in an Iraqi airstrike on a Kurdish-held town in Iraq’s northern province of Salahuddin, a Kurdish security forces o� cial said. Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the Kurdish peshmerga � ghters, told Reuters the strike occurred on Sunday when military planes and helicopters targeted “a group of civilian residential buildings in the heart” of the town of Tuz Khurmato.

Iraqi government forces are battling Sunni Islamist insurgents led by an ultra-radical group called the Islamic State in the area. The insurgents’ rapid seizure of large swathes of northern and western Iraq over the past month has stirred international alarm over the possible disintegration of Iraq. l

Nasa to send 3D Google smartphones for robotsn Reuters, Mountain View, Calif

Google smartphones with next-generation 3D sensing technology are about to blast into orbit, where they will become the brains and eyes of ball-shaped hovering robots on the International Space Station. Nasa plans to use the handsets to beef up its Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, which could eventually take over daily chores for astronauts or even handle risky duties outside of the vessel. The phones, part of Google’s Project Tango augmented reality initiative, will be aboard a cargo spacecraft scheduled to launch on July 11. l

Sisi: Egypt should have deported Al Jazeera journalists n Reuters, Cairo

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he wished the imprisoned Al Ja-zeera journalists, convicted of aiding “a terrorist group”, had been deported and not put on trial, a newspaper re-ported yesterday.

Sisi’s comments sparked hope for the family of Australian reporter Peter Greste who, along with colleagues Mo-hamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, was jailed last month for 10 years.

Sisi was quoted by Egypt’s Al-Masry Al-Youm private newspaper as saying the verdict “had very negative e� ects”.

“I wished they were deported right after they were arrested instead of getting put on trial,” Sisi added during a meeting with local journalists on Sunday.

Sisi’s initial reaction to the ruling was that he would not interfere in court verdicts. Monday’s comments could be a hint he might use his presidential power to pardon the journalists, who still have a chance to appeal against the verdict in a higher court.

Peter Greste’s brother, Andrew, said he was heartened by the comments.

“I’m sure images of Peter in the cage in the court are not images Egypt really wants distributed around the world,” Andrew Greste told reporters in Bris-bane. “And the publicity they’re getting out of this I’m sure is not the publicity any country would want.”

Peter Greste, Al Jazeera English Cairo bureau chief Fahmy, a dual Ca-nadian-Egyptian citizen, and Egyptian network producer Mohamed were de-tained in December. l

An EU agenda: Keeping British in, Russians out, Germans downGerman dominance spot of bother for rest of European eliten Reuters, Rome

The � rst secretary-general of Nato, Lord Ismay, once said the Western de-fence alliance was created “to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down.” The task fac-ing the European Union now might be described as to keep the British in, the Russians out and the Germans down.

British inPrime Minister David Cameron’s de-mand to redraw Britain’s relationship with the EU and put the result to a ref-erendum in 2017 means the next few years are bound to be dogged by hag-gling over Brussels’ powers and about opt-outs for London.

If Britain, Europe’s third largest econ-omy, main � nancial centre and joint big-gest military and diplomatic power, were to become the � rst country ever to leave the bloc, it would deal a severe blow to itself but also to the EU’s global stand-ing. Last month’s confrontation over the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president against adamant British opposition was a fore-taste of the fraught negotiations ahead if Cameron is re-elected next year.

Under � erce pressure from Euro-sceptics at home, the British leader risks overplaying his hand, misreading and alienating his main allies, as he did with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over Juncker, and demanding too high a price.

Some continental politicians, exas-perated by 40 years of British e� orts

to block a federal Europe and secure favourable terms by hardball negotiat-ing tactics, are tempted to let the UK go in a belief that their life would be eas-ier afterwards. Yet keeping Britain in, provided it undertakes not to obstruct closer economic and political integra-tion of the euro single currency area, must surely be a priority for the EU.

Russians outRussian President Vladimir Putin’s sei-zure and annexation of Crimea, cut-o� of gas supplies to Ukraine and destabil-isation of eastern Ukraine have put Mos-cow’s geopolitical challenge to Europe – and reducing the EU’s dependency on Russian gas – high on the policy agenda.

Brussels o� cials fear Moscow may do more to punish Ukraine and fellow ex-Soviet republics Georgia and Moldova

economically for signing trade and coop-eration pacts with the EU.

Member states di� er on how far to go in sanctioning Russia for its be-haviour, whether to give Ukraine a long-term prospect of membership and what incentives to o� er Moscow if it changes course.

The Germans are reluctant to jeop-ardise their energy and trade interests, the French to cancel the sale of helicop-ter carriers and the British to endanger London’s role as an o� shore banking centre and playground for Russia’s rich.

While former Soviet bloc states such as Poland and Estonia favour a tougher line with Moscow, others such as Slova-kia, Romania and Bulgaria are wary of putting energy supplies and business ties at risk. Preventing Russia from de-stabilising the EU’s eastern neighbour-

hood is a common European interest, but where and how to draw red lines will be a major challenge for the bloc.

Germans down?Yes, but why the desire to keep the Ger-mans down?

Germany is in many ways a beacon of economic success and stable democ-racy, anchored in the bosom of Europe and Nato. But its growing political as-cendancy over the EU in the wake of the eurozone crisis has stirred unease in many European capitals, ensuring that a tug-of-war with Berlin over economic and � scal policy is likely to escalate.

French weakness, British detach-ment, the enfeeblement of the Europe-an Commission and the muscle-� exing of the German constitutional court have all contributed to tilting the balance in the EU, thrusting Germany uncomfort-ably into the spotlight. So too have im-pending changes in voting rules among EU states that give more weight to pop-ulation size, and the growing power of the European Parliament, where Ger-mans make up the largest contingent. Long under-represented, Germans have secured an unprecedented grip on the reins of the main EU institutions that is raising concern in London and Paris.

The dominance of German eco-nomic thinking, with an emphasis on austerity and a deep-seated culture of saving rather than spending or invest-ing, needs to be tempered if Europe is to avoid a lost decade of stagnation and high unemployment. l

A partial view of EU parliament WIKI

An Israeli soldier salutes atop an armoured personnel carrier (APC) near the border with the southern Gaza Strip REUTERS

9Tuesday, July 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

N E W S B I T E S

Impeachment move � led against Philippines’ Aquinon Reuters

A former Philippine congressman yes-terday � led an impeachment complaint against President Benigno Aquino for bribery and violating the constitution, but analysts said the popular leader could defeat the motion, thanks to his grip on the legislature. It is the � rst time that Aquino, whose popularity rating in the past four years has stayed above 40%, could face impeachment for distributing his discretionary funds to lawmakers, an act the Supreme Court has declared illegal.

“The complaint is based on three grounds, namely, bribery, betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the constitution,” Augusto Syjuco, who also questioned Aquino’s discretionary fund action before the top court, told Reuters. “It has been � led to the records o� ce of the House of Representatives until the resumption of Congress.” The complaint will wait until Congress reopens for its second regular session on July 28, when a sitting member of Congress will endorse it, he added. l

Thai junta says peace in restive south a national priorityn Reuters, Bangkok

Thailand’s military government said yes-terday peace in the Muslim-dominated south was an “urgent national priority” for the Buddhist-majority country following a decade of unrest blamed on separatists. The message comes a week after the start of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and days after the new government, led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, said it would revive talks aimed at bringing peace to the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

“The south is an urgent national priority. Prayuth wants � rmer measures and more success in the south,” Udomdet Sitabutr, secretary-general of the ruling National Council for Peace and Order, told reporters ahead of a visit to the region. Prayuth said in his weekly speech to the nation on Friday the military government wanted to use political strategies over military tactics in the south. A low-level insurgency has claimed more than 6,000 lives since 2004 following the resurgence of a dormant Muslim separatist movement. l

Afghan candidates in last minute talks to defuse election crisisPreliminary results delayed again

n Reuters, Kabul

Rival Afghan presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani yesterday held last-minute talks to try to resolve a stando� over the outcome of a troubled election, as o� cials once again delayed the announcement of preliminary results.

The deadlock over the June 14 sec-ond round run-o� has quashed hopes for a smooth transition of power in Af-ghanistan, a headache for the West as most US-led forces continue to with-draw from the country this year.

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission had been due to announce results of the June 14 run-o� vote at 2 p.m. (0930 GMT) but o� cials said it would be put o� by a few hours.

It was unclear what caused the de-lay, which came as rival camps strug-gled to � nd a last-minute compromise to keep Afghanistan from sliding into a protracted period of uncertainty with-out a clear leader accepted by all sides.

Both rounds of the vote have been plagued by accusations of mass fraud, and the refusal by either candidate to accept the outcome could split the fragile country along ethnic lines.

Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban � ghter, and Ashraf Ghani, an ex-World Bank o� cial, have locked horns over the election, with both e� ectively de-claring victory in the contest to suc-ceed Hamid Karzai.

On Monday, both camps said they were holding renewed discussions to � nd ways to defuse the crisis, possibly about how many additional polling sta-tions need to be audited in order to sat-isfy both candidates that the vote was free of fraud.

“Our meetings continued until midnight and there were some im-provements but we haven’t reached � nal agreement,” said Mujibul Rah-

man Rahimi, a spokesman for Abdul-lah, adding that the ball was now in Ghani’s court.

Azita Ra� at, a spokeswoman for Ghani’s camp, said they would an-nounce their position on the talks later on Monday.

RisksAbdullah, who has a Pashtun father and a Tajik mother, draws much of his support from the Tajik minority in northern Afghanistan. Ghani, a former World Bank economist, has strong sup-port from Pashtun tribes in the coun-try’s south and east.

Refusal by either Abdullah or Ghani to accept the outcome of the election could plunge the country into a danger-ous crisis, with the possibility of a bloody stando� between the two ethnic groups or even secession of parts of the country.

Without a clear leader, Afghanistan could split into two or more � efdoms along tribal fault lines, or even return to the bloody civil war of the 1990s.

But on Monday, both sides appeared keen to � nd a compromise. O� cial � -nal results are due on July 22, so elec-tion o� cials still have time to conduct a broader fraud probe that would be suitable to both sides.

Ghani’s aides say he is in the lead in the run-o� by at least one million votes.

Abdullah has accused Karzai, also a Pashtun, of playing a role in the alleged rigging in Ghani’s favour and says he would accept the vote only if he saw � rm evidence that fraudulent votes had been thrown out and the � nal re-sult was clean.

As their stando� intensi� ed in past weeks, Afghanistan has become awash with talk about a broader rift along ethnic lines or even violence un-less they agree to accept the outcome of the vote or come to a compromise arrangement. l

China lambasts Japan’s wartime aggressionn Reuters, Beijing

China, which frequently praises Ger-many for its contrition over World War Two, pointedly emphasised Jap-anese wartime aggression yesterday during a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Premier Li Keqiang’s comments come as China intensi� es an anti-Japan propaganda campaign focused on war-time atrocities after Tokyo ended a ban on its military � ghting abroad last week.

In remarks to mostly German and Chinese reporters, as well as Merkel, Li pointed out that Monday was the 77th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge incident, a skirmish in 1937 that sparked an all-out Sino-Japanese war. Li said the day was one “the Chinese people must always bear � rmly in mind”.

“Facing an all-encompassing war started by Japanese militarists against China, the Chinese people rose up with all their strength to resist,” Li said.

“They resisted in the blood-soaked war for eight years before � nally achieving victory. We must always remember his-tory to correctly face up to the past,” he added.

China has often contrasted Germa-ny with Japan, which it says has sought to rewrite history by whitewashing military aggression. Diplomatic sourc-es have told Reuters Germany did not want to get dragged into the dispute between China and Japan, and dislikes China constantly bringing up Germa-ny’s painful past.

Merkel made no mention of the war in public comments.

In comments to reporters, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo would watch China “closely” on issues of history. “The Japanese government believes that it is not bene� cial for regional peace and cooperation that China tries to turn his-tory and other issues into international issues,” he said. l

Indonesia’s tight, dirty presidential race may be decided in West Javan Reuters, Tasikmalaya

The closest and dirtiest presidential race in Indonesia’s young democra-cy could be decided on Wednesday among the mosques and rice paddies of West Java, the nation’s most populous province. Former special forces chief Prabowo Subianto and Jakarta Gover-nor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo are running neck-and-neck in opinion polls, leav-ing markets in Southeast Asia’s largest economy under pressure and on ten-terhooks awaiting the outcome.

Indonesia’s 190 million voters face a clear choice: the relatively untested, untainted Jokowi or a tough nationalist in Prabowo who has top military lead-ership experience but is dogged by de-cades-old allegations of army brutality, which he denies.

“The young democracy of Indonesia is about to face a tough maturity test on July 9,” said Wellian Wiranto, econ-omist at OCBC Bank.

This will be the � rst time in the world’s third-largest democracy that a

directly elected president hands over the reins to another. Outgoing presi-dent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has largely disappointed in his last four years, must step down in October after serving a two-term limit.

Voting starts in Indonesia’s distant eastern islands and � nishes two time zones away in the densely populat-ed west at 0600 GMT. Early counts by pollsters should give an idea of the out-come fairly soon afterwards.

A Prabowo win is expected to weak-en markets due to concerns that he will introduce protectionist policies in the � nancial and farm sectors, and launch big debt-funded spending projects.

Main battlegroundAll eyes are on the main battleground province of West Java, an area the size of the Netherlands but with a popula-tion nearly three times larger.

Prabowo has seized a single-dig-it lead from Jokowi in the province of 46 million people, helped by a smear campaign that raised questions about

the Jakarta governor’s race and religion – potent topics in a nation that is 95% native Indonesian and has the world’s largest Muslim population.

“That had a very big impact,” said Fitri Hari, researcher at polling � rm Lingkaran Survei Indonesia, referring to questions, aired in social media by Prabowo sup-porters, about Jokowi’s Islamic faith and his Javanese ethnicity – even though he was born a Muslim in the Javanese town of Solo. To counter the smear, Jokowi is set to go on a minor pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia early this week when there is a ban on public campaigning before the vote.

Jokowi’s lead in national opinion polls – as much as 30 percentage points three months ago – has shrunk as the smear campaign has developed, poll-sters say. Prabowo, who has not made public comments about Jokowi’s race or religion, has appeared to lead a more organised campaign than his rival.

West Java, which represents around 20% of the national vote, is home to some of the country’s most conserva-tive Muslim groups. l

Narendra Modi faces uphill task to put India’s railways on trackn Reuters, New Delhi

Departing Platform One at New Del-hi station last week was India’s fastest train: the test run of the Delhi-Agra ex-press – dubbed “semi-high speed” by local media – topped a record-breaking 160 kilometres per hour on its way to the Taj Mahal. But the velocity, though triple the 50 kilometres average clocked on trips across the country, is barely one-third of the top-speed of China’s fastest train, showing the extent to which In-dia’s expansive but under-funded train network has failed to keep pace.

“The capacity of the track is almost saturated,” Anurag Sachan, divisional railway manager for Delhi, said in his o� ce next to New Delhi’s giant station. “We could go as high as 200 km but we would need to have a completely new track for higher speeds.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who started out selling tea outside a train sta-tion, has promised to modernise India’s

railways and build high-speed engines be� tting Asia’s third-largest economy.

On Tuesday, his new government will unveil its maiden railways budget, with expectations high that he will of-fer bold plans to improve the service – a lifeline for 23 million Indians every day.

Among the goals is bringing much more private money into one of the country’s largest state-controlled in-dustries. At present, there’s small pri-vate involvement in suburban services and locomotive manufacturing.

In a speech last week, Modi hinted at how much of a revamp he believed the railways needed, telling an audience in Kashmir that he wanted an upgrade of stations, many of which look much as they did under the British.

“Why do our railway stations need to be so old, why can’t they be bet-ter than our airports?” he said, after waving a green � ag to inaugurate services on a stretch of track in the mountain state.

Partnerships neededModi’s government will announce plans for public-private partnerships in railway infrastructure, the Economic Times reported on Monday, citing gov-ernment sources, and he is expected to update the country on plans for a high-speed rail between the � nancial capital Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

“If the railways are to fully bene� t the climate, the economy, society, the government needs to bring in more money... including from private and foreign investment” said G. Raghuram, professor at the Indian Institute of Man-agement, Ahmedabad and co-author of a report about railway modernisation.

Raghuram said allowing private mon-ey into freight was a simple and relative-ly easy shift that would boost the econo-my. Railways’ share of freight has fallen from 90% of the country’s cargo in 1950 to one-third today, as congested tracks and slow speeds force shipments onto roads – in turn clogging them. l

Super typhoon takes aim at Japann Reuters, Tokyo

A super typhoon described as a “once in decades storm” was heading north for Japan yesterday, set to rake the south-ern Okinawa island chain with heavy rain and powerful winds before making landfall on Kyushu, Japan’s western-most main island.

Typhoon Neoguri was already gusting at more than 250 km an hour (150 mph) and may pick up still more power as it moves north, growing into an “extreme-ly intense” storm by Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

But it was not expected to be as

strong as Typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands in the Philippines last year.

The storm was south of Okinawa but moving northwest at 20 kph (12 mph) with sustained winds of 180 kph (110 mph), the JMA said on its website, warning of high tides and lashing rain.

“This storm’s characteristic is its strength,” one JMA o� cial said, calling on people in Okinawa to evacuate early and take precautions, including staying indoors. Television showed � shermen winching their boats out of the water.

There are no nuclear plants on Oki-nawa, but there are two on Kyushu and one on Shikoku island, which borders

Kyushu and could also be a� ected.All are halted in line with current

national policy. A spokeswoman at Kyushu Electric Power Co said there are no speci� c plans related to this ty-phoon but that the company has plans in place throughout this year to protect the plants from severe weather.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, is on the other side of the country, which is likely to see rain at the worst.

The commander at Kadena Air Base, one of the largest US military establish-ments on Okinawa, which hosts the

bulk of the US forces in Japan, warned that damaging winds were expected by early Tuesday.

“I can’t stress enough how danger-ous this typhoon may be when it hits Okinawa,” wrote Brigadier General James Hecker on the base’s Facebook page on Sunday. “This is not just anoth-er typhoon.”

Though o� cials warned that parts of western Japan were likely to be hit by torrential rain, Tokyo was likely to be spared the brunt.

Around two to four typhoons a year make landfall in Japan but they are un-usual in July. l

51Female:

84Male:

Labour participation rate% of male/female population15 and up

Living on less than $2 a day% of population

43.3

201015 1510 105 5Age

10

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100FemaleMale

7268

20

Life expectancy

In millions

Population 250 million

Indonesia presidential vote: July 9Joko Widodoaka “Jokowi” 53 years old

Former furniture businessowner turned town mayor and current governor of Jakarta

Hugely popular as leader of the capital due to hishumble background andhands-on approach, introduced policies seen as pro-poor but lack of experience in nationalpolitics seen as hindrance

Prabowo Subianto“Prabowo” 62 years old

Former general and commander of the army’s special forces, with strong links to the Suhartodictatorship era

Discharged from the military after admitting he ordered the abduction of democracyactivists, also accused ofhuman rights abuses during Indonesia’s occupation ofEast Timor

GDP growth %

5.02004

6.32007

4.62009

6.52011

5.32013

Economy

GDP current$878 billion

GDP per capita$3,557

Inflation7.3%

5.52014

forecast

Sources: IMF/WorldBank/UN/DESA/TransparencyInternational/IndonesiaTourism

Fishing boats are moored at Tomari port in Naha on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa as super typhoon Neoguri approaches the region, in this photo taken yesterday REUTERS

Allocating budget fundsJuly 4

A BangladeshiI came across a business story on this topic, and was surprised that the highest allocation was for defence. The allocation of Tk16,492 crore is far too much! All that money to be spent, without producing any returns , in either a � scal or social sense. And there’s no bene� t whatsoever for the poor of Bangladesh, as they face a constant shortage of healthcare, food, fuel, and many other necessities of life.

In contrast, despite our acute shortage of electrical power, for which almost the entire population su� ers, that sector gets only Tk9,284 crore. In reality, considering the dis-tress of all people, and that many services and revenue-earning sectors su� er from an acute and urgent shortage of electrical power, this allocation for defense is irrational and illogical.

Whom do we plan to � ght with these “wasteful toys of destruction”? Given the strength and resources of the countries having common boundaries with us, our armed might is akin to “chicken feed” for them.

The days of might is right are gone, and any idea that attacking is the best method of defence is in today’s reality utterly outdated. We should develop friendly relations with our powerful neighbours, rather than “throwing good money after bad” for unwanted expen-sive toys (so to say), which has no justi� cation, in this day and age.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Fruit (6)5 Joke (3)7 Competitor (5)8 Appropriate (6)10 Arch (3)12 Purplish brown (4)13 Newt (3)14 Plant’s support (4)16 Ego (4)17 Colour (3)18 Painful spot (4)20 Mineral spring (3)23 Vibration (6)24 Concluded (5)25 Domestic animal (3)26 Married (6)

DOWN1 High mountains (4)2 Drive (6)3 Build (5)4 Horse’s father (4)5 Fuel (3)6 Everyone (3)9 Short wind blast (4)11 Sweet potato (3)14 Certain (4)15 Swarmed (6)16 Distress signal (3)17 Multitude (5)18 Meat dish (4)19 Poke (4)21 Vegetable (3)22 Insect (3)

CROSSWORD

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

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 14 represents U so � ll U every time the � gure 14 appears.You have one letter in the control grid to start you o� . Enter it in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

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NUB lecturer held for remarks on BangabandhuJuly 4

Dr Ahsan HabibThousands of major crimes happen, including mur-der, kidnapping, and stealing bank money. Every day, the police remain inactive on one excuse or other. Now, suddenly, the same police is vigilant about quashing freedom of speech.

Zubair Ahmed Dr Ahsan Habib: What? You don’t put out your “freedom speech” in a classroom. Professionals with responsibilities should be held accountable.

Rafat Sadiq Zubair Ahmed: Academics should be able to express views contrary to popular opinion. End freedom of speech in education and you begin an irreversible slide towards an authoritarian state.Dr Ahsan Habib Zubair Ahmed: You are partly right. In classrooms, the freedom may be limited, but by the demand of

the course and the duty to judge it belongs to the Dean of the college. But the freedom the professor exercised is perfect in his capacity as a law professor, and universal as a citizen of Bangladesh. In my capacity as economics professor I often criticise the president, congress, and the Federal Reserve Bank inside the classroom.

Sammy Dr Ahsan Habib: When we create a personality cult, the constitution and human rights don’t matter. This is what happens in North Korea and in the former Soviet Union too. In a one-party dictatorship run by one family, there is no concept of free speech, notwithstanding what the law or the constitution say.

GBDr Ahsan Habib: Don’t speak out again or you are going to be arrested. :)

Let’s build this cityThe prime minister recently expressed an interest in building a Hong

Kong-like urban centre at Mawa point, near the still-under-con-struction Padma Bridge. This is a good idea, considering how much

our capital city has become overburdened due to a lack of workable decentralisation e� orts.

One of the key factors behind Dhaka’s current state of congestion is the massive in� ux of people migrating to it from all parts of the country. This is largely a result of the misguided notion that the capital is the only urban centre worth migrating to, despite the existence of large and functional metropolis-es such as Chittagong.

Many suggestions have been made as to how the state of the capital can be improved, without much real progress being made. Building an entirely new city might sound like an expensive idea, but it may very well save us more money in the long run, as investing in the capital has not been yielding the desired results in making it more liveable. A new city gives the government scope for a concrete plan which will take every facet of such an enormous undertaking into account, from feasibility to implementation.

There is only so much that can be done at this stage to improve Dhaka as our main urban hub. It would make more sense for the government to divert those � nancial resources towards building a new city some dis-tance away from Dhaka, and make it attractive enough for people to seek work and living opportunities in, giving the capital city and its existing citizens some much-needed room to breathe.

Easy rides for DhakaIt is no accident that many of the cities which are considered the “most

liveable” are the ones in which citizens ride bicycles rather than motor vehicles. Dhaka’s tra� c congestion can be explained by the fact that

only about 8% of the city’s surface is dedicated to roads. This is woefully inadequate, considering that other large cities dedicate about 25% of their surface area to roads.

The shortage of road space is not going to go away. Every year, about 40,000 new cars compete for space on Dhaka roads, making the con-gestion worse with each passing year.

The most obvious solution is for more people to use vehicles which occupy less space on the roads – namely bicycles. It is no mere coincidence that one of the world’s most liveable cities is Copenhagen – a city where more people choose to ride their bikes in spite of the fact that many of them cana� ord cars.

Every year, our government spends thousands of crores subsidising fuel. Why not raise the price of fuel and spend the increased revenue to subsidise bicycles? In wealthier countries, everyone can a� ord a bicycle. That is sadly not the case in Bangladesh yet.

A subsidy on bicycles would make them much more a� ordable. Furthermore, the government should take the initiative to create more bike paths, and new laws should be enacted to make our roads friendlier towards bicyclists. We should work towards a society where bike-riding is not only feasible and safe, but encouraged.

We should work towards a society where bike-riding is not only feasible and safe, but encouraged

Building an entirely new city might sound like an expensive idea, but it may very well save us more money in the long run

The undead cityJuly 4TJThe construction of new buildings, the garbage disposal problems, and the scarcity of water – all these problems of this city won’t go away, unless the number of people living in the city is decreased. However, that’s not going to happen. So, the authorities should work harder to do something about these issues. And I agree with the author that we all should do whatever we can to make our city livable.

Raihan Hadi TJ: Thank you for your insight. I believe we can help decrease the population in the city if we put more thoughts and e� orts into decentralising, and sort of allocate large portions of the population in the other divisions in order to further build the other cities. That way, balance can be achieved and more communities can be developed outside Dhaka, which is very much needed at this point of time. :)

TanzilEveryone has solutions! No wonder the city is in such a shape when it has never had its share of creative visionaries who would take it to what it could be. Everyone blabbering away and citing ob-vious solutions, independent of the holistic quality of life in the city. Sad … sad … sad.

Volunteer workshop for 100 Smiles 2014

July 3

AarshanThis is a nice initiative!

Let’s get o� this listJuly 4

SSPeople need to change � rst. We need to stop

thinking as individuals (and be ridiculously hung up on it), and need to start thinking as a part of a

nation (maybe at least for a couple hours every day?). That might do the trick.

Bakarkhani: From Mughal courts to old Dhaka

July 4

Mariam IspahaniI have been enjoying bakarkhani since I was a

child. Never knew the story behind this baked treat until I read your article. I have Facebooked

and Tweeted this interesting article to my friends and followers. Now, I must � nd and visit this

bakery in Old Dhaka!

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

n M Abdul Latif Mondal

In his budget speech on June 5, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith proposed Tk15,510cr for

social safety net programs (SSNPs) for � scal 2014-15, which is Tk2,875cr more than last year’s. The FM listed the programs that the government implemented over the last � ve years, these included the stipend program, the special stipend program for physi-cally challenged students, allowances for insolvent disabled persons, old age allowances, allowances for expecting and lactating mothers, allowances for widows and divorced women, the one-house-one-farm project, the Ashrayan project, food for works program, test relief, gratuitous relief, food assistance for destitute mothers, and the char livelihood project. He further said the government also provided special allowances, employment generating training, and stipend to the socially and economically excluded Hijra, Dalit, Harija, and Bede communities with a view to mainstreaming them.

It is good to see that allocation for social protection has been increased for � scal 2014-15 over that of last year. But the bene� ciaries will hardly be bene� ted from the increased allo-cation due to a number of reasons:

One, there will be an increase in the number of bene� ciaries along with the increase in allocation. For instance, the government will enhance the ex-isting number of disabled bene� ciar-ies to 4,00,000, and that of disabled students to 50,000. So, an increase in allocation per head will be very insig-ni� cant. Two, past experience shows that purchasing power of the bene-� ciaries had decreased due to an in-crease in the prices of basic necessities of life. This neutralised the increase in allocation per head. The present trend of price hike says that this is going to be repeated in � scal 2014-15. As a result, the increased allocation will not bring any improvements in the lives of its targeted bene� ciaries.

SSNPs can be an e� ective tool in reducing the large-scale poverty in our country. The programs in the government and NGO sectors have so far failed to achieve the desired results due to a number of factors. These include a rapid increase of population among people living below the poverty line and a lack of coordination and e� ectiveness in the implementation of SSNPs.

It is a fact that there has been a declining trend in the rate of poverty in the country, but that has not made a signi� cant di� erence in the total

number of people living below the poverty line. According to the sixth � ve-year plan (SFYP) spanning 2011-15, the total number of people living below the poverty line in 1991-92 was about 56 million against a total popula-tion of 113 million. In 2010-11, the total population living below the poverty line stood at more than 47 million against a total population of 149.77 million. This means that although the poverty rate of 56.6% in 1991-92 came down to 31.5% in 2010-11, there was not a signi� cant fall in the number of poor people. This happened due to a number of factors, which include a high birth rate among poor people, and the income inequality of the poor and the non-poor.

While there has been a drastic fall in the birth rate among people in the middle and higher echelons of society, the opposite has happened with the poor because of their lack of educa-tion, consciousness, and propensity for high standards of living. They have become victims of the vicious cycle of poverty.

From the Report of the Poverty Monitoring Survey-2004, it appears that while the monthly income of a poor household had decreased from Tk4,741 in 1999 to Tk4,488 in 2004, the monthly income of the non-poor

household increased from Tk10,462 to Tk11,295. The Report on House-hold Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES)-2010 shows that the concentra-tion of income has slightly decreased. Consequently, there has not been any signi� cant reduction in the number of poor people.

According to the SFYP, the key challenges of implementing SSNPs are coverage issues, targeting bene� ciaries, leakages, and disparity in regional distribution. The FM’s budget speech on June 5 shows that only 24.57% of poor households are under the coverage of social protection bene� ts. This means, three-fourths of poor households remain outside the reach of SSNPs.

The government has to depend on the union parishad (UP) for the

selection of bene� ciaries. There are complaints that the UP-led bene� ciary selection process is overtly � awed, because the selectors often resort to nepotism, favouritism, and the allocation of cards on a partisan basis. On the other hand, UP representatives say that it is quite di� cult to adhere to

rules in bene� ciary selection as vari-ous pressure groups, like local political leaders, in� uence the process.

Leakages have been a strong chal-lenge in the successful implementa-tion of SSNPs. According to the SFYP, leakages in the food for works program have been estimated to be 26%. Leak-age in the female stipend programs is in the 10-12% range. About 20-40% of the budgetary allocations for the female secondary stipend program do not reach the bene� ciaries. More

such instances may be cited. Studies have also shown that while coverage is relatively low, a signi� cant number of households gain access to multiple programs.

Bribery is another factor. Various studies have shown that it is relatively greater in programs like vulnerable group development, vulnerable group feeding, and allowances for widows and distressed women.

HIES-2005 showed that there was regional disparity in the distribution of households receiving social protec-tion bene� ts. Barisal and Rajshahi divisions, with the highest incidences of poverty, did not have the corre-spondingly higher number of social protection bene� ciaries. In contrast, Sylhet Division, with the second low-est poverty incidence, had the highest number of social bene� ciaries.

Thus, an increase in allocation is not enough. What is needed is e� ec-tive implementation of SSNPs, which needs a strong political will. If proper-ly implemented, SSNPs can be a very e� ective tool in bringing down the present rate of poverty and extreme poverty further, and to achieve the goal stipulated in the SFYP. l

M Abdul Latif Mondal is a former government secretary.

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

n Ikhtisad Ahmed

It is easier to be narrow-minded than not, easier to sternly judge based on an inordinately scarce amount of information than to expand an anaemic pool of

knowledge that creates the environ-ment for improved understanding. Coupled with the overriding princi-ple of short-termism that the world thrives on, the acceptable thing to do becomes equating terrorism to religion rather than grappling with the com-plexities of the subject.

The truth is, ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their various other incarnations do not represent Islam or Muslims. They forcibly assert they do, and convince enough on both sides of the unfortu-nate aisle of reality – those who would blindly rally behind them or seek to use them to further their own causes, and those who would blithely use them to spread fear and prejudice – to become the de facto face of the reli-gion and its people.

Worldwide political narratives and the bene� ts to both of the aforesaid contemptible sides fuel this fanatical conversion of the mind. Islam, the religion, neither needs justi� cation, nor a defender. The theological discourse should also be cast aside for the purposes of the violence perpetrated in the name of religion, since faith is a personal choice and journey that, in the absence of agendas driving interpretation, cannot inherently demand violence of individual followers.

The crusades did not come about as

a result of each disciple independently attaining enlightenment in his own home. The focus, thus, needs to be the politics of Islam and its politicisation, which are doing irreparable damage to the idea and image of the faith, and, therefore, require immediate surgical removal.

The growths are no longer benign, and they are nigh on impossible to distinguish from the religion, forcing individuals to think that in exercising their choice to believe, they are also defenders. Pushed further right, de-fenders become soldiers, soldiers mar-tyrs, martyrs inhabitants of heaven; so goes the over-simpli� ed and � agrantly incorrect theory that the seemingly in-� nite herds suggest is easy to be duped into following.

These fanciful transitions become customary when the removal of mod-eration and reason by authoritarian tendencies force those su� ering, yet refusing or being unable to join the au-tocrats, to the opposite extreme. The latest in a long line of manufactured threats of – and to, indistinguishably one and the same, for what is a danger

projected from Islam to the world is an internal danger too – the religion is the � ssures within.

Where there was one cult, there are suddenly two. The blessing is that they seem intent on � ghting one another to the bitter end. The curse is that there is no end, nor any way of containing,

geographically or otherwise, the vio-lence. Having been produced by the incompetent West who failed to direct, the world is feeling the e� ects of hasty Occidental thought and action.

They are adverse, terse, and long-lasting. The foolish and absent Commander-in-Chief Bush and his equally delusional and dishonest sidekick Blair may never apologise or acknowledge the truth, but ISIS did not exist before their ill-conceived 2003 invasion of Iraq.

That it was ill-fated caused saner heads to prevail a decade later. The non-intervention in Syria, however, allowed ISIS to � ourish. The continued mismanagement of Iraq provides this dominant germ a perfect Petri dish. It is strengthened by those who do not identify themselves as members

of ISIS, but have a common enemy in al-Maliki’s Shia-dominated intolerant government.

The historical Sunni-Shia tensions, like most of the political upheavals of Islam in its � rst millennium, were buried deep under imperialism by the time the 20th century came along. They were unknown even to the aver-age Muslim, and open hostilities were isolated incidents.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire furthered the unity of denomina-tions by ushering in pan-Arabism and nationalism. The gradual decay of Arab unity, variously prompted or encouraged by the West that neither had a comprehensive and respectful understanding of the region nor ever seemed inclined to gain one, recreated divisions. Saudi supremacy, the Ira-nian Revolution, the Taliban, the Gulf Wars, and widespread Islamophobia deepened them.

Those taking measured or edu-cated approaches to religion are an ever-shrinking minority in a world that has married it to politics. Regardless of faith and denomination, the promise of heaven demands an irrevocable ideological loyalty that no amount of money nor any other reward can buy. Driven by idiocy, lunacy or both, politicians and their advisers continue to rely on this as they believe in the self-perpetuating myth of control. The present war is the last war, the next war the present one. l

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

To the sound of trumpetsF R O M T H E M A R G I N S

The truth is, ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their various other incarnations do not represent Islam or Muslims

What is needed is e� ective implementation of SSNPs, which needs a strong political will

n Sayma Sayed

Climate change is one of the burn-ing issues which are now being discussed across the globe. A

few decades ago, it was regarded only as a “concept” or “belief” that was expected to happen in the future. But at present, the changing patterns of temperature, rainfall, and rising sea level are generating urgent public discussions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts an increase in the world’s average temperature within the range of 1·4°C to 5·8°C by 2100. As a result of climate change, there is a great possibility of the dry and arid areas becoming drier, and the wet areas have more chance to be � ooded. By observing the recent years’ extreme weather events it can be said the number of hurricanes, earth-quakes, volcanic eruptions, and the other disasters have been increasing over the world.

Human health is inexorably linked to the global climatic changes. Though climate change is a global issue and it does a� ect the health system of the entire world, poor and vulnerable pop-ulations of the least developing and developing countries are most suscep-tible. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that every year about 150, 000 deaths occur worldwide in the low-income countries owing pri-marily to the adverse e� ects of climate change, which are primarily crop failure, � oods, malnutrition, diarrheal diseases, and malaria.

Bangladesh – due to its geography, large population, and high suscepti-bility to waterborne and vector-borne disease – is one of the most vulner-able countries. The harsh e� ects of climate change only exacerbate this vulnerability. Moreover, it has been predicted that the combination of higher temperature and potential increase in summer precipitation may increase the spread of many infectious diseases.

The other potential health threats due to climate change in Bangladesh are increase of heat stroke, dehydra-tion, and aggravation of cardiovascular diseases in elderly people, increasing risk of waterborne diseases like chol-era and diarrhea, risk of malnutrition, and more. In the realm of communi-cable diseases, higher temperature and impacts of climate change can decrease the general health and immu-nity of the population, making at-risk

populations and those living with HIV/AIDS and other immunode� ciency disorders more prone to adverse dis-ease-related e� ects. The reproductive health of women may also be a� ected due to increased salinity levels in the coastal areas.

Bangladesh has already taken some responsive measures for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Bangladesh is the signatory to the United Nations Framework Con-vention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Moreover, the country has implement-ed other policies like The National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA), Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), National Water Management Plan (NWMP), National Environmental Management Action Plan (NEMAP), National Plan for Disaster Management (NPDM), National Disaster Management Policy (NDMP), social safety net policies and Annual Development Plans (ADPs), Health Nutrition and Population Sec-tor Program (HNPSP) etc.

In support of these polices, the fol-lowing actions are needed to prepare and promote population resiliency against the health-related threats of climate change – developing a plan to identify the urgent and immediate needs for climate change adaption; developing a policy to reduce envi-ronment pollution; implementing supportive policies for farmers to start a long-term diversi� ed farming system that supports e� ective local adapta-tion to ensure food security; devel-oping an eco-friendly urban design plan; tree plantation and promoting a� orestation; spending more money on rainwater storage; strengthening the technical support and guidance to manage the outbreaks of vector-borne diseases e� ectively; engage health sector experts in local-level planning; preparation and implementation of strong comprehensive disaster man-agement plan; and taking initiative to ensure security after disaster to pre-vent sexual violence against women.

Bangladesh will experience weath-er-related and climate disaster-related impacts due to its location by the Bay of Bengal. But, measures must be taken to reduce the risk, and to pro-mote adaptation and resiliency. So, we should act immediately to � ght against the adverse impact of climate change from local to national level. l

Sayma Sayed works with Eminence Associates for Social Development.

Act now to save us

Allocation is only part of the job

Non-intervention in Syria allowed ISIS to � ourish REUTERS

BIG

STO

CK

Mosharraf Karim as match breaker n Entertainment Desk

Prova and Mosharraf Karim will be seen in a six episode drama titled “Layek Chan The Great” this Eid on RTV. Written by Masum Reza, the drama is directed by Salahuddin Lavlu.

“Layek Chan the Great” tells the story of young Layek Chan, played by Mosharraf Karim, who is the only son of the family and pampered a lot by his mother. Layek is in love with Bably, played by Prova who is the daugh-ter of the village physician. A doubtful Layek is unable to express his feelings for her and meanwhile Bably falls for the village’s mo-bile service provider Mobile Manik, played by Pran Roy. One day, Layek has a dream that shows him how to win Bably’s heart and his mother helps him pursue her. On the other hand, expressing her feelings for Mobile Man-ik, Bably writes a letter and asks Layek to de-liver it to Manik. But the evil in Layek prompts him to not deliver the letter that creates a rift between the love birds and thus Layek tries to take advantage of the situation. l

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 201412

FilmX-Men: Days of Future Past 3D , NonStop(2D)Walking with Dinosaurs, Transformers:Age of Extinction3DTime: 10am – 10pmStar Cineplex, Bashundhara City

Noah 3DTarkaata, Godzilla 3DAmi Shudhu Cheyechi TomayMr Peabody & Sherman 3DJamuna Future Park, Blockbuster Cinemas

TODAY IN DHAKA

FROM AKHRA TO FUSION: TRANSFORMATION OF BAUL MUSIC (PART-7)

Incorporation of new musical instruments in Baul musicn Maqsoodul Haque

Historical records suggest that the ektara a single stringed lute was the only musical instruments used inside Akhara premises from the times of

Lalon and that tradition continues in many cases even today. The simple yet highly sophisticated instrument when played in accompaniment is be-lieved to convey “secret instructions” by Lalon, decipherable only by adept Bauls, who will therefore never devi-ate from the same. Baul music in its earliest forms was not based on any complex raga of the Indian classical tradition, nor were any taal, beat or accompaniment instruments used.

Nonetheless while evolving as a musical genre during the times of Lalon, there is no denying that many tunes or “soor” of the times were used and they were based on existing Mur-shidi, Marfati or other popular Su� genres, as much as Kirtans and Bha-jans from the Vaishnavites. Baul tunes

have similarities with folk music from such far o� places such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Persia, Turkey and Iraq, even with complex ones from Carnatic music traditions. As an inde-pendent genre it became recognised over time and after many musical el-ements, motifs and forms mixed and gave it the complete shape that we hear today. Baul music has traditional-ly fused with newer trends and ideas.

Rusticity coupled with simplic-ity of the music, was the pre-emi-nent beauty of Baul music, which remained strictly con� ned to Akhara centric Shadhus and Fakirs who had no aspirations to become professional singers. Over time this became a prob-lematic aspect in the spread of Baul music, because all too often singing was o� key, as basic tuning method-ologies were not understood. Also within Akharas, no one much cared, as how one sang or how instruments sounded as long as the messages with-in the songs were decipherable. These idiosyncrasies in fact added up in cre-ating the Baul music genre which was exceptional and unique.

Emphasised within the Akharas as far as approaches to musical instru-

ments are concerned, there has not been a marked shift to the earliest standard fare even to this day. Stay-ing true to ancient traditions, Bauls sing live and without microphones or ampli� cations of any kind in open air concerts. It is therefore not unusual that many Bauls acquired distinctive vocal skills with high pitch rendition of songs that reaches out to hundreds of assembled listeners. The general acceptability and popularity of Baul music over the years saw the incorpo-ration of several instruments to join in as accompaniment.

It was in fact about two decades after the transition of Lalon, that baya or small drum slung to the waist and played with the left hand was includ-ed into Baul music. A Baul with an ektara and baya has since remained the most enduring image in the me-dia. Many even strapped a payel or ghungroo (small bells) to their ankles to improvise and create rhythm. Baul repertoire moved on the same princi-pals applied by “one man bands” with minimalism in everything from what they wear to the instruments they play being part and parcel not only of their music, but also their belief system.

Initially it was the bamboo � ute and the 4 stringed Dotara, then progres-sively rhythm instruments such as the mandira, khartaal and jhuri, wooden castanets, later drums such as dhol, khol, naal as much as pakwaz made their steady entry. The Vaishnavite and Su� in� uences in Baul music meant that many instrument favoured by the Mughals and other aristocratic and feudal classes such as the serangi, shehnai, santoor, tabla, tanpura, chim-ta, khamak as well as harmonium and sitars made their inroads and sooner than not, became an integral part ofBaul music.

The inclusion of various instruments into Baul music were never imposed, but the need and demands of times, because while the music practiced and pursued in the Akhara institution was the base parameters set by the stake-holders themselves, it was gradually moving out of the Akharas and gaining mainstream acceptability. Since Bauls never believed in any prescribed musi-cal forms nor were they ever dogmatic or puritanical in matters of what instru-ments can or cannot be used, incorpo-ration of newer instruments and trends thus became inevitable. l

A Baul with the traditional instruments ektara and baya has since remained the most enduring image in the media ERSHADUL HAQUE TINKU

Loko Natyadal, one of the leading theatre troupes in the country, staged its most acclaimed play Kanjus on Saturday at the Shilpakala Academy celebrating its 50th founding anniversary SADIA MARIUM

n Entertainment Desk

David Gilmour’s wife has revealed that Pink Floyd will release a new album this October. “The Endless River” is the group’s � rst album since 1994’s “The Division Bell,” and was report-edly inspired by the same recording sessions.

Polly Samson, who married Gilmour in 1994, unveiled Pink Floyd’s secret plans on her Twit-ter account. In addition to announcing the al-bum’s title and release date, she referred to the record as “Rick Wright’s swansong.” Wright, who co-founded Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, died in 2008.

Vocalist Durga McBroom-Hudson, who has toured with Gilmour and Pink Floyd, subse-quently shared some further details. “The re-cording did start during ‘The Division Bell’ ses-sions (and yes, it was the side project originally titled ‘The Big Spli� ’ that Nick Mason spoke

about),” she wrote on Facebook. “David and Nick have gone in and done a lot more since then.”

According to McBroom-Hudson, “The End-less River” “was originally supposed to be a completely instrumental recording”. But Gilm-our gradually changed his mind, inviting Mc-Broom-Hudson to record backup vocals last December and adding more singing since then. Gilmour has “done a lead on at least one track,” she said, and Samson, who co-wrote seven of “The Division Bell’s” tracks, described herself on Twitter as one of “The Endless River’s” lyricists.

The presence of ex-Floyd bassist and singer Roger Waters (the architect of much of the band’s sound) has not been con� rmed.

Tensions between Waters and Gilmour are fraught, to say the least – the pair have reunited sporadically for one-o� performances, but it’s unlikely Gilmour will bring him into the studio for the new album. l

Pink Floyd to release new album this year

Pink Floyd pose for a portrait in 1968 in Los Angeles

Saimon and Bobby working in 2 � lms n Entertainment Desk

Actor Saimon Sadik, who is known for his charming smile and the charismatic Bobby are set to stun the audience with their tantalising chemistry on the silver screen. The duo is simultaneously working for two � lms, Sha� q Hasan’s “Sho-pno Chhoya,” and Iftekhar Chowdhury’s “Action Jasmine.” The � lm “Action Jasmine” is expected to release this year and the shooting of “Shopno Chhoya” is underway.

About working with Bobby, Saimon said: “We are very compatible. Bobby is a talented actor and we are giving it our best shot.

“Simon has proved himself in all his � lms. Apart from being a good actor, he is a supportive co-artist and I en-joyed working with him,” said Bobby.

Two of Bobby’s � lms will be released this Eid, “I Don’t Care” with Bappy and “ Hero: The Superstar” with Shakib Khan and Apu Biswas. l

Life and functions of megacities on National Geographicn Entertainment Desk

Watch out for the documentary “Megacities” today at 2:30pm on the National Geographic channel. This feature takes a revolutionary look at the places where most of us live: the modern Metropolis. “Megacities” focuses on the single aspect of a city’s infrastructure which best informs the life and functions of that place. Each city is examined as an organ-ism: living, breathing, and growing. In order to survive, these infrastruc-tures must each function independently, and yet blend into a harmony of man, machine, strategy and system, which de� nes it as a mega city. The show examines the infrastructure of eight iconic locations around the world: Las Vegas, Mexico City, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Sao Paulo, Mumbai and New York. l

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis groove to Bollywood tunen Entertainment Desk

Actor Ashton Kutcher recently grooved to the Bollywood tune at an Indian Friend’s wedding wearing an aqua blue, embroidered kurta and a � owing white dhoti teamed up with turban, reports eonline.com.

He was accompanied by pregnant � ance Mila Kunis when he attended the wedding at the Borgo Egnazia Re-sort in Savelletri di Fasano, Italy, July 5.

Kutcher, 36, sported what ap-peared be an aqua blue, embroidered kurta and a � owing white dhoti, or

long loincloth while Kunis, 30, wore a mint gown with a drop waist, which hid her baby bump, and silver accents.

Details about the wedding were not released, although photos have been posted online and one of the pictures shows Kutcher treating the crowd to a traditional Bollywood-style dance.

Ashton also performed a dance routine at the wedding. His partner was a professional dancer, not Mila.

Kunis and Kutcher began dating in early spring of 2012 and went public with their engagement earlier this year. l

Jessica Simpson ties the knotn Entertainment Desk

The couple tied the knot after a four-year relationship.

Jessica Simpson is doing the new-lywed thing again. This time, the lucky man is NFL player Eric John-son. He and Simpson tied the knot on Saturday. The wedding took place at the San Isidro ranch in California with a big ceremony. 250 of the cou-ple’s friends and family attended the wedding including Ashlee Simpson and her � ancé Evan Ross, Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, CaCee Cobb and Donald Faison.

“We are overwhelmed with com-plete happiness and love having made our eternal commitment,” said the newlyweds. l

Mosharraf Karim and Pran Roy in Layek Chan The Great

DHAKA TRIBUNE13Sp rt

Of formations and tactics

It promises to be a fascinating contest in prospect as two shrewd and tactically genius coaches in the form of Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and Germany coach Joachim Loew brace their teams up for the � rst semi� nal of the Fifa World Cup 2014 at Belo Horizonte today.

With his trump card Neymar ruled out of the World Cup due to the inju-ry he su� ered against Columbia in the quarter� nal and Thiago missing be-cause of suspension, Scolari may not has had to work so hard in the tourna-ment so far as he has worked hard now to overcome the uphill task of toppling Germany to book a place in Maracana’s � nal on next Sunday. He has to devise a magic formula to compensate for the vacuum created by those two key loss-es. Scolari used the 4-2-3-1 formation against Chile and with the possibility of Willian coming in, the 2002 world cup winning coach of Brazil may deploy the same formation. He might also ponder using a 3-5-2 formation with Fernand-inho, Luiz Gustavo, Oscar and Hulk marshaling the mid� eld with Fred and Willian playing as forwards. Marcelo, Dante or Maicon, David Luiz and Dani Alves should constitute the core of de-fense while Fernandinho and Gustavo might drop deep occasionally to nullify German threats.

On the other hand, Loew had been essentially � elding a 4-3-3 formation since the start of the tournament with Philipp Lahm deployed as a holding

mid� elder and Thomas Mueller as a false-nine. The choices were strange in that Loew mostly favored a 4-2-3-1 formation throughout Germany’s World Cup quali� cation campaign. In the quarter-� nal against France, Loew reverted to his former formation as the Germany coach repositioned Lahm in his preferred right-back role. He re-stored his previously more utilized 4-2-3-1, and even � elded an out-and-out striker in Miroslav Klose to spearhead the attack.

Meanwhile, Fifa has con� rmed that Brazilian team will wear their original uniform consisting of yellow shirts, blue shorts and white socks. This will be the third time the Scolari army will be playing in their traditional out� ts. The � rst time they were in their tradi-tional out� t was against Croatia in the World Cup opener, a match they won 3-1 while the second was in the goal-less draw against Mexico. In their three following matches against Cameroon, Chile and Colombia, Brazil wore white shorts.

The Germans wore their trademark white uniform only once in the World Cup, in the 1-0 victory over the Unit-ed States in the group stage. Germa-ny thought of playing in their second green kit, but that idea was scrapped for being unpopular, according to Oli-ver Bierho� , the technical coordinator of the German team. Germany will now wear red and black shirts, black shorts and black socks with a red accent and dash of white.

The ever so important individual to o� ciate this high voltage encounter will be Marco Rodriguez from Mex-ico, the referee who failed to see Luis Suarez bite Chilieni during the Uru-guay-Italy match in the � rst round. In-cluding Uruguay’s 1-0 win against Italy on June 24, the Mexican has refereed two World Cup matches so far. l

VGERMANY Brazil

Estadio Mineirao, Belo Horizonte (BRA)08 Jul 2014 - 17:00 Local time (2:00 AM BST)

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Stockholm, June 24 1958BRAZIL 5 FRANCE 2

Pele, who was 17-years-old, had scored his � rst World Cup goal in Brazil’s 1-0 win over Wales in the quarter-� nals but at a time when television was beginning to expand, his fame rapidly spread after his perfor-mance in the semi-� nal against France.The stage was set for a classic after Vava put Brazil ahead in the second minute and Just Fontaine equalised seven minutes later. Didi put Brazil back in front six minutes before halftime, then Pele took over.He scored a 23-minute hat-trick with goals in the 52nd, 64th and 75th minutes to secure Brazil’s place in the � nal before Roger Piantoni scored a late consolation to make the score 5-2. Brazil won the World Cup against Sweden by the same scoreline with Pele scoring another two goals to take his 1958 World Cup tally to six.

Mexico City, June 17 1970ITALY 4 W GERMANY 3 (AET)

One of the greatest World Cup matches of all time remembered mainly for the astonishing extra time period that settled it and put Italy into the � nal for the � rst time since 1938.Roberto Boninsegna’s eighth minute goal looked like winning it for the Italians in front of a 102,000 crowd at the Azteca Stadium but as injury time drew to an end German sweeper Karl-Heinz Schnellinger equalised.After four minutes of extra time West Ger-many struck again with Gerd Mueller putting them 2-1 ahead to start a frantic burst of � ve goals in 17 minutes. Tarcisio Burgnich made it 2-2 before Gigi Riva put the Italians back in front later with a shot on the turn.That lead only last six minutes before Mueller scored to make it 3-3. The Italians went straight up the other end with Gianni Rivera striking in the 111th minute to make it 4-3.

Seville, July 8 1982 W GERMANY 3 FRANCE 3 (AET)

France though, appeared to be heading for their � rst World Cup � nal when they led 3-1 after eight minutes of extra time. Although Pierre Littbarski had given West Germany a 17th minute lead, that had been cancelled out by a Michel Platini penalty soon after and the French, the better side, almost won the game when Manuel Amoros hit the crossbar in stop-page time. Justice appeared to be done when Marius Tresor and Alain Giresse struck to put France 3-1 ahead after 98, but with injured captain Karl-Heinz Rummenigge coming o� the bench to lead the � ghtback, the Germans pulled level with goals from Rummenigge and Klaus Fischer before they won in the World Cup’s � rst shootout. They then met Italy in the � nal, and, as they had been in the 1970 semi, were beaten again, 3-1 in Madrid.

Turin, July 4 1990 W GERMANY 1 ENGLAND 1 (AET)

West Germany won 4-3 on penaltiesEngland reached the semi-� nals for the � rst time since 1966 but Germany triumphed in a highly emotional and dramatic clash.Andreas Brehme put Germany ahead after an hour with a de� ected free-kick before Gary Lineker equalised 10 minutes from time. Neither team scored again in extra time - though both hit the woodwork - so the outcome was decided by penalties with both sides scoring their � rst three. Stuart Pearce then missed for England, Olaf Thon scored for West Germany to make it 4-3 before Chris Waddle famously sent his penalty into orbit to give the Germans victory.Another iconic moment followed as German captain Lothar Matthaeus consoled a dis-traught Waddle after the game.

Paris, July 8 1998 FRANCE 2 CROATIA 1

On a night of almost unbelievable tension France, playing at home in their capital city, came from behind to reach the World Cup � nal for the � rst time. Croatia, competing as an independent nation for the � rst time and riding on an emotional wave of support from home, had impressed throughout the tour-nament and quali� ed for the last four in style beating Germany 3-0 in the quarter-� nals. France, as hosts had looked superb for most of the tournament too with wins over South Africa, Saudi Arabia, The match was marred by the sending o� of French defender Lau-rent Blanc 14 minutes from time for elbowing Croatian Slaven Bilic although TV replays proved that Bilic feigned the injury.That kept Blanc out of the � nal which France won with a 3-0 victory over Brazil.

M E M O R A B L E W O R L D C U P S E M I - F I N A L S5

Germany scour university data for tips to beat Brazil, coach saysn That no European team has won any of the previous six World Cups in Latin America is not a daunting prospect for Germany as they head into Tuesday’s World Cup semi-� nal against hosts Brazil, according to as-sistant coach Hansi Flick.

Three-times World Cup winners Germany are con� dent that two years of meticulous university re-search combined with their own scouting and preparations for the conditions will give them an edge against � ve-times winners Brazil on their home turf.

“We’re very, very well-prepared and we’re looking forward to play-ing Brazil,” Flick told reporters when asked about how Germany planned to ended the dominance of Latin American teams when playing in their own region.

“We’ve been working on this proj-ect for the last two years and our

entire system has been built up for that.”

Germany are undefeated in Brazil but haven’t had to face a Latin Amer-ican team yet: their four wins were against Portugal, the United States, Algeria and France with a draw against Ghana.

Major European rivals such as Spain, Italy and England have al-ready been beaten or knocked out by South American teams.

Flick said to get ready for South American teams Germany have ben-e� ted from a giant data base put together by a team of about 50 stu-dents at Cologne’s sport university over the last two years.

That information, combined with scouting reports, has been used for detailed analyses of Brazil and their players.

“The sports students in Cologne have been studying in great detail our opponent and put every play they’ve run, every newspaper article

on them, and everything about them out there under the microscope and made all that data available to us,” Flick said at Germany’s base camp on the Atlantic coast in Northeastern Brazil.

“We’ve got this enormous data base to draw upon and, together with our scouts, we’re able to take a close look at our opponent and make our plans for the match. It’s a project we’ve been working on intensively for the last two years. We’ve been able to cull some very high quality information from all the data from the students. It’s very much helped us prepare.”

Germany have been turning to the student researchers at the Deutsche Sporthochschule Koeln increasingly over the last decade. Former Ger-many coach Juergen Klinsmann � rst began tapping the data accumulated by the students, most of whom are soccer enthusiasts and thrilled to be working on a project that could

possibly help, even in a small way, to win the World Cup.

While the students are sworn to secrecy about their intelligence gathering, their Professor Juergen Buschmann headed the project has been quoted in German newspapers saying the students use an eclec-tic variety of sources to chronicle such things as how players react in pressure situations, what are their preferred routes, how do they react when fouled, what gets under skin and how do they sprint for the ball?

He said the one trend that he was at liberty to reveal was that top teams change their tactics frequently but provided no further details - not sur-prising but tantalising nevertheless.

The intelligence has come into special focus for the World Cup in Brazil in part because Germany has never won here on the continent with their three World Cup titles won in Switzerland (1954), West Germany (1974) and Italy (1990). l

Germany’s national football team coach Joachim Loew (C) gestures as he talks to his players during a training session in the village of Santo Andre north of Porto Seguro on Saturday REUTERS

Walson brace propels Brothersn

Haitian forward Au-gustine Walson net-ted a brace as Broth-ers union returned to winning ways with a convincing 4-1 victory over Uttar Baridhara in the Ni-tol-Tata Bangladesh Premier Football

League at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Walson opened the scoring in the 22nd minute from the penalty spot before Faisal Mahmud doubled the Orange’s lead in the 41st minute. Wal-son scored his second of the day at the hour mark while Malek completed the route in the 81st minute. Dulal scored the consolation goal for Uttar Baridhara three minutes before stipulated time.

The Orange remained at � fth posi-tion despite salvaging all three points. They now have 36 points from 23 matches while Uttar Baridhara are lan-guishing at the bottom of the table with only 12 points having played the same number of outings. l

Fahad maintains solo leadn Tribune Desk

Mohammad Fahad Rahman, the young-est Fide Master of the country, contin-ued his unbeaten record as well as his solo lead at the top of the Union Insur-ance 34th National Junior (Under-20) Chess Championship 2014 points table with a victory over Minhazul Alam in the seventh round yesterday.

It was Fahad’s seven successive vic-tory in the meet and smoothened his chances of clinching the title. Fahad now has seven points after the end of the seventh round.

In the matches held at the Bangla-desh Chess Federation hall-room yes-terday, Siam beat Mahmud Sharif, Avik beat Abdullah Al Muhit, Protiva beat Afrin Jahan Munia and Swarnavo beat Khandoker Ashikul Islam. l

Djokovic dedicates win to former coachn Emotional Novak Djokovic wept tears of joy as he dedicated his epic Wimbledon triumph against Roger Federer to his former coach who died last year.

Djokovic held his nerve to win one of the all-time great Wimbledon � nals with a 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 5-7, 6-4 victory over seven-time champion Federer in front of an en-thralled Centre Court crowd on Sun-day.

It was a cathartic victory for the Serbian world number two, who had lost � ve of his last six Grand Slam � -nals and his last three in a row.

“I dedicate this to my future wife and our future baby. I’m going to be a father soon. It’s a great joy of life,” Djokovic said.

“And last but not least to my � rst coach, who taught me all the basics of tennis, how to behave and every-thing I know about tennis, Jelena Gencic.

“Unfortunately she passed away last year and this is for her.”

Djokovic’s out-pouring of emo-tion was understandable after he went through a nerve-shredding af-ternoon that saw him blow a match point in the fourth set.

“After dropping the fourth set it wasn’t easy to regroup, I had to com-pose myself and � nd the energy to win,” Djokovic said.

“That is why Roger has 17 Grand Slams, because in the important moments he comes up with his best shots.

“I don’t know how I did it but I managed to win that � fth set. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sp rt

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

After the goal rush, negativity mars quarter-� nalsn Reuters, Brasilia

After the attack-minded tactics and goal glut of the group stages, the World Cup quarter-� nals were predictably marked by caution and even aggression as hosts Brazil pushed soccer’s laws to the limit in dispatching Colombia.

Only � ve goals were scored across the four games, one a penalty and one a direct free kick, and the average per match at the � nals has crept down to 2.6, still the highest since 2.7 in France 1998 but far short of the record of 5.4 in Switzerland in 1954.

The inevitable tension of the knock-out phase prompted some coaches to fall back on negativity and Brazil’s ugly 2-1 win over the Colombians was a de-pressing comedown after some enter-taining contests earlier in the tourna-ment when a majority of teams played with ambition, style and verve.

Colombia, who had thrilled with wonderful displays in reaching the last eight, were drawn into a kicking match, with the Brazilians clearly under orders from coach Luiz Felipe Scolari to win by any means.

The dark side of the encounter in Fortaleza overshadowed David Luiz’s brilliant free kick that won the game for Brazil as Scolari appeared to have instructed his players to treat fouling as a tactical resource rather than an in-fringement of the laws of the game.

The quarter-� nal between Europe-an heavyweights Germany and France was a much tamer a� air, with the Ger-mans taking an early lead through Mats Hummels and content to sit back and protect it on a hot afternoon in Rio de Janeiro.

France had set the � nals alight after putting � ve goals past Switzerland and thrashing Honduras 3-0 in the group phase but that was a distant memory as Les Bleus had little to o� er in attack.

Saturday’s last-eight clash between

Argentina and Belgium followed a simi-lar pattern, with the South Americans go-ing ahead in the eighth minute through Gonzalo Higuain and showing little incli-nation to push for a second goal.

Alejandro Sabella’s side, desperate to make the last four for the � rst time since 1990, turned in a canny tactical display in Brasilia and survived a few late scares from an otherwise tooth-less Belgian team to set up a semi-� nal meeting with the Netherlands.

Runners-up to Spain in 2010, the Dutch got sweet revenge in Johannes-burg when they thrashed the holders 5-1 in their opening group game but despite their obvious attacking strengths were unable to break through a determined Costa Rica defence in their quarter-� nal.

With Costa Rica, the surprise packag-es in the last eight, defending desperate-ly for long periods, it said it all that the team’s fans celebrated the end of extra time and taking the Dutch to a penalty shootout as if they had won the game.

Bidding to become the � rst Central American team to reach the last four at a World Cup, they chose caution rather than playing the enterprising football that had garnered surprise wins against Italy and Uruguay and a draw with an-other former winner England that se-cured top spot in Group D.

In the end, they were undone by a ruthlessly e� cient set of Dutch penal-ties, Netherlands goalkeeper Tim Krul coming o� the bench at the end of ex-tra time to save two Costa Rican spot kicks.

The match was more evidence, if any were needed, that negative tactics can pay o� .

If they fail the doubt will always remain that perhaps taking the match to your opponents, at least in the early stages, might be the better option.

However, with so much at stake, particularly for hosts Brazil, a similar approach is likely for the semi-� nals. l

Super-sub Krul unapologetic about gamesmanshipn Reuters, Rio De Janeiro

Netherlands goalkeeper Tim Krul was back defending himself on Sunday, less than 24 hours after making two stun-ning penalty saves against Costa Rica to book his team’s place in the World Cup semi-� nals.

The towering Krul replaced � rst-choice keeper Jasper Cillessen speci� -cally for the shootout in Salvador after the teams � nished extra time dead-locked at 0-0.

The 26-year-old vindicated his coach’s unorthodox substitution when he saved spot-kicks from Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umana to give the Dutch a 4-3 shootout victory and a place in the semi-� nals against Argentina.

But he also came under heavy criti-cism on social media for his intimidating tactics against the Costa Rican penalty takers, staring them down and yelling at them before they took their shots.

Asked whether he had overstepped the line of good sportsmanship, a de� -ant Krul said he had nothing to apolo-

gise for.“I don’t think I’ve done anything

wrong,” he told a news conference at his team’s training ground in Rio on Sunday.

“I didn’t shout anything nasty at them. I just told them that I knew where they were going. I’m trying obviously to get in their heads and it worked yesterday.

“It’s a way of trying to psyche them out. Obviously they are under massive pressure, I’m under massive pressure as well so I used everything in my power to make it happen and luckily enough, happy enough it happened.”

Krul, who has saved just two of 20 penalties he faced with his club side Newcastle, said the mind games had begun even before he stood on the line to try and save the � rst spot-kick.

Costa Rica had made the quarter-� -nals for the � rst time by beating Greece on penalties but Krul said he knew they were rattled as soon as they saw him warming up.

“I de� nitely think it had an im-

pact, when I started my warm-up their whole bench was confused,” he said.

“If you see their manager’s face when I came on, he was looking over at our manager, his face was priceless. It was de� nitely one of those fantastic moves.”

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal, a renowned master tactician, had been hatching the plan for some time.

But he kept it such a secret that he did not even tell Cillessen and only let Krul know about it on the bus to the stadium but told him to keep it under wraps.

“The manager and the goalie coach told me before the game that if we had a substitution left there was a possibil-ity that they may use me in the penalty shootout,” Krul said.

“So obviously for me the whole game I was watching it with a di� erent view because I knew the possibility was there.

“We have a plan before every game and I have my own style and I think it works. I’m over the moon that I saved two penalties.” l

Sao Paulo joy at Kaka returnn AFP, Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo fans on Sunday turned out in their thousands to see the club pres-ent former Real Madrid and AC Milan mid� elder Kaka for the start of a � ve-month loan at his former club before he heads to Major League Soccer.

Former Brazil international Kaka, overloooked for the World Cup, will head to Orlando after his loan. Some 20,000 fans turned out at Sao Paulo’s Morumbi stadium to welcome him back to where it all began in 2001 for the 32-year-old.

“It is emotional to return 11 years lat-er to the club that former me and where I started playing aged eight,” said Kaka.

“To return to see family and friends is wonderful. Sao Paulo launched me into the world of football,” said Kaka, full name Ricardo Izecson Leite dos Santos.

“Many thanks to all of you for com-ing -- it is a very special day,” added the veteran, who received a commemora-tive shirt and launched into a rendition of the club song. He is set to make his second debut for the club at home to Chapecoense on July 19. l

Colombia’s footballers dance at Simon Bolivar Park upon their arrival in Bogota after their participation in the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014, on Sunday AFP

Thousands welcome Colombia homen AFP, Bogota

Tens of thousands of people mobbed the streets of Bogota to grab a glimpse of their heroes as Colombia’s World Cup squad arrived home Sunday after their historic run to the quarter-� nals.

The Colombian capital threw a mas-sive party for coach Jose Pekerman and his squad after the Argentinian team led Colombia’s players to the last eight for the � rst time, where they narrowly went down to host Brazil 2-1 in Fortale-za on Friday.

Not that anyone in Colombia was complaining. The Avianca airlines plane carrying the squad from Brazil was greeted at El Dorado airport by a huge arc of water � red by local � re crews and the players were led o� the aircraft along a red carpet and to an open-top bus.

Security o� cers and airport workers scrambled to shake hands, kiss or grab autographs of their returning heroes.

“Thanks for always being there, thanks for the support, we love you,” Colombia’s star forward James Rodri-guez, currently top scorer at the World

Cup with six goals, told the fanatical crowd.

Nadia Caracol, one of the Avianca � ight attendants, gushed: “It was the most exciting � ight of my life.”

Tens of thousands of people, many of them wearing the team’s yellow shirt, hit the streets of Bogota early to get a prime place to see the bus, which slowly made its way from the airport to Simon Bolivar park in the heart of Bo-gota, where an estimated 50,000 peo-ple thronged the area.

“We are very happy here waiting

for our great team, we are winners for having reached this point of the tour-nament,” said Eduardo, a fan accompa-nied by his two daughters.

Some fans combined football with a plea for peace - the Marxist FARC rebels have been waging the longest-running insurgency in Latin America - while others chanted: “Pekerman is Colom-bian!”

Another fan, Wilson Morales, proud-ly decked out in the yellow team shirt, told AFP: “Being Colombian, we have little joy, but this team is our pride.” l

Costa Rica’s forward and captain Bryan Ruiz (L) and Netherlands’ goalkeeper Tim Krul react during their penalty shoot-out of the quarter-� nal at the Fonte Nova Arena in Salvador in the 2014 FIFA World Cup on Saturday AFP

Galatasaray name Prandelli as the new managern Reuters

Former Italian World Cup coach Cesare Prandelli will replace Roberto Mancini as the next Galatasaray manager, the Turkish club announced on Monday.

Prandelli, 56, will succeed fellow Italian Mancini, who left the club after less than a season in charge after lead-ing the Istanbul side to a disappointing second-place � nish in the Turkish top-� ight last season.

Former Manchester City boss Manci-ni had signed for three seasons but left after what appeared to be a di� erence of opinion about the team.

He guided them to the Champions League round of 16 at the expense of Juventus and victory in the Turkish Cup � nal.

Prandelli, who will be o� cially un-veiled on Tuesday, resigned as Italy’s national team manager after the team failed to get past the group stage at the ongoing World Cup in Brazil.

He had been in charge of the Azzurri since 2010, having previously coached Fiorentina, Roma and Parma. l

Netherlands-Argentina, Bergkamp’s ‘perfect’ goaln AFP, Sao Paulo

Dennis Bergkamp’s famous goal for Netherlands against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup encapsulated not only the extraordinary elegance of the player himself, but also the essence of Dutch football.

Ahead of the sides’ reunion in the World Cup semi-� nals in Sao Paolo on Wednesday, the goal stands as a monument to the twin Dutch obsessions of technique and the rapid exploitation of space.

The score was 1-1 in the quarter-� nal match in a sun-soaked Marseille and both teams were down to 10 men when Dutch captain Frank de Boer launched a high 70-yard pass forward in the 90th minute.

After haring into the box down the inside-right channel, Bergkamp, then 29, leapt high into the air to meet the ball with his right foot, e� ortlessly

bringing it down.“You’ve got to be as still as possible,

as if you are standing still, but in the air, and controlling the ball,” Bergkamp explained to writer David Winner in a 2013 interview in football journal The Blizzard.

“I didn’t realise how high in the air I was. But you know you want that ball in that position. Not there, but here. So you have to jump up to meet the ball.”

As Argentine centre-back Roberto Ayala charged across to address the danger, Bergkamp cut inside him with his right foot and then, again with his right foot, bent a glorious shot past goalkeeper Carlos Roa and into the top-left corner.

Three touches, one unforgettable goal.

“You’re in that moment,” Bergkamp added. “That’s the feeling. After the � rst two touches, that moment! You

give absolutely everything. It’s like your life has led up to this moment.”

As the orange-clad fans behind the goal erupted in jubilation, Bergkamp put his face in his hands, as if scarcely able to believe what he had achieved, before falling � at on his back in the grass.

The moment was captured by Dutch radio commentator Jack van Gelder, who reacted to the goal by screaming Bergkamp’s name � ve times -- his voice quaking with emotion -- before uttering a low, guttural howl.

“You never play the perfect game,” Bergkamp said. “But the moment itself was, I think, perfect.”

The goal was to prove the high point for a richly talented generation that also included Edwin van der Sar, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Marc Overmars and Patrick Kluivert. The Dutch won the match 2-1, but lost on penalties to Brazil in the semi-� nals. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE15Sp rt

Germans urge referee to check tough-tackling Braziln AFP, Santo André

Germany star Bastian Schweinsteiger says referee Marco Rodriguez must pay close attention to tough-tackling Brazil in Tuesday’s World Cup semi-� nal to ensure fouls do not go unchecked.

The Mexican referee, who o� ciat-ed the match that saw Uruguay striker Luis Suarez bite Italy’s Giorgio Chielli-ni, has been appointed to handle the semi-� nal in Belo Horizonte.

Brazil captain Thiago Silva is sus-pended for the semi-� nal having been booked twice at Brazil 2014 while star Neymar is injured.

The Selecao have appealed Silva’s ban, but robust challenges from the hosts’ marked Friday’s quarter-� nal win and Schweinsteiger does not want a repeat.

Colombia playmaker James Rodri-guez, in particular, was dealt some rough treatment in Brazil’s 2-1 victory.

Only two Brazil players – Silva and goalkeeper Julio Cesar, who conceded a penalty – were booked by Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo despite the Selecao’s 31 fouls against Colombia.

“I am all for hard, clean challeng-es, but there were one or two tackles which were over the limit,” said Sch-weinsteiger after watching Brazil’s win.

“The Brazilians here aren’t the ma-gicians of old, the team has changed and so has their playing style.

“Hard challenges are de� nitely are part of their game, it’s something we have to be careful of and the referee too.”

Germany head coach Joachim Loew echoed Schweinsteiger’s sentiments.

“We were � ying home when the Colombia game was on, so I didn’t see much of the game, but there were a few hard fouls in what I did see,” said the 54-year-old.

“The Brazilians have technically good players, but they are also very robust and it’s something the referee must pay close attention to.” l

Brazil GermanyGames played 5 5Goals scored 10 10Goals per game 2 2 Shots on target 70% 70% Average attempts 16.4 14.8 Fouls committed 96 57 Yellow cards 10 4 Red cards 0 0Distance ran 106.8km 115.3kmPasses completed 1,816 2,938Pass completion rate 70% 80%

TOURNAMENT STATS

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

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Remarkably, for two perennial pow-erhouses who have won eight World Cups between them, this is only the second time Brazil and Germany have met in this competition. In their pre-vious game, Brazil won the 2002 � nal 2-0 thanks to two goals from Ronaldo.

Germany and Brazil are the joint third highest tournament scorers, with 10 each. They follow Colombia and the Netherlands on 12 goals each. Germa-ny have scored eight goals from open play and two from set-pieces. Brazil have scored seven from open play and three from set-pieces.

Brazil are aiming for a sixth title after earning that record � fth in 2002, while Germany are hopeful of a fourth following a 24-year gap since their last World Cup trophy.

Germany’s Thomas Mueller and Brazil’s Neymar are joint second in the tournament top scorers’ chart, on four goals each along with Argenti-na’s Lionel Messi. Neymar, though, is injured and will play no more in this tournament. Colombia’s James Rodriguez leads with six goals, but his team have been eliminated.

Germany’s Philipp Lahm is the best passer of the tournament, with 408 passes completed with a success rate of 86.6 percent.

Brazil won the World Cup in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002

Germany won the World Cup in 1954, 1974 and 1990

Previous meetingsThe teams have played each other 21 times, with Brazil winning 12, Germany four, and � ve draws. In all those games, Brazil have scored 39 goals, Germany 24.World Cup meetings:Their one previous meeting was in Yokohama, Japan, in the World Cup � nal on June 30, 2002. Brazil won 2-0.Confederations Cup meetings:Brazil have beaten Germany twice in the Confederations Cup, 3-2 in Nuremberg, Germany in 2005 and 4-0 in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1999.Friendlies:Brazil have won nine friendlies, lost four, and drawn � ve with Germany. Their last meeting was a friendly in Stuttgart, Germany, on Aug. 10, 2011. Germany won that game 3-2.Results so far at the 2014 World Cup:Penalty shootout record:Brazil have won three out of four World Cup penalty shootouts over the years. They lost to France in a 1986 quarter-� nal, but beat Italy in the 1994 � nal, beat Holland in the 1998 semi-� nal, and beat Chile in this tournament’s last 16.Germany have an impeccable World Cup penalty shootout record, winning four out of four. They beat France in a 1982 semi-� nal, Mexico in a 1986 quarter-� nal, England in a 1990 semi-� nal and Argentina in a 2006 quarter-� nal.

KEY STATS

BTV, Maasranga TV, Gazi TV

2:00AMBrazil v Germany

DAY’S WATCHMOST LIKED PHOTO OF JULY 7

The key battlesn AFP, Belo Horizonte

The on the � eld battles that could de-cide Tuesday’s World Cup semi � nal between Brazil and Germany in Belo Horizonte:

David Luiz v Thomas MuellerWith Neymar injured and captain Thia-go Silva suspended, Luiz is Brazil’s best player in the lineup against Germany.

Defensively Luiz has showed a dis-cipline he rarely did in three years at Chelsea before sealing a £50 million ($85 million) transfer to Paris Saint-Germain last month.

And he is also Brazil’s top goalscor-er after Neymar, having netted against Chile in the last 16 and won the quar-ter-� nal against Colombia with a stun-ning free-kick.

His toughest test yet awaits, though, in preventing Mueller from extending his stunning World Cup record of scoring nine times in 11 games.

Mueller will be keen to make amends for missing the semi-� nal in 2010 through suspension and has had previous success against Luiz. He outjumped the Brazil-ian to score for Bayern against Chelsea in the Champions League � nal of 2012, although Luiz emerged the victor on that occasion as Chelsea won on penalties.

Hulk v Benedikt HoewedesWithout star man Neymar due to a bro-ken vertebrae, Brazilian hopes will fall on the broad shoulders of Hulk to carry his side to the � nal of their World Cup.

The Zenit St Petersburg striker is yet to score in the tournament and missed

a penalty in his side’s shootout victory over Chile in the last 16.

However, he was a constant menace in his side’s 2-1 win over Colombia in the quarter-� nals and was only denied by � ne saves from David Ospina.

The steady Hoewedes has been de-ployed at left-back throughout the tour-nament despite normally playing in the centre of defence by his club Schalke.

Hoewedes should be able to physically compete where most defenders struggle against Hulk, but may not have the pace to prevent Brazil’s man mountain cutting onto his dangerous left foot to shoot.

Luis Gustavo v Toni KroosOld Bayern Munich teammates Gustavo and Kroos symbolise the contrast in styles between Brazil’s physical nature and Germany’s ability to keep the ball.

Gustavo missed the quarter-� nal against Colombia due to suspension, but is certain to return and will look to knock Kroos out of his rhythm in the same way Fernandinho and Paulinho ganged up on Colombia’s James Rodriguez in the quarter � nal.

With captain Philipp Lahm having returned to his traditional right back role in Germany’s the quarter-� nal vic-tory against France, Kroos has become a mid� eld reference point around which the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mesut Ozil feed.

One area in which Gustavo may not be able to stop Kroos, though, is his ex-cellent set-piece delivery which proved key in the last eight. Mats Hummels headed home the only goal of the game from his free-kick. l

Joachim Loew’s big Brazil testn AFP, Rio De Janeiro

Another semi-� nal is another battle of nerves for Joachim Loew, who risks be-coming Germany’s nearly man.

After eight years in charge of Die Mannschaft, Loew so far has one pre-vious World Cup semi-� nal, the 2008 European Championship � nal and the Euro 2012 semi-� nal to show. No tro-phy.

But the 54-year-old former assistant to Jurgen Klinnsman has brought on a team praised for its attacking play. And his tactics have been hailed by World Cup legends Pele and Diego Maradona.

Loew’s image is often seen in Germa-ny where he fronts an advertising cam-paign for a leading cosmetics brand, but the head coach rarely appears in the media spotlight.

The German Football Association (DFB) likes the team boss. It has already told him his job is safe and Loew is ex-pected to see out his contract which ex-pires after Euro 2016.

“What can be more beautiful in a

football dreamland than to play a World Cup semi-� nal against the hosts?” Loew said of Tuesday’s game against Brazil.

But he also acknowledged before the tournament that “the clock is ticking”.

Loew himself only made four appear-ances for West Germany’s Under-21s and played as a mid� elder for Eintracht Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and VfB Stuttgart.

He won the 1997 German Cup � nal as VfB Stuttgart coach and after working in Turkey and Austria, Loew became Ger-many’s assistant coach in 2004.

Loew was responsible for tactics with Klinsmann and the pair delighted the nation as Germany � nished third at the 2006 World Cup on home soil.

An impressive record of 75 wins in 110 internationals has earned Loew plenty of respect in Germany. And he is not afraid of taking risks.

When striker Mario Gomez struggled at Euro 2008, Loew benched the for-ward and switched to a 4-2-3-1 system which resulted in a 3-1 quarter-� nal win over Portugal en route to the � nal.

At the 2010 World Cup, Loew took the youngest squad since 1934 to South Africa and Germany swept aside En-gland and Argentina before losing their semi-� nal to eventual winners Spain.

Pele recently called Loew a “great tactician”, while Maradona said that Germany “roamed around with per-fection” in their 4-0 group thrashing of Portugal. l

Willian ready for Germany despite knockn AFP, Teresópolis

Brazil mid� elder Willian insisted on Sunday that he will be � t to play in the World Cup semi-� nal against Germany despite picking up a knock in training.

“I am feeling great. I was hurt on my left side in training yesterday (Sat-urday) and it bothers me a bit but it is nothing signi� cant and it won’t stop me training today,” the 25-year-old Chelsea player said in a press confer-ence at Brazil’s base in Teresopolis.

Willian is a leading contender to re-place the injured Neymar in the Brazil team for the game in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday but was forced to withdraw early from training on Saturday after appearing to hurt himself in a challenge with Hernanes.

As well as Neymar, who faces six weeks on the sidelines with a fractured vertebrae and has returned home to be-gin his recovery, captain Thiago Silva is set to miss the match at the Mineirao Stadium due to suspension.

However, the Brazilian Football Con-federation (CBF) have called on FIFA to rescind the yellow card he picked up in last Friday’s 2-1 quarter-� nal win against Colombia on the grounds that it was “unjustly shown”.

In� uential mid� elder Luiz Gustavo will return to the side after serving a one-match ban against Colombia. l

An impressive record of 75 wins in 110 internationals has earned Loew plenty of respect in Germany

Little footballer Azmain Mazhar

Monday, June 16, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

16 DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

Schweini con� dent of German win

German mid� eld enforcer Bastian Schweinstei-ger, referred to by the Bayern Munich fans as “Fussballgott” or “Football God”, dearly wants to prove that God is not on Brazil’s side by winning the epic semi� nal clash against the hosts today.

The well-mannered Schweinsteiger was talking to the press at the Estadio Mineirao where he expressed cautious optimism about his team’s triumph. It is mentionable that it was his � rst appearance before the press since the World Cup kicked o� .

The 29-year old mid� elder started the press-er on a funny note by saying all the German players have been naturally tanned since arriv-ing in Brazil about a month ago. “After 30 days it is great to be in Brazil. You may notice that everyone is a little more tanned. But we are in a contest and I am very happy that we are still in contention. We have noticed that the Brazilian people have the joy of living. We are very hap-py with the way they are treating us. I had the chance to have contact with the people here (Santa Cruz Cabrália), Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro. We have always been treated very well. All the a� ection was so great that I wore some shirts of Brazilian clubs given to me such as Ba-hia, Flamengo and Gremio,” said Schweinsteiger.

Schweini had his own answer as to why he attracted the nickname of Football God. “It is di� cult to give an answer about me. I can only say that, in Munich, the madness of people is very great to me. It is something I cannot ex-plain why, but it happened. Earlier, I saw the fans idolising former player Carsten Jancker and then it happened to me. The fans who are in the southern curve of the stadium always cry a lot. I think that’s way they love football and that’s what I can say about the love I am � ood-

ed with in Germany,” explained Schweinsteiger.Unlike the previous editions of the World

Cup where Schweinsteiger was virtually guar-anteed a start in every game, he did not play against Portugal in the opening game and only entered the � eld as a substitute against Ghana in the second group game due to injury problems. “I always want to start every game but I’m experienced enough to understand that the player himself is not important here. What matters is the collective game. There are individual players who make up the team. I’m in good shape, playing 90 minutes in a com-petitive way,” said Schweinsteiger.

Schweinsteiger said Germany are ready to beat the hosts and move to their � rst � nal in 12 years. “The team has grown up in terms of maturity. It is now more experienced than the 2010 team, players are more experienced. We have a bench of high quality. Anyone who en-ters can change the course of the game. There is no discontent or dissatisfaction. All players are � ne. We are growing together. People here believe God will help them (Brazil) to win. But we believe our hard work will please Him as we win,” concluded the number-seven jersey holder con� dently. l

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

13 1514 Joachim Loew’s big Brazil test

Germany gets tips to beat Brazil

Krul unapologetic on gamesmanship

Ever since the last quarter � nal, and what horribly boring a� airs both the games that night were, we have been hearing ad nauseam about how Louis Van Gaal is the greatest footballing genius to have walked the Earth since Sir Alex Ferguson.

As you can guess, most of these enco-miums have been composed by Manches-ter United fans. The Dutch themselves don’t seem to be all that impressed by their soon to be ex-coach. However, while it appalls me to agree with anything Red Devil rooters say, write, do, or eat, I � nd myself unable to di� er regarding the tall oranje ga� er.

The three people who read my column know that I have grown a certain fondness for lists recently. Among other things, these lists obviate the need for cohesive and engaging paragraph construction, which is always my greatest challenge. And though too much of a good thing is often bad, I cannot resist making one � nal list. So here are my top-seven reasons why Louis Van Gaal is the most brilliant footballing mind since Zeus.

1. Wesley Sneijder. Lesser minds think that the Dutch number 10’s last minute strike against Mexico was a miraculous jailbreak. They could not be more wrong. Louis Van Gaal had conceived this tactical coup de tat back in 1985, while watching Rocky 3. Van Gaal realized from Rocky’s victory against Klubber Lange that if you suddenly punch back very late in the game, a superior opponent gets discombobulated and loses the plot. So he deliberately told Wesley to hold o� on scoring till all seemed lost. An earlier equalizer might have left time for a Mexico win.

2. Arjen Robben. Conventional wisdom is that if you dive a lot then referees are unlikely to be sympathetic to your case. Van Gaal, on the other hand, re-alized that Robben’s � ailing � sh out of water dives are so darn ugly that if he kept diving the referee would ultimate-ly reward a penalty just to make him stop.

3. Mile Jedinak and Tim Cahill. Australia’s two goals against the Netherlands was pure Van Gaal magic. There is a saying in Bengali that he who goes

� rst gets eaten by the tiger, and Louis is clearly aware of this piece of South Asian wisdom. He therefore convinced the Australians to take the lead. Once Jedinak scored the second, an Australian defeat was a mere formality.

4. Cesare Prandelli. I was completely con-fused as to why Prandelli had chosen to abandon the approach that worked so well against England and adopt a more defensive strategy against Costa Rica. Now I know that it was Van Gaal the master motivator who had convinced his fellow European coach to make the suicidal switch. He knew then that it would lead to the Dutch facing Costa Rica, who are much weaker with penalties, in the quarter � nals. Grand Masters can visualize many moves ahead.

5. Roy Hodgson. Contrary to popular belief it was not the Liverpool board but Louis Van Gaal who convinced Roy Hodgson to sign a three year contract with the Kop. The move resulted in Liverpool football being pushed back six years, which bene� ted Van Gaal’s future team, and more importantly Hodgson being sacked a year later. Four years ago Louis Van Gaal had

� gured out that if Hodgson became Liverpool manager, he would go on to coach England. In one fell swoop Louis took care of two potential opponents.

6. Gonzalo Higuain. Only fools believe that Higuain’s goal against Belgium had anything to do with Messi and Sabella. Real pundits can clearly see that the whole point of the Argentine striker � nally � nding its feet was to give his team a false sense of security against the Netherlands.

7. The SUBSTITUTION. Common sense dictates one to use all three substi-tutes well before the end of extra-time if his or her team isn’t winning, but then again common sense is a mortal’s resort. Sometime in the early 70s, Van Gaal realized that trying to win against a much weaker opponent during regulation time is a fool’s errand. You have to take the game to penalties, and right before the 120th minute substitute your regular goalkeeper with who has a poor record of penalty saves. You have to then make the latter act like an absolute jackass with opposition players. THAT is a guaran-tee of knock out round success. Luis Van Gaal, a deity indeed. l

Prescience in Oranje The demise of conventional wisdom

Di Stefano dies aged 88n AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid legend Alfredo di Stefano, one of the greatest footballers in histo-ry, died in a Spanish hospital on Mon-day aged 88, the club said.

The Argentine-born former striker and honorary president was “the best player of all time”, Real Madrid said.

Di Stefano had been taken to hos-pital after su� ering a heart attack on Saturday. Rescuers had battled for 18 minutes to revive the 88-year-old after his heart stopped following a restau-rant lunch with his family near Real’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

He had been taken in a serious con-dition to the Gregorio Maranon hospi-tal which later said he was in a coma, had been sedated and was breathing with the help of a machine.

“Alfredo Di Stefano died today at 5:15 pm” (1515 GMT) at the Gregorio Maranon hospital in the Spanish capi-tal, Real Madrid said in a statement on Monday.

“Real Madrid Football club’s pres-ident Florentino Perez and the club’s board of directors wish to express their deepest condolences and all their love and a� ection to his children, his family and friends,” it added.

“Real Madrid extends its condolenc-es to its fans around the world and to those who are feeling the emotion of losing the best player of all time.”

On Saturday, newspaper El Pais said

Di Stefano had been eating with his fam-ily when he felt ill and sat down in his wheelchair. By the time an ambulance ar-rived he was in cardiorespiratory arrest.

Di Stefano, who had previously been hospitalised for similar episodes, un-derwent emergency quadruple heart by-pass surgery after a heart attack in 2005. He was one of Real Madrid’s most celebrated players, having represented the club for 11 seasons between 1953 and 1964, winning � ve European Cups.

Di Stefano was born in Buenos Ai-res and began his professional career with hometown club River Plate in 1945 before leaving for Colombian out-� t Millonarios four years later after the Argentine league ground to a halt fol-lowing a pay strike.

Di Stefano won the Colombian title in his � rst season before adding the 1951 and 1952 titles to his list of hon-ours but it was his individual displays that attracted the attention of a host of big-name European suitors. l

Brazilians in search of Amarildon Raihan Mahmood from Belo

Horizonte, Brazil

The streets of Belo Horizonte were busy with their typical businesses at the start of the week but the “Rodoviaria Centro” or the central bus station is buzzing with passengers as the Brazilian football fans have started to arrive in the city to witness the eagerly awaited World Cup semi� nal against Germany today. Hotels near the bus station are already � lled up with the latest arrivals going to di� erent locations.

The Brazilians are trying to draw in-spiration from the 1962 and 2002 World Cups. In 1962 Pele was ruled out of the tournament while in 2002 Ronaldinho was suspended for the semi� nals but on both occasions, Brazil ended their campaign as champions. The current situation more or less resembles with 1962. Pele was injured but a new face, Amarildo, took his place and played superbly helping Brazil to win the title.

The Brazilian fans are praying for more of the same in the semi� nal against Germany. Willian will be hoping to em-ulate Amarildo as the mid� elder has come on as a substitute in all of Brazil’s games so far with the exception of the quarter� nal against Colombia where he did not feature.

Still, there are concerns as the 1962 team contained Garrincha and Didi with Garrincha playing as the front-man. Does this team have players of that caliber?

Hotel Magnata manager Ricardo Pinheiro gives his opinion, “To be frank nobody is performing outstanding-ly apart from Neymar. He is not there now. I hope the occasion will produce the hero of the day.”

The Brazilian players have the op-portunity to draw energy from Ney-mar’s sacri� ce.

He has been tremendous for them in the last four years and they owe him a performance full of heart against Germany. l

Brazil’s coach Luiz Felipe Scolari (C) speaks with his team as they take part in a training session at the Granja Comary training complex in Teresopolis yesterday AFP

A bolt from the blue for Shakib al Hasann Mazhar Uddin

It was rather a tense day for Shakib al Hasan as the main agenda at the board meeting which took place at the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) headquarters yesterday centred around recent controversies stirred by the star cricketer.

Just when BCB supremo Nazmul Hasan was about to brief the media, Shakib received a phone call at the dressing room and within a fraction of a second, the brightness drained from his face.

Following the announcement of the six-month ban, the news had gone viral and the media was looking for the controversial star for his instant reaction as the national side had just � nished their gym session at the home of cricket.

It was learned that Shakib did not talk with any of his teammates at the dressing room and was busy packing his training bag.

The dejected 27-year old cricketer did not even come out of the dressing room like the other national players.

Shakib was sitting all alone as most of the waiting journalists left the premises after some time.

Finally Shakib exited the dressing room and headed towards his car where some of the journalists tried to talk with him but he waved away the requests saying he did not want to make any comment. However, he did not appear sad.

According to his close friends, Shakib did not expect such punishment against him and was heavily shocked as he was anticipating a potentially heavy � ne after meeting with the board president earlier yesterday.

The premier Bangladesh all-rounder was suspended from all types of cricket for six months and he will not obtain any No-Objection Certi� cate till December 31, 2015. Shakib will be missing the next two international series against the Windies at their background and against Zimbabwe at home along with the Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 in the West Indies, the Big Bash T20 in Australia, the Indian Premier League and the Friends Life T20 in England.l

SIX MONTHS OF SHAKIB’S ANTICS

December 26, 2013 Caught collar of a spectator at Sylhet

Divisional Stadium during a Twenty20 cricket tournament.February 29, 2014

Lewd gesture on national television during an international game, resulting

in a three-match suspension.June 16, 2014

Altercation with a spectator during the � rst ODI against India at Sher-e-Bangla

National Stadium.July 4, 2014

BCB orders him to return to Dhaka for not taking No-Objection Certi� cate for the Caribbean Premier League

Twenty20. It was also revealed that he had misbehaved with national head coach Chandika Hathurusingha and

threatened to quit Tests and ODIs for Bangladesh.

FIFA reject Brazil Silva plea, Neymar proben AFP, RIO DE JANEIRO

FIFA issued a double snub to World Cup hosts Brazil on Monday, rejecting an appeal for captain Thiago Silva’s semi-� nal suspension to be overturned and dismissing calls for retrospective action against Colombia defender Juan Camilo Zuniga.

A statement from FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee said no action would be taken against Zuniga for his tackle which left Brazil striker Neymar with a tournament-ending back injury.

Zuniga could not be punished because the incident had been seen by the match o� cials at the time, a statement said.

A request by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) to rescind Brazil captain Thiago Silva’s yellow card was dismissed because there was “no legal basis” to grant the request, FIFA said. l

IDB's infrastructure fund looksto build regional linksn Reuters

A new infrastructure fund from the Is-lamic Development Bank aims to help Gulf-based companies expand in Asia and Africa, developing stronger eco-nomic ties among these regions.

Jeddah-based IDB is keen to grow trade among its 56 member countries and � ll a void left by other multilater-al and private-sector � nancial institu-tions that have been slow to support such regional strategies.

The fund could jump-start sluggish levels of trade across these markets, helping the IDB in its e� orts to reach a target of 20% of intra-member trade by 2015 from about 17% now.

But more needs to be done to reach that target: Exports among IDB-member countries reached $343.7bn as of 2011, representing only 15.3% of total exports and a drop from the 17.3% record-ed in 2009, the latest IDB data showed.

Three-quarters of those ex-ports came from only 10 mem-ber countries, such as Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Nigeria, Egypt and Ban-gladesh ranked far lower, despite the signi� cant opportunities in those markets.

Part of the problem is limited support from � nancial institu-

tions in these regions, many lacking a regional presence of their own, a gap which the IDB fund could help � ll.

IDB, which promotes economic de-velopment in Muslim countries and communities, has ramped up its devel-opment e� orts after it more than tri-pled its authorised capital in 2012.

Building regional links would al-low some Gulf-focused companies to reach a far broader customer base, said Mumtaz Khan, chief executive of Bahrain-based ASMA Capital Partners, which is managing the IDB fund.

"There are not that many institu-tions that have a footprint across these regions. Some companies are con� ned to a country or region. We are talking about taking them further a� eld," said

Khan.Both Gulf and Asian-based com-

panies could build substantial market share in these new markets, said Khan, adding that the fund was looking at op-portunities in Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The fund has $750m in commit-ments from shareholders Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Brunei, with plans to reach $2bn in size by next year, surpassing the original $730m fund launched in 2001.

In contrast to its predecessor, the new fund also has a special sector al-location to health, said Kahn, adding that the fund could deploy capital into its � rst project in the next two to three months. l

www.dhakatribune.com/business TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014

B3 Political risk is evident everywhere except the markets

B4 Public investment need-ed to boost stalling world growth

FAR Chemical share trading begins todayn Tribune Report

Share trading of FAR Chemical Indus-tries Limited, a textile chemical pro-ducer, will begin today at the stock exchanges.

It will be the 26th company in the pharmaceuticals and chemicals sec-tor at the Dhaka Stock Exchange. The listing body approved the listing of the company on May 19.

Beginning of its share trading de-layed, as Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission asked the com-pany to publish its legal a� airs issues, which were not included in its IPO pro-spectus, in the newspapers.

Its IPO subscription beganon March 10 and for resident Ban-gladeshis closed on March 16 and for non-resident Bangladeshi on March 25, 2014.

It raised fund worth Tk12 crore from public using the � xed price method by

� oating 12 lakh ordinary shares of Tk10 each. The market lot of the company is 500 shares. The company used the fund to buy capital machinery and in-crease the current capacity.

FAR Chemical IPO subscription hit around 73 times.

The company’s basic earnings per share (EPS) as of June 2013 stood at Tk5.01 with a net asset value per share of Tk15.55.

FAR Chemical Industries situated in Comilla EPZ is producing all types of textile chemicals needed for the Group’s 100% export oriented textile sector.

In � rst nine months (July 2013 to March 2014) of last � scal year, the company made Tk26.73 crore pro� ts against Tk23.2 crore a year earlier.

During the period, its basic EPS cal-culated based on weighted average pre-IPO paid-up number of shares was Tk3.38 from Tk2.93. l

Indian � rms appointed to develop economic zonesn Asif Showkat Kallol

The government has appointed an In-dian joint venture for expediting the development and construction of the � ve proposed economic zones, and to attract foreign as well as private sector investment.

Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Musta� zur Rahman told jour-nalists on Sunday that the proposal from the PMO for appointing an adviso-ry consultant was approved by the cab-inet committee on public purchase. He added that the new investment propos-als for the � ve zones will come through the foreign consultant in the future.

According to the PMO proposal, the selected � rm will also carry out invest-ment promotion activities to attract foreign and private investors to the eco-nomic zones under the World Bank proj-ect titled “Support to Capacity Building of Bangladesh Economic Zones Author-ity,” said a senior o� cial of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA).

The BEZA o� cial added that the government agencies have failed to at-tract foreign and local investors, which is a vital matter for a country like Ban-gladesh.

Earlier last week, Abdus Sobhan Sikder, the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s O� ce (PMO), sent a proposal to cabinet committee on pub-lic purchase for the appointment of a transaction advisory service � rm.

For a cost of Tk19.99 crore, the cabi-net committee approved the joint ven-ture led by Price Water House Coopers Private Limited India (PWC) while the two other � rms are Mahindra Consult-ing Engineers Ltd, India and Infrastruc-ture Investment Facilitation Company Bangladesh. The PWC obtained the highest number in terms of technical and � nancial evaluation.

The World Bank’s � nancial wing In-ternational Development Association has already endorsed the proposal sent by the PMO. The WB-supported project has already begun and it is expected to be completed by June 2016 at a cost of Tk76.20 crore.

As per the PMO proposal, the consul-tant � rm will be assisting the authority to identify the industries that will be suitable for the economic zones, and prepare contractual schemes for public private partnership projects.

The appointed � rm will also be respon-sible for selecting the private developers for the construction of the � ve zones; as well as developing one-stop service for the � ve economic zones for assisting in customer relationship management. l

Basic Bank gets four new directorsn Tribute Report

The government has appointed four new directors to the scam-hit Basic Bank board for three years as they have obtained clearances from the Credit In-formation Bureau (CIB) of Bangladesh Bank.

Banking division of the � nance min-istry yesterday issued a circular, which was signed by deputy secretary of the division Md Motiur Rahman.

The newly appointed directors are fellow of chartered accountant Hasan Mahmud, former managing director of Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation Raihana Anisa Yusuf Ali, joint secretary of banking division Mamun Al Rashid and Professor of Ac-counting and Information System De-partment of Dhaka University Dr Muzib Ahmed.

As soon as additional secretary of the ministry of industries Begum Porag and former deputy managing director of the commerce bank Md Asaduz-zaman get the CIB clearances, both of them will be appointed as directors of the bank.

Talking to the reporters, Bank and Finance Institutions Division secretary Dr M Aslam Alam said the four new directors were appointed as they got clearance from Bangladesh Bank.

“Banking division will signed a per-formance guarantee contract with the

all state owned banks as there had no responsibility and accountability in the banking sector before,’’ he added.

Under this performance guaran-tee contract, the Banking division will evaluate the performances of the chair-man and board of directors within six months, he also said.

Three days after accepted the resigna-tion of Basic Bank chairman Sheikh Ab-dul Hye Bacchu, the Bank and Finan-cial Institutions Division under � nance ministry on Sunday dissolved board of directors of the bank and appointed Alauddin A Mojidas it chairman

Bacchu, the main accused behind BASIC Bank’s current � nancial straits, handed his resignation letter to Fi-nance Minister AMA Muhith Friday evening.

The move comes just two months before the expiry of his second term as chairman of the troubled bank. l

NBR to clarify further house rent payment through banksn Tribune Report

National Board of Revenue (NBR) is likely to issue further clari� cation or a more speci� c guideline soon to make its position clear on the proposed monthly house rent payment over Tk25,000 through banking channel.

The regulatory board has already is-sued a rule, last week, asking the house owners to collect their house rents through banking channel in separate bank accounts, only to be used for the rent purposes, said NBR o� cials.

According to the rule, any person having ownership of any property used for commercial or residential purposes have to collect his or her monthly rent over Tk25,000 through a separate bank account in any scheduled bank.

As the NBR is facing some questions on the newly introduced system and, therefore, it is likely to issue a guideline

shortly, clearing its rules issued earlier.“We are facing some queries like

whether the tenants will have to pay their rents through cheques or they will pay the rent as cash and the land-lords will later deposit the amount to speci� c bank account,” said a high of-� cial of NBR.

“There are also queries as to what would be the measures if the tenants pay their rents in cash as usual while the landlords also do not deposit the amount to the bank account,” said a NBR high o� cial.

He also said the NBR is likely to is-sue a guideline soon to clarify the mea-sures and the system in brief.

However, as per the issued rule, the house owners have to maintain a sep-arate register and record regarding the details of the house rents.

The landlords have been asked to record the names and addresses of the

tenants, details of the deed and other information related to this issues with the aforesaid register, o� cials added.

From now on, the NBR will impose penalty on the house owners at the rate of 50% of taxes payable on incomes derived from the house property or Tk5,000, whichever is higher, for not transacting the house-rent through banks, according to the � nance bill 2014.

The government has made manda-tory payment system of the house rents through banking channel to ensure transparency in the house rent collec-tion and to bring more people under tax net while prohibiting the practice of dodging tax on earnings from rental property.

“We have identi� ed around 162,000 houses and house-owners who could not give us any details about their source of funds to build their respec-tive houses,’’ said NBR o� cials. l

Tofail slates US congressmenn Tribune Report

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yes-terday slammed the US congressmen for sending a letter to the prime minis-ter, seeking her assurance to facilitate proper investigation into the allegation of intimidation and violence on work-ers leader at Valuka, brought by the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).

Terming the letter is nothing but a politically-motivated one, Tofail said there has been no re� ection with the real status of the country’s apparel sector in the letter by six congress-men, who had also lodged complaints against the commerce minister and the BGMEA chief for “intimidating” the RMG trade union leaders.

He was talking to the reporters after a meeting with the US ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena at his secre-tariat o� ce in the capital.

Strongly criticising the US congress-men, Tofail said, “It is also indecent for the congressmen and the government will send a letter to them by this week to clarify the real situation in RMG sec-tor in Bangladesh.

The minister, however, expressed his optimism over the restoration of GSP facilities in the US market as the government has met most of the condi-tions set by the US administration.

“Bangladesh has made tremendous

progress in RMG sector and more re-gress is needed in critical areas such as many more factory needs to be in-spected, labour inspectors to be hired, progress in publicly assessable data base, which exists currently,” said Dan Mozena.

He also stressed on stopping unfair labor practices, most especially crack-downs on labour activists, which are not acceptable and must stop immediately.

“Important progress has been made in the apparel sector, there would be another review for the GSP in Decem-ber and I am very hope full that prog-ress will continue at the current phase and there would be di� erent picture in December, said Mozena replying to a question on restoration of GSP facilities for Bangladesh.

Mozena said the RMG sector would transform in terms of � re safety, fac-tory structural soundness, respect for workers' rights for freedom of associa-tion transformation of the RMG.

Six members of the US Congress have recently sought Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina's assurance to facilitate proper in-vestigation into the allegation of intimi-dation and violence on workers leader at Valuka, brought by the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).

In a recent letter, sent to the US Sena-tors, NGWF claimed that labour leaders are brutally assaulted by musclemen for their attempt to organise union. l Production of vermicelli gets momentum ahead of Eid as a factory was drying up the product at Lalbagh in Dhaka yesterday RAJIB DHAR

‘Banking division will signed a performance guarantee contract with the all state owned banks as there had no responsibility and accountability in the banking sector before’

VERMICELLI MAKERS PASSING BUSY DAYS A HEAD OF EID

ANALYST

B2 Stock Tuesday, July 8, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

DSEX sinks to two-week lown Tribune Report

Stocks extended losses for the � fth straight session yesterday with benchmark index sinking to two-week low and turnover falling be-low Tk200 crore after six weeks.

The market initially swung be-tween positive and negative but � nally bear beat bulls due to the intense selling pressure at the close of the trade. The benchmark DSEX lost over 34 points or 0.8% to end at 4,376 – lowest since June 23.

However, the Shariah index DSES was almost 6 points or 0.6% to 992. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,603, shedding nearly 9 points or 0.6%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, fell 58 points to 8,345.

The bottom line was that trading activities continued to decline with turnover falling below Tk200 crore due to the persistent and prolonged caution among investors.

The DSE turnover dropped to Tk191 crore, 11% down over the previ-ous session and lowest since May 25.

All the sectors su� ered except telecommunications that inched higher. Cement sector was the lead-ing loser, extending its losing streak for the second consecutive session.

IDLC Investments said the neg-ative tone in the market extended to 5th session. As a result, the com-

bined loss of 110 points dragged DSEX below 4,400 psychological level after seven sessions, it said.

Apparently, expectations on pending monetary policy state-ment and year-end declarations due in June could not create any noticeable stir in the market, it said.

Recent correction from 4,800 points level has caused serious wound in investors’ purchasing power, disabling them further fresh fund injection. So, investors were waiting for perfect con� rmation of upbeat reversal.

Lanka Bangla Securities said in-vestors were in bearish mood with DSEX breaching the psychological level of 4,400 as traders ditched shares after straight four days of tumble on Motijheel Street.

It said it seems investors still prefer to remain on the sidelines and observe the market movement.

Zenith Investments said the bear seems to have full control over the market, as pessimists once again took the index sharply lower. The combined e� ects of pro� t taking and low enthusiasm of investors pushed the total turnover volume below two hundred crore, it said.

“The market may stay down during most of Ramadan period as most people would spend money for the upcoming Eid festival than indulging themselves into capital market investments.” l

News, analysis and recent disclosersTAKAFULINS: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has informed that the rating of Takaful Islami Insurance Ltd. as ''A3'' in the long term and ''ST-3'' in the short term on 2 July 2014 based on au-dited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.Far Chemical Industries Limited: Trading of the shares of Far Chemical Industries Limited will commence at DSE from July 08, 2014 under 'N' category. DSE Trading Code for Far Chemical Industries Limited is "FARCHEM" and DSE Company Code is 18490. Trading of the shares of FAR Chemical Industries Ltd. will commence at CSE on 8th July 2014 instead of 7th July 2014 to facilitate trade commencement simultaneously both the exchanges for the interest of the investors.ACI: The Company has informed that it will start delivery of dividend warrants for the year 2013 to the folio and non residence shareholders from the Company's Share O� ce at 9 Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000 from 07.07.2014 to 09.07.2014 between 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The Company has

further informed that cash dividend for the year 2013 will be paid through BEFTN/MICR encoded dividend payment within 10 July 2014.ACIFORMULA: The Company has informed that cash dividend for the year 2013 will be paid through BEFTN/MICR encoded dividend payment within 10 July 2014.SHAHJABANK: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to hold its 12th EGM for considering the following Extra Ordi-nary Resolution: "To consider the removal of Mr. Mohammed Solaiman as Director before the expiration of his period." Date of EGM: 11.08.2014, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Ball Room, Pan Paci� c Sonargaon Dhaka. Record Date for EGM: 16.07.2014.IPO Subscription: Saif Powertec Limited subscription date 06-10 July 2014, NRB upto 19 July 2014. @ taka 30, face value taka 10 and market lot 200. Ratanpur Steel Re-Rolling Mills Limited subscription date 13-17 July 2014, NRB upto 26 July 2014. @ taka 40, face value taka 10 and market lot 200.Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Indus-tries Ltd. subscription date 24-28 August

2014, NRB upto 06 September 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Western Marine Shipyard Limited subscription date 10-14 August 2014, NRB upto 23 August 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscription peri-od for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.

Dividend/AGMSANDHANINS: 25.50% stock, EGM and AGM: 06.09.2014, Record Date for EGM and AGM: 16.07.2014.RECKITTBEN: Interim cash @ 275% , Record date for entitlement of interim dividend: 07.07.2014.BDSERVICE: 15% stock, AGM: 25.08.2014, Record Date: 14.07.2014. NATLIFEINS: 20% cash and 38% stock, AGM: 21.07.2014, Record Date: 03.07.2014.MEGHNALIFE: 20% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 17.07.2014, Record Date: 30.06.2014.DELTALIFE: 11% cash and 25% stock, AGM and EGM: 20.07.2014, Record date for AGM and EGM: 25.06.2014.

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Islami Ins.BD-A -9.39 -9.00 22.15 22.20 22.20 22.10 0.022 1.92 11.5Rangpur Foundry -A -7.05 -7.05 97.50 97.50 97.50 97.50 0.341 3.08 31.7Union Capital -A -6.52 -2.36 21.48 21.50 21.60 21.40 0.150 2.08 10.3BEXIMCO Ltd. -A -6.23 -5.48 32.43 31.60 33.90 31.10 22.439 1.12 29.0Sandhani Life -A -5.42 -3.77 80.30 80.30 80.50 80.10 0.020 2.66 30.2Sonargaon Tex -Z -5.21 -5.31 9.09 9.10 9.20 9.00 0.091 -0.92 -veImam Button -Z -5.06 -5.06 7.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 0.008 -1.85 -veICB AMCL 2nd NRB -A -4.85 -5.13 9.80 9.80 9.80 9.80 0.005 1.40 7.0AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A -4.69 -3.59 6.17 6.10 6.20 6.00 0.071 1.49 4.1Dutch Ban. Bnk- A -4.49 -4.49 85.00 85.00 85.00 85.00 0.043 6.72 12.6

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Jute SpinnersA -8.15 -7.06 58.18 57.50 59.00 56.70 0.032 -43.81 -veBEXIMCO Ltd. -A -5.36 -5.14 32.49 31.80 33.90 30.30 165.592 1.12 29.0BD Fixed Income MF-A -4.88 -3.66 7.90 7.80 8.00 7.60 0.083 0.56 14.1AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A -4.76 -4.84 6.09 6.00 6.20 6.00 0.524 1.49 4.1Fine Foods A -4.73 -4.33 16.36 16.10 17.00 15.50 2.881 -1.01 -veProgressive Life-A -4.62 -4.75 113.54 113.50 115.00 112.00 1.204 2.30 49.4Shinepukur Cera-Z -4.55 -3.09 12.86 12.60 13.30 11.90 2.248 0.64 20.1Legacy Footwear -A -4.31 -3.54 24.79 24.40 25.40 24.30 1.723 0.20 124.0Libra Infusions-A -4.19 -4.14 400.71 400.50 400.90 400.00 0.561 4.20 95.4Beach Hatchery -A -4.17 -3.67 25.71 25.30 26.60 25.20 8.370 2.04 12.6

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 691,824 22.44 11.70 31.60 -6.23 33.70 33.90 31.10 32.43Appollo Ispat CL -N 634,800 18.95 9.88 29.50 -0.34 29.60 30.50 29.40 29.85LafargeS Cement-Z 218,500 16.71 8.71 75.30 -3.83 78.30 78.50 75.10 76.46UNITED AIR-A 908,287 11.36 5.92 12.30 -3.91 12.80 12.90 12.20 12.51The Peninsula CTG.-N 250,000 8.59 4.48 34.10 -2.57 35.00 35.10 34.00 34.38Generation Next-A 423,053 7.76 4.04 18.00 -2.70 18.50 18.80 17.90 18.34BSC-A 12,910 6.92 3.61 534.30 2.26 522.50 545.00 528.50 536.20Grameenphone-A 19,000 5.56 2.90 292.50 0.38 291.40 294.60 290.10 292.42Square Pharma -A 16,530 4.61 2.40 279.10 -0.04 279.20 280.90 277.70 278.79BSRM Steels-A 51,210 4.11 2.14 79.00 -2.11 80.70 81.90 78.50 80.30BD Submarine Cable-A 22,600 4.11 2.14 181.30 -0.38 182.00 183.40 181.00 181.85Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 153,000 3.65 1.90 23.70 -1.66 24.10 24.20 23.50 23.84Singer BD -A 18,825 3.39 1.77 176.70 -0.17 177.00 181.90 176.70 180.09AramitCementA 73,000 3.15 1.64 42.70 -1.84 43.50 44.00 42.50 43.21National Bank - A 259,111 2.89 1.51 11.10 -2.63 11.40 11.40 11.10 11.17

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Daily closing

Price change

Daily opening

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 5,096,786 165.59 8.65 31.80 -5.36 33.60 33.90 30.30 32.49Appollo Ispat CL -N 4,485,200 133.88 6.99 29.40 -0.68 29.60 30.60 29.30 29.85LafargeS Cement-Z 1,451,000 110.46 5.77 75.30 -3.09 77.70 78.30 75.00 76.12BSC-A 170,585 91.53 4.78 532.75 2.06 522.00 543.75 525.00 536.54Grameenphone-A 221,127 64.76 3.38 293.30 0.48 291.90 295.00 290.00 292.86Square Pharma -A 216,814 60.48 3.16 278.60 -0.36 279.60 282.20 256.00 278.96Generation Next Fashions-A 2,712,168 49.67 2.59 17.90 -3.24 18.50 19.00 17.00 18.31The Peninsula CTG.-N 1,389,400 47.91 2.50 34.10 -2.85 35.10 35.10 34.10 34.48Olympic Ind. -A 207,000 46.08 2.41 223.70 2.15 219.00 224.30 219.50 222.58UNITED AIR-A 3,111,154 39.06 2.04 12.30 -3.91 12.80 13.00 11.60 12.55BD Submarine Cable-A 209,928 38.07 1.99 180.50 -0.66 181.70 182.90 164.30 181.33BSRM Steels-A 403,385 32.25 1.68 79.00 -2.11 80.70 81.30 73.00 79.95BD Building Systems -A 514,575 29.43 1.54 56.10 -1.92 57.20 58.00 52.00 57.19Beximco Pharma -A 672,812 28.29 1.48 41.80 -0.71 42.10 43.00 38.00 42.05Meghna Petroleum -A 95,466 25.40 1.33 266.30 0.19 265.80 267.60 243.10 266.06

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

GQ Ball PenA 3.25 3.06 123.82 124.00 124.00 122.00 0.027 2.81 44.1Meghna Life Ins. -A 3.19 5.36 106.55 106.60 106.70 106.50 0.043 6.45 16.5AFC AgroBiotech-A 2.49 4.76 49.72 49.40 50.10 48.60 0.557 2.32 21.4BSC-A 2.26 1.96 536.20 534.30 545.00 528.50 6.922 23.48 22.8Fareast Finance-Z 2.22 1.99 9.22 9.20 9.30 9.20 0.549 0.12 76.8Fu-Wang Food A 2.11 2.31 19.47 19.40 19.70 19.00 0.793 0.96 20.3Salvo Chemicals-B 2.08 2.13 19.66 19.60 20.00 19.20 2.737 1.16 16.9Eastland Insur -A 1.99 4.91 35.90 35.90 36.20 35.20 0.043 4.24 8.5ICB Emp. PMF-A 1.85 1.11 5.47 5.50 5.60 5.40 0.008 0.68 8.0IFIL Islamic M.F.1-A 1.52 0.91 6.62 6.70 6.70 6.60 0.033 1.07 6.2

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover

in millionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Midas Financing-Z 9.91 9.25 23.27 23.30 23.30 19.80 0.145 -6.91 -veModern Dyeing -Z 6.56 3.04 75.56 76.40 77.00 72.00 0.034 1.61 46.9IFIL Islamic M.F.1-A 4.55 2.56 6.82 6.90 6.90 6.70 4.560 1.07 6.4Salvo Chemicals-B 3.16 3.85 19.71 19.60 20.00 17.10 21.326 1.16 17.0ACI ZERO Bond-A 3.07 (0.50) 936.51 940.00 940.00 912.00 0.059 0.00 -AFC AgroBiotech-A 2.91 1.77 49.35 49.50 50.00 47.00 18.330 2.32 21.3Central Insur -A 2.54 0.75 24.24 24.20 24.30 21.30 0.308 3.64 6.7Karnaphuli Insur -A 2.54 2.82 20.07 20.20 20.50 17.90 2.429 1.40 14.35th ICB M F-A 2.22 2.22 184.00 184.00 184.00 184.00 0.018 18.67 9.9Olympic Ind. -A 2.15 1.34 222.58 223.70 224.30 219.50 46.075 7.21 30.9

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 158.89 8.30 14.91 7.00 173.79 8.17NBFI 56.59 2.96 4.68 2.20 61.27 2.88Investment 28.28 1.48 1.33 0.62 29.61 1.39Engineering 279.24 14.58 36.78 17.27 316.02 14.85Food & Allied 96.92 5.06 7.96 3.74 104.88 4.93Fuel & Power 160.96 8.40 12.65 5.94 173.61 8.16Jute 0.95 0.05 0.00 0.95 0.04Textile 174.41 9.11 21.38 10.04 195.79 9.20Pharma & Chemical 218.40 11.40 13.89 6.52 232.28 10.92Paper & Packaging 0.14 6.04 2.84 6.18 0.29Service 28.11 1.47 1.27 0.60 29.39 1.38Leather 22.70 1.19 7.20 3.38 29.90 1.41Ceramic 8.27 0.43 0.63 0.29 8.89 0.42Cement 138.69 7.24 21.32 10.01 160.01 7.52Information Technology 10.45 0.55 0.77 0.36 11.22 0.53General Insurance 24.56 1.28 0.69 0.33 25.26 1.19Life Insurance 37.87 1.98 1.80 0.85 39.67 1.86Telecom 102.83 5.37 9.67 4.54 112.49 5.29Travel & Leisure 93.76 4.90 20.37 9.57 114.14 5.36Miscellaneous 272.49 14.23 29.58 13.89 302.07 14.19Debenture 0.59 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.61 0.03

Daily capital market highlights

DSE Broad Index : 4376.77104 (-) 0.78% ▼

DSE Shariah Index : 992.00074 (-) 0.58% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1603.52775 (-) 0.54% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 13463.94420 (-) 0.83% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 11152.03860 (-) 0.47% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8345.17020 (-) 0.70% ▼

DSE key features July 7, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

1,915.06

Turnover (Volume)

53,462,960

Number of Contract 58,431

Traded Issues 299

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

67

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

222

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

10

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,279.06

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.62

CSE key features July 7, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 194.82

Turnover (Volume) 6,382,405

Number of Contract 9,002

Traded Issues 205

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

48

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

149

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,179.06

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.41

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

The continued losing streak dwindled market con� dence, keeping investors in meticulous positioning

Political risk is evident everywhere except the markets

n Reuters, London

"Geopolitical risk" turns out to have surprisingly little impact on the valua-tion of oil and most � nancial assets.

Since the beginning of 2011, revo-lutions and counter-revolutions have rocked the Arab world, sanctions have slashed oil exports from Iran, and un-rest has cut production in South Sudan and Nigeria, and none of these events has had any signi� cant impact on oil prices.

The world's most important oil exporting region has descended into chaos, with armed con� ict within just a few miles of some of the world's largest oil � elds, yet the day to day change in benchmark prices has been the small-est at any time for more than 20 years.

None of the daily price changes so far in 2014 has reached 2 standard devi-ations let alone 3 or 4 (Chart 1). Volatil-ity in futures prices is near to the low-est it has ever been (Chart 2).

Calm is not con� ned to oil. Most other commodity markets, like gold, and higher-risk asset classes like equi-

ties and emerging market bonds exhib-it the same tranquility.

In other regions, civil war has bro-ken out in Ukraine, China is locked in acrimonious maritime disputes with its neighbours, the Communist Party is in the midst of the biggest purge since the 1970s, Britain's relations with the Euro-pean Union are becoming increasingly strained, and Argentina is � irting with default.

But none of these political risks is evident in the � nancial markets.

Entire forests have been felled as investment analysts and � nancial jour-nalists attempt to explain the "death of volatility".

Top-down explanations focus on the role of the major central banks in supplying liquidity, pumping up the value of riskier assets, and e� ectively guaranteeing investors against bad outcomes.

Bottom-up analyses focus on all the other factors which have helped o� set rising political risks at a micro level.

In the oil market, for example, pro-duction losses from Sudan, Libya, Ni-

geria, Syria and Iran have been almost exactly o� set by increased output from shale formations in North America.

Rebels from the Islamic State in Syr-ia and the Levant remain some miles from the main oil-producing areas in Kurdistan and southern Iraq.

Actual production losses so far re-main small and Saudi Arabia has prom-ised to hike production to meet any shortfall in supply.

It is possible to rationalise the ab-sence of volatility in oil, commodities and other � nancial markets by combin-ing some of these explanations.

But it remains unconvincing. Most of the explanations are based on long-term structural factors and should have been built into prices long ago.

Markets are supposed to respond to new information. Some sort of reaction to the news � ow - much of which has been dominated by international poli-tics, and most of which has been nega-tive - should be evident in valuations.

In fact, geopolitical risk is arguably less important for the pricing of oil, other commodities and � nancial assets than

most analysts and journalists assume.Like many other professional ana-

lysts, my degree had a large component of politics and international relations, and I � nd the subject fascinating.

It is therefore tempting to assume politics and international relations have a major impact on asset prices simply because they dominate the headlines, are familiar to writers, and are "big" events which should have big consequences (displaying all the be-havioural biases familiar to economists

and psychologists).But that overstates the role of geo-

political factors in � nancial markets. In fact many of the biggest international in-cidents of the modern era, including the attack on Pearl Harbour, the Cuban Mis-sile Crisis and the fall of the Berlin Wall, had no discernible impact on markets.

Many big market movements, such as the stock market crashes in 1929 and 1987, and the � ash crashes in 2011 and 2012, had no apparent political or eco-nomic trigger.

Iraq's invasion of Kuwait sent oil prices surging in 1990, but by less than the spike in 2004-2008, which had nothing to do with politics.

None of this is meant to imply that geopolitics and international relations have no impact on commodity and as-set prices.

There have been clear instances to the contrary, such as the stock market crash which followed the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York in Sep-tember 2001.

But geopolitics is only one of many factors which in� uence � nancial mar-kets and in most cases not the most im-

portant. Engineering, business, social and economic developments are usu-ally more in� uential, if not always so obviously headline grabbing.

History suggests geopolitical factors sometimes but not always have an im-pact on perceptions about risk and as-set values.

The more remote the risk the less impact it has on valuations, partly be-cause remote risks are likely to be less important, and partly because their ul-timate impact is much harder to assess, and investors prefer to focus on risks that are more easily quanti� able (those behavioural biases again).

If the foregoing analysis is true, it is not possible to trade oil or other � nan-cial assets based purely or mainly on a geopolitical view (which may explain why banks spend so little time and mon-ey on international political research).

Investors who try to trade the market based on a geopolitical view will prob-ably, on average, lose money because they overestimate the e� ect interna-tional relations has on asset values in the short term. In fact the "smart mon-ey" is probably trading against them. l

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Investors who try to trade the market based on a geopolitical view will probably, on average, lose money because they overestimate the e� ect international relations has on asset values in the short term

Dollar holds up ahead of Fed minutes releasen AFP, Tokyo

The dollar held up in Asia yesterday after rallying on strong jobs data last week, as investors awaited minutes of the most recent meeting of Federal Re-serve policymakers.

The greenback bought 102.11 yen in Tokyo afternoon, little changed from 102.08 yen on Friday.

The euro bought $1.3584 and 138.74 yen on Monday, against $1.3610 and 138.89 yen on Friday in Tokyo.

New York markets were closed Fri-day for the Independence Day holiday.

In other trading, the Indonesian ru-piah surged against the dollar two days before the nation faced its most pivotal presidential election since the downfall of the dictator Suharto in 1998.

The dollar bought 11,726.30 ru-piah Monday afternoon, down from 11,886.50 rupiah on Friday, after hitting a one-month low of 11,680.00 rupiah earlier Monday.

The US unit, however, won some support after an encouraging US jobs report on Thursday pointed to a stron-ger economy and a possible early inter-est rate rise.

After the extended US weekend, atten-tion has shifted to Wednesday's min-utes release.

"The minutes are expected to pro-

vide more insight into why some Fed o� cials raised their interest rate pro-jections, as well as an update on the Fed's latest thinking on its exit strat-egy" from stimulus measures, Capital Economics said in a note.

At the June 17-18 meeting, the Fed-eral Reserve slashed its 2014 growth forecast for the US economy after a severe winter but kept policy on hold, showing faith in a modest rebound.

The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.

It slipped to Sg$1.2464 from Sg$1.2467 on Friday, and to 43.47 Phil-ippine pesos from 43.55 pesos.

The greenback inched up to 32.39 Thai baht from 32.38 baht, to 1,009.65 South Korean won from 1,008.75 won, to 59.88 Indian rupees from 59.70 ru-pees, and to Tw$29.89 from Tw$29.87.

The Australian dollar eased to 93.58 US cents from 93.63 cents, while the Chinese yuan was unchanged at 16.44 yen. l

Oil prices mixed inAsian traden AFP, Singapore

Oil prices were mixed in Asia yester-day as dealers balance easing concerns about the jihadist insurgency in Iraq with upbeat sentiment about US de-mand following strong jobs data, ana-lysts said.

US benchmark West Texas Interme-diate for August delivery eased 12 cents to $103.94 while Brent crude rose nine cents to $110.73 in afternoon trade.

Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, said oil prices "continue to track lower as Iraq's production remains una� ected by the recent unrest".

The rebel group has overrun swathes of Iraq and is close to Baghdad follow-ing a lightning o� ensive since June 9, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and initially alarming global oil markets.

After nearly four weeks of � ghting with government forces, however, the

group has yet to directly threaten the key oil-producing region in the coun-try's south.

Iraq is the second biggest producer in the 12-nation OPEC oil cartel, pump-ing 3.4 million barrels a day and pos-sessing more than 11 percent of the world's proven reserves.

Chua said markets are "raring to go" following robust US jobs data last week showing the US economy added 288,000 jobs in June, well above ex-pectations of 215,000. The unemploy-ment rate also fell to 6.1 percent from 6.3 percent in May.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 17,000 for the � rst time on Thursday after the solid jobs data release. US markets were closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

Chua said investors would next be looking to minutes from the US Federal Reserve's June meeting to be released Wednesday for clues about the strength of the world's biggest economy. l

Seven Khulna jute mills besiegedn Tribune Business Desk

Workers of seven state-owned jute mills laid a siege to the administrative o� ces of their respective factories in Khulna yesterday protesting the gov-ernment move to transform Bangla-desh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) into a holding company.

The jute mills include Platinum Jute Mills, Crescent Jute Mills, Star Jute Mills, Jessore Jute Mills and Industry, People’s Jute Mills and Appeal Jute Mills, reports UNB. Witnesses said workers of the sev-en jute mills registered their protest si-multaneously laying siege to the o� ces of their respective mills in the morning. They also took position in front of the o� ces from 8:00 am and staged demon-stration chanting slogans.

All activities at the mills remained stopped at that time. Earlier on Sun-day, workers of the private jute mills blocked the Jessore-Khulna Highway at three di� erent points for three hours on Sunday morning, demanding re-opening of the closed jute mills and payment of their dues. l

Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited has recently relocated its Mirpur Branch to new premises on road 6 in Mirpur 1, Dhaka. The bank’s chair Md Yousuf Ali Howlader inaugurated the new premises as chief guest

Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited has sponsored one lakh stickers for Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) anti-formalin campaign to create awareness among the people. DMP Commissioner Benjir Ahmed inaugurated these stickers recently at the presence of the bank’s Alhajj Abdul Malek Mollah and its managing director Md Habibur Rahman

Aminul Islam has recently assumed the responsibility of Bank Asia’s additional managing director, prior to which he was the deputy-managing director of the bank. Alongside, he is also holding the responsibility of the bank’s chief operations o� cer. Islam has been inextricably intertwined with Bank Asia since its pre-formative stage from April 1999. He started his career with development banking in 1975 and later on switched over to commercial banking. He is an MBA degree holder from IBA of Dhaka University

Najmul Huq Chaudhury has recently been unanimously elected as the independent director of Standard Bank Limited. He has received his academic degree from Kolkata University. Previously he has served Van Ommeren Tank Terminal BD Ltd & International Oil Mills Ltd as managing director. Chaudhury has also been a member of several executive committees, which includes both local and foreign commerce chambers

Prime Bank has recently signed a � ve-year term loan agreement with FMO for availing a debt of US$25m. The bank’s managing director & CEO Md Ehsan Khasru and FMO’s senior investment o� cer, � nancial institution in Asia have signed the agreement

Walton, a electronics brand has recently inaugurated Walton Mobile Smart Zone at a showroom named Mithila Mobile Shop in Sanirakhra, Jatrabari, Dhaka. The company’s executive director & � lm actor, Ilias Kanchan has launched the showroom

The greenback inched up to 32.39 Thai baht from 32.38 baht, to 1,009.65 South Korean won from 1,008.75 won, to 59.88 Indian rupees from 59.70 rupees, and to Tw$29.89 from Tw$29.87

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, July 8, 2014

DILBERT

n AFP, Aix-en-Provence

Governments must increase public in-vestment to help drive the global re-covery and help boost "less robust than expected" economic growth, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Sunday.

The head of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund predict-ed global economic growth, which has been "subdued" in the � rst months of 2014, will strengthen in the second half and accelerate next year.

Growth in China, the world's sec-ond-largest economy and a key driver of international trade, is unlikely to slow sharply and is moving into a "more qualitative and more sustain-able" phase, Lagarde said.

But she warned loose monetary policies pursued by central banks to help the world economy recover from the global � nancial crisis were "� nd-ing their limit" and governments now needed to act.

"Global activity is picking up, but the momentum could be less robust than expected because potential growth is weaker ... (and) investment remains lacklustre," Lagarde told a conference in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence.

"Evidently, from our point of view, we must therefore reinforce supply capacity in order to strengthen the re-covery."

She called for politicians to take advantage of "very favourable" condi-

tions in � nancial markets to "revive public investments (to) give a neces-sary boost to growth, particularly in advanced economies" while ensuring debt remains at sustainable levels.

The IMF will give its o� cial global economic forecasts in two weeks.

Last month the global crisis lender slashed its 2014 forecast for the United States to 2%, down from 2.8% , after bad weather sparked an unexpected contraction in the � rst quarter.

Lagarde predicted growth would pick up in the next quarter as long as the Federal Reserve's tightening of its easy monetary policy is orderly and there is a precise medium term budget framework.

The Fed, like many central banks around the world, has kept interest rates at historic lows and pumped money into the US's � nancial system to help drive growth.

Last month the European Central Bank cut its key interest rates, includ-ing taking one into negative territory for the � rst time, in a bid to help the region's stalling economy emerge from the eurozone debt crisis.

In the 18 nations that share the sin-gle currency, which are only "slowly" emerging from recession, the "recovery is far from being enough to lower debt and unemployment," Lagarde said.

Emerging economies, meanwhile, "continue to ensure most of global growth but at a slower pace than be-fore," Lagarde said. l

Public investment needed to boost stalling world growth

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde delivers opening remarks at the inaugural Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture in Washington July REUTERS

Berliners shrug o� ethical worries to storm new Primark storen Reuters, Berlin

Thousands of bargain hunters � ocked to a new Primark store in the heart of Berlin on Thursday despite a protest by campaigners demanding the Irish chain improves conditions in the factories that produce its budget tops and jeans.

Primark, owned by Associated Brit-ish Foods, is accelerating the pace of its expansion in Europe, where it already has 274 stores, and in April announced it would open its � rst U S store in Bos-ton towards the end of 2015.

Primark, which opened its � rst store in Dublin in 1969 under the name Pen-neys and launched in Germany in 2009, has grown rapidly during the economic downturn in Europe due to its rock-bot-tom prices and fast-changing fashions.

However, it has also drawn criticism for conditions in the factories of its sup-pliers, especially since more than 1,100 people died last year in the collapse of a plant in Bangladesh, where clothes were made for brands including Primark.

Primark's success is squeezing mar-gins at Sweden's budget chain H&M, which is also trying to improve its repu-tation for ethical standards, particularly in its biggest market Germany, where shoppers are particularly sensitive to

environmental issues and labour rights.However, those concerns were

trumped on Thursday by the desire to snap up T-shirts for 3 euros ($4) and skinny jeans for 7 euros, as thousands of shoppers, including dozens of moth-ers with small children, lined up hours before the store opened.

"Primark is criticised but it is not just Primark. All the big stores are the same, including H&M, because we want to have things cheaper and cheaper," said 16-year-old shopper Anna Schmidt. "I am not pre-pared to pay 30 euros for a T-shirt".

The new store is Primark's 13th in Germany, and it has set its sights on eventually opening more than 100 in the country, which is already home to more than 400 H&M stores. Primark, which generates almost a third of AB Foods' group sales, attracted negative head-lines again in recent days after labels were found sewn in garments sold in Britain purportedly from workers com-plaining about their working conditions.

Wolfgang Krogmann, chief execu-tive of Primark Germany, dismissed the labels as a hoax and said the company tightly controls factory conditions, conducting 2,000 audits a year and adding it does not allow approved sup-pliers to subcontract.

"Ninety-eight percent of factories are shared with other brands that are making similar garments for our com-petitors. The di� erence with us is that we charge a particularly low price for the same product," he told journalists.

At the o� cial store opening, Primark board member Breege O'Donoghue, wearing a cream jacket with gold but-tons and slim � tting trousers she said only cost 42 euros, noted that Primark has been praised by the Ethical Trading Initiative, a London-based group cam-paigning for worker rights.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who cut a ribbon before shoppers stormed the store, said he was proud of Primark's suc-cess and convinced by its commitment to ethical standards. "The queues outside certainly show the strength of Primania across Germany and across Europe," he told cheering sta� . The crowds outside the new store on the busy Alexanderplatz square were not deterred by dozens of protesters holding banners with slogans like "Crime-ark" and "Fast Fashion Kills".

"Fast fashion means there is extreme pressure to meet orders. They must pro-duce fast, fast, fast which causes acci-dents," said Berndt Hinzmann from Ger-man development group Inkota Network, which helped organise the protest. l

Etiquette gets reboot for digital agen AFP, Washington

The digital age has created a host of new etiquette dilemmas.

What should you do when your boss sends a Facebook friend request? Is it OK to take and share smartphone pictures at a friend's wedding? When should you take o� Google Glass, rather than just turn it o� ?

Etiquette mavens say the book on manners must be rewritten, literally, to take into account new technologies and social media.

"Technology is such an area of anxiety for people," says Steven Petrow, an author of etiquette books who last month began a digital manners column for USA Today.

In recent columns, Petrow addressed the question of mass emails that reveal the names of all recipients (not OK, he says), and how to deal with wedding guests who want to share smartphone pictures before the o� cial photos are available (he urges the couple to make their wishes clear in the invitation).

"Fundamentally, I come back to my core values, which are about respect, kindness and civility," Petrow told AFP.

Social media such as Facebook pose particular etiquette problems: if users post news about a death, birth or engagement before relatives are noti� ed, that creates tensions among family members.

"On Facebook, even if you have privacy protection, someone else can grab your message and send it along," said Emily Yo� e, who pens the "Dear Prudence" column on Slate.

"Once you post it, you don't control that information anymore," said Yo� e, advising people to treat all social media posts as public.

Petrow sees other quandaries - for example, whether it is appropriate to "like" a Facebook post about sad news.

"I believe that liking means you acknowledge it," he said. "So you can like something sad but you should add a note to say what you mean."

Social media is also used to break o� , or to announce a new relationship, which can be a surprise to the other person.

"It's always best to take your time, to discuss this with the other person," Petrow said.

As for the boss's friend request, Petrow advised managers to steer clear of this to avoid potential con� icts.

Employees should not ignore the re-quest, but o� er instead to connect on the

professional network LinkedIn, he said.Emily Post for digital era Digital technology has forced a reboot

at the Emily Post Institute, which grew out of the work of the noted etiquette author.

Her great-great-grandson Daniel Post Senning released a book last year on digital etiquette after realizing the topic merited more than just a chapter in the updated Emily Post book.

"New technology is changing every major aspect of people's lives for which they would come to Emily Post looking for advice," Senning said.

A longstanding digital etiquette issue is when people should turn o� or silence their smartphones.

"The biggest challenge is that these devices take our attention from the people we're with," Senning told AFP.

While smartphones are enormously useful tools, "If you're with other people, your attention should be there," Senning said. "Most people know that intuitively."

Social networks are great places for sharing, but sometimes people go over-board. A 2012 survey by Intel found that in several countries, a majority said they were put o� by "oversharing" of pictures and personal information.

Senning said the Post Institute often follows what is accepted by the public but that sometimes it takes the opposite view "if it's a question of our fundamental principles of consideration, respect and honesty."

Think before you tweetOn Twitter, the ability to post messages

quickly has led to some embarrassing mo-ments or worse, experts say.

"Some people lose their jobs because of an ill-advised tweet," Yo� e said.

"In the heat of the moment, people think they are having a one-on-one con-versation, but this is totally public."

Twitter ga� es can turn into public relations nightmares for companies using social media to boost their image.

Dutch airline KLM, of the Air France-KLM Group, found this out when it tweet-ed "Adios Amigos" after the Netherlands' dramatic win over Mexico in football's World Cup.

The airline apologized and deleted the tweet, but not before thousands of en-raged Mexicans tweeted their displeasure.

"We encourage companies to be conversational and engaging. But they have to understand they are speaking on behalf of a brand," said Jeanette Gibson of Hootsuite, which provides a social media dashboard, and o� ers training on using di� erent platforms.

Gibson said social media marketing can be useful in building brand identity, "but you don't want to come across as spam-ming your audience." l

Dubai plans to build a climate-controlled 'city'n AFP, Dubai

Dubai is planning to build a temper-ature-controlled city featuring the world's largest mall and an indoor park, as well as hotels, health resorts and theatres, the developer said.

Already home to one of the globe's biggest indoor shopping complexes, Dubai Mall, the glitzy emirate known for its love of grandiose projects said it is now planning to build the "Mall of the World".

The all-pedestrian complex would occupy a total area of 48 million square feet (4.45 million square metres), said Dubai Holding, the developer owned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The project "will comprise the larg-est indoor theme park in the world" un-der a glass dome that would be opened during winter, it said in a statement.

The seven-kilometre (4.35 mile)-long promenades connecting the fa-cilities would also be covered and air-conditioned during summer, it added.

"Our ambitions are higher than hav-ing seasonal tourism. Tourism is key driver of our economy and we aim to make the UAE an attractive destination all year long," said Sheikh Mohammed.

"This is why we will start working on providing pleasant temperature-controlled environments during the summer months."

The statement issued late on Sat-urday did not say when construction would begin, nor did it reveal the cost of the project. l

London buses stop accepting cashn AFP, London

London buses will no longer accept cash payments for tickets with e� ect from Sunday, the British capital's trans-port authority said.

Transport for London (TfL), which runs public transport in the city, said in a statement that dwindling numbers of passengers were using money to pay for their journeys.

Travellers on London's signature red buses must now use Oyster trans-port swipe cards, prepaid or conces-sionary tickets, or contactless payment cards. TfL added that more than 99% of bus passengers are already using these payment methods.

Tourists will be largely una� ected because the vast majority tend to use a prepaid ticket such as a Visitor Oyster card to get around London, according to the transport authority.

"The way our customers pay for goods and services is evolving, so we need to ensure our ticketing evolves too," said Mike Weston, TfL's director of buses.

"Removing cash from our bus net-work not only o� ers customers a quicker and more e� cient bus service but it enables us to make savings of £24m ($42m, 30m euros) a year which will be re-invested to further improve London's transport network." l

A handout picture made available on July 6, 2014 by the press o� ce of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, shows him (2nd right) looking at the mock-up of the 'Mall of the World' project during its presentation in Dubai AFP

'Some people lose their jobs because of an ill-advised tweet'