n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Last Sunday, hosts Bangladesh achieved something that they had failed to do ever since they played their � rst ODI against a Full Member of the Internation-

al Cricket Council in 1986. Three days ago, the Tigers clinched a bilateral series for the very � rst time against neighbours India.

And today, the Tigers stand on the brink of yet another slice of history – the golden chance of registering a “Banglawash” over the world’s No 2 side – when the sub-continent ri-vals face each other in the third and � nal ODI at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. A white-wash will be Bangladesh’s third in a row fol-lowing series sweeps over Zimbabwe last year and Pakistan recently.

The Tigers had nothing to lose when the bi-lateral series got underway. The players were rightly in a con� dent mood, having swept aside Pakistan, but they never believed that they would be able to outsmart a full-strength Indian side in such a convincing fashion. Having outwitted the visitors in every depart-ment of the game, expectations will be high on them to � nish o� in style.

Under-� re India, on the other hand, will look to salvage some lost pride before they head home. However, given the Tigers’ au-thoritative displays in the � rst two ODIs, it will not be a surprise if the tourists are unable to prevent a series sweep.

The unique selection of four pacemen in the playing XI no doubt gave Bangladesh the edge. If the home side’s batsmen showed their will to win by posting runs on the score

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

SECOND EDITION

PAGE 15NBR revenue posts 15% growth in 10 months

PAGE 9Pakistan heatwave death toll nears 700

PAGE 6Arum cultivation brings hope for Kishoreganj farmers

PAGE 4Three held for stockpiling TCB commodities

PAGE 543% of ADP implemented in nine months

PRIVATE UNIV VAT COUNTERS GOVERNMENT PLEDGE PAGE 5

MILITANTS RECRUITING RICH PATRONS PAGE 32

NBL MD MADE OSD OVER IRREGULARITIES PAGE 15

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015 | Ashar 10, 1422, Ramadan 6, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 72 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

SEHRI & IFTAR TIME

For Barisal, deduct one minute, and for Sylhet and Chittagong deduct six minutes; for Khulna add four minutes, for Rangpur � ve minutes, and for Rajshahi seven minutes.

Day Sehri IftarRamadan 6/June 24 – 6.53pmRamadan 7/June 25 3.39am 6.53pm

Railway wall collapse kills 2n FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

A man and a woman were killed yesterday when heavy rainfall brought a rain-sodden boundary wall crashing down on them near Purba Madarbari rail gate in Chittagong city.

The deceased woman was waiting for her son, who was at a nearby coaching centre, when the wall gave way, Sadarghat police station O� cer-in-Charge (OC) Mainul Islam

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Govt mulls costly energy deal n Aminur Rahman Rasel

The government is planning to amend an oil and gas exploration contract with an inter-national oil major that would allow the com-pany to charge year-on-year price increases for nearly a decade before the gas or oil even comes on line.

One proposed amendment to the produc-tion sharing contract (PSC) sought by Norwe-gian company Statoil would allow 2% annual gas price increases from the date the contract is signed – not from the onset of production, said a Petrobangla o� cial seeking anonymity.

Statoil is seeking further amendments to the PSC for the three deep sea blocks. The ne-gotiations on these three blocks are already in their 18th month.

Professor and head of the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Engineer-ing at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Mohammad Tamim, said: “The proposed annual price hike is not ration-al. There is no good reason for Bangladesh to submit to such terms.”

The Petrobangla source said actual oil or gas production could be nine or ten years away, meaning that under the proposed

amendments to the PSC, Statoil would stand to idly gain a nearly 20% increase in the price of its product.

The 2% annual price increase from the date the deal is inked is one of three major conces-sions the oil company is seeking to secure in the amended PSC with the government.

“We have decided to enter into discussions with Norwegian company Statoil to sign a PSC for the exploration of oil and gas in three deep-sea blocks,” Istiaque Ahmad, chairman of Petrobangla, a state-owned entity under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“The decision was made at a meeting at-tended by the Prime Minister’ Power and En-ergy Adviser Taw� q-e-Elahi Chowdhury and State Minister For Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid,” he added.

“The other two amendments being sought are a provision for the price of gas and oil to be revised every time a new PSC with another company is signed and a provision requiring the government to build a transmission pipe-line from the sea to the land even though that responsibility was earlier the company’s,” the Petrobangla o� cial said.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Nation ready for Banglawash

Bangladesh pacer Musta� zur Rahman and Bangladesh’s pace bowling coach Heath Streak share a light-hearted moment during training at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Khaleda hosts iftar n Tribune Report

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia hosted an Iftar at a city hotel yesterday in the honour of po-litical leaders.

Although Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was invited, none from the ruling Awami League or main opposition in parliament Jati-ya Party attended the programme.

Despite there being rumours that the BNP might severe its decade-long political tie with Jamaat-e-Islami, most senior leaders of the Islamist party attended the Iftar.

Bikapadhara Bangladesh President AQM Baddruddoza Chowdhury attended pro-gramme at the Basundhara International Con-vention Center. l

Verdict in Bagerhat razakars’ case any dayn Tribune Report

The International Crimes Tribunal will deliver verdict in the case against three alleged war criminals of Bagerhat including Siraj Kosai any day as it concluded hearing arguments of both defence and prosecution yesterday.

The tribunal led by its Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim kept the case CAV (Curia Ad-visari Vult) where Sheikh Sirajul Haque alias Siraj Master, 73, Khan Akram Hossain, 62, and Abdul Latif Talukder, 69, have been accused in seven charges of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

Of the charges, Sirajul was indicted onfour charges – for the killing of more than 600 people.

Two common charges were brought against all of them – for the killing of 47 peo-ple, and one against Khan Akram and Latif – for killing one person.

The tribunal indicted the trio on November 5 last year. A total of 68 persons were made witnesses in the case. l

Bonna receives Bobs award for Mukto-Monan Tribune Report

Blogger Ra� da Ahmed Bonna, wife of slain sci-ence writer Avijit Roy, has received Deutsche Welle’s The Bobs – Best of Online Activism 2015 award for their site Mukto-Mona.

The award ceremony was held yesterday during the Global Media Forum, an interna-tional media conference organised by DW in Bonn, Germany.

At the programme, Bonna was asked whether this award would be signal to the Bangladesh authorities to do more to capture those who were for Avijit’s killing.

In reply, Bonna said: “We would just like to see a society without a culture of impunity, where you can talk about everything and any-thing, and there can be healthy debates. If we don’t agree, we can talk about it, there should be no need to kill someone with a machete. I don’t think we did anything wrong that would justify something like this.

“Let me just say that not only my husband, there have been two other killings. So three killings in as many months this year. And of the 84 names that appear on a 2013 hit-list, nine have been killed ... So this is very serious.

“Maybe I should sound more hopeful, but I

don’t know if I can. The truth is that there was already a lot of media attention ... right after my husband was killed. I don’t know what will be done,” said Bonna who sustained severe injuries in that February 2015 attack in Dhaka on them.

Asked what this award meant to the Muk-

to-Mona community, she said: “I am receiving this award on his [Avijit’s] behalf and the Muk-to-Mona community, the readers as well as the writers. I think this award will encourage them to move forward despite the attacks they face.

“If my husband Avijit who was hacked to

death on February 26 was here, he would be very happy. Any recognition meant a lot to him.”

Avijit was brutally murdered by fanatics on February 27, during a trip to Bangladesh with his wife. Both Avijit and Bonna are nat-uralised US citizens, and came to Bangladesh because two of Avijit’s books were published in this year’s book fair.

Mukto-Mona was given the jury award in the Social Change category in recognition to Avijit and Bonna’s works in e� ectively pro-moting social issues by giving detailed expla-nation of topics of critical importance.

A DW letter issued to Bonna on May 13 reads: “Avijit Roy’s work on behalf of a secular society in Bangladesh was a remarkable achievement which required courage and determination.”

Jury Awards for 2015 also went to a com-munity security platform from Mexico and a Syrian-Palestinian videogame. In addition, internet also voted for the People’s Choice Award in all 14 of the Bobs’ languages. In all, there were about 30,000 votes cast.

The Bobs awards were initiated by Deutsche Welle in 2004 to stimulate and en-rich public discussion of freedom of expres-sion using online media. This year’s competi-tion received over 4,800 applications. l

Nation ready for Banglawashboard in a fearless fashion then the bowling department found a new hero in the lanky Musta� zur Rahman. The young left-armer has not only created history by bagging two � ve-wicket hauls in as many ODIs but has also dented the con� dence of the much-vaunted Indian batting line-up.

One more similar performance will be ex-pected from Musta� zur, who is on the thresh-old of a glorious record.

Five years ago, Australian paceman Ryan

Harris took 13 wickets in a three-ODI series against Pakistan. If the Satkhira Express scalps three wickets today, he will break that record.

The Tigers batsmen, meanwhile, have delivered the goods, just like the bowlers, so there are little chances of a reshu� e. Al-though winning combinations are rarely tampered with, diminutive batsman Mom-inul Haque might get a look-in today. If that happens, wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Kumar Das will be the unfortunate omission.

Moreover, in a bid to toy with the opposi-tion’s mind with the looming Banglawash, the selectors included young leg-spinner Jubair Hossain in the squad.

On paper, India might still be the favourites but the sport is not won on paper so the weekday SBNS crowd and the entire country can brace themselves for yet another Banglawash. The match will begin at 3pm, weather permitting, and GTV, Star Sports 1 and 3 will telecast the game live. l

Railway wall collapse kills 2Bhuiyan said. The deceased are Jannatul Fer-daus, 30, of the Purba Madarbari area and Sudip Chakravarti from Senbag upazila in Noakhali.

Quoting witnesses, the OC said a Bangla-desh Railway boundary wall collapsed on the two victims around 10:30am, killing Jannatul

instantly and leaving Sudip critically injured.Agrabad � re � ghters rescued the injured man

and sent him to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital where he was declared dead.

Jannatul was a housewife and Sudip was the manager of a transport company.

A large number of bricks had been stacked against the inside of the wall that put pressure on it. The heavy rainfall likely triggered the collapse, Fire Service said. The bodies were sent to Chittagong Medical College morgue for post-mortem. l

Govt mulls costly energy deal Badrul Imam, a Dhaka University geology professor, said: “The terms that are being demanded by Statoil are extremely harsh for Bangladesh. After nearing a conclusion to negotiations with the original joint venture, ConocoPhillips pulled out.

“If indeed gas is found and goes into pro-duction, we are talking about a nine or ten year horizon before we will bene� t. Agreeing to price increases in the interim period is not something Bangladesh should agree to.

“We’ve never agreed to such measures be-fore and we should not agree to Statoil now.”

According to amendments already made to the PSC, oil companies will sell around 50% of the gas produced to Petrobangla at $6.50 per Mcf (1,000 cubic feet), instead of at $5.50 per Mcf.

There are allegations that the selling price was revised under pressure from an interna-tional oil company operating in Bangladesh.

Professor Tamim said: “Since international

gas prices are currently quite low, I doubt that now is the right time for Bangladesh to sign a Model PSC.

“In many countries, the price of gas is not � xed as it is here – the price � uctuates to-gether with price changes in the international market – and that seems a better method for Bangladesh to use.”

The amended Model PSC, 2012, already stipulates that deep sea gas prices would in-crease by 2% annually – but from the date the goods are produced and not the date the deal is sealed. It also stipulates that the interna-tional oil companies would be exempted from paying the 4% transportation tari� for using Petrobangla’s transmission lines.

The country has been trying to develop o� shore hydrocarbon resources in the Bay of Bengal but has made little progress so far. It is currently dependent on onshore gas � elds for all of its domestic gas output.

On February 18, the Cabinet Committee on Economic A� airs awarded a contract to a joint venture of US oil company ConocoPhillips and Norway’s Statoil to conduct oil and gas exploration in three deep-sea blocks in the Bay of Bengal.

ConocoPhillips, however, later pulled out of the joint venture leaving Statoil to operate alone.

The company has abandoned project awards in Bangladesh before. On October 26, 2014, the company relinquished two deep sea blocks – 10 and 11 – under the Model Production Sharing Contract, 2008, saying the prospects of a re-serve of one to two trillion cubic feet of gas was not � nancially viable to produce.

In January 2014, ConocoPhillips and Sta-toil jointly submitted bidding documents to explore oil and natural gas in three deep-sea blocks in the Bay of Bengal – blocks 12, 16 and 21 – under the amended Model Produc-tion-Sharing Contract (PSC), 2012. l

Blogger Ra� da Ahmed Bonna, second from left in the front row, poses for a photograph along with the other winners of the Deutsche Welle’s The Bobs - Best of Online Activist 2015 awards at Bonn, Germany yesterday COURTESY: DEUTSCHE WELLE

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3 held for stockpiling TCB commoditiesn Kamrul Hasan

Detectives have arrested three men for their alleged involvement in stockpiling commod-ities sold by the TCB, and later trading the products in the black market for a pro� t.

A Detective Branch team picked up Md Ma-mun, 27, manager of a Kafrul wholesale store named Rupam Traders; the store’s employee Jaker Ahmed, 32; and Md Kamal Hossain, 50, owner of a store in the capital’s Bhashantek area around 10:45pm on Monday.

The DB members also recovered 1,956 litres of soybean oil, 2,650kg sugar, 350kg chickpea and 80kg date from the two stores.

“The packets of the seized foodstu� con-tained the seal of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). The DB members also

seized a truck, which was used for black mar-keting the commodities,” said DB Assistant Commissioner (Mirpur Zone) Mohorom Ali.

However, the main suspect – Rupam Trad-ers owner Md Jahangir Hossain – could not be arrested. “The DB team could not detain Jahangir as he went on the run following the drive,” said the o� cial.

Although rules said traders had to sell essential commodities of TCB between the hours of 9am and 5pm, Jahangir’s Rupom Traders sold the products for only an hour each day and kept the rest stockpiled in the store, Mohorom said.

Immediately after the drive, Jahangir was contacted over phone and asked to bring in documents to the police regarding the selling of TCB products. However, the police later found

that he had switched o� his mobile phone.Jahangir, 40, was assigned to sell three

truckloads of commodities at Kafrul, Bhas-antek and Rajanigandha areas.

“He used to store all the TCB foodstu� s, in-stead of selling those to underprivileged peo-ple, while Kamal [one of the detainees] used to buy those products for his store,” the DB assis-tant commissioner said. A case has been � led in this connection with Kafrul police station.

Detectives suspect that some TCB o� -cials may also be involved with the scam, as it would not have been possible to receive so much product without the go-ahead from a TCB inspector.

DB sources said such drives against black marketeers would continue throughout the city in the coming days. l

Deutsche Welle’s new English TV channel goes on airn Tribune Report

German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle has launched a new English TV pro-gramme which will contain more detailed news and deeper analyses with unique re-gional expertise to heighten coverage.

International viewers can also join the conversation with a new interactive app available in 29 languages. DW’s expanded tel-evision programming kicked o� on June 22 at the Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany.

Around 2,000 guests from around the world

witnessed the countdown as DW Director Gen-eral Peter Limbourg and Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media Mon-ika Grütters pressed the symbolic start button.

The new programming provides more in-depth information and background analysis.

In front of an international audience of policy-makers, media professionals and jour-nalists, Grütters said content is the key to democratic quality and diversity, and cannot become second-rate, despite the frenzy of technological potential and interplay of mar-ket forces. l

Dhaka seeks French support to strengthen democracyn Tribune Report

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has sought the French government’s continued support for further strengthening of the democratic system of Bangladesh.

He made the call at a meeting with Elis-abeth Guigou, president of the Foreign A� airs Commission of the French National Assembly in Paris on Monday, says a press release of the Foreign Ministry.

The minister arrived in Paris Sunday on a four-day o� cial visit to hold a bilateral meet-ing with his French counterpart Lurent Fabius.

The Commission president inquired about the political situation in Bangladesh and the minister gave an account of the terrorist ac-tivities of BNP-Jamaat alliance in 2013 and again earlier this year, causing loss of human lives and huge economic loss.

The foreign minister briefed the members of the commission about the zero tolerance policy of the government .

He referred to the message of Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina that condemned the ter-rorist attack on the o� ce of Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January 2015.

Mahmood Ali briefed them about the im-pressive economic growth of more than 6% achieved by the economy over the last six years and the initiatives taken by the govern-ment for rapid economic development.

In his meeting with Unesco Director Gen-eral Irina Bokova, Mahmood Ali sought sup-port for capacity building in the area of blue economy and for the preservation, promotion and recognition of cultural heritage of Bangla-desh at the global arena. l

Mirza Fakhrul gets bail in defamation casen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a case � led against him for alleged-ly making derogatory comments about Bang-abandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ataul Haque passed the order after hearing a bail petition � led by Fakhrul’s lawyer Md Sanaul-lah Miah in the case.

On September 8 last year, AB Siddique, president of pro-Awami League organisa-tion Bangladesh Jananetri Parishad, � led the case against Mirza Fakhrul and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman with Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.

In his statement, the complainant men-tioned that on September 2, Tarique claimed at a seminar that Ziaur Rahman was the � rst president of Bangladesh, which is defamatory and a punishable o� ence.

On September 5, Mirza Fakhrul, at a pro-gramme in BNP’s Nayapaltan o� ce, said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had used the words “Joy Pakistan” at the end of his March 7 speech in 1971, AB Siddique said.

On January 20 this year, Dhaka Metropoli-tan Magistrate Md Anwar Sadat issued arrest warrant against the two accused after Paltan police station O� cer-In-Charge (investiga-tion) Tofail Ahmed submitted a probe report in the case. l

Moudud’s case to continuen Ashif Islam Shaon

The High Court has cleared the way for a case to proceed against senior BNP leader and former minister Moudud Ahmed over illegal occupa-tion of a house in the capital’s Gulshan area.

Rejecting a petition � led by Moudud, the court yesterday said the charges accepted against him by a lower court in the case was done in a legal and reasonable way.

The bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan issued the order.

Later Moudud, who represented himself in the court, told the journalists that he would

appeal against the ruling at the Appellate Di-vision, claiming the court had not considered his arguments reasonably.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said there was no legal bar left to continuing the proceedings of the case in a trial court following the High Court order.

The ACC � led the case with Gulshan police on December 17, 2013 against Moudud and his brother Monjur Ahmed on charge of grabbing government land worth over Tk300 crore in Gulshan.

In September last year, a Dhaka court ac-cepted the charges against them for trial. l

Brac’s annual report 2014 launchedn Tribune Report

BRAC has made signi� cant contributions in attaining Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set to be achieved by 2015, said speakers at BRAC’s Annual Report 2014 launch at BRAC Centre Inn in the capital yesterday.

Brac Executive Director Dr Muhammad Musa highlighting Brac’s achievement said: “In 2014, 99.97% students of 43,843 primary schools run by Brac, passed the PSC exams. Around 61.17% of these students are girls and their pass rate was 99.9%.”

In health sector, Brac has achieved 91% immunisation coverage in its working areas across 64 districts. The TB treatment success rate is 95%.

Dr Musa also pointed out that signi� cant improvements have been made in alleviating extreme poverty. Since 2002, Brac’s “ultra poor programme” has covered 1.6m people and 95% of this population have been able to come out of the extreme poverty.

In addition to that Brac’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash) programme has distributed 32m sanitary latrines in 250 sub-districts.

BRAC International Senior Director Asif Saleh moderated the event.

Country Head of Department for Inter-national Development (DFID) Sara Cooke, Counsellor (Development Cooperation), De-partment of Foreign A� airs and Trade Priya Powell and Brac’s senior management team attended the event. l

Brac launches its annual report 2014 at Brac Centre Inn in Mohakhali, Dhaka yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

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TWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Hasina thanks people for supportn Tribune Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed gratitude to the people of the country for their continuous support to the Awami League.

“There were so many attempts to destroy the Awami League, the decades-old political organ-isation of this subcontinent, but fortunately all those attempts went in vain,” she told parliament in an unscheduled discussion on the occasion of the 66th founding anniversary of the party.

The Awami League president also said no one would ever be successful to destroy the party.

She said that people of the country had always taken the right decision by voting in favour of the Awami League.

“The Awami League had to face numerous propaganda and adverse situation in its jour-ney, and facing all odds it continues its jour-ney towards advancement,” she said.

“Our aim is to build the country a prosper-ous one; we are working hard towards that direction,” she said.

Hasina said that the Awami League had been established just for serving the people. “The policy and principle of the party is to work for the welfare of the people,” she said.

The premier mentioned that the history of the country’s independence and the Awa-mi League is well connected. “The Awami League is working to advance the country on the spirit of non-communalism.”

Meanwhile, ruling party lawmakers told parliament that all the achievements of Ben-gali nation came under the leadership of the Awami League.

Standing on point of order, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu said: “Whatev-er achievements and creations our nation has reached came under the Awami League, Bangabandhu and Sheikh Hasina. There is no other shareholder here.”

He alleged that those who came in power other than the Awami League had tried to dis-tort the history of the 1971 Liberation War.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said be-ing liberated from Pakistan under the leader-ship of the Awami League and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, “Bangladesh stands in higher positions than Pakistan in many so-cial and economic indicators, and even than India in some cases.

“We will make Bangladesh a Sonar Bangla [Golden Bengal], dreamt by Bangabandhu.” l

43% of ADP implemented in nine monthsn Tribune Report

Around 43% of the Annual Development Pro-gramme (ADP) has been implemented in the � rst nine months of the outgoing 2014-15 � s-cal year, said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in parliament.

“A total of Tk77,842 crore was allocated against 1,453 projects under the ADP in the 2014-15 � scal year. In the nine months, from July 2014 to March 2015, Tk36,925 crore of that allocation has been expended, indicating a 43% imple-mentation of the ADP,” the minister said. Meanwhile, State Minister for Home A� airs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday told parliament that there are now a total of 510 foreign nationals in various Bangladeshi jails.

Of them, 368 are accused, 62 convicted and 80 have already completed their jail terms, the junior minister said in response to a query.

He also said that among the detained for-eign nationals, the highest 237 are from Myan-mar, 202 are Indians, 43 Pakistanis, 10 Nigeri-ans and seven Thais.

There are also detainees from Malaysia, Nepal, Tanzania, Cameroon, Peru, Algeria and Ghana. l

Haji Selim prescribes special tribunal for faking notesn Tribune Report

From an apprehension that counterfeit notes may � ood the market just like what happens every year, independent MP Haji Mohammad Selim yesterday said in parliament that a special tribunal should be formed to stop this crime.

“None has ever been tried in the � ve thousand cases relating to counterfeit notes. Criminals arrested for this crime comes out of jail and start counterfeiting currency bills again,” Selim said.

A few days ago, several people were arrested with a large amount of fake notes in Dhaka’s Kafrul area, but unfortunately they were released a few days later, he said.

“Attorneys told the court: ‘Give whatever punishment they deserve but please grant them bail.’ And the court obliged,” Selim said.

He also requested Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury to issue a ruling in this regard. l

VAT on private varsities contradicts govt’s pledge to develop human resourcesn Shadma Malik

The government has been urged not to impose extra � nancial burden on the private univer-sities in the form of VAT as it runs counter to its goal to develop human resources.

Academics, parents and students say it will only mount pressure on the middle-in-come families already under stress to meet the high expenses at private universities.

In his budget speech in parliament earlier this month, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said that one of his focuses was to develop human resources, but imposing an indirect tax on the students’ fees stands in contradic-tion to that vow.

Limited number of seats, session jam and political unrest at the public universities – perceived as provider of better education than private institutions – have all contribut-ed to the rise of private universities over the last two and half decades.

In June 2010, the National Board of Rev-enue (NBR) proposed to impose 4.5% value added tax (VAT) on the private university tu-ition fees. However, in the face of street pro-tests from students directly a� ected by that, the revenue authority decided to stall the de-cision at that time.

Five years later, on June 4 this year, the government again proposed to impose VAT on the education at private universities and medical and engineering colleges for the � s-cal year 2015-16. Only the rate this time was increased to 10%.

Itminan Tasneea, a second semester stu-dent of architecture at Brac University, re-cently told the Dhaka Tribune: “As I am stud-ying the second most expensive subject in the country, a 10% increase in tuition fees will double the expenditure. I need to spend a large amount of money for in arranging class projects.”

The common perception is that all private university students come from a� uent fam-ilies, said Maisha Maliha Yusuf, a student of economics at the same university.

“But the truth is that many of us come from limited-income middle-class families. Every-one cannot secure a berth in the public univer-sities. But higher education cannot be compen-sated. So, our parents cut many other expenses for bearing the costs of our study,” she said.

Sabbir Ahmed, a student of MBA at the North South University, expects the govern-ment should subsidise education instead of imposing taxes.

“Over the last 10 years, the private univer-sity have been producing excellent graduates who are making great contribution to the so-ciety. All students should be treated equally

no matter where they are from,” Sabbir said.Parents think that some of the private uni-

versities charge the students high enough in tuition fees to be able to carry out the VAT rather than taking it from the students.

Captain SMH Kabir, father of an NSU stu-dent, said: “If the government is imposing tax on universities then why are they charg-ing the students? NSU is one of the most ex-pensive private universities in the country and they have enough money to pay the tax. Imposing the VAT on the students will be un-fair.”

While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Brac University Vice-Chancellor Prof Syed S An-daleeb said: “It is now a concern for students, parents and the authorities. It will be a bur-den for the students if they have to pay the

VAT and also a fall back for the universities because the enrollment of students would go down. The issue has been raised and will be conveyed to the government and hopefully there will be a calm negotiation.”

Prof M Omar Rahman, VC of the Inde-pendent University of Bangladesh (IUB), said: “There is no di� erence between demographic pro� les of public and private universities. As much as 65% students are enrolled in private universities. IUB gives 100% scholarship to the students with the best results. Other mer-itorious students also receive di� erent bene-� ts from the university.”

Mohammed Farashuddin, former central bank governor and now the chairman of the board of trustees of the East West Univer-sity, said: “We are trying to build a knowl-edge-based society and tertiary education is essential for building e� cient human re-source. By law, private universities are not-for-pro� t organisations. So the argument behind imposing VAT is very weak as tax is imposed on commercial institutions or prof-it-making entities.”

During a post-budget discussion in Dhaka recently, State Minister for Finance MA Man-nan said that the proposed VAT is not a tax on education, it is a tax on certain kinds of edu-cational services.

“We have made a massive investments in education and we want to invest more. We have hospitals, but you do not like the beds. You go to a clinic where the charges are 10 times higher than ours [government hospitals]. You choose your lifestyle and you will have to pay taxes,” the junior minister explained.

Abdul Mannan, the new chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), refused to talk about the matter when contacted.

At present, around 450,000 students study at the 85 private universities and 64 private medical colleges across the country. l

Students of the private university section of Bangladesh Students Union form a human chain demanding the withdrawal of 10% VAT proposed in the budget on the country’s private institutions, in front of the National Press Club yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

NEWS6DT

Arum cultivation brings hope for Kishoreganj farmersn Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

Arum, locally known as ‘Latiraj’, cultivation has brought fortune for many farmers in the district with its bumper production and high pro� t this season.

The good arum harvest has been attribut-ed to suitable soil, favourable weather and necessary help from the local agriculture of-� ces.

According to the Department of Agricul-ture Extension (DAE) sources, 260 hectors of land were brought under arum cultivation this year in Osmanpur, Gobaria Abdullahpur, Chhaysuti, Faridpur, Ramdi and Salua unions of Kuliarchar upazila.

Kuliarchar Upazila Agriculture O� cer Aminul Islam said: “The DAE o� ce arranged training programme and carried out cam-paign for using organic fertiliser before arum cultivation.”

The cultivation of Latiraj variety is gaining

popularity among the farmers as it is about � ve times more pro� table than paddy farm-ing.

As it requires little nursing, the risk of arum cultivation is also little. Even fertilisers are not necessary for its growth. So, farmers of six unions under the upazila are cultivating arum on a large scale because of high � nan-cial return from the crop, he says.

According to sources, the cultivation of arum is gaining popularity in the district as the farmers are getting fair price of their crop this year. A few years back, the supply of arum was scanty but now it is found aplenty in local markets.

Encouraged by the fair prices, the farmers are now cultivating arum on commercial ba-sis. The soil of the region is suitable for arum cultivation, locals said.

Di� erent varieties of arum are cul-tivated in the region including white and red colour. Almost all the varie-

ties are grown in the water-logged areas.

Rois Uddin, an arum grower at Salua village under Kuliarchar upazila said the cultivation had become very lucrative nowadays.

A farmer can earn at least Tk 50,000 by cul-tivating the vegetable on one bigha of land.

Another farmer Rabiul Islam of Gobaria Ab-dullahpur union of the upazila said: “ Latiraj variety of arum is cultivated in the � rst week of January and its harvesting starts in the middle of April that continue to December.”

“We get a good harvest of Latiraj spending only Tk200 on its cultivation,” he said, adding that a farmer gets 3-5 maunds of such vegeta-ble from each decimal of land.

Farmer Abdur Rashid of Osmanpur village in the upazila said: “Farmers use only some organic fertiliser during arum cultivation and they do not need to use insecticides.”

Farmers face no problems in growing this

vegetable. Cattle do not eat arum plants and labour is not required to look after it.

Rahat Mia, another arum cultivator from Chhaysuti union in the upazila said: “I have cultivated the vegetable on � ve bighas of land spending Tk22,000 this year. I have already earned Tk40,000 in the last two weeks and I hope I will earn pro� t at least Tk200,000 by December.”

At present 1Kg of Latiraj variety arum sells for Tk30-40 and per piece arum Tk30-50 at the local market and the price is expected much after two to three months.

This vegetable is in high demand as it is tastier and more nourishing than all other vegetables.

Dr Arshadul Islam of the Sadar upazila de-scribed arum as nourishing and tasty vegeta-ble.

This vegetable works as a remedy for di� erent diseases, especially diabetics, he claimed. l

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

3 siblings die as Meghna bank collapsesn Our Correspondent, Noakhali

Three siblings were found dead on Tuesday noon after bank of the Meghna River collapsed on them on Monday at Caring char of Chanon-di union under Hatiya upazila of the district.

The deceased were identi� ed as Riaz, 10, Zia, 8 and Rahat, 7, son of Hasan Ali of Kering-char village. l

14 missing � shermen rescued n Our Correspondent, Bagerhat

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) rescued 14 � sher-men, who went missing on Saturday night after their trawler capsized in the Bay of Bengal during a storm, from Dublarchar adjacent to the Sunda-rbans. The elite force members also rescued the missing trawler ‘FB Joy’ early yesterday.

Commanding o� cer of RAB Barisal-8 Ma-jor Adnan Kabir said the 14 � shermen were netting � sh with the trawler ‘FB Joy’ at night in the Bay of Bengal near the Sundarbans. l

Suspected robber killed in shootoutn Our Correspondent, Gazipur

An alleged robber was reportedly killed in a “gun� ght” with the members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Haidarabadh area of Gazi-pur district yesterday.

The identity of the deceased could not be known immediately.

RAB did not give any o� cial statement re-garding the incident.

However, wishing anonymity, an o� cial of RAB 1 said a group of robbers intersected the microbus of RAB while they were patrolling on the Tongi-Kaliganj Road around 3:30am.

The robbers opened � re at the law enforc-ers when another microbus of the elite force reached the spot, he said.

In retaliation, the RAB o� cials � red back that left one of the robbers bullet wounded.

Meanwhile, two RAB o� cials were injured in the incident.

Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical Col-lege Hospital Residential Doctor Abdus Salam Sarkar said: “RAB o� cials brought the body of a man in a pickup van and left it at the hos-pital around 5am.” l

ANANTA MURDER

Photojournalist Idris denied bailn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

A court yesterday rejected a bail petition of photojournalist Idris Ali in blogger Ananta Bi-joy Das murder case.

Farhana Yasmin, Judge of Sylhet Metro-politan Magistrate Court 2, passed the order.

The same court also rejected the bail of Id-ris on 17 June and � xed 23 June for the next hearing, said Idris’s lawyer Abdul Ga� ar.

The court on 8 June, 2015 placed Idris on a seven-day remand in connection with the killing of blogger.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) police detained the photographer who works in a local newspaper named `Sobuj Sylhet` from the city for his suspected in-volvement with the murder. Idris is the son

Mohammad Elias Ali, hailed from Fatehgar village under Sylhet Airport police station.

Sources said that police detained Idris on 8 June and produced him before the court, seeking 15 days remand for questioning.

Later, Idris was taken to Dhaka for question-ing. Con� rming the matter CID Inspector Ar-man Ali, also In-Charge of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das murder case, said at that time that Idris was detained on the basis of speci� c information.

Earlier on 12 May, four assailants hacked to death secular blogger Ananta Das in Sylhet two months after the killing of writer-blogger Avijit Roy.

He was an activist of the Ganajagaran Man-cha, the forum demanding a ban on Islamist parties and maximum penalty for convicted war criminals. l

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:50PM SUN RISES 5:12AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

32.8ºC 24.4ºC

Rajshahi Feni

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 32 27Chittagong 30 27Rajshahi 30 27Rangpur 31 27Khulna 30 26Barisal 30 27Sylhet 31 26Cox’s Bazar 29 27

PRAYER TIMESFajr 3:45am

Sunrise 5:12amZohr 12:01am

Asr 4:41pmMagrib 6:49pm

Esha 8:17pm

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Latif gets bail in 10 casesn Ashif Islam Shaon

The High Court has stayed proceedings of 10 more cases for six months and granted ad interim bail to former minister Abdul Latif Siddique for his comments on hajj and Tablig Jamaat.

After hearing petitions � led by the former minister challenging the legality of the cases yesterday, the High Court bench of Justice Md Nizamul Huq and Justice Farid Ahmed issued the order as well as a ruling asking why those cases would not be scrapped.

The plainti� s of the cases and the govern-ment have been asked to respond to the rul-ing with explanations within four weeks. Of the cases, three were � led with courts in Dha-ka, Chapainawabganj and Lakhsmipur, while the rest were � led in Chittagong. l

BCL meddles in SUST teachers’ protestn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

A group of Chhatra League activists yesterday broke the locks of the administrative building of Shahjalal University of Science and Tech-nology (SUST) which was besieged by protest-ing teachers.

In the morning, the teachers who are on protest demanding resignation of Vice-Chan-cellor Prof Aminul Haque Bhuiyan locked the building as part of their protest remained con-tinued for second consecutive day.

Besides, they locked the VC o� ce as well.SUST acting proctor Emdadul Hoque con-

� rmed the incident, telling some 40 BCL

members with the support from Vice-Chan-cellor Prof Aminul Haque Bhuiyan did it around 1:30pm.

The proctor went on that none was avail-able inside the building, but Chhatra League broke the locks in name of taking certi� cates.

When contacted, Jalalabad police station OC Akter Hossain admitted the BCL’s role and said they under the banner of general student took the move led by BCL leaders Tarek and Rony.

On the other hand amid the untoward con-dition, the university authorities have post-poned a syndicate meeting supposed to be held around 3pm, says campus sources. l

Govt to deploy task forces to tackle tra� cn Shohel Mamun

A task force will be deployed in the streets of the capital while vigilance teams will work on the highways around the country to control tra� c congestion and fare hike ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader announced yesterday.

The decision came at an inter-ministerial meeting at Bangladesh Institute of Administra-tion and Management auditorium in the cap-ital. The minister said the vigilance teams will work to stop faulty vehicles and vehicles with expired licences from plying the roads; the law enforcers will conduct mobile courts if any ve-hicle is found to violate tra� c and parking rules.

However, they can inspect the vehicles only at the bus stoppages and terminals as well as within the capital; they are not al-lowed to stop any vehicles on the highways.

CNG fuelling stations across the country will remain open 24 hours from July 10 to 19 to facilitate communication during the festi-val, he added. He further said trucks and cov-ered vans would not be allowed to run on the highways, except for the cases of emergency, three days each before and after Eid.

All government bodies who are running development projects on the roads must � n-ish all work within July 10, after which no one will be allowed to dig up the roads. l

Khalifapotti tailors busy ahead of Eidn Tarek Mahmud

The alleys of Khalifapotti, a hub of tailors in Chittagong, are now pulsating with vigor and energy ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The noise of sewing machines echoing through the area of Ghatfarhadbeg sends a mes-sage to the adjoining areas about how the tailors are busy in sewing Eid dresses day and night.

Around 6,000 tailors and workers in 550 tailor shops and factories of Kholifapotti are well-known for making � nely tuned dress-es for people of all ages at a comparatively cheaper rate.

Abu Sayem, owner of one shop in Khal-ifapotti, said: “Our products are sold from Teknaf to Tetulia. Therefore, everyone is busy ahead of Eid as it is the peak season for us.”

Jahangir Alam, owner of Akhi Fashions, said their products are sold within the range of Tk150-Tk6,000, most of the clients being women and children.

The tailors said both the owners and work-ers were working from dawn to dusk with a very short break-time every day.

Gafur, who has been running the business for 40 years now in the area, claimed that his workers could sew any dress taking only a glance of the design.

“We are the designers as well as tailors; so

price of our products are lower than any other wholesale market in the country,” he said.

The products are mainly sold to the buy-ers coming from Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban, Feni, Noakhali, Laksmipur, Comilla, Brahmanbaria, Sylhet, Dhaka and 14 upazilas under Chittagong dis-trict, according to Kholifapotti Bonik Kolyan Samity.

Nurul Islam, former president of the sam-ity and owner of four tailor shops, expressed hope to cut more pro� t than last year as the number of orders was already on the rise.

A number of prominent shopping malls of the port city collect dresses from the tradition-al tailors of this locality. The shopping malls include Sanmar Ocean City, UNESCO Tower, Central Plaza, New Market, Moti Tower, VIP Tower, Reaz Uddin Bazar, Singapore-Bangkok Market, Singapore Market, Karnaphuli Mar-ket, Munni Plaza, Hawker Market, and Teriba-zar, according to the samity members.

When asked, Humyun Kabir, general sec-retary of Kholifapotti Bonik Kolyan Samity, traced back to the history of this area. A man named Ayub Ali Sowdagar came to this area from Begumganj, Noakhali during 1947 and initiated the tailoring business.

“Gradually, the area became known as Kho-lifapotti. Most of the resident tailors have hailed

from greater Noakhali region,” said Humayun.Most of the businessmen have already

placed the orders while the tailors were al-most ready to deliver, he said.

However, Saiful Islam, owner of SM Fash-ions, said due to the rainy weather, the buy-ers’ presence in the area was still thin.

Mohammad Alauddin, owner of Samia Fashions, said if the situation continued in the same manner, they would have to incur a massive loss, however, he hoped that an in-creased number of buyers would throng the area from the middle of Ramadan.

On a di� erent note, a number of workers claimed of being underpaid despite working at the popular spot. Particularly the child la-bourers do not get paid enough despite tire-some e� orts, they said.

The owners treat the children workers as apprentices despite they cover half of the to-tal manpower. These children return to their villages with a poor amount at hand before Eid, said a minor worker seeking anonymity.

The owners said they were not patronised by the government or any non-government organisation. “If we get � nancial or logistic support from any organisation, then we can turn this Kholifapotti into a better industry,” said Humayun Kabir, the general secretary of Kholifapotti Bonik Kolyan Samity. l

Three held with Tk6cr worth of gold barsn Tribune Report

Gold bars worth around Tk6 crore have been recovered from three young men, who were arrested yesterday from Chittagong city’s Rubi Gate area.

The arrestees - Jakir Uddin Munna, 25, Md Faruk, 29 and Md Jahir, 30 – were carry-ing 120 gold bars when they were held by the police, said Baizid police station’s duty o� cer Sub-Inspector Abdul Halim. A car was also seized during the drive, he added.

Acting on a tip-o� , a police team stopped a Dhaka-bound car that was carrying the three men and found the gold bars concealed inside the oil tanker of the vehicle, SI Halim said.

During primary interrogation, the arrest-ees admitted that they were taking the gold to Dhaka, the SI said, adding that a case has been � led in this connection. l

An employee of SR Food Products is arrested and the factory is � ned for producing vermicelli in an unhygienic environment and without the approval of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) yesterday. Rapid Action Battalion 10, along with the members of BSTI, conducted the anti-adulteration drive in Ashrafabad of Kamrangirchar area in Old Dhaka MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

NEWS 7D

T

WORLD8DTWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

ECB raises emergency funding for Greek banksn Reuters, Frankfurt/Athens

The European Central Bank increased its funding lifeline to Greece’s banks again yes-terday, sources with direct knowledge of the decision said, allowing the country’s banks to stay open as Athens inches toward a deal with creditors.

The latest increase amounted to “a bit less than one billion euros,” one of the people told Reuters. It raises the value of the ECB’s Emer-gency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) to around 89 billion euros ($100 billion), a growing liability that is worrying many around the euro zone.

One of the people who spoke to Reuters said the decision had been prompted by “the

positive signal from the leaders’ summit meeting” and hopes that a deal was at hand.

But Ralph Brinkhaus, deputy parliamenta-ry � oor leader for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, criticized the deci-sion and called on Athens to introduce con-trols on the movement of money instead.

“Through the continuous increase of the limit for emergency credit by the ECB, Greek banks and, ultimately, the Greek state are ar-ti� cially managing to keep their heads above water,” Brinkhaus said. “You have to ask your-self, what needs to happen before the Greek state � nally introduces capital controls?”

The move, the third day in a row that the ECB has sanctioned additional funding, fol-

lows Athens’ presentation on Monday of new budget proposals.

However, Greek lawmakers reacted angrily yesterday, with parliament’s deputy speaker saying the government’s o� ers would strug-gle to win approval from the legislature.

With nervous Greek savers and companies withdrawing billions of euros in cash from their accounts, the country’s banks depend almost entirely on central bank funding to avoid collapsing and potentially dragging the country down with them.

The latest increase in ELA provides some breathing space as Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras seeks to clinch a formal deal with euro zone backers. l

Australia to strip citizenship for terror linksn AFP, Sydney

Australia said yesterday it will introduce new laws this week to strip dual nationals linked to terrorism of their citizenship.

The legislation will see the Citizenship Act – which currently stipulates a person ceases to be a national if they serve in the armed forces of a country at war with Australia – expanded to include people who “� ght against us in a terrorist group.”

There are currently 20 such groups on Can-berra’s list of terrorist organisations.

The new laws announced yesterday will see dual nationals lose their citizenship through “renunciation by conduct” and “rev-ocation by conviction,” said Abbott, which means loss of citizenship would occur auto-matically under the expanded act.

Any moves to strip such Australians of their citizenship could render them stateless and see the country violate the UN Conven-tion on the Reduction of Statelessness, of which it is a signatory. l

US, China must be ‘honest, direct’ about future tiesn AFP, Washington

The United States and China must be “honest and direct” about future ties, US Vice Presi-dent Joe Biden said yesterday, warning Bei-jing the world’s seaways must remain open for trade.

And in unusually frank comments, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang agreed the world’s two leading economies do not agree on everything, admitting “on some issues consensus still eludes us.” But Wang stressed “dialogue is al-ways more preferable than confrontation.”

“China and US must not follow old paths of confrontation and con� ict,” he stressed. The Chinese delegation is also being led by China’s State Councilor Yang Jiechi.

Welcoming the top delegation of Chinese o� cials to Washington for annual strategic and economic talks, Biden said Beijing must be at the table in all important global negotiations.

“I believe that the future of China’s suc-cess and global in� uence is directly tied to the extent to which it acts as a responsible stake-holder,” Biden said.

“Essential to this is to � nd new ways to work together even as we seek to manage fu-ture competition.”

But he delivered a sharp warning to Beijing amid territorial disputes with Asian neigh-bours over the South and East China Seas that the world’s waterways must remain “open and protected” for trade.

“Responsible countries adhere to interna-tional law and work together to keep inter-national sea lanes open for unimpaired com-merce. Eighty percent of all the commerce today is on the back of a ship somewhere � oating on the oceans,” Biden said.

The world’s two leading economies remain at odds over China’s claims to much of the South China Sea.

But China said last month it will project its military power further beyond its borders at sea and more assertively in the air. l

US to pre-position armour, artillery in Balticsn Reuters, Tallinn

The United States will pre-position tanks, ar-tillery and other military equipment in east-ern and central Europe, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced yesterday, moving to reassure NATO allies unnerved by Russian in-volvement in Ukraine.

Carter, during a trip to Tallinn, said the Bal-tic states - Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia – as well as Bulgaria, Romania and Poland agreed to host elements of this heavy equipment. Some of the equipment would also be located in Germany.

The US decision to stage heavy equipment closer to Russia’s borders aims to speed de-ployment of rotating US forces as NATO steps up exercises in Europe following Russia’s an-

nexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region last year.Neighbouring NATO countries, especial-

ly the former Soviet Baltic states with their Russian minorities, fear Russia could foment trouble on their territories. Moscow denies any such intention.

Flanked by defense chiefs from the Baltic states, Carter quoted Obama during a visit to Estonia saying: “You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you will never lose it again.”

Under NATO’s founding treaty, an attack on any member state would constitute an attack on all parties. Russia accuses the West of violating post-Cold War arrangements by extending NATO to Russia’s frontiers, some-thing the West denies

Estonian Defense Minister Sven Mikser welcomed the decision, on pre-positioning as did representatives from Latvia and Lithu-ania. Mikser said his nation was ready to host pre-positioned equipment and a rotational presence of US forces.

“We have reasons to believe that Russia views the Baltic region as one of NATO’s most vulnerable areas, a place where NATO’s re-solve and commitment could be tested,” Mik-ser said.

The United States had not formally dis-closed where in Europe the equipment would be stored before yesterday but news reports about military planning triggered an angry re-sponse from Moscow ahead of Carter’s trip to Europe this week. l

Residents who had � ed Tel Abyad, pull their belongings as they re-enter Syria from Turkey, after Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) took control of the area, The photo was taken in Raqqa governorate, Syria yesterday REUTERS

WORLD 9D

TWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

China aims to challenge US air superiorityn Reuters, Washington

China is mounting a serious e� ort to chal-lenge US military superiority in air and space, forcing the Pentagon to seek new technolo-gies and systems to stay ahead of its rapidly developing rival, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said on Monday.

The Pentagon’s chief operating o� cer, speaking to a group of military and civilian aerospace experts, said China was “quickly closing the technological gaps,” developing radar-evading aircraft, advanced reconnais-sance planes, sophisticated missiles and top-notch electronic warfare equipment.

While hoping for a constructive rela-tionship with China, the Pentagon “cannot overlook the competitive aspects of our re-lationship, especially in the realm of military capabilities, an area in which China continues to improve at a very impressive rate,” he said.

China’s state-run news agency Xinhua late on Monday cited Xu Qiliang, a vice chairman

of the powerful Central Military Commission, as saying China must innovate even more.

“Our military’s equipment construction is shifting from catch-up research to independ-ent innovations,” Xu said.

Work made his remarks to the inaugural conference of the China Aerospace Studies Initiative, a partnership of the US Air Force and the RAND Corporation think tank. The initiative aims to boost US research on China’s aerospace ambitions.

The conference came as hundreds of Chi-nese o� cials were in Washington for the three-day US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, wide-ranging talks that look at ar-eas of mutual cooperation and address points of friction. Asked about the timing of the mil-itary conference, Work said US and Chinese leaders both see the bilateral relationship as one in which there are “measures of coopera-tion and measures of competition.”

“We’re hoping over time that the cooper-ative aspects outweigh competitive aspects,”

Work added. “As the Department of Defense, we’re the hedge force. ...We say, ‘Look, here are capabilities that we see that the Chinese are developing and it’s important for us to be able to counter those.”

Work, citing a Harvard study on rising pow-ers confronting established powers, told the conference that interactions between the two often result in war. As a result, the Defense Department must “hedge against this interna-tional competition turning more heated.”

The United States has generally felt the best hedge is a strong nuclear and conven-tional deterrence capable of overmatching any rival, he added.

Work said the United States has relied on technological superiority for the past 25 years, but now “the margin of technological superiority upon which we have become so accustomed ... is steadily eroding.”

To adjust, he said, the Pentagon is working to develop new technologies to maintain its edge and lower the cost of responding to attacks. l

Pyongyang provoked by new UN o� ce in Seouln AFP, Seoul

The United Nations yesterday opened a new o� ce in Seoul to monitor North Korea’s hu-man rights record, prompting a warning from Pyongyang of “resolute toughest” action against what it termed a grave” provocation.

The o� ce was formally opened in a cere-mony attended by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, despite the North’s repeated threats of “merciless punishment” against South Korea if the mis-sion was launched.

“Less than 50 miles from here lies anoth-er world marked by the utmost deprivation,” Hussein said in a statement to mark the open-ing, referring to the North.

“The Seoul o� ce will monitor and docu-ment human rights issues in (North Korea), building on the landmark work of the commis-sion of inquiry and special rapporteur,” he said.

The United Nations proposed opening the � eld o� ce following a searing report pub-lished last year by a UN commission, which concluded North Korea was committing hu-man rights violations “without parallel in the contemporary world.”

Pyongyang has described the report as a work of � ction authored by the United States and its allies.“The DPRK (North Korea) will decisively foil the reckless ‘human rights’ racket against the DPRK through resolute toughest counteractions,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement on the o� cial news agency yesterday.

The UN o� ce is “a hideous politically-mo-tivated provocation” challenging the North’s dignity and social system, it said. l

Hindu nationalist jibe at Muslim vice-president disturbs yoga calmn Reuters, New Delhi

The Indian government has apologised to the country’s Muslim vice-president after comments by a senior member of the Hindu nationalist ruling party triggered allegations that sectarianism had tainted a mass event to celebrate World Yoga Day.

The row has taken some of the sheen o� the event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who along with 36,000 people � exed his way into world records on a New Delhi av-enue on Sunday at the largest ever session of the ancient Hindu discipline.

In a post on Twitter, Ram Madhav, a gen-eral secretary in the ruling Bharatiya Jana-ta Party who coordinates closely with Modi and top ministers, questioned why the vice president, Hamid Ansari, did not attend the celebrations.

It was later revealed that Ansari had not been invited.

In his post, Madhav also, wrongly, stated that a TV public broadcaster that Ansari heads had not covered the event.

Madhav later deleted the tweet and Modi’s yoga minister said sorry.

“We apologise for that,” yoga minister Shr-ipad Naik told reporters. “It should have been avoided, it’s a mistake.”

Ansari is a veteran diplomat who previous-ly represented India at the United Nations.

Hardliners in Modi’s party believe th at India is a Hindu-� rst nation and mistrust the country’s religious minorities, especially Muslims, who make up about 18 percent of the population.

Since coming to power a year ago, Modi has at times seen his reform agenda stymied by in� ammatory attacks on religious minorities by ministers and members of his party. l

Mother Teresa’s successor Sister Nirmala diesn Reuters, Kolkata

Sister Nirmala Joshi, who succeeded Nobel laureate Mother Teresa as the head of her Mis-sionaries of Charity and expanded the move-ment overseas, died yesterday aged 80.

After taking over the charity following Mother Teresa’s death in 1997, Nirmala ex-panded the organisation’s reach to 134 coun-tries by opening centres in nations such as Afghanistan, Israel and Thailand. She stepped down in 2009 due to poor health.

“She had big shoes to � ll, expectations were huge, but with simplicity, unstinting love and faith she proved herself,” said Sunil Lucas, a communications director for the Archdiocese of Calcutta. l

A Pakistani resident helps a heatstroke victim at a market area during a heatwave in Karachi yesterday. Nearly 700 people have died in a severe three-day heatwave in Pakistan, o� cials said yesterday, with medics battling to treat patients as a state of emergency was declared in hospitals. The majority of people died in government-run hospitals in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s economic hub of around 20 million people, as temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) at the weekend. The highest number of deaths have been recorded at Karachi’s largest hospital, Post Graduate Medical College Hospital, where they have treated more than 3,000 patients, doctor Semi Jamila told AFP AFP

WORLD10DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

India to more than double capital injection in state banks to $3bnn Reuters, Mumbai

India plans to inject about $3 billion into state-owned banks this � scal year and could double that amount next year in a push to boost capital and help lenders meet the glob-al Basel III regulatory requirements, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said.

The planned capital infusion into the state lenders, which account for more than 70 per-cent of all outstanding bank loans, is more than double an earlier estimate of 79.4 billion rupees ($1.25 billion) made in the govern-ment’s budget for this � scal year.

It was unclear, however, what impact the increased funding would have on the � scal de� cit, which the government has targeted at 3.9 percent of GDP.

“What we are aiming at is an infusion of about $3 billion in the current year and per-haps twice as much in the next year,” Mehri-shi told news local news channel CNBC-TV18, during a visit to the United States with Fi-nance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Shares of most state-run banks rose on the news, with Punjab National Bank (PNBK.NS) gaining as much as 4.9 percent.

A slowing economy and stretched corporate balance sheets have led to a surge in bad loans at Indian banks.

State-owned lenders have amassed bad loans at a faster pace than their pri-vately owned peers, raising doubts about their ability to meet tougher global

regulatory capital requirements.Rating agency ICRA estimates non-per-

forming loans at state banks this � scal year to rise to between 5.3 percent and 5.9 percent of total loans from 4.4 percent in the year that ended March.

Morgan Stanley estimated this month the government would need to inject $15 billion across all state banks “urgently” to achieve a common equity tier 1 ratio of around 10 percent.

Mehrishi said the government could � -nance the increased funding through o� -budget means, but gave no further details.

It was also not immediately clear if the government would require banks to ful� l cer-tain conditions to be eligible for grants.

When it announced its previous plans for the $1.25 billion capital injection, the govern-ment had said the top most pro� table banks would be eligible.

Mehrishi and � nance minister Jaitley are in the United States to promote investment in India. l

Countdown to Iran nuke dealn AFP, Vienna

The gruelling diplomatic marathon towards a historic deal putting an Iranian nuclear bomb out of reach entered the � nal furlong yester-day with one week left for Tehran and six ma-jor powers to � nalise the accord.

Whether they will manage to nail down the agreement by the June 30 deadline is un-clear, however, with both sides complaining of di� erences and saying more time may be needed – albeit only a few more days.

On Monday Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is expected in Vienna in the coming days with other foreign ministers, said in Luxem-bourg that “all sides should avoid excessive demands.”

“There is the possibility that we can � n-ish this by the deadline or a few days after the deadline,” Zarif said as he met his Brit-ish, French and German counterparts, saying there was su� cient “political commitment.”

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond urged “more � exibility” from Tehran, while Iran’s lead negotiator Abbas Araghchi said “progress hasn’t been what we expected.”

In April, Iran and the “P5+1” – the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Ger-many – agreed the main outlines of the deal after a bruising rollercoaster round of talks in Lausanne, Switzerland.

After two missed deadlines in July and then November last year, this built on an in-terim deal struck in Geneva in November 2013 after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected. According to the Lausanne frame-work, Iran will downsize its nuclear activities, slashing the number of centrifuges enriching uranium, which can be used in nuclear power but also when highly puri� ed for a bomb.

The powers hope this will ensure Iran would need at least a year – compared with a few months in 2013 – to produce a bomb’s worth of material. Tight UN inspections would give ample notice of any such “breakout.”

In return, UN and Western sanctions that have caused Iran major economic pain would be progressively lifted, although the six pow-ers insist they can be easily “snapped back” if Tehran violates the accord.

After 12 years of rising tensions, Iran de-nies seeking atomic weapons, saying its programme is for peaceful purposes such as meeting, through nuclear power, the energy needs of its almost 78 million people.

After the Lausanne breakthrough, US Pres-ident Barack Obama hailed the “historic un-derstanding” and said that if completed, the deal would “make our country, our allies and our world safer.”

There were celebrations on the streets of Tehran and Rouhani promised on national television that the accord would open a “new page” in Iran’s international relations.

Since April, armies of diplomats and ex-perts have been attempting to turn the one-page, 505-word joint Lausanne statement into a beast of a � nal document which including several appendices will be 40-50 pages long.

“Each word of this instrument is being dis-cussed and sometimes quarrelled on,” Depu-ty Foreign Minister Araghchi said earlier this month.

It will be a highly complex accord, set-ting out an exact timetable of sanctions re-lief and reciprocal steps by Iran as well as a mechanism for handling possible violations by either side. A particular sticking point is thought to be the issue of closer inspections by the UN atomic watchdog, potentially in-cluding military sites to probe past – and any future – suspicious activity.

“A robust agreement is one which includes an extensive veri� cation element, including if necessary visits to military sites,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Sunday.

However this is anathema to the Islamic republic. In May supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran “will not allow any inspections of military sites by foreigners.” l

S Carolina governor calls for Confederate � ag’s removaln Reuters, Charleston/Columbia

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called on lawmakers to take down the Confederate battle � ag at the state capi-tol grounds, a week after a white gunman al-legedly shot dead nine black worshippers at a historic church.

The � ag that has � own at the State House grounds in Columbia for a half century became a fresh focus of criticism after the Charleston church massacre. Federal authorities are inves-tigating the attack as a hate crime and an act of terrorism by accused gunman Dylann Roof, 21, who posed with the � ag in photos posted online.

“It’s time to move the � ag from the capi-tol grounds,” Haley, a Republican, told a news conference in the state capital, about 100 miles (161 km) from the shooting. “The � ag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state.”

President Barack Obama in a podcast post-ed online on Monday, said the killings showed the United States still had a long way to go in addressing racism, using an epithet to make his point. l

Morgan Stanley estimated this month the government would need to inject $15 billion across all state banks ‘urgently’ to achieve a common equity tier 1 ratio of around 10 percent

11D

TEDITORIALWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

INSIDE

We can hardly be surprised by reports that the scam-hit state-owned BASIC Bank is allegedly using political in� uence to get Tk2,000cr from the national exchequer to meet its capital shortfall.

It is an inevitable consequence of the policy of successive governments in committing large sums to keep state-run banks a� oat.

BASIC Bank was excluded from international business in 2012 following the exposure of large irregularities and has also been blacklisted by Sonali Bank. Its still weak balance sheet shows no evidence that it has been able to undertake the reforms needed to end its losses or justify getting further funds.

It is clearly not acceptable that it should be applying political pressure to obtain further funds before the new � scal year starts in July, when its management is continuing to � out prudent rules designed to limit bad loans and safeguard capital.

The government should act to shut BASIC Bank down in an orderly manner, so as to end taxpayer losses and send a message to other loss making state banks.

As a � rst step, Bangladesh Bank should limit injections of money to the amount required to ensure depositors can be given their money back, to prevent a run on the banking system.

BASIC Bank employees should then be retrenched and the depositors funds given back so the bank can be wound up.

Non-classi� ed loans can be transferred to a better managed state owned or private bank. The government should create a special purpose institution to which BASIC’s classi� ed loans can be be transferred and task it with the purpose of pursuing the defaulting borrowers in the courts.

This is the only realistic method by which the government can break the cycle of BASIC Bank’s losses.

The government should act to shut BASIC Bank down in an orderly manner

Close BASIC Bank to end cycle of state bank losses

Technically American

Public toilets can actually help generate energyConsidering the environment and ener-gy security, many countries around the world are now shifting to renewable and clean energy sources

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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PAGE 12

PAGE 13

PAGE 14

Giving fans a bad name?Social media platforms are rife with hu-mourous tidbits about the Indian team that quite often undermine the Tigers

One switches on the accent when pulled over by the cops for making a right on red. One drops the accent when ordering chicken vindaloo at the Indian restaurant

BIGSTOCK

OPINION12DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

It was like pouring a drop of lemon in a bucket full of milk: The Indian media served up a piece of news that claimed that Bangladeshi supporters attacked

Sudhir Kumar Gautam -- a man who had watched every cricket match of team India since 2003 and who has dedicated his life to Indian cricket and the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar.

Sudhir’s signature is that he has a replica of the Indian map on his head, and colours himself green white and red, resembling the Indian national � ag. The allegation of the attack is like a black spot on a milky white shirt.

As it happens in Bangladesh, TV stations tend to report stories without verifying whether or not it is correct.

The Indian media, irrespective of its size and reputation, did the same thing by uploading Sudhir’s videos alleging that the “frenzied” Bangladeshi supporters attacked him as he came out of the stadium after the second ODI match, and they tried to snatch away the Indian � ag.

One police o� cer came to his rescue, and helped him get on board a baby taxi that saved him. He also confessed that he never had any problem in the last seven matches he watched at the Dhaka stadium.

He went on to say that the “rowdy” Bangladesh supporters were saying that it was an attack aimed at taking revenge for the Tigers’ defeat against India in the quarter-� nal match during the World Cup in Melbourne.

The Indian media, including the reputed NDTV, reported this piece of news without asking for a version from the authorities. The video is still available on Facebook and Youtube.

Many Bangladeshis were angered by the reported incident, and they turned very vocal against the attack on Sudhir.

I also condemned the attack (if it really happened).

After a careful examination and the account of a witness, who also took a photo

of Sudhir being looked upon by jeering young boys, it was shown that Sudhir had not physically gotten hurt.

By that time, he had become a hero in the global media.

I suppose Sudhir’s allegation was basically a ploy to divert the focus of Bangladeshis who were celebrating Bangladesh’s � rst series win over the Indian team. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and others, are rife with humourous tidbits about the Indian team that quite often undermine the Tigers.

The Indian cricket commentators like NS Sidhu and Sanjay Manjrekar are some of the many names who mock Bangladesh in their TV shows or during match commentary.

Besides, the Indian advertiser’s “mawka, mawka” video clip was perceived to be aimed at undermining India’s world cup opponents,

including Bangladesh.A witness press photographer said the

Bangladeshi fans were taunting Sudhir with slogans.

A die-hard supporter of the Indian team, Sudhir may have been frustrated and dejected by the celebration all over Bangladesh and in the media.

So, he may have cooked up a story to divert people’s attention away from the Tigers’ victory. By that time, all Bangladeshi supporters had come to know about Sudhir, who had been barely known to the rest of the world.

Such falsehoods may be counter-productive. The Indian media should have maintained the basic ethics of journalism through veri� cation and balance.

Bangladesh has earned a bad name because of these allegations, thanks to false reporting.

Nevertheless, we Bangladeshis should also be more responsible in our behaviour. We should not taunt any of the Indian supporters, as they are our guests, who we Bangladeshis respect very much. Let us learn to celebrate our achievements without taunting our opponents. l

Kamran Reza Chowdhury is a journalist.

Giving fans a bad name?

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and others, are rife with humourous tidbits about the Indian team that quite often undermine the Tigers

How should passionate fans behave?

OPINION 13D

TWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

n Ridwan Quaium

While commuting in Dhaka, many of us have felt the urge to use a restroom. In such situations, we are sometimes able to use a

restroom in nearby restaurants and shop-ping malls, but most of the time we become helpless and have to wait it out, as the city severely lacks public toilets.

Public toilets are as critical a part of urban infrastructure as anything else to make cities liveable -- it is an integral civic amenity.

However, to cater to the more than 10 million people in Dhaka, according to an investigative report published by The Daily Star in 2011, there are only 67 public toilets in the city.

To make matters worse, most of these toilets are unclean and unhygienic. They lack proper lighting facilities or a regular supply of water and other sanitation materials such as soap, warm water, and toilet paper. The lack of public toilets is forcing city-dwellers to hold it in for long periods of time, and is also discouraging them from drinking water.

Both in the short and long term, this may

cause serious health problems. Furthermore, due to the lack of public toilets, people also tend to answer nature’s calls in open areas, thereby polluting the environment and spreading diseases.

Besides the lack of su� cient public toilets, another problem in Dhaka is that, on a daily basis, many areas of the city su� er from the lack of an uninterrupted supply of electricity.

This is deteriorating the quality of life for the people living and working in those areas,

as well as reducing their productivity, which is in turn, hurting the economy.

In our country, the energy for electricity is mainly produced through non-renewable energy sources such as petroleum and coal,

which are harmful for the environment. In addition, the country has to spend a signif-icant amount of its � nancial resources to import petroleum.

Considering the environment and energy security, many countries around the world

are now shifting to renewable and clean energy sources such as bio-gas produced from human-waste, cattle manure, and other animal waste. For example, at the Bugesera prison and in 10 other correctional facilities in Rwanda, the inmates’ human waste is used to produce bio-gas, which is used as the source of energy in the prisons.

As in Rwanda, our country should also strive to increase the production of electricity through renewable and clean energy sources, as it may help mitigate our energy crisis.

To make Dhaka liveable, it is important to address the lack of public toilets and an uninterrupted supply of electricity.

By regularly cleaning and maintaining the existing public toilets and by setting up new, hygienic, and adequate public toilets across the city, the � rst issue can be resolved, while the latter issue can be solved, to some extent, in a sustainable and environment-friendly manner by setting up bio-gas plants that produce electricity from the waste generated in these very toilets. l

Ridwan Quaium is a transporting engineer working in Thailand.

Public toilets can actually help generate energy

Considering the environment and energy security, many countries around the world are now shifting to renewable and clean energy sources such as bio-gas produced from human-waste, cattle manure, and other animal waste

Having more public toilets would not just make the city better, but may also alleviate the electricity crisis BIGSTOCK

OPINION14DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

n Shehtaz Huq

One becomes an American, o� cially speaking, when the green card is handed over and revoked and the oath is taken and the personal

copies of the constitution are handed out by the master of ceremonies presiding over the day.

The anthem is sung, the miniature � ags waved, and then the newly-minted doc-umented Americans stand in front of the stu� ed bald eagle splayed inside the glass box and the life-sized Statue of Liberty stand-ing guard at the door to the conference hall of the immigration services o� ce.

There are trips to be made. Long lines snake around the linoleum � oor of the De-partment of Motor Vehicles. One must show one’s passport, verify one’s social security number, sign the paperwork for a new license with an updated citizenship status. The alien registration number, printed in blue letters across the pale yellow green card, no longer applies.

The Social Security Administration hands one a slip, asks one to wait while welfare claims are disputed and settled. Then one’s number is called up to window number one or three or 18, paperwork transferred from one set of brown arms to a paler, frecklier set, and then one receives the news that one is “all set.”

The elderly retirees manning the polling station ri� e through voter registration cards, only to claim that one is “not registered.” One picks a bone about this claim, citing the two hours spent at the DMV waiting to � ll out the voter registration form. “Maybe you can vote by a� davit,” the lone black volunteer o� ers, so one does exactly that, retreating into the booth with the white canvas walls and emerging � ve seconds later with a � lled-out ballot.

These are the trappings of the o� cial American, paying taxes and visiting the book-keeping company before the April 20 deadline for the Internal Revenue Services rolls around. Copious junk mail from the banks, now that one’s citizenship status lends one an air of legitimacy that was per-haps missing when one was merely a green card holder.

The driver’s license, tucked away in one’s faux leather wallet, and the social security card that one must commit to memory in the event that one must apply for a job, or a credit card, or dispute a claim.

The metrics for the uno� cial American, however, are more nebulous. One must know how to navigate the intersection of identity. Female, brown, former Muslim, vaguely Indian-looking but with an upstate New York accent. The American clothes -- shorts and tank tops and high top sneakers -- detract from the fact that one shops at the local Indian grocery store, where one picks mangoes but can’t recall the deshi word for bitter gourd.

One becomes more uno� cially Ameri-can when one starts losing one’s language, calling home to ask mom what the di� erence is between moog daal and boot-er daal. One

reinforces one’s uno� cial American street cred when one shops at New York and Com-pany for pencil skirts and tank tops, but then pooh-poohing at the bland fare o� ered at the neighbourhood block party brings one back to one’s “brown” roots. “What is this mac and cheese business?” one says, regarding with suspicion the o� -white colour and the over-abundance of salt.

One switches on the accent when pulled over by the cops for making a right on red. One drops the accent when ordering chicken vindaloo at the one Indian restaurant in Rochester. One � aunts the deshi heritage when sitting at the Thanksgiving dinner, surveying the spread, lamenting the lack of grandmother’s spicy chutney and the aroma of cumin and turmeric.

One reiterates, when asked by curious onlookers, that one is American, true-blue American, no hyphens necessary. Yet one feels hyphenated, constantly, the memory of the oath-taking ceremony not even a year old, yet the distance from the desh land growing more acute.

One is reminded, constantly, that to be American means many things that do not include one’s intersection of cultural or re-ligious or social identities. One is reminded, constantly, that to be American means many things that are unattainable, that relatives from the desh land will see one through a di� erent � lter, that one will be derided for wardrobe choices but applauded for making the move to become an o� cial bideshi. One will always feel like a bideshi, whether one is in one’s o� cial desh or not.

One will learn to qualify one’s identity, constantly, o� cially and uno� cially, wheth-er one likes it or not. l

Shehtaz Huq is a teacher based in Rochester, NY.

Technically American

One switches on the accent when pulled over by the cops for making a right on red. One drops the accent when ordering chicken vindaloo at the Indian restaurant

The paperwork is only part of being American BIGSTOCK

15D

TBusiness WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

China manufacturing activity contracts17 Stocks extend losses

in dull trading19Bring on kitchen economics16

Karnaphuli tunnel awaits next cabinet committee meeting

20

Accord assures BGMEA of following law of landn Tribune Report

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has assured Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) of duly following the law of the land during its operational activities in the country.

The assurance came at a meeting between BGMEA and visiting members of Accord Steer-ing Committee held at BGMEA headquarters in the city yesterday.

“From now, the Accord will follow the law of land in its operational activities on struc-tural integrity, � re and electrical safety in Bangladesh,” BGMEA President Atiqul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune, quoting the steering committee members.

In recent time, there were some misunder-standing between the BGMEA and the Accord over some activities of the retailers’ platform, which went beyond its jurisdiction.

“The misunderstanding between the Ac-cord and the BGMEA has been arisen in ab-sence of any representative of the clothing industry in the Accord Steering Committee,” said Islam.

During the meeting, both BGMEA and the Accord have reached a consensus on the fact

that the gap has been created because of hav-ing no BGMEA representative in the steering committee, BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting.

They also agreed not to generalise issues and to public information without any con-sultation, he said.

The BGMEA urged the Accord to include them in the steering committee to reduce miss understanding.

Both sides agreed to sit once a week to reduce any sort of misunderstandings or breaches through face-to-face conversation.

When Accord mentioned that the factory owners did not apply for any fund from it, the BGMEA leaders said: “The factory own-ers don’t want to seek any fund directly from the retailers as they feared that it could drive away the buyers.”

To avert this complexity, BGMEA leaders urged the Accord to put more pressures on buyers to pay fund for remediation, said Is-lam.

In this regard, he also alleged that the fac-tory owners couldn’t implement Corrective Action Plans (CAP) due to fund shortage.

“An Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) committee will be formed soon as per the

rules of Amended Labour Act 2013,” he fur-ther added.

According to BGMEA, Accords activities beyond law of land include threat to declare a factory non-compliant for not reinstating workers terminated as per law of the country, appointing outsiders as � eld resource people to raise safety awareness among the workers, Accord’s calls for election to of workers repre-sentative to the OSH committee in absence of trade union and advising brands to stop pro-duction and pull out orders before the deci-sion of government formed review panel.

The BGMEA also said in-stallation of sprinklers in the RMG factories is not required as per the law of land, which the Accord is pressing for in-stallation.

On the other hand, the Ac-cord is pressurising the factory owners to make immediate de-tailed engineering assessment (DEA), which has been labeled as yellow in the inspection but it’s not required immediately as the situation is not so grave, claimed the BGMEA.

The Accord also noses on the workers bene-� ts issues in case of factory closure due to safe-ty concern and relocation, which is supposed to be settled as per country’s laws, it added.

The meeting was attended, among others, by Former BGMEA President Abdus Salam Murshedy, Anwarul Alam Choudhury, FBC-CI Senior Vice president Sha� ul Islam Mo-hiuddin, BGMEA Vice President Reaz Bin Mahmood, Executive Director of Worker Rights Consortium Scott Nova, Executive Di-rector of Accord Rob Ways and Chief Safety Inspector of Accord Brad Loewen. l

NBL MD made OSD due to alleged irregularities n Jebun Nesa Alo

National Bank Managing Director Shamsul Huda Khan has been made an O� cer on Spe-cial Duty (OSD) due to his alleged involve-ment in � nancial irregularities.

The decision was made at the board meet-ing held at the bank’s headquarters in the capital yesterday. Bangladesh Bank General Manager Kazi Sayedur Rahman was present as an observer.

“The board raised some allegations against Huda and the complaints were seemed to be appropriate as per my initial observation,” said Syedur. Huda has been made OSD till fur-ther instruction for further investigation over the allegations.

“The legal action will be taken against him after detail investigation.’’

The board alleged that the MD was involved in � nancial irregularities in the recent sand � ll-ing activities at NBL twin-tower construction site that collapsed due to land subsidence, risk-ing adjacent Sundarban Hotel recently.

Moreover, he allegedly took � nancial bene-� ts personally from the bank in irregular way, alleged the board.

The construction of the 12-story NBL tower at Karwan Bazar was started allegedly without

necessary approval from Bangladesh Bank.A day after the road collapsed near the con-

struction on May 27, Bangladesh Bank asked the bank to submit necessary documents of the NBL tower construction including agree-ment made with the Korean company.

Though the bank replied to the queries made by the central bank in this regard, no further action has been in sight as yet on be-half of the Bangladesh Bank.

Despite, the NBL tower construction was started without permission, Bangladesh Bank did not take any action till now.

“Still we did not take any decision over the NBL tower construction works,” said Bangla-desh Bank General Manager of Banking Reg-ulation and Policy Department Chowdhury Md. Feroz Bin Alam.

On the other hand, the construction of NBL tower remained suspended since the incident of land subsidence.

The National Bank has already provided over Tk85 crore as advance against its tower, according to the published � nancial state-ment of 2014. The project cost was estimated at around Tk200 crore.

An allegation was raised that a large amount of money of the NBL project went to the pocket of bank’s high ups. l

NBR revenue posts 15% growth in 10 monthsn Tribune Report

The revenue collection has posted 15.32% growth in the July-April period of the outgo-ing � scal year to Tk1,04,769 crore compared to the same period of the previous � scal year.

During the period of last � scal year, NBR had collected Tk90,847 crore, according to the latest data the National Board of Revenue (NBR) released yesterday.

The revenue authorities will have to col-lect additional Tk30,259 crore in revenue in May and June to cover the revenue target of Tk1,35,028 crore for the � scal year 2014-15, the data shows.

Up to April, NBR has collected Tk30,440.80 crore in customs duties while the Value Add-ed Tax wing mobilised Tk39,961.09 crore and income tax wing Tk33,681.59 crore, according to the data.

Revenue from customs duties grew 14.26% while the VAT wing posted 16.19% growth and income tax wing 14.98% growth.

The government had earlier revised down the revenue target to Tk1,35,028 crore from Tk149,720 crore on apprehension that the tar-get would not be achieved as the collection faced setback due to the political turmoil.

The political turmoil has hit the economy

hard, resulting in a slow revenue collection, but as the political situation is now favourable for businesses, it might give a boost to reve-nue earning, o� cials said.

They also said the board might achieve the target as the last two months of revenue col-lection got momentum.

The revenue mobilisation from unexplored avenues such as expanding the tax net, � nd-ing unexplored sectors, preventing loopholes in tax collection, � nding tax evasion cases will also help the board reach the target, they hoped.

According to the revised target, NBR is now assigned to collect Tk48,344 crore as in-come tax, Tk37,500 crore as customs duties, Tk48,264 crore as VAT, and Tk920 crore as other taxes. l

Revenue from customs duties grew 14.26% while VAT wing posted 16.19% growth and income tax wing 14.98%

BUSINESS16DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Bring on kitchen economicsn Edward Hadas

The new buzzword among academic economics is “mathiness”. The word was coined by Paul Romer, a professor at the Stern School of Business of New York University who is often considered a candidate for the economics Nobel Prize. He says his academ-ic opponents hide intellectual prejudice behind abstract models which are not really mathematical, just math-y. Romer understates the problem. Equa-tions muddle almost all economic debates.

Romer coined the word as part of an argument around what is known as growth theory, which anal-yses the drivers of prosperity. He explains his own view with a helpful non-mathematical model. Think of a kitchen, he says. A larger supply of ingredients will make more meals, but not necessarily better ones. For that, recipes are crucial. In an economy, the quantity and quality of the output – cooked dinners – depends in part on the quantity of the in-puts of raw materials, labour and capital. It depends much more on the recipes – knowledge.

So, while capital investment and skilled workers are necessary, technological innovation is the key to growth in developed economies. Romer and his opponents agree on that. They di� er when it comes to the analysis of how stu� is discovered and disseminated. In his analogy, they disagree about how recipes are written and then learnt by the cooks in the big economic kitchen.

Romer uses his kitchen economics to help people understand his thinking. But he also says that economists should prove their points using the rigour of equations. His 1986 growth model can be summarised with 14 of them. To turn reality into variables which follow the rules of mathematics, he postulates such remarkable abstractions as an om-nipotent social planner and identical households which “maximize a typical CRRA [constant relative risk aversion] utility function”.

Romer’s equations add no insight to the analogy. On the contrary, it adds confusion. After all, there is no social planner, households are not identical and they do not maximise any sort of utility. Doubt about those simpli� cations distract attention from the question at hand: what pushes growth?

The model is weakened by enveloping it in a haze of mathiness. Romer’s use of a single variable to describe “output-augmenting technologi-cal progress” is e� ectively circular. It assumes something that comes as the conclusion of the argument. In the kitchen analogy, it is easy to won-der what sort of recipes capture the complexity of economic reality. In Romer’s equation, that key issue is hidden behind a variable “A”.

Now consider the work of the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for economics, Jean Tirole. He and his co-authors thoughtfully analysed how to regulate monopolies such as water companies and dominant players such as Google in search engines. The basic conclusion is that there is never a simple or single formula. Companies, industries and societies di� er too much, he says. There are too many tradeo� s. The e� ects of any particular decision are unknown.

Tirole has presented these conclusions with in-numerable equations. They all rely on the standard economic assumption that everyone acts entirely for sel� sh gain. Since that claim is simply false, the equations can only subtract value from the sensi-tive qualitative analysis.

Mathiness pervades almost everything in aca-demic economics, from the basic models of supply and demand to the most complicated models of macroeconomic equilibrium. Ideological assertions and intellectual sloppiness are hidden in the choices of what to ignore and what to include, what to crush together into a single variable and what to split up.

Of course, explanations, whether verbal or algebra-ic, always involve simpli� cations, but words are much closer than abstract symbols to economic reality. In the right places, and in moderation, there is a role for mathematics in economics. Statistical analysis helps understanding by organising factual data. But abstract models take economics into an alternate universe.

The math-y approach might be excused if it worked, say by predicting economic recessions or by eliminating poverty. In fact, the dominant theo-ries work badly by any standard. The failure should also be expected from models which exclude ev-erything that cannot be squeezed into equations. What is left out? The things in human nature that lie at the heart of so many economic decisions: generosity, jealousy, loyalty, ambition…

Mathiness encourages a dangerous intellectual isolation among economists. They cannot follow the thinking of sociologists and anthropologists. That is a shame, since these social scientists could keep economists from ignoring the cultural values which shape modern economies and the institutions, from corporations to legislatures, which make them work.

Even worse, mathiness cuts mainstream economics o� from ethics. Professionals rarely ask the most important and basic question: what is eco-nomic activity supposed to accomplish? Rather, it is simply assumed that the goals of economic activity must be something mathematically recognisable – such as maximum GDP growth rate or minimum income inequality. Economics should help us under-stand and promote nebulous but wonderful goals such as human happiness, the responsible use of natural resources, and just allocation of the fruits of human labour. Mathiness gets in the way. l

Edward Hadas is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The article was initially published at Reuters.

Germany, world champion in car-sharingn AFP, Berlin

Car-sharing, pioneered in Switzerland in the 1970s, is gaining popularity across the globe as people shy away from the cost of owning and maintaining an automobile in big cities.

And it is proving particularly successful in Germany, where carmakers themselves are keen to get a slice of the action.

In addition to concerns about greenhouse gases and pollution, there are many reasons why a growing number of urban dwellers are opting not to buy their own car: a chronic shortage of parking space, soaring insurance and upkeep costs, and high fuel prices.

Many prefer to use the well developed and e� cient public transport systems found in Germany and other countries.

“In towns and cities, young people don’t necessarily want to have a car,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center for Automotive Management (CAM) in Bergisch-Gladbach.

They still want the convenience of a car, without the � nancial burden of owning one. Yet they do not want to have to use traditional car-rental � rms every time they decide to go

for a spontaneous jaunt into the countryside.For those reasons, car-sharing - which ena-

bles renting a car even for very short periods of time, at any hour of the day or night - ap-peals to such people.

The scheme has also become handy for busi-nesses which do not want to maintain a costly � eet of company cars for their employees.

Germany leads the wayThe � rst car-sharing � rm in Germany, Stattau-to, was set up in Berlin in 1988, starting out with a single car.

By last year, there were as many as 140 operators in Europe’s biggest economy, with 1.04 million registered users and a total com-bined pool of 15,400 cars at their disposal, ac-cording to � gures compiled by the car-sharing industry federation BCS.

“That represents approximately half of the total o� er in Europe,” said Franck Leveque of British consulting � rm, Frost & Sullivan.

Car sharing has been slower to catch on in other European countries. In Italy, there are around 250,000 customers, and in France and Britain around 200,000 each.

Further a� eld, there are around 700,000 users in Japan, which started car-sharing schemes in 2007, and 1.3 million in the United States, according to recent data published by the University of California in Berkeley.

Gunnar Nehrke of BCS said that Germany stands out because of the sheer size and ex-tent of its network.

“In many countries, there is car-sharing in the capital, or two or three of the biggest cit-ies. Here, car-sharing is available in 490 towns and municipalities,” he told AFP. BCS predicts the number of users in Germany will rise to two million in the next � ve years.

German companies active in the sector in-clude Cambio, Stadtmobil, Book-n-drive, Tei-lAuto or CiteeCar, all of which have been ac-tive for a long time investing not only in major cities, but smaller towns as well.

The south-western city of Karlsruhe has the highest density of shared cars at 2.15 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants.

Leveque at Frost & Sullivan said that anoth-er important factor in the success of car-shar-ing in Germany was the role of the automak-ers themselves: BMW has its own scheme,

called Drivenow, and Daimler launched its Car2go in 2008.

Fast-growing marketThe global car-sharing market is still small. Ac-cording to consultancy � rm Roland Berger, it is projected to grow by 30% each year and reach 5.6bn euros in 2020 - a small fraction of the vast 1.3tn euro market of global auto sales last year.

But automakers see it as a new marketing channel, a way “of letting customers get to know the brand and possibly buying one lat-er,” said Bratzel at CAM.

Berlin has been dubbed by local media as the “world capital of car-sharing.”

At the end of 2014, the number of shared cars in the German capital stood at 3,180, which is almost as many as in all of Britain.

As many as 45% of households do not own a car in Berlin, where a young, often univer-sity-educated and relatively well-o� popula-tion sees the advantages of car-sharing.

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt recently promised to help promote “this new form of mobility” by o� ering free parking to car-sharing vehicles. l

US: ‘Grexit’ would hurt Greek people, economyn AFP, Washington

A Greek exit from the eurozone would have a major impact on the country’s moribund economy and its people, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned.

European Union heads are waiting for the anti-austerity government in Athens to present new economic reform and budget proposals, as Greece and its EU-IMF creditors struggle to reach a debt deal to prevent a default that could have worldwide repercussions.

“I’m not going to predict what the consequences would be,” Lewsaid in an interview with CNN, asked what would happen in the event of a “Grexit.”

“It’s clear that within Greece the consequence of a failure here would mean a terrible, terrible decline in their economic performance. It will hurt the Greek people, who will bear the � rst brunt of a failure.”

Lew said all parties in the fractious ongoing talks needed to show � exibil-ity, ahead of an emergency summit of leaders of the 19 countries in the euro area on Monday in Brussels.

“The reality is that there are impacts on markets. And I don’t think anyone should want to � nd out,” he said of the prospect of Greece leaving the euro-zone.

“I urge all the parties to be � exible but I think that we’re at a moment now where the burden is on Greece to come back with a response that’s the basis for reaching an agreement as soon as pos-sible.” l

Edward Hadas, writer of the book named Human Good, Economic Evils - A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science REUTERS

BUSINESS 17D

TWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

China manufacturing activity contractsn AFP, Beijing

China’s manufacturing activity contracted for the fourth straight month in June as demand remained sluggish in the world’s second-larg-est economy, a survey by British banking gi-ant HSBC showed yesterday.

The bank’s preliminary Purchasing Manag-ers’ Index (PMI) came in at 49.6 in June, the highest in three months but still below the breakeven point of 50, HSBC said in a state-ment.

The index, which is compiled by informa-tion services provider Markit and tracks activ-ity in factories and workshops, is seen as a key barometer of the country’s economic health.

However, while it marked a fourth straight contraction, the � gure was an improvement on May’s � nal reading of 49.2 and also beat a forecast of 49.4 in a survey of economists by Bloomberg News.

The � gures are the latest to show the eco-nomic powerhouse continues to slow despite three interest rate cuts since November as well as other measures to boost bank lending and the housing market.

While total new business and purchasing activity increased slightly this month compa-nies continued to slash sta� , with the latest reduction the sharpest in more than six years, Annabel Fiddes, an economist at Markit, said in the statement.

The acceleration in job cuts indicated that companies have “relatively muted growth expectations as demand conditions both at home and abroad remain relatively subdued”, she said.

“The data add to evidence that the sector has lost growth momentum in Q2 as a whole,

and suggests that the authorities may step up their e� orts to stimulate growth and job crea-tion in the second half of the year,” she added.

Zhao Yang, a Hong Kong-based economist with Nomura, also said the overall growth momentum in China was “still weak” despite

the improvement in the PMI reading.“Monetary policy still needs to be further

eased to counter the still-strong headwinds in the economy,” Zhao said in a research note.

China’s economy has continued to slow in 2015 after growing at its weakest pace - 7.4% -

in nearly a quarter-century last year.In the � rst three months of this year, gross

domestic product (GDP) expanded 7%, the worst quarterly result in six years.

HSBC said it will release its � nal PMI for June on July 1. l

With new app, news to be at core of Applen AFP, Washington

Apple is diving deeper into the news business with a new application that could make the US tech giant a key industry player.

Apple News, part of the upcoming iOS 9 op-erating system, aims to be the primary news source for users of the iPhone and iPad - likely at the expense of sources such as Facebook, Google and news apps such as Flipboard.

In a surprising move, Apple has unveiled it will be hiring experienced journalists to man-age its news feeds - marking a departure from the algorithmic process used by rivals.

“Apple is eager to have news created by hu-man beings and not algorithms – it � ts in with the brand statement Apple has been making,” said Judd Slivka, a professor of mobile jour-nalism at the University of Missouri.

“The expectation is they will put together a smart team that works well broadly across news and speci� c content areas.”

Although Apple has o� ered few speci� cs on its plans, the company’s jobs listing page said it is “looking for passionate, knowledgea-ble editors to help identify and deliver the best in breaking national, global, and local news.”

The page said the editors should have “great instincts for breaking news, but be equally able to recognize original, compel-ling stories unlikely to be identi� ed by algo-rithms.”

This marks a distinction from rivals such as Facebook, which is crafting formulas that aim

to deliver articles users want based on their Web habits, demographics and interests.

Fed by robots?Although Apple is likely to use some algo-rithms to � lter stories, the hiring of experi-enced journalists is a positive step, said Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeast-ern University.

“A lot of people don’t want to be fed news that a robot has decided interests them,” Ken-nedy told AFP.

“Especially if you don’t have any say how the robot makes that decision. The Facebook algorithm is highly mysterious, and people are starting to resent that.”

Kennedy said it is “encouraging that this is moving journalism to the center of Apple’s universe.” But he remains cautious about technology companies increasingly becoming gatekeepers for news.

“I’m not crazy about the idea of shifting news to huge corporations like Apple and Face-book that have their own agendas,” he said.

Apple says its news app “follows over a million topics and pulls relevant stories based on your speci� c interests.”

Partner news organisations include Conde Nast magazines, ESPN, The New York Times, Hearst, Time Inc., CNN and Bloomberg, but Apple will be opening to other publishers and bloggers.

Joshua Benton of the Nieman Journalism Lab said the app will be important because

“though the awesome power of default, Apple distribution puts it in an entirely other league. This app will be on hundreds of millions of de-vices within 24 hours of its debut.”

Benton said it could help news organiza-tions struggling to raise ad revenues, with Apple allowing them to keep 100% of money from ads they sell and 70% from what Apple’s iAd platform sells.

Following Apple playbookRob Enderle, a Silicon Valley analyst at Ender-le Group, said Apple is following a formula it has used in other areas, aiming for tight con-trol of content to assure quality -- and shut-ting potential rivals out.

Enderle said Apple prefers to have its own application on its devices to give iPhone and iPad users easy access without turning to third parties such as Google or Facebook.

He said that when rumors surfaced that Google was interested in buying Flipboard, this spurred Apple to act.

“They didn’t want Google to own a news device used by so many Apple users,” Enderle said.

As a major media player, Apple will need to deal with con� icts of interest such as manag-ing news that is un� attering to the company or which promotes rivals, analysts say.

Kennedy said that like other media owners, Apple will realize “that it would be a public re-lations � asco if they did try to manipulate the news in their favor.” l

Qatar vast gas reserves to last 138 yearsn AFP, Doha

Qatar’s gas reserves are so vast it can main-tain production at current rates for another 138 years, according to an o� cial report pub-lished yesterday.

An “Economic Commentary” from the Qa-tar National Bank (QNB) said the vast reserves of the tiny Gulf country will ensure it main-tains its prominent position in the hydrocar-bon sector “for years to come”.

It added that “Qatar has enough gas re-serves to maintain production at current rates for 138 years”.

“Looking forward, Qatar is expected to maintain its dominant role in the global hy-drocarbon sector,” read the QNB report.

“Global demand for clean energy is expect-ed to continue rising, and Qatar is a leader in the Liqui� ed Natural Gas (LNG) market.”

Qatar is the third largest producer of natu-ral gas in the world behind the United States and Russia. Globally, it accounts for just over � ve percent of the market.

LNG is gas cooled to -160 degrees Celsius when it then turns into a liquid, allowing it to be more easily transported.

The vast reserves of gas have helped fuel Qatar to becoming one of the richest countries on the planet. l

A sta� member exits a car in a newly-built vertical parking garage, in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, China REUTERS

BUSINESS18DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 182.18 4.19 13.60 3.80 195.79 4.16NBFI 84.62 1.95 5.81 1.62 90.43 1.92Investment 38.11 0.88 1.58 0.44 39.70 0.84Engineering 371.80 8.56 29.51 8.24 401.31 8.53Food & Allied 421.91 9.71 8.18 2.29 430.09 9.14Fuel & Power 465.76 10.72 32.13 8.98 497.89 10.59Jute 2.26 0.05 0.00 2.26 0.05Textile 681.43 15.68 90.11 25.17 771.54 16.40Pharma & Chemical 727.50 16.74 34.34 9.59 761.85 16.20Paper & Packaging 21.72 0.50 2.77 0.77 24.50 0.52Service 107.20 2.47 6.31 1.76 113.51 2.41Leather 81.00 1.86 3.60 1.01 84.60 1.80Ceramic 54.23 1.25 4.51 1.26 58.74 1.25Cement 404.05 9.30 60.44 16.88 464.48 9.88Information Technology 35.57 0.82 4.11 1.15 39.68 0.84General Insurance 17.84 0.41 0.33 0.09 18.18 0.39Life Insurance 39.66 0.91 1.85 0.52 41.51 0.88Telecom 265.49 6.11 10.68 2.98 276.17 5.87Travel & Leisure 128.29 2.95 16.38 4.57 144.67 3.08Miscellaneous 213.64 4.92 31.72 8.86 245.36 5.22Debenture 1.08 0.02 0.05 0.01 1.13 0.02

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

News, analysis and recent disclosueresBDTHAI: With reference to the Company’s earlier news (dissem-inated by DSE on 19.05.2015) regarding Issuance of Rights Shares of the Company, the Company has further informed that the shareholders in the EGM have approved the agenda of Rights Shares issue (1 right share against existing 1 share held) at par i.e. at the rate of Tk. 10.00 per share instead of Board’s pro-posal for issue of rights shares at a premium of Tk. 15.00 each, subject to approval of BSEC.LAFSURCEML: The Company will be placed in ‘A’ category from existing ‘Z’ category with e� ect from today (June 23, 2015) as the Company has reported disbursement of total 10% cash dividend (5% Interim and 5% Final) for the year end-ed on December 31, 2014.DUTCHBANGL: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the rating of the Company as “AA1” in the long term and “ST-1” in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

Dividend/AGMNATLIFEINS: 45% cash , AGM: 09.08.2015, Record Date: 30.06.2015.RUPALILIFE: 10% stock, AGM: 10.08.2015, Record Date: 09.07.2015.ASIAINS: 10% cash, AGM: 11.07.2015, Record Date: 23.06.2015.

LAFSURCEML: 5% interim cash. Record date for enti-tlement of interim dividend: 02.07.2015.FAMILYTEX: 10% stock divi-dend, EGM & AGM: 07.08.2015, Record Date: 09.07.2015.KPCL: 40% cash, AGM: 25.06.2015, Record Date: 31.05.2015.BDWELDING: 5% stock divi-dend AGM: 25.06.2015, Record Date: 09.06.2015.NBL: 10% stock dividend, AGM: 14.09.2015, Record date: 30.08.2015.ORIONPHARM: 15% cash divi-dend, AGM: 28.06.2015, Record Date: 21.05.2015.ISNLTD: No dividend, AGM: 28.06.2015, Record date: 16.06.2015.PURABIGEN: 15% stock divi-dend, AGM: 30.07.2015, Record date: 07.06.2015. JANATAINS: 10% stock divi-dend, AGM: 25.07.2015, Record Date: 21.05.2015. NCCBANK: 10% stock divi-dend, AGM: 24.06.2015, Record Date: 18.05.2015.PEOPLESINS: 13% cash dividend, AGM: 09.06.2015, Record Date: 18.05.2015.UNIQUEHRL: 20% cash divi-dend, AGM: 25.06.2015, Record Date: 24.05.2015. WATACHEM: 5% cash and 25% stock dividend, AGM: 20.06.2015, Record Date: 14.05.2015. GOLDENSON: 12.50% cash dividend, AGM: 27.06.2015, Record Date: 14.05.2015. GQBALLPEN: 10% cash divi-dend, AGM: 25.06.2015, Record Date: 14.05.2015.

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Legacy Footwear -A 9.83 6.83 25.50 25.70 25.70 24.00 3.496 0.20 127.5Hakkani P& Paper -B 9.77 9.77 42.70 42.70 42.70 42.70 1.747 0.29 147.2Anwar Galvanizing-B 9.63 6.64 40.46 41.00 41.00 38.50 0.179 0.68 59.5Rupali InsurA 8.13 8.13 17.30 17.30 17.30 17.30 0.012 2.60 6.7Prime Insur -A 7.43 7.43 15.90 15.90 15.90 14.10 0.064 1.12 14.2ISN Ltd. -Z 6.67 6.33 9.57 9.60 9.60 9.50 0.014 0.16 59.8Delta SpinnersA 5.98 5.17 12.40 12.40 12.70 11.80 16.360 0.59 21.0Provati Insur.-A 5.26 5.58 14.00 14.00 14.00 14.00 0.005 1.84 7.6R. N. Spinning-Z 5.02 8.57 25.58 25.10 26.10 22.80 5.755 0.44 58.1IBBLMPB-A 4.55 4.25 927.20 930.00 930.00 903.00 0.053 0.00 -

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Hakkani P& Paper -B 9.87 9.82 42.26 42.30 42.30 41.90 2.841 0.29 145.7Legacy Footwear -A 9.75 6.34 25.48 25.90 25.90 23.80 12.923 0.20 127.47th ICB M F-A 9.41 9.41 93.00 93.00 93.00 93.00 0.047 9.73 9.6Anwar Galvanizing-B 9.19 5.38 40.74 41.60 41.90 38.60 13.494 0.68 59.9Anlima Yarn -A 8.15 5.26 19.60 19.90 20.00 18.00 7.500 0.83 23.6Stylecraft -A 7.49 6.46 949.03 975.00 975.00 910.00 1.024 44.44 21.4BD Fixed Income MF-A 7.46 4.70 7.13 7.20 7.30 6.70 0.167 0.51 14.0Modern Dyeing -Z 6.81 5.15 63.49 64.30 64.50 62.70 0.024 0.76 83.5Samata LeatheR -Z 6.15 6.15 19.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 0.002 -0.05 -veR. N. Spinning-Z 5.44 8.23 25.50 25.20 26.10 23.90 50.834 0.44 58.0

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Kohinoor Chem -A -7.99 -7.99 290.00 290.00 290.00 290.00 0.000 8.25 35.2Peoples Insur -A -7.64 -7.94 14.50 14.50 14.50 14.50 0.002 1.20 12.1Tosrifa Industries -N -6.80 -5.53 32.43 31.50 33.70 31.20 15.252 1.80 18.0Nitol Insurance -A -6.25 -6.25 22.50 22.50 22.50 22.50 0.010 3.14 7.2Midas Financing-Z -5.94 -3.36 9.50 9.50 9.50 9.50 0.000 -1.55 -vePopular Life Insu. -A -5.75 -5.75 82.00 82.00 82.00 82.00 0.033 2.89 28.4GQ Ball PenA -5.27 -3.56 70.74 70.10 71.50 68.80 0.167 2.41 29.4Apex SpinningA -5.13 -5.10 68.42 68.40 69.00 68.30 0.082 2.28 30.0Eastern Cables-A -4.94 -4.31 117.44 117.40 120.00 116.20 0.115 1.12 104.9National Life I -A -4.87 -1.42 179.72 179.70 180.70 179.00 0.233 12.46 14.4

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Al-Haj Textile -A -7.60 -6.40 99.03 96.00 104.60 95.00 67.370 1.07 92.6ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A -6.70 -6.62 20.86 20.90 21.00 20.20 0.194 2.61 8.0Tosrifa Industries -N -6.51 -5.35 32.55 31.60 34.20 31.40 74.689 1.80 18.1Rangpur Dairy-Z -6.06 -8.43 12.38 12.40 13.20 12.00 7.212 0.80 15.5Northern Jute -Z -6.05 -4.94 194.87 192.60 205.00 191.00 0.038 1.75 111.4Savar Refractories-Z -5.94 -5.94 36.40 36.40 36.40 36.40 0.002 -0.64 -vePragatiLife Insu. -Z -5.68 -4.42 84.96 84.70 90.00 82.00 0.318 2.38 35.7Takaful Islami Insu-A -5.10 -1.48 18.60 18.60 18.60 18.60 0.010 1.40 13.3Bay Leasing.-A -4.39 -3.56 19.79 19.60 20.60 19.40 2.753 0.76 26.0Paramount Insur-A -4.29 -4.56 13.39 13.40 14.20 13.00 0.275 1.32 10.1

DSE key features June 23, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

4,345.33

Turnover (Volume)

113,070,684

Number of Contract

99,736

Traded Issues 319

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

118

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

192

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

9

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,517.52

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.52

CSE key features June 23, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

358.04

Turnover (Volume)

13,262,317

Number of Contract

16,947

Traded Issues 235

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

83

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

143

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

9

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,443.83

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.62

BUSINESS 19D

TWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Stocks extend losses in dull tradingn Tribune Report

Stocks extended losses for the fourth session in a row yes-terday with continued dull trading, as investors continued to remain cautious over the direction-less market.

The benchmark of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, was down 14 points or 0.4% to close at 4,489, hitting highest 4,528 in early session and 4,484 in � nal minutes.

The Shariah index, DSES, witnessed fractional gains of 0.3 points to 1,099. However, the blue chip comprising in-dex DS30 also witnessed fractional gains of 0.3 points to 1,733. The Chittagong Stock Exchange prime index, CSCX, declined 63 points to settle at 8,412.

Trading activities improved but still remained low as the DSE turnover that stood at over Tk434 crore, up almost 8% over the previous day.

The session was largely uneventful, except declaration of cement giant Lafarge Surma Cement to be placed in A cate-gory from Z-category, following its 10% cash dividend (5% interim and 5% � nal) deceleration for the last year.

It was the most traded stocks with shares worth Tk37.5 crore changing hands, accounting for 8.6% of the total turn-over. The company shares rallied 2.4%, pushing the cement sector rising highest 1.6%.

Among other positive performing sectors, mutual fund and textile sectors were up by 1.4% and almost 1% respec-tively, while life insurance, bank, energy and telecommuni-cations were down by 1.6%, 1%, 1.3% and 0.7% respectively.

Lanka Bangla Securities said the index dipped for four consecutive trading sessions in the midst of lack of trigger in market. “Market showed weakness in late hour due to pro� t taking, with investors cashing in on the recent strength of the market.”

IDLC Investments said though activities gained momen-tum, market remained sluggish and lost some space, slip-ping below 4,500 points level. “During these unenthusiastic moves, scrips kept changing hands in anticipation of an in-dividual winner.”

After Lafarge, it was followed by Beximco Pharmaceu-ticals, Beximco Limited, Grameenphone, Familytex and Square Pharmaceuticals. l

Trading activities improved but still remained low as the DSE turnover that stood at over Tk434 crore, up almost 8% over the previous day

ANALYST

Daily capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 11154.53620 (-) 0.32% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1733.21769 (+) 0.01% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 13827.23900 (-) 0.56% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 11154.53620 (-) 0.27% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8420.49040 (-) 0.61% ▼

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

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

LafargeS Cement-A 498,983 59.43 16.60 116.90 1.74 114.90 126.30 114.60 119.10BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 806,378 26.89 7.51 33.00 0.30 32.90 33.90 32.70 33.35Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 1,139,626 17.32 4.84 15.00 0.67 14.90 15.60 14.90 15.20Delta SpinnersA 1,319,556 16.36 4.57 12.40 5.98 11.70 12.70 11.80 12.40Tosrifa Industries -N 470,268 15.25 4.26 31.50 -6.80 33.80 33.70 31.20 32.43UNITED AIR-A 1,475,796 14.61 4.08 9.80 -2.00 10.00 10.20 9.70 9.90Beximco Pharma -A 191,840 11.48 3.21 60.00 3.45 58.00 60.50 58.50 59.86G Next Fashions-A 859,618 10.30 2.88 11.90 2.59 11.60 12.20 11.60 11.99BSRM Ltd. -N 122,708 8.57 2.39 69.50 -2.11 71.00 71.50 68.90 69.85United Power-N 47,251 7.36 2.05 154.30 -2.09 157.60 158.00 153.50 155.70Grameenphone-A 20,328 6.61 1.85 324.50 -0.61 326.50 326.10 324.00 324.97Summit Power -A 157,886 6.37 1.78 39.80 -2.93 41.00 41.40 39.60 40.35R. N. Spinning-Z 224,986 5.75 1.61 25.10 5.02 23.90 26.10 22.80 25.58Khulna Power-A 81,861 5.75 1.61 69.70 -2.79 71.70 71.40 69.50 70.28Zaheen Spinning -N 241,335 5.67 1.58 22.80 0.88 22.60 24.20 22.50 23.49

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

LafargeS Cement-A 3,141,386 375.03 8.63 118.00 2.43 115.20 122.90 116.60 119.38Olympic Ind. -A 1,414,138 337.95 7.78 231.70 0.78 229.90 240.00 229.40 238.98Grameenphone-A 724,556 234.77 5.40 323.50 -0.61 325.50 328.70 322.80 324.02Beximco Pharma -A 3,395,302 203.12 4.67 60.00 3.45 58.00 60.40 58.20 59.82BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 4,768,203 158.80 3.65 32.90 0.00 32.90 33.90 32.70 33.30Square Pharma -A 565,948 142.91 3.29 252.30 -0.12 252.60 254.60 251.70 252.52Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 6,027,071 92.28 2.12 15.20 2.01 14.90 15.60 15.00 15.31Summit Power -A 2,042,760 81.72 1.88 39.60 -3.18 40.90 41.40 39.00 40.01UNITED AIR-A 8,093,617 80.41 1.85 9.80 -2.00 10.00 10.30 9.70 9.93Khulna Power-A 1,136,918 80.05 1.84 69.90 -2.65 71.80 72.20 69.60 70.41Tosrifa Industries -N 2,294,839 74.69 1.72 31.60 -6.51 33.80 34.20 31.40 32.55SummitAlliancePort.-A 1,128,007 68.52 1.58 60.80 1.33 60.00 61.60 59.80 60.74Al-Haj Textile -A 680,296 67.37 1.55 96.00 -7.60 103.90 104.60 95.00 99.03Bata Shoe Ltd. -A 53,087 65.32 1.50 1237.90 0.62 1230.30 1250.00 1230.00 1230.47Delta SpinnersA 4,910,041 60.99 1.40 12.40 5.08 11.80 12.80 11.80 12.42

Karnaphuli tunnel project proposal set for next cabinet committee meetingn Asif Showkat Kallol and Sohel Mamum

The Karnaphuli tunnel project proposal is like-ly to be placed at the next meeting of cabinet committee on economic a� airs, said o� cials.

Under the proposal, a commercial agree-ment between governments of Bangladesh and China will be signed this month.

The works to construct the 4.21km tunnel under the River Karnaphuli in Chittagong is expected to start by the end of 2015 and con-clude in 2019.

This will be a government to government initiative project, and the contract will be inked between Bangladesh Bridge Authori-ty and China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC).

CCCC is also the consultant for construc-tion of the proposed Karnaphuli tunnel.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said the parties might strike the deal on June 29.

O� cials apprehended that the project cost would increase by 9.26% compared to the ne-gotiated price of the Bridges Division.

According to the proposal, the project cost will be about $1,005.80m and the construc-tion is expected to be completed in 2019 tak-ing four years time.

An amount of $705.80m will be spent on building infrastructures in the project site

while the remaining part will be used in land acquisition, rehabilitation programme and hiring consultant.

The length of the tunnel will be 4.21 km while the west bank approach road is 740 me-tres and the east bank approach road 4,952 metres, the proposal cited.

The CCCC who conducted survey on four international tunnels and Padma Bridge re-vealed that the construction cost of the Kar-naphuli tunnel might range from $770.43m to $1,806.17m.

The four international tunnels are Ottawa Tunnel in Canada, Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line in Japan, Dalian and Yantai tunnel and Yellow River tunnel in China. The dual two-lane tun-nel will be � rst of its kind in Bangladesh and is expected to improve the Dhaka-Chittagong -Cox’s Bazar highway network.

In future, it could also be linked with the proposed Asian Highway Network, which is supposed to establish road communications with neighbouring Myanmar and India.

The Karnaphuli tunnel will attract down-town population in the east side and promote “One City and Two Towns” improvement mod-el adopted by China’s largest city Shanghai.

The tunnel is also essential because heavy siltation on the Karnaphuli riverbed is a main problem for proper functioning of Chittagong Port and also for building new bridges. l

BUSINESS20DT

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Olympic Accessories shares trading begins tomorrow n Tribune Report

Shares trading of Olympic Accessories Lim-ited will begin tomorrow at the country’s both the stock exchanges. Trading code for the company is “OAL” at the Dhaka Stock Ex-change.

Its IPO (initial public o� ering) was oversub-scribed by more than 48 times against the total public o� er worth Tk20 crore. The company received applications valued Tk969.4 crore.

Of which, general investors, including a� ected ones and mutual funds applied for Tk966.6 crore and non-resident Bangladesh-is Tk2.85 crore. Investors applied for shares worth Tk37.68 crore through DSE, Tk58.2 crore through CSE, Tk6.96 crore through mer-chant banks and the rest through commercial banks.

On February 25, the company got IPO ap-proval from Bangladesh Securities and Ex-change Commission (BSEC). It issued two crore ordinary shares worth Tk10 each.

Olympic Accessories will use the fund from the IPO proceed for the construction of a new factory building and purchasing machinery. The company’s earnings per share as of June last year stood at Tk1.43 with a net asset value per share of Tk16.34.

Olympic Accessories is engaged in manu-facturing, processing, printing, cutting, seal-ing and assembling of all kinds of carton, poly beg, hanger, elastic, draw cord, back board, neck board, ribbon, gum tape, label, twill tape, interlining, bar code and hangtag. l

bKash o� ers up to 20% cash backon Eid shoppingn Tribune Report

bKash Limited, the leading mobile � nancial service provider, will o� er up to 20% cash back to its customers for making payment through bKash account.

The o� er will be applicable for 381 outlets of the country’s leading brands in fashion, food and e-commerce.

The major participating brands include Aarong, Yellow, Lotto, Fakhruddin Biryani and Shwapno.

Beginning on the � rst day of Ramadan, the o� er will remain valid till the day of Eid ul-Fitr.

There is no additional charge for bKash payment and upon valid transaction, custom-ers will receive the cash back amount in their bKash account on the next working day, said a press release issued on Sunday.

Payment through bKash is being widely accepted in more than 5,000 merchant shops across the country, it added.

bKash customers can make a wide range of payment from hospital bills to taxi fare to plane ticket through bKash.

They can also recharge their cellphone ac-counts of four operators – Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel.

The name of participating brands and their outlets is available on bKash website www.bkash.com and Facebook page www.face-book.com/bkashlimited. l

Manikins dressed with woman’s salwar kameezes have been put on display at a shop in the capitals’ Science Lab area ahead of Eid-ul-� tr shopping spree. The shop owners expect the Eid shoppers to crowd the city malls in a few days. The photo was taken yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Banks asked to spend CSR on transgender peoplen Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank asked all the schedule banks to spend CSR (corporate social re-sponsibility) fund on improving the living standard of transgender community.

Banks have been asked to include the third gender in other sectors dedicated for CSR spending.

Currently, education, SME, agricultur-al and green � nancing sectors are in prior-ity under CSE engagement.

The central bank issued a circular in this connection yesterday with immedi-ate e� ect.

Earlier on June 10, transgender com-munity has been entitled to get bank loans under the Small and Medium Entre-preneurs (SME) programme. l

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22Trial RoomWhen words spell magic

24decorGood in bed

room of the weekThe minimalistic study

INSIDE

Words to be felt

Photo: bigstock

Trial RoomWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

T-JUNCTION22DT

When words spell magicHe is a journalist by profession, however, talent of poetry and immense passion makes him one of the best lyricists of Bangladesh. His words can spread magic beyond borders. We’re taking about Zulfiqer Russell, winner of Citycell-Channel i Music Awards for the third time, who is currently working with Bangla Tribune as the executive editor. T-Junction had a tête-à-tête with words that could hopefully brighten up a gloomy day

n Saudia Afrin

A journey from poet to lyricist Though he never thought of connecting with music, Zul� qer Russell used to write for Ittefaq and many other publications from an early age. He said, “It was truly an inde� nable feeling to see my own writings in printing.” In the beginning of the 90s, his poems were published in di� erent reading materials. In the process of working with di� erent newspapers, he came to be acquainted with many artists like Samina Chowdhury, Shompa Reza and many more. He started wondering, “If I can write poems, then why not lyrics?”

However, the words of a song by Mohammad Ra� quzzaman, from the movie Shubodha, made him realise these words weren’t written by him. After a while, he started writing himself, but gradually

realised that writing a song isn’t as easy as it sounds. He added, “A song can only be a good one if it sounds good with the words.”

Initially, no one showed interest in working with him, naturally. However, Muniruzzaman from the band Symphony, worked with his song for the very � rst time that was voiced by Tuhin. Interestingly enough, it was never released.

Nevertheless, Zulfiqer believes his journey as a lyricist actually began when working with Bappa Mazumder. The story behind this is a bit different. Zulfiqer didn’t know that Bappa worked with his lyrics, and after hearing the news just one word came through his mouth, “Really?” After listening to the songs he discovered that Bappa got the lyrics from Bashudeb Ghosh, which were given to Ghosh by Zulfiqer a long while back.

interview

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Factors of in� uence “As a lyricist, one has to write based on the requirements of the composer and story angle, but I write mostly based on my relations with my country or with other people. I write incidents from my life,” said Zul� qer. Even a character from a movie or novel equally sways him. He revealed that sometimes he doesn’t write for three to four months, but he never forces himself to write.

Creating a new songNow-a-days, everyone is busy. On top of that, every music director has a studio of his or her own. Although Zul� qer Russell himself follows the current structure, mails his lyrics to the composer, and if the composer thinks there are improvements that need to be made, it is replied back through email. Russell said, “That’s how we work now-a-days. There was a time a song was made through a combination of balance presence and recommendations from composer, lyricist and singer.”

He continued, “There are times when the composer doesn’t like a word or thinks it to be inappropriate, he changes it with a word that doesn’t go near to the thought of the lyricist. It creates obstacles for reaching the ful� llment for both parties.”

He believes a wonderful work is waiting for the audience as each and every progress is being done by sitting together with his co-artist Nachiketa Chakraborty.

Tearing down the boundariesApart from working with domestic artists, Zul� qer Russell has been and still works with singers and composers of West Bengal. However according to him, many prominent artists are upset because he’s working together with people on both sides of the border. Zul� qer thinks di� erently. He said, “If artists from outside these borders can join and work in Bangladesh, then why can’t we spread our light of talents to the world?”

He shared his experience of working with artists of Kolkata. His happiness reaches peak when he witnesses his lyrics uniting countless Bengali people. “Many people tell me, that I work more for India. But, now I see the whole thing. Through one song I am bringing so many Bengalis together. Isn’t it a great recognition for an artist to see Raghav Chatterjee, Anjan Dutt or Rupankar Bagchi perform my song in different programmes?”

Being a writerHis zeal for writing stories for movies may be unknown to many. In 2013 a children’s � lm, Akash Koto Durey was directed by Samia Zaman and was written by Zul� qer. He said, “While writing for movies or dramas, I always prefer to bring contemporary circumstances. One thing is that when I write a song, some sort of romanticism reels inside me. However, story telling usually drives me towards writing for kids. As he mentioned another upcoming movie named Shomporko, which is also directed by Zaman in a story of a teenager.

Road blockWith a soft smile, yet holding the boldness of personality, Russell said, “I usually stop writing in the phase of writer’s block.” This reminded him of stories regarding years of his unfinished work saved in his mobile phone. Zulfiqer, who writes mostly on his phone said, “Some unfinished ones are five to six years old.” This is, unfortunately, what writer’s block can do.

His best In the question of his best work, Zul� qer’s immediate response was, “Di� cult to say that I never thought about it. I love each and every creation of mine.” He paused to think and continued, “The song, Oprithibi Ebar Eshe Bangladesh Nau Chiney, is what I consider my best work out of everything.”

In gratitudeAn award, for him, is an inspiration and an achievement. He said, “I consider it as a recognition of work. It is an assessment of whatever I did through this award to in� uence me to work further.” He has been awarded plenty but these standout the most:• Best Lyricist- Citycell-Channel i Music

Awards 2008 , 2010, 2015]• Best Lyricist- Bangladesh Cultural

Reporters Association `08• Best Lyricist- Dhaka Cultural Reporters

Unity ‘09• Concord Fellowship for Environment

Journalism ‘03• Best Lyricist Nomination- Fizz-up CJFB

Performance Award `05

Forthcoming gifts He is waiting for the upcoming Eid, a duet album, Ekta Bandhu Chai by Raghav Chatterjee and Samina Chowdhury

Dream project “I’ve already started to work on my dream project to give it a distinctive real appearance . However, I won’t be able to reveal it until it is � nished.”

A father’s expectationsIt’s comforting to know that Zul� qer seeks but the best for his beloved daughter, Parisa Russell. He says he will appreciate and support her in any line of profession she chooses for herself. The only genuine thing he asks of his daughter is to be a lover of music.

Favourite lyricistMohammad Ra� quzzaman, Abu Hena Mustafa KamalFavourite ComposerNachiketa Chakraborty, Raghav Chatterjee and many more.Favourite singersSamina Chowdhury, Fahmidanabi, Bappa Mazumder, Nachiketa Chakraborty and many more.

Tucked InT-JUNCTION24DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

n Farhana Shahnaz

Parting always hurts. All day long you have thoughts lingering in your mind, wishing you could spend one more hour with her. And then the time comes, you are reunited. Feels like bliss doesn’t it? Such is the love you have, the love for your bed. Albeit it’s the focal point of every bedroom, when it comes to decking up the beds, we only lay on a good bedspread and we’re done with it. Little do we realise the possibilities.

Mix or matchGone are the days of boring and dull bedding. Invest in striking bold patterns to reflect your personality. If you are a fan of understated sophistication, go for whites or pastels. Prints such as ikat and mandala are all people are raving about right now. Tie-dyes have also made a comeback so you can get some for yourself. For a touch of novelty get some galaxy print bedding. You can also glam up your drab bedspreads with some trendy accent cushions and pillows. Cushions do the work of a statement neck-piece, one stunning sequenced or embellished pillow can transform your bed from drab to fab in no time. Your cushions don’t always have

to be square or rectangular, experiment with rounded shapes or hearts, etc – the possibilities are endless. Also, your pillows don’t always have to match your bedding. Experiment with contrasts and different styles. Quote pillow cases are a major trend now so DIY some with your favourite quotes and some fabric paint. Tassels have always made a way into the bedding department. Add some tassel adornment to the edges of your bedspread for some extra flair.

Board the headboardThose box beds most of us have may be functional but lack severely in the looks department. Spruce them up in a breeze with some easy headboard DIYs. Line the wall above your bed with some twinkling fairy lights or some banners to create the illusion of a headboard. For some flower power, use some flower garland as ornamentation. If you are handy with tools make a headboard using cardboard or planks. Channel your inner prepster and hang a faux animal head wall-mount

for a glam polish. If you have a love for all things Bohemian, tapestries should be your choice. To increase the glamour quotient up a notch, make yourself a canopy, but do it only if you can keep it clean all throughout. You are spoiled with options so wave adios to lackluster beds.

Cozy and comfyWhat is the point of a bed that looks great but doesn’t feel inviting? Step one of having a pretty bed should always be thorough cleaning. Dedicate a whole day

to cleaning your bed, strip your bed off the bedding and mattress. Air out your mattress in the sun to reduce germs and allergens, sun acts as a natural disinfectant. If that’s not an option just lay out your mattress indoors near a window for a good five to six hours or sprinkle some baking soda and vacuum your mattress to minimise any musty odour. Try to wash your bedding and pillow cases once a week for a clean fresh feel. For fluffy hotel-like pillows leave your pillows in the dryer or in the sun or add some extra pillow inserts.l

Good in beddecor

room of the week

Here’s to that beautiful spread

The minimalistic studyRoom: Arnita AhmedArea: Gulshan 2

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TWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

HAFEEZ FACES BAN OVER SUSPECT ACTION

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World Cup winner Rivaldo is considering coming out of retirement at the age of 43 to help pull struggling

Mogi Mirim o� the bottom of the Brazilian second division

POSSIBLE RETURN?

SportWE CAN’T KIDNAP MUSTAFIZUR, SAYS ASHWIN

ASHES SET FOR BUMPY ‘SLEDGING’ RIDE

Nasir con� dent of Banglawashn Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh have al-ready registered their 18th ODI series win and if they can � n-ish it with a clean-sweep, it will be their 11th whitewash and according to Nasir

Hossain, the Tigers will give their hundred percent to ensure a win in the third and � nal game of the series today.

“We had a meeting before the training ses-sion where we were told what type of pressure we would have encountered and what should have been our approach if we found ourselves losing the � rst two games. We will go with that sort of attitude and obviously we are not thinking about anything but a win and we are not going to take this game lightly,” said Nasir.

23-year old Nasir, like everyone else, is ex-pecting the Indian team to come hard in the last one-day match but at the same time he in-sisted that the players know their role on the � eld and they are not wasting time thinking about their opponent.

When asked if the series win will make Bangladesh a big team in world cricket, Nasir informed that they need to maintain their con-sistency at least for the next two to three years to become a powerhouse in world cricket.

“I still won’t say we have become a big team as we have been playing only in our home conditions which has been a big advan-tage for us and we still have a long way to go to become a big side,” he added.

Earlier, Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza termed Nasir as one of the best o� -spinners available to the team. Hailing from Rangpur, Nasir was not part of the Zim-babwe series at home last year while he was also on the verge of not being a part of the World Cup squad this year. However, he came back strongly and now o� ers e� ective bowl-ing alongside his crucial batting inputs.

It was Nasir who gave the important break-throughs in the second game picking up the dangerous Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan. Nasir however, cracked a joke when he was told about Mashrafe’s comments on him.

“A cat is the king of the jungle when there is no Tiger in it (laughing). As there are no o� -spinners in the side, I may be the best o� -spinner. Maybe I am bowling better than before as I have been working with Rohan (spin and assistant coach Ruwan Kalpage) and I have always enjoyed bowling,” he said.

The dashing all-rounder also added that captain Mashrafe always encouraged him to bowl and said that he has the ability to bowl full quota of 10 overs in an international match which helped him to gain con� dence. l Musta� zur Rahman kicks a ball while Jubair Hossain and Taijul Islam share a light moment during training at SBNS yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Sport26DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

We can’t kidnap Musta� zur, says Ashwin n Minhaz Uddin Khan

A “Banglawash” looms over India as they take on hosts Bangladesh in the third and � nal one-day international at Mirpur today. 2-0 up, the Tigers have nothing to lose while they al-ways had the license to go for the kill. India o� -spinner Ravichandran Ashwin informed that his side is on the toes and to protect their reputation, which is at stake, they will put down the best possible eleven to avoid the humiliation.

“It is very important to put your best side on the � eld. Obviously the three changes is a matter of the fact that we looked to put the best eleven in the park in the previous game,” said Ashwin at the pre-match press confer-ence at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yes-terday.

The 28-year old from Tamil Nadu admitted that they failed as a unit while Bangladesh made sure of outplaying them in all the three departments.

“We failed as a unit but have learnt our les-sons. It’s a challenge for us to win the last ODI. Losing the series is not an insult for us. A good side has beaten us. Hopefully, we will try and avoid a Banglawash,” said Ashwin.

Bangladesh pacer Musta� zur Rahman has been the major reason behind India’s destruc-tion as the left-arm pacer took 11 wickets in the two encounters. A journalist in the media session claimed India is not being able to � nd a counter to the Bangladesh pacer as Ashwin joked, “If there is no counter, then what can we do? Can we kidnap him? We have to come out there and play some good and solid crick-et and try and make sure to nullify the fact. He does have a good cutter, we have to watch out for that. We have to give him the respect as well. Respect is what is important in inter-national cricket.”

Bangladesh have been unbeaten in its last 10 ODIs played at home. The tally includes a 5-0 whitewash against Zimbabwe followed by the 3-0 win against Pakistan. A whitewash against India will mean a hat trick for the Ti-gers. A good portion in the cricketing arena believes Bangladesh’s clean sweep will mean a humiliation for world No 2 India which Ash-win, however, disagreed.

“I think it’s not a legacy that we are look-

ing to wash away. From my side this is not the � rst team that Bangladesh will beat in the future. They are a good side. And they are on the way. I think they will beat more teams. They have beaten Pakistan. South Africa will come along. They will fancy their chances against them. So I don’t think it’s like regret-ting a particular thing. You don’t go into a game thinking, they beat me, now we are really angry we want to smash them, that’s not how it works. It’s international cricket, they have done their bit. They had their own biding time. So it’s very important to respect the opponents. You can’t go back and say that this is like an insult. It is not, a good side has beaten us,” said Ashwin. l

Banglawash against Full MembersOpposition Margin YearZimbabwe 5-0 (5) 2006West Indies 3-0 (3) 2009New Zealand 4-0 (5) 2010New Zealand 3-0 (3) 2013Zimbabwe 5-0 (5) 2014Pakistan 3-0 (3) 2015

Bangladesh (likely)Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mush� qur Rahim (WK), Shakib al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe bin Mortaza (C), Rubel Hossain, Musta� zur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed

India (likely)Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajink-ya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvne-shwar Kumar, Akshar Patel, Dhawal Kulkarni

Shikhar Dhawan tries to skip past the challenge of Ravindra Jadeja during a friendly game of football during training at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Mush� qur RahimKnown for his unerring con-sistency, Mush� q has had a disappointing time with the bat in the � rst two ODIs against India. Having been dismissed for scores of 14 and 31, the Bogra lad will be desperate to come good in the � nal ODI today.

Shikhar DhawanDhawan registered good starts in both the ODIs but failed to convert them into big scores. A lot will depend on the in-form opener if the visitors are to salvage something from the three-match series.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

If there is no counter, then what can we do? Can we kidnap him? We have to come out there and play some good and solid cricket and try and make sure to nullify the fact. He does have a good cutter, we have to watch out for that. We have to give him the respect as well. Respect is what is important in international cricket

‘Fearless’ Bangladesh celebrate rare consistent runn Reuters, Dhaka

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza be-lieves playing a fearless brand of one-day cricket has brought about a “signi� cant change” in his team’s fortunes.

Over the last two years Bangladesh lost home ODI series to Sri Lanka and India and were also blanked 3-0 in West Indies, but an upswing in performances has seen them win 10 ODIs at home in a row.

Bangladesh blanked Zimbabwe 5-0 in a � ve-ODI series before reaching the quarter-� -

nals of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand for the � rst time, and proved that was no � uke by thumping Pakistan 3-0 in a ODI se-ries at home.

They followed that up with their � rst ODI series win over two-time world champions In-dia on Sunday with a game to spare.

“I think the boys are playing fearless crick-et,” Mortaza told reporters. “This is the signif-icant change. The boys are not scared to play shots. They are not scared to put the slips on so I think that sort of cricket has changed.

“Cricket is all about mind games. I think

we are all playing good cricket at the moment, especially with our head in the right place. I have always wanted to play attacking cricket.”

The Bangladesh batsmen went hard at In-dia’s bowling in both matches while left-arm paceman Musta� zur Rahman ran through the vaunted Indian batting, picking up � ve wick-ets on debut and then six on Sunday.

Both victories were comfortably achieved and the margin of the wins surprised even Mortaza.

“This is one of the biggest achievements. Actually I think the boys are really con� dent.

Maybe we didn’t expect (to win) that way,” the medium paceman said.

“But we always thought that we are going to play to win and � ght till the last ball. Obvi-ously I know that if we play our best cricket, it will be competitive. But we can win as well.”

While Bangladesh have surprised top teams in the past, they have su� ered from a lack of consistency and Mortaza said he hoped his team can continue delivering results.

“Our biggest problem was the consistency,” he said. “In cricket, momentum is very impor-tant so hopefully the boys will keep it up.” l

Sport 27D

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Mandzukic undergoes Juventus medicalCroatia forward Mario Mandzukic is on the point of signing for Juventus after one season with Atletico Madrid, the Serie A champions said on Monday. “Mario Mandzukic is this morning undergoing a routine medical ahead of his proposed transfer to Juventus from Atletico Madrid,” Juventus said in a statement.

REUTERS

Southampton sign keeper Stekelenburg on loanDutch international goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg joined Premier League South-ampton on a year’s loan from Fulham on Mon-day, the south coast club said on their website. “Maarten is a goalkeeper with a wealth of top-level experience who will prove to be an important addition to the squad at this early stage of pre-season,” Executive Director of Football of Les Reed said in a club statement.

REUTERS

Norwich sign DR Congo mid� elder MulumbuNewly-promoted Premier League club Norwich City have signed DR Congo international mid-� elder Youssouf Mulumbu on a free transfer, the club said on Monday. The 28-year-old will join the Canaries on July 1 when his contract with fellow top-� ight side West Bromwich Albion, for whom he has played 151 Premier League games, expires.

REUTERS

Former Brazil skipper Lucio signs for FC GoaFormer Brazil skipper and 2002 World Cup win-ner Lucio has signed up as FC Goa’s marquee player for the second season of the burgeoning Indian Super League (ISL), the club said on its Twitter feed on Tuesday. The 37-year-old former Bayern Munich and Inter Milan defender had been playing at home with Palmeiras but will join up with Brazil great Zico, who is head coach of the club in the eight-team competition.

REUTERS

Dortmund’s Guendogan now considering to stay onBorussia Dortmund playmaker Ilkay Guendog-an, who was set to leave the German club this summer, could stay on under new coach Thom-as Tuchel, his agent said on Tuesday. Germany international Guendogan had said in April he would not be renewing his contract that runs out in 2016 and was said to be in talks with a number of clubs for an immediate transfer .

REUTERS

American teen scorches to sub-11sec 100mSixteen-year-old American Candace Hill has scorched to a 10.98 seconds time in the 100m, the fastest ever for a female athlete of her age. With a very favourable, but legal, tailwind of +2.0 metres per second, Hill’s performance at Shoreline, Washington state, ensured she became the � rst 16 or 17 year-old female (cur-rently born in 1998 or 1999) to dip under the mythical 11-second barrier.

AFP

QUICK BYTES

EPL winner, Chelsea’s John Terry (front R), poses for photographs as he meets fans in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China on Monday REUTERS

Ashes set for bumpy ‘sledging’ riden AFP, Manchester

According to the Lord’s-based Marylebone Cricket Club, still the guardian of cricket’s rules, it is against the ‘spirit of the game’ to “di-rect abusive language towards an opponent”.

Ask many a cricket fan for a de� nition of ‘sledging’ and the chances are they would set-tle for the MCC version.

But, in a sign of how tricky it is to agree on what is or isn’t acceptable, Australia’s Shaun Marsh, speaking ahead of the � rst Ashes Test against England in Cardi� on July 8, said Mon-day: “It is an Ashes series and I am sure there will be sledging from both teams, but I am also sure it will be in the spirit of the game.”

The opener also said: “I think it is really im-portant to get out there and show your aggres-sion and put your stamp on the game -- that is the Australian way.”

But there was a recognition that things had got out of hand during the last Ashes cam-paign, which saw Australia whitewash Eng-land 5-0 on home soil in 2013/14.

During the � rst Test in Brisbane, Australia captain Clarke told England tailender James Anderson to “get ready for a broken...arm”.

Clarke later apologised for the tone of his comments and on Sunday promised the upcom-ing Ashes would be played in the “right spirit”.

Prior to this year’s World Cup, the Interna-tional Cricket Council promised a crackdown on sledging.

But that did not stop wicket-keeper Brad Haddin from giving send-o� s to several de-parting New Zealand batsmen during Austral-ia’s seven-wicket World Cup � nal win in Mel-bourne on March 29. Haddin subsequently gave a radio interview in which he defended his actions by saying: “They were that nice to us in New Zealand (when Australia lost a pool match) and we were that uncomfortable.

England and New Zealand have just � n-ished thrilling Test and one-day series where both sides have been lauded for demonstrat-ing it is possible to play aggressive cricket without sledging.

New Zealand opener Martin Guptill, who

played in the World Cup � nal and has been a mainstay of the side in England, said he expected the cordial atmosphere to remain when the Black Caps completed their tour with a lone Twenty20 international at Old Tra� ord on Tuesday.

“The respect between both sides has been right up there and that shouldn’t change to-morrow (Tuesday),” Guptill told reporters at the Manchester ground on Monday.

As for Australia’s sledging in the World Cup � nal, Guptill said: “It’s just the way they are. We can’t do a lot about them, can we?”

Part of the problem is that there is little hu-mour in modern-day sledging, unlike the time when England great Ian Botham responded to Australia wicket-keeper Rodney Marsh’s barb of “how’s your wife and my kids?” by answer-ing: “Wife’s � ne, kids are retarded.”

What Marsh, now Australia’s national selec-tor and no relation to Shaun, thinks of mod-ern-day sledging is likely to be a topic for dis-cussion when he gives this year’s MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture at Lord’s on September 1. l

Protesters oppose sta� quarter constructionn Shishir Hoque

The a� liated Swimming Club Association of Bangladesh, swimming o� cials, organisers and former swimmers held a human chain yesterday afternoon in protest of the con-struction of a sta� quarter at Syed Nazrul Is-lam National Swimming Complex in Mirpur.

The human chain was organised at Ivy Rahman Swimming Pool in Paltan where the protesters said they would do everything in their power to stop the construction work, in-cluding involving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasi-na in the issue. The National Sports Council o� cials have decided to build a quarter for the sta� just beside the training pool. l

Kamalapur Stadium’s turf installation starts todayn Shishir Hoque

The installation process of the Bir Sreshtho Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium’s astro-turf will � nally begin today following the release of the turf by the Inland Container Depot.

The preliminary installation work began last November 7 and was expected to be � n-ished by April this year but so far, only the construction of the basement has been com-pleted.

The work was brie� y halted for two months as the National Board of Revenue did not re-

lease the turf from the Chittagong port. NBR though, later waived o� Tk10m worth of tax and vat and gave the clearance.

Meanwhile, Markus Keller, a consultant of world football governing body Fifa, is sched-uled to arrive in the capital this Wednesday to inspect the construction work of the as-tro-turf. A Canada-based company named Great Sports Infra Pvt. Ltd. is overseeing the construction work and it was learned that � ve weeks will be needed to get the work done.

The turf is being laid in accordance with the Fifa Goal Project–4. l

Sport28DT

Neymar-less Brazil face tough route to trophyn AFP, Santiago

If Brazil are to win their � fth Copa America in seven editions, they are going to have to do it the hard way.

The South American super-power decided Monday not to appeal a four-game ban hand-ed to star striker and captain Neymar for vi-olent conduct, meaning they will have to do without him for the knock-out stages.

What’s more, they are in a loaded draw that conspiracy theorists might be tempted to sug-gest had been � xed to help hosts Chile reach the � nal.

Argentina, Colombia and Brazil, the teams

ranked third to � fth in the FIFA World rank-ings are all in the same side of the draw, while on the other side you � nd the likes of 61st ranked Peru up against 89th placed Bolivia.

In fairness, Chile (19th) are actually drawn in their quarter-� nal against the highest ranked team in their half, Uruguay, the de-fending champions ranked eighth by FIFA.

And it is Argentina and Colombia who have been hardest hit, as the two highest ranked sides face each other in the last eight.

Whichever negotiates that clash of the titans, they will expect to � nd Brazil in the semis as the Selecao are up against Paraguay.

Paraguay may have reached the � nal four

years ago, just a year after making it to the World Cup quarter-� nals, but they have been in freefall since, failing to reach last year’s World Cup and dropping to 85th in the world.

Ranked 15th after their World Cup 2010 ex-ploits, Paraguay won only four out of 19 inter-national matches from the beginning of 2013 until this tournament started.

Even without Neymar, Brazil will expect to progress and the team themselves are eager to exact revenge having lost to Paraguay on pen-alties at this very stage four years ago.

Paraguay are liable to provide stubborn re-sistance having already held both Argentina and Uruguay to draws in the pool phase, while beating Jamaica, albeit thanks to a comedy error by the Caribbeans’ goalkeeper Duwayne Kerr.

The quarter-� nals begin on Wednesday with hosts Chile tackling Uruguay, whose form has been a bit patchy here.

Chile face perhaps their best ever chance to win this tournament - in which they have four times been beaten � nalists. l

Parma facing amateur football after buyers fail to come forwardn Reuters, Milan

Bankrupt Parma’s hopes of a rescue ended on Monday when the receivers said that no buyers had come forward for the former Serie A club.

The announcement means that Parma, who � nished bottom of Serie A after a chaotic season, cannot register for Serie B next term and would instead have to try to register in the amateur leagues -- the highest of those being Serie D.

“The receivers took note of the absence of o� ers for the acquisition of the sporting rights of the club and therefore the absence of the conditions for the continuation of the provi-sional arrangement, which ended today,” said a statement on Parma’s website. l

US eliminate Colombia, Bronze pure gold for Englandn Reuters, Edmonton

The United States capitalised on Colombia goalkeeper Catalina Perez’s dismissal to earn a 2-0 win and set up a women’s World Cup quar-ter-� nal against China, while England contin-ue to build up a head of steam after coming from behind to beat Norway.

England’s reward for � ghting back in swel-tering conditions to record a 2-1 victory is a last-eight tie against hosts Canada in Vancouver.

The United States will face China a day earlier in a repeat of the 1999 � nal but they had to work for their win at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton and only took control of the game with the sending o� of Perez after half-time.

Despite a series of unconvincing displays,

US coach Jill Ellis was happy with the way her team were � nding a way to win.

England, who lost their group opener to France but have now won three in a row, equal-ised from a corner in the 61st minute when captain Steph Houghton outmuscled two de-fenders to score with a � ne header of her own.

Defender Lucy Bronze then blasted in the winner in the 76th minute to book England’s spot in the quarter-� nals. l

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

WOMEN’S WORLD CUPNorway 1-2 EnglandGulbrandsen 54 Houghton 61, Bronze 76

United States 2-0 ColombiaMorgan 53, Lloyd 66-P

QUARTER-FINAL FIXTURESWednesday: Chile v Uruguay

Thursday: Bolivia v PeruFriday: Argentina v ColombiaSaturday: Brazil v Paraguay

Chile’s smog headache distracts from Copan AFP, Santiago

The streets were strangely empty Monday in the Chilean capital Santiago, where air pollu-tion has forced authorities to declare an en-vironmental emergency in the middle of the Copa America.

With 40 percent of the city’s vehicles or-dered o� the roads and 3,000 businesses closed, the normally bustling city of 6.7 million people was unusually tra� c-free, despite host-ing the South American football championship.

But beneath a thick layer of fog, commut-ers crowded onto buses and subways to get to work after their normal rides were sidelined by the emergency decree.

Health Minister Carmen Castillo called on Santiago’s population to “take care of children and the elderly” and recommended residents avoid going out unless absolutely necessary.

The pollution emergency - the city’s � rst in 16 years - will be in place until 9:00 pm. (0000 GMT Tuesday). But with no improvement in air quality forecast for the next three days, it could be extended.

No Copa America matches were scheduled for Santiago Monday or Tuesday.

But most of the teams taking part in the tournament are training in Santiago, and the quarter-� nals clash between the hosts and Uruguay is to be held there Wednesday. Organ-izers have already said they will not resched-ule any matches because of air pollution. l

Uruguay mid� elder Nicolas Lodeiro strikes the ball next to teammate defender Diego Godin (L) and forward Jonathan Rodriguez during a training session in La Serena, Coquimbo, Chile on Sunday ahead of their Copa America quarter-� nal against Chile today AFP

US forward Abby Wambach takes a penalty against the Colombia on Monday

Sport 29D

T

Gazi TV, Star Sports 1, 32:55 PMIndia Tour of Bangladesh3rd ODI Star Sports 24:00 PMWomen’s FIH Hockey World League Italy v Azerbaijan 8:00 PMIndia v Poland 10:00 PMBelgium v Australia 6:00 PMMen’s FIH Hockey World LeaguePoland v France12:00 AM Pakistan vs. Australia

DAY’S WATCH

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Pakistan youngsters impress Misbahn Reuters

Pakistan have even more reason to cheer their � rst Test victory in Sri Lanka in nine years thanks to impressive performances from the team’s younger players, said captain Misbah-ul-Haq.

The visitors fought back from 96-5 down in their � rst innings to register the win in less than four days after rain had washed out four sessions of the contest on the � rst two days at the Galle International Stadium.

The task of hauling Pakistan out of trouble has usually fallen to Younus Khan, 37, and the 41-year-old Misbah but it was the emerging talents of Asad Sha� q and Sarfraz Ahmed who led them out of a precarious position and laid the foundations for the win.

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah then ripped through Sri Lanka’s batting in the second in-nings with career-best � gures of 7-76 to com-plete a 10-wicket victory.

“It’s good to have youngsters perfor-ming, that actually takes away the pressure from us (Younus and himself),” Misbah told reporters.

“This is the future we are building with these youngsters and these players are com-ing of age now to take the team ahead.

“Sarfraz is a key player, Azhar (Ali) is per-forming in the top, and the way Sarfraz and Asad played it further stamps our faith in them.”

“It’s just a start for Yasir, look at the way he has performed to step up and become Pa-kistan’s main bowler and to contribute in Pa-kistan’s victories,” Misbah said. l

Hafeez faces one-year ban over suspect actionn Reuters

Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez could be banned from bowling for one year after the part-time o� -spinner was again reported by match o� cials for a suspect action during the Test against Sri Lanka in Galle that ended on Sunday.

The opening batsman has to undergo fur-ther testing within 14 days and can continue bowling until the results are known, the Inter-national Cricket Council (ICC) said in a state-ment on Monday.

The 34-year-old will be automatically banned from bowling for 12 months if the new assessment � nds his action to be illegal because he has been reported twice in a two-year period.

Former Pakistan captain Hafeez was ini-tially reported after the � rst Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi in November and was subsequently banned after an independent analysis found his action to be illegal.

He was cleared to bowl again in April after changing his action and took two � rst-innings wickets in the 10-wicket victory over Sri Lan-ka in Galle. l

Pakistan cricketer Junaid Khan (R) delivers a ball during a practice session at the P. Sara Oval Cricket Stadium in Colombo while Wahab Riaz (L) holds a speed meter yesterday ahead of their second Test against Sri Lanka starting tomorrow AFP

Ferrari blame wheel nut for Vettel’s missed podiumn Reuters, Spielberg

Ferrari blamed a wheelnut for robbing Sebas-tian Vettel of a podium appearance at the Aus-trian Grand Prix on Sunday and said it must not happen again.

With Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne watching, Vettel pitted in the lead -- after the dominant Mercedes drivers had already stopped -- and lost an agonising amount of time as mechanics wrestled to remove the right rear wheel.

Vettel rejoined in fourth place and was un-able to get back in front of Felipe Massa’s Wil-liams for what would have been the German’s sixth podium � nish in eight races for the Ital-ian team.

“We got the problem with the wheelnut and it’s not the � rst time so we have to make

sure that it does not happen again,” Ferrari principal Maurizio Arrivabene told reporters.

“It was not a problem of the mechanics, it was our problem and we have to make sure we � x it.

“Sebastian made a very good race but we threw away the podium one more time for a stupid piece that needs to be � xed as soon as possible. For me it is not acceptable,” he em-phasised. l

Ferrari Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany looks into his car after the Austrian F1 Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring circuit in Spielberg, Austria, on Sunday REUTERS

Real squad very hard to improve: Benitezn Reuters, Madrid

It will be “immensely di� cult” for Real Ma-drid to improve their squad but they still plan to make more signings in the close season, new coach Rafa Benitez said on Monday.

The Spaniard was brought in to replace sacked Italian Carlo Ancelotti after the world’s richest club by income failed to win any of the three major trophies in 2014-15.

Before Benitez’s arrival Real bought Brazil full back Danilo from Porto for 31.5 million

euros ($36 million) while Brazilian defensive mid� elder Casemiro is to return from a loan spell with the Portuguese side.

Manchester United and Spain goalkeep-er David De Gea is poised to join the Madrid club, according to media reports, and Real are also believed to be chasing France mid� elders Paul Pogba and Marco Verratti.

“Of course,” Benitez replied when asked if there would be new faces in the close season.

“Danilo and Casemiro, for example, are

players who are going to be important and the club is working every day to try to raise the level of this team with the odd signing that can help us to tackle the challenges ahead of us,” added the 55-year-old.

“But let me say that improving the current Real Madrid squad is immensely di� cult.

“This team has won everything and has shown the level it has.

“The fans can rest assured that this squad will possess the level of competitiveness that is demanded of this club.” l

DOWNTIME30DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 9 represents R so � ll R every time the � gure 9 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Turn (6) 6 Uncooked (3) 9 Foolish (5) 10 Large volume (4)11 Cosy retreats (5)12 Monkey (3)13 Bartered (6)15 Ooze (4)18 Liquor dregs (4) 21 Crudely showy (6)24 Consumed (3)25 Sharp (5)28 Camera part (4)29 Burdened (5)30 Say further (3)31 Powerful (6)

DOWN1 Circles (5) 2 Numeral (3)3 Sample (5)4 Insect (3) 5 Examine (4)6 Highway (4)7 Electrical unit (6) 8 Unwanted plant (4)14 Boring tool (3)16 Jubilant (6)17 Hawaiian dish (3)19 Ooze out (5)20 Perfume (5)21 Festive (4)22 Tear (4)23 Circle of light (4) 26 Domestic animal (3)27 Perfect score (3)

SUDOKU

n Showtime Desk

23, a German thriller drama, will be screened as a part of German-Bangla Mov-ie Night at the Berlin Hall of Goethe Institut Bangladesh on June 28 at 6pm.

Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid, who also participated in screenwriting, the � lm is based on a true story of a young hacker Karl Koch. In 1980s Germany at the height of the Cold War, Karl Koch � nds the world around him threatening and chaotic. Inspired by the � ctitious charac-ter Hagbard Celine, he starts investigating the backgrounds of political and economic power and discovers signs that make him believe in a worldwide conspiracy.

The title derives from the protagonist’s obsession with the number 23, a phenom-enon often described as apophenia. Al-though the � lm was well received by crit-ics and audiences, its accuracy has been vocally disputed by some witnesses to the real-life events on which it was based. l

SHOWTIME 31D

TWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

CELEBS ON SOCIALScreening of 23 at the Goethe

The last meal

n Mahmood Hossain

NBC has surprisingly cancelled the show Hannibal after only three episodes of the new third season. The critically acclaimed show based on the hit novels with the most hor-rifying � ctional villains in history, has been receiving constant low ratings. And as we all know, TV is all about the ratings.

It’s a sad loss, for now, because this show is unlike any other. It is beautifully shot, with precise execution in editing. Mads Mikkels-

en’s portrayal of Hannibal Lecter was refresh-ing and terrifying enough to make us believe this chase would continue for a few more sea-sons. While NBC has given the loyal viewers a shock death, nearly as gruesome as the show, this isn’t necessarily the end of the road. The creators and showrunners are hoping a new network will swoop them up for future sea-sons. Net� ix, we hope you’re reading this.

The showrunner, Bryan Fuller wrote, “NBC has allowed us to craft a television se-ries that no other broadcast network would have dared, and kept us on the air for three seasons despite Cancellation Bear Chow ratings and images that would have shredeed the eyeballs of lesser Standards & Prac-tices enforcers.” He continued with hope, “Hannibal is � nishing his last course at NBC’s table this summer. But a hungry cannibal can always dine again. And personally, I look for-ward to my next meal with NBC.” We can all sigh and reminisce about the elegant ward-robe changes and exquisite meals prepared by a gentleman named Hannibal. l

Bipasha Basu@bipsluvurselfO� we go @deannepanday rockystar100 iamksgo� cial and Ayaz! https://instagram.com/p/4LTJrXsqOX/ 

Mindy Kaling @mindykalingMy sense of True Detective is that it’s super cheerful

Kim Kardashian West@KimKardashianSo happy I ran back inside to grab these! Most comfy shoes in the world! Yeezy Boosts 350

OBITUARY

n Showtime Desk

Hollywood composer James Horner has died in a tragic plane crash. He’s given Hollywood scores on classics like Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Avatar and Aliens. The 61 year old has touched many movie-goers through his music through film, especially those in the Hollywood film fraternity. Celebrities expressed their grief soon after the terrible news.

Celine Dion, who sang the hit song “My Heart Will Go On” co-written by Horner for the movie Titanic, made

a statement. “Rene and I are deeply saddened by the tragic death of James Horner. He will always remain a great composer in our hearts. James played an important part in my career. We will miss him. We o� er his family and friends our deepest sympathy.”The messages from Hollywood kept pouring in through Twitter.

James Wan@creepypuppet“If we hold on together, I know our dreams will never die. Dreams see us through to forever.” RIP James Horner. You’ll be sadly missed.

Seth MacFarlane@SethMacFarlaneIncredibly saddened to hear about the loss of James Horner. I grew up loving his work. He leaves behind a spectacular musical legacy.

Rob Lowe@RobLoweThere is nothing that shaped my movie-going experience more than the musical genius of James Horner. He will love on through the ages.

Debra Messing@DebraMessingWe lost a MASTER today. RIP James Horner. Your music will live forever...

Oscar winner Horner dies

BACK PAGE32DT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

NASIR CONFIDENT OF BANGLAWASH PAGE 25

SCREENING OF 23 AT THE GOETHE PAGE 31

ACCORD ASSURES BGMEA OF FOLLOWING LAW OF LAND PAGE 15

Militants recruiting rich patrons to meet fund crunchn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Militant out� ts, especially the recently discovered IS-inspired Junud at-Tawheed Wal Khila-fah, are now trying to recruit rich patrons to fund their own activities, detectives have found.

Militants scoured through the internet to analyse online activities of potential new re-cruits – who included residents of posh neighbourhoods as well as university students and IT experts.

The police made the � ndings while interrogating recently detained militants. The Detec-tive Branch have so far arrest-ed three members of Junud at-Tawheed, all of whom were well-educated and came from a� uent families.

Faiyaz Ishmam, the latest Ju-nud member to be held, is the son of a retired defence o� cer; the two others – Galib and Mu-nasir – lived in the capital’s af-� uent DOHS neighbourhood.

Targeting rich university students was part of the mili-tants’ strategy of evading sus-picion from law enforcers as well as ensuring a stable source of funding, said Md Shahjahan, additional deputy commission-er of DB.

“We have got some names from interrogating the arrest-ees and are now trying to locate them,” he added.

According to detectives, militant out� ts were facing a fund crunch because of beefed up monitoring in bank trans-actions, which had resulted in foreign sources or local sympa-thisers to turn away from clan-

destine � nancial contributions.Sanowar Hossain, addition-

al deputy commissioner of DB police, said militants were now trying to adopt new techniques to cover the costs of running their activities.

In a desperate attempt to en-sure funds, militants were now also planning bank robberies; but those attempts were also being foiled by law enforcers.

The alternative of recruiting rich patrons was a more popular choice, as it allowed militants to get both funds and manpower.

In this regard, Monirul Is-lam, joint commissioner of DB police, said a number of mili-tant out� ts were now trying to regroup and resume their ac-tivities by targeting educated men and women from a� uent families.

IS recruiter provides leadsDetectives recently got po-tential leads in the search for militants, when detained IS re-cruiter Aminul Islam Begh, 50, disclosed information during questioning.

Aminul, who was the local coordinator of militant out� t JMB, was held in the capital on May 24. He had graduated from a Malaysian university and worked as the IT chief at a sub-sidiary of Coca-Cola.

During his questioning un-der police custody, Aminul said during his work as a recruiter for Islamic State, he was able to recruit more than 20 people who agreed to � y abroad and join the IS cause. All of those recruits were either students or job holders, Aminul told the police.

The police have learned the identities of many of those re-cruits and were now working on verifying the claims. The suspected recruits included teachers at colleges and private universities, several software engineers, and a marine engi-neer.

Aminul said all of these re-cruits had consented to � y to the Middle East at their own expense and join the so-called jihad. l

Targeting rich university students was part of the militants’ strategy of evading suspicion from law enforcers as well as ensuring a stable source of funding

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