SECOND EDITION

FRESH BIDDING FOR OFFSHORE 2D SEISMIC SURVEY PAGE 32

COUP TO TOPPLE RAJIV GANDHI IN 1987? PAGE 8

SECURITY TIGHTENED FOR FOREIGNERS PAGE 3

PAGE 3Three doctors remanded over infant deaths

PAGE 4JnU mulls entry test dress code to prevent cheating

PAGE 2Suhrawardy Medical College closed over BCL clashes

PAGE 513.4 million prepaid power meters to be installed

PAGE 9Asteroid, volcanoes implicated in dinosaur doom

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015 | Ashwin 20, 1422, Zilhaj 20, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 169 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

PM: BNP, Jamaat involved in killings of foreignersThere is no IS activity in the country, the prime minister saysn Tribune Report

The murders of two foreign nationals in Dha-ka and Rangpur last week were premeditated and are likely to be connected to BNP-Jamaat coalition, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The premier also refuted the claims that militant organisation the Islamic State (IS) or-chestrated the murders.

The prime minister made the remarks at a press conference at her o� cial residence Ganabhaban yesterday to brief the press about her recent visit to the US to attend the UN General Assembly.

One of the victims were Italian citizen Ce-sare Tavella, 51, who was shot dead on the evening of September 28 in the capital’s Gul-shan area, and the other was Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi, 65, who was also shot dead in Alutari area in Rangpur’s Kawnia upazila on October 3 morning.

“Both the foreigners were killed the same way… these were planned murders. If you assemble the remark of a BNP leader and the reaction after the killing of the Italian

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Case � led over murder of Japanesen Kamrul Hasan from Rangpur

A case was � led over the murder of Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi in Rangpur early yester-day accusing three unidenti� ed citizens.

Kawnia police station O� cer-in-Charge Rezaul Karim � led the case and assigned the inspector (investigation) the case.

Investigators said the killers used small weapons the same way they were used in the murder of the Italian citizen in the capital.

An investigator said they had collected 9mm calibre bullet shells from the spot. How-ever, the high o� cials denied expressing any progress in the case saying it was not the right time to make any comment.

RAB Intelligence Director Abul Kalam Azad told the Dhaka Tribune that the killers seemed to have had taken their preparation well before they went on their mission.

When asked about the motive, he said it would be cleared after the criminals are ar-rested.

Police have so far detained six people in connection with the murder of Hoshi but none of them was named in the case � led, said Additional Superintendent of Police Zainal Abedin.

Those who were detained are Zakaria Bala, 58, his brother-in-law Hira, 48, rickshaw-pull-er Monnaf Ali and Murad Hossain.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Government plans headcount for expatsn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Although the Special Branch of police o� cial-ly estimates that there are 160,000 foreign nationals in the country – on work, study and travel visas – sources in the law enforcement agency say the actual � gure is likely closer to 400,000.

There is no database maintained by any government agency on how many foreigners actually live in Bangladesh.

In light of this, the Home Ministry has de-cided to collect and update information on foreign nationals currently residing in Bang-ladesh.

Asked about it, Home Minister Asaduz-zaman Khan Kamal told the Dhaka Tribune

that directives had been given to all district police to collect information on the employ-ment, activities and whereabouts of foreign nationals in their zones and to provide them with adequate security.

Expatriates currently receive added securi-ty only in the Gulshan police division in the capital.

Police Headquarters had earlier given in-structions to district police stations to collect information on foreign nationals living in their area, a high o� cial at Police Headquar-ters con� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune.

The high o� cial said many expatriates’ visas had expired and a number of them were involved in currency counterfeiting, the

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Intelligence: Expat murders an anti-liberation ploy n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Anti-liberation forces, enraged that war crim-inals are being tried, convicted and executed, are murdering foreign nationals in the coun-try to cast the government in a bad light, ac-cording to a secret report by one of the coun-try’s intelligence agencies.

The intelligence report submitted to the Min-istry of Home A� airs yesterday said the murder of two foreigners in the last six days were not isolated incidents and that anti-liberation forc-es had been spurred into activity after the exe-cution of convicted war criminals began.

A separate law enforcement agency probe claims it has found evidence that the family of a convicted war criminal was behind the

Tavella murder. Unidenti� ed assailants gunned down Ital-

ian citizen Cesare Tavella on September 28 and shot dead Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi last Saturday.

Claims of Islamic State group (IS) involve-ment in the murders have been rejected as baseless by the home minister.

“IS is not behind these murders … a vest-ed group is seeking to create anarchy in the country. They are conducting these killings but we will track them down and bring them to justice,” Home Minster Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said.“The killings took place just as the trials of two war criminals were concluded. It must be

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses a press conference at Ganabhaban yesterday to brief the press about her recent visit to the US PMO

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015NEWS2DT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Case � led over murder of JapaneseHoshi was a tenant at Bala’s house at Mun-shipara and Murad’s home is near the spot of the murder.

The two other detainees are Rangpur mu-nicipality unit BNP leader Anisur Rahman and local BNP activist Rashedunnabi Khan Biplob.

However, Sadar police denied their deten-tion.

A police source said they usually had a list of foreigners staying in the city. But on that list Kunio Hoshi was not included.

Hoshi’s passport shows that he came to Bangladesh through the Burimari Land Port in Lalmonirhat on August 8 this year. He had visa until April 13 next year, he said.

As this correspondent visited the spot he found the locals scared of talking to outsiders.

However, a housewife said she had noticed two people aged around 38 to 50 loitering around the spot of the murder on two consec-utive days.

Abdul Hai, who has a grocery shop some 200 metres from the crime scene and also lives nearby, said Hoshi was very friendly and

everybody liked him for his jokes.“Especially, children living near his farm

were his friends,” Hai said.Meanwhile, police headquarters formed

a � ve-member committee to investigate the murder of the Japanese on Sunday morning with Rangpur Range Deputy Inspector Gener-al (DIG) Humayun Kabir as its head.

Kunio Hoshi, 65, was killed in broad day-light in Kachu Alutari area of Kawnia upazila in Rangpur on his way to his farm.

It was second consecutive murder of for-eigner in the country in a span of only � ve days.

ASM Barkat Ullah, a doctor working at Rangpur Medical College Hospital, said that Hoshi had three bullet wounds on the chest, waist and shoulder.

The DIG, Rangpur SP Abdur Razzak, PBI Additional SP Abdus Salam, RAB intelligence Director Abul Kalam Azad, Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and di� erent other organisaitons visited the spot.

A team from Japan Embassy headed by its security-in-charge also visited the spot.

3-member Japanese team visits RangpurThe three-member team of Japan Embassy

in Bangladesh visited the spot where Kunio Hoshi was killed and one of their members took part in the autopsy.

After the autopsy they visited the spot around 4:15pm.

However, the security chief of the embassy declined to make any comment.

A police source said the Japanese o� cial requested police to stay put there to protect the crime scene as an investigating team would arrive very soon from Japan within two days.

However, an embassy source said the team might arrive in Dhaka any time today.

District Livestock O� cer Dr Mahbub Alam told the Dhaka tribune that the grass Hoshi was cultivating was well known as industrial crops named coal grass.

No other person in the country had ever cultivated the grass in the country.

He said Hoshi did not take permission from the department but they knew about it. l

PM: BNP, Jamaat involved in killings of foreignersnational, it becomes clear,” she said.

The prime minister said the government was taking steps to arrested the killers. “How-ever, these murders should not undermine all our achievements. If you think so, then the objective of BNP-Jamaat clique and Razakars will be ful� lled,” the UNB quoted her as say-ing.

Responding to a series if question regard-ing the murders, Hasina said there must be a common motive behind the murders. “Of course, some planning is involved here… The trial of war criminals are in progress, and these elements were in power for 21 years af-ter 1975. We are holding their trial, they would surely demonstrate some reactions.”

However, regarding the alleged IS claim to both the murders, she said she was con� dent that the IS or similar organisations have yet to take root in Bangladesh.

“Our intelligence is always alert and we will not allow militants and terrorists to take shel-ter in Bangladesh, despite traces of radicalism that are currently seen in some youths,” BSS

reported quoting the premier.When a senior TV journalist referred to

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan reported-ly recognising the IS link to the murders, Hasi-na said: “The claim of IS involvement with the murders came from a social media state-ment posted in Chicago. But so far no proof has been found that indicates that claim to be true. Why should we accept a status posted by unknown persons from Chicago?

“Our local intelligence has so far failed to come up with any information regarding these killings. How did our home minister recognise the claim… surely this should not have been said, and I don’t see any logic be-hind making such a comment unless any proof is found through the investigation,” she said, as the UNB reported.

Responding to another question, Hasina said there was a time when terrorism and mil-itancy were created in Bangladesh, but the present government has controlled these el-ements with an iron hand.

She said the mass people have to strength-

en their anti-militancy and anti-terrorism stance.

Hasina also said there was a group not hap-py at all with Bangladesh’s progress as a dem-ocratic country. “They are trying to destabi-lise the country and they will continue their e� orts.” l

Government plansnarcotics trade and human tra� cking.

Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB police, said a number of foreign nationals living in the country illegally or involved in crime had been arrested.

“We are running a drive to track down and take action against undocumented foreign nationals,” he added.

He said the police was doing its best to protect the expatriate community, most of whom are in good standing, and to bring the murderers of Cesare Tavella and Kunio Hoshi to justice. l

Intelligence: Expat murders an anti-liberation ployinvestigated whether or not the killings were meant to create obstacles for the trial pro-cess,” the minister added.

“We have evidence in hand and our in-vestigators are following the leads. The culprits will be punished,” AsaduzzamanKhan said.

A ministry o� cial, quoting the report, said: “An anti-government power that has lost its political strength and dislikes the govern-ment’s successes is instigating this from be-hind the scenes.”

“There is no evidence that IS is active in Bangladesh. The actual killers are spreading misleading information to derail the inves-tigation,” the o� cial, who asked not to be named, said.

The o� cial told the Dhaka Tribune that according to the report, the group was hir-ing professional hitmen to carry out themurders.

Foreigners across the country will require protection, not just those in the diplomatic zone or other parts of the capital, according to the report.

Moreover, law enforcers investigating the Tavella murder yesterday said they had found evidence of the involvement of a war crimi-nal’s relatives in the slaying of the Italian aid worker.

Investigators said an analysis of commu-nications records had yielded clues pointing to their involvement in the murder. The war criminal whose relatives are implicated in the killing had been known as a criminal godfa-ther.

Intelligence o� cials also said theyhad information that a member of an an-ti-government political party had met a number of times with the Australian embassy just before the Australian gov-ernment issued a travel warning aboutBangladesh.

Intelligence o� cials are trying to deter-mine whether the meetings with the po-litical leader were connected to the travelalert. l

BNP: PM’s remarks will hamper proben Tribune Report

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said the irresponsi-ble remarks from the government’s top level over the murders of two foreigners would not only create obstacles to investigations, they would turn it di� cult to identify the assail-ants as well.

In a statement, he demanded that the gov-ernment ensure exemplary punishment of the killers after identifying them through a proper probe, the UNB reported. “We strong-ly condemn the killing of the two foreign cit-izens. Such incidents demonstrated that the country’s law and order situation is in a very bad shape now,” he said.

Meanwhile, party spokesperson Asaduz-zaman Ripon feared that the prime minister’s remark that BNP-Jamaat nexus might have a link to the murders might in� uence the inves-tigations. l

MP Liton’s � rearms licences revokedn Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

The authorities yesterday cancelled the li-cences of two private arms possessed by Manjurul Islam Liton, ruling party lawmaker from Gaibandha’s Sundarganj, who shot at a schoolboy on Friday allegedly under the in-� uence of alcohol.

Deputy Commissioner Abdus Samad said that the licences were scrapped as the MP had used his legal arms in illegal activities.

Saju Mia, father of eight-year-old Shahadat Hossain Sourov, � led an attempted murder case against Liton on Saturday. The same day the lawmaker’s brother-in-law Tarikul Islam surrendered a revolver, a shotgun, and bullets to the police, upon directives of the district police authorities.

Superintendent of Police Md Ashraful Alam said that MP Liton had used the arms in di� erent illegal and unethical acts sincelong. l

Suhrawardy Medical College closed over BCL clashesn Abid Azad

Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College was closed for an inde� nite period yesterday after clashes broke out between two rival groups of the campus Bangladesh Chhatra League.

The college authorities advised residential students to vacate their dormitories by 4pm yesterday.

Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police chief Ganesh Gopal Bishwas said at least 10 people had re-ceived minor injuries and sent to hospital.

Two groups, led by BCL college unit Pres-ident Anisur Rahman and General Secretary Shahriar Hossain Shanta, were involved in the clash that left 10 students injured.

The BCL leaders held discussions with the college authorities after two cultural organi-sations, Sfurun and The Beats, controlled by the BCL college unit president and general

secretary, respectively, were involved in an altercation on Saturday night.

The college’s academic council sat for an emergency meeting around 11am at which the disagreement between the two BCL college leaders could not be resolved, prompting the authorities to close the college for an inde� -nite period.

Both leaders denied the misunderstanding was a Chhatra League issue, saying it was a problem of the two cultural organisations.

College principal Dr ABM Maksudul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune: “The college has been closed to ensure the safety of the general stu-dents and to bring the situation under control. The closure will be in force until further notice.”

Tejgaon zone Deputy Commissioner Biplop Kumar Sarkar told the Dhaka Tribune: “Now the situation is under control...su� cient num-bers of police have been deployed.” l

NEWS 3D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Security beefed up for foreignersn Tribune Report

The government has decided to beef up secu-rity for foreign nationals living in Bangladesh in the wake of the murders of an Italian and a Japanese in less than a week.

The Ministry of Home A� airs has sent let-ters to the district police superintendents for taking necessary steps.

A decision has also been made to enforce the existing law that forbids more than two persons riding a motorbike.

Both Cesare Tavella, the Italian murdered in Dhaka last week, and Kunio Hoshi, the Jap-anese national murdered in Rangpur on Sat-urday, were killed by assailants who came on motorbikes.

The diplomatic zone in the capital’s Gul-shan area where Tavella was murdered has also been seeing enhanced security arrange-ments.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Ka-mal said yesterday that law enforcers would search any suspicion-raising vehicles and per-sons; they would also act accordingly if a mo-torbike is found on the road with more than

two people on it.The minister, who has recently got a pro-

motion, also said: “The killings of the foreign-ers were aimed at creating unrest in the coun-try. The murders of Kunio [Hoshi] and Cesare Tavella are linked.”

He also claimed that international mili-tant out� t Islamic State (IS) “does not exist in Bangladesh.”

The IS has claimed the responsibility of both the murders; but in both cases the gov-ernment has said they had not found the mil-itant group’s links.

He also said that security forces were look-ing to the murder cases. “We believe that local young men have committed the murders.”

NarayanganjOur Narayanganj correspondent reports that a sense of fear has been prevailing among the more than 200 foreign nationals working in var-ious industrial establishments in the port city.

District police said they had strengthened security for them, with plainclothes men as-sisting the men in uniform in looking after the foreigners.

According to the Adamjee Export Pro-cessing Zone (EPZ) authorities, a total of 238 foreigners from various countries including Japan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, the Philippines are current working there. They work and live inside the EPZ area.

Adamjee EPZ authorities claimed that their area is more secured than any other EPZs in the country because they have their own in-dustrial police and headquarters of RAB 11 is located right outside the area.

KhulnaSimilar reports of a scare among foreign na-tionals have also come from the south-west-ern port city Khulna.

Our Khulna correspondent reports that local police have been regularly collecting in-formation on the movement and location of all the foreign nationals working in the city.

Sheikh Maniruzzaman Mithu, spokesper-son of Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP), said: “Most foreigners live in the residential hotels and the accommodation provided by private companies. Detectives are keeping a close watch on these establishments.”

According KMP estimates, around 200 foreign nationals from various countries in-cluding India, China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Italy and USA are current based in Khulna. They work for various educational institutions, hospitals, churches and other non-government o� ces.

ShatkhiraMeanwhile, in the south-western district of Shatkhira, law enforcement authorities have strengthened security for the 16 foreign na-tionals currently based there.

Of them, 12 came on September 23 to work for non-governmental organisation (NGO) named Agragati Shanstha.

Our Shatkhira correspondent reports that none of them working now and have been staying inside the o� ce of the NGO under po-lice’s watch.

District police chief Meer Modasser Ali claimed that they had arranged ample securi-ty for the foreigners and they are now safe to go out and work because RAB and other law enforcement agencies are keeping them un-der close watch. l

Three doctors on 2-day remand over infant deathsn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday remanded three doctors of Asian Cardiac General Hospital in the capital for two days over Friday’s death of three newborn babies because of alleged neg-ligence.

Metropolitan Magistrate Jahangir Hossain ordered the remand of Dr Shishir Ranjan Das, Dr Aftab Uddin and the hospital’s Managing Director Abdullah Al Ahad after Sub-Inspec-tor Kamruzzman of Mohammadpur police station produced them in court with a � ve-day remand plea.

On Saturday, the private hospital was sealed o� following allegations that three newborn babies died there on Friday night because of malpractice. No member of the sta� was found at the four-storey hospital in Lalmatia, which was in operation without re-quired approvals from the government.

Locals said the hospital sta� � ed early in the morning on Saturday to avoid being con-fronted by the families of the infants. They said unrest � ared on Friday night after the news of death of the children spread.

Sources said the healthcare facility’s neona-tal intensive care unit was functioning with only one doctor - Shishir Ranjan Das - who claimed to be an associate professor at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and that it was the nurses who would mostly treat newborn babies.

Doctors were supposed to discharge the newborns on Friday afternoon but when the time came, the parents were told that their babies were on life support. Several hours lat-er, the doctor came and told the parents that the children had died.

Sources said the hospital was registered with the health directorate as a 20-bed general hospital but the registration was not renewed after 2014 and the hospital had no permission to run a neonatal intensive care unit. l

Minister: New contempt of court law soonn Tribune Report

Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said that the government would take steps to formulate a new contempt of court law as soon as possible.

He said that the initiative would be taken as the existing Contempt of Court Act 1926 had become almost useless.

“The government will sit with the stakeholders

to discuss over the fresh law very soon,” he told a workshop on judicial reporting.

Law Reporters’ Forum organised the event at the auditorium of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) in the capital.

The minister also said that the journalists should be cautious while reporting on the judiciary as they may face contempt of court for misreporting. The country would be bene� ted if the journalists

discharge their duties properly, he added.SCBA Secretary AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon

asked reporters to write on corruption by the government employees.

With Forum President M Badiuzzaman in the chair, the workshop was also addressed by lawyer Ahsanul Karim, and journalists Faruk Kazi, Kazi Abdul Hannan and Shahiduzzman amongothers. l

As the Durga Puja approaches, craftsmen in Old Dhaka's Shakhari Bazar are busy making traditional Shakhas - bangles made from conch shells to meet the festive demand. The price of these bangles range from Tk50 to Tk2,000. The photo was taken yesterday RAJIB DHAR

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015NEWS4DT

UN, partner agencies to support strengthening democratic governancen Tribune Report

The UN and its partner agencies have reiter-ated their long-standing commitment to sup-port the Bangladeshi government in strength-ening democratic governance and sustainable development in the country.

As part of the events commemorating the International Day of Non-Violence, UNDP yes-terday convened a stakeholder forum to dis-cuss early research � ndings commissioned on

the impact of political violence, said a press statement.

“We are hoping the research Dr Zillur is leading will help to empirically demonstrate the cost of political violence, in both econom-ic and sociological terms, and provide a com-pelling case that violence a� ects all of society and the economy in profound ways beyond a violent incident,” UNDP country director Pauline Tamesis said at the forum.

“It will be important to identify this im-

pact, but also to look beyond at the root caus-es of violence and consequences in order to arrive at long-lasting solutions,” she added.

Initial key results from the study, conduct-ed by Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman of the Power and Participation Research Centre and com-missioned under the UNDP ARENA project, were presented during the event, which was held under Chatham House rules.

A key aim of the ARENA (Areas for Re-search, Engagement and National Agenda)

project is to encourage greater use of evi-dence-based research to inform policy deci-sions and engage a wider community in de-veloping solutions driven by public interest.

Various national and international repre-sentatives attended the forum, including the prime minister’s advisor HT Imam, under-scoring the importance placed on combating the causes of political violence witnessed in Bangladesh and its impact on society and the economy. l

Bangladeshi artist wins third prizen Tribune Report

Gazi Na� s Ahmed, an artist from Bangladesh, was placed third at the international Pride Photo Award 2015 held recently in the historic Old Church in Amsterdam.

There were 3,800 entries from 60 coun-tries around the world. Pride Photo Award is considered to be the most prestigious pho-tography contest about gender diversity.

Na� s won under the themed category of “Stories of Love and Pride” for his series “In-ner Face,” which addresses the sensitive and precarious issue of the LGBT community’s human rights.

The series conveys the subtle sense of challenge in the expressions of the commu-nity in a traditional and conservative culture like Bangladesh.

Gazi Na� s Ahmed studied Art and Design at the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design at London Guildhall University in London and Photography at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Denmark.

Na� s was awarded a full scholarship by the Istituto Europeo di Design in Madrid for Fine Arts in Photography.l

Molotov cocktails hurled at WDB o� cial’s housen Our Correspondent, Jessore

Molotov cocktails were hurled at the resi-dence of a WDB o� cial in Jessore on Satur-day, following which the police have already made two arrests in this connection.

Unidenti� ed criminals attacked the govern-ment-alloted house of Prabir Kumar Goshwami, an executive engineer for the Water Develop-ment Board (WDB), in the town’s Karbala Road.

They hurled two molotov cocktails – one of which exploded near a window; the other one failed to go o� after landing on the roof, but the police later disarmed it.

A team of Kotwali police station later arrest-ed two suspects – Golam Faruk Bulu, 50, and Rajibul Islam, 38. Kotwali OC Shikdar Akkas Ali told the Dhaka Tribune that the police were continuing drives to apprehend other suspects.

WDB o� cial Goshwami said he had no en-emies in Jessore – where he was transferred only two months ago. l

JnU mulls entry test dress code to prevent cheatingn Tribune Report

Jagannath University authorities are planning to introduce dress codes for undergraduate ap-plicants on top of a regular set of restrictions in a bid to check cheating in admission test.

Restrictions are likely to be imposed on wearing full sleeve shirts, socks and shoes for male candidates so that they cannot conceal electronic devices, including mobile phones, in their bodies before entering exam halls.

The university’s vice-chancellor, professor Mizanur Rahman, said the institution has plans to put in place innovative methods involving the use of modern technology as well as re-strictions to prevent candidates from applying unfair means while taking admission tests.

“We will reach a � nal decision on this at a meeting of the central admission committee

which is slated to be held on Monday (today). Whatever measures we decide on, we will publish those in national dailies,” he said yes-terday.

Professor Mizanur said the admission com-mittee would also consider the fact that some restrictions might con� ict certain ways of dress-ing that are maintained for religious reasons.

“We believe such candidates cannot mor-ally involve themselves in any act of cheating. But we will also take measures so that stu-dents cannot nefariously use religious direc-tives to their own advantage,” he added.

University sources said male applicants are likely to be ordered to wear open-toed san-dals instead of shoes while female candidates will undergo special checks.

Besides, usual restrictions such as bring-ing electronic devices and cellular phones to

exam hall and wearing wristwatch will be en-forced like previous years.

Changes are also likely to be introduced to seating arrangements while the number of invigilators will be increased, according to sources.

There were several sets of admission test question papers last year but the university authorities still failed to prevent fraudulence as 21 candidates were held for the o� ence.

The applicants were later handed over to police and the university proctor, Nur Mo-hammad, � led a case in this connection.

A total of 185,079 candidates will take this year’s admission test against 2,760 study places under six faculties, according to the registrar’s o� ce.

The selection tests will begin from October 9. l

Bangladesh Shishu Kalyan Parishad brings out a rally in the capital yesterday to press home various demands prior the World Children’s Day to be observed today. The photo was taken in front of the National Press Club SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

NEWS 5D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Indictment order on 5 razakars October 12n Tribune Report

The International Crimes Tribunal 1 � xed October 12 to decide on the charge framing matter against � ve Kishoreganj razakars as it � nished the hearing yesterday.

The three-member tribunal led by Justice Anwarul Haque also appointed a lawyer for one of the suspects.

The � ve suspects are Gazi Abdul Mannan, 88, who was the alleged commander of Karimganj razakar camp, and razakar members Ha� z Ud-din, 66, Azharul Islam, 60, Nasiruddin Ahmed, 62, and his brother Shamsuddin Ahmed, 60.

The tribunal appointed Abdus Sukur Khan as Shamsuddin’s lawyer, the lone suspect now in jail, as he could not appoint a lawyer. On May 10, seven charges were pressed against them for their alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. l

Legal notice served on UGC o� cial’s deathn Tribune Report

A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday served a legal notice to the government seeking judi-cial inquiry into the recent custodial death of a UGC o� cial by 24 hours.

Lawyer Eunus Ali Akond issued the notice re-questing the government to take necessary steps against the persons involved in the incident.

The notice said if the government does not constitute the judicial committee he will then � le a writ petition with the High Court.

Victim Omar Siraj was an assistant director of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

He died in Rapid Action Battalion’s (Rab) custody on October 1 after being held over the allegation of his involvement in “leaking” medical admission test questions. His family claimed that Rab had tortured him to death in custody. He was on a two-day remand. l

Cricketer Shahadat’s wife sent to jailn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court sent Jesmin Jahan Nitto Sha-hadat, wife of national cricket player Kazi Shahadat Hossain, to jail after rejecting her bail petition in a case � led for torturing their domestic help.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Moham-mad Yunus Khan issued the order yesterday after rejecting the bail petition � led by Nitto’s counsel Kazi Mohammad Nazibullah Hiru.

The court also rejected a remand petition for her, � led by Mirpur Model Police Station O� cer-in-Charge Md Sha� qur Rahman seek-ing to place Nitto on a � ve-day remand for in-terrogation.

The court said as Nitto has to nurse her nine-month-old baby, she cannot be placed on remand.

It instructed the investigation o� cer of

the case to interrogate Nitto at the jail gate in three days out of the next � ve working days.

Nitto’s counsel informed the court that Sha-hadat would surrender before the court today.

Police arrested Nitto at Pabna Lane in the capital’s Malibagh area early Sunday.

A journalist named Khandaker Mojammel Hossain � led the case against the couple with Mirpur Model Police Station under the Wom-en and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000 on September 7 after rescuing Happy, 10, the night before in Pallabi.

Happy, from Jamalpur district, had a black-ened eye and injuries all over her body when she was rescued on September 6 night. She said she had escaped Shahadat’s house that morning.

She gave her statement before a Dhaka court on September 21 where she narrated how she was tortured by the cricketer and his wife.l

Protesters submit memo to PMOn Shadma Malik

Seven representatives of several student or-ganisations submitted a memo to the Prime Minister’s O� ce yesterday, seeking support from the prime minister to grant justice to the medical admission seekers.

The protesters will continue the demon-stration until their demands are met. They will assemble at the Central Shaheed Minar at 10am today. They will hold a torch rally protest tomorrow, setting out from TSC at the University of Dhaka.

If the protesters’ demands are not met by October 6, they will hold student strikes across the nation on October 7, said Sama-jtantrik Chhatra Front member Imran Habib Ruman in a press brief at 5pm, before ending the demonstration for the day.

He made the announcement yesterday at the Shahbagh intersection where the protest-ers had gathered, halting tra� c movement at the busy area.

About 10 student organisations are in-volved in this protest.

Several di� erent student organisations have demanded that the results of the medi-cal college admission test, held on September 18, be scrapped because exam questions were leaked on Facebook the night before the exam.

Since then, protests have been held contin-ually at di� erent points in the capital. l

Medical college admission seekers take position at Shahbagh intersection disrupting tra� c movement at the busy point. They gathered there around 12pm and continued blockade until 4pm yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

13.4 million prepaid power meters to be installedn Aminur Rahman Rasel

Five state-owned power distribution compa-nies are planning to install 13.4 million pre-paid meters over the next � ve years, replac-ing most of the existing conventional meters.

At present, 91,885 of the country’s total 17.5 million power consumers already have pre-paid meters.

“Prepaid metering system can reduce ac-counts’ receivable and non-technical losses; so we will install 1.34 core prepaid meters within the next � ve years. Prepaid meters will ensure smooth supply of power across the country,”

said Mohammad Hossain, director general of the Power Cell wing of Power Division.

“Electricity is a vital element required for economic growth, poverty reduction and so-cial development. Power Division has devel-oped a uni� ed system software and prepared standard tender document for all electricity distribution utilities,” he told a workshop at the Bidyut Bhaban yesterday.

All utility companies are � oating tenders in accordance with the uni� ed system software and the standard tender document, he added.

Speaking there, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid

said the ministry plans to generate 24,000MW of electricity and is currently working to increasing power production capacity by 12,000MW.

He said the government plans to install pre-paid meters along with online payment facil-ities.

The state minister said the government would urge the private sector to come forward in the prepaid metering system with approval from the authority concerned.

Brig Gen Moin Uddin, chairman of Rural Electri� cation Board, said prepaid meters would be secured and hassle-free for both con-

sumers and distributors. It would be e� ective for load management for the distributors and would have a positive impact on system loss reduction.

The prepaid meters would also minimise overloading problems and help reduce the bill-ing sta� s or related expenditures. It will also resist bill misappropriations.

The workshop, organised by Power Cell with support of Asian Development Bank, was also addressed by Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam and Country Director of Bang-ladesh Resident Mission of ADB, Kazuhiko Hi-guchi. l

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015NEWS6DT

134 � ned for traveling without ticketsn Our Correspondent, Jamalpur

A total of 134 passengers were � ned for trav-elling without tickets during a special drive in an intercity and four local trains by railway authority at Jamalpur Railway station yester-day.

Jamalpur Railway Station Master Md Za-hurul Islam said a team led by Assistant Com-mercial O� cer Pronabesh Sarkar conducted a drive at Brahmaputra Express train and � ned 34 passengers for traveling without tickets.The team realized � ne of Tk2,500 from them. l

Suspected criminal killed in Joypurhatn Our Correspondent, Joypurhat

A suspected criminal was hacked to death yesterday at Devipur village near Joypurhat town. The deceased Kamal, 28, was the leader of terrorist group ‘Kamal Bahini’ and son of Abdus Salam, a resident of the village.

Farid Hossian, o� cer-in-charge of Joy-purhat police station, said some unidenti-� ed assailants entered Kamal’s house round 11:30pm and hacked him.

Kamal was wanted in several cases, includ-ing killing, with Joypurhat police Station, the OC added. l

Housewife killed by husband in Pabnan UNB

A housewife was stabbed to death alleged-ly by her husband at Dari Shahadiar village under Ataikula police station on Saturday evening. The deceased was identi� ed as Arji-na Khatun, 24, wife of M Habibullah.

Arjina had been at loggerheads with her husband, said o� cer-in-charge of Ataikula Police Station Nure Alam. l

Patients of Noakhali hospital deprived of proper healthcaren Our Correspondent, Noakhali

Patients of Noakhali 250-bed Hospital are not only deprived of proper healthcare services but also proper meals and pure drinking water as the hospital beset by manifold problems.

According to hospital sources, the hospital has only 250 beds, but about 550 to 600 pa-tients on average stay in the hospital every. Finding no other option, patients who stay on the � oor have to arrange foods for themselves as the hospital authorities do not provide them any food due to fund crunch.

Patients also alleged that they were not even provided with pure drinking water from the hospital which was established on 24 April, 1972 and later turned into Noakha-li Abdul Malek Ukil Medical College Hospital in 2009. Consequently, patients and their at-tendants depend on water of a pond which is adjacent to the hospital and the water is pol-luted by hospital wastage.

During a visit to the hospital, this corre-spondent found that about 300 to 350 patients were lying on the � oor and receiving treatment.

Nur Nabi, 22, of Karimpur village of Sadar upazila, said, “As we are poor, we can not go to private clinic for treatment. Finding no oth-er alternative, we are taking treatment from here lying on the � oor. But, the doctors and sisters do not show any interest to treat us. We are not getting diet and nursing care facil-ities from here.”

Rahima Begum, 45, of Alipur, Begumgonj upazila, Jabed Hossain, 38, of Amishapara vil-lage, Sonaimuri upazila, Hossain Ahamed, 55, of Char Clerk village under Subarnachar upazi-la and Md Jashim, 38, of Char Jubilee village, Subarnachar upazila echoed the same thing.

Not only the poor facilities, but also exist-ence of brokers is also hampering treatment at the hospital.

A doctor seeking anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune that about 40 brokers were remained active in the hospital. Some brokers were continuing their profession with the help of physicians. He said some brokers create pres-sure on the doctors to send patients to private clinics. Belal, Miron, Liton, Sohag, Sumon, Raihan and Swapan are among the brokers.

Abul Kalam, 26, a resident of Karamullah under Sadar upazila said doctors also advised them to go the nearby clinics to get better treatment.

Local quacks and brokers said private clin-ic owners and doctors paid them for bringing patients to their chambers, diagnostic centres and private clinics.

Belal, a broker of a renowned clinic and di-agnostic centre in the locality, however, said doctor asked him to convince patients to go to private clinics. “I get commission if I succeed to send patients to a clinic, he added.

Dr Farid Uddin Chowdhury, residential medical o� cer of the hospital, told the Dhaka Tribune that hospital had only 250 beds. But the hospital had to accommodate 500 to 600 patients everyday which was a job tough job for the sta� of the hospital.

He said: “We feel embarrass when attend-ants of patients want food from us, but we can not give them that.”

Dr ABM Ahsanullah, superintendent of hospital, said he was aware of the matter. “We will look into the matter,” he said. l

Five killed in road accidents across countryn Tribune Desk

At least � ve people were killed in road acci-dents in Tangail, Gazipur and Chittagong dis-tricts yesterday.

Our Tangail correspondent reported that three people were killed in road accidents in Sadar and Madhupur upazilas.

The deceased were Lebu Khan, 50, son of Momrez Khan in Kakraid village of Madhupur, Yousuf, 26, son of Habibur Rahman of Dubail village under Delduar of Tangail and Md Galib, 18, son of Md Mozibor Rahman in Gazipur.

Sha� kul Islam, o� cer-in-charge of Madhu-

pur police station, said a Mahindra auto rick-shaw driver Lebu Khan died on the spot when a vehicle had hit the auto rickshaw in Roktipa-ra area on thr Tangail-Mymensingh Road.

On the other hand, Yousuf and Galib, the two cousins died on the spot in Karatipara area on the Dhaka-Tangial Highway as a cov-ered van hit them while they were going to meet their aunt by a motorcycle.

In Gazipur, an elderly man was killed on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway in the dis-trict while a micro-bus hit him, said our cor-respondent.

The deceased was Shamsul Haque, a resi-

dent of Bartopa village in Sreepur upazila.Sub-inspector Delwar Hossain of Mawona

police outpost con� rmed the incident.Chittagong correspondent said an uniden-

ti� ed youth was killed in an accident in the city’s Bakalia area.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Pankaj Barua of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) said the incident took place in Shah Amanat Bridge area, the entry point in the city when a micro-bus ran him over, leaving him critically injured.

Locals rushed the man to CMCH where the on duty doctors declared him dead. l

Matia: Government o� cials should be trained upn Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said the government o� cials should be given training to increase their knowledge and skills so that they could serve the nation properly.

She came up with the remarks yesterday while inaugurating an orientation training course for BCS cadres in Gazipur. National Ag-riculture Training Academy has arranged the training session.

Md Math Hurul Hoque, director general of NATA, presided over the function while agri-culture secretary Mosarraf Hossain, Md Ha-midur Rahman and Dr Abu Yousuf spoke on the occasion, among others.

The agriculture minister also advised he government o� cials to work with utmost sincerity, honesty and responsibility. A total of 60 BCS cadres participated in the course. l

The Bangladesh Mohila Parishad holds a human chain in front of Gaibandha National Press Club yesterday, demanding exemplary punishment to the abductor of a student of Asaduzzaman School and College DHAKA TRIBUNE

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015NEWS 7

DT

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:42PM SUN RISES 5:52AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

35.5ºC 23.4ºC

Bogra Rangamati

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 34 26

Chittagong 33 27

Rajshahi 34 20

Rangpur 34 26

Khulna 34 25

Barisal 32 25

Sylhet 34 24

Cox’s Bazar 32 26

PRAYER TIMESFajr 4:35am

Sunrise 5:51amZohr 11:47am

Asr 4:03pmMagrib 5:42pm

Esha 7:12pm

WEATHER

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Class six student raped by boyfriendn Our Correspondent, Natore

A madrasa student was raped allegedly by her boyfriend in Bogra on Saturday.

The alleged boyfriend named Ripon, aged around 20, sedated her and raped her twice, according to the statement of the victim’s younger sister.

The victim is currently receiving treatment at the Natore Sadar Hospital.

Her father Abul Hossain, hailing from Da-kmanika village under Bogra district told the Dhaka Tribune that his daughter is a class six student of Rohonbagha Madrasa in Bogra. She was engaged in a love a� air with Ripon, son of Ainuddin of Khazura village under Singra upazila of Natore.

On Saturday morning, he sent two of his daughters to their elder sister’s house in Atrai area of Naogaon district. After they started, Ripon met them and took them to a residen-tial hotel in Santahar area in Bogra.

The victim’s younger sister said Ripon fed her sister something inside the hotel room. As she fell asleep, he had raped her in front of her.

Later, he took them inside a train set for Naogaon and there he raped her again. As the train reached Natore Railway Station, he left them on the station.

Abu Sama, station o� cer of Natore � re ser-vice, said being informed by the railway sta-tion o� cials, they went to the station around 1am on Saturday and found the two girls.

The elder girl was senseless and was bleed-ing while the younger one was crying. They admitted the victim at Natore Sadar Hospital.

Residential Medical O� cer of the hospital RK Saha said after primary investigation, they suspected that it was a rape case, however, the victim could not talk as she was senseless. They had to put stitches on the victim’s vagina.

Abul tried to � le a case with Natore sadar po-lice station and Singra police station yesterday, however, o� cers-in-charge of both the police stations said as the incident took place in San-tahar, the victim’s father should lodge the case with Santahar police station in Bogra. l

Worker held with mortar shellin Sylhetn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Police arrested a worker with a mortar shell on Shahjalal University of Science and Tech-nology (SUST) campus yesterday.

The arrested was Sekul Mia, 32, son of Inu Mia, of Jugipara in the city near SUST campus.

Police and witnesses said Sekul was look-ing for a buyer to sell the shell thinking it a precious metal.

Being informed, police nabbed Sekul with the mortar shell around 12:00pm.

Sekul Mia, who worked as a day labourer, said that he found the shell ten feet under the soil on Saturday in airport area in the city when he was digging soil.

“I wanted to sell it thinking it a precious metal,” he added.

Sub-Inspector of Jalalabad police station and also bomb expert Ariful Islam said it might be an older shell lying for long.

Akter Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of the po-lice station said Sekul Mia was held for inter-rogation. l

Barisal hospital su� ers water supply disruption for 19 daysn Our Correspondent, Barisal

The water supply at the important district hospital there has remained cut for 19 days forcing the patients to shift elsewhere for medical services.

The authorities of the 250-bed hospi-tal in the face of the su� ocating situationhave stopped new admission and started re-leasing the admitted patients to tackle the condition.

The poor patients are worst victim of the adverse situation.

Barisal Department of Public Health Engi-neering Assistant Engineer Ashok Kumar said they were trying best to restore water supply in the hospital and the task might take two more weeks to see the end.

After visiting the hospital and the depart-ment, it was learnt by the correspondent that the water pump went out of order on Septem-ber 15.

Since then not only the patients also the nurses and physicians have been facing acute water crisis in the hospital.

When asked, the hospital’s Residential Medical O� cer (RMO) Dr Delwar Hossain ad-mitted the long-pending problem and said he � oated an order of limiting admission to the emergency patients to tackle it initially and referring others to nearby Sher-e-Bangla Med-ical College Hospital.

Particularly patients in diarrhoea and medicine wards have been facing tough time amidst the disruption, said diarrhoea-caught patient Hosneara.

She continued that she had been com-pelled to leave the hospital just after taking prescription and medicine.

Another patient named Sushanta Sarkar from the medicine ward said the water crisis has turned the hospital into the hell.

Nur Hossain Farazi, ward master of the hospital, said though one of the two water pumps of the hospital had went out of order earlier in March, a major trouble appeared in the other on September 15 as well.

The RMO said the number of patients has halved in the hospital recently owing to the su� ering.

They have already informed the matter to the higher authorities and local public works department was working to � x it, RMO Del-war went on. l

Comprehensive e� orts stressed for pollution-free rivers n Tribune Report

There is no alternative to creating social awareness and comprehensive e� orts by all concerned for ensuring pollution-free rivers, which are lifelines for ecology, economy, bio-diversity and heritage of the nation.

The opinion came yesterday afternoon at a discussion organised by Begum Rokeya Uni-versity, Rangpur unit of Riverine People on the Ghaghot riverbank on the outskirts of the city in observance of the World Rivers Day.

Students and teachers of the university and leaders of Riverine People participated in the eight-kilometre-long walkathon from the BRUR campus to the Ghaghot riverbank at Nisbetganj area on the fringes of the city.

After reaching the riverbank, the stu-dents, teachers and leaders of Riverine People showered � owers on the river water wishing

well-being and safety of all global rivers and seeking divine blessings for their continuous existence.

Later, they took part in the discussion ar-ranged on the riverbank with Associate Pro-fessor of the Department of Bengali of BRUR and Senator of Riverine People Dr Tuhin Wadud in the chair.

Assistant Professor Tanzibul Islam Jiban of the Department of Political Science of BRUR, students of the university and organisers of Riverine People Kaiser Alam, Abdur Rob, Manjur Arif, Rukhsana Akhter and Sweety Sarker addressed the discussion.

The speakers called upon the government and common people for becoming more con-scientious in freeing the rivers from pollution as those are the lifeline for ecology, economy, environment and heritage of the country and its people. l

Getting no transportation, a woman walks to home from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University with her injured daughter on lap yesterday as the agitating medical college aspirants blocked the roads connecting to the Shahbagh intersection as part of their protest against question paper leakage in the medical college admission tests MEHEDI HASAN

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015WORLD8DT

Coup d’état to overthrow Rajiv Gandhi govt in 1987? n Tribune Desk

A former lieutenant general of the Indian army has claimed that a military coup was plotted to topple Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government by the then army chief and his deputy in 1987.

The sensational assertion was made by Lt Gen PN Hoon, a former commander of the prestig-ious Western Command of the Indian army, in his just-released book, “The Untold Truth,” reported The Times of India.

Hoon, 86, claimed that three crack para-com-mando battalions including one from the Western Command, were told to move for action in Delhi by the top brass of the military. In 1987, General Kr-ishnaswami Sundarji was the Indian army chief and Lt Gen SF Rodrigues served as his deputy.

Hoon also hinted that the plan for a coup was hatched at the behest of certain very senior politi-cians who did not share cordial relations with Rajiv, the grandson of India’s � rst prime minister Jawaharlal Neh-ru. According to Hoon, those politicians believed that Gandhi was a part of rampant corruption going through across the country and unconcerned about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, of which his mother, the prime minister of India at the time, had been accused for instigation.

Hoon, who retired in October 1987, has claimed that as chief of the Western Command in May-June 1987, he was in Delhi on o� cial work when he re-ceived a message that a letter had been received at command headquarters from army headquarters seeking three para-commando battalions. The bat-talions included the First-Para Commando, which was under the Western Command, and the 9th and 10th Para Commando which were under the North-ern and Southern Commands.

According to Hoon, these three battalions were ordered to be placed under Rodrigues. He said he immediately briefed Rajiv and his principal secretary Gopi Arora about the development and showed them the letter demanding special forces.

“I also explained to them how dangerous this move could be, not only for the country, but also for our political system,” the TOI quoted Hoon’s book. He claims to have ordered the Delhi area com-mander, which is under the Western Command, not to move any troops without his permission.

Hoon stated that one minister in Rajiv’s cabinet, VC Shukla, was aware about the possibility of army action. In chapter-10 titled ‘Giani Zail Singh vs Ra-jiv Gandhi’ he said Shukla specially came down to Chandimandir to meet him.

Air Marshal Randhir Singh, a veteran of many wars and a high up of the Indian defence force at the time, disagrees with Hoon and says there’s nev-er been any attempt at military coup. “In India, a coup by the armed forces is not possible because of the kind of legacy training they have inherited,” the 94-year-old said told the TOI.

Terming it Gen Hoon’s “own perception,” TOI quoted Col KS Pathak, senior veteran and one of the founders of country’s special forces, as saying: “There may have been mobilisation of troops in Delhi but it was for other reasons. At the time, there was unrest in Delhi, especially after the Sikh massa-cre and some other problems.” l

Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, left, at an army function in 1987 WIKIMEDIA

Iran nuke review panel says deal � awedn AFP, Tehran

A panel of Iranian lawmakers said Sunday that the inspections regime underpinning the country’s nuclear deal with world powers rep-resented a security threat, but the agreement should go ahead anyway.

The 15-member committee spent weeks reviewing the text of the July 14 agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), for what it said could be breaches of negotiators’ “red lines.”

The panel had largely been sidelined over its ability to in� uence the accord’s fate al-though its report paves the way for a formal vote in parliament. A law passed earlier this year gave � nal oversight of the nuclear deal to Iran’s Supreme National Security Coun-cil (SNSC), rather than lawmakers, many of whom have railed against the agreement. The SNSC is headed by President Hassan Rouhani.

In their report the lawmakers hit out at the decision to allow inspections of military sites, which supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khame-nei had appeared to rule out in a speech just weeks before the deal was sealed.

“The JCPOA has serious weaknesses in the security section. Unless there’s a revision regarding the inspection of military, defence and security sites, it will cause problems for the country,” the panel said.

The lawmakers, however, said the review made “the assumption that Iran’s negotiating team had enjoyed the supreme leader’s trust” during the talks that led to the deal and its passing would see sanctions lifted.

Khamenei has the last word on all policy matters in the Islamic republic as his authority trumps Rouhani and all politicians. His speech-es often backed the negotiators but stopped short of endorsing the deal. The panel further criticised the agreement with Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany, say-ing Iran’s obligations were “clear and explicit” whereas the West’s obligations were not so. l

ANALYSIS

Normal ties between Iran and US unlikely despite nuclear dealn Reuters, United Nations

Iran is unlikely to normalise relations with the United States despite a landmark nuclear deal reached with America and other major powers and the � rst handshake between a US president and a high-ranking Iranian o� cial in more than 30 years.

Pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, whose 2013 election paved the way for Iran’s diplomatic thaw with the West, has signaled his willingness to improve ties with “the Great Satan” and to discuss the regional crisis with the US.

But analysts and o� cials say this improve-ment will go no further than an exchange of intelligence between the two nations through back-channels and that Supreme Leader Aya-tollah Ali Khamenei has no intention of re-storing diplomatic ties.

In a dramatic shift in tone between Iran and the US, President Barack Obama and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shook hands at the United Nations last week. An Iranian o� cial said it “was not pre-planned.”

But Iran’s most powerful authority who has the last say on all state matters, including relations with Washington, is Khamenei and not Rouhani.

Khamenei has continued to denounce the US publicly, suggesting that antagonism prevailing between Iran and the US since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran will not abate because of the nuclear deal. Iran and the United States severed diplomatic ties shortly after the revolution.

“How can you trust your long-time ene-my? How can you do business with a partner

you don’t trust? We trust American people but not their government. And the deal has not changed it,” said a senior, hard-line secu-rity o� cial in Tehran.

“Real believers in Iran’s revolution and its pillars and followers of our late leader (Ayatol-lah Ruhollah) Khomeini will never accept it.”

Khamenei has backed Rouhani’s e� orts to reach the deal, under which Iran will curb its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions which have severely damaged the economy.

“But he will never accept normalisation of ties with America,” a senior Iranian diplomat, who declined to be named, said. “For the leader it is just a non-negotiable red line.”

Khamenei’s hard-line loyalists, drawn from among Islamists and Revolutionary Guards, fear that normalisation of ties with the United States might weaken their position.

“Restoring ties with the United States, which Rouhani and his camp are in favour of, poses an existential threat to hard-liners. If it happens, Rouhani’s power and popularity will surpass Khamenei’s,” said political ana-lyst Hamid Farahvashian.

Preserving balanceBut Khamenei, since taking over in 1989 from Khomeini, has been adept at ensuring that no group, even hard-liners, gain enough mo-mentum to challenge the power of the Islamic Republic’s second supreme leader.

“The leader strongly believes in America’s devilish intentions. He will never approve normalisation of ties with America,” said a Khamenei relative, who asked not to be named.

Easing economic sanctions and ending

Iran’s isolation will bolster Rouhani’s position within Iran’s complex power structure, ana-lysts said. Iranians could reward pro-Rouhani candidates at the ballot box in February elec-tions for parliament and for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body with nominal power over the supreme leader, analysts say.

A senior US o� cial said that Khamenei was “very savvy” about holding on to the power that he has.

“For Ayatollah Khamenei the nuclear ac-cord was purely transactional, not transfor-mational ... Neither President Rouhani nor any other actor in the Islamic Republic will be able to successfully challenge this vision,” said senior Iran analyst Ali Vaez from Interna-tional Crisis Group.

Exchange of intelligenceHowever, Iran and the United States will con-tinue to cooperate through back-channels on regional issues aimed at reducing con� ict in the Middle East, o� cials and analysts say.

“We cannot expect embassies to be reo-pened in Tehran and Washington ... but we will continue to share information about Iraq, Syria and other regional common interests. We have done it in the past,” said an Iranian o� cial, who asked not to be named.

Tehran and Washington have common interests and threats across the Middle East and they have cooperated tactically in the past, including when Iran helped the United States to counter al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Islamic State in Iraq.

Iran continues to support Islamist militant groups such as Hezbollah, a close ally – like Iran – of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war with rebels trying to overthrow him. l

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015WORLD 9

DT

Double trouble: Asteroid, volcanoes implicated in dinosaur doomn Reuters, Washington, DC

It was a combination of calamities - an asteroid strike followed by vast volcanic eruptions half a world away - that doomed the dinosaurs and many other creatures 66 million years ago.

That is the conclusion of scientists who said they have determined with new precision the proximity of the dates of these catastrophes: a space rock about 10km wide striking Mexico’s Yu-catan region and colossal eruptions in India.

The two events roiled Earth by throwing dust, ash and harmful fumes like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide into the air, altering the climate and killing o� about 75% of all species in one of Earth’s worst mass extinctions.

The researchers said the asteroid strike oc-curred 66.04 million years ago, plus or minus about 30,000 years.

They said eruptions in a region called the Deccan Traps were already underway at a lower intensity but dramatically accelerated after the asteroid strike as if the powerful impact triggered it. The dating meth-od they used found this acceleration began within 50,000 years of the impact, but it could have been in the mere days, months or years afterward.

“Within measurement error, they’re simulta-neous,” said volcanologist Loýc Vanderkluysen of Philadelphia’s Drexel University.

“The two processes in tandem caused the extinctions,” added Paul Renne, director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and a University of California, Berkeley geologist, who led the study in the journal Science.

Scientists have debated for about 35 years which of the two disasters drove the extinction,

some touting one while calling the other inconse-quential.

The Deccan eruptions lasted 420,000 years af-ter the asteroid and extruded enough lava to cover the continental US 180 meters deep.

“We as humans wouldn’t be here if the dino-saurs had not been wiped out,” said Cal-Berkeley geophysicist Mark Richards, noting the extinction at the Cretaceous Period’s end paved the way for mammals to become the dominant land animals. l

The layered lava � ows of the Deccan Traps east of Mumbai. It was a combination of calamities - an asteroid strike followed by vast volcanic eruptions that doomed the dinosaurs REUTERS

FACTBOX

MSF: Medical marvel of the humanitarian worldMedecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors With-out Borders, whose Kunduz hospital in Afghanistan was hit by a suspected US air strike on Saturday, has announced to withdrawn sta� from Kunduz.

It is the only medical facility in the whole northeastern region of Afghanistan that can deal with major war injuries. Here are some of major facts about MSF–

Ü MSF, founded on December 21, 1971, is one of the largest medical charities in the world, counting more than 36,000 volunteers working in 60 countries.

Ü The Switzerland-based non-pro� t provides emergency medical care in war zones, dur-ing epidemics and in the wake of natural dis-asters.

Ü Its stated commitment to caring for patients regardless of race, religion or political af-� liation and reputation for working in the toughest of conditions saw it awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

Ü Operations in Sudan, the Democratic Re-public of Congo, Central African Republic, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Niger, Libe-ria, Ethiopia and Iraq take up just over half of the organisation’s total spending.

Ü Last year, the organisation treated more than half a million patients in clinics and hos-pitals across 63 countries, including 2,200 su� ering from the Ebola virus. It also works to combat the spread of diseases such as malaria, with 2.1 million patients treated last year, as well as HIV and cholera, according to a report by the charity.

Ü Another focus is malnutrition. MSF doctors cared for more than 200,000 severely un-derfed children in 2014.

Source: AFP

UN terms Kunduz hospital air raid a war crime, Obama pledges proben Agencies

A suspected Nato air strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz that killed nine sta� of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Saturday was “inexcusable” and “possibly criminal,” UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.

Zeid led a chorus of condemnation, with-out saying who carried out the strike, noting that an assault on a hospital could amount to a war crime. “This event is utterly tragic, inex-cusable, and possibly even criminal,” he said.

At least three children, four adult patients and 12 MSF personnel died in the blasts, the aid group said. 37 other people were wound-ed and many are still missing.

The US military said it conducted an air strike “in the vicinity” of the hospital as it targeted Taliban insurgents who were di-rectly � ring on US military personnel. It said an investigation had begun, while the White House said in a statement that it expects “a full accounting of the facts and circumstanc-es” of the incident.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a thorough and impartial investigation “in order to ensure accountability.”

The medical charity said its sta� phoned military o� cials at Nato in Kabul and Wash-ington during the morning attack, but bombs continued to rain down for nearly an hour.

“All indications currently point to the bombing being carried out by international Coalition forces,” MSF said, demanding “a full and transparent account.”

“On behalf of the American people, I ex-tend my deepest condolences to the medical professionals and other civilians killed and injured in the tragic incident at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz,” US

President Barack Obama said in the White House statement.

Huge explosionsA US o� cial, speaking on condition of an-onymity, said a US military AC-130 gunship had been operating in the area, � ring at Tal-iban targets to provide what was essentially defensive, close-air support to ground forces.

But it was still unclear whether rounds from the AC-130 struck the hospital, the o� -cial said.

The hospital had treated almost 400 pa-tients in the 150-bed hospital since � ght-ing broke out on Monday, most for gunshot wounds. So many patients have � ooded in that the hospital had to put them in o� ces and on mattresses on the � oor. l

Assad: Russian failure would destroy Mideastn AFP, Damascus

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned the success of Russia’s military intervention in his war-torn country was vital for the entire Mid-dle East, as Moscow ramped up its bombing campaign Sunday.

Russian raids against what Moscow says are Islamic State group targets entered a � fth day despite accusations in the West that the strikes are mainly targeting moderate oppo-nents of the regime.

“The alliance between Russia, Syr-ia, Iraq and Iran must succeed or else the whole region will be destroyed,” Assad said in an interview broadcast by Iranian state television.

Russia said it had dropped concrete-bust-er munitions on new IS targets and destroyed command posts, storehouses and other infra-structure.

Washington accuses Russia of seeking to buttress Assad and of targeting West-ern-backed moderate opposition and IS � ght-ers alike.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman challenged the West’s distinction between ji-hadist and other Islamist rebel groups, saying it had failed to explain the term “moderate opposition.” l

WORLD10DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

FEATURE

The water ma� as that suck Karachi dryn AFP, Karachi

The moment they saw the city water tank-er stop in their neighbourhood, Moham-med and Nayla rushed towards it. That day, the water was free – a rare event in Karachi, where organised gangs siphon it o� to sell to thirsty residents.

In Karachi slums, water barely � ows through the pipe meant to supply the shacks packed along the rutted earth lanes.

The shortage doesn’t just annoy the mil-lions of residents in Pakistan’s largest city – this summer it exacerbated the e� ects of a heatwave which killed more than 1,200 people.

The coastal city pumps around 2.2bn li-tres (580m US gallons) of water a day from the Indus and Hub rivers, which have seen

their � ow reduced by insu� cient rains in recent years.

But it is not enough to meet demand in a metropolis where the vital textile industry gobbles up huge amounts.

From time to time the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) � lls the reservoir in such neighbourhoods and residents � ock to it.

But the rest of the time they turn to the semi-clandestine ma� as that control the lu-crative trade in water distributed by tankers.

The families pays up to $15 a month for wa-ter – which is not even always safe to drink.

“The children sometimes get diar-rhoea when they drink that water,” Nayla, a slum-dweller, said.

As a result the family are sometimes forced to use money they should spend on food to buy clean drinking water.

Dig, pump, billThe water ma� as dig tunnels to tap into the mains supply, stealing millions of gallons a day, said Iftikhar Ahmed Khan of KWSB.

“These illegal hydrants are established by armed people, so it is very di� cult for KWSB sta� to just dismantle them,” he said.

In recent months government forces on a major anti-crime crackdown in the city have shuttered 200 illegal water connections, forc-ing many tankers to re� ll from KWSB and pay fees of $1-2 per 1,000 US gallons (3,700 litres).

The water is then resold for at least 10 times that price a few kilometres away in slums, posh neighbourhoods and industrial areas.

Water, water everywhereKarachi’s textile factories – the lifeblood of

the Pakistani economy – use hundreds of millions of litres of water a day producing fabrics, T-shirts and jeans, many of which are exported to the West.

One industrialist speaking on condition of anonymity admitted paying bribes to ensure the water kept � owing to his factory, but said even then he was sometimes forced to turn to the tanker gangs.

Many rich people are investing in power-ful suction pumps to draw what water there is from the mains – thereby depriving their neighbours of their supply.

Karachi is on the Arabian Sea, but de-salination costs are prohibitively expen-sive – and, with the water table falling and the population continuing to boom, it seems the city’s water woes are only just beginning. l

11D

TEDITORIALMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

INSIDE

We congratulate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on her successful visit to New York to attend the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.

Through her speeches at the landmark UN session which launched the Global Goals on sustainable development, she raised the pro� le of Bangladesh as a nation that is playing an ever-more important role on the world stage.

Bangladesh’s achievements in advancing development were recognised in a multiplicity of ways during the prime minister’s visit. She herself received two major awards as a UNEP Champion of the Earth and recipient of the “ICT Sustainable Development Award” recognising the forward-looking way in which Bangladesh has developed national policies to address climate change and further development by spreading new technology.

The summit also saw Bangladesh elected as chair of the LDC bloc at the United Nations for three years. These honours re� ect growing global recognition of the many strides Bangladesh has been making in advancing women’s empowerment, furthering development, and in taking leadership in international forums.

Sheikh Hasina’s co-chairing of the Peacekeeping Operations summit with US President Barack Obama highlighted the valuable leadership Bangladesh shows on the world stage as the leading contributor of peacekeeping troops and police to UN missions.

It is also welcome that new announcements were made during the visit on plans to increase development of solar power generation in the country and further enhance progress on sustainable development.

Face-to-face talks are also an important dimension of global summits. We are heartened by the PM’s brie� ng to reporters that she had positive discussions on the Teesta water-sharing agreement with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while they were in New York.

We trust that Sheikh Hasina’s highly successful visit and the meetings she has had with other leaders will prove valuable in advancing Bangladesh’s global pro� le and in furthering both bilateral and multi-lateral relations

Sheikh Hasina’s recognition at the UN and meetings with world leaders advances Bangladesh’s pro� le

PM’s leadership gains Bangladesh respect on the world stage

If Left doesn’t do God, it should try Godfather

The lost Bohemian RhapsodyThese people do not become editors, media advisers, or press ministers, they are hardly seen in talk shows and are rarely seated in a polished car, wearing neatly-pressed clothes, heading for some high-pro� le meet

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207

Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com

Send us your Op-Ed articles:opinion.dt@dhakatribune.

com www.dhakatribune.com

Join our Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

PAGE 12

PAGE 13

PAGE 14

Jumping the gunWhat these unsophisticated discussions have done is that it has put Bangladesh into the global discourse that does not reject the idea that militancy in Bangladesh is on the rise. However, how much this rising threat of militancy in Bangladesh is di� erent than the threat of a militant attack in America or Australia is unclear

The odd thing is that four years after losing Bengal, the Marxists have still not understood why. One phrase sums it up: Old Doctrine, Old Men

REU

TER

S

OPINION12DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

n Mubashar Hasan

The news of the Australian Cricket team delaying its scheduled tour to Bangladesh on security grounds came as a surprise to many.

For the past few years, a plethora of writings and commentaries on Bangladesh politics published worldwide have argued that the threat of “militant Islamists” in Bangladesh is real. The unfortunate grisly murders of atheist bloggers, allegedly by militant Islamists, too have contributed to this fear-mongering narrative.

Even though, in recent years, more Bangladeshis have died in road accidents, in shootings by law enforcers or through political violence, in a world where the war on terror is very much real, unfortunate murders of bloggers in Bangladesh have caught the imagination of the Western world. The reason is that we live in a world where some deaths are more important than others. Any narrative that poses Islamists as threats seems to feed world imagination faster than any other issue.

There should be no denial that militancy is a threat to Bangladesh, but one should also ask how much this threat to Bangladesh is di� erent from the threat posed to Australia, the USA, or the UK. The fact of the matter is

every country in the world is now under the threat of militancy, but that doesn’t necessar-ily mean that national teams and people do not visit these countries.

What this recent decision of the Aus-tralian Cricket Board may do is to reinforce an unnecessary stigmatisation of a Muslim country like Bangladesh. This stigmatisation � ourishes on the assumption that Muslims are anti-Western and anti-liberal. Western conservative scholars such as Samuel Hun-tington, Paul Berman, and Bernard Lewis have championed this narrative.

At the same time, it is plausible to argue that the decision to delay the tour to Bang-ladesh is not totally unsubstantiated, since Australia recently joined the � ght against the Islamic State, whose global capacity to assert an attack in Bangladesh is not beyond imagination. Besides, in recent years, the link between Australia-based radical Muslim out� ts and Bangladeshi out� ts has come into public discourse.

Bangladesh should take two immediate measures to assure Australians. First, our se-curity and diplomatic establishments should make it absolutely clear to the Australians that people of Bangladesh love Australia. Many Bangladeshis live in Australia, who are contributing actively into the development of their society and they are sending money back to Bangladesh to improve their own homesteads. Therefore, people of Bangla-desh in general would not tolerate any sort of agitation against Australians.

Secondly, Bangladesh and Bangladeshis need to be cautious about playing the “mili-tant Islamists” card. On global platforms, or in civil society, the favourite topic of discus-sion is “militant Islamism” in Bangladesh. At times, some of these discussions remind us of bashing a strawman without ample proof.

What these unsophisticated discussions have done is that it has put Bangladesh into the global discourse that does not reject the idea that militancy in Bangladesh is on the rise. However, how much this rising threat of militancy in Bangladesh is di� erent than the

threat of a militant attack in America or Aus-tralia is unclear, and we need to debate this seriously and set the parameters of threat objectively.

Otherwise, these discussions, most of which are rather sweeping commentaries, are proving detrimental to the image of Bangla-desh. We should remember that our coun-try’s image is important, not just for hosting a cricket series, but also to attract foreign investment. It needs further explanation.

The world we live in today is governed by a global political order embalming sovereign nation states. This global political order is majorly based upon capitalist models which culminate in producing a globalised world where the distance between here and there gets blurred, considering the technological di� usion, media coverage, and � nancial liberalisation.

Within this set-up, “the image of a country” is important more than ever before. The image of a country is an important informational cue to businesses and foreign governments. The example of Danish companies losing business worth millions of dollars in the Middle East as a repercussion of the publication of a derogatory cartoon of the Muslims’ respected Prophet Muhammad is worth mentioning here in order to depict the political relevance and economic consequences of a country’s image in the world today.

Therefore, we should use the militant Isla-mist card very cautiously and our security es-tablishment should make sure that they will provide the highest security to the Australian team. The hope is still there, the tour is on hold, not cancelled. We need to ensure that the tour takes place. Otherwise, the gravity of a cancelled tour on security grounds will have rami� cations beyond cricket. l

Mubashar Hasan is a PhD Candidate at the School of Government and International Relations, Gri� th University, Australia. He is the founder of www.alochonaa.com, a non-religious, non-partisan platform to foster dialogue among civilisations.

Jumping the gunWe shouldn't be too quick to play the 'militant Islamist' card

What these unsophisticated discussions have done is that it has put Bangladesh into the global discourse that does not reject the idea that militancy in Bangladesh is on the rise. However, how much this rising threat of militancy in Bangladesh is di� erent than the threat of a militant attack in America or Australia is unclear

Being linked to terrorism will greatly a� ect our national image BIGSTOCK

OPINION 13D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

n Towheed Feroze

I saw him, a few months ago, walking leisurely on the pavement near Kawran Bazar, on his way to New Age newspaper’s o� ce. The air of

a philosopher was there, topped with casual nonchalance. That look of perpetual relaxation, something which, if I am not mistaken, is the essential feature of a lot of people involved in journalism.

Humayun Zaman bhai died a few days ago after he was diagnosed with latter degree lung cancer. At 61 years of age, he never looked a day over 52 -- lean and composed with the Bohemian feel about him that was hard to ignore.

He was a senior journalist but not the edi-tor, and, maybe, if he had lived, he would not have bagged the top post at a media house,

ending his career like many others who live with free-wheeling fervour, and then silently disappear.

His death got me thinking about all those in journalism who devote their whole lives to the profession, but never hog the limelight. To be precise, these people do not become editors, media advisers, or press ministers, they are hardly seen in talk shows and are rarely seated in a polished car, wearing neatly-pressed clothes, heading for some high-pro� le meet.

Not saying that those who have brought corporate professionalism to journalism have done any harm; in fact, it’s only right that media should evolve along with the changing mores of society.

However, despite the much-needed meta-morphosis, which gives us more streamlined/cutting edge journalism, there is an undying mystique surrounding old-school journal-ism based on high thinking and plain (read: Unconventional) living.

Unfortunately, journalists of this category rarely receive the praise they deserve. Sadly, in a world where almost all social de� nitions ferociously revolve around material success, the Bohemians are often regarded with a tinge of pity.

Humayun Bhai’s death brought back memories of a few late media mavericks with whom I had the pleasure to work. There was Jamal Arsalan, a true eccentric who had studied English literature with my parents at

Dhaka University in the late 60s.My � rst meeting with Jamal Bhai at The

Independent in the late 90s left an indelible mark. In hot weather, with the o� ce interior cooled by the air conditioner in full blast, the diminutive man was wearing a jumper, a blazer with a mu� er tied around his neck.

He enjoyed this feel of winter, I was told. Jamal Bhai was having lunch, chicken

curry with Mr Cookie biscuits with occasional bites from a banana.

“Love this variation of taste,” he said with a smile. Something inside me said: “You are at the right place.”

Jamal Bhai was a moving dictionary, with a writing style � lled with pathos. Emotion played a huge part in his life -- for a man who had to struggle � nancially most of the time, facing the ugly face of the real world, he loved only happy endings in books and � lms.

But he could have made his life better, far better. When below-average-but-astute people became wealthy, owners of homes, � ats, and cars by opening English coaching centres, feeding thousands of students with template-versions of “Spoken English for Success,” Jamal Bhai was perfectly content with his world.

In that sphere, the word “contentment” ruled supreme, competition was absent. The monthly salary was enough if paid on time, a yearly bonus triggered euphoric outbursts, several trips to the second-hand market for Tolkien’s books, something to cherish, buy-ing DVDs of old English classics, a treat and a hearty meal, the rejuvenating fuel for taking on the week ahead.

The late Zakaria Shirazi was another of the Bohemian sort -- leftist in ideal, his greatest dream-come-true was when he went to Lon-don and visited Ben Johnson’s residence. In love with English literature, he could a� ord to buy very little in London, but that hardly bothered him.

He scoured second-hand book stores, picking up works by forgotten leftist writers. Shirazi bhai remained a staunch socialist long after the Berlin Wall fell and the Communist dream crumbled in the West.

When he published a book, a collection of analytical essays on the works of Nikolai Gogol, Pushkin, and others, it never occurred to him that to publicise the work he needed a launching ceremony with the TV media present.

The book, A Sheaf of Essays, won’t be available anywhere, yet it’s a magni� cent col-lection of writings lucidly analysing a variety of “isms” in literature.

Coming back to Humayun bhai, I never saw him in a car or a rickshaw -- he walked a lot. And that way, got to see the social trans-formation from the grassroots.

The obituary plus tribute printed after his death mentioned that his possessions were his books. Neither Jamal Arsalan nor Zakaria Shirazi left notable material possessions, only a Bohemian melody that fades away …leaving an intoxicating whi� ! l

Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.

The lost Bohemian RhapsodyPeople like Humayun Zaman are a rare breed

These people do not become editors, media advisers, or press ministers, they are hardly seen in talk shows and are rarely seated in a polished car, wearing neatly-pressed clothes, heading for some high-pro� le meet

Some people live life through literature BIGSTOCK

OPINION14DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

n MJ Akbar

This must rank as one of the funniest stories in a long while: The Marxist candidate for mayor for the municipal election in Bidhannagar,

next to Calcutta, on October 3 was the now-venerable Asim Dasgupta, who served as � nance minister of Left Front governments in Bengal for more than a quarter century; but this is not a joke about how the mighty have fallen.

In fact, it goes to the CPI(M)’s credit that it does not permit anyone’s ego to interfere with a party diktat.

If a lofty � nance minister is ordered to try for a suburban mayor’s job, so be it. The joke lies elsewhere.

Comrade Dasgupta is canvassing in the old-fashioned manner, door-to-door. According to the Indian Express, he tells citizens: “Don't forget to vote. And make sure you’re there early in the morning ... because that’s when we expect the trouble and disruption by TMC (Trinamool Congress) hooligans to be the least.”

He also distributes a pamphlet captioned: “Nijer Vote Nije Deen,” or “Cast your vote yourself.”

This is uproarious for anyone who lived in Bengal between 1977 and 2011, when the Left Front held what seemed to be interminable power.

In every election, the Marxists supplemented their vote, and ensured victory, in precisely this manner. Their cadre would, with the con� dence of hooligans protected by state police, capture polling booths where they believed the vote would go against them.

O� cials manning the voting centres were intimidated if they did not collaborate. It is always fun to hear a shrivelled pot calling a whistling kettle black. Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is doing unto CPI(M) precisely what CPI(M) did unto others. It is almost impossible to imagine Bengal’s

Marxists as advocates of fair elections. But defeat works wonders. It can even make you virtuous.

The odd thing is that, four years after losing Bengal, the Marxists have still not understood why. One phrase sums it up: Old doctrine, old men.

The Leftists have neither reinvented their philosophy to restore their equation with the young, or retired the old men who have long passed their sell-by date. Asim Dasgupta is 69 now.

In other words, he was 40 when appointed � nance minister. Why has CPI(M) not made a 40-year-old its candidate for mayor in Bidhannagar?

Is it because the party does not have too many members who are young and

capable? Or is it because they still su� er from what might be called the “Soviet Politburo mentality,” in which once you were taken into the charmed circle, you remained there till God sent summons?

Since the Marxist icon Stalin did not believe in God, he solved the problem with a periodic purge, but that option is not available to Bengal’s Stalinists.

Irrespective of localised results in a municipal poll, it is unlikely that the red � ag, currently at limp-half-mast, will � utter under the leadership of tired old men. The interesting question is this: Can leftists ever regain the space vacated by them in India’s electoral equations? Has pseudo-Marxism in India become as passe as Marxism has internationally?

The last outposts have fallen. China’s Communists have egalitarian intentions but no longer believe that they can create prosperity through old, formulaic prescriptions.

Cuba’s Raul Castro is beginning to see the light of radiant religion. He welcomed Pope Francis to his country by signalling that he could return to the faith. The pillars of Marxism have crumbled, leaving only good intentions behind.

The secret of Bengal Marxist longevity lay not in doctrine but in a party machine. Their nemesis, Mamata Banerjee, understood this, which is why she simply usurped enough parts of that machine and adjusted it into her own networks.

Simultaneously, the challenge of poverty is being addressed by political forces that owe nothing to the left, and view this as a national mission rather than as part of an international revolutionary project. In Bengal, Mamata Banerjee wins because she has the support of the poor.

For three and a half decades, Marxists treated Bengal as their citadel, and it was a pretty e� ective fortress. Strangely, leftists never once believed that the doors of a fortress can also open outward; that it can be a secure base from which a realm, or an ideology, can expand. Instead they closed the doors upon themselves and retreated into an arrogant smugness.

Parties, like individuals, can become bed-ridden for many reasons; many have died an early death because of irrelevance.  When an obituary of the Indian Left is written, it will be said that it died of complacency. It was not homicide, really. It was suicide.

Is it too late for recovery? No. But the Left does not need a doctor. It needs a miracle. Miracles require God. If the Left will not accept God, it should at least try a di� erent Godfather. l

MJ Akbar is an Indian journalist. He is the founder of The Sunday Guardian. This article was � rst published in Sunday Guardian Live.

If Left doesn't do God, it should try GodfatherThe Indian Left may be killing itself from complacency

The odd thing is that four years after losing Bengal, the Marxists have still not understood why. One phrase sums it up: Old Doctrine, Old Men

Is Asim Dasgupta � t to be mayor of Bidhannagar?

15D

TBusiness MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

As China growth � ags, analysts weigh alternative indicators

17Latest political development weighs on investors

19Murky data fuel doubt over where emerging markets really stand

16NBR seeks Attorney General’s support to settle tax cases

20

Anti-money laundering ordinance may get cabinet approval today n Asif Showkat Kallol

As Financial Action Task Force team is due to arrive in Dhaka on 11 October and the Parlia-ment is not in session, the government has decided to approve anti-money laundering (amendment) ordinance at the cabinet com-mittee’s meeting today, said o� cials.

In August, an amendment to the Money Laundering Prevention Act was initially ap-proved at the cabinet committee meeting, but could not be placed in Parliament.

The FATF team of Asia Paci� c Group on combating money laundering and terrorist � -nancing will evaluate Bangladesh’s regulato-ry and functional capabilities in tackling the recent terrorist threats and poor records in containing unabated money laundering, said Bank and Financial Institutions Division Sec-retary M Aslam Alam.

The visit, scheduled on October 11-22, will be undertaken by the evaluation team com-prising experts of Asia Paci� c Group on mon-ey laundering.

Referring to recent killing of two foreigners in Bangladesh, M Aslam Alam said the imple-mentation of money laundering and terrorist � -nancing laws in the country could help prevent such incidents and transaction of illegal money.

O� cials concerned at Bank Division and Bangladesh Bank fear that the forthcoming evaluation by the APG team could place Bang-ladesh further in the “grey list” of FATF after recent o� cial warnings issued by a number of western countries that militants might attack their citizens and interests in Bangladesh.

“It’s a bad time for us being evaluated by the APG now, as the evaluation team has tak-en into consideration the recent killing of an

Italian and a Japanese, and travel alerts by a number of countries along with Australia’s calling o� of cricket tour to Bangladesh,” an-other o� cial, requesting anonymity, said.

He said the APG team cancelled a number of meetings, scheduled earlier, with revenue board, police department and anti-corruption commission and with a number of private sector establishments during their stay.

The team members would now hold meet-ings only in � nance ministry and BB as they feel insecure amid perceived terrorist threats, sources said.

However, a number of BB senior o� cials believe the evaluation would not turn out to be sour, as feared by some quarters. They admitted the recent killing of two foreigners might be a cause for APG to underestimate Bangladesh’s e� orts to combat terrorist net-works and money laundering.

“We have made a lot of progress towards formulating adequate rules and regulations on combating terrorist � nancing and money laundering as proposed by FATF and APG,” secretary said.

Bangladesh Bank o� cial said the recent spate of travel warnings by some western countries and killing of two foreign citizens, could not outright demean Bangladesh as far

as the list of FATF is concerned.As per the amendment, the Anti-Corrup-

tion Commission will investigate the money laundering allegations relating to corruption and bribe only while agencies concerned like police, customs and narcotics department would investigate other predicated o� ences.

Secondly, the amendment has incorporat-ed the provision of joint investigation by dif-ferent agencies and strengthening the Bangla-desh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank for investigation into the o� enc-es relating to money laundering.

Thirdly, the amendment proposed for 4-12 years imprisonment and � ne of Tk20 lakh or at least double of the laundering amount or assets, which is higher, according to the draft ordinance.

As per the ordinance, BFIU will be a body under the central bank with operational au-tonomy. The head of the unit will be appoint-ed by the government for four years and will be picked up through a search committee.

Bangladesh in 2014 got out of the grey list, the list of countries having bad records on money laundering, on which the country was placed in 2008 by FATF.

In October 2010, the task force recom-mended 28 time-bound actions Bangladesh needed to bring its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist � nancing measures to international standards.

The APG is an a� liate body of the FATF and mainly maintains the role of observer in the Asia and Paci� c region. The FATF and APG have long been pressing the government to accelerate investigations of money launder-ing cases and improving ACC’s poor capacity to handle the issue promptly and e� ciently. l

Remittance in� ow rises 12.6% in Septembern Tribune Report

Remittance in� ow rose by 12.6% in Septem-ber compared to previous month due to Eid festival.

The expatriates sent more remittance home to celebrate Eid which contributed to higher growth, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

The country received $1.346bn as remit-tance in September compared to $1.19bn in August, according to the Bangladesh Bank data released yesterday.

The trend of inward remittance was slower in recent months due to stronger local curren-cy against dollar when currencies are tum-bling in the Asia region.

The country experienced 14% fall of remit-tance in� ow in August compared to July.

The expatriates sent $1.344bn as remit-tance in September last year.

Bangladesh Bank projected 10% growth in remittances for the current � scal year in its re-cent monetary policy for the � rst half of � scal year 2015-16.

Foreign reserves are projected to keep ris-ing to reach $26bn in FY16 from $25bn in FY15.

The country received $1.43bn remittanc-es in June which was the second highest in a single month. Earlier in July last year, the country received highest $1.49bn remittances in one month.

Expatriates sent comparatively more remit-tance home in June for observing Eid ul-Fitr, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

Experts suggest devaluation of Bangla-deshi currency to compensate remitters who are facing loss due to fall of currencies in in-ternational market.

The exchange rate of local currency against dollar is hovering around Tk77.80 over the last several months.

Of the remittances received in Septem-ber, $399.37m came through the state-owned banks, $15m through specialised banks, $916m through private banks and $15.40m through foreign banks, according to the Bang-ladesh Bank data. l

Buyers’ Forum meeting called o� n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Buyers’ Forum, a platform for global apparel retailers, has postponed its monthly meeting for security concerns.

The meeting was scheduled to be held to-day with manufacturers in the city.

Meanwhile, some RMG buyers have post-poned their visit to Bangladesh to place or-ders while some urged manufacturers to meet them abroad to talk business and to ink fur-ther deals.

Requesting not to be named, a buyer repre-sentative told the Dhaka Tribune, “The meet-ing has been postponed following a request form majority of brand representatives who were concerned over security.”

The forum leaders informed BGMEA that

their respective head o� ces asked them not to assemble due to security risks following the killing of two foreigners.

After the murder of Tavella, an Italian aid worker, on Monday night in the capital, a Japanese national Kunio Hoshi was also shot dead in a village of northern Rangpur on Sunday. The two back-to-back killings raised questions about the security of foreign na-tionals here.

BGMEA senior Vice-President Faruque Hassan told the Dhaka Tribune, being direct-ed by their respective head o� ces, the forum leaders suspended today’s meeting, citing se-curity concerns.

He added that some buyers deferred their visits until a later date and some urged man-ufacturers to meet them in their own country

for negotiation of new work orders. “As soon as possible, we will schedule a

new date for the meeting. The two unexpect-ed incidents do not mean that the buyer representatives are in-secure here.”

The government will ensure tight security for them, said the BGMEA leader.

The Buyer’s Forum meeting is a regular meeting held in the � rst Monday of every month when all development and concerns, present situation and other relat-ed issues are discussed broadly.

There are 65 buyer o� ces in Bangladesh and their representa-tives negotiate business issues. l

‘We have made a lot of progress formulating rules and regulations to combat terrorist � nancing and money laundering’

BUSINESS16DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Murky data fuel doubt over where emerging markets really standn Siddharth Iyer

European Economic and Financial A� airs Commissioner Moscovici and IMF Manag-ing Director Lagarde speak as they wait for a group photo of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in AnkaraIf emerging markets are to lead global economic perfor-mance one again as they did in recent years, an important foundation will be to convince as many people as possible that reported growth data are as accurate as they can possibly be.

While skepticism around economic statis-tics across the globe comes and goes in waves, India and China, among the biggest and fast-est-developing economies in the world, con-tinue to publish data that are questioned a bit too often by analysts and investors.

In their case, there is one rather obvious shared problem. China is the most populous nation in the world, followed by India. Meas-uring economies of well over one billion peo-ple represents a formidable challenge and is one basic reason why many � nd it hard to believe the data are accurate, no matter what spin is put on them.

But quality data are crucial for economic decision-making and for investor con� dence.

When the U.S. Federal Reserve met earlier this month, China � gured high among its key concerns in deciding to take a pass on a � rst rate hike in a decade — and yet Beijing insists there has been no substantial slowdown at all. In-deed, the fact the Fed placed so much of its em-phasis on China as a risk left many concluding that prospects for a rate hike have faded away.

Despite an aggressive � urry of policy eas-ing, including a small currency devaluation, not to mention overt manipulation of its stock

market, Chinese o� cials and statisticians say all is well in the world’s second largest econo-my, which was growing steadily at the target 7% rate in the � rst half. Just last week, China’s National Bureau of Statistics repeated that economic growth is largely stable.

To make matters even more murky, as of next month, one of the earliest indications of China’s manufacturing sector published by Caixin/Markit, which has been suggesting the economy isn’t so stable, will be discontinued, leaving in-vestors with fewer data points to digest.

At a glance, the o� cial growth and in� ation data on China and India right now are striking-ly similar. Both have very low in� ation rates by historic standards, economies growing at a still-robust 7 percent but with central banks that are aggressively easing policy.

Indian in� ation fell to just 3.66% in Au-gust, the lowest on record. Such a low in� a-tion rate — which is partly down to weak glob-al commodity prices — could be much more easily explained if the economy’s growth rate wasn’t so high.

Eight months ago, India’s statisticians changed the way they calculate GDP, sud-denly adding around 2 percentage points to growth. The o� cial line is the new calcula-tion is more closely aligned to global stand-ards. But there’s not much of a line to rely on yet in the chart.

India vs ChinaIndia’s central bank just delivered a hefty half-point rate cut this week that was double the size economists and the markets expected — not usually a sign that all is well.

Indeed, at the last round, economists in Reuters polls were in a quandary over how to forecast India GDP growth. The 2.6 percent-age point range between the highest and low-est guesses was among the widest ever.

Back in April, the Reserve Bank of India released a paper, which had this to say about the new data series:

“The divergence between the new series and the old series in the pace of growth of the manufacturing sector has turned out to be stark; in particular, the robust expansion of manufacturing portrayed in the new series is not validated by subdued corporate sector performance in Q3 and still weak industrial production.”

Indian o� cials talked up economic stabili-ty before the Fed’s decision earlier this month, but there is recognition that some work still needs to be done to steady the economy.

For many investors at least, work still needs to be done on the statistics that meas-ure it. l

Siddharth Iyer is a polling correspondent with the Reuters Polls team.

China eyes oil markets shake-up with new crude futures contractn AFP, London

China is seeking to assert its growing in� u-ence on global oil markets with a yuan-de-nominated crude futures contract expected to be launched this year.

At the same time, analysts warn that the second-largest oil consumer after the United States will struggle to compete with more es-tablished benchmarks such as London’s Brent North Sea crude and New York’s WTI.

“China is the world’s largest oil importer and is going to become the largest oil con-sumer in the future, so it makes sense for the country to be the place for an oil futures (con-tract) in Asia,” Lin Boqiang, director of the En-ergy Economics Research Centre at Xiamen University, told AFP.

China’s consumption will exceed that of the United States by 2034, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The country produced about 4.6 million barrels per day (mbpd) of oil in 2014, while the country’s average net imports reached 6.1 mbpd.

The in� uence of Asia, and China in particu-lar, has been growing on international com-modity markets in recent times.

“China’s vision is to have these commodi-

ty markets priced on its own exchanges,” said Daniel Colover, associate editorial director at price reporting agency Platts.

It is also consistent with China’s gradual moves towards greater internationalisation of its currency.

The Shanghai International Exchange is work-ing on a � nal draft to be approved by the Chi-na securities regulatory commission before a comprehensive mock trading exercise. Mar-ket participants expect an o� cial launch by the end of 2015.

Liquidity is key The initial target of the new contract seems to be local companies and foreign companies with large interests in China, even if trading will be open to international players.

“Part of the reason China wants to launch

this contract is to allow domestic hedging” that would protect against local price volatili-ty, according to Wiktor Bielski, global head of commodities research at VTB Capital.

But the contract could struggle with liquid-ity, especially if it fails to attract foreign inves-tors, as according to Boqiang, “there are not many players on the Chinese oil market, since the sector is highly monopolised”.

The Chinese oil sector is dominated by the country’s national oil companies and even if some private companies have emerged, their scope remains limited.

“I don’t know why someone doing busi-ness outside China would be interested, given the longer-established, more transparent and more liquid alternatives are already available elsewhere,” said Julian Jessop, head of com-modities at research group Capital Economics.

Two-thirds of the world’s oil is currently priced against the Brent benchmark.

Market influence Some grey areas remain around plans for the contract, in particular the crude which is go-ing to be used as underlying instrument.

The derivative - or promise to take or make delivery of a volume of crude at a future date

- will be based on a medium and sour crude, a quality favoured in Asia and imported mainly from the Middle East. Thus supply will likely continue to be in� uenced by external factors.

“A lot of people in the industry - a cross section of the oil market, trading houses, oil majors, producers - are keen to see how it be-haves and how it is adopted,” said Colover.

For Bielski, market adoption should not be a major hurdle. In fact, volumes on the ex-change could develop very quickly thanks to retail investments, he said.

Plans for smaller lot sizes - 100 barrels ver-sus 1,000 for Brent - seems to be tailored to retail investors.

According to Bielski, the iron ore futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, which in� uences the price of steel, did not trade for the � rst six months, but volumes then “exploded” on the back of “punters” trading.

In China, the amount of liquidity availa-ble to retail investors with money is growing faster than the number of products they can invest in, he added.

“What if that same thing happens to oil? Chinese markets are going to become more dominant and more importantly they are going to export contagion risk,” predicted Bielski. l

‘Part of the reason China wants to launch this contract is to allow domestic hedging’

BUSINESS 17D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

As China growth � ags, analysts weigh alternative indicatorsn AFP, Beijing

As once-stellar growth rates start to dip, watchers of China’s mammoth economy wor-ry that it could be worse than it looks because the o� cial � gures might not be telling the whole story.

But amid mistrust of government num-bers, economists are divided over what other measurements they can use.

O� cial growth � gures last year were the slowest in nearly a quarter of a century, and dropped to seven percent in the � rst half of this year - suspiciously close to government predictions.

However, there is an emerging consensus among economists that real growth in China is lower.

O� cial data is “mendacious”, said Willem Buiter, chief economist of Citigroup, who es-timates the growth rate as “4.5% or less,” ac-cording to Bloomberg News.

The median estimate pro� ered by eleven other economists consulted by Bloomberg was 6.3%.

Analysts have long noted the political na-ture of economic statistics in China - where the ruling Communist Party depends on growth for legitimacy.

“The importance of economic perfor-mance to local o� cials’ evaluations histori-cally provided a strong incentive to provide a rosy picture to higher levels of government,” Goldman Sachs said in a report this month.

That means that if you add up all the growth reported by the provinces, it regularly exceeds the national rate.

Figures are also published disconcertingly quickly; It took o� cials less than two weeks to unveil this year’s second quarter growth, compared with a month in the US.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in mid-September that China could “fur-ther improve” the quality and the transparen-cy of its data.

France’s � nance minister Michel Sapin said this month: “Nobody today believes with absolutely certainty that [the o� cial � gure] corresponds with reality”.

‘The Li Keqiang Index’ China’s expensive e� orts to support diving stock markets and a sudden devaluation of the yuan this summer sparked fears that headline growth data is increasingly out of touch with reality.

No less an authority than China’s premier Li Keqiang has expressed doubts about the ac-curacy of the country’s GDP � gures.

Leaked US diplomatic cables show that as the top o� cial in Liaoning province in 2007, he told the then-US ambassador that such data was “man-made” and thus unreliable.

When evaluating the economy, Li said he focused on only three indicators -- electrici-ty consumption, rail cargo volume, and the amount of loans issued, according to the con-� dential memo released by the WikiLeaks

website in late 2010.“All other � gures, especially GDP statistics,

are ‘for reference only,’ he said with a smile,” according to the cable.

And the three indicators that make up this “Li Keqiang Index” reveal a bleak picture.

Electricity consumption rose only 1% from January to August, the slowest in 30 years, the o� cial Xinhua news agency said.

The key manufacturing sector has con-tracted for seven months, according to the independent Caixin Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI).

Service industry wild cardChina’s top economic planner the NDRC last week defended “the credibility of 7% eco-nomic growth”.

In an apparent dig at fans of the Li index it said power use and rail freight are less re-� ective of overall economic activity given the “major changes China’s economic structure has undergone in recent years”.

The much less energy-intensive service industry was responsible for 49.5% of GDP growth in the � rst half of 2015, whereas the con-tribution of heavy industry shrank drastically.

Some analysts have also weighed in against the Li index.

“Since the � rst half of 2012, China’s servic-es sector has become the main driver of its economic growth,” said Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Econom-ics in an analyst report. l

Internet giants race to faster mobile news appsn AFP, New York

US tech giants are turning to the news in their competition for mobile users, developing new, faster ways to deliver content, but the bene� ts for struggling media outlets remain unclear.

Mobile “drives so much tra� c” because many people start their day reading news on a phone or tablet, said Cindy Krum, chief ex-ecutive at MobileMoxie, a mobile marketing consultancy.

Several new apps hope to capitalize on that by attracting news readers and the advertis-ing dollars they bring.

Apple News, an app included in Apple’s updated iOS 9 mobile operating system, launched last month, delivers content from more than 50 media partners, including the New York Times, Vanity Fair and Vogue.

Facebook launched its “Instant Articles” earlier this year in partnership with a number of media organizations to provide access to the news 10 times more quickly, through its social media infrastructure, than most news websites do.

And Google is said to be preparing a similar system in partnership with Twitter to allow mobile users to fully load an article on their phone in a fraction of a second, compared with nearly 10 seconds today.

The rapid development of the news prod-ucts demonstrates how mobile has become the new battleground for tech companies seeking to keep users within their ecosys-tems, where they can reach them with more products, services and advertising.

“There’s a big competition for mind share,” Americans spend an average of three hours per day on mobile devices, compared to just over two hours on PCs, according to the re-search � rm eMarketer.

Mobile advertising is surging. North Amer-ican mobile ad spending is set to jump to $61bn by 2018 from $19.7bn last year, accord-ing to eMarketer.

A new model? The moves are giving media companies in-centives to make their products more mobile friendly.

The New York Times will allow access to 30 free articles per day on Apple News, for in-stance, compared with 10 per day for readers who go to the daily’s website or news appli-cation.

But it remains unclear whether these new apps will help news organizations � nd a last-ing economic model to survive the digital age.

According to the Pew Research Center, dai-ly US print circulation is down 19% over the past decade and print advertising has fallen more than 60%.

In combatting that decline, news organiza-tions have to decide whether to go after dig-ital readers on their own or to team up with tech � rms.

In these new apps, the publishers appear to have chosen the latter.

For both Apple and Facebook, news pub-lishers will be able to keep 100% of ad reve-nues they generate themselves and 70% of the revenue from ads sold by the tech platforms.

“For now, the agreements look pretty favorable to the publishers,” said Rick Ed-monds, media business analyst for the Poyn-ter Institute for Media Studies. l

China has soared almost to the top of the world’s economic league tables, but as growth � ags there is increasing scepticism about o� cial statistics and a � erce debate over alternative indicators AFP.

BUSINESS18DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 245.69 7.29 13.35 5.94 259.04 7.21NBFI 217.28 6.45 12.52 5.57 229.80 6.40Investment 96.12 2.85 3.06 1.36 99.17 2.76Engineering 493.47 14.65 36.02 16.02 529.49 14.74Food & Allied 120.61 3.58 4.10 1.82 124.71 3.47Fuel & Power 385.65 11.45 26.59 11.82 412.24 11.47Jute 2.86 0.08 0.00 2.86 0.08Textile 268.95 7.99 12.32 5.48 281.27 7.83Pharma & Chemical 587.44 17.44 40.93 18.20 628.38 17.49Paper & Packaging 12.35 0.37 0.82 0.36 13.16 0.37Service 252.04 7.48 16.20 7.21 268.25 7.47Leather 46.94 1.39 3.38 1.50 50.32 1.40Ceramic 55.28 1.64 2.74 1.22 58.02 1.61Cement 183.21 5.44 14.14 6.29 197.34 5.49Information Technology 21.30 0.63 1.95 0.87 23.24 0.65General Insurance 14.52 0.43 0.54 0.24 15.07 0.42Life Insurance 29.27 0.87 1.45 0.65 30.72 0.85Telecom 83.24 2.47 5.98 2.66 89.22 2.48Travel & Leisure 80.78 2.40 6.96 3.10 87.75 2.44Miscellaneous 170.81 5.07 21.80 9.69 192.61 5.36Debenture 0.27 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.30 0.01

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 disclosuresQSMDRYCELL: The Board of Directors has recommended 10% stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2015. Date of AGM: 26.11.2015, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Hall - 2, RAOWA Complex, Mohakhali, Dhaka. Record Date: 22.10.2015. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 1.52, NAV per share of Tk. 49.99 and NOCFPS of Tk. 2.75 for the year ended on June 30, 2015.PREMIERLEA: ARGUS Credit Rating Services Limited (ACRSL) has announced the Rating of the Company as “A” for long term and “ST - 2” for short term in consideration of � nancials of the Company up to 31st December 2014 (audited), 1HFY15 (unaudited) and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.GBBPOWER: Alpha Credit Rating Limited (AlphaRating) has rated the Company as “AA” in the long term and “AR - 1” in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to December 31, 2014, half yearly unaudited � nancial statements of June 30, 2015 and relevant qualitative infor-mation up to September 30, 2015.Dividend/AGMEHL: 15% cash and 5% stock, AGM: 12.11.2015, Record Date: 21.10.2015.DBH: 30% cash, AGM: 08.12.2015, Record date: 20.10.2015.PREMIERCEM: 20% cash, AGM: 29.10.2015, Record Date: 18.10.2015.BEACHHATCH: 5% stock, AGM: 08.12.2015, Record Date: 28.10.2015.SAIFPOWER: 29% stock, AGM: 12.11.2015, Record Date: 15.10.2015.APOLOISPAT: 3% Cash and 12% Stock dividend, AGM: 19.11.2015, Record Date: 14.10.2015.MATINSPINN: 27% cash, AGM: 27.10.2015, Record date: 08.10.2015.BSCCL: 10% stock, AGM: 18.10.2015, Record Date: 28.09.2015.MODERNDYE: 10% cash, AGM: 15.10.2015, Record Date: 23.09.2015.GPHISPAT: 17% cash, AGM: 08.11.2015, Record date: 20.09.2015.SAIHAMCOT: 5% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 28.10.2015, Record date: 17.09.2015. BBS: 20% stock, EGM & AGM: 15.10.2015, Record date for EGM & AGM: 20.09.2015.APEXFOODS: 20% cash, AGM: 30.09.2015, Record date: 13.09.2015. APEXTANRY: 45% cash, AGM: 04.10.2015, Record date: 09.09.2015. PRAGATILIF: 17% cash and 5% stock dividend AGM: 29.09.2015,. Record Date: 20.08.2015.APEXSPINN: 20% cash AGM: 30.09.2015, Record date: 18.08.2015.

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Asia Insur. Ltd.-A 7.69 7.69 15.40 15.40 15.40 15.40 0.000 1.20 12.8Paramount Insur-A 6.56 6.54 13.04 13.00 13.30 12.90 0.073 0.98 13.3Marico BD Ltd-A 5.90 5.78 1760.00 1760.00 1760.00 1760.00 0.014 57.68 30.5Standard Insurance-A 4.88 4.42 17.25 17.20 17.50 16.90 0.201 2.90 5.9Bata Shoe Ltd. -A 4.81 4.81 1414.90 1414.90 1414.90 1414.90 0.003 40.26 35.1AMCL 2nd MF-A 4.55 3.39 4.58 4.60 4.80 4.50 0.052 0.71 6.5Legacy Footwear -A 4.22 3.73 32.29 32.10 32.80 31.50 2.546 0.20 161.5DBH 1st MF-A 4.17 4.62 4.98 5.00 5.10 4.70 0.392 0.45 11.1ICB Emp. PMF-A 3.33 2.31 6.19 6.20 6.30 6.10 0.035 0.61 10.1Shurwid Ind. -N 3.17 4.88 22.78 22.80 23.10 22.40 5.000 0.53 43.0

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Modern Dyeing -Z 8.03 4.88 169.24 174.90 176.90 163.00 0.603 1.16 145.9Rahim Textile -A 5.89 6.64 321.07 320.20 326.50 301.00 11.349 9.67 33.2Jute SpinnersA 5.21 (100.00) - 58.60 58.90 58.50 0.000 -31.68 -ve4th ICB M F-A 4.36 4.17 225.00 225.00 225.00 225.00 0.045 36.29 6.2Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z 4.17 (6.30) 7.14 7.50 7.60 7.50 0.005 -45.17 -veShurwid Ind. -N 3.65 4.76 22.69 22.70 23.00 22.20 26.323 0.53 42.8Legacy Footwear -A 3.57 3.43 32.30 31.90 32.90 31.50 19.537 0.20 161.5BD Fixed Income MF-A 2.86 2.86 7.19 7.20 7.30 7.00 0.426 0.83 8.7Paramount Insur-A 2.44 2.60 12.64 12.60 12.90 12.20 0.360 0.98 12.9ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A 2.35 3.18 17.51 17.40 18.20 17.10 0.186 2.61 6.7

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

NLI 1st M F-A -10.00 -8.90 9.11 9.00 10.00 9.00 0.006 1.50 6.1Kay & Que (BD) -Z -6.00 -6.00 14.10 14.10 14.10 14.10 0.007 -0.24 -veApex Foods -A -5.66 -5.56 131.73 131.60 133.00 131.00 0.051 12.60 10.5FAR Chemical-A -5.53 -3.47 47.55 46.10 48.50 45.70 17.629 3.23 14.7The Peninsula CTG.-A -5.05 -2.28 21.03 20.70 21.80 20.70 2.971 1.39 15.1Aman Feed-N -4.91 -3.70 60.98 60.00 63.10 59.50 13.057 3.60 16.9BD Finance-B -4.07 -2.45 11.94 11.80 12.20 11.60 0.992 0.06 199.0Padma Islami Life-Z -3.85 -3.85 30.00 30.00 30.00 30.00 0.021 1.10 27.3Apex SpinningA -3.82 -3.43 73.39 73.10 75.00 73.00 0.088 2.52 29.1Orion Infusions -A -3.81 -3.56 55.81 55.60 57.30 55.50 2.277 1.73 32.3

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

EBL First M F-A -6.38 -0.88 4.51 4.40 4.70 4.40 1.217 0.62 7.3Prime Islami Life -A -6.10 -4.33 40.85 40.00 42.20 39.80 2.214 4.95 8.3FAR Chemical-A -5.35 -5.30 46.61 46.00 49.00 45.50 160.800 3.23 14.4Aman Feed-N -5.09 -4.48 60.55 59.70 63.40 59.50 76.058 3.60 16.8BD Finance-B -4.84 -2.67 12.03 11.80 12.40 11.70 12.427 0.06 200.5Apex Foods -A -4.46 -3.57 133.60 130.80 139.80 128.50 8.510 12.60 10.6EBL NRB M.F.-A -4.35 3.81 4.36 4.40 4.60 4.20 2.935 0.41 10.6Apex Tannery -A -4.08 -3.63 124.37 122.40 128.00 121.00 21.861 6.25 19.9Sa� o Spinning-A -4.08 -3.30 19.05 18.80 19.80 18.70 3.292 1.00 19.1Sonargaon Tex -Z -4.04 -3.05 9.55 9.50 9.70 9.30 0.474 -2.26 -ve

DSE key features October 4, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

3,368.06

Turnover (Volume)

95,397,553

Number of Contract

87,301

Traded Issues 323

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

81

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

231

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

11

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,678.98

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.47

CSE key features October 4, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

224.89

Turnover (Volume)

6,756,333

Number of Contract

11,289

Traded Issues 236

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

60

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

164

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

12

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,578.31

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.25

BUSINESS 19D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Latest political development weighs on investorsn Tribune Report

Stocks fell amid dipping turnover yesterday following the latest development in the political arena in the wake of killing of two foreigners in the country recently.

The market opened downbeat mood, which con-tinued till close of the ses-sion, as investors released their holdings to stay side-lines fearing return of polit-ical instability, brokers say.

The Dhaka Stock Ex-change benchmark index DSEX lost more than 42 points or almost 1% to 4,814.

The Shariah index DSES was down 12 points or 1% to 1,170.

The blue chip comprising index DS30 shed 16 points or 1% to 1,834.

The Chittagong Stock Ex-change Selective Category Index CSCX settled at 8,983.

Investors were mostly in-active and remained in side-lines to safeguard their posi-tions as the market turnover value hit Tk336 crore, which is three months lowest and more than 20% lower over the previous session.

The market fell across

the board as share prices of more than 70% issues closed negative.

Lanka Bangla Securities said the market saw a sharp cut in index on the opening day of this week.

“The month-end mac-ro-economic data and grow-ing concern over possible jittery in the political arena might have wrecked inves-tors’ sentiment,” it said.

IDLC Investments said in-vestors’ impatience reached a critical point and initiated rushes of sell-o� throughout the entire session.

“Investors’ shakiness was not helped by sudden spike in targeted violence and as-sociated uncertainty of con-sequences.”

Over the last one week, two foreigners—one was Ital-ian and another Japanese—were shot dead in the city.

Grameenphone’s correc-tion kept on going. The stock lost 1.4% and the sector lost 1.5% to make it the day’s worst performing major sec-tor.

On the other hand, mutual funds maintained their dom-inance in top ten gainers’ list capturing � ve entries. l

The month-end macro-economic data and growing concern over possible jittery in the political arena might have wrecked investors’ sentiment

ANALYST

Daily capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 12859.95000 (-) 0.87% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1834.61078 (-) 0.90% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14761.73280 (-) 0.70% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 12859.95000 (-) 0.53% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8983.82390 (-) 0.71% ▼

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

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

FAR Chemical-A 370,766 17.63 7.84 46.10 -5.53 48.80 48.50 45.70 47.55Aman Feed-N 214,128 13.06 5.81 60.00 -4.91 63.10 63.10 59.50 60.98SAIF Powertec-A 103,190 9.52 4.23 92.60 -1.07 93.60 93.60 91.00 92.22LafargeS Cement-A 86,069 9.20 4.09 106.30 -1.30 107.70 107.90 106.10 106.88United Power-A 48,269 7.02 3.12 145.00 -1.16 146.70 147.50 144.60 145.34BSRM Ltd. -A 45,286 5.83 2.59 127.10 -3.35 131.50 132.00 126.50 128.84SummitAlliancePort.-A 94,079 5.76 2.56 61.10 -1.29 61.90 63.00 60.80 61.25Shurwid Ind. -N 219,468 5.00 2.22 22.80 3.17 22.10 23.10 22.40 22.78Beximco Pharma -A 68,622 4.93 2.19 72.00 0.28 71.80 72.10 71.00 71.89LankaBangla Fin. -A 141,123 4.90 2.18 34.30 -3.11 35.40 35.40 34.00 34.74Appollo Ispat CL -A 205,981 4.69 2.09 22.60 -2.16 23.10 23.10 22.60 22.79BSRM Steels-A 48,405 4.49 2.00 92.50 -1.49 93.90 93.50 92.40 92.69Keya Cosmetics -A 283,101 4.43 1.97 15.60 -2.50 16.00 16.00 15.50 15.66Grameenphone-A 15,109 4.29 1.91 282.70 -1.60 287.30 288.50 282.10 284.05The Ibn SinaA 23,019 3.95 1.75 166.90 -3.53 173.00 172.00 162.30 171.41

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW Avg-Price

FAR Chemical-A 3,449,623 160.80 4.77 46.00 -5.35 48.60 49.00 45.50 46.61SAIF Powertec-A 1,693,928 155.85 4.63 92.50 -1.28 93.70 94.00 91.00 92.01LafargeS Cement-A 777,179 82.79 2.46 106.00 -1.40 107.50 108.40 105.80 106.53SummitAlliancePort.-A 1,346,918 82.59 2.45 61.00 -1.29 61.80 62.70 60.80 61.32Square Pharma -A 327,812 81.38 2.42 247.80 -0.56 249.20 249.10 247.50 248.24Aman Feed-N 1,256,136 76.06 2.26 59.70 -5.09 62.90 63.40 59.50 60.55ACI Limited- A 131,652 76.03 2.26 573.10 -1.75 583.30 586.70 571.40 577.48Grameenphone-A 247,897 70.34 2.09 281.70 -1.43 285.80 287.70 281.00 283.75Quasem Drycells -A 879,984 69.24 2.06 78.20 -2.86 80.50 81.40 76.00 78.68BSRM Steels-A 728,716 67.92 2.02 92.80 -1.28 94.00 94.90 92.30 93.20Premier Cement-A 731,768 67.36 2.00 92.10 1.88 90.40 93.00 90.40 92.05Beximco Pharma -A 883,734 63.61 1.89 72.00 0.14 71.90 72.40 71.50 71.97UNITED AIR-A 5,857,175 61.16 1.82 10.30 -1.90 10.50 10.70 10.30 10.44Ifad Autos -N 565,962 60.80 1.81 106.50 -2.56 109.30 110.50 105.90 107.43Appollo Ispat CL -A 2,610,526 59.73 1.77 22.70 -1.73 23.10 23.10 22.60 22.88

-6%

-4%

-2%

0%

2%

4%

6%

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

11

Pharma & Chemical Index DSE BroadIndex

CHANGE OF DSE BROAD INDEX VS SECTORAL INDEX

BUSINESS20DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Rumee Ali joins BIAC as CEOn Tribune Report

Muhammad A. (Ru-mee) Ali recently joined Bangladesh International Ar-bitration Centre (BIAC) as its chief executive o� cer, said a press release yesterday.

He started his ca-reer with ANZ Grindlays Bank in Bangladesh in 1975 after completing Masters in Econom-ics from the University of Dhaka. In 1997, he was appointed CEO of the Bank’s Bangladesh operations.

His career with ANZ Grindlays included stints with their o� ces in Mumbai, London and Melbourne. In 2000, ANZ in Bangladesh was taken over by the Standard Chartered Group, and Rumee Ali continued as the CEO, Bangladesh of the combined operations of the two Banks.

In November 2002, he joined Bangladesh Bank as Deputy Governor and was responsi-ble for driving the regulatory reforms in the banking sector, especially in the Risk Manage-ment and Corporate Governance areas.

From January 2007, Rumee Ali served as Managing Director, Enterprises and Invest-ments at BRAC.

During this period he was the chairman of BRAC Bank Limited and chairman of bKash Limited. He also served as a member of the Board of BRAC and BRAC International.

He is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Bangladesh Investment Cli-mate Fund; Alliance for Bangladesh Workers Safety (USA). l

BB asks BKB, RAKUB to approach government for recapitalisation n Jebun Nesa Alo

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman ad-vised Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank to replenish their capi-tal shortfalls by taking help from the govern-ment exchequer.

The instruction came at a meeting Bangla-desh Bank held yesterday with the chairmen and managing directors of the two ailing banks.

The Bangladesh Bank governor chaired the meeting.

The total capital shortfall of both banks stood at Tk7,100 crore at the end of June 30 this year.

BKB capital shortfall deteriorated more to Tk6,607 crore in June this year compared to Tk6,394 crore in the same period last year.

The status of RAKUB capital shortfall im-proved to Tk494 crore from Tk885 crore at

the same period, according to a review report Bangladesh Bank prepared over the � nancial health of the two banks.

Though the two have been su� ering for capital crisis for a long time, their other indi-cators improved slightly.

In this perspective, the banks have been advised to approach the government for re-capitalisation to overcome the fund crisis, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank who attended the meeting.

The governor asked the high-ups of the two banks to submit a plan to overcome their fund crisis.

The banks were also advised that it is nec-essary to focus on the development of man-power and automation to overcome other weaknesses as soon as possible, since meet-ing up the fund crisis is a long-term process.

BKB is now in a manpower recruitment

process and the governor asked the bank to give priority over e� ciency.

The banks were also asked to strengthen loan recovery drive as well.

The classi� ed loan of BKB improved slight-ly to 25.37% at the end of June this year com-pared to 26.35% while RAKUB to 22% from 33%, according to the Bangladesh Bank report.

The net loss of BKB and RAKUB improved signi� cantly in June this year compared to the same period last year.

The loss of BKB stood at Tk434 crore from Tk2,991 crore while RAKUB came to pro� t of Tk1 crore from covering net loss of Tk513 crore, according to the central bank data.

Return On Asset (ROA) of BKB and RAKUB also improved to negative 2.79% and 0.01% respectively in June this year compared to negative 14% and negative 8.96% in the same period last year. l

Treasury challan veri� cation now onlinen Tribune Report

The government has introduced online chal-lan veri� cation mechanism to help check sub-mission of fake treasury chalans.

The O� ce of the Controller General of Ac-counts (CGA) has developed an online plat-form through introduction of a new tab in its website to facilitate the procedure.

People have to pay taxes or di� erent fees to government exchequer through treasury challan for obtaining services.

Now, the government agencies that collect di� erent taxes and fees from people through Bangladesh Bank and Sonali Bank using the treasury challan can verify authenticity of the challan by visiting www.cga.goc.bd.

The new mechanism is expected to resolve mismatches in accounts data between the government agencies, combat revenue eva-sion and reduce both time and hassles, said o� cials concerned.

The � nance ministry, through a circular issued on September 16, instructed all the government agencies concerned to verify all treasury challans online using the new mech-anism in the website.

The manual veri� cation system was also annulled with introduction of online plat-form, the circular read. l

Citycell seeks 3 months more to pay due billsn Ishtiaq Husain

Bangladesh’s oldest mobile phone operator Citycell has sought three more months to pays all dues to the Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

In mid-September, the telecom regulator had issued an ultimatum on Citycell over its outstanding payment worth over TK258 crore within 15 days.

It also warned the operator that if they fail to pay the dues within the stipulated time will

have to face legal action. In response, Citycell sought more time un-

til December to pay the dues and hoped that they would get new investor by December, al-lowing them a scope to pay the all dues.

Citycell continues to lose subscribers as the company is apparently doing nothing to boost services.

Recently, Grameenphone served a legal notice to Citycell again to pay the outstanding bill of Tk9.72 crore.

In 2014, Grameenphone also served a same

notice to pay outstanding amount of Tk10.61 crore. After that notice Citycell paid some amount of dues. The cellphone company didn’t pay any interconnection charge since 2014, according to the notice.

Other operators like Banglalink and Robi are also seeking to realise their outstanding interconnection charges from Citycell.

The net loss of the company stood at Tk196 crore in 2011, Tk226 crore in 2012, Tk320 crore in 2013 and Tk480 crore in 2014, according to a central bank report. l

NBR seeks Attorney General’s support to settle tax casesn Tribune Report

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has put forward a six-point proposal to the o� ce of the Attorney General, requesting to assist the taxes authorities in resolving the tax related disputes that remain pending at the courts for years.

The taxes authorities wanted to form a core working group consisting of three mem-bers each from attorney general’s o� ce and the NBR to implement the judicial guidance compilation.

The NBR also stressed on providing proper training to concerned o� cials on settlement of unresolved cases during their training at the tax academy and customs academy.

NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman placed the proposal to attorney general Mahbubey Alam at a views exchange programme and monthly revenue conference at the NBR headquarters in Dhaka.

The NBR organised the meeting to discuss the issue with the o� cials of attorney gener-al’s o� ce for monitoring and speedy disposal of such cases.

Currently, a total of 23,289 cases, involving

around Tk29,000 crore in income tax, cus-toms duty and value added tax, remain stuck up due to cases pending at the High Court and appellate division of the Supreme Court.

The discussants exchanged views on tech-nical issues of the cases, settlement of cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution, and shared their experiences that they face while dealing with the cases.

The other proposals from NBR includes or-ganising monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly coor-dination meetings with the attorney general’s o� ce and prioritising the cases received in re-spective o� ces and take necessary initiatives through legal o� cials, and expedite the audit of tax � les.

Attending the programme, Mahbubey Alam said cases related to income tax, cus-

toms and VAT are � led from a speci� c level of people.

“They take such cases in courts to get more bene� ts. Our main work is to properly help and assist the decisions taken by the NBR,” he said.

More initiatives and e� orts from NBR will help get better results and settle the cases through speedy ways, the attorney general added.

NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman said sup-port from the attorney general’s o� ce will help recover huge amount of revenue which will help the government in implementing the vision 2021 and 2041 announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He said the NBR will organise a national workshop on November 14 on procedure of conducting NBR cases, and sought necessary support from the attorney general’s o� ce to make the programme successful.

The meeting was attended by the assistant and deputy attorney generals, NBR members and o� cials of NBR.

The NBR earlier held meeting with the chief justice and sought his support on quick disposal of the tax-related cases. l

‘They take such cases in courts to get more bene� ts. Our main work is to properly help and assist the NBR decisions’

21D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015T

-JUN

CT

ION

INSIDE

22newsTalk on ‘World Mental Health’ held at IUB 23skinFacial masks 101

24healthWhen the dwengue strikes

DisintegratingPhoto: Bigstock

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015T-JUNCTION News22D

T

BRAC Bank and Lamudi comes to a bene� cial agreementBRAC Bank Limited and Lamudi Bangladesh signed an agreement to promote BRAC Bank’s “Home Loan” on real estate marketplace www.lamudi.com.bd. Through this agreement, the visitors of Lamudi now can enjoy “Home Loan” from BRAC Bank

to buy apartment and � ats posted on the web portal. On the other hand, Lamudi Bangladesh will promote BRAC Bank’s loan o� er to increase its volume of business. Firoz Ahmed Khan, head of retail banking,

BRAC Bank Limited, and Rajesh Grover, managing director and co- founder, Lamudi Bangladesh, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

BRAC Bank is one of country’s fastest

growing banks. With 166 branches, more than 350 ATMs, 458 SME unit o� ces and over 6,700 human resources, BRAC Bank operations now cut across all segments and services in the � nancial industry. l

Shahjahan Wedding Planner and Event Management Ltd has started their journey in Chittagong. Bangladesh national team’s cricketer, Tamim Iqbal, opened this glamorous event at the Radission Blue.

The chairperson of the company Haji S M Shahjahan, chief executive o� cer S M Ikram Milon, police commissioners and many personalities were present at the event.

Shahjahan has gained its reputation over

42 years with consistent event management services and are now even handling corporate events as well. S M Ikram Milon said: “We do believe that we can achieve our success with our creative workforce for managing any kind of event, as we have achieved at Dhaka city.”

Chittagong o� ce address: Madina Tower, level-8, 805/ A, CDA Avenue, Chittagong.

Contact: 01796500065-6, 01730710493. l

Wa� S M Khan, chief executive o� cer of Green Delta Securities and deputy managing director of Green Delta Insurance spoke at panel discussion on “Equality Means Business: Women’s Empowerment Principles in Practice,” organised by UN Global Compact in New Delhi recently. This event was India’s premier business event on gender equality. Wa� S M Khan talked about Green Delta’s initiatives regarding

practising women empowerment principles in the workplace.

Green Delta Insurance has launched a comprehensive insurance scheme for women named “Nibedita,” which comes as a completely new product in Bangladesh. Wa� S M Khan stressed on the product’s necessity to support women empowerment in the workplace, family and society. l

Talk on ‘World Mental Health’ held at IUBThe school of public health of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) organised a public talk on World Mental Health on October 1 at the IUB campus in Bashundhara.

Taw� q-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Bir Bikram, energy advisor to the Prime Minister, attended the programme as the chief guest.

Prof Vikram Patel, professor, Public Health Foundation of India, delivered the key-note speech.

Shamim Matin Chowdhury, founding chairperson of Beautiful Bangladesh and Atif Rahman, professor of child psychiatry, University of Liverpool, UK, spoke as special guests.

Prof M Omar Rahman, vice-chancellor of

IUB and a renowned psychiatrist, delivered the welcome speech. Rashed Chowdhury, chairman, board of trustees, IUB also spoke on the occasion.

Prof Patel mentioned that, stigma is the main problem regarding our e� orts to

improve the condition of mental health. There is a myth that it is not a health condition at all, and just the misery of life. “We have to change our attitude to improve the situation,” he mentioned.

Shamim mentioned that, 6.5% to 31%

adults in Bangladesh have psychiatric and psychogenic disorder.

The talk was followed by a lively question-answer session. Trustees, members of faculty and management and a good number of students attended the event. l

Taw� q-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Bir Bikram, energy advisor to the Prime Minister addressing as the chief guest at a talk at IUB

Shahjahan Wedding Planner in Chittagong

Green Delta Insurance takes a step towards gender equality

Tempt T-JUNCTION 23D

T

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

skin

Facial masks 101n Khan N Moushumi

If you’re a skincare freak like us, you’ve probably tried all kinds of moisturing serums, creams and lotions to � x any type of skin issues. But what many beauty vloggers and experts swear by these days are face masks that promise to deliver a lot more than the regular skincare products.

What’s a face mask and what does it do?Beauty experts say that they would revitalise your skin with just one application and from personal experience, we can second that. They do indeed give you that fresh, dewy look right after you’ve applied them but it only lasts for a couple of hours. So if you’re planning to have a big night out or going to a dawat, it would be wise to use any of these masks before applying your make-up. But be aware of those really heavy-duty clay masks that can dry out your skin for a couple of hours, which is why you’re better o� incorporating them in your night time regimen.

Here’s a quick review of some of the popular brands of face masks available in the market:

Glamglow SupermudA heavy-duty mask that will cleanse, exfoliate, detoxify and renew your skin but it’s best to use it before applying your night

cream. It works to renew your skin cells overnight and leaves it looking healthy and fresh when you wake up.Where to � nd it: Banglashoppers

The Body Shop Vitamin E MaskThis could be considered the holy grail if your skin is dehydrated. Body Shop’s Vitamin E Sink-In Moisture Mask is an organic, lightweight mask that comes in handy when you’re too busy for an appointment at the beauty salon.Where to � nd it: Almas Super Store, Priyo General Store

The Body Shop Tea Tree MaskFilled with antioxidants, the Tea Tree Face Mask from The Body Shop is a good option if you’re looking to keep those facial lines at bay. If you have dry skin, make sure you use a good moisturiser after rinsing it o� because this one may dry it out even more.Where to � nd it: Almas Super Store, Priyo General Store

Sk-IIRated as one of the best facial masks, Sk-II’s Facial Treatment Mask is very refreshing and will give you that insta-glow without having to try too hard. Soaked in beauty serums, this paper mask will brighten, tighten and plump up your skin in no time. Where to � nd it: Banglashoppers l

The beauty essential that’s having a moment

Photo: Bigstock

T-JUNCTION Take Care24DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

health

When the dengue strikes

Time to act F.A.S.T

n Pragya Rahman

It is that time of the year when the mosquitoes are reigning all over us and their supreme rulers dressed in black and white have all the glory. Yes mosquitoes, singing their songs of incessant annoyance while hovering around you in circles, and you miss every attempt that you make to try and kill them, until you � nally smack one and see a red smear of blood on your skin.

Then you start to think, you’re immune to these bites since you’re Bengali and were born a survivor. But then as time goes by, the symptoms kick in and you get weaker and weaker until one day you realise you’ve gotten the fever! So you might as well lie down, rest up, binge watch all your favourite TV shows, take your meds properly, cuddle your pets, curl up next to your mum and dad to tell them how much you love them and spoil yourself rotten. If however you haven’t been bitten by the spectacular Aedes aegypti mosquito then, you’re lucky mate.

Symptoms: Initially there aren’t any

symptoms to begin with, but with time, the symptoms begin to show and gradually get worse. The starting of a dengue fever is much like

the symptoms of a common cold until it drags on and the

fever keeps spiking along with diarrhea and a skin rash. As time

progresses, muscle and joint pains also start to kick in.

Cure: Unfortunately there are no speci� c cures for dengue fever however it can be treated. One of the best ways to treat dengue over a long course of time is by oral re-hydration therapy, which is self-explanatory. The process involves drinking as much water as you possibly can and then urinating away all the toxic, mushy, mosquito saliva out of your system. In order to control the fever, non-steroidal anti-in� ammatory drugs (NSAID) such as Paracetamol are used. Dengue fever a� ects the immune

system immensely and sometimes breaks it down completely, resulting in ultimate death. Packed red blood cells, fresh plasma and platelets are given to patients who are severely in need of them.

So now that you know about the dangers

of dengue fever, be aware and keep your eyes wide open. Zap those mosquitoes out with your killer electric racquet, odomos and ACI aerosol. Remember, when you see a mosquito that looks exotic and has black and white checkered legs, kill it! Good luck! l

n Pragya Rahman

Time. What is time? The concept of time is somewhat puzzling. Do we really know how much time we have on this planet? How much time would it take you to � gure out someone’s having a stroke and save that person’s life before it’s too late? Well let’s � nd out, shall we?

Treatment:The treatment of a stroke depends on the type of stroke one’s been afflicted with. There’s the ischaemic stroke where there is an obstruction in the blood flow in the brain. Treating this particular type of stroke includes a wide range of medications like anticoagulants, anti-platelets, blood-thinners, and occasionally by removing fat from the carotid artery in the neck.

Another type of stroke is the haemorrhagic stroke where there’s bleeding in or around the brain. Yeah, let’s not go there, it’s depressing and gory.

So there we have it, we’re a little more brushed up on strokes. We now know what to do and how to spot a person who’s about to pop a blood vessel in their head or already did so. Isn’t this a great day to be alive? l

What is a stroke and what are the symptoms?A stroke is an emergent and life-threatening medical condition when the blood supply to a part of the brain is cut o� . Usually, when it comes to this particular condition, as far as diagnosis and treatments are concerned, time is invariably of the essence. A stroke can be easily identi� ed with the following acronym:

• F- Face: Pay very close attention to the person’s face as it may drop to one side. Ask them to smile and if they are unable to, then that’s one of the � rst reasons to worry.

• A- Arms: Have them lift both their arms up in the air, an inability to this would indicate numbness and weakness in the arms.

• S- Speech: Stir up a conversation with them and listen very carefully. Is their speech slurred at all? If so then it is your responsibility to � nd the nearest doctor or hospital and take them there.

• T- Time: It’s time you called for an

ambulance or took them to the hospital yourself if you can.

That was the fastest approach of sni� ng out a stroke. But other symptoms also include dizziness, a headache (perhaps the most debilitating one you’ve ever experienced in your life), blurred vision, problems maintaining balance and coordination.

Photos: Bigstock

Phot

o: B

igst

ock

25D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

IF CHELSEA WANT TO SACK ME, SACK ME

BANGLADESH WOMEN LOSE FIRST ODI

26 2827

AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli was snubbed as Italy coach Antonio Conte revealed a 27-man squad for the Azzurri’s � nal Euro 2016

quali� ers away to Azerbaijan and at home to Norway

WHY ALWAYS ME!

SportMOSADDEK SHINES IN RUN FILLED DAY

CA was keen to tour, their government wasn’t: Jalaln Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh Cricket Board media committee chairman Jalal Younus, who was closely moni-toring the developments of the Australian team, believes if it wasn’t for the Australian govern-ment’s restriction, the � ve-time world champi-ons would have surely toured Bangladesh.

However, Cricket Australia did promise to reschedule the series, which they declined citing security concerns, but it looks highly unlikely given their future tour programmes.

Australia will host New Zealand in Novem-ber this year before West Indies and India travel down under in December and January respectively. The Aussies will then play away series’ against New Zealand and South Africa before arriving in India in March for the ICC World Twenty20.

“I have followed Cricket Australia for the last 10-12 days and know how they were deal-ing with the issue. My observation is, their body language showed they were eager to

tour but the � nal decision had to be taken by the Australian government,” Jalal explained to the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadi-um yesterday.

“CA had no option but to postpone the tour. Their team is in transition and they have a new captain along with new players. I think they were looking forward to the tour and ad-justing their team combination.”

In the meantime, BCB has proposed to host Zimbabwe during this “uncalled for” break in October and November. BCB is willing to break down the home series against Zimba-bwe, who are already scheduled to tour Bang-ladesh in January for two Tests, three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internation-als, and play the Tests in November and com-plete the remaining formats in January.

Jalal also informed that there are no fur-ther issues or security concerns regarding hosting international events in Bangladesh as the country is all set for the ICC Under-19 World Cup in January next year.

“You see the security alert is only for the month of October. I am pretty much sure none of the future events, which involves international cricket or cricketers, will be hampered for this (Australia) issue,” said the BCB director. l

Bangladesh defender Bishwanath vies for the ball during their AFC Under-19 Championship quali� er against Bhutan at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Hosts stunned as Bhutan steal a point n Shishir Hoque

Bhutan’s solid defensive strategy earned them a point against a mis� ring Bangladesh side as the team’s played out a 1-1 draw in their sec-ond match in the AFC Under-19 Quali� ers at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

After conceding an early goal the young Ti-gers slipped under pressure and had to wait till the � nal quarter of the match to equalise the margin, thanks to skipper Masuk Miah Jony’s terri� c header. The draw put the un-beaten Bangladeshis in a tricky position to qualify for the � nal round as they must se-cure at least one point in their ultimate group game against giants Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

Although Bhutan did not dominate enough considering their ball possession, but their organised style of play along with their capa-bility of neutralising incoming scoring threats was impressive. The hosts were all over their opponents in the second-half but to no e� ect.

Saiful Bari Titu � elded an unchanged elev-en from their 2-0 win over Sri Lanka with Mannaf Rabby starting as the lone striker

once again. However, this time around nei-ther Rabby nor Rohit Sarkar was upto the mark as Ibrahim did most of the hard work from the left wing.

Bhutan stunned the home side after Son-am Tobgay poked the lead from a goal-mouth melee with just six minutes on the clock. Bangladesh had their � rst shot on target in the 19th minute and Mannaf went very close when his weak shot from close range was cleared o� the line by Bhutan skipper Choki Wangchuk.

Titu made a strategical substitution by re-placing Saad with Sarwar Zaman Nipu just af-ter the half hour mark as Bangladesh followed with more organised attacks. The hosts came agonisingly close in the 43rd minute but the Bhutan custodian tipped Ibrahim’s low drive away and protected their lead. Rohit had the best opportunity to level the score in the 57th minute but the unmarked forward struck straight to the goalkeeper.

Jony rescued his side with a glancing head-er that went in from the top right corner in the 77th minute. Bangladesh piled more pressure

on their comparative weaker opponents but the scoreline remained unchanged.

Uzbeks too good for LankansUzbekistan strolled to their second consecu-tive victory in the AFC Under-19 Champion-ship quali� ers when the central Asian nation outplayed Sri Lanka 3-0 at BNS.

Tukhtasinov Nurillo and Kodirkulov San-jar scored and assisted one apiece in their three-goal romp and all the action came in the � rst half an hour. The Group A favourites however, were unable to break the shaky Sri Lankan defence throughout the rest of the quali� er.

Nurillo put the Uzbeks ahead in the eighth minute when he placed home a Sanjar cross from the right � ank.

Doston Ibragimov doubled the lead in the 20th minute from a Nurillo assist while Sanjar extended the lead in the 33th minute, utilising a Sharof Mukhitdinov pass during a goal-mouth melee. The Uzbeks will face hosts Bangladesh tomorrow at the same venue in their � nal quali� er. l

Their body language showed they were eager to tour but the � nal decision had to be taken by the Australian government

Sport26DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

BRIEF SCORES(ROUND 2, DAY 2)

Barisal v Sylhet, SANSBarisal (1st innings): 527/9 dec in 126.1 overs(Mosaddek 200*, Fazle 103, Shahin 58, Shahriar 52, Hasan 3/45, Enamul Jr 3/110)Sylhet (1st innings): 112/0 in 40 overs(Shanaj 58*, Imtiaz 51*)

Sylhet trail by 415 runsDhaka v Rangpur, SCSDhaka (1st innings): 449-allout in 138.3 overs(Nadif 111, Rony 59, Raqibul 52, Tanveer 4/62, Sohrawardi 3/120)Rangpur (1st innings): 98/3 in 39 overs(Liton 51, Mosharraf 3/33)

Rangpur trail by 351 runsDhaka Metropolis v Khulna, SBNSKhulna (1st innings): 455-allout in 112.1 overs(Mithun 186, Mehedi 67, Tushar 59, Shahid 4/84)Metro (1st innings): 78/4 in 30.1 overs(Musta� zur 3/19)

Metro trail by 377 runsChittagong v Rajshahi, SKSChittagong (1st innings): 383-allout in 95.3 overs(Irfan 102, Yasir 91, Mominul 90, Saifuddin 74*, Shafaq 3/53, Muktar 3/75)Rajshahi (1st innings): 308-allout in 71.4 overs(Junaid 81, Farhad 69, Nazmul 61, Jubair 4/104, Nabil 3/50)

Rajshahi trail by 75 runsYoung Barisal batsman Mosaddek Hossain raises his bat while walking towards the dressing room after remaining unbeaten on 200 while Khulna centurion Mohammad Mithun (R) acknowledges the crowd’s applause during their respective NCL matches yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Mosaddek shines in run-� lled dayn Mazhar Uddin

Mosaddek Hossain, Nadif Chowdhury and Mohammad Mithun starred with the bat yes-terday as the second round of the 17th Nation-al Cricket League continued to be dominated by batsmen.

Mosaddek’s unbeaten double hundred however, was undoubtedly the highlight of the day.

The 19-year old youngster smashed the third double century of his career to take Ba-risal to a position of authority following the second day’s play.

Three other Tier 1 and 2 matches are also being held at di� erent venues.

Mosaddek runs riotResuming the day on 295/5, Barisal ended their � rst innings at 527/9 declared, thanks largely to Mosaddek, who became the � rst Bangladesh cricketer to score three � rst-class double tons in a year.

Mosaddek was undefeated on exactly 200 from 245 balls and clobbered 15 fours and sev-en sixes.

National discard Abul Hasan snared three wickets for Sylhet while Enamul Haque Jr also picked up three.

In reply, Sylhet trail by 415 runs after post-ing 112 for no loss in their � rst innings, cour-tesy unbeaten half-centuries from openers Shanaj Ahmed and Imtiaz Hossain.

Chittagong take lead Chittagong managed a 75-run � rst innings lead when they skittled out Rajshahi for 308.

Junaid Siddique, Farhad Hossain and Naz-mul Hossain Shanto all managed � fties for Ra-jshahi but none of them were able to convert their knocks into substantial ones.

Chittagong leg-spinner Jubair Hossain scalped four wickets while Nabil Samad took three. Earlier, Chittagong registered 383-all-out, riding on Irfan Shukkur, Yasir Ali, Mom-inul Haque and Mohammad Saifuddin.

Metro in tatters after Mithun heroicsMithun narrowly missed out on a double hun-dred as he scored a magni� cent 186 o� 270

balls, comprising 20 fours, to guide Khulna to a huge total of 455-allout in their � rst innings.

Mohammad Shahid bagged four wickets for Dhaka Metro. In reply, Dhaka Metro were in all sorts of trouble as they ended the day at 78/4 with Khulna paceman Musta� zur Rah-man nothing three of them.

Dhaka in driving seatNadif grabbed a century as Dhaka � nished their � rst innings on 449-allout.

Rangpur’s Tanveer Haider and Sohrawardi Shuvo shared seven wickets between them-selves. In reply, Rangpur were batting on 98/3 when the umpires signalled the end of the day’s proceedings. l

BCB warns women cricketers against speaking Urdun Agencies

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has cautioned Bangladesh Women against talking in Urdu for the remainder of their tour to Pakistan.

Bangladesh Women are on a limited-over series visit to Pakistan and will play their � rst ODI on Sunday after having lost the T20I series 2-0 at the Southend Club Cricket Stadium in Karachi.

According to the touring side’s manager Sha� qul Haq, skipper Salma Khatun had spoken a few phrases in Urdu during a media talk, upon which the BCB sought an explanation from the team management.

“We have been ordered to speak only Bengali or English during in-terviews or talks with anyone here,” Sha� q told The Express Tribune. “I have been asked to stay with the team wherever they go and translate their words in English.”

A BCB o� cial con� rmed the Bang-ladesh government has directed the cricket board that the players and of-� cials should avoid speaking in Urdu or Hindi during their tour of Pakistan or India.

Keeping in line with the policy, the Bangladesh players and o� cials have been asked to abide by the rules and refrain from conversing in Urdu. l

Busy schedule ahead for ‘A’ teamn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Bangladesh A team is all set for a busy schedule ahead as the second string Tigers will be trav-eling to the African continent – South Africa and Zimbabwe – on October 15.

An integral part of the three-member national selection panel, Habibul Bashar informed of the latest tour itinerary for the Bangladesh A side while he also hinted changes in the side that was drubbed in its 18-day tour to India last month.

Bashar informed that they sent a national team look-alike to India keeping their home series against Australia in mind, but

since the tour was postponed they now have the opportunity to test new potential cricketers for the future.

“We formed a squad for the series against South Africa-A, and if we think we should replace any player (for Zimbabwe) we’ll do it later,” informed Bashar adding that the team formed is awaiting the green signal from the BCB president Nazmul Hassan.

“While forming a team for a tournament or competition, we emphasise on the player’s previ-ous and current performance. But this time around we gave impor-tance to the current NCL (National Cricket League) performers.”

“It is an opportunity for us to

see how other players respond. We did not do well in the longer version matches in India. We have some four-dayers ahead and it will be a good test in di� erent conditions. This is another opportunity for our new players,” he added.

The Bangladesh-A side will � y to South Africa for a three-day game and two one-day matches against their counterpart before visiting Zimbabwe for three limited over matches and two four-dayers against Zimbabwe-A.

The cricketers will return home just ahead of the third edition of the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 scheduled to begin on November 22. l

Sport 27D

T

Bangladeshi cricketer Farjana Hoque plays a shot during the � rst women's ODI against Pakistan at the Southend Club in Karachi yesterday

AFP

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Siddikur � nishes joint 7th in Taiwan MastersPremier Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman failed to utilise his great start to the Mercuries Taiwan Masters but still ended his campaign at seventh, tied alongside four others. Siddikur carded one-over-par 73 in the fourth round yesterday at Taiwan Golf and Country Club to � nish with an overall three-over-par 291, six shots behind champion Danny Chia of Malay-sia. The 30-year old Bangladesh golfer traded two birdies against three bogeys in the � nal round and collected $14,300 for his e� orts.

–TRIBUNE DESK

Advocaat hints at departure from SunderlandThe future of Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat remained in doubt after he refused to con� rm he was staying at the club after their 2-2 draw with West Ham United in the Premier League on Saturday. Sunderland led 2-0 and looked as if they were heading for their � rst league win of the season before having goalscorer Jermain Lens sent o� in the second half and allowing the Hammers to leave the Stadium of Light with a point after a 2-2 draw.

–REUTERS

Shashank Manohar elected new BCCI chiefShashank Manohar was unanimously elected president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday, vowing to restore the governing body’s image after a series of scandals. The Nagpur-based lawyer succeeds veteran ad-ministrator Jagmohan Dalmiya, who died last month, in what is arguably the most powerful job in world cricket.

–AFP

De� ant Nadal says he’ll � ght his way back to topA de� ant Rafael Nadal warned Sunday his career was not over yet as he pledged that “sooner or later” he will be back at the very top of men’s tennis. A tough 2015 has left many wondering whether the only thing left for the 29-year-old was retirement, but Nadal said he was prepared to scrap his way back into contention.

–AFP

Ferrer wins Malaysian OpenDavid Ferrer beat his fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-5 7-5 in the � nal of the Malaysian Open on Sunday to capture the 25th title of his career and his fourth this year. Appearing in his 50th ATP career � nal, the 33-year-old Ferrer won the hard-fought match against his good friend and Davis Cup team mate to add the Malaysian title to his previous tournament wins this year in Doha, Rio and Acapulco.

–REUTERS

Halep injured in China OpenWorld no. 2 Simona Halep lasted less than a set before retiring injured at the China Open on Sun-day, plunging her appearance at the year-ending WTA Finals into doubt. Halep and Petra Kvitova, who was playing on painkillers and su� ering the ongoing e� ects of glandular fever, both crashed out as the China Open. –AFP

QUICK BYTES

SCORECARD, 1ST ODIPAKISTAN WOMEN INNINGS R BJaveria c Khadija b Fahima 21 34Sidra c & b Salma 12 23Bismah c Fahima b Lata 92 128Nain c Lata b Khadija 27 45Sana c Rumana b Nahida 0 6Aliya lbw b Salma 6 6Nida run out (Fahima) 21 22Asmavia c Nahida b Salma 13 15Rabiya not out 12 14Diana run out (Ritu) 0 0Anam run out (Shamima) 2 7Extras (lb 2, w 5, nb 1) 8Total (all out; 49.5 overs) 214 FoW: 1-19 (Sidra), 2-38 (Javeria), 3-99 (Nain), 4-99 (Sana), 5-111 (Aliya), 6-140 (Nida), 7-176 (Asmavia), 8-208 (Bismah), 9-208 (Diana), 10-214 (Anam)BowlingJahanara 5-1-23-0, Lata 6.5-1-25-1, Nahida 8-1-39-1, Salma 10-2-31-3, Khadija 10-0-34-1, Fahima 7-0-42-1, Rumana 2-0-14-0, Ritu 1-0-4-0BANGLADESH WOMEN INNINGS R BSharmin Akhter lbw b Anam 5 18Shamima Sultana b Anam 24 26Farjana Hoque c & b Asmavia 26 67Lata Mondal c Javeria b Nida 16 32Rumana Ahmed c Nida b Bismah 70 97Salma Khatun c Aliya b Sana 3 7Ritu Moni run out (Nida) 7 10Fahima Khatun b Aliya 2 9Jahanara Alam c Diana b Anam 23 28Nahida Akter not out 2 4Khadija Tul Kubra not out 1 2Extras (b 4, lb 1, w 10) 15Total (9 wickets; 50 overs) 194 FoW: 1-25 (Sharmin), 2-36 (Shamima), 3-60 (Lata), 4-104 (Farjana), 5-125 (Salma), 6-141 (Ritu), 7-146 (Fahima), 8-190 (Rumana), 9-192 (Jahanara)BowlingAsmavia 5-0-27-1, Diana 4-0-18-0, Anam 10-1-25-3, Sana 10-1-40-1, Nida 10-1-40-1, Aliya 8-1-29-1, Bismah 3-0-10-1

Pakistan women won by 20 runs, lead two-match series 1-0

Bangladesh one of the safest places to travel: surveyn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Bangladesh cricket faithful have been mightily surprised and are � nding it hard to accept Cricket Australia’s decision to postpone its tour of Bangladesh on security grounds.

Protests and disagreements over the issue by the Bangladesh supporters are understand-able but what is perhaps attracting all the at-tention is that even the Australians, including media personnel, are mocking CA’s decision.

Australia’s 15-man Test squad were sched-uled to � y out to Bangladesh last Monday morning but were later asked to delay their � ight after the Department of Foreign A� airs and Trade informed CA that they had “credi-ble information” about possible security risks in the south Asian country.

BCB is often criticised and ridiculed for some of their controversial moves and deci-sions but cricket’s governing body in the coun-

try earned heaps of praises this time around as it left no stones unturned in its bid to convince CA of fool-proof security. The three-member CA delegation were assured of high-level se-curity which is usually reserved for the head of a state, but to no avail. This left many to ponder if there were any other reasons

behind CA’s decision to postpone the tour. Several legion of Tigers fans were even draw-ing up interesting conspiracy theories.

The Bangladesh fans gained more voice af-ter the nation’s security ranking was revealed recently. According to renowned US pub-lic-opinion analyst Gallup, Bangladesh is one of the world’s safest countries to travel. As far as individual security is concerned, Bangla-desh ranks 30th in the world, ahead of Aus-tralia itself, the USA, Italy, France and India.

In its latest travel advice, DFAT has not barred its citizens from travelling to Bangla-desh. Rather, such travel restrictions are ap-

plicable for visits to 12 countries such as Af-ghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

And with regards to visits in less-risky countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran and Lebanon, advice for the Aus-tralians is – Reconsider your need to travel.

The Gallup report, titled “The World Law and Order Index 2015”, was published on Sep-tember 24 this year. According to the survey, Singapore is one of the most safest places and top-scores with 89 points.

Bangladesh, Japan and New Zealand all boast the same score (78 points). The USA and Australia, meanwhile, are placed at 38th and 39th place respectively.

Under such circumstances, it is quite usual for the fans to raise their eyebrows with CA’s decision and wonder if anything else had in-� uenced the board’s decision. l

Bangladesh women lose � rst ODIn Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh women continued their losing streak in their ongoing tour of Pakistan as the hosts registered a 20-run victory over the vis-itors in the � rst of two ODIs at Southend Club Cricket Ground in Karachi yesterday.

Following twin defeats in the preceding Twenty20 internationals, the tourists’ con-� dence were at an ebb and the home side compounded their misery in the � rst 50-over match.

In pursuit of Pakistan’s modest total of 214-allout, Bangladesh managed 194/9 from their allotted 50 overs.

Bangladesh kept losing wickets at regular intervals and it was only Rumana Ahmed who put up any sort of � ght. Rumana blasted 70 o� 97 balls with the help of four boundaries but she received very little support from the other end as Farjana Haque (26), Shamima Sultana

(24) and Jahanara Alam (23) all failed to pro-long their innings.

Left-arm spinner Anam Amin scalped 3/25 for Pakistan while Asmavia Iqbal, Sana Mir, Nida Dar, Aliya Riaz and player of the match Bismah Maroof all picked up one each.

Earlier, Bismah’s 128-ball 92 propelled Pa-kistan to 214 all out in 49.5 overs.

Taking � rst strike, Pakistan rode on the back of Bismah’s knock, featuring eight boundaries, but none of the other batters crossed 27 as they were eventually bundled out a ball before their quota of 50 overs.

Bangladesh captain Salma Khatun bagged three wickets conceding 31 runs while Lata Mondal, Nahida Akter, Khadija Tul Kubra and Fahima Khatun shared four between them-selves.

Bangladesh will face Pakistan in the sec-ond and � nal ODI tomorrow before returning home the following day. l

28DT Sport

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Alexis Sanchez (R) scores the third goal for Arsenal in their Premier League match against Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium yesterday REUTERS

If Chelsea want to sack me, sack me: Mourinhon AFP, London

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho admitted that he risked the sack after a 3-1 home defeat by Southampton on Saturday left the Premier League champions 10 points o� the pace.

“If the club wants to sack me, they have to sack me, because I am not running away,” Mourinho told Sky Sports in an extraordinary post-match interview at Stamford Bridge.

“It is a crucial moment in the history of this club because if the club sacks me, they sack the best manager this club had and the mes-sage is bad results and the manager is guilty.

“This is a moment for people to assume their responsibilities. I assume my responsibility and the players should assume theirs too.

“There are other people at the club who should assume their responsibilities and stick together.”

Having fallen behind to a 10th-minute Wil-

lian free-kick, Southampton hit back through Steven Davis, Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle to condemn Chelsea to their fourth defeat of the campaign.

It is Chelsea’s worst start to an English top-� ight season since 1978, when they � nished the campaign at the foot of the table and were relegated.

“I consider myself to have a big self-esteem and a big ego, and I consider myself the best, leaving the worst period of my career and worst results of my career,” Mourinho added.

“Doing that as a professional hurts me a lot. Doing that at Chelsea hurts me twice because it hurts me as a professional and because I like this club very, very much, so I want to carry on, no doubt.”

Beaten 2-1 at Porto in the Champions League earlier this week, Chelsea failed to muster a single shot on target in the second half against Southampton as they lost at home for the second time in three league matches.

It was a deserved win for Ronald Koeman’s Southampton, but Mourinho felt that Chelsea should have had a penalty at 1-1 when Rad-amel Falcao was booked for diving in an inci-dent involving goalkeeper Maarten Stekelen-burg.

“The referees are afraid to give decisions for Chelsea,” said Mourinho, whose side have eight points from eight games and trail lead-ers Manchester City by 10 points.

“At 1-1, it is a huge penalty and once again we don’t get it. If the FA (Football Association) wants to punish me, they can. They don’t punish other managers. My players deserve it and the fans deserve it.

“The penalty was a giant penalty and after that the team lost even more con� dence.”

Southampton manager Koeman, whose side rose to ninth, responded: “In my opin-ion, we totally deserve three points today. Maybe, if they had one penalty, we had two penalties. That’s a decision for the referee.” l

Pellegrini reveals � ve-star Aguero wasn’t fully � tn AFP, Manchester

Manuel Pellegrini has revealed Sergio Aguero required half-time treatment on a hamstring injury before his remarkable � ve-goal spree in Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of Newcastle.

After failing to score in � ve league games, since netting against Chelsea in mid-August, Argentina forward Aguero claimed � ve goals in 20 minutes and 27 seconds at Eastlands on Saturday, making him just the � fth player in Premier League history to score � ve times and the fastest ever to record that feat.

Yet, after Aguero joined Alan Shearer, An-drew Cole, Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Ber-batov in that exclusive group, City manager Pellegrini said there had been injury concerns about his star at the interval, at which point City were drawing 1-1 after Aguero claimed an equaliser late in the � rst half.

Pellegrini’s decision to send Aguero back out was rewarded in spectacular fashion be-fore he came o� after 66 minutes, denying him the chance to become the � rst player to score a double hat-trick in the Premier League era.

“We don’t know he can score more goals but we know he has a serious kick from Wednesday in Germany so maybe he can score one or two more but we have to have a precaution about his kick because he can be injured. He needed treatment at half-time,” Pellegrini said.l

Arsenal shred poor Unitedn AFP

Alexis Sanchez scored twice as Arsenal reeled o� a stunning 3-0 defeat of Manchester Unit-ed on Sunday that sent Arsene Wenger’s side up to second in the Premier League.

Sanchez scored with a sixth-minute back-heel and Mesut Ozil slotted home from Theo Walcott’s cut-back a minute later before Sanchez’s 18-yard thunderbolt completed the scoring in the 19th minute at a giddy Emirates Stadium.

Sanchez has now scored six goals in three games and the Chilean’s latest endeavours helped Arsenal recover from the shock of their 3-2 home defeat by Olympiakos in the Champions League last Tuesday.

Victory took Arsenal into second, above

United on goal di� erence and two points be-low leaders Manchester City, who crushed bot-tom club Newcastle United 6-1 on Saturday in a game that saw Sergio Aguero score � ve goals.

United would have gone top with victo-ry, but instead they were left to nurse their wounds following the joint-heaviest league defeat of Louis van Gaal’s tenure as manager.

Earlier, Everton and Liverpool shared the spoils after an occasionally ill-tempered 225th Merseyside derby � nished 1-1 at Goodison Park -- the sixth draw in seven meetings be-tween the teams.

Danny Ings put Liverpool ahead in the 41st minute when he was left unmarked inside the Everton six-yard box and nodded home James Milner’s corner.

But untidy defending by Liverpool allowed Everton to level in � rst-half stoppage time, with Romelu Lukaku slamming home after Emre Can’s attempted clearance had can-noned against his team-mate Martin Skrtel.

Meanwhile, Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen scored with a pair of � ne 25-yard free-kicks as Tottenham Hotspur twice hit back to secure a 2-2 draw at Swansea City. l

RESULTSArsenal 3-0 Manchester UnitedSanchez 6, 19, Ozil 7

Everton 1-1 LiverpoolLukaku 45+1 Ings 41

Swansea 2-2 Tottenham Ayew 16, Kane 31-og Eriksen 27, 65

Sport 29D

T

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

Star Sports 17:20 PMSouth Africa Tour of India 2nd T20 Star Sports 27:20 PMIndian Super League Pune v Mumbai Star Sports 48:00 AMATP World Tour Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Champion-shipsTen Sports 10:30 AMATP World Tour China Open Round 1 Day 1 Ten Cricket1:30 PMPakistan Tour of Zimbabwe 3rd ODI

DAY’S WATCH

Martina Hingis of Switzerland (R) and Sania Mirza of India pose for pictures as they celebrate after winning their women’s doubles � nal match against Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu of Romania, at the Wuhan Open tennis tournament, Hubei province on Sunday REUTERS

Gladbach return to winning ways as Hertha go fourthn AFP, Berlin

Borussia Moenchengladbach bounced back from their midweek Champions League de-feat against Manchester City with two second half goals to sink Wolfsburg 2-0 in Bundesliga action on Saturday.

While the big guns in Germany’s top � ight are not in action til Sunday, the pick of the ties was at Borussia-Park, where Norwegian Haavard Nordtvelt and French-born Guinean winger Ibrahima Traore did the damage against a Wolfsburg side who drop to seventh place.

The win lifts Moenchengladbach four points above the relegation zone as they win their third straight league match under care-taker coach Andre Schubert.

At the Olympic stadium in the capital, Her-tha Berlin began brightly against Hamburg where Ivorian striker Salomon Kalou struck his third goal of the season to put the hosts 1-0 up after 17 minutes.

Second-from-bottom Stuttgart, at the start of the day, got back on level terms with 26 minutes to play thanks to 22-year-old Czech Republic striker Jan Kliment before Volland grabbed his second of the match to put the hosts into a 2-1 lead. Stuttgart snatched a val-uable point when Pirmin Schwegler scored in the 90th minute in a match that � nished 2-2. l

Lacazette on target as Lyon beat Reimsn Reuters, Paris

Alexandre Lacazette missed a penalty and scored three minutes later to hand Olym-pique Lyonnais a 1-0 home win against Stade de Reims on Saturday.

The France striker, who has had a di� cult start to the season, netted his second league goal on the stroke of halftime to send OL fourth in the standings with 15 points from nine games.

They trail leaders Paris St Germain, who host bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille on Sunday, by � ve points, while Reims slipped to � fth, also on 15 points.

Promoted Angers, who are now on 18 points, moved up to second after Billy Ketke-ophomphone’s � rst-half goal earned them a 1-0 win at home against Bastia.

Lyon, who lost defender Milan Bisevac to injury after six minutes, controlled the rest of

the match and put a bad week behind them after they lost 1-0 at home to Valencia in the Champions League on Tuesday.

INice were being held 2-2 against Nantes when the game was called o� due to torren-tial rain. The French League said that the match would be replayed in its entirety at a later date. l

BUNDESLIGABor. M’gladbach 2-0 VfL WolfsburgNordtvelt 76, Traore 79

Hanover 96 1-0 Werder BremenSane 56

Hertha Berlin 3-0 HamburgKalou 17, Ibisevic 77, 79

Ho� enheim 2-2 VfB StuttgartVolland 33-P, 77 Kliment 64, Werner 90

Ingolstadt 2-0 Eintracht FrankfurtGross 78, Lex 84

England out of its own Rugby WC party n AP, London

Every Rugby World Cup host had reached at least the quarter� nals until England failed on Saturday when it lost to Australia 33-13 at Twickenham.

A week after blowing the match against Wales 28-25 at Twickenham, England had no choice but to beat the Wallabies to stay in the playo� s hunt, but couldn’t survive the tough-est pool in tournament history. With a group

game left to play and still four more weeks be-fore the � nal, England is out of contention in the tournament.

England’s last Pool A game against Uru-guay in Manchester next weekend has turned into an encore, and for all intents and pur-poses the host has been kicked out of its own party, the biggest and potentially best Rugby World Cup. Coach Stuart Lancaster accepted the consequences before the match if Eng-land didn’t get out of its pool for the � rst time.

“Obviously, I have to think about (my fu-ture), it’s not one for now,” he said. “We still have another week to go but, as I said during the week, the responsibility and accountabil-ity rests with me.

“From my point of view, my priority is to get the team ready for Uruguay, and I am not in control of anything else.”

Lancaster said his tenure would be de� ned by the results against Wales and Australia, and the results aren’t good. l

Olympique Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette shoots to miss a penalty against Reims during their French Ligue 1 match in Lyon on Sunday REUTERS

LIGUE 1 Lyon 1-0 ReimsLacazette 44

Angers 1-0 BastiaKetkeophomphone 41

Troyes 0-1 Guingamp Sankhare 81

Gazelec Ajaccio 2-2 ToulouseMayi 25, Pujol 44 Braithwaite 21, Sylla 49-og

Nice v Nantes abandoned due to heavy rain

DOWNTIME30DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 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 23 represents B so � ll B every time the � gure 23 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

ACROSS1 Old stringed instru-ment (4)3 Venom teeth (5)8 Plunder (4)9 Agitate (4)11 Backbone (5)12 Expel (4)14 Briny (3)15 Raised platform (5)18 Permission (5)19 Monkey (3)21 Quantity of paper (4)24 Carpentry tool (5)26 Acting part (4)27 Tranquil rest (4)28 Show contempt (5)29 Treat with disdain (4)

DOWN1 Scourge (4)2 Group of three (4)4 High mountain (3)5 Clamour (5)6 Departed (4)7 Place (5)10 Trick (4)11 Cask selection (5)13 Fixed gaze (5)16 Equipment (4)17 Ribbons (5)18 Letting contract (5)20 Scheme (4)22 Satellite (4)23 Part of speech (4)25 Born (3)

SUDOKU

SHOWTIME 31D

TMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

A new voice emerges

n Showtime desk

Born in a musical family, Shusmita Anis is the niece and devoted disciple of the legendary Nazrul Sangeet singer Feroza Begum. She is specialised in Nazrul and modern Bengali songs, especially those tuned by her uncle, the renowned composer Kamal Das Gupta.

Having come from such an eminent background, Shusmita Anis has stirred up

the Bengali music scene and enthralled her fans in both Bangladesh and around the world with her new album Sound of Seasons, a tribute to Feroza Begum. The album was launched by New Music Paradigm Company in Dhaka and Kolkata. With the release of the album, Shusmita Anis started her musical journey to promote and popularise Nazrul Sangeet, thorough the legacy of Feroza Begum. She presented an array of ten Nazrul songs in the album, her � fth.

Music director Ibrar Tipu composed the songs in the new collection.

On this occasion, Ibrar Tipu said: “Meher, who played the tabla, convinced me to work on this album of Nazrul and I jumped on the � rst opportunity because I was always very interested in and familiar with Nazrul songs. But I believe that composing Nazrul songs is a very challenging task – every song is from a di� erent genre and di� erent style. To be able to do this well I had to

study Arabian scales and study certain Brazilian styles. This project has not only taught me how diverse Nazrul songs are but also portrayed to me why he is who he is. Other than that, of course, I loved working with Shusmita Anis and her voice, which is amazing and simplistic. Her cooperative personality made the work very rewarding and enjoyable.”

The album was released alongside two music videos – Shojol Ghono Borosha and Laal Tuk Tuke Bou. The � rst song is Kazi Nazrul Islam’s epic homage to the famous monsoon of Bangladesh. The second song, Laal Tuk Tuke Bou is essentially a staple song for all the children in Bangladesh.

Both the videos were directed by Gazi Shubhro, one of the leading directors of the country. He states: “As we always say, when it comes to making a music video, the quality of the music is the main factor to consider. What we do at Red DOT is create a visual representation of the song and the lyrics according to its virtues.”

The videos were shot with Red DOT’s ARRI ALEXA camera by the director of photography Ishtiaque Ahmed Pablo. Red DOT Multimedia Ltd produced the videos and the post was done by their state-of-the-art post-production panel. l

n Showtime Desk

Mostafa Sarwar Farooki has been named as a member of the jury that decides the prizes for this year’s Asia Paci� c Screen Awards (APSA).

Kim Dong-ho, co-founder and former chairman of the Busan Film Festival, will head the jury while the “Ant Story” director will be added to the jury with Chinese aca-demic Zhang Xianmin, Malaysian � lmmaker U-Wei Bin Hajisaari, Russian writer-director Alexei Popogrebsky and Iranian actress Negar Javaherian, reports Variety.

“Truth is, I am scared and happy at the same time, being invited to sit on the jury seat which has been previously � lled by peo-ple like Asghar Farhadi, Shyam Benegal, Jafar Panahi, Shabana Azmi and David Puttnam,” shared Farooki via Facebook. “Judging the best � lms from the Asia Paci� c region is

a tough job and, in last couple of years, it turned even tougher.”

“Feeling great to represent my country to such an international cultural initiative,” he added.

Kim and Farooki were in attendance on Sunday at a ceremony in Busan, to announce the APSA jurors and nominations for the APSA UNESCO Award, which is presented annually for outstanding contributions to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity.

The nominees are China’s Zhang Miaoyan for A Corner of Heaven (Tiantang Jiaoluo); Russia’s Ella Manzheeva for The Gulls, Turkey’s Senem Tuzen for Motherland, Palestine’s Hany Abu-Assad for The Idol, and Australia’s Stephen Page for Spear.

The 9th Asia Paci� c Screen Awards cere-mony will be held in Brisbane, Australia on November 26. l

Farooki named APSA juror WHAT TO WATCHPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger TidesHBO 6:52pmCaptain Jack Sparrow � nds himself on an unexpected journey to the fabled Fountain of Youth.Cast: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Kevin R McNally, Geo� rey Rush, Keith Richards

The Dark KnightWB 9:30pmIt is about a year since Bruce Wayne saved Gotham City in the form of Batman. Everything is peaceful with the disappearance of the Scarecrow. Bruce is enjoying being a millionaire and planning to revive his romance with Rachel. But all hell breaks loose, when The Joker begins to terrorise the city with his eerie grin and maniacal laughter. Will Batman be able to drive out this psychopath?Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart

WantedStar Movies 12:00amWesley Gibson hates his life. He works as a clerk and is sick of his boss who humiliates him constantly. He has a girlfriend who has betrayed him by sleeping with his best friend and colleague. That is when Wesley meets Fox. She brings excitement into his life when she tells him about his own father who had been part of a secret ancient organisation called Fraternity headed by Sloan.

Cast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann

Home Alone 2: Lost in New YorkStar Movies 5:00pm In this sequel, Kevin takes a vacation to Florida along with his family. But, unfortunately, he gets separated and gets on a � ight to New York City. Kevin has a lot of fun all by himself. But soon, his old nemeses, Harry and Marv catch up with Kevin. They have escaped from prison and are planning to steal from a toy store. Watch the � lm to see how Kevin works hard at getting the duo back behind bars.Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard

G.I. Joe: RetaliationZee Studio 3:15pmThe G I Joes are not only � ghting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence.Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, D J Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki

BACK PAGE32DT

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

FAROOKI NAMED APSA JUROR PAGE 31

REMITTANCE INFLOW RISES 12.6% IN SEPTEMBER PAGE 15

HOSTS STUNNED AS BHUTAN STEAL A POINT PAGE 25

Fresh bidding for o� shore 2D seismic surveyn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The government is going to have a fresh bid-ding process for 2D multi-client seismic sur-vey in the country’s o� shore areas, cancelling the previous tender without any apparent reason and depriving the nation’s develop-ment goals of energy security.

“The Prime Minister’s O� ce has directed us to invite a new tender after cancelling the previous one,” a senior o� cial of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, seeking ano-nymity, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Sources said the misguidance of decision makers in appointing a selected surveyor had slowed down the momentum of the govern-ment initiative.

The government received tender proposals in March this year, but has not been able to award the contract for the job since then.

However, the state-owned hydrocarbons corporation Petrobangla had planned to com-plete the contract award process by Septem-ber. The month was chosen keeping in mind the utilisation of the full dry season that starts in September and ends in March next year.

On April 13, a government evaluation com-mittee recommended that the Energy and Mineral Resources Division sign a deal with Norwegian-US joint venture TGS-NOPEC and Schlumberger to conduct the seismic survey.

The US-based Geotrace captured the sec-ond position in the evaluation of the tender.

After evaluation, Petrobangla sent their of-fers to the Energy Division for the next step. Making their own review, the Energy Division then put forward the relevant � les for the Prime Minister’s O� ce (PMO).

Sensing that they may lose the bid race, some competitors then allegedly tried to in� uence the bidding process through lodging complaints with the PMO to disrupt a fair evaluation.

Energy experts believe that mainly the lack of adequate seismic data and information dis-couraged the potential IOCs from participat-ing in the bidding round.

On February 9, the state-owned Bangla-desh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, com-monly known as Petrobangla, invited tenders from international geophysical companies to conduct the survey on a non-exclusive mul-ti-client basis.

Responding to the invitation, � ve interna-tional geophysical companies submitted ten-der documents on March 29.

According to the Petrobangla plan, the successful contractor would get two years’ time to complete the survey. Petrobangla will share the pro� ts from the sale of the data.

The survey coverage area is around 118,000sq-km with a water depth ranging from 20 metres to more than 2,500 metres.

There is a great potential for � nding hydro-carbons in Bangladesh’s maritime territory as both India and Myanmar have already dis-covered remarkable gas reserves in the Bay of Bengal.

The country’s o� shore areas are now well de-marcated following verdicts from international courts, which are considered some of the major achievements of the present government.

The hydrocarbon unit of India uses the new data to update its hydrocarbon database which � nally play a big role in attracting foreign and Indian companies in hydrocarbon exploration.

Energy experts and Petrobangla o� cials are all of the opinion that Bangladesh govern-ment should follow the same way to update its hydrocarbon database.

They said the government should immedi-ately appoint the most competent company it can get, one which has a proven successful track record for data acquisition.

The data is far more important for Bangla-desh as most of its onshore and o� shore areas remain without any seismic survey. l

Mecca crane collapse: Bin Laden’s father’s construction company under scrutinyn Tribune Desk

Saudi o� cials have interrogated nine engi-neers and o� cials of Binladin Group, a multi-national conglomerate founded by the father of notorious former al-Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden, on Saturday as a part of the ongo-ing investigation over the crane collapse at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which killed 107 and injured dozens last month.

Quoting informed sources, Saudi Gazette reported that the country’s Bureau of Inves-tigation and Public Prosecution (BIP) started

reviewing related documents, maintenance contracts and safety measures in the project, related to the contractor. The construction giant has long been regarded in the conserv-ative Islamic kingdom as the government’s favorite contractor for important or sensitive work, including defence and security pro-jects.

Just 24 hours after the deadly incident on September 11, the Saudi authorities had sus-pended construction giant Saudi Binladin Group from new contracts. The � nance minis-try also opened probe to review existing pro-

jects by the titan of the Arab business world.The controversial al-Jamarat bridge in

Mina, at where the deadliest Hajj stampede in recent history took place, was also built by the � rm. The stampede reportedly kill more than 700 people and injured more than a thousand.

Saudi King Salman also ordered that the group’s board members and senior executives be barred from travel abroad.

A preliminary investigation after the in-cident showed the crane was not erected in accordance with the manufacturer’s instruc-tions.

The disaster was embarrassing for the Sau-di ruling family, which de� nes itself as the custodian of Islam’s holiest places and has embarked on a series of enormous construc-tion projects in Mecca aimed at expanding its pilgrimage sites.

Saudi Gazette reported that if evidence is found on the involvement of any defendant, a charge sheet will be prepared and will be referred to the Criminal Court. The sources added that the charges will focus on negli-gence, causing loss of lives and damage to properties. l

MAP FOR 2D NON-EXCLUSIVE MULTI-CLIENT SEISMIC SURVEY

The survey coverage area is around 118,000sq-km with a water depth ranging from 20 metres to more than 2,500 metres

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com