SECOND EDITION

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | Agrahayan 3, 1422, Safar 4, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 211 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

France launches air strikes in Syria as investigation widensn Agencies

Addressing both houses of parliament at the Palace of Versailles yesterday, French Presi-dent François Hollande said the country was engaged in “a war against jihadi terrorism.”

He said he would meet US President Ba-rack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss more e� ective coordination of French resources with those of the US and Russia.

“More strikes are needed, and we will car-ry them out,” Hollande said, adding: “More support for all � ghting against Isis is needed, and France will provide it. But we need a un-ion of all who can � ght this terrorist army in a single coalition.”

French President Francois Hollande will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris today, AFP reports.

They will hold talks at the Elysee Palace from 9:40am local time in the wake of Friday’s jihadist attacks on Paris that left 129 dead, a statement from the French presidency said.

Extending France’s national state of emer-gency to three months, Hollande called for changes to the constitution to counter terror-ism, The Guardian reports.

French law must allow dual nationals to be stripped of their citizenship if they were convicted of terrorism, and banned from en-tering France if they presented a terrorism risk, he said.

French warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria on Sunday as police in Eu-rope widened their investigations into coor-dinated attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s suicide bombings and shootings,

which have re-ignited a row over Europe’s refugee crisis and drawn calls to block a huge in� ux of Muslim asylum-seekers.

French police have launched an interna-tional hunt for a Belgian-born man they be-lieve helped organise the assaults with two of his brothers. One of the brothers died in

the attacks, while the second is under arrest in Belgium, Reuters reports.

A further two French suicide attackers have been identi� ed, police said, while the identity of four other assailants, who were all killed, was still under review.

France has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria for months as part of a US-led operation. Following Friday’s mayhem, Paris vowed to destroy the group. Underlining its resolve, French jets on Sun-day launched their biggest raids in Syria to date, hitting its stronghold in Raqqa.

“The raid ... including 10 � ghter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped,” the Defence Ministry said. Among the targets were a munitions depot and training camp, it said.

There was no word on casualties or the damage in� icted.

The Paris attacks were seen causing a short-term sell-o� in global stock markets and Asian shares fell on Monday, but few strategists expected a prolonged economic impact or change in prevailing market direc-tions.

Seven held in BelgiumThe investigation into Friday’s attacks, the worst atrocity in France since World War II, led swiftly to Belgium after police discovered

PAGE 4 COLUMN 1

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | Agrahayan 3, 1422, Safar 4, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 211 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

LITTLE SHIFT ON SYRIA AT G20 SUMMIT PAGE 8

SOCCEROOS GET 4-TIER SECURITY PAGE 32

SC TO HEAR SQC, MUJAHID REVIEW PETITIONS PAGE 5

Nur Hossain back on ACC radarn Adil Sakhawat

Two days after Narayanganj seven-murder prime suspect Nur Hossain had been deport-ed from India, the Anti-Corruption Commis-sion yesterday said they would serve a notice against him for amassing illegal wealth.

Seeking anonymity, an ACC o� cial said that they were waiting for approval from the commission for serving the notice.

The ACC said that their inquiry against the former Narayanganj panel mayor had started long ago, on May 19 last year, about a month after the sensational murders. But the com-mission could not move ahead with sum-mons and interrogations Nur had � ed.

When contacted, ACC Chairman M Bod-iuzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune that the inquiry, which got postponed because Nur � ed, would not be restarted.

PAGE 4 COLUMN 4

Zila Parishad Act not to be amendedn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on LGRD Ministry yesterday decided not to amend the zila parishad act, a move that would have allowed elections of the local government body to be held on party lines.

The zila parishad bill was withdrawn apprehending possible disputes between upazila parishad chairmen and lawmakers.

The committee, however, � nalised four separate bills for partisan elections to lo-cal government bodies — city corporations, upazila, municipality and union parishads.

According to the latest changes to the bills, councillor and member candidates will not be allowed to contest local polls with par-ty symbols.

Only mayoral candidates in city corpo-ration and municipality polls and chairman candidates in upazila parishad and union

PAGE 4 COLUMN 1

Dev partners caution against external dependencen Tribune Report

Bangladesh’s development partners have cautioned the government against becoming dependent on external � nancing for its de-velopment plans. Instead, they advised the government to stress domestic resource mo-bilisation to cover the � nancial de� cit.

“They have cautioned us about our plan but � nally endorsed it,” said Finance Minis-ter AMA Muhith while brie� ng the media on the outcome of the two-day Bangladesh De-velopment Forum (BDF) 2015 meeting that ended in the capital yesterday.

He said: “International lenders like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, World Bank and Asian Development Bank have taken up the responsibility for developing infrastructure for which there is huge de� cit

in Asia ... not simply in Bangladesh.”Development partners laid importance

on the energy, power and transport sectors, which are considered the foundations of de-velopment, the � nance minister said. “We have a huge de� cit in these sectors and have asked them to help cover this de� cit. Some donors have assured us of assistance in ad-dressing this.”

The � nance minister said in the current period, production is moving to Asia from other places. “Industrialisation is not possi-ble without developing infrastructure in this region.”

Muhith said development partners were happy with the government giving impor-tance to education and health but felt that the allocation was not su� cient. “I have

PAGE 4 COLUMN 1

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015News4DT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

Finance Minister AMA Muhith speaks at a press conference at BICC organised by the Bangladesh Development Forum in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

France launches air strikes in Syriatwo of the cars used by the Islamist militants had been rented in the Brussels region.

By Sunday, Belgian o� cials said they had arrested seven people in Brussels. But one of the people who had hired the cars slipped through the � ngers of the police. He was pulled over on the French-Belgian border on Saturday, but later released.

Police named the man they were seeking as Salah Abdeslam, saying the 26-year-old was “dangerous”. Although he was born in Brussels, French authorities said he was a French national.

“The abject attacks that hit us on Friday were prepared abroad and mobilised a team in Belgium that bene� ted ... from help in

France,” French Interior Minister Bernard Ca-zeneuve told reporters after meeting his Bel-gian counterpart in Paris.

The death toll rose to 132, with three more people dying on Sunday from their wounds. Some 103 have been identi� ed, including many young people and many foreigners, out relaxing on a Friday night in one of the world’s most visited cities.

In a sign that at least one gunman might have escaped, a source close to the investi-gation said a Seat car believed to have been used by the attackers had been found in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil with three Kalashnikov ri� es inside.

Police have formally named just one of the

attackers: Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, southwest of Paris. He was identi-� ed by the print from one of his � ngers that was severed when his suicide vest exploded.

French media named the two other French assailants as Bilal Had� and Ibrahim Abdeslam.

Police said they had found a Syrian pass-port near one of the other dead gunmen. Greece said the passport holder had crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands last month and then registered for asylum in Serbia be-fore heading north, following a route taken by hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers this year.

France declared three days of national mourning after the attacks. l

Zila Parishad Act not to be amendedparishad polls will get party symbols.

The committee agreed that chairman and mayor candidates would contest elections in party line while the councillors and members will have a non-partisan contest, said com-mittee member Fazle Hossain Badsha.

“But my opinion was there should not be two rules for a single local body. The election could be postponed if anyone challenges this,

but the law minister said there is no scope of legal complications,” he said.

Badsha told the Dhaka Tribune that the amendment for municipality elections will be placed within a couple of days as the elec-tions to around 240 out of 324 municipali-ties are due to be held by December 30. The remaining three bills would be placed in the House later on, he added.

On Sunday, LGRD and Cooperatives Min-ister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain placed the Local Government (Municipality) (Amend-ment) Bill 2015, incorporating the latest changes. The bill was sent to the parliamen-tary standing committee, which was asked to return the draft to the House within three days after scrutiny.

On October 12, the cabinet endorsed draft

amendments to all the � ve local government laws incorporating provisions for allowing registered political parties to nominate their candidates in the local body polls.

Abul Hasnat Abdullah chaired yesterday’s committee meeting while LGRD and Cooper-ative Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hosain, Law Minister Anisul Huq and lawmaker Sur-anjit Sengupta were also present. l

Dev partners caution against external dependenceadmitted the fact and told them that from the next budget, changes will be made in al-location.”

Donors also attached importance to human capital development, quality education, agriculture, food security, climate change, energy, infrastructure, governance, health, social protection and gender mainstreaming.

“If we overcome the above challenges an-yhow, we will be able to achieve 8% growth target by 2021. But to reach the target growth rate, we have to take power and responsibili-ty to the local level,” Muhith said.

Replying to a question on whether po-litical issues came up at the forum, he said: “No. Nor should they be involved in political issues.”

Janina Jaruzelski, USAID Bangladesh head of mission and co-chair of the Local Consul-tative Group, said the government’s vision

2021 was a very ambitious agenda. “But if strenuous e� orts are made by everyone, it is achievable.”

Development partners are ready to ex-tend support for Bangladesh to achieve the sustainable development goals, the seventh � ve-year plan and other development plans, said Jaruzelski.

She said the government had achieved successes in increasing rice production, re-ducing child mortality and improving school enrolment. “But there is a lot to be done on stunting since the stunting rate of children under � ve years is still 36%, which costs the Bangladesh economy billions of dollars and much more as well.”

She said climate change was a major topic since Bangladesh is number one on the 2015 Climate Vulnerability Index. “It is not only an environmental issue but is related to agricul-ture and infrastructure.”

On duty-free and quota-free access of Bangladeshi products, Jaruzelski intervened at one stage of the � nance minister’s speech and promised to convey the issue to the US ambassador to Bangladesh.

ERD Senior Secretary Mohammad Me-jbahuddin said development partners prior-itised the involvement of the private sector and getting public-private partnerships to work for development.

He said donors feel Bangladesh needs more investment in regional connectivity in the power and ICT sectors.

Lenders will also work with the govern-ment in the coming months to develop the second Joint Cooperation Strategy.

The Joint Cooperation Strategy lays out in greater detail how the government of Bangladesh and its development partners will work together and with other partners such as civil society and the private sector. l

Nur Hossain backThis means that the commission might now go ahead with � ling an o� cial case against Nur which could not be done before

In initial inquiry, the anti-graft watchdog has found that he had disclosed information about wealth worth around Tk8 crore in-cluding a � ve-storey building, 30 long-route passenger buses and signi� cant amount of landed property in the city.

According to the last tax return that Nur submitted to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), his annual income was Tk1.07 crore and the source of this income was � sh farm-ing. The return does not have any mentions of the buses, buildings and land that he owns.

A source said that the ACC had also found evidence that Nur Hossain, using his politi-cal muscles and backing, grabbed land for his � sh farm and the building.

His � rst job was as a bus helper in 1986, but in just six years, he became a local politi-cal � gure. He joined the BNP in 1992 and be-came the chairman of the Shiddhirganj union counil in Narayanganj. The BNP was in state power at that time. He switched party and joined the Awami League in 1996. It was the same year the Awami League formed govern-ment after more than two decades.

That year, local in� uential Awami League leader Shamim Osman made Nur Hossain the president of the Kanchpur Truck Driver and Workers’ Union.

Nur remained in hiding during the two-year tenure of the army-backed caretak-er government in 2007-2008 when he was wanted in at least 13 cases. He only came back to Narayanganj after the Awami League was elected to power again in 2009.

This time around, he became the vice-president of the Shiddhirganj unit of Awami League. In the 2011 city elections in Narayanganj, he was elected a councillor. l

IGP: Anisuzzaman’s threatener identi� edn Arifur Rahman Rabbi

The man who made a death threat against Professor Emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman of Dha-ka University has been identi� ed, the coun-try’s chief of police said yesterday.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Sha-hidul Hoque made the announcement while speaking at a programme at Police Headquar-ters in Dhaka to give � nancial assistance to the families of 14 deceased policemen who died in separate incidents.

The IGP said the man who owns the phone number is innocent and added that the threat was made in a text message using a cloned SIM

card. “We have identi� ed the culprit,” he said. “He subscribes to a fundamentalist ideology.”

Police have intensi� ed e� orts to arrest the suspect who threatened the former professor of Bangla and noted secularist writer, the IGP said.

The text message was sent around 4:30pm on November 10. The eminent academic � led a case with Gulshan police station the same night around 9pm.

After � ling the diary, he told reporters the text message was written in � awless English.

The message criticised Anisuzzaman for supporting the bloggers and asked whether he too wanted to get killed. l

Cox’s Bazar 29 24Dhaka 30 19 Chittagong 30 24 Rajshahi 31 17 Rangpur 28 18 Khulna 29 19 Barisal 30 19 Sylhet 30 16T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015News 5

DT

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:12PM SUN RISES 6:15AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW32.4ºC 14.9ºCJessore SrimangalTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17

DRY WEATHER

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Fajr: 4:39am | Zohr: 11:44am Asr: 3:53pm | Magrib: 5:31pmEsha: 7:01pm

PRAYERTIMES

SC to hear Salauddin, Mujahid review petitionsn Ashif Islam Shaon and FM Mizanur

Rahman, Chittagong

The apex court of the country is set to hold hearing today on two review petitions against its judgments that upheld the death penalty of war criminals Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.

Yesterday afternoon, on the Supreme Court website, the hearing on Mujahid’s plea is placed second and Salauddin’s plea was at number three in the cause list.

A four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha will hold the hearings. The other mem-bers are Justices Nazmun Ara Sultana, Syed Mahmud Hossain and Hasan Foez Siddique.

On November 2, the SC deferred until

today the hearing on the petitions after the death row convicts’ lawyers moved the pe-titions seeking time to make preparations to place arguments.

On October 14, Mujahid and Salauddin sought review of the SC verdict that upheld the capital punishment earlier this year af-ter hearing their appeals challenging the war crimes tribunals’ verdicts.

The International Crimes Tribunal issued execution warrants for them on October 1, a day after the SC released the full verdicts.

In July 2013, the International Crimes Tri-bunal handed down death sentence to 67-year-old Jamaat leader Muhajid and also jailed him for life and sentenced him to � ve years in pris-on in � ve separate war crimes charges.

The tribunal on October 1, 2013, sentenced 66-year-old Salahuddin to death for the mur-

der of Natun Chandra Sinha, Awami League leader Moza� ar Ahmed and his son; and two acts of genocide in Sultanpur Banikpara and Unasattarpara villages in Raozan of Chit-tagong in 1971.

The SC also upheld his 20 years’ jail sen-tence on two other charges: acts of genocide at Maddhya Gohira Hindupara and at Jagot-mallopara in Raozan. At least 37 people were killed in these two villages.

On June 16, 2015, the Appellate Division delivered its judgement, upholding death for the Jamaat secretary general. Salauddin’s maximum punishment too was upheld on July 29, 2015.

Security beefed upAhead of the hearings, authorities in Chit-tagong tightened security in the port city and

the adjoining 14 upazilas.Chittagong district police super AKM

Ha� z Akhtar told the Dhaka Tribune that policemen have been kept on high alert at Hathazari, Raozan and Fatickchari upazilas, which are known as Salauddin’s strongholds.

In addition, special drives are being con-ducted in di� erent parts of Chittagong to ar-rest the troublemakers.

Muhammed Naimul Islam, additional su-perintendent of Chittagong police’s special branch, said a total of 103 people including Shibir men had been arrested in overnight drives.

With these, the number people arrested in the last few days stands at 985. Of them 69 are leaders and activists of BNP, Jamaat-e-Is-lami and Chhatra Shibir, arrested in connec-tion with sabotage cases. l

Charges pressed against two war crimes suspectsn Tribune Report

Four charges have been pressed by the pros-ecution against two war crimes suspects of Shariatpur district yesterday.

Sulaiman Mollah, 84, and Edris Ali Sarder alias Gazi Edris, 67, were charged with kill-ing, mass killing, rape, torture and con� ne-ment during the 1971 Liberation War.

Prosecutor Sheikh Mush� q Kabir said Su-laiman was the organiser of Shariatpur Peace Committee and Razakar Bahini.

Formal charges against the two men were submitted to the registrar’s o� ce of the Inter-national Crimes Tribunal, which scheduled a hearing for November. The court on that day will also hear a bail petition � led by Sulaiman.

Sulaiman was arrested on June 14 but Edris has not yet been detained.

Investigators submitted the probe report against the two accused on October 29. l

IGP: Alertness has prevented major incidents like Paris attackn Arifur Rahman Rabbi

The alertness of the country’s police force has ensured that no major terrorist attack such as the recent one in Paris had taken place on Bangladesh soil, the IGP has said.

Claiming that the overall law and order situation was under control, Inspector Gen-eral of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque yesterday said all individuals who had received threats – including bloggers, publishers, writers and intellectuals – have been brought under a se-curity net as arranging personal security for each and every one was not possible.

The IGP made the remarks in a programme

at the Police Headquarters, where he distrib-uted � nancial assistance to the families of 14 deceased policemen who died recently in the line of duty.

Domestic groups were responsible for re-cent attacks on policemen, foreigners, and at Hussaini Dalan, the police chief said, adding that progress has been made in every case and e� orts were on to detain all perpetrators.

Asked why the police had been targeted, IGP Shahidul said the miscreants wanted to create unrest by causing panic among the people and the law enforcers. The police force has been instructed to stay vigilant and to follow speci� c guidelines, Shahidul said. l

HC refuses to hear petition from SQ Chowdhury’s wifen Ashif Islam Shaon

A High Court bench has refused to hear a writ petition � led by SQ Chowdhury’s wife chal-lenging the constitutional provision of trying an individual for war crimes o� ences.

The bench of Justice Tariqul Hakim and Justice Farid Ahmed Shiblee dropped the petition from the cause list yesterday; Farhat Quader Chowdhury, the wife of Chittagong’s war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, had � led it earlier this month.

The court said the High Court had issued a verdict on this issue in 2010 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court had already giv-en its judgements on several war crimes cases.

“The court said it would be a waste of time if a matter already decided upon was heard again,” said Deputy Attorney General Amatul Karim. The petitioner can now go to another bench if they wanted, he told reporters. l

Members of Airport Armed Police are seen patrolling in front of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday as part of beefed up security DHAKA TRIBUNE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015News6DT

Slain policemen’s families receive compensation paymentsn Arifur Rahman Rabbi

Unable to hold back her tears, Khairunnesa, the wife of slain policeman Ibrahim Mollah, said her family’s � nancial future had become uncertain because the family’s sole bread-winner had been murdered.

“I do not know how I will bring up my chil-dren as I do not have a job. I need a job right now,” she said.

Assistant Sub-Inspector of police Ibrahim Mollah was stabbed to death on October 22 at the Parbat Cinema Hall check-post in Dhaka’s Gabtoli area.

He is survived by his widow, � ve and a half-year-old daughter Jannatul Ferdous Ira and infant son Yasin Arafat Porag.

Khairunnesa yesterday received Tk5 lakh from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shaidul Haque at Police Headquarters. She said the money would give her relief for some time but that she was anxious about the future.

She said after her husband’s murder, she has lived with her elderly, retired father-in-law in Bagerhat.

The police widow said she had heard that family members of deceased policemen were o� ered their jobs and said that she would like the opportunity to work. ASI Ibrahim’s wid-ow demanded justice for her slain husband.

Shahidul Hossain, father of constable Mukul Hossain, who was stabbed to death at a check-post in Ashulia on November 4, said his family was in the same situation.

Shahidul, a farmer, said Mukul, the only earning member of the family, carried his three siblings’ education expenses.

Shahidul recalled his son’s words to him: “You need not to be worry: I will always be beside you.” “I am here to receive my son’s death compensation. My son will never again be beside me, I will never get him back,” the grieving father said.

Shahidul said he has had to take out a loan for his children’s education. “There is no option for me as I cannot do anything in my old age.”

He demanded justice for his son. The IGP asked his force to remain vigilant in

the light of a series of attacks on policemen in the capital and elsewhere. He said drives will continue until the killers are apprehended. l

‘Parliament preservation delayed till getting original design’ n Tribune Report

Housing and Public Works Minister Moshar-raf Hossain yesterday said necessary actions would be taken for proper preservation of the parliament building after getting the original design of American architect Louis I Kahn.

He told the House that the process to col-lect all the designs of Louis from the archive of the University of Pennsylvania in America was underway in accordance with a directive of the prime minister.

The Housing and Public Works Ministry has proposed removing the graves of seven distinguished personalities from the parlia-ment complex area as those were not in the original design.

The seven are former president Abdus Sat-tar, former prime ministers Shah Azizur Rah-man and Ataur Rahman Khan, former minis-ter Mashiur Rahman Jadu Mia, Muslim League leader Khan A Sabur, litterateur and journalist Abul Mansur Ahmad, and Tomij Uddin.

Mosharraf said the graves were made at di� erent times according to government di-rectives.

There are also seven establishments in the area that were not in Kahn’s original design. l

Ctg Bayezid police OC suspendedn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

Three o� cials of Chittagong Bayezid police station, including its o� cer-in-charge, were suspended on Sunday for allegedly harassing an oil company owner by � ling a false case and seizing around 9,500 litres of fuel.

Con� rming the suspension order yester-day, CMP Additional Commissioner AKM Shahidur Rahman said: “The CMP received a suspension order for the three o� cials from police headquarters in Dhaka on Sunday with immediate e� ect.”

Police sources said OC Pradip Kumar Das and the station’s sub-inspectors Ekramul and Sujon were suspended.

On August 4, Bayezid police seized an oil container lorry in the port city’s Textile Gate area carrying around 9,500 litres of kerosene. Later, SI Sujon � led a case against ten persons including Super Re� nery chairman and its MD under Special Powers Act, accusing them of carrying oil without any valid documents.

Super Re� nery MD Selim Ahmed � led a complaint with the IGP following the case. Taking the complaint into cognisance, police headquarters formed a probe body and the suspension came after initial investigation. l

Deepto TV to begin journey tomorrown Shadma Malik

With a vision to achieve viewers’ satisfac-tion, television channel Deepto TV will be launched countrywide tomorrow.

O� cials from the channel made the an-nouncement at a press conference at the Dai-ly Star Centre in the capital yesterday.

“Our focus is on providing content accord-ing to our viewers’ demands and tastes,” said Qazi Ur� Ahmed, the channel’s chief operat-ing o� cer (COO). “We want our audience to be entertained and satis� ed, and we are de-veloping our content keeping that in mind.”

He further said the channel will air both entertainment programmes and news pro-grammes with equal attention to details.

“There are several channels that air news programmes. But we are going to be di� erent than them because we want to present news in a way that is unique, that will be di� erent and interesting,” the COO added.

Kazi Zahin Hasan, director of the channel, said viewers’ satisfaction is the fuel that runs

the TV business.“TV business is a complex one. The only

way to make pro� t in this business is to satis-fy the viewers, to pace up entertainment and give unbiased news. After serving all these, the channel can earn revenue from adver-tisement. Every TV channel works in this manner. We will try to show best entertain-ment programmes and most unbiased news and make the viewers satis� ed. In the TV business, this is our basic work and we will focus on this,” he said.

A project of Kazi Media Limited, Deepto TV will begin telecasting by airing its � rst show – a Turkish TV series named Sultan Suleiman, dubbed in Bangla. Besides that, the channel will also air three mega series named “Opora-jita,” “Khuje Firee Takey” and “Palki”.

In time, the TV channel will air many other international drama series and cartoon shows.

On the � rst two days of airing, the channel will telecast commercial-free programmes, and after then it will show around eight min-utes of commercials in every half hour. l

SOHELI MURDER CASEPrime accused arrested, confesses of having 2 other aidesn Kamrul Hasan

Police early yesterday arrested one of the main accused in Soheli murder case from the city’s Kadamtoli area.

The accused Rabbi Rahman,16, was held from one of his relatives’ house at Muradna-gar area of Kadamtoli, police sources said.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Com-missioner (Wari Zone) Nure Alam said Rabbi already confessed to the crime in primary in-terrogation.

Rabbi told police that he had two associ-ates although one of them was not present during the attack. The DC said the police were trying to arrest the culprits.

Rabbi confessed that he had attacked So-heli because she kept calling him fatty. He also claimed that he repeatedly told her not to tease him but she did not pay heed. Later, he became enraged and orchestrated the plan.

Soheli Akhter, 13, daughter of Mohammad Selim, was hacked to death in the attack which also left three people, including her mother Shahida Mridha and sister Shahara Akhter and a pedestrian Jamal Ahmed – a BIWTA o� cial – critically injured in the capital’s Kadamtoli.

O� cer-in-Charge of Kadamtoli police station M Wazed Ali said: “Rabbi along with two others went into the � at and told Soheli’s mother Shahida that he would need Tk3 lakh in order to start his business and he wanted her father Selim to come up with Tk50,000 for this purpose.”

When Shahida denied him, he demanded Tk1,000 from her. When Rabbi was denied a second time he went ahead with the attack. l

SC upholds HC verdict on freedom � ghters’ retirement agen Ashif Islam Shaon

The Supreme Court has upheld a High Court verdict in favour of increasing the retirement age from 57 years to 65 years for the freedom � ghters who are employed in government jobs.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order yesterday, dissolving a leave-to-ap-peal petition � led by the state.

With this verdict, there is now no legal barrier on the placement of the proposal in this regard before the Cabinet, said lawyer Azhar Ullah Bhuiyan.

The High Court gave the verdict to extend the retirement age of freedom � ghters to 65 years on January 14 this year. l

Qazi Ur� Ahmed, chief operating o� cer of Deepto TV, addresses a press conference at a city hotel in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

INSIDE

7D

TWorldTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Dead killers, hunted suspects after Paris attacksFrance, which along with Belgium has launched a massive manhunt for people involved in the attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris on Friday, is striving to establish the identities of the attackers and chief suspects. PAGE 8

G20 vows more intelligence sharing, but little shift on SyriaWorld leaders promised to tighten bor-der controls, step up intelligence sharing and crack down on terrorist � nancing at a summit in Turkey on Monday, but there was little sign of a dramatic shift in strategy against Islamic State in Syria. PAGE 9

Election winners, and losers, return to Myanmar parliamentAung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party returned to parliament Monday fresh from a landslide election victory but still cautious over the delicate power transition ahead. PAGE 10

INSIGHT

IS takes war to its foes after battle� eld setbacksn Reuters, Beirut

Facing military setbacks in its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq and intensi� ed air strikes from a US-led coalition, Islam-ic State may have decided in September to take the � ght to France and elsewhere.

The ultra-hardline group has frequently threatened to strike inside Western countries since it established itself amid Syria’s civ-il war and then spread to northern Iraq last year, but one � ghter reached inside Syria said its spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani had issued an instruction to act abroad.

“He sent a written order to all sectors and security brigades to start moving, including in Lebanon and Turkey,” the Syrian IS � ght-er said via social media from northern Syria.

“Lebanon and France and other places are all part of the operations ordered two months ago.”

Islamic State has said it was behind Fri-day’s killings of at least 132 people in Paris in revenge for France’s air strikes against it as well as twin suicide bombings which killed 43 people on Thursday in a Beirut strong-hold of Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is � ghting the group in Syria.

The ultra-hardline militants have also claimed responsibility for bringing down a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula on Oct 31 which killed all 224 people on board after Russia began its own campaign of air strikes in Syria.

Turkish authorities suspect a high-pro� le British jihadist detained in Turkey last week may have been planning attacks in Istanbul similar to those in Paris, two security sources said on Sunday. The group has also threatened to attack Saudi Arabia, the US and Russia.

It was not immediately possible to veri-fy the reported order, which Islamic State supporters and � ghters said was given to dormant cells in several places.

“Their messages to us are sent by blood and carnage so we send them their messag-es back in the same way, it is simple,” the northern-Syria-based � ghter said.

Foreign operations apparatusThe group has drawn thousands of jihadists

from across the world including Europe. But tighter security restrictions imposed by several European countries have prevented would-be jihadists from traveling and join-ing the group in Syria and Iraq.

To overcome this, the group has estab-lished contacts from its bases in the Middle East with these jihadists and encouraged them to operate as “lone wolves” or in small cells to carry out individual attacks inside countries where they live or work.

According to one of the � ghters, the dormant cells have no contact with each other but all answer to a special apparatus in charge of “foreign operations”, from which they take orders to attack. He did not elaborate.

Little is known about the head of this ap-paratus, who the � ghter said is a Jordanian national who works closely with the leader-ship in Syria and Iraq and travels between the two countries. He is only known by a

nickname.“He masterminds these operations, gets in

touch with the followers and supporters there, guide them in training and operations and tar-gets,” said a jihadi source close to the group.

His account could not be independently veri� ed. The New York Times cited o� cials on both sides of the Atlantic saying that the attackers in France had communicated at some point beforehand with known mem-bers of Islamic State in Syria.

“This is just the beginning. We also hav-en’t forgotten what happened in Mali,” said a non-Syrian Islamist � ghter in Syria reached online, referring to the French-led military intervention in the West African country in 2013 against Islamist insurgents Paris said could launch attacks in Europe.

“The bitterness from Mali, the arrogance of the French will not be forgotten at all,” he said, welcoming the Paris attack. l

Paris attacks: 5 suspects identified, 1 on the run

Source: French interior ministry

Died at the Bataclan concert hall

Died at Stade de France stadiumBrothers

Radicalised since 2010

From the Paris suburb of Courcouronnes

Died on BoulevardVoltaire

On the run

Salah Abdeslam

May have spent time in Syria in 2014

PARISPARIS

30 km

Omar Ismail Mostefai29

Drancy

Courcouronnes

From the Paris suburbof Drancy

8 convictions for pettycrimes, 2004-2010

Syrian passport

Samy Amimour28

31

20

Age: 26

B

B

B

Bilal Hadfi

25

AhmadAl Mohammad

Brahim Abdeslam

B

B

B

F

F

F

F F

FB

Resident of Belgium

French nationality

Visited Syria in 2013

IS threatens attack on Washington, other countriesn Reuters, Cairo

Islamic State warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would su� er the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington.

The video, which appeared on a site used by Islamic State to post its messages, begins with news footage of the aftermath of Fri-day’s Paris shootings.

The message to countries involved in what it called the “crusader campaign” was delivered by a man dressed in fatigues and a

turban, and identi� ed in subtitles as Al Gha-reeb the Algerian.

“We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the centre of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its centre in Washington,” the man said. It was not im-mediately possible to verify the authentic-ity of the video.

“Al Ghareeb the Algerian” also warned Europe in the video that more

attacks were coming.“I say to the European countries that we

are coming, coming with booby traps and explosives, coming with explosive belts and (gun) silencers and you will be unable to stop us because today we are much stronger than before,” he said.

Apparently referring to international talks to end the Syrian war, another man identi� ed in the video as Al Karrar the Ira-qi tells French President Francois Hollande: “we have decided to negotiate with you in the trenches and not in the hotels.” l

FACTBOX

Dead killers, hunted suspects after Paris attacksFrance, which along with Belgium has launched a massive manhunt for people involved in the attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris on Friday, is striving to establish the identities of the attackers and chief suspects.

Following is a list of some of the sev-en attackers who died, as well as others named in the investigation--

Dead attackersÜ Ismail Omar Mostefai, 29, Frenchman

of Algerian descent involved in Bataclan concert hall attack, lived for a time in Chartres area, southwest of Paris. Born in Courcouronnes, south of Paris. Name was put on French intelligence services’ “S no-tice” in 2010 for reported radicalisation. An unnamed senior Turkish government o� cial says Turkey contacted France about Mostefai in December 2014 and June 2015 but only got a return request for information on him after the Paris attacks. Ü Samy Amimour, 28, involved in Bata-

clan attack. French, from Drancy, Saint Denis, north of Paris. Subject of inter-national arrest warrant since late 2013. Had been under o� cial investigation since October 2012 on suspicion of ter-rorism-related activity over a plan to go to Yemen. Ü Brahim Abdeslam, 31,brother of Salah

Abdeslam, a key suspect still at large. French, resident of Belgium. Blew him-self up at Comptoir Voltaire cafe in Paris. Ü Bilal Had� , 20, involved in Stade de

France attack. Ü Passport found beside dead body of ka-

mikaze bomber carries name of Ahmad Al Mohammad, 25, from Idlib, north-

west Syria. Passport being checked but � ngerprints match up with print of a person registered under that name in Greece in October 2015.

Key suspects at largeÜ Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, Belgian, sus-

pected brains behind the attacks, appar-ently in Syria. RTL radio adds Abaaoud

is a resident of Molenbeek district of Brussels. Also named by media last year as elder brother of a 13-year-old boy who left Belgium to become a � ghter in Syria.Ü Salah Abdeslam, 26, French, born in Brus-

sels. Suspected of having rented black VW Polo car used in attacks in Paris. l

Source: REUTERS

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015World8DT

SOUTH ASIANepal PM asks India to end ‘undeclared blockade’Nepal’s newly elected Prime Minister KP Shar-ma Oli called Sunday on neighbouring India to end its “undeclared blockade” as the nation faces crippling shortage of fuel and supplies. “I strongly request the government of India and related o� cials... to immediately end the undeclared blockade and resume supply of essential goods and not let further nega-tivity grow in the centuries-old relationship between the two countries,” Oli said in his � rst address to the nation since taking o� ce. -AFP

INDIABJP leader wants Rahul be stripped of Indian citizenshipBJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday alleged that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has claimed himself to be a British national before the authorities there and has demanded that he be stripped of Indian citizenship and Lok Sabha membership. Circulating copies of documents extracted purportedly from the company law author-ities of Britain, he told a press conference here that Gandhi had declared himself as a British national in the documents related to a now-dissolved company. This is a violation of constitutional provisions and demanded that action be taken against Gandhi. -TOI

CHINAChina landslide deaths rise to 25The death toll from a landslide triggered by � ooding in China has risen to 25, with 12 more people missing, state-run media reported Monday. The avalanche of mud and rock caused by torrential rains engulfed 27 homes last Friday night in Lishui in the east-ern province of Zhejiang, the China News Service said. The landslide cut o� power, damaged electricity circuits and set some houses on � re, the report added. -AFP

ASIA PACIFICFirst Syrian refugees to land in AustraliaThe � rst of 12,000 refugees � eeing the con� ict in Syria to be resettled by Australia will arrive within 24 hours, the government said Monday, as concerns about security checks mounted af-ter attacks in Paris. Australia, which has joined US-led air strikes on the Islamic State group in Syria, said in September it would boost its humanitarian refugee intake by 12,000 in the face of the unrest in the Middle East. The � rst arrivals, a family of � ve from Homs, were to arrive in Perth before Tuesday evening. -AFP

MIDDLE EASTLebanon arrests 11 over Beirut bombingsLebanon has arrested 11 people, mostly Syrians, over last week’s Beirut bombings that killed 44 people, o� cials said on Sunday. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attacks which hit a busy shopping street in Burj al-Barajneh, a suburb where the Shia movement Hezbollah is popular. The Beirut blasts were the � rst to target a Hezbol-lah-dominated neighbourhood since mid-2014. Those explosions were ostensibly in revenge for Hezbollah’s military support for regime forces in neighbouring Syria’s civil war. -AFP

(Clockwise) Paris attackers Salah Abdeslam, still at large /AFP Ahmad Almohammad, the Syrian asylum seeker, who’s passport was found in Paris /NBC, Bilal Had� , one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up outside Stade de France /DAILY TELEGRAPH Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind behind the bloodbath /REUTERS

Iran to eliminate IS threat at Afghan, Iraqi bordersn AFP, Tehran

A top Iranian army commander said Monday that his troops would take “decisive” action if Islamic State group militants come within 40km of its borders with Iraq and Afghanistan.

The comments from General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, who heads Iran’s ground forces, came after Iraq’s foreign minister said intelligence sources showed Iran was among countries IS had plans to attack.

The remarks came after IS claimed re-sponsibility for Friday’s gun and bomb at-tacks in Paris which killed 129 people.

“The Iraqi foreign ministry warned us but the Islamic Republic of Iran’s army states that it has no fear of such threats and a red line has been drawn in Iraq 40km from the border,” Pourdastan said.

France, the US and Iran were among the countries that Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibra-him al-Jaafari said IS had targeted.

“We have strongly warned that if any ac-tion is taken (by IS), it will face a decisive response from Iranian armed forces and we will do the same in Afghanistan,” Pourdas-tan said, quoted by state media.

“Today part of Dae’sh is in north Afghan-istan and interested to approach Iran’s bor-der but the Iranian nation should rest as-sured that its sons in the army, the Guards, and police are ready,” he added.

“Before the enemy reaches borders, its actions will be neutralised.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is independent of the army, has ad-visory missions in Iraq and Syria at the in-vitation of the Baghdad and Damascus gov-ernments.

Pourdastan’s statement comes just weeks before Iranian pilgrims prepare to travel to Iraq for the annual Arbaeen com-memorations, which have been targeted by militants in past years. l

Anonymous hackers declare cyber war on IS n Reuters, London

The Anonymous hackers collective is prepar-ing to unleash waves of cyberattacks on Is-lamic State following the attacks in Paris last week that killed 129 people, it said in a video posted online.

A man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask said the Islamic State militants who claimed responsi-bility for the Paris attacks were “vermin” and Anonymous would hunt them down.

“These attacks cannot remain unpun-ished,” the man said in the video, speaking in French.

“We are going to launch the biggest oper-ation ever against you. Expect many cyberat-tacks. War has been declared. Get ready,” the man said, without giving details of what the attacks would involve. “We don’t forgive and we don’t forget.”

Anonymous is an international network of activist computer hackers which has claimed responsibility for many cyberattacks. l

G20 vows more intelligence sharing, but little shift on Syrian Reuters, Belek, Turkey

World leaders promised to tighten border controls, step up intelligence sharing and crack down on terrorist � nancing at a sum-mit in Turkey on Monday, but there was lit-tle sign of a dramatic shift in strategy against Islamic State in Syria.

The G20 summit in Turkey’s coastal province of Antalya has been dominated by Friday’s suicide bombings and shootings in Paris, which killed 129 people and under-lined the threat posed by the radical jihad-ist group far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

The two-day summit brings together world leaders including US President Ba-rack Obama and Russia’s Vladimir Putin just 500km from Syria, whose 4.5-year con� ict has transformed Islamic State into a global security threat and spawned Europe’s larg-est migration crisis since World War II.

“The horri� c attacks in Paris on Friday night, so soon after the Russian airline dis-aster and following on from the Ankara bombings and the attacks in Tunisia and Lebanon, they underline the threat we all face,” British Prime Minister David Cameron told a news conference.

“We have agreed to take further impor-tant steps to cut o� the � nancing that terror-ists rely on, to counter the extremist ideolo-gy of the terrorist propaganda and to better protect ourselves from the threat of foreign � ghters by sharing intelligence and stopping them from travelling.”

French warplanes pounded positions

held by Islamic State, also known as Dae’sh, in Syria on Sunday. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described it as an act of self-defence following the Paris attacks.

“France has always said that given the manner in which it has been threatened, not only threatened but attacked, by Daesh, it is completely normal that it takes the in-itiative and as an act of legitimate defence, takes action,” he told reporters.

Obama vowed on Sunday to step up ef-forts to eliminate Islamic State and prevent more attacks like those in the French capi-tal, while urging Putin in an informal meet-ing to focus his military campaign in Syria on combating the jihadist group.

US-led e� orts to � ght Islamic State were complicated when Russia joined the con� ict a month and a half ago, targeting what the West says are mainly foreign-backed � ght-ers battling President Bashar al-Assad, Mos-cow’s ally, rather than Islamic State.

Cameron, who also held a one-hour meet-ing with the Russian leader, said di� erenc-es in opinion over Assad’s future had been enormous but appeared to be narrowing.

“There are big di� erences, we don’t hide those, we discuss them. But it is important in all these instances to have a proper dia-logue with people like him,” Cameron said.

US o� cials said Washington wanted to intensify existing e� orts against Islamic State, including the bombing campaign and arming Syrian rebels. Obama will meet with European allies at the end of the summit to try to shore up their common front.

But the o� cials said there were no imme-

diate plans for any dramatic shift in strate-gy such as the deployment of signi� cant ground forces. The dilemma remained how to rally the coalition without drawing the US deeper into Syria’s war, they said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged leaders at a working dinner on Sunday to deepen intelligence sharing and said leaders in the Muslim world must do more to break the perception that terrorism is a� liated with Islam, presidency sources said.

Turkey has come under pressure from Western allies to ramp up its � ght against Is-lamic State but it has long complained about a lack of robust intelligence sharing and urged the West to provide more information about potential suspects before they travel. l

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015World 9

DT

USACIA chief fears more IS attacks in ‘pipeline’CIA director John Brennan warned Monday that the attacks in Paris were likely not a “one o� event” and that he expects the Islamic State group has more operations in the pipeline. “Se-curity and intelligence services right now are working feverishly to see what else they can do in terms of uncovering it,” he said at a Washing-ton think tank. “I would anticipate that this is not the only operation ISIL (another acronym for IS) has in the pipeline,” he said. -AFP

THE AMERICASMexico extradites drug cartel boss to USMexico has extradited top drug tra� cker Cesar Gastelum Serrano, 47, to the United States, where he is accused of running a network that smuggles tons of cocaine into the US via Central America, authorities said Sunday. Gastelum, who is linked to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in April in the Mexican resort of Cancun. He was handed over to American authorities at an airport outside Mexico City. -AFP

UKBritain, Germany to host donor conference for Syria refugees Britain and Germany said Monday they will co-host along with two other states a major donor conference in early 2016 in London aiming to attract � nancial aid for the millions of Syrians who have � ed their homes due to the civil war. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit -- organ-ised alongside Norway and Kuwait -- would take place on February 4 in London. She said it would be aimed at rallying “humanitarian assistance” for the refugees. -AFP

EUROPEFrance to limit UN climate summit to core talks, ban ralliesFrance will limit a UN climate summit in Paris starting in two weeks’ time to core negotiations and cancel planned marches and concerts, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday. He told RTL radio: “A series of demonstra-tions planned will not take place and it will be reduced to the negotiations ... a lot of concerts and festivities will be cancelled.” Mainstream environmental groups say they will respect any bans, decreed under emergency powers in France after the attacks on Friday. -REUTERS

AFRICAUN: Migrants in Libya risk ‘brutal violence’Migrants who travel to Libya hoping to reach the shores of Europe risk “brutal violence” at the hands of people smugglers, a UN report said on Monday. The report said “refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, ... are increasingly vulnerable to killing, detention in inhumane conditions, torture, kidnapping, physical as-sault, armed robbery and exploitation”. Many “become victims of brutal violence, coercion and abuse perpetrated by smugglers along smuggling routes”, said the report. -AFP

INSIGHT

Paris attacks intensify migrant debate in EUn AFP, Vienna

The Paris attacks and the discovery of a Syr-ian passport near one of the assailant’s bod-ies have revived the European debate on whether to take a harder line on migrants.

With the continent facing its biggest mi-gration crisis since World War II, EU states have bickered for months on how to stem the � ow and share out the new arrivals.

There have been steady calls from the right -- and more emerged Sunday -- for nations to be wary of the wave of people � eeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

“Not every refugee is an Islamic State ter-rorist. But to believe that there is not a single � ghter among the refugees is naive,” Mark-us Soeder, a politician with the conservative Bavarian party CSU told the German press on Sunday.

“Paris changed everything” and “this is no time for uncontrolled immigration,” said Soeder, whose party has been critical of Ger-man Chancellor Angela Merkel’s accommo-dating stance on refugees.

Yet on Sunday European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker defended the line that “there is no need for an overall review of the European policy on refugees.”

The discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one attacker has raised fears that some of the assailants might have en-tered Europe as part of the huge in� ux of people � eeing Syria’s civil war.

Greek and Serbian authorities have con-� rmed the passport belonged to a man who registered as a refugee in October on the is-land of Leros and applied for asylum in Ser-bia a few days later.

‘It’s a fairy tale’Poland’s incoming European A� airs Min-ister Konrad Szymanski said Saturday that Warsaw no longer considered an EU plan to redistribute refugees across Europe as a “political possibility” in light of the Paris attacks.

Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders weighed in on Twitter Sunday, writ-ing: “(Prime Minister Mark) Rutte will you listen at last: Close the borders!”

PEGIDA, the German Islamophobic movement, has predicted that attacks in Germany are inescapable “if we don’t stop the avalanche of asylum seekers, if we do not properly secure our borders.”

More than 800,000 migrants have ar-rived in Europe by sea so far this year, most-ly from the Middle East.

Other voices have called for calmer think-ing. Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, has warned against any “swift links” between the Paris attacks and Eu-rope’s migrant crisis.

“Those who organised, who perpetrated the attacks are the very same people who the refugees are � eeing and not the oppo-site,” said Juncker.

“Those behind the attacks in Paris cannot be put on equal footing with refugees who are seeking asylum,” he said.

A source inside Juncker’s entourage not-ed that his words do not mean there is � exi-bility to even partially review the 28-nation bloc’s stance on refugees.

The Netherlands’ Foreign A� airs Min-ister Bert Koenders noted that “closing the borders creates the illusion that we are safe. It’s a fairy tale that does not help anyone.”

“We must not be naive. We have to check migrants so that we know who we are dealing with, but we need to be very careful when linking causes and e� ects,” he added.

In Croatia, which has become the main Balkan country of transit for migrants, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic remind-ed that “closing (borders) and barbed wire does not prevent these kind of tragedies.” l

US President Barack Obama (R) chats with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin prior to a working session at the G20 leaders summit in Antalya on Monday REUTERS

World10DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Police fail to catch key Paris suspect in Brussels raidn AFP, Brussels

Belgian police launched a major raid in Brussels targeting fugitive Paris attacks suspect Salah Ab-deslam on Monday but the oper-ation ended without any arrests, prosecutors said.

Police meanwhile freed one of his brothers without charge, fol-lowing his arrest at the weekend in the wake of the attacks in which a third Abdeslam brother took part as a suicide bomber, o� cials said.

“The operation is over and the result is negative. No one was ar-rested,” spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt said.

Van Der Sypt had earlier con-� rmed that the raid targeted Salah Abdeslam -- a 26-year-old former Brussels tram worker who is the subject of an international arrest warrant by French police -- without saying whether he was in the house.

Salah Abdeslam’s brother Bra-him Abdeselam was one of the sui-cide attackers who caused carnage in Paris, blowing himself up out-side a bar on Boulevard Voltaire.

A Belgian newspaper said that Brahim Abdeslam had links to a Belgian Islamic State militant be-lieved to be the mastermind of a ji-hadist cell dismantled in January.

His name appears in several police � les alongside leading mil-itant Abdelhamid Abaaoud relat-ing to criminal cases in 2010 and 2011, Flemish-language newspa-per De Standaard reported.

Abaaoud -- a 27-year-old Bel-gian of Moroccan descent who allegedly led the group and had fought with the Islamic State group in Syria -- remains at large. He has claimed in the IS Eng-lish-language magazine Dabiq to have rejoined the group in Syria. He also lived in Molenbeek.

Molenbeek also home to one of the 2004 Madrid train bomb-ers and the main suspect in the 2014 Jewish Museum attack in Brussels, while the perpetrator of the foiled attack in August on the Amsterdam-Paris train stayed in Molenbeek with his sister before boarding in Brussels. l

Election winners, and losers, return to Myanmar parliamentn AFP, Yangon

Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party re-turned to parliament Monday fresh from a landslide election victory but still cautious over the delicate power transition ahead.

Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from leading the country but has vowed to rule from “above” the next president, who she

will select following her National League for Democracy’s win in the November 8 polls.

Suu Kyi was mobbed by dozens of jour-nalists as she arrived at the parliament on Monday, but declined to make any comment as she takes a low pro� le approach to victory.

The NLD bulldozed the current ar-my-backed ruling party, taking nearly 80% of seats in the polls.

That result is set to dramatically reshape the political landscape of a country controlled for half a century by the army. But the ruling Un-ion Solidarity and Development Party, whose MPs also returned to parliament, will continue to dominate the legislature at a � nal session that will run until at least the end of January.

President Thein Sein, whose quasi-civilian government opened the hermit nation to the

world since taking power in 2011, will also hold o� ce until the new NLD-dominated parliament elects a replacement. He has said elections were the result of sweeping reforms by his gov-ernment, adding that the handover of power would be smooth. Observers predict a fevered period of political horsetrading, centred on the uncertainty over the presidency as the country creeps out of the shadow of the military. l

INSIDE

BRTC’s signing of a Tk2,967 crore agreement, with French company Thales Alenia Space to develop and launch Bangladesh’s � rst-ever satellite, represents poor value for money.

The government is claiming that once the satellite is launched at a total project cost of some $380 million, it will “eventually help save the country $14m a year.”

As the facts stand, there is no � nancial case for this project. It should be obvious that a payback period of 27 years seems like a bad investment decision, when most satellites have a projected lifetime of less than 20 years.

One mooted reason for pursuing this project has been the suggestion that Bangladesh could earn additional revenues by renting out spare capacity to neighbouring countries. This is a highly risky assumption. Satellite costs are becoming ever more competitive and it is probable that Chinese and Indian satellites would be able to provide cheaper alternatives to Bangladesh.

It would have made far more sense to simply wait a few more years for Bangladesh’s satellite usage to increase to the point where greater savings could have been made and the project’s capacity would be utilised within the country.

The government has to learn to spend tax-payer funds more e� ectively. The money being committed to this satellite project would have been far better spent on government schools and hospitals, or new power plants and higher priority projects.

Spending this large amount of tax-payer money on improving and education and investing in skills would be a far more productive way to help Bangladesh nurture high technology industries.

That way, when a growing economy makes the project more � nancially viable, we will have the capacity to harness more of the � nance, resources, and skills needed to develop this project ourselves.

The government has to learn to spend tax-payer funds more e� ectively

Bangladesh and beyond

Goodnight, ParisAll one can really do is hope that these are the desperate, last-minute brouhahas of a dying breed. And that most people will see through the facade and give in to the ideals of liberty, equality, and brotherhood, which the French are so famous for

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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Words have powerWhite lives matter more than brown ones. Those crying are shamed by those assuming the mantel of moral superiority. Their tears for Paris are somehow judged to be an a� ront to the memory of Beirut

The prospect of new digital � nance providers and hundreds of thousands of new digital bank accounts bodes extremely well, not only for the unbanked people of Bangladesh, but for the overall economy of the country

Satellite deal is poor valuefor money

11D

TEditorialTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

BIGSTOCK

n Rodger Voorhies

Every few years, somewhere between 10%-30% of the world’s poorest households manage to escape poverty. At the same time, a

comparable number slip below the poverty line. Often, all it takes is one sudden expense -- a hospital bill or a failed harvest -- to break a family’s � nancial stability.

To end this zero-sum balance, we need to make these unexpected expenses endurable. We need to put poverty at a distance rather than allow it to lie in wait around every next corner. We need to give people access to the � nancial tools that allow them to save, budget, and join the formal economy -- in e� ect, helping people escape poverty and stay out of poverty for good.

Bangladesh should be very proud of all the work it has done to further the cause of � nancial inclusion, especially by expanding the reach of digital � nancial services. In bKash, it already has one of the world’s most well-known mobile money providers. And the country’s national bank is now drafting mobile � nancial guidelines which will de� ne how new providers can enter the market.

In the social sector, Dhaka-based BRAC, the largest NGO in the world, will soon digitise their operating transactions -- primarily repayment of micro� nance loans to their 5.5 million clients around the globe -- and the Business for Social Responsibility, a global non-pro� t business network, is also working with 175 di� erent employers to digitise wage payments, predominantly in Bangladesh’s sizable garment industry.

Digitising wages and payments is a fantastic � rst step in introducing low-income populations to banking and can have a transformative e� ective on the greater � nancial landscape, particularly if sectors, like the government follow suit. According to the 2015 Global Findex, digitising payments to the 160 million unbanked adults who currently receive government transfers or wages in cash, would reduce the global unbanked population by 8%.

This is all tremendously exciting. The prospect of new digital � nance providers and hundreds of thousands of new digital bank accounts bodes extremely well, not only for the unbanked people of Bangladesh, but for the overall economy of the country. When transactions that previously circulated outside the formal economy are channeled within it, it creates new relationships and opportunities among users, providers, and commercial entities.

Impoverished customers gradually build up equity and � nancial skills, and this allows them to engage even more with the commercial and � nancial outlets surrounding them. In tandem, these outlets also grow and evolve, and prosperity as a whole increases.

In other words, everyone bene� ts from an economy that includes everyone. At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where I lead the Financial Services for the Poor program, we believe that digital � nancial services are the best way to create that vibrant economy.

Before my current position, I lived and worked for nearly 20 years in Africa and Eastern Europe, helping to bring innovative � nancial services to emerging markets and poor communities.

During this time, I learned that savings is one of the most critical factors in a person’s potential to emerge from poverty. But when you exist in an entirely cash-based economy, as is the case for 2 billion poor people around the world, saving is exceedingly di� cult.

Access to and use of a formal account or wallet, however, can change this. Saving, budgeting, and planning for the future be-come easier.

In fact, a number of rigorous academic studies have shown the ripple e� ect savings can have on a person’s well-being. When the bank I ran in Malawi provided savings accounts to farmers, helping them set aside funds from one season to the next, we saw a 35% increase in fertiliser use and a 17% increase in disposable income.

But to provide these services at scale, low-income families require products that meet their day-to-day needs, with small payment sizes and safe ways to reserve money for purposes like education and important life events. Wealthy households live their � nancial lives embedded in a digital � nancial system that “greases the wheels” of their economic activity by making it cheap and easy for them to transact. Their money sits in a virtual account, where it can be transferred with the click of a button. In contrast, 2 billion people -- most of them poor -- are cut o� from that system.

They store and transfer value through

physical assets, such as cash, jewelry, or livestock. This cash-digital divide creates two mutually reinforcing inequities in the � nancial lives of poor households.

First, it imposes direct costs on poor households, making it costlier and riskier for them to perform basic � nancial activities, from sending wages to one’s family to � nancing an investment in fertiliser. Second, it perpetuates the poor’s marginalisation from the formal economy by making it prohibitively costly for utility companies, banks, insurance companies, and other institutions to transact with them.

By going digital, we can help lessen that divide. We can cut transaction costs by as much as 90%. There is also the advantage of reach: Whereas operating a traditional bank branch is impractical in the rural and remote areas, where the poor often live, 90 % of the world’s poor -- 94% in Bangladesh -- are covered by a mobile signal. Put simply, digital will take banking to people and places it has never been before.

However, as critical as it is to increase the availability of digital bank accounts, availability does not always equal adoption. For true success in � nancial inclusion, we need to establish an environment where, for example, it doesn’t make sense for people

to cash out their digital wages as soon as they are received. We need merchants and services that accept digital payments. Digital money has to be a convenient and commonly supported way of buying goods, paying school fees, sending money to family members, and performing the other transactions central to the lives of poor people. But it can be done, and we’re excited to see Bangladesh joining this movement.

From micro� nance to mobile money, Bangladesh has proven time and again that the right services, tailored to the legion of poor and eager customers, can become part of a new way of life.

Organisations such as BSR and BRAC are adding vital momentum to the transition to digital. By creating an environment where digital � nancial services can � ourish, in Bangladesh and beyond, we can help the world’s 2 billion unbanked people emerge from poverty, and help create local economies that include and bene� t everyone. l

Rodger Voorhies is Director, Financial Services for the Poor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates.

Digital � nancial services:Bangladesh and beyond

The prospect of new digital � nance providers and hundreds of thousands of new digital bank accounts bodes extremely well, not only for the unbanked people of Bangladesh, but for the overall economy of the country

Digital banking is right on track in eliminating poverty in Bangladesh BIGSTOCK

Bangladesh is leading the way in bringing banking to the poor

Opinion12DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Opinion 13D

TTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

n SN Rasul

War, war never changes. But the way we conduct it has. Even before reports came out of the Paris attacks, we knew what it

was. This has become the new normal, the way we conduct business. Multiple sides screaming in righteous anger, but the story remains the same.

One group claims responsibility -- this time ISIS -- citing this as a retaliation against France’s recent foreign policy, which would involve airstrikes in Syria. Another group, comprising the so-called “moderate” Muslims, will wax poetic about how this does not represent true Islam, the ever-present religion of “peace.”

Then there are the Facebook vigilantes who will change their pro� le pictures to the French � ag, pledging solidarity with the Parisian people.

Then, as a reaction, the counter-vigilantes who will comment on how no one is mentioning the Beirut attacks, cry havoc at Facebook’s lack of a Lebanese version of a “safety check” and a � ag photo � lter.

Yes, one shouldn’t forget Lebanon. But Paris: That is a whole di� erent ball game. Does that mean white lives matter more? Indubitably, if political and media insinuations are anything to go by. With so many Middle Eastern bodies being felled, what is 40 more?

But French lives: Those really, really matter. These are people who live in developed nations, nations we, the third world majority, would kill to live in, with their cleaner streets, better behaviour, more advanced technology, oftentimes socialist healthcare, superior infrastructure, internationally practised and learnt languages, and so much more.

Inside all of us, there is a Parisian screaming to be recognised as such, or perhaps an American, a Brit, an Aussie, or maybe a general European, or maybe even, to a lesser degree, a New Zealander?

After all, why have so many people jumped ship, risked life and limb, braved the mighty waves of a limitless sea, trekked hazardous terrains, to reach the borders of these nations?

These people are presumably running away from the same thing that the West fears so much: Radicalisation, violence, death, oppression, the taking away of their human rights. They are victims of the same things, the same ideals, which the West seems to think it has monopoly on.

One wouldn’t be too surprised if there is even more opposition brewing against the in� ux of Syrian and other refugees, with an online petition in the UK already making the rounds, stating: “Stop all immigration and close the UK borders until ISIS is defeated.”

The chasm between ideologies is on a daily increase, as these attacks continue, and it is indubitably a matter of course before even the liberal, left-wing, tree-hugging, vegan cuisine connoisseurs of the West too become fed up of the Islamic invasion, which, ironically enough, has almost always contradicted their own beliefs.

They too might give in to the culture of fear that the terrorists have continued to brew; they too might say: “You know what? Better safe than sorry. Better alive than e� ng dead.”

Or, or, or: Maybe this will blow over like all the others have since the landscape changed after 9/11. Or maybe the landscape was always the same, and people were just less aware, or we weren’t old enough, or people didn’t have such room to spread their own opinions and, conversely, have it so easily, so

forcefully, be rejected and contradicted. What all this capital letter screaming and

shouting really means is that people are frustrated and wish to be understood, or they wish us to understand the situation, in just the perfect, nuanced, all-sides-considered, all-prejudices-� ltered kind of way.

And one can’t blame them. There are too many things to talk about and not enough words, or maybe not the right kind of words.

Everything requires a caveat, everything requires us to consider something else.

If we were on the hunt for the right way of going about tackling this mess, we would fail, because this mess isn’t constricted to a few restaurants and a concert venue in Paris or Beirut. It’s enveloped the world.

Yes, what happened in Paris was terrible. And yes, so was what happened in Beirut. And Africa, does anyone care about that? Does it matter if it’s not ISIS? And yes, what continues to happen in the Middle East is a perennial tragedy on a cruel loop.

And no, France’s vows of vengeance will achieve nothing. Also, too, to the question of white lives versus brown/black/yellow/red lives because yes, politically speaking, they matter more.

Yes, social media activism is the new “doing something” and this the only way

we seem to be able to convey sorrow and grievance and empathy and tell the world that we matter and that we too are part of something big, but also yes: All of it is futile. We are having a conversation no one is listening to.

Yes, also, to the question which asks: “Do these people really care?” But also no. These verbose words plastered as html text or hashtags, these Nous Sommes Parisiens (Are we Parisians though? Or do we just really, really wish we were?) spin-o� s, they matter little, and change nothing.

Who started this � ght? Should we start with the most obvious choice, the terrorists, who do the actual killing and hostage taking?

Or should we blame the Muslim community, who have often not wholly condemned terrorist attacks, but also inevitably be stigmatised for their non-role in the continued attacks, even if they had?

Or the cultural dichotomy within the West itself? Or should we blame the Iraqi invasion? Or, before that, to 9/11? To Iraq under George Sr? The Cold War? The creation of Israel? World War II? The British Mandate for Palestine? World War I? Muhammad? Jesus? The creation of religion itself?

Do we go back to go forwards? Or forward to go backwards?

How do we know who to blame when all cultures have simultaneously been complicit in the creation of the environment we � nd ourselves in.

Perhaps we were all just trying to survive but this game of cause and e� ect is a tennis match that has been going on since the dawn of time. Someone does something, and someone else reacts. And so on and so forth the cycle continues. How many died and who killed them, and numbers and � gures and statistics carved in such a way as to propagate a certain agenda, none of these matter.

All one can really do is hope that these are the desperate, last-minute brouhahas of a dying breed. And that most people will see through the facade and give in to the ideals of liberty, equality, and brotherhood, which the French are so famous for.

While Paris burns, maybe the world will pray for its citizens and carry a pail of tears to throw at it. While Beirut, and the less relevant rest of the world does, maybe some will remember it at least and honour it with a goodnight kiss. l

SN Rasul is a writer. Follow him @snrasul. 

Goodnight, Paris

All one can really do is hope that these are the desperate, last-minute brouhahas of a dying breed. And that most people will see through the facade and give in to the ideals of liberty, equality, and brotherhood, which the French are so famous for

Stand with Paris, but don’t forget the rest of the world REUTERS

Does Paris burn brighter than Lebanon?

Opinion14DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

n Ikhtisad Ahmed

First it was countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. Then it became cities: Beirut, Paris. The media goes into overdrive. The news cycle inundates

people with apocalyptic visions and prophecies. Citizens of the world begin to believe that the four horsemen have ridden into town, that Armageddon has consumed their planet.

The orchestra is guided by the conductor -- a media blitz -- to a frenzy. Midway through the � rst percentage of the carefully planned reporting on the latest act of barbarism visited upon the human species by madmen, � ssures appear in the united front of mourners.

White lives matter more than brown ones. Those crying are shamed by those assuming the mantel of moral superiority. Their tears for Paris are somehow judged to be an a� ront to the memory of Beirut. Never mind that those shaming, emboldened by the self-important megaphones of social media, were themselves not crying about Beirut when it was terrorised.

The Western media collectively has taken Paris to heart, not for the � rst time. Western leaders have had much to say about Paris too, partly because what happened in the capital of France represents a direct threat to their lifestyle, partly because it � ts their narrative of the War on Terror -- the rhetoric of which conveniently overlooks the West’s culpability, nay, almost exclusive responsibility in birthing the beasts that it browbeats about slaying.

Neither spoke about Beirut. A detailed look at the top dailies in Bangladesh shows the trend replicated. Paris dominated the news and opinion pages, Beirut barely registered. The Bangladeshi media can try to excuse itself.

For one thing, co-ordinated acts of violence in the cultural capital of the world is news. For another, Bangladesh is familiar with being overlooked. The clichéd reporting on the country saw CNN and BBC lead with the story of a ferry capsizing when Shahbagh was taking shape. Additionally, while no one was Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rahman, Ananta Bijoy Das, Niloy Chatterjee, or Faisal Are� n Dipan, world leaders and millions of global citizens marched for Charlie Hebdo.

Those two words remain synonyms for any discourse on the freedoms of speech and

expression, freedoms which the oppressors have started to abuse to justify their oppression while denouncing rationality and reason under the guise of political correctness.

Bangladesh got a few mentions in the global media, and was then as quickly forgotten as the millions of innocents who have been killed in the Middle East, as the hundreds of thousands of innocents who were murdered in Vietnam and Cambodia. White lives matter more than any other colour, not just to other white people, but to the entire world.

That is why, for all the liberal and neo-liberal outrage, the ideal of beauty in the Indian sub-continent remains tied to fair skin. People should not be judged for this: Western soft power during and since the Cold War has given rise to ruling classes comprised of brown sahibs, a principle that was � rst implemented before the colonies gained their conditional independences.

These ruling classes have been in awe of Western hard power, have bought into its mythos, which includes never being wrong and never apologising.

People should not be judged, for that creates further divisions and classes. They can, however, begin to have a responsibility to improve themselves so that their view of the world is more wholesome and honest. Personal biases, compounded by the media business, makes it impossible to remember that the world and the human species are better than they have ever been.

The perspective needs to be corrected, but that can only happen if people broaden their minds and horizons. This begins with conversations, with debates and discussions, with inclusive dialogue, all of which are di� cult in Bangladesh. People are being killed and imprisoned for their words, and every time there is a new victim, thousands

other fall silent to avoid the same fate. Religion and culture have both been politi-

cised since before independence, a trajectory that has been maintained since. The space for free thinking, for genuine free speech and expression, is almost entirely absent.

Starting Thursday, for three days, Bangladesh will try to prove that there is still hope. While previous editions of the annual literary showpiece have had an air of elitism, of nefarious agendas, there are individuals dedicated to presenting Bangladesh to the world, to expanding the safe space for

words in the country, to being inclusive, who are involved with the rebranded Dhaka Literary Festival. They promise to make the festival for, by, and about Bangladesh, and, if Bangladesh is to be given its dues by the world, it needs to do so on its own terms, in its own words.

The festival is an important part of the exhausted machine that is working overtime to achieve those wider goals.

Esteemed writers and thinkers from across

the world are defying the fearmongering of their governments to attend the festival, to show their solidarity with Bangladeshis as so many did with Charlie Hebdo and Paris. The proud citizens who, shorn of partisanship, intolerance and hatred, wish to preserve the soul of their nation need to descend on Bang-la Academy to make it a real celebration. l

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

Words have powerParis has been dominating news coverage. But what about other cities?

White lives matter more than brown ones. Those crying are shamed by those assuming the mantel of moral superiority. Their tears for Paris are somehow judged to be an a� ront to the memory of Beirut

Are certain lives remembered more than others? REUTERS

15D

TBusinessTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

CEO: GP plans to introduce innovative programmes Grameenphone is planning to introduce some innovative programmes in Bangladesh consid-ering the prospect of the industry. PAGE 16

* TRAI consultation paper “Consultation Paper No. 4/2015”

There are many reasons for why call drops happen, some of the most common are:

1.46

1.36

1.05

1.06 1.3

1

1.32

1.30

1.14

1.07

1.22

1.11 1.3

5

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

QoS Directive Indian average

2G VOICE CALL DROP RATE IN PEAK TIME (%)

n PPn Pn Pn PPPapapeapeapeapeapeaper Nr Nr NNNr ooooo

GP NETWORK: ON QUALITY OF SERVICE AND CALL DROPS

NETWORK ISSUESWhen technical issues in thenetwork causes interruption

HANDSET ISSUESWhen handset does notcomply with network

WEATHER ISSUESRain, humidity and temperature variationcan cause signal loss or interference

FIBER CUTSCauses network outage

Reported Call Drop Rates toBTRC indicate that:

● GP is well below the QoS guideline from BTRC (3%)

● GP is well below international standards (national average of Indian operators is 2%*)

● GP is below local competitiors

Japan dips into recession in stumble for ‘Abenomics’Japan’s economy slipped into recession for the second time since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power nearly three years ago, data showed Monday, dealing a fresh blow to his drive to kickstart weak growth and end years of de� ation. PAGE 18

World shares, euro fall, oil and gold up after Paris attacksThe euro hit its weakest in more than six months against the yen yesterday as investors sought safety in gold and low-risk government debt after Friday’s attacks in Paris. PAGE 17

Capital market snapshot: MondayDSE

Broad Index 4,475.8 1.2% ▲

Index 1,078.4 1.2% ▲

30 Index 1,699.4 0.8% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 4,156.4 87.4% ▲

Turnover in Mn Volume 102.0 59.5% ▲

CSEAll Share Index 13,658.4 1.0% ▲

30 Index 12,050.8 0.3% ▲

Selected Index 8,310.9 1.0% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 254.9 52.8% ▲

Turnover in Mn Volume 9.0 55.3% ▲

INSIDE

NBR plans coordinated e� orts to resolve pending tax casesn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The National Board of Revenue plans to work together with stakeholders to set-tle legal cases involving around Tk31,000 crore revenues.

As part of e� orts, the NBR will hold a seminar today on the revenue suit manage-ment and alternative dispute resolution.

O� cias said the seminar would focus on procedural matters of the cases pending and e� ectiveness of the ADR.

About 600 representatives from di� erent trade bodies, associations, business groups, government and private o� ces are going to take part in the seminar.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha is expected to attend the event as chief guest while Finance Minister AMA Muhith, State Minister for Finance MA Mannan, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and In-dustry President Abdul Matlub Ahmad will be present as special guests.

Currently, a total of 24,572 cases are pending with the Supreme Court, which involve an amount of Tk30,947 crore reve-nues in income tax, customs duty and value added tax.

The VAT-related cases pending with the court involve about Tk17,939 crore, the high-est amount of others. The customs-related cases are the highest in number – 17,470.

NBR o� cials said the board has taken long-term and short-term strategies includ-ing monitoring and coordinated e� orts with stakeholders for speedy disposal of the cases.

The NBR hopes that the coordinated ef-forts by attorney general o� ce, o� ce of the registrar general, solicitor’s o� ce and NBR with its three wings can help ease the back-log of cases involving the businesses with the process.

Earlier, the NBR held a meeting with at-torney general where they had talked about formation of a three-member core working group. The member will be from attorney gen-eral o� ce and NBR, and the group will work to implement judicial guidance compilation.

The tax authorities in 2012 introduced

ADR, a mechanism to resolve the tax-relat-ed disputes and ensure a win-win situation for both the NBR and taxpayers.

However, the mechanism is yet to get momentum as only a few taxpayers have adopted it. There is a lack of awareness among taxpayers about the system.

According to the system, a panel of facil-itators will assist both taxpayers and reve-nue o� cials to resolve disputes within two months of � ling applications.

The NBR has recently instructed all its � eld o� ces to motivate taxpayers, mainly businesses to adopt the process. It also pub-lished a number of advertisements in the newspapers to make people aware about the matter. l

Banks asked to receive coins from customers n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank asked all the schedule banks to receive coins and mutilated notes from their customers with paying due exchange value.

The instruction came against the backdrop of allegations that the branches of schedule banks are reluctant to receive coins and mutilated notes from clients, said a circular Bangla-desh Bank issued yesterday.

As a result, people face harassment while regular � nancial transactions get interrupted, said the circular.

The circular advised the banks to receive coins of Tk1, Tk2 and Tk5 denominations, plus notes from customers.

Every branch will keep at least 10,000 pieces of coins each of Tk1, Tk2 and Tk5 denominations in their collection while large branches and local branches 30,000 pieces. l

Standard Insurance � nally loses licencen Tribune Report

The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) has � -nally issued the notice of cancelling the business licence of Standard In-surance for rule violations.

The authority sent a letter in this regard to the company on Sunday, and the cancellation order is e� ec-tive from the same day.

Earlier on November 10, the IDRA board took the decision of voiding the insurance’s licence, � rst ever in the country’s history.

The insurance regulator’s Chair-man M Shefaq Ahmed said the li-cence was cancelled on the grounds of rule violations.

The letter said the company was given a chance of being reformed, but it did not comply with that even � ve months after the licence was suspended on June 17 this year.

Moreover, the insurance kept violating the rules repeatedly and was involved in irregularities dur-ing the suspension period.

Investigation found that the company did not re-insure the pol-icies of Tk127.56 crore during the year 2013-14.

Standard Insurance can appeal against the cancellation order to the government within 90 days.

The company cannot make any new insurance contract after the cancellation of its licence, but the contracts made before the licence cancellation will continue.

Amar Krishna Saha, chief exec-utive o� cer of the company said they have got the letter of licence cancellation.

The company will appeal for re-consideration of the order, he add-ed. l

Sectors Number Amounts

of revenues involved

(in Tk crore)

Revenue target set for FY2015-16

(in Tk crore)

Rate of pending revenue against

the revenue target( in %)

Customs 17,470 4,825.43 46,536 10.37

Income Tax

3,876 8,182.70 65,932 12.41

VAT 3,226 17,938.49 63,902 28.07

Total 24,572 30,946.62 1,76,370 17.55

P E N D I N G T A X R E L A T E D C A S E S

‘The company was given a chance of being reformed, but it did not comply with that’

Business16DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

* TRAI consultation paper “Consultation Paper No. 4/2015”

There are many reasons for why call drops happen, some of the most common are:

1.46

1.36

1.05

1.06 1.

31

1.32

1.30

1.14

1.07 1.

22

1.11 1.

35

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

QoS Directive Indian average

2G VOICE CALL DROP RATE IN PEAK TIME (%)

n PPn Pn Pn PPPapapeapeapeapeapeaper Nr Nr NNNr ooooo

GP NETWORK: ON QUALITY OF SERVICE AND CALL DROPS

NETWORK ISSUESWhen technical issues in thenetwork causes interruption

HANDSET ISSUESWhen handset does notcomply with network

WEATHER ISSUESRain, humidity and temperature variationcan cause signal loss or interference

FIBER CUTSCauses network outage

Reported Call Drop Rates toBTRC indicate that:

● GP is well below the QoS guideline from BTRC (3%)

● GP is well below international standards (national average of Indian operators is 2%*)

● GP is below local competitiors

GP plans to o� er new products n Ishtiaq Husain

Grameenphone is planning to introduce some innovative programmes in Bangladesh considering the prospect of the industry.

Rajeev Shethi, chief executive o� cer of Grameenphone, came up with the disclosure while talking to a select few of journalists at the Grameenphone head o� ce in the city recently.

“Although people in remote areas in Bang-ladesh still have no access to proper educa-tion and heath services, they are changing their lot just using internet as the power of in-ternet is huge. Internet usage in Bangladesh is a bit di� erent but freelancers are still work-ing even in those rural areas,” said Rajeev.

“As part of our innovation programmme, Grameenphone, in partnership with Telenor Digital, announced the launch of a pilot for its ‘MyStudy’ project, a mobile learning ap-plication brought by the GP and developed by Telenor Digital.”

The application targets the SSC students in 9th and 10th grades and currently focuses on the national curriculum of Mathematics and English II paper.

“MyStudy” programme provides access through mobile. Initially, it launched Math-ematics and English. Gradually, the number of subjects will be increased as all potential students across the country will get this ser-vice, he added.

“After this application, Grameenphone is also planning to bring another applica-tions named ‘Health Services’ which will be launched January next year,” he disclosed.

Pointing out that technology could be a great equaliser of a country, he said,

“Grameenphone invested signi� cantly in tel-ecommunication sector in 2015.”

“As the youths have many creative ideas without money, GP’s programme will help them facilitate their initiatives. We will train the youth on marketing as well as mentor them to make their ideas into reality,” he hoped.

The youth under the � rst batch of this pro-gramme will start their journey in January 2016 while these entrepreneurs will represent the world after completing their training.

Elaborating his ideas, the Grameenphone boss said, “Our vision is to create more en-trepreneurs engaging them in di� erent pro-grammes as well as simplifying customers life. People are deprived of proper education and health services in rural areas.”

Terming Grameenphone young people’s tools, Rajeev said: Grameenphone is an as-piration of brand, a matter of pride and re-sponsibility and also an institution, which

increased people’s expectation high. In response to a question, the GP CEO

said: “The company is not shifting its focus by introducing the innovative ideas although voice and data services are its main business.”

Responding to the allegations of a high-er number of call drops, he said, “Actually, mobile operators will have to be provided with quality services at the end and GP is maintaining ITU’s standard for providing the services while the operator is taking all the feedback very positively.”

He also explained: So many factors like weather, � bre cuts, network issues and handset issues are involved with the wire-less services. Association of Mobile Telecom operators in Bangladesh (AMTOB), national trade body representing all mobile operators in the country, is working on compensation issues in the backdrop of call drop.

Rajeev has compared GP’s service with the European countries, as the mobile opera-tors call drop is less than any other operators in Bangladesh.

“Though we are focusing on data services, but voice consumption is also increasing as call price is going down,” said GP CEO.

On 6 October, Bangladesh Telecommu-nications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) signed a deal with a company of chartered accountants for conducting a second time audit of the market’s leading mobile operator Grameenphone. The regulatory body’s audit has not started yet.

Rajeev said Grameenphone is technically capable to launch 4G or LTE services, but a lot of issues will have to be settled before in-troducing the services. l

Government move spurs stocksn Tribune Report

Stocks rose sharply yesterday after the gov-ernment decided to extend the deadline for cutting the banks’ investment exposure to t he stock market by two more years.

The market opened on happy note as the benchmark index DSEX crossing 4,480-mark swiftly before losing a few points at close.

The benchmark DSEX rose 51 points or 1.2% to 4,476. The index single-day rise was the highest in the last few months.

The Shariah index DSES rose 13 points to 1,078. The blue chip comprising index DS30 closed at 1,699, rising 13 points or 0.8%.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX gained 82 points to 8,310.

On Sunday evening, the � nance minis-ter said banks will get another two years for bringing down their investment exposure to the stock market.

The market recouped some losses of previ-ous sessions led by bank, cement and power stocks.

IDLC Investments said the market sparked up at the news of � nance mister’s intention to propose an extension of two years for banks to lower their stock market exposure to allowed level.

“The comment revitalised the market from yesterday’s activities and a prolonged declining trend in the market starting from October that cost over 400 points from the broad index.”

All the major sectors ended green with improved participation. The DSE turnover crossed Tk400 crore mark after eleven days with the engineering sector, leading the sec-toral activities chart, constituting 25.6% of the total turnover.

Lanka Bangla Securities said stocks bucked the trend with sharp move after previous session’s mixed performance amid hope on the government approval of the DSE’s proposal on adjusting the banks’ exist-ing over-exposure to the capital market.

“The market made a signi� cant move as investors found some comfort from the as-surance of � nance minister that the govern-ment will extend the time frame for adjust-ing commercial banks’ over-exposure to the capital market by two more years.” l

Karnaphuli Insurance � ned Tk9 lakh for law violation n Tribune Report

Insurance Development and Regulatory Au-thority (IDRA) yesterday � ned Karnarfuli In-surance and its top brass Tk9 lakh for violat-ing the insurance act.

The decision came at a hearing on Novem-

ber 11 at IDRA headquarters, said a press re-lease issued.

The insurance regulator carried out an in-vestigation in the local branch of the compa-ny in September. The investigation found the evidence of doing business on credit, which goes against the rule.

The authority held a hearing on the issue in presence of the Chief Executive O� cer of the insurance company, Ha� zullah, with IDRA Chairman M Shefqu Ahmed in the chair.

The management of Karnaphuli Insurance admitted its o� ence at the hearing.

In this perspective, the authority � ned the company Tk2 lakh for each month of June, November and December, totaling Tk6 lakh.

Moreover, Ha� zullah and local branch Manager AHM Anwar Naoaz Khan of the company were � ned Tk1.50 lakh each, ac-cording to the release. l

‘The market made a signi� cant move as investors found some comfort from the assurance of � nance minister’

Rajeev Shethi, CEO of Grameenphone

Business 17D

TTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

World shares, euro fall, oil and gold up after Paris attacksn Reuters, London

The euro hit its weakest in more than six months against the yen yesterday as inves-tors sought safety in gold and low-risk gov-ernment debt after Friday’s attacks in Paris.

Oil prices edged up after France launched large-scale air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria.

Asian shares fell to their lowest in six weeks but European shares’ losses were modest as markets reopened after the attacks that killed more than 130 people.

US stock index futures turned positive, in-dicating Wall Street was likely to open slight-ly higher.

“It seems likely that - at least temporarily - risky assets, that were under pressure any-way, continue to trade with a weaker tone,” RBC’s chief European macro strategist Peter Scha� rik said.

The pan-European FTSEuro� rst 300 in-dex opened lower, dragged down by travel and leisure stocks, though miners and ener-gy stocks gained. The index was last down 0.04 percent.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Paci� c shares outside Japan fell nearly 1.5% at one stage, its biggest daily fall since Sept. 29, and was last down 1.3%.

Leading the losers was Japan’s Nikkei stock index which tumbled nearly 1.1%,

nearly wiping out last week’s gains as data showed the economy slipped back into reces-sion in the July to September quarter.

It contracted at a 0.8% annualised rate. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2% contraction.

Emerging market stocks lost 0.9%.The widely-tracked CBOE volatility index

or “fear gauge” hit its highest level since Oct 2.Chinese stocks bucked the trend, howev-

er, reversing early losses to end higher. The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.7%.

Yields on safe-haven two-year German bonds hit a new record low of -0.382% be-

fore edging up to -0.37%. Ten-year German yields, the benchmark for euro zone borrow-ing costs, fell 1.2 basis points to 0.55%.

US Treasury yields also fell. Ten-year yields were last down 2.1 bps at 2.59%, hav-ing hit 2.41 percent in Asian trade.

In currency markets, the euro hit a 6 1/2-month low against the safe-haven yen, and close to that mark versus the dollar, be-fore recovering somewhat. The Swiss franc, also sought in times of turmoil, strengthened against the euro.

The single currency was last down 0.4% at $1.0740, having hit $1.0674 last week on expectations the European Central Bank will step up monetary easing. l

Japan urges China to go slow on yuan reformn Reuters, Tokyo

Japan has expressed concern to China about the pace of capital out� ows from the country and has suggested Beijing moves very slowly in reforming its currency system to avoid re-peating Japan’s past mistakes.

After a summer of market turmoil, China now appears to be at a critical juncture as capi-tal out� ows reach hundreds of billions of dollars and Beijing draws down heavily on its, al-beit large, currency reserves to o� set the impact of the money moving o� shore.

The stocks slump of more than 40% in a matter of a few months and the shock deval-uation of the yuan acted as a reminder of how quickly Bei-jing could lose control of its markets if it moves too quickly to open up to market forces, Japanese o� cials say.

“The pace of capital out� ows is alarming,” said a senior o� -cial with knowledge of Japan’s currency diplomacy. “If China’s � nancial system is destabilised, the e� ect on Japan and the rest of Asia would be enormous.”

Publicly, Japanese o� cials have urged China to proceed with reform and expressed con� dence that Beijing has the tools and expertise to man-age. But privately, they have adopted a di� erent tone, cau-tioning Beijing against moving too quickly to free up the yuan when large capital out� ows could make the currency a tar-get for speculators.

Japan has conveyed its concerns to Chinese o� cials at various meetings this year, including at the G20 � nancial leaders’ meeting in Turkey in September.

China took a big step to-wards internationalising its currency on Friday, when IMF sta� and the institution’s head Christine Lagarde endorsed the inclusion of the yuan in the fund’s benchmark foreign ex-change basket, known as Spe-cial Drawing Rights (SDR). An-alysts estimate inclusion could lead to demand for the yuan worth more than $500bn.

“It should be the other way around,” said a Japanese o� -cial, who declined to be identi-� ed because of the sensitivity of the matter. “Reforms come � rst, then you debate whether the yuan can join the SDR.”

China is trying to engineer a shift in the economy away from manufacturing and to-wards consumption and ser-vices while promising to fully liberalise the yuan by 2020 – a goal some Japanese o� cials feel is to ambitious.

Japan’s cautious tone is at odds with the more robust calls from Washington - underlined last week with comments from US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urging Beijing to press ahead with its reform plans.

But Japan’s views carry weight with Beijing, which has long taken a close interest in how Japan emerged in the past three decades as a global eco-nomic power.

It views Japan’s handling of capital � ows and the yen as key factors that led to its asset bubble blow-up in the early 1990s that led to nearly two decades of de� ation Japan is still struggling to eradicate.

For decades, China’s main concern was the amount of foreign currency coming into the economy as it built a huge export engine. l

Business18DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

CORPORATE NEWS

Dhaka Bank Limited has recently launched a month long campaign named Consumer Asset Marketing Campaign 2015, under which the bank’s customers will enjoy attractive interest rates and zero processing fee, said a press release. The bank’s managing director, Syed Mahbubur Rahman inaugurated the campaign

Walton has recently opened an exclusive showroom named Interactive Electronics at Mirpur-2, Dhaka. The company’s brand ambassador, � lm actor Ilias Kanchan inaugurated the showroom

Dutch-Bangla Bank has recently opened its 148th branch at Ansar Ali Complex, Sadar Road in Joypurhat. The bank’s DMD, Md Sayedul Hasan inaugurated the branch

Standard Bank Limited has recently signed an agreement with FARS Hotel & Resorts to provide the bank’s cardholder with discount facility at FARS Hotel & Resorts. The bank’s DMD, Mamun-Ur-Rashid and MD of FARS Hotel & Resorts, Akram Hossain signed the agreement

Japan dips into recession in stumble for ‘Abenomics’n AFP, Tokyo

Japan’s economy slipped into recession for the second time since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power nearly three years ago, data showed Monday, dealing a fresh blow to his drive to kickstart weak growth and end years of de� ation.

Abe has staked his reputation on a poli-cy blitz of � scal spending, aggressive mon-etary policy easing and structural reforms - dubbed Abenomics - aimed at reviving the world’s third-largest economy

Japan’s economy, once Asia’s biggest, has been overtaken by rival China, while it strug-gles with a challenging demographic outlook that is expected to see its population shrink by the tens of millions in coming decades.

Still, it boasts some of the world’s biggest companies, including in the automotive sec-tor, and banks, and its domestic technology plays a key role in powering a wide array of global industries, including vehicles, elec-tronics and high-end machinery.

But the Cabinet O� ce said Monday that gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.2% in the July-September period, or an annual-ised contraction of 0.8%, marking the sec-ond straight quarterly decline - considered a technical recession.

It was also below the 0.1% forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The economy contracted in 2014 after consumers tightened their belts following an increase in the country’s consumption tax,

which put a dent in a nascent recovery. That downturn spurred the Bank of Ja-

pan to sharply increase its already massive bond-buying programme, e� ectively print-ing money to spur lending.

In a bright sign, the government slightly improved its April-June data to a 0.2% con-traction from 0.3% shrinkage previously es-timated.

The latest � gures will turn attention back

to the BoJ ahead of a policy meeting this week to see whether it adds to its 80tn yen ($653bn) annual stimulus programme.

‘Economy at standstill’The data o� er a mixed snapshot of the econo-my, with improving consumption countered by weakening corporate investment caused by uncertainty over the global outlook, par-ticularly China, experts said.

“The real economy is at a standstill, even though other aspects of ‘Abenomics’ - cor-porate earnings and stock prices - are im-proving,” Taro Saito, director of economic research at NLI Research Institute, told AFP.

“Companies are reluctant to invest de-spite their sound pro� ts,” he said, adding that while consumer spending improved “its overall trend still remains weak”.

Akira Amari, the government minister in charge of revitalising the economy, put a large-ly positive spin on the result, saying that the “business climate is expected to recover grad-ually”, citing rising wages as a bright factor.

But he openly voiced frustration towards businesses that have shied away from fresh investments.

“Having made record pro� ts, with their equipment becoming older, what kind of business decision is it to still forgo invest-ment?” Amari told a news conference.

Amari said the government was drafting an extra budget, not as a “pure” stimulus, but to o� er social programmes and deal with the 12-nation Trans-Paci� c Partnership free-trade deal.

He declined to discuss the size of the budget, however.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 stock index fell 1.04% by the end of trade, with the Paris ter-ror attacks adding to investor unease in Asia.

Still, analysts broadly expect the economy to pick up in coming quarters, with the BoJ seen further loosening monetary policy and Abe tipped to unveil fresh stimulus. l

Shoppers look at a pack of discounted nail glitter at an exhibition and sale during Tokyo Nail Expo 2015 in Tokyo REUTERS

News 19D

TTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Chittagong schools asked to return extra SSC feesn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

Chittagong District Administration yesterday directed all the school authorities in the district to give back the additional mon-ey taken from Secondary School Certi� cate (SSC) candidates in the name of registration fees. A seven-day deadline was set for the schools to act on the directive.

Chittagong Deputy Commissioner Mesbah Uddin gave the order after holding a meeting with the head teachers of government-run and private schools. The deputy commissioner presided over the meeting, which was held at the conference room of his o� ce in the morning, while Additional Deputy Commissioner (education and ICT) Doulutozzaman and headmasters of around 120 schools were present.

Mesbah told the meeting that schools should not take any fees from SSC candidates without issuing money receipts.

He also said no candidate could be forced to attend additional lectures in the name of special coaching classes for examinees. “The education board in Chittagong and the deputy commis-sioner’s o� ce will be monitoring the situation.”

The decision to ask the schools to return the extra money came following complaints by candidates and their guardians in the last few days that extra registration fees had been collected in violation of the law. l

Alim Jute Mill workers hold hunger striken Our Correspondent, Khulna

Workers of Alim Jute Mill in Khulna protest-ed by going on a hunger strike yesterday to highlight a number of demands, including preventing privatisation of the facility.

As part of the protest, they gathered at a makeshift stage built beside the Khulna-Jes-sore highway near the mill and refrained from having any food.

The demands of the protesters included stopping the mill’s privatisation process and re-suming production by invalidating fake owner-ship papers of the facility. They also said many workers had not been paid wages, and called for quick payment of the outstanding wages.

The hunger strike was held from 10am to 4pm. Apart from the workers of the mill, many locals joined the strike and expressed solidarity.

A rally, which was held during the pro-test, was addressed by key labour leaders, including Ha� zur Rahman Bhuiyan, Syed Zakir Hossain, Mozammel Haque and Abdul Salam Jamaddar. They strongly urged the authorities concerned to take notice of their demands and implement those soon.

The protest ended when labour leader Ha� -zur Rahman Bhuiyan and Md Sohrab Hossain, who is the convener of State-owned Jute Mills CBA Non-CBA Oikya Parishad, made the pro-testers drink water to break the fast at 4pm.

Announcing their next programmes, the demonstrators said they would hold a two-hour human chain on the Khulna-Jessore highway from 10am to 12 at noon today. l

Babar hospitalised n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Former state minister for home a� airs Lutfozzaman Babar was taken to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital in Gazipur for a check-up yesterday.

He was brought to the hospital from Kashimpur jail around 12:30pm amid tight security, Dr Abdus Salam, the hospital’s res-ident physician, said.

“A four-member medical board was set up for his treatment.He is su� ering from back pain as well as breathing and abdominal problems. l

Chittagong Wasa gets little response from bill defaultersn Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

In an e� ort to realise the outstanding bills accumulating around Tk1.5 crore from var-ious domestic and commercial consumers, Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Au-thority (CWASA) has published a list of top 50 bill defaulters in local dailies on September 23. However, the move did not elicit much response from the defaulters.

The top 50 defaulters did not pay o� the bills from 12 months to 45 months. The de-cision to publish the list of top 50 defaulters was taken at the 28th board meeting of Chit-tagong Wasa.

Following the publishing of the default-ers’ list, only eight of them contacted the Chittagong Wasa for paying o� partial ar-rears. One defaulter served Chittagong Wasa a legal notice showing his objection to the amount of the bill.

Chittagong Wasa owes Tk7, 41, 783 to The Coastal Sea Foods Ltd which tops the default-er list for not clearing the bill for 25 months. Meanwhile, the � sh processing company lo-cated in BSIC area on Sagarika Road contact-ed Chittagong Wasa and so far paid Tk 83,000 the CWASA.

On the other hand, M/s Choice Washing Ltd and M/s Choice Garments Ltd rank sec-

ond and third in the defaulters’ list respec-tively for not paying o� dues amounting to Tk11,32,592.

This correspondent repeatedly tried to reach the proprietors of two businesses SM Fazlul Haque over phone on Thursday. However, the apparel entrepreneur did not pick up the phone.

Mohammad Musa, a resident of the city’s Chawkbazar area, has not paid Tk136,510 as bills.

He told the Dhaka Tribune that he had stopped clearing the dues as Chittagong Wasa supplied dirty water.

Mum Apparels, one of the industrial con-sumers, has not paid bill for months and the bill snowballed into Tk1,55,966. The apparel factory authorities said they would pay o� the bill in installments.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Chittagong Wasa Managing Director Engineer AKM Faz-lulla, said: “We are supplying water to the city dwellers at the cheapest rate. However, many consumers still do not clear the bills on time.”

Domestic consumers now have to buy every 1,000 litre of water at Tk7.52. On the other hand, the industrial users now have to spend Tk20.53 for consuming same quantity of water.

Chittagong Wasa has 54,330 domestic and 7,387 commercial and industrial con-nections. However, the water supplying au-

thority prepares bills for around 55,000 con-sumers while water supply to some 5,000 connections is now suspended.

“Despite reminding repeatedly, top de-faulters did not respond and pay o� the dues. Later, we decided to publish the list the top defaulters. The � rst list contains 50 top de-faulters. We are going to publish another list of the top defaulters. We will take legal actions against the defaulters and sever the utility connections if the move proves futile,” said Abdullah Al Mamun, Chief Revenue Of-� cer of Chittagong Wasa.

“A consumer can pay o� the bill without any surcharge upto 12 months. 10% Sur-charge is imposed on the bill from the 14th month,” said Biswajit Bhattacharya Khokon, commercial manager of Chittagong Wasa.

Till now the Chittagong Wasa owes around Tk25 crore to government, non-government, domestic and commercial defaulters. Of the dues amounting to Tk25, the water supply-ing authority owes Tk13 crore to government agencies. Chittagong Wasa had prepared a list of 136 defaulters belonging to government agencies under 30 ministries last year. Of the 136 defaulters belonging to government agencies, Chittagong City Corporation, Chit-tagong Medical College Hospital and Housing and Public Works Department top the list. l

News20DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

EIGHT YEARS AFTER SIDR

Coastal people still bearing the pain of Sidr n Our Correspondent, Barguna

It has been eight years since cyclone Sidr hit southern parts of the country, but thousands of people in coastal area still feel the brunt of the super cyclone as many infrastructures, in-cluding embankments and houses, damaged during the turbulence are yet to be repaired.

On November 15, 2007, Cyclone Sidr swept over the southwestern districts of the coun-try that left over 3,300 people killed, 55,000 injured and rendered thousands of people homeless.

People living in Barguna, Patuakhali, Bagerhat and Pirojpur were the worst vic-tims of the cyclone. Moreover, people living in Jhalkati, Satkhira, Khulna, Gopalganj, Ma-

daripur, Shariatpur, Barisal and Bhola were partially a� ected by the storm.

People who live near the Bay of Bengal have to live with natural calamities such as cyclone and � ood. But coastal people said re-silient infrastructures which were supposed to be ensured for them setting up cyclone centres are yet to be implemented in most areas of the southern districts.

In Barguna, 1,501 people were killed in the storm, according the government data. But uno� cial data said over 2,000 people were killed and 280,50 injured when the storm ravaged the coastal belt of the country.

At least 213,461 houses, crops on 243,393 hectares of land were damaged and 30,499 cattle died by the storm in the district.

To rehabilitate cyclone-a� ected people, the government took initiatives to build 817 cyclone centres in Bagerhat, Khulna, Satkh-ira, Pirojpur, Barguna, Jhalakati, Patuakhali, Barisal and Bhola districts. But local sources said construction of about 350 centres have been completed so far.

Local people in Barguna alleged that most of the rehabilitation houses were built in risky areas such as charland. These reha-bilitation centres are inundated during tidal surge in the bay.

Shah Alam, a resident in Asrayan Barak in Barguna, told the Dhaka Tribune that they al-ways remained in panic when water intrudes into their houses.

“Apart from tidal surge, torrential rain also

inundates vast areas in coastal districts,” he said.

Ayesha Begum, a resident in Burir-char area, said: “We are living in govern-ment-made with risk as these houses are inundated during tidal surge. Sometimes we cannot feed our children as we cannot cook due to inundation.”

Deputy Commisioner Mir Jahirul Islam said the government had built houses to re-habilitate Sidr-a� ected people. But the re-habilitation houses were out of the preview of embankment as those were built in char areas.

He also assured that he would look into the matter and try to take prompt measures in this regards. l

Police constable killed in road accidentA police constable was killed when a covered van hit him at MC Bazar in Shreepur upazila yesterday. The deceased was Ruhul Amin, 45, constable of Mawna Highway police camp. Helaluzzaman, o� -cer-in-charge of the camp said the accident took place around 12:15 pm when a Mymensingh-bound goods-laden covered van hit Ruhul as he signaled the driver to stop his vehicle, leaving him dead on the spot. However, police seized the vehicle after a one-km hot chase but could not arrest the driver as he managed to � ee the scene.– Our Correspondent, Gazipur

21 vie for a seat at Bangabandhu universityOver 21 applicants will compete against each seat at Bangaband-hu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University (BSMRSTU) in the undergraduate admission test for the � rst year’s 1st Semester honors courses under 2015-16 session. Public Relations O� cer of the University Md Mahbubul Alam con� rmed this. A total of 30,190 students have applied in 30 departments of seven units

this year for 1,430 seats, he said. Units are as follows: A, B, C, D, E, F and G. A and B units’ admission test will be held on December 2, and C and D units’ admission test will be held on December 3. E and G units’ test will be held on December 4. The application deadline was ended on November 15, 2015 at 12 of the night, he added. Alam says detailed information regarding admission test can be found on the University website-www.bsmrstu.edu.bd– Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

Husband kills wife in ChuadangaA housewife was slaughtered to death allegedly by her husband over family feud at Gopinathpur village in Sadar upazila yesterday. The deceased was Aliya Khatun, 38, wife of Raham Ali of the village. Suruj Hossain, son of the couple, said he heard screaming of his mother from their room early in the morning and rushed there. Later, Suruj found his mother’s body lying on the � oor. Suruj also said his parents often quarreled with each other. On information, police recovered the body and sent the body to morgue for an autopsy. Raham Ali managed to � ee after the incident. Saiful Islam, o� cer-in-charge of

Chuadanga Sadar police station, said Aliya might have been killed over family feud.– Our Correspondent, Chuadanga

Father gets life term for killingdaughter in GazipurA court in the district yesterday sentenced a man to life term im-prisonment for killing his daughter in 2014. The convict was Shohel Rana,30, son of Ha� zur Rahman of Lathibhanga village. According to the prosecution, Rana’s wife Rabeya went to her parents’ house in Kaliakoir with her 3-year-old daughter Shohana. He went to the house next day and got locked in an altercation with Rabeya over family feud. At one stage, he � ed the house with Shohana while Ra-beya was in washroom. On October 14, 2014, the body of the minor girl was found in the Turag River. Later, a case was � led with Joydeb-pur police station in this connection. After investigation, Sub-Inspec-tor Mobarak Hosain submitted charge sheet against Rana. The court led by Judge AKM Enamul Haque handed down the verdict.– Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Locals attack railway eviction team in Chapainawabganjn Tribune Report

An eviction team of Bangladesh Railway came under attack by locals while disman-tling illegal structures on the railway land in Chapainawabganj.

Akbar Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Chap-ainawabganj Government Railway Police, said a drive was launched on Sunday to pull down illegal structures constructed on the government land.

The drive resumed in the Chapainawab-ganj Railway Station area.

Following a rumour that a teenage boy was crushed under bricks during the drive, locals swooped on the eviction team at noon.They threw stones at railway o� cials and po-lice.

Later, police � red at least 20 gunshots to bring the situation under control.

Noting that there are over 800 illegal estab-lishments over 300 bighas of railway land un-der the district, Mostaque Ahmed, zonal estate o� cer of Railway East Zone, said the drive to remove those will continue regardless. l

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Bangladesh Railway conducts a drive in Chapainawabganj Railway Station area and demolishes illegal structures along rail truck yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

presentation skills was initiated back in 2012. After two years of trial and error regarding formats and scale, the competition, fondly called “Presentation WhizKids (PWK),” was ready to be taken to a bigger and better level. With that in mind, Muhammad Saimum Hossain, founder of PWK, re-launched the competition under a national platform called the PWK Foundation in 2015. Keeping up with the PWK founder’s vision, both the competition and the foundation aims at solving the acute problems of weak communication and presentation skills prevalent in today’s university-level students across boundaries.

PWK Nationals 2015 is divided into

four rounds, beginning with the online registration and slide submission rounds till November 7. A bootcamp session was held on November 13 at the FBS, University of Dhaka premises to prepare the participants better. Out of about 100 participating teams, the top 24 made it to the quarter � nals on November 14 at the EMK Center based on the slides submitted. It a test of presentation skills in front of a panel of versatile judges from 12 renowned local and multinational corporations. After a spectacular show of talent and neck-to-neck competition, 12 teams managed to squeeze their way through to the semis, to be held on Friday, November 20.

The semi-� nals comes in a twisted and entertaining nature of sorts, aptly named the “Persuade Round.” Under this innovative format, pairs of teams are pitted against each other for a given topic. Both teams would be able to sit in the presentation session of the other – observing and noting their points and arguments. After being given some time to regroup and strategise, both teams would present again, with team A’s sole purpose being to refute team B’s former arguments and vice-versa. Six teams will move forward to the grand � nale where they will compete in the form of the toughest of all: Instant presentation.

The simple nature of this competition may truly be deceiving, but the immense impact reverberated is purely remarkable. Whether it is the slide making prowess or presentation capabilities, the participants had a consistent feedback on their performance for their awareness and improvement from the judges. The recognition to be earned is the label of an expert communicator, a prodigy of an experienced stage performer, an expert of slide creation and intriguing graphics; the title of a “Whizkid.”

The PWK Nationals 2015 is being organised by the PWK Foundation, powered by the social and digital marketing company GEEKY Social Ltd, sponsored by the EMK Center and NewsCred, in association with Dhaka Tribune. l

Feature 21D

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Whizkids of change:Battle against ‘presentation-poverty’The PWK Foundation and their steps in eliminating the communication barriers that cripple the nation’s youth

nSteamPug Writers

Everything suddenly went mute. The silence was deafening and his heartbeat pounded harder than his footsteps, as he entered the meeting room. They were awaiting

his presentation with high expectations, considering what a superb job he usually does. But today he would disappoint. He was prepared, but not con� dent. He practiced, but was never guided. The promotion he sought would simply slip through his � ngers, and into the hands of his rival, a “Whizkid.“

Human-kind has been using di� erent forms of communication to convince and persuade others for a host of objectives from time immemorial. The latest of the bunch is presentations: A must-have tool for managers and salespeople alike to win over something, be it an allocation from the company’s budget for a new project or a multi-million dollar contract for business. Professionals across disciplines and functional areas need to give presentations in today’s world of cutthroat competition. However, the inability to give e� ective presentations has turned out to be serious problem all over the world, for the skill may not be as widely prevalent as one might expect. Bangladesh is no exception from “presentation-poverty” issue.

Recognising this problem, a presentation movement in the form of a unique competition focusing exclusively on

“PWK is just a part of a much bigger vision. We want to bring 1 million Bangladeshi students out of what I call ‘presentation-poverty’ by 2020.”

The writer is a content developer working with SteamPug Writers. He is a key member of the PWK Steering Committee and currently a � nal year student at North South University. He can be reached at:steampu� ed@gmail.com

News22DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

The World Bank Pre-Appraisal Mission holds meeting with UGC

Thanksgiving celebrations at The Peninsula, Chittagong

Eastern University gives Tk30 crore to students

KFC opens it’s 16th restaurant in Khilgaon

A six-member delegation from the World Bank, Pre-Appraisal Mission of the proposed College Education Development Project led by Yoko Nagashima, co-task team leader held a view exchange meeting with UGC chairman Professor Abdul Mannan at his o� ce yesterday.

UGC member professor Dr Mohammad Mohabbat Khan, professor Dr Abul Hashem, professor Dr Md Akhtar Hossain, professor Dr Mohammad Yousuf Ali Mollah, professor Dr Dil Afroza Begum, UGC secretary Dr Md Khaled and higher o� cials were present during the meeting.

Other members from the Pre-Appraisal Mission Yoko Nagashima, co-task team leader, Md Mokhlesur Rahman, c-task team leader, Karthika Radhakrishnan-Nair, operations analyst, Hena Mukherjee, consultant-lead education specialist, Mukammad Asahabur Rahman, consultant and Tashmina Rahman, consultant.

The delegation discussed on establishing quality assurance mechanism in colleges, BDREN connectivity to colleges and the role of UGC in implementing government plan for a� liating government colleges with public universities.l

The port city’s very own hotel, The Peninsula Chittagong, is going to bring a special bu� et dinner on the occasion of Thanks giving on November 26. Laguna restaurant is known for its award winning chefs culinary extravaganza and the cozy atmosphere that guests enjoy every time they visit. This year, to make Thanksgiving dinner more attractive, hotel chefs have launched a special bu� et meal with whole toasted turkey, roasted lamb and roasted chicken. In addition to that popular cuisines from di� erent countries, a continental menu will also be there to ful� ll the cravings of food lovers. A live station will be available to provide more exotic meals for guests. This wide range of bu� et meal is available at Tk2,000++. For more details call +88001755-554-582. l

KFC has opened it’s 16th restaurant in Shaheed Baqui Sharak, Khilgaon on the Novemer 15. The store was dedicated to the sacri� ces of Abdulla-Hil Baqui BP and all the freedom � ghters of the liberation war. Akku Chowdhury, managing director and CEO of Transom Foods was joined by the brothers and sisters of Abdulla-Hil Baqui, his fellow freedom � ghters and celebrities Sharmin Lucky, Bonna Mirza, Topu, Munmun and Tushti.

The annual scholarship awarding program 2014 organised by Eastern University (EU) was held on November 15 at the EU Seminar Hall. Members of the Board of Trustees sponsored these funds for the disadvantaged but meritorious students of the university. A total of 29 students were awarded scholarships for their excellence in academic performances in 2014. Till date, the university has disbursed Tk30 crore in scholarships and � nancial aid.

Prof Dr Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, pro-vice chancellor of EU, delivered the welcome speech. The program was presided over by the vice chancellor of Eastern University, Prof Dr Abdur Rab. Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Abul Khair Chowdhury was present as the chief guest of the program while Mohammed Ali Azzam was among other members of the BOT present at the program. l

KFC is a globally renowned international restaurant chain run by the franchisee Transcom Foods Limited in Bangladesh. KFC has been making continuous e� orts to bring the best quality food with added value to serve the customers since their journey started. Variety and variation in the menu to keep their customers coming back has also been extremely important for them.

To reach out to more consumers, KFC has been opening restaurants across Dhaka city. Recently, KFC has opened its 16th restaurant in Shaheed Baki Sharak,

Khilgaon. On November 15, KFC has inaugurated its new branch, dedicating it to Baqui and all the freedom � ghters.

Bonnya Mirza, Sharmin Lucky, Munmun, Topu and Tushti were at the restaurant’s launcing ceremony. Akku Chowdhury, managing director and CEO of Transcom Foods Ltd, made the announcement to the media present at an event that took place in Gulshan KFC.

For further information, please contact: (880-2)9894662, 9886579, 9894045E-mail: t� @t� .transcombd.coml

Tech 23D

T

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Coca-Cola and 400 volunteers help clean up St Martin’s seashore

Charge upHere am a few myths about batteries that need to be busted

n Mahmood Hossain

There are a lot of basic and simple things in our lives we tend to overlook, assuming we have the basics down and understood. Technology moves at a blinding speed in a world where a smartphone can be considered ancient after only two years of existence. But the use of batteries will remain. Their function and e� ect will continue to be in use so it’s important to get a few things clear and out of the way. We take a look at a few common myths about batteries in our devices.

Myth #1: Leaving your device plugged in will overcharge the batteryThere was once a time this might have been a problem, but not anymore. Nowadays, most smartphones, laptops, AA or AAA chargers know when to stop charging, doesn’t matter if the light stays lit or not. Just because it’s fully charged, doesn’t mean it will overheat or drain the battery. The charge will remain at 100% for quite some time, until it drops back down to a couple of percentages. In turn, it’ll resume charging back to 100.

Myth #2: You should charge your device once it’s completely at 0%Oh, boy, is this one a big false. As technology advances, your devices are set to be in

a speci� c safe mode. When you see that dreaded 0% in red, your device still has some charge left. This is when you try to hook it up to a charger, it stays on long enough to begin charging. Plain and simple, if you keep dropping your devices to 0%, it will have a signi� cant e� ect on your battery’s lifespan. Best time to charge? When it drops to 10% or even 5%, but the former is a safer route.

Myth #3: Store batteries in the refrigerator to avoid overheating and to keep its longevityThere’s a dangerous myth if we’ve ever heard one. Placing batteries in extreme temperatures for long periods of time is never a good idea. No matter what kind of battery you have, any kind of imbalance of the chemicals inside the battery should never be tampered with. If you upset the balance of the chemicals, the consequences will not be pretty. But if you’re actually wanting to maximise the battery life, you should store them in rooms of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 – 78 degrees Fahrenheit). You’ll get about � ve to 10 years of shelf life on standard batteries and 10 to 15 years for lithium batteries.

But why does your smartphone tend to lose its e� ciency after two years of use? The reason your phone (whatever the

brand may be) doesn’t perform as well is because the more you use the battery, the more its e� ciency is reduced signi� cantly. Unfortunately, technology hasn’t taken us too far in the battery longevity department. Then again, after two years, you’ll most likely

end up getting yourself a new phone and swapping out the old one.

Battery tip: It is advised that once your laptop has been fully charged, you should unplug the adapter and continue using the device with the battery itself. l

As part of a global partnership, Coca-Cola goes in partnership with Ocean Conservancy to work towards the issue of cleaning up the ocean and its waterways, which are facing huge pollution problems caused by trash. This partnership is an effort to not only work towards sustainable cleanliness of waterways, but also to drive action and foster innovation to understand the causes of marine debris and working to eliminate ocean trash.

To pursue the efforts of cleaner waterways and oceans in Bangladesh,

Coca-Cola has teamed up with Kewkradong Bangladesh, which is the country coordinator for International Coastal Cleanup and Ocean Conservancy USA. Together, both organisations have dedicated a day of cleaning and caring during the 29th annual International Coastal Cleanup®. This is the 5th year of collaboration and the volunteers drawn from both organisations have worked in November at St Martin Island, Bangaldesh’s only coral island, to help clean up the environment.

International Coastal Cleanup is the world’s largest volunteer effort, attracting hundreds of thousands of participants to collect millions of pounds of trash and debris from beaches, lakes and waterways. In the last four years in Bangladesh, 2000 volunteers through the Coca-Coca Bangladesh and Kewradong Bangladesh partnership collected nearly 4000 kilograms of marine debris.

This year Coca-Cola Bangladesh and Kewradong Bangladesh aimed for a person-to-person advocacy strategy

with an attempt to reach 6000 tourists and locals. The volunteers included not only travelling volunteers but also local inhabitants along with personnel from local government, members of union parishad including Abdur Rab, Abdur Rahman, Abdul Huq, Hafeza Khatun, Halima Khatun and 286 students from three local schools- BN Islamic School, Jinjira Shorkari Prathomik Biddaloy, Creed Prathomik Biddaloy. Among the volunteers, there were also 105 students and professionals from various reputed universities and organisations. Since the land-based debris is the prime reason for polluting water and marine environment, this program aimed to advocate for the behavioral change of the dwellers, school students and tourists of St Martins. Volunteers who have joined this cleanup initiative at St Martin are expected to play a key role in spreading the message of how to reduce pollution among peers and other networks.

Coca-Cola has also launched a pilot program this year to � nd sustainable solutions for the collected debris. As a part of this initiative, more than 150 trash bins have been placed by local government which were provided by Coca-Cola Bangladesh and the collected debris were dumped in special dumping locations. l

Photo: Bigstock

Event24DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

n Fazle Ahsan

For most girls, their � rst toy is usually a doll. They choose the dolls based on their out� t displayed in the box. But soon the out� t becomes soiled, and the interest in that particular doll dies out, forcing parents to buy another set of dolls! Dolls, especially Barbie dolls, can be expensive; and � nding the one you like can be di� cult in Dhaka. So Nadia Khan, an American living in Bangladesh, began combining and transforming her interest in arts and fashion by creating her own clothing line for her Barbies.

Gallery Longitude Latitude 6 (LL6) put on Nadia’s display of her own miniature creations at an exhibition titled “Dress Your Doll” on October 23. Curated by Shehzad Chowdhury, the exhibition which was originally scheduled to be on display for just one day, was later extended to three days due to the interest it generated. The exhibition also featured a workshop where Nadia showed enthusiastic children how to make their own clothing designs with their choice of scrap materials – from paper, tissue/napkins, polythene, bubble-wraps, to any other material that they wanted to dress their dolls. Attended by several children accompanied by their parents, the children started with drawing their own clothing design on paper � rst, which Nadia then helped transform into reality by sowing the dress on to the dolls.

Aside from the exhibition itself, one appealing feature of the exhibition was how Nadia turned the art exhibit into a family

event. Parents were as engrossed as the children. It was also interesting that the dolls were wearing multicultural out� ts, from South Asian, Middle Eastern, to Western dresses. Through immersion, children learned how art can turn ordinary material into extraordinary statement by giving life to inanimate objects.

Nadia Khan has been interested in Arts and Fashion from a very early age. While her interest in playing with barbie dolls have long diminished, she continues to make miniature clothing for her younger sister’s barbie dolls. She says, “it allows me to make a miniature ‘demo’ of the clothes I would one day like to create for myself.” Nadia also

paints using multi-layered mix mediums. She hopes to attend university in 2017, to study arts and fashion; and hopes to have her own clothing line in the future. l

The British Council Services for International Education Marketing (SIEM) is organising a ‘Career Summit’ on November 21 at British Council center, Dhaka. The Summit will provide an opportunity for returned graduates from the UK to explore their career opportunities in Bangladesh, by connecting them to renowned organisations from diverse industries in the country. Representatives from leading corporate houses in Bangladesh will be present at the event to facilitate the process.

A large number of current and aspiring Bangladeshi professionals are alumni of prestigious higher education institutions in the UK who are looking forward to building a

lasting career in the Bangladesh. The ‘Career Summit’ aims to support them towards further professional development, and to provide employers with a platform to hire deserving UK graduates through one-on-one interviews.

Interested graduates and quali� cation holders from the UK are invited to register for the summit and bring a su� cient number of CV’s accompanied by latest academic documents to submit to potential employers at the summit. Upon reviewing the submitted documents, interested companies may interview the candidates on November 21, at British Council center.

Candidates will be assessed and graded by the potential employers based on their current competencies i.e. � eld of study, salary expectation, previous experience, extracurricular activities, IT skills, English pro� ciencies and references from their educational institutions.

The ‘Career Summit’ will host plenary sessions and di� erent parallel sessions

Nadia Khan’s Barbie clothing exhibition and workshop

British Council to organise ‘Career Summit 2015’

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them around the world.

We work in more than 100 countries and our 8,000 sta� , including 2,000 teachers, work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programs.All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally.

For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org.bd

The Career Summit is open in Dhaka on:Saturday, November 21 from 10am – 5pm

Interested candidates are encouraged to pre-register for the summit. Registration link: http://bit.ly/bccareersummit15.There is no entry fee for the pre-registered applicants.

For further information please contact head of Marketing and Communications, Arshia Aziz. email: arshia.aziz@bd.britishcouncil.org

conducted by HR specialists, UK delegate, alumni and HR of British Council on topics related to employability such as job oriented course speci� cations, CV writing, facing an interview, etc.

25D

TSport

2018 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIER

Limping Bengal Tigers host Socceroos n Shishir Hoque

The big day has arrived as hosts Bangladesh are set to play Asian champions Australia in their seventh 2018 Fifa World Cup quali� er today. The 5:30pm start at the Big Bowl is being highly anticipated for several reasons one of which is the tightened up security measures taken surrounding the clash.

Keeping all things away, it will be inter-esting to see how the Asian powerhouse cope at the Bangabandhu National Stadi-um, with a full-house crowd expected, as they haven’t even had a look at the pitch, let alone having a training session.

The Socceroos arrived in the capital yes-terday evening and held their press confer-ence at the team hotel and they seemed fo-cus on getting full points from their wounded and disorganised opponents who they have thrashed 5-0 in the � rst leg in Perth in Sep-tember. The game will catch extra attention from Australia and international media for the safety measures Bangladesh have taken for any unwanted situation.

However, security remains the least of concerns for the visitors as their attention will also be on Jordan’s away match to Kyr-gyzstan. As of now, Jordan leads Group B

with 13 points, one more than Australia, having played one lesser game.

Meanwhile, the home side today are not in their best shape. Compared to the last two years it can easily be said that Bangla-desh have been the most undisciplined and disorganised recently. The change of head coach also did not bring any positive impact on the team as Fabio Lopez probably � nds himself trapped in a box.

Lopez’s gamble of playing winger Abdul Baten Komol in the left-back was one of the prime reason behind their 5-0 thrashing last week in Tajikistan which only worsened the situation while the players leaving the training camp yesterday without any per-mission from the football federation also did not help the coach maintain his image.

It will be interesting to see how the Ital-ian adopts with the inexperienced attacking line-up consisting Nabib Newaz Jibon, Tok-lis Ahmed and Shakhawat Rony. l

Jedinak and Co eye full points n Shishir Hoque

The Socceroos landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 8pm yesterday and only reached their team hotel, The Westin, around 9:30pm. In probably the shortest tour ever, the visitors are eying nothing short of a win from their Fifa World Cup quali� er today.

Australia will be leaving tomorrow as soon as the match ends due to security concerns which had initially put this a� air under threat. The se-curity in Gulshan area particularly was beefed up to an extent which left few journalists say-ing, “We haven’t seen such security measure ever, not even when Argentina arrived.”

Australia coach Ange Postecoglou arrived at the pre-match press conference along with skipper Mile Jedinak around 10:15pm where he expressed his desire to win the remaining three matches of their campaign.

The Socceroos will get on with the game without any previous experience in Bangla-desh. “It was a long trip from Australia. Looking forward to the condition whatever we have. It’s always a challenge playing away from home.”

Jedinak, who plays and captains English Premier League club Crystal Palace, echoed the same tune and said, “(Today) is got to be some-thing new as we haven’t played here. But we have enjoyed similar circumstances elsewhere. Our sole focus is getting into the game and hopefully get three points,” said the 31-year-old defensive mid� elder who has 10 goals beside his name from 60 international appearances. l

INSIDETUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Club bigger than country?Bangladesh coach Fabio Lopez along with the Bangladesh Football Federation were put in a disgraceful situation yesterday ahead of their Fifa World Cup Quali� er against Australia today. Rumours were al-ready in the air long before the pre-match press -conference that Bangladesh Pre-mier League club Sheikh Jamal DC pulled 11 of its players from the national camp for attending a club program. PAGE 26

Pliskova is Czech heroin Fed Cup triumphThe Czech Republic defended their Fed Cup title on Sunday as Karolina Pliskova became the home team’s hero with a starring performance in their thrilling 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Russia. Pliskova returned to the court after just a 30-minute break to help secure another comeback victory in the � nal set. PAGE 27

Cosmos send Raulout a winnerFormer Real Madrid great Raul went into retirement in style on Sunday as his New York Cosmos beat the Ottawa Fury 3-2 to win the NASL title in his � nal match. The 38-year-old played the full game, setting up third goal of Gaston Cellerino’s hat-trick with a delicate � ick. PAGE 28

‘I will be back,’ says beaten RouseyDethroned UFC world champion Ronda Rousey vowed yesterday she would be back after “a little bit of time” following her stunning knockout defeat to Holly Holm in their title � ght in Melbourne. Holm pulled o� one of the biggest upsets in the UFC when she knocked out previously unbeaten Rousey. PAGE 29

Bangladesh v Australia At 5.30PM today

Live on Fox Sports and Channel 9

FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

Bangladesh vice captain Jamal Bhuiyan controls a ball during a training session at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday prior to their Fifa World Cup quali� ers match against Australia MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Sport26DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Club bigger than country?n Shishir Hoque

Bangladesh coach Fabio Lopez along with the Bangladesh Football Federation were put in a disgraceful situation yesterday ahead of their Fifa World Cup Quali� er against Aus-tralia today. Rumours were already in the air long before the pre-match press -conference that Bangladesh Premier League club Sheikh Jamal DC pulled 11 of its players from the national camp for attending a club program. When Jamal Bhuiyan entered the media in-teraction area, instead of regular captain Mamunul Islam, alongside the coach, it was con� rmed.

“I don’t know (where my captain is). Some club took them. I didn’t give permission,” were the words that came out of Lopez as the journalists present were also surprised to see the national captain absent during such an event. Lopez, who seemed pret-ty disgusted of the fact that his key players were not practicing when they should be, added, “Everything can be a distraction for the team. The only time when the team is al-lowed lonely time away from everything, it can be good.”

Team manager Amirul Islam Babu extend-

ed the shock saying, “Sheikh Jamal club has a program today (Monday). There are 10/11 players in the national team (who also play for the club). The club appealed for its play-ers to the general secretary. I did not give permission.”

The irrational move by the club has left the entire football arena ba� ed as people are questioning the BPL champions’ decision to take away the players from national camp a day before they face Asian champions Aus-tralia.

The storm of questions soon shifted to-wards BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag and although he was not suppose to be a spokesperson during the presser, he had no choice but to answer.

“From our side, we advised them (club) if the program could be arranged the morn-ing after the match. They didn’t listen to us. There was no permission given from us (BFF). It could be said they have taken the players forcefully. They sent transport for the players,” Shohag said.

He added that “It’s an issue of national teams committee” and only they will analyse the situation and decide if it is a punishable incident. l

A Fifa o� cial requests the journalists to question Bangladesh coach Fabio Lopez instead of BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag during the pre-match press conference yesterday ahead of the Fifa World Cup quali� er between Bangladesh-Australia today MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Riders con� rm Shakib’s availabilityn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan will be available for Bangladesh Premier League franchise Rangpur Riders from the � rst game of the third edition. Following the � rst one-day international between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe earlier this month, Shakib left for the United States to be with his wife and new-born child which put a question mark over his availability for the Rangpur’s � rst game against Chittagong Vikings on November 22.

However, Rangpur Riders owner Mostafa Ra� qul Islam yesterday informed that Shakib is set to return Dhaka on November 21 and take responsibility of the team. l

Bangladesh U-19s 243 all out (49.4 ov)Shanto 96, Saif 40, Matigimu 4/45, Zimbabwe U-19s 118 all out (38.0 ov)Snyder 31, Murray 29, Sanjit 6/19,

Bangladesh U-19s won by 125 runs,

MOST RUNSPlayer Inns Runs HS Ave SR 100/50Mush� q (Ban) 3 156 107 52.00 96.29 1/0Kayes (Ban) 2 149 76 74.50 80.97 0/2Chigumbura (Zim) 3 133 47 44.33 76.00 0/0Tamim (Ban) 3 132 73 44.00 69.10 0/1Sabbir (Ban) 3 91 57 30.33 90.09 0/1

MOST WICKETSPlayer Inns Runs Wkts BBI Ave EconMusta� zur (Ban) 3 94 8 5/34 11.75 4.27Shakib (Ban) 1 47 5 5/47 9.40 4.70Panyangara (Zim) 3 128 5 3/41 25.60 4.26Nasir (Ban) 3 78 4 2/36 19.50 4.21Al-Amin (Ban) 3 81 4 2/22 20.25 3.85

BANvZIM, ODI Series

TALKING POINTS FROM BAN-ZIM SERIESn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh were scheduled to end 2015 with two Tests against Australia in October. However, in a major turn of events the Tigers ended up hosting Zimbabwe for a short series consisting three ODIs and two Twenty20s. As expected the home side bagged the 50-over format 30 while the wounded Africans claimed a consolation, yet brave, win to tie the T20s 1-1. The result, however, does not tell the full story as Bangladesh did survve close calls to achieve it. Here are three talking points from the series:

Early troubleIn the � rst two ODIs Bangladesh lost their top four batsmen before the 30th over with less than 130 on the scorecard which put im-mense pressure on the lower middle order. The presence of Mush� qur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman and Nasir Hossain tackled the situ-ation, but things could have been di� erent if the Zimbabweans managed to hold on to the slip-up from the hosts. Even in the shortest format, the Tigers lost minimum four wick-ets before registering 100 runs, which even-tually cost them in the � nal T20.

Jubair needs more exposureIt has been the cry of national head coach Chandika Hathurusingha who rates the young leg-spinner very high. Jubair was in Zimba-bwe touring with the Bangladesh A side when he was named for the home series. Sources

claim there was a huge argument within the Tigers think-tank of whether to play the leggie in the ODIs or not. Eventually he did not, but made his T20 debut through the � rst game. The 20-year-old took 2-20 from two overs, but was shockingly benched again in the following match. To get fruitful results from him, Jubair, who made his � rst international appearance since July, needs more exposure to the game.

Strong base of back up playersOver the years it has been often said that Bangladesh need a strong base of back-up players and � nally they seem to have it at

their disposal. Many feared how the Tigers will fare without Soumya Sarker, Shakib al Hasan, Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain. But the fear easily dissolved once the re-placements did what was expected from them. Imrul Kayes struck two consecutive � fties at the top as Bangladesh did not feel the absence of Soumya while Al Amin Hos-sain marked his comeback with sheer deter-mination of doing well. On his comeback af-ter almost a year, the paceman scalped nine wickets in the ODI and T20 series, leaving only a hint that the Tigers have a strong base ready to deliver. l

Sanjit six seals seriesn Tribune Desk

Bangladesh Under-19 spinner Sanjit Saha bagged six wickets as the home side romped to their fourth win in the four-match series against their Zimbabwean counterpart. The hosts won the youth one-day internation-al by 125 runs at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday.

Put into bat � rst, Bangladesh were bowled out for 243 with two balls to spare. Nazmul Hos-sain Shanto propelled the home side innings with a 113-ball 96 while opener Saif Hassan add-ed 40 runs to the tally. Pacer Kundai Matigimu was the most successful bowler for the visitors picking four wickets. The job of defending the target was made easy by Sanjit as the right-arm spinner destroyed Zimbabwe’s line-up and re-stricted them to 118 in 38 overs. l

MI M

AN

IK

Sport 27D

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Pakistan rejects India o� erNext month’s scheduled series between India and Pakistan remains in doubt after both sides again failed to reach an agreement on where the matches should be played. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) wants to stage the matches in the United Arab Emirates, which has been the team’s “home” base since 2009 because of ongoing security concerns in their homeland that prevents international teams from visiting. But the Indian cricket board (BCCI) said the Indian govern-ment would not permit its team to play Pakistan in the UAE, so the series would have to be played in India.

REUTERS

Rain wipes out third day in BengaluruPersistent rain ensured play was called o� without a single ball being bowled for a second successive day in the second test between India and South Africa at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday. After losing the entire second day’s play to inclement weather on Sunday, day three was given an early start time but the steady drizzle ensured the players would remain in the pavilion for another three sessions. “Play for Day 3 has been called o� due to persistent rain. Weather permitting, Day 4 will begin at 9:15 am (3:45 GMT),” the Indian cricket board tweeted.

REUTERS

Maradona undergoes gastric bypassArgentine soccer great Diego Maradona underwent a gastric bypass in the western Venezuelan city of Maracaibo over the weekend and is recovering well, doctors said on Sunday. The 55-year-old former World Cup winner went through a similar operation around a decade ago and has battled ill health since his soccer heyday in the 1980s. “He is walk-ing and in good spirits,” said Carlos Felipe Chaux, one of the surgeons who treated him, told reporters at a Maracaibo hotel. Maradona will remain in Venezuela for at least 12 more days to recover, he added.

REUTERS

Brazil ‘guarantees’ Rio Olympics safetyA top Brazilian security o� cial promised Sunday to “guarantee abso-lute peace” at the Rio Olympics, despite safety fears after last week’s massacre claimed by Islamist militants in Paris. “Brazil has become a leading example for (security at) major events,” Andrei Rodrigues, sec-retary for large events in Brazil’s justice ministry, said in an interview with CBN radio. Rodrigues said “no one can be indi� erent” to Friday’s bloodshed in Paris, where President Francois Hollande was among 80,000 people watching a France-Germany football game.

AFP

‘Worried’ Luiz says returning to ParisParis Saint-Germain’s Brazilian defender David Luiz was on his way back to the traumatized French capital on Sunday, but admitted he was doing so with a sense of dread. The international star was lam-pooned by fellow professionals after saying he wanted to stay in his native Brazil rather than return to Paris after Friday’s gun and bomb attacks. But he is suspended for Brazil’s clash with Peru on Tuesday and said he had no option but to go back to his club. “I’m worried. I want to be near my girlfriend and my friends who stayed in France,” he told GloboEsporte before leaving for the airport. “Unfortunately, I’ll have to live with this situation because I have to go to work.”

AFP

England, France unite for solemn friendlyEngland and France’s 92-year-old football rivalry will witness its most solemn chapter at Wembley on Tuesday when the teams unite in soli-darity four days after the Paris terror attacks. Friday’s attacks touched football particularly closely, with three suicide bombers blowing them-selves up outside the Stade de France.  The cousin of France mid� elder Lassana Diarra was one of the 129 people killed, while the sister of his team-mate Antoine Griezmann escaped unhurt from the assault on the Bataclan concert hall. But FFF insisted that Tuesday’s game should go ahead and it is now being seen as an opportunity to put on a united front, with a social media campaign urging England’s fans to join in with the French national anthem, ‘La Marseillaise’, before kick-o� .

AFP

QUICK BYTES

The Czech Republic defended their Fed Cup title on Sunday as Karolina Pliskova became the home team’s hero with a starring performance in their thrilling 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Russia. Pliskova not only won her singles rubber to tie the match at 2-2 but then returned to the court after just a 30-minute break to help secure another comeback victory in the � nal set of the deciding doubles

28DT Sport

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

AUSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS(559-9 declared)NEW ZEALAND 1ST INNINGS R BM Guptill lbw Starc 1 5T Latham c Smith b Lyon 36 85K Williamson c Johnson b Hazlewood 166 250R Taylor c sub b Lyon 290 374B McCullum b Marsh 27 54BJ Watling c Lyon b Starc 1 12D Bracewell c Neville b Johnson 12 40M Craig c Johnson b Lyon 15 38M Henry b Starc 6 12T Southee c and b Starc 21 23T Boult not out 23 33Extras (b7, lb11, w5, nb3) 26Total (all out, 153.5 overs) 624

Fall of wickets1-6 (Guptill), 2-87 (Latham), 3-352 (Williamson), 4-432 (McCullum), 5-447 (Watling), 6-485 (Bracewell), 7-525 (Craig), 8-554 (Henry), 9-587 (Southee), 10-624 (Taylor)BowlingStarc 37-7-119-4, Hazlewood 32-2-134-1 (1nb), Johnson 28-2-157-1 (1w), Lyon 37.5-6-107-3, Marsh 15-1-73-1 (2nb), Smith 4-0-16-0AUSTRALIA 2ND INNINGS R BJ Burns c Taylor b Southee 0 7D Warner c Latham b Boult 24 22S Smith not out 131 170A Voges not out 101 180Extras (w1, nb1) 2Total (2 wickets, 63 overs) 258

Fall of wickets1-8 (Burns), 2-46 (Warner)BowlingSouthee 13-3-40-1, Boult 10-0-50-1, Bracewell 10-3-34-0, Henry 12-3-45-0 (1w), Craig 17-0-81-0 (1nb), Williamson 1-0-8-0

Aus lead by 193 runs with 8 wkts remaining

SCORECARD, DAY4

NZ highest Test totals v Aus624, Perth, 2015

553-7 dec, Brisbane 1985534-9 dec, Perth, 2000-01

Highest individual score against Australia in Australia

290: Ross Taylor (NZ), Perth 2015287: Tip Foster (England), Sydney 1903-04277: Brian Lara (West Indies), Sydney, 1993

251: Walter Hammond (England), Sydney, 1928241*: Tendulkar (India), Sydney 2004

n AFP, Perth

Bat continued to dominate ball as Australia built a second-innings lead over New Zea-land on day four of the second Test at the WACA Ground in Perth yesterday.

After Ross Taylor hit a career-best 290, the highest score ever by a visiting batsman in Australia, to steer New Zealand to a � rst innings lead, Steve Smith and Adam Voges posted twin centuries to help the home side recover after a shaky start.

At the close, Australia were 258 for two in their second innings, with Smith on 131 and Voges on 101, for an overall lead of 193.

It was Smith’s 12th century and � fth this year, but his � rst in a second innings, while for 36-year-old Voges it was just his second hundred and came in his � rst Test on his

home ground.Voges reached

his century from the penultimate over of the day. Smith was dropped on 96 when wicketkeeper BJ Watling put down a tough chance down leg-side o� paceman Matt Henry.

Although the match appeared set to be a draw on a lifeless wicket which has o� ered little assistance to the bowlers over the � rst four days, Australia will hope to declare on the � nal day and dismiss the Kiwis cheaply. Australia already lead the three-Test series 1-0 after beating New Zea-land by 208 runs at the Gabba.

In reply to Australia’s imposing 559 for nine declared after winning the toss, the Kiwis were dismissed for 624 just before lunch, their highest total against their trans-Tasman rivals on the back of Taylor’s mammoth knock and 166 from Kane Williamson. That made it a record combined first innings total for a Test at the WACA Ground.

Taylor was the last man to fall in the New Zealand innings as he attempted to join captain Brendon McCullum (302 v India) as only the second Kiwi to reach a triple century in Test cricket. l

Cosmos send Raul out a winnern AFP, New York

Former Real Madrid great Raul went into re-tirement in style on Sunday as his New York Cosmos beat the Ottawa Fury 3-2 to win the NASL title in his � nal match.

The 38-year-old, a multiple La Liga and Champions League winner with Real Madrid, played the full game, setting up third goal of Gaston Cellerino’s hat-trick with a delicate � ick.

The Cosmos claimed their second North American Soccer League Soccer Bowl title, to go with the one they captured in 2013.

“I”m very happy,” Raul said. “It was my last game in my career. “I’m very proud for everything I did and thank you to the club, my teammates and the fans for this amazing year. For me now, I start a new life with another pro-ject. I’m happy, but I’m also very sad.”

While Raul was the man of the moment, Cellerino was the man of the match, which also sent Spain’s Marcos Senna into retirement a winner. “To win next to Raul was an ideal situ-ation,” Senna said. “I’m thankful for him being here throughout the year as he made the dif-ference many times and scored many goals. l

Fifa bans Nepal football chief for corruptionn AFP, Zurich

Fifa on Monday banned Nepal’s football chief for 10 years and the president of the Laos fed-eration for two years for bribery.

The decade-long sanction against Ganesh Thapa, president of the All-Nepal Football Association, was a new blow to the country’s football image after several national players were accused of match-� xing.

Thapa stood down as a football chief one year ago amid an investigation into accusa-tions that he embezzled millions of dollars during his 19-year tenure.

Fifa’s ethics committee said Thapa had speci� cally been bribed over elections for the FIFA executive committee in 2009 and 2011.

On top of the ban, he was � ned 20,000 Swiss francs ($19,850) by the ethics commit-tee’s adjudicatory chamber.

Nepal’s national team captain, Sagar Thapa, and four other players have been charged with treason over alleged match-� x-ing in World Cup quali� ers. Prosecutors have sought life jail terms for the � ve who have denied the charges.

Laos Football Federation president Viphet Sihachakr was banned for two years after he “solicited and accepted a payment from an-other football o� cial” around 2011 elections for the FIFA executive. Sihachakr was � ned 40,000 Swiss francs ($39,700). l

Colombia a ‘must-win’ for injury-hit Argentinan AFP, Montevideo

Argentina coach Gerardo Martino says to-day’s 2018 World Cup quali� er at Colombia is a must-win for his injury-ravaged side after they were left frustrated by 10-man Brazil.

The result Friday in Buenos Aires -- where arch rivals Brazil came from behind to snatch a 1-1 draw -- meant Argentina are winless af-ter three games of South America’s marathon qualifying campaign, with only two points from a possible nine.

Colombia, sixth in the 10-team South American table, will be without Atletico Ma-drid striker Jackson Martinez, who injured an ankle in the 1-1 draw at Copa America cham-pions Chile last week.

Brazil will be trying to solidify their grasp on fourth place in the table when they host Peru at the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador. Ecuador, who top the table with a maximum nine points, will seek to add another victory before qualifying breaks until March when they visit Venezuela, who have yet to win a point.

Chile, second in the standings with seven points, can expect a feisty challenge when they visit Uruguay, who have six points from their � rst three matches. Both opened qual-ifying with back-to-back victories before Chile were held to a 1-1 draw by Colombia on Thursday as Uruguay fell 2-1 to Ecuador. l

Superb Taylor breaks century-old record

Sport 29D

T

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Channel 95:30PMFifa World Cup Quali� ersBangladesh v Australia Ten Sports8:00PM ATP: Barclays ATP Men’s Round RobinDay 3, Session 1 Ten Cricket5:00PM England Tour of Pakistan (UAE) 3rd ODI Star Sports 110:00AM South Africa Tour of India 2nd Test, Day 4 Star Sports 28:30AM New Zealand Tour of Australia 2nd Test, Day 5 7:30PM Indian Super League 2015Goa v Mumbai

DAY’S WATCH

Switzerland’s Roger Federer plays a forehand during his Barclays ATP World Tour Finals match at O2 Arena, London on Sunday REUTERS

Djokovic, Federer stroll to easy winsn Reuters, London

Novak Djokovic looked unstoppable when trouncing Kei Nishikori but for sheer swag-ger Roger Federer remains unrivalled as he demonstrated again when dismantling To-mas Berdych as the ATP World Tour Finals began on Sunday.

World number one Djokovic extended his latest winning sequence to 23 with a 6-1 6-1 hammering of world number eight Nishikori who was powerless to stop the rampant Serb.

Far from easing up with the � nish of his best ever year a week away, Djokovic clearly

wants to lay down a marker for next year’s assault on the top silverware and showed Ni-shikori no mercy.

Djokovic and Nishikori had stood heads bowed before their match to respect a min-ute’s silence in a darkened arena for the vic-tims of Friday’s Paris attacks.n Home fans were given some early excitement when Jamie Murray, older brother of Andy, marked his debut at the tournament when he and Australian partner John Peers beat Italian duo Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli in a thriller.

Federer will provide Djokovic with a far sterner test when they meet in the “Stan

Smith” Group on Tuesday, if his level for most of a 6-4 6-2 defeat of Berdych was an-ything to go by. The 34-year-old, cheered on by a sizeable army of Swiss fans in various sorts of red and white attire, made a mess of his opening service game, falling 0-2 behind after serving two consecutive double-faults to gift Berdych a break.

But he responded with a break to love and then from 3-4 down in the opening set he produced a dazzling show reel of his fa-vourite tricks to win seven games in a row -- throwing in a couple of his trademark half-volleyed returns for good measure. l

Rosberg remembers Paris with Brazil triumphn AFP, Sao Paulo

Nico Rosberg put his success into perspective on Sunday after he sealed his place as run-ner-up in this year’s world championship by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix.

He won the race, which was preceded by a ceremonial act of respect in memo-ry of the victims of Friday’s terror attacks in Paris, ahead of his Mercedes team-mate newly-crowned three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. But he tempered his cele-brations in the land of the samba and his � rst thoughts, when summarising his feelings on the winners’ podium, were of events in the French capital which left 132 dead.

It was also the 30-year-old German’s sec-ond consecutive Latin American triumph af-ter winning in Mexico last time which in turn followed his unforced error at the United States Grand Prix that gifted Hamilton victo-ry and his third title in Texas. Starting from his � fth consecutive pole position, Rosberg made a � awless start and controlled the race from the front, relinquishing the lead only

when he pitted three times, while Hamilton chased and challenged in vain.

“It was a good challenge from Lewis, but I was able to control the pace,” said Rosberg. 

“We saw Lewis dropping o� a lot with degradation and that con� rmed it was im-portant to take care of the tyres. I am pushing now and I was pushing earlier in the season. I don’t have an explanation for why now, but just want to keep on going.” l

Drivers Points 1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes 3632. Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes 2973. Sebastian Vettel (GER) Ferrari 2664. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Williams 1365. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 1356. Felipe Massa (BRA) Williams 1177. Daniil Kvyat (RUS) Red Bull 948. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull 849. Sergio Perez (MEX) Force India 6810. Nico Huelkenberg (GER) Force India 52

DRIVER STANDINGS

‘I will be back,’ says beaten Rouseyn AFP, Sydney

Dethroned UFC world champion Ronda Rousey vowed yesterday she would be back after “a little bit of time” following her stun-ning knockout defeat to Holly Holm in their title � ght in Melbourne.

Holm pulled o� one of the biggest upsets in the Ultimate Fighting Championship when she knocked out previously unbeaten Rous-ey in the second round to claim the world bantamweight title on Sunday.

Rousey, tagged the world’s most feared female prize� ghter, was hospitalised after Holm sent her crashing to the canvas in the second round of their bout with a savage kick to her jaw.

But the US cult � gure assured her support-ers she has no serious health concerns and would be back in the octagon before long.

“I just wanted to thank everyone for the love and support,” Rousey said in a state-ment posted on Instagram. “I appreciate the concerns about my health, but I’m � ne.

“As I had mentioned before, I’m going to take a little bit of time, but I’ll be back.”

There were reports after the � ght of a re-match between the newly-crowned champi-on Holm and Rousey. l

Downtime30DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 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 12 represents Z so � ll Z every time the � gure 12 appears.You have one letter in the control grid to start you o� . Enter it in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Jewelled coronet (5)4 Liable (3)6 Amphibian (4)8 Automation (5)9 Honey drink (4)11 Whirlpool (4)12 Exterior (5)15 Document (5)18 Conceal (4)20 Minute particle (4) 21 Small anchor (5)22 Old stringed instrument (4) 23 Favourite (3)24 Emits fumes (5)

DOWN 1 Trunk (5)2 Boundary (5)3 Following (5)4 Matured (4)5 Neat (4)7 Greek letter (5) 10 Timber-dressing tool (4) 13 Single entity (4)14 Foe (5)15 Card game (5) 16 Army chaplain (5)17 Staggers (5)18 Stringed instrument (4) 19 Blockhead (4)

SUDOKU

Showtime 31D

TTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

n Showtime Desk

The country’s leading theatre troupe Nagorik Nattyangon’ latest production, a sizzling folk-tale, will premiere today at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Titled Gahar Badshah O Banesa Poree, the 20th production of troupe, has been adapted from a folk-tale. The story of the play revolves around an ancient ruler named Gahar Badshah and his lover Banesa Poree.

Hridi Huq has written the play from a folk-tale for the stage, and directed and acted as well. Hridi, the daughter of

Dr Enamul Huq and Lucky Enam, was introduced to stage environment in her childhood. Besides her stage activities she has also written and directed TV plays andacted in those; her � rst stage direction. Sazu Khadem, another celebrated actor of the troupe, has designed a set for the play while celebrated choreographer Warda Rihab has done the choreography.

The troupe, who has never played a folk-tale on stage before, engaged at least 50 people behind the stage to depict the story in their way. They hope that the audience will get opportunity to experience extra-ordinary stage production through ideas brought about by the team. l

n Showtime Desk

Last year, Next Level brought a team of artists to Bangladesh to use hip-hop as a tool for cultural diplomacy and exchange. A team of four artists - a beat maker-producer, a DJ, a hip-hop dancer, and an MC rapper, spent two weeks in Dhaka teaching and performing hip-hop.

This year, the Bangladeshi participants from the Next Level academy is hosting a performance at the EMK Center on November 19 at 7pm.

The show will include words from the international collaborators of Next Level, reviews of last year’s memorable moments, a motivational workshop on how Next Level has changed the participants’ lives and a � nal performance of last year’s participants, including rappers, beat-boxers, composer and music producers.

Next Level, an initiative of the United States’ Department of State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an international hip-hop diplomacy and exchange program. l

Stand-up Comedy Show

Performers: Naveed Mahbub, & Solaiman Shukhon Date: 18 November, 2015 Time: 07:00pm -08:30pm Venue - Alliance Française de Dhaka Comedians: Naveed Mahbub and Solaiman Shukhon, Entry - Available

at Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Dhanmondi on � rst come � rst serve basis). Info: 01685560800 Organiser: http://facebook.com/NaveedsComedyClub Event Link - https://www.facebook.com/events/937033923037751/

Nagorik’s latest play to be premiered today

Next Level Bangladesh Reunion Show

Back Page32DT

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015

NAGORIK’S LATEST PLAY PREMIERES TODAY PAGE 31

BANKS ASKED TO RECEIVE COINS PAGE 15

TAYLOR BREAKS CENTURY-OLD RECORD PAGE 27

Expired vehicle gas cylinders pose riskn Tribune Report

A high risk of catastrophic accidents stalks the country’s roadways because nearly 85% of the gas cylinders of CNG-run vehicles have expired, leaving them prone to exploding.

Over the last 15 years, just 15% of the vehi-cles – buses, minibuses, cars, microbuses and autorickshaws – had their cylinders retested.

Cylinder failure on vehicles can result in explosions or � re.

Although Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Com-pany Limited (RPGCL) requires that cylinders be retested every three years, few follow this.

A citizens’ rights group has demanded that all expired vehicular gas cylinders be re-tested to avoid accidents.

National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways (NCPSRR) adviser and Communist Party politician Manzurul Ahsan Khan, and NCPSRR general secretary Ashis Kumar Dey yesterday issued a joint state-ment on the need to retest expired cylinders.

There are over 300,000 private cars and around 500,000 publicly and privately owned transport vehicles operating in the capital, but neither the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, the police nor the RPG-CL have been able to enforce this safety pre-caution, the rights group alleged. l

Socceroos get four-layer securityn Shishir Hoque

Bangladesh is set to provide its highest se-curity to the Australia national football team ahead of their Fifa World Cup quali� er today. The security measure has been the agenda for the past one month and the recent terror-ist attacks in Paris only increased the magni-tude of the concern.

The Socceroos arrived yesterday evening in Dhaka in probably their shortest tour ever. The team reached their hotel from the air-port sometime around 9pm and today they will head straight to the airport as soon as the match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium is completed.

Sheikh Mohammad Maruf Hasan, DIG (police), who is also the security head of Bangladesh Football Federation and a securi-ty o� cer of AFC, said: “We have taken secu-rity measures as per Fifa recommendations. We have installed a two-layer security at the airport, with Armed Police Battalion and po-lice in front.

“And a four-layer protection en route to the hotel. We have ensured uninterrupted tra� c while they will be on their way from the airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the match venue.”

He added that there will be a four-layer se-

curity at the venue.Maruf also said that the spectators would

not be allowed to bring anything other than tickets and mobile phones inside the venue. Security personnel will be deployed on top of the tall buildings surrounding the stadium while it is needless to say that there will be a heavy security inside the venue too.

“There was no need for any extra secu-

rities after the Paris attack. We had already taken enough security measures. If you want to compare the security measures for this match, you can only compare it to the one taken for the 2011 friendly match between Argentina and Nigeria,” Maruf said.

The gates at the stadium will openat 2:30pm today, three hours ahead of the kick-o� . l

Govt colleges to be re-a� liated with public universitiesn Tribune Report

Government colleges will be detached from National University and brought under a� l-iation of public universities.

However, private colleges will remain af-� liated with the National University, an of-� cial of the University Grants Commission (UGC) told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Until now, all colleges in the country that o� er tertiary education were a� liated with four public universities – Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna.

The colleges – both government and private – were brought under the National University umbrella after it was established in 1992.

The UGC o� cial, who requested to remain anonymous, said the re-a� liation is part of the UGC’s Pre-Appraisal Mission.

The decision has been made to improve management and quality of education.

A six-member delegation from the World Bank met UGC Chairman Prof Abdul Mannan yesterday as the WB is interested in the project.

In the meeting, the delegation followed up on the progress of the project and dis-cussed establishing quality assurance mech-anism in colleges, Bangladesh Development Research and Education Network (BDREN) connectivity to colleges and the role of the UGC in implementing the government plan, said a UGC press release.

Giving updates to the delegation, the UGC chairman said a committee has been formed to implement the government plan for a� l-iating government colleges with public uni-versities, and it is working on its � nal report in this regard. l

JS bill allows diplomats to marry foreignersn Tribune Report

The Jatiya Sangshad yesterday passed the Public Servants (Marriage with Foreign Na-tionals) Bill 2015, scrapping the 1976 martial law era ordinance of the same name.

Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam piloted the bill in the House which was passed through voice vote. It was placed on September 9, 2015 and approved by the Cabinet on March 2, 2015.

According the law, the president might – on an application made in this regard – grant a public servant permission to marry or promise to marry a foreign national.

Earlier, Bangladeshi diplomats were not allowed to marry foreign nationals under the now defunct ordinance which was promul-gated in 1976 during Ziaur Rahman’s regime

and later annulled by a court.Meanwhile, six other bills were placed in

JS and sent to relevant parliamentary stand-ing committees for scrutiny. The Zilla Parish-ad (Amendment) Bill 2015 was withdrawn.

The six bills are: Money Laundering Pre-vention (Amendment) Bill 2015, Surplus Public Servants Absorption Bill 2015, Railway Security Force Bill 2015, Army (Amendment) Bill 2015, Cadet College (Amendment) Bill 2015 and Air Force (Amendment) Bill 2015.

Finance Minister Muhith moved the mon-ey laundering bill. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Finance Ministry has been to send scrutiny report in two working days.

Railways Minister Md Mazibul Hoque placed the Railway Security Force Bill, which was sent to the relevant watchdog, who has been given 30 days to scrutinise it. l

Aussie footballers take photographs of beefed up security from their team bus at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

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