WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016 | Jyoishtha 5, 1423, Shaban 10, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 26 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

SECOND EDITIONIN

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Country’s � rst anatomy museum in ChittagongMany students, researchers and aca-demics are not aware of country’s � rst anatomical museum housed at Anatomy and Histology Department of Chit-tagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU). PAGE 7

Faulty design delays Hotel InterContinental openingDue to a faulty design, it would now take � ve more months and cost more money to renovate and open services at Shahbagh’s Hotel Intercontinental, previously known as Sheraton and more recently as Ruposhi Bangla. PAGE 32

Verdict on legality of section 54 next weekSC will deliver its verdict on May 24 on an appeal challenging the HC directives on arrest and remand of someone without any warrant under sections 54 and 167 of the CrPC. PAGE 3

Humiliated headmaster suspended amid outrage

n Tanvir Hossain, Narayanganj

The management committee of Piyar Sattar Latif High School has suspended Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the school’s headmaster who was publicly humiliated by local law-maker Selim Osman on Friday.

A suspension letter signed by committee president Faruqul Islam was served to Shyamal yesterday morning at Narayanganj 300-Bed Hospital, where he is currently un-dergoing treatment, Shyamal told the Dhaka Tribune.

Shyamal has gone on record to say that MP Selim had in fact saved him from an angry mob by appeas-ing it in part, but reiterated that his

ill-treatment had been orchestrat-ed by the school committee.

Outrage at the public humilia-tion of the headmaster and support for him have � ooded the social me-dia, while protests have been tak-

ing place around the country.The school committee letter

listed four reasons for suspending Shyamal.

They are: that he physically tor-tured students, that he took bribes promising to secure jobs at the school, that he made derogatory comments about Islam and � nally, that he frequently took unauthor-ised leave and came late to work.

“You have been warned sever-al times regarding the complaints against you, yet you have failed to refrain from such illegal and im-moral activities. Hence, the com-mittee at its May 13 [Friday] meet-ing has decided to suspend you from your duties,” the letter read.

Interestingly, although the letter is dated May 13 in the top right cor-ner of the document, the date that appears under the committee pres-ident’s signature is May 16.

The Dhaka Tribune tried to con-

tact Faruqul Islam in this regard, but his phone was found switched o� . Sources said he is currently abroad.

The headmaster was initially beaten up.

He was then seen being made to do squats while holding his ears on the instruction of Selim Osman, a Narayanganj lawmaker from the Jatiya Party, at the school on Friday for allegedly hurting religious sen-timents.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Shyamal claimed that the entire incident had been staged by the school management committee which had been trying to remove him from the headmaster’s post for the past few months in order to

put Faruqul Islam’s sister Parveen Akhter, who is also the school’s as-sistant head teacher, in his place.

“I am a victim of a conspiracy by the management committee. PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Netizens stand by headmastern Tribune Desk

Bangladeshis on social media are joining hands – or rather ears – in a show of solidarity with a school teacher who was recently publicly humiliated by a sitting MP.

Social media giant Facebook has been � ooded with pictures of users posing while holding their ears.

Being forced to do squats while holding one’s ears - called uthbosh in Bangla - is a form of shaming and punishment meted out to un-ruly kids in many primary schools in the region. The punishment is widely criticised even when used

on children; applying it to an adult and a teacher has been regarded as unbearably humiliating.

Bangladeshis, including some celebrities, posted themselves holding their ears, in solidarity with Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the Narayanganj headmaster who was humiliated.

Shyamal, headmaster of Pi-yar Sattar Latif High School in Narayanganj’s Bandar upazila, was physically assaulted last Friday by members of the school’s manage-ment committee.

To add insult to injury, he was then made to perform uthbosh by local lawmaker AKM Salim Osman.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid denounced the incident and Law Minister Anisul Huq termed it a “punishable o� ence,” but the Bangladeshi public went one step further to defend the honour of a school teacher.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Shyamal’s shaming ‘a punishable o� ence’n Ashif Islam Shaon

Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said the incident of public humil-iation of a teacher is a punishable o� ence.

“Those involved will be pun-ished because no one can take the law into their own hands,” he told reporters at a programme in Dhaka yesterday morning.

Drawing reference to the inci-dent that has been storming the so-

cial media, he said such incidents would not be tolerated.

“I have read news reports that said this teacher had beaten up a student but that could have been dealt with legally. Taking drastic measures without seeking legal re-course will not be tolerated.”

On Friday, Shyamal Kanti Bhak-ta, headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School in Narayanganj, was beaten up by a mob and forced to

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

#SorrySir and #WeAreSorrySir trended all of yesterday

Students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology form a human chain by holding their ears in symbolic protest against the humiliation of a head teacher in Narayanganj DHAKA TRIBUNE

Recast probe committee asked to submit report in 5 days

News2DTWEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Humiliated headmaster suspended amid outrageCommittee members Motiur Rah-man and Mobarak Hossain and Upazila Nirbahi O� ce peon Miz-anur Rahman have made serious attempts to remove me from my post. The whole thing has been stage-managed,” he said.

He also claimed Mizanur and Mobarak assaulted him on Friday on Motiur’s orders, and they tried to kill him. “Just a day ago, Motiur threatened me.”

The school management com-mittee has vehemently denied the allegations.

“There has been no attempt to remove the headmaster,” both Parveen and Motiur told the Dhaka Tribune.

But a three-member probe com-mittee that was initially charged with investigating the matter found evidence of a conspiracy and con� ict between Shyamal and the management committee. The probe team was formed anew yes-terday with the addition of two more members, said Mousumi Ha-bib, upazila nirbahi o� cer (UNO) of Bandar upazila, where the school is located.

“The three-member probe team has been recast into a � ve-member team. They have been instructed to submit the probe report within � ve working days,” she told the Dhaka Tribune. The Dhaka Tribune was not able to learn why the probe committee had been recast.

Doubts regarding Shyamal’s hurtful comments on IslamThere are doubts regarding the

claim that Shyamal made hurtful comments about Islam or mocked the religious sentiment of the stu-dent who complained about being beaten by him.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday, the tenth-grader said Shyamal had beaten him during class on May 8 when he failed to respond to the teacher’s call.

“Some students were making noises behind me, which is why I did not hear Sir when he called me. Sir then came at me, grabbed my collar and beat me. At one point I fell unconscious. When I came around, I took Allah’s name and Sir made a mocking comment.”

But when the student’s moth-er submitted an o� cial complaint against Shyamal on May 10, she did not mention anything about derog-atory comments about Islam and only stated that Shyamal had phys-ically assaulted her son.

When the Dhaka Tribune con-tacted the student again yesterday, he recanted his earlier accusation and said there had been no hurtful comments about Islam made by Shyamal.

Asked why allegations of hurt-ing religious sentiments had been brought against the teacher, the student said he did not know any-thing about it.

UNO Mousumi, too, said the stu-dent’s mother never complained about Shyamal’s hurtful comments about Islam when she talked to her.

Shyamal told the Dhaka Trib-une: “I did not utter a single word against Islam, let alone any derog-

atory comment. This entire � asco has been staged.”

Who instigated the assault?No one seems to know who start-ed the protest against Shyamal on Friday. The announcement that Shyamal had mocked Islam was made by microphone at Baitul Atiq Mosque, which is located near the school.

The mosque’s Imam, Mahmudul Hasan, said: “Some unknown young men entered the mosque around 10:30am and started an-nouncing on the mike that Shy-amal had insulted Islam.”

Hearing the announcement, hundreds of people gathered in front of the school and started de-manding Shyamal’s death, said Shamsul Haque, vice-president of Balyandi village panchayat.

Mawlana Borhan Uddin, the teachers’ representative at the school, said: “We do not know who made the announcement. We did not even know about the com-ments until we heard it. We saw people gathering in front of the school all of a sudden, demanding punishment of our head teacher.”

At one point, some of the people broke into the school and started beating Shyamal, he said.

’Selim Osman saved my life’Shyamal told the Dhaka Tribune that Selim Osman saved him from the angry mob on Friday.

Witnesses said the teacher had been held captive and tortured for nearly six hours. Police had been

informed to bring the situation under control. But onlookers said they did hardly anything and took on the role of silent observers. As the situation deteriorated, locals informed lawmaker Selim Osman.

Over phone, Selim asked the agitated crowd not to take the law in their own hands. He reached the school around 4pm, accompanied by UNO Mousumi, Jatiya Party Narayanganj district unit Convener Abul Zaher, Awami League Bandar upazila unit President MA Rashid, Bandar uapzila parishad Chairman Ataur Rahman Mukul and Bandar upazila Secondary Education Of-� cer AKM Nurul Amin.

Witnesses said when the MP asked the crowd about the matter, they complained about Shyamal making hurtful comments about Islam as well as beating a student. They also complained that Faruqul and Shyamal were responsible for many irregularities in the school’s management.

The lawmaker then directed the UNO to suspend Shyamal and � re Faruqul from the school’s com-mittee and instructed Shyamal to apologise before the crowd, by per-forming squats while holding his ears.

When contacted, Selim Osman told the Dhaka Tribune: “The crowd was demanding that Shy-amal be hanged, and then demand-ed he apologise by doing squats holding his ears. I had to think about bringing the crowd under control and save Shyamal from be-ing killed by the mob.” l

Netizens stand by headmasterMeanwhile, a protest was organ-ised in Shahbagh, Dhaka yesterday against the public humiliation of the school headmaster in Narayan-ganj on Friday.

Teachers, students, cultural ac-tivists, writers and people from all walks of life gathered at Shahbagh staging a rally around 5pm to voice their outrage over the matter.

Members of Gonojagoron Moncho were also among the protesters.

“This is a country where when a crime takes place, the victims get punished, instead of the culprits. And when the protesters protest against such incidents, they get harassed by the state and its po-lice,” said Dr Fahmidul Haq, associ-ate professor at the department of mass communication and journal-ism of Dhaka University.

“Expecting justice in this inci-dent is futile, because incidents like this have been happening fre-quently in Narayanganj, and this [Osman] family always gets away with their crime. Instead, they get praised at parliament,” he said at the rally.

Geeti Ara Nasrin, who also teaches at the department of mass

communication and journalism in Dhaka University, said the humili-ation of the teacher had humiliated the entire nation.

Jyotirmoy Barua, lawyer and human rights activist, said: “The state and government has never brought the criminals to book be-fore. It will be the same in this case as well. When the head of the state applauds this family [Osmans] in parliament, you know that they are beyond the grasp of state law.”

Faizul Ha� z, secretary at Na-tional Mukti Council, said: “The education minister must take his share of responsibility in this inci-dent and resign from this post. He has no right to be the minister of education if he cannot even ensure the dignity of our teachers.”

Lucky Akhtar, president of Bangladesh Student Union, said: “This incident is in violation of the spirit of our Liberation War, and it has also severely hurt our dignity as a sovereign nation.”

The victim, Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School in Narayanganj Bandar upazila, was forced to do sit-ups while holding his ears – a form of punishment often doled

out to children – in the presence of local lawmaker Selim Osman for allegedly hurting religious senti-ments.

Several students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technol-ogy (SUST) too protested against the humiliation of the school teacher in presence of a ruling Awami League MP in Narayanganj.

The protesters stood in front of SUST central library on Tuesday morning holding their ears.

Piyar Sattar Latif High School’s headmaster was beaten up and made to do squats holding his ears in presence of Salim Osman MP on Friday for allegedly hurting reli-gious sentiments.

SUST English department stu-dent Sagarika Chowdhury con-vened the protest. “Such incidents only hasten the degradation of social morality,” she said, o� ering empathy to the humiliated teacher.

The victim said the whole epi-sode was planned and that it was the fallout of his con� ict with the management committee. He claimed religion was dragged into the a� air after his rivals failed to get rid of him several times in the past. l

Shyamal’s shamingdo squats holding his ears in the presence of local Jatiya Party law-maker AKM Selim Osman on alle-gations of “demeaning religion.”

Following the incident, Shyamal claimed that locals were provoked with false allegations as a group of the school’s teachers held a grudge on him as had refused to meet their unfair demands.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has condemned the incident and a probe body has been formed to investigate into the incident. However, the district police chief said the incident was not a “crim-inal o� ence” and law enforcers “could not have done anything.”

Meanwhile, asked about Comilla Victoria college student Sohagi Ja-han Tonu murder, the law minister said: “If the Home Ministry thinks, the trial of this murder can be pro-cessed in a speedy trial tribunal.”

“The reports have been given, now the court will take a decision in this regard,” he added. “These autop-sy reports are also part of the police investigation. Police will make a clear statement about them when they submit their report to the court.” l

PM � ies to Japan, Saudi Arabian Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is � ying to Japan and Saudi Arabia to engage more politically with the outer world.

Hasina will attend the G-7 out-reach programme to be held during the summit meeting in Japan while she will also go to Saudi Arabia on a bilateral visit in the � rst week of June.

G-7 summit The G-7 summit meeting to be held in Japan and heads of state of gov-ernment of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are also invited in the outreach meeting.

This is the second time, Hasina is attending the programme as she attended a similar event held in It-aly in 2001.

The United State, United King-dom, Japan, Italy, France, Germany and Canada are the member of G-7.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Ja-pan Rabab Fatema told the Dhaka Tribune that many top leaders are invited to the G-7 summit to learn about achievements.

The invitation is considered as a recognition to the achievements that an individual country achieves and to that extent it is an honour for Bangladesh, she said.

A Foreign Ministry o� cial seek-ing anonymity said economic and global issues would get promi-nence in the G-7 summit.

Countering terrorism and vio-lent extremism, refugees, cyber is-sue, space, climate change, women and sexual violence, peacekeeping, corruption, global health and other issues would be discussed at the meeting, he said.

The foreign ministers of the G-7 countries met in April and declared a joint comminuque where coun-tering terrorism and violent ex-tremism was the prior issue.

Bangladesh has many success stories in combating countering terrorism and violent extremism and this is a good platform where the achievements can be show-cased before the top global leaders, he added.

Saudi Arabia visitHasina will � y to Saudi Arabia in the � rst week of June for her sec-ond bilateral visit since 2009.

Another Foreign Ministry o� cial said the visit would strengthen the existing bilateral relationship.

Complete opening of Saudi la-bour market for Bangladeshis, in-vestment and other development issues will get dominance from Bangladesh side while Saudi side is expected to raise combating countering terrorism and violent extremism. l

News 3D

TWEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

RU teachers postpone strike on ministers' promise n Dulal Abdullah, Rajshahi

Rajshahi University Teachers' Sam-ity has postponed the ongoing movement, which was in protest of Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique murder, following the assurance of justice from several ministers.

The organisation's General Sec-retary Prof Shah Azam made the announcement in a press confer-ence held in the RU's Juberi Bhaban around 10am on Tuesday.

On Saturday and the next day, home, education, health and for-eign ministers visited the univer-sity and expressed solidarity with the movement of the teachers.

During the visit, the ministers as-sured of taking quick action and the four urged the teachers to halt the strike for the sake of the students.

“As a consequence of initiative, solidarity and request from the ministers, we have taken a decision to postpone the movement. But we continue observing the develop-ment."

“We will adopt tougher pro-grammes if there appears any ab-sence of sincerity of the authorities concerned in arresting the killers,” Prof Shah Azam said.

Besides, RU English depart-ment has followed the path of the samity, said its president AFM Masaud Akhter, adding that new programmes would be announced after the vacation if there is no fur-ther development in the case.

In protest of Prof Rezaul mur-der, the RU teachers took to the streets with various programmes since April 23.

On April 23, Prof Rezaul was hacked to death by assailants in Ra-jshahi city’s Shalbagan area. l

Safadi denies claims of conspiring with Aslamn Tribune Desk

Israeli politician Mendi N Safadi has admitted that he met with BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury in New Delhi, but said the two never had any discussion on secret matters nor hatched any conspiracy against Bangladesh.

“Nothing can be more ludicrous than the claim that we had hatched a plot of military coup in Bangla-desh or any conspiracy to topple the government,” the Likud Party leader told BBC Bangla over phone.

“Everybody knows the situation of Bangladesh and the minorities

living there. The two of us spoke about this at a public event.”

Safadi also questioned wheth-er it was possible for conspirators to plot against a government in a public programme, and later post smiling photographs of themselves on Facebook.

Safadi said he has recently visit-ed India many times and the youth unit of BJP had invited him to the Agra programme, where he met BNP Joint General Secretary Aslam.

“Aslam was also invited there as a leader of a political party from a neighbouring country. We were unknown to each other and we had

usual discussion as guests in the same event.

“I do not believe that Aslam was arrested for having a conversation with me. Has he [Aslam] killed an-yone? He just talked to an Israeli citizen in India,” Safadi said.

Commenting on media reports suggesting his alleged links to Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Safadi said: “Show me one spy who posts his activities on Facebook every hour, gives speeches at seminars, and gives interviews to newspapers.

“If after all this someone still thinks that I am a spy, then I have nothing more to say,” the Israeli

leader said.The meeting in March between

Safadi and Aslam was reported by Bangladesh media earlier this month.

On Sunday, a travel ban was im-posed against the BNP leader, and hours within that move he was ar-rested from Dhaka's Kuril Bishwa Road area for his alleged conspira-cy with Mossad.

On Monday, a Dhaka court placed Aslam and his personal as-sistant Asaduzzaman Mia under a seven-day remand.

A general diary was � led against them under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. l

Verdict on legality of sections 54, 167 next weekn Ashif Islam Shaon

The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on May 24 on an appeal challenging the High Court di-rectives on arrest and remand of someone without any warrant un-der sections 54 and 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

A four-member bench of the Ap-pellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha � xed the date yesterday after recording the second day's hearing on the appeal.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Deputy Attorney General Murad Reza represented the state while Barrister Amir-Ul Islam stood for the petitioner.

Murad Reza told reporters that the Appellate Division would de-cide whether the High Court direc-

tives given in 2003 would remain e� ective or not.

The petitioner's lawyer told the court that the law enforcers do not follow the guidelines putting the detainees in an unsafe situation. He also said that custodial deaths could be stopped if the directives were implemented.

According to the case, private university student Shamim Reza died in the DB police custody at its Minto Road o� ce on July 23, 1998 following his arrest from Siddhesh-wari in Dhaka under section 54.

The incident drew much criti-cism at that time. A judicial body formed over the death of Shamim recommended that the two sec-tions of the CrPC be amended.

As the recommendations were not implemented, Bangladesh Le-

gal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) � led the writ petition the same year. Following this, the High Court ruled upon the government on No-vember 21.

On April 7, 2003,the High Court gave 15 point directives to the gov-ernment including those related to arrest and remand of persons, and asked it to implement the direc-tives within six months.

The court asked the government to follow the directives before amending the law. But the then government appealed with the Ap-pellate Division seeking a stay or-der on the High Court verdict.

On August 2 the same year, the Appellate Division accepted the government’s leave to appeal. Since the Appellate Division did not put a stay on the High Court's

directives, the government � led the appeal on the ground of accept-ance of the leave to appeal.

Sections 54 (arrest under suspi-cion) and 167 (interrogation in re-mand) of the CrPC of 1898 empow-er the police to detain any person under suspicion and question any accused in remand.

The High Court said that the police must not arrest anyone un-der section 54 to put him/her into detention. They will show their identity cards while arresting the person and must inform the person about the reason behind the arrest within three hours.

Moreover, the law enforcers will inform the relatives of the de-tainee within an hour of the arrest through telephone or a messenger. The detainee will be allowed to

meet a and relatives for legal assis-tance.

If the police want to quiz the person in custody, they will need to take permission from a magis-trate while the interrogation must take place in a glass-made room inside the prison. The relatives and lawyers of the detainee can be pre-sented outside the room.

The detainee must be checked by a doctor before and after the in-terrogation, the High Court said.

If the arrestee alleges physical torture during the interrogation, the magistrate will form a medical board promptly to check his/her health condition. If the allegation is found to be true, the magistrate will take action against the police members responsible under sec-tion 330 of the CrPC. l

Activists of Communist Party of Bangladesh stage a demonstration in front of the National Press Club yesterday demanding the reduction of all bus fares and provide su� cient BRTC buses in all routes across the country MEHEDI HASAN

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016News4DT

5 people killed Dhakan Kamrul Hasan

Five people including a university student were killed in separate incidents in Dhaka yesterday.

Of the deceased, two girls committed suicide in Dakshinkhan and Mirpur areas, and three bodies were recovered from Tikatuli, Tejgaon and Dakshinkhan areas in the city.

Police o� cials sent the bodies to Dhaka medical College Hospital for autopsy.

Sub-Inspector Nannu Khan of Dakshinkhan police station said police recovered the hanging body of Jannatul Ferdous, 17, from a house at road number 1 of Banabithi Residential area around 12:30am after breaking her room’s door.

Police suspected that she might commit suicide after family feud.

Mirpur police recovered the hanging body of garment worker Jannatul Rupa, 17, from a house of south Pirerabagh around 12am.

SI Nasir Uddin said Rupa’s father Badal Sarder found the door locked from inside and after breaking the door he found her daughter hanging from selling fan.

GRP police recovered a Jagannath university student’s a body in afternoon from Tejgaon area. The deceased is Obaidullah, 21, a second year student of Economics Deparment of the

university. Abdul Majid, o� cer-in-

charge of railway police said Obaidullah was hit by Sylhet bound Jayantika Express at Nakhalpara area of Tejgaon.

Quoting witnesses he said Obaidullah was talking on cell phone while crossing the rail line.

The body was handed to his parents, said DMCH sources.

Police recovered bodies of two men from Dakshinkhan and Tikatuli area. The deceased are Mohammmad Hridoy, 25, and Al-Amin, 22.

Dakshinkhan SI Habibur Rahman said police recovered Hridoy’s body from house behind Khan Supermarket of Southern city.

His roommates after returning found their room locked from inside. They immediately informed the police on Monday morning.

Police found Hridoy’s body in his room.

Al Amin was killed by his friend Sani while taking drugs near Tikatuli super market.

Wari police station SI Shahid Hasan said Al Amin and Sani were taking drugs.A one stage, Sani hit Al Amin with brick pieces in his head. He was immediately rushed to DMCH where on-duty doctor declared him dead around 3:30am.

Police arrested Sani from Bangabndhu stadium area on yesterday morning, the o� cial said. l

Arms case � led against Banshkhali protest organisern Anwar Hussain,

Chittagong

A case has been � led against one of the organisers of the Banshkhali protest after po-lice found � rearms and bullets during a drive at his home.

The arms case was � led yesterday against Liakat Ali, a BNP leader and convener of the local Committee to Pro-tect Homestead and Grave-yard in Banshkhali upazila of Chittagong, after two lo-cally made � rearms and four rounds of bullet were found in his house.

The police could not arrest Liakat during the drive on Monday; but they arrested Li-

akat’s 70-year-old father Dudu Mia from the house in Gonda-mara union, said Banshkhali OC Md Alamgir Hossain.

On April 4, at least four protesters were shot and killed and over 30 others were injured when locals gathered to protest the proposed con-struction of a power plant in the area.

On February 16, the gov-ernment signed a deal allow-ing the joint venture of S Alam Group and China’s SEPCO-3 Electric Power Construction Corporation and HTG Group to build an ultra supercritical thermal power plant with a net capacity of 1,224MW at a cost of $2.4bn. l

School to be built in Sunamganj honouring Bangladeshi nannyn Tribune Desk

A Dubai-based charity is building a secondary school in Sunamganj district in memory of one Su� a Ak-ter, a nanny who died saving four Emirati boys from drowning two years ago, reports Gulf News.

Su� a Akter, who migrated to the UAE to work as a nanny for an Emi-rati family, was swept away in the sea after she rescuing four Emirati boys in her care, aged between six and ten on October 24, 2014. Su-� a drowned before the arrival of emergency services.

The school is being built at Bhat-apara, the village where Su� a was born and raised, and where her family still lives.

Following the tragedy, Dubai Cares, under the directives of UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoumh, and with the support of the UAE Embassy in Bangladesh and the Embassy of Bangladesh in the UAE, has been campaigning to honour Su� a’s bravery with an ed-ucation project in her village.

After extensive consultation with Bangladeshi NGO Brac, a trusted partner of Dubai Cares, it has unveiled its plan to construct

and support the secondary school.The foundation stone for the

school was laid on May 10 and the construction of the school will be complete in a year.

The new secondary school, the only one of its kind in Su� a’s village, will provide education to children, particularly young girls, living in Bhatpara.

Dubai Cares will also fund the school’s operational costs for � ve years after the completion of con-struction. The charity believes the six-year intervention will generate both immediate and long-term ben-e� ts for the community of Bhatapa-ra, especially young girls who cannot a� ord to continue their education.

The charity believes it’s e� ort

will reach more than 3,200 chil-dren across six years. The proposed school will start functioning initial-ly as a junior secondary school by providing education for classes 6 to 8. After three years, the school will turn into a fully functional second-ary school which will also provide education for children in grades 9 to 10. By year six, the secondary school will be self-funded to pro-vide a sustainable educational re-source for the children of Bhatapa-ra and surrounding areas. l

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016News 5

DT

PRAYERTIMES

Cox’s Bazar 34 27Dhaka 35 27 Chittagong 33 27 Rajshahi 39 28 Rangpur 32 24 Khulna 37 27 Barisal 37 27 Sylhet 30 23T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:35PM SUN RISES 5:14AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW36.4ºC 22.0ºC

Rajshahi BograWEDNESDAY, MAY 18Source: Islamic Foundation

Fajr: 4:45am | Zohr: 1:15pmAsr: 5:15pm | Magrib: 6:40pmEsha: 8:30pm

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

ONSHORE GAS EXPLORATION

Bapex to sign deal with international consortiumn Aminur Rahman Rasel

Bapex is looking to sign a joint ven-ture agreement with an interna-tional consortium to carry out ex-ploration and development of four onshore geological structures.

Through this, the government is once again giving international oil companies a chance to explore for onshore gas in Bangladesh.

The move comes after the High Court recently disposed of a pre-vious stay order on allowing inter-national oil companies to explore onshore gas blocks.

“Bangladesh does not have the funds or technical capacity to ex-plore these structures. So we invit-ed expressions of interest (EoI) and request for proposal (RFP) aiming to explore oil and gas from reputed international oil and gas compa-nies to explore and develop four potential onshore gas structures in gas block 22, in the greater Chit-tagong region,” Bapex Managing Director Md Atiquzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

A consortium of China-based Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation,

Canada-based Longhorn Oil & Gas Ltd and Chinese Sinopec has already been selected for the joint venture agreement, he said.

“We hope that we will sign the contract soon,” added the MD of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex).

Earlier, Bapex invited EoIs from international oil companies to explore a number of well-de� ned four-way anticline closures – Patiya, Jaldi, Kasalong and Sitapahar – situated in Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Several companies submitted proposals, and of those, Bapex se-lected four companies and eventu-ally selected one consortium.

Sources said the RFP stipulates that until production begins, the company partnering with Bapex would bear sole responsibility for mishaps and the costs of correcting them.

Bapex will not spend any money during the exploration phase. The joint venture between Bapex and the selected � rm will come into ef-

fect during the production phase, with Bapex taking 30-35% of reve-nues.

Bapex currently has just one joint venture with Canadian Niko Resources. Together, they developed Feni Gas Field, but production has been suspended because of a payment dispute. They also undertook drilling at Chhatak.

In 2010, Niko � led a lawsuit with International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), against the Bangladesh government, Petrobangla and Bapex after Petrobangla withheld payments on gas sales from Feni gas � eld from 2006.

It � led another case involving two blowouts at Chattak gas � eld in 2005 after a Bangladeshi court held Niko liable for the accident.

The proceedings of the trial are still pending.

The country’s lone state-owned oil and gas exploration � rm has so far discovered seven gas � elds – Saldanadi, Fenchuganj, Shahbazpur, Semutung, Sundalpur, Srikail and Rupganj. l

A representative of Dubai Cares with the family of Su� a Akhter during the laying foundation stone ceremony. Source GULF NEWS

Traders from the hills of Chittagong anchor their fruit-laden boats at Kaptai Lake. This year, the Chittagong hills has seen a good harvest of di� erent fruits which are brought by the hill people and sold to locals from their boats better known Nouka Bazar (a boat market) . The photo was taken on Friday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Su� a Akter was swept away in the sea after rescuing four Emirati boys aged between six and ten on October 24, 2014. Su� a drowned before the arrival of emergency services

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016News6DT

Bank o� cial held for embezzling fund n Jasim Majumdar,

Khagrachhari

A principal o� cer of Agrani Bank was arrested by the Anti-Corrup-tion Commission in Khagrachhari.

The arrestee was identi� ed as Karunamoy Chakma, 52, principal o� cer of Agrani Bank, Khagrach-hari Sadar branch.

Deputy Director of ACC, Ranga-mati Sa� qur Rahman Bhuiyan said they arrested Karunamoy Chakma on Monday on charge of misappro-priating Tk92,000 with the help of three others. l

No progress over a month despite PM’s directive Dejected jute workers mull fresh movement to realise their demandsn Md Hedait Hossain Molla,

Khulna

Jute workers in Khulna and Jessore say they are utterly disappointed as their demands have not been met even after the prime minister’s order in this regard came over a month ago.

Workers in the past few months have staged a series of protests to highlight their demands, includ-ing payment of unpaid wages and dearness allowance.

They expected that the author-ities concerned would pay heed to

their demands and would take nec-essary and e� ective measures to meet those but to no avail.

Now they say they are thinking of fresh and more intense demon-strations to have their demands ful� lled.

At a press conference held at Khalishpur Jute Workers Union of-� ce in Khulna on May 11, workers announced an ultimatum, saying they would organise fresh protests if their demands were not met by June 7.

In the face of continuous strike and blockade of road and railways,

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina or-dered Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on April 11 to release a fund of Tk1,000 crore in order to pay the outstanding wages of jute workers. She gave the order during a cabinet meeting.

The premier also announced an allocation of Tk200 crore to pur-chase raw jute and another Tk200 crore for development of jute sec-tor. She ordered Industries Minis-ter Amir Hossain Amu and Com-merce Minister Tofail Ahmed to oversee the whole matter.

But jute workers carried on

with their protests even after the prime minister’s order. They � nal-ly backed o� after labour leaders were assured by Textiles and Jute Minister Emaj Uddin Pramanique and State Minister Mirza Azam dur-ing meetings on April 12 and 13 that all overdue wages would be paid by April 25.

After the prime minister’s order, only Tk200 crore had so far been released. Of the amount, Tk100 crore was supposed to be allocated to jute mills for buying jute but they had only been given Tk33 crore, making them unable to

purchase the necessary amount of jute.

Sohrab Hossain, convener of State-owned Jute Mill CBA-Non CBA Oikya Parishad, told the May 11 press brie� ng that workers called o� protests after getting assurance but the authorities had not kept the promises they made.

He also warned that there was no way but to resume protests as labour leaders could not resolve the problems even after contacting o� cials at the ministry and Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation. l

Tortured madrasa student hospitalised n Ariful Islam, Kurigram

A madrasa student was admitted to a local hospital after he was re-portedly tortured by his teacher in Ulipur upazila in the district yester-day.

The victim was Md Wazer, 14, a residential student of Katalipar Anarul Sunnah Ha� zia Madrasa in Tabarakpur union.

According to local sources, Wa-zer brought a cell phone from his home on Sunday in the madrasa hostel. Use of cell phone is forbid-den in the hostel.

On information, Hafez Noor Mo-hammad, a teacher of the madra-sa, went to Wazer and beat up him brutally leaving critically injured.

Later, other students of the hos-tel admitted him to Ulipur Health Complex.

Habibur Rahman, father of Wa-zer, said he had � led a case with Ulipur police station accusing the teacher.

SK Abdullah Al Syed, o� cer-in-charge of the police station con-� rmed the incident.

The teacher was not found in the madrasa for comment. l

Four killed, 14 injured in Comilla mishap n Mohiuddin Molla, Comilla

Four people were killed in two sep-arate road accidents at Chouddo-gram, Comilla yesterday morning.

In the � rst accident, three peo-ple have been killed as a truck knocked down their rickshaw.

People who lost their lives in the accident are Shariful, rick-shaw puller and resident of Adit-mari upzila in Lalmonirhat and Ariful Islam, a resident of Chan-dina of the district. But identi-ty of other person could not be

known immediately. O� cer-in-Charge of Chaud-

dagram police station Md Farhad said: “The truck knocked down the rickshaw on Dhaka-Chittagong highway around 10:30am, killing the three on the spot.”

In another accident, driver of a pickup van was killed and 14 others were injured when a human haul-ier collided with a pickup van and covered van around 6am. At least 14 people were also injured in the accident. The injured are labourer by profession. l

Many still unaware of country’s � rst anatomy museumn Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

Lack of adequate publicity, many students, researchers and aca-demics are not aware of country’s � rst anatomical museum housed at Anatomy and Histology Depart-ment of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU).

The � rst-ever full-� edged muse-um was set up in 2013 under High-er Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

By de� nition, anatomy is the branch of science which deals with the bodily structure of humans, an-imals and other living organisms, especially as reveled by dissection and the separation of parts.

As many as 60 skeletons of dif-ferent animals, including horse, ox, deer, camel, duck, goat, sheep, pi-geon, crocodile, snake, lizard, pig, ostrich and monkey, are available in the museum.

Besides, the museum displays 30 stu� ed animals, 500 specimens preserved in formaldehyde, 2,000 di� erent types of bones, 75 models of di� erent animals and 3,000 dif-ferent slides. Dried soft organs of some animals are also preserved in the museum.

The university authorities have not � xed any entrance fee yet. Therefore, anyone can visit the

museum free of cost on weekdays. “We have a very rich collec-

tion of anatomical specimens in the museum. The museum hous-es skeletons of di� erent types of mammals, birds, reptiles, primates and ruminants,” said Prof Dr Mo-hammad Lutfur Rahman, chairper-son of department of anatomy and histology, CVASU.

“The students will gain hands-on knowledge from the museum. Besides, evolutionary anatomists, anthropologists, ornithologists, zo-ologists, wildlife conservationists, embryologists and paleontologists will be greatly bene� ted from the museum,” added Prof Dr Lutfur.

Drawing a line between an an-atomical laboratory and an ana-tomical museum, Prof Dr Lutfur Rahman, said: “The educational in-stitutes of our country do have some anatomical laboratories. However, the laboratories cannot be called museums. A museum remains open for a visitor. From that point of view, we can say that this is the country’s � rst anatomical museum in the true sense of the de� nition.

“The veterinary students will be greatly bene� ted from the museum as they have a subject called ‘Com-parative Anatomy’. Comparative anatomy is the comparative study of the body structure of di� erent

species of animals in order to un-derstand the adaptive changes they have undergone in the course of evolution from common ances-tors,” added Prof Dr Lutfur.

“Skeletons of Asian Elephant, camel, female deer and Indian rock python are some of the unique col-lections of the museum. We have a rich collection of stu� ed or tax-idermic animals in the museum like local cock, geese, pigeons, liz-ard, guinea pig, mongoose, rabbit, wood pecker and king � sher,” said Dr Shubrata Kumar Shil, assistant professor, department of anatomy and histology, CVASU.

Taxidermy is the art or process of preparing, stu� ng and mount-ing animal skins so that they have a lifelike appearance.

Talking about the process of collecting skeletons, Dr Shubrata Kumar Shil, said that the process of collecting anatomical specimens was a bit cumbersome.

“Some of the bone specimens were collected from slaughter houses. As you know that we have a veterinary hospital at the univer-sity. We also collect the animals which die at the hospital,” said Dr Shubrata.

Asked about the lack of vigorous campaign, Dr Shubrata said that they had undertaken a number of plans to popularise the museum among the people. l

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016News 7

DT

Entering Bangladesh’s territory BSF takes away cattle, cropsn Moazzem Hossain, Lalmonirhat

Members of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) took away cattle and crops entering Bangladesh’s territory in Patgram upazila, Lalmonirhat yesterday, just a day after the BSF came to a consensus with its Bangladeshi counterpart to work together to investigate criminal activities which are taking place in border areas of the both countries.

The BGB, however, sent a letter to the au-thorities of the BSF, protesting the looting in-cident. They also requested the BSF to arrange a � ag meeting.

Quoting locals, the BGB sources said a team of the BSF from Kuchbihar camp, West Ben-gal entered Dahagram union parishad and ex-ploded several grenades. Later, they looted 12 cows, a van loaded with maize and valuables.

Local sources said a tense situation was prevailing in the area, although BGB members were on strong vigilance.

BGB’s Lalmonirhat 15 battalion’s Com-mander, Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Bazlur Rahman Hayati said on receiving information, BGB members went to the spot and brought the situation under control.

In the afternoon, a � ag meeting was held

where Bazlur Rahman led four member-BGB team and Lieutenant Colonel Ajoy Kumar Luthara led the BSF team.

When contacted, Bazlur Rahman said the two-hour meeting was fruitful and the BSF expressed sorrow for the incident.

Despite repeated assurance from India’s side, criminal activities, including looting and killing, by the BSF members go rampant in border areas, much to create concern among people of Bangladesh.

On Saturday, the BSF shot a teenager to death while he was plucking mangoes in an orchard in Goalpara border area under Jibon-nagar upazila of Chuadanga.

The deceased was Shihab Uddin, 16, son of Mahabul Halsana of Goalpaara village.

Minister for Home A� airs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal recently told newsmen that at least 146 Bangladeshi citizens had been killed by the Indian Border Security Force and Indi-an civilians along borders since 2012.

Of them, 34 were killed in 2012, 28 in 2013, 40 in 2014, 39 in 2015 and � ve persons till April 18, 2016.

Besides, the Border Guard Bangladesh handed over 423 Indian citizens, who were picked up while crossing border, to the BSF. l

A view of country’s � rst anatomy museum located on the campus of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University RABIN CHOWDHURY

AL LEADER FARUK MURDER CASE

Court orders seizure of MP Rana, nine others’ assets n Mohammed Afzal Hossain,

Tangail

A Tangail court yesterday ordered seizure of all assets belong to 10 ac-cused, including lawmaker of Tan-gail constituency 3 Amanur Rah-man Rana and his 3 brothers, in the killing case of Awami League leader and freedom � ghter Faruk Ahmed.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Go-lam Kibria passed the order fol-lowing a petition � led by o� cer-in-charge of Detective Branch (DB) of police Mah� zur Rahman, also investigation o� cer of the case. The court also asked the accused to surrender before it by June 16.

Earlier on April 6, a court issued a warrant for 10 accused accepting the charge sheet submitted by In-spector Golam Mah� zur Rahman on February 3.

Inspector of Tangail court An-warul Islam said an order asking to seize property of nine accused were sent to Tangail Sadar police station while another was sent to Kalihati police station to seize property of an accused.

OC of Tangail Sadar police station Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan said they yet to receive any directive from the court in this regard. Faruk was shot dead on January 18, 2013. l

ANALYSIS

BJP to make signi� cant gain in Rajya Sabha polls next monthn Tribune International Desk

The Indian National Congress (INC) will remain the single largest party in the India’s upper House Rajya Sabha, but the ruling Bhara-tiya Janata Party (BJP) will make considerable gains following the June 11 elections to 57 seats in the 250-member upper assembly.

The gap between the two par-ties will narrow considerably, pro-viding solace to the ruling BJP. The party’s bench strength is expected to go up to 52 after the election, which was noti� ed by the Election Commission last week, while the Congress’ tally will fall to 58 seats.

The BJP can also now count on the support of six new members who were recently nominated to the upper House. The � gure will go up to seven once the sole va-cancy in the nominated category is � lled. While these members can vote independently, they usu-ally favour the government that nominates them.

The change in the composition of the upper House will come as a relief to the National Democrat-ic Alliance (NDA) government, which, being in the minority, has been struggling to push through its legislative agenda in the Rajya Sabha.

For instance, the ruling alliance has not been able to push through the Goods and Services Tax Bill because it hasn’t had the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. It has been de-pendent on the INC, which has set three pre-conditions for support-ing the legislation.

Gaining in strengthOf the 57 members whose term ended on Friday, 14 each belong to the BJP and the Congress. The BJP’s � gure will go up to 17 after the June election, while the Con-gress’ numbers will come down by eight. The Congress has got a bo-nus of one seat after the Supreme Court restored the state govern-ment in Uttarakhand. However, it is not in a position to win the seat from Gujarat which fell vacant af-ter the death of its sitting member last Thursday.

The BJP will pick up all four seats in Rajasthan as the party had swept the 2013 assembly polls in the state. Similarly, the ruling par-ty will also be able win three seats from Maharashtra on the back of its outstanding performance in the 2014 assembly election. Among the BJP members who have retired are federal ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Piyush Goel, Suresh Prab-hu, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Nirmala Sitharaman, Birender Singh and YS Chowdhary.

Naqvi is hoping to return to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh where the BJP can win one seat, while Goel and Prabhu will have no problems winning from Maharash-tra. While it is certain that Naidu and Sitharaman will return to the upper House, it is not clear which states they will be � elded from.

If the BJP wants to � eld Sithar-aman from Andhra Pradesh again, it will have to walk the extra mile to placate chief minister N Chan-drababu Naidu of the Telugu Des-am Party. Naidu has been sulking

because central government has yet to ful� l its promise of a spe-cial economic package for the re-drawn state. Birender Singh will be re-elected from his home state Har-yana, and MJ Akbar is likely to be � elded by the BJP from Jharkhand, where it can get one seat.

Reduced tallyAs for the Congress, there is no hope of returning for three mem-bers – JD Seelam, Jairam Ramesh and Hanumanth Rao – from Tel-angana and Andhra Pradesh as the grand old party lost control of the two states in the last assem-bly election. Ramesh is hoping to get re-nominated from Karnataka, where the Congress can win two seats. Sitting member Oscar Fer-nandes has already been named, but the second seat is up for grabs.

The strength of the Janata Dal

(United) is set to come down from � ve to two as it now has to share the spoils with its Bihar ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Dor-mer JD(U) president Sharad Yadav is expected to return to the upper House. However, there is still no clarity on the second name. The other four members who retired on Friday include party spokesperson KC Tyagi, Pawan Verma, Ghulam Rasool Baliyawi and RCP Singh.

The results of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, which will be declared this week, will decide how the six vacancies in the state will be shared. The AIADMK has 12 members while the DMK has four, but the equation could well change after the results. l

This is an excerpt of a SCROLL.IN article, which can be found at http://bit.

ly/25aElJx

8TOP STORIES

DT World

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Myanmar religious tolerance activists face police actionMyanmar police said Monday said they have begun legal action against � ve protesters over a week-end rally intended to promote religious tolerance. PAGE 9

Qatar bachelor ban tests relations with migrant workersAs Nami Hader, a 30-year-old gar-dener from Nepal, approached the entrance to a park outside Qatar’s second city Al Khor one day last month, a security guard blocked his way.

PAGE 10

Oregon, Kentucky primaries put pressure on Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton is under pressure to do well in Democratic nominating contests in Kentucky and Oregon on Tuesday so she can turn her attention to the general election and the mounting attacks on her by Republican candidate Donald Trump. PAGE 10

HOW THE RAJYA SABHA LOOKS NOW

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The main entrance of India’s parliament building in New Delhi CREATIVE COMMONS

Triple IS blasts kill 63 in Baghdad n Reuters, Baghdad

Three bombings killed at least 63 people and wounded more than 100 in Baghdad on Tuesday, police and medical sources said, extend-ing the deadliest spate of attacks in the Iraqi capital so far this year.

A suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State in a marketplace in the northern, mainly Shia Muslim dis-trict of al-Shaab killed 38 people and wounded over 70, while a car bomb in nearby Shia Sadr City left at least 19 more dead and 17 wounded.

Another car bomb, in the mixed Shia-Sunni southern neigh-bourhood of al-Rasheed, killed six and wounded 21, the sources said, in what a military spokesman de-scribed as a suicide attack.

Security has improved some-what in Baghdad in recent years, even as the Sala� st militant Islam-ic State (IS) seized swathes of the country almost up to the outskirts of the capital.

But attacks claimed by IS in and around the city last week killed more than 100 people, sparking an-ger in the streets over the govern-ment’s failure to ensure security.

There are fears that Baghdad could relapse into the bloodlet-

ting of a decade ago when sectar-ian-motivated suicide bombings killed scores of people every week.

That has cranked up pressure on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to resolve a political crisis or risk losing control of parts of Baghdad

even as the military wages a coun-ter-o� ensive against Islamic State in Iraq’s north and west with the help of a US-led coalition.

Abadi has said the crisis, sparked by his attempt to reshuf-� e the cabinet in an anti-corrup-tion bid, is hampering the � ght against Islamic State and creating space for more insurgent attacks on the civilian population.

A spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command told state television the attacker in the al-Shaab neighbourhood had deto-nated an explosives-� lled vest in coordination with a planted bomb. Initial investigations revealed that the bomber was a woman, he said.

Islamic State said in a state-ment distributed online by sup-porters that one of its � ghters had targeted Shi’ite militiamen with hand grenades and a suicide vest. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the other two bombings. l

9D

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016World

SOUTH ASIASri Lanka � ood toll hits 11, thousands homelessEmergency workers in Sri Lanka on Tuesday found the bodies of a woman and two children killed in a landslide, taking the toll from two days of heavy rain to 11, with thousands more forced to � ee their homes. Over 200,000 indi-viduals have been displaced by the � oods and are being looked after at several welfare centres. -AFP

INDIAIndian police arrest man over Facebook postKarnataka Police Tuesday arrested a man for posting a doctored image on Facebook after ruling BJP complained about the post. The image showed Modi touching the feet of Akbaruddin Owaisi, a controversial Muslim legis-lator from neighbouring Telangana state who has been prosecuted for making derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Modi in the past. -AFP

CHINAHong Kong under tight security for Chinese o� cial’s visitHong Kong authorities rolled out a massive security operation on Tuesday as they braced for protests during a top Beijing o� cial’s visit to the semi-autonomous city, where tensions are rising over Chinese rule. Thousands of police o� cers were deployed as Zhang Dejiang, China’s third-highest-ranking Communist Party o� cial, began his three-day “inspection visit” to the former British colony. -REUTERS

ASIA PACIFICRussia to sign arms deal with Indonesia Russia will this week sign deals with Indonesia to supply unspeci� ed arms and for ammunition to be manufactured under license, Krem-lin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday. He said the deals would be signed at a Russia-Asean summit in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi later this week and that Pres-ident Vladimir Putin would receive Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Sochi on Wednesday. -REUTERS

MIDDLE EASTLebanon seeks to ease concerns over US law on HezbollahThe Lebanese prime minister sought to ease concerns about a new US law targeting Hezbollah’s � nances in comments published on Monday, after the group attacked the central bank for agreeing to measures it depicts as part of a war against it. The US Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act passed in December threatens sanctions against anyone who � nances Hez-bollah in a signi� cant way. -REUTERS

Myanmar religious tolerance activists face police actionn AFP, Yangon

Myanmar police said Monday said they have begun legal action against � ve protesters over a week-end rally intended to promote reli-gious tolerance.

The move came as rights groups raise concerns about e� orts by the new pro-democracy govern-ment to amend draconian laws on demonstrations.

Dozens of activists and students marched through Yangon on Satur-day in a rare gesture of religious soli-darity in the diverse nation, where ris-ing Buddhist nationalism has stoked anti-Muslim sentiment and sporadic bouts of bloodshed in recent years.

Police said they decided to take action against � ve rally leaders -- believed to be three women and two men of several faiths -- be-cause the campaigners had devi-ated from the agreed protest route.

They now face a charge that could land them in jail for up to six months under a controversial law, currently being reviewed by the new government led by political prisoner-turned-politician Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We have started legal action against � ve protest leaders under Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly Act,” police Lieutenant Major Win Tin from Kyauktada township said.

Suu Kyi’s party is stacked with former dissidents who served pris-on time for their opposition to My-

anmar’s military governments dur-ing decades of repressive rule.

They are now in government following a landslide November election victory.

Since taking the helm the ad-ministration has freed scores of activists and political prisoners and signalled its determination to repeal oppressive laws.

But rights groups have raised the alarm over a number of provi-sions in a draft amendment to the Peaceful Assembly Act. They fear these will continue to penalise non-violent demonstrations, albeit with shorter jail terms.

“You don’t need these punish-ments in your draft. If you remove these three or four things then it’s pretty good and you won’t be con-demning another generation of peaceful protesters for breaking a � awed law,” said David Mathieson of Human Rights Watch.

He said the revised law would still give “carte blanche to abusive local o� cials” to prosecute activ-ists and urged a rethink.

The proposed draft would mean protesters must still give local po-lice 48 hours’ notice of the place and time of any rally, as well as details of planned speeches and slogans. Those who protest without giving prior notice could be imprisoned for three months, while repeat o� end-ers could face a year behind bars.

Parliament is due to debate the law in the coming days. l

Singapore, Philippines central banks move to tighten cybersecurityn Reuters, Singapore/Manila

Singapore’s central bank has asked banks to maintain a high level of security for their critical IT systems following recent cy-ber attacks using the SWIFT � -nancial messaging system.

And in the Philippines, the central bank was crafting more regulations to help banks and other � nancial institutions fend o� cyber heists and mini-mise damage after any systems breach, a senior o� cial said.

The actions come after Viet-nam’s Tien Phong Bank said ear-lier this week it had interrupted an attempted cyber heist that involved the use of fraudulent SWIFT messages, the same tech-nique at the heart of February’s massive theft from the Bangla-desh Bank.

The two attacks through SWIFT, used by about 11,000 banks and institutions around the world, have sent tremors through the global � nancial in-dustry.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore “expects � nancial in-stitutions to implement strong controls in their IT systems as set out in the MAS Technology Risk Management Guidelines”, a spokeswoman said in response to media queries.

“This includes maintain-ing a high level of security for

their critical IT systems, such as SWIFT.”

Singapore’s monetary au-thority, commonly known as MAS, would continue to moni-tor the security landscape and threats faced by the � nancial industry and provide guidance where necessary, the spokes-woman said.

Nestor Espenilla, the Philip-pines’ central bank deputy gov-ernor in charge of banking super-vision, said cyber threats were growing.

“That basically reminds us that there is absolutely no room for complacency,” he told report-ers. “We consider it to be a very serious threat that � nancial insti-tutions should really be prepar-ing for.”

Regulators were looking at requiring banks to immediately report cyber crime to contain the threat and to ensure � nancial in-stitutions learn from each other, Espenilla said.

The additional measures would also elevate information technology standards of banks to align them with international norms, he said.

The central bank had also boosted its own defences, he said.

About $81m stolen from Bang-ladesh in the cyber heist went to bank accounts in the Philippines and most remains missing. l

People gather at the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Sadr City on Tuesday REUTERS

10DT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016World

USAMSF urges US to pay Afghan hospital victims A leading medical charity that su� ered massive losses when US helicopter gunships mistakenly struck its clinic in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz is criticising the US for failing to pay compensa-tion to the wounded and families of the Afghans killed in the assault last October. The organization, known by its French initials MSF, has decided - at least for now - not to resume operations in Kunduz. -AP

THE AMERICASDeadly attack on Haiti police headquartersGunmen stormed a police head-quarters in southern Haition Monday leaving at least 6 killed in a shootout and a related accident in an apparent uprising attempt days after the volatile country missed a deadline to sign in a new president. The police chief for Haiti’s southern region, Luc Pierre, said gunmen in military fatigues attacked at night in the coastal city of Les Cayes. -REUTERS

UKSurvey: Ethnic minorities could hold key to Britain’s EU referendumBritain’s ethnic minorities could hold the key to deciding the outcome to the June 23 referen-dum on membership of the EU, with non-white voters strongly in support of staying in the bloc, according to a survey. However, ethnic minority groups are far less likely to vote, according to the � ndings by the British Elec-tion Study. -REUTERS

EUROPETurkey rules out reforming its terror laws Turkey’s foreign minister in-sists his country will not revise its terrorism laws and says EU pressure on Turkey over the issue is tantamount to support for ter-rorism. The EU says Turkey must meet several conditions, including narrowing its legal de� nition of terrorism, in order for Turks to enjoy visa-free travel to Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone. -AP

AFRICARed Cross targets $110m drought relief for Southern AfricaThe International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has launched an appeal for $110m to a new initiative to help drought-stricken southern African countries. An estimated 31.6m peo-ple across the region are struggling to feed themselves, and the � gure is expected to rise to more than 49m by the end of the year. -REUTERS

Qatar bachelor ban tests relations with migrant workersn Reuters, AL Khor

As Nami Hader, a 30-year-old gar-dener from Nepal, approached the entrance to a park outside Qatar’s second city Al Khor one day last month, a security guard blocked his way.

“No bachelors,” the guard said.The newly-renovated park - its

boating lake, miniature golf course and neatly manicured lawns - was o� -limits to men unaccompanied by women or children, the guard said. “It’s for families only.”

So-called “bachelor bans” that bar lone men from entering malls and parks on certain days of the week and from living in residential neighbourhoods are a common, often loosely-enforced, practice in the conservative Muslim Gulf.

Local authorities say the meas-ure, enforced by businesses and municipalities, allows families and women who live in crowded and male-dominated cities space to enjoy public facilities.

But a recent ramping up of fam-ily-only rules in Qatar is excluding the country’s vast South Asian workforce, mostly young men who live as temporary residents away from their families, and cut-ting them o� from society, rights groups say.

The small Gulf Arab state’s reli-ance on foreign workers to power a

$200bn construction boom ahead of the 2022 World Cup has drawn criticism from labour unions who say migrants are exploited and forced to live in squalid conditions.

A government o� cial said Qa-tar was seeking to improve condi-tions for migrant workers.

The tremendous in� ux of work-ers has also raised concern among Qataris - outnumbered by foreign-ers in their own country - that rap-id demographic change threatens their way of life.

Qatar’s population stands at 2.6m, 75% of whom are male, ac-cording to the country’s ministry of planning.

No one knows exactly how many Qatari citizens there are as the government refuses to release a total but estimates say there are between 200,000 to 250,000.

Unsettled by development pace“Bachelor workers are eroding the privacy and comfort of families,” Rashed Al Fadeh, a Qatari jour-nalist, wrote in a column for local Arabic-language daily al-Sharq last year, saying workers overrunning neighbourhoods was damaging Qatar’s social fabric.

“Some Qatari families have abandoned habits inherent to them and no longer open their doors to visitors. This hurts us. We are accustomed to being generous towards outsiders ... but now the purity of our lives, sleep and rest is disturbed.”

Unsettled by the ferocious pace of development and the strain it has put on resources in his home city of Al Khor, 50km north of the capital Doha, Nasser al-Mohan-nadi, a member of Qatar’s only

elected body the Central Munici-pal Council, is petitioning the gov-ernment to introduce family-only days in malls across the country.

No-go housing zonesAuthorities have in recent months taken steps to further separate workers from locals: Interior Min-istry maps which highlight in stark green and yellow Doha’s “no-go” housing zones for migrant workers were plastered last month on bill-boards across the capital.

“Honestly it’s embarrassing for all bachelors around Doha,” said Sudeep Paraaj, a steel worker from India’s Kerala province.

“Friday is a day o� for us but if we go to the parks or the big mar-kets we are turned away. It is sad. Doha is limited for us.”

Migrant workers who live in labour camps in the desert out-side cities often travel to shopping malls in the capital on weekends to transfer money home.

Other workers use plywood to partition villas in Doha into sep-arate apartments, defying a 2010 law that rules it illegal for workers to live in “family areas”.

A government o� cial said re-lations between local citizens and expatriates were “harmonious” and “deeply respectful” and that Qatar was working to improve facilities for its more than 1.6m workers. l

South Asian visitors walk at Aspire Park in Doha on April 8 REUTERS

INSIGHT

Oregon, Kentucky primaries put pressure on Hillary Clintonn Reuters, Washington, DC

Hillary Clinton is under pressure to do well in Demo-cratic nominating contests in Ken-

tucky and Oregon on Tuesday so she can turn her attention to the general election and the mounting attacks on her by Republican can-didate Donald Trump.

The continued presence in the race of Bernie Sanders – who re-mains a long-shot to upset Clinton and win the Democratic nomina-tion – is prompting concerns among Clinton allies that he will damage her ability to take on Trump and hurt the Democrat in the fall.

But Sanders supporters shrug o� that worry, arguing that Trump is such a � awed candidate that Clinton will easily despatch with him if she faces him in the Novem-ber 8 election.

In interviews with 14 voters who back the US senator from Vermont, supporters said they did

not believe Trump, who is all but certain to be the Republican nomi-nee, could win the election.

They said Sanders should keep � ghting until the Democratic Na-tional Convention in July, to push Clinton to the left and challenge her ties to Wall Street and support for free-trade deals.

Tough slog for ClintonAllies of Clinton have held back from overt calls for Sanders to exit the race. Moves by her campaign to try to push him out could risk anger-ing Democratic voters and back� re.

So Clinton must continue her pri-mary � ght in Kentucky and Oregon, where analysts predict she will have a hard time winning. The Democrat-ic race is unlikely to wrap up before California, New Jersey and several other states vote on June 7.

Oregon, with a heavily white, lib-eral population, politically resem-bles its northern neighbour Wash-ington, which voted for Sanders. Oregon voters cast their ballots by mail, meaning voting there actually

began in the last week of April.After Sanders won both West

Virginia and Indiana this month, analysts said he has a good chance of taking Kentucky.

Both Oregon and Kentucky are closed primaries in which only registered Democrats can vote, a stricture Sanders has criticised as discouraging independent voters from joining the party.

Sanders has insisted that he will stay in the presidential election

until the Democratic convention on July 25-28 and planned two ral-lies in California on Wednesday.

Some Democrats are concerned Trump could repeat any criticisms Sanders makes against Clinton. Clinton allies also worry that Sand-ers could so damage the former US secretary of state in the eyes of his supporters that they will choose not to vote in November if he is not on the ballot. Sanders supporters played down this concern. l

Hillary Clinton greets supporters at Transylvania University in Kentucky REUTERS

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016Advertisement

World Bank: Half of Bangladesh farmers using excess fertilisern Shohel Mamun

Almost half of the farmers in the country are using excess fertiliser in an attempt to produce more crops, says a new World Bank report.

The World Bank launched the report titled “Dynamics of Rural Growth in Bangladesh: Sustainable Poverty Reduction” at the CIRDAP auditorium in the city yesterday.

The study has been conducted in partnership with the Planning Commission.

According to the report, almost half of the farmers overuse fertil-iser and its excessive use leads to create environmental and health hazards.

However, an Additional Secre-tary of the Agriculture Ministry Nazmul Islam, however, ran coun-ter to what the World Bank report said.

Speaking as a special guest, Nazmul reacted sharply as saying: “The information about the exces-sive use of fertiliser is not at all true nowadays, because it is not a com-mon phenomenon in Bangladesh any further as we have already trained up our farmers.”

Urging the World Bank to correct its information on excessive use of fertiliser he said: “There might be a few areas where a handful of farm-ers are still using excess fertiliser.”

The report was presented by Madhur Gautam, lead economist of

the World Bank and also team lead-er of the study while Local Gov-ernment, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain attended the ceremony as chief guest.

The World Bank study identi� es key changes in the rural economy, principal drivers of rural income, policy implications, and actions needed to foster growth, reduce poverty, and improve food security and nutrition.

“Agriculture is a leading con-tributor to poverty reduction in Bangladesh since 2000. The coun-try now needs to shift towards high-value agriculture, including horticulture, livestock, and � sher-ies as well as greater value addition to improve farmers’ income and household nutrition. Pro-poor ag-ricultural growth has stimulated the non-farm economy,” reads the World Bank report.

According to the report, it es-timates that a 10% rise in farm income generates a 6% rise in non-farm income. Hence, the growth of the non-farm econo-my largely depends on agricul-ture. Although rural non-farm employment is almost 2 times higher than all urban employ-ment put together, non-farm activities are not progressing su� ciently in scope or sophisti-cation. The report calls for great-er attention to foster a robust

rural non-farm economy.“Bangladesh has raised agricul-

tural productivity signi� cantly in the last few decades. It is remark-able that, with so many people and so little arable land, the coun-try has been able to provide su� -cient food for almost everyone,” said World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal Qimiao Fan.

“While rice will remain its focus, Bangladesh needs to � nd e� ective ways to diversify its agriculture, as well as adapt to a changing cli-mate.”

Bangladesh is widely recog-nized for its progress in human de-velopment, but its achievements in agriculture remain little known. Several factors supported the sec-tor’s growth: extensive irrigation, high-yielding varieties, more e� -

cient markets, and mechanization, all backed by policy reforms and in-vestments in agriculture research, human capital, and roads, the re-port said.

Local Government, Rural Devel-opment and Cooperatives Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain said: “The � ndings of the report that growth of non-farm activities de-pends on connectivity, and where-as mega cities are bene� ting from connectivity, poorly connected secondary cities are falling behind.”

The government is investing in rural transportation in order to fa-cilitate non-farm activities in rural areas, he added.

The migration is a rapidly grow-ing phenomenon and the impact of remittance on the rural economy is substantial which has been left out from the study, he said. l

12DT Business

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Capital market snapshot: TuesdayDSE

Broad Index 4,326.6 0.9% ▲

Index 1,062.0 0.8% ▲

30 Index 1,689.5 1.4% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 3,020.3 4.6% ▲

Turnover in Mn Vol 81.3 -17.7% ▼

CSEAll Share Index 13,320.9 0.8% ▲

30 Index 12,371.2 0.4% ▲

Selected Index 8,099.7 0.8% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 181.7 19.1% ▲

Turnover in Mn Vol 7.0 11.7% ▲

Surplus rice exportin the o� ngCommerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said the government has decided to export surplus rice to give a cushion to the farmers. The minister came up with the announcement at a view exchange meeting with the traders to discuss the situation of essential commodity market ahead of Ramadan at his o� ce yesterday. PAGE 13

Abenomics hasover-promised and under-deliveredAbenomics has over-promised and under-delivered. Japanese Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe’s bid to revive anaemic growth, reverse falling prices and rein in government debt has relied too heavily on the central bank and been side-swiped by a global slowdown. Keeping the project alive now requires fresh boldness. PAGE 15

TOP STORIES

Default loans see steep rise in Marchn Jebun Nesa Alo

The banking sector experienced a steep rise in default loans of Tk8,000 crore in March, thanks to the tough stance of Bangladesh Bank on the issue of compliance with the loan classi� cation rule.

The default loan rate climbed to 9.92% in January-March quarter from 8.79% in October-December quarter last year, according to the data prepared by the Banking Regulation and Policy Department (BRPD) of Bangladesh Bank.

The total classi� ed loan amount rose to Tk59,411 crore against the outstanding amount of Tk5,98,648 crore during the � rst quarter of this year compared to Tk51,371 crore against Tk5,84,615 crore in the last quarter of previous year, the data showed.

The six state-owned banks have mostly higher growth in default loans as they recorded a default

loan of around Tk27,000 crore in March, a rise over Tk3,000 crore from Tk23,700 crore in December last year.

The country’s private banks saw an increase in Tk4,200 crore

in default loans to Tk25,000 crore in the � rst three months of the current year compared to Tk20,700 crore in the last three months of 2015.

The default loan amount of foreign banks was almost unchanged to Tk1,800 crore during the � rst quarter of this year.

Bangladesh Bank suspected that high default loan rate may a� ect the capital adequacy ratio of the banking sector.

The high default loan will need to maintain higher provision that will a� ect the pro� t, ultimately edging down the banks’ capital, said a senior executive of BRPD of Bangladesh Bank.

He predicted that the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), a ratio that measures bank’s capital to its risk, may come down to 10.5% compared to the regulatory requirement of 10.62% for March.

The CAR was 10.84% in December last year above the regulatory requirement, he said.

The default loan rate slipped signi� cantly in December last year, as traditionally banks remain relaxed in classifying loans to avoid high provision at the year end.

Bangladesh Bank also appeared in relaxed mood so that commercial banks can show handsome pro� t, said a senior executive of a private bank.

Moreover, loan rescheduling facilities helped banks cut default loans last year, but from the beginning of this year, the central bank tightened its monitoring on the loans rescheduled by taking advantage of relaxed policy.

Moreover, the central bank emphasised the need for compliance with the classi� cation rule which pulled up the default loan rate, he said. l

Saudi Arabia aims to salvage white elephant � nancial district

The plan to build a � nancial district from scratch was viewed by Saudi Arabia’s neighbors as among the glossiest excesses of the kingdom’s oil boom prof-ligacy: a white elephant in the making, unlikely to attract tenants and possibly never even to be completed. PAGE 14

Bangladesh Bank suspected that high default loan rate may a� ect capital adequacy ratio of banking sector. The high default loan will need to maintain higher provision that will a� ect pro� t

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TWEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Surplus rice export in the o� ngn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said the government has decided to export surplus rice to give a cushion to the farmers.

The minister came up with the announcement at a view exchange meeting with the traders to discuss the situation of essential commod-ity market ahead of Ramadan at his o� ce yesterday.

“Last year, Bangladesh produced 3.87 crore tonnes of rice. After meet-ing the domestic demand, there will have about 30-40 lakh tonnes of surplus rice which the government can export,” said Tofail.

But the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistic (BBS) data showedthat last year the country produced 3.33 crore tonnes of rice against the demand of around 3.6 crore tonnes.

The Commerce Ministry is on the lookout for market exploration so that rice can be exported to even African countries, the minister said.

Some private companies have shown interest in exporting rice and they have been asked to ex-plore markets, he added.

“If we get export markets and can export rice there, it would give some bene� ts to our farmers.” l

NBR to set over Tk2,00,00cr revenue target for FY’17n Tribune Business Desk

The government may set the rev-enue earning target from National Board of Revenue at Tk2,03,152 crore for the next � scal year,with the highest from value-added tax.

The likely target is Tk26,782 crore more than the original tar-get of the current � scal year and Tk53,152 crore than the year’s re-vised target.

As of now, the lion revenue share came from income tax. But the government now wants to shift its focus to VAT.

In the � scal year 2016-17, the

VAT wing alone will, therefore, have to mobilise around 37.5% of the total revenue target.

O� cial sources said of the total target, around Tk75,743 crore will come from VAT, around Tk73,600 crore from income tax and Tk53,600 crore from customs duty in next � scal.

To achieve this large revenue target from VAT, NBR says it will focus on expansion of the VAT base. E� orts like bringing shops at upazila and union levels under the VAT system have been taken to this end.

It will also make the use of Electronic Cash Register machines

mandatory for the major shops from next � scal year.

The government will also put attention to preventing loopholes in VAT collection and will take nec-essary steps against VAT evasion to reach the gigantic target, o� cials said.

This � scal year (2015-16), the NBR has so far mobilisedTk1,05,432 crore revenue while the year’s total revised target is Tk1,50,000 crore.

Of the amount, the customs wing has collected Tk32,338.05 crore, VAT wing Tk39,915.43 crore, and income tax wing has collected Tk53,436 crore. l

NCC Bank MD: Big budget to open up investment opportunityn Jebun Nesa Alo

The National Credit and Com-merce Bank Limited Managing Director Golam Ha� z Ahmed yesterday said big budget will bring investment opportunity for banking sector struggling to get business for a long time amid political uncertainty.

‘’The banking business will grow while big projects will start functioning, getting al-location from the budget’’ he said, while addressing a press brie� ng on the occasion of 23rd anniversary of the bank.

He emphasised the need for improvement of govern-ance to take the advantage of a big budget.

Ha� z addressed current situation of IT security in the banking sector saying that the

central bank’s reserve heist opens up eyes of banks.

He said banks took lesson from the cyber heist and in-vesting more in IT sector to secure their network system.

The deposit rate in the banking sector is falling fast than lending rate as banks fo-cused on business expansion last year by accelerating credit growth, he said.

NCC bank reduced its de-posit rate last year as its stra-tegic plan to reduce cost and the plan started to work since credit growth of the bank rose.

The credit growth of the bank was 27% as of April while its de-fault loan rate was 7.20% as of March this year. The Capital Ad-equacy Ratio (CAR) of the bank is 13.5%, far above from the reg-ulatory requirement of 10%. l

Stocks gain for 2nd dayn Tribune Business Desk

Stocks gained for the second consecutive day yesterday amid limited participation in trading.

The market opened higher in the morning with a sluggish mood, which continued till close.

The benchmark index DSEX gained 38 points or 1% to close at 4,326.

The Shariah index DSES rose almost 9 points or 1% to 1,062. The blue chip compris-ing index DS30 was up by 23 points or 1.4% to 1,689.

The Chittagong Stock Ex-

change Selective Category Index CSCX ended at 8,099, rising 63 points.

Trading activity remained slow as the DSE turnover stood at over Tk300 crore, an increase of around 4.6% over previous session, with Tk14 crore coming from the block transactions.

Power and engineering were the major turnover con-tributors, grabbing 17.8% and 15.5% of the day’s total trade value respectively.

Almost all the sectors moved up modestly, with food and allied leading the way by gaining 0.7%. l

Business14DT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

A man views the under-construction King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia REUTERS

Saudi Arabia aims to salvage white elephant � nancial districtn Reuters, Riyadh

The plan to build a � nan-cial district from scratch was viewed by Saudi Arabia’s neighbors as among the gloss-iest excesses of the kingdom’s oil boom pro� igacy: a white el-ephant in the making, unlikely to attract tenants and possibly never even to be completed.

The creators of the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) envisaged a kind of mini-Dubai, a haven for for-eign � nancial services and in-vestors as well as local banks and companies currently do-ing business from o� ces all over Riyadh.

But more than 10 years lat-er - and a year after it was sup-posed to be � nished - most of the 1.6-million-sq-metre dis-trict on the edge of Riyadh is still a construction site, and no businesses have moved in.

Reform-minded Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last month he wants to salvage the $10 billion project. The Public In-vestment Fund, reimagined as the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, will be based there and sources have said it will also own the project.

According to the prince’s “Vi-sion 2030”, KAFD will become a “special zone” with internation-ally competitive regulations, an easier visa regime and a direct connection to the airport, steps he hopes will “increase the chances of ... success”.

Another change is to in-crease the amount of residen-tial use from the 1.7 million sq meters now designated for o� ce space. According to a 2015 report by real estate ana-lyst Jones Lang LaSalle, rents are bottoming out in Riyadh’s current 2.5 million sq meters of o� ce space but prices for residential units are rising.

Potential tenants and in-vestors are both hopeful and

skeptical about the plan.“The potential is amazing.

The inside is impressive. I’d like to live there,” said one Du-bai-based expatriate who does business in Saudi and who has toured the site. “As an urban space it’s interesting, with its design and architecture.”

He questioned how suc-cessful the project could be in the current economic climate, however. The main contractor is Saudi Binladen Group, the biggest construction � rm in the kingdom, which has been struggling since last year.

“It will not be � nished. De-cision-making is very slow (on the project, and) people don’t have cash,” he said. Like other business people interviewed for this story, he didn’t want to be named expressing an opin-ion about such an important royal initiative.

A senior Saudi former bank-er expressed similar concerns.

“If the plan does create a gen-uine free zone and makes things smoother for newcomers, it’ll be ‘bingo!’” he said, but added that a recovery in the oil-dependent economy was key.

Another senior Gulf banker said his � rm had no plans to move into the complex despite its “impressive” looks, and expressed concern that banks might only be able to rent, rath-er than own, buildings there.

At the moment, visas can take many days to arrange and require a complex process of invitation by a sponsor and plenty of supplementary doc-umentation. Setting up a busi-ness means getting permis-sions from many government departments.

Mustafa Alani, a security expert with close ties to the Saudi Interior Ministry, said visa exemptions could work like the waiver program in the United States, or like residence permits issued by free zones in the United Arab Emirates.v l

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Abenomics has over-promised and under-deliveredn Quentin Webb

Abenomics has over-promised and under-delivered. Japa-nese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid to revive anaemic growth, reverse falling prices and rein in government debt has relied too heavily on the central bank and been side-swiped by a global slowdown. Keeping the project alive now requires fresh boldness.

When he took o� ce in De-cember 2012, Abe set out to lift real economic growth to 2% a year, with consumer prices ris-ing at the same rate. His main weapons were the famous “three arrows” of aggressive monetary policy, a � exible � scal stance, and widespread structural reform.

Abe has achieved some suc-cess. Unemployment is just 3.2%, a low last seen in 1997. In his � rst three calendar years in o� ce, the economy expanded about 5% in nominal terms. A weaker yen has helped deliv-er record corporate earnings; as of May 13 the Topix stock index had returned 70% in-cluding dividends. Prices have inched upwards.

But the core targets remain out of reach. The Internation-al Monetary Fund expects Ja-pan’s GDP to grow just 0.5% this year. Even after cutting out volatile prices for fresh food and energy, the Bank of Japan’s preferred measure of in� ation is running at just 1.1%.

And the central bank keeps delaying its deadline for hit-ting the 2% target, which it now expects to reach in the year ending March 2018. Ana-lysts still think that optimistic. Meanwhile, the yen has rallied unhelpfully and the BOJ faces accusations it is ine� ective, after unexpectedly making no change to policy at its last meeting.

OrthodoxyOne snag is psychological: the de� ationary mindset is hard to shake. Firms can borrow very cheaply yet hoard lots of cash and resist big pay rises. Work-ers are not pushy about wage hikes, and reluctant to spend.

There were errors, too. Abe faced concerns that Japan’s government debt, at 2.4 times GDP, could become unsustain-able. So he kept � scal policy relatively orthodox, promising that taxes would cover public

spending, excluding interest payments, by 2020. He hiked the country’s sales tax in 2014, denting growth and con� -dence. And he relied heavily on BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, whose institution now buys an extraordinary 80tn yen a year ($740bn) of bonds. Meanwhile, structural reforms remain far from com-plete – in everything from en-couraging more women into the workforce to reconsider-ing a deep aversion to immi-gration.

So is it time for Abe to ditch his main goals? Yes and no. The in� ation target is ambitious after decades offalling prices, especially as many developed nations are now grappling with similar is-sues.

But it remains worth shoot-ing for, not least because aim-ing lower would invite curren-cy appreciation. The real GDP growth target is less useful, and could be replaced by a goal for nominal output.

Illegal helicoptersFor a truly radical move, the central bank could unleash its unlimited ability to print money. Governor Kuroda says “helicopter money”, which is usually taken to mean handing central bank cash directly to citizens, is illegal – and those around him think he means it, Reuters says. But Deutsche Bank analysts have argued this and other kinds of “monetary � nancing” are actually doable in Japan, albeit sometimes subject to parliamentary or prime ministerial approval.

The true bombshell, as championed by former UK regulator Adair Turner, would be for the central bank to ef-fectively write o� the govern-ment debt it owns by convert-ing it into interest-free bonds. That would spur growth by loosening the shackles on the state, which would no longer have to worry about � scal rec-titude.

And it would embolden households to spend more, knowing tax hikes were not looming ahead. Abenomics may not be there quite yet. But that would be a truly bold re-boot. l

Quentin Webb is an Associate Editor at Reuters Breakingviews. The article was initially published at Reuters.

n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

Friends come in all shapes, sizes and sexes, and can appear at any point in life. Let’s ignore those

catty frenemies they’re always portraying on soaps and serials, and talk about the � ve kinds of femme friends every woman needs.

The Rearview MirrorShe may or may not be a cousin or sib, she could be the one school friend you’ve stayed in touch with, or the girl next door, and you may not really have much in common with her anymore, but this is someone you’ve known for a long time, possibly since you were both kids. She’s seen you through your pimples-and-braces phase, has an idea of what your childhood was like. As we move forward in life, evolving into the � nal version of ourselves, whether by choice or fate, it is important to have that one friend who remembers where we came from. There will be moments when you feel like a failure, or alienated from yourself. It is in those moments that the Rearview Mirror friend can remind you of who you used to be, and how far you’ve come, and it’s an amazing feeling. And even on days that aren’t so dark, it’s always nice to have that one friend you can reminisce with.

The LighthouseLife can be as tumultuous as a stormy sea, tossing you to heights at one moment, plummeting you to the depths in the next. In circumstances like this, it’s comforting to have a lighthouse in sight, illuminating the way with a steady beacon.

There is a certain type of woman who can play that role in your life. She might be a little older, or at a stage in life you haven’t reached yet (eg, got

married and had babies before you did), or is pro� cient in something you aren’t (maybe she’s an accountant, or a doctor, or started her own business). She’s the one you turn to for advice and perspective when you want a peer and not your family to weigh in. Not to be confused with busybodies who o� er unsolicited advice, she’s welcoming, but never pushy.

The VaultIn this world of gossips, tattlers and oversharers, it is absolutely essential to have a friend who can keep your secrets for you, and skeptics be damned, women like that do exist, and aren’t as rare as one would have you believe. The Vault is a great listener, non-judgemental, and above all discreet. She might be super loyal, or just keeping your secrets because she doesn’t � nd them all that interesting or relevant to her, but if and when you � nd yourself a friend who is a Vault, hang on with both hands!

Naga MorichWhen you bite into a particularly spicy chilli pepper, your mouth may burn for a few minutes, and you might break out into sweat, but afterwards, you feel a rush when the endorphins kick in.

While being surrounded by positive people who boost your self-con� dence is always recommended, it’s just as vital to have at least one friend who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.

She’ll be the one to tell you those jeans aren’t doing your behind any favours, or that your new boyfriend has no right to demand your Facebook password, And her sick burns may, well, burn initially, but after the tears have dried, you acknowledge the truth in her words, and appreciate that much-needed reality check. How do you separate the Naga Morich from the toxic harpies who only want to drag you down? She’s just as upfront with the sincere

compliments, and totally chu� ed when things go well with you.

The Nor'westerOne of the awesome things about a good Kalboishakhi in April and May is how it comes in with bluster and fanfare, bringing normal life to a standstill, and leaves mayhem in its wake, but you end up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated? Some girls perform just that function in your life.

This is the friend best

enjoyed in small doses. You meet infrequently, but when you do, she pushes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to experience new and exciting things, whether it’s a wild night of partying, or getting that mad new haircut, or simply laughing like you haven’t in months. She’s the spice to your life, that little spark to make your stories worth telling, and you’re happier for knowing her.l

16DT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016Feature

The � ve kinds of girlfriends every woman needs

Because life is a road trip, and it’s always better shared with friends

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016Feature

n National Geographic

Was� a Nazreen gained acclaim for being the � rst Bangladeshi to climb the Seven

Summits, which she completed in 2015, and now she’s using the momentum to bring her love of the outdoors to young girls. An activist, writer, and social worker, Nazreen’s personal pursuit of climbing has become a worldwide message of celebration and hope for women.

You were working with nonpro� ts in the Himalayan region, which is where your mountaineering began. Tell us more about that.Was� a Nazreen: My base was in Dharamsala, India, but I was traveling a lot in and out of Tibet and Nepal and the greater Himalayan region because of all the mountain people I was working with at that time. For mountain communities, whether it’s Tibetans or Sherpa people, climbing is a sacred journey. It’s not going out to conquer—rather, it is a journey to surrender to the mountain. Everyone I worked with, they might not be in the Western de� nition “quali� ed mountaineers,” but they were skilled people on the mountain who also joined in climbing, so that’s how I got introduced to bigger mountains. Even before that, I started trekking while I was studying in Scotland and in the Appalachian regions of the United States.

That’s where I found that going back to nature, going back to mountains, I could really heal myself. It was a very personal journey, because I had a very traumatic upbringing as a child and as a teenager, and that’s where I found my refuge.

Can you talk more about your upbringing?Was� a Nazreen: Because of certain circumstances, I had to take care of myself from a very young age. But when I look back at it, that’s made me who I am today. I realized at a very young age that the only way to set myself free, and to be independent, would be to educate myself. The whole drive to be educated started from there.

How did your nonpro� t work start?Was� a Nazreen: While I was still in college [at Agnes Scott in Georgia], I had a grant to go to India and study how women were using art as therapy. In Dharamsala I worked with Tibetan women who had gone through so much torture in their lives at Chinese prisons. A lot of them had been sterilized and had seen the worst possible physical and mental violence you can think of. While I was working with them, the whole time I was the one who was crying. But these women were radiating really joyful compassion all the time and praying for the people who hurt them. That was a very life-altering experience for me, at that age especially—barely 21.

Forgiving your enemies and really embodying that principle in your day-to-day life was something that was very new to me.

Even though I had a job in the States lined up for after graduation, I decided on the � ight back that I needed to go back there. I didn’t have any guarantee at that time about who I would be working with, or what kind of job would await me, or how much the salary would be. Nothing like that. So I just had to take that leap of faith. Two weeks after moving there, everything was set in place, which was great.

It seems like in your life, a lot of times you’ve been brave enough to just wing it. What have you learned from diving into things with a lot of unknowns that you would tell someone younger?Was� a Nazreen: [Sometimes if] you live an idealistic life, you tend to box yourself in this small world. We just have to trust there’s such a bigger world out there. If we respect our intuition, and work honestly and with patience, everything will be taken care of by the universe. As cliché as it sounds, I believe it 100 percent.

Was� a Nazreen: A lot of my problems in life got solved after climbing all these mountains. For example, family members came back to my life, I was � nally socially accepted, and now I was a matter of pride—to a lot of people I was a source of shame before. I always say if I had known that this would solve so many problems

In conversation with Wasfia Nazreen

In the treacherous Khumbu icefall PHOTO: NGIMA GIRMEN SHERPA

As part of training for Denali, Was� a paddling a canoe in Columbia River Valley near Wilmer, BC PHOTO: PAT MORROW

I would have climbed these mountains many moons ago.

None of us knows when we’re going to exit this planet. We just have to trust our intuition and not waste it living someone else’s life, which is often the case for South Asian women—we’re made to live other people’s lives. I’m sure everywhere in the world that happens, but for my region speci� cally, from very early on in life we’re treated [as] more of a weight than a child that you love.

What made you think of climbing as something that could be a potential tool for you in this larger goal of helping women and your country?Was� a Nazreen: To be very honest, I didn’t actually think about it logically, like climbing would be the best, but that’s what I knew I could do. Climbing was my passion, and the activism and nonpro� t work was my career, so I put that together to highlight how far women had come, at the same time recognizing that we still have a long way to go.

At home, many people could relate to it because living in this society is such a huge struggle. But I did not think it out like that; I just knew that worked for me and was

a good parallel. Walking to every continent by itself, symbolically, was taking Bangladesh to every continent. The struggle on the mountain was the struggle of the women in our society.

What is your focus on the activism side, going forward?Was� a Nazreen: I have worked for a long time with the indigenous people in my country and I’m going to be focusing a lot more on their wisdom. With Ösel Foundation, a lot of our projects and trips [with schoolgirls] will be about taking care of Mother Earth and really re� ecting on how much our time on Earth a� ects it negatively. It’s just mindful awareness on walking this planet. It’s about honoring the feminine energy. The curriculum is a combination of both Western wilderness studies and Eastern philosophies to grow the heart. Children in our education system are taught to grow materialistically, but schools don’t necessarily educate the heart. l

Reprinted by special arrangement from Nat Geo. http://nationalgeographic.org/projects/explorers-week/was� a-nazreen/

18DT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016Feature

Paradigm shift in tourism for BangladeshJovago making hotel booking easy, one step at a time

n Features Desk

With its deltaic rivers, sloping tea gardens, beaches and the unique mangrove forests, Bangladesh has plenty to boast in terms of tourist spots. As the government of Bangladesh announced 2016 as the “Year of Tourism” with a focus on strengthening country wide tourism facilities, Jovago has entered Bangladesh at just about the right time. Since its inception in 2013, Jovago (www.jovago.com) has become the No 1 hotel booking website in Africa, active in over 40 countries. With over 200,000 hotels online, the portal provides customers with full and reliable information about the destinations on o� er. Jovago.com now plans to become the No 1 online hotel booking website in Bangladesh with the largest database of hotels to choose from.

Providing access to hotels all over the country, Jovago will be o� ering its customers highly personalised service when it comes to booking deals. “Tourism happens where there is accommodation,” explains Kaies Ali, managing director of Jovago in Bangladesh. He further states that unless there is access to a hotel, people can easily be dissuaded to travel far with their families and thus we are seeing a trend of tourists winding up at the same tourist spot, which actually adds to the collective pressure on that site.

Jovago o� ers people looking for hotel options a structured

booking engine, providing personalised services which include booking, ensuring the desired rooms remain booked as well as contacting the hotel to con� rm all the services promised will be available. According to Ali, this process of hand-holding the customers through their travel and booking experience is the paradigm shift in the world of tourism for Bangladesh. As online booking becomes more popular in Bangladesh, people are increasingly looking towards more convenience while ensuring their holidays or work related travel.

Booking can sometimes be an unreliable task with hotels not keeping the bookings or cancelling at the last moment. Jovago eases the process by dissolving that uncertainty where people are ensured safe booking through this online platform that has a direct link with the hotel. They also o� er alternates in case hotels cancel for some reason or something goes wrong with the bookings. Jovago has so far signed more than 650 hotels and plans to reach a number of 1,000 over the next few months with an emphasis on covering as many types of tourist destinations as possible.

The MD � nally notes that Jovago is focusing on various aspects of tourism and exploring opportunities that people can avail. It will soon be making the Sundarbans more accessible with the eco-tourism resorts of the EU funded Relief International’s initiative, community tourism

in Tangail with Ajiyer, as well as high end hotels, beach resorts, hotels next to heritage sites, and generally any accommodation facility that o� ers travelers a one night stay.

The company is keen to boost the middle income travelers and change their mindset towards travel and tourism. Tourism does not only involve leisure, but medical purposes, studies, work related travel, everything falls under a category and comes with its own speci� cs.

Jovago.com is an online hotel

booking service with o� ces in Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi (Kenya), Dakar (Senegal), Karachi (Pakistan) and Dhaka (Bangladesh) founded by Asia Paci� c Internet Group and has Rocket Internet and Ooredoo as investors. Jovago.com, Africa’s and Pakistan’s No 1 booking portal, facilitates the booking process for its users to provide them with the best hotel booking experience with fast, transparent and easy-to- use services. Jovago.com has over 25,000 local hotel listings across Africa and Asia and over 200,000 hotels around the world. l

Tourism happens where there is accommodation

The mezban recipe is indeed one of the toughest of the Bengali cuisines to master. There is no big secret ingredient or recipe; just a meticulously balanced combination of spices and a speci� c way of drying and cooking the meat that stimulates the taste buds like nothing else. To � nd authentic mezbani food outside Chittagong is quite a rare feat. Bringing this rarity right into Gulshan, Dhaka, is Nawab Chatga. A strictly Bengali cuisine oriented restaurant, Nawab Chatga has set out on providing their customers with the taste of authentic Chittagong. Head Chef Boshir and his team, apprentices, has been brought to the capital all the way from the port city. The menu is very terse and concise with the Kala Bhuna and Mezbani Gosh being favorites. Apart from all this, there is also the option of Bengali sea food namely Lotiya and Pomfret fry and occasionally Hilsa.

Dried � sh, commonly known as shutki is also on the menu at times. They constantly try to bring the taste of Chittagong to Dhaka, including rare dishes which cannot be found elsewhere.

Nawab Chatga goes by the philosophy of feeding more customers for a lesser price rather than making pro� t by charging higher prices. The area and ambience compliments the exotic menu very well and for those interested, there’s enough space for a decently sized party. Nawab Chatga also caters to parties, both large and small ones with a vast array of items outside of the

menu for the customer to choose from. The ambience, hygienic atmosphere and quick service ensure that every visit will be one that leaves every customer satis� ed. To get your own taste of Chittagong step into House 29, Road 19, Gulshan 1 or call 01873-667766 for more details. l

La Bamba has introduced an array of dishes for their customers. At Tk300, their Chinese chopsuey is prepared with fried noodles cooked with cabbage, carrot, capsicum, chicken, and prawn. The dish is topped with poached egg.

At Tk400, their American chopsuey is prepared with fried noodles cooked with cabbage, carrot, capsicum, chicken, and prawn. The dish is topped with poached egg.

At Tk320, their spaghetti bolognese is cooked with meat sauce topped with mozzarella cheese. l

19D

T

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016Dining

The Dining Room (TDR) recently introduced their seafood curry, their chef’s special creation.

Prepared with squid, prawns, crab, special Bengali spices and condiments, the item has promised to give out an irresistible aroma and unique taste.

Address: 5/F, House 49, Road 11, Banani, Dhaka. l

D85 combos are for those who have really good appetite and want to have really ful� lling dinner or lunch with their family and friends. These combos have already become very popular among customers who enjoy a good meal. Every single item on the plate tastes di� erent,

providing both variety and quality. Loiter D85’s menu also consists of soups, salads, D85 subs, sandwiches and burgers as well as combo meals and pizzas. To know more contact Ground Floor, House-85, Block-D, Road-8, Banani Model Town or call 01676-858585.

| restaurant |

| o� ers |

| o� ers |

| menu |

Flavours of the Port City La Bamba’s choices

TDR’s seafood special

Combos at Loiter D85

TODAY

Environmentalists in India have accused the central government of granting environmental clearances for its planned mammoth river linking project without making proper assessments.

The Inter Linking of Rivers (ILR) project envisages 30 links across India and potentially has enormous implications for the major trans-boundary rivers � owing downstream into Bangladesh.

This issue is of vital importance to Bangladesh, which has been hugely impacted as a result of reduced water � ows caused by India’s Farakka and Gazaldoba Barrages.

According to the Joint River Commission, waters received by Bangladesh are barely a fraction of their � ow four decades ago and minimum historical � ows of Teesta water are not being maintained.

This has caused serious hardship to the millions of Bangladeshi farmers who rely on these waters for irrigation. People in border districts also face added di� culties in protecting river banks from erosion during monsoons because of the sudden nature of increases in water � ow.

The absence of proper ecological studies for the ILR project adds weight to longstanding criticisms that it is not viable � nancially, environmentally, or socially. The South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers, and People warns the project is not sustainable and risks worsening water supplies throughout India as well as downstream in Bangladesh.

As neighbours, with 54 common rivers between them, Bangladesh and India have an obligation to work together better to mutually resolve common water issues.

A timely signing of the Teesta treaty agreed last year, is vital to help take this work forward and mitigate some of the detrimental impacts borne by Bangladesh.

Resolving the Teesta issue is essential to uphold the spirit of the Bangladesh-India Ganges water treaty and to help ensure compliance with the International Convention on Non-navigational Uses of Watercourses.

It is also important to help ensure more attention is focused by the Indian government on the long term consequences and impacts of its planned river-linking scheme.

Resolving the Teesta issue is vital to ensure Bangladesh and India work together betteron water-sharing

If only he had been an ‘atheist blogger’

Who do the Kashmiris want? Indian nationalists claim that Kashmiris are Indians. If that is so, these Kashmiris are a very strange kind of Indian -- much of what is considered good by Kashmiris is considered bad by Indian nationalists and vice versa

PAGE 22

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PAGE 23

Where crude loyalties lieThe Middle East and its relationship with both US and Russia are in � ux. The ‘topple-Assad’ agenda has taken a backseat in Washington (perhaps due to oil � elds falling to ISIS)

People are murdered every day for less. But the New Yorker won’t run a pro� le on them, ever. So they will be invisible, in this world where Western media still gets to decide what is ‘important’ in and about Bangladesh

India needs to put water-sharing ahead of dam building

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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

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

www.dhakatribune.comJoin our Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune.

The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors

alone. They do not purport to be the o� cial view of Dhaka

Tribune or its publisher.

EditorialWEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

DT 20

n Shams Al-Majhi

Poor Irfanul Islam. You are the ultimate invisible death in this nation of invisible deaths. You died

for banal reasons: Money, robbery, cover-up. You lived normally and died unexpectedly, and nobody outside friends and family remembers you.

Irfan, if only you had been an “atheist,” “secular,” “free thinker,” “blogger,” or any other category that is suddenly quite valuable in the war-on-error chess game Bangladesh has entered.

Then you would have seen the waterfall of grief and national memorial. Oh, there would just be no end. Secular liberals would write Facebook statuses with #weareirfan. From the safety of their Gulshan homes, they would say how they stand behind you.

Embassies would say they were concerned, and liberal Dhaka papers would say “Sweden sends strong message.” The 1980s are over, so there would be no talk of aid packages (these days, money seems to be � owing in reverse), but there would be condemnation statements. Meaningless “concerned” statements. The toothless scolding of a unipolar time.

Then next week, a Bangladeshi expat writer would write an article about you in The New York Times. They would warn about “dark times” and the “loss of innocence.” Later, this theme would be picked

up at Hindustan Times or Indian Express, and they would take a more extreme tone: “On the brink in Bangladesh.” That was also their headline in 2006, 2009, and 2014. Everybody loves a good drought of ideas.

All the agencies who thought Rana Plaza, Tazreen, Rampal, Banshkhali, Kansat, Phulbari were “not newsworthy,” suddenly think Bangladesh is news. Vice, BBC, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera, all send a team to shoot a rush package.

It is a good time for Bangladeshis living abroad (asylum or long-term) because they become high-value spokespersons for the news segment from a Western TV studio.

Then would come International PEN; they may even do a fundraiser for you. The ink and tears would � ow. You may get the ultimate honour, a graphic logo. Maybe it would even be animated, a stain of blood that spreads: #weareirfan

Your stabbing on the street

would be compounded by a betrayal by the government. The home minister would say they are analysing your writing. The ICT Minister would say we have to be responsible in our expressions. The chief of police would say they are looking at your Facebook to see if there is anything insulting there. Dead already, you would be killed a second time by your own government.

But, alas, beloved Irfan, sitting in heaven, none of this will happen for you. Because you were not any of these things. You were an ordinary citizen. And you died for the most banal, most common reason for deaths in Bangladesh today: Money. It was possible because of the motif of all Bangladesh today under a government that can’t seem to control law and order in 56,000 square miles.

You were killed because the robbers knew they could, and no one would catch them. Because no one now gets caught for crimes in Bangladesh, and that is what happens when the state machinery

of law enforcement (police, RAB) is too busy controlling and surveillng the opposition political parties.

For the grief-stricken family of Drik Photo Library, it is hard to imagine how this came to pass. And yet, this is also an ordinary story in law-and-order-collapsed Bangladesh.

Irfan used to be the key technician in the darkroom of Drik. Over time, everyone moved to digital, and darkrooms became obsolete. It was decided that he would be trained to work in accounts. He was known to be honest.

Reading the news reports, I can make an educated guess about what happened. Irfan used to go to Dutch Bangla Bank in Dhanmondi each week. I would surmise (although I am not sure) that he always went on a speci� c day. There were probably some days he had to withdraw one lakh, other days ten. Many banks have informants inside, and spies outside. Somebody was watching him, and realised that this man had a pattern.

Then, one weekday, something that has become very ordinary in Bangladesh happened. Probably a microbus waited near the bank, in an area outside the range of CCTV cameras. As Irfan walked by, someone pulled a gun on him under his shirt and asked him to quietly get into the microbus. Yes, it probably happened just like that, in broad daylight. No one noticed, no one realised. The Drik car was probably still trying to � nd parking in the residential zone turned commercial hell of Dhanmondi.

You see Bangladesh’s main problem is not al-Qaeda in South Asia, or Daesh, or JMB, or Ansarullah Bangla Team, or whatever new trend and false � ag the war-on-terror promoters such as Daniel Pipes, Rita Katz, and SITE are announcing is “taking over” Bangladesh this week (Is SITE ISIS’ PR agency? It does seem that way). No, our problem is much more boring.

It is that, in a country of 160 million, with low law and order, you can pick someone up from a Dhanmondi street, and nobody notices. And the robbers know that no one can catch them. They know that the police are busy with more “important matters.” Such as reading the Facebook page of the last murdered “atheist.”

What happened next? I am not sure. The robbers probably tried to force him to withdraw more money from another Dutch Bangla. Or did they strangle him in the microbus because the three lakh they got from him was all there was?

People are murdered every day for less. But the New Yorker won’t run a pro� le on them, ever. So they will be invisible, in this world where Western media still gets to decide what is “important” in and about Bangladesh. And we are the weak nation that still cannot de� ne its own fate.

Irfan, your ordinary life has doomed you to a forgetting. There have been a few rallies on DU campus for you, organised by photographers.

But you cannot become an international issue, because a murder over theft of money is the most usual and normal death there is in Bangladesh. If only you had been one of those “high value” categories in this war-on-terror trap. Once upon a time, a journalist had written he wanted guarantee of natural death. We are still waiting for that guarantee. l

Shams Al-Majhi is a researcher and a member of the War on Error network.

Opinion

Erdogan’s political support is rooted in Turkey’s resurgent Islamic elements COURTESY

People are murdered every day for less. But the New Yorker won’t run a pro� le on them, ever. So they will be invisible, in this world where Western media still gets to decide what is ‘important’ in and about Bangladesh

Irfan bhai’s murder is just not important enough for the international media

If only he had been an ‘atheist blogger’

21D

TWEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Opinion22DT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

n Garga Chatterjee

Put students, television, cricket, Kashmir, and India into a mix and what you typically get is violence

or intimidation against Kashmiri students in universities across the Hindi belt. That is usual.

That is how it is supposed to be. Sometimes, the Kashmiri students have even been banished from the university or thrown out of their hostel overnight. None of these makes “national” headlines.

However, after the recent T20 semi-� nals, with the same mix of students, television, cricket, Kashmir, and India, the events that followed made it to the chatter of the Delhi’s media echo-boxes. What was di� erent? Because, for a change, the site was Kashmir, not the Hindi belt and the primary victims were non-Kashmiris. To understand these double standards, we need to base our understanding not on tri-

colour rhetoric, but multi-coloured reality.

In Kashmir, very few people support the BCCI’s “Team India” when it plays and yes, many are happy when it loses. That was true for the Kashmiri students at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, when West Indies won in the recent T20 semi� nals.

Some non-Kashmiri outsiders didn’t like that. They got a � avour of what Kashmiri students are made to feel daily in the Hindi belt. Tension escalated, and a few Kashmiri students were assaulted. The Kashmiri people around NIT allegedly threw stones at the hostels on outsider students.

Outsider students escalated the matter by trying to take out a procession with an Indian national � ag -- a symbol that is not tolerated in large areas of Kashmir except under very tight Indian security cover.

The Jammu and Kashmir police stopped the outsider’s � ag procession from leaving the campus and did so by serious lathi

charge. Some students were hurt.After the incident, outsider

students wanted the NIT to be shifted away from Srinagar. No Kashmiri student has ever wanted universities and colleges of the Hindi belt to be shifted outside the region, when faced with similar violence and hostility.

Police beating up anyone is horrible, and this sub-continent has a particularly brutal police system. I am no supporter of police authoritarianism, but I am merely pointing it out that JK Police treated them less harshly than it does its own Kashmiris.

There is “us” and “them” even in superior treatment -- that’s how sometimes di� erences show up, in the most opposite way than expected. What does this say? I leave the readers to judge. What does this also say about the relationship Kashmir state agencies have of the Union agencies -- is it one of co-operation or fear?

The “national media” then swooped on it like it never swoops into other situations of police lathi charge of that scale or campus student tension due to cricket matches.

It is never the lathi charge, but who are lathi charged that ever matters and in that special attention, it was made clear that even the Delhi establishment treats outsiders and Kashmiris di� erently.

Lathi charge incident of far greater scale on many Kashmiri youth over the last few years has never grabbed as much attention as this one. When will lathi charge on the young people of Kashmir again become “national” news?

I suspect it won’t be anytime soon -- irrespective of lathi charges on Kashmiris that will surely happen over the next months and years. I also suspect that there might be calls in the Indian Union for bringing sports team support under the ambit of law.

So that chest-beating about the right of � ying the tri-colour

from Kanyakumari to Kashmir does not become the ridiculous axis of this debate, let me declare some ground truths. Let us try to understand reality here, irrespective of the Indian Union’s legal framework. Truth cannot be legislated, though its expression can be.

A nation is only a nation to those who believe in it. A nation does not exist by itself, without its believers. It is a self-styled collective.

If this collective has the resources to put symbols of its nationhood in areas signi� cantly inhabited by people who may collectively think of themselves to be some other nation, con� ict occurs.

The most democratic and peaceful way of resolving this con� ict is to ask the people inhabiting the contested area what they want.

If this choice is denied, then the outcome of that con� ict -- victory, defeat, or constant repression -- is typically ensured

by superior resources, especially military resources, who have more money for guns, in short. In such undemocratic scenarios, victory is not necessarily the expression of popular will, neither does it represent the validity of some nation concept over another. Men with more guns and money “win.”

What do Kashmiris want? I think New Delhi knows that very well, and so do we. It is not without reason that Kashmir has been denied a referendum with independent nationhood as one of the choices.

A power that con� dently claims that most people in Kashmir are happy to be citizens of India also denies the people of Kashmir to show the world the extent of such happiness through a referendum.

Whether that is a sign of con� dence in what New Delhi claims to be true, I leave my readers to judge.

One thing this incident has led to is that many Indian media outlets have carried the state of Kashmiri people’s will that is

expressed through this incident. This exploration of “what they want” is something that the Indian media avoids in a near-total way.

But this incident shows how di� erent Kashmiri students, how di� erent people in that Srinagar neighbourhood, are from the outside students.

Whether the di� erence is present in even wider sections of the Kashmiri population is something this set of events cannot directly tell, but it does have a strong hint.

Indian nationalists claim that Kashmiris are Indians. If that is so, these Kashmiris are a very strange kind of Indian -- much of what is considered good by Kashmiris is considered bad by Indian nationalists and vice versa.

Does electoral democracy in Kashmir express this aspect of Kashmir? If not, who does the government represent? l

Garga Chatterjee is a political and cultural commentator. He can be followed on twitter @gargac.

The tension in Srinagar keeps escalating REUTERS

Indian nationalists claim that Kashmiris are Indians. If that is so, these Kashmiris are a very strange kind of Indian -- much of what is considered good by Kashmiris is considered bad by Indian nationalists and vice versa

India has some double standards when it comes to the treatment of Kashmir

Who do the Kashmiris want?

Opinion

n Adnan R Amin

The Iran-US nuclear deal promises (or threatens) to radically reshape regional geo-politics. Firstly, it

averted what could have been a military maneuver (by proxy or otherwise) to dismantle or destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Thus a regional con� ict was avoided. Iran can now gradually distance itself from the dreadful Axis of Evil. But, naturally, the agreement has vexed two of US’s historic allies in the region: Israel and the Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu announced that the deal would enable Iran to become a nuclear power within 15 years, further jeopardising Israel’s security. Sunni-dominated Gulf States viewed it as the US courting Iran at their expense.

The move, they feared, would strengthen Iran’s involvement in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen -- further legitimising its claim to a regional leadership role. Fears have also grown that Iran’s Shia expansionism will now come head to head with Arab states’ patronage of Sunni militancy.

Their only consolation is that America will make consolatory

concessions and Iran’s uranium stockpile, number of centrifuges and level of enrichment will be severely limited and closely monitored.

Despite Iran’s covert support to the Assad regime, a nuclear deal and the lifting of economic sanctions points to a strategic shift in US foreign policy. Security experts foresee a stronger role for Iran in the � ght against ISIS.

While this leaves the Syrian rebels stranded in a three-way civil war, the US realignment indicates reluctance on part of the outgoing US administration to intervene substantially in Syria’s bloody civil war.

Given that situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen are increasingly seen as strategic blunders, the Iran deal is perhaps the Obama administration’s most signi� cant foreign policy win in the Middle East. Despite Saudi Arabia’s protestations, the US has gone ahead and lifted a 40-year export ban on Iran.

This, in turn, has opened up the last great emerging market to international commerce and added up to 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the tally. Reconnected to the

international � nancial network, Iran has also regained access to frozen assets worth $100 billion. In short, the nuclear deal has allowed Iran to trade its nuclear capabilities for economic power.

Iran’s newfound freedom has signi� cantly a� ected the oil industry. From the moment the sanctions were lifted, Iran’s oil production went into overdrive. The country has been determined to reach pre-sanction levels (roughly 4.4 mb/d) of crude production within a year.

Of course, Iran’s race to catch up with Middle Eastern rivals was not unforeseen. Earlier, Saudi Arabia and Russia had boosted crude production to counter Iranian exports. As a result, the global market experienced an oil “glut” (excessive supply) and prices began to fall.

In 2015, the price of crude oil fell below $35 per barrel, signifying an 11-year low (remember this is the decade of the 2008-09 � nancial meltdown, Goldman Sachs predicted that this could drop to $20, before supply adjusted to demand).

Joint attempts at stabilising crude oil prices have not succeeded. In the � rst quarter of 2016, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia and Russia would implement a joint production freeze. But the summit in Doha saw the Kingdom demanding that Iran commit to a production freeze as well, a move that a post-sanction Iran was not going to make.

A breakdown of talks means that Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran are likely to keep continue increasing crude supply. The Bank of America has announced that OPEC is now “e� ectively dissolved.”

On the other hand, slowdown in emerging Asian markets will further depress crude oil demand and prices. At one point, analysts predict, the global oil glut will threaten the shale oil industry in the US and the economic recovery by Iran.

Things between the US and Saudi Arabia have been further

complicated by the bipartisan “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act” or the “911 Bill,” which would allow lawsuits against foreign states and � nanciers of terrorism.

Despite 15 of the 19 hijackers being Saudi nationals, the 20th hijacker alleging royal family funding and widespread allegations that the Kingdom was fomenting militancy in Syria and Yemen -- the US has never investigated these claims; nor has it agreed to release the classi� ed “28 pages” of the 911 Inquiry Commission report, which allegedly describe foreign involvement in the attacks. If enacted now, the bill will allow Saudi royals to be sued by 911 Survivors and family members.

KSA has responded by threatening to sell o� $967bn

worth of treasury securities and assets if the bill is passed. Otherwise, Saudi o� cials argued, these assets could be frozen during lawsuits. This would be the equivalent of KSA withdrawing a trillion-dollar loan to America (behind the scenes, KSA is shipping even more crude oil to the US).

The Obama administration has been trying to pressure congress into rejecting the bill, arguing that it would set the precedence of suing sovereign countries instead of employing diplomatic channels. White House cues suggest that the POTUS will also veto the bill. President Obama’s visit to KSA sometime ago to meet the Saudi king, may yet yield some bene� ts for both sides.

The Middle East and its relationship with both the US and Russia are in � ux. The “topple-Assad” agenda has taken a backseat in Washington (perhaps due to oil � elds falling to ISIS). The priority now is on stabilising crude prices, protecting unconventional drilling industry, pacifying the KSA-Iran-Israel nexus, and tapping the emerging Iranian market. All this in an election year!

Iran may remain focused on its sanction-free development trajectory, extend its in� uence in

Iraq and Syria, and contemplate taking on Israel. In a bid to retain/regain Islamic, regional, and oil leadership, Saudi Arabia will undoubtedly mobilise assets and resources on multiple levels. KSA has used oil as a weapon in the past (starving the West in 1973) and might do it again.

But the Kingdom is reeling from the low prices, and can hardly keep up such tactics without slipping into a recession. It is plausible that the regional tussle will manifest itself to further sectarian con� ict.

In whatever manner the region chooses to adapt to changing paradigms, they will almost certainly be shaped by how the oil supply glut pans out. l

Adnan R Amin is strategy and communications consultant.

How will the oil supply glut pan out? BIGSTOCK

The Middle East and its relationship with both US and Russia are in � ux. The ‘topple-Assad’ agenda has taken a backseat in Washington (perhaps due to oil � elds falling to ISIS)

Where crude loyalties lieAll is fair in oil power and politics

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TWEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

24DT Sport

TOP STORIES

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Golden Boot little consolationFinishing the season as the Premier League’s top scorer has done little to numb Tottenham striker Harry Kane’s pain after Spurs not only lost out to Leicester City in the title race but saw bitter rivals Arsenal climb above them on the � nal day. PAGE 28

De Kruif wants to ‘bring back glory’Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif landed in Dhaka yesterday to take over as Bangladesh’s temporary head coach ahead of their AFC Asian Cup Quali� ers play-o� s against Tajikistan on June 2 and 7. PAGE 25

Costa and Torres omitted from squadDiego Costa was left out of Spain coach Vicente del Bosque’s provisional 25-man squad for Euro 2016. The naturalized Brazilian missed Chelsea’s last two games of the season due to a persistent injury. PAGE 26

Lovchev slapped with four-year banWorld champion weightlifter Aleksey Lovchev con� rmed that he has been banned for four years for doping. “Yesterday I received documents from the international federation about my four-year suspension,” Lovchev told. PAGE 27

Kalabagan Cricket Academy’s Mehedi Hasan Miraz is run out against Mohammedan Sporting Club. Despite being the Bangladesh Under-19 captain, Miraz is seeing the darker side of Bangladesh’s domestic cricket MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Where no one is lookingCricketers’ struggle in lowly Dhaka Premier League clubsn Mazhar Uddin

There was no coach or an o� cial present during Cricket Coaching School’s training session in Dhan-mondi yesterday. They only had three new balls for net practice and the players haven’t been paid their due amount. You could cut the lack of excitement with a knife at their training session.

Welcome to the darker side of the Dhaka Premier League.

Here, no one cares when you are losing, to the point that you may not even see your team o� cials during a match. Players have to spend from their own pockets till perhaps a win which may lead to payment from the club. Even at the DPL, considered the most important domestic competition, incidents of teams not serving food or poor accommodation isn’t uncommon.

All these come as a cultural shock for players who are used to better practice facilities and logistics. For those who have represented Bang-ladesh at the international level, it can sometimes feel inhumane.

Even when a lowly placed side create a major upset, like Kalabagan Cricket Academy did against fancied Abahani Limited on Monday, hardly anything changes. KCA too had lost their � rst six DPL games so payment,

according to some of their players, is still “expected”.

CCS are below KCA having also lost all six matches, and face third-placed Victoria Sporting Club in Fatullah today. Half their battle for this contest is lost when you consider the lack of facilities they have to deal with in training at a small ground where the pitch-es are made of cement, and high

catching is almost impossible.Both these teams however dif-

fer in their budget. CCS are new-ly-promoted from the Dhaka First Division Cricket League, and are known to be struggling with mon-ey. KCA on the other hand have strong � nancial backing but as is the culture in domestic cricket here, payment get stuck when re-sults are in the red zone.

The CCS players are yet to re-ceive their � rst 30% payment from the club after the Bangla-desh Cricket Board took responsi-

bility and instructed all the clubs to pay this amount before the start of the league, 30% during the league and the remaining 40% to be paid within four weeks after the tournament.

It was learned that the CCS players have received less than their 30% payment. The CCS of-� cial have asked the players to sign the agreement paper which

will be provided to the BCB saying they have received their payment. And according to the sources, the CCS cricketers are even plan-ning to hold a press conference if things continue the same way af-ter today’s game.

CCS captain Rajin Saleh, a for-mer Bangladesh captain and a vet-eran of 24 Tests and 43 ODIs, told Dhaka Tribune that he felt humili-ated playing for a club that doesn’t pay on time.

“We are yet to get the promised 30% payment from the club and

now after six matches we did not receive the money. It’s di� cult for us to continue playing as the board took the responsibility to ensure our payment when they in-troduced the players draft system.

“Being a professional player it’s almost impossible for us to survive playing in such clubs as we did not choose our team. At times it’s quite humiliating for us when we com-pare the payment and other facili-ties to the other big clubs,” he said.

When this correspondent con-tacted CCS o� cial Iqbal Yousuf Chowdhury Niku over phone, he informed that he was ill and re-ceiving treatment at the doctors’. Niku did not make a comment.

KCA o� cial Tarikul Islam Tito however said most of his players have already received the � rst 30% payment. “We have already paid the � rst 30% payment to most of the players and by [today] all the players will receive their payment. We also announced bonus after winning the game against Abahani and we will give the remaining 30% of the pay-ment even before the conclusion of the � rst round,” said Tito.

The players will however tell you that they are less keen on the bonus and need the due payment for their livelihood. It is a hope against hope, sometimes. l

Being a professional player it’s almost impossible for us to survive playing in such clubs as we did not choose our team. At times it’s quite humiliating for us when we compare the payment and other facilities to the other big clubs

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

De Kruif wants to ‘bring back glory’n Shishir Hoque

Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif landed in Dhaka yesterday to take over as Bangladesh’s temporary head coach ahead of their AFC Asian Cup Quali� ers play-o� s against Tajikistan on June 2 and 7.

He returns eight months after being sacked by the Bangladesh Football Federation, during which time he coached a semi-profession-al club in the Netherlands. De Kruif spoke to the media before their af-ternoon training session at Bangab-andhu National Stadium. Here are some of the excerpts:

Initial goalI think football in Bangladesh last year was in heavy water. When you see the result there is no rea-son to be proud on the national team so that is one of the task to bring back the feeling we had more than one year ago. I know the cir-cumstances. I know how to build up the players in short time. I have the credits from the players and I think this is the important reason for me to come back.

I just � nished my league season in my country so I was available al-though for short period. After home game against Tajikistan I will travel

back to my country. What I have now is a big task because everybody is unsatis� ed. Football went down a bit. We have to bring some glo-ry back. We have to bring the form back and make the people happy.

Bringing back banned playersMy � rst talk with the president [Kazi Salahuddin] was, when you want to perform you have to bring some players back. Otherwise no chance. Mamunul [Islam] is very

important because he was the cap-tain. He takes care of instruction and what I want to tell the players.

So we need him in the team as well as Sohel [Rana] because he is a lefty. Not too many players in the

world is lefty. Zahid [Hossain] and Yeasin [Khan] need more time to come back to game again. At this moment we can drop them but in the future both players are still best in the country. When you have to kick out the best player of your country then you are crazy.

Tajikistan matchesWe drew 1-1 against Tajikistan [in the World Cup quali� er in June 2015] and I think we deserved to win the game. I was not there dur-ing the away match. They got beat-en 5-0. So surviving over there [in Dushanbe] will be a big task.

I will prepare my team tacti-cally and physically very well. We have to get very good result there. We can do something in the home game, see if we can beat them if possible. In away game, I want to see a good Bangladesh team in tac-tical side.

Coach changes in last eight monthsIt is not healthy. It’s very good if you have a coaching sta� for long time because it’s a process of build-ing up. Let’s � nd a player, build them up and provide them with good training session. You need coaching sta� who is there consist-ently which is very important. l

Bangladesh’s temporary Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif imparts instructions to his charges at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Awards night, talent hunts in the o� ngn Tribune Report

The Bangladesh Cricket Board is planning to hold an awards night, in collaboration with national team sponsor Robi Axiata Limited, from this year to reward the cricketers’ performances.

This was announced at a press conference yesterday where it was also informed that Robi has signed a three-year deal as BCB’s strategic partner.

The last time BCB had an awards night was back in 2006 when Shahriar Nafees became the crick-

eter of the year while the likes of Mohammad Ra� que, Shakib al Hasan, Mehrab Hossain Jr and Khaled Mashud Pilot were also re-warded.

BCB’s marketing and commer-cial committee chairman Kazi Inam Ahmed said as part of the partner-ship with Robi, the BCB will also hold talent hunt programmes

BCB senior vice president Mah-bub Anam, Robi director and CEO Supun Birasinghe and chief corpo-rate and people o� cer Motiul Islam Nawshad were also present at the press conference.l

Bangladesh Cricket Board’s senior vice president Mahbub Anam (2L) and marketing and commercial committee chairman Kazi Inam Ahmed (R) address the media during a press conference at SBNS yesterday BCB

No Pirlo in Italy's pre-Euro squadn AFP, Milan

Italy veteran Andrea Pirlo was among the absentees as coach An-tonio Conte named a provisional 28-man squad on Monday for a pre-Euro 2016 training camp with several stars absent with Cup � nals to play.

Conte, who earlier Monday was cleared of sporting fraud charges relating to a match-� xing a� air while he was coach of Serie B team Siena in 2011, can now fully focus on the Azzurri although questions remain over his � nal 23-man squad.

Italy players yet to play Cup � -nals - namely those with Juventus, AC Milan, Paris Saint Germain and Manchester United - were left out of the reckoning altogether, mean-ing Conte’s � nal squad on May 31 could look very di� erent.

Defender Leonardo Bonucci was the only Juventus player in-cluded for the � rst training camp beginning today at Coverciano near Florence because he is suspended for the Italian Cup � nal against AC Milan this Saturday.

With mid� elders Claudio Mar-chisio (Juventus) and Marco Verrat-ti (PSG) ruled out through serious injury, there is a place for Roma’s tough-tackling defensive mid� eld-er Daniele de Rossi.

World Cup winner Pirlo, 36, who

had came out of retirement follow-ing Italy’s � rst round exit from the 2014 World Cup, was a notable, al-though not a surprise, absentee.

Since his move from Juventus to New York City, Pirlo has fallen out of favour amid reports he is lacking the required � tness. It now looks increasingly unlikely he will play at Euro 2016.

Conte has rewarded Domenico Berardi for a string of � ne goalscor-ing performances with Serie A

minnows Sassuolo, who pipped AC Milan to sixth place and a pos-sible spot in next season’s Europa League.

Toronto striker Sebastian Gio-vinco, who played under Conte at Juventus, has been recalled while Sunderland’s Fabio Borini, who featured at Euro 2012 without play-ing a game, has been given the nod by Conte for the � rst time.

Conte called up a total of seven players who had never graced the Italy squad in Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Sportiello, Genoa defender Armando Izzo, Empoli defender Lorenzo Tonelli, mid� elders Mar-co Benassi (Torino), Danilo Cataldi (Lazio), Davide Zappacosta (To-rino) and Genoa striker Leonardo Pavoletti.

Three other players, other than Borini, return to the fray in goal-keepers Antonio Mirante (Bolo-gna), Federico Marchetti (Lazio) and West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna.

Among the notable absentees due to Cup duty are goalkeeper Gi-anluigi Bu� on (Juventus), defend-ers Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini (both Juventus), Luca An-tonelli (Milan), mid� elders Thiago Motta (PSG) and Riccardo Montoli-vo (Milan), goalkeeper Salvatore Si-rigu (PSG) and Manchester United fullback Matteo Darmian. l

26DT Sport

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Liverpool stand between Sevilla and Europa treblen AFP, Basel

Liverpool mid� elder Emre Can be-lieves the Reds’ legendary battling qualities can help end their 11-year wait for a continental trophy against treble-chasing Sevilla in today’s Europa League � nal.

In their � rst European � nal since defeat by AC Milan in the 2007 Champions League, Liverpool are bidding to scupper the Spanish side’s bid for an unprecedented third straight Europa League title at Basel’s St. Jakob-Park.

It brings Liverpool’s breathtak-ing journey through the compe-tition under new manager Jurgen Klopp to a thrilling climax, follow-ing dramatic wins over Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal in recent months.

After seeing his side sink Villar-real brilliantly to reach the � nal, Klopp declared: “To go to a � nal you need a little bit of luck in de-cisive moments, but most of the time you need outstanding perfor-mances.

“Now we are there, and it’s a great opportunity and we will take it.”

Liverpool’s fans should be get-

ting excited, but as the only team to successfully defend the trophy on two occasions, in 2007 and 2015, and with a record four UEFA Cup/Europa League titles, silky-smooth Sevilla are arguably under less pressure.

Can wants to seize his chance in his � rst � nal with the club, but says a collective show of force will be required against the tough La Liga side.

“Sevilla know how to play in the Europa League,” Can told Liverpool’s website. “They’ve won the last two Europa League titles, and so it will be a very tough game, but if we show what we are able to do as a team then we can win the � nal.”

Five-time European champions Liverpool, who have also won the Europa League and its predecessor the UEFA Cup three times, have often provided drama on the European stage.

In their last Europa League suc-cess, in 2001, they triumphed after a nine-goal thriller against Depor-tivo Alaves only after Del� Geli scored a "golden goal" own goal in extra time. l

Jurgen Klopp is hoping to replicate Liverpool’s previous Europa League (formerly known as UEFA Cup) victories in 1973, 1976 and 2001. This year’s � nal will be shown live on BT Sport and will be streamed free on YouTube

SPAIN PROVISIONAL SQUADGOALKEEPERSIker Casillas (Porto), David de Gea (Man United), Sergio Rico (Sevilla)

DEFENDERSJordi Alba, Gerard Pique, Marc Bartra (all Barcelona), Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal (both Real Madrid), Cesar Azpilicueta

(Chelsea), Juanfran (Atletico Madrid)

MIDFIELDERSSergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta (both Barcelona), David Silva (Manchester City), Mikel San Jose (Athletic Bilbao), Koke, Saul Niguez (both Atletico Madrid), Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea), Thiago

Alcantara (Bayern Munich), Isco (Real Madrid), Bruno Soriano (Villarreal)

FORWARDSPedro Rodriguez (Chelsea), Alvaro Morata (Juventus), Aritz Aduriz (Athletic Bilbao), Nolito (Celta Vigo), Lucas Vazquez (Real Madrid)

Uncapped Kimmich, Brandt make Germany’s squadn AFP, Berlin

Uncapped mid� elders Joshua Kimmich and Julian Brandt were yesterday included in Germany’s provisional 27-man squad for next month’s European championships in France.

Defensive mid� elder Kimmich, 21, caps a meteoric rise having only broken into Bayern Munich’s � rst team earlier this season and has been now promoted from Germany’s Un-der-21 team, as has 20-year-old Bayer Leverkusen winger Julian Brandt.

Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has 114 caps, has been included as he recovers from a torn medial knee ligament.

Head coach Joachim Loew will

cut his squad from 27 to 23 on May 30, the day after their friend-ly against Slovakia, before their opening Euro 2016 Group C game against Ukraine on June 12.

Loew has also opted to include Galatasaray forward Lukas Podol-ski, who has made 127 appearances in the famous white shirt.

Both Schweinsteiger and Podol-ski will be playing in their fourth European championships. Up-and-coming talents Julian Weigl and Leroy Sane, both 20, from Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 respec-tively, have been included.

Mario Gomez of Fiorentina, who spent the last season at Besiktas, is the only out-and-out striker in-cluded in the squad. l

n AFP, Las Rozas de Madrid

Chelsea striker Diego Costa was left out of Spain coach Vicente del Bos-que’s provisional 25-man squad for Euro 2016 yesterday.

The naturalized Brazilian missed Chelsea’s last two games of the season due to a persistent hamstring injury and has struggled at international level with just one goal in 10 games since declaring to play for Spain in 2013.

“We didn’t want to bring too many players with a certain doubt over their physical condition,” Del Bosque said.

Del Bosque will have cut his � -nal squad to 23 players on May 31.

World Cup winners Fernan-do Torres, Juan Mata and Javi Mar-tinez were also high-pro� le names left out by Del Bosque.

The absence of Costa and the in-form Torres means Del Bosque has only two central strikers to choose from in 35-year-old Aritz Aduriz and Juventus’ Alvaro Morata.

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla was also excluded having just returned from a long-term knee injury.

The uncapped Saul Niguez and Lucas Vazquez of Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid did make the 25, whilst Villarreal captain Bruno So-riano was surprisingly included amongst 10 mid� elders.

Del Bosque also named 11 un-capped promising younger players to bulk up his squad for the friend-lies against Bosnia and Hercegovi-na and South Korea on May 29 and June 1 respectively with Real and Atletico players set to take part in the Champions League � nal on May 28. l

Costa, Torres omitted

Joshua Kimmich Julian Brandt

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Usha KC thump Bangladesh Railway 13-0Usha Krira Chakra continued their winning streak in the Green Delta Premier Division Hockey League as they thrashed Bangladesh Railway Sporting Club 13-0 at Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium yesterday. Hasan Jubair Niloy slammed as many as six goals – the � rst hattrick of the league – while Mahbub Hossain also netted three goals – all from penalty corners. Rezaul Karim Babu, Mithun, Krishna Kumar and Nizam Uddin added one apiece for the reigning champions. Meanwhile in the day’s other match, Bangladesh Sporting Club handed Ajax Sporting Club a 4-2 defeat at the same venue. Prince, Sohel, Shahbaz Ali and Gurprotap Singh scored one each for the victors while Rahat Sarwar notched a brace for the losing side.

–TRIBUNE REPORT

World champion weightlifter Lovchev slapped with four-year doping banWorld champion weightlifter Aleksey Lovchev con� rmed yesterday that he has been banned for four years for doping. “[Monday] I received documents from the international (weightlifting) federation about my four-year suspension,” Lovchev told TASS state news agency, adding that he would appeal the ban. The president of the Russian weightlifting federation, Sergei Syrtsov, con� rmed to R-Sport news agency that the 26-year-old athlete had been suspended. Lovchev, who won gold in the +105kg category at the 2015 world championships, had tested positive for the banned growth hormone Ipamorelin, prompting the International Weightlifting Federation to provisionally suspend him in December.

–AFP

Injured Aussie Maxwell out of IPLGlenn Maxwell yesterday became the � fth Australian to pull out of the Indian Premier League, but his injury is unlikely to keep him out of an upcoming West Indies tour. The hard-hitting batsman su� ered a strain in his left abdomen playing for the Kings XI Punjab and is returning home as a precaution. Australia team physiotherapist David Beakley said it did not appear serious enough to prevent him playing in the West Indies tri-series, which Australia open in Guyana on June 6 against South Africa. “From the information we have so far, the injury doesn’t appear to be something that will prevent Glenn from participating in this tour,” he said. –AFP

QUICK BYTES

DAY’S WATCHFOOTBALL

TEN 112:45AM

Sky Bet Championship Accrington v Wimbledon

TEN 212:45AM

UEFA Europa League Final: Liverpool v Sevilla

CRICKET SONY SIX8:30PM

Indian Premier League 2016 Bangalore v Punjab

DIU Inter University T20 Cricket starts FridayThe Da� odil International University Inter University Twenty20 Cricket Tournament, organised by the DIU, will begin this Friday in Ashulia, Dhaka. Ten of the country’s leading universities – Brac University, Independent University, Bangladesh, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh, Da� odil International Academy, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, City University, Green University, Eastern University, Bangladesh University and hosts DIU – will take part in the tournament. The champions will pocket Tk 50,000 while the runners up side side will receive Tk 30,000 MI MANIK

28DT Sport

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

‘O’ BOTHER AS GOLD CONFUSES SIGNINGS

West Ham United co-chair-man David Gold put his foot in his mouth by welcoming new signing Pedro Obiang to the club with a Twitter pic-ture of another player.

“I am delighted to an-nounce the signing of 23 year old mid� eld (sic) Pedro Obiang from Sampdoria. Pe-dro, welcome,” wrote Gold, next to a photograph of Italian centre-back Angelo Ogbonna.

Upon realising his error, Gold removed the tweet and re-posted the text of the message, this time accompa-nied by a picture of Obiang beside the pitch at Upton Park holding aloft a claret and blue scarf.

POCHETTINO CHANNELS BRITNEY

Tottenham Hotspur manag-er Mauricio Pochettino cited American pop stars Britney Spears and Will.I.Am as ex-amples for his players to fol-low as they went in search of Premier League glory.

Irked by constant com-parisons with Spurs’ north London rivals Arsenal, Pochettino quoted Spears and Will.I.Am’s hit “Scream and Shout” in an attempt to keep his players’ minds fo-cused on their own perfor-mances.

VAN GAAL’S TOUCHLINE TUMBLE

Manchester United manag-er Louis van Gaal revealed a taste for amateur dramat-ics with a comical touchline tumble during his side’s 3-2 win over Arsenal.

Protesting against what he felt was a dive by an Ar-senal player, the Dutchman marched up to fourth o� cial Mike Dean on the Old Tra� ord touchline and to illustrate his point, fell � at on his back.

‘TINKERMAN’ BECOMES ‘SAUSAGEMAN’

Leicester City manager Clau-dio Ranieri branded himself “the Sausageman” after a local butcher created a sau-sage in his name to honour

the club’s improbable Pre-mier League title challenge.

Ranieri, 64, was known as “the Tinkerman” during his spell as Chelsea manager due to his habit of changing his starting line-up between matches.

But thanks to Leicester butchers W Archer and Son, who decided to o� er a “Ra-nieri” sausage to their cus-tomers, the Italian felt that he had earned the right to a new nickname.

“I am the Sausageman,” said Ranieri. “It is a good sausage.”

LIVERPOOL SCORE OWEN GOAL

Liverpool’s supporters were less than impressed by an announcement that former striker Michael Owen had been appointed as the club’s � rst “international ambassador”.

Owen came through Liv-erpool’s youth system and scored 158 goals in 297 ap-pearances for the club, but later spent three years with their hated rivals Manches-ter United.

“Is he going to become Man United’s international ambassador in a few years as well?” asked one unen-thused fan in response to the Twitter post announcing the news. l

EPL 2015-16: FIVE OFFBEAT MOMENTS

Golden Boot little consolationn Reuters

Finishing the season as the Premier League’s top scorer has done little to numb Tottenham striker Harry Kane’s pain after Spurs not only lost out to Leicester City in the title race but saw bitter rivals Arsenal climb above them on the � nal day.

Kane won this season’s Gold-en Boot with 25 goals, one more than Leicester’s Jamie Vardy and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, but the forward said personal glo-ry was overshadowed by his side’s woeful � nish.

“It would have been nicer to have won the golden boot on a bet-ter day,” Kane, who was named in England’s preliminary squad for Euro 2016 on Monday, told British media. l

Sleeping giant She� eld Wed waking upn Reuters

She� eld Wednesday are a sleeping giant who have been woken up, manager Carlos Carvalhal said af-ter his side took a step closer to the Premier League with a 3-1 aggre-gate win in the play-o� semi-� nal against Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Owls managed to protect their two-goal advantage from the � rst leg after securing a 1-1 draw against Brighton and are now only a match away from a return to England’s top-� ight after a 16-year absence. “We know we are making history at the club - it’s been a long time since Shef-� eld Wednesday have achieved this type of success. It is very important to the club,” Carvalhal told. l

She� eld Wednesday players celebrate after their Sky Bet Football League Championship Play-O� Semi Final Second Leg against Brighton & Hove Albion at The American Express Community Stadium on Monday REUTERS

Downtime 29D

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

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 3 represents R so � ll R every time the � gure 3 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORDACROSS 1 Comfortable (4)3 W Australian river (4) 7 Lyric poem (3)8 Family member (5) 11 Bird (4)12 Ridiculous sham (5)13 Escape artfully (5)15 Cult (4)18 Acting part (4) 19 Pit worker (5)20 Jewelled head ornament (5)21 Church service (4)23 First public appearance (5)24 Drink (3)25 20 quires (4)26 Tidings (4)

DOWN 1 Wrongdoer (6) 2 Advantageous (6)4 Court (3)5 Counsel (6)6 Born (3)9 Military trainees (6) 10 Before (3)11 Longing (6)14 Scene of an event (6) 16 Make possible (6)17 Actual facts (6)19 Insane (3)21 Spoil (3)22 Briny (3)

SUDOKU

30DT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016Showtime

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

As we all know by now, that the glorious cinephile wonderland is in full-swing, and that’s incited us to ponder what appreciable works are on offer in this year’s Cannes line-up, made by the finest filmmakers from all over the world. Here, we present you few gems from this year’s line-up which have potential to end up scooping the top prizes, including Palme d’Or and Grand Prix.

The BFG

Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies follow-up is an adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s, The BFG. This follows a young girl, Sophie, who guides the Queen of England and the BFG (Mark Rylance, coming o� his Oscar win for Spielberg) — a big, friendly giant — to stop Bloodbottlers, the big and unfriendly sort, from eating children.

The Neon Demon

This Nicolas Winding Refn’s, psychological horror can bag surprise accolade as Drive earned him a Best Director award in Cannes 2011. The � lm is about an aspiring model in Los Angeles (Elle Fanning, who’s worth watching in anything). Soon enough, she becomes the object of cannibalistic obsession for other women who covet her youth and beauty.

Money Monster

This Jodie Foster directorial venture casts George Clooney as a cocksure � nancial pundit, whose cable show is crashed by a gun-wielding mystery man with

a grudge. Julia Roberts co-stars as the producer trying to keep Clooney alive.

Paterson

This marks Adam Driver’s � rst post–Kylo Ren appearance, as a New Jersey bus driver in Jim Jarmusch’s new feature. About Elly’s Golshifteh Farahani teamed up with Driver as his creative wife. As the � rst clips showed o� an unexpectedly playful tone, so here’s hope that Jarmusch has yet more surprises up his sleeve.

The Salesman

A last-minute addition to the festival, Asghar Farhadi‘s latest is a follow-up to The Past, which also premiered

at Cannes, and led by previous collaborators Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti. It revolves around the couple who are forced to move out of their apartment, only to � nd con� ict with the previous tenant of their new home.

Personal Shopper

Kristen Stewart is back with director Olivier Assayas again in Cannes, with a ghost story that takes place in Paris’ fashion underworld. Despite its positive reviews, the � lm was booed during its screening in Cannes. However, it created much hype about how one of France’s most talented directors weaves this genre element into that scenario.

JulietaPedro Almodóvar returns with his 20th � lm, and his tradition of ‘cinema of women.’ Intriguingly, this one is based on Alice Munro’s 2004 book of short stories, Runaways, and tracks mother Julieta as she searches for a daughter, who disappeared

without explanation the moment she turned 18.

The Handmaiden

After trying out the world of Hollywood with his English-language debut Stoker, Park Chan-wook has returned to South Korea for his follow-up. Adapting Sarah Waters‘ novel Fingersmith, the period crime drama was initially set in Victorian London, and follows young female thieves, but the Oldboy director switched the locations to his native country and Japan.

Its Only the End of the WorldThe young Xavier Dolan got another � lm under this belt with the incredible cast of Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel. The French-language � lm is based on a play by Jean-Luc Lagarce which follows a writer who goes back to his hometown, planning on announcing his upcoming death to his family. l

Most-anticipated � lms at Cannes 2016

The gang is back! TV watch

n Farhan Shahriar

The wait is � nally over. We don’t have to see the prison break brothers in The Flash or in the Legends of Tomorrow as Captain Cold & Heat Wave anymore. Well, here’s the reason: Prison Break Season 5, will see the return of Michael Sco� eld, Sara Tancredi and Lincoln Burrows in what appears to be the show’s ‘biggest

escape ever.’ We never thought we would see the day when we would be watching new episodes of Prison Break. The cast and crew recently gathered to reveal exciting details about the Fox revival, including a sneak peek to the upcoming season. This is gonna be insane.

The air date for Prison Break Season 5, has been revealed during a conference call for Fox’s

2016 Programming Presentation, reports Cinema Blend. According to the publication, the revival is set to air in mid season 2016.

As the trailer reveals, the new series will see the return of the brothers, Michael Sco� eld and Lincoln Burrows, and the plot line sets the drama in an international level when previously thought to be dead, Michael returns.

When his brother, Lincoln learns of his apparent survival, he informs Dr Sara Tancredi, Michael’s prison-doctor-turned-love-interest, and they team up with their old fellow convicts from the Fox State Penitentiary to rescue him. Michael is supposedly being held at a prison in Yemen, where Lincoln meets him and promises to rescue him, hence the plan begins.

Inside, Michael plans with his middle eastern inmates while on the outside, Lincoln and Sucre must deal with other new problems as they get attacked by some criminals.

This is surely a great news to the series loving people. De� nitely you won’t miss the premiere and get ready to break out. l

n Showtime Desk

Shusmita Anis, the niece and disciple of the legendary Narzul artist Feroza Begum, will be performing live in the popular music program, Gane

Gane Shokal Shuru on Channel I on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at 7:30am. Renowned tabla player, Syed Meher Hossain will be accompanying her. The program is hosted by Moushumi Barua. l

n Showtime Desk

The much-anticipated debut � lm of Amitabh Reza, Aynabaji is yet to be released in the country, however it was screened at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in France, yesterday.

Produced by the Content Matters Ltd, the � lm is a project of Half Stop Down.

Amitabh Reza, a prominent

advertisement-and � lm-maker of Bangladesh and director of Half Stop Down, said: “Film making is a team work. Seeing the reaction of the audience, I can say that our team has done an extra ordinary job.”

The � lm was screened at Marcoda Film’s Grey Three hall at the festival yesterday, where audience from di� erent countries including United States, United

Kingdom, India, Romania, and Turkey were present.

Directors, producers, and investors attend this section in order to select modern � lms of international standard, and market them. Aynabaji has already bagged ticket for participating in di� erent � lm festivals in Canada, Iran, and Cairo.

Top of Mind CEO and producer

of the � lm, Ziauddin Adil attended the ceremony on behalf of Content Matters Ltd.

“Audience from di� erent countries seem to have lovingly accepted the � lm. It was re� ected on their faces. The � lm is lively and out-of-the-box,” he said.

Gausul Alam Shaon, another producer of the � lm, said: “Bangladeshi audience is eagerly waiting to watch the � lm. I believe, the success of Cannes Film Festival will double their eagerness.”

Chanchal Chowdhury, Nabila, Lutfor Rahman George, Hira Chowdhury, Showkot Osman, and Gausul Islam Shaon, will be seen playing di� erent roles in the � lm. Esha Yusuf is the executive producer of the � lm, that narrates the story of another city within the capital Dhaka, which is often unheard and less seen on screen.

Ayna leads a simple lonely life in that city by teaching children acting. At one point, his love interest Hridi arrives. But his life changes as he leaves the city for earning a living. He gets caught in a web. He tries to remove the new mask put on his face but fails to do so, also loses his love interest, his school, and the simple life he had. l

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TWEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Showtime

Aynabaji at the Cannes Film Festival

Chow the action Heron Rupkotha Chowdhury

Once upon a time, when Hollywood was discovering the action scenes of Hong Kong � lms, when ‘a better tomorrow’ of action movies was brought by the Hong Kong guy, Chow Yun Fat was ready well known to all action movie lovers around the world.

Who can ever forget his action style which powered over Hollywood and which continues today! His partnership with � lmmaker John Woo, in the stoic hero-genre � lms - A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled, became showstopper once and he is better known in the West for his roles as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. He mainly plays in dramatic � lm and has won three Hong Kong Film Awards, for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor in Taiwan. Today, May 18, He is stepping into sixtieth decade of his life. Now its time to celebrate his successful life.

Chow grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island,

in a house with no electricity. His mother was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer, and his father worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker. He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding on the streets; in the afternoons he went to work in the � elds. His family moved to Kowloon, when he was ten. At seventeen, he left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs including bellboy, postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver. His life started to change when he responded to a newspaper advertisement and his actor-trainee application was accepted by TVB, the local television station. He signed a three-year contract with the studio and made his acting debut. Chow became a heartthrob and a familiar face in soap operas that were exported internationally. As a result, growing up in a needy family, he was declared as the second-highest earning actor in Hong Kong, earning 170 million HKD which is $21.9 million in 2014.

Chow has been married twice; � rst in 1983, to Candice Yu, an

actress from Asia Television; the marriage lasted nine months. In 1986, Chow married Singaporean Jasmine Tan. The couple have no children, although Chow has a goddaughter, Celine Ng, a former child model for Chickeeduck, McDonald’s, Toys’R’Us, and other

companies. In February 2015, Chow

reprised his role as Ken in the sequel From Vegas to Macau II. He was paid $5 million (39 million HKD) for the � lm.

Chow has appeared in over 121 � lms and 24 television series.l

Edge of TomorrowHBO 4:14pmA soldier � ghting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong, Tony Way, Kick Gurry

Final Destination 5WB 4:17pmSurvivors of a suspension-bridge collapse learn there’s no way you can cheat death.Cast: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta, Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe

Special IDZee Studio 7:30pmA cop goes undercover in a ruthless underworld organisation to stop a gang leader, only to put himself in great danger after being exposed by his former protégé and best friend. Cast: Donnie Yen, Jing Tian, Andy On, Zhang Hanyu, Ronald Cheng

The MarineStar Movies 7:36pmA group of diamond thieves on the run kidnap the wife of a recently discharged marine who goes on a chase through the South Carolinian wilderness to retrieve her.Cast: John Cena, Robert Patrick, Kelly Carlson, Abigail Bianca, Anthony Ray Parker

The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of GeorgiaWB 9:30pmA young family moves into a historic home in Georgia, only to learn they are not the house’s only inhabitants.Cast: Abigail Spencer, Chad Michael Murray, Katee Sackho� , Emily Alyn Lind, Cicely Tyson

WHAT TO WATCH

Back Page32DT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

DEFAULT LOANS SEE STEEP RISE IN MARCH PAGE 12

WHERE NO ONE IS LOOKING PAGE 24

MOST-ANTICIPATED FILMS AT CANNES 2016 PAGE 30

S Korean wins Man Booker Int’l prizen AFP

South Korean author Han Kang won the Man Booker Internation-al Prize on Monday, sharing the £50,000 award with her translator -- who had only taught herself Ko-rean three years before.

Han Kang, 45, an author and creative writing teacher who is al-ready successful in South Korea, is likely to enjoy a spike in interna-tional sales following the win for “The Vegetarian”.

“I’m so honoured” she told AFP. “The work features a pro-tagonist who wants to become a plant, and to leave the human race

to save herself from the dark side of human nature.

“Through this extreme narra-tive I felt I could question... the di� cult question of being human.”

She was the � rst South Korean to win the prize.

The book was picked unani-mously by the panel of � ve judges, beating six other novels including “The Story of the Lost Child” by Italian sensation Elena Ferrante and “A Strangeness in My Mind” by Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk.

For the � rst time this year, the award went jointly to the transla-tor, Deborah Smith, 28, who only started learning Korean three

years before she embarked on the translation.

“This was the � rst book that I ever translated, and the best pos-sible thing that can happen to a translator has just happened to me,” an emotional Smith said.

The international edition of Britain’s Man Booker Prize was introduced in 2005 and up to now has been awarded in recognition of a body of work by a living au-thor whose work was written or available in English. But from this year, it will be presented annually for a single work of � ction that has been translated into English and published in Britain. l

Fault in original design delays Hotel InterContinental openingn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Due to a faulty design, it would now take � ve more months and cost more money to renovate and open services at Shahbagh’s Ho-tel InterContinental, previously known as Sheraton and more re-cently as Ruposhi Bangla.

As part of the renovation plans for the hotel, construction work began on schedule in March 2015. But because of some faults found while demolishing some parts of the existing building, the project deadline was pushed to November 30, 2016 from the planned comple-tion date on June 30, 2016.

According to Bangladesh Services Limited (BSL), the building’s own-ers, the hotel would now open its doors in February 2017 instead of its planned launch in October this year.

According to a report submit-ted to the Standing Committee on Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tour-ism, the erstwhile Sheraton Hotel’s blueprint was not available before beginning the demolition and ren-ovation of the hotel building.

The report, acquired by the Dha-ka Tribune, reads that later assess-ments had found a number of � aws in the hotel construction.

“As there was no built drawing of the old 11-storey building of the hotel that was constructed in 1966, it was not possible to do a detailed survey before closing the hotel. That

is why faults were only found during the detailed survey and demolition stage after the hotel was closed.

“Based on the � ndings, demo-lition work was not completed on schedule and a new time frame was set to end the project,” the report by the BSL reads.

The reasons behind the delayed of renovating the hotel include load bearing incapability and � oor height and � re resistance incapa-bility of the old 11-storey building;

mechanical, electrical and plumb-ing design change; and delay in re-leasing imported instruments and materials.

BSL Secretary Abul Monsur said: “Hotel InterContinental was constructed in 1966 when Pakistan Service Limited was in charge of that hotel. After the Liberation War, we did not get the original drawing of the hotel’s 11-storey building.

“So, we could not survey the whole thing in detail and had to

change the design that we had planned before the demolition,”he said.

Monsur added that construc-tion costs would also rise with the deadline extension; but refused to disclose the amount.

The historical hotel, which was witness to many landmark events in Dhaka before and after Bangla-desh’s liberation, was run by the In-terContinental Hotels Group from 1966 to 1983. In late 1983, Sheraton

– owned by Starwood – took over its operations and management for the next 25 years.

The agreement with Sheraton was extended to April 30, 2011, until Starwood and BSL disagreed over renovation issues. After that, the BSL took over the operations and named the hotel Ruposhi Bangla.

One of the oldest hotels in the country has remained shut since September 2014 because of the renovation work. l

REASONS FOR DELAY● Load bearing incapability of the

old 11-storey building● Floor height and � re resistance

incapability of the hotel building● Changes in mechanical,

electrical and plumbing design● Delay in releasing imported

instruments and materials

Proposed Time New TimeCompletion:June 30, 2016

Completion:Nov 30, 2016

Doors open:Oct 2016

Doors open:Feb 2017

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

This � le photo taken on May 15, 2016 shows Korean author Han Kang (R) and translator Deborah Smith as they pose for a photograph with the book The Vegetarian at a photocall in London on May 15, 2016. AFP

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