SECOND EDITION

JOBS FORTHE BOYS PAGE 32

NORTH, SOUTH KOREA OFFICIALS MEET AT DMZ PAGE 9

FOREIGN FUNDS KEEP FLOWING FOR MILITANTS PAGE 3

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015 | Bhadro 8, 1422, Zilqad 7, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 129 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

Flood unlikely to take alarming turnn Abu Bakar Siddique

The � ood situation across the country’s northern and north-eastern parts has deteri-orated in last two days, submerging vast areas of several districts in the Brahmaputra, Pad-ma and Surma basin.

The monsoon � ood occurred due to heavy rainfall in the region and some areas of upper riparian Indian states of Assam and Megha-laya in last few days.

According to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna, Ganges-Padma and Meghna river systems were in the rising trend, which is likely to con-tinue in next 72 hours. The situation would then start improving.

During the period, the � ood situation might deteriorate in some areas of Kurigram, Rangpur, Jamalpur, Bogra, Gaibandha, Siraj-ganj, Paban, Faridpur, Shariatpur, Rajbari and Munshiganj districts.

At the same time, the Surma-Kushiyara river systems likely to fall in next 48 hours. As a result, the � ood situation in Sylhet, Sunam-ganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Netrokona districts likely to improve while it is likely to remain steady in Satkhira district.

According to the � ood forecasting centre, PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

‘There are proofs that Amiya lied’Kurigram district public prosecutor Abraham Lincoln has been providing legal services to Felani’s family since the beginning of the trials. Dhaka Tribune’s Mohammad Jamil Khan and Syed Samiul Basher Anik have recently talked to him to get some insights into the legal technicalities.

What is the current status of the case? Lincoln: On August 14, the Indian Supreme Court ac-cepted a petition, jointly � led by Felani’s father Nurul Islam and Kolkata-based human rights organisation Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), that challenged the earlier acquittal of the BSF jawan.

BSF said they would consider a fresh trial if Felani’s family is unhappy with the acquittals. So, have to applied? If not, why?BSF has already held two trials by being self-moti-vated. Interestingly, the case was � led by BSF, the accused was from their own force, the judge

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Felani family sees no point in applying to BSF againn Mohammad Jamil Khan and Syed

Samiul Basher Anik from Kurigram

The family of teenage girl Felani Khatun – killed four years ago in BSF � ring at the bor-der – has said there is no point in applying to the Indian force as it has already acquitted the alleged killer twice.

“We have seen how they [Border Securi-ty Force] have proceeded with the two trials before. We got nothing. The Indian Supreme Court has accepted our appeal [for reinvesti-gation]. We would therefore like to pursue the appeal instead of � ling an application with them [BSF],” said Felani’s father Nurul Islam.

During a director general-level meeting be-tween BSF and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) earlier this month, the Indian force’s chief DK Pathak advised Felani’s family to � le an appli-cation with them if they are aggrieved with the killer’s acquittal.

On July 3 this year, a second makeshift BSF court acquitted its constable Amiya Ghosh, the accused killer. He was acquitted once be-

fore in September 2013 by another BSF court that delivered the verdict after internal inves-tigation and trial.

Nurul Islam had testi� ed as witness dur-ing both the trials, but both courts said the evidence against the self-confessed killer was “inconclusive and insu� cient.”

BSF arranged the second trial following a huge outcry by media and rights groups against the acquittal in the maiden border killing lawsuit. Border killings have made it to virtually every Indo-Bangla bilateral negotia-

tions in recent years.However, on Friday August 14, the mat-

ter took a new turn after the Indian Supreme Court accepted a plea for independent rein-vestigation into the case; the plea was � led jointly by Nurul Islam and Indian rights group Manabadhikar Surakkha Mancha (MASUM).

The Indian SC issued a notice to the fed-eral and West Bengal governments, the BSF and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), seeking their opinion on the demands placed in the plea.

Saying that Felani’s family had been de-nied justice, the plea sought reinvestigation by CBI or any other neutral probe agency. Nurul and MASUM also sought compensation for the family.

Fourteen-year-old Felani Khatun was killed on January 7, 2011 at the Anantapur border when she and her father were coming to Bangladesh from Asam of India.

The Dhaka Tribune has obtained a copy of a letter that Nurul has recently sent to the BGB.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

RAINFALL AT STATIONS ABOVEStation name Rainfall in 100 mm

Chilmari 316Kaunia 267Rangpur 198Dawanganj 150Kurigram 126

HEAVVY RAINFALL TRIGGERED FLOOD SUBGERED NORTHERN BANGLADESH

STATIONS ABOVE DANGER LEVELSStation name River Above Danger (cm)

Jariajanjail Kangsha +135Kanaighat Surma +68Sunamganj Surma +58Jhikargacha Kobadak +42Sheola Kushiyara +33Baghabari Artrai +27Kurigram Dharla +24Sylhet Surma +9Serajganj Jamuna +5Sariakandi Jamuna +3

● Vast areas of agriculture �elds inundated● Major losses unlikely if water recedes soon● Extent of losses to be assessed after recession of water

Felani’s father Nurul Islam

AL leaders divided over cross� re deathsn Tribune Report

Two opposite streams of opinions are emerg-ing out of the ruling Awami League, as several of the party’s leaders and activists have fallen victim in recent times to what have come to be known as extra-judicial killings.

While one stream condemns the deaths, saying so-called cross� res could not be a solu-tion to the law and order situation, despite the government’s avowedly “tough stance” against crime; others have taken a contrary position, pointing out that it is not unlikely that those who were killed attacked the law enforcers, as the law enforcers claim, and sug-gesting that there is no cause for alarm.

In a recent cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said criminal activities could not be tolerated no matter which party the perpetrators belong to.

Over the last one week or so, at least three Awami League leaders and activists have been killed by law enforcement in encounters the law enforcers term as “gun-� ghts.”

One of the dead is local Chhatra League leader Arju, accused of beating a 17-year-old boy to death in Dhaka’s Hazaribagh.

Another is a ruling party activist named PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Flood situationthe water level at 10 measuring stations out of 85 was above danger level as of yesterday.

Dhalra river in Kurigram point was � owing 24cm above the danger level and Atrai river at Baghabari 27cm, Kobadak at Jhikargacha 42cm, Surma at Kanaighat 68cm, Surma at Sunamganj 58cm and Kangsha river at Jaria-janjail 135cm.

The met o� ce in its weather bulletin issued at 6pm yesterday said under the in� uence of active monsoon over the country, heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at places over Rangpur division during in next 24 hours.

However, the rainfall in the northern dis-tricts would decline in next 24 hours, contrib-uting to improvement of the � ood situation in next 48 hours or so.

Meanwhile, the met o� ce recorded more than 100mm rainfall, more than daily aver-age, in several areas of the northern districts.

Of them, 316mm of rain was recorded at Chilmari station, 267mm at Kaunia, 198mm at Rangpur, 150mm at Dewanganj and 126mm in Kurigram in last 24 hours.

Md Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, duty o� cer of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the on-going � ood situation will be improved in next 72 hours or so as the met o� ce forecasts the rainfall to decline after 24 hours.

“This � ood can be considered as the last one this year as the monsoon is in its last phase if there is no anomaly in the forecast,” he said.

However, he said, the � ood like situation is very usual in this period of a year, which is not alarming. Citing example of last year, he said during the same period of last year, the coun-try’s northern and north-eastern parts expe-rienced the same type of � ood for the same reasons – over behaved monsoon and heavy rainfall in the upstream.

Meanwhile, vast areas of agriculture � elds, including Aman paddy and vegetables, inun-dated and damaged due to the � ood triggered by heavy rains and onrush of hilly waters over the past few days.

A deputy director of the Department of Ag-ricultural Extension said that crops would not be heavily damaged if water recedes soon.

“We can measure the extent of damage of croplands once water recedes. A few days lat-er, we will also measure the extent of losses incurred by farmers,” he added. l

Felani family sees no point in applying to BSF againHe wrote: “After the latest verdict on July 2 this year, I applied to the Indian ambassador in Dhaka, requesting for all the documents of the murder case, but they did not give me an-ything. In such a situation, I � led a writ with the Indian Supreme Court...with help from human rights organisations and the public prosecutor appointed by the Bangladesh gov-ernment.

“As the Supreme Court bench, led by its chief justice, accepted it for hearing and asked the federal home secretary, West Bengal chief secretary, director general of BSF and the chief of CBI to give answers about the murder case, I do not want to � le any complaints with the BSF. Or else, BSF might take advantage of the time needed for the Supreme Court to hear on the writ and hold another trial quick-ly and acquit the accused again,” Nurul told the BGB in the letter.

When contacted, BGB 45 Battalion Com-manding O� cer Jakir Hossain, corresponding the issue with Felani’s family, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have discussed the BSF chief’s

statement [with Felani’s father]. Her father informed us in a formal letter that they do not want to � le any complaints with BSF as they had already � led a writ with the [Indian] Su-preme Court.

“We have forwarded the letter to our high command and following proper processes, an appropriate answer will be given to the BSF,” Jakir said.

<b> From Nurul’s memory <b>In a recent one-to-one interview with the

Dhaka Tribune, Felani’s father Nurul said: “I had no intention of crossing the border ille-gally. My target was to cross legally by con-tacting custom o� cials. But the Indian bro-kers led us astray.

Before January 2011, Nurul had been work-ing in India’s Asam for a decade and Felani used to live with him. After Fenali’s wedding was � xed with a Bangladeshi man, the father and the daughter decided to come back to Bangladesh.

“As soon as we reached the Indian side of the border, some Indian brokers surround-

ed us. They forcefully took our bags and the Rs3,000 we had with us. They said they would make arrangements for crossing the border.”

Asked if he remembers the names of the brokers, Nurul said: “First we met Moshar-raf. He kept us in his house until midnight of January 6. Then another broker named Gan-zu took us to his house. We waited there for about half and hour and then another broker named Bazrat took us to his house.

“Around 1:30am, he told us to go to sleep while he made arrangements for our bor-der crossing. After the early morning Fazr prayers, another broker, whose name I did not know, told us that everything was ready. They had placed a ladder over the barbed wire fence and we were told to run and climb over the border using the ladder.

“I did not want to cross the border that way because it was already daytime. I want-ed to do it the legal way. But they did not lis-ten. Instead, two of them grabbed mine and Felani’s hands and pulled us towards the bor-

der. Then they forced us to climb the ladder.“We were on top of the border fence when

BSF men, without any notice, opened � re on us. I fell down inside the Bangladesh border. But Felani got stuck and was soon hit by a bullet.

Breaking into tears, Nurul said: “I was sur-prised when BSF men, without talking to the brokers, who were present right beside the border, or alerting us just opened � re on us.

“They just let my daughter’s body hang there for more than six hours. I am thankful to the local BGB o� cials because of whose pro-tests I at least got my daughter’s body back.”

The Dhaka Tribune correspondents have recently visited Felani’s home in Kolnitari vil-lage in Nageshwari upazila, some 25km away from the Kurigram district headquarters.

There they saw Felani’s grave right beside their homestead – a one-room tin-roofed house.

Felani’s mother Jahanara Begum said: “We have nothing to say but [can] only [demand] a fair trial of my daughter’s killing...I do not know how anyone can kill a child like Felani.” l

‘There are proofs that Amiya lied’was also one of them. They did not require any application from us when they held two trials before. Then why do they need an ap-plication from Bangladesh now? Does it not seem that they are showing pity? If they re-ally respect law, they can hold another trial of their own.

The Border Security Force Act 1968 of India says civil offences are triable by a criminal court. But both trials of Felani killing were held in BSF courts. What is your take on this?They had the options to hold the trial in a civil court, but they opted against it. While testifying before the BSF court, accused Am-iya Ghosh said it was a foggy morning on the day of the incident and he was on duty near the fence. Suddenly, he heard some unusual sounds. When he tried to close in, some mis-creants from the other side of the fence hur-dled bricks at him. Amiyo said he � red blank shots in response. But later he found that a body was hanging from the fence.

But, the BSF commandant, who � led the case, said that Amiyo saw a person walking on

a ladder placed on the fence and had to � re for his own and the country’s security. Now, the question is, if the BSF man felt threatened, why could not they recover any arms, cutters or ammunitions? They (BSF) found nothing.

Do you have any more evidence to prove the accused guilty?Of course! There are two more ways to do it: analysing the autopsy report and the border line act. The autopsy report states that the bullet pierced her chest and she was on the ladder placed on top of the two fences. For bullets to hit her chest, shots had to be � red with the gun parallel to the ground. But, Am-iyo said he � red blank shots and we know when someone does that the gun is pointed towards the sky in a vertical position. This proves that Amiyo lied.

Guards can take action if any o� ences vio-late section 144 at the border. Felani’s father Nur Islam has told courts twice that there were four people including himself, Felani, and two brokers when the shooting took place. Two other brokers were also involved

but they were at home at the time of the inci-dent. So, it was not a violation of section 144 because it takes more than four people to do that. So, there is no justi� cation for the � ring on the day.

Do you see any chances of justice being served?I am a Bangladeshi lawyer, so that there are some complexities in me � ghting the legal battle in an Indian court. However, an Indian human rights organisation has come forward to give us support via the Ain O Salish Kenda. That has raised our hopes.

We were not sure whether the Indian Su-preme Court was going to accept the writ. But, thankfully, a bench consisting of the In-dian chief justice has approved the writ and asking four top Indian o� cials – the federal home secretary, West Bengal chief secretary, BSF director general and chief of the Cen-tral Bureau of Investigation to response on some case-related matters within a certain time frame. So, we can now be hopeful that Felani’s family may get justice. l

AL leaders divided over cross� re deathsAjibor, the accused in the shooting of a baby in her mother’s womb in Magura. The third is Saidur Rahman, accused of committing mur-ders in Dhaka’s Badda.

They were killed in gunshot exchanges be-tween RAB, police, and detectives, respectively.

After all these deaths, the law enforcement agencies concerned gave virtually identical statements. First they either got hold of the accused killers and took them to catch his cohorts; or raided an area in search of them; gun� ghts ensued and the criminals were hit by bullets in the skirmish.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s nephew and Dhaka-based lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh has openly vented at the law enforce-ment agencies, particularly after Arju’s death.

He said Arju was not killed in a gun� ght; he was picked up and killed by RAB – the elite force that has for many years been accused of being involved in extra-judicial killings.

Yesterday, while attending Arju’s qulkhani in Dhaka, Taposh stressed the needs for reshuf-� ing RAB. “RAB was formed during the tenure of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government and so

the law enforcement of the Sheikh Hasina-led administration cannot be run with them.”

Reminding the audience about the killing of Awami League men by RAB at that time, he said the force was then formed as the “killing squad of the BNP-Jamaat alliance.”

“If anyone gets injured or killed in the custody of any law enforcement agency, that agency will have to take the responsibility for that...So, RAB cannot avoid the responsibili-ties of killing Arju,” he added.

On August 20, Law Minister Anisul Huq said a judicial inquiry might be launched into the incidents of recent gun� ght deaths.

Suranjit Sengupta, a member of the Awami League advisory council, said: “The party is in power and Chhatra League leaders are get-ting killed – this is not the right approach. The problem should be � xed politically. Cross� re is not the solution to all problems.”

But HT Imam, political adviser to the PM, said: “What the rights bodies in Bangladesh termed as extra-judicial killing, should be termed homicide by the law enforcing agencies.

“As a party, the Awami League is always

against of any sort of extra-judicial killings. We do not know what happened in those incidents and what the circumstances were. We need to know these before we can say anything clearly. But so far it seems that the incidents are accept-able. It is not unlikely that those who were killed attacked the law enforcers,” he said.

AL MP AFM Bahauddin Nasim said: “These are stray incidents. The Awami League or the Chhatra League do not have anything to feel embarrassed about. A criminal is a criminal. They do not have any political identity. It can only be understood through investigations, what happened during the so-called gun� ghts.”

When contacted, Monirul Islam, chief of DB, said: “Every incident is followed by a departmen-tal inquiry. A detailed investigation is conducted on how, where, and under what circumstances an incident takes place. If any allegation is proved against any of our members, actions are taken.”

He also said: “We have seen that after any incidents, the family of the deceased tries to cook up stories. But as a law enforcement agency, we have to carry out our due respon-sibilities.” l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

NEWS2DT

NEWS 3D

TSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Foreign funds keep � owing for militantsn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Following the recent arrest of a number of leaders and members of old, new and hybrid militant groups in Chittagong as well as across the country, investigators have found that most of those out� ts are funded by foreign organisations and individuals.

In some cases, the funds come for estab-lishing mosques and madrasas, or as aid to so-called NGOs working for the welfare of persecuted Muslims, mainly the Rohingyas living in peril in the country’s southern part, police said.

On the other hand, coordinators of inter-national militant groups visit the country, holds meeting with the militant leaders and hand over money themselves.

The militant out� ts are taking advantage of the ordinary Muslims while recruiting new members. They try to convince the youths, mostly from poor families or the Rohingyas, by saying that their activities are meant for pleasing the Almighty and saving the religion from the clutches of anti-Islam quarters.

Some members of Jamaat-e-Islami’s rad-ical student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir are also involved with the militant groups, police said.

Maj (retd) Emdadul Islam, a security ex-pert based in the port city, said that the minis-tries concerned should strictly monitor mon-ey transaction by foreign organisations and individuals. Moreover, visas must be issued only after tight scrutiny.

Di� erent law enforcement agencies in-cluding DB police and elite force Rapid Action Battalion are working to identify the militant out� ts, their masterminds and � nanciers.

Given the rise of militant activities, the

Chittagong Metropolitan Police have decided to reshu� e its anti-militancy cell, Commis-sioner Abdul Jalil Mandal told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“Islamist militant activities have now spread across India and Bangladesh from Pa-kistan and Afghanistan as the ordinary Mus-lims of this region are blind about Islam.”

He thinks that the spread of the militant and radical out� ts can be prevented through proper education on religion. “On the other hand, the authorities should strictly monitor suspected bank transactions,” the CMP com-missioner added.

The three Supreme Court lawyers includ-ing the daughter of a former BNP whip arrest-ed last week for their suspected link to new-ly-discovered militant out� t Shahid Hamza Brigade have confessed to channelling Tk1.08 crore to � ve accounts of the group.

At least 27 other members out of 29, most of who are former members of Chhatra Shibir, also admitted that the three were involved with Hamza Brigade.

Investigators have also found that a Du-bai-based person named Allama Libdi also � nanced the group during his visits to Chit-tagong.

RAB 7 has found that with the money, Hamza Brigade purchased at least 25 sophisticated local and foreign-made arms including eight AK22 ri� es, 4443 rounds of bullets, 76 powerful bombs, 150kg explosives, and 30 types of bomb-making materials with which around 2,000 bombs can be made. The law enforcers also recovered audio-visual

training materials and jihadi documents from the dens busted in Chittagong region since February.

The elite force is now interrogating the arrestees to learn about the other � nanciers. The chief of Hamza Brigade is believed to have � ed to Malaysia.

In November last year, the Detective Branch of police nabbed Myanmar sectarian out� t Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) Bangladesh Chapter’s top leaders Salamatullah and Sha� ullah, also an Awami League leader of Naikkhyangchhari upazila in Bandarban; and Global Rohingya Centre (GRC) Vice-President Mohammad Alam, also a Pakistani national, among � ve for funding militant groups.

Several CMP o� cials seeking anonymity said that the Bangladesh wing of RSO had been split over share of foreign funds. Before

the arrest, the militants were distributing funds among them for donations to mosques, madrasas and providing other facilities for the Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Majid confessed that they visited many countries especially Thailand, India, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey last year to collect funds for the Rohingyas.

In an investigation last year, Dhaka Tribune found that from London, a Pakistan national had sent 1.5m pound sterling (about Tk20 crore in Bangladeshi currency) to a bank account in Chittagong. The account was opened using forged signatures of the members of Maizvandar Sharif Shah-e-Jame Mosjid Directors and Development Committee.

Committee President Syed Nazibul Bashar Maizvandari, also a lawmaker of Fatikchhari, said that they had taken legal action against two members of the committee for forging signatures and inspiring radical Muslims.

Also chairman of Bangladesh Tariqat Federation, Nazibul said that the case was under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Meanwhile, after the arrest of banned militant out� t Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh’s Chittagong district Commander Ershad Hossain alias Mamun on March 23, detectives said that the members of outlawed militant groups – JMB, HujiB, Hizb-ut Tahrir and Ansarullah Bangla Team – were working in concert to establish an Islamic state with the help of international terrorist group Islamic State by 2020.

To implement their agenda, four IS members visited Chittagong in October last year and sat with the top leaders of the four banned out� ts. l

Shawkat Mahmud lands in jailn UNB

A court yesterday sent BNP chairperson’s ad-viser and journalists’ union leader Shawkat Mahmud to jail on the expiry of his three-day remand in an arson case � led with the city’s Ramna Police Station.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Waez Kuruni Khan Chowdhury passed the order when Shawkat Mahmud was produced before the court.

Sub-inspector Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman, also general recording o� cer of the court, said no bail petition was submitted for Shawkat as he had no lawyer.

Earlier on August 19, the court placed Shawkat Mahmud on a three-day remand af-ter his arrest from in front of Samurai Conven-tion Centre in the city’s Panthapath area on August 18. He was shown arrested in an arson case � led with Ramna Police Station.

On January 9, a group of miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at a private car in the city’s Mogh-bazar area in front of Celebration Community Centre, leaving its driver injured with burns.

Later, the driver, Abul Kalam Azad, was admitted to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he succumbed to his injures on January 15.

Sub-inspector Atiqur Rahman Biswas then � led a case with Ramna Police Station in this connection. l

The militant out� ts are taking advantage of the ordinary Muslims while recruiting new members. They try to convince the youths, mostly from poor families or the Rohingyas, by saying that their activities are meant for pleasing the Almighty and saving the religion from the clutches of anti-Islam quarters

Autorickshaw drivers assault three mathematics students of Rajshahi University at Talaimari intersection on Friday night after an altercation over taking the students to their destination MEHEDI HASAN

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015NEWS4DT

OIC secretary general arrivesn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Secretary General of the Organisation of Is-lamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Ameen Madani arrived in the city yesterday on a three-day visit to discuss the organisation’s future work plan with Bangladeshi policymakers.

“It is part of a visiting programme the secretary general has undertaken. He will hold consultations with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali about OIC’s future work plan,” Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune.

This is his second visit to Dhaka and this time he is leading a six-member delegation.

He will pay a courtesy call on Prime Minis-ter Sheikh Hasina tomorrow and have a meet-ing with the foreign minister today.

He is likely to visit ICDDR,B at Mohakhali.Meanwhile, British Minister for

International Development Desmond Swayne is scheduled to arrive today on a three-day trip.

He is coming to see for himself how e� ec-tive the British aid is and how it helps Bang-ladeshi people to get out of poverty, said a diplomatic source.

He is scheduled to visit some UK-funded projects in the city and outside Dhaka, he said.

The UK minister is scheduled to have a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasi-na, Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, and have a meeting with Leader of the Opposition Roushan Ershad, and BNP Chair-person Khaleda Zia. l

RAIL ROUTE AROUND DHAKA CITY

Feasibility study begins next monthn Asif Showkat Kallol

The government starts a feasibility study next month for building a circular railroad around Dhaka which is expected to ease tra� c con-gestion, o� cials said.

A meeting at the Finance Division last week approved a human resources structure for the study. According to the Railways Ministry proposal, the rail route will enable commut-ers to travel from one corner of the city to the other without entering the city centre.

The route will provide the people with a better and more e� cient traveling facility avoiding the capital’s severe tra� c jam, the proposal reads, adding that this will also help

sub-urban people of Gazipur, Narayanganj, Keraniganj, Savar and Munshiganj enter and exit from Dhaka.

About 15m people live in the mega city of Dhaka which is expanding every year in terms of areas and population, but its transportation system has failed to cope with this increasing pressure.

The proposal says the total cost of the study will be Tk29.32 crore and the study will end in December next year. During the period, several surveys will be conducted by the con-sultancy � rm, including detail topographic, hydro-graphic and soil investigation surveys.

Construction of such route was an election pledge of the ruling party. l

Book on Bangabandhu’s possible progress launchedn Tribune Report

In an event for launching a book tilted ‘Bangabandhu-Equality-Imperialism’, the speakers have said Bangladesh could be more developed than Malaysia if Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman remains alive presently.

They termed understanding Bangabandhu mandatory for a Bangladeshi and the nation has been lagging behind in the global are-na and the book would usher us to forward, opined the speakers yesterday in the pro-gramme in Senate Building auditorium of Dhaka University.

The book authored by renowned econo-mist prof Abul Barkat with 252 pages in eight chapters tried to depict the country’s progress brought by Bangabandhu if he remains alive still now.

As the chief guest of the book launching ceremony former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman introduced us Bangali identity. He termed it handy, simple, unique and beautiful and urged all to read it.

“This book will inform us the unknown history and it will lead us into a vivid future”, he added.

“Small in size but it speaks the whole his-tory of Bangladesh. Our country would be So-nar Bangla if Bangabandu remains alive. This book manifests us that prove”, said National Human Rights Commission Chairman Dr Mi-zanur Rahman.

Barrister M Amirul Islam said: “This is a unique tribute to Bangabandhu in the month of mourning. If the book is included in text-book, we will understand the father of the nation.”

Muktobuddhi Prokashana published the book with price of Tk300.

Prof Dr Asraf Uddin Chowdhury presided over the programme while emeritus prof AK Azad Choudhury, former DUCSU vice-pres-ident prof Mahfuza Khanam addressed also among others. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and guests pose with recipients of the Best Community Clinic 2014 award at Osmani Memorial Auditorium yesterday BSS

PM: Government to set up trust fund for community clinicsn UNB

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the government has a plan to create a Trust Fund for Community Clinics across the coun-try to give those a permanent shape and en-sure smooth medicare services for people.

“We would like to form in the future a Trust Fund like the PM’s Education Trust Fund for ensuring the medicare services for people,” she said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a pro-gramme arranged by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry at Osmani Memorial Audi-torium to distribute Best Community Clinic Award 2014 and launch the

Interactive Learning Module for communi-ty clinic health providers.

Sheikh Hasina said the objective to estab-lish such a Trust Fund is to give a solid ground for the community clinics across the county so that no one could shut these down through just an order after the change of government.

“We’ve had a very bitter experience… we want to make these community clinics self-reliant � nancially.”

She mentioned that each community clin-ic will have its own account and local people will be the members of the committee for running it. “Government grants will go to that account and the a� uent section of the com-munity will donate to the fund, too.”

The local committee will � x how many signatures to be needed to withdraw money from the account, said Hasina adding that the people who will come to the community clin-ics for receiving preliminary treatment could donate if they want to. “Di� erent organisa-tions can donate to this Fund as well,” she added.

From this Fund, she said, the community clinics will be operated, while the utility bills of the clinics will be paid from this fund to make the clinics self-su� cient.

The Prime Minister recalled that the com-munity clinic project was launched during the past Awami League government in 1996, but

after the change of the government in 2001, the BNP-Jamaat regime shut down the clinics through issuing an order.

“But, with the formation of the Fund, lo-cal people will be able to run their communi-ty clinics and then those will be permanent ones,” she said.

Brie� y describing various development programmes of the present government for developing the medicare services across the country, the Prime Minister said there would be two new Medical Universities in Rajshahi and Chittagong. “We’ll gradually set up medi-cal universities in all the divisional headquar-ters,” she told the function.

Criticising the whimsical demands for to set up medical colleges everywhere of the country, Hasina said, “Medical colleges are necessary, but setting up so many medical colleges is not logical because this is a special-ized subject. If this is done indiscriminately, then patient-saving doctors will hardly be

produced…we don’t need patient-killing doc-tor.”

She said there should a policy recommend where medical colleges could be established. “What type facilities are there, we have to know that before setting up medical colleg-es, we shouldn’t succumb to whims,” the PM added.

Held with Health and Family Welfare Sec-retary Syed Monjurul Islam in the chair, the function was attended, among others, by Health and Family Welfare Minister Moham-mad Nasim, State Minuster for Health and Family Welfare Zahid Maleque, PM’s former Health A� airs Adviser Dr Syed Modasser Ali, WHO Representative Dr Navaratnasamy Para-nietharan and Project Director of Revitalisa-tion of Community Health Care Initiatives in Bangladesh (RCHCIB) Dr Makhdum Nargis.

Earlier, she distributed certi� cates among seven winners from seven divisions, and launched the interactive learning module. l

NEWS 5D

TSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Draft law requires compulsory insurance for BRT operators n Shohel Mamun

The Dhaka Transport Coordination Author-ity (DTCA) has � nalised the draft Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Act, 2015, requiring service op-erators to be covered by compulsory passen-ger and vehicle insurance.

In the event of an accident, insurance claims will help cover victims’ compensa-tions. Failure of operators to maintain insur-ance coverage could result in 10 year prison sentences and � nes of up to Tk5 lakh.

DTCA Executive Director Kaikobad Hos-sain told the Dhaka Tribune: “The draft of the BRT Act includes compulsory insurance for

operators and stipulates penalties so that it runs smoothly.”

Project Director Anisur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune the draft Act was integrated with the Metro Rail Act. The draft has been sent to various ministries, departments and experts for opinions and feedback.

The BRT will operate bus services on dedi-cated lanes on existing roads. Drivers of non-BRT vehicles who get caught using BRT lanes could face a one-year prison sentence and � nes of up to Tk2.5 lakh.

BRT services will be operated by the gov-ernment and by private � rms in six districts: Dhaka, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Narayanganj,

Manikganj and Munshiganj.According the draft law, private � rms must

obtain licences from the DTCA to operate BRT services.

The government has formed a sev-en-member committee to set BRT bus fares. Fare-dodgers will be punished with 5 times the fare rate or a 3-month prison term, ac-cording to the draft law.

Soil testing for BRT Line 3, the � rst of six pro-posed fast bus lanes to be developed, is being carried out between Gazipur and Keraniganj.

The � rst phase of the project, which will connect Gazipur to Dhaka airport, is sched-uled to be completed by 2018. l

Work begins on Bus Rapid Transit Line 3n Shohel Mamun

Soil testing has begun for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Line 3, the � rst of six dedicated fast bus lanes that are being planned to improve the capital’s transportation infrastructure.

Soil testing is scheduled for completion by December. Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) is conducting the soil tests, under the Clean Air and Sustainable Environ-ment (CASE) project, at 16 spots from Gazipur to the airport.

“The main work of the project will start at the beginning of next year,” BRT Line 3 Pro-ject Director Anisur Rahman said.

Line 3 will stretch from Shibbari in Gazipur to Keraniganj. The � rst phase of construction will link Gazipur to Dhaka’s Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport.

A feasibility study is being conducted on the portion of the route that runs between Dhaka airport and Keraniganj.

Line 3 will feature two bus lanes, one for travel in each direction, and will be separat-ed from other roadways by a divider. It will stretch 42.5 kilometres from Gazipur to Keran-iganj, with a total of 41 stations planned along its path. Twenty-� ve stations are planned on the 22-kilometre stretch of the route between Gazipur and Dhaka airport.

Fast-moving, high-capacity BRT buses will move between the stations in just three minutes. Line 3 is expected to be able to transport an esti-mated 20,000 passengers each way, every hour.

Passengers will be covered by a mandatory insurance policy. BRT ticketing will done us-ing smart cards.

BRT buses will be equipped to allow level boarding, making it easier for older people, children and disabled passengers to get on and o� the buses. Passengers will only be able to get on or o� the buses at BRT stations.

The BRT will be operated by both public and private transportation service providers under the Bus Rapid Transit Company. Along-side the Bangladesh Road Transport Corpora-tion, private bus companies can join the ven-ture, but must import designated BRT buses.

Six overpasses, including a bridge over the Turag River, will be built under the project. The project will cost Tk2,034.84 crore and is scheduled for completion by 2018.

The government plans to implement BRT ser-vices in six districts – Dhaka, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Narayanganj, Manikganj and Munshiganj. l

Three sentenced to di� erent jail terms for producing contaminated mineral watersn UNB

A mobile court of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday sentenced three people of three mineral water producing factories in the city to di� erent jail terms for producing germ-contaminated bottled water.

The convicts are: Md Mamun Miah, man-ager of ‘Dytal Drinking Water’ at RK Mission Road of Gupibagh, Md Harun-ur-Rashid, owner of ‘Sabrina Drinking Water’ in Gulap-bagh, and Salman Rahman, owner of ‘Alpine

Fresh Water’ at Begumganj Lane of Narinda area of the city.

Mamun was sentenced to three months’ simple jail and � ned Tk50,000, in default, one month’s more jail.

Harun was sentenced to six months jail and � ned Tk1 lakh, in default, 15 days more jail.

Salman was given two years’ simple jail and � ned of Tk1 lakh, in default, one month more jail.

Sources at the Rab headquarters said act-

ing on a tip-o� , a team of Rab-10, led by ASP Md Raselur Rahman along with executive magistrate Md Sarwar Alam, conducted the drive the three areas mentioned above in be-tween 11:30 pm and 4:00 pm.

During the drive, the elite force found that germ water of Dhaka WASA was being bottled illegally inside the three mineral water pro-ducing factories.

Md Rashed Al Mamun, � eld o� cer of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), was also present during the drive. l

Two held with 5kg gold at Kamalapurn Kamrul Hasan

Railway police arrested two persons and re-covered 5kg of gold from their possession from Kamalapur railway station yesterday.

The arrestees are Jhutan Biswas, 21, and Rahul, 28. Kamalapur Government Railway police station O� cer-in-Charge (OC) Abdul Majid said they had information about gold smuggling via the railway station.

When Jhutan and Rahul get o� from Turna Nishita express train around 8:30am, a GRP team challenged the duo as their behaviour seemed to be suspicious, the OC added. Majid went on that they searched them and found 32 gold biscuits and bars worth Tk2.6 crore.

A case was launched against the duo with GRP police station in this connection. l

Soil test for Bus Rapid Transit project goes on on Airport Road in the capital. The photo was taken two days ago MEHEDI HASAN

NEWS6DTSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Flood situation worsens across countryn Tribune Report

Heavy rains and onrush of hill water over the past few days caused � oods in di� erent parts of the country that inundated houses and crop � elds.

Low-lying areas in eight unions of three Gaibandha upazilas went under water while at least 35 families hit by river erosion moved elsewhere.

Water in the Brahmaputra, Jamuna and Teesta rivers increased in the past � ve days but was still under the danger level.

Uria union Chairman Abdul Hamid said a number of places in Kalasona, Uttar Uria and Ratanpur villages saw erosion of the Brahma-putra River.

Habibur Rahman, chairman of Fulchhari union, said the families displaced by erosion would be given relief materials.

He said the local o� ce of Water Develop-ment Board had been informed of the situation.

Chairmen of several other unions said wa-ter in the Teesta River was rising in their re-

spective areas.Abdul Awal, executive engineer of Gaib-

andha o� ce of Water Development Board, said necessary steps would be taken.

In Sherpur’s Jhenaigati upazila, 17 villag-es were submerged early yesterday while downpour destroyed huts and washed a huge amount of � shes from ponds away.

Traders at Dhanshail Bazar incurred losses as water destroyed products and goods. Crops in Aman � elds were also damaged.

Chairmen of several unions visited the af-� icted areas while local Jubo League members doled out relief goods among � ood victims on behalf of lawmaker AKM Fazlul Haque Chan.

Jhenaigati upazila Chairman Aminul Islam Badshah said � ood was the result of sudden onrush of hill water.

He said the scale of the damage would not be large if water receded fast.

“We are trying to deal with the situation.” added Badshah.

In Kurigram, Aman crops in 30,000 hectares of land were inundated as a rise in water in the

Dharala River aggravated � ood situation. Water in the river � ew 24cm above the dan-

ger level after heavy rains while several other rivers in the district, including Teesta and Brah-maputra, saw a dramatic rise in water level.

Local o� cials said more than 50,000 people living in over 100 villages under nine upazilas were marooned. Flood also wreaked havoc on houses and roads, multiplying people’s woes.

Amir Hossain, chairman of Panchgachhi union, some 5,000-7,000 people living in his area had been marooned.

“The road communication system has col-lapsed, forcing people to move by boats. Crop-lands were heavily damaged too,” he said.

Local Water Development Board o� cials said yesterday that water in the Brahmaputra River increased by 51cm and 50cm at Chilmari point and Nun Khawa point respectively in 24 hours.

The maximum rainfall in Kurigram in the last 24 hours was measured 316mm yesterday.

In Netrokona, 50 villages in three upazilas – Kalamakanda, Durgapur and Barhatta - were inundated while water in several small and

big rivers increased in the last two days. Water entered houses in many villages lo-

cated in low-lying areas such as Barakapan, Harinakul, Keshabpur, Chauhatta, Rajnagar and Baushari.

Fish in more than a thousand ponds and enclosures was washed away while farmers said Aman seeds in at least 5,000 hectares of land were damaged.

Flood victims said local o� cials had vis-ited the a� icted areas but no relief had yet been distributed.

AKM Hadisuzzaman, chairman of Baraka-pan union in Kamalakanda, said some 25,000 people in 22 villages of the union were ma-rooned.

Deputy Director of the Department of Ag-ricultural Extension Bilash Chandra Paul said crops would not be heavily damaged if water receded soon.

“We can measure the extent of damage of croplands once water recedes. A few days lat-er, we will also measure the extent of losses incurred by farmers,” he added. l

Native � sh species decline in Chuadanga n Our Correspondent, Chuadanga

Native � sh populations at water bodies in the district have seen a sharp decline in recent years.

According to sources, the indigenous � sh species, especially the small ones, are disap-pearing due to drying-up of major rivers and water bodies. As a result, most � shermen are either leading miserable life or switching over to other professions.

Fisheries o� ce sources said � sh had been cultivated at around 1.65 lakh hectares of land in four upazilas of the district.

In recent years, most of the water bodies of the district including rivers, ponds and canals have dried up which has left an adverse im-pact on the growth of � sh species.

Besides, frequent and random use of chem-ical fertilisers and pesticides in croplands has

escalated the crisis.At present many indigenous � sh including

cat� sh, mola, walking � sh, sheat � sh, carplet, goby, spring ceil, dwarf gourami, and snake-head murrel are rarely seen in the local markets.

A good number of � shermen here, who used to live on catching country � sh in di� er-ent water bodies including the Mathabhanga River before, are facing hardship and leading their families in substandard conditions since they are getting poor catches of � sh.

Many of them have switched over to oth-er professions like rickshaw- and van-pulling and auto-rickshaw driving.

Nirmol Halder of Dinnathpur village under Sadar upazila said: “I have left my ancestral profession as there is less catch of � sh, and it is hardly possible to lead my family. Finding no other alternative, I am pulling rickshaw now.”

Locals mentioned that the small � shes en-riched with high nutrition which is capable of protecting the human beings particularly the growing aged ones from various diseases.

They, however, said with wide-ranging pro-motion of exotic and hybrid � sh species, the indigenous species, particularly the small ones, are gradually being endangered everywhere.

Both farming and marketing of the high yield-ing species have been enhanced signi� cantly during the last couple of years. The local whole-sale markets, hats and bazars are now � ooded with the promoted varieties of � sh which are less tasty and nutritious than the local ones.

District Fisheries O� cer Bazlur Rashid said: “Massive silt has been deposited on the riverbeds and other water bodies that is responsible for reduction of � sh breeding grounds in the district.” l

Suspected robber killed in gun� ghtn Our Correspondent, Comilla

An alleged robber was killed in a gun� ght between his cohorts and members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police at Perul on the Comilla-Laksam Road in Sadar Dakkhin upazila early yesterday.

The deceased Abdul Kader, 35, was son of Sahadat Hossain of Bharanikhanda village in Monoharganj upazila.

Shah Kamal Akanda, sub-inspector of Comilla DB police, said on a tip-o� , a team of DB police conducted a drive in the area around 3:30 am while a gang of robbers was taking preparation to commit robbery.

Sensing the presence of the police, the rob-bers opened � re to them and the law enforcers also retaliated with � ring, triggering a gun� ght.

During the gun� ght, four robbers, includ-ing Abdul Kader, were injured. Police also ar-rested eight robbers while � eeing the scene.

Abdul Kader died on way to Comilla Med-ical College Hospital while his two associates were admitted to the hospital. l

Two held with yaban Our Correspondent, Comilla

Police arrested two people, including a wom-an, along with 2,100 yaba tablets from a bus on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway near Daudkandi toll plaza at Daudkandi upazila in the district early yesterday.

The arrested are Rabeya Begum, 30, wife of Manirul Islam of Boalia village in Sadar up-zila of Madaripur district, and Abul Bashar, 35, son of Ershad Master of Nikli upazila in Kishoreganj district.

Abdus Salam, o� cer-in-charge of Daud-kandi police station, said on a tip-o� , a team of police intercepted a Dhaka-bound Shyamo-li Paribahan bus and arrested Rabeya along with 1,500 yaba tablets, kept inside the soles of her shoes.

Later, the police also arrested Abul Bashar along with 6,00 yaba tablets from the bus. l

Marooned people along with their cattle and personal belongings in Kurigram are passing their days in great anxiety as water level of Dutkumer and Brahmaputra rivers rose sharply. The picture was taken yesterday from Jatrapur in Sadar upazila DHAKA TRIBUNE

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015NEWS 7

DT

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:25PM SUN RISES 5:37AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

34.5ºC 23.5ºC

Khulna Maizdi Court

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 33 26

Chittagong 32 26

Rajshahi 32 26

Rangpur 30 25

Khulna 33 26

Barisal 32 26

Sylhet 30 25

Cox’s Bazar 31 26

PRAYER TIMESFajr 4:15am

Sunrise 5:35amZohr 12:02am

Asr 4:35pmMagrib 6:27pm

Esha 7:57pm

WEATHER

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Coordinated e� orts to ensure development stressedn Tribune Report

Speakers yesterday at a view-exchange meet-ing stressed on the need for coordinated e� orts and joint initiatives for all-out devel-opment for the greater Mymensingh through formulating long and short term development programmes.

They also put emphasis for setting up strong coordination among the high o� cials of greater Mymensingh working in di� erent ministries and autonomous bodies to ensure the development.

Local Government Department, district ad-ministration and Zila Parisad jointly organized

the meeting at the auditorium in the town.Upazila Parisad chairmen of greater My-

mensingh include Mymensingh, Tangail, Ja-malpur, Sherpur, Netrakona and Kishorganj dis-tricts took part in the � rst session, reports BSS.

Principal Secretary of Prime Minister’s Of-� ce Abul Kalam Aazd presided over the dis-cussion. LGRD Secretary Abdul Malek gave opening remarks and described the objectives of the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, Abul Kalam Azad said Bangladesh, led by Prime Minis-ter Sheikh Hasina, has been a model for de-velopment before the world, and the greater Mymensingh will be included in the develop-

ment process.Mentioning the existing problems and

prospects in their areas, the upazila chairmen urged the concerned authorities to take nec-essary steps to resolve the problems for all-out development of greater Mymensingh.

The chairmen highlighted on communica-tion, education, health, continuous river ero-sion and protection of crop land and dwelling houses from the river erosion.

Later, a meeting with the administrators and secretaries of the Zila Parishad in greater Mymensingh was held at the same venue. Pri-mary and Mass Education Secretary Mezbah ul Alam chaired the meeting. l

Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Company ready to roll n Aminur Rahman Rasel

The country’s � rst ever Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Ltd is set to start func-tioning from today through its � rst board meeting to develop the 2,000 MW Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

“The meeting of the Nuclear Company will be chaired by Science and Technology Secretary Sirajul Islam at Bangladesh Atom-ic Energy Commission (BAEC) headquarters in Agargaon,” � rst Managing Director of the company Mohammad Shawkat Akbar told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

BAEC under the Ministry of Science and Technology would own the company.

Shawkat said the new company has recent-ly registered with the O� ce of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.

He said the company would start function-ing by setting up a new o� ce in Dhaka and preparing an organogram to start manpower recruitment.

On July 13, 2015, the cabinet approved the draft Nuclear Power Plant Ordinance, 2015 in or-der to ensure the proper establishment and op-eration of the country’s nuclear power plants, including the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

According to the law, the company will have a board with the secretary for science and technology as its chairman and the chair-man of the BAEC as its director.

The previous project director of the Roop-pur Nuclear Power Plant project will be the � rst managing director of nuclear company.

The board will have a minimum of seven and maximum of 12 directors who will be ap-pointed by the government.

“The Ministry of Science and Technology has already appointed 11 members as board directors,” Acting Secretary for Science and Technology Sirajul Islam told the Dhaka Trib-une yesterday.

The 11-member company board will in-clude Power Development Board Chairman Khandker Maksudul Hasan, Federation of

Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and In-dustry President Abdul Matlub Ahmad while the rest will be taken from di� erent ministries and organisations.

He said the Rooppur project would be im-plemented with � nancial and technical sup-port from the Russian government.

Bangladesh plans to produce 1,000MW of electricity by 2021 and another 1,000MW by 2022 from the Rooppur plant. The plant’s ten-ure is 60 years with the option to extend it by another 20 years.

In April 2013, the executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the establishment of the � rst phase of the Roop-pur Nuclear Power Plant Project. The project site in Pakshi union, Pabna, sits on 105 hec-tares of land.

The initial project duration is from March 2013 to June 2017. The plant is scheduled to go into operation by 2021 involving Tk5,087.81cr, including project aid of Tk4,000cr from the Russian government. l

Death anniversary of Birshreshtho Motiur heldn Our Correspondent, Narsingdi

The 44th death anniversary of Shaheed Bir-shreshtho Flight Lieutenant M Motiur Rah-man was observed at the Motiur Rahman Smriti Sangsad premises with due solemnity yesterday.

Jointly organised by Raipura Upazila Muk-tijoddah Sangsad and Shaheed Birshreshtho Motiur Rahman Smriti Sangsad, Speakers in the discussion said the heroic sacri� ce of Flight Lt Motiur Rahman in the country’s lib-eration war very painful.

Speakers said in August 1971, Motiur Rahman tried to escape with a plane from Mashror Airport, Karachi to join the country’s liberation war, but he died when his plane un-fortunately crashed near the Indian border on way to that country.

A Milad mah� l was also held at Muktijud-dah Sangsad o� ce and special munajat was o� ered seeking divine blessings for the de-parted soul of Motiur Rahman. l

Participants row boats during a boat race organized by Beraid Krira Sangstha, a local sporting club, at Beraid in Badda yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

WORLD8DTSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Russian PM visits disputed Kuril islands, triggering Japan protestn AFP, Moscow

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev landed yesterday in the Kuril islands, prompt-ing a swift rebuke from Tokyo, which claims sovereignty over the northwest Paci� c archi-pelago in a long-running dispute.

Medvedev visited Iturup, one of four is-lands in the chain that lies o� Russia’s far eastern coast and just north of Japan, Russian media reports said.

“Everything is perfectly modern here,” Medvedev was quoted as saying on his arrival.

“This is the result of our development pro-gramme for the Kuril islands.”

Hajime Hayashi, the head of the Japanese foreign ministry’s European division, phoned the Russian ambassador in Tokyo over the visit to the islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories.

The trip “contradicts Japan’s position over the Northern Territories and hurts the feel-ings of the Japanese people... It is extremely regrettable,” Hayashi said, quoted by a Japa-

nese foreign ministry o� cial.Soviet troops seized the islands just after

Japan surrendered in World War II.The seven-decade-old dispute has ham-

pered trade and prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal post-war peace treaty.

Both the Kremlin and Japanese Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe had hoped to start mending relations in order to revive trade, with Japan seeking broader access to Russia’s plentiful oil and natural gas supplies.

According to the government’s website, Medvedev visited the island’s new airport, sea port, a � sh processing factory, and a youth forum where he met with young scientists and teachers. He and the forum participants took sel� es and unfurled a giant Russian � ag on the island’s shore for a group picture to mark Russia’s � ag day, according to Medve-dev’s Instagram account.

He went to the Kurils after making an o� -cial visit to Russia’s Far East region of Amur, where he visited a space port being built in Vostochny. l

Greek opposition leaders weigh coalition despite crises, poll pressuren Reuters, Athens

Greek opposition politicians embarked on the laborious and apparently futile exercise yes-terday of trying to form a new government, oblivious to pressure for rapid elections so the nation can start tackling an array of crises.

The two biggest opposition parties, one of the centre-right and the other of the far left, queued up to exercise their constitutional right to spend three days negotiating a new coalition, even though their e� orts are almost certain to fail.

When leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on Thursday, he had in mind a quick election next month when he hoped to return to power, strengthened by a mandate to im-plement the new bailout programme he nego-tiated to save Greece from � nancial collapse.

But the conservative New Democracy and the anti-bailout Popular Unity - founded only on Friday after splitting from Tsipras’s Syriza party - do not share his sense of urgency.

Fo� Gennimata, who leads the small PA-SOK socialist party, reminded fellow opposi-

tion leaders that Greece’s future in the euro zone was far from secure, even though funds began � owing from the new 86 billion euro ($98 billion) bailout on Thursday.

“It is obvious that ... this parliament cannot form a new government. Therefore, any delay can have destructive consequences for the country because, as I have said many times, Grexit remains in our backyard,” she told re-porters after meeting conservative New De-mocracy leader Evangelos Meimarakis.

Meimarakis was also due to meet leftist Popular Unity chief Panagiotis Lafazanis - his ideological polar opposite - later yesterday. The two are also split over the bailout, with Meimarakis backing the deal which this week averted a debt default and Lafazanis saying “we will either � nish o� the bailouts or the bailouts will � nish o� Greece.”

Even if they could come to terms, the two parties would command only 101 seats in the 300-member parliament, with the rest of the deeply divided opposition ranging from com-munists to the ultra-right Golden Dawn. l

India warns Pakistan against meeting separatists, talks on brinkn Reuters, New Delhi/Islamabad

India and Pakistan blamed each other yester-day for putting at risk a planned peace meet-ing, with New Delhi warning that talks would be called o� if its bitter rival decided to meet separatist leaders of the disputed region of Kashmir.

The trading of charges just hours before a meeting of the national security advisers (NSA) of the nuclear-armed neighbours could derail talks for the second time under the government of Indian Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and further sour relations.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since becoming separate nations in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kash-mir, which both claim in full but rule in part.

New Delhi has for years accused Islamabad of backing separatist Muslim rebels in India’s part of Kashmir. Pakistan denies the allegations.

India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said yesterday’s talks would be cancelled if the Pakistan’s NSA Sartaj Aziz insisted on meeting the separatists. India detained a Kashmiri leader yesterday after he landed in New Delhi for a meeting with Aziz.

“If they say ‘we still do not agree’, then there will be no talks,” Swaraj told a press conference.

India is ready to discuss only terrorism-re-lated issues at the talks and “no third party” should be involved, Swaraj said, referring to the separatist leaders.

She asked Pakistan to decide by yesterday evening. A Pakistan government source said talks were “not possible in this bitter environ-ment.”

Earlier, Aziz said in Islamabad he was

disappointed that India had “virtually can-celled” the scheduled talks.

The prospects of the much-awaited talks, set between Modi and his Pakistani counter-part Nawaz Sharif in Russia last month, had also been clouded in recent weeks by a series of militant attacks and border skirmishes. Swaraj said there has been 91 cease� re viola-tions since the meeting between the premiers.

The divergence of talking points has also been a stumbling block: Indian o� cial sourc-es had said they wanted to provide proof that

militants were getting support from over its western border, while Pakistan wanted the talks to be broader and include issues on Kashmir.

Aziz said he was planning to present In-dia’s NSA Ajit Doval three dossiers on what he called the Indian intelligence wing’s involve-ment in promoting terrorism in Pakistan.

Pakistan said it was not expecting the scheduled peace talks to lead to any break-through and that the purpose was only to re-duce tensions between the neighbours. l

Typhoon death toll in Philippines rises to ninen Reuters, Manila

The death toll in the Philippines from Ty-phoon Goni rose to nine after � ve more peo-ple were buried by landslides in mountainous areas, o� cials said yesterday.

Packing gusts of up to 185 kph (115 mph), Goni was estimated to be 105 km (65 miles) east-northeast of Batanes, the northernmost province in the Philippines, and moving at 13 kph towards southern Japan.

Weather forecasters said Goni would be out of the region of the Philippines by Mon-day, improving conditions in the capital Ma-nila, where some workplaces and schools had been closed because of rainfall. Storm alerts were lifted in some northern provinces.

“There was a new landslide early this morning, which buried some houses,” Nestor Fongwan, governor of Benguet province, told radio stations. “We’ve pulled out four bodies.”

In Baguio City, capital of the Cordillera mountain region, the amount of rain over-night exceeded the average volume for the whole month, disaster o� cials said.

Alexander Pama, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Man-agement Council, said nearly 1,000 people had been displaced by landslides and � oods in the north.

In some areas, shipping was suspended, � ights grounded and roads closed by � oods, landslides, toppled power lines and uproot-ed trees. Soldiers have been clearing roads to speed up delivery of food, drinking water and other vital supplies, Pama said.

An average of 20 typhoons a year pass through the Philippines. The most deadly and destructive, Haiyan, killed more than 6,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in November 2013. l

Indian Foreign A� airs Minister Sushma Swaraj gestures during a press conference in New Delhi yesterday. India issued an ultimatum to Pakistan yesterday, giving Islamabad until midnight to agree to restrict high-level bilateral talks to militancy alone AFP

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Thai police investigating CCTV showing second suspicious bag dropn AFP, Bangkok

Thai police yesterday said they were investi-gating new security camera footage showing a man dropping a package into a canal as the hunt for those behind Monday’s deadly Bang-kok bomb blast entered its � fth day without arrests.

CCTV video widely circulated by local me-dia yesterday showed a man in a blue t-shirt kicking the package o� a footbridge in the same spot where a device exploded on Tues-day without injuries.

That second blast intensi� ed anxiety in an already rattled city, following Monday’s bomb attack on a religious shrine in Bangkok’s com-mercial heart that cut down 20 people and wounded scores more.

Authorities have not ruled out a link be-tween the two explosions.

The shrine bomb killed mostly ethnic Chi-nese tourists from across Asia, and has left police scrambling to � nd the assailants.

National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri con� rmed that the new footage was being examined to decide whether the man dropping the package into the water near Saphan Thaksin pier was a suspect. “We have to verify the information,” he told told AFP adding the situation was “still confusing.”

The unveri� ed footage is time-stamped just a few minutes after Monday’s blast, which struck at 18.55pm (1155 GMT).

It shows the man in the blue t-shirt car-rying something heavy in a plastic bag. He goes to the side of a footbridge, places the bag down and then uses his mobile phone.

Around a minute later he pushes the bag into the canal with his foot, kicking up a visi-ble splash of water.

The following day, shortly after 1pm on Tues-day, an explosion went o� in the canal, which is near a popular tourist pier, sending people scur-rying for cover but causing no injuries.

Until now the search for the perpetrator of Monday’s attack has focused on a prima-ry suspect in a yellow t-shirt seen placing a heavy rucksack under a bench at the shrine.

Moments later the blast struck, scattering body parts, glass and debris over a bustling Bangkok shopping district.

Asked whether the man in the blue t-shirt and the yellow t-shirt could be the same per-petrator, Prawut said: “It’s likely the two men are di� erent.” l

France train gunman identi� ed as known Islamist militantn Reuters, Paris/Madrid

A gunman overpowered by passengers on a train in France is known to European author-ities as a suspected Islamist militant if the identity he has given is correct, France’s inte-rior minister said yesterday.

Two people were wounded in the struggle to subdue the Kalashnikov-toting attacker aboard the high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday. Two US servicemen, one of whom su� ered knife wounds, were among the passengers who stopped the gunman.

Cazeneuve said the man’s identity was

not con� rmed, but if he was telling the truth “he is a 26-year-old man of Moroccan nation-ality identi� ed by the Spanish authorities to French intelligence services in February 2014 because of his connections to the radical Isla-mist movement.”

The man Spanish authorities had under surveillance left Spain for France in 2014, trav-elled to Syria, and then back to France, a Span-ish counter-terrorism source said yesterday.

In Spain, he lived in the southern port of Algeciras and appeared to have stayed in the country for about a year, the source said.

Cazeneuve did not mention any visit to

Syria or France, only naming Spain and Bel-gium as the suspected militant’s places of residence, this year and last. He said inquiries in collaboration with other European author-ities “should establish precisely the activities and travels of this terrorist.”

French newspaper Le Voix du Nord said the suspect may have had connections to a group involved in a suspected Islamist shoot-ing in Belgium in January. The Belgian gov-ernment con� rmed an inquiry but would not comment further.

The attacker was armed with a Kalash-nikov assault ri� e and an automatic pistol,

both with accompanying ammunition clips. He also had a box cutter knife. Cazeneuve said the struggle started when a Frenchman on his way to the toilet tried to stop the man entering a carriage.

The gunman was transferred yesterday to the Paris region from Arras in northern France where the incident took place. Cazeneuve said under the terms of his arrest the man can be held for four days without being charged.

The shooting took place on a Thalys high-speed train. The Franco-Belgian state transport group runs international trains linking France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. l

North, South Korea o� cials meet at DMZ to ease tensionn Reuters, Seoul

Top aides to the leaders of North and South Korea held talks at the Panmunjom truce vil-lage straddling their border late yesterday, raising hopes for an end to a stando� that put the rivals on the brink of armed con� ict.

The meeting at the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) village, known for its sky-blue huts and grim-faced soldiers, began soon after the deadline for North Korea’s previ-ously set ultimatum demanding that the South halt its loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border or face military action.

That deadline passed without any report-ed incidents. The negotiations continued after roughly three hours, according to the South’s Uni� cation Ministry.

An exchange of artillery � re on Thursday prompted calls for calm from the United Na-tions, the United States and the North’s lone major ally, China.

South Korea’s military remained on high

alert despite the announced talks, a defence o� cial said.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s national security adviser and her uni� cation minister met with Hwang Pyong So, the top military aide to the North’s leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yang Gon, a veteran o� cial in inter-Korean a� airs.

“The South and the North agreed to hold contact related to the ongoing situation in South-North relations,” Kim Kyou-hyun, the presidential Blue House’s deputy national security adviser, said earlier in a televised brie� ng.

Pyongyang made an initial proposal on Fri-day for a meeting, and Seoul made a revised proposal yesterday seeking Hwang’s attend-ance, Kim said.

The North’s KCNA news agency also an-nounced the meeting, referring to the South as the Republic of Korea, a rare formal recog-nition of its rival state, in sharp contrast to the bellicose rhetoric in recent days.

North Korea, technically still at war with

the South after their 1950-53 con� ict end-ed in a truce, not a peace treaty, declared a “quasi-state of war” in front-line areas and on Thursday set the deadline for Seoul to halt its broadcasts.

South Korea began blasting anti-North propaganda, news reports and even enter-tainment over the DMZ on August 10, days af-ter landmine explosions in the DMZ wounded two South Korean soldiers. Pyongyang denies it planted the mines.

Seoul said it would continue the broad-casts unless the North accepted responsibil-ity for the blasts.

“The situation on the Korean peninsula is now inching close to the brink of a war due to the reckless provocations made by the south Korean military war hawks,” the North’s KCNA news agency said earlier.

North and South Korea have often ex-changed threats over the years, and dozens of soldiers have been killed in clashes, yet the two sides have always pulled back from a re-turn to all-out war. l

South Korean soldiers sit on a military vehicle, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Yeoncheon, South Korea yesterday. South Korea stands ready to respond to further provocations from North Korea, the presidential Blue House said yesterday, as an ultimatum loomed for Seoul to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by late afternoon or face military action REUTERS

WORLD 9D

T

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015World10D

T

Hundreds of migrants force their way over Macedonian bordern AFP, Guevgueliya

Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees forced their way over the Macedonian border yester-day as police hurled stun grenades in a failed bid to stop them from breaking through, an AFP reporter said.

The people scrambled over the barbed wire fence on the border between Greece and Mac-edonia despite the police action.

Some 2,000 refugees and migrants have been stuck in no-man’s land between the two countries since Thursday, halting their bid to reach Western Europe.

Police subsequently seemed to regain control of the situation, stopping the � ow of people after hurling a dozen stun grenades in some 30 minutes. Some 1,500 migrants and refugees are estimated to have remained in no-man’s land after the incident.

Those who managed to cross into Macedo-nia rushed to the town of Gevgelija and sought taxis or other transportation toward Serbia on their way to the European Union border.

Macedonia on Thursday declared a state of emergency and sealed o� the border for 24 hours. But after clashes between police and mi-grants on Friday that left at least eight refugees injured, Skopje decided to allow a limited num-ber of refugees in to continue their journey.

Since late Friday Macedonian police was allowing groups of several dozen to cross and take a train to the north in a bid to reach west-ern Europe. l

Italy rescuing 3,000 migrants, 18 boats in troublen AFP, Rome

Italy’s coastguard said yesterday it was coor-dinating the rescue of up to 3,000 migrants from waters o� Libya after receiving SOS calls from 18 di� erent crowded vessels.

At least seven boats - six Italian and one from Norway - were involved in an opera-tion to get the migrants safely o� 14 rubber dinghies and four other vessels carrying an estimated total of between 2,000 and 3,000 people.

More than 104,000 migrants from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have landed at Italy’s southern ports so far this year after being rescued in the Mediterranean.

A further 135,000-plus have landed in Greece and more than 2,300 people have died at sea while trying to make it to Europe with the help of people smugglers.

Police in Palermo, on the Italian island of Sicily, announced yesterday that they had arrested six Egyptian nationals on suspicion of people smuggling following the rescue of a stricken boat on August 19.

Testimony from the 432 migrants on board suggest the vessel had been packed with more than ten times the number of people it was designed for, with many of the passen-gers, including a number of women and chil-dren, locked below decks.

They had each paid the tra� ckers 2,000

euros for the passage from Egypt to Italy, ac-cording to statements given to police.

On board, the crew were reported to be demanding further payment to allow those locked in the hold to come up temporarily for air.

Humanitarian organisations say the surge in the numbers of people trying to reach Eu-ropean Union countries is the result of con-� icts or repression in east Africa and the Mid-dle East.

They have called on European govern-ments to shoulder more of the burden of absorbing the wave of asylum seekers and to help create safer routes for them to reach Europe. l

Turkey detains over 400 migrants trying to cross to Greecen AFP, Istanbul

Turkish security forces have detained 435 mi-grants and Syrian refugees along with three suspected people smugglers, before they em-barked on an attempt to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece, reports said yesterday.

There has been an upsurge this summer in the numbers of refugees and migrants using shaky vessels to make the crossing, sparking a humanitarian crisis for the European Union.

The latest arrests in the district of Ayvacik on the Aegean in the Canakkale region of western Turkey appear to have been made even before they put to sea to try to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.

Of those detained, 345 are Syrians, 64 from Afghanistan, 19 from Myanmar and 7 from Pa-kistan, the o� cial Anatolia news agency said, adding that police were acting on a tip-o� .

Three suspected people smugglers – all Turkish nationals – were also detained.

Turkish o� cials say the security forces have been detaining thousands of migrants around the Aegean seeking to cross to Europe every week this summer.

Many have been trying to make the short crossing from the Turkish resort of Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos in the southern Aegean.

Far from striking out independently, they rely on the services of people smugglers who coordinate the enterprise, paying around $1,200 a head for the risky crossing. l

Kabul car bomb kills 12, wounds 66 othersn AFP, Kabul

At least 12 people including three NATO con-tractors were killed yesterday when a suicide car bomber struck a foreign forces convoy, of-� cials said, underlining the precarious securi-ty situation in the Afghan capital.

No group immediately claimed respon-sibility for the blast, which struck outside a civilian hospital in Kabul following a wave of fatal bombings earlier this month that rattled the city.

The piercing explosion in a residential Kabul neighbourhood reverberated around the city and left a trail of devastation, with an AFP photographer seeing the mangled wreckage of a burning vehicle at the scene of the attack.

A foreigner was among 12 people killed in the blast, with 66 others – including wom-en and children – wounded, health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said on Twitter.

He did not give the nationality of the for-eigner.

Senior health o� cial Sayed Kabir Amiri con� rmed that toll from the attack, which comes as Taliban insurgents escalate their an-nual summer o� ensive against the US-backed Afghan government.

“One Resolute Support (NATO) contracted civilian was killed in the attack and two oth-ers died of wounds as a result of the attack,” NATO said in a statement, without specifying their nationalities.

Fraidoon Obaidi, the head of Kabul’s Crim-inal Investigation Department, said o� cials were investigating the bombing.

The loud explosion prompted the heav-ily-forti� ed US embassy, located a few kilo-metres (miles) away in the centre of Kabul, to sound its emergency sirens and a “duck and cover” alarm warning.

US-led NATO forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan in December last year,

although a 13,000-strong residual force re-mains for training and counter-terrorism op-erations.

Yesterday’s blast comes amid heightened security in Kabul after a wave of bombings ear-lier this month that killed more than 50 people and wounded hundreds, prompting fury from President Ashraf Ghani who blamed Pakistan for failing to rein in Taliban insurgents.

The Taliban are stepping up their summer o� ensive, launched in late April, amid a bitter leadership dispute following the announce-ment of the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar. Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Omar’s long-time trusted deputy, was named as the new Taliban chief in late July in an acrimonious power transition.

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri recent-ly pledged his group’s allegiance to Mansour, in a move which could bolster his accession amid the growing in� ghting within the Af-ghan militant movement. l

Macedonian police clash with migrants trying to cross an illegal crossing point on the border between Greece and Macedonia near the town of Gevgelija yesterday AFP

11D

TEDITORIALSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

INSIDE

Nearly four months have passed since elections for new mayors and city corporations in Chittagong and Dhaka.

While nobody expects miracles during their � rst 100 days, and many challenges require long-term strategic planning, the public

deserves and needs to start seeing tangible improvements in the day to day management of public services.

This applies especially to the most basic city services of waste management and recycling. These have su� ered from years of chronic mismanagement and neglect, and cause an enormous amount of blight and public nuisance.

With a growing economy generating ever higher amounts of waste, Dhaka’s Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Plan is lagging far behind the capital’s needs.

A lot of waste is not even properly collected in the � rst place. Even where household and o� ce waste is regularly collected, the dysfunctional state of collection services daily sees noxious and often toxic materials tipped out onto major roads, for informal sorting.

There is little evidence that this is improving either collection or recycling rates. It also fails to pay su� cient attention to safely removing hazardous substances out of the environment.

The mayors have a duty to transform this dire state of a� airs. There is no shortage of labour and expertise to make a city-wide waste and recycling service work properly.

What is needed is leadership.The mayors and city corporations urgently need to make sure proper sites

and centres are set up to enable sorting and recycling to take place safely and without causing public nuisance.

Authorities should also educate businesses and residents to take more responsibility, to help make waste become better managed. Growing recycling rates can not only help to clean the streets, but also generate more funds to support the livelihoods of waste pickers and recyclers.

Community-based recycling schemes should be rolled out city-wide, so more household waste is processed responsibly at source. Experience shows well-managed schemes are highly cost-e� ective and not only boost recycling rates, with residents taking more care to help pre-sort materials and to re-use organic waste as compost, but also make people less likely to litter in other areas.

There is no excuse for not placing more priority on improving this most essential of core city services.

Leadership is needed to transform the dire state of basic waste and recycling services

Mayors need to show more progress on green pledges

Next stop: Tomorrow

Tax and waneOur government should neither impose VAT on the right to education, nor should it derogate from the principles laid out in our constitution, the UN Charter, UDHR, and ICESCR. Any attempt like that should be protested and stopped

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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PAGE 14

Guilty as chargedThe concept of guilt initially grew as a component for social control, utilised for keeping the mass population in order. We can manage without it

Our expanding transport sector is and will remain the next major source of environmental pollution. It is high time that we look towards cleaner options for this sector

BIG

STO

CK

OPINION12DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

n Md Saimum Reza Talukder

When we were taught about human rights, we came to know about the “need-based approach,” the “charity-based

approach,” and the “rights-based approach.” All these three approaches are considered ways for a modern nation-state to secure the rights of its citizens. Now, the question is: Which approach should the state follow?

A need-based approach is a kind of tem-porary solution that is followed during an emergency, usually for a particular need. A charity-based approach is a kind of top-down approach, where people receive aid from a higher or in� uential authority or from a privi-leged section of society.

But the rights-based approach always says that the state shall respect and abide by the internationally settled norms and principles of human rights in each and every decision that the state makes. It is the people’s inher-ent and indivisible right to be protected by the state during times of peril. In this sense, the state cannot make such rules or regula-tions that hamper or curtail the enjoyment of these rights by its people.

Now, the � rst question is, as a state, is Bangladesh obliged to follow the rights-based approach in every aspect of its a� airs or not? And, secondly, is the right to education pro-tected and promoted by Bangladesh as one of the fundamental human rights?

According to the preamble of our con-stitution, it is declared that rule of law and fundamental human rights will be secured for all citizens. We also have declared in the preamble that it is our sacred duty “to make our full contribution towards international peace and co-operation in keeping with the progressive aspirations of mankind.”

In Article 11, it is said that the fundamen-tal human rights shall be guaranteed by the republic and it will be ensured in administra-

tion at all levels through e� ective participa-tion by the people through their elected rep-resentatives. And in Article 25, the republic con� rms that it will respect the international law and the principles enunciated in the United Nations Charter.

This means, being a signatory, Bangladesh is bound to respect and oblige by the interna-tionally settled norms and principles of hu-man rights according to Article 55 and 56 of the UN Charter. So, from our constitution and

the UN Charter, it is evident that Bangladesh is not only bound to respect the rights-based approach, but is also bound to promote and implement internationally settled principles and norms of human rights in every sphere of the state’s a� airs.

That is why the right to education under Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Hu-man Rights and Article 13 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) should be followed by the Bangladeshi government as well.

Unfortunately, according to our con-stitution, the right to education is neither considered a fundamental human right and nor does it have any judicial enforceability, resulting in us being unable to approach a regular court if our right to education is curtailed or if any decision is taken which is detrimental to the enjoyment of it.

Article 15 of our constitution puts it under “basic necessities” and the state will take e� ective measures to promote the educational needs of society under Article 17. But, according to Article 8 (1) of the constitution, these principles in Article 15 and 17 shall be applied by the state in the making of laws and shall be a guide to the interpretation of the constitution and of other laws.

Moreover, if we take the essence of the Masdar Hossain case, which was decided in 1999, the state cannot bypass the obligations to follow the fundamental principles of state policies that are enshrined in part II of the constitution. So, from the abovementioned national and international laws and princi-ples, education shall be considered a “human right,” not a commodity.

According to Section 41, 42, and 44 of the Private University Act, 2010, private universities cannot collect and spend any fund except to promote education, being non-pro� t entities. But, VAT is considered a form of consumption tax that is imposed on

commercial bodies. Now, can we say that the private universi-

ties are peddling a commodity? Is education a commodity, or is it a human right? If it is a human right, is it justi� able to levy a 7.5% VAT on private education? Does that decision comply with the national and international laws, norms, and principles?

The answer is a simple no. Our govern-ment should neither impose VAT on the right to education, nor should it derogate from the

principles laid out in our constitution, the UN Charter, UDHR, and ICESCR. Any attempt like that should be protested and stopped by citizens.

As a government that is failing constant-ly to provide free education to us, despite spending billions of dollars in the misguided policies, and fanciful projects, it should not interfere with any private initiative providing education.

The historic Mujibnagar Government of

1971 declared the Independence of Bangla-desh based on equality, human dignity, and social justice. Perhaps it is the legal version of our much debated “swadhinotar chetona.” But by imposing a 7.5% tax on our students, what kind of equality, human dignity, and justice will we achieve? l

Md Saimum Reza Talukder is a Lecturer, Department of Law, East West University, and an Advocate, Judge Court, Dhaka.

Tax and wane

Our government should neither impose VAT on the right to education, nor should it derogate from the principles laid out in our constitution, the UN Charter, UDHR, and ICESCR. Any attempt like that should be protested and stopped

Is a tax on education a violation of a basic human right?

VAT on private education is an undeserved punishment for students BIGSTOCK

OPINION 13D

TSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

n Rehan Kabir

Most of the ugliness of our current reality -- the aggressiveness, the threatening vibe, the hatred, the nervousness -- can be drawn

into a frame-work we can term the “guilt mechanism.”

We have each concocted our own form of hell from experiences of guilt or blame. The fall-out happened in the earliest stages of our lives when we got the message (usually from our guardians) that we were somehow insu� cient. This prompted our � rst awful thought, bringing about the terror that is guilt from which we’ve been running since that point onwards.

One cannot underestimate the depth of this blame. With respect to the child’s already guiltless universe, doing something terrible is identical to killing all that is holy. With the absence of how to dissipate this biting feeling of guilt, we inevitably entered the realm of everyday society which operates as a guilt projection frame-work for unprocessed, unresolved guilt.

How the mechanism functionsThis unprocessed, unresolved guilt is some-

thing that we have been burdened with since our adolescence.We deny it, hide it, sti� e it, and cast it on everyone else. We exist altogether in an ag-gressive, undermining world, yet we do not take responsibility for bettering it; it’s those other mongrels who are to be blamed for creating this “ugliness.”

With its tightening trepidation, unim-portance, and sti� ed � erceness, this “com-petitive society” has the ability to hurt us mentally, in the event that we place ourselves in this blame game. The burden of our own unresolved guilt makes us powerless against the frame-work; it creates a constricted antic-ipation of discipline, which turns us defen-sive, and in turn, easier to manipulate.

Society’s most well-known hobby is con-trasting itself with others in ways that make it appear to be great by correlation. This is only a frantic, unacceptable endeavour to adjust for our irksome feelings of inadequacy. This is taken advantage of by advertisers and publicists, who empower these endeavours, and guarantee ful� lment in purchasing their publicised items.

Consumerism, consequently, has a reason for keeping up this frame-work. Thus, our very distorted perception of beauty is generally aligned only with being fair-skinned.

We must acknowledge the existence of identity programming as a part of our lives, which pushes us towards deep-rooted hopelessness, yet it seems crazy to accept that an idea or activity could have such a hand in corrupting our consciousness. Indeed, anything other than the impression of our genuine unconditional innocence and superiority in our current state of awareness prompts madness.

Sadly, the socially-customised identity rejects this point of view as corrupt. It can’t

escape the assessment of its own blame; it judges the dismissal of blame as a de� nitive liable act.

The concept of guilt initially grew as a component for social control, utilised for keeping the mass population in order. We can manage without it. In any case, we can antic-ipate questions such as: In what capacity will individuals refrain from doing awful things in the event that they don’t feel remorseful? Guilt most likely never stopped anybody from doing awful things. Insight, empathy, and fair laws appear to be better applicants for that purpose.

That is not to say we should be callous and insensitive, but it is meant to be a push towards the road to prevent us from being blamed for everything, to undo the way society uses guilt, to help us awaken from our socially-modi� ed stupor, and to sense and experience the peaceful immunity of our innocence.

The work of innocenceAn approach to combat this guilt mechanism is to plainly quit projecting it. Most of us take potentially dangerous social indoctrination to varying extents, at times prompting shock-ing results and substantial psychological damage.Putting guilt on the individuals out there as the liable ones will just keep us oppressed. It is better to honestly unwind and uncover this broken social calibration.

So embedded is this mechanism of guilt, that it will take more than one snippet of rational soundness to � x its consequences. It will return, as will the projection of it. Yet, every instance of virtuousness facilitates the ine� ectiveness of the guilt mechanism, and lessens its ridiculous after-e� ects. l

Rehan Kabir works at the Dhaka Tribune.

Guilty as charged

The concept of guilt initially grew as a component for social control, utilised for keeping the mass population in order. We can manage without it

It’s time to stop playing the blame-game with yourself

Is guilt necessary to stop us from doing awful things? BIGSTOCK

OPINION14DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

n SA Mansoor

All of us are aware of environmental pollution. The biggest factor in this increasing pollution is carbon dioxide, which most living crea-

tures breathe out into the atmosphere. It is also produced when we burn solid, liquid, or gaseous fossil fuels.

This can come in the form of cooking at home, restaurants, or hotels. Furthermore, electro-mechanical power is invariably need-ed for all industries and for electric power generation in almost all conventional thermal power plants; except for U236-fueled atomic reactor-based power plants, where the fatal danger of leaking radiation is a continuously present hazard.

For these reasons, nuclear power plants are still few and far in between, even in tech-nologically advanced countries. In contrast, non-exothermic electric power generation, led by hydro-powered plants, are compara-tively fewer, and only where the terrain and the � ow of rivers and natural or dammed waterfalls permit its feasibility.

Nowadays, the sources of alternative power are expanding, with roof-mounted solar-voltaic panels becoming predominant. However, it will be many decades before there can be widespread commercial electric-ity available from this source.

In Bangladesh, except for the Kaptai Dam hydro-electric power plant, almost all our

industries and power plants use conventional fuel, which are either coal, furnace oil, or natural gas. To a very limited extent, we have now started using alternative sources like solar panels for residences, houses, and o� c-es, but even that is mostly as an alternative source of emergency, when the traditional power supply is disrupted.

We are now planning to go for a dangerous U236 fueled nuclear power plant. It is the most dangerous process for power genera-tion, where the uranium rods and the spent fuel rods, laced with unsafe and high levels of U236 radiation byproducts, the prime waste of a nuclear power reactor, can lead to wide-spread leakage of fatal radiation. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant catastrophe is still fresh in many of our memories.

To top it o� , we are getting it from Russia, who, till date, has the world’s worst record

for radiation leakage among countries that have nuclear power plants, in terms of number of deaths, injuries, and other forms of radiation sickness amongst future generations.

In our everyday life, at homes, o� ces, and in most industries, we regularly use con-ventional fuel as the major source of energy, and the resulting carbon dioxide is the major cause for environmental pollution. This we have unfortunately taken more or less for granted.

This is followed closely by the nationwide road, rail, and water transport sectors, which, in a decade or two, if we don’t stop the way it is going now, will lead to a major environ-mental crisis.

National safety should be a concern, and we should aim to avoid having such a potentially dangerous nuclear power plant.

If a nuclear power plant we must have, then we should go for the much safer U238 power plant, which is smaller in size (from 150 to 299MW). These are radiation safe, and are currently running in many countries.

Our expanding transport sector (land, wa-ter, and air) is and will remain the next major source of environmental pollution. It is high time that we look towards cleaner options for this sector.

Two interesting options are now being looked into in this respect for future mass transport in the USA. One is maglev (magnet-ic levitation) technology that is now being seriously studied. These are like conven-tional trains, except that they hover over the rails based on the principle of magnetic poles repelling each other. Only when it stops and the power is shut o� does it rest on the rails.

Some of these trains being tried out are running at over 250km/h, faster than the famed, super high-speed Hikari electric trains in Japan. Maglev trains can run at over 600km/h, which is nearly half the speed of many commercial aircrafts!

Another major concept, now under devel-opment, that could eliminate both track fric-tion and atmospheric air resistance, is called “Evacuation Tube Technology” or ETT. In the long run, this concept can be a tremendous breakthrough. It could run in tunnels under the sea, or on trans-Atlantic or trans-Paci� c routes.

Such trains could well achieve speeds of over 8,000km/h! Imagine a traveler going from Washington to Beijing in around two and a half hours. However, for this mode of transport, we need to use conventional electric power sources, located on land, to maintain the vacuum along the length of the tube in which these trains will run.

However, it is estimated that the power needed to create and maintain this vacu-um will hardly be 2% of the electric power needed to run a conventional electric train of similar load capacity and track length. The pollution emitted will even be lower than any passenger jet carrying the same number of people.

One can imagine the inside of an ETT as a luxurious passenger cabin, similar to the interior of a large inter-continental passenger jet, riding smoothly on frictionless “maglev” rails. This is not science � ction; it is based on observation and experimental results carried out on actual small-scale research models.

In reality, once maglev trains are oper-ating, it will be a safe way of traveling, but at far higher speeds and with lower gas emissions. The Hikari trains, introduced in Japan back in the 1960s, also faced scep-ticism at the time of its inception. Today, however, it is just another express train. It is run automatically, from a central computer set up in Tokyo that controls all the functions of the train.

Let us hope that technology such as the maglev becomes commonplace in the future, or else our country, and the world, will even-tually run out of places to go. l

SA Mansoor is an engineer with over 50 years of experience in chemical and other process industries.

Next stop: TomorrowWe need to � nd alternative sources of energy for public transport

Our expanding transport sector is and will remain the next major source of environmental pollution. It is high time that we look towards cleaner options for this sector

Technology such as the maglev train would be great for our burgeoning nation REUTERS

15D

TBusiness SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Disappointing business surveys intensify world growth fears

17Stock markets recover in past week

19Fed’s tightening cycle scenario involves risky bet on in� ation

16Online business process to be launched

20

ADB may provide $250m more to help continue capital market reforms n Kayes Sohel

Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expected to give $250 million more to help continue cap-ital market reforms of Bangladesh, o� cials said.

The proposed third capital market pro-gramme (CMDP-III) represents a continuation of previous works carried out.

“Negotiation for the fund is on and likely to be � nalised by next month,” said an o� cial of Economic Relations Division (ERD).

After the agreement for the CMDP-III, $80 million will be disbursed in the � rst install-ment and the remaining $170 million by De-cember 2017.

Reforms planned under CMDP-III include increased liquid benchmark issues through introduction of � oating rate notes, enhanced insurance industry participation in the capital

market by issuing of investment guidelines by the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority, improvements in the settlement and clearing system, as well as promotion of alternative � nancial instruments to develop a deeper and broader capital market, according to the ADB’s opinion.

ADB is set to continue its full support for ensuring a smooth transition in the develop-ment of capital markets reform process in line with the capital markets master plan and CM-DP-II reforms.

Further structuring of the capital markets will require continuation of the technical approach adopted under CMDP-II and close collaboration with the coalition of stakehold-ers to crucially maintain the momentum of reforms.

Reform initiatives under CMDP-II under which ADB provided $300 million were suc-

cessfully implemented and completed by the end of 2014.

Demutualisation of the stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong was one of the achieve-ments of reform initiatives.

Other achievements include amendment to the SEC Act in November 2012 that paved the way for BSEC to have unhindered access to its own BSEC Fund, operationalisation of a re-al-time market surveillance system that helps BSEC to detect trading irregularities and en-hancement of BSEC’s enforcement capacity

through creation of a capital market tribunal in January 2014 that can expedite resolution of security cases pending in Bangladesh’s court system.

The capital market in Bangladesh has had its share of stock market booms and busts. Following a bull run in 2010, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) crashed in December 2010, and by March 2011, the index had fallen by half from its all-time high, wiping out large share value gains.

“The crash resulted in bankruptcies, loss of employment and disruption to the econ-omy. It also underscored the vulnerability of Bangladesh’s capital markets and con� rmed the pressing need for reforms,” said the ADB.

The government embarked on a pro-gramme of meaningful reforms and was part-nered by the ADB under the CMDP-II in No-vember 2012. l

Negotiations for new ECF fund likely in Octobern Asif Showkat Kallol

Bangladesh is likely to start negotiations with International Monetary Fund in October for a fresh $1bn loan under Extended Credit Facili-ty, said o� cial sources.

Economic Relations Division sent a letter to Finance Division last week requesting to prepare a proposal for the interest-free credit.

The negations are likely to be held at the next World Bank-IMF yearly board meeting on October 9-11 in Peruvian capital Lima.

A copy of the letter has also been dispatched to Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman.

Finance division sources said the govern-ment wants to get continued support from the donors and lenders in the current “cloudy political situa-tion” of the country.

However, the government still fails to ful� ll two major conditions under the existing ECF programme.

O� cials said the lender could ask the government to implement the national budget announcements as conditions to get the new ECF fund.

They believe that if the IMF comes up with another ECF loan, other donors will feel en-

couraged to give loans to Bangladesh, which will help the Awami League government to show that it has international supports.

Early this month, the IMF extended the tenure of the ECF programme by three months to give the government su� cient time to meet the unrealised conditions for release of the last two instalments of the $1bn-loan.

The government will have to ful� ll the con-ditions by October 31 for release of the remain-ing two instalments, amounting to $280m.

The multilateral lender deferred the sixth tranche of the seven-part instalments for the $1bn loan in November last year after the gov-ernment failed to meet two pertinent condi-tions. l

RMG makers to leave for Gujarat todayn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

A team of Bangladesh’s RMG manufacturers will leave Dhaka today for India’s western-most state of Gujarat to see the prospect of setting up a warehouse for grabbing the local market there.

During the visit, a � ve-member delegation, led by Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) President Matlub Ahmad, will try to know about the possible challenges and prospects of setting up a warehouse and distribution center there.

Among others, the delegation includes BG-MEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim.

During a meeting with Indian Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi’s visit on June 7, the BG-MEA President informally sought a 50-acre land in India for a warehouse and a distribu-tion centre.

In response, PM Modi gave an assurance of considering the proposal and invited a busi-ness delegation to visit India.

“We’re going to visit India to discuss the business plan and see the location of the pro-posed site to get � rst-hand experience,” BG-MEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Azim said: “We’ll hold several meetings with the authorities concerned to know more about the Foreign Direct Investment Policy of

India, the legal aspects for securing proposed land and its cost, availability of power and energy connection and cost, workers’ wage structures and labour rights situation.”

“We will also try to gather information about Indian custom duty, income tax, mu-nicipals taxes,” said Azim.

With the � rst hand experience after the visit, a feasibility report on the business pro-posal will be � nalized for further action.

Azim also stated that if the � ndings found positive prospects in India, a company would be formed comprising the garment and the textile sector people for exporting products to India, as BGMEA or BKMEA cannot run any business.

On June 14, the BGMEA submitted a formal proposal to the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pankaj Saran to convey the message to the Indian authorities concerned.

According to the proposal, the land will be procured in the name of the company to be formed by BGMEA, BKMEA and others.

The trade bodies will make an investment of approximately US$25m to set up the ware-house and distribution centre.

The apparel makers will open 1,000 retail stores in di� erent Indian cities to display and sell out their products to earn a sum of $1b in the next few years, reads the BGMEA proposal. l

‘Negotiation for the fund is on and likely to be � nalised by next month’

BUSINESS16DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

CORPORATE NEWS

MasterCard in association with BRAC Bank has recently announced the winners of its unique ‘Card-Start-Go!’ campaign for its debit cardholders. The campaign was designed to encourage cardholders to use their debit cards for payment-related purposes instead of using them only as an ATM card. Syed Mohammad Kamal, country manager from MasterCard and Firoz Ahmed Khan, head of retail banking from BRAC Bank were present on the event

Fed’s tightening cycle scenario involves risky bet on in� ationn Reuters, Washington

Federal Reserve o� cials planning to lift in-terest rates as soon as September have been encouraged by solid US jobs growth, but in� a-tion holds the key to how far the Fed can go in moving rates away from zero.

Fed o� cials have said that they do not need to see prices accelerate to start raising rates after six years near zero, and “lift-o� ” appears nearly ordained by a 5.3% unemploy-ment rate, the lowest since April of 2008.

But it would be a leap of faith to move any further without proof that prices are on the rise, say current and former o� cials familiar with the central bank’s debate and the current state of in� ation research.

If prices remain stalled as the Fed tightens, in� ation-adjusted “real” rates would rise fast-er than the Fed wants, and threaten the recov-ery. Given the uncertainty among economists about how in� ation works in the post-crisis world, it may be risky to assume higher prices will necessarily follow a tightening job mar-ket. (For graphic, click here)

“There is a big component of in� ation that is just going to be idiosyncratic and unex-plained,” leaving policymakers to take their best guess about it, said former Fed research director David Stockton.

He said that after an initial rate increase, Fed Chair Janet Yellen would lead her colleagues on a “cold, dispassionate examination” of what the in� ation data are actually showing.

“If in� ation is not moving back to target ... then she can argue for a go-slow approach.”

New dynamicsIn� ation will be the key topic at the Fed’s an-nual Jackson Hole economic conference on Aug. 27-29 and the gathering is likely to high-light how little policymakers and economists feel they understand about the behavior of something so central to monetary policy.

In� ation did not fall as much as expected

during the 2007-2009 recession, it has not risen as much as expected during the recovery, and there is suspicion it may remain hard to budge, said Michael Owyang, an assistant vice presi-dent at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank.

“There has been a lot of new research. Volumes of new research. And I am not sure there is a consensus about how policy a� ects in� ation at the zero lower bound,” Owyang said, referring to the fact that the Fed’s bench-mark has been held near zero since late 2008. “In� ation dynamics have changed.”

The rest of the world is not helping. A weak global economy has depressed world com-modity prices. The prospect of the Fed raising rates has boosted the dollar, further under-cutting in� ation through lower import prices.

That has confounded the Fed’s forecasts for a year now, and according to minutes of its July meeting remains a central concern - and one of the risks that could delay an initial rate hike

beyond the Sept. 16-17 policy meeting. After the minutes laid out the internal debate about in� ation, investors cut their expectations for a September “lifto� ” in favor of December.

The Fed, keen to move away from zero and create some policy wiggle room, may still move. But at some point it needs in� ation to do so as well.

Thin cushionPart of the logic of the Fed’s 2% in� ation target is to allow the central bank to lift its benchmark rate and build a cushion for monetary policy to respond to any new economic threat without letting in� ation-adjusted rates go up too much. The Fed’s estimated “neutral” federal funds rate of around 3.75% is premised on in� ation rising to target, and unless it does the tighten-ing cycle will have to go slow, or stop altogether.

“Seeing in� ation converge ... will clearly be an important signpost for us as we are looking

at decisions to be made post-lifto� ,” said At-lanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart.

The Fed’s latest forecasts see in� ation hitting the 2% goal in 2017, and interests rates reaching a neutral level sometime in the next year.

In� ation was a mere 0.3% in the second quarter, and even the Fed’s preferred gauge, that excludes volatile food and energy prices, stands at 1.3% and has been falling since 2013.

Recent research shows how much the in-� ation landscape has changed. Falling unem-ployment and consequent wage increases, for example, no longer drive near-term in� ation as they did in the 1960 and 1970s, according to research at the Fed’s Washington-based board. That possibly re� ects labor’s declining share in the value of goods, or the fact that a tightening labor market no longer translates dependably into signi� cant wage increases.

Studies also show a break between the unemployment rate and short-term in� ation some time in the 1990s, with price increases � attening out and impervious to � uctuations in the employment level.

Consumer and business expectations, meanwhile, are thought to play a larger role.

Since 2007, a series of shocks have also weighed on prices, beginning with the US � nancial crisis, followed by the euro zone’s debt troubles, China’s economic slowdown, a world commodity rout and households’ ef-forts to reduce debt and save more.

The success of Yellen’s tenure may hinge on whether she and other Fed o� cials are correct in their view that all of this will prove temporary, that the US economy is more “nor-mal” than it might seem - and that tight labor markets will ultimately spark price increases.

The conviction is rooted in the decades-old, mainstay theory that there is an inverse “Phil-lips curve” relationship between unemploy-ment and in� ation. The relationship seems to have weakened over the years, and some argue Yellen should seek more proof about in� ation - or risk a potential policy mistake. l

The sun rises to the east of the US Federal Reserve building in Washington REUTERS

Dollar drops as China’s economic woes spook investorsn AFP, New York

The dollar fell against other major currencies Friday as weak Chinese data stoked fresh jitters about the slowdown in the world’s second-larg-est economy and its impact on global growth.

“A hazy outlook for US interest rates and persistent concerns about the shape of the world economy continued to weigh on Amer-ica’s currency,” said Joe Manimbo of Western Union Business Solutions.

The greenback was on the defensive amid a global equity sello� after a Chinese manu-facturing report showed activity contracted the most since the 2009 � nancial crisis.

The rout on Wall Street was severe: the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 3.1% to a 10-month low, entering correction territory with a loss of more than 10% since its peak in mid-May. The dollar, typically a safe-haven currency in times of uncertainty,

remained under pressure after Federal Re-serve minutes released Wednesday seemed to lower the likelihood the Fed will raise near-zero interest rates as early as September.

“It used to be that in times of trouble, the US dollar reigned supreme,” said Kit Juckes of Societe Generale in a client note.

The dollar fell 1.3% against the euro, at $1.1386, and 1.1% against the yen, at 122.06 yen, compared with late Thursday.

Juckes said the pattern this week has been for the dollar to drift lower against the euro and yen, and soar against a range of emerging market currencies.

“It’s a pattern that is unlikely to change much unless or until better US data give the dollar a lift and change the debate about Fed policy, or better Chinese data change the de-bate about PBoC (People’s Bank of China) policy and the outlook for emerging market assets and commodities,” he said. l

BUSINESS 17D

TSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Disappointing business surveys intensify world growth fearsn Reuters, London

Signs China’s economic slowdown is deep-ening and weak growth in Europe and the US reported on Friday further damaged the out-look for the global economy, sending stocks and commodity prices reeling.

China’s factory sector shrank at its fastest rate in almost 6-1/2-years in August, a private survey showed, pushing investors who fear China’s sagging economy will translate into slower global economic growth to take refuge in gold and bonds.

World markets had already been on edge after China’s surprise devaluation of the yuan last week and a 33% fall in its stock markets since mid-year.

“Uncertainty about China growth is now the main swing factor in markets,” said Tim Con-don, an economist at ING Group in Singapore.

“Today’s data reinforced the doubts about global growth.”

The preliminary Caixin/Markit China Man-ufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 47.1 in August, well below a Reuters poll median of 47.7 and down from July’s � nal 47.8.

It was the worst reading since March 2009, in the depths of the global � nancial crisis, and the sixth straight one below the 50-point lev-el, which separates growth in activity from contraction on a monthly basis.

The downdraft from China is particularly rattling economies of its trade-reliant Asian neighbours.

South Korea, which counts China as its big-gest trading partner, said on Friday its exports slumped and Taiwan reported on Thursday its export orders in July fell more than expected.

And while a similar factory survey in Ja-

pan pointed to a pick-up there due to stronger domestic demand, policymakers in Tokyo are keenly aware of the dangers if China slows further.

Following three decades of fast economic growth, Chinese authorities have had limited success in shoring up activity this year de-spite four interest rates cuts since November.

Last week’s shock 2 percent devaluation in the yuan and a slump in Chinese shares over the summer have unnerved investors further.

The yuan has slid nearly 3 percent since its Aug. 11 devaluation, a fall some analysts say is too modest to boost Chinese exports but no-table enough to raise fears of competitive cur-rency devaluations between governments.

The speed with which China’s economy is losing steam has led to analysts warning the government may struggle to meet its growth target of 7% this year if it doesn’t ratchet up policy support. China’s factory output, retail sales and investment all disappointed in July.

“While we do not have enough informa-tion to assess all the details of o� cial releas-es, we share the view that real GDP growth probably slowed more than reported in recent quarters,” said Wei Yao at Societe Generale.

Stock markets around the world tumbled towards their worst week of the year on Fri-day as the weak Chinese data sent investors scurrying to safe-haven assets.

Eurozone activity edges up, worries lingerA relatively upbeat euro zone survey, one of the bloc’s earliest monthly economic indica-tors, suggested the European Central Bank’s massive bond-buying programme and a weaker euro may be � nally having an impact on activity.

Markit’s Composite Flash PMI, rose to 54.1

this month from July’s 53.9, confounding expec-tations in a Reuters poll for a modest dip to 53.8.

The headline index has been above 50 since mid-2013 and Markit said the PMI sug-gested third-quarter GDP growth of 0.4%, matching the prediction in a Reuters poll last week.

“It points to weak growth that will do little to erode the spare capacity in the region,” said Jennifer McKeown at Capital Economics.

“We still see euro zone growth slowing in the coming months as earlier boosts from fall-ing in� ation and the euro’s depreciation fade, particularly if renewed uncertainty surround-ing the Greek election damages con� dence.”

Adding to uncertainty for investors follow-ing a brief period of relief after Athens avoid-ed default and signed a third bailout to stay in the euro zone, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on Thursday.

Us factory activity slowsGrowth in the US manufacturing sector slowed unexpectedly to its weakest pace in al-most two years in August, according to Markit.

The preliminary US Manufacturing PMI fell to 52.9 in August, its lowest since October 2013, from a � nal July reading of 53.8. Econ-omists polled by Reuters forecast an August reading of 54.

Job creation also slowed, with the index at 52.2, its weakest since July 2014, down from 53.8 in July.

“August’s survey highlights a lack of growth momentum and continued weak price pressures across the US manufacturing sector, which adds some fuel to the dovish ar-gument as policymakers weigh up tightening policy in September,” said Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit. l

A laborer works at a construction site of an amusement park next to new property buildings in Hefei, Anhui province REUTERS

Global stocks plummet on fears over world economyn AFP, New York

World stock markets were hammered with heavy losses on Friday, as China’s economic woes triggered European and Wall Street equity sell-o� s and stirred up fears for global growth.

Losses of more than 3% on Wall Street capped the day of market carnage, which be-gan with a 4.27% drop in Shanghai after an-other unnerving sign of slowdown in China’s manufacturing sector.

It capped the Shanghai exchange’s worst week since 2011, losing 11.5%.

Among leading indices, Tokyo shares lost 2.98%; Hong Kong 1.53%; London’s bench-mark FTSE 100 2.83%; the CAC 40 in Paris 3.19%; and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 2.95%.

The three key US indices were, after two days of heavy selling, all below where they started 2015, after repeatedly punching through record highs during the past eight months.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Aver-age gave up 3.12% for the day and was down 5.82% for the week. The S&P 500 shed 3.19% in the session and 5.77% for the week - a loss representing some $1.14tn in share value. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fared worse, losing 3.52% and 6.78% in the week.

Among other key markets, Singapore and Sydney dropped 1.3%; Johannesburg 1.47%, and Brazil’s Ibovespa 1.99%.

The spark to the sello� was weak Chinese manufacturing data: Caixin’s purchasing man-agers’ index came in at 47.1 this month - be-low 50 means contraction - falling from 47.8 in July and the worst reading in over six years.

But behind that were the signs that Beijing is struggling to prevent a stall in the world’s second-largest economy, and that its actions - like the devaluation of the yuan last week - was having a negative impact throughout emerging markets and would drag in devel-oped economies as well.

“China’s currency devaluation is at the heart of the rout in global markets,” said Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The e� ect of the downturn in China could be seen in the hit on speci� c US blue-chip stocks with large China business: Apple lost 6.12% on Friday; General Motors slid 4%; and Boeing lost 3.88%.

Meanwhile oil prices slid to six-year lows during trade Friday in part on big importer China’s weakness, the impact spilling over to the shares of oil industry businesses.

“We have a challenging economic situation in China, which has now taken the extreme step of devaluing its currency to support its econ-omy. That weakness is ricocheting through emerging markets and the global industrial sector,” said Lisa Emsbo-Mattingly, director of asset allocation at Fidelity, in a client note.

‘Catching falling knives’ “With more Chinese-led carnage on the mar-kets today, only the very brave are venturing into equities as buying stocks is currently like catching falling knives,” said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at stockbroker Interactive Investor.

In New York, some analysts called the fall a long-needed correction in shares whose val-uations - especially for tech companies - were pushed too far helped by the continued supply of cheap money from the leading central banks in Tokyo, Beijing, Frankfurt and Washington. l

BUSINESS18DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 1452.32 7.18 60.38 4.04 1512.70 6.97NBFI 679.52 3.36 54.85 3.67 734.36 3.38Investment 182.99 0.91 7.57 0.51 190.55 0.88Engineering 3114.58 15.41 305.41 20.44 3419.99 15.75Food & Allied 619.04 3.06 24.97 1.67 644.01 2.97Fuel & Power 3829.15 18.94 272.88 18.26 4102.03 18.89Jute 14.16 0.07 0.00 0.00 14.16 0.07Textile 1123.61 5.56 87.22 5.84 1210.83 5.58Pharma & Chemical 3969.17 19.63 185.68 12.43 4154.84 19.14Paper & Packaging 57.08 0.28 6.03 0.40 63.10 0.29Service 315.75 1.56 19.75 1.32 335.50 1.55Leather 113.74 0.56 3.85 0.26 117.59 0.54Ceramic 657.57 3.25 26.16 1.75 683.73 3.15Cement 1642.21 8.12 185.05 12.38 1827.26 8.42Information Technology 153.19 0.76 11.26 0.75 164.46 0.76General Insurance 131.23 0.65 4.70 0.31 135.93 0.63Life Insurance 186.22 0.92 13.46 0.90 199.69 0.92Telecom 900.81 4.46 92.33 6.18 993.14 4.57Travel & Leisure 406.46 2.01 56.52 3.78 462.99 2.13Miscellaneous 667.04 3.30 76.19 5.10 743.24 3.42Debenture 2.05 0.01 0.08 0.01 2.13 0.01

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

News, analysis and recent disclosuresAGM/DividendGREENDELMF: 4.50% Cash Dividend. Record date: 06.09.2015. EPU= Tk. 0.49.ABB1STMF: EPU= Tk. 1.67. 15% Unit Dividend. Record date: 07.09.2015.EBLNRBMF: EPU= Tk. 0.43. 6% Unit Dividend. Record date: 07.09.2015.PHPMF1: EPU= Tk. 0.68. 7.50% Unit Dividend Record date: 07.09.2015.POPULAR1MF: EPU= Tk. 0.86. 12% Unit Dividend. Record date: 07.09.2015.FBFIF: EPU= Tk. 0.89, 9% Unit dividend. Record date: 03.09.2015.TRUSTB1MF: EPU= Tk. 0.75, 8% Unit dividend. Record date: 03.09.2015.EBL1STMF: EPU=Tk. 0.66, 7% Unit Dividend Record date: 03.09.2015.EXIM1STMF: EPU=Tk. 0.79, 8% Unit Dividend. Record date: 03.09.2015.IFIC1STMF: EPU= Tk. 0.99, 10% Unit dividend. Record date: 03.09.20151JANATAMF: EPU=Tk. 1.04, 12% Unit dividend. Record date: 03.09.2015RELIANCE1: EPU= Tk. 1.10. 11% cash dividend. Record date: 06.09.2015.AIMS1STMF: EPU= Tk. 2.24. 175% Unit Dividend. Record date: 07.09.2015DBH1STMF: EPU= Tk. 0.45. 4% Cash Dividend. Record date: 06.09.2015.APEXTANRY: The Board of Di-rectors has recommended 45% cash dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2015. Date of AGM:

04.10.2015, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: Spectra Convention Cen-tre Ltd., House # 19, Road # 7, Gulshan # 1, Dhaka-1212. Record date: 09.09.2015. The Company has also reported EPS without fair valuation surplus of Tk. 6.25, NAV per share of Tk. 73.48 and NOCFPS of Tk. 6.05 for the year ended on June 30, 2015.GRAMEENS2: The Trustee Committee of the Fund decided to distribute 10% cash dividend and taking into consideration available fund from distrib-utable reserves, the Trustee Committee approved 15% Dividend on the Capital Fund of Tk. 1,581,250,000.00 in the form of Re-Investment units to be issued at a valuation based on last published NAV per unit before Record date. Record date: 07.09.2015. The Trustee Committee of the Fund has ap-proved the audited accounts of the fund for the year ended on 30.06.15. The Fund has reported net pro� t of Tk. 184,780,779.00 with earnings per unit of Tk. 1.17.GRAMEEN1: The Trustee Committee of the Fund has approved the audited accounts of the fund for the year ended on 30.06.15. The Fund has reported net pro� t of Tk. 57,803,374.00 with earnings per unit of Tk. 1.74. Taking into consideration available fund from pro� t & distributable reserves, the Trustee Committee approved 82% Div-idend on the Capital Fund of Tk. 3,31,500,000.00 in the form of Re-Investment units to be issued at a valuation based on last pub-lished NAV per unit before Record date. Record date: 07.09.15.

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Apex Foods -A 28.11 26.26 172.43 175.00 187.00 138.60 2.149 0.36 479.0Apex Tannery -A 21.13 22.53 163.22 161.10 175.00 123.00 38.122 6.25 26.1Monno Ceramic -B 20.94 17.52 42.66 43.90 44.00 35.60 0.672 0.16 266.6Apex SpinningA 20.41 21.37 90.53 89.10 92.50 74.10 2.504 2.52 35.9IFIC Bank - A 18.14 14.91 23.59 24.10 24.70 20.50 24.959 3.36 7.0People`s Leasing-A 12.84 12.74 16.72 16.70 17.00 14.70 36.900 0.20 83.6Pubali Bank - A 11.59 10.17 22.86 23.10 23.50 20.50 2.487 2.84 8.0Prime Textile -A 11.11 10.30 21.41 21.00 23.00 19.00 8.272 0.99 21.6Zahintex Ind.-N 10.73 9.75 22.52 22.70 22.80 19.80 4.678 1.03 21.9 ICB -A 10.30 9.87 146.14 145.60 148.00 135.00 6.513 3.49 41.9

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Apex Foods -A 28.84 26.23 173.23 173.80 186.00 137.00 214.585 0.36 481.2Northern Jute -Z 27.08 29.18 361.12 352.90 385.00 280.00 21.517 1.75 206.4Apex Tannery -A 20.42 22.29 164.31 161.60 173.00 129.50 718.766 6.25 26.3Monno Ceramic -B 19.10 19.98 42.81 42.40 44.50 35.00 32.338 0.16 267.6BD. Autocars -Z 18.75 23.96 29.59 28.50 29.90 23.50 5.364 0.19 155.7IFIC Bank - A 18.63 14.73 23.68 24.20 24.70 18.60 402.843 3.36 7.0Apex SpinningA 16.58 20.94 91.55 87.20 97.00 74.90 101.112 2.52 36.31st ICB M F -A 15.68 15.41 1,661.96 1,665.80 1,667.90 1,400.00 6.598 142.00 11.7People`s Leasing-A 14.97 14.81 16.90 16.90 17.20 14.60 298.897 0.20 84.5Pubali Bank - A 12.38 11.02 23.47 23.60 24.10 20.60 40.788 2.84 8.3

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

8th ICB M F-A -20.21 -20.32 60.00 60.00 72.00 60.00 0.074 17.26 3.56th ICB M F-A -14.26 -13.76 57.72 57.70 60.30 57.70 0.029 13.93 4.1EBL First M F-A -11.11 -10.78 4.80 4.80 5.00 4.80 0.935 0.66 7.3Trust Bank 1st MF-A -10.91 -13.22 4.79 4.90 5.20 4.70 1.258 0.75 6.4AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A -10.00 -8.20 4.59 4.50 4.90 4.50 0.167 4.76 1.07th ICB M F-A -9.91 -9.91 99.10 99.10 99.20 99.00 0.040 20.76 4.81st Janata Bank MF-A -9.43 -7.21 4.89 4.80 5.50 4.80 0.734 1.04 4.7Zaheen Spinning -N -9.25 -6.43 28.22 26.50 28.70 26.50 1.048 1.92 14.7Navana CNG-A -9.12 -8.13 55.25 54.80 60.50 54.00 14.691 3.28 16.8Pioneer Insur -A -8.81 -5.29 32.06 32.10 32.20 32.00 0.051 3.44 9.3

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Trust Bank 1st MF-A -12.50 -12.70 4.88 4.90 5.50 4.80 26.239 0.75 6.5EBL NRB M.F.-A -12.50 -11.39 4.20 4.20 4.80 4.10 0.398 0.43 9.8EBL First M F-A -9.26 -7.71 4.91 4.90 5.30 4.80 8.374 0.66 7.4Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A -8.50 -7.26 14.05 14.00 15.50 13.90 518.829 2.44 5.8Navana CNG-A -8.36 -8.17 55.08 54.80 59.90 54.30 110.719 3.28 16.8Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z -8.22 -4.56 6.70 6.70 7.20 6.50 0.008 -45.17 -vePHP 1st M. F.-A -8.16 -7.02 4.50 4.50 4.90 4.40 10.517 0.68 6.6LR Global BD MF1-A -8.16 -7.45 4.47 4.50 4.80 4.40 7.114 0.40 11.27th ICB M F-A -8.15 -2.00 98.00 98.00 99.90 96.10 0.213 20.76 4.7AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A -8.00 -7.54 4.66 4.60 5.20 4.60 6.926 4.76 1.0

DSE key features August 16-20, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

28,196.27

Turnover (Volume)

722,098,011

Number of Contract

641,265

Traded Issues 324

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

134

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

189

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

1

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,711.76

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.87

CSE key features August 16-20, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

2,618.82

Turnover (Volume)

60,030,810

Number of Contract

87,529

Traded Issues 281

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

109

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

169

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,616.47

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.71

BUSINESS 19D

TSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Stock markets recover in past weekn Tribune Report

Stock markets recovered some points in the past week after witnessing prof-it-booking fall in the past two weeks.

During the week that end-ed Thursday, the benchmark of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, rose over 31 points or 0.7% to 4,840.

The blue-chip comprising index, DS30, shed 8 points or 0.5% to 1,850.

The DSE Shariah Index, DSES, witnessed a fraction-al rise of 0.07 points to end 1,191.

The Chittagong Stock Ex-change (CSE) Selective Cat-egories Index, CSCX, fell 27 points or 0.3% to 9,027.

Cautious trading over the persisting market volatility has pushed down the turn-over.

The week’s daily average turnover was Tk564 crore, down 9% over the previous week’s average of Tk620 crore.

Engineering, pharmaceu-ticals and power stocks were the most traded stocks, ac-counting for 18%, 16% and 14% respectively of the week’s total turnover.

IDLC Investments said after last week’s consolida-tion, which was extended

for � rst two sessions, the market tried to turn around, riding on some of the inves-tors’ expectation that the consolidation is complete for now.

It said the market ob-served powerful actions from both buyers and sellers, trying to take the lead of the market. On a net basis, the buyers took the baton, it said.

Lanka Bangla Securities, a leading stockbroker, said the market closed the week in green zone with a mild gain, as investors continued their cautious trading be-havior.

Non-banking � nancial institutions were the week’s best performer gaining over 5% while the cement sector was the worst loser with more than 3.2% losses.

Banks came to spotlight during the week on the news that their asset quality in second quarter improved. The sector advanced 3.2%, followed by pharmaceuti-cals 0.8%.

T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n closed the week 0.8% lower. Food and allied lost margin-ally.

Losers outpaced gainers as out of 324 issues traded, 171 declined, 133 advanced and 20 remained unchanged on the DSE. l

The market closed the week in green zone with a mild gain, as investors continued their cautious trading behavior

ANALYST

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4840.15900 (+) 0.65% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1850.94740 (-) 0.45% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14824.3495 (+) 0.29% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12515.4565 (+) 0.84% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 9027.4491 (+) 0.30% ▲

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Marico BD Ltd-A 333,486 480.66 18.35 1470.00 1.99 1441.30 1480.00 1400.00 1441.30United Power-N 832,511 133.23 5.09 157.20 -2.60 161.40 164.00 156.80 157.64BATBCL -A 35,002 103.26 3.94 3000.00 -1.64 3050.00 3000.0 3000.0 2950.00LafargeS Cement-A 793,065 92.61 3.54 115.90 -4.21 121.00 121.00 113.50 115.10Islami Bank BD - A 2,302,374 70.38 2.69 30.20 0.67 30.00 31.60 29.70 30.21Shahjibazar Power-N 357,171 69.64 2.66 194.80 3.34 188.50 202.00 187.40 193.35BSRM Ltd. -A 559,885 66.21 2.53 120.60 2.20 118.00 123.80 112.20 118.18Olympic Accessories -N 1,033,716 63.92 2.44 60.60 -0.33 60.80 63.80 60.30 60.79Square Pharma -A 260,937 62.75 2.40 247.00 -7.80 267.90 248.70 234.60 246.59BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 1,895,194 60.47 2.31 31.90 -2.45 32.70 33.20 31.00 32.28UNITED AIR-A 5,178,622 54.86 2.09 10.60 -1.85 10.80 10.80 10.40 10.59Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 3,357,966 48.66 1.86 14.00 -7.89 15.20 15.30 13.90 14.06Ratanpur Steel -N 698,455 47.63 1.82 67.00 4.52 64.10 70.60 64.00 67.61Central Pharm-A 1,247,295 38.31 1.46 30.90 6.92 28.90 32.00 29.00 31.26Apex Tannery -A 242,550 38.12 1.46 161.10 21.13 133.00 175.00 123.00 163.22

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Square Pharma -A 5,178,725 1246.27 4.42 247.20 -7.76 268.00 249.00 234.20 247.06Islami Bank BD - A 35,306,155 1080.97 3.83 30.40 1.33 30.00 31.50 29.50 30.36Shahjibazar Power-N 4,958,800 966.82 3.43 194.20 3.24 188.10 203.00 186.30 194.52Ratanpur Steel -N 13,203,900 899.96 3.19 67.10 4.68 64.10 70.70 63.90 67.70LafargeS Cement-A 7,067,132 827.29 2.93 116.30 -4.04 121.20 121.60 113.60 115.16United Power-N 4,929,806 789.14 2.80 157.50 -2.54 161.60 164.80 156.60 157.84Apex Tannery -A 4,603,254 718.77 2.55 161.60 20.42 134.20 173.00 129.50 164.31Central Pharm-A 18,930,715 582.94 2.07 30.90 6.92 28.90 32.30 28.90 31.32FAR Chemical-N 10,032,866 559.83 1.99 55.40 -1.25 56.10 58.30 53.60 55.93Familytex (BD) Ltd.-A 35,786,115 518.83 1.84 14.00 -8.50 15.30 15.50 13.90 14.05BSRM Ltd. -A 4,030,331 477.35 1.69 120.80 3.16 117.10 124.00 112.50 118.80Al-Haj Textile -A 3,368,417 456.47 1.62 137.90 5.75 130.40 147.00 125.00 135.36Grameenphone-A 1,325,777 416.03 1.48 314.40 -0.66 316.50 320.00 309.00 313.86Bengal Windsor-A 5,167,613 411.38 1.46 76.40 -7.28 82.40 82.80 75.50 77.35IFIC Bank - A 17,648,985 402.84 1.43 24.20 18.63 20.40 24.70 18.60 23.68Ifad Autos -N 5,696,805 669.83 1.79 114.30 1.06 113.10 124.50 110.10 116.84

BUSINESS20DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Online business process to be launchedn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

Businesses are likely to get the privilege of do-ing any business procedures sitting at home as the government has agreed to establish the National Single Window (NSW) in the country.

Once the NSW – the virtual platform is established, it is expected to improve trade facilitation and reduce the cost of doing busi-ness since everything will be done online con-necting di� erent government entities.

The system will enhance trading opera-tions by eliminating paper works and reduc-ing timescales through keeping the informa-tion up-to-date.

At an inter-ministerial meeting in early July, stakeholders, including representatives from NBR, the Ministries of Commerce, Fi-nance, Information and Communication Technology, Federation of Bangladesh Cham-bers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and the World Bank (WB) agreed to establish NSW, recommended by the World Bank.

The NSW would be established under the Re-gional Connectivity Project of the World Bank.

The customs wing of National Board of Revenue (NBR) will act as the lead agency for setting up the NSW, o� cials said, adding that the customs will provide services to inves-tors, entrepreneurs, exporters and importers in the NSW.

NSW is a facility that allow parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single en-try point to ful� ll all import, export, and tran-sit-related regulatory requirements.

The virtual platform technology simpli� es trade, saves time and money and increases e� ciency by submitting export, import doc-umentation and transit-related regulatory re-quirements through one electronic portal, al-lowing agencies to easily access information.

The NSW will be linked with customs of NBR, Bangladesh Bank, O� ce of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, banks, Board of Investment and other service-pro-viding agencies.

The government will also form a National Council for Trade and Transport Facilitation under the Cabinet Committee on Economic Af-fairs to coordinate among stakeholders in deal-ing with di� erent issues on trade and transport.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Director Abdul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune the establish-ment of NSW is a good decision if considered from an ideal perspective.

“Now, we have to go through many places to complete a customs procedure, but once the NSW is established, it will facilitate trade largely as businesses can complete customs and other procedures through one single plat-

form,” he said.The businessmen, however, said the gov-

ernment has to be aware and conscious to im-plement the plan properly.

“Earlier, the Board of Investment intro-duced one stop service, but it did not work out properly, neither did it help businesses. So, the government and implementing agen-cies have to be aware about implementation of NSW e� ectively,” he added. l

5-day international clothing expo begins August 26 n Tribune Report

A � ve-day international exhibition of branded clothing and fashion products will begin from August 26 at a city hotel.

Over 45 companies from home and abroad are going to participate in the exhibition titled “5th Bangladesh Fashion Carnival 2015’.

Redcarpet365 Ltd & Freelancerz, an event management � rm, is going to organise the event with the theme ‘Do Your Eid Shopping with Us.’

This expo will remain open for common and trade visitors from August 6 to 30 (10am to 9.30pm) at Emmanuell’s Banquet Hall at Gulshan-1 in the city.

“We’re expecting a good number of visi-tors from the entire South Asia in the fashion carnival,” said Ahmed Imtiaz, chief executive o� cer of Redcarpet365 Ltd.

A wide range of quality products will be put on display in the fashion carnival, he added.

The products include clothing (women), Sa-rees, fashion wear, home textile, Kurtas, Origi-nal Lawns, premium clothing, salwar-kameez, 3-pieces, shawals, beauty aids, beauty prod-ucts and equipment, fashion house, gift and novelty items and other services. l

Bangladesh to sign development cooperation deal with Swedenn Asif Showkat Kallol

Bangladesh is going to sign a development cooperation agreement with Swedish Inter-national Development Agency (SIDA) to im-prove human rights, democracy, rule of law and independence of judiciary in the country.

Under the deal, SIDA will give Bangladesh 1.6bn Swedish krona ( $213m) during a six-year period till 2020 to make improvements in the areas.

In addition, poverty will be addressed in all its dimensions through policies and plans, and in its patterns of public expenditure.

A draft deal paper also says the concerned authorities of Bangladesh will pursue trans-parent and accountable management of re-sources and integrity in public life and � ght-ing corruption.

Swedish embassy in Dhaka sent the draft to the Economic Relations Division on 13th this month and the ERD is likely to � nalise it at a ministerial meeting on 30th.

Under the deal, Bangladesh is expected to

pursue a sound economic policy to achieve economically, environmentally and socially sustainable development.

The authorities concerned including the Ministry of Environment will ensure sustain-able management of natural resources inte-grating environment and climate perspec-tives in development cooperation.

The concerns regarding non-compliance with any of these principles will primarily be handled through dialogue with Bangladesh authorities, says the draft document.

The Swedish support may also be extended to partners outside the government sphere, but such cooperation falls outside the scope of this agreement. The contract can be can-celed in six months notice by the two parties.

Sweden has supported Bangladesh’s own development agenda for many areas, par-ticularly in health and education, where the Scandinavian country has supported sector programmes for almost 30 years. The country has been giving Bangladesh nearly $35.95m (Tk280 crore) in grants every year. l

China woes push oil lower; WTI dips below $40n Reuters, New York

US oil dipped below $40 for the � rst time in six years Friday as weak Chinese manufacturing data deepened worries about the slowdown in China’s economy, weighing on the market.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for October delivery dropped 87 cents to � n-ish at $40.45 a barrel on the New York Mer-cantile Exchange. In London, Brent North Sea crude for October, the international bench-mark, closed at $45.46 a barrel, down $1.16 from Thursday’s settlement.

WTI brie� y fell below $40 a barrel for the � rst time since February 2009, to $39.86. The dip occurred after the release of the Baker Hughes US oil rig count, showing produc-ers added two more rigs this week, the same number as last week, bringing the overall tally of active drilling oil rigs to 674.

Brent dropped as low as $45.07 earlier in the session, a level last seen in March 2009.

A much weaker-than-expected report on China’s manufacturing sector rattled investors. Caixin’s Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 47.1 this month, falling from 47.8 in July and its worst reading since March 2009. A reading be-low 50 signi� es contraction in activity. l

National Single Window will be launched to help business do all procedures sitting at home. National Board of Revenue is part of the system DHAKA TRIBUNE

21D

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015T-JU

NC

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22newsUnique Training on Sustainable Living Held at ULAB

23interviewBangladeshi designers to hit the New York Fashion Week runway

24style sessionToo short but never too late

Evening with the stars

INSIDE

Karishma Khan (left) and Faiyaz Shoumo (right) from In� nity Management, with Dia Mirza (centre) at Pond’s Lustrous Runway 2015 Photo: Rajib Dhar

Stay tuned for T-Junction’s

upcoming Trial Room

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015T-JUNCTION News22D

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A signing ceremony between GD Assist and R&R aviation was held recently at the capital’s Gulshan Club. This significant event was jointly organized by GD Assist and Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC). GD Assist is a subsidiary of Green Delta Insurance and Official representative of MHTC in Bangladesh, who are working to promote Malaysia Healthcare Tourism in the country.

Farzana Chowdhury ACII (UK), Director of GD Assist and Ron Haque Sikder, Managing Director of R&R Aviation signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

H.E Norlin Binti Othman the High

Commissioner of Malaysian in Bangladesh, Abdul Hafiz Choudhury, Chairman of Green Delta Insurance and the President of Gulshan Club Mr. Shahbuddin Khan were also present in the occasion.

In the ceremony the Managing Director and CEO Farzana Chowdhury ACII (UK) talked about the significant agreement between GD Assist and R&R Aviation which will allow them to be able to provide emergency air ambulance service to their patients. According to The CEO, this historic collaboration will activate newer doors of opportunities for both the organizations. l

Unique Training on Sustainable Living Held at ULAB

GD Assist and R&R Aviation Signs Agreement

An interactive class on Sustainable Living was held on August 20, 2015 at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). The class took place at the university’s permanent campus in Ramchandrapur, Mohammadpur.

This day-long class is part of the university’s training programme titled Skills for Life. Recent HSC and A Level Examination graduates took part in the class. The classes were conducted by ULAB faculty members Dr Hamidul Huq, Dr Shahana Afrose Chowdhury and Sha� qul Islam.

The classes were designed as a combination of lectures, group discussions, individual assignments and workshops. Besides being educated about sustainable living, the participants were taught about proper application of knowledge to improve their quality of life. The partakers received � rst-hand experience on organic farming. They were also taught how to make organic household compost. The aim of organising these classes is to create a skilled, intelligent and thoughtful generation in order to ensure

a green future for the world.The course speci� cally focused on areas

such as sustainable living (green living), current problems our planet is facing and why sustainable living is important to e� ectively deal with it, organic farming, and living hand in hand with nature instead of destroying it.

‘Skills for Life’ by ULAB is designed to complement the usual knowledge gained from books, and help students become well-rounded thinkers. The curriculum includes materials which are rarely taught in educational institutions; they are mostly designed to show students how to discover their inner strength, set goals, and overcome obstacles in everyday life. The students also receive valuable tips for their desired career paths, social responsibility, savings planning and disaster preparedness.

The programme which commenced with 129 students on July 30, 2015 will end on August 29, 2015.l

Lady’s monsoon collection

Fashion house Lady has released a new monsoon collection, featuring shalwar kameez, long kameez, tops, fotua etc. The collection, which focuses more on cool monsoon shades like green, olive, blue, and orange, magenta, and yellow. The collection is available in all outlets in Dhaka. Check out their show rooms at Bashundhara City, Karnaphuli Garden City, and Navana Baily Star.

n T- Junction Desk

A stylish international women’s label Nadz & Sabs, with strong Bangladeshi roots, will walk the ramp for the Fashion Palette New York Fashion Week show on September 10.

The evening wear label was founded in 2013 by two Bangladeshi friends living in Australia: designer Nadia Khan and business director Sabrina Rashid.

Standing out for their embellished out� ts featuring detailed threadwork, beading and hand painting, the label is known for unique pieces for special occasions.

Designer Nadia Khan said she was

fascinated by silk, and this luxurious and beautiful fabric was good for all seasons.

“Silk is the ‘new’ ancient fabric and features strongly in our 2015 collection. It’s organic, extremely versatile and easy to maintain,” Nadia said.

“Keeping you cool in summer and warm in winter, we have chosen the � nest raw silk, silk organza and silk georgette for our spring/summer 2015 collection.”

Nadia Khan said she loved Bangladeshi crafts such as beading, embroidery and hand-painting and the label’s new range would combine these timeless luxuries in contemporary styles.

“The collection is embellished with exquisite beading and intricate thread embroidery, adapting age-old artistry for contemporary western sensibilities.”

Business director Sabrina Rashid said the runway show was an amazing opportunity to connect with people from the international fashion world.

“We are thrilled to present our work on the international stage alongside renowned designers,” Sabrina said.

“New York Fashion Week was an event I always wanted to attend to see what’s on trend, but to present our label there is just so exciting.”

She also added that Bangladesh had a rich textile history which inspired them.

“We both take enormous pride in our country’s textile history,” she said.

The label is currently stocked across stores in Queensland and New South Wales in Australia.

Nadia Khan was an established fashion designer in India and exported her clothes across Europe and the Middle East. Sabrina Rashid worked in marketing and communications in Sydney and Brisbane. She has a strong interest in fashion and oversees the business side. l

Trending T-JUNCTION 23D

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

interview

Bangladeshi designers to hit the New York Fashion Week runway

Photos: Courtesy

Bathtime for the silkTreating your saris right

n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

It’s soft and feels great against the skin, it’s mostly eco-friendly, and can add an instant touch of luxe to your look, even without embellishments. Small wonder that the silk sari will never go out of fashion. But if you want to get the most of that gorgeous katan or that ravishing Rajshahi silk, you’ve gotta treat your saris right. Let’s look at how:

Washing do’s • Wash the pallu, border and body

separately. This is doubly important for saris that have di� erent materials in each of these sections.

• Skip the detergent and reach for some protein shampoo and warm (but not hot) water. The proteins in the shampoo will nourish the silk protein.

Washing don’ts• After buying a brand new silk sari, avoid

using soap for the � rst three washes. Rinse gently in cold water instead.

• Avoid using chemicals as much as possible, as these hurt the silk � bres and reduce their lifespan.

• You know the thing that dhopas do, where they whack the wet garment down against a � at surface to smack the dirt out? A terrible thing to do to a silk sari. Older fabric might just split from the impact, and the zari might just come o� from new ones.

• Ditto for wringing and twisting the silk; just don’t.

• Do not bundle and keep wet for long durations. l

Photo: Bigstock

T-JUNCTION Tailored24DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

n Mahmood Hossain

Some of us are fortunate enough to have the full package, being tall, dark and handsome. Most of us, well, at least we give an admirable effort to look our best. As much as we promote self-confidence, there are still ways to create the illusion that we’re taller than our actual height. It’s not to say we haven’t fully embraced who we are, we just want to look respectable standing next to the other guy.

It all comes down to the overall image we present to the rest of the world. You might be 5’3” but you can walk around like you’re 6’3”. But there’s more to the strut than just confidence. There are style tips every short guy should live by.

MonochromeDisplaying a monochrome colour palette on a regular will help create the illusion of height. It’s better to contrast shades than contrasting colours. Being in the same colour family gives you a more polished look. Also, the darker shades are better. In fact, going darker at the bottom, while the top half of you is slightly brighter, can divert the eyes upward. This makes a

lengthening effect when people view your entire outfit.

Don’t need to bag it upRepeat with us, “I am not a rapper or hip hop artist.” If you are one, you’re excused. Then again, seeing a legitimate Bangali rapper in the streets is like finding the Loch Ness Monster. Wearing baggy clothes at any time is highly unflattering for any man, regardless the height. We’re sure we’ve dug into your head about fitted clothing. However, it doesn’t end there. Low-waisted trousers or jeans are also a no-no. You want to wear your pants at your natural waist line. When the fitting is right, try and make sure to wear a smaller rise in your jeans or trousers. The rise is the distance between the middle of the crotch seam to the waistband. This will make your legs look longer, and that’s always a good thing for short men.

Blazing gloryA well fitted blazer can be your best friend. There are a couple of things a blazer or even a tailored suit jacket can do for you. First, it helps build your shoulders, which instantly adds height. Second, always

his style

Too short but never too lateThis one is for the short guys out there. We hear you, and we’re here for you

keeping your blazer buttoned (only the top button on a two-button jacket; top two for three-button) makes your chest look larger too. Not only does this create a slimming silhouette, it also adds height to your look. In addition, try to make sure the top button is slightly above your naval and that the cut of the jacket is shorter. This will make both your torso and legs look longer.

Tailored to perfectionThe name of this page says it all. No matter how tall or short you are, a tailor is and will always be important, especially for us short men. Let’s face it, those o� -the-rack items don’t necessarily look perfect on us. They may be good or even great, but nowhere near perfect. This is where the role of the tailors come in, which happens to be a huge advantage for short men. It’s easier to cut down and tighten from a larger piece of fabric than the other way around. You can be the tailor’s clay sculpture, while he caters to every necessary alteration.

It’s good to be hipThis can be a tad tricky. If you have to make sure that your shirt doesn’t go past your hipbone. This goes for the dress shirts as well as t-shirts. Yes, tucking your shirt in will instantly make your legs look slightly longer. But what about t-shirts? We can’t tuck those in, now can we? It’s simple. All you have to do is make sure the hem doesn’t go past your hipbone, and you can tailor the hemline whenever you want. If that’s too much of a hassle, bunching up your t-shirt around the waist is an alternative choice. But again, shortening the hem is the best way.

Keep lookin’ upIf you choose to accessorise, keep things very simple. Make sure whatever you have to show off is on the top half of you. You always want to direct the eyes upward, and try to avoid anything below your chest. Wearing a suit is an easy way to distract the eyes the right way. You’ve got your ties, pocket squares, lapel pins and so on. l

Photos: Bigstock

25D

TSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

BARCA TRAVEL TO BILBAO DEMONS ON OPENING DAY

GEMCON BEAT BANDO TO WEAR CORPORATE CROWN

26 2928

Louis van Gaal claims unsettled goalkeeper David De Gea will not be sold to Real Madrid before the

transfer window closes. De Gea was once again be left out of the match-

day squad on Saturday

GOING NOWHERE

SportBANGLADESH UNDER-19s INTO SAFF SEMIS

Mahmudullah lifts himself using the pull up bar in the BCB Academy gymnasium as his teammates look on during the � rst day of the national strength and conditioning camp at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

National camp begins amid several absencesn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Following an 18-day break, the Bangladesh cricketers got back to business at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday. The 21 leading cricketers of the country re-ported to national strength and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan and will work to-wards enhancing their mental and physical strength over the next few weeks.

The camp was organised to get the cricket-ers ready for both domestic and international cricket in the next six months.

“Fitness test, that’s all purpose of testing and achieving. We got four weeks to work with them and these four weeks are impor-tant for going forward because six months of games is coming up. These four weeks are very important for the next six months,” Vil-lavarayan told the media at SBNS yesterday.

Day one of the conditioning camp was marked with a gym session followed by a bleep test and one round of football game. Test captain Mush� qur Rahim, ODI and Twenty20 skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza, all-rounders Shakib al Hasan and Sabbir Rah-man, top-order batsman Rony Talukdar and paceman Abul Hasan were absent yesterday.

Mush� q, who is su� ering from fever, is on sick leave while Mashrafe and Shakib are out of the country. Mashrafe is expected to return to the capital this Tuesday while Shakib is all set to come back this Thursday.

Opening batsman Tamim Iqbal reported for the camp on time but underwent a dif-ferent routine as opposed to the bleep test. The hard-hitting southpaw was seen running around the centre � eld of SBNS alone under the supervision of Villavarayan.

“He did extra. He is running separately. He is not going to do bleep test. He did test run-ning,” said Villavarayan. The Sri Lanka-born coach said Tamim performed a separate rou-tine due to an injury in his knee.

Villavarayan also informed that he is con-cerned with the � tness of national spinner Sohag Gazi.

“[Gazi] was away from cricket for a long time. Hopefully he will work with us for the next four or six weeks and try to take up his � tness level,” said Villavarayan.

The cricketers will continue with their phys-ical training routine till September 5. It is ex-pected that national head coach Chandika Ha-thurusingha will then join the camp and make the cricketers work on their skill development.

The Tigers’ upcoming assignment is at home against Australia this October. The Aus-sies are scheduled to arrive on September 28 for two Test matches, beginning on October 9 at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chit-tagong. The second and � nal Test will get un-derway in Mirpur on October 17.l

Nazmul chalks out uncomplicated BPLn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan is doing everything in his jurisdiction to make sure that the third Bangladesh Premier League, planned in November, does not resemble the controversial � rst two editions.

And in order to keep the players’ payment irregularities from surfacing again, Nazmul revealed that the companies submitting the “Expression of Interest” will also need to submit a bank-guarantee and pay-order.

Flora Limited, previous owners of the Rangpur Raiders, cleared their dues with the board as the number of interested buyers for the upcoming season went up to 12.

“The other old franchises can also submit their EOI but for that they will need to clear the dues by this Thursday,” said Nazmul after a meeting with the BPL governing council at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

According to the BCB chief, � ve of the old franchise owners owe approximately Tk 36 crores 81 lacs with Khulna Royals owing highest 8.19 crores.

This time around, BCB will ask for Tk 5.5

crores – 4.5 crores in bank guarantee and one crore as pay order – in the bank before selling a team.

“The guarantee money will cover both the players and participation fee. We won’t have to worry about the payment any more after that and I believe this will eliminate all the irregularities that we saw in the � rst two seasons of the tournament,” said the BCB president.

He even hinted of increasing the number of teams in the tournament if needed. “In case the number of eligible parties are more than the number of teams in the tournament, we might decide to increase the number of teams. This can be eight or even 10.”

“What we have experienced from the � rst

two editions of BPL is that few franchises took this as a business. We don’t want those kind of owners. We will check the background of the owners and their interest in the game before awarding them a team. The owners will have to have the tendency of contributing for Bangladesh cricket,” said Nazmul.

BCB realised that the previous payment structure was never realistic in the cricket market in Bangladesh. In order to omit the chaos with regards to players’ payment, both domestic and international, the BCB has decided to adopt the “Players by Choice” system as opposed to the traditional auction.

“I have already asked the concerned parties to prepare categories for the players, both domestic and international. There will be three categories – A, B and C. The Players by Choice system will allow us to make sure that all the teams are balanced equally,” said Nazmul.

Four foreign cricketers will be allowed per side in accordance with the Players by Choice system. However, a franchise can also register an overseas player through personal arrangements but in that case the BCB will not be liable for the cricketer’s payment issues, if any.l

Teams Outstanding (Taka) Khulna Royals 8.19 crores Sylhet Royals 8.5 croresChittagong Kings 7.45 croresBarisal Burners 6.5 croresDuronto Rajshahi 6.09 crores

Sport26DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Bangladesh U19s into Sa� semisn Shishir Hoque

Bangladesh swept into the semi-� nals of the inaugural Sa� Under-19 Championship af-ter outclassing Bhutan 2-0 in their opening match of the six-nation event at ANFA Com-plex in Lalitpur, Nepal yesterday.

The junior Tigers exhibited a dominating display en route to salvaging all three points with Rohit Sarkar and Mannaf Rabby getting their names on the score-sheet. Bangladesh will now face the hosts in their � nal Group A match tomorrow and the winner of the tie will emerge as group champions.

Mohammad Ibrahim and Mannaf, the two rising stars of the Manyavar Bangladesh Pre-mier League, were at the hub of most of the Bangladesh attacks. The duo however, were denied by the opposition defenders and goal-keeper numerous times before the much-an-ticipated breakthrough came three minutes before the � rst half whistle.

Bangladesh initially took some time to be organised but when they did get into the groove, they put two past the Bhutan custo-dian in the space of just two minutes.

Rohit gave the junior Tigers the deserved lead with a powerful volley from just outside

the box after Ibrahim's long ball forward was headed down by Mannaf.

Following a couple of near misses after the � rst goal, Mannaf succeeded in doubling the lead a minute before the interval. The Bhutan netminder came out of the box to clear a long ball but failed and Mannaf controlled the ball well inside the box before unleashing a � erce ef-fort between the legs of an opponent defender.

After resumption, Ibrahim twice went close to making it 3-0 but both of his e� orts � ew over the crossbar. Ibrahim further wasted a glorious chance in the 71st minute when the Mohammedan youngster failed to meet a Mannaf cross in front of an empty net.

Bangladesh squadAnisur Rahman; Rahmatullah, Mohammad Emon, Tutul Hossain Badshah, Mohammad Rocky; Masuk Mia Jony (C), Shahriar Bappy, Biplob Ahmed, Mohammad Ibrahim; Rohit Sarkar, Mannaf Rabby l

RESULTBangladesh U19 2–0 Bhutan U19Rohit Sarkar 42Mannaf Rabby 44

Mannaf Rabby celebrates his � rst and Bangladesh’s second goal against Bhutan in the Sa� U-19 Championship at the ANFA Complex in Lalitpur, Nepal COURTESY

Triumphant Bangladesh Under 16s to be looked afterGoalkeeping coach's tenure extended among other issuesn Shishir Hoque

The executive committee of the Bangladesh Football Federation has asked the develop-ment committee to ensure the nurturing process of the national Under-16 team who recently won the third edition of the Sa� U-16 Championship at home.

The announcement came within a week since the young Tigers emerged as the un-beaten champion of the six-nation regional age-level competition. BFF president Kazi Sa-lahuddin had earlier promised the same thing in that the U-16 boys will be nurtured in the next four years by football's regulatory body of the country.

As per the decision of the executive committee, the entire U-16 squad will reside at the BFF academy in Sylhet for the next four years.

Following the hour-long meeting yes-

terday, the committee also hinted that this season's Independence Cup and Super Cup might not take place if the proposed Sheikh Kamal International Gold Cup is held in Chit-tagong this October. Kolkata giants East Ben-gal and Mohun Bagan, along with the top four clubs of Bangladesh, will partake in the tour-nament that will be hosted by top-� ight side Chittagong Abahani.

The committee also decided to hold the second-tier Championship League from Oc-tober 25 this year with the participation of 10 teams, including one from BFF Academy. The players' transfer window will open on Octo-ber 1 this year and conclude nine days later.

Among other agendas, a Fifa delegate will tour Dhaka soon to inspect the installation process at the Kamalapur stadium. The BFF hopes to complete the installation process by September 28 this year so that they can get three more turfs from world football's gov-

erning body in the future.The committee also decided to extend the

tenure of Bangladesh's German goalkeeping coach Christian Schweichler by three more months. Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif's situation is, however, the same as before.

The BFF will also send a “letter of intent” to UK-based event management company Soccer International, informing them to pro-vide £1m if they are to buy the rights of the professional football league and become a partner of the BFF.

Meanwhile, the committee introduced the national team's new jersey after the meeting. The colour of the o� cial home jersey is red while the away one is green.

The meeting was presided over by BFF supremo Salahuddin while senior vice presi-dent Abdus Salam Murshedy briefed the me-dia after the meeting. l

A man in a � at overlooking the ground with a banner during the � fth Ashes Test at Kia Oval yesterday REUTERS

Sport 27D

T

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Atletico in the market for mid� elder, says SimeoneAtletico Madrid have been one of the most active La Liga clubs in this transfer window but coach Diego Simeone said on Friday they may not be done yet and want another mid� elder. After � nishing third behind champions Barcelo-na and second-placed Real Madrid last term and qualifying for the Champions League, Atletico sold Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic to Juven-tus and Turkey playmaker Arda Turan to Barca.

–REUTERS

Gerrard tells Lampard:‘It’s war’Steven Gerrard warned Frank Lampard to be ready for “war” as the two former Liverpool and Chelsea mid� eld adversaries prepared to lock horns once more for their Major League Soccer sides here Sunday. Gerrard’s Los Angeles Galaxy and Lampard’s New York City FC meet in Carson on Sunday in a game being hyped as the most star-studded clash in MLS history, pitting two of the league’s big-spending sides against each other.

–AFP

Juve’s drive for � ve beginsJuventus chief executive Beppe Marotta has warned the loss of key players won’t put the brakes on their their bid for a record-equalling � fth consecutive scudetto, which begins Sunday with the visit of Udinese. The Turin giants notably sold mid� elders Andrea Pirlo (New York City FC) and Arturo Vidal (Bayern Munich) and striker Carlos Tevez (Boca Juniors) over the summer.

–AFP

PSG make perfect startA second-half strike by the excellent Blaise Ma-tuidi gave Paris Saint-Germain a 1-0 win away to Montpellier on Friday as the French champions maintained their perfect start to the new Ligue 1 season. Matuidi’s 61st-minute goal gave PSG a win that they deserved for their dominance of possession in a match of few chances on a hot night at the Stade de la Mosson.

–AFP

Serena survives Ivanovic scare in CincinnatiDefending champion Serena Williams reached the semi-� nals of the Western & Southern tournament in Cincinnati but not before having her mettle tested in a 3-6 6-4 6-2 win over sixth-seeded Serb Ana Ivanovic on Friday. Up next for Williams will be 14th-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, a 6-4 2-6 6-0 winner over Czech Lucie Safarova, seeded seven.

–REUTERS

Djokovic, Federer reach Cincy semi-� nalsWorld number one Novak Djokovic brushed aside Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in straight sets to advance to the semi-� nals of the ATP and WTA Cincinnati Masters Friday. The top-seeded Serb breezed past Wawrinka with little di� culty in just over an hour, winning 6-4, 6-1 to avenge his defeat to the Swiss in the French Open � nal.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Manchester United’s Dutch mid� elder Memphis Depay (R) takes the ball around Newcastle United’s Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul during their EPL match at Old Tra� ord in Manchester yesterday AFP

United held to goalless draw by dogged Newcastlen Reuters, London

Manchester United’s 100 percent start to the Premier League season ended when they were held to a goalless draw against Newcas-tle United at Old Tra� ord on Saturday.

Wayne Rooney had an early goal ruled out for o� side as United, 1-0 winners in their opening two league games, dominated but it was Newcastle who went closest to scoring in the � rst half when Aleksandar Mitrovic hit the crossbar.

Substitutes Javier Hernandez and Antonio Valencia then had opportunities to snatch a late goal for the home team who are top of the table with seven points.

“It was a very important result for us,” said defender Fabricio Coloccini as Newcastle ended a run of seven successive away league defeats. “We worked really hard.

“It’s very hard to play at Old Tra� ord be-cause they have a lot of possession,” he told BT Sport. “We were told to defend as well as possible and we did really well.”

United captain Rooney has made a medi-ocre start to the season but began brightly against Newcastle, having a sixth-minute goal chalked o� . l

Champions Sheikh Jamal end with win against Abahanin Shishir Hoque

Champions-elect Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club came from behind to conclude their Man-yavar Bangladesh Premier League campaign with a narrow 2-1 win over Abahani Limited at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. The encounter between the two Dhanmondi giants was the � nal league game of this season.

Nigerian striker Emeka Darlington can-celled out Abahani’s lead, scored by Nasirul Islam Nasir, before Gambian mid� elder Land-ing Darboe grabbed the winner a minute be-fore the end of regulation time.

The traditional Sky Blues had the opportu-nity of � nishing in the top three if they had beaten Sheikh Jamal by a margin of more than one goal. Instead, Abahani � nished fourth with 35 points from 20 matches while Sheikh Jamal’s � nal points tally is 51.

Sheikh Jamal began the game without the presence of talismanic mid� elder Ma-munul Islam, in form Haitian striker Wedson Anselme and exciting winger Sohel Rana.

Following a barren opening half, Nasir put the Sky Blues ahead in the 65th minute. Re-ceiving a pass from Shahedul Alam Shahed, the defender drifted into the penalty area and calmly placed home into an empty net.

The delight however, lasted only four min-utes as Emeka equalised, slotting home past Abahani goalkeeper Ziaur Rahman, after be-ing fed by Landing. Landing then turned from provider to scorer in the 89th minute, grab-bing the all-important goal.

Abahani went down to nine men by the end of the clash. Wahed Ahmed received his marching orders after incurring two yellow cards while Mamun Mia was shown a straight red card for using obscene language. l

STANDINGSTeam GP W D L GD PTS

Sheikh Jamal 20 16 3 1 38 51

Sheikh Russel 20 13 3 4 16 42

Mohammedan 20 11 5 4 21 38

Abahani 20 10 5 5 19 35

Brothers 20 10 5 5 8 35

Muktijoddha 20 8 4 8 0 28

Team BJMC 20 6 4 10 -2 22

Soccer Club 20 5 3 12 -16 18

Ctg Abahani 20 3 7 10 -22 16

Rahmatganj 20 3 5 12 -18 14

Farashganj 20 0 6 14 -44 6

Dominant Australia scent consolation win n AFP, London

England, following-on, were 123 for three in their second innings - a de� cit of 209 runs - at tea on the third day of the � fth and � nal Ashes Test against Australia at The Oval yesterday.

Alastair Cook, the England captain, was 54 not out and Jonny Bairstow 20 not out.

England, who have already regained the Ashes, lead the � ve-match series 3-1.

England resumed on 107 for eight in their � rst innings, having lost seven wickets for just 46 runs during Friday’s evening session.

That left them 374 runs behind.Their collapse was not as bad as Australia’s

rapid decline to 60 all out on the � rst morn-ing of the fourth Test at Trent Bridge, a match England went on to win by an innings and 78 runs to regain the Ashes on the back of Stuart Broad’s stunning eight for 15.

But Friday’s clatter of wickets-- where sev-eral batsmen contributed to their own down-fall with reckless shots -- made a mockery of the ambition of Cook’s side to become the � rst England team to win four Tests in a home Ashes series. Moeen Ali and Mark Wood, both eight not out overnight, hit out in sunny con-ditions ideal for batting during a ninth-wicket partnership of 57.

But they each fell to Mitchell Johnson as

the left-arm fast bowler wrapped up the in-nings with two wickets in two balls.

Wood, all of whose 24 runs came in bound-aries, was the fourth England batsman in the innings to fall to a miscued pull shot when he skyed Johnson to Mitchell Starc at mid-on.

Ali was then caught behind for an in-nings-top score of 30.

Clarke, who will retire from international duty after this match, then asked England to bat again. It was the � rst time any Australia captain had enforced the follow-on since Ricky Ponting did so against New Zealand at Wellington in 2010 -- a match Australia even-tually won by 10 wickets. l

28DT Ascent Cup 2015

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Most Valuable PlayerMasudur Rahman Mukul (Beximco Pharma)Highest ScorerImranur Rahman (Bando Design)Best GoalkeeperRajib (Bando Design)Fair Play AwardRahimafrooze Renewal

Jubilant Gemcon Group players and o� cial celebrate their consecutive title of the Ascent Cup at the STM Hall, Scholastica yesterday. With the win Gemcon also extended their unbeaten run in the tournament to 12 games (2014, 2015) MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

n Arsalan Quddus

Goals from Shahinur Rahman Monu and Prashanto saw Gem-con Group emerge as champions in the 10th

Ascent Cup yesterday. Thunderbolt and light-ning cannot even explain what was witnessed at the STM Hall in the Cup � nals as it was a repeat of the last year with Gemcon Group and Bando Design Ltd going at each other with hammer and tongs, unwilling to budge or give a quarter.

It was end to end football, with each team trying their bagful of party tricks trying to outwit one another as step overs and back heel chips were awarded with ooh’s and aah’s by the audience inside the hall.

All it took was a lack of concentration from Bando Design for the defending champions to capitalise. The last two minutes saw Gem-con score twice which just about knocked

the stu� ng out of Bando. Monu � rst assisted right-footed Prashanto to break the deadlock before the attacking veteran sealed the game himself.

Congratulations Gemcon, champions two years running – you deserved it too. Commis-erations to Bando, better luck next time guys.

It has been a roller coaster ride of chills, thrill, and heart thumping action as the STM hall has been witness to blood, sweat, and tears in the past week by teams showing much passion yet displaying immense sports-manship spirit.

Earlier in the morning, the � rst match of the � nal day was the mouth watering encoun-ter between � ve times champion Beximco Pharma and the reigning champions Gemcon going head to head in the semi� nals of the Cup. Over the years this encounter has been dubbed by those of us in the sports desk as “El Scholastico”.

However, all comparisons to its Spanish namesake ended there as Gemcon took the

game by the scrap of its neck as soon as the referee blew the whistle at kick o� .

Sohel, Riqta, and Monu dismantled the aging Beximco Pharma team and made this much touted encounter a one-sided a� air. The new wave Gemcon players proved too much for the pharmaceutical company. It is surely a sign that the paradigms of power are shifting towards the teams that have taken precedence in the past few years.

The second semi� nal saw the exciting Bando narrowly beating newcomers Com-� t Composite in a high tempo match. Bando certainly did not � nd life easy but ultimately Shakil scored a glorious hat-trick to earn his team a 4-2 victory.

It was the end of the road for Com� t Com-posite who has made many a fan in their � rst outing in this tournament.

In the other categories, Green Delta Insur-ance beat HRC 5-4 to lift the Plate while Asiat-ic Exp handed Mutual Trust Bank a narrow 2-1 defeat to win the Bowl. l

RESULTSCUP

Final: Gemcon 2-0 Bando SF1: Gemcon 6-0 BeximcoSF2: Bando 4-2 Com� t

PLATE FINAL Green Delta 5-4 HRC

BOWl FINALAsiatic 2-1 MTB

C H A M P I O N S

Gemcon beat Bando to wear corporate crown TWO IN A ROW

Sport 29D

T

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

INDvSL, DAY 3INDIA 1ST INNINGS393 (L. Rahul 108, V. Kohli 78, R. Sharma 79, W. Saha 56, D. Prasad 2-84, A. Mathews 2-24, D. Chameera 2-72, R. Herath 4-81)SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS R B(overnight 140-3)L. Thirimanne c Saha b I. Sharma 62 168 A. Mathews c Vijay b Binny 102 167 D. Chandimal c Rahul b I. Sharma 11 23J. Mubarak b Mishra 22 46D. Prasad c Rahane b Mishra 5 4R. Herath lbw b Ashwin 1 16T. Kaushal st Saha b Mishra 6 14D. Chameera not out 0 5 Extras: (b2, lb6, nb5) 13 Total (all out, 108 overs) 306

BowlingI. Sharma 21-3-68-2 (nb4), Yadav 19-5-67-1, Binny 18-4-44-1 (nb1), Ashwin 29-3-76-2, Mishra 21-3-43-4.INDIA 2ND INNINGS R BM. Vijay not out 39 89L. Rahul b Prasad 2 3A. Rahane not out 28 84Extras: (w1) 1Total (for one wicket, 29.2 overs) 70

BowlingPrasad 4-0-12-1, Herath 11.2-3-23-0, Chameera 4-0-14-0 (w1), Mathews 2-1-1-0, Kaushal 8-0-20-0.

India lead by 157 runs with nine wickets in hand

Star Sports 14:00 PMAustralia Tour of England (Ashes) 5th Test Day 4 11:30 PMBundesliga FC Ingolstadt 04 v Borussia Dortmund Star Sports 28:20 PMPro Kabaddi League: 3/4 Place 9:30 PMPro Kabaddi League 2015 : FinalStar Sports 46:20 AMIAAF World Athletics Championships5:55 PMFIA F1 World Championship : Main RaceCircuit of Belgium 8:50 PMBarclays Premier League Everton v Manchester City 11:30 PMWest Bromwich Albion v Chelsea Ten Sports 5:00 AMWTA : Western & Southern Open SF 1 7:00 AMWTA : Western & Southern Open SF 2 11:00 PMATP 1000 Masters Western & Southern Open: Final 1:00 AMWTA :Western & Southern Open: Final Ten Cricket, Ten HD2:00 PMNew Zealand Tour of South Africa 2nd ODI Ten Action5:50 PMFrench Ligue 1 LOSC Lille SA v Bordeaux 8:50 PMFC 56 Lorient v AS Saint-Etienne 12:50 AMOlympique De Marseille v Champagne Sony Six10:30 AMIndia Tour of Sri Lanka 2nd Test Day 4 9:30 PMSerie A Juventus v Udinese 12: 30 AMFiorentina v AC Milan Sony Six HD10:30 PMLiga Bbva Athletic Club v FC Barcelona 12:30 AMR. Sporting v Real Madrid 2:30 AMLevante UD v RC Celta

DAY’S WATCH

Sri Lanka’s captain Angelo Mathews watches his shot during the third day of their second Test match against India in Colombo yesterday REUTERS

India take charge after Mathews’s centuryn AFP, Colombo

Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews hit a cen-tury before India fought back to assume con-trol of the second Test at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo on Saturday.

The tourists, seeking a series-levelling win after losing the � rst Test in Galle, ended Sri Lanka’s � rst innings at 306 after tea on the third day in reply to their own 393.

India closed the day at 70-1 in their sec-ond knock, an overall lead of 157 runs with nine wickets in hand on the slow, wearing pitch that promises to help spinners on the last two days.

Murali Vijay was unbeaten on 39 and Ajink-ya Rahane was on 28, the pair having put on

67 runs for the second wicket after Lokesh Rahul was bowled by Dhammika Prasad o� the � fth ball.

The duo saw o� the last � ve overs in fad-ing light as play was extended by more than an hour due to a rain interruption after lunch.

Mathews hit a glorious 102 to lift his team to a strong position before India turned the tables after a barren morning session.

Sri Lanka, who started the day at 140-3, were cruising at 241-3 soon after lunch when India hit back to take the last seven wickets for 65 runs.

The collapse started soon after Mathews notched up his sixth Test century with a re-verse-hit boundary against o� -spinner Ravi-chandran Ashwin.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra � nished with four wickets, while seamer Ishant Sharma and Ashwin claimed two each.

Mathews and his overnight partner Lahiru Thirimanne batted through the morning ses-sion to put on 127 for the fourth wicket before Sharma claimed two wickets in the space of three overs after the break.

Sharma had left-handed Thirimanne caught behind by Wriddhiman Saha for 62 and then dismissed � rst Test hero Dinesh Chandi-mal for 11, caught at second slip by Rahul.

All-rounder Stuart Binny, who was add-ed to the touring squad before this match, claimed his � rst success after going wicket-less in three previous Tests when he forced Mathews to edge a catch to the slips.l

Barcelona travel to Bilbao demons on opening dayn AFP, Madrid

Barcelona won’t have to wait long to try to correct the errors that saw them lose the Spanish Super Cup to Athletic Bilbao as they return to San Mames on Sunday in their La Liga opener.

The European champions were thrashed 4-0 in Bilbao just a week ago as an un-der-manned Catalan defence failed to cope with the presence of Aritz Aduriz, who struck

a hat-trick and then also netted in the return as the Basques won the � nal 5-1 on aggregate.

Barca coach Luis Enrique has even more defensive problems as his side look for re-venge on league duty.

Gerard Pique has been banned for four matches after being sent o� in Monday’s 1-1 draw in the return leg of the Super Cup for ver-bally abusing the match o� cials. Jordi Alba remains a doubt with a hamstring injury, while Neymar hasn’t returned to training since he was diagnosed with the mumps two weeks ago.

The coach must also decide who to play in goal. Claudio Bravo made his � rst appearance of the campaign in the home game against Athletic after Marc-Andre ter Stegen had been selected for the � rst two matches of the sea-son in which Barca conceded eight times. l

FIXTURES Athletic Bilbao v Barcelona Sporting Gijon v Real Madrid Levante v Celta Vigo Real Betis v Villarreal Barcelona’s Neymar takes part in a training session

at the Sports Center FC Barcelona yesterday AFP

DOWNTIME30DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 21 represents C so � ll C every time the � gure 21 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Deeply engrossed (4)4 Astound (5)9 Monkey (3)11 At all times (4) 12 Begin (5)13 Wicked emperor (4) 14 Walked (4)15 Slow (mus) (5)19 Carries (5)21 Woe! (4)25 Skeletal part (4) 26 Cunning (5)28 Golf club (4)29 Perfect score (3) 30 Impressions left by blows (5) 31 Honey drink (4)

DOWN 1 Skin eruption (4)2 Liable (3)3 Concretion of nacre (5) 5 Wise counsellor (6)6 A� rm with con� dence (4) 7 Nothing (4)8 Wear away (5) 10 Fixed gaze (5)16 Not present (6)17 Criminal groups (5) 18 Fanatical (5)20 Venomous ill will (5) 22 Traditional learning (4)23 Soon (4)24 Curve (4)27 Meadow (3)

SUDOKU

SHOWTIME 31D

TSUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

WHAT TO WATCH

BOX OFFICE BUZZ

King KongStar Movies 9:30pmIn 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with leading lady Ann Darrow.Cast: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody

Mission: Impossible – Ghost ProtocolZee Studio 12:00am The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization’s name.Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg

The Exorcism of Emily RoseWB 7:10pmA lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.Cast: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo

Insidious Chapter 3 (2015) Review: Another Parade of Quiet-Quiet-Boo

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Ticket parade in Compton

The prancing pony

n Mahmood Hossain

While nothing is yet to be set in stone, former Batman star Christian Bale is in talks to play Enzo Ferrari in Michael Mann’s Ferrari movie. Some even say he’s already signed with Mann. The new biopic is a project that Michael Mann has been holding

onto for quite some time, and it seems to be back on track. Now that Bale is tagged onto playing the role, they are hoping to round up some buyers and � nanciers during the Toronto Film Festival.

The � lm will be an adaptation of the 1991 book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine, written by Brock

Yates. The book is a detailed account on the rise of one of the most famous names in motor world history. The only issue is, will this do well enough in the box o� ce that need to garner more than just racing fans or motorheads. Ron Howard’s fantastic � lm Rush premiered at Toronto before wide release but didn’t do too well at the box o� ce. Critically acclaimed, the � lm failed to bring in the crowd.

However, having the likes of Mann directing and Bale in the starring role might just have moviegoers leaning into the theatres a tad more. Again, nothing is solid as of yet and getting our hopes up wouldn’t be a wise thing. Not too long ago, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were to star in a � lm together called Go Like Hell, which was a story that told the rivalry between Ferrari and Carroll Shelby. Unfortunately, the project fell part because of budget restraints. And let’s not forget that other Ferrari movie starring Robert De Niro, which is still in the works. Stay tuned as Showtime will bring you the latest updates. l

n Showtime Desk

Straight Outta Compton continues to bring in the big numbers at the Hollywood box o� ce. NWA’s biopic earned an impressive $60.2 million in its � rst outing. The train has no plans on stopping, as it picked up another $26 million in its second weekend.

Alongside the leading � lm, horror � ick Sinister 2 was released in 2,100 locations on Thursday night, racked up $850,000. The movie is expected to add around $13.5 million after this weekend.

The videogame adaptation of Hitman earned around $600,000, hoping to reach around $10 million after the weekend. Hitman: Agent 47 doesn’t seem to be in the same � ow as the � rst � lm back in 2007. While Rupert Friend’s portrayal of Agent 47 has been applauded, the overall � lm has fallen � at apart from the thrilling action.

Another quiet start has been made by American Ultra, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. The marketing for the � lm hasn’t been too wide, even though it opens to 2,778 locations. However, it’s expected to receive a little over $6 million in its debut.

Rogue Nation, on the other hand, continues to steam roll through the box o� ce, capturing another $11 million, after its fourth week in the theatres. And WB’s Man From UNCLE looks to rake in another six to $7 million. l

n Sadia Khalid

I have a theory. The farther you are from the next living soul and the darker the room is, the scarier a horror movie seems. If this theory holds, you would be scared out of your wits watching Insidious Chapter 3 on a winter night in Antarctica. Watching it alone in the dark in your room, however, will give you a moderately good scare, but not quite enough, as you probably can still sleep right after with the lights on. All in all, fans of the Insidious franchise will not be thoroughly disappointed.

Insidious Chapter 3 is the prequel to

the original Insidious movie. Before the haunting of the Lambert Family, there was an aspiring teenage actress named Quinn (Stefanie Scott)who had just lost her mother. When Quinn tried to communicate with her mother’s spirit, a malicious supernatural entity responded instead. She reached out to Psychic Elise (Lin Shaye), who had given up on helping people after a near death experience in ‘The Further’. Something about Quinn sways her to use her gift again. She collaborates with her high tech Ghostbusters team for the � rst time through this perilous mission.

There was nothing new to take away from this � lm. They tried to bring some variations in the appearance of the demons and the possessed. The creaking femur and the vanishing faces seemed more of a triumph in the special e� ects department, rather than an addition to the scariness of the � lm. The quiet-quiet-boo formula of horror � lms have been used so many times for so many years that we have simply become immune to their shock tactics. There were, however, a few scary scenes that can come back to haunt the more fainthearted audiences. For the rest, this � lm will fade into oblivion faster than they can make the next sequel, or prequel. l

BACK PAGE32DT

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

THE PRANCING PONY PAGE 31

NAZMUL CHALKS OUT UNCOMPLICATED BPL PAGE 25

NEGOTIATIONS FOR NEW ECF FUND LIKELY IN OCTOBER PAGE 15

AL men protest Jubo League leader’s killingn UNB

Local Awami League activists yesterday staged demonstrations and blocked Dha-ka-Tangail highway with the body of slain Jubo League leader Ra� qul Islam demanding immediate arrest of his killers.

They put barricade on the busy highway in Kaliakoir bus stand area in Kaliakoir upazila at noon when the body reached was brought home after an autopsy. During the demon-strations the upazila Awami League called a half day hartal in the upazila.

On Friday, Mohammad Ra� qul Islam, for-mer president of Kaliakoir upazila unit of Jubo League was killed in an in� ghting during a programme marking the National Mourning Day and August 21 grenade attack anniversary at Chandra in Kaliakoir upazila. l Nandik Natyadal Sylhet brings out a bicycle rally in the city protesting child abuse in di� erent parts of the country COURTESY: MD AKHLAS UDDIN

Jobs for the boysn Aminur Rahman Rasel

A � urry of appointments to the top posts of pub-licly-held power and energy companies has stirred disquiet in the country’s critically important and lucrative energy sector.

Twelve former Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders, a Mahila Awami League leader, two Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (Re-hab) leaders and three businessmen with alleged political connections to the decision-makers in the ministry, have recently been appointed to the boards of the various high-level companies under the Power and Energy Ministry.

The Chhatra League is the student wing and the Mahila Awami League is an associate body of the ruling Awami League.

It is unprecedented for political appointments of this nature to be made to the top posts of public companies in this sector, according to multiple sources who wished to maintain anonymity.

Typically experts are appointed to these posts. None of the new directors can claim expertise in the power or energy sectors.

A managing director of one of the companies in question, asking not to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune that an “unhealthy” environment had been created at the state-owned companies because of the newcomers.

He said managing directors at the � rms were facing pressure to recruit people preferred by the new director-appointees and to provide tenders to pre-selected parties.

The new directors’ lack of knowledge of the sectors they had been called to preside over has meant that trivial matters often displaced more important issues at board meetings, he said.

“They are just interested in new recruitment and staying updated about new tenders,” he said.

The presence of the political appointees has left other directors and expert directors feeling uncomfortable at meetings.

“This could a� ect company operations,” he added.Among � rms under the state-run Oil, Gas and

Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla) – Rashedul Mahmood Russel is now director of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd, Khan Moinul Islam Mustaq is director of Titas Gas Trans-mission & Distribution Company Limited, Maksudul Alam Dablu is director of Sylhet Gas Fields Limited, Hasanuzzaman Majumdar Liton is director of Pashchimanchal Gas Company Limited, Md Kawsar Ahmed is director of Sundarban Gas Company Lim-ited, Sk Faruk Hassan Hitlu is director of Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company Limited, MAS Imon is

director of Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited and Md Saiful Islam is director of Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution System Ltd.

Among � rms under the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation – Istak Ahmmed Shimul is now director of Meghna Petroleum Limited, Md Arifuzzaman Miah Tutul is director of Padma Oil Company Limited and Saifuddin Nasir is director of Jamuna Oil Company Limited.

All are former leaders of the Chhatra League.Rehab Vice-President Liakot Ali Bhuyan was

appointed director of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited.

Among the Power Division companies, Md Rabiul Hasnat, a Rehab executive committee mem-ber, is the new director of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited and Banasree Biswas Smritikona, executive member of the central committee of Bangladesh Mahila Awami League, is director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited.

Among the Power Development Board com-panies, ex-Chhatra League leader S M Monjurul Haque Monju and Mammur Rashid, deputy manag-ing director of the Index Group of companies, are both new directors of West Zone Power Distribu-tion Company Ltd.

Monowara Hakim Ali, director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, has been appointed director at both the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh and the Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited.

Kamal Ahmed, managing partner of Ben� sh, is the new director of Ashuganj Power Station Company Ltd.

Contacted, the new director of Sylhet Gas Field, Mahmudul Haque Dablu, told the Dhaka Tribune he had been awarded the job as a Chhatra League mem-ber although he had no experience in the sector.

“I have been made a state minister. The govern-

ment evidently thinks I am � t for the job,” he said. Banasree Biswas Smritikona, director of Dhaka

Power Distribution Company Limited, who has no professional experience in the � eld, told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have links with politics and may be politically appointed. What is the problem?”

The new director of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, Liakot Ali Bhuyan, said: “There is no bar to appointing us. It may be that we do not have any experience. Our duty is to see if the company is working properly. We are doing this.”

Asking not to be named, an o� cial of the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry told the Dhaka Tribune that the state minister for power had convinced the government to back the ap-pointment of party leaders and allied businessmen. The state minister is a former president of Rehab.

He claimed the state minister had even appoint-ed some people who were his personal assistants. He added that many of the newly appointed directors had regularly visited the state minister’s o� ce to lobby him.

The ministry o� cial said political appointments would increase irregularities and corruption at the state-held companies.

State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid, who oversees the ministry’s operations, was not avail-able for comment, declining to receive phone calls or reply to an email from the Dhaka Tribune.

A high o� cial at the Prime Minister’s O� ce who said he was disappointed with the appointments said he had managed to block some of the appointments, especially to companies under the Power Division.

According to company law, the Power Division and Energy and Mineral Resources Division may at any time appoint or discharge anyone to or from directors’ posts. Company authorities must con� rm the decision at the annual general meeting.

According to the law, directors receive Tk5,000 for every board meeting they attend. Meetings are typically held at least once a month but may be more frequent. l

THE NEW DIRECTORS BY THE NUMBERS

12 ex-Chhatra League leaders

3 businesspeople with connections to the ruling party

1 Mahila League leader

0 years of experience running a power or energy company

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com