SECOND EDITION

CLIMATE PROJECTS IRK BARGUNA LOCALS PAGE 5

A SON’S DEATH, A FATHER’S PROMISE PAGE 32

IS IT EXPERT’S BROTHER FINANCES BD MILITANTS PAGE 3

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016 | Poush 25, 1422, Rabiul Awal 26, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 262 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages plus 24-page Weekend supplement | Price: Tk10

One IOJ faction quits, another stays with BNPn Tribune Report

Islami Oikya Jote, a founding partner of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, yesterday quit the political combine.

However, hours after that announcement came, two former members of the Islami Oik-ya Jote (IOJ) said that the IOJ was still with the alliance.

During its triennial council at the Insti-tution of Engineers Bangladesh auditorium yesterday evening, IOJ chief Abdul Latif Nejami announced that they were severing their long-time ties with the BNP.

He said strengthening the party’s orgnisa-tion was more important that staying in the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance.

Hours later, another faction of the IOJ held a press conference at the Gulshan o� ce of Khaleda Zia – BNP chairperson and head of the alliance – and announced that the IOJ was still with the alliance.

At the press conference held yesterday evening, Abdur Rakib, senior vice-chairman of IOJ, told journalists that the a meeting of the party’s highest policymaking body, Ma-jlish-e-Shura, held on Wednesday at its Pura-na Paltan central o� ce decided to stay with the 20-party alliance.

Rakib also accused Chairman Nejami of act-ing against the party’s interest and said that as per the party’s charter, Nejami and his follow-ers were automatically expelled for that.

He claimed that he was now the chairman of the party because Nejami had been ex-pelled.

This comes just two days after the BNP staged a major political programme in Dha-ka on Tuesday after a long time. The BNP did not invite any of its alliance partners to take part in the rally at Nayapaltan.

Earlier, Abdul Latif Nejami said they did not have any grievances against anyone, nor

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Is 20-party alliance unravelling?n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

It has been nearly a decade since the last time the BNP-Jamaat-led 20-party alliance was in state power.

And now, the unravelling of the political combine, that was rumoured to have begun last year, has come to the fore with the quit-ting of a long-time partner – the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ).

The IOJ was one of the founding partners and the third biggest member of the alliance that started o� as a four-party combine 17 years ago under the leadership of the BNP.

But in terms of organisational activities, size and supporter base, the IOJ has never been anywhere near its two bigger partners – the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.

The party’s top leadership are all religious teachers; and their students and followers from their respective home districts form the supporter base.

This means that the party does not have a countrywide supporter-base and its activ-ities are not spread across the country; they are rather concentrated in a handful of areas where the top leaders have in� uence.

In the 2001 national elections – in which the alliance ran away with two-thirds major-ity in the 300-seat House – only two of IOJ’s leaders were elected parliament members. In the next parliamentary elections in 2008, the alliance won 33 seats and none from the IOJ emerged winners.

The � oodgate was opened last year by the National People’s Party (NPP), who quit the alliance accusing the BNP of giving them no space in decision-making.

Yesterday, when IOJ chief Abdul Latif Ne-jami announced departure from the alliance, he did not say anything directly. He only said they were going to concentrate on organi-sational activities and make preparations

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Life of crime is child’s play n Syed Samiul Basher Anik and

Mohammad Jamil Khan

In the frontier area of Hili in Dinajpur dis-trict, truants and street children working in the lucrative smuggling trade are pooh-poohing the notion that poverty need be anybody’s destiny.

Rahmat always wanted to be a school teacher, but the sudden death of his parents in a 2014 road accident changed all that.

Alone after his parents’ passing, the twelve-year-old drifted from Dinajpur town to the frontier land port of Hili.

At Hili Railway Station, Rahmat discovered a group he could belong to, found a lucrative profession and a new dream to aim for.

Rahmat’s new-found family consists of several hundred children who have found a way to beat life’s iniquities. His new family of street street-children who have become smugglers call him Chhoto Mia because he successfully smuggled goods from India within months of his arrival.

The children take certain risks as carri-ers of smuggled goods but say the pay out-weighs the danger.

“I make between Tk300 and Tk500 everyday as a carrier. I can’t wait till I be-

come the head of my group and others work under me. There is money to be made. Life will be posh once I succeed,” the pre-teen told the Dhaka Tribune.

Rather than being browbeaten by adver-sity, Rahmat has the competitiveness of a budding entrepreneur. “I earn a minimum of Tk300 a day, how much do you make?”

The going rate for successfully smuggling twenty packets of spices into the country is Tk500. Frequently, the children also carry three or four bottles of phensedyl, a highly addictive codeine-based cough syrup banned in Bangladesh, to make additional money.

“The demand is high for phensedyl. We carry four to � ve packets of spices inside our shirts and two or three bottles of phensedyl on each trip in exchange for Tk100. We do four or � ve runs a day,” Rahmat said.

Fertilisers, spices, local cigarettes and narcotics, especially phensedyl, top the list of Indian goods smuggled into Bangladesh.

Bangladesh law enforcement is rela-tively lenient towards errant children, the

young smugglers say.The Dhaka Tribune met 12-year-old Sha-

heen who was caught red-handed on the rail-way tracks in front of the station by Border Guard Bangladesh while on a smuggling run.

The child toppled over under the weight of his contraband load, packed tightly under his clothing, after the BGB gave him chase.

Because of the weight of his burden, Shaheen could not stand up again without assistance.

The BGB threatened to rough him up but let him go after local residents intervened.

Shaheen told the Dhaka Tribune that law enforcers usually let young smugglers go because the volume of goods is so small. He said they typically allow the children to carry four bottles of phensedyl to Bangla-desh from India without any hassle.

Hili residents say most young smugglers are either orphans or come from negligent households – either way, they are essential-ly on their own.

Shaheen’s mother died a few years ago and his father Nayan is an alcoholic.

“We make four or � ve trips a day. Even if we are caught, cases are never � led against us, so it is easy to make money,” Shaheen said.

Some children painted a less rosy pic-ture of what they endure at the hands of law enforcers, saying they are sometimes soundly thrashed. Girls also work as smug-glers and are vulnerable to sexual as well as physical abuse if caught.

Five hundred taka a day is a small for-tune for a child and the prospects of � -nancial gain drives truancy in and around Hili. School authorities said absenteeism was frequent as children skipped school to make money smuggling.

They added that the more conscientious students treat smuggling as a kind of ex-tra-curricular after school activity.

Mohammad Tasir Uddin, headmaster of Satkuri Government Primary School in Hakimpur upazila, said although the num-ber of children engaged in smuggling had decreased, it remains a problem.

“Poorer children and orphans, especial-ly, are involved in smuggling. Sometimes, the children of black marketeers carry on their parents’ trade because they are less likely to get caught than their elders,” he added.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

Five hundred taka a day is a small fortune for a child and the prospects of � nancial gain drives truancy

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

News2DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

One IOJ faction quitswere they under pressure from any quarters.

The decision to quit comes from a realisa-tion that now is the time to unite the Islamist parties and religious scholars in the political � eld, said Nejami.

BNP’s Senior Vice-Chairman Maj (retd) Ha� zuddin Ahmed alleged that IOJ’s depar-ture was part of a government conspiracy hatched to create rifts in the opposition al-liance. “The evil design to split the alliance will not be successful,” he a� rmed. Maj Ha� z also said in a programme at the Nation-al Press Club yesterday that the BNP itself was enough to bring the government down through movement.

“From now on, Islami Oikya Jote will do politics independently. That is why were are quitting the 20-party alliance. We are no more a part of the alliance,” Nejami said.

“Islami Oikya Jote will from now on con-centrate on organisational activities while also upholding its individuality as a party and take preparation for competing in all 300 constituencies in the next national elec-tions,” he said.

The 20-party alliance � rst came into being as a four-party electoral combine in January 1999 and IOJ was one of the founding partners.

Alongside the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, the other partner of that alliance was Bangla-desh Jatiya Party (BJP), an o� shoot of the HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party. l

Is 20-party alliance unravelling?for the next national elections.

But the current nature of BNP’s terms with its partners became evident when the party did not invite any of its partners to join the Nayapaltan rally two days ago.

Immediately after the NPP quit the com-bine last year, another faction of the lit-tle-known party stepped up and excommu-nicated the dissident faction, saying they were still very much with the alliance.

The same thing happened yesterday. Hours after the IOJ quit, two other factions of the party announced forming a new IOJ say-ing they were still part of the alliance.

So, just like what happened after the NPP quit last year, the alliance is still technically a 20-party partnership.

BNP leaders are saying that the quitting of any of the alliance members would not have any impacts in their politics.

“It is like taking a bucket of water out of the ocean ... Many have left before and they simply disappeared from the political scene. If someone leaves the ideological movement, it is them who will lose out, not the alliance,” Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, joint secretary general of the BNP, told the Dhaka Tribune last night.

“We tried to accommodate all the political parties in a democratic movement. Our door is open for all. So, if anyone leaves the alli-ance, it is not a problem,” he said.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s politi-cal adviser Shamsuzzaman Dudu said: “It is a political alliance. There will be ups and downs. Some will leave and some will join. Those who want to stay with us will be there. Those who want to leave will not be there.

“But a democratic movement is ahead of us. And for that all the forces will be united.”

Even during last month’s municipality elections, IOJ’s mayoral candidates contested independently after it had failed to convince the BNP to leave some seats for them. At that time, the party openly expressed discontent at the BNP’s rigidity to share seats.

Before the elections, BNP’s acting secre-tary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir re-portedly told IOJ chief Nejami that the BNP

was facing troubles because of them.Nejami told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday:

“We stayed with them [the BNP] for a long time. They wanted to get rid of the trouble. So, we have freed them from the trouble.”

BNP insiders said if the smaller partners decide to leave the alliance, the party would not pursue any of them.

“We will not expel any parties from the al-liance but if any of them leaves, we will not request them to stay,” said a mid-level leader of the BNP.

The Islami Oikya Jote was formed by Shai-khul Hadis Azizul Haque in 1990. The party had one lawmaker each in the � fth and sixth parliaments formed in 1991 and 1996.

It got tagged with the BNP, Jamaat and Bang-ladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), an o� shoot of Ershad’s Jatiya Party, to form the four-party alliance.

Later, the party got split and two more parties were formed – Khelafat Majlish and Jamiyate Ulamaye Islam – which are now partners of the alliance.

Yesterday, these two parties announced forming a new Islami Oikya Jote and staying in the 20-party alliance.

When contacted, Prof Emajuddin Ahmed, a veteran political scientist, said: “If Jamaat, Isla-mi Oikya Jote and other small political parties leave the alliance, it will not be a problem for the BNP. Rather it will improve the BNP’s image.

“The BNP has nothing to lose. BNP has to do politics against the Awami League. So, the party should be more organised and organi-sationally stronger.”

Emajuddin, former Dhaka University vice-chancellor, also said that although it was an electoral alliance, the last few elections have proved that the expansion of the alliance did not add to the BNP’s strength in the battle of votes. “So, if they leave the alliance, BNP should not be worried.” Political scientist Prof Ataur Rahman also sees the quitting of an Isla-mist party as a positive for the BNP.

“Jamaat is basically a conservative and a dying political force. If the BNP walks alone and it can create secular image and it will only bring good results,” he said. l

Incident-free Jamaat shutdown passes o� n Tribune Report

The daylong general strike called by the Ja-maat-e-Islami passed o� without incident in the capital and no untoward situation was re-ported elsewhere in the country either.

The city remained busy as usual, with people commuting to their workplaces by both public and private transports, and busi-nesses opening on time. There were also queues of passengers waiting for transports at many bus stops.

The number of buses and other public transports was not very high on the road in the morning but it increased as time went by.

Long-haul buses also left for their destina-tions in di� erent districts across the country when the strike was in force.

Dhaka residents said they were initially

fearful of falling prey to violence on the road and were reluctant to go out, but nothing bad happened eventually.

Police sources said none was detained during pre-shutdown raids in the capital.

The strike was peaceful in Dhaka, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commis-sioner Maruf Hossain Sarder.

On Wednesday, Jamaat called the strike after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for the party’s ameer Motiur Rah-man Nizami in the appeal seeking his acquit-tal.

Meanwhile, like Dhaka, the strike drew a lukewarm response in Chittagong and no un-toward incident happened.

Additional security forces were deployed in the port city to ward o� possible acts of vi-olence, said Debdas Bhattacharya, additional

commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.

Jamaat members brought out no proces-sion in support of the strike.

A good number of public and private transports were seen on city streets during the strike while heavy vehicles and long-haul transports also left for their destinations.

But classes were not held at educational institutions.

Chittagong Export Processing Zone sourc-es said operations inside the zone continued in full swing and workers also showed up for work like regular days.

Operations at Chittagong port also re-mained normal as goods were loaded and unloaded without any disruption.

Chittagong Railway Station sources said train services were not disrupted. l

BNP leader RA Gani in ICUn Tribune Report

BNP Standing Committee member RA Gani was shifted to the intensive care unit of Square Hospital last night as his physical condition deteriorated.

Syrup Kabir Khan, an o� cial of the BNP chairperson’s media wing, told the Dhaka Tribune that Gani was admitted to Square Hospital on Wednesday due to various old-age complications.

Gani was set to be taken to Thailand on Friday for better treatment.

“But his situation worsened suddenly on Thursday night,” he said.

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir went to the hospital. l

First phase of Biswa Ijtema begins todayn Mohammad Jamil Khan and

Raihanul Islam Akand, Gazipur

With religious sermons by Islamic scholars after Fazr prayers, the � rst phase of Bis-wa Ijtema is set to commence today on the banks of Turag River in Tongi.

Ignoring yesterday’s countrywide har-tal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami, scores of Muslims from 17 districts of the country has already amassed at the venue to perform Ijtema, the second largest congregation for Muslims after the Hajj.

The 160 acre land was already full of devo-tees although the organisers divided the Ijte-ma in four phases for the � rst time this year.

Devotees were seen coming to the venue on buses, trucks, cars and pickup vans along with their necessities. Golam Salayek, who came from Madaripur, expressed his anger over Ja-maat for giving hartal just a day before the Ijte-ma. He said BNP and Jamaat did the same last year that created problems for devotees.

Organisers said that the local devotees will have to cook and arrange their food by themselves but special steps have been taken to provide food for the foreign devotees.

Gias Uddin, one of the organiser, told the Dhaka Tribune that nearly 20,000 foreign devotees have already reached the venue and hopefully some more would join in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Religious Minister Prof Motiur Rahman yesterday inaugurated a free medical camp at the venue organised by Hamdard.

Apart from that, government and private organisations have set up 54 medical camps around the Ijtema � eld to provide treatment to the devotees.

Five control rooms have also been set up to assist the devotees, one by city corpo-ration, one by district administration, one by Rapid Action Battalion, one by policeand one by Ansar members. A total of 14 watch towers – nine by RAB and � ve by police – have been set up around the Ijtema ground.

About security steps, Gazipur Police Su-perintendent Harun-or Rashid told the Dha-ka Tribune that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure security of devotees and nearly 12,000 police members are stationed around the venue.

The � rst phase of Ijtema will end on Jan-uary 10 and the second phase will begin on January 15, ending on January 17. l

Life of crime is child’s playHakimpur Mayor M Sakhawat Hossain Shilpi claimed under-age smugglers were migrants from elsewhere in Dinajpur district, saying: “These smugglers are not local children but come from other areas.”

But Hakimpur police station O� cer-in-Charge Ahsan Habib said the demand for children in the smuggling trade hadgrown so great that children were sometimes even rented out to smuggling rings by their guardians. l

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TFRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Brother of slain IS IT expert � nances local militants n Kamrul Hasan

Police in Dhaka have claimed that the elder brother of Saiful Haque Sujan, a UK-based businessman who later became a computer hacker for the Islamic State and killed in an air strike in Syria on December 10, is also in-volved in terror � nancing in Bangladesh.

At least � ve family members and relatives of Saiful including his wife Saima Akhter Mukta and elder brother Ataul Haque Sabuj are currently working for the IS either in Syria or in Spain, several police o� cials con-� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune.

Saiful was killed near Raqqah in a US-led air strike.

Investigators claimed that they had foiled attempts of militant activities in early De-cember by arresting Saiful’s father Abul Hasanat, 67, and four others with Tk39 lakh in their possessions.

Saiful owned iBacs Technologies, an IT � rm established in 2005 in the UK. His broth-er Sabuj, who lives in Spain, is the managing director of the � rm. Sabuj moved to Spain around six months ago and wed a converted Muslim woman.

The company operates business in the UK,

the USA, Denmark, Jordan and Australia, ac-cording to the website.

Investigators said that they had launched probe against iBacs and its accounts after the arrest of the � ve persons in Dhaka. They found that iBacs is used as a platform for � -nancing terror out� ts in at least 10 countries.

Detectives said that the accused were col-lecting funds and recruiting members for a terrorist organisation, but did not want to disclose the name of the out� t.

Police say Saiful’s widow Saima, her young-est sister Rabeya Akhter Tumpa along with Saiful’s friend Shariful Islam Emon, another UK-based IT entrepreneur, with three tod-dlers are currently working for the IS. Emon and his wife travelled to London with Saiful.

DB Inspector Kabir Hossain lodged a First Information Report with Tejgaon police in connection with the arrest on December 9.

The case was � led under the Anti-Terror-ism Act accusing seven people – Saiful and his two brothers Sabuj and Hasanul Haque Galib, 15; Saiful’s father Hasanat; his brother-in-law Tajul Islam Shakil, 25; iBacs’s Dhaka o� ce Ac-countant Nahiduddozza Miah, 30, and a so-called house tutor Nahidul Islam Nahid, 19.

“We arrested them in Dhaka when they

were handing over Tk38.86 lakh to terrorists,” DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said.

According to the FIR, Hasanul and his fa-ther Hasanat, and Nahiduddozza, Nahidul and Tajul were active operatives of a militant organisation.

They gathered in front of TCB Bhaban in the capital’s Karwan Bazar area on December 8 to carry out subversive activities in the capital. However, the case did not mention the name of the out� t they were working for. The money was seized from the possession of Hasanat.

Investigators said they were examining all the � nancial details of iBacs.

According to the FIR, Ataul and Saiful had sent the money to Nahiduzzaman recently through one Anwar of “Binimoy Money Ex-change” in Motijheel to carry out militant activities.

The police also interrogated Saiful’s step mother Momtaz Begum, who had identi� ed Saiful from his photograph, and her 12-year-old son Ehsanul Haque Sakib recently. Later they were released.

The family said Saiful had gone to the UK for studies in 2003. In late 2014, he took his pregnant wife and their son, and nephew Aman to London. l

Another Iskcon temple attack suspect confesses n Our Correspondent, Dinajpur

A youth detained over the gun attack on an Iskcon temple at Kaharole of Dinajpur on De-cember 10 has given confessional statement in the case.

Dinajpur’s Additional Judicial Magistrate Nazmul Hossain recorded the statement of Abdur Rahman Pintu, 20, on Wednesday night.

Later, Pintu and his accomplice Sarwar Hossain, 33, were placed on a � ve-day re-mand each following a plea by DB Sub-In-spector Bazlur Rashid in another case � led over the gun attack on Italian pastor Piero Parolari, 57, near the BRTC bus terminal in Dinajpur town on November 18.

Pintu, a honours � rst year student of Di-najpur Government College, was detained along with Sarwar on January 3, based on information given by detained JMB member Shariful Islam, 28.

Shariful, who was caught while � eeing af-ter the attack, made confessional statement before a court on December 17.

At least two people were injured as three miscreants including Shariful launched the attack when a religious meeting was under way. Locals chased and caught Shariful while his accomplices � ed the scene on the motor-cycle. l

DU, JU teachers observe work abstentionn Tribune Report

Teachers of Dhaka University and Jahangir-nagar University yesterday abstained from work and staged sit-ins protesting what they described as discrimination against teachers in the eighth pay scale.

During the sit-in held in front of the Arts Faculty building, Dhaka University teachers threatened to go on inde� nite strike from Jan-uary 11 if their demands were not met by then.

They also demanded punitive measures against government o� cials who had op-posed the “peaceful movement” of teachers.

Bangladesh University Teachers Federa-tion Secretary General Professor ASM Mak-sud Kamal spoke among others.

Meanwhile, Jahangirnagar University

Teachers Association (JUTA) observed a half-day work abstention and demanded a sepa-rate pay scale for teachers. No class or exam-ination was held at the university.

Around 50 teachers of the university joined the sit-in in front of the new Arts Fac-ulty building at midday.

They said a separate pay scale was neces-sary for protecting the rights and dignity of teachers.

JUTA General Secretary Prof Mafruhi Sat-tar said there would be sterner protests if the demands were not met.

Prof Syed Kamrul Ahsan, dean of the Arts and Humanities Faculty, urged the govern-ment to set the minimum salary of teachers in line with the pay of teachers in other coun-tries such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. l

Task force on cards to solve pay scale disparity n Asif Showkat Kallol and Shohel

Mamun

The government yesterday decided to form a task force to solve immediately the discrim-ination in salaries and grades created after awarding the eighth pay scale, prompting the public university teachers to go for demon-stration.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the three-member core committee of secretaries to form the task force, following an unsched-uled meeting at her Cabinet Division o� ce at

Bangladesh Secretariat, o� cials said. After its formation, the task force

would be asked to submit a report to the authorities in three months, said a member of the core committee, which was formed on January 4 headed by Cabinet Secretary Sha� ul Alam.

It would try to settle the discrimination, particularly in cases of public university teachers, Bangladesh Bank employees and o� cials of 26 cadres.

The o� cial said the prime minister has advised to hold consultations with the

� nance minister in taking any decision in this regard.

“I think this kind of task force will not be able to solve the discrimination of public uni-versity teachers,” Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, general secretary of Dhaka University Teach-ers’ Association, told the Dhaka Tribune last night. “The task force will be constituted only with the cadre o� cials.”

Following the PM’s instruction, Principle Secretary to the Prime Minister’s O� ce Md Abul Kalam Azad, Senior Public Administra-tion Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowd-

hury and Senior Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed held a long meeting with the repre-sentatives of 26 cadres at the Finance Divi-sion.

O� cials said the teachers’ representa-tives were invited at the meeting, but no one joined the meeting.

“No fruitful result came out at the meet-ing, however,” said an o� cial.

Public university teachers have already announced to go for an inde� nite strike from January 11 unless the government reviews the pay structure. l

Bangladesh Bank workers protest in front of the entrance against their relegation in the eighth pay scale yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016News4D

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5 years on, Felani’s family still waiting for justicen Tribune Report

The family members of Felani Khatun still hope that they would get justice for the mur-der of the 15-year-old girl by the members of Indian Border Security Force in 2011.

On the � fth anniversary of her death yes-terday, Felani’s parents organised special prayers and free foods for the poor and desti-tute people at their house in Kurigram.

“The self-confessed killer [constable Ami-ya Ghosh] was acquitted twice by a BSF court. We have long been waiting for justice but not sure when they [BSF] will hold a fresh trial and punish the killer,” Felani’s father Nurul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.

Amiya was � rst acquitted by a special BSF

court on September 22, 2013 and then on July 2, 2014 because of “inconclusive and insu� -cient” evidence against him. In the face of se-vere criticisms, the BSF authorities in August last year said they would consider holding a fresh trial in a new court.

BGB chief Maj Gen Abdul Aziz said that a BSF team was scheduled to visit Bangladesh soon to discuss about the fresh trial in the case.

A petition � led on July 14 last year reject-ing the second verdict is yet to be heard by the Indian Supreme Court. The court initially accepted the petition and sought explana-tion on the case from the government.

The hearing was deferred on December 15 last year after the designated bench had been reorganised. l

3 former BASIC Bank o� cials grilled over loan scamn Adil Sakhawat

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday interrogated three former BASIC Bank o� cials over a Tk2,200 crore loan scam.

The three – former deputy managing directors Fazlu Sobhan and Md Selim, and former deputy general manager Sipar Ahmed – were detained in connection with the investigation of the 56 cases � led by the commission in September last year. They were named as the prime accused in the cases.

They were brought to the commission in the morning and grilled in the ACC chairman’s room amid strict con� dentiality.

After interrogation, they were sent to the court, sources said. The investigating o� cers – ACC Deputy Director Md Ibrahim

and Deputy Director Hritik Saha – showed the trio arrested in two cases � led with Motijheel and Gulshan police stations, and submitted a petition seeking a seven-day remand order.

Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaisarul Islam set Jan-uary 11 to hear the remand petition.

Sobhan, Selim and Sipar were removed from their posts in the wake of corruption allegations.

BNP leader Tarique under ACC scannerOn Wednesday, the ACC at its regular meeting decided to initiate an inquiry against BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman.

ACC Deputy Director Harunur Rashid was tasked with run-ning the inquiry into Tarique’s assets and income sources.

An o� cial of the commission told the Dhaka Tribune the de-cision was made after questions regarding the BNP leader’s in-come and expenses in London were raised at the meeting. l

Quader: Trains to run on Padma Bridge from Day 1n Shohel Mamun

Along with motorised vehicles, Padma Bridge will also be open to trains when the bridge is inaugurated, the tentative date of which has been set in December 2018.

“We hope to open the rail connectivity from the very � rst day” Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said yes-terday in presence of Railways Minister Md Mazibul Hoque.

However, the Railways Ministry have yet to � oat any tender to construct the railway connectivity through the bridge.

Asked about the recent increase in the

bridge’s cost, Quader said: “There is noth-ing to be concerned about the increased cost for the construction of Padma Bridge. The project cost has increased to Tk28,700 crore from the cost was � rst estimated in 2010 be-cause the price of dollar has increased.

“We will earn back the expenditure – we are estimating to earn Tk34,034 crore in the � rst year of opening, which is more than our estimated cost. We will earn more in the coming years as well.”

An MoU was also signed between the bridge authority and Bangladesh Railway to arrange land for the proposed railway bridge over the Jamuna River. l

PRAYERTIMES

Cox’s Bazar 26 18Dhaka 28 15 Chittagong 25 16 Rajshahi 28 14 Rangpur 26 14 Khulna 28 15 Barisal 28 16 Sylhet 27 12T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:27PM SUN RISES 6:43AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW28ºC 10ºC

Teknaf JessoreFRIDAY, JANUARY 8Source: IslamicFinder.org

Fajr: 5:20am | Jumma: 12:05am Asr: 3:51pm | Magrib: 5:27pmEsha: 6:57pm

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016News 5

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DRY WEATHER

Climate projects frustrate Barguna localsn Nure Alam Durjoy, back from Barguna

The sluggish pace of climate resilient infra-structure projects in Barguna has triggered the ire of the locals, who also claim that sub-standard performance by authorities con-cerned and poor construction materials were making matters worse.

Under the Coastal Climate Resilient In-frastructure Project (CCRIP), the Local Gov-ernment Engineering Department (LGED) plans to construct a climate resilient road in Dhalua union and redevelop Barguna Sadar upazila’s Amtoly Bazar, which was nearly de-stroyed during Cyclone Sidr.

Both projects are part of the massive $150m-budget CCRIP, which is being im-plemented in 12 coastal districts since 2013. There is a 2018 deadline for the CCRIP, fund-ed by Asian Development Bank, Germany’s state-owned KFW bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Bangladesh government.

But during a recent visit to separate pro-ject sites in the area, the Dhaka Tribune found that locals were frustrated about the slow pace and the low-quality construction materials for the projects in their localities.

At the site of Amtoly Bazar redevelop-ment, this reporter found that construction work was un� nished with worn out building materials stored beside the road.

A local shrimp farmer named To� azel Hossain Moharaj alleged that the contractor had been doing an imaginary job at the site.

Every day, around 400 people come to the bazar which desperately needs an overhaul-ing soon, locals said.

Around 20,000 people will directly be bene� ted if the infrastructure is constructed properly, locals told the Dhaka Tribune, add-ing that the advantage would be best realised during rainy season when traders and villag-ers would be able to access the market.

However, they expressed their disap-pointment as two damaged bridges – which

act as access points to the bazar – were not included under the redevelopment plans.

Asking not to be named because of fear of reprisal, several locals told the Dhaka Trib-une that they are unable to raise their voices against the substandard work because of in-� uential political leaders of the area.

Meanwhile, visiting the site of the climate resilient road project in Dhalua union, similar public discontent was found. Locals claimed that low-quality construction materials were being used to build the 4km-long road.

Instead of creating a strong road surface, the di� erent components being used became crushed into powder whenever rollers went over them, the locals said.

The chairman of Dhalua union, Ajijul Haque Swpan, however claimed that a top-notch job has been done for the nearly-� n-ished project. “The work has been done well. The macadam is ready and only carpeting is left to be � nished,” he said.

Commenting on the sluggish pace of the

projects, Md Anwarul Islam, executive engi-neer at LGED’s Barguna o� ce, said work had fallen behind schedule because construction had to be stopped during the rainy season.

When asked about poor construction materials, he said: “Low-quality ingredients have already been removed from the project sites at Amtoly Bazar and Dhalua union.”

Meanwhile, during Dhaka Tribune’s visit to the district, the only positive performance was seen at a newly-built cyclone shelter in Amragasia village of Pokra union.

Villagers said the shelter – once � nished by the LGED Barguna o� ce – will be able to provide refuge to around 10 thousand people of the area, which is vulnerable to cyclones that regularly strike the coast.

Unlike the other two projects, this report-er found that workers were busy at this con-struction site.

Ansar Uddin, one of the labourers working there, said: “The standard and the progress of work are both good here.” l

Rohingya census set to beginn Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

The government is set to conduct a census to determine the number of undocumented Ro-hingya Muslims living in Bangladesh.

In the primary stage, photographs and data on Rohingyas living in six districts – Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Kha-grachhari, Rangamati and Patuakhali – will be collected.

The project titled “Census of the undocu-mented Myanmar nationals staying in Bang-ladesh” is slated to begin this month and will likely end in March.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (Chit-tagong Division) Joint Director Mohammad Emdadul Haque said such census were con-ducted in small-scale previously. “This time a large-scale enumeration will start in the Rohingya-inhabited areas. Some preliminary

works of the project have already been com-pleted,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

The census aims at achieving � ve objec-tives – preparing a coordinated database on illegal Rohingyas, collecting information and photographs, their current location, preparing socio-economic and demographic statistics and determining their permanent residence in Myanmar before they came to Bangladesh.

The in� ux of Rohingyas has been a con-tentious bilateral issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Naypyidaw does not recog-nise Rohingyas as its citizens.

It is unclear how many undocumented Rohingyas are residing in Bangladesh. But various estimates put the � gure between 300,000 and 500,000. About 33,000 Rohing-yas live in two camps at Ukhia’s Kutupalong and Teknaf’s Nayapara in Cox’s Bazar. l

E-� ling system in ministries from Marchn Asif Showkat Kallol and

Ishtiaq Husain

The government is going to implement a fully-� edged e-� ling system in ministries and government divisions in March this year aiming to digitilise Bangladesh under the Access to Information programme, o� cial sources said.

As part of developing a strong informa-tion and communication system among the government agencies, the Prime Minister’s O� ce (PMO) will execute the e-� ling system in all ministries o� ces.

The system is currently run at a few minis-tries and divisions as a pilot project.

Sources at the Finance Division said the e-� ling system in ministries and divisions will make the o� ces environment-friendly, reduce corruption and bribery among the government o� cials and maintain govern-ment secrecy of � le transfer activities.

The e-� ling system will be handled by a single person to minimise the risk of infor-mation getting leaked outside the govern-ment o� ces, the sources added.

PMO Secretary Suraiya Begum recently sent a letter to Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed in this regard. It says all government

o� ces should be connected to the Internet with maximum bandwidth for the e-� ling system. Though it is initially being set up in the ministries and divisions, the system will eventually extended to upazila level.

O� ce-based local area network will be set up, and the authorities will provide necessary equipment such as computers to the users.

The users will be given training in basic use of ICT and computers, such as Bangla Unicode and emails, the letter says.

The ministries and divisions will also ar-range scanners and point-of-sale printers to introduce the e-� ling system.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the sec-ond version of the e-� ling system is an updated edition of this programme that will de� nitely bring all the government o� ces to a new era of information and communication technology.

“After this technology is introduced, use of paper will be reduced to a great extent in di� erent government organisations,” he said.

The Access to Information (a2i) pro-gramme funded by the USAID and UNDP that works for digital innovations, will also estab-lish multimedia classrooms.

The objective of the programme is to in-crease transparency, improve governance and reduce the time, di� culty and costs of obtaining government services for un-der-served communities in the country.

The a2i programme was launched in 2007. Implemented by the PMO, the programme heralded a mindset change within the gov-ernment to embrace ICT as a powerful ena-bler for the nation’s socio-economic transfor-mation. The time-frame of the project’s � rst phase was 2006–2011. l

Devotees from 17 districts starts arriving at the Ijtema ground on the bank of the Turag River in Gazipur’s Tongi yesterday as the � rst phase of the congregation begins today RAJIB DHAR

‘After this technology is introduced, use of paper will be reduced to a great extent in di� erent government organisations’

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DB arrests owner of the 14kg smuggled gold n Tribune Report

The Detective Branch of police early yester-day arrested the owner of the 14kg smuggled gold seized on December 23 from Shahjalal International Airport.

Mahmudul Hasan Roni, 25, was arrested from the capital’s Banasree area in Rampura in a gold smuggling case � led with the Air-port police station.

Senior Assistant Commissioner of DB police Manjur Murshed said the arrest was made following confessional statement of Biman technician Abdus Sattar.

Abdus Sattar was arrested on Wednesday from the capital’s Uttara following informa-tion provided by the four previous arrestees in the case. Sattar was granted a 5-day re-mand on the same day by a Dhaka court.

The police o� cial said a Dhaka court has granted a two-day remand for Roni after po-

lice brought him before the court following the arrest with a 10-day remand plea.

When asked, Manjur Murshed said a total of eight people were accused in the case and police is on the lookout for the other two ac-cused.

According to the case statement, the � ight in which the gold was being smuggled came from Kuwait via Chittagong where the two accused women boarded as passengers. Lat-er, the men accused in the case handed over the gold to the women, who concealed it around their waist.

Customs intelligence held four involved with the smuggling – Anwara Begum, 30, Nahida Farzana Moni, 25, Anwar Parvez, 25, and Osman Sohel, 29, – and handed them over to Airport police. A case of later lodged against them with Airport police station but later it was handed over to DB for further investigation. l

ASHULIA BANK ROBBERY

Charge framing hearing Jan 18n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday � xed January 18 for charge framing hearing against 11 suspected militants over the killing of eight people dur-ing last April’s bank robbery in Ashulia.

Dhaka District and Sessions Judge SM Quddus Zaman took cognisance of the chargesheet and � xed the date on Thursday. He also ordered arrest of fugitive Palash alias Sohel Rana.

Ashulia Police Station’s O� cer-in-Charge Dipak Kumar Saha, also the investigation of-� cer, submitted two chargesheets – one for the killings and robbery, and the other for possession of explosives – on December 6.

The accused are Burhan Uddin, Al-Amin, Babul Sarder, Mintu Pradhan, Jasimuddin,

Abdul Baten, Mozammel Haque, Ukil Hasan, Mahfujul Haque, Shajahan Jamadar and Palash aka Sohel Rana. Police say they are members of banned militant out� ts Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.

On April 21, robbers shot dead seven peo-ple and injured 25 others in Bangladesh Com-merce Bank Ltd’s Ashulia branch before � ee-ing with Tk35 lakh. Locals captured and beat one of the robbers to death.

The robbery’s alleged mastermind Abdullah Al Baki was killed in a ‘shootout’ with law enforcers in November. Police said Baki, a JMB militant-turned-Ansarullah leader, carried out the robbery to fund militant activities.

Seven of the accused had reportedly con-fessed to their crimes before the court. l

Nine charged with killingex-tax commissionern Tribune Report

The Detective Branch yesterday pressed charges against nine persons over the killing of former tax commissioner Mohammad Abu Taher, who was murdered in his house on March 2 last year.

The accused are – alleged mastermind Nasir and his cousin Rasel, their associates Amir, Sohel, Rustom, Masud, Nur Alam, and Taher’s housemaids Selina and Nur Jahan, DB Senior Assistant Commissioner Iqbal Hossain told Dhaka Tribune on Thursday.

He said 10 persons had taken took part in the killing but they charged nine with the murder as police could not ascertain details of one of the accused.

He said Nasir and his cousin had a� airs with the housemaids, who informed them about the internal scenario of the house.

“Sujon, Masud and Nur Alam kept watch on the road in front of Taher’s house. Five others entered the � at and tied up Taher’s hands and legs before strangling him. They also cut Taher’s tendons to ensure his death,” Iqbal said.

Rustom and Sujon are absconding. Sujon was dropped from the chargesheet as his address could not be ascertained. Seven out of eight accused, currently in police custody have confessed to their crimes, Iqbal added.

Nasir worked as a driver for Taher but was sacked. He targeted Taher to exact venge-ance, the DB o� cer added. l

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016News 7

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Earthquake-hitBhashani university closed untill Jan 13n Our Correspondent, Tangail

Authorities at Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University yesterday de-clared the institution closed for � ve days starting tomorrow after cracks developed in one of its dormitories following the January 4 earthquake.

The decision came in an emergency meet-ing between the university’s department heads and teachers, led by Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Md Alauddin.

The VC said as female students residing at Jahanara Imam Hall started to panic after cracks started to appear on the walls, the de-cision to keep the university closed from Jan-uary 9 (tomorrow) till January 13 was taken.

University authorities said all exams dur-ing this period has been suspended.

A team of experts from Bangladesh Uni-versity of Engineering and Technology (Buet) will come to analyse the structural stability of the building following which further deci-sions will be taken, they added. l

Gas crunch hits Narayanganj residentsn Tanveer Hossain, Narayanganj

Narayanganj residents and local industries have been facing severe gas shortage for the last two days and the suppliers say the situ-ation will persist for at least couple of days.

The situation worsened yesterday, resi-dents complained. Production at over 450 factories was also hit.

But the gas crunch proved pro� table for local restaurants who reported brisk busi-ness. O� cials of Titas Gas Distribution and Transmission Company Limited said dirt ac-cumulated in the main transmission line was disrupting supply.

Areas hit by gas crisis include Dewbhog, Kashipur, Baburail, Paikpara, Shaheed Nagar,

Naluapara, Bhuiyarbagh, Chandmari, Isdair, Masdair, West Masdair, Jamtala, Chasara, Go-lachipa, and Data Road.

Galachipa resident Shankari Saha told the Bangla Tribune that the gas crisis hit on Wednesday afternoon. She said she had man-aged to cook once at night when the pressure was normal but could not reheat the food the next day as gas pressure was down.

Dawnchamber area’s resident Habiba Ak-ter Ananya wondered why the gas supplier did not inform consumers beforehand about the crisis.

“We could have been prepared ... The suf-fering is unbearable,” she said.

Local restaurants were packed as majority of the residents could not cook at home. “I

had to wait for quite some time as there were too many people,” said Chasara area’s resi-dent Sadika Antara.

GM Faruk, director of Narayanganj Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry, said produc-tion at ready-made garment, printing and dying factories was disrupted. “Titas gas company has promised us to solve the mat-ter as soon as possible,” Faruk, also a BKMEA vice president, added.

The supplier’s Naraganganj zone General Manager Sha� qur Rahman told Bangla Trib-une that dirt had accumulated in the main transmission line from Bakhrabad to Siddhir-ganj and it was disrupting the supply. “We’re working on it. I hope the problem will be solved within 48 hours,” he said. l

65% level-crossings in eastern zone illegaln Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

A large number of level-crossings have ille-gally sprung up over the years in the eastern zone of Bangladesh Railway allegedly due to lax monitoring of the authorities concerned.

The unapproved level-crossings have in-creased the risk of accidents by manifolds as some 50 trains leave and reach Chittagong Railway Station every day.

According to the Bangladesh Railway, over 65% level crossings situated in eastern zone of Bangladesh Railway were construct-ed without approval from the authorities concerned.

A total of 811 out of 1,245, rail crossings have been constructed illegally by di� erent government agencies as well as private or-ganisations, said railway sources.

It is alleged that most accidents occur at the level crossings due to negligence of

on-duty gatekeepers. On December 31 last year, a driver was

killed as a train rammed into a private car at Bengal Bridge level crossing of Fakirhat area in Sitakunda upazila.

“Primarily we have come to know that on-duty gatekeeper was absent when the accident occurred at Fakirhat level crossing which is also illegal,” said Himangshu Das, o� cer-in-charge of Government Railway Po-lice, Chittagong.

On February 12 last year, a person was killed and 15 others were injured when a train hit a bus at Ispahani rail crossing at AK Khan in the city. The railway o� cials blamed two on-duty gate-keepers who were absent during the accident.

As per the Railways Act, 1890, the private organisations which constructed the lev-el-crossings without obtaining permission from the railway authorities have to bear all the relevant cost, including posting gatekeep-

ers at the crossings for a period of minimum 10 years. After passing the period of 10 years, the responsibility of supervising the crossings falls on the shoulders of the railway authorities.

Md Shahidul Islam, chief enginner of the BR (east zone), said: “The unapproved level crossings have turned to death traps. Unap-proved level crossing poses a serious risk of collisions between trains and road vehicles. We are gravely concerned with the increasing number of fatal accidents taking place every year. We have to face vehement opposition from the local people whenever we try to take action against the unapproved cross-ings,” said the chief engineer, adding that illegal crossings were constructed mainly in high population density areas.

“Most of the approved level crossings were constructed during the construction of roads by the Roads and Highways Division, LGED, city corporations, municipalities, dis-

trict and union parishads,” added the chief engineer, adding that the dearth of gatekeep-ers was causing frequent accidents at the lev-el crossings.

“We have undertaken some concrete measures in this regard. We are hopeful that with the successful implementation of the measures, the number of accidents would come down to a signi� cant extent,” said the chief engineer.

According to railway sources, the gov-ernment undertook two separate projects to lower the number of accidents caused by exposed level crossings. Under the projects at a total cost of Tk97.18 crore, Bangladesh Railway will improve 346 level crossings in its east zone and 326 in west zone.

Under the project, a total of 1,038 gate keepers will be outsourced in the eastern zone while 851 gate keepers will be recruited at the western part of the Bangladesh Railway. l

Homeopath doctor stabbed to death n Our Correspondent, Jhenaidah

A homeopath doctor was stabbed to death at Baliakhali village, Jhenaidah sadar upazi-la yesterday afternoon. Jamiruddin Khaza, 80, a resident of Kalohati village under sadar upazila. He was a homeopathic practitioner.

Quoting locals, police said Khaza was working at his dispensary located at Bali-akhali Bazar around 3pm, then some uniden-ti� ed people came there and stabbed him in-discriminately that left him dead on the spot.

On receiving information, police reached the spot and recovered the body and sent it to Jhenidah Sadar Hospital morgue for an au-topsy. l

Gonojagoron Moncho during a protest in the capital’s Shahbagh calls for resisting the general strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday RAJIB DHAR

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Teachers of Khulna University observe a sit-in on the campus yesterday to press home their various demands, including removal of discrimination in the 8th Pay Scale DHAKA TRIBUNE

Tremor-prone Sylhet lacks proper safety measuresn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Sylhet divisional � re service o� ce is not properly equipped with appliances and equipment to conduct swift rescue operation as the area is situated on the danger zone of earthquake.

Despite having allotted two sophisticated ladders for the unit one year ago, they are yet to manage a garage for the machinery and in absence of which they could not bring those to the district � nally.

They are a turntable ladder and a snorkel ladder which are considered very e� ective equipment to carry out rescue drives during any earthquake-ensued disasters.

The turntable ladder is able to run op-eration 46-metre from the standing pointwhile the capacity of the snorkel ladder is 27-metre.

The concern appears following the Sun-

day’s earthquake across the country al-though the disaster barely left mentionable casualties in the city because of its remote epicentre in Imphal of India’s Manipur state.

However, the tremor injured a total of 33 peo-ple in the city, said Sylhet Chief Met O� cer Sayed Ahmad Chowdhury making warning that the area may feel strong jolt any time be-cause of staying on the danger point.

Sylhet Fire Service and Civil Defence Sen-ior Station O� cer Jabed Hossain Md Tarek told the Dhaka Tribune that: “At present the

city sees many skyscrapers and in this cir-cumstance, it does not has enough equip-ment for rescue operations during any natu-ral disasters in the buildings.”

Since Sylhet divisional � re service o� ce got allocation of a turntable ladder and snor-kel ladder one year ago, the authorities con-cerned were yet to manage a garage for the highly useful appliances, Jabed continued.

In reply to a query, he said: “There is no emergency exit in 20% of the buildings in the city while at least three exit points are need-ed for each high-rise establishment. Even we do not issue clearance certi� cate to those who fail to ful� l the requirement.”

Engineer Mostafa Shahriar, chairman of Bangladesh Institute of Engineers (Sylhet zone), said the city has no necessary meas-ures to run rescue operations during the tremor-ensued disasters and the building code was being violated there as well.

“This is why big disaster may appear any time as the area is situated in highly trem-or-prone zone for long. One upon a time, tin-shed houses used to build to remain safe from possible earthquake, but many people have been erecting high-rise establishments defying the building code while the ill move creates the fear of danger more,” the chair-man added.

He went on that Dauki fault, epicentre of earthquake, is very near to the district and the vicinity falls the area on the danger zone.

When contacted, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology’s Civil and Environ-mental department Prof Dr Jahir Bin Alam echoed the voice of Mostafa Shahriar, telling public awareness for the disaster could less-en the damages and Sylhet City Corporation authorities have taken initiatives for retro-� tting 23 vulnerable buildings in the city, to turn them into earthquake resistant ones. l

7 get life term for killing tradern Our Correspondent, Jessore

A court yesterday sentenced seven people to life-term imprisonment for killing a sand trader in Jessore town in 2012.

The convicts were Sumon Chowdhury, Raihan, Roki, Sabuj, Sohag, Jahangir and Na-hid Alam Nayan.

The court also � ned them Tk5,000 each, in default, to su� er one year more in jail.

According to the prosecution, some mis-creants hacked Bappi to death in Chachra Dalmil area of Jessore town on March 11, 2012 as a sequel to an altercation over soil and

sand trading.Victim’s father M Monir Hossain � led a

case against eight people with Jessore Kot-wali police station on the same day.

On December 26, 2013, sub-inspector of Kotwali police station Soyeb Ahmed submitted a charge sheet against nine people to a court.

Later, the case was transferred to Khulna divisional speedy trial tribunal from the Jes-sore court for quick disposal.

After examining the records and witness-es, Judge of the tribunal MA Rob Hawlader handed down the verdict acquitting two ac-cused. l

Suspected thief lynched n Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

A suspected thief was killed in a lynch-mob attack while he allegedly trying to steal val-uables, including gold ornaments, from a house at Paschim Angar Para in Ramganj upazila, Lakshmipur in the early hours of yesterday.

The deceased was identi� ed as Muslim Miah, 45, son of Sekandar Ali, a resident of Augankhil village of the upazila.

Quoting locals, police said Muslim had

entered the house of Bachchu Dewan at the village and tried to steal valuables, including gold ornaments around 3am.

Hearing screams of the house inmates, local people rushed to the spot. Then, local people caught him and gave him a good beat-ing, leaving him dead on the spot.

On receiving information, police recov-ered the body and sent it to Lakshmipur Sa-dar Hospital morgue for an autopsy.

Muslim was accused in several cases. Police detained three people in this connection. l

This is why big disaster may appear any time as the area is situated in highly tremor-prone zone for long

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Copywriting, its value and how to be good at it

Lucrative lettering

Why are we being told of this?For starters, copywriting is a useful and prerequisite skill to learn for the savvy writer. But that’s not exactly why.

Great novelists like Dashiell Hammett, F Scott Fitzgerald and Dorothy Sayers were all copywriters early in their careers, where they used their talents and turned it into hefty pro� ts. But that was all before the Internet arrived, and made this opportunity available within every doorstep for every closet writer to earn an easy buck. That was before companies started hiring young lads as full-time copywriters to look after their social media and digital marketing content.

If you have a talent in writing, copywriting should come easily to you. Why not use it?

What is it?Let’s keep it simple; any form of written content used to create awareness about a commodity or persuade people about its value can be termed as copywriting.

Is it in demand?The dry-cleaning � yer you got with the morning paper, your promotional inbox full of mail from retailer stores, websites hosting banners about the latest SUV Vehicles; these are all informative and persuasive communication crafted by copywriters.

Moreover, their copy is used virtually everywhere, including social networking sites, in catalogs, and even on shampoo bottles! Once you realise that the copy isn’t limited to magazine ads and TV spots, you begin to understand how massive the industry is, and its potential for those with a love of words and the motivation to use that passion for some monetary gain.

Although there are numerous copywriters working at advertising and digital marketing agencies, the opportunity for new writers is through freelance work for a numerous companies, including retailers, banks, magazines, universities, health-care providers and many others. There’s virtually no industry that doesn’t utilise copywriting.

What do we need?So what does it take to acquire this form of work? As a creative writer, you should already possess most of the required skills, from an aptitude in language to a facility with grammar.

An e� ective trait of writing e� ective copy is being able to utilise familiar cultural themes and references, hence being an avid book, magazine, newspaper and even blog reader will work in your favour.

What are the basics?While an advertisement may be just a few sentences or have more than a thousand words in content, every form of copy must get the consumers’ attention, appeal to their interests and desires, and induce them to take action. This is called the AIDA model.

Four essential components were just mentioned:

AttentionThe advertisement’s headline must grab the reader’s attention enough to convince him/her to read on further.

InterestThe � rst part of the advertisement’s body should re� ect the relevancy of the topic and convey the bene� ts of the commodity in a way that holds the reader’s interest.

DesireThe second half of the body must appeal to the reader’s wants and needs, and produce a positive emotional response.

ActionThe � nal part of the advertisement must suggest exactly what the reader should do, preferably with a sense of urgency. This is referred to as the call to action.

The sheer potency of your copywriting shall almost always be based on these four components.

How do we develop?Now that the basics have been covered, � nd a few print advertisements which appealed to you and a few which didn’t. Break down each one into the AIDA elements, and analyse how the copywriter used them to write a successful advertisement. Exactly which words or phrases interested you? Why?

Once you � gure out how a good copywriter does it, it’s time to look at your pile of less successful ads to identify their � aws and come up with ideas to improve them. Did the copywriter miss a step in AIDA? Fail to grab your attention at the very beginning, or somewhere in between? Was there no compelling call to action?

Now comes the fun part, where you pick one to rewrite. This will be the � rst sample advertisement you create to seek copywriting work, commonly known as a spec. Start by brainstorming tens of alternate headlines which are in line with the concept and theme of the advertisement. Select your favourites and get the opinions of others (di� erent opinions matter greatly to understand the target readers) on which

headline is the most e� ective.Move on writing the body, keeping AIDA

in mind. A simple way to do this is to picture one speci� c customer, and concentrate your skills into forming words to grab his/her attention, interests, desires and create a relevantly powerful call for action.

The next step is what most amateur copywriters don’t do, in the interest of sparing time, which is to walk away from the advertisement for a period of time. This is because when you come back with fresh eyes, you’ll spot areas for improvement. When you have a draft you’re proud of, have someone read it to you. If your reader sounds mundane or trips over any lines, you have more work cut out for you.

Keep repeating the process till you get the hang of it. When you’re � nished, gather them all into a single plain-text document, with no images, fancy fonts or formatting. Let your copy shine on its own.

And there you have it. l

The content was provided by Steam Pug Writers, a pack of experienced word-smiths and editors well-versed in producing dynamic content.

Contact them at steampu� ed@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/SteamPugWriters

Feature10DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Dhaka Dough

n Zertab Quderi

A walk down the foot over bridge from in front of the American Embassy to the opposite side led me to a most delightful address today – House 1/A, Road 2/A, Block J, Baridhara. The entrance to the ground � oor apartment is guarded by a simple wooden framed door. What lay behind that door was even simpler and more honest. I was welcomed by an earthy smell of wood and a whi� of co� ee.

Let me introduce you to Dhaka Dough – a brand new venture by a few environment and food enthusiasts comprising Muntasir Mamun, Shamima Akhter, Mr. Nomany, cubs from Kewkradong Bangladesh and others who have helped this dream materialise by lending a helping held from cleaning the space to donating old clothes and empty bottles.

Dhaka Dough is more than an outlet that sells organic foodstu� and Ethiopian co� ee. It’s a commendable marriage of the organic food philosophy with the recycling of eco-friendly by-products. The simple wooden furniture is all hand-made. The side tables have been made from applebox planks and round slabs of wood usually used by butchers. Empty bottles have been carefully sawed o� and turned into lightshades. The counter front has a beautiful image done in colored chalk by an artistic child. An LP player plays soft music to soothe the ears. With a seating arrangement of fourteen people, Dhaka Dough is not the place for hipsters, the sel� e or the check-in crowd. It’s been carefully crafted for those who look for and appreciate quality and organic food, or want to spend some time with friends over a cup of co� ee made from freshly ground

Dhaka Dough does not use any plastic materials to keep true to the eco-friendly philosophy. In addition, all the jams and preserves are made from only those fruits that are native, like guava

beans and butter cookies that smell divine. On the product list are rice grains, lentils, whole wheat brown � our, edible oils, jams, peanut butter, honey, powdered spice, etc – all sourced from carefully selected vendors from Bogra or made with local produce.

A long chat with the main brain behind Dhaka Dough revealed some pretty interesting facts. Muntasir Mamun is an engineer by profession but has dumped his career to pursue more challenging and rewarding interests like cross-country cycling, mountaineering, organizing and leading annual coastal clean-ups, and trying out new business ventures. He said that Dhaka Dough does not use any plastic materials to keep true to the eco-friendly philosophy. In addition, all the jams and preserves are made from only those fruits that are native, like guava. The bottles where the preserves are stored are properly washed and cleaned before they are used. Dhaka Dough grinds co� ee beans on a smaller scale, ensuring a fresher taste to the co� ee connoisseurs. The small packs where the coriander, cumin and other powdered spices are stored have been recycled from thread spools. The jars where Sundarban honey is kept are made from recyclable materials. Muntasir and the gang mean to use the walls of Dhaka Dough as a place for artists to showcase and sell their art pieces. l

Printed with permission of Dhaka Foodies source:http://thedhakafoodies.com/Buzz/Details?title=Dhaka-Dough

INSIDE

Reports that JICA has written to the civil aviation and tourism minister to indicate it will conduct an appraisal and survey of a master-plan to expand Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport o� er good news for passengers.

On present trends, with volumes growing 9.5% annually, the airport’s capacity of 8 million passengers a year is expected to be reached in 2018.

It is crucial for the economy that funding be found to plan and build bigger infrastructure in the near future.

Expanding the capital’s existing airport, with its established operations and communications links, carries a natural advantage in terms of time and resources, over building a new main airport from scratch.

There is certainly a strong case to proceed with the master-plan to erect a third terminal and build a second runway at Shahjalal as a matter of priority.

In tandem with plans to build new airports elsewhere, such as that promised for Cox’s Bazaar, it o� ers a sensible way forward for the country to grow trade and economic links.

The government should maximise the tax-payer funds available for improving airport infrastructure by ending subsidies to Biman Bangladesh Airlines and putting the chronically loss-making state airline in the private sector.

Tax-payer money would be far better spent on improving infrastructure and � ight engineering and training facilities to make Bangladesh an attractive hub for air travel.

Passengers are already well-served by better-managed airlines. Government funds should be entirely focused on improving civil aviation facilities and airports to attract more competitive and better quality airlines, not propping Biman up with endless subsidies.

Tax-payer money would be far better spent on improving infrastructure and � ight engineering and training facilities to make Bangladesh an attractive hub for air travel

Who will say no to the Sauds?

How if not mobile?The MFS success is almost completely dependent on the mobile companies succeeding. MNOs have had to face all sorts of teething problems as telecommunication start-ups. I am certain that they would do more towards expanding MFS as well

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PAGE 13

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PAGE 14

Bangladesh transforms despite its vicious politicsThe past 25 years have seen astonishing and unexpected transformations in social and economic welfare. Unless something extraordinary happens, Bangladesh looks to be headed for a political transformation involving the decline of at least one political dynasty

Both domestically and abroad, the royal family knows it can face down critics, because enough vested interests in the defence, oil, and foreign policy establishments of the West will � nd reasons to keep mollycoddling their rule

Airport expansion a more important priority than propping up Biman

11D

TEditorialFRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

BIGSTOCK

Opinion12DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

n Niaz Alam

Everyone expects this week’s visit by Bangladesh’s foreign minister to Saudi Arabia to be dominated by discussions of the estimated one

million Bangladeshi migrant workers in the Kingdom.

This is no surprise. As a major source of remittances for Bangladesh and invaluable supply of cheap labour for the oil-rich state, their future and welfare are naturally of mutual interest.

If the dragooning of Bangladesh and 33 other independent nations into a so-called “Islamic military alliance” tasked to � ght ISIL under Saudi command, courtesy of last month’s unilateral announcement by Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, is glossed over, few observers will be taken aback.

Among the many countries taken by surprise in December’s announcement is Togo, a nation where Christians outnumber Muslims and a majority of people hold indigenous beliefs, both of which are anathema to the Sauds’ domestic enforcement of Wahhabi endorsed puritanism.

That the Saudi list excludes Iraq and Iran, the two leading Shia states with a strong interest in defeating ISIL, and is an expansion of its highly sectarian foreign policy, which has latterly been pulverising civilians in Yemen, goes without saying.

‘Twas ever thus.From � ghting Nasser inspired nationalists

in neighbouring states with covert western help in the 1960s, and endorsing the butchery of Yamaha Khan’s junta in 1971, to it only taking 9/11 for it to cut ties with the Taliban in 2001, Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy simply projects the anti-democratic, brutally coercive sectarianism it practices at home.

Both domestically and abroad, the royal family knows it can face down critics, because enough vested interests in the defence, oil, and foreign policy establishments of the West will � nd reasons to keep mollycoddling their rule.

Hence, evidence that British exported bombs have been used by Saudi Arabia to target civilians in Yemen, in clear breaches of international humanitarian law, attracts scarce comment. The wider world largely only hears about the bloody, apparent proxy war being waged by Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Arabian peninsular, when the likes of CNN compliantly report “humanitarian” pauses in “Saudi-led” air strikes.

If the surreal election of Saudi Arabia to the chair of a panel of the UN Human Rights Council in September 2015 drew wider criticism of its human rights record, that was an exception to the rule.

Like ongoing coverage of Saudi Arabia’s mass executions at the start of the New Year and its ratcheting up of tensions with Iran, such outcry can be expected to pass. While the UK government was su� ciently embarrassed over revelations which emerged last year over its 2013 deal to help Saudi Arabia join the UNHRC in the � rst place for it to pull out of bidding for a $5

million prison training contract, the bigger picture can be expected to stay the same.

Weasel words that the executions are an “internal matter,” and an embedded conviction that the House of Saud brings stability which must be protected at all costs, are the order of the day as always.

No change there then. After all, when the UK � rst entered its mammoth $40 billion and counting Al-Yamamah “oil for arms” deal with Saudi Arabia in 1984, its government did not even have the � g-leaf of being dependent on Saudi oil, as it was embarked on a decade or so as a major exporter of North Sea oil itself. Business interests predictably trumped detailed reports of massive mutually assured corruption, which successive UK governments have consistently done their utmost to downplay.

The position of the United States is much the same. President Obama may have irked the Sauds with his rapprochement with Iran over its nuclear program, but the United State’s special relationship with the Sauds, dating back at least to the Second World War and the establishment of the Dhahran air

base, long before the stationing of troops during the � rst Gulf war that Osama bin Laden claimed annoyed him so much, is not altering any time soon.

As the history of the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s shows, given a choice between a theocratically led Iran, and the Emirates and kingdoms of Arabia, the US will stick with the fundamentalists in Riyadh.

On this note, it is worth noting that one outcome of Obama’s historic nuclear deal with Iran was a set of provisions buried in a large spending bill passed by the US Congress last month.

This provides for part of an $8.9bn � ne ordered to be paid to the US by France’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, for violating US sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and Sudan, to be used to pay compensation to the 53 Americans taken hostage at the American embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Victims of state-sponsored terrorist attacks including the 1983 killing of US

marines in Beirut are also eligible for bene� ts under the law, which extends to victims of the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings attacks on US embassies in East Africa.

Good news for the victims and their families of course, but as an example of expediency and American exceptionalism riding roughshod over mere principle, it takes some beating.

A French-owned bank, among whose alleged misdemeanors, was having links with Cuba, a country in which the US was quixotically alone for decades in imposing an embargo that Obama has (rightly) moved to dismantle, is forced by US law to help give restitution to Americans held hostage in Iran and people murdered by al-Qaeda in East Africa.

If this is the way international politics works, can it be any surprise that no country, aside from an Iran partly motivated by defense of Shia interests, wants to hold the Sauds to account?

The world community needs to wake up and start blowing away the cobwebs.

AQ condemns the Saudi government and conducts violent attacks against its interests, as does IS. In turn, it is the target of hostility from both IS and the Saudis who also regularly condemn each other.

But in their actions, aren’t they all the same in the damage they do to Muslim communities around the globe? Aren’t they each similar in their dissemination and enforcement of the harshest interpretations of Sharia and the most discriminatory forms of gender subjugation?

Or in their distaste for Islamic history, with its record of maintaining the pluralism which Sala� s and Wahhabis seem to hate so much?

The Taliban’s destruction of Buddhist sites, IS’s vandalism in the Levant, and the AQ-inspired desecration of Islamic heritage in Timbuktu by Boko Haram

and its allies, have drawn far more vocal global condemnation than the Saud’s “modernisation” of Makkah.

In his masterful history, Mecca: The Sacred City, the Muslim writer and former member of the Hajj Research centre Ziauddin Sardar has chronicled arguably far worse destruction in the holy city itself.

To anyone interested, I can only recommend reading his book and digesting the following paragraph he wrote to promote it: “The Makkah Royal Clock Tower, completed in 2012, was built on the graves of an estimated 400 sites of cultural and historical signi� cance, including the city’s few remaining millennium-old buildings. Bulldozers arrived in the middle of the night, displacing families that had lived there for centuries. The complex stands on top of Ajyad Fortress, built around 1780, to protect Mecca from bandits and invaders. The house of Khadijah, the � rst wife of the Prophet Muhammad, has been turned into a block of toilets. The Makkah Hilton is built over the house of Abu Bakr, the closest companion of the prophet and the � rst caliph.’’

Compare and contrast the way in which the militantly secular Atarturk government conserved Muslim and Ottoman heritage in Istanbul, and then try and say that the Sauds don’t get criticised enough and the status quo is the best for which the world can hope.

If you cannot, then hope that some Saudi citizens who want to peacefully bring about a secular liberal democracy that gives the vote to all residents and protects freedom of all religions start to speak up.

And that the world listens. l

Niaz Alam has worked on ethical business issues since 1992 and is a former vice-chair of War on Want. He is Chief Editorial Writer at the Dhaka Tribune.

Who will say no to the Sauds?

Both domestically and abroad, the royal family knows it can face down critics, because enough vested interests in the defence, oil, and foreign policy establishments of the West will � nd reasons to keep mollycoddling their rule

The world needs to wake up and start holding the Saudi royal family to account

The outcry over Saudi Arabia’s executions can be expected to pass REUTERS

Opinion 13D

T

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

n Mamun Rashid

In the last two weeks, I had two interesting meetings with BTRC seniors and the Bangladesh Bank boss. BTRC seemed to incline more towards hand-

holding telcos, and I consider this quite a good gesture. We must not marginalise or kill our golden goose.

Mobile network operators (MNO) deserve to be heard and their issues need to be handled with tact.

They are not only contributing big-time to the national exchequer, they have also signi� cantly helped in speeding up to our daily lives and paved the way for a truly digital Bangladesh.

Their endeavours have helped create a synergy at the bottom of the pyramid, and

now they are thinking about building up on health and agriculture solutions, which will no doubt help make way for further inclusive growth for Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Bank governor also mentioned how they are trying their best to help out MNOs to settle their international payments on time, and cultivate help from emerging � nancial products.

No matter who said what, the central bank, if I am not mistaken, is also thinking of allotting further opportunity space to MNOs for mobile � nancial services (MFS).

The central bank is quite possibly aware of how much MNOs have achieved thus far, and how further engaging them can build a more inclusive and diversi� ed mobile � nance industry in Bangladesh.

I’ve always felt that MFS should be led

by MNOs. Unfortunately, I was drowned out by the booming voices of a few other senior bankers and technology gurus. Well and good. I accepted the banker logic, citing better regulatory control.

Though it has mostly been treated as a payment service provider, Bangladesh has seen phenomenal growth in mobile money transactions.

The number of customers on MFS has increased to 31 million, whereas the number of active account may be around 12.5 million, while the number of agents stood around 550,000. However, with most of these agents overlapping, the actual number would not be more than 150,000.

To date, 28 banks have been allowed to operate mobile money transactions, and 20 banks have reportedly launched the business.

However, other than a handful, most of them have yet to make proper arrangements and adequate investment to launch services in proper and gain momentum.

BRAC Bank-owned bKash enjoys more than 85% market share, whereas Dutch Bangla Bank controls little less than 10%. The less said about the 18 other banks enjoying less than 5% market share, the better.

The phenomenal growth of MFS has put Bangladesh next to M-Pesa in Kenya and ahead of Smart Money in Philippines. Analysts believe, because of the size of the population, mobile-phone penetration, and to some extent operator’s e� ciency, Bangladesh will soon exceed Kenya.

As mentioned earlier, Bangladesh Bank kept MFS mostly bank-led, for this business to be more controllable and predictable from the point of (whisper with me) money laundering, and customer service ensuring.

However, there is growing disagreement on this, and the largest operator has been, in quite a few occasions, pointed at for failing to maintain the minimum possible compliance standards and knowingly, or maybe unknowingly, facilitating money-laundering and the � nancing terrorists.

Contrary to what we have been told, MNOs elsewhere are seen to be doing a good job.

Incidentally, 85% of all MFS transactions are being made over the counter, and mostly without proper tracking of sources and destination. Senders and receivers are very

easily hiding under one agent or the other. Intelligence agency investigations have revealed that accounts are being opened without proper source veri� cation or on the basis of false records, including forged NIDs.

Unfortunately, the biggest operator created most of the big problems here.

Making a case against them was out of the cards, since they very cunningly appointed former central bank and intelligence agency seniors to handle related issues.

I have seen this happening in many other emerging economies, where the senior civil-military bureaucrats are the biggest barriers to ensuring the lowest possible governance and accountability in the system.

There is no truth in saying that MFS operators’ success is somehow of greater value than mobile operators’.

In fact, the MFS success is almost completely dependent on the mobile companies succeeding. MNOs have had to face all sorts of teething problems as telecommunication start-ups.

If market concentration is a problem for M-Pesa, this should be similarly a problem for the largest operator here in Bangladesh as well.

MNOs are heavily investing in distribution network and spectrum.

I am certain that, provided more opportunities, they would do more towards expanding MFS as well -- making it more inclusive and adding actual product diversity.

What our regulators need to ponder hard

is the concept of the e-wallet. Making the MFS industry lopsided, inclining towards one or two large operators, may distort the entire banking industry.

One bank or subsidiary controlling the majority e-wallet will only help this to unwisely enjoy free � oat or lower deposit rates and command lending rates, thereby distorting the market.

We must think beyond the box, bring in more competition, as well as investment, in this opportunity space, and all the while ensure compliance of central bank rules and regulations.

We would de� nitely want to keep the “vested interest groups” away from here. l

Mamun Rashid is a business professor and � nancial sector entrepreneur.

How if not mobile?

The MFS success is almost completely dependent on the mobile companies succeeding. MNOs have had to face all sorts of teething problems as telecommunication start-ups. I am certain that they would do more towards expanding MFS as well

Mobile � nancial services are the future, but who should be its curator?

It makes sense for mobile payments to be handled by mobile network operators BIGSTOCK

Opinion14DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

n Tom Felix Joehnk and Forrest Coolson

Bangladesh’s social, economic, and political development is one of the great success stories of the past 25 years. But today, it is Bangladesh’s

politically dysfunctional “battling begums” -- Sheikh Hasina of the ruling Awami League (AL) and Khaleda Zia of opposition the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- that hold the country back.

Bangladesh has emerged from military rule as a � edgling democracy struggling to build essential economic and political institutions. It has made great strides in drawing children into schools, improving gender equality, boosting maternal and child health, and reducing poverty. Politically, there have been four successful elections in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2008. The opposition has won each time, an unmatched record in Asia.

These achievements are all the more remarkable given that since the � rst meaningful election in 1991 -- which followed a people’s revolt against military rule -- the losing party has never accepted the election results. To this day, the quality of elections in Bangladesh remains poor because both political parties lack integrity and demand the right to manipulate the outcome.

Since 2009, the traditional � ve-year rotation of political power between the two big parties has been replaced by open-ended majoritarianism. Hasina’s government has gained great in� uence in the judiciary, silenced media critics, and, critically, amended the constitution to cancel the caretaker government system for elections. These trends are worrying. The question in 2016, and probably for the rest of the decade, is what politics without an e� ective opposition party will look like.

The AL government, like the BNP-Jamaat coalition that ruled between 2001 and 2006, has hounded opposition leaders

by � ling court cases against them. Many of them are in jail, in hiding, or have � ed. The government has also gone after the BNP’s electoral ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami, a fundamentalist Islamist party.

A war crimes court has sentenced to death and hung several Jamaat and BNP leaders for crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Legal scholars and the United Nations have found that the trials were � awed, though the Bangladesh government has rejected such � ndings. More hangings, including that of the Jamaat’s chief, Motiur Rahman Nizami, are expected in 2016.

The BNP is a mess. It has been in opposition since 2006 and has long lost its power of patronage. Its leader, Zia, is frail and faces charges of corruption. Its rudderless and divided leadership has been making bad choices.

In 2014, it boycotted the elections because it feared the government would rig the election and believed that Western governments would force another election. But this allowed the AL to win an unprecedented re-election without a popular mandate. In early 2015, the BNP, in a mindless campaign to oust the government, resorted to killing civilians. This discredited it as a democratic force.

Going forward, Zia’s dynasty faces an interrelated triangle of self-in� icted problems. First, Tarique Rahman, Zia’s son

and heir apparent, is in exile in London and faces criminal charges in Bangladesh. This complicates the BNP’s central slogan: “Ziaur Rahman is our past. Khaleda Zia is our present. Tarique Rahman is our future.”

Second, the BNP is struggling to convince India that the country’s secular traditions would be safe under its rule. Third, Zia and her inner circle refuse to cut ties with the Jamaat, which opposed Bangladesh’s independence and promotes a conservative Saudi Arabian strand of Islam in what is a nominally secular and Su� country.

The parliamentary system has continued without meaningful opposition and probably will do so until 2019 when the next national election is due. Neither the BNP nor the Jamaat have any members in parliament. A court banned Jamaat from taking part in 2014 because it puts God above democratic process.

All this notwithstanding, social progress has continued with improving health outcomes, rising life expectancy, and falling poverty. Bangladesh remains self-su� cient in food production. And while progress towards women’s rights is slow, more women are entering the labour force and receiving an education.

Survey data shows that most people believe their children will fare better than them and feel that their own � nancial position is improving. The average household does not look towards the

government or foreign donors to solve their problems. Concern with corruption is universal, but the biggest reported social problem is dowry. Surveys also show that most Bangladeshis are strongly committed to a moderate strand of Islam and reject violence.

The economy has continued to chug along at around 6% growth -- with low in� ation, low unemployment, and the current account close to balance. Remittance in� ows by more than seven million Bangladeshi overseas workers continue to boost rapid spending growth of consumer durables. Rural areas -- where the majority of Bangladesh’s 160 million people live -- are changing rapidly with improving availability of food, electricity, and health care. The agricultural sector is mechanising and diversifying in response to rising incomes in the cities.

But there are clouds on the horizon. The economy is slowing: Export growth has fallen below its long-term trend and far fewer workers are taking up jobs in the Gulf countries than in the late 2000s. Faster growth is needed to provide better jobs for the two million people entering the labour force every year. But, beyond all these domestic challenges, the greatest risk to the economy is a slowing global economy.

The past 25 years have seen astonishing and unexpected transformations in social and economic welfare. Unless something extraordinary happens, Bangladesh looks to be headed for a political transformation involving the decline of at least one political dynasty. The BNP is still dreaming of a great comeback. Yet, few Bangladeshis can imagine the enfeebled opposition presiding over Bangladesh’s 50th birthday celebrations in 2021. l

Tom Felix Joehnk writes for The Economist. Follow him @tfexj. Forrest Cookson is an economist. This article is part of an EAF special feature series on 2015 in review and the year ahead. It has been reprinted by special permission.

Bangladesh transforms despite its vicious politics

The past 25 years have seen astonishing and unexpected transformations in social and economic welfare. Unless something extraordinary happens, Bangladesh looks to be headed for a political transformation involving the decline of at least one political dynasty

For Bangladesh, some kind of unexpected transformation is inevitable in the future

We have seen great economic strides in recent years NASHIRUL ISLAM

15D

TBusinessFRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Net� ix becomes ‘global TV network’ in 190 countriesStreaming pioneer Net� ix said it had signif-icantly expanded its global footprint to 190 countries, making its Internet TV service available in 130 new markets including India - but not China. PAGE 18

Fears for world economy wreak carnage on stocks and oilWorld stock markets tumbled and oil plumbed new lows yesterday as investors feared for the global economy on signs of a dramatic slow-down in powerhouse China. PAGE 17

Educated unemployment a bar to middle income status The government in 2016 will have to focus on addressing unemployment crisis among edu-cated youth as it has set a goal to reach the sta-tus of a middle income country in a few years, said economist Hossain Zillur Rahman. PAGE 17

Capital market snapshot: ThursdayDSE

Broad Index 4,676.1 -0.1% ▼

Index 1,126.9 -0.2% ▼

30 Index 1,771.3 -0.2% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 6,434.3 -1.9% ▼

Turnover in Mn Volume 160.0 -9.4% ▼

CSEAll Share Index 14,273.2 -0.0% ▼

30 Index 12,586.8 -0.1% ▼

Selected Index 8,685.3 -0.0% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 396.4 -2.0% ▼

Turnover in Mn Volume 12.2 -7.9% ▼

INSIDE

MAH plans to � oat Tk100cr IPOn Kayes Sohel

Mir Akter Hossain (MAH), one of the coun-try’s largest and oldest construction � rms, is expected to go public soon.

The company, an o� shoot of business conglomerate Mir Group, will � le a draft prospectus with the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission shortly.

The MAH is expected to mop up Tk100 crore from the market, which will be the � rst such company to be listed with the stock exchanges but subject to approval from the securities regulator.

Having over � ve decades of experience in the construction arena, the company plans to add big and sophisticated technology through new plants over the next couple of years. The funds will be used for this purpose.

MAH Managing Director Mir Nasir Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that the company plans to � oat an IPO for around Tk100 crore.

“With the IPO fund, the company will purchase latest and sophisticated construc-tion technology to make its foot stronger in the country’s infrastructure development,” he said.

“Actually we planned to list two or three concerns of our group since 2009. But the depressed market situation discouraged us to do so. Moreover, the regulator was very slow to approve an IPO,” he said, replying to a question why one of the oldest business group coming into the capital market so late. “Now we are expecting fair price of the IPO.”

The present annual turnover of the com-pany is US$43m (around Tk350 crore), he said adding that the company so far reinvest-ed from its pro� ts for expanding business.

To this end, the company recently ap-pointed IDLC Investments Limited for act-ing as its corporate advisor and issue man-ager for the IPO.

After a long process of organisational development, the company started its ac-

tivities in the year 1968 under its present managing director.

Since its inception the company success-fully executed diverse projects like con-struction of international standard high-ways and bridges, factory buildings of sugar and textile mills, as well as pharmaceutical complexes, functional buildings, interna-tional standard hotel buildings, auditori-ums, academies and warehouses, food and fertiliser warehouses, railway tracks, power plant, overhead tanks, discharge channels and so forth.

“We have made every construction work taking earthquake into consideration,” Mir Nasir said, replying to a question.

The company executed several roads, highways and bridges of international standard both individually and forming joint venture with internationally reputed construction companies like FF Cruz & Co.

Inc. of Philippines, Samwhan Corporation of Korea as well as China Harbour Engineer-ing Company and HH Consortium of China.

It has successfully executed prestig-ious projects like � ve-star hotel Sheraton, � ve-star hotel Radisson in Dhaka, 18-story Islami Bank Tower of Islami Bank Bangla-desh Ltd in Dilkusha, Dhaka, US Embassy Chancery Building, American International School, British High Commissioner’s New Residence and British High Commission’s Amenities Centre in Baridhara.

The company attaches importance to the co-operation of multinational companies and executed several projects of interna-tional standard by forming joint venture with internationally reputed construction companies like FF Cruz & Co. Inc. of Phil-ippines, Samwhan Corporation of Korea, China Harbour Engineering Company & HH Consortium of China and others. l

MAH Managing Director Mir Nasir Hossain

GP Smartphone and Tab Expo kicks o� n Tribune Report

A three-day GP Smartphone and Tab Expo 2016 – one of the largest expositions of smart devices – kicked o� at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city yesterday.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT Division, inaugurated the fair.

Addressing the inaugural session, Palak said: “Bangladesh will emerge as a leading mobile manufacturer soon alongside South Korea. The entire world will recognise our country as a particular mobile manufactur-ing destination.”

The junior minister urged all manufac-turers of smart devices to invest in Kaliakoir Hi-tech Park for which the government has already announced a lot of incentives.

Technology specialist Mustafa Jab-bar and Chief corporate a� airs o� cer of Grameenphone Mahmud Hossain were present at the inaugural ceremony.

Local and international technology

brands are showcasing their digital devices with special o� ers and gifts at the technol-ogy carnival.

The leading telecom operator Grameen-phone has announced a special EMI of only Tk2,563 for its Star subscribers and only Tk5,125 for general customers (only in pre-order stage) on Apple’s iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.

GP customers ob-taining this service will get a 1 year Apple war-ranty on the products, and a 50% discount on Heavy Browsing Non-stop Internet, which can be obtained eight times in two months with a 30-day validity. Moreover, the users will get a free 01711 number from a series of special GP numbers.

The Samsung Gear

VR and other devices of Samsung created hype among the Expo visitors and drew most of them to its Mega Pavilion.

Besides, there are cash discounts ranging between Tk500 and Tk25,000 on selected devices and lucky customers can also win Samsung 32” LED TVs daily and a sedan car at the end of the o� er. l

Business16DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Educated unemployment a bar to middle income status Economist Hossain Zillur Rahman stresses the need for ensuring good governance as a strategy to attract investment n Asif Showkat Kallol

The government in 2016 will have to focus on addressing unemployment crisis among ed-ucated youth as it has set a goal to reach the status of a middle income country in a few years, said economist Hossain Zillur Rah-man.

He said if the problem of educated un-employment was not solved, new graduates would remain a burden for the economy.

Former caretaker government adviser was talking to the Dhaka Tribune in a recent interview as he evaluated Bangladesh econ-omy and politics in the just-concluded year.

According to him, the government in 2015 was in comfort zone with no major natural calamity in the country and no external eco-nomic shock.

Besides, political calmness had been re-stored and investment environment got im-proved, though not sustainable, he added.

“Last year there was no major natural ca-lamity in the country and no external shock. The import prices of fuel oil and foods re-mained low,” Hossain Zillur Rahman, who is also executive chairman of Power and Partic-ipation Research Center (PPRC).

“But the investment situation remained stagnant and the GDP growth couldn’t be in-creased to above 7%.”

Accusing government of inertia about re-forms in administration, he said the govern-ment was not doing enough to ensure good governance which is important to attract in-vestment.

“According to the government statistics, the private investment remains only 21% of GDP. The ration has been standstill for last eight years, although the public investment increased from 5% to 8% of GDP.”

“It is a new phenomenon of the govern-ment where it has wanted to show the more public investment.”

Hossain Zillur Rahman said: “The govern-

ment claimed the total investment had been raised to 29% of GDP, but the average growth rate has not increased over the years.”

He accused the government of showing a Tk100 crore development project as Tk1,000 crore, which had stoked “in� ation in project cost.”

He claimed due to this, the investment ef-fectiveness was not working in the GDP.

Zillur Rahman said in Padma Bridge pro-ject, the Implementation and Evaluation Di-vision now questioned the rise of expenses and in a country like Bangladesh, such rise of cost is indicative of corruption.

He stressed the need to “restore demo-cratic rights and establish good governance” for a favourable environment for investment.

He said higher remittance earning and ag-ricultural production eased the pressure on government.

Zillur Rahman, however, criticised the government’s food procurement policy term-ing it as “corrupt.” He said farmers were not getting the bene� ts of bumper production as the prices they farmers received were lower

than production costs. While talking about people’s living stand-

ard, Hossain Zillur Rahman said over the years the expectation of improved living standard increased among common people as a large section of population had come out from hand-to-mouth living condition.

“People now want to spend more money than ever on quality education for their chil-dren while the expenditures on healthcare and transports have also increased.”

But the healthcare expenditures were get-ting higher and higher while the situation of public transports, particularly in cities, had not improved, he said. “People are still struggling for a better living standard as gap between income and rising cost continues to widen.”

He said democracy, good governance and a transparent banking sector are important for graduating to a middle income nation.

Zillur Rahman cited the case of China which was able to achieve high economic growth through ensuring good governance even in the absence of democracy. l

Stocks edge lower on pro� t bookingn Tribune Report

Stocks slipped in red with volatility yester-day, as investors booked quick pro� ts from previous two-session’s rally.

The market moved between negative and positive heavily, as intra-day volatility was nearly 30 points.

The benchmark index DSEX was margin-ally down almost 4 points to 4,676.

The Shariah index DSES inched around 2 points down to 1,126.

The blue chip comprising index DS30 was down 4 points to 1,771.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX shed 3 points to 8,685.

Pro� t booking took place mainly on food and allied, non-banking � nancial institutions, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications.

However, ceramics had a rally of 1%, fol-lowed by power 0.7% and banks 0.2%.

Trading activities also declined margin-ally as the DSE turnover stood at more than Tk643 crore, a slight drop of 2% over the pre-vious session. Losers outpaced gainers as out of 321 issues traded, 128 advanced, 140 de-clined and 53 remained unchanged. l

Three BB EDs made regional banking chiefs n Tribune Report

Three executive directors of Bangladesh Bank have been appointed as regional bank-ing chiefs for the regions of Rajshahi, Bogra and Rangpur.

The newly promoted Executive Director, Ashok Kumar Dey, has been made the region-al chief of Rangpur.

All banking activities in the districts of Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Dina-jpur, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh will be under his scanner, said a Bangladesh Bank circular issued recently.

Executive Director Jinnatul Bakeya has been appointed as the regional banking chief for Ra-jshahi while Bishnu Pada Dey for Bogra region.

Jinnatul will monitor the banking activities in Natore, Chapai Nawabganj, Pabna, Kushtia, Chuadanga and Meherpur districts while Bisnu in Joypurhat, Naoga and Sirajganj districts. l

The month-long Dhaka International Trade Fair 2016, which began on January 1, has started gathering momentum. The photo shows visitors at the fair yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

‘Last year there was no major natural calamity in the country and no external shock. The import prices of fuel oil and foods remained low’

Business 17D

TFRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Fears for world economy wreak carnage on stocks and oil n AFP, London

World stock markets tumbled and oil plumbed new lows yesterday as investors feared for the global economy on signs of a dramatic slowdown in powerhouse China.

European stock markets plunged in morn-ing deals followin g a heavy sell-o� across Asia triggered by a suspension to trading in China, the world’s second biggest economy and key driver of commodities consumption.

Wall Street had already faltered on Wednes-day, with dealers spooked by a World Bank re-port cutting its global growth forecasts again.

At about 0915 GMT, London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index was down a hefty 2.8% com-pared with Wednesday’s close.

Leading eurozone markets Frankfurt and Paris were down by more than three percent, with Madrid and Milan faring only slightly better.

The smaller Nordic markets were down more than four percent.

“Equity markets are continuing their steep losses ... with investor sentiment being pres-sured by various factors,” said Lukman Otunu-ga, research analyst at trading group FXTM.

“These include the resumption of fears over global growth following weak data from China. .. while increased geopolitical ten-sions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and an unexpected nuclear test from North Korea have also encouraged investors to dodge away from riskier assets.”

The week’s geopolitical developments

have combined to heap further pressure on oil prices, sending New York’s main crude contract sliding Thursday to a 12-year low at $32.10 a barrel.

But gold was bene� ting from its status as a haven investment, while a “rush to the safe-ty of sovereign bonds is underway,” noted Brenda Kelly, head analyst at London Capital Group.

“The (German) bund is helping the euro retrace higher against the dollar and the pound,” she added in a note to clients.

China suspension Chinese markets were suspended Thursday for the second day this week after they fell more than seven percent, leading an Asia-wide sell-o� as Beijing weakened the value of the yuan currency by the most since Au-gust.

Regulators in China called an end to trade within just 30 minutes of opening after the central bank weakened the value of its yuan currency by 0.51% against the dollar.

The drop was the biggest since August when the value was cut by � ve percent in a week -- sparking weeks of global market tur-moil over worries Beijing did not have a han-dle on its economic crisis. The yuan is now at its weakest in � ve years.

Trading was halted just before 10am (0200 GMT) as a “circuit breaker” kicked in after the benchmark Shanghai index slumped seven percent and the Shenzhen composite index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, tumbled 8.2%.

The stop - activated when markets fall more than seven percent - was also triggered on Monday, its � rst day of operation.

The carnage in China seeped through to other Asian bourses. By the end of trading yesterday, Hong Kong had slumped more than three percent and Tokyo shed 2.2%.

In the United States meanwhile, minutes of the Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed that policymakers foresaw only a “gradual” series of interest rate hikes amid weak in� ation.

The US central bank last month undertook its � rst interest rate hike in more than nine years, a long-� agged move that signalled the end of crisis-era monetary policy.

“It was initially expected that the deci-sion to raise the US rates last month was a decision taken in con� dence,” added analyst Otunuga.

“However the statement released last night suggested that the decision to � nally raise the US interest rates was a very close call.” l

A trader works on the � oor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly before the closing bell in New York REUTERS

‘Equity markets are continuing their steep losses ... with investor sentiment being pressured by various factors’

Fed minutes: Future rate hikes will be ‘gradual’ n AFP, Washington

Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed early yesterday that the participants foresaw only a “gradual” series of interest rate hikes following the � rst one unanimously agreed at that meeting.

But a number of them remain concerned about weak in� ation, suggesting that if price gains remain weak, the expected pace of rate increases would also slow.

Even as the Federal Open Market Com-mittee undertook its � rst interest rate hike in more than nine years, a long-� agged move that signaled the end of crisis-era monetary policy, the minutes showed that some partic-ipants were only marginally in favor.

As a group the FOMC agreed at the Decem-ber 15-16 that monetary policy, after seven year of holding the benchmark federal funds rate near zero, needs to remain “accommoda-tive” or fairly easy over the foreseeable future.

With US economic growth expected to remain moderate over 2016, the policy body was generally con� dent that in� ation, still very weak, will rise to the central bank’s two percent target over the medium term.

There was general con� dence within the Federal Open Market Committee that the employment situation was closing in on what the policy body sees as its “maximum employment objective”, with the US jobless rate now at 5.0 percent.

But a number of FOMC participants re-mained concerned that in� ation, their other key gauge for setting monetary policy, will re-main weak for longer than others anticipated.

If in� ation remains weaker than expected, that could slow the pace of interest rate ris-es, currently anticipated at three to four over this year.

“For some members, the risks attending their in� ation forecasts remained consider-able. Among those risks was the possibility that additional downward shocks to prices of oil and other commodities or a sustained rise in the exchange value of the dollar could delay or diminish the expected upturn in in-� ation,” the record of the meeting said.

“A couple also worried that a further strengthening of the labor market might not prove su� cient to o� set the downward pres-sures from global disin� ationary forces.”

They also noted that there were risks to the US economy, particularly to manufactur-ers, from slower economic activity interna-tionally and the strong dollar.

That was before the latest poor data on China’s economy which sent global share markets tumbling, and weak signals on growth from Europe.

Just after the FOMC minutes were re-leased Wednesday, the World Bank slashed its global growth forecast for 2016 to 2.9%, down 0.4 point from its forecast last June.

In addition, since the meeting oil prices have fallen another eight percent, and the dollar has strengthened slightly.

Forecasts of the end-2016 federal funds rate by the FOMC participants at the Decem-ber meeting implied up to four increases of a quarter-point this year, the rate reaching about 1.4%. And earlier Wednesday Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer told CNBC television that predictions of three to four increases over this year are “in the ballpark.” l

Business18DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

CORPORATE NEWS

Singer Bangladesh Ltd has recently signed an agreement with Omni Companies Ltd for marketing Yamaha Musical Instruments. CEO and MD of Singer Bangladesh Limited, AM Hamim Rahmatullah and MD of Omni Companies Limited, Neo G Mendes signed the agreement

National Bank Limited has recently opened a new unit named ‘LC Advising Unit’ under its International Division. The bank’s managing director (current charge), AFM Shariful Islam inaugurated the unit

Net� ix becomes ‘global TV network’ in 190 countries n AFP, Las Vegas

Streaming pioneer Net� ix said it had signif-icantly expanded its global footprint to 190 countries, making its Internet TV service available in 130 new markets including India - but not China.

California-based Net� ix, which began as a mail-order DVD service but is now produc-ing award-winning original content along-side its o� ering of older shows and movies, launched in 2007. Now, 70 million subscrib-ers pay a monthly fee for unlimited service.

“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” cofounder and chief executive Reed Hastings said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“With this launch, consumers around the world - from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo -- will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simulta-neously - no more waiting.

“While you have been listening to me talk, the Net� ix service has gone live in near-ly every country in the world except China, where we hope to be in the future.”

Net� ix noted in a statement that it “con-tinues to explore options for providing the service” in China, the world’s most populous country, where the government censors online content it deems to be politically sensitive.

Net� ix is keen to get the streaming ser-vice to China’s population, but needs special permission from the government there and expects the process is “going to take time,” Hastings said during a press brie� ng at CES.

Other countries or markets without the service are Crimea, North Korea and Syria due to US government restrictions on Ameri-can companies, Net� ix said.

While English is the main language for most of the new markets, Net� ix said it has added support for Arabic and Korean, along with simpli� ed and traditional Chinese to the 17 languages it now uses.

“From today onwards, we will listen and we will learn, gradually adding more lan-guages, more content and more ways for people to engage with Net� ix,” said Hastings.

“We’re looking forward to bringing great stories from all over the world to people all over the world.”

Following its US launch, Net� ix � rst ex-panded to Canada, and then to Latin America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Un-til Wednesday, it was available in 60 countries.

Original shows The company has been shifting from recy-cling old shows and movies to producing more original content, with its shows such as the award-winning “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black.”

However, availability of original content could di� er from country to country due to local licensing deals.

“We want citizens around the world to have access to the same content,” Hastings said, not-ing it may take several years to get to a point where Net� ix content is consistent worldwide.

It remained to be seen whether Net� ix would have to serve up edited versions of some shows or � lms to suit cultural sensitiv-ities in some countries.

“The thrust of what we are trying to do is have the artistic vision be consistent around the world,” Hastings said.

With Net� ix now available nearly every-where in the world, the company’s focus for the coming decade will be on providing stel-lar content.

Hastings playfully compared the big launch with having a baby, saying. “It’s a big deal, but the real work is the next 20 years.”

In 2016, the company plans to release 31 new and returning original series, two dozen original feature � lms and documentaries, as well as its own stand-up comedy specials and 30 original children’s programs.

“Our teams are not going to be focused on doing launches, which are wildly disruptive,” said Net� ix head of content acquisition Ted Sarandos.

“Now we can be fully focused on � nding the best content for the world.”

Local flavors The global reach also means that Net� ix should be tapping into more local talent for original productions from various parts of the world. Hastings and Sarandos were con-� dent that people around the world are hun-gry for on-demand � lms and shows.

“We are just throwing out the old para-digm; everything is gone,” said actor Will Arnett, who will star in an upcoming Net� ix comedy series titled “Flaked.”

“Everything you do is available every-where around the world at the same time, it is amazing.” l

Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Net� ix, speaks during a keynote address at the 2016 CES trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada REUTERS

China market confusion has investors fearing worst n Peter Thal Larsen

For the second time in less than six months, market turmoil in China is rattling the rest of the world. As in August last year, the trigger is a sudden slide in the value of the yuan, which in turn has dragged down domestic stocks. Though the cause of the sello� is un-certain, the implications for the rest of the world are ominous.

The Chinese currency is down 1.5% against the US dollar in fewer than four full days. That’s only slightly less than the supposedly one-o� depreciation that surprised global investors last summer. The latest slide has triggered a sell-o� in Chinese stocks, twice activating new “circuit-breakers” which suspend trading when the benchmark CSI 300 index moves more than 7% . On the morning of Jan 7, the market closed within half an hour of the opening bell.

Broadly, there are two theories for what is going on. The � rst is that the Chinese au-thorities have concluded a hefty devalua-tion is the least bad solution to the country’s economic predicament. Renewed fears of a currency war have prompted investors to � ee major trading partners like Australia and South Korea, while also putting pressure on commodity prices. A barrel of Brent crude oil now sells for little more than $33.

Chinese authorities counter that the yuan is only weak when compared with the US dol-lar. Measured against a broader basket of cur-rencies, the renminbi was more or less � at last year. Besides, China is still running a healthy trade surplus, which lessens its incentive to seek a competitive advantage by devaluing.

Yet if China really has no grand plan, that gives weight to the second theory: that plan-ners are losing their grip on the world’s sec-ond-largest economy. Last year’s bungled stock market intervention and mini-devalua-tion punctured the myth of Chinese bureau-cratic infallibility. The latest ructions rein-force the belief that o� cials are struggling to reconcile contradictory demands: promoting market forces while preserving stability; and rebalancing the economy while continuing to meet increasingly unrealistic growth targets.

Whether China’s latest market upheaval is by design or default, it’s little surprise that in-vestors are increasingly assuming the worst. l

Peter Thal Larsen is Asia Editor of Reuters Breakingviews, based in Hong Kong.

19D

T

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

With the hope to ensure an easy and comfortable access to treatment, Ibrahim Medinet premium Services (IM) starts its journey on Tuesday. An inauguration ceremony was held where Dhaka north city corporation mayor, Anisul Haque was present. President of Bangladesh diabetic association, Professor A K Azad Khan presided over the ceremony.

Registered patients in Ibrahin Medinet Premier will get diabetic treatment along with treatment for non-communicable Diseases. There will be 24 hours doctors’ helpline as well as an e-networking system where doctors will treat patients online 24/7. The registered patients will get appointments according to their suitable timing and can also take their family members for consultancy any time. l

Popular babycare brand, Meril Baby of Square Toiletries Limited, recently arranged Meril Baby Adore Gora Bhobishshot 2014 prize giving ceremony which will air on January 7, 2016 at 8.10pm on Maasranga Television. Famous celebrities Nowshin and Hillol are the hosts of the programme which is full of interesting segments. The show will open with a retrospective on Meril Baby Adore Gora Bhobishshot and what the initiative has accomplished over the years. Meril Baby Adore Gora Bhobishshot 2014’s theme was “The greatest dream you have regarding your child.” A huge number of mothers from all over the country wrote down and sent in their dreams. The � rst

prize for the competition was education insurance worth Tk10lakh, and the second prize was education insurance worth Tk5lakh. Esteemed personalities like Anisul Haq, Mehtab Khanam and Morshedul Islam were present at the ceremony as judges. This the 10th time in as many years that Square Toiletries Limited has arranged this initiative. l

Ibrahim Medinet premium services inaugurated

‘Meril Baby Adore Gora Bhobishshot 2014’ prize giving ceremony held

Biz Info

Students from all over the country and around the world came together for the orientation program which was designed to prepare them for their NSU experience.

On Saturday, January 2, NSU warmly welcomed the newly enrolled 2500 undergraduate students of BBA, ETE, EEE, Economics, Environmental Science, Architecture, English, Computer Science and Engineering, Law, Pharmacy, Microbiology and Biochemistry in the orientation ceremony of Spring 2016 was held at the Bashundhara campus.

Prof Abdul Mannan, the chairman of the University Grants Commission, Bangladesh was present as the chief guest. The chairman, board of trustees, NSU and former president of FBCCI M A Kashem were special guests whereas Prof D Gour Gobinda Goswami, vice chancellor in-charge, chaired the ceremony. M A Hashem and Rehana Rahman, member, board of trustees attended the program as guests of honour.

Prof Mannan appreciated North South

University seeing their practices of “virtual policing” and “state-of-the-art teaching method” technology. He urged the parents to take good care of their wards during the

transition period. M A Kashem said, “In order to establish

the Private University Act, we have worked hard for three years that resulted with the

opening of higher education in Bangladesh through private universities in 1992. That in-turn, accelerated the expansion of higher education in Bangladesh. We feel proud that parents wish to have their children enrolled in our university with con� dence since NSU graduates have high demand in the job market.”

Prof Selim Sarwar, dean, school of humanities and social sciences; Prof G U Ahsan, dean, school of health and life sciences; Prof Md Sirajul Islam, dean, school of engineering and physical sciences; Prof M Mahboob Rahman, dean, school of business and economics; Prof M Emdadul Haq, director (student a� airs), Md Shahjahan, registrar and Syed Kamrul Islam, proctor addressed the students. Chairs of respective departments, faculty and administrative members, students and their guardians took part in the occasion.

A cultural session was held after the formal session where singers and dancers of the university performed. l

Orientation 2016: NSU welcomes freshers

Downtime20DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 1 represents B so � ll B every time the � gure 1 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 Comforted (5)6 Falsehood (3)7 Live Coal (5)10 Lazy person (5)12 Way out (4)13 Expel by legalprocess (5)15 Yield (4)16 Consume (3)18 Decay (3)20 Dash (4)22 Pro� cient (5)23 Of various colours (4)25 Agitates (5)27 Fish (5)28 Incision (3)29 Encourages in crime (5)

Down 1 Cure-all (6)2 Help (3)3 Pick out (6)4 Mocked (7)5 Provoke (3)8 Wager (3)9 Latvian capital (4)11 Day before (3)14 Keyboardinstrument (7)16 Tempt (6)17 Intertwines (6)19 Leave out (4)21 Liable (3)22 Fuss (3)24 Do wrong (3)26 Groove (3)

SUDOKU

INSIDE

21D

TWorldFRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

PTSD nation? US shootings in� ict growing mental tollMass shootings from Newtown to San Bernardino are weighing ever more heavily on Americans, with signs of post-traumatic stress spreading far beyond the circle of survivors and loved ones, experts say. PAGE 22

Some Taliban factions consider joining peace process, others opposeSome factions within the Afghan Taliban are considering taking part in a peace process that o� cials from Afghanistan and Pakistan aim to revive next week, several senior members said, in a softening of the mili-tants’ recent stance against talks.

PAGE 23

Truck bomb kills nearly 50 in LibyaAt least 47 people were killed on Thursday when Libya’s worst bomb attack since the fall of Muammar Gadda� hit a police train-ing centre as hundreds of recruits gathered for a morning meeting.

PAGE 24

ANALYSIS

N Korean H-bomb test a setback for arms controln AFP, Washington, DC

Even as world powers work to implement the Iran nuclear deal, North Korea’s appar-ent detonation of a new bomb marks a stark setback for global anti-proliferation e� orts.

The UN Security Council scrambled to convene a session to condemn Pyongyang and prepare to strengthen the already dra-conian sanctions regime isolating North Ko-rea.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “un-equivocally” condemned the North Korea test which, if con� rmed, would violate pre-vious Security Council resolutions.

But if and when sanctions are tightened, it won’t be for the � rst time. North Korea has tested nuclear devices three times since 2006, defying UN resolutions and global condemnation.

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s mes-sage to Pyongyang was clear – “We do not and will not accept North Korea as a nuclear armed state” – but not new.

President Barack Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded him for his “vi-sion of and work for a world without nucle-ar weapons” and he has made halting their spread a priority.

The powers that negotiated the Iran nu-clear deal, hailed last July as a victory in non-proliferation e� orts, hope soon to cele-brate Tehran’s implementation of measures to put such weapons beyond its reach.

But another so-called pariah regime, North Korea, has pushed on with its own programme and on Wednesday claimed to have carried out a test of its most powerful nuclear weapon yet.

There is no sign that young North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is willing to back down this time, and critics of Obama and the in-ternational response say a new approach is needed.

Boosted fission“North Korea poses an increasing and direct threat to the United States, South Korea, and Japan,” said former CIA analyst Bruce Klinger of the Heritage Foundation said.

“Experts estimate that Pyongyang cur-rently has 10 to 16 nuclear weapons with potentially as many as 50 to 100 by 2020.”

Karl Dewey, a proliferation analyst for IHS Jane’s, said North Korea’s new device may not be a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb as claimed but a still powerful “boosted � s-sion weapon.”

Combined with the country’s recent ad-vances in banned ballistic missile technol-ogy, it could one day pose a threat to cities in North Korea’s US-allied neighbors South Korea and Japan.

This is just the kind of regional destabili-sation the world hoped to avoid in curtailing the Iranian programme, and critics of the Iran deal were quick to seize on North Ko-rea’s advance.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Rela-tions Committee, Republican Bob Corker, accused the administration of ignoring the North Korean threat while distracted by cri-ses elsewhere.

“The past several decades of US policy toward North Korea has been an abject fail-ure,” he said.

“The United States – together with our allies and others in the region – must take a more assertive role.”

House foreign a� airs committee chair Ed Royce said: “Dictators like Kim Jong-Un don’t take time outs, they take advantage when the US looks away.

“As Iran prepares to gain billions in sanc-tions relief, North Korea surely thinks it can intimidate the Obama administration into the same.”

But experts said the failure of the sanc-tions regime was not Washington’s fault alone, and pointed to China – the closest thing North Korea still has to an ally.

Victor Cha, director of government and international a� airs at Georgetown Univer-sity, told CNN that China opposes Pyong-yang’s nuclear programme, but fears the country’s collapse if sanctions are imposed too e� ciently.

“If you had to point to one weak link in the sanctions regime, you would have to say it’s China,” he said.

“The thing that they’re most worried about is a destabilised North Korea in which there could be loose nukes and millions of refugees coming across the border.”

China nevertheless supported a UN Se-curity Council resolution to “strongly con-demn” the test as a “clear threat to interna-tional peace and security.”

For Washington, the onus is now on North Korea to decide to rejoin the six-par-ty talks – abandoned in 2008 – with South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

“The North has shown absolutely no in-terest in returning to that forum,” State De-partment spokesman John Kirby said.

“And that’s the international agreed framework for having a discussion with the North over this capability.” l

ProminentTests

Hydrogen

Hydrogen

Hydrogen

North Korea

1954United States

20062-12

20091-20

20136-9

2016Unknown

Tests

1998India

40

1968France2,600

Hydrogen

1967China3,300

World’s biggest nuclear explosion

Hydrogen

1961Soviet Union

50,000Hydrogen

1955Soviet Union

1,600

1957Britain1,800

15,000

1952United States

10,400

Bombing of JapanUnited States

1945Hiroshima

12-18Nagasaki18-23

Pakistan40

1998

The world’s nuclear weapons legacyMajor atomic explosionsTNT kiloton equivalent

Sources: CTBTO/nuclearweaponarchive.org/ArmyTechnology.com/FAS

Nuclear �ssion

Triggered byan initial �ssion

explosion

Nuclear fusion ofhydrogen isotopes

First hydrogen bomb

Atom bomb

Was it hydrogen?

Uranium 235,Plutonium 239

Nuclear weapons stockpile

Russia 7,500

(8,000 in 2014)

US 7,260

(7,300)

NorthKorea

6-8(6-8)

Britain215

(225)

China260

(250)

France300

(300)

Pakistan100-120(100-120)

Israel80

(80)

India90-110(90-110)

The world’s atomic powers possess approximately 16,000 nuclear warheads

*Estimates varyaccording to sources

The onus is now on North Korea to decide to rejoin the six-party talks with South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 201622D

T WorldINSIGHT

PTSD nation? US shootings in� ict growing mental tolln AFP, Los Angeles

Mass shootings from Newtown to San Bernardino are weighing ever more heavily on Americans, with signs of post-traumat-ic stress spreading far beyond the circle of survivors and loved ones, experts say.

Gun violence kills about 30,000 Americans every year and mass shootings -- extremely rare in most countries -- have been on the rise in the United States.

According to tracking website gunviolencearchive.org, there were 330 mass shootings in the US last year, up from 281 in 2014. They a� ected nearly every part of the country, reaching into both big cities and small towns.

The searing images of the young and innocent dying before their time have become harder to escape, especially as o� ces, hospitals and even elementary schools have begun holding regu-lar “active shooter” drills.

That, experts say, has led to a rise in anxiety, depression and exhaustion, all the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

President Barack Obama, in announcing limited gun control measures Tuesday, wiped away tears as he remembered 20 el-ementary school children -- some as young as � ve or six -- shot dead three years ago in Newtown, Connecticut.

Obama formally unveiled a handful of executive measures in-tended to make it harder to buy and sell weapons.

But many Republicans immediately expressed opposition to the measures -- though Donald Trump conceded that he thought Obama’s tears were sincere -- and even the president admitted that the new steps would not stop the scourge of mass shootings.

Climate of fearWith every passing incident, images of the dead and wounded carried out on stretchers, loved ones breaking down, pictures of the killers and the dark faces of authorities permeate television screens and 24-hour news channels.

This, specialists say, translates into hyper-vigilance, a type of permanent state of alert close to paranoia, like the fear of sitting in a restaurant with your back to the door.

The repeated cycles of violence “perpetuate fearfulness and can create these divisions between us and the others,” explained Eric Bergemann, a Los Angeles psychologist.

“When those things are repeated by the media, we get more and more scared because we are continuously reminded about those things that are out of our control.”

Bergemann said that the traumatised then sometimes turn their focus on perceived enemies, in order to feel like they are doing something to avert danger.

Anti-Muslim attacks have been on the rise since a Muslim cou-ple shot 14 people to death and injured 22 others in the California city of San Bernardino last month.

‘Kill drill’In many o� ces, employees are taught procedures to follow in case of an active shooter situation.

In one Los Angeles business building, notices repeat the sher-i� department’s message that you have three options during an active shooter situation: Run, hide or � ght.

Many schools also hold “kill drills,” where children learn how to hide in case a shooter comes onto school grounds.

In Roseburg, Oregon, “the whole community is on edge... kids are a� ected as well,” said deputy � re chief Robert Bullock.

Three months ago, a mentally unstable student killed an as-sistant professor and eight fellow students with an assault ri� e in that usually peaceful community.

Firemen, nurses and police o� cers are still under “a lot of post-traumatic shock,” Bullock said.

He pointed to “sleeping problems” and other di� culties.“There’s people, their patience is very short, some people are

on an emotional roller coaster. One minute they’re � ne, the oth-er, very emotional,” Bullock added. l

WorldSOUTH ASIANotorious human-smuggler held from Jeddah-bound � ight in PakistanA suspected Pakistani human smuggler was captured by Pakistan federal authorities dur-ing an apparent attempt to � ee the country with a Pakistan International Airlines � ight from an international airport in Islamabad on Thursday. A government statement said the suspect, Ahteshamul Haq was trying to escape the country on a Jeddah-bound � ight , when he was arrested by FIA personnel moments before take-o� . -DAWN

INDIAIndian Kashmir chief minister diesMufti Mohammad Sayeed, chief minister of India’s restive Kashmir region and one of the country’s best-known Muslim politicians, died on Thursday, an o� cial said. Sayeed died in hospital in New Delhi after being admitted on December 24 su� ering from a respiratory illness. The 79-year-old, whose party is in a controversial coalition with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in the Himalayan region, is likely to be succeeded as chief minister by his daughter. -AFP

CHINA11 killed in China coal mine collapse11 miners were found dead Thursday after a Chinese coal mine caved in, state media reported, the latest fatal industrial accident in the country where work safety stand-ards are poorly enforced. The miners were trapped after a colliery collapsed Wednesday morning and their bodies were discovered a day later following rescue e� orts that were hampered by high carbon monoxide levels in the shaft and poor visibility, according to cnwest.com news portal. -AFP

ASIA PACIFICIndonesia, S Korea sign $1.3bn � ghter jet development dealIndonesia signed a $1.3bn deal with South Korea Thursday to jointly develop Seoul’s next-generation � ghter jets, the South’s aircraft manufacturer said. Under the deal signed with Korea Aerospace Industries, Indonesia’s defence ministry will invest the money in the Korean Fighter Experimental programme. The South Korean military plans to put the new � ghter jets into service by 2025 to guard against threats from the nuclear-armed North Korea. -AFP

MIDDLE EASTIran accuses Saudi of air strike on Yemen embassyIran on Thursday accused Saudi warplanes of deliberately bombing its embassy in Yemen. It also announced a ban on imports of all products from its Sunni-ruled rival, following a dramatic chill in relations that has triggered international alarm. Tehran said an unspeci� ed number of embassy sta� had been wounded in the raid on the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa, which has been targeted by months of air strikes by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. -AFP

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 201623

DT

Chinese pressure makes Pakistan mull status of disputed region n AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan is mulling upgrading the constitu-tional status of its northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, which is also claimed by India, in a bid to provide legal cover to a multi-bil-lion-dollar Chinese investment plan, o� -cials said Thursday.

The move could signal a historic shift in Pakistan’s position on the future of the wider Kashmir region, observers have said, dealing another potential blow to fragile peace talk e� orts that received a boost after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit-ed Lahore in December.

The proposal would see the mountainous region mentioned by name for the � rst time in Pakistan’s constitution, bringing it one step closer to being fully absorbed as an ad-ditional province.

Islamabad has historically insisted the parts of Kashmir it controls are semi-au-tonomous and has not formally integrated them into the country, in line with its posi-tion that a referendum should be carried out across the whole of the region.

Sajjad ul Haq, spokesman for the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Ha� z Hafeez ur Rehman, said: “A high level committee formed by the prime minister is working on the issue, you will hear good news soon.”

In addition to being named in the consti-tution, Gilgit-Baltistan would also send two lawmakers to sit in the federal parliament – though they would be given observer status only, sources said.

A third top government o� cial from Gilgit-Baltistan said the move was in re-sponse to concerns raised by Beijing about

the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, an ambitious $46bn-infrastructure plan set to link China’s western city of Kashgar to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.

“China cannot a� ord to invest billions of dollars on a road that passes through a dis-puted territory claimed both by India and Pakistan,” the o� cial, speaking on condi-tion of anonymity, said.

The corridor plans have been strongly criticised by New Delhi, with India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in June calling the project “unacceptable” for crossing through Indian-claimed territory.

India and Pakistan have fought two full-scale wars over Kashmir, and any changes to

the status quo could prove a further setback to hopes for dialogue.

Those e� orts were already seen as frag-ile following a deadly attack on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border Saturday that was followed by a 25-hour siege on an Indian consulate in Afghanistan on Monday.

But according to Pakistani strategic an-alyst Ayesha Siddiqa, the move could also signal Islamabad’s desire to end the Kashmir con� ict by formally absorbing the territory it controls – and, by extension, recognising New Delhi’s claims to parts of the region it controls, such as the Kashmir valley. “If we begin to absorb it so can India. It legitimises their absorption of the Valley,” she said. l

INSIGHT

Some Taliban factions consider joining peace process, others opposen Reuters, Kabul/Peshawar

Some factions within the Afghan Taliban are considering taking part in a peace pro-cess that o� cials from Afghanistan and Pakistan aim to revive next week, several senior members said, in a softening of the militants’ recent stance against talks.

Next week’s meeting in Islamabad be-tween o� cials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China is intended as the � rst step towards resuming stalled negotiations aimed at ending the 14-year-old war that kills hundreds each month and has intensi-� ed in the past year.

Whether the Taliban, increasingly domi-nant on the battle� eld since the withdrawal of most international troops by the end of 2014 yet riven by factional in� ghting, even-tually joins the talks is far from clear.

Even if it did, those present would only represent part of the Islamist militant move-ment � ghting to topple the government in Kabul and restore strict Islamic rule in place before it was ousted in 2001.

But important elements of the Taliban

have signalled they may be willing to send negotiators at some point.

Afghan o� cials say the meeting sched-ule does not include any Taliban representa-tion, but they do not rule out the possibility of the group joining at some stage.

With security worsening, Kabul is trying to limit expectations of a breakthrough, and says the aim of next week’s talks is to work out a road map for peace negotiations and a way of assessing whether they remain on track.

Is there a Taliban at all?After six months of worsening � ghting, with the province of Helmand slipping out of control and frequent suicide bombings in the capital, Afghanistan and its neighbours are trying to return to peace talks, albeit without the Taliban for now.

Leadership divisions may impede pro-gress, with some militant factions saying they will not take part.

The announcement last July, shortly af-ter inaugural talks between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban were staged, that its found-er Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead

for more than two years, threw the militant group into disarray, stopping the � edgling peace process in its tracks.

Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Mullah Omar’s longtime deputy, took over the leadership, but was rejected by parts of the movement which accuse him of covering up Omar’s death for his own gains and of being Pakistan’s puppet.

But Mansour’s faction has shown signs of warming to the idea of joining peace talks at some stage.

A senior Taliban commander said Sira-juddin Haqqani, Mansour’s deputy and the head of the feared Haqqani network blamed for a series of suicide attacks in Kabul, may take part.

The Taliban’s main spokesman, Zabi-hullah Mujahid, said no formal negotiating team had been appointed, but he stopped short of a full denial of involvement.

By contrast, Mansour’s rivals, led by Mul-lah Mohammad Rasoul, are holding out.

For its part, the Taliban may look for signs of concessions in areas including 2011 UN sanctions that impose asset freezes and travel bans on its leaders. l

WorldUSAUS Congress � nally sends Obamacare repeal to presidentAfter dozens of attempts spanning 5 years, congressional Republicans succeeded Wednesday in sending legislation to US President Barack Obama’s desk to repeal his landmark health care law. Republicans hailed it as a hard-fought victory, saying the bill which also cuts funding to women’s health care provider Planned Parenthood - highlights sharp policy di� erences between their party and rival Democrats during the 2016 presidential election race. -AFP

THE AMERICASDe� ant Venezuela opposition claims House super majorityVenezuela’s opposition-controlled legisla-ture on Wednesday swore in three anti-gov-ernment lawmakers in de� ance of President Nicolas Maduro, laying claim to the super majority that could empower them even-tually to oust him. The new, opposition speaker of the National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, swore in the three, defying an injunction by the Supreme Court to suspend them on the government’s request. The court is investigating government accusa-tions of electoral fraud against them. -AFP

UKCameron: What’s good for Britain is good for EuropeBritish Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday drove home his call for EU reforms to protect European welfare systems, saying what is good for Britain is also good for Europe. Cameron is seeking backing for his demands for EU reforms, which he is bat-tling to secure before Britain’s referendum on membership in the 28-nation bloc by the end of 2017. Speaking in southern Germany, Cameron said that he was even more con� -dent after the discussions here that reforms are possible and not just good for Britain but actually good for Europe. -AFP

EUROPEEU long way from satis� ed with Turkish migrant cooperationThe European Union is far from satis� ed with Turkey’s cooperation to stem the � ow of migrants to Europe after a deal signed late last year, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said Thursday on a press conference in Amsterdam at the launch of the Netherlands’ six-month EU presidency. He added we will continue dis-cussing ways of improving the e� ectiveness of their cooperation. “We have seen the � rst results which are encouraging, but we are a long way from being satis� ed,” he said. -AFP

AFRICA14 killed in DR Congo by suspected Rwandan rebelsFourteen people were killed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo overnight by suspected Rwandan rebels accused of repeated attacks in the area, local authorities and the military said Thursday. The latest assault took place in Miriki, 110km north of Goma, capital of con� ict-torn North Kivu province. Demo-cratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda is accused for the attack by the administrator of the Lubero area under which Miriki falls. -AFP

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 201624D

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Truck bomb kills nearly 50 in Libyan Reuters, Misrata

At least 47 people were killed on Thursday when Libya’s worst bomb attack since the fall of Muammar Gadda� hit a police train-ing centre as hundreds of recruits gathered for a morning meeting.

No group immediately claimed the at-tack in the town of Zliten. Mayor Miftah Hamadi said the bomb detonated as around 400 recruits were gathering in the early morning at the town’s police centre.

Witnesses said residents were ferrying victims to Misrata hospitals in ambulances and cars, many with shrapnel wounds and some bodies too damaged to be identi� ed.

Medical sources had initially said 65 people had been killed, including some ci-vilians. But Fozi Awnais, head of the crisis

committee for the health ministry in Trip-oli, said later that 47 people had died and 118 more were wounded.

Since a Nato-backed revolt ousted Gadda� , Libya has slipped deeper into turmoil with two rival governments and a range of armed factions locked in a strug-gle for control of the Opec state and its oil wealth.

In the chaos, Islamic State militants have grown in strength, taking over the city of Sirte and launching attacks on oil-� elds. Islamic State � ghters this week at-tacked two major oil export terminals.

The Zliten blast was the worst since an attack in February last year when three car bombs hit the eastern city of Qubbah, kill-ing 40 people in what o� cials described as a revenge attack for Egyptian air strikes on

Islamist militant targets.Western powers are pushing Libya’s fac-

tions to back a UN-brokered national unity government to join forces against Islamic State militants, but the agreement faces major resistance from several factions on the ground.

For more than a year, an armed faction called Libya Dawn has controlled Tripoli, setting up its own self-declared govern-ment, reinstating the former parliament and forcing the recognised government to operate in the east of the country.

Western o� cials say forming a unit-ed government would be the � rst step in Libya seeking international help to � ght against Islamic State, including training for a new army and possible air strikes against militant targets. l

Germany divided over expulsion of convicted asylum seekersn AFP, Berlin

German politicians waged a heated debate Thursday over whether to make it easier to expel convicted asylum seekers, after a series of sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve blamed on men of foreign origin.

Authorities have said there is no concrete proof that the perpetrators of the attacks in Cologne were asylum seekers, but critics of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door ap-proach to those � eeing war have seized on the opportunity to draw a link.

Victims described their attackers as being “Arab or North African” in appearance, and 16 suspects are being investigated, but no one has yet been charged.

As outrage grew in Germany over the as-saults, which included two rapes and sev-eral accounts of gropings, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said foreigners who commit serious crimes “must assume they will be deported”.

German law requires a conviction of at least three years in prison before an asylum seeker can be forcibly returned while his or her application for refuge is being examined.

The individual must also not face threats in his or her country of origin.

But de Maiziere said: “We will have to dis-cuss if we should change” these rules that are in line with the UN Geneva Convention and European Human Rights Convention.

Stephan Mayer, a senior politician in the Christian Social Union -- the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s CDU -- demanded that for-eigners who receive a prison term, regardless of its length, be expelled.

But the Social Democrats, junior partners in Merkel’s left-right “grand coalition”, ar-gued against any changes to the law.

In a bid to calm tensions, Justice Minister Heiko Maas said that asylum seekers with convictions of one year can already be ex-pelled -- although a grace period must be giv-en to the individual to leave German territory on his own accord, failing which he would be forcibly returned.

Germany took in nearly 1.1m refugees last year, with refugees from war-torn Syria mak-ing up almost 40% of arrivals. l

US raids on illegal migrants alarm C American nationsn AFP, Guatemala City

Central American nations Wednesday re-ceived some of the � rst groups of their citi-zens deported under tough new raids in the US against illegal immigrants carried out by President Barack Obama’s administration.

In Guatemala, four mothers and 10 chil-dren aged two to 17 sent back walked o� a plane that had arrived at a military airbase on the outskirts of the capital.

US o� cials last weekend began the raids that American media reported were to spread nationwide in an unprecedented operation to rid the country of immigrants with court-is-sued deportation orders against them.

The action comes at a politically sen-sitive time in the US, which is in feverish campaign mode ahead of a November elec-tion to choose a successor to Obama, who is � nishing his last term.

Immigration is one of the hot-button is-sues, with candidates from the opposition Republican party arguing that more should be done to bar to undocumented migrants - especially from Latin America and war-rav-aged Syria - from coming to their country.

According to the US secretary for Home-land Security, Jeh Johnson, 121 adult and child illegal immigrants were rounded up last weekend for deportation, and more would soon be apprehended.

Many of the Latinos targeted are from

Central America, � eeing rampant violence, corruption and poverty that grip Guatema-la, El Salvador and Honduras.

The three countries, collectively known as the Northern Triangle, have some of the highest murder rates in the world.

Those forced returns hit a record high for Guatemala in 2014, with 51,157 deportees. Last year, the number slumped by 39%.

For the other two Northern Triangle countries, it was a similar picture of sharp decreases in deportations in 2015. El Salva-dor recorded a 25% drop to 21,752 returnees, while Honduras saw 19,000 of its citizens deported, around half the � gure from 2014.

Remittances at riskExperts say the stepped-up US focus on de-portations could have an immediate deleteri-ous e� ect on the countries economies, which rely to a big extent on remittances from Cen-tral Americans living and working in the US.

In Guatemala, they amount to $10bn an-nually, equivalent to half of the country’s export earnings. In El Salvador, emigrants send back $4.2bn per year, or 17% of gross domestic product. In Honduras, remittanc-es total more than $3bn.

According to Guatemala’s CONAMIGUA, before the new US operation, typically 85% of those deported had been caught trying to clandestinely cross over the border into America. l

Immigrant families, supporters march past the Washington Monument on December 30 last year to protest against the Obama administration’s plans to deport undocumented immigrant families AFP

25D

TSportINSIDE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Tigers observe strike but not ShakibThe upcoming four T20Is between hosts Bangladesh and Zimbabwe might be just a week away but there was no practice session scheduled for the home side yesterday due to the nationwide strike. A few members of the Tigers’ squad however, did not miss the chance to put the � nishing touch to their prep. PAGE 26

Guptill � yer sets NZ up for three-run winIn-form batsman Martin Guptill cracked 58 o� 34 balls to set up New Zealand for a tense three-run win in the � rst Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka yesterday. Sri Lanka had three wickets in hand and required 13 o� the last over by Grant Elliott at Mount Maunganui but could only manage 10 runs. PAGE 27

‘Barca not interested in NFL type scrap’Barcelona boss Luis Enrique compared Espanyol’s roughhouse tactics to the NFL after the visitors had two men sent-o� in the second bad-tempered Catalan derby in four days as Barca came from behind to win 4-1 in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday. PAGE 28

WI spurn double declaration o� erWest Indies spurned the chance to make the � nal day of the drawn third Test into a genuine contest by turning down Australia’s o� er to chase a victory target of 370 from 70 overs at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday. Three days of almost non-stop rain had set the dead rubber Test � rmly on course for a draw. PAGE 29

n Tribune Report

The eight-team Bangabandhu Gold Cup In-ternational Football Tournament is all set to kick o� today with the home side taking on Sri Lanka at the Shams-Ul-Huda stadium in Jessore. The curtain-raiser begins at 2:45pm and will be transmitted live on Channel 9 and Bangladesh Television.

After bowing out from the group stage in the recently concluded 11th edition of the Sa� Championship, Bangladesh are looking to turn around their fortunes and build a good platform under the guidance of head coach Maruful Haque, who took charge of the team just before the Sa� Suzuki Cup in India last month.

Unlike cricket, the Bengal Tigers pos-sess a � ne head-to-head record against the island nation in football as they have won nine of their 14 meetings till date. Keep-ing that in mind, the home side are eyeing nothing short of a winning start to the tour-nament.

Meanwhile, the Lankans have sent their team with the major focus on the forthcom-ing South Asian Games next month. They have nine new faces blending with eight experienced ones from the Sa� squad. Hav-ing featured in the semi-� nal of the regional south Asian tournament earlier this month, Sri Lanka might be in the mood to experi-ment but the hosts will do well not to un-derestimate the opposition.

Defending champions Malaysia and Nepal arrived in the capital yesterday and headed straight for the south-western city while Bahrain are expected to land tonight. Cambodia and Maldives, in the meantime, are scheduled to arrive this Sunday. The last team in the meet, Bangladesh Olympic Team, will � y for Jessore tomorrow.

Jessore will host the � rst four matches of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup before the tournament moves to Dhaka. Match tickets for Jessore are available at 20 points of Jessore sadar and seven upazilas of the district. l

BANGLADESH SQUADShahidul Alam Sohel, Jamal Bhuiyan,

Yeasin Khan, Yeamin Ahmed Chowdhury Munna, Mamunul Islam

Mamun, Rayhan Hasan, Monayem Khan Raju, Nasir Uddin Chowdhury,

Sohel Rana, Shakhawat Hossain Rony, Sheikh Alamgir Kabir Rana,

Russel Mahmud Liton, Zahid Hossain, Jahid Hasan Ameli, Hemanta Vincent

Biswas, Tapu Barman, Atiqur Rahman Meshu, Waly Faisal, Mithun

Chowdhury, Ashraful Islam Rana, Jewel Rana, Nasirul Islam Nasir and

Nabib Newaj Jibon.

VS SRI LANKAGames won 9

Games drawn 2

Games lost 3

Sunk Bengal Tigers aim to resurface in new year

Bangladesh face Sri Lanka in the opening match of Bangabandhu Gold Cup 2016 today

GROUP BBD OLYMPIC

VBAHRAIN

JAN 10 @ 2.45PMJESSORE

CAMBODIAV

BAHRAINJAN 13 @ 3.00PM

DHAKAMALDIVES

VBAHRAIN

JAN 15 @ 3.00PMDHAKA

MALDIVESV

CAMBODIAJAN 11 @ 2.45PM

JESSOREBD OLYMPIC

VMALDIVES

JAN 13 @ 6.30PMDHAKA

BD OLYMPICV

CAMBODIAJAN 15 @ 6.30PM

DHAKA

GROUP A

JAN 8 @ 2.45PMJESSORE

JAN 12 @ 3.00PMDHAKA

JAN 14 @ 3.00PMDHAKA

JAN 9 @ 2.45PMJESSORE

JAN 12 @ 6.30PMDHAKA

BANGLADESH V

SRI LANKA

NEPALV

SRI LANKA

MALAYSIAV

SRI LANKA

MALAYSIAV

NEPAL

BANGLADESHV

MALAYSIA

BANGLADESHV

NEPALJAN 14 @ 6.30PM

DHAKABANGLADESH

A1

MALAYSIA

A2

SRI LANKA

A3

NEPAL

A4GROUP A

JAN 20 @ 5.30PMDHAKA

FINAL

GROUP A

WINNER

GROUP B

RUNNER UP

JAN 17 @ 6.30PMDHAKA

SEMIFINAL 1

GROUP B

WINNER

GROUP A

RUNNER UP

JAN 18 @ 6.30PMDHAKA

SEMIFINAL 2

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

BAHRAIN

B1

MALDIVES

B2

CAMBODIA

B3

BD OLYMPIC

B4GROUP B

JESSORE: SHAMS-UL-HUDA STADIUMDHAKA: BANGABANDHU NATIONAL STADIUM

WINNER SEMIFINAL 1

VWINNER

SEMIFINAL 2

26DT Sport

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

n Mazhar Uddin

The upcoming four Twenty20 internationals between hosts Bangladesh and Zimbabwe might be just a week away but there was no practice session scheduled for the home side yesterday due to the nationwide strike.

A few members of the Tigers’ T20 squad however, did not miss the opportunity to put the � nishing touch to their preparation in what turned out to be an optional training session.

Star all-rounder Shakib al Hasan, who re-turned to the country from the US recently, was one of them. The Magura cricketer prac-tised individually at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, spending some time with both bat and ball and the 28-year old super-star, who just became the proud father of a newly-born baby girl, looked quite relaxed during training.

Meanwhile, Shuvagata Hom, another new inclusion in the Tigers’ squad, also spent some time at the gym.

The 29-year old all-rounder, who replaced team mate Nasir Hossain in the squad, made his last international appearance seven months ago against India. Not a regular � x-ture in the Tigers’ set-up due to inconsist-ent performances, Shuvagata found himself back in contention after some impressive dis-plays in the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League T20.

And with the � rst of four T20Is taking place next Friday at Khulna’s Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium, the Mymensingh cricketer informed that he is more comfortable play-ing limited-over cricket, as opposed to the longer-version.

“I always enjoy the limited-over format, especially T20 cricket. And after a decent outing in the BPL for my side Comilla Victori-ans, I think I will be more con� dent with my prospects. I am looking forward to utilising the opportunity in the coming days,” said Shuvagata.

The 14-member Tigers squad will travel to Khulna today. All the four T20Is will be held in the south-western city. l

Tigers observe strike but not Shakib

Bangladesh limited-over captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza (C) shares a light moment with national team mates Shakib al Hasan (R) and Qazi Nurul Hasan during the Tigers’ optional training session in Mirpur yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

CR7 cheaper than Hazard?n Agencies

Twice a year, the CIES Football Observatory - a sort of sporting think tank - releases a list of the most valuable footballers in the big � ve leagues of Europe. This year’s list provide plenty to argue over some of the crazier numbers thrown up by the CIES number crunchers.

Surprising are some of the claims made in CIES annual report with Cris-tiano Ronaldo sitting outside the top three, for example.

Now, with age being part of the “econometric model” used to cook up these numbers, one can understand a 30-year-old Ronaldo slipping slightly. But should that really see him slip below Neymar and Eden Hazard, who are sev-en and � ve years younger than him? And should it really make his value half that of Messi, just two years his junior? l

EUROPEAN TRANSFER HEADLINES

Manchester City willing to pay £120m to land Lionel Messi if Pep Guardiola becomes club’s new manager this summer.

Gareth Bale wanted by Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.

Bournemouth linked with loan bid to sign Stephan El Shaarawy from Milan.

West Ham United not interested in selling Andy Carroll.

As Eden Hazard will become a transfer target of Madrid, reports says Real are set to assess o� ers from Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Hazard is believed to trigger a summer transfer bidding war among Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

Manchester United set to announce return of Adnan Januzaj from loan spell at Dortmund.

Liverpool have decided to recall winger Sheyi Ojo. Ojo was on loan at Wolves, but could feature under Jurgen Klopp in their FA Cup.

Watford’s Odion Ighalo is keen to seal a move to Manchester United having scored 14 goals this season so far for the Premier League newcomers. l

EUROPE’S MOST VALUABLE BOOTERS1. Lionel Messi £250.7m2. Neymar £152.7m3. Eden Hazard £130.5m4. Cristiano Ronaldo £114m5. Harry Kane £91.3m

6. Raheem Sterling £89.8m7. Antoine Griezmann £88.3m8. Luis Suarez £86.3m9. Sergio Aguero £82.1m10. Alexis Sanchez £81.9m

Sport 27D

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Azarenka advances to semi� nals at Brisbane Victoria Azarenka maintained her surge in form while the leading women on the tour are struggling with injuries or inconsistency at the start of the season, reaching the Brisbane In-ternational semi� nals with a 6-1, 6-2 win over eighth-seeded Roberta Vinci. The two-time Australian Open champion has dropped just 10 games en route to the semis, where she’ll meet Samantha Crawford.

–AP

Former prodigy Pennant tries luck in SingaporeFormer Arsenal and Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant arrived in Singapore yesterday to try his luck in the lowly S.League as he approach-es the tail-end of what was once one of the game’s most promising careers. Pennant, a former prodigy who was snapped up for a head-turning two millions pounds by Arsenal when he was just 15, � ew in for a trial with Tampines Rovers, � ve-time winners of the Singapore league.

–AFP

Grosskreutz joins Stuttgart after four months in coldGerman Kevin Grosskreutz joined struggling VfB Stuttgart after four frustrating months at Turkey’s Galatasaray where he did not kick a ball in anger. Grosskreutz was left out in the cold after his move to Galatasaray from Dortmund in September was ruled by FIFA to have been com-pleted after the transfer deadline had passed.

–REUTERS

Manchester City close to surprise Caceres transferManchester City are in talks with Australian club Central Coast Mariners about making playmaker Anthony Caceres their � rst signing of the Janu-ary transfer window. The uncapped 23-year-old was dropped by the A-League basement dwell-ers last week and had been expected to move overseas but not to a club of the magnitude of the four-times English champions.

–REUTERS

Mourinho ex-assistant joins AntalyasporAmbitious Turkish Super Lig side Antalyaspor said that the former assistant to sacked Chel-sea coach Jose Mourinho, Jose Morais, had signed for the club as their new manager. The club from the Mediterranean resort had been co-managed on a temporary basis by their star striker, the former Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o, after the departure of Yusuf Simsek last month.

–AFP

Murray lose at Hopman CupAndy Murray’s preparations for this month’s Australian Open su� ered a setback when the world number two went down in straight sets to local favourite Nick Kyrgios at the Hopman Cup in Perth. The 20-year-old Australian had never won his previous four meetings against Murray.

–REUTERS

QUICK BYTESNEW ZEALAND R BM. Guptill run out (Kapugedera) 58 34 K. Williamson c Lakmal b Kulasekara 53 42C. Munro c & b Kulasekara 36 26 C. Anderson c Siriwardana b Vandersay 2 3 R. Taylor not out 22 9 G. Elliott not out 10 6Extras (w1) 1 Total (4 wickets; 20 overs) 182

Fall of wickets1-101 (Guptill), 2-131 (Williamson), 3-135 (Anderson), 4-163 (Munro) BowlingLakmal 3-0-39-0, Perera 3-0-39-0 (w1), Kulase-kara 4-0-26-2, Jayasuriya 4-0-28-0, Vandersay 4-0-30-1, Dilshan 2-0-20-0SRI LANKA R BD. Gunathilaka c Taylor b Sodhi 46 29T. Dilshan c Ronchi b Boult 0 1D. Chandimal c Sodhi b Henry 7 7S. Jayasuriya c Ronchi b Boult 4 3A. Mathews c Elliott b Henry 4 5 M. Siriwardana c McClenaghan b Boult 42 31T. Perera c Guptill b Henry 28 19C. Kapugedera runout (Guptill/Ronchi) 17 15N. Kulasekara c Boult b Elliott 14 10J. Vandersay not out 4 1S. Lakmal not out 1 1Extras (lb6, w4, nb2) 12Total (9 wickets; 20 overs) 179

Fall of wickets1-10 (Dilshan), 2-27 (Chandimal), 3-33 (Jayasur-iya), 4-42 (Mathews), 5-84 (Gunathilaka), 6-133 (Perera), 7-153 (Siriwardana), 8-173 (Kulasekara), 9-174 (Kapugedera)BowlingHenry 4-0-44-3 (nb1), Boult 4-0-21-3, McClena-ghan 4-0-40-0 (w4, nb1)), G. Elliott 2-0-18-1, Sodhi 4-0-33-1, Munro 2-0-17-0

New Zealand won by three runs

SCORECARD, 1ST T20I

Martin Guptill of New Zealand plays a shot during the � rst Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui yesterday AFP

Gun� re in Kabul after dramatic Afghan winn Reuters, Kabul

Heavy gun� re rang out in celebration in Ka-bul after Afghanistan’s cricket team secured a last-gasp victory over Zimbabwe on Wednes-day to win a one-day series in Sharjah.

With only three balls remaining, Gulba-din Naib hit a six to clinch a narrow win and prompt delirious scenes in the Afghan capi-tal, where heavily-armed cricket fans � red automatic ri� es into the air.

Security forces in Kabul have been on high alert since a string of suicide bomb attacks claimed by the Taliban over recent days and police had appealed to sports fans not to � re weapons to celebrate.

The teams went into the game level at 2-2 in the series and after a solid innings from Zimbabwe including a century by Hamilton Masakadza, it took a quick� re 82 from Gulba-din to lift Afghanistan to their target of 254.

Cricket has become increasingly popular in Afghanistan and the match was closely followed across the country, where sports fans were disappointed by losing the � nal of soccer’s SAFF Championship to India on Sunday.

Afghanistan quali� ed for the 50-over cricket World Cup for the � rst time in last year’s tournament in Australia and New Zea-land. They beat Scotland but lost their other group matches to exit in the � rst round. l

Guptill � yer sets NZ up for three-run winn AFP, Mount Maunganui

In-form batsman Martin Guptill cracked 58 o� 34 balls to set up New Zealand for a tense three-run win in the � rst Twenty20 interna-tional against Sri Lanka yesterday.

Sri Lanka had three wickets in hand and required 13 o� the last over by Grant Elliott at Mount Maunganui but could only manage 10 runs as they lost two wickets.

The result put the pressure on Sri Lanka to win the second and � nal game in Auckland on Sunday or they will slip from � rst to third behind the West Indies and Australia in the

world rankings.New Zealand, sent into bat � rst at Bay Oval,

made 182 for 4 in their 20 overs and Sri Lan-ka replied with 179 for 9. Sri Lanka lost early wickets and were 86-5 at the halfway stage with top scorer Danushka Gunathilaka back in the pavilion after hitting 46 o� 29 deliveries.

Milinda Siriwardana (42) and Thisara Per-era (28) started to repair the innings with a stand of 49 in 27 balls for the sixth wicket and Chamara Kapugedera (17) and Nuwan Kulasekara (14) kept up the pressure.

But on the third ball of the � nal over Ku-lasekara was well caught in the deep by Boult

and Kapugedera was run out on the next de-livery. Guptill and Kane Williamson gave New Zealand a � ying start bringing up their centu-ry partnership at the start of the 11th over.

But they had no sooner passed 100 when Guptill was � rst to fall for 58 when he was run out by a side-on throw from Kapugedera on Williamson’s call for a quick single.

Williamson followed soon after while Col-in Munro scored 36 and Ross Taylor was not out 22. For Sri Lanka, Kulasekara took two for 26, while the leading bowlers for New Zea-land were Boult with three for 21 and Henry with three for 44. l

BRIEF SCORE5TH ODIZimbabwe

248 all out in 49.5 overs(Hamilton Masakadza 110, Moor 42;

Amir Hamza 3-41 )

Afghanistan254-8 in 49.4 overs

(Gulbadin Naib 82 not out, Hashmatullah 32; Jongwe 3-50)

Afghanistan won by two wickets and take Series 3-2

28DT Sport

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Athletic Bilbao 3-2 VillarrealWilliams 53, Aduriz 67, Baptistao 16, Laporte 80 Garcia 37

Mirandes 1-1 DeportivoOrtiz 25 Lopo 75

Valencia 4-0 GranadaNegredo 7, 62-P, 82-P, Rodrigo 34

Real Betis 0-2 Sevilla Krohn-Dehli 13, Krychowiak 49

Barcelona 4-1 EspanyolMessi 13, 44, Pique 49, Caicedo 9Neymar 88

Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Atletico MadridNacho 34 Saul Niguez 56

COPA DEL REY

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (4R) and Gerard Pique (L) celebrate a goal against Espanyol during their King’s Cup match at Camp Nou stadium on Wednesday REUTERS

Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero (L) shoots past Everton defender Leighton Baines during their Capital One Cup semi-� nal � rst leg at Goodison Park on Wednesday REUTERS

‘Barca not interested in NFL type scrap’n AFP, Barcelona

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique compared Es-panyol’s roughhouse tactics to the NFL after the visitors had two men sent-o� in the sec-ond bad-tempered Catalan derby in four days as Barca came from behind to win 4-1 in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.

Hernan Perez and Papakouli Diop were shown red cards in a four-minute spell in the second-half with Barca already leading 3-1 thanks to a Lionel Messi double. Messi then teed up Neymar for a stunning fourth to all but seal Barca’s place in the quarter-� nals ahead of the second leg on January 13.

Espanyol’s intense approach had worked in frustrating Barca with a 0-0 draw on Sat-urday.

Yet, they lost their discipline complete-ly in the � nal quarter with goalkeeper Pau Lopez escaping punishment for a blatant stamp on Messi.

And there were reports that the players from the two sides even came to blows in the tunnel after the game.

“The referees are the ones to set the lim-its. They are responsible for ensuring this is football and not American football,” said En-rique.

“Anything that takes us away from foot-

ball worries me. All we are looking for is to play. When someone goes beyond the limit with their actions, there is a referee there (to act). We are teams used to playing in our own way and we have to understand that in a pos-itive light.”

Felipe Caicedo had put Espanyol into a shock lead before Messi replied four minutes later. A wonderful Messi free-kick just before half-time put Barca in front before the Ar-gentine provided two � ne assists for Gerard Pique and Neymar to put the tie beyond Es-panyol’s reach.

And Pique admitted Messi had been the key to opening up the visitors. l

Injuries mar Everton’s winn Reuters

Everton’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City in the � rst leg of their Capital One Cup (League Cup) semi-� nal came at a cost with the trio of Romelu Lukaku, Tom Cleverley and Seamus Coleman sustaining injuries during the con-test on Wednesday.

Striker Lukaku, the joint top-scorer in the Premier League on 15 goals, headed home the winner for the To� ees before hurting himself, and manager Roberto Martinez is hoping the in-form Belgian will be back in action soon.

“Romelu took a knock to his ankle and he will need assessing. I don’t know if he will be available at the weekend but I don’t expect anything too serious,” the Spaniard told the club website.

Everton � nished the game with 10 men af-

ter Coleman tweaked his calf muscle late in the game, with the manager having used up his substitutions.

“Seamus is probably the most serious of the three. He has pulled his calf and that type of injury usually takes three or four weeks to fully recover,” Martinez said.

Cleverly su� ered a recurrence of the calf injury he picked up against Tottenham Hot-spur at the weekend. The mid� elder had to sit out for more than two months due to a ligament damage before returning to action in November and has only 11 league appear-ances so far this season.

The manager is also not setting too much store by Wednesday’s win, as a 1-0 victory by City (after extra time) in the return leg will be enough to send Manuel Pellegrini’s men through.l

Drogba undecided on playing futuren Reuters

Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has said he is discussing his future with Major League Soccer team Montreal Impact but that retirement talk was premature.

French media reported on Wednesday that the 37-year-old Ivorian was to quit play-ing and join the coaching sta� of Premier League champions Chelsea under interim manager Guus Hiddink.

“Lovely to receive these messages but I have not yet announced my retirement and am still in discussion with @impactmontreal about my future,” Drogba, who has a contract with Montreal Impact through to December, posted on Twitter.

British media reported last month that Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramov-ich was keen to o� er Drogba a position on the team’s coaching sta� .

Hiddink was appointed last month after Chelsea dismissed Jose Mourinho following a dismal start to their title defence.

The Blues are 14th in the Premier League after 20 games, 13 points o� the Champions League quali� cation spots.

Drogba joined Montreal in July after two stints with Chelsea where he scored 164 goals in all competitions over nine seasons. The Canadian club have previously stated their wish for the striker to see out his contract. l

Sport 29D

T

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

WEST INDIES 1ST INNINGS R B(248-7 overnight)D. Ramdin c Smith b O’Keefe 62 151K. Roach c Burns b Lyon 15 52J. Taylor c Lyon b O’Keefe 13 27J. Warrican not out 21 29Extras (b5, lb2, nb1) 8 Total (all out; 112.1 overs) 330

Fall of wickets1-13 (Hope), 2-104 (Bravo), 3-115 (Samuels), 4-131 (Blackwood), 5-158 (K. Brathwaite), 6-159 (Holder), 7-246 (C. Brathwaite), 8-296 (Ram-din), 9-300 (Roach), 10-330 (Taylor)BowlingHazlewood 18-5-49-1, Pattinson 18-3-76-2 (1nb), Lyon 46-12-120-3, Marsh 4-1-15-0, O’Keefe 26.1-7-63-3AUSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS R BD. Warner not out 122 103J. Burns c Roach b Warrican 26 41M. Marsh c Blackwood b Warrican 21 63P. Nevill not out 7 21Extras 0Total (2 wickets; 38 overs) 176

Fall of wickets1-100 (Burns), 2-154 (Marsh) BowlingTaylor 4-0-27-0, Holder 4-1-15-0, Roach 4-0-29-0, Warrican 15-1-62-2, C. Brathwaite 7-0-23-0, K. Brathwaite 4-0-20-0

Match drawn, Australia won series 2-0

SCORECARD, 3RD TEST

DAY’S WATCH

Star Sports 12:40 PMKFC T20 Big Bash LeagueBrisbane Heat v Adelaide Strikers Star Sports 45:30 PMAircel Chennai OpenTen Sports 11:00 AMWTA Tour: Brisbane International Semi Final 1 5:00 PMSemi Final 2 Ten HD2:40 PMA-LeagueCentral Coast Mariners v Melbourne 7:30 PMATP World Tour: Qatar OpenSemi Final 19:00 PMSemi Final 21:20 AMFrench Ligue 1Paris Saint-Germain v SC Bastiais 1:30 AMThe Emirates FA CupExeter City v Liverpool Sony Six HD3:30 PMHopman CupAustralia Green v France Sony KIX8:00 AMHopman CupGreat Britain v Germany

Inter lead � ve-way race for Serie A crownn AFP, Milan

Mauro Icardi hit his eighth goal of the cam-paign as Inter Milan edged “tough” Empoli 1-0 to reclaim top spot as a � ve-way race for the Serie A crown opened up on Wednesday.

Fiorentina had gone provisional top thanks to a 3-1 win at Palermo where Slove-nia international Josip Ilicic notably struck a brace to take his goals tally to the season to nine in 18 games.

But Inter, one of several teams showing

they have the tools to unseat four-time con-secutive champions Juventus this season, re-stored their one-point lead thanks to Icardi’s winner on the stroke of half-time.

It was the ninth time this season Inter have won 1-0, but that statistic is unlikely to unnerve coach Roberto Mancini as long as his side keep on winning.

“Empoli are a really tough side at home and (coach, Marco) Giampaolo is doing a great job here. We knew from the start it wouldn’t be easy,” Mancini told Mediaset.

“It’s a good result for us after the winter break. We missed a chance for 2-0 and they had several chances to level because of mis-takes we made.”

With Inter, Fiorentina and Juventus all victorious, Napoli were under pressure but stayed in the hunt with a 2-1 win at home to Torino that moved them back up to third place at the expense of Juve.

Between Inter and � fth-placed Roma there are now just six points. l

Udinese 2-1 AtalantaThereau 23, Perica 45+2 D’alessandro 75

Chievo 3-3 RomaPaloschi 44, Dainelli 58, Sadiq 7, Florenzi 37, Pepe 86 Falque 71

Juventus 3-0 VeronaDybala 8, Bonucci 45, Zaza 82

Lazio 0-0 Carpi

AC Milan 0-1 Bologna Giaccherini 82

Palermo 1-3 FiorentinaGilardino 77 Ilicic 13, 43, Blaszczykowski 90+3

Sassuolo 2-2 FrosinoneDefrel 22, Falcinelli 75 Dionisi 16, Ajeti 45

Empoli 0-1 Inter Milan Icardi 45+1

Napoli 2-1 TorinoInsigne 16, Hamsik 41 Quagliarella 33-P

SERIE A

POINTS TABLE P W D L PtsInter Milan 18 12 3 3 39Fiorentina 18 12 2 4 38Napoli 18 11 5 2 38Juventus 18 11 3 4 36Roma 18 9 6 3 33Sassuolo 17 7 7 3 28AC Milan 18 8 4 6 28Empoli 18 8 3 7 27Atalanta 18 7 3 8 24Lazio 18 7 3 8 24

Amla quits as South Africa skipper after Test drawn AFP, Cape Town

Hashim Amla announced a shock decision to resign as South African captain after leading his team to a draw in the second Test at New-lands on Wednesday.

“I felt someone else could do a better job,” Amla told journalists.

“The decision was not made over the last couple of days. It was made at least two weeks ago.”

AB de Villiers will lead South Africa in the remaining two matches of a series which England lead 1-0.

“I had chatted to a few of the guys before this so this did not come as a massive shock to them,” said Amla. “We have a very tight leadership team - myself, AB, Faf (du Plessis), quite a few of the senior guys. AB is very able and a brilliant captain himself.”

On what had been expected to be a low-key � nal day after high scoring in the � rst in-nings, Amla’s captaincy ended on a high.

“This decision was not an easy one to make but I felt I needed to be true to myself, having done a personal introspection.” l

West Indies spurn Australia double declaration o� ern Reuters, Sydney

West Indies spurned the chance to make the � nal day of the drawn third Test into a genu-ine conTest by turning down Australia’s o� er to chase a victory target of 370 from 70 overs at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday.

Three days of almost non-stop rain had set the dead rubber Test � rmly on course for a draw but, with an improved forecast for day � ve, Australia skipper Steve Smith said he had approached West Indies counterpart Ja-son Holder with an o� er.

“I o� ered him 370 in 70 overs, which I thought was pretty generous,” Smith told reporters. “It would take some good batting to get that on a day � ve SCG wicket but they weren’t up for the challenge unfortunately.

“They would have had to declare this morning, I would have declared nought for nought and then bowled lob ups for seven or eight overs or whatever it was, 370 o� 70 I o� ered but they weren’t willing to take it.

“(Holder) said ‘give me � ve minutes’, went over to their team and had a little hud-dle, chat and he said their boys weren’t up for the challenge.”

Holder said it had been a collective deci-sion not to accept the o� er. l

Australian batsman David Warner celebrates scoring a century against the West Indies on the � nal day of their third Test in Sydney yesterday REUTERS

Showtime30DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

Net� ix and chill. Finallyn Mahmood Hossain

The holy grail of streaming movies and shows has � nally come to Bangladesh. Net� ix released a statement yesterday letting everyone know they are now allowing access to their service to over 130 countries around the world. This is music to many ears within our borders, especially for those who would love to have international content on demand.

If you haven’t already caught the drift, Net� ix is a streaming video service that allows viewers to watch movies, shows and other special programming. Net� ix is also producing original content, collaborating with major studios through popular stories and characters. More and more big screen actors and producers are now investing their time and money to get on the Net� ix-original train. There seems to be no stopping for the most successful streaming service around.

What does this exactly mean for viewers here in Bangladesh? Well, there are pros and cons to this whole new a� air.

The plus sideYou get almost every new � lm or show to watch on demand. Alongside the new, there are countless older content you can stream through Net� ix. Take Daredevil, for example. The new season of the series premieres in late March of this year. The most of us would have to wait at least a day or two to download the torrent of the latest episodes. Illegally, of course. Then again, no one would catch us here in Bangladesh. But let’s not take the risk anyway. With Net� ix, you’ll be able to stream it at the same time the United States is airing the show on HBO.

Whether you want to binge watch older episodes or catch the � rst episode from the moment it airs in the States, there will be no waiting in line or waiting for a show to download on your computers. Which leads us to the other positive of having Net� ix. You can view shows and movies through your web browsers like Chrome

or Safari by heading over to the Net� ix website and signing in. There are also apps from your smartphones and smart TVs that will allow you to watch Net� ix. Even gaming consoles, like the PS4 or the Xbox One, gives you the opportunity to play with the streaming service by downloading the Net� ix app.

The not-so-great sideIt is not free. Well, at least for the � rst month it is. After that, you’ll have to be like every other user and pay up. You’re probably sitting there asking, “Then, what’s the point, when I can just continue downloading torrents?” Well, we don’t need to remind you, as convenient as torrents may be, it remains an illegal act. Piracy 101, folks. But we’re not going to judge, that is the nature of the beast we know as the Internet.

Second, you will not � nd everything you’re looking for on Net� ix. There are certain � lms and shows the streaming service does not have a license for as of yet. But in most cases, you’ll � nd your desired content. With so many shows in production, nowadays, you won’t have to look far for something new and exciting.

Finally, for a streaming service to be smooth, you’ll need a pretty fast internet. You could use your mobile devices, but your 3G can only take you so far. It’ll eat away at your browsing data in a � ash, if you’re viewing anything in HD. To get a solid viewing experience, it is suggested you are connected to at least a 2MB speed connection. Even then, we’ve seen a few stutters here and there but nothing too distracting you from a pleasurable experience. For those of you rocking a 11MB connection (like yours truly) through Wi-Fi or broadband, well, that’s just heaven.

How it all worksSigning up for a Net� ix account is super easy. Head on over to their main website and register for free. Once you’ve typed in the necessary information, you’ll have

n Showtime Desk

Sha� n Ahmed, the vocalist of legendary band Miles has been con� rmed to appear, for the � rst time on TV, in the role of a detective. Titled Midnight Falcon, the detective drama-series is written and directed by Tarique Mohammad Hasan. Ahmed’s con� rmation to work in the TV series came out at a press conference on January 7 in a restaurant in the capital.

Although the rest of the cast is yet to be con� rmed, the director has informed that � lming is due to to start from this very month.

Ahmed will appear as a detective in the series, disguised as a music director whose insightful deducing would lead to the resolving of many intricate crimes. l

Sha� n Ahmed turned detective for TV

to choose which package you want to deal with. There’s the Basic for $7.99, Standard for $9.99, and Premium for $11.99.

The Basic monthly subscription only allows you to watch Net� ix on one screen at a time. This means wherever you are signed in through is the only place you can view it until you log out. Feel free to lend your username and password, but beware with this package, it’s not something you should be sharing. Basic also means you won’t be able to view HD content. It is simply standard video.

Standard is possibly the more popular of

the three options. Here, you’ll be able to use the Net� ix account on two screen at once. You can be watching on one device, while someone with the same account can view it somewhere else. Standard also means HD content. Premium users are able to use their accounts on four screens at once, with the addition of Ultra

HD. Ultra HD are for those with 4K displays and televisions.

And yes, all of what you want does require you to type in some credit card information. After the � rst free month, you’ll have to pay the monthly fee to use Net� ix. But don’t worry, if you’re not satis� ed, you can always cancel the subscription at any time. You should also call the bank that issued your credit card regarding international purchases so that you don’t stumble into an online roadblock.

Net� ix, it’s a beautiful thing. Give it a try because we’re already hooked. l

n Promiti Prova Chowdhury

Brotee has made quite a splash in the radio jockeying scene in recent times. Her endeavours through ABC Radio 89.2 FM and gradual transition to ColoursFM 101.6 has elevated her to the position of a senior producer, adding a feather to her cap. Infatuated with RJ-ing, Brotee believes that the “show must go on.” Let’s have look at what the jovial performer has to share

Why RJing?Once you get the thrill of the microphone, it gets hard to not want to get a hold of it again. These days I am doing more of the brainstorming for my shows on Colours rather than RJ-ing. I started my journey by RJ-ing at ABC Radio but gradually turned towards producing.

What are the good and bad sides of RJing?It’s a pleasant feeling when someone recognises me through my voice. For example, recently, I was on a bus where the conductor recognised my voice and asked, “Accha, apni ki RJ Brotee?” That brought on a huge smile on my face. Previously, RJs were not exposed as much as they are now, when they are recognised through Facebook, posts of shows, features etc. I enjoy such publicity. Another treat comes when the listeners show their concerns. They end up having a sort of a bond with us. For example, sometimes I get SMSs asking how my kittens are doing, how my health is. These indicate that they follow me on my shows and I am grateful to them for that.

If you ask about bad sides, I would say that at times, it is disappointing to see harsh feedback and callous comments through SMSes and on Facebook. In our shows, we talk about a lot of social issues openly. Some listeners cannot take them positively and end up posting abusive comments online. Sometimes they post things that are completely o� topic. Such actions are indeed, upsetting. However, we try to ignore them and rise with the tempo of the show, which is the job of the RJ. But it does leave some psychological impact on you. Then there are days when one can have personal issues, and be stressed out about them. But in this profession they

always have to believe that the show must go on.

Do you have a fanbase?Certainly! I have old listeners who have been with me since the ABC Radio days. Now I have many more pouring in. There are some people who follow my shows regularly and know updates of the show and me. On many occasions like Pohela Boishakh and my birthdays, they wish and send gifts. Sometimes they come to o� ce to invite us to some of their events. After Eid last year, one listener even came to our o� ce with sweets. All these things indicate how much they care about us.

How has RJing shaped your musical tastes?Honestly, I sit on the hot seat mainly to listen to the music! Three of my shows are topic based which are about women, teens and career. Therefore, in those shows I have to play appropriate songs. For example, if we are talking about women empowerment, I would play something inspirational. In one episode of Haat Baralei Shokti, we were discussing about unmarried women above the age of 30. So, I played Single Ladies by Beyonce!

Personally, I am an omnivore when it comes to music. I like everything from eastern classical to Bollywood item numbers. I try to stay updated over what’s new. We, people at the radio

station are constantly discussing about music of di� erent tastes and times. There are shows that play retro tracks, then there are shows for international tracks. So this environment does have an impact on my taste for music. Through this job I also get free passes to go to di� erent music festivals.

How do people react when they meet you o� -air?I have not received any negative reaction yet because I remain the same person on both sides (giggles). However, people sometimes do come up and ask me why I do shows on Hindi numbers, and listen to Hindi music. This is the most common response I have heard from people for a long time. Probably because during my time in ABC Radio, I used to lead a show called Hindi Hits, now I do Bollywood Bollywood on Colours. But my belief is

that music itself is a language. I listen to music for myself

and try to share with the listeners why I like

a particular kind of music. l

Showtime 31D

TFRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

WHAT TO WATCH

Zathura: A Space AdventureZee Studio 3:10pmTwo young brothers are drawn into an intergalactic adventure when their house is hurled through the depths of space by the magical board game they are playing.Casts Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutcherson, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, Tim Robbins

How to Train Your Dragon 2Star Movies 8amWhen Hiccup and Toothless discover an ice cave that is home to hundreds of new wild dragons and the mysteri-ous Dragon Rider, the two friends � nd themselves at the center of a battle to protect the peace.Casts Jay Baruchel (Hiccup), Cate Blan-chett (Valka), Gerard Butler (Stoick), Craig Ferguson (Gobber), America Ferre-ra (Astrid), Jonah Hill (Snotlout)

Green LanternMovies Now, 3:45pmReckless test pilot Hal Jordan is granted an alien ring that bestows him with oth-erworldly powers that inducts him into an intergalactic police force, the Green Lantern Corps.Casts Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Tim Robbins

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’HooleHBO 12:07 pmWhen a young owl is abducted by an evil Owl army, he must escape with new-found friends and seek the legend-ary Guardians to stop the menace.Casts Emily Barclay (Gyl� e), Abbie Cornish (Otulissa), Essie Davis (Marel-la), Anthony LaPaglia (Twilight), Joel Edgerton (Metalbeak)

Riding the radio waves

Radio ABC’s 7th anniversaryCountry’s one of the most popular Radio stations, Radio ABC FM 89.2 celebrated its 7th anniversary on January 7. The station aired special programs all day long. Popular musicians Lincon, Rafa, Hridoy Khan, Parvez and Joy graced the station joining the celebrations. l

news

Full name: Tasnim Noorin BroteeSenior Producer & RJColoursFM 101.6

Produces-Haat Baralei Shokti: airs from 11pm to 1am on every SundayBollywood Bollywood: airs from 11pm to 1am on every Saturday

Part-time RJ-Teen tekka: airs from 11pm to 1am on every TuesdayDonspiration: airs from 11pm to 1am on every Thursday

Back Page32DT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016

RIDING THE RADIO WAVES PAGE 31

MAH PLANS TO FLOAT TK100CR IPO PAGE 15

SUNK BENGAL TIGERS AIM TO RESURFACE IN NEW YEAR PAGE 25

A son’s death, a father’s promiseLooking back at the BNP-led 20-party alliance blockade of 2015, the Dhaka Tribune’s Mohammad Jamil Khan seeks out those a� ected by the � rebomb campaign and reports on how they are doingAfter battling to stay alive for over a month, Jahangir Alam succumbed to his injuries on February 26, 2015, in the burn unit of Dha-ka Medical College Hospital, a grizzled old rickshaw-puller tells this correspondent.

“Forty—six percent of Jahangir’s body was covered in burns after his truck was � re-bombed in Char Matha, Bogra town, on Janu-ary 23 last year,” 60-year-old rickshaw puller Syed Ali says, recalling the events that lead to his only son’s painful and untimely death.

“Before he died, my son asked me, lying on the hospital bed, to look after his family,” he recalls, his voice choked with emotion.

The terrible damage done to the thirty-year-old’s body by arsonists enforcing the

BNP-led alliance blockade proved too great to � x, Syed Ali says.

Jahangir’s father has taken up work as a rickshaw-van puller in the sixth decade of his life to make ends meet for his son’s family.

“My son died while earning money for us. It is our responsibility to help his wife and children,” Syed Ali, says.

“I never thought life would come to this. My son never let me work. If I wanted to do something, he would say: ‘Father, take some rest now, you are older now.’”

Jahangir’s wife Beauty Begum lives in her father-in-law’s house in Kahalu, Bogra. The family consists of Jahangir’s elderly parents,

his widow and their two school-aged children. Beauty says her husband’s death has re-

duced the family to poverty and destroyed her children’s future.

Jahangir’s older child, son Jahid Hos-sain, 15, has left school to work in a jute mill where makes Tk1,200 a month.

Beauty says Jahid sometimes works a double or even triple shift.

“Jahangir loved his son so much he nev-er allowed me to use a harsh word with him. Now his beloved boy is working in a jute mill to support the family,” Beauty says, crying softly.

“Our dream was to educate both of our children. Jahid now works. I am struggling to give my eleven-year-old daughter, Jakia

Akther, an education,” she says. Jakia studies in class � ve at the Nishchin-

topur Government Primary School. Beauty says the � nances are tight and

worries about how to pay for tutors. She says help from the government and person-al savings have helped the family survive this ordeal.

Beauty’s in-laws are not wealthy people and do not own assets like land. Her father-in-law has gone back to work to keep them alive, she says.

“I have accepted my fate. My only dream is to marry my daughter into better circum-stances and to � nd my son a better job,” Beauty says. l

DU students protest metro rail route through campusn Arif Ahmed

Hundreds of students of Dhaka Universi-ty (DU) as well as teachers formed a human chain in front of Raju Bhaskarja yesterday protesting the proposed route of metro rail through the university campus.

They claimed that the metro rail would greatly hamper the academic atmosphere in-side the campus with loud noise, and urged the government to � nd an alternative route.

The protesters alleged that the route plan through the campus is also an insult to the memories of Raju, Kazi Nazrul Islam and the three leaders, whose memorials and mauso-leums are on the campus.

Speaking at the human chain, economics student Sanjiban Chakraborty said: “We are not against the metro rail project; rather, we

appreciate any development of the country. But the route of the metro rail should be built outside the DU campus, not inside it.”

Samina Lutfa, assistant professor at the department of sociology at the university, said: “Metro rail could cause damage to the science laboratories on the campus because the trains will cause extreme vibration.The loud noise will also hinder the academ-ic atmosphere in the university library andthe Public Library, not to mention on the campus.”

Tanjim Uddin Khan, professor at the de-partment of international relations, termed the proposed the metro rail route a conspir-acy against education.

After an hour of human chain, students brought out a rally protesting the proposed route and marched around the campus. l

Govt mulls incentives for using renewablesn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The government is thinking about provid-ing incentives for encouraging people to use renewable energy, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said.

“Oil price has been falling across the world and I have heard that it will go down further. So, many may feel discouraged about using renewable energy. That is why we have to provide incentives to encourage people here to use renewable energy.”

The junior minister was speaking at the chief guest at the three day 4th International Conference on Developments in Renewable Energy Technology (ICDRET 2016) at the United International University (UIU) in Dhaka yesterday.

He said “a� ordability” was the key in en-suring extensive use of renewables in the country.

“There is a perception that renewable en-ergy is expensive and cannot be a� orded. This shows that we are not aware of what lies ahead of us.”

The truth is that urban citizens are not concerned about the source of energy be-cause they are getting electricity at a� orda-ble prices, Nasrul said.

Addressing the city dwellers, the state minister said: “Go to the villages and you will see that a solar revolution is going on there. This is because they need it there and solar power has been made a� ordable in the rural areas through a number of initiatives.”

Saying that scarcity of human resources is the biggest challenge facing the renewa-ble energy sector, he urged all to set up pilot projects around the country instead of just organising seminars. l

Dhaka University students form a human chain in front of Raju Memorial on the campus calling for changing the metro rail project route yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

3 of Kazi Aref’s killers hanged,5 on the runn Our Correspondent, Jessore

The Jessore Jail authorities last night execut-ed three convicts for killing Kazi Aref, one of the key organisers of the 1971 Liberation War and founding member of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, and four other JaSoD leaders around 17 years ago.

Two of the convicts – Safayet Hossain Ha-bib and Anwar Hossain, both hailing from Kushtia’s Mirpur upazila – were hanged by the neck until death around 11pm amid tight security, jail o� cials said. Another convict, Rashedul Islam Jhantu, was executed at 11:45pm.

Five other death-row convicts are still at large while another died during the trial.

Aref’s wife Rowshon Jahan Sathi wel-comed the executions but expressed frustra-tion as the law enforcers had failed to arrest the fugitive convicts. “One of the convicts, Mannan Molla, is yet to be arrested though he has been involved in various crimes,” she told the Dhaka Tribune.

Aref, then Kushtia district unit president Lokman Hossain, general secretary Yakub Ali, and party leaders Israil Hossain and Shamsher Mandal were killed during an anti-terrorism rally on Kalidaspur Primary School ground on February 16, 1999.

A court in Kushtia sentenced 10 to death and 11 to life-term jail on August 30, 2004. The High Court acquitted one of the 10 death-row convicts but upheld the sentence of the remaining nine. It also acquitted the 11 convicts who were awarded life sentence by the lower court. The Appellate Division later upheld the High Court verdict. l

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