SECOND EDITION

DIARRHOEA TAKES SERIOUS TURN IN GAIBANDHA PAGE 32

NBR FURTHER CLARIFIES VAT STANCE PAGE 3

DRIVE AGAINST PIRATED MS SOFTWARE PAGE 15

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015 | Bhadro 29, 1422, Zilqad 29, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 150 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

ANTI-VAT PROTESTS

Demo planned at seven points in Dhaka

n Shadma Malik

Anti-VAT protesters have announced that they will continue demonstration today by dividing the capital city into seven zones.

Yesterday evening, hundreds of current and former private university students shared a Bangla post on Facebook which called upon their fellows to stage peaceful programmes in front of their respective campuses starting 9am today.

This comes on the same day the authorities of at least eight pri-vate universities in Dhaka have announced postponing all classes and exams for today.

The protesters’ announcement said that Dhaka will be divided into seven zones – Maligabh-Shantinagar, Rampura Bridge, Basun-dhara Residential Area, Uttara, Banani, Mohakhali and Dhanmondi.

It also speci� ed the names of the participating universities from these areas: AUST and Stamford at Maligbagh-Shantinagar; EWU at Rampur Bridge; NSU, IUB and UITS near the gate of the

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Muhith: VAT for building more schools, colleges n Tribune report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said VAT money would be needed to construct more schools and colleges at upazilla level across the country.

The minister justi� ed the im-position of 7.5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on the tuition fees of pri-vate universities while attending an award giving ceremony of a de-bate competition titled Debate for

Democracy and More Investment Needs in Education Sector for Sustainable Development. ATN Bangla, a local TV channel, host-ed the programme in the city yesterday.

In his address as the chief guest, Muhith said: “We have im-posed VAT on private universities, not the students.”

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

● Malibagh-Shantinagar ● Rampura Bridge● Bashundhara R/A ● Uttara ● Banani● Mohakhali ● Dhanmondi

Demo planned at seven points in DhakaBasundhara Residential Area; IUBAT, Uttara University and BIFT at Uttara; AIUB and SEU at Banani; Brac University at Mohakhali; and UIU, SUB, Da� odil, ULAB and Asia Paci� c at Dhanmondi.

The students of the other universities, not mentioned in this announcement, have been asked to carry out protests in front of their own campuses. However, a little later in the an-nouncement, it is also said that: “This move-ment will go on in an organised way; there is no need to give individual programmes.”

Meanwhile, according to another Facebook page titled “No Vat On Education,” the stu-dents have been observing a three-day stu-dent strike at the private universities, medical and engineering colleges starting yesterday.

Zahid Gogon, a student of media studies and journalism at ULAB, told the Dhaka Trib-une: “We will bring out a peaceful procession from in front of our campus at 10am tomorrow [Sunday]. From there we will go on to meet the other protesters from the Dhanmondi area.

“This does not have any common banner or platform. Once there was a common platform named No VAT on Education, but it is not ac-tive anymore. We are spontaneously staging individual protests.

“Our movement does not have any leaders or coordinators. University students will stage demo in their respective areas. For example, ULAB is located in Dhanmondi, so we are join-ing the demo in Dhanmondi. East West Uni-versity is located in Aftabnagar, so its students are joining the protests at Rampura,” Zahid said last night.

Although there is no mention of the word “blockade” in that widely-shared post, anoth-er event page – titled “Inter-University Dhaka Siege” – appeared on Facebook around 9pm that said students are going to stage blockade on roads in those seven areas.

This event was created by a Facebook user named Asif Mahtab whose pro� le says he is a researcher at Don Sumdany Facilitation and Consultancy. When this report was being � led around 10:30pm, a total of 113 guests said they were going to attend the event.

On Thursday, Dhaka su� ered from severe tra� c congestion and gridlock after students from a number of universities took to the streets in several areas of Dhaka protesting

against the imposition of 7.5% VAT on the fees at private universities, med schools and engi-neering colleges.

A day before that, police � red rubber bul-lets on a group of protesters on the Rampur Bridge who were mostly students of the East West University located in the vicinity.

After that incident, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) announced that the students would not have to pay the VAT, rather the uni-versity authorities would pay the indirect tax.

On Friday, the private university authori-ties requested the government to reconsider the decision.

In a post on the o� cial Facebook page of ULAB, Vice-Chancellor Prof Imran Rahman said that the universities are united on the stance that VAT on education is “misguided and unfair.” He also said that if universities are forced to pay VAT, the facilities o� ered to the students might have to be reduced.

On the same day, students called the strike, saying if the universities pay the VAT, the au-thorities will increase the various fees that they take from the students.

Yesterday, students of several private uni-

versities and medical colleges in Dhaka, Chit-tagong and Sylhet took to the streets. The protests were mainly concentrated in the Dh-anmondi and its adjacent areas.

The Mirpur Road experienced some tra� c disruption because of the protests but things eventually did not turn out to be as bad as it was Thursday.

Around 12 noon, students from several pri-vate universities brought out processions on Dhanmondi Road Number 16 (old 27), Sukra-bad and near Lab Aid hospital.

An hour later, World University students formed a human chain near the Lab Aid hos-pital and then took position the Mirpur Road. Because of this, tra� c on the road from the City College to Kalabagan got stuck. But they moved away from the road after an hour upon police’s request.

Da� odil University protesters formed a hu-man chain at Shukrabad around 1pm. Students from the State University also staged a similar programme on Dhanmondi Road 16 (old 27).

However, the students of East West Univer-sity and North South University did not have any programmes for yesterday.

Meanwhile, citing unavoidable circum-stances, the Brac University closed all its classes and exams for today. The Eastern Uni-versity announced that their Eid-ul-Azha va-cations would start from today – some 10-12 days ahead of usual schedule.

The Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology in Uttara, Da� odil University in Dhanmondi, South East University in Banani, Ahsanullah University of Science and Tech-nology at Tejgaon and the American Interna-tional University of Bangladesh at Banani also either cancelled or postponed their classes, exams and functions scheduled for today. The authorities of these universities made the an-nouncements in the second half of yesterday.

In Chittagong, students of the BGC Trust University blocked the Chittagong-Cox’s Ba-zar Highway protesting the imposition of VAT.

Police said around 100 students came out of the campus and took to the highway just after Home Minister Assaduzzaman Khan Ka-mal left the area after attending a programme around 11am.

Chanting anti-VAT slogans, they remained on the road for 20 minutes, halting tra� c movement and causing a long tailback on the busy road, said campus sources. They block-aded the same highway on Thursday as well. l

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Students of World University of Bangladesh block a road in the capital’s Dhanmondi area demanding cancellation of VAT imposed on the private universities yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Public university teachers’ work abstention todayn Tribune Report

Teachers of the public universities of the country will observe work abstention pro-grammes for today and Thursday demanding a separate pay scale.

Earlier, the Federation of Bangladesh Uni-versity Teachers’ Associations (FBUTA) in a press release said that if the government failed to meet their demand by September 17, they would be compelled to go for inde� nite work abstention.

President of the association Professor Farid Uddin Ahmed yesterday said that they

would abstain from work but examinations will be out of the purview of their protest programme.

“We still hope that the prime minister will accept our demands,” he said adding that Dhaka University Teachers Association will hold a press conference today at 11pm.

Relations between public university teach-ers and the government soured after teach-ers took exception to comments made by Finance Minister AMA Muhith about their demonstration.

The � nance minister, however, later with-drew his remarks and apologised.

Teachers at public universities have been protesting the Eighth National Pay Scale since May 14, advocating a four-point charter of de-mands that includes the formation of a com-mission to initiate an independent pay scale for public university teachers.

The other demands of the public univer-sity teachers are salary and allowance parity between senior professors and senior secre-taries, and between professors and secretar-ies; upgrading the status of teachers in the warrant of precedence; and the provision of cars and other allowances for teachers similar to provisions given to bureaucrats. l

Muhith: VAT for building more schools, collegesStudents of private universities should be aware that private university authorities do not impose any VAT on their tuition fees, add-ed Muhith.

The minister said a private university stu-dent spends Tk1,000 per day.

Besides, attending a di� erent seminar yes-terday, the � nance minister said: “We will construct warehouses in former USSR coun-tries now named as Commonwealth Inde-pendent Countries.”

He was speaking at the seminar titled Third Export Destination of Bangladesh’s Items in Russian and CIS Countries at the Westin Hotel jointly organised by Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Bangladesh For-eign Chamber of Commerce of Industries. l

Dhaka, Bangkok stress security forumn Tribune Report

Dhaka will uphold its policy of zero-tolerance towards terrorism suspects under stringent counter-terrorism laws, said Bangladesh Am-bassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem. The policy will be applicable to suspected mas-termind of the Erawan Shrine bomb attacks who transited through Bangladesh last month.

She made the remarks while meeting Spokesperson and Assistant Police Commis-sioner of the Royal Thai Police, Pol Lt Gen Dr Prawut Thavornsiri at Royal Thai Police head-quarters in Bangkok Friday. Both sides agreed to creating a bilateral mechanism for sharing information and intelligence on security is-sues and in this regard stressed on the need to establish a security forum to counter trans-national crimes between the two countries. l

NEWS2DT

NEWS 3D

TSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

No trace of cricketer Shahadat after six days n Tribune Report

Despite to have six days elapsed, police are yet to trace whereabouts of cricketer Shaha-dat Hossain and his wife Nitto Shahadat who went into hiding after a complaint of torture on domestic help raised against them.

When asked, Sha� qur Rahman, inspector (investigation) of Mirpur model police sta-tion, yesterday said after registering a case on charge of physical abuse, the cricketer family was on run and their residence located in Mir-pur section 2 area was found locked.

“We are adopting technological measures to track down Shahadat and his wife and also conducting drives in the residences of their kith and kin while the e� ort is yet to see any light,” he added.

Meanwhile, the 11-year-old domestic help,

namely Mahfuza Akther Happy, has been un-dergoing treatment in one stop crisis center (OCC) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital un-der the supervision of a � ve-member medical team.

OCC Coordinator Dr Bilkis Begum told the Dhaka Tribune that the medical board was formed to ensure better treatment for the girl.

Injury marks on her body were still availa-ble and they were counselling her in line with regular treatment so that the girl would be able to come out from her fear, she added.

Earlier on September 6, Happy was found in the journalist colony in the capital Pallabi area in injured condition. Later, journalist Khondokar Mozammel Haque has � led a case with Mirpur police station hearing painful torture story from the girl and got admitted her to the hospital. l

NBR further clari� es VAT on private unisn Tribune Report

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) yester-day issued an extended explanation clarifying the legality of the imposition of 7.5% VAT on private universities, medical and engineering colleges.

The tax authorities clari� ed the legality of the Value Added Tax Rules, 1991 in the wake of confusion created among di� erent quar-ters.

The NBR said it has imposed the VAT on private education to meet the increased rev-enue target required for the development of the country.

According to section 5 (4) of the rule, in the case of provision of services, VAT shall be im-posed on the total receipts: provided that, in respect of any speci� c service, the board may, by order, determine the Value Added Tax on

the basis of actual value addition or deter-mine the VAT based on speci� c rate of value addition by noti� cation in the o� cial gazette.

The “total receipt” means the total amount of money received or receivable by any taxable service provider in exchange of his service rendered including commission or charges, excluding VAT, according to section 2 (X) of the rule.

The price of the service can be determined in two ways – VAT inclusive price and VAT ex-clusive price, the section 23 of the VAT rule shows. If the cost of service and the amount of VAT is not mentioned separately, the cost of service will be considered as VAT inclusive price.

The section 23 (4) reads: “Where the amount of value added tax is not shown sep-arately in the invoice given by the supplier of goods or the renderer of service, the amount of the value added tax payable shall be deter-mined by multiplying by 15/115 the gross sale price, inclusive of the amount of value added tax due or received.”

In this case, the university authorities are considered as “service receiver” and tuition fee is the “cost of service” paid by the stu-dents, the clari� cation reads.

For example, if a university collects Tk1

lakh from a student as tuition fee, it will be considered as VAT inclusive price and the VAT payable would be calculated on the amount.

The government has slapped 7.5% VAT on private universities, and medical and engi-neering colleges for � scal year 2015-16. As it is now applied, the universities will collect the money as VAT inclusive price and have to de-posit the VAT to the government exchequer.

Now, the universities are responsible for paying the VAT that is already included in the current tuition fees.

As the VAT was included in the existing tui-tion fees, there was no scope of increasing the cost of studying at private universities, the NBR said.

Protests against the controversial 7.5% VAT have been going on ever since it was � rst pro-posed under the budget for the ongoing � scal year. l

Winners of Anannya Top Ten 2014 Awards pose for a photograph with the received awards at the Krishibid Institute in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

The NBR said it has imposed the VAT on private education to meet the increased revenue target required for the development of the country

10 children rescued from a Banasree NGO o� cen Mohammad Jamil Khan

Motijheel police in a special drive rescued 10 children, aged between nine and 14, from a so-called NGO o� ce in the capital’s Rampura yesterday and arrested four suspected human tra� ckers posing as its o� cials.

The four people could not present any valid document of the NGO named Adomyo Bangladesh Foundation or their identities. Police primarily suspect that the children were gathered from di� erent areas of Dhaka and other districts to be tra� cked abroad.

The arrestees are Arifur Rahman, Jakia Sultana, Hasibul Islam Sabuj and Firoz Alam Shuvo. Arif claimed himself as chairman of the NGO while Jakia its secretary. The two others said that they were members of the or-ganisation.

Arif claimed that they used to provide computer education to the street urchins and vulnerable children. However, the res-cued children told the police that they used to make paper packets and were tortured at the house.

After the drive, police sealed o� the o� ce, situated on the sixth � oor of a mess building at section C of Banasree residential area. The children were kept in one room which was found very unhygienic while the two other rooms were used as o� ce and dinning rooms.

There was no signboard of the NGO in the building.

Four computers and 10 mobile phones were also recovered from the spot, police said.

Anowar Hossain, deputy commissioner of Motijheel division of police, said that they conducted the drive after receiving a com-plaint from a person that his nephew had been kept con� ned in the � at.

The children were identi� ed as Bhola’s Babul, 10, Abbas, 10, Shapan, 11, Noakhali’s Akash, 9, Ra� q, 14, Comilla’s Mobarak Hos-sain, 14, Pirojpur’s Abdullah Al Mamun, 11, Narayanganj’s Ibrahim, 10, Mymensingh’s Ra-sel, 14, and Moulvibazar’s Forhad Hossain, 9.

“We arrested the four people as suspected human tra� ckers since they failed to show us any valid documents. We are now checking the documents they have given us and will gather more information about them using our intelligence network,” DC Anowar said.

The arrestees talking to reporters claimed that they kept the children in the house to provide them supports, not for collecting ransom. The self-proclaimed chairman, Arif, claimed that they used to train the children after bringing them from the streets.

A case was lodged with Rampura police af-ter the drive. Mobarak’s uncle Munir Hossain had � led the written complaint.

Monir, a butcher from Sobujbagh in capi-tal, said that his elder brother’s son Mobarak was a student of Uttar Goran Borhan Eidgah Madrasa. He brought Mobarak to Dhaka from his village home in Comilla and admitted him

to the madrasa a month ago.“Last Friday, when I went to visit the ma-

drasa to take information about him, I was told that an NGO o� cial had taken him for education. Taking address of the NGO from them, I went to the o� ce and found Mobarak. He was crying and said that the people used to torture him and forced him to make paper packets,” Monir said.

“The o� cials refused to let Mobarak leave the place and drove me out. Later I informed the police about the matter,” he added.

Alea Begum, wife of the security guard at the house, said that Arif had rented the � at a month ago and Jakia used to bring foods from outside.

One of the rescued children Ra� q could not say who had brought him to the o� ce. Another child Farhad said that an unknown woman brought him in the house. l

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015NEWS4DT

Dhaka, Hague headed for trade driven relationshipn Tribune Report

Bangladesh and the Netherlands have agreed to intensify and broaden technical coopera-tion in port development and blue economy.

The issues were discussed at the � rst ever foreign o� ce consultation between the two countries in the Hague on Thursday, says a press release of the Foreign Ministry issued yesterday.

The Bangladesh delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque while Renée Jones-Bos, secretary-general of the Min-istry of Foreign A� airs of the Netherlands, led the Dutch delegation. Both the countries felt that the bilateral relations are going through a transition from traditional aid relations to trade and investment-driven relations.

They also agreed to cooperate in the areas of water sector development, textile and ready-made garments, agriculture, leather and leath-er goods, information communication technol-ogy, private sector development, and capacity building in Bangladesh’s judicial sector.

The issues of early implementation of Bang-ladesh Delta Plan 2100 and the collaboration in the � eld of land reclamation and land accretion in the country were also discussed in the meet-ing. They agreed on partnership for knowledge and innovation for sustainable development.

Bangladesh Ambassador to the Nether-lands Sheikh Mohammed Belal and other senior o� cials assisted the foreign secretary during the consultation. l

ICCCAD organises Resilience Academyn Tribune Report

The International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) yesterday ar-ranged a sharing event on Gibika project and Resilience Academy 2015 in collaboration with Munich Re Foundation and United Na-tions University, Bonn.

This year’s Resilience Academy took place at the capital’s Hotel Nascent Gardenia yes-terday morning where at least 30 young re-searchers, academics and practitioners from 22 countries took part in the event and shared their knowledge about the loss and damage caused by climate change.

The researchers, academics and practition-ers from di� erent countries have aimed to pro-vide research based knowledge to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at COP22 in 2016 in Morocco.

According to a ICCCAD � ier, Resilience Academy is meant to provide a platform for connecting communities of expertise. The � rst Resilience Academy was held at Savar in 2013 and the fourth Resilience Academy will be held near Munich in Germany next year from September 4-10.

Dr Saleemul Huq, director of ICCCAD, said the participants came together at the academy to brainstorm and develop their ideas and pre-pare for their individual research paper on the issue that they will work for next few months.

At COP22 in Morocco, which is scheduled to be held in December 2016, the structure, mandate and e� ectiveness of the Warsaw In-ternational Mechanism (WIM) for Loss and Damage will be reviewed. l

Ctg fruit traders shut shops protesting attackn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

Traders of Chittagong city’s biggest fruit trad-ing hub, better known as Falmundi, pulled down their shutters yesterday protesting the attack on the marketplace on Friday night.

The traders and workers of the wholesale fruit market in BRTC area also held a protest rally demanding immediate arrest and trial of the terrorists responsible for the attack.

On Friday night, a group of people from nearby Jamtala slum allegedly carried out the attack.

The attackers vandalised the market trig-gering a chase and counter chase between the traders and the attackers.

Later, the traders blocked the Tiger-pass-New Market Road following the attack, said police sources.

At the protest rally the traders alleged that the terrorists carried out the attack on the market demanding extortion from the busi-nessmen.

Chittagong Faal Babosaye Samity’s Pres-ident Abdul Malek presided over the rally while General Secretary Haji Md Alamgir, Vice-President Ali Abbas Khan and Joint Sec-retary Towhidul Alam addressed at the rally.

Chittagong City Corporation Ward No 22 Councilor Md Solimullah and Ward No 31 Councilor Md Tarek Solaiman were also pres-ent at the protest rally expressing their soli-darity with the agitating traders.

O� cer-In-Charge (OC) of Kotwali Police Sta-tion Jasim Uddin said Solim, a trader of the Fal-mandi, allegedly beat one Mohiuddin up over previous personal rivalry on Friday evening leading to the chase and counter chase. l

Ten kids on the way to Rampura police station from Victim Support Centre under Tejgaon police station who were rescued from a house in the capital’s Banasree area yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Two robbers arrested in cityn Tribune report

Dhaka Metropolitan police arrested two al-leged robbers while they were preparing for robbery in the captal’s Motijheel area early yesterday.

The arrestees were Milon Miah and Masud Mridha alias Lenin.

Deputy Commissioner (Media) of DMP po-lice Muntasirul Islam said a team of Detective Branch of DMP police picked the two up from the area.

Police also recovered a revolver, two rounds of bullets, one set police uniform, a pair of handcu� s, a black nylon belt and two knives from their possession.

In the primary investigation they had con-fessed that they were members of inter-dis-trict robbery gang. They mostly looted people in the adjacent areas of the city.

A case was � led against them and the two were later sent to jail by the court. l

NEWS 5D

TSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Government to act against unruly bus operatorsn Abu Hayat Mahmud and Sohel Mahmud

Several hundred people lined up in front of the counters at Gabtoli bus terminal and those in Kalyanpur, Shyamoli, Panthapath and Kalabagan areas on Friday, several hours before they started selling advance tickets centring the festive Eid-ul-Azha.

But within two to three hours, sta� at the counters claimed that all the tickets for Sep-tember 21, 22 and 23 had already been sold out. Such announcements came as a shock for many home-bound people, though the re-ality was di� erent.

Some brokers allegedly sta� of those bus services were seen moving around the tick-et-seekers and o� ering tickets for any date before the Eid, scheduled to be held on Sep-tember 24, in exchange for bribe – dubbed as “Eid tips” which was as high as Tk400.

Many desperate passengers gave in while others left the counters with a broken heart accepting that they would have to take a

crowded bus. Some others went for other op-tions – train or launch.

No government representative or law en-forcers were deployed at Gabtoli terminal and the counters to check irregularities on Friday, though the road transport and bridges minis-ter had warned the owners of stern action for such acts.

Yesterday the operators at Sayedabad and Mohakhali inter-district bus terminals started selling advance tickets, and the ticket-seekers were harassed, as usual. The sta� at the coun-ters stopped selling tickets for the northern districts after several hours claiming that the tickets were oversubscribed.

When contacted, a senior government o� -cial said that they had already received some allegations of charging higher than the � xed fare chart.

“We have called a meeting of the taskforce, formed to check bus fare ahead of Eid, on Monday. We will sit with the stakeholders to decide action against the operators who are charging extra amount from the passengers,” said Md Kaikobad Hossain, chief of the task-force.

Also executive engineer of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, Kaikobad said that the minister, Obaidul Quader, had earlier asked the operators not to violate his directives. But the owners paid no heed. l

Two luxury underpasses soon in the capitaln Shohel Mamun

The government has intended to build two new underpasses connecting the parliament to NAM bhaban while another is between Shahjalal International Airport and Airport railway station in the capital.

They are to have facilities of both plying cars and walkway for pedestrians.

“We have planed to build two luxurious underpasses, one on Manik Miah Avenue and another in Airport area, as per the direction of Prime Minister,” said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He went on that: “We have already started the process for implementing the projects, but the cost of those is yet to estimated. In this regard, we will launch feasibility study soon, end of which the construction expendi-ture could be assumed.”

Some countries have multi-purpose un-derpass and that was why it was being fol-lowed by us, the minister opined.

Sources at the ministry also con� rmed of the process on run for the project, saying cur-rently three underpasses are available in the capital’s Karwan Bazar, Gabtoli and Gulistan areas only for pedestrians.

The new underpasses will be with multi-purpose usage facility akin to a tunnel, the sources continued. l

No government law enforcers were deployed at Gabtoli terminal and the counters to check irregularities on Friday

A 10-12 feet deep hole lies open in the capital’s Kalabagan area that can be the cause of a deadly accident any time. It was created after a billboard was demolished from the spot. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

NEWS6DTSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Arum cultivation brings hope to Gaibandha farmers n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

The arum cultivation, a summer vegetable, has gained popularity among the farmers of Dhaperhat union in Sadullapur upazila in the district in recent years since the crop has giv-en them good pro� t.

The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) sources said over 200 hectares of ara-ble and fallow lands of the union have been brought under commercial arum cultivation this year.

Arum grows within four months of its plantation and has a low production cost. As a result, its cultivation has increased in the

union two times this year than the previous year.

Earlier, the farmers here used to cultivate arum on fallow lands for meeting their fam-ily demands, but now they are cultivating it commercially.

Abdus Samad, an arum cultivator of Khamarpara village, said di� erent varieties of arum have been cultivated in the current season.

The harvest of the varieties started in the last month and the farmers have earned pro� t by selling those in local and wholesale mar-kets, he added.

Mottaleb Miah, another farmer of Hin-

garpara Village in the union, said an arum cultivator could earn at least Tk7,000 from one bigha of land with a production cost of Tk1,500 only.

Shawkat Osman, additional deputy direc-tor of DAE, said arum cultivation requires no pesticides or fertilisers.

Terming the arum cultivation as envi-ronment-friendly, he said farmers of other unions were also being imparted training on arum cultivation.

Deputy Director of Gaibandha DAE AKM Ruhul Amin said all the Sub-Assistant Agricul-ture O� cers here were directed to motivate the farmers for extensive arum cultivation. l

Father, son found dead in Sunamganjn Our Correspondent, Sunamganj

The bodies of a man and his son were recov-ered from Tangnir Haor in Dirai upazilla early yesterday.

The deceased were Faruk Ahmed Chawd-hury, 55, and his son Eksan Chawdhury 13, hailing from Tarol village of the upazilla.

Police and locals said Faruk Ahmed Chawdhury went for � shing with his son in a small boat to the neighboring Tangnir Haor around 10pm at night.

The father and son both went missing af-ter a sudden storm in the Hawor area. Later, locals spotted the bodies � oating in the Haor.

On information, police recovered the bodies with the help of the locals, said Bayes Alam,of-� cer in-charge of Dirai police station. l

KANA RAJA’S CAVE

A tourist attraction allowed to decay n Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

The historic three hundred years old Kana Ra-ja’s Cave at Patuar Tek under Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar is just a victim of neglect de-spite having the potential to fetch revenue earnings as an attractive tourist spot.

Situated at Zalia Palong Union, about 25 kilometres away from the ‘Laboni Point’of Cox’s Bazar beach, and believed to be the big-gest cave in South Asia, it can not live up to the billing, the local people think, in absence of necessary development work.

It is said that almost three hundred years back one Kana Raja from Myanmar took shel-ter with his followers at Patuar Tek, where he dug the cave, now widely known as Kana Ra-ja’s Cave.

Even when it is not the tourism season, hundreds of local and foreign tourists � ock to Cox’s Bazar’s Inani beach and the Kana Raja’s Cave to spend some time in the lap of the nature. But when the tourists visit the three-kilometre long and 30-foot wide cave, they become a bit disillusioned, as the cave lacks the lustre, which it should have, accord-ing to the local people.

They said at the time when Kana Raja came here three hundred years ago, sea-going vessels were the only mode of communication with other countries and

plenty of local and foreign vessels carrying goods used to sail past the area frequently. Kana Raja along with his accomplices used to loot those ships and heap up the booty in

the cave. Locals said some of the booty still might be found here.

They said about two hundred years ago Chakma people started living at the place. They � rst discovered the mysterious cave while cultivating. Later it created a stir among the globe-trotters at home and abroad and thousands of people visited it.

The authority concerned is just allowing the cave to decay as the time passes, the lo-cals alleged. It is now in such a derelict con-dition that the next generation might be quite in the dark about existence of such a cave. So necessary work should be undertaken to give it a facelift and save it from the brink of ruina-tion, they suggested.

The pile of natural stones at Patuar Tek is some three kilometres south of the interna-tional tourist spot Inani beach in Cox’s Bazar and the cave is about 100 yards east of the beach.

The local upazila administration could at least have put up a signboard giving the details of this historic cave, some tourists lamented.

Contacted, Deputy Commissioner Ali Hos-sain said that the government had taken steps to save the point as tourist spot. l

3 commit suicide n Our Correspondent, Magura

Three people, including two sisters, allegedly committed suicide in Sadar upazila yesterday.

The deceased were Antara, 18, a student of Magura Government Women College and her sister Chaiti, 16, a student of Ramnagar Har-ipado High School and daughters of Farhad Biswas, a resident of Durgapur village, and Gittu, 26, son of Rashid Molla, a resident of Mollapara of the upazila.

Munsi Asaduzzaman, o� cer-in-charge of Sadar upazila police station, said the two sis-ter Antara and Chaiti committed suicide by hanging themselves at their bathroom over love a� airs.

Being informed, police recovered the bod-ies and sent those to Magura Sadar Hospital morgue.

Victims’ father also said they committed suicide following a family feud. l

Siblings drownn Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

Two siblings drowned in a canal in Teknaf upazila yesterday morning.

The victims were iMohi Uddin, 9, class three student of Dangor Para Govt Primary School and his younger brother Irfan Uddin, 7. They were sons of Monir Ullah of Dangor Para under Shahporir Dwip.

Monir Ullah, alongwith his two sons, went to catch � sh at a canal near the embankment of the Bay of Bengal in the morning. The two brothers drowned around 9am wneh they were returning home.

Later, locals recovered the bodies.Dangor Para Government Primary School

assistant teacher Foyez Ullah said, a pall of gloom descended on the school as the deaths news spread. Ataur Rahman Khandaker, of-� cer in-charge of Teknaf Model police station con� rmed the incident. l

Kana Raja’s Cave, a tourist spot, 25 kilometres away from Laboni Point of Cox’s Bazar beach, lies uncared DHAKA TRIBUNE

Rajshahi Adivasi Chhatra Parishad holds a rally yesterday at Saheb Bazar Zero point protesting the rape on indigenous women across the country AZAHAR UDDIN

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015NEWS 7

DT

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:05PM SUN RISES 5:44AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

36.3ºC 24.6ºC

Rajshahi Rangamati

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 36 27Chittagong 33 26Rajshahi 35 26Rangpur 34 26Khulna 34 25Barisal 34 27Sylhet 36 26Cox’s Bazar 31 27

PRAYER TIMESFajr 4:29am

Sunrise 5:43amZohr 11:55am

Asr 4:22pmMagrib 6:05pm

Esha 7:21pm

WEATHER

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

PARTLY CLOUDY

CJ: No comment on judiciary’s independence without evidencen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yester-day said comments should not be made on the independence of judiciary without any authentic document and evidence.

He urged lawyers and prosecutors to coop-erate with judges to adjudicate cases in order to reduce backlog quickly.

“In many courts, I saw that lawyers are not willing to cross-examine case witnesses after 3pm. If lawyers and prosecutors do not coop-erate, it is impossible for judges to reduce the backlog of cases,” he said while speaking at a seminar on justice sector coordination at Dha-ka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court. The United Nations Development Programme and the Supreme Court organised the seminar.

Earlier at the seminar, the chief justice in-augurated the “Mobile App for Cause List Ac-cess” programme, and said lawyers as well as plainti� s could see the daily cause list using the app.

He said the professional attire of law-yers should be changed as all courts are not air-conditioned and do not always have unin-terrupted electricity supply.

Justice Sinha said the huge backlog of cas-es was not created in just a couple of years.

“In fact, the backlog is an outcome of col-lective failure of all stakeholders. But what is the public perception about this? The masses point � ngers at us since judges and lawyers are the main stakeholders of the justice system.”

The chief technical adviser of UNDP, Chirs-tian Jorn Eldon, said the time had come to make concerted e� orts by all justice sector stakeholders to free the judiciary from the backlog of cases and expedite trials.

“The judiciary needs to enhance its over-all capacity through continuous reforms and innovation to promote people’s con� dence,” he said.

Dhaka District and Sessions Judge SM Kuddus Zaman presided over the seminar while Supreme Court Registrar General Syed Aminul Islam was also present.

Dhaka Bar President Advocate Masud Ahmed Talukder, Secretary Omar Faruque Faruquee, District Judge SM Kuddus Jaman, Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Kamrul Hos-sain Molla and Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sheikh Ha� zur Rahman were present in the seminar among others. l

Barind Tract needs conservation agriculture technologyn Tribune Report

Aricultural scientists and researchers in a dis-cussion in the district said for wide-ranging and sustainable expansion and promotion of conservation agriculture (CA) based technol-ogies in the drought-prone Barind Tract to protect its soil health from degradation.

They viewed principles of conservation ag-riculture are use of reduced tillage, retention of some amounts of residues in the � eld, opti-mum use of natural resources, sustainable and pro� table crop diversi� cation and its rotation and judicious use of fertilizers and pesticides.

The technology could be the e� ective means of utilizing the minimum amount of water for crop establishment like avoiding pad-dling operation in present context of climate change especially unpredictable rainfall, unu-

sual drought and other natural calamities.Field level agricultural o� cials and sta� s

are the key players to reach the modern tech-nologies to the farmers’ doorsteps so that they are habituated to promote those successfully.

The observations came at a two-day long planning workshop styled “Promotion of Conservation Agriculture Technologies in Drought-prone Barind Tract” concluded at the seminar room of Regional Wheat Re-search Center (RWRC) in Rajshahi city yester-day afternoon, reprts BSS.

RWRC organized the workshop in associa-tion with Sustainable Resilient Farming System Intensi� cation (SRFSI) project. Director (Re-search) of Bangladesh Agriculture Research In-stitute Dr Jalal Uddin addressed the discussion as chief guest with Chief Scienti� c O� cer Dr ASM Mahbubur Rahman Khan in the chair. l

Ctg Wasa promises to supply 143mn litres water dailyn UNB

Chittagong city dwellers will get 143 million litres of water every day through Karnaphu-li Water Supply project from this year, said managing director of Chittagong Wasa engi-neer AKM Fazlullah yesterday.

“The water crisis will reduce to a great ex-tent if the water supply begins here through ‘Karnaphuli Water Supply Project’,” he said.

Fazlullah was speaking at a seminar titled ‘Ongoing water supply project of JICA’, ar-ranged by Chittagong Wasa and JICA at the port city’s Agrabad Hotel.

Meanwhile, the work on installing a 90-km transmission and distribution line and setting up of three reservoir tanks has been complet-ed, he said.

Fazlullah said only 210 million litres of water is currently being supplied to the city from two water treatment plants of Chittagong Wasa every day against the demand for 500 million litres.

Besides, Wasa has undertaken another project for setting up a 600-km water trans-mission and distribution line and a reservoir tank for water supply, he said.

The project work will begin in 2016 and complete in 2019, he said.ng Wasa engineer AKM Fazlullah on Saturday.

“The water crisis will reduce to a great ex-tent if the water supply begins here through ‘Karnaphuli Water Supply Project’,” he said.

Fazlullah was speaking at a seminar titled ‘Ongoing water supply project of JICA’, ar-ranged by Chittagong Wasa and JICA at the port city’s Agrabad Hotel. l

WORLD8DT

CHRONICLE

Hajj tragedies over the yearsThe deadly crane collapse at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which killed 107 people, is just the lat-est tragedy to strike the hajj pilgrimage.

Here is a timeline of signi� cant incidents in the Saudi holy city during hajj,

2006 January 6: 76 people perish when a hotel col-lapses in the city centre.January 12: 364 pilgrims are killed in a stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual in Mina, close to Mecca. The ritual involves hajj partic-ipants throwing pebbles at three headstones, symbolising their rejection of Satan.

2005 January 22: Three pilgrims are crushed to death in a stampede at the stoning ceremony in Mina.

2004February 1: 251 people are killed in a stampede at Mina, also at the Stoning of the Devil.

2003 February 11: 14 faithful, including six women, die on the � rst day of the stoning ritual.

2001March 5: 35 pilgrims, including 23 women, die at the ritual in Mina.

1998April 9: More than 118 people are killed and 180 injured in a stampede at Mina.

1997April 15: A � re caused by a gas stove rips through

a camp housing pilgrims at Mina, killing 343 and injuring around 1,500.

1994May 24: 270 people are killed in a stampede during the Stoning of the Devil, an incident au-thorities attribute to “record numbers” of pil-grims at the site.

1990July 2: A huge stampede in a tunnel at Mina after a failure in its ventilation system kills 1,426 pil-grims, mainly from Asia.

1989 July 10: A twin attack on the outside of the Grand Mosque kills one and wounds 16.

1987July 31: Saudi security forces suppress an unau-thorised protest held by Iranian pilgrims. More than 400 people, including 275 Iranians are killed, according to an o� cial toll.

1979November 20: Hundreds of gunmen opposed to the Saudi government barricade themselves inside the Grand Mosque, taking dozens of pilgrims hos-tage. The o� cial toll of the assault and subsequent � ghting is 153 people dead and 560 wounded.

1975December: A huge � re started by a gas cannister exploding in a pilgrim camp close to Mecca kills 200 people.

Source: AFP

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

85 killed in India restaurant blastsn Reuters, New Delhi

At least 85 people were killed when a cooking gas cylinder blew up in a crowded restaurant in central India on Saturday, triggering a sec-ond blast of construction detonators stored illegally nearby, police said.

The explosions tore through the restaurant as people sat down for breakfast during the morning rush hour in the town of Petlawad, about 800km south of New Delhi, local police Inspector BL Gaur said.

He said people who had gathered outside the restaurant after the initial blast were caught in a second explosion when gelatin sticks stored in a nearby building caught light, blew up and buried scores of people as the roof caved in.

“When the � rst blast took place in the gas cylinder many people collected there to watch and see what had happened. Then there was a secondary blast,” Gaur said, adding the ex-plosion was so powerful it damaged adjacent buildings and ripped out nearby windows.

Bodies lay amid the rubble of the collapsed restaurant and twisted motorcycles and de-bris were strewn outside, as a crowd of on-lookers searched for survivors.

Around 100 people were also injured in the blast, Arun Sharma, a local medical o� cer, said.

The accident is one the deadliest to hit In-dia in recent years. l

Iran claims to discover high uranium reserven Reuters, Dubai

Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high re-serve of uranium and will soon begin extract-ing the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said on Saturday.

The comments cast doubt on previous as-sessments from some Western analysts who said the country had a low supply and would sooner or later would need to import urani-um, the raw material needed for its nuclear programme.

Any indication Iran could become more self-su� cient will be closely watched by world powers, which reached a landmark deal with Tehran in July over its programme. They had feared the nuclear activities were aimed at acquiring the capability to produce atomic weapons - something denied by Tehran.

“I cannot announce (the level of) Iran’s uranium mine reserves. The important thing is that before aerial prospecting for uranium ores we were not too optimistic, but the new discoveries have made us con� dent about our reserves,” Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

Salehi said uranium exploration had cov-ered almost two-thirds of Iran and would be complete in the next four years.

The July deal between Iran and world pow-ers will lift international sanctions on Iran in exchange for at least a decade of curbs on the country’s nuclear activity.

After decades of e� orts, Iran - which has consistently said its programme is for peace-ful purposes - has achieved a full nuclear fuel cycle, ranging from the extraction of uranium ore to enrichment and production of fuel rods for nuclear reactors.

Sanctions on companies taking part in Iran’s uranium mining industry will be lifted when the agreement is implemented.

Salehi said uranium extraction was set to begin at a new mine in the central province of Yazd, according to IRNA.

Some Western analysts have previously said that Iran was close to exhausting its sup-ply of yellowcake - or raw uranium - and that mining it domestically was not cost-e� cient.

A report published in 2013 by US think-tanks Carnegie Endowment and the Federa-tion of American Scientists said the scarcity and low quality of Iran’s uranium resources compelled it “to rely on external sources of natural and processed uranium.”

It added: “Despite the Iranian leadership’s assertions to the contrary, Iran’s estimat-ed uranium endowments are nowhere near su� cient to supply its planned nuclear pro-gramme.”

Iran has repeatedly denied overseas media reports that it has tried to import uranium from countries like Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe. l

Egypt government resigns, oil minister to form new cabinetn AFP, Cairo

Egypt’s prime minister and his cabinet resigned on Saturday following a corruption scandal and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi tasked the oil minister with forming a new government.

A senior government o� cial said the re-shu� e was meant to “pump new blood” into the government after the arrest on Monday of agriculture minister Salah Helal on suspicion of taking bribes.

The presidency said Prime Minister Ibra-him Mahlab handed his government’s resig-nation to Sisi who accepted it, and tasked out-going oil minister Sharif Ismail with forming the new cabinet within a week.

A statement from the presidency said the outgoing government will stay on in a care-taker role till then.

Egyptian media had reported an impend-ing reshu� e after Helal’s arrest.

He was detained after Sisi asked him to re-sign, in connection with an investigation into corruption.

Helal and his chief of sta� were accused of having “requested and received” bribes from a businessman, through an intermediary, to legalise the purchase of state property.

The government had denied the reports of a reshu� e, and said no other ministers had been implicated in the corruption case.

But there have growing calls for Mahlab’s resignation and increasing protests by civil servants over a new law that centralises pro-motions while taxing bonuses.

“The main reason was the president was displeased with the job of some ministers, and his feeling that the government wasn’t achieving what he wanted, especially in light of complaints by citizens regarding services,” said Mostafa Kamel al-Sayyed, a Cairo Uni-versity political science professor.

Mahlab’s resignation comes as Egypt pre-pares to hold long-delayed legislative elec-tions in two phases between October 17 and December 2.

Discontent over pricesThe elections had initially been scheduled for early 2015 but were cancelled by a court on technical grounds.

Mahlab, who had headed the Arab Con-tractors construction � rm, had been appoint-ed by interim president Adly Mansour in March 2014, less than a year after the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

He was viewed as a capable technocrat close to Sisi, the former army chief who won elections in May that year.

Morsi’s removal and detention had un-leashed a deadly crackdown on Islamists that killed hundreds of protesters, while the army struggled to quash a jihadist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.

The government had enjoyed support in the face of militants, who have killed hun-dreds of soldiers, but in recent months came under � re for corruption and the unpopular civil service law.

There has also been growing discontent over a rise in food prices and slashes to the government’s generous fuel subsidy system as Sisi pushes to narrow a budget de� cit.

The absence of a parliament had allowed Sisi to pass decrees virtually unchecked, in-cluding the subsidy cuts that previous gov-ernments had shirked to avoid unrest.

The new parliament, expected to begin by the end of the year, will review those laws.

It is unlikely to present Sisi with any sus-tained opposition and will probably be domi-nated by Sisi loyalists and weak and fractured political parties that have generally been sup-portive of the president. l

Iran has repeatedly denied media reports that it has tried to import uranium from Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

FACTBOXWhere Corbyn stands on the key British political issuesThe most left-wing of all the candidates, Jeremy Corbyn was the outsider who is now leader of Britain’s Labour Party, caus-ing concern about ideological divisions to come.

Here is an outline of his stance on Brit-ain’s most controversial issues:

EconomyCorbyn is steadfastly opposed to the auster-ity programme of Conservative Prime Min-ister David Cameron, being more aligned with Greece’s radical leftwing Syriza party. He supports traditionally leftwing economic policies and is hostile to the TTIP free-trade agreement currently being negotiated by the European Union and the United States. He advocates redistributive policies such as rent controls and high taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals, is in favour of renation-alising the railways and the energy sector and has called for a “maximum wage” to curb ex-cessive management pay. Leadership rivals Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper both criti-cised his proposals to print money in order to pay for his economic plans, dubbed “Corby-nomics” by the press, saying they were “lack-ing credibility” and would cause in� ation. However, he managed to gain the support of 35 economists, who recently wrote an open letter saying his policies were “actually main-stream economics” and not extreme.

DefenceCorbyn is a staunch paci� st and has long been involved with organisations such as the Stop the War Coalition and the Cam-paign for Nuclear Disarmament. He is a critic of the Nato alliance and supports the dismantling of Britain’s nuclear Trident submarines. “Senior military � gures have described our existing nuclear weapons as ‘militarily useless’ and our possession of them encourages other countries to seek a similar arsenal while undermining the ef-forts being made to advance the cause of in-ternational nuclear disarmament,” he said. Corbyn has called for dialogue with the militant Palestinian Hamas movement and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah as part of Middle East peace talks and has said he will apologise for Britain’s role in the Iraq inva-sion if he becomes Labour leader. “It is past time that Labour apologised to the British people for taking them into the Iraq war on the basis of deception and to the Iraqi peo-ple for the su� ering we have helped cause,” he said.

European UnionCorbyn has said he is wary of the EU’s “mar-ket system” and its treatment of Greece and has not been clear about which side he will take in the EU membership referendum due to be held by 2017. The closest he has come

to stating his position on the issue was when he said: “We cannot be content with the state of the EU as it stands. But that does not mean walking away, but staying to � ght together for a better Europe.”

RoyaltyCorbyn is a committed republican but has so far limited himself to calls for new re-strictions on the formal political powers of the monarchy, without attacking Queen Elizabeth II herself. He has signalled howev-er that reform is not a top priority.

ImmigrationThe veteran politician has resisted calls to promise tighter border controls, saying immigrants had made a “massive contri-bution” to Britain. “I think children grow-ing up in a multicultural society have a very good understanding of the rest of the world,” he said recently.

Social issuesThe 66-year-old said in 2000 he favoured decriminalising the possession and cultiva-tion of cannabis. More recently, he said he was open to the idea of women-only car-riages on public transport to reduce sexual assault and harassment. l

Source: AFP

Pro-refugee rallies across Europen AFP, London

Tens of thousands of Europeans rallied Satur-day urging solidarity with the huge numbers of refugees entering the continent, as Hungary’s populist premier said leaders were “in a dream world” about the dangers posed by the in� ux.

In London, one of dozens of events planned across Europe, tens of thousands of people marched brandishing placards reading “Open the Borders,” while in Copenhagen some 30,000 took to the streets, according to police.

Other demos were planned in Germany, Spain, France and elsewhere. But highlight-ing how the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants is dividing the EU, several coun-ter-demonstrations were also scheduled in eastern members of the bloc.

“It’s time to speak out against the deadly borders that have been enacted in our name. People all over Europe are organising resist-ance and solidarity in their towns and cities,” organisers of the “#EuropeSaysWelcome” ini-tiative said on social media.

“We want to let all the refugees know: You are welcome!”

At the London protest, a boy dressed as Paddington Bear had a sign saying: “Padding-ton Bear Was A Refugee.”

A little girl held up a drawing of two hands clasped together with the words: “Help Syria, I’ll be your friend.”

‘Unscrupulous’ traffickersThe International Organization for Migration said Friday that more than 430,000 people

have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, with 2,748 dying or going missing in packed and unseaworthy boats operated by often unscrupulous human tra� ckers.

The in� ux has exposed deep rifts with the European Union, with “frontline” states Italy, Greece and Hungary struggling to cope and European Commission proposals for sharing 160,000 of the new arrivals in a quota scheme facing resistance among eastern members.

Germany has absorbed the lion’s share so

far, taking in 450,000 people with the gov-ernment of Chancellor Angela Merkel – hailed as a heroine by many migrants but under � re at home, even from allies – relaxing asylum rules for Syrians.

On Friday Germany’s foreign minister, say-ing the crisis could be the biggest in the EU’s history, failed in Prague to convince counter-parts from eastern Europe to sign up to the Brussels scheme, which both Berlin and the UN say doesn’t go far enough.

‘Not fleeing danger’Hungary, meanwhile, has seen some 175,000 people travel up from Greece across its bor-ders this year.

Its plans to build a large fence, deploy the army and jail illegal immigrants have earned it sti� criticism, stoked by images of migrants in packed camps.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, whose country has seen thousands of mi-grants enter from Hungary in recent days, with all but a few passing through, was quot-ed Saturday as comparing Hungary’s treat-ment of migrants to the Nazi era.

“Piling refugees on trains in the hopes that they go far, far away brings back memories of the darkest period of our continent,” Fay-mann told German weekly Spiegel.

But on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban launched his own broadside, saying Europe’s leaders are “living in a dream world” with “no clue” about the dangers and scale of the problem, while denying that the migrants are, strictly speaking, refugees.

“These migrants are not coming our way from war zones but from camps in Syria’s neighbours: from Lebanon, Jordan and Tur-key... So these people are not fleeing dan-ger and don’t need to be scared for their lives,” Orban told Germany’s Bild daily in an interview.

Orban said he would propose to his EU counterparts that the bloc provides €3bn ($3.4bn) to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, “and more if necessary – until the � ow of mi-grants is stopped.” l

Protesters in London on Saturday hold up placards during a demonstration to express solidarity with migrants and to demand the government welcome refugees into Britain REUTERS

Putin welcomes Ukraine cease� ren Reuters, Crimea

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday it was welcome that � ghting had stopped in eastern Ukraine, a change in rhet-oric compared to his previous accusations against Ukraine for violating a cease� re.

Until recently Putin has repeatedly criti-cised Ukraine for failing to implement a peace deal agreed in February, including by contin-ued shelling of rebel-held areas.

“It’s heartening that the main thing is the cessation of shelling of the Donbass (eastern Ukraine) from the side of the armed forces as well as the so-called volunteer battalions of Ukraine,” he said in the Crimean town of Chersoneus.

“I think that today this is the main achieve-ment.”

Putin was on the latest of several visits to Crimea, again putting Russia’s stamp on the region it annexed from Ukraine last year dur-ing political upheaval in that country.

Both Ukrainian and rebel forces have blamed each other for repeated cease� re breaches but both sides are now broadly re-specting a new cease� re that came into e� ect on September 1, according to international monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Putin also reiterated his call for Ukraine to implement other elements of February’s peace deal, including that Kiev hold direct talks with rebel representatives, and imple-ments laws on amnesty for the rebels and on an autonomous status for the rebel regions. l

WORLD 9D

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015WORLD10D

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Q&A

How the US plans to welcome 10,000 Syrian refugeesUS President Barack Obama has promised that the United States will admit 10,000 Syr-ian refugees for resettlement over the next 12 months, after criticism that America is not doing enough.

But this would represent a huge increase in the number of families arriving on US soil. In the more that four years since � ghting erupted barely 1,800 Syrians have been wel-comed here.

Meanwhile, obstacles have stretched the approval process for those already regis-tered and vetted by the UN’s refugee agency to almost two years per case.

So how will Obama’s promise be deliv-ered and what hurdles are keeping the refu-gees from arriving sooner?

How does the journey begin?More than four million people have � ed the � ghting in Syria since 2011 and most are living in camps in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq, where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees registers them. Some 18,000 of these people – chosen because they are the most vulnerable whether through family cir-cumstances, injury or disability – have been

referred to the United States for resettlement. Once the US State Department receives their case � les it employs NGO contractors to pre-screen them for eligibility for refugee status, then they are subjected to health and secu-rity checks. O� cers from the Department of Homeland Security � y from Washington to the camps and conduct interviews with can-didates, seeking to weed out what a US o� cial called “liars, criminals and terrorists.” Each case � le is reviewed by the National Counter-terrorism Center, the FBI’s terrorist screening center, the DHS, the Department of Defense and “other agencies” – US intelligence. “Ref-ugees are subject to the highest level of secu-rity checks of any category of traveler to the United States,” another State Department of-� cial told reporters. Meanwhile they receive medical tests and those with communicable diseases, most commonly tuberculosis, are given treatment before they can travel to the United States, often delaying the process. Currently the procedure takes between 18 and 24 months from the time UNHCR rec-ommends a refugee for resettlement and that person’s � ight to America. It is not clear how much the screening process for Syrians costs,

but the US government spent $1.1bn last year resettling 70,000 people from around the world, or almost $16,000 per head.

Can the process be sped up?Critics note that if the United States takes two years to screen each of the 10,000 ref-ugees Obama has promised to welcome none will have arrived before he leaves of-� ce. But, according to a US o� cial, thou-sands of cases are already in the pipeline and will hopefully now be processed faster. “We have been resettling Syrian refugees in small numbers since 2011 and it was only in June of 2014 that UNHCR started submitting large numbers of referrals, between 500 and 1,000 per month,” she said. “Those referrals have come pretty steadily since last June to the point where we now have a critical mass. We at the State Department have already prepared the cases for more than 10,000 people.”

Where will the lucky 10,000 go?Once refugees are approved, the State De-partment pays the International Organiza-tion for Migration (IOM) to � y them to the

United States. Refugees sign a promissory note to repay their airfare once they are es-tablished, and they are met at the airport by members of one of nine non-govern-ment resettlement agencies contracted by the State Department. There are around 180 resettlement centers dispersed across the United States, where NGO workers help the new arrivals settle in and � nd work and accommodation in their � rst 30 to 90 days. Those who have relatives in the United States will sometimes be assigned to live near them, and most go to cities like At-lanta, San Diego or Dallas where rents are more a� ordable than in New York or San Francisco. Others end up in smaller cities like Boise, Idaho or Erie, Pennsylvania, but regardless of where they are taken they are free to move once they � nd their footing. After 90 days new arrivals are no longer eligible for the State Department-funded support through the resettlement agen-cies, but some join support programs run by the Department of Health and Human Services. l

Source: AFP

Grieving in public eye, a con� icted Biden mulls 2016 White House racen AFP, Washington, DC

More than any other modern American politician, Joe Biden is living out his grief in the public spotlight, even as the vice president struggles privately over whether to run for the White House.

Mourning over the loss of his son Beau who succumbed to cancer in May, the nor-mally gregarious, grinning and ga� e-prone vice president has been openly question-ing whether he and his family have the emotional fuel to mount a third presiden-tial campaign.

Biden’s deepest public exploration of his grief came during a compelling Thurs-day interview with late-night TV host Stephen Colbert, exhibiting a sense of character that voters would unquestion-ably embrace in today’s age of prepared statements, fake smiles and over-choreo-graphed media events.

His popularity has risen steadily this summer, and whispers about a possible Biden challenge to Democratic frontrun-ner and friend Hillary Clinton quickly grew to an international buzz.

Politically, the green lights appear to be on. Clinton is slipping in the polls, her campaign marred by a lingering scandal over her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

People close to Biden say he is in-creasingly leaning towards a run, US media report.

He has been testing the waters, recent-ly in battleground state Florida where a somber Biden said his family’s “emotion-

al energy” was the primary factor, not whether he could raise funds or put to-gether a campaign team.

Tragedy has visited Biden before. His � rst wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972.

Biden told CBS “Late Show” host Col-bert that no one should run for president unless “they can look at the folks out there and say, ‘I promise you have my whole heart, my whole soul, energy, and my pas-sion to do this.’

“And I’d be lying if I said that I knew I was there,” he said.

Biden, 72, has emerged as the most hu-man of the politicos on the national stage.

His authenticity and humility are “im-portant factors,” and his likeability is sim-ply something “that Clinton doesn’t have,” said political science professor Timothy Hagle of the University of Iowa.

Biden’s relatability would prove im-mensely valuable on the campaign trail. And with Clinton struggling, “there are probably some Democratic donors and supporters thinking he should get in be-cause they see him as a stronger candidate that Hillary Clinton,” Hagle said.

Colbert, who himself lost his father and two brothers in a plane crash when he was 10, practically pleaded with Biden to run, saying “your example of su� ering and service is something that would be sorely missed in the race.”

Biden has said he would decide by sum-mer’s end, while others point to early Oc-tober. The � rst Democratic Party primary debate is October 13. l

Veggie meals for all schools, a solution in secular France?n AFP, Paris

As a new school year begins, the divisive is-sue has once again come to the fore as may-ors from three towns have banned non-pork options in canteens to respect the country’s strict divide between education and religion, triggering accusations of discrimination.

Enter Yves Jego, a lawmaker who wants to introduce a draft bill making vegetarian meals obligatory in schools as a pragmatic way of bypassing secularity rules and accommodat-ing Jews and Muslims who do not eat pork, or Hindus, many of whom shun meat in general.

“I will... submit a draft bill to make vege-tarian menus obligatory in all canteens as an alternative to daily menus to allow those who do not want meat or � sh, whatever the rea-son, to eat healthily,” the lawmaker from the centrist UDI party asks on his online petition, which has garnered more than 123,000 signa-tures so far.

‘Just don’t eat pork’The debate over what to serve children in school canteens has raged on and o� for years in France, which prides itself on its 1905 law sep-arating the state and religion, but also has Eu-rope’s largest Muslim and Jewish populations.

There are no overarching guidelines that govern what should be put on children’s plates and it is up to more than 34,000 may-ors around the country to take their own de-cisions.

Many schools o� er an alternative when pork, or more generally meat, is served to tac-itly cater to religious requirements but halal or kosher meals are shunned as going against secularity.

The only city that serves up halal meals is Strasbourg in the northeastern region of Al-sace, which was under German rule in 1905 when France voted in favour of the separa-tion of state and religion and is therefore not bound by secularity laws.

For Isabelle Maincion, who looks after the school meal portfolio at the Association of French Mayors, there is no debate to be had on whether to serve pork or not, let alone ha-lal or kosher.

“Pork is not served up that often, and par-ents know it. The days when there is pork, children just don’t eat pork, and parents make up for the lack of protein in the evening, it’s that simple,” she says.

Deserting public schoolsNot so for Francois Pupponi, the mayor of the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, known for its ethnic diversity and large Jewish population.

“They will end up with a secular pub-lic school, but there will be no-one left. All those who are religious will leave, and public schools will no longer be a place where peo-ple mix, a place of dialogue and education for all,” he said.

Pupponi said many Jewish children now attended private schools due in part to the lack of kosher meals in public establishments.

So what about the vegetarian option that Jego is championing?

Too costly, tough to create well-balanced menus and children will probably avoid them, say critics.

Now, 15% of school children pick the veg-etarian options, which on a typical day might consist of a lentil salad, omelette with carrots and rice, cheese and fruit. l

11D

TEDITORIALSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

We urge the government to heed the call from the Asso-ciation of Non-Government Universities of Bangladesh to revoke its decision to impose 7.5% VAT on private universities.

Taxing private universities is wrong in principle and misguided in practice.

It is deeply unfortunate that at every stage of this matter, the gov-ernment’s actions have been woefully wrong.

For several months, it has ignored the widespread opposition to and overwhelming arguments against its VAT plan. This has unnecessarily forced protesters on to the streets in search of a hearing.

By now, continuing to act as if the case against VAT does not count, the government has compounded its error in bringing forth this deep-ly � awed proposal.

In the past week, it has responded not with cogent arguments, but with a mixture of government ministers issuing contradictory remarks to obfuscate the issue at stake, and by allowing the police to use excessive force against demonstrators. Disgracefully, it also appears that it has encouraged its own political activists to violently assault peaceful protesters.

The best way to resolve this problem is for the government to start taking the arguments against VAT seriously.

By law, private universities exist as not-for-pro� t trusts to further education. Imposing VAT on these institutions is not in the public interest, as it directly undermines the resources they have available to perform their core public service function.

This proposal directly impacts on the over 450,000 students who attend private universities. Either institutions will be forced to cut resources available and lower standards, or they will be forced to pass on the cost to students and their parents by increasing the tuition fees, which constitute their main source of income.

There is no justi� cation for the government continuing to disregard the strong case against imposing VAT. The tax will impose unnecessary and discriminatory burdens on private universities and their students, while doing nothing to increase access to higher education in the country.

Private universities ful� ll a vital public need by a� ording access to students left out of the public sector who cannot a� ord to study abroad. It is in everyone’s interest, including the government’s, to overturn this unwarranted VAT charge.

Private universities ful� ll a vital public need. It is in everyone’s interest not to undermine them by imposing VAT

Government must learn from its mistakes on university VAT

INSIDE

The Hindu dilemma

A history of disproportionate violenceWas � ring the last resort for the police? The answer is a simple no. Instead of being more patient, tactical, and responsible, the police put innocent lives in danger

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Labour Day doldrumsShould I write about the American politics that is producing all that hot air -- about Hillary Clinton’s incredible faux pas with the emails and the personal server, or about Donald Trump’s bombastic nativist trumpetings on (illegal) immigrants?

There are reasons galore for Bangladesh to feel upset with the New Delhi order. For a country that depends almost exclusively on international co-operation which in turn depends on creating a positive image for the country, the Indian Home Ministry’s order is, to put it mildly, an unfriendly one

BIGSTOCK

OPINION12DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

n Md Saimum Reza Talukder

It was unfortunate -- and unacceptable -- to see that the private university students, who were protesting to withdraw the levy of the 7.5% VAT from

higher education, were injured by rubber bullets shot by the police on September 9 in front of East West University.

As we all are guaranteed “protection of law,” the “right to assembly,” “freedom of movement,” and “freedom of thought, conscience, and speech” by the constitution of Bangladesh, they have exercised these rights to protest on the streets.

But Wednesday’s shooting left a black mark on the police’s image, an action that needs to be investigated properly and the police personnel concerned should be brought under judicial trial for not using proportionate force against the students.

In recent years, we have seen a growing tendency of using force and lethal � rearms by law enforcement agencies on civilian protesters around the world, which are often being criticised as being unjusti� ed and not proportionate. In cities like Damascus, London, and Kiev, civilian protests have faced unnecessary, indiscriminate, disproportionate, widespread attacks by law enforcement agencies.

In Bangladesh, it has been a growing concern for us that the number of deaths by “cross� re” or by shootouts with law enforcement agencies has been increasing. According to Ain O Salish Kendra, 128 people

died in “cross� res” and “gun� ghts” between law enforcers and alleged “criminals” in 2014, while the number was 72 in 2013.

Now, there needs to be an investigation with the highest focus on what provoked or compelled the police to � re upon the unarmed student protesters on Wednesday. Could they have not used batons or water-sprays or any other form of non-lethal weapons? Could they not have arrested the students instead of � ring on them? Or just stand, wait, and negotiate with the students? Was it a riot which had gone out of control? Did any of the students vandalise vehicles?

Although rubber bullets are considered less harmful than the metal jacket bullet, when � red from a close distance, they can be lethal. From the pictures and videos that have been shared on social media, newspapers, and TV, the police were seen � ring at the students from close range, violating the clear provisions of Rule 152 (ii) of Police Regulations Bengal, 1943. This left several members of the faculty and students

of EWU injured. In the legal � eld, there is a principle called

the “doctrine of proportionality.” None of the jurisprudences around the world allow punishment that is greater than the actual o� ence. This is the same moral principle of “to shoot out of cannon into sparrows.” This forbids us from taking unnecessary and indiscriminate measures on the opponent.

Most modern constitutions provide citizens with a set of rights and freedoms, with the guarantee that all forms of expression are protected. But these constitutions have also allowed the state machineries to limit or intrude upon these protections, as long as the respective states do so proportionally.

This has created a dilemma. On the one hand, citizens’ life, liberty, and property are protected against police intrusion. On the other, the police are entitled to do what is necessary for public safety and order. The debate on what is considered “proportionate” use of force remains unresolved.

It mostly depends on the interpretation of the court within the concerned local boundary. Although there is no hard and fast rule to determine the proportionality, the following questions are considered in international humanitarian law: Was the target a legitimate object? Was the legitimate object speci� c? Was the speci� c legitimate object a threat to law and order? Was the action necessary? And was it the last resort to deal with that speci� c legitimate object?

The doctrine of proportionality is also used in other � elds of law, like civil, criminal, or business law. However, the above questions of humanitarian law can also be invoked in other areas of law in order to determine proportionality.

We can ask the same questions to determine the proportionality of police force used against the EWU students. As they were protesting for their “right to education” in a non-violent way, they were not “legitimate objects.” They were not demanding anything illegal.

The police did not have a speci� c target, since two university teachers were also injured, although they were not protesting along with the students. Were the students really a threat to law and order?

Their protests were organised and peaceful, and there was no vandalism. Nor have they called for any violent moves.

Was it really necessary to � re on the students? The deputy registrar of EWU complained that the police � red on the students without any precaution, while they were returning back to EWU after the blockade. Was � ring the last resort for the police to disburse to the students? The answer is a simple no. Instead of being more patient, tactical, and responsible, the police put innocent lives in danger.

Police are permitted to use � rearms for the following three purposes only: If they see that a person’s life or property is in danger and the right of private defense is necessary to be exercised, for the dispersal of unlawful assemblies, and if a person creates obstacles to be arrested.

The police cannot kill someone during arrest. The use of � rearms is strictly limited to the situation where it is the last resort. On Wednesday, the police did not follow any of these legal provisions.

It is high time that we ratify the “Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement O� cials,” which was adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of O� enders at Havana, Cuba in 1990. Our civil and criminal laws should also be reformed according to these basic principles.

Moreover, we need to reshape and develop police training with more emphasis on basic human rights and principles so that our po-lice can learn to respect and protect citizens, instead of hurting them when they are not justi� ed in doing so. l

Md Saimum Reza Talukder is a Lecturer, Department of Law, East West University.

A history of disproportionate violenceThe police’s use of violence against the EWU students was uncalled for

Was � ring the last resort for the police? The answer is a simple no. Instead of being more patient, tactical, and responsible, the police put innocent lives in danger

Bullets were not needed against the student protesters MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

OPINION 13D

TSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

n William Milam

Here we are in the middle of the Labour Day doldrums. In meteor-ological terms, doldrums are those areas of the globe and times of the

year when there is no wind. In the days of sailing ships, it was a time to be feared, and a time to avoid the tropical latitudes. During the doldrums, the warm, tropical air rises and thus the wind ceases to blow. The danger that springs from such doldrums in modern times is that the rising warm air forms into tropical storms, which sometimes become hurricanes, which occasionally wreak havoc when and if they hit land. So the meteorolog-ical doldrums have not lost their punch yet.

But I think there is a political meaning to Labour Day doldrums also. It is a time of un-mitigated boredom, normally the early days of September, when the weather is still hot, the kids are not yet in school, and the politics of either the congressional o� -year election or the presidential election are sending addi-tional drafts of hot air skyward. Labour Day is by law the � rst Monday in September, and this year it is late. This additional time has led to an expanded amount of hot air rising from the political rhetoric around the country to increase temperatures by a few degrees, and certainly has increased the tempers of the many political aspirants even more.

In the past, Labour Day has been, tradition-ally, in presidential election years, the o� cial kick-o� of the election campaigns of the major parties. Major campaigning went on for three months, which seems like a reasonable period of time for an election campaign in a large and populous country like the US. But that is a relic of the past. With the advent of primaries and worse -- the unlimited political funding of campaigns permitted by the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v FEC decision of 2010. Unless the Supreme Court decision can be overturned, I fully expect campaigning will soon begin on the Labour Day after the pres-idential election and to go on for three years. And the proliferation of money will attract so many candidates that they won’t all � t on the same stage to debate (the Republican primary this year has 18 candidates.)

So what can I write about, as we pass through the Labour Day doldrums? In Pakistan, the counter-attack on the PML-N government -- and indirectly on the Army -- by Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP, is being explained by my friends in the Pakistani press much better than I could. In Bangla-desh, it is déjà vu all over again -- a continued squeezing of the opposition, holding out the tempting prospect of talks with the opposi-tion while destroying it, and the continued drift to a one-party authoritarian state.

Nothing new to write about in either case. Should I write about the American politics that is producing all that hot air -- about Hillary Clinton’s incredible faux pas with the emails and the personal server, or about Don-ald Trump’s bombastic nativist trumpetings on (illegal) immigrants which are reminiscent of Andrew Jackson’s marching the Cherokee and other Southeastern tribes from Georgia

to Oklahoma along the “Trail of Tears”? No, I can’t write about that; it would appear as tragic farce to most readers.

While re� ecting on this quandary over breakfast this morning, I opened an edition of the New York Review of Books I had been saving and came across something new -- a book and art exhibit review by William Dal-rymple, one of my favorite writers on South Asian history. And there it was: The answer to my quandary. In a review of a book and an exhibition, Dalrymple described one of the greatest, if not the greatest, � owering of art in Muslim India, in 17th Century Deccan. I hope Mr Dalrymple will not be too upset if I borrow facts from his article to make several points that should resonate in our own time.

As we all know, the Mughals swept into India in the 16th century and, by the early 17th, controlled most of North India, leaving the fragmented Sultanates of the Deccan plateau to fend for themselves. These dynamic and culturally and aesthetically independent states thrived, and they fostered an intellectual and artistic � owering which may have no equal in Indian history. The Sultanate of Bijapur and its ruler Ibraham Adil Shah led this revolution.

He invited to his court many of the best painters and poets of his day from through-out the world he knew -- Persia, Turkey, Central Asia, Abyssinia, and as far away as Holland. This wide collection of artists and intellectuals established a cultural renais-sance that spread to the other Deccan Sul-tanates, Bidar, Ahmadnagar, and Golconda. The region produced an enormous quantity of outstanding art, music, and poetry that is only now becoming recognised by art historians for its quality and uniqueness. The results of that � owering have been on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art

and have been hailed as signi� cant art that had not received the recognition it deserves.

According to Dalrymple, 17th Century Deccan courts were the most cosmopolitan in South Asia, in part because they had at-tracted artists and intellectuals from Turkish Central Asia who had “grown up during the � owering of the Persian Renaissance,” and brought their cosmopolitan mindsets with them. Could such a culture live on the same sub-continent with the aggressive Mughals? One ominous comparison between con-temporaries: Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah, the romantic and dreamer who fostered the great artistic � owering of Bijapur, is typically de-picted pictorially as either sleeping, or being fanned by his servants; the great Mughal Em-

peror Akbar, an illiterate but brilliant military leader, is usually depicted leading his army or storming a fort.

The Deccan in this period was also a place that brought together strands of thought in ways that by today’s standards would verge on being denounced as heretical or apostate. Bijapur was a major centre of unorthodox Su� thought, and in music, particularly, very open to Hindu in� uences.

Of course, all this was too good to survive in the real world of aggressive and grasping empires. As Dalrymple notes: “A kingdom so obsessed with the arts could only be hopeless-ly vulnerable to more worldly and militaristic forces.” It turns out that Sultan Ibrahim had been buying o� the Mughals for most of the

years of his reign -- with jewels, his daughter, his favourite elephant, and much money -- and � nally running out of things he could give the Mughals. In 1686, the puritanical Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, outraged by Bijapur’s syncretic, open culture, put an end to the artistic � owering of the Deccan.

Somehow, this historical episode reminds me of something I once wrote about Shake-speare’s Mark Antony. He fell in love with the sultry queen of the Nile, Cleopatra, who, like the Nile itself, was life-giving, simple, and opti-mistic -- immune from all bad news. She came to represent all that he had come to desire. But he knew the legions were coming, and he ac-cepted a short idyllic life with his exotic queen rather than a life driven by the illusion that he could make things better by waging war.

Does it seem to you, as it does to me, that Ibriham Adil Shah chose his life of art, music, and poetry, and to keep it going for as long as possible by bribing the Mughals? But in the end, the legions -- or in this case the Mughals -- arrived. The bad guys always do. l

William Milam is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, and a former US diplomat who was Ambassador to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Chief of Mission in Liberia. This article � rst appeared in The Friday Times.

Labour Day doldrumsLabour Day in America is a time of unmitigated boredom

Should I write about the American politics that is producing all that hot air -- about Hillary Clinton’s incredible faux pas with the emails and the personal server, or about Donald Trump’s bombastic nativist trumpetings on (illegal) immigrants? No, I can’t write about that; it would appear as tragic farce to most readers

The military acumen of the Mughals is what made their empire � ourish

OPINION14DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

n M Serajul Islam

A retired secretary to the government who recently returned from a visit to Kolkata told me something that surprised me a lot. He said he had

met a few of his former colleagues from the Hindu community -- all retired secretaries -- who were spending their retirement in the West Bengali capital, having collected retirement and other bene� ts from the gov-ernment of Bangladesh. They had apart-ments there as if they had retired from some high position in West Bengal or the Indian government.

The majority of Hindus during Bangladesh’s East Pakistan days had a special attachment to India. As the retired Bangladeshi secretar-ies living in Kolkata underline, many Bangla-desh Hindus still have that attachment. That notwithstanding, historically, Bangladesh had been the least Hindu-Muslim con� ict prone area of South Asia during the British rule, and such a situation still exists in the country.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that Hindus are not secure in Bangladesh. But the Hindu insecurity in present-day Bangladesh is economic, not communal. Many Bangladeshi Muslims, in fact, a lot more, are also victims of this economic oppression. The oppression occurs because these people are underprivi-leged and disadvantaged, making them easy prey for the privileged and the powerful.

The Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Sa-ran, in an event at Munshiganj, recently said Bangladesh was a role model in communal harmony. He has been in Bangladesh for over three years, and therefore must have spoken from a position of authority with the sort of access to intelligence that he has.

Therefore, it did not make much sense that, earlier this month, the Indian Home Ministry issued an order allowing Hindus from Bangladesh (and Pakistan) who entered India legally or illegally before December 31, 2014, the permission to stay in India legally and inde� nitely. The order did not, howev-er, specify whether these Bangladeshi (and Pakistani) Hindus and other minorities would be given Indian citizenship.

The order of the Indian Home Ministry and what the high commissioner has said on communal harmony in Bangladesh are clearly contradictory. The order also puts Bangladesh in a very embarrassing situation vis-a-vis rest of the world at a time when the issue of forced migration has been placed

centre stage internationally, because of mass migration to Western Europe as a result of extreme political instability and insecurity in the Middle East, particularly in Syria.

New Delhi, it seems, has passed the order on Bangladeshi/Pakistani Hindus illegally at this time, no doubt to attract the attention of the world that it is favourably disposed to the plight of those forced to � ee their motherland. Although, in Bangladesh (and in Pakistan), nothing untoward has happened recently, or even in the past, that has forced any Hindus to � ee.

The order to allow Bangladeshi and Paki-stani Hindus, numbering in the hundreds of

thousands, to stay in India inde� nitely has been motivated by political considerations, with very little based on any humanitarian considerations. New Delhi was aware that the order would embarrass both Bangladesh and Pakistan, both Muslim countries, and that this would go down well in the West.

New Delhi was also aware that the order would be politically very welcome to the constituency that the BJP represents, namely Hindu fundamentalists in India. In fact, it is a BJP commitment, one that it had made in its manifesto in last year’s election, that Hindus worldwide would be welcome in India to escape “oppression” in countries where they lived, no doubt with Bangladeshi and Paki-stani Hindus in mind.

Thus, it is BJP’s commitment to Hindu fundamentalism that has encouraged the order, and not love and kindness for humani-ty. Unlike refugees who are � eeing to Europe, the reason Hindus have gone to India from Bangladesh are quite di� erent. They are not in any distress di� erent from those that many other Bangladeshis who are underpriv-ileged like them su� er at the hands of those who are privileged. The dominance of the privileged over the underprivileged is a sad story that concerns both Hindus and Muslims in the country.

However, unlike many underprivileged Muslims who have no political support, Hin-dus have enough political clout at present. Historically, they have never supported any other political party other than the Awami League. Therefore, it is only natural that the AL government would not oppress them as a community, and instead, o� er them protec-tion that even Muslims who do not support them do not have.

In the last seven years of AL rule, a� uent Hindus have had everything going their way. In fact, there is a great deal of resentment in

the government service because of the dis-proportionate rate at which Hindus have had promotions and privileges. That resentment has increased after it has been revealed re-cently that in India, where Muslims consti-tute 14% of the population, they have only 3% representation in government jobs.

All these point to one very simple con-clusion. Most Hindus, wherever they are in South Asia, consider India their natural homeland, as they have since “Mother India” was partitioned in 1947. BJP’s o� cial stance to make India the homeland for Hindus world-wide, like Israel has for Jews, has only strengthened the desire, that has been in Bangladeshi and Pakistani Hindus since 1947, to migrate to India, and like the Bangladeshi Hindu secretaries, make Kolkata or some other Indian city their own. The fact that these gentlemen have retired as secretaries should underline the fact that Hindus are not discriminated against at the higher echelons of Bangladesh’s civil bureaucracy.

Therefore, there are reasons galore for Bangladesh to feel upset with the New Delhi order. For a country that depends almost ex-clusively on international co-operation which in turn depends on creating a positive image for the country, the Indian Home Ministry’s order is, to put it mildly, an unfriendly one.

In the last seven years, the AL govern-ment’s support for critical Indian interests like, for instance, its security concerns, has been undeniably demonstrated. Thus, when India failed to deliver the Teesta deal, a num-ber of former Indian High Commissioners had called that failure a “betrayal.”

India has still not delivered on the Teesta deal. Now, with this anti-Bangladesh order, India has placed Bangladesh in a tricky situation at a time when it needs to improve its image, having just graduated to a lower middle-income country. That India passed this order without even the courtesy of dis-cussing the matter with Bangladesh makes it all the more unacceptable.

Therefore, one would expect that the mat-ter will be taken up by Bangladesh at the high-est political level, although, one would also apprehend that the damage is irreversible.

In passing the order, New Delhi has made the hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi Hindus already in India illegally extremely happy. It has, however, placed the millions of Hindus in Bangladesh with a question mark hanging over their patriotism that none of them, despite their natural love for India, deserve to face. l

M Serajul Islam is a retired career ambassador.

The Hindu dilemmaIndia’s recent decision to let Bangladeshi Hindus stay there inde� nitely has made many people happy, but the move raises some tricky questions

There are reasons galore for Bangladesh to feel upset with the New Delhi order. For a country that depends almost exclusively on international co-operation which in turn depends on creating a positive image for the country, the Indian Home Ministry’s order is, to put it mildly, an unfriendly one

Just how oppressed are Hindus in Bangladesh? SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

15D

TBusiness SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Oil ends down about 2% as Goldman Sachs cuts price forecast

17 Stocks extend losses for 3rd straight week19

Brazil, India woes threaten tenuous sugar market recovery

16 Plan to build RMG warehouse in Russia20

Bangladesh launches drive against pirated software of Microsoft

n Ishtiaq Husain

The law enforcement agencies in a recent drive have recovered 69 laptops installed with pirat-ed software of Microsoft from Flora Telecom and nabbed two persons in this connection.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Task Force and Copyright o� cials discovered the pirated items during the raid against the re-puted retail outlet located in Gulshan 1 area.

The company is suspected of installation, supply and sale of pirated and illegal comput-er software.

The raid was pursuant to an investigation on a series of retail outlets for over a month by the IPR Task Force and the law enforcement agencies.

Flora employees openly admitted to RAB that they were dealing with pirated software.

Over the past years, the Copyright O� ce published a series of newspaper advertise-ments to create awareness about the legal im-plications of selling pirated goods.

Unfortunately, retailers ignored the gov-ernment e� orts to protect copyright in Bang-ladesh.

Md Manzurur Rahman, convener of the IPR Task Force, said there have been numer-ous e� orts by the government to warn and educate retailers, but to no avail.

“We are now embarking on action against the entities selling or dealing in pirated and unlicenced software, and want to remind

companies that their pirated software busi-ness is infringement of copyright law.”

“Apart from the fact that piracy is illegal and impacts Bangladesh’s ability to attract foreign direct investment, computer users are also put at risk when pirated software are sold to them,” he said.

Pirated software are known to contain dan-gerous malware, some of which allow hackers to steal personal information from computers.

Barrister ABM Hamidul Mishbah, found-er of Bangladesh Copyright & IP Forum, a non-pro� t organisation dedicated to pro-mote IPR protection and enforcement within Bangladesh, commented that the anti-piracy action is more signi� cant for being the � rst software enforcement action in the country.

“This clearly signals that Bangladesh is now ready to demonstrate to the world that we are a country that respects intellectual property and enforces the law to ensure and protect innovation, creativity and ideas in this country.”

FBI and Chinese Seize $500 Million of Counterfeit Software

A multi-year investigation by Chinese po-lice investigators and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation led to the dismantling of a pi-racy ring responsible for pirating and distrib-uting up to $2 billion of software.

The two-year investigation led to the de-mise of two criminal organisations - located in Shanghai and Shenzhen - and included up

to 25 arrests according to o� cials from both nations.

FBI said a joint e� ort with the Chinese au-thorities had led to the seizing of more than $500 million worth of counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec software being made in China and distributed worldwide.

The arrests, according to industry execu-tives, represented the most signi� cant crack-down on software piracy.

In the last couple of weeks, the operation led to the seizing by the Chinese government of 290,000 counterfeit discs and certi� cates of authenticity. FBI said Chinese o� cials had seized more than 47,000 counterfeit Micro-soft discs.

Contacted, Microsoft Country Manager to Bangladesh, Sonia Bashir Kabir, said: “We ap-plaud the Bangladesh Govern-ment’s commitment to pro-moting intellectual property rights.”

“This is a major milestone in Bangladesh’s e� orts to pro-tect intellectual property and we encourage the government and police to continue to en-force intellectual property laws as this will only result in greater investor con� dence and generate tax revenue and strengthen the overall infra-structure of the country, in-

cluding cyber security,” she said.The piracy trend is getting higher in Bang-

ladesh despite a large-scale price reduction and big investment in the country, added So-nia.

The Bangladesh Copyright Act 2000 is very comprehensive with regard to infringement of rights in computer programmes or soft-ware.

Any person who infringes the copyright in computer programme, publishes, sells or dis-tributes the same in more than one copy, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term, not extending four years, or with � ne which may extend to Tk400,000 lakh.

Uttam Kumar Paul, general secretary of Bangladesh Association of Software and In-formation Services (BASIS), held socio-eco-nomic factor responsible for the act of piracy.

He suggested a� ordable price to rein in pi-racy.

Uttam claimed that the piracy is not com-mitted in Bangladesh, rather it takes place elsewhere in the world. l

MS SOFTWARE PIRACY AT A GLANCE 90% Microsoft customers in China using pirated software

Microsoft settled 3,265 software piracy cases in 2012 in USA

3,230 cases worldwide in 42 di� erent coun-tries in 20124,50,000 customers lodged complaint to Microsoft

33% MS software counterfeit worldwide

25 persons arrested according to o� cials from both China and USA Police in China seized counterfeit MS software worth $500m

More than 47,000 counterfeit MS discs seized in China

Source: Microsoft

Law enforcement agencies drive at Flora Computers Limited in its Gulshan outlet recently and recover pirated software of Microsoft DHAKA TRIBUNE

BUSINESS16DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

CORPORATE NEWS

Dutch-Bangla Bank has recently been awarded for its signi� cant contribution to the society by providing scholarship to the poor and meritorious students of the country at the 1st International Conference on Digital Education. Education Minister, Nurul Islam Nahid attended the programme as chief guest

Managing Director of Dhaka Bank Limited, Niaz Habib has recently attended a seminar on professional development and career roadmap at Department of Information Science & Library Management in University of Dhaka

Brazil, India woes threaten tenuous sugar market recoveryn Reuters, Miami

Brazil’s credit downgrade and the possibility India will export some 4 million tonnes of sugar could keep the global sugar industry mired in excess supplies, threatening a fragile recovery expected to begin in 2015/16, indus-try experts said.

The possibility that millers in top grower and producer Brazil will continue to pump out large supplies of the sweetener at low prices may grow if the real continues its slide after Standard & Poor’s cut Brazil’s sovereign credit to “junk” status, analysts and traders said at an industry conference on Thursday.

That could keep sugar prices pinned at already low levels, especially if Brazil’s real continues its slide to 4 per US dollar, said Jon-athan Kingsman, a long-time sugar industry consultant.

“It’s going to be very tough for other pro-ducers,” he said.

The real has fallen to a 13-year low of 3.9 per US dollar. The devaluation of the real has reined in costs of production for Brazil’s mill-ers and kept sugar prices traded in the local currency relatively steady, even as world raw

sugar prices touched a 7-year low of 10.13 cents per pound last month.

That has kept Brazil’s debt-ridden milling industry crushing hefty amounts of cane into

sugar and ethanol, prompting sugar indus-try experts to defer earlier expectations for when the world will see a supply de� cit to the 2015/16 year that begins Oct 1.

Producers in Central America, who have bene� ted from relatively high domestic pric-es, are beginning to feel the e� ects of the cur-rency dynamics, said Michael Levitz, manag-ing director at ED&F Man, one of the world’s largest sugar merchants.

Government policies too have called into question how quickly the world will work through inventories, particularly as India considers a measure that will require mills to export sugar to help local farmers.

The projected world supply de� cit could be “wiped out if we push out 4 million tonnes” of exports, said Kiran Wadhwana of brokerage Comdex India Ltd in New Delhi during a pres-entation at Thursday’s conference.

Wadhwana estimated total production in India, which has shifted to a net exporter in recent years, down year-over-year at about 27 million tonnes.

The comments on currency factors and policy questions underscore the uncertainty that has plagued a sugar industry locked in a bear market for the past � ve years.

The benchmark raw sugar contract on ICE Futures US closed down 0.9% at 11.33 cents per lb on Thursday. l

A Kashmiri labourer prepares to carry a sack containing sugar inside a government warehouse in Srinagar REUTERS

‘From big to strong’: China sees competitive edge in green carsn Reuters, Beijing

China’s auto sales could be heading for a rare fall this year, but one bright spot is in so-called green cars, where sales have almost quadrupled so far in 2015.

With a part-carrot, part-stick strategy of incentives and targets, Beijing is pushing car makers to develop battery electric cars, seeing this as its best shot at closing a competitive gap with global rivals who have a 100-year headstart in traditional combustion engines.

Electric powertrains are simpler to develop, and driving a push to green cars � ts President Xi Jinping’s policy goal of reducing pollution.

With an eye on both big subsidies and looming fuel economy targets, automakers in China are earmarking at least 50bn yuan ($7.86bn) this year for developing and mak-ing ‘new energy’ vehicles, a Chinese catch-all term for electric and highly electri� ed cars, data compiled by Reuters shows.

“Some time ago, Xi Jinping explained it very well, saying that developing new energy vehicles is the Chinese auto industry’s only road to grow from being big to being strong,” Xu Heyi, chairman of Beijing Automotive Group and a high-ranking Communist Party o� cial, told reporters recently.

Electric and plug-in hybrid car sales jumped 270% to 108,654 cars in January-Au-gust, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Thursday, and China is on track to overtake the United States as the world’s leading producer, making more than 130,000 such cars this year, according to consultancy LMC Automotive.

The government has set a goal of annual

production of 1 million new energy cars by 2020, though industry researcher IHS Au-tomotive forecasts output then at nearer 791,000.

Fuel economy goalsAs for the carrot, drivers in Shanghai, for ex-ample, can save up to 182,600 yuan ($28,600) over a traditional gasoline-powered car, by taking advantage of free license plates for some green cars and other subsidies, accord-ing to o� cial data and analysts’ estimates.

However, Beijing said in April it would roll back subsidies faster than expected, and may now lean increasingly on fuel economy require-ments that grow progressively stricter to 2020.

Authorities haven’t yet spelt out how these requirements will be enforced, though a fea-sibility study released by Great Wall Motor Co last month suggested automakers could face big � nes for failing to meet the requirements.

The central government plans to roll out a California-style system that rewards manu-facturers and drivers for going electric, while punishing those who rely on traditional gaso-line cars, Beijing Auto’s Xu said in July.

Chinese automakers are leading the charge to invest in green cars, with domestic brands such as Geely Automobile Holdings and Great Wall raising money in private share place-ments or building factories speci� cally ear-marked for new energy vehicles.

Among foreign automakers, General Mo-tors Co’s joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp said in April it would invest 26.5 billion yuan in new energy technologies and increased electri� cation by 2020. A spokeswoman said this was still on track. l

BUSINESS 17D

TSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Oil ends down about 2% as Goldman Sachs cuts price forecastn Reuters, New York

Crude futures fell 2% or more on Friday after in� uential Wall Street trader Goldman Sachs cut its outlook on oil, but positive sentiment from rebounding US stock prices and less drilling for oil helped the market pare losses.

Goldman lowered its 2016 forecast for US crude to $45 a barrel from $57 previously, and Brent to $49.50 from $62, citing oversupply and concerns over China’s economy.

Germany’s Commerzbank also cut its oil outlook, joining a long list of banks that have downgraded crude price projections on sup-ply glut concerns.

“The oil market is even more oversupplied than we had expected and we forecast this surplus to persist in 2016,” Goldman said in a note entitled “Lower for even longer.”

Citing “operational stress” as a growing downside risk, the Wall Street � rm said crude could even fall to near $20 a barrel. “While not our base case, the potential for oil prices to fall to such levels ... is becoming greater as storage continues to � ll.”

Global benchmarks for crude oil fell more than 3% initially on the Goldman announce-ment, then pared losses as stocks on Wall Street rebounded .SPX and news of a lower US oil rig count emerged. But toward the close, they headed lower again before � nishing o� their lows.

US crude CLc1 settled down $1.29, or 2.8%, at $44.63 a barrel.

Brent LCOc1, the global benchmark for oil, closed down 75 cents, or 1.5%, at $48.59.

US stocks were o� their lows in afternoon trade ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting next week that could decide on an interest rate hike. Equity markets have provided direction to oil since the end of August as investors grappled with mixed fundamentals for crude.

Oil services � rm Baker Hughes said US drillers idled 10 rigs this week, cutting activi-ty for a second week in a row in sign that price declines were discouraging producers.

Crude prices have more than halved over the past year, with Brent tumbling from near-

ly $120 a barrel in the middle of 2014 to below $43 last month. Prices collapsed as a global glut of crude pushed commercial and govern-ment inventories to all-time highs.

Analysts say the market is rebalancing, but high stocks will keep weighing on prices into next year.

Investors shrugged o� a report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency, which suggested that OPEC was successfully defending market share by keeping output steady in the face of lower prices. l

A customer prepares to � ll up his tank in a gasoline station in Nice REUTERS

IEA: Saudi oil market shake up set to squeeze US shalen AFP, Paris

Cheap oil prices ushered in by Saudi Arabia’s policy of protecting its market share will end up squeezing high-cost producers like US shale drillers, who next year may face the big-gest drop in output in nearly a quarter centu-ry, the IEA said Friday.

Cheap fuel is also hooking consumers, with oil demand growth set to hit a � ve-year high this year, the International Energy Agen-cy said in its monthly report.

The oil market has been driven for the past year and half by an increasingly transparent policy by OPEC oil cartel kingpin Saudi Arabia to safeguard its in� uence against upstart shale producers who could change global dynamics by cutting US dependence on imported oil.

High crude prices of over $100 per barrel in 2013 were allowing US shale producers to ex-ploit costly technology to extract previously unreachable oil and sharply increase supply in the top oil-consuming nation.

But with Saudi Arabia and its partners in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries refusing to cut production, crude oil prices slumped to six-year lows last month, with the main US oil contract dropping to be-low $40 at one point.

The IEA, a Paris-based institution which analyses energy markets for advanced oil-consuming nations, said the industry was now beginning to react to lower prices by cut-ting output.

“US oil production is likely to bear the brunt of an oil price decline that has already wiped half the value o� ” the main interna-tional oil contract, the IEA said in its report.

“After expanding by a record 1.7 million barrels per day in 2014, the latest price rout could stop US growth in its tracks,” it added.

The IEA forecast non-OPEC oil output may drop by half a million barrels per day next year - the biggest decline in 24 years - with US shale producers accounting for four-� fths of that drop.

Intended effect“On the face of it, the Saudi-led OPEC strate-gy to defend market share regardless of price appears to be having the intended e� ect of driving out costly, ine� cient’ production,” said the IEA.

While it had previously expected US shale output to rebound next year, the IEA said “the latest price rout takes 2016 futures prices be-low the average breakeven cost for all major shale plays” and as such “the current slump in drilling and completion rates is expected to extend well into next year”.

US oil output has until recently held up fairly well against the drop in prices although the sector has cut back drilling and laid o� tens of thousands of workers.

But it fell for the � fth week in a row in the week to September 4, dipping to the still rel-atively high 9.14 million barrels per day, ac-cording to information released Thursday by

the US Department of Energy.The IEA noted that the low prices were

hurting not only US producers, but those in Russia and the North Sea as well. Low prices were also putting high-cost projects in OPEC countries at risk, it added.

And the gambit has not been without wider risks for OPEC countries, whose public � nanc-es have been pummelled as the price of their main revenue source plunged.

OPEC countries have had to tighten their belts, with even Saudi Arabia announcing at the weekend it will cut spending and issue more bonds as it faces a record budget short-fall due to falling oil prices.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts the Saudi de� cit will swell to $130bn this year, up from $17.5bn last year, which was only the kingdom’s second since 2002.

$20 per barrel? The IEA doesn’t forecast oil prices, however a report Friday by Goldman Sachs investment bank said they could fall as low as $20 per bar-rel before clearing out the supply glut.

However the IEA sees the drop in oil prices, along with a gradually improving global eco-nomic outlook, accelerating growth in demand for oil, in particular demand for OPEC output.

If forecasts oil demand growth to hit a � ve-year high of 1.7 million barrels per day (mbpd), and stay at an above trend at 1.4 mbpd next year.

The IEA increased its forecasts for overall demand this year and next by 0.2 mbpd to 94.4 mbpd this year and 95.8 mbpd in 2016.

It cut its forecast for non-OPEC supply by 0.3 mbpd next year to 57.7 mbpd.

The IEA does not make supply forecasts for OPEC, but said it expects market demand on OPEC suppliers to rise to 31.3 mbpd in 2016, an annual increase of 1.6 mbpd as low prices dent high-cost production support higher demand.

OPEC output dipped 0.2 mbpd to 31.57 mbpd last month, the IEA said, but that was still up 1.2 mbpd from last year.

Oil prices were down on Friday, after hav-ing climbed the previous day on falling US output.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in Octo-ber, the European benchmark, fell $1.19, or 2.4 percent, to $47.70 a barrel in London trading.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for October fell $1.38, or 3% , to $44.54 per barrel. l

Eurozone growth not strong enough to create jobsn AFP, Frankfurt

Growth is picking up in the 19-country eu-rozone, but not enough to create jobs in the region, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board said in an interview published Friday.

“Growth has returned and the unemploy-ment rate is falling in the euro area ... But growth is still not strong enough to create a su� cient number of jobs,” Benoit Coeure said in an interview published in a group of French regional newspapers.

The ECB has rolled out a raft of measures over the past year to help push chronically low in� ation in the euro area back up to eco-nomically healthier levels and stimulate cred-it and investment.

The latest was a contested programme of bond purchases, known as QE or quantita-tive easing, under which the ECB plans to buy 60bn euros ($67bn) of assets each month until at least September 2016, totalling 1.14tn euros.

But the economic slowdown in China, depressed energy prices and the strength of the euro are keeping a lid on in� ation, which stood at a meagre 0.2% in August, a long way o� the ECB’s target of just under 2%.

And ECB president Mario Draghi said the central bank could scale up the stimulus pro-gramme if the outlook for growth and in� a-tion clouds over.

“When in� ation is weak, the best way to bring it up to the 2% objective is to support economic activity. Today, therefore, growth and employment are prerequisites for price stability,” Coeure said. l

‘On the face of it, the Saudi-led OPEC strategy to defend market share regardless of price appears to be having the intended e� ect of driving out costly, ine� cient’ production’

BUSINESS18DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

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

Bank 1500.22 6.77 76.50 4.71 1576.72 6.63NBFI 1009.93 4.56 86.10 5.30 1096.04 4.61Investment 678.51 3.06 21.42 1.32 699.93 2.94Engineering 2736.15 12.34 222.89 13.71 2959.03 12.44Food & Allied 1305.86 5.89 105.83 6.51 1411.70 5.93Fuel & Power 2822.14 12.73 238.03 14.64 3060.17 12.86Jute 31.48 0.14 0.00 0.00 31.48 0.13Textile 2376.36 10.72 130.81 8.05 2507.17 10.54Pharma & Chemical 3489.45 15.74 176.20 10.84 3665.65 15.41Paper & Packaging 160.46 0.72 11.62 0.71 172.08 0.72Service 603.91 2.72 36.12 2.22 640.03 2.69Leather 355.21 1.60 27.02 1.66 382.24 1.61Ceramic 391.36 1.77 30.24 1.86 421.60 1.77Cement 1090.91 4.92 86.63 5.33 1177.54 4.95Information Technology 148.68 0.67 14.24 0.88 162.93 0.68General Insurance 137.13 0.62 9.73 0.60 146.86 0.62Life Insurance 237.61 1.07 14.11 0.87 251.72 1.06Telecom 643.33 2.90 42.58 2.62 685.91 2.88Travel & Leisure 613.00 2.77 75.48 4.64 688.48 2.89Miscellaneous 1834.98 8.28 220.01 13.53 2054.99 8.64Debenture 0.40 0.00 0.12 0.01 0.52 0.00

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

News, analysis and recent disclosuresBSCCL: The Board of Directors has recommended 10% stock dividend for the year ended on 30.06.2015. Date of AGM: 18.10.2015, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Sayeman Beach Resort, Cox’sbazar. Record Date: 28.09.2015. The Company has also reported EPS (without fair valuation surplus) of Tk. 0.86, NAV per share of Tk. 26.91 and NOCFPS of Tk. 0.22 for the year ended on 30.06.2015.Fixed Assets/Right/Investment:1STPRIMFMF: With reference to earlier news (disseminated by DSE on 18.08.2015) on Prime Finance First Mutual Fund man-aged by ICB Asset Management Company Ltd., regarding Term extension of 1STPRIMFMF, ICB has further informed that the unit holders meeting of Prime Finance First Mutual Fund will be taken place on 17.09.2015 at 3: 00 PM. Venue: Hotel 71 (Aamra Kanon Banquet Hall, 9th Floor), Kaizuddin Tower, 176 Shohid Nazrul Islam Shoroni (Old-47), Bijoy Nagar, Dhaka-1000.FARCHEM: The Company has further informed that it has purchased 20.12 decimal of land at 2nd phase at a cost of Tk. 34,65,710.00 only including Registration and other cost at Rupganj, Narayanganj as per earlier decision of the Board of Directors for expansion of its 2nd Unit for Dyes and Chemical Factory of the Company.PRIMELIFE: Referring to their earlier news (disseminated on 04.05.15) regarding Purchase of land at 45 & 46 Dilkusha C/A, Dhaka, the Company has

further informed that the Board of Directors has cancelled their earlier decision of purchasing the lands because of arising intricacy, i.e., restriction to get permission from the concerned authorities for construction of multistoried building due to enforcement of Govt. Security in the Security Zones, and also permission from Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority.Credit RatingSQURPHARMA: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Company as “AAA” in the long term and “ST-1” in the short term along with a stable outlook in consideration of its audited � nancials up to March 31, 2015, unaudited � nancials up to June 30, 2015 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualita-tive information up to the date of rating declaration.EHL: Credit Rating Information and Services Ltd. (CRISL) has informed that the Rating Com-mittee of CRISL has assigned the rating to Eastern Housing Ltd. as ‘’AA-’’ in the long term and ‘’ST-3’’ in the short term along with a stable outlook in consideration of its audited � nancial statement up to 31 July 2014 also unaudited � nancials up to 30 April 2015 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.MiscellaneousSHASHADNIM: The Com-pany has informed that it has disbursed 10% interim Cash Dividend for the year ending 31 December 2015.

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Imam Button -Z 26.61 26.98 13.79 13.80 13.80 10.80 1.548 -1.21 -veAramitCementA 23.96 23.64 47.17 47.60 48.50 37.50 33.267 0.90 52.4NCCBL Mutual Fund-1-A 23.26 20.50 5.29 5.30 5.40 4.50 4.191 0.94 5.6Prime Islami Life -A 22.56 18.77 42.64 44.00 44.00 37.80 4.235 4.95 8.6Rahima Food -Z 18.98 19.83 53.71 53.90 54.90 47.00 4.154 -0.47 -veICB Emp. PMF-A 18.18 16.55 6.41 6.50 6.60 5.20 0.839 0.61 10.5Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 17.63 18.52 1379.83 1388.00 1390.00 1250.00 30.039 32.00 43.1Monno Ceramic -B 17.29 14.76 52.78 53.60 54.00 44.70 1.009 0.16 329.9Islami Ins.BD-A 14.94 15.10 17.68 17.70 17.90 15.50 0.127 1.26 14.0LR Global BD MF1-A 14.89 15.11 5.41 5.40 5.90 4.90 0.156 0.40 13.5

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

AramitCementA 25.59 23.04 47.04 48.10 48.90 37.30 185.784 0.90 52.3BD. Autocars -Z 25.37 28.30 43.29 42.50 44.40 34.50 8.344 0.19 227.8Imam Button -Z 24.55 26.60 13.61 13.70 13.70 10.80 3.389 -1.21 -veICB Emp. PMF-A 23.64 20.11 6.51 6.80 6.80 5.50 36.120 0.61 10.7Rahima Food -Z 19.15 20.55 53.74 53.50 55.40 41.60 39.032 -0.47 -veMonno Ceramic -B 18.85 15.30 52.68 53.60 53.90 44.70 71.295 0.16 329.3Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 17.91 17.33 1,372.86 1,387.30 1,394.50 1,199.00 454.220 32.00 42.9Prime Islami Life -A 16.27 15.66 43.42 44.30 44.80 37.70 47.560 4.95 8.8NCCBL Mutual Fund-1-A 15.91 14.03 5.04 5.10 5.40 4.40 42.845 0.94 5.4Islami Ins.BD-A 15.19 13.38 17.97 18.20 18.40 15.50 10.673 1.26 14.3

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

AIMS First -A -32.50 -32.54 21.46 21.60 32.40 20.10 2.036 1.55 13.8Grameen M F One-A -23.85 -23.60 19.68 19.80 26.30 19.20 1.345 1.39 14.2ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A -14.80 -14.84 19.00 19.00 20.10 19.00 0.006 2.61 7.3Reliance1 M.F.-A -13.92 -13.58 6.81 6.80 7.20 6.70 0.295 1.10 6.2Grameen1:Scheme2 -A -12.61 -12.11 10.38 10.40 12.00 10.00 1.525 1.09 9.5AB Bank 1st Mutual Fund-A -10.91 -10.58 4.90 4.90 5.50 4.80 0.261 1.49 3.3Aman Feed-N -8.79 -11.78 73.04 72.60 83.90 69.10 129.996 3.60 20.3Trust Bank 1st MF-A -8.33 -4.02 4.54 4.40 4.80 4.20 1.072 0.70 6.5Beach Hatchery -A -7.96 -4.84 20.85 20.80 23.50 20.50 26.894 1.29 16.2Khan Brothers-N -6.90 -6.30 27.07 27.00 29.10 26.60 13.761 1.52 17.8

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

AIMS First -A -32.50 -32.92 21.48 21.60 32.40 20.00 61.986 1.55 13.9Grameen M F One-A -23.66 -23.79 19.96 20.00 26.80 18.80 32.714 1.39 14.4EXIM Bank 1 MF-A -15.25 -15.25 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 0.006 0.74 6.8Jute SpinnersA -12.83 -13.61 63.08 63.20 75.90 59.80 1.032 -31.68 -veGrameen1:Scheme2 -A -12.50 -12.07 10.49 10.50 12.00 10.00 43.263 1.09 9.6GeminiSeaFood-B -10.64 -8.09 412.98 408.90 455.00 400.00 15.153 11.77 35.1Reliance1 M.F.-A -10.26 -10.80 6.94 7.00 7.10 6.70 3.176 1.10 6.3AB Bank 1st Mutual Fund-A -9.26 -8.18 4.94 4.90 5.60 4.80 11.933 1.49 3.3Popular Life 1st M.F.-A -8.33 -8.11 4.42 4.40 4.90 4.30 8.639 0.78 5.7Aman Feed-N -8.30 -10.91 73.16 72.90 84.00 69.10 971.649 3.60 20.3

DSE key features September 6-10, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

22,167.09

Turnover (Volume)

645,679,189

Number of Contract

573,437

Traded Issues 326

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

176

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

147

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,675.05

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.42

CSE key features September 6-10, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

1,625.69

Turnover (Volume)

51,336,097

Number of Contract

77,859

Traded Issues 279

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

132

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

142

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,575.50

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.22

BUSINESS 19D

TSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Stocks extend losses for 3rd straight weekn Tribune Report

Stocks edged lower in the past week, extending their losing streak with volatili-ty for the third consecutive week.

Brokers said the market’s dismal performance with high volatility was a result of cautiousness exercised by the investors as stock-scam cases were being disposed and Eid-ul-Azha neared.

During the week that end-ed Thursday, the benchmark of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, fell marginally 5 points or 0.2% to settle 4,760.

The blue-chip comprising index DS30 lost 8 points or 0.5% to 1,814. The DSE Sha-riah Index, DSES, dropped 9 points or 0.8% to 1,167.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, was down 20 points or 0.3% to 8,869.

Large-cap stocks su� ered the most. Telecommunica-tion sector was hit hard with over 3% decline as the pro-posed merger between Robi and Airtel battered the inves-tors’ sentiment. Grameen-phone led in the fall.

Lafarge Surma Cement and Square Pharmaceuticals lost 5% and 1.7% respectively.

The other losing sectors

were non-banking � nancial institutions and fuel and power which were down 1% and 0.6% respectively.

The major gaining sectors, mostly low-cap, were tan-nery, engineering and textile which gained over 4%, 1% and 0.6% respectively.

Turnover, however, im-proved as the week’s DSE daily turnover was Tk44.3 crore, registering an in-crease of 12.5% over the pre-vious week’s Tk394 crore.

Pharmaceuticals and power sectors dominated the trading throughout the week, accounting for around 28% of the week’s total turnover.

“The week closed � at with internal bleeding in large-cap stocks,” said IDLC Investments.

LankaBangla Securities said benchmark index of DSE ended in � at red zone due to selling spree in last half of the week.

It said pharmaceuticals, fuel and power, and engi-neering stocks were the mar-ket mover in the week, it said.

The newly listed Aman Feed dominated the week’s turnover chart with shares worth Tk97 crore changing hands followed by Square Pharma, United Airways, Emerald Oil and Lafarge Sur-ma Cement. l

Benchmark index of DSE ended in � at red zone due to selling spree in last half of the week

ANALYST

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4758.43440 (-) 0.13% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1815.77875 (-) 0.49% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14568.5767 (-) 0.19% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 12446.3089 (+) 0.44% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8865.3265 (-) 0.23% ▼

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Aman Feed-N 1,708,271 130.00 8.00 72.60 -8.79 79.60 83.90 69.10 73.04UNITED AIR-A 6,552,297 68.42 4.21 10.40 6.12 9.80 11.10 9.70 10.44United Power-N 424,472 62.80 3.86 144.60 -1.83 147.30 152.50 143.70 144.74BSRM Ltd. -A 482,958 55.22 3.40 118.60 11.15 106.70 119.00 105.50 117.63LafargeS Cement-A 409,563 45.25 2.78 108.00 -5.01 113.70 113.00 107.00 108.64AramitCementA 764,023 33.27 2.05 47.60 23.96 38.40 48.50 37.50 47.17Square Pharma -A 131,592 32.85 2.02 249.30 -1.50 253.10 252.50 247.80 249.41Olympic Accessories -N 571,382 31.55 1.94 52.90 -3.82 55.00 57.30 52.30 53.28Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 21,837 30.04 1.85 1388.00 17.63 1180.00 1390.00 1250.00 1379.83BD Submarine Cable-A 247,994 30.02 1.85 116.50 -0.43 117.00 126.40 114.50 116.91BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 975,384 29.61 1.82 29.90 -0.33 30.00 31.20 29.80 29.97Olympic Ind. -A 107,438 29.60 1.82 276.30 0.88 273.90 279.00 273.10 276.24Khulna Power-A 405,170 29.13 1.79 70.80 -0.42 71.10 73.50 70.50 70.86Emerald Oil Ind. -A 541,987 27.44 1.69 50.60 4.55 48.40 52.90 49.00 51.04Shahjibazar Power-N 149,981 27.10 1.67 175.70 -5.33 185.60 186.00 172.50 175.72

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

Aman Feed-N 12,762,889 971.65 4.38 72.90 -8.30 79.50 84.00 69.10 73.16Square Pharma -A 3,066,802 764.96 3.45 248.80 -1.74 253.20 253.80 247.70 248.79UNITED AIR-A 51,165,125 536.30 2.42 10.40 6.12 9.80 11.10 9.70 10.50Emerald Oil Ind. -A 10,523,522 534.93 2.41 50.70 3.89 48.80 53.00 48.80 51.01LafargeS Cement-A 4,473,690 494.61 2.23 108.00 -5.01 113.70 113.70 106.80 108.10Grameenphone-A 1,522,321 474.22 2.14 305.50 -3.14 315.40 330.00 304.80 306.91Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 348,378 454.22 2.05 1387.30 17.91 1176.60 1394.50 1199.00 1372.86BSRM Ltd. -A 3,826,056 439.30 1.98 119.10 11.52 106.80 119.90 106.20 117.71FAR Chemical-N 7,627,823 410.36 1.85 51.60 -6.69 55.30 56.50 51.30 51.82United Power-N 2,639,971 390.96 1.76 144.80 -1.70 147.30 153.00 143.80 145.23Shahjibazar Power-N 2,053,049 369.88 1.67 173.70 -6.36 185.50 186.30 172.10 174.39Orion Infusions -A 5,690,766 351.37 1.59 62.90 7.34 58.60 65.20 58.10 63.08Khulna Power-A 4,273,197 307.71 1.39 70.80 -0.56 71.20 73.40 69.00 70.89Beximco Pharma -A 4,521,596 304.30 1.37 67.00 1.52 66.00 68.40 65.20 67.06SummitAlliancePort.-A 5,184,179 293.21 1.32 55.20 -0.90 55.70 58.50 54.30 54.93Ifad Autos -N 5,696,805 669.83 1.79 114.30 1.06 113.10 124.50 110.10 116.84

BUSINESS20DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Mobil Industrial Forum built n Tribune Report

Mobil Jamuna Lubricants Bangladesh yester-day organised Mobil Industrial Forum, the very � rst time in Bangladesh, to become one of the few countries in the region to blend high quality lubricants and create a milestone by exporting the substance.

“Bangladesh is an emerging market, with growth supported by steady expansion in the private sector with further scope of pri-vate investment projects,” said Md Abubakar Siddique, secretary, Energy and Mineral Re-sources Division.

Siddique was present at the programme as the chief guest.

The Mobil Jamuna Lubricants Bangladesh (MJLBD) chairman thanked Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly traded international Oil and Gas Company for its assistance to set up a state-of-the-art Lube Oil Blending Plant – the � rst of its kind in the country in 2003.

Since then, the production of this plant and marketing activities of MJL Bangladesh Limited have expanded greatly, he added.

Such initiative has privileged the country to be one of the few countries in the region to blend high quality lubricants, he further said.

Among others, MJLBD Independent Di-rector M Tamim, Director Tanjil Chowdhury, CEO Sanaul Haque and Executive Director M Mukul Hossain were present In the forum.

From ExxonMobil, Yasser Al-Azzawi, clus-ter manager, Paul Foster, chief engineer, and other ExxonMobil o� cials were present at the event. l

Plan to build RMG warehouse in Russian Tribune Report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the gov-ernment planned to set up a mainly ready-made garment warehouse in Russia in a bid to increase trade with the Commonwealth of Independent States countries.

“Bangladesh has no warehouse in the world. But we are now thinking of such a one to bring about pace in our exports,” he said at a seminar yesterday.

Muhith urged the entrepreneurs to � nd a suitable place in the CIS countries to build a warehouse, mostly for apparel goods.“This is a good idea (building a warehouse) from entrepreneurs, as our products have huge potentials there and such the presence of such a warehouse will help grow exports.”

The seminar was titled as the “3rd Front of Bangladesh’s Export Destination Russia and Other CIS Countries,” organised jointly by Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute and CIS-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and

Industry at a city hotel.“The country has so far only concentrated

on EU and American markets for exports. But now the time has come to explore new mar-kets as well with diversi� ed products,” Mu-hith said.

He said at present the negotiation was on to establish an RMG warehouse in Gujarat, India.

About incentives demanded by business-men for exports to Russia and CIS markets where duty is very high, he said all incentives would be reviewed or renewed or subtracted by this year.

Bangladesh exported goods of $796m to CIS countries in 2014, and $721m in 2013, which was very insigni� cant cpmpared to the country’s total capacity, CIS-BCCI said.

It said as the World Cup Football was going to be held in Russia in 2018, Bangladeshi knit garments would have a high demand during the world’s number one sports event.

CIS-BCCI said: “Being the second largest exporter of RMG in the world, Bangladesh

should capture the share of 7%, and it may in-crease exports to $10bn to the CIS countries.”

It also said Russia deserved more attention from Bangladeshi exporters wishing to in-crease presence in the CIS countries.

Business people and high government of-� cials at the seminar laid emphasis on sign-ing bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to increase volume of trade with the di� erent countries.

Bangladesh is a signatory in several multi-lateral FTAs, but has yet to sign any bilateral FTA.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the government was currently in talks with Sri Lanka and Turkey for FTA, but some issues still remained unresolved.

Acting FBCCI President Sha� ul Islam Mo-hiuddin said bilateral and regional FTAs were becoming very prominent and happening all over the world now.

“So, there is no alternative to signing FTA to boost bilateral trade,” he said. l

Bangladesh moves to boost trade ties with African Asif Showkat Kallol and Adil Sakhawat

The government is going to open a mission in Ethiopia as part of its e� orts to expand trade relations with the African emerging markets.

“We have received green signal from � -nance ministry about opening a mission in Ethiopia. Hope we see it very soon,” Shahriar Alam, state minister for foreign a� airs, told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque sent a letter to Finance Secretary Mah-bub Ahmed recommending creation of a sen-ior diplomatic post for the proposed Bangla-desh Embassy.

The envoy to be posted in Ethiopia would have the responsibility to strengthen trade and investment relations with 54 African na-tions, said the letter.

The headquarters of the African Union is located in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“We expect to launch our mission in Addis Ababa very soon. Now we are working on set-

ting up of an o� ce there and appointing the top diplomat,” state minister said.

Bangladesh currently has two foreign mis-sions in Africa - Kenya and South Africa, but o� cials say they are not enough to beef up engagement with the continent.

Shahriar said the proposed mission in Ad-dis Ababa would be a lot helpful in building up warm relations with the countries.

“We expect our proposed mission will take the trade relations with this country - a resourceful and one of the fastest growing economies in Africa - to a level that we have now with China and India.”

As well as the Bangladesh embassy in Ethi-opia can also be a place of coordination for the Bangladeshi peace keepers working in many countries in the region as Ethiopia is located in the central point of the continent.

In March this year, in the Women in Parlia-ments Global Forum Summit in Addis Ababa, Shahriar met his Ethiopian counterpart Ber-hane Gebre-Christos.

During the meeting Shahriar suggested signing of a bilateral trade and investment promotion and protection agreement.

Then Berhane Gebre-Christos showed in-terest to send a high-level trade delegation to Dhaka.

They said the two countries could work together in di� erent sectors like hydropower, electricity, textiles, air connectivity, leather and meat processing.

Last year, a business delegation compris-ing EPB o� cials and private entrepreneurs visited some African countries including South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia to ex-plore markets there.

As Bangladesh was largely dependent on the US and the European Union markets for its garment exports, it could now make attempts to explore the African markets, of-� cials said.

In the last � scal year, the country exported $290.42m to the African market compared to $202.55m in the previous year. l

Asia-Paci� c � nance ministers vow to shun competitive devaluationn AFP, Manila

Twenty-one Paci� c rim economies including the United States, China and Japan pledged Friday to avoid “competitive devaluation” of their currencies amid stuttering global growth, a joint statement said.

Finance ministers from the Asia-Paci� c Economic Cooperation (APEC) made the com-mitment at the end of their two-day meeting in the central Philippine city of Cebu.

The meeting was overshadowed by fears of an economic slowdown in China, the world’s second largest economy, which last month suddenly devalued its yuan currency by near-ly two percent, triggering turmoil in the glob-al � nancial markets.

“We will refrain from competitive deval-uation and resist all forms of protectionism,” said the ministers’ statement.

It made no mention of the currency devalu-ation of China, which has said the decision was aimed at moving towards a more � exible ex-change rate. Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei did not attend the Cebu meeting, with Beijing citing “domestic” issues, according to the hosts.

Like Lou, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso were repre-sented at the meeting by lower-level o� cials.

APEC, which also includes Australia, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada among others, together accounts for 57% of the world’s eco-nomic output and nearly half of global trade. l

Finance Minister AMA Muhith speaks at a business semiar in a city hotel yesterday while Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed looks on MEHEDI HASAN

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015T-JU

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22eventThe Melancholy of Urban Life

23TrendingThe It list

24his styleProper polo

INSIDE

Glamour in an old city

Photo: Courtesy

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015T-JUNCTION News22D

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MJL Bangladesh Ltd (MJLBL) organised the “Mobil Industrial Forum” recently, and for the very � rst time at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel. Esteemed government o� cials, alliance partners from ExxonMobil, subsidiary companies, stakeholders and other o� cials attended the event.

Md Abu Bakar Siddique, secretary, Energy and Ministry Division and chairman at MJLBL, graced the event as chief guest.

Addressing the participants, the chairman said: “The Bangladesh economy is an emerging market, with growth supported by steady expansion in the private sector with further scope of private investment projects. Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, for assisted in setting up

a state-of-the-art Lube Oil Blending Plant (LOBP) in 2003 – the � rst of its kind in the country. Since then, the production of this plant and marketing activities of MJL Bangladesh Ltd have expanded greatly. Such initiatives have privileged the country to be one of the few countries in the region to blend high quality lubricants and create a milestone for the country by exporting it.”

In the forum, M Tamim, independent director, Tanjil Chowdhury, director, Kh Sanaul Haque, chief executive o� cer and M Mukul Hossain, executive director and chief engineer of MJLBL were present. From ExxonMobil, Yasser Al-Azzawi, cluster manager and Paul Foster, chief engineer and other ExxonMobil o� cials were also present at the event. l

This season Leatherex offering exclusive discount. Leatherex offering 10 to 30% discount on their certain designed shoe. women’s pumps, short to long boots, sandals and men’s casual, basic, classic and any sandals are available in leatherex shop. Leatherex collection is exclusively designed, and comfortable for both boys and girls. They have five outlets in Dhaka city. Address: Dhanmondi Orchard Point, Crystal Palace, Gulshan-1, Shimanto Square, Farmgate 86, Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Dhaka. Elephant Road Outlet Address: 234/1, New Elephant

Road, Dhaka-1205. www.facebook.com/leatherexbd. www.leatherex-footwear.com. l

Mobil Industrial Forum Held Discount on leatherex!

Second solo exhibition of a very young, yet talented artist named Sultan Ishtiaque is taking place at La Galerie of The Alliance

Francaise de Dhaka. The exhibition started on 4th of September and will be held till the 18th. The artist painted the beauty and

softness of nature surrounded by the chaotic life of the city. The works of the exhibition are based on the subject of life in old Dhaka,

dockyard, life around Buriganga River, urban market places, Panam city, and some of the more natural places of Dhaka.l

Baymax secures fourth position in business idea contest in IUTBaymax, a team of students of Eastern University, participated in this year’s 7th National ICT Festival – IT business idea challenge competition. The team consisted of Shah Mohiuddin from the CSE department and Faysal Ahamed and Fayaz Yousuf from the BBA department. The team participated with the theme of “Evidence glass – a business idea on women security and reducing the rate of violence against women.”

The festival was organised by IUT Computer Society of Islamic University of Technology (IUT) at Gazipur. The EU team stood fourth among the top � ve teams. The judges, participants and organisers

have appreciated the team’s performance and the president of IUT Computer Society thanked the team for their outstanding presentation and participation in the challenge. Encouraged by the success, Baymax will participate in other national and international challenges in the near future.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu inaugurated the festival as the chief guest of the event. A total number of 1,860 students from 20 universities and colleges across the country participated in various events including programming contests, IT business idea challenges, project showcasings, ICT olympiads, math olympiads, general knowledge tests etc. l

event

The Melancholy of Urban Life

TrendingT-JUNCTION 23D

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

Having sailed through your teens and 20’s discovering who you are, as you step into your 30’s, it is hoped that you’ve finally developed a distinct personal style. If you’re nearing the big three-oh, and are still not sure whether you’ve arrived, stylewise, here’s a checklist of things you should have by your third decade on this planet.

Your go-to shoeWhether you like your heels sky high or non-existent, there should be at least one pair of dressy shoes in your closet that are well-fitted, and go with everything. As life gets busier, you want a pair of kicks that won’t let you down.

Tick tockEven if you use your cellphone to track the time, you need at least one dressy wristwatch. It’s a lifetime investment, one that instantly adds class to your outfit and makes you look like a boss whose time is valuable. Choose a simple, classic design and steer clear of wacky trends.

Pucker upEven if you don’t wear lipstick on a regular basis, make sure you have a signature lip colour that you turn to for special events. This is not to say you can’t still experiment every now and then, but by 30, you should have a good idea of the most flattering shade, be it a fiery red or a subtle nude, or even a playful pink.

Scent of a womanLike your personal pout, it’s also good to have a signature scent. You may have one for the summer and a different one for fall, but at least know that kind of notes flatter your natural scent. The olfactory senses are strongly tied to memory, so if you want to be unforgettable, make sure the way you smell is distinctive, in a good way.

Statement sparkleIt could be your wedding ring, or a favourite locket, but finding that piece of jewellery that you never take off, and that your kids will hope to inherit, is a good way as any to show everyone that a lady is in the house. l

The It list5 things every fashionable woman must have by age 30

Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu

Photos: Courtesy

T-JUNCTION Tailored24DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

n Mahmood Hossain

Believe it or not, there is a proper way of wearing a polo shirt (short sleeves). T-shirts can be great. They are super comfortable and easy to deal with. On the other hand, if you really want to add that sophistication to your casual or semi-formal look, a polo can be the perfect fit for the autumn season. And, like everything else in the closet, there is a right way and a wrong way to wear a polo.

BootyliciousA pique (a weave of cotton that adds texture) polo shirt is traditionally longer in the back and shorter in the front. The reason for this is quite simple: it helps the shirt to remain tucked in when you bend over. The way to measure the perfect length of a pique polo (if that is the type of polo you are wearing) is to make sure it doesn’t cover more than half of your back pockets. That is, of course, if you decide to keep the polo untucked. For all others, it’s better to keep your polo tucked.

Not too deepOnce you’ve chosen the perfect length, you’ll want to take a look at the buttons of your shirt up front. A lot of polos actually have very deep Vs, so when you unbutton the shirt, you’ll be exposing a bit too much. Remember, different brands have different designs. Some have two buttons, while others have three. The main point is to make sure you aren’t exposing too much of your chest. If there is a deep V, then keep those buttons locked. If not, feel free to get that extra whiff of freedom for your chest hairs.

Sleeves matter tooOne detail after another, it’s important

to check out the ribbing of your polo’s sleeves. Again, different brands, different styles. Some sleeves have no tension at the end of the sleeve, while others hug your biceps like rubber bands. No matter the tension level, never wear anything that is constricting those pythons. Just like any other fitted clothing, it should hug your arms, not suffocate them.

The right touchAs elegant as a polo may look, it’s still considered a casual item. You’re supposed to feel comfortable, which means no undershirt. If you’re worried about those pit stains, well, what the heck is deodorant for? If you add an extra layer underneath the polo, it’ll bulk you up in the wrong way. And at times, the sleeves might sneak out under your polo’s sleeves. This, gentlemen, is not a proper or stylish look. Last but not least, and we can’t stress this enough, do not pop your collar. Seriously. Don’t. l

his style trends

n Mahmood Hossain

Wrapping up our list of things to sport this season, we continue our must-have list.

Dark and richPair your dress shoes with your quality leather jacket and darkest jeans. This look can be your go-to out� t for a night out. When the weather cooperates, of course.

Throw in the shadesGrey, charcoal, and similar shades on blazers will go very stylishly with black dress pants and t-shirts. Remember, we want to ease into the colours of autumn.

Give it a restPut away the blazer or suit jacket and sport a waistcoat (vest), with tie intact. A waistcoat can always be an easy replacement for a full-on jacket, and its to your advantage there is only one layer covering your arms.

Hey preppyTap into your preppy persona from time to time. An Ivy League look is quintessential autumn. You don’t have to go all-out preppy either, just keep one or two items on you that you could easily see a Harvard or Yale grad wear. Squash, anyone?

Every year – The Henley should be am autumn staple. Long sleeves or short sleeves, doesn’t matter, it gets the job done. You look sophisticated and relaxed at the same time. What better way to bridge the gap between scorching hot and frigid cold?

Rack up the earth-toneIf you’re planning on going to the tailors

to make a suit or two, look for earth-tone (beige, tan, brown, etc) fabrics. Again, we want to incorporate the autumn colours into our wardrobes. And if a new suit isn’t in your schedule, don’t feel afraid to go back to highlighted clothes from last autumn. Timeless pieces are just that, versatile and classy.

One for the post weekendA guarantee winner is wearing a rich, dark suit with a striped polo and plaid pocket square. Another one of those not-so-serious out� ts. There’s plenty of sophistication that gets balanced out by fun.

Darker with the lighterContrasting is very important for the following months. Deep blues (like navy) deserve to be matched with hints of camel or similar shades. This goes for every other deep toned colours. You don’t want to be too loud, but you shouldn’t drown in a single colour either. l

The September issue part 2We keep things rolling with our September lookbook

Proper poloOnce the weather gets a tad on the warmer side, you’ll want to lean the polo side

25D

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FEDERER BRACED FOR SHOOTOUT WITH DJOKOVIC

TAMIM IQBALSTARTS FRESH JOURNEY

26 2827

Argentine star Lionel Messi has added two-time dad to his long list of honours, after his girlfriend gave birth to a son, relatives announced. Mateo Messi was born Friday in Barcelona

BRACE YOURSELF!

SportNAISMITH TREBLE RUBS SALT ON CHELSEA WOUNDS

The Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan (BKSP), located at Jirani in Savar, turned into a festive atmosphere yesterday as its former students met in a re-union organised by the Alumni Association of BKSP (AAB). Test cricket captain Mush� qur Rahim, national football captain Mamunul Islam, Nasir Hossain, Liton Kumar Das, Soumya Sarkar, Anamul Haque and former Tigers captain Naimur Rahman were some of the former students who attended the re-union MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

BACK TO SCHOOL

Sport26DT

Bayern keep pace with Dortmundn AFP, Berlin

Thomas Mueller converted a controversial 90th minute penalty as Bayern Munich came back from a goal down to defeat Bavarian ri-vals Augsburg 2-1 while Borussia Dortmund also made it four wins from four in Bundesli-ga action yesterday.

Dortmund kept pace with their bitter ri-vals after they rode a pair of penalties from Gabon international Pierre-Emerick Aubamey to come back and defeat Hanover 4-2 at the HDI-Arena. l

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Anthony Martial celebrates after scoring the for Manchester United on debut against Liverpool at Old Tra� ord yesterday REUTERS

BUNDESLIGABayern Munich 2-1 FC AugsburgLewandowski 77, Esswein 43Mueller 90-pen

Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 SV Darmstadt 98 Sulu 8

Hanover 2-4 DortmundSobiech 18, 53 Aubameyang 35-P, 85-P, Mkhitaryan 44, Felipe 67-og

Hertha Berlin 2-1 VfB StuttgartHaraguchi 14, Sunjic 36Lustenberger 45+3

FC Ingolstadt 04 0-0 VfL WolfsburgMartial opens United account in styleNaismith hat-trick deepens Chelsea gloom, City struggle at Palacen Agencies

Anthony Martial introduced himself to Man-chester United fans with a superb goal to complete a 3-1 win over bitter rivals Liverpool and cap a much-improved performance from Louis van Gaal’s side yesterday.

Martial, a 36 million pounds ($55.54 mil-lion) signing from Monaco, danced past three defenders in the 86th minute and sidefooted the ball home on his debut to put the � nish-ing touches to a well-deserved victory.

After a dire � rst half that would have dampened the enthusiasm of even the most die-hard fan, a � red-up United emerged after the break to take the game by the scru� of the neck.

Daley Blind curled them ahead from the edge of the area four minutes after the restart before Ander Herrera slammed a penalty into the roof of the net after Liverpool’s 18-year-old full back Joe Gomez clumsily felled the Spaniard.

Liverpool hit back with six minutes re-maining when Christian Benteke pulled o� an acrobatic overhead kick but he was spectac-ularly upstaged when Martial, a second-half substitute, had the United fans drooling in anticipation of his potential.

The result gave second-placed United 10 points from � ve Premier League matches, � ve adrift of leaders Manchester City.

Nigerian teenager Kelechi Iheanacho

pledged to create more headlines in the fu-ture after scoring his � rst Manchester City goal to secure a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace. Making only his second senior appearance, the 18-year-old forward scored moments af-ter coming on in the 89th minute at Selhurst Park, prodding home the rebound after Alex McCarthy saved from Samir Nasri.

His goal preserved City’s 100 percent start to the season and left Manuel Pellegrini’s side � ve points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Earlier on the day, Everton substitute Ste-ven Naismith’s hat-trick secured a 3-1 win against Chelsea as the stuttering Premier League champions su� ered their third defeat of the season.

Naismith, who came on early in the game, scored twice in the � rst half and capped a � ne individual display with a third late on.

Everton su� ered an early blow when Mu-hamed Besic was substituted in the ninth minute following an awkward collision with Kurt Zouma, which allowed Naismith to enter the fray.

Nemanja Matic netted the pick of the game’s goals before the break with a spectac-ular long-range strike, but that will be of little consolation for Chelsea manager Jose Mour-inho, whose side have collected just four points from their opening � ve matches.

Chelsea’s defence, despite being boosted by the return of John Terry from suspension, looked shaky and indecisive throughout the contest and the margin of victory could well have been greater.

Meanwhile at the Emirates Stadium Olivier Giroud came o� the bench to ensure Arsenal didn’t pay for their pro� igacy in a 2-0 win over Stoke.

Theo Walcott had put Arsenal ahead in the � rst half, but the Gunners’ fans once again spent most of the afternoon frustrated at wast-ed opportunities before Giroud struck late on to secure their third victory of the season. l

EPLManchester United 3-1 Liverpool Blind 49, Herrera 70-P, Benteke 84Martial 86

Arsenal 2-0 StokeWalcott 31, Giroud 85

Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester City Iheanacho 90

Everton 3-1 ChelseaNaismith 17, 22, 82 Matic 36

Norwich 3-1 BournemouthJerome 35, Hoolahan 52, Cook 81Jarvis 67

Watford 1-0 SwanseaIghalo 59

West Brom 0-0 Southampton

Five-goal Ronaldo rocks EspanyollBecomes Real’s all-time leading scorer in La Liga

n AFP, Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo opened his account for the season in spectacular fashion with � ve goals as Real Madrid thrashed Espanyol 6-0 yesterday.

Ronaldo's � ve-goal haul takes him ahead of Madrid legends Raul and Alfredo di Stefano to become the club's all-time leading scorer in La Liga with 330 goals.

"Someone who scores so many goals has their place in history forever like Raul or Di Stefano," said Madrid boss Rafael Benitez.

"I think we are speaking of three historic players and I hope Cristiano continues adding to his tally for his good and the good of the team." l

Sport 27D

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Ex-tennis star James Blake is shown tackled by a NYPD o� cer James Frascatore (L) in front of the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York on September 9, 2015 in this still image from a security camera video released on Friday. The New York City Police Department on Friday released a security camera video showing Blake being tackled, thrown to the ground and handcu� ed by an undercover o� cer in a now infamous case of mistaken identity

REUTERS

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Benitez wants fewer meaningless internationalsReal Madrid coach Rafael Benitez has called for fewer meaningless international games during the season after losing James Rodriguez and Danilo to injury whilst they were on interna-tional duty in the past week. Both players are expected to be sidelined for up to a month, missing the start of Real’s Champions League campaign and potentially the Madrid derby away to Atletico on October 4.

–AFP

France striker Fekir set for surgeryFrance international striker Nabil Fekir will undergo knee surgery on Monday after picking up the serious injury playing against Portugal last week, his Ligue 1 club Lyon con� rmed. The operation will be carried out by Dr. Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet in the private Jean-Mermoz Hospital in Lyon in south-east France.

–AFP

Gerrard reveals Tottenham snubFormer Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has revealed he snubbed interest from Tottenham to join Los Angeles Galaxy because he couldn’t stand the thought of playing against his old club. Gerrard knew he was coming towards the end of his Liverpool career last season and sev-eral top teams including Tottenham expressed interest in signing him.

–AFP

I’m not a dictator: van GaalLouis van Gaal says his decision to listen to the demands of his Manchester United players proves he is not a dictator. After accusations of rifts and a player mutiny in the Old Tra� ord dressing room, United manager van Gaal came out � ghting at his weekly press conference. The 64-year-old admitted Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick came to him after the opening match of the season against Tottenham to air their concerns about morale within a squad frustrated by his man-management methods and training techniques.

–AFP

Sherwood fears Albrighton revenge missionAston Villa manager Tim Sherwood admits the club might live to regret releasing Marc Albrigh-ton as they prepare to face their former winger at Leicester on Sunday. Albrighton, who had been at Villa since he was a schoolboy, su� ered the indignity of being allowed to leave on a free transfer in 2014, but has rebuilt his career impressively with Leicester.

–AFP

West Ham � ned over Noble dismissal reactionWest Ham were � ned £50,000 and warned over their future conduct on Friday following the behaviour of their players after mid� elder Mark Noble’s dismissal at Liverpool last month. Noble was sent o� in the 78th minute which was overturned on September 2.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Inter Private University Football next monthn Tribune Desk

Supported by the Bangladesh Football Fed-eration, Clan Management Ltd organised a 16-team Inter Private University football tour-nament that will kick o� next month, October 23, at the Dhaka Residential Model School and College ground.

The participating universities are BUBT, BGMEA University of Fashion and Technolo-gy, BRAC University, City University, Da� odil University, Eastern University, East West Uni-versity, Independent University Bangladesh, IUBAT, LCLS, Metropolitan University (Syl-het), NSU, South East University, Shanto-Mar-iam University of Creative Technology, UIU and University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.

Ashrafuddin Ahmed Chunnu, chairman of Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club and advisor of Clan, was present during the captains and man-agers meeting at a city restaurant yesterday.l

Tamim starts Fresh journeyExpresses interest of opening a cricket academyn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh’s experienced opening batsman Tamim Iqbal yesterday inked a two-year deal and became the brand ambassador of Fresh, a concern of Meghna Group of Industries. During the signing ceremony Tamim hinted working with Fresh for the betterment of the country’s cricket while he also spoke about the Tigers’ up-coming assignment at home.

Tamim believes the hosts will need to dis-play their best cricket in order to attain posi-tive results against a depleted Australian side next month in two Test matches.

The Aussies are currently in transition, giv-en the retirements of some of their vital play-ers, including former Test captain Michael Clarke, paceman Ryan Harris, opening bats-man Chris Rogers, all-rounder Shane Watson and wicket-keeper Brad Haddin.

To add to that, the Steve Smith-led visi-tors will also miss the services of their new-ly-named vice-captain David Warner due to injury while fast bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood are also likely to be rest-ed owing to their heavy workload in the last 18 months.

Many are predicting the new-look Austral-ia to struggle against the Tigers in the hot and humid sub-continental conditions but Tamim is of the opinion that the tourists will still pose a strong challenge for the home side.

“Both the Tests will be very important for us, given that we are playing Australia, who

are the world’s second best Test side. Our aim will be to give our best out in the middle,” said Tamim.

“Yes, it’s a positive side for us that they will not have a few of their key players in the team but still, they are a very professional unit and I believe we will have to play our best cricket to compete or defeat them,” he added.

The swashbuckling southpaw, who will help will promote tea, water and milk powder products of Fresh, informed that besides en-dorsing the brand, he is also in discussions to open a cricket academy in collaboration with the company.

Tamim said, “I hope Bangladesh cricket will be bene� ted if we can eventually come up with a Fresh Cricket Academy. We are dis-cussing where we can establish an academy or if we can improve an existing academy with better facilities. We will be together for the next two years on pen and paper but I be-lieve the relation will never end. I hope you will get to see Fresh’s contribution in the de-velopment of cricket in the country.”

Meghna Group of Industries director Tah-mina Binte Mustafa and executive director of marketing (FMCG division), Asif Iqbal, were present among others in the ceremony. l

Deferred Sailor Under-15 football � nal todayn Tribune Report

The deferred � nal of the Sailor-Bangladesh Football Federation Under-15 Football Champi-onship between Feni and Narayanganj will be held today at Bangabandhu National Stadium.

The grand � nale was originally scheduled to be held at the same venue on September 3 but was pushed back due to a waterlogged pitch that was caused by incessant rain.

On the eve of the � nal, Feni captain If-tekhar Hossain Kounik said, “We have always watched the national players play at BNS. Now that we will play at this venue in such a

crucial match, we will try to make the most of the occasion by winning the � nal.”

Narayanganj skipper Antar Kumar on the other hand said, “We are obviously a bit nerv-ous ahead of the � nal as the hopes of our dis-trict lies with us. Narayanganj has a rich histo-ry in football and we will play to win [today].”

A total of 61 teams contested the � rst round which got underway on June 29 while the � -nal round, featuring eight zonal champions, began in Dhaka on August 22. In the semi-� -nals, Narayanganj defeated Sylhet 5-4 in the tie-breaker while Feni beat Dhaka by the same scoreline in the penalty shootout. l

Bangladesh national opening batsman Tamim Iqbal (2R) pose alongside Meghna Group of Industries director Tahmina Binte Mustafa (C) during the signing ceremony yesterday COURTESY

UNFORCED ERROR!

28DT Sport

10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT FEDEXPRESS V DJOKER

To date Federer and Djokovic have only played one Grand Slam � nal on hard court against each other in their careers, due to being drawn to meet in the semi� nals more often than not.

Federer is the most proli� c hard court player of the Open Era with a record 59 titles. He won � ve consecutive US Open tournaments from 2004 to 2008.

They have faced each other 41 times with Federer winning 21 times and Djokovic winning 20. This includes 13 Grand Slam matches, three of which were � nals, plus a record nine semi� nals.

The two players have played each other � ve consecutive years at the US Open with Federer leading Djokovic 3-2.

After the � rst meeting that took place in the 2007 � nal, the next four US Open meetings between the duo from 2008 to 2011 occurred in the semi� nals.

Djokovic won the 2010 and 2011 semi� nals of the US Open against Federer. He won the 2011 US Open.

The two most commonly meet on hard courts with 29 of their 40 matches taking place on the surface. Federer currently leads the head-to-head 16–14 on hard courts.

The two are tied 4–4 in hard court Grand Slams, with Federer holding a 3–2 advan-tage at the US Open and Djokovic leading 2–1 at the Australian Open.

Statistically Federer is the best hard court player of the Open Era. He has the most hard court titles of all time with 59, while Djokovic is fourth all-time with 38 titles. On 2 February 2015, Federer and Djokovic were tied with an 83% hard court win percentage – the best of all time.

Hard court is widely considered to be Djokovic’s best surface with Djokovic him-self stating that it’s his most successful and preferred surface where he has 38 titles, including a record � ve Australian Open wins.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Serena � nally falls after year of living dangerouslyn Reuters, New York

Serena Williams had been a vulnerable con-queror at this year’s majors, living dangerous-ly and dicing with defeat on numerous occa-sions as she tried to become only the fourth woman to complete the calendar Grand Slam.

On Friday, her luck � nally ran out at the U.S. Open, and on a court where she had not been beaten since 2011.

In her 12th three-set contest of the elec-trifying 2015 run, Williams met her match in Italian doubles expert Roberta Vinci, who ended the American’s bid for a share of tennis history with a shocking 2-6 6-4 6-4 upset vic-tory in the semi-� nals.

Williams, dominating the sport at the ripe old tennis age of 33, had repeated over and over that she felt no pressure in trying to add her name to a list comprised of Maureen Con-

nolly (1953), Margaret Court (1970) and Ste� Graf (1988).

She tried her best to maintain that man-tra after her stunning semi-� nal defeat on an Arthur Ashe Stadium court that had been so kind to her in the past.

“I don’t want to talk about how disappoint-ing it is for me,” Williams said during a tetchy post-match conference during which she re-peatedly refused to answer questions. l

Paes, Hingis win third mixed majorn Reuters, New York

Martina Hingis and Leander Paes once again proved to be a potent partnership as the Swiss-Indo duo captured their third mixed doubles title of the year with victory at the U.S. Open on Friday.

The Australian Open and Wimbledon champions came back from 4-1 down in the championship tiebreak to storm to victory with a 6-4 3-6 10-7 win over Americans Beth-anie Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey.

Hingis and Paes became the � rst duo to capture three major mixed titles in the same year since Margaret Court and Marty Riessen achieved the feat in 1969. The triumph earned 42-year-old Paes a ninth mixed doubles tro-phy and 17th grand slam title while Hingis took her overall grand slam tally to 19 (� ve singles, 10 women’s doubles and four mixed).

“I just love to play tennis and I am fortu-nate to have Leander as my partner,” Hingis told reporters.l

WILLIAMS VINCIAces 16 1

Double faults 4 3

Break points 4/11 4/10

Winners 50 19

Unforced errors 40 20

n AFP, New York

Roger Federer hopes to ride a wave of emotion as he targets a sixth US Open title and 18th ma-jor Sunday in a “straight shoot-out” against world number one Novak Djokovic.

Federer, 34, is bidding to be-come the oldest champion in New York since 35-year-old Aus-tralian Ken Rosewall in 1970.

Playing in his 27th Grand Slam � nal and seventh at the US Open, Federer, the champion from 2004-2008 and runner-up in 2009, is a man reborn.

After losing his second Wimbledon � nal in succession to Djok-ovic in July, the Swiss veteran beat the Serb on his way to a sev-enth Cincinnati Masters crown.

He has also not dropped a set since his All England Club defeat, a stretch of 28 sets.

At the US Open, he has held serve in 80 of 82 games and has stunned opponents with his new “SABR” (Sneak Attack By Roger) chip-and-charge tactic.

His semi-� nal demolition of French Open champion and compatriot Stan Wawrinka was as brutal as Djokovic’s dismantling of defending champion Marin Cilic.

The top seed allowed the Croatian just three games in the most lopsided semi-� nal in tourna-ment history.

Federer also has the crowd on his side as he pur-sues his � rst Grand Slam title since Wimbledon in 2012.

“I de� nitely think if there would be more on my side that will give me a lift and extra energy and momentum possibly. That could swing the match a little bit,” said Federer, aware that despite his status as world number one, Djokovic often struggles to command a crowd’s respect.

“But other than that, obviously Novak is a great player. Both of us have played in all tough conditions, and you’ve got to play well to beat him. There is no question about that.”l

US Open

GRAND SLAM TITLES Tournament Djokovic FedererUS Open 1 5Australian Open 5 4French Open 0 1Wimbledon 3 7Total Count 9 17*As of August 2015

Federer braced for ‘straight shootout’ with Djokovic

Sport 29D

T

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

BRIEF SCOREAustralia299 for 7 (Maxwell 85, Bailey 75, Wade 50*, Willey 3-51) England304 for 7 (Morgan 92, Cummins 4-49) England won by 3 wickets, level series 2-2

Ten Sports US Open 201510:00PM Women’s Doubles Final 1:30AM Men’s Singles Final: Federer v Djokovic Ten Action5:00PM Sky Bet Championship Fulham v Blackburn Rovers French Ligue 1 2015/169:00PM Nantes v Stade Rennais 1:00AM Olympique De Marseille v SC Bastiais Ten Cricket6:00PM French Ligue 1 2015/16Md 5 Gazelec Ajaccio v AS Monaco Sony SixItalian Serie A 10:00PM Lazio v Udinese 12:30AM Inter Milan v AC Milan Star Sports 13:30PM Australia Tour of England 5th ODI Star Sports 2German Bundesliga 7:15PM TSG 1899 Ho� enheim v SV Werder Bremen 9:15PM FC Schalke 04 v FSV Mainz 05 Star Sports 4English Premier League 6:20PM Sunderland v Tottenham 8:50PM Leicester City v Aston VillaSony KixSpanish La Liga4:00PM Granada v Villarreal 8:00PM Athletic Bilbao v Getafe 10:30PM Celta Vigo v Las Palmas 12:30AM Malaga v Eibar

DAY’S WATCH

England skipper Eoin Morgan hits a four during his brilliant knock of 91 against Australia in the fourth Royal London One Day International at Headingley in Yorkshire on Friday REUTERS

‘England making the most of a good run’n AFP, Leeds

Captain Eoin Morgan believes England are showing new-found qualities in their ability to successfully chase down targets after beat-ing Australia by three wickets at Headingley on Friday to set up a one-day series decider.

England overcame the World Cup winners for the second time in four days, reaching their target of 300 with 10 balls to spare to tie the series 2-2 ahead of Sunday’s � nale at Old Tra� ord, Manchester.

It was only the fourth time England have successfully chased a score of 300 or more to win a one-day international and beats the previous highest total they had made batting second to beat Australia, eclipsing the 270-4 they reached in winning at Lord’s in 1997.

Morgan, who was named as man of the match, said: “I � rmly believe things work in cycles and when it’s going your way you have to cash in and I am making the most of a run of good form.

“There are only so many words you can say and ways to inspire people. The best way is to lead from the front and today I managed to do that, which is great.

“But the thing from the chase today is that everybody contributed, from top to bottom, right down to Moeen Ali and David Willey � n-ishing it o� , which is brilliant.

“The group of players we have and the atti-tude they show is, I think, outstanding. I have never had that sort of feeling within a side in a chase. I am very optimistic about things. That’s not experience, because we are a young side, but taking it on, the attitude is brilliant.”

Morgan shared stands of 91 with Ben Stokes and 58 with Jonny Bairstow before falling to a superb catch by Glenn Maxwell eight runs short of a ninth ODI century. l

Balotelli sights Milan derby returnn AFP, Milan

Mario Balotelli is eyeing his � rst start for AC Milan when they face Inter in the Milan derby.

It is early days yet but after Roma’s win over Juve, Inter host Milan on Sunday night hoping to add lustre to their positive start to the season by beating their city rivals for the � rst time in three outings.

Inter striker Stevan Jovetic, on loan from Manchester City, has hit four goals in two games for the Nerazzurri, but coach Roberto Mancini is sweating on the � tness of new-ly-signed Brazil defender Joao Miranda after

he su� ered a suspected knee ligament injury in a friendly with the United States.

Liverpool mis� t Balotelli re-joined Milan

on a season-long loan deal several weeks ago in a bid to transform a career that has dipped dramatically since Italy’s doomed 2014 World Cup campaign.

He has yet to feature in a league game un-der Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, but fellow striker Luiz Adriano believes Balotelli’s arriv-al has given the Rossoneri a boost.

“Mario’s a great player and has come here to give us an important boost. The squad needs everybody and he will help us a lot,” said the Brazilian, who signed for Milan re-cently after eight successful season with Shakhtar Donestk in UKraine.l

Trapp nightmare as PSG heldn AFP, Paris

Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Kevin Trapp endured a nightmare evening as the reigning French champions saw their perfect start to the season ended in a 2-2 draw with 10-man Bordeaux on Friday.

PSG had looked set to make it � ve straight Ligue 1 wins to start the campaign thanks to an Edinson Cavani � rst-half brace either side of Henri Saivet’s equaliser.

However, German goalkeeper Trapp, who had already been at fault at the � rst goal, was

caught in possession in the box by Wahbi Khazri with 11 minutes left, allowing the Bor-deaux player to snatch a point for his side.

It was a sweet result for the visitors, who had been forced to take the metro earlier in the day when their bus broke down and were reduced to 10 men shortly before their second goal when skipper Saivet was sent o� .

And the result denied PSG what would have been a record-equalling 14th successive win in France’s top � ight. Ironically, that record is still held by the 2009 Bordeaux side coached by current Paris boss Laurent Blanc. l

FIXTURES Verona v Torino Sassuolo v Atalanta Sampdoria v Bologna Empoli v Napoli Palermo v Carpi Lazio v Udinese Inter Milan v AC Milan

DOWNTIME30DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 8 represents K so � ll K every time the � gure 8 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Inadequate (5)4 Result of addition (3)6 Soft sheepskin leather (4)8 Good reason (5)9 Unsightly growth (4)11 Malarial fever (4)12 Slender supports (5)15 Snake (5)18 Sport (4)20 Part of the eye (4)21 Banishment (5)22 Fasting period (4)23 Out� t (3)24 Casts o� (5)

DOWN 1 Cults (5)2 Sky coloured (5)3 Long lock (5)4 Hidden obstacle (4)5 Silent (4)7 Presentation (5)10 Trick (4)13 Thunder god (4)14 American elk (5)15 Encourages in crime (5)16 Impel (5)17 Emits fumes (5)18 Colour (4)19 Cadence (4)

SUDOKU

SHOWTIME 31D

TSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

CELEBS ON SOCIAL

WHAT TO WATCH

Dwayne Johnson@TheRockAppreciate that fam! It was all fun and games till one of em pee’d on my J’s.

Mindy Kaling@mindykalingA sel� e I took with a starstruck fan. #Kimmel #tonight

Russell Peters@therealrussellp This happened yes-terday!!! Thanks @jonfavreau for always giving me a shot! instagram.com/p/7g-8EiINMo/ 

The Maze RunnerStar Movies 9:30pmThomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they’re all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow “runners” for a shot at escape.Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter

World War ZZee Studio 9:30pm United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz

Lethal Weapon 2WB 11:36pm Riggs and Murtaugh are on the trail of South African diplomats who are using their immunity to engage in criminal activities.Cast: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci

n Showtime Desk

The writer for the award-winning Dallas Buyers Club, Melisa Wallack has been tipped to write the screenplay for the � lm King of Kings, which is the story of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.

In the early stages, Gateway Films is backing the picture and is currently choosing a director. At the moment, Wallack is working alongside director Jean-Marc Vallee on Janis Joplin: Get it While You Can, and is writing Dancing With Myself for Warner Bros. She was chosen to pen the script after green-lighting the original treatment written by Terry Stone, who will be producing on behalf of Gateway Films. Chris Howard is set to be executive producer for the project.

Stone said, “The Shah of Iran is one of history’s most polarizing � gures - once considered amongst the most powerful and reviled � gures on the planet.” On the topic of Wallack, “Melisa is a brilliant writer as evidence by Dallas Buyers Club and will provide a timely examination of the legacy of foreign interventionism, and the consequences of the Shah’s reign and eventual downfall.”l

Two dead, one seriously injured

n Showtime Desk

A tragic plane crash in Medellin, Colombia has killed two and seriously injured one,

during a shoot of Tom Cruise’s new movie Mena. The Associated Press reports that Cruise, a trained pilot, is said to not have been aboard the � ight. The two individuals

who died were identi� ed as American � lm pilot, Alan David Purwin and Colombian Carlos Berl.

The other injured is American pilot, Jimmy Lee Garind, who was rushed to the hospital in Medellin immediately after the crash. The cause of the crash, stated by the locals, was due to bad weather. The twin-engine Aerostar crashed against the Alto de la Clarita mountain.

Purwin was the founder and president of Los Angeles-based Helinet Technologies. He’s worked for � lms such as Transformers, Pearl Harbor and Pirates of the Caribbean. He was also recently featured in Variety’s Artisans video series in a segment of aerial photography. The video covered the dangers of aerial cinematography, and spoke of e� orts to “de-risk” as much as possible in the process.

The � lm Mena is directed by Doug Liman and has been shooting since late August. Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal, the American pilot who worked for Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, before he became a spy for the DEA. l

Bullock in Oscars race

Great performances, weak script

n Showtime Desk

Oscar season has begun, and Sandra Bull-ock gets a kick-start with Warner Bros’ Our Brand is Crisis. After the � lm made its debut in the recent Toronto Fest, her terri� c per-formance in the lead role has been received quite well. It was revealed by Bullock that the role was originally written for a man, but asked producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov to consider changing it into a woman. She told the audience, “George could have played the role, but maybe I could have played it better.”

Clooney also added that the script was surprisingly easy to switch up. In the process of changing the script, he realised there were many roles out there that could easily re-scripted for women. The � lm itself is about politics as a large business, the pervasiveness of marketing and about personal redemption. The � lm is set to release in October. l

n Showtime Desk

After the release of the new � lm Hero, it seems as if the two newcomers Sooraj Pancholi (Aditya Pancholi’s son) and Athi-ya Shetty (Suneil Shetty’s daughter) have put on quite the performance. They show plenty of potential even with a very week script written for their debut � lm.

The Salman Khan production is a remake of Subhash Ghai’s 1983 classic, which starred Jackie Shro� and Meenak-shi Sheshadri. Directed by Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Naa Ho), the not-so-great script couldn’t help the director pull o� above average performance. He seemed to only impress during scenes where Sooraj and

Radha (the main characters) were speak-ing through their eyes rather than words.

The overall execution felt sub-par, almost generic and border-line cliche. Not to mention the poorly edited scenes throughout. At some points, the � lm stretches a bit too far, testing the audi-ence’s patience. It almost feels that the performances by the debut actors keeps the � lm from falling o� the cli� by a hinge.

Nothing too spectacular or out of the ordinary can be found in this � lm, except for the promising future of both Sooraj and Athiya. It’s one of those � lms you could watch if you’ve got time to kill. Nothing more, nothing less.l

Wallack for Shah of Iran

BACK PAGE32DT

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

BULLOCK IN OSCARS RACE PAGE 31

LABOUR DAY DOLDRUMS PAGE 13

DEFERRED SAILOR UNDER-15 FOOTBALL FINAL TODAY PAGE 27

Bangladeshi witnessed Mecca crane crashn Sheikh Shahriar Zaman and

Adil Sakhawat

Bangladeshi pilgrim Salahuddin Ahmed, a businessman from Savar who is now staying in Saudi Arabia to observe the hajj pilgrim-age with his father Abdul Jalil, witnessed the crane crashing into the Masjid Al Haram or Grand Mosque of Mecca on Friday.

“I was on the third � oor of a market beside the mosque when the crane crashed [around 5:45pm local time]. The pilgrims were set to say their Maghrib prayers.

“But because of a strong sandstorm that took place a while ago, many of them were taking shelter at the market to avoid rain. The crane collapsed all of a sudden,” Salauddin told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

“Many pilgrims died on the spot while scores of people sustained injuries. Those took shelter outside the mosque sur-vived the tragic accident. Otherwise, the death toll would have been much higher,” he added.

According to the Bangladeshi consulate in Jeddah, some 40 Bangladeshis were injured in the incident. All of them but one were dis-charged from Al Zayed in Makkah hospital after � rst aid.

As many as 107 hajj pilgrims were killed and around 240 others injured in the inci-dent. The Saudi o� cials have blamed heavy rain and strong winds of unusually high speed for the uprooting of trees, the fall of panels and the collapse of the crane.

General Suleiman al-Amr, director gen-eral of the Civil Defence Authority, told Sau-di-owned Al Arabiya TV yesterday that the number of deaths might increase. The Emir

of Makkah Prince Khaled Al-Faisal commis-sioned a committee to investigate the cause of the deadly collapse.

The one still under treatment is Chand Box from Shariatpur, said Consul General of Jed-dah Consulate AKM Shahidul Karim.

“According to latest information, no Bang-ladeshi was killed in the accident. Our of-� cials are gathering information about the Bangladeshi pilgrims,” he added.

Asked whether the injured pilgrims would be able to perform hajj – set to begin on Sep-tember 21, Karim said: “All of them are now out of danger. We have been informed that they can perform the hajj.”

A press release of the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said that the Bangladeshis were in-jured due to stampede after the incident.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent a mes-sage of condolence to the King of the King-dom of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, expressing deep sympathy to the victims and their family members.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has also sent a message to his Saudi counterpart.

Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh, Consulate General in Jeddah and Hajj O� ce in Mecca are constantly vigilant to immediately address any concern of Bangladeshi pilgrims and ex-patriate workers, who may fall victim of the tragic incident, o� cials said.

Md Jahirul Islam, consul (Hajj), Bangla-desh Hajj O� ce in Mecca [mobile number +966(0)504321527], and Md Altaf Hossain, � rst secretary (labour), Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah [mobile number +966(0) 534455716], may be contacted directly for any help or update in this regard. l

Diarrhoea takes serious turn in GaibandhaOne dies and around 400 a� ected people admitted in hospital in three daysn Tazul Islam Razu, Gaibandha

Post-� ood diarrhoea has hit Gaibandha badly increasing the miseries of people in the area.

One died while more than 400 diarrhoea patients got admitted to the Gaibandha Sadar Modern Hospital in the last three days.

Gaibandha Civil Surgeon Dr Nirmolendu Chowdhury said Nasiron Begum, 67, resident of Chokmomrozpur village under Gaibandha sadar was admitted with diarrhoea. She died because of diabetes and other health compli-cations yesterday.

Until yesterday afternoon, a total of 176 pa-tients got admitted while 30 received treatment at the outdoor section of the hospital, he said.

As the number of diarrhoea patients contin-

ue to rise, the hospital authorities have failed to accommodate them inside the hospital. To aid the situation, Brac has set up two makeshift camps on the hospital premise, said Brac Gaib-andha branch representative Amol Kumar Dam.

“With 59 seats, 20 volunteers including one physician from Brac are working in these camps. Brac would continue the activity until situation improves,” said Amol.

The holidays of all doctors and nurses of the district health unit have been cancelled. An eight member investigation team led by Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) is working to disclose the rea-son behind the diarrhoea outbreak.

Senior Scienti� c O� cer of IEDCR Dr Al Ma-mun Mahbub Alam said: “We have collected

sample from the hospital. We would try to � g-ure out if it is because of the downpour and water logging or the water supplied by the city corporation.”

Residential doctor of the Gaibandha Sadar Modern Hospital SIM Shahin said dehydration was high among the patients. A new virus could also be the reason of the epidemic. Around 5000cc to 20,000cc saline is being provided to each patient.

A honours � rst year student of Gaibandha Government College Mo� zul Hoque said he had drank water supplied by the city corpora-tion at a student mess in Thanapara area and since then having abdominal pain, nausea and watery stool.

The diarrhoea patients, most of whom are

residents of the city and suburbs, said they fell sick after drinking water supplied by city corpo-ration and from tube-well. Some claimed that the � shes sold at cheap rate after � ood could have caused the diarrhoea outbreak.

“We suspect that water from the sewerage lines was leaked and got mixed with water sup-plied in the city. The rainfall and water-logging polluted the water. We will be able to con� rm after testing the sample in Dhaka,” said IEDCR O� cer Al Mamun.

Hospitals are running short of saline and other materials for treatment. Now they are depending on saline, pure drinking water and medicine provided by the district administra-tion and city corporation, said Gaibandha Dis-trict Administrator Md Abdus Samad. l

Saudi emergency teams stand next to a construction crane after it crashed into the Grand Mosque of Saudi Arabia’s holy Muslim city of Mecca on September 11 AFP

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