Boishakh 30, 1421

Rajab 13, 1435

Regd. No. DA 6238
Vol 2, No 43

TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

7 | STRUCTURES ON KALLYANPUR CANAL

10 | BOKO HARAM OFFERS TO SWAP DEAL

84 pages | Price: Tk10

15 | TARKAATA GETS CENSOR CERTIFICATE

18 | ATLETICO, BARCA SET FOR FINAL BATTLE

Chronicles of a
crippled district

Jamaats trial to
create tribunal
history
n Udisa Islam

Criminals literally control officials

and law enforcers with money
n Julkar Ali Manik
Underworld money and muscle, fights
over establishing supremacy and abuse
of power by political leaders have
turned Narayanganj into a dysfunctional, crime and corruption-prone
district.
Except for a few exceptions, corrupt
government officials and law enforcers
are to be equally blamed for the crum-

For making the city

safe all we need is good
intention and the will to
work with honesty
bling administration and law and order
situation in the city, local residents
have told this correspondent.
In Narayanganj, a busy business hub
some 20km off Dhaka, has always been
known as a crime-prone city. But the
ragged situation came to the forefront
after the recent abduction of environmentalist Rizwana Hassans husband
and the sensational abduction and killing of seven.
In the wake of the abductions and the
murders, three RAB officers lost jobs;
the chiefs of Narayanganj district police

and administration were withdrawn.

The seven police stations in the district
saw massive overnight reshuffles.
The name of Shamim Osman, a local
ruling party lawmaker and sometimes
called a godfather, has come up repeatedly in connection with the sensational seven murders. It is nothing new
for him because every time a major
crime takes place in the port city, his
name would come up.
Most local residents, present and former officials of the district, who talked
to this correspondent, wished not to be
named out of fear of retaliation.
The Osman family, of which Shamim is a part, started flexing its political
muscles in the late 1990s, when the
Awami League was in power. Shamim
Osman was an MP from 1996-2001. He
fled Narayanganj after the BNP-Jamaatled alliance came to power in 2001.
Shamims brother late Nasim Osman, who was a leader of Jatiya Party,
had also been elected lawmaker several
times.
Nur Hossain, the prime accused in
the seven-murder cases who left BNP
to join Awami League in 2000, followed
Shamims suit.
Following the 2001-2006 tenure of
BNP-Jamaat and the 2007-2008 tenure
PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Moslem Miah, a farmer from Pabna, came to the outdoor of the DMCH yesterday, seeking medical attention for his orthopaedic ailment.
However, he had to leave after waiting for five hours as the honorary doctors continued their strike for the second day running RAJIB DHAR

For the first time in Bangladesh history, the prosecution of the International
Crimes Tribunal is ready to deal with
the war crimes charges levelled against
the Jamaat-e-Islami for its role during
the 1971 Liberation War. With this step,
Bangladesh is going to reach a milestone in the war crimes trials that began in 2009.
The prosecution is now mainly
concentrating on this case and the
formal charges may be placed this
month. The investigation officer says
the journey to prepare the probe report
was not so easy.
In the past, seven Nazi organisations, including the Reich Cabinet, Hitlers paramilitary force and Gestapo,
and the secret police force of the Nazis,
were tried at the historic Nuremberg
Tribunal in Germany for war crimes
committed during World War II.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Nur fled to Kolkata, ex-RAB trio yet to be arrested

n Kailash Sarkar and
Mohosinul Karim

Nur Hossain, the prime accused in the

Narayanganj seven murders, fled the
country on May 2 and is now in West
Bengal capital Kolkata, says RAB.
Additional Director General (operations) of the elite force Col Ziaul Ahsan
yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune: We
have specific information that Nur Hos-

sain fled the country through the Benapole border on the night of May 2. He is
in Kolkata.
To clarify he said: My job is to remain updated on criminals whereabouts. It is not very tough to locate him
since we have adequate modern technologies.
The mystery over the killings after
abduction can be unveiled if Nur Hossain is arrested.

The senior RAB official also said

they were verifying whether Shahidul
Islam, the father-in-law of slain ward
councillor Nazrul Islam, had any role in
the murders.
Meanwhile, Shahidul yesterday alleged that Col Ziaul had helped Nur
evade arrest and flee the country. The
RAB official was also involved in the
abductions and murders along with
three other top officials of RAB 11 unit.

Col Ziaul rejected the allegations

outright.
Shahidul told reporters that Col
Ziaul had been trying to help the trio.
Col Ziaul Ahsan told a newspaper
[on Sunday] with the intention to implicate me that they were verifying
whether I have any link in the killing
of my son-in-law and six others. As he
claims that Nur Hossain fled the country
PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Narayanganj mass
hearing draws flak
n

Ashif Islam Shaon and

Ahmed Zayeef

The opening of a two-day mass hearing, arranged by the government probe

committee to investigate seven murders in Narayanganj, failed to draw
attention of mass people as only six
persons gave deposition before it yesterday.
Wrong selection of spot, lack of
publicity, peoples apathy and to some
extent, fear resulted in the poor attendance during the hearing, locals say.
The probe body formed in line with a
High Court order recorded depositions
from 10am to 4pm at the Narayanganj
Circuit House. The second mass hearing will take place on Thursday.
Earlier, the seven-strong committee
headed by Md Shahjahan Ali Mollah,
additional secretary of the Public Administration Ministry, recorded statements of family members and relatives
of the seven victims at the deputy commissioners office on Sunday.
Normally mass hearings are conducted in places where people have
access and feel free to go. The Circuit
House is not such a congenial place,
said Imamul Hasan, a motor parts trader at Chashara.
He also observed that people were
afraid of Nur Hossain, the prime accused, as he might return someday and
take revenge against them for testifying before the probe committee. Nur
and his associates are not arrested yet.
Talking to this correspondent on
Narayanganj Link Road, close to the
mass hearing venue, student Soumitra
Shekhar said: We all know who
killed the seven people. Media
reported the incident widely. I
think the mass hearing committee
also knows who the culprits are.
So, we do not need to go there.
Abdus Salam, brother of ward councillor Nazrul Islam who is one of the
seven victims, said: There would
be more people if the committee arranged the hearing at Shiddhirganj,
from where all the victims hail from.
He also said many people did not know
about the hearing.

Nur, RAB blamed

Most of the people who testified yesterday told the committee that Shiddhirganj Awami League leader Nur Hossain
had masterminded the abduction and
killings in connivance with some officials of the local administration.
One of them Shahin Azad said Nur
was loyal to local Awami League lawmaker Shamim Osman. Motives behind the murders will become clear if
the alleged law enforcers are interrogated, he told the Dhaka Tribune after
giving deposition.
Another witness advocate Abu
Hasnat Abdullah after giving deposition told reporters that Nur had close
ties with the local administration. For
that, he got license of 11 firearms in exchange of money. Nur hired RAB to
kill his opponent Nazrul, he said.
Locals Jalal Uddin, Noor Hossain
Munna, Abul Kashem and Mujibur
Rahman are the others who testified
yesterday. But none of them witnessed
the abduction or the killings.
Soon after the mass hearing began, Sakhawat Hossain, president of
Narayanganj Ainjibi Samity, met the investigators and told them that cohorts
and supporters of the alleged killers
might also give deposition in the guise
of common people.

Over 20 RAB men to be quizzed

Along with the dismissed three RAB

officials, a committee formed to arrest
the people involved with the seven
murder incident will quiz more than 20
members of RAB 11.
Subrata Halder, additional police
superintendent of Narayanganj, yesterday said letters had already been
sent to the former and incumbent RAB
members.
An insider in the elite force said the
polices investigation team had collected the duty roaster of RAB of the day of
abduction. Three of the 20 are drivers.
The offices of the deputy commissioner and police superintendent yesterday received copies of Sundays High
Court order asking the government to
arrest the three dismissed RAB officials
in connection with the killings. l

Nur fled to Kolkata

PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

and staying in Kolkata, we suspect that

he helped Nur to flee the country, he
claimed.
Nazrul, lawyer Chandan Sarkar and
five others were abducted on April 27
by some criminals who were allegedly
assisted by three top officials of RAB 11.
Their bodies were later found in River
Shitalakkhya on April 30 and May 1.
The trio were later withdrawn from
RAB while their mother organisations
sent them to forced retirement.
Following Sundays High Court order,
the Home Ministry yesterday directed
the police headquarters to arrest them.
The court also ordered to hand over the
trio to the Detective Branch of Police.
On May 4, Shahidul and other members of Nazruls family first alleged that
then commanding officer of RAB 11 Lt
Col Tarek Sayeed Mahmud, and two
other officials Maj Arif Hossain and
Lt Commander SM Masud Rana had
been involved in the killings in exchange of Tk6 crore.

Hindus attacked
for disagreement
over Tk5
n Our Correspondent, Rangpur

The government withdrew the trio

on April 28 along with the district police chief and the deputy commissioner
of Narayanganj. The Army sent Tarek
and the Navy sent Arif and Rana on
forced retirement on April 30.
Inter Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) Director Shahinul Islam said they did not know anything
about the three as they were no longer
under the Armed Forces Division.
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday told
reporters that the three RAB officials
might be arrested anytime soon. A
drive to arrest the former RAB personnel will begin anytime as they are under observation.
Sources in the Home Ministry and
the police headquarters said a police
team had already left Narayanganj for
the capital to arrest the trio.
Khandaker Mahid Uddin, police
superintend in Narayanganj, told the
Dhaka Tribune last night that they were
working to execute the arrest order. l

A motorcade carrying senior police officials exit the Dhaka Cantonment yesterday afternoon

Ctg Jamaat chief held, hartal tomorrow

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong
The Ameer of Chittagong city unit Jamaat-e-Islami ANM Shamsul Islam, also a
former lawmaker, was arrested yesterday
afternoon by the police from the partys
office in the port city. The party General
Secretary Nazrul Islam including 19 other
leaders were also arrested in the drive.
Assistant Commissioner Shah Md
Abdur Rauf of Kotwali circle said they
had conducted the drive at the Jamaat
party office in the citys Dewanbazar
around 4pm and arrested the 21 leaders
during a secret meeting at their office.
Protesting the incident, the Chittagong district unit Jamaat-e-Islami
called a dawn-to-dusk hartal in greater
Chittagong tomorrow. They would also
stage protest rallies in different parts of
the district today.

of the army-backed caretaker government, the Awami League returned to

power in 2009. Shamim and Nur, along
with many other Awami League leaders, also returned to Narayanganj.
Because Shamim was not an elected
public representative anymore, establishing supremacy over the area and
rebuilding his 1990s empire was never
easy for him. In 2011, Shamim ran for
the mayor of the then newly-formed
Narayanganj City Corporation, but lost
to Selina Hayat Ivy, another leader affiliated with the ruling party.
Finally this year, Shamim was elected lawmaker from the Narayanganj 4
constituency in the January 5 10th parliament election.
In the meantime, Nur Hossain,
once the helper of a trucker, gradually climbed up the ladder of power and
politics in the port city. He came to be
known as Shamims right hand man
and is said to have emerged as the new
godfather of Narayanganj.
Over the years, Nur has established
his own empire of drug trade, illegal
sand-stone business, manipulated tenders for construction business, and an
extortion racket.
In the process he developed his network and influence among the citys local administration and the law enforcement units such as police and RAB.
Although he managed to buy a

large section of the local government

officials and law enforcers, getting a
comprehensive grip remained impossible for him until 2011, when SP Biswas
Afzalur Rahman was the district police
chief. Afzal knew that he was a criminal
and Nur knew that he would never gain
access to the police chief.
However, after Afzals transfer from
the port city, Nur developed a warm relationship with the new SP Sheikh Nazmul Alam. He used to pay frequent visits to not only the office of the new local
police chief but also to his residence.
That was the beginning of Nurs
nursing by a top official of the district,
said another police official who witnesses Nurs rise to glory from close quarters.
He also established good relations
with district Deputy Commissioner (DC)
Monoj Kanti Boral and some officials
of RAB 11, three of whose officers are
blamed for the recent seven murders.
Things got even better for Nur after he
was elected a ward councillor in the 2011
city elections. When he ran for the elections, he had several cases filed against
him and the then Election Commission
asked local police to take actions against
him. But nothing was done against him
and he came out winner in the polls.
Not only was his ward councillor
status but also the fact that he was
known as Shamim Osmans man, gave
him every immunity he needed to carry on with his illegal businesses.

Mohammad Ishaq, ameer of the

district (south) unit of the party, confirmed the declaration to the Dhaka Tribune. He saidthe hartal will be
enforced in Chittagong, Coxs Bazar,
Bandarban, Rangamati, Bandarban and
Khagracchari districts.
ACP AbdurRauf said the arrestees
were accused in different cases lodged
with different police stations in the city
and the district in connection withthe
political violence during the pre and
post national election period.
According to police sources, the other arrestees were ADM Moniruzzaman,
Rajshahi RAB 5 units masjid Imamand
alsoChittagong Science Laboratory High
School Islamic teacher, Md Habibur Rahman, Chittagong University assistant
professor, and AJM Obaidullah, teacher of International Islamic University

Jamaats trial to create tribunal

The prosecution, however, claims that
the case in Bangladesh is different from
the Nuremberg Trials in some ways. After
facing significant initial challenges, the
prosecution thinks they have brought
more order to their case. They may seek
stern punishment following similar patterns in other international courts.
Jamaat is likely to face charges of
committing war crimes, genocide and
crimes against humanity, and violation
of Geneva Convention 1949, and other
international laws. The prosecution may
seek declaring it a criminal organisation,
imposing a ban on the party and its student body Islami Chhatra Shibir, realising compensation, and slapping fines.
While the activists want a quick
trial, they are also concerned about
a thorough and proper investigation
leading to formal charges. Some legal
experts argue that the International
Crimes (tribunals) Act 1973 does not
have any specific provision on punishment of any organisation.
Prosecutor Tureen Afroz thinks this
is been solved. Section 20 (2) of the
ICT Act suggests that the judges can
mete out any punishment to a person,
if convicted, ranging from death penalty to ban. The definition of person is
clearly defined in our General Clauses
Act. Here the person means both natural person and legal person. So, Jamaat

can be punished under the ICT Act as a

legal person, she explained.
Investigation Officer Matiur Rahman
said: We have got adequate declassified information from home and abroad,
and witnesses to prove the war crimes
allegations against the party. Many of
our so called pro-liberation intellectuals
have refused to help us, while insiders
also tried to discourage us by saying that
the Act does not allow to try any party.
The government in February last
year amended a provision of the ICT
Act to allow trying a group and political
party. Earlier, only individuals could be
brought under trial.
Jamaat was banned twice during the
Pakistan regime, in 1959 and in 1964,
for its communal role. It was banned
again just after the independence of
Bangladesh. But it was allowed to resume politics during the regime of BNP
founder Ziaur Rahman.
War crimes activist Shahriar Kabir
said: If the party is charged with war
crimes, it would be the first such case
in Bangladesh. Trial of Jamaat has been
a longstanding demand of the people.
Sculptor Ferdousi Priyabhashini, a
Birangona of the war, observed that
those who had acted against the nationas independence, and misused their
position must face trial. It will be a
landmark in our history and consolation for the victims families. l

Nazrul Islam, one of the seven victims of the recent sensational abduction
and murder, was also a ward councillor
elected in the 2011 city polls. Later he ran
for panel mayor and won. Nur, however,
failed to will the panel mayor election.
Nazrul was also known as Shamims
man. But he fell from the lawmakers
grace after he got close to Narayanganj
Mayor Ivy after the elections. That inspired Nur to take on Nazrul repeatedly.
A local police official said despite
having a reputation as a criminal, Nur
managed to get a license for his firearm when Nazmul was the SP. The DC
might be the license issuing authority,
but the SPs recommendation is a must

for issuing licenses.

After Nazmul, Syed Nurul Islam became the Narayanganj SP in February
2013. In no time, Nur took him in his
confidence as well. Nurul was among
the government officials, who were
withdrawn after the seven murders.
Allegedly, Nur had not only been
paying huge bribes to the government
officials and law enforcers, he also regularly paid similar sums to some local
and central leaders of both ruling Awami League and BNP.
Police officials said Nur earned at
least Tk20 lakh every day from drug
trade, extortion, etc.
In 2011, he used to come to the SP
office in one car. Soon after, he started
coming on luxury cars. Last year, he
started roaming around in the city with a
10-car motorcade, a police officer said.
According to police, the main source
of Nurs income was drug trade. He also
made handsome amounts by illegally extracting sand from the Sitalakkhya River,
taking ransom after abducting people,
extortion, running prostitution in the
citys residential hotels, land grabbing,
encroaching rivers, gambling, and so on.
A police official, who has extensive
knowledge about the citys crime network, said Nur had grown so powerful
that even the other criminals in the city
had to pay a part of their earning to him.
It is said that every vehicle crossing
the Kanchpur Bridge must pay a certain

PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

Narayanganj: Chronicles of a crippled district

PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Chittagong (IIUC). The rest were mostly

party leaders, madrasa teachers, office
staff and activists coming from different
areas of the district, the sources added.
The ACP said two litres of petrol,
1.5kg potassium, 60 glass bottles, a laptop, a modem and Tk1 lakh 13 thousand
of the partys Baitul-mal fund.
He said the Jamaat leaders were sent
to Kotwali police station, adding that
they were being interrogated about
their secret meeting. They have been arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act and
acase is being processed in this regard.
However, the police official did not
disclose anything further as it is an ongoing investigation.
They were attending a secret meeting to plan fresh agitations ahead
of the verdict of Delawar Hossain
Sayedee,added the ACP. l

10 people were injured when a group

of over 100 people looted and set fire
to houses of the Hindu community
at Dhorakanda village of Baradargah
union under Pirganj upazila in Rangpur yesterday morning. The violence
stemmed from altercation between
two people who earlier failed to strike
a bargain over a Tk5 matter. One of the
victims said the attackers not only set
fire to houses but also looted livestock,
furniture, cash and gold jewellery.
Police arrested two people in connection with the attack while five cows
looted by the attackers were recovered.
Officer-in-charge of Pirganj police
station Akhtaruzzaman Pradhan said
on Thursday, Sohan, son of Sahajahan
of Dhorakanda Dakkhinpara, got into a
disagreement with Nityananda, a Hindu van driver, while bargaining for Tk5
over renting a van from him to transport rice threshing machine. This led to
a quarrel between the two when Sohan
went to harvest rice in his neighbour
Shipons field yesterday morning.
At one stage, Sohans relative Abu
Taher hit Nityananda hard, causing a
fracture in his head but to divert the
incident, Sohan spread the information
that he was attacked by Hindu people.
Moments later, more than a hundred
people led by Sohan and his father Shahajahan launched an attack on the local
Hindu community, leaving 10 people
injured. They were Nityanandas father
Sunil Chandra, 35, Bashana, 20, Nitai Chandra, 25, Pramath Chandra, 82,
Likhu Rani, 18, Nirmani, 18, Shantana,
19, Bhorot, 20, Kumad, 75, and Aruna, 20.
Pirganj police later arrived on the
scene and arrested Abul Kalam, 45, and
Shah Alam, 50, in connection with the
attack. They also recovered five cows.
Additional policemen were deployed in the area fearing further attack, police said. l

BMA leaders concerned

over attacks on doctors
n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

Doctors leaders yesterday claimed that

providing healthcare services in the
country has become a challenging task,
as more and more doctors are being
regularly attacked based on allegations
of medical malpractice.
At a press conference in the capital,
central leaders of Bangladesh Medical
Association (BMA) expressed their concerns over the deteriorating situation
of the health sector, saying different
incidents of violence over the past few
months had made it almost impossible
for doctors to continue offering medical
services.
They added that five doctors were

brutally killed in the past four years,

while 22 incidents of assault, arrest and
different forms of harassment to doctors
were reported from 2010-2014.
BMA President Dr Mahmud Hasan
said it was the duty of all including the
government, doctors, and journalists to
find out a way to overcome the situation.
BMA General Secretary Dr M Iqbal
Arslan said the BMA would stage different programmes to protest the repression of doctors in the country.
All doctors would wear black badges, form a human chain and hold an
hour-long work abstention on May 14,
as well as abstaining from seeing patients at their chambers on May 15 for
two hours (5pm to 7pm). l

Fakhruls bail extended

n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday extended the

bail period for BNPs acting secretary
general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir
and three other leaders in an arson case
over killing of a police constable in the
capitals Banglamotor intersection on
December 24 last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Muhammad Anwar Sadat extended the bail

until June 17 following a petition filed by
the defence counsel Joynul Abedin Mesbah yesterday.
The three others are: Joint Secretary
General Aman Ullah Aman, Standing
Committee Member Goyeshwar Chandra
Roy and party activist Sirajul Islam. l

amount to Nurs men. Truckers, bus

drivers and even the water vehicles in
the Sitalakkhya River are also his prey.
Many local residents said although
he worked under the wings of Shamim
Osman, his ultimate goal was to become
a godfather or a mafia don himself.
There is only a handful law enforcers in the city who did not give into
Nurs lures. But they were not powerful enough to move against him even if
they wanted to.
Rafiur Rabbi, father of college student Tanvir Mohammad Twoki, who
was abducted and killed in Naryanganj
last year, said: Political families like
that of the Osmans always want police,
district administration and RAB under
their control.
After police failed to unearth
Twokis murder mystery, the case was
transferred to RAB, who said after investigation that the Osman family was
behind the murder.
Shortly, RAB 11s then then chief Lt
Col Jahangir was replaced with Lt Col
Tarek Sayeed Mohammad.
At that time, Shamim Osman tried
to publicise that he orchestrated the removal of Jahangir and brought in Tarek.
Tarek is one of the army officers who
were removed from service after the
seven murders.
A former government official from
the city said: The culture of giving
political shelter to criminals by leaders

and the practice of making the administration, police and RAB partners in
crime ruined the normal functioning of
the local administration.
Another former official, who served
for Naraynaganj, said: For making the
city safe for common people, neither
do we need huge manpower in administration, police and RAB nor modern
equipment and highly trained people.
All we need is good intention and the
will to work with honesty... Unfortunately, that is what the Narayanganj
administration badly lacks.
Nur, who is the prime accused in the
seven murder cases, is now a fugitive. Police said they had been looking for him.
But there are allegations that law enforcers did not move swiftly to get hold
of him. Local residents said they had
seen Nur roaming around in the city
freely even after the abductions took
place and cases were filed against him.
Months before the seven murders,
the Police Service Association published
a memorabilia on the occasion of the
Police Week 2014. It had messages from
the president, prime minister and police
high officials. Withdrawn SP Nurul was
the editor of that publication. Nur gave
a full page advertisement, with his own
photograph, in that memorabilia and
wished police all the success.
When asked, SP Nurul told this correspondent that he had no idea about Nurs
underworld and criminal activities. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

BHALUKA WOOLLEN MILLS

Cabinet committee scraps

land sale order
n Asif Showkat Kallol
The cabinet committee on economic
affairs has cancelled an order issued
by the Jute and Textiles Ministry to sell
3.90 acres of land, owned by Bhaluka
Woollen Mills.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the order to sell additional
3.90 acres of land of Bhaluka Woollen
Mills by the Bangladesh Textile Mills
Corporation had been cancelled.
BTMC has no right to sell this
land, he said, adding that a case would
be filed against the sale of land of Bhaluka Woollen Mills.
It is mentioned that additional land
of Bhaluka Woollen Mills was sold
after the Jute and Textiles Ministry
asked the Privatisation Commission to
include it in the list of the privatised
state-owned institutions.

Meanwhile, an Indian firm has finally got the go-ahead to install 225 megawatt gas-based power plant at Sikalbaha in Chittagong. A proposal made by
Power Division to select a consulting
firm for donor-funded power plant
project was approved at a meeting of
the cabinet committee on public purchase, the finance minister told reporters yesterday.
Per unit cost of electricity will be
cheaper as it will be a gas-fired power
plant, he said.
As per the proposal, the tender evaluation committee had selected M/S
Larsen and Toubro Ltd as the lowest
bidder among seven companies.
Development partners for the project include Kuwait Fund, Saudi Fund,
Abu Dhabi Fund and OPEC. They will
provide a total of Tk1,707.74 crore.
The sponsors had already given

consent to the selected firm for the implementation of the project.

About
the
appointment
of
consultant for the VAT online World
Bank project, the finance minister
said because of the allegations of
irregularities in appointment of
consultant, the VAT automation
project will be re-examined and sent
to the cabinet committee on public
purchase.
Local partner of German Multinational Software Corporation, SAP AG,
earlier urged the government to carry
out an investigation into the procurement process of software for NBR.
The selection committee selected
BULL SAS, France as a consultant to
introduce an online system for value
added tax payment from July, 2015.
NBR also took consent from the World
Bank for French company. l

Intern doctors of DMCH take out a rally, protesting the recent attack on two doctors, in front of the outdoor unit of the hospital yesterday
RAJIB DHAR

India to import 10Gbps bandwidth

Bangladesh, China
ink 4 defence
n Muhammad Zahidul Islam
accords
India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh yesterSheikh Shahariar Zaman
n
day to import 10Gbps (Gigabits per secChina will provide 100 million yuan in
military assistance to Bangladesh, as
well as new short range missiles and
training for army personnel under four
accords signed yesterday.
The instruments two agreements
and two protocols were inked in Dhaka
at a meeting with a Chinese delegation
led by Gen Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of
Chinas Central Military Commission.
The Bangladesh side was led by
Tarique Ahmed Siddique, the prime
ministers security adviser. The meeting was held at the Officers Mess inside
Dhaka Cantonment.
The military grant, equivalent to
Tk124.38 crore, and the FM-90 SAM
(surface-to-air) air defence system
would bolster defence ties between the
two countries.
Bangladeshi soldiers would get training and a language lab would be set up at
the Bangladesh University of Professionals in Mirpur with Chinese assistance.
From 2009 to 2013, China was the
biggest supplier of weapons to Bangladesh, accounting for 82% of the total
arms imported by the country during
the period.
Chiefs of the three forces and other senior defence officials were present at yesterdays meeting, while the Chinese side
included an admiral, a lieutenant general
and Chinese Ambassador Li Jun. l

ond) internet bandwidth for its eastern

states.
The MoU was penned between stateowned Bangladesh Submarine Cable
Company Limited (BSCCL) and its Indian counterpart Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited (BSNL), following two days of
talks. However, the final deal for three
years would be signed after a few more
days, a source from the meeting told the
Dhaka Tribune.

Senior executives of the BSNL said

although they have agreed on only
10Gbps bandwidth, it was likely to increase to 40Gbps or higher. The talks
were however unable to fix any price for
the bandwidth.
We need to discuss the financial deal
with our board and the government; so
we need some time, BSNL Chief General Manager DP Singh, who led the
four-member Indian delegation, told the
Dhaka Tribune after signing the MoU.
Initially, India would take the 10Gbps
bandwidth through Akhaura in Bangladesh to Agartala point of Assam, while
they also have plans to connect with

Shillong point, sources said.

Monwar Hossain, BSCCL managing
director who also signed the MoU, said:
We are expecting they [BSNL] will
come back and the export of IP transit
will happen within a short time.
Currently, the BSCCL has 200Gbps
(88MIU-km) bandwidth and Bangladesh can use only 32Gbps or 16% of it.
This February, the Bangladesh government decided to export the unused
internet bandwidth, following a request
from India in July last year seeking
40Gbps bandwidth for eight eastern Indian states.
The BSCCL had earlier projected a

monthly earning of around Tk4.83 crore

($643,000) from the export of 40Gbps
bandwidth; but the MoU for only 10Gbps
bandwidth brought down the estimated
monthly earnings to only Tk1.20 crore
($161,000). Replying to a query, BSNLs
DP Singh said India was also open to taking connectivity through tele-transit.
The Indian delegation also met with
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman
Sunil Kanti Bose, officials of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company
Limited (BTCL) and visited the Indian
High Commission office in Dhaka to discuss the matter. l

Mayas absence in cabinet meeting conspicuous

n Mohosinul Karim

Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury

Maya did not join the regular cabinet
meeting at the Secretariat although he
was in Dhaka yesterday.
Conspicuously, it happened days
after the allegations arose about his
family members being involved in the
sensational abduction and murder of
seven persons in Narayanganj. The
minister, however, shrugged off all
such allegations.
Maya did not notify the cabinet
about his absence, which runs contrary to the procedure for the meeting
of the cabinet.

WAR CRIMES TRIALS

Ex-JaPa MP Jabbar
faces arrest
warrant
n Udisa Islam
The International Crimes Tribunal 1 yesterday issued arrest warrant against former Jatiya Party lawmaker engineer
Mohammad Abdul Jabbar for his alleged war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War in Pirojpur.
Led by Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim, the tribunal passed the order after accepting the five formal charges
placed by the prosecution on Sunday and set June 2 for further order.
Jabbar played a key role to form razakar at Mothbaria of Pirojpur and led the collaborators group to commit
crimes in the area, the prosecution said. He faces charges
of crimes against humanity including killing, mass killing,
looting and forced conversion.
According to the investigation agency, the suspect has
been absconding since 2009.
Before issuing the warrant, the tribunal expressed dissatisfaction over the authorities concerned for their continuous failure in bringing the accused before justice. We
are issuing warrants, but do not see any visible development to arrest them. Even no initiative has been taken to
bring the absconding accused to justice too, it said.
Prosecutor Jahid Imam took part in the hearing and
pleaded for issuing the warrant.
According to the charges, Jabbar had been involved in
the killing of 36 people in Angulkata and Mothbaria, and
setting fire and looting of around 560 houses. He also forcefully converted around 200 people in Phuljhuri on a day of
end-May in 1971. He was elected lawmaker from Mothbaria
in 1986 and 1988.
Meanwhile, the same tribunal yesterday adjourned the
hearing on a contempt charge against Human Rights Watch
until May 25.
The tribunal 2 has set tomorrow for cross examination
of a prosecution witness in the case against war crimes accused Maulana Abdus Subhan. Last week, the prosecution
placed two witnesses and the tribunal adjourned the grilling session keeping it incomplete. The defence yesterday
questioned one witness.
Meanwhile, the tribunal 2 yesterday recorded testimony
of the 12th prosecution witness in the case against former
Jatiya Party lawmaker Syed Mohammad Qaisar who gave
his deposition on Sunday. l

His absence triggered a rumour that

he might have been absent from the
meeting because of his resignation
from the ministerial post.
But the minister shrugged it off,
telling the reporters at his ministry: I
did not attend the meeting in view of
my physical condition. You can also
guess that I would be here now if I had
resigned from my post.
He, however, refused to make any
comment behind his alleged involvement of his family members in the
sentational abduction and murder in
Dhakas outskirts district.
Earlier, Cabinet Secretary M Mushharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the Dhaka
Tribune, I have not noticed whether

he (Maya) was present at the meeting

or not. We had sent our cabinet meeting folder (containing meeting details)
and he had received it.
Asked whether Maya notified
the cabinet of his absence earlier,
Musharraf declined to make any comment.
The ministers, who were present at
yesterdays cabinet meeting, told the
Dhaka Tribune they did not see Maya
at the cabinet meeting. The cabinet
secretary also did not inform them of
the reason behind Mayas absence.
Nor did any cabinet member ask the
cabinet secretary about it, they said.
Mayas Assistant Personal Secretary
Shahidul Islam Milon and a privileged

staff of his, however, confirmed the

Dhaka Tribune about his absence from
the cabinet meeting.
The minister did not join the meeting, but met with ministry officials and
signed several official files at his residential office. He might, however, go
to his office in the evening (yesterday),
they said.
Maya, also general secretary of the
Awami Leagues Dhaka city unit, also
met with his party leaders during the
meeting without joining the cabinet
meeting.
Earlier on May 5, the minister also
did not join the regular cabinet meeting showing the cause of his official
visit to Mexico. l

Hefazats Mufti
Izhar indicted
in anti-corruption
case
n Tushar Hayat, Chittagong
Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury, nayebe-ameer of radical Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam, was indicted yesterday
in an ACC case filed for not submitting
wealth statement.
Metropolitan Sessions Judge SM
Mujibur Rahman framed the charges
after a hearing and set May 29 to begin
the trial with deposition of prosecution witness, public prosecutor of the
Anti-Corruption Commission Mesbah
Uddin Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune.
Izhar is also the principal of Jamiatul
Uloom Al-Islamia Lalkhan Bazar, better
known as the Lalkhan Bazar Madrasa
an alleged den of the banned Islamist
outfit Huji.
The ACC submitted the charge sheet
to the Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrates Court on April 21.
The case was filed with Khulshi police station on July 17 last year as the
Hefazat leader had failed to respond to
an ACC notice sent on July 4 seeking his
wealth information.
Earlier, charges were framed against
Izhar in a case filed in connection with
the blast at his madrasa on October
7 last year which left three students
killed. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Female candidates in local

elections down by 50%
n Tribune Report
Womens participation in the local
elections has reduced by half in the
past few years, according to a survey
revealed at a seminar yesterday.
A total of 1,507 women contested at
the upazila polls this year, which is 48%
less than the number of women contestants in 2009 upazila polls 2,900.
The rate of decrease is 50% over the
period of 1997-2014. In upazila parisad elections in 1997, 1,80,000 women
contested from 13,500 constituencies,
while around 1,24,000 women contested in 2003, and only 90,000 in 2011.
Organised jointly by Khan Foundation, Democracy Watch, PRIP Trust and
Steps Towards Development, the seminar was held at the CIRDAP auditorium
in the capital. The research was conducted as part of the project Aparajita

Political Empowerment of Women.

The survey was conducted on 138
female representatives from 62 districts. Among them, 47 were elected
and 91 were losing candidates.

Around 37% mentioned

financial crisis as major
obstacle in participating
in polls
Advocate Rokhsana Khondker, executive director of Khan Foundation, said:
Around half our population are not only
women but also children. The overall
development of a country is not possible
without its womens development.
Ranjan Karmakar, executive director of Steps Towards Development
who also presented the research paper,
pointed out the decreasing trend in

Draft Bridges Authority

Act 2014 cleared
n Mohosinul Karim
The cabinet yesterday approved the
draft of Bangladesh Bridges Authority
Act 2014, which was firstly enacted as
the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority Act in 1985 during the time of
military rule.
As per the amended law, the Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA) would
function under the Bangladesh Bridges
Authority Board, Cabinet Secretary M
Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the
media after a regular meeting at the
Secretariat. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting.
The communications minister would
chair the board and the BBA executive director would be its chief, said Musharraf.
The act, enacted in 1985, was
amended later in 1996, 1998 and 2009.
The third amendment authorised the
BBA to build and repair the bridges

1,500 metres and above in length.

The cabinet also decided to form a
three-member committee to resolve
the confusion between Local Government Division and the Roads Division
over the authority on bridges smaller
than 1,500 metres.
The committee would comprise Secretary Abul Kalam Azad of the Prime
Ministers Office, Local Government
Divisions Monzur Hossain and Roads
Divisions MAN Siddique, said cabinet
Secretary Musharraf. The committee would allocate jurisdiction on the
bridges and suggest ways and means
of removing any confusion regarding
which department has authority on the
bridges, he said.
The cabinet meeting was also notified about the meeting of the Saarc cabinet secretaries and youth and sports
ministers of the OIC countries held in
Jeddah from March 17 to 19. l

womens participation in elections and

urged them to come forward and overcome all obstacles.
Women representatives from different districts discussed the problems
they faced before and after the elections at the seminar.
Around 37% of the respondents
mentioned financial crisis as major obstacle in participating in the elections,
35% mentioned lack of political support, 14% cited threats by opponents,
8% mentioned being unable to move
freely and 6% listed religious taboos as
another major obstacle.
Rasheda K Chowdhury, executive
director of Campaign for Popular Education, said women were victims of
mens economic and muscle power.
Local government must work effectively for the political empowerment of women, she said. l

A platform of domestic helps form a human chain in front of the National Press Club yesterday, protesting the torture of a fellow worker
in Mymensingh
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Militancy financing institutes identified

n Mohosinul Karim
The National Committee on Militancy Prevention yesterday noted that
several financial institutes of the
country, including some commercial
banks, have been initially identified
for their involvement with militant
financing.
The information was unveiled when
the meeting, chaired by its chief State
Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan

Kamal, discussed an intelligence report in this regard.

After the meeting, Kamal told the
media: We have identified several financial institutes and banks initially.
We will discuss the issue in details in
the next meeting and prepare the line
of action. Actions will be taken against
these financial institutes.
When asked about probable involvement of Islami Bank Bangladesh
with militant financing, the state min-

ister refused to disclose the identities

of any financial institutions in this
stage.
We will talk about the issue only
after being confirmed about their involvement. We are trying to collect details about them. Strict actions will be
taken after that, he added.
The high officials and representatives from several ministries, law enforcing agencies and the Islamic Foundation attended the meeting. l

Indiabeefsup security on border

n Our Correspondent, Jessore

The Indian government stepped up security along the border with Bangladesh
as the last phase of LokSabha polls to 17
seats in West Bengalwasheld yesterday.
Sourcessaid the Border Security
Force of India beefed up security along
Petrapole, Bangaon, Banshghata, Sutia and Ramchandrapur frontiers in 24

Parganas of West Bengal. Even women members of the BSF were also deployed along the border, they added.
Lt ColMatiur Rahman, commanding officer of 26 Border Guard Battalion,said the BSF issued red alert along
Bangladesh borders due to LokSabha
elections in West Bengal.
Bangladeshi passport holders and
goods-laden trucks were being checked

strictly at borders, he added.

Sources in India said the election
commission tookmeasures to makeyesterdays election violence-free.
The lawmen started patrolling the
streets from Friday as terrorists threatened voters not to go to polling stations
in 24 Parganas. They wore veil to avoid
harassment of police deployed by the
central government. l

Trial against Mufti

Jasim begins
n Our Correspondent, Barguna
A Barguna district court yesterday began trial against 31 operatives of Ansarullah Bangla Team in a case filed for
propagating militancy.
Chief of the radical Islamist group
Jasim Uddin Rahmania and two other accused were produced before the
court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Abu Shamim Azad. The 28
other accused in the case are on bail.
On August 12 last year, the suspected militants were arrested in Bargunas Khejurtala. A case was filed
against them the same day under section 57 of ICT Act for propagating militancy and communalism.
Prosecutor Akhtaruzzaman Bahadur
told reporters that the trial proceedings
began after the court had rejected bail
petitions of the accused.
Ansarullah Bangla Team, a Bangladeshi follower of al-Qaeda, aims at establishing Islamic rule through armed
revolution. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Seven held with

three stolen cars
n Our Correspondent, Savar
A team of Dhaka Metropolitan Police
(DMP) arrested seven members of a
gang and recovered three stolen private
cars in the early hours of yesterday.
Police conducted drives in different
areas of Dhaka, Madaripur, Faridpur
districts and arrested Sajib, 21, Hasan,
22, Asad, 21, Sohrab, 25, Titu, 26, Faisal,
22, and Karimullah, 27.
Police also recovered a private car,
a pick-up van, a microbus and lethal
weapons from their possession.
Police said two private cars had been
stolen from Maragang and Diakhali areas of Savar. Two separate cases were
filed with the Ashulia police station in
connection to this case.
The investigation officer of the case
arrested Sajid by acting off a tip.
According to the confessional statement of Sajib, a team of police led by
Azharul, in-charge of Ashulia police
station, raided different parts of the
country and arrested six other members of the gang.
When contacted, Senior Police Super Rasel Sheikh confirmed the matter.
He said the racket had been involved
in selling of stolen cars for a long .
He goes on to say the gang used the
cars to transport illegal goods, including contraband items.
They are also accused in several other cases, including extortion and forgery, with different police station across
the county, he added.

WEATHER
LIGHT RAIN

TUESDAY, MAY 13
DHAKA
TODAY
TOMORROW
SUN SETS 6:33PM
SUN RISES 5:17AM
FORECAST FOR TODAY
Dhaka

39

28

Chittagong

34

28

Rajshahi

41

28

Rangpur

37

26

Khulna

39

26

Barisal

37

28

Sylhet

36

24

Coxs Bazar

34

28

YESTERDAYS HIGH AND LOW

42.2C
Chuadanga

22.0C
Tangail

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES
Fajar
Sunrise
Zohr
Asr
Magrib
Esha

3:56am
5:18am
11:55am
3:19pm
6:32pm
7:55pm
Source: IslamicFinder.org

News

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Illegal structures remain along

Kallyanpur canal
Dhaka Wasa yet to take step even after shipping ministers directive
n Abu Hayat Mahmud
Illegal structures continue to remain
along one of the citys prime drainage
routes, the Kallyanpur canal and its
branches, as the authorities concerned
reportedly remained soft on land grabbers and failed to excavate, demarcate
and monitor the situation of the canals.
Although on April 26, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan directed the authorities to launch a drive to remove
all illegal structures built encroaching upon the Kallyanpur canal and its
branches within a week, Dhaka Water
Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa)
is yet to take any action in this regard.
At a time when the Dhaka Wasa
claimed that a small portion of the canal was being encroached by land grabbers, residents of Kallyanpur, Shyamoli
and Agargaon have alleged that the
authoritys negligence had allowed the
grabbers to occupy parts of the main
canal and its six branches.
A group of bamboo sellers had long
occupied portions on both sides of the
main canal from the east sluice gate.
Another portion of the canal adjoining the western part of the sluice gate
had been occupied by a filling station,
which had taken the space from the
Roads and Highways Department,
Saiful Islam, a resident of North Shyamoli, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Locals and traders also dump wastes
on the embankment of the main canal,
he claimed. Wasa officials visited the
canal and took steps only to clean the
garbage, not to excavate the lost space
of the water body.
Another resident said: The canals
width has reduced because of the encroachment. In the rainy season, it becomes almost impossible to live in the
area because of stagnant rainwater and
the floating garbage.
According to Dhaka Wasa, the capital once had 65 canals but the number
has come down to 43 over the years.
Of the canals still alive, around 20 are
now in a depleted state due to rampant

A police constable died and his two

colleagues were critically injured after
they were crushed by falling under the
wheels of a truck in Gazipurs Joydebpur
upazila in the early hours, yesterday.
The deceased was Ismail Hossain,
20, son of Dil Mohammad of Anantamusa village at Narayanganjs Sonargaon
upazila, said Sub-Inspector Ekramul
Haq, who is in charge of Bhogra police
outpost.
Two speeding trucks collided head
on at Bhogra Bypass Crossing on Dha-

CU under BCL siege

for 6 days
n CU Correspondent
Academic activities at Chittagong
University
remained
suspended
as a faction of Bangladesh Chhatra
League continued their siege of the
university for the sixth consecutive
day yesterday.
The group of activists from Awami
Leagues student wing besieged CU in
protest of an attack on Awami League
leader Nasir Haider Babul on the campus on April 5.
The shuttle train and bus services
to the university were halted, while no
classes and only a few exams could take
place, according to campus sources.
University authorities have yet to
take any steps to resolve the situation,
but a meeting was held between the
VC, Anwarul Azim Arif, and other university officials at the his office.

University authorities
have yet to take any
steps to resolve the
situation

Illegal structures are seen built over a branch of the Kallayanpur canal using bamboo. The photo was taken yesterday ABU HAYAT MAHMUD
encroachment, a Wasa official said.
Earlier in September 2008, the government approved the Dhaka Water
Supply and Sanitation Project in association with the World Bank to ensure
a sustainable solution to storm water
drainage and wastewater management
for the capital.
As part of the project, Dhaka Wasa
took steps to reclaim 26 canals from illegal occupation by building walkways,
channels, lining and planting trees
along the embankments.
The Kallyanpur main canal and its
six branches spread across Agargaon,
Kallyanpur and Shyamoli to the Dhaka

Constable killed, 2 others

injured in road accident
n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

ka-Mymensing highway around 2am,

when one truck veered into the central reservation and hit the constables
standing there, he said.
They were admitted to Gazipur General Hospital; but their conditions began to deteriorate rather than improve,
said Ekramul.
The trio was then shifted to the
Combined Military Hospital, where
Ismail was declared dead soon afterwards, he said, adding that they had
seized both the trucks and detaining
one of its helpers.
A case has been filed. l

Demonstration
over unpaid
wages
n Our Correspondent, Savar
Workers at a garment factory
held a protest rally and formed
a human chain in Savar Bazar
Bus Stop area on Dhaka-Aricha
highway yesterday to bring
attention to their demand for
reopening the factory where
they work and having their
outstanding wages paid.
The authorities had been
saying they would pay our two
month worth of unpaid wages
but have yet to keep their word,
said workers of Fair Knitting Limited located in Arapara of Savar
municipality.
They were vacillating to pay us
our salaries and at one stage closed
the factory for an indefinite period of time without clearing the
amounts owed, they added.
Yesterdays protest erupted
at noon as workers marched on
both sides of Dhaka-Aricha highway before dispersing at the site
of the collapsed Rana Plaza.
Admitting that the workers are
yet to be paid, Fair Knitting Limited Managing Director Rajab Ali
Hashmi said the factory had to be
shut down as we were unable to
pay the workers their salaries as a
result of fewer orders.
We will soon reopen the factory and will pay the overdue wages, he added. l

city protection embankment.

According to a 2007 Wasa survey,
the 2.25km-long main canal was 18 to
36 metre wide.
However, during visit to the area
yesterday, this correspondent found
that different establishments have
been built near the banks of the canals
adjoining Hazi Market at North Shyamoli and also both side of the Kallyanpur sluice gate.
The encroachment by land grabbers
had narrowed the width of the main
canal down to around 10 to 12 metres
at different points. Several illegal bamboo structures were seen on the canal.

Rampant dumping of non-degradable

wastes, such as polythene bags, has
also decreased the depth of the water
body to 7 to 8 metres.
Dhaka Wasa Deputy Managing Director (Operation and Maintenance)
DM Kamrul Alam Chowdhury told the
Dhaka Tribune: We are aware that a
few illegal occupants had encroached
the Kallyanpur main canal and its
branches. We will immediately conduct drives against the grabbers.
The first drive would free the canals
Cha branch in Agargaon area, he said,
adding that the second drive would free
the main canal from illegal occupants. l

The VC, who returned from abroad on

Sunday, also sat down with the agitated Chhatra League activists at his
residence, without achieving much
through the conversation.
Sources at CU claimed that the protesting activists, who were loyal to
ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, president of Awami Leagues Chittagong
office, were imposing the blockade to
gain favour in the upcoming selection
of Chhatra Leagues new committee.
Students and teachers alike vented
their anger at the stagnant situation of
the university.
Professor Dr Mustafizur Rahman
Siddique, general sectary of CU Teachers Association, told Dhaka Tribune
that if the authority had taken necessary steps earlier, the situation might
not have escalated, hoping it would be
resolved soon.
Tania Nasrin, third-year student of
communication and journalism, said:
These activists have taken siege of the
university for their own purposes. She
said the students wanted immediate
solution to bring back normalcy at the
campus. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

AL leader swindles locals

out of RHD land
n Our Correspondent, Magura
A local Awami League (AL) leader in
collaboration with some local influential has pocketed a huge amount of
money in the name of allocating plots
from Roads and Highway (RHD) Departments land in Seemakhali area of
Magura.
Local sources said Joydeb Chatterjee, president of ward 4 unit of Awami
League, had been doing the illegal plot
business using an acre of land of Roads
and Highways Department.
In January this year, a man along
with Joydeb came to the land located
beside Magura-Jessore Highway in
Seemakhali area and measured it introducing himself as a surveyor at the
office of Deputy Commissioner (DC) in
Magura, said Saiful Islam, a resident of
the area.
Subsequently, he informed the local
people that the DC was the owner of
the land and the land would be allotted
to local people splitting it into 95 plots.
Joydeb later began taking Tk one
lakh for per plot from local people
promising them to allot plots as early
as possible.
The wrongdoers also promised people that they would be provided with
relevant papers within possible short-

est time after deposition of the amount

to the DC office.
During a recent visit to the area, this
correspondent talked to a good number
of businessmen of Seemakhali Bazar.
The businessmen told the Dhaka
Tribune that each of them had already
given Tk one lakh to Joydeb and two of
his aides for plots.
At least 100 people of the kitchen
market and adjoining villages gave a
total of Tk one crore to Joydeb and his
associates for allotment of the plots,
they said.
Expressing frustrations, the small
traders said although they had given
money to get allotment, Joydeb was yet
to give them any legal documents from
the DC office in favour of their plots.
I have been running after Joydeb
for the documents in favour of my allotted plot, but to no effect even after
three months, said Syed Ali, a resident
of Chhoygharia village under Satokhali
union.
Sitting beside Syed, Abul Joarder of
the same village echoed the same sentiment.
But Manjur Ahmed, another trader
of the kitchen market, seems to be lucky
as, he had taken back his Tk one lakh after holding several arbitrations in presence of local distinguished persons.

Four murders in districts

n Tribune Report

Motaleb Biswas, general secretary

of Seemakhali Bzaar Committee, said,
From my childhood I know that the
land is under the RHD jurisdiction, but it
is a matter of great regret that they swallowed lakhs of taka from innocent people capitalising the government land.
Stern action should be taken
against the culprits, who are involved
in swindling the money, he added.
When contacted, Joydeb Chatterjee,
however, claimed that he did nothing
illegal as he deposited all the money
taken from the plot-seekers to the office of the DC.
All the people who deposited money will be given plots, he claimed.
When contacted over cell phone,
the DC in Magura Masud Ahmed refuting the claim of Joydeb said he was not
aware of any monetary deal regarding
the allotment of plots in Seemakhali
Bazar area.
When contacted, Executive Engineer of Roads and Highways Department Subrata Kumar Datta said, The
DC office has no right to acquire the
land which is under the jurisdiction of
Roads and Highway.
Within possible shortest time, I will
submit written complaints in connection with the wrongdoing to the higher
authority, he added. l

At least four people were killed in the

Pabna, Gazipur,Tangail and Dhaka districts, yesterday.
In Pabna, a man was killed and two
others were injured when criminals attacked them in the Kushiara village of
Bera upazila. The deceased was Anisur
Rahman, 38, the son of Bahadur Pramanik of the village.
Police and locals said Anisur, his father and his younger brother were going
to the house of the chairman of the Chakla union to complain against his rivals.
When they reached the Bagdan Ghoshpara Bridge, criminals attacked them.
The criminals hacked at Anis mercilessly while his father, Bahadur Pramanik, and younger brother, Arif, were
injured in the attack.
Anis was taken to the Bera Upazila
Health Complex where the doctors declared him dead.
SI Subroto Kumar said Anis had a
long standing feud with Nuruzzaman
Miah of the village over the establishment of supremacy in the area.
Due to this past enmity, Nuruzzaman
and his men attacked them, the SI said.
The victims father Bahadur Pramanik filed a case against three persons
including Nuruzzaman. The criminals
went into hiding after the incident.
In Gazipur, a woman, Bhagomati Pal,
was killed in an alleged attack by her son
at Bhringaraj in the Kaliakoir upazila.
Police and locals said Bhagomati or-

Experts: Stop
smoking in
public places
n Our Correspondent, Khagrachhari
Experts urge smokers to stop smoking
in public places in order to keep people,
especially the children, away from the
dangers associated with tobacco consumption.
The entreaty was made at a workshop organised by the Khagrachari
Health Education office with the help
of an NGO, Patuakhali Development
Organisation.
The workshop was held at the conference hall of the Civil Surgeon office
in the district town, yesterday.
They said as smoking injurious to
health, the government should apply
the existing laws to stop use of all kinds
of tobacco to save millions of lives.
They mentioned that tobacco use
and smoking causes mouth, lung and
throat cancer as well as many other fatal diseases.
They appealed to some 40-religious
leaders, school teachers and village
leaders, who took part in the workshop to create awareness in this regard
among the people to discourage them
about smoking.
Khagrachari Civil Surgeon Dr Narayon Chandra Dash and Health Education
Officer Mamong Marma conducted the
workshop. l

A procession was brought out in Jamalpur district town yesterday, marking the International Nurses Day

Jubo League upazila Vice-President,

Bashir Ahmed Manik, 30, was injured when some unidentified miscreants opened fire on him in the
Pacha Market area of the Darbesh-

Lightning kills six

n Tribune Report

Six people were killed in lightning strikes in Sunamganj and

Chapainawabganj districts on
Sunday and Monday.
In Sunamganj, three people
were killed as lightning struck
them in Bishombhorpur and
Dowarabazar upazilas.
The deceased were identified as Parvin Akhter, 30, her
son Amran, 2, of Amgora village under Bishombhorpur
upazila and Nazma Begum, 30,
wife of Lakshmipur village under Dowarabazar upazila.
Bishombhorpur
police
station
Officer-in-Charge
Nurul Afsar said: Lightening struck Parvin and her
son Amran when they were
at their courtyard, killing
them on the spot.
Dowarabazar police station Officer-in-Charge Md
Shahnawaz said: Nazma died
when lightning struck her

while she was working in the

courtyard in the morning.
In Chapainawabganj, three
people, including a girl, were
killed in separate incidents
of lightning strike during a
norwester that lashed different areas of Shibganj and Nachole upazilas Sunday night.
The deceased were identified as Razia Sultana, 10,
daughter of Rozbul Haque of
Barikbazar village, Babu, 16,
son of Azizul Haque of Dhorbona village in Shibganj upazila, and Fatema Begum, 55,
wife of Jhoru Mia of Khalshi
village in Nachole upazila.
A thunderbolt hit Razia around
08:30pm while she was collecting
mangoes during the norwester,
which lashed the upazilas, leaving
her dead on the spot.
Babu died on the spot when
a thunderbolt hit him.
Fatema was struck by lightning during the storm. She also
died on the spot. l

Youth dies in septic tank

n Our Correspondent,
Kishoreganj
A youth, Abul Hashem, 35,
the son of Abdur Rahman
of the Hosendi village, died
inside a septic tank in the
Pakundia upazila of the district, yesterday.
Police said some villagers informed them that two
labourers had become ill

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Jubo League leader sustains bullet injury

n Our Correspondent,
Lakshmipur

while cleaning a septic tank

owned by Mati Master.
On receiving this information, the police went to the
spot and found Hashem dead
and another unconscious.
Zakir Hossain, officerin-charge of the Pakundia
police station said the body
was sent to the Kishoreganj
Adhunik Sadar Hospital
morgue for an autopsy. l

pur union under the Ramganj upazila in the district on Sunday night.
Ramganj police station Officerin-Charge Lokman Hossain confirmed the incident.
He said the incident took place
when Bashir was returning home
from the upazila chairmans house

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

in the area at around 10pm.

Locals rescued him and rushed
him to the Ramganj Upazila Health
Complex.
He was later shifted to Dhaka
when his condition deteriorated.
A youth was arrested in this
regard. l

dered her son Uttam Pal to go to work

in the morning. She also said she would
stop his meals if he did not go to work.
Getting agitated, Uttam hit her with
a spice grinding stone, leaving her dead
on the spot.
Later, local people caught Uttam and
informed police who then arrested him.
In Dhaka, a deed writer, Azad Rashid,
55, the son of Abdur Rashid of the SubRegistry Office area of the municipality,
was shot dead by miscreants at Ghospara in the Savar municipality area.
Witnesses said Azad was attacked by a
group of miscreants when he was returning home from Ghospara at about 8:30am.
Miscreants fired two bullets at Azad,
leaving him critically injured.
Azad was taken to the Enam Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
On receiving information, police visited the spot and arrested the victims
maternal uncle, Abul Hossain, suspecting his involvement in the killing as
there had been a longstanding dispute
between Azad and him over the ownership of a piece of land.
In Tangail, a man was murdered
in the Sakhipur upazila. Saiful Islam
Khan,45, the deceased, was the manager of the Progressive life Insurance
Company, Sakhipur branch.
Mokhlesur
Rahman,
officer-incharge of the Sakhipur police station,
said: Saiful Islam went missing on December 11.
An abduction case had been filed. l

Minor girl
killed after
rape in Savar
n Our Correspondent, Savar
A six-year-old girl was allegedly violated and murdered by a young man
in Akran area of Savar on Sunday
night.
The alleged killer, identified as Selim, 26, son of Kabir Uddin, a resident
of Pirojpur sadar upazila town, used to
live in a rented house in the area.
The girls father and police said Selim had called the girl into his room in
the name of playing doll with her before sunset and violated her.
Later, he strangled her and dumped
the body in a nearby corn field adjacent
to his residence.
Afterwards, locals spotted her body
there in the night, and after a chase
caught Selim on suspicion of seeing
blood spot on his shirt.
They gave him a good beating before
handing him over to the police.
Officer-in-charge of Savar model police station Mostafa Kamal said Selim
during preliminary interrogation confessed of his involvement in the rape
and murder.
The body was recovered and sent to
the morgue of Dhaka Medical College
Hospital for autopsy, the OC continued.
Father of the victim demanded exemplary punishment of Selim.
A case was filed in this connection. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Advertisement

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Nigerias Boko Haram offers to swap

kidnapped girls for prisoners

Assad omnipresent in
Damascus ahead of vote

n Reuters, Abuja

Syrias presidential election campaign,

launched at the weekend, has transformed the streets of Damascus into
a glorification of incumbent Bashar
al-Assad, who is expected to easily win
the June 3 vote.
On the streets, parks and buildings of
the city, barely a wall can be seen without a picture of the president, who is
running for a third seven-year term as his
troops battle rebels trying to oust him.
For the first time, Assad faces an
election rather than a referendum for
the post, but with the two other candidates virtually unknown, the competition appears more like a one-horse race.
In the Syrian capital, residents profess ignorance when asked about his
rivals, Maher al-Hajjar and Hassan
al-Nuri.
Nuri, whos this one? asked a student near the University of Damascus
in the citys Baramkeh neighbourhood,
pointing at a small sign on which the
businessman calls for a free economy.
In a country where the cult of personality surrounding Bashar and his
father and predecessor Hafez has been
built up for nearly 50 years, Syrians are
used to towering posters of the Assads.
Their portraits have long appeared
on billboards, in shop windows and
stuck to electricity poles. Busts of the
father and son even watch over the entrances to public parks.
And although the election will be
the countrys first multi-candidate
presidential vote in 50 years, and a
term seen on many of the posters is
mubayaa a word meaning to chose
a leader by pledging allegiance.
Syrias opposition and western
countries have lambasted the election
as a farce.
But the government sees the vote,
coupled with recent successes on the
battlefield, as an opportunity to portray itself as the victor in the countrys devastating three-year war.
Alongside the slogan Assads Syria,
other posters in the city announce that
the president is the only choice for
the ballot, which will only take place in
areas controlled by government troops.

The leader of the Nigerian Islamist

rebel group Boko Haram has said he
will release more than 200 schoolgirls
abducted by his fighters last month in
exchange for prisoners, according to
a video seen by Agence France-Presse
yesterday.
Around 100 girls wearing full veils
and praying are shown in an undisclosed location in the 17-minute video
in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau speaks, according to the French
news agency.
Militants fighting for an Islamist
state stormed a secondary school in the
northeastern village of Chibok on April
14 and seized 276 girls who were taking
exams. Some managed to escape but
around 200 remain missing.
The group has killed thousands
since 2009 and destabilized parts
of northeast Nigeria, the country with Africas largest population

Russia respects
but doesnt
recognise vote
n AFP, Brussels
The head of the influential East-West
OSCE security organisation yesterday
stressed that Russia had expressed respect but not recognition of the separatist vote in eastern Ukraine this weekend. Russia sees a need to take into
account the different voices in eastern
Ukraine, said Swiss President and acting OSCE chief Didier Burkhalter.
You have seen Russias response,
that there is respect but not recognition
to the referendum. There is no recognition of these results, he told journalists.
He spoke after talks with European
Union foreign ministers in which Burkhalter outlined a roadmap for peace
for Ukraine beginning with a national
dialogue moderated by the OSCE and
an independent Ukrainian figure. l

and biggest economy.

The attack has provoked global
expressions of outrage, and concern
about the fate of the girls deepened
when Shekau threatened in a video
released earlier this month to sell the
girls in the market.
Nigeria said on Saturday it had deployed two army divisions to the hunt
for the girls while several nations including the United States, Britain, Israel and France have offered assistance
or sent experts.
The Nigerian government has been
sharply criticized for its response to
the abductions but President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday that international military and intelligence
assistance made him optimistic about
finding the girls.
The mass abduction of schoolgirls
has touched a chord around the world,
and triggered a support campaign using the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. l

A screengrab taken on May 12 from a video of Boko Haram shows girls, wearing the fulllength hijab and praying in an undisclosed rural location. Boko Haram released the video
on claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam
and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed
AFP

Rebels declare victory in east

Ukraine self-rule vote
n Reuters, Donetsk/Slaviansk
Ukrainian leader Oleksander Turchinov accused Russia of working to
overthrow legitimate state power in
Ukraine yesterday after pro-Russian
rebels declared a resounding victory in
a rebel referendum on self-rule in eastern regions.
Russia said it respected the outcome
of the referendum, in which separatists in the industrial Donetsk region
claimed 90 percent support, and that
the results should be implemented
peacefully. It did not say what further
action it might take.
Hours after the vote, dismissed by
Kiev and Western governments as illegal, rebel leaders plans remained
unclear. Some have publicly support-

ed pressing for annexation by Russia,

which absorbed Crimea after a similar
vote in March.
This land was never Ukraine ...
we speak Russian, said Vyacheslav
Ponomaryov, rebel mayor of the separatist stronghold of Slaviansk, threatening to kick out the Ukrainian army.
Asked about the possibility of holding a second referendum, on union
with Russia, he said: There has been
no decision, but this referendum
showed we are prepared ... we can put
on an election or referendum at short
notice at barely any cost.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said
rebel forces had made a new attempt
overnight to seize a television tower
on the edge of Slaviansk, heartland of
a rebellion that has widened the worst

standoff between Russia and the West

worst since the Cold War.
The information war that they are
waging against us in the Donbass (east)
is more dangerous than a bullet. We
must answer back ... the enemy fears
this more than special forces, he wrote
on Facebook.
But there was some hint of compromise in the port city of Mariupol, scene
of fierce fighting between Ukrainian
forces and rebels over the last week.
Turchinov said local police had begun patrols with a volunteer militia set
up by a company, Metinvest, mostly
owned by Ukraines wealthiest businessman, Rinat Akhmetov. Akhmetov
had offered to provide the militia as
part of an arrangement with loyalist
police to restore order in the city. l

n AFP, Damascus

The president appears in some of

the posters smiling, and in others he
wears a pair of sunglasses as he throws
a salute.
Our Bashar, we do not accept any
other president than you, some of the
posters read. Others proclaim simply:
We love you.
One sign near Damascuss opera
house announces that Assad has become not only the choice of journalists and intellectuals, but also for investors and entrepreneurs.
Syria will remain the den of lions,
another poster adds, in a play on the
name Assad, which means lion in Arabic.

Assad is campaigning
under the slogan
Together, and has
launched an online
presence, with a
Facebook page having
over 109,000 likes as
of yesterday morning
Yes to the one who preserved Syrias
pride, is emblazoned on banners that
hang across busy roads.

We want him to stay

Interviewed in public, few Syrians

express plans to vote for anyone
but Assad.
For us, its not even an election, its
a referendum, we want him to stay,
said Maher, in his clothing shop in the
Salhiyeh commercial district.
Mayada, a 55-year-old housewife
out in the Baramkeh neighbourhood, is
equally adamant.
Those outside must understand
that... we dont want anyone but him,
she told AFP.
Its those abroad who are the cause
of our problems.
Assad is campaigning under the slogan Together, and has launched an
online presence, with a Facebook page
that had over 109,000 likes by Monday
morning, and a Twitter account with
1,200 followers. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Taliban spring offensive opens

with bloody Afghan attacks
n AFP, Jalalabad
The Taliban began their annual spring
offensive yesterday with attacks
across Afghanistan, including a suicide assault on government offices that
killed seven people plus the attackers
and rocket strikes on two airports.
At least 10 people in total were killed
in a series of attacks after Taliban leaders vowed last week that the offensive
would target US-led foreign forces and
Afghan government facilities.
Three suicide bombers entered the
provincial justice department in the
eastern city of Jalalabad, officials said,
triggering a firefight with security forces that lasted several hours.
All of the attackers were killed and
their bodies displayed at the building,
Abdul Rauf Uruzgani, chief police investigator, told a press conference in the city.
The dead were three justice department employees, two policemen, a
15-year-old boy who was caught up in
fighting and another visitor.
Two rockets exploded near Kabul
airport at 5:00 am (0030 GMT), the

exact time that the insurgents had

pledged to start a new nationwide operation to cleanse the filth of the infidels from the country.
Four rockets were also fired at Bagram airport, the biggest Nato military
base in Afghanistan, which lies north
of Kabul.
There were no confirmed casualties
in either airport attack. But two women
and a policeman died in Ghazni province southwest of Kabul, when Taliban insurgents targeted several police
checkpoints.
Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, Ghaznis
deputy governor who gave the casualty
figure, told AFP two police officers and
six civilians were wounded.

Taliban claim multiple attacks

The Talibans Khaibar offensive,

named after an ancient battle between
Muslims and Jews, began in the runup to a second round of elections next
month to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled since
the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001.
Natos International Security Assis-

India election closes

after last phase
n AFP, Varanasi
Polls closed yesterday after the final
phase of voting in Indias marathon
general election which is expected
to bring Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata
Party to power.
Voting took place in the states of
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal
on the last day of the worlds biggest
election which began five weeks ago
on April 7.
Modi, a charismatic but divisive
hardliner, was hoping to win the seat
of Varanasi in one of the last contests
of the election, the results of which are
due to be announced on Friday.

His right-wing BJP is widely expected to win the most seats and end the
centre-left Congress partys 10 years in
power, although it is unlikely to secure
an outright majority in the 543-seat
parliament.
Meanwhile, a record 551 million
voters cast their ballots in the election
which saw a turnout of 66.38 percent,
organisers of the contest said.
The figure shattered the previous
record of 417 million for any general election set in India five years ago,
election commission director general
Akshay Rout told reporters.
Around 814 million people had been
eligible to vote in the five-week parliamentary election. l

tance Force confirmed it was investigating the airport attacks. A vacant

building and some equipment were
damaged at Bagram, a spokesman
said. There were no casualties.
Sediq Sediqqi, the interior ministry spokesman, confirmed that two
rockets fell outside Kabul airport but
caused no casualties.
The Taliban claimed responsibility
for the spate of attacks via a recognised
Twitter account.
The group said ambushes, bombings and firefights in provinces including Nimroz, Kapisa, Zabul, Patika
and Paktika had killed US soldiers and
Afghan police and soldiers during the
day. The Taliban often exaggerate attacks and death tolls.
About 51,000 US-led Nato troops
still deployed in Afghanistan are set to
withdraw by December, ending a long
and costly battle to defeat the Islamists, who launched a fierce insurgency after being ousted from power.
A small number of US troops may
stay on from next year on a training
and counter-terrorism mission. l

AAP does a flipflop on support to

Third Front
n Agencies
Hours after his party colleague reportedly said that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) did
not rule out supporting the Third Front,
its leader Arvind Kejriwal categorically
denied any such alliance. In a tweet, Kejriwal said, There is absolutely no question of supporting a third front.
Earlier, agency reports had quoted
AAP leader Gopal Rai as saying it may
offer issue based support to a non-Congress secular dispensation. Kejriwal
later issued a formal clarification, saying, There is no question of the AAP
extending support to any front after the
declaration of the Lok Sabha election results and the party strongly refutes news
reports attributed to it in this regard. l

11

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

COMMEMORATING THE BIRTH AND PASSING AWAY OF BUDDHA

A Sri Lankan artisan works on Buddhist statues in Dompe, on the outskirts of Colombo. Sri Lankan Buddhists are preparing to celebrate
Vesak, which commemorates the birth of Buddha, his attaining enlightenment and his passing away, on May 14
AFP

Thai PM open to talks with protesters

n AFP, Bangkok
Thailands new prime minister yesterday offered talks with protesters trying
to topple the government, as his political rivals pushed for the appointment
of an unelected leader to take power.
We are open for dialogue, said
Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, who
took the helm last week after a controversial court ruling removed Yingluck
Shinawatra and nine of her ministers
from office.
Lets talk. But lets talk realistically, he told foreign reporters, playing
down fears that the country is teetering
on the brink. I dont think there will
be a civil war. It has been six months
and we manage to run the country
quite well, Niwattumrong said.
Opposition
demonstrators
are
threatening to step up their six-month

campaign to overthrow the government. But the governments supporters, known as the Red Shirts, say
they will not tolerate any move to hand
power to an unelected regime, warning
it could lead to civil war.
The opposition protesters want the
Senate (upper house of parliament)
almost half of whose members are
unelected to remove the weakened
cabinet, but it is unclear whether
such a move is possible under the
constitution.
The country has not had a functioning lower house since Yingluck
dissolved parliament in December for
elections that were later voided because of disruption by protesters.
Some members of the Senate held a
meeting on Monday to seek a solution
to the crisis. Paiboon Nittitawan, an
appointed senator and prominent gov-

ernment critic, urged the upper house

to choose a new prime minister immediately, for the sake of security and
the economy.
We cannot allow the crisis to drag
on, he said.
Senate speaker-elect Surachai Liangboonlertchai told reporters before
the talks that he would draft a roadmap out of the crisis as soon as possible but did not reveal his plan.
Fewer than 90 senators, out of a total of 150, attended the meeting amid
questions about whether the upper
house is entitled to hold a debate on
the crisis in the present circumstances.
Thailand has been shaken by periodic bouts of political protests and
street violence since Yinglucks elder
brother Thaksin Shinawatra was deposed as premier by royalist generals
in 2006. l

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

What purpose does

this strike serve?

undreds of patients were left without treatment at Dhaka Medical

College Hospital when more than 1,000 doctors stopped work to
protest the violent attack on honorary physician Mominul Islam,
on Saturday night.
There is no justification for a strike which hurts innocent patients,
who have no connection to, or influence over the attackers.
Striking accomplishes nothing to help law enforcement authorities
catch the people responsible.
No useful purpose is served by
making patients suffer.
It is one thing to hold a
demonstration in support of the
victim of a heinous attack and to
demand the arrest of perpetrators. For honorary doctors to
show solidarity with colleagues is
a natural reaction.
However, it is unacceptable
for doctors to disrupt vital healthcare services and leave patients
unattended. It not only does nothing to help the victim of the attack, but
actively harms patients.
Abandoning patients is a breach of basic medical ethics and wholly
counter-productive as it brings the medical profession, on which everyone relies, into disrepute.
While we do not agree with the Bangladesh Medical Associations
associated call for symbolic hour long strikes, at least that move shows
a bit more concern for the rights of the public and the responsibilities of
doctors.
Regrettably, the ill considered strike action at DCMH diverts attention
away genuine issues of concern. Public hospitals do need to become far
better managed and doctors rights to good working conditions deserve
to be respected. However, any strike, let alone one about a crime which
took place outside a hospital, risks public sympathy and is unjustified.

Abandoning
patients is a breach
of medical ethics
and counterproductive

Currency rules need

reform, not tinkering

he real estate organisation REHAB has criticised the governments

proposed U-turn on rules that allow undisclosed money to be
legalised through investment in the real estate sector and payment
of a 10% penalty tax.
It is worth noting that the chair of the National Board of Revenue
has stated that such initiatives which allow so-called black money to be
whitened, should be expanded to other sectors to bring economic
benefits.
According to the Global Financial Integrity Report 2013, from
2009-2013, more than Tk2,098
crore was whitened in Bangladesh, against which the NBR
received Tk279.29 crore in taxes
These amounts are small
compared to the reports annual estimate of $1.6bn in illicit
financial flows from Bangladesh.
It is apparent that though there
is a fair case for continuing and
expanding such initiatives, they
probably do little to alleviate the overall loss of capital.
The best way to end the problems caused by the large amount of
undisclosed money in the economy, is to simplify taxation and currency
exchange rules, so there is no incentive to hide capital and income.
To operate efficiently, a modern economy requires people to be able
to spend their own legally earned money as they see fit best, without
being constricted by onerous conditions.
Outdated restrictive rules only worsen the problems of corruption
and money laundering while holding back investment in the economy.
We should move towards deregulating currency controls completely
as a means to ending perverse incentives and attracting more capital for
investment.

Simplify rules
so there is no
incentive to hide
capital and income

Be heard
Write to Dhaka Tribune
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Islamists and Bangladesh

May 8
nds
and revelation; and if need be, revelation is to be
In reading the first few paragraphs of article I really
interpreted in light of reason instead of submitting
got impressed with the authors very enlightened
reason to revelation. According to the Stanford
ideas about Islam but I got a severe jolt when the
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, al-Ghazali called for the
cause for the growth of madrasas disseminating
rejection of only those ideas that contradict the funeducation and training on obscure beliefs of Islam
damental beliefs of Islam consisting of monotheism,
is ascribed to the movement of Gonojagoron
the authenticity of Muhammads (SM) prophecy
Mancha and chauvinism of high caste Hindus. I am
and the concept of life after death. All other
taken aback with such a foolish diagnosis of the
teachings, even if erroneous, should be tolerated.
disease. Growth of Qawmi madrasa education in
This description is a far cry from the Mr Zias rabid,
this country is not a very recent phenomenon. it
anti-intellectual Mullah. So what is responsible for
got its momentum much before the appearance
the decline of science in the Muslim world?
of the Gonojagoron movement and high caste
Here is a short analysis by Professor Asad Q.
Hindu chauvinism lost all its capacity to dominate
Ahmed (Berkeley): Before an Islamic revolution
or influence our society with the birth of Pakistan
is even plausible in Bangladesh, Islam has to be
including what is now Bangladesh. This sort of
actually practiced alongside science and techfoolish or nonsensical diagnosis will hardly solve the nology. The vast majority of us practice neither.
problem. Rather, it will help getting it compounded
Those who practice both, however, dont represent
further.
the Samarkent traditionalists, who are the actual
Islamists.
I agree. It is clear that your knowledge of Islamic
KMAK
history is minimal and, extrapolating, so is your
The author of this article sounds as ignorant as the
Islamists he decries. According to Mr Zia, the decline commitment to the faith.
of science in Islam is because of al-Ghazali whom he
describes as a virulent opponent of science and phiOsmania
losophy. Nothing could be further from the truth,
Islamist politics has nothing to do with whether
however. Imam Ghazali was only against metaphyspeople go to Fajr or Friday prayers. Im sure there
ics, not philosophy as a whole. In fact, he argued
are people who try or do the latter while never
that there can be no contradiction between reason
voting for religious parties or policies of any stripe.

50 closed circuit cameras to

be set up in Chittagong city to
combat crimes
May 7

Zaidul Islam
Good decision
Saimon Sarwar
And what cams would be watching these
cameras?

Massive reshuffle in Nganj

police
May 9

Akhtar Shah
Shutting the stable door after the horse has
bolted !
1) Question arises in ones mind that , how
many more cities/ towns are there where the law
enforcement officers require urgent transfer. Its
a well known and established fact that, length of
service in one place for ALL government officials
may create unhealthily relationships that compromise their judgements.
2) Without carrying out some sort of internal
enquiry about these transferees , how does the
department know that some of them are not
guilty of cosying up to the criminal elements and
(having gotten away with it) are not going to
repeat their illegal activities (well versed in) in the
new postings?
This mass scale transfer seem like a knee jerk
action by the bosses.

CALVIN AND HOBBES

How to solve: Each number in our

CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 10 represents A so fill in A
every time the figure 10 appears.
You 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, fill in other
squares with the same number in the
main grid, and the control grid. Check
off the list of alphabetical letters as you
identify them.

CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Reputation (4)
5 Correct (5)
9 Planet (6)
10 Fish eggs (3)
11 Transmit (4)
12 Concretion of nacre (5)
14 Advantage (5)
16 Study hard (4)
19 Facial features (4)
21 Lays bare (5)
24 Concerning (5)
27 Drug-yielding plant (4)
29 Was ahead (3)
30 Venerate (6)
31 Shelf (5)
32 Paradise (4)

Contempt versus freedom of

expression

DOWN
1 Commotion (4)
2 Land measure (3)
3 Handle (6)
4 Extremities (4)
5 Slander (7)
6 Period of time (3)
7 And not (3)
8 Make deep research (5)
13 Greek letter (3)
15 Emblem of regal
power (7)
17 Drawn into error (6)
18 Play for time (5)
20 Pronoun (3)
22 Part of a church (4)
23 Sharp-edged (4)
25 Insect (3)
26 Strange (3)
28 Metal-bearing rock (3)

May 8

Sam
Given the fact that only one verdict is acceptable
to the rulers and its Shahbagh mob, how exactly is
it not victors justice? Put it another way, do you author foresee anybody who is charged being found
not guilty in todays toxic environment? Please,
lets at least be honest in our righteousness.
PB
Lame excuses to defend Bergman.

Decision on unfreezing
Khaledas account soon
May 7

Ronnie
Id imagine that there can be scant justification for
the continued freezing of Begum Zias bank accounts. Its only another tactic aimed at harassing
and persecuting the BNP chairperson. Its an abhorrent anomaly that the current PM has had her
own accounts duly freed years ago, but Khaleda
Zia continues to appeal, in vain, for her accounts
to be activated again. I hope Mr Azam Khan has
advanced a robust case on the chairpersons
behalf. It shouldnt be made to appear that the
eventual unfreezing of her accounts is some act of
charity by the NBR or the incumbent government.
I expect the chairperson can prevail solely on the
legal merits of her case not on the graces or
goodwill of any other party or authority.

SUDOKU
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 numberrepeating.

Taxing facts
May 8

Lalon Shah
Bangladeshi policy makers have an
uncanny proclivity to shoot themselves
in the foot. Any sectors you look at the
same old inertia, apathy, rot, and policy
myopia. Even blind Freddy can see that
lowering corporate tax will at worst be
revenue neutral for the government, but
certainly will spur more investments and
increase tax revenue down the track.
Ditto for the double taxation of dividend
that the author mentions. The business
community must keep up the pressure
to get an investment-friendly tax regime. We cant be held hostage to those
imbeciles in corridors of power.

PEANUTS

YESTERDAYS SOLUTIONS
CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

FBCCI for launching

special economic zones,
0.3% source tax
May 9

apartment suppliers
Its very common for multi-residential
and multi-tenant commercial properties
to be master-metered. Master-metered properties receive a single utility
bill that includes utility consumption for
several tenants. The problem with master-metered properties is that theres
no way to bill residents for their actual,
individual usage.

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

13

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Lets mend our

bond
n Raihan Hadi

Double standards or a fight for equality?

REUTERS

Lawrence of Brunei

n Ikhtisad Ahmed
ollywood is shocked and
appalled. It refuses to
be passive bystanders
while inhumane laws
are passed. Celebrities
are taking a stand against morally
reprehensible monarchies. In a world
where the battle of wits is between the
followers of Cardassian and Kardashian cults, each action of a celebrity has
more weight than hundreds of words
of the intelligentsia and thousands
of the common man. Having one of
these exalted beings overcome torpor
to show an interest in socio-political
issues is a godsend. Hordes of them
swarming to react to a single matter is
magnificent.
Brunei, one of the smallest countries in Asia and the 81st in the world
to make homosexuality illegal, has
achieved that by enacting a new criminal code. Cruelty of penalties and the
unusual harshness for value-based
crimes have been the subjects of the ire.
A sovereign nation only since 1984, its
laws were largely based on British law.
Family matters for the Muslim part
of the population deferred to Sharia.
This is the basis for the new code,
confirmed on April 30 and applicable
to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It
is to be implemented in three broad
phases over the next three years. The
last of these phases is the one that
penalises adultery and homosexuality,
the one that has seen Hollywood Hippocrates and hypocrites rally behind
their latest cause.

It would have been possible for

the celebrities to be more forceful
had they condemned the UAE over
the years instead of basking in, and
contributing to, the new face of Dubai,
Abu Dhabi et al. Homosexuality, Hollywoods cause celebre, has long been
illegal there.

A chief difference between the two

shows Brunei in a favourable light. It
has codified what Saudi Arabia has
not.
The latters latest display of legal
bravado largely went unnoticed. Interior Ministry regulations, reinforced
by Royal Decree 44, redefined the

If Saudi Arabia and the UAE are tolerated, then

faulting Brunei is little more than an overblown
publicity stunt that ridicules real suffering

To say that the UAEs human rights

record is questionable is to turn a blind
eye to it as the celebrities have done.
Bruneis move towards the Muslim
worlds rendition of the Christian
moral right that elected Ronald Reagan to the White House and dictates
contemporary Republican politics is
hardly uncommon.
For one thing, it coincides with
stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in
the region. For another, it comes out of
the predominant Saudi Arabian school
of thought, the steadfast ally of the
United States, where these celebrities
are boycotting businesses owned by
the Sultan and Nation of Brunei, such
as the Dorchester Collection that
includes the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel.

legality of terrorism in Saudi Arabia

to include atheists, dissenters against
the monarchy, and anyone with links
to countries or groups hostile to the
state. Promulgated by the authorities
on January 31, the laws were firmly
introduced in early April. Surprisingly,
none of the chest-thumping celebrity warriors currently busy taking
Brunei to task were anywhere to be
seen. Questions relating to the further
decline of human rights as a result of
these new laws in Saudi Arabia were
brushed under the same bulging carpet that the USA brings out from the
storage facility of its blind-spot when
required.
There is no place for morals in the
pragmatic world of crude oil and natu-

ral gas. Luckily for Brunei, its wealthy

economy is almost entirely supported
by exports of both. It is the third largest producer of oil in Southeast Asia,
and the fourth largest producer of
liquefied natural gas in the world.
That is a billion-dollar petroleum
industry worth of justification for
a country that has a right to control
its own internal matters as it sees fit.
Furthermore, like Saudi Arabia, it
should be applauded for not dressing a
monarchy up as a democracy. The US
and the rest of the world are indiscriminately accepting of autocratic
regimes in either guise, so long as they
serve their purpose.
None of this is to say that Bruneis newfound bloodlust should be
condoned, much less commended.
However, if Saudi Arabia and the UAE
are tolerated, celebrated, and allowed
to be a part of the normal world, then
faulting Brunei is little more than an
overblown publicity stunt that ridicules real suffering.
Jay Leno, the face of the Dorchester Collection boycott and renowned
automobile enthusiast, should also
purchase ethically-sourced fuel for his
innumerable vehicles if he gives up his
Dorchester vice to lend meaning to this
gesture. Otherwise, he and his fellow
celebrities should be prepared to have
their legitimate concerns dismissed
by a hailstorm of abuse about their
shameless double standards. l
Ikhtisad Ahmed is a writer and an erstwhile
lawyer. He can be contacted on Twitter via
@Ikhtisad.

h dear India, our closest

neighbour, I am a layman, and
I am here today to ask you to
understand a few things regarding
friendship, because I believe my
golden state has been a friend of yours
since its birth. While your people kill
countless numbers of my folks at your
borders, we let you enjoy transits at
low (invisible) rates, while channels of
your media swarm televisions at each
and every home of our country, you
never watch a single show of ours, and
I could simply nag on with hundreds
of similar criticisms but I know it will
be in vain, because dear India, I believe
you have hated us longer than necessary, and I believe it is enough now.
Your dedicated (!) son Narendra
Modi is about to become the head of
your sacred homeland, and his first
agenda seems to be to drive Bangladeshis, well, mostly Muslims, away
from your land, then possibly take
away some of our land, and then probably even brand us as the indigenous
population of India sometime soon.
If this is what reality looks like
today, should I dare say, dear India?
Should I really dare myself and say
that all those years ago, during 1971,
your sons came over to join us in our
liberation war only to realise that
they would take over us after all these
years? Why does a country as large and
successful as yours have the sudden
hellish urge of consuming ours, I
wonder?
A few days ago, I got yet another
upsetting news about Bangla-speaking Muslims being driven away and
running away to save themselves from
being attacked by (as police authorities
say) the NDFB. At that time, the death
toll was already 32, and over 5,000 had
escaped. On the other hand, on the
same day, India had been permitted by
Bangladesh (without any knowledge
to the relevant ministry) to transport
food items from Kolkata to Tripura
using our Ashuganj port as a transit.
Would you like me to go on?

We are part of an
alliance with potentials
greater than the
interests of the likes of
Narendra Modi

Mr Modi must be really happy with

both I suppose. Given his Islamophobic nature and history of violence
against Muslims, what do you think,
my dear friend, will happen to the
Muslims of your homeland once he
gets to power? I remember blabbering
to someone just days ago about how
Muslims from India are always better
than many others, regardless of how
they are portrayed in films.

And thats not even the main question here. The main question here is,
my dear friend, what will happen to
the friendship we have? The way this
evil power is rising up to the occasion
and threatening us with all his might,
how can we keep the friendship alive?

Why are we in agony

and having to think of
India as an imminent
threat to our future?

Dear India, you must remember that

the last time another country tried
taking over us, things did not end
very well for them. Years have gone
by since we have been independent,
and now we have grown and are still
growing. The face of the world has
changed and the word peace stands
tall everywhere. Why must we, for
just a power hungry and corrupted
group of crazy men, be sufferers in the
long run?
I seriously dont understand this,
and I will always struggle to do so.
India has been and will always be our
closest neighbour, that neighbour to
whom we have always provided the
most important facilities in terms
of business and diplomacy. We, as
children, have grown up listening to
Hindi songs, and our mothers and
sisters cant spend a day without
watching those Hindi serials that will
never make sense. Many of us even go
to Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, etc for our
Eid shopping. We never even ask why
you guys dont do the same because
we just love the peace that has been
there despite our differences. I even
remember praising India in one of my
previous articles for their patriotism.
Why are we in agony and having to
think of India as an imminent threat to
our future? I cannot reach any conclusion yet, because it is simply that hard
for me to imagine why, dear India, you
would hate us so much.
I believe bigger world authorities
should be involved in this as soon
as possible. Given the radical nature
of the circumstances, some kind
of treaty must be made between
us in order to retain the friendship
we have because the world is not
ending tomorrow, unless God has
different plans, and neither of us can
just courier our country to the North
Pole and let it be. We are part of an
alliance with potentials greater than
the interests of the likes of Narendra
Modi, and I am pretty sure we deserve
a better shot at working together than
just falling apart. l
Raihan Hadi is Founder, Ideas: For
Bangladesh, and Senior Executive, KoreaBangladesh Chamber of Commerce &
Industry (KBCCI).

Seven murders and many questions

n Syed Ishtiaque Reza

ow things are gradually getting

clear. The Narayaganj murders
were not simply a case of abduction and killing for ransom. It was
an act of enforced disappearance and
killing. The family members categorically said that some of the members
of the elite force RAB were involved in
the whole process.
Amidst criticism of the elite force,
three RAB officials have been dismissed
from their services for their alleged involvement in the abduction and killing
of seven people, including Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam. The
dismissal has proved that something is
seriously wrong with this force.
RAB high command, the home ministry, and other high-ups in the government have to make it clear whether
any kill and dump policy exists in
the country. The situation is so grave
that only administrative assurances or
measures are not enough to bring back
the sense of security among people.
The state must come out with proper
legislation to contain the trend of enforced disappearances and killings.
Such disappearances and killings
have always been considered a serious crime the world over. The state
minister for home, other ministers,
and even the prime minister assured

that the killers will be given exemplary

punishment. But so far, they did not
fully assure us that no enforced disappearances will take place in future.

The seven murders

in Narayanganj threw
all the law enforcing
agencies into a
credibility crisis

The present trend of abduction or

enforced disappearance is the result of
unabated extra-judicial killings by the
law enforcers. Human rights bodies
have been calling for an end to the
extra-judicial killings. Rights activists
believe that as the law enforcers are
made trigger-happy, they are now
resorting to abductions allegedly in
exchange for money.
The parliament took several
positive initiatives in 2009 to enact
laws that promote and protect human
rights, including the National Human
Rights Commission Act 2009 and the
Code of Criminal Procedure Act 2009.

But in the same year, it also passed

the Anti-Terrorism Law in its first
session ignoring the objections from
the rights organisations. Dr Mizanur
Rahman, chairman of the National
Human Rights Commission, said last
week that the commission would go
to court seeking an end to the plainclothes raids and operations by the
law enforcers.
This is a good move, but the commission needs to do some other basic
work. Dr Rahman can constitute a
special investigative body (like a task
force) to investigate these crimes and
prepare policy recommendations for
the government. It will be up to the
government whether to accept and
implement the recommendations, but
the commission can at least make the
government accountable.
In most cases so far, the abductors
have remained out of trace. The much
talked about AB Siddique (husband of
environment activist Syeda Rizwana Hasan) abduction case is yet to
be solved. He was released by the
abductors, not recovered by the law
enforcers, and so far, police and RAB
could not get a single clue in this
case. It seemed that the abductors are
mocking the law enforcers in most of
the cases. When this is the situation,
the state minister for home, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, is still continu-

ously saying that there is no reason to

panic over the current law and order
situation. Some of the top-notch
police officers are giving figures and
statistics saying that the number of
abductions now is not as high as in the
past. Will statistics remove the sense
of insecurity in the public mind?
The seven murders in Narayanganj
and the alleged involvement of the
countrys elite force threw all the law
enforcing agencies into a credibility
crisis. However there are opinions
that when the government itself does
not care for credibility, do the law
enforcers need to care about it? From
that point of view, nabbing the killers,
giving them due punishment, and
bringing back the sense of security
among people are urgently needed to
restore the credibility of the government. The state cannot fail to meet the
most basic of public needs.
The images of the gruesome murders left people perturbed. Narayanganj itself is now a name synonymous
with abductions and killings. And the
problem turned serious in this port
city when young Twoki was murdered
two years ago. His killers are allegedly
roaming free. Local lawmaker Shamim
Osman frequently appears on the
television screen to defend himself.
He can present a thousand points in
his defense, but can he change public

perception about him?

Enforced disappearances, abductions, and extra-judicial killings are
unacceptable, and the performance of
the law enforcing agencies has been
extremely substandard in dealing with
the cases. The ministers as well as the
law enforcers cannot raise the already
low public morale with statistics of
other countries. The government cannot allow such a situation to continue.
People are not willing to put up with
the blame game anymore.

ated against them, they managed to

evade prosecution by various means.
So far, no specific measures have
been taken to address the issue of reparation of victims of the Narayanganj
murders and other cases of enforced
disappearances. The issue cannot be
dealt with by classic court proceedings or official assurances. If needed,
there can be a move to enact a law that
will specifically address the matter
of enforced disappearances. The
government can immediately think of

There can be a move to enact a law that will

specifically address the matter of enforced
disappearances

The government cannot shrug its

responsibility. It needs to find a way to
tackle the situation as a general sense
of impunity exists among the members of the police and RAB. Not only
the members of the force, even some
of the noted thugs of the ruling party
have enjoyed great impunity because
even when investigations were initi-

establishing an independent oversight

and accountability mechanism with
authority and resources to conduct
regular, unrestricted, and unannounced preventative inspections at
all places of detention. l
Syed Ishtiaque Reza is Director of News,
Ekattor Television.

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Maa features
leading singers
n Entertainment Desk

Tarkaata gets
uncut censor
certificate
n Entertainment Desk
M M Kamal Rajs upcoming film Tarkaata gets uncut certificate from the censor
board on Sunday. The film features three
leading stars of Dhallywood: Moushumi,
Arefin Shuvo and Bidya Sinha Mim. This
is the first time the three megastars will
share screen space together.
The director said: The members of
the censor board appreciated the work.
Now we are planning to release Tarkaata
during Eid.
Here, Moushumi will be seen as Shuvos sister and Mim as his girlfriend.
Tarkaata is a movie which will feature humour, action, romance and drama
and is bound to hold the interest of the
audience with its striking star-cast and
unique script, claims the director who
wrote the story.
My film Tarkaata is all about portraying pain and various other emotions. But,
the twist is that, I will depict that pain in
a humourous manner, and by no means it
that an easy task. It will be a full package
of entertainment for our audience, added the director. l

Neighbors topples
Amazing Spider-Man 2

15

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Grand finale of
Channel i Shera
Nachiye airs tonight
n Entertainment Desk
The grand finale of the reality TV
show Channel i Shera Nachiye - Season 2 will air tonight at
7:50pm on Channel i. After facing
rounds of dance challenges, the
finalists include Mimu, Ivana, Tondra, Ivan, Naim, Pritom, Progya,
Ethina, Priyanka, Shahed, Mitil,
Roza and Shiza.
In the finale, the participants
will perform to the choreography
of Ty Alexander Cheng who is a
renowned dance choreographer

Ferdous in 20-20 Colors

Marking the ocassion of Mothers Day,

leading singers of the country including Kanokchanpa, Milon Mahmood,
Ruksana Mumtaz, Rajib, Chompa Bonik, Tanvir Shahin, Sajed Fatemi, Belal
Khan, Linkon and Shaila Rahman lent
their voice for an album named Maa.
All the songs narrate the blessed relationship between a mother and her
child.
The lyrics are written by Gazi
Mazharul Anowar, Susmita Biswas,
Bishwarup Ghosh Dastidar, Shahiduzzaman Shapan, Dr Shahed, Shahabudddin Majumder and others.
Alauddin Ali, Mushfiq Litu, Boni
Ahmed, Khayem Ahmed, Nirjhor
Chowdhury and Milon Mahmood composed the songs.
The album has been released under
the banner of Laser Vision. l

from USA.
The jury members of the programme Munmun Ahmed, Ferdous and Meher Afroz Shaon will
perform at the show. Sadia Islam
Mou and Riaz will be presenting a
dance number together.
The top ten dancers from the
previous season of Shera Nachiye will also perform at the show,
while celebrated dancers of the
country will showcase a group
dance recitation. Popular band
Chirkutt will also be present at the
event. l

Mahesh Bhatt turns actor

for Siddhartha

n Entertainment Desk

n Entertainment Desk

Superhero Spider-Mans reign at the top of the box office came

to an end this weekend, as the Zac Efron and Seth Rogen comedy
Neighbors kicked The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from the number one slot at the Box Office.
Neighbors/Bad Neighbours in the UK, entered the box office
this week and pulled in a respectable $51m , pushing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 down to second position with the web spinner
only managing to garner another $37.2m, reports Cinema Blend.
Spider-Mans drop forced The Other Woman down a place
to third as the movie pulled in $9.2m, whilst Heaven is for Real
also fell one place to fourth with $7m.
Likewise, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was also
shunted down one place to fifth after pulling in another $5.6m,
and Rio 2 dropped a place down to sixth with $5.1m.
Entering
the
box office charts at
number seven is
Moms Night Out
that managed to
garner $4.2m, and
also entering the
box office charts to
sit in eighth place
is Legends of Oz:
Dorothys Return,
which managed to
pull in $3.7m.
Falling down
two places to hit
ninth position is
Divergent after
pulling in another
$1.7m, and bringing up the rear,
down four places
to sit at tenth is
Brick Mansions
after managing to
drag in another
$1.4m. l

Ones never too old to make an acting debut. Mahesh Bhatt is making his at 64 in a movie titled Siddhartha, which tells the story of
a mans disillusionment with the
world and his search for inner peace.
The movie has actor Shivam Bhargav
playing the titular role. His ladylove
is played by Shazahn Padamsee. Shivam plays a character that leads a life
of indulgence and debauchery before
renouncing it to look for salvation in
the hills of Manali. Thats where he
meets the Buddhist Lama, played by
Mahesh Bhatt. The Lama helps Shivam connect with his inner Buddha.
Siddhartha is not a rip-off of Nobel
winning author Hermann Hesses sublime book by the same name.
Mahesh Bhatt shared the photos of his monk look on Twitter and
wrote: Stepping into the frame of
silence. Mukul Misras Siddhartha.

n Entertainment Desk
Reality shows are a big hit among the
present day audience, specially the
ones that are aimed towards identifying talents such as singing, dancing,
acting and modelling among the people of the country. 20-20 Colors is
a model-hunt show which will air on
RTV tonight at 7:30pm. In this episode,
actor -model Ferdous will be the special guest. His career and rise to star-

Celebrated duo of
the small screen,
Sajal and Shokh
have been paired
up again in Anonyo
Emons upcoming
TV play Zero Hour.
Here, the actors
play the roles of two
university friends
and later become
lovers. The boy
wants to marry the
girl while she wants
to continue the
relationship without
any legal contract.
Her reluctance to
commit becomes
clear much later

dom will be discussed in details.

The contestants of the programme
will perform with some popular songs
from Ferdous' movies. They will be
adding their own dimensions in the
performances.Popular model, dancer
and actor Bijori Barkatullah, celebrity
designer Biplob Saha and choreographer Quamrul Islam are the permanent
members of the judging panel.
The programme is anchored by Imtu
and produced by Shahriar Islam. l

The writer-filmmaker says he decided to play the role of Lama because

he could relate to the character.
On a philosophical note, he added:
Life is pain! Do not ask why it is so?
It is so! l

TODAY IN DHAKA
Film

Captain America:
The Winter Soldier (3D & 2D)
I, Frankenstein
Divergent
Time: 10am 10pm
Star Cineplex
Bashundhara City

Exhibition

Photography Exhibition

Innate Identities
Time: 12pm 8pm
Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts,
Road No 16 (Old 27), Dhanmondi

Music

Ei Jyotsnay Ekaki Dariye

By Kazi M. Atif
Time: 6:30pm 8:00pm
Music and Dance Theatre
Shilpakala Academy, Shegun Bagicha

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Did you know?

Frank Lampard
has hit more shots
(39) at World
Cups without ever
scoring than any
other player (19662010)

Sport

Interim local
coach for Tigers
n Minhaz Uddin Khan
An interim local coach will take charge
of the Bangladesh national cricket team
for the three-match ODI series at home
against India next month. Jalal Younus,
chairman of the media and communication of the Bangladesh Cricket Board
and also a member of the five-man
coach search committee, informed so
to the media yesterday.
Jalal, while in conversation with the
media also informed that a new fulltime head coach is likely to join the national team on July 1 of this year.
Bangladesh were left without a head
coach after the resignation of Shane
Jurgensen on April 28. After much
speculation, BCB accepted Jurgensens
resignation around a week later and
formed a committee to recruit a new
head coach for the team.
Many names from around the globe
have surfaced in the last few days but
according to Jalal, the search committee is yet to reach a concrete decision.
75 percent of the work is done in
finding a coach. We are now waiting for
the final call. We have talked to three
coaches and it can be said that we are
on the edge of our talk with all of them.
We will eventually choose one from
those three, Jalal disclosed.
A new coach taking over in July
means the national will be without
a foreign mentor for the home series
against India.
It is very unlikely to find a full-time
coach before the India series and we

BFF mulls
womens team
in Asian Games
n Raihan Mahmood
Bangladesh
Football
Federation
has urged the Bangladesh Olympic
Association to ensure the participation
of the national womens team in the
upcoming Asian Games scheduled
to be held at Incheon, Korea in
September.
Bangladesh
national
womens
team has played in a number of AFC
and Saff affiliated tournaments, but
never appeared in a big event
like Asian Games. The womens
national team has recently been
improving and they dont get
enough opportunities in big scale
tournaments. If the womens team
get the opportunity of playing in the
Asian Games, the team will earn a lot
of experience and it will be benefecial
for them, said BFF general secretary
Abu Naeem Shohag.
The urge from the football body
was responded on a positive note by
the BOA as Syed Shahed Reza, the
secretary general of BOA, said, The
time of registration has not expired
yet and we are considering the subject
seriously. We will take a final decision
shortly. l

will have to make it up with an interim local coach in that case, informed
Jalal. However, Jalal refrained from
disclosing the name of the local coach
immediately. When queried about the
chances of former local coach of national team Sarwar Imran being given
the charge, the best he could reply was,
likely.
He further informed of BCBs
intention of assigning three coaches - a
head coach along with two assistants
- a bowling coach and a conditioning
coach. However, the board wont
entertain
recommendations
from
the head coach for the assistant
coaches this time. BCBs experience
in this regard is not a sweet one after
appointing a fielding coach under the
recommendation of former national
coach Stuart Law turned out to be
unsatisfactory.
Discussion with the bowling and
the conditioning coach has also been
fruitful. Their names will be announced
along with the head coach, said Jalal.
It was learned from the sources that
former Sri Lanka pacer Chaminda Vaas
is likely to get the nod as the bowling
coach. BCB held discussions with Vaas
during the Asia Cup in March this year.
BCB is interested more in local
names as far as the fielding coach is
concerned. Jalal informed that the
board would discuss with the players
before making a final decision on appointing a local fielding coach. However, appointing a part-time foreign fielding coach is also a possibility. l

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

18 Atletico, Barca

set for final day

battle

Nitol-Tata Bangladesh Premier League Football leaders Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club hammered Team
BJMC 6-2 in their second
phase match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The former champions stamped their
authority and took the game away inside the half hour as their three pronged
attack, consisting Haitian duo of Sony
Norde and Wedson Anselme and Nigerian Emeka Darlington, netted one goal

The Walton 31st National Senior Mens

and 5th National Senior Womens Wrestling will start at the kabaddi stadium
tomorrow. The two-day event will host
wrestling in eight weight categories in
the mens section as well as the womens section.
Wrestlers from Bangladesh Army,
BGB, Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh
Ansar, Dhaka, Madaripur, Gazipur,

18 Bradmans first

Test bat up for

auction

BCL all set for

grand finish
As both Prime Bank South
Zone and BCB North Zone
were bundled out in their
first innings in the first two
days of the Bangladesh Cricket League
final, it was hardly anticipated that the
fifth day will be required but ten wickets in the following two days has ensured the possibility of a grand finish.
North Zone are chasing a mammoth
573 for the title against South Zone
and ended the fourth and penultimate
days play on 254/3 with two overnight
batsmen Forhad Hossain (85 not out)
and skipper Nasir Hossain (67 not out)
looking compact and heading towards
respective centuries at the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium yesterday.
North Zone need 319 runs from the
fifth and final day with seven wickets
in hand as South Zone were earlier dismissed for 536 in their second innings,
thanks to a maiden first-class double
hundred for Imrul Kayes and a century
from Mithun Ali.

BRIEF SCORE
Prime Bank South Zone 271 and 536
Imrul Kayes 204, Mithun Ali 126
Shuvashis Roy 3/128
BCB North Zone 235 and 254/3
Forhad Hossain 85*, Nasir Hossain 67*

BCB North Zone skipper Nasir Hossain (L) and Forhad Hossain finished unbeaten with a 128-run partnership, raising hopes of achieving
the massive target set by South Zone, to end day four in the Bangladesh Cricket League final at the SBNS yesterday
MUMIT M

Sheikh Jamal bulldoze BJMC

n Raihan Mahmood

17

n Mazhar Uddin

apiece. Wedson showed his strength

by shrugging off two defenders before
a neat angular right footed finish from
the striker took the Dhanmondi based
outfit, who now has 37 points from 15
games, ahead in the 9th minute.
Linkon picked Wedson with a
through ball inside the box and the
Haitian showed great awareness in
spotting an unmarked Emeka who just
guided the ball inside the goal to add
the second just five minutes later.
Wedson was instrumental behind
the third goal in the 28th minute too.
He took off from the half line mark and

skipped past the BJMC defenders with

sheer pace before his cut back pass to
an unmarked Sony saw his compatriot
finish with a soft touch.
Emeka netted his second after capitalising on a defensive blunder by Md
Tara and Redwan Rakib in the 40th
minute before Nigerian midfielder Ali
Abdullahi made a mockery of the score
line by adding the fifth from the penalty spot, result of Saifuls foul on Norde,
in the last minute of the first half.
BJMCs nightmare only lessened after Jamal coach Josef Afusi withdrew
Wedson after the breather, allowing

BJMC attackers invade their territory. BJMC pulled one back in the 59th
minute with Nigerian midfielder Uche
Felixs glancing header on curled free
kick from Ali Akbar Kanon from the
right flank.
Substitute midfielder Sohel Rana,
however, restored the margin for Jamal
in the 87th minute with a cracking left
footed finish on Sonys square pass.
Nigerian Samson Iliyasus long range
shot in the last minute of the game only
reduced the goal difference as BJMC,
who has 15 points from as many matches, scored their second. l

Resuming the fourth days play on 410/3,

South Zone could only manage 126 runs
for the loss of their last seven wickets
with paceman Shuvashis Roy bagging
three wickets for North Zone. Taijul Islam, who had recorded career-best bowling figures of 8/86 in the first innings,
added two more in the second innings to
finish with a 10-wicket haul.
In their first innings, South Zone had
posted 271 all out before North Zone
were all out for 235 presenting the former with a 36-run first innings lead.
Chasing 573 for victory, North Zone
were in a spot of bother after losing their
first three wickets for 126 runs and the
target appeared to be an improbable one
until Forhad, alongside in-form skipper
Nasir, resurrected their fortunes registering half-centuries and playing sensibly.
Forhad smashed nine boundaries
and faced 154 balls for his 85 while
Nasirs 67 featured seven fours and a
six. South Zone skipper Abdur Razzak
removed both the openers - Junaid Siddique (51) and Myshukur Rahman (32)
while Naeem Islam was clean bowled
for 16 by Shuvagata Hom. l

Cole quits England

after World Cup axe
Barkley and Sterling called up
for a four-day training camp next week,
n AFP, Luton
before returning to face Peru at Wemb-

Sheikh Jamals Nigerian midfielder Ali Abdullahi (C) celebrates scoring their fifth goal with teammates during their Bangladesh Premier
League match against Team BJMC at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday
MUMIT M

Walton natl wrestling begins tomorrow

n Raihan Mahmood

Mushtaq as spin
coach

BIG TASK AHEAD

DAYS WATCH
Sony Six
Indian Premier League
4:30PM
Chennai v Kolkata
8:30PM
Bangalore v Delhi
9:00AM
NBA PLAY OFF 2013-14, CONF SF
San Antonio v Portland

18 Pakistan appoint

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Manikganj, Munshiganj, Kishoreganj,

Comilla, Rajshahi, Chapai Nawabganj,
Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Nilphamari,
Khulna, Jessore, Narail, Rangpur,
Kurigram, Kushtia and Gaibandha will
participate in the competition.
BOA secretary general Syed Shahed
Reza will inaugurate the tournament
while Shajahan Khan, the honorable
minister of shipping, will be present as
the chief guest in the concluding ceremony.

In a press conference held

at
the
Bangabandhu
National
Stadium yesterday, Tabiur Rahman
Pahlawan, the general secretary of
Bangladesh Wrestling Federation,
revealed the details of the event to the
media. Additional director of Walton
AFM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, Walton
brand ambassador Zobera Rahman
Linu and other federation officials
were also present among others on the
occasion. l

Bolt confirmed for

Zurich meet
n AFP, Paris
Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt
will compete at the seasons penultimate Diamond League meet in Zurich
on August 28, organisers announced on
Monday.
The 27-year-old Jamaican, the world
record holder over 100m and 200m,
has not yet decided which distance he
will run at the Swiss venue. l

Everton breakthrough star Ross Barkley, 20, was named in a youthful England World Cup squad on Monday, but
Manchester United midfielder Michael
Carrick only made the standby list.
Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole announced his international retirement on
Sunday after being informed by England
manager Roy Hodgson that he would not
be selected and 18-year-old Southampton defender Luke Shaw took his place.
Liverpools 19-year-old winger Raheem Sterling was the second teenager
in a squad that featured only six players
with previous World Cup experience.
Coles Chelsea team-mate Frank
Lampard was also selected, despite
doubts about the 35-year-olds inclusion, but Tottenham Hotspur rightback Kyle Walker missed out due to a
pelvic injury.
Phil Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere all overcame injury scares while Southampton striker
Rickie Lambert was preferred to West
Ham United rival Andy Carroll.
Carroll was also named on the standby list, alongside Carrick, Norwich City
goalkeeper John Ruddy, Liverpool fullback Jon Flanagan, Everton centre-back
John Stones, Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley and Jermain Defoe, now of Canadian side Toronto FC.
England have been drawn in Group
D at the World Cup in Brazil alongside
Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica.
The squad are due to fly to Portugal

ley on May 30 in their final pre-World

Cup game on home soil.
They will then travel to Miami,
where they play Ecuador and Honduras on June 4 and 7, before flying to Rio
de Janeiro. l

ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers
Joe Hart (Man City), Ben Foster (West
Brom), Fraser Forster (Celtic).
Defenders
Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jagielka
(Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Chris
Smalling (Man Utd), Phil Jones (Man
Utd), Leighton Baines (Everton), Luke
Shaw (Southampton).
Midfielders
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank
Lampard (Chelsea), Jordan Henderson
(Liverpool), James Milner (Man City),
Jack Wilshere (Arsenal), Ross Barkley
(Everton), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal).
Forwards
Wayne Rooney (Man Utd), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Danny Welbeck (Man
Utd), Rickie Lambert (Southampton).
Stand-bys
John Ruddy (Norwich), Jon Flanagan
(Liverpool), John Stones (Everton), Michael Carrick (Man Utd), Tom Cleverley
(Man Utd), Andy Carroll (West Ham),
Jermain Defoe (Toronto).

18

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Mels brief Baggies encounter ends

Sport

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Cardiff to stage 2015 Ashes opener

Pepe Mel has left West Browmich Albion by mutual consent after just four
months in charge of the English Premier League club, the Midlands side announced Monday. The Spanish manager only arrived at the Hawthorns in January
after being chosen as the full-time successor to Steve Clarke. Both Pepe and the club
set out with the best intentions of making the appointment work, said West Brom
sporting and technical director Richard Garlick in a club statement. However, having
reflected on events both on and off the field during our talks, it became apparent that
it was in the best interests of both parties for there to be an amicable parting. AFP

Boudebouz back in initial Algerian squad

England will be hoping history repeats itself when their bid to regain the
Ashes next year starts in Cardiff. Monday saw the England and Wales Cricket
Board announce the international schedule for its 2015 home season. And it was
the choice of the Welsh capital ground to stage the first Test against Australia,
starting on July 8, that was arguably the most eye-catching decision. England
were whitewashed 5-0 by their oldest foes in Australia during the 2013/14 Ashes,
a reverse which led Andy Flower to stand down as team coach and be replaced
by Peter Moores.
AFP

Bastia midfielder Ryad Boudebouz, who has not featured for Algeria
since the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, was Monday named in coach Vahid
Halilhodzics 30-strong provisional squad for the World Cup. Leicester frontman
Ryad Mahrez is called up for the first time, but Livorno striker Ishak Belfodil failed
to make the cut, although he remains on stand-by should Portos Nabil Ghilas not
shake off injury. Just five of the squad, which will be trimmed to 23 on June 1 - a
day after a warm-up match against Armenia in the Swiss city of Sion - are based
in Algeria.
AFP

Atletico, Barca set for final day battle

n AFP, Madrid
Atletico Madrid will travel to
face Barcelona next weekend with La Liga title on the
line after both sides were
held to draws on Sunday.
Barcelona could only draw 0-0 at
Elche but Atletico were held 1-1 at
home by Malaga, and so Barca still trail
Diego Simeones side by three points
with a game to go.
The Catalans will be champions
with a win next Sunday thanks to a better head-to-head record.
Real Madrids challenge is over,
though, as they were beaten 2-0 away
to Celta Vigo.
Atletico wasted the chance to seal
their first title in 18 years at home as a win
allied with Barca dropping points would
have handed them the championship.

Atletico fell behind 25 minutes from

time as Samuel headed into an empty
net after lobbing Thibaut Courtois, but
Toby Alderweirelds header nine minutes later did at least salvage their unbeaten home record in the league this
season.

POINTS TABLE
Team
1 Atltico Madrid
2 Barcelona
3 Real Madrid
4 Athletic
5 Sevilla

GP W D
37 28 5
37 27 5
37 26 6
37 20 9
37 17 9

L GD PTS
4 51
89
5 67
86
5 64 84
8 27
69
11 15
60

Without the injured Diego Costa up

front, Simeone paired Raul Garcia and
David Villa in the Atletico attack and
the two nearly combined for the opener on 12 minutes when Villa raced onto
Garcias flick-on but saw his side-foot-

ed effort clip the crossbar on its way

over.
Malagas had to wait until the
hour mark for their first clear chance
when Roque Santa Cruz latched
onto Samuels pass but Courtois raced
off his line to make a vital save low to
his left.
The visitors did go in front five minutes later as this time Courtois was
lobbed by Samuel as he left his area and
the midfielder headed into an empty
net.
Malaga could even have been further in front when Ignacio Camacho
headed over from point-blank range
and that miss was to prove crucial as
Atletico rallied in the final quarter.
Willy Caballero made a fine one
hand save to deny Villa once more, but
from the resulting corner Alderweireld
headed into the far corner. l

Simmons, Rayudu
shine for MI

Pakistan appoint Mushtaq

n Tribune Desk

n AFP, Karachi

Mumbai Indians convincingly beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in

their IPL match at Hyderabad yesterday
night. The target of 158 looked tricky
in a slow and sluggish pitch, but Lendl
Simmons and Ambati Rayudu smashed
identical 68s to ensure the comfortable
win. Earlier, a late surge from Aaron
Finch and David warner guided the
home side to the fighting total. l

The Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday

appointed Mushtaq Ahmed as its new
spin bowling coach after the World Cup
winner lost the role for England.
The 43-year-old former leg-spinner
signed a two-year contract with immediate effect, according to a statement by
the board. He had coached England for
six years until a reshuffle by new head
coach Peter Moores saw him replaced
by Peter Such.
Speaking to the media after the appointment, Ahmed said: I will do my
best to serve Pakistani spinners and
will also help the batsmen learn how to
counter rival spinners.

BRIEF SCORE

Hyderabad 157-3 in 20 ov
A Finch 68, D Warner 55*, L Malinga 2-35
Mumbai 160-3 in 18.4 ov
L Simmons 68, A Rayudu 68, B Kumar 2-21

Its a big big honour for me and I will

do my best.
Ahmed claimed 185 wickets in Test
matches and 161 in one-day internationals. He was a mainstay of Pakistans
formidable bowling line-up in the 1990s
that included pace legends Wasim
Akram and Waqar Younis, who was last
week appointed head coach.
The diminutive spinner also played a
key role in Pakistans World Cup victory
in 1992 in tandem with Akram. Cast out
from the national team later on in his career, he turned his attention to English
county cricket where he took more than
100 wickets for Sussex for five successive seasons and helped them win the
championship in 2003, 2006 and 2007. l

RESULTS
Athletic Bilbao
Muniain 49

Granada

Real Betis
(Rodriguez 6,
Jorge Molina 55,
Ruben Castro 76,
Juanfran 90

Espanyol
Colotto 22

Celta Vigo
Charles 43, 63

Atletico Madrid
Alderweireld 74

Elche
Getafe
Escudero 70

1 1
0 2
4 3

Real Sociedad
Agirretxe 75

Almeria
Verza 19-pen,
Vidal 83-pen

Valladolid
Javi Guerra 1
59-pen Pena 50

1 1

Osasuna

2 0

Real Madrid

1 1
0 0
1 0

Acuna 44

Malaga
Samuel 65

Barcelona
Sevilla

Bradmans first Test

bat up for auction

n AFP, Sydney
The cricket bat used by Australian
sporting legend Don Bradman to
launch his Test career has been put up
for auction and is expected to fetch up
to Aus$145,000.
Bradman, who retired with a yetto-be-topped Test batting average of
99.94, used the bat to open his Test career in the 1928 series against England.
It was donated by him to the Sydney
Sun newspaper in 1930 as a competition prize to raise money for a childrens hospital and was held by the boy
who won until 2008 when he sold it for
Aus$145,000 ($136,000). l

Rafael Nadal (R) and Spains Queen Sofia look at the trophy after the mens singles final of
the Madrid Masters at the Magic Box sports complex in Madrid on Sunday. Nadal won his
fourth title 2-6, 6-4, 3-0 when Kei Nishikori retired with a lower back injury
AFP

Pavlyuchenko, Tarasov out

of Russias World Cup squad
n AFP, Moscow
Lokomotiv Moscow stars Roman Pavlyuchenko and Dmitry Tarasov are the
surprise omissions from Russias provisional 30-man World Cup squad,
announced by coach Fabio Capello on
Monday.
Equally surprisingly, Capello has
called up veteran forward Pavel Pogrebnyak, 30, who is currently playing in
the second tier of English football, the
Championship, with Reading.
Capellos decision to leave out midfielder Tarasov was dictated by the fact

he was sidelined earlier this year with a

cruciate ligament injury and is unlikely
to be fully fit in time for the start of the
World Cup in June.
The majority of the squad are based
at home, including former Sevilla forward Alexander Kerzhakov, the only
Russian player to have appeared at the
2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, and
former Chelsea winger Yury Zhirkov.
Capello has lined up warm-up friendlies against Slovakia on May 26, Norway
on May 31 and Morocco on June 6 in a
bid to expose his team to contrasting
playing styles ahead of Brazil. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

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20

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Strike cripples DMCH services

n Moniruzzaman Uzzal
On a usual day, the Dhaka Medical College Hospital would see thousands of
patients and their relatives crowd the
busy hallways of one of the biggest
public hospitals of the country. However, a 48-hour strike by honorary doctors of DMCH have brought activities at
the hospital to a near standstill over the
last two days.
With most of the regular health services running only on a limited basis,
several hospital officials told the Dhaka
Tribune that it seemed to them like an
unannounced holiday had been taking
place.
However, as this report was being
filed, the doctors announced that they
would be calling off the strike and returning to work from 9pm yesterday.
The strike, which was called by honorary doctors on Sunday protesting an
assault on one of their fellows, hampered services at the hospitals outdoor, emergency and indoor facilities.
Although the DMCH authority tried to

reopen the outdoor service, the doctors on strike forcefully locked the ticket booth for patients.
During the hours between 8am and
11am yesterday, only a handful of patients were reportedly able to consult
doctors at the outdoor section, although around 300 tickets were sold to
patients.
Around 100 patients, almost half the
usual number, were admitted in the
emergency section yesterday. A total of
387 tickets were sold there, compared
to over a thousand on a regular day.
The strike also caused many of the
scheduled operations to be postponed.
Only six emergency operations had
been carried out on the fourth floor
of the operation theatre (OT) complex
until 4pm yesterday, compared to an
average of around 90 operations a day
in different OTs of the hospital, an OT
staff said on condition of anonymity.
The neurosurgery department,
one of the busiest departments of the
DMCH, did not see a single operation
during the doctors strike, said the de-

partments head Professor Dr Ehsan

Mahmud.
Terming the DMCH honorary doctors strike unethical, Health Secretary
MM Niazuddin yesterday said action
would be taken against those involved
with the strike.
The situation could not be tackled
properly reportedly because Health
Minister Mohammed Nasim was currently out of the country, while State
Minister for Health Zahed Malek did
not visit the hospital after the strike
was announced. Although health directorate DG Dr Din Md. Nurul Hoque
and its Director (hospital) Abdul Hannan visited the DMCH, they were unable to resolve the issue.
The Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) has also failed to address
the issue, reportedly because of its internal politics.
On Saturday, an honorary physician, Mominul Islam, was admitted
to the DMCH in a critical condition,
after being beaten up in the capitals
Chankharpul area. l

India election ends, exit polls favour Modi

n AFP, New Delhi
Indians cast final ballots yesterday in a
record election that saw 551 million people vote over five weeks, with exit polls
predicting a new right-wing government under hardliner Narendra Modi.
The final phase of voting in 41 constituencies ended at 6pm (1230 GMT), with
the first exit polls released soon afterwards pointing to a huge swing towards
Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The survey results backed forecasts
before voting started on April 7 that
the BJP and its allies should be able
to reach a majority in parliament after
trouncing the ruling Congress party.
The first full survey from CVoter
showed the BJP and its allies reaching a majority, while others released
by the CNN-IBN and Headlines Today
channels showed a rout for Congress in
many states.
Shortly after polls closed for the last

time, the Election Commission gave final figures for the worlds biggest election, saying 551 million had voted 130
million more than in 2009 with turnout also at a record high of 66.38%.
These numbers may still go up
marginally because of postal ballots
and other factors, director general
of the Election Commission, Akshay
Rout, told reporters.
Official results are due on Friday.
Attention earlier in the day had focused on the sacred city of Varanasi
where 63-year-old Modi was standing
as a candidate and hoping for a crowning victory on the final day of voting.
In a video message, he paid tribute
to the hundreds of thousands who
stood out in the scorching sun for
hours to give strength to our democracy over the last five weeks.
The four-times chief minister of
the western state of Gujarat has campaigned on a pledge of clean govern-

ment and development to revive the

flagging economy after 10 years of
left-leaning rule by the Congress party.
But he remains a deeply polarising
figure over allegations that he failed
swiftly to curb deadly 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat which left at least
1,000 people dead shortly after he
came to power there.

Backlash against Congress

Opinion polls show voters have turned

against Congress over massive graft scandals, spiralling inflation and a sharp economic slowdown in the last two years.
Rahul Gandhi, who is leading his
first national campaign for Congress,
has denied that the party is staring at
almost certain defeat.
Congress
spokesman
Shakeel
Ahmed stressed that opinion polls had
failed to predict a victory for his party
and its allies in 2004, when they ousted
a BJP-led coalition, and in 2009. l

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial Office: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207.
Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

B2 Stocks end flat with

B4 Parrot launching smart-

choppy trading

phone controlled drones

TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

FDR offers more return than equity

If banks equity investors kept money as fixed deposit, they would earn more
n

Tahmidur Rahman

Most of the banks have failed to yield

satisfactory return on equity for their
investors during recent years, according to the analysts.
They said the investors therefore recorded profits at a rate lower than fixed
deposit (FDR) rate, which means that
if the investors had made FDR instead
of investment on banks assets, they
would have received more return.
Besides, the real picture of banks
profit earning is even worse than they

'But the real picture is

even worse, given the
rescheduling of bad
loans. It will cast impact
in future as recovery of
those loans still remain
uncertain'

are presenting for the year 2013, the analysts observed.

They said as the loans have been
rescheduled in large scale due to poor
recovery under political unrest, the uncertainty over the future of those loans
has not ended yet, dragging the real
impact to the upcoming years.
Analysts suggested taking a holistic
approach rather than comparing with
only preceding year while assessing
the banks profitability.

Maybe, most banks boards do not

focus on the return on held asset. But
this must be changed and they should
compare profits on asset and deposit,
said a former banker asking not to be
named.
However, primary dealer banks
may show a little different pattern, he
added. Fourteen of the DSE listed 30
banks have a return on assets below
11% during the year 2013.
But the real picture is even worse,
given the rescheduling of bad loans. It
will cast impact in future as recovery
of those loans still remain uncertain,said Shahidul Islam, CEO of VIPB Asset
Management Co Ltd.
A banks core task is to collect money in form of deposits and lend it out to
make a profit out of the difference.
If the banks fail to recover credit,
their profitability is affected badly.
The profitability must be higher
than the fixed deposit rate of the banks
or else there will be no justification of
buying a bank stock as a long term investment instead of keeping it in the
banks, said a broker.
Considering the existing market
dynamics, investors who want to minimise their downside risk and have a
longer-term perspective might prefer
bank stocks, given the problems in the
sector will be addressed in near future,
said Khairul Bashar, a banking sector
analyst at Asian Tiger Capital Partners.
MD Minhaz Zia, an investment professional and a partner at AT Capital, shed
some lights on the consequences of the
high banking rates, which will eventually
come down to match with economic reality but it is likely to take some time.
FDR rate is already seen falling. It
should continue until near to equilibri-

PERFROMANCE OF THE BANKS

Return on equity in 2012
-12%
10%
3%
4%
9%
12%
13%
7%
6%
13%
8%
7%
14%
6%
14%
14%
18%
13%
13%
9%
14%
13%
14%
6%
9%
15%
8%
13%
21%
8%

ICB Islamic Bank Limited

Rupali Bank
Trust Bank Limited
City Bank
AB Bank Limited
NCCBL
Prime Bank
NBL
Bank Asia Ltd.
Export Import Bank
The Premier Bank Ltd.
Mutual Trust Bank Ltd
Standard Bank Limited
BRAC Bank Ltd.
Social Islami Bank Limited
Islami Bank
Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd.
First Security Islami Bank Ltd
Uttara Bank
Pubali Bank
Al-Arafah Islami Bank
Jamuna Bank Ltd.
Eastern Bank
IFIC Bank
United Commercial Bank Ltd
One Bank Limited
Southeast Bank
Mercantile Bank Ltd
Dutch-Bangla Bank
Dhaka Bank

Return on equity in 2013

-7%
4%
4%
5%
6%
9%
9%
9%
9%
9%
10%
11%
11%
11%
11%
12%
12%
12%
12%
12%
13%
13%
14%
15%
15%
15%
15%
16%
16%
16%

Calculations have been made from the yearly earnings per share and year-end net asset values of the banks

um level is achieved, he added.

Zia said in no economy FDR rate can
be higher than equity return in the long
run and the adjustment is inevitable.
Effective tax rate exceeds 42.5% in
most of the cases as provision expense is
not tax deductible. Therefore the banks
cannot reduce the interest spread, said
Asif Khan, Deputy Head of Research at
BRAC EPL Brokerage Limited.
At a pre-budget meeting last
month,bankers have urged the government to cut corporate tax to increase

the profitability of the banking sectors

along with cutting down its lending
rate for supporting the countrys entrepreneurs and making the banking sector itself more vibrant.
Banks current tax rate of 42.5%
needs to be lowered for the sake of
the banks stakeholders, said AK Azad,
chair of Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited.
Entrepreneurs consider the regulatory limit of 5% spread in the banking
sector is irrational and higher than it
should be. l

Mismanagement in
emergency fund use
n Asif Showkat Kallol
The government has spent almost half
the allocation of the budgets emergency expenditure fund for the purposes not allowed by the law.
The fund has been used to purchase
vehicles, pay allowances, in nuclear
power plant and pay salaries and allowances to police and Ansar-VDP members.
But according to the Public Money
and Budget Management Act 2009,
the funds cannot be diverted to sectors
which are not specified during the allocation.
Besides, the total allocation of
Tk1,299 crore has been completely
consumed in less than five months of
the current fiscal year, prompting the
government make a new block allocation of Tk110 crore in the revised budget, said official sources.
The sources said during political
unrest the government had to meet
additional expenditure on policing and
used a chunk of the emergency fund.
The law states that the fund can
only be used to meet emergency expenditures like during natural disasters, providing agricultural subsidy
and policy change by the government.
Due to the use of the fund in the
non-specified sectors, the money ran
out so rapidly that finance minister
even failed to get money to lease Mongla port land for establishing a special
economic zone.
However, the emergency fund was
not also intended to be used for such
leasing of land. All the fund has been
almost used and there was no enough
money to give for land leasing, said Finance Secretary Fazle Kabir, in a reply
to Finance Minister AMA Muhiths letter directing to provide money.

Of the money disbursed, an amount

of Tk246 crore was spent in the firstphase works of Rooppur nuclear power
plant and Tk240 crore for giving government allowances, said official sources.
Besides, Tk680 crore was used
to provide agricultural subsidy
and Tk10 lakh was given to Dhaka
School of Economics.
Besides, the government disbursed
Tk50 crore for construction of Sylhet
International Cricket Stadium from the
emergency management fund, Tk25
lakhto observe National Mourning Day
on 15 August and Tk10 lakh given to
Bangabandhu Poverty Alleviation
andRuralDevelopment Academy.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith,
however, defended the fund use and
said the money was used to meet necessary expenditures.
The block allocation is for necessary use and we have used the fund
for that kind of purpose, finance minister told the Dhaka Tribune when
asked why the fund was used in the
non-specified sectors.
A small amount has been allocated
in the revised budget for the purpose,
he said referring to new allocation,
adding that the block allocation in the
budget is less than one per cent of the
Gross Domestic Product.
Shamsul Alam, member of the General Economics Division of thePlanning
Ministry, played a similar music and the
money was used for public good.
This will be good for Bangladesh
economy, he believed.
But Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser to last caretaker
government, slammed the practice of
using emergency fund on non-specified sectors terming it as mismanagement and abnormality. l

QUARTERLY REPORT

ADB makes no
major change in
forecast
n Tribune Report

Corporate tax cut may not help

boost investment, say economists
n Syed Samiul Basher Anik
A reduction in corporate income tax
is unlikely to help attract private investment aimed at boosting the economy, economists said.
It would have a positive impact
only when a proper atmosphere
would be created to increase the tax
net, they told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The government has dropped a
broader hint that it would reduce the
rate to stimulate investment in the
country as a strategy to boost economy.
The indication emerged after the
businessmen proposing for the exemption to recover from the setback
they suffered due to political turmoil
before the January 5 national election.
The economists considered the tax
cut would surely affect the revenue
collection for the coming fiscal year.
The rate in Bangladesh is now
ranges from 27.5% to 45%. The finance minister and the chairman of
the National Board of Revenue have
already indicated the rate would be
lowered in the budget for fiscal 201415, following the practice of other
countries.
With the reduction of the tax rate,
corporate business would pay more
taxes and it will work towards reducing the tax evasion, the NBR chairman earlier claimed explaining the
benefits of tax cut.
Former finance adviser to the care-

taker government Dr Mirza Azizul Islam, however, said the corporate tax
rate in the country is not that much
higher as compared to other countries.
What the business community
claimed was just a justification to demand lowering the rate, said the eminent economist. If lowering of the
rate does not help grow investments,
it will only benefit the business, not
the country.
He said: The business has been
claiming that investment will be increased through lowering the tax
rate, but the reality is the investment
will not be increased until the basic
pre-conditions for investment including connections of gas and electricity, sufficient land for industries
and good communication systems
are met.
According to a KPMG conducted Corporate and Indirect Tax Rate
Survey 2014, the corporate tax rate
in some South Asian countries are
33.99% in India, 20% in Afghanistan,
34% in Pakistan, and 28% in Sri Lanka.
Different chambers and associations have long been urging the government to reduce the corporate tax
rate for both the publicly listed and
non-listed companies.
The Federation of Bangladesh
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) demanded reducing the
corporate tax to 40% from existing
42.5%, for publicly traded companies
to 35% from 37.5%, for non-publicly

traded companies (manufacturing)

32.5% and for non-manufacturing
and trading companies to 35%.
For the publicly traded mobile
companies, they demanded it should
be 40% and 42.5% for listed and
non-listed companies respectively.
Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Prof Mustafizur Rahman
emphasised on bringing the non-listed companies under the listed companys list first, rather than lowering
the tax rate to support increasing the
revenue collection.
There is a huge possibility that
lowering the corporate tax rate will
have negative impact on the revenue
collection as the revenue target set
for the FY14-15 is already challenging
to achieve, he pointed out.
Former NBR Chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid said theoretically
the lower tax rate helps increase the
number of taxpayers, but the question is whether the theory is applicable for Bangladesh or not.
Before the tax cut, the government should find out alternative
measures to make up the losses by
ensuring an atmosphere where transparency and increase of tax net will
be ensured, he said.
He also noted that before lowering
the tax rate, NBR has to ensure that
the revenue losses to be incurred has
to be compensated through taking
effective measures like plugging of
loopholes in the tax system, and expansion of the income tax base. l

Muhith: Policy on cards to

make PPP successful
n Tribune Report
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the government will formulate a policy framework to make PPP
(public private partnership) initiatives
successful.
As PPP initiatives became unsuccessful over the years, a technical committee will be formed to speed up the
initiatives, he told reporters after a
pre-budget meeting with secretaries of
different ministries at the NEC building
in Dhaka.
He said around 10% of the tenders
of all ministries will be brought under
e-tendering system.
About mega projects, he said such

Wata shares to back on DSE main market tomorrow

n Tribune Report
Share trading of Wata Chemicals,
which was in the OTC market for
last four years, will begin at the DSE
main market from tomorrow.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange board
last week approved reenlistment of
the company, paving the way to
transfer it to the main board from
the over the counter (OTC) market,
a separate trading floor for junk
shares.
DSE in a statement yesterday

said trading of the shares of the

company has been transferred from
the OTC market to the main market
of DSE with effect from May 14.
Its trading code is WATACHEM,
face value Tk10 each, market lot
200 shares and opening adjusted
price will be Tk49.5 (last close price
at OTC market), it said.
The circuit breaker and circuit
filter (price limit) shall remain operative from the first trading day at
DSE as shares of the company have
already been traded and market

price is available in the OTC market,

according to the statement.
In 2009, the DSE and Chittagong
Stock Exchange had delisted Wata
Chemicals for non-compliance
with the regulations, including
non-issuance of dividends for
shareholders of the company since
2003.
As the company complied
with all the regulations required
for beginning trade in the main
board, the bourse allows it to begin
trading in the main market, said

another official.
Earlier, the company appealed
for re-enlistment after it became
regularised in holding annual general meetings and paying dividends
to its shareholders.
The Bangladesh Securities and
Exchange Commission on August
9 last year, issued no objection
letter to the company for re-enlistment with the stock exchanges
and asked to consider Watas
application as per the listing regulations. l

projects will be kept beyond budgetary

framework for faster and smooth implementation.
The minister said different ministries proposed to make sitting arrangement of government officials near to
each other to make official works faster, he said. This proposal is very good.
I will consider it.
He asked secretaries of different
ministries to undertake projects under
their respective ministries to ensure
their timely implementation.
Sometimes a huge number of projects are taken, but those are mostly impractical to implement, he said, adding that new process will be ironed out
for efficient implementation. l

Bangladeshs gross domestic product

is expected to slow down to 5.6% in
the current fiscal year, said a report
published yesterday by Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The quarterly economic update
mainly blamed the declining remittances and tapering export growth
during the remainder of the year.
This has in turn affected the private
credit growth declining imports of consumer goods and capital machinery.
The report said macroeconomic policies are generally sound, with inflation
showing a rising trend in recent months,
the latest monetary policy statement
of Bangladesh Bank, issued in January
2014, adopted a more cautious policy
stance to keep inflationary pressures under control. ADB has, however, predicted higher growth in agriculture sector.
The growths in industrial and service sectors will slow to 8% and 5.4% respectively due to sluggish private sector
investment and weak business environment, said the Asian lender. It has also
made suggestions to the government
for financing public investment in infrastructure and skill deployment.
ADB also suggested strengthening banking governance, undertaking
trade reforms and implementing public-private partnership projects.
The report also said unlike the increasing trend during the 1990s, income inequality did not worsen during
the FY2005-FY2010.
In addition, ADB has acknowledged
steady progress made in poverty reduction, stating out that extreme poverty fell by approximately 22.6% during
the two decades since FY1990. l

B2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stock
DSE GAINERS

Stocks end flat

with choppy
trading

DSE key features

May 12, 2014

Traded Issues

286

n Tribune Report

Issue Gain
(Avg. Price Basis)

140

Issue Loss
(Avg. Price Basis)

142

3,941.39
96,879,171

Number of Contract

allied, ceramic, engineering and

pharma sectors were reeling under
selling pressure.
The market breadth remained
positive as out of 286 issues traded,
159 advanced, 96 declined and 31
remained unchanged.
Lanka Bangla Securities said after rising above 4,500-mark, market acted volatile amid a very low
level of turnover.
It said bank gained 0.2%, cement
0.4% and textile sector 0.6%, while
ceramic, engineering and pharma
fell by 1.4%, 0.7% and 1.7% respectively.
Zenith Investments said market
has formed a seesaw pattern after continuously drifting between
gains and losses, but there was a
pickup in buying during the final
hour.
It said textile sector acted as a
magnet for the market during the
early hours of trade and later other
sectors like cement, banks, pharmaceuticals and chemicals also
joined in.
Grameenphone was the most
traded stocks with shares worth
Tk17 crore changing hands, followed by Matin Spinning, Lanka
Bangla Finance, MBL First Mutual
Fund, Square Pharmaceuticals and
Meghna Petroleum. l

Stocks closed flat amid choppy

trading yesterday, with limited participation in trading.
The market swung between red
and green throughout the entire
session, as investors were cautious
over the future course of the market plagued with short-term profit
booking in recent days.
After sharp fall in the previous
two sessions, the benchmark DSEX
lost 1 point to close at 4,497, hitting highest 4,510 in the mid-session and lowest 4,490 in the final
session.
The comprising blue chips index
DS30 was down 7 points or 0.5%
to 1,637. The Shariah index DSES
closed at 1,004 with a fractional
gain of 0.7 points.
The Chittagong Stock Exchanges Selective Category Index,
CSCX, dropped 19 points to 8,650.
Strong buying and selling has
increased the trading activities as
turnover in value at DSE was Tk394
crore, slightly up 4% over the previous session.
Most of the sectors performed
mixed. Bank, cement, fuel and
power and textile sectors were in
flat green zone, while non-banking
financial institutions and food and

Company

Turnover
(Million Taka)
Turnover
(Volume)

83,134

Unchanged Issue (Avg.

Price Basis)

Market Capital Equity

(Billion. Tk.)

2,311.17

Market Capital Equity

(Billion US$)

28.01

CSE key features

May 12, 2014
Turnover (Million Taka)

297.65

Turnover (Volume)

Daily capital market highlights

8,613,615

Number of Contract

11,208

DSE Broad Index :

4497.12267

(-) 0.03%

Traded Issues

218

DSE Shariah Index :

1004.74733

(+) 0.06%

Issue Gain
(Avg. Price Basis)

86

DSE - 30 Index :

1637.88036

(-) 0.43%

Issue Loss
(Avg. Price Basis)

127

CSE All Share Index:

13879.2612

(-) 0.24%

Unchanged Issue (Avg.

Price Basis)

CSE - 30 Index :

11425.7917

(-) 0.26%

Market Capital Equity

(Billion. Tk.)

2,213.51

CSE Selected Index :

8650.12840

(-) 0.23%

Market Capital Equity

(Billion US$)

26.83

DSE LOSERS

SonarBangla Insu. -A
Samata LeatheR -Z
Progressive Life-A
Phoenix Insur -A
Premier Bank -A
Paramount Insur-A
Shahjalal Islami -A
Eastern Cables-A

-11.02
-6.96
-6.62
-6.35
-5.50
-5.07
-4.84
-4.53

Average (%
change)
-10.81
-6.97
-6.58
-7.32
-6.66
-5.84
-5.06
-4.31

LankaBangla Fin. -A
5th ICB M F-A

-4.51
-4.46

-4.65
-4.10

Company

Closing (%
change)

CSE LOSERS

Rupali Life Insur.-A

Aramit -A
SonarBangla Insu. -A
Premier Bank -A
Eastern Cables-A
EXIM Bank-A
Shahjalal Islami -A
LankaBangla Fin. -A

-8.73
-8.31
-6.42
-6.36
-5.93
-5.31
-4.80
-4.50

Average (%
change)
-6.96
-8.30
-6.61
-6.65
-4.73
-4.67
-5.18
-4.64

Daffodil Computers -Z
MeghnaCement -A

-4.00
-3.90

-3.92
-3.90

Company

Closing (%
change)

ANALYST

Closing
average

Closing

Bank
NBFI
Investment
Engineering
Food & Allied
Fuel & Power
Jute
Textile
Pharma & Chemical
Paper & Packaging
Service
Leather
Ceramic
Cement
Information Technology
General Insurance
Life Insurance
Telecom
Travel & Leisure
Miscellaneous
Debenture

DSE
Million Taka
381.01
259.05
171.71
330.59
396.53
361.28
1.63
536.23
412.16
0.17
74.54
41.87
16.70
199.29
22.27
70.57
66.10
513.32
22.43
63.58
0.37

Turnover
in million

Daily low

Latest
EPS

Latest
PE

20.87
29.50
121.45
36.44
10.23
20.46
11.82
130.17

21.00
29.40
121.40
36.90
10.30
20.60
11.80
128.50

21.50
30.00
122.00
37.70
10.50
20.90
12.20
135.00

19.60
28.90
121.00
35.50
9.00
19.00
11.20
127.60

1.346
0.236
1.336
6.002
28.311
1.708
12.502
6.886

1.52
0.09
2.30
3.04
1.48
1.32
-0.88
2.03

13.7
327.8
52.8
12.0
6.9
15.5
-ve
64.1

48.01
195.00

48.70
194.90

50.00
195.10

45.90
194.00

140.409
0.195

1.24
18.67

National Housing Fin.-B

Central Insur -A
Delta SpinnersA
Kohinoor Chem -A
ISN Ltd. -Z
CVO PetroChem RL-Z
Rahima Food -Z
Salvo Chemicals-B
JMI Syringes MDL-A
Meghna PET Ind. -Z

Closing (%
change)
9.66
9.35
8.25
8.09
7.00
6.90
6.76
5.38
5.30
5.17

CSE GAINERS
Company
GreenDeltaInsu -A
National Housing Fin.-B
Delta SpinnersA
Rahima Food -Z
Nitol Insurance -A
Salvo Chemicals-B
Marico BD Ltd-A
Asia Pasific Insu. -A
ISN Ltd. -Z
JMI Syringes MDL-A

Closing (%
change)
9.57
8.33
7.69
7.64
6.64
6.25
6.18
6.12
6.06
5.45

Average (%
change)
10.15
7.82
8.73
7.79
6.85
8.38
5.87
2.77
3.51
1.67
Average (%
change)
9.62
8.91
7.14
7.91
6.72
4.02
4.51
6.12
4.65
4.50

Closing
average
31.90
26.48
20.93
361.11
10.77
885.63
47.25
23.03
159.79
6.10

Closing
average
95.00
32.65
20.85
46.94
32.10
23.29
1165.40
26.00
10.36
161.19

Closing
31.80
26.90
21.00
362.10
10.70
884.90
47.40
23.50
162.90
6.10

Closing
95.00
32.50
21.00
47.90
32.10
23.80
1184.00
26.00
10.50
162.40

Daily high
31.90
27.00
21.30
364.30
11.00
889.80
48.00
23.90
164.80
6.10

Daily high
95.00
33.00
21.30
48.40
32.10
24.00
1184.00
26.00
10.80
167.80

Daily low
29.00
24.50
19.50
335.00
9.00
820.00
44.70
20.10
154.60
6.10

Daily low
95.00
29.00
19.80
45.00
32.10
22.20
1130.00
26.00
10.00
156.00

Turnover
in million
19.545
4.994
67.840
0.754
0.811
91.399
4.607
35.544
16.698
0.006

Turnover
in million
0.038
0.833
6.181
0.376
0.048
6.295
0.291
0.429
0.083
2.176

Latest
EPS
2.32
3.64
0.55
9.37
0.20
-3.16
-1.01
1.09
2.08
-1.33

Latest
EPS
3.00
2.32
0.55
-1.01
3.24
1.09
43.99
1.55
0.20
2.08

Latest
PE
13.8
7.3
38.1
38.5
53.9
-ve
-ve
21.1
76.8
-ve

Latest
PE
31.7
14.1
37.9
-ve
9.9
21.4
26.5
16.8
51.8
77.5

News from trade server

ISLAMIBANK: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 384.05
million with consolidated basic EPS of Tk.
0.26 (restated 0.24) as against Tk. 278.22
million and Tk. 0.19 (0.17) respectively.
NBL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 356.60 million with
consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.25 (restated
0.23) as against Tk. (142.90) million and
Tk. -0.10 (-0.09) respectively.
PREMIERBAN: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 206.51
million with consolidated basic EPS of Tk.
0.40 (restated 0.37) as against Tk. 16.40
million and Tk. 0.03 (0.03) respectively.
SHAHJABANK: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. -159.85
million with consolidated basic EPS of Tk.
-0.24 ( restated 0.22) as against Tk. 98.46
million and Tk. 0.15 (0.13) respectively.
EXIMBANK: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. -827.26
million with consolidated EPS of Tk. -0.72
(restated 0.64) as against Tk. -740.34
million and Tk. -0.64 (-0.58) respectively.
LANKABAFIN: (Q1): NPAT=Tk. 67.72
million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.31
as against Tk. 74.71 million and Tk. 0.34
respectively.
RANFOUNDRY: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 7.67
million with EPS of Tk. 0.77 as against Tk.
7.52 million and Tk. 0.75 respectively.
RENATA: (Q1): NPAT=Tk. 403.30 million

with consolidated basic EPS of Tk. 11.42

(restated 9.14) as against Tk. 355.86 million
and Tk. 10.08 (8.06) respectively.
ISNLTD: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 0.53 million with
EPS of Tk. 0.05 as against Tk. (0.26) million
and Tk. (0.02) respectively. Accumulated
profit/(loss) of the Company was Tk. (1.19)
million as on 31.03.2014.
NHFIL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 61.68 million with
EPS of Tk. 0.58 as against Tk. 0.54 million
and Tk. 0.01 respectively.
NITOLINS: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 19.53 million
with basic EPS of Tk. 0.90 (restated 0.81)
as against Tk. 13.13 million and Tk. 0.61
(0.54) respectively.
RUPALIINS: (Q1): NPAT=Tk. 34.50 million
with basic EPS of Tk. 0.66 (restated 0.60)
as against Tk. 27.71 million and Tk. 0.53
(0.48) respectively.
PHENIXINS: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 30.64
million with EPS of Tk. 0.76 as against Tk.
29.51 million and Tk. 0.73 respectively.
CENTRALINS: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 37.85
million with EPS of Tk. 0.91 as against Tk.
29.51 million and Tk. 0.71 (restated) respectively.
AFTABAUTO: Credit Rating Agency
of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has

announced the entity rating (surveillance) of the Company as "AA3" based

on audited financial statements of the
Company up to 31 August 2013; bank
liability position as on 31 March 2014 and
other relevant quantitative as well as
qualitative information up to the date of
rating declaration.
Wata Chemicals Ltd.: As per decision of the
Board of Directors of DSE, trading of the
shares of Wata Chemicals Ltd. has been
transferred from the OTC Market to the
Main Market of DSE with effect from May
14, 2014 under "A" category in accordance
with Regulation 2(1)(a) of the Dhaka Stock
Exchange (Settlement of Transactions)
Regulations, 2013. DSE Trading Code for
Wata Chemicals Ltd. is "WATACHEM",
DSE Company Code # 18467, Face Value
Tk. 10.00 each, Market Lot 200 shares
and Open Adjusted Price is Tk. 49.50 (last
close price at DSE OTC Market). The circuit
breaker and circuit filter (price limit) shall
remain operative from the first trading day
(i.e. May 14, 2014) at DSE as shares of the
Company have already been traded and
market price is available in the DSE OTC
Market.

38.7
10.4

Closing
average

Closing

Daily high

Turnover
in million

Daily low

Latest
EPS

Latest
PE

92.02
287.03
20.36
10.24
129.09
10.83
11.90
48.29

92.00
287.00
20.40
10.30
127.00
10.70
11.90
48.80

92.10
287.10
20.60
9.90
132.00
11.30
13.00
50.00

92.00
287.00
20.10
10.00
126.10
10.60
11.80
47.10

0.230
0.057
0.102
6.985
0.258
3.612
2.529
9.331

5.33
12.56
1.52
1.48
2.03
-2.56
-0.88
1.24

17.3
22.9
13.4
6.9
63.6
-ve
-ve
38.9

12.00
113.40

12.00
113.40

12.00
115.00

12.00
110.20

0.060
0.034

0.68
7.00

17.6
16.2

After rising above 4,500-mark,

market acted volatile amid a very
low level of turnover

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company
Grameenphone-A
Olympic Ind. -A
Matin Spinning-N
LankaBangla Fin. -A
MBL 1st M. F.-A
Square Pharma -A
Meghna Petroleum -A

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector

Daily high

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

% change
9.67
6.57
4.36
8.39
10.06
9.17
0.04
13.61
10.46
0.00
1.89
1.06
0.42
5.06
0.56
1.79
1.68
13.02
0.57
1.61
0.01

Million Taka
40.24
16.59
7.04
31.90
38.71
49.84
78.21
23.76
66.03
1.80
66.49
2.37
26.16
2.16
2.20
5.97
21.44
3.93
10.39
0.03

CSE

% change
8.13
3.35
1.42
6.44
7.82
10.06
0.00
15.79
4.80
13.33
0.36
13.43
0.48
5.28
0.44
0.44
1.21
4.33
0.79
2.10
0.01

Million Taka
421.25
275.63
178.75
362.50
435.24
411.12
1.63
614.44
435.93
66.20
76.34
108.36
19.07
225.44
24.43
72.77
72.07
534.76
26.35
73.97
0.39

Total

% change
9.49
6.21
4.03
8.17
9.81
9.27
0.04
13.85
9.83
1.49
1.72
2.44
0.43
5.08
0.55
1.64
1.62
12.05
0.59
1.67
0.01

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

CVO PetroChem RL-Z

LafargeS Cement-Z
BD Submarine Cable-A

Emerald Oil Ind. -N

Padma Oil Co. -A
Appollo Ispat CL -N
Eastern Housing -A
Delta SpinnersA

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company
HeidelbergCement -A

Matin Spinning-N
Appollo Ispat CL -N
BD Submarine Cable-A
Grameenphone-A
LankaBangla Fin. -A
Premier Bank -A
Meghna Petroleum -A
Salvo Chemicals-B
Delta SpinnersA
LafargeS Cement-Z
Mozaffar H.Spinning-N
UCBL - A
Paramount Textile Ltd.-A
BEXIMCO Ltd. -A

Volume
shares
1,612,731
690,136
2,928,200
2,924,358
11,569,500
353,221
324,376
103,202
1,257,500
397,960

1,469,500
216,292
2,427,400
1,106,433
3,241,900

Volume
shares

29,200
286,200
427,200
56,000
38,600
193,230
681,921
22,563
270,239
296,400
90,000
188,500
221,931
128,280
172,563

Value in
million
434.78
165.74
143.98
140.41
99.06
97.67
92.85
91.40
85.96
78.54

76.55
72.21
70.11
69.92
67.84

Value in
million

15.36
14.03
12.33
11.05
10.39
9.33
6.99
6.45
6.30
6.18
6.13
6.00
5.80
5.24
4.61

% of total
turnover
11.03
4.21
3.65
3.56
2.51
2.48
2.36
2.32
2.18
1.99

1.94
1.83
1.78
1.77
1.72

% of total
turnover

5.80
5.30
4.66
4.17
3.92
3.53
2.64
2.44
2.38
2.34
2.32
2.27
2.19
1.98
1.74

Daily
closing
270.50
238.10
48.10
48.70
8.70
276.80
285.20
884.90
68.50
194.40

51.20
332.40
28.40
62.50
21.00

Daily
closing

531.30
47.90
28.40
194.00
270.90
48.80
10.30
285.10
23.80
21.00
68.10
31.00
26.30
39.80
26.70

Price
change
0.37
-0.17
-3.02
-4.51
4.82
0.04
-1.52
6.90
0.15
-1.62

Daily
opening
269.50
238.50
49.60
51.00
8.30
276.70
289.60
827.80
68.40
197.60

Daily
high
271.60
242.00
50.40
50.00
8.80
279.00
289.80
889.80
68.80
203.00

Price
change

Daily
opening

Daily
high

-2.29
-1.13
-0.35
-2.80
8.25

1.74
-3.04
-0.70
-1.67
0.67
-4.50
-6.36
-1.59
6.25
7.69
-0.58
-1.59
0.38
-2.45
0.00

52.40
336.20
28.50
64.30
19.40

522.20
49.40
28.60
197.30
269.10
51.10
11.00
289.70
22.40
19.50
68.50
31.50
26.20
40.80
26.70

53.30
337.80
29.30
65.00
21.30

545.00
50.50
29.30
202.00
271.50
50.00
9.90
294.00
24.00
21.30
68.90
32.70
26.50
41.90
27.00

Daily
low
265.00
225.00
47.80
45.90
8.30
270.00
275.00
820.00
67.80
185.00

Daily
average
269.59
240.15
49.17
48.01
8.56
276.51
286.25
885.63
68.35
197.36

Daily
low

Daily
average

51.00
320.00
28.10
58.00
19.50

520.00
47.00
28.30
193.00
266.10
47.10
10.00
284.60
22.20
19.80
67.90
30.80
25.80
39.30
26.60

52.09
333.84
28.88
63.19
20.93

525.97
49.04
28.87
197.34
269.11
48.29
10.24
285.90
23.29
20.85
68.13
31.82
26.13
40.86
26.74

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Parrot launching
smartphone
controlled drones
n AFP, San Francisco
Wireless products maker Parrot unveiled a drone Sunday aimed squarely
at smartphone or tablet owners keen
on getting birds eye views of the world.
Parrot billed its Bebop Drone as a
flying high-quality camera that will
land in the market in the final three
months this year.
The Paris-based maker of wireless
accessories for automobiles and handheld mobile devices did not disclose
how much it plans to charge for the
drones.
The experience is like being a bird,
an insect, Parrot founder and chief
Henri Seydoux said while providing an
early look at Bebop drones in San Francisco.
You fly through the device and see
the same thing as if you were a bird.
A Bebop drone can be controlled using smartphones or tablet computers
powered by Apple or Android software,
displaying on screens what is captured
by its high-definition camera with a
180-degree fish-eye view.
The drones can also synch to Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, letting
wearers essentially look around by
moving their heads as though they are
actually flying.
Consumer targets for the drones,
which are essentially motion-stabilized

cameras, include people who want to

capture aerial shots for movies made
using smartphones or tablets.
Bebop drones link to mobile devices
using standard Wi-Fi connections and
have ranges of about 980 feet (300 meters).
Parrot said it will sell separately a
Skycontroller accessory dock for mobile devices to boost flying distances to
about 1.2 miles (two kilometers).
A homing feature lets people controlling Bebop drones order them to return automatically to where they tookoff using GPS capabilities, according to
Seydoux.
A 2.2-pound (one-kilogram) Bebop
drone, whose camera is taken aloft by
four propellers, buzzed like a swarm of
bees as it swooped, circled and hovered
in an inner courtyard at a historic former US mint building in downtown San
Francisco.
The drones are designed to fly indoors or outdoors.
Imagery captured by drones is
stored and can be digitally downloaded after Bebops return from flights,
according to Parrot product manager
Francois Callou.
Bebop drones will debut as communities and regulators grapple with privacy concerns, aviation risks and other
issues raised by personal or business
use of such devices in the skies. l

Parrot product manager Francois Callou remotely controls a Bebop Drone as it peers at a swarm of reporters and shows what it sees on a screen at the historic Old Mint in San Francisco.
The Bebop Drone can be remotely controlled using smartphones or tablets
AFP

IEA says extra $44tn needed for clean energy future

n AFP, Seoul

The global cost of securing a clean energy future is rising by the year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned
yesterday, estimating that an additional
$44tn of investment was needed to
meet 2050 carbon reduction targets.
Releasing its biennial Energy Technology Perspectives report in Seoul,

the agency said electricity would increasingly power the worlds economies in the decades to come, rivalling
oil as the dominant energy carrier.
Surging electricity demand posed
serious challenges, said IEA executive
director Maria van der Hoeven.
We must get it right, but were on
the wrong path at the moment, Van
der Hoeven told reporters in the South

Korean capital.
Growing use of coal globally is
overshadowing progress in renewable
energy deployment, and the emissions
intensity of the electricity system has
not changed in 20 years despite some
progress in some regions.
A radical change of course at the
global level is long overdue, she said.
Such a change would, however, be

expensive, and the IEA stressed the importance of governments minimising

investment risks in the energy sector so
as to encourage institutional funding.
The agency said an additional $44tn
in investment was needed to secure a
clean-energy future by 2050, compared to the $36tn it had estimated in
its 2012 report.
The increase partly shows some-

thing the IEA has said for some time:

the longer we wait, the more expensive
it becomes to transform our energy system, Van der Hoeven said.
While the deployment of clean energy technology in emerging economies
has rallied over the past year - making
up for declines in the industrialised
world - the overall picture remains
bleak, according to the reports lead au-

thor David Elzinga.

We are not making the technical
progress needed to bring down the cost
yet, Elzinga said.
Attracting capital investment will
be crucial to financing the transition to
a clean energy system, the report said,
but high capital costs meant investors
would need support to alleviate their
exposure to a shift in risk profiles. l