24 Feb, 2016

SECOND EDITION

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

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Falgun 12, 1422, Jamadiul Awal 14, 1437

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 309

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www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

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Falgun 12, 1422, Jamadiul Awal 14, 1437

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 309

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www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

Asia Cup T20 set for blockbuster opener n Mazhar Uddin

Hosts Bangladesh will be up against a formidable India side when the 14th edition of the Asia Cup gets underway today at Mirpur’s Shere-Bangla National Stadium. Star Sports 1 and Maasranga TV will telecast it live.

Ever since their first Twenty20 international in 2006, Bangladesh have struggled in the shortest format of the game. Keeping that in mind, Tigers coach Chandika Hathurusingha conducted several training sessions in Chittagong and Khulna and the cricketers are confident of putting on a good show in the tournament opener against their sub-continent rival.

Mashrafe bin Mortaza and his troop have exhibited brilliant cricket last year, especially in ODIs, but against India, the Tigers will encoun  PAGE 4 COLUMN 4

INSIDE Araf will never be in his father’s embrace

Six-month-old Araf can crawl and has only begun to utter a few broken words. He is too young to understand that his father will never return home to embrace him with love.  PAGE 5

Study: Sea level rising at fastest pace in 2,800 years The world’s oceans are rising at a faster rate than any time in the past 2,800 years, researchers say.  PAGE 23

Some stalls allegedly selling pirated books

Several publishers at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016 have complained of some book stalls showcasing and selling pirated books, breaching the fair guidelines.  PAGE 32

Captains of the four participating nations of Asia Cup 2016 hold the tournament trophy during its unveiling ceremony in the capital yesterday. The Asia Cup kicks off at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

ATM BOOTH SKIMMING

Two foreigner suspects flee the country n Kamrul Hasan Two foreigners suspected to be involved with the recent ATM booth skimming have already fled the country, sources close to the investigation have said.

Interpol’s help would be sought for arresting the two Europeans who are believed to have provided technical support to other members of the forgery gang, a law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity.

The fugitive suspects are a former Ukrainian policeman named Andy and a Romanian citizen named Romeo; currently Andy is believed to be in his own home country, and Romeo in Istanbul.

Both of them arrived in Bangladesh on January 31 to provide technical support to the forgers. After the scam was exposed, Romeo left the country on February 13 and Andy on February 16.

A law enforcer, who is involved in the ongoing probe, told the Dhaka Tribune that Interpol’s help would be sought as soon as the five-day remands for those arrest-

Investigators say more than a hundred others, including 50 bankers, are still under police surveillance for their suspected ties to the ATM card forgery scam

ed in the case are over.

On Sunday, police arrested four people in connection with the recent ATM forgery. The suspects are Piotr Szczepan Mazurek alias Thomas, who came to Bangladesh with a Polish passport on business visa a year ago, and three bank officials from the City Bank’s card division: Maksud, Rezaul Karim Shahin and Refaz Ahmed Roni.

Investigators yesterday said more than a hundred others, including 50 bankers, were still under police surveillance.

There is already enough proof to arrest a further eight to ten people who were involved in the crime, sources said.

DMP Detective Branch chief, Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam, said they were currently verifying the information given by the arrestees, while proper action would be taken after remand.

According to investigators, around ten banks which facilitated point of sale service to the forgery victims were currently under probe.

Meanwhile, detectives said they had recently received another complaint from a ATM forgery victim, who is the client of a private bank which was not previously reported as a target of the scam.

The victim reportedly had Tk48,000 stolen from his account through ATM booth skimming.

However, sources refused to disclose the name of the new bank because of ongoing investigation. l

Court orders reinvestigation into Pohela Boishakh sexual assault n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday directed the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to re-investigate the case filed in connection with sexual harassment of several women during the Pohela Boishakh celebrations on Dhaka University campus last year.

Judge Joyasri Samaddar of the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 3 passed the order after accepting a no-confidence petition filed by Special Public Prosecutor Mahmuda Akter.

The petition says: “As the case is a sensational one, it should be re-investigated.”

The court also asked the PBI to submit the probe report by March 23.

During the case proceedings, police produced the sex offender, Md Kamal, arrested in a drive from a residence in the capital’s Chawkbazar area.

According to the case documents, a group of youths assaulted and sexually harassed a number of women at Suhrawardy Udyan gate near Dhaka University’s TSC during Pohela Boishakh celebrations on April 14, 2015.  PAGE 4 COLUMN 4

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JMB, Jamaat working together in the north n

Mohammad Jamil Khan

Banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has been using the Jamaat-e-Islami to recruit members in Bangladesh’s north, investigators claim.

Humayun Kabir, deputy inspector general of police’s Rangpur range, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that most JMB members were young men from poor families who studied in madrasas.

A police source said: “The JMB is using Jamaat’s huge network to recruit new members. Most JMB men arrested in this region were previously involved with either Jamaat or its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir.”

Deputy Inspector General Monirul Islam had told the Dhaka Tribune that during interrogations several Jamaat leaders had confessed to working with the militant group.

Jamaat leaders could not be contacted for comments.

Investigators of the recent killing of a Hindu priest in Panchagarh said they learned that JMB militants, working in small groups, used hit-and-run tactic to attack Hindu and Christian priests and foreigners.

Law-enforcers claim to have identified 12 JMB groups operating in the region, mainly in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Panchagarh and Gaibandha. They say they got the information from several JMB activists

arrested in Gaibandha last week.

The leader of the group is Sadat alias Ratan Miah.

On Sunday, three motorcycle-borne assailants attacked the Sonto Gaurio Temple in Panchagarh’s Debiganj upazila and slaughtered priest Jogeshwar Roy, 50. His neighbour Gopal Chandra Roy, 35, was injured when he tried to save Jogeshwar.

Our Panchagarh correspondent said police were interrogating two suspected JMB men and a Shibir activist over the incident. They are Khalilur Rahman, 45, Bablu Hossain, 40, and Jahangir Alam, 25.

DIG Humayun said: “We have got some clues about the group responsible for the killing and hope to arrest them soon.”

Investigators, for the first time, said they suspected international link behind the recent murder.

Tanvir Hassan Zoha, focus person of the Cyber Safety Programme, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that a tweet claiming responsibility for the killing was sent from Chittagong.

The message, uploaded from an Android device, has been found on ISBD 2 and other purported IS-operated Facebook pages, he said adding that they would be able to pinpoint the location within a day or two.

Zoha, currently giving technical support to Police Bureau of Investigation and assisting in probing

Jogeshwar’s killing, said: “After analysing militant activities and the message upload history, we suspect that international groups could have had a hand in this killing. But it is not the right time to make assertions. We hope to verify it shortly and identify location and possible activities of these groups.”

DIG Monirul contested the claim. “We have found no such links in previous cases. But the investigation is at its primary stage and its too early to say who is responsible,” he said.

Terrorist group Islamic State had reportedly claimed credit in the past over various religious attacks and killing of foreigners and secular writers in Bangladesh but the government rejected the claims saying the militant group was not active in the country.

Monirul said they were in touch with local police over the priest’s killing in Panchagarh. “We will assist them in the investigation, if needed,” he added.

Sources said recently arrested militant suspects had told investigators that the JMB high command asked its members not to use regular cell phones to avoid detection.

The outfit’s members were using smartphones. They record instructions on memory sticks and use them to communicate. These cards can be easily destroyed if the JMB members are caught, the sources added. l

GATCO CASE

Khaleda asked to surrender n

Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday asked BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to appear before the court on April 13 in connection with Gatco graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 3 passed the order after receiving copy of the High Court’s February 15 verdict that rejected two petitions filed by Khaleda challenging the legality of proceedings in the case.

The court is also dealing Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust cases filed against Khaleda and eight others.

On September 2, 2007, the ACC filed the Gatco case with Tejgaon police station against Khaleda, her youngest son late Arafat Rahman Koko, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and 10 others.

The case was filed under the Emer-

gency Powers Rules.

According to the case statement, there was corruption in the awarding of a contract to Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Company Ltd (Gatco) for container management at inland depots in Dhaka and Chittagong.

The corruption allegedly cost the state exchequer over Tk1,000 crore.

On May 13, 2008, ACC Deputy Director Johirul Huda, also investigation officer of the case, submitted charges against Khaleda, Koko and 11 others.

The other charge-sheeted accused are former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, former LGRD minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, former health minister Dr Khandakar Mosharraf, former land minister M Shamsul Islam, former agriculture minister MK Anwar, former commerce minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, former state minister for energy AKM Moshar-

raf Hossain and former industries minister Motiur Rahman Nizami.

The three others are former shipping secretary Zulfikar Haider Chowdhury, former member of Chittagong Port Authority AK Rashid Uddin Ahmed, and Gatco Director Shahjahan M Hasib.

The HC on July 15, 2008, stayed the case proceedings against Khaleda and issued a ruling upon the government and the ACC to explain why the case proceedings should not be quashed.

The ACC on January 27 last year moved to revive the case and prayed the High Court to start hearing a ruling in which it questioned the legality of filing the case under the Emergency Powers Rules 2007.

Khaleda was arrested in the case on September 2, 2007. She was freed the following year after she secured bail in Gatco and three other cases. l

Lawyer Shakila Farzana’s bail stayed n Tribune Report The Supreme Court yesterday stayed the bail of pro-BNP lawyer Shakila Farzana, detained allegedly for financing militant outfit Shahid Hamza Brigade, in two cases.

Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique came up with the order in response to a government petition.

The court also placed the petition for a full bench hearing on February 29.

On Monday, the High Court granted her bail in the cases filed with Hathazari and Banshkhali police under the Anti-Terrorism Act until the charge framing. The bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and

Justice AKM Zahirul Hoque passed the order disposing of a ruling.

RAB arrested Shakila on August 18 last year along with two of her associates. The trio later told the court that they had deposited Tk1.08 crore to an account without knowing that it was owned by a militant leader. The money was taken as advance to deal with the cases against leaders of radical Islamist platform Hefazat-e-Islam.

The account is owned by Moniruzzaman Don, a top leader of the militant group now in jail.

The other accused are Supreme Court lawyer Md Hasanuzzaman Liton and Dhaka Judge’s Court lawyer Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapon. l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

Asia Cup T20

ter a strong batting line up. With that said, the hosts will be determined to give a good account of themselves ahead of next month’s World Twenty20 in India.

Mohammad Mithun is likely to make a comeback to the national set-up today and open the innings alongside Soumya Sarkar.

And following a successful promotion to No 3 in the Tigers’ last T20I series against Zimbabwe, Sabbir Rahman is expected to retain his spot while Nurul Hasan will be seen behind the stumps as Mushfiqur Rahim is likely to play as a specialist batsman.

Mashrafe will lead the pace-bowling attack and will have “cutter master” Mustafizur Rahman and Al Amin Hossain as his sidekicks. Left-arm spinners

Shakib al Hasan and Arafat Sunny, meanwhile, will face a stiff challenge against the Indian batsmen, who play spin well.

MS Dhoni’s India, in contrast, have been playing brilliant cricket of late, as was evident in their comprehensive T20I series victory against Sri Lanka. Dashing batsman Virat Kohli, who was rested against the Lankans, will return to the side, adding some much-needed strength to the top-order.

T20s are one of India’s strongest fortes but Dhoni and his side will be wary of the Tigers, who won the ODI series between the two sides last year.

The pitch at the home of cricket in Mirpur is expected to have some bounce on offer but as the game progresses, it is expected to provide purchase to the slower bowlers. l

Boishakh sexual assault The joyous celebration of the Bangalee’s biggest festival was tainted by the incident. It sparked a wave of protest throughout the country with people from all quarters including DU students’ organisations condemning the incident and demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

Later, police filed a case with Shahbagh police station over the incident on April 17. Police at first denied having any evidence of sexual assault while they termed the incident a mere scuffle.

But on May 17, AKM Shahidul Haque, the inspector general of police, told reporters that they had recognised the faces of eight men and sought help for capturing them and announced a reward of Tk1 lakh for the capture.

On December 13 last year, the Detective Branch submitted a final report to the court, saying that none of the sex offenders had been

identified.

“During the investigation, it was also proved that the incident was true and eight to ten miscreants carried out the assault on some women in the crowded place,” the final report said.

After accepting the final report, the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate sent the report to Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 3 on December 31 for its disposal.

On January 27, police arrested Md Kamal, 35, from his residence in the city’s old Dhaka area in connection with the incident.

Following the arrest, the DB submitted an application with the tribunal, seeking revival of the sexual assault case.

Following the plea, Judge Jayasri Samaddar of the court fixed February 23 to pass an order on the appeal and asked police to produce Kamal before court on that day. l

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Araf will never be in his father’s embrace n Arifur Rahman Rabbi

Six-month-old Araf can crawl and has only begun to utter a few broken words. He is too young to understand that his father Riaz Uddin Topu will never return home to embrace him with love.

On February 20, the family celebrated Topu’s birthday and second wedding anniversary. Two days later, BBA final-year student Topu was run over and killed by a reckless police vehicle in Dhaka.

A grief-stricken environment has grasped his family since then.

Araf’s mother could barely speak.

“Araf’s father has gone to the land of no return. He will never celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries again,” his family and friends lamented at his East Tejturi Bazar residence in Farmgate.

The janaza of Topu, an ASA University student, was held on yesterday afternoon. He will be buried at his village home in Gazipur’s Salna.

Topu, who worked at mobile company ‘Oppo’, was on his motorbike when a police requisitioned minibus without a number plate hit him, killing him on the spot. His colleague Rathin Sarker was with

Students of ASA University Bangladesh take to the streets in the capital’s Shyamoli area yesterday to protest the death of fellow student Riaz Uddin Topu (with his six-month-old son on the left), who was killed by a police vehicle running on the wrong side of the road in Kakoli area on Monday FACEBOOK/MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU him. “He would not have died had I not asked for a ride,” Rathin said as his voice chocked.

He said he was late for the launching of a new product at Radisson hotel and requested Topu for a ride. But the police vehicle, speeding on the wrong side, hit them.

Topu and his motorbike fell under the wheels. “Topu could have been

Tipu’s elder brother Haris Mohammad said he had filed a case with Banani police over the incident. He recalled that their sister had also died in a road accident in 2000.

“And now my brother is gone...”

saved had the police bus stopped,” he added. “Several pedestrian came forward and rushed us to hospital but police did nothing.”

Topu’s childhood friend Golam Samdani Sajib said he had rushed to the spot on hearing about the accident. “We had an altercation with police. They beat us up before briefly detaining us,” he added.

ASA students block road

Agitated students of ASA University took to the streets in Shyamoli in

3 remanded for killing Panchagarh priest

COMPENSATING EX-DEV PROJECT EMPLOYEES

Finance Division in a hurry to avoid prosecution n Asif Showkat Kallol

The Finance Division has sought the prime minister’s consent for executing a court order to fully compensating ex-development project officials deprived of financial benefits.

In 2008, the government stopped benefits such as time scale, selection grade and bonuses for former employees of donor-funded development project who were transferred to state-funded revenue projects.

Following that order, four such employees moved the High Court and the court settled the case in 2012 by asking the government to compensate all deserving employees. The government followed this up with two review and further review petitions, both of which were eventually turned down.

Last month, while disposing of the further review petition, the Hight Court asked the ministry to fully compensate by these officials – by January 20 – who were de-

TEMPERATURE FOREC AST FOR TODAY

prived off the benefits due to their transfer to revenue project at the end of the development projects.

Later, after hearing on a contempt charge on January 20 at the end of a seven-day deadline for executing that order, the court gave the ministry a further two months.

Correspondent, n Our Panchagarh

charged with contempt of court. We have to comply with the court order.”

He also said that the government will need over Tk6,000 crore to implement the court order.

According to a summary prepared by the Finance Division, there are around one million for-

A Panchagarh court has placed the three suspects in the murder of Hindu priest Joggeshwar Roy in 15 days of remand in two cases.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Marzia Khatun issued the order after police produced the trio before the court yesterday afternoon.

Sources at the court said the cases’ investigation officer, Debiganj police station OC (investigation) Ayub Ali, said in his remand petition that the suspects – Khalilur Rahman, 45, Bablu Hossain, 40, and Jahangir Alam, 25 – had given valuable information to police during primary interrogation, and police needed more time to gather more information and verify them.

Ayub pleaded to place the suspects in 20 days of remand – 10 days for each cases – and the court granted 15 days in total for both the cases, the sources said.

Earlier, in a night-long drive on

Nazrul Islam, general secretary of the Bangladesh Secretariat Employees Association, said the government would not need more than Tk1,200 crore for compensating those employees Finance Division’s lawyer Nahid Mahatab said: “The High Court order on contempt of court will be implemented within a short time, otherwise the respondents will face punishment.”

Senior Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “I am not going into the details of the case because I am also Dhaka

CLOUDY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24

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mer development project employees who were transferred to revenue project posts between 1972 to 1997 without the benefits.

However, Nazrul Islam, general secretary of the Bangladesh Secretariat Employees Association, said the government would not need more than Tk1,200 crore for compensating those employees. l 20

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DHAKA TODAY SUN SETS 5:58PM

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Khulna

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Barisal

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

TOMORROW SUN RISES 6:25AM

the afternoon demanding to bring the killers to book. Mohammadpur police OC Jamal Uddin Mir said they cleared the key road around 2pm.

Meanwhile, Waheduzzaman, Inspector (Investigation) of Banani police station told Dhaka tribune that police arrested the bus driver Julfiker Mollik. A Dhaka court granted police two days to interrogate him. l

33.5ºC Patuakhali

12.8ºC Dinajpur

Source: Accuweather/UNB

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PRAYER TIMES

Sunday, police arrested Khalil and Bablu, activists of banned Islamist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and Jahangir, a Islami Chhatra Shibir activist, for their suspected involvement in the murder.

Joggeshwar, 50, was slaughtered with a machete on the balcony of his house on Sunday morning.

He was the head priest at the Sree Sree Sonto Gourio Temple in Debiganj upazila of the district.

The killers also shot Joggeshwar’s neighbour and another priest named Gopal Chandra Roy, 35, when he tried to save the head priest.

According to US-based jihadi activities monitoring website SITE Intelligent Group, Da’esh, also known as the Islamic State, claimed the responsibilty for the attack.

But law enforcers refuted the claim and suspect that this attack was part of the series of JMB attacks on religious leaders and establishments. l Sylhet

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Fajr: 5:10am | Zohr: 12:12am Asr: 4:21pm | Magrib: 5:59pm Esha: 7:15pm Source: IslamicFinder.org

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Highway safety health plan aims to halve post-crash deaths n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla The top killer of people aged 15 to 29 must be confronted with a comprehensive action plan, participants heard at a workshop on road safety held at a city hotel yesterday.

Participants called for Bangladesh’s first-ever comprehensive health sector action plan to reduce road accidents, which are estimated to cause GDP losses of 1.6% per year.

The action plan’s aim of reducing post-crash deaths and disabilities by 50% is in line with the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). SDG target 3.6 is to “halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic acci-

dents” by 2020.

Pedestrians account for 45% of the victims of road accidents, participants said on the first day of the two-day workshop on “Finalisation of the Health Sector Action Plan on Road Safety” organised by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Presenting the draft action plan, AKM Fazlur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (Ciprb), said 33% of beds in primary and secondary level hospitals in Bangladesh were occupied by injury-related patients. He said more than 19% of injury patients had

been hurt in road accidents.

Based on data from three categories of government hospitals, in 2014 alone, some 175,865 people injured in road crashes were admitted to 484 hospitals across the country. Some 4,440 patients succumbed to their injuries.

The health sector action plan aims to reduce post-crash deaths and disabilities by 50% by 2020.

Dr Patanjali Dev Nayar, Southeast Asia regional adviser for disability, injury prevention and rehabilitation at the WHO, said road accident injury was the top cause of death among 15 to 29-year-olds.

“Not all victims die in road accidents. Survivors may need long

term health care and rehabilitation which is expensive,” he said.

The WHO expert suggested that Bangladesh should improve postcrash care and road safety data.

“No single agency has all the solutions. Efforts must be multi-sectoral, encourage civil society engagement and be effectively coordinated,” Nayar said.

Bangladesh currently has no emergency room injury surveillance system and no data on permanent disabilities due to road crashes.

“Moreover, there is no emergency access telephone number to call in the event of an accident,” he added. l

Shudhangsu Kumar Ray dies n Tribune Report

Famous carbohydrate chemistry expert and scientist Shudhangsu Kumar Ray died on February 18.

He was born in Bogra in 1955.

He graduated in chemistry from Rajshahi University in 1975 and completed his MSc in 1978 from the same department.

He started his professional career in 1980 as a scientific officer in Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR).

He retired in the year 2011.

Relatives, friends, and well-wishers have been requested to pray for eternal peace of his soul. l

Miracle baby still fighting for life n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Rajuk conducts a drive to demolish illegal establishments in the parking areas of a number of buildings in Panthapath area yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

The infant who miraculously survived a four-storey fall when his mother threw him out of the window of a Bailey Road house continues to fight for his life at the DMCH. The 24-day-old child, who is yet to be named and only mentioned as “Baby of Beauty” in the hospital register, is still not out of danger, according to the doctors treating him at the neonatal unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

An eight-member medical board, led by neonatal unit chief Dr Manisha Banarjee, is looking after the

boy at the moment. Dr Manisha said the child’s is not yet out of danger.

A bone of the boy’s broken leg has started to protrude from under the skin, while there were other complications with his facial bones and Bilirubin levels as well, Dr Manisha said.

Blood remains clotted inside the child’s head, while he has also required blood transfusions on several occasions. Dr Manisha said the child is now being fed through saline, adding that doctors are trying their best to treat the baby.

On February 1, seventeen-year-old domestic help Beauty Akhter gave

birth to the boy in her employer’s home in the capital’s Bailey Road.

Fearing social stigma as she was raped and impregnated allegedly by her own brother-in-law, Beauty flung the baby out of a four-storey window as soon as he was born.

After filing a rape case with Ramna Model police station, Beauty is now living with her family in Sirajganj.

Ramna OC Moshiur Rahman, said a number of people have applied to adopt the child. The applications would be analysed and legal procedures would be taken in due time, the OC said. l

War criminal Mir Quasem’s appeal TIB: Keep cricket clean n hearing to end today Abu Bakar Siddique

n Tribune Report

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday heard the prosecution arguments in the appeals case of condemned Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali. A five-member panel headed

by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha adjourned the hearing until today after Attorney General Mahbubey Alam placed his arguments against Quasem, who had been a commander of notorious al-Badr force in the Chittagong during the Liberation War. At one stage of the hearing, the court expressed dissatisfaction over the prosecution and the investigators of the International Crimes Tribunal for their “incompetence” as they had failed to bring witnesses against some charges brought against the war criminal.

The court said that they were shocked at the performance of the tribunal’s prosecution team and the investigators. “Huge amount of money is being spent, but their responsibilities are not reflected in their performance,” it said.

The court also asked the prosecution to end their arguments by today.

The defence earlier claimed that his client had not been directly involved in any of the incidents and that the witnesses produced unreal depositions.

Top Jamaat-e-Islami financier Quasem, now 64, was awarded capital punishment by the tribunal on November 3, 2014. As many as 24 prosecution witnesses testified against Quasem.

The tribunal handed down the death penalty on two charges – for killing seven people, including

teenage freedom fighter Jasimuddin, after abduction. He was also awarded a total of 72-year imprisonment on the eight other proven charges of abduction, conspiracy and planning.

The Appellate Division started hearing on his appeal on February 9. It is the seventh appeals case heard by the top court.

Quasem joined Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat, in 1967 while studying at Chittagong Collegiate School. He later became its Chittagong city unit general secretary. He played an important role in forming alBadr Bahini.

He had set up makeshift torture camps at different places in the port city. According to the government, Quasem has also spent a large amount of money abroad to make the war crimes trials controversial. l

The Transparency International Bangladesh has emphasised “strengthened, robust and effective governance structures” to keep cricket, the country’s most popular sport, corruption-free.

“Bangladesh needs a specific organising structure to get rid of match-fixing, spot-fixing and other forms of corruption in cricket,” TIB’s Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said at a media conference launching the Global Corruption Report: Sport yesterday.

It claimed sport generated annual revenues of over $145 billion globally but attempts to tackle corruption were still at an early stage.

Iftekharuzzaman said corruption practices had extended to all levels as sports involve huge amount of money. The TIB mentioned activities of foreign gamblers, punishment of a young Bangladeshi cricketer for match fixing and illegal role

of a club in the Bangladesh Premier League, saying these were the barriers to good governance in the country’s sports sector.

As of April 2015, at least 22 cricketers including one from Bangladesh had been penalised for corruption. The TIB also suggested strengthening the Anti-corruption Unit of the Bangladesh Cricket Board by formulating stern laws to protect cricket from being tainted as it was “vulnerable to corruption” after eventually becoming a “money-making mechanism”.

Replying to a question, the TIB boss said they had chosen cricket as the case study as it was most popular in Bangladesh.

In a prepared speech, Iftekharuzzaman said: “An independent, permanent Office of Ombudsman for Cricket should be set up by law, and endowed with the power to investigate and prosecute allegations of corruption and irregularities in the game.” l

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

President asks students to work for country’s welfare n Tribune Report Terming students as future of the country, President Abdul Hamid yesterday asked them to work with devotion and honesty for the welfare of the country.

“You are the future of the country. You will be the architect to build Bangladesh in the days to come. So, you must have devotion, you must work sincerely for the welfare of the country,” the President said while addressing a programme marking the centenary of Dhanbari Nawab Institution.

He said the main motto of students should be to serve the country as well as the nation, reports BSS.

“You have to remain alert so that any type of greed or evil interest can’t pollute your soft mind and the teachers must give proper attention to this,” he added.

The 21st century is more competitive and challenging than other times in the past, the President said adding, “We have to go forward facing these challenges”.

Mentioning that the resources of the country are limited, Abdul Hamid said concerted efforts should be made to expedite development process by ensuring the best use of these resources.

Pointing at the teachers, he said educational institutions are the factory to build people as worthy

citizens and teachers play the main role, reports BSS. “I hope that you would put your best efforts to make the students well-educated and turn them into skilled manpower. We have to keep in mind that we are all accountable to the people of the country. As the schools are run by the money of the people, it is the duty of all to maintain congenial academic atmosphere and image of the educational institutions,” he added.

The President recalled the contribution of Dhanbari Institution to spread education in the region and expressed the hope that the institution would continue to play its role for the development and

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expansion of education in future.

Former food minister Dr. Abdur Razzak, Administrator of Zila Parishad Fazlur Rahman Khan Faruk and Rafiqul Islam Babul spoke on the occasion, among others.

In the morning, as chief guest, Abdul Hamid attended the seventh convocation programme of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) held at the varsity campus in Mymensingh.

He said the development of the farmers is essential for the development of the nation, reported our correspondent.

University sources said approximately 4000 students got certificates in the programme. l

Mystery shrouds death of minor domestic help n Tribune Report

A mysterious situation has created over the death of a minor domestic help who reportedly fell down from the roof of a five-storey building at Khulshi, port city yesterday morning.

Police could not reveal how the girl fell down from there.

The victim identified as Sultana used to work at the house of Altaf Hossain who is an expatriate. But detail information about her could not be ascertained immediately, said police.

Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH)’s Nayek Jahangir Alam told Dhaka Tribune that one driver of the building rushed Sultana in critical condition to the hospital around 8pm where on-duty doctors declared her dead.

Later, police detained the driver, but could not glean any significant information from him in this connection, said Nayek Jahangir. The body was sent to CMCH morgue for autopsy.

On information, police rushed to the spot and interrogated Altaf’s elder brother Wahid who lives in the same building.

Wahid said he did not know why the girl went to the rooftop in the morning. l

4 held, with 1 lakh yaba pills in Ctg n Tribune Report

Farmers are seen busy plucking ripe tomatoes in a field, Durgapur, Puthia in Rajshahi as temperature started rising and many plants are dying. The picture was taken recently AZAHAR UDDIN

REHAB fair kicks off in Ctg from tomorrow

Quader: AL not threatening BNP UP polls aspirants

Chittagong chapter of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) is going to organise a fair for the ninth time tomorrow.

This time the four-day long fair is going to be held at Mohona Ballroom of Radisson Blu Chittagong Bay View. On the occasion of the fair, the REHAB organised a press conference at Chittagong Club yesterday. l

Senior Awami League leader Obaidul Quader says the ruling party has not directed its leaders and activists to obstruct and threaten BNP’s Upazila Parishad election aspirants.

“The local Awami League units could have done that [obstruct] but the party’s central command has issued no such order,” he clarified yesterday at Savar.

Quader, also the road transport

n Tribune Report

n Our Correspondent, Savar

and bridges minister, said the BNP had a shortage of candidates as most of them, accused in various cases, were on the run. “If BNP seeks the government’s help, we will look for their candidates with police’s help,” he quipped.

Earlier in the day, the BNP claimed the ruling party activists had threatened and obstructed its UP chairmen aspirants from submitting nominations in over 100 places. The minister asked the par-

ty to specify their claim.

Quader said: “The BNP is a registered political party and the government can never obstruct its activities. Only those [BNP activists] who are accused in cases are on the run.”

He was at Savar to inspect the progress of Abdullahpur-Baipail Highway’s repair work. Quader vowed to free roads in Savar and Ashulia from illegal occupants by March 15. l

Rapid Action Battalion conducting drives in two separate places of the port city arrested four drug peddlers, seized 1 lakh pieces of yaba pills, two motorcycles and Tk 3.40 lakh in cash.

RAB members conducted the drives in Askar Digir Par and Chandgaon residential areas.

The arrestees were identified as Md Alamgir, 34, Chand Mia Sowdagar, 49, Md Anisur Rahman, 35, and Hosne Ara Begum, 30.

Of the arrestees, Md Alamgir and Chand Mia Sowdagar are top yaba peddlers, said RAB sources.

Acting on a tip-off, a team led

by Major Mohammad Jahangir Alam of RAB 7 intercepted two motorbikes carrying four persons in Surson Road area, Kotwali police station in the city. Later, the members of the elite force arrested Md Alamgir, Chand Mia Sowdagar and Md Anisur Rahman. As many as 90,000 pieces of contraband yaba tablets were seized from their body and bags during the search. l

DT

8

News

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

1 killed by BSF on Kushtia frontier n Tribune Report A Bangladeshi national was allegedly shot to death and another injured by members of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in Mohommadpur Dangerpara area of Daulatpur upazila on Monday night.

The deceased was identified as Mamun, 25, son of Moho Ali, a resident of Dangerpara village of the upazila and a cattle trader.

Witnesses said the BSF members from Sarkarpara camp in Murshidabad, India opened fire at a group of cattle traders numbering 4-5 while the latter were entering

India through the border around 8:30am.

Family members of Mamun claimed that Mamun died on the spot during the firing and Alim received bullet injuries when he tried to bring back the body of Mamun.

Lt Col Azad, commanding officer of BGB battalion 47, said they had heard that the body of the deceased remained in the Indian territory while the injured cattle trader named Alim went missing after the incident, he said BGB had already sent a letter to BSF protesting the incident. l

Man killed in ‘gunfight’ Correspondent, n Our Jhenaidah The prime accused of a murder case was killed in a “gunfight” with police in Moheshpur upazila in Jhenaidah.

Sentu, 28, was killed in the “gunfight” which took place early Tuesday.

Officer-in-Charge of Moheshpur police staion Aminul Islam Biplob said: “Sentu was the prime accused in a murder case filed over the death on a Saloon owner on February 18.

He was arrested on Monday. ” He said: “Sentu’s associates opened fire at us when we conducted a drive at Holudpara with Sentu to recover arms and ammunation.”

In Retaliation, police fired back that left Sentu dead. l

Punishment to Habiganj children’s killers demanded n Tribune Report With a slogan “Stop violence against children”, Children Forum, an NGO of Khulna yesterday arranged a human chain in association with Jagrata Juba Shangha (JJS) and Unicef at Royal Chattar in Khulna city with a call to ensure exemplary punishment to the killers of four schoolboys.

More than 100 children forum members, Khulna participated in the human chain. They used placard, banner and festoons with different slogan “Sontan hara mayer akuti, shishu hotta bondho kori”, “Ar koto shishur jhorbe pran, shishu hottar hok oboshan” etc.

Chairperson of Children Forum Ashik Elahi said: “We are strongly pro-

testing the killing of four children and demanding exemplary punishment.”

Meherunnessa Liza, general secretary of the Forum, urged the government to ensure protection and rights of every child.

Assistant Project Coordinator of JJS, Abdul Baki also present in the human chain and said the government should be carefully to protect the children.

Four schoolboys who had gone missing from Sundrateki village in Bahubal upazila on February 12 were found buried at the village on February 17.

Police recovered the bodies of Zakaria Ahmed Shuvo, 8, his two cousins – Tajel Miah, 10, Monir Miah, 7, and Ismail Hossain, 10. l

9

DT

Feature

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Amader Pathshala

Making underprivileged children understand their value as human beings

n Saudia Afrin A shy and mild-mannered child named Rubel was waiting in the office room of Amader Pathshala with his aunt. He was there to kick off his school life again. During his admission test, this timid 12 year old was unable to raise his head for even ten seconds. Nonetheless, he was determined to continue his education and build a better life for himself, no matter what.

At the beginning of a year, this is quite a common scenario at Amader Pathshala, a school for underprivileged children. Fighting the the idea of “poor quality education for the poor,” Amader Pathshala is providing primary education to children from 2008.

Within a small span of time, the three classrooms were filled with young souls looking towards a better future. Due to a shortage of classrooms, another class is being conducted under the open sky on the rooftop.

Understanding their value in society

Ranajit Majumdar, assistant head master of Amader Pathshala tells us the reason behind working with this particular social class. He says, “A common phenomenon in our society is that underprivileged children remain ignorant, and ignored by society.” Being deprived, not only economically but also socially and culturally, often creates a psychological barrier and feelings of inferiority in these children.

“Because their value as a human being in society is disregarded, this creates an environment where they grow up as confined human beings,” argues Majumdar.

Amader Pathshala is working to break this psychological barrier

and construct the belief that everyone inside a society holds a certain amount of value as a human being, and so do these children.

Although initially most of the children carried the pain of suffering from similar kinds of stigma, within a period of a year they began to understand their self-worth and explored the world and society from a different point of view. “Gradually, they have realised that they hold a certain authority in his/her surroundings,” adds Ranajit Majumdar, giving all the credit to the system they follow in their school.

To make this happen, the school believes in putting great emphasis on building easy and

what is written in the books, the teaching methods followed

by Amader Pathshala is a bit unconventional. The teachers start with a word, then the students are asked to share what they know about this particular word to identify and understand their level of understanding.

Afterwards, the teacher shares his/her knowledge to add value to their existing knowledge. After this, they progress to gathering more information from books and in this way, the students are made active participants in the process of sharing knowledge. Amader Pathshala also follows the SQ3R method for reading, which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. Increased contact

“A common phenomenon in our society is that underprivileged children remain ignorant, and ignored by society”

free flowing teacher-student relationships. In this environment, the students are allowed to ask their mentors anything and everything without being fearful.

The actual education takes place once the student is ready to be more outgoing and can engage in proper dialogue with their mentors. According to Majumdar, “Our teaching system isn’t linear but we prefer conducting teaching through two-party participation.”

Diverse teaching methods and practices Instead of just teaching them

hours are also considered a must for providing proper education to underprivileged children, so even after school hours end, students are welcomed to continue learning at school for as long as they like.

On Saturday, Amader Pathshala becomes a hub of performing arts to enrich these children’s cultural knowledge and involvement. The entire day is dedicated to training them in painting, music, dance, theatre and more, and teachers from relevant fields come in to teach them. Some students are good at painting, some are better at music. Amader Pathshala also

has an in-house band called Hojoborolo, which is a joint venture by students and teachers.

On the day this reported visited Amader Pathshala premises, a sort of musical gathering was being held at the request of the sixth grade students.

Observing national and international days, facilitating performances and participation of students in different programmes, and organising outdoor learning activities are other segments the school focuses on. In the previous month, the school arranged a trip to the National Museum in order to participate in the International Children’s Film Festival.

Building a model for underprivileged children

Amader Pathshala also addresses health and nutrition related issues of the students’ by arranging periodical visits by doctors.

Some support in the form of medication is provided and there

are plans to build this department.

Additionally, the management intends to revive the School Feeding Program, which had been shut down due to a lack of finance.

On the question of output from the entire initiative, Ranajit Majumdar replies, “The whole initiative aspires to build a model in society for the benefit of underprivileged children. Our main goal is to establish their value as human beings who are part of our society, and we think this can be achieved through education. We want to inform our students of their roles and responsibilities in society, so that they themselves can become agents of change one day.”

The school is running its operations with the support of regular contributions made by individuals, organisations and businesses. Amader Pathshala also organises different events and activities in order to be selfdependent. l

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10

Interview

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

women!”

When asked about the changes in the make-up scene in Bangladesh, in comparison to the past decade, she remarked: “Wing liner with flawless base and the perfect shade of lips has taken over overdrawn brows, heavy contoured face and crazy dark eyes that would make you look like a cast member of Alif Laila!”

Anusheh is studying architecture in the university of Limkokwing, Malaysia. However, during her brief stay in Dhaka, she took her passion a step further to organise a make-up workshop for her followers. The day-long workshop took place at Gardenia Grand Hall in Gulshan, with a good number of enthusiasts listening away in amazement as she talked about make-up and her personal experiences. She made sure

She’s all about that base n

Raisa Rahim

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Anusheh Shayeree’s make-up artistry makes the sight even more picturesque before her spectators. She is a young, enthusiastic make-up artist who has self-trained herself since she was a little girl, with eager eyes and her mother’s lipstick in her palms.

“Ever since I was a kid, I spent most of my time playing Barbie or make-over games. I definitely learned how to play with eye shadows from there. I used to buy red jumbo markers so I could draw over the models’ lips on a Pakistani magazine called Libass,” shared Anusheh. “Back in 2005, when my cousin got married, I used to help her with her makeup to attend weddings. I was only 11, but I knew she trusted

Photo: COURTESY my skills, which gave me a lot of confidence.”

Anusheh Shayeree took to Instagram to share her passion when she was 18 years old. “I used to follow Maya Mia and Camilla Coelho (make-up artists and vloggers) and I absolutely fell in love with make-up more than I ever was,” she expressed.

The young enthusiast would practise on herself every now and then and take pictures to post them on her Instagram account (makeupbyshayeree). “Only few of my closest friends knew about it.

No sharing, no commenting, shh!” she laughed.

During her late teens, she

“I’m a make-up enthusiast. It’s an art! I love the feeling I get when I enter a MAC cosmetics store; not for the products, but for the makeup artists working there. The first time I went to their store, I just knew I wanted to be like them. I love it because it makes me look glamorous! I am my own diva” Pro-tips from Anusheh • Blending! Invest on good brushes and sponges, and blend until you can’t blend anymore.

• Don’t go overboard with your highlighter. You’re likely to look darker than your skin tone.

• Wear foundation only when you really have to.

• Wet your eye shadow brush to get the perfect shade of colour.

• Don’t forget to have the same shade for your face and neck when selecting a foundation.

would spent a lot of time on YouTube watching makeup by Camila. She was her guru, and she would try getting all the products that Camila used. “I believe that practice makes everything perfect, so I would spend endless nights trying different and new techniques on myself, and from there, I started my Instagram page,” said Anusheh.

The make-up enthusiast takes inspirations from two iconic figures – Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue Magazine, and the great Kim Kardashian. On that note, she elaborated, “I love everything about them and for me, they symbolise bold, confident

FAQ

What was the one make-up disaster that you’ve made time and again?

Every time I wore red lips with smokey eyes. It’s a big NO!

each participant attending the workshop have gotten a platform to learn about the essential make-up styles, products and their proper utilities, spectate her work up close and present their necessary queries in front of the crowd. What made the workshop even more interactive was the way the demonstrations were made through casual conversation; the participants were also asked to volunteer.

“The first thing I talked about in my workshop was ‘confidence, wear it like make-up.’ You don’t really need too much make-up to look beautiful. You do not need to get the latest eye shadow palettes when you have three lying at home already. Learn to utilise the things you have first. Once you have mastered the art, you can then explore!” l

interested in the way I do my makeup and I thought, why not?

Did you take any special training?

Nah, I’m self taught.

What plans do you have for the future?

I want to be an entrepreneur, make-up artist and an architect.

Describe your makeup style.

Flawless and radiant. I am obsessed with making a face look flawless and that looks airbrushed.

Do you want to pursue a license or a certificate in makeup artistry? If so, where from?

Yes! From Bobbi Brown and Sukhi Sanghera.

What got you into organising a workshop on makeup?

My fans! They seemed very

If you were a make-up product, what would you be?

“Its Soft and Gentle” by Mac.

DT

Editorial 11

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

INSIDE

The language of freedom Almost all nation-state entities in South Asia have imposed their language of choice under various garbs like national/ official/link language on the rest PAGE 12

Changing the poverty status quo Road work is literally back-breaking work. The shovels in the hands of the diminutive women beneficiaries are heavy. With calloused palms and hardened hearts, these women must labour beneath the sun to earn a decent meal PAGE 13

If it were not for a recent documentary on his life by ATN Television, perhaps his sacrifice for the country would have remained unknown to most. I have, therefore, taken this humble attempt to highlight some of his patriotic achievements PAGE 14

Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/ DhakaTribune.

The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors alone. They do not purport to be the official view of Dhaka Tribune or its publisher.

Strengthen remedies to improve consumer rights

T

Remembering an unsung hero

Be heard

BIGSTOCK

he Bangladesh Bank is taking urgent steps to tighten security at ATMs following a rise in organised counterfeiting and thefts from cash machines.

It is right to draw attention to the issue and to reassure customers by mandating the installation of anti-skimming devices.

Among other measures being undertaken, it has also asked banks to quickly return money stolen from customers. While this is a necessary move, it also highlights the fact that there is significant room to improve consumer protection law in Bangladesh.

Were awareness of and legal protection for consumer rights better established, then all banks would have already compensated victims without needing to be asked. Similarly, there would be less public concern about violations of food safety laws.

The government needs to build upon the 2009 Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 to ensure cheap, readily-accessible redress mechanisms for ensuring consumer rights.

At present, the law is still structured in an overly bureaucratic top down manner. While the CRPA provided for establishment of the National Consumer Rights Protection Council and National Consumer Rights Protection Directorate, redress is still largely left to criminal and civil courts and complaints need official CRPD endorsement to be taken before the court.

To make the legislation more effective and meaningful in practice, it should be amended to become more rights-based and provide consumers with access to simple redress procedures when rights are violated.

Improved rights for consumers including tougher rules against unfair contract terms are a pre-requisite to raising standards. They should be supported by campaigns to improve public awareness of consumer rights and redress mechanisms.

Making redress easier would not help consumers, but also benefit all responsible businesses by raising overall standards and expectations.

Increase awareness and improve access to cheap, quick redress mechanisms to make the law effective

12

DT

Opinion

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

The language of freedom All mother languages have equal rights, and so do their speakers

The fight for language is not ours alone

n Garga Chatterjee If my mother tongue is shaking the foundations of your state, it probably means that you built your state on my land -- Musa Anter, Kurdish writer assassinated by the Turkish government in 1992

F

ebruary 21 is recognised by the UN as International Mother Language Day. On February 21, 1952, police fired on students protesting the imposition of Urdu as the national language, in Dhaka -- Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abul Barkat, and Abdul Jabbar were martyred. This sowed the seeds of independence on the basis of Bangla linguistic identity in a province that had, only six years ago, voted overwhelmingly for Pakistan, based largely on religious identity.

That long struggle finally achieved Bangladesh’s liberation in 1971. February 21 has also become a rallying day for various language and identity-based struggles in South Asia, which has long been a hot-bed of linguistic politics.

The concept of the present-day Indian Union, that is, a Hindudominant territory claiming historical continuity with Delhi or Hindi belt-centred empires of yore, had its blooming during the 19th century Hindi-Urdu controversy. Urban Hindus of the Hindustani region (roughly the upper and middle Gangetic plains) wanted to displace Urdu, that is, Persianised Hindustani in Nastaliq script, as the official language

BIGSTOCK

and replace that with Hindi, that is, Sanskritised Hindustani in Devanagari script.

Urdu and Hindi became proxies for Muslim and Hindu mobilisation. In that process, shoring up Hindi numbers became crucial. Many languages of the Hindustan region (like Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Braj, etc) were nominally fused with Hindi by elite Hindus as a political tactic with devastating long-term consequences for the counted-asHindi-but-not-Hindi languages.

The tactic proved successful as far as petitioning the British were concerned. Hindi acquired the official language status that Urdu already had.

The Hindi movement had two important mobilisation planks: Firstly, Hindi people were at a disadvantage in the field of jobs when Urdu was given official status. Secondly, official documents, like court documents, in Urdu, prevented their understanding by non-Urdu peoples. Ironically, after Partition, the non-Hindi people have now inherited all of Hindi’s 19th century disadvantages.

They are disallowed by the government of India to take most academic or professional exams (like IIT or AIIMS entrance) in their non-Hindi mother tongue. The government of India allows the Allahabad High Court to run its affairs in Hindi but doesn’t allow Madras High Court to do so in Tamil. The officially sanctioned text of the Constitution of India is only in Hindi and English.

Post-1947, Hindustani politi-

cal plans to make Hindi the sole official language by January 26, 1965 was opposed in non-Hindi regions. It became a youth-led mass movement in what is present-day Tamil Nadu. The government tried to violently repress the massive protests. The police murdered Rajendran, a student. The movement took epic proportions. New Delhi sent the army and central police forces to Tamil Nadu.

The forces ended up killing at least 63 protesters -- unofficial numbers run into a few hundreds.

The ruling Congress party in Tamil Nadu was decimated in the next election. No national party has ever emerged as the strongest force in Tamil Nadu ever since.

These protests managed to indefinitely retain English as an official language along with Hindi.

The 1965 moment was preceded by anti-Hindi conventions by the Academy of Telugu as early as

near Silchar Railway station.

Bangla was thereafter recognised as an official language in Cachar.

Bangla itself has had a record of dominating other languages, especially during the British colonial period when Banglas were extremely dominant as intermediaries and education professionals in the administration. The Bangla script was imposed on Meitei after the conversion of the Manipur sovereign into Bengali Vaishnavism. Odiya and Axomiya were treated as dialects of Bangla with Bangla being the medium of school instruction in largely Odiya and Axomiya speaking areas.

With the rise of a sizeable intelligentsia in Assam and Odisha, who could affect the colonial government’s policy in spite of deliberate obfuscations from sections of the Bengali intelligentsia, Bangla imposition was rolled back. In

primary education, thus artificially alienating the Gonds from their own culture and society.

Primary education as a tool of strategic hamletting is cruel new “security” innovation. All through what is erroneously called the Hindi belt, multiple language movements are brewing, each wanting their own identity and stopping their ennumeration as Hindi speakers. Bhojpuri and Rajasthani language movements are at the forefront of these demands. The recent Chennai Declaration of Language Rights has become an important document bringing oppressed linguistic communities together.

Language movements are now also conducted in cyberspace. The hashtag #StopHindiImposition trended on August 15, 2015 during Narendra Modi’s Red Fort speech in Hindi. The Indian Union has successfully wiped out 220

Almost all nation-state entities in South Asia have imposed their language of choice under various garbs like national/official/link language on the rest. Central governments have treated their unity-anxieties by promoting and expanding the imposition of their chosen language

1956. Similarly, Hindustani areas saw sporadic anti-English protests spearheded by the Samyukta Socialist Party, and later on by the Jansangh. 1965 destroyed the sole official language plan.

Similar preferential treatment of Sinhala in Sri Lanka was among the many reasons that later coalesced into the cause for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.

In Pakistan, Urdu has been long imposed on Sindh and Balochistan and the Sindhi and Baloch nationalist narratives draw heavily from this imposition.

Language movements in the sub-continent can’t be reduced simply to a Hindi-Urdu or HindiTamil conflict. In Bengali, the majority Cachar district of postPartition Assam state protests erupted after the legislative imposition of Axomiya as the sole official language. In Silchar, the hotbed of the protesters, Assam Rifles, Madras Regiment, and other security forces initiated flag marches. On the day of a protest strike on May 19, 1961, security forces killed 11 Bangla language protesters, including a 16-year-old girl named Kamala Bhattacharya,

the post-partition period, Bangla has encroached on Tripura’s own languages like Kokborok. In Bangladesh, ethno-linguistic minorities (most notably the Chakmas of Chittagong Hill Tracts) have had Bangla thrust upon them leading to a slow cultural “assimilation.”

Some would call the Tripura and Chittagong Hill Tracts situations as cultural annihilation.

In West Bengal, an assimilationist attitude continues towards speakers of Kamta/Rajbongshi.

The Jharkhand movement was originally a left-nationalist mobilisation for the cultural, political, economic, and linguistic rights of the sons of the soil.

Jharkhand state was carved out with deliberate tribal minority, so as to protect the interests of economically dominant settlers and outsiders.

It’s a Hindi state for most official purposes. The Maoist investment into Gondi language and communication is crucial to their Deccan power-base which maps onto the Gondi-speaking zones. In Chhattisgarh, the government imposes Hindi on Gondi-speaking children through

languages in the last 50 years.

Almost all nation-state entities in South Asia have imposed their language of choice under various garbs like national/official/link language on the rest. Central governments have treated their unity-anxieties by promoting and expanding the imposition of their chosen language.

Those who have a problem with equal linguistic rights and support the preferential imposition of one language over other people, under the specious argument of building unity, actually have a problem with diversity, dignity, and equal rights.

February 21 underlines the present mother language struggles, hopefully, towards a world without linguistic dominance and imposition under the excuse of “national” unity, without mandatory Hindi or Urdu or Sinhalese, towards a world where all mother languages have equal rights and so do their speakers. l Garga Chatterjee is a political and cultural commentator. He can be followed on Twitter @gargac.

13

DT

Opinion

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Changing the poverty status quo Can cash-for-work programs really eradicate extreme poverty?

n Shazia Omar

O

ur current government has committed to eradicate extreme poverty by 2021 and has endorsed a new National Social Security Strategy to help it achieve this goal. Within the NSSS, one prominent mode of transfer is cash-for-work. C4W is a form of social transfer that provides temporary employment in public projects (such as repairing roads or bridges) to vulnerable people.

Implemented by the LGED Ministry and union parishad officers, these programs have two components -- paid work for destitute beneficiaries and improved infrastructure.

Whether these programs truly serve the needs of the poorest depends on effective implementation and strategic design. Let us examine some of the factors that need to be considered, and some of the challenges.

extreme poverty.

The inter-generational transfer of poverty will only be broken if beneficiary children can find jobs after class 10. If no jobs are available, or if the cash is not conditional on children’s enrollment in school, poverty continues and no systemic changes take place. Beneficiaries will marry off their daughters and their sons will work as cheap labor, same as their fathers. The challenge for social protection programs is to manage at scale the customised support necessary, the hand-holding, training, and confidence building necessary, to empower a family to graduate.

For this, proper granular data is necessary and case-by-case support.

Selection

In Bangladesh, the number of needy people always exceed the number that can enroll in a program, so people are going to be

When you’re doing this for Tk200 a day, there’s something wrong with the system

Road work is literally back-breaking work. The shovels in the hands of the diminutive women beneficiaries are heavy. With calloused palms and hardened hearts, these women must labour beneath the sun to earn a decent meal. In case of injuries, such as a smashed toe, there are no insurance or medical funds

Graduation

Graduation out of extreme poverty requires a bundled package of support, including an injection of capital of about $500 (based on the learning from programs such as Economic Empowerment of the Poorest and BRAC-CFPR).

Daily wages help meet the immediate consumption needs of extremely poor beneficiaries and their families, but do not lead to an upward trajectory out of poverty unless some form of forced savings is built into the program that can result in cash accumulation.

If such forced savings are a part of the program, beneficiaries may have enough money at the end of a year or two to purchase an income-generating asset (cows/ goats/sewing machine), but even that will not be enough to ensure the catalytic leap out of extreme poverty. Evidence shows that without market linkage and access to public services, families are unlikely to graduate out of

excluded (until the government increases outreach), but inclusion errors should be reduced -- ie people who are not entitled to the support should not receive it. This, however, is another challenge, because selection is not transparent and often depends on the ability to bribe union members or chairmen.

Perhaps more than 50% of the people covered by some social protection programs are not truly eligible. Another challenge is the dynamic nature of poverty -- how should programs handle those who move in or out of eligibility.

For example, destitute women with no husbands (widowed, divorced, or abandoned) may be selected because they are eligible, but once they start earning, some of their opportunistic husbands return.

Unfortunately, some of these scoundrels manage to weasel their way back into the family, but this then renders the woman

beneficiary ineligible. However, if she is thrown out of the program, her husband might leave again, creating a vicious cycle. Finally, though most C4W programs stipulate a maximum age (of 50 years), at least one-third of the women who show up are over 50 and lying about their age. It is indeed sad when 60-year-old women want to do hard labour to earn Tk200 a day to eat.

Work

Road work is literally backbreaking work. The shovels in the hands of the diminutive women beneficiaries are heavy. With calloused palms and hardened hearts, these women must labour beneath the sun to earn a decent meal.

In case of injuries, such as a smashed toe, there are no insurance or medical funds.

Despite this, beneficiaries fight one another to join the program so they may work with guaranteed

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

wages, such is their desperation.

It would be wonderful if we could come up with other forms of work for “cash for work” programs.

no minimum standard of ability to problem-solve or think critically, far from representing their community.

Fund channel

Impact monitoring

Fund channels in social safety net programs are cumbersome. There are many layers of signatures required and finally, cash is disbursed to beneficiaries as cash-in-hand. As a result, funds are delayed and workers are not paid in time. Fortunately, the government aspires to switch to digital financial service channels soon.

Power structures

Unfortunately, when you try to help someone out of poverty, another three forces try to pull her back in. Union members, community members, MPs -- just about everybody wants to get their greedy paws on some of the funds.

While this is irritating, it also raises important questions about UP ownership.

How can local government officers be brought into an incentive structure that makes them want to help people out of extreme poverty? What can be done to motivate them? I heard a UP chairman asking an abandoned woman why her husband left her, implying that it was her fault.

Three of the eight male union members I met on one visit were polygamous, adding to my anxiety regarding their gender attitudes.

Finally, I was shocked to find many union members are illiterate, with

None of the government safety net programs has robust impact monitoring mechanisms, but fortunately this is one of the big parts of the new policy and reform strategy. With support from UNDP, LGRD is now developing a robust monitoring and evaluation platform to improve the effectiveness and impact of its C4W transfers.

This is a promising step forward. It is yet to be seen how far other safety programs will go to develop tools to empower local government officers to do their job effectively so that transfers reach the poorest.

With the current government’s $3 billion social protection budget and the honourable prime minister’s vision to lead us out of extreme poverty, let us hope the promising social protection reforms are implemented well, with strong technology tools to ensure transparency, effectiveness, and impact. Then we will be well on our way to achieving our goal of zero extreme poverty by 2021. l Shazia Omar is the Head of mTracker at mPower Social Enterprises Ltd. Previously she was Head of Advocacy, Gender and Social Protection at the Economic Empowerment of the Poorest program.

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Opinion

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Remembering an unsung hero Syed Fazle Ali achieved great things, though he always kept a low profile

n Ismet Zerin Khan

N

o road in the country is named after him. He was not a recipient of the prestigious Ekushey

award.

There was no ceremonial guard of honour for him at the time of his burial on February 13, 2015 -- the month of Amar Ekushey. Yet, my maternal uncle (chhoto mama), Syed Fazle Ali, left his indelible mark and profound contribution to the Language Movement of 1952, and subsequent historical events that led to the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 -- for which he did not get the recognition he deserved.

Although a patriot dedicated and committed to his country, he preferred to maintain a low profile, and lived a simple and unostentatious life. He did not seek any fame or publicity for his contribution to the country during his lifetime, and wanted to be remembered in

professional studies in the UK, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales, in 1964.

Subsequently, he worked with the prestigious firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Company in London -- which is now KPMG, one of the largest accounting and management consulting firms in the world.

Syed Fazle Ali was one of the key leaders and an active participant who organised the East Pakistani immigrants into a political force in the UK in the early and mid-60s and turned their passion into power.

Soon, he became the founding editor of the journal Asian Tide in the UK which was published to create awareness among people about subjugation of the Bengalis.

In every issue of the journal, the real picture of West Pakistan’s brutal exploitation of East Pakistan and discrimination against

International Student Movement House at 103 Gower Street, London, in memory of the Language Movement.

Programs were designed to expose the colonial behaviour of Pakistan towards the then East Pakistan, and political programs were duly arranged.

There were public meetings and processions at Trafalgar Square in protest of the government’s torture of East Pakistani people.

Soon Fazle and his compatriots were branded as enemies by those who did not want such a movement against Pakistan.

Subsequently, he was harassed under the Inland Security Act 1935 (32A) when he returned back from the UK to erstwhile East Pakistan, and was arrested again for a second time in 1966 under the National Security Act of Pakistan for holding protests against former military dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who was the then president of Pakistan.

If it were not for a recent documentary on his life by ATN Television, perhaps his sacrifice for the country would have remained unknown to most. I have, therefore, taken this humble attempt to highlight some of his patriotic achievements and active role in uniting the erstwhile East Pakistanis in the United Kingdom in the 1960s against the unfair subjugation of East Pakistan May the great man rest in peace the same way after his death.

If it were not for a recent documentary on his life by ATN Television, perhaps his sacrifice for the country would have remained unknown to most.

I have, therefore, taken this humble attempt to highlight some of his patriotic achievements and active role in uniting the erstwhile East Pakistanis in the United Kingdom in the 1960s against the unfair subjugation of East Pakistan.

The late Syed Fazle Ali was born in Bogra on November 1, 1934.

He was a brilliant student. It was during his student days at Dhaka University that he was first arrested for his active participation and significant contribution in the language movement of 1952.

After completing his BSc (honours) degree in physics from Dhaka University in 1954, Syed Fazle Ali proceeded to higher

them was exposed, and featured how Bengalis were politically subordinated by the Pakistanis.

The Asian Tide, along with another Bengali publication, Purbo Bangla, created a stir among Bengali people in the UK. Together, they were able to create an impact on the political struggle to establish the legitimate rights of East Pakistan.

In January 1965, a new platform was created, called Pakistan Gonotantrik Front, to put an end to the era of regional exploitation and establish the provincial autonomy of East Pakistan.

Syed Fazle Ali performed the responsibilities of the president of this organisation among two others.

On March 26, 1965, exactly six years to the day before the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Syed Fazle Ali participated in a meeting arranged in the

He was considered a threat to Pakistan, reportedly for holding demonstrations in London, protesting the dictatorial rule of Ayub Khan.

The great man joined SF Ahmed & Co, one of the oldest and most prestigious Chartered Accountant and Management Consultancy firms of the country in 1966, and continued as the Senior Partner of the firm until his death.

His dedication and tireless efforts greatly contributed in establishing the company as of the leading chartered accountant firms in the country.

A fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales as well as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), he was a pioneer in his profession.

Till the last day before his admission to the hospital, he attended office, which became

virtually a second home for him in the last few years of his life.

He was married into the illustrious “Kabir” family of Faridpur in 1969. His wife, the late Alpha Gulrukh Ali, was the eldest daughter of late Akbar Kabir, a former senior official of the government of Pakistan.

Alpha Ali passed away after a brief period of illness on October 8, 2006 followed soon thereafter by the death of their only son, Syed Nahoum Ali on August 25, 2007, at the young age of 35 years.

The death of his wife and son, one after another, left him with a great deal of grief and sorrow, which he was unable to overcome for the rest of his life.

Syed Fazle Ali passed away on the afternoon of Thursday, February 12, 2015, after spending almost a month in the intensive care unit of United Hospital in Dhaka.

BIGSTOCK

He is survived by his only daughter, Syeda Aenea Choudhury, and grandson Hammad Choudhury.

His friends, some of whom were also his compatriots in the language movement of 1952, and subsequent patriotic Bengali activism during his stay in the UK, include Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, distinguished senior diplomat Ambassador Farooq Chowdhury, Finance Minister AMA Muhith, and many others who also played a significant role in shaping and influencing the subsequent nation-building efforts of Bangladesh.

May Almighty Allah (SWT) grant him eternal peace in his life hereafter. l Ismet Zerin Khan is a former senior official at World Bank and UNDP, and a former television broadcaster. She is the niece of the late Syed Fazle Ali.

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Business 15

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

INSIDE German envoy sees Bangladesh as a reliable sourcing destination Bangladesh is a reliable sourcing destination for Germany consumers for its high quality garment products, says German Ambassador to Bangladesh Thomas Prinz. PAGE 16

BGMEA keen to know whys of slow RMG remediation Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association will sit with 80 RMG factory owners to get to know the reasons behind slow progress of their remediation works. PAGE 17

BSEC approves ACME’s IPO Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has approved the initial public offering (IPO) of The ACME Laboratories to raise Tk409.60 crore. PAGE 18

Muhith names BASIC scamsters in JS n Tribune Report Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday told the Parliament that former BASIC Bank Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu was found involved in irregularities with loan grant, recruitment and promotion.

Replying to a query from Jatiya Party Lawmaker Selim Uddin, he said the audit firms appointed by Bangladesh Bank and BASIC Bank found Bacchu’s involvement.

He named 27 BASIC Bank officials, 56 business organisations and eight surveyor organisations responsible for the irregularities.

Among the officials, he named former managing directors AKM Sajedur Rahman and Kazi Fakhrul Islam, former additional managing director Sheikh Monjur Morshed and former deputy managing directors Fazlus Sobhan and Kanak Kumar Purokayastha,

general managers Joynul Abedin Chowdhury and Mozammel Hossain, general manager Khandakar Shamim Hossain (suspended), general manager Moniruzzaman, Golam Faruk Khan, general manager Mohammad Ali (sacked), former deputy general manager Korban Ali, deputy general manager Omar Faruk, deputy general manager Shipar Ahmed (sacked), deputy general manager SM Waliullah (suspended), assistant general managers Jahiruddin, Imrul Islam, Abdus Sabur, Abdus Sattar Khan, Palash Das Gupta, Ikramul Bari, former assistant general manager Sarwar Hossain, manager Mohibul Huq, deputy manager SM Jahid Hasan (sacked) and deputy manager NA Taufikul Alam.

The business organisations are Azad Trading, Vasavi Fashions Ltd, Tahmina Denim Ltd, Lifestyle Fashions Maker Ltd, UK Bangla Trading Ltd, Tahmina

Knitwear Ltd, Farshi International Ltd, Khadija & Sons, Little World Ltd, ARSS Enterprise, Amira Shipping Agency, Asian Shipping BD, SFG Shipping Line Ltd, Monika Trading International, Fast & Best Trade Impex, Trade House, Asian Food Trading and Co, Surma Steel and Steel Trading Co, Silver Com Trading, Sintrex, B Alam Shipping Lines, SL Designer Ltd, Tanjina Fashion, Feyaz Enterprise, Nahar Garden Pvt Ltd, LR Trading, Syed Traders, Rudro Specialised and Cold Storage Ltd, New Auto Define, Telewiz International Ltd, Dynamic Trading, Ahmed Oils Mills Ltd, Bithi Enterprise, Omareld Specialised Coals Storage Ltd, Emareld Auto Bricks Ltd, Propel International Ltd, RI Enterprise, Gunjon Agro Aromatic Rice Mills, Huq Trading, Voice Enterprise, Hasib Enterprise, SOS Brothers, Ali Construction and Suppliers, Bashar Enterprise, Emareld Oil Ltd, Symex

Ltd, RAK Foods Ltd, Syed Real Estate and Developers Ltd, Reliance Shipping Lines, Syed Constructions Ltd, Nil Sagar Agro Industries Ltd, Nil Sagar Agro Industries Ltd (Feed Mill Unit), Parma Engineering Works, Emareld Dress, Borshon Agro Industries Ltd and Ajbiha Agro Industries Ltd. Finance minister named the surveyor organisations which include SB Survey Firm, Rupsha Surveyor, PSR, BDS Adjuster, Unique Survey Service Bureau, Professional Associates, Desh Paridarshan Co and HIS Inspection.

A Bangladesh Bank inspection had earlier unearthed the irregularities in four branches of the state-owned BASIC Bank — Motijheel, Shantinagar, Dilkusha and Gulshan — involving loans of nearly Tk4,424.93 crore.

The scam happened between December 2009 and November 2012. l

‘Banglalink to become digitally savvy’ BB waives Farmers n Tribune Report The digital skill set must become second nature to Banglalink in its customers’ best interest. To be truly digitally savvy, the cellphone company will focus on training its staff to have them build right digital skills.

Erik Aas, managing director and CEO of Banglalink, said this while speaking at a press conference at a local hotel in the capital yesterday.

Erik called this press conference at a juncture when his companay employees and management are at loggerheads over firing an executive on Februay 10.

The CEO, however, avoided the topic regarding job cut in his company at the press conference.

In reply to a question about firing of one of its executives, he said an employee was sacked, abiding labour law.

He said Banglalink will build a digital organisation to carry out its digital vision.

The company will flatten the organisational structure to bring employees closer together and closer to management as a way to generate fresh, innovative ideas from all corners of the organisation. With a leaner and more flexible organisation, Banglalink will bring new ideas to the market more quickly.

The company believes integrity is core to its new digital culture, and thus it is committed to building a zero-tolerance culture towards corruption and unethical behaviour going forward, added Erik.

A digital culture, plus mindset is essential for Banglalink to succeed in the future. The company will foster a pioneering spirit in its workforce that will be a driver for innovation. Banglalink

Erik Aas employees will be encouraged not to shy away from going into uncharted territory to better serve its customers.

“I am honoured and excited to start this digital journey with Banglalink.

I truly believe that we will set up Banglalink for success to become a digital service provider for our customers, and help the government achieve a Digital Bangladesh by 2021.”

The company CEO said Banglalink wants to connect its customers to this digital world of the future and unlock its endless opportunities. To achieve this, Banglalink is getting its organization ready for the digital age.

“We believe that offering digital services is the path to the future,” explains Erik.

“The use of smartphones will grow tremendously, and enable our customers to have their digital lives literally at their fingertips – from entertainment to eCommerce, from financial services to self-service. To make this a reality for our customers, we at Banglalink are

investing heavily into 3G and our products and services.”

He said going digital also means enabling society to benefit from technological progress. To help make this a reality, Banglalink supports the government’s ‘Digital Bangladesh by 2021’ initiative with several projects.

In cooperation with the ICT Ministry, the company recently launched a Digital Incubation Center in the frame of the ‘connecting Start Up – Bangladesh’ project to incubate innovative businesses nationwide.

Over 20,000 students participated in Banglalink’s Grandmaster idea contest to submit ideas for mobile applications that can change the lives of millions.

In another Digital Bangladesh initiative, over 3,00,000 students across the country educated through Banglalink’s nationwide internet awareness campaign.

To get ready for Bangladesh’s digital future, Banglalink needs to adapt to the new reality.

“To date, we are successfully serving over 32 million customers with the strongest network in the country, and I am proud of this achievement. Now it is time to step it up. If we want to connect our customers to the digital world, we must become as digital as our customers are – and even more so,” mentions Erik.

“To make this happen, we need to change our organisation from a traditional telecommunications company to a digital service provider.”

Banglalink will build a digital organisation to carry out its digital vision. Those are not able to cope with digital changes will have to leave the company through voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), he said. l

Bank’s penalty n Tribune Report Bangladesh Bank (BB) has waived the penalty of Tk10 lakh earlier imposed on Farmers Bank for loan irregularities of over Tk38 crore.

The decision came at a board meeting held at the Bangladesh Bank headquarters in the city yesterday.

The meeting was presided over by the central bank governor Atiur Rahman.

“We have waived the penalty as High Court asked the central bank to consider their application,” said SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank.

Moreover, the bank has fulfilled the instructions of Bangladesh Bank, he said.

The bank has recently

sent a letter of apology to the central bank, stating that it has in line with the BB’s instruction corrected the loan amount of over Tk38crore disbursed to six institutions.

Earlier, the bank marked the amount as investment, violating rules. As the bank complied with the instruction of Bangladesh Bank, the bank should be freed from the penalty, reads the letter.

The BB has decided to place the Farmers Bank’s appeal before its board meeting.

Earlier on January 11, the bank filed a writ with the High Court against the penalty imposed by the central bank, which drew a huge criticism from every corner. l

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16

Business

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

German envoy sees Bangladesh a reliable sourcing destination n Tribune Report Bangladesh is a reliable sourcing destination for Germany consumers for its high quality garment products, says German Ambassador to Bangladesh Thomas Prinz.

The envoy came up with the remark at a press conference held at the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) head quarters in the capital yesterday.

The press conference was organised to inform about the “BGMEA-BUFT Journalism Fellowship-2014”.

“We are very happy that Bangladesh is a reliable source for high quality garment in Germany,” Thomas Prinz told the press conference.

Prinz said: “German tries to support Bangladesh in reaching the aim to double its RMG export. We are the second largest market for Bangladeshi products just after the US and the market is still growing.”

“We want to support Bang-

ladesh in its endeavour to establish a sustainable, compliant, social and profitable RMG sector,” said Prinz.

“What is fair price?’’ he asked while talking about fair price. In this regard, he explained: “I found that it is very difficult to talk about the fair price. As there is a lot of global competition among the brands, it is really difficult to define about the fair price.”

Although the real value of work of those products, which are made in Bangladesh and sold in Germany, should not be so low, he added.

“But, how can we change the consumers’ behaviour. It is extremely difficult,” he further questioned.

JochenWeikert, programme coordinator of German government’s Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in the Industry, BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman and Vice-President Faruque Hassan also addressed the press conference. l

‘Time to focus on innovation-led growth’ n Tribune Report An innovation-led growth needs to be focused for sustainable and equitable development, which is now the order of the day, former Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said yesterday.

“The consumer-driven growth does not reduce inequality. We need to pay attention to the innovation-led growth for sustainability and equality,” he said. Salehuddin was speaking at a book launching ceremony in the city.

Mamunur Rashid, is the author of the book titled Expansion of Middleclass and Rise of Consumerism. The book contains several articles on different economic-related issues published on different dailies.

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Research Director Dr Binayak Sen said domestic consumer is the driving force for the economy which is good.

But knowledge-based society instead of consumer-based society should be built for encouraging humanity among people, he added.

“Now, we are walking back as some book shops turn tailoring shops.”

Giving opposite view to an article of the book, former finance adviser to the caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul said widening tax rather than raising tax rate is important for increased tax collection and reducing corporate tax for the listed firms attract good companies to list.

About an article, the prime minister’s economic advisor Dr Mashiur Rahman said banks fail to pay attention to the result of their investments.

He said they are engaged in disbursing credit in import and export businesses, which bring returns quickly.

Loan restructuring and write-off policies were taken under the influence of influential people, he said.

Planning Commission member Professor Dr Shamsul Alam said the rise of consumers increases demand, which brings pace in economic growth.

Mamunur Rashid said: “I am trying to present different issues in a limited scale for bringing those into the discussion.” l

BGMEA keen to know whys of slow RMG remediation n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) will sit with 80 RMG factory owners to get to know the reasons behind slow progress of their remediation works as the laters made less progress than others to improve safety standards.

The BGMEA board took the decision on Monday following an allegation from Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh that the 80 RMG factories made less progress in safety issues.

“We called 80 RMG factory owners to hear about the remediation progress with an aim to ensure workplace safety,” BGMEA Vice-President Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu told the Dhaka Tribune.

Primarily, BGMEA has called these factory owners that made 0%-10% progress in their remediation, and others would be called by turns, said Hasan.

“We will also try to find out the reasons behind slow progress of remediation.”

After the meeting with the owners, BGMEA will crosscheck the allegation of the Accord and take measures to expedite the remediation pro-

cess, added Hasan.

Earlier, the Accord submitted a list of 522 RMG factories that produced clothing products for its signatory brands.

The factories made less than 40% progress on remediation to improve their workplace safety.

We called 80 RMG factory owners to hear about the remediation progress The outcries over safety issues began after the Rana Plaza factory disaster that killed over 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 people on April 24, 2013.

After the factory collapse, the Alliance made a commitment to provide financial and technical support to improve fire and building safety standard of RMG factories from which they source products.

The Accord has completed its assessment of 1,600 factories alongside publishing Corrective Action Plans for 1,358 RMG units and doing a follow-up inspection on 1,304 factories. l

Kaies Ali appointed new MD of Jovago Bangladesh n Tribune Report Kaies Ali has been appointed the new managing director of Jovago Bangladesh with effect from February 14, 2016.

Prior to his joining this organisation, he served as director of branding and marketing of Hotel Agrabad.

Ali replaced Sharjil Hannan, the first managing director of Jovago Bangladesh, who had been in office since the organisation’s founding in Bangladesh in 2015.

Jovago Bangladesh (Jovago. com) is a leading online hotel booking platform of the country. It is a Rocket Internet AIG Venture and is the largest online hotel booking platform in Africa, providing booking services for over 200,000 hotels.

With the backing of German Rocket Internet Company and Qatar’s biggest telecom

company Ooredoo, Ali now embarked on the mission to ride the digital wave and help hotels across the country increase their room booking through Jovago Bangladesh.

The hotel industry across all-star ratings is now expected to get a boost, which would benefit the country’s local tourism as well. l

17

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Business

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

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18

Business

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

BSEC approves ACME’s IPO n Tribune Report Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has approved the initial public offering (IPO) of The ACME Laboratories to raise Tk409.60 crore.

The approval came at a commission meeting chaired by Professor M Khairul Hossain, chairman of the stock market regulator. The meeting was held yesterday.

As per the approval, the country’s oldest pharmaceutical company, Acme, will float five core ordinary shares of Tk10 each, using book-building method.

Of the total shares, 50% or 2.5 crore will be offered to eligible institutional investors and 10% or 50 lakh to mutual funds at an offer price of Tk85.20 each including a premium of Tk75.20.

The rest 40% or two crore shares will be offered to general investors, affected small investors and Non-Resident Bangladeshi (NRB) investors at an offer price of Tk77. The price has been set with a cut-off method.

According to the financial statement as of June 30, 2015, the earning per share (EPS) of the company is Tk5.70 and the net asset value (NAV) is Tk70.37 per share.

The IPO proceeding will be used to establish three new projects and to bear expenses of the offering process.

ICB Capital Management Limited will act as the issue manager while Prime Capital Management Limited will act as registrar to the issue.

The commission also approved the audit report asset valuation report of First ICB Mutual Fund to convert it from close-end to openend mutual fund.

As per the audit report, the net asset value of the fund stood at over Tk140.74 crore while the net asset vale per unit is Tk1876.62. l

Insurance sector project work to start in July n Asif Showkat Kallol The work of World Bank’s proposed project - capacity building in Bangladesh’s insurance sector – will get underway in July this year, said official sources.

Under the project, a pension fund management authority will be formed. The issue was discussed at the meeting of a World Bank Scope mission yesterday.

A Bank Division official said the meeting discussed that the pension fund management authority would

use its fund for various financial gains and the record of private sector employees would be maintained by an independent body.

In case, an employee changes his or her job from a firm to a new one, his or her pension scheme will not cease, said the official.

World Bank mission was led by the bank’s Senior Financial Economist Korotoumou Ouattara.

Bank Division Secretary M Aslam Alam said of the total project cost $100m, the government will bear $20m. l

19

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Showtime

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Farhan Akhtar to perform live in Dhaka n Showtime Desk Renowned actor-director-musician Farhan Akhtar is going to perform live in Dhaka for the first time.

With his band Farhan Live, the popular youth icon is scheduled to arrive in town on March 31, for a two-hour show at the Noboratri Hall of International Convention City, Bashundhara, confirmed Farhadul Islam, chief executive officer of Blues Communications.

“The event is fully commercial and aimed to entertain the public. Farhan Akher is arriving with a team of 20 others. This is the first time he would be performing in Dhaka,” said the spokesperson of Blues Communications,

Feroza Begum memorial gold medal introduced at DU

n Showtime Desk In memory of legendary Nazrul Sangeet singer Feroza Begum, a Feroza Begum Memorial Gold Medal Trust Fund has been founded at Dhaka University.

Yesterday, a cheque of Tk60,00,000 was handed over to the authority of Dhaka University (DU) to fund the award and scholarship. Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, the vicechancellor of DU, received the cheque at his office from Anis Ud Dowla, the chairman of Feroza Begum Foundation. He also happens to be the brother of the famous singer.

The foundation will be awarding gold medals and scholarships to the most deserving students from the Department of Music at the university every year.

On the occasion, Feroza Begum’s brother, Brigadier General (retd) Mosih Ud Dowla, two of her sons, Hameen Ahmed and Shafin Ahmed, Rezwana Choudhury Bannya, Leena Taposhi Khan and Shusmita Anis, a niece and disciple of Begum were present among others.

Family of Feroza Begum formed the Feroza Begum Foundation last year; a year after her demise in 2014. Shusmita Anis has opened Feroza Begum Archive on Anis’s official website: www.shusmitaanis.com. l

the main organiser behind the event.

The show will feature popular Bollywood tracks by the heartthrob Indian actor with inclusion of poetry and acting.

Details of the event will be publicised in the first week of March.

The 42-year-old multifaceted actor started his acting career with Rock On! in 2008. He wrote the dialogues for the critical and commercial success Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which won him two Filmfare awards including Best Supporting Actor.

He portrayed the role of Milkha Singh in the 2013 film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, earning him the Filmfare award for Best Actor.

This year, Akhtar starred in the drama thriller Wazir. l

Oscars 2016: How to choose the best picture n Mosabber Rahman

The 88th Academy Awards will honour the films of 2015. The award ceremony, titled the 2016 Oscars, will be telecast live worldwide to, according to the Academy, “a several hundred million viewers.” The three-hour show costs about $40 million to produce (each Oscar statuette costs about $900) and earns almost $100 million in revenues.

How much does the host get paid? Well, not much, only about $30,000.

However, what really matters are the awards, and the most important award of them all is the Best Picture award – Casablanca (1943), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Godfather (1972) – have all won it.

How these Best Pictures get nominated and eventually selected is the most fascinating thing about the Oscars. Unlike all the other awards featured in the show, the Best Picture Oscar goes through a unique and grueling process.

Firstly, the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are asked to rank their Top 5 films of the year in a ballot. The lists then go through a statistical formula, and any film that gets over the magic number of 241 votes, can get nominated.

Based on the system, there can be between five to 10 Best Picture nominations. This year eight films got nominated. Five years ago, 10 films got nominated. From 1944 to 2008, only five films got nominated each year.

The voting process is also unique. Each member is asked to rank the nominated films and

then a special method called preferential voting selects the winner by recursive elimination.

So it’s much easier to predict all other categories, which use traditional tick-the-favourite voting, than it’s to predict Best Picture.

Here’s my ranking of the eight nominated films, along with some predictions.

Tom Hanks, as the embodiment of great American ideals, and Mark Rylance who will surely win Best Supporting Actor, as the honourable enemy.

5. SPOTLIGHT This magnificent film about journalism is a work of journalism unto itself. The screenplay is among the best ever written and should win the Oscar.

4. THE BIG SHORT How did director Adam McKay turn Michael Lewis’ non-fiction bestseller about the stock market into an outrageous tragicomedy?

Pure cinematic magic.

3. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD A hundred action films cannot equal this one’s excitement.

8. BROOKLYN Saoirse Ronan shines in this coming-of-age tale of how a shy girl transforms into a confident independent woman.

7. ROOM The most heartfelt film of the year is about the most pure form of love, the love between mother and child. Jacob Tremblay is amazing as the son. Brie Larson, as the mother, is everyone’s favorite candidate for Best Actress.

6. BRIDGE OF SPIES Spielberg’s film about the importance of communication even with an arch-enemy, has

2. THE REVENANT This film about the genocide of the Native Americans got 12 Oscar nominations. Can director Alejandro Iñárritu win again like last year? Maybe. Does Leonardo DiCaprio really deserve an Oscar for his performance? Absolutely!

1. THE MARTIAN If this tribute to science and universal-brotherhood wins Best Picture it will be the first ever science-fiction to get it – let’s hope it happens!

We are grateful the top three nominated films were released in Dhaka this year and we are hopeful more meaningful films will be released next year. For films are not just for our tongues and stomachs, films are also for our eyes and hearts. l

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20

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Male deer (4) 4 Send money (5) 9 Cover (3) 11 Swelling (4) 12 Kind of lyric poem (5) 13 Story (4) 14 Article (4) 15 At no time (5) 19 Even (5) 21 Singing voice (4) 25 Ooze (4) 26 Bend (5) 28 Wan (4) 29 Spirit (3) 30 Sudden convulsion (5) 31 Farm animal (4)

DOWN 1 Snow vehicle (4) 2 Gratuity (3) 3 Embellish (5) 5 Whole (6) 6 Water filled trench around castle (4) 7 Not working (4) 8 Swarms (5) 10 Enthusiasm (5) 16 Runs away to marry (6) 17 Expel by legal process (5) 18 Utters gratingly (5) 20 In slow and solemn manner (mus) (5) 22 Bound (4) 23 Delicate bodily membrane (4) 24 Fasting period (4) 27 By way of (3)

Downtime CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 15 represents H so fill H every time the figure 15 appears.

You have two letters in the control grid to start you off. Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

As you get the letters, fill in the 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.

A B C DE FG H I J K L MN O P Q RST UVWXYZ

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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 number repeating.

PEANUTS

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

DILBERT

SUDOKU

DT

World 21

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

INSIDE INSIGHT

What’s fuelling insurgency upsurge in Kashmir recently?

WikiLeaks: NSA surveillance of Merkel wider than thought US intelligence spied on conversation German Chancellor Angela Merkel held with the UN chief and key European leaders, a German newspaper reported Tuesday citing classified documents released

by WikiLeaks.

PAGE 22

Study: Sea level rising at fastest pace in 2,800 years The world’s oceans are rising at a faster rate than any time in the past 2,800 years, and might even have fallen without the influence of human-driven climate change, researchers say.

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n Tribune Desk A three-day heavy gunbattle in Kashmir that ended Monday claimed nine lives including three militants, indicating a recent upsurge of insurgent activities in the disputed region backed by radicalised extremists.

The attack began when militants shot at a bus carrying police reservists near Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital, before breaking into a training institute.

Three Indian army commandos, two policemen, a civilian and three militants have been killed in the fighting.

On February 20, militants attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in the Pampore area of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) in which two personnel were killed and 13 others sustained serious injuries.

Later, the extremists, suspected to be up to five in number, took refuge in the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building in the same area. More than 100 civilians - trapped in the building at the time of the attack - were evacuated by the security forces. Six civilian lost his life in the crossfire.

The Indian Army has lost two captains and one lance corporal in the encounter - all three of whom belonged to an elite Para commando unit. The army has succeeded in eliminating all of the attackers, all of whom were reportedly foreign nationals.

Muslim separatists have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir since 1989.

Indian military personnel take up positions near a building taken over by suspected militants during clashes in the Sempora area of Pampore, some 15 kms south of Srinagar on Saturday AFP India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebels in the portion it controls and sending them to the Indian side, a claim its neighbour denies. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.

There are two ideologies as far as the secessionist movement is concerned - one favours the independence (Azadi) of Kashmir from India and the subsequent creation

Pentagon’s Gitmo closing plan lays out costs, savings US officials say the Pentagon’s long-awaited plan to shut down the detention centre at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the US mainland calls for up to $475m in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180m per year in operating cost savings.

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Kashmiri residents run to safety after being rescued from a building taken over by suspected militants on Saturday AFP

of an Islamic state, while the other advocates Kashmir becoming part of the Pakistan.

India’s counter-terrorism operations had effectively marginalised the separatist movement in Kashmir lately. The violence has drastically reduced over the past decade as compared to the 1990s. However, security sources are saying the militancy in Kashmir is quietly making a comeback because of young local Kashmiris, from well-educated and sound financial backgrounds, who are joining the armed fight. J&K police census last year put the strength of extremists at 142 - 88 local Kashmiris and 54 foreign nationals.

Security experts have recently been claiming that the Kashmir issue is no longer a political one between India and Pakistan, but radical Islamic extremism has also entered the domain. For instance, young Kashmiris joining the militants’ ranks are drawing inspiration from trans-national Islamic extremism. The main effort of the separatists has always been to cause maximum damage and loss of life, especially of Indian security forces.

In late 1980s and 1990s, there was massive support for militancy, both overtly and covertly,

by a majority of Kashmiri Muslims. Over a period of time, many Kashmiris have realised that the militancy has done more harm to them than anybody else.

However, certain sections in Kashmir still support violent struggle for the so-called Azadi of Kashmir from India. The upsurge in militancy reflects that Kashmir has been deeply radicalised all these years.

In fact, the basic premise for armed struggle against the Indian state which started in 1990 has been the creation of an Islamic state of J&K. The anti-India protests, the waiving of Pakistani, Lashkar and “Islamic State” flags, and the clashes with the security forces continue to happen in Kashmir now and then.

Observers say the issue will persist as long as the militancy infrastructure continues to exist across the border in Pakistan. Since coming to power in May 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed the need for improving relations with Pakistan. However, diplomatic efforts with Pakistan at different levels have been paused for one reason or other in the last few year, especially after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The engagements have not resulted in anything fruitful yet. l

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

WikiLeaks: NSA surveillance of Merkel wider than thought n AFP, Berlin US intelligence spied on conversation German Chancellor Angela Merkel held with the UN chief and key European leaders, a German newspaper reported Tuesday citing classified documents released by WikiLeaks.

The US National Security Agency (NSA), which drew fire for tapping Merkel’s mobile phone, also gathered information on a 2008 conversation about climate change held with UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said.

In the exchange ahead of the Co-

penhagen climate summit, Merkel said the world expected the EU to take a leading role on the issue, while Ban praised Merkel’s personal engagement on tackling climate change, the report said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in an online statement: “Today we showed that UN Sec-

retary General Ban Ki-Moon’s private meetings over how to save the planet from climate change were bugged by a country intent on protecting its largest oil companies”.

German-US relations were badly strained after fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed widespread US

foreign surveillance, including tapping Merkel’s mobile phone.

Issues surrounding such surveillance are hotly debated in Germany.

Wikileaks also released new documents on a 2011 meeting Merkel held with then French president Nicolas Sarkozy and then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. l

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Study: Sea level rising at fastest pace in 2,800 years n AFP, Miami The world’s oceans are rising at a faster rate than any time in the past 2,800 years, and might even have fallen without the influence of human-driven climate change, researchers say.

Sea levels rose globally by about 14cm from 1900 to 2000, said the study led by Rutgers University, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the absence of global warming, the change in sea level would have been far less -- ranging between a 3cm drop in the last century, to a rise of about 7cm.

“The 20th century rise was extraordinary in the context of the last three millennia -- and the rise over the last two decades has been even faster,” said lead author Robert Kopp, an associate professor in Rutgers University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

The study also predicted that global sea level will rise by 50cm to 130cm in the 21st century if the world continues to rely heavily upon fossil fuels.

Even if fossil fuels were phased out, the seas would likely mount

SOUTH ASIA

Nepal lifts months-long fuel rationing

The rising levels of the oceans

Ocean levels rose 14 cm between 1900 and 2000, according to the US National Academy of Science Variation between 1992 and 2014

Annual change since 1993

Average

Change in millimetres

+3.39

mm/year +60 +40 +20 0

- 7cm

0

+ 7 cm

-20

1995 98 2001 04 07 10

13 16

Source: Nasa

between 24.35cm and 61cm by century’s end, it said.

Average global temperature today is about 1°C higher than it was in the late 19th century.

The Rutgers-led study -- with co-authors from Harvard University, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany -- was based on a database that included records from 24 locations around the world, and 66 tide-gauge re-

cords from the last 300 years.

Scientists say the planet is incredibly sensitive to small changes in temperature, with today’s average climate about 1°C warmer than it was in the 19th century.

“During the past millennia sea-level has never risen nearly as fast as during the last century,” said co-author Stefan Rahmstorf, co-Chair of the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research’s (PIK) research domain Earth System Analysis.

“The new sea-level data confirm once again just how unusual the age of modern global warming due to our greenhouse gas emissions is -- and they demonstrate that one of the most dangerous impacts of global warming, rising seas, is well underway.”

A second report issued to Monday by Climate Central found that without the global warming, more than half of the 8,000 coastal nuisance floods seen in the US since 1950 would not have occurred. l

Q&A

How will Britain’s EU membership referendum work?

Prime Minister David Cameron has said a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union will be held on June 23.

Below are the key details of how the vote will work-

remain neutral however, with no party funds, personnel or facilities to be used by either side of the campaign.

How will the government campaign?

Who can vote?

As with a parliamentary election, British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens aged over 18 who live in Britain, and British nationals who have lived overseas for less than 15 years will be allowed to vote in the EU referendum. In addition, members of parliament’s upper house and citizens of Gibraltar who are eligible to vote in European Parliamentary elections will also be able to vote. Citizens of EU countries living in Britain, other than those from Ireland, Malta and Cyprus, will not get a say.

What is the question?

The question on the ballot paper will be: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”. Voters will then choose one of two answers: “Remain a member of the European Union” or “Leave the European Union”.

How long will the campaign last?

The EU referendum law requires a

campaign period of at least 10 weeks before the vote takes place. Before that official campaign period can begin, legislation will need to pass through parliament setting out the details of the vote, including the date.

The government expects that process to take about 6 weeks.

How much can the campaigns spend?

For the official campaign period, Britain’s electoral watchdog can designate a lead group on each side of the debate. The lead group can spend up to £7m, receives a public grant of up to £600,000, gets campaign broad-

casts and one free mail distribution to voters. All other groups can spend up to £700,000 each. Anyone intending to spend more than £10,000 must register with the electoral watchdog, and all groups must declare any donations of more than £7,500 received after February 1. The spending limit for political parties is dictated by the percentage of vote they won in last year’s national election. Cameron’s Conservatives can spend up to £7m, the Labour Party can spend £5.5m, the anti-EU UK Independence Party can spend £4m, the Liberal Democrats £3m and all other parties £700,000.

The Conservative Party has said it will

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World

Cameron has said he will campaign with all his “heart and soul” to persuade Britons to vote to remain in the EU, warning leaving the bloc would be a “leap in the dark”. While the official government position is to back staying in, six of Cameron’s team of top ministers have said they will rebel and campaign to leave the bloc. Influential London Mayor Boris Johnson has also thrown his weight behind the ‘out’ campaign. The government will be subject to a period of ‘purdah’, barring it from publishing anything in the 28 days before the referendum that could influence the outcome of the vote.

What happens on the day?

Polls will be open from 0600GMT to 2100GMT. Counting will begin as soon as polls close and will carry on overnight. There will be 12 centres across Britain where counts are collated, and the final result will be declared in Manchester in northern England. l

Source: REUTERS

Nepal has lifted its months-long rationing of fuel following the end this month of a border blockade by people protesting against a new constitution, officials said Tuesday.

Members of Nepal’s ethnic Madhesi community decided to call off their protest at a key border post which began last September.

-AFP

INDIA

Protest in Delhi over student’s death, sedition case Chanting slogans and holding placards, thousands of students marched through the Indian capital Tuesday to protest the recent death of a student who faced caste discrimination and the arrest of a student leader on sedition charges. The protesters from New Delhi’s two main universities marched near the Indian parliament, demanding the student’s immediate release and condemning violence by supporters of the ruling BJP. -AP

CHINA

China defends deployments in South China Sea China’s South China Sea military deployments are no different from US deployments on Hawaii, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said, striking a combative tone ahead of a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the US this week. The US last week accused China of raising tensions in the South China Sea by its apparent deployment of surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island. -THE GUARDIAN

ASIA PACIFIC

Fiji’s Cyclone Winston death toll rises to 29 Some 29 people have now been confirmed dead in Fiji as the Pacific nation begins the enormous task of rebuilding after the devastation wreaked by Cyclone Winston. The official death toll rose to 29 early on Tuesday as information began filtering back from hard-hit remote areas that bore the brunt of the category-five cyclone on Saturday. -THE GUARDIAN

MIDDLE EAST

US, Russia announce Syria truce from Saturday A landmark truce is to take effect in Syria on Saturday, the US and Russia announced, but the cessation of hostilities does not include the Dae’sh and Al-Nusra Front, the main jihadist factions.

In a joint statement, Washington and Moscow said the partial truce would begin late Friday, suspending a vicious conflict that has left more than 260,000 people dead and seen half the population displaced. -AFP

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

USA

US failing to explain deadly drone policy The US has made little or no progress in explaining how and why it orders lethal drone strikes, even as America’s reliance on the unmanned aircraft soars worldwide, a report found Tuesday.

According to a study by the Stimson Center, Barack Obama’s administration has failed to provide basic transparency into the drone program that has become a keystone in America’s counterterrorism efforts.

-AFP

THE AMERICAS

Brazil to fight Zika with gamma rays Brazil is planning to fight the Zika virus by zapping millions of male mosquitoes with gamma rays to sterilize them and stop the spread of the virus linked to thousands of birth defects. Called an irradiator, the device has been used to control fruit flies on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

-REUTERS

UK

Bank of England preparing contingency plans for EU vote The Bank of England is preparing a contingency plan for the aftermath of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership, Governor Mark Carney said Tuesday. But he said the central bank will not predict the likely outcome or economic consequences of a vote to leave.

-AP

EUROPE

Spanish political parties step up talks to break deadlock Spain’s left-wing political parties intensified negotiations on Monday to end weeks of wrangling after an inconclusive election, though leaders had yet to make any breakthrough on forming a coalition to avoid another ballot. Spain’s Socialist Party, runner-up in the election, is racing to try and strike a deal with rival parties. Leader Pedro Sanchez faces a confidence vote in parliament on March 3 on his plan for a government.

-AFP

AFRICA

AU delegation heads to Burundi to promote dialogue Five African leaders are set to visit Burundi this week to push for progress in stalled efforts to end the country’s 10-month-old crisis that has left more than 400 dead, the South African government said Tuesday. The African Union delegation, headed by South African President Jacob Zuma, will arrive for the two-day trip to Bujumbura on Thursday.

-AFP

Pentagon’s Gitmo closing plan lays out costs, savings n Tribune Desk US officials say the Pentagon’s long-awaited plan to shut down the detention centre at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the US mainland calls for up to $475m in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180m per year in operating cost savings.

The plan, which was delivered to Congress on Tuesday morning, is the administration’s last-ditch effort to make good on President Barack Obama’s campaign vow to close Guantanamo and convince lawmakers to allow the Defence Department to move nearly 60 detainees to the US. The Pentagon has proposed transferring the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons. But Congress is deeply opposed and expected to block the move.

Senior administration officials told that closing the prison is a national security imperative.

“Implementing this plan will enhance our national security by denying terrorists a powerful propaganda symbol, strengthening relationships with key allies and counterterrorism partners, and reducing costs,” said Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook in a statement.

US officials say the plan considers 13 different locations in the US,

Leg shackles for detainees are seen on the floor at the Camp 6 detention centre at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay in this 2009 file photo REUTERS including seven existing prison facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas, as well as six other locations on current military bases. They say the plan doesn’t recommend a preferred site and the cost estimates are meant to provide a starting point for a conversation with Congress.

The seven facilities reviewed by a Pentagon assessment team last year were: the US Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility at

Leavenworth, Kansas; the Consolidated Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina; the Federal Correctional Complex, which includes the medium, maximum and supermax facilities in Florence, Colorado; and the Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, Colorado, also known as the Centennial Correctional Facility.

According to the officials, the US facilities would cost between $265m and $305m to operate each year. The annual operating cost

for Guantanamo is $445m, but the officials said the Cuba detention centre will need about $225m in repairs and construction costs if it continues to be used.

They said it will cost between $290m and $475m for construction at the various US sites, depending on the location.

Late last year, other US officials said that the assessments done by the Pentagon team suggested that the Centennial Correctional Facility in Colorado is a more suitable site to send detainees whom officials believe should never be released.

Members of Congress have been demanding the Guantanamo plan for months, and those representing South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado have voiced opposition to housing the detainees in their states.

The administration is currently prohibited by law from moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US. The long-running dispute has taken on added intensity now because the White House has launched a final push to close to the prison before Obama leaves office. There are currently 91 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Of those, 35 are expected to be transferred out by this summer.

At its peak in 2003, Guantanamo held nearly 680 detainees, and there were about 245 when Obama took office. l

Q&A

Obama’s battle with GOP over replacing Scalia The death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the vacancy on the bench has touched off an intense partisan fight in Washington over who should pick his replacement, President Barack Obama or his successor.

Here are some questions and answers about the battle--

What’s at stake?

It’s difficult to overstate the significance of Scalia’s death. The court had been split with four (generally) reliable conservatives on one side and four liberal votes on the other, with Justice Anthony Kennedy often the swing vote. Scalia’s death takes away a crucial conservative vote. If he’s replaced by a liberal or moderate Obama nominee, the balance of the court would change, with potentially enormous consequences for issues like abortion, union rights, immigration, and congressional redistricting.

What happens first?

It’s up to Obama to nominate a replacement. He has said he will do so.

And then?

That’s the big question. Republicans controlling the Senate - which must confirm any Obama appointee before the individual is seated on the court say that the decision is too important to be determined by a lame-duck president and that voters in November’s election should determine whether Scalia’s successor is replaced by a Republican or a Democrat. Democrats counter that the voters did have a say when they re-elected Obama in 2012.

Republicans also argue that the Senate’s longstanding tradition is to not confirm justices in an election year.

So no vote?

Doesn’t sound like it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky) wrote the Lexington

Herald-Leader in his home state of Kentucky and said action in the Senate should be deferred until after the election. Still, the prospect of simply sitting on a nomination all year seems to be making a few Republicans uncomfortable, especially those up for re-election in November. Several of them have offered conflicting comments. Precedent holds that the committee could reject Obama’s nomination outright or follow the tradition of the failed nomination or sending it to the full Senate without actually approving it.

What about the full Senate?

Even if a nomination were to be brought to the floor, it would surely be filibustered. That means Democrats, who control 46 votes, would have to win over least 14 Republicans to bring any nominee up for an up-or-down vote. Supreme Court nominations are one of the few remaining instances in

which filibusters have been uncommon in the Senate.

What’s the bottom line?

The overwhelming likelihood is a failed nomination, and the Senate probably won’t vote on it, either in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor.

What if this year’s Supreme Court deadlocks on a case?

Under the rules, the appellate court’s ruling stands. That would mean lower court decisions such as one overturning Obama’s executive moves on immigration would stand, while others, such as an appellate ruling backing up public employee unions in their right to assess dues, would be affirmed and go Obama’s way. But court observers believe that Chief Justice John Roberts would likely order any deadlocked case to be reargued. l

Source: AP

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

INSIDE

Mamunul biggest casualty in squad Seven national footballers, who received show-cause letters last Monday for breaching team protocol, were duly excluded as the BFF yesterday announced the 22-member squad for the upcoming 2018 Fifa World Cup second round qualifier. PAGE 26

Swearing row as Aussies close on win Josh Hazlewood pleaded guilty to dissent over a profanity-laced confrontation with the umpires as Australia closed in on a series sweep over New Zealand yesterday. Hazlewood’s anger and obscenities were picked up by the stumps microphone. PAGE 27

City must revive fading season in Kiev Manchester City must put a potentially ruinous fortnight behind them as they seek to reboot their faltering season with a big performance in their UCL trip to Dynamo Kiev today. City received heavy criticism for fielding a second-string team at Chelsea. PAGE 28

Prince Ali calls for delay in FIFA vote Lawyers for FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al Hussein have urged the Court of Arbitration for Sport to suspend Friday’s vote for a new head to lead the world football governing body out of its worst ever corruption crisis. PAGE 29

Bangladesh wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim attempts a catch during a practice session in Mirpur yesterday prior to their Asia Cup T20 opener against India today MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Mashrafe not worried about Tigers’ shortest format woes n Minhaz Uddin Khan Bangladesh have seen significant improvements in one-day internationals in the recent past. The side have also made notable developments in Tests but in the shortest format of the game, Twenty20s, the Tigers have struggled.

Since 2006, Bangladesh have played 50 T20 internationals, losing the majority of the games and winning only 15 times. They have mostly been successful against Zimbabwe, winning five out of nine matches. However, against today’s Asia Cup T20 opposition India, Bangladesh have played two T20Is, losing both.

Bangladesh’s T20 captain for the Asia Cup and the upcoming World T20, Mashrafe bin Mortaza, though is not concerned of the track record, as he said, “It is true that T20 is not our forte but one has to understand that we cannot always think of this. That way, we will not be able to improve.

“What we are trying right now is not think of the matches we have lost in this format. We had done the same in one-day inter-

nationals and I think it helped us. I believe forgetting all the bad memories of T20s will help us to progress in this format as a team.

We might get the result right away or it might take some time as

informed the media that during this time, the team tried to rectify their weak points. According to Mashrafe, the hard work has been done and now it is time to reap the rewards.

Since 2014, Bangladesh batsman score at 132.33 in the last four overs, which is the worst worst among Full Members. In the Powerplay, Bangladesh batsmen’s strike-rate of 112 is second-worst after Pakistan’s In T20Is since 2014, India’s No. 5 to No. 7 have averaged just 16.78 - only Hong Kong, Nepal and Papua New Guinea have averaged worse well,” the right-arm paceman added in yesterday’s pre-tournament press conference.

Bangladesh in the last month practised as a team in phases. Following their four-match T20I series against Zimbabwe in January, the Tigers stayed back in Khulna for the first phase of training. Later, they moved to Chittagong for the second phase and Mashrafe

Besides Bangladesh’s performance in T20s, the other talk of the town is how Bangladesh pace sensation Mustafizur Rahman will be dealt with by India. The 20-year-old left-arm pacer was the chief architect behind India’s humiliating defeat against the Tigers in the ODI series last year.

Mustafizur scripted a dream debut, picking up 11 wickets in the

first two matches.

During the course of last year, Mustafizur made many more appearances and as it happens to an international bowler, the opponents had the opportunity of studying his action down to the minutest of details. There is also concerns as to whether Mustafizur will be able to continue his magic against a strong Indian batting line-up.

However, Mashrafe said, “One advantage is, I do not think he knows much of all the discussions surrounding him. Even if he knows, I believe he will not think much of it. He does not put extra pressure upon himself, if you ask me. He is not a person to take pressure. It is true that it will be a challenge for him to perform against Indian batsmen, more so because it is T20. I think the others (bowlers) have to contribute and not solely depend upon one person just because he did well last time around.

“I always say Mustafizur is special and others cannot do what he does but [today] I think everyone should step up and put up a team performance.” l

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'Exciting to see Mustafizur in action' n Minhaz Uddin Khan The last time India faced Bangladesh, they experienced an ordeal.

Riding on left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman’s heroics, the Tigers clinched their maiden ODI series win over India. Mustafizur had a dream debut in the format as he emerged as only the second bowler after Brian Vitori to take five-wicket hauls in the first two ODI appearances.

India batsman Virat Kohli ahead of their Asia Cup Twenty20 opener against hosts Bangladesh said Mustafzur might as well prove to be a big factor in the tournament.

He said bowlers like Mustafizur are needed in the game to make it more exciting.

“Mustafizur has done really well in the last one year since he played against us, he has really bowled well for Bangladesh. It was exciting to see a 19-year-old coming on board. He can bowl slower balls, along with bowling at 140 clicks.

That was something different for us as well. He was bowling really good slower balls and cutters. So yeah, he brought in something different to the game, spiced the game up a bit more, which I think is a bit exciting,” said Kohli to the media yesterday at a city hotel.

“As a batsman also, you get more competitive saying I need to prepare differently and tackle him differently, so it improves your own game. He has bowled really well and is obviously going to be a big factor for Bangladesh in the tournament,” he added.

Kohli in the press conference also talked about the return of Pakistan

left-arm seamer Mohammad Amir.

The right-handed batsman said he is “happy” to see the speedster making a comeback despite the fact that there is an ongoing argument over whether convicted spot-fixer Amir should have been allowed to play international cricket.

Amir was banned for five years for his involvement in spot-fixing during the tour of England in 2010.

He only returned this year after serving the suspension period.

“I don’t feel anything different playing Pakistan. It’s the same game of cricket. I look at all oppositions with the same view. Matches against Pakistan are certainly competitive. People may feel excited but for players it’s the same as any other team. I am happy to see Amir back, it’s good to see that he has realised his mistake, learnt from it and rectified himself,” said Kohli after he was asked about the game against Pakistan in the regional

competition.

Kohli went to the extent of predicting that Amir could have been among the top three bowlers had he not strayed from his path.

“I have always believed that he is a world-class bowler and had he been around for the five years that he was banned, he would have certainly been a top-three bowler in the world. He has a lot of talent, got pace, bounce [and] a very good yorker,” he said. l

PLAYERS TO WATCH

SABBIR RAHMAN Bangladesh

The 24-year old batsman was promoted to No 3 in the recent Twenty20 international series against Zimbabwe and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands, registering some good scores. The Rajshahi lad will surely have to play a vital role with the bat if the Tigers are to have any hopes of winning the game. A useful leg-spinner, Sabbir’s bowling might also come in handy against their sub-continent rival.

SHIKHAR DHAWAN

Indian batsman Virat Kohli attends a press conference at a city hotel yesterday on the eve of their Asia Cup T20 clash against hosts Bangladesh today SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

India The 30-year old opening batsman is in terrific touch and is expected to play a key role today in the Asia Cup T20 opener. The hard-hitting southpaw arrived here on the back of fine knocks in his last two matches, scoring 51 and 46 not out against Sri Lanka in a T20 international series. Alongside Rohit Sharma, the Delhi cricketer will be looking to give his side a positive start against hosts Bangladesh.

Mamunul biggest casualty in new-look national squad

Sheikh Jamal DC suffer heavy defeat

n Tribune Report

n Tribune Report

Seven national footballers, who received show-cause letters last Monday for breaching team protocol, were duly excluded as the Bangladesh Football Federation yesterday announced the 22-member squad for the upcoming 2018 Fifa World Cup second round qualifier away to Jordan, scheduled for March 24.

Prior to the World Cup qualifying match, the national squad will travel to Dubai to take on the United Arab Emirates in a Fifa international friendly on March 18.

Captain Mamunul Islam is the biggest name missing from the 22man squad while the other exiled players are – Jahid Hasan Ameli, Zahid Hossain, Atiqur Rahman Meshu, Sohel Rana, Yeamin Ahmed Munna and Yeasin Khan. They will

only be recalled to the side if they are found not guilty.

Veteran defender Rezaul Karim has been called up along with Shakil Ahmed, Emon Mahmud, Shahedul Alam Shahed, Fazley Rabbi, Atiqur Rahman Fahad and Rubel Miah.

The national team’s training camp for the eighth and final qualifier will begin at the BFF House this Saturday under the guidance of temporary Spanish head coach Gonzalo Sanchez Moreno and manager Satyajit Das Rupu while BFF vice-president Badal Roy will

perform his duty as the newly-appointed team leader. Local coach Syed Golam Jilani will be the assistant coach.

The Bengal Tigers are rooted at the bottom of Group B with only one point. They lost 4-0 to Jordan at home in the first leg. Jordan, on the other hand, are second with 13 points from six matches, two behind Asian champions Australia.

SQUAD

Russel Mahmud Liton, Mazharul Islam Hemel, Ashraful Islam Rana; Rayhan Hasan, Topu Barman, Nasirul Islam Nasir, Rezaul Karim, Keshto Kumar Bosh, Waly Faisal, Shakil Ahmed; Emon Mahmud, Monaem Khan Raju, Jamal Bhuiyan, Shahedul Alam Shahed, Fazley Rabbi, Atiqur Rahman Fahad, Masuk Miah Joni; Rubel Miah, Nabib Newaj Jibon, Shakhawat Hossain Rony, Jewel Rana, Aminur Rahman Sojib. l

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi fell to a shocking 4-0 loss at the hands of home side Tampines Rovers FC in their first match of the AFC Cup’s final round at the Jalan Besar stadium in Singapore yesterday.

A different Sheikh Jamal outfit turned out for the Tampines tie as several key players left the topflight champions in the last transfer window. And it took the hosts just two minutes to break the deadlock when Billy Mehmet tapped in from a Fabian Kwok cross.

The Singapore League’s runners up side doubled their lead in the 33rd minute as an unmarked Hafiz Abu Sujad headed home a lovely cross by Mehmet.

The absence of experienced defenders cost Sheikh Jamal silly goals but the Bangladeshi side

tried their best to stage a comeback in the second half. However, two more quick goals right after resumption put paid to Sheikh Jamal’s hopes.

Afiq Yunos made it 3-0 seven minutes into the second half from a corner taken by former English Premier League forward Jermaine Pennant. Topu Barman’s own goal a minute later only added insult to injury.

This is Sheikh Jamal’s maiden appearance in the final round of the AFC Cup and the first time in 10 years that a Bangladeshi club have played in the regional club competition.

The three-time top-tier champions will play their second game at home against Philippines league champions Ceres la Salle on March 8 before hosting Malaysian Cup holders Selangor the following week. l

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

QUICK BYTES Table-toppers Central meet North in 3rd round today The third round of the Bangladesh Cricket League longer-version will resume today following a monthlong break with Central Zone facing North Zone and South Zone taking on East Zone. Away at the academy ground of the Sheikh Kamal International Cricket stadium in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar, North, who are at the top of the standings with a win in two matches, will be looking to continue their impressive start to the tournament. Central, in contrast, have drawn both of their games and find themselves at second with 18 points. In the other game of the day at the same venue, Mominul Haque’s East will lock horns with struggling South, who are languishing at the bottom with only nine points.

–TRIBUNE REPORT

Swearing row as Aussies close on win n AFP, Christchurch Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood pleaded guilty to dissent over a profanity-laced confrontation with the umpires as Australia closed in on a series sweep over New Zealand and the top Test ranking yesterday.

Hazlewood’s anger and obscenities were picked up by the stumps microphone as he challenged the umpires after an appeal for the wicket of New Zealand’s Kane Williamson was turned down.

An Australian team spokesman confirmed that Hazlewood had pleaded guilty to an International Cricket Council charge of dissent.

The fine will be determined later.

There was no action against Australia captain Steve Smith, whose voice was also heard in the confrontation.

Australia go into the final day at 70-1 needing a further 131 runs to win the second and final Test and take the series 2-0, and go top in the world rankings. Joe Burns is on 27 with Usman Khawaja 19. David Warner was out for 22.

Jackson Bird, with his first five-wicket Test haul, and James Pattinson combined to end the New Zealand second innings at 335, giving Australia a 201-run target.

Tempers flare

But it was a frustating day in the

field for Australia as Williamson and Corey Anderson batted through the morning session and the possibility of an unlikely draw started to appear.

Tempers flared after a Hazlewood lbw appeal for the wicket of Williamson was rejected, with the Australians converging on umpires Richard Kettleborough and Ranmore Martinesz. Bird said the angry reaction was due to frustration at not being able to take a wicket in the morning session.

“We bowled pretty well in the first session and we probably thought it was out, but those 5050 calls either go your way or they don’t,” he said. l

An authorised biography of Sepp Blatter written by the shamed FIFA president’s former spokesman will be released next month, the publisher said yesterday, four days before an election to choose Blatter’s successor. “It is really a journey through Sepp Blatter’s life,” said Alain Diezig of publisher Werd&Weber. “Mission Football”, which includes many photos, was written by Thomas Renggli.

–AFP

CRICKET

STAR SPORTS 1 7:30PM Asia Cup T20 2016 Bangladesh v India

STAR SPORTS 2 10:00AM Ranji Trophy 2015/16 Final Day 1: Mumbai v Saurashtra

FOOTBALL TEN SPORTS 1:45AM

Uefa Champions League PSV v Atletico

TEN ACTION UEFA Youth League 7:00PM PSV Eindhoven v AS Roma 9:00PM PSG v Middlesbrough 11:00PM UEFA Europa League Braga v Sion 1:45AM Uefa Champions League Dynamo Kyiv v Man City

AUSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS 505 (Burns 170, Smith 138, Voges 60; Wagner 6-106, Boult 2-108) NEW ZEALAND 2ND INNINGS (overnight 121-4) T Latham c Nevill b Pattinson M Guptill c Nevill b Pattinson K Williamson b Bird H Nicholls c Smith b Pattinson B McCullum c Warner b Hazlewood C Anderson b Bird B Watling c Burns b Pattinson T Southee c Smith b Bird M Henry b Bird N Wagner not out T Boult c Pattinson b Bird Extras: (b2, lb14, nb1)

R

B

39 0 97 2 25 40 46 0 66 3 0 17

71 12 210 10 27 148 77 2 93 13 5

Total (10 wickets; 111.1 overs)

335

Fall of wicket 1-8, 2-66, 3-72, 4-105, 5-207, 6-210, 7-210, 8-328, 9-335, 10-335 Bowling Hazlewood 34-11-92-1, Pattinson 26-8-774, Bird 17.1-5-59-5, Lyon 17-3-42-0, Marsh 17-4-49-0 (nb1)

Blatter biography to be released in weeks: publisher

DAY’S WATCH

SCORECARD, DAY 4 NEW ZEALAND FIRST INNINGS 370 (McCullum 145, Anderson 72, Watling 58; Lyon 3-61)

AUSTRALIA 2ND INNINGS J Burns not out D Warner c Watling b Wagner U Khawaja not out Extras (nb2)

R B 27 66 22 33 19 23 2

Total (1 wicket; 20 overs)

70

Fall of wicket 1-49 (Warner) Bowling Boult 7-0-30-0, Southee 2-1-9-0, Henry 4-1-17-0 (nb1), Wagner 6-0-13-1 (nb1), Anderson 1-0-1-0 Australia require another 131 runs

New Zealand's Kane Williamson (L) and Corey Anderson touch gloves before walking out to bat on day four against Australia yesterday

Pakistan keen to build on PSL success n Reuters, Islamabad Pakistan’s inaugural national cricket league has been an unexpected success, even though all the matches have been played in the United Arab Emirates due to security risks.

Since the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was announced last September, the country’s cricketboard has sold five franchises for $93 million and attracted players from 11 different countries.

They include big names like West Indies batsman Chris Gayle and former internationals Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka and England’s Kevin Pietersen.

The biggest surprise, however, has been the response from Pakistan’s public.

Since matches began in the UAE on Feb. 4, national television viewing figures have been higher than for the 2015 World Cup, with 55 percent of Pakistan’s TV-watching public tuning into the tournament at peak times.

Yesterday’s championship match between Islamabad United and Quetta Gladiators in Dubai was expected to attract similar figures.

The match was sold out.

“Big businesses have bought the franchises, millions of people have tuned in even though the matches aren’t in Pakistan, and our own young cricketers are getting a chance to rub shoulders with giants,” PSL chairman Najam Sethi told Reuters.

Home Soil

It is still unclear when the PSL will be able to stage its first match on

home soil.

Pakistan has been forced to play designated "home" matches primarily in the United Arab Emirates since 2009 when the Sri Lankan team was ambushed by Taliban militants while travelling from their hotel to Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium for a Test match.

Many see PSL as a turning-point, not just for the country’s cashstrapped cricket board but also for young cricketers who have missed out on opportunities to interact with and learn from leading international players. l

Vettel shows speed, Mercedes miles in testing n AFP, Barcelona Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took advantage of a new ultrasoft tyre to propel himself back to the top of the timesheets on a morning of fast times on the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Vettel was also fastest in Monday’s first day of testing as Ferrari look set to live up to expectations they can challenge Mercedes’ dominance of the sport for the past two years.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo also used tyre manufacturer Pirelli’s fastest tyre to get second fastest, but was seven tenths down on Vettel’s flying lap of 1min 22:810sec.

However, once again Mercedes were arguably the most impressive performers as Nico Rosberg completed 81 laps and went within 0.2 seconds of his qualifying lap to land pole position at the same circuit for last season’s Spanish Grand Prix on slower medium tyres.l

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Milan draw dents Napoli title hopes n AFP, Milan Giacomo Bonaventura hit a firsthalf leveller as AC Milan boosted their hopes of European football next season in a 1-1 draw that dented Napoli’s title hopes on Monday.

Napoli welcomed Milan to the San Paolo looking to capitalise on Juventus’s stalemate at Bologna on Friday - victory would have put them back on top.

But despite seeing Lorenzo Insigne provide a 39th minute lead with a deflected shot that just crept past teenaged goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Bonaventura pulled Milan level only five minutes later.

Napoli had the lion’s share of the best chances in the second half but Donnarumma was decisive in the dying minutes. But Maurizio Sarri’s title challengers were forced to settle for a sixth draw of the season that has left them in second, one point behind Juventus.

Milan remain sixth, eight points behind third-placed Fiorentina in the last possible Champions League qualifying place. l

SERIE A STANDINGS Team

GP W D

L GD PTS

1 Juventus

26 18

4

4 31

2 Napoli

26 17

6

3 33

57

3 Fiorentina

26 16

4

6 21

52

4 Roma

26 14

8

4 25

50

5 Inter Milan 26 14

6

6 11

4

AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma makes a save during their Serie A match against Napoli at San Paolo Stadium, Naples on Monday

United stroll spares LVG more misery

n AFP, Shrewsbury Manchester United cruised into the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 3-0 win at Shrewsbury on Monday that at least temporarily eased the mounting pressure on Louis van Gaal. Chris Smalling, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard netted the goals as United wrapped up a businesslike victory against their third tier hosts to secure a last eight date with West Ham United at Old Trafford.

United took 37 minutes to make the breakthrough, but once Smalling opened the scoring the result never looked in doubt.

“I was very pleased. We have played 70 minutes fantastic, in a professional way, creating chances and scoring goals. Everyone shall say Manchester United have to win against Shrewsbury Town, but for the players it is fantastic because we are in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.” Van Gaal told BT Sport. l Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal poses for a 'selfie' following their English FA Cup fifth round match against Shrewsbury Town in Shrewsbury on Monday AFP

Beckham pleads for Van Gaal patience

n AFP, London David Beckham has come to the defence of under-pressure Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal, saying the Dutchman needs time to turn the club’s fortunes around. Recently the local Manchester Evening News took the unusual step of calling for Van Gaal to be sacked.

But Beckham told: “He is an experienced manager with a great reputation in the game. Sometimes it takes time. It is not easy being manager of Man United. We have to look at results, we have to look at the way we play, we have to listen to fans - the people that really matter at the club - and I only hear great things about him as a person, as a manager, as a coach.”l

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REUTERS

Under-fire City must revive fading season in Kiev n Reuters Manchester City must put a potentially ruinous fortnight behind them as they seek to reboot their faltering season with a big performance in their Champions League last-16, first leg trip to Dynamo Kiev today.

With their English Premier League title hopes badly dented by successive home losses to fellow contenders Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur, City received heavy criticism for fielding a second-string team in Sunday’s embarrassing FA Cup capitulation at Chelsea.

Suddenly, the lavishly-funded team who had been campaigning for a “quadruple” of titles finds their season in danger of careering off the rails with manager Manuel Pellegrini brought to task by a former England great over his moans about the club’s fixture congestion.

Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer, criticised City’s approach, telling the BBC he could not understand Pellegrini’s decision to start six teenagers in the team which was thrashed 5-1 at Chelsea.

“Barcelona played on Saturday and they face Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday. It’s the same amount of time (between games) as City, but they didn’t rest

any players,” Shearer said.

“I don’t get the talk of resting players. City are - and want to be a very big club on the global stage.

“They’ve got more resources than anyone. I never see Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo wanting to be left out.”

Pellegrini responded to the criticism by saying he should not have to defend his selection. City, he explained, had been struggling with injuries and he was forced to prioritise in a crucial week featur-

ing not just the Kiev game but also Sunday’s League Cup final against Liverpool.

City had written to the Football Association to complain about the scheduling of the Chelsea game, having wanted it played on Saturday.

All this turmoil plays into the hands of outsiders Kiev, who have reached the knock-out stages for the first time since they were beaten by Bayern Munich in the 1999 semi-finals. l

Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero and his team mates wear smart suits with denim shirts before their journey to Dynamo Kiev yesterday

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Jordan’s Prince Ali calls for delay in FIFA vote n Reuters, London Lawyers for FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al Hussein have urged the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to suspend Friday’s vote for a new head to lead the world soccer body out of its worst ever corruption crisis.

Ali, whose request for transparent voting booths was rejected last week by FIFA, is unhappy with the arrangements for a vote expected to set a new tone of transparency for an organisation mired in the past in secret dealings.

Having rejected the Jordanian prince’s offer to make transparent

booths available to the congress, FIFA instead will ask voters to leave their mobile phones outside while choosing between five candidates.

“This request is not sufficient,” said a statement issued by Ali’s legal team. “FIFA remains silent upon the measures to enforce it and sanctions associated with it.”

Ali had wanted transparent booths at the Feb. 26 election to ensure delegates do not photograph their ballot papers when they choose the head of soccer’s world ruling body. This would prevent delegates coming under pressure to produce evidence of their vote to interested parties. l

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Back Page

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

MUHITH NAMES BASIC FARHAN AKHTAR TO ‘EXCITING TO SEE SCAMSTERS IN JS PAGE 15 PERFORM IN DHAKA PAGE 19 MUSTAFIZUR IN ACTION’

BOOK FAIR 2016

AMAR EKUSHEY

Some stalls allegedly selling pirated books n Nure Alam Durjoy Several publishers at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016 have complained of some book stalls showcasing and selling pirated books, breaching the fair guidelines.

The Academic and Creative Publishers’ Association of Bangladesh (ACPAB) sent a letter to Bangla Academy Director General Shamsuzzaman Khan in this regard on Sunday, the association’s President Osman Gani told reporters yesterday.

The association also claimed that the errant stalls were also housing works of some Indian writers, which is also against the fair guidelines.

According to the book fair guidelines, only books written, edited and translated by Bangladeshi writers and published from Bangladesh are allowed to be showcased and sold at Ekushey Boi Mela.

“We hope the authorities will take steps immediately to resolve this issue,” Gani said.

However, when contacted, Shamsuzzaman said he had yet to see the letter in question.

“I have been receiving letters of complaint from the publishers since Day 1 of the fair. Why don’t they [the publishers] take the responsibility of arranging this fair?”

The letter states that a number of stalls alloted to NGOs on the Bangla Academy premises have been selling pirated books.

Meanwhile, going around the stalls yesterday, this correspondent found the books written by Samaresh Majumdar, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Sheershendu Mukherjee and other Indian writers on display at the stalls of Abishkar Publications and Jyotsna Publishers in Suhrawardy Udyan.

However, when confronted, Abishkar’s publisher Delwar Hasan and Jyotsna’s proprietor Swapan Kumar Datta claimed that had the authorisation to sell the books of those writers.

Book Names Mohan Sateertho Shamsur Rahman Tnar Sritir Path Moddobitter Utthan o Bhogbader Uthayan Sa-te Sentu The Razor's Edge William Shakespeare Bektitwobad Vuter Biyer Nimontrone

Author Syed Shamsul Haque Anisuzzaman Manun Rashid

Genre Memoirs Essay Essay

Publishers Chaitanya Prokashon Bengal Publications Ltd Agamee Prakashani

Muhammed Zafar Iqbal Written by W. Somerset Maugham, Translated byBhabani Mukhopaddya Tamanna Minhaj Aleem Haider

Novel Translation

Somoy Prokashan Subarno

Translattion Poetry Juvenile

Abosar Platform Chandrabati Academy

Four bookworm friends take a look at their new purchases at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016 yesterday “If we are not supposed to sell books of Indian writers, how come writings of Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay have been sold here over the years,” Delwar asked.

Jalal Ahmed, secretary of the book fair committee, said those two writers were exception to the rule. “Their works are classics, which is why we allow them at the fair.”

The publishers also complained about inadequate lighting in some areas on the fairgrounds, crisis of drinking water, and excessive

dust at the fair.

Security beefed up after arson attempt

Following the failed arson attack on the stall of Platform Publications on Monday, the book fair authorities have increased security around the stall as well as the fair entrances.

Authorities were seen setting more poles to set up more lights and CCTV cameras behind Platform’s stall around 3:30pm yesterday.

Police are investigating the in-

MEHEDI HASAN

cident, but no has been arrested in this connection yet, Shahbagh police station OC Abu Bakar Siddique told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday evening.

Terming the incident dangerous, Adorn Publications publisher Syed Jakir Hossain said: “Incidents like that can happen any time. We should keep our eyes open to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies.”

Book fair committee Secretary Jalal Ahmed said: “We are prepared to tackle any problem that may arise.” l

PAGE 26

Police claim success in Avijit murder case n Kamrul Hasan

Investigators have got some crucial information in connection with the murder of secularist writer Avijit Roy from the two alleged militants arrested recently in the city.

Sources said that the duo – Kamal alias Shahin and Shah Alam alias Salauddin – had been involved in the gruesome murder that took place on February 26 last year. Police say they are members of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team.

A senior police officer, seeking anonymity, confirmed the matter to the Dhaka Tribune, but refused to elaborate further.

The newly-formed Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CT) unit and the DB police arrested the two militants from Badda on Friday. They were placed on sixday remand on Monday.

Former Buet teacher Avijit Roy, also founder of Mukto-Mona blog, was hacked to death by assailants near TSC when he and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya were returning from the book fair. Bonna sustained severe injuries in the attack.

Ansarullah has ties with HujiB Bombs recovered from the alleged den of Ansarullah in Mohammadpur are similar to those found in Narayanganj on October 25 last year, investigators said.

They think that either some members of banned Islamist group Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HujiB) joined Ansarullah or they trained the Ansarullah members. Both the groups want to establish Islamic rule in the country.

DB Bomb Disposal Unit officials told the Dhaka Tribune that they had found the bombs inside the false ceiling of the flat. Similar arrangement was seen in Narayanganj.

DB Assistant Commissioner Rahmattullah Chowdhury said they had found six grenades which were made of local materials. Moreover, they found bomb-making manuals written in Bangla and Arabic.

“We saw similar preparation of grenades from the HujiB members detained earlier. May be some bomb makers of HujiB have joined Ansarullah,” he added.

At least seven members of HujiB were arrested by the DB police in Narayanganj last year. They had returned to Bangladesh after getting military training from Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for two years. l

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