April 16, 2016

SECOND EDITION

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

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Boishakh 3, 1423, Rajab 8, 1437

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 360

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

Tight security dampens celebrations n Kamrul Hasan While the police claim that no untoward incidents took place during the Pohela Boishakh celebrations this year, many participants observed that the festivities were marred by the tight security measures and the restrictions imposed

by Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The number of participants attending the colourful procession, Mongol Shobhajatra, and cultural programmes in Dhaka University areas on Thursday was smaller compared to the recent years.

The city dwellers said that they had felt secured on the day but the excessive security measures dampened their mood.

DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah last evening told reporters that the city dwellers and the organisers of different cultural programmes had cooperated with the police. They had wrapped up all the open air programmes within 5pm.

Earlier in the day, he said that they had not tried to control the celebrations, and that the measures  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Thousands bring out the colourful Mongol Shobhajatra – a procession of good wishes – to usher in the Bangla year 1423 on Pohela Boishakh. The photo was taken near Shahbagh intersection RAJIB DHAR

Dae'sh reveals plans for Bangladesh, region n Tribune Desk

INSIDE

International militant group Dae’sh or Islamic State eyes attacks in India and Myanmar from its base in Bangladesh considering that the Muslims in the region, especially those in Myanmar, live under oppression from Buddhists and Hindus.

The group hopes to strengthen its jihad within Bangladesh before moving into Myanmar and India, according to BuzzFeed News and BBC Bangla.

“We believe the Shariah in Bengal won’t be achieved until the local Hindus are targeted in mass numbers,” says Sheikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the man it says is leading the operations in Bangladesh, in an interview with the group’s propaganda magazine Dabiq.

Bangladesh is referred to as “Bengal” throughout the interview, published on Wednesday, and its members as “Soldiers of the Khalifah in Bengal.”

Abu Ibrahim says Bangladesh is important for global jihad because of its geographic position and proximity to India.

“Having a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate guerilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both sides [east and west],” he says in the interview.

Dae’sh has strong base in Pakistan and Afghanistan region – they call it Khorasan province.

The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Bangladesh since last year on two foreigners, Hindu and Christian  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

‘BD targeted for digitising so rapidly’

Anthropological identity of Bangalis

Bangladesh was targeted by hackers because the country was digitising so rapidly, Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said.  PAGE 5

Despite no comprehensive research into Bangalis’ anthropological identity, it can be said there has been too much commingling of bloodlines in the region.  PAGE 16

Home boss terms reports on Dae'sh a plot n Arifur Rahman Rabbi

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has again rejected as “local and international conspiracy” the media reports that suggest international militant organisation Dae’sh or Islamic State is actively operating in Bangladesh.

“There is no organisational base of IS in Bangladesh. They may have some followers here, but not a base,” he told reporters at his residence yesterday.

Dae’sh claimed its operations in Bangladesh, according to the latest  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Aftershocks rattle south-western Japan after quake kills 9 n Reuters, Tokyo Aftershocks rattled southwestern Japan on Friday after a strong quake the night before killed nine people, injured at least 1,000 and cut power and water across the region, forcing the temporary shutdown of several auto and electronics factories.

By afternoon, more than 130 aftershocks had hit the area around the city of Kumamoto in the wake of the initial 6.4 magnitude quake the night before. Officials said the frequency was tapering off but the risk of further strong aftershocks will remain for about a week.

Licence to navigate

The government is now considering implementing a provision to issue licences to bus conductors under a new law. Although such a provision already exists, not many people are aware about it.  PAGE 32

While the magnitude of Thursday's quake was much lower than that of the 9.0 March 11, 2011 quake that touched off a massive tsunami and nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, the intensity was similar because it struck on land and at a much shallower depth.

"We managed to huddle into a space, that's why we were saved," one man told NHK national television after he and his family were rescued from their collapsed house two hours after the quake hit.

"We're all safe, that's what counts."

More than 44,000 people initially fled to schools and community  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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Hasina renews call for greater unity of Muslim Ummah n BSS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has renewed her call for greater unity of the Muslim Ummah and its pursuit of the great Islamic values of fraternity, justice and inclusion.

Reiterating "zero tolerance" policy to terrorism and violent ex-

tremism, the premier also put emphasis on criminalising Islamophobia and using interfaith dialogue to stem it.

She also called for settlement of Palestinian problem and urged other leaders to work together in solidarity with the Muslim minorities including the Rohingyas.

Hasina expressed the view in a statement delivered on her behalf

by Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali in the 13th OIC Summit Conference in Istanbul yesterday.

Referring to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's call for unity and solidarity within

the Muslim Ummah made during the second OIC Summit in 1974, Hasina suggested the creation of an OIC mechanism or initiative to settle internal differences within the OIC. She also stressed the need for developing an OIC humanitarian mechanism and OIC support for

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Home boss

Dae’sh reveals plans for Bangladesh, region priests, Shia preachers, and Shia and Ahmadiyya mosques. The claims were reported in media through SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based jihadist threat monitor.

The government has been repeatedly rejecting the idea of Dae’sh’s existence and operations in Bangladesh, claiming that those attacks were launched by local banned militant group Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Another outlawed group Ansarullah Bangla Team claimed responsibility for the murders of several secular bloggers and publishers since 2013. They are reportedly an affiliate of al-Qaeda’s regional offshoot known as AQIS and have ties to Dae’sh. They made the claims through Facebook and Twitter.

In the interview, Abu Ibrahim says he is proud of the recent at-

tacks by Dae’sh men. “Our soldiers are sharpening their knives to slit the throats of atheists and Murtads who defame the Prophet.”

Explaining the delay in launching jihad in Myanmar and India, he says they are currently engaged in war against the Bangladesh government and the fake Muslims.

Detectives in March last year said that the local militant groups were working in concert to establish a Shariah-based state by 2020 with the help of Dae’sh incorporating parts of India and Myanmar with it. A new umbrella named “International Lions Force of Hindustan” was also formed, they said.

Earlier, a four-member delegation of Dae’sh from Syria visited Chittagong in October 2014 and held meetings with the top leaders of local militant groups. In September 2014, the chiefs of JMB,

Ansarullah and Huji at a meeting inside the Kashimpur High Security Jail decided to work together to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh.

Since 2014, detectives have arrested over 20 Dae’sh recruiters and trainers in Dhaka and elsewhere.

The story of Abu Jandal

The magazine includes a profile of a young Bangladeshi named Abu Jandal al-Bangali who was killed during a battle in Ayn Issa, northern Syria.

Abu Jandal, it says, was a man who came from an affluent family of Dhaka. His father, who was an army officer, had been killed in the 2009 BDR mutiny. He was a passionate jihadi who deeply cared about jihad in his homeland.

Dabiq also published a short letter by Abu Jandal addressed to

“brothers in Islam,” whom he encouraged to be prepared to join Dae’sh. Alongside performing Fajr prayers, he had also asked them to read the Qur’an and “try to do regular physical exercise at home,” the letter said. “Don’t skip this point.”

During his late teens, Abu Jandal began listening to the lectures of Shayakh Anwar al-Awlaki, the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and other scholars who were upon the truth.

He also “used to financially support the local mujahideen in Bengal in addition to the Muslim prisoners there to the best of his ability.”

When the khalifah was declared in Sham (Levanth), Abu Jandal was among the “first of the mujahideen in Bengal” to support Dae’sh. Dabiq claims that Abu Jandal had managed to go to Sham despite facing many obstacles. l

Tight security dampens celebrations were taken to ensure security of the participants.

Last year, around two dozen women and children were subjected to sexual assaults in TSC and Matsya Bhaban areas creating panic as well as massive outrage among the people. Police yesterday claimed that no such incidents took place this year.

Moreover, several radical Islamist groups had warned the people, mainly the women, not to observe the day terming it a Hindu culture and anti-Islamic. They also campaigned on Facebook against Pohela Boishakh celebrations.

On the other hand, detectives last month said that militants had plans to launch attacks on the Po-

hela Boishakh events. Ten people were killed I 2001 as banned militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami launched a bomb attack on Ramna Batamul terming it anti-Islamic.

DU student Israt Jahan said that she had participated in the Mongol Shobhajatra with her friends, but found the tight security measures annoying.

“Celebration cannot be enjoyed being encircled by the law enforcers,” she told the Dhaka Tribune, pointing at the large contingent of police, RAB and SWAT members walking ahead of the procession.

Azharul Islam, a resident of Old Dhaka, said that the number of participants at the procession

was poorer than the previous year mainly because of the restrictions and the threats by Islamist groups.

Bangladesh Nari Mukti Andolon President Sima Datta said: “The heightened security measures damp ened the celebrations. Many people stayed away from the celebrations fearing that something may happen.”

Masud Rana, organising secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra Front’s central committee, said they were surprised to see poor presence of audience at the cultural events.

Some other participants suggested that the DMP should design their security plans in a way that it does not create panic among the city dwellers.

Campaigners were active

Bangladesh Chhatra Front and Nari Mukti Andolon held day-long programmes demanding justice for murdered Comilla student Sohagi Jahan Tonu and the arrest of people responsible for last year’s sexually assaults.

The organisers said that they had distributed badges among 1,000 participants since Thursday morning. A mass signature collection campaign was also held at the Hakim Chattar to drum up support for the cause.

Chhatra Front’s Masud Rana said that they were trying to aware the people about the sexual offences. “When a criminal goes scotfree, he and others are encouraged to commit the crime again.” l

Aftershocks rattle south-western Japan after quake kills 9 centres, some spending the night outside after the first quake hit around 9:30pm (local time).

Roads cracked, houses crumbled, and tiles cascaded from the roof of the 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle in the centre of the city.

Several companies, including Honda Motor Corp, suspended operations at plants in the area.

More than 3,000 troops, police and firemen were dispatched to the area from around Japan, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said more would be sent if needed.

“We will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of local residents,” Abe told a parliamentary committee.

Most of the dead came from Mashiki, a town of around 34,000 people near the epicentre of the quake, where firefighters battled a blaze late on Thursday. Daylight showed splintered houses under tiled roofs and an apartment building whose ground floor was pulverized, where two people died.

Though the intensity of Thursday’s quake on the Japa-

nese scale matched that of the March 2011 quake that left nearly 20,000 dead, the absence of a tsunami helped keep the death toll down.

Service on the Shinkansen super-fast train in Kyushu was halted after one train derailed, and highways were closed after some sections collapsed. About 12,200 households were without electricity as of 12pm, according to Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc, while some 58,000 lacked water.

The Nuclear Regulation Author-

frontline battle against climate change impacts and called for collective action for eradication of poverty through implementation of OIC-2025 Programme of Action.

She underscored implementation of OIC preferential and freetrade arrangements on a fast track basis. l

ity said there were no irregularities at three nuclear plants on the southern major island of Kyushu and nearby Shikoku.

Sony Corp, Mitsubishi Electric Corp and tire maker Bridgestone Corp also suspended operations at factories in the area.

The 2011 quake temporarily crippled part of Japan’s auto supply chain, but some companies have since adjusted the industry’s “Just in Time” production philosophy in a bid to limit any repeat of the costly disruption. l

issue of Dabiq, the propaganda magazine, published on Wednesday. It also revealed its plan of attacking Myanmar and India.

For the first time, Dae’sh has also disclosed the name of its leader for Bangladesh, Sheikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif.

“The latest claim is an effort to worsen our relations with Myanmar and India.

“A certain quarter from abroad is trying to convince us that there is IS activities in Bangladesh. But I say there is no such operations.

They are trying to create divisions among the Muslims through propagating such imaginary and baseless issue,” the minister told the Dhaka Tribune last night.

The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Bangladesh since last year on two foreigners, Hindu and Christian priests, Shia preachers, and Shia and Ahmadiyya mosques.

The government has repeatedly been rejecting the idea of Dae’sh existence and operations in Bangladesh, claiming that those attacks were launched by local banned militant group Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) with the help of Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP. But US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper at a Senate hearing in February noted the claims of responsibility from the Dae’sh group for 11 high-profile attacks on foreigners and religious minorities in Bangladesh.

The US ambassador in Dhaka, Marcia Bernicat, at a meeting with the home minister in early February, said that the US government was keen to share information on Dae’sh and its possible threats in Bangladesh. She added that a US envoy would visit Bangladesh to hand the home minister over the information.

The home boss yesterday said that the US government was yet to handover the information.

“No, they have not given us any such report. We have always been asking them to share with us the information. But they have not produced such documents.

“They have always been talking about it [existence of Dae’sh] based on predictions. When I travel abroad, they say they will meet us and inform us about it. But they have not given us any concrete information so far,” the minister told the Dhaka Tribune. l

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Tiger countries to preserve big-cat habitats n Tribune Desk Countries with wild tiger populations have agreed to do more to protect tiger habitats that are shrinking drastically because of deforestation and urban sprawl, reports Associated Press quoting conservationists said Friday.

Representatives from the 13 Asian countries with tigers, meeting this week in New Delhi, issued a resolution acknowledging that the forests in which tigers live are inherently valuable themselves and worthy of protection.

These forests can help preserve economic growth by safeguarding water supplies, improving air quality and providing homes for not only tigers but also birds, frogs and

other mammals.

"Before, there's always been this conflict of development versus conservation, as if countries had to

Conservation groups announced that the world's tiger count had gone up to 3,890, according to 2014-15 survey data choose," said Sejal Worah, the programme director for World Wildlife Fund in India.

"But in this resolution, it clearly states that natural capital is important to the economy of a country," she said. "Countries understand that preserving tiger habitats does not compromise growth. And that's important. That's new."

The world's tiger countries are all in Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Malaysia, Myanmar, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. India has the most by far, with about 2,500. None of the others have more than 500 and some have just a few.

Many of the countries have growing human populations and fast-developing economies. By 2022, they want to double the world's wild tiger population from

the all-time low of 3,200 hit in 2010.

On Monday, conservation groups announced that the world's tiger count had gone up to 3,890, according to 2014-15 survey data.

That marked the first increase in the wild population census in more than a century. But that did not necessarily mean there were more tigers in the wild.

The higher number may just mean scientists are getting better at counting them, with more sophisticated survey methods including camera traps and DNA analysis of scat.

An actual increase in wild tiger populations would also be hard to reconcile with the fact that their habitat is shrinking so fast. In just

the last five years, tigers lost a full 40% of their remaining natural habitat, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Cambodia this year declared its tiger population "functionally extinct," meaning it had no breeding tigers left in the wild. While in New Delhi this week, Cambodia's agriculture minister reportedly looked into repopulating the Southeast Asian country with Indian tigers.

India is ready to help, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said. "India is willing to cooperate with any country which does not have or has lost its tiger population in the course of history," he said Thursday. l

Four held for trying to bring out rainbow rally n Kamrul Hasan

A plainclothes police official manhandles a young person who was blowing a vuvuzela on Pohela Boishakh. The man was arrested on the Dhaka University campus as vuvuzelas – a loud plastic horn – were banned from the festivities on Thursday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Man held for misbehaving with police on Pohela Boishakh Hasan and n Kamrul Arif Ahmed A man who was detained for behaving rudely with police on Dhaka University campus on Pohela Boishakh was freed hours later, said police sources.

Detectives detained Tushar from outside the Faculty of Fine Arts. He claimed himself to be a Dhaka University student.

Dhaka Tribune Photographer Mahmud Hossain Opu, who was present at the scene, said a plainclothes police official asked Tushar not to play vuvuzela and leave the place, but he did not comply and argued with the official.

Tushar was taken to Shahbagh

police station and later to the Detective Branch office at Minto Road.

Joint Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (crime) Krishna Pada Roy told the Dhaka Tribune Tushar was detained for his misbehaviour. But he could not confirm if Tushar was released.

DB sources said Tushar was freed on Thursday night after his identity was verified.

Policeman apologise to DU female student

A police constable who was on duty on Dhaka University campus on Pohela Boishaka offered apology to a female student of the university for his rude behaviour in the evening on that day.

Constable Ruhul Amin pushed the student in her back and threw abusive words at her when he was trying to clear traffic on road to make way for the car of the inspector general of police.

The student is the vice-president of Chhatra Federation's Dhaka University unit and a master's student of statistics.

Her friends argued with Ruhul for what he had done.

Later, student leaders, the university proctor and police sat in a meeting to settle the situation.

“According to a written allegation submitted by the victim, Ruhul offered unconditional apology for his unwanted behaviour,” Proctor AM Amzad Ali said. l

Police detained four LGBT campaigners on Thursday morning as they attempted to bring out a rally – which they call Rainbow Rally – with the Pohela Boishakh's traditional procession Mongol Shobhajatra.

Shahbagh police station OC Abu Bakar Siddique told the Dhaka Tribune that all of the four arrestees were male and their identities would not be disclosed because they might be victimised socially.

He said police detained the four around 11:15am on Thursday as they attempted to bring out a procession from Shahbagh to TSC identifying themselves as members of the LGBT community.

The police officials told them they did not have the permission for the procession and detained the four. The other members who had gathered there had got dispersed by then.

The four were released later after verifying their identities.

When the Dhaka Tribune contacted Roopbaan, a platform for promoting the rights of LGBT Bangladeshis seeking to spread awareness and tolerance in a nation where same-sex love is a punishable offence, an organiser told the Dhaka Tribune that they had cancelled their Rainbow Rally this year as they had suspected attacks on them.

They announced the decision to scrap the rally on their Facebook page late night on Wednesday and asked its members to avoid any badges and props while participating in the Mongol Shobhajatra. He said many members had not noticed the announcement and gathered at Shahbagh to bring out the Rainbow Rally.

The Roopbaan organiser tried to visit the detainees, requesting the OC posing as a relative, but the police official did not allow a visit.

He told the Dhaka Tribune that he was not sure if the detained four were members of the Roopbaan group. He could not be reached on his mobile phone yesterday. l

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Dhaka objects to Colombo continental shelf claim n

Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Bangladesh has objected to Sri Lanka's claim on the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from its coast baseline.

Sri Lanka has made a submission its claim before the United Nations for determining the limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.

A senior official of the Foreign Ministry said the government analysed the Lankan submission and raised objection after it appeared that Sri Lanka had claimed some portion of the Bangladesh continental shelf.

“It also appears that Sri Lanka has claimed an outer continental shelf entitlement in an area that is 350 nautical miles more from the baseline from which the breadth of its territorial sea is measured and more than 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metres isobaths, and thus beyond the constraints line established by Article 76(5) of the convention,” the objection note said.

Isobath is a line on a map or chart

Housewife attempts suicide

n Arifur Rahman Rabbi A 25-year-old housewife allegedly tried to commit suicide by pouring kerosene on herself in the capital yesterday evening.

Sahanaz Parvin Shahana’s husband Roni, 35, who is a cloth trader in New Market, was also injured by the fire.

Both residents of Mirpur’s Pallabi area, the couple are under treatment in the burn unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Roni initially declared they had sustained injuries in a fire caused by a gas cylinder leak. He told the authorities that he had burned his hands while attempting to put out the flames after Shahana went into the kitchen and lit the stove around 2:30pm.

Upon further investigation, the police found that Shahana had made an attempt to commit suicide.

Shahana tried to take her life due to family violence, Officer-inCharge Dadon Fakir told the Dhaka Tribune.

Quoting doctors, DMCH police outpost In-charge Inspector Mozammel Haque said Shahana suffered 50% burns while Roni received primary treatment for the minor burns on his hands. l

that connects all points having the same depth below a water surface.

The government in due course of time will continue to block the Sri Lankan claim to protect Bangladesh’s interest, he added.

He said according to the UN laws, a country can have the continental shelf rights up to 350 nautical miles or 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metres depth, whichever one is higher. But, Sri Lanka from its baseline claimed about 1,000 nautical miles, which is Indian and Bangladesh continental shelf territory, the official said.

He said the Lankan government tried to negotiate with the Bangladesh government but it did not agree.

“Sri Lanka also claimed a portion of Indian continental shelf and they should complete negation with them first,” he said.

According to the United Nations CLCS website, India and the Maldives also objected to the Sri Lankan claim.

Bangladesh also objected to the continental shelf claims of India and Myanmar. l

CTG EARTHQUAKE

CDA asks for building designs Mizanur Rahaman, n FM Chittagong Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) yesterday marked buildings that had tilted during Wednesday’s 6.9 earthquake as vulnerable and asked its owners to provide designs and other related documents to the organisation by tomorrow.

CDA Chief Town Planner Shahinul Islam Khan, who headed the inspection, said: “We have asked building owners to submit designs, the engineer’s name and the name of the construction company to CDA.” “A decision will be taken regarding the affected buildings after a meeting with an expert team of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology,” he added.

A total of six buildings were tilted in the port city’s Halishahar B-block, Barik Building, Jubli Road, New Market, Chandgaon and Nandan Kanun areas according to Fire Service and Civil Defense Headquarters in Chittagong.

A CDA survey stated that at least 78% buildings in the port city are vulnerable to earthquake as they have been constructed without following earthquake resistant building code. l

Election Commission’s decision on JaSad leadership ‘biased’ n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Describing the Election Commission’s decision as biased and against justice, the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSad) faction led by Sharif Nurul Ambia and Nazmul Huq Prodhan yesterday urged the commission to review its decision that the faction headed by Hasanul Haq Inu and Shirin Akhter is the mainstream party.

Ambia and Prodhan in a press release said they think the EC’s decision is unexpected, untimely and does not indicate responsibility.

The Ambia-Prodhan JaSad faction surfaced during the party’s national council on March 12. Ambia and Prodhan were made president and general secretary of the party respectively.

The EC summoned both factions in an effort to figure out which one is genuine JaSad and will be assigned torch as a party symbol.

The commission heard both factions on April 6 and decided to assign the party symbol to the

Inu-Shirin faction, recognising it as the mainstream JaSad. Yesterday’s press release said the EC during the hearing said more information might be sought before making a decision. “But the sudden decision basically moved forward the split of JaSad, which does not belong to the EC’s responsibility.”

Ambia and Prodhan also said the commission made its decision without taking account of the allegations of the council.

Terming the commission’s decision that the Inu-led faction would use the party symbol mysterious, they said three lawmakers who won the national elections under torch symbol are with them.

“But the commission did not pay heed to their demand either. On the other hand, those who had the opportunity to participate in the elections under torch symbol did not do so.”

Both Inu and Shirin were elected lawmakers under boat symbol, which is the official symbol of the Awami League. l

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‘Bangladesh targeted for digitising so rapidly’ n Tribune Desk Bangladesh was targeted by hackers in the recent digital heist of the central bank because the country was digitising so rapidly and so broadly, prime minister’s ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said.

In an opinion piece for the Washington Times, he termed the hack regrettable and said Bangladesh and international authorities were working to recover the stolen money and arrest the hackers.

In the article titled “Rapid digitisation brings hope and some danger to Bangladesh,” Joy said that Bangladesh’s digital growth has come at light-speed and it was already moving into second-generation digital

systems – which were faster, easier-to-use and better protected.

“That is the good news. The downside is that the remaining first-generation systems become easier targets for hackers,” he added.

Joy, the son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also praised the incumbent government’s Digital Bangladesh programme.

He pointed out that 35% citizens are currently accessing government services digitally, a figure that was a meagre 0.3% when the Digital Bangladesh initiative was launched in 2008.

The prime minister’s ICT adviser also showcased the other successes in the sector. “In 2009, total exports of information and communica-

“Over the next two years, Bangladesh plans to train 75,000 Information Technology professionals in an effort to become a global player in high tech,” Joy wrote.

The government’s achievements in digitisation includes setting up more than 5,500 Digital Service Centres throughout the country – one within walking distance of every village, he added.

“The government is installing digital data centres around the country and has set up an incubator program for information and communications technology. It also intends to set up multimedia and digital classrooms and computer labs in each of the country’s 170,000 educational institutions.”

tions technology from Bangladesh was only $26 million. Now, it is more than $300 million a year.

Other future plans include a 231acre business park being built outside Dhaka to entice high-tech businesses to the capital. “Last year, Bangladesh opened a 60,000-square-foot software technology park, the first of seven such parks planned,” the opinion piece read.

“The aim of these new programs is to transform Bangladesh from a labour-reliant economy into a digital one,” the premier’s ICT adviser wrote.

“Bangladesh’s success has marked it as a target for hackers, but it also makes it a desirable investment destination for foreign capital, a magnet for the best minds and one of the biggest untold tech stories of the early 21st century,” Joy added. l

Mayor: Chittagong to be a green city by 2017 n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong Chittagong Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin yesterday announced to turn the port city into a green and clean city by the end of 2017.

He made the announcement while addressing the concluding ceremony of the month-long Chittagong International Trade Fair at Railway Polo Ground.

Speaking as the chief guest, Nasir also assured Chittagong residents of bringing the whole city under the door-to-door garbage collection programme by the end of this year. “The roads under the jurisdiction of the city corporation will be built with concrete within the next three years. Besides, the whole city will be illuminated by the same time.”

Underscoring the importance of

carrying out development projects, Nasir said development of Chittagong was inseparably connected to that of the whole country.

“Development of Chittagong is indispensable for implementing Vision 2021,” he said.

Mahbubul Alam, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, thanked all for organising the fair for two decades straight.

The CCCI president also urged India to participate in the fair as a partner country from next year.

At the end of the function, awards and certificates were given.

The Thai pavilion was selected as the best in foreign category while Pran RFL Group was awarded as the best local manufacturer. TK Group of Industries received award in the category of premier gold mini mega pavilion. l

Under the scorching sun, people queue up in Dhaka’s Jurain New Road to collect whatever water they can get from a pipeline.

Water shortage has become severe in some areas of the capital with the arrival of summer MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Prof Yunus inaugurates social business forum in the Netherlands n Tribune Desk Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus yesterday inaugurated the European Social Business Forum (ESBF) in Utrecht, Netherlands.

The forum was organised by Hans Reitz, CEO of The Grameen Creative Lab in partnership with Utrecht University. It took place within the framework of the university’s Social Entrepreneurship Festival.

Mayor of Utrecht JHC van Zanen called on Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Also seen in the photo is Professor Annetje Ottow, dean of Laws, Economics and Governance at Utrecht University COURTESY

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This year, the ESBF has attracted over 250 participants from more than 27 countries.

Danone Group Chairman Franck Riboud and CEO Emmanuel Faber joined Prof Yunus in a highly anticipated panel discussion on “Social Business - the Present and Future.”

Prof Yunus, as part of the European Social Business Forum, also held a public speech at Louis Hartlooper Complex addressing an au-

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dience interested in social business.

During his stay, Mayor of Utrecht JHC van Zanen called on Professor Yunus and admired the concept of social business. He expressed his intention of taking steps to make Utrecht as Social Business City, and creating a social business fund within that framework to support social businesses as well as finance young people with equity to create their own enterprises. l Sylhet

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Fajr: 4:15am | Zohr: 11:58pm Asr: 3:26pm | Magrib: 6:24pm Esha: 7:51pm Source: IslamicFinder.org

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News

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

AL office vandalised, five injured Man stabbed to death in factional clash in Chittagong in Old Dhaka Mizanur Rahaman, n FM Chittagong At least five people were injured in a factional clash between two groups of ruling party Awami League in Chittagong city’s Laldighi area yesterday over nomination of chairmen candidates in the upcoming Union Parishad polls.

The office located in the southern part of Laldighi area was also damaged by unruly AL activists during the commotion, however the situation was brought under control by the police.

AL sources said the incident took place around 11:30am between the

supporters of the party’s southern division unit President Moslem Uddin and State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, including the members of parliament from Anwara Karnaphuli constituency.

The injured could not be identified yet. Party sources said the names of nominated chairmen candidates of the different unions under Anwara upazila were scheduled to be announced at the office.

Both groups came to the location in support of their respective contenders, but the nomination announcement was suspended.

Authorities concerned did not yet disclose the reason behind the sus-

pension.

Supporters of Anwara-Karnapuli AL faction locked into a scuffle with Moslem’s group, triggering the clash and vandalism of the party office following the suspension.

Police later fired several blank shots and tear canisters to disperse the opposing activists and brought the situation under control, said Kotwali police station Officer-inCharge Jasim Uddin Chowdhury.

Additional police have been deployed to evade any unexpected situations, added the OC Moslem could not be reached over the phone for comment on the issue. l

n Arifur Rahman Rabbi A 35-year-old man was stabbed to death by hijackers yesterday in Siddique Bazar area in Dhaka.

Syed Hossain, son of late Mohammad Ali and a resident of Gopimohon Bashak Lane of Bongshal, worked as a salesman in a clothing shop in Uttara.

Robbers stabbed him while he was on his way to work in a rickshaw around 7am.

Syed was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the doctor on duty declared him dead around 7:45am, said Bongshal police Inspector Sheikh Md Nasir Uddin.

Police sent the body to the morgue for an autopsy. No arrests have been made yet, said Inspector Nasir.

The rickshaw puller said they had reached the intersection of Siddique Bazar when two muggers stopped them.

Syed was stabbed in the chest and belly. The culprits fled the scene after Syed’s screams.

Brother of the deceased, Wahid Hossain said Syed had left the house in the morning to go to Uttara.

He heard hijackers stabbed Syed, who was dead by the time he reached DMCH. l

The colours of Bangali psyche come alive on Pohela Boishakh as people of all ages celebrate the culture and traditions of ushering in the Bangla New Year. Manually operated merry-go-rounds, larger-than-life papier mache animals and face paintings are sights that embody the enthusiasm and energy of Pohela Boishakh. SWAT teams provided extra security this year as thousands braved the scorching sun to join the festivities on Thursday PHOTOS: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN, MEHEDI HASAN, RAJIB DHAR, MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU AND RABIN CHOWDHURY

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Spotlight

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

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News

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

Dacop people facing acute Irritated by cry, water crisis woman 'kills' n Hedait Hossain, Khulna

More than 2,00000 people in Dacop upazila under the district suffer a lot due to lack of adequate drinking water.

Local sources said maximum deep tube-wells in the villages of the upazila were out of order as people could not lift underground water.

Recently, the water level had gone down in the area, said the sources.

The people go out in the morning and return home in the evening with the dirty water from canal and river. Then the water is purified by using aluminium sulfate.

Abdus Sattar, UP member of Kamarkhola, said: “The water of rivers here is salty. There are few ponds covered with water-hyacinths and the water of these ponds is dirty.

A deep tub-well was set up in the upazila three years before and people from several areas collect water from it facing difficulties.

Shamol Kanti Biswas of Panchim Baszua area, said a Non Government Organization had set up a tube-well in his land few years ago.

“The only tube well cannot meet up the demand of 2,00000 people in the upazila,” said the UP member.

Rasheda Begum, a resident in the area, said there was a desalination plant at Dacop Bazar from where people were provided water.

“But gathering is so heavy that one cannot collect the water easily,” she said.

Udoy Chandra Kabiraz of the area said: “Everyday we need 2,000 litre drinking water when Shiva Puja begins.”

“We do not get the water as there is no supply of sufficient wa-

Three held in Bogra bomb blast case n Our Correspondent, Bogra Police arrested three people in connection with the bomb blast that went off at Bogra's Sherpur upzila and killed two people.

The arrestees are Sana Ullah, Liakat Ali and Barkat Ullah.

The arrested are brothers of a deceased who was identified as Tariqul Islam, 48, son of Abu Bakar Siddique, a resident of Zamua village of Shialcoat union of Sirajganj sadar upazila and a member of the (JMB).

However, police yet to know the identity of another deceased and the body has been kept in Bogra Sadar Hospital for the last 11 days.

Officer-in-Charge and also investigation officer of Sherpur police station said police arrested them from their native home in Sirajganj on Wednesday and they were sent to jail after interrogation on Thursday.

With the three, police arrested five people so far in connection with the bomb blast and killing. Earlier, police arrested Mahbub Alam and Sumaiya Akter on Monday.

Two people were killed while making bombs at a rented house at Juanpur Kuthirvita village, Sherpur upazila on April 3.

On the following day, a bomb disposal unit of the counterterrorism transnational division recovered arms, ammunition, bombs and bomb-making materials from the house. They recovered 20 grenades, four foreign pistols, 40 rounds and six magazines.

Sub-Inspector of Sherpur police station Bulbul Islam filed three cases in connection with the bomb blast. l

2 die in Savar cylinder blast n Our Correspondent, Savar

Two people were killed and four others injured in a cylinder blast that took place at a CNG refueling station in Nayarhat area, Ashulia.

The deceased are Shamim, 27, and Sajol, 26.

Quoting locals police said Shamim was refueling a car at Delta felling station on Thursday afternoon, then the gas cylinder of the car exploded with a big bang that left Shamim dead on the spot. Five others were also critically injured in the accident. Of them, Sajol, driver of the car died after he was taken to Savar Enam Medical College Hospital. l

ter,” he said.

Deboki Mondol, a hotel business man, said everyday he had to fetch water from a long distance with drums and vessels.

“To run the business in this way is difficult,” he said.

Md Komoruddin Gazi of Kakrabunia village, said: “We don't demand rice and clothes to the government. We want drinking water. ” Sheikh Abul Hossain, the upazila chairman, said the people in the area had to face crisis of drinking water eight months in a year.

“A water harvesting plant should be set up soon to solve the problem,” he said.

Mozammel Haque, the upazila health officer, said : “Everyday the health complex is occupied by patients suffering from diseases like diarrhea, caused by lack of access to safe drinking water.” l

tenant's son Rahman Swapan, n Anisur Barisal A woman in Barisal's Banaripara has been accused of killing her tenant's three-year-old son after failing to calm him when he was crying.

The child, Hafizur Sheikh, was the son of Lovely Begum and rickshaw-puller Ripon Sheikh.

Ripon filed a murder case yesterday afternoon against Nupur Begum, owner of the house and Badhu Saaj beauty parlour in the locality.

Ziaul Ahsan, officer-in-charge of Banaripara police station, said Hafizur's body was handed over to the family after an autopsy carried out at Sher-eBangla Medical College Hospital.

He also said Nupur had gone into

hiding after the case was lodged.

“Police are looking for her.”

According to the case statement, Nupur thrust Hafizur when the minor boy was weeping as she could not stop him from shedding tears on Thursday evening, causing him to sustain serious injuries.

Hafizur was taken to Banaripara Upazila Health Complex and was later transferred to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital for better treatment.

Doctors at the hospital asked Hafizur's parents to take him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital as his condition was critical.

But the family members failed to comply with the advice because of financial insolvency.

Hafizur died early yesterday. l

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Learn English

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

Pre-reading task 1. How many communications devices do you use?

2. How have the devices you use for communication changed over the last 15 years?

3. Have you ever taken part in a video-conference?

Now, read the article and compare your experiences with those outlined in the article.

Exercise 1

Telephone English

2. a) b) c)

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK Everything can now be made possible via the telephone or the web. Huge operations can now be carried out at a fraction of their previous cost. Call centres are also an area where outsourcing is highly significant.

Now it is common to make a call from somewhere in Europe and end up speaking to a call centre operator in Bangalore or Hyderabad.

So, even though you may be glued to your Palm Pilot, those ‘telephone skills’ are still essential. And remember, when you are on the telephone you can be comfortably seated in your own house, with your feet up on your desk. And as long as videophones don’t become too common, you can still pull a face at your boss. l

Word search

3 videophone 6 b 5 b

1c Exercise 1

6 call centre

2 webcam

5 gesture

1 speakerphone Exercise 2

Answers

Want to find more learning activities?

Visit www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish

2 c

CALL CE_T_E SP_AK_RPHON_ CO_MUNIC_TE TELE_HO_E GEST_R_ MEETING VID_O-CONF_R_ NCE R_VOL_TI_N VIDE_PH_NE W_BCAM

4 videoconference

See if you can find these words in the grid. They can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal and backwards.

Videophones... have failed. do not work. often have big sales campaigns.

3. New technologies... a) have changed the way we use telephones. b) have made life more complicated. c) did not exist ten years ago.

3 a

There was a time when “telephone skills” were essential in the workplace, and many employers asked for them in their recruitment adverts. Training organisations and big companies offered courses in telephone skills: how to answer, ask, reply and negotiate on the telephone. Language schools offered courses in ‘telephone English’.

Now, however, the skills necessary to communicate across long distances are different. The reason for this is the way telecommunications are changing.

From the speakerphone, to webcams, to text messages, internet forums and chat rooms, the growth of e-mail and the BlackBerry, traditional telephones are no longer a part of our lives in the way they were before. There is a range of methods of communication now available that simply did not exist ten or 15 years ago.

Videophones have not had the impact that many telecommunications companies wanted, but heavy promotion and marketing campaigns means that they are becoming more common.

Video-conferencing, however, has become a very popular way of organising international meetings. Now – thanks to webcams – colleagues from around the world can meet up almost as if they were in the same room. Most people who have used video-conferencing for business or academic purposes are very positive about

it. Video-conferencing offers real-time communication, the ability to see other people’s gestures and facial expressions (essential to help communication), while also having the ability to take a certain amount of time, and use an interpreter or a dictionary if necessary.

Now, e-mail is not just limited to our computers.

We can read e-mails on mobile phones, or on gadgets like the BlackBerry.

Computers themselves can now use programmes like Skype to make cheap, long-distance calls, and now it is much easier to carry a computer around because new laptops are so light.

It is now impossible to hide from our bosses. We can’t say that we are in bed with a cold, when you’re really lying on a beach somewhere.

However, working by telephone, of course, is not finished. The call centre has been one of the work revolutions of recent years. Now that telecommunications are a much bigger part of our lives, big companies (banks, insurance companies, airlines, and so on) do not need to have expensive offices and branches in town and city centres.

1. Telephone skills... a) are no longer essential in the workplace. b) are always requested by employers. c) are now different to what they were.

4 a

n Chris Rose

Comprehension: Multiple choice.

Choose the correct ending to each of these sentences:

Why do you want to work in a bank?

Because there’s money in it!

4. a) b) c)

Video-conferencing... is popular among those who use it. is essential for meetings. makes it impossible to use an interpreter.

5. a) b) c)

E-mail... is becoming too frequent. is easy to access anywhere. is limiting if you don’t have a computer.

6. a) b) c)

Call centres have changed... the way people make telephone calls. the information services industry.

European cities.

Exercise 2 Vocabulary: Choose the correct words to fill the gaps in the sentences: call centre / video-conference / videophone speakerphone / gesture / webcam 1 A ........ makes it possible for more than two people to speak on the telephone at the same time.

2 A ........ makes it possible to see someone you are speaking to via the internet.

3 A ........ is similar to a normal telephone but has a small screen, which makes it possible for you to see the person you are talking to.

4 A ........ is when you have a meeting with various people in different locations, all connected via cameras and speakers.

5 A ........ is when you move your hands or arms to explain something you want to say.

6 A ........ is a large office where many people receive telephone enquiries and give out information.

© British Council 2016

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Feature

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

RAHETID making history World’s first 360 degree virtual reality surgery streamed live

O

n Sarker Saqib n April 14, Shafi Ahmed and a group of medical professionals at Royal London Hospital created history by operating on a patient, which was filmed and broadcasted live around the world. What made it historic was that the event was captured using 360 degree video technology, and viewers around the globe were able to watch the procedure from every angle, with the help of a fairly non-complex virtual reality (VR) headset paired with a smartphone. RAHETID (RA

Hospital, Education and Training Institute) in Gulshan, Dhaka hosted the viewing of the live stream.

Attending viewers that included trainee doctors at the institute, were able watch the surgery in 360 degree virtual reality using the headsets provided by RAHETID. The surgery could be streamed through the mobile phone app "VR in OR." Placing the phone on a virtual reality headset provides the immersive 360 degree feeling for the viewer. The live streaming could also be viewed online without a headset through the Medical Realities website

The unique, if slightly unsettling, experience of being present thousand miles away in London while sitting in a room in Gulshan, powerfully demonstrated why this technology will be a part and parcel of the future medical education

(a company that offers medical training products, specialising in virtual reality).

Professor Raqibul Anwar, the president and CEO of RAHETID, said at the event that the use of this technology is going to open new doors for the medical community worldwide. “It’s not that only trainee doctors who need to learn. Expert surgeons can also learn from other experienced surgeons. This is the true learning process - learning from your peers,” said Professor Anwar.

A pre-recorded demo clip was being played on the "VR in OR" app, as viewer apprehensively waited for the actual process to start. The headset paired with a smartphone creates the illusion that viewers outside the operation theater can experience through calibrating the 360 degree with the movement of the viewers head. This means that the viewer wearing the headset, gets the imagery of the operation theater based on head movement, just like people will experience looking around a physical room. The surgery went live a little after 6pm, Bangladesh time.

The unique, if slightly unsettling, experience of being present thousand miles away in London while sitting in a room in Gulshan, powerfully demonstrated why this technology will be a part and parcel of the future medical education (amongst others).

The viewing was not quite as

PHOTOS: MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

seamless as it was intended to be, due to varying internet connection on the viewers’ mobile phones.

But everyone was able watch the procedure. Marwan Kabir, a doctor working in the orthopedics department at Square Hospital and a trainee at RAHETID, said that this technology will provide him and his colleagues the opportunity to actually gain real learning experience.

When asked what was different about the surgery they just witnessed, Kabir said that the procedure is not uncommon in Bangladesh but patients are dissected here whereas the surgery in London was done through laparoscopic technology (where thin mechanical tubes with robot hands are inserted into the patient’s body and operated from outside by surgeons).

Imran Rahman Sabbir, another trainee at RAHETID and currently working in emergency at Square Hospitals, said that the laparoscopy makes a big difference. “The risk of infection and other complications are reduced significantly because of this,” said Sabbir.

Both Sabbir and Kabir commented that they are very excited to be able to train at RAHETID because of all the hitech simulation training available

at the institute. “We can train for this kind of operation here because there are simulators available,” said Kabir. “Yes, in Bangladesh, doctors do not attempt the laparoscopic process simply because of lack of training, it’s not that they don’t have the medical knowledge for conducting these operations,” Sabbir complemented.

Shafi Ahmed, a BangladeshiBritish surgeon in the UK and a strong proponent for the use of latest technologies in the medical sector, is also the co-founder of Medical Realities, the healthcare company that streamed the operation.

Just before the operation started, Shafi Ahmed welcomed everyone to view the operation and expressed gratitude to all his supporters through a Facebook post. Ahmed specially thanked Professor Raqibul Anwar in Bangladesh for his “tireless work.”

RAHETID in Bangladesh was amongst many other institutions around the world, where the operation went live. It was also viewed across the world by private individuals, and medical students with the hashtag "#VRinOR," reaching 4.5 million postings on twitter. The event has also been given important coverage in British and world media. l

DT

Editorial 11

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

INSIDE

The more it changes PAGE 12

Health care in crisis PAGE 13

BIGSTOCK

Climate change

Turbulent history at sea

Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Email letters.dt@ dhakatribune.com

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PAGE 14

Put carbon tax in place before price cuts

T PAGE 19

he government should reconsider its plan to reduce the price of furnace oil.

While this move may seem popular, in the absence of a more coherent policy on energy pricing and subsidies, it will not help improve long-term energy security and sustainability.

The government needs to put its house in order before proceeding with cuts to energy prices.

It should use the fall in global prices of crude oil of 70% since the summer of 2014 as an opportunity to eliminate costly subsidies on fossil fuels and to introduce a carbon tax, as recommended by the World Bank.

A carbon tax on greenhouse gas emissions generated from burning fossil fuels makes more fiscal sense now while oil prices are relatively low, than later.

It is also logical because rating energies have warned that that, while a prolonged period of low international oil prices might keep the cost of imports down, it could also have a negative economic impact on Bangladesh by reducing remittances.

The government needs to move away from the historic regime of costly subsidies which encourage wasteful use and increase greenhouse emissions.

Had a market-based pricing policy been in place, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation would not have incurred huge losses in previous years when oil imports were costlier, and consumers might have benefited from price changes flowing through earlier.

Energy companies would have also had more incentive to invest in new energy production and renewables.

Tax-payer money saved on subsides can be better invested in education and health or on directly helping poorer consumers.

Discouraging fossil fuel use is essential to cut greenhouse emissions and to stimulate more investment in clean renewable energy. It is also vital to reduce dependence on a finite resource which can only get costlier to import in the long run.

Cutting fossil fuel subsidies and taxing carbon makes both environmental and economic sense

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Opinion

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

The more it changes Politics remains a dog-eat-dog, zero-sum game in Bangladesh

Dhaka is unrecognisable from what it was a decade ago

n William Milam

P

hysically and socially, Bangladesh must rank right up there with the fastest changing countries in the world. I lived in Dhaka 25 years ago, and I have returned often since then.

But each time I return, I could swear this mega-city’s population has doubled, half the buildings I knew have been knocked down (and are being replaced by modern transparent ones made mostly of glass), and traffic has increased in intensity despite new flyovers that take you over large swaths of the city at high speeds.

Casual empiricism, that is just watching the people in the streets, leads one to believe that the citizens of Dhaka are not only more numerous than the last visit but better fed, healthier, and certainly no less industrious.

This is particularly striking for those of us who have been coming to Bangladesh for over two decades. I remember when the Gulshan, Banani, and Baridhara sections were on the edge of the city, and contained mostly twostorey villas with a sprinkling of embassies and a few shops. The traffic was normal (meaning that it moved along, and rarely did one stand in one spot for more than a

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

minute or two).

Now, only a few of those villas are left. Most of them have been knocked down and replaced by five or six-storey apartment houses. These areas now hum with business offices, retail outlets, and boutique and larger hotels.

They are really the centre of Dhaka life, at least for the upper echelons of society. And the traffic is impossible. My car sat in several spots, not able to move for over 15 minutes each this evening.

It took more than an hour to go to the hotel to which I could have walked in 15 minutes. I remember when there were about a half dozen restaurants, outside the two major international hotels, that were up to international standards.

Now it appears that there are hundreds of good restaurants of an almost infinite variety of cuisine, some very expensive, in these sections of the city. And though I have not tried them all (I would have to stay a year to do so), most seem to be flourishing.

This leads me to the social change I mentioned above. Dhaka, and probably Bangladesh as a whole, is testament to the benefits of steady economic growth that comes from good economic policies (that, for the most part, allow the private sector to lead

the economic growth), and an increasing focus on facilitating that growth with improved and modern infrastructure. Add to this the improving educational levels (better education numbers than most South Asian countries), an industrious work force that includes a high proportion of women, and importantly, an open mind regarding globalisation.

Bangladesh’s steady economic growth of around 5% to 6% over two decades has spawned a vastly expanded elite (which one can see almost every night in the restaurants and hotels, when not caught in the traffic jams in their Mercedes and BMWs and other high-end transport).

And this long period of steady growth has also seen a very large rise in the middle class. There are as many ways to measure the middle class as there are countries with a middle class. I am not going to get into comparisons across countries. It is too complicated for this article. Nonetheless, a reputable Dhaka think tank recently released a study that put the Bangladesh middle class in 2010 at 20% of the population, having grown from 9% in 1992.

affected by the expansion of the economic elite and the middle class. I arrived in Dhaka in 1990, just as the movement to expel the dictator General Ershad was coming together. The two major parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh National Party, had finally agreed on something -- an agenda of action to push Ershad out.

The main point was to stick together and not let him divide them as he had in the past. The other two points were to then settle the issues between them by a free and fair election and to have a neutral interim government conduct that election.

The support for such an agreement from major parts of civil society helped push the two parties into each other’s arms (holding their noses I suspect) and then, coming together behind the two parties made the movement successful. (Ershad had some supporters and sympathisers, so it wasn’t unanimous.)

But that conception of a civil society in which the great majority sees its interests alike seems now to be dated and very naive. Some of the parvenu in this greatly

majority may be motivated to say this from fear of a government that doesn’t take criticism well. (Many Bangladeshi readers will take this as the understatement of the week.) The opposition explains the polls that way.

But it seems unlikely that the polls would show such large margins if fear was the main factor.

But not everything in Bangladesh changes as fast as the physical infrastructure and the social structure. In politics, much remains the same. The dog-eatdog, zero-sum-game nature of politics not only remains the norm, many critics say it is being carried to new heights.

The BNP is in dire straits, and seemingly has a suicide complex.

Its actions have only increased its vulnerability as a viable opposition party. Without a complete overhaul, I believe its future is bleak.

The governing party is, of course, primarily to blame for locking up many BNP leaders and for many other repressive actions against it, but the BNP leadership resists every opportunity to recover its standing with the

The traffic is impossible. My car sat in several spots, not able to move for over 15 minutes each this evening. It took more than an hour to go to the hotel to which I could have walked in 15 minutes

With this growth rate, the study says that by 2025, as much as 25% of the population will be in the middle class. And by 2030, the percentage will rise to 33%.

Having said this, I should point out that the study’s methodology also reveals that Bangladesh in 2010 remained below the South Asian average of around 25% of the population in the middle class.

However, the relevant point here is that the increasing middle class has fueled the consumption boom that is one of the drivers of the steady upward growth rate.

Also, at its present rate of growth, the Bangladeshi middle class may well exceed the South Asian average by 2030.

It is my memory of the past that has brought me to think of how civil society may have been

expanded economic elite must surely see their interests in the status quo, that is the one-party government that occupies the catbird seat these days. This would be especially true if the government were to devote all its energies to facilitating economic growth.

And the more numerous, if still less well-off, middle class must also see the steady economic growth rate and the steady increase of remittances from their kin in the middle east (which go disproportionately to the middle class and is vital in the increase of their prosperity) as related to the status quo.

Polls continue to record that a great majority of Bangladeshis think that the country is going in the right direction. Some of this

public. The government is also bearing down hard on any other voices of opposition, and trying hard to muzzle some very courageous media voices.

A campaign which everybody understands is inspired by the government against two prominent editors, piling up court cases against them, is by now well known in the region and in the West.

Theory and history say this kind of government behaviour will change with the rise of the middle class, but Bangladesh has resisted both theory and history so far. l William Milam is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington, DC, and former US Ambassador to Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Chief of mission in Liberia.

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Opinion

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

Health care in crisis To save lives, we must plan ahead

n Raqibul Anwar

A

re we heading towards a crisis, or are we already in a crisis? Is hospital health care in Bangladesh heading for a freefall towards an irreversible crisis situation after achieving such incredible success which the prime minister and the health ministers in recent years have applauded both nationally and internationally?

Are our health policy-makers aware of the possibility of a crisis happening in our health care in the changed environment of newly threatening killer diseases?

Unfortunately, in the absence of easy availability and accessibility of proper data and information, there appears to be a situation where everyone seems to have decided to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that healthcare in Bangladesh is enjoying sustained improvement and we are just about to turn the corner where fully developed and accessible health care is waiting to greet our patients.

The health editor of an English newspaper in Dhaka recently wrote: “Millions of people of the country have no access to minimum secondary and tertiary level medical care because of their limited financial abilities and/or poverty ... and conditions of Upazila Health Complexes established to take health services to the poor rural people are in a pitiable state. Absence of doctors, inadequate supply of medicines and dressings, unsuitable and rusted medical equipment, and unserviceable machines have turned most of them into deserted places.”

He then contradicts himself by saying that “we have a good number, though not enough for a population of 160 million, of experienced and skilled manpower, advanced health service devices, and technologies.”

Burying the head in the sand indeed!

A good number of experienced and skilled manpower? According to WHO, we should have 2.3 doctors per 1,000 people. We have 0.4. We need at least six times the number of doctors. The doctor to nurse ratio should be 1:3, so we really should have nearly 1.2 million nurses. The reality is that we have about 30,000.

The main concern in today’s Bangladesh is an absence of a minimum skilled health workforce and no indication for preparation

for development of such a workforce in sight. Bangladesh does not have a structured policy for human resource planning in the health sector. The first ever stake-holder dialogue on human resources for health in Bangladesh happened in 2012, but it has remained at the dialogue stage till today.

No doubt there has been sustained improvement in a number of health indicators, including a reduction in under-five mortality, immunisation coverage, maternal mortality, and total fertility. The country has improved women’s education, economic conditions, and life expectancy, surpassing those achieved by our sub-continental neighbours India and Pakistan.

However, simultaneous with the demographic transition, Bangladesh is also undergoing a health transition and manifesting the double burden of disease,

purpose. Sadly, Bangladesh does not have a structured policy for human resource planning in the health sector.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare published the Bangladesh Health Workforce Strategy in 2008. The goal of the ministry was to implement the HR strategy in collaboration with the private sector, development partners, and other stake-holders that work towards the greater good of Bangladesh, and to review it every five years for necessary updates.

The first stake-holder dialogue on human resources for health (HRH) took place in Bangladesh in 2012 with the objective of starting advocacy on the need for an adequate and skilled health workforce for a well-functioning health system, but it has not been effective yet (WHO, 2014).

Only recently, I wrote that Bangladesh’s health care sector

A nation is judged by how healthy its citizens are

Bangladesh does not have a structured policy for human resource planning in the health sector. The first ever stake-holder dialogue on human resources for health in Bangladesh happened in 2012, but it has remained at the dialogue stage till today

with the emergence of noncommunicable diseases as the prime killers. The success of her government’s achievement of Millennium Developmental Goals and 20th century revolution in health has led to this demographic transition.

It is rightly advocated that health care is dynamic, requiring adoption of policies suitable for combating new challenges with even the developed economies in the world constantly battling to keep up. Unfortunately, for us, absence of strategic vision appropriate for demographic transition responsible for death and disability has lead to serious stagnation and frank regression in hospital health care.

Strategic workforce planning is essential for quality care delivered to patients by ensuring the adequacy of the health care workforce that has the right capacity and skills, values, and behaviours to meet future patient needs, with competence and motivation being critical to the

has arrived at a crossroad.

The internationally acclaimed phenomenal success in primary health care, resulting in the demographic transition, requires our doctors to be trained after MBBS through structured training programs. I also argued that we cannot afford to be indifferent to the adequate and appropriate training need of our doctors with the excuse that Bangladesh is still a developing country and training doctors like they do in the West is not achievable in Bangladesh.

In fact, as we produce increasing numbers of health professionals, including doctors, nurses, and technicians, we must continue to try to improve their quality through universal, competency-based post-graduate education and training. Human resource development and investment in surgical care, which is going to be the cornerstone of the present health system, would become mandatory. International experts believe that this newly required surgical health care

strategy is more affordable and I must agree with them when people of our country are buying the same health care from our neighbouring countries at a staggering cost of over $3 billion every year.

We know from the internationally acclaimed medical journal The Lancet’s initiative on global surgery that there has been serious absence of written information about the human and economic effect of surgical conditions, the state of surgical care, or the potential strategies for the scale-up of surgical services in developing countries.

To begin to address these crucial gaps, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery was launched in January, 2014.

We are, by now, well aware that the commission brought together an international, multi-disciplinary team of 25 commissioners, supported by advisors and collaborators in more than 110 countries and six continents. The commission’s key

NASHIRUL ISLAM

findings show that the human and economic consequences of untreated surgical conditions in the developing countries may be catastrophic and for many years have gone unrecognised.

Of over 313 million surgical procedures carried out globally, only 6% happens in the poorer countries, 33 million individuals face catastrophic health expenditure due to payment for surgery, and another additional 48 million for the non-medical costs of accessing surgical care. In 2010, an estimated 16.9 million lives (32.9% of all deaths worldwide) were lost from conditions needing surgical care, well surpassing the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS (1.46 million), tuberculosis (1.20 million), and malaria (1.17 million) combined.

Without urgent and accelerated investment in surgical scale-up, low and middle-income countries will continue to have losses in economic productivity, estimated cumulatively at $123tn between 2015 and 2030. On the basis of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Lancet Commission estimated that 1.4 million deaths could be prevented annually in the developing world.

Should we not then avail of that opportunity of saving lives and avoid economic calamity through national policy on skilled workforce and affordable physical infrastructure development? l Raqibul Anwar is Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Bart’s and The Royal London Hospital.

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Climate Change

Cities at the centre of climate change: Seizing opportunities towards transformation

BIGSTOCK

Junghans and n Lisa Sönke Kreft

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ithin two generations our entire energy system needs to be carbon free for the world to avoid dangerous impacts of climate change. This transformation needs to happen first in developed countries then in all countries soon afterwards.

With the majority of the world’s population residing in urban areas releasing more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the necessity for cities to take centre stage in addressing climate change

is without doubt. Cities are often hotspots of climate vulnerability, hosting masses of marginalised and poor people that have little to resist floods, cyclones, and storms.

Experts often talk about the need for an urban transformation towards low carbon and climate resilient development. In practical terms, such a transformation requires a significant makeover and adjustment of urban structures, its organisation, and its residents’ lifestyles.

By 2030, 60% of the world’s area is projected to be urban and much of that area is yet to be built.

The decisions on urban planning

made today determines a city’s face and footprint well into the next century, meaning that there is much scope and potential for this transformation.

However, there are heavy barriers for city authorities, including that of restricted financial and fiscal space, limited planning and implementation capacities, and overruling short term needs that require urgent attention.

Despite the barriers, there is a vital need for cities to respond to climate change. It is a fact that there is a huge prospect with a city makeover: Visionary urban

development strategies with the goal of green, resilient, and more liveable cities. Here practitioners often talk about walkable cities, healthy cities as well as cities driven by citizens’ innovation.

Looking at urban areas around the world we find many pioneers are embarking on this transformation -- Durban in South Africa and Seoul, South Korea.

The city of Dhaka also offers some unique examples of how an urban transformation can be brought forward in small steps.

Examples in transport show that development and climate benefits can go hand in hand. The Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) introduced in the mid-1990s have reduced air pollution in the city and lowered the CO2 output in comparison to their leaded gasoline counterparts.

The design of the BusRapid-Transit (BRT) System is an important step forward to transform mobility patterns, despite current project delays.

The eco-community Shobuj Pata or Green Leaf being built in the vicinity of Dhaka feature native vegetation in the form of green spaces and plant-covered walls and roofs to combat heat, filter air pollution and keep interiors cool is a transformation towards ecological sustainability within the city. Although the latter two projects are in the planning stages, the integration of such

projects into urban development plans demonstrate at least a general degree of sensitivity among local authorities towards the problem.

For advancing climate friendly and resilient urban development around the world it will be key to involve actors at all levels. Local level innovation and solutions will have to be linked up with national and international development strategies and visions.

Participation of affected groups, especially the marginalised and vulnerable, is a prerequisite for a fair transformation.

This year’s International Community Based Adaptation Conference, which takes place at the end of the month in Dhaka, rightly focusses on urban adaptation -- what works, what doesn’t, and how to initiate transformation towards a more resilient urban future. The potential and responsibility of city planners, developers, and other actors to realise climate and development benefits and global best practices in citizen engagement and leadership will be at the centre of the discussions.

Likewise, the matter of financing the urban transformation will be a key issue the conference aims to address. l Lisa Junghans and Sönke Kreft work in the International Climate Policy Team at Germanwatch, based in Bonn, Germany.

Megacities worsen climate-prone diseases n Edd Gent

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rowded conditions in developing world megacities can dramatically increase the effect of climate on infectious diseases, say researchers.

A study based on 22 years of rotavirus cases in Dhaka, Bangladesh, found infection rates during the monsoon were around 10 times higher in the densely populated centre than the quieter periphery.

The virus is the most common cause of diarrhoea in children worldwide and is responsible for more than 400,000 child deaths a year.

Rotavirus infection rates in tropical countries are fairly consistent throughout the year with a slight peak in cool seasons, although some studies have found evidence of spikes when river

levels are high.

But the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 28 March, found that a higher baseline of rotavirus infection in the congested core of the city of 15 million appears to make it far more sensitive to flood-driven outbreaks than the suburbs -- resulting in a regular second peak during the warm monsoon months.

Rotavirus infection rates in tropical countries are fairly consistent throughout the year with a slight peak in cool seasons, although some studies have found evidence of spikes when river levels are high.

But the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that a higher baseline of rotavirus infection in the congested core of the city of 15 million appears to make it far more sensitive to flood-

driven outbreaks than the suburbs -- resulting in a regular second peak during the warm monsoon months.

“As we get more populated megacities, we have to be aware this is going to have strong epidemiological consequences, including in terms of responses to climate,” says co-author Mercedes Pascual, an ecologist at the University of Chicago in the United States.

The city’s periphery experienced the second peak after exceptional flooding, but the researchers found that this peak occurred more consistently in the core most likely due to a persistent reservoir of the disease -- people who have built up immunity but can still infect others.

Previous research by the authors found similar spatial variations in climate sensitivity with cholera cases in Dhaka.

Pascual suspects that many infectious diseases become more climate sensitive in megacities. “If you can identify places that are more responsive to variations in climate, you can be prepared to respond more locally and perhaps more efficiently,” she adds.

Virginia Pitzer, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health in the United States, says the results are intriguing, but she wants to see if it can predict infection rates and whether similar spatial variation is found in other cities.

“It certainly suggests waterborne transmission of rotavirus is a problem, particularly in megacities such as Dhaka,” she adds.

Ziaul Matin, child health specialist for UNICEF in Bangladesh, says public health experts have been anecdotally aware of the monsoon peak for

some time, but welcomed hard data on the issue.

“We can use it to help design our programs and even earlywarning systems,” he says. l This article first appeared on www. scidev.net/global/disease/news/ megacities-worsen-climate-pronediseases.html and is reprinted under a creative commons license.

This page has been developed in collaboration with the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and its partners, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). This page represents the views and experiences of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Dhaka Tribune or ICCCAD or its partners.

EDITOR'S NOTE

INSIDE

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This issue of Arts & Letters features a translation of excerpts from a book by Ahmed Sharif, one of our foremost intellectuals. Sharif's research into Bangla literature of ancient and medieval periods has given us a much clearer vision about our anthropological roots, if there is any. His most significant contribution to our history and literature is his assessment of the social and cultural milieu in which those texts were born and to which they frequently allude.

In this translation, Sharif tells us that for the most part of their history, Bangalis were ruled by

Anthropological identity of Bangalis

17

foreign forces, have been very sentimental, indifferent to hard work and unable to practise any of the mainstream religions wholeheartedly.

Sharif's research is supplemented by a piece that revisits the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that had happened on the eve of Pohela Boishakh in 1919.

This issue also features an interview of Sujata Parashar, Director of FON SA Short Story Award, who talks about why this competition is a unique opportunity for budding Bangladeshi authors.

Bloodbath on Boisakh

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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

Sharif tells us Bangalis were ruled by foreign forces, have been very sentimental, indifferent to hard work and unable to practise any of the mainstream religions wholeheartedly

Interview of Sujata Parashar

Send your submissions to: anl@dhakatribune.com

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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

ESSAY

Anthropological identity of Banga

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he anthropological identity of Bangalis is very complicated. There has been no comprehensive research into this subject. No certain conclusion, therefore, can be drawn. Yet, it can be said that there has been too much commingling of bloodlines in this region. This is why even an anthropological research cannot produce accurate information about our ancestors. In an ancient religious text compiled perhaps in the 13th century, Bangalis were classified into 36 groups in terms of caste. But this grouping was not anthropological; it was rather based on people’s occupations. In modern times, many scholars and researchers like Risley, Ramaprasad Chanda, Birajashankar Guha examined the physical features of Bangalis; some are still researching. The basis of these researches is such physical attributes as headforehead-nose-lips or eyes-hairskin. But three thousand years of mixed bloodlines have left no physical feature untainted. So the uncertainty has remained. It could still roughly be said that our ancestors consisted mostly of Negrito, Australoid (Veddoid) and Mongoloid peoples. In fact, it would not be illogical to assume that 60% Australoids, 20% Mongoloids and 15% Negritos, and five percent of other racial groups mingled with one another to form our mixed bloodlines.

Nishad, Kol, Bheel, Munda, Santal, Shabar, Pulinda, Malpahari etc. are comparatively less mixed Veddoids whereas Kirat, Rajbangshi, Naga, Koch, Mech, Mijjar, Kuki, Chakma, Arakani etc. are less mixed Mongoloids.

Besides, features of Gaur, Malab, Chaur, Shok, Hun, Kulik, Kornat, Lat, Dravid, Murunda, Kushan, Euchi, Arab, Irani, Habshi, Greek, Turkish, Afgan, Mughal, Portugese, Dutch, French and English peoples have seeped into the bloodlines, though not to a

large extent.

Pundra, Rarh, Banga and Suhma were the main areas of Bangladesh. The lesser areas where the Kols, the Shabars, the Haris, the Doms and the Chandals lived were vanquished. Looking at the discoveries upon excavation of West Bengal’s Pandu Rajar Dhibi, Deganga’s Chandraketu and Chabbish Paragana’s Harinandan, it seems that well before the introduction to Jainism and Buddhism, roughly three thousand years ago, there were developing groups with flourishing culture of their own. The character of this mixed people is distinct.

[Bhupendranath Dutta, Banglar Itihasher Dhara]

captured the character of ancient Bangalis in the following way: In the studies of religious scriptures and in the pursuit of knowledge, intellect and logic are subdued by religion and emotions.

Agitation and rebellion, desperate combination, assimilation and equalization make up the behavioural characteristic of Bangalis ... there is this indifference to anything ancient in their heritage ... Whenever a new wave of ideas or ideals or events have agitated their mind, they have bowed down to it like weak cane plants as if it was inevitable to happen, and having moulded it into their own set of ideas, they have stood up again, like the

the pervasive practices of yoga, of the doctrine that the body is the seat of all truths, of the tendency to offer worships to deities of both benevolent and malevolent forces.

Dr Roy says: The emotions and sensuality of Bangalis in ancient times were captured in their idols of gods and goddesses. Worship of the incorporeal and pursuit of drab spirituality are scant and fragile in Bangalis. ...

Bangalis are sentimental and given to fancy. Expression of strong emotions and agitation speaks of this. So when they cry, they cry excessively and when they laugh, they do so until there’s

to pleasure (as a moralist would say). That’s why in Bangladesh worldly affairs and pleasures have always got the upper hand over spirituality. They have accepted the godless and nirvana-seeking Buddhism outwardly; at heart they have remained loyal to the gods and goddesses who, they believe, fulfil their material needs. That’s why the Buddhist monasteries became full of idols and they were worshipped not for achieving Nirvana but as the gods of life and livelihood, of luxury and ease. Worldly possessions were what they were after, not spiritual nirvana ... That’s why they wanted to master occult knowledge, magic, witchcraft so that they

strong cane plants. The tenacious life force of the Bangalis, which is as vital in the cane plant, has actually kept them alive through thick and thin.

This is where lies the clue to why the Bangalis have converted into Jainism, Buddhism, Brahminism and Islam and yet have failed to practise these religions wholeheartedly, eventually shaping them to their own livelihood needs. It explains

a grin. When they are agitated, they set fire. But none of these last long because outburst and agitation are but short-lived.

These traits also underlie their inclination towards songs. ...

As they are sentimental, they appear to be idealist and indifferent to life. But actually they are materialist (as a spiritualist would say), or given to life (as mass people would say), or given

could gain wealth or acquire land without any hard work or perseverance. This is how the period under the Pala rulers went by. When the Sena rulers replaced the Palas, and when under the Senas novices of Shankaracharya started preaching the Brahmanic scriptures, the Bangalis embraced it outwardly again while their inner desire for material gains and pleasures remained alive. May be that’s why they did not have much

PAINTING BY SM SULTAN

n Ahmed Sharif

The rulers of Anga-Banga, Kalinga-Pundra-Suhma, as mentioned in the Mahabharata, were on the side of the Kurus in the battle of Kurukshetra. In Kalidas’s Raghuvamsa, Raghu defeated the brave Bangali warriors who were also well trained in naval warfare. It shows, whatever their identity in terms of blood, the Bangalis were not much behind others in politics.

Dr Niharranjan Roy has

Bloodbath on Boisakh always been a haven for new thoughts, ideas. But only a few of them have endured. Still, when we remember that it was in this very land that seeds of Bajrajan, Sahajjan, Kaya, Nabasmrity, Wahabi-Farayazi doctrines or Veda philosophy were planted; we feel a surge of pride. When we remember that great thinkers and leaders like Meennath, Gorokkhonath, Dipankar, Sheelbhadra, Raamnath, Raghunath, Chaitanyadev, Rammohan, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Titumeer, Shariatullah, Dudu Mia, Rabindranath, Nazrul were born and brought up in this land, we regain our confidence.

In our medieval panchali literature, this character of Bangali manifests itself. The benevolent

Bangalis are sentimental and given to fancy. Expression of strong emotions and agitation speaks of this. So when they cry, they cry excessively and when they laugh, they do so until there’s a grin. When they are agitated, they set fire.

and livelihood such as Satyapir, Bonobibi-Bonodevi, KajugziKaluray, Borokha Gazi-Dokkhin Ray and Olabibi-Shitala came to be revered and worshipped by both Hindus and Muslims. Clearly, ordinary Bangalis never had any interest in the lofty, philosophical questions regarding the supreme being. They were given to purely terrestrial matters and pleasures and concerns. They have made little of the soul-supreme soul dichotomy and ignored heaven and hell altogether. The reason behind the degradation of the Baishnava society too lies in this mindset. The greedy minds of the poor, deprived Bangalis were allured whenever and wherever they had seen consumable products. As a result of two thousand years of foreign rule, cowardice and indifference to work have been written deep into their character. So for the sake of sustenance, they were reliant on gods who control material possessions as opposed to spiritual freedom, and made it their mission to pursue unnatural and supernatural powers to gain land and money.

The things that Bangalis take pride in are individual contributions; the nation as a whole could not reap any benefit from them ... Bangladesh has

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

HISTORY

alis interest in the doctrine of maya or the dichotomy between soul and supreme soul. In fact, they started panting under the weight of these doctrines. So they felt reassured only when they could worship gods of wealth and possessions and pleasures. That’s how worship of Chandi, Durga, Manasa, Shitala, Shosthi, Shani, Lokkhi and Sharaswati were initiated.

These deities were not meant to uplift them into a spiritual word or give them spiritual freedom.

For the same reasons, under Muslim rulers, especially during the Mughal rule in Bangladesh, influence of ancient Hindu gods and Islamic religious dictums wore thin while different benevolent and malevolent deities of life

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Arts & Letters

god prevails in the literature of the time because he is the provider of livelihood. Yet in the expression of his enormous vitality, signs of loyalty to his very own religion are evident. He has never heartily accepted any foreign religion.

This distinctness and inflexibility, in many cases, has earned him respect in modern times. l Ahmed Sharif is the biggest name in the critical tradition of Bangla Literature.

He was an authority in medieval Bangla literature and his research works have shed light on the secular traditions of our literature. These excerpts are from his book, Bangali O Bangla Sahitya in which he has summarised his theses on the anthropological identity of Bangalis and the roots and development of Bangla literature.

Translated by Rifat Munim

FOOTNOTES

1. An early 8th century preacher of Brahmanic scriptures. He’s regarded as the biggest teacher of ancient Hinduism.

2. After the Pala rulers who preached Buddhism, the Senas revived Hinduism.

3. In ancient Hindu philosophy, maya is a concept connoting the “power or the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality.”

The calculated massacre of close to 2,000 innocents in Jallianwala Bagh 97 years ago that became a turning point in India’s struggle for freedom.

IMAGE CREDIT: SABRANG INDIA

n Teesta Setalvad

O

ne of the worst political crimes of the twentieth century was committed in Punjab during 1919.

Popular resentment had been accumulating in Punjab since the beginning of the War (World War I), mainly due to the ruthless drive – by the British — for recruiting soldiers and forced contribution to the war fund. Gandhiji’s call for a country-wide hartal to protest against the Black Acts received a tremendous response from Punjab on March 30 and again on April 6.

Gandhiji’s call for a countrywide hartal to protest against the Black Acts received a tremendous response from Punjab on March 30 and again on April 6.

The agitated mood of the people and Hindu-Muslim solidarity demonstrated on the hartal (strike) days and on April 9 celebration of the Ramnavami festival made the Lt Governor Michael O’Dwyer’s administration panicky.

Gandhiji’s entry into Punjab was banned: two popular leaders of Amritsar, Kitchlew and Satya Pal, were arrested. These provocations led to hartals and mass demonstrations in Lahore, Kasur, Gujranwala and Amritsar.

In Amritsar, the police firing on demonstrators provoked some of them to commit acts of violence.

The next day the city was handed over to Brigadier-General Dyer.

Dyer began his regime through indiscriminate arrests and ban on meeting and gatherings.

On April 13 – the day of Baisakhi festival – a meeting was called in the afternoon at the Jallianwala Bagh a ground enclosed on all sides. Thousands of people, many of whom had come from surrounding villages to the fairs in Amritsar and were unaware of the ban order, gathered in the meeting.

The massacre stunned the people and became a turning point in the history of India’s struggle for freedom Suddenly Dyer appeared there with troops and without any warning to the people, ordered firing on the completely peaceful and defenceless crowd. The fusillade continued till Dyer’s ammunition ran out. Atleast about a thousand people, if not more, are estimated to have been killed.

This cold-blooded carnage, Dyer admitted later, was perpetrated "to strike terror not only in the city of Amritsar, but throughout the Punjab?"

The massacre stunned the people and became a turning point in the history of India’s struggle for freedom. Rabindranath Tagore wrote a strong letter of protest to the Viceroy, dated May 31, 1919,

renouncing his Knighthood “….The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilised governments…. The accounts of insults and sufferings undergone by our brothers in the Punjab have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India and the universal agony of indignation roused in the hearts of our people has been ignored by our rulers,-possibly congratulating themselves for what they imagine as salutary lessons….the very least that I can do for my country is to take all consequences upon myself in giving voice to the protest of the millions of my countrymen, surprised into a dumb anguish of terror. The time has come when the badges of honour make our shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to stand shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen, who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer a degradation not fit for human beings….” l (Large portions of this article have relied upon excerpts from the autobiography of Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, Recollections and Reflections. Sir Chimanlal Setalvad was the great grandfather of Teesta Setalvad) This is an abridged version of an article which first appeared in Scroll.in

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Arts & Letters

INTERVIEW

Unique opportunity for Bangladeshi authors Dhaka Tribune has partnered with Fellows of Nature in a unique initiative to promote nature writing, a genre as endangered as nature, through a short story competition that seeks contributions from writers of South Asian countries including Bangladesh. In this issue, we present readers with an interview of Sujata Parashar, Director, Fellows of Nature, who explains why this competition is a rare opportunity for budding Bangladeshi writers and translators. Visit www.fellowsofnature.in for more details. promote nature - writing and through it strengthen the human – nature bond.

The closing date for submission is May 30th, 2016. The award will be presented at the next edition of Kumaon Lit Fest to be held in October this year and the book will be released at the literary festival of Taj Colloquium (an associate of KLF), Agra in January 2017.

Can translation of Bangla short stories be submitted for the competition?

Yes, translation of original Bangla short stories into English will be considered for the award. However, other guidelines remain the same and must be read carefully before making the submission. Also, if such a story is picked as the top winner; the prize amount will be divided equally between the original writer and the translator.

Tell us more about the FON South Asia Short Story Award. Is it the first such international literary award?

The seed idea of Fellows of Nature (or FON) was conceived early last year while the Kumaon Lit Fest (KLF) planning board was still deliberating on the different social initiatives and innovative ideas that KLF should initiate to help achieve the main objective of the festival. KLF is India’s first travelling literary festival and has several other unique features; its main objective is to celebrate literature, nature, art and culture of the nation and at the same time use the platform to give back to society. Together with Sumant Batra, Founder of FON, I wrote the concept note and shared the idea with the PB members of KLF and other potential partners.

The idea was appreciated more so because of its relevance in today’s time when man-made issues are wreaking havoc on the environment and adversely affecting everyone. It was felt by the team that an initiative like FON (of which FON Short Story Award is an intrinsic part) will not only bring the spotlight back on naturewriting but will also effectively help sensitise people and build awareness about the fragility of the environment and why it is important to preserve and protect it. The project was formally launched at the well-attended curtain raiser event of the festival held at The Taj Mahal Hotel, Delhi in September last year.

Also, initially, we wanted it to be a national – level short

Why does FON put this emphasis on nature writing? How do you think building a community of nature writers will help build awareness of and respect for nature?

Translation of original Bangla short stories into English will be considered for the award. However, other guidelines remain the same and must be read carefully before making the submission

story contest. Of course, based solely on the theme of nature.

However, Siddhartha Gigoo, an award winning and acclaimed short – story writer of the country and chairman of the esteemed FON jury, (we have a 7 member

international jury consisting of popular novelists, short story writers, editors, bloggers and conservationists), suggested we extend the purview of the competition and make it international. After consulting

other key stakeholders it was agreed that instead of limiting it only to India we should extend it to all 8 nations of South Asia.

It is indeed one of the very first international literary awards whose prime objective is to

At one point in time, nature writing was one of the oldest and most appreciated literary forms of writing; but over the years it has shown a steady decline. Almost all the great writers, poets and artists of the world have been inspired by Nature but with the passage of time and technology taking over almost all aspects of man’s life; writing in this genre has been marginalised. FON SA Short Story Award is an attempt to revive the old literary art and through it bring the focus back on critical environmental and other challenging issues faced by mankind. Stories are powerful tools of change and make us think, feel and take notice. Thus, an interesting and enthusiastic community of nature-storytellers will have a better chance in getting people to develop respect for Nature, build awareness and take positive actions and eventually help in conservation.

Before concluding, I'd like to thank Dhaka Tribune for featuring FON. We'll look forward to the submissions from Bangladesh. l

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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

Turbulent history at sea Risking life and limb, our ancestors sailed on British vessels towards new adventures

n Tim Steel

Q

uite apart from the enormous fortunes accumulated by some living in the 17th and 18th centuries in the lands that are now Bangladesh -- there is no doubt that in such risks as there were, peoples also shared those risks.

International trade that returned, or, at least, burgeoned, with the arrival of European traders following the advent of the Portuguese in these lands in the early 16th century, certainly contained great elements of risk, not merely economic.

All commercial activity involves commercial risk, even today, but, today, seldom involves such risks to life and limb as it did then. Risks that threatened the greatest to the humblest. We have, of course, documentary evidence that implies such risks from the very earliest times.

Once the Europeans began to make their lengthy trading voyages to the Ganges delta and the lands around, far more men, especially, from the lands of Bangladesh, certainly began to risk their lives to participate in them.

The voyages, around the Cape of Good Hope, having navigated the hazards of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and often the turbulent Southern Ocean too, from the beginning, presented risk to the sailors who undertook them.

It was, unquestionably, lords and masters, both in the east, and in the west, who risked, usually, only their fortunes in the voyages

Examination of the papers of the East India Company can spell out, readily, just the most lethal of the risks Bangladeshis shared with other members of Company ships. By early in the 18th century, we can establish that about 6-7% of ships simply never completed their voyages

-- but the sailors risked, also, their lives.

We know, from late 17th century legislation, requiring 75% of the crews of English ships to be English, that the men from Bangladesh and thereabouts had been recruited in large numbers, from the beginning.

Like English warships, trading vessels too undertook what was known as “pressing” to kidnap men to make up numbers of the crew, but there is empirical and anecdotal evidence that young men, sailing the waters of such as the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna, amongst others, to carry cargoes of silks, muslins, and saltpetre to the trading ships anxious to catch the monsoon winds to speed their return, were happy to fulfil their own sense of adventure, and were readily recruited.

There is evidence that many never returned, finding either life in Europe or, in many cases, reluctant to risk the terrifying experience of a return voyage.

Certainly, by the end of the 18th century, we know that communities of migrants from Bangladesh were already in existence in Britain.

Indeed, the first “Bengali” teashop was opened in London as early as 1815 by a Bengali sailor.

Examination of the papers of the East India Company can spell out, readily, just the most lethal of the risks such Bangladeshis shared with other members of Company ships.

By early in the 18th century, we can establish that about 6-7% of ships simply never completed their voyages.

Of the 1,341 ships, chartered by the Company that set out for India and the Far East in between 1727 and 1789, the majority of which were destined for Bengal, only 1254 completed their voyage.

Of the 87 ships lost at sea, 10 blew up, 49 simply disappeared, 11 were wrecked, and 17 were captured, either by pirates or by opponents at war with Britain.

When we recall that the Company were contracted to supply refined gunpowder for the British armed forces -- explosion of the cargoes is somewhat unsurprising.

Storms at sea, hazards of navigation, at least before the clockmaker, John Harrison, developed a reliable timepiece permitting observations of

longitude -- meant that wrecks were common enough. It may well be that many of the ships “lost at sea” were victims of faulty navigation.

But losses, such as the six ships lost in the mud of the Hooghly River, never were much of a mystery, rather the result of carelessness. Men, of course, died, even so close to shore, in such losses.

These voyages, therefore, were, annually, a commercial risk, in the pursuit of which, all aboard risked their lives.

And it was far from unusual, as we may judge from the legislation enacted for a minimum level of manning by British nationals, for at least a quarter of the crew to have been recruited in the subcontinent. Where the experienced navigators, and shipmen, of Bengal, with thousands of years of experience, were especially favoured.

We know, for example, that the ship, Wager, in the course of four voyages over 10 years, lost an average of about 20% of its crews with which they left Britain. It is reasonable to suppose that the majority of those would probably have been seamen on their first

voyage, in which mortality, unsurprisingly, was higher.

It is equally reasonable to suppose that between 15-20% of its crew were recruited in the sub-continent since Bengal was preferred for recruitment of experienced sailors.

The risk to life and limb, at least, was probably equally shared between crew with Indian origin, and those of British.

Later in the period, many ships were even built at shipyards on the coast and navigable rivers of the lands that are now Bangladesh -- almost certainly resulting in a considerably higher proportion of the crew originating in these lands.

And the fact that the first Bengali “tea house” was opened by the captain of a Company ship of Bengali origin, reveals that the “Lascars” were not at all, simply, deckhands.

The Company permitted members of the ship crews to carry “private trades” -- the value of which depended upon their onboard status. It seems reasonable to suppose that crew-members recruited in Bengal, who had access to finance to acquire trading goods on their own may also have shared commercial risks.

And smuggling became common, especially of high value, low volume trades of diamonds from Orissa, and other gemstones from the region.

We have every reason to suppose that crew members recruited in Bengal were often well placed to secure such cargoes, and carry them to the increasing settlements of settlers from Bengal and the lands around, in the port cities of Britain.

It was not at sea alone that natives of these lands also shared risks with others. Recruits to the army of the East India Company, “sepoys,” and sepoy officers, risked lives, not only in conflicts within the sub-continent, but also in such places as the Spice Islands, China, and even Arabia.

Earning any living, even in pursuit of commerce, throughout the ages, and across the world, has always involved risk, and there is no doubting of the risks of traders around the Ganges delta from earliest times.

It is also clear that ancestors of the peoples of today’s Bangladesh shared in, both, such risks, and opportunities, at home, and across the world. l Tim Steel is a communications, marketing and tourism consultant.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Thunder god (4) 5 Small secluded valley (4) 10 Burden (4) 11 Tool (3) 12 Nettle-rash (5) 13 Solemn promise (3) 14 Pay another’s expenses (5) 16 Conditional release (6) 18 Show early (6) 21 Be merciful to (5) 23 Regret (3) 24 Formal ceremonies (5) 26 Anger (3) 27 Climbing plant (4) 28 Raw hide (4) 29 Extremities (4)

DOWN 2 Hang suspended (5) 3 United (3) 4 Cattle thief (7) 6 Molten rock (4) 7 Foreign-looking (6) 8 Of recent origin (3) 9 Scourge (4) 15 Daydream (7) 17 Guarantee (6) 19 Famous (5) 20 Direction (4) 22 Rind (4) 23 Tear (3) 25 Tavern (3)

Downtime CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 18 represents T so fill T every time the figure 18 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

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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

INSIDE

#PANAMAPAPERS LEAK

IMF, World Bank, G20 officials set to close tax loopholes n Tribune International Desk

India’s tobacco industry turns to top court against warning rules India’s tobacco industry has sought to delay strict new health warning rules by appealing to the country’s highest court, a move anti-smoking activists say could backfire given that the court has ruled against cigarette makers in the past.

PAGE 22

Leaders from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are meeting with G20 finance officials in Washington on Friday.

Although the murky world of offshore accounts, hidden tax havens, and inverted corporate takeovers is not officially on the agenda, no doubt it will be front and centre in their deliberations.

Because the summit comes at a time when many politicians are at odds with how to explain why one set of rules exist for the very rich, while everyone else has to follow another.

How did we get here? The answer is complex--

How it works

How Saudi Arabia’s state machinary plans to shake up its economy The National Transformation Plan (NTP), as Riyadh has dubbed the major economical changes, is expected to be unveiled in the next few weeks.

PAGE 23

Most interesting moments of Thursday’s Democratic debate

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders unleashed some of their harshest criticism and sharpest attacks yet in their final debate before New York’s Democratic primary.

PAGE 24

Imagine you live in a town that pays a decent wage. You have a nice house, your kids go to a good school, but you pay much higher taxes than they pay in the town next to you. So, you hire an accountant who suggests buying a house in the next town to make it look like you live there and can take advantage of its lower tax rate.

Voila; you have just built yourself a tax haven.

To continue the analogy, let’s imagine your town gets wind of what is going on and tries to shut your idea down. Maybe it makes a deal with the next town and they both try and they both come after you. Their problem is solved, but you can just go find a third town.

There’s always another town willing to play along.

Change the analogy from towns to countries and we get to the crux of the world’s tax problem. It’s hard for one or two countries to change the tax rules without seeing capital leave their jurisdictions for cheaper ones. In an increasingly global society, if you want people to play by the rules, everyone has to play by the same rules.

A modest proposal

So, along comes British charity Oxfam with a pitch that the United Nations take the lead on cracking down on tax havens and ensuring everyone pays their fair share of taxes on the trillions of dollars that corporations currently have stashed in offshore tax havens.

Given what has emerged from the paperwork at Mossack Fon-

Members of the Panama Construction Workers Union demonstrate outside Mossack Fonseca headquarters at Panama city on Wednesday. Police on Tuesday raided the headquarters of the Panamanian law firm whose leaked Panama Papers revealed how the world's wealthy and powerful used offshore companies to stash assets AFP

High-profile victims

'We need to be aware of the massive hurdles and obstacles along the way because taxation for the last century or so has been defined, conceptualised, designed, implemented on a purely territorial sovereign basis' seca that may seem like an ideal solution. The firm’s recent loss of 11.5m documents detail how the world’s rich and powerful play by a different set of rules than the rest of us.

You could even be forgiven for thinking that perhaps other global heavyweights like the IMF, the World Bank and even the G20 should somehow get involved.

Maybe? Well, yes and no.

‘Think outside the box’

“It’s time to think outside of the box,” IMF head Christine Lagarde said this week in response to Oxfam’s proposal. That may sound like a ‘yes’ to cracking down — but a ‘but’ followed quickly thereafter.

“We need to be aware of the massive hurdles and obstacles along the way because taxation for the last century or so has been defined, conceptualised, designed, implemented on a purely territorial sovereign basis,” Lagarde told the Guardian newspaper, “and an-

ything that takes away from that is going to be very strongly opposed by many countries in the world, many forces.”

Who’s in charge?

The World Bank, meanwhile, came down much more unambiguously on the “no” side.

It’s President Jim Yong Kim said recently that UN member states were paying more than they wanted to in UN fees as it is, never mind funding a beefed up taxation watchdog. “I think we have to be very careful about thinking the solution to a problem is to add on another institution,” Kim said.

Politicians are at least accountable to their own citizens during elections. Which may partly explain why Canada seems to be stepping up its efforts to catch tax scofflaws.

Globally, governments are losing revenues estimate pegging the cost of tax havens around the world at roughly $7.6tn.

Perhaps the public may well have had enough, and it really will be different this time. Former Icelandic prime minister David Gunnlaugsson certainly thinks it is.

Others like Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping might think it’s different — or at least they would if they didn’t censor their media from talking about it.

And besieged British Prime Minister David Cameron certainly thinks the brouhaha over taxes feels different this time.

Different or not, until a global solution is found, money will continue to flow up to the richest one per cent who are able to afford the experts to help hide money. And those funds are not just theoretical — that is money that could be used to help pay for schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure.

Until that happens, major players like the IMF, the World Bank and the G20, must show leadership and fight for the idea of transparency.

Maybe they will do that this weekend. If they do, they’ll have to start thinking outside of the box all right — way outside of the box. l

[This is an excerpt of a CBC article, which can be found at http://bit. ly/1NsG67b]

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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

Growth of GM crops slows for first time in 20 years n AFP, Paris The growth of genetically-modified (GM) crops has dipped for the first time following two decades of steady increases, according to a study released Wednesday.

Twenty years after the first genetically-modified plant was marketed, the worldwide acreage of GM crops reached 181.5m hectares in 2014.

Five developing countries -Brazil, Argentina, India, China and South Africa -- grew almost half of

all GM crops in 2015.

GM remains hugely controversial in many countries, stirring sharp debate over the crops’ use and impact.

But after 19 years of annual increases, the area planted with bio-tech seeds fell by 1% last year, according to the proGM International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

The group blamed the slowdown on the collapse of commodity prices including corn and cotton.

India’s tobacco industry turns to top court against warning rules n Reuters, Jaipur India’s tobacco industry has sought to delay strict new health warning rules by appealing to the country’s highest court, a move anti-smoking activists say could backfire given that the court has ruled against cigarette makers in the past.

Earlier this month Indian tobacco companies, some backed by ‘Big Tobacco’ firms in the West, effectively went on strike by closing factories in protest against demands that 85% of a cigarette packet’s surface be covered by health warnings, up from the older requirement of 20%.

The industry estimates the stoppages cost it as much as $68m a day, taking cumulative losses to up to $850m.

Similar battles have played out around the world in recent years as governments try to discourage smoking. On a few occasions, major tobacco producers have resorted to drastic action by freezing output.

That tactic worked in India in 2010, when the government delayed a set of warnings proposed at the time after the industry shuttered plants.

But this time New Delhi’s room to compromise is more limited, court documents and interviews with central health ministry officials and activists suggest.

The documents show how a small group of health activists have outmanoeuvred the $11bn industry and cornered the government into implementing the rules on April 1.

Their strategy has left the Supreme Court as one of the last avenues of appeal for cigarette makers.

“The tide has turned and the tobacco industry is on a downhill slope,” said one of the activists, Sanjay Seth.

In 2013, the court pulled up the government for not being serious about tobacco-control laws.

The Tobacco Institute of India, an industry lobby group, declined to comment for this story. It has called the packaging rules drastic and impractical, saying the law will increase smuggling of illegal cigarettes.

‘Big Tobacco’ holding out

One small local producer, Golden Tobacco, has started selling cigarette packs that comply with the new rules.

But the biggest companies - ITC Ltd, partowned by British American Tobacco, and USbased Philip Morris International’s (PMI) India

partner Godfrey Phillips - are holding out.

On April 8, an industry group that represents makers of traditional smokes, or beedis, in south India went to the Supreme Court to challenge the rules, according to the filing.

The plea, filed by the Karnataka Beedi Industry Association, seeks a stay in enforcing the new rules, saying that they would bring the industry to a “grinding halt” and “cause grave and irreparable harm and loss”. A hearing is scheduled for April 22.

The appeal against the packaging regulations, which are among the world’s strictest, does not directly involve major cigarette makers, but any ruling could also apply to them.

Pressure on government

For Western brands, Indian cigarette sales represent a small yet significant part of global earnings, as they face long-term sales declines in developed markets and eye countries like India and its 40m cigarette smokers for future growth.

In its 2015 report, BAT said the “adjusted contribution” from ITC was $400m, about 5% of its annual profits.

The factory shutdown is hurting government’s coffers as well, costing it more than $10m a day in tax revenues, according to industry estimates.

More than 8m workers and their families are affected, and farmers’ groups are among those taking out large advertisements in newspapers criticising the legislation.

But the government has kept a low profile.

“We don’t want to get into a duel with the industry on this,” a health ministry official said, adding that public opinion appeared to be in the government’s favour.

Smoking kills more than 1m people a year in India, said BMJ Global Health, published

by London-based healthcare information provider, BMJ. The World Health Organisation says tobacco-related diseases cost the country $16bn billion annually.

The new rules, which have been shown to help reduce tobacco consumption, put India, along with Thailand, at the top of the list of countries with the most stringent cigarette labelling.

The new rules were proposed by the government in 2014. Initially, they were to be implemented from April 2015, but a parliamentary panel that included a lawmaker with a tobacco business forced the government to delay them as it assessed their impact on the industry and farmers. l

“ISAAA anticipates that total crop hectarage will increase when crop prices improve,” the organisation said in a press release.

The US, the world’s leader in GM foods, saw a 2.2m hectare decline in farmland given over to genetically modified crops in 2015.

In South Africa, severe drought reduced acreage of GM corn from three million hectares to 2.3m hectares last year.

And last week Burkina Faso abandoned its genetically modified cotton crop altogether, saying the

project was not profitable.

The ISAAA claimed that despite challenges, the area devoted to GM crops has “increased 100 times” in the past 20 years and now involves 18m farmers in 28 countries. From 1996 to 2014, bio-tech crops have successfully been grown on a cumulative area of 1.8bn hectares.

The ISAAA said opponents of GM were “opposed to science/evidence-based regulation” and that demands for “onerous” regulation would hurt poor farmers in developing countries. l

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INSIGHT

SOUTH ASIA

How Saudi Arabia’s state machinary plans to shake up its economy n Reuters, Riyadh/Dubai In late February, several hundred Saudi officials, company executives and foreign consultants gathered in a luxury Riyadh hotel to discuss how Saudi Arabia’s economy could survive an era of cheap oil.

One company manager at the event confirmed that officials from about 30 Saudi government bodies manned booths in which they described their challenges.

Corporate bosses were encouraged to “figure out ways to do partnerships to address those needs, to offer feedback, to complain, and to plan future ventures or even just future meetings,” the manager said. “It was like a private sector version of a national parliament.”

The workshop was part of Saudi government attempts to work out how to restructure the economy so it no longer relies on oil.

The National Transformation Plan (NTP), as Riyadh has dubbed the changes, is expected to be unveiled in the next few weeks.

Much is still secret. Ministries have refused to discuss plans in detail and Western consultancies contacted declined to confirm their involvement, let alone policy details.

Officials, consultants and executives, though, say the five-year programme is both ambitious and risky. It includes asset sales, tax increases, spending cuts, changes to the way the state manages its financial reserves, an efficiency drive, and a much bigger role for the private sector.

Such changes have been talked about for years but never put into action. One reason to think this time could be different is that policy-making has in the past year shifted away from conservative bodies such as the finance ministry and

View of the construction of King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh central bank. Power is now concentrated in a new 22-member Council of Economic and Development Affairs, formed after King Salman took the throne in January 2015.

The Council is chaired by his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is about 30. In his role as defence minister, Prince Mohammed launched Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen in March 2015. Now, he wants to shake up economic policy.

Consultants

People familiar with the NTP said it was born late last year in discussions between Prince Mohammed and a few other top officials. At the time, oil was sinking below $30 a barrel, about half the low point that had been expected.

That saddled the kingdom with an annual budget deficit near $100bn and strengthened the case for radical changes.

While Prince Mohammed is the ultimate decider, he has chosen Economy and Planning Minister Adel al-Fakieh, a former food industry executive and mayor of Jeddah, to help with the detail. As labour minister between 2010 and 2015, Fakieh overcame opposi-

REUTERS

tion from business to policies that pushed companies to hire more Saudis.

Models

One model is neighbouring UAE, which began radical reforms by cutting gasoline subsidies last year, people familiar with the Saudi plan said. Another model is Malaysia, which in 2010 moved to diversify beyond commodity exports and attract more foreign investment. Consultancy McKinsey & Co played a major role in the Malaysian plan and is now at the centre of the Saudi effort.

The NTP echoes Malaysia’s programme in three ways. It puts a single body in charge of implementation to force better cooperation between ministries. It seeks feedback from the private sector early, even during planning. And it aims to boost the private sector’s share of investment, something Saudi planners consider vital as oil revenues sag. Riyadh wants private firms to develop tourism facilities on some of its islands, plans to create “free zones” with minimal red tape near airports, and even wants private investment in some schools.

New infrastructure such as roads and port facilities will be constructed under build-operate-transfer contracts, in which private firms finance the projects and then operate them to recoup their investments.

The NTP will also speed up Saudi Arabia’s long-running but slow-paced privatisation programme. Up to 5% of national oil giant Saudi Aramco will be sold to the public, Prince Mohammed says, possibly raising tens of billions of dollars. Also on the block: chunks of other companies in up to 18 sectors, including healthcare, mining and transport.

Management of the country’s financial reserves will become more aggressive, according to officials and consultants. The central bank, which acts as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, holds $584bn of foreign assets, mostly in conservative investments such as bank deposits and US Treasuries.

In the future, privatisation proceeds will be invested in corporate assets around the world, generating income and obtaining access to technology and expertise.

Deadline

Top officials are reviewing proposals which all the ministries involved were required to submit by March 31, two sources said.

There are many sceptics. Some say the NTP is too late. Local capital markets are too small to absorb a privatisation programme so attracting foreign money will be vital. But investors are wary of Saudi Arabia’s prospects given the low oil price.

Eliminating the budget deficit by 2020 will require an additional $100bn in spending cuts and tax increases - equivalent to about 16% of gross domestic product.

That could stifle growth and deter the investment the NTP seeks. l

OIC nations accuse Iran of supporting terrorism n Reuters, Istanbul Leaders from more than 50 Muslim nations accused Iran on Friday of supporting terrorism and interfering in the internal affairs of regional states including Syria and Yemen.

The leaders, including Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, have been attending a summit in Istanbul this week of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to

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World

discuss a range of issues such as the humanitarian fall-out from Syria’s civil war.

“The Conference deplored Iran’s interference in the internal affairs of the States of the region and other Member States including Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and Somalia, and its continued support for terrorism,” the OIC said in its final summit communique.

It also stressed the need for “cooperative relations” between Iran and other Muslim countries,

including refraining from the use or threat of force.

Both Turkey, which has assumed the three-year rotating presidency of the OIC, and Saudi Arabia are part of the US-led coalition against Dae’sh militants in Syria and are also opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, a stance that has put them at odds with Iran, an ally of the Syrian leader.

Shia-majority Iran is also allied with the Houthi movement

in Yemen, which has been battling forces loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed president in a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people since March 2015.

The final communique came a day after Iran’s Rouhani urged summit delegates to avoid sending out divisive messages.

“No message which would fuel division in the Islamic community should come out of the conference,” said Rouhani, according to Iranian state television. l

Declassified doc suggests Pakistani link to attack on CIA agents A Pakistani intelligence officer paid $200,000 to an extremist network to facilitate a deadly suicide bomb attack on CIA operatives at a base in Afghanistan in 2009, according to a declassified file. The document suggests that Pakistan’s ISI, and the Haqqani network were involved in facilitating the December 30, 2009 attack at a in Khost province.-REUTERS

INDIA

India launches joint replacement registry Indian Society of Hip and Knee Surgeons last week launched the Indian Joint Registry, a centralised database where all joint replacement surgeries performed anywhere in India will be recorded and monitored even post surgery. India has about 100,000 joint replacement surgeries every year, with a 15%-20% increase each year.

-SCROLL.IN

CHINA

China to discuss controversial foreign NGO law again China’s parliament will this month again review its controversial draft law governing foreign non-government organisations. The draft law, which has triggered a storm of criticism from the US, Canada and the EU, requires foreign non-profit bodies to find official sponsors, typically a government-backed agency, and gives broad latitude to the police to regulate activities and funding.

-REUTERS

ASIA PACIFIC

Saudi foreign minister: Donation to Malaysia’s Najib was genuine Saudi Foreign Minister Adel alJubeir said funds wired into Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank account were a “genuine” donation originating from Saudi Arabia, Malaysian state media reported on Friday. Najib, who faced graft allegations following reports that a $681m deposit in his account originated from troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), has maintained the funds were a donation.

-REUTERS

MIDDLE EAST

Kuwait to raise power, water price on expats Kuwait’s parliament on Wednesday passed a bill allowing the government to raise power and water charges on foreign residents and on businesses but exempted the Gulf state’s citizens. Lawmakers initially rejected the bill but later approved it after Kuwaiti citizens were exempted. The aim of the bill was to cut consumption by over 30%. -AFP

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USA

Sanders, in Vatican, says rich-poor gap worse than 100 years ago US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, addressing a Vatican conference on social justice, on Friday decried the “immoral” gap between the world’s haves and have nots, saying it was worse today than more than a century ago. Sanders noted that the Roman Catholic Church’s first encyclical on social justice, written in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII, lamented the enormous gap between the rich and the poor.

-REUTERS

THE AMERICAS

Brazil lower House debates impeachment Brazil’s attorney general warned Congress on Friday that impeaching President Dilma Rousseff would mark an unprecedented break with democracy as legislators opened a three-day debate in the lower house on whether to recommend she be tried by the Senate. The government lost a last-ditch appeal on Thursday before the Supreme Court to halt the impeachment process.

-REUTERS

UK

In/Out referendum campaign kicks off in UK Activists hit the streets Friday for the first official day of campaigning over ‘Brexit’ referendum, which will continue for a tense 10-week battle over the country’s future in Europe. Opinion polls suggest the British public is evenly split ahead of the June 23 vote, which could plunge one of the world’s leading economies into uncertainty.

-AFP

Most interesting moments of Thursday’s Democratic debate n Tribune International Desk Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders unleashed some of their harshest criticism and sharpest attacks yet in their final debate before New York’s Democratic primary. The stakes were high for both candidates walking into this Brooklyn forum: New York offers Clinton her first real chance to end her rival’s hot streak and Sanders’ last chance to reset this primary.

And neither held back during the debate.

Here are the most interesting moments from the debate--

Clinton, Sanders spar on qualification row

Sanders, criticised earlier this week for questioning whether Clinton was qualified to be president, sounded like he wanted to squash the dispute by saying she had both the ability and intelligence to be a competent president.

But then he questioned her “judgment” for voting to authorise the war in Iraq, which Sanders called “the worst foreign policy blunder

in the history of this country.” He didn’t stop there, questioning her judgment on trade, super PACs, and Wall Street. Clinton didn’t let any of that fly. She said New Yorkers found her judgment sound when they elected her as senator twice and that “President Obama trusted me enough to be secretary of State of the United States.”

Then she went after him, pointing to the New York Daily News editorial page where he stumbled through multiple foreign policy questions. “I think you need to have the judgment on day one to be president and commander in chief,” Clinton said.

Clinton, Sanders argue over who’s tougher on Wall Street

When asked to bring up an example of how Clinton has been swayed by donations from Wall Street, Sanders quickly pivoted to well-worn criticism of her paid speeches for Goldman Sachs.

“Secretary Clinton was busy giving speeches to Goldman Sachs for $225,000 a speech,” Sanders said before digressing to his calls for breaking up the biggest banks in the country. “The proper response in my view is we should break them up and that’s what my legislation does.” Weak sauce,

Czechs pick ‘Czechia’ as state’s short name

AFRICA

Ghana, Togo warned of possible terrorist attack Ghana and Togo are likely targets of possible militant attacks similar to those recently in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, a Ghanaian intelligence report has warned. The threat emerged after questioning of a Malian attacker involved in the Grand-Bassam attacks last month, in which jihadists killed 19 people at the resort. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack. -AFP

said Clinton. “He cannot come up with any example because there is no example,” Clinton said. “I stood up against the behaviours of the banks when I was a senator.

I called them out on their mortgage behaviour.” Sanders then got sarcastic. “They must have been crushed by this,” he quipped before once again bringing up the speeches. “They must have been very very upset by what you did.”

Sanders: Netanyahu isn’t right all the time

During an exchange over the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, the two candidates took different approaches. Sanders

focused on the Palestinians and Clinton focused on Israelis. “We are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity,” Sanders said. Clinton shot back that she had been involved in high level peace talks with both groups for years. She added that the Israelis “do not believe that there should be a constant incitement by Hamas aided and abetted against Israel.” Sanders though said Clinton has a pattern of not focusing enough on the Palestinians. “There comes a time when we have to say that Netanyahu is not right all the time,” Sanders said. l

Source: POLITICO

Merkel criticised for allowing prosecution of Erdogan mocking-comedian

EUROPE

The Czech Republic’s leaders have chosen “Czechia” as the one-word alternative name of their country to make it easier for companies, politicians and sportsmen to use on products, name tags and jerseys.

The choice must still win cabinet approval before the Foreign Ministry can lodge the name with the UN and it becomes the country’s official short name.

-REUTERS

Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts as rival candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, right, tries to hand her a piece of paper during a debate hosted in New York on Thursday REUTERS

n Reuters, Berlin

The old Citadel campus buildings in Charleston

BIGSTOCK

Prestigious US military school considers headscarf n Tribune International Desk The Citadel, South Carolina’s state military college in Charleston, is considering a request from a new student that the school’s longstanding uniform requirements be tweaked to allow her to wear a traditional Muslim headscarf, reports Associated Press.

Citadel spokeswoman Kim Keelor said Friday that as far as she knows, it’s the first time such a request has been made although the school has had a number of Mus-

lim students in the past.

“The college is reviewing the request at this time. We do not currently have anyone that has a special religious accommodation for uniforms,” according to a statement released by the school.

The student is an incoming freshman who’s been accepted for the term that begins in August, Kellor said. She said she could not release the name of the student or where she is from because of privacy regulations. Kellor said a decision should be made in weeks. l

Germany’s Angela Merkel agreed on Friday to allow prosecutors to pursue a case against a German comedian who read out a crude poem about Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, prompting criticism that the chancellor had failed to protect free speech.

Erdogan had demanded that Germany press charges against Jan Boehmermann after he mocked the Turkish leader in a show on German public broadcaster ZDF on March 31, suggesting that he hits girls, watches child pornography and engages in bestiality.

A section of the German criminal code prohibits insults against foreign leaders but leaves it to the government to decide whether to authorise prosecutors to pursue such cases.

This put Merkel in an awkward position. She has been the driving force behind a controversial EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow of refugees into Europe and critics

have already accused her of ignoring violations of human rights and press freedoms in Turkey to secure its cooperation.

The chancellor made clear in a statement that the decision to allow prosecutors to investigate was not a verdict on the merits of the case itself.

But she came under sharp criticism from the Social Democrats (SPD), her centre-left coalition partner.

Boehmermann, is known for pushing the boundaries of satire. Last year he claimed to have manipulated a video of Greece’s then-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in which he is shown giving the middle finger to Berlin for its tough stance in the debt crisis.

The cult comedian made clear before reciting the poem about Erdogan that he was intentionally going beyond what German law allowed.

He is reportedly under police protection and cancelled his last show on ZDF. l

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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016

FIVE REASONS FOR BARCA’S DIP

INSIDE

TIREDNESS The effects of playing in six competitions since mid-August with a short squad has finally begun to take hold on a Barca squad that was also affected by a transfer ban last summer.Barca have played 56 games already this season.

By contrast, Atletico have played 48 matches and Real Madrid 43.

Mushfiq can’t hit sixes, says Pandya In the continued fallout of the dramatic India-Bangladesh WT20 clash, Hardik Pandya said he warned Mushfiqur Rahim after he celebrated with two runs still needed. This is the third reaction from the characters involved in that 20th over. PAGE 26

DIFFICULT RUN OF FIXTURES Just as Barca have wained physically, they also faced their most difficult run of the season with two gruelling games against Atletico and Real’s visit to the Camp Nou mixed in with a trip to high-flying Villarreal and a visit to Sociedad’s Anoeta, where they have their last four league games.

MESSI MAGIC DRIES UP Atletico Madrid players (L) celebrate their win after the Champions League quarter-final second leg against FC Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on Wednesday AFP

Murray sets up semi with Nadal Andy Murray will face the toughest clay test imaginable at the Monte Carlo Masters as he plays a semi-final with Rafael Nadal after crushing an underdone Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-0. Nadal holds the edge over the Scotsman in Monaco, defeating Murray in 2009 and 2011. PAGE 27

‘Miracle’ Klopp brings belief back In his first presser as Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp said he wanted to turn the club’s fans into believers. The evidence of his side’s thrilling Europa comeback against Dortmund suggests that he is well on his way. PAGE 28

City-Real, Atletico-Bayern in Champions League semi-finals n AFP, Nyon Pep Guardiola avoided his future employers as Manchester City were yesterday drawn to play Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League while Atletico Madrid will face the Spaniard’s Bayern Munich.

Guardiola takes over as City boss next season after three years at Bayern in which he has steered the Bavarian giants to the last four in Europe on each of his three years in charge.

“Spanish teams are always strong in the Champions League and I have seen in the last few years how strong Atletico are in the Span-

MATCH STATS Benfica

2-2

Bayern Munich

Jimenez 27, Anderson Talisca 76

Vidal 38, Mueller 52

Bayern Munich won 3-2 on aggregate

Hollywood ending as Bryant bows out Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant delivered a Hollywood ending as the curtain came down on his glittering 20-year NBA career on Wednesday in a blockbuster finale. On a night of searing emotion, the 37-year-old signed off with 60 points. PAGE 29

32 9 5 2 2 0 3 2 2 0 9 248 187

Possession (%) Total Attempts On Target Off Target Blocked Against Woodwork Corners Offsides Yellow Cards Red Cards Fouls Committed Passes Completed

68 16 7 7 2 1 6 3 1 0 10 714 660

ish league,” Guardiola said.

“They have a good mentality under their coach (Diego) Simeone and have good players going forward in (Fernando) Torres and (Antoine) Griezmann. Simeone is one of the best coaches in the world and his team is one of the best in Europe.”

Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski said the Bundesliga team would be wary of Atletico. “@Atleti did show the strength in the match with Barcelona. We must maintain maximum concentration,” the Polish international tweeted.

For outgoing Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini, the

semi-final will be a return to the club he managed in 2009-10.

City’s sporting director Txiki Begiristain said: “It’s a great tie against the team that has won the competition the most times.

“But we have got this far and we want to keep dreaming.”

Asked whether it was the best draw possible for Real, Butragueno, Real’s director of institutional relations, said: “I remember being here exactly a year ago and everyone said afterwards we had been very lucky to avoud Bayern and Barca, but Juventus ended up eliminating us.”

The first leg of the semi-finals will be played on April 26-27. l

Bayern eye next step n Reuters Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola is hoping his team can take the next step in the Champions League after booking a third consecutive semi-final spot under the Spaniard.

Bayern have now made it to the semi-finals of Europe’s top club competition in five straight seasons but have not gone beyond that stage since Guardiola took over in 2013 following the Germans’ treble-winning season under his predecessor Heynckes.

Guardiola will be leaving to join Manchester City at the end

of the season and is feeling the mounting pressure of delivering the European trophy as his team eye another treble.

“We are now where we have been in the past two seasons,” Guardiola said. “We are in the last four of the Champions League and the German Cup. I hope this time we can take that extra step.”

“If you are in the last four in Europe then you definitely want more,” said Bayern captain Philipp Lahm, who will be Germany’s all-time leader in Champions League appearances if he makes his 104th match in the competition next month.l

Five-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi has now failed to score the last seven times Barca have been eliminated from the Champions League.

Messi started 2016 on fire with 24 goals in his first 19 games of the year after a stunning 2015. Yet, he has been held scoreless in Barca’s five-game wobble since and has continually dropped deeper, further away from the opposition area to try and make a difference as a playmaker without success.

INTERNATIONAL BREAK Barca’s record unbeaten run was ended in their first game after the March international break as their momentum was stalled by a two-week layoff whilst the majority of their squad jetted around the world.

LACK OF COMPETENT BACK-UP Despite Barca’s obvious signs of fatigue, coach Luis Enrique has used his full complement of three substitutions just twice in the last five games. With the star front three of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar taking up a huge chunk of Barca’s wage bill, there wasn’t enough spare cash to reinforce the squad with a fourth striker as Enrique wanted in January.l

MATCH STATS

Atletico Madrid 2-0

Barcelona

Griezmann 36, 88-P Atletico Madrid won 3-2 on aggregate

28 9 6 2 1 1 1 2 4 0 20 9 170 122

Possession (%) Total Attempts On Target Off Target Blocked Against Woodwork Corners Offsides Yellow Cards Red Cards Fouls Committed Fouls Suffered Passes Completed

72 12 4 3 5 0 5 0 4 0 10 18 675 616

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Mushfiq can’t hit sixes, says Pandya n Tribune Report In the continued fallout of the dramatic India-Bangladesh World Twenty20 clash last month, India all-rounder Hardik Pandya said he warned Mushfiqur Rahim after he celebrated with two runs still needed for victory.

This is the third reaction from the characters involved in that final over, after Mahmudullah recently said he felt responsible for the loss.

The day after the one-run defeat, Mushfiq apologised for his dismissal in the final stages through a post in his social media page.

Pandya, who successfully defended the 11 runs required in the final over, claimed that he “knew” Mushfiq would not be able to hit him for a six even though he had just been struck for two boundaries. “[MS] Dhoni told me to just enjoy the moment and bowl without any pressure,” Pandya told a website.

“See, I knew that Mushfiqur Rahim doesn’t have the ability to clobber a six off me. He might hit me for a boundary, which he did, but tonking sixes is beyond him. When he celebrated prematurely after hit-

Confident Taskin eyeing review n Mazhar Uddin Bangladesh fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, who is currently suspended due to illegal bowling action, is not worried over his bowling review.

The youngster informed that there are no major tweaks to be made and expressed confidence of a positive outcome whenever the Bangladesh Cricket Board asks him to appear for the bowling action test.

“At the moment, the Dhaka [Premier] League is knocking at the door so I am only concentrating on it. I am not worried regarding my bowling action as there are no major changes to be made. I am working according to the board’s instructions. I am also getting support from Abahani club and whenever the board decides I am ready for the test, I will be hopeful of a positive result,” Taskin told the media yesterday.

The 21-year old will feature for Abahani Limited in the upcoming Dhaka Premier League 2015-16 season, starting from this Friday, and Taskin said he counts himself lucky to have the chance of playing for such a prestigious club.

“I have always heard of Abahani and Mohammedan from my childhood days and by the grace of the Almighty, I am playing for Abahani this season. It’s a dream come true.”l

ting me for a couple of boundaries, I told him that the match is not over and he might muck it all up.

“They still needed two runs to win. Both Rahim and Mahmudullah went for glory shots and threw their wickets away. That’s where the inexperience of Bangladeshi cricketers showed. Any sensible cricketer would have sealed the match but they (Bangladeshi cricketers) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Pandya said the plan with the final ball was to bowl out of the batsman’s reach. Shuvagata Hom, who was fresh at the crease in the midst of the mayhem, missed a cut shot and failed to collect the single run to tie the game after Mustafizur Rahman was run out by Dhoni.

Pandya said the wide delivery was planned just before he had bowled it, an input from his captain.

“Both Dhoni and I thought that it made more sense to bowl a backof-a-length ball rather than a yorker. A tail-ender might edge a yorker and get a boundary but he is unlikely to hit a good length ball. So that was the rationale behind not bowling a yorker,” he said.l

Muktijoddha Sangsad’s Nigerian forward Ahmed Kolo Musa (C) heads home his side’s opening goal against Uttar Baridhara Club in the KFC Independence Cup at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

DHAKA PREMIER LEAGUE 2015-16 PREVIEW

SHEIKH JAMAL DHANMONDI CLUB

BROTHERS UNION

Sheikh Jamal stated their intention for the upcoming season by picking Mahmudullah after they were lucky enough to get the first pick in the Icon and Grade A+ categories. They will need such intention if they are to improve upon their lowly ninth-place finish last season.

The Dhanmondi-based club have never won the Dhaka Premier League but under the ownership of Manjur Kader, they have tried to build teams with at least one big name.

Mushfiqur Rahim has played for the club previously, and though he has done well individually, the team has not gained the desired result. To say the least, their cricket team has not scaled the heights of their football team.

Mahmudullah will get batting help from the likes of Marshall Ayub, Nazmus Sadat and Mahbubul Karim while Arafat Sunny, banned from bowling in international cricket, will have the opportunity to test his newly mended bowling action as he leads the spin attack with Sohag Gazi and Shafiul Islam in the attack.

It has been more than 25 years since Brothers Union last won the DPL. The Gopibagh-based club have picked stability over aggressiveness as they build their team for the forthcoming season.

Much will depend on Imrul Kayes and Shahriar Nafees who will bat in the top three, with the likes of young wicketkeeper batsman Zakir Hasan providing further boost. They have retained Nafees Iqbal who often starts well in Premier League campaigns.

Established in 1949 and considered one of the traditional clubs in Dhaka, Brothers Union have been nothing but disappointing in recent years. They finished eighth in the previous season, just one place above Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club. Their main target should be to finish in the top six after the first phase.

PREVIOUS RESULT 2014-15 (ninth)

PLAYERS TO WATCH Mahmudullah, Marshall Ayub, Joyraj Sheikh, Sohag Gazi

SQUAD (so far) Mahmudullah, Marshall Ayub, Muktar Ali, Joyraj Sheikh, Shafiul Islam, Nazmus Sadat, Zabid Hossain, Rasel al Mamun, Mahbubul Karim Mithu, Abdur Rahman Rony, Sohag Gazi, Arafat Sunny

PREVIOUS RESULT 2014-15 (eighth)

PLAYERS TO WATCH Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Shahid, Shahriar Nafees, Nabil Samad

SQUAD (so far) Imrul Kayes, Zakir Hassan, Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Shahid, Nabil Samad, Ahmed Sadikur Rahman, Sanjit Saha Dip, Tushar Imran, Nur Alam Saddam, Nafees Iqbal Khan, Rumman Ahmed, Asif Hasan, Iftekhar Sajjad Rony –MAZHAR UDDIN

Musa treble propels Muktis n Tribune Report Nigerian hitman Ahmed Kolo Musa slammed the third hat-trick of the season-opening KFC Independence Cup, guiding Muktijoddha to a 3-0 thrashing over Uttar Baridhara at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Musa put the Muktis ahead in the 17th minute when he headed home a Towhidul Alam cross that was curved in from the right flank.

The tall forward added his second in the 32nd minute when he took control of a headed back-pass by Baridhara’s Nigerian defender Sylla Mohammed and made no mistake chipping the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper Mohammad Razib.

Musa completed his treble in the 55th minute with a gentle tap-in from handshaking distance after a shot by his attacking partner Towhidul was parried away by Rajib but fell into the path of the unmarked Nigerian.

With nine points from four matches, Muktijoddha kept alive their semi-final hopes while Baridhara completed their Group A campaign with nil points from a game more.

Meanwhile in the day's other game at the same venue, Rahmatganj and Arambagh shared the spoils in a goalless draw. Both the sides wasted a host of chances to break the deadlock. l

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QUICK BYTES Benzema axed to avoid upsetting French ‘spirit’ Karim Benzema was axed from France’s Euro 2016 squad so as not to “disrupt the spirit” in the national squad, French football chief Noel Le Graet told sports daily L’Equipe on Thursday. The French Football Federation president added that the Real Madrid striker had “done something really stupid” over the Mathieu Valbuena sextape affair. The 28-year-old forward was indefinitely suspended from the France team in December after he was placed under criminal investigation over an attempt to blackmail France teammate Valbuena in relation to a sex-tape.

–AFP

Portugal’s Coentrao ruled out of Euro 2016 Portugal left-back Fabio Coentrao will miss Euro 2016 with a thigh injury that will require surgery, his club Monaco announced on Thursday.

Coentrao, on loan from Real Madrid until the end of the season, sustained the injury during training last week and is expected to be sidelined for at least three months. The 28-year-old will head to Finland next week to undergo an operation, ruling him out of Portugal’s finals campaign where they have been drawn alongside Austria, Hungary and Iceland in Group F. –AFP

Brazil get SA, Denmark, Iraq in Rio draw Hosts Brazil were pitted against South Africa, Iraq and Denmark when the draw for the Olympic soccer tournament was made on Thursday. Brazil, who have been world champions at every level bar the Olympics, begin their campaign against South Africa in Brasilia, one of six host cities for the competition. “All the teams will find it difficult but we are very confident and hope Brazil can win the gold medal,” said former Barcelona forward Ronaldinho after helping with the draw.

–REUTERS

Klinsmann denies Everton link United States manager Jurgen Klinsmann on Wednesday denied reports suggesting he was being lined up to take over from Roberto Martinez at Everton. A tweet from respected television commentator Ian Darke said there were “persistent Merseyside rumors” linking Klinsmann to the Premier League club. However former Germany international striker Klinsmann categorically denied the claims in a post on Twitter.

–AFP

Andy Murray of Britain plays a shot to Milos Raonic of Canada during their Monte Carlo Masters quarter-final in Monaco yesterday

REUTERS

Murray sets up Monte Carlo semi with Nadal n AFP, Monte Carlo Andy Murray will face the toughest clay test imaginable at the Monte Carlo Masters as he plays a semi-final with Rafael Nadal after crushing an under-done Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-0 yesterday.

Nadal, winner of eight straight titles here from 2005-2012, holds the edge over the second-seeded Scotsman, defeating Murray in 2009 and 2011 semi-finals in the Principality.

The Spanish fifth seed who has spent almost 18 months in making

a comeback to form after a mental slump, looked in fighting trim as he beat French Open champion Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-4 in their quarter-final.

Nadal spent 77 minutes in victory against the tepid Swiss, the 2014 Monte Carlo winner. Wawrinka cracked a racquet in the fifth game of the first set on his way to the loss.

The disappointed fourth seed ended with 29 unforced errors while dropping serve four times.

Murray was always in command against Raonic, who has

been suffering with the return of a right leg injury which troubled him at the Australian Open two months ago.

Raonic, playing a Monte Carlo quarter-final for a third consecutive edition, was never in the match, failing to find a single ace in his 66-minute defeat.

Murray said that while his win might not have been pretty, it still gave him confidence after struggling through his first two contests this week.

“I’ve played a lot of tennis, though it has all not been of the

Inter visit for title-chasing Napoli n AFP, Milan

Napoli’s Serie A title credentials face the acid test on a trip to Inter Milan today when record-chasing striker Gonzalo Higuain sits out the second of a four-game ban for the visitors.

Higuain, whose 30-goal league tally so far leaves him just five short of Gunnar Nordahl’s all-time Serie A record for AC Milan, was handed the untimely sanction two weeks ago after a spectacular meltdown at Udinese.

The former Real Madrid striker is only set to return in time for Napoli’s final three games of the season, beginning with a home fixture against Atalanta on May 2.

By then, the dream of a first scudetto in 26 years could be over for

Maurizio Sarri’s men, whose shock 3-1 defeat to Udinese two weeks ago left them six points behind leaders Juventus.

Juventus are fully expected to stretch their unbeaten run to 23 games against a Palermo side that is in full crisis mode following yet

SERIE A FIXTURES Bologna v Torino Carpi v Genoa Inter Milan v Napoli another coaching switch that sees Davide Ballardini return to the Sicilian club.

Defeat for Napoli coupled with a win for Juve would leave the champions nine points in front with five games to play and virtually secure

a fifth consecutive league trophy for the first time since 1935.

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis on Wednesday broke the club’s ongoing boycott of the media following protests at unfair reporting in Italy - but only to say: “I haven’t received any offers for Higuain.”

But the mood at the club is said to be defiant ahead of the weekend’s top fixture at the San Siro.

Inter, in fourth at six points behind third-placed Roma, who hold he final Champions League qualifying spot, have not given up their hopes of reaching Europe’s premier club event next season.

Defender Danilo D’Ambrosio told Mediaset on Thursday: “It’ll be a delicate game because they’re (Napoli) fighting for top spot and we’re aiming for third place.”l

highest quality,” said the 28-yearold. “I’ve been able to learn from my previous matches. Today I served one of my best matches.

“Milos was not at his best, he can certainly serve better than today. I’m looking forward to the semi-finals.”

Murray’s win improved his standing against Raonic to 5-3 as he backed up a semi-final win over the Canadian in Melbourne.

Raonic has managed to put together a solid season despite his physical setbacks, now standing 20-4.l

Putin says banned drug meldonium not ‘doping’ n AFP, Moscow President Vladimir Putin defended Thursday the use of the banned drug meldonium, saying athletes’ use of the performance-boosting drug does not constitute doping.

“This drug has nothing to do with doping,” Putin said. “It does not impact results at all. It simply keeps the heart muscle in good condition under high strain.”

Since Sharapova admitted last month that she tested positive for meldonium, a number of highprofile Russian athletes have also tested positive for the drug. l

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Liverpool stun Dortmund, Sevilla edge through Liverpool v Borussia Dortmund Breakdown 5’ Anfield is stunned. Aubameyang is found in the box, Mignolet makes a brilliant save but Mkhitaryan follows up from six yards. Dortmund 1-0 (1-2 agg) 9’ Oh dear. Sakho’s ball is seized upon by Aubameyang, who smashes the ball into the top corner.

Dortmund 2-0 (1-3 agg) 49’ One down, two to go. Can exchanges passes with Origi before the latter finishes with confidence.

Liverpool 1-2 (2-3 agg) 56’ Pin-drop silence could be heard.

Rues cuts in and bends an effort into the bottom corner. Dortmund 3-1 (2-4 agg) 65’ Fantastic goal. Coutinho plays a scintillating one-two with Milner before blasting home. Liverpool 2-3 (3-4 agg) 77’ Unbelievable. 3-3 and 4-4 on aggregate! Sakho heads home from close range.

90+1 Pandemonium. Istanbul revisited! Lovren’s bullet header finds the net. Liverpool 4-3 (5-4 agg)

n Reuters, London

MATCH STATS Liverpool

4 59 20 4 8 8 0 11 1 1 0 12 503 459

Dortmund Goals Scored Possession (%) Total Attempts On Target Off Target Blocked Against Woodwork Corners Offsides Yellow Cards Red Cards Fouls Committed Passes Completed

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren (3R) scores the winning goal in injury time against Borussia Dortmund during their Uefa Europa League quarter-final second leg at Anfield, Liverpool, England on Thursday REUTERS

3 41 12 6 4 2 0 2 2 3 0 17 361 322

Liverpool added another fairytale comeback to the history books as they fought back from 3-1 down against Borussia Dortmund to reach the Europa League semi-finals after Dejan Lovren’s towering stoppage-time header secured a 4-3 win on Thursday.

Lovren rose at the far post to rifle home his header in the first minute of added time, recalling memories of Liverpool’s 2005 Champions League final comeback against AC Milan and propelling them into the last four with a 5-4 aggregate victory.

Liverpool, 2-0 down after nine minutes, will be joined in yesterday’s draw by holders Sevilla, who

needed a penalty shootout to edge past Spanish rivals Athletic Bilbao.

Spain will have two sides in the last four after Villarreal beat Sparta Prague 4-2 and 6-3 over the two legs, while Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Braga 4-0 at home to complete a 6-1 aggregate triumph.

Liverpool’s victory at Anfield was greeted by typically exuberant celebrations from manager Klopp, who spent seven years at Dortmund and would have been no stranger to the quick-fire counter attacks that earned the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Sevilla, who have made the competition their own in the last two years, lost 2-1 at home to Bilbao, but edged through on penalties.

They fell behind when Aritz Aduriz scored his 10th goal in this season’s competition and after equalising through Kevin Gameiro, were behind again when Raul Garcia found the net with a looping header 10 minutes from time.

That levelled the tie at 3-3 on aggregate and forced extra time. With the sides still level after 120 minutes, Sevilla sneaked through after Bilbao’s Benat Etxebarria missed their fourth spot-kick and Gameiro scored to secure a 5-4 shootout victory.

Shakhtar Donetsk cruised into only their second European semi-final with Darijo Srna opening the scoring from the penalty spot to mark his record-breaking 486th game for the club. l

Klopp brings belief back to Liverpool n AFP, Liverpool In his first press conference as Liverpool manager last October, Jurgen Klopp said that he wanted to turn the club’s supporters from “doubters into believers”.

The evidence of his side’s thrilling Europa League quarter-final comeback against Borussia Dortmund suggests that he is well on his way.

“When Jurgen Klopp was appointed, everyone in England thought it was a great job,” former Liverpool centre-back Mark Lawrenson, who contributed to five league title triumphs in the 1980s,

told BBC radio. “There’s touches of (Bill) Shankly in there. He’s a really, really good fit and he has raised this average team.”

Ever the romantic, Klopp spoke in reverential tones about Anfield’s “special atmosphere” prior to his first game there against Rubin Kazan in the Europa League in October.

But a drab 1-1 draw played out in front of a hushed crowd dampened some of the early enthusiasm and Klopp was at pains afterwards to assert that he should not be seen as the saviour of English football.

“I don’t think at this moment I should come here and change the world of football,” he said. “I’m not

strong enough, not smart enough.”

Six months later, the headlines on the sports pages of Britain’s newspapers yesterday suggested that Anfield has indeed found its new messiah.

“Merseyside miracle,” said the Daily Mirror. “Klopp’s miracle,” was the verdict of local newspaper the Liverpool Echo. The Times called it: “The miracle of Anfield”.

Where the atmosphere had been as flat as a pancake in that game against Rubin Kazan, against Klopp’s former club Dortmund it crackled with an intensity that recalled the stadium’s greatest European nights.l

EUROPA RESULTS Liverpool

4-3

Dortmund

Origi 48, Coutinho 66, Mkhitaryan 5, Sakho 78, Aubameyang 9, Lovren 90+1 Reus 57 Liverpool won 5-4 on aggregate

Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0

Sporting Braga

Srna 25-P, Ferreira 42-o.g.,74-o.g., Kovalenko 50 Shakhtar Donetsk won 6-1 on aggregate

Sparta Praha

2-4

Villarreal

Dockal 65, Krejci 71

Bakambu 5, 49, Castillejo 43, Bruno 45+1 Villarreal won 6-3 on aggregate

Sevilla

1-2

Athletic Bilbao

Gameiro 59

Aduriz 57, Raul Garcia 80 3-3 on aggregate, Sevilla won 5-4 on penalties

Liverpool-Villarreal, Shakhtar-Sevilla in Europa semis

n AFP, Nyon

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool earned a Europa League semi-final against Villarreal from their heroic comeback against his former side Borussia Dortmund.

Defending champions Sevilla face Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk in the second semi-final drawn yesterday.

Liverpool, who hit back from 2-0 and 3-1 down to beat Borussia 4-3 and progress into the semis 5-4 on aggregate, have never played Villarreal before.l

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AT A GLANCE

Personal information Born

August 23, 1978 (age 37) Philadelphia Nationality American Listed height 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) Listed weight 212 lb (96 kg)

Career information High school

Lower Merion (Ardmore, Pennsylvania) NBA draft 1996 / Round: 1 / Pick: 13th overall Playing career 1996–2016 Position Shooting guard Number 8, 24

Career highlights and awards 5× NBA champion (2000–2002, 2009–2010) 2× NBA Finals MVP (2009–2010) NBA Most Valuable Player (2008) 18× NBA All-Star (1998, 2000–2016) 4× NBA All-Star Game MVP (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011) 11× All-NBA First Team (2002–2004, 2006–2013) 2× All-NBA Second Team (2000–01) 2× All-NBA Third Team (1999, 2005) 9× NBA All-Defensive First Team (2000, 2003–2004, 2006–2011) 3× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (2001–2002, 2012) 2× NBA scoring champion (2006–07) NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion (97) NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1997) LA Lakers all-time leading scorer Naismith Prep Player of the Year (96)

Career statistics Points Rebounds Assists

33,643 (25.0 ppg) 7,047 (5.2 rpg) 6,306 (4.7 apg)

DAY’S WATCH CRICKET SONY SIX 4:30 PM Indian Premier League Hyderabad v Kolkata 8:30 PM Mumbai v Gujarat

FOOTBALL STAR SPORTS 2 5:35 PM Barclays Premier League Norwich City v Sunderland 7:50 PM Manchester United v Aston Villa 10:20 PM Chelsea v Manchester City

STAR SPORTS 4 7:50 PM Barclays Premier League Everton v Southampton 10:15 PM Bundesliga 2015/16 FC Bayern Munich v FC Schalke 04

SONY SIX 12:40 AM Serie A TIM 2015/16 Inter Milan v Napoli

Hollywood ending as legendary Bryant bows out n AFP, Los Angeles Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant delivered a Hollywood ending as the curtain came down on his glittering 20-year NBA career on Wednesday in a blockbuster finale.

On a night of searing emotion at a packed Staples Center, the 37-yearold signed off with a mammoth 60 points, including a final burst of scoring to inspire a 101-96 comeback victory over the Utah Jazz.

A galaxy of A-list celebrities from Jack Nicholson to David Beckham - roared their approval from courtside as Bryant exited with a perfectly scripted final act.

“Man, I can’t believe how fast 20 years went by, this is crazy,” Bryant told his adoring fans. “What can I say? Mamba out.”

A sell-out crowd of 19,060 fans had packed into the Staples Center to watch Bryant lace up for the 1,566th and last time.

“Tonight was trying to go out, playing hard and putting on a show as much as I possibly could. It felt good to be able to do that one last time,” Bryant said.

“The coolest thing is that my kids actually saw me play like I used to play.”

Tickets for the game were the

most expensive in basketball history, according to online exchange StubHub.com, which sold one pair of courtside seats for a staggering $27,500 each.

Lakers legend Magic Johnson had acted as master of ceremonies for a lengthy pre-game tribute that featured video messages from some of the NBA’s most recognizable figures. “We are here to celebrate greatness for 20 years,” Johnson told the crowd.

“He’s not only a great and unbelievable sports icon but he’s already the greatest to wear the purple and gold.”

Oscar-winning actor Nicholson a regular presence at courtside during the Bryant era - wrapped up a montage of video messages.

“Kobe, goodbye, I think I might retire with you, I’m not sure,” said Nicholson. Nicholson later described Bryant’s retirement as a “melancholy” moment.

Football icon Beckham meanwhile expressed delight at the manner of Bryant’s departure.

“Every wanted him to go out like this,” Beckham said. “The way he’s gone out tonight is incredible.”

Lakers coach Byron Scott told his team they had “witnessed history.” l

Kobe Bryant (R) of the Los Angeles Lakers dribbles the ball against the Utah Jazz at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday AFP

10 THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN EPL WEEKEND 34 Who will clinch relegation sixpointer?

A real relegation six-pointer. Visitors Sunderland sit four points behind Norwich City with a game in hand, but come into the game without a win in six. Norwich’s good form came to a halt last Saturday with the defeat at Crystal Palace, but the psychological advantage is with them after a last-minute victory over Newcastle last time out at Carrow Road.

Can Toffees lift themselves before FA Cup semi?

The FA Cup, to some, is Roberto Martinez’s last hope of redeeming himself, but first they must produce a positive performance and result to boot against a Southampton side who have won three of their last four, before the Toffees face Manchester United at Wembley next Saturday.

Will Villa delay the inevitable?

Aston Villa have won just once at Old Trafford since 1983, and are allbut guaranteed to start next season in the second tier of English football for the first time since 1987.

Can the Toons boost survival bid?

Rafa Benitez’s impact at Newcastle United has not been as potent as first hoped, and their woeful performance in the 3-1 defeat

by Southampton last weekend prompted the Spaniard to question his side’s fight and hunger.

Can Watford reach 40 points today?

West Bromwich Albion got there a fortnight ago, and Watford fans have been waiting since the end of February to reach the 40-point mark and all-but secure their Premier League safety. A win over the Baggies would do it, but having taken just two points out of a possible 18, form is not on their side.

Can City tighten grasp on fourth?

Manchester City are looking to secure fourth and Chelsea remain hopeful of a top six place, and their respective styles of football should still produce an entertaining game.

After Guus Hiddink’s unbeaten league run ended at Swansea.

Can Reds make late charge for top 4?

Jurgen Klopp’s side are nine points

behind Man City with a game in hand, and with City travelling to Chelsea, this could be Liverpool’s chance to make up ground. The hallmark of Klopp’s tenure has been too many draws, but with Bournemouth safe after a dream first season in the Premier League, the Reds could take over at Vitality Stadium.

Will the Foxes put pressure on Spurs?

Leicester City can once again pile the pressure on Tottenham Hotspur with a win over West Ham United before their rivals’ trip to Stoke.

This is arguably Leicester’s biggest test in recent weeks, and with West Ham holding Champions League aspirations of their own, it will be a nervy and competitive affair.

Can Arsenal avoid a disastrous 2016?

Palace are edging closer to 40 points and the pressure should be off as they travel to the Emirates, where they always give Arsenal a proper game. With just seven points separating Arsenal in third and West Ham in sixth, the top four race is by no means done and dusted.

Can Spurs end their troubles against Stoke?

It may be a good time to play Stoke, who have won just one of their last five, but Spurs have stuttered against the Potters over the past 18 months. Nevertheless, the 3-0 win over Man United proves that this Spurs side can challenge for years to come, while Belgian centreback Jan Vertonghen insists they can do “something special” if Mauricio Pochettino stays. l

FIXTURES TODAY Chelsea v Man City Everton v Southampton Man United v Aston Villa Newcastle v Swansea Norwich v Sunderland West Brom v Watford TOMORROW Arsenal v Crystal Palace Bournemouth v Liverpool Leicester v West Ham MONDAY Stoke v Tottenham

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Showtime

Closer look at ‘Batman v Superman’

n Mosabber Rahman Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, is the second episode in the superhero series of media franchise DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The first one was Man of Steel (2013) that introduced us to Superman. This one is primarily a Batman movie where Superman plays an important role. Moreover, it also introduces Wonder Woman and gives us a sneak peak at the other DC

DC Universe animations The movie is packed with references from the DC Universe.

The entire structure of the movie makes more sense after watching Jay Oliva’s excellent two-part animation Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2013). And the final action sequence where

superheroes.

The Superman-Batman duo is called the “World’s Finest” and the entire team of superheroes is called “Justice League of America.” It is important to note that in the DCEU, the time lines of Superman and Batman are quite different from that in the comic books. While Superman (about 30 years old) just came of age as a superhero in Metropolis, Batman (about 50 years old) is past his prime and has now become an

Superman fights a monster and proves his loyalty to humans is partly based on Superman: Doomsday (2007).

In the Batcave, we see Robin’s (Batman’s sidekick) suit with the yellow graffiti “HAHAHA Joke’s on you Batman.” This is shown more elaborately in Batman: Under the

infamous vigilante in Gotham City.

Director Zack Snyder may have devoured a lot of comic books, but the primary source of inspiration for this particular movie is Frank Miller’s graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns.

Unlike Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, this movie is not a piece of original filmmaking. It is a collage of comic book sequences and a greatest-hits amalgamation.

Batman v Superman is made by

Red Hood (2010) where the Joker kills Robin with a crowbar. But this shot is more likely a reference to the upcoming DC movie Suicide Squad, based on Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014), where the Joker plays the key role.

However, the most talked about sequences in the movie

the fans for the fans where comic book nostalgia is given priority over coherent storytelling. The logic is simple - we just want to see Batman fight Superman. And we got it!

But how would viewers without any prior knowledge of the DC Universe, react to Batman v Superman? They would perhaps find it difficult to glue together the missing scenes of the movie and miss the unabashed joy of watching it.

are Batman’s desert-nightmare and Justice League’s introduction sequences. Both of these make more sense after watching Justice League: War (2014) where they join forces to fight the super villain Darkseid and his army of “parademons” who enter earth using “motherboxes.” At one point,

The key players The main instigator of the battle between Batman and Superman is Alexander Luthor Jr, who is actually the son of Lex Luthor, Superman’s original archenemy in the comic books. Luthor Jr not only knows about the secrets of Batman and Superman, but he also knows about Wonder Woman and other “metahumans” like her. He wants to destroy Superman and is aware that only “kryptonite” can kill him. His plan is to frame Superman using Lois Lane and show the world how dangerous the Man of Steel is, so eventually Batman is provoked to kill Superman. However, Luthor needs Senator Finch’s permission to get the “kryptonite,” which is currently in possession of the government.

Flash appears from an alternate time line, just like in Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox (2013), to warn Batman about Lois Lane.

At the end Luthor sings, “Ding!

Ding! Ding!” which is associated with the “motherbox” devices in the comic books, to hint the coming of Darkseid. l

New releases for the new year n Rayan Quddus Pohela Boishakh is an event which needs no explanation for Bengalis, regardless of whether they know the historical significance and context of it or not. The festive celebration is near to inescapable for people in the Bengali community, and undoubtedly, music becomes an integral part of the festivities on the day. Musicians, as always, release new songs

during such an event, both on the first day of the new year, or in the few days leading up to it. Here are some highlights of artistes and their tracks you might want to lend your ears to on this new year.

Kuddus is back Kuddus Boyati, a famous baul singer, triggered a storm in the past for some comments he made about a satirical song.

Back then, many judged him as a reactionary and a musician without any ambition to push any boundaries. But now, he is back with a new song named Asho Mama Hey, for which he collaborated with Pritom Hasan.

Boyati proved that he has

changed his views on hybrid music genres. This is a fusion between baul, pop, and Bengali hip-hop.

Kuddus Boyati in a western get-up is indeed something unusual compared to his usual orange baul attire. Pritom Hassan got praised for this work too. You may want to check it out if you already haven’t.

Shaffin Ahmed stays strong The vocalist of legendary rock band Miles dropped two new singles which are now available for download. Shafin Ahmed has been in the industry since the mid-80s and has now reached an iconic status and cult following within the country. Even after three decades, the rockstar shows no sign of slowing down and has plenty of energy left in his tank.

For the last few days, he has been performing across town from studios to university campuses.

On social media, he’s been promoting his remixed version of “Nacho Bangladesh,” which is a celebration song launched specially for Pohela Boishakh. Till this day, he has remained a solid performer and quite significant in the industry, and you might want to lend your ears to his newest projects.

Megan ready for third baby? n Nazia Lopa

Megan Fox is not only pregnant, she’s so far along that her baby bump was highly noticeable against the tight black Versace dress she wore to the Cinemacon press day. Megan showed off her bump at the event for the next installment of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Las Vegas, alongside her co-star Will Arnett,

who happily posed with the glowing mom-to-be! She wore a short leather jacket to complete her look, but it was high enough to perfectly accentuate her belly and confirm that she is expecting.

Her last major media appearance before this was on Ellen on February 9, and her tummy was completely flat back then. In just two months’ time, she seems to have really popped!

The burning question now is: who is the father? Megan filed for divorce from husband Brian Austin Green back in August 2015, even though they’ve been seen happily co-parenting their two sons Noah (three years old) and Bodhi (two years old), since then. The couple was spotted looking awfully flirty on November 15, grabbing a cozy lunch together without their kids around, and people are guessing that Brian may well be the daddycool for Megan’s third. l Source: Hollywood Gossip

Count on me Master D has an interesting approach to his work. Already a well-established producer in his own rights, he has a knack for presentations and tries to utilise the music video platform to capitalise on his viewers’ attention. In the past, he has released singles like “Tumi Chole Gele” and “Desi Chick.” His music might not suite everyone’s palate but you may expect some catchy beats. Suited for festive occasions, this might be something you might want to try out.

Secrets by Shahrar Nizam About a week ago, Shahrar Nizam made his debut with a music video. He used a Bengali-English hybrid language in the track, which anyone who is proficient in both dialects can understand.

One of the first R&B songs from Bangladesh, this might even be the beginning of a new genre.

The language used here might inevitably become the native tongue of future generations in Bangladesh; considering the effects of globalisation. Rather than rejecting it, people may appreciate creations as such. The song is catchy, cheesy, melodic and revolutionary at the same time. It’s up on YouTube, so go and check it out! l

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WHAT TO WATCH

Transformers: Age of Extinction HBO 8:30pm This chapter begins after an epic battle leaves a great city devastated, but saves the world. After the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons that leveled Chicago, humanity thinks that all alien robots are a threat.

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Sophia Myles, Li Bingbing

Exodus: Gods and Kings Star Movies 9:30pm This is an epic retelling of the Biblical story of Moses freeing the Jewish slaves from the evil Egyptian pharaohs.

Cast: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley

Masterchef Canada TLC 9:30pm Canada’s top 50 home cooks are on a quest to become the first Canadian Master Chef ever.

The competition will reward the winner $100,000 and the prestigious Master Chef Canada trophy.

Judges: Claudio Aprile, Michael Bonacini, Alvin Leung Biggest & Baddest Animal Planet 10:30pm Niall McCann is on an exciting global adventure to find the biggest and baddest creatures on planet! He seeks out fantastic animals in far corners of the Earth, using every mode of transport available: land, sea, planes, a Jeep, canoe, elephants and more.

Cast: Niall McCann l

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MEGACITIES WORSEN CLIMATE- ATLETICO-BAYERN, CITYPRONE DISEASES PAGE 14 REAL, IN UCL SEMIS PAGE 29

RELEASES FOR THE NEW YEAR PAGE 31

Licence to navigate

Government considering a licensing system for bus-truck conductors es if conductor and helper survive n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla any road crash, they flee the spot It is perhaps because of the unruly nature of traffic in Bangladesh that drivers need helpers or conductors to navigate their buses or trucks.

Indeed these on-the-ground navigators paint the continuously changing picture of surrounding traffic for the driver who is very often limited to the vision straight ahead without the benefit of side or rear-view mirrors.

The prized position of the driver, an exalted status among the transport operators, can sometimes be reached only if one goes through the ranks.

In many cases these navigators are as much responsible for an accident as the driver himself for a delayed instruction or omitting to mention that there was a lone biker at one of the driver’s blind spots.

The government is now considering implementing a provision to provide licence to bus conductors.

Although such a provision is already there in the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983, most people are not aware of it. Even the conductors say they do not know anything about it.

The fresh inclusion of such a provision in the Bangladesh Road Transport Act 2016 opens up a can of worms since many of these navigators, in their mid-teens, would automatically become ineligible for such a licence.

In the proposed draft, it is said

Two bus conductors work in tandem to attract passengers and help the driver navigate through city streets. The government plans to issue licences to helpers such as the ones pictured here in Mirpur’s Kazipara yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN that if anyone works in public transport without any legal conductor licence, the person will be jailed for maximum one month or fined maximum Tk5,000 or both.

According to the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983, the punishment was one month imprisonment or a fine which may extend to Tk200 or both.

The proposed draft stipulates that a person or organisation cannot appoint anyone as conductor without a legal licence. If the person or organisation violates the provision then the violator would be jailed for maximum three months or fined a maximum

Tk3,000 or both.

It also reads that any person having heavy driving licence and approved to drive public service vehicle can work as a conductor in public transport without any conductor licence.

Ilias Kanchan, chairman of road safety platform Nirapad Sarak Chai (we demand safe road), said: “The provision was in the act earlier but was not implemented. But this provision should be implemented properly as helpers and conductors play a vital role in public transports in Bangladesh even though it is rarely seen around the world.”

Kanchan said in most of the cas-

and the transport owner claim not to have details about them.

“Moreover, they misbehave with passengers on many occasions and charge extra fares. So helper and conductors should come under the licensing process,” he said.

Recently, a workshop was held on the draft Bangladesh Road Transport Act 2016 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, where experts and stakeholders voiced their demand to include the helpers into the act.

Osman Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, also spoke in favour of the licensing system for conductors and helpers.

However, when contacted for comments, officials at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority said they did not know about the existence of such a provision in the existing ordinance; they also could not say whether any licence for helpers had ever been issued.

Even in the website of the BRTA, there is no information about conductor licensing.

Bijoy Bhushan Paul, director (enforcement) of BRTA, said: "We basically launch drive against driving licence and other things but never against conductor licence.

I was not aware of the issue. This time the issue was brought in the forefront to make the provision effective." l

Police trace lost child's family using Facebook n Tribune Desk

DMP Deputy Commissioner (Gulshan Zone) Mostaque Ahamed posted this photo on his Facebook page soon after the child was found in Hatirjheel and asked his friends to share it

Dhaka Metropolitan Police have reunited a lost child with his family after tracing them with the help of social networking site Facebook.

Four-year-old Mehedi became lost when his mother and aunt brought him to the capital's Hatirjheel area to celebrate Pohela Boishakh.

Police officials in Hatirjheel found the boy alone and crying, looking for his parents.

Soon after Mehedi was found, DMP Deputy Commissioner (Gulshan Zone) Mostaque Ahamed posted a status on Facebook asking people to help them in finding Mehedi's parents.

Mostaque's post was shared by

thousands, and within hours Mehedi's mother was located.

The DMP deputy commissioner posted another update around 11pm Thursday, saying the child has been safely returned to his mother and aunt.

In the post, Mostaque wrote that the joint effort of police and Facebook users helped them return the child to his family.

“We believe this is the best job we have done. The feeling was far more than something heavenly. We police and FB friends always again will be for the nation,” he wrote.

The police official also thanked Facebook users for sharing his post over 3,500 times to spread the word. l

Rushanara appointed as UK trade envoy for Bangladesh n Tribune Desk Bangladesh-born British MP Rushanara Ali has been appointed as a UK trade envoy for Bangladesh.

British Prime Minister David Cameron made the appointment on the occasion of Pohela Boishakh, according to a statement issued by the British High Commission in Dhaka.

Rushanara, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said she was delighted to have been appointed to this cross-party role as the UK trade envoy to Bangladesh.

"The UK and Bangladesh have historic and long-standing ties.

Bangladesh has been identified by UKTI [UK Trade & Investment government department] as an emerging market with substantial trade and investment opportunities," she said.

Hearing the announcement, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Alison Blake said: "I am delighted that at the start of the new Bengali year, the Prime Minister has appointed Rushanara Ali MP as the UK's trade envoy for Bangladesh."

Bangladesh's economy is growing impressively and there are exciting opportunities here for British companies, she added.

Blake said British companies have world-class export potential and Ali will be an excellent champion for British business in Bangladesh.

"I and my team are looking forward to working with Ali to further strengthen the long and friendly relationship between the UK and Bangladesh," she added.

The cross-party Trade Envoy programme was launched in 2012 to build bilateral trade relationships and help drive economic growth in countries identified as key markets for the UK. l

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