19 Aug, 2016 by DhakaTribune

SECOND EDITION

74.70% success in HSC results n Shohel Mamun Compared to last year's drop in performance, the average pass rate in this year's HSC and equivalent examinations has seen a 5.1 percentage points increase to become 74.70%. Among the 1.2 million students who appeared in the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations exams this year, a total 58,276 scored GPA 5. The eight general education boards had an average pass rate of 72.47%, while madrasa board had the highest 88.19% pass rate and technical board had 84.57%. Out of the eight general education boards, Jessore students performed the best with an 83.42% success rate, while Comilla had the lowest of 64.49%. Of the GPA 5 scorers, 48,950 students appeared in the HSC exam, 2,414 students were from madrasa board and 6,587 students from technical board. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, along with the heads of all 10 education boards, handed over the results to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban yesterday, and then formally announced the results at a press briefing in the secretariat. The prime minister used video conferencing to congratulate students of two institutes in Cox's Bazar and Sunamganj. The results were available in educational institutions from 2pm onwards, and published on the education board website as well as via SMS service. Girls performed better with a pass rate of 75.6% than the 73.93% success rate for boys. But 32,381

ANALYSIS

The GPA 5 rat race n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Each year, the announcement of SSC and HSC results inevitably triggers a flurry of analysis that evaluate the performance of the students. Although an improved pass rate and increased number of GPA 5 scorers look good on paper, there is always a debate on how much those statistics actually reflect the true quality of education. For example, in the 2014 admission test at Dhaka University, a staggering 80% candidates failed to even get the minimum pass mark. To put the stark contrast between HSC triumph and its consequent disappointment into perspective, a total 78.33% students had passed that year's HSC and equivalent exams but many of them failed to score the bare minimum for admission into the DU. Even looking back at the results from past few years' DU admission tests, it is evident that the majority of GPA 5 scorers – who got the highest grade in both SSC and HSC exams – failed to get the minimum pass mark in the admission test. In the admission exam for Ka Unit – designated for science subjects – only 20.75% candidates managed to pass for the 2015-16 session. Such dismal performance in the follow-up of spectacular SSC and HSC results only raises the question about the strength of the evaluation process of the country's secondary- and higher secondary-level students. Afsan Chowdhury, a teacher at

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Inu: Bangladesh to declare policy on Balochistan n Tribune Desk

Hasanul Haque Inu

Bangladesh will make a policy declaration on Pakistan’s human rights abuses in the Balochistan region soon, the information minister has said. Speaking to the Indian daily The Hindu on Wednesday, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu, who is in New Delhi, said Balochistan was suffering in the hands of Pakistan’s military establishment, which targeted Bangalis in Bangladesh in 1971.

“Pakistan has a very bad track record as far as addressing the aspiration of nationalities is concerned. They have learned nothing from the defeat of 1971 and continued to practise the same policy of repression and are now targeting Baloch nationalists,” Inu said. Bangladesh is constitutionally bound to support liberation struggles, he said. Inu said Pakistan’s inability to learn from its historic mistakes could be explained by the fact that it failed to evolve into a working

democracy due to the domination of the Pakistan military in vital affairs of the state. “Islamabad needs to explain what it wishes to achieve by promoting cross-border terrorism in South Asia and by repressing democratic nationalities like the Baloch in its territory,” Inu said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting last Saturday called for Pakistan to be held accountable for the “atrocities being committed on people in Balochistan.”

Two days later he also mentioned Balochistan in his Independence Day speech. Pakistan has reacted angrily to the comments, saying Modi was referring to Balochistan to cover up India's human rights violations in Kashmir and alleging that his statement proved that India was backing “terrorism” in Balochistan. The next day, Indian State Minister for External Affairs MJ Akbar compared Bangladesh of 1971 with “simmering Balochistan.”  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

More landing slots in Jedda for hajj flights sought n Ishtiaq Husain

The government plans to seek more landing slots at Jedda airport for Biman Bangladesh Airlines in order to transport hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia smoothly. The decision has been taken at an inter-ministerial meeting held at the secretariat yesterday.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon presided over the meeting. The national flag carrier, Biman, has already lost around 5,000 seat capacity as hajj agencies did not buy air ticket or book seat in time. After the meeting, Rashed Khan Menon told journalists Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh will

make a list of those that have already rented apartments. Biman will have to sell air tickets according to the list and the Ministry of Religious Affairs would take necessary steps in this regard. The Aviation Ministry held the inter-ministrial meeting to address the recent problem.

Expressing its concern, Biman management on Wednesday in a statement asked all hajj agencies to confirm air tickets within 72 hours, otherwise, the situation would deteriorate. But the hajj agencies didn’t act according to the Biman request till yesterday. A source in the meeting said

Mosaddique Ahmed informed the meeting that a total 10 hajj flights have been cancelled by Biman which is very much alarming for the airliner as the slots are limited. A marketing official of Biman said the national flag carrier will carry around 51,000 hajj pilgrims while 50,758 would be carried by Saudia airlines. l

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74.70% success male students scored GPA 5, while 25,895 female students scored the highest grade point. Briefing reporters, Education Minister Nahid said: “The girls performed better than the boys, which is a key point of improved results this year. “The students of science discipline did better than the previous year, which was another key to this success,” minister added. Under the science discipline, 83.04% students passed with 41,468 scoring GPA 5. Another noteworthy point in this year’s HSC result was the performance by students from the Jessore board. This year, they smashed their own previous records to achieve the board’s highest ever individual pass rate of 83.42%. Last year, they had the worst HSC results with only 46.45% passing. Abdul Mazid, chairman of Jessore board, told the Dhaka Tribune that the improved performance has helped changed the combined result. Asked how such a turnaround was possible, Mazid said around 35,000 students who had failed a single subject last year appeared again this year and passed that subject. Meanwhile, the Dhaka board yesterday became the first to start publishing subject-centric tabulation grade sheets on its website. “On the Dhaka board website, candidates can see their marks on creative writing, multiple choice question (MCQ) and practical. The tabulation sheet can be downloaded. The marks are revealed in the individual and institution criteria,” said Md Mahbubur Rahman, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka. Other education boards are now also processing the launch of the new system. The HSC and equivalent exams began on April 3 and ended on June 9, while the practical exams were held from June 11 to June 20. Some 1,203,640 students from 8,345 educational institutions took part in this year’s examinations. Of whom, 899,150 were successful. Apart from 2,621 centres in Bangladesh, the exams were also held in seven overseas centres where 262 students took part. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina makes the results of HSC 2016 available online from a laptop at Ganabhaban yesterday

The GPA 5 rat race Brac University, said: “As a brand, GPA has failed. Everyone gets GPA but nobody thinks highly of it.” Parents have not only lost their confidence on the GPA system but also lost confidence on the education system itself, Afsan observed. He also said that it seems that the government was not considering about who was coming out of the exams with what grades. Couple of months ago, a private television channel aired a contro-

versial news report where SSC GPA 5 scorers were unable to answer elementary questions. This triggered a massive debate about the true quality of education in the country. Asked about the pre-university evaluation of students, Dhaka University’s Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman said teachers who were involved with the process could provide the best answer about this issue. Educationist Syed Manzoorul

Islam, meanwhile, said he was not frustrated over the results as the country’s quality of education had not been any better over the last two or three decades. Manzoorul said a restlessness was now prevailing in society and the students were unable to fully concentrate on education; nowadays, social media was one of the major barriers for that, he said. The DU professor also identified four factors of quality education —

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depth of knowledge, teacher’s competency, curriculum or syllabus, and the overall education system. He said there was a lack of quality teachers in college level and good teachers were leaving their profession as the expanding job market was offering better salaries in alternative career paths. “We are talking about quality education, but my question is do we have a quality job market for quality students?” Manzoorul asked. l

Inu: Bangladesh to declare policy on Balochistan “Nations created in the name of faith supremacy are coming apart. That is why Bangladesh happened in 1971 and Balochistan is simmering now,” he wrote on Twitter. Balochistan, a region comprising of about half of Pakistan’s area and only about 3.4% of its population, is rich in natural resources

and yet extremely poverty-ridden. The region was not part of Pakistan during its independence and was annexed through military invasion in April 1948. Conflicts between ethnic Baloch separatist groups, such as the Balochistan Liberation Army, and the Pakistani army have been escalating since 2005. The Pakistan army

and intelligence have been accused of torture and murder of civilians and activists in the region. A similar movement exists in the neighbouring region of Iran. There are about 7 million Balochs in Pakistan and 2 million in Iran. Inu told The Hindu that Bangladesh was worried about the fallout of Pakistan’s official

policies regarding nationalities and the promotion of cross-border violence. “Pakistan exports terror and needs to be confronted about the futility of its policies that it has refused to change till now,” he said. He warned that Pakistan’s tactics could impact the spirit of regional cooperation in South Asia. l

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Pro-JMB ‘Ansar Rajshahi’ targets Hindus n Dulal Abdullah, Rajshahi Absconding JMB leader Shariful Islam Khalid, a Rajshahi University student who was allegedly involved in the murder of his teacher Prof AFM Rezaul Karim, is one of the organisers of a new militant outfit named Ansar Rajshahi raised in Baghmara area, police have claim. Police have gathered evidence that the outfit prepared a list of local Hindus and secularists, and finalised plans to kill a doctor, Nirendranath Sarker. The members communicate with each other through secured messaging application Threema and social media website Facebook. The investigators, however, are yet to know when the group started work and the possible number of its members. They came to know about the outfit after questioning two cousins of Shariful – Aminul Islam Rumi, 23, and Enamul Huq Sabuj, 22, of Sreepur Khamarpara vilage under Baghmara. The duo were arrested on Monday night and produced before a Rajshahi court the following day with a five-day remand prayer for each. The hearing may take place next week, according to court sources. During interrogation, Rumi disclosed the names of three of his associates in Ansar Rajshahi – Rawshan Ali alias Akash, of Parbhangura under Pabna's Bhangura; Abu Ibrahim alias Tareq alias Ripon, and Md Bulbul alias Alamin alias Billal of Boalia in Rajshahi. Since last year, the JMB members have killed at least seven Hindu priests across the country while threatened several dozen Hindus and Christians with death. The outfit also launched attacks on three Christians in the northern districts. Two of them were killed. Known as a stronghold of outlawed JMB, Baghmara saw a deadly bomb attack on a local Ahmadiyya mosque on December 26 last year that killed the JMB suicide attacker and injured 10 devotees. In 2004, JMB second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai established a reign of terror in the area by killing and torturing scores of people. Shariful alias Rahat alias Talha, 25, has remained missing for the last 15 months, his family members say. He is the son of Abdul Hakim of Sreepur Khamarpara. He was a student of English department at Rajshahi University. Police claim that he was one of the JMB operatives who hacked Prof Rezaul to death near his house in Shalbagan

DB police have arrested Aminul Islam Rumi and his cousin Enamul Huq Sabuj from Baghmara for their alleged involvement with a new militant group named Ansar Rajshahi DHAKA TRIBUNE area on April 23. The family members of Shariful filed a general diary with the police on July 4 seeking information about him. He used to meet Rumi and Sabuj regularly before he going missing last year. The RMP authorities on July 29 announced Tk1 lakh bounty for Shariful and another JMB militant – Nazrul Islam alias Bike Hassan who was wanted in 11 cases filed over the recent targeted killings including Prof Rezaul murder. Nazrul was killed in an alleged gunfight with the DB police in Rajshahi on August 1.

Families unaware of militant link

Rumi's family claims his father Saiful Islam was picked up by plainclothes police from the house at Sreepur Khamarpara village around 1am on August 11. Rumi fled the house sensing the presence of the police. At that time, police allegedly asked the family to hand over Rumi to them to ensure release of Saiful, and they complied with the condition. They went to the police station around 11am along with Rumi and the police let Saiful go. Rumi's mother Tayejan Begum said that her son used to say

prayers at the local mosque regularly and work with his father in the field. “He was introvert … was not attentive in his studies.” Tayejan said that she had no idea what Rumi and Shariful used to do apart from studies. She claimed that Rumi was innocent and demanded that the people behind Ansar Rajshahi be arrested immediately. A local grocer Ali Hossain said that Rumi and Sabuj used to go to his shop for chat. “They were very close to their cousin Shariful,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. Rumi did not continue his studies at Bhobaniganj College. He passed SSC from Baghmara Pilot School and HSC from Baghmara Degree College. Sabuj's house is close to Rumi's. His father Abdur Razzak left for Malaysia in April. Sabuj passed Dakhil from a local madrasa, HSC from Baghmara Degree College and was admitted to Rajshahi College. He stopped attending college as his father refused to carry his educational costs. He also wanted to go abroad, but failed. “He usually stays at home. Sometimes he go outside to prepare his passport. I do not know what he did with his mobile after

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his work. “Detectives who arrested him told me that they had found something on his phone,” Sabuj's mother Faizan Begum said.

'They hailed Gulshan attack'

Rajshahi Police Superintendent Moazzem Hossain on Tuesday said that they had found Threema app on their phones. “We have got 58page printed document of their conversations,” the SP told reporters. Through the app, Rumi recently asked a member of his group whether he would launch the attack on the Hindu doctor as he had refused to convert to Islam. He, however, sought an associate since the location of the target was close to a police station. Hailing the July 1 Gulshan terror attack where JMB militants killed 23 people, mostly foreigners, Rumi regretted that he could not embrace martyrdom like the five Gulshan attackers and sought blessings from the person so that he could succeed in killing the Hindu doctors of the area. In another communication, Sabuj told someone that he wanted to carry the operational cost of killing the targeted Hindu doctor. l

AL MP denies having termed Zia first president n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Ruling party lawmaker from Comilla Subid Ali Bhuiyan yesterday claimed that he had not mentioned BNP founder Ziaur Rahman as the first president Bangladesh and instead blamed media outlets for publishing “false and fabricated” news. “If anyone can prove that I termed Ziaur Rahman the first president of the country, I will quit politics,” he said during a press briefing at the parliament’s media centre yesterday, arranged in the face of severe criticisms that erupted during a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday. In reply to a query, Subid posed a counter question: “Why should I say Zia was the first president? I am not getting any clue.” Asked whether he will take any action for circulating “wrong information,” he said: “No matter who is saying what, the truth will prevail. I do not know who said what about me but I will not take any action [against them]. Such things happen in politics.” According to several lawmakers who attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertaking, the members were discussing an incident in which a Dhaka University anniversary souvenir claimed Zia to be the first president. Subid Ali supported the claim and said that he had written the same in his book. After his comment, Awami League lawmakers Muhibur Rahman Manik and Nurul Majid Humayun locked into a heated debate with him, calling him a BNP man and opportunist. Subid remained rigid on his stance. The watchdog wanted to inquire the University Grants Commission about the publication. On July 1, the DU authorities suspended acting registrar Rezaur Rahman saying he had been responsible for the “printing mistake.” Zia’s son Tarique Rahman made the claim first in 2014 at a seminar in London. BNP chief and Tarique’s mother Khaleda Zia later endorsed his view and publicly said her spouse was the first president. Subid yesterday said: “I told the meeting that Ziaur Rahman claimed himself the president when he proclaimed independence from Kalurghat Radio Station [in 1971], and that mistake was corrected later. I told this in the committee meeting.” In his written statement, the Comilla lawmaker said: “I want to say firmly that I did not say Zia was the first president of the country.” l

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

JnU students continue protests for dorms n Arifur Rahman Rabbi Students of Jagannath University yesterday protested on their campus demanding the construction of residential halls. They staged demonstrations from 7:30am to 1m by locking the main gate of the university. Students have been demanding the announcement of specific locations of the new dorms and to transfer the old Central Jail plot to the university for building new dorms since August 1. Yesterday they called for a general strike at the university. The students boycotted classes and exams, and locked the three main gates of the university. Monirul Islam, spokesperson for the student protests, said: “We will observe a strike on the campus and declare our next course of action.

We will continue our demonstration until our demands met.” The protesting students blocked Chittaranjan Avenue and set fire to tires on the road to press home their demands for land allocation for the dorms. The protests disrupted vehicular movement in Banglabazar, Sadarghat and Islampur areas of Old Dhaka. Meanwhile, all the classes and examinations of the university have been suspended due to the demonstration. The students have been demanding that Dhaka central jail be transformed into dorms for them. The jail was recently transfered to Keraniganj leaving the plot vacant. It has been a decade since the founding of the university but there has not been accommodations made for the students yet.

On August 8 Jagannath University academic council held the 38th emergency meeting and urged the government to give them the abandoned land of the central jail. JnU proctor Dr Noor Mohammad said: “It is a logical movement. The university authority is fully concerned about solving the residential problem and we have sent a letter to the home minister asking him to give us the empty plot of the central jail.” JnU VC Dr Mijanur Rahman said: “If the government gives us the empty land, we will build the student residential hall under the name of four national leaders, and a scientific research centre.” On March 23, 2014 the university authorities submitted an application to the Home Secretary asking for the Central Jail land but did not get a response in this regard. l

Akonjee laid to rest Noor Uddin, n Md Habiganj Alauddin Akonjee, the New York Imam shot dead in broad daylight, has been laid to rest in his home village of Gochhapar in Chunarughat Upazila. He was buried at the family graveyard yesterday afternoon, his brother Jalaluddin Akonjee told the Dhaka Tribune. Earlier, around 5:30pm Jalaluddin presided over Alauddin’s janaza prayers in the Aamroad High School yard. Thousands of locals attended the prayers.

Chunarughat Upazila Chairman Abu Taher, local Awami League President M Akbar Hossain and other leaders took part in the janaza. Alauddin’s body reached Habiganj town at 2:30pm. A janaza prayer was held at the central Eidgah there. Alauddin’s younger brother Nasiruddin Akonjee, Imam of Chanmia Jame Mosque, led the prayers. Habiganj 3 MP Abu Jahir and other district leaders spoke before the prayers. The speakers called on the US government to bring the perpetrators of this heinous murder to justice. After the janaza the MP and district ad-

ministration placed flowers in the funeral vehicle to pay their respects. Fifty-five-year-old Alauddin was walking in the Ozone Park neighbourhood of Queens, New York with his assistant Thara Miah, 64, who was also shot and later succumbed to his injuries. They both had been returning home from Al-Furqan Jame Masjid, a nearby mosque where Alauddin had been an imam for the past few years. Alauddin, who was the Imam of Chowdhurybazar Jame Mosque in Habiganj, left for the US in 2011 with his family. l

Cap to be placed on govt pension withdrawal n Asif Showkat Kallol The government’s new pension scheme will not allow retirees to withdraw more than half of their total pension in the beginning. Finance Minister AMA Muhith made the announcement while speaking to reporters yesterday at a meeting in the Finance Ministry auditorium after finalising several measures in the new National Pension Scheme. “We have decided to allow only 50% of total pension

money of the government pensioners as a part of a provision of the new national pension scheme,” he said. “At present retired government employees are allowed to draw 100% of their pension money in one go. We want to end this practice by government pensioners because after that they have to rely on begging for survival,” he said. Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed also attended the meeting. Muhith also said: “We have decided to prepare a national

pension scheme within our tenure and you will be able to see the implementation of some of the steps of the new scheme within six months.” Finance Ministry will implement the national pension scheme within two years and the national pension scheme law will be tabled at the cabinet within a couple of months, he said. “We also want to introduce private sector pension under the new national pension scheme,” the minister said. l

Khaleda to ask govt to scrap Rampal plan n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to hold a press conference soon for asking the government to backtrack from its plan of setting up the Rampal power plant. The party will finalise the date and venue of the press conference after discussing it with alliance partners at a meeting that is scheduled to be held on Saturday, said a senior leader seeking anonymity. The government’s plan of building the Rampal coal-based plant near the Sundarbans has triggered wide criticism and protest. Environmentalists have warned that it would cause extensive damage to the world’s largest mangrove forest as well as the locals living nearby. Following the formation of the party’s full committee, the BNP’s standing committee – the highest policy making body of the party – held its first meeting yesterday at

the chairperson’s Gulshan office with Khaleda Zia in the chair. At the meeting, the party also decided to accommodate more leaders, especially the aggrieved and dropped ones, in the party’s executive committee. However, the party plans to keep the size of the committee the same. In order to accommodate more leaders in the executive committee, the BNP has decided to ask the leaders who are holding more than one posts in the party portfolio to give up the extra posts. It would free up spaces for the leaders who feel that they had been left out in the latest committee. The party has also decided to rejuvenate the party’s grassroots to charge them up. Seeking anonymity, a senior leader said as part of its efforts to rejuvenate the party’s grassroots, 100-member committees will be formed in ward units across the country. l

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

HSC date changes made students suffer

HSC results: No success for 25 institutions n Tribune Desk Not a single student passed this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations from 25 institutions Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid disclosed the information Thursday morning after handing over the HSC and equivalent results to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Gonobhaban. He said, “Last year 35 institutions saw zero pass rate which has this year decreased to 25.” The overall success rate in this year’s HSC-level exams has been 74.70%. From eight general education boards 72.47% have passed, while from madrasa 88.19% and from technical board 84.57%. A total of 58,276 students scored GPA 5 among around 1.2 million appeared in the exams from all 10 education boards. l

n Shadma Malik The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) pass rate and grade point average (GPA) has risen this year despite the exam dates being rescheduled because of political turmoil and natural disasters. This cause anxiety and exam stress to the candidates. This year, 1568 candidates appeared from Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, among them 1559 passed and GPA scorer are 140. The pass rate is 99.43% which was 99.38% previous year. Ayesha Siddique from Viqarunnisa Noon School and College scored a GPA 5 told the Dhaka Tribune: “The constant shifting of HSC exam dates gave us intense anxiety and stress. Us students prefer to stick to the routine. But, the results have reflected our hard work.” Students this year had to suffer a lot of anxiety because of the this constant rescheduling. On February 9, the announcement for the HSC exam dates was made by the Education Ministry. The notice that was circulated at the ministry’s website for the exams to begin on April 3, 2016 disappeared an hour later. When contacted, an official from ministry said, the HSC exam

Students of Rajuk Uttara School and College, who achieved success in the recent Higher Secondary Certificate exams, express their joy after the results were published yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. Again the May 19 exam was shifted to May 20 due to a nationwide hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami. On May 22 exams were postponed to May 27 after cyclone ‘Roanu’ hit Bangladesh’s coastal areas.

likely to be rescheduled because of the Union Parishad polls but the exam was not rescheduled and they were held on April 3. The HSC exam that meant to be held on May 8 was rescheduled to May 9 due to a day-long hartal called

The Union Parishad elections also caused the exams to be rescheduled from May 27 to June 12. RAJUK Uttara Model College in Dhaka achieved a hundred percent pass rate despite the unrest during the exam. l

BERC hints at gas price hike at retail level n Aminur Rahman Rasel

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) is considering increasing the retail price of gas, a member of BERC said yesterday. Speaking on the last day of the eight-day public hearing on the issue, BERC member Md Maqsudul Haque said as the prices of essential commodities have increased, the gas price might go up too. However, the increase will be approved only after careful evaluation, he added. BERC Chairman AR Khan echoed Maqsudul’s remark. “The prices will not be increased based on speculations. The commission will consider the idea rationally and make a decision after necessary calculations.” Asked when the new gas price may come into effect, the BERC chairman said the commission would make its decision in 90 days.

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to Tk11.89 on weighted average. On the other hand, Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL), the lone gas transmission company under Petrobangla, placed a proposal to increase gas transmission price from Tk0.1565 to Tk0.3665 per cubic metre. BERC will fix the gas transmission and distribution prices considering the increase at bulk level. However, the BERC technical evaluation committee rejected the price hike proposals placed by most of the companies during the hearing. They observed that as most of the companies were making profit, there was no need to increase the prices. Prof Dr Shamsul Alam, energy adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), strongly opposed the price hike proposals yesterday, saying there was no logic behind increasing the prices just because of increased supplementa-

The hearing took place at BERC headquarters at Kawran Bazar, Dhaka and was attended by several gas transmission and distribution companies. Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, better known as Petrobangla, proposed a 65.45% increase, asking to increase bulk gas price from Tk6.29 per cubic metre to Tk10.29 on weighted average. In the proposal, Petrobangla said as the government imposed a fixed 55% supplementary duty and value-added tax on the gas purchased from international oil companies, the price of said gas increased from TK4.98 to Tk10.91 per cubic metre, which is a valid reason to increase gas price at bulk level. Earlier, the six gas distribution companies under Petrobangla asked for a 94.89% increase and placed a proposal to raise the retail price from Tk6.10 per cubic metre Dhaka

Chittagong

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ry duty and value-added tax. “The companies undertook many projects which have yet to be implemented. But they want to raise the gas prices to cover the cost of those projects.” He further said if BERC took the proposals placed by Petrobangla and its companies in consideration, the price hike would be unrealistic. Addressing the hearing, former Buet professor Nurul Islam said the BERC should be given the authority to fix the bulk gas price because it has been successfully fixing the price of gas and electricity since 2008. For the development of gas sector, the commission formed Gas Development Fund and Energy Security Fund, garnering people’s confidence. Nurul further commented that the government should make amendment in the BERC Act 2003 and give the commission the power to fix the bulk price of gas. l Khulna

Barisal

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BNP Joint Secretary General Rizvi sent to jail n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday sent senior BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed to jail, rejecting his bail petition for five cases against him. The BNP joint secretary general surrendered before the court on Thursday morning. Metropolitan Session’s Judge Md Kamrul Hossain Molla passed the order after hearing the bail petition filed by Rizvi’s counsel Md Sanaullah Miah. Two of the cases were filed with Pallabi Police Station and one each with Ramna, Khilgaon and Motijheel police stations for carrying out subversive activities during hartals and blockade programme by the BNP-led 20-party alliance from January to March last year and 2013. Earlier, the same court issued an arrest warrant for Rizvi in the cases as the he did not appear before the court during the hearing. The same court asked 37 BNP leaders and activists, including its chairperson Khaleda Zia, to appear before it on October 3 in a case filed in connection with petrol bomb attack on a passenger bus in the capital’s Jatrabari area on January 23 last year that left a person dead and left 27 with burns. l Sylhet

Cox’s Bazar

Fajr: 5:00am | Jumma: 1:15pm Asr: 5:00pm | Magrib: 6:41pm Esha: 8:30pm Source: Islamic Foundation

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

‘Motivation programmes by Jessore edu board bring success’ Tauhid-Uz-Zaman, n Md Jessore The Jessore Education Board has earned the best results in this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations in the country, as the board authorities motivated the students by visiting the educational institutions under the board after last year’s disastrous results.

Acting Chairman of the board Madhab Chandra Rudra said this at Jessore press club on Thursday while declaring the results. “Political stability in the country, students’ inclination towards attending classes, reading text books, focusing on building career, last year’s poor results and overall the board’s motivation programmes has placed the board

on top position among eight educational boards in the country,” opined Madhab. Besides, the quality of questions was not bad, he said. “If students, guardians and media stay beside us, the results will be far better next year,” Madhab hoped. The pass rate in the board is 83.42 per cent this year, while it was 46.45 per cent last year.

A total of 4,586 examinees have got GPA-5 in the board, while the number was 1,927 last year. This year, 13 educational institutions out of 561 that appeared in the examinations under the board have secured 100 per cent pass rate. A total of 1,30,572 students appeared in this year’s examinations. Of them, 69,333 examinees were male students and 61,239 were female. l

Pass rate declines in Sylhet board Serajul n Mohammad Islam, Sylhet

Students of Comilla Cadet College pose for a photograph after the announcement of HSC results yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

The Sylhet education board sees a disastrous results in the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination this year with 68.59% pass rate which is less than last year. Under the Sylhet Education board, 794 male students scored the GPA 5 while and 536 are female achievers. A total of 1,356 students scored Grade Point Average (GPA) 5 from Sylhet Board last year with 74.57% pass rate. Examination Controller of the board Shamsul Islam said this while announcing the results at conference hall of the

3,899 get GPA in Dinajpur Board Sarker Sunny, n Bipul Dinajpur

About 70.68% students have passed the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination under Dinajpur education board this year with 3,899 GPA 5 achievers. Tofazzur Rahman, examination controller of the education board, told the Dhaka Tribune that 104,674 candidates took part in the examination this year from 609 educational institutions at eight districts under the education board. Of the candidates, 72,829 students came out successful in the examination. Among the successful examinees, 68.33% are male while 73.23% female. l

board. “The pass rate is lowest in five years, as 19,000 students could not pass in English and Information Technology subjects,” he said. Some 64,153 students appeared in the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations under the Sylhet Board, according to the results published on Thursday. Of the total 43,870 came out successful. Among the successful examinees, 20,779 are male and 23,091 female. In the education board, 73.30% pass in Sylhet, 67.20% in Habiganj, 60.62 in Moulvibazar and 69.20% pass in Sunamganj districts. l

Barisal girls do better in HSC

Rahman Swapan, n Anisur Barisal Girls have done better than boys in this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate Examinations in terms of pass rate in Barisal Education Board. A total of 21,250 female examinees (72.38%) out of 29,357 have passed, whereas 21,907 male students (68.07%) out of 32,181 have come out successful in the examinations. According to the results declared on Thursday morning, a total of 43,157 (70.13%) students passed the exams out of 61,538 examinees under the board this year. However, the number of GPA 5 achievers has decreased this year than that of the previous year. A total of 787 examinees have got GPA-5 this year, while the number of the students who got GPA 5 last year was 1, 319. On the other hand, examinees of Science and Home Economics groups are ahead of other groups in the board. A total of 7,741 (81.98%) examinees out of 9,442 have passed the exams in Science and Home Economics group, while in Business Studies group, 16,025 (77.18%) out of 20,763 students have passed the exams. In Humanities and Islamic Studies group, 19,391 (61.89%) out of 31,333 examinees have come out successful. Female students had done better than male examinees last year also, as 73.16% female and 67.05% male examinees passed HSC examinations in 2015. l

75.40% pass HSC in Rajshahi n Dulal Abdulla, Rajshahi A total of 6,073 students including 2,493 girls secured obtained Grade Point Average (GPA)-5 among the total 87,301passed students in the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination this year in Rajshahi. Controller of Examinations of the Board Shamsul Kalam Azad announced the results at a press conference in the conference hall at noon. Secretary of the board Dr Anarul Islam Pramanik was present at the press conference, among others concerned. They told the journalists that the girls (78.80 pc) did better results than the boys (72.71 pc) this year. The result sheet shows the

number of 100 percent passed colleges is 18 while not a single student came out successful from eight colleges. Nineteen physically challenged students appeared in the examination this year and all of them become successful. A total of 1,15,780 students including 52,074 girls appeared in the examinations in 186 centres from 715 educational institutions in eight districts under the education board, said Prof Shamsul Kalam Azad. Twenty one students were expelled in different centres, he added. Previous year's pass percentage was 77.54 while the number of GPA-5 obtained students was 5,250 including 2,385 girls, he also said. l

News

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Pass rate declines at many colleges as date changes caused trouble for students n Shadma Malik The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) pass rate and grade point average (GPA) has risen this year despite the exam dates being rescheduled because of political turmoil and natural disasters. This cause anxiety and exam stress to the candidates. This year, 1568 candidates appeared from Viqarunnisa Noon School and Col-

lege, among them 1559 passed and GPA scorer are 140. The pass rate is 99.43% which was 99.38% previous year. Ayesha Siddique from Viqarunnisa Noon School and College scored a GPA 5 told the Dhaka Tribune: “The constant shifting of HSC exam dates gave us intense anxiety and stress. Us students prefer to stick to the routine. But, the results have reflected our hard work.”

Students this year had to suffer a lot of anxiety because of the this constant rescheduling. On February 9, the announcement for the HSC exam dates was made by the Education Ministry. The notice that was circulated at the ministry's website for the exams to begin on April 3, 2016 disappeared an hour later. When contacted, an official

from ministry said, the HSC exam likely to be rescheduled because of the Union Parishad polls but the exam was not rescheduled and they were held on April 3. The HSC exam that meant to be held on May 8 was rescheduled to May 9 due to a day-long hartal called by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. Again the May 19 exam was shifted to May 20 due to a na-

tionwide hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami. On May 22 exams were postponed to May 27 after cyclone 'Roanu' hit Bangladesh's coastal areas. The Union Parishad elections also caused the exams to be rescheduled from May 27 to June 12. RAJUK Uttara Model College in Dhaka achieved a hundred percent pass rate despite the unrest during the exam. l

Students of Chittagong Government College (left), Rajshahi New Government Degree College (top right) and Barisal Women’s Government College are seen celebrating their HSC results yesterday RABIN CHOWDHURY/AZAHAR UDDIN/ ANISUR RAHMAN SWAPAN

Pass rate, GPA 5 achievers up in Ctg n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

The numbers of GPA 5 achievers and average pass rate in the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination have increased this year compared to the previous year under Chittagong Education Board. The pass percentage was 63.49 last year under the board while this year the percentage increased by 1.11 making it 64.60. Mohammed Mahbub Hassan, controller of examinations of Chittagong Intermediate and Secondary Education Board, formally announced the HSC results at the board office in city’s Muradpur area at about 11am. A total of 2,253 students have secured the maximum grade point

GPA 5 this year while the number was 2,129 last year. Of the total 2,253 GPA 5 achievers, 1,244 are boys while 1,009 are girls. Out of total 87,542 students, 86,716 candidates appeared in the HSC examination this time. Of the appeared, 5,6016 students passed the HSC examination. This time the pass rates of boys and girls stand at 63.67 and 65.52% respectively which were 61.81 and 65.11 respectively last year. This time 76.66, 70.85 and 51.62% students have passed from Science, Business and Humanities groups respectively. The pass rate was 63.74 in Cox’s Bazar, 47.14 in Rangamati, 51.70 in Khagrachhari and 61.64 in Bandarban. l

CHT colleges do better than previous year n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong The three hills districts of Chittagong have done better than previous year in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination results. This year, the pass rate is 47.14 in Rangamati, 51.70 in Khagrachhari and 61.64 in Bandarban. The pass rate was 43.91 in Rangamati, 50.16 in Khagrachhari and 57.99 in Bandarban in 2015. This time Chittagong education board recorded the pass percent at 64.60. It is a common scenario of the country that most of the successful colleges and students hail from urban areas, while most of those

that perform poorly are from rural areas. Breaking away from trend, the students of the three hill districts did well in terms of pass rate. Academician and educationists put it down to shortage of competent teachers, laboratories, libraries and other facilities for the poor performance in the three hill districts of the country. They said it was really an uphill task to bridge the rural-urban gap since the education sector received only a meager budgetary allocation from the government in terms of the demand. Mohammed Mahbub Hassan, controller of examinations of Chit-

tagong Intermediate and Secondary Education Board told the Dhaka Tribune that it was a good sign that the students of the hill districts were performing better. “We talked to the heads of the educational institutes in the three hill districts following the result of HSC examination in 2015. We instructed the colleges to ensure 100% percent attendance of the students in the class,” said Hassan. “However, we do not feel complacent with the better result as it is far below than the average pass percentage in other parts of the country. We should keep up the trend and put in our best efforts to perform even better,” said Hassan. l

8 World

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

SOUTH ASIA

3 killed, 50 injured on Afghan Independence Day At least 3 persons were killed and about 50 others wounded on Thursday in a mortar attack in Asadabad city, capital of Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar, as the country celebrated the Independence Day. The attack occurred in the morning after 2 mortar rounds fired by militants struck near the provincial government office. -REUTERS

INDIA

Cow vigilantes kill BJP worker A BJP worker was killed by members of a right-wing vigilante group in Udupi on Wednesday night, the first such attack on a member of the saffron party by so-called cow protectors. Praveen Poojary, 28 received fatal injuries and 20-year-old Akshay Devadiga was hospitalised after more than 17 people surrounded their vehicle carrying cattle and attacked them sharp weapons near Hebri town of Udupi district. -HT

CHINA

Chinese admiral visits Syria A top Chinese military officer visited Syria this week in a show of support for President Bashar Assad’s embattled regime. Rear Adm Guan Youfei met on Sunday with Syrian Defense Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij in Damascus. He also met the following day with a Russian general who is coordinating his country’s military assistance to Assad’s fight against armed opposition groups. -AP

ASIA PACIFIC

UN steps up war of words with Philippines The war of words between Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and the UN escalated Thursday, with a UN envoy warning that state actors could be held responsible over hundreds of killings in a controversial anti-drug crackdown. More than 1,500 people have died in Duterte’s fight against narcotics. -AFP

MIDDLE EAST

UN suspends humanitarian mission in Syria The United Nations Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura announced Thursday that the UN had temporary suspended its humanitarian missions in Syria due to the violent battles in Aleppo. The UN teams would not be able to reach those in need to due to the intense battles in Aleppo as well as elsewhere and thus the decision was made, said de Mistura in a press conference. -REUTERS

SYRIA WAR

Haunting image of Syrian boy rescued from Aleppo rubble n Tribune International Desk Syrian opposition activists have released haunting footage showing a young boy rescued from the rubble in the aftermath of a devastating airstrike in Aleppo, reports The Associated Press. The image of the stunned and weary looking boy, sitting in an orange chair inside an ambulance covered in dust and with blood on his face, encapsulates the horrors inflicted on the war-ravaged northern city and is being widely shared on social media. A doctor in Aleppo on Thursday identified the boy as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh. Osama Abu alEzz confirmed he was brought to the hospital known as “M10” Wednesday night following an airstrike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Qaterji with head wounds, but no brain injury, and was later discharged. Rescue workers and journalists arrived at Qaterji shortly after the strike and began pulling victims from the rubble. “We were passing them from one balcony to the other,” said photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the iconic photo. He said he had passed along three lifeless bodies before receiving the wounded boy. A doctor at M10 later reported eight dead, among them five children.

Rescued with family

The strike occurred during the sunset call to prayer said Raslan, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubashir. Omran was rescued along with his three siblings, ages one, 6, and 11, and his mother and father from the rubble of their partially destroyed apartment building, according to Raslan. None sustained major injuries, but the building collapsed shortly after the family was rescued. We sent the younger children immediately to the ambulance, but the 11-year-old girl waited for her mother to be rescued. Her ankle was pinned beneath the rubble,” Raslan said. In the video posted late Wednesday by the Aleppo Media Centre, a man is seen plucking the boy away from a chaotic nighttime scene and carrying him inside the ambulance, looking dazed and flat-eyed. The boy then runs his hand over his blood-covered face, looks at his hands and wipes them on the ambulance chair.

Hospitals targeted

Doctors in Aleppo use code names for hospitals, which they say have been systematically targeted by government airstrikes. Abu al-Ezz said they do that “because we are afraid security forces will infiltrate their medical network and target ambulances as they transfer patients from one hospital to another.”

A still image taken on August 18, from a video posted on social media said to be shot in Aleppo on August 17, shows a boy with bloodied face sitting in an ambulance, after an airstrike, Syria REUTERS Activists living in opposition areas rely on informers in the government-controlled Latakia province to warn residents of impending airstrikes. On Wednesday evening, an informant in Latakia informed activist networks that a jet had taken off from the Russian air base at Hmeimim. No one was injured in the first

strike, said Raslan. The second one turned Omran’s life upside down. The horror generated by the image of Omran in the orange chair echoes the anguished global response to the pictures of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy whose body was found on a beach in Turkey and came to encapsulate the horrific toll of Syria’s civil war. l

More than 18,000 killed in Syrian prisons n Tribune International Desk

The young Syrian activist was beaten, prevented from going to the toilet and saw her cellmates taken for rounds of whipping when she was held for more than a month in several government detention facilities, reports The Associated Press. Still, Lama is considered lucky, as more than 18,000 detainees have died in the government’s custody over the past five years as a result of torture, diseases and other causes, according to a report released Thursday by the London-based Amnesty International. The report, titled “’It breaks the human,” includes interviews with 65 torture survivors who described abuse and inhuman conditions in security branches operated by Syrian intelligence agencies and in Saidnaya Military Prison, near

Damascus. It said common methods of torture included forcibly contorting the victim’s body into a tire and flogging on the soles of the feet. The authorities also used electric shocks, rape and sexual violence, the pulling out of fingernails or toenails, scalding with hot water and cigarette burns. “The catalogue of horror stories featured in this report depicts in gruesome detail the dreadful abuse detainees routinely suffer from the moment of their arrest, through their interrogation and detention behind the closed doors,” said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program. “This journey is often lethal, with detainees being at risk of death in custody at every stage,” he said. He urged the international community to bring these abuses to the top

of the agenda in talks with both the government and armed groups. The abuses date back to the start of the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011. The government’s harsh crackdown on dissent and the rise of armed opposition groups eventually ignited a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people, displaced half the country’s population and generated more than 4.8 million refugees. Lama, who now lives in Europe and asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of retribution, told The Associated Press by telephone that she was hit with a thick stick five times on her shoulder during her 41-day detention that ended on January 7, 2015. She said a fellow detainee was repeatedly whipped, leaving marks on her back, and another was raped by her interrogator.

Lama said some days she received bread, boiled potato and a tomato, and other times was given rice with boiled carrots and cauliflower. Lama said infants had to eat the same food as adults and if anyone got sick there were no doctors to check on them. She said that a diabetic woman who had to frequently go to the toilet used a bucket to urinate. The Amnesty report highlights new statistics from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, or HRDAG, an organization that uses scientific approaches to analyse human rights violations, which indicate that 17,723 people died in custody across Syria between March 2011 and the end of 2015. “With tens of thousands of people forcibly disappeared in detention facilities across Syria, the real figure is likely to be even higher,” Amnesty said. l

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Civil war costs Yemen $14bn n Reuters, Washington, DC

The cost from damage to infrastructure and economic losses in Yemen’s civil war is more than $14bn so far, according to a confidential report seen by Reuters that highlights the effort needed to rebuild the country, where more than half the population is suffering from malnutrition. “The conflict has so far resulted in damage costs (still partial and incomplete) of almost $7bn and economic losses (in nominal terms) of over $7.3bn in relation to production and service delivery,” said the May 6 joint report by the World Bank, United Nations, Islamic Development Bank and European Union. The internationally recognised Yemeni government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi is battling the Iran-allied Houthis in a bitter civil conflict, and is also facing the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militant group. The 16-month civil war has killed more than 6,500 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe in a country with a per capita gross domestic product the World Bank last estimated at only $1,097 in 2013. The Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment report is an internal working document that is not being publicly released. “These preliminary findings are not only partial, but also evolving” because the conflict is ongoing, the report said. The assessment, it said, was conducted between late 2015 and early this year. A survey by Yemen’s education ministry cited by the report showed that of 1,671 schools in 20

governorates which suffered damage, 287 need major reconstruction, 544 were serving as shelters for internally displaced persons, and 33 were occupied by armed groups. Based on a sample of 143 schools, the estimated cost of the damage was $269m. Citing the Ministry of Public Health and Population, the report said 900 of 3,652 facilities providing vaccination services were not operating in early 2016, leaving 2.6 million children under 15 at risk of contracting measles.

Hillary Clinton shrugged off Donald Trump’s latest campaign shakeup Wednesday, saying he’s the “same man” who would cut taxes for rich people while she would force the super-wealthy to pay more, reports The Associated Press. “Donald Trump doesn’t need a tax cut. I don’t need a tax cut. It’s time for the wealthiest Americans, whoever you are, as well as corporations and Wall Street to pay your fair share in taxes,” Clinton said at a rally with more than 2,300 people at Cleveland’s John Marshall High School. Her remarks came shortly after Trump, struggling to steady his troubled campaign, announced

a new chief executive officer and campaign manager. Polls show Clinton building a lead in the weeks since the summer nominating conventions. At the rally, Clinton suggested staffing changes won’t fix her rival’s campaign or change his past insults of the Muslim American parents of an Army Captain killed in Iraq, or incendiary comments about women and people with disabilities. Even as she has struggled to address questions about her honesty amplified by scrutiny of her use of a private email server at the State Department, Clinton has addressed the trust issues in other ways. Popular surrogates, including Vice President Joe Biden this week in Pennsylvania, have testified to her trustworthiness. Clinton has repeatedly pointed to Trump’s unwillingness to release

Muslim family sues NY school over forced terrorist confession

THE AMERICAS

Bolivia opens antiimperialist school Bolivian President Evo Morales opened a military school on Wednesday which he said would teach an anti-imperialist doctrine to counter US policies based on fear. “The US created the School of the Americas to indoctrinate the armed forces on pro-imperialism,” said Morales, a reference to the Cold War-era US academy that trained Latin American dictators and their military in counter-insurgency and torture techniques. -REUTERS

Human rights watchdog urges action on UK’s inequality for food and fuel, which is caught in a conflict between the Saudi-backed government and the central bank in rebel-controlled Sanaa. The government asked international financial institutions to cut off the bank, alleging that it was misusing state funds. The bank, which provides foreign exchange for imports, has denied the allegations. Air strikes by Saudi-led forces

in Yemen that hit a school and a hospital are being investigated by a body set up by the coalition to look into civilian casualties, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Ten children were killed when their school in Saada province was bombed on Saturday, and 14 people were killed by a strike on a hospital in neighbouring Hajjah province on Monday. l

Clinton shrugs off Trump shakeup, attacks his tax plan n Tribune International Desk

USA

A 12-year-old Muslim student with learning disabilities was forced by New York school officials to sign a false confession stating he was a terrorist, his family claimed in a $50m federal lawsuit. Nashwan Uppal, a seventh grader at a middle school in East Islip, New York, was harassed by bullies. Meanwhile, A spokesman for the East Islip Union Free School District on Long Island declined to comment. -REUTERS

Health system

In Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, the public health system has nearly collapsed, with half the public hospitals damaged or inaccessible. The report could assess residential damage only in the cities of Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and Zinjibar, and data collection was cut off in October 2015 -- only about seven months into the conflict. That data alone found an estimated $3.6bn in damage. The cost to reconstruct damaged energy facilities in the four cities was an estimated $139m, most going to repairing damaged or destroyed power plants. A shaky cease-fire between the government and the Houthis, who practice a variant of Shia Islam, took effect in April and brought some respite from the war, which started when the rebels pushed the government into exile in March 2015. Peace talks broke down earlier this month, though, and Saudi-led air strikes on the Houthis who control the capital Sanaa have resumed. The report said that immediate attention must be focused on restoring import financing, particularly

World

Hillary Clinton

REUTERS

his income tax returns and said his tax policies would only help the rich. Clinton pledged again that she would not raise taxes on middle-class earners but Republicans noted that during her time in the Senate she had voted in favour of Democratic budget plans that would have raised taxes on American earning less than $250,000 a year.

Clinton has proposed a 4% surcharge on incomes of more than $5m, which would essentially create a new top bracket of 43.6% while those earning more than $1m annually would face a tax rate of at least 30%. She has also pledged to eliminate the so-called “carried interest” loophole for private equity and hedge fund managers who pay lower rates on their investment profits. Trump wants to reduce the top bracket to 33% from the current level of 39.6% and would reduce the seven tax brackets down to three, at 12%, 25% and 33%. The businessman would eliminate the estate tax which is currently applied to estates worth more than $10.9m for married couples. Clinton would increase the estate tax to 45% from the current 40% and apply it to estates of $7m for married couples. l

UK’s equalities watchdog has warned that the country can expect widening social divisions and increased racial tensions unless the government takes urgent action to tackle deep-rooted inequalities. David Isaac, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said that for many ethnic minority groups – especially young black people – life had got worse in a number of areas over the past 5 years. -THE GUARDIAN

EUROPE

Bombings kill 11, hurt 226 in Turkey A string of bombings, blamed on Kurdish rebels and targeting Turkey’s security forces, killed at least 11 people and wounded 226 others on Thursday. Two of the attacks were car bombings that hit police stations in eastern Turkey, while a third- a roadside blast- targeted a military vehicle carrying soldiers in the southeast of the country. -AP

AFRICA

At least 10 dead as car bombs hit Libya forces Twin car bomb attacks killed at least 10 fighters with pro-government Libyan forces on Thursday near Sirte, where they are battling to oust jihadists from the IS group. The two attacks took place in the Gharbiyat area west of Sirte, near a centre used to distribute food, ammunition and other supplies to pro-GNA fighters. -AFP

World

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

ANALYSIS

Russia v Ukraine showdown reaches risky level n Tribune International Desk The tension flare-ups just keep coming in the armed confrontation between Ukraine and Russia and now the military build-up at the borders has reached the most dangerous level in two years. This is a bad one. The latest showdown has caused Western capitals to fear Russian President Vladimir Putin might be about to launch a whole new battle with Ukraine that would be just the start of a deeper armed conflict. The situation escalated last week when Moscow accused Ukraine of sending sabotage teams armed with explosives into the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine and formally annexed in 2014. Kiev dismissed the Russian allegations as “fantasies” designed to provoke a new border war. But Putin added fuel to the fire by describing those alleged sabotage missions as terror attacks that killed two Russians, a soldier and an FSB security officer.

“This is a very dangerous game,” Putin insisted on state television. “There is no doubt we will not let these things pass.”

Repelling saboteurs at sea

In subsequent meetings with his top military brass, Putin reportedly reviewed “scenarios for counter-terrorism security measures along the land border, offshore, and in Crimea airspace.” Russia has all it needs for a major show of force. It has been increasing its forces along the edge of eastern Ukraine throughout the summer and can mobilize 40,000 soldiers with heavy armour and local air support. It also just added its most advanced s-400 missile air defence system, which has a 40km range. On Thursday, the Kremlin ordered its large Black Sea Fleet based in Crimea to hold immediate war games to practise “repelling saboteurs at sea.” Thoroughly alarmed, Ukraine put all its troops along the border with Crimea and the eastern border zone facing Russia on the highest

state of combat readiness. As the stakes continued to rise, many countries were left trying to figure out if there’s any truth to Russia’s allegations. Moscow’s evidence of the attacks is limited to a brief video of some explosive materials that were seized and an arrest — Kiev insists the suspect is an abducted civilian. Russia says more evidence will follow. It alleges on the night of August 6/7, a group of Ukrainian commandos slipped across the border into Crimea with explosives meant to sabotage the local economy and tourist sites, but they ended up killing a Russian security officer in a firefight. Two nights later, Moscow alleges, Ukrainian artillery launched “massive fire” over the border into Crimea to try to cover a second sabotage attack. The sabotage mission failed, but the attack killed a Russian soldier, the Kremlin says. Kiev, on the other hand, says Russia’s story is simply a stunt to give Putin an excuse to provoke major new fighting by pro-Russian

rebels in Ukraine’s disputed eastern sectors. It’s a tricky situation for diplomats because neither Moscow nor Kiev is considered above exaggeration or outright fabrication. Also, in some border areas, Kiev doesn’t always have control of the many private militias that might pursue sabotage campaigns on their own. Whatever the truth, there remains widespread suspicion that Putin is quite happy to increase tensions with Ukraine for a mix of political and diplomatic goals. It certainly wouldn’t take much to once again enflame the disputed eastern regions of Ukraine, where 10,000 people have been killed in 2 and half years of fighting and the shaky truce of the Minsk II agreement seems to be crumbling. Both sides consistently violate the ceasefire, with hundreds of infractions including artillery, mortar and sniper fire every week. Teams of international observers meant to patrol the peace are routinely threatened at gunpoint and

blocked by Ukrainian military, or more often by Russian-backed rebels.

Putin’s motives

Longtime observers of Putin seem to agree he’s fuelling the tension for all it’s worth, but they differ over his motives. Well-known as a skilled, highstakes opportunist in foreign matters, some believe Putin wants to scare the West into dropping some sanctions against Moscow when international talks about Ukraine resume in September. “We’re looking at a classic Russian strategy of building up tension,” Mark Galeotti, a Russian expert with New York University, told the New York Times. He said Putin is determined to enter any future talks in a strong position. “And the only real strength is to say, ‘I could make things much, much worse if I wanted to.’” l

[This is an excerpt from a CBC article, which can be found at http://bit. ly/2aLUorm]

World

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Amnesty India closes offices, postpones events as protests erupt Reuters n Thomson Foundation, New Delhi

Amnesty International India has temporarily closed its offices and postponed events aimed at raising awareness of rights abuses over safety concerns for its staff after the charity was accused of sedition by protesters, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Political activists held demonstrations against the rights group on Tuesday and Wednesday, accusing it of inciting hatred against the state during an event it hosted on abuses by Indian security forces in the troubled Kashmir region. Police said they were investigating if “anti-India” slogans were raised at the event after receiving a complaint from the right-wing student organisation, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which has ties to the ruling Bharitya Janata Party. Amnesty said the allegations against the organisation were unsubstantiated, but admitted that slogans calling for Kashmir’s independence were chanted by some people attending Saturday’s seminar in the southern city of Bengaluru. Following protests by hundreds of right-wing activists in Bengaluru on Tuesday and in Delhi on Wednesday, Matta said the charity had decided to temporarily close its main office in the city, as well smaller ones in Pune, New Delhi and Chennai. The seminar - aimed at raising awareness over the lack of justice for families of victims in Kashmir was planned to take place in Mumbai and New Delhi next week, but has been postponed due to security concerns for the families and staff, she added. Rights groups have for years accused Indian forces battling a separatist insurgency in Kashmir and parts of northeast India of violating civilian rights through a controversial law which gives them sweeping powers to search, arrest or shoot people. Authorities and the armed forces deny the charges, saying the law - the Armed Forces Special Powers Act - is essential to root out militants. Video footage of the event in Bengaluru which was recorded by Amnesty has been handed over to the police, and is being studied by forensic investigators, said a police official, who declined to be named. Kashmir, India’s only majority-Muslim region, has been the trigger for two of the three wars between India and neighbouring Pakistan - with both nuclear-armed nations laying claim to it. l

12 Business

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Amu supports cash incentives for garment accessories n Tribune Business Desk

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu has extended his support to the demand for cash incentives for garment accessories and packaging, a backward linkage industry to the country’s largest export sector. “Though in the fiscal year 2015-16 the garment accessories and packaging sector earned $6.12bn, it received no cash incentives yet. To achieve $50bn target of annual garment exports by 2021, I think the sector needs cash incentives and policy support,” he told a seminar yesterday. Amu said the demand for incentives was “logical” and the government would provide all-out policy support to help boost the accessories sector. Industries minister said he would discuss the matter with finance minister. Bangladesh Garments Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGAPMEA) organised the seminar titled “Lean manufacturing in garments accessories and packaging industry of Bangladesh.” “As a backward linkage industry, we are contributing a lot to the country’s apparel exports but do not enjoy any cash incentive,” said BGAPMEA President Abdul Kader Khan. He said: “Once garment manufacturers were dependent on imports for accessories supplies to their factories, but now 90% of the accessories demand is met locally.” Abdul Kader said if the government provided cash incentives to the garment accessories industry, the sector could start direct export of its products. At the seminar, the speakers urged the government to act to remove all trade barriers from the garment accessories sector, such as value added tax, tax, customs, bond, bank loan and high rate of loan interest. l

Capital market snapshot: Thursday DSE Broad Index

4,585.1

-0.2% t

Index

1,121.5

-0.1% t

30 Index

1,765.9

-0.3% t

Turnover in Mn Tk

5,119.0

1.6% s

Turnover in Mn Vol

128.5

-5.5% t

All Share Index 14,103.6

-0.2% t

30 Index

12,877.1

-0.3% t

CSE

Selected Index

8,583.7

-0.2% t

Turnover in Mn Tk

279.7

9.8% s

Turnover in Mn Vol

8.2

-9.6% t

Envoys for more unions in RMG sector

Progress in efforts to improve workplace safety satisfactory, they say n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Foreign diplomats have urged the government to allow more trade unions and increase the number of safety and participatory committees in garment sector. They said such step could help ensure workers’ rights and workplace safety. However, the group of five diplomats has expressed satisfaction over the progress made in the sector to ensure workplace safety and safety standard. The envoys came up with the call at a meeting with a high-level group referred to as 3+5, comprised of three secretaries from Labour, Commerce and Foreign Ministries and five ambassadors from European Union (EU), US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands. The meeting held in Dhaka yesterday discussed issues under the sustainability compact. It aimed at improving safety standards and ensuring workers’ rights. “The number of committees including safety and participatory and trade unions in the RMG sector is not up to the mark and it requires an enhancement,” Senior Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar told the Dhaka Tribune, quoting the envoys. The diplomats argued that the present number of safety committees is smaller than that of the factories, Shipar, said, adding that they also talked about the EPZ workers’ rights to associate. As per the rule of law of the amended Labour Act 2013, every factory was supposed to ensure safety and participatory committee. Terming the RMG industry crucial to the prosperity of Bangladesh, the group of diplomats said the international community shares the vision of a robust, in-

As per the law, every factory is supposed to have a safety and participatory committe clusive and thriving RMG industry which contributes to economic prosperity and job creation in the country. “We have seen significant progress over the last few years with the hiring of new inspectors, assessments of factory safety and a public factory database. It is crucial to ensure that we do not lose momentum and that progress continues to be made,” British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Alison Blake said. It is everyone’s priority that factory improvements move ahead efficiently and that there are consequences for factories that do not take the required step, he said, adding that otherwise the whole industry will suffer. The British envoy urged the factory owners to implement corrective action plans (CAPs) and to

invest in making their factories safer. “We welcome the steps already taken to ensure worker’s rights but more still needs to be done. It is the responsibility of all partners to do all they can to ensure more progress on workers’ rights, including in Economic Zones,” said Alison. Workers need to feel safe enough to raise concerns without fear of negative consequences, she added. The platform leaders also stressed the formation of coordination cell to provide technical assistance for the RMG manufacturers. “We have told the meeting that the government will form a coordination cell by December and take necessary steps to help smooth completion of remediation process,” said Syed Ahmed, inspector general of Department

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE). Focusing on trade union, safety and participatory committee, he said the government is approving trade unions and steps to enhance safety and participatory committee. According to DIFE, since the incident of Rana Plaza, a total of 375 trade unions had been formed in the RMG sector as of July 2016. The total number of trade unions currently stands at 507. After the publication of Bangladesh Labour Rules 2015, around 236 participation committees have been formed in different industries specially in RMG sector under the monitoring of Department of Labour (DOL). Some 133 safety committees have been formed but the actual figure is higher, the DIFE claimed. l

Tarana: $50 fine for SIM registration anomaly n Ishtiaq Husain Mobile phone operators would be fined US$50 for each SIM that has been re-registered without the consent of the national identity cardholder. “Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will begin charging the mobile operators US$50 as fine for each SIM within a week,” said Tarana Halim, state minister for Posts and Telecommunication after a high level meeting held with BTRC high ups at her secretariat office in the city yesterday.

BTRC has identified approximately 1000 SIMs which were re-registered with fake subscribers, she told reporters at BTRC office. BTRC has the right to fine US$50 for each fake SIM card according to its law. Tarana said: “A direction has been given to BTRC to implement the decision within a week.” The government will not allow any pre-activated SIM in the market as the public have completed their SIM with biometric system. The junior minister also said: “As per the directive of Telecommunication Division, the government has

planned to introduce location tracking system and it would play a vital

role in curbing Illegal VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) business. l

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

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Business

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Stocks end lower on profit booking n Tribune Business Desk Stocks fell marginally yesterday as investors went for profit booking. The market opened positive but immediately started to decline steadily till the close of the session. The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, fell 10 points or 0.3% to finish at 4,585, Continued from Page 14

scaling back from its previous sessionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s almost six months high. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed over 5 points to 1,765. The DSE Shariah Index, DSES, fell only 1 point to 1,121. The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX was down 5 points to 8,592. Trading activities remained al-

most same at Tk512 crore, up from previous sessionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tk500 crore. During the session, out of total 323 issues traded, 118 scrips advanced, 159 declined and 49 remained unchanged. Most sectors, including banks, cement, non-banking financial institutions, ceramics, food and allied, and telecommunications ended flat.

Engineering and textile sectors ended marginally higher. The eighth ICB Mutual Fund was the biggest loser falling about 10%, followed by Sonargaon Textile, Megnapet, Dhaka Bank, VAML BD Mutual Fund One, KBPPWBIL, Meghna Condensed Milk and Imam Button. Saif Powertech was the top gain-

er gaining almost 10%, followed by National Tubes Limited, Quasem Drycells, Emerald Oil Industries, Style Craft, Al-Haj Textile and In Tech Online Limited. National Tubes Limited was the most traded stock, followed by Aman Feed, Quasem Drycells, Mobil Jamuna Bangladesh, IFAD Autos and Acme Laboratories. l

Feature

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

Seriously toning it down A rant regarding our society’s superficial need for fairness in women n Max Mystel How many of you have seen the film exorcist? You know, the film where a little girl gets possessed by a demon and a priest helps to get the demon out of the girl. Frankly, I think he did a terrible job, because the demon “Pazuzu” was back for revenge in the sequels. I believe our society has demons too. They’re called corporations. It’s corporations that come out with fairness products. Then take it to thousands of women in our country AND GIVE THEM A SELF IMAGE ISSUE. Let’s think about it, what are these fairness products. Have you seen their adverts? Dark girl uses fairness cream, gets a job, gets a guy, etc. They’ve got these so called dark women as brand ambassadors, who if anything at all, need a tan, more than anything else. Basically this is what the adverts are trying to tell our women: “Hello there average Bangladeshi woman. We know

you’re brown because your skin produces a LOT OF MELANIN. But we’ll tell you that you’re dark, ugly, will never get a guy, never get a job, use this cream. If that cream doesn’t work out for you, here’s another cream FOR FAIRER UNDERARMS. Because every girl steps outside her house thinking: “Today I am going to show off to the world my fair underarms. Then when I am at a party, guys at this party will be like: ‘look at those fair underarms. I would totally date her!’ (His friend says) She’s dark though man. To which he responds with: ‘Who cares, she’s got fair underarms. It’s literally glowing.’” Then let’s talk about families out there establishing this superficial need to be a certain type. For example, we still have parents out there who tell their daughters: “Oh my god, you’re so fat, on top of that you’re so dark. Who’s going to marry you?” To which you can’t help but question: “Well! I wonder whose DNA messed that up for me mom? You see you’re fat, I’m fat. Dad and you are brown, I’m brown. Collectively we’re fat and brown!

So get off my back please!” Now let’s talk about these wonderful things that a melaninised woman loves going to, called a dawaat (sarcasm here should be apparent). Imagine this scenario! You’re dressed in what you like and what you’re comfortable in, and you’re at a dawaat, you walk five clicks to the right and you hear: “Ai eita Dolly bhabir meye na, dekhso koto mota hoye gese.” After hearing this you tell yourself ignorance is bliss, so you walk over to the left side. Again you hear: “Ai eita Dolly bhabir meye na, or gayer rong eto moyla keno?” You know what I am talking about right. Because moyla aka trash apparently only looks brown and all shades are dark. This is the point in this scene, where I come in to tell you: “Don’t ignore this!” Walk up to this woman and say what I bet you’ve always felt like saying but never did. Say: “Lady, the amount of make-up you have on your face, we could make a wedding cake with it because we all know a good cake needs a solid FOUNDATION.” Following this, proceed to find

Then let’s talk about families out there establishing this superficial need to be a certain type

yourself a cheese grater and grate their faces, in case they don’t believe you. All I just want to tell you people is: a lot of what we have; the way we look, right down to body sizes is mostly genetic. No matter how hard we try to, we can’t ever go against that to achieve some magical form of beauty. However, there is something we CAN do. Eat healthy, exercise and maintain this genetic marvel of ours that is our body.

So let’s not fall prey to the tripe that society and the TV feeds us. And for that to happen, I suggest you start by refraining from watching TV. Haven’t watched TV in eight years and my life is definitely not fair and not lovely, but it’s unfair and mediocre. I am happy with it that way. My rant here comes to an end and till next week I bid you all adieu: Arrividerci! l

Tech

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

App discovery and engagement

onsumers now look into mobile apps for all their product and service needs. It is probably the right time to get the most out of this market. However, creating your business application is just the first step, for you also need to ensure customers are downloading your app and returning to it on a frequent basis. You need proper marketing strategies to ensure the highest customer acquisition and retention. Here are few important strategies that will help to drive your app’s discovery and engagement through Google.

to boost your app with no little or low cost. Besides, you should always make sure that your app ranks higher in Google’s natural search results. You could use basic SEO strategy for that.

Organic search It is very crucial for your business to allocate the budget very resourcefully. You need ways to get natural or unpaid Google search results, and app indexing solves your problem. It will help to make your app easily discoverable. App indexing will enable you to draw potential users through Google searches. When customers will search with your app’s relative content, they will find your app in the result. This will help you

2. Mobile app installation ads Google searches are now made more on mobile devices than desktops. You can capitalise on this volume of traffic with paid search results. Mobile app installation ads can be customised to searches to drive downloads to your app. Streamable apps will soon be launched by Google, which will let user test apps before downloading.

Paid search 1. Google play store ads What better place than the Play Store to attract your potential users? You can get to billions of Android users by putting up an ad on the Google Play Store’s search result. You can customise your ad with keywords, bids and also get tools to get installation counts.

Re-engaging customers Simply downloading the app is

not going to help you. You need to ensure that customers return to your app. This is very crucial, and also critical. For the success of your app, you need to build a retention strategy.

Proper app indexing strategies will let users return to your app through the Google search result pages. Another very helpful strategy is deep linking. Deep link the app to the already downloaded

app, which will ensure users coming back to you regularly. Push notification strategies can also be effective to improve the retention rates. l

Steps to improving your website’s SEO Construct a strong website Your website needs to be strong and must describe your business in the best possible way. It should mention who you are, what you do and how you do it. You need to insert the appropriate Metadata with strong page titles, great descriptions, and suitable tags. Sometimes, less is good. If your site has numerous large images and tons of meta tags, it will eventually hurt the site. Using six to ten meta tags is always a good idea. Ensure using metadata with frequently searched words that go along with the content of your website.

uilding and maintaining an outstanding SEO would require lots of works. It will add so much value to your company. If clients and customers can find you while searching on Google, it would create an amazing opportunity for you. These

five steps will put you on the right track for improving your website’s SEO. Unique company name A unique name will not only get your customer’s attraction, but will also help you become more visible on search engines.

A common name will show numerous results, leaving you lost among them. To improve the SEO of your website, you need to choose a creative unique name for your company, that obviously should make sense with your line of business.

Embed a blog on your website A high-quality blog embedded to your website is something you need. Rather than someone else hosting your word, you should do it yourself. It would help build your SEO better. Besides, you should post blogs regularly as well. If you think you can’t make time for it, get the permission to

use the content written by others or hire someone at a reasonable salary to create unique ones. Most importantly, make sure the content are relevant, of decent quality, and use highly searchable words on the titles. Drive people to your website A steady flow of visitors to your website can boost your SEO more than anything. Automated tweets containing links to blog articles or stories (with pictures and videos) can get you a hefty number of visitors for your website. But for this, you need to have good number of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook followers as well, all of whom are interested to read about the topics you write. Make your site more visible The quality and searchability of your site are very crucial. You can use services like Google Webmaster Tools to improve your website. Besides, there are professionals available for technical help. l

Feature

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

4 creative activities to try this month n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad Traffic jams, work, and selfies at fast food joints. There’s a lot more to this city than this, even in these troubled times. What’s a better way of shaking the doldrums, than by getting out of your comfort zone and getting creative? Here are four cool things to try this month

Calligraphy

We live in a digital age, when the art of penmanship is on the wane. Calligraphy is a skill that takes practice, but once you master it, you can create objects of real beauty. There are multiple courses online that can help you learn calligraphy, but you can also sign up at a class, which is also a great way to meet people with similar interests. Need some inspiration to get started? There’s an event starting in town today that should get your juices flowing. What: 3RD NATIONAL CALLIGRAPHY ART FEST An exhibition of beautiful Bangla, English and Arabic calligraphy by amateur artists are up on display. The exhibition is a culmination of a calligraphy contest held earlier this month. The winning entries will be shown at the festival. When: August 19-28, 2016 Where: Bangladesh Arts Academy Cordoba Foundation Al-Bashir Plaza (5th floor) 20155 Fakirapul (box culverts Road), Dhaka-1000 Mobile: 01711 356 852 E-mail: artistmahbub@gmail.com

Make your own cookbook

Part of being Bengali means having a deep relationship with food. Our most poignant memories are inextricably intertwined with certain food items, be it a particular halwa served during Shab-e-Baraat, or that hot steaming plate of khichuri on the first rainy day of the year.

As we grow and age, we come across many dishes, some old, some new, each ripe with meaning. Creating your own cookbook is a great way to go down memory lane, and be creative at the same time. Use a binder or a fancy notebook to put all your recipes together. Throw in some pictures, and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece that can easily become a treasured heirloom.

Dance…or learn a new type of dance

Dancing is not only a creative activity, but it also allows you to move and relieve stress. You can try a dancing class, learn on your own, or go out to dance with your friends. You won’t regret trying something new! And if you need a little more motivation, here’s a cool event

PHOTOS: BIGSTOCK

to try: Emk moves presents: isolation a dance exploration of the human body What : Young choreographers will present a contemporary dance exposition that was choreographed collectively to see what 6 souls unite and produce. The initiator of the performance was Lamia Mela, who previously had worked with most of the dancers. The other performers include Mahabub Hossain, Mashrur Rahman and Anandita Khan. The elements they worked with were tied to the human body through its ‘isolation’. A crucial aspect as it is, the human body’s inevitable choice of becoming isolated both cognitively and bodily through growth and age is a belief mostly unnoticed.

Write letters

Other themes they explored were limitations to bodies, the point at which bodies seize to commute, the longings to be heard, and the overcoming of cultural and social barriers. The dancers wanted to collectively put together their own ideas and renditions of bodily movements and provoking thoughts to put a 35 minute presentation. The performance aims to evoke the semblance of ‘Isolations’ within ourselves, and within our minds. Where: EMK Centre, Rd 27, Dhanmondi When: Saturday, August 20, 7-9pm How: Tickets, priced at Tk100 will be available at the venue. Free for EMK Centre/American Centre members upon presentation of ID card.

Writing letters is also a creative activity that you can try this month. Choose beautiful stationary, write with your most precious pen, and send it to a loved one, or a stranger. Or better still, write to us! We’ll print some of the nicest ones next month. Send to: Features Department Dhaka Tribune FR Tower 8/C Panthapath Dhaka 1207 l

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

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Asia Education Leadership Award 2016

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Qayum Reza Chowdhury, chairman, Board of Trustees, UAP received the Asia Education Leadership Award

2016 on August 5 at the Pan Pacific Marina Square, Singapore. Chowdhury is the first founder

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Introducing the steamed bhetki at The Dining Room

La Bamba’s specialties La Bamba has introduced their tandoori oven baked bread with garlic, coriander leaf & top with pure ghee. Moreover, their jhal fry cooked with beef/mutton/chicken, onion, capsicum, green chilli, garlic, herbs and spices is worth a mention as well.l

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20 Editorial

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

TODAY

Mapping the career path of a terrorist We have to recognise that every terrorist -- be he a member of JMB or ISIS, a student of a Madrasa or an Englishmedium school -- has a unique story of turmoil and transformation, which needs to be unearthed PAGE 21

NASHIRUL ISLAM

Swifter migration to Saudi Arabia means greater economic growth

Creating photography beyond borders During the Liberation War, capturing of images was the preservation of the moment that mirrored birth pangs. It was not subjective judgments about the incidence; it was more about the objectivity of the moment. It was authentic history PAGE 22-23

Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/ DhakaTribune. The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors alone. They do not purport to be the official view of Dhaka Tribune or its publisher.

e welcome Saudi Arabiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision to lift its seven-year long ban on the recruitment of Bangladeshi migrant workers, which includes labourers from multiple spheres, both skilled and unskilled, including professionals such as doctors, nurses, and teachers. This decision is going to benefit both nations, strengthening ties between us in the long run, especially considering that, of the nearly 10 million Bangladeshis that are working abroad, more than 60% of them are in the Middle East. The ban, imposed due to allegations of irregularities in the recruitment process and because of global recession, has long been a sore spot in progressing bilateral relations between the two countries. The lift, however, is not applicable to female domestic workers who make up for 60,000 of the 1.3 million Bangladeshis working currently in the Kingdom. This is a matter of concern, as discriminatory policies such as these make no sense, and we would urge the authorities to come up with a solution that includes these workers, who are often the victim of physical and mental abuse. Both the Bangladeshi and Saudi Arabian administrations are in agreement to improve their partnership in the labour sector by addressing issues such as cutting down migration costs, providing training to Saudi Arabia-bound workers, and the recruitment of more workers for mutual benefit. The lift is nothing less than good news for Bangladesh since remittance sent by our hard-working men and women abroad is the second-biggest source of foreign income -- second only to our RMG industry -- for our nation, standing at $14.93 billion. We hope to see more decisions and policies of this kind in place, decisions which will help revitalise trade and investment between the two parties. Bangladesh has already proven how resilient a nation it is when it comes to foreign investment, the only thing left now is for our partnering nations to cooperate.

The lift is nothing less than good news for Bangladesh since remittance sent by our hard-working men and women abroad is the second-biggest source of foreign income for our nation, standing at $14.93 billion

Opinion

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Mapping the career path of a terrorist The only way to stop radicalisation is through research and understanding

Organised radicals or merely disconnected loners?

COURTESY OF DMP

We have to recognise that every terrorist -- be he a member of JMB or ISIS, a student of a Madrasa or an English-medium school -- has a unique story of turmoil and transformation, which needs to be unearthed

n Imran Siddiq

ithin less than a week of the massacre of innocent civilians in an upscale Gulshan restaurant, terrorists attacked an Eid congregation in Sholakia, Kishoregani on July 7, killing two police officers and a bystander. The inspector general of police, after visiting the crime scenes, announced that the two attacks were linked and that the perpetrators were all members of the banned militant outfit -Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). We now know that the attacker at the Eid gathering was 22-year-old Abir Rahman, who had completed his A-level examinations from a reputed English-medium school in Dhaka and was in the final year of business school at North South University, the country’s biggest privately-owned university.

Abir’s socio-economic background would ordinarily have raised a lot of eyebrows -- children educated in good schools and raised in welloff families are not supposed to grow up to be terrorists, after all. But the revelations as to the identity of the Holey Artisan Bakery attackers, and rumblings of Bangladeshi militants promising further attacks (and the subsequent revelation of their pre-militancy identities) appear to have challenged conventional wisdom. Nibras Islam, one of the Gulshan attackers, like Abir, studied at the country’s premier private university. Two other attackers, Mir Samih Mubashir and Rohan Imtiaz, had studied in the country’s best-known Englishmedium school. The video of Bengali-speaking militants, released within a few days of the Gulshan attack, features three individuals who have all been identified by their

colleagues as being educated in top schools and universities. Common to these terrorists is not only their warped understanding of Islam but also their privileged socio-economic background. When I first read about the attackers on social media, I couldn’t help but draw parallels with some of the more wellknown terrorists of our times. Consider, for instance, the case of the infamous Boston marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who came to the US when they were very young, were educated in said country, and were known to have spoken English without an accent. Professor Olivier Roy, a leading expert on Islamic politics, notes that the main motivation of the Boston attacks was not religious and that the attackers, far from being religious, were in fact “disconnected” from the Muslim community.

According to Roy, the attackers were “probably loners and slightly suicidal.” They wanted to become heroes and make headlines. They wanted to end in beauty by doing something extraordinary, he argues. And then, of course, there was Mohamad Bouyeri, murderer of the Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh, who has been described by Professor Ian Buruma, of Bard College, in his book Taming the Gods as someone who was born and raised in Amsterdam, not interested in religion, smoked grass, and learned about his purist, brutal version of faith from “websites, mostly in English, catering to the disaffected and resentful in search of a common cause.” If Bouyeri had been a Russian in the early 20th century, he could have been an anarchist; if he had been a German in the 1970s, he could easily have joined the Red Army faction, Buruma argues. But as a “Moroccan” in 21st century Holland, he was born again as a holy warrior for an Islamic utopia. There is no doubt that we can learn important lessons by studying the lives of contemporary terrorists engaged in their so-called “global jihad.” But it is essential that Bangladesh conducts its own studies. Research groups should be set

up by the government to study the lives of the perpetrators of these horrific attacks: What were their family backgrounds, who were their friends, where did they hang out, how did they perform at school, what was their internet browsing history, what sort of books did they read, and ultimately, what motivated them to their ignominious end. A couple of years back, a research was conducted by Queen Mary University of London, which surveyed over 600 men and women of Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Muslim heritage in London and Bradford, aged 18-45. The survey found “youth, wealth, and being in full-time education” to be risk factors “associated with violent radicalisation.” Of course, these findings are not conclusive. Different socioeconomic and political conditions in different countries means that terrorists in their quest for “martyrdom” and “glory” often pursue vastly different career paths. We need to conduct extensive research to ascertain the local factors and conditions responsible for the radicalisation of a section of the Bangladesh youth. The individual career graph of the terrorist, dead or alive, has to be carefully mapped. Finally, we have to recognise that we’ve made the mistake of over-generalising for far too long. Our urban elite, which pretends to speak for the entire nation, has long blamed the rise of militancy on the “other” -- the poor, ignorant madrasa student, deprived of a mainstream education, waiting to be brainwashed. It is now clear that categorisations of potential or actual militants as belonging to a “particular class” or subscribing to a “particular ideology” have been unhelpful and costly. The growing disenchantment and radicalisation of the country’s technology-savvy generation has been largely ignored. We have to recognise that every terrorist -- be he a member of JMB or ISIS, a student of a madrasa or an English-medium school -- has a unique story of turmoil and transformation, which needs to be unearthed. This could be the starting point for ascertaining the root causes of militancy in Bangladesh and in devising appropriate preventive strategies. l Imran Siddiq is a lawyer practising in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

Opinion

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Drik, Pathshala, and Chobi Mela: Creating photography beyond borders This World Photography Day, let’s celebrate photographers as the unsung heroes of our Liberation War

Preserving history would have been a lot less special without the rise of photography

BIGSTOCK

n Afsan Chowdhury

he war of 1971 produced warriors on many fronts, though we mostly discuss the fighters. There were many non-violent warriors -the women who sustained the family over nine months, hiding young children and themselves as raiders arrived, those who tilled the fields or scraped together a meagre living off odd jobs, those who helped others, and those who prayed and never betrayed. If the worst beast among us was exposed in 1971, so was the best angel. Something clicked inside the Bangladeshi heart, and that click has gone on to produce many other Bangladeshis.It was not just reporting on 1971 that created the space, but the realisation that a war is fought on many fronts. One such front was photography.

Talukder’s dismembered head Talukder’s photo of a

During the Liberation War, capturing of images was the preservation of the moment that mirrored birth pangs. It was not subjective judgments about the incidence; it was more about the objectivity of the moment. It was authentic history

dismembered head of a slain intellectual, framed by bricks and their sharp shadows, is one of the most powerful images of the 20th century which instills a sense of horror and brutality. Talukder, Mohammad Shafi, Jalaluddin Haider, Aftab Ahmed, and Abdul Hamid Rayhan were amongst the press photographers who documented some of the everyday events of 1971. But photography also created images and counter-images, supporting creation of history, and also contested the mainstream

history. But not all images tell stories, and so the missing parts of the images become tales as well. Many images, like the one of unarmed Biharis/Pakistanis being bayoneted to death, also contested the simple straight line narrative of a Liberation War. In the black-and-white domain of the history of a victorious people, the black-and-white image asked too many questions. But that is what photography slowly matured into in Bangladesh. During the Liberation War,

capturing of images was the preservation of the moment that mirrored birth pangs. It was not subjective judgments about the incidence; it was more about the objectivity of the moment. It was authentic history. Some of the finest photojournalists in the world visited Bangladesh in 1971 and took pictures that shook the world. But the trend continued even after the war was over, and it goes on even now. Poverty, famine, and disaster have remained the sole representation of Bangladesh

in international media. It was Western liberal “orientalism” at its full-blown best. But photography has had a long history, even if an inadequate one, in this muddy land. It goes all the way back to the seminal efforts of Abul Kashem Daddy and his glass plates.

Drik and the Bangladeshi photographer

MA Beg of Begart Institute worked to train several professionals and many Sunday photographers much before independence. The images produced were mostly simple ones: The innocent, the pristine, and the “pure,” portraying or searching for a never-never land of imagined serenity. In the asymmetric struggle to establish a visual space, the Bangladeshi photographer, on its own, stood little chance to counter the Western surge through framed images alone. And there was no contest in the fight.

Opinion

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Some of the finest photojournalists in the world visited Bangladesh in 1971 and took pictures that shook the world. But the trend continued even after the war was over, and it goes on even now

RAGHU RAI

The large-scale entry of Western photographers further enhanced the stereotype, however well meaning that entry was. Photography alone couldn’t fight the good fight. It’s at this juncture that Shahidul Alam stepped into the world of Bangladeshi photography. Having worked with international agencies, Alam felt a photo agency made up of Bangladeshi photographers could tell a story that was more of their own. After three terms as president of the BPS, he set up Drik, the first picture library in the country. Photography was no longer just about images, it was also about activism.

RAGHU RAI

‘Let Democracy be Freed’

The imaged domain began to mature as politics found power in pictures. The iconic image of Noor Hossain, with “Let Democracy be Freed” painted on his back, was a turning point in the political struggle against Ershad, a ruler once of the military, and universally dubbed a “dictator.” Photographers were the witnesses of the people, and when the General fell, an impromptu exhibition of photos of the movement caused near riots as people stormed the gallery to get a glimpse. It was their own images of their own hard-earned victory. The photographer, the crowd, and the cause were all becoming one, even if for a few iconic moments.

In 1989, the region’s first photo library, Drik, and the Bangladesh Photographic Institute were set up. Photographers began to develop their own narrative style, and, in that process, the international representation of Bangladesh also began to change. It was not just the market where the footsteps were being heard, but the setting up of Drik’s education wing, Pathshala, that made it concrete. The real transformation began to take place. The World Press Photo (WPP) show reached Bangladesh for the first time in 1993 and soon Pathshala took off. This was a watershed in Bangladeshi photography, which has influenced subsequent progress the most. It began to institutionalise the

system. “Since taking Bangladeshi students to global festivals was not an option, bringing the world to Bangladesh had to be the answer.” Drik teamed up with Contact Press Images to put together an exhibition of largely unseen photographs by many great professionals on Bangladesh 1971. There was strong public interest in the exhibition, but the government attempted to censor the show too, which led Drik to mount it in its own gallery. And it’s this interaction that began to extend the Drik-Pathshala photography spaces even more wide.

Chobi Mela and beyond

The festival, Chobi Mela (picture festival), which began in 2000, has been a great success. A diverse range of photographers kept flowing in from across the globe, and Chobi Mela made it a point to create space for groundbreaking work, deliberately shifting from documentary and news photographs to include conceptual and fine-art practice. Chobi Mela not only provided curatorial opportunities for photographers but also brought peers together from Western Europe, North America, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and numerous other parts of Asia. Shahidul Alam, who leads the photo conglomerate, was himself exploring other imagistic vocabularies, and his intensely political work blended in well with the new languages he was seeking out. The “Crossfire” show, while closed down by the government, received global acclaim, making its way to major museums such as the Tate Modern.

And his most recent work on the abduction of an indigenous activist Kalpana Chakma, using laser etchings on straw, has opened up new possibilities for photographic expression. But it was not just the external world that was focused on, but internal Bangladesh as well. Drik/Pathshala also initiated the Rural Visual Journalism Network (RVJN), which has become one of the best sources of citizen journalism in Bangladesh. Its image source, “Focus Bangla,” provides high-volume and lowcost photography products. RVJN also provides multimedia content, but while the international agency Deutsche Welle regularly broadcasts RVJN content, the national media is still waiting to be convinced. What has happened is the rise of photography as both art and profession. Not only has it achieved greater status in every space, but it exists as a distinct form of social expression much beyond the image. It’s an integral part of activism, social events, and documentation of history. This multiplicity of roles didn’t happen accidentally, but through the organised contribution of many. Just as it includes many famous and unknown clickers, the part played by Drik, Pathshala, and its leader Shahidul Alam must all be considered critical. Together they have organised and uplifted photography from a hobby and subaltern profession to that of a fully-recognised one, in which Bangladesh has done extremely well. l Afsan Chowdhury is a journalist and researcher.

24 Sport

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Jimmy awaits security advice

TOP STORIES

n AFP, London The game of loyalty When the top European leagues are all about professionalism, money and adventure, it is said that the Spanish La Liga is still holding the image of loyalty in football. After a two-month summer break, fans across the world have started to gear up. PAGE 25

Jamaican Thompson wins sprint double Jamaica’s Elaine Thomson overcame a niggling hamstring injury to obliterate her rivals in the women’s 200 metres final on Wednesday and become the first women since 1988 to secure the Olympics sprint double. PAGE 26

Members of England and Wales Cricket Board delegation meet Bangladesh Cricket Board officials in Mirpur yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

ECB delegation ‘satisfied’ with arrangement Uddin Khan & Asif n Minhaz Showkat Kallol

Skipper Mathews hails Herath Skipper Angelo Mathews hailed Rangana Herath as Sri Lanka’s one-legged hero Wednesday after the veteran spinner played through the pain barrier to once again demolish Australia’s batting line-up. PAGE 27

Neymar leads Brazil to Germany rematch Neymar scored twice, including the fastest goal in Olympic history, as Brazil set up a blockbuster revenge showdown with Germany for Olympic gold by thrashing Honduras 6-0 on Wednesday. The sides will meet on Saturday at the Maracana. PAGE 28

The three-member England and Wales Cricket Board delegation visited the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday on the second day of their inspection tour. Along with some Bangladesh Cricket Board directors, the ECB team first inspected the Academy premises and then went to the main ground around 1:00pm. Afterward they had a high-level meeting at the home ministry where, according to the senior home affair secretary Dr. Md. Mozammel Haque Khan, the ECB delegation showed satisfaction with the arrangement. The ECB had raised concern over security following the terrorist attack in Dhaka on July 1. It is understood that the visitors noted the arrangements in Mirpur which will be part of the report which decides the fate of England’s tour of Bangladesh which begins in September. England are scheduled to play two Tests and three ODIs in Dhaka and Chittagong. The tour also includes some warm-up matches.

ECB director of cricket operations John Carr, who is part of the three-member delegation, said that the visit is a part of their routine check and final call will come from the board after they submit a report. “It is always our routine to visit all countries before we tour. We are here for three days, seeing all the facilities – hotels and cricket grounds. We are meeting with the security providers. We are grateful for the BCB and government for their cooperation and assistance. We have been here for more than 24 hours now. We are heading off the Chittagong tomorrow (today),” Carr said at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Bangladesh hold a very good reputation in hosting big cricket tournaments. Just this year, the BCB hosted the ICC U19 Cricket World and the Asia Cup Twenty20. Both events were completed brilliantly and the oraganisers had fetched appreciation for the effort. England U19 team was part of the World Cup. Carr said they are very much aware of the provisions with the recent ICC events and they know

the arrangement in Bangladesh pretty well given England’s previous visits. “We are aware very much of the provisions of the recent ICC events. Reg Dickason has been with the team in Bangladesh before. We are aware of security provisions in recent times provided by the Bangladesh government,” said Carr. “We won’t be saying anything specific about findings. We have to go back and report to the ECB before anything is made public,” he added. Meanwhile, the senior home secretary Dr Mozzaman Haq said, “the ECB delegates showed satisfaction about the security measures and the government has already taken maximum security measures for a possible visit by the England cricket team”. Carr along with the ECB’s security advisor Reg Dickason and Professional Cricketers’ Association chief executive David Leatherdale reached Dhaka on Wednesday after completing their inspection in India where England will travel following their scheduled tour to Bangladesh. l

James Anderson says he will accept the advice of England’s security experts when it comes to deciding whether he should tour Bangladesh. England are due to fly to Bangladesh on September 30 for three one-day internationals and two Test matches. But there have been concerns about the fixtures since an attack by jihadists on a cafe in the capital Dhaka last month in which 20 hostages and two police officers were killed. Britain’s Foreign Office currently advises “there is a heightened threat of further terrorist attacks and foreigners, in particular westerners, may be directly targeted”. An England and Wales Cricket Board delegation led by security adviser Reg Dickason accompanied by director of cricket operations John Carr and David Leatherdale of the Professional Cricketers’ Association are currently making their own security assessment in Bangladesh. Their ECB will await their report before deciding whether to proceed with the tour. Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker, said he and his colleagues would await ECB guidance. “Obviously as players when you’re going on tour somewhere where there have been incidents in the last few months you try to keep tabs on it and there are discussions going on among players,” Anderson said Wednesday at an event staged by England sponsor Brut Sport Style. “Reg is brilliant at his job and he’s looked after us for the best part of 10 years and David is there with the PCA. We’ll get their feedback when they arrive back. “If there are any doubts they will make the call and we trust their ability. “These decisions aren’t -- or really shouldn’t be -- in the hands of players.” Anderson was among England players who returned to India to finish the 2008 series following the Mumbai terror attacks. “The situation is different this time because of the time before the tour goes ahead. In India we were all together as a group,” he said. “I’m sure those of us (who have experience of such trips) will try to help if necessary, but if someone is particularly uncomfortable I’m sure they can raise it with the coach, the captain or a senior official within the ECB.” l

Sport

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

BANGLADESH PREMIER LEAGUE

Muktis flying high n Mazhar Uddin Muktijoddha Sangsad KC registered a comfortable 2-0 win over a struggling Sheikh Russel KC to reach the top of the points table in their JB Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2015-16 encounter at the Bangabandhu National stadium yesterday. Muktijoddha now have three wins and same number of draws from their first six games with twelve points while Sheikh Russel continued their disappointing run facing their fifth defeat in six matches to stand at the bottom of the table with just 1 point. In the other match of the day, Sheikh Jamal defeated Team BJMC 3-2 at the same venue. With the win Jamal equalise with table-toppers Muktijoddha with three wins and draws having inferior goal difference after their six matches. Russel started off confidently but things suddenly got changed when defender Mintu Sheikh attempted to clear a shot of Towhidul

Alam and the ball was guided into his own net in the 11th minute to give Muktis the lead (1-0). Muktijoddha doubled the lead 15 minutes later with defender Monjurur Rahman Manik cutting a long ball to forward Javed Khan on the left flank where Russell defender Nahidul Islam failed to intercept the ball saw his effort went in vain. Javed succeeded to drill the ball into the far post (2-0). The game leaders were denied from the third goal in the 57th minute when Nigerian forward Ahamed Kolo Musa sneaked past the opponent defence carrying a through pass of midfielder Sohel Rana but his right footer shot kissed the crossbar and landed outside. It was almost game over for Russel in the remaining period of the game as they never looked to threat the opponent and eventually ended up with yet another disappointing performance by Maruful Haque’s men as they fly for Bhutan to take part in the AFC play-off qualifiers today. l

Sheikh Russel defender Rashedul Alam Moni (R) attempts to stop Muktijoddha forward Towhidul Alam Towhid during their JB Bangladesh Premier League match at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

The game of loyalty n Fazley Rabbi Moon When the top European leagues are all about professionalism, money and adventure, it is said that the Spanish La Liga is still holding the image of loyalty in football. After a two-month summer break, fans across the world have started to gear up for another exciting season and the main focus will be on England this time where a bunch of prominent managers have taken the rivalry to new level. And specially after observing a new champion Leicester City last season, it will be quite impossible to guess the exact winner and the composition of the top five in the 2016-17 season. In contrast, it’s very easy to predict the top three in Spain as it remains same in the last four editions: Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. All of them are depending on the club legends to manage the team rather than having high-profile managers. Luis Enrique took charge in Barcelona two year ago and already tasted almost all the possible trophies including two La Liga and a

Champions League title. He signed some key players like Luis Suárez, Claudio Bravo and Ivan Rakitić and helped few youth products to make their presence in the squad. Barcelona, winner of the last two Liga seasons, are veritable favourites for the hattrick attempt with their current line-up, led by one of the best player of the planet Lionel Messi. The Argentine’s combination with Neymar and Suarez is a key factor in deciding the Catalan’s target of dominance. So far Barcelona have signed four players, Denis Suarez, Andre Gomes, Samuel Umtiti and Lucas Digne. Suarez and Gomes will add some much needed depth in centre. Umtiti is a good enduring signing at centre back while Digne is a versatile defender.

Zinedine Zidane is the latest edition to La Liga excitement when the France and Real Madrid legend replaced manager Rafa Benítez in the Los Blancos side at the start of this year. The icon not only won his first ever El Classico in Camp Nou but also led a dismal Real Madrid side to their La Decima. It has been almost four years since Real won the league title but a couple of Champions League trophy boosted them to maintain their royal status. Winning Euro 2016 will surely boost Cristiano Ronaldo to end the temporary drought while player like Casemiro, Isco, Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez will be ready to show their individual class. This season Real brought back Alvaro Morata but beyond that they have

done nothing in the transfer market. Real face an impending transfer ban that will likely cover this January’s window and next summer’s window. The real challenge for Zidane will be to maintain the team bond to get the best out of his outstanding players which was a real concern for them in recent years. Diego Simeone has delivered a lot of success for Atletico in the past five years despite having high-profile superstars. After winning the Europa League and Copa del Rey in first two seasons, the Argentina legend led Atletico to their first league title in 18 years in the 2013-14 season. In addition, he has managed to get to the final of the Champions League twice but unfortunately, lost on both occasions. Among the top three, undoubtedly Atletico have the best coach at present and they will heavily rely on Antoine Griezmann, one of the best forwards in La Liga last season, scoring 22 times in 36 appearances and from a variety of positions as well. Simeone is always been very tight and choosy about singings as Nicolás Gaitán from Benfica and Kévin Gameiro from Sevilla are the highlights of the latest entries in Atletico this season. But all of this will go out of the window when the matches start tonight. The on-paper theories will give away to the reality of what is likely to be another awesome season.l

5 bowlers found illegal, but can play till Nov 15 n Tribune Report The BCB’s bowling action review committee has deemed five bowlers with illegal bowling actions but didn’t suspend them immediately. Five other bowlers were given the clean chit by the committee, three weeks after all ten bowlers, who were reported for suspected action during the 2016 Dhaka Premier League, completed their assessment in Mirpur. Left-arm spinners Faisal Hossain and Amit Kumar and off-spinners Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammad Sharifullah and Asif Ahmed are still allowed to play domestic cricket till November 15 this year but they must complete the bowling action reassessment by this date to have any chance to play thereafter. During this time they are free to play while the BCB will pay for their remedial work and reassessment. But there was good news for left-arm spinners Moinul Islam and Naeem Islam jnr and offspinner Sanjit Saha who the committee found to have a legal action and are eligible to bowl. Meanwhile, left-arm spinner Rezaul Karim has been allowed to bowl all deliveries except his armball while pace bowler Mohammad Saifuddin is not allowed to bowl his slower delivery.l

Sport

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

MEDAL TALLY COUNTRY UNITED STATES

30 32 31

GREAT BRITAIN

19 20 12

93 51

CHINA

15 20

GERMANY

RUSSIA

JAPAN

FRANCE

ITALY

NETHERLANDS

AUSTRALIA

REP KOREA

HUNGARY

SPAIN

KENYA

JAMAICA

NEW ZEALAND

Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson (3L) crosses the finish line to win Women’s 200m Final during the athletics event at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday

BRAZIL

KAZAKHSTAN

CANADA

Jamaican Thompson wins sprint double

CROATIA

UKRAINE

DPR KOREA

CUBA

Updated yesterday (9pm)

DAY THIRTEEN EVENTS TO WATCH ATHLETICS Men

50km walk

5:00PM

Women

pole vault

5:30AM

hammer throw

6:05AM

Men Women

5000m

6:40AM

Women

4x100m relay

7:15AM

Men

4x100m relay

7:35AM

20km walk

11:30PM

Women

BADMINTON Women

singles

8:00PM

Men

doubles

8:50PM

SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING Women

team

9:00PM

CYCLING - BMX Women

individual

12:00AM

WATER POLO Women

tournament

Women

light 60 kg

12:30AM

BOXING 1:00 AM

FIELD HOCKEY Women

tournament

2:00AM

FOOTBALL Women

tournament

2:30AM

WRESTLING Men’s Men

freestyle 74 kg

2:30AM

freestyle 57 kg

3:30AM

TAEKWONDO Women

67 kg

7:00AM

Men

80 kg

7:15AM

n Reuters, Rio De Janeiro

Jamaica’s Elaine Thomson overcame a niggling hamstring injury to obliterate her rivals in the women’s 200 metres final on Wednesday and become the first women since 1988 to secure the Olympics sprint double. Thompson’s dominant victory emulated American Florence Griffith Joyner, the last woman to win both 100 and 200 gold medals at the same Games. Racing with a sparkly headband, Thomson made a brilliant start that helped her surge ahead of the field and after the bend she never looked like relinquishing

her lead to win in 21.78 seconds. Thompson’s victory over prerace favourite Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands ensured Jamaica maintained its grip on the Games’ most prestigious sprinting titles. “My school motto was ‘let the light shine’ and I let my light shine tonight,” Thompson told reporters. “It’s a big surprise to me because I have had a hamstring injury. You must overcome these things and tonight I am standing here with a gold. To beat Dafne is a hard run.” After the race Thompson said she was shocked by her Rio success and revealed she had watched on the internet Joyner’s races from

1988. The Jamaican was born in 1992. Thompson, who won a 200m silver in the 2015 world championship, also credited her stunning performance to being able to overcome the hamstring injury sustained during the Jamaican Olympic trials. “I had rough days training but I did not let that overcome me. I’m a warrior,” she said. Schippers, the world champion in the event, ran her fastest time of the season in the final, clocking 21.88 seconds but she was still disappointed by the result. “I haven’t made my mind up about what happened. I’m not hap-

Farah reaches 5,000m final n Reuters, Rio De Janeiro

Mo Farah survived another stumble to battle through to the final of the 5,000 metres on Wednesday as the Briton remained on course for a prized Olympic distance ‘double-double’. Farah recovered from a fall to win the 10,000 gold last weekend and almost went down again on the last lap of his heat in the shorter race after being clipped by American Hassan Mead, who did fall and missed out on qualification. An initial appeal by the Americans was rejected but a second plea, offering new video evidence, was accepted and Mead was installed in the field for Saturday’s final. Farah is seeking to become the second man after Finland’s Lasse Viren in 1976 to retain both the 5,000m and 10,000m titles but said he still felt the strain of the longer race in his legs during Wednesday’s

run in 32 degrees Celsius heat. “It’s hot, I’ve just got to recover... I haven’t recovered (from the 10,000m) as well as I’d wanted,” Farah said.

Farah just about retained his balance after his stumble to qualify safely in a heat won by Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet, who is likely to be one of his chief rivals in the final. l

Mo Farah of Britain competes during Men’s 5000m Round 1 at Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Wednesday REUTERS

AFP

py with the silver,” Schippers said. “I came for gold. I was in good form. My times were okay but they were not strong enough. It’s heavy to run six races.” Schippers sustained a leg muscle injury ahead of the 100m final and said she had almost pulled out of the Games. American Tori Bowie, who won a silver medal in the 100m final, grabbed bronze, capping a meteoric rise for the former long jumper who only switched to sprinting in 2014. “My goal today was to finish as best I could and I’m leaving with another medal,” she said. “Who couldn’t be thankful for that?” l

Bartoletta lands long jump gold n Reuters, Rio De Janeiro Tianna Bartoletta shrugged off 100 metre disappointment to land the women’s long jump gold medal on Wednesday, edging out defending Olympic champion and United States team mate Brittney Reese with a personal best leap of 7.17m. Bartoletta, 30, the reigning world champion, produced her top mark in the fifth and penultimate round after the slow-starting Reese, who fouled with three of her first four jumps, had taken the lead with a 7.09m leap in the same round. Reese, who has won more global long jump titles than any other woman, had one last chance to snatch gold but her final round jump of 7.15 was just shy of her compatriot’s mark and she had to settle for a silver. It was the first time the U.S. had won gold and silver in the event.l

Sport

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

QUICK BYTES AC Milan sign midfielder Sosa from Besiktas AC Milan have signed Argentine midfielder Jose Ernesto Sosa in a two-year deal from Besiktas for a contract termination fee of 7.5 million euros ($8.45 million), the Turkish champions said on Wednesday. “For its midfield, AC Milan was looking for an experienced, professional player with the will to do well,” Milan said. –REUTERS

Jedinak joins Aston Villa from Crystal Palace Aston Villa have signed Australia midfielder Mile Jedinak from Crystal Palace on a three-year contract, the Championship side confirmed on Wednesday. The 32-year-old joined Palace from Turkish club Genclerbirligi in 2011 and featured 27 times in the Premier League last season. –REUTERS

Mario Gomez signs for Wolfsburg Germany international forward Mario Gomez signed for VfL Wolfsburg on Wednesday, marking his return to the Bundesliga after a three-year absence. The 31-year-old striker left Bayern Munich for Italy’s Fiorentina in July 2013, and spent last season on loan at Besiktas where he scored 26 league goals as he helped the club win the Turkish league. –REUTERS

DAY’S WATCH OLYMPIC GAMES STAR SPORTS 1 4:30PM, 12:30AM Rio Olympic Games 2016 Daily live coverage

FOOTBALL STAR SPORTS 4 1:00AM English Premier League Manchester United v Southampton

SONY SIX 1:00AM Spanish La Liga Malaga v Osasuna

TEN 1 12:15AM DFB Pokal (German Cup) Carl Zeiss Jena v Bayern Munich

TEN 1 7:00PM New Zealand Tour of South Africa 1st Test, Day 1

TEN 2 7:00PM India Tour of West Indies 4th Test, Day 2

Andy Murray of Great Britain hits a return to Juan Monaco of Argentina on Day 5 of the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio on Wednesday

AFP

Murray and Nadal roll, Raonic outslugs Isner n Reuters

Olympic and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray picked up where he left off in Rio by drubbing Argentina’s Juan Monaco to take his place in the third round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Wednesday. Murray, who with his gold medal triumph at the Rio Games became the first player to repeat as Olympic singles champion, notched his 19th successive match victory by a 6-3 6-2 margin in what amounted to a nice workout for the 29-year-old

Scotsman. The Wimbledon winner scored the first break of the opening set in the eighth game and served out the set. After seemingly enjoying the long rallies, Murray had his right shoulder massaged on the changeover before the second set and rattled off four games in a row from 1-1 to turn it into a rout. His victory set up a third-round match against South African Kevin Anderson with a berth in the quarter-finals at stake. Top-seeded Murray’s victory

was in contrast to numerous big battles in the U.S. Open run-up event and a slew of tiebreakers. Third-seeded Spaniard Rafa Nadal, winner of gold in the Olympic men’s doubles, avenged a defeat to Pablo Cuevas in February with a 6-1 7-6(4) win over the Uruguayan. Fourth seed Milos Raonic of Canada won a heavy artillery battle with John Isner 7-6(5) 7-6(5) for his first win after three career losses to the American. Raonic said he had just spent 10 days in New York working with John McEnroe. Seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tson-

Mathews hails Herath, Lanka’s one-legged hero n AFP, Colombo Skipper Angelo Mathews hailed Rangana Herath as Sri Lanka’s one-legged hero Wednesday after the veteran spinner played through the pain barrier to once again demolish Australia’s batting line-up. The 38-year-old Herath took seven for 64 in Australia’s second innings of the third and final Test, finishing with 13 wickets in the match, to confirm his status as the outstanding player of the series. But it was an even more remark-

able feat given that he had to retire hurt while batting in Sri Lanka’s first innings after being struck in the groin while putting on a gritty 33 at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Herath visibly struggled at times in both the Australian innings in Colombo but such was his value that he remained skipper Angelo Mathews go-to man throughout as he sent down 56 overs. “He was fantastic. He was bowling off one leg,” Mathews told reporters as he singled out Herath while assessing the reasons behind

Sri Lanka’s first ever clean sweep in a series against a major Test team. “He couldn’t run and he couldn’t jump. He was just landing the ball on one leg and he is unbelievable. “The batsmen are having a nightmare facing him no matter how well they play spin. Credit should go to this man. He has been a great team man as well.” Herath took a total of 28 wickets in the three Tests, including a match-winning five for 54 in the first match in Pallekele and a hattrick in the second in Galle. l

ga of France enjoyed his own double tiebreaker win over American Reilly Opelka 7-6(5) 7-6(3). Second-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka overcame 18-year-old American wild card Jared Donaldson 2-6 6-3 6-4 in a match carried over from rainy Tuesday and will next face his doubles partner Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. Tiebreakers decided two three-set encounters. Borna Coric, 19, of Croatia came back from 2-5 in a climactic decider against Australian Nick Kyrgios by winning five of the last six points to claim the tiebreak 8-6.l

Sport

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Roma hold Porto, Monaco win at Villarreal n AFP, Paris

Pogba poised for second Man United debut n AFP, Manchester

Ten-man Roma held on to draw 1-1 at Porto in the first leg of their Champions League play-off on Wednesday, while Bernardo Silva gave Monaco a 2-1 victory over Villarreal in Spain. Luciano Spalletti’s Roma are looking to reach the group stages for the third time in a row, and they took a 21st-minute lead at the Estadio Dragao when Porto defender Felipe put through his own net. But the momentum swung four minutes before half-time when Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen, making his debut following a loan move from Barcelona, was sent off for a second yellow card. The hosts still struggled to break their Italian opponents down, but were awarded a penalty when Emerson handled in the area. Monaco took control of their clash with Villarreal, as they looked to bounce back from losing at this stage to Valencia a year ago. Elsewhere, Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad saw off Viktoria Plzen 2-0 with goals from Cosmin Moti and Virgil Misidjan, while Irish side Dundalk will need a famous win in Poland next week if their dream run is to continue after a 2-0 home defeat to Legia Warsaw. l

Four years after he left through the back door, Manchester United will roll out the red carpet for Paul Pogba’s second debut in Friday’s Premier League home game with Southampton. Pogba first donned a United first-team shirt when he came on as a half-time substitute for Ryan Giggs in a 3-0 League Cup win over Leeds United in front of 31,031 people at Elland Road in September 2011. His return to action for the club will not be so inauspicious, after United paid Juventus a world-record 89 million pounds (105 million euros, $116 million) to bring the French midfielder back to Old Trafford. Pogba has not played since France’s 1-0 loss to Portugal in the Euro 2016 final, but he told the Manchester Evening News: “You have to ask the manager, but I feel very good and have been training for 10 days. “I am quite used to this. I played the World Cup two years ago when at Juve and three years ago I was at the Under-20s World Cup as well. “So I am OK. It is about your body and I have been training on my holidays.” Pogba, 23, missed United’s 3-1 win at Bournemouth last Sunday due to a suspension carried over from last season’s Coppa Italia, but his lack of match fitness meant he was unlikely to have featured anyway. Should he play from the start, United manager Jose Mourinho must decide where he is going to play. Mourinho has started the season with a 4-2-3-1 formation and Pogba is expected to take up one of the midfield berths in front of the back four. Much has changed since Pogba’s last United appearance, in a 5-0 league win away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in March 2012.l

RESULTS Celtic

5-2

Rogic 9, Brown 85 Griffiths 39, 45+1, Dembele 73,

Villarreal

1-2

Pato 36

FC Porto

Monaco Fabinho 3-P, Silva 72

1-1

Silva 61-P

Ludogorets

HB Sheva Lucio Maranhao 55, Melikson 57

Roma Felipe 21-og

2-0

Viktoria Plzen

Moti 51-P, Misidjan 64

Dundalk

0-2

Legia Warsaw Nikolic 56-P, Prijovic 90+4

Neymar of Brazil celebrates scoreing past goalkeeper Luis Lopez of Honduras during Men’s Football Tournament Semifinal at Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Wednesday REUTERS

‘Monster’ Neymar leads Brazil to Germany rematch n AFP, Rio de Janeiro Neymar scored twice, including the fastest goal in Olympic history, as Brazil set up a blockbuster revenge showdown with Germany for Olympic gold by thrashing Honduras 6-0 on Wednesday. The sides will meet on Saturday at the Maracana just two years after Germany inflicted Brazil’s heaviest defeat of all time in a 7-1 thrashing in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals at the same stadium. World champions Germany reached their first Olympic final as a unified nation as Lukas Klostermann and Nils Petersen netted in a 2-0 win over Nigeria in Sao Paulo.

RESULTS Brazil

6-0

Honduras

Neymar 1, 90+1 P, Gabriel Jesus 26, 35, Marquinhos 51, Luan 79

Germany

2-0

Nigeria

Klostermann 9, Petersen 89

Neymar had been much criticised for lacklustre displays in two 0-0 draws to start the tournament. But his transformation from the nation’s whipping boy back to golden boy was capped by his determination to open the scoring after just 15 seconds. “Neymar is a monster. He has

the gift of playing football, he delights everyone with his talent,” said Brazil coach Rogerio Micale. “Neymar deserves our gratitude because he pushes Brazil to a higher level.” The Barcelona star hounded defender Johnny Palacios to rob possession on the edge of the Honduras box and goalkeeper Luis Lopez’s attempt to atone for his teammate’s error only ricocheted the ball off Neymar’s midriff and into an empty goal. Germany will be hoping to recreate happy memories of Rio as they followed up beating Brazil to lift the World Cup at the Maracana with a 1-0 win over Lionel Messi’s Argentina two years ago.l

Turan fires Barca to Cup glory n Reuters, Madrid

Two goals from Arda Turan and one from Lionel Messi gave Barcelona a 3-0 win over Sevilla in the Spanish Super Cup second leg on Wednesday to seal a 5-0 aggregate victory. The La Liga and King’s Cup champions led 2-0 after the first leg in Seville and Turan’s opening goal early in the first half set Barca on their way to a big win at a packed Nou Camp. The Turkish midfielder picked up a pass from Messi in the ninth minute, ran in on goal and drove a

left-foot shot past goalkeeper Sergio Rico. Sevilla’s Vicente Iborra had a 30th-minute penalty kept out by Claudio Bravo after Samuel Umtiti was penalised for a handball. Turan’s second came one minute after the re-start when he launched an audacious curled shot from 30 yards to stun the Sevilla keeper and send the ball into the top corner. Messi made sure of Barca’s first trophy of the season when he headed Lucas Digne’s pass out of Rico’s reach. “To win a title before the start of La Liga is great,” Barca midfielder

Sergio Busquets told Telecinco TV. “We did a fantastic job last season and we are hungry for titles.” Barca were without Neymar, who was on Olympic duty with Brazil, and injured trio Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Jeremy Mathieu and Andres Iniesta. But Barcelona coach Luis Enrique handed new signings Umtiti, Denis Suarez, Andre Gomes and Lucas Digne their first competitive starts. A minute’s silence was observed before kick-off in honour of former FIFA president Joao Havelange, who died this week. l

FC Barcelona celebrate with the trophy after winning the second leg of the Spanish Supercup against Sevilla at the Camp Nou in Barcelona on Wednesday AFP

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Representatives (6) 5 Small spot (3) 7 Fanatical (5) 8 Mental acuteness (6) 10 Church’s seat (3) 12 Have dinner (4) 13 Conclude (3) 14 Catch sight of (4) 16 Sudden wind blast (4) 17 Resinous substance (3) 18 Lawsuit (4) 20 Encountered (3) 23 Things to be done (6) 24 Bishop’s headdress (5) 25 Drinking vessel (3) 26 Abstract (6)

DOWN 1 Absent (4) 2 Oozes out (6) 3 Tendency (5) 4 Of sound mind (4) 5 Immerse (3) 6 Lyric poem (3) 9 Vast sum (coll) (4) 11 Crooked (3) 14 Comfort (4) 15 Picturesque (6) 16 Adhesive (3) 17 Light beer (5) 18 Fish (4) 19 Speaker’s platform (4) 21 Flightless bird (3) 22 Gratuity (3)

Downtime

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 3 represents N so fill N every time the figure 3 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. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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

Showtime

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

An artist in need, is an artist indeed

n Showtime Desk Iconic pop singer Taylor Swift frequently makes news because of events related to her boyfriends or her gorgeous life style. But there is another side to this celebrity

musician. Swift is someone who is always there for people, to help them, to stand beside in need. Last year, Taylor donated $50,000 to New York City public schools. Shortly afterwards, she gave another $50,000 to a fan who had

cancer. Recently she has done yet another exemplary charity work. With all the daily drama coming out of Rio and from the mouth of a certain cotton candy-haired real estate mogul, the current situation in Louisiana hasn’t been receiving

Nirab Hossain lands Bollywood role

its rightful place at the top of every news broadcast, but it’s almost unimaginably horrific. At least 11 have been killed and thousands have lost their homes in flooding of historic proportions. Swift cut a check for $1 million

JDJ- Govinda special n Showtime Desk

n Showtime Desk Young Bangladeshi actor Nirab Hossain has collaborated with Bollywood director Faisal Saif for his new horror flick Balaa. The actor recently flew to Mumbai for an exclusive photo shoot of the film, Nirab posted on Facebook. Balaa is a horrorthriller which explores themes on Shia-Sunni culture and it’s controversial understandings. The film also stars Bollywood actress Kavita Radheshyam alongside Nirab. Kavita, who once rejected the wild card entry offer for the sixth series of the

reality show Bigg Boss, gained notoriety as the Kim Kardashian of India, as described in a top UK tabloid. On June 30, the actor was signed to work in the film. The shooting will take place in

Bengaluru, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in India. Produced by Faith Pictures, the film has a total of four songs. Sheryar Tiwana will compose the music of the film. The actor took one and half months to share the news with the press. Nirab said “I am considering it as a milestone in my acting career. I am excited to work in it.” Director Faisal Saif is famous for his films such as Jigyaasa, 5 Ghantey Mein 5 Crore, Main Hoon Rajinikanth, Amma and Shraap. Presented by MT Media & Films, the film is scheduled for a December release. l

to the state’s disaster relief fund. Then the singer issued the following statement to fans via social media, “We began The 1989 World Tour in Louisiana, and the wonderful fans there made us feel completely at home. The fact that so many people in Louisiana have been forced out of their own homes this week is heartbreaking. I encourage those who can to help out and send your love and prayers their way during this devastating time.” Perhaps even more meaningful than her financial contributions, however, are the ways in which the hard-working singer takes time out for her fans who are going through difficult times. Taylor has visited children’s hospitals to hang out and sing for terminally ill kids on multiple occasions. Her open letters to fans who have suffered losses or who have been victims of bullying have been a source of solace for many. Taylor has unquestionably used her position to do some good in the world. l Source: Hollywood Life

Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 9 is gathering steam by the day. It has already seen celebrity guests like Tiger Shroff and Sonakshi Sinha. The upcoming episodes will have Govinda as a celeb guest. It is of course the perfect show for the actor who is known all over for his dancing prowess. Of course, he took to the stage to show his nifty moves in the episode yet to air. The other judges were the usual ones and they also had a gala time. With Govinda’s appearance the theme for the episode is likely to be very retro. The actor was his flashy self in a silver jacket. Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa is one of the most watched shows on TV and this year has an exciting line up of contestants. Besides Helly, it has TV stars like Shakti Arora, Arjun Bijlani and Shantanu Maheshwari. Jacqueline Fernandez looked resplendent in a rose pink gown with jewels in that episode. Giving her company was Helly Shah. The actress danced to one of Sridevi’s iconic numbers on the show with choreographer Jai Kumar Nair. Helly is one of the cutest girls around and is a self-confessed fan of Jacqueline Fernandez. l

Sahana Bajpaie calls for peace n Rupkotha Chowdhury Music has no boundary. In 1971, when the new born Bangladesh was in a humanitarian crisis, musicians from different parts of the world came together to show solidarity with the newly born nation. They arranged concerts for Bangladesh and made us proud to be independent. Despite the transcendent and unifying nature of music, a recent incident has created discord between Bangladeshi and Indian music lovers. On the special occasion of the Independence Day of India, Miles and Fossils, two leading bands from Bangladesh and India respectively, were scheduled to perform at the Azaadi concert. The show was to go on air from Red FM on August 13. But Fossils raised objections about sharing the same platform

with Miles. They claimed that some members from Miles had constantly and continuously been posting hateful comments from their Facebook profiles regarding India. A Facebook fan page began the hashtag trend #BoycottMiles and pointed out how the main members of Miles (Hamin Ahmed and Shafin Ahmed) have ceaselessly slandered India with “distasteful comments” since the 2014 World Cup days. After that, Fossils also declared their stance with the campaigning fans saying, “as for Fossils, it is very clear that our only objection was about the performance of Miles – whose music we have all grown up listening to but they have been extremely vocal against India openly in their social networking pages.” This incident caused hurtful feelings among music lovers on

both sides of the border. While some musicians jumped in to inflame the rift further, there have been some who were disheartened and troubled by the whole episode. Sahana Bajpaie, a noted Rabindra sangeet artist based in West Bengal in India, recently expressed her disappointment in an article she wrote in Ananda Bazar. She wrote about her experience in Bangladesh, good memories, loving people and their hospitality. Bajpaie mournfully wrote that people of these two countries should not stop talking about their rights.

Versatile and prolific Canadian film director Arthur Hiller, whose sentimental Love Story starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal was the biggest hit of 1970 and stands as one of the most popular romantic movies ever made, died on Wednesday at the age of 92, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said. Hiller, whose work also included successful collaborations with playwrights Neil Simon and Paddy Chayefsky, died of natural causes in Los Angeles, the Academy said in a statement. The director was the president of the Academy, which hosts Hollywood’s annual Oscars ceremony, from 1993 to 1997, and served as a longtime member on the organization’s Directors Branch. Current Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said the organization was “deeply saddened” by Hiller’s death. “I was a member of the Board during his presidency and fortunate enough to witness firsthand his dedication to the Academy and his lifelong passion for visual storytelling,” Boone Isaacs said. Hiller directed more than 30 films from 1957 through 2006 covering a range of genres including comedies, dramas, tearjerkers, war stories, satires and musicals. He guided five different actors - O’Neal,

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

WHAT TO WATCH Clash of the Titans HBO 9:30pm Perseus is the mortal son of the Olympian god Zeus and the leader of a band of heroes who embark on a new adventure destined to be told for ages as the unforgettable mythology of the ancients. Casts: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes

She thinks that it is natural to talk about the problematic issues. “But let us not make cricket matches an excuse for rotten jingoism,” Bajpaie wrote. She asked muscians to rise above shallow nationalism saying that “music has no boundaries.” This bold article by Sahana has brought some much needed calm and rationality after a lot of mud slinging. l

‘Love Story’ director Arthur Hiller dies at 92 n Reuters

Showtime

MacGraw, George C Scott, Maximilian Schell and John Marley - to Oscar-nominated performances. His films were nominated for 15 Academy Awards, winning two. Hiller’s adventure comedy Silver Streak marked the first screen pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor and became one of the top box office hits of 1976. Hiller also collaborated with Chayefsky on two notable films - the anti-war comedy The Americanization of Emily (1964) starring James Garner and Julie Andrews and the dark satire The Hospital (1971) starring Scott. He joined forces with Simon for the comedies The Out of Towners (1970) with Jack Lemmon and Plaza Suite (1971) with Walter Matthau. Love Story, Hiller’s biggest success, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture and Hiller as best director. It won only one Oscar, for best original score, as Patton, starring Scott, swept the top awards. Love Story was a tale of ill-fated lovers - privileged Oliver (O’Neal) and working-class Jennifer (MacGraw). It featured one of the most famous movie lines of the 1970s: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” It was uttered twice: once by MacGraw to O’Neal and then at the end of the movie by O’Neal to his judgmental and disapproving father, played by Ray Milland. l

Snow White and the Huntsman Star Movies HD 2:07pm Snow White, imprisoned daughter of the late king, escapes just as the Magic Mirror declares her the source of the Evil Queen’s immortality. The Queen sends her men, led by a local huntsman, to bring her back. But upon her capture, the huntsman finds he’s being played and turns against the Queen’s men, saving Snow White in the process. Casts: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron The Four WB 10:29pm To stop the circulation of counterfeit coin currency in the capital, a government department known as the Six Panels appoints their best officer to infiltrate a special force called the Divine Constabulary. Casts: Chao Deng, Yifei Liu, Ronald Cheng, Collin Chou

Abduction HBO Hits 6:49pm The teenager Nathan feels outcast at home; has nightmares; and is shy. His father practices selfdefense with him; he has consultations with the psychologist Dr. Bennett; and he has a crush on his classmate and next door neighbor Karen (Lily Collins). When he finds a website with photos of missing children with Karen, he suspects that he might have been adopted. Casts: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs l

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

ENVOYS FOR MORE UNIONS IN RMG SECTOR PAGE 12

ECB DELEGATION ‘SATISFIED’ WITH ARRANGEMENT PAGE 24

'Afsana was concerned about her safety'

Afsana Ferdous

n Kamrul Hasan Just a day before Afsana Ferdous was killed, Afsana spoke to close friend and a fellow political activist when she expressed concern about her own safety. Mahmuda Kha, a leader of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, said Afsana called her around 11:15am on Friday, asking her to meet at the TSC in Dhaka University. “She said she was in some kind of trouble and wanted to speak to me about it,” Mahmuda told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. But Mahmuda was ill and resting at home, so she asked Afsana to visit her at home instead because Afsana had often been there. “But she did not come. As I was ill, I could not enquire after her. She sounded afraid

when we talked. When she did not visit me, I thought she had changed her mind. Then on Sunday I found out about her death.” The grieving friend now regrets not meeting Afsana on Friday night. “I couldn't help Afsana even though she was afraid that she was in danger. If I had not been ill and could meet her that night, she might be alive now.” Asked if she knew about Afsana's new address, Mahmuda said she did not, but she did know that Afsana had moved in to a new flat in Manikdi, Dhaka. She also could not recall the names of Afsana's new roommates, even though their names came up in conversations. Afsana's brother Fazle Rabbi told the Dhaka Tribune that Afsana moved to Dhaka three years ago. She was a student at SAIC Institute of Management and Technology in Mirpur. The rest of the family – Rabbi, another sister and their mother – lives at their village home in Thakurgaon. Regarding Afsana's new residence, Rabbi said she did not know where she had moved into. “She had said she had shifted to a new flat with two of her acquaintances in Manikdi, but I don't know if they were from her university or other circles.” Mahmuda confirmed that Afsana's roommates were not affiliated with Bangladesh Chhatra Union. Rabbi said: “When I asked her about her new home, she said it was not good and she was going to move out after Eid, at the end of September.” Police yesterday said they had made significant progress in the investigation of Afsana's murder, but did not disclose any information to protect the investigation. Kafrul police station OC Sikdar Mohammad Shamim Hossain said no one had been arrested or detained in the case as yet. He also said no murder case was filed in this regard and this case is being considered an unnatural death.

sana and urged the government to take initiative to properly try her murderers, regardless of their political identities. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Chhatra Union demanded immediate arrest of the people involved in Afsana's death, including Bangladesh Chhatra League Tejgaon College unit's Organising Secretary Habibur Rahman Robin, who is the prime suspect in the case.

Announcing their programme yesterday, Chhatra Union leaders said they would hold nationwide protests today and a march to the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday, reported our DU correspondent. Chhatra Union President Lucky Akter, General Secretary SM Zilani and other leaders spoke at the press conference held at Modhur Canteen in Dhaka University. l

Protests demanding justice for Afsana

Bangladesh Mahila Parishad issued a press release yesterday demanding justice for Af-

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