DT e-Paper, Friday, November 4, 2016

SECOND EDITION 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 | Kartik 20, 1423, Safar 3, 1438 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 187 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages plus 24-page Weekend supplement | Price: Tk10 

New JMB planned big attack for Dhaka 

• Arifur Rahman Rabbi 

New JMB had plans to stage a big 

terror attack in Dhaka, police learnt 

from four firearms smugglers arrested 

by the Counter-Terrorism 

and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) 

unit of police in the capital’s Darussalam 

area on Wednesday. 

In preparations for the attack, 

the New JMB members brought 

787 detonators and a 9mm pistol to 

Dhaka, which were smuggled into 

the country from India through the 

border in Chapainawabganj’s Shibganj 

upazila, the detainees said 

during their primary interrogation. 

They were identified as Md Abu 

Taher, 37, Mizanur Rahman, 34, Md 

Selim Miah, 45, and Taufiqul Islam 

alias Dr Taufiq. All of them are natives 

of Shibganj upazila and active 

members of New JMB, said Masudur 

Rahman, deputy commissioner 

(media) of Dhaka Metropolitan 

Police (DMP). 

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune 

yesterday, he further said they 

brought the gun and the detonators 

in shopping bags. 

“These four also supplied the 

firearms and explosives used in 

Gulshan attack,” he added. 

A case was filed against the four 

with Darussalam police station under 

the Anti-Terrorism Act. 

According to the case, the four 

were part of a group who arrived to 

Darussalam on a long-distance bus 

on Wednesday night. 

CTTC officials were waiting 

there following a tip-off and approached 

the group when they got 

off the bus. As the group tried to 

flee, the officials were able to catch 

the detainees while four or five 

others managed to escape. 

They were produced before a 

Dhaka court yesterday where Dhaka 

Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha 

Rani Chakraborty placed them 

on remand for three days. 

The arrestees may be shown arrested 

in the Gulshan attack case as 

well, sources said. 

During interrogation, the New 

JMB operatives also confessed that 

they smuggled firearms and explosives 

via the Bangladesh-India 

border in Shibganj in preparation 

for violence on a massive scale in 

Bangladesh, Masudur Rahman told 

the Dhaka Tribune. 

Investigators suspect that New 

JMB’s Chapainawabganj zone leaders 

Mizanur Rahman alias Boro 

Mizan and Mizanur Rahman alias 

Chhoto Mizan alias Tara supervise 

the smuggling operations. 

Interrogators further learnt that 

Chhoto Mizan collected the weapons 

and explosives of Gulshan attack 

and delivered them to Tamim 

Ahmed Chowdhury and Nurul Islam 

Marjan, he added. • 

Distraught and baffled Hindu women of Ghosh Para of Nasirnagar are 

now worried about their very existence 

MAHMUD HOSSAIN APU 

Rasraj remanded, his 

phone to be tested 

• Adil Sakhawat from 

Brahmanbaria and 

Arifur Rahman Rabbi 

INSIDE 

A Brahmanbaria court yesterday 

placed Rasraj Das, an illiterate 

fisherman from Nasirnagar 

area, on a five-day remand 

for sharing a blasphemous 

photo on Facebook. 

Senior Judicial Magistrate 

Sultan Sohag Uddin gave the 

order after Nasirnagar police 

produced Rasraj, 30, before 

the court seeking his seven-day 

remand in a case filed 

under the ICT Act. 

SI Mohiuddin Ahmed Sumon 

filed the case Saturday 

night, hours after the youth 

was caught by local radical 

Muslims and beaten up for 

the Facebook post shared on 

his timeline on Friday. The 

post was, however, removed 

after his friends informed him 

about it. 

Meanwhile, Brahmanbaria 

police said that they would 

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4 

Authorities now 

defying laws 

Defying clearly outlined legal 

regulations, the Chittagong 

Development Authority (CDA), 

has itself cut hills and hillocks 

for developing a housing project. 

PAGE 7 

240 dead in migrants 

shipwrecks off Libya 

At least 240 migrants have died 

in two shipwrecks off Libya. The 

information was confirmed by 

two survivors brought ashore 

on the Italian island of 

Lampedusa. PAGE 32

2 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 

DT 

News 

PM: Zia involved in Aug 15, jail killings 

• Mohammad Abu Bakar 

Siddique 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with her party leaders places floral wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the occasion of Jail Killing Day 

at 32 Dhanmondi yesterday 

FOCUS BANGLA 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 

claimed that Ziaur Rahman was 

involved in the tragic killings on 

August 15 and November 3 in 1975. 

“Not only Khondaker Mostaq 

Ahmad but also Ziaur Rahman 

was directly involved in the killings,” 

the premier said this while 

addressing a discussion organised 

by Bangladesh Awami League (AL) 

marking the Jail Killing Day in city’s 

Krishibid Institute yesterday. 

Sheikh Hasina said: “The 

self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu 

and the national leaders said 

in various interviews with foreign 

media with pride that how Ziaur 

Rahman backed them in the killings. 

“Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda 

Zia also rewarded the killers during 

subsequent despotic regimes,” 

added the PM. 

On this day in 1975, four national 

leaders - Bangladesh’s first prime minister 

Tajuddin Ahmed, first vice-president 

Syed Nazrul Islam, AHM Kamruzzaman 

and Captain Monsur Ali, who 

led the War of Liberation in 1971, were 

brutally killed in captivity inside the 

Dhaka Central Jail. 

Hasina, also the president of 

AL, said: “The anti-liberation forces 

killed Bangabandhu to take 

revenge of their defeat in the War 

of Liberation while the four national 

leaders were killed so that 

the pro-liberation force can never 

come to power in future.” 

Sheikh Hasina, also the chair of 

the programme, mentioned that 

after usurping the power Zia introduced 

communal politics and rehabilitated 

banned Jamaat-e-Islami 

in Bangladesh politics violating the 

constitution’s Article 12 and 38 imposing 

military promulgation. 

“Apart from rehabilitating all 

anti-liberation forces who opposed 

Bangladesh’s independence, Ziaur 

Rahman also allowed communal 

politics in the country which Bangabandhu 

declared illegal through 

article 12 and 38 of the constitution,” 

claimed the PM. 

Sheikh Hasina added: “Ziaur 

Rahman introduced curfew democracy 

by enforcing nationwide curfew 

during his entire regime, making 

the whole country into a prison.” 

PM also alleged that Bangladesh 

had to witness 19 coup attempts 

as the outcome of illegal capture 

of power by Zia and Mostaq which 

affected the country’s armed forces 

most. She said: “Ziaur Rahman 

had killed 565 officers of Air force 

through organising camera trial.” 

Condemning BNP chairperson 

Khaleda Zia for whitening her black 

money Sheikh Hasina said now 

she is even afraid of appearing the 

count as she misappropriated the 

money of orphans. 

The prime minister accused 

BNP of snatching away the rights 

of bread and vote of the people and 

said the party had set example of 

vote rigging and manipulation asking 

BNP leaders to look back to their 

past as they are suspicious about a 

free and transparent election. 

She said how Bangladesh can 

forget the incidents of killing, torture 

and intimidation perpetrated 

by BNP-Jamaat from 2001 to 2006. • 

Home boss praises police for 

controlling Nasirnagar attacks 

• BSS 

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan 

has said that the law enforcement 

agencies controlled the whole situation 

after sudden attacks at Nasirnagar 

in Brahmanbaria. 

“Police did not fail to tackle the 

overall situation and our Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina has already 

sent a team to the spot for taking 

necessary measures,” he told 

newsmen at his ministry office yesterday 

afternoon. 

Earlier, over 100 people were injured 

when a mob of around 3,000 

local Muslims armed with weapons 

demolished at least 10 temples and 

vandalised hundreds of houses of 

the Hindu community at Nasirnagar 

upazila in Brahmanbaria on 

October 30, reportedly in response 

to a Facebook post that satirised 

the Masjid al-Haram, a holy site for 

Muslims. 

‘Police did not fail 

to tackle the overall 

situation’ 

The alleged defamatory post appeared 

on the Facebook timeline 

of local Hindu youth, Rasraj 

Das. The incident occurred even 

though Rasraj had already apologised 

to Muslims the day before, 

saying that his account had been 

hacked. 

The home minister said that a 

team, under the direction of the 

prime minister, has investigated 

the spot, found out the problem 

and made a list of those who have 

been affected. 

“Necessary measures have been 

taken to find out why and how this 

untoward incident occurred,” the 

minister said. 

Meanwhile, one more was arrested 

over attack on temples at 

Nasirnagar. The arrestee is Mohiuddin 

Ahmed Belal, local police 

said. 

The 30-year-old was spotted 

in a video footage of the attack, 

they said. The latest arrest 

takes the number of those 

arrested in connection with the attacks 

to 10. • 

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 

Rasraj remanded 

send the mobile phone, seized 

from Rasraj, to the Criminal Investigation 

Department (CID) for forensic 

test. 

“We have received the court 

order today [yesterday]. We will 

send the mobile phone to the CID 

in Dhaka on Saturday or Sunday,” 

Brahmanbaria Superintendent of 

Police Mizanur Rahman told the 

Dhaka Tribune yesterday. 

Locals close to Rasraj have said 

that the youth who owns a fish 

farm in the area is an illiterate person 

and does not know how to operate 

Facebook. His friends opened 

the account and used to post contents 

on his behalf. Those persons 

have not been identified yet. 

Following his arrest, local Islamist 

groups campaigned in the 

area using loudspeakers of the 

mosques asking all to attend a protest 

rally at Nasirnagar playground 

Sunday morning. 

From the rally, some 3,000 people 

later attacked and destroyed 

at least 12 temples and vandalised 

hundreds of houses in the nearby 

area leaving over 100 Hindus injured. 

They also looted valuables 

from the temples and houses. 

The mob was reportedly instigated 

by the local leaders of radical 

Islamist groups Ahle Sunnat Wal 

Jamaat and Hefazat-e-Islam, and 

several Awami League leaders. 

Dhaka Tribune has learnt that 

Rasraj’s Facebook profile was used 

by someone else, who shared the 

photo of Lord Shiva sitting atop the 

Kaaba, originally posted by a profile 

named Washim Bd. 

Over the same issue, radical 

Muslims of Madhabpur in nearby 

Habiganj district attacked two 

temples following a protest rally on 

Sunday. SP Mizanur said: “It is very 

difficult to say that Rasraj was not 

involved. The matter is still under 

investigation.” 

Meanwhile, the OC of Nasirnagar 

police, Md Abdul Kader, withdrawn 

by the Police Headquarters 

on Wednesday for negligence in 

duties, has been reinstated upon 

recommendation of local lawmaker 

Md Sayedul Haque. •

News 3 



COMMUNAL ATTACK 

Judicial probe demanded 

• Manik Miazee and 

Nure Alam Durjoy 

Sammilita Samajik Andolon has 

urged the government to form an 

independent judicial probe committee 

to investigate recent attacks 

on Hindu community and temples 

in Nasirnagar of Brahmanbaria, Habiganj 

and Gopalganj. 

Oikya NAP (National Awami Party) 

President Pankaj Bhattacharjee 

made this call from a human chain 

held in front of the National Museum 

in Dhaka yesterday. There he 

also demanded compensation for 

the Hindu families and temples that 

were affected during the attack. 

At the human chain, Pankaj 

claimed that local Awami League 

supporters and local administration 

were involved in the attack, and if 

the local administration were capable 

of taking immediate measures, 

the incident would not have happened. 

“Immediate arrest of the attackers 

is required not only to protect 

the minority community but also 

to establish a non-communal society 

in the country,” he said. 

On the same note, social media 

has been bursting into an outcry 

protesting violent sectarian attacks 

in different parts of the country. 

Amid thousands of virtual protests 

on Facebook and Twitter, activists 

from different walks of life have 

come together to hold a protest rally 

against the sectarian attack also 

demanding immediate arrest and 

trial of the communal terrors. They 

announced a torchlight procession 

at 4pm today at Shahbagh. 

Writers, artists, cultural activists 

and citizens are to join the protest 

to support the cause. 

Baki Billah, one of the organisers 

of this protest, said this rally 

is imperative to begin an effective 

movement against the communal 

attacks across the country. 

Activists have initiated a protest 

event on Facebook through which 

they said that the venom of sectarianism 

has spread across the state 

because the government and its 

administration have been fuelling 

these communal attacks. 

One of the activists commented: 

“The leaders and followers of the 

ruling party have no moral courage 

to stand against these attacks 

because their people have been 

on the forefront to suppress Hindu 

communities.” 

The event page further reads 

that the country is heading into a 

state of deep darkness and is moving 

further away from the spirit of 

the Liberation War of 1971. There 

is no freedom of speech for Bangladeshis 

now. On the other hand, 

the approach of development that 

has been imposed forcibly on the 

people does nothing for peoples’ 

cultural development. 

“We want to make it clear that the 

government has to take responsibility 

of this situation and solve this immediately”, 

an activist urged. • 

NHRC: Land grabbing behind Nasirnagar attack 

• Afrose Jahan Chaity 

National Human Rights Commission 

(NHRC) Chairman Reazul Hoque 

said the attacks on temples 

and homesteads of Hindu minority 

community in Brahmanbaria were 

premeditated and intentionally 

executed, might be with an aim to 

grab land. 

“I am sure the attacks were premeditated. 

A day before the attack, 

announcements were made urging 

people to join the protest rally,” he 

said yesterday at a press briefing at 

NHRC conference room, organised 

to inform media about what the 

commission’s fact finding committee 

learnt visiting Nasirnagar. 

The NHRC chairman said: “The 

attacks might have been carried out 

intentionally with an aim to grab 

their (Hindus’) lands. The attack 

was aimed to make the Hindu minority 

community think that they 

are left without any option save 

migration.”NHRC boss said, “Lives 

Purnima Das of Ghoshpara village under Nasirnagar upazila in Brahmanbaria sits among her damaged belongings that are left 

after her house was looted on October 30 

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU 

and properties of Hindus are at 

stake. They are living in a very risky 

situation at present like they experienced 

during the Liberation War.” 

When asked whether this country 

is safe for minorities, NHRC 

boss said: “Nowadays Hindu minorities 

are decreasing. A vested 

group in the country, since long, is 

trying to create fear among them. 

If this group becomes successful, 

the rest of the minority Hindus will 

eventually migrate.” 

“The attacks were intentional 

and premeditated. The miscreants 

involved in the attacks were seemingly 

misguided youths. Another 

interesting similarity is that all the 

attacks took place at a same time 

in a same pattern. So, it’s a clear 

indication that there is someone 

behind this who gave them instructions, 

fixing the time and pattern,” 

added the NHRC chairman. 

Mentionable, the NHRC on Tuesday 

formed a fact-finding committee, 

led by NHRC member Enamul 

Haque Chowdhury. The three 

member team Wednesday visited 

all those places attacked and spoke 

to more than 100 people including 

priests, eye witnesses, victims, and 

officials of local administration. 

According to the NHRC report, 

Nasirnagar locals have raised allegations 

against five influential locals 

who are Maolana Nurul Islam 

from Jethagram, Tajuddin Ahmed 

from Dakmandap, former UP member 

Oli, Faruk Molla from Kharakpara, 

and Sobuj Hazi. 

Locals also said to the committee 

that local Awami League leaders 

also attended the rally and gave 

hateful speeches there, instigating 

the attackers to demolish Hindu 

temples and homesteads as a religious 

responsibility. 

The NHRC chairman said, “In 

past, we have experienced such 

horrible audacity in Ramu and 

other places. Man, it is said, learn 

from mistakes. But, local administration 

it seems didn’t learn 

anything. They allowed them to 

hold the hateful rally. The local 

administration even didn’t take 

any precaution, although from the 

mike announcements made in the 

previous evening it was very clear 

that the organisers of the rally are 

preaching hate and intolerance.” 

Informing that the NHRC do not 

think Rasraj Das had uploaded the 

doctored photo of Kaaba Sharif on 

his facebook wall, Reazul said, “He 

is an illiterate person. It is not possible 

for him to doctor a photo and 

upload it. Moreover, it goes against 

the common sense that a minority 

Hindu would upload such a photo 

on his own Facebook wall.” 

More than 100 people were injured 

when an unruly mob of around 

3,000 local miscreants from the majority 

Muslim community armed 

with locally-made weapons demolished 

at least 12 temples and vandalised 

hundreds of houses of the Hindu 

community at Brahmanbaria‘s 

Nasirnagar upazila on October 30. • 

2 more Hindu 

temples 

vandalised in 

Jessore, Barisal 

• Anisur Rahman Swapan, 

Barisal and Tauhid-Uz- 

Zaman Jessore 

In the wave of attacks on Hindu 

temples and their houses 

across the country, unknown 

people vandalised two temples 

and desecrated idols in two districts 

in the last 24 hours. 

In Barisal, five idols were 

damaged by miscreants at the 

Central Hori Sobha Temple in 

Banaripara Bazar area early 

yesterday, reports our Barisal 

correspondent. 

Eyewitness Renuka Debnath 

said: “Some masked men entered 

the temple around 6:15am 

and vandalised the idols with 

crowbars before the leaving the 

place in around five minutes.” 

Vivekananda Kundu, president 

of the temple management 

committee, said that they 

had never witnessed such communal 

attack since the temple 

was established 60 years ago. 

He urged the law enforcers 

to tighten security in the area 

to avoid further attacks. 

A case was filed over the incident. 

OC Ziaul Ahsan of Banaripara 

police said that they were 

trying to arrest the attackers. 

Superintend of Police SM 

Akhtaruzzaman visited the 

area around 11am. 

In Jessore town, two youths 

were caught red handed after 

they vandalised four to five 

idols of Dashpara Kali Temple 

around 10pm Wednesday. 

Police later arrested the duo 

– Shamim, son of Abdul Barek 

from Dharmotola of the town, 

and Jasim Hawlader, son of 

Tipu Hawlader of Sujolpur area 

in the town – and filed a case 

against them, reports our Jessore 

correspondent. 

OC of sadar police Ilias Hossain 

claimed that the youths 

were drug addicts. They first 

attacked the priest of the temple, 

Sadhon Kumar Paul, and 

then vandalised the idols as 

Sadhon tried to resist them. 

Locals rushed to the spot 

after hearing screams and 

nabbed the duo. SI Aurun Kumar 

filed the case. 

The OC said that additional 

police were deployed in the area. 

On October 30, at least 19 

Hindu temples and Puja pavilions 

in Brahmanbaria, Habiganj 

and Gopalganj districts were 

vandalised over allegations 

of disrespect shown to Islam 

on Facebook by a youth. More 

than 100 people were also injured 

in the attacks. •

4 



News 

Biswa Ijtema 

to begin on 

January 13 

• Shohel Mamun and 

Mohammad Jamil Khan 

Biswa Ijtema, one of the largest 

congregations of Muslims, 

will begin on January 

13 on the bank of the Turag 

River in Tongi. 

It will be held in two phases 

like previous years- first phase 

of the Ijtema will be held on 

January 13-15 and the second 

phase on January 20-22. 

Security measures for the 

Ijtema were discussed at a 

meeting at Home Ministry 

yesterday. 

Home minister Asaduzzaman 

Khan Kamal told reporters 

that around 20,000 

Muslims from 101 countries 

including cabinet members 

and policy makers from all 

over the world attended the 

Ijtema last year. 

“The number of the Muslims 

from abroad is likely to 

be higher this year. So we 

have decided to ensure adequate 

security during Ijtema 

2017,” he said. 

The minister also said the 

authorities will ask for list of participants 

from the Muslim countries 

that are now facing political 

unrest in their countries. 

A committee, headed by 

Dhaka Divisional Commissioner 

has been formed to 

monitor and take necessary 

measures to ensure a safe 

52nd Ijtema for all. 

Saying that highest security 

measures will be taken for 

the Ijtema, the minister said 

a focal point will be assigned 

to ease on-arrival visa hassles 

for the foreign guests coming 

to attend Ijtema. 

A reception desk with Special 

Branch officials and representatives 

from Tablig Jamaat 

will be installed at the airport 

to welcome foreign guests. 

Police, both in uniform 

and plain clothes and detective 

branch officials will 

be at the Ijtema field and 

surrounding areas to ensure 

security of the premises and 

the guests. There will also be 

an archway, watch tower and 

CCTV camera at the entry 

points and the strategic locations 

for security purposes, 

the minister added. 

The two phase Ijtema programme 

will be broadcasted 

on television, he concluded. 

The Ijtema was held once 

a year for all from 1967 to 

2011 and was divided in two 

phases since 2011 to accommodate 

more people. • 

Sammilito Samajik Andolan forms a human chain in front of National Press Club demanding punishment to those involved in the attacks on minority Hindu community 

in different parts of the country yesterday 

MANIK MIAZI 

Break-in at rooms holding 

Dhaka’s land records 

• Kamrul Hasan 

Three rooms at the Directorate of 

Registration’s Dhaka office containing 

land records of Dhaka Sadar, 

Uttara and Tejgaon were broken 

into on Wednesday night. 

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Tejgaon 

Shailpanchal Police station 

Abdur Rashid confirmed the breakin 

to the Dhaka Tribune and said it 

took place at the new building of 

the complex. 

Police were at the spot and working 

with the officials to find out 

what had gone missing, he added. 

“We were informed around 

10am that the locks of three unit 

offices – Dhaka Sadar, Uttara and 

Tejgaon – had been broken into 

and we immediately rushed to the 

spot,” OC Rashid said. 

Police found the locks on the 

rooms were broken, but the lock on 

the main entrance of the building 

was untouched. 

Police detained all 14 security 

guards and some of the deed writers 

and sub-deed writers from the 

building, Land deed writer Enamul 

Haque told the Dhaka Tribune. 

“Especially those who work at 

the units or the adjacent units,” he 

added. 

Enamul said that the staff 

learned of the incident around 

10:30am and since then outsiders 

have been barred from the building. 

Some who had entered the building 

before 10:30am were escorted out 

by police after body search. 

Another deed writer of the office 

asking not to be named told the 

Dhaka Tribune that police had also 

detained Jahangir and Badal, two 

men who supply tea in the office 

and a Mohhammad Ali who owns a 

nearby tea-stall. 

The source said some men working 

for the local ward commissioner 

were also detained, but the police 

would not corroborate this claim. 

The men always stayed at the office 

during night, the source alleged. 

Inspector General of Registration 

(IGR) Khan Md Abdul Mannan, 

who is the head of the directorate, 

declined to comment when called 

and remained unreachable afterwards. 

• 

Petrobangla seeks proposal from international 

oil company for 3 blocks in Bay 

• Aminur Rahman Rasel 

In response to expressions of interests 

(EoIs) submitted last month, 

Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral 

Corporation (Petrobangla) yesterday 

sought requests for proposal 

(RFP) from three international oil 

companies (IOCs) to explore and 

develop oil and gas resources in 

Bangladesh’s deep sea blocks DS-10 

and DS-11 and shallow sea block SS- 

10, said concerned sources. 

On October 19, Singapore-based 

Kris Energy, South Korea’s Posco 

Daewoo International Corporation 

and Norway’s Statoil submitted expressions 

of interests (EoIs) for the 

deep and shallow sea blocks. 

Earlier on September 28, stateowned 

Petrobangla invited EoIs to 

explore and develop two deep-sea 

blocks and one shallow sea block in 

the Bay of Bengal under the Speedy 

Supply of Power and Energy (Special 

Provision) Act-2010. 

“We have sought RFP from the 

three IOCs. Now, the interested international 

oil companies that are 

deemed best suited to perform 

the operation will be short-listed,” 

Petrobangla Director Jameel A Aleem 

told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. 

Unlike usual bidding rounds, 

the government will purchase oil 

and gas from the Bay of Bengal at 

a competitive price to be quoted by 

the IOCs in their RFPs. 

In previous bidding rounds, 

Petrobangla fixed the prices for oil 

and gas in the model production 

sharing contracts (PSC) before the 

Ahle Sunnat 

denies 

involvement 

in communal 

attack 

• FM Mizanur Rahaman, 

Chittagong 

The Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, 

which is blamed for having instigated 

communal violence in Brahmanbaria, 

yesterday demanded 

judicial probe into Sunday’s attacks 

on the Nasirnagar Hindu community. 

The outfit also denied their involvement 

in the incident. 

At a press briefing at the Chittagong 

Press Club yesterday morning, 

they demanded exemplary 

punishment to the attackers as well 

as for the defamation of the Holy 

Kaaba. • 

launching of the bid. 

Moreover, the government has 

decided to sign a deal with Daewoo 

International for exploration 

at the deep sea gas block 12. In this 

regard, the Energy and Mineral Resources 

Division placed a proposal 

for the approval of the Cabinet 

Committee on Economic Affairs. 

The proposal is yet to be approved. 

According to the proposal placed 

before the cabinet, Petrobangla 

will buy 1,000 cubic feet of gas at 

$6.5 per unit from Posco Daewoo. •

News 5 


Supreme Court gives Citycell two weeks 


• Ashif Islam Shaon 

The country’s first mobile operating 

company Citycell got the apex 

court’s nod to continue its operation 

until November 19. 

Within the date, it will have to 

pay Tk100 crore to Bangladesh Telecommunication 

Regulatory Commission 

(BTRC) to continue its operations 

and if it fails, the telecom 

regulator may cancel its spectrum 

again. 

The court also ordered formation 

of a special dispute resolution 

committee to fix in a month the 

total amount of money the CDMA 

network operator will pay as dues 

to the BTRC. 

Disposing off a Citycell plea seeking 

back its spectrum, a four-member 

bench of the Appellate Division 

headed by Chief Justice Surendra 

Kumar Sinha yesterday asked the 

government to immediately reinstate 

the spectrum allocation and 

fixed a fresh deadline. 

The BTRC cancelled Citycell’s 

spectrum on October 20 and 

shut down its offices after it failed 

repeatedly to pay various fees. 

Citycell then moved with the apex 

court seeking its spectrum allocation 

back on October 24. 

Following Supreme Court’s order, 

BTRC’s lawyer Khandoker Reja-e-Rabbi 

said the regulator has 

already started restoring the spectrum 

of Citycell. 

“As it is a technical issue, it 

could take some time,” he said. 

The BTRC has been saying that 

the company owes it Tk477.69 

crore in spectrum renewal fee, annual 

licence and spectrum fee, VAT 

and late fees put together. 

But Citycell disagreed over the 

amount, saying it should be much 

less since the regulator’s method of 

determining the amount was flawed. 

During yesterday’s hearing, 

Citycell’s counsel told the court that 

in their view, the due amount is Tk216 

crore of which they have already paid 

Tk144 crore in instalments as per a 

previous court directive. Of the money, 

Tk14 crore was paid to the National 

Board of Revenue. 

The counsels alleged that the 

company had not been provided 

with the promised spectrum allocations 

for use in Dhaka and elsewhere, 

for which the demanded 

spectrum fee should be lower. 

The BRTC counsel countered, 

saying they had reduced the 

amount to Tk397 crore. But Citycell 

disagreed with the asking amount. 

The court then fixed the second 

instalment at Tk100 crore to be 

paid by November 19. It formed a 

three-member committee headed 

by Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury, 

comprising one commissioner 

(spectrum) of the BTRC and its 

joint secretary to resolve the dispute 

over the amount. 

“We hope the committee will 

make a decision within a month 

and it will be considered as final,” 

the chief justice said while delivering 

the order. 

The court also asked the BTRC 

and Citycell to pay Tk5 lakh each to 

remunerate the committee members. 

Besides, Citycell will pay its 

daily fees regularly to the BTRC. 

Barrister Rokon Uddin Mahmud 

represented Citycell along with AM 

Aminuddin and Mostafizur Rahman 

Khan while Attorney General 

Mahbubey Alam, Sheikh Fazle 

Noor Taposh and Khandoker Rezae-Rabbi 

represented the BTRC. 

Reja-e-Rabbi later told reporters 

that during the hearing the court 

pointed out that in Bangladesh 

Telecommunication Act 2001 there 

are no arbitration, appeal or review 

system if there is any dispute over 

the fees between the BTRC and any 

mobile company. 

The court asked the BTRC counsels 

to convey to the Telecommunications 

Ministry that it should think 

about taking steps to include such 

provisions in the law. The counsels 

told the court that they would advise 

the ministry over the issue. 

Asked why the BTRC had reduced 

the demanded amount, a 

counsel said the new figure was 

already settled and undisputed. It 

was fixed to remove confusions. 

At first the figure was fixed upon 

the rate for 10MHz spectrum which 

Citycell was allotted. 

But as the BTRC could not provide 

it, the amount was revised for 

8.82MHz spectrum. 

On the other hand, Mostafizur 

Rahman Khan said the revised 

amounts proved that the BTRC’s 

demand was wrong. 

“As per our calculation we have 

already paid Tk144 crore of the total 

accepted dues of Tk216 crore, 

and we will have to pay just Tk100 

crore more. We hope the money 

will be adjusted,” he said. • 

Tax payers are seen filing tax returns at the Tax Fair, 2016. The photo was taken yesterday 

14 more Ansar withdrawn over rape 

• Kamrul Hasan 

Fourteen more Bangladesh Ansar 

members were withdrawn from 

Dhaka Medical College Hospital 

(DMCH) today after six other were 

already withdrawn over the alleged 

gang rape of a woman on October 28. 

As of now, all Ansar members 

present at DMCH at the time of 

rape have been withdrawn from 

the hospital. 

Dhaka District Commander of 

Bangladesh Ansar and VDP Saifullah 

Rasel confirmed the matter to 

the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday. 

Commander Saifullah said: 

“Since rape allegations have been 

made, it is best to deploy new Ansar 

men at the hospital to start afresh.” 

“A new platoon has already been 

deployed there,” he added. 

A meeting was also held on 

Thursday afternoon at the Ansar 

and VDP Headquarters in Khilgaon 

where the rape allegation was scheduled 

for priority but this correspondent 

found no updates on the matter 

till the time of filing this report. 

A total of 20 Ansar members 

MEHEDI HASAN 

were withdrawn from DMCH camp 

and two new platoon commanders 

– Abdur Rouf and Nazrul Islam 

have joined the camp. 

Meanwhile, the victim’s brother 

told the Dhaka Tribune that he 

would like to take his sister back to 

Comilla if the concerned authorities 

released her. 

The rape surviour is currently 

undergoing treatment at a victim 

support centre in Tejgaon. 

Shahbag OC Abu Bakar Siddique 

said one of accused had been arrested 

and others will be arrested soon. • 

President’s power to appoint 

judges challenged 

• Ashif Islam Shaon 

A writ petition has been filed with 

the High Court challenging the legality 

of Article 116 and 95 (1) of the 

constitution. 

Supreme Court lawyer Md 

Yunus Ali Akond filed the petition 

yesterday seeking a rule upon the 

government why both the articles 

should not be declared illegal. 

The law, justice and parliamentary 

affairs secretary, cabinet secretary, 

speaker of parliament and 

the Supreme Court registrar were 

made respondents of the petition. 

The Article 95 empowers the 

president to appoint Supreme 

Court judges in consultation with 

the chief justice. On the other hand, 

the Article 116 allows the president 

to appoint lower court judges, give 

promotions and grant leave. 

The president is not independent 

as he acts on advice of the prime 

minister under Article 48 (3) of the 

constitution, the petitioner said. 

Yunus argues that the authority 

to appoint the Supreme Court judges 

and to control the lower court judges 

should be vested upon the Supreme 

Court. The apex court’s judgement 

in Masdar Hossain case also said so. 

In the petition, the lawyer 

termed the articles contradictory 

with the spirit of the independence 

of the judiciary. 

On Monday, Chief Justice Surendra 

Kumar Sinha said that the constitutional 

provisions were behind 

the slow pace of judiciary, and advocated 

for reinstatement of the 

original article. 

The next day, Law Minister Anisul 

Haq termed the chief justice’s 

advocacy contradictory. • 

TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY 

Dhaka 28 23 Chittagong 30 24 Rajshahi 30 23 Rangpur 29 20 Khulna 27 23 Barisal 27 23 Sylhet 29 22 

Cox’s Bazar 30 24 

DRY WEATHER 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 

DHAKA 

TODAY 

TOMORROW 

SUN SETS 5:18PM 

SUN RISES 6:07AM 

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW 

34.7ºC 

16.6ºC 

Chuadanga 

Tetulia 

Source: Accuweather/UNB 

PRAYER 

TIMES 

Fajr: 5:25am | Jumma: 1:15pm 

Asr: 4:15pm | Magrib: 5:35pm 

Esha: 7:45pm 

Source: Islamic Foundation

6 



News 

Ruling party men grab 20- 

acre railway land in Bogra 

• Nazmul Huda Nasim, Bogra 

Local leaders Awami League and 

influential have grabbed at least 

20-acre land in Bogra railway station 

defying the government law. 

According to local sources, local 

AL leaders and influential built up 

markets in the Eastern and Western 

sides of the Karatoya Bridge 

near the station by grabbing railway’s 

land. 

Locals alleged that railway authorities 

sometime conduct eviction 

drives against the grabbers but 

grabbers again grab the lands after 

few days of the drives. 

Sources of Borga railway station 

wishing anonymity told to the 

Dhaka Tribune that railway banned 

land lease system in 1997 but the 

authorities used to give lease the 

land of the station illegally by taking 

huge amount of bribe. 

Officials of railway claimed that 

setting up buildings within 20 feet 

of the rail track is totally illegal. 

But several local leaders of AL set 

up markets near the railway truck 

and rent them to local traders. Few 

corrupted officials helped the grabbers 

to set up the markets on railway 

lands by giving them lease the 

land defying laws. 

Grabbers also filled up two 

ponds of railway in Kamarbari area 

in the town and set up markets 

there. Local people requested to 

the railway authorities to recover 

the ponds but their efforts went 

in vein. Mokarrom Hossain, an official 

of Bogra railway station also 

filed a case against the grabbers in 

this connection. 

Apart from these, grabber also 

grabbed railway lands at in front of 

Government Azizul Haque College, 

Tinmatha and Bafar godown areas 

in the town. 

On September 5, a team of railway 

led by Dr Abdul Mannan, head 

of land of Rajshahi Divisional Eastern 

Railway, conducted eviction 

drives at Eastern side of the Karatoya 

Bridge and Tinmatha areas. 

During the drives the team evicted 

hundreds of tiny shops but they 

did not conducted drive at Western 

part of the bridge. 

When contacted, Benjurul Islam, 

acting superintendent of 

Bogra railway, told that railway authorities 

conducted drives against 

the grabbers and confiscated their 

wealth. Drives against the grabbers 

will begin again, he claimed. • 

People belong to the ruling party Awami League have set up a market at Kamarbari, Bogra grabbing land of railway. The photo 

was taken yesterday 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

Ilish fishing resumes 

after 22 days 

• Shah Alom 

A 22-day ban on catching, selling, 

transportation and hoarding of Ilish 

in Bangladesh imposed on October 

12, by the Fisheries and Livestock 

Ministry ended yesterday. 

During the period, a massive 

combined operation was carried 

out at all the fisheries ghats, warehouses, 

hat-bazars and chainshops 

across the country. 

The fisheries department, navy, 

air force, coast guard, police, river 

police, RAB, BGB, district and 

upazila administrations including 

the Fisheries and Livestock Ministry 

implemented the ban. 

The ban had been observed successfully, 

said the sources. 

In Barisal, during the restriction 

period, 942 mobile courts 

were operated, 3949 Kg fish seized, 

29.27 lakh meter net recovered and 

burnt, 357 cases lodged, 273 fishermen 

jailed and Tk12.07 lakh realised 

as fine for violating the ban, 

said Azizul Huq, assistant director 

at Barisal office of Fishery Department. 

Bazlur Rashid, divisional officer 

and deputy director of the department, 

claimed the imposed ban 

against netting, marketing, and 

transportation of the fish was observed 

successfully across the division. 

In Chandpur, a mobile court on 

October 27 fined four minor boys 

Tk2,000 each for catching the fish 

at Rajarajeshwar of Sadar upazila in 

the Padma River defying the ban. 

A mobile court led by executive 

magistrate Farjana Alam arrested 

the four minors, aged between 12 

and 14 years, while they were netting 

fish in the Padma river around 

2pm and fined them Tk 2,000 each. 

Later, the mobile court released 

the boys on bond under the custody 

of Rajarajeshwar union parishad 

chairman Hazrat Ali. 

A massive awareness rising 

campaign to protect mother Ilish 

had been undertaken in Haimchar 

upazila of the district in an area 

stretching 100 kilometres in the 

Meghna River. 

In Madaripur, a mobile court 

sentenced nine fishermen to seven-day 

jail for catching Ilish in the 

Padma River defying the ban. 

A team of the mobile court 

jointly led by Shibchar Upazila 

Executive Magistrate Mohammad 

Shafikul Islam conducted a drive at 

different points of the Padma River 

and arrested the fishermen while 

they were catching the fish, said 

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Shibchar 

police station Md Zakir Hossain. 

In Munshiganj, a mobile court 

arrested 16 fishermen along with 

50 kg mother Ilish and convicted 

14 to one-month jail and fined two 

others Tk5,000 each for catching 

mother hilsa illegally from the Padma 

River at Shimulia ghat under 

Louhajang upazila. 

Sub-Inspector (SI) of Mawa river 

police camp Nazmul Islam said, 

law enforcers raided the area from 

Monday morning till 1pm and arrested 

the fishermen with the hilsa. 

Later, a mobile court led by Executive 

Magistrate and Louhajang 

Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md 

Khalequzzaman announced the 

verdict against the fishermen. 

In Barguna, a mobile court jailed 

12 fishermen to one month for defying 

the ban. • 

Accused placed on 

fresh remand over 

minor girl’s rape 

• Bipul Sarkar Sunny, 

Dinajpur 

A Dinajpur court yesterday 

placed the main accused 

in the five-year-old girl’s 

rape case on a seven-day 

remand. With the remand, 

he was put on remand for 

the second time. 

The court also issued 

arrest warrant for another 

accused of the case Afzal 

Hossain Kobiraj. 

Senior Chief Judicial 

Magistrate Krishna Komol 

Roy passed the order after 

Saiful Islam was produced 

before the court by Investigation 

Officer of the case 

Sub-Inspector Swapan 

Chowdhury in the afternoon. 

On October 17, the minor 

girl went missing while 

she was playing. Later, the 

girl was found in a critical 

state at a field in the next 

morning. 

Being suspicious over 

the movement of Saiful, father 

of the girl filed a case 

against him on that day. 

On October 24, police 

arrested Saiful from Eidgah 

Slum area of the district. On 

October 27, he was placed 

on a 7-day remand. • 

Minor girl 

raped 

• Raihanul Islam Akand, 

Gazipur 

A six-year-old girl was allegedly 

raped by a 45-year-old man in Tongi 

of Gazipur. 

Police arrested the man Jamal 

Uddin on Wednesday night after 

Ershad Mia, father of the victim, 

filed a case with Tongi police station 

on the night. 

The victim was sent to Shaeed 

Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College 

and Hospital in Gazipur yesterday 

for medical examination. 

The police said the man raped 

the girl, while she was alone at her 

home. Police said father, Ershad 

did not file the case earlier, as locals 

took an initiative to settle the 

matter by giving a monetary compensation 

to the father, who is a 

day-labourer. •

News 7 


SILIMPUR HOUSING PROJECT AT SITAKUNDA 

Authorities now illegally cutting hills in Chittagong 

• Anwar Hussain, Chittagong 

Defying clearly outlined legal regulations, 

the Chittagong Development 

Authority (CDA), a statutory 

authority for planning and development, 

has itself cut hills and 

hillocks for developing a housing 

project in Silimpur residential area, 

Sitakunda upazila, Chittagong. 

An investigation team from the 

Department of Environment (DoE), 

Chittagong paid a visit to the housing 

project site on October 31 and 

found evidence of cutting hills 

against Chittagong Development 

Authority (CDA). 

Silimpur residential area is the 

first housing project undertaken 

in 1962 to develop plots on 166.18 

acres of land. 

The project titled ‘Silimpur 

Residential Area (east) Expansion 

and Development’ got a go-ahead 

from Housing and Public Works on 

March 30 in 2014. The deadline of 

the project will expire in June of 

2017. 

The three-member investigation 

team from the DoE, Chittagong 

found the evidence that hills were 

cut in at least four places. 

During the inspection, it was 

found that Taher Brothers Ltd, a 

contractor company, was flattening 

the hills as per the agreement with 

the CDA. 

During another inspection from 

the DoE, Chittagong on October 23, 

it was found that the contracting 

firm was cutting hills at three places 

of the same housing project with 

an excavator, three drum trucks 

and two bulldozers. 

Two accused arrested 

over Monjurul murder 

• Bipul Sarker Sunny, Dinajpur 

The photo shows the portion of a hill has been allegedly cut by the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA). The photo was 

taken yesterday 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

Members of Rapid Action Battalion 

(RAB) arrested two accused of sensational 

Monjurul Islam murder case 

from the district town yesterday. 

The arrestees are – Golam Mirza 

Mamun, 35, son of Abdul Matin of 

Khodmadhab area and Mithun, 30, 

son of Yusuf Ali, a resident of Uposhohor 

area in the district town. 

OC of Sadar police station, said: 

“After two days of the incident, 

Monjurul’s elder brother Motiur 

Rahman filed a case against 15 people 

including local Swechhasebok 

League leader Sirajul Salekin Rana, 

Mamun and Mathun. 

“After filling the case, a team 

of RAB conducted a drive at Tayeba 

Mazumdar Red Crescent Blood 

Bank yesterday around 3pm and 

arrested Mithun. Later, the team 

also conducted a raid at Mamun’s 

father in law’s house in Borobondor 

area in the town and Mamun 

around 7pm,” said the OC. 

Earlier, on Tuesday, Monjurul 

Islam, a young truck helper allegedly 

tortured in the rest house of 

Tayeba Mazumdar Red Crescent 

Blood Bank succumbed to his injuries 

at Dinajpur Medical College 

Hospital. Monjurul Islam’s family 

said his nails had been pulled out, 

arms slit open and pepper and salt 

rubbed into the wounds. 

They alleged that Rana and the 

owner of the truck abducted Monjurul 

on October 25 and took him to 

the rest house, where they tortured 

him throughout the night. 

“With his dying breath, Monjurul 

told us that he had been questioned 

about a Yaba shipment in that truck 

which he knew nothing about and 

was then tortured, beaten with hot 

water bottles and lashed with electric 

cables,” said Nasima Begum, 

sister of the victim. • 

The DoE, Chittagong had also issued 

a notice to the CDA on May 29, 

2014, for cutting and razing hills at 

Silimpur Residential Area. 

As per Bangladesh Environment 

Conservation Act, 1995 (amended 

2010), it is prohibited by any individual 

or any institution to cut or 

raze hill or hillock owned or possessed 

by government or semi-government 

or autonomous institution 

or any individual. 

Provided that any hill or hillock 

could be cut or razed in case of necessity 

of national interest after obtaining 

clearance certificate from 

Department of Environment (DoE). 

In the wake of primary evidence 

of cutting hills, the DoE, Chittagong 

Region issued notices to the 

CDA and the contracting firm Taher 

4 JMB men held 

with firearms, 

bombs 

• SM Samsur Rahman, 

Bagerhat 

Police have arrested four members 

of the terrorist group Jama’atul 

Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) 

with weapons and explosives in 

Bagerhat town. 

The JMB men were caught in a 

raid on Thursday early morning 

from inside a shop in Gobordio area 

near the Daratana bridge, Bagerhat 

Superintendent of Police Pankaj 

Chandra Roy told the Dhaka Tribune. 

But some of their associates 

have managed to escape. 

The arrested men are Saiful Islam, 

36, Maksudur Rahman Tota, 

24, and Morshed Alam, 20, from 

Satkhira Sadar upazila and Jahirul 

Islam, 22, from Pirojpur. 

Four separate cases have been 

filed against the arrestees at the 

Bagerhat Model police station. • 


Brothers Ltd. 

Responding to the letter of the 

DoE, Chittagong dated on September 

20 of this year, Tahera Ferdous 

Begum, secretary of the CDA said 

that some uneven portions of the 

housing project needed to be leveled 

and dressed. 

The CDA secretary in the letter 

also sought necessary cooperation 

for leveling and dressing the uneven 

portions for construction of 

roads to compete the project within 

deadline. 

Replying to the notice of the 

DoE, contracting firm Taher Brothers 

Ltd said that it suspended the 

leveling and dressing work of the 

project from October 23 of this 

year, complying with the directives 

of the DoE. 

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, 

Md Masud Karim, director of the 

DoE, Chittagong Region said, “The 

CDA in its letter issued on September 

20 mentioned that it was 

leveling and dressing some uneven 

portions and constructing roads in 

the project area. However, we have 

found clear evidence that hills 

were cut in at least four parts of the 

hills which is clear violations of the 

environment law.” 

“Both the CDA and the contracting 

firm Taher Brothers must 

face legal actions for cutting hills 

contravening the rules. We have 

already lodged an enforcement 

lawsuit against the offenders with 

the Director General of the DoE under 

Section 7 of Bangladesh Environment 

Conservation Act, 1995,” 

added the director of the DoE, Chittagong 

Region. 

Refuting the allegation, the 

CDA Chairman Abdus Salam, told 

the Dhaka Tribune that no hill 

or hillock was cut in the housing 

project. 

“We are just dressing some uneven 

portions, nothing else. We are 

developing the project on a humanitarian 

ground as most of the plots 

are owned by the CDA employees,” 

said the CDA Chairman. • 

Two AL men held from 

Dhaka over rupturing 

policeman’s eardrum 

• Monir Hossain Sajid, 

Shariatpur 

Alamgir Hossain, Shariatpur Sadar 

upazila vice-chairman, and Khalilur 

Rahman, an activist of Awami 

League, were arrested from the 

capital’s Sher-E-Bangla Nagar yesterday, 

as they are accused in police 

and a physician assault cases in 

Shariatpur. 

Residential Medical Officer of 

Shariatpur Sadar Hospital Dr Sumon 

Kumar Poddar filed a case 

on Tuesday accusing the arrestees 

and Akter Hossain Dhali, recently 

expelled vice-president of 

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) 

Shariatpur Sadar upazila unit, for 

forcibly trying to obtain a fake 

medical certificate and assaulting 

a policeman. 

Sub-Inspector of Palong police 

station Nazrul Islam also filed a 

case against the trio for assaulting 

the policeman. However, the police 

have been trying to arrest Akter. 

The police and the hospital 

sources said Akter along with his 

uncle Alamgir went to the hospital 

on Tuesday afternoon for obtaining 

the certificate. 

An altercation took place between 

a physician and Akter when 

the physician refused him to give 

the fake certificate. 

At one stage, When Selim intervened 

in the matter and talked 

in favour of the doctor, Akhter assaulted 

him severely, causing eardrum 

damage to him. 

Selim was sent to Dhaka Medical 

College Hospital for better treatment. 

•


8 

World 


SOUTH ASIA 

US airstrikes kill 30 

Afghan civilians 

US airstrikes early Thursday killed at 

least 30 Afghan civilians, including 

women and children, in the volatile 

northern province of Kunduz, after 

a Taliban assault left two American 

soldiers dead. The airstrike triggered 

emotionally-charged protests in the 

provincial capital, with the victims’ 

relatives parading mutilated bodies 

of dead children piled into open 

trucks through the streets of Kunduz 

city. REUTERS 

INDIA 

Rahul detained again 

during march over OROP 

Congress vice president Rahul 

Gandhi was detained by police 

for the third time in as two days, 

after he turned up at New Delhi’s 

Jantar Mantar, the site of a protest 

over the suicide of an ex-serviceman 

over the pension he received 

under the One Rank, One Pension 

(OROP) scheme. Police detained 

Rahul Gandhi and did not allow to 

take part in a candle light march 

organised by the Congress from 

Jantar Mantar to India Gate. TOI 

CHINA 

China launches first 

heavy-lift rocket 

China launched its most powerful 

rocket ever on Thursday, 

state media said, as the country 

presses on with a program which 

has seen it become a major space 

power. The Long March 5 rocket 

can carry up to 25 tons, around 

the same weight as 16 cars, into 

low earth orbit, state-run China 

Radio International said. REUTERS 

ASIA PACIFIC 

Indonesia police brace for 

hardline Islamic protest 

Thousands of hardline Muslims 

are expected to take to the streets 

on Friday to protest against the 

governor of Jakarta over claims he 

insulted the Koran. Jakarta police 

said dozens of social media accounts 

were discovered “publishing provocative 

statements and images” and 

urging people to take violent action 

in the name of Islam against governor 

Basuki Tjahja Purnama. REUTERS 

MIDDLE EAST 

12 dead, 200 hurt in 

Aleppo rebel fire 

Rebel fire on government-held 

parts of Syria’s Aleppo on 

Thursday killed 12 civilians and 

wounded 200, state news agency 

SANA reported. It said rockets 

and gunfire hit neighbourhoods 

including Halab al-Jadida, where 

rebels launched a fierce attack 

Thursday. AFP 

With Iraqi troops at Mosul’s gate, 

Baghdadi promises victory 

• Reuters, Baghdad 

With Iraqi troops battling inside 

Islamic State’s Iraqi bastion of 

Mosul, the militants’ leader told 

his followers to fight to the death 

in what he said was a war against 

Shia Islam, Western “crusaders” 

and the Sunni “apostate” countries 

Turkey and Saudi Arabia. 

Expressing confidence in victory, 

despite the broad alliance 

of Iraqi and international forces 

arrayed against a few thousand Islamic 

State fighters in Mosul, Abu 

Bakr al-Baghdadi called on the jihadists 

to “wreak havoc”. 

“This raging battle and total 

war, and the great jihad that the 

state of Islam is fighting today only 

increases our firm belief, God willing, 

and our conviction that all this 

is a prelude to victory,” Baghdadi 

said in an audio recording released 

online by supporters on Thursday. 

Iraqi regular troops and special 

forces, Shia militias, Kurdish 

peshmerga fighters and other 

groups backed by US-led air strikes 

launched a campaign two weeks 

ago to recapture Mosul. 

Winning back the country’s second 

biggest city would mark the 

defeat of the Iraq wing of a crossborder 

caliphate which Baghdadi 

declared from the pulpit of a Mosul 

mosque two years ago. Islamic 

State also holds large parts of 

neighbouring Syria. 

In his first audio message released 

in nearly a year, Baghdadi 

called on the population of Mosul’s 

Nineveh province “not to 

weaken in the jihad” against the 

“enemies of God”. 

He also called on the group’s suicide 

fighters to “turn the nights of 

the unbelievers into days, to wreak 

havoc in their land and make their 

blood flow as rivers”. 

Addressing those who might 

consider fleeing, he said: “Know 

that the value of staying on your 

land with honour is a thousand 

times better than the price of retreating 

with shame.” 

The exact location of Baghdadi, 

an Iraqi whose real name is Ibrahim 

al-Samarrai, is not clear. Reports 

have said he may be in Mosul 

itself, or in Islamic State-held land 

to the west of the city, close to the 

border with Syria. 

The authenticity of the 31-minute-long 

recording could not be 

immediately verified, but the 

voice and style closely resembled 

those of previous speeches Baghdadi 

has delivered. 

The recording appeared to be 

recent as it focused on the Mosul 

offensive, although Baghdadi did 

not mention the city by name. 

Mosul still has a population of 

1.5m people, much more than any 

of the other cities captured by Islamic 

State two years ago in Iraq 

and neighbouring Syria. • 

Pacific islands kick off Paris climate deal 

• Reuters, Marrakesh, Morocco 

As clocks passed midnight into 

Friday, remote islands in the Pacific 

Ocean, many in danger of rising 

seas from global warming, kicked 

off a rolling coming into force of 

last year’s global agreement to 

slow climate change. 

The 2015 Paris Agreement formally 

starts on November 4, after 

winning support from major 

greenhouse gas emitters led by 

China and the United States, but 

legal texts do not specify any time 

zone. 

That means that it came into 

effect first in the Pacific region, 

home to low-lying island states on 

the front lines of storm surges, disruptions 

to rainfall and a creeping 

rise in sea levels. 

The eastern islands of Kiribati 

were among the first, followed by 

countries such as Tonga, Tuvalu 

and the Marshall Islands. 

Entry into force in the Pacific 

“which is home to vulnerable island 

nations who have all ratified 

the agreement, makes for one of 

those serendipitous moments in 

history,” Thoriq Ibrahim, environment 

minister of the Maldives in 

the Indian Ocean, said. 

Ibrahim will chair the alliance 

of small island states at talks 

among almost 200 nations in Marrakesh 

from November 7-18 to try 

to find ways to implement the Paris 

Agreement, partly by working 

out rules for an often vague text. 

The Paris Agreement seeks to 

wean the world economy off fossil 

fuels in the second half of the 

century and limit a rise in average 

world temperatures to “well below” 

2.0°C above pre-industrial 

times. 

On Thursday, however, the 

United Nation said greenhouse gas 

emissions in 2030 will exceed by 

12bn to 14bn tonnes what is needed 

to keep global warming to the 

agreed target. • 

BAGHDADI: THE MOST WANTED MAN IN THE MIDDLE EAST 

1971: Ibrahim Awad 

Ibrahim al-Badri born to Salafi* 

family in town of Samarra 

1989-2003: Lives in Tobchi 

district of Baghdad. Plays football 

for team from local mosque 

2002: Gains doctorate in Islamic 

Studies † from University of Baghdad. 

Marries – wife has first child, a boy 

2003: Following US-led invasion 

al-Badri is drawn into emerging 

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) 

2005: Al-Badri, now known as 

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is accused 

of being connected to beheadings, 

crucifixions and torture of local 

civilians in border town of Qaim 

2005-09: Al-Baghdadi 

is captured by US 

forces and held in 

Camp Bucca detention 

camp for four years. 

Released when US 

closes camp in 2009 

Damascus 

Raqqa 

SYRIA 

Deir 

al-Zour 

TURKEY 

Baghdad 

*Salafism is a strict interpretation of Islam. † Claims made on Jihadi websites 

Sources: Al Monitor, Telegraph (London), RFJ, Interpol Pictures: Associated Press 

Kurdish 

control 

Samarra 

I R A Q 

SAUDI 

ARABIA Camp Bucca 

200km 

125 miles KUWAIT 

Boundaries of caliphate 

envisioned by ISIS – as posted 

on Twitter, March 2014 

2010: After top leaders are killed 

al-Baghdadi becomes leader of AQI 

2011: Following departure of 

U.S. troops, AQI begins bombing 

campaign. US places $10 million 

bounty on al-Baghdadi 

2012: AQI launches Breaking 

Walls campaign with over 560 bomb 

attacks and release of more than 

500 inmates from Abu Ghraib prison 

2013: AQI enters civil war in Syria, 

capturing city of Raqqa and country’s 

oil fields around Deir al-Zour, creating 

lucrative source of revenue 

Apr: AQI renamed ISIS (Islamic 

State in Iraq and the Levant) 

Jun 2014: ISIS changes its name 

to Islamic State, and declares 

al-Baghdadi caliph – political and 

religious leader of all Muslims 

Jul 5: ISIS website publishes video 

claiming to show al-Baghdadi 

delivering sermon at mosque in Mosul 

JORDAN 

THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT: KEY POINTS 

Mosul 

Qaim 

IRAN 

© GRAPHIC NEWS 

The landmark pact enters into force on Friday and is to be implemented by 196 countries 

Temperatures Finance Differenciation Emissions objectives 

2100 

Keep warming “well below 

2 degrees Celsius”. 

Continue all efforts to limit 

the rise in temperatures 

to 1.5 degrees Celsius” 

Burden-sharing 

Developed countries must provide 

financial resources to help 

developing countries 

Other countries are invited to provide 

support on a voluntary basis 

2020-2025 

Rich countries must 

provide 100 billion 

dollars from 2020, 

as a “floor” 

Amount to be updated 

by 2025 

Developed countries must 

continue to “take the lead” 

in the reduction of 

greenhouse gases 

Developing nations are 

encouraged to “enhance 

their efforts” and move 

over time to cuts 

Review mechanism 

2025 

A review every five years. 

First mandatory world 

review: 2025 

Each review will show an 

improvement compared with 

the previous period 

2050 

Aim for greenhouse gases 

emissions to peak “as soon 

as possible” 

From 2050: rapid reductions 

to achieve a balance between 

emissions from human 

activity and the amount that 

can be captured by “sinks” 

Climate damage 

Vulnerable countries have won 

recognition of the need for 

“averting, minimising 

and addressing” losses suffered 

due to climate change

World 

Court rules UK parliament must 

vote on Brexit 

• AFP, London 

The High Court in London ruled 

Thursday that the British government 

alone cannot start the 

process of leaving the European 

Union but requires the approval of 

parliament, in a landmark judgement 

that could delay Brexit. 

Three senior judges said Prime 

Minister Theresa May’s government 

does not have the power itself 

to trigger Article 50 of the EU’s 

Lisbon treaty, the formal notification 

of Britain’s intention to leave 

the bloc. 

“We hold that the Secretary of 

State does not have power under 

the Crown’s prerogative to give 

notice pursuant to Article 50... for 

the United Kingdom to withdraw 

from the European Union,” the 

judgement said. 

May’s Downing Street office 

said it was “disappointed” at the 

decision and would appeal, with 

the case now expected to be heard 

in the Supreme Court in early December. 

“The country voted to leave the 

European Union in a referendum 

approved by Act of Parliament,” a 

spokesman said. 

“And the government is determined 

to respect the result of the 

referendum. We will appeal this 

judgement.” 

Most members of the House of 

Commons wanted Britain to stay 

in the EU in the June referendum, 

and there is speculation they 

could push for a softer break with 

the bloc or even try to prevent it 

altogether. 

The pound rallied against the 

dollar and euro after the High 

Court ruling, jumping above $1.24 

after weeks of tumbling to multi-year 

low points against its main 

rivals. 

May announced last month 

that she intends to trigger Article 

50 by the end of March, a move 

welcomed by EU leaders who are 

pressing for a swift divorce to limit 

uncertainty over the future of 

Britain and the rest of the bloc. 

But the timetable may be derailed 

by the case, which challenged 

her right to use “historic 

prerogative powers” – a type of 

executive privilege – to make that 

decision. 

Article 50 notification begins a 

two-year countdown to withdrawal 

and lawmakers are now likely to 

demand more information – and 

more of a say – on the government’s 

negotiating strategy before 

giving their approval. 

‘Public anger’ 

May previously accused those behind 

the legal challenge of seeking 

to frustrate the Brexit process, 

saying: “They’re trying to kill it by 

delaying it.” 

But the claimants – including 

an investment fund manager, a 

hairdresser and an expatriate living 

in France – argue that Britain 

was taken into the EU by parliament, 

and only parliament can 

made the decision to leave. 

“I am grateful to the court for 

the result, this is a victory for 

parliamentary democracy,” expat 

Grahame Pigney told reporters 

outside court. 

Pigney, who has used crowdfunding 

to mount his “People’s 

Challenge”, condemned the prime 

minister for her “unwarranted and 

irresponsible attack” on the case. 

“I now hope everyone will respect 

the court decision,” he said. 

But Nigel Farage, the interim 

leader of the UK Independence 

Party (UKIP) who led the campaign 

for Brexit, warned there 

would be public outrage if the 

referendum result was not implemented. 

“I worry that a betrayal may be 

near at hand,” he said. 

“I now fear that every attempt 

will be made to block or delay the 

triggering of Article 50. If this is 

so, they have no idea of the level 

of public anger they will provoke.” 

During three days of hearings 

in October, May conceded that 

parliament would likely have a 

vote on the final deal negotiated 

with the bloc. 

The case was heard by England’s 

two top judges – Lord Chief Justice 

John Thomas and Master of the 

Rolls Terence Etherton – and Philip 

Sales, an appeal court judge. • 

Q&A 

What now after UK government loses Brexit court case? 

The High Court in London has ruled 

that the British government requires 

parliamentary approval to trigger the 

process of exiting the European Union. 

The government, which had 

planned to start the EU divorce without 

going through parliament, said it 

would appeal against the ruling and 

the Supreme Court has set aside Dec. 

5-8 to hear the case. 

The stage is now set for a period of 

political uncertainty while ministers 

digest the ruling and how to respond 

to it. 

How did the government react? 

“The government is disappointed by 

the court’s judgement,” trade minister 

Liam Fox said on Thursday. 

“The country voted to leave the 

European Union in a referendum approved 

by acts of parliament. The 

government is determined to respect 

the result of the referendum,” he told 

parliament. 

What are the government’s 

options? 

Legal commentators say ministers 

now have two basic options: a simple 

vote in parliament on whether to trigger 

Article 50 or a new bill granting the 

right to leave the EU, which will have 

to be debated by lawmakers. 

ARTICLE 50: THE CUE TO START THE BREXIT TALKS 

1 

London 

triggers 

Article 50* 

‘Withdrawal clause’ 

‘Any Member State may 

decide to withdraw from 

the Union in accordance 

with its own constitutional 

requirements’ 

Cannot impose 

withdrawal 

procedure 

European 

Council 

What would a new bill entail? 

David Pannick, the lawyer for the 

lead claimant, said parliament could 

approve such a bill, reject it or pass it 

with amendments on details such as 

the date of notification. 

The best case for the government 

would be to avoid legislation and involve 

parliament through a so-called 

substantive motion – a proposal put 

forward for debate and a vote. This 

would be a quicker process and could 

be done early next year. 

Legislation would take longer as it 

involves various stages of debate and 

approval. It can also be held up by socalled 

“ping pong”, whereby a bill goes 

back and forth between the lower 

and upper house of parliament, being 

amended and voted on. 

How long will all this take? 

While it is possible legislation could 

be introduced and passed between 

the time of a final judgment late this 

year, and May’s end-of-March 2017 

deadline, it is likely to be tight and may 

result in the triggering being pushed 

back. 

The 1972 European Communities 

bill, which set the terms of Britain’s 

entry into the European club, involved 

a total of about 40 days of debate during 

its passage through parliament, 

according to the Institute for Government. 

Could parliament block Brexit? 

Lawmakers in the lower house, the 

House of Commons, are thought to 

be unlikely to try to stop Brexit, and a 

2 

notifies 

Time 

limit 

Special department 

headed 

by 

David 

Davis 

67 

‘Brexit’ minister 

A former European 

affairs minister 

Eurosceptic 

negotiate 

‘WITHDRAWAL 

AGREEMENT’ 

‘Brexit Task 

Force’ 

led by 

Michel 

Barnier 

65 

Chief negotiator 

for the European 

Commission 

Former European 

commissioner 

3 

2 

years 

concluded 

by a qualified 

majority 

European 

Parliament 

must 

approve 

If no 

agreement 

reached 

after 

2 years 

* Treaty of Lisbon (2009): 

not previously invoked 

comes 

into 

force 

European 

treaties 

cease to apply 

to London 

Automatic 

exit 

Or the parties 

can decide 

to extend the 

deadline 

Final 

Accord 

Reuters survey suggested many who 

voted to “remain” would now vote to 

trigger Article 50 in a parliamentary 

vote. 

However, a cross-party group of 

lawmakers, who support a “soft Brexit”, 

whereby Britain stays in or remains 

close to the EU single market, have demanded 

a greater say for parliament in 

negotiations and say they might try to 

pass amendments that guarantee this. 

The government may also face 

trouble in the House of Lords, where 

the ruling Conservatives do not have 

a majority. If the Lords were to block 

the bill the government could decide 

to overrule it using the Parliament Act, 

although it cannot re-table the bill until 

the next parliamentary session. 

The new parliamentary session 

usually starts in May or June, so that 

would delay the Brexit process significantly. 

• 

Source: REUTERS 

9 


USA 

Obama warns US fate in 

voters’ hands 


The fate of US democracy is in voters’ 

hands, President Barack Obama 

warned Wednesday, as Hillary 

Clinton and Donald Trump’s battle 

for the White House went down to 

the wire. “The fate of the world is 

teetering and you, North Carolina, 

are going to have to make sure that 

we push it in the right direction,” 

he declared, rallying support for 

the Democrat Clinton to become 

his successor. REUTERS 

THE AMERICAS 

Mexico prepares 

contingency plan for US 

election 

Mexico is readying a contingency 

plan for an adverse election result 

in the US, said Central Bank Governor 

Agustin Carstens, who has 

previously stated that a victory for 

Donald Trump would hit his country 

like a hurricane. Senior officials 

from the Bank of Mexico as well as 

the finance and economy ministries 

were holding discussions on 

Wednesday about what impact the 

US election could have. REUTERS 

UK 

Britain wants UN council 

to demand Yemen 

ceasefire 

Britain is preparing a draft Security 

Council resolution demanding an 

immediate ceasefire in Yemen and 

negotiations based on a UN peace 

roadmap that has been rejected by 

both sides in the conflict. The proposal 

calls for urgent steps to ease 

the humanitarian crisis after the top 

UN aid official said the country was 

one step away from famine. AFP 

EUROPE 

Turkey coup trials to begin 

early 2017 

The first trials of the thousands 

of suspects arrested in the wake 

of Turkey’s failed July 15 coup 

aimed at ousting President Recep 

Tayyip Erdogan will begin in early 

2017, the chief Ankara prosecutor 

said on Thursday. Thousands 

of ex-soldiers, legal workers 

and civilians are currently in jail 

pending trial on suspicion of involvement 

in the coup. REUTERS 

AFRICA 

Police beat Kenyan antigraft 

protesters 

Police beat anti-corruption 

protesters with batons and fired 

volleys of tear gas to disperse them 

in Kenya’s capital on Thursday. 

Hundreds of people rallied in the 

centre of Nairobi in response to 

reports in the local media and accusations 

by the opposition about 

graft and abuse of funds in public 

healthcare. The Health Ministry 

dismissed the charges. REUTERS

10 

US 



US presidential race tightens, Clinton still ahead 

4 DAYS REMAIN 

• Tribune International Desk 

Hillary Clinton may not be accumulating 

the type of early-vote advantage 

her campaign wanted, but 

she continues to maintain an apparent 

edge over Donald Trump, with 

roughly one-fourth of all expected 

ballots cast in the 2016 election, reports 

The Associated Press. 

The Democrat’s campaign once 

hoped to bank substantial votes 

from Democrats in North Carolina 

and Florida before Election Day. 

Both are must-win states for Donald 

Trump. 

But data about the early vote 

suggest she’s not doing as well as 

President Barack Obama in 2012. 

Ballot requests from likely supporters 

have been weak in parts of the 

Midwest, and African-American 

turnout has fallen, too. 

Early voting — by mail and at 

polling stations — is underway in 

37 states. More than 31m votes have 

been cast, representing nearly 25% 

of the total votes expected nationwide 

if turnout is similar to 2012. In 

all, more than 46m people — or as 

much as 40% of the electorate — are 

expected to vote before Tuesday, 

according to AP data. 

A look at the latest trends: 

Race tightens in north Carolina, 

Florida 

In North Carolina and Florida, Democrats 

did better with mail balloting 

than they had in previous elections. 

They expected to build on that with 

the start of in-person voting, where 

Democrats traditionally do well. But 

the big turnout — especially among 

black voters — hasn’t yet happened. 

In North Carolina, with nearly 

half of the expected vote already 

cast, Democrats lead in ballots 

submitted, 43% to 32%. But that’s 

slightly below the same period in 

2012, when Mitt Romney narrowly 

won the state. 

In Florida, more than half of voters 

have already cast ballots. Democrats 

remain virtually tied with Republicans. 

At this point in 2008 and 

2012, Democrats held an advantage 

in ballots cast. Obama won the state 

both years. 

The black share of ballots is 

down, while the Latino share is up. 

Democrats and Republican analysts 

say they see signs that Republican 

early voters are those who 

previously voted on Election Day, 

while Democrats are drawing new 

voters. That would be good news 

for Democrats. 

Rising Latino vote may boost 

Clinton 

Latinos may be providing Clinton 

with support she needs in key Western 

states. 

In swing-state Nevada, where half 

the total ballots have been cast, Democrats 

lead with 43% to 37%. 

More than 1.2m residents have 

cast ballots in Colorado, or half the 

expected vote. Democrats hold the 

advantage, 37% to 35%. Colorado, 

for the first time in a presidential 

election, is voting mostly by mail. 

At this point in 2012, Republicans 

held the edge. 

In Arizona, where more than 

half the votes have been cast, Democrats 

trail by 5 percentage points. 

But at this point in 2012, Republicans 

had opened a 10 percentage 

point lead. The share of independent 

or voters whose party affiliation 

is unknown is also up slightly. 

Turnout rose among all races, but 

at higher rates among Hispanics. 

Whites buoy Trump in Ohio, Iowa 

Trump may hold an edge in Ohio 

and Iowa, two states he’s counting 

on to reach 270. 

In Ohio, the heavily Democratic 

counties of Cuyahoga and Franklin 

are posting declines in ballot 

requests compared to 2012, while 

Trump tries to focus on the final stretch 

• Tribune International Desk 

Elections 2016 

With Election Day in sight, Donald 

Trump tried again for the discipline 

and restraint that has eluded him 

for months, hoping not to blow a 

burst of momentum that has him 

closing on Hillary Clinton. Clinton 

and her allies, meanwhile, are doing 

her best to trip up Trump. 

The candidates were slated to 

take their tussle to Florida and North 

Carolina on Thursday, two lynchpins 

in Trump’s plan to take the White 

House. With five days before Election 

Day, the unconventional Republican 

candidate was hewing closer to 

convention, running some upbeat 

ads, bringing out his wife for a rare 

campaign appearance and trying, 

publicly, not to veer off-message. 

“’Stay on point, Donald, stay on 

point,’” Trump teasingly quoted his 

staff as saying, as he campaigned 

Wednesday in Florida. “No sidetracks, 

Donald. Nice and easy. Nice 

and easy.’” Melania Trump was 

scheduled to campaign in Pennsylvania 

Thursday, her first turn on 

the trail since the Republican convention 

in July. The former model 

will try to counter the Clinton campaign’s 

pounding attacks on Trump 

as anti-woman, a strategy Democrats 

see as the best hope for rattling 

the Republican opponent and driving 

female voters away from him. 

The Clinton campaign is trying 

to keep Trump’s history of vulgar 

and disparaging statements about 

women, minorities and people with 

disabilities fresh in voters’ minds as 

they head to the polls. 

Among those conveying that 

message for Clinton is President Barack 

Obama, who was due to campaign 

in Florida on Thursday, as 

Clinton headed to North Carolina for 

rallies in Raleigh and Winterville. 

Trump can’t win the election 

without carrying Florida, underscoring 

how narrow his path to the 

White House is. Trump campaigned 

in three Florida cities Wednesday - 

Miami, Orlando and Pensacola. 

Despite tightening polls, Clinton 

still has more options, which 

was underscored by her decision to 

make a late stop Wednesday in reliably 

Republican Arizona. 

“This state is in play for the first 

time in years,” Clinton exclaimed 

during a nighttime rally on the campus 

of Arizona State University. She 

was greeted by a boisterous crowd 

of 15,000, one of her largest of the 

campaign. 

Early voting numbers in some 

states suggest that her challenge 

stems, at least in part, from underwhelming 

support from African-American 

voters. That could 

complicate her path in other states, 

too, including North Carolina, 

Pennsylvania and Michigan. • 

Republican-leaning counties such 

as Warren have increased. The 

state does not break down ballots 

by party. Voter modeling by Catalist 

found the white share of Ohio 

ballot requests was up to 90% from 

87%. The black share fell to 8% 

from 11%. 

Defending republican Turf 

Trump also may be holding ground 

in two Republican-leaning states 

that Clinton targeted. 

In Georgia, the number of ballots 

submitted has increased mostly 

among whites, while the black 

share declined. 

In Utah, Republicans lead in returned 

ballots, 46% to 15%; no party 

voters made up 35%. The Republican 

share in ballots is down from 2012 

but improved from a week ago. • 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a campaign event in 

Pensecola, Florida on Wednesday 

REUTERS 

Find more stories on US presidential election at www.dhakatribune.com

World 

11 


Pakistan accuses 8 Indian diplomats of spying, terrorism 

• AFP, Islamabad 

Pakistan on Thursday accused eight 

Indian embassy employees of involvement 

in spying and terrorism 

but stopped short of expelling 

them, in the latest apparent tit-fortat 

move as relations between the 

two countries nosedive. 

The declaration came days after 

a similar move by New Delhi, which 

accused six Pakistani diplomats of 

being part of a spy network, forcing 

Islamabad to withdraw them from 

their posts. 

“A number of Indian diplomats 

and staff... have been found involved 

in coordinating terrorist and subversive 

activities in Pakistan under the 

garb of diplomatic assignments,” 

foreign ministry spokesman Nafees 

Zakariya told a press briefing in Islamabad. 

He went on to name the 

eight men including one accused of 

using a false identity to pose as an employee 

of a Pakistani mobile network. 

“All these eight officials were 

involved in espionage, subversion 

and supporting of terrorist activities,” 

he said. 

New Delhi rejected the allegations, 

calling them “baseless and 


unsubstantiated”. 

“We completely reject the baseless 

and unsubstantiated allegations 

made by Pakistan against 

certain officials of Indian High 

Commission in Islamabad,” Vikas 

Swarup, foreign ministry spokesman 

told reporters in New Delhi. • 

Journalists hold a bannner while taking part in a demonstration in front 

of Parliament building in Islamabad on January 28, 2013 

REUTERS 

Unesco: One journalist 

killed every four-anda-half 

days 

• AFP, Unesco 

One journalist is killed every 

four-and-a-half days, according 

to a shocking report released by 

Unesco on Wednesday. 

During the last decade, 827 

journalists have been killed 

while on the job, the Unesco 

director-general’s report said. 

The worst hit areas were Arab 

States including Syria, Iraq, Yemen 

and Libya. Latin America is 

the next worst affected region, 

the Safety of Journalists and the 

Danger of Impunity report said. 

Unsurprisingly, most 

deaths – 59% over the last two 

years of the 2006-2015 report – 

happen in conflict zones. 

During that period, 78 of the 

213 journalists killed (36.5%) 

were in Arab States. 

Perhaps most alarming 

was the increase in journalist 

deaths in Western Europe and 

North America, up from none 

in 2014 to 11 last year. 

Local journalists are far 

more at risk than foreign journalists, 

accounting for 90% of 

the victims. But there was a 

huge spike in foreign journalist 

deaths in 2014 with 17 killed 

compared to an average of four 

in previous years. 

Last year saw a massive 

increase in online journalists 

being killed, with 21 compared 

to two in 2014. Almost half of 

those were Syrian bloggers. 

The report found that more 

than 10 times as many men are 

killed than women – 195 to 18 in 

2014/15 – while television journalists 

have overtaken print 

hacks as the most vulnerable. 

The report noted that death 

is not the only harm journalists 

are exposed to. 

“The extent of the risks faced 

by journalists is demonstrated 

by the 827 killings recorded by 

Unesco over the course of ten 

years,” said the report. 

“To this, one needs to add 

the countless other violations 

endured by journalists, which 

include kidnappings, arbitrary 

detention, torture, intimidation 

and harassment, both offline 

and online, and seizure or 

destruction of material.” 

The report was requested by 

39 member states of Unesco’s 

Intergovernmental Council. 

2016, deadliest year for 

journalists in Afghanistan 

Media advocates say that 

2016 has already proved the 

deadliest year for journalists 

in Afghanistan. 

Najib Sharifi, the head of the 

Afghan Journalists Safety Committee 

(AJFC), said Wednesday 

that at least 11 journalists have 

been killed in Afghanistan so 

far this year, the highest annual 

death toll on record. 

AJSC figures show that over 

60 journalists have been killed 

in the past 16 years in Afghanistan. 

Sharifi says their deaths 

were never investigated. 

The figure includes journalists 

killed in conflict, targeted by 

unknown gunmen or murdered. 

The AJSC is demanding 

that the Afghan government 

ends the culture of impunity 

surrounding journalist deaths. 

It warns that otherwise the 

country will lose its vibrant local 

media, one of Afghanistan’s 

greatest achievements since 

the 2001 fall of the Taliban. •


12 

Business 


TOP STORIES 

Leathertech expo, 

a win-win for global 

manufacturers, 

local buyers 

The country’s export potential 

of leather and leather goods 

drew the attention of global 

leather machinery and accessory 

manufacturers and leather 

processors to explore market 

here. PAGE 13 

Bangladesh, India to 

renew border haat 

contract 

Border haat contract between 

Bangladesh and India, which 

will expire this month, will be 

extended by five more years, said 

officials yesterday. PAGE 13 

Pound soars as court 

demands parliament 

vote on Brexit 

The pound jumped against the 

dollar and euro yesterday after the 

High Court in London ruled that 

parliament must approve the start 

of Britain’s withdrawal from the 

European Union. PAGE 14 

Capital market snapshot: 

Thursday 

DSE 

Broad Index 4,672.9 0.9% ▲ 

Index 1,118.1 0.9% ▲ 

30 Index 1,757.8 1.0% ▲ 

Turnover in Mn Tk 5,037.5 10.2% ▲ 

Turnover in Mn Vol 156.1 14.4% ▲ 

CSE 

All Share Index 14,346.8 0.8% ▲ 

30 Index 12,875.4 0.6% ▲ 

Selected Index 8,724.5 0.8% ▲ 

Turnover in Mn Tk 307.3 7.7% ▲ 

Turnover in Mn Vol 11.3 14.7% ▲ 

24 banks now lending at single digit 

• Jebun Nesa Alo 

The number of banks lending at 

single digit rose to 24 in September 

this year as the weighted average 

lending rate continued to fall 

in the market. 

The average lending rate in the 

market came down to 10.15% in 

September which was 11.48% in 

the same period a year back, according 

to Bangladesh Bank latest 

data. 

Excess liquidity has pushed the 

banks to cut their lending rates 

for enhancing the credit demand, 

said a senior executive of Bangladesh 

Bank. 

Though the lending rate is still 

in double digit, most banks are, 

however, offering loans at single 

digit to their good clients, he said. 

The average interest rate on 

advance for the state banks came 

down to single-digit of 9.12% in 

September, which was 10.19% in 

the same period of the last year. 

Of the six state-owned commercial 

banks, four are lending at 

single digit. The banks are- Agrani, 

Sonali, BASIC and Bangladesh 

Development Bank. Out of the 

state-owned banks, BASIC bank 

is now lending at lowest 5.73% as 

of September compared to 8.7% 

in the same period of the last year. 

Though the largest stateowned 

Sonali Bank is lending at 

single digit of 8.79%, the rate is 

higher from 8.39% in the same period 

a year back. 

Sonali Bank raised its lending 

rate slightly as it is reluctant to 

lend after the Hallmark loan scam. 

On the other hand, BASIC Bank 

has cut its lending rate drastically 

to boost loan disbursement to 

minimise loss by expanding business, 

said a senior executive of 

Bangladesh Bank. 

The two specialised banks 

Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi 

Krishi Unnayan Bank have 

also slashed down their lending 

rates at single-digit. 

Of the private commercial 

banks, 10 have brought down 

their average interest rate on advance 

at single-digit. The banks 

are- Islami Bank, The City, UCBL, 

Publai, ICB Islamic, NCC, Prime, 

Southeast, Al-Arafah Islami and 

Dutch-Bangla Bank. 

The weighted average lending 

rate of private banks came down 

at 10.5% as of September this year 

compared to 11.95% in the same 

month of the last year. 

Foreign banks are also ahead 

in the race of cutting down the 

lending rate to compete with the 

local banks. Of the nine foreign 

banks, all but Standard Charterd 

Bank are offering single-digit interest 

against loans. The lending 

rate of Standard Chartered Bank 

is still comparatively very high 

at 11.48% as of September, which 

was 12.05% in the same month of 

the last year. The deposit rate of 

the foreign banks is very low at 

1.31%. 

The lending rates of the new 

banks are still very high as they 

are facing very difficulties to get 

business since their inception. 

The weighted average lending rate 

of the nine new banks are hovering 

in between 12% and 14%. Of 

them, Farmers Bank is lending at 

highest 14.33% as of September. 

Spread, the gap between lending 

rates and deposit rates, still remains 

below 5 as per the expected 

level of Bangladesh Bank due to 

the fall in the lending rates. • 

CAAB’s Tk1,700cr radar project proposal sent back 

• Ishtiaq Husain 

Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry 

yesterday has sent back the proposed 

Tk1,700 crore Radar project 

of Hazrat Shahjalal International 

Airport proposed by the Civil Aviation 

Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB). 

“The ministry, in its recent 

meeting, did not approve the project 

because of higher cost,” said an 

official. After evaluating the project 

cost, the ministry asked CAAB to 

review the project, saying the project 

cost is too high compared to 

the original cost of Tk330 crore estimated 

in 2013. However, the project 

cost increased several times. 

CAAB has moved to install new 

13 

12 

11 

10 

9 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 

0 

BANKS OFFERING SINGLE DIGIT LENDING RATE (IN %) 

Agrani 

Source: BB 

Sonali 

Rate in Sept 16 

BASIC 

BDBL 

BKB 

radar system with utmost priority 

by 2017 to upgrade air traffic control 

and air traffic management in 

line with the standard of the International 

Civil Aviation Organisation 

guideline. 

Karim Associates, a company, 

was qualified for implementing 

the project by the Qualification 

and Technical Evaluation Committee. 

Once the ministry approves the 

project, CABB will send it to the 

cabinet on public purchase for final 

approval. A CABB official said 

though it is a priority project, it is 

stuck in bureaucratic red tape. The 

existing radar, which has become 

obsolete long ago, fails to manage 

RAKUB 

Islami 

Rate in Sept 15 

The City 

UCBL 

Pubali 

ICB Islamic 

NCC 

Prime 

Southeast 

Al-Arafah Islami 

Dutch-Bangla 

air traffic properly, he added. 

Setting up in 1986, the raddar, 

sometimes, fails to detect air traffic 

uninterruptedly and is operated 

for only 12 hours a day, putting 

thousands of passengers at risk 

every day. The radar remains inoperative 

on Saturday. •

Business 13 

Leathertech expo, a win-win for 

global manufacturers, local buyers 

• Ibrahim Hossain Ovi 

The country’s export potential of 

leather and leather goods drew the 

attention of global leather machinery 

and accessory manufacturers 

and leather processors to explore 

market here. 

It became evident while talking 

to some of the manufacturers at the 

exposition on LEATHERTECH Bangladesh 

2016 that began yesterday. 

ASK Trade and Exhibitions Pvt 

Ltd hosted the three-day show at 

the International Convention City, 

Bashundara, to bring the manufacturers 

and buyers under the same 

roof to exchange views and build 

network. 

“Considering the export trend of 

the last few years, Bangladesh Leather 

Industry will see a boom in terms 

of export value,” Makim Uddin of 

Longsen Footwear Technology Services 

CO Ltd told the Dhaka Tribune. 

In the fiscal year 2015-16, Bangladesh 

earned $1.16 billion, exporting 

leather, leather goods and footwear. 

“As per our market analysis, 65% 

of leather products are being exported 

to European Union countries 

while 25% to Japan,” said Makim. 

In recent times, demand for 

Bangladeshi leather products is increasing 

in the US market. 

China has closed down a good 

number of big factories, opting to 

relocate its business in Bangladesh 

after shying away from Vietnam. 

“We have set $60 billion export 

target by 2021. Of the amount, $50 

billion will come from apparel sector 

while $5 billion from leather industry,” 

Commerce Minister Tofail 

Ahmed said on Wednesday. 

He was addressing the inaugural 

ceremony of the exposition as the 

chief guest. 

Bangladesh is a densely populated 

country with over 16 crore 

population having a huge local 

market and a hotspot for sourcing 

leather products and Foreign Direct 

Investment (FDI), Jordan, an 

executive of Dongguan Kinstone 

Shoe Making Machinery Co Ltd, 

told the Dhaka Tribune. 

“I think Bangladesh can be a 

major destination for our products 

since there is a huge potential here.” 

The expo is basically aimed at 

meeting the buyers and displaying 

Bangladesh, India to renew 

border haat contract 

• Asif Showkat Kallol 

Border haat contract between 

Bangladesh and India, which will 

expire this month, will be extended 

by five more years, said officials 

yesterday. 

The contract signing ceremony 

at the secretary level of the two 

countries is scheduled on November 

16-17 in New Delhi. 

The proposed nine new boarder 

haats could be finalised in the 

meeting at which Bangladesh will 

place its demand to import electricity 

from Nepal and Bhutan and 

remove 225 Bangladeshi products 

from the sensitive list made by India, 

sources said. 

Visitors inspect products at a stall of LEATHERTECH Expo that began yesterday in the city 

Officials at the Commerce Ministry 

said the ministry, in its recent 

meeting, has finalised the agenda 

like non-trade barriers to be placed 

in the secretary-level meet. India is 

also likely to recognise the BSTI certificate 

of local exportable items. 

The meeting will also discuss 

the effectiveness of existing four 

border haats, tax on local garment 

items, fruit import tax withdrawal, 

tax-free entry of Indian milk products 

and multiple visa. 

Senior Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah 

Al Mamoon said: “The 

two countries will financially benefit 

if the trade deficit is reduced through 

implementing our demands.” 

India and Bangladesh opened 

their first ‘border haat’ at Kalaichar 

on the India-Bangladesh border in 

Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district 

in 2011, reviving the traditional border 

trade after nearly 40 years. Currently, 

four border haats are in operation. 

They are Kalaichar (Meghalaya), 

Balat (Meghalaya), Kamlasagar (Tripura) 

and Srinagar (Tripura). 

These haats are aimed at uplifting 

the economic status of people 

by establishing the traditional system 

of marketing of local produces, 

and would be operating at different 

timings in summer and winter. 

The haats, once thriving centres 

of trade and commerce, were shut 

after the creation of Bangladesh in 

1971. • 

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN 

products to attract them, which 

has already been proven over the 

last three years, he said. 

Not only the leather but also the 

country’s RMG sector and the emerging 

furniture sector are other business 

entities, which the manufacturers 

focus on to sell their products. 

“We have got five buyers here 

and are exploring more in RMG 

sector as there is a use of leather in 

some clothing products including 

women’s jeans, jackets, etc,” said 

Tony Zhang of Zhejiang Goodsun 

Synthetic Leather Co Ltd. 

Akter Furniture, a local manufacturer, 

is the biggest buyer of 

Zhejiang Goodsun, and efforts 

are on to hunt more such buyers 

through this expo, he said. 

Some 250 exhibitors from 

Bangladesh, China, India, Turkey, 

Egypt, Sri Lanka, Italy, Singapore, 

Japan, Germany, UK, Vietnam, Taiwan, 

Hong Kong, Korea showcased 

their machinery for tanning leather, 

manufacturing footwear and 

leather goods along with components, 

dyes and chemicals, accessories 

and allied products. 

India and China have erected 

two large pavilions at the event. • 



Stocks rally for 

2nd day 

• Tribune Business Desk 

Stocks closed higher for the second 

consecutive session yesterday 

amid higher turnover. 

The benchmark index of Dhaka 

Stock Exchange DSEX rose nearly 

40 points or 1% to 4,672. 

The DS30 index, comprising 

blue chips, gained about 18 points 

or 1% to 1,757. The DSE Shariah Index 

DSES was up 10 points higher 

to 1,118. 

However, the Chittagong Stock 

Exchange Selective Category Index 

CSCX moved up 73 points to 8,729. 

The market turnover increased 

by 10% to over Tk500 crore over 

previous session. Engineering, fuel 

& power and bank accounted for 

nearly 40% of the total turnover. 

Most sectors closed positive, led 

by non-banking financial institutions 

with a gain of about 4%. 

It was followed by banks 0.8%, 

food & allied 0.7%, telecommunication 

0.4% and engineering 0.3%. 

The market breadth largely remained 

positive as out of total 321 

scrips traded on the DSE, 191 closed 

positive, 86 negative and 44 remained 

unchanged. 

Lafarge Surma Cement was the 

most traded share with a turnover 

of Tk27.8 crore following the company’s 

clarification on combining 

its business with Holcim Cement 

(Bangladesh) in response to regulator 

and stock exchanges queries. 

The company said Lafarge is 

entering into discussions with Lafarge 

Holcim Group, which controls 

Holcim Cement (Bangladesh) to explore 

the opportunity of combining 

business with Holcim Cement 

(Bangladesh) over the months. 

But no decision has yet been 

taken and that there can be no certainty 

or guarantee that a transaction 

will occur. • 

Students throng tax fair 

• SM Najmus Sakib 

To grow awareness about tax at the 

school level, National Board of Revenue 

(NBR) has arranged “Tax Education 

Forum” during the ongoing 

tax fair for providing basic and necessary 

information to the students. 

According to the tax authorities, 

students from renowned schools, 

colleges and universities have been 

urged to participate in the fair to 

get to know the importance of paying 

taxes and its process. 

Hundreds of students are 

thronging the fair each day to take 

part in several events especially arranged 

for them. 

A total of five schools and colleges 

in the capital and Dhaka 

University have already been registered 

for taking part in the event. 

Students were seen roam 

around the fair to know how to fill 

papers and online process of paying 

taxes. 

Suraya Akhter, a student of 

Siddheswari Girls’ College said: 

“Before, I knew nothing about tax 

and its payment system but now I 

feel it is a holy duty of a citizen to 

pay taxes.” 

“The authority should spread 

out the event across the country,” 

she added. 

NBR is organising the fair in its 

own underconstruction building 

for the first time. The aim of the fair 

is to encourage more people to pay 

their income taxes regularly. 

The fair is being held on 150 venues 

including seven days at the divisional 

headquarters, four days at 

the district headquarters, two days 

in 29 upazilas while a one-day will 

be fixed for mobile income tax. •

14 



Business 

Pound soars as court demands 

parliament vote on Brexit 


The pound jumped against the 

dollar and euro yesterday after the 

High Court in London ruled that 

parliament must approve the start 

of Britain’s withdrawal from the 

European Union. 

Sterling - which has tumbled to 

multi-year low points against its 

main rivals since Britain voted June 

23 for Brexit - surged above $1.24. 

However the pound’s big jump 

weighed on London’s benchmark 

FTSE 100 index which has won 

strong support since the referendum 

outcome as the weak currency 

benefitted exporters. It stood 

down 0.5% in afternoon trade, 

while Frankfurt added 0.07% and 

Paris climbed 0.5%. 

The court ruling has “made triggering 

Brexit a lot trickier and has 

given sterling a massive shot in the 

arm”, said Neil Wilson, markets analyst 

at ETX Capital. 

“The news sent the pound roaring 

through $1.24 before gains were 

pared as markets digest the news 

- the fact is no one really knows 

what the implications of this decision 

are yet.” 

Downing Street said it was “disappointed” 

at the decision and 

would appeal, with the case now 

likely to go to the Supreme Court 

before the end of the year. 

Meanwhile, the Bank of England 

on Thursday hiked its economic 

growth forecast for next 

year, as it froze its key interest 

rate at a record-low 0.25% and left 

stimulus unchanged. 

The BoE raised its prediction for 

2017 GDP expansion to 1.4% from 

0.8% as early fears of a sharp slump 

due to the shock of the June Brexit 

vote failed to materialise. 

People walk past a board posts the British Pound and US dollar sale rate outside a currency exchange bureau in Paris 

Ahead of the decision, a closely-watched 

survey Thursday 

showed output in Britain’s key 

services sector rose last month despite 

costs rising at the fastest rate 

in more than five years. 

The Markit/CIPS services purchasing 

managers’ index (PMI) hit 

54.5 in October, up from 52.6 in 

September and above analyst expectations 

of 52.5. A reading above 

50 indicates growth. 

US election in view 

Elsewhere yesterday, eurozone 

stock markets rose. But Asian equities 

struggled again, with uncertainty 

over next week’s presidential 

election sending investors 

rushing for the sidelines, pushing 

safe havens such as the yen and 

gold higher. 

With just days to go until the 

November 8 poll, maverick tycoon 

Donald Trump has narrowed the 

gap with market-favourite Hillary 

Clinton, whose lead had once been 

considered unassailable, upending 

early confidence. 

The former secretary of state is 

considered by most investors to be 

a safer, more stable bet than Trump, 

who is seen as a loose cannon. 

“The move to take risk off the 

table continues,” said IG analyst 

Chris Weston in Melbourne. 

REUTERS 

“We have reached a point where 

there is a buyers’ strike, where 

money managers have reduced 

their risk.” 

The rush for safety saw gold 

prices climb back above $1,300 an 

ounce Wednesday for the first time 

since the start of October. 

Fears of a Trump presidency has 

led to speculation the Fed could 

hold off a December rate increase - 

which has been largely priced into 

markets - owing to fears about his 

impact on the economy. 

Wall Street edged higher in opening 

trade yesterday after four straight 

days of losses on election anxieties, 

with the Dow gaining 0.1%. • 

Bank of England raises UK growth forecast 


The Bank of England yesterday 

hiked its economic growth forecast 

for next year, as it froze its key interest 

rate at a record-low 0.25% 

and left stimulus unchanged. 

The BoE, revealing its quarterly 

outlook alongside the rate decision, 

raised its prediction for this 

year’s growth and lifted its 2017 

forecast, but downgraded 2018 

GDP guidance. 

Governor Mark Carney meanwhile 

warned that Thursday’s High 

Court decision to order a parliamentary 

vote on Brexit was part 

of the “uncertainty” arising from 

Britain’s shock EU exit referendum 

result in June. 

“It’s an example of the uncertainty 

that will characterise this 

(Brexit) process,” governor Mark 

Carney told a press conference. 

“That uncertainty does bear 

down on business investment,” he 

warned. The economy was predicted 

to grow by 2.2% this year, by 

1.4% in 2017 and by 1.5% in 2018. 

That compared with previous 

GDP expansion forecasts of 2%, 

0.8% and 1.7% respectively. 

“In the three months since (August), 

indicators of activity and 

business sentiment have recovered 

from their lows immediately 

following the referendum and 

the preliminary estimate of GDP 

growth in the third quarter was 

above expectations,” the central 

bank noted in a statement. 

“These data suggest that the 

near-term outlook for activity 

is stronger than expected three 

months ago.” 

It added that household spending 

had grown faster than expected 

in August, while the housing market 

had been more resilient. 

The announcement came two 

hours after a ruling that parliament, 

not the government, must approve 

the start of Britain’s withdrawal from 

the European Union, in a landmark 

decision that could delay Brexit. 

Three senior judges ruled that 

Prime Minister Theresa May did not 

Germany pushes 

China to help its 

firms do business 

• Reuters 

German Economy Minister Sigmar 

Gabriel urged the Chinese government 

yesterday to reduce barriers 

for German firms wanting to do 

business there and establish a level 

playing field. 

Accompanied by 60 business 

executives, Gabriel is on a five-day 

mission to China to help German 

firms operating there. He has also 

pushed for EU-wide rules to block 

Chinese takeovers of key technologies. 

“We don’t expect there to be a 

market that is as open as Germany’s 

overnight,” he told reporters, adding 

that the general trend should be 

towards establishing equal market 

conditions for domestic and foreign 

companies. 

It is unclear to what extent Chinese 

officials are heeding Gabriel’s 

repeated calls though he has said 

he has received assurances that its 

car makers would not be discriminated 

against in China amid fears 

about quotas for electric cars. 

Gabriel struck a conciliatory 

tone in Chengdu, which is hosting 

a trade fair at which Germany is 

featured, after his trip was initially 

overshadowed by strains over corporate 

takeovers. 

Just days before he left, his ministry 

withdrew approval for Fujian 

Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC) 

to buy chip equipment maker Aixtron, 

citing new security concerns. 

Gabriel said he hoped trade ties 

could be extended and welcomed 

the benefits of Chinese investment 

in German firms, saying it invigorated 

the corporate sector. 

“It shows that Chinese investments 

are increasing with us and 

that is a good thing,” he said. Germany 

was open to Chinese investment, 

apart from a few strategic areas, such 

as security and energy, he said. • 

have the right to use her executive 

power to trigger Article 50 of the EU’s 

Lisbon treaty, which begins a twoyear 

countdown to leaving the bloc. 

The pound advanced further 

against rival currencies on the BoE 

decision, having earlier jumped 

through $1.24 in the wake of the 

High Court ruling. 

Sterling has tumbled to multi-year 

low points against its main 

rivals since Britain voted June 23 

for Brexit. 

The court ruling has “made triggering 

Brexit a lot trickier and has 

given sterling a massive shot in the 

arm”, said Neil Wilson, markets analyst 

at ETX Capital. 

“The news sent the pound roaring 

through $1.24 before gains were 

pared as markets digest the news 

- the fact is no one really knows 

what the implications of this decision 

are yet.” 

Rate hike? 

The BoE slashed its main interest 

rate to the current level in August, 

as part of a post-referendum stimulus 

package worth up to £170bn 

($212bn, 191bn euros) as Carney 

warned of recession risks. 

“The upshot is that the stronger 

outlook for the economy than 

previously anticipated means that 

another rate cut now looks unlikely,” 

said Capital Economics analyst 

Paul Hollingsworth. •

Business 15 



CORPORATE NEWS 

Pubali Bank has recently held a conference for its regional and corporate branch managers, said a press 

release. The bank’s chairperson, Habibur Rahman was present at the conference as chief guest 

Mutual Trust Bank Limited has recently opened an ATM booth at Chittagong Club in Chittagong, said a 

press release. Chairperson of Chittagong Club Limited, Mohammad Abdus Salam inaugurated the booth 

at the presence of the bank’s MD and CEO, Anis A Khan 

Southeast Bank Limited has recently donated a pick-up van to Valuka Model Thana in Mymensingh, said a 

press release. The bank’s additional managing director, SM Mainuddin Chowdhury handed over the van’s 

key to AKM Shahidul Hoque, Inspector General of Police at Bangladesh Police 

Chairperson of ZH Sikder University of Science and Technology, Zainul Haque Sikder has recently 

distributed scholarships among top students of ZH Sikder University of Science and Technology in 

Shariatpur, said a press release

16 

FRIDAY,NOVEMBER 4, 2016 


Feature 

5 ways to curb impulsive shopping 

The end of the 

month won’t 

seem so bad 

after all 

• Sabrina Fatma Ahmad 

Do you find yourself staring at 

an empty wallet halfway into 

the month, wondering how 

you managed to burn through 

your allowance/salary so fast? It 

happens to the best of us. When 

we’re not careful about spending, 

little purchases can add up and 

take a huge chunk out of our 

savings. Here are a few ways to nip 

impulse buys in the bud. 

Window shop 

Part of the fun of retail therapy is 

simply in browsing, exploring, and 

being around shiny new things. 

You can indulge in all those things 

without spending. Simply go 

browse through your favourite 

store, and then leave without 

buying something. If that’s too 

hard to commit to at one go, leave 

your wallet at home before you 

go window shopping. Once you 

get used to the idea of not having 

to make a purchase, the sense of 

achievement you get from your 

own discipline will equal the high 

of any retail therapy buy. 

Take stock 

Before you head out to yet another 

shopping spree, consider cleaning 

out your closet – and shelves. Once 

you see how much stuff you’ve 

accumulated that you never ended 

up using, and the clutter they 

create, you’ll be less inclined to 

fork out your hard-earned money 

for yet another top that’s three 

sizes too small, or that pepper 

mill that’s going to stay in its 

packaging. 

Make a list 

Many an impulse buy has 

happened because the buyer 

doesn’t have a clear idea of what 

is needed at home. Stop secondguessing 

yourself, and prepare 

a list before you head out to the 

store, and once there, make a 

commitment to stick to the list, 

and leave as soon as you have all 

Pro-tip: If you want to cut down on spending, 

don't go shopping on an empty stomach, or if 

you're feeling stressed 

the items checked out, so that 

you’re not tempted by the comehither 

looks from the shelves and 

display. 

Mind on the money 

There’s really no way around this; 

if you want to know where all the 

money goes, you want to keep 

an eye on it. Create a manageable 

personal accounting system, be 

it an old-school ledger, or a more 

up-to-date app – there’s no dearth 

of personal finance management 

softwares available online. Don’t 

forget to log in even the tiniest 

expenditure, even if it’s a Tk 50 

Flexi to your friend. 

A little thank you 

We buy things we don’t have, 

right? Therefore, logic follows 

that if we were more aware of the 

things we do have, we’d fixate 

less on things we don’t. Practicing 

thankfulness every day leaves you 

feeling “fuller” and more satisfied, 

and thus less likely to try filling 

some emotional void with material 

goods.•

Feature 

17 



Move gracefully 

A common sense guide to moving 

• Saqib Sarker 

“There are more things in heaven 

and earth, Horatio, 

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” 

- Hamlet, William Shakespeare 

If Shakespeare were to live in our 

time and needed to move to a new 

place with his TV, assortment of 

furniture, things under the bed, 

forgotten piles of potentially 

important papers tucked underneath 

some deep unexplored 

space in his drawers, and innumerable 

other stuff, he would have 

written: “there are more things in 

your room than you realise before 

moving.” 

There is scarcely anyone alive 

in the urban world who does not 

dread the day when you have to 

take all your possessions and move 

them to a new place and then 

organise them again. Is it possible 

to have a stress free move? 

Perhaps not, but you certainly can 

make it easier. And if you plan well 

and well ahead then you will be 

backslapping yourself after all the 

dust settles. With that in mind let’s 

look at some of the things that you 

could do to avoid excessive stress. 

Planning ahead 

Planning ahead involves talking to 

your trusted carpenter, plumber, 

and electrician to book them for 

the entire day. Some of your furniture 

may need to be taken 

apart for moving. That means you 

may want to have that completed 

a day before, so, you don’t waste 

valuable time on the moving day. 

Technicalities 

You should have the electrician, 

plumber, and carpenter inspect 

your new place before the day of 

the move. Otherwise they are going 

to find problems on the actual 

day and you will have to come up 

with the solutions. You may need 

to install a new water tap for hot 

water from the heater tank. You 

may need to have a new water pipe 

built for your washing machine. 

You may need to change the electric 

mains on the wall because the 

old ones are just dreadful. There 

are just too many things waiting to 

go south. Get ahead of the game by 

detecting these problems before 

moving. 

Food and water 

The food and water department 

needs to be taken seriously as well. 

Eating out is an option. Having a 

lot of drinking water handy is very 

necessary. A nifty strategy is to set 

up the fridge first and then keep 

an army of water bottles ready for 

the day. 

Hired help 

Vans and labourers are not difficult 

to find generally. But it’s best to 

call someone you hired before or 

who have good reference. The ‘van 

wala’ may want to employ as few 

labourer as possible, as he has to 

pay each of the people working. 

Ask them to get more people and 

pay the extra money (it’s normally 

only 400 taka per person a day). 

The reason you want to have more 

labourers is that it’s difficult to see 

these poor men doing the inhuman 

heavy lifting. But if you want 

a less altruistic reason then consider 

the well being of your furniture 

and anything else you don’t want 

chipped or scratched. And after 

everything is moved if you offer 

them the cold water you stored up 

they will act as if you gave them 9 

thousand dollar bottle champagne. 

Finally don’t shy away from 

asking for help. Your friends, 

family members may not be as 

unwilling to help out as you are 

hesitant to ask them. Sometimes 

they don’t actually have to do 

much. But having friends around 

makes you feel better. And often 

people actually end up having a lot 

of fun. It may well become a great 

memory too. •

18 



Feature 

Everjobs conducts career campaign at IUB 

Everjobs.com.bd, the fastest 

growing online career portal in 

Bangladesh, conducted a career 

workshop at the Independent 

University, Bangladesh on 

November 2. The conference is 

part of “Conquer Your Career” 

campaign, an educational 

program created by everjobs. 

com.bd to assist fresh graduates 

in Bangladesh to break into the 

professional world with the 

necessary information about the 

local job market. 

•Nahid Farzana 

Repto, an online education 

startup was conceived with a 

dream to change the education 

system in Bangladesh. The 

startup was founded by Istiyak 

Sheyam, a student himself, who 

hopes to break the boundaries 

of the traditional education 

system. He, along with his team, 

took part in GP Accelerator 

and became one of the top five 

teams to receive the support and 

funding from Grameenphone and 

SD ASIA. 

The primary objective of 

Repto is to allow people to learn 

valuable new skills easily which 

will help them to upgrade their 

skill sets. Currently, it has over 100 

active courses for programming, 

business, science, photography, 

film-making, Microsoft, etc. 

and has almost 50 professional 

instructors. 

The start-up was recently 

announced as the winner of the 

prestigious BRAC Manthan Award. 

BRAC, in association with Digital 

Empowerment Foundation, 

The session, which was 

attended by more than 150 

final-year students, welcomed 

renowned speakers such as 

Rubina Khan, HR Manager at 

Beximco Petroleum Limited; 

Munawwar Chowdhury, 

Marketing Manager at Daraz 

Bangladesh; Devendra Singh, 

Country Manager at everjobs 

Bangladesh and Philip Drechsel, 

Business Development Manager 

at everjobs Bangladesh. A. H. 

Lutful Hassan, Deputy Director, 

launched a separate 

entity called the BRAC 

Digital Innovation Award 

(BMDIA) to recognise 

digital innovation 

in Bangladesh. The 

award was focused 

on encouraging more 

grassroots ICT innovators 

so that they get a 

chance to be recognised 

at a national and 

international level. 

14 winners were 

announced by BMDIA 

on October 8. Those 

who had extraordinary 

contributions for 

development in the field of ICT 

got the award. Repto won the 

award in the e-education, science, 

and employment sector. It has a 

great impact on the society and 

a high commercial viability. The 

best part about Repto is its userfriendliness. 

All these made it 

possible for Repto to become the 

winner of BRAC Manthan Award 

2016. 

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State 

Minister of ICT was excited about 

Career Guidance & Placement 

and Adjunct Faculty at the School 

of Business, IUB and Sharmeen 

Islam, Asst. Director, Career 

Guidance & Placement were also 

present during the event. 

Campaigns like the “Conquer 

Your Career” program by 

everjobs.com.bd bring a new and 

fresh labour market approach for 

young but eager professionals 

in Bangladesh. “At everjobs, 

we came up with this initiative 

to bring together job seekers 

Repto wins Brac Manthan award 

the achievement and success 

of Repto- Education Center. 

The Proper Education system 

is yet to reach the rural areas 

of Bangladesh. Besides, quality 

education and most of all, quality 

teachers is a great concern. Zunaid 

Palak said- “This constraint could 

easily be passed by developing 

e-learning.” He further said, 

“Repto took an amazing initiative. 

I congratulate the young 

entrepreneurs who initiated the 

that are looking for a fresh 

start or a new career direction 

and HR professionals from top 

companies in Bangladesh” says 

Singh. “Participants attending 

the events are able to get the 

necessary support and career 

guidance for their future 

professional plans in Bangladesh. 

The program allows them to 

get first-hand tips from experts 

in the field on how to build a 

stronger, more innovative career 

in their country.” 

idea of Repto. These entrepreneurs 

are taking us forward to fulfill 

the dream of Digital Bangladesh. 

Repto will do better in future and 

will definitely go a long way.” 

Recently we got a chance to talk 

to Istiyak Sheyam and he shared 

his views about the win. He said, 

“We are very happy and proud. 

This was a prestigious win for us. 

There are so many other startups 

and yet from all of them, we won 

the award. Winning this award not 

A. H. Lutful Hassan remarked: 

“The workshop conducted 

by everjobs.com.bd was very 

helpful and informative for the 

students. The distinguished 

speakers from the corporate 

world shared their experiences 

and tips on interview skills, CV 

writing and careers in the MNCs. 

The Office of Career Guidance 

and Placement of Independent 

University, Bangladesh wishes to 

thank everjobs.com.bd for their 

cooperation.” • 

only boosted our confidence but 

helped a lot with our networking.” 

Repto is focused on changing 

the education system of 

Bangladesh. BRAC and Repto 

both being in the education sector 

can work together in the future, 

Sheyam expects. He is looking 

forward to making Repto a better 

brand. They have plans to make a 

partnership with BASIS, a2i, and 

other big organisations to turn 

Repto into a bigger platform. •

| agreement | 

ULAB signs MoU to set-up and 

manage an IoT Lab 

Biz Info 

| employment | 

Sunman Group and 

H&M to recruit BUFT 

graduates 

19 



ULAB Vice Chancellor (Acting) Professor Imran Rahman and A.N .M Safiqul Islam, Project Director, Support to 

Development of Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park, BHTPA has signed a MoU on behalf of both organizations on October 29, 2016 

A technical team of Sunman 

Group headed by Major (Retd) 

Abdul Mannan, Chairman, 

Sunman Group is coming to 

BGMEA University of Fashion 

& Technology (BUFT) on 

November 7, 2016 to recruit 

graduates. Spot interviews 

will be held at the BUFT 

Conference Room at 11.00 

a.m. Sunman Group will select 

about 25 - 30 graduates for 

various positions. 

BUFT is the only university 

where graduates are trained 

and educated in the field of 

RMG, Textiles, and Fashion. 

As recognition of the quality 

of education, BUFT graduates 

are being placed with various 

retailers like Walmart, H&M, 

Uniqlo, etc. 

For recruitment purpose, 

an HR team from H& M is also 

coming to BUFT to collect CVs 

of graduates on November 9, 

2016. • 

University of Liberal 

Arts Banglade sh signed a 

Memorandum of Understanding 

with Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park 

Authority, which runs under 

the ICT Division, on Saturday, 

October 29, 2016. 

Under the MoU, ULAB will 

receive a state-of-the-art IoT 

(Internet of Things) Lab from 

“Support to Development of 

Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park Project” 

financed by the World Bank. 

ULAB will manage and operate 

the lab in collaboration with 

Datasoft. The lab will be used 

to train and develop 300 skilled 

resources in IoT and ancillary 

skills over a period of 16 months. 

The lab will also be available 

for use by academia, industry 

and government to conduct 

research in IoT, Big Data, and 

Future Internet Research and 

Experimentation (FIRE). 

Professor Imran Rahman, Vice 

Chancellor (Acting) of ULAB, 

Mr. A.N.M. Safiqul Islam Project 

Director, Support to Development 

of Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park, BHTPA 

and Mr. Manjur Mahmud, 

Director and COO, DataSoft 

Systems Bangladesh Limited 

signed the MoU on behalf of their 

respective organisations. • 

| deal | 

Happy Hour at Emmanuelle’s Inn 

| workshop | 

Fred Hollows and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee 

Trust fund workshop on Diabetic Retinopathy 

A workshop on ‘Update 

Management of Diabetic 

Retinopathy (DR)’ was held at 

Sher-E-Bangla Medical College 

Hospital in Barisal recently. 

The workshop is part of a 

project called ‘Integrated model 

of care for diabetic retinopathy 

within the health system of 

Bangladesh’ and is jointly funded 

by the Fred Hollows Foundation 

and Queen Elizabeth Diamond 

Jubilee Trust Fund with support 

from the Directorate General of 

Health Services and the National 

Eye Care initiative. 

There are approximately 5.7 

million people with diabetes in 

Bangladesh, and this number 

is expected to double by 2030. 

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) 

and macular edema (DME) are 

complications of diabetes that 

can result in vision loss. The 

estimated number of people with 

DR in Bangladesh is 1.54 million 

(27% of the diabetic patients). 

Considering the situation it is 

important to have an effective 

integration of eye health 

components into the existing 

services which care for the 

people with diabetes at different 

levels. 

Under this initiative the Fred 

Hollows Foundation and its 

stakeholders are piloting a model 

of eye care services to diabetic 

patients in Barisal, Patuakhali, 

Jhalakhati and its sub-districts at 

the primary and secondary level, 

and at Sher-e-Bangla Medical 

College Hospital at the tertiary 

level. 

This workshop was chaired by 

Prof. AMSM Sharfuzzaman, Head 

of the Department (surgery), 

Sher-e-Bangla Medical College 

(SBMC), Barisal. Prof. Bhaskar 

Saha, Principle & Prof. of 

Medicine, Sher-E-Bangla Medical 

College and Dr. S. M. Shirajul 

Islam, Director, Sher-e-Bangla 

Medical College Hospital, Barisal 

was the Chief guest and Special 

Guest respectively. • 

Hotel Emmanuelle’s Inn is offering a delicious new promotion on their a 

la carte and fast food menus. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, customers 

can enjoy 50% off on the menu from 4pm-11pm. That includes dishes like 

steak, pizza, seafood and more. The offer is valid till December 20. •


20 

Editorial 


TODAY 

Repugnant 

vs Demagogue 

Sorry folks, but election day won’t 

provide the ending you crave. Come 

Wednesday, the best we can hope for is 

more aphorisms 

PAGE 21 

In honour of 

the framers 

BIGSTOCK 

The members of the Constitution 

Drafting Committee were freedom 

fighters, top organisers of our liberation 

war, and the progenitors of independent 

Bangladesh 

PAGE 22 

No worse crime 

Illusions of secularity 

Bangladesh has been home to both 

Muslims and Hindus for centuries 

PAGE 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 

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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. 

The recent attacks in Brahmanbaria, Habiganj, and Khagrachari are 

tied together by a common thread. 

They were both deliberate, calculated, and manufactured. 

An alarming pattern has emerged, one that goes back to the 

attacks on the Buddhist temples in Ramu four years ago -- false flag attacks 

are being cooked up against minority communities to make the victims 

look like they are at fault. 

Step one for these miscreants is to rile up anger against a minority 

group by making a Facebook post or a comment on a public platform 

that may be considered insulting to Islam, and falsely attributing it to a 

member of the minority community. 

The second step is to whip up a crowd into a frenzy of hatred and anger 

towards the minority. 

Finally, indiscriminate violence is carried out against innocent citizens, 

while law enforcement officers often stand by doing nothing, complicit in 

these crimes. 

Religious and ethnic minorities, in any context, are particularly 

vulnerable to communal hatred, and are less likely to see justice for crimes 

of assault, vandalism, and looting. 

But with a manufactured pretext, large swathes of the population are 

duped into thinking that they “deserved it” -- thus making them look like 

the aggressors in the atrocities committed against them. 

What we thus have here are crimes of the most serious nature, which 

need to be punished swiftly and harshly. 

Those who are behind these calculated assaults to foment discord and 

cook up an excuse for a riot and mayhem are enemies of society, state, and 

secularism. 

They are criminals of the worst kind, and there can be no mercy for the 

crime they commit -- the crime of fomenting hatred in order to persecute 

and dispossess a helpless minority. 

Our law enforcement must make a priority to identify all the key players 

behind these manufactured attacks, and bring them to book immediately. 

Those who are behind 

these calculated assaults 

to foment discord and 

cook up an excuse for 

a riot and mayhem are 

enemies of society, state, 

and secularism

Opinion 21 

Repugnant vs Demagogue 

No matter who wins on November 8, there will be a lot of unhappy Americans 



• Niaz Alam 

Not long to go now. The 

days are counting down. 

Soon, it will be 

hours. Barely enough 

time left to finish a box-set before 

we all know the result of the US 

Presidential Election. 

And then it will all be over. 

Except it won’t. 

The real life on-screen drama 

will continue regardless. 

Even if times were normal -- 

and they manifestly are not -- the 

US political system is designed to 

drag on with a long transition built 

in before Inauguration Day. 

It’s complicated enough already 

without a major party candidate 

threatening to only “respect the 

result” if he wins. 

“Remember remember, 

after the eighth of November,” 

even after Electoral College 

and Congressional totals are 

confirmed, there will be no easy 

As for that matter, becoming 

the first female president of 

the United States ought to be 

achieving something similar for 

Hillary Clinton. 

The narrative is compelling; 

America finally starts to overcome 

the culture wars that have 

bedeviled it ever since the Civil 

Rights era struggles abolished legal 

apartheid below the Mason Dixon 

line and women began to amass 

real power in the workplace. 

Electing a woman to follow 

a president of colour would 

exemplify the aspirations of 

opportunity and ideals of equality 

which people all round the globe 

look to in America. 

Despite all the ample evidence 

to the contrary. We just can’t help 

it. The lure of the American dream 

and reach of US power, influence, 

and money are too great for it to be 

any other way. Most of the world, 

like me, does not get a vote, lives 

thousands of miles away, but even 

Two sides of the same ugly coin 

REUTERS 

Sorry folks, but election day won’t provide the 

ending you crave. Come Wednesday, the best 

we can hope for is more aphorisms 

escape. There will be no simple 

ending. No blissful relief. 

Only three outcomes can be 

taken for granted. 

First, for sure, around half, give 

or take, of those who turn out to 

vote, and plenty of those who 

don’t, will find the winner to be 

extremely distasteful, repugnant, 

and unacceptable. 

Secondly, should said winner 

be a man, that is to say Donald 

Trump, not Hillary Clinton, Google 

searches for the meaning of the 

word “demagogue” will hit an all 

time high. 

And last but not least, with each 

and every day that passes, Barack 

Hussein Obama will seem an even 

better president to more and more 

people than he does today. 

Yes, he’s disappointed many 

by not earning his Peace Prize or 

closing Gitmo, but he did better 

than some hoped by getting health 

care reform, climate change, 

marriage equality, and Cuba on the 

US agenda in the face of immense 

intransigence, where others before 

have failed. 

But truth be told, being the first 

non-white president of the United 

States was always going to be 

enough, on its own, for Obama to 

be a big deal in the history books. 

so, cannot quite resist taking an 

interest. 

Somehow, the opening 

paragraph of Soul on Ice still rings 

true despite being written in 1968 

(by a Black Panther author who 

became a conservative Republican 

and evangelical Christian). 

“It is not an overstatement to 

say that the destiny of the entire 

human race depends on what is 

going on in America today. This 

is a staggering reality to the rest 

of the world; they must feel like 

passengers in a supersonic jet liner 

who are forced to watch helplessly 

while a passel of drunks, hypes, 

freaks, and madmen fight for the 

controls and the pilot’s seat.” 

Trump, by the way is teetotal, 

however less-than-sober his 

rhetoric. 

Should he lose on Tuesday, 

Donald Trump’s candidacy 

can easily be framed not as a 

wake-up call for proponents 

of corporate-led globalisation, 

but as the despairing gasp of 

an outnumbered white male 

chauvinist-led America. 

His cynical use of racist 

language, wandering hands, and 

shameless sexism would all take 

the blame. 

Eventually, Trump’s 

misogynist musings and Billy 

Bush’s schoolboy sniggers on 

that notorious Access Hollywood 

tape might even begin to be 

seen more as a sad Derek and 

Clive tribute act than a threat to 

civilisation, and the world could 

move on to wondering what a new, 

improved President Clinton can 

do for women (and on how the 

Republicans will use all means 

they deem legal to undermine her 

authority). 

But instead of this election not 

even seeming close, a tenuous 

but real FBI investigation into the 

cyber world of Anthony Weiner 

has put the wind back under 

Trump’s sails and drastically 

deflated Clinton’s confidence. 

It’s not just that Clinton built 

opinion poll leads before and 

after the debates, Trump also 

consistently delivered gaffes. The 

latter’s path to victory ought to 

have firmly shut weeks ago. 

Hillary supporters must be 

wishing she’d asked Bernie 

Sanders to be VP now. 

Sanders’ proven ability to 

attract new voters would far 

outweigh Trump’s loud but barely 

credible attempts to make out he is 

not part of the establishment elites 

he claims to despise. 

Only Clinton could not have 

done that, because she let some 

of her more fervent fans endlessly 

slander Sanders in the primaries 

for, amongst other falsehoods, 

“not understanding minorities.” 

It takes some serious chutzpah 

and hubris to suggest that 

someone who has been an actual 

elected socialist in the United 

States Congress does not know 

what it is like to be a minority. But 

never mind all that; everyone is 

friends now. Bernie, Barack, and 

Bill are all backing Hillary. 

As is Michelle, and a few 

key senior Republicans. Not 

to mention, famed Republican 

stalwart, satirical globetrotter, and 

relentless critic of both Clintons, 

PJ O’Rourke, who publicly 

endorsed her as “better the devil 

you know” in the Daily Beast, 

while thoroughly excoriating The 

Donald for bigotry, bankruptcy, 

and bad taste. 

Truly, there should be nowhere 

left for him to hide. But Trump 

is still standing. And everyone, 

especially high up in his own 

party, is more than a little scared 

he might still win. 

Be not afeard, is all I can say. 

When Ronald Reagan, with 

his cod-fundamentalist talk of 

expecting to see End Times, was 

twice elected president, nuclear 

armageddon-themed inauguration 

parties were all the rage. The world 

has been to that place before and 

survived. 

For all his belligerence and 

bluster, Trump’s needy ego merely 

wants to be loved or, failing that, 

get some attention and bragging 

rights. Lots of bragging rights. 

Facts and truth, not so much. 

Trump is less interested in fighting 

evil emperors than in becoming 

one. Don’t worry, constitutional 

checks and balances will stop him 

if he tries. 

Yes, the same constitution 

which did so little to give the 

vote to African-Americans and 

women, and enforce treaties with 

the natives. That one, I appreciate 

this, is not very comforting but 

we have to believe it gets things 

right eventually. One day, it may 

even follow Bernie Sanders and 

wiser nations in seriously limiting 

campaign spending. 

In the meantime, it remains 

possible the US election could 

replace Obama with Trump. And 

even though he would be a worse 

choice than Clinton, plenty of 

American voters are going to end 

up seriously annoyed whichever 

way the ballots fall. Not for 

nothing did Churchill proclaim 

democracy as “the worst political 

system, except for all the others.” 

Whether Trump turns out to 

be winner or whiner, the reasons 

he is still in the running are not 

going anywhere, nor is there much 

reason to hope a new President 

Clinton could solve them. 

Sorry folks, but Election Day 

won’t provide the ending you 

crave. Come Wednesday, the 

best we can hope for is more 

aphorisms. The end of this 

election will not be the beginning 

of the end. But if we’re very lucky, 

it might just about be the end of 

the beginning. • 

Niaz Alam is a member of the Editorial 

Board of Dhaka Tribune. A qualified lawyer, 

he has worked on corporate responsibility 

and ethical business issues since 1992. He 

sat on the Board of the London Pensions 

Fund Authority between 2001-2010 and is 

a former vice-chair of War on Want.

22 



Opinion 

In honour of the framers 

Next to independence, our greatest achievement is the Constitution 

• Kawser Ahmed 

Even after 45 years of its 

adoption, the original 

Constitution, as adopted 

in 1972, holds great appeal 

among many Bangladeshis. It 

is worth remembering that on 

the eve of the 2014 national 

parliamentary elections, Syed 

Ashraful Islam, the then General 

Secretary of Awami League stated 

his party would make every effort 

to return to the 1972 Constitution 

if elected to power again. 

One could easily sense that 

many Bangladeshi politicians, 

professionals, and intellectuals, 

especially those who are in close 

proximity to legal profession and 

legal education, share a keen sense 

of pride for the Constitution. 

Now, the question is, how could 

a nation, which is so enthusiastic 

about its Constitution, allow the 

framers to go unsung? 

On April 1, 1972, the Constituent 

Assembly formed the Constitution 

Drafting Committee, comprising 

34 members, and entrusted to 

it the task of preparing a draft 

Constitution that the Assembly 

would ultimately consider. The 

committee held its first meeting 

on April 17 and went on to work 

throughout April and May at a 

stretch until June 3, when the first 

draft was ready. 

The committee approved the 

draft on June 10, but went on to 

work on linguistic improvement 

with the help of Professor Syed 

Ali Ahsan, Dr Mazharul Islam, and 

Dr Anisuzzaman. The committee 

concluded its work on October 

11 by settling the text of the 

Constitution bill and submitted it 

to the Constituent Assembly along 

with a report. 

Everyone (save the cynics) 

will admit that the way the 

Constitution Drafting Committee 

support. 

Many people do not even know 

who were on the Committee with 

the exception of a few luminaries 

like Dr Kamal Hossain, Syed 

Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, 

AHM Kamaruzzaman, M Amir-Ul 

Islam, Serajul Haq, and Suranjit 

Sen Gupta. 

Arguably, next to the country’s 

independence, our greatest 

achievement is the Constitution. 

In effect, the Constitution is the 

tangible result of our struggle for 

independence. 

No doubt, the experience of 

overlong unconstitutional regime 

during Pakistan era prompted 

the Father of the Nation, Sheikh 

Mujibur Rahman to trigger the 

Constitution-making process 

immediately after his return to 

country. 

If the Constitution embodies 

the vision and direction of the 

Father of the Nation, it is the 


who midwifed that vision into 

reality. 

The members of the 


were freedom fighters, top 

organisers of our Liberation 

War, and the progenitors of 

independent Bangladesh. 

Honouring them as the framers 

of the Constitution will glorify 

importance of the Constitution in 

everyone’s eye. 

Although a few of them 

were decorated with national 

commendations, the citations do 

not refer to their contribution to 

the Constitution-making process. 

At this point, one might justly 

anticipate why the Constitution 

Drafting Committee had not yet 

been decorated despite such a 

great achievement. 

One reason could be that among 

the members of the committee 

were persons like Khandker 

The spirit of Bangladesh 

BIGSTOCK 

The members of the Constitution Drafting Committee were freedom 

fighters, top organisers of our liberation war, and the progenitors 

of independent Bangladesh. Honouring them as the framers of the 

Constitution will glorify importance of the Constitution in everyone’s eye 

had brought about the draft 

Constitution just in less than two 

months is simply stunning. Sadly 

enough, many Bangladeshis do 

not know how a daunting feat such 

as this one was accomplished in so 

little time, even with less logistical 

Mushtak Ahmed who later went 

astray to become one of the 

plotters of the tragic incident of 

August 15, 1975. 

Given that, it would still not be 

prudent to remain indifferent to 

those members of the committee 

who remained loyal to the spirit of 

the national liberation struggle all 

through their lives. 

One solution could be that 

instead of decorating the 

committee as a whole, only the 

deserving members thereof could 

be honoured individually with 

citation specifically recognising 

their respective contribution to the 

making of the Constitution. It will 

lessen the debts that the nation 

owes to them. 

The government has honoured 

many foreign nationals and 

organisations with accolades for 

their contribution to our struggle 

for liberation. 

We must not forget that the 

members of the Constitution 

Drafting Committee were the 

worthiest sons of the soil and the 

nation owes to them no less than 

others. • 

Kawser Ahmed is an Advocate, Supreme 

Court of Bangladesh.

Illusions of secularity 

Communalism was never a part of Bangladesh’s founding principles 

Opinion 23 



Bangladesh belongs to all communities 

• Ziauddin Choudhury 

The senseless attack on 

a minority village in 

Brahmanbaria and the 

destruction of property 

and a temple there do not reveal 

any new truth about intolerance 

and the communal side of a certain 

section of our population in the 

country. 

It also does not forebode a 

sudden shift in the population, at 

large, towards bigotry and a surge 

in communalism. 

What it does, however, is wake 

us up to the dangers of tolerance 

of such conduct at a political level 

and the continued existence of 

the mindset of the religious divide 

that has dominated the country 

since the time of the Indo-Pak 

partition. 

It is a reminder that this 

divide was exploited for political 

purposes in Pakistan for as long 

we were part of that country and, 

more lamentably, even after the 

birth of Bangladesh, once wedded 

to the principle of secularism. 

In the coming days, when our 

political leaders and government 

agencies probe into this 

unfortunate incident, like they did 

after the marauders ransacked a 

Buddhist village in Ramu, strong 

words of condemnation will be 

uttered. Everyone will decry the 

incident and call for the heads of 

those who caused this grievous 

assault. 

In fact, it is most likely that 

some small time criminals and 

hired goons who probably took 

part in this riot will be found, 

brought to justice, and attempts 

will be made to assure the 

minority community that there 

will be no repeat of such heinous 

acts. 

Life will again turn to normal 

for some time, until another 

similar incident happens in a 

different area of the country. 

I say this rather shamefacedly 

because the Brahmanbaria 

incident is not unique in our 

country. It has happened before, 

maybe not on such a massive 

scale against a whole village, but 

against individuals belonging to 

the minority community. The 

individual murder cases, majority 

of which occurred in the last four 

years, were explained away as 

the handiwork of a politically 

committed group determined to 

undermine and embarrass the 

government in the public and 

foreign eyes. 

Although none, or a very few 

of these murders, have been 

solved, people accepted the cases 

as targeted attacks which were 

not necessarily against a whole 

community. However, such 

explanations are not enough to 

assure the minority community 

as a whole of their safety in a 

country that has a long history of 

communal turbulence. 

The recurrence of such 

BIGSTOCK 

incidents, despite our 

government’s apparent effort to 

prevent these and the prevalence 

of communal harmony among the 

majority of our people, have to do 

with a number of facts. 

The facts are, not necessarily, 

in any order of importance: 

Growth of religious intolerance, 

considering secularism as the 

absence of religion, exploitation 

of religion for political purposes, 

and a resurgence of political Islam 

in the country and amongst its 

committed followers. 

Bangladesh is not alone in the 

first two; in India there has been 

a gradual corrosion of religious 

tolerance, notably since the rise of 

BJP and a stranglehold on politics 

by extreme rightist elements 

there. Secularism is under threat 

in India as these elements appear 

to force the government to accept 

their religiously-biased demands 

time to time. 

Unlike India, we cannot say 

that secularism is threatened in 

Bangladesh because we effectively 

dissolved that concept, one of 

the four founding principles 

of our first constitution, when 

the military usurpers of the 

government declared Islam as the 

state religion. 

The current government 

has tried to scotch tape that 

amendment by reinsertion of 

secularism in the constitution, but 

without changing the part that 

gives the country a state religion. 

Ostensibly, the state religion 

has been retained not to ignite 

or provoke the majority of the 

country but without any regard 

to the effect such a constitutional 

status given to one religion will 

have on the minority community. 

This brings to my mind the 

historic speech given by Shrish 

Chandra Chattopadhyay, then 

leader of the opposition (Congress 

member from then East Bengal) 

in the Constituent Assembly of 

Pakistan, after the introduction 

of the Objectives Resolution by 

then Prime Minister Liaqat Ali 

Khan. The Objectives Resolution 

had brought into discussion the 

course of action that the country 

should follow to establish its laws 

in accordance with the Qur’an and 

Sunnah. Criticising it in the constituent 

assembly, Chattopadhyay 

said on March 12, 1949: 

“In my conception of state 

where people of different religions 

live, there is no place for religion 

in the state. Its position must be 

neutral: No bias for any religion. 

If necessary, it should help all the 

religions equally. No question of 

Bangladesh has 

been home to 

both Muslims and 

Hindus for centuries. 

They have lived 

together as peaceful 

communities, and 

despite political 

manipulation 

and resurgence 

of communalism 

from time to time, 

Bangladesh belongs 

to all communities 

concession or tolerance to any 

religion. It smacks of inferiority 

complex. The state must respect 

all religions: No smiling face for 

one and askance look to the other. 

The state religion is a dangerous 

principle.” 

It is remarkable that in less 

than 25 years of this resolution, 

the eastern part of Pakistan would 

break away to form a country 

based on principles articulated by 

Chattopadhyay. 

The birth of Bangladesh based 

on a concept of linguistic and 

cultural nationhood broke away 

from the concept of nationhood 

based on religion. However, the 

divide between communities was 

never completely gone from the 

psyche of many people. This is 

why we see a recurrence of the 

transgressions of the kind seen in 

Brahmanbaria and other places in 

the country. 

In the same speech referred 

to above, Shrish Chandra 

Chattopadhyay had said while 

referring to the Hindu minority 

community of then East Bengal 

(about 25% that time): 

“But we belong to East Bengal. 

One-fourth of the population 

is still non-Muslim. We are not 

going to leave East Bengal. It is 

our homeland. It is not a land by 

our adoption. East Bengal is my 

land. I claim that East Bengal and 

Eastern Pakistan belong to me as 

well as to any Mussalman and it 

will be my duty to make Pakistan 

a great, prosperous, and powerful 

state so that it may get a proper 

place in the comity of nations 

because I call myself a Pakistani. I 

wish that Pakistan must be a great 

state. We are living in East Bengal 

peacefully, in peace and amity 

with Muslim neighbours as we 

had been living from generations 

to generations. Therefore, I am 

anxious to see that its constitution 

is framed in such a way which may 

suit the Muslims as well as the 

non-Muslims.” 

Had Shrish Chandra been alive 

today, he would have perhaps 

repeated his words, albeit in a 

different context. But his message 

would have been the same. 

Bangladesh, once East Pakistan 

and East Bengal, had been home to 

both Muslims and Hindus (as well 

as other minorities) for centuries. 

They have lived together as 

peaceful communities, and 

despite political manipulation and 

resurgence of communalism from 

time to time, Bangladesh belongs 

to all communities. 

But it is one thing to talk of 

religious equality and impartiality, 

and another to live it. 

Our government and political 

leaders cannot fulfill their 

obligation only by reacting to 

crisis, but by creating conditions of 

safety and security in the mind of 

all. This cannot be achieved simply 

by catching the culprits, but by 

reinforcing religious equality 

and impartiality in our laws, the 

principle that the founding fathers 

of our constitution believed in. • 

Ziauddin Choudhury has worked in the 

higher civil service of Bangladesh early 

in his career, and later for the World 

Bank in the USA.


24 

Sport 


TOP STORIES 

‘Obviously I am enjoying captaincy’ 

Real, Foxes wait as 

Dortmund advance 

Real Madrid and Leicester City 

must both wait to take their place 

in the last 16 of the Champions 

League after they could only 

manage draws Wednesday on a 

night which saw just Dortmund 

advance. PAGE 26 

Curtains rise on starstudded 

BPL 4 today 

The 4th edition of the BPL T20 

gets underway today in Mirpur. In 

the tournament opener, holders 

Comilla Victorians will face 

Rajshahi Kings while Rangpur 

Riders will take on Khulna Titans 

in the evening game. PAGE 26 

Australia dominate 

opening day in Perth 

Australia ripped through South 

Africa’s top order in the first hour, 

dismissed the tourists for 242 by 

tea and reached 105/0 at close on 

the back of some Dave Warner 

fireworks on the opening day of 

the first Test yesterday. PAGE 27 

Cubs win Series for 

first time since 1908 

The Chicago Cubs shed themselves 

of the “Curse of the Billy Goat” 

and ended a 108-year wait for a 

World Series title by beating the 

Cleveland Indians on Wednesday 

in a thrilling Game Seven classic. 

They beat the host Indians 8-7 in 

10 innings. PAGE 28 

There were continuous questions 

regarding Bangladesh’s ability to 

play well in Test cricket as they 

managed only seven wins out of 

93 five-dayers prior to the twomatch 

series against England. 

However, Bangladesh displayed 

some exciting cricket in 

the first Test in Chittagong, only 

to fall agonisingly short by 22 

runs. Mushfiqur Rahim and his 

troop though made up for their 

heartbreaking loss by sealing their 

biggest win in the longest format 

of the game when they beat the 

opposition by 108 runs in Dhaka 

in the second and final Test. 

The Tigers skipper was instrumental 

in the first Test where he 

scored 48 and 39. His 124-ball 39 

in the second innings can perhaps 

be rated as one of his most 

valuable knocks. His 87-run partnership 

for the sixth wicket with 

Sabbir Rahman gave hope to the 

home side but Bangladesh eventually 

conceded a narrow defeat. 

Despite the historic Dhaka Test 

win, there were still questions 

lingering over Mushfiq’s captaincy 

and the wicket-keeping issue. 

There were also a lot of talks regarding 

the infamous tea-break 

discussion with the head coach 

Chandika Hathurusingha and his 

decision to refrain from talking 

to the media. Mazhar Uddin of 

Dhaka Tribune caught up with 

the Test captain for an exclusive 

interview where he talked freely 

about several topics. 

Here are the excerpts: 

How do you rate the England 

Tests as captain and as a player? 

Obviously it’s a big achievement 

as I previously said it’s one of 

the biggest wins in the history of 

Bangladesh cricket, and in my 11- 

year Test career. And to be a part 

of history being the captain of this 

team, I am really proud. I would 

like to thank the Almighty. Test 

is a different-ball game. It came 

against England so it’s an extraordinary 

win. I think this win will 

make us more confident and give 

us self-belief. If we can consistently 

play like this, I am confident 

that not only England, we can 

beat any team in this format. It 

was much-needed for us as Bangladesh 

have been playing good 

cricket in the limited-over formats 

but were lacking in confidence in 

the longer version. But after this 

win, I think things will start to improve 

in the longer format. 

The pitch was the centre of 

attention throughout the Test 

series. How challenging was it for 

you to prepare your team mates 

for the battle on turning tracks? 

Obviously it was a very big challenge 

as we, the senior players, 

and the team management, first 

brought up the plan. We knew 

it won’t be an easy task for us to 

execute the plans. Especially, 

the batsmen also agreed and said 

even it is difficult, let’s try as we 

have tried a lot of things before at 

home but still the result was the 

same. We have to prepare for the 

conditions keeping our strengths 

in mind at home as we thought 

even if we prepare the wicket for 

three days, it was the plan to go 

for the win. If we can play well we 

can beat any team. And we knew 

England are weak against spin. 

Hathurusingha earlier said your 

two knocks in Chittagong Test 

were more valuable than scoring 

a hundred. How do you rate those 

two innings? 

Obviously it was a learning curve 

for me as I have never played in 

these type of wickets in my 11-year 

Test career. We don’t get many 

opportunities to play in India as 

they have a lot of turning tracks. 

I have played in Sri Lanka but I 

have never played in these type 

of pitches before. It was challenging, 

especially for the batsmen, 

and we have tried play the right 

type of shots on such pitches. We 

have also displayed a great deal of 

patience while batting and it was 

a good effort. But at the end, we 

lost the match and this feeling of 

unfulfillment will always remain. 

I think those two innings will also 

remain of my best knocks. I think 

I have learned a lot from those 

knocks which will help me to improve 

in future. 

In pursuit of 286 in the port city, 

did you think at any point of 

carrying the bat? 

Of course, when me and Shakib [al 

Hasan] were batting. After he got 

out, Sabbir and myself had a very 

good partnership going. Then I 

was saying to Sabbir that it’s a 

great opportunity for us to win the 

Test. We didn’t have any established 

batsman after us. [Mehedi 

Hasan] Miraz was there but still, 

we planned that we will try to stay 

till the end. We added 87 runs together 

and I thought I should stay 

till stumps and will return on the 

fifth day and finish the game. But 

unfortunately, I was out off such a 

delivery that I had no idea at all. 

We tried hard and it would have 

been good if we had went on to 

win that match. But unfortunately, 

we lost. 

Tamim Iqbal appeared to be in 

charge during the third day of the 

second Test. Can you describe the 

situation? 

During the tea break, obviously 

the coach was angry towards the 

players, which was obvious as we 

were not able to execute our plans 

in the middle. The bowlers also 

struggled to execute. We had a 

group chat comprising all the senior 

players and the coach. He told 

the senior players to step up and 

take the responsibility. We were 

given some roles. Tamim was 

standing at mid-off so he could 

help the bowlers closely. To add 

to that, close-in fielders like Mominul 

[Haque] and Mahmudullah 

Riyad bhai, they were also given 

roles to distract the batsmen. 

Shakib and Miraz meanwhile, 

were given roles as bowlers so that 

they could get the breakthroughs. 

With the combination of everyone’s 

effort, we were able to win 

the match. 

Does it mean you were not 

captaining the side during that 

period? 

Coach always tells us, whoever 

has the ball in his hand, he is the 

captain at that time as only he 

knows how and what to do in that 

particular situation and what is 

the plan. So, all the 11 players in 

the team always try to follow that 

and whatever message we receive 

from the coach, we discuss and 

try to implement that on the field. 

Especially, us, the four senior 

members of the team (Mushfiq, 

Shakib, Tamim and Mahmudullah), 

were given instructions to 

lead from the front and fulfil the 

responsibilities. 

Under your captaincy, Bangladesh 

tasted quite a few defeats in 

Tests. How different does it feel 

as captain to be on the winning 

side for a change? 

I have always enjoyed my captaincy 

but obviously, it was very 

challenging for me as we don’t 

play much Test cricket. Whenever 

we play, we have a big gap in 

between. It’s a tough challenge 

to play consistently well. After a 

gap, one usually sees three-four 

changes from the previous Test. 

So it is always very challenging 

to play consistently well in Test 

cricket. Being a captain, it was 

very difficult but now I can say 

Bangladesh have five-six consistent 

performers in the team which 

always helps me as the captain of 

the side. Everyone chipped in. Not 

only Shakib and Miraz but Tamim, 

Imrul [Kayes], Shuvagata [Hom], 

Taijul [Islam] and Mominul; every 

single player contributed to the 

win. So obviously I am enjoying 

my captaincy and I hope to take 

the Test team to the next level. 

Talks are doing the rounds that 

multiple roles in the form of captaincy, 

keeping and batting are 

taking a toll on you….. 

I think I am enjoying all the 

three roles at the moment. If 

you notice, wicket-keeping has 

always been my first priority. I 

have scored a double hundred in 

Tests and also kept wickets in the 

same game. There is always a soft 

corner for it (keeping). But if the 

team management and the board 

decide that they might get the 

best outcome by picking someone 

else and approach me, then I 

will have to think about it. I will 

decide which will help my team 

as we all are part of the team. It’s 

a team game and I am ready to do 

anything for my side. 

Many are of the opinion that 

Mushfiq always shies away from 

the media. Do you agree? 

Aha, I won’t say it’s false but it’s 

not fully true as well. Not only 

towards the media, I am like this 

as a person as I always try my 

performance to speak for me. It’s 

my habit right from my childhood 

days. 

Maybe I am not able to interact 

like others but it’s not like I never 

face or talk to the media as you 

know we all are humans and have 

different ways of living. I always 

try to highlight myself through 

hard work, more than my words. 

But yes, if that is my problem then 

I will try to interact more in the future 

(smiles). •

Sport 25 



Rajshahi Kings captain Darren Sammy during training at Sher-e-Bangla National 

Stadium in Mirpur yesterday 

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK 

Day & Date 

Venue 

Match 

Number 

BPL T20 2016 

BPL 2016 

Day Match 

Friday Match - 2:30 PM to 5:50 PM 

Otherdays Match - 2.00 PM to 5.20 PM 

Match 

Number 

Friday, November 04, 2016 1 Comilla Victorians VS Rajshahi Kings 2 Rangpur Riders VS Khulna Titans 

Saturday, November 05, 2016 3 Barisal Bulls VS Chittagong Vikings 4 Comilla Victorians VS Dhaka Dynamites 

Sunday, November 06, 2016 5 Rangpur Riders VS Rajshahi Kings 6 Barisal Bulls VS Khulna Titans 

Monday, November 07, 2016 

Tuesday, November 08, 2016 7 Barisal Bulls VS Dhaka Dynamites 8 Comilla Victorians VS Chittagong Vikings 

Wednesday, November 09, 2016 9 Khulna Titans VS Rajshahi Kings 10 Rangpur Riders VS Chittagong Vikings 

Thursday, November 10, 2016 

Friday, November 11, 2016 11 Comilla Victorians VS Barisal Bulls 12 Dhaka Dynamites VS Rajshahi Kings 

Saturday, November 12, 2016 13 Chittagong Vikings VS Khulna Titans 14 Rangpur Riders VS Dhaka Dynamites 

Sunday, November 13, 2016 15 Barisal Bulls VS Rajshahi Kings 16 Comilla Victorians VS Khulna Titans 


Tuesday, November 15, 2016 

Wednesday, November 16, 2016 

Thursday, November 17, 2016 17 Dhaka Dynamites VS Chittagong Vikings 18 Rangpur Riders VS Barisal Bulls 

Friday, November 18, 2016 19 Chittagong Vikings VS Rajshahi Kings 20 Comilla Victorians VS Rangpur Riders 

Saturday, November 19, 2016 21 Dhaka Dynamites VS Khulna Titans 22 Comilla Victorians VS Rajshahi Kings 

Sunday, November 20, 2016 

Monday, November 21, 2016 23 Dhaka Dynamites VS Rajshahi Kings 24 Comilla Victorians VS Chittagong Vikings 

Tuesday, November 22, 2016 25 Rangpur Riders VS Khulna Titans 26 Barisal Bulls VS Chittagong Vikings 

Wednesday, November 23, 2016 

Thursday, November 24, 2016 

Friday, November 25, 2016 27 Rangpur Riders VS Rajshahi Kings 28 Barisal Bulls VS Khulna Titans 

Saturday, November 26, 2016 29 Comilla Victorians VS Dhaka Dynamites 30 Khulna Titans VS Rajshahi Kings 

Sunday, November 27, 2016 31 Barisal Bulls VS Dhaka Dynamites 32 Rangpur Riders VS Chittagong Vikings 


Tuesday, November 29, 2016 33 Comilla Victorians VS Barisal Bulls 34 Chittagong Vikings VS Khulna Titans 

Wednesday, November 30, 2016 35 Rangpur Riders VS Dhaka Dynamites 36 Barisal Bulls VS Rajshahi Kings 

Thursday, December 01, 2016 

Friday, December 02, 2016 37 Rangpur Riders VS Barisal Bulls 38 Dhaka Dynamites VS Chittagong Vikings 

Saturday, December 03, 2016 39 Comilla Victorians VS Khulna Titans 40 Chittagong Vikings VS Rajshahi Kings 

Sunday, December 04, 2016 41 Comilla Victorians VS Rangpur Riders 42 Dhaka Dynamites VS Khulna Titans 

Monday, December 05, 2016 

SBNCS, Dhaka 

Chittagong 

SBNCS, Dhaka 

Tuesday, December 06, 2016 43 Eliminator (3rd Position VS 4th Position) 

44 

Wednesday, December 07, 2016 45 

Thursday, December 08, 2016 

Friday, December 09, 2016 46 

Saturday, December 10, 2016 

Comilla Victorians captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza and Khulna Titans skipper Mahmudullah share a light moment during 

training at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday 


Night Match 

Friday Match - 7:15 PM to 10:35 PM 

Otherdays Match - 7.00 PM to 10.20 PM 

1st Qualifier (1st Position VS 2nd Position) 

2nd Qualifier (Looser of 44 VS Winner of 43) 

Final - Winners of 44 VS Winner 45 

Reserve Day for Final Match


26 


Sport 

Curtains rise on star-studded BPL 4 today 

• Ali Shahriyar Bappa 

The fourth edition of the money-spinning 

Bangladesh Premier 

League Twenty20 gets underway 

today in Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla 

National Cricket Stadium. In the 

tournament opener, defending 

champions Comilla Victorians will 

face Rajshahi Kings while Rangpur 

Riders will take on Khulna Titans in 

the evening game. 

Winners of the previous edition, 

the Victorians this time around 

have formed a strong team in order 

to defend their title. Charismatic 

national captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza 

will be in charge once again. 

Local players like Imrul Kayes and 

Liton Kumar Das, among others, 

will try to make their mark like the 

last edition. Foreign players in the 

form of Imad Wasim, Sohail Tanvir, 

Rashid Khan and locals like 

Mohammad Saifuddin and Nabil 

Samad have certainly strengthened 

their squad. 

In particular, Afghanistan 

leg-spinner Rashid can be vital as 

the Victorians already have leftarm 

spinner Ashar Zaidi, who 

played brilliantly with both bat and 

ball last time around. 

Their opponents, the Kings return 

to the competition after missing 

the 2015 edition. They have 

picked some experienced overseas 

players like Darren Sammy, Mohammad 

Sami and Samit Patel, 

Bangladesh Cricket Board CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury (R) looks on while director 

Ismail Haider Mallick (L) addresses the media during a press conference at Sher-e- 

Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday 


among others. 

All the eyes though will be on 

all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz 

and attacking batsman Sabbir 

Rahman. Miraz and Sabbir are in 

scintillating form recently and the 

Kings will bank on their firepower. 

On the other hand, the Riders 

have an exciting squad, particularly 

their top-order looks explosive 

on paper. Mohammad Shahzad, 

Sharjeel Khan, Soumya Sarkar and 

Nasir Jamshed are all attacking 

batsmen at the top of the order. 

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi 

has arrived to captain the side 

and it is being rumoured that the 

aggressive all-rounder might open 

the innings. Local players like Sohag 

Gazi, Ziaur Rahman, Elias Sunny 

and Muktar Ali also have decent 

experience of playing T20s, which 

can be helpful for the Riders. 

The Titans are another BPL franchise 

who had missed the previous 

edition. They have captured 

all-rounder Mahmudullah as their 

captain. The inclusion of left-arm 

spinner Mosharraf Hossain and 

pacer Shafiul Islam has bolstered 

their bowling attack. T20 specialists 

like Kevon Cooper and Lendl 

Simmons are also good additions to 

their squad while the veteran Alok 

Kapali will surely help them with 

his vast experience. 

In contrast, Dhaka Dynamites 

have built a formidable side after 

capturing the big fish – Shakib al 

Hasan. Legendary Sri Lankan duo 

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar 

Sangakkara will undoubtedly boost 

the side. They have some foreign 

big names in the shape of Evin 

Lewis, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo 

and Ravi Bopara. Local players 

like Nasir Hossain and Mosaddek 

Hossain will be handy for the Dynamites 

and they are expected to 

be heavy contenders for the title. 

Barisal Bulls have also formed a 

strong squad with a bunch of local 

stars like Mushfiqur Rahim, who 

will lead the side. Experienced 

players such as Shamsur Rahman, 

Nadif Chowdhury, Shahriar Nafees 

and Al Amin Hossain will aid the 

side’s prospects while Taijul Islam 

and Abu Haider Rony were also 

useful additions to the team. West 

Indies world T20 winner Carlos 

Brathwaite is a big name among 

their foreign players’ list. Rumman 

Raees, Dilshan Munaweera and 

Josh Cobb, meanwhile, will certainly 

shore up their side. 

Chittagong Vikings had a 

disappointing campaign in BPL 

3 as the port-city outfit finished 

last in the points table. The 

Vikings are determined to turn the 

tables around as they managed 

to grab experienced and bighitting 

T20 stars like Chris Gayle, 

Dwayne Smith, Shoaib Malik and 

Mohammad Nabi. Local lad and 

captain Tamim Iqbal will look to 

lead the side from the front while 

veteran spin wizard Abdur Razzak 

and leg-spinner Jubair Hossain will 

look after the spin department. The 

Vikings will bank on Anamul Haque 

Bijoy or young wicketkeeperbatsman 

Zakir Hossain to take care 

of the keeping duties. • 

Real, Leicester must wait as Dortmund advance 

RESULTS 

GROUP E 

Monaco 3-0 CSKA Moscow 

Germain 12, Falcao 29, 41 

Tottenham 0-1 Leverkusen 

Kampl 65 

GROUP F 

Dortmund 1-0 Sporting Lisbon 

Ramos 12 

Legia Warsaw 3-3 Real Madrid 

Odjidja-Ofoe 40, Bale 1, 

Radovic 58, Benzema 35, 

Moulin 83 Kovacic 85 

GROUP G 

FC Copenhagen 0-0 Leicester City 

Porto 1-0 Club Brugge 

Silva 37 

GROUP H 

Sevilla 4-0 Dinamo Zagreb 

Vietto 31, Escudero 66, 

Nzonzi 80, Ben Yedder 87 

Juventus 1-1 Lyon 

Higuain 14-P Tolisso 85 

• AFP, Paris 

Titleholders Real Madrid and 

English Premier League winners 

Leicester must both wait to take 

their place in the last 16 of the 

Champions League after they could 

only manage draws Wednesday on 

a night which saw just Dortmund 

advance. 

Leicester, who had previously 

rattled off three wins in this their 

debut season after their unlikely 

Premier League title success, could 

only secure a goalless draw at Copenhagen. 

That points left the Foxes’, 

who had rattled off three straight 

wins in this their debut season in 

the competition, now stand three 

points clear of Group G rivals Porto 

who saw off Club Brugge 1-0 in Portugal 

with a Tomas Silva goal. 

Avoiding a loss at the Parken 

Stadium means the shock English 

league title winners are the first debut 

side to avoid defeat over their 

opening four encounters. 

In Group F, 11-times champions 

Real Madrid were held 3-3 by Legia 

Warsaw despite a goal in the opening 

minute from Gareth Bale. 

Karim Benzema added a second 

but Legia, looking for their 

first point, roared back with goals 

from Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Miroslav 

Radovic and Thibault Moulin until 

Mateo Kovacic levelled for the defending 

champions. 

Dortmund, champions in 1997, 

thanked a first half goal from Adrian 

Ramos for a 1-0 home win over 

Sporting Lisbon which guaranteed 

their passage from Real’s group as 

they moved onto ten points -- two 

clear of the Spaniards. 

Ramos was playing in place of 

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who 

was suspended by the club just before 

kick-off. 

Sevilla, Europa League winners 

in the past three seasons, are as 

good as through but technically 

can still be caught by Lyon. 

The Spaniards on Wednesday 

thanked goals from Luciano Vietto, 

Sergio Escudero, Steven N’Zonzi 

and Wissam Ben Yedder for a 4-0 

thrashing of Group H tailenders Dinamo 

Zagreb in Spain to move on 

to ten points. 

In the same group, Juventus also 

missed the chance to go through 

after they were hit by a late Lyon 

equaliser from Corentin Tolisso in a 

1-1 draw in Turin to slip two points 

behind Sevilla. 

The draw in what was Juve 

keeper Gianluigi Buffon’s 100th 

Champions League appearance going 

back 19 years to his Parma days 

keeps Lyon technically in the hunt 

on four points. 

Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur 

saw their Wembley jinx strike again 

as they went down 1-0 to Bayer 

Leverkusen while their White Hart 

Lane venue undergoes a revamp. 

The new Wembley has not proven 

a lucky venue for Spurs, who 

have lost four domestic cup encounters 

and also their opener this 

season against Monaco at English 

football’s headquarters. • 

Vital wins 

for BJMC, 

Brothers 

• Tribune Report 

Team BJMC registered only their 

third victory in the Bangladesh 

Premier League when they edged 

Muktijoddha 3-2 at Bangabandhu 

National Stadium yesterday. 

Eleta Kingsley, Samson Illiasu 

and Zakir Hossain all netted one 

apiece in the second half to give 

BJMC a 3-0 lead and although 

Javed Khan and Ahmed Kolo Musa 

scored in the dying stages of the 

game, it was too little, too late for 

Muktijoddha. 

BJMC are now eighth in the 

points table with 14 points from 

12 matches while Muktijoddha are 

fifth with 18 points from the same 

number of outings. 

Meanwhile in the other game of 

the day at the same venue, Brothers 

Union beat Feni Soccer Club 3-1 

with Kingsley Nkwocha bagging a 

brace, the second from the penalty 

spot, and Augustin Walson grabbing 

the other. 

Chowmin Rakhain notched the 

consolation goal seven minutes 

from the final whistle. 

Brothers are seventh with 14 

points while Soccer Club are third 

from bottom with nine points, both 

having played 12 matches apiece.• 

RESULTS 

Team BJMC 3-2 Muktijoddha 

Eleta 53, Javed 90+1, 

Illiasu 68, Jakir 71 Musa 90+2 

Soccer Club 1-3 Brothers Union 

Rakhain 83 Kingsley 34, 70 - P, 

Walson 50 

POINTS TABLE 

P W D L GD Pts 

GROUP E 

Monaco 4 2 2 0 4 8 

Leverkusen 4 1 3 0 1 6 

Tottenham 4 1 1 2 -1 4 

Moscow 4 0 2 2 -4 2 

GROUP F 

Dortmund 4 3 1 0 8 10 (Q) 

Real Madrid 4 2 2 0 5 8 

S Lisbon 4 1 0 3 -1 3 

Legia Warsaw 4 0 1 3 -12 1 

GROUP G 

Leicester 4 3 1 0 5 10 

FC Porto 4 2 1 1 1 7 

Copenhagen 4 1 2 1 3 5 

Club Brugge 4 0 0 4 -9 0 

GROUP H 

Sevilla 4 3 1 0 6 10 

Juventus 4 2 2 0 5 8 

Lyon 4 1 1 2 1 4 

D Zagreb 4 0 0 4 -12 0

Sport 27 



QUICK BYTES 

Bale blasts Madrid’s 

fastest UCL goal 

Gareth Bale scored Real Madrid’s 

fastest ever Champions League 

goal just 55 seconds into their trip 

to Legia Warsaw on Wednesday 

with a spectacular long-range volley 

into the top corner. Bale celebrated 

in style just days after signing one 

of the most lucrative deals in the 

history of football to tie his future 

to the European champions until 

2022. Victory will book Real’s place 

in the knockout stages for the 

20th consecutive season as long as 

Sporting Lisbon don’t win at Borussia 

Dortmund in the other game in 

Group F. 

–AFP 

Dortmund suspend 

Aubameyang for 

Sporting clash 

Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas 

Tuchel on Wednesday suspended 

star striker Pierre-Emerick 

Aubameyang for their Champions 

League game against Sporting 

Lisbon “for internal reasons”. “The 

coach has taken the decision and it is 

absolutely correct,” Dortmund’s CEO 

Hans-Joachim Watzke told Sky. The 

27-year-old Aubameyang, who has 

scored 10 goals already this season, 

is suspended until yesterday and 

was left out of the squad against 

Sporting. Colombia striker Adrian 

Ramos took the Gabon captain’s 

place up front in a 4-1-4-1 formation 

with a win to put Dortmund in the 

last 16. 

–AFP 

DAY’S WATCH 

CRICKET 

CHANNEL 9, SONY SIX 

Bangladesh Premier League 

2:30PM 

Comilla Victorians v Rajshahi Kings 

7:00PM 

Rangpur Riders v Khulna Titans 

FOOTBALL 

SONY SIX 

1:40AM 

Spanish La Liga 

Malaga v Sporting Gijon 

STAR SPORTS 1 

7:20PM 

Indian Super League 

Delhi v Kerala 

TEN 1 

1:45AM 

Sky Bet EFL 2016/17 

Brentford v Fulham 

TEN 2 

01:05AM 

French Ligue 1 2016/17 

Montpellier v Olympic Marseille 

TEN 3 

2:50PM 

A-League 2016/17 

Brisbane Roar v Melbourne City 

Australia’s David Warner plays a shot on day one of the first Test against South Africa in Perth yesterday 

1ST TEST, DAY 1 

AUSTRALIA FIRST INNINGS R B 

D. Warner not out 73 62 

S. Marsh not out 29 67 

Extras (nb3) 3 

Total (no wickets, 21 overs) 105 

Bowling 

Steyn 6-2-34-0, Philander 7-1-26-0 (2nb), 

Rabada 6-0-29-0 (1nb), Maharaj 2-0-16-0 

SOUTH AFRICA FIRST INNINGS R B 

S. Cook c M. Marsh b Starc 0 4 

D. Elgar c Nevill b Hazlewood 12 22 

H. Amla c Smith b Hazlewood 0 5 

J.P. Duminy c Nevill b Siddle 11 23 

F. du Plessis c Voges b Starc 37 74 

T. Bavuma c S. Marsh b Lyon 51 86 

Q. de Kock c Marsh b Hazlewood 84 101 

V. Philander b Starc 10 32 

K. Maharaj c Warner b Lyon 16 19 

K. Rabada not out 11 12 

D. Steyn b Starc 4 4 

Extras (b4, w2) 6 

Total (all out, 63.4 overs) 242 

Fall of wickets 

1-0 (Cook), 2-5 (Amla), 3-20 (Elgar), 4-32 

(Duminy), 5-81 (du Plessis), 6-152 (Bavuma), 

7-175 (Philander), 8-223 (Maharaj), 

9-227 (de Kock), 10-242 (Steyn) 

Bowling 

Starc 18.4-4-71-4 (2w), Hazlewood 17-2- 

70-3, Siddle 12-3-36-1, M Marsh 6-1-23-0, 

Lyon 10-1-38-2 

Australia dominate opening day in Perth 

• Reuters, Perth 

Australia ripped through South 

Africa’s top order in the first hour, 

dismissed the tourists for 242 by 

tea and reached 105 without loss 

at close on the back of some Dave 

Warner fireworks on the opening 

day of the first Test yesterday. 

Quinton de Kock and Temba 

Bavuma scored half centuries for 

South Africa after they were reduced 

to 32-4 but there was no 

doubt the standout performers on 

the first day were wearing baggy 

green caps. Mitchell Starcstruck in 

the first over and ended up with 

figures of 4-71. 

Fellow pace spearhead Josh 

Hazlewood pitched in with 3-70 

AFP 

and the Marsh brothers, Mitchell 

and Shaun, both took spectacular 

catches on their home ground. 

Warner then took the fight to the 

tourists with the bat. 

After a reprieve when he was 

lbw off a Vernon Philander no-ball, 

the pugnacious opener smashed 

the South African bowlers around 

the WACA, the ground where he 

Windies end Test win drought 

• AFP, Sharjah 

West Indies secured their first 

victory since May 2015 as opener 

Kraigg Brathwaite capped a brilliant 

match with an unbeaten halfcentury 

in the third Test against 

Pakistan at Sharjah yesterday. 

Brathwaite, who carried his bat 

in the first innings with 142 not out, 

was again unbeaten on 60 as the 

West Indies passed their 153-run 

target without further loss after 

beginning the fifth day on 114 for 5. 

3RD TEST, DAY 5 

PAKISTAN 281 & 208 lost to WEST 

INDIES 337 & 154/5 in 43.5 overs 

(Dowrich 60*, Brathwaite 60*, 

Johnson 12, Yasir 3/40, Wahab 2/46) 

by five wickets 

Shane Dowrich, who also finished 

with 60 not out, edged Mohammad 

Amir towards third man 

for a boundary as West Indies 

reached 154 for 5. 

Pakistan won the three-match 

series 2-1 after winning the first 

Test in Dubai by 56 runs and the 

second by 133 runs in Abu Dhabi. 

Brathwaite and Dowrich needed 

just 7.5 overs to score the 39 runs 

required. 

Brathwaite signalled his intent 

by driving fast bowler Wahab Riaz’s 

first ball of the day to cover for four. 

Dowrich soon got in on the act 

when he pulled leg-spinner Yasir 

Shah to the boundary to reduce the 

target to 29. 

Brathwaite pushed Riaz for two 

to reach his 12th Test fifty, finishing 

with six boundaries during his second 

unbeaten knock of the match, 

during which he faced 109 balls. 

Dowrich drove Riaz through 

the covers for his fifth boundary to 

complete his fourth Test half-century. 

His two boundaries off Amir’s 

final over completed the win. • 

announced his arrival as a Test 

batsman with a brilliant 180 against 

India in 2012. 

The 30-year-old left-hander 

brought up his 21st Test half century 

when he slashed the ball through 

extra cover for his 10th four off the 

39th delivery he had faced and 

will resume on 73 alongside Shaun 

Marsh, unbeaten on 29. • 

SL beat Zim in 

first Test 

• Reuters, Harare 

Sri Lanka ended Zimbabwe’s daylong 

resistance seven overs from 

the end of play to grab victory by 

225 runs on the final day of the first 

Test at the Harare Sports Club on 

Wednesday. 

Zimbabwe were bowled for 186 

runs in their second innings within 

sight of what would have been a 

morale boosting draw. 

Sri Lanka’s Dilruwan Perera and 

stand-in skipper Rangana Herath 

took three wickets each with Perera 

bowling out tailender Chris 

Mpofu in the 91st over of Zimbabwe’s 

second innings to clinch victory 

despite a gallant knock by captain 

Graeme Cremer, who followed 

up a first innings century with a 

stubborn 43.• 

1ST TEST, DAY 5 

SRI LANKA 537 & 247/6d beat 

ZIMBABWE 373 & 186 in 90.3 overs 

(Cremer 43, D Perera 3/34, Herath 3/38, 

Lakmal 2/43, Kumara 2/45) by 225 runs


28 


Sport 

Cubs win World Series for first time since 1908 

• Reuters, Cleveland 

The Chicago Cubs shed themselves 

of the “Curse of the Billy Goat” and 

ended a 108-year wait for a World 

Series title by beating the Cleveland 

Indians on Wednesday in a 

thrilling Game Seven classic. 

By beating the host Indians 8-7 in 

10 innings, Chicago’s beloved Cubbies 

set off a wild celebration in the 

streets of the Windy City after over 

a century of pent up frustration for 

fans since their last Major League 

Baseball championship in 1908. 

Cubs players held their own euphoric 

party at Progressive Field 

cheered on by a boisterous contingent 

of their fans after earlier 

squandering a 6-3 lead with four 

outs left in the game only to bounce 

back for the precious victory. 

Leftfielder Ben Zobrist, who put 

the Cubs ahead in the 10th with an 

RBI double and who batted .357 in 

the series with two doubles and a 

triple, was named the most valuable 

player of the World Series. 

The win in the early hours of 

yesterday morning capped a Chicago 

comeback from a 3-1 deficit 

in the best-of-seven, a feat last 

achieved by the Kansas City Royals 

in 1985. 

It was the third World Series 

crown for the Cubs, while the disconsolate 

Indians replaced them as 

the team with the longest current 

World Series title drought, 68 years 

and counting. 

“I don’t know but it happened,” 

said first baseman Anthony Rizzo. 

“Chicago, it happened. We did it, 

we’re world champions.” 

The Cubs, whose quiet bats 

woke up in Tuesday’s 9-3 Game Six 

win, picked up where they left off 

with three home runs in front of 

an audience surprisingly crowded 

with their raucous blue-clad fans 

who paid handsomely to buy tickets 

on the resale market. 

With chants of “Let’s Go Cubbies” 

ringing through Progressive Field, 

Chicago charged to a 5-1 lead and carried 

a 6-3 advantage into the eighth 

when Cubs manager Joe Maddon 

summoned closer Aroldis Chapman 

with two outs and a man on. But the 

Cuban fireballer, who pitched 2-2/3 

innings on Sunday and another inning 

and a third on Tuesday, gave 

up a run-scoring double to Brandon 

Guyer and a two-run homer to 

Rajai Davis that tied the game and 

ignited an explosion of cheers from 

the Cleveland faithful.• 

ROLL OF HONOUR 

2016 - Chicago Cubs 4, Cleveland 

Indians 3 

2015 - Kansas City Royals 4, New York 

Mets 1 

2014 - San Francisco Giants 4, Kansas 

City Royals 3 

2013 - Boston Red Sox 4, St. Louis 

Cardinals 2 

2012 - San Francisco Giants 4, Detroit 

Tigers 0 

2011 - St. Louis Cardinals 4, Texas 

Rangers 3 

2010 - San Francisco 4, Texas Rangers 1 

Chicago Cubs players celebrate on the field after defeating the Cleveland Indians in game seven of the 2016 World Series at 

Progressive Field on Wednesday 

REUTERS 

Aggregate: 

2016 WORLD SERIES 

Chicago Cubs 4-3 Cleveland Indians 

GAME 7 

Wednesday at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Run Hit Error 

Cubs 1 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 2 8 13 3 

Indians 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 3 0 1 7 11 1 

WP: Aroldis Chapman (1–0) LP: Bryan Shaw (0–1) SV: Mike Montgomery (1) 

HOME RUNS: 

CHC: Dexter Fowler (2), Javier Báez (1), David Ross (1) 

CLE: Rajai Davis (1) 

LIST OF MVP WINNERS 

2016 - Ben Zobrist (Chicago Cubs) 

2015 - Salvador Perez (Kansas City 

Royals) 

2014 - Madison Bumgarner (San 

Francisco Giants) 

2013 - David Ortiz (Boston Red Sox) 

2012 - Pablo Sandoval (San Francisco 

Giants) 

2011 - David Freese (St. Louis Cardinals) 

2010 - Edgar Renteria (San Francisco 

Giants) 

2009 - Hideki Matsui (New York 

Yankees) 

Everybody matters 

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THE 112TH WORLD SERIES 

The stars come out for baseball 

Cubs fans are a hearty group 

Youth trumps experience 

Indians’ manager will be changing 

The Chicago Cubs brought in Cuban 

ace closing relief pitcher Aroldis 

Chapman needing only four outs 

to win the title. But he surrendered 

a two-run homer and a run-scoring 

double and suddenly the Cubs’ 

lead was gone. 

The eventual final pitchers were 

Carl Edwards, who got two outs 

in the 10th for Chicago, and Mike 

Montgomery, who got the save by 

inducing a ground out from Michael 

Martinez to end the game. 

Together they had a combined two 

career saves. But they did the job 

when called upon under the greatest 

pressure. 

Cheering on the Chicago Cubs were 

actors Bill Murray and John Cusack, 

and rocker Eddie Vedder. 

Cleveland’s top attention-getting 

fan was Charlie Sheen, the 

actor who played an Indians pitcher 

in the movie “Major League,” 

known as “Wild Thing” for being 

unable to control his high-speed 

pitches. 

Murray gave a stranger wearing 

a Cubs jersey a free ticket for game 

six and she sat with him. That’s 

cool. Just ask the thousands standing 

outside the stadium for game 

seven watching on a big screen and 

wishing they were inside. 

Thousands of them were in the 

stands in Cleveland for the seventh 

game. Most had bought resale tickets 

in hopes of seeing their team 

win it all. 

Chants of “Let’s Go Cubs” came 

before the pre-game playing of the 

national anthem and well after last 

player was done celebrating on the 

pitcher’s mound. Security guards 

forced fans into the night. Such exuberance 

can be expected since Chicago’s 

last title came in 1908. 

The Indians became the first 

team since 1985 to squander a 3-1 

Series lead and come away empty-handed. 

The Cubs had six starters under age 

25 in game two, a World Series record. 

Not since 1970 had there even 

been five in the same game. 

Addison Russell, 22, hit a grand 

slam in game six. He’s the youngest 

to do that since a 21-year-old Mickey 

Mantle knocked one out for the 

New York Yankees in the 1953 World 

Series. Kris Bryant, 24, had 20 hits 

in this year’s playoff run, the most 

by any Cub in any playoff run. Kyle 

Schwarber, 23, recovered from a 

knee injury to play in the World Series. 

Willson Contreras, 24, Javier 

Baez, 23, and Jorge Soler, 24, played 

key roles at pivotal moments. 

Francona woke up on the morning 

of game seven with a TV remote 

control poking into his ribs and 

peanut butter on his glasses. 

“It’s not easy being manager,” 

Francona said. “My bedroom 

looked like a national disaster last 

night. I’m going to have to change a 

few habits when we’re done here.” 

Francona awoke from a nightmare 

that his ribs were being broken 

to find “the TV remote was 

stuck in my rib cage. Evidently 

I had slept on it for a couple of 

hours.” 

But he hadn’t dozed while just 

watching TV. He had a snack too. •

Downtime 

29 



CROSSWORD 

CODE-CRACKER 

ACROSS 

1 Fault (6) 

6 Pull along (3) 

9 Angry (5) 

10 Molten rock (4) 

11 Summer metal (5) 

12 Female swan (3) 

13 Specialist (6) 

15 Waistband (4) 

18 Golf club (4) 

21 Constraint (6) 

24 Friend (Fr) (3) 

25 Entertain (5) 

28 Bill of fare (4) 

29 Unbending (5) 

30 Finish (3) 

31 Added clauses (6) 

DOWN 

1 Flat circular plates (5) 

2 Period of time (3) 

3 Tumbles (5) 

4 Greek letter (3) 

5 Yield (4) 

6 Ribbon (4) 

7 Carry too far (6) 

8 Require (4) 

14 Hawaiian dish (3) 

16 Keen insight (6) 

17 Garden tool (3) 

19 Cosmetic (5) 

20 Is wanting in (5) 

21 Tilted woman (4) 

22 Peel (4) 

23 Hindu garment (4) 

26 Central (3) 

27 Title of respect (3) 

How to solve: Each number in our 

CODE-CRACKER grid represents a 

different letter of the alphabet. For 

example, today 21 represents V so fill V 

every time the figure 21 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

30 



Showtime 

Bono named on Glamour’s 

Women of the Year list 

• Showtime Desk 

Glamour magazine has named 

U2 frontman Bono on its annual 

Women of the Year list. The 

Irish rockstar is the first man 

to be included on the list as the 

magazine says, “because of his 

campaigning for women’s rights.” 

“I’m sure I don’t deserve 

it,” Bono told Glamour after 

he was told of the award. “But 

I’m grateful for this award as 

a chance to say the battle for 

gender equality can’t be won 

unless men lead it along with 

women. We’re largely responsible 

for the problem, so we have to be 

involved in the solutions.” 

Bono is on a list that also 


With a handful of blockbusters 

under his belt, James Cameron 

is one of the most prominent 

directors in 

the world. He is not a prolific 

filmmaker, rather he is known 

for his innovative masterpieces. 

It’s hard to remember the last 

time he made a movie that 

didn’t make major headlines. 

From Terminator to The Avatar, 

his films performed well in 

the box office and received 

accolades. 

Now, the innovative auteur 

told the masses that he will be 

making several sequels of Avatar, 

and all of them will be in 3D. 

What made everyone’s head turn 

is his statement, in which he 

claimed that people will be able 

to experience 3D without the 

glasses. 

The Canadian filmmaker has 

a reputation of creating ground 

includes Gwen Stefani, actress 

and campaigner Zendaya, 

Olympic gymnast Simone 

Biles, designer Miuccia Prada, 

International Monetary Fund 

head Christine Lagarde, model 

and activist Ashley Graham, 

Nadia Murad, survivor of ISIS 

captivity and human rights 

activist, Alicia Garza, Patrisse 

Cullors, and Opal Tometi, 

founders of the Black Lives 

Matter movement, and Emily 

Doe, the pseudonymous survivor 

of the Stanford University sexual 

assault who wrote a widely read 

open letter to her assaulter, Brock 

Turner. 

Talking about Bono’s addition 

to the list, Cindi Leive, Glamour’s 

breaking masterpieces, which 

are always refreshing. He said, 

“I’m going to push. Not only 

for better tools, work flow, high 

dynamic range (HDR), and high 

frame rates (HFR) - the things 

editor-in-chief, said “We’ve 

talked for years about whether to 

honour a man at Women of the 

Year and we’ve always kind of 

put the kabash on it. You know, 

men get a lot of awards and aren’t 

exactly hurting in the celebration 

and honours department.” 

“But it started to seem that 

that might be an outdated way of 

looking at things, and there are so 

many men who really are doing 

wonderful things for women 

these days. Some men get it and 

Bono is one of those guys,” she 

added. 

However, the magazine’s 

decision has been heavily 

criticised on social media. • 

James Cameron: 3D without glasses 

we are working toward… I’m 

still very bullish on 3D, but we 

need brighter projection, and 

ultimately I think it can happen 

- with no glasses. We’ll get 

there.” • 

Xefer’s 

first 

original 

single 


Bangladeshi YouTube singer, Xefer, finally released her first original track, 

titled “Judge.” The music video is available on her Youtube channel, and 

it features some short clip compilation of her fans. 

“Judge” is exclusively available on GP Music app for Bangladesh!” she 

posted on her Facebook account. She is still promoting her upcoming 

album through social media. Her album was supposed to be out by now 

but she is yet to publicly announce the reason behind the delay. • 

Chandrabati Academy 

celebrates 200 years 

of child literature 


Bangladesh is going through 

a transformation process by 

stepping into the digital world. 

But the virtual world is taking 

away the sweet childhood from 

the children as their access to 

literature is shrinking gradually. 

Chandrabati Academy is working 

to make literature more immersive 

children, by taking an initiative 

of publishing 200 child literature 

books, marking the 200 years of 

child literature publication. 

Bengali literary magazine 

Digdarshan, edited by Clark 

Marshman, was the first of it’s 

kind, published in Kolkata, in 

1818. Chandraboti Academy will 

celebrate the occasion throughout 

the two years, from 2016 to 2018. 

The academy has been 

organising a two days long child 

literature conference every year. 

This year, the conference will 

be held from November 4th to 

5th, at the Chittagong Shipokala 

Academy premises. The two-day 

conference will be inaugurated by 

emeritus professor Anisuzzaman. 

Chandraboti will award author 

Shahjahan Kibria, Selina Hossain, 

and Abul Momen, for their 

contribution in child literature. 

In its journey of publishing 200 

books, Chandraboti has already 

published 20 books and the rest of 

the books will be published soon. 

They have tried to set these book 

prices low, so that guardians buy 

as many books as they want for 

their children. 

The academy included many 

prominent writers with this process 

of publishing, including Professor 

Anisuzzaman, Rafiqun Nabi, 

Abul Momen, Faridur Reza Sagar, 

Mahfuzur Rahman, Zahid Reza 

Noor, and others. Chandrabati will 

organise book fairs in 30 schools 

across the country as part of the 

celebration. •

Trolls at Star Cineplex 


Star Cineplex is releasing the 

new animated hollywood movie 

Trolls, on Friday, November 4, 

2016. 

From the creators of Shrek 

comes the most smart, funny, 

and irreverent animated comedy 

of the year, DreamWorks’ 

Trolls. This holiday season, 

enter a colourful, wondrous 

world populated by hilariously 

unforgettable characters and 

discover the story of the overly 

optimistic Trolls, with a constant 

song on their lips, and the 

comically pessimistic Bergens, 

who are only happy when they 

have trolls in their stomach. 

Featuring original music from 

Justin Timberlake, and soon-tobe 

classic mash-ups of songs from 

other popular artists, the film 

stars the voice talents of Anna 

Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, 

Russell Brand, James Corden, 

Kunal Nayyar, Ron Funches, 

Icona Pop, Gwen Stefani, and 

many more. DreamWorks’ Trolls 

Shraddha making music 


Shraddha Kapoor is one of 

the promising actresses in 

Bollywood, who is also a 

talented singer which has been 

proven already. She has lent 

her soothing voice to “Galliyan 

Unplugged,” composed by Ankit 

Tiwari. Songs like “Bezubaan 

Phir Se,” and “Sab tera,” sang 

by her have also been well 

appreciated by listeners. Now, 

she got a chance to sing her own 

songs in Rock On 2. 

In Rock On 2, she has sung 

three songs — “Tere Mere 

Dil,” “Rock On Revisited,” and 

“Udja Re.” The actress is also 

is a fresh, broad comedy filled 

with music, heart, and hairraising 

adventures. In November 

of 2016, nothing can prepare you 

for the new ‘Troll’ world. 

The story revolves around 

the lives of Trolls, who are small 

creatures living in an almost 

perpetual state of happiness, 

singing, dancing, and hugging all 

day long. They are discovered by 

the Bergens, large creatures who 

never feel happy but discover 

that they can feel happy for a 

moment if they eat Trolls. The 

Bergens put the Trolls and their 

tree in a cage, and hold an annual 

festival in which each Bergen 

gets its feeling of happiness by 

eating a Troll. However, the 

Trolls, led by their King Peppy 

(Jeffrey Tambor), escape through 

underground tunnels on the day 

that the Bergen crown prince 

Gristle Jr (Christopher Mintz- 

Plasse) would taste his first Troll. 

The furious Bergen king Gristle Sr 

(John Cleese) banishes the Chef 

(Christine Baranski) who was in 

charge of the Troll preparation. 

performing live on several 

concerts for the promotion of the 

film, which is slated to release on 

November 11, 2016. 

Singer-composer Ankit 

Tiwari, had sung the blockbuster 

number - “Teri Galliyan” in 

Shraddha’s film Ek villain, which 

also starred Sidharth Malhotra. 

He believes that the actress is 

well trained to take up singing as 

a profession. 

“Shraddha is a classically 

trained singer. So, when she 

renders a song, she delivers all 

the musical nuances 

beautifully. I think 

she is well trained 

enough to take up 

singing professionally,” 

Ankit told a popular 

magazine. 

The occasional singer 

is now trying to explore 

new horizons in her 

career. Her upcoming 

film Rock On 2, is all 

about music and some 

more music. And 

Shraddha looks like 

the perfect casting, 

considering she even 

required to croon all 

her numbers in the 

musical drama. Giving 

her company will be 

actors Farhan Akhtar, 

Arjun Rampal, Purab 

Kohli, and Prachi Desai, who are 

all reprising their roles in the 

sequel. But Shraddha is fitting in 

perfectly.• 

Showtime 

Twenty years later, King 

Peppy’s daughter, the extremely 

happy and optimistic Princess 

Poppy (Anna Kendrick), throws 

a big party to celebrate the 

Trolls’ escape, despite the fears 

and warnings of the glum and 

paranoid Troll Branch (Justin 

Timberlake) that loud parties will 

attract the Bergens. Branch’s fears 

are realised when indeed the 

banished Bergen Chef sees the 

Humaira Farin Khan 


After Mahiya Mahi, Nusrat 

Faria, and Jolly, Jaaz Multimedia 

has announced the newest face 

of the house, and she is Humaira 

Farin Khan. Humaira is a known 

face in the modelling industry 

already. She has done several 

ramp shows and modelling for 

renowned fashion houses. And 

fireworks and captures a number 

of Trolls. Poppy is among the 

Trolls who managed to hide, but 

discovers that none of the other 

Trolls dare to venture to Bergen 

Town to rescue their friends. She 

is however able to recruit the 

reluctant Branch, and together 

they go to Bergen Town. 

And the story continues. • 

Source: Collected 

the new face of Dhallywood 

now she is going to start her 

career as an actress, by signing 

a film with Jaaz, and another 

young face Roshan. The new 

film of Jaaz, Dhatterika will be 

directed by Shamim Ahmed 

Rony, and the shooting will start 

from December 8. It is a coproduced 

film, where the other 

actors are Arifin Shubho and 

Nusrat Faria.• 

31 


WHAT TO WATCH 

Mission Impossible III 

HBO 7:06pm 

Agent Ethan Hunt comes into 

conflict with a dangerous 

and sadistic arms dealer who 

threatens his life and his 

fianceé in response . 

Cast: Tom Cruise, Philip 

Seymour Hoffman, Ving 

Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, 

Jonathan Rhys 

Gulliver’s Travels 

Star Movies 7:37pm 

Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver 

takes an assignment in 

Bermuda, but ends up on the 

island of Liliput, where he 

towers over its tiny citizens. 

Cast: Jack Black, Emily Blunt, 

Jason Segel, Amanda Peet, T.J. 

Miller 

The Pyramid 

Star Movies Action 7:49pm 

An archaeological team 

attempts to unlock the secrets 

of a lost pyramid only to find 

themselves hunted by an 

insidious creature. 

Cast:Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O 

Hare, James Buckley, Daniel 

Amerman, Christa-Marie 

Nicola 

Sniper: Legacy 

Star Movies Action 4:17pm 

A rogue assassin is taking out 

military leaders, and Brandon 

gets word that his father is 

one. He tries to track down the 

killer, finds out that his father 

isn’t dead and realizes that his 

superior officers are using him 

as bait to track the killer. 

Cast: Tom Berenger, Chad 

Michael Collins, Dominic 

Mafham, Mercedes Masohn, 

Doug Allen 

DT

32 



24 BANKS NOW LENDING 

AT SINGLE DIGIT PAGE 12 

Back Page 

‘OBVIOUSLY I AM ENJOYING 

CAPTAINCY’ PAGE 24 

TROLLS AT STAR 

CINEPLEX PAGE 31 

240 migrants dead in shipwrecks off Libya 

• Tribune Desk 

At least 240 migrants have died in 

two shipwrecks off Libya, the United 

Nations said on Thursday. 

Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman 

for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, 

said the information was confirmed 

by two survivors brought ashore on 

the Italian island of Lampedusa. No 

bodies have been recovered. 

Sami said 29 people survived the 

first wreck, reporting that about 

120 people had gone missing. And 

in a separate operation, two women 

found swimming at sea told rescuers 

another 120 people had died 

in that wreck. 

The Norwegian Siem Pilot was 

first on the scene, some 20 nautical 

miles off Libya, and rescued the 

survivors, all of whom were in poor 

health after spending hours in the 

water - as well as recovering 12 bodies 

from the water. 

Those pulled to safety were 

transferred to the island of Lampedusa 

by the Italian coast guard. 

They included two women who 

told the UN agency they believed 

they were the only survivors from 

a shipwreck in which some 125 people 

drowned. 

"They told us they were on a 

faulty dinghy which began to sank 

as soon as they set sail. They were 

the only survivors," Sami said. 

DU appoints lecturers without 

Master’s degree 

• Arif Ahmed, DU 

Dhaka University (DU) has appointed 

three lecturers in its department 

of applied chemistry and chemical 

engineering who do not have a 

Master’s degree. 

The recruitment was finalised at 

a meeting of the university Syndicate 

on Monday, sources told the 

Dhaka Tribune. 

The three lecturers without the 

master’s degree are Tanvir Ahmed, 

Nurus Sakib and Sajib Barua. 

Asked about their recruitment, 

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin 

Siddique, who led the meeting 

on Monday, said the three were 

currently studying at Bangladesh 

University of Engineering and 

Technology (Buet). 

“Their appointment at Dhaka 

University will be made permanent 

once they complete their Master’s,” 

Migrants and refugees panic as they fall in water during a rescue operation run by Maltese NGO Moas and Italian Red Cross, off 

the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea, on November 3 

AFP 

But the Italian coast guard said 

it had no information on a second 

reported rescue on Wednesday or 

the saving of two women. At least 

two rescue operations were underway 

in the Mediterranean on 

Thursday, with close to 180 people 

pulled to safety. 

The rescue situation is often 

chaotic, with people confused, sick 

or exhausted after periods in crisis-hit 

Libya unable to specify how 

he told the Dhaka Tribune. 

The Syndicate had finalised recruitment 

of a total of nine lecturers, 

the six other being Dr M Shahruzzaman, 

Shirazur Rahman, Shanta 

Biswas, Minhazul Islam, Sazedul Islam 

and Saikat Chandra Dey. 

Sources further said the department 

had published a notice seeking 

applications for four vacant 

posts. Aspiring candidates were required 

to have first class Bachelor’s 

and Master’s degrees. 

But the university authority relaxed 

the job requirement and recruited 

three lecturers who have 

yet to attain their Master’s degrees, 

said some of the members of the 

selection committee. 

They also recruited nine teachers 

when the department needed 

only four. 

Dr Md Ruhul Amin, chairman of 

the department, said the university 

Syndicate recruited the teachers 

without consulting with the department 

or the Coordination and 

Development Committee of the 

university, which is the standard 

procedure. 

He declined to say anything further 

on this matter, but when asked 

about the recruitment of nine 

teachers against four vacancies, he 

said the university Syndicate can 

make such decision if it sees fit. 

Asked why the department was 

not consulted regarding the recruitment, 

VC Arefin said: “As the department 

of applied chemistry and 

chemical engineering urgently needed 

teachers, we expedited the process 

of consulting the department.” 

“All the teachers at this university 

must have at least Master’s 

degree, as per the university regulations,” 

said a teacher, requesting 

anonymity. • 

many people were on board their 

dinghies at the outset or what vessel 

pulled them from the water. 

Migrants overboard 

The rescue situation is often 

chaotic, with people confused, sick 

Ex-Pak governor Monem 

Khan’s estate demolished 

• Abu Hayat Mahmud 

or exhausted after periods in crisis-hit 

Libya unable to specify how 

many people were on board their 

dinghies at the outset or what vessel 

pulled them from the water. 

At least two rescue missions 

were underway off Libya on Thursday, 

with close to 180 people pulled 

to safety. 

"Before dawn, we saw a migrant 

dinghy, lit up by the Responder's 

search light," photographer Andreas 

Solaro said, adding that 31 people, 

28 men and three women, one 

of them elderly, were rescued. 

In the second rescue, 147 people 

from Eritrea, Ghana, Sudan, 

Mali and Sierra Leone were pulled 

to safety, including 20 women, 

though only after some had fallen 

into the sea. 

"The (Responder) crew was 

shouting at them to sit down and 

stay calm while the lifejackets were 

handed out but they were getting 

agitated, and around 10 of them 

fell overboard, some without lifejackets 

on," Solaro said. 

All were pulled to safety. 

October marked a record 

monthly high in the number of 

migrants arriving in Italy in recent 

years -- some 27,000 people - and 

the departures have showed no 

sign of slowing, despite worsening 

weather in the Mediterranean, reports 

Reuters and AFP. • 

Dhaka North City Corporation 

(DNCC) yesterday demolished all 

the establishments of the estate Bage-Monem 

that illegally belonged to 

the former East Pakistan provincial 

governor Abdul Monem Khan. 

A mobile court, led by two executive 

magistrates of the city corporation, 

Md Nuruzzaman Sharif and 

Md Sajid Anwar started the drive 

around 2:30pm, while Chief Engineer 

Brig Gen Syeed Anwarul Islam 

was present as well. 

Earlier, DNCC Mayor Annisul 

Huq took the decision at a meeting 

along with other officials of the city 

corporation to demolish all illegal 

establishments in the area. 

After the demolition, the DNCC 

mayor told journalists that family 

members of Monem Khan have 

been illegally occupying and building 

on the 10 katha plot for 50 years 

now. 

“The land was surrounded by 

walls. All the boundary walls and 

illegal establishments have been 

demolished. The land will be used 

for roads and a waiting place for pedestrians 

and commuters,” Annisul 

added. 

The mayor also urged the government 

authorities concerned to 

recover Monem Khan’s other properties. 

Monem Khan was the acting 

governor of the then East Pakistan 

during 1962-69. 

Earlier, on October 26 the Parliamentary 

Standing Committee 

on the Ministry of Housing and 

Public Works recommended that 

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha 

(Rajuk) take necessary measures to 

confiscate a plot of land allotted to 

Monem Khan. • 

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial Office: FR Tower, 

8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

DT e-Paper, Friday, November 4, 2016

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