e_Paper 28-11-2016

SECOND EDITION 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2016 | Agrahayan 14, 1423, Safar 26, 1438 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 211 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10 

Sadat Ruhul’s OPINION on the rise 

and fall of Fidel Castro › 21 

Freeing Dhaka footpaths and streets: When 

lawmen bend the law › 2 

Ivy: It’s even better if Shamim 

is not with me › 7 

Game of thrones leaves Nepal 

quake victims in cold › 10 

Quader refuses 

to talk to Uber › 3 

Expat describes horror in Libya › 5 

Muhith: Special 

provision in 

Child Marriage 

Restraint Act 

to stay › 3 

Tamim, Gayle 

power 

Chittagong › 24

2 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2016 

DT 

News 

FREEING DHAKA FOOTPATHS AND STREETS 

When lawmen bend the law 

• Abu Hayat Mahmud and 

Mohammad Jamil Khan 

Despite vigorous efforts by the city 

authorities and law enforcers, Dhaka 

footpaths and streets have yet to 

be free of hawkers and street vendors 

and their makeshift shops. But 

hawkers are not entirely to blame. 

Several sources told the Dhaka 

Tribune that the hawkers have the 

support of some corrupt officials 

within both police and the government, 

relying on whose power they 

always come back to occupy the 

footpaths and streets after eviction 

drives. 

“There is a group of corrupt ruling 

party leaders, city corporation 

officials and law enforcers who collect 

tolls from these hawkers. In exchange, 

the hawkers come back to 

set up their business illegally only 

hours after getting evicted,” said a 

city corporation official in Dhaka 

North, requesting not to be named. 

Freeing Dhaka streets and footpaths 

from the clutches of hawkers 

have been a priority for both the 

mayors of Dhaka since they took 

office in 2015. 

Shortly after the Dhaka North 

City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka 

South City Corporation (DSCC) 

elections, Dhaka North Mayor Annisul 

Huq and Dhaka South Mayor 

Sayeed Khokon met with Road 

Transport and Bridges Minister 

Obaidul Quader regarding their 

mission to free the city walkways 

and streets from hawkers. 

Following the meeting, both 

the mayors announced to launch 

drives against illegal occupants in 

major areas of the city to ease the 

suffering of pedestrians and ensure 

free traffic movement. 

But it was easier said than done: 

since they launched the drives, 

both the mayors said they had consistently 

faced obstruction from 

not just the hawkers and vendors, 

but also the musclemen empowered 

by local leaders of Awami 

Jubo League, Bangladesh Chhatra 

League and Bangladesh Sramik 

League – all affiliates of the ruling 

Awami League. 

In the latest eviction drive, the 

DSCC evicted illegal shops in Gulistan 

on October 27, which was vehemently 

resisted by the hawkers 

and led to a clash between them and 

the authorities. Several people were 

injured, including the OC of Paltan 

police station, and the clash created 

a traffic nightmare in the area. 

Amid the tension, DSCC Mayor 

Khokon announced that the evicted 

hawkers will be temporarily allowed 

to run their makeshift shops 

in Mahanagar Natyamancha near 

Gulistan before an permanent arrangement 

has been made. 

This file photo shows a DSCC-commissioned bulldozer razing hawkers’ makeshift shops to the ground in Gulistan, Dhaka on October 27 

Both DNCC and DSCC mayors said they had 

faced obstruction from not just the hawkers, 

but also local political influentials, in their 

mission to free Dhaka footpaths 

The irate hawkers want an end to 

the extortion they suffer in the hand 

of police and local political leaders. 

They brought out a procession, 

led by two hawkers associations – 

Bangladesh Hawkers’ Federation 

and Bangladesh Hawkers’ League 

– on November 27 in the capital to 

protest the extortion, as well as the 

eviction attempts without proper 

plans to relocate their business. 

“Evicting us before setting up 

alternative facilities for us is completely 

unacceptable,” said MA 

Kashem, president of both the associations. 

However, he welcomed the 

DSCC mayor’s initiative to relocate 

them. 

It is good business 

“This will not end as long as the 

extortionists have the blessings of 

the local leaders and police,” said a 

DNCC high-up, seeking anonymity. 

“The grabbers have gone so far as 

to build permanent establishments 

of the city walkways, violating the 

High Court order,” he added. 

The extortionists – or linemen, 

as they like to refer to themselves – 

reportedly collect tolls from hawkers 

all over the capital, especially 

Gulistan, Jatrabari, Sayedabad, 

Farmgate, New Market, Gulshan, 

Mirpur Sectors 1 and 10, Mohakhali 

and Uttara, he added. 

In exchange, after an eviction 

drive at a particular area in the city, 

hawkers can return to the same 

spot and resume business within 

just a few hours. 

Saiful, a hawker in Gulistan who 

sells garment products, said he had 

pay Tk2 lakh to a ruling party leader 

just to set up his little shop when 

he started 10 years ago. 

“In addition, I have to pay a daily 

toll of Tk200 to the linemen,” he 

added. 

Saiful said every hawker has to 

pay Tk2-5 lakh to set up business and 

then pay a daily toll of Tk100-500, 

depending on the size of the shop. 

“If we do not pay the toll, our 

business will be shut down,” he 

added. 

According to DSCC sources, there 

are at least 5,000 hawking shops in 

Gulistan and its surrounding areas. 

Taking Tk300 from each shop on average, 

the linemen collect Tk15 lakh 

from Gulistan alone every day. 

Sources said there are 20 linemen 

in Gulistan led by Babul and 

Sardar Amin, who are close to a few 

police officials. 

In Farmgate, hawkers pay their 

tolls to a man named Shah Alam 

who runs the show on the stretch 

of the road between the IBA Hostel 

and the T&T playground. He is 

Jubo League and the secretary of 

Farmgate Hawkers’ Welfare Association, 

sources said. 

“Shah Alam and his associates 

have been collecting money 

from the hawkers since the Awami 

League was voted into power 

in 2008. They collect Tk1,500- 

Tk2,000 from each hawker on the 

footpaths of Farmgate,” said Jalil, a 

hawker near Tejgaon College. 

The Dhaka Tribune tried to contact 

Shah Alam, but his associates 

MEHEDI HASAN 

said he would not talk to the press. 

Koton and Saju are the toll collectors 

in Baitul Mukarram area, Siraj 

Talukdar, Selim and Moududi Nur 

Islam in Jurain, Torab Ali in Jatrabari, 

Hossain, Sattar and Rafiq in 

New Market, and Kana Dulal, another 

influential person in Farmgate, 

the Dhaka Tribune learnt. 

“It does not matter which party 

they are from. When BNP was in power, 

their leaders collected the tolls as 

well,” said a hawker in Farmgate. 

A food vendor in Shahbagh said 

every night a sub-inspector from 

the nearby police station visits 

his stall and chat with his friends 

for hours, occupying the seats, 

and leaves after collecting at least 

Tk100-200 from his daily earning. 

When contacted, DNCC Mayor 

Annisul Huq told the Dhaka Tribune: 

“Sometime the hawkers and vendors 

are backed by local musclemen.” 

Regarding police involvement 

in this circuit, Dhaka Metropolitan 

Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman 

Miah said not every policeman 

was innocent. 

However, he said the top officials 

of the force were strictly monitoring 

activities of their colleagues. 

“Actions will be taken against those 

who are found to be involved in irregular 

and illegal activities.” •

News 3 


DT 

33 Gaibandha Santals get HC bail 

• Tribune Desk 

The High Court yesterday granted 

bail to 33 Santals for eight weeks 

in a case filed over attacking 

police during an eviction drive 

in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj on 

November 6. 

The bench comprising Justice M 

Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM 

Hassan issued the order when the 

Santals appeared before the court 

and sought bail, UNB reported. 

The case was filed against 42 

Santal men by Gobindaganj police 

Sub-Inspector Kalyan Kumar 

Chakraborty following the clash 

between Santals and the police, 

SP summoned 

for encouraging 

mob beating 

• UNB 

The High Court has ordered the 

Superintendent of Police of Chapainawabganj 

to appear before it on 

December 4 to explain his reported 

comment provoking people to take 

law into their hands. 

The bench of Justice Quazi Reza- 

Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad 

Ullah passed the suo moto order 

yesterday following a report on the 

matter in a newspaper on Saturday. 

The court also issued a rule asking 

the authorities concerned to 

explain why legal steps would not 

be taken against the SP, TM Mojahidul 

Islam, for his comments. 

Md Ashrafuzzaman, a lawyer of 

the High Court, produced the report 

before the court in the morning. 

The cabinet secretary, home 

secretary, law secretary, inspector 

general of police, SP and deputy 

commissioner of Chapainawabganj 

were made respondents to the rule. 

The court also asked the editor 

of the daily Amader Somoy to attend 

the hearing with necessary 

evidence of the claim. 

According to the report, the SP 

while attending a programme at 

Chapainawabganj Eye Hospital on 

November 25 asked people to kill 

robbers if caught red handed. Local 

ruling party lawmaker Md Abdul 

Wadud was also present at the event. 

In his speech, SP Mojahidul 

said: “If you can catch a robber red 

handed, just smash him to death. 

It is true that we will take a murder 

case but we will give final report in 

a month. I am guaranteeing you.” 

“Call the locals using loudspeakers 

to gather at a place and then 

smash the robbers. If it is a vehicle, 

torch it. I am assuring you that no 

case will be filed against you ...” 

The SP made the comment only 

a day after four suspected robbers 

were killed in an alleged gunfight 

with RAB at Ishwardi in Pabna. • 

RAB and some local Bangalis, most 

of whom are loyal to the local ruling 

party lawmaker. 

Three Santal men were killed in 

the clashes and at least 30 people, 

including nine policemen, were injured. 

According to the indigenous 

leaders, some 2,000 families of 15 

villages were evicted from their 

ancestral land at Shahebganj-Bagda 

farm area. The houses were also 

looted and torched by the Bangalis. 

Earlier, two of the injured Santal 

men, shown arrested in the case 

while they were being treated in 

hospital, were granted permanent 

bail by a Gaibandha court on November 

17. 

Evicted Santals given paddy 

Meanwhile, the Rangpur Sugar 

Mill authorities yesterday handed 

over the evicted Santals 144 sacks 

of paddy, each carrying 2 maunds, 

sown by the indigenous peoples, 

Managing Director of the mill 

Abdul Awal told our Gaibandha 

correspondent Md Tazul Islam. 

Earlier, representatives of the 

evicted Santals were given 26 sacks 

on Thursday, 56 sacks on Friday 

and 67 sacks on Saturday – in line 

with the High Court order. 

On November 17, the High Court 

ordered the sugar mill authorities 

and the local administration to 

either allow the Santals harvest 

their paddy or give it to the Santals 

after harvesting the paddy they 

had sowed. The local UNO said that 

the Santals had sowed paddy in 

18.41 hectares (45.50 acres) of land. 

Until yesterday, the mill 

authorities harvested paddy of 

around 13.35 hectares of land. 

The Santal community leaders 

earlier said that they had sowed 

paddy in 54.63 hectares of land. 

Even though many evicted 

families have already left the 

area in search of new destination, 

some 150 families are still staying 

in tents and an abandoned school 

building in front of the Madarpur 

church. • 

Bangladesh Naree Sangbadik Kendra forms a human chain in front of the National Press Club demanding the Special provision 

in the Marriage Restraint Act that allows girls’ marriage before they are 18 years old 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

Muhith: Special provision in Child 

Marriage Restraint Act to stay 

• Kamrul Hasan 

The new Child Marriage Restraint 

Act 2016 has special provisions that 

critics say are not only contradictory 

to its objective but will also raise 

the number of child marriages in 

the country. 

The provision includes exceptions 

in child marriages in “special 

cases” such as if a girl “accidentally” 

becomes pregnant or illegally, 

where a marriage will be allowed to 

protect her “honour.” 

This particular issue was discussed 

yesterday at a round table 

on ‘Gender Based Violence and its 

impact on Bangladesh’s Development’ 

at the Daily Star centre attended 

by Finance Minister AMA 

Muhith where he stuck to his guns 

on the provision even after hearing 

legitimate concerns about the legal 

loophole that this will increase child 

marriage and child sexual abuse. 

Ranjan Karmaker, executive director 

of Steps, asked why this provision 

is not a part of Marriage Register 

Act because having it in the 

Child Marriage Restraint Act gives 

the wrong message to people and 

emboldens child sexual molesters. 

The minister responded saying: 

“Good argument! But I don’t accept 

it because the government has to 

act according to public perception 

and public opinion.” 

“In the Child Marriage Restraint 

Act 2016 the provision is governed 

by rules where they have to seek 

permission from the court and consent 

from both the parties and their 

parents,” he also said. 

Following his speech, National 

Human Right Commission Chairman 

Kazi Reazul Haque said this 

provision would be misused by taking 

advantage of the loopholes in 

the act and suggested they drop the 

provision entirely. 

Senior Deputy Director of Ain o 

Salish Kendra (ASK), Nina Goswami 

said judging from the tone of the 

minister’s speech the act is mostly 

likely going to pass with the provision 

in it. 

“The minister spoke about parental 

consent as a preventative measure 

but it is the parents who play a 

key role in arranging child marriages. 

We can not legalise child marriage by 

keeping such provisions,” she said. 

UNFPA Senior Consultant Shifa 

Hafiza said not only will the provision 

create confusion but will 

increase child marriage rates from 

66% to 90%. 

On 22 November, Turkey withdrew 

their own controversial bill 

on child marriage amid a national 

backlash and protests with a similar 

provision exempting legal actions 

against those who marry under-age 

girls to save their “honour.” 

Critics said it would legitimise 

statutory rape and encourage the 

practice of taking child brides, BBC 

reported on Tuesday. • 

Quader 

refuses to 

talk to Uber 

• Shohel Mamun 

Road Transport and Bridges 

Minister Obaidul Quader on Sunday 

refused to talk to Uber over the 

issue of the taxi service’s legality to 

operate services in Bangladesh. 

When Uber, an e-hailing service 

that connects passengers with 

drivers, contacted the transport 

minister on his mobile phone 

Sunday afternoon, Obaidul 

suggested Uber should speak to 

the Bangladesh Road Transport 

Authority (BRTA). 

A Road Transport Ministry 

source said: “Uber representative 

Utsav Agarwal called the minister 

over mobile phone. But the 

minister did not respond to their 

proposal to meet with him. 

“The minister further referred 

the Uber representative to 

meet with the BRTA to discuss the 

issue.” 

When the Dhaka Tribune 

contacted Utsav Agarwal he 

admitted having called the 

minister but avoided making any 

further comment on the matter. 

On November 25, only three 

days after its launching in Dhaka 

amid much fanfare, the Uber taxi 

service was declared illegal in 

Bangladesh by the BRTA. 

In a media statement, Uber 

quoted ICT State Minister Zunaid 

Ahmed Palak as saying: “I am very 

excited to have Uber in Dhaka as 

part of our efforts to build smart 

cities.” 

On November 24, a day before 

declaring the service illegal, amid 

continuing debates whether Uber 

has the legality to operate its 

services here, the BRTA issued 

a public notice on newspapers 

warning Uber drivers and clients 

against using its service, citing 

legal issues. 

On Saturday Obaidul Quader 

said: “We are not against Uber 

but it has to come under the legal 

framework of this country.” 

BRTA Director Nurul Islam 

told the Dhaka Tribune: “Uber 

has violated our existing taxicab 

policy. A company needs BRTA 

permission for running taxi 

services in Bangladesh.” 

Uber neither employs the 

drivers, nor does it own any 

vehicles, enabling it to charge 

relatively lower fares comparing to 

conventional taxis. 

The ride sharing app has 

expanded rapidly across the globe 

and gained popularity since its 

founding seven years ago. 

It currently provides services 

in more than 500 cities across 74 

countries, with over five million 

Uber trips made each day on 

average. •

4 


DT 

News 

‘15% boys commit violence against women’ 

• Afrose Jahan Chaity and 

Kamrul Hasan 

A recent survey by Bangladesh National 

Women Lawyers Association 

(BNWLA) has found that men as 

young as under 18 years of age are 

involved in violence against women. 

BNWLA Executive Director Salma 

Ali said that surprisingly 15% 

accused aged below 18 in 198 cases 

surveyed were involved in such offences 

including rape. 

She disclosed the survey findings 

at a press briefing yesterday 

afternoon, organised as part of 

their 16-day-long observance of the 

International Day for Elimination 

of Violence against Women. 

The 198 cases of violence 

against women were randomly 

chosen from 2,307 cases filed with 

66 police stations in 2015. 

She said: “Some 85% of the accused 

– aged around 35 or less – get 

more frequently involved in the 

crimes. As many as 37% of the accused 

are aged between 18 and 24 

years, while another 34% between 

25 and 34. 

“Some 24% of the accused were 

facing rape charges.” 

The BNWLA executive director 

said among them 67% had no previous 

criminal records. Some 81% 

accused are married while 52% 

hailed from joint families. 

According to the survey, 32% of 

the accused studied up to SSC level 

or more, 9% are graduates while 

7% are illiterate. “It implies that 

traditional education system failed 

to ensure safety for women,” observed 

Salma. 

Offences rose by 5% in last two 

years 

Quoting media reports, Salma said 

that in the last two years, Bangladesh 

experienced 5% rise in violence 

against women. Women and 

girls were mostly killed by their relatives 

during this period. Besides, a 

number of incidents took place in 

broad daylight like Risha murder 

and the attack on Khadiza. 

During the press conference, 

Salma called the mother of Comilla 

Victoria College student Sohagi 

Jahan Tonu, who was killed inside 

the Comilla Cantonment on March 

20, over the phone in front of media 

representatives. A wailing Tonu’s 

mother said: “The administration 

could not identify the killers although 

eight months have passed. 

The case can be solved if the police 

arrest and question Sergeant Jahid.” 

Meanwhile, Salma also criticised 

the approval of the Child 

Marriage Restraint Act, 2016 by the 

cabinet, saying that the provision 

of marriage of under-18 girls under 

special arrangement would increase 

child marriage in the country 

as people would try to abuse it. 

She also expressed concerns 

over a Police Headquarters report 

that says fewer victims of sexual 

violence now seek legal assistance. 

According to the statistics, some 

14,237 cases have already been filed 

with police stations in VAW-related 

issues till October this year. 

On the other hand, a recent survey 

by the Bangladesh Bureau of 

Statistics (BBS) and media reports 

show that the number of VAW-related 

offences has increased remarkably 

this year. • 

Family members of Dr Shamsul Alam Khan Milion place wreaths at his memorial in Dhaka University yesterday, marking the death 

anniversary of the 90s Anti-Autocratic Movement martyr 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

MoU signed for Pipilika 

Bangla Utsab 2016-17 

• Abu Hayat Mahmud 

A memorandum of understanding 

(MoU) was signed 

between the Prime Minister’s 

Office (PMO) and Shahjalal 

Science and Technology University 

(SUST) to organise a 

Bangla spelling competition 

and festival titled “ Pipilika 

Bangla Utsab 2016-17”. 

The memorandum was 

signed by Prof Muhammad 

Zafar Iqbal of the Department 

of Computer Science and Engineering 

at SUST and Kabir 

Bin Anwar, project director 

of Access to Information (a2i) 

programme under the PMO 

yesterday. 

The MoU was signed at 

PMO and during the MoU 

function were present Bangla 

novelist and writer Selina Hossain, 

Bangladeshi children’s 

writer and audio-visual organiser 

Ali Imam among others. 

“Earlier a competition focusing 

on Bangla spelling and 

pronunciation named ShabdoKalpoDroom 

was arranged 

for Chittagong only. We want 

to spreed the programme 

across the country,” said Prof 

Zafar Iqbal. 

Prof Zafar Iqbal, also 

president of the Shabdokalpodroom 

Udjapan Committee 

said Pipilika, the country’s 

first Bangla search engine 

has been provided with all the 

technical supports needed to 

organise the festival. 

“We write wrong Bangla 

spellings everywhere. So the 

aim of the festival is to motivate 

the children and young 

generation to spell and pronounce 

Bangla words correctly,” 

he said. 

Also stressing on the need 

for learning Bangla properly 

as mother tongue, Selina Hossain 

said, “We have lost our 

concentration on pronouncing 

and spelling Bangla correctly. 

I request the young to 

learn Bangla properly and to 

spreed it globally.” 

Shobdokolpodroom, the 

Bangla spelling contest first 

started in Chittagong on October 

17, 2014 where over 1,500 

students between class VII to 

class X from 70 schools participated 

in the competition. • 

Sharif Kaikobad new high 

commissioner to Nigeria 


The government has decided 

to appoint Major General Kazi 

Sharif Kaikobad as the first 

resident high commissioner 

of Bangladesh to Nigeria. 

Sharif was commissioned 

in the Corps of Artillery on December 

21, 1984. 

In his long illustrated 

career, he has been the instructor 

for the Bangladesh 

Military Academy as well as 

for the Artillery Centre and 

School. He was brigade major 

and assistant adjutant general 

at the Army Headquarters. 

He commanded 3 BGB Battalion, 

2 Artillery Regiment 

and 2 Artillery Brigade. He was 

the managing director at Bangladesh 

Machine Tools Factory. 

He has also served in two UN 

missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina 

and Ethiopia-Eritrea. •

News 5 


DT 

RAB produces five alleged human traffickers – arrested from Dhaka and Faridpur – before media yesterday 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

Expat describes horror in Libya 

Sohel gets bail in 11 cases, 

114 more to go 

• UNB 

The High Court has granted 

six months’ interim bail to 

BNP Joint Secretary General 

Habib Un Nabi Khan Sohel in 

11 cases filed with different 

police stations in the capital. 

The bench of Justice 

AKM Abdul Hakim and Justice 

Bhabani Prasad Singha 

passed the order yesterday 

following hearing on the bail 

petitions. 

However, Sohel cannot get 

released from jail as he is accused 

in 114 more cases, his 

counsel Joynul Abedin said. 

Sohel surrendered before a 

Dhaka court on October 9 and 

filed bail petitions in 40 cases. 

The court sent him to jail rejecting 

his bail petitions. 

The cases were filed 

against him during the countrywide 

blockade and hartal 

enforced by the BNP-led 

20-party alliance last year. • 

• Arifur Rahman Rabbi 

A Bangladeshi expatriate worker yesterday 

recounted a shocking series of 

events he had faced to go to Libya including 

torture and extortion by a gang 

of human traffickers. 

“I used to work in Libya but returned 

in 2014 as the political situation became 

volatile. But since I left Tk230,000 with 

a worker named Belal in Libya, I called 

him recently for the money. Belal told 

me to meet one Rubel who asked me to 

meet one Anwar in Dhaka. 

“When I came to Dhaka and met Anwar, 

he took me to Chittagong, and a 

day later he and one Ramjan managed 

me a [fake] passport and air ticket, 

and told me to collect the remaining 

amount from Libya. 

“I could realise that I was trapped by 

the gang. But I did not know how they 

did all these things,” Mintu Ali Khan told 

reporters at a press conference by RAB 

at its Karwan Bazar media office. 

“Anwar was always with me. I saw 15 

other people at the Chittagong airport 

who were also heading for Libya. During 

the transit at the Amman Queen Alia 

International Airport in Jordan, Anwar 

asked us all to wear identical T-shirts, 

and took a photo. 

“When we reached Libya, a Libyan 

received us at the airport, and took away 

our passports and other documents. 

Then we were taken to a house in an undisclosed 

location.” 

The torture began at this house. “A 

Bangladeshi named Kashem took away 

all the money we had and started torturing 

us every day. They did not give us 

foods regularly. They used to force us to 

make video calls with our families and 

demand money through bKash. 

“I gave them Tk110,000 in two phases. 

My brother sold off his shop to manage 

the amount. Then I was taken to another 

house and kept under the authority of 

one MA Gaffar alias Alam, who always 

remained drunk and tortured me.” 

In the meantime, one of their associates 

named Rubel was arrested in Dhaka. 

“Then they increased the extent of 

torture. One day Rubel’s brother Sumon 

asked me to make a video call to my 

family and tell them that I was fine. Otherwise, 

he threatened to kill me. 

“Gaffar once took me to the desert and 

forced me to dig a grave to frighten me. 

“But when my family asked me 

to return home, Gaffar demanded 

Tk70,000. My family collected the 

money from the neighbours. As soon 

as I reached Dhaka airport yesterday 

[Saturday], some associates of the gang 

attempted to abduct me,” Mintu said. 

Mintu’s brother Rintu had already informed 

RAB about the matter. Based on 

the information, members of the Rapid 

Action Battalion arrested two members 

of the human trafficking gang – Liton 

Khan and Nur Mohammad alias Dulal – 

from Dhaka airport area on Saturday. 

The elite force arrested two more traffickers 

of another gang – Abdul Kuddus 

Mollah and Hantu Mollah – from Faridpur 

on Saturday. Another member of the racket 

Belal Matubbar was arrested from Dhaka’s 

Tejgaon yesterday for his involvement 

in taking Bangladeshis hostage in Libya. 

At the press briefing, RAB 3 commanding 

Officer Lt Col Khandakar Golam Sarwar 

told reporters that another Bangladeshi 

named Foyez had also been trapped 

in a similar fashion in Libya. He was released 

in September and is now staying at 

the Bangladesh embassy in Libya. 

RAB learnt about the matter from 

Foyez’s brother Achan Ullah, who had 

filed a complaint. Based on the complaint 

and information from the Bangladesh 

embassy in Libya, RAB conducted 

raids and arrested Kuddus and Hantu 

from Faridpur, and Belal from Dhaka. 

Foyez’s family had to pay Tk120,000 

as ransom to free him from confinement, 

RAB said. • 

Kamal Naser PM’s new principal secretary 

• Shohel Mamun 

Kamal Abdul Naser Chawdhury, the incumbent 

senior secretary of the Ministry 

of Public Administration, has been 

appointed as Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina’s principal secretary, according 

to an order issued by the ministry yesterday. 

He will succeed the current principal 

secretary, Abul Kalam Azad, whose 

tenure ends on December 1. 

From December 31, Kamal will go 

on pre-retirement leave. 

Kamal became a senior secretary at 

the ministry on March 19, 2014 after 

serving as a secretary at the Ministry of 

Education. 

A BCS cadre of 82nd batch, Kamal 

was born on December 31, 1957 in 

Comilla. 

He also writes under the pen name 

of Kamal Chawdhury and has published 

15 books of poems and a number 

of academic journals, and edited two 

anthologies. • 

TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY 

DRY WEATHER 

LIKELY 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28 

Dhaka 28 18 Chittagong 28 21 Rajshahi 28 18 Rangpur 28 16 Khulna 29 16 Barisal 28 18 Sylhet 28 17 

DHAKA 

TODAY 

TOMORROW 

SUN SETS 5:10PM 

SUN RISES 6:23AM 

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW 

30ºC 13.4ºC 

Tarash 

Tetulia 

Source: Accuweather/UNB 

PRAYER 

TIMES 

Cox’s Bazar 28 19 

Fajr: 5:45am | Zohr: 1:15pm 

Asr: 4:00pm | Magrib: 5:22pm 

Esha: 7:30pm 

Source: Islamic Foundation

6 


DT 

CU crippled as 

BCL on non-stop 

blockade 

• FM Mizanur Rahaman, 

Chittagong 

The academic activities at Chittagong 

University (CU) remained 

halt yesterday as a faction of Bangladesh 

Chhatra League (BCL) of CU 

unit called indefinite blockade on 

the campus demanding five-point 

demands including immediate arrest 

of killers of BCL leader Diaz 

Irfan Chowdhury. 

The shuttle train services between 

the campus and city remained 

suspended causing immense 

sufferings to the students. 

Campus sources said though 

no classes were held, scheduled 

examinations of few departments 

were held. Apart from that, a seminar 

was also held at CU amid the 

BCL blockade, said the sources. 

Sholoshahar Railway Station 

Master Md Shahabuddin told Dhaka 

Tribune “The campus bound 

shuttle train could not reach the 

station from Battali as the blockaders 

cut the hose pipes of the trains 

disrupting the schedules.” 

“Following the attack, the train 

operation between the campus and 

city remained suspended as per order 

of Bangladesh Railway (BR) East 

Zone,” added the station master. 

CU BCL’s Vice-President Mohammed 

Mamun also a leader of Diaz 

Irfan group told the Dhaka Tribune: 

“General students called the programme 

protesting the death of Diaz 

while BCL men expressed their solidarity 

with them demanding justice.” 

Assistant Proctor Niaj Morhsed 

Ripon said the scheduled examinations 

of Philosophy department 

and Biology faculty were held. 

Classes of few departments 

were also held, he added. 

Additional police forces had 

been deployed on the campus to 

avert any untoward situation while 

university administration was trying 

to resolve the dead lock, added 

the assistant proctor. 

Belal Uddin Jahangir, officer-incharge 

of Hathazari police station 

said: “Police are kept alert in CU 

campus area.” 

Aassistant Secretary of BCL central 

committee also the former joint 

secretary of BCL CU unit Diaz Irfan 

was found dead at his flat located 

near CU Gate No 2 area under Hathazari 

police station on November 20. 

The first autopsy report of Diaz 

said he committed suicide by hanging 

herself while family members 

rejected the reports and demanded 

to conduct second autopsy. • 

News 

A human chain is formed in front of Barisal town hall yesterday, protesting repression against Muslims in Rakhaine state, 

Myanmar 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

ASI suspended for peddling 

snatched yaba 

• FM Mizanur Rahaman, 

Chittagong 

An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) 

of Chittagong Metropolitan Police 

(CMP) was suspended after he was 

caught red-handed with 1700 yaba 

tablets. 

Acting on a tip-off, officials of Directorate 

of Narcotics Control (DNC) 

conducted a drive in Chittagong city 

Ice Factory Road area and arrested 

ASI Ridwan and his two accomplices--Zillur 

Rahman and Isratun Nabi 

Jerin—and seized the pills and a private 

car on Saturday night. 

Confirming the suspension order, 

Deputy Commissioner (DC) 

(South) SM Mostain Billah told 

Youth killed by ‘friend’ 

• Mohammed Serajul Islam, Sylhet 

A youth was stabbed to death allegedly by his 

friend in Zindabazar area of Sylhet on Saturday 

night. 

Deceased Mezbah Uddin, 22, lived in Mazumdari 

Sraboni Konapara area in the city 

with his family. 

He was the only son of his parents, trying 

to go abroad after passing higher secondary 

certificate examination in 2014, said Mezbah’s 

another friend Syed Mahbub. 

Sohel Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Kotwali 

Model police station, said the police visited 

the spot and detained Ramjan, a friend of 

Mezbah, in this connection. 

The police said Mezbah and his friend 

Ramjan were hanging out at a shop in Zindabazar 

area on the night. 

Then Kabir, a friend of the victim, went 

there in search of Mezbah and locked into an 

altercation with him. 

At one stage, Kabir stabbed him in his 

throat with a sharp weapon. 

Later, locals rushed him to Osmani Medical 

College Hospital, where doctors declared him 

dead. The police said Kabir had a business at 

Kazi Mansion in the city. • 

Suspected JMB man killed in 

Bagerhat ‘gunfight’ 

• SM Samsur Rahman, Bagerhat 

Dhaka Tribune that he suspended 

the ASI after he was found guilty in 

their primary investigation. 

A regular case was lodged 

against him in connection with the 

incident, he added. 

Seeking anonymity, a police official 

told the Dhaka Tribune that 

during the drive, the ASI introduced 

himself as a police officer, 

but failed to show his identity card. 

However, he was carrying a wireless 

phone, he added. The police 

sources said Ridwan had detained 

a person with 1,700 yaba pills while 

he was on his duty in Bakalia area in 

the port city on November 10. 

He freed the drug peddler after 

taking away all the pills from him. 

A suspected member of banned militant outfit 

Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has 

been killed in a “gunfight” with police in Rakhalgachhi 

area of Bagerhat district. The identity 

of the deceased could not be ascertained yet. 

Bagerhat Superintendent of Police Pankaj 

Chandra Roy said: “Acting on a tip-off, we 

Later, he was assigned to MA 

Aziz Stadium’s Power Supply and 

Generator Room for Bangladesh 

Premier Football (BPL) tournament 

on November 18 and scheduled to 

perform his duty there till November 

28, said the sources. 

Meanwhile, Redwan had been 

trying to sell the pills to drug peddlers 

and at one point, he had managed 

a party, who agreed to buy the 

items at Tk1.20 lakh. 

A high police official told the 

Dhaka Tribune that after he confirmed 

the deal with the party, he 

made a plan with his friends Zillur 

and Israt to rob them on the spot, 

which was foiled by DNC, according 

to the sources. • 

conducted a drive in the area around 1:30am 

yesterday. “Sensing the presence of police, 

the JMB men opened fire targeting us.” 

In retaliation, police fired back that left the 

JMB men dead while the others managed to 

flee the scene. Meanwhile, three police officials 

were injured in the incident. He said: “Two 

shutter guns, five rounds of bullets and three 

hand bombs were recovered from the spot.” •

News 7 


Two killed as police charge batons 

DT 

• Asrafuddin Siezel, 

Mymensingh 

Two persons, including a college 

teacher, were killed, as police 

charged batons on them during a 

demonstration at Phulbaria, Mymensingh 

on Sunday afternoon. 

According to local sources, 

teachers and students of Phulbaria 

Degree College brought out a procession 

in the district town around 

12:30pm, demanding nationalisation 

of the college. 

Later, the agitators locked the 

Phulbaria-Mymensigh Highway 

to realise their demand and police 

tried to disperse them, triggering a 

clash between police and demonstrators. 

Police then charged batons as 

well as opened fire on them, leaving 

at least 20 people injured. 

Of the injured, Safar Ali, a pedestrian, 

died on the way to Churkhai 

Community Hospital while 

Abul Kalam Azad, an associate professor 

of Phulbaria Degree College, 

died at the hospital. 

Rifat Khan Razib, officer-incharge 

of Phulbari police station, 

claimed that Safar had not died 

on the spot of demonstration. But 

he declined to comment over the 

death of the college teacher. 

Mafizuddin, residential medical 

officer of Churkhai Community 

Hospital, said Safar Ali might died 

due to cardiac arrest. 

“We will know the reason of the 

death after getting post-mortem 

examination report,” he said. 

Anwarul Kader, residential medical 

officer of Phulbaria Upzila Health 

Complex, said Abul Kalam Azad died 

before he was taken to hospital. 

The body was sent to the hospital 

morgue for an autopsy. • 

 

Police take position in front of 

Phulbaria Degree College after a clash 

that left two people dead 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

Ivy: It’s even better if 

Shamim is not with me 


Selina Hayat Ivy, Narayanganj City 

Corporation mayoral candidate 

with the ruling Awami League ticket, 

said if her traditional arch-rival 

from the same party Shamim Osman 

supported her in the race that 

would be good, and if he did not 

that would be even better. 

She claimed that the Osman family 

members as well as his supporters 

are with her in the upcoming 

election, reports Bangla Tribune. 

“Some will support me openly, 

while others can support secretly. 

If Shamim Osman actively supports 

me in the election, it is good 

and even better if he does not,” the 

former Narayanganj City Corporation 

(NCC) mayor said during a 

discussion with the central Awami 

League leaders on election strategies 

at the AL President Sheikh 

Hasina’s office in Dhanmondi yesterday 

morning. 

She said: “The Narayanganj 

Awami League as well as Osman’s 

supporters are with me. Even so 

the Narayanganj Awami League 

President Anowar Hossain has expressed 

his support to me. 

“I will visit all wards in Narayanganj 

and speak to people from 

every level. And if need be, I will 

also visit Shamim Osman. But he 

will of course need to be dealt with 

by the central leaders.” 

Ivy also requested the central 

team to send a representative from 

the minorities groups to the religious 

and ethnic minorities living 

in Narayanganj. 

While Ivy presented her election 

strategies at the meeting, she also 

received advice from the leaders 

and during her presentation AL 

Joint General Secretary Dipu Moni 

and Secretary Abdur Rahman were 

Shakhawat more affluent than Ivy 

Ivy’s wealth rose in five years 

• Tanveer Hossain, 

Narayanganj 

Ex-Narayanganj city mayor and 

Awami League-backed mayoral 

candidate for Narayanganj City 

Corporation (NCC) Selina Hayat Ivy 

got richer over the last five years. 

Selina Hayat Ivy is greeted by leaders and activists of Awami League at Khankaye 

Sharif, Paikpara, Narayanganj yesterday 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

seen to take notes, which were 

to be sent to Sheikh Hasina in the 

evening, and further steps would 

be taken according to her decision 

and directions. 

When asked, AL Organisational 

Secretary KM Enamul Haque 

Shamim said: “We have sat down 

with Ivy at 11am and have discussed 

different strategies for the 

election.” 

Sources said Ivy complained 

about Shamim Osman spreading 

rumours about her lack of connection 

with the AL. • 

The BNP-backed mayoral candidate 

for NCC, Shakhawat Hossain 

Khan, is richer than Ivy. 

The information about the 

wealth statements revealed as the 

both candidates have submitted 

their statements to the district’s 

Election office as well as their educational 

qualification and sources 

of income and other records. 

Election office sources said Ivy 

and Shakhawat submitted their 

statements on November 24. 

In her statement, Selina Hayat 

Ivy mentioned that she owned 

wealth worth about Tk4.22 millions. 

Apart from this, she also owns 

some one-eighth portion of a 1.12 

acres of plot, which she got from 

her father. 

In 2011, Ivy had submitted her 

wealth statements for the first 

time. The first mayor of NCC, then 

mentioned that her yearly income 

was Tk1.64 millions and she had 

a bank deposit of Tk1 million and 

golden ornaments worth Tk30,000. 

Now, she mentioned that her 

yearly income was Tk1 million 

which she got from NCC as mayor. 

In her statement, Ivy also stated 

that she is a MBBS doctor. 

Apart from these, she mentioned 

that she was not accused in 

any criminal cases. 

Meanwhile, the BNP-backed 

candidate Shakhawat Hossain 

Khan is a lawyer in profession and 

he completed his masters degree 

from LLB. 

He was accused in four cases 

while he was acquitted in two cases 

and two other cases are under trail. 

Shakhawat and his wife have 

properties worth of Tk9.7 millions 

including cash, vehicles, golden 

ornaments, electronics, furniture 

and land. 

His monthly income is about 

Tk5.3 lakh and got Tk3,801 as bank 

interest. Shakhawat by himself 

own net wealth of Tk7.7 millions, 

said the wealth statement. 

Narayanganj city election commission 

declared Ivy and Shakhawat’s 

candidacies legal after checking 

their statements yesterday. 

Eight out of nine mayor candidates 

got nodes from election commission. 

Nuruzzaman Talukder, returing 

officer, said: “After checking nomination 

papers, wealth statements 

and completing other works EC 

declared eight candidates’ nominations 

as legal.” •

DT 

8 

World 


SOUTH ASIA 

Nepal fails to register 

constitution amendment 

bill 

Nepali coalition government failed 

to register the constitution amendment 

bill in parliament on Sunday 

as uncertainty loomed over the process. 

The government was supposed 

to move the amendment bill in the 

parliament so as to accommodate 

the demands of the agitating Madhesi 

and ethnic groups that include 

citizenship and boundary demarcation 

issues among others. HT 

INDIA 

Japanese allegedly raped 

in South India 

A man was arrested Sunday 

for allegedly raping a Japanese 

tourist at a popular beach resort in 

southern India, in the latest case 

of sexual assault against a visitor. 

The 35-year-old woman was found 

bleeding by hotel staff in the town 

of Kovalam early Sunday and is 

undergoing treatment at a hospital 

in the Kerala state capital Thiruvananthapuram. 

AFP 

CHINA 

China: History, people to 

remember Castro 

Chinese President Xi Jinping said 

Saturday that history and people 

will remember Fidel Castro, calling 

the Cuban revolutionary leader a 

great figure of our times. “In the 

name of the CPC, the Chinese government 

and people, and in my own 

name, I express my deepest condolences 

on the death of Comrade 

Fidel Castro and sincerest sympathy 

to his family,” Xi said. XINHUA 

ASIA PACIFIC 

Troops fire artillery at 

militants in Philippines 

Troops Sunday fired artillery at positions 

held by an Islamic militant faction 

in the southern Philippines as 

more soldiers deployed against the 

group, which staged a deadly bombing 

in President Rodrigo Duterte’s 

home city. Troops used 105mm 

artillery to blast the positions of the 

Maute group in the nearly deserted 

town of Butig in the second day of 

fighting since the gunmen, who 

claim allegiance to the IS. AFP 

MIDDLE EAST 

Syria rebels hit by IS 

chemical attack 

Atleast 22 Syrian rebels were hit by 

an IS gas attack in northern Syria, 

the Turkish army said Sunday, 

the first time Turkey has accused 

the jihadists of chemical warfare. 

Observers have previously accused 

IS of using mustard gas in Syria 

and described the possibility as 

extremely worrying. AFP 

Winds of change blow softly as 

Fatah leaders meet 

• AFP, Ramallah 

Palestinian president Mahmud 

Abbas’s Fatah party holds its 

first congress since 2009 on 

Tuesday as the 81-year-old leader 

seeks to close ranks and fend 

off a key rival. While Abbas’s advisers 

insist the congress is being 

held because it is overdue, some 

analysts see it as an opportunity 

for him to sideline allies of his 

exiled longtime rival Mohammed 

Dahlan. 

Arab nations have reportedly 

been pressuring Abbas to allow 

Dahlan to return in hopes that it 

will help lead to a smooth transition. 

The congress to last up to five 

days in the occupied West Bank 

city of Ramallah is expected to be 

key for the future of the secular 

party and the Palestinian Authority 

it controls. 

It is to include elections for 

Fatah’s 23-member central committee, 

in which Abbas serves as 

president and its 132-member 

revolutionary council, considered 

Fatah’s parliament. 

The 1,400 Fatah officials invited 

to attend the congress are to 

vote for 18 members of the central 

committee and 80 seats on 

the revolutionary council, while 

the rest are to be nominated. 

Observers see the reduced 

number of officials to vote, down 

from more than 2,000 in 2009, as 

part of a move to exclude Dahlan 

supporters. Now in exile in the 

United Arab Emirates, Dahlan was 

expelled from Fatah in 2011 and 

has faced a series of legal cases 

since. 

Political infighting 

Abbas’s term as Palestinian president 

officially ended in 2009 but 

there has been no election since 

due to an ongoing dispute between 

his party and its main rival, Hamas. 

The Palestinian parliament 

has not met since 2007. 

Fatah, which controls the West 

Bank and Hamas have been at loggerheads 

since the latter seized 

the Gaza Strip in a near civil war 

in 2007. Dahlan fell from grace 

in June 2007 after the humiliating 

rout of his forces by Hamas in 

week-long street battles that saw 

Hamas expel Fatah from the coastal 

enclave. 

The Gaza-born politician was 

expelled from Fatah in 2011 over 

allegations of financial corruption 

and murder. 

Potential successors 

Political analyst Abdel Majid Abu 

Sweilam says that, beyond staving 

off Abbas’s rivals, the congress 

also aims to reinforce Fatah’s hold 

within the institutions of the Palestinian 

Authority. 

The congress will also address 

the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, 

stalled since early 2014. It 

will be Fatah’s seventh congress 

since 1965 and the first since 2009. 

The 2009 meeting saw younger 

officials enter the central committee 

including Marwan Barghouti, 

currently imprisoned, as well as 

Jibril Rajoub and Dahlan. 

Polls have shown that Barghouti 

would win if an election for 

Palestinian president were held 

today, but he is jailed for life for 

murder by Israel over his role in 

the second Palestinian intifada. 

Rajoub, a former head of intelligence, 

now leads the Palestinian 

Football Association and has been 

an advocate for the Palestinian 

cause within the sport. • 

Giant new dome set to keep Chernobyl safe 

• AFP, Chernobyl 

The world’s largest metal moveable 

structure will be unveiled Tuesday 

over the Chernobyl nuclear power 

plant’s doomed fourth reactor in 

Ukraine to ensure the safety of future 

generations across Europe. 

The giant arch - nearly as long as 

two football pitches and taller than 

New York’s Statue of Liberty - will 

edge into place over an existing 

crumbling dome that the Soviets 

constructed in haste when disaster 

struck three decades ago on April 26. 

Radioactive fallout from the site 

of the world’s worst civil nuclear 

accident contaminated Ukraine 

and spread across three-quarters of 

Europe. Work on the previous safety 

dome began after a 10-day fire 

caused by the explosion was contained 

but as radiation still spewed. 

Kiev held a May Day parade as 

invisible contamination spread 

over the city while then-Soviet 

leader Mikhail Gorbachev only admitted 

on May 14 that something 

had gone terribly wrong. 

A UN estimate in 2005 said 

around 4,000 people had either 

been killed or were left dying from 

CHERNOBYL: TIMELINE OF A DISASTER 

1 April 25, 1986 2 April 26, 1986 

Reactor No 4 is shut 1:23 am: a sudden 

down for maintenance, drop in power triggers 

and safety checks 

a chain of events 

causing the reactor to 

overheat 

Reactors 

Shutdown 

No 1 

1996 

1991 No 2 

2000 No 3 

Nov 29, 2016 

The new giant arch will be 

inaugurated. It is due to be 

operational by end of 2017 

Sources: www.world-nuclear-org, UNSCEAR, WHO 

Reactor No 4 explodes. 

A radioactive cloud 

of smoke shoots 

1 km into the air. 

Winds carry the 

cloud across 

northern Europe 

7 1997 

An international fund is set up 

to build a new sarcophagus 

to replace the badly leaking 

temporary reactor cover 

cancer and other related disease. 

But the Greenpeace environmental 

protection group believes the 

figure may be closer to 100,000. 

The authorities maintain a 

30km wide exclusion zone around 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, centre, stands and senior Fatah leader 

Mohammed Dahlan on February 15, 2007 

REUTERS 

Control rods 

N o 4 

3 April 26 - May 5, 1986 

Thousands of tonnes of sand, 

clay and lead are dropped onto 

the reactor to quench the fire 

No 4 

4 Spring, summer 1986 

116,000 people evacuated from 

the 30 km exclusion zone. More 

are located in later years 

5 November 1986 

Steel-concrete cover built over 

destroyed reactor to contains 

200 tonnes of molten 

nuclear fuel 

6 

1986 - 1990 

Hundreds of 

thousands of 

clean-up workers 

attempt to isolate 

and decontaminate the 

danger zone 

the plant in which only a few dozen 

elderly people live. 

Concerns over the safety of 

the disintegrating concrete shelter, 

built by 90,000 people in just 

206 days, prompted the European 

Bank for Reconstruction and Development 

(EBRD) to spearhead a 

$2.2bn project to install a new safety 

dome. 

Long time coming 

Chernobyl’s dangers are real but 

Kiev complains Europe’s help took a 

long time coming. The EBRD found 

40 state sponsors to fund a competition 

in 2007 to choose who should 

build a moveable dome the likes of 

which the world had never seen. 

A French consortium of two 

companies known as Novarka finished 

the designs in 2010 and began 

construction two years later. 

The shelter was edged toward 

the fourth reactor in just under 

three weeks of delicate work this 

month that was interrupted by inclement 

weather and other potential 

dangers. 

It will later be fitted with radiation 

control equipment as well as air 

vents and fire protective measures. 

That equipment inside the arch 

is due to start working by the end 

of 2017.Novarka believes that its 

arch will keep the continent safe 

from nuclear fallout for the next 

100 years. •

ANALYSIS 

World 

Much uncertainty ahead in United 

States-Cuba relationship 

• Tribune International Desk 

Fidel Castro’s passing removes 

what was long the single greatest 

psychological barrier to a warmer 

US-Cuba relationship. But it also 

adds to the uncertainty ahead 

with the transition from an Obama 

to a Trump administration. 

“A brutal dictator” of a “totalitarian 

island,” declared President-elect 

Donald Trump, underscoring 

the historical trauma still 

separating the countries. 

A more restrained President 

Barack Obama, carefully promoting 

and working to preserve his 

own attempt to rebuild those ties, 

said history would assess Castro’s 

impact and that the Cuban people 

could reflect “with powerful emotions” 

about how their long-time 

leader influenced their country. 

As Obama leaves office in January, 

his decision to engage rather 

than pressure Havana in the hopes 

of forging new bonds could quickly 

unravel. Trump has hardly championed 

the effort and Republican 

leaders in Congress fiercely opposed 

Obama’s calls to end the 55-year-old 

US trade embargo of the island. 

Trump expressed hope that 

Castro’s death would mark a 

“move away from the horrors” toward 

a future where Cubans live 

in freedom. But he said nothing 

about Obama’s project to reset 

ties, and even hailed the election 

support he received from veterans 

of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion 

that was backed by the CIA. 

Such a statement probably will 

irritate Havana, coming after a 

two-year period of intense diplomatic 

discussions with Washington 

that have done more to 

improve relations between the 

countries than anything in the 

past 5 ½ decades. 

Castro’s reign began when his 

improbable insurrection ousted 

the US-backed strongman Fulgencio 

Batista in 1959. Only 32 at 

the time, Castro was the youngest 

leader in Latin America and inspired 

revolutionaries as far afield 

as Africa and Asia. But Castro’s socialist 

Cuba was anything but an 

idyll, and the US quickly became 

his fiercest opponent. 

The dynamic began changing a 

decade ago, as Castro stepped back 

from public life. His health ailing, 

he handed over power to brother 

Raul in 2008 and a period of limited 

economic reforms was ushered 

in. After Cuba’s government 

released American prisoner Alan 

Gross and agreed to a spy swap 

with Washington in 2014, Obama 

and Raul Castro felt they finally 

had enough trust to embark on a 

journey of rapprochement. 

While some US investment has 

opened up and travel rules for 

Americans are now greatly eased, 

the normalisation has been limited 

because Obama could never 

get Republican lawmakers to end 

the vast restrictions tied up in 

the trade embargo. Triumphant 

alongside Trump in November, 

some GOP leaders have vowed to 

reverse Obama’s effort. 

During his campaign, Trump 

criticised Obama for striking a 

“very weak agreement” and threatened 

to reverse Obama’s executive 

orders “unless the Castro regime 

meets our demands.” He never laid 

out those demands, and at other 

times hinted about being amenable 

to more US investment in Cuba. 

As with much of his foreign policy, 

Trump never outlined clearly a 

set of policy objectives with Cuba. 

The ambiguity leaves much of the recent 

warming on uncertain ground. 

It’s unclear if Castro’s death, however 

powerful for castigators and 

champions, will dramatically sway 

Trump one way or the other. • 

Colombo seeks Trump’s help to drop war crimes charges 

• AFP, Colombo 

US-CUBA RELATIONS 

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala 

Sirisena has asked Donald Trump 

to pressure the UN Human Rights 

Council to drop war crimes allegations 

against the country’s troops. 

Sirisena’s office said Sunday he 

had sent a “special message” to 

president-elect Trump seeking US 

intervention at the council, where 

Sri Lanka faces censure for wartime 

atrocities. 

Sirisena said he was making a 

similar appeal to the incoming UN 

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 

However, during a visit by 

outgoing Secretary-General Ban 

Ki-moon to Sri Lanka last month, 

Sirisena had asked for more time 

to investigate war crimes, a sensitive 

political issue in the majority-Sinhalese 

country. 

Sri Lanka has said it will set up 

special courts to address issues of 

accountability, but the promised 

judicial mechanisms have yet to 

be established. 

There have been allegations that 

troops killed up to 40,000 minority 

Tamils during the final battle 

against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels 

in 2009, a period when Sirisena’s 

predecessor and strongman leader 

Mahinda Rajapakse was in power. 

The rights council has asked 

Sri Lanka to ensure credible investigations 

into war crimes, pay 

reparations to victims and their 

families and ensure reconciliation 

after 37 years of ethnic war which 

claimed at least 100,000 lives. 

Troops still have a large presence 

in the former conflict zones 

in the north and east and keep 

a close watch on the local Tamil 

population, seven years after the 

end of the war. • 

9 


USA 

Clinton team says yes to 

recount 

DT 

Hillary Clinton’s presidential 

campaign said on Saturday it 

would help with efforts to secure 

recounts in several states, even 

as the White House defended the 

declared results as the will of the 

US people. The campaign’s general 

counsel, Marc Elias, said that 

while it had found no evidence 

of sabotage, the campaign felt an 

obligation to the more than 64m 

voters who cast ballots for Hillary 

Clinton. GUARDIAN 

THE AMERICAS 

Cubans begin mourning 

for Castro 

Flag-waving Cuban students broke 

into a mass chant of “I am Fidel” to 

salute Fidel Castro as nine days of 

mourning began for the combative 

Cold War icon, who dominated the 

Communist island’s political life for 

generations. Giant rallies are planned 

in Havana’s Revolution Square and 

in the eastern city of Santiago to 

honour Castro. REUTERS 

UK 

British Women’s Equality 

Party debuts 

UK’s newly-formed Women’s 

Equality Party (WEP) is thrashing 

out topics such as unequal pay and 

the disaster of Donald Trump beating 

Hillary Clinton to the White 

House, at its first ever conference 

this weekend. In a symbolic move, 

the three-day conference opened 

Friday on the UN International Day 

for the Elimination of Violence 

Against Women. AFP 

EUROPE 

BBC reporter detained in 

Turkey 

The authorities in Turkey on Saturday 

detained a journalist working 

for the BBC’s Turkish language service 

in the southeast of the country, 

the broadcaster said. Hatice Kamer 

was detained while reporting on a 

mine disaster in the Kurdish-dominated 

Siirt region of the southeast 

that left 10 miners dead and six 

missing, BBC Turkish said in a statement 

on its website. AFP 

AFRICA 

Ugandan tribal king 

arrested after clashes kill 55 

Ugandan police stormed the 

palace of a tribal king and arrested 

him Sunday after fierce clashes 

between security forces and a separatist 

militia they believe is linked 

to him killed 55, police said. Heavy 

fighting broke out Saturday in the 

western town of Kasese, home to 

King Charles Wesley Mumbere of 

the Rwenzururu kingdom, when 

his royal guards attacked patrolling 

security forces, killing 14 police 

officers and 41 militants. AFP

10 


DT 

World 

INSIGHT 

Game of thrones leaves Nepal quake 

victims in cold 

• Reuters, Hokshe, Nepal 

Farmer Ganesh Prasad Gautam 

beamed as the young woman behind 

the desk littered with files 

called his name out at the rundown 

government office in the mountains 

of central Nepal. 

After 18 months of living in a 

shack made of corrugated iron, tarpaulin 

and bamboo amid the ruins 

of his earthquake-hit house, he is finally 

receiving long-promised government 

funds to start rebuilding 

his home. 

The 54-year-old farmer was one 

of eight million people affected in 

April last year when a 7.8-magnitude 

quake struck the Himalayan 

nation - leaving 9,000 dead and destroying 

one million homes as well 

as schools, businesses roads, and 

bridges. 

“The money is late and it’s not 

enough to build what I had before, 

but at least the government has given 

it,” Gautam said to nods from fellow 

villagers gathered at the office 

in Hokshe village, 64 km (40 miles) 

east of Kathmandu. 

“We’ve already endured one 

winter and two monsoons like this 

- out in the open with no protection 

from the rain and cold.” 

But Gautam is one of the lucky 

ones. 

Constant feuding between a 

myriad of political parties has 

fuelled political turmoil and weak 

governance in Nepal, delaying efforts 

to rebuild the country of 28 

million people despite an outpouring 

of aid, analysts said. 

Ongoing political instability in 

a country which has seen 24 governments 

in 26 years has stymied 

reconstruction efforts. 

“You are looking at a country 

that has had three governments 

since the earthquake - all coalitions 

and none with a solid majority,” 

said Renaud Meyer, Country Director 

for the United Nations Development 

Programme (UNDP) in Nepal. 

“There is no doubt the political 

landscape is the biggest barrier for 

the recovery and reconstruction of 

Nepal to take place. It requires consistency, 

it requires determination 

and the less open it is to spoilers, 

the better.” 

Politics prevails 

Wedged between India and China, 

Nepal - famed as the birthplace of 

Buddha and home to Mount Everest 

- is one of the world’s poorest 

countries. 

A decade-long civil war between 

Maoist rebels and government forces 

ended in 2006, raising hopes of 

A man collects stones from a collapsed temple as he works to rebuild a temple 

damaged during the 2015 earthquake, in Bhaktapur, Nepal on November 23 REUTERS 

development in a country where 

one in four people live on less than 

$1.90 a day - the World Bank’s measure 

of extreme poverty. 

The three main parties - the 

Nepali Congress (NC), Communist 

Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) and 

the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) 

- have over the years made unlikely 

bedfellows in fragile coalitions and 

politicians are seen as selfish and 

power hungry. 

Critics say rather than focus on 

reconstruction, former Prime Minister 

Sushil Koirala’s NC-led government 

exploited a wave of national 

solidarity in the quake’s aftermath 

to finalise Nepal’s long overdue 

constitution. 

Even though a new charter was 

adopted in September 2015, and 

a new coalition government led 

by Khadga Prasad Oli’s UML party 

took power, the historic moment 

was marred by bloodshed in street 

clashes in the southern Terai region 

bordering India. 

More than 50 people died in the 

crisis, which forced Oli to resign 

nine months after taking power 

as his main coalition partner, the 

Maoist Centre party, withdrew its 

support. 

The constitutional crisis and political 

changes resulted a six-month 

delay in setting up the National Reconstruction 

Authority (NRA) - the 

key agency overseeing Nepal’s recovery. 

As a result, families are only now 

receiving the first installment of a 

promised 200,000 rupee ($1,880) 

housing grant. 

But for some Nepalis, the funds 

are too little, too late. 

Down the road from the five-star 

Hyatt Regency hotel in Chuchepati 

on the outskirts of Kathmandu, 

amid the hundreds of blue and 

white plastic tents which make up 

a displacement camp, housewife 

Shanti Pariyar, 42, complains of 

sleepless nights. 

Little food, daily treks to queue 

for two jerry cans of clean water, 

few toilets, no privacy to bathe and 

monsoon rains which flood her tarpaulin 

tent are bad enough, she said. 

But what keeps her up at night 

is the 300,000-rupee debt she has 

racked up since her village home 

was destroyed, forcing her family to 

move to the capital in search of work. 

“I borrowed from my sisters in 

Dubai and also took credit from 

the grocery store for food, but now 

there is pressure as they want their 

money back,” said Pariyar who is 

from Jiri village in Dolakha district, 

75km from Kathmandu. 

“Our lives have changed after the 

earthquake. Before I had a dream to 

educate my kids and make them 

doctors and engineers. Now I can’t 

even feed them.” 

Race against time 

Since the NRA was established in 

January, reconstruction work has 

picked up dramatically with more 

than 2,700 engineers recruited to 

survey damaged and destroyed 

houses nationwide. 

The government has signed 

agreements with 58 banks and financial 

institutions to distribute 

housing grants with first instalments 

disbursed to 432,000 households. 

NRA’s CEO Sushil Gyawali said the 

government wants to turn the disaster 

into an opportunity to “build 

back better” with housing grants 

subject to adherence of the country’s 

building codes to encourage people 

to build more resilient homes. 

“If you count from the day the 

NRA was established, we have 

made good progress and that has 

been appreciated by everyone,” 

said Gyawali, a civil engineer. 

“We want to make it faster, but if 

we are in a hurry and don’t plan, we 

may not be building back better.” 

But the clouds of political instability 

still loom large, analysts said. 

Under a power-sharing agreement 

between his party and Maoist 

leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who 

parliament voted as premier in August, 

Dahal will serve as prime minister 

until May, and then hand over 

power to Nepali Congress chairman 

Sher Bahadur Deuba. 

That transition - as well as national 

elections due by January 

2018 - could amount to even more 

delays in efforts to rebuild the 

country, development experts say. 

Not only with each change in 

government comes changes in 

policy, but also the replacement 

of thousands of public servants 

across the country - from village to 

national level - who are generally 

appointed based on their political 

affiliations. 

Development workers said new 

appointments often result in time 

lost re-discussing policies and previous 

decisions. 

There is a concern the delay 

means people will not wait and 

will borrow money to rebuild basic 

structures again. 

“The people don’t wait, so if they 

can get some funds from somewhere, 

they will build a new home, but they 

will not get the technical guidance, 

knowledge and expertise to build a 

safer house,” said UNDP’s Meyer. 

“It’s a hot pursuit - a race against 

time - to provide that help to people 

to ensure that the 9,000 people 

who died did not die for nothing. 

You don’t want more to die in the 

next earthquake.” • 

Makeshift shelters are pictured inside the displacement camps for earthquake victims at Chuchepati in Kathmandu, Nepal, 

September 19, 2016 

REUTERS

World 

11 


DT 

Mosul fight efforts to bridge Sunni and Shia 

differences over territory and oil between 

the Baghdad government and 

the self-ruled Kurdish region. 

It may take more than gestures and 

rhetoric to convince Sunnis that their 

marginalisation has ended. 

“We should not have gone to war 

against Daesh before settling our differences 

first,” said Sunni lawmaker Thafer 

al-Any. “But, let us see how things 

are handled after Daesh is defeated. It 

is difficult to imagine that Iraq will stay 

united without a political settlement.” 

But Sunni do see positive signs, and 

the fight against IS has brought together 

fighters from the country’s Shias, 

Sunnis, Kurds and Christians in a loose 

alliance. 

“The attitude of the army toward 

us in Mosul was 99 percent positive,” 

said Zoheir Hazem, a Sunni who belongs 

to Mosul local council. “The 

army is doing a good fighting job and 

humanitarian job.” • 

Iraqi people shake hand with soldier in neighbourhood of Intisar that was 

captured by Iraqi forces from IS militants, Mosul on November 27 REUTERS 

• Tribune International Desk 

The Mosul district of Gogjali 

was captured from the Islamic 

State group weeks ago. So the 

commander of Iraqi troops 

here was alarmed when a 

surprise attack by militants 

sparked an hour-long gun 

battle with his forces. None 

of his men were hurt, but the 

assault meant IS sleeper cells 

remained among the mainly 

Sunni Muslim population. 

Using loudspeakers, 

troops on Thursday called 

on all adult men to report to 

the main square. About 400 

showed up. Under heavy 

guard and forbidden from using 

cell phones, they sat on 

the ground — clearly anxious 

they were about to face mass 

reprisals. Instead, the commander 

delivered a speech, 

demanding information but 

also seeking reconciliation. 

“I am a Shia, but it’s not 

true what you hear that we are 

here to fight Sunnis,” Col Munir 

Abdul-Aziz, a burly man 

in his 40s, told them. “We are 

here to save you from the terrorist 

Daesh (IS) which has no 

religion,” he added. 

It was a sign of how, in the 

campaign to retake Mosul, 

Iraq’s military and politicians 

are making a concerted effort 

to bridge the country’s bitter 

Sunni-Shia divide. 

Those tensions helped 

bring the rise of the IS and 

have been further inflamed 

by the fight against the militants. 

Unless they are eased, 

militant violence is unlikely 

to end. 

Sunni bitterness toward 

the Shia-led government in 

Baghdad fuelled support for 

the IS among the community. 

The minority community has 

long complained of discrimination 

under Shia domination, 

and the militants were 

seen by some as protection 

against the heavy handedness 

of security forces and the 

abuse of the Shia militias. 

That support helped IS take 

over much of northern and 

western Iraq, starting in late 

2013, through its stunning blitz 

in the summer of 2014 that 

captured mainly Sunni Mosul. 

In the campaign to retake 

territory from IS the past year, 

the tensions have been stoked 

by abuses committed against 

Sunnis by government-sanctioned 

Shia militias. Sunnis in 

areas from which IS has been 

pushed out have reported extrajudicial 

killings by the militiamen, 

looting and random 

destruction of property. 

The latest generation of 

Iranian-backed Shia militias 

gained considerable power 

after the military melted 

down in the face of IS in 

2014. The militias have been 

powerful fighters in the campaigns 

against the Sunni extremists 

since. 

But the government was 

adamant in excluding the militiamen 

from the battle to retake 

Mosul, the last major Iraqi 

urban centre still held by IS. 

The policy has seemed to 

bring successes. 

The Iraqi military and security 

forces are predominantly 

Shia, but Sunnis have a significant 

presence in the ranks. 

Reports of excesses against 

Sunni civilians have been negligible. 

Shia politicians have been 

trying to reach out, arguing 

that the brutality of IS rule 

shows that Iraqis — Shias, 

Sunni and Kurds — are better 

off living together in harmony. 

“What we need is a societal 

reconciliation,” Shia Prime 

Minister Haider al-Abadi declared 

in a news conference 

this week. “This (Shia-Sunni) 

conflict cannot be allowed to 

continue.” 

The Sunni-Shia rivalry is 

not the only one bedeviling 

Iraq. There are longtime

DT 

12 

Business 


CAPITAL MARKET SNAPSHOT: SUNDAY 

DSE Broad Index 4,786.6 -0.1% ▼ Index 1,134.7 0.1% ▲ 30 Index 1,768.5 -0.1% ▼ Turnover in Mn Tk 6,103.1 -7.3% ▼ Turnover in Mn Vol 238.9 -19.1% ▼ 

CSE All Share Index 14,723.4 -0.0% ▼ 30 Index 13,193.0 -0.1% ▼ Selected Index 8,957.4 -0.1% ▼ Turnover in Mn Tk 407.4 -5.0% ▼ Turnover in Mn Vol 18.7 -12.6% ▼ 

Ticfa meeting postponed as 

US goes through power shift 

• Ibrahim Hossain Ovi 

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed 

yesterday said Ticfa meeting 

scheduled on December 13 in Dhaka 

has been postponed as the USA 

is now going through the transition 

of power after the recent national 

election. 

Usually the Trade and Investment 

Cooperation Forum Agreement 

(Ticfa) meeting is called to 

discuss bilateral trade issues between 

Bangladesh and the US to 

find out obstacles and ways forward 

to enhance trade and commerce. 

The minister cane up with the 

announcement at a joint press 

briefing after a meeting with the US 

Ambassador to Bangladesh, Marcia 

Stephens Bloom Bernicat, in the 

capital yesterday. 

The scheduled Ticfa meeting 

would be held at a convenient time 

during March-April next year as the 

new government will take the office, 

said Tofail. 

“I hope the trade relation would 

enhance under the new government 

and the Ticfa deal will move 

forward with essence,” said the 

minister. 

“Our commitment remains and 

continues to expand trade and 

commercial operation with Bangladesh. 

The Ticfa talks always provides 

a good opportunity to look 

forward to expanding economic 

activities between our two countries,” 

said Bernicat. 

By postponing the talks for early 

next year, there will be an opportunity 

for Bangladesh to engage 

fully with the new administration 

on these issues so that economic 

partnership continues to grow, said 

the US envoy. 

Ticfa is a platform for discussion on 

partnership and security dialogue. 

Each government has a chance to 

go over the whole series of issues 

relating to trade and commerce, 

and Generalised System of Preferences 

(GSP) is one aspect to that, 

added the ambassador. 

“We hope Ticfa will continue 

long after the GSP is restored long 

after.” 

GSP was suspended in June 2013 

based on allegations like shortcomings 

in workplace safety and poor 

labour rights. 

Talking on the GSP suspension, 

Tofail Ahmed said: “There 

was political reason behind GSP 

suspension and I hope there will 

have no political motive under the 

new government lead by Donald 

Trump. 

In response to the minister 

speech, Bernicat said: “We absolutely 

disagree that there was a 

political basis for GSP suspension. 

We are working on helping fulfill a 

‘We have visited several factories with the 

ambassador and the workers stated that they 

are happy with the working conditions and 

safety issues’ 

16-item Action Plan that is the sole 

basis for restoration of GSP.” 

The progress on safety and security 

of the 16 points Action Plan 

has been remarkable and continues, 

but there has not been the 

same level of progress in labour 

rights side, Bernicat said, replying 

to a question. 

If a worker wants to organise a 

union, you should let them to do 

so. You have to follow the rules and 

law as it is written, said the envoy. 

If a worker tries to organise, his 

boss does not have the right to discriminate 

against you even to fire 

and not to pay your compensation, 

she added. 

“Our goal is to make sure that 

workers have the opportunity as by 

law to organise. If employers discriminate 

against workers trying 

to organise, action would be taken 

against them,” she fuhrer adds. 

Denying the envoy’s allegation 

on labour rights, Tofail said the 

rights of workers is a vague term 

to me as they are always talking on 

the rights issues though they have 

witnessed progress during visit to 

several factories. 

“We have visited several factories 

with the ambassador and the 

workers stated that they are happy 

with the working conditions and 

safety issues.” 

In April 2013, Bangladesh has 

signed the much-talked-about 

Trade and Investment Cooperation 

Forum Agreement (Ticfa) with the 

US to discuss opportunities and 

interests of bilateral trade and investment 

and identify and work to 

remove impediments to trade and 

investment sectors. 

In the last fiscal year, the 

US-Bangladesh bilateral trade 

stood at $7.22 billion. Bangladesh’s 

export to the US market reached 

$6.22 billion while its import $1 billion. 

• 

Muhith: Paperless 

banking process 

within three years 

• Mohammad Abu Bakar 

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has 

said the government is keen to introduce 

a paperless banking process 

within two or three years. 

“The government has been 

working in a planned way for the 

development of the information 

technology sector with an aim to 

make a digital Bangladesh by 2021,” 

the minister said while inaugurating 

a day-long workshop styled 

“Digital payments for Digital Bangladesh: 

Building an Ecosystem for 

all” held at the Prime Minister’s Office 

in the city yesterday. 

He said there is no alternative 

to introducing digital payment system 

in the economic management 

in the governance. 

The program was also addressed 

by Finance Department’s Additional 

Secretary (Budget1-1) Mohammad 

Muslim Chowdhury, A2I’s 

Project Director Kabir Bin Anwar, 

UNDP Country Director Sudipta 

Mukharjee and Better Than Cash 

Alliance Managing Director Ruth 

Godwin Greyon. 

The speakers informed the 

workshop that the growth in the 

mobile financial services has been 

increased around 120% since 2011. 

“If the digital payment can be 

implemented in the managements 

of all kinds of expenditures of the 

government including pensions and 

social benefit nets, 10% expenses 

can be reduced,” they argued. •

Business 13 

DT 


Slow progress in fibre optical 

services a bar to launching 4G 

• Ishtiaq Husain 

Representatives from different mobile 

operators have strongly criticised 

the country’s fibre optical 

services for slow progress in infrastructure 

building to introduce 4G 

services (LTE) across the country. 

The criticism came at the Bangladesh 

LTE Summit held at Pan Pacific 

Sonargaon hotel in the capital 

yesterday. 

BTRC and Association of Mobile 

Telecom Operators of Bangladesh 

have jointly organised the day-long 

summit. 

Emphasising the need for 

launching Long- Term Evaluation 

(LTE) services known as 4G services 

in the country immediately, 

the speakers said the government 

should make it fast and simple, 

considering cost efficiency. 

The countries major mobile 

phone operators also urged the authorities 

concerned to review taxation 

policy for mobile industries. 

They said the existing policy 

makes them non-profitable. 

In his address, Johan Frisell, 

Swedish ambassador, to Bangladesh 

said the rapid growth of telecommunication 

in Bangladesh is 

praiseworthy. Now, it is time to roll 

out LTE services. 

“If you charge too much, you may 

Stocks end 

flat on profit 

booking 

• Tribune Business Desk 

Stocks closed flat yesterday as late 

profit booking cut early gains. 

The Dhaka Stock Exchange 

benchmark index DSEX lost 4 

points to 3.4% to 4,786, scaling 

back from its 14 months high seen 

in previous session. 

The blue chip DS30 index edged 

1 point down to 1,1,768 and the DSE 

Shariah Index DSES rose only 1 

point to 1,768. 

The Chittagong Stock Exchange 

selective category index, CSCX, 

shed about 5 points to 8,957. 

The volume of trade almost declined 

to Tk610 crore, down more 

than 7% over the previous session. 

All large cap sectors showed 

negative performance except engineering 

that rose marginally 0.5%. 

Profit booking took place on 

banks, financial institutions, telecommunications, 

pharmaceuticals, 

food & allied and power. 

The market breadth remained 

negative as out of total 320 traded 

scrips, 128 advanced, 152 declined 

and 40 remained unchanged. • 

Swedish Ambassador to Bangladesh Johan Frisell speaks at the LTE Summit 2016 at a city hotel yesterday 

get short-term benefit, but ultimately 

it would bring negative impact to 

the industry. We should make the 

LTE process quick,” said Frisell. 

He said the way you build fibre 

optics is very much slow. Let them 

(mobile operators) scope to invest 

in the optical fibre laid-down works 

for the interest of better services. 

Ahsan Habib Khan, acting 

vice-chairman of BTRC, said many 

challenges are ahead. Spectrum 

and tech-neutrality needed to be 

addressed for the betterment of 

telecom services. 

A total of 60% of the world population 

will come under LTE network 

by 2018. 

Petter-B Furberg, CEO of 

Grameenphne, said speedy network 

matters for customers. 

To ensure better mobile services, 

at least 10 Mgh spectrum is 

needed. Now, a total of 4% smartphones 

are eligible for LTE services 

which is not satisfactory. 

Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, managing 

director and CEO, Robi Axiata 

Limited, said the government could 

not assure investors of investing 

more in telecommunication sector. 

Mobile operators mostly are still 

struggling. All have to work together 

so that a common goal can 

be reached. Mahtab criticised the 

existing tax policy on telecommunication 

sector. 

Banglalink Digital Communication 

Ltd CCAO Taimur Rahman 

raised the issue of operator’s ability 

to introduce 4G at the discussion. 

He requested the regulator for 

ensuring active sharing with operators 

for ensuring level-playing field 

in the sector. 

He informed around 48 percent 

of subscribes used data and only 16 

percent by voice. • 

India’s rural economy hit hard as 

informal lending breaks down 

• Reuters 

Life was good for Mitharam Patil, a 

wealthy money lender from a small 

village in the Indian state of Maharashtra. 

Small-time financiers like Patil 

would typically lend cash to farmers 

and traders every day, providing 

a vital source of funding for a 

rural economy largely shut out of 

the banking sector, albeit at interest 

rates of about 24%. 

All that came crashing down on 

Nov 8, when Prime Minister Narendra 

Modi banned 500 and 1,000 

rupee ($7.30-$14.60) banknotes, 

which accounted for 86 percent of 

currency in circulation. 

The action was intended to target 

wealthy tax evaders and end India’s 

“shadow economy”, but it has 

also exposed the dependency of 

poor farmers and small businesses 

on informal credit systems in a 

country where half the population 

has no access to formal banking. 

Patil was stuck with 700,000 

rupees ($10,144) of worthless cash. 

He can also only withdraw up to 

24,000 rupees from his account 

every week, barely enough for his 

own personal needs given he also 

works as a farmer. 

That is bad news for farmers and 

traders who had come to depend 

on Patil, despite his high interest 

rates, given that bank branches are 

located far from the village, while 

the process to obtain loans is long 

and cumbersome. 

It may also hurt India’s economy, 

as the informal sector accounts 

for 20% of gross domestic product 

and 80% of employment. The 

country is due to report July-September 

GDP on Wednesday. 

“Sowing of winter crops has 

been started and farmers badly 

need money. But I couldn’t lend 

(to) them due to restrictions on 

withdrawal,” Patil said. 

Borrowers can’t pay money back 

Some farmers and small businesses 

say India’s informal credit system 

has ground to a virtual halt, 

despite government measures to 

steer more funds to them, including 

230bn rupees in crop loans. 

RAJIB DHAR 

Not only are money lenders 

struggling to lend, they are also 

struggling to get paid. 

Saumya Roy, CEO of Vandana 

Foundation, a micro finance firm, 

said it has encountered difficulties in 

collecting payments from borrowers, 

which will have a knock-on effect on 

how much they can lend to others. 

“We can’t go on lending and suffer 

losses,” she said. 

“How can we force people to pay 

back when they don’t have money 

to buy food. How will they pay us?” 

The paralysis exposes the slow 

progress India has made in extending 

banking to wider segments of 

the population, a key initiative under 

Modi. 

The government has taken 

steps, including announcing zero 

balance accounts for poor people, 

but growth of bank branches have 

been low as margins are slender for 

most lenders. 

In 2001, India had 5.3 bank 

branches per 100,000 people in rural 

areas. Today that stands at only 

7.8 branches, according to Reserve 

Bank of India data. • 

BIA men meet 

Muhith 

• Asif Showkat Kallol 

Bangladesh Insurance Association 

(BIA) said they don’t want to reinvest 

Tk1,700 crore in the insurance 

sector. 

BIA members led by its president 

Kabir Hossain yesterday met 

Finance Minister AMA Muhith at 

his secretariat office and conveyed 

the matter. 

Earlier, Insurance Development 

and Regulatory Authority Bangladesh 

ordered the insurance companies 

for reinvesting Tk1,700 crore 

as they used the amount without 

any approval. 

Muhith said the ministry would 

review the matter. • 

BHBFC, BKB get 

new MD 


Dider Md Abdur Rob has been 

appointed managing director of 

Bangladesh House Building Finance 

Corporation. 

Bank and Financial Institutions 

Division issued a circular appointing 

him in the post yesterday. 

Abdur Rob earlier worked in the 

position of deputy managing director 

at the Sonali Bank, the largest 

state-owned commercial bank in 

Bangladesh. He replaced Syed Abu 

Asad who has been transferred to 

Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank as 

managing director. 

Board of BHBFC consists of 

six members including chairman, 

managing director and four other 

directors. MD is the chief executive 

and a member of the Board by post. 

The Board of Directors formulates 

overall policy and directs on the 

Corporation’s activities. • 

Walton steps in 

e-commerce 


Walton e-Plaza, a sister concern of 

the country’s electronics giant Walton 

Group, kicked off its journey 

across the country aiming to further 

expedite its e-commerce business 

as well as bring a wide range 

of world-class high-tech products 

to people’s doorsteps. 

Initially, two Walton e-plaza 

stores have been set up, one on 

Mirpur Mazar Road in the capital, 

while another at Chandra in Gazipur, 

yesterday. 

For buying products through 

e-commerce, customers have to 

browse www.waltonbd.com, 

Through setting up these stores, 

the activities of Walton e-plaza, a 

system of e-commerce business 

of the local company, are formally 

launched across the country, said a 

statement of the company. •

14 


DT 

Business 

Will Modi’s India cash ban plan backfire? 

• AFP, Mumbai 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 

shock decision to scrap most of India’s 

currency was hailed by some 

as a masterstroke against endemic 

corruption, but signs are emerging 

that it may hit the economy hard. 

The sweeping overnight abolition 

of all high-value notes was 

supposed to bring billions in socalled 

“black”, or undeclared, money 

back into the formal system. 

But experts are warning the 

ensuing cash crunch could have a 

dramatic impact on growth just as 

the economy was beginning to take 

flight. 

India runs largely on cash, but 

that is still in short supply, nearly 

three weeks after Modi’s shock 

announcement that 86 percent of 

its currency would be withdrawn 

from circulation. 

Many ATMs remain empty and 

A notice is displayed on an ATM in Guwahati 

banks have been forced to ration 

cash as they face huge queues. 

Many people have still not been 

able to change their old currency. 

That has left farmers unable to 

REUTERS 

sow their crops and produce markets 

all but empty, while small 

traders like the tea sellers that dot 

India’s streets say business has fallen 

off a cliff. 

On Thursday former prime minister 

Manmohan Singh, a respected 

economist, told parliament the surprise 

decision would shave at least 

two percentage points off growth 

and slammed the government for 

what he said was shoddy implementation. 

The rupee shake-up had been a 

“a monumental management failure” 

and “a case of organised loot 

and legalised plunder”, said Singh, 

who belongs to the opposition Congress 

party. 

More worrying still for the prime 

minister, experts including former 

US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers 

have questioned whether the 

scheme will even achieve its core 

aim of cutting tax evasion. 

“Without new measures to combat 

corruption, we doubt that this 

currency reform will have lasting 

benefits,” said Summers in a blog 

post denouncing the move. 

“Corruption will continue albeit 

with slightly different arrangements.” 

Popular support 

Most experts agree it is too early 

to say what the impact will be on 

India’s gross domestic product, 

which expanded 7.1% year-on-year 

in the three months from April- 

June, outpacing Asian rival China. 

“The fall-out of the policy is unfolding 

now. So the next month will 

be critical to determine what people 

finally think of this move,” political 

analyst Devdan Chaudhuri told AFP. 

But ratings agency Fitch has already 

said it is revising down its 

India growth forecast for the fourth 

quarter of the calendar year, saying 

it would “almost certainly” be weak. 

Yes Bank chief economist Shubhada 

Rao said it would take until 

the middle of next year for growth 

to recover. •

Business 15 

DT 


CORPORATE NEWS 

Bangshal branch of Social Islami Bank Limited has recently been shifted to new premises at North-South 

Road in Bangshal, said a press release. The bank’s director, Md Kamal Uddin inaugurated the branch as 

chief guest 

Pubali Bank Limited has recently been named as the highest tax-payer among Bangladeshi banks in 2016, 

said a press release. Chairperson of National Board of Revenue, Md Nojibur Rahman handed over a crest 

to the bank’s chairperson, Habibur Rahman in this regard 

Sonali Bank Limited has recently been awarded for being one of the highest taxpayers among Bangladeshi 

banks in 2016, said a press release. The bank’s managing director, Md Obayed Ullah Al Masud was present 

on the occasion 

Green Delta Insurance Company Limited has recently signed Infolady Social Enterprise Limited (iSocial) 

as its active agent for selling some of its products, said a press release. Managing director of Green Delta 

Insurance Company, Farzana Chowdhury ACII (UK) and Dr Ananya Raihan, CEO of iSocial have signed the 

agreement

16 


DT 

Health 

Eating 

strategies 

101 

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK 

• Reaz Mahmud Fiem 

December is fast 

approaching, which 

also implies the arrival 

of the wedding season 

and hence more reasons to dress 

up and party. In accordance with 

your New Year’s resolution last 

year about finally losing some 

weight, you’ve probably been 

dieting for the entire year, or 

at least for some months, and 

are now apprehensive about 

having to compromise on all 

that hard work. Wedding feasts 

are notorious for being calorie 

dense. This is not going to change 

for sure, but one thing that can 

be taken care of is the way you 

eat. As your nutrition and fitness 

guide, here are a few strategies 

I’m sharing that you can follow: 

Strategy 1: Water fast 

Yes, this might be a bit cruel on 

the body but would allow you to 

enjoy your meal to the fullest. 

So what will you do? Suppose 

tonight you have a party to 

attend and you know very well 

that you will encounter foods 

that you will not be able to say 

no to. Hence, go on a water fast 

for the entire day – that is, eating 

nothing and drinking only water. 

So you are fasting for the day but 

keeping yourself hydrated. So 

in mathematical terms, you are 

spending energy in your daily 

activities, but you are not taking 

any energy at all. Hence you are 

in a caloric deficit the whole day 

and you can eat your party meal 

without hampering your diet. 

Strategy 2: Living on 

salad and soup 

If you are not the fasting type 

and you want some kind of food 

to survive the day till the party, 

then this might be your strategy. 

This strategy involves eating 

salad with a protein source. The 

protein source can be boiled 

chicken, shrimp or egg whites. 

So you are avoiding both starchy 

carbohydrates and fats, and 

are living on fibrous carbs and 

protein. You might also add 

vegetable soup made with boiled 

vegetables in chicken stock. You 

can choose whether to go for 

salad or soup depending on your 

preference. By doing so you will 

not be hungry all the time and 

will most likely eat responsibly 

at the party. However, in case of 

salads, avoid shop bought creamy 

dressings and in case of soups, try 

not to go for instant variety. 

Strategy 3: Managing 

portions 

To be honest, this is my personal 

strategy. I am a big proponent of 

portion control. In this strategy, 

you eat normally but in portions. 

This does require quite a bit of 

will power though. When you 

attend the party, make sure you 

eat the right portion. Take a good 

look at the dishes before you 

dive in. In case of desserts, have 

a very small portion. In case of 

the main course, eat more of the 

meat and less of the starchy carbs 

like rice and potatoes. Although 

the meat that comes with your 

average wedding biryani isn’t 

exactly of the lean kind, it is 

still a better meal filler than the 

rice and potatoes which is pure 

carbohydrate. Hence it is wiser to 

eat more meat and less of carbs 

and desserts. 

As part of a society, it can be 

difficult to avoid social events 

There are still many benefits that can be 

reaped from a proper eating strategy 

altogether, but by following any of 

the strategies mentioned above, 

you might avoid unnecessary 

weight gain. If you are an active 

person who maintains a strict 

diet you might actually be 

benefited from such exposure to 

high caloric food with a proper 

strategy. Even if you are not a 

very active person, there are still 

many benefits that can be reaped 

from a proper eating strategy. 

Always remember, the first task 

is to maintain a proper energy 

balance.•

Feature 

17 


DT 

Does development need good governance? 

• Afsan Chowdhury 

A 

review of Governance for 

Development: Political 

and Administrative 

Reforms in Bangladesh 

by S. Nazrul Islam, Published by 

Palgrave Macmillan 

Dr Nazrul Islam is both 

an academic and an activist. 

His affiliation is with the BEN 

(Bangladesh Environmental 

Network), which has become 

the leading network of activists 

internationally, having been 

successful in developing 

a platform for positive 

environmental policies for 

Bangladesh. BEN is associated 

with BAPA (Bangladesh Paribesh 

Andolon) which is at the vanguard 

of environmental advocacy in the 

country. They have won a few, 

lost most but the fight is on and 

the respect they have earned is 

authentic and bold. Dr Nazrulm 

for reasons of his own association 

with both BEN and BAPA, would 

be considered one of the leading 

personalities of our time. 

Governance as the key to 

development 

The book in review enhances this 

persona as Nazrul takes on a far 

more daunting task of explaining 

the link between governance 

and development. His training 

as an economist is a great help 

in achieving that task since the 

linkage is obvious but often 

ignored. In Bangladesh this is not 

easily seen or explained with the 

kind of technical expertise that 

Nazrul Islam has brought in this 

book. 

It’s also a difficult task to do 

because the segmentation of 

Bangladesh society is high and the 

idea that both development and 

government are interlinked and 

not monolithic realities is not a 

popular idea. 

The Concept issue 

Although it is a technical book, it’s 

also very illuminating. The intro 

section of the book deals with the 

basic economic platform setting 

the background for the later part 

of his thesis. The intro deals 

with ideas and notions of both 

governance and development 

as understood by development 

economists primarily, Nazrul’s 

main focus area of his skill set. 

In explaining the theoretical 

framework, the book is indepth, 

data based, thorough and 

obviously a product of quality 

research which is very laudable. 

But he doesn’t paint Bangladesh 

with rosy tints. One observation 

is illustrative: “Compared with 

countries that have had successful 

take off, Bangladesh’s GDP 

growth rate still remains less than 

satisfactory. While ….. respectable 

and encouraging, these growth 

rates are lower than what 

successful East Asian countries 

achieved during periods of their 

growth spurt. (Page 11). This book 

is a critical dissection without 

being cynical. 

While that being the case, what 

may have also been useful is to 

look at the challenge factor in 

achieving higher rates that these 

countries faced. The context of 

the regional and global economy 

at different periods of history 

and the economic and trade 

environment when this took place 

could have been elaborated more 

to understand the socio-politics of 

higher growth rates. 

Nazrul also thinks that higher 

growth rates and at sustainable 

rates could be achieved through 

proper governance which is what 

he focuses on in the second part of 

the book. 

And what is wrong and 

right with governance 

here? 

In discussing what is not right 

with the governance problem 

Nazrul focuses on the “original 

sin” of a state in development 

which is democracy, or to be more 

specific, “democracy” generally 

understood in the academic 

sense. It’s a term that has defied 

with some success to be defined 

precisely relying more on intent 

than outcome. But Nazrul has 

done excellent work in diagnosing 

the disease. He comments that 

that electoral democracy is weak, 

martial law regimes keep popping 

in, democracy remains fragile and 

the train never stops at the right 

station. 

These are not particularly 

unknown in our analytical 

domain and perhaps its here 

that one may ask as to how the 

book should be read. Are they 

observations of an expert housed 

in Western academia or as an 

“insider” dealing with the issues 

with dirty hands? Do they come 

from theoretical or experiential 

perspectives? This is not to 

criticise the writer’s massive 

achievement but to ponder if 

the parameters of the search 

have gone beyond the teleology 

of economic and development 

theory. 

Nazrul focuses on that 

challenge which is to review the 

triggers of higher growth, which 

are connected to governance 

patterns that exist. Nazrul is an 

activist and an optimist also and 

so he explores the issue with the 

intent of finding a solution to the 

governance question that will 

not be a hindrance to economic 

development but a general quality 

of life and collective prosperity. 

Political governance crisis 

In discussing the political aspects 

of governance, Nazrul takes 

a risk-free view in analysing 

the maladies which, given 

the academic approach of the 

book, is excellent. Not that our 

ailments are out of the box but the 

discussion he holds on democracy 

is dominantly split between civil 

(good) and military (bad) rule but 

many of the political problems 

and issues intrinsically lie in this 

somewhat rigid/arbitrary divide. 

His qualification words of BKSAL, 

the one-party rule that it was 

passed by the parliament begins 

to sound like an apology for a 

regime that was fundamentally 

not a success but politically 

otherwise. Like many others, its 

perhaps drawn from the role of 

the parliament as a key corner of 

In discussing the political aspects of governance, Nazrul takes a 

risk-free view in analysing the maladies which, given the academic 

approach of the book, is excellent 

democracy. 

Historically, it would be 

more accurate to state that our 

regimes are split between civil 

and military autocracy and inbetween 

forms and so the issue 

is less about the dress code of 

the autocrat and more about the 

nature of the same. This is one 

space where the discussion could 

have been broadened because 

the key question would be to link 

them and explore if democracy 

is a relevant tool of power for 

the ruling class or a necessary 

ingredient of development or an 

irrelevant aspiration of the people 

in general. 

“Democracy”, democracy 

and democracy 

Some of the source of that 

problem lies in the administrative/ 

political history of Mujibnagar 

in 1971, where the leadership 

was not a united one and 

the subsequent years after 

independence where none of 

the administrative, legal or even 

political institutions developed 

through a healthy process. 

The death of the Legislature 

didn’t begin with the military 

intervention of 1975 but the 

election of 1973 when it became 

less than credible as alternative 

governance patterns began to 

emergence for many reasons as 

the free for all to power began 

particularly within the army. 

Once public participation became 

less than absolutely necessary in 

governance management which 

culminated in one-party rule and 

later martial law, the reclaiming of 

“democracy” became much more 

arduous. Meanwhile, even in this 

vacuum, development activities 

didn’t stop which meant that the 

link to political good governance 

was not seen as necessarily 

necessary. And it remains so till 

date unless contrary data is found. 

But the sustaining crisis of 

governance has not deterred 

Nazrul Islam from exploring all 

the issues with a thoroughness 

that is awesome. He has looked 

at it all, right from the nature 

of hartals to the potential for 

administrative reforms in a 

remarkable labour of commitment 

and objective analysis. While 

most writers are happy describing 

the scenario, Nazrul has gone 

one step ahead in every direction 

to explore solutions. That is 

the signature of a believer in 

Bangladesh. •

18 


DT 

Feature 

Winter escape plan 

• Nowsheen Nowar Ahmed 

Winter is approaching 

faster than you 

can say brrr- and 

the holidays are 

just around the corner. Let’s not 

forget New Years Eve and all the 

other festivals throughout the 

season. It’s a great time for you, 

your family and your friends to 

plan that long-awaited vacation 

you all have been preparing for a 

year. From Cox’s Bazar to South 

American beaches, this article has 

uncovered the perfect getaways 

for travellers of every type. 

Cox’s Bazar 

A pine and coconut trees fringed 

beach is the best place to spend 

a private or family holiday after a 

strenuous period in your workplace, 

school or even home. Therefore, 

there is nothing like visiting a 

tropical sea beach during your nice 

winter vacation, that too in your 

own country! Bangladesh offers the 

world longest beach, Cox’s Bazar. 

Be it for locals or internationals, 

Cox’s Bazar is a perfect getaway. 

It provides you a wide variety of 

hotels and resorts who owns their 

own beach, so you get a bonus with 

the opportunity to enjoy sea breeze 

and fine sand the right way. 

Thailand 

Thailand is a Southeast Asian 

nation. It is a kingdom of wonder, 

filled with spectacular natural, 

cultural, and historical attractions 

and known for tropical shorelines, 

rich illustrious royal residences, 

old remains and fancy sanctuaries. 

Thailand barely experiences 

winter. It has mostly two seasonthe 

hot season and the rainy 

season. So be it beaches or touring 

the capital city, Bangkok, Thailand 

is the ideal getaway for mostly all 

kinds of tourists to escape from 

winter. Along with everything it 

has to offer, the food, especially 

the street-food are AMAZING! 

And the best part is, it’s pretty 

affordable too! Since Thailand is 

Cox’s Bazar 

one of the most attractive tourist 

spots in the world, travel agencies 

in all countries make perfect 

packages for a week or even month 

long trip. The Tourism Authority 

of Thailand (TAT) uses the slogan 

“Amazing Thailand” to promote 

Thailand internationally. 

Dubai 

Dubai is a city and emirate in the 

United Arab Emirates known for 

luxury shopping, ultramodern 

architecture and a lively nightlife 

scene. Dubai has a tropical desert 

climate. This city has transformed 

itself from a desert outpost to a 

destination du-jour, where people 

flock for sales bargains, sunshine 

and family fun. Dubai is famous 

for sightseeing attractions such 

as the Burj Khalifa (the world’s 

tallest building) and shopping 

malls that come complete with 

mammoth aquariums and indoor 

ski slopes. Therefore if you have 

a bank balance like one of those, 

‘Mediocre Arab Sheikhs’ even, 

you shouldn’t waste your time in 

planning a trip to the glitzy city of 

wonders. 

Australia 

While 80% of the people all 

around the world are busy 

preparing for winter, it’s 

summertime for Australian 

peeps! Australia is located on the 

southern hemisphere of the globe 

which is why the sun beats directly 

to the tropic while everyone else is 

experiencing winter. Australia is a 

nation and mainland encompassed 

by the Indian and Pacific seas. Its 

real urban communities – Sydney, 

Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, 

Adelaide – are beach front. Its 

capital, Canberra, is inland. The 

nation is known for its Sydney 

Opera House, the Great Barrier 

Reef, a tremendous inside forsake 

wild called the Outback, and one 

of a kind creature animal varieties 

like kangaroos and duck-charged 

platypuses. Australia has a lot 

to offer and it’s the perfect time 

to visit another continent for 

vacation and of course, for a 

breakout! 

South America 

When in adventure, South 

America tourism does not 

disappoint. The spirit of South 

America is infectious and no 

matter where you go, the fierce 

latin passion will sweep you away. 

South America is a continent 

located in the western hemisphere 

consisting of 12 countries. Each 

and every country individually, 

has a lot to offer starting from 

beaches to mountains. So whether 

you wanna relax by the beach to 

get your sun tan on, along with 

that coconut water in hand, you 

can also go hiking if you’re and 

adventurous person. Tourists 

claim, “Be mindful of what you’re 

getting into: South America can be 

a lifetime addiction,” so that pretty 

much sums it all up. • 

Australia 

Thailand 

Dubai

Business 15 

DT 


CORPORATE NEWS 

Bangshal branch of Social Islami Bank Limited has recently been shifted to new premises at North-South 

Road in Bangshal, said a press release. The bank’s director, Md Kamal Uddin inaugurated the branch as 

chief guest 

Pubali Bank Limited has recently been named as the highest tax-payer among Bangladeshi banks in 2016, 

said a press release. Chairperson of National Board of Revenue, Md Nojibur Rahman handed over a crest 

to the bank’s chairperson, Habibur Rahman in this regard 

Sonali Bank Limited has recently been awarded for being one of the highest taxpayers among Bangladeshi 

banks in 2016, said a press release. The bank’s managing director, Md Obayed Ullah Al Masud was present 

on the occasion 

Green Delta Insurance Company Limited has recently signed Infolady Social Enterprise Limited (iSocial) 

as its active agent for selling some of its products, said a press release. Managing director of Green Delta 

Insurance Company, Farzana Chowdhury ACII (UK) and Dr Ananya Raihan, CEO of iSocial have signed the 

agreement

DT 

20 

Editorial 


TODAY 

The ballad of 

Fidel Castro 

How one remembers the legacy of 

Fidel Castro, revolutionary or terrorist, 

progressive leader or malevolent 

dictator, will no doubt hinge on one’s 

political leanings 

PAGE 21 

Home isn’t the only 

place women are 

abused 

When women are seen as inferior to 

men, they are far more likely to be 

victims of violence 

PAGE 22 

Make the most of 

China relationship 

FOCUS BANGLA 

Heaven’s got a 

revolutionary 

The young all over the world 

were transfixed by Castro. Here in 

Bangladesh, the fervour of revolution 

ignited millions of freedom-loving 

people to stand up 

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 

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DhakaTribune. 

The views expressed in opinion 

articles are those of the authors 

alone and they are not the 

official view of Dhaka Tribune 

or its publisher. 

During Chinese Premier Xi Jingping’s visit last month, China- 

Bangladesh relations reached new heights, signing MoUs worth $13.6 

billion. 

Which is why it is encouraging to see Chinese Ambassador Ma 

Mingqiang drive this relationship further by expressing his nation’s wish to 

work with Bangladesh in developing our blue economy. 

China’s ever-expanding role in boosting Bangladesh’s economy is crucial. 

Smaller economies such as Bangladesh have much to offer the rest of the 

world but count for nothing but wasted potential without the backing of larger 

economies. Which is why these relationships are an integral part for our nation’s 

increasing forward momentum into the future. 

President Xi Jingping’s visit was a turning point in Bangladesh-China 

relations, to say the least. Despite our economy being much smaller in scope to 

that of a rising superpower, it is very uplifting to see the country’s top leaders 

recognise the economic potential that a country like Bangladesh has to offer. 

But that’s merely the beginning. China has also promised to invest in 

Bangladesh’s budding ICT sector, which will go a long way in fully realising the 

sitting government’s dreams of a truly Digital Bangladesh, and, tangentially, of 

becoming a middle-income nation in the next five years. 

There is a lot that Bangladesh can learn from a nation such as economicallystoried 

China, which has successfully developed their blue economy into the 

mainstream. The Bay of Bengal is full of untapped resources that Bangladesh 

would do well to take advantage of. 

With 30 million people in Bangladesh dependent on the nation’s marine 

economy, it is not just important for our growth, but also for the continued 

improvement of the livelihoods of those who work with the waters of 

Bangladesh. 

It is up to the government now to focus on what’s important for the 

economy, and to ensure that relationships such as these continue to blossom 

and help navigate Bangladesh into bluer waters. 

It is up to the government 

now to focus on what’s 

important for the 

economy, and to ensure 

that relationships such 

as these continue to 

blossom

The ballad of Fidel Castro 

Opinion 21 

The rise and eventual fall of one the most influential political figures of the 20th century 

DT 


• Sadat Ruhul 

An exploding cigar, 

Martina Lorenz, and a 

poisoned milkshake, 

these were but some 

of the alleged more than 600 

methods the Central Intelligence 

Agency used to try and assassinate 

Fidel Castro. Yet, in the end, 

El Comandante succumbed to 

more earthly afflictions, as was 

announced by Cuban state TV on 

November 26. 

“Maybe this is the last time that 

I will speak in this hall,” Castro 

announced on the final day of 

the Communist Party Congress in 

April, as he proclaimed the end 

of Cuba’s “historic generation.” 

He had long bequeathed the post 

of president to his brother Raúl, 

and transitioned into a role as a 

respected elder statesman, while 

remaining fervently devoted to the 

cause of Marxist-Leninism. 

As with all influential and 

charismatic leaders, to understand 

Castro, one must unravel the 

myth, the cult of personality and 

vilifications that have encrusted 

the man’s legacy. Behind the 

embroidered red-star berets and 

radical chic posturing that popular 

culture has co-opted, lies the 

reason behind why Cuba remains 

one of the last surviving bastions 

of state-socialism, while the red 

wall has collapsed all around it. 

Born out of wedlock to a sugarcane 

farmer and his mistress, later 

wife, in 1926, Castro’s true political 

awakening came during his 

attendance at Havana University. 

On campus, he became 

a vehement campaigner 

against anti-imperialism and 

corruption, and joined protests 

against President Ramón 

Grau’s government, whose 

administration was notorious for 

using gangs to infiltrate and quell 

student opposition. In 1947, Castro 

attempted to join an expedition 

of 1,200 troops to overthrow 

the US-backed military junta of 

Rafael Trujilo, in the Dominican 

Republic. However, this attempt 

was foiled by Grau’s government. 

On his return to Havana, 

Castro’s politics started to take a 

decidedly leftist turn. He credited 

the works of Marx and Lenin with 

opening his eyes to the “history 

of class struggle,” and began 

to realise that corruption and 

unscrupulous politicians were 

only symptoms of the problem: 

Capitalism. Only through a 

sustained proletarian revolution, 

he believed, could Cuba escape its 

vast economic inequality. 

In 1952, Fulgencio Batista 

Revolutionary or terrorist? 

seized power in a military coup, 

curtailed plans for a free election, 

and started administering a system 

of “disciplined democracy,” that 

included crushing trade unions, 

tightening ties with the US, and 

driving an inquisition against 

leftist groups. Castro, who had 

planned to stand as a candidate 

for the House of Representatives 

before the coup, was driven 

underground and formed a 

clandestine guerilla organisation 

along revolutionary socialist lines 

to oust the Batista regime. 

The group swiftly grew in 

ranks, recruiting mostly from 

impoverished neighbourhoods, 

and Castro, inspired by the actions 

of José Martí, the independence 

leader against Spanish rule, 

planned to raid the Moncanda 

Barracks, a military garrison in 

Oriente province. His hope was 

that the attack would inspire poor 

peasant farmers to rise up against 

the Batista regime, and fan the 

flames of a full-blown revolt. 

The mission took place on July 

25, 1953, but was an utter failure, 

with Castro and any surviving 

guerilla forces fleeing to the Sierra 

Maestra Mountains. 

Batista led a crackdown on 

rebels following the raid, and 

Castro and members of his group 

were soon captured. He was 

sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

However, under mounting public 

agitation, Batista granted amnesty 

and released him and his fellow 

prisoners in 1955. 

Upon his release, Castro renamed 

his group the “26th of July 

How one remembers the legacy of Fidel Castro, revolutionary or 

terrorist, progressive leader or malevolent dictator, will no doubt 

hinge on one’s political leanings 

movement” or MR-26-7, in 

commemoration of the failed 

uprising. He escaped to Mexico, 

along with his brother and several 

other revolutionaries. There, he 

met an Argentine doctor, Ernesto 

“Che” Guevara, who would go 

onto become the emblem of the 

Cuban Revolution worldwide. 

The MR-26-7 waged a guerrilla 

struggle against the Batista regime, 

coupling sabotage and bombings 

with armory raids to terrorise the 

security forces and police. Batista 

responded in kind, with an iron 

fist, censoring the press, and 

ordering torture and extrajudicial 

killings on the guerrillas. 

Defeated in the Battle of Santa 

Clara in December 1958, Batista’s 

options were depleted, and fearing 

that he was to be tried as a war 

criminal by the next government, 

he escaped to the Dominican 

Republic. 

Castro, a newly crowned 

celebrity feted for his role in 

the revolution by renowned 

publications such as The New 

York Times, took reins of the new 

government and began his attempt 

to restructure Cuban society. 

He arranged for sweeping 

reforms, including universalising 

healthcare, stomping illiteracy, 

modernising the backwater 

countryside with electricity, and 

issued a no tolerance approach to 

any racial discrimination. He also 

shut down opposition newspapers, 

and imprisoned thousands of 

dissidents. 

On foreign policy, he 

shunned what he saw as the 

imperialist affinities of the US, 

and nationalised all US privateowned 

businesses, including oil 

refineries, without compensation. 

This prompted the US to impose a 

unilateral trade embargo against 

Cuba. 

The US also spearheaded many 

unsuccessful efforts throughout 

the decades to oust Castro, 

including, most famously, the 

doomed Bay of Pigs Invasion 

under Kennedy. 

He allied himself with the 

Soviet Union, which provided 

millions in military and social 

aid. This alignment also led to the 

Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 that 

brought the world to the brink of 

nuclear war. 

However, Castro’s most 

enduring foreign policy decision in 

the Cold War era might have been 

the expansion of Cuban Medical 

REUTERS 

Internationalism throughout the 

ailing third world. Medical workers 

remain, to this day, Cuba’s most 

renowned export. 

Perhaps Cuba’s most trying 

time under Castro was after the 

collapse of the Soviet Union, 

which heralded the “Special 

Period.” Bereft of the petrocurrency 

of its former ally, Cuba’s 

economy slipped into depression. 

Owing to shortages in 

hydrocarbons such as gasoline 

and diesel, Cubans were forced 

to live life without many of 

the luxuries of the past. The 

economic uncertainties led Castro 

to implement food rationing, 

decreased use of automobiles, and 

environmentalist policies such as 

sustained agricultural growth. 

How one remembers the legacy 

of Fidel Castro, revolutionary or 

terrorist, progressive leader or 

malevolent dictator, will no doubt 

hinge on one’s political leanings. 

However, indubitable is the fact 

that he will go down in history 

as one of the most influential 

political figures of the 20th 

Century. • 

Mahmood Sadaat Ruhul is a freelance 

contributor.

22 


DT 

Opinion 

Home isn’t the only place women are abused 

Policies need to be put up to discourage violence against women 

Workplace harassment is just as despicable as marital abuse 

• Marat Yu 

workload is 

tremendous here. 

They swear at us 

“The 

when we fail to 

complete the work. They scold. 

They say, ‘Hey you! Daughter of 

a b***h, daughter of a pig! How 

come so much work has been piled 

up?’ At such times I feel really bad. 

I cannot stand this. I cry. I feel like 

quitting job. But I can do nothing. 

I have to work here to take care of 

my family. My family lives on my 

earnings.” So said Rimi, a sewing 

operator at a ready-made garment 

(RMG) factory in Bangladesh. 

When it comes to tackling 

violence against women, 

economic empowerment through 

employment has rightly been seen 

as a force for good: Women who 

are able to earn money are better 

positioned to prevent or escape 

from violence at home. 

But that’s not always the whole 

story. 

For Rimi, the workplace is 

merely a new source of violence 

and fear -- and many Bangladeshi 

women have similar tales to tell. 

Sexual harassment is a hidden 

form of violence but is endemic 

HERrespect is funded by the UK Department for International Development 

(DFID) as a part of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and 

Girls Program. 

RAJIB DHAR 

About HER project 

BSR’s HERproject is a collaborative initiative that strives to empower lowincome 

women working in global supply chains. Bringing together global 

brands, their suppliers, and local NGOs, HERproject drives impact for women 

and business via workplace-based interventions on health, financial inclusion, 

and gender equality. Since its inception in 2007, HERproject has worked 

in more than 420 workplaces across 14 countries, and has increased the 

wellbeing, confidence, and economic potential of more than 500,000 women. 

About BSR 

BSR is a global nonprofit organization that works with its network of more than 

250 member companies and other partners to build a just and sustainable 

world. From its offices in Asia, Europe, and North America, BSR develops 

sustainable business strategies and solutions through consulting, research, and 

cross-sector collaboration. 

in the RMG industry in 

Bangladesh. 

While concrete evidence is not 

readily available, a study by the 

Fair Wear Foundation estimated 

that about 60% of female workers 

in Bangladesh have experienced 

harassment at work. 

Violence against women is 

bad for everyone. It disempowers 

female workers, lowers 

productivity, drives out talent, and 

badly damages the reputation of 

global brands. 

It’s also bad for the global 

economy: Research suggests that 

as much as 2% of global GDP is 

used in responding to violence 

against women. 

What’s more, tackling 

workplace violence can have a 

spillover effect. 

Empowering and helping 

women to tackle violence at 

work can equip them to combat 

domestic and intimate partner 

violence, while training directed 

at men can stop violence at its 

source. 

When we consider that, in 

India, a woman can lose as much 

as five days of paid work as a 

consequence of intimate partner 

violence, there is a compelling 

business case for empowering 

women not just in the workplace, 

but in their personal lives as well. 

So, if there is such strong case 

against violence against women, 

why it is still happening? 

On the one hand, managers 

and supervisors in factories come 

under pressure to deliver on strict 

production targets and shipping 

deadlines. 

Men might lack the soft skills 

to manage high-stress situations, 

and might therefore believe that 

shouting and harassment can 

speed up production. 

Dominant cultural norms might 

make these forms of violence 

acceptable, and might also ensure 

that women feel unable to speak 

up about it. Norms matter, and 

they’re deeply ingrained. 

When women are seen 

as inferior to men, as more 

responsible for menial tasks, as 

dependent on men, or as unsuited 

to the working world, they are 

far more likely to be victims of 

violence in the workplace and at 

home. 

Such beliefs have developed 

over centuries and are tied to 

longstanding traditions and 

institutions. 

And this issue is far from 

particular to Bangladesh: Women 

give similar accounts in every 

country, all around the world. 

So how can we tackle a problem 

that manifests in the workplace 

but also stems from larger social 

imbalances and injustices? 

What’s clear is that, while 

compliance with legislation is 

a vital first step for companies, 

it is not sufficient to eliminate 

workplace harassment and 

violence. 

Brands and factories should 

be commended for compliance 

with legislation that aims to tackle 

violence against women, and we 

must help them reach that point. 

But compliance must be the 

beginning, not the end. 

The key is to tackle the root 

causes of violence and create a 

safe and harmonious working 

enviornment. 

For women workers, that means 

being able to recognise harassment 

and violence for what they are; 

knowing where and how to report 

the incidents; and understanding 

what rights they have. 

For male colleagues, it means 

understanding how social norms 

might be discriminatory and how 

they can lead to violence. 

For supervisors and managers, 

it means developing effective 

policy on the prevention of, and 

redressal for, violence, building 

the skills to handle stressful 

environments, and ensuring that 

violence is not seen as the only 

way to meet targets. 

To change attitudes and norms 

in this way, large-scale training 

programs are needed. 

Every day, millions of women 

(and men) gather in factories 

in Bangladesh, providing an 

extraordinary opportunity to reach 

large numbers of individuals and 

influence behaviors. 

At the same time, brands and 

factories cannot be expected 

to do this alone: They need the 

help of local NGOs, who have 

the expertise to deliver tailored 

training programs, understand 

the local context, and can speak 

to workers in a supportive, nonthreatening 

way. 

And the programs cannot be 

taken to scale without the buy-in 

of trade unions and local and 

national governments, who have 

the funding and infrastructure to 

develop movements with global 

impact, and can also improve 

standards, policies, and legal 

requirements to drive progress. 

At BSR’s HERproject, we 

believe that workplaces can be 

a game-changer for women’s 

empowerment. 

Workplaces can be the entrypoint 

we have been looking for 

to tackle the global scourge of 

violence against women. 

That’s why we are launching 

HERrespect -- a third pillar in the 

HERproject program focusing on 

tackling violence against women 

and promoting gender equality 

Norms matter, and they’re deeply ingrained. When women are seen as 

inferior to men, as more responsible for menial tasks, as dependent on 

men, or as unsuited to the working world, they are far more likely to be 

victims of violence in the workplace and at home 

through workplace interventions. 

Our pilot program in 

Bangladesh, implemented by 

Change Associates, will give us a 

clearer idea of the challenges and 

opportunities. 

But our goal is clear: There 

is no place for violence at work 

and home, and everyone has a 

responsibility to combat violence 

against women. 

We recognise that any form 

of empowerment for women is 

completely dependent on freedom 

from violence and respect in the 

workplace. 

Working together, we can 

change the life of Rimi and 

unleash the full empowering 

potential of paid work in the RMG 

industry. • 

Marat Yu is Manager, BSR.

Opinion 

23 


DT 

Heaven’s got a revolutionary 

Fidel Castro’s death leaves an inevitable void for romantic revolutionaries the world over 

SERPENT 

IN EDEN 

• Towheed Feroze 

Once, back in the 60s, 

when JFK was the US 

president and was facing 

a rather recalcitrant 

rebel merely 90 miles from the 

US mainland, he is said to have 

denounced Castro as “just another 

Latin American dictator.” 

Well, it seems that particular 

“just another despot” has got 

the world talking as he ends his 

rebellion down here to take his 

revolutionary fervour somewhere 

up there. 

And, as for JFK, well, not too 

many people, at least the modernday 

youth, are talking about him 

these days, and those who do will 

emphasise more on Kennedy’s 

clandestine hedonistic pursuits 

with some still propagating yet 

another bizarre theory relating to 

his death on November 22, 1963. 

It’s interesting to note how 

Fidel Castro, JFK’s main source 

of headache for some time during 

his tenure as commander-in-chief, 

also died in November. 

The nuclear war was avoided, 

Soviet missiles in Cuba were 

removed, and, for many decades, 

the crisis was described as a 

victory for the West, making “the 

other side blinked first” a mainstay 

in the list of top geo-political lines. 

In truth, it was not JFK who 

won but the other side: Castro, 

Cuba, Nikita Krushchev, and the 

Soviets, because, as part of the 

deal to remove the missiles from 

Cuba, the US also had to dismantle 

their missiles in Turkey, a fact that 

was kept secret at that time, lest it 

make JFK appear the weaker one 

in front of the world. 

Form the Cuban episode, 

Castro emerged stronger, sending 

a warning to the West that if they 

meddled in Cuba, the eventual 

result may be disastrous. 

Perhaps that’s the reason the 

US refrained from getting involved 

directly in this communist bastion 

not too far away from their 

capitalist haven. 

For Castro, with unwavering 

Soviet support, the successful 

revolution with a handful of men, 

and a regime that still remains 

-- with countless thwarted or 

bungled assassination attempts 

thrown in for good measure -- 

meant fortune was on the side of 

the brave and the romantic. 

By no rational account can 

one justify or define the enduring 

presence of the regime brought on 

by a revolution, fueled by romance 

and ideals. But it survived, as did 

Castro, to live it up and die at a 

ripe old age. 

The moral of the story: 

Romantics are not always the 

losers. 

Cuba did not become a haven 

of equality, but the country did 

not turn into a failure either. 

Soviets provided support till 

the fall of communism in 1990 

and, afterwards, there were 

other romantics who threw in a 

helping hand, most notably from 

Venezuela during the post-Soviet 

disintegration. 

For the world, this was a sign 

of triumph against the imperialist 

policy of intervening in other 

states and positioning puppet 

The young all over 

the world were 

transfixed by Castro. 

Here in Bangladesh, 

the fervour of 

revolution ignited 

millions of freedomloving 

people to 

stand up against an 

oppressive military 

regime of their own 

rulers. At a time when the world 

was reveling in counter-culture 

-- with the young imbued by ideals 

of equality, questioning the moral 

justification of neo-colonialism 

-- Castro, his revolution, and his 

flamboyant sidekick Che Guevara 

created a fascinating canvas of 

romantic social change. 

The young all over the world 

were transfixed by Castro. Here 

in Bangladesh, the fervour of 

revolution ignited millions of 

freedom-loving people to stand 

up against an oppressive military 

regime of their own. 

Even after our independence, 

Castro’s ideals of social revolution 

inspired countless educated 

intellectuals to develop a potent 

left-leaning political movement. 

For a long period in the late 

70s and 80s, a large section of 

enlightened, academically-bright 

young men decided to reject the 

The original fire has died and gone, but the riot inside moves on 

conventional path of government 

service to choose a life of heady 

thrill on the streets to advocate 

a social change based on Marxist 

values. 

The much-aspired communist 

change did not happen in 

Bangladesh. Hours spent under 

moonlight, smoking filter-less 

cigarettes, living on sub-standard 

food took their toll on many. 

Some of these rebels died 

young, others made some 

tactical compromises, and, for a 

livelihood, moved into the English 

print media, where, still today, 

they can be heard voicing their 

beliefs emphatically. 

One thing these people will 

never talk about is if their time 

spent pursuing a dream was 

futile. In fact, if we come out of 

a blinkered outlook, imposed on 

us by excessive materialism, the 

magnetism of romantic mavericks 

begins to unravel. What Castro 

managed to do was spread a new 

brand of fiery ideology, aimed at 

helping millions of youth come 

out of centuries of colonialismimposed 

inferiority complex. 

The West called it “subversive” 

because this new thought 

challenged the master-servant 

culture -- the inevitable legacy of 

imperialism. 

In the 80s, the walls of our 

university campus were used for 

assertive anti-colonial slogans. 

While, politically, the soldiers of 

communism, considering Castro 

and Che as emblems of leadership, 

gained little, internally, they 

became free thinkers, writers/ 

speakers of worth, also inspiring 

many others, including this 

particular writer. 

Today, almost all top op-ed 

writers were once undaunted foot 

soldiers of equality. The same 

REUTERS 

applies for leading editors. 

Yes, many have made a blend 

between their own ideals and the 

rules of the current world, but 

I don’t call that treachery, only 

astute survival tactics. Castro’s 

greatest gift to us was the lesson 

that, with a little luck, romantics, 

even the most ardent ones, can 

also carry on, triggering change. 

Now that heaven’s got a 

revolutionary, the world needs to 

find another romantic -- a barmy 

person who would dare to upend 

all orthodox systems to infuse in 

our horribly prosaic and practical 

life, the allure of a new risk. 

As Castro the renegade passes 

on, the words of John Stewart Mill 

comes to mind: “That so few now 

dare to be eccentric, marks the 

chief danger of the time.” • 

Towheed Feroze is a former journalist 

working in the development sector.

DT 

24 

Sport 


TOP STORIES 

Bangladesh seal third 

AHF Cup in a row 

The indomitable Bangladesh side 

made it a hattrick of titles when 

they emerged as the unbeaten 

champion in the Asian Hockey 

Federation Cup, outplaying Sri 

Lanka 3-0 in the grand finale in 

Hong Kong yesterday. PAGE 25 

Aussies deny SA 

series sweep 

Australia rebounded to a sevenwicket 

victory over South Africa 

in the third Test in Adelaide 

yesterday. The Aussies chased 

down 127 runs for victory after 

dismissing the tourists for 250 on 

the fourth day. PAGE 26 

Ashwin fifty gives 

India edge 

R Ashwin hit an attacking halfcentury 

to give India the edge 

after England’s bowlers dented 

the hosts with quick wickets on 

day two of the third Test in Mohali 

yesterday. India were 271 for six at 

stumps. PAGE 27 

Tamim, Gayle 

power Ctg 

• Mazhar Uddin 

Captain Tamim Iqbal overshadowed 

a brief Chris Gayle 

storm as Chittagong Vikings 

registered a comprehensive 

nine-wicket win over Rangpur 

Riders in the Bangladesh 

Premier League Twenty20’s 

fourth edition at Sher-e-Bangla 

National Cricket Stadium yesterday. 

Rangpur posted a modest 

124/6 from their 20 overs 

but Tamim struck an unbeaten 

fifty while Gayle smashed 

four huge sixes as Chittagong 

reached their target with four 

overs to spare. 

In the process, Chittagong 

recorded their fourth win in 

a row and now have a bright 

chance of qualifying for the 

playoffs while Rangpur, despite 

the defeat, are at fourth position, 

a place behind the former. 

The Mirpur crowd were eagerly 

waiting to witness the 

Gayle storm and after a quiet 

start, the big-hitting West Indian 

finally displayed some 

power hitting to entertain the 

spectators. 

The tall left-hander blasted 

four sixes among which two 

came off consecutive Shahid 

Afridi deliveries. He was eventually 

dismissed by the same 

bowler after scoring 40 off 26 

balls, also featuring two fours. 

But it was player of the match 

Tamim really who stole the 

show as he played some delightful 

strokes all over the ground. 

The southpaw remained not out 

on 62 off 48 balls, studded with 

nine fours and a six, while Anamul 

Haque was unbeaten on a 

run-a-ball 22. 

Earlier, Rangpur elected 

to bat but made a sedate start 

as opening batsman Soumya 

Sarkar’s 26 turned out to be 

the highest score in the end. 

Their Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batsman 

Mohammad 

Shahzad scored 21. • 

Chittagong Vikings’ Chris Gayle goes big during their BPL 4 match against Rangpur 

Riders in Mirpur yesterday 

MD MANIK 

Rangpur deny Jupiter’s fixing claim 

TODAY’S MATCH 

Rangpur Riders v Rajshahi Kings, 5:45pm 

The game will be held at SBNS, Mirpur 

POINTS TABLE 

TEAMS M W L PTS 

Dhaka 9 6 3 12 

Khulna 9 6 3 12 

Chittagong 9 5 4 10 

Rangpur 8 5 3 10 

Rajshahi 8 4 4 8 

Barisal 9 3 6 6 

Comilla 8 1 7 2 

SCORECARD 

RANGPUR RIDERS R B 

Shahzad b Taskin 21 28 

Soumya c Nabi b Subashish 26 21 

Mithun b Taskin 12 10 

Dawson c Zakir b Nabi 14 18 

Naeem retired hurt 3 4 

Afridi c sub (Milon) b Nabi 13 14 

Anwar not out 20 13 

Muktar run out (Anamul) 4 11 

Gazi not out 1 1 

Extras (b 1, lb 5, w 4) 10 

Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 124 

Fall Of Wickets 

1-34 (Soumya), 2-61 (Mithun), 3-62 

(Shahzad), 3-69 (Naeem), 4-92 (Afridi), 

5-98 (Dawson), 6-115 (Muktar) 

Bowling 

Saqlain 4-0-17-0, Subashish 4-0-17-1, 

Imran 4-0-28-0, Nabi 4-0-31-2, Taskin 

4-0-25-2 

CHITTAGONG VIKINGS R B 

Tamim not out 62 48 

Gayle c Anwar b Afridi 40 26 

Anamul not out 22 22 

Extras (lb 1, w 3) 4 

Total (1 wicket; 16 overs) 128 

Fall Of Wickets 

1-70 (Gayle) 

Bowling 

Gazi 4-0-23-0, Anwar 2-0-17-0, Rubel 3-0- 

17-0, Afridi 2-0-25-1, Dawson 3-0-25-0, 

Sunny 1-0-15-0, Muktar 1-0-5-0 

The Vikings won by nine wickets 

MoM: Tamim Iqbal (CHV) 

Sanchez double keeps 

Arsenal in title hunt 

Arsenal closed the gap on Premier 

League leaders Chelsea as Alexis 

Sanchez bragged a brace in a 3-1 

win over Bournemouth yesterday. 

Arsene Wenger’s side are within 

three points of top spot after 

Sanchez struck in each half at the 

Emirates Stadium. PAGE 28 

• Tribune Report 

Recently, a few questions have 

been raised with regards to 

match-fixing issues surrounding 

Bangladesh Premier League 

Twenty20 franchise Rangpur 

Riders. 

However, the Rangpur team 

management has denied the allegations, 

raised by their suspended 

player Jupiter Ghosh, through a 

press release yesterday. 

According to the media release, 

Rangpur informed that a certain 

group of people, including Jupiter, 

are trying to tarnish the image 

of the franchise after he was suspended 

due to disciplinary issues 

recently. 

When Dhaka Tribune contacted 

Jupiter, he stated that he has 

not breached any disciplinary 

conduct and that it was former 

national cricketer and Rangpur 

manager Sanwar Hossain who approached 

him illegally before he 

signed the official contract with 

the franchise prior to BPL 4. 

“I was given some illegal offer 

by Rangpur manager Sanwar before 

I signed the contract, which 

I obviously declined. But after I 

signed the contract with Rangpur 

on November 4, all of a sudden the 

team management started to provide 

illogical allegations against 

me, citing disciplinary issues, 

which I didn’t do. I am going to 

inform everything to the Bangladesh 

Cricket Board’s anti-corruption 

security unit (today),” Jupiter 

told Dhaka Tribune yesterday. 

When Dhaka Tribune contacted 

BPL governing council member 

secretary Ismail Haider Mallick, 

he said, “We will investigate the 

matter soon.” •

BARISAL BULLS R B 

Shahriar c Prasanna b Jayed 3 13 

Munaweera run out (Maruf) 10 7 

Mendis run out (Mosaddek) 7 13 

Mushfiq b Shakib 36 30 

Nadif c Prasanna b Bopara 21 25 

Perera not out 15 15 

Enamul c Sanjamul b Bravo 3 4 

Raees not out 25 13 

Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 9) 12 

Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 132 

Bowling 

Jayed 4-1-12-1, Shakib 4-0-31-1, Bravo 4-0- 

35-1, Sanjamul 2-0-11-0, Bopara 4-0-23-1, 

Prasanna 2-0-17-0 

DHAKA DYNAMITES R B 

Maruf b Taijul 1 2 

Sangakkara c Perera b Taijul 32 33 

Shakib c & b Enamul 22 21 

Nasir lbw b Monir 34 29 

Mosaddek c Mendis b Rabbi 23 20 

Prasanna run out (Nadif) 10 8 

Bopara not out 1 1 

Bravo not out 6 2 

Extras (lb 5, w 1) 6 

Total (6 wickets; 19.2 overs) 135 

Bowling 

Taijul 4-0-19-2, Raees 4-0-25-0, Enamul 

4-0-24-1, Munaweera 1-0-4-0, Rabbi 2-0- 

14-1, Mendis 2-0-17-0, Perera 1.2-0-15-0, 

Monir 1-0-12-1 

The Dynamites won by four wickets 

MoM: Shakib al Hasan (DD) 

Sport 25 

Bangladesh clinch third AHF Cup in a row 


SCORECARD 

WHAT THEY SAID 

Dhaka captain Shakib al Hasan 

It is a good win for us. But we don’t 

want to relax. We have three more 

matches in our hand. Hopefully 

we will play good cricket in those 

matches. To keep up the momentum 

is hard in a tournament like 

this. We will try to carry the momentum. 

Every bowler is doing 

well at the moment. Jayed bowled 

brilliantly. We are definitely missing 

Shahid. He is an important 

bowler for us. Hopefully he will recover 

before the NZ series. 

Barisal batsman Dawid Malan 

After a good start in the tournament, 

we lost the momentum. We 

just won three matches out of nine. 

Obviously, things are not going our 

way in the middle. But we still have 

the chance to qualify (for the playoffs). 

We have three games in our 

hand. We have to win all three. The 

next game is a final for us. We know 

two (wins) out of three will not be 

good enough for us. • 

The indomitable Bangladesh side 

made it a hattrick of titles when 

they emerged as the unbeaten 

champion in the Asian Hockey 

Federation Cup, outplaying Sri 

Lanka 3-0 in the grand finale at 

King’s Park Stadium in Hong Kong 

yesterday. 

Bangladesh’s title win meant 

they would get direct entry into 

next year’s Men’s Asia Cup, scheduled 

to be held from late September 

to early October. 

Hasan Jubair Niloy gave Bangladesh 

the breakthrough in the 22nd 

minute before young drag-andflick 

hero Ashraful Islam doubled 

the lead in the 61st minute from a 

penalty corner. 

AHM Kamruzzaman sealed 

victory six minutes later when he 

converted another penalty corner. 

Bangladesh are the only country 

in the history of the AHF Cup who 

Clinical Dhaka down Barisal 

• Ali Shahriyar Bappa 

Dhaka Dynamites defeated Barisal 

Bulls by four wickets in their 

Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 

2016-17 season encounter in 

Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National 

Cricket Stadium yesterday. Chasing 

Barisal’s 132/6, Dhaka reached their 

destination with four balls to spare. 

Dhaka made two changes to 

their playing XI from Saturday’s 

match against holders Comilla Victorians. 

Injured paceman Mohammad 

Shahid was replaced by Alauddin 

Babu while English all-rounder 

Ravi Bopara came into the side in 

place of Sri Lankan batsman Mahela 

Jayawardene. 

In pursuit of 133, Dhaka started 

unconvincingly as in-form opening 

batsman Mehedi Maruf (one) 

got out in just the third ball of the 

innings off the bowling of left-arm 

spinner Taijul Islam. 

However, the rest of the Dhaka 

batsmen - Kumar Sangakkara (32), 

won the title three times in a row. 

The men in red and green claimed 

the last two editions in 2012 and 

2008 in Thailand and Singapore respectively. 

Bangladesh also maintained 

their hundred percent winning 

record in the tournament. Earlier, 

they began their group stage campaign 

beating hosts Hong Kong 4-2 

before defeating Chinese Taipei by 

the same scoreline. 

They thrashed Macau 13-0 in 

captain Shakib al Hasan (22), Nasir 

Hossain (34) and Mosaddek Hossian 

(23) - contributed well enough 

to guide their side to victory. 

Dhaka lost two quick wickets in 

the second and penultimate over 

but their two overseas batsmen 

- Dwayne Bravo (six not out) and 

Ravi Bopara (one not out) ensured 

the win with four balls in hand. 

Taijul was the most successful 

Barisal bowler with two wickets. 

Shakib was adjudged player of 

the match for yet another all-round 

performance. 

Earlier, Barisal skipper Mushfiqur 

Rahim won the toss and elected 

to bat first. 

Barisal crafted a slow start and 

it was made worse when opener 

Shahriar Nafees was dismissed for 

three in only the third over. The 

other opener, Lankan Dilshan Munaweera 

(10) also departed cheaply 

when he was caught short of the 

crease by Maruf. 

Barisal were soon dealt another 

RESULT 

Bangladesh 3-0 Sri Lanka 

Niloy 22, Ashraful 61, 

Kamruzzaman 67 

their final group tie to finish as Pool 

A champions. 

Bangladesh then outplayed Singapore 

8-0 in the last-four classification 

match. Meanwhile, Hong 

Kong defeated Singapore 2-1 to seal 

third place.• 

Barisal Bulls captain Mushfiqur Rahim is cleaned up by Dhaka Dynamites skipper Shakib al Hasan (not in picture) during their 

BPL 4 match in Mirpur yesterday 

MD MANIK 

blow in the seventh over when another 

Lankan Jeevan Mendis (seven) 

was also run out after a mix up 

with Mushfiq. 

Mushfiq, in good form, then anchored 

the innings, playing a valuable 

knock of 36 from 30 deliveries. 

Shakib though picked up the 

important wicket of compatriot 

Mushfiq in the 14th over. Mushfiq 

was a bit unlucky as the ball hit 

his back leg before rolling onto the 

stumps. 

Rumman Raees then struck 

some lusty blows, helping Barisal 

to 132/6 from their stipulated 20 

overs. Abu Jayed bowled brilliantly 

for Dhaka, conceding just 12 runs 

from his quota of four overs besides 

bagging Shahriar’s scalp. 

Courtesy their sixth win, Dhaka 

rose to the top of the points table, 

alongside Khulna Titans. 

Barisal, in contrast, tasted their 

sixth loss in nine matches and now 

face an uphill task to make it into 

the playoffs. • 

DT 


PLAYS OF THE DAY 

Barisal Bulls v Dhaka Dynamites 

Barisal’s boundary drought 

Barisal skipper Mushfiqur Rahim 

played a good innings of 36 runs 

from 30 deliveries. But the other 

batsmen were not up to the mark 

and eventually paid the price as 

Barisal posted a modest total of 132 

on a good batting wicket. Opening 

batsman Shahriar Nafees was 

out for three from 13 balls, Jeevan 

Mendis scored seven from 13 balls, 

Nadif Chowdhury made 21 from 25 

balls while big-hitter Thisara Perera 

crafted a run-a-ball 15, summing 

up Barisal’s batting misery. Barisal 

even failed to hit a boundary for 

39 balls in the middle part of their 

innings – from the 12th over to 18.3 

overs. Thirty nine balls without a 

boundary is certainly not ideal on a 

good batting pitch. As a result, Barisal 

perhaps fell 15-20 runs short of 

their desired target. 

Chittagong v Rangpur 

Crowd gather for Gayle-Afridi 

battle 

It was almost a full house in Mirpur’s 

Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket 

Stadium during the evening 

match between Rangpur and Chittagong. 

One of the reasons behind 

the gathering of the packed crowd 

might have been due to the clash 

between the two biggest hitters of 

world cricket – Afridi and Gayle. 

Afridi is playing for Rangpur while 

Gayle is featuring for the port city 

outfit. The mouthwatering battle 

was initiated when Gayle hit two 

huge sixes off Afridi. Afridi though 

had the last laugh as he dismissed 

Gayle off the very next ball. Gayle 

tried to hit his third six in a row 

only to top-edge the delivery onto 

the hands of Anwar Ali at short 

mid-wicket. 

Gayle’s four sixes in his first 

BPL 4 knock 

So far in the Bangladesh Premier 

League, Gayle has featured in 10 

matches. The hard-hitter smashed 

50 sixes in those matches and started 

off his BPL 4 campaign with four 

sixes. The left-hander eventually 

made a 26-ball 40. Gayle was a bit 

slow to begin with, taking his time 

to settle down at the crease and 

adapting to the conditions. Rangpur 

opening bowler Sohag Gazi 

bowled brilliantly in his first spell 

with the exception of the last two 

balls. He gave only 11 runs from 

his 3.4 overs of bowling. But Gayle 

smacked his final two balls for sixes 

– through long off and long on - to 

ruin his good spell of bowling. Later, 

Gayle hammered two more sixes 

off Afridi in the ninth over. The 

first one was hit over deep square 

leg while the next one was hoicked 

over long on. With these four sixes, 

Gayle took his BPL sixers tally to 54. 

If Gayle continues with his big-hitting 

exploits, it can only mean one 

thing – the SBNS in Mirpur will rain 

sixes in the coming days. • 

–ALI SHAHRIYAR BAPPA

DT 

26 


Sport 

Resurgent Aussies deny 

Proteas Test series sweep 

Matthew Wade’s tattoo of the late Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes 

INTERNET 

• AFP, Adelaide 

Australia rebounded to a seven-wicket 

victory over South Africa 

to end a run of five Test defeats 

in the day-night third Test in Adelaide 

yesterday. 

The Australians, rejuvenated 

by five team changes in response 

to two humiliating defeats to the 

Proteas to lose the series, chased 

down 127 runs for victory after dismissing 

the tourists for 250 on the 

fourth day of the pink-ball Test. 

Debutant Peter Handscomb hit 

the winning run to finish one not 

out with fellow newcomer Matthew 

Renshaw on 34 in Australia’s 

127 for three. 

Handscomb came to the wicket 

after skipper Steve Smith was 

caught behind for 40 off Kyle Abbott 

with two runs to win. 

The home side also lost the 

wickets of David Warner and epic 

Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe to one-day trophy 

• AFP, Bulawayo 

BRIEF SCORE 

SRI LANKA 166/4 in 37.3 overs 

(Mendis 57, Tharanga 57*, Vitori 3/52) 

beat ZIMBABWE 160 in 36.3 overs 

(Musakanda 36, Gunaratne 3/10, 

Vandersay 3/50) by six wickets 

Sri Lanka capped a productive 

month of cricket in Zimbabwe by 

lifting the triangular series trophy 

yesterday, beating the hosts by six 

wickets in the final. 

Having comfortably beaten 

Zimbabwe in both Tests in Harare 

at the start of November, Sri Lanka 

added another trophy to their 

haul as half-centuries from captain 

Upul Tharanga and Kusal Mendis 

saw them chase a target of 161 with 

more than 12 overs to spare. 

Although regular skipper Angelo 

Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal 

missed the entire tour due to injury, 

Sri Lanka rarely felt their absence 

as they lost just one game in 

the process of clinching the tri-series, 

which also involved the West 

Indies. 

Zimbabwe pulled off a stunning 

comeback to beat the West Indies 

in their last round robin game and 

reach the final, but could not repeat 

the feat when their batsmen 

failed again on Sunday. A reshuffle 

saw openers Brian Chari and Chamu 

Chibhabha both left out, with 

Peter Moor promoted to the top of 

the innings and Tarisai Musakanda 

given an international debut. 

But on a drizzly morning, they 

still lost their openers inside the 

first five overs to slip to 19 for two. 

Musakanda and Craig Ervine 

were able to revive the innings 

with a 53-run stand for the third 

wicket, only for Jeffrey Vandersay 

to end the resistance as he Ervine 

caught and bowled for 25, then had 

the debutant caught at slip for 36. 

With Sachith Pathirana dismissing 

Sikandar Raza Butt and Malcolm 

Waller in the space of three 

overs, and Vandersay taking care of 

captain Graeme Cremer to record 

figures of 3 for 50, Zimbabwe slid to 

133 for seven. 

Zimbabwe had recovered from 

89 for seven to post 218 for eight 

against the West Indies, but there 

was no such fightback on Sunday 

as Asela Gunaratne grabbed the 

final three wickets in the space of 

just four deliveries to end the innings 

inside 37 overs. 

With a seemingly simple target 

in front of them, Sri Lanka’s top 

order were too hasty to knock it 

off and let Zimbabwe back into the 

match as a result. • 

Shahid ruled out of BPL 4, doubtful for NZ tour 


Dhaka Dynamites and Bangladesh 

paceman Mohammad 

Shahid has been ruled out of 

the ongoing Bangladesh Premier 

League Twenty20 2016-17 

season after incurring an injury 

in his right knee during their 

match against holders Comilla 

Victorians last Saturday. 

The 28-year old hurt his knee 

when he fell awkwardly in front 

of the boundary line following 

which he immediately left the 

field. The Narayanganj cricketer 

is likely to miss Bangladesh’s 

preparation camp in Australia 

ahead of their New Zealand 

tour as he has been advised to 

rest for at least two weeks. 

According to the Bangladesh 

Cricket Board’s chief physician 

Dr Debashish Chowdhury, the 

right-arm pacer underwent a 

scan but more medical tests 

will be required to determine 

the duration of his rehabilitation 

process. 

“Shahid had a scan [yesterday] 

after getting hurt last Saturday. 

We haven’t seen the report 

but we know it is a partial 

ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) 

tear. He has to rest for the 

next two weeks, during which 

he will receive treatment. Further 

tests will tell us what we 

should be doing in the coming 

weeks,” said Dr Debashish. 

“A lot of the recovery process 

will depend on the player, 

but the rest period is pretty 

much same for everyone. But 

how the player reacts after the 

rest period depends on each individual,” 

he added. 

Shahid however, is still 

hopeful of returning to the 

Test side for the New Zealand 

series, scheduled to be held in 

mid-January next year. 

He missed the recent Test 

series against England due to a 

side strain injury. The national 

selectors are yet to name his replacement. 

“I will need rest for two 

weeks and then I will work for 

four weeks. I hope to play the 

Tests against New Zealand, 

I am not losing hope. I have 

enough time. I don’t want to 

miss the series, having already 

missed the England series,” 

said Shahid. • 

first-innings centurion Usman Khawaja 

on the way to victory. 

Warner blazed 47 off 51 balls 

before he was run out in a mix-up 

and Khawaja lasted just two balls 

before he was leg before wicket to 

a Tabraiz Shamsi wrong’un. 

Australia’s victory saw off the 

threat of South Africa taking an 

unprecedented series clean sweep 

Down Under and was just the tonic 

after recrimination over the team’s 

abject form. 

But after seizing a 124-run innings 

lead, Steve Smith’s team 

broke down the Proteas resistance 

for their first Test victory. • 

3RD TEST, DAY 4 

SOUTH AFRICA 259/9d & 250 in 85.2 

overs (Cook 104, Starc 4/80, Lyon 3/60) 

lost to AUSTRALIA 383 & 127/3 in 40.5 

overs (Warner 47, Smith 40, Renshaw 

34) by seven wickets 

Sagor sets 

new national 

swimming 

record 


Mahfizur Rahman Sagor set a new 

record in the men’s 200metre 

freestyle event in the opening day 

of the 28th National Swimming 

Championship at Mirpur Swimming 

Complex in the capital yesterday. 

Sagor clocked 1:58s to touch the 

finishing line and break the previous 

record that also belonged to him. 

The Bangladesh Navy swimmer 

beat second placed Faisal Ahmed 

of Bangladesh Army. Asif Reza of 

Bangladesh Navy finished third. 

In the women’s 200m freestyle 

event, Bangladesh Navy swimmer 

Nazma Khatun bagged the top position 

clocking 2:25s while Sharmin 

Sultana of Bangladesh Army and 

Lima Akter Lucky of Bangladesh 

Navy finished second and third respectively. 

In the day’s other events, Bangladesh 

Army swimmer Jewel 

Ahmed grabbed first place in the 

men’s 200m singles medley while 

his team mate Romana Akter finished 

top in the women’s 200m 

singles medley. 

Meanwhile, the country’s most 

prestigious swimming competition 

didn’t take place last year due to 

a preparation camp for the South 

Asian Games. A total of 334 male 

and 86 female participants from 59 

different teams are taking part in 

the three-day event that also features 

diving and water polo.•

Sport 27 

DT 


QUICK BYTES 

Bayern extend Ribery’s 

contract by another year 

Bundesliga champions Bayern 

Munich said yesterday they had 

extended Franck Ribery’s contract 

by another year to June 2018, giving 

the Frenchman an 11th season with 

the German giants. “Six German 

championship titles, five cup 

triumphs, the Champions League, 

the FIFA Club World Cup, the UEFA 

Supercup: Bayern’s biggest triumphs 

in the last few years are closely linked 

with Franck Ribery,” said Bayern 

chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in a 

statement. “He’s both a key player and 

a crowd-pleaser, so we’re happy we’ve 

extended the contract with Franck by 

another year.” 

–AFP 

England’s FA probes 

child sex abuse claims 

England’s Football Association is 

investigating allegations of sexual 

abuse in junior football after several 

formers players came forward to 

say they were molested by youth 

coaches, it confirmed yesterday. 

The FA has appointed independent 

leading counsel Kate Gallafent, who 

is an expert in child protection, to 

assist it with an internal review of the 

allegations. The FA said the review 

would find out “what information 

the FA was aware of at the relevant 

times around the issues that have 

been raised in the press, what clubs 

were aware of, and what action was 

or should have been taken”. 

–AFP 

Cilic, Dodig push Croatia 

to brink of Davis Cup 

Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig beat 

Argentine pair Juan Martin del Potro 

and Leonardo Mayer 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 

(7/4), 6-3 in the doubles to put 

Croatia 2-1 up in the Davis Cup final. 

Former US Open champion Cilic gave 

Croatia the upper hand by winning 

Friday’s opening singles rubber 

against Federico Delbonis before Del 

Potro levelled for Argentina with a 

four-set win over Ivo Karlovic. 

–AFP 

DAY’S WATCH 

CRICKET 

CHANNEL 9, SONY SIX 

5:45PM 

Bangladesh Premier League 2016 

Rangpur Riders v Rajshahi Kings 

STAR SPORTS 1 

10:00AM 

England Tour of India 

3rd Test, Day 3 

FOOTBALL 

TEN 1 

1:45AM 

Sky Bet EFL 2016/17 

Huddersfield Town v Wigan Athletic 

India’s Ravichandran Ashwin plays a shot on the second day of their third Test against England in Mohali, India yesterday 

Ashwin fifty gives India edge 

• AFP, Mohali 

Ravichandran Ashwin hit an attacking 

half-century to give India 

the edge after England’s bowlers 

dented the hosts with quick wickets 

on day two of the third Test in 

Mohali yesterday. 

India were 271 for six at stumps 

with Ashwin (57) and Ravindra 

Jadeja (31) at the crease. The hosts 

trail by 12 runs in response to England’s 

first innings score of 283. 

England leg-spinner Adil Rashid 

claimed three wickets while seam 

bowler Ben Stokes chipped in with 

two wickets to hurt India. 

Ashwin and Jadeja revived the 

innings with an unbeaten 67-run 

stand for the seventh wicket after 

India lost four of their batsmen in 

the final session. 

In-form Ashwin struck his third 

successive Test fifty as he smashed 

eight boundaries during his 82-ball 

stay at the crease so far. 

He combined with the left-handed 

Jadeja to take the attack to the 

opposition in the final hour of play 

Southee’s six keeps New 

Zealand in front of Pakistan 

• AFP, Hamilton 

Tim Southee bagged six wickets 

as New Zealand took a 55-run lead 

over Pakistan on a rain-shortened 

third day of the second Test in 

Hamilton yesterday. 

Only rookie batsman Babar 

Azam was able to cope with New 

Zealand’s chief strike bowler and 

he was left stranded on 90 after 

running out of partners as Pakistan 

fought their way back into the 

match. 

Pakistan, after resuming the day 

on the ropes at 76-5, clawed their 

way to 216 in reply to New Zealand’s 

first innings 271. 

3RD TEST, DAY 2 

ENGLAND 283 in 93.5 overs (Bairstow 

89, Buttler 43, Shami 3/63) lead INDIA 

271/6 in 84 overs (Kohli 62, Ashwin 57*, 

Rashid 3/81) by 12 runs 

New Zealand only faced one dot 

ball in their second innings before 

rain sent the players from the field 

for the third and final time in a day 

when only 38 overs were possible. 

Southee wrapped up the tail 

and finish with figures of 6-80, his 

third-best bowling performance. 

The 54-Test veteran headlined 

the New Zealand bowling performance. 

• 

2ND TEST, DAY 3 

NEW ZEALAND 271 & 0/0 in 0.1 over 

lead PAKISTAN 216 in 67 overs 

(Babar 90*, Southee 6/80, Wagner 

3/59) by 55 runs 

AP 

as the duo scored at over four runs 

an over. 

India were reduced to 156-5 before 

bouncing back. 

The hosts were cruising nicely 

at 148-2 until tea, after which a resurgent 

England wreaked havoc to 

claim three wickets in the space of 

19 deliveries and eight runs. 

Rashid struck on the second 

delivery after tea to end Pujara’s 

dogged resistance as Chris Woakes 

completed a great running catch 

from deep mid-wicket. 

Pujara (51) put on 75 runs for the 

third wicket with Kohli (62) and 

showed tremendous grit during his 

104-ball stay. • 

Ctg Abahani 

close gap with 

Abahani 


Chittagong Abahani cut the gap 

down to two points with table-toppers 

Abahani Limited at the top of 

the Bangladesh Premier League 

standings after beating Rahmatganj 

MFS comfortably 2-0 at MA 

Aziz Stadium in Chittagong yesterday. 

Bhutanese striker Chencho 

Gyeltshen put the home side ahead 

in the 22nd minute before midfielder 

Mamunul Islam doubled the 

lead in the 70th minute of the tie 

to help the side return to winning 

ways following their defeat against 

holders Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi 

Club last week. 

Rahmatganj, who finished the 

first phase at the summit, continued 

their inconsistent run in the 

second phase as they have collected 

only one point in their three 

matches so far. They remained 

fourth with 26 points from 17 

matches. 

Rising powerhouse Chittagong 

Abahani, in the meantime, consolidated 

their position at second with 

34 points from the same number 

of outings. Abahani are two points 

ahead of them with a game in hand. 

Meanwhile in the day’s other 

match at the same venue, Feni 

Soccer Club registered their first 

victory in the second phase of the 

league after edging Uttar Baridhara 

Club 1-0 in the bottom-of-the-table 

clash. After a barren first half, 

Chowmrin Rakhaine netted the 

all-important goal three minutes 

into the second half. • 

RESULTS 

Ctg Abahani 2-0 Rahmatganj 

Chencho 22, Mamunul 70 

Feni SC 1-0 Baridhara 

Rakhaine 48 

New Zealand’s Tim Southee is congratulated by Neil Wagner after the final wicket 

of Pakistan fell during day three of their second Test in Hamilton 

INTERNET

DT 

28 


Sport 

Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez in action with Bournemouth’s Nathan Ake (C) during their Premier League match at Emirates Stadium, London yesterday 

Sanchez double keeps Arsenal in title hunt 

• AFP, London 

Neymar smashes 

Ferrari in road 

accident 

• AFP, Madrid 

Barcelona’s Brazilian star Neymar 

damaged his Ferrari Spider in a 

road accident but his club said he 

was ready to play against Real Sociedad 

yesterday night. 

The 24-year-old striker hit trouble 

driving to the Barcelona training 

grounds in rain before the team 

takes a flight to the northern city of 

San Sebastian for the match. 

“He had a car accident but was 

not injured and was able to continue 

his trip,” a club source told AFP. 

Neymar can be seen in images 

published on the club’s official web 

page with other players at the airport. 

He appeared relaxed, listening 

to music on earphones as he 

boarded the flight. • 

Arsenal closed the gap on Premier 

League leaders Chelsea as Alexis 

Sanchez bragged a brace in a 3-1 

win over Bournemouth yesterday. 

Arsene Wenger’s side are within 

three points of top spot after Chile 

forward Sanchez struck in each half 

at the Emirates Stadium to take his 

goal tally for the season to 10. 

Sanchez gave Arsenal an early 

lead before Callum Wilson equalised 

with a penalty before the interval. 

Theo Walcott headed Arsenal 

back in front just 24 hours after 

the birth of his second child and 

Sanchez wrapped up the points. 

After drawing three of their last 

four league games to fall six points 

behind Chelsea, this was a timely 

victory for fourth-placed Arsenal, 

who are now unbeaten in their last 

19 matches in all competitions and 

firmly in the title race. 

Bonucci injured as Juve 

suffer stunning collapse 

• AFP, Milan 

Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci’s 

recent injury woes continued 

yesterday as the Serie A champions 

suffered a stunning first-half 

collapse to trail Genoa 3-0 at halftime. 

Bonucci, a reported target for 

Chelsea - where former Juve coach 

Antonio Conte is in charge - has 

been in and out of the Juve clinic 

this season. 

The 29-year-old was forced 

off just after the half-hour and 

replaced by Daniele Rugani as 

the five-time consecutive Italian 

champions were rocked at the Luigi 

Ferraris stadium. 

Juve were without a number 

of key players including forwards 

Even Wenger conceded Arsenal 

had lost their momentum of late 

and, in a bid to revitalise his team, 

the boss made seven changes from 

the midweek draw against Paris 

Saint-Germain. 

France striker Olivier Giroud 

dropped to the bench and there 

was a recall for right-back Mathieu 

Debuchy, who last played for Arsenal 

in November 2015. 

On-loan Arsenal midfielder Jack 

Wilshere was ineligible to play for 

Paulo Dybala and Marko Pjaca, and 

with unfit Argentine striker Gonzalo 

Higuain on the bench coach 

Massimiliano Allegri was forced 

to play attacking midfielder Juan 

Cuadrado up front alongside Mario 

Mandzukic. 

However, Genoa started aggressively 

and were 2-0 up by the 13th 

minute thanks to a fine Giovanni 

Simeone double. 

Juve conceded a third goal just 

before the half-hour when Brazilian 

wing-back Alex Sandro booted 

Luca Rigoni’s effort into the roof of 

the net as he tried in vain to clear 

off the goalline. 

On Saturday, AC Milan secured 

a 4-1 win over Empoli to reinforce 

second spot and sit just four points 

off the lead.• 

REUTERS 

Bournemouth against his parent 

club, but his absence didn’t stop 

the visitors sticking to manager Eddie 

Howe’s philosophy of playing 

out from the back. 

It proved a fatal indulgence in 

the 12th minute. 

Bournemouth goalkeeper Adam 

Federici rolled the ball out to Steve 

Cook on the left and instead of 

knocking it long under pressure, 

the defender tried a back-pass that 

was intercepted by Sanchez, who 

Conte urges 

leaders Chelsea 

to stay ‘humble’ 

• AFP, London 

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte 

warned his players to remain 

grounded after they returned to 

the Premier League summit courtesy 

of a gritty 2-1 victory at home 

to Tottenham Hotspur. 

“I think that today or in this period, 

if you talk about this, it is not 

right because we have to improve a 

lot and we have a long way in front 

of us,” Conte said. 

“Above all after this type of 

game we have to wait, to speak, to 

not write things (in the media). It’s 

important to stay humble, to continue 

to work, to trust in our work. 

“Above all after this type of 

game, because we won a game 

against a really strong team. 

“On Saturday we’ll have another 

strong team and we don’t forget 

that against Arsenal and Liverpool 

we lost.” 

Spurs’ high press caused Chelsea 

serious problems in the first 

half, but Conte said he would continue 

to ask his players to play the 

ball out from the back.• 

gleefully slotted into the empty net. 

Wilshere, watching from the 

stands, buried his head in his coat 

as injured Arsenal team-mate Danny 

Welbeck turned to indulge in 

some banter with his friend. 

Sanchez caused more chaos in 

the Bournemouth defence moments 

later with a surging run that 

ended with contact from Nathan 

Ake, but no foul was given by referee 

Mike Jones as Arsenal appealed 

for a penalty. • 

Bangladesh Swimming Federation president and Navy Chief Admiral Nizamuddin 

inaugurates the 28th National Swimming, Diving and Water Polo competition

Downtime 

29 


DT 

CROSSWORD 

ACROSS 

1 Copied (4) 

6 By way of (3) 

7 Bovine animals (4) 

9 Needy (4) 

10 Happening (5) 

11 Small anchor (5) 

12 Mature (3) 

14 Avarice (5) 

17 Endures (5) 

20 Land measure (3) 

21 Wanderer (5) 

23 Buffalo (5) 

25 Peruvian Indian (4) 

26 Single entity (4) 

27 Metal-bearing rock (3) 

28 Border (4) 

DOWN 

1 Call for aid (6) 

2 Calls up (6) 

3 Dreadful (4) 

4 Tool (3) 

5 Insect (3) 

7 Cricket term (4) 

8 Go in (5) 

10 Incite (3) 

13 Street urchin (5) 

15 Deserved (6) 

16 Discussion (6) 

18 Easy pace (4) 

19 Offspring (3) 

22 Irish republic (4) 

23 Rudimentary shoot (3) 

24 Wrongdoing (3) 

CODE-CRACKER 

How to solve: Each number in our 

CODE-CRACKER grid represents a 

different letter of the alphabet. For 

example, today 20 represents T so fill T 

every time the figure 20 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 

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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. 

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30 


DT 

Showtime 

| as it happened | 

Third night of Bengal Classical Music Festival 2016 

• Showtime Desk 

The opening act of the third night 

of the ongoing Bengal Classical 

Music Festival 2016 featured a 

sarod instrumental presented by 

the students of Bengal Parampara 

Sangeetalay. 

Pupils of the classical music 

school played a composition on 

Raga Kafi. Pinu Das Sen and Ratan 

Kumar Das accompanied them 

on tabla during the performance. 

Pundit Tejendra Narayan 

Majumdar, who mentored these 

students expressed his optimism 

about the bright future of his 

students and praised them after 

the performance. 

It was followed by a beguiling 

Carnatic flute rendition by 

Shashank Subramanyam. 

Subramanyam performed 

Raga Poorvikalyani, a raga 

similar to that of Puriya Kalyan 

from the same region. His 

mesmerising performance ended 

with melodious traditional 

compositions. Satyajit Talwalkar 

was on tabla, Parupalli Phalgun on 

Photo Courtesy: Bengal Foundation 

mridangam and Elvin Majumder 

was on tanpura during the 

performance. 

Afterwards, vocal artist Dr 

Prabha Atre took the stage 

performing Khayal in Raga 

Shaym Kalyan and Raga 

Madhurokosh. Madhurokosh is 

her own composition. After that 

she performed Dadra Nayki in 

Raga Kanada. Chetna Banawat 

accompanied her on the vocals. 

She ended with a performance of 

Bhajan in Raga Bhairavi. Rohit 

Majumdar played the tabla and 

Prashanta Bhowmik was on the 

harmonium. 

A tabla recital by Pundit 

Anindo Chatterjee, accompanied 

by his son Anubrata Chatterjee 

followed Atre’s performance. The 

duo presented Uthan, Peshkar, 

Kaida, Gatt and Chakradar in Teen 

Taal with Murad Ali Khan, who 

accompanied them on sarangi. 

Dhrupad was next as Pundit 

Uday Bhawalkar presented 

Dhrupad on raga Abhogi Kanada. 

Later he performed Bardhini, a 

South Indian Raga. Pratap Awad 

accompanied him on pakhawaj. 

Avijit Kundu and Tinku Kumar 

Sheel were on tanpura. 

After that, Pundit Sanjoy 

Bandopadhyay presented Raga 

Shahana Kanada on sitar. He also 

presented a composition called 

Pilu Jongla. Parimal Chakravarty 

accompanied him on the tabla. 

Elvin Majumdar and Samin Yasar 

were with him on tanpura. 

The final performance of the 

night was Ustad Rashid Khan’s 

Khayal. He started with Raga Lalit. 

This was followed by Charukeshi 

and Thumri. Accompanying him 

were Pundit Shuvonkor Banerjee 

on tabla, Krishna Bogane on vocal, 

Ajay Joglekar on harmonium, 

Murad Ali Khan on sarangi and 

Elvin Majumdar and Samin Yasar 

on tanpura. 

Organised by the Bengal 

Foundation, Square Group is 

the title sponsor of the Bengal 

Classical Music Festival and BRAC 

Bank is supporting the event as the 

main sponsor. The music festival 

will end on November 28. • 

SRK strikes back 


After some of his recent big budget 

movies, like Happy New Year, 

Dilwale failed to grab attention, 

Shah Rukh Khan has finally 

invaded the box office with Dear 

Zindagi. Where Salman is kicking 

with Bajrangi Bhaijan, Prem Ratan 

Dhan Payo, Shah Rukh seemed lost 

in between somewhere. But at the 

end of the year SRK has come back 

with Dear Zindagi. 

Dear Zindagi, released on 

November 25, is receiving praises 

from the critics and audiences 

alike. The film is being praised 

for its simple yet effective story 

telling. Alia Bhatt is applauded for 

being scene stealer and Shah Rukh 

Khan on the other hand is hailed 

for being the backbone of the film 

and is praised for charming his 

way through the film. 

Shah Rukh Khan’s Dear Zindagi 

has seen a strong hold at the box 

office on its day two. The film has 

shown superb growth of around 

thirty percent on its day two and 

has earned Rs. 11.25 crore, with Rs. 

8.75 crore on its opening day. 

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh 

commented saying that Dear 

Zindagi showed “superb growth” 

on Day 2, accumulating 8.75 crore 

on Friday, 11.25 crore on Saturday 

and a total of Rs. 20 crore. 

The enormous success comes 

even after the film’s limited release 

as it was released in just 1200 

screens. 

Shah Rukh Khan’s last three 

films (Fan, 

Dilwale, and 

Happy New Year) 

were released 

respectively in 

3450, 3150 and 

3850 screens. 

The film 

is doing brisk 

business 

worldwide. And 

its excellent 

business can be 

credited to the 

presence of Shah 

Rukh Khan in the 

film. The film is 

already a hit but 

Monday will be crucial for the film 

as that may decide how far the 

film will go. 

So far it has piggy backed on 

the star power of Shah Rukh 

Khan. From Monday onwards, 

the acceptance of its content will 

decide its further success.•

Showtime 

31 


DT 

17th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 

begins December 1 

• Hasan Dabir Uddin 

One of the biggest art events of the 

year, the 17th Asian Art Biennale 

Bangladesh 2016, will take place 

from December 1-31 at Bangladesh 

Shilpakala Academy (BSA). 

A press conference was held in 

this regard on November 27 at BSA, 

where Minister of Cultural Affairs 

Asaduzzaman Noor, Aktari Mamtaz, 

Secretary, Ministry of Cultural 

Affairs, Director General of BSA 

Liaquat Ali Lucky were present. 

Liaquat Ali Lucky said, “Since 

1981, the Asian Art Biennale has 

been organised to promote artists 

from home and abroad.” 

Asaduzzaman Noor, cultural 

affairs minister said, “I hope it will 

be one of the largest art festivals in 

the world. The aim of such events 

is to uphold our country’s arts 

and culture. It should be a great 

opportunity for our local artists to 

connect with peers from across the 

globe.” 

This year, the exhibition will 

feature 260 artworks by 150 artists 

from 53 countries from around 

the world, including Bangladesh. 

In addition, there will also be a 

seminar on ‘Art and City’, a series 

of performance art presentations, 

International art camp, as well as 

other cultural programs. 

Eminent artists – Samarjit Roy 

Choudhury, Monirul Islam, Dr 

Farida Zaman and others – will 

have their artworks showcased at 

the biennale. Three grand prizes – 

worth Tk5 lacs each, along with six 

honourable mention awards, worth 

Tk3 lacs each, will be conferred to 

the deserving artists. 

The month-long exhibition will 

be open for all from 11am to 8pm 

every day till December 31. 

Finance Minister Abul Maal 

Abdul Muhith will inaugurate 

the grand event as chief guest 

and hand over the prizes to the 

winners. Cultural Affairs Minister 

Asaduzzaman Noor will be present 

as special guest. Aktari Mamtaz, 

Secretary, Ministry of Cultural 

Affairs, will chair the opening 

ceremony. 

For more detail, visit www. 

asianartbiennale.org.bd • 

The Poison Thorn in Iraq 


Bangladeshi documentary film on 

‘71 rape survivors Bishkanta (The 

Poison Thorn) has been invited 

to participate at the Baghdad 

International Film Festival to 

be held from December 3 to 7 

in Baghdad, Iraq. The film will 

take part in the documentary 

film competition. This year 

the festival is dedicated to the 

memory of Iraqi actor Youssef 

al-Ani and the Polish filmmaker 

Andrzej Wajda. 

The Poison Thorn, directed 

by Farzana Boby and produced 

by Rubaiyat Hossain, revolves 

around the narratives of three 

rape survivors of the Liberation 

War in 1971 of Bangladesh. Their 

voices have been resurrected 

from the agony of silence. As 

the pain and `stigma’ of rape 

kept haunting them long after 

liberation, they felt that even 

though the war had ended, 

another one had begun in their 

personal lives. Women who 

fought and survived rape are still 

struggling to gain a respectable 

existence in society. They are 

Birangonas – War heroines – yet 

they have to fight everyday for 

social approval. Ranjita Mandal 

blames patriarchy; Halima 

Khatun accuses the state, Rama 

Choudhury negates the idea of 

violence. They speak to break 

a silence after long forty three 

years and through their voices 

a new part of our history and 

identity comes into light. 

The Poison Thorn is a 

production of Khona Talkies. • 

An evening of Sufi music by 

the Roohani sisters 


Indira Gandhi Culture Centre 

(IGCC) is organising an Evening 

of Sufi music by ICCR troupe led 

by the Roohani Sisters from India 

on November 29 at 6pm at IGCC 

Dhanmondi and on November 30 at 

8 pm at the Gulshan Club, Dhaka. 

The Roohani Sisters, Jagriti 

Luthra and Neeta Pandey, are highly 

versatile classical singers of India. 

They trained in classical music from 

Smt Ketaki Banerjee of famous 

Kirana Gharana and are presently 

learning under the guidance of their 

Guru Sh. Ritesh Mishra of Banaras 

Gharana. Besides this, Jagriti Luthra 

has completed her 6th year from 

Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, 

and Prabhakar from Prayag Sangeet 

Samiti, Allahabad. Neeta Pandey 

has completed her Post Graduation 

in Indian Classical Music and MPhil 

from Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, 

University of Delhi. 

The troupe will also perform at 

the Hatkhola Festival in Chittagong 

on December 2. 

Entry for the event at the IGCC 

Dhanmondi on November 29 is free 

for all while it will be invitation only 

at the Gulshan Club on November 

30. Invitation cards can be collected 

from Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre, 

Road 2, House 24, Dhanmondi. •

32 


DT 

TICFA MEETING POSTPONED AS US 

GOES THROUGH POWER SHIFT PAGE 12 

Back Page 

BANGLADESH CLINCH THIRD 

AHF CUP IN A ROW PAGE 25 

THE POISON THORN 

IN IRAQ PAGE 31 

Alpona’s agro-effort kindles hope in others 

• Abu Siddique 

Undaunted in the face of adversity 

a 17-year-old girl wanted to be master 

of her own destiny. 

She comes from an impoverished 

remote village of Shyamnagar 

in Satkhira. She was like any 

other ordinary rural girl when she 

was married off at the age of 17. 

“I was just a housewife doing 

household chores but I knew I 

should do something that can help 

the family,” says Alpona Rani Mistory 

who is now 44 years old. 

Apart from her domestic chores 

she started working as a day labourer 

to earn some extra bucks to 

help her family. 

With the passage of time she began 

to ponder over how she could 

be master of her own fate. Finally, 

she began to work on her husband’s 

33 decimals of agricultural 

land adjacent to her home. 

Initially Alpona tried to cultivate 

different types of seasonal vegetables 

in the land round the year. 

But due to crisis of water, irrigating 

land for vegetable cultivation 

became difficult for her, especially 

in winter. But that could not deter 

Alpona from pursuing her dream. 

The couple ventured on to excavate 

a tiny pond adjacent to their 

farm to collect water for round-theyear 

irrigation. 

Alpona now cultivates potato 

and brinjal throughout the year. In 

Alpona in her only piece of land tending her vegetable garden. The picture has recently been taken 

between rows of potato she plants 

bean and other types of vegetables. 

Her yields have been bumper. 

After 10 years of her hard work 

life began to smile upon her. By 

the time, she has bought cows and 

goats. 

She now has a total of 10 cows, 

14 goats and 100 ducks – all she 

made from her vegetable production 

over the past few years. 

“I tried to use the land my husband 

inherited from his father. 

Initially, I produced some specific 

kinds of vegetables like potato, 

bean and others during winter. 

“Later I began to cultivate other 

vegetables like gourd that can be 

produced round the year,” she says. 

“However, for the past 10 years 

I have been producing different 

kinds of vegetables round the year 

with the help of my husband.” 

Alpona says she did not think 

PM’s flight reaches Budapest 

after emergency delay 


The VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh 

Airlines carrying Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina landed in the 

Hungarian capital of Budapest at 

11:05pm, Bangladesh time, yesterday. 

Shakil Meraj, general manager 

of Biman, confirmed it to the Dhaka 

Tribune. 

The flight took off from Budapest 

at 6:37pm, Bangladesh time, 

from Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan, 

where the flight was forced to 

make an emergency landing. 

The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300 

ER (Ranga Probhat), took off at 

9:14am yesterday from Dhaka airport 

and was carrying a high-level 

delegation comprising LGRD Minister 

Khandker Mosharraf Hossain 

and Water Resources Minister Anisul 

Islam Mahmud. It was scheduled 

to land in Budapest around 

6:45pm, Bangladesh time. 

Meraj said the pilots had to 

land in Ashgabat due to some 

mid-air technical complications. 

After completing repairs, the 

prime minister’s flight finally took 

off after a delay of more than four 

hours. 

Hungarian Minister of State for 

Security Policy and International 

Cooperation Istvan Mikola, Bangladesh 

Ambassador to Hungary M 

Abu Zafar, Hungarian Ambassador 

in Dhaka Gyula Petho and Chief of 

Protocol of Hungary Istvan Manno 

received the prime minister at 

the airport, BSS reported. 

Sheikh Hasina is on a four-day 

official visit to Hungary to attend 

the inaugural ceremony of the Budapest 

Water Summit 2016 slated 

for today. 

She is a member of the UN 

High-Level Panel on Water. 

The summit aims to chalk out 

the future course of action to 

achieve water and sanitation related 

SDG (Sustainable Development 

Goal) of the UN. 

It will also reflect on the progress 

made so far on water-related 

issues in the Paris climate 

agreement. 

The prime minister is also 

expected to inaugurate Bangladesh-Hungarian 

Business and 

Economic Forum and make a call 

on President Janos Ader. • 

of sending her two children – a son 

and a daughter – to school because 

her family was poor even though 

her husband owned 33 decimals 

of land. 

“Sending my children to district 

level school and college was 

once a dream but that dream has 

now come true,” she says with a 

smile. 

Her two children are now studying 

as her family can now afford 

their education expenses. Her son 

is studying at Shyamnagar College. 

After 16 years of her ceaseless 

efforts Alpona received the Bangabandhu 

Agricultural Award in 

2014 in the category of economic 

empowerment. 

But she is not alone now in such 

endeavour. At least 10 other women 

in Alpona’s village have also followed 

her footsteps to wage a fight 

against poverty. • 

‘Govt will not ban imo, 

Viber, WhatsApp’ 


State Minister of Posts and Telecommunications 

Tarana Halim 

yesterday confirmed that the government 

is not going to ban internet-based 

mobile messaging and 

voice applications such as imo, 

Viber and WhatsApp. 

In a press statement she said 

there is no reason to ban these apps. 

Tarana said the government 

would take steps to stop illegal 

usage of VoIP and reiterated the 

government’s zero tolerance policy 

regarding the issue. 

The statement referred to an 

earlier comment made by the 

chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication 

Regulatory Commission 

(BTRC) on the internet-based 

ABU SIDDIQUE 

messaging and voice applications, 

where he said the BTRC would 

make a decision on the terms of usage 

for these applications. 

BTRC Chairman Dr Shahjahan 

Mahmood told the press on Friday 

that the telecom regulatory body 

was planning to formulate a policy 

on the usage of messaging and calling 

services like WhatsApp, Viber 

and imo soon. 

“The volume of international 

calls dropped after the call rate was 

increased to ¢2 per minute. Earlier, 

the call volume had peaked at 123 

million minutes a day after the rate 

was slashed to ¢1.5 from ¢3 in late 

2014,” he said. 

According to the BTRC, Bangladesh 

is registering 70-80 million 

minutes of international calls a day. • 

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

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