DT e-Paper Saturday 09 September 2017

SECOND EDITION 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 | Bhadra 25, 1424, Zil-Hajj 17, 1438 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 5, No 121 | 24 pages plus 8-page sports supplement | Price: Tk10 

Why is Modi 

backing Suu Kyi 

on Rohingya 

issue? › 4 

When children 

become shields 

for militants › 5 

Strongest quake 

in a century 

kills 20, triggers 

tsunami in 

Mexico › 6 

Rawhide traders 

struggle after 

Eid-ul-Azha › 8 

DT 

Sports Tribune 

‘There is no Rohingya 

left in Tulatoli’ › 2 

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN 

All square 

Lyon, from groundsman 

3 to the GOAT 

From body language to 

Liverpool out to make 

4 fearlessness, Tigers come of age 6 title statement 

SPORTS SUPPLEMENT 

Lyon, from groundsman 

to the GOAT › 3 

From body language to 

fearlessness, Tigers 

come of age › 4 

Liverpool out to make 

title statement › 6

2 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 


News 

‘There is no Rohingya left in Tulatoli’ 

• Shafiur Rahman 

ROHINGYA CRISIS 

“There is no Rohingya left in Tulatoli”. 

These were the first words uttered 

to me by Nurul Huq, a gaunt 

65-year-old Rohingya refugee who 

has fled the ongoing conflict in Rakhine 

state in northwest Myanmar. 

Collapsing in a heap over a sack 

containing his belongings, he said: 

“I saw my son shot dead with my 

own eyes and the dead bodies of 

two of my daughters. Five other 

daughters of mine remain missing.” 

He is one of a dozen or so Rohingya 

villagers I have met from 

Min Gyi or Tulatoli (as referred to 

by Rohingya) and the neighbouring 

village of Onsiprang. They have 

been describing what could prove 

to be one of the worst large-scale 

massacres in the continuing military 

operation against Rohingya 

villages immediately east of Bangladesh’s 

border. Eyewitnesses have 

claimed that over a period of three 

days beginning Wednesday 30th 

August, virtually all the villagers of 

Min Gyi were put to death. 

If confirmed, this bloodshed 

would be one in a string of alleged 

mass killings perpetrated by the 

Myanmar army with support from 

the local Rakhine population, propelling 

270,000 Rohingya people to 

seek refuge in Bangladesh. 

Mohammed Nasir arrived in 

Bangladesh from No Man’s land 

in pitch darkness, having walked 

for three days with his family and 

struggling with a heavy sack on his 

head. What he told me matches the 

chilling accounts of the massacre 

recounted to me by other fellow 

villagers. 

“After the military had surrounded 

the village and cut off all 

exit points, the Rakhine chairman 

of the village assured the villagers 

that the military would not harm 

them but that their homes would 

be torched. He told the villagers to 

assemble in one place where they 

would be safe.” 

Nasir described how the destruction 

began in the morning 

with homes being torched. However 

soon the assurances that no 

physical harm would come to 

the villagers proved to be empty. 

All the eyewitnesses described 

the same killing methods - long 

swords, burning alive in torched 

homes, rifle shots, or “brush fire” 

by auto and semiautomatic weapons 

as well as a weapon the villagers 

called “launcher”. 

Nasir himself had escaped to 

a nearby hillock with his family. 

From his vantage point and before 

he left for Bangladesh later that 

day, he recounted how “bodies 

were thrown into large pits near 

Top: A Rohingya woman waits with 

her children at Balukhali makeshift 

camp in Cox’s Bazar 

Right: Nurul Huq, a 65-year-old 

Rohingya refugee who has fled the 

ongoing conflict in Rakhine state 

PHOTOS: SHAFIUR RAHMAN 

the river, covered in straw, doused 

in petrol and torched.” 

I also met villagers who were 

much closer to the scene of violence. 

I came across Zahid and his 

10-year-old nephew Osman near 

Balukhali makeshift camp. They 

were yet to pitch their tent, and 

wondering where to do so. Osman 

had witnessed the killing of both 

his parents as he hid in a bush and 

peeped out. Zahid, 20 years older, 

was emotional when he recalled 

what happened: 

“I have lost nine family members 

including my wife, two sons, 

two young sisters, my brother’s 

wife and son”. 

Zahid described in disturbing 

detail how many of the women 

villagers lost their lives. It is a gruesome 

scenario which suggests the 

military were vacillating about how 

exactly to kill the women. “Many 

of the women were near the river. 

After the military had torched the 

homes, they told the women to 

get out of the river and sit down 

on the bank. Then they changed 

their minds and ordered them to 

stand up. Then they again ordered 

them to sit down. Finally they said 

stand up and form a line. They then 

shouted at the women to run. 

As they ran, they brush fired 

them. After the shooting, around 

30 women survived. They told 

these women to wait in the water 

again. And from this group of 30, 

they would take 5 women at a time 

into huts to rape them. After raping 

them, they were robbed off their 

jewellery, and then beaten to death 

and the huts set on fire.” 

Four women survived this ordeal 

according to Nasir. These 

women are now in Kutupalong 

MSF clinic with burns and other injuries. 

Nurul Amin’s niece, Shofika, 

is one of the victims receiving care 

at the MSF clinic. He simply cannot 

believe that she is alive. 

He told me “you can see her 

brain such is the size of the fracture 

in her skull, and she has another 

wound down one side of her body. 

I do not know how she is still with 

us”. Shofika was transported to 

the MSF clinic in Kutupalong over 

a period of three days and through 

the very difficult terrain that characterises 

the border areas of Bangladesh. 

After the military had 

torched the homes, 

they told the women 

to get out of the 

river. They ordered 

them to stand up 

and form a line. They 

then shouted at the 

women to run. As 

they ran, they 

brush-fired on them 

Equally challenging was the 

journey undertaken by a mother of 

five. I found her crying in a makeshift 

encampment. I asked her 

what she had seen with her own 

eyes in Tulatoli. “With my own 

eyes, I saw the dead bodies of not 

less than 300 small kids and about 

200 women of my age”. 

It was touch and go whether 

she would make it out of Tulatoli 

herself. Her husband and son 

had both been killed in the army 

assault. When she tried to escape, 

she found that the river’s current 

was too fast and too high for 

her to manage with her small 

children. 

Thankfully her brothers were 

there to help. As she made her escape, 

she saw children hiding in 

the paddy fields. She said “The 

military caught these children, put 

them flat on the floor and drove 

long knives into their chests and 

their stomachs. The lifeless bodies 

were thrown in the river.” 

She got separated from her 

brothers and made her way with 

her children with villagers from 

neighbouring villages. Now in Balukhali, 

she has been asked by the 

Bangladeshi who has a lease over 

that land to pay 1000 taka to have 

a spot for her to pitch a tent. She 

was muttering that maybe it would 

have been better if she had been 

burnt to death. “There is no one 

to buy me terpal (plastic sheeting) 

and no one to construct a hut for 

me. And I don’t know how I can 

feed my children”. 

Shafiur Rahman is a documentary 

filmmaker engaged in making a 

documentary about Rohingya women.

News 

SATURDAY, 

3 

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 


‘270,000 Rohingyas 

fled in past 2 weeks’ 

• Reuters, Geneva 


An estimated 270,000 Rohingya 

refugees have fled Myanmar in the 

past two weeks and sought refuge 

in Bangladesh, where two existing 

refugee camps are “bursting at the 

seams”, the UN refugee agency 

UNHCR said on Friday. 

The exodus of the minority Rohingya 

was triggered by insurgent 

attacks on August 25 and an army 

counter-offensive. 

Myanmar says its forces are 

fighting a legitimate campaign 

against terrorists responsible for a 

string of attacks on the police and 

army since last October. Officials 

blame Rohingya militants for killing 

non-Muslims and burning their 

homes. 

“The two refugee camps in 

Cox’s Bazar, home to nearly 34,000 

Rohingya refugees before this 

influx, are now bursting at the 

seams. 

The population has more than 

doubled in two weeks, totalling 

more than 70,000. There is an urgent 

need for more land and shelters,” 

UNHCR said in a briefing note 

for reporters in Geneva. 

“The vast majority are women, 

including mothers with newborn 

babies, families with children. 

They arrive in poor condition, exhausted, 

hungry and desperate for 

shelter.” 

The United Nations was expecting 

a total refugee influx of 

300,000, up from a previous estimate 

of 120,000, an official told 

reporters on Wednesday. • 

Who stands where on Rohingya 

The scale and speed of the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has world leaders scrambling to craft a response to the plight of the Rohingya. Here’s what they said: 

BANGLADESH 

US 

The United States has expressed deep concern 

about the violence in Rakhine. 

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert: 

“There has been a significant displacement of local 

populations following serious allegations of human 

rights abuses, including mass burnings of Rohingya 

villages and violence conducted by security forces 

and also armed civilians. We call on Myanmar to 

allow better access to the country for reporters and 

humanitarian aid groups.” 

EU 

The European Union (EU) has condemned the ongoing violence 

against the Rohingyas in Rakhine. 

High Representative of European Union for Foreign Affairs and 

Security Policy and also the Vice-President of the Commission 

Federica Mogherini: “The situation in Northern Rakhine State in 

Myanmar is extremely serious and has our [EU] full attention. 

There is an urgent need for a de-escalation of tensions, on all 

sides, and for full observance of international human rights law.” 

Buthidaung 

Maungdaw 

SIttwe 

UK 

The United Kingdom called on Aung San Suu Kyi to “stop the violence” that 

has broken out against Rohingya Muslims in the country. 

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson: “Aung San Suu Kyi is rightly regarded as one 

of the most inspiring figures of our age but the treatment of the Rohingya 

is alas besmirching the reputation of Burma. I hope she can now use all her 

remarkable qualities to unite her country, to stop the violence and to end the 

prejudice that afflicts both Muslims and other communities in Rakhine.” 

Turkey 

Turkey has pledged to raise the 

issue at the United Nations and to 

press Myanmar to stop “Rohingya 

genocide”. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: 

“You watched the situation 

that Myanmar Muslims are in. You 

saw how villages have been burned 

... Humanity remained silent to the 

massacre in Myanmar”. 

Bangladesh 

Bangladesh has pressed Myanmar 

to resolve the crisis and take back 

the Rohingya. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina: “People 

are fleeing to Bangladesh after 

losing everything. We are trying our 

best to help them. In addition, we 

are pressuring the Myanmar government 

so that they take back their 

people from our country. That’s 

what we want.” 

RAKHINE 

BAY OF 

BENGAL 

MYANMAR 

India 

India has expressed concern about “extremist violence” in 

Myanmar and condemned the loss of life among members of 

the Myanmar security forces. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “We hope that all 

stakeholders together can find a way out in which unity and 

territorial integrity of Myanmar is respected. We share concerns 

about the extremist violence in the Rakhine state and 

especially the violence against the security forces and how 

innocent lives have been affected and killed.” 

China 

China said in a statement on August 31 that it 

condemns the violent attacks that occurred 

in Rakhine, and “as a friendly neighbour,” 

it supports Myanmar’s efforts to maintain 

peace in the region. 

Earlier this year China offered to mediate the 

diplomatic row between Myanmar and Bangladesh 

over a previous flight of Rohingya, as 

both nations see the Muslim minority as the 

other side’s problem. In May, Xi also assured 

Suu Kyi that China would continue to help 

with Myanmar’s peace process. 

Myanmar 

Myanmar has insisted that its security forces 

are working to stabilise Rakhine in the face of 

a terrorist threat and has denied reports of 

atrocities. 

Leader Aung San Suu Kyi: “That kind of fake 

information … was simply the tip of a huge 

iceberg of misinformation calculated to 

create a lot of problems between different 

communities and with the aim of promoting 

the interest of the terrorists.” 

MAP: AFP

4 



News 

Why is Modi backing Suu Kyi on Rohingya issue? 

• Ranjan Basu, Delhi 


Narendra Modi has kept mum on 

the plight of Rohingyas during his 

three-day Myanmar visit but said 

India shared Myanmar’s concern 

about “extremist violence” in its 

Rakhine state. 

Indian observers say Modi’s 

announcement did not come as a 

surprise since it is only natural for 

India to prioritise business ties and 

strategy in its relations with Myanmar. 

Modi visited Myanmar amid an 

army crackdown in the Rakhine 

that has so far forced an estimated 

270,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing 

into Bangladesh. 

Refugees and rights groups say 

hundreds of Rohingya have been 

killed in the military operation triggered 

by insurgents’ August 25 attack 

on dozens of police posts and 

an army base. 

Myanmar denies the claims. 

Naypyitaw does not recognise the 

Rohingya, considered to be one of 

the most persecuted communities 

in the world, as its citizens, and 

sees them as illegal immigrants 

from Bangladesh. 

Almost all the diplomats, researchers 

and analysts the Bangla 

Tribune interviewed in Delhi said 

that Modi did not speak a word 

about the Rohingya crisis as India 

was desperate to improve its economic 

ties with resource-rich Myanmar. 

India also refused to sign a global 

declaration adopted at an international 

conclave on Thursday as 

it referred to the violence against 

Rohingya. 

India refuses to sign global declaration against Myanmar 

• scroll.in 


India on Thursday refused to sign a 

global declaration adopted at an international 

conclave as it referred 

to the violence against Rohingya 

Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine 

state, PTI reported. 

The Bali Declaration, adopted at 

the World Parliamentary Forum on 

Sustainable Development in Indonesia, 

called on all parties to contribute 

to restoring stability and security 

in the region. It urged everyone 

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi talk before their meeting in the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw, Myanmar 

September 6, 2017 

REUTERS 

‘Act East’ policy 

Myanmar is India’s first stoppage 

in its Act East policy. Delhi is also 

keen to strengthen business ties 

with ASEAN members and considers 

Naypyitaw its gateway to 

Southeast Asia. 

Naypyitaw is also Delhi’s partner 

in BIMSTEC. 

India’s bilateral trade with Myanmar 

has grown to about $2.2 billion 

and Delhi has invested heavily 

in connectivity projects through 

Myanmar – one of them is a trilateral 

highway passing through Myanmar 

to Thailand – but these projects 

have moved slowly. 

Former Indian ambassador to 

Myanmar VS Seshadri explained 

that India has so much stake in 

Myanmar in business and connectivity 

that Delhi cannot afford bitterness 

with Naypyitaw at any cost. 

“Good relations with Myanmar 

is the first and most important condition 

for the success of our Act 

East policy,” he said. 

The Chinese factor 

Myanmar’s relations with China 

has improved further since Aung 

San Suu Kyi’s National League for 

Democracy came to power. She 

travelled to Beijing after becoming 

the state counsellor. 

China is also mediating peace 

talks between Myanmar and various 

armed communities. Beijing is also 

constructing Kyauk Pyu port and has 

set up gas pipelines up to Kunming. 

to “exercise maximum self-restraint 

from using violent means, respect 

the human rights of all people in Rakhine 

state regardless of their faith 

and ethnicity, as well as facilitate 

and guarantee safe access for humanitarian 

assistance”. 

The Indian delegation, led by 

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, 

said it was inappropriate and 

unjustified to refer to the Myanmar 

violence in particular as the forum 

was focused on the Sustainable Development 

Goals of all countries. 

“This was in view of the fact 

Times of India’s Diplomatic Editor 

Indrani Bagchi said the situation 

has been gradually changing. 

Myanmar is giving India a clear 

signal that it wants to maintain a 

balance between Delhi and Beijing 

because both are very important 

neighbours for Naypyitaw. 

India sees this as an excellent 

opportunity to rekindle an old 

friendship, all the while pushing 

back against Chinese influence on 

Myanmar, she said. 

Delhi will never want uncomfortable 

issues like violence against 

Rohingyas to cast a shadow on this 

scenario, Baghchi said. 

Stability in the Rakhine 

India is constructing the Kaladan 

Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project 

at a cost of nearly $500 million 

through Rakhine, to directly connect 

India’s northeast with the Bay 

of Bengal. 

It involves developing a port, an 

inland waterways terminal and a 

road. It can also serve as an alternative 

if Bangladesh ever refuses to 

that the declaration, which was 

to be adopted at the conclusion of 

the forum, was not in line with the 

agreed global principles of ‘sustainable 

development,’” the Lok 

Sabha Secretariat said. 

The meeting comes a day after 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told 

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung 

San Suu Kyi that India shared their 

“concerns about extremist violence 

in Rakhine state”, referring 

to the stateless Rohingyas in the 

region. He said India “understands 

the challenges” and praised the 

give India transit. 

Geopolitical stability in the region 

is a must for realising this important 

project. 

Delhi has nearly finished the Sittwe 

port work where the Kaladan 

project starts. But construction of 

the Mizoram road through thick 

forest at the end of the Kaladan river 

path is stuck. 

Gautam Mukhopadhaya, who 

retired last year after serving as 

Indian ambassador to Myanmar, 

said the 2012 violence in Rakhine 

pushed back the Kaladan project. 

Almost all the labourers or local 

engineers working in the project 

were local Muslims who were 

forced to flee after violence erupted. 

So, India needs peace and stability 

in the Rakhine for the sake of 

the Kaladan project, he added. 

Anti-militant operations 

Four Indian states – Arunachal 

Pradesh, Nagaland, Monipur, and 

Mizoram – share nearly 1,643km 

border with Myanmar. 

Nobel Prize winner’s leadership of 

“Myanmar’s peace process”. 

Rohingyas in India 

On September 5, Minister of State 

for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the 

government had set up a task force 

in various states to identify and deport 

Rohingya refugees in India. He 

maintained that the Rohingyas were 

illegal immigrants who needed to be 

deported “as per the law”. 

On August 18, India’s National 

Human Rights Commission had 

issued a notice to the Home Affairs 

Many northeastern extremist 

groups have hideouts in the deep 

forests along the border. 

India has long been conducting 

anti-militant operations in these 

areas and at times, even struck 

the militants inside Myanmar. It is 

clear that such operations are not 

possible without Naypyitaw’s consent 

and assistance. 

Delhi has no other option but 

to maintain this cooperation with 

Myanmar to maintain peace in its 

northeast. 

Delhi-based strategic thinktank 

Institute of Defence Studies and 

Analysis’ researcher Gautam Sen 

pointed out that most of the insurgent 

groups like the NSCN or Ulfa, 

who are fighting against India, 

have hideouts or training camps in 

the Myanmar jungles. 

“So, the assistance of Myanmar, 

and particularly of its army, is very 

important for India to eliminate 

these [insurgents],” he added. 

This article was first published on 

banglatribune.com 

Ministry over its decision to send 

them back to Myanmar. The commission 

had said that as per the 

Constitution of India, the right to 

life and personal liberty applies to 

all, irrespective of their citizenship. 

The Human Rights Watch had also 

urged New Delhi to “abide by its international 

legal obligations” and 

not forcibly deport Rohingyas. 

Around 40,000 Rohingya Muslim 

refugees live in India across 

Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar 

Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan 

and Delhi. •

News 5 


When children become shields for militants 

• Tarek Mahmud 

SPECIAL 

Two brothers, 11-year-old Osama 

and two-year-old Omar, sons of 

New JMB financier and member 

Abdullah, are the latest to join a 

list of children of Islamist militants 

who lost their lives after their parents 

chose death over arrest by security 

forces. 

They burned to death on Tuesday 

night after their father blew 

them up along with himself, his 

two wives and two other associates 

inside the flat they lived at Mirpur’s 

Darus Salam in Dhaka. 

The fire from the explosions had 

burnt the children’s bodies so badly 

that Rapid Action Battalion’s crime 

scene unit could not differentiate 

them from the other five charred 

bodies at first while recovering 

them after a 38-hour-long 

standoff. 

The skulls and burnt bodies of 

seven were found on Wednesday 

morning during sweeps by RAB 

teams in the fourth-floor flat on 

“Komol Prova” apartment building 

on Bordhon Bari Road, about 250 

yards far from the Darus Salam police 

station. 

Afterwards, RAB Director General 

Benazir Ahmed told reporters: 

“We did try to find them alive. We 

were patient with Abdullah and 

gave him the chance to surrender 

while hoping to save the kids.” 

“We were hopeful about getting 

the two kids out alive when Abdullah 

agreed to surrender. But then 

he went and set off five bombs, 

killing everybody and starting the 

fire in the process,” said RAB’s Media 

and Legal Wing Director Commander 

Mufti Mahmud Khan. 

Sabina Akter Tuhin, the reserved 

seat lawmaker from the 

area, told reporters that she was 

shocked when she heard the militant 

killed himself along with his 

wives and children. 

“The father might have been 

a criminal, but the two kids were 

innocent. So, why they had to die? 

Was it their fault to be born in a 

criminal’s family?” 

Prof Dr Mehtab Khanam, chairperson 

of Dhaka University’s educational 

and counselling psychology 

department, told the Dhaka 

Tribune: “Going against human nature 

to live, people like these militants 

who premeditatedly kill 

themselves tends to show no concern 

for their children’s wellbeing. 

“But the militants arrested alive 

by police need to be examined to 

find out what really drive them to 

do this.” 

Stressing concern, she suggested: 

“We must carry out campaigns 

from all sides against such activities.” 

Nothing new for New JMB 

Security agencies say the trend of 

killing themselves with their wives 

and children by exploding bombs 

is not something new for Islamist 

militants, specifically the New Jama’atul 

Mujahideen Bangladesh 

(New JMB). 

On March 30, the outfit’s members 

at a hideout in Moulvibazar’s Nasirpur 

blew themselves up along with 

four children, all under 10 years of 

age, in the face of a raid. 

Members of the law enforcement 

agencies were shocked at 

the horrifying scene when they 

entered that den after ending a 

33-hour-long operation. 

The bodies of four children were 

strewn around inside that bungalow. 

They were so badly disintegrated 

that it was only after a crime 

scene unit went through the place, 

it was determined that there were 

two females, one male and four 

children there. 

“There was a big explosion at 

the beginning of our operation. 

That was when they blew themselves 

up, including the children,” 

said Monirul Islam, chief of Dhaka 

Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism 

and Transnational Crime 

(CTTC) unit. 

We were hopeful about getting the two kids 

out alive when Abdullah agreed to surrender. 

But then he went and set off five bombs, 

killing everybody 

On March 16, a child was found 

dead in another militant den at 

Premtola in Sitakunda, Chittagong 

where four militants including a 

woman blew themselves up during 

a police raid. 

Before that, a four-year-old girl 

named Sabina, suffered splinter 

injuries when her mother, a female 

New JMB member, came out of a 

hideout with her and detonated a 

bomb during another operation in 

The charred walls and railings of the 

balcony of Abdullah’s flat, where 

Osama and Omar died with their 

parents, merely paint the horrifying 

picture of the militants’ growing 

tendency to kill their children while 

committing suicide to avoid arrest 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

Dhaka’s Ashkona on December 24 

last year. 

The explosion had broken Sabina’s 

left arm, and splinters pierced 

her belly and made some holes in 

the oesophagus. She underwent a 

surgery at Dhaka Medical College 

Hospital and was brought back 

from the edge of death. 

New JMB leader Tanvir Qadri 

had refused to surrender and committed 

suicide during a raid on a 

hideout in Azimpur on September 

10 last year. One of his 14-year-old 

twin sons Tahrim Qadri was detained 

during that raid while the 

other, Afif Qadri, was arrested later. 

Tahrim confessed before a Dhaka 

court that their parents – Tanvir 

and Abedatul Fatema Khadiza – 

were directly involved in militant 

activities and he and his brother 

also got involved by inheritance. 

Two other children – eightyear-old 

Junayara alias Pinki and 

one-year-old Sabiha Zaman – were 

also rescued during that raid and 

later sent to DMP’s victim support 

centre. 


Suicide attacks and trauma 

After the Gulshan cafe attack of 

July last year, which killed 27 people 

including the five attackers, security 

agencies had started a crackdown 

on the terror outfits that is 

still ongoing, Tuesday’s raid at Mirpur 

being the latest. 

What has not changed among 

the militants, who are found living 

in hideouts with families, police 

officials say, is their trend to use 

wives and children as shields while 

discussing terms of surrender. 

“When kids are involved, we 

give the militants the chance to 

surrender as we want to save the 

women and children,” said CTTC 

unit’s Additional Deputy Commissioner 

Abdul Mannan. 

But the militants usually use 

that chance to kill time and prepare 

a suicide attack, which is such a 

brutal way to die for the children, 

he added. 

Psychologists say such suicidal 

acts by militant parents that lead to 

their children’s deaths during an attack 

or police raid also tend to leave 

some witnesses and survivors traumatised, 

specially children. 

Twenty-one children, who were 

among 78 residents of Atia Mahal 

evacuated during an 111-hour-long 

raid on a militant den in Sylhet’s 

Shib Bari in March, are still traumatised 

by their memory of the 

explosions and gunfire, said their 

parents. 

Islamic scholars weigh in 

Maulana Farid Uddin Masud, who 

leads a campaign of Islamic scholars 

against militancy, earlier told 

the Dhaka Tribune: “Children are 

beyond sides in any war, conflict 

and ideology in the eyes of Islam 

and Shariah. 

“Our Prophet Hazrat Muhammad 

(SM) always instructed keeping 

children and woman away from 

any unrest or humiliation. Hadith 

says in many places that children 

would get Jannat (heaven) if they 

are killed in any situation. They 

have no sin.” 

Masud added: “If anyone uses 

children as shields in such a heinous 

manner, they will be punished. 

This practice of militants is 

unacceptable. Militancy is not recognised 

by Islam.” 

“This is nothing that Islam 

teaches or even supports,” said 

Bangladesh Islamic Foundation’s 

Director General Shamim Mohammad 

Afzal. 

He said: “Islam always respects 

and protects Muslims and other 

believers. Killing children is unacceptable 

in our religion.” • 

TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY 

Dhaka 34 27 Chittagong 32 27 Rajshahi 35 27 Rangpur 33 26 Khulna 33 27 Barisal 33 27 Sylhet 30 24 

Cox’s Bazar 30 26 

HEAVY RAIN LIKELY 


DHAKA 

TODAY 

TOMORROW 

SUN SETS 6:08PM 

SUN RISES 5:43AM 

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW 

36.3ºC 

22.5ºC 

Jessore 

Rangamati 

Source: Accuweather/UNB 

PRAYER 

TIMES 

Fajr: 5:10am | Zohr: 1:15pm 

Asr: 4:45pm | Magrib: 6:25pm 

Esha: 8:15pm 

Source: Islamic Foundation

6 



News 

Police station had no info on 

suspected militant Abdullah 

97-hour long Mirpur raid ended with huge cache of explosives 

• Tarek Mahmud 

MILITANCY 

RAB recovered 50 locally made chemical bombs, 17 stronger bombs, 30 IED grenades, 10kg gunpowder, one container of acid 

and other combustibles, 100 locally made sharp weapons, explosives and ignites from the Mirpur militant den DHAKA TRIBUNE 

Komol Prova apartment building 

in Mirpur’s Borbdhonbari area 

of Dhaka is only about 200 yards 

away from the Darus Salam police 

station and yet police could not 

trace suspected militant Abdullah 

who had lived in the area since 

2003. 

Furthermore, the office of Dhaka 

Metropolitan Police’s Assistant 

Commissioner (Darus Salam zone) 

is only 50 yards from the six-storey 

Komol Prova. 

DMP AC (Darus Salam) Syed 

Mamun Mostafa told the Dhaka 

Tribune: “Abdullah camouflaged 

as a pigeon trader and IPS-maker 

to stay away from law enforcers’ 

eyes. Besides, no criminal record 

has been found against him since 

he started living here.” 

But the police official admitted 

that the local police station 

does not have enough information 

about the tenant Abdullah. 

The owner of Komol Prova, Habibullah 

Bahar Azad, who is now 

on a five-day remand after being 

arrested in a terrorism case lodged 

with Savar police station earlier 

this year, did not provide his tenants’ 

detailed information to the 

local police, the AC said. 

Claiming that some local house 

owners did not submit the complete 

information of their tenants, 

Darus Salam police station 

OC Selimujjaman told the Dhaka 

Tribune: “We would have arrested 

Abdullah if we had information on 

him. 

“This is a lesson for us. Now we 

are scrutinising all the collected 

tenant forms and started to make 

those fully informative so that 

none can escape the hand of law.” 

RAB traced Abdullah from information 

given by two suspected 

militants arrested from Tangail on 

September 4. 

RAB announces Komol Prova 

explosive free 

RAB, after a 97-hour drive at Komol 

Prova that started around 

1:30am on September 5, recovered 

huge stock of explosives, explosives-making 

materials and lethal 

arms before concluding the raid 

around 4pm yesterday. 

The security agency recovered 

50 locally made chemical bombs, 

17 stronger bombs, 30 IED (Improvised 

Explosive Device) grenades, 

10kg gunpowder, one container of 

acid and other combustibles, 100 

locally made sharp weapons, explosives 

and ignites from the hideout. 

RAB Director (Media and Legal 

wing) Commander Mufti Mahmud 

Khan said: “On Friday, the elite 

force recovered seven powerful 

bombs, including two IEDs with 

refrigerators, 30 IED grenades, 20 

chemical bombs, nine containers, 

12kg explosives and one carton 

containing 1,000 ignites. 

“We made the whole building 

explosive-free and asked the 

authorities concerned to check 

whether the building is livable or 

not as the explosions caused damage 

on third and fourth floors.” 

He also said the top floor of the 

building was used as a bomb-making 

lab by the militants, and though 

the raid ended, the damaged floor 

will be kept under RAB surveillance. 

Earlier, the elite force recovered 

a blueprint of a multi-storey building 

from the hideout. The militants 

had marked out spots in the blueprint. 

“We assume that the militants 

might have had a plan to attack a 

big establishment,” Mufti said. 

He said: “Abdullah used to work 

at an electrical store where he made 

and repaired Instant Power Supply 

(IPS) units. The presence of the design 

and explosives led us to believe 

that they were probably planning to 

attack a multi-storey building.” 

RAB looks for ‘Don Bhai’ 

Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan 

said they are now looking for a militant 

identified as “Don Bhai” – the 

name uttered by militant Abdullah 

during the raid before his death. 

The RAB official said: “We are 

also trying to collect information 

about five to six other cohorts of 

Abdullah.” 

But the RAB high official did not 

say more about Don Bhai or the 

other associates of Abdullah for the 

sake of their investigation. • 

Strongest quake in a century kills 20, triggers tsunami in Mexico 

• AFP, Mexico City 

WORLD 

A powerful 8.2-magnitude earthquake 

rocked Mexico late Thursday, 

killing at least 20 people and triggering 

a tsunami alert in what the 

president called the quake-prone 

country’s biggest one in a century. 

The quake hit offshore in the 

Pacific at 0449 GMT, about 100km 

from the coastal town of Tonala, in 

far southern Chiapas state, Mexico’s 

seismologic service said. 

“It was a major earthquake in 

scale and magnitude, the strongest 

in the past 100 years,” said President 

Enrique Pena Nieto in an address 

from the National Disaster 

Prevention Centre’s headquarters, 

where he was supervising the 

emergency response. 

The US Geological Survey put 

the magnitude slightly lower, at 

8.1. That is the same as a devastating 

1985 earthquake that killed 

more than 10,000 people in Mexico 

City, the country’s most destructive 

ever. 

The quake shook a large swath 

of the country and was felt as far 

north as Mexico City, some 800 km 

from the epicentre, where people 

ran from their homes as buildings 

trembled and swayed. 

‘The car was wobbling’ 

Pena Nieto said 50 million of Mexico’s 

120 million people felt the 

quake. 

It was also felt in much of Guatemala, 

which borders Chiapas. 

Mexican officials ordered 

schools to remain closed Friday in 

11 states, including Mexico City, so 

officials could inspect for structural 

damage. 

In the capital, people ran out of 

buildings, many in their pajamas, 

after hearing earthquake warning 

sirens go off just before midnight 

(0500 GMT Friday). 

“I was driving when the ground 

started to shake. The car was wobbling,” 

said Cristian Rodriguez, a 

28-year-old Uber driver in Mexico 

City. 

People gather on a street after an earthquake hit Mexico City, Mexico, September 

8, 2017 REUTERS 

The quake struck at a depth of 

69.7km, according to the USGS. 

Initially, authorities issued a 

tsunami alert for a huge stretch of 

coastline starting in central Mexico 

and spanning Central America all 

the way down to Ecuador. 

But the alert was lifted several 

hours after the quake. 

The Pacific Tsunami Warning 

Centre had originally said a tsunami 

of more than three meters was 

possible. In the end, the quake 

caused rough seas but no tsunami, 

officials said. 

Since the 1985 earthquake, Mexican 

authorities have instituted a 

stricter building code and developed 

an alert system using sensors 

placed on the coasts. 

Mexico sits atop five tectonic 

plates, whose movement makes it 

one of the most seismically active 

countries in the world. •

Bangladesh 

overhauls Pakistan 

in per capita GDP 

• Tribune Desk 

ECONOMY 

August revealed a remarkable turnaround 

for Bangladesh’s GDP per 

person of $1,538, which is higher 

than that of Pakistan’s GDP per person, 

standing at $1,470. 

The respective currencies were 

converted into dollars at market 

exchange rates for the calculation 

of the GDP per head. 

After gaining independence 

from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh 

was left in dire circumstances 

where the industry accounted for 

only 6-7% GDP, compared to Pakistan’s 

20%. The battle for independence 

led to the displacement 

of million lives and damaged infrastructure, 

while Pakistan’s bankers 

and industrialists severed ties with 

the newly formed country. 

However, Bangladesh rose from 

the ashes of the past and transformed 

itself into a state of flourishing 

economic growth. 

Bangladesh moved ahead because 

of a rise in population in Pakistan, 

updating earlier population 

estimates to 207.8 million people, 

which is 9 million more than previously 

thought. Therefore, the new 

count also knocked off 4-5% off Pakistan’s 

GDP per person, according 

to a report by The Economist. 

The arithmetic consequence 

and revealing an estimate of too 

many people in Pakistan worked as 

an advantage for Bangladesh. 

However, Pakistan’s $1,470 GDP 

per person actually has more purchasing 

power than Bangladesh’s 

$1,538, as a dollar stretches further in 

Pakistan than in Bangladesh because 

prices in the former tend to be lower. 

Bangladesh’s economic progress 

must be celebrated, since its annual 

growth has averaged more than 

6% over the past ten years and has 

run above 7% over the past two. Industry 

accounts for 29% of its GDP. 

Bangladesh’s GDP per capita 

received a boost from another 

source. Its last census, in 2011, led 

to a large revision of the country’s 

population, larger even than Pakistan’s. 

But in Bangladesh’s case, 

the revision was downwards. 

Bangladesh, one of the primary exporters 

of ready-made clothes across 

the world, now exports more readymade 

garments than India and Pakistan 

combined. Even though working 

conditions are still mediocre, Bangladesh 

has come a long way and doing 

far better than they once were. • 

News 

SATURDAY, 

US court deals blow to Trump 

travel ban 

• AFP, Los Angeles 

WORLD 

A federal court in California dealt a 

new blow Thursday to the Trump 

administration’s travel ban, ruling 

that some refugees must be allowed 

into the country. 

It is the latest twist of the legal 

wrangling touched off by President 

Donald Trump’s ban, first 

announced in January with little 

notice and widely criticised as 

discriminatory against Muslims. 

Trump says it is needed to keep out 

terrorists. 

In the new ruling, the US Ninth 

Circuit of Appeals, based in San 

Francisco, upheld a ruling by a court 

in Hawaii, a decision against which 

the administration had appealed. 

The new decision states that the 

ban must exclude “refugees who 

have a formal assurance from an 

agency within the United States 

that the agency will provide or ensure 

the provision of reception and 

placement services to that refugee.” 

It could pave the way for the entry 

of some 24,000 refugees whose 

asylum requests had already been 

approved. 

And as the US Supreme Court 

had ruled in July, the three-judge 

panel in San Francisco confirmed 

that the ban cannot be applied to 

grandparents and other close family 

members living in six mainly 

Muslim countries and seeking to 

visit relatives in the United States. 

The Supreme Court ruled in 

late June that the 90-day travel 

ban, purportedly aimed at better 

screening out potential security 

risks, can be broadly enforced for 

travelers from the six mainly Muslim 

countries “who lack any bona 

fide relationship with a person or 

entity in the United States.” 

Days later, the Trump administration 

interpreted that to mean that 

only “close family” was exempted. 

It defined this as the parents, 

spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, 

siblings and step- and 

half-siblings of people in the US. 

Irma slams Turks and Caicos on path to Florida 


WORLD 

Hurricane Irma battered the Turks 

and Caicos Islands early Friday 

and Cuba evacuated tourists from 

beachside resorts as the fearsome 

storm continued a rampage 

through the Caribbean that has 

killed at least 11 people, with Florida 

in its sights. 

Waves as high as 20 feet were 

expected in the Turks and Caicos. 

Communications went down as the 

storm slammed into the islands, 

and the extent of the devastation 

was unclear. 

The first hurricane warnings 

were issued for parts of southern 

Florida as the state braced for what 

could be a catastrophic hit over the 

weekend. Following in Irma’s wake 

was Hurricane Jose, with some of 

the islands hit hardest by Irma in 

its expected path. 

Irma weakened from a Category 

5 storm to Category 4 on Friday 

morning with maximum sustained 

winds near 250kph, but it remained 

a powerful hurricane. 

Irma rolled past the Dominican 

Republic and Haiti on Thursday 

View of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Saint Martin island in the Caribbean September 7, 2017 

and spun along the northern coast 

of Cuba on Friday morning. Thousands 

of tourists were evacuated 

from low-lying keys off the Cuban 

coast Thursday in anticipation of 

20-feet storm surges. 

All residents of the area were under 

mandatory evacuation orders 

from the Cuban government, which 

was moving tens of thousands of 

people from vulnerable coastline. 

‘Irma will devastate US’ 

The head of the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency said US 

officials were preparing a massive 

response to Irma. 

“Hurricane Irma continues to be 

a threat that is going to devastate 

the US in either Florida or some 

of the southeastern states,” FEMA 

Administrator Brock Long said at a 

news briefing on Friday. He warned 

that parts of Florida would be out 

of electricity for days if not longer 

and that more than 100,000 people 

may need shelter. • 

7 

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 

Bangladeshi 

woman sold for 

Rs1 lakh in India 


WORLD 

A 21-year-old Bangladeshi woman, 

who was trafficked into prostitution, 

was allegedly sold in Mumbai. 

She was sold for Rs1 lakh to an 

agent by a Bangladeshi national in 

Mumbai’s Mira Road, reports Hindustan 

Times. Police have arrested 

two people, out of five accused, in 

relation with the crime so far. 

Senior Inspector Kiran Kabadi of 

Palghar police station said the woman 

was brought to Mira Road 10 months 

ago. She was held captive at the 

house of the accused married couple, 

who were apprehended on Tuesday. 

According to the complaint 

lodged by the victim, she was taken 

to Palghar by two other men who 

also held her captive, and raped her. 

The Bangladeshi national, who 

allegedly sold her, has also been 

made an accused in the case. Police 

are now on the look out for the three 

accused. The accused were also 

booked under relevant Sections of 

Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. • 


People take part in a rally to protest restrictive guidelines issued by the US on the 

Muslim and refugee ban at Union Square on June 29, 2017, in New York 

AFP 

REUTERS 

The California court said Wednesday 

the administration “does not offer 

a persuasive explanation for why 

a mother-in-law is clearly a bona 

fide relationship in the Supreme 

Court’s prior reasoning, but a grandparent, 

grandchild, aunt, uncle, 

niece, nephew or cousin is not.” 

The San Francisco court was 

ruling on the issue because the Supreme 

Court had refused a Justice 

Department request that it define 

what it means by “bona fide relationship” 

and “close family.” 

The Justice Department issued 

a statement saying “we will now 

return to the Supreme Court to vindicate 

the executive branch duty to 

protect the nation.” •

8 



News 

Rawhide traders struggle after Eid-ul-Azha 


CURRENT AFFAIRS 

Traders set up temporary shops in the capital’s Science Lab Intersection area to trade rawhides of the cattle sacrificed on Eidul-Azha 

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU 

Rawhide traders including wholesalers 

and seasonal business people 

are incurring significant losses 

in the post-Eid period due to 

government mismanagement, the 

high price of salt, and the low retail 

price of their products. 

Thakurgaon rawhide market suffered 

after the government fixed the 

price at Tk60 per foot (30 centimetres), 

even though the traders do not 

measure their rawhide using the imperial 

system of measurement. 

The administration blunder 

meant none of the wholesalers or 

retailers in Thakurgaon could buy 

or sell rawhides at the price fixed 

by the government. Instead, each 

foot of rawhide was sold for between 

Tk20 and Tk30 - at least half 

of the government agreed price. 

For whole cowhides in Thakurgaon 

market, the price range of 

Tk250 to Tk800 was far less than 

the previous year. 

“Rawhides which were sold at 

Tk1,100 last year got only Tk400 

this year,” Forhad Reza, a Thakurgaon 

rawhide trader, said. 

Compounding his woes was the 

retail price of salt: up to Tk1,200 

per pack instead of the regular 

price of Tk450 in the district. 

The Dhaka Tribune found most of 

the seasonal rawhide traders across 

the country were facing the same 

problem. The lifeline of the rawhide 

business – salt - was being sold at 

much higher price than normal. 

“Warehouse owners are charging 

Tk1,350 for each sack of salt currently,” 

said Asadul Haque, a retailer of 

the Barabazar market of Nilphamari. 

In Barabaza, large rawhides 

were being sold between Tk350 

and Tk400 and goat skins were going 

for between Tk30 and Tk35. 

Abdul Hamid, a seasonal rawhide 

trader of Nilphamari, said he 

had bought 50 pieces of cowhides 

for a total of Tk35,000, but was 

only attracting offers of half this 

amount from the wholesalers. 

The hub of the country’s tanning 

industry centred on Savar had 

already been facing problems. 

An estimated four out of every 

five tanneries were expected to face 

a liquidity crisis in purchasing rawhide 

during Eid ul-Azha this year 

following the forced relocation of 

their factories from Old Dhaka. 

Even now, not all the tanneries 

are functioning properly. 

Leading industry voices have 

urged the authorities to think about 

an alternative to continuing the work 

of the tannery industry in Savar, if 

the four Central Treatment Plants 

(CTPs) are not installed by the Chinese 

contractors by September 30. 

“The Chinese contractors have 

submitted a written agreement to 

the court saying they will hand over 

all four CTPs to the tannery owners 

within September 30,” Bangladesh 

Small and Cottage Industries Corporation 

(BSCIC) Chairman Mustak 

Hasan Md Iftekhar said. 

“If they fail to do so then they will 

be fined for tannery owners losses.” • 

Sweeping change in China’s military 

points to more firepower for Xi 

• Reuters, Beijing 

WORLD 

China’s military is preparing a 

sweeping leadership reshuffle, 

dropping top generals, including 

two that sources say are under investigation 

for corruption. 

The changes would make room 

for President Xi Jinping to install 

trusted allies in key positions at a 

key party congress that begins on 

October 18. 

A list of 303 military delegates 

to the Communist Party Congress, 

published by the army’s official 

newspaper on Wednesday, excluded 

Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang, 

both members of the Central Military 

Commission. The commission 

is China’s top military decision-making 

body. 

The 66-year-old Fang, who accompanied 

Xi to his first meeting 

with US President Donald Trump in 

April, is being questioned on suspicion 

of corruption. 

Three sources familiar with the 

matter said Zhang, the director of 

the military’s Political Work Department, 

is also the subject of a 

probe. China’s Defence Ministry 

did not respond to a request for 

comment. 

The personnel changes herald 

a clean sweep of the top-ranking 

generals heading up the department. 

All three of Zhang’s deputies 

- Jia Tingan, Du Hengyan and Wu 

Changde - were also missing from 

the list of congress delegates. 

“This is a very clear message: 

they’re out,” said Cheng Li, an expert 

on Chinese elite politics at the 

Brookings Institution. “Their political 

careers have come to an end.” 

On Friday, news reports carried 

by the People’s Liberation Army 

Daily and the official news agency 

Xinhua abruptly referred to the 

navy’s political commissar, Miao 

Hua, as the Political Work Department 

director, despite no official 

announcement of Zhang being replaced 

in his role. 

The department is in charge 

of imbuing political thought and 

makes military personnel decisions 

in a similar vein to the Communist 

Party’s Organisation Department. 

The Political Work Department 

used to be headed by Xu Caihou, 

who along with a fellow former 

vice-chairman of the military commission, 

Guo Boxiong, was accused 

of taking bribes in exchange for 

promotions. Guo was jailed for life 

last year, while Xu died of cancer in 

2015 before he could face trial. 

Also among the key omissions 

from the list published Wednesday 

were Du Jincai, who was replaced 

as the military’s anti-corruption 

chief in March, and Cai Yingting, 

who left his post as head of the 

PLA Academy of Military Science 

in January. • 

Bangladesh envoy frustrated 

with $81m heist money 

recovery 


CURRENT AFFAIRS 

Bangladesh Ambassador to the 

Philippines Asad Alam Siam has 

expressed frustration with the current 

pace of recovering money lost 

in last year’s $81-million heist from 

Bangladesh Bank’s account with 

the Federal Reserve in New York. 

We have high 

expectations 

from our Filipino 

colleagues, because 

this administration 

is very much 

against any sort of 

corruption 

In an interview with a local TV 

channel on Thursday, the ambassador 

expressed hopes of recovering 

money, but admitted there was “immense 

pressure” to achieve results 

more than a year after the incident. 

“Yes, there is a sense of frustration 

back home,” he said in the interview. 

Bangladesh Bank sent a team to 

Manila this week to expedite the 

recovery of $81 million that were 

stolen by hackers in February last 

year and stashed in the Philippines. 

Asad Alam Siam said the Philippine 

government promised Bangladesh 

“all out efforts and cooperation” 

in recovering the stolen money. 

“We have high expectations 

from our Filipino colleagues, because 

this administration is very 

much against any sort of corruption 

and transnational crimes like 

the heist one, so let’s see,” Siam 

said. 

He said the money was supposed 

to be used for poverty alleviation 

programmes such as children’s education 

and immunization. 

A key personality in the money 

laundering scheme, dismissed 

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. 

(RCBC) bank manager Maia Deguito 

was indicted by the Department 

of Justice (DOJ) on August 30. 

Eight counts of violations of the 

Anti-Money Laundering Act were 

filed against Deguito and four account 

holders, namely Michael 

Francisco Cruz, Jessie Christopher 

Lagrosas, Alfred Santos Vergara, 

and Enrico Teodoro Vasquez. The 

accounts were later discovered to 

have been faked. 

The case had since been raffled 

off to four branches of the Makati 

City Regional Trial Court. •

News 

9 



Chittagong diocese upgraded 

• Anwar Hussain, 

Chittagong 

NATION 

Archbishop of Chittagong Moses Costa receives the pallium before 

3,000 Catholic followers at Saint Placid’s School and College in the 

port city yesterday 

DHAKA TRIBUNE 

The Archbishop of Chittagong 

received the pallium 

yesterday in a milestone 

event for the Catholic church 

in Bangladesh. 

The pallium is a cloak woven 

from lambswool and is 

worn by the Metropolitan 

Archbishop as a symbol of the 

pastoral and juridical power 

conferred on him by the Pope. 

The Archbishop of Chittagong 

Moses Costa was first 

given his pallium by Pope 

Francis at a reception in the 

Vatican City on June 29. 

However, as part of a drive 

away from so-called ‘airport 

bishops’, Pope Francis decided 

that each newly-appointed 

metropolitan archbishop 

should be formally vested at 

a ceremony held in their own 

archdiocese. 

As such, Archbishop Moses 

Costa was formally presented 

with his before 3,000 

Catholic followers at Saint 

Placid’s School and College 

in the port city on Friday. 

The ceremony continues 

a big year for the Catholic 

church in Bangladesh. 

On February 2, Pope Francis 

elevated the Chittagong 

diocese to the status of Metropolitan 

Archdiocese and 

appointed Bishop Moses Costa 

as the first ‘Metropolitan 

Archbishop’ of Chittagong. 

And from 30 November to 

2 December, the leader of the 

world’s 1.2 billion Catholics 

will visit Bangladesh in the 

first Papal visit to the country 

since 1986. 

The first Christian settlement 

in Bangladesh was established 

in Chittagong in 1518 

AD with the arrival of Portuguese 

traders. In 1600 AD, the 

first churches were built in 

Patharghata and Diang under 

Karnaphuli upazila. 

Father Francesco Fernandez, 

the first Catholic priest 

to arrive in Chittagong, was 

tortured and killed by the Arakanese. 

In 1845, Chittagong became 

the seat of the East 

Bengal Vicariate but this was 

later transferred to Dhaka. 

In 1927 Chittagong was upgraded 

to a diocese. At that 

time the juridical territory 

covered a vast area from present 

the Barisal diocese to some 

parts of India and Myanmar. 

Today, the juridical territory 

of Chittagong Diocese 

is spread over eight civil districts 

consisting of Chandpur, 

Lakshmipur, Noakhali, 

Feni, Chittagong, Khagrachori, 

Rangamati, Bandarban 

and Cox’s Bazar. In these 

districts, there are 11 parishes 

and five sub-parishes. 

The Archbishop of Dhaka 

Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario 

was also present at the June 

29 programme in Rome, as 

well as the bishops from the 

country’s six other Catholic 

dioceses: Dinajpur, Rajshahi, 

Mymensingh, Khulna, Sylhet 

and Barisal. • 

Police accused of demanding 

ransom from two 

businessmen in Feni 

Sonali Bank gets new DMD 


METRO 

Mohammad Jahangir Alam 

has joined Sonali Bank as its 

deputy managing director. 

Prior to the appointment, 

he served as the General 

Manager of the local 

office of Rupali Bank, said a 

press release on Thursday. 

Mohammad Jahangir 

Alam jointed Rupali Bank as 

senior officer on probation 

in 1986. 

During his 31-year-long 

banking career, he performed 

as managers of different 

branches and area offices, 

and as heads of different 

divisional offices, of Rupali 

Bank across the country. • 

• Rafiqul Islam, Feni 

NATION 

Two businessmen have alleged 

that they were confined 

for three days at Koraish 

Munshi police outpost 

in Feni’s Dagonbhuiyan 

upazila and were threatened 

for ransom. 

Amjad Hossain and Sohel 

Ahmed said they were detained 

by the police outpost’s 

in-charge SI Saiful Islam Tuesday 

evening from Abdur Nabi 

village and were released 

on Thursday after paying 

Tk40,000 in ransom. 

Denying the allegations SI 

Saiful Islam said the pair was 

held on Wednesday for riding 

unlicensed motorbikes. 

“After inspecting if they 

were accused in any case, we 

released them at Thursday 

noon,” the SI said. 

While talking to the Dhaka 

Tribune, Amjad and Sohel 

said they were neighbours 

and were travelling together 

on separate motorbikes to 

see their relatives in Abdur 

Nabi village. 

On their way, SI Saiful 

stopped them and took them 

to the police station along with 

their bikes, the duo added. 

Amjad said: “The SI demanded 

Tk200,000 from us 

and even threatened us that 

they would accuse us in different 

cases if we failed to pay up. 

“The SI was not convinced 

when we told him we were 

not financially capable of 

paying such a huge amount. 

“Later, a former Union 

Parishad (UP) member contacted 

our family members 

and collected Tk40,000 from 

them, which was then given 

to the SI.” 

Following the ransom 

payment we were released 

and we were further threatened 

by the SI about getting 

accused in several cases and 

being harmed if we spoke out. 

Dagonbhuiyan police station 

Officer-in-Charge (OC) 

Abul Kalam Azad said: “We 

did not receive any such 

complaints yet, but we are 

investigating the matter.” 

While talking to the Dhaka 

Tribune, the former UP member 

Abul Kashem said Amjad 

and Sohel’s family members 

requested him to get the duo 

released , so helped them 

getting released. •


10 

Editorial 


TODAY 

We are all Rohingya 

We must help them avoid the cruelest of 

fates: Becoming nothing 

PAGE 11 

Tribulations of a 

diabetic 

At a wedding party, everyone around 

me would feast on the food while I 

would be an onlooker, because the party 

organisers hadn’t thought of keeping 

some food items that were suitable for a 

diabetic patient 

PAGE 12 

A crisis out of 

hand 

Literacy for 

development 


The fourth nightmare 

The test for all the parties determined to 

have a say in the governance of Pakistan 

will be the next general elections 

Be heard 

Write to Dhaka Tribune 

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, 

Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207 

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The views expressed in opinion 

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official view of Dhaka Tribune 

or its publisher. 

PAGE 13 

Repeated calls to the international community regarding 

the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar appear to be 

falling on deaf ears. 

But if the world is unwilling to take action on the 

humanitarian grounds to help these unfortunate souls, there is 

another reason that should incline us all to pay attention to the 

crisis. 

The ceaseless persecution 

of the Rohingya runs the risk 

of empowering extremist 

elements into seizing their 

The ceaseless 

persecution of the 

Rohingya runs the 

risk of empowering 

extremist elements 

plight as an opportunity, and, 

in turn, widening the conflict 

to trans-national terror 

groups. 

The greater the inaction of 

the international community 

regarding this issue, the 

greater the space for 

extremist groups to swoop 

in and gain a foothold in a 

region they have thus far been 

unable to penetrate. 

History teaches us that extremism thrives where there is a 

breakdown of the state. If what we are witnessing in Rakhine 

State gets mutated into a full-blown insurgency, it leaves the 

region open to terror networks to conduct operations in. 

It is in the interests of both Bangladesh and Myanmar, the 

whole world in fact, to avoid such circumstances. But if the 

world continues to let the Myanmar army burn the Rohingya out 

of their villages, that is where we may all end up. 

For a country which has goals to becoming a middle-income 

nation in the near future, improving literacy amongst its 

citizens is a crucial step. 

And while Bangladesh has taken great strides in 

improving the quality of life of its citizens, sadly, when it comes 

to being able to read and write, almost half the population lags 

behind. 

While we have set the goals -- Vision 2021 had plans to achieve 

100% literacy by 2017 -- we have to do much more in terms of 

seeing these goals come to fruition. 

Additionally, past initiatives launched forth by the government 

have been lacklustre and eventually perished due to various 

administrative and academic issues. 

A key problem has been that donors believe that primary 

education requires focus as opposed to adult literacy. While 

education from the ground up is extremely important, ensuring 

that every one in the country, no matter how old, have the skills to 

read, write, and do basic arithmetic is an essential cornerstone of 

any ambitious nation. 

These are crucial elements towards not just improving people’s 

lives, but also boosting the country’s economic prowess. 

Literacy opens doors for each and every individual to move 

with much more ease through life, interact with much greater 

efficiency, and conduct business. 

What is encouraging, however, is that Bangladesh has recently 

allocated Tk500 crore towards a basic literacy program. If 

implemented, these could seriously boost the literacy rate. 

We must remember that we have done much in the last 

few years, overtaking Pakistan’s per capita GDP recently. And 

we definitely have the potential to ensure that each and every 

individual in this country is literate.

We are all Rohingya 

The world has abandoned them, but Bangladesh must not 

Opinion 11 



• K Anis Ahmed 

On August 26 of this year, 

Myanmar launched 

a fresh campaign of 

violence in its Western 

Rakhine province that killed 

hundreds of Rohingya civilians 

and displaced a staggering 100,000 

to neighbouring Bangladesh in 

barely two weeks. 

Myanmar forces unleashed 

such a carnage in response to 

sudden attacks carried out on 

August 25 by the self-styled 

Rohingya insurgent group ARSA 

(Arakan Rohingya Salvation 

Army). ARSA’s coordinated attacks 

on 24 police posts left 11 security 

personnel dead. 

No state would tolerate attacks 

on its security personnel. But to 

punish an entire community is 

never an acceptable response to 

aggression by a few. To turn those 

acts of aggression into a pretext 

for ethnic cleansing is to commit 

crimes against humanity. 

Many nations are rightly wary 

of non-state armed actors in the 

post-9/11 world order. However, 

it is important to remember 

that not all armed groups -- 

especially those that fight only 

members of security forces who 

have a record of mass civilian 

killings -- are “extremists” or 

part of international terrorist 

conspiracies. 

Let us be clear at the outset in 

saying that neither Bangladesh 

-- nor Dhaka Tribune -- supports 

ARSA, nor do we condone its 

violent attacks. Indeed, the state 

of Bangladesh does not support 

separatist groups anywhere, least 

of all among its neighbours. 

But unfortunately, Myanmar’s 

allies China and India have been 

all too ready to go along with 

Myanmar’s demonstrably partial 

narrative. And so Bangladesh is 

compelled to stand apart on this 

issue, and also feeling the full 

brunt of Myanmar’s persecution 

of Rohingyas -- a far greater 

crime than ARSA’s ill-conceived 

adventure last month. 

Myanmar’s policy towards the 

Rohingyas is to clear them out 

entirely from their homeland, 

Rakhine province. It is possibly the 

most openly stated and diligently 

carried out ethnic purge of recent 

times. Thanks to this policy, 

Bangladesh has had to play host 

to Rohingya refugees in small 

numbers as far back as the late 

70s, and in substantial numbers 

since the early 90s, numbering up 

to half a million at times. 

The attacks today show signs of 

a new intensity. Reports of military 

and police personnel, at times with 

machete-wielding civilian militias 

in tow, are burning villages, 

hacking children, and shooting 

unarmed civilians. Bodies are 

floating up the Naf River bordering 

Myanmar and Bangladesh. Fleeing 

refugees have had their legs 

blown off by landmines laid by the 

Myanmar army on their side of the 

border. 

In the middle of such carnage, 

Narendra Modi, prime minister 

of India, went ahead with a prescheduled 

state visit to Myanmar, 

where he expressed full solidarity 

with the Myanmar state in their 

fight against “extremist violence.” 

But he said nothing about the 

killing of civilians. 

He stressed the importance of 

“unity and territorial integrity,” 

perhaps channeling Indian anxiety 

about their own separatists. But 

that may not be the only reason 

behind his distinctly one-sided 

statement. 

China and India have their own 

complex set of relationships in this 

region. India right now is shaken 

from its recent confrontation with 

China over the Doklam plateau 

in Bhutan. In the past decade, 

India has also tried to cultivate 

Myanmar, which fell into China’s 

orbit during its long sojourn as a 

pariah state. 

Yet as China has cozied up to 

India’s old ally of Bangladesh, 

India has felt the need to 

strengthen its ties with Myanmar 

as a hedge against China’s regional 

aspirations. Hence, it may look 

away as Myanmar conducts 

atrocities against its own citizens. 

Meanwhile, China as per its 

longstanding policies, doesn’t 

believe in chiding anyone over 

matters of human rights. 

Bangladesh fully shares the 

Indian and Chinese concerns 

about respecting the “unity and 

territorial integrity” of states. 

But to condone the wholesale 

killing of civilians in the name of 

fighting insurgents is not tolerable. 

Western powers, meanwhile, are 

sounding the right notes, but 

may no longer be in a position to 

outweigh the influence of regional 

heavies. 

The West is hardly guiltless 

in the plight of the Rohingyas. 

Western powers nurtured Aung 

San Suu Kyi as an icon of liberty 

back when Myanmar was a pariah 

coddled by the Russo-Chinese 

bloc. The West was so anxious to 

see Suu Kyi anointed a leader that 

they went along with a charade of 

democracy arranged by Myanmar’s 

military junta, ignoring both that 

there was no real transfer of power 

The greatest test of our humanity 

We must help them 

avoid the cruelest 

of fates: Becoming 

nothing 

taking place and the continuing 

tendency to commit gross human 

rights abuses by those powers. If 

anything, fronting a figure like Suu 

Kyi has made it easier and more 

attractive for the junta to carry on 

its long-running ethnic purge of 

the Rohingyas. 

If the West had been guilty of 

folly, then India and China are 

practicing realpolitik. India today 

is playing a role, incidentally, that 

America played in 1971 when the 

Nixon administration decided to 

let Pakistan have its genocide in 

Bangladesh as a price for access 

to China. Bangladesh was saved 

then by a pugnacious India -- and 

leaders like Bangabandhu Sheikh 

Mujibur Rahman, the founder of 

Bangladesh, and his iron-willed 

counterpart across the border, 

Indira Gandhi. 

In an acute irony of history, 

today it has fallen on Bangladesh, 

and Sheikh Mujib’s daughter 

Sheikh Hasina, prime minister 

now of Bangladesh, to give shelter 

to a people as desperate as we 

ourselves were in 1971. 

To shelter the Rohingyas will 

not be an easy task for Bangladesh. 

We are the most densely populated 

large nation of the world, and 

we have only recently graduated 

to lower middle-income status. 

What’s more, for a long time, 

many Bangladeshis remained wary 

of the Rohingyas. 

Many have argued that camps 

of destitute people would become 

a hive of criminal activity and 

upset the social balance of 

wherever they settled. What 

such prognoses get wrong is the 

causality; it’s not the poor who 

cause those crimes -- they become 

tools of the criminal, if they are 

not given adequate protection. 

Bangladesh, one of the biggest 

emigrant nations -- both legal and 

illegal -- cannot indulge in the kind 

of prejudice that they themselves 

face in many places where they 

seek a better livelihood. I confess 

that during a similar episode of 

violence against Rohingyas back in 

2012, I too had argued for keeping 

a tight border, fearing that an open 

border would only encourage more 

persecution. Such considerations 

were predicated on the world 

putting pressure on Myanmar to 

stop its policy of ethnocide. 

As we face a new reality today, 

where Myanmar seems intent not 

so much on killing a few to chase 

away the many, but to kill as many 

as they can, there is a sea-change 

in Bangladeshi public opinion in 

favour of assisting those fleeing 

imminent death. 

The signal for a new approach 

came right from the top when 


Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 

called for “humane” treatment 

at the border. As a result, despite 

an occasional show of pushing 

some refugees back by the border 

guards, the Rohingyas are allowed 

into Bangladesh by the thousands 

every day. 

At a time when the whole world 

has abandoned the Rohingyas, I 

personally no longer see housing 

them as a burden. Rather, I see it 

as a privilege. It’s not every day 

that one is called to play the role of 

saviour. 

It is the most sacred of duties, 

and the greatest test of our 

humanity. Where much bigger 

countries are unwilling to step up, 

it is a testament to the resilience 

and humanity of Bangladesh if 

we can play host to the Rohingyas 

-- without condescension, without 

prejudice, without resentment. 

Few writers of the 20th century 

have captured the terror of the 

sudden breach of order as well 

as VS Naipaul. In the bleak but 

unforgettable opening line to 

his novel A Bend in the River, he 

wrote: “The world is what it is. 

Men who are nothing, who allow 

themselves to become nothing, 

have no place in it.” 

The government and the people 

of Myanmar have decided that the 

Rohingyas are “nothing.” This is 

why we must give the Rohingyas 

shelter. We must help them avoid 

the cruelest of fates: Becoming 

nothing. No matter how cruel 

or indifferent the world, no one 

deserves to become nothing. • 

K Anis Ahmed is the publisher of the 

Dhaka Tribune and Bangla Tribune.

12 



Opinion 

Tribulations of a diabetic 

For people who don’t have diabetes, it’s not easy to understand the struggle 

Diabetes can make it hard to fit in 

LARGER 

THAN LIFE 

• Ekram Kabir 

When I was diagnosed 

with having 

excessive blood 

sugar nine years ago, 

I was heartbroken. 

My family does have a genetic 

history of diabetes, yet I hadn’t 

expected to cross that threshold at 

the age of 43. 

I was extremely scared, 

and went to a diabetician who 

prescribed medicine and exercise. 

I started brisk-walking, cut down 

on my rice intake, gave up sweets, 

and thought that I was doing fine. 

Five and a half years passed by 

since then. I thought I was doing 

great. 

One day, on a Friday morning at 

around 11, I went to see my father 

at his place. 

Chatting as we always did, he, 

a diabetic for more than 35 years, 

asked me about my sugar level. I 

said I was fine. 

He then volunteered to run a 

test on me. He said: “I have a spare 

testing kit that I want to give you; 

At a wedding party, everyone around me would feast on the food while 

I would be an onlooker, because the party organisers hadn’t thought of 

keeping some food items that were suitable for a diabetic patient 

let me test your sugar level.” 

He tested my sugar level and 

my sugar test came at 16. He sort 

of rebuked me for having such 

a high level of sugar at that time 

of the day. I felt let-down and 

promised to take better care of 

myself. 

Then on, for 10 days, I studied 

all about diabetes. That was three 

BIGSTOCK 

and a half years ago. 

I came to know a few 

amazing facts that no physician 

in Bangladesh had told me in 

those years when I thought I was 

controlling my blood sugar level 

quite well. 

According to some Chinese, 

Japanese, and American doctors, 

diabetes is a dietary disease and 

it has to be dealt with in a dietary 

way. That was news for me. 

One Chinese doctor said that 

the root cause of diabetes owes 

20% to the human pancreas and 

80% to the human liver. 

If you could, he said, unfatten 

you liver, your chances of 

acquiring diabetes lowers, or when 

you do acquire it, maintaining 

the disease becomes a whole lot 

easier. 

With further research on the 

diet of a diabetic, I discovered a 

daylong diet that suited my body 

and that could provide me the 

energy for the entire day. I brought 

my carbohydrate intake almost to 

zero. 

My aim was to live on 

vegetables. Of course, I did keep 

protein in my diet. 

At the same time, I changed the 

style of my exercise. In addition 

to just walking, I added free-hand 

exercises to my daily routine. In a 

week’s time, my sugar level came 

to normal. 

Initially, it was very difficult. 

A lifestyle without carbohydrates 

and lots of daily exercise would 

require extreme dedication and 

determination. 

This lifestyle made me a social 

loner. Adjusting myself to the 

lifestyles of people around me, or 

for that matter, society, became a 

Herculean task for me. I tried to 

maintain my lifestyle, a diabetic’s 

lifestyle, which was completely 

alien to society. 

I discovered that society didn’t 

have any idea about what diabetes 

was, and how it can affect the 

human body. 

At the same time, society 

wasn’t even ready to accept the 

lifestyle of a diabetic. I started 

facing extreme difficulty during 

social gatherings and feasts. 

At a wedding party, everyone 

around me would feast on the 

food while I would be an onlooker, 

because the party organisers 

hadn’t thought of keeping some 

food items that were suitable for a 

diabetic patient. 

In fact, nobody in our social 

environment thinks of making 

arrangements for people with 

blood sugar issues. The people 

around me in those social and 

official gatherings started teasing 

me for not being able to be a part 

of the majority. 

For a long time, being a misfit 

and receiving all that teasing, I 

felt depressed. I had to explain my 

lifestyle about a hundred times to 

the people around me. 

However, with my own 

determination and amazing help 

from my wife, I could go on with 

my way of living. 

I’m still continuing with the 

same style of living. I thank her 

for being sensitive towards my 

condition. 

If you just keep the problems of 

diabetes aside, and think of living 

with a healthy diet and exercise, 

you can’t make a non-diabetic 

understand how important these 

things are for a human being. 

And if you consider the number 

of diabetics in Bangladesh, I see 

them living in absolute darkness as 

far as the disease is concerned. A 

simple change in people’s lifestyle 

could make a big difference to 

their well-being. It’s a pity that no 

one realises it until he or she picks 

up the disease. 

I was also like them when I 

didn’t have diabetes. • 

Ekram Kabir is a fiction writer.

Opinion 

13 



The fourth nightmare 

Why does Nawaz Sharif even want a fourth term? 

One by-election does not an electoral landslide create 

REUTERS 

• FS Aijazuddin 

There must be moments 

in Mian Nawaz Sharif’s 

mind when he questions 

whether it has all been 

worth it. 

The humiliation at the 

unfeeling hands of ZA Bhutto’s 

nationalisation, the confiscation of 

his newly-wedded wife’s jewellery 

stored in the office safe in Ittefaq 

Foundries, the grovelling before 

a PPP government to have it 

restored, the sycophancy before 

General Ziaul Haq, the puppet 

years as Punjab’s finance minister 

and then chief minister, the 

gruelling rigours of electioneering, 

the bitter-sweet fruits of three 

prime ministerships, incarceration 

in Attock Fort, the 24 karat alms 

given as political zakat by the 

Saudis, the luxury flats in London, 

the obese bank balances held 

abroad, and the widening rift in 

his father’s family. Was it worth 

the price? 

Now, he sits by the bedside 

of his ailing wife in a London 

hospital, a helpless witness to her 

suffering, unable to compensate 

her for the years of separation and 

her self-sacrifice during their 46 

years old marriage. 

A living nightmare 

Nawaz Sharif’s political 

oscillations remind one of the 

person who had a nightmare that 

he was making a public speech, 

and awoke to find that he was. In 

Nawaz Sharif’s case, his recurring 

nightmare has been of being 

removed from office by forces 

inimical to him. 

Thrice he has woken and found 

that he was. 

In 1993, the Supreme Court 

granted him a reprieve, but it 

proved short-lived. In 1999, 

President Bill Clinton rescued him 

over the Kargil misadventure, but 

could not prevent the coup by 

Musharraf’s cohorts. 

And now, in 2017, he has again 

been ousted. None of his friends 

(CPEC notwithstanding) have 

volunteered to help him. 

As each day passes, Mian 

Nawaz Sharif grows in similarity 

to the dethroned King Charles I of 

England. Vainly did the deposed 

king assert: “Princes are not bound 

to give an account of their actions 

but to God alone.” 

Unheeded went his claim 

that “the King can do no wrong.” 

And in his final moments, on the 

scaffold in London’s Whitehall in 

January 1649, he uttered these 

final words: “I am the martyr of 

the people.” 

Many argue that the by-election 

for NA 120 will be the barometer 

of Nawaz Sharif’s popularity. 

Whatever the declared result 

may be, it will constitute a false 

reading. No more than one 

swallow doth a summer make, one 

by-election does not an electoral 

landslide create. 

Inescapable realities 

The test for all the parties 

determined to have a say in the 

governance of Pakistan -- elected 

or self-appointed -- will be the 

next general elections. They are 

currently scheduled within 90 

days after June 2018, or whichever 

earlier date Prime Minister Shahid 

Khaqan Abbasi may be told to 

recommend to the president. 

After those elections, 

whichever party (if any) gains 

an absolute majority, whichever 

person (if any) secures the prime 

ministership in his own right, 

whatever the authority (if any) of 

the federal cabinet, none of them 

will be able to escape the reality 

that is today’s Pakistan. 

It is said that outgoing 

US president Barack Obama 

left a letter for his successor 

Donald Trump, which Trump 

has chosen not to read. That is 

understandable. Trump does not 

want to be prejudiced by realities. 

Pakistani prime ministers have 

never left such letters for their 

The test for all the parties determined to have a say in the governance 

of Pakistan will be the next general elections 

successors. Although they failed 

to do so, here is bucket list of tasks 

the future prime minister might 

like to ignore: 

1. Control the population. The 

latest provisional census has 

revealed that there are 207.77 

million Pakistanis. Half of them 

are under the age of 25, and will 

in time procreate. No man is an 

island, but every nation is. We 

have a limited territory within 

which to live. 

2. Implement a national 

curriculum. Nations are not built 

from bricks of different shapes and 

sizes, fired in unsupervised kilns. 

3. Ration water usage. Water, 

like a mother’s love, cannot be 

taken for granted. Water, water 

nowhere, and not a potable drop 

to drink. 

4. Encourage vertical 

urbanisation. The sky is the limit. 

5. Control consumption. No 

nation can afford $50 billion of 

unbridled imports, more than 

twice the value of its exports. Pity 

the nation whose fish suffocate 

in polluted rivers, yet hungers for 

imported smoked salmon. 

6. Justify defence expenditure. 

“Every gun that is made, every 

warship launched, every rocket 

fired signifies in the final sense, a 

theft from those who hunger and 

are not fed, those who are cold and 

are not clothed.” President General 

Eisenhower’s words, not mine. 

7. The law is not malleable playdough, 

to be bent and twisted at 

will in exercised hands. 

The list of imperatives is 

endless. It will grow, not because 

Pakistan’s problems are insoluble, 

but because every government 

-- whatever its constitutional 

paternity -- has chosen to oscillate 

between rapacious governance, 

inept governance, and vacuous 

governance. 

Why does Nawaz Sharif, then, 

crave a fourth term? • 

FS Aijazuddin is an art historian. This 

article was previously published in 

Dawn.

14 



Kids 

colour it 

maze 

Answer

Kids 

15 



TRIVIA 

Did you know? 

Fun facts about money 

• Cattle are probably the 

oldest of all forms of 

money. The use of cattle as 

money dates back to 9000 

BC. 

• The first coins, pieces 

of bronze shaped like 

cattle, appeared around 

2000 BC. Their value 

was determined by their 

weight, making it difficult 

to ascertain at times. 

• The first coins were minted 

(made) around 2500 years 

ago. 

• Paper money was first used 

in China over 1000 years 

ago. 

• Before the days of paper 

money, Americans traded 

animal skins, including 

deer and elk bucks for 

goods and services. Hence 

the word “buck” is used to 

describe money. 

• A piece of currency can be 

folded forward and back 

Bending water 

Can water be bent? Let’s find out! 

4,000 times before it will 

tear. 

• Currency is made of 25 

percent linen and 75 

percent cotton paper. • 

FUN SCIENCE 

BOOK REVIEW 

The tale of the Grunts 

Meet Mr and Mrs Grunt and 

their son, Sunny. Sunny isn’t 

really their son - they stole him 

from a washing line as a baby 

since Mr Grunt decided that he 

would make a perfect present 

for Mrs Grunt. Mrs Grunt knows 

boys like blue - so she dyed her 

old dresses blue and put him in 

those! 

They live in their homemade 

caravan built “out of stuff” 

pulled by two donkeys, Clip 

and Clop. They never stop 

anywhere for long, but always 

end up in all kinds of troubles 

no matter where they go. 

It becomes worse when 

the Grunts attempt to buy 

an elephant, and get caught 

between Lord Bigg of Bigg 

Manor, Bigg-hater Larry 

Smalls, Mimi the Bigg Manor 

boot boy and a swarm of 

angry bees – resulting in some 

serious misunderstandings and 

mischief! 

A Roald Dahl-ish book, The 

Grunts in Trouble is packed 

with jokes which are hilarious 

MOVIE 

along with weird characters, a 

comical storyline and an easy 

read that is perfect for reluctant 

readers looking for a short (109 

pages) funny story to read. 

Axel Scheffler’s artwork adds a 

brilliant charm to the book. 

• Book: The Grunts in Trouble 

• Author: Philip Ardagh 

• Illustrator: Axel Scheffler 

• Series: The Grunts 

• Age: +7 • 

Tinker Bell is back! 

Review: Secret of the Wings 

You’ll require: 

• A plastic comb (or an 

inflated balloon) 

• A narrow stream of water 

from a tap 

• Dry hair 

Instructions: 

Turn on the water so it falls 

from the tap in a narrow 

stream (just a thin stream, 

few millimetres across but not 

droplets). 

Brush your hair with 

the comb normally (do this 

around 10 times). If you are 

using a balloon then rub it 

back and forth against your 

hair for a few seconds. 

Slowly move the comb or 

balloon towards the stream 

of water (without touching it) 

and watch closely. 

The science? 

When you comb your hair 

or rub it against the balloon, 

you create static electricity. 

Static electricity occurs when 

negatively charged particles 

called electrons jump from 

your hair to the comb when 

they come in contact. The 

comb gains extra electrons 

and becomes negatively 

charged. 

On the other hand, water has 

both positive and negatively 

charged particles and is 

therefore, neutral. Positive 

and negative charges attract 

each other. So when you 

move the negatively charged 

comb or balloon towards the 

stream, it attracts the water’s 

positively charged particles 

and the stream bends towards 

the comb or balloon!• 

Remember 

Peter Pan? If you 

do, then you’ll 

surely remember 

his trusted 

side-kick, the 

little pixie fairy, 

Tinker Bell. 

Guess what, 

Tinker Bell is 

back with her 

very own story! 

It was in 2008 that Disney 

first produced a Tinker Bell 

story featuring the pretty little 

fairy as the main character. 

Later in 2012, Disney 

produced Secret of the Wings 

which follows Tinker Bell 

and her fairy friends into 

the forbidden world of the 

mysterious Winter Woods, 

where curiosity and adventure 

lead Tink to an amazing 

discovery and reveal a magical 

secret that could change her 

world forever. 

One day, Tink temporarily 

crosses the border into the 

forbidden land and realises 

her wings are sparkling. 

Determined to figure out why 

her wings are reacting like that, 

she checks out a book in the 

fairy library only to be told that 

the author lives in the Winter 

Woods. Tink sneaks back over 

to find the author and then 

meets Periwinkle, a frost fairy 

whose wings also begin to 

sparkle. As it turns out, Tink 

and Peri are fairy sisters! 

But there are dangers to 

crossing between the lands. 

Tinker Bell’s wings may freeze 

in winter but Periwinkle 

cannot survive without the 

snow. Thus, the rules passed 

down from the fairy leaders 

insist that they remain apart 

in their own lands - a law that 

both sisters intend to defy at 

all costs. 

A sweet story sprinkled 

with adventure and beautiful 

artwork, you will surely enjoy 

this one! •

16 



Downtime 

CROSSWORD 

CODE-CRACKER 

ACROSS 

1 Puzzling question (5) 

4 Public transport (3) 

6 Prolonged pain (4) 

8 Very deep chasm (5) 

9 Otherwise (4) 

11 Minute particle (4) 

12 Oozes out (5) 

15 Precipitous (5) 

18 Prison room (4) 

20 Lyric poems (4) 

21 Large antelope (5) 

22 Require (4) 

23 Make lace (3) 

24 Praise highly (5) 

DOWN 

1 Schemes (5) 

2 Fashion (5) 

3 Utters gratingly (5) 

4 Girdle (4) 

5 Appear to be (4) 

7 Vital organ (5) 

10 Part of the foot (4) 

13 Observed (4) 

14 Measured beat (5) 

15 Undressed kid (5) 

16 Precise (5) 

17 Foot lever (5) 

18 Young horse (4) 

19 Fasting period (4) 

How to solve: Each number in our 

CODE-CRACKER grid represents a 

different letter of the alphabet. For 

example, today 20 represents H so fill H 

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 

SUDOKU 

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the 

numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must 

contain all nine digits with no number repeating. 

PEANUTS 

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS 

CODE-CRACKER 

CROSSWORD 

DILBERT 

SUDOKU

What’s on 

17 



EVENTS AROUND TOWN TODAY 

EDUCATION 

STUDY IN AUSTRALIA: ACU SPOT ASSESSMENT 

When 3-5pm 

Where Pacasiabd, 166/1, Ground Floor, Mirpur Road, 

Kalabagan, Dhaka 

What Colma Fechner, Regional Manager (International 

Marketing & Student Recruitment, ACU International) will 

be interviewing potential students. Grab this opportunity to 

assess your eligibility to study at Australia’s one of the best 

universities. 

NSU THEATRE conducts relief 

campaigns 

RIZWAN 

When 4-9:30pm 

Where Experimental Theatre, Bangladesh Shilpakala 

Academy, Shegun Bagicha, Dhaka 

What Syed Jamil Ahmed’s latest stage directorial venture 

which garners plaudits for its anti-genocide message and outof-the-box 

presentation. 

MOVIE 

BLOCKBUSTER 

CINEMAS 

Transformers-The Last Knight 

(3D): 11:50am, 1:50pm, 

4:50pm, 7:10pm 

Spider-Man Homecoming 

(3D): 1:30pm, 4:15pm, 7pm 

The Mummy (3D): 2:35pm, 

5pm 

Ohongkar (2D): 11:30am, 

2:05pm, 7pm 

Shona Bondhu (2D): 4:15pm 

Baywatch (2D): 1:50pm 

Despicable Me 3 (3D): 

11:30am, 2:50pm, 4:55pm 

The Glass Castle (2D): 

11:30am, 7:35pm 

HEALTH 

MUSIC 

KUNDALINI YOGA CLASSES 

When 10-11:30am 

Where Jatra Biroti, 60 Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Banani, Dhaka 

What Kundalini Yoga Classes with Farhin resumes today. The 

classes will continue every Friday and Saturday, at 10 am. 

Pan Pacific Sonargaon 

appoints new General 

Manager 

THE ARMEEN MUSA BAND LIVE AT AJO IDEA SPACE 

When 4-7pm 

Where Ajo Idea Space, House 14/A, Road 2, Sector 13, Uttara, 

Dhaka 

What The last acoustic set of the AM Band’s poems and 

songs, before they take a break to go into the studio. Tickets 

are priced at Tk450, each. 

Rangbaaz (2D): 1:15pm, 

4:05pm, 7pm 

Annabelle: Creation (2D): 

11:30am, 5:10pm, 7:30pm, 

7:50pm 

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth 

to Power (2D): 11:40am 

STAR CINEPLEX 

Rangbaaz (2D): 11pm, 4:10pm 

The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2D): 

11:30am, 2:10pm, 4:40pm, 

7:10pm 

Dunkirk (2D): 10:50am, 

1:10pm 

Paul Joseph Flett has been 

appointed as the new general 

manager at Pan Pacific Sonargaon 

Dhaka, on August 7, and will lead 

the entire hotel operation at their 

historic property. 

Flett is an award winning hotelier 

who has a wealth of hospitality 

operation and management 

experience. He began his career in 

Waitangani, New Zealand, 32 years 

ago. 

In 1985, Flett obtained his 

diploma in Hotel and Hospitality 

Management from Northland 

Polytech in Northland, New 

Zealand. After which he finished 

the Hospitality Executive 

Development Program from 

Cornell University, School of Hotel 

Administration, in 2014. 

He has worked as the acting 

general manager at Parkroyal 

Darling Harbour in Sydney, 

Australia, prior to working at Pan 

Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka. He has 

worked as the hotel manager 

at Hotel 340, and many other 

renowned hotel establishments 

like Intercontinental Hotel Group 

in Australia, Rydges Hotel in 

Sydney, Duxton Hotel in New 

Zealand, Radisson Hotel & Suites 

in Sydney, and many more.• 

Spiderman Homecoming (3D): 

10:50am, 1:45pm, 4:40pm, 

7:30pm 

Aomic Blonde (2D): 11:10am, 

1:40pm, 4:20pm, 7:20pm 

Annabelle: Creation (2D): 

11:20am, 2pm, 4pm, 5pm, 

7pm, 7:30pm 

Voyangkor Sundor (2D): 

1:50pm, 6:50pm


18 

Sports 


Bangladesh U-16 women’s football team players and officials pose for photographs after landing in Chonburi, Thailand yesterday 

AFC U-16 WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 

Bangladesh girls 

arrive in Thailand 

• Tribune Report 

A 21-member Bangladesh U-16 girls 

football team arrived in Chonburi, 

the eastern province of Thailand, 

yesterday ahead of their historic 

participation in the AFC U-16 Women’s 

Championship 2017, which 

gets underway tomorrow. 

The young girls are accompanied 

with long-time head coach 

Golam Rabbani Choton, assistant 

coach Mahbubur Rahman Litu and 

senior women’s team captain-cumcoach 

Sabina Khatun. 

The BFF’s technical and strategic 

director Paul Thomas Smalley 

also flew with the squad. 

Bangladesh girls qualified for 

the tournament for the first time 

in history after exhibiting brilliant 

display in the qualifiers last year 

in September in Dhaka where they 

stunned some of the big teams 

in Asia, winning all their five 

matches. 

They are also the only team 

from south Asia to play in the event 

where Asia’s top eight teams will 

compete to earn qualification in 

the World Cup. 

The Bangladesh girls have been 

placed in a tough group along with 

former champion North Korea, Japan 

and Australia. 

They will kick off their campaign 

a day after the inaugural match, 

against favourite North Korea at 

Chonburi Stadium on Monday before 

facing Japan and Australia at 

IPE Stadium on September 14 and 

17 respectively. 

Only five players from Bangladesh’s 

23-member squad in the 

AFC U-16 Championship qualifiers 

in Dhaka were not included in the 

current 20-member squad. 

They are Nargis, Taslima, Josna, 

Sultana and Ruksana. 

Rumki and Razia Khatun are the 

only additions from the qualifiers’ 

squad. 

Bangladesh squad 

Mahmuda Akhter, Rumki, Nazma, 

Masura Parvin, Akhi Khatun, Sheuli 

Azim, Anai Mogini, Nilufa Yesmin 

Nila, Shamsunnahar, Misrat Jahan 

Mousumi, Maria Manda, Tohura 

Khatun, Sanjida Akhter, Marzia 

Akhter, Monika Chakma, Israt Jahan 

Ratna, Razia Khatun, Srimoti 

Krishna Rani Sarkar, Anuching 

Mogini and Sirat Jahan Shopna • 

Anamul an option for tour of S Africa 


BCB president Nazmul Hasan has 

yet again put forward a suggestion 

for the national selection panel, 

asking them to consider opener 

Anamul Haque Bijoy for the tour 

of South Africa, scheduled for later 

this month. 

The BCB boss said he recommended 

Anamul’s name as he 

wants to see more right-handed 

batsmen in the Tigers’ batting lineup 

to complement the left-handers. 

“If Imrul [Kayes] had done well, 

we would have thought of putting 

him ahead of Soumya [Sarkar] but 

that didn’t happen,” the BCB supremo 

said. 

“There isn’t anyone extraordinary 

coming up in that position, 

but we are looking for someone. 

Bijoy is an option as a right-hander. 

You will be surprised to know that 

I have already mentioned him day 

before yesterday. I think he will be 

considered. We have to work with a 

left-right combination.” 

BFF 

The BCB chief also spoke about 

Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim, 

who sought clarity following the 

conclusion of the Australia Tests 

regarding his multiple roles in redball 

cricket. 

The BCB president said, “I think 

it is Mushfiq’s problem. Doesn’t 

Mashrafe [bin Mortaza] captain 

the (ODI) side? He has never faced 

such a problem. Shakib [al Hasan], 

the new T20I captain, will never 

face a problem. These things are 

a captain’s decision. We can give 

him (Mushfiq) a strategy but he 

has to take the decision in the field. 

Mashrafe decides by himself who 

will bowl and bat. We can give him 

information, maybe tell him try this, 

try him; but nothing more than that. 

“We asked him if he wants to 

keep wickets. We asked him if he 

wants to bat at No 4. Even the day 

before the second innings [of the 

Chittagong Test], I sent him word 

to bat at No 4. But he didn’t do it. 

So it is up to him. He sent Nasir 

[Hossain at No 4], maybe he didn’t 

want to change his position. I will 

ask him since he said such a thing 

in the media. After end of play on 

the first day, I discussed plans and 

strategies with Shakib, [Mehedi 

Hasan] Miraz, Taijul [Islam] and 

the coach (Chandika Hathurusingha). 

But I won’t dictate them what 

to do.” •

Hazard ready 

to return for 

Chelsea against 

Leicester 

• Reuters, London 

Belgian forward Eden Hazard could 

return for champion Chelsea’s Premier 

League clash at Leicester City 

today after fully recovering from 

the fractured ankle he sustained in 

June. 

The 26-year-old is yet to play for 

Chelsea this season but made two 

substitute appearances for Belgium 

in World Cup qualifiers against Gibraltar 

and Greece last week. 

“Now he is available, he is in the 

list for the squad,” Chelsea manager 

Antonio Conte told reporters 

yesterday. 

“He is improving a lot, he is 

working very strong to be ready. 

Now I can count on him. I have to 

decide the right minutes, but he is 

available now.” 

Conte had initially expressed 

surprise that Hazard had been 

called up for international duty, although 

he later softened his stance 

saying it could be beneficial for the 

player. 

“When there is a bad injury and 

surgery, it is normal to pay attention 

to his recovery,” Conte said 

yesterday. 

“I spoke with Roberto Martinez 

and we tried the right way to improve 

his (Hazard’s) fitness and I 

was very happy he played against 

Gibraltar and 20 minutes against 

Greece,” he added. 

Bayern’s Alaba injured, Rudy ready for 

Hoffenheim return 

• Reuters, Berlin 

Bayern Munich will be without 

defender David Alaba when they 

travel to Hoffenheim today but Sebastian 

Rudy and Niklas Suele are 

ready for a first return to their former 

club as the champions look to 

take over the top spot in the Bundesliga. 

Alaba suffered an ankle injury 

while on international duty with 

Sports 

Austria this week and will be out 

for some time, Bayern said. 

The length of the defender’s absence 

is not yet clear but there was 

good news for Carlo Ancelotti’s 

team with Rudy, who was also injured 

in Germany’s 6-0 victory over 

Norway on Monday, being declared 

fit for Saturday. 

Midfielder Rudy trained alone on 

Wednesday but is expected to return 

to team practice later on Thursday. 

Both Rudy and central defender 

Suele, another Germany international, 

moved to Bayern after a sensational 

season at Hoffenheim that saw 

them finish fourth in the Bundesliga. 

Bayern are on six points from two 

victories from two matches with a 

slightly worse goal difference than 

leader Borussia Dortmund but that 

means little so early in the season. 

For Suele and Rudy, however, 

the battle for a starting spot has long 

19 


FIXTURES 

Mainz v Leverkusen 

M’ladbach v Frankfurt 

Augsburg v Cologne 

Freiburg v Dortmund 

Wolfsburg v Hanover 

Hoffenheim v Bayern 


started and with seven games scheduled 

for the next 23 days, including in 

the Champions League, they know 

they need to be ready at any time. 

“I have to stay consistent for 

years and I have to continue the 

same way,” Rudy said this week. 

“My aim is to establish myself at 

Bayern.” 

It may be somewhat easier for 

Rudy, with Xabi Alonso and Philipp 

Lahm retired, than for Suele, who 

faces fierce competition from established 

internationals such as 

Mats Hummels, Javi Martinez and 

Jerome Boateng. 

The latter two have now recovered 

from injuries and want their 

starting spots back, while Hummels 

is currently considered the 

only automatic starter of the four. 

Hoffenheim’s Serge Gnabry has 

made the opposite trip, signing for 

Bayern this season but going on 

loan for a year to Hoffenheim. 

The forward would like to show 

Bayern what he has got but an ankle 

injury could rule him out for 

the game. Dortmund will look to 

protect their lead when they travel 

to Freiburg. • 

FIVE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN EPL GAMEWEEK 4 

Wenger must find Özil help to 

thrive 

After the humiliation of their 4-0 

defeat at Liverpool and the perceived 

humiliation of their end to the transfer 

window, Arsenal couldn’t have wished 

for a kinder fixture with which to return 

– albeit the kind of kinder fixture which 

frequently challenges them. 

But however you look at things, 

Bournemouth have not started the season 

well, nor are they set up to exploit 

Arsenal’s weaknesses. 

Now, though, Arsene Wenger must 

settle on his best team and, in particular, 

trust his new players. 

The impetuous hardness of Sead 

Kolasinac will bring a bit of fun if nothing 

else, while Alexandre Lacazette has 

the pace and intelligence to help Mesut 

Özil thrive. 

And Özil needs help to thrive, a reality 

which may displease those already 

displeased by his languid style; they can 

console themselves with his class and 

finesse, qualities which do not exactly 

proliferate among his team-mates. 

Only an idiot would buy a cat and 

expect it to behave like a dog. 

Shakespeare can undo Chelsea 

the Leicester way 

When Chelsea visited the King Power in 

January, they were already champion-elect, 

while Leicester City were a 

mess; as such Claudio Ranieri decided 

to use a formation similar to that employed 

by Antonio Conte. 

Football being football, there are 

no rules to such things, but generally 

speaking, if an inferior team apes a superior 

one, class will prevail; the route 

to unexpected victory lies in exploiting 

differences, not creating similarities. 

So Leicester were handed a comprehensive 

kicking in which the brace 

scored by Marcos Alonso, Chelsea’s left 

wing-back, epitomised their expertise 

at playing a system that Leicester could 

not hope to imitate. 

This time things will be different. 

Craig Shakespeare’s players will be sent 

on to the pitch to do what they do best 

and take away what Chelsea do best 

– or, given the likely absence of Eden 

Hazard, second best. 

Might Goodison be a home from 

home for Spurs? 

Already this season, Tottenham 

Hotspur have dropped more points 

at home than in the entirety of last, 

and already this season, Spurs have 

done as they did in the previous two, 

undermining their title challenge with 

a slow start. Accordingly, they must 

get going on their travels, and though 

they could wish for a more welcoming 

trip than to Goodison Park, they will 

find a pitch almost as compact as that 

at White Hart Lane, may its memory be 

for a blessing, and more space in which 

to enjoy it than was afforded them by 

Chelsea and Burnley. 

With Spurs, there is, in a sense, 

never anything for which to look out: 

they play the same way in more or less 

every game, just far too well for most 

teams to cope. 

But today they will feel they have 

something to prove, and more than 

that, they simply cannot afford to lose. 

In particular, these circumstances 

should agitate and excite Dele Alli, 

whose intelligence, attitude and edge 

were so crucial to England in midweek. 

Guardiola’s ad hoc selection faces 

stiff Liverpool test 

Manchester City and Liverpool have 

plenty in common: they are fast, attacking, 

aggressive teams, undermined by 

inexcusably dodgy defences. But there 

is one major difference between them: 

everyone knows exactly how Liverpool 

will play, whereas no one has any clue 

how City play – including the players, by 

the look of things. 

Partly, this is because Pep Guardiola 

is trying to hide the aforementioned 

dodgy defence, partly this is because 

he has more attackers than attacking 

positions, and partly this is because he 

is an obsessive perfectionist. 

So he is still trying to deduce whether 

he should use two wingers if that 

limits him to only one striker; whether 

David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Kevin 

de Bruyne can fit into the same team; 

and how to get 17 full-backs and 24 

midfielders into 11 starting spots. 

Options are useful, but they can also 

confuse things. 

Stoke a barometer for United’s 

title credential 

Today evening, Manchester United 

are away to Stoke City, the archetypal, 

apocryphal Premier League fixture: the 

wind blows, the crowd bay, and Rory 

Delap tames Lionel Messi. 

Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams were 

largely impervious to such effects; in 

five visits to the Potteries they won 

four and drew one, whereas since his 

retirement they have recorded two 

draws and two defeats. 

Accordingly, this weekend’s 

encounter will tell us something of 

United’s progress, their toughest test 

so far – all the more so given the momentum-checker 

that is international 

fortnight. United have been notable 

so far this season for how strong they 

have been in the final quarter of games, 

but that advantage may be lost to them 

on this occasion: the majority of Stoke 

players have had two weeks of rest 

and preparation, so should be primed 

for a strong start and finish. If United 

can emerge with three points, it will be 

a sign that they are ready to be good 

again.

20 



Sports 

Stephens ousts Venus, to face Keys for US Open title 

• AFP, New York 

Americans Sloane Stephens and 

Madison Keys, both struggling 

with serious injuries just three 

months ago, advanced to their first 

Grand Slam final at the US Open on 

Thursday. 

Stephens, who missed 11 

months with a left foot injury before 

returning in July, outlasted 

seven-time Slam champion Venus 

Williams 6-1, 0-6, 7-5. 

“I’m super happy to be in a 

Grand Slam final,” Stephens said. 

“To do it here, my home slam, 

is obviously more special. I think 

this is what every player dreams 

about.” 

US 15th seed Keys, who had left 

wrist surgery for the second time 

in 10 months after a first-round 

French Open exit, routed US 20th 

seed CoCo Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2 in 

66 minutes to complete the first 

all-American US Open final since 

Serena Williams beat sister Venus 

in 2002. 

“It still doesn’t feel real. I’m still 

shaking,” Keys said. 

“I played pretty well. There’s a 

lot of things in my head right now 

so I’m struggling to come up with 

words. 

“I knew I had to rise to the occasion. 

I’m just happy to be in the 

final.” 

The friends and Fed Cup teammates 

will meet Saturday at Arthur 

Ashe Stadium in the biggest match 

of either’s career for a top prize of 

Stephens 9-Williams 

Aces 2 3 

Double faults 2 6 

Break points won 5/12 5/14 

Winners 17 28 

Net points won 8/11 10/24 

Unforced errors 27 51 

Total points 90 84 

Match time: Two hours, seven minutes 

$3.7m (3.07m euros). 

“I’ve known her for a long time. 

She’s one of my closest friends on 

tour,” Stephens said. 

“I love her to death. And it’s not 

easy playing a friend.” 

Stephens, who was wearing a 

walking boot in June and ranked 

957th in July, has won 14 of her 

past 16 matches, with semi-final 

runs at Toronto and Cincinnati. 

“I have no words to describe 

what I’m feeling, what it took to 

get here, the journey I’ve been on,” 

Stephens said. 

“It’s incredible. I don’t know 

how I got here. Your guess is as 

good as mine. Just hard work. 

That’s it.” 

Stephens beat Keys in the second 

round at Miami in 2015 in their 

only career meeting. 

“Sloane is a new person right 

now,” Keys said. 

15-Keys 20-Vandeweghe 

Aces 5 0 

Double faults 1 2 

Break points won 4/7 0/0 

Winners 25 9 

Net points won 3/6 10/20 

Unforced errors 9 22 

Total points won 62 36 

Match time: One hour, six minutes 

“She’s so excited to be out on 

the court again. I’m excited we get 

to play each other in the US Open 

final.” 

Stephens needed a thrilling 

break at love in the penultimate 

game and closing hold of serve to 

deny two-time champion Williams 

her first US Open final in 15 years. 

“I just worked my tail off and 

tried to run every ball down and 

here we are,” Stephens said. 

“It required a lot of fight and a 

lot of grit.” 

Now ranked 83rd, Stephens is 

the lowest-ranked Slam finalist 

since unranked Justine Henin at 

the 2010 Australian Open and the 

lowest at the US Open since unranked 

Kim Clijsters won the 2009 

title. 

Stephens, who beat Williams in 

the first round of the 2015 French 

Open in their only prior meeting, 

will jump into the world top 25 

next week with the victory. 

US ninth seed Williams could 

not overcome 51 unforced errors 

that doomed her bid to become the 

oldest women’s singles finalist in 

US Open history at age 37. 

“It was definitely well competed,” 

Williams said. 

“In the end she won more points 

than I did and that’s what it added 

up to. 

“Just made so many errors at the 

end there...I wasn’t playing well. 

Just wasn’t playing well.” 

Williams will return to the 

top five in Monday’s world rankings 

for the first time since 2011, 

the year she was diagnosed with 

strength-sapping Sjogren’s Syndrome. 

Stephens, 24, is 4-0 in WTA finals, 

having won titles in 2015 at 

Washington and last year in Auckland, 

Acapulco and Charleston. 

The only cautionary note for 

Keys, 22, was a medical timeout 

to have her right leg taped three 

games from the end. • 

Koeman disappointed by 

Rooney’s actions after 

drink-driving charge 


Everton manager Ronald Koeman 

said he was “very disappointed” by 

striker Wayne Rooney after the former 

England captain was charged 

with drink-driving last week. 

Rooney, who has impressed on 

the pitch since returning to boyhood 

club Everton in the summer 

after 13 years at Manchester United, 

has been bailed to appear at 

Stockport Magistrates’ Court on 

September 18. 

Speaking for the first time about 

the incident, Koeman read a short 

statement, saying: “I’m very disappointed 

by the situation. We have 

spoken last Tuesday.” 

Koeman refused to discuss any 

disciplinary action the club might 

decide to take against the 31-yearold, 

but said he would be available 

for selection against Tottenham 

Hotspur in the Premier League at 

the weekend. 

Rooney has scored twice since 

returning to Goodison Park. 

Koeman said midfielder Ross 

Barkley who has a hamstring injury 

would be out for two months. 

A proposed transfer deadline day 

move for him to Chelsea failed to 

materialise. 

“Ross was open to a move and 

there was an agreement between 

Chelsea and Everton,” Koeman 

said, saying Barkley had explained 

to him why he decided against the 

move to Stamford Bridge. • 

Venus not 

going anywhere 

despite US 

Open defeat 

• Reuters, New York 

Venus Williams rejected the suggestion 

she might be content to 

serve as an inspiration to younger 

players after her 6-1 0-6 7-5 defeat 

to fellow American Sloane 

Stephens in the semi-finals of the 

United States Open Championship 

on Thursday. 

The 37-year-old Williams was 

not amused when asked at her 

hastily-convened media conference 

if there was any consolation 

the younger generation of American 

players, three of whom made 

the semi-finals with her, have cited 

her as an inspiration. 

“To be honest, I’m definitely 

here to win my matches, not for 

consolations,” she said. 

“That definitely sums it up.” 

Asked about her plans for the 

immediate future, she was again 

succinct. 

“I will continue to play tennis. 

It’s nothing complicated.” • 

Fifa opens disciplinary 

proceedings against 

England’s Alli 


Fifa has opened disciplinary proceedings 

against England midfielder 

Dele Alli after he made an 

obscene gesture during a World 

Cup qualifier against Slovakia, a 

spokesman for the world body said 

yesterday. 

The matter will be investigated 

and submitted to Fifa’s disciplinary 

committee. 

The Tottenham Hotspur player 

was caught on camera raising 

a middle finger in the direction of 

French referee Clement Turpin after 

the official did not award a foul 

for a heavy challenge by Slovakia’s 

Martin Skrtel late in the match last 

Monday. 

England won the Group F qualifier 

2-1. 

England manager Gareth Southgate 

said the 21-year-old had told 

him the gesture was made in jest 

towards his former Tottenham 

team mate Kyle Walker, who joined 

Manchester City over the summer. 

“Kyle and Dele were mucking 

about, and Dele’s made a gesture 

towards Kyle. I don’t know what 

the angle of the pitch is. The pair 

of them have a strange way of 

communicating, but that’s what 

they’ve said,” he told reporters. 

Alli, who was praised by Southgate 

for his match performance, 

later explained his actions on Twitter. 

“Just to clarify, the gesture tonight 

was a joke between me and 

my good friend Kyle Walker! Apologies 

for any offence caused! Great 

win 2nite (sic),” he wrote. •

Sports 

21 



Premier League 

to switch to 

shorter transfer 

window 

• Reuters, Manchester 

The Premier League transfer window 

will now close before the start 

of the season after clubs voted to 

bring forward the deadline for buying 

players from next season, the 

Premier League said in a statement. 

Premier League clubs on Thursday 

backed a rule amendment that 

will see the summer window end 

at 17:00 local time on the Thursday 

before the start of the season. 

This season the window closed 

on Aug. 31 while the season had begun 

20 days earlier. 

The new date applies only to 

clubs in the Premier League and relates 

only to purchasing of players. 

Premier League clubs will still be 

able to sell players to clubs in other 

leagues, such as those in Europe, 

whose window is still open. • 

DAY’S WATCH 

TENNIS 

STAR SPORTS SELECT 1 

10:30PM 

US Open 2017 

CRICKET 


3:58PM 

England Tour Of West Indies 

3rd Test, Day 3 

FOOTBALL 

SONY ESPN 

9:00PM 

French Ligue 1 2017/18 

Nice v Monaco 

12:00AM (Sunday) 

Caen v Dijon 

SONY TEN 1 

10:00PM 

Italian Serie A 2017/18 

Juventus v Verona 


Sampdoria v Roma 

SONY TEN 2 

5:00PM 

Spanish La Liga 2017/18 

Real Madrid v Levante 

8:00PM 

Valencia v Atletico 

10:30PM 

Sevilla v Eibar 


Barcelona v Espanyol 


5:15PM 

English Premier League 2017/18 

Man City v Liverpool 

7:50PM 

Leicester v Chelsea 

10:20PM 

Stoke v Man Utd 

STAR SPORTS SELECT HD 2 

7:16PM 

German Bundesliga 2017/18 

Freiburg v Dortmund 

England's Ben Stokes in action during day two of their third Test against the West Indies at Lord’s yesterday 

West Indies strike again before rain sets in at Lord’s 


West Indies took another England 

wicket to leave the host on 64 for 

five during a brief spell of action 

before rain stopped play on the second 

day of the third Test at Lord’s 

yesterday. 

Only four overs were possible 

but it was long enough for Kemar 

Roach to take his third wicket of 

the innings as Dawid Malan nicked 

an edge through to wicket-keeper 

Shane Dowrich. 

Malan had added seven to his 

overnight score of 13 while Ben 

Stokes moved on to 24 not out with 

a couple of boundaries. 

England began the day on 46-4 

in response to West Indies first innings 

of 123 in which Stokes took a 

career-best six for 22 with a superb 

display of swing bowling. 

With heavy rain falling and a 

BFF changes top-flight 

fixture again 


The BFF yesterday decided to change the 

fixture of the Bangladesh Premier Football 

League once again as there will be no match 

from Wednesday till the beginning of next 

month due to the U-18 national team’s participation 

in the Saff U-18 Championship 

2017, scheduled to be held in Bhutan from 

September 18-27. 

The eighth-round matches will be held 

from Sunday to Tuesday after which the 

premier league will be postponed until any 

specific date. 

The decision was taken during a professional 

league committee meeting at the BFF 

House yesterday. 

“In the recently announced U-18 

national team squad, there are players 

from 10 premier league clubs. Some clubs 

told us that it is not possible for them to 

continue the league without their key U-18 

players. Every club agreed to postpone 

the league due to absence of their players. 

The league is likely to resume on October 

1 or 2,” said professional league committee 

chairman Abdus Salam Murshedy 

yesterday. 

He also informed that they will fix and 

upgrade the current poor condition of the 

Bangabandhu National Stadium pitch during 

this gap. 

Since the kick off of the country’s top 

flight, the fixture has been changed for at 

least two times during the seven rounds 

where a total of 42 matches were held. • 

REUTERS 

grim forecast for the rest of the day 

England still trail by 59. 

An astonishing opening day saw 

West Indies lose their last eight 

wickets for 45 runs, before hitting 

back with the ball to revive their 

hope of a first series win in England 

since 1988. 

Roach took the wickets of Mark 

Stoneman and Alastair Cook on 

Thursday evening while West Indies 

skipper Jason Holder accounted 

for Tom Westley and opposite 

number Joe Root to leave the 

match delicately poised. 

England’s James Anderson, who 

struck twice on Thursday, is one 

away from claiming 500 Test wickets. 

The series is locked at 1-1 after 

West Indies hit back from a first- 

Test drubbing at Edgbaston to win 

a thrilling match at Headingley, 

their first Test win in England for 

17 years. • 

S ASIAN BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION 

U-16 BOYS’ CHAMPIONSHIP 

Bangladesh post third 

straight win 


Bangladesh young basketball boys registered their third victory 

in the South Asian Basketball Association U-16 Boys’ 

Basketball Championship after handing Maldives a huge 

defeat of 117-52 in their fourth match in Nepal yesterday. 

It was the fourth day of the event and Bangladesh’s last 

match of the group. 

It was their second straight victory after beating host 

Nepal by 68-56 points in their previous match on Thursday. 

Bangladesh earlier began their campaign with a convincing 

117-43 win over Bhutan before conceding a hardfought 

defeat of 83-64 points in the second match. 

The top finishers from the tournament will qualify for 

the Fiba U-16 Asian Championship, scheduled to be held 

later this year, but Bangladesh, whose place is confirmed 

among the top two, have little chance of becoming south 

Asia champion. •

22 



Showtime 

Provocative, not empowering 

A review of Lipstick under my Burkha 

• Farhat Alam Brishty 

If you want to see a film making 

a statement about the society’s 

repression of women, you will 

not be disappointed by Alankrita 

Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under 

My Burkha. But if you want 

to watch a film that sensibly 

portrays women’s real struggles 

in the society, if you want to see 

a powerful womens’ uprising or 

at least their rational efforts to 

overcome the struggles, if you look 

forward to something that will 

motivate the women and move 

the audience regardless of their 

genders, then, sadly, you will be 

fairly disappointed by the film. 

I definitely do not intend to 

belittle the makers’ efforts to raise 

voice against the traditionally 

male dominated society, especially 

because of the fearless attempt 

at portraying unorthodox women 

characters and the brilliant 

execution by the actors. However, 

not all women dream of casual 

sex as most of the characters in 

the film suggest. Of the many 

forms of repression women have 

to suffer from, sexual repression 

is definitely one; but the film 

focuses on sex rather excessively 

which makes the film lose its 

authenticity. 

Buaji, played by Ratna Pathak, 

is a 56 year old widow, someone 

the people of her society look up 

to. She is so involved in playing 

the role the society has assigned 

to her, that when someone asks, 

she struggles to remember her 

real name for a second. But she is 

also the same person who reads 

erotic novels, hiding them behind 

religious books, seeks sexual 

pleasure from a younger man and 

has clandestine phone flirtations 

with him. A tricky character 

as this is played by Pathak so 

smoothly and realistically, that 

it would force you to reconsider 

your pre-set notions of elderly 

women around you. Deciding 

to play a “risky” character like 

this in itself is brave, and Ratna 

Pathak went on to make this role 

one of the best performances of 

her career. 

Likewise, other protagonists of 

the film like Leela, Rehana, and 

Shireen are victims of societal 

repression too. Except for Shireen, 

the rest of the characters find 

their comfort in casual sex, 

smoking, drinking, cheating, and 

stealing – all in secret. This could 

be Alankrita Shrivastava’s way of 

expressing the reality that women 

have to do what they want to 

do by unfair manipulation in a 

society that constantly suppresses 

them. That being said, this 

statement cannot be appreciated 

simply because of the means of 

expressing it – violation of basic 

human ethics. 

I wish the makers would answer 

a simple question: how does 

smoking cigarettes actually make 

any man or woman liberated? 

Another important point to 

note is, the film shows almost no 

member of the male species to be 

supportive of women, to be kind, 

just or loyal. The most important 

factor, though, is that none of the 

women protagonists actually take 

a fair, brave attempt to change 

their fate. The film shows the 

negative consequences of the 

womens’ supposed rebellious 

acts – which only demotivate the 

female audience. The film could 

have intended not to preach any 

message but show what goes 

on with the women behind the 

curtains or “under the burkha” – 

but this very fact makes the film 

confusing in itself, though the 

film is undoubtedly a courageous 

piece of work. Lastly, the brilliant 

performances by Konkona Sen 

Sharma, Aahana Kumra, Plabita 

Borthakur and most importantly, 

Ratna Pathak make the film worth 

a try. • 

Jake Gyllenhaal to receive 

Golden Icon Award at Zurich 

• Showtime Desk 

American actor Jake Gyllenhaal 

will receive the Golden Icon Award 

for lifetime achievement at the 

Zurich International Film Festival 

this year. 

The Academy Awards 

nominated actor will attend the 

Zurich festival with his latest film 

Stronger, in which he is playing the 

role of Boston marathon bombing 

survivor, Jeff Bauman. Directed 

by David Gordon Green, Stronger 

will have its world premiere in 

Toronto, on September 8, and will 

screen on October 3, in Zurich. The 

13th Zurich Film Festival will run 

from September 28 to October 8. 

After his breakout performance 

as “Donnie Darko” in 2001, 

Gyllenhaal has been counted 

as one of the greatest actors in 

his generation. His embrace 

of complicated and troubled 

characters —a closet gay man 

struggling with love and identity 

in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, 

a psychotic ambulance chasing 

video journalist in Dan Gilroy’s 

Nightcrawler — has been rewarded 

with both critical and commercial 

acclaims. 

Gyllenhaal recently wrapped up 

shooting for Wildlife, Paul Dano’s 

directorial debut, in which he stars 

alongside Carey Mulligan. His 

upcoming productions include The 

Sister Brothers, and the Englishlanguage 

debut of French director 

Jacques Audiard, titled Rust and 

Bone.•

Showtime 

23 



Ilias Kanchan 

enraged over 

WHAT TO WATCH 

rumours 


Rumours have been making 

rounds that famous film actor 

Ilias Kanchan is expecting a 

nomination from a political 

party to run in the next national 

elections. The news even made 

it to the headlines of some local 

media outlets. But it appears that 

a rumour is all that it is, and now 

Ilias Kanachan is furious about it. 

The actor, who is also the 

founder of Nirapad Sharak Chai 

Andolon, has sent a statement 

to the press on Thursday in this 

regard. “There’s no base for the 

news saying that I am expecting a 

nomination from BNP. This is just 

false, imaginary and baseless. I 

think, publication of this news is 

a heinous crime intended against 

me,” the statement reads. 

Kanchan also stated that 

there’s no possibility of him 

taking part in the upcoming 

elections and he is considering 

legal actions to remove all 

confusions regarding the 

matter. “I’ve no relationship 

whatsoever with BNP. They’ve 

never contacted me,” he 

added. 

Despite his efforts to 

secure safe roads for the 

masses, the National Film 

Award winner artist has no 

political ambitions. “I am a man 

of the road and I want to stay 

that way. I’ve dedicated my life 

to save the people of the country 

from the dire consequences of 

road accidents. I’ve no political 

ambitions and never expressed 

any desire to take part in the 

elections to anybody,” said 

Kanchan, whose first wife 

Jahanara Kanchan died in a 

road accident on October 22, 

1993. Kanchan then established 

a social movement “Nirapad 

Sharak Chai” (We Demand 

Safe Roads). The Government 

of Bangladesh later declared 

October 

22 as 

National 

Road Safety Day. According to 

Kanchan, the rumours could have 

been spread to hinder the steps 

he has taken to celebrate the 

coming National Road Safety Day. 

Ilias Kanachan debuted his 

acting career in 1977 through 

his performances in the 

film Boshundhora directed 

by Subhash Dutta. He appeared 

Tahsan releases Obhiman Aamar 

in more than 300 films during the 

1980s and 1990s and has won the 

Bangladesh National Film Award 

for Best Actor for his role in the 

film Porineeta (1986). In 2015, he 

acted in a children’s film Ghuri, 

produced by Cinevision 

Bangladesh which was written 

and directed by filmmaker Zafar 

Firoze • 

Train to Busan 

4:20pm, Zee Studio 

While a zombie virus 

breaks out in South Korea, 

passengers struggle to survive 

on the train from Seoul to 

Busan. 

Cast: Gong Yoo, Ma Dongseok, 

Jung Yu-mi, Kim Su-an, 

Kim Eui-sung, Choi Woo-shik 

Ant-Man 

9:30pm, Movies Now 

Armed with a super-suit with 

the astonishing ability to 

shrink in scale but increase 

in strength, cat burglar Scott 

Lang must embrace his inner 

hero and help his mentor, Dr 

Hank Pym, plan and pull off a 

heist that will save the world. 

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline 

Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby 

Cannavale, Mich 


Popular musician and actor 

Tahsan launched his muchanticipated 

album Obhiman 

Aamar at GPHouse on September 

7. At the event, Tahsan charted 

out his future plans to the media 

during the formal launch of the 

album. 

The music video of the title 

track from the album, “Obhiman 

Aamar” was released on the 

night before Eid, and has already 

created quite a buzz on social 

media. The album contains a 

total of seven songs, six of which 

were written by Tahsan himself, 

while the other track was 

jointly written by Fazbir Taj and 

Tahsan. Three of the songs were 

composed by Tahsan, while Sajid 

Sarkar and Nahid Noman Arup 

composed two songs each. 

Out of his love and respect for 

the recently demised Linkin Park 

frontman Chester Bennington, 

Tahsan dedicated a song titled 

“Koshto” from his latest album to 

the highly popular international 

artist. 

As an album, Obhiman Amar 

is a standout for Tahsan, who 

has revealed many of his untold 

stories through the album. To 

share those untold stories and 

the background stories of the 

album, the singer uploaded five 

vlogs on his official Facebook 

page before the release of the 

album. 

Tahsan’s fans were in for a 

few surprises at the end of the 

press conference when the artist 

announced two competitions for 

his fans. Among the contests, 

Cover Contest, provides the 

Tahsan aficionados with an 

opportunity to share stage with 

Tahsan by covering his tracks. 

The other competition is titled “A 

Wish Come True with Tahsan.” 

There were also surprise 

announcements regarding 

Tahsan’s visit to the US and a 

concert scheduled for October 

where he will sing tracks from 

the latest album. 

Obhiman Aamar has been 

released on GP Music. Moreover, 

the music videos have been 

released on Grameenphone’s 

Bioscope platform.• 

Sully 

7:45pm, HBO 

The story of Chesley 

Sullenberger, an American 

pilot who became a hero after 

landing his damaged plane on 

the Hudson River in order to 

save the flight’s passengers 

and crew. 

Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron 

Eckhart, Laura Linney, Anna 

Gunn, Autumn Reeser, Ann 

Cusack, Holt McCallany, Mike 

O’Malleyael Pena, Anthony 

Mackie 

The Transporter 

11:53pm, Star Movies 

Frank is hired to “transport” 

packages for unknown clients 

and has made a very good 

living doing so. But when 

asked to move a package that 

begins moving, complications 

arise. 

Cast: Jason Statham, Shu 

Qi, Matt Schulze, Ric Young, 

Doug Rand, François Berléand

24 



BANGLADESH’S GDP PER CAPITA 

NOW HIGHER THAN PAKISTAN’S › 7 

Back Page 

ANAMUL AN OPTION FOR 

TOUR OF S AFRICA › 18 

ILIAS KANCHAN ENRAGED 

OVER RUMOURS › 23 

Helicopter commutes take 

off in Bangladesh 

• Ishtiaq Husain 

SPECIAL 

Mizanur Rahman, a Bangladeshi 

expatriate living in London, came 

home for a short period recently. 

Before returning to the UK, he 

contacted a Bangladeshi helicopter 

service provider to travel to Comilla 

from Dhaka. 

“Commuting this way is much 

easier,” he said. 

Until recently, the use of helicopters 

by civilians in Bangladesh 

has been limited to marriage ceremonies, 

film shootings and TV 

adverts, political programmes and 

visiting economic zones. 

Now, however, using a helicopter 

for commuting is no longer 

about luxury or showing off. An increasing 

number of people – businessmen 

and patients in particular 

– are opting for this mode of transportation 

to avoid the traffic jams 

and to save time. 

Some tour operators now offer 

helicopter rides at less than 

Tk17,000 per hour per person. The 

routes are Dhaka-Mawa-Dhaka and 

Dhaka-Jamuna bridge-Dhaka. 

A helicopter company official 

said business people mostly travel 

to Mongla, Rooppur, Syedpur and 

Meghnaghat from Dhaka. Some 

companies are planning to launch 

services on the Khulna-Dhaka and 

Dinajpur-Dhaka routes. 

Air Commodore (retd) Iqbal 

Hossain, an advisor at Meghna Aviation, 

told the Dhaka Tribune that 

commercial helicopter companies 

can make a return on their investment 

if they look at the longer 

term. 

“The business is not very profitable 

but it has good prospects. 

Apart from renting them out, most 

helicopter owners also use them 

for their company’s work,” he said. 

Iqbal has urged the Civil Aviation 

Authority of Bangladesh 

(CAAB) to build more helipads in 

Dhaka to meet the growing demand 

for moving patients to hospitals 

via helicopters. There are 

only two helipads in Dhaka City: at 

Shahjalal International airport and 

at Square Hospital. 

“We need at least 50 helipads 

in the capital,” Iqbal said. “When 

a patient is brought to Dhaka, he 

Some tour operators now offer helicopter 

rides at less than Tk17,000 per hour per 

person. The routes are Dhaka-Mawa-Dhaka 

and Dhaka-Jamuna bridge-Dhaka 

or she has to land at the airport. It 

takes time to move critical patients 

to hospitals from there.” 

South Asian Airlines first introduced 

commercial helicopter services 

to Bangladesh in 1999 with 

two helicopters. It is now one of 12 

companies commercially operating 

more than 20 helicopters from the 

capital. 

The other 11 companies are Impress 

Aviation, Partex, Square Air 

Limited, Sikder Group (R & R Aviation), 

BRB, Bengal group, Akij 

group, TMSS, Viyellatex, Meghna 

Aviation, and PHP Group. 

Squadron Leader (retd) Md Mohiuddin, 

chief engineer at Aero 

Technologies Limited, which 

maintains Impress and Partex helicopters, 

said the profits to be made 

from a helicopter business were 

marginal. 

“It will be tough for any aviation 

company to survive solely on the 

helicopter transport business,” he 

said. 

Several companies have shut 

down their services in recent years. 

Aero Technologies launched its 

services in 2000 but closed in 2008, 

while Best Air only lasted a few 

BIGSTOCK 

months after launching in 2002. 

Sources said the cost for 

chartering a six-seater helicopter 

is Tk115,000 per hour while 

four-seater helicopters range from 

Tk65,000 to Tk75,000. Customers 

have to pay 15% VAT apart from 

Tk5,000 to Tk10,000 for stopover 

or ground waiting. 

Bangladeshi companies mainly 

operate Bell 407, Bell 429, Euro-copter 

(Airbus helicopter), 

Robinson R44, and Robinson R66 

model helicopters. 

A brand new Bell 407 costs $6 

million while Bell 429 costs $9m. 

Bangladeshi companies tend to 

buy helicopters which are 1-2 years 

old at a cost of between $2.5m and 

$3m. 

An official of a helicopter company 

explained that it usually takes 

up to 3.5 years years to get back the 

money spent to purchase a single 

used helicopter. 

“It will take less time to get back 

investment as helicopter services 

are becoming more and more 

popular,” the official said. “But this 

sector needs policy support from 

the government to flourish.” • 

German woman 

on trial in Turkey 

over failed coup 

• AFP, Berlin 

WORLD 

A 49-year-old German woman is 

standing trial in a Turkish court 

accused of having links to the alleged 

mastermind of last year’s failed coup, 

German media reported Friday. 

The accused, who has not been 

named, faces several years in jail 

if found guilty of belonging to 

the movement of US-based cleric 

Fethullah Gulen, which has been 

branded a terror organisation by 

Ankara, the reports said. 

At the trial in the southern city 

of Karaman, prosecutors accused 

her not only of membership of the 

group, which Turkey calls FETO, but 

said she led one of its local women’s 

organisations. 

Gulen, an Islamic preacher 

who lives in exile in the US state of 

Pennsylvania, denies any link to the 

botched putsch in July 2016. 

The prosecutors said they have 

electronic proof of the woman’s 

alleged actions against the Turkish 

state that were uncovered during 

raids at her apartment in Turkey. 

The Turkish-born woman, who 

became a German national about 15 

years ago, was arrested in August 

2016, becoming the first German 

citizen to be detained after the 

attempted overthrow of President 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

She was granted conditional release 

in September but not allowed 

to leave Turkey. 

But her case is far lower in 

profile than that of Deniz Yucel, 

a correspondent for the Die Welt 

daily newspaper, whose arrest in 

February on terror charges sparked 

outrage in Germany. 

German journalist Mesale Tolu has 

been held on similar charges since 

May, while human rights activist Peter 

Steudtner was arrested in a July raid. 

At least 10 Germans are currently 

detained in Turkey for political 

reasons, according to the German 

foreign ministry. Relations between 

the two Nato allies have soured 

after Berlin sharply criticised Ankara 

over the crackdown that followed 

the coup attempt. 

The escalating tensions have 

split the Turkish community in 

Europe’s top economy, the largest 

diaspora, which is a legacy of Germany’s 

“guest worker” programme 

of the 1960s and 70s. • 

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

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

DT e-Paper Saturday 09 September 2017

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