01-02-2019

friDaY 

Dhaka : February 1, 2019; Magh 19, 1425 BS; Jamadi-ul awal 25,1440 hijri 

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtbangla.com 

Regd.No.Da~2065, Vol.17; No.08; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00 

international 

Saudi prince's 

anti-corruption sweep 

ends with $106B netted 

>Page 7 

art & culture 

Priyanka Chopra's Isn't 

It Romantic to stream 

on Netflix on Feb 28 

>Page 8 

sport 

Barcelona routs 

Sevilla 6-1 to reach 

Copa semis 

>Page 9 

185 people 

murdered in 

Bangladesh in 

January: BHRC 

DHAKA : Six people were murdered 

everyday on average in the first month 

of the new year, the Bangladesh 

Human Rights Commission (BHRC) 

said on Thursday, reports UNB. 

A BHRC report documented 185 

killings in January alone. 

'Social violence' claimed most lives 

(64), followed by deaths under unclear 

circumstances (36), killing by law 

enforcement agencies (18) and family 

violence (17), according to the report. 

Nine political murders were also documented. 

"Such killings are [indicative] of a 

worsening law and order situation," the 

organisation said. 

In this month, 10 victims were murdered 

after rape. BHRC also recorded 

40 incidents of rape and three incidents 

of sexual torture during this period. 

Meanwhile, BHRC said 263 people 

were killed in road accidents across the 

country while 19 others took their own 

lives in January. 

The organisation gathered information 

from different districts, upazilas 

and municipalities as well as various 

reports run by national dailies. The 

report was compiled with the assistance 

of the International Human Rights 

Commission. 

Corruption takes 

a 'devastating 

turn': BNP 

DHAKA : BNP on Thursday alleged 

that corruption has now taken a devastating 

turn in the country, but the 

media are unable to publish reports on 

the malpractice due to the government's 

control, reports UNB. 

Speaking at a press conference at 

BNP's Nayapaltan central office, party 

senior joint secretary general Ruhul 

Kabir Rizvi also said Information 

Minister Hasan Mahmud rejected the 

report of Transparency International 

(TI) on corruption only to hide facts. 

"The information minister has said 

the TI's report was accurate during the 

BNP's rule, but now it is giving imaginary 

report...not only the country's people, 

but also the international community 

get surprised when he comes up 

with such information," the BNP leader 

said. 

He further said, "The information 

minister is giving wrong information 

about the TI report only to protect his 

portfolio. Actually, corruption has 

reached a terrible level and taken a serious 

turn, but all the information are not 

being public as the media are now controlled". 

According to the TI report unveiled 

on Tuesday, Bangladesh ranks the second 

most corrupt country in South 

Asia, only ahead of war-torn 

Afghanistan. Its global position is 149th 

out of 180 countries surveyed last year, 

which is 13th from the bottom. 

Rejecting the TI's report, Hasan 

Mahmud on Wednesday claimed that 

the report was motivated and faulty. 

Rizvi said Global Financial Integrity 

presented a report on Monday about 

siphoning off money from Bangladesh. 

According to the report, he said 

around Tk 50,000 crore was siphoned 

off the country only in 2018 while Tk 

5.3 lakh corre over the last 10 years. 

Juma 

05:24 AM 

01:15 PM 

04:08 PM 

05:48 PM 

07:05 PM 

6:39 5:45 

No question paper leakage 

during SSC exam, assures 

Dipu Moni 

DHAKA : Education Minister Dr Dipu 

Moni on Thursday assured that there 

will be no incident of question paper 

leakage during the Secondary School 

Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations 

that begin on Saturday, reports 

UNB. 

While briefing reporters on the examinations 

at the secretariat, she said her 

ministry has taken stringent measures to 

prevent the leakage of question papers, 

urging teachers, students and guardians 

not to pay heed to any rumour. 

The monitoring cell of Bangladesh 

Telecommunication Regulatory 

Commission (BTRC) will work to stop 

the spread of rumours, Dr Dipu Moni 

said. 

She also warned that police will take 

action if any coaching centre remains 

open defying government order. 

As per the government order, the 

coaching centres across the country will 

remain closed from January 27 to 

February 27 to facilitate the fair holding 

of the SSC and equivalent examinations. 

This year, a total of 2,135,333 students, 

including 1,070,441 boys and 1,064,892 

girls, are expected to appear at the examinations 

from 28,682 institutions in 

3,497 centres. 

Of them, 1,700,102 will sit for the SSC 

examination under eight general education 

boards while 310,172 for Dakhil 

exam under the Madrasah Education 

Board and 125,059 for vocational exam 

under the Bangladesh Technical 

Education Board. 

The number of total examinees is 

103,434 higher than last year's and the 

number of institutions is 131 up. 

A total of 434 students will sit for the 

examinations from eight overseas centres 

as well. 

The written examinations will continue 

until February 26 while the practical 

examination will be held from February 

27 to March 5. 

Students have to take seats 30 minute 

before a test begins. 

Besides, no one except centre secretary 

will be allowed to carry mobile phone 

and no outsider will be allowed to enter 

centres. 

CID busts biggest 

question leak 

gang, arrests 9 

DHAKA : Criminal Investigation 

Department (CID) has claimed to 

have arrested nine members of the 

biggest and organized gang who used 

to leak question papers of different 

public examinations including that 

of Bangladesh Civil Service 

Commission in digital ways, reports 

UNB. 

With these arrests, a total 46 members 

of the gang have so far been 

held, said additional inspector general 

Sheikh Niyamat Hossain at a press 

conference at CID conference room 

around 12pm on Thursday. 

The detainees including government 

officials and students of Dhaka 

University were arrested in different 

times of last week, said the CID official 

claiming that the gang has been 

uprooted completely. 

The arrestees are Hafizur Rahman 

Hafiz, senior officer of Janata Bank, 

Abdur Rahman Ramiz, second year 

student of Pharmacy of Dhaka 

University, Saidur Rahman Sayeed, 

third year student of Green 

University, Muhaiminul Islam, 

fourth year student of DU Pharmacy 

department, Rimon Hossain, student 

of Green University, businessman 

Masud Rahman Tajul, Agrani 

Bank cash officer Jahangir Alam, 

Mosharaf Hossain, a messenger of 

Dhaka college and Ashim Bishwas, 

former student of Dhaka College. 

The CID official said the questions 

were leaked in two steps. A gang 

leaks question and another gang 

solved the question collecting it on 

the exam day. Then, they supply 

those to candidates through digital 

devices. 

Earlier, the CID team pointed out 

the question leak gang and arrested 

several members of the gang. 

"This time we have managed to 

arrested most members of the 

gang," said the additional inspector 

general. 

Earlier, an organized team of CID 

arrested Alip Kumar Biswas, assistant 

director of BKSP and mastermind 

of question paper leakage gang, 

Assistant Administrative Officer of 

BADC Mostafa Kamal, government 

school teacher (recommended) of 

36th BCS non-cadre Ibrahim, 38th 

BCS preliminary qualified Ayub Ali 

Badhan, and three others. 

BIWTA on Tuesday conducted eviction drive against illegal buildings on both sides of Buriganga River. Photo: TBT 

The language month is going to be started today. Bangla Academy ground remains momentous with Book fair 

in the whole month. 

Photo: Star Mail 

Ekushey book fair kicks off today 

DHAKA : The month-long Amar 

Ekushey Book Fair, a yearly event 

for booklovers and publishers, will 

begin on the Bangla Academy 

premises and at adjoining 

Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital on 

Friday. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 

will inaugurate the book fair on the 

Bangla Academy premises at 3:00 

pm on the day, reports UNB. 

She will also unveil a book titled 

'Secret Documents of Intelligence 

Branch on Father of the Nation 

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur 

Rahman' (Volume -2) at the opening 

ceremony. 

Two foreign guests - Indian poet 

Shankha Ghosh and Egyptian 

writer and poet Mohsin Al Arishi - 

will grace the opening ceremony. 

State Minister for Cultural Affairs 

K M Khalid will attend the opening 

ceremony as a special guest while 

Bangla Academy Director General 

poet Habibullah Siraji will deliver 

the welcome speech with its 

President Professor Emeritus 

Anisuzzaman in the chair. 

Bangla Academy disclosed the 

details of the fair at a press conference 

at the academy on Thursday. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 

will also distribute the Bangla 

Academy Sahitya Puraskar at the 

opening ceremony. 

Four writers and researchers won 

Bangla Academy Sahitya Puraskar - 

2018 which was announced earlier. 

The award winners are - Poet Kazi 

Rozi for poetry, Mohit Kamal for literature, 

Syed Mohammad Shahed 

for essay and research and Afsan 

Chowdhury for research on 

Liberation War . 

The winners will receive a cheque 

of Tk 2 lakh each at the programme. 

Seminars will be held at the main 

stage of the fair venue at 4pm everyday 

from February 2 to 28 followed 

by cultural events. 

Like the previous years, the venue 

of the fair has been extended to 

nearby Suhrawardy Udyan with 

huge changes. 

This year, the land earmarked for 

the fair was expanded to 550,000 

sq-ft, 37,000 sq-ft more than the 

previous year. A total of 770 units 

were allocated to the 499 organisations 

The authorities have allotted a 

total of 150 units at the Bangla 

Academy ground to 104 organisatons 

and 620 at the Suhrawardy 

Udyan to 395 organisations. 

Last year, the authorities allotted a 

total of 719 units - 136 at the Bangla 

Academy ground to 92 organisatons 

and 583 at the Suhrawardy 

Udyan to 363 organisations. 

Besides, 24 pavilions have been 

allocated for 24 publishing houses, 

including Bangla Academy which 

was the same in the last number. 

There will be strict security 

arrangements in and around the 

book fair venue to avert any 

unpleasant incident during the fair. 

Publishers from across the country 

will come at the fair with a wide 

variety of books while Bangla 

Academy will exhibit 102 newly 

printed and reprinted books. 

The theme for this year's Ekushey 

book fair is "Bijoy: 1952 to 1971 

Ebong Naboporjay," said Dr Jalal 

Ahmed, member secretary of the 

fair organizing committee. 

Visiting the fair venue, the UNB 

correspondent found works on the 

stalls and the main stage are almost 

finished but not fully completed. 

Nirapad Media and 

Communication, run by actor Ilias 

Kanchan, will oversee the total 

management of the fair. 

The fair will remain open from 3 

pm to 9 pm (Sunday to Thursday) 

while it will remain open from 11 am 

to 9 pm on weekly holidays. On the 

21st February, the fair will remain 

open from 8am to 8pm. 

Hasina a 'person of very 

big heart', says outgoing 

Malaysian envoy 

DHAKA : Outgoing Malaysian High 

Commissioner in Dhaka Nur Ashikin 

binti Mohd Taib on Thursday made her 

farewell call on Prime Minister Sheikh 

Hasina at her office in the city and called 

her a 'person of very big heart', reports 

UNB. 

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim 

briefed reporters after the meeting. 

The outgoing Malaysian envoy 

thanked the Prime Minister for her government's 

support to her during her 

tenure in Bangladesh. 

Appreciating the generosity of the 

Prime Minister, the Malaysian envoy 

said Bangladesh provided shelter to a 

large number of displaced Rohingyas. 

In this regard, the Prime Minister said 

it is a pressure on Bangladesh, and 

Myanmar should create a congenial 

atmosphere so that these people can go 

back to their homeland. 

Sheikh Hasina also extended her 

thanks to Malaysia for its support over 

the Rohingya issue, saying, "You can't 

keep your eyes closed when such 

humanitarian disaster takes place," 

Ihsanul Karim quoted the Prime 

Minister as saying. 

Bangladesh provided Rohingyas shelter 

on humanitarian grounds, she said. 

The Prime Minister said local people of 

Cox's Bazar are bearing the brunt of giving 

shelter to Rohingyas as they are losing 

their cultivable land as well as occupation. 

"New Rohingya people are coming 

to Bangladesh from outside, including 

Saudi Arabia and India." 

She focused on her government's 

activities to arrange temporary accommodation 

for Rohingyas to Bhashan 

Char Island in Noakhali, saying some 

8,000 people are working for constructing 

shelter homes there. 

All the facilities, including pure water, 

will be available in the island, Hasina 

said, adding that the government is also 

constructing multipurpose cyclone shelters 

in coastal areas. 

She said a process is on to develop 

Cox's Bazar Airport as an international 

standard one, which will link the East 

and the West. "The airport will be 

equipped with all the facilities for filling 

fuel to aircraft." 

Recalling the excellent bilateral relations 

between Bangladesh and Malaysia, 

the Prime Minister said Malaysia is one 

of the first countries that recognised 

Bangladesh after the Liberation War. 

The Malaysian High Commissioner 

praised the development pace of 

Bangladesh, saying it is marching forward 

fast. 

Nur Ashikin said she likes Bangladesh 

and its people. "I considered Bangladesh 

like my home country during my 

tenure," the envoy said. 

Prime Minister's Principal Secretary 

Md Nojibur Rahman and her Military 

Secretary Major General Mia Md Jainul 

Abedin were present.

NEWS 

FRiDAY, 

FEBRUARY 1, 2019 

2 

Two bridges over Brahmaputra can make 

a big difference for Jamalpur people 

JAMALPUR : Some 50,000 residents 

of Laxmichar and Tulshirchar unions 

in Sadar upazila, separated from the 

mainland of the upazila by the 

Brahmaputra River, have long been 

suffering for lack of two much-needed 

concrete bridges over the river, reports 

UNB. The residents of Laxmirchar, 

Charjagaria, Charpara, Rayerchar, 

Bhatipara, Charjathartopur, 

Kaziarchar, Tulshirchar, Rehai 

Gazaria, Tebirchar, Chatiantala, 

Garamara, Tikrakandi, Digriechar and 

Douhatala villages under the two 

unions depend on 'kheya' boat for 

crossing the river to go to Sadar upazila 

and capital Dhaka. 

Several hundred college students of 

the two unions have to attend their 

classes enduring much difficulties 

every day. 

During monsoon, the residents of the 

15 villages have to cross the turbulent 

river risking their lives while in the dry 

season they have to cross a onekilometer 

area of the river which gets 

muddy and patchy due to walking by 

hundreds of people. 

Villagers alleged that the local 

administration has not taken any step 

yet to build any bridge although 48 

years have elapsed since the country's 

independence. 

Every day many people have to cross 

the river to go to Nandina and Narandi 

bazars for education, business and 

shopping purposes. 

GD-184/19 (6 x 4) 

Abdul Halim, a resident of Rehai 

Gazaria village, said the people in 

Tulshirchar and Laxmirchar unions 

depend on agriculture for their 

livelihood. The farmers have to depend 

on boats to take their crops to the local 

markets. 

"The living standard of the people of 

the two unions is not improving and 

famers are not getting fair prices of 

their produces due to poor 

communication system," he said. 

Nazrul Islam, a resident of the same 

village, said, "They have heard pledges 

from the local administration several 

times but there is no change in the fate 

of the farmers." 

Rezaul Karim, a teacher of Narandi 

Jinnatan Afsor Women Degree 

College, said the residents of the two 

unions, have to move out for their 

destinations two hours ahead of the 

stipulated time because of the poor 

communication, he said. 

Dilruba Champa, a college student 

and a resident of Tulshirchar village, 

said, "During the dry season I have to 

carry an extra dress with me for going 

to college as I my dress which I wear 

gets wet and dirty while crossing the 

river. As the river dried up during the 

dry season, I have to wade through 

waist- to knee-deep water to go to my 

college." 

Mohammad Nazrul Islam, executive 

engineer of Jamalpur LGED, said the 

cabinet has already approved a project 

for constructing a bridge at Nandina 

point over the Brahmaputra River and 

the work will begin soon once the 

tender is floated. 

Abdul Halim, a resident of Rehai 

Gazaria village, said the people in 

Tulshirchar and Laxmirchar unions 

depend on agriculture for their 

livelihood. The farmers have to depend 

on boats to take their crops to the local 

markets. "The living standard of the 

people of the two unions is not 

improving and famers are not getting 

fair prices of their produces due to poor 

communication system," he said. 

Nazrul Islam, a resident of the same 

village, said, "They have heard pledges 

from the local administration several 

times but there is no change in the fate 

of the farmers." 

Rezaul Karim, a teacher of Narandi 

Jinnatan Afsor Women Degree 

College, said the residents of the two 

unions, have to move out for their 

destinations two hours ahead of the 

stipulated time because of the poor 

communication, he said. 

Dilruba Champa, a college student 

and a resident of Tulshirchar village, 

said, "During the dry season I have to 

carry an extra dress with me for going 

to college as I my dress which I wear 

gets wet and dirty while crossing the 

river. As the river dried up during the 

dry season, I have to wade through 

waist- to knee-deep water to go to my 

college." 

25.368500.111.14.21-2063/19-365 31/1/19 

CHATTOGRAM : A physician 

has allegedly killed himself 

over family feud at 

Chandgaon residential area in 

the city early Thursday, 

reports UNB. 

The deceased was identified 

as Mostafa Morshed Akash, 

33, son of Abdus Sabur of 

Bangla Bazar area of 

Chandanish Upazila. 

Abul Bashar, officer-incharge 

of Chandgaon Police 

Station, said Akash completed 

MBBS from Chittagong 

Medical College and was 

involved with a coaching 

MYMENSINGH : Three 

people were killed and two 

others injured as an 

ambulance overturned at 

Alalpur in Sadar upazila 

early Thursday, reports 

UNB. 

The identities of the 

deceased could not be 

known yet. The accident 

took place around 3 am 

when a Mymensingh 

Medical College and 

Hospital- bound ambulance 

crashed into a roadside tree 

and turned turtle, leaving 

two people dead on the spot 

and three others injured, 

said Mahmudul Islam, 

officer-in-charge of Kotwali 

Model Police Station. 

The injured were taken to 

Mymensingh Medical 

College and Hospital where 

we`ÿ r/Rb-756(2)/31/1/19 

GD-182/19 (7 x 4) doctors declared another 

injured dead. 

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A press conference was held at Sagar-Runi Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday over 

Digital Education System. 

Photo : TBT 

Fruit trader 

found dead 

in Sylhet 

SYLHET : A fruit trader was 

found dead at a house at 

Madina Market in the city 

on Thursday. 

The deceased was 

identified as Shahab Uddin, 

40, a resident of Moglabazar 

of Dakkhin Surma upazila. 

Selim Mia, officer-incharge 

of Kotwali Model 

Police Station, said being 

informed by local people 

police recovered the body of 

Shahab Uddin from the 

house around 11:15 am and 

sent it to local hospital 

morgue for autopsy, reports 

UNB. 

Police also recovered a 

weight scale stone stained 

with blood from the spot. 

Police suspected that 

someone might have hit him 

with the stone on his head 

for killing him. 

2 get 14 yrs jail 

for abducting 

schoolgirl in 

Jashore 

JASHORE : A court here on 

Wednesday sentenced two 

people to 14 years 

imprisonment for abducting 

a schoolgirl in 2006, reports 

UNB. 

The court also fined the 

two convicts-Wasim Sheikh, 

son of Ibad Ali and Babul 

Morol, son of Akkel Ali---Tk 

10,000 each, in default, to 

suffer two years more 

rigorous imprisonment. 

According to the 

prosecution, the convicts 

along with two others 

associates abducted a class 

IX student of Purakhali 

Secondary School of 

Abhoynagar upazila on 

September 29, 2006. 

When victim's father filed 

a case with Abhoynagar 

Police Station they rescued 

the girl. Police submitted 

chargesheet against the four 

people in the case. 

After examining records 

and witnesses Jashore 

Women and Children 

Repression Prevention 

Tribunal Judge TM Musa 

handed down the verdict 

acquitting two other accused 

as allegations brought 

against them could not be 

proved. 

3 killed in 

Mymensingh 

road crash 

Doctor 'commits suicide' 

in Chattogram 

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centre - 'Three Doctors'. 

Akash recently had an 

altercation with his wife 

suspecting over her alleged 

illicit affair. "We have learned 

that he took an insulin 

overdose," said Assistant Sub- 

Inspector Alauddin of 

Chittagong Medical College 

and Hospital outpost. 

Doctors at CMCH 

pronounced him dead when 

he was taken there at 6:20am, 

he added. Family members 

said before his apparent 

suicide, Akash had shared 

photos of his wife on his 

Facebook profile and wrote 

about her alleged extra 

marital affair before 

announcing his decision to 

end own life. 

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METRO 

FriDAY, FeBruArY 1, 2019 

3 

Bangladesh Nari Sangbadik Kendra formed a human chain in front of National Press Club yesterday 

protesting child rape and repression. 

Photo : TBT 

Muslims demand Nike pull 

sneaker over 'offensive' logo 

DHAKA : Muslims have lambasted 

sports apparel giant 'Nike' for selling a 

brand of Air Max sneakers with a 

design on its sole that resembles the 

Arabic word for "Allah". 

The sports giant is being asked to 

recall the sneakers, with Muslims 

saying they have "insulted Islam", 

reports the Daily Mail, reports UNB. 

The outrage began when Muslim 

customer Saiga Noreen noticed what 

she believed was the Arabic word for 

Allah on the shoe. She immediately 

launched an online petition, 

demanding that the company remove 

the popular shoe from its worldwide 

market. 

The petition, which has gained more 

than 6,000 signatures in just hours, 

blasts Nike for allowing God's name to 

be 'trampled, kicked and become soiled 

with mud or even filth'. 

Currently, over 16,000 people have 

signed the petition, with a goal of 

25,000 signatures. 

Other supporters took to Twitter to 

express their outrage over Nike's 

allegedly blasphemous product. 

The design features the words Air 

Max spelled out in a custom, joined-up 

font on the sole of the shoe, which was 

released last year. 

In Muslim culture, showing the sole 

of your shoe is seen as the height of 

disrespect as it implies you want to hurt 

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AvBGmwcAvi/wewea/2019/2052 

30/01/19 

GD-180/19 (4 x 4) 

someone with it. 

The shoe is considered dirty because 

it touches the ground and is associated 

with the foot, the lowest party of the 

body. 

"It is outrageous and appalling of 

Nike to allow the name of God on a 

shoe. This is disrespectful and 

extremely offensive to Muslim's and 

insulting to Islam," Noreen said. 

"Islam teaches compassion, kindness 

and fairness towards all. We urge Nike 

to recall this blasphemous and 

offensive shoe and all products with the 

design logo resembling the word Allah 

from worldwide sales immediately." 

"We also request stricter scrutiny of 

products before they enter the market. 

I urge all Muslim's and everyone who 

respects the freedom of religion to sign 

this petition." Nike became embroiled 

in a similar controversy in 1997 when it 

was forced to recall thousands of pairs 

of Air Bakin' sneakers following outcry 

from Muslim customers. 

Flame like letters with the word 'Air' 

written on the heel could be read as 

Allah in Arabic script. 

However, Nike denied allegations it 

intentionally insulted the Muslim 

community, saying the logo was a 

"stylised representation of Nike's Air 

Max trademark" and had no religious 

significance, as reported by RT. 

"It's intended to reflect the Air Max 

brand only. Any other perceived 

meaning or representation is 

unintentional," a Nike representative 

said. 

Nike became embroiled in a similar 

controversy in 1997 when it was forced 

to recall thousands of pairs of Air Bakin' 

sneakers following outcry from Muslim 

customers. 

Flame like letters with the word 'Air' 

written on the heel could be read as 

Allah in Arabic script. 

However, Nike denied allegations it 

intentionally insulted the Muslim 

community, saying the logo was a 

"stylised representation of Nike's Air 

Max trademark" and had no religious 

significance, as reported by RT. 

"It's intended to reflect the Air Max 

brand only. Any other perceived 

meaning or representation is 

unintentional," a Nike representative 

said. 

The sports giant is being asked to 

recall the sneakers, with Muslims 

saying they have "insulted Islam", 

reports the Daily Mail, reports UNB. 

The outrage began when Muslim 

customer Saiga Noreen noticed what 

she believed was the Arabic word for 

Allah on the shoe. She immediately 

launched an online petition, 

demanding that the company remove 

the popular shoe from its worldwide 

market. 

Memorials to be 

built at mass killing 

grounds in Mirpur: 

Minister 

DHAKA : Minister for 

Liberation War Affairs AKM 

Mozammel Huq on 

Thursday said that 

memorials will be built at 

Alokdia, Muslimbari and 

Zalladkhana in Mirpur area 

where mass killings were 

taken place in 1971, reports 

UNB. 

"These projects will be 

implemented as part of the 

national plan to reserve the 

memory of the liberation 

war," said the minister at a 

programme at Mirpur 

Harunur Rashid Mollah 

Eidgah field. 

Mentioning that the 

independence 

of 

Bangladesh was achieved 

following the sacrifice of 

millions of lives, the minister 

said, "To make this 

achievement meaningful, 

the country's people will 

have to know the real history 

of the liberation war and 

have to own the sense of 

liberation." 

The minister also said the 

government will take all 

necessary steps to reserve 

the memory of the liberation 

war as well as the freedom 

fighters would be 

remembered for ever. 

Shakhawat Moon 

made PM's deputy 

press secretary 

DHAKA : KM Shakhawat 

Moon, senior trainer of the 

Press Institute of 

Bangladesh, has been 

appointed as a deputy press 

secretary to Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina, reports 

UNB. 

The Public Administration 

Ministry issued a 

notification on Thursday in 

this regard. Shakhawat 

Moon has been covering 

Prime Minister's news being 

attached to her Press Wing 

since 2009. He also worked 

for Bangladesh Television 

(BTV) on deputation as a 

controller/programme 

manager. 

Foolproof security for 

ekushey book fair: 

DMP Commissioner 

DHAKA : Foolproof security measures have been taken for 

the month-long Ekushey Book Fair scheduled to begin on 

Friday, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner 

Asaduzzman Mia, reports UNB. 

"We earlier had said no book hurting religious sentiments 

or containing provocative elements will be allowed at the 

book fair but if any such book is found in any stall then the 

Bangla Academy authorities will take action," said the DMP 

commissioner at a press briefing at the Suhrawardy Udyan 

after visiting the fair venue. 

He said the intelligence team will remain vigil to stop the 

publication of such books. 

Besides, Asaduzzaman said, if any writer of blogger want 

private security then security will be provided to them upon 

request. 

Police will take steps to prevent the entry of vendors into 

and setting up of makeshift shops in and around the book 

fair. A special team of police will be deployed at the fair to 

prevent stalking of female visitors and the offenders will be 

punished by a mobile court, said the DMP chief. 

The DMP Commissioner said a team of Special Weapons 

and Tactics (SWAT) will remain alert to tackle any militant 

attack or any unavoidable incident. 

Besides, he said, an 'invisible' team of police will be 

deployed in and around the fair venue for any instant action. 

Law enforcers, including plainclothes police, DB and SB, 

will patrol in and around the 

book fair venue, he added. 

People have to enter the 

fair venue through archways 

as in previous years and the 

movement of people will be 

kept under surveillance 

through watchtowers. 

The whole areas, 

including Suhrawardy 

Uddyan, Bangla Academy, 

Doyel Chattar and Raju 

Sculpture, will be kept 

under close circuit cameras, 

the DMP commissioner 

added. 

air venue through 

archways as in previous 

years and the movement of 

people will be kept under 

surveillance through 

watchtowers. 

The whole areas, 

including Suhrawardy 

Uddyan, Bangla Academy, 

Doyel Chattar and Raju 

Sculpture, will be kept 

under close circuit cameras, 

the DMP commissioner 

added. 

ADB president greets: Hasina 

DHAKA : Asian 

Development Bank (ADB) 

President Takehiko Nakao 

has congratulated Sheikh 

Hasina on her reelection as 

GD-178/19 (5 x 3) 

GD-181/19 (12 x 3) 

the Prime Minister of 

Bangladesh for the fourth 

term, reports UNB. 

ADB Country Director 

Manmohan Prakash 

handed a congratulatory 

letter of the ADB president 

over to Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina at her office 

here on Thursday. 

Òwkÿv wb‡q Moe †`k 

†kL nvwmbvi evsjv‡`kÓ

EDITORIAL 

FRiDay, 

FEBRUaRy 1, 2019 

4 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam 

Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103 

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com 

Friday, February 1, 2019 

The issue of 

absentee doctors 

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina recently 

warned that from now on government 

doctors will have to either stay in their 

hospital posts outside Dhaka and sincerely serve 

the patients. if not, then they will be required to 

leave their jobs. We welcome the Pm's very 

blunt but very well deserved statement and wish 

that her stern warning will be truly enforced 

sooner than later. 

indeed, many doctors on the government's 

health services in connivance with unscrupulous 

officials in the Health ministry are usually able to 

avoid serving in the rural areas. many of them 

remain in Dhaka month after month and draw 

their salaries and other benefits without doing any 

work at their properly designated places while the 

health services in the rural areas suffer very 

seriously from shortage of doctors. Prime minister 

(Pm) Sheikh Hasina warned such absentee doctors 

for their dereliction of duty time and again. They 

were once again told by the Pm without mincing 

any words that they should give up their jobs if 

they do not like to stay in the rural areas The Pm 

also warned how the nation and taxpayers make 

financial and other forms of sacrifices for doctors 

to be educated and trained only not to get the 

expected services from them. 

However, like all other cases of the taste of the 

pudding coming from eating it, the tough words 

from the Pm will count for something only after the 

actual taking of the steps that would be required to 

ensure that the doctors do indeed serve in the rural 

areas. This is no easy task for on the one hand there 

are involved problems of psychology and character 

and, on the other, the doctors can point to the 

disincentives that keep them away from rural areas. 

The solution lies in psychologically curing the 

doctors of their inordinate fascination for working 

in urban areas as much as also providing them with 

further incentives, as far as would be truly justified, 

to have peace of mind to serve with dedication in 

the rural areas. But the greatest stress will have to 

be put on very strict enforcement of rules and 

regulations to make it very difficult for them to go 

on so unconscientiously avoiding their duties in 

rural areas. 

The health ministers of nearly all previous 

governments ordered stronger supervision of 

doctors who neglected their duties in the rural 

areas, But little appears to have been achieved in 

this direction. it seemed that the ministers' 

directives were thrown to the winds and the 

tradition of doctors staying away from their places 

of posting in the rural areas continued in much the 

same form. Not much positive changes have been 

experienced either in relation to absentee doctors 

under the present government. Therefore, the 

government needs to take up a more pragmatic 

and realistic attitude in relation to this serious 

heath related issue putting emphasis of service 

rules above everything else to achieve any 

significant positive results. 

Nearly 90 per cent of the people of the country 

live in the rural areas. Successive governments 

invested substantially in setting up health or 

medical care centres in the rural areas with a hope 

that these centres would extend minimum health 

care to common people. But even partial benefits 

of these centres are not being realised due to the 

phenomenon of the absentee doctors. The 

incumbent government planned to establish 

18,000 community clinics and out of these 12,000 

such clinics have been already established mainly 

in the rural areas with a view to extending health 

services to rural people. But these functioning 

community clinics are also suffering from the 

phenomenon of absentee doctors. 

The nation makes much sacrifice to produce a 

doctor with highly subsidised medical education 

and then further pays not unreasonably for his 

or her upkeep with salaries and other facilities. 

in return, the nation should duly expect to get 

his or her sincere service. if the same is not 

honestly discharged, then the nation should 

have the right to apply 'coercion' so that the 

same is discharged. But coercion can take 

different forms. 

Forcing an unwilling adult to do a job will not 

ensure either job satisfaction or the doing of the 

job dedicatedly. The problems complained by 

the doctors such as their not having proper 

housing for themselves and schooling facilities 

for their children will have to be responded to 

sympathetically also and addressed as much as 

possible while also keeping up consistent 

pressure on them as per their service rules to do 

their bounden duties. 

Brexit reality will soon hit May again 

BriTiSH politics now follows the 

tortured pattern of addiction. 

inside the addict's head the most 

important thing is getting to the next 

Brexit fix, scoring the best deal. But 

from the outside, to our european 

friends and family, it is obvious that the 

problem is the compulsive pursuit of a 

product that does us only harm. On 

Tuesday night, British Prime minister 

Theresa may thought she had scored: A 

slender majority in parliament voted for 

an imaginary agreement in Brussels, 

stripped of the hated "backstop". 

Tory eurosceptic ultras and the 

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 

pledged conditional allegiance to the 

prime minister if she delivers 

"alternative arrangements" for a 

seamless border on Northern ireland. 

But no one has any idea what those 

might be and the european Union (eU) 

has already ruled out a renegotiation on 

terms that might satisfy the hardliners. 

The transient buzz of Tory unity will 

yield to the chilly comedown of Brexit 

reality, as it always does. 

Some members of parliament can see 

the situation spiralling out of control. 

On Tuesday, 298 lined up to demand an 

intervention. They backed a cross-party 

bid to seize control of the Brexit agenda 

from the government and delay the day 

of departure if necessary. But the move 

failed. There is ample horror of the nodeal 

scenario across the Commons (a 

vaguer condemnation of that option 

won a narrow majority ), but clearly the 

greater fear is association with anything 

that looks like an active plot to thwart 

Brexit. 

Yvette Cooper and Nick Boles, 

sponsors of the more controversial 

amendment, insisted their aim was only 

After Donald Trump's Twitter threat 

to "devastate Turkey economically 

if they hit Kurds," Ankara's foreign 

minister, mevlut Cavusoglu, responded 

that the US will not "get anywhere by 

threatening Turkey economically." it was 

a brave statement in response to an 

undiplomatic threat from a NATO ally, 

but unfortunately for Turkey, the past few 

months suggest otherwise. 

Last August, the US slapped tariffs on 

the country's steel and aluminum 

exports, sending the Turkish lira 

plummeting. The tariffs were lifted after 

an American pastor whose cause Trump 

had championed was released from jail. 

But the economy is only now recovering, 

so Turkish politicians will be well aware 

that the threat is potent. 

Whether Trump's threat is simple 

bullying (as it looks from the Turkish side 

of the Atlantic) or the legitimate use of 

economic pressure to change behavior 

(as Washington would characterize it) is a 

matter of debate. 

America's economic power certainly 

gives it significant leverage. But Turkey 

has also made itself more vulnerable, by 

intertwining politics and economics too 

much. There are ways that Turkey could 

strengthen its economy against external 

interference. But so far, the Turkish 

president shows little interest in doing so. 

On the contrary, recep Tayyip erdogan 

has put most of his faith in political rather 

than economic defense. 

Turkey has two primary economic 

problems that make it vulnerable to 

outside interference. 

The first is high external debt. At the 

end of 2018, Turkey's external debt 

amounted to more than 50% of its gross 

domestic product. With most of this in 

to guarantee an orderly departure, and 

there is no reason to doubt them. 

Parliament is packed with proeuropeans 

who say no to the hard junk 

peddled by the likes of Jacob reesmogg 

but are still hooked on softer 

strains of the leave drug. 

There is a booming trade in legal 

Brexit highs for mPs. The newest 

variant to hit the Westminster street is a 

confection put together by Kit 

malthouse, a leave-voting Tory. His 

product has been endorsed by a 

remarkable spread of Conservative 

mPs, from former remainers to 

hardline Brexiteers. They grandiosely 

call it the "malthouse compromise" - as 

if it were a magisterial vision for peace 

among nations and not a ragged stitchup 

to postpone Tory civil war. 

The idea has two parts: First, 

renegotiate the backstop that promises 

a frictionless Northern irish border. 

Second, if renegotiation fails, scrap the 

deal but salvage the transition period 

contained within in it. Then aim for an 

exit on World Trade Organisation 

terms. 

it is a strange kind of compromise 

RaFaEl BEHR 

plan that offers no compromise. The 

backstop only exists because may's 

Brexit red lines could not be bent 

around the Good Friday agreement any 

other way. As for the transition period, 

it is a condition of the current deal. The 

idea that it can be cut and pasted into 

some other deal presumes that the past 

two years have just been a warm-up 

before the real match starts. This new 

malthouse doctrine is really the old 

hardline Brexit delusions in shinier 

Tory Eurosceptic ultras and the Democratic Unionist Party 

(DUP) pledged conditional allegiance to the prime minister 

if she delivers "alternative arrangements" for a seamless 

border on northern ireland. But no one has any idea what 

those might be and the European Union (EU) has already 

ruled out a renegotiation on terms that might satisfy the 

hardliners. The transient buzz of Tory unity will yield to the 

chilly comedown of Brexit reality, as it always does. 

dollars and euros, servicing the debt 

becomes more expensive as the value of 

the lira weakens. 

The second weakness is high inflation, 

which reached a peak of 25% in 

November, but has dropped slightly 

since. 

Both these issues depend on market 

sentiment, with the lira rising or falling 

depending on what financial markets 

think of what is happening to the 

economy. And what is happening to the 

economy depends on what happens with 

Turkey's internal politics. 

This is where erdogan comes in, 

because he has been vocally against high 

interest rates, which are necessary to curb 

inflation, in part on moral grounds and in 

part because they hurt his base. many of 

Turkey's middle-income households took 

advantage of cheap credit to improve 

their lifestyles, and big construction 

companies borrowed freely to create 

signature projects that have not proved 

profitable (or remain unfinished). High 

interest rates hurt both. 

And therein lies both the weakness of 

Turkey's economy and its potential 

Faisal al yaFai 

shoes. it is the bluff that Britain holds 

all the cards, and that if we show 

enough contempt for treaties and 

economic logic, Brussels will be 

intimidated into granting favours that 

could not be won by conventional 

diplomacy. 

There are two possible reasons for 

pursuing that strategy. One is stupidity: 

Failure to grasp what the negotiations 

so far have actually been about and how 

may's deal was their logical outcome. 

The second is cynical vandalism: 

Knowing that the plan will fail and 

hoping, when it does, to pin blame for a 

chaotic no-deal Brexit on Brussels 

intransigence. in truth it would be the 

defense. By intertwining politics and 

economics so closely, movement in the 

first has an immediate impact on the 

second. if erdogan gave up a bit of 

influence, he would end up with more 

power. 

The best way to erect an economic 

defense would be to firewall the economy 

from erdogan's policies, specifically by 

him giving up influence over the central 

bank. That would reassure the markets 

that the central bank would make 

decisions free of political considerations. 

But instead, erdogan, in just the last two 

weeks, has moved to consolidate his 

influence over it. 

in mid-January, three days after 

Trump's threat to devastate the economy, 

the central bank decided to leave interest 

rates unchanged. even that was seen as a 

compromise against what markets 

wanted (an interest-rate rise) and what 

erdogan wanted (a rate cut ahead of 

municipal elections in march). 

The same day, however, parliament 

voted to give erdogan emergency powers 

in the event of a "negative development" 

that could threaten the country's financial 

fruition of eurosceptic zealotry. 

it is sad to see self-styled Tory 

"moderates" taken in by such a con 

and alarming to hear may indulge it 

in the Commons as a "serious 

proposal". Her next move is to 

Brussels, in a quest for something that 

two years of negotiation have already 

failed to uncover. But it seems the way 

to unite Tories these days is to 

expunge the period 2017 to 2018 from 

memory. may still acts as if Brexit is 

something that must be settled to the 

satisfaction of the Conservative party 

first, and only then shared with the 

rest of europe. The British public is at 

the very back of the queue. 

Such obtuseness infuriates 

continental leaders more than the 

intent to quit their club. it was not a 

secret that Britain had a eurosceptic 

political culture, even if the 

referendum result was shocking and 

upsetting. But what was also obvious 

in Brussels, Berlin and Paris was the 

gap between the idea of Brexit 

advertised by the leave campaign - the 

narcotic rush of words such as 

"freedom" and "sovereignty" - and the 

practical business of extricating 

Britain from eU structures. German 

Chancellor Angela merkel, French 

President emmanuel macron and 

others presumed this yawning chasm 

would be recognised by their British 

counterpart as a hazard. They 

expected may to start building 

bridges from the Leavers' fantasy 

islan d to the reality of what was 

available in negotiations with a bloc of 

27 countries - the imbalance of power 

and the calculus of damage limitation. 

Source : Gulf News 

Why Erdogan is powerless over 'devastating' sanctions 

Palestinian Prime minister rami 

Hamdallah resigned this week. 

(reuters). Palestinian politics has 

been in a nosedive for decades. The only 

surprise is that there doesn't seem to be any 

bottom to the abyss - it is just one 

continuous downward spiral with no end 

and no relief. it is plagued by conflict, 

violence and uncertainty. 

This week, Palestinian Prime minister 

rami Hamdallah announced his resignation, 

frustrated by the daunting pressure from all 

sides. Palestinians face escalating hate and 

violence from israel, fueled in part by israeli 

candidates competing for votes in the April 9 

election. The Palestinians are being bullied 

and blackmailed by America to accept israel's 

peace diktats or lose hundreds of millions of 

dollars in funding, throwing the Palestinian 

economy into worsening chaos. 

But the most pressing concern has been 

Hamdallah's inability to achieve unity with 

Hamas, the militant religious movement 

that rules the Gaza Strip and is the primary 

obstacle to Palestinian unification. 

Palestinians' inability to overcome their 

own political divisions has always been a 

major obstacle to dealing with their conflict 

with israel. We're not talking about 

achieving peace, but rather empowering the 

The best way to erect an economic defense would 

be to firewall the economy from Erdogan's 

policies, specifically by him giving up influence 

over the central bank. That would reassure the 

markets that the central bank would make 

decisions free of political considerations. But 

instead, Erdogan, in just the last two weeks, has 

moved to consolidate his influence over it. 

Palestinians and achieving the presumably 

simple goal of unity. 

Hamdallah, an acclaimed academic and 

Fatah political activist, was named prime 

minister in September 2013 to usher in 

unity with Hamas. This week, he conceded 

defeat and resigned. He cited his 

achievements, including bolstering the 

Palestinian economy despite the brutality of 

the israeli occupation and Jewish settler 

terrorism. He tweeted: "We are proud that, 

despite all constraints and israel's illegal 

practices, our national exports have 

exceeded $1 billion. We have brought our 

national product to more than 80 countries 

and increased our foreign investments to $ 

3.4 billion." But Hamdallah could not 

Ray Hanania 

achieve unity with Hamas. Last march, he 

was even the target of an assassination 

attempt as he entered the Gaza Strip to 

negotiate reconciliation. 

The policies of Hamas do not concur with 

the policies of the Palestinian Authority and 

it has been engaged in a decades-long battle 

to take control of the Palestinians' future. 

in a way, Hamas was the unintended 

delusion of israel's extremist and violent 

leadership. in 1977, former terrorist and 

israeli Prime minister menachem Begin 

embraced a plan by anti-Arab militant Ariel 

Sharon, then only a general with a long 

history of massacring Palestinians. israel 

thus launched the "Village Leagues" in the 

Gaza Strip, which it hoped would 

stability. Coming so soon after Trump's 

threat, it is hard to imagine the two were 

not linked. 

it is clear that erdogan wants to create 

a line of economic defense in case of new 

threats - threats that will, if they come, 

almost certainly be the result of his 

foreign-policy maneuver over Syria. 

ironically, though, he would do better to 

create that line of defense by severing his 

own influence over the central bank, 

which would strengthen the economy 

and conversely give him more freedom to 

pursue his foreign policy. 

instead, erdogan has shown a 

preference for political defense, putting 

his faith in political deals and political 

threats. 

Certainly, deals have worked: The 

release of US pastor Andrew Brunson 

from house arrest in October brought the 

sanctions to an end. And the day after 

Trump tweeted his latest threat, erdogan 

called and offered a safe zone in northern 

Syria, an offer that appears to have 

brought Trump back onside. Nor has 

erdogan shied away from making 

political threats, warning that without a 

safe zone, there may be more Syrian 

migration to europe. But pursuing his 

own art of the deal has left the economy 

as the country's Achilles heel. 

erdogan is certainly a cunning 

tactician, but by refusing to give up 

influence over the central bank he has 

drastically reduced his ability to 

maneuver. Trump has threatened to hurt 

the Turkish economy if he doesn't get his 

way. ironically, erdogan, by insisting on 

getting his way over the economy, is 

already accomplishing that. 

Source : Asia Times 

Palestinian statehood being stymied by divisions 

undermine what they saw as the more 

threatening rise of Palestine Liberation 

The policies of Hamas do not concur with 

the policies of the Palestinian Authority and 

it has been engaged in a decades-long battle 

to take control of the Palestinians' future. 

Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat. 

The israelis never expected them to 

eventually help form a militant group called 

Hamas at the start of the First intifada in 

December 1987. rather than working 

together, Hamas and the PLO, which was 

already fractured and divided, instead saw 

each other as rivals. And that rivalry has never 

ended, forcing Palestinians to pay a high price. 

The divisions were exacerbated when 

israel withdrew, for its own selfish 

reasons, from Gaza in 2005. Faced with 

mounting casualties at the hands of 

Hamas fighters, israel withdrew both its 

military and its settlements to border 

positions. israel turned Gaza from an 

occupied territory into the world's largest 

open-air military prison, governed by 

embargo. israel controls the borders, the 

passage of civilians and commodities, and 

utilities including water and electricity, 

often curtailing or limiting both. 

Source : Arab news

STRATEGIC ISSUES FRIDAY, 

FEbRuARY 1, 2019 

5 

There have been tensions in the past, but this time is different. 

Photo: Andy Wong 

Washington's pursue of strategic 

competition with China 

satoru Mori 

In the past, whenever a dramatic event or an action 

created tension between the United States and China, it 

would be followed by a phase of reduced tension and 

stability. Are we witnessing another phase of this tensionstabilization 

cycle, or are we on the cusp of a qualitatively 

new mode in the U.S. approach toward China, epitomized 

by the phrase "strategic competition with China"? Will 

U.S. efforts to push back on China intensify to the point 

where the United States can accept and absorb the 

consequences of the "decoupling" of the two nations? 

These are questions that have implications beyond the 

Trump administration and potential repercussions not 

only for the United States but also for the rest of the 

world. 

U.S.-China relations have seen episodes of tension, 

which would then be followed by an easing of tensions. 

The Tiananmen Square incident created a major uproar 

in the United States, but the George H. W. Bush 

administration worked to maintain Most Favored Nation 

(MFN) status for China. Tensions flared over the Taiwan 

Strait between 1995 and 1996, but the Clinton 

administration ultimately supported China's entry into 

the World Trade Organization (WTO). The government 

of George W. Bush called China a "strategic competitor" 

and tensions again spiked after the so-called EP-3 

incident in 2001, but the U.S. eventually built a 

cooperative relationship with China in the wake of the 

9/11 terrorist attacks and launched the Strategic 

Economic Dialogue (SED). President Barack Obama 

essentially maintained a cooperation-based approach 

toward China, in order to tackle climate change, 

pandemics and other global issues even in the face of 

Chinese assertiveness in maritime Asia and significant 

incidents of Chinese cyber theft and economic espionage. 

These tensions in U.S.-China relations were always 

followed by stabilization because there were factors that 

functioned as "ballasts" in the U.S.-China relationship. 

There used to be at least three kinds of "ballasts" - 

strategic, economic and ideational. During the Cold War, 

it was counter-Soviet strategy that bonded the United 

States and China, and after the Cold War, it was business 

interests - U.S. manufacturing industries started 

operating in China to capitalize on cheap local labor, and 

the U.S. financial sector made investments in China. As 

U.S.-China economic relations developed, the so-called 

engagement approach toward China was further justified 

on two beliefs: that engagement would urge China to 

politically liberalize, and that China would eventually 

embrace the same rules and norms as those cherished by 

liberal democracies to become a "responsible 

stakeholder." In short, during the two decades following 

the end of the Cold War, economic interests and two 

expectations drove U.S. domestic actors to work to 

stabilize the U.S.-China relationship whenever tension 

increased between the two countries. 

U.S.-China relations began to exit the traditional 

tension-stabilization cycle to enter a period of 

intensifying competition because the conventional 

"ballasts" waned out over the past decade due to several 

reasons. First, Chinese policies of forced technology 

transfer, intellectually property theft and other unfair 

trade practices have enabled Chinese state-owned 

enterprises to deprive the U.S. of sources of its industrial 

competitiveness and aggressively grab profits that 

otherwise would have been earned by U.S. companies. 

Economic conditions such as rising wages in China and 

falling profits earned by U.S. companies operating in 

China have further caused U.S. companies to lose interest 

in playing the role of stabilizer in the bilateral 

relationship. 

Japan at odds in balancing 

neighborhood relations 

catheriNe Putz 

There's a delicate balance to relations 

between Japan and China. Economic 

realities are weighed against security 

concerns; a desire for maintaining the 

status quo balanced against long-term 

worries that China is a future threat and 

the United States a potentially unreliable 

ally. 

When looking out from Tokyo, the 

strategic threats and security concerns 

that rest on the horizon range from the 

immediate and tangible - North Korea, 

which in 2017 sent two ballistic missiles 

flying over Hokkaido into the Pacific - to 

the inconvenient legacies of an unsigned 

peace treaty with Russia - an ongoing 

territorial dispute blocks the path to a 

peace treaty. 

Perennial debates about the 

sustainability of the American 

commitment to its Asian allies, 

exacerbated by U.S. President Donald 

Trump's capricious diplomatic style and 

repeated criticisms of U.S. allies not 

paying a fair share of defense costs - 

Japan and South Korea, specifically - only 

serve to emphasize for Japan the 

importance of maintaining balance in its 

regional relations. 

But pulling Japanese attention, always, 

is China. "Face to face, we are smiling; but 

under the table… we are kicking each 

other," Keitaro Ohno, at the time the 

parliamentary vice minister of defense for 

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, 

told a group of U.S. journalists in 

December, summarizing the reality of 

Japan's balancing of economic 

interdependence and security concerns 

with regard to China. 

"China is - and will be - an 

indispensable economic partner for 

Japan," Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for 

Japan studies at the Council on Foreign 

Relations, said in an email to a media 

house. "Economic interdependence has 

not gone away; if anything, it has become 

more important to Tokyo to maintain it." 

China was Japan's second largest 

export partner, after the United States, 

from 2011 up until the end of the 2017 

fiscal year in March 2018. According to 

the Japanese Ministry of Finance in April 

2018, Japan's exports to China soared to 

$141 billion in FY2017, a 18.3 percent 

increase over FY2016. Meanwhile, 

exports to the United States continued to 

grow, but at a slower pace of 7.5 percent 

over the previous fiscal year, coming to 

just over $140 billion. 

The news in FY2018 to date, however, 

hasn't been good for Japan. For example, 

in September 2018 Japanese exports fell 

1.2 percent over the previous year - the 

first tumble in export stats since 

November 2016. As of the end of 

November 2018, Japanese exports had 

notched a measly 0.1 percent year-onyear 

increase. 

Trump's occasional harping on the 

imbalance in Japan-U.S. trade and 

threats of tariffs on Japanese-made 

automobiles have had a chilling effect in 

part because trade-related threats from 

the White House have been pursued in 

ways other comments from Trump have 

not. From Trump's announcement, three 

days after taking office, of U.S. 

withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific 

Partnership, to the pursuit of a trade war 

against China, trade issues are key for the 

American president. 

After two years of dodging bilateral 

trade talks with the United States, Japan 

finally agreed in September 2018 to take 

the Trump administration up on its 

preferred vehicle for trade relations. 

The slowing of the Chinese economy is 

also of deep concern for Japan. Although 

officially announced statistics posit a 

general slowing of growth to 6.5 percent 

as of the third quarter of 2018, unofficial 

accounts paint a much darker outlook. At 

least one Chinese economist has 

suggested that the real growth rate in 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe answers a question during a 

press conference at in Tokyo. 

Photo: Eugene Hoshiko 

China is zero. The implications of a 

Chinese decline, let alone a collapse are 

frightening. 

In December, Dr. Akio Takahara, a 

professor of contemporary Chinese 

politics at the University of Tokyo, told a 

group of U.S. journalists that "The 

[global] interdependence with China has 

grown to such a level that if China 

collapses then we will all suffer very, very 

much," Takahara said that Japan faces a 

dilemma, arguably so do China's other 

neighbors and the United States. 

East Africa on the path of development 

Nicholas Muller 

Just a year ago, Ethiopia and Kenya 

were mired in political crises on the brink 

of potential civil war from inter-tribal 

conflict. Since then, major changes have 

taken place in Ethiopia under Prime 

Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has enacted 

numerous reforms and brokered a peace 

deal with neighboring Eritrea. After a 

highly disputed election, Uhuru Kenyatta 

is once again the president of Kenya. As 

two of the largest economies on the 

continent, the two East African 

powerhouses are at the center of China's 

largest transport infrastructure 

investments on the continent. 

Under the Belt and Road Initiative 

(BRI), Beijing has financed more than 

3,000 strategic infrastructure projects in 

Africa and provided tens of billions of 

dollars more in the form of loans. A 

decade ago, China surpassed the United 

States to become Africa's largest trading 

partner. Ethiopia and Kenya account for 

a substantial portion of Chinese lending 

in Africa, along with Djibouti; their debt 

obligations to China are high and 

growing. China is now Kenya's largest 

bilateral debt lender and Kenya's debt to 

China has increased tenfold in just five 

years. China has invested approximately 

$14 billion in Djibouti, much to do with 

its geostrategic location and hosting of 

China's first overseas military base. 

China's most significant railway 

projects in East Africa are the dieselpowered 

Mombasa-Nairobi Standard 

Gauge Railway built in Kenya, and the 

Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, which is 

the first electrified railway of its kind in 

Africa. Both railway projects, costing $3.4 

billion for Ethiopia and $3.2 billion for 

Kenya, are standard gauge railway 

projects paid for by Chinese loans. The 

two-year-old light-rail system in Addis 

Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, was 

financed by China as well to the tune of 

$475 million. 

Ethiopia asked this year for its debt 

connected with the railway to be 

restructured over a longer period of time 

(30 years) after acquiring significant debt 

to built its light rail system in the capital 

and a train line from Addis Ababa to 

Djibouti. 

The new lines run much faster and 

carry millions of tons of cargo per year, 

which is intended to improve regional 

trade and reduce road congestion. The 

new train line cuts the travel time to 

Djibouti to just 12 hours; the same trip by 

road could take days. The system is 

operated by Chinese conductors but 

Beijing has promised operations would 

be turned over to local workers after five 

years. 

The two projects have been mired in 

controversy over their costs. In August 

2018, Kenyan authorities arrested two 

top officials for suspected corruption over 

the new $3 billion Mombasa-Nairobi 

railway. Last week, according to a VOA 

report, the Kenyan government faced a 

major backlash after the details of its 

contract with China Exim Bank was 

released. There are fears that Kenya 

could potentially lose the Port of 

Mombasa to the Chinese government if 

the government-owned Kenya Railways 

Corporation (KRC) defaults on a 

substantial payment owed to Exim Bank. 

Also still in question is the real cost and 

whether Kenya overpaid for the railway 

project. 

A man stands on the platform of one of the light rail stations in Addis Ababa. Photo: Nicholas Muller 

The struggle to claim Tamil identity will redefine both Tamil nationalism and Tamil Nadu in years to 

come. 

Photo: Indu 

Is Dravidian identity on a decline 

in Tamil Nadu? 

Nicholas Muller 

There is almost universal consensus that 

Tamil Nadu is undergoing a phase of great 

political change and upheaval. The 

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and 

the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra 

Kazhagam (ADMK) have taken turns 

governing the state for the last 50 years. 

However, developments in the last two 

years have demonstrated that these 

Dravidian parties are now in decline, with 

several analysts pointing to what they feel 

is the imminent death of Dravidian 

politics. 

There have also been suggestions that 

the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its 

charismatic leader Narendra Modi are 

poised to prey on the current political 

chaos and fill the vacuum with its brand of 

Hindu nationalistic ideology (Hindutva) 

and developmental politics that has swept 

much of India. 

This line of argument, however, makes 

the simplistic mistake of viewing the 

Dravidian movement, the Dravidian 

parties, and Tamil nationalism as 

mutually exclusive social phenomena. In 

truth, these parties moved away from the 

principles of the Dravidian movement 

decades ago. Today, the strength of both 

DMK and AIADMK is dependent on the 

lingering populist sentiments toward past 

leaders, as well as the use of patronage 

politics and caste as an effective means of 

political mobilization. 

Furthermore, Tamil nationalism 

predates the Dravidian movement and 

possesses a resonance in the state that will 

hamper any attempt by a national party to 

dominate the sociopolitical scene. The 

future of the Dravidian parties may lie in 

their ability to retain the mantle of 

"custodians of Tamil identity." 

Jayalalithaa controlled the AIADMK 

with an iron fist from 1987 till her 

untimely demise on December 5, 2016. 

Her death has thrown the party into 

absolute disarray; the ruling party is 

fragmented by factions contending and 

jostling for power. The mysterious 

circumstances behind her death and the 

conspiracy theories surrounding it, the 

deep fractures within the party, and the 

squabbling over the two-leaf election 

symbol that had come to define the party 

have greatly weakened the AIADMK. 

Most critically perhaps, the party lacks a 

strong leader that has even a vestige of the 

influence and political legitimacy that 

Jayalalithaa and her predecessor M.G. 

Ramachandran commanded. 

The DMK too, has undeniably been 

weakened by the recent demise of M. 

Karunanidhi, who had helmed the party 

since 1969. It's already apparent that his 

son and successor M.K. Stalin is unable to 

replicate his father's indomitable spirit 

and political cunning. The party, despite 

the chaos in AIADMK, has been unable to 

mount a serious offensive and function 

thus far as a truly credible opposition. 

However, Karunanidhi's shrewd decision 

to name a clear successor while he 

remained at the helm of the party offered 

Stalin a long runway to consolidate power 

in his father's shadow. The DMK thus 

remains a tightly organized party that is 

(so far, at least) united under the 

leadership of Stalin. The DMK also has a 

better organized cadre and grassroots 

structure that will keep the party afloat in 

times of political turbulence. 

Beyond these issues, there are also 

indications that both the parties have been 

slowly losing popularity due to incessant 

allegations of corruption and vote-forcash 

tactics. The 2G scam tainted the 

DMK while the conviction of Jayalalithaa 

and Sasikala in a disproportionate-assets 

case has greatly affected AIADMK. 

This is a crucial issue that will affect 

both parties, particularly with regards to 

new players entering the fray at this time 

of political instability. The desire to turn 

to fresh, untainted political parties, 

particularly those led by well-regarded 

public figures like Rajinikanth and 

Kamal Hassan, may be enticing in the 

absence of Karunanidhi and 

Jayalalithaa. Indeed, both actor-turnedpoliticians 

have begun their political 

journeys by targeting the corrupt 

political culture in Tamil Nadu. 

There have been many assertions that 

the Dravidian movement is long dead, 

with its legacy merely being puppeteered 

by the Dravidian parties for rhetorical 

purposes. There is considerable truth in 

this. The Dravidian movement was 

forged with the ideologies of Periyar and 

the Self-Respect Movement that he 

pioneered in 1925. At its crux, it was an 

atheist and anti-caste (distinctly anti- 

Brahmin) movement that believed 

strongly in opposing the tyranny of a 

hegemonic Sanskrit north India.

NATIONAL 

FRiDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019 

6 

Faculty of Fisheries of CVASU celebrates 

6th founding anniversary 

Sirajganj Deputy Commissioner Kamrun Nahar Siddika as the chief geust addressed an advocacy meeting 

on district-level flood insurance project activities in Sirajganj on Wednesday. Photo: Badrul Alam Dulal 

sm AkAsh, ChAttoGrAm Correspondent: 

6th founding anniversary of Faculty of 

Fisheries of Chattogram Veterinary and 

Animal sciences university (CVAsu) 

was celebrated in a befitting manner on 

thursday. 

the celebration started in the 

morning by placing wreaths at 

Bangabandhu's mural in shaheed 

minar. later, a grand rally was 

organized with the participation of 

teachers and students. At the rally, dean 

of the Faculty of Fisheries prof dr. 

mohammad nurul Absar khan, dean of 

the Faculty of Veterinary medicine prof 

dr. Abdul halim, dean of the Faculty of 

Food science and technology prof 

Jannatara khatun, director of poultry 

research and training Center professor 

dr. paritosh kumar Bishwas, registrar 

mirza Faruk imam, director (external) 

professor dr. Akm saifuddin, director 

(research and extension) kabirul islam 

khan and proctor prof Gautam kumar 

debnath were among took part. 

After the rally a cake cutting ceremony 

was held at the administrative building 

premises. later, students of the faculty 

participated in color fest and flash mob. 

At noon a discussion meeting was 

held at CVAsu auditorium. After the 

meeting, graduates of 2018 were 

awarded with souvenir. documentary 

film 'hasina: A daughters tale' was 

shown after the discussion and souvenir 

distribution program. 

in the evening a pleasant cultural 

program was held at the administrative 

building premises. Vice-Chancellor of 

the university prof dr Goutam Buddha 

das was present as the chief guest at the 

occasion. 

Advocacy meeting on district-level flood 

insurance project activities held 

BAdrul AlAm dulAl, sirAJGAnJ 

Correspondent: 

An advocacy meeting on 

alternative development strategies 

(flood insurance) project for the 

risks of endangered populations 

for disaster and climate change was 

held at shaheed shamsuddin 

conference room in sirajganj on 

Wednesday. 

sirajganj deputy Commissioner 

kamrun nahar siddika spoke as 

the chief guest at the occasion 

while Additional deputy 

Commissioner Firoz mahmud 

addressed the occasion as special 

guest. the advocacy meeting was 

held with the assistance of oxfam 

Bangladesh and the 

implementation of manob mukti 

shangsha. program director md. 

rafiqul islam khan delivered the 

welcome address in the meeting. 

project Coordinator (reCAll 

2019 project) monira sultana and 

senior program officer of oxfam 

in Bangladesh), kazi nmn Azam, 

Arindam Baidya, Consultant of 

the flood insurance project 

(indian delegation), Government 

officials, nGo representatives, 

upazila chairmen, beneficial 

people and prominent people of 

the society were also present at the 

occasion. 

A rally was brought out on Thursday marking the 6th founding anniversary of Faculty of Fisheries of 

Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU) was on Thursday. Photo: SM Akash 

Youth conference and beggar 

rehabilitation held in Daulatdia 

Pabna Sadar Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Dr. SM Mostafizur Rahman on Thursday 

addressed an advocacy meeting to eliminate rabies in Pabna. 

Photo: Abdul Hamid Khan 

Advocacy meeting to eliminate 

rabies held in Pabna 

AkteruzzAmAn mridhA, GoAlAndA 

Correspondent: 

Youth conference and beggar 

rehabilitation was held at muktijoddha 

Fakir Abdul Jabbar College field in 

daulatdia of Goalanda upazila on 

thursday. karmajibi kalyan sangstha 

(kks) organized the occasion. 

the occasion was inaugurated 

through a development pot gan 

performed by the artists of heed 

Bangladesh. karmajibi kalyan 

sangstha (kks) has been working with 

firm faith with pksF as a partner in 

overall development in education, selfawareness 

development, poverty 

karmajibi kalyan sangstha (kks) 

distributed cheques worth tk 1 lakh 

each for rehabilitation of the physically 

handicapped beggars mohammad 

rafiqul islam and md Jewel. At the 

occasion, distribution of 1 hundred sets 

of sanitary latrines, 50 enrichment 

houses, 50 sets of friendly stoves, 50 

sets of vermicompost were also 

inaugurated. 

executive director of karmajibi 

kalyan sangstha (kks) and Chairman 

of rajbari zila parishad valiant freedom 

fighter Fakir Abdul Jabbar chaired the 

occasion while rajbari deputy 

Commissioner md. shawkat Ali was 

present as the chief guest. Among 

others, upazila nirbahi officer rubayet 

hayat shiplu, Goalanda Government 

kamrul islam degree College professor 

moazzem hossain Badal, Assistant 

executive director of kks Fakir Jahidul 

islam (rumon), engineer Fakir Abdul 

mannan, former up member md Abdul 

hamid mridha and Goalanda press 

Club General secretary and up 

member Akteruzzaman mridha were 

also present at the occasion. 

ABdul hAmid khAn, pABnA Correspondent: 

An advocacy meeting was held in 

pabna sadar upazila of the district on 

thursday to make a successful 

vaccination program (mdd) for dogs 

to eliminate rabies from Bangladesh by 

2022. pabna district livestock officer 

dr. md. Al mamun hossain was 

present as the chief guest at the 

meeting. 

upazila health and Family planning 

officer dr. sm mostafizur rahman 

chaired the meeting while among 

others, the Bangladesh today's pabna 

district representative Abdul hamid 

khan, sadar upazila Family resource 

officer dr. md. mahmudul islam, 

dGhs officer dr. syed mohammad 

ullah, veterinary surgeon dr. md. 

nazmul hossain, medical officer dr. 

Alfe shahrin, pabna municipality 

vaccination supervisor kamrun nahar 

Jolly, Chairman of Bharara union 

Council md Abu sayeed khan, 

Chairman of maligacha union 

parishad shariful islam and Chairman 

of Gayeshpur union mohammad 

motahar hossain were also present at 

the occasion. 

the program was moderated by the 

medical technologist of the sadar 

upazila health Complex md delwar 

hossain. 

Karmajibi Kalyan Sangstha (KKS) on Thursday organized a youth conference and beggar rehabilitation at 

Muktijoddha Fakir Abdul Jabbar College field in Daulatdia of Goalanda upazila. Photo: Akteruzzaman Mridha 

Programmes taken to observe 

'Amar Ekushey' in Rangpur 

Pirganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer AWM Raihan Shah on Thursday inaugurated the weekly cleanliness activities 

in primary schools of Pirganj upazila. 

Photo: Bishnu Roy 

Weekly cleanliness activities launched in Pirganj 

Bishnu roY, pirGAnJ Correspondent: 

the weekly cleanliness activities in 

primary schools have been launched in 

pirganj upazila of thakurgaon district 

on thursday. upazila nirbahi officer 

AWm raihan shah inaugurated the 

program at 2 no Bhomrahd 

Government primary school. 

during the time, upazila education 

officer nazrul islam, secondary 

education officer sm saeed hasan, 

zila parishad member Ashir uddin, 

Assistant upazila education officer 

enamul islam, shahjahan Ali, head of 

the school Fazal-e-khoda pavel along 

with local dignitaries were also present 

at the occasion. 

rAnGpur: the district 

administration on thursday finalised 

programmes to observe the "shaheed 

dibash and international mother 

language day-2019" to pay homage to 

the language movement martyrs here on 

February 21 next, reports Bss. 

the day-long elaborate programmes 

were finalised at a meeting held at the 

conference room of the deputy 

Commissioner with deputy director 

(local Government) md ruhul Amin 

mian in the chair. 

officials of the district and upazila 

administrations, district education and 

primary education offices, heads of 

different educational institutions, sociocultural, 

political and professional 

activists and civil society members 

attended the meeting. 

Additional deputy Commissioner 

(General) syed enamul kabir, secretary 

of rangpur City Corporation Abu saleh 

md musa Jongi, Additional deputy 

police Commissioner (headquarters) of 

rangpur metropolitan police Abdullah Al 

Faruk, Additional police super (Circle A) 

saifur rahman saif, Awami league 

leaders shamim talukder and tauhidur 

rahman tutul, among others, addressed 

the programme. 

the observance will begin at one 

minute past after midnight on February 

21 when mayor of rangpur mostafizar 

rahman mostafa will first place wreaths 

at Central shaheed minar to pay due 

respect to language movement martyrs. 

later, divisional Commissioner 

muhammad Joynul Bari, deputy 

inspector General for rangpur range of 

Bangladesh police devdas Bhattacharya, 

rangpur metropolitan police 

Commissioner Abdul Alim mahmud will 

place wreaths there. 

deputy Commissioner enamul habib 

and police super mizanur rahman along 

with other officials will also place wreaths 

there to be followed by other government 

and non-government departments and 

organisations. 

leaders of Bangladesh muktijoddha 

sangshad, Awami league and other 

political parties, heads of different 

educational institutions, professional 

organisations and common people will 

place wreaths there. 

the other programmes chalked out 

include hoisting of national flag at halfmast 

atop all buildings, educational 

institutions, 'probhat ferries', decoration 

of city streets with miniature national and 

coloured-flags inscribed with Bengali 

alphabets.

INTERNATIONAL FRIDAy, 

7 

FeBRuARy 1, 2019 

Saudi prince's anti-corruption 

sweep ends with $106B netted 

Saudi Arabia's unprecedented 

anti-corruption 

sweep that saw top princes, 

businessmen, military officers 

and officials detained 

at the Ritz-Carlton hotel 

has concluded after netting 

the government around 

$106.6 billion, the Royal 

Court said Wednesday, 

reports UNB. 

The Royal Court said the 

work of an anti-corruption 

committee formed to oversee 

the sweep headed by 

Crown Prince Mohammed 

bin Salman had concluded 

its work after summoning 

or questioning 381 people. 

The recovered assets from 

settlements with 87 people 

include cash, real estate, 

businesses and securities, 

according to the Royal Court 

announcement carried on 

Saudi state TV. 

It said 56 individuals continue 

to be investigated and 

that the attorney general 

refused to settle with them 

due to other criminal 

charges they face. Another 

eight refused to settle and 

stand accused of corruption. 

The sweep, which began 

the evening of Nov. 4 2017, 

helped cement the crown 

prince's powerful status. 

Analysts and critics said it 

was also a way for the 

prince to sideline potential 

rivals and consolidate pow- 

Death toll climbs 

to 52 after migrant 

boats sink off coast 

of Djibouti 

The International Organization 

for Migration (IOM) 

said on Thursday that the 

death toll from the two 

migrant boats that had capsized 

off the coast of Djibouti 

on Tuesday has reached 52, 

reports UNB. 

"As of Wednesday 

evening, IOM's team has 

learned that the remains of 

52 victims have been recovered-three 

men and two 

women found on Tuesday 

and another 47 persons on 

Wednesday," the statement 

from the United Nations' 

migration agency IOM read. 

The IOM has also revealed 

that 16 survivors have been 

saved from the deadly accident 

in Obock, Djibouti's 

Red Sea coast. The tragedy 

occurred off Godoria, a 

locality in the Obock region 

of northeast Djibouti. 

Following the accident on 

Tuesday, a team of gendarmes 

gathered near the 

site, alerted by local residents 

in the area. The team 

discovered two survivors on 

Tuesday. 

The latest accident is said to 

be one of many similar deadly 

calamities that have occurred 

on Djibouti's Red Sea coast 

area, as desperate East 

African migrants attempt to 

cross the dangerous route 

hoping to reach the Middle 

East via war-torn Yemen. 

er as he prepares to inherit 

the throne from his father, 

King Salman. 

Among those held was 

billionaire Prince Alwaleed 

bin Talal, who was detained 

for more than 80 days at 

the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh 

before his release. Also, 

held were the sons of the 

late King Abdullah, including 

Prince Miteb who'd 

commanded the National 

Guard and was once seen 

In this file photo dated Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, Saudi 

Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman adjusts 

his robe as leaders gather for the group at the G20 

Leader's Summit at the Costa Salguero Center in Buenos 

Aires, Argentina. Saudi Arabia's Royal Court reported 

Wednesday Jan 30, 2019, an anti-corruption sweep headed 

by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that saw top 

Saudi princes, businessmen and officials detained, has 

concluded after netting 400 billion Saudi riyals ($106.6 

billion) for the government and has helped cement the 

crown prince's grip on power. 

Photo : AP 

as a contender for the 

throne. 

There were also current 

and former ministers 

rounded up and billionaire 

businessmen like Bakr Binladin, 

chairman of the kingdom's 

pre-eminent contractor 

the Saudi Binladin 

Group that had secured a 

near-monopoly on megaexpansion 

projects in 

Islam's two holiest sites, 

Mecca and Medina, 

throughout the reigns of 

successive Saudi monarchs. 

Guards were positioned 

outside the detainees' hotel 

rooms, where some had 

access to room service and 

satellite TV. Others were 

reportedly abused, and 

many were placed under 

travel bans after their 

release. 

It's unclear who exactly is 

still being held or where 

they are being held. The 

Ritz-Carlton opened to the 

public again in mid-February 

and it's believed those 

still detained were moved 

to prisons or guesthouses. 

Altogether, those rounded 

up by the crown prince 

symbolized the elite structure 

encircling the ruling Al 

Saud family and its vast 

patronage networks. 

The government never 

officially disclosed the 

names of those ensnared in 

the campaign, but statelinked 

media distributed 

lists with names of some of 

those detained. 

The government also did 

not disclose details on the 

allegations the detainees 

faced or how they were 

being prosecuted, leading 

to concerns about transparency 

and due process. 

International investors 

were initially spooked by 

the lack of transparency 

and clarity. 

Families dig to find 

loved ones in Brazil 

dam collapse 

Under a scorching sun, Tereza Ferreira 

Nascimento on Wednesday dug through 

the mud with garden tools and her hands 

in search of her brother Paulo Giovane 

dos Santos, resigned to the reality that he 

was most likely dead six days after the 

collapse of a Brazilian dam holding back 

mine waste, reports UNB. 

As search-and-recovery efforts continued, 

authorities also worked to slow the 

reddish-brown mud that was heading 

down a small river with high concentrations 

of iron oxide, threatening to contaminate 

a much larger waterway that 

provides drinking water to communities 

in five of the country's 26 states. 

Friday's breach at the mine owned and 

operated by the Vale mining company led 

to a sea of mud that plastered several 

areas of the southeastern city of Brumadinho. 

To date, 99 people have been confirmed 

dead and 259 are missing. 

"We have been here since Friday, taking 

turns between brothers, brothers-in-law, 

searching for the body so that we can at 

least give him a dignified burial," said 

Nascimento, holding back tears. "So far it 

has been in vain." 

Nascimento's sister-in-law, Sonia Monteiro, 

knelt down to smell the mud. Other 

smells, of dead animals, had thrown them 

off before, but this time they believed they 

were on the right track. 

"We were sensing a smell here, more or 

less, so we are digging to see if we find 

him," said Nascimento, 41. 

In the distance, helicopters could be 

heard and firefighters, wearing masks 

because of the strong smell of decomposing 

bodies, worked several areas. In theory, 

they were still in search for survivors, 

but no one had been rescued alive since 

Saturday, making chances for a miracle 

less with each passing moment. 

Authorities said that in some cases they 

were struggling to identify the deceased, 

as bodies were badly bloated or in pieces. 

They used dental records to identify those 

with no recognizable physical characteristics 

or usable fingerprints. 

Vagner Diniz, 60, was holding on to 

some hope Wednesday that some of his 

five missing family members were still 

alive. His list of missing was staggering: 

his two adult children, Luiz and Camila; 

his daughter-in-law Fernanda, who was 

five months pregnant; and the biological 

parents of Luiz, who was adopted. 

"This was a massive assassination," said 

Diniz, who lives in Australia with his wife 

and had come to his native Brazil on vacation. 

They had come to see their children, 

find out the sex of their expected grandchild 

and visit Inhotim, a worldrenowned 

art museum about a 15-minute 

drive from Brumadinho. 

"It was going to be a fantastic week," 

said Diniz, visibly exhausted from long 

days trying to get information on his family. 

Diniz believes that when the dam collapsed 

Friday, the family was in the Pousada 

Nova Estancia, an inn that got 

buried. On Tuesday night, he learned that 

his son's body had been recovered. 

Venezuelans take to streets in walkout to push Maduro out. 

Doctors in scrubs, businessmen in suits 

and construction workers in jeans gathered 

on the streets of Venezuela's capital 

Wednesday, waving their nation's flag 

and demanding Nicolas Maduro step 

down from power in a walkout organized 

by the nation's reinvigorated opposition 

to ratchet up pressure on the embattled 

president, reports UNB. 

Protesters said they were heeding the 

opposition's call for another mass 

demonstration despite the heavy-handed 

response by security forces over the last 

week to quell anti-government protests. 

The latest walkout comes one week 

exactly after opposition leader Juan 

Guaido proclaimed himself the nation's 

rightful president amid a sea of supporters, 

hurling the nation into a new chapter 

of political tumult as the anti-Maduro 

movement tries to establish a transitional 

government and the socialist leader 

clings to power. "We are staying in the 

streets," Guaido told students at a surprise 

appearance at the Central University 

of Venezuela. "Not just in protest of the 

crisis we are living in all of Venezuela, not 

just because of how bad things are, but 

also for the future." 

The 35-year-lawmaker has transformed 

from a little-known opposition 

figure into a commanding force in the 

nation's politics with the backing of U.S. 

President Donald Trump and two dozen 

other nations recognizing him as 

Venezuela's interim president. 

The turmoil has morphed into a larger 

geopolitical standoff as Maduro accuses 

the U.S. of orchestrating a coup by backing 

Guaido and enacting punishing oil 

sanctions while powerful Venezuela allies 

China and Russia continue to stand by 

the president. 

On Tuesday, the government-stacked 

Supreme Court barred Guaido from leaving 

the country and froze his bank 

accounts as a probe into his anti-government 

activities led by Maduro-ally and 

Photo : AP 

Venezuelans take to streets in 

walkout to push Maduro out 

chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab 

advances. U.S. national security adviser 

John Bolton warned that if Guaido is 

harmed Venezuela will face "serious consequences." 

Guaido has thus far managed 

to avoid arrest and the Supreme 

Court did not strip him of his legislative 

immunity, though the new investigation 

could signal that Maduro's administration 

is moving to take a more punitive 

approach in the days ahead. 

Speaking at the walkout, Guaido said 

he wasn't losing any sleep over the probe. 

"We don't want to leave the country," he 

said. "We want people to return." 

Maduro huddled Wednesday with military 

troops, prayed with evangelical supporters 

and released a video urging the 

American people to rise up against 

Trump and support him as Venezuela's 

rightful leader. He said Trump has his 

eyes on Venezuela's vast oil reserves and 

warned against any U.S. military intervention. 

Tereza Ferreira Nascimento, center, her sister-in-law Sonia Santos, left, and her brother Pedro Ferreira dos Santos 

dig with garden tools in search of the body of Tereza's and Pedro's missing brother Paulo Giovane Santos, days after 

a mining company's dam collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. 

Photo : AP 

GD-177/19 (10 x 4)

ART & CULTURE 

FRIdAy, 

FeBRUARy 1, 2019 

8 

Beatles film coming 

from "Let It Be" 

footage 1969 

URI- The Surgical 

Strike 

Based on the true events of 2016, 

when Indian Army avenged a deadly 

terrorist attack by carrying out a 

surgical strike. 

Genre 

Directed By 

Written By 

Cast 

In Theaters 

Runtime 

Studio 

: Action & Adventure, 

Art House & 

International, Mystery 

& Suspense 

: Aditya Dhar 

: Aditya Dhar 

: Vicky Kaushal, Paresh 

Rawal, Mohit Raina, 

Yami Gautam 

: Jan 11, 2019 Limited 

: 127 minutes 

: PackYourBag Films 

SToRyLINe : 

Uri chronicles the events 

of the surgical strike 

conducted by the Indian 

military against the 

suspected militants in 

Pakistan occupied 

Kashmir (PoK). It tells 

the story of the 

11 tumultuous events 

over which the operation 

was carried out. 

Bo Peep is back in new 

Following his successful 

First World War documentary 

They Shall Not 

Grow Old, Peter 

Jackson has signed on 

to direct a second 

archive project: a film 

edited from the full 55 

hours of footage of the 

Beatles' Let It Be 

recording sessions. 

A feature-length documentary, 

entitled Let It 

Be, directed by Michael 

Lindsay-Hogg and 

culled from footage 

from the sessions as 

well as a celebrated 

rooftop concert in 

London's Savile Row, 

was released in 1970 

after the band had 

informally split up, but 

before Paul McCartney 

launched legal proceedings 

to dissolve the 

group. 

Jackson is collaborating 

with the Beatles' 

record company Apple, 

H o RoSCoPe 

ARIeS 

(March 21 - April 20) : Competitive 

feelings may be stirred by a Mars- 

Pluto square today that's more personal 

than usual since Mars is currently transiting 

your sign! Your desire to assert your independence 

or simply to go your own way and do 

your own thing is stronger than usual. 

with the approval of 

McCartney and Ringo 

Starr, as well as Yoko 

Ono Lennon and Olivia 

Harrison. Jackson said: 

"The 55 hours of neverbefore-seen 

footage and 

140 hours of audio made 

available to us ensures 

this movie will be the 

ultimate 'fly on the wall' 

experience … it's like a 

time machine transports 

us back to 1969, and we 

get to sit in the studio 

watching these four 

friends make great music 

together." Jackson says 

the project will use the 

same film restoration 

techniques as were 

employed for They Shall 

Not Grow Old. 

Lindsay-Hogg's Let It 

Be has long been out of 

official circulation since 

it was last available on 

home entertainment 

formats in the early 

1980s. Attempts to reissue 

it since have never 

come to fruition; however, 

Apple said that a 

restored version will be 

released after Jackson's 

edit. 

The film has always 

held interest to Beatles 

fans as it documents the 

group at a time when 

tensions within the 

band were beginning to 

become obvious - 

including George 

Harrison's decision to 

walk out after a few 

days of filming. 

This incident was not 

included in Lindsay- 

Hogg's film; the director 

was also instructed to cut 

other sequences that 

individual Beatles were 

unhappy with. Lindsay- 

Hogg later said the 

band's verdict on his 

completed film was 

"mixed", indicating their 

reluctance to reissue it. 

-The Guardian 

LIBRA 

(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23) : While Saturn's 

transit of your solar fourth house continues 

to impart essential life lessons, 

rules, or restrictions related to your home, family, 

and personal life this year, you're finding wonderful 

outlets for releasing related stress or tension or 

coming to a better sense of balance now. 

look for Toy Story 4 

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan and Shraddha Srinath will be a 

part of Ajith's upcoming Pink remake. 

Actor Shraddha Srinath took to Twitter on Monday to confirm 

that she will be a part of Ajith's upcoming film, tentatively titled 

#AK59. A The film will also star Vidya Balan in a role that didn't 

exist in the original film starring Taapsee Pannu, Amitabh 

Bachchan and Kriti Kulhari. The film's producer Boney Kapoor said 

in a statement, "Happy to introduce Vidya Balan to Tamil audiences. 

She is paired with Ajith and her role is very special. Shraddha 

Srinath has also been roped in for a pivotal role. Rangaraj Pandey 

plays a very important character." 

Shraddha wrote on Twitter, "There were rumours and speculations 

on the internet that I'm part of #AK59. Glad to announce today that 

those rumours are actually true. I am INDEED part of this incredible 

project." 

She revealed the crew details as well and wrote, "Directed by H. 

Vinoth, produced by Boney Kapoor, cinematography by Nirav 

Shah and music by Yuvan Shankar Raja - this is a team one could 

only aspire to work with. Thrilled to be working with some amazing 

technicians." 

Pink started a social dialogue about consent with its focus on the 

film's three female protagonists and their lawyer Amitabh Bachchan. 

Taapsee played the role of a woman who is sexually harassed and is 

shamed for her lifestyle and choices; Shraddha is likely to play this 

role. She further tweeted, "And most importantly - this is a film and 

a story that everyone needs to watch. It's the need of the hour. And 

it's crucial that it reaches the masses. I'm so ready for this and to give 

it my all." 

-The Hindustan Times 

Priyanka Chopra's Isn't It Romantic 

to stream on Netflix on Feb 28 

TAURUS 

(April 21 - May 21) : Jealousies or 

resentments can be an issue, and 

you might find yourself fixating on 

an unresolved, frustrating matter from the 

past, particularly with angry Mars in the 

sector of your solar chart that rules your 

subconscious mind. 

GeMINI 

(May 22 - June 21) : Mars is currently 

encouraging your active involvement 

with friends or networks, while your intimate 

life is a strong focus, and competing urges or 

drives can clash now. You can't control the course of 

a relationship, or how you'll feel with a person. 

CANCeR 

(June 22 - July 23) : There is a nice, 

creative focus on your intimate or 

financial life today, dear Cancer, and 

these energies are both logical and innovative. A 

connection between your intimacy and career 

sectors supports building exciting strategies for 

your work. 

SCoRPIo 

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22) : Your judgment is quite 

good for making long-term plans, and a 

romance or creative endeavor can be 

both inspiring and practical. Making a dream work 

in the real world can be satisfying. It's an excellent 

time for developing skills that will benefit you 

greatly as you enter the next phase of your life. 

SAGITTARIUS 

(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): You have a somewhat 

cautious and conservative streak 

when it comes to your money and 

possessions these days, and related tensions can 

run high now. This aspect tends to magnify insecurities 

and fears along these lines. 

CAPRICoRN 

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20) : You might 

improve a relationship with classmates, 

siblings, or even neighbors during this 

period. You're both practical and imaginative, 

celebrating both sides of your personality. 

Putting your ideas into practical motion is 

favored now. 

Isn't It Romantic, starring Rebel 

Wilson, Priyanka Chopra and Liam 

Hemsworth, will stream exclusively 

on Netflix India on February 28, 

2019. The film, which also stars 

Adam Devine, will be available in all 

Netflix territories outside of the US 

and Canada on the same date, the 

streaming giant said in a statement. 

Wilson headlines the rom-com as 

Natalie, a New York City architect 

who works hard to get noticed at 

her job but is more likely to be 

asked to deliver coffee and bagels 

than to design the city's next skyscraper. 

And if things were not bad 

enough, Natalie, a lifelong cynic 

when it comes to love, has an 

encounter with a mugger that renders 

her unconscious, waking to discover 

that her life has suddenly 

become her worst nightmare - a 

romantic comedy featuring her as 

the leading lady. 

Todd Strauss-Schulson has directed 

the film from a script penned by 

Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox and Katie 

Silberman. 

This will be Chopra's third 

Hollywood project. Priyanka will be 

essaying the role of spiritual leader 

and Oshos disciple Ma Anand Sheela 

in her next project. She opened up 

about her project, which she is also 

producing, during an appearance on 

The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 

"I am developing a feature with 

Barry Levinson. He is an iconic 

American director. We are developing 

it (from the perspective of) 

Sheela who is this guru who originated 

from India," Priyanka said in 

a video clip, which surfaced on the 

Internet on Wednesday. 

-The Hindustan Times 

Leo 

(July 24 - Aug. 23) : Where you've 

been too hard on yourself, you're 

now allowing some leeway. This 

aspect is useful for bringing more balance into 

your life, and it will be in effect until 

November. This can be an excellent time to 

make changes to your current lifestyle that 

will benefit you for years to come. 

AQUARIUS 

(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19) : Focusing on 

handling outstanding or unresolved 

issues in your life can boost 

your sense of security, feelings of self-worth, 

and your money situation. This is an exceptional 

period for balancing your attention to 

the material world with a renewed focus on 

emotional renewal and spiritual fulfillment. 

VIRGo 

(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23) : You're less likely to let 

your relationship goals interfere with your 

seeking of fulfillment in other areas of life. 

In fact, relationship goals may very well inspire you to 

better yourself. You're committed to making the most 

of your talents, enjoying more self-discipline reflects 

well on you, your relationships as you feel stronger. 

PISCeS 

(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20) : There can be a 

buildup of pressure in a friendship or 

with a project today, and if you've kept too much 

to yourself, the stress can get to you now. If 

money and friends are mixing now, this can 

cause a problem now. Other areas of tension may 

have to do with boundaries.

SPORTS 

FrIDAy, 

FeBruAry 1, 2019 

9 

Boult five fashions New Zealand's 

spectacular win against India 

Messi, who missed two clear chances, culminated a brilliant buildup to take his haul this season in 

all competitions to 27 goals. 

Photo: AP 

Barcelona routs Sevilla 6-1 

to reach Copa semis 

SportS DeSk: 

That Dhoni's 'ugly' is the beautiful 

India need has never been more obvious. 

In conditions ripe for swing, Trent 

Boult lit up Seddon Park in Hamilton 

with a bowling spell for the ages. Delivering 

10 overs on the trot, the left-arm 

seamer went on to pick 5 for 21 that 

didn't just draw him level with Richard 

Hadlee on most five-fers for New 

Zealand but also briefly left India in 

danger of folding inside 54 runs, their 

lowest ever ODI total, reports BSS. 

Hardik Pandya's three boundaries in 

an over ensured otherwise, watering 

down the bowling figures a little for 

Boult, but India were still shot down for 

92 in 30.5 overs, a total New Zealand 

chased with 35.2 overs to spare in a 

eight-wicket win. The series now stands 

at 3-1 in favour of India. 

Sunil Gavakar, not too long after 

India's series-sealing win in the third 

ODI, had queried Bhuvneshwar 

Kumar, in jest of course, if bowling to 

the Indian batsmen in the nets was a 

greater challenge than bowling to New 

Zealand in the middle. Cricket, perhaps, 

didn't take too kindly to the 

humour. Five of India's top six batsmen 

registered single-digit scores today, 

with Yuzvendra Chahal top-scoring for 

them with 18 -- the highest score by a 

No.10 since Javagal Srinath's 43 

against Pakistan in Toronto, 1998. 

That's how dire it was. The next highest 

score was Hardik Pandya's 13 followed 

by Kuldeep Yadav's 15, and India's 

World Cup auditionees, Dinesh Karthik 

and Ambati Rayudu, collected ducks. 

Boult wittingly mixed his scrambled 

seam deliveries, that usually don't 

swing, with the ones that do, and 

wreaked havoc through the top order, 

who couldn't distinguish its head from 

the hind and crumbled to 35 for 6 

inside 14 overs. Both Dhawan and 

Rohit fell to inswingers inside 10 overs, 

leg-before and caught-and-bowled 

respectively, and the dismissals of a 

left-handed and a right-hand batsman 

to a like-behaving delivery is all the 

proof you need for Boult's skills on display 

today. He didn't have the greatest 

of support to start with. Matt Henry, 

brought in for Doug Bracewell, was 

expensive at the other end, conceding 

23 runs in his first five-over spell in 

contrast to Boult's then-figures of 2 for 

8. 

New Zealand had the early strikes 

they have fetishized about this series, 

but two-down at the end of 10 overs 

happens in cricket. That's where Colin 

de Grandhomme made it punishing 

from worse. If you lose two more wickets 

in the 11th over, good luck. De 

Grandhomme complemented Boult 

with his late swing and delivered three 

wickets, never allowing India to recover 

from Boult's relentless assault at the 

other end. Starting with a warm-up 

wide outside off, he bowled anything 

but that thereafter as Rayudu and 

Karthik crumbled to the pressure, 

falling inside four balls to metaphorically 

dry up India's hopes of a stabler 

middle-order at World Cup out of a 

petri dish. 

That's usually when Virat Kohli 

comes into his own, rescuing India en 

route to a big total - something we have 

to come to take granted in recent times. 

But with Kohli rested for the game, and 

the remainder of the tour, the onus was 

on Shubman Gill. And it was always 

going to be too much to ask from a 19- 

SportS DeSk: 

For Lionel Messi, Barcelona's 6-1 win 

over Sevilla on Wednesday that put it 

into the Copa del Rey semifinals means 

his team will aim for nothing less than 

another treble of titles, reports UNB. 

Barcelona completed the rare sweep 

of Copa del Rey, Spanish league and 

Champions League trophies in 2011 

and 2015. 

Since then it has gone on to win all 

three editions of the cup and two more 

La Liga titles, but its failure to repeat in 

Europe had led to speculation that 

Barcelona would not prioritize the 

Copa del Rey this season to save energy. 

But Barcelona's commanding performance 

to overturn a 2-0 first-leg loss 

speaks otherwise. 

"They said that we didn't want to win 

this Copa," Messi said. "This team 

wants to fight for all three competitions. 

We are in it for everything and 

don't give anything away." 

Messi and Luis Suarez both scored 

late goals with the pair of star strikers 

back in Barcelona's starting lineup after 

getting some rest when their teammates 

lost in Seville. 

Phillipe Coutinho netted two goals in 

his best game of an up-and-down season 

for the Catalan club. Messi helped 

Coutinho get going by earning a foul in 

the area by Quincy Promes, and then 

stepping aside for his teammate to convert 

the spot kick. 

Barcelona goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, 

who only regularly starts in the 

cup, made excellent saves to push 

Andre Silva close-range shot onto his 

post and stop Ever Banega's penalty 

after Gerard Pique fouled Roque Mesa. 

"Lionel was very generous with his 

teammate and Coutinho took on the 

big responsibility to open the scoring," 

said Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde. 

"The penalty saved by Cillessen kept us 

in the tie. When they took risks with the 

score 4-1, we found more space and finished 

them off." 

Ivan Rakitic turned in a perfectlyweighted 

long pass by Arthur for 

Barcelona's second goal in the 31st. 

Coutinho got his second in the 54th 

with a glancing header from Suarez's 

lobbed pass. Sergi Roberto played Messi 

wide, made a run into the area where 

Messi had a pass waiting for him to drill 

in a fourth goal in the 54th. 

Sevilla wing back Guilherme Arana 

blasted in a long strike in the 66th to 

give his team hope until Suarez and 

Messi rounded off the victory in the 

final minutes. 

Messi, who had missed two clear 

chances, culminated a brilliant buildup 

to take his haul this season in all competitions 

to 27 goals. 

"It is a tough loss," said Sevilla manager 

Pablo Machin. "It is very hard to 

head back to Seville after conceding six 

goals." 

Coutinho arrived a year ago to Camp 

Nou after Barcelona paid Liverpool a 

club record fee of 160 million euros 

(then $192 million). His erratic play 

this season had led Valverde to drop 

him from his group of unquestionable 

first-choice players, but he has scored 

in Barcelona's last two Copa del Rey 

ties to keep it on course to another title. 

Real Betis scored two goals in extra 

time to eliminate 10-man Espanyol and 

advance on a 4-2 aggregate score. 

Espanyol was leading thanks to Leo 

Bapistao's headed goal until Giovani Lo 

Celso leveled in the 76th. 

Espanyol had Marc Roca sent off 

stoppage time for second booking 

before Betis scored twice through Sergio 

Leon and Aissa Mandi. 

Juventus were well beaten by Atalanta as their Coppa Italia defence ended in a performance 

Massimiliano Allegri had seen coming. 

Photo: AP 

Holders Juventus dumped out 

of Coppa Italia by Atalanta 

SportS DeSk: 

Four-time defending champions 

Juventus crashed out of the Coppa 

Italia on Wednesday with a 3-0 quarter-final 

defeat by Atalanta, as AS 

Roma suffered a humiliating 7-1 

thrashing at the hands of Fiorentina, 

reports BSS. 

Juventus had been bidding for a fifth 

consecutive league and Cup double this 

season. 

But a Duvan Zapata brace after Timothy 

Castagne's opener put the side 

from Bergamo through to a semi-final 

meeting with Fiorentina. 

Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus won 

their first trophy of the season in the 

Italian Super Cup this month. 

But they suffered their first defeat in a 

domestic competition this season, as 

they ride high and unbeaten in Serie A. 

Massimiliano Allegri's side had come 

from behind against Lazio in league 

action at the weekend with Ronaldo 

snatching a 2-1 win in Rome. 

The Portuguese superstar could not 

find a way through for a first Cup goal 

in Italy with Juventus also hit by 

defender Giorgio Chiellini going off 

injured in the first half-hour. 

Castagne opened the scoring after 37 

minutes with Zapata grabbing another 

two minutes later, before adding a third 

four minutes from time for his 17th goal 

in ten matches. 

The Colombian ace also scored a double 

in a 2-2 draw when the sides last 

met in Serie A on December 26. 

"It's only human not to always be top. 

Now let's put this behind us and think 

about the next Serie A match against 

Parma," said Allegri, who was banished 

from the touchline for dissent. 

"I don't know how many games the 

lads have won. In Rome we had a terrible 

first half but we fought back. This 

evening everything went wrong. 

"It would have been crazy to think we 

could win every match. It hurts to go 

out because we really wanted this trophy." 

"Even the most optimistic fan could 

not have predicted this victory," said 

coach Gian Piero Gasperini as the side 

from Bergamo target their second Cup 

title after 1963. 

Earlier in Tuscany Federico Chiesa 

scored a hat-trick as Fiorentina crushed 

a "shameful" Roma side. 

Chiesa scored two early on, adding a 

third in the second half past overwhelmed 

Roma goalkeeper Robin 

Olsen, with Giovanni Simeone bagging 

a brace in the last ten minutes. 

Colombian Luis Muriel and Marco 

Benassi also found the net against a 

Roma side who were reeling after 

throwing away a three-goal lead to 

draw 3-3 with Atalanta at the weekend 

in Serie A. 

"I'm bitter, but I won't quit," said 

Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco. 

"I'm disappointed in the team, there 

are no excuses. I struggle to explain 

what happened, as it was a game we got 

wrong in every conceivable way. It was 

shameful." 

Trent Boult shines as New Zealand hammer India to register dominant win in fourth ODI at 

Hamilton on Thursday. 

Photo: AP 

Sri Lanka look 

to shrug off 

injuries, off-field 

dramas 

SportS DeSk: 

Sri Lanka were working to 

shrug off a series of injuries 

and off-field dramas, captain 

Dinesh Chandimal said 

Thursday, as they look to 

avoid a series defeat against 

Australia, reports BSS. 

The visitors have endured 

a turbulent tour so far, losing 

the first Test at Brisbane by 

an innings and 40 runs 

inside three days. 

They now must play the 

second and last Test in Canberra 

from Friday without 

pace duo Lahiru Kumara 

and Dushmantha 

Chameera, who have both 

returned home with injuries. 

With fast bowler Nuwan 

Pradeep and all-rounder 

Angelo Mathews ruled out 

before the series started, 

they face a struggle on a 

Manuka Oval pitch regarded 

as one of the best batting 

decks in the country. 

Replacements for Kumara 

and Chameera have arrived 

in the form of left-armer 

Vishwa Fernando and 

uncapped bowling allrounder 

Chamika 

Karunaratne. 

"We have to play positive 

and we need four bowlers to 

win a game," Chandimal 

told reporters, while holding 

off naming his team until the 

toss on Friday. 

"We have to take more 

responsibility as a team. We 

have to score 300 runs batting 

first if we were to win a 

Test match. "This Test 

match I hope all the players 

will focus on what is 

required." 

Apart from an ongoing 

corruption investigation into 

Sri Lankan cricket by the 

International Cricket Council, 

coach Chandika 

Hathurasingha was stripped 

of his team selection duties 

after Brisbane. 

Liverpool extends lead 

to 5 points after draw 

with Leicester 

SportS DeSk: 

Liverpool missed a chance 

to move seven points clear of 

Manchester City in the Premier 

League after being held 

to a 1-1 draw at home to 

Leicester on Wednesday, 

reports BSS. 

The leaders couldn't build 

on a goal after 121 seconds by 

Sadio Mane at a snowy 

Anfield, with Leicester equalizing 

through Harry Maguire 

in first-half injury time and 

causing Liverpool problems 

in the second half. 

Only a fine reaction save 

from goalkeeper Alisson 

Becker, who turned the ball 

away after teammate Roberto 

Firmino diverted it toward 

his own goal, denied Leicester 

another surprise win after 

beating Chelsea and Man City 

in the past five weeks. 

As it was, Liverpool's lead is 

now five points with 14 

matches left as the team looks 

to win the league for the first 

time since 1990. 

Liverpool's quickest league 

goal in nearly three years was 

a 30-pass move that culminated 

in Andrew Robertson 

playing the ball across the 

box, through Firmino's legs, 

to tee up Mane for a low shot 

around Maguire's legs and 

inside the far post. 

The Foxes are favored 

opposition for the Senegal 

international, who now has 

had a hand in five goals - 

three goals and two assists - 

in his last five appearances 

against them. It was the 

100th goal scored at Anfield 

by Mane and fellow forwards 

Mohamed Salah and Firmino. 

Firmino and Mane wasted 

chances before Liverpool's 

tempo dropped. 

Alisson miskicked a short 

backpass from Jordan Henderson, 

who was playing as 

an emergency right back, 

straight to James Maddison, 

who went down under a challenge 

but was not awarded a 

penalty. 

When Alisson delayed 

another clearance, it was 

half-blocked by Jamie Vardy, 

and Maddison made a complete 

mess of his far-post 

header when the ball was 

returned into the box by Marc 

Albrighton. 

Maguire found himself in 

action at both ends of the 

field with varying results, as 

Salah ran into him in the 

penalty area - with no punishment 

for either player - 

before the England defender 

was booked for tripping 

Mane as he tried to run clean 

through onto Robertson's 

pass. 

By far his biggest contribution, 

however, was the stoppage-time 

volley when Liverpool 

failed to clear a free kick. 

Ben Chilwell returned the 

ball into the box and Maguire 

sneaked in at the far post to 

guide in a finish. 

The big center-back almost 

repeated the feat early in the 

second half, and it required 

Alisson to get Firmino out of 

trouble when his Brazil teammate 

diverted Maguire's 

header goalward. 

Naby Keita felt he should 

have had a penalty when, 

after exchanging passes with 

Firmino to get through on 

goal, Ricardo Pereira laid two 

hands on his back causing 

him to fall. The referee 

awarded a goal kick. 

Sole survivors: Qatar plot Japan 

ambush in Asian final 

Sports Desk: While Japan have the Asian Cup pedigree, 

Qatar's over-achieving players might just feel that their name 

is on the trophy after a record-breaking run to their first-ever 

final, reports BSS. 

Against the backdrop of simmering political tension, the 

Qatari players were pelted with plastic bottles - and even 

shoes - by furious local fans in a 4-0 semi-final thrashing of 

the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi. 

After surviving that ordeal, the 2022 World Cup hosts 

believe they have nothing to fear from Japan. 

"We have already realised a dream that the whole country 

had," said striker Almoez Ali, who equalled Ali Daei's record 

of eight goals in a single Asian Cup against the hosts on Tuesday. 

"We will need patience in the final but if we are patient, 

we have a chance of being champions." 

Japan, who captured the last of their record four Asian 

titles in 2011, upset tournament favourites Iran 3-0 in Monday's 

first semi-final and appear to be peaking at just the 

right time. 

After threatening to bore crowds to death in their first five 

games, the Blue Samurai go into Friday's final in the UAE 

capital unbeaten in 11 matches since Hajime Moriyasu took 

over as coach after last year's World Cup.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

10 

FRIDAy, FEBRUARy 1, 2019 

Daraz is Celebrating Valentine's Campaign 

for the Fourth Time Up to 70pc discount 

Md. Arfan Ali, President and Managing Director of Bank Asia Ltd. and M M Monirul Alam, CEO of 

Guardian Life Insurance Ltd. have signed an agreement on Credit Shield Insurance on 31st January 

31, 2019. The project has been titled as 'Bank Asia-Guardian Insurance' (BAG) where selected borrowers 

especially unsecured borrowers of Bank Asia will be insured under the terms and conditions. The 

signing ceremony was held on 31 January 2019 at the bank's Corporate Office where senior officials 

from both organizations were present. 

Photo: Courtesy 

PRAN bags $2m orders at 

Germany's ISM Fair 

Country's largest online shopping 

platform Daraz Bangladesh 

(daraz.com.bd) has organized 

Valentine's Day campaign for the 

fourth time. The co-sponsors of this 

event are Banglalink, Veet, Set Wet, 

Shaver Shop Bangladesh and Umidigi. 

This online Valentine's Day Sales event 

is running from 1st to 14th February 

with discount up to 70%. Also, there are 

several special attractions of this 

campaign. The winners through raffle 

draw will get a splendid opportunity to 

have a Helicopter ride and Candle light 

dinner at Hotel Westin. To make the 

Valentine's Day more festive for the 

customers, there will be 'I Love 

Voucher', 'Crazy Voucher', 'Mystery 

Box', 'Daily Flash Sale', 'Valentine's 

Special Gift Collection', and many more 

amazing deals, a press release said. 

Keeping customer's satisfaction at 

the center, Daraz BD (daraz.com.bd) is 

also offering various types of bank 

discounts along with bKash cash back 

offer. Up to 14% extra discount will be 

offered (Cap 2,000 taka) on transaction 

through Lanka-Bangla Visa credit card. 

Up to 10% extra discount will be offered 

(Cap 2,000 taka) on transaction 

through City Bank (Amex Card) and 

Southeast Bank Credit and Prepaid 

card. Apart from this, bKash payment 

also has a maximum of 20% (up to 500 

taka per customer, up to 300 taka per 

transaction) cashback facility. 

PRAN, a leading food processor in 

the country, bagged export orders 

worth around $2 million at ISM Fair, 

one of largest trade fairs for 'sweets 

and snacks' in the world. Importers 

from 50 countries visited PRAN's stall 

at the four-day fair began on January 

27, a press release said. 

This year, about 1700 exhibitors 

from different countries across the 

world participated in the fair held at 

Cologne in Germany. 

Md Mizanur Rahman, Chief 

Boeing bullish on 2019 despite 

US-China tensions 

Boeing reported a strong fourth 

quarter on Wednesday and offered a 

bullish 2019 outlook that implies the 

company will not see a significant hit 

from US-China trade tensions. 

The US aerospace giant, which has 

been boosted by a multi-year plane 

building boom amid surging global air 

travel demand, reported fourth-quarter 

profits of $3.4 billion, up 3.1 percent 

from the same period a year ago. 

Revenues were $28.3 billion, up 14.4 

percent. Several of the company's 

financial figures were company 

records, including annual revenues 

topping $100 billion for the first time at 

$101.1 billion. 

"Across the enterprise, our team 

delivered strong core operating 

performance and customer focus, 

driving record revenues, earnings and 

cash flow and further extending our 

Operating Officer at PRAN Export 

Limited said, this year the group 

displayed its over 200 products, 

including 10 new products. 

He also said that PRAN Group has 

brought huge change in 'sweets and 

snacks' category in Bangladesh. The 

group manufactures sweets and 

snacks items maintaining global 

standard. As a result the demand of 

the products in global market has 

created apart from the local market. 

Moreover, it is possible to earn foreign 

global aerospace industry leadership in 

2018," said Boeing Chief Executive 

Dennis Muilenburg. 

Boeing has been ramping up 

production of its single-aisle 737 plane, 

which accounted for more than half of 

the company's commercial deliveries in 

2018. 

On a conference call in October 

following its previous earnings report, 

Boeing executives said production of 

the 737 had reached 52 planes per 

month, up from the prior 47 and a key 

step on a planned ramp-up to 57 in 

2019. 

In October, Muilenburg said he 

remained committed to China as "one 

of the fastest growing commercial 

aviation markets in the world" and was 

taking a long-term view that "there's 

strong reasons in both the US and 

China to have a healthy, prosperous 

currency. PRAN received tremendous 

response from the buyers at the fair. 

Kamruzzaman Kamal, Marketing 

Director of PRAN-RFL Group said, 

the main purpose of participating in 

the exhibition is to expand export 

market. There creates a scope to 

spread PRAN products across the 

world as ISM Fair is one of the largest 

fairs in sweets and snacks category in 

the world and traders and buyers from 

every corner of the globe participate in 

the fair. 

Grameenphone launched special 

offers for frequent flyers 

Grameenphone Ltd. has 

recently introduced a special 

roaming internet bundle and 

combo offer. This roaming 

offer is country specific and 

eligible for 34 countries in 

specific roaming partners' 

network. To enjoy the offer, 

customers need to select 

specific network manually 

while traveling abroad. The 

offer is a permanent one (until 

further notice) and the new 

tariffs have already started 

from January 22, 2019, says a 

press release. 

Among some of the very 

lucrative offers, the 'Daily 

Unlimited Internet' offer will 

cost BDT 99 only. Also, these 

following roaming offers are 

now available for the 

customers: Weekly Unlimited 

Internet for BDT 599; Monthly 

Unlimited Internet for BDT 

2,599; Daily Combo for BDT 

549 (unlimited internet, 20- 

minute call to local and home, 

10-minute incoming call and 

10 SMS); Weekly Combo for 

BDT 1,999 (Unlimited 

Internet, 100 minute call to 

local & home, 30 minute 

incoming call and 30 SMS); 

and Hajj Combo applicable in 

Saudi Arabia only for BDT 

4,999 (Unlimited Internet, 100 

minute call to local & home, 

100 minute incoming call and 

100 SMS, valid for 45 days). 

The security deposit for 

roaming has been reduced up 

to 70%. Customers will be 

charged upfront for a 

successful purchase of 

bundles/combo. These 

Internet Bundles & Combo will 

not be renewed automatically. 

Customers will receive SMS 

notification for validity expiry. 

To activate it again, the 

customers will need to repurchase 

the specific 

bundle/combo. Customers will 

be able to purchase them as 

many times as they want. 

After consumption of certain 

capped volume (300 MB for 

Daily unlimited, 1 GB for 

weekly unlimited and 3.5 GB 

for monthly unlimited/ Hajj 

combo), internet browsing 

speed will be throttled to 256 

KBPS. The list of specific 

partners (for Internet bundle & 

Combo) will be available in GP 

website and the list may 

change / get updated from 

time to time as per agreement 

with the roaming partners. 

If any customer selects any 

other roaming partner's 

network (not listed in Specific 

partners' list), they will be able 

to use voice & SMS service at 

regular roaming tariff; 

however, they will not be able 

to use data roaming service. 

Only Standard roaming & Data 

Roaming customer will be 

eligible to purchase Internet 

Bundle & Combo. 

aerospace industry." 

Boeing is scheduled to hold its 

fourth-quarter conference call later 

Wednesday morning. 

In December, Boeing opened a new 

"completion and delivery center" in 

Zhoushan, China where 737 planes are 

flown into the country from Seattle and 

interior work is completed. 

China is expected to account for 

about 18 percent of the new planes built 

over the next 20 years, according to 

Boeing figures. 

Some major companies, such as 

Apple, FedEx and Caterpillar, have in 

recent weeks cited sluggishness in 

China as a headwind for their results. 

But other companies, including 

General Motors and Nike, have 

described solid demand despite 

slowing growth in China in the wake of 

a protracted US-China trade war. 

Marking 14th death anniversary of Unani doctor, Academician, writer, translator and organizer 

principal Hakeem Hafez Azizul Islam a memorial meeting was organized at Tibbia Habibiya 

College auditorium. 

Photo:Courtesy 

15 pc discount on Walton ACs in DITF 

VRF Technology-based Industrial ACs coming soon 

The Local electronic giant 

Walton is providing 15 percent 

discount on all models 

of its air conditioners, along 

with free home delivery 

facility, to the customers of 

the ongoing Dhaka International 

Trade Fair, says a 

press release. 

Apart from these, customers 

of Walton ACs can 

also get various sorts of 

attractive awards like sure 

cash vouchers up to Tk. 1 

lakh, free motorcycle, laptop, 

refrigerator, television, 

air conditioner and other 

sorts of home and electrical 

appliances through registering 

air conditioners purchased 

from Walton Pavilion 

of the DITF-19 or any 

other branded outlets across 

the country under the ongoing 

nationwide Walton Digital 

Campaign Season 4. 

Mohammad Mostafazaman, 

coordinator of Walton 

pavilion at DITF, said, these 

facilities are drawing huge 

response from customers in 

the fair due to the exact BTU 

(British Thermal Unit) of 

Walton ACs along with 

attractive design, high quality, 

cash discounts, scope of 

getting sure cash vouchers 

and various free products. 

Sources said, Walton has 

released 18 models of latest 

technology ACs ahead of 

New Year and DITF which 

include 14 models of 1 to 2- 

ton split type ACs and 4 and 

5-ton ceiling and cassette 

type ACs. Walton split type 

ACs are being available in 

the market from BDT 

35,500 to 78,000 BDT. 

Besides, 5-ton ACs are available 

from 1 lakh 41 thousand 

to 1 lakh 59 thousand BDT. 

Walton also released 1.5 

and 2-ton huge power-saving 

inverter technology ACs 

of Venturi and Riverine 

series. These smart ACs can 

be managed by 'Voice Control' 

or 'Amazon Echo'. Users 

can increase, reduce, turn on 

Highlights: 

* 15% discount and free home delivery on Walton ACs at DITF 

* Customers can get cash vouchers up to Tk. 1 lakh under Digital Campaign 

* Smart ACs: Controlled with voice command and smart phones 

* Latest VRF technology Industrial ACs are being displayed at DITF 

* Using Inverter, Ionizer, Turbo Cooling and Golden Fin technologies 

or off the air-conditioner 

with voice command without 

using a remote controller. 

4 and 5-ton cassettes 

and ceiling type Walton ACs 

received wide response 

among customers at DITF 

for their aesthetic designs 

and cooling performance. 

Various new and upcoming 

models of VRF or Industrial 

ACs are being displayed at 

DITF. 

VRF technology is called 

the best modern air-conditioning 

system. This technology 

has the power of controlling 

the temperature of 

entire building at the same 

time. The indoor air conditioning 

units of a structure 

are controlled through a 

central control system. Walton 

VRF ACs feature lowpower 

cooling and dual 

sensing systems for which 

cold and hot air can be found 

as per the user's requirement. 

The technology can 

conveniently be placed anywhere 

in the room. 

Shafiqul Alam, Manager of 

Walton Pavilion, said mini, 

single and multi-modular 

VRF ACs are being manufactured 

at our own factory 

in Chandra of Gazipur. Walton 

is manufacturing 5 to 15- 

ton Mini VRF ACs for small 

structures while 17 to 32-ton 

single modular ACs for 

medium size structures and 

multi-modular ACs for larger 

structures. 

Ishaque Rony, Chief Operating 

Officer of Walton Air 

Conditioner, said: Walton is 

the first company that has 

introduced IOT-based smart 

ACs in Bangladesh which 

are controllable using 

mobile phones. Users can 

easily know various information 

about Walton smart 

ACs including the monthly 

electric bill, low or high voltage, 

overload on compressor 

etc. Every air conditioner of 

Walton is released in the 

market after obtaining quality 

control certification from 

international standard testing 

lab NUSDAT-UTS. 

He said Walton ACs are 

not only getting huge 

response from local customers 

but also being 

exported in various countries 

for the use of latest 

technology, accurate BTU 

and assurance of high quality, 

attractive designs, affordable 

prices and nationwide 

sales and service network. 

The inclusion of Ionizer 

technology in Walton ACs 

keeps the room dirt and bacteria 

free along with cooling. 

The Smart and Inverter ACs 

of Walton save up to 60 percent 

electricity. The Turbomood 

of the compressor of 

Inverter ACs cools the room 

reducing its temperature 

quickly. In this technology, 

the speed of the compressor 

is controlled according to the 

temperature of the room 

through special programming 

of microprocessor 

installed on the PCB or 

motherboard of the compressor. 

World's recognized 

environmental-friendly 

HFC free R410A refrigerant 

is used on Walton ACs. 

Rust-resistant Golden Fin 

Color Technology is being 

used in condensers of Walton 

ACs which ensures the 

longevity of the cooling 

product. Besides, accurate 

BTU and six-month replacement 

guarantee lead Walton 

ACs to secure the top choice 

of customers.

MISCELLANEOUS 

FrIDAY, FeBrUArY 1, 2019 

11 

Azhar-Shafik Foundation organized a reception program at National Press Club yesterday. 

India invites Bangladesh 

business community to attend 

Maritime Conclave 

DHAKA : India has invited Bangladesh 

business community, particularly those 

from shipping and waterways 

industries, to attend 'Maritime 

Conclave 2019' to be held in 

Bhubaneswar, Odisha on February 14- 

15, reports UNB. 

"Besides presenting opportunities for 

investment in the maritime sector of 

India, I am certain that Maritime 

Conclave 2019 will also generate new 

ideas on further enhancing bilateral 

cooperation in this area," said acting 

Indian High Commissioner to 

Bangladesh Dr Adarsh Swaika on 

Thursday. 

He was addressing a function 

organised to promote 'Maritime 

Conclave 2019' at a city hotel. 

Economic Affairs Advisor to 

Bangladesh Prime Minister Dr 

Mashiur Rahman, Secretary, Ministry 

of Shipping, Md Abdus Samad, 

President, India Bangladesh Chamber 

of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI), 

Abdul Matlub Ahmad and Senior Vice 

President, Federation of Bangladesh 

Chambers of Commerce Industry 

Sheikh Fazle Fahim also spoke on the 

occasion. 

The acting High Commissioner 

requested FBCCI and IBCCI to 

consider leading business delegations 

for the Conclave. Thanking Dr Moshiur 

for his participation at the function, Dr 

Adarsh said, "He (Dr Moshiur) is a 

Seminar on 

practicing culture 

and education 

held in JnU 

Aslam Hossain JnU 

correspondent: A 

seminar was held on the 

heart of practicing culture 

and education of South Asia 

in Jagannath university 

organized by Jagannath 

University Research Society 

and Department of 

Marketing. 

It was started at 

12:00pm.Prof Dr Prohald 

Roy, department of 

Education, visva Bharati 

Santiniketan, India were 

present as Keynote speaker. 

He said Bangladesh Bhavan 

in visva Bharati was opened 

in 25 August 2018.Mainly 

we find out the culture of 

Bangladesh and India and 

we are now working on it.By 

this Bhavan Bangladesh will 

be presented to the whole 

world and their Culture will 

get more significant. 

Through this Bhavan the 

culture of Bangladesh and 

India are being connected 

said Dr Prohald Roy. 

As Discussant Dr 

Chinmoy Howlader, 

Assoiciate Professor, 

National University,Special 

Guest Prof Md Zahir Uddin 

Arif,Program Director, 

MBA(Evening),the Program 

Chaired by Prof Dr Md 

Humayun 

Kabir 

Chowdhury, Chairman 

Department of Marketing 

great advocate of greater India- 

Bangladesh connectivity and economic 

integration and has played an 

important role in pushing several of 

these initiatives." 

The event focused on promotion of 

Maritime India Conclave 2019 being 

organized jointly by the Ministry of 

Shipping and Ministry of Petroleum 

and Natural Gas of the Government of 

India. 

The conclave will provide a major 

platform for promotion of investment 

in the maritime sector in India. 

The event is expected to be attended 

by over 200 investors, developers and 

over 1,000 delegates, both domestic 

and international. 

Besides, representatives from 

government, public sector enterprises, 

developers and financial institutions, 

state maritime boards, and other 

related stakeholders are also expected 

to attend. In the last few years 

government of India has taken a 

number of initiatives to upgrade their 

maritime and logistics infrastructure, 

said Dr Adarsh. 

The acting High Commissioner said 

Bangladesh-India cooperation in the 

area of maritime and waterways 

connectivity has also made rapid 

strides since the visit of Indian Prime 

Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh 

in June 2015. Under the third Line of 

Credit of US$ 5 billion, he said, India 

Hungrynaki, country's first and leading 

premium online food ordering and delivery 

Service providing company starts its 

journey from Thursday in Cox's Bazar city 

known as the leading tourism city beside 

world's longest sea beach. The soft launched 

has been kicked off from today prior to the 

official mega launch planned in March 

2019. Primarily Hungrynaki food delivery 

service will be given from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 

a.m. within the area of Cox's Bazar and 

UkhiaUpazila. To avail, the service 

consumers may browse 

www.hungrynaki.com or download the 

application form play store (for Android) 

and AppStore (for apple) and order their 

favorite foods accordingly, a press release 

said. 

AD Ahmad, founder, and CEO of 

Hungrynaki stated, "we consistently look 

for adding up values in consumers lifestyle 

maintaining food quality with fastest and 

innovative delivery commitment. Besides 

we are more than happy to serve not only to 

the inhabitants of these particular areas but 

also to the tourists visiting from different 

corners of the country." 

By starting its operation in Cox's Bazar, 

now the company that started in 2013 has 

extended its service operation in five 

megacities. Starting from Dhaka the service 

of Hungrynaki, the local giant in food 

delivery service has gradually launched its 

operation in major cities like Chottogram, 

Sylhet, and Narayanganj while Cox's Bazar 

comes as the latest addition to cater its 

consumers with a list of wide range of 

restaurants along with innovative and 

fastest delivery commitment. 

Hungrynaki has started incorporating 

most popular restaurants for the consumers 

of Cox's Bazar while more than 1500 

and Bangladesh are also partnering to 

develop infrastructure of three major 

ports in Bangladesh. The event focused 

on promotion of Maritime India 

Conclave 2019 being organized jointly 

by the Ministry of Shipping and 

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas 

of the Government of India. 


platform for promotion of investment 

in the maritime sector in India. 

The event is expected to be attended 

by over 200 investors, developers and 

over 1,000 delegates, both domestic 

and international. 



developers and financial institutions, 

state maritime boards, and other 

related stakeholders are also expected 

to attend. 

In the last few years government of 

India has taken a number of initiatives 

to upgrade their maritime and logistics 

infrastructure, said Dr Adarsh. 


Bangladesh-India cooperation in the 

area of maritime and waterways 

connectivity has also made rapid 

strides since the visit of Indian Prime 

Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh 

in June 2015. Under the third Line of 

Credit of US$ 5 billion, he said, India 

and Bangladesh are also partnering to 

develop infrastructure of three major 

ports in Bangladesh. 

Hungrynaki instigates its 

Service in Cox's Bazar 

restaurants are also being operational in the 

rest four megacities. They plan to cross 

2500 major premium restaurants in 2019 

keeping in mind the increasing service 

leverage for its consumers so that 

consumers have the ultimate liberty to 

order a variety of foods from their personal 

choices from the list of wide range of 

restaurants as they opt to. 

AD Ahmad, founder, and CEO of 

Hungrynaki stated, "we consistently look 

for adding up values in consumers lifestyle 

maintaining food quality with fastest and 

innovative delivery commitment. Besides 

we are more than happy to serve not only to 

the inhabitants of these particular areas but 

also to the tourists visiting from different 

corners of the country." 

By starting its operation in Cox's Bazar, 

now the company that started in 2013 has 

extended its service operation in five 

megacities. Starting from Dhaka the service 

of Hungrynaki, the local giant in food 

delivery service has gradually launched its 

operation in major cities like Chottogram, 

Sylhet, and Narayanganj while Cox's Bazar 

comes as the latest addition to cater its 

consumers with a list of wide range of 

restaurants along with innovative and 

fastest delivery commitment. 

Hungrynaki has started incorporating 

most popular restaurants for the consumers 

of Cox's Bazar while more than 1500 

restaurants are also being operational in the 

rest four megacities. They plan to cross 

2500 major premium restaurants in 2019 

keeping in mind the increasing service 

leverage for its consumers so that 

consumers have the ultimate liberty to 

order a variety of foods from their personal 

choices from the list of wide range of 

restaurants as they opt to. 

Photo : TBT 

Oikyafront announces 2- 

day programme protesting 

'vote robbery' 

DHAKA : Jatiya Oikyafront on 

Thursday announced a 2-day 

programme, including 

demonstration wearing black 

badges and holding a public 

hearing, protesting what it 

said 'vote robbery ' in the 

December-30 national 

election, reports UNB. 

Jatiya Oikyafront 

spokesman Mirza Fakhrul 

Islam Alamgir announced the 

programmes after a meeting 

of the steering committee of 

the alliance at Dr Kalam 

Hossain's Motijheel chamber. 

"Today's Oikyafront steering 

committee meeting decided to 

hold a black badge wearing 

programme in front of the 

Jatiya Press club on February 

6 protesting vote robbery on 

December 30," he said. 

UN humanitarian chief urges 

aid delivery to Syrians 

The U.N. humanitarian chief urged 

Syria's warring parties on Wednesday 

to ensure the delivery of desperately 

needed aid to Syrians stranded near 

the border with Jordan and warned 

again that a major military operation in 

extremist-controlled Idlib would be a 

humanitarian catastrophe, reports 

UNB. 

Mark Lowcock said the U.N. wants 

an aid convoy, with more than 100 

trucks accompanied by some 250 U.N. 

and Syrian Arab Red Crescent 

personnel, to leave for the isolated 

Rukban camp on the Syria-Jordan 

border by Feb. 5. Its 42,000 people 

"remain stranded in deteriorating 

conditions since the last convoy to the 

area in early November," which was 

the first since January 2018, he said. 

Lowcock also appealed for money to 

buy basics from blankets to baby milk 

and bandages for millions of Syrians 

living under tents or tarpaulins or in 

unheated buildings in severe winter 

conditions that have seen freezing 

temperatures, snowfalls and flooding 

that has forced tens of thousands of 

people to move. 

His address to the U.N. Security 

Council came amid rising concern over 

the plight of some three million people 

in Idlib, which was the last major 

stronghold of the Syrian opposition. 

Earlier this month, al-Qaida-linked 

militants seized more than two dozen 

towns and villages in northern Syria 

from rival insurgents in the most 

serious blow to a September cease-fire 

brokered by Russia and Turkey that 

averted a major government offensive 

in Idlib province. 

Lowcock said that January saw an 

increase in fighting between armed 

groups in Idlib, "placing civilians at risk 

and resulting in injury and death." 

"Today I reiterate the importance of 

sustaining the Russia-Turkey 

agreement and remind you that a 

large-scale military operation in Idlib 

would have catastrophic humanitarian 

implications," he told council 

members. 

The envoys from the United States, 

Britain, France and other council 

nations echoed Lowcock and stressed 

that all efforts must be made to sustain 

the Idlib cease-fire. 

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily 

Nebenzia told the council that Moscow 

shares concerns about the situation in 

Idlib and the increase in cease-fire 

Maintain quality to grab int'l 

markets: Industries minister 

DHAKA : Industries Minister Nurul Majid 

Mahmud Humayun called upon the 

multipurpose companies on Thursday to 

maintain product quality to grab the global 

markets. 

"We don't want to stay in our local 

market only. We want to catch the global 

competitive markets with our quality 

products," he said while addressing the 

'Accreditation Certificate Awarding 

Ceremony and Laboratory Conclave' at the 

ministry. 

Bangladesh Accreditation Board certified 

16 institutions under local and 

multipurpose testing laboratory and 

inspection organizations. Md Monwarul 

Islam, director general of BAB, said 

products certified by the accredited 

laboratories would be acceptable globally. 

The recipients include National 

Meteorology Laboratory (BSTI), Engineer 

Construction BD Testing Laboratory 

(Dhaka Cantonment), Calibration 

Laboratory (Biman Bangladesh Airlines), 

Pathology Laboratory (Labaid Ltd), Pran 

Beverage Laboratory (Pran Dairy Limited), 

NUSDAT-UTS (Walton High-Tech 

Industries Ltd), and National Control 

Laboratory (Directorate General of Drug 

Administration). 

Nurul Majid congratulated the 

recipients. "Remember, making lowquality 

products is also a form of 

corruption. Low-quality production and 

low-quality testing are both serious threats 

for the nation," the minister said, reports 

UNB. 

State Minister for Industries Kamal 

Ahmed Majumdar said the importance of 

accreditation management is increasing 

day by day in export trade activities. 

"Your responsibility has increased after 

getting the accreditation certificates. You 

have to ensure product quality. The 

achievement will help deepen [consumer] 

trust in our products and service quality 

[abroad] that will play a significant role in 

increasing our export earnings," he said. 

Md Abdul Halim, acting secretary of the 

ministry, presided over the function. He 

described the accreditation awardees as 

"the lifeline of the country's economy." 

"You should judge the product quality 

properly," he said. 

India has invited Bangladesh business 

community, particularly those from 

shipping and waterways industries, to 

attend 'Maritime Conclave 2019' to be held 

in Bhubaneswar, Odisha on February 14- 

15, reports UNB. 

"Besides presenting opportunities for 

violations, saying about a thousand 

cases have been reported "as a result of 

which 65 people have died and more 

than 200 have been injured." 

He said the Idlib de-escalation zone 

has come under the control of al- 

Qaida-linked militants allied with the 

group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. And he 

recalled Russia's warning "right from 

the start ... that freezing the situation 

where there are terrorists is something 

that is not sustainable in the longterm." 

Nebenzia said after talks Sunday in 

Moscow between the Russian and 

Turkish leaders, "work was stepped up 

to develop effective, feasible and 

agreed upon measures regarding the 

Idlib de-escalation zone." 

Is France cracking down too hard on 

yellow vest protesters? A top European 

human rights official thinks so, joining 

other critics decrying the police use of 

high-velocity rubber projectiles and a 

draft law that could local authorize 

local officials to prevent people from 

taking part in protests on public order 

grounds, reports UNB. 

French authorities say police are 

facing an increasingly radicalized 

movement, one with a violent fringe 

intent on attacking security forces. 

More than 2,000 people, including 

protesters and police, have been 

injured since the yellow vest 

demonstrations started in November, 

over economic problems. 

Concerned about the police reaction 

to the protests, Council of Europe 

Human Rights Commissioner Dunja 

Mijatovic came to Paris this week to 

meet with French officials. 

Mijatovic acknowledged the 

pressures police forces are under but 

expressed particular worry about 

injuries from rubber ball launchers and 

other anti-riot methods used by police. 

Several protesters have reported 

serious injuries from being hit by the 

balls. 

"The high level of tension currently 

prevailing in France gives me cause for 

concern, and I believe that there is an 

urgent need to calm the situation," 

Mijatovic said in a statement 

Wednesday. 

She also warned of a civil rights 

threat in a bill currently under debate 

in the French parliament. The bill, 

championed by French President 

Emmanuel Macron's government, is 

aimed at troublemakers who use 

investment in the maritime sector of India, 

I am certain that Maritime Conclave 2019 

will also generate new ideas on further 

enhancing bilateral cooperation in this 

area," said acting Indian High 

Commissioner to Bangladesh Dr Adarsh 

Swaika on Thursday. 

He was addressing a function organised 

to promote 'Maritime Conclave 2019' at a 

city hotel. 

Economic Affairs Advisor to Bangladesh 

Prime Minister Dr Mashiur Rahman, 

Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Md Abdus 

Samad, President, India Bangladesh 

Chamber of Commerce and Industry 

(IBCCI), Abdul Matlub Ahmad and Senior 

Vice President, Federation of Bangladesh 

Chambers of Commerce Industry Sheikh 

Fazle Fahim also spoke on the occasion. 

The acting High Commissioner 

requested FBCCI and IBCCI to consider 

leading business delegations for the 

Conclave. 

Thanking Dr Moshiur for his 

participation at the function, Dr Adarsh 

said, "He (Dr Moshiur) is a great advocate 

of greater India-Bangladesh connectivity 

and economic integration and has played 

an important role in pushing several of 

these initiatives." 

The event focused on promotion of 

Maritime India Conclave 2019 being 

organized jointly by the Ministry of 

Shipping and Ministry of Petroleum and 

Natural Gas of the Government of India. 


platform for promotion of investment in 

the maritime sector in India. 

The event is expected to be attended by 

over 200 investors, developers and over 

1,000 delegates, both domestic and 

international. 



developers and financial institutions, state 

maritime boards, and other related 

stakeholders are also expected to attend. 

In the last few years government of India 

has taken a number of initiatives to 

upgrade their maritime and logistics 

infrastructure, said Dr Adarsh. 


Bangladesh-India cooperation in the area 

of maritime and waterways connectivity 

has also made rapid strides since the visit 

of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

to Bangladesh in June 2015. 

Under the third Line of Credit of US$ 5 

billion, he said, India and Bangladesh are 

also partnering to develop infrastructure of 

three major ports in Bangladesh. 

protests to attack police. 

Rights groups, opposition lawmakers 

and members of Macron's centrist 

party have said the legislation goes too 

far in restricting the right of people to 

protest. 

Initially proposed by a conservative 

lawmaker, the bill has since been 

amended to soften some measures 

seen as possibly endangering civil 

liberties. 

Macron said Wednesday it is 

intended to help maintain public 

order. 

The bill could authorize prefects in 

charge of local regions to prevent 

people they see as a serious threat to 

public order from taking part in 

protests. 

It could also force protesters involved 

in acts of violence to pay for the 

damage and make it a crime for 

protesters to conceal their faces during 

demonstrations. Mijatovic said the bill 

should not "result in any unnecessary 

or disproportionate restriction of the 

freedoms of expression and peaceful 

assembly." 

The yellow vest protests started Nov. 

17 over a rise in fuel taxes but 

mushroomed into a grassroots antigovernment 

movement with a range of 

demands. 

Amid divisions in the movement and 

Macron pursuing a national debate 

meant to respond to protesters' 

concerns, momentum appeared to flag 

Saturday during the most recent 

protests. However, anger over police 

tactics remains strong. 

"The high level of tension currently 

prevailing in France gives me cause for 

concern, and I believe that there is an 

urgent need to calm the situation," 

Mijatovic said in a statement 

Wednesday. 

She also warned of a civil rights 

threat in a bill currently under debate 

in the French parliament. The bill, 

championed by French President 

Emmanuel Macron's government, is 

aimed at troublemakers who use 

protests to attack police. 

Rights groups, opposition lawmakers 

and members of Macron's centrist 

party have said the legislation goes too 

far in restricting the right of people to 

protest. Initially proposed by a 

conservative lawmaker, the bill has 

since been amended to soften some 

measures seen as possibly endangering 

civil liberties.

UNITING PEOPLE EVERYDAY 

FRiDAy, DHAKA, FEBRuARy 1, 2019, MAGH 19, 1425 BS, JAMADiuL AwAL 25, 1440 HiJRi 

Newly appointed Bangladesh Navy Chief Rear Admiral AMMM Aurangzeb Chowdhury paid a courtesy 

call on President Md Abdul Hamid at Bangabhaban in Dhaka. 

Photo: Star Mail 

2 siblings death: Students 

block Dhaka-Mawa highway; 

demand truck driver's arrest 

KERANIGANJ : Students of 

different schools and colleges 

formed a human chain and 

blocked Dhaka-Mawa highway 

at Rejendrapur in South 

Keraniganj here on Thursday, 

demanding immediate arrest 

and capital punishment of the 

truck driver responsible for 

the death of two siblings in a 

road accident. 

Shahjamal, officer-incharge 

of South Keraniganj 

Police Station, said several 

hundred students of different 

schools and colleges put up 

barricade on the highway, disrupting 

traffic movement for 

half an hour, reports UNB. 

When police removed them 

from the highway they formed 

the human chain around 

10:30 am on both sides of the 

road and chanted slogans 

demanding arrest of the truck 

driver. 

Later, local people joined the 

human chain programme. 

Earlier On Monday, Afifa 

Akter Afrin, 13, a class VI student 

and her brother Afsar 

Ahmed, 10, a class IV student 

of Hasnabad Cosmopolitan 

School and College were killed 

and their father was injured 

when a truck hit a motorbike 

at Rajendrapur Mollar Pool in 

South Keraniganj. 

INTERESTING NEWS 

Inside the Shikotsu-Toya National Park, 

in the island of Hokkaido, not far from the 

active stratovolcano, Mount Usu, there is a 

400-meter tall volcanic peak called Showashinzan. 

Showa-shinzan is Japan’s 

youngest mountain. It appeared on 28 

December 1943 out of a wheat field accompanied 

by strong tremors and hot lava. As 

the molten magma broke through the surface, 

it uplifted the field and over the following 

two years the lava dome continued 

to rise until it reached a height of 398 

meters. 

Showa-shinzan erupted when Japan was 

fighting the Allies in the Second World 

War. The appearance of a volcano at a time 

when the entire country was in distress was 

taken as a bad omen by the superstitious 

folks. The authorities tried to hush it up and 

Govt to ensure equal 

rights for all: PM 

DHAKA : Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina on Thursday 

said her government's goal is 

to ensure equal rights for all 

people irrespective of their 

religions and casts, reports 

UNB. 

"There should be equal 

rights for all people, irrespective 

of their religions, race, 

casts and ethnic community. 

We want to ensure it and we'll 

certainly do this. It's our 

goal," she said. 

The Prime Minister said 

this while distributing scholarships 

among meritorious 

students of small ethnic 

groups at her office. The 

scholarships were given 

under a special programme 

initiated by Prime Minister 

Sheikh Hasina for the development 

of minor ethnic communities 

living in plain land. 

This year, some 500 students 

--320 male and 180 

female-were given Tk 25,000 

each as scholarships and 20 

of them received cheques 

from the Prime Minister. 

The Prime Minister urged 

the small ethnic community 

people not to consider themselves 

neglected. "All will have 

to think themselves as the citizens 

of this country and 

everyone has equal rights," 

she said. 

She said her government's 

goal is to change the fate of 

the country's people and give 

them a decent live. "We're 

working to this end," she 

added. 

Putting importance on conservation 

of the diversity of 

lifestyle of ethnic people, 

Sheikh Hasina urged the 

small ethnic groups to uphold 

their own culture and uniqueness. 

She hoped that the participation 

of the people of ethnic 

people in the state affairs will 

increase in the future. 

The scholarship will help 

the students pursue their 

higher studies and flourish 

their talent, she said. 

About the natural beauty 

and demographic diversity of 

Bangladesh, she said her government 

has given importance 

to ethnic people for 

their socioeconomic development 

as well as cultural diversity. 

The Mountain That Japan 

Hid From The World 

requested the locals to keep the mountain a 

secret. But Masao Mimatsu, a postmaster 

living nearby began observing and recording 

the volcano's progress. Because of 

Japan’s war effort, basic scientific materials 

were unavailable and Mimatsu had to 

improvise. The notes he took and the 

sketches he made of Showa-Shinzan are the 

only records available to geologists of this 

mountain’s formation. 

Masao Mimatsu strung several fishing 

lines horizontally across two vertical beams 

at his post office. He observed the growth of 

the volcano through these strings—they 

acting as guide lines—and drew the profile 

of Showa-Shinzan at different times as the 

dome grew. When he presented his data 

and sketches to the World Volcano 

Conference in Oslo in 1948, his work was 

praised by professional volcanologists. 

Sheikh Hasina said the 

Awami League government 

after taking office in 1996 had 

successfully resolved the 

unrest in the Chittagong Hill 

Tracts (CHT), creating opportunity 

for the ethnic people of 

the region for their economic 

uplift. 

At the same time, her government 

had considered the 

socioeconomic development 

of about 15 lakh ethnic people 

living in plain land, and took 

various projects to give them 

support economically, promote 

their culture and create 

educational and other occupational 

opportunities. 

Under a project, the Prime 

Minister's Office has undertaken 

an educational assistance 

programme for ethnic 

minorities living in plain land, 

under which they are getting 

the scholarship for higher 

education as well as general 

education. 

The Prime Minister urged 

the ethnic people to strive for 

further development of their 

traditional occupation 

through using modern technology. 

Crescent Leather 

chairman sent to 

jail on money 

laundering charge 

DHAKA : A Dhaka court 

sent the chairman of 

Crescent Leather Products 

Ltd and Crescent Tanneries 

Ltd to jail in connection with 

a case laundering for Tk 

919.56 crore. 

Metropolitan Magistrate 

Mohammad Jasim passed 

the order rejecting the bail 

petition of the chairman MA 

Kader. 

Customs Intelligence and 

Investigation Directorate 

(CIID) official Anwar 

Hossain produced him 

before to the court and submit 

a petition to confine him 

to the jail until investigation 

of the case. 

Lawyer Abul kalam Azad 

stood for the petitioner. 

The Customs Intelligence 

and Investigation 

Directorate (CIID) on 

Wednesday arrested the 

chairman of Crescent 

Leather Products Ltd and 

Crescent Tanneries Ltd over 

money-laundering charge. 

Earlier in the day, three 

cases were filed with 

Chawkbazar Police Station 

accusing 17 people over laundering 

a total of Tk 919.56 

crore. Of them, 13 are Janata 

Bank officials. 

MA Kader was made 

accused in two of the cases 

involving Tk 422.46 crore 

and Tk 15.84 crore respectively. 

Stay alert while 

tapping marine 

resources, 

President asks 

Navy 

DHAKA : Describing blue 

economy as a very significant 

factor for the country's economic 

growth, President 

Abdul Hamid on Thursday 

asked Bangladesh Navy to 

remain more alert to collect 

and preserve marine 

resources, reports UNB. 

He made the remarks when 

newly appointed Chief of 

Naval Staff Vice Admiral 

AMMM Aurangzeb 

Chowdhury met him at 

Bangabhaban in the afternoon. 

Aurangzeb officially took 

the command of Bangladesh 

Navy on January 26. 

President's Press Secretary 

Joynal Abedin briefed 

reporters after the meeting. 

Joynal Abedin said the navy 

chief apprised the President of 

overall activities of the naval 

force during the meeting. 

As Bangladesh Navy has 

already turned into a threedimensional 

force, the 

President described it as a 

matter of pride for the naval 

force and expressed the hope 

that Navy will go ahead under 

Aurangzeb's leadership. 

The new naval chief also 

sought directives and cooperation 

from the President. 

The commander-in-chief of 

the armed forces, Abdul 

Hamid, assured him of his 

continued cooperation in discharging 

his duties. 

National election was fair 

and peaceful, claims EMF 

DHAKA : Election 

Monitoring Forum (EMF), a 

platform of 31 polls monitoring 

oranisations registered 

with the Election 

Commission, on Thursday 

claimed that the parliamentary 

elections were held in a 

free, fair, peaceful and festive 

manner, reports UNB. 

Forum Executive Director 

Prof Mawlana Md Abed Ali 

came up with the claim in a 

report on the election observance 

presented at a press 

conference at the Jatiya 

Press Club. 

The report was compiled 

based on monitoring of 

17,165 polling centres in 239 

constituencies out of total 

299, he said. "The presence 

of voters in the centres 

which were monitored was 

satisfactory and no unpleasant 

situation was noticed 

there," Abed Ali said. 

Mentioning that the overall 

behaviour of the candidates 

was cautious, he said, 

"Some contestants were 

harassed by law enforcers 

on the excuse of cases which 

was unexpected. The 

Election Commission failed 

to take quick action in this 

regard." 

The report also said the 

magistrates, presiding officers, 

polling officers and the 

other administrative officers 

involved in the election process 

helped the forum work 

properly during the election. 

"They didn't create any 

obstacles to us." 

Abed Ali also thanked and 

greeted the EC on behalf of 

their organisations for holding 

the election with utmost 

efficiency. 

The forum also recommended 

that the Election 

Commission (EC) give minimum 

honorarium to the 

observers in all of the 

upcoming elections. 

It some recommendations, 

including strengthening 

the EC and law enforcement 

agencies, meting out 

punishment to those 

involved in election violence 

and compensating the families 

of the victims, to hold 

fair elections. 

The press conference was 

also attended by SAARC 

Human Rights Foundation 

Director Md Masum 

Chowdhury, EMF coordinator 

Monir Hossain, Human 

Rights activist Md Zayed 

Hossain, Md Shahidul 

Islam, Khadakar Faruk 

Ahmed and Sultana Razia 

Rila. 

The authority of forests division rescued the rare species of a wild cat in Sylhet. Photo: Star Mail 

Barapukuria graft: Hearing 

on charge-framing against 

Khaleda on Feb 26 

DHAKA : A court here on Thursday 

deferred the hearing on charge-framing 

against BNP chairperson Khaleda 

Zia and 10 others to February 26 in 

the Barapukuria coalmine corruption 

case. 

Special Judges Court-2 Judge ASM 

Ruhul Imran passed the order while 

Barrister Md Aminul Haque, an 

accused in the case, sought time for 

the hearing stating that High Court 

had stayed the case proceedings, 

reports UNB. 

On February 26, 2008, the Anti- 

Corruption Commission filed the case 

with Shahbagh Police Station accusing 

16 people, including Khaleda and 

10 of her former cabinet colleagues, of 

taking Tk 159 crore 71 lakh in kickbacks 

on the Barapukuria coalmine 

deal which was awarded to the highest 

bidder instead of the lowest one. 

However, among the 16 accused, 

Golden Rice to be released 

soon: Minister 

DHAKA : Golden rice, a new variety of rice helpful to fight 

Vitamin A deficiency, will be released soon, said Agriculture 

Minister Dr Abdur Razzak on Thursday, reports UNB. 

He came up with the information after a meeting with 

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at the secretariat 

on Thursday. 

"Golden rice is important than the other varieties of rice as 

it will be helpful to fight Vitamin A deficiency. The rice variety 

has already got clearance in the USA, Canada and 

Australia, "he said. "A committee of the Ministry of 

Environment will give clearance to Golden rice for its production. 

We will be able to start cultivation of the rice in 

Bangladesh within 2/3 months upon getting clearance from 

the ministry," he said. Different verities of rive now available 

in the market contains low quantity of Vitamin A and this 

new variety of rice will help to meet the need of vitamin 

uantity of Vitamin-A is very low in the rice which are being 

eaten by people in the country. But most of the people of our 

country live on rice. They also do not take sufficient vegetable, 

for that the demand of Vitamin-A remained unfulfilled. 

When the rice will be produced, the demand of Vitamin-A 

will be fulfilled, said Razzak. 

Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali 

Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed were 

executed for their crimes against 

humanity while former Finance 

Minister Saifur Rahman, BNP leader 

Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and former 

Petrobangla chairman AR Osmani 

have already died. 

On October 5, 2008, the ACC 

pressed charges against the accused 

in the Barapukuria graft case. 

Responding to a petition filed by 

Khaleda, the HC on October 16, 2008 

stayed the case proceedings and 

issued a rule asking the ACC to 

explain why the case should not be 

quashed. 

The Appellate Division later upheld 

the stay order as well, leaving the corruption 

case in the cold. 

Later on September 17, 2015, the 

HC lifted the stay order resuming the 

trial proceedings of the case. 

Three held for gang 

raping SSC candidate 

in Khulna 

KHULNA : Police on Thursday 

arrested three people from the 

capital's Badda area over the incident 

of a secondary school certificate 

(SSC) candidate being brutally 

gang-raped in Khulna on 

January 28, reports UNB. 

The detainees are Md Sagar Ali, 

26, son of late Amjad Sikdar of 

Khan Jahan Ali, Md Billal, 30, son 

of late Renu Mia of Mosiali area of 

the port city and Md Shafik, 26, 

son of late Tokon Ali of same area. 

Officer-in-charge of Khan Jahan 

Ali Police Station Md Kabir 

Hossain said a team of police 

using different sources and information 

technology arrested the 

trio from Kuril Bishwa Road in 

Badda early Thursday. 

On Monday, the detainees' gang 

raped the victim at an abandoned 

building in Alimgate Kalabagan 

area of the city and fled. 

Later, locals rescued the bloodstained 

girl and admitted her to 

Khulna Medical College Hospital. 

The victim's father filed a case 

with Khan Jahan Ali Police 

Station in this regard. 

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam, Advisory Editor: Advocate Molla Mohammad Abu Kawser, Managing, Editor: Tapash Ray Sarker, News Editor : Saiful Islam, printed at Sonali Printing Press, 2/1/A, Arambagh 167, Inner Circular Road, Eden Complex, Motijheel, Dhaka. 

Editorial and News Office: K.K Bhaban (Level-04) 69/K, Green Road, Panthapath, Dhaka-1205. Tel : +8802-9611884, Cell : 01832166882; Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com

01-02-2019

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