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SECOND EDITION<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong> | Agrahayan 22, 1423, Rabiul Awwal 5, 1438 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 219 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10<br />
As border security is high near Teknaf<br />
in Chittagong and the Naf River, a<br />
new route has formed where the<br />
suppliers use the Bay of Bengal and<br />
enter Bangladesh through Barisal<br />
BARISAL<br />
After reaching<br />
Maungdaw, the<br />
yaba is transported<br />
to different places<br />
in Bangladesh<br />
MAUNGDAW<br />
SITTWE<br />
YABA TRADE ROUTE<br />
SHAN STATE<br />
About 45 yaba<br />
manufacturing<br />
factories operate in<br />
Myanmar's Shan<br />
state and most<br />
pills are<br />
manufactured here<br />
From Yangon, the pills are brought<br />
to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine<br />
state, in brick sized packets. They<br />
are stored in different places in the<br />
capital before being transported<br />
to Maungdaw<br />
YANGON<br />
In Bangladesh, its long journey the yaba to<br />
first transported to Yangon<br />
pills are<br />
The Myanmar connection › 2<br />
Korail fire: Hundreds made homeless › 32<br />
Four youths including 2 NSU<br />
students go missing › 32<br />
Shariatpur<br />
Razakar<br />
leader Idris<br />
Ali to die › 3<br />
Sammy: I ask my players<br />
to play with passion › 25<br />
Nitol-Tata launches new<br />
Nano car › 13<br />
A tall man from Gopalganj and his burned dreams › 21<br />
Afsan Chowdhury writes on how urban plans always hit the poor hard
2<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
News<br />
The Myanmar connection<br />
• Morshed Ali Khan, back from<br />
Teknaf<br />
Up to 45 large yaba (methamphetamine)<br />
pill manufacturers in Myanmar<br />
are pouring millions of pieces<br />
of the deadly drug into Bangladesh,<br />
generating an unstoppable smuggling<br />
ring where hundreds of crores<br />
of taka is changing hands, sources<br />
in Border Guards Bangladesh and<br />
Rohingya refugees said.<br />
In the process, Myanmar security<br />
forces and also separatist groups<br />
fighting for independence in rebel-held<br />
areas in Myanmar are directly<br />
patronising the illicit trade of<br />
yaba pills. The extent of the smuggling<br />
is so deep rooted that it is now<br />
threatening to destroy the lives of<br />
millions of youths in the country,<br />
several official sources said.<br />
Our investigation reveals, on<br />
one side security forces and on<br />
Bangladesh side influential politically<br />
backed individuals from as<br />
far as Dhaka, Chittagong, Barisal<br />
and Khulna are controlling the immensely<br />
lucrative trade. In Teknaf<br />
and along the border with Myanmar,<br />
the trade has lured several hundred<br />
poor Bangladeshis as well as desperate<br />
Rohingya refugees, risking their<br />
lives regularly to do the courier job.<br />
Many of these couriers have over<br />
the years, risen from abject poverty<br />
and misery to become some of the<br />
wealthiest men in this southwestern<br />
region. Along the road to Shah<br />
Porir Dwip from Teknaf, one cannot<br />
miss the newly built mansions and<br />
bungalows bearing the testimony<br />
of a highly lucrative yaba economy.<br />
Stories of how a rickshaw-puller,<br />
a day-labourer, and ruling party<br />
thugs have amassed crores of taka,<br />
circulate openly in the tea stalls of<br />
Teknaf. Hundreds of latest posh<br />
Japanese cars have also flooded the<br />
roads of this rural town.<br />
“The start of yaba trade across<br />
the border started only a few years<br />
back and with it, fates of many people<br />
in Bangladesh have changed,”<br />
said manager of a hotel in Teknaf, requesting<br />
anonymity. “In the smuggling<br />
and distribution network,<br />
blessings of influential political leaders<br />
are there, and everyone in the<br />
region knows it for a fact,” he added.<br />
The yaba route goes back hundreds<br />
of kilometres away from<br />
Teknaf, in the eastern part of Myanmar<br />
borders with China, Thailand<br />
and Laos, top security officials<br />
working in the field for several years<br />
told this correspondent. In Shan,<br />
bordering Thailand and Laos, at<br />
least 45 yaba factories are operating.<br />
While yaba has a huge demand<br />
in China, Thailand and Laos, most<br />
of the pills are manufactured in<br />
these 45 factories. China and Thailand<br />
remain the biggest markets for<br />
these illegal pills. When it comes to<br />
Bangladesh from the factories the<br />
pills are first transported to nearly<br />
1,000km away to Yangon. Then<br />
the pills, in brick-size packets, are<br />
often “escorted” to Sittwe, the capital<br />
of Rakhaine state, 890km away.<br />
Once in Sittwe, the drugs are<br />
stored in different places for transporting<br />
to Maungdaw, across Bangladesh.<br />
Here enter the couriers, in<br />
tatters and in phases.<br />
According to BGB sources, from<br />
January to November 27, <strong>2016</strong>, BGB<br />
2 Battalion alone seized 7,179,682<br />
yaba pills. At Tk300 per piece (the<br />
government-decided value of each<br />
pill), the price of the total haul this<br />
year stands at over Tk200 crore.<br />
BGB sources said the price of each<br />
pill in retail markets in the big cities<br />
is more than double their calculation.<br />
During the period BGB seizures<br />
interestingly peaked in November<br />
with 517,857,900 pills seized, when<br />
unrest broke out in the Rakhaine<br />
state, forcing thousands of Rohingyas<br />
to cross the border into Bangladesh.<br />
It is also during this period beginning<br />
from early October, the BGB<br />
and other security forces stepped<br />
up vigilance along the border.<br />
Interestingly, due to an embargo<br />
on Myanmar imposed by the<br />
International Chamber of Commerce,<br />
the formal border trade till<br />
today continues in dollars without<br />
requiring a Letter of Credit, although<br />
the ICC lifted the embargo<br />
in 2012. Yaba traders have cashed<br />
in with the loophole. In this case,<br />
over invoicing has been flourishing<br />
among the smugglers in collusion<br />
with some officials of the authorised<br />
banks to pay for yaba tablets<br />
and other narcotics through the<br />
safest channel, sources at Teknaf<br />
river port said.<br />
“Nowadays because of the reinforced<br />
security on the river Naf to<br />
prevent Rohingya intrusion, yaba<br />
smuggling has taken to the Bay of<br />
Bengal to reach as far as Barisal in<br />
addition to Cox’s Bazar and other<br />
destinations directly,” said the BGB<br />
official, adding that recently Bangladesh<br />
Navy, Coast Guard, and Rapid<br />
Action Battalion separately intercepted<br />
several sea-going trawlers to<br />
seize millions of yaba pills.<br />
At different refugee camps and<br />
slums, yaba is a rather well-known<br />
stimulant for a huge market in<br />
Bangladesh. A resident of Leda<br />
slum, Zahid is a rare Rohingya who<br />
had attended college back home.<br />
Zahid says for several years before<br />
crossing over, they all knew Myanmar<br />
security forces control manufacturing<br />
of yaba tablets.<br />
“Many poor Rohingyas were<br />
used by the Myanmar security forces<br />
to transport the drugs to Bangladesh,<br />
and many of them made<br />
good money working as transporters,”<br />
he said. •<br />
Morshed Ali Khan is a veteran conflict<br />
zone reporter who is operating as a<br />
freelancer for the Dhaka Tribune.<br />
Myanmar not<br />
attending<br />
GFMD summit<br />
• Jebun Nesa Alo<br />
Myanmar, the country currently in<br />
the global eye on account of the Rohingya<br />
oppression, will not attend<br />
the Global Forum on Migration Development<br />
(GFMD) summit scheduled<br />
to be held in Bangladesh from<br />
<strong>December</strong> 10 to 12.<br />
Representatives from 122 countries<br />
will attend the summit, the<br />
largest platform for developing migration<br />
rights as well as addressing<br />
refugee crises, but Myanmar will<br />
not be sending representatives.<br />
As the host of the global summit,<br />
Bangladesh invited Myanmar<br />
cordially as their attendance is<br />
highly significant amid the ongoing<br />
Rohingya crisis, but no response<br />
was received. The registration<br />
for attending the summit expired<br />
on November 25 but the country<br />
did not register, said a diplomatic<br />
source. Some countries were considered<br />
for registration as late as<br />
November 28, but Myanmar did<br />
not. No reason has been provided<br />
as to why they are not attending<br />
the summit.<br />
Bangladesh had postponed a<br />
secretary level meeting scheduled<br />
for November due to the reluctance<br />
of Myanmar.<br />
According to Bangladesh Ambassador<br />
to Myanmar Mohammad<br />
Sufiur Rahman, the Rohingya influx<br />
into Bangladesh has decreased<br />
since the visit of UN Secretary Kofi<br />
Annan to the Rakhine state. Sufiur<br />
Rahman made the statement at a<br />
meeting to brief the foreign minister,<br />
held yesterday .<br />
The UN Secretary began a<br />
fact-finding visit to Myanmar on<br />
<strong>December</strong> 2. The Myanmar Army<br />
has been accused of committing<br />
large-scale violence against the<br />
Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority,<br />
with the destruction of villages resulting<br />
in civilian casualties and an<br />
exodus of refugees into Bangladesh.<br />
Despite calling out to the international<br />
community to end the turbulent<br />
Rohingya crisis, Bangladesh did<br />
not receive the expected response,<br />
said a senior officer of foreign affairs.<br />
He said that the big parties, including<br />
China, USA, UK and the<br />
UN, did not play their expected<br />
roles with regard to the recent<br />
destruction in the Rakhine state.<br />
With the exception of some human<br />
rights agencies and the UNCHR, no<br />
one raised their voice or made an<br />
official statement.<br />
The USA is yet to respond to the<br />
recent religious crisis in Myanmar<br />
as the country is going through an<br />
administrative transition period,<br />
said a diplomatic source.<br />
Earlier, on November 24, Bangladesh<br />
sought support from the international<br />
community to resolve<br />
the Rohingya crisis. •
News 3<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Shariatpur Razakar leader Idris Ali to die<br />
DT<br />
• Ashif Islam Shaon<br />
The International Crimes Tribunal<br />
yesterday awarded death penalty<br />
to absconding Shariatpur razakar<br />
leader Idris Ali Sardar for crimes<br />
against humanity committed during<br />
the Liberation War in 1971.<br />
The three-member tribunal led<br />
by Justice Anwarul Haq delivered<br />
the verdict against the fugitive saying<br />
the execution can be carried out<br />
by hanging or shooting.<br />
All of the four charges were<br />
proved beyond doubt against Idris,<br />
67, and he was awarded death in<br />
two charges held by majority, imprisonment<br />
for life in one and seven-year<br />
jail term in another charge.<br />
The tribunal asked home ministry<br />
secretary and Inspector General<br />
of Police [IGP] to arrest the absconder,<br />
if necessary with the help of IN-<br />
TERPOL, to execute the sentence.<br />
However, he may challenge the<br />
verdict with Appellate Division of<br />
the Supreme Court if surrenders or<br />
gets caught within next 30 days.<br />
In November last year, prosecution<br />
submitted charge sheet against<br />
two razakars– Solaiman Mollah<br />
alias Soleman Moulvi and Idris Ali<br />
Sardar alias Gazi Idris but Solaiman<br />
in custody died under treatment at<br />
Dhaka Medical College Hospital.<br />
Razakar leader Idris Ali<br />
During the trial procedure, the<br />
tribunal recorded depositions of 13<br />
prosecution witnesses.<br />
The war crimes case was filed<br />
against them in Shariatpur in 2010.<br />
Involved with Jamaat-e-Islami,<br />
Idris hails from west Kashabhog<br />
village under Chitalia union of<br />
Palang upazila in Shariatpur while<br />
Solaiman from the same union’s<br />
Kashipur village. The duo collaborated<br />
with the Pakistani occupation<br />
forces during war at different areas<br />
of Shariatpur and Madaripur.<br />
Solaiman was a Jamaat leader in<br />
1970 and led the local razakar force<br />
and Peace Committee while Idris,<br />
a local leader of Jamaat’s then student<br />
wing Islami Chhatra Sangha,<br />
joined him at the force.<br />
Charges and sentences<br />
The first charge that earned Idris<br />
death was brought for genocide, murder,<br />
plundering and arson committed<br />
on May 22 in 1971 in the locality of<br />
Palong Police Station in Shariatpur.<br />
In that afternoon around 150 Pakistani<br />
army men, along with Idris,<br />
Solaiman and their razakar cohorts<br />
were on their way to village Kashabhog<br />
through Angaria bazaar launch<br />
ghat. There, being instigated by<br />
the duo, army shot a farmer Abdus<br />
Samad Sikder who along with his<br />
son Ismail Hossain Sikder was chasing<br />
cow towards their home.<br />
Injured Samad could run till his<br />
home to die there. The group followed<br />
him to attack his house and looted it.<br />
The gang then continued marching<br />
towards east and one the way<br />
shot dead one ironsmith Shamvu<br />
Nath Karmakar working in his<br />
shop. Therefore, they attacked Hindu<br />
populated village Madhyapara,<br />
plundering houses and setting<br />
them on fire as well as, at the same<br />
time, killing more than 200 Hindu<br />
people by firing shots indiscriminately.<br />
They came back to Madaripur<br />
army camp after the rampage.<br />
The incidents of genocide, murder,<br />
rape, persecution, abduction,<br />
confinement, torture, plundering<br />
and arson described in the second<br />
charge took place between July<br />
23 and 26, 1971, in the localities of<br />
Palong and the then Madaripur<br />
Sadar Police Stations. These too<br />
earned the razakar death.<br />
The charge says, on May 23<br />
morning about a hundred Pakistani<br />
army men accompanied by<br />
Solaiman Mollah, Idris and some<br />
other Razakars attacked a Hindu<br />
populated village Malopara [fishermen<br />
village] under Palong Police<br />
Station, plundering houses and<br />
then setting them on fire, besides<br />
indiscriminately killing 15/20 innocent<br />
men and 14/15 women after<br />
gathering them in front of the<br />
house of Jogomaya and also.<br />
The attackers were divided into<br />
two groups; one group remained at<br />
village Malopara to guard and torture<br />
the confined men and women.<br />
The other group attacked village<br />
Rudrakar; tried to vandalize a Hindu<br />
temple by firing shots that killed<br />
the ailing priest Chandra Mohan<br />
Chakraborty. Thereafter, they detained<br />
30/35 men and women, taking<br />
them to Pakistani army camp at<br />
AR Howlader Jute Mills, Madaripur.<br />
They raped the women of different<br />
ages for three days in turn.<br />
The third charge that earned him<br />
life in prison was for torturing and<br />
killing, in mid June of 1971, Lalit<br />
Mohan Kundu and Shuresh Goon<br />
who looked after the house of an<br />
Awami League leader.<br />
Fourth count says the duo and Pakistani<br />
army committed widespread<br />
systematic killings and destruction<br />
of Hindu religious people in the localities<br />
of Palong Police Station of the<br />
then Madaripur Sub-Division which<br />
forced Hindu people to leave the<br />
country facing ineffable harassment.<br />
Meanwhile our Shariatpur correspondent<br />
reports, plaintiff of the<br />
case, affected families and local<br />
freedom fighters including plaintiff<br />
of the case Abdus Salam Talukder<br />
yesterday expressed satisfaction<br />
and rejoiced over the death sentence<br />
of the razakar.<br />
Freedom fighter and General<br />
Secretary of Shariatpur Press Club<br />
Talukder said: “Most probably Idris<br />
Ali is now living abroad. The<br />
sentence has to be executed after<br />
finding him out and bringing back<br />
home. Only then members of the<br />
affected families will be satisfied.”<br />
Nobody was found at the home<br />
of Idris Ali at Kashabhog village under<br />
Angaria union of the district, after<br />
the verdict was delivered. •<br />
33 Rohingyas missing as<br />
boat capsizes off Myanmar<br />
• Abdul Aziz, Cox’s Bazar<br />
A boat packed with 35 Rohingya<br />
refugees capsized on the<br />
Myanmar side of the Naf river<br />
opposite Teknaf’s Jadimura<br />
yesterday morning.<br />
A local fisherman named<br />
Suman said he watched the<br />
boat sinking and rescued two<br />
people who were swimming<br />
towards the maritime boundary<br />
of Bangladesh.<br />
One of the survivors, Rehana<br />
Begum, confirmed the<br />
number of people on board<br />
and said they had been trying<br />
to enter Bangladesh.<br />
They were the latest group<br />
of Rohingya muslims who<br />
tried to cross into Bangladesh<br />
illegally after Myanmar troops<br />
launched a crackdown in Rakhine<br />
state in response to a<br />
militant attack on three border<br />
posts on October 9 that killed<br />
nine police officers.<br />
Lieutenant Colonel Abujar<br />
Al Jahid told the Dhaka Tribune<br />
that they had heard about<br />
the latest incident.<br />
BGB officers have been deployed<br />
to monitor the situation.<br />
Meanwhile, members of<br />
Border Guard Bangladesh<br />
(BGB) have pushed back 48<br />
Rohingyas who fled the country<br />
in the face of ongoing<br />
crackdown in Rakhain state by<br />
Myanmar troops.<br />
BGB personnel prevented<br />
the trespassing at different<br />
points of the Naf river early<br />
Monday.<br />
Teknaf 2 BGB Commander<br />
Lt Col Abujar Al Zahid said<br />
they sent back at least 48 Rohingyas<br />
boarded in four boats<br />
while they were trying to intrude<br />
into Bangladesh territory<br />
through three different<br />
points of the river.<br />
Hundreds of Rohingya<br />
Muslims tried to cross into<br />
Bangladesh illegally after<br />
Myanmar troops launched<br />
a crackdown in the Rakhine<br />
state in response to attacks<br />
on three border posts on October<br />
9 that killed nine police<br />
officers.<br />
Bangladesh has stepped<br />
up security along its border<br />
with Myanmar to prevent<br />
influx of Rohingyas fleeing<br />
violence in the Rakhine state<br />
that has killed at least 86<br />
people and displaced 30,000<br />
others. •
4<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
News<br />
ONE MONTH INTO ATTACK ON SANTALS<br />
Santals determined to get their land back<br />
• Nure Alam Durjoy<br />
Despite having lost everything to<br />
the violent attack on the night of<br />
November 6, the evicted Santals of<br />
Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha<br />
still firmly believe that they will get<br />
their ancestral land back.<br />
“We will not let go of our right<br />
to our ancestral land,” said Bhupen<br />
Mardy, resident of Madarpur village,<br />
one of the villages affected by<br />
the drive.<br />
It has been a month since members<br />
of police and Rapid Action<br />
Battalion (RAB) evicted more than<br />
2,000 Santal families from 15 villages<br />
in the massive Shahebganj-Bagda<br />
farm area in Gobindaganj.<br />
Some Bangalis loyal to the local<br />
lawmaker also took part in the violent<br />
attack, looting and burning<br />
around 600 houses to the ground.<br />
The Santals along with some local<br />
Bangalis resisted the eviction<br />
drive, which resulted in clashes<br />
that killed at least three Santals<br />
and injured at least 30 people, including<br />
nine policemen.<br />
Since the eviction, thousands of<br />
Santal families have taken refuge in<br />
the neighbouring villages, living in<br />
makeshift huts, Bhupen told the Dhaka<br />
Tribune over phone yesterday.<br />
The authorities concerned have<br />
yet to take any steps to resolve the<br />
situation, he added, frustrated.<br />
Martha Tudu, sister of Dijen<br />
Tudu, one of the Santals who was<br />
severely injured by rubber bullets<br />
in the clash and was shown arrested<br />
by police while undergoing<br />
treatment, reiterated Bhupen’s<br />
statement.<br />
“Why should we give up our ancestral<br />
land when we have already<br />
lost three Santal men over it? We<br />
are not giving up our rights,” she<br />
told the Dhaka Tribune.<br />
Martha currently looks after her<br />
brother who is being treated at National<br />
Institute of Ophthalmology<br />
and Hospital in Dhaka.<br />
Dijen was injured in his left eye<br />
and has lost his vision.<br />
“We do not know if he will get<br />
his vision back. The condition of<br />
his left eye is affecting his vision in<br />
the right eye too,” Martha said.<br />
She further said the doctors had<br />
said it would take time for his left<br />
eye to heal.<br />
Dijen and two other Santal men,<br />
Bimal Kisku and Charan Soren,<br />
were shown arrested in a case filed<br />
by police and were put in handcuffs<br />
while they were undergoing<br />
treatment.<br />
The High Court later ordered police<br />
to take their handcuffs off. Later,<br />
they were granted bail as well.<br />
Bimal and Charan are also undergoing<br />
treatment at different<br />
hospitals.<br />
The land in question was originally<br />
owned by Santals along with<br />
some local Bangalis before then<br />
East Pakistan government acquired<br />
it in 1962 for Rangpur Sugar Mills<br />
Ltd to produce sugarcane.<br />
In 2014, it was discovered that<br />
the acquisition contract had been<br />
violated by the mill authorities. As<br />
the contract stated that any violation<br />
would transfer the land’s ownership<br />
back to the original owners,<br />
the Santals and Bangalis built their<br />
houses on 100 acres of the 1,842-<br />
acre land and started living there in<br />
July this year.<br />
The victims told the Dhaka Tribune<br />
that they had been encouraged<br />
to do so by Shakil Ahmed Bulbul,<br />
leader of the local unit of Bangladesh<br />
Chhatra League who was recently<br />
elected as the chairman of<br />
Sapmara Union Parishad, which is<br />
constituted by the affected villages,<br />
and Principal Abul Kalam Azad,<br />
Awami League lawmaker from<br />
Gobindaganj constituency.<br />
But on November 6, these two<br />
leaders were actively involved in<br />
driving out the Santals from the<br />
land, the Santals alleged.<br />
Both the leaders have refuted<br />
the allegations.<br />
Santals living in Madarpur told<br />
the Dhaka Tribune that the sugar<br />
mill authorities had installed a<br />
barbed-wire fence on the Madarpur<br />
side of the land.<br />
“The other sides are also being<br />
guarded by people from the sugar<br />
mill and police. There is a police<br />
camp too,” said a Santal man, requesting<br />
not to be named.<br />
The relief given to the affected<br />
Santals has also been less than adequate.<br />
“The government has provided<br />
reliefs twice to only 434 families.<br />
We demand compensations and<br />
financial supports from the government<br />
in addition to being relocated<br />
to our ancestral land,” said<br />
Philimon Baske, vice-president of<br />
Shahebganj-Baghda Farm Bhumi<br />
Uddhar Songram Committee.<br />
Earlier, Santal leaders told the<br />
Dhaka Tribune that local leaders of<br />
the ruling party were now threatening<br />
them with dire consequences if<br />
they did not give up their demands.<br />
Jatiya Adivasi Parishad President<br />
Rabindranath Saren, on<br />
Friday, said around 2,500 evicted<br />
families of Shahebganj-Bagda<br />
farm area were consistently being<br />
threatened by locals who are loyal<br />
to MP Azad.<br />
However, when contacted,<br />
Gobindaganj police station OC Subrata<br />
Kumar Sarker claimed the evicted<br />
Santals had no problems now.<br />
Rabindranath Saren said what<br />
happened on November 6 was<br />
nothing but “crimes against humanity.”<br />
He further said the only solution<br />
to the problem was returning the<br />
land to the Santals and the Bangalis<br />
whose ancestors owned it, as they<br />
would not ever agree to be rehabilitated<br />
anywhere else. •<br />
4 pass JU admission<br />
test by proxies<br />
• JU Correspondent<br />
Four admission seekers in Jahangirnagar<br />
University secured their<br />
positions in the merit list of the<br />
admission test for honours programme<br />
in three different units using<br />
proxies.<br />
The cheating was disclosed<br />
when they appeared for viva voce<br />
examinations in the university yesterday.<br />
Rakibul Islam from Boraigram<br />
of Natore and Tapu Saha from Bajitpur<br />
of Tangail obtained second<br />
and third position in C unit (Arts<br />
and Humanities) respectively, Md<br />
Hasnat Hasan Sharia Prachurja<br />
from Debiganj of Panchagar got<br />
fifth position in H unit (the Institution<br />
of Information Technology)<br />
and Rokibul Hasan from Burichang<br />
of Comilla was in the 177th position<br />
in E unit (Business Studies).<br />
Rakibul, Tapu and Rokibul were<br />
handed over to Ashulia police station,<br />
while Prachurja fled from the<br />
university, according to Sudipta Saha,<br />
chief security officer of the university,<br />
and Akkas Ali, acting director of IIT.<br />
According to the rules of the<br />
university, during a viva-voce examination,<br />
an examinee’s handwriting<br />
in answer sheet is checked.<br />
When the interviewers checked<br />
the examinees handwriting during<br />
the viva, it did not match with the<br />
handwriting of their answer sheets.<br />
At one stage of the teachers’ interrogation,<br />
three of them admitted<br />
that they used proxies.<br />
Tapu admitted that he gave Tk2<br />
lakh to one Raju of Tangail for attending<br />
the admission test on behalf<br />
of him.<br />
The cheating was<br />
disclosed when they<br />
appeared at viva<br />
examinations<br />
Ranjit Saha, father of Tapu, also admitted<br />
the fact.<br />
The teachers, who took viva of<br />
Prachurja on Sunday, also suspected<br />
him of using proxy.<br />
However, he was given a chance<br />
to take another one hour test yesterday,<br />
as he challenged the teachers’<br />
allegation. But, he did not do<br />
well in the test.<br />
He was declared ineligible for<br />
admission temporarily and his result<br />
was sent to the admission test<br />
conduct committee for further investigation.<br />
Meanwhile, Prachurja fled the<br />
university, when the teachers went<br />
to some other room of the university,<br />
said Akkas. •<br />
Bangladesh Army chief<br />
Gen Abu Belal Muhammad<br />
Shafiul Huq meets with<br />
visiting Kuwaiti Defence<br />
Minister Lt Gen (retd)<br />
Sheikh Khaled al-Jarrah<br />
al-Sabah, above, and<br />
Kuwait Armed Forces<br />
Chief of General Staff Lt<br />
Gen Mohammad Khaled<br />
al-Khader yesterday<br />
ISPR
BANGLADESH BANK RESERVE HEIST<br />
BD to share only CID findings<br />
with Philippines<br />
• Asif Showkat Kallol<br />
Bangladesh will share the findings of Bangladesh<br />
Bank (BB) heist investigation carried<br />
out by the Criminal Investigation Department<br />
(CID) of police with the Philippines, but the<br />
country will not share the probe report of<br />
former central bank governor Farashuddin<br />
Ahmed.<br />
“We will share the CID’s findings to help<br />
speed up recovery of the stolen $81 million,<br />
but we will not share the findings of Farashuddin’s<br />
report with the Philippines,” Law, Justice<br />
and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq<br />
told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.<br />
However, Philippine Finance Secretary<br />
Carlos Dominguez, during a meeting last week<br />
in Manila with a Bangladeshi delegation led<br />
by Anisul Huq, said Manila “strongly recommended”<br />
that Dhaka share the results of its<br />
investigation.<br />
CID sources said the investigation into<br />
the heist had seen no progress in the last few<br />
months as the law enforcers of several other<br />
countries were taking time to respond to the<br />
CID’s queries.<br />
“In October, officials of six countries sat in<br />
a meeting arranged by Bangladesh Police and<br />
Interpol in Singapore to discuss the muchhyped<br />
digital heist, but the outcome was not<br />
satisfactory,” said a CID official, requesting<br />
anonymity.<br />
“Prior to that meeting, the CID officers held<br />
two other meetings in the Philippines and the US<br />
with officials of 11 countries. The next meeting is<br />
likely to be held in Dhaka in <strong>December</strong>,” he added.<br />
Two days ago, Finance Minister AMA Muhith<br />
categorically rejected the idea of sharing<br />
the probe report of the heist with the Philippine<br />
authorities or the Rizal Commercial<br />
Banking Corp (RCBC), arguing that “it is an<br />
internal matter”.<br />
The hackers managed to transfer $81 million<br />
via an account at the New York Federal<br />
Reserve to four accounts using fake names at a<br />
branch of the RCBC in the Philippines.<br />
Most of the money was laundered through<br />
Philippine casinos and only about $15 million<br />
was recovered from a gaming junket operator<br />
and returned to Bangladesh.<br />
Bangladesh has said it wants the RCBC to<br />
compensate for its losses, but the bank refuses<br />
to pay and has said the Bangladeshi central<br />
bank was “negligent”.<br />
Law Minister Anisul Huq last week said the<br />
RCBC should shoulder the burden for accepting<br />
stolen funds.<br />
The RCBC was fined a record one billion<br />
pesos ($20 million) by the Philippine central<br />
bank for its failure to prevent the movement<br />
of the stolen Bangladesh money through its<br />
bank.<br />
Anisul said paying that fine was tantamount<br />
to accepting responsibility for the heist. •<br />
Child tortured over Tk60<br />
• Md Noor Uddin, Habiganj<br />
A minor boy was tortured for a debt of Tk60 at<br />
Chhoysree village in Chunarughat upazila of<br />
Habiganj yesterday.<br />
Sohel Mia, son of Lebas Ullah of the village,<br />
tied the 11-year old Ashik Mia of the same village<br />
to a stake of his house and beat him up,<br />
as Ashik could not pay off his debt to Sohel,<br />
according to locals.<br />
The boy, son of Manik Mia and a student<br />
of class three at a local government primary<br />
school, borrowed Tk100 from Sohel around a<br />
month ago.<br />
Ashik promised Sohel, aged 25 years, to pay<br />
it back in five phases.<br />
According to that, the boy paid Tk40 in two<br />
phases about two weeks ago.<br />
On the day, Sohel demanded the rest of the<br />
money but Ashik failed to meet the demand.<br />
Later, the villagers and local union parishad<br />
member Safikur Rahman Sapu rescued the boy.<br />
The child was treated locally.<br />
Abed Hasnat Chowdhury Sanju, local unioin<br />
parishad chairman, admitting the fact said<br />
the persons, who were involved in the incident,<br />
would be brought to book.<br />
Nirmalendu Chakrabarty, officer-in-charge<br />
of Chunarughat police station, said he heard<br />
about the incident from locals.<br />
“Action will be taken if we get any complaint,”<br />
the OC added. •<br />
News 5<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
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Dhaka Tribune<br />
TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY<br />
Dhaka 29 15 Chittagong 29 19 Rajshahi 29 15 Rangpur 29 13 Khulna 30 14 Barisal 30 16 Sylhet 30 12<br />
Cox’s Bazar 30 20<br />
DRY WEATHER<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6<br />
DHAKA<br />
TODAY<br />
TOMORROW<br />
SUN SETS 5:11PM<br />
SUN RISES 6:29AM<br />
YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW<br />
32.2ºC<br />
12.8ºC<br />
Cox’s Bazar<br />
Srimangal<br />
Source: Accuweather/UNB<br />
PRAYER<br />
TIMES<br />
Fajr: 5:50am | Zohr: 1:15pm<br />
Asr: 4:00pm | Magrib: 5:22pm<br />
Esha: 7:00pm<br />
Source: Islamic Foundation
6<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
Suspected<br />
robber killed<br />
in ‘gunfight’<br />
• Nadim Hossain, Savar<br />
An alleged robber was killed in a<br />
gunfight with police at Jhaubada<br />
village, Dhamrai upazila, Savar in<br />
the early hours of Monday.<br />
The deceased was identified as<br />
Abu Hanif, 35, ringleader of a robbers’<br />
gang.<br />
Officer-in-Charge of Dhamrai<br />
police station Dipak Kumar Saha<br />
told the Dhaka Tribune that when<br />
a group was taking preparation for<br />
committing robbery, a team of police<br />
conducted the drive at the village<br />
early in the morning.<br />
But sensing the presence of<br />
police, the robbers opened fire at<br />
them prompting a retaliation that<br />
triggered a gunfight that left Hanif<br />
bullet injured.<br />
He was taken to Dhamrai Upzila<br />
Health Complex where on duty<br />
doctor declared him dead. •<br />
News<br />
At last, Champa freed from the<br />
clutches of traffickers<br />
• Md Raihanul Islam Akand,<br />
Gazipur<br />
At last members of law enforcers<br />
on Sunday rescued Champa<br />
Begum, who was trafficked to<br />
Saudi Arabia two and half months<br />
back by human-trafficking<br />
syndicate.<br />
Law enforcers became active to<br />
rescue Champa, a garment worker,<br />
after a report titled ‘Bhaiya please<br />
save me’ was published in English<br />
daily the Dhaka Tribune on<br />
<strong>December</strong> 3.<br />
Officer-in-Charge of Sreepur police<br />
station Asaduzzaman said they<br />
arrested Mobarak after publication<br />
of the report over the helpless situation<br />
of Champa.<br />
“We also kept pressure on Mobarak<br />
to bring Champa back to<br />
the country from Saudi Arabia,”<br />
he said.<br />
Finding no alternative, Mobarak<br />
phoned the employer of Champa<br />
and asked them to send Champa<br />
back to the country.<br />
Champa, a ready-made garment<br />
worker at Keowa Uttarpara village<br />
under the upazila, was trafficked to<br />
Saudi Arabia and forced to engage<br />
in prostitution in Amintu area,<br />
Ryad, capital of Saudi Arabia.<br />
She was kept in a separate room<br />
there and tortured by Taslima, a<br />
Bangali woman, who was involved<br />
in the business.<br />
Champa said: “Taslima used to<br />
beat up me with iron-made chain,<br />
as I refuse to involve in prostitution.”<br />
“After a few days, some women<br />
at the building came to me and<br />
took care of mine,” she also said.<br />
Police said after arrest, Mobarak<br />
sent a message to his accomplishes<br />
in Saudi Arabia and asked them to<br />
send Champa back to Bangladesh.<br />
Later, they sent her in Bangladesh<br />
by a flight of Saudi Arabia.<br />
As soon as Champa landed at<br />
Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport,<br />
Dhaka, Mobarak received her<br />
according to the direction of the<br />
police. Later, police took custody<br />
of Champa at Mawna intersection.<br />
Family of Champa sensed her<br />
danger after a phone call.<br />
Recently, Al Amin, brother of<br />
Champa, phoned her and heard a<br />
shout which was saying: “Bhaiya<br />
[brother] please, save me.”<br />
Then, Champa’s family went to<br />
police and informed them about the<br />
matter. Although police arrested<br />
Mobarak on November 28, but later<br />
freed him for unknown reason.<br />
After the publication of the a<br />
report in the Dhaka Tribune, law<br />
enforcers became active and managed<br />
to rescue Champa.<br />
Accoring to family, Mobarak<br />
Hossain, 45, a resident in Kapasia<br />
allured Champa offering a lucrative<br />
job in Saudi Arabia. He then demanded<br />
Tk70,000 from her.<br />
Then, Champa, a divorcee, gave<br />
him Tk40,000 in advance and requested<br />
Mobarak to take the rest<br />
amount of the money after she<br />
goes to Saudi Arabia.<br />
On September 29, she left Dhaka<br />
for Saudi Arabia. Before her departure,<br />
Mobarak took signature of<br />
Nabi, brother of Champa, in a white<br />
paper saying that the signature was<br />
needed for Champa’s job. •<br />
Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, Rajshahi unit organises a sit-in in front Rajshahi University yesterday protesting the authorities’ decision not to allow freedom fighters’<br />
grandchildren in the university admission test under government quota<br />
AZAHAR UDDIN<br />
Freedom fighter Azizar wins war, not poverty<br />
• Md Taieyb Ali Sarker,<br />
Nilphamari<br />
Like many remote villages across<br />
Bangladesh, residents of Bilashi<br />
village, Panchagarh stood against<br />
the brutality of Pakistani occupation<br />
forces and fought for the independence<br />
of their motherland<br />
during Liberation War in 1971.<br />
Though they were not so educated,<br />
the spirit of freedom in the country<br />
touched their heart and they<br />
joined war willingly risking lives.<br />
Azizar Rahman, son of Ahad Ali<br />
Prodhan, is one of them. He joined<br />
the war like other freedom fighters<br />
sacrificing happiness in the early<br />
stage of the war.<br />
He participated in the war which<br />
started under the leadership of<br />
Freedom Fighters’ Commander<br />
Alauddin Hawaladar in Tetulia,<br />
Bhozonpur, Jagdal, Islampur and<br />
Thukurbari under Sector 6.<br />
He became injured, as a bullet of<br />
the Pakistani army pierced his body.<br />
Though he could be able to recover<br />
from bullet injury, he cannot<br />
hear any sound clearly, as his ears<br />
got damaged. The area was freed<br />
on <strong>December</strong> 6, 1971.<br />
Like other freedom fighters, he<br />
got certificate as a freedom fighter<br />
from MAG Osmani, commander-in-chief<br />
of the Mukti Bahini during<br />
Liberation War.<br />
Though he got certificate defeating<br />
the Pakistani regime, he<br />
could not defeat the poverty. He<br />
had to sell all of his properties for<br />
poor financial condition.<br />
Now he is living on a piece of<br />
khas land near a canal in Domar<br />
under Nilphamari with his eight<br />
family members.<br />
The government published a<br />
new list of freedom fighters in<br />
2013, but Azizar was not there.<br />
Afterward, he went to door to<br />
door of authorities concerned to<br />
enlist his name in the new list. But<br />
he could not be listed that made<br />
him frustrated.<br />
“I have sacrificed all my personal<br />
comforts and pleasure for<br />
achieving independence of the<br />
country. But now I have to struggle<br />
to earn a piece of bread,” he said.<br />
“When the war began, I was<br />
only 20-year-old and my indomitable<br />
spirit and love for motherland<br />
made me fight against the Pakistani<br />
military. I want recognition<br />
Indian sent<br />
back thru<br />
Chuadanga<br />
border<br />
• Mehedi Hasan, Chuadanga<br />
The Border Guard Bangladesh<br />
handed over an Indian man, Shetab<br />
Ali, to Indian Border Security Force<br />
at border in Chuadanga yesterday.<br />
The border forces from both<br />
sides held a flag meeting in the<br />
presence of Darshana’s BGB commander<br />
and immigration official<br />
Sheikh Mahbubur Rahman and<br />
BSF’s commander SK Tara Datta<br />
when Shetab was handed over after<br />
almost two and a half years.<br />
Shetab is a resident of Fakirpara<br />
village under India’s Nadiya.<br />
Both BGB and police have<br />
confirmed that Shetab Ali has<br />
legally entered Bangladesh on<br />
June 15, 2014 through Joynagar<br />
check post. •<br />
as a freedom fighter,” he added.<br />
“A list of many people recently<br />
approved as freedom fighters eligible<br />
for pension and other benefits.<br />
But in spite of being a freedom<br />
fighter, I am deprived of all rights,”<br />
he also added.<br />
Domar Upazila Freedom Fighters’<br />
Commander Md Nurunnabi<br />
said many freedom fighters could<br />
not be enlisted in the new list for<br />
changing political party.<br />
The district unit Freedom Fighters’<br />
Commander said: “Azizar is<br />
gazetted freedom fighter. I hope he<br />
will be enrolled in the new list. •
News 7<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
3 Jubo League activists shot dead<br />
Families of the victims claim RAB personnel picked them up<br />
• Bipul Sarkar Sunny, Dinajpur<br />
and Kamal Mridha, Natore<br />
The bullet-riddled bodies of three<br />
suspected criminals, including the<br />
kingpin of Natore’s Sabbir Bahini,<br />
were found in Kolabaria area under<br />
Ghoraghat upazila of Dinajpur yesterday.<br />
However, Natore unit Jubo<br />
League, the youth front of the ruling<br />
party Awami League claimed that<br />
Redwan Ahmed Sabbir, 25, son of<br />
Sona Mia, Abdullah, 25, son of Lutfor<br />
Rahman Lopu and Sohel, 27, son<br />
of Kalo Miah, were it’s activists. All<br />
of them were the resident of Natore.<br />
Officer-in-Charge of Ghoraghat<br />
police station Nuruzzaman Chowdhury<br />
said: “On information from<br />
locals, a team of police went to the<br />
spot in Kolabaria area in the morning<br />
and recovered the bodies.”<br />
Later, police sent the bodies to<br />
Dinajpur Medical College Hospital<br />
morgue for autopsies.<br />
Hamidul Alam, superintendent of<br />
Dinajpur Police, said some miscreants<br />
allegedly picked the three young<br />
men up in a microbus on Saturday<br />
and went to an unknown place.<br />
A general diary was lodged with<br />
Natore Sadar police station in this<br />
connection, he said.<br />
Police suspected that miscreants<br />
might have killed them over<br />
previous enmity, said the SP.<br />
Dinajpur SP Hamidul Alam said:<br />
“They might have been killed by a<br />
rival group.”<br />
Meanwhile, the family members<br />
of the deceased confirmed the identities<br />
of the trio and claimed that they<br />
had been killed by RAB personnel.<br />
Rukhsana Begum, mother of<br />
Sabbir, said some people identifying<br />
themselves as RAB personnel<br />
picked her son up on Saturday.<br />
Since, he remained missing.<br />
She claimed that the people,<br />
who picked up Sabbir, also showed<br />
their identity cards to them.<br />
Families of Abdullah and Sohel<br />
also claimed that they were also<br />
picked up by the RAB.<br />
They said they had contacted<br />
with district unit Jubo League over<br />
the matter, but could not get any<br />
trace of the victims.<br />
Natore District unit Jubo League<br />
at a press briefing demanded exemplary<br />
punishment of those involved<br />
in the killing.<br />
Assistant Superintendent of Police<br />
and also Commander of RAB 5,<br />
Natore said any team of RAB in Natore,<br />
Baghmara and Rajshahi had<br />
not arrested the trio. •<br />
NCC candidates get electoral symbols<br />
• Tanveer Hossain,<br />
Narayanganj<br />
The Election Commission (EC) has<br />
allocated symbols to the mayoral<br />
candidates in upcoming Narayanganj<br />
City Corporation (NCC) election.<br />
Returning Officer Nuruzzaman<br />
Talukder distributed the symbols<br />
among the candidates at Narayanganj<br />
Club on Monday morning.<br />
Awami League-backed mayoral<br />
candidate Selina Hayat Ivy was<br />
given “boat” while BNP-backed<br />
Advocate Sakhawat Hossain Khan<br />
got “sheaf of paddy”.<br />
Islami Oikya Jote-backed Ezharul<br />
Islam was given “minaret”, Advocate<br />
Mahbubur Rahman Ismail<br />
of Bangladesh Biplobi Workers<br />
Party “spade” and, Islami Andolon-backed<br />
Masum Billah was given<br />
“hand fan”.<br />
Besides, LDP’s Kamal Pradhan<br />
got “umbrella”, Kalyan Party’s<br />
Rashed Ferdous got “wrist watch”.<br />
EC will distribute symbols<br />
among 156 councilor and 39 female<br />
councilor candidates till 5pm today.<br />
The NCC is set to hold its second<br />
mayoral election on <strong>December</strong> 22<br />
since gaining the city corporation<br />
status, with both ruling Awami<br />
League (AL) and its archrival BNP<br />
throwing their hats in the ring for<br />
Sabbir Abdullah Sohel<br />
Selina Hayat Ivy, the ruling Awami League mayoral candidate in upcoming Narayanganj City Corporation, is seen addressing a<br />
meeting held with the leaders at AL district office yesterday<br />
DHAKA TRIBUNE<br />
the race.<br />
Ivy to wipe out thugs from<br />
N’ganj if elected,<br />
Shakhawat hopes for a fair election<br />
Selina Hayat Ivy said the Prime<br />
Minister sanctioned her (Ivy)<br />
the symbol ‘boat’ realizing the<br />
pulse of the entire Narayanganj<br />
dwellers.<br />
She hoped that people of the<br />
city would go for ‘boat’ in the upcoming<br />
NCC polls on <strong>December</strong> 22.<br />
She said this while talking to<br />
journalists after receiving the symbol<br />
from the returning officer’s office<br />
at Narayanganj Club Limited<br />
yesterday morning.<br />
Ivy said: “My slogan for this<br />
election is “No fear no worry, the<br />
city will be peaceful’. There will be<br />
no thugs in Narayanganj.”<br />
Shakhawat Hossain Khan, the<br />
BNP-backed mayoral candidate<br />
for NCC polls, alleged that his<br />
counterpart was frequently<br />
violating the electoral code of<br />
conduct.<br />
After receiving his electoral<br />
symbol ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ from the<br />
returning officer’s office he said<br />
existing city corporation officials<br />
were campaigning for Ivy and<br />
which is a clear violation of electoral<br />
system.<br />
Nevertheless, he said he would<br />
rely on the election commission<br />
as well as on government to experience<br />
a fair election unlike the<br />
previous elections held under this<br />
commission.<br />
“If people can cast their vote<br />
fairly on <strong>December</strong> 22, they will<br />
lead ‘ Sheaf of Paddy’ to an overwhelming<br />
victory, he added. •<br />
Shortage of<br />
executive<br />
magistrate<br />
hinders market<br />
monitoring<br />
• Anwar Hussain, Chittagong<br />
Chittagong district administration<br />
is failing to conduct regular market<br />
monitoring drives for checking<br />
price hike of essentials and food<br />
adulteration in the port city due to<br />
inadequate number of executive<br />
magistrates.<br />
According to Chittagong district<br />
administration sources said now<br />
only six executive magistrates are<br />
struggling with their regular duties<br />
while others 14 magistrates are receiving<br />
training.<br />
Though authorities are suffering<br />
from shortage of executive magistrates,<br />
consumer rights activists<br />
in the port city demanded regular<br />
monitoring over the market to keep<br />
prices of essentials under control<br />
and to check food adulteration.<br />
On demands of activists, Md<br />
Shamsul Arefin, deputy commissioner<br />
of Chittagong, at a seminar<br />
held on October 25 on Consumers’<br />
Right Protection, assured city dwellers<br />
that the market monitoring drives<br />
would be intensified further.<br />
During a recent visit to different<br />
kitchen markets of the city, magistrates<br />
found that very few grocers<br />
were displaying mandatory price<br />
chart. On the other hand, a few<br />
number displayed their price chart<br />
at the corner far from the sight of<br />
the buyers.<br />
During the drive, the executive<br />
magistrates visited to 22 kitchen<br />
markets in the city and verbally<br />
warned the traders to display the<br />
price charts and preserve all purchase<br />
documents.<br />
As per the Consumers’ Right<br />
Protection Act-2009, if any person<br />
violates any obligation, imposed by<br />
any Act or rules, of displaying the<br />
price-list of goods by affixing it at<br />
a conspicuous place of his shop or<br />
organisation, he shall be punished<br />
with imprisonment for a term not<br />
exceeding one year, or with fine<br />
not exceeding Tk 50,000, or both.<br />
Venting his displeasure, SM Nazer<br />
Hossain, vice president of the<br />
CAB said that the market monitoring<br />
should continue on a regular basis.<br />
The rights activist suggested<br />
that as the local administration<br />
struggles with so many works<br />
Consumer Rights Protection Department<br />
and Bangladesh Standards<br />
and Testing Institution (BSTI)<br />
should play an important and enhance<br />
their activities.<br />
Masuqur Rahman, additional<br />
deputy commissioner (General) of<br />
Chittagong said: “We are conducting<br />
drives on a regular basis despite<br />
facing acute shortage of executive<br />
magistrates.” •
DT<br />
8<br />
World<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
SOUTH ASIA<br />
12 dead, 75 injured in<br />
Pakistan hotel fire<br />
A fire at a luxury hotel in the Pakistani<br />
city of Karachi killed at least<br />
12 people on Monday and injuring<br />
dozens, media reported. The blaze<br />
broke out in a ground floor kitchen<br />
of the Regent Plaza hotel and<br />
trapped guests in upper floors. At<br />
least 75 people were injured, citing<br />
a senior doctor at the city’s biggest<br />
hospital. REUTERS<br />
INDIA<br />
Modi wins readers’ poll for<br />
Time’s Person of the Year<br />
Indian Prime Minister Narendra<br />
Modi won an online poll of readers<br />
for Time magazine’s ‘Person of the<br />
Year’ in <strong>2016</strong>. Modi won with 18%<br />
of the vote when the poll closed<br />
Sunday at midnight. He placed well<br />
ahead of his closest contenders,<br />
including US President Barack<br />
Obama, US President-elect Donald<br />
Trump and Wikileaks founder<br />
Julian Assange. TOI<br />
CHINA<br />
China urges India not to<br />
complicate border dispute<br />
China called on India on Monday not<br />
to do anything to complicate their<br />
border dispute after a senior exiled<br />
Tibetan religious leader visited a<br />
sensitive border region controlled<br />
by India but claimed by China. The<br />
Karmapa Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s<br />
third-most-senior figure who fled<br />
into exile in India in 2000, last week<br />
went to Tawang in the Indian state<br />
of Arunachal Pradesh. REUTERS<br />
ASIA PACIFIC<br />
Australia to charge power<br />
generators for pollution<br />
Australia will consider making<br />
electrical power companies pay for<br />
greenhouse gas pollution they create,<br />
three years after the government<br />
scrapped the national carbon tax, a<br />
Cabinet minister said Monday. The<br />
conservative government rejected all<br />
polluter-pays options in 2014 when<br />
it repealed Australia’s 3-year-old<br />
carbon tax levied against the nation’s<br />
biggest industrial polluters. AP<br />
MIDDLE EAST<br />
Islamic State announces<br />
new spokesman<br />
IS identified a new media spokesman<br />
for the group for the first time<br />
on Monday in an audio message<br />
released online. The recording<br />
appeared on Al Furqan, a media<br />
organisation linked to IS, giving<br />
the new spokesman’s name as<br />
Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer. The US<br />
confirmed in September that IS’s<br />
previous spokesman, Abu Mohammad<br />
al-Adnani, had been killed on<br />
August 30 in Syria. REUTERS<br />
Supporters on edge as Tamil Nadu<br />
CM Jayalalithaa on life support<br />
• Reuters, Chennai<br />
The life of the leader of the Indian<br />
state of Tamil Nadu hung in the<br />
balance on Monday after she went<br />
into cardiac arrest, drawing large<br />
crowds to the hospital where doctors<br />
were fighting to save the hugely<br />
popular former actress.<br />
Jayalalithaa Jayaraman went<br />
into cardiac arrest on Sunday<br />
night, the Apollo Hospital in the<br />
state capital Chennai said, her condition<br />
deteriorating sharply after<br />
her admission with a severe respiratory<br />
ailment in September.<br />
On Monday, the hospital said<br />
she remained critical and on life<br />
support systems as authorities in<br />
the southern state increased security<br />
around Chennai to prevent her<br />
worried supporters from creating<br />
public disorder.<br />
Popularly known as “Amma”,<br />
or “Mother” in the Tamil language,<br />
the 68-year-old was introduced to<br />
politics by her cinema screen partner,<br />
MG Ramachandran, another<br />
actor-turned politician, and went<br />
on to serve as chief minister of Tamil<br />
Nadu five times.<br />
Jayalalithaa remains hugely<br />
popular despite being jailed more<br />
than once for corruption.<br />
The reclusive leader has run her<br />
party with an iron hand with no<br />
clear line of succession to govern<br />
a state that is home to major auto<br />
and IT outsourcing firms.<br />
During her latest illness, her<br />
picture was put in a chair at the<br />
head of the table at state cabinet<br />
meetings.<br />
About 2,000 policemen were<br />
deployed around the hospital in<br />
case emotional crowds of devoted<br />
supporters reacted strongly to<br />
further developments. Supporters<br />
have been known to commit suicide<br />
in reaction to bad news.<br />
“Nothing can kill Amma,” said<br />
one man holding a picture of the<br />
leader outside the hospital.<br />
C R Saraswathi, a spokesman of<br />
her AIADMK party, said the chief<br />
minister was doing well, even<br />
though the hospital said she was<br />
on life support.<br />
Her ministers have on occasions<br />
been seen to prostrate themselves<br />
at her feet.<br />
O P Panneerselvam, a cabinet<br />
colleague, has stood in for Jayalalithaa<br />
in the past, but he has<br />
repeatedly made it clear he is not<br />
replacing her and pointedly refused<br />
to sit in her chair at cabinet<br />
meetings.<br />
“There is no second line of defence<br />
here, and these are emotive<br />
times. There is a chance of violence,”<br />
said T R Ramachandran,<br />
an independent expert on Tamil<br />
Nadu politics. •<br />
FACTBOX<br />
Can UK’s EU divorce be reversed once it’s triggered?<br />
• Tribune International Desk<br />
Britain’s Supreme Court began hearing<br />
a landmark case Monday that will decide<br />
who has the power to trigger the<br />
UK’s exit from the European Union —<br />
the government or Parliament.<br />
British government lawyers have<br />
argued that once the formal divorce<br />
talks on leaving the European Union<br />
are triggered there is no going back,<br />
but EU leaders have suggested Britain<br />
could still change its mind.<br />
So who is right? The answer could<br />
have a significant impact on the course<br />
of Brexit and a court case being heard<br />
by the Supreme Court on Monday.<br />
Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly<br />
said that “Brexit means Brexit”<br />
and that Britain will invoke Article 50<br />
of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty by the end of<br />
March.<br />
But Article 50 does not say whether<br />
it can be revoked once it is invoked and<br />
the lack of clarity means that if lawyers<br />
ask for clarification the question would<br />
Supporters hold a photograph of Tamil Nadu state leader Jayalalithaa Jayaram as they offer prayers for her well being at a<br />
temple in Mumbai on <strong>December</strong> 5<br />
AFP<br />
have to go to the Luxembourg-based<br />
European Court of Justice, the EU’s<br />
highest court.<br />
What does Britain say?<br />
Attorney General Jeremy Wright, the British<br />
government’s top lawyer, told the High<br />
Court on October 17: “We do not argue<br />
that an Article 50 notice can be revoked.<br />
“We invite the court to proceed in this<br />
case on the basis that a notification under<br />
Article 50 (2) is irrevocable,” he said.<br />
Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokeswoman<br />
said the case is about constitutional<br />
law in the United Kingdom and not<br />
about a dispute over EU law so it will be<br />
decided in the Supreme Court.<br />
On November 30, May’s spokeswoman<br />
said it would not go to the European<br />
Court of Justice: “It’s not within<br />
scope, it’s not an issue for the European<br />
Court to rule on.”<br />
What does the EU say?<br />
European Council President Donald Tusk<br />
has said that Britain might ultimately decide<br />
not to leave the European Union as<br />
the EU will not offer London softer terms<br />
than a damaging hard Brexit.<br />
Tusk said his legal view was that if<br />
Britain unilaterally withdrew its request<br />
to leave before the two years were up,<br />
then it could stay in the Union.<br />
Tusk said he had not found any national<br />
leader who wanted Britain to quit<br />
and so London would find a welcome if<br />
it changed its mind. “If we have a chance<br />
to reverse this negative process, we will<br />
find allies,” he said. “I have no doubt.”<br />
The man who helped draft Article<br />
50, John Kerr, a former British ambassador<br />
to the EU, said that Britain could<br />
still change is mind.<br />
What do the lawyers say?<br />
In England’s High Court, lawyers for a<br />
group of claimants who challenged the<br />
government to allow parliament to decide<br />
when and how to trigger Article 50<br />
said that it was irrevocable. The government’s<br />
lawyers agreed. Lawyers for<br />
both sides asked the court to assume<br />
that it was irrevocable.<br />
In its final judgement, the High<br />
Court’s judges said that once notice of<br />
leaving was given then it will “inevitably<br />
result in the complete withdrawal<br />
of the United Kingdom”.<br />
Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing,<br />
lawyers for both sides have argued<br />
that Article 50 is irreversible and both<br />
sides said it was irrelevant to the outcome<br />
of the case.<br />
Government lawyers argue in their<br />
summary that once Article 50 is given,<br />
the UK will eventually withdraw from<br />
the EU. They note that it was common<br />
ground between the parties that Article<br />
50 is irrevocable and cannot be<br />
given conditionally.<br />
Other lawyers have argued that<br />
once the notification under Article 50<br />
of the EU treaty is made, it can be rescinded<br />
and that the European Court<br />
of Justice could be consulted by the Supreme<br />
Court if there is uncertainty. •<br />
Source: REUTERS
World<br />
North Dakota pipeline protesters<br />
vow to stay despite victory<br />
• Tribune International Desk<br />
Protesters celebrated a major victory<br />
in their push to reroute the<br />
Dakota Access oil pipeline away<br />
from a tribal water source but<br />
pledged to remain camped on federal<br />
land in North Dakota anyway,<br />
despite Monday’s government<br />
deadline to leave.<br />
Hundreds of people at the<br />
Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council<br />
Fires, encampment cheered and<br />
chanted “mni wichoni” — “water<br />
is life” in Lakota Sioux — after the<br />
Army Corps of Engineers refused<br />
Sunday to grant the company permission<br />
to extend the pipeline beneath<br />
a Missouri River reservoir.<br />
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe<br />
and its supporters argue that extending<br />
the project beneath Lake<br />
Oahe would threaten the tribe’s<br />
water source and cultural sites.<br />
The segment is the last major<br />
sticking point for the four-state,<br />
$3.8bn project.<br />
The decision came after<br />
months of protests from Native<br />
Americans and climate activists,<br />
who argued that the 1,885-km Dakota<br />
Access Pipeline would damage<br />
sacred lands and could contaminate<br />
the tribe’s water source.<br />
The mood has been upbeat<br />
since the rejection was announced<br />
on Sunday afternoon at the Oceti<br />
Sakowin camp in Cannon Ball,<br />
North Dakota. Activists were seen<br />
hugging and letting out war cries<br />
in response to the news.<br />
Still, with the incoming administration<br />
of President-elect Donald<br />
Trump supportive of the project,<br />
activists worried a reversal of the<br />
decision could be in the offing.<br />
The pipeline, owned by Texas-based<br />
Energy Transfer Partners<br />
LP, is complete except for a onemile<br />
segment to run under Lake<br />
Oahe. That stretch required an<br />
easement from federal authorities.<br />
The US Army Corps of Engineers<br />
said it will analyse possible<br />
alternate routes, although any<br />
other route is also likely to cross<br />
the Missouri River.<br />
Fight may be a ‘long haul’<br />
Standing Rock Chairman Dave<br />
Archambault II, in a statement,<br />
said he hoped Energy Transfer<br />
Partners (ETP), North Dakota Governor<br />
Jack Dalrymple and Trump<br />
would respect the decision.<br />
“When it comes to infrastructure<br />
development in Indian<br />
Country and with respect to treaty<br />
lands, we must strive to work<br />
together to reach decisions that<br />
reflect the multifaceted considerations<br />
of tribes,” he said.<br />
In November, ETP moved equipment<br />
to the edge of the Missouri<br />
River to prepare for drilling, and later<br />
asked a federal court to disregard<br />
the Army Corps, and declare that<br />
the company could finish the line.<br />
That ruling is still pending.<br />
Several veterans recently arrived<br />
in camp told Reuters they thought<br />
Sunday’s decision, which came just<br />
as Oceti Sakowin has seen an influx<br />
of service members, was a tactic to<br />
convince protesters to leave. •<br />
Trump names former rival Carson as housing secretary<br />
• AFP, Washington, DC<br />
US President-elect Donald Trump<br />
on Monday chose Ben Carson, the<br />
mild-mannered retired neurosurgeon<br />
who challenged him for the<br />
Republican nomination, to turn<br />
around troubled US inner cities<br />
as secretary of housing and urban<br />
development.<br />
Carson, an African American<br />
who is a religious conservative,<br />
has no background in housing<br />
policy but has cited his poor childhood<br />
in Detroit as a qualification<br />
for the job.<br />
He is the first black selected by<br />
Trump for his team.<br />
“Ben Carson has a brilliant<br />
mind and is passionate about<br />
strengthening communities and<br />
families within those communities,”<br />
Trump said in a statement.<br />
“We have talked at length about<br />
my urban renewal agenda and our<br />
message of economic revival, very<br />
much including our inner cities.”<br />
Carson said: “I feel that I can<br />
make a significant contribution<br />
People celebrate in Oceti Sakowin camp as ‘water protectors’ continue to demonstrate against plans to pass the Dakota<br />
Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota on <strong>December</strong> 4 REUTERS<br />
particularly by strengthening communities<br />
that are most in need.<br />
“We have much work to do in<br />
enhancing every aspect of our nation<br />
and ensuring that our nation’s<br />
housing needs are met.”<br />
“I grew up in the inner city,”<br />
Carson told Fox News last month.<br />
“And have spent a lot of time<br />
there. And have dealt with a lot of<br />
patients from that area.”<br />
Carson briefly led the Republican<br />
presidential pack during the<br />
primaries, offering voters an unruffled,<br />
slow-talking persona that<br />
contrasted sharply with high-decibel<br />
slugfest around him.<br />
His bid, which initially gained<br />
support among Christian conservatives,<br />
ultimately fizzled as<br />
he stumbled presenting concrete<br />
policies and answering questions<br />
about key issues.<br />
The Seventh Day Adventist<br />
had presented himself as an alternative<br />
to the bombastic Trump,<br />
preaching tolerance and compromise<br />
but sometimes unleashing<br />
blunt rhetoric. These included<br />
This file photo taken on March 11, <strong>2016</strong> shows Donald Trump shaking hands with<br />
former presidential candidate Ben Carson in Palm Beach, Florida<br />
AFP<br />
many references to Nazi Germany,<br />
such as his suggestion that Jews<br />
would have fared better in the<br />
Holocaust had they been armed.<br />
Trump mercilessly mocked<br />
him on the campaign trail, accusing<br />
Carson of having a “pathological”<br />
temper.<br />
Carson nevertheless endorsed<br />
the real estate billionaire after<br />
withdrawing from the race in<br />
March, describing his former rival<br />
as “a very intelligent man who<br />
cares deeply about America.”<br />
He took Trump on a neighbourhood<br />
tour of his Detroit<br />
hometown in September at a<br />
time when the nominee was<br />
looking to boost his image with<br />
African-American voters.<br />
And he came to Trump’s defence<br />
following the release of<br />
a 2005 audiotape in which he<br />
bragged about groping women. •<br />
9<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
USA<br />
Death toll in Oakland<br />
warehouse fire rises to 36<br />
The death toll from a fire at a<br />
California warehouse crowded<br />
with dance party revelers rose<br />
to 36 Monday as fire officials<br />
announced they had suspended<br />
work because the structure was at<br />
risk of collapsing. Alameda County<br />
Deputy Sheriff Tya Modeste said<br />
11 of the 36 bodies recovered so far<br />
at the site in Oakland have been<br />
positively identified. Previously,<br />
the toll had stood at 33. AFP<br />
THE AMERICAS<br />
Jailed Venezuela<br />
dissidents launch hunger<br />
strike<br />
Jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders<br />
have launched a hunger strike<br />
to demand the government release<br />
political prisoners and allow a vote<br />
to settle the country’s economic<br />
and political crisis. The 14 prisoners<br />
accused President Nicolas<br />
Maduro’s socialist government of<br />
breaking promises made during<br />
fragile Vatican-backed negotiations<br />
with the opposition. AFP<br />
UK<br />
UK moves to change WTO<br />
terms after Brexit vote<br />
Britain is beginning work on becoming<br />
an independent member of the<br />
World Trade Organisation (WTO)<br />
after Brexit, using the EU’s current<br />
terms as the template, International<br />
Trade Secretary Liam Fox said Monday.<br />
Britain is currently represented<br />
in the 164-member body through<br />
its membership of the European<br />
Union, but when it leaves the bloc it<br />
will need to establish its own terms,<br />
or schedules. AFP<br />
EUROPE<br />
Greek unions call general<br />
strike<br />
Greece’s biggest labour unions have<br />
called a general strike for Thursday,<br />
to protest further tax hikes and<br />
labour reforms demanded by the<br />
country’s bailout creditors. Ferry<br />
crews have also extended for another<br />
two days a four-day walkout over<br />
planned tax hikes and pension cuts.<br />
Greece has implemented waves<br />
of spending cuts, tax hikes and<br />
reforms at the behest of its bailout<br />
creditors since 2010. REUTERS<br />
AFRICA<br />
Clashes in DR Congo leave<br />
23 dead<br />
23 people died in weekend clashes<br />
in DR Congo’s central Tshikapa<br />
region between police and local<br />
militia, the deputy governor of Kasai<br />
province said Monday. Fighting<br />
from Friday to Sunday between<br />
police and troops and members of<br />
a local militia left 13 dead and 14<br />
injured among security forces and<br />
killed 10 militia fighters. AFP
10<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
World<br />
ANALYSIS<br />
Europe suffers Italian blow but<br />
bigger tests loom<br />
• Reuters, Berlin<br />
The resounding “no” from Italian<br />
voters to Prime Minister Matteo<br />
Renzi’s referendum on constitutional<br />
reform was not a rejection of<br />
the European Union and its single<br />
currency, as jubilant populists from<br />
across the bloc claimed on Monday.<br />
But the vote, which pushes Renzi<br />
out of office, does represent a significant<br />
setback for Europe at a time<br />
when its leaders are scrambling to<br />
mount a credible response to Brexit,<br />
the election of Donald Trump in<br />
the United States and their stubborn<br />
economic woes at home.<br />
In one fell swoop, it adds another<br />
country to the list of EU members<br />
that are likely to be pre-occupied by<br />
domestic politics in 2017, a year in<br />
which the Dutch, French, Germans,<br />
and possibly the British, will go to<br />
the polls.<br />
And it sends a warning to other<br />
European reformers like Francois<br />
Fillon, the conservative frontrunner<br />
for the French presidency, who<br />
has promised no less than five referendums<br />
to push through his domestic<br />
agenda if he is elected next<br />
spring.<br />
More immediately, despite the<br />
relatively calm reaction of financial<br />
markets on Monday, the vote<br />
will deepen concerns about Italy’s<br />
Austrians’ pro-EU views scupper far-right bid for presidency<br />
• Reuters, Vienna<br />
Austrians’ desire to stay anchored<br />
in the European Union outweighed<br />
concerns over immigration and security<br />
and helped former Greens<br />
leader Alexander Van der Bellen defeat<br />
his far-right rival Norbert Hofer<br />
in Sunday’s presidential election.<br />
Van der Bellen, whose win<br />
bucks a trend of populist victories<br />
across Western democracies, had<br />
put Britain’s decision to leave the<br />
EU at the centre of his own campaign,<br />
warning voters not to “play<br />
with this fire”.<br />
“I will be a pro-European president<br />
of Austria open to the world,”<br />
Van der Bellen, 72, said in his victory<br />
speech.<br />
Hofer, whose Freedom Party<br />
(FPO) is anti-immigrant and eurosceptic,<br />
had suggested at one<br />
point in the campaign that Austrians<br />
could vote within months on<br />
whether to follow Britain out of<br />
the EU, though he later rowed back<br />
from the comments.<br />
Austria’s economy is closely<br />
integrated with the rest of the<br />
EU, the destination last year of<br />
under-funded banking sector and<br />
the economic prospects of the euro<br />
zone’s third biggest member state.<br />
That, in turn, could complicate<br />
the calculus for the European Central<br />
Bank, which meets on Thursday<br />
to decide on the future of its controversial<br />
bond purchase programme.<br />
Brexit parallel<br />
Renzi, seen by his European partners<br />
as an anchor of stability in a<br />
country where political upheaval<br />
has been the norm for decades,<br />
won just over 40% of the vote in the<br />
referendum, a far worse result than<br />
polls had predicted.<br />
His defeat comes only days after<br />
deeply unpopular French President<br />
Francois Hollande, also a leftist,<br />
bowed to political realities and announced<br />
he would not seek a second<br />
term.<br />
Renzi’s departure could lead to<br />
early elections in Italy next year. It<br />
increases the risks of the anti-euro<br />
5-Star Movement gaining power,<br />
although the prospect of that remains<br />
slim.<br />
“The Italians rejected Renzi and<br />
the EU,” Marine Le Pen of France’s<br />
far-right National Front said on<br />
Twitter.<br />
“This vote looks to me to be more<br />
about the euro than constitutional<br />
change,” added Nigel Farage of the<br />
ALEXANDER VAN DER BELLEN<br />
Wins Austria’s presidential election<br />
Aged 72<br />
1944<br />
Born in Vienna after his parents<br />
fled Stalinism<br />
1980s<br />
Economics professor. Enters<br />
politics, joining the Social<br />
Democrats then the Greens<br />
1997-2008<br />
Green Party leader<br />
2012<br />
Resigns from party leadership<br />
April <strong>2016</strong><br />
Independent candidate for the<br />
presidency. Wins 21% of votes<br />
in 1 st round<br />
May <strong>2016</strong><br />
Wins 2 nd round against far-right<br />
candidate by just 30,000 votes.<br />
Dec 4, <strong>2016</strong><br />
2 nd -round rerun.<br />
Emerges victorious against Norbert<br />
Hofer of the hardline Freedom Party<br />
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi gestures during a media conference after the<br />
referendum at Chigi palace in Rome on <strong>December</strong> 5<br />
REUTERS<br />
UK Independence Party (UKIP).<br />
But unlike Britain, polls show<br />
that a solid majority of Italian voters<br />
are in favour of both the EU and<br />
the euro. They were encouraged to<br />
vote “no” by all of the major parties<br />
in Italy outside of Renzi’s Partito<br />
Democratico (PD).<br />
Crunch time<br />
That won’t cushion the impact for<br />
Europe, whose leaders have promised<br />
to unveil their post-Brexit vision<br />
for the EU in the Italian capital<br />
next March, the 60th anniversary<br />
of the bloc’s founding Rome treaty.<br />
Who will host that summit is now<br />
an open question.<br />
The same month, Dutch voters<br />
will go to the polls and British Prime<br />
Minister Theresa May is expected to<br />
invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty,<br />
triggering a tight two-year countdown<br />
to Brexit – a timeline made all<br />
the more challenging by Europe’s<br />
heavy election calendar. •<br />
about 70 percent of its exports,<br />
worth some €91bn.<br />
“Austria, as a small and open<br />
economy, profits more than average<br />
from free trade and its integration<br />
into the European market,” said<br />
Georg Kapsch, head of Austria’s<br />
Chamber of Industry, when congratulating<br />
Van der Bellen on his<br />
victory.<br />
A SORA survey published shortly<br />
after Britain’s vote to leave the EU in<br />
June showed about 70% of Austrians<br />
would have voted to “remain” in<br />
the bloc, which it joined in 1994.<br />
Two-thirds of Van der Bellen’s<br />
Italy’s 5-Star party<br />
ready to govern<br />
• Reuters, Rome<br />
Italy’s opposition 5-Star Movement,<br />
which wants to pull the nation out<br />
of the euro, declared itself ready for<br />
government on Monday after Prime<br />
Minister Matteo Renzi suffered a big<br />
defeat in a constitutional referendum<br />
and said he would resign.<br />
“Democracy has won,” the movement’s<br />
founder, Beppe Grillo, wrote<br />
on his blog after partial vote results<br />
suggested Renzi’s proposal to reshape<br />
Italian democracy had been<br />
defeated by as much as 20 points in<br />
an exceptionally high turnout.<br />
5-Star campaigned hard for the<br />
‘No’ vote which prevailed in Sunday’s<br />
referendum by a far bigger<br />
margin than polls predicted.<br />
Grillo called for immediate elections<br />
and said that from next week<br />
the party would begin putting together<br />
a policy platform and a cabinet<br />
team so that Italians would have<br />
all the information they needed to<br />
put the party into power.<br />
That prospect would raise concern<br />
among Europe’s mainstream<br />
politicians and financial markets,<br />
who fear the maverick party’s inexperience<br />
and its proposal to hold a<br />
referendum on Italy’s membership<br />
of the euro currency.<br />
5-Star is running neck-and-neck<br />
with Renzi’s Democratic Party, according<br />
to opinion polls, and would<br />
be a clear favourite to win a national<br />
election under the two-round electoral<br />
system pushed through by<br />
Renzi last year. •<br />
Austrian presidential candidate Alexander Van der Bellen reacts at an election party in Vienna on <strong>December</strong> 4<br />
REUTERS<br />
supporters backed him because<br />
they thought he would represent<br />
them best abroad and because he<br />
supports the EU, a SORA survey<br />
conducted on <strong>December</strong> 1-4 found.<br />
This compared with 36% of Hofer<br />
voters who saw their man as a good<br />
representative abroad, SORA said. •
World<br />
11<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
US ELECTION<br />
Focus of recount effort shifts to Michigan, Pennsylvania<br />
• Tribune International Desk<br />
Presidential candidate Jill Stein’s<br />
fight to force ballot recounts in<br />
three states focuses Monday on<br />
Pennsylvania, where her Green<br />
Party is seeking an emergency<br />
federal court order for a statewide<br />
recount, and Michigan, where a<br />
federal judge has ordered a hand<br />
recount to begin, reports the Associated<br />
Press.<br />
The recount is underway in Wisconsin.<br />
President-elect Donald Trump<br />
narrowly defeated Democratic candidate<br />
Hillary Clinton in all three<br />
states. The recounts were not expected<br />
to change enough votes to<br />
overturn the result of the election.<br />
Stein says her intent is to verify<br />
the accuracy of the vote. She has<br />
suggested, with no evidence, that<br />
votes cast were susceptible to computer<br />
hacking.<br />
She has also scheduled a rally<br />
and news conference for Monday<br />
morning outside Trump Tower in<br />
New York.<br />
Here’s what’s going on in each<br />
state and in Nevada, where a partial<br />
recount of the race was requested<br />
by independent presidential candidate<br />
Roque De La Fuente:<br />
Wisconsin<br />
The recount began Thursday and<br />
continued over the weekend, with<br />
little change so far in the unofficial<br />
results as reported on election<br />
night. A federal lawsuit was filed<br />
late last week by a Trump voter and<br />
two super PACs seeking to stop the<br />
recount.<br />
The judge rejected a request<br />
to halt the recount while the lawsuit<br />
is pending and scheduled a<br />
hearing for Friday. State and local<br />
election officials have all said<br />
they don’t expect Clinton to surpass<br />
Trump in Wisconsin, where<br />
he won by about 22,000 votes.<br />
Michigan<br />
A federal judge late Sunday night<br />
in Detroit ordered a statewide hand<br />
recount of roughly 4.8m ballots to<br />
start by noon Monday. Trump won<br />
the state by about 10,700 votes, or<br />
two-tenths of a percentage point,<br />
over Clinton.<br />
Stein argued that a law is unconstitutional<br />
that requires a break of<br />
at least two business days after the<br />
Board of Canvassers’ final action<br />
on a recount request. Judge Mark<br />
Goldsmith found that Stein had<br />
“shown the likelihood of irreparable<br />
harm” if the count was delayed<br />
even by two days and rejected the<br />
state’s arguments about the cost to<br />
taxpayers.<br />
Trump defeated Clinton by<br />
10,704 votes, or two-tenths of a percentage<br />
point, in Michigan. Stein<br />
received about 1 percent of the vote.<br />
Republican Attorney General Bill<br />
Schuette, the Trump campaign and<br />
super PACs have filed separate lawsuits<br />
asking state courts to prevent<br />
the recount, arguing that Stein, as<br />
the fourth-place finisher, is not “aggrieved”<br />
because she has no chance<br />
of winning in a recount.<br />
Pennsylvania<br />
The Green Party said Saturday it will<br />
seek help in federal court to force a<br />
statewide recount — a move that<br />
came hours after the party dropped<br />
a case set to be argued Monday<br />
in state courts. An updated count<br />
Friday by state election officials<br />
showed Trump’s lead shrinking to<br />
49,000 from 71,000 over Clinton,<br />
out of 6 million votes cast, as more<br />
counties finish counting overseas<br />
ballots and settled provisional ballot<br />
challenges. That is still shy of<br />
Pennsylvania’s 0.5% trigger for an<br />
automatic statewide recount. Stein<br />
drew less than 1 percent of the votes<br />
cast. Final counts are outstanding<br />
in some counties, but there are not<br />
enough uncounted votes to change<br />
the outcome, officials say. •<br />
Ballots from the <strong>2016</strong> US presidential election are recounted in Madison, Wisconsin<br />
REUTERS
DT<br />
12<br />
Business<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
CAPITAL MARKET SNAPSHOT: MONDAY<br />
DSE Broad Index 4,836.3 0.3% ▲ Index 1,151.6 0.2% ▲ 30 Index 1,784.4 0.1% ▲ Turnover in Mn Tk 8,077.9 10.1% ▲ Turnover in Mn Vol 269.8 18.6% ▲<br />
CSE All Share Index 14,899.7 0.3% ▲ 30 Index 13,284.6 0.0% ▲ Selected Index 9,056.2 0.3% ▲ Turnover in Mn Tk 490.6 10.1% ▲ Turnover in Mn Vol 20.0 21.1% ▲<br />
Rooppur Plant’s main phase proposal<br />
to be placed at Ecnec today<br />
• Asif Showkat Kallol<br />
Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant construction<br />
(main phase) proposal<br />
will be placed at the Executive<br />
Committee of the National Economic<br />
Council (Ecnec) meeting today<br />
for approval, said officials.<br />
Approval will be required to get<br />
Russian fund to implement the<br />
project at a cost of Tk1,13,092.91<br />
crore. The Ministry of Science and<br />
Technology will place the proposal.<br />
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina<br />
will preside over the meeting.<br />
Science and technology ministry<br />
officials said after approval of<br />
the project by Ecnec, the government<br />
is expected to receive $500m<br />
from Russian joint-stock company<br />
Atomstroyexport as export credit.<br />
Bangladesh government will<br />
have to pay 10% advance which is<br />
equal to Tk800 crore before getting<br />
credit, officials, however, said.<br />
The project work already got<br />
underway and is expected to end<br />
in <strong>December</strong>, 2025. This is being set<br />
up at Rooppur in Ishwardi, Pabna.<br />
The project work includes land<br />
acquisition, construction of office<br />
buildings, school, college, dormitory,<br />
hospital, shopping mall, football<br />
stadium, swimming pool, fire<br />
service station and laboratory.<br />
The total workforce of the project<br />
will be 2,199. A number of 106<br />
vehicles will be required, according<br />
to the proposal.<br />
According to the summary of<br />
the conditions, the main phase<br />
of the plant needs to be approved<br />
from the Planning Commission<br />
within next one month and authorities<br />
concerned will be responsible<br />
Dhaka, Budapest to exchange<br />
business delegates in 4 months<br />
• Tribune Business Desk<br />
Bangladesh and Hungary will exchange<br />
visits by high-level business<br />
delegations within four months to<br />
find out trade and investment opportunities<br />
between the two countries<br />
as a sequel to Prime Minister<br />
Sheikh Hasina’s tour to Budapest,<br />
BSS reports.<br />
“A high-level buying and investment<br />
business delegation from<br />
Bangladesh will go to Hungary within<br />
three months and a Hungarian<br />
business delegation will visit Bangladesh<br />
within four months,” said<br />
Federation of Bangladesh Chambers<br />
of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI)<br />
President Abdul Matlub Ahmad.<br />
Matlub also expected that the<br />
Hungarian prime minister would visit<br />
Bangladesh with a business delegation<br />
as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina<br />
invited him to visit Bangladesh for<br />
further strengthening of friendly relations<br />
between the two countries.<br />
“We can find out potential sectors<br />
to go for joint venture investment,”<br />
he added.<br />
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,<br />
accompanied by LGRD and Cooperatives<br />
Minister Khandkar Mosharraf<br />
Hossain, Water Resources Minister<br />
Anisul Islam Mahmud and a<br />
high-level business delegation, visited<br />
Hungary from November 27 to 30.<br />
Terming Hungary the new horizon<br />
of potentials for the country,<br />
Matlub said during the visit Hungary<br />
proposed Bangladesh for export<br />
of its products by opening a warehouse<br />
there as Hungary has border<br />
with seven countries.<br />
“Bangladesh can easily take the<br />
opportunities as Hungary has border<br />
with Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania,<br />
Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and<br />
Austria,” he added.<br />
Mentioning the 15-20 million<br />
dollar business relations between<br />
the two countries as insufficient,<br />
the apex trade body chief said:<br />
“Our trade volume is low as we did<br />
never go to Hungary. We cordially<br />
thank Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina<br />
for taking us (businessmen) to<br />
Hungary for the first time.”<br />
Matlub said the two countries<br />
signed three memorandums of understanding<br />
in presence of the Bangladesh<br />
and Hungarian premiers.<br />
“We can establish relations<br />
with Hungary in various sectors,”<br />
he said, adding that Bangladesh<br />
and Hungary have agreed to work<br />
on new areas, including water resource<br />
management, agriculture<br />
apart from environment for expansion<br />
of trade and investment.<br />
He said FBCCI and the Hungary<br />
Chamber of Commerce and Industry<br />
organised a Bangladesh and<br />
Hungary Business Forum with the<br />
participation of Bangladesh and<br />
Hungary business teams. •<br />
DHAKA TRIBUNE<br />
once any irregularity with the fund<br />
is committed.<br />
Bangladesh and Russia signed a<br />
financial deal of $11.38bn in Moscow<br />
recently to implement the country’s<br />
first-ever nuclear power plant.<br />
Last year, the Rosatom hinted<br />
that the cost might go up to $10bn.<br />
A couple of years ago the government<br />
had estimated that the plant<br />
would cost between $2bn and $3bn.<br />
Russia will provide all assistance<br />
for setting up the plant, including<br />
providing the fuel and taking back<br />
the used fuel. Bangladesh is seeking<br />
90% of the project financing from<br />
Russia. The loan will be repaid in 28<br />
years with a 10-year grace period. •<br />
Stocks inch up<br />
with higher<br />
turnover<br />
• Tribune Business Desk<br />
Stocks registered a marginal rise<br />
yesterday with a higher turnover.<br />
The market started on positive<br />
note in the morning and the momentum<br />
continued till close of the<br />
session.<br />
The Dhaka Stock Exchange<br />
benchmark index, DSEX, gained<br />
14 points to 0.3% to settle at 4,836,<br />
which is 14 months high.<br />
The blue chip DS30 index edged<br />
1 point up to 1,784 and the DSE Shariah<br />
Index DSES rose only 2 points<br />
to 1,151.<br />
The Chittagong Stock Exchange<br />
selective category index, CSCX,<br />
rose over 24 points to 9,056.<br />
The volume of trade continued<br />
to increase significantly as the DSE<br />
turnover stood at Tk807 crore, up<br />
more than 18% over the previous<br />
session.<br />
This was primarily driven by engineering<br />
sector that accounted for<br />
over 20% of the total trade value.<br />
Among the best performing<br />
sectors, engineering sector gained<br />
the highest about 1%, followed by<br />
telecommunications 0.7%, power<br />
0.5%, pharmaceuticals 0.3% and<br />
banks 0.2%.<br />
On the other hand, food & allied<br />
remained flat while non-banking financial<br />
institutions had the largest<br />
fall of 0.7%. •
Business 13<br />
Nitol-Tata launches new Nano car<br />
• Adil Sakhawat<br />
Indian-based Tata Motors and its<br />
local sales agent Nitol Motors have<br />
jointly launched a brand new model<br />
small car styled “GenX Nano Automatic”<br />
at a comparatively cheaper<br />
price in Bangladesh.<br />
Although the price of the newly<br />
launched Nano car was fixed<br />
initially at around Tk9 lakh, Nitol-Niloy<br />
Group Chairman Abdul<br />
Matlub Ahmad, has, however,<br />
announced that aspirant buyers<br />
can avail the car at a cost of only<br />
around Tk8 lakh till January 2017.<br />
He was addressing the new<br />
Nano car launching ceremony held<br />
at a city hotel yesterday. Ahmad,<br />
also the FBCCI Chairman, made the<br />
announcement following a request<br />
from Industries Minister Amir<br />
Hossain Amu who attended the<br />
launching ceremony as chief guest.<br />
The companies rolled out the<br />
car GenX Nano Automatic at a time<br />
when the demand for small cars<br />
is increasing here in Dhaka due to<br />
rapid urbanisation and increasing<br />
demand for private vehicles by the<br />
mid-income families.<br />
The new Nano car comes with<br />
‘Sports’ mode for enhanced acceleration<br />
and creep feature for heavy<br />
traffic maneuverability and parking<br />
ease. It also have Electric Power<br />
Assisted Steering (ePAS), designed<br />
for light steering, for easy maneuvering<br />
in tight parking and driving<br />
situations in cities.<br />
The car features rich hatchback<br />
for the trendy, youthful, bold and<br />
stylish customer. The GenX Nano<br />
comes with a 24 litre fuel tank and<br />
has fuel efficiency of 21.9 Kilometre<br />
per Litre.<br />
‘Italian instability<br />
is not start of<br />
euro zone crisis’<br />
• Reuters<br />
Political instability in Italy makes<br />
life more difficult for Italy and the<br />
whole euro zone, but is not the<br />
start of new euro zone crisis, the<br />
chairman of euro zone finance<br />
ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said<br />
yesterday.<br />
Italian Prime Minister Matteo<br />
Renzi said he would resign after his<br />
government lost a constitutional<br />
referendum last Sunday, throwing<br />
the country, which has bad loan<br />
problems in its banking sector, into<br />
political turmoil.<br />
“I don’t believe it is (the start of<br />
a new crisis). There is no reason for<br />
that. Political instability makes it<br />
more complicated for Italy and the<br />
euro zone. But it is a new reality we<br />
have to work with,” Dijsselbloem<br />
told reporters on entering a meeting<br />
of euro zone ministers. •<br />
Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, Nitol-Tata Group Chairman Abdul Matlub Ahmad at the launching ceremony of the<br />
Nitol-Tata new Nano car ‘GenX nano Automatic’ in a Dhaka hotel yesterday<br />
MEHEDI HASAN<br />
“The New car can deliver the<br />
most relevant city car features<br />
like the Automatic feature, Power<br />
Steering, the Hatch access, Bluetooth<br />
connectivity and so on,” said<br />
the organisers.<br />
Addressing the launching ceremony,<br />
Nitol-Niloy Group Chairman<br />
Abdul Matlub Ahmed said: “The<br />
car has been brought here in Dhaka<br />
especially for the city dwellers<br />
considering the traffic condition of<br />
the city.”<br />
He also requested the Industries<br />
Minister Amir Hossain Amu<br />
to declare this new branded car as<br />
a national car of Bangladesh and to<br />
provide opportunity to manufacture<br />
Tata car under the state-run<br />
Pragoti Industries Limited.<br />
In reply, the minister said: “You<br />
can manufacture the car in Bangladesh<br />
under Pragoti as we want to<br />
be a manufacturing country rather<br />
than importing one.”<br />
Johnny Oomen, head of international<br />
business, Passenger Vehicle,<br />
Tata Motors said: “The Nano has so far<br />
received a good response in the Bangladeshi<br />
market and with the GenX<br />
Nano Automatic, we are now offering<br />
our customers a contemporary smart,<br />
stylish, efficient, and a practical city<br />
car which has strong potential in the<br />
compact hatch segment.”<br />
Adesh Swaika, deputy high<br />
commissioner of Indian High Commission<br />
in Dhaka said: “It is an ideal<br />
car for this Dhaka city considering<br />
its traffic congestion situation.”<br />
“It will be another option for<br />
both countries to take its bilateral<br />
trade to another level. I hope to see<br />
more Nano on Bangladeshi roads,”<br />
he added.<br />
Tata Motors Limited is the India’s<br />
largest automobile company,<br />
with consolidated revenues of<br />
INR 2,75,561 crore (US$41.6 billion)<br />
in 2015-16. On the other hand, Nitol-Niloy<br />
Group comes from marketing<br />
Tata commercial vehicles in<br />
Bangladesh, including buses, trucks,<br />
passenger version pickup trucks,<br />
maxi and construction equipment.<br />
Since 1991, it commenced assembly<br />
and building body of Tata vehicles. •<br />
DT<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Emirates offers 30% discounts on business,<br />
economy class tickets on Bangladesh route<br />
• Tribune Business Desk<br />
EMIRATES<br />
The Emirates Airlines passengers<br />
will enjoy up to 30% discount<br />
on airfares for both business and<br />
economy class travel from Bangladesh<br />
to various destinations from<br />
<strong>December</strong> 1, <strong>2016</strong> to June 29, 2017.<br />
The airlines came up with the<br />
announcement recently. The passengers<br />
have to book their tickets<br />
by <strong>December</strong> 8, <strong>2016</strong>.<br />
“We are really happy to announce<br />
the special fares to our<br />
valued Bangladeshi travellers for<br />
whom Emirates has always been a<br />
carrier of choice” said Khalid Ali J<br />
Hassan, Emirates area manager for<br />
Bangladesh.<br />
“This incredible offer coincides<br />
with the celebration of 30th anniversary<br />
of Emirates’ operations in<br />
Bangladesh. It is an opportunity for<br />
us to thank our Bangladeshi passengers<br />
and hope they will avail the offer<br />
and enjoy our unique hospitality<br />
on board and at the ground as well.”<br />
Under the offer all inclusive<br />
Economy Class return fare to Europe<br />
starts from US$790 while business<br />
class fare from US$2,575. The<br />
fare to USA ranges from US$925 to<br />
US$3,310.<br />
For detailed information and<br />
Oil tops $55<br />
for first time in<br />
16 months<br />
• Reuters<br />
Brent crude oil prices rose above<br />
$55 a barrel yesterday, trading at<br />
a fresh 16-month high, on rising<br />
prospects of a tightening market<br />
after Opec members agreed on a<br />
landmark deal to cut production<br />
last week.<br />
Monday’s gains take the rally<br />
since the agreement was struck on<br />
Wednesday to 19% for Brent, the<br />
highest in almost eight years, and<br />
16% for US crude.<br />
Brent crude oil futures LCOc1,<br />
the global benchmark used to trade<br />
oil, soared to their highest since<br />
July 2015 to $55.33 a barrel. It last<br />
traded at $55.05 a barrel, up 59<br />
cents, or 1.1%, at 1133 GMT.<br />
WTI crude oil CLc1 traded up 44<br />
cents, or 0.8%, at $52.12 a barrel.<br />
“Opec sentiment continues<br />
to support oil markets. Speculative<br />
short positions are still at elevated<br />
levels and as more traders<br />
unwind these positions they could<br />
trigger more support for oil prices,”<br />
said Hans van Cleef, senior energy<br />
economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam.<br />
After members of the Organization<br />
of the Petroleum Exporting<br />
Countries last week agreed to<br />
curb production by a combined 1.2<br />
million barrels per day (bpd) from<br />
January, all eyes have now turned<br />
to a meeting this weekend between<br />
OPEC and non-OPEC producers to<br />
expand the deal.<br />
Non-Opec producers are expected<br />
to agree to add an output cut of<br />
600,000 barrels per day (bpd) at a<br />
meeting in Vienna on Dec 10. •<br />
booking of the tickets passengers<br />
can contact the Emirates offices in<br />
Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet, or<br />
their travel agents, or visit www.<br />
emirates.com/bd.<br />
Emirates presently operates<br />
thrice daily from Dhaka, and via<br />
Dubai it offers convenient connections<br />
to over 150 destinations in six<br />
continents.<br />
Passengers from the port city<br />
and Sylhet are offered complimentary<br />
air conditioned bus services to<br />
and from Dhaka.<br />
In addition to incredible savings,<br />
Emirates passengers on board can<br />
enjoy access to over 2,500 movies<br />
including those from Bangladesh,<br />
TV shows, music and games on<br />
board the flight.<br />
Passengers are served regionally<br />
themed dishes prepared by welltrained<br />
and experienced chefs of<br />
Emirates in-flight kitchen. •
14<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
Business<br />
Eurozone business growth hits fastest this year<br />
• Reuters<br />
Euro zone business activity grew<br />
at its quickest pace this year in November<br />
and firms, which benefited<br />
from a weaker euro, raised prices<br />
faster than at any time in five years,<br />
a survey found yesterday.<br />
Policymakers at the European<br />
Central Bank this week are expected<br />
to announce a six-month<br />
extension to their asset purchase<br />
program to try to boost inflation,<br />
further denting the currency and<br />
offering support to exporters.<br />
IHS Markit’s final composite<br />
Purchasing Managers’ Index for<br />
the euro zone was 53.9 in November,<br />
below a 54.1 flash estimate but<br />
beating October’s 53.3 and its highest<br />
since <strong>December</strong>.<br />
The index has been above the<br />
50 mark that divides growth from<br />
contraction since mid-2013.<br />
“The composite PMI was revised<br />
down slightly but it’s still<br />
consistent with a pickup in euro<br />
zone GDP growth which is quite<br />
positive,” said Stephen Brown at<br />
Capital Economics.<br />
Adding to the more upbeat picture,<br />
retail sales rose more than<br />
expected in October, official data<br />
showed earlier.<br />
The PMI for the dominant services<br />
industry jumped to 53.8 from<br />
52.8, below the flash 54.1 but its<br />
highest level this year. Manufacturers<br />
enjoyed their best month since<br />
the start of 2014 in November, a sister<br />
survey showed last week.<br />
With activity picking up, the<br />
PMI points to fourth quarter economic<br />
growth of 0.4% , IHS Markit<br />
said, matching the prediction in a<br />
Reuters poll on Friday.<br />
Activity in the German services<br />
sector hit a six-month high in November,<br />
supporting overall solid<br />
growth in the private sector and<br />
adding to signs that Europe’s largest<br />
economy has rebounded in the<br />
current quarter.<br />
France’s recovery extended into<br />
a fifth month, and growth accelerated<br />
in both Spain and Italy.<br />
New orders also jumped, suggesting<br />
the pickup may continue<br />
through to the end of the year. The<br />
new orders index for the service industry<br />
climbed to a 10-month high<br />
of 53.5 from 52.6.<br />
Years of ultra-loose monetary<br />
policy have so far failed to get inflation<br />
anywhere near the ECB’s<br />
close-to-2-percent target but pressures<br />
are mounting slowly. The<br />
composite output price index rose<br />
to 50.6 from 50.0, its highest since<br />
August 2011.<br />
“It has been rising but it’s not<br />
consistent with a rise in core inflation<br />
so we still think that the<br />
ECB will extend purchases when it<br />
meets on Thursday,” Brown said. •
Business 15<br />
DT<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Fed official stands by<br />
Wall Street reforms<br />
• Reuters<br />
The United States “absolutely must” complete unfinished work<br />
ending the too-big-to-fail bank problem that helped plunge the<br />
global economy into recession eight years ago, an influential Federal<br />
Reserve policymaker said.<br />
In remarks that appeared to pre-empt President-elect Donald<br />
Trump, who has promised to roll back Wall Street regulations,<br />
New York Fed President William Dudley said much progress has<br />
been made making the financial system “less prone to panics.”<br />
“Still,” he said in prepared remarks, “there is more to do before<br />
we can say that we have ended ‘too big to fail.’ This is work<br />
that we absolutely must complete.” •<br />
CORPORATE NEWS<br />
First Security Islami Bank Ltd has recently opened an agent banking<br />
outlet at Bakra Bazar, Jhikargasa in Jessore, said a press release. The<br />
bank’s managing director, Syed Waseque Md Ali inaugurated the outlet<br />
National Bank Limited and Global Money Transfer Brand Xpress Money<br />
have jointly kicked off a thirty-five daylong remittance campaign,<br />
said a press release. The bank’s acting managing director, Choudhury<br />
Moshtaq Ahmed and Zakaria Mahamud, country relationship manager<br />
of Xpress Money Bangladesh have inaugurated the campaign<br />
Prime Bank has recently signed a participation agreement with<br />
Bangladesh Bank for availing long term financing facility under<br />
Green Transformation Fund, said a press release. Deputy dovernor<br />
of Bangladesh Bank, SK Sur Chowdhury and Ahmed Kamal Khan<br />
Chowdhury, MD of Prime Bank was present on the occasion<br />
United Commercial Bank (UCB) Limited has recently signed an<br />
agreement with National Credit and Commerce Bank Limited for<br />
distributing inward foreign remittance of Placid Express USA, said a<br />
press release. MD of UCB, Muhammed Ali and Golam Hafiz Ahmed, MD<br />
of NCC Bank have signed the agreement at the presence of AKM Fazlul<br />
Hoq, MD of Placid Express
18<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
Biz Info<br />
| partnership | | performance |<br />
ULAB collaborates with McGill– CCCI<br />
Western classical music at<br />
Red Shift<br />
University of Liberal Arts<br />
Bangladesh (ULAB) in<br />
collaboration with McGill– CCCI<br />
organised an International<br />
Skype Conference titled,<br />
“Cross-Country Conference<br />
with McGill: Relevance of<br />
Language in the Global Market<br />
Featuring a Multinational Panel”<br />
on <strong>December</strong> 02 (Montréal)/<br />
<strong>December</strong> 03 (Bangladesh) to<br />
help students assimilate with<br />
the standards and cultures<br />
by interacting with diverse<br />
individuals from foreign<br />
backgrounds. The program was<br />
initiated and chaired by Tanzia<br />
Siddiqua, lecturer, Department<br />
of English and Humanities and<br />
adviser, Language Club with<br />
the participants being trained<br />
by Dr Shamsad Mortuza, head<br />
of Department of English and<br />
Humanities. The McGill panel<br />
was chaired by Iqbal Mahmud<br />
Hussain, a speaker of English,<br />
French, and Arabic with<br />
participants Kamilla Fabiana – a<br />
speaker of English, French, and<br />
Portugese; Liliana Sun - a speaker<br />
of English, French, Mandarin<br />
Chinese; and Christe lKaram - a<br />
speaker of English, and French.<br />
The session which saw a<br />
controlled conversation about the<br />
relevance of their corresponding<br />
degrees in accordance with<br />
the foreign market helped the<br />
ULAB participants assess their<br />
career criteria. The participants<br />
had the opportunity to discuss<br />
language(s) in relation to<br />
English Literature, ELT/TESOL,<br />
Psycholinguistics, Business<br />
Studies, Engineering, Media<br />
Studies and Journalism, and<br />
varied other cultural dimensions<br />
to add to the cultural-fusion that<br />
showcased the more charismatic<br />
qualities of Bangladeshi students<br />
in an international light. In order<br />
to maintain optimal and hasslefree<br />
technical connectivity, the<br />
conference was arranged through<br />
Skype which added to the<br />
concept of digital platform for the<br />
students of Bangladesh.•<br />
After the feast of Indian classical<br />
music, Red Shift invites everyone<br />
to turn to a session of western<br />
classical music, titled “Con Fuoco<br />
(with fire!),” performed by Hugh<br />
Stevenson (Piano) and Razef Khan<br />
(Cello).<br />
Hugh and Razef will present<br />
yet another concert of the magical<br />
combination of sounds provided<br />
by the piano and cello. The<br />
program will range from music<br />
of the greatest composers such<br />
as Bach and Beethoven to more<br />
regional composers like Manuel<br />
de la Fala. Versatility will be a<br />
feature of the concert, contrasting<br />
authentic classical elegance with<br />
more lively tunes. There will<br />
also be piano solo performances<br />
from Hugh while Razef will be<br />
interpreting music on his cello<br />
from a Baroque master to 20th<br />
century Jazz compositions. The<br />
evening will be an exceptional and<br />
rare opportunity to listen to high<br />
quality Western music in Dhaka.<br />
Date and Time: Saturday<br />
<strong>December</strong> 10, <strong>2016</strong> at 6.30 PM<br />
(sharp)<br />
Entry: Tk.600 available at Red<br />
Shift/Radius or online Tk. 660<br />
at www.imdhaka.com or www.<br />
jetechao.com (Limited seating so<br />
please book early)<br />
For more, contact: Red Shift<br />
Coffee Lounge, Radius Centre,<br />
5th Floor, Bay’s Galleria, 57<br />
Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan,<br />
Dhaka. Telephone 8833471-3 or<br />
01730054403(Shiuly).<br />
Opening hours: Sat-Thurs 10 AM-<br />
11 PM. Fri : 3 PM-11 PM<br />
Website: www.radiuscentre.com.bd<br />
Facebook: www.facebook.com/<br />
redshiftcoffee •<br />
| singing |<br />
Procharon and Max Secure sign agreement<br />
| product |<br />
Toshiba launches four new printers<br />
Max Secure has recently signed<br />
an agreement with creative<br />
advertising agency, Procharon<br />
Communication Ltd. regarding<br />
the branding, digital promotions<br />
and advertising activities. On<br />
behalf of Procharon, Shaheen<br />
Rahman, managing director,<br />
Monirul Hassan, director, Bahlul<br />
Ibn Rahman, assistant general<br />
manager, Lutfor Rahman,<br />
manger, operations, Malek Dinar,<br />
art director, Salma – E – Akhtar,<br />
assistant brand manager, Adittya<br />
Barua, brand communication<br />
executive were present at<br />
the signing. Max Secure was<br />
represented by Md Bazlul Haque,<br />
chairman, Fahad Bin Mahmood,<br />
managing director and other high<br />
officials present at the event. •<br />
Rezaul Karim, CEO & Director, International Office Machines Limited, Takeshi<br />
Kimura, General Manager, Toshiba TEC Singapore, Philip Wu, Regional Manager,<br />
Toshiba TEC Singapore, Raymond Phua, Solution Manager, Toshiba TEC Singapore,<br />
Azhar Ali, Managing Director, International Office Machines Limited, Asma Begum,<br />
Sr. Marketing Communication Manager, International Office Machines Limited,<br />
Shahnaz Begum, Sr. Service Manager, International Office Machines Limited<br />
R ecently, Toshiba TEC Corporation<br />
and International Office Machines<br />
Limited have introduced the<br />
addition of three new e-STUDIO<br />
series to its multifunction printers<br />
(MFPs) line. The new MFP lineup<br />
includes one colour MFP and one<br />
monochrome series (3 models) all<br />
of which feature a new platform<br />
design with the basic body colour<br />
changed from ivory to modern<br />
sophisticated black. •
Auto Connect<br />
19<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
Top five hybrid supercars today<br />
Under the hood of each lies a vicious engine with concourse torque and state-of-the-art electric<br />
counterparts; cutting-edge devices that, in some cases, combine for 1,500 hp and a top speed of<br />
248 mph. Driving the future, these rechargeable racers leave all doubters in the dust<br />
• Tahsin Momin<br />
Porsche 918 Spyder<br />
This is the rarest, fastest, quickest, and most<br />
ground-breaking Porsche ever produced.<br />
The hybrid supercar develops nearly 900HP<br />
from a 4.6-litre V8 gasoline engine and two<br />
electric motors. They catapult the machine<br />
- initially in silence, until the V8 kicks in -<br />
to speeds that are inappropriate for public<br />
roads. But the extreme performance is not<br />
the car’s only attribute. In fact, the 918<br />
Spyder is docile at dawdling speeds, and it<br />
is as comfortable as any other sports car out<br />
there.<br />
Koenigsegg Regera<br />
Part supercar, part electric vehicle, and<br />
part robot, the Koenigsegg Regera is a truly<br />
unique offering in the luxury-car landscape.<br />
bound to rip a hole through time. Promotion<br />
in the form of Weeknd and Daft Punk’s hit<br />
“Starboy” will only help the makers achieve<br />
such immortality.<br />
The signature Koenigsegg V8 internal<br />
combustion engine offers 1,100HP, but the<br />
car also employs a 700 hp electric system.<br />
The company claims that the only supercar<br />
that could be faster around a circuit would<br />
be another Koenigsegg.<br />
Ferrari LaFerrari<br />
This one is the 963HP mid-engine V12<br />
successor to the Enzo. Why the seemingly<br />
redundant name? Ferrari’s chairman, Luca<br />
di Montezemolo, claims the car is the purest<br />
expression of Ferrari - so giving it a name<br />
that translates to just “the Ferrari” makes<br />
sense.<br />
Made of four different types of carbon<br />
fibre, the sleek body features butterfly-style<br />
doors and was designed entirely in-house<br />
by Ferrari’s chief designer, Flavio Manzoni.<br />
It is a big departure for Ferrari, which has<br />
generally relied primarily on Pininfarina for<br />
all its design work but my God, doesn’t it<br />
look staggering?<br />
McLaren P1<br />
The McLaren P1 is perhaps, the most talkedabout<br />
supercar in recent times. The P1 is<br />
the spiritual successor to the once-groundbreaking<br />
F1, which is already 20 years<br />
old but is still competitive with modern<br />
day supercars. It might seem as though<br />
designers were issued a blank check when<br />
creating a car like the P1, that they do not<br />
have to abide by any rules or limits. And<br />
judging by its looks, this 904HP monster is<br />
Lamborghini Asterion<br />
This year, Lamborghini unveiled something<br />
that took the automotive world by<br />
surprise - a plug-in hybrid. Officially<br />
named as “Lamborghini Asterion LPI-<br />
910-4,” this 910 hp green-eyed monster is<br />
currently just a preproduction technology<br />
demonstration but we can certainly expect<br />
to see something similar in a not-too-distant<br />
future. The Asterion’s 5.2-litre 610HP midmounted<br />
V10 engine is paired with three<br />
electric motors that supplies an additional<br />
300HP. With this type of power at its<br />
disposal, Lamborghini claims the Asterion<br />
can hit 60mph from a standstill in under 3<br />
seconds and that, it can reach 78mph solely<br />
on electric power. •
DT<br />
20<br />
Editorial<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
TODAY<br />
A tall man from<br />
Gopalganj and his<br />
burned dreams<br />
The poor must be cleaned from prime<br />
land, the poor must be cleared from the<br />
footpaths, the poor must be driven out<br />
from their derelict homes so that the<br />
rich run Bangladesh can party<br />
PAGE 21<br />
Could Mamata be<br />
the Asterix to BJP<br />
and the army?<br />
Early in her tenure as chief minister, she<br />
told The Washington Post that the CPM<br />
and Naxalites were planning to kill her<br />
with the help of the ISI<br />
PAGE 22<br />
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU<br />
A comprehensive housing solution<br />
The world’s most<br />
persistent habit<br />
It’s not exactly a turn on. But you can’t<br />
stop it from happening. But, at least,<br />
you can stop it from becoming a legal<br />
sin<br />
PAGE 23<br />
Be heard<br />
Write to Dhaka Tribune<br />
FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath,<br />
Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207<br />
Send us your Op-Ed articles:<br />
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www.dhakatribune.com<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/<br />
DhakaTribune.<br />
The views expressed in opinion<br />
articles are those of the authors<br />
alone and they are not the<br />
official view of Dhaka Tribune<br />
or its publisher.<br />
The recent fire at Korail, which burned down at least 500 houses,<br />
brings to light the fact that Bangladesh has a slum problem.<br />
Not only was this the second fire at Korail this year, made worse<br />
by an incompetent fire brigade, unsafe housing has aggravated the<br />
situation further.<br />
Here lies the root of the problem.<br />
Slums in Dhaka are inhabitable. With dilapidated buildings, lack of proper<br />
sanitation and waste management, and extremely unhygienic conditions,<br />
slums like Korail are places no one should have to live in.<br />
The solution to this problem is low-income public housing.<br />
These people continue to suffer despite repeated incidents such as these.<br />
The government needs to come forward and commit to proper public housing<br />
that caters to the needs of the urban poor.<br />
It is a crying shame that this solution has not yet been considered seriously.<br />
The Korail slum-dwellers continue to be victims to the city’s growing need<br />
for urbanisation and development. The Gulshan-Banani lake, which provided<br />
cheap commutes for Korail’s inhabitants via rafts, has already been declared<br />
out of bounds by the authorities.<br />
What use is growth when the most marginalised sections of our society<br />
continue to suffer?<br />
The government’s plans to build a high-tech IT village in the area is a good<br />
opportunity for them to both develop its plan, and provide Korail’s inhabitants<br />
with affordable housing. If half of the land was used to build an IT park, a<br />
developer could easily build affordable housing for the poor in the other half.<br />
Multi-storied complexes, as opposed to the general one-storied nature of<br />
slums, can house more people on less land, and are therefore the efficient<br />
solution.<br />
The tragedy is that solutions exist, and yet they have been routinely<br />
ignored. It is high time the government paid heed to the struggle of Dhaka’s<br />
slum-dwellers and put this solution forward in practice.<br />
The tragedy is that<br />
solutions exist, and<br />
yet they have been<br />
routinely ignored
Opinion 21<br />
A tall man from Gopalganj<br />
and his burned dreams<br />
Of course, it is the poor who are being evicted and expelled<br />
DT<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Is this the price of development?<br />
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU<br />
The poor must be cleaned from prime land, the poor must be cleared<br />
from the footpaths, the poor must be driven out from their derelict<br />
homes so that the rich run Bangladesh can party without a sense of<br />
disgust that Gulshan and Korail share such horrific proximity<br />
• Afsan Chowdhury<br />
Of all the symbolic scenes<br />
we could hope to see,<br />
the fire at the Korail<br />
slum on <strong>December</strong> 4 was<br />
the most appropriate. The war of<br />
1971 was fought by all, but victory<br />
belongs to a small band of the<br />
ruling rich.<br />
The scene of desperate men,<br />
women, and children, fleeing the<br />
flames first and then returning<br />
to the inferno to save whatever<br />
they could says it all. This is what<br />
Bangladesh has become.<br />
Gulshan had to be saved by all<br />
means after the terror attack but,<br />
in this campaign, Korail, abode<br />
of the urban poor, had to be done<br />
away with as part of the wider<br />
anti-poor plan of the municipality.<br />
The slum was victimised<br />
and livelihood made extremely<br />
difficult. Fires, the second time<br />
in a year, are too frequent to be<br />
accidental.<br />
This accusation may not be<br />
true, but the trend is difficult for<br />
many to ignore.<br />
Yes, an IT Park is also planned<br />
for the area so Korail has to be<br />
cleared. The government has<br />
floated several plans but, like all<br />
GOB plans, it serves the rich and<br />
when it comes to the poor, they<br />
generally fail.<br />
The impotence of the national<br />
political cluster can be best<br />
understood by the continuous<br />
existence of the BGMEA building,<br />
endorsed by both our PMs.<br />
It’s illegal, stands in the flood<br />
plain, and the Supreme Court<br />
Appellate Division has ordered<br />
its demise, but it stands with the<br />
insolence that comes from money<br />
and power.<br />
The rich have the power to defy<br />
the Supreme Court but the slums<br />
must go in a series of inexplicable<br />
fires.<br />
The Korail fire is a symbol of the<br />
betrayal of the spirit of the 1971<br />
war. The poor had the largest role<br />
in it, and it’s the poor who are now<br />
being evicted and expelled.<br />
The poor must be cleaned from<br />
prime land, the poor must be<br />
cleared from the footpaths, the<br />
poor must be driven out from their<br />
derelict homes so that the rich<br />
run Bangladesh can party without<br />
a sense of disgust that Gulshan<br />
and Korail share such horrific<br />
proximity.<br />
This may not have been what<br />
a tall man from Gopalganj had<br />
imagined a free Bangladesh to be.<br />
But the tall man now above<br />
should clean his glasses and see<br />
the cinders of his dream hidden by<br />
the shadows of the skyscrapers of<br />
the hyper rich who encroach, not<br />
just on land, but on a collective but<br />
dead dream called Bangladesh.<br />
It’s only fitting that Korail go up<br />
in flames as <strong>December</strong>, the month<br />
of victory comes, to remind us all<br />
whose victory <strong>December</strong> 16 really<br />
was. •<br />
Afsan Chowdhury is a journalist and<br />
researcher.
22<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
Opinion<br />
Could Mamata Banerjee be the<br />
Asterix to BJP and the army?<br />
Didi is a street fighter through and through<br />
Mamata vs BJP, or Asterix vs the Romans<br />
• Sandip Roy<br />
The year is <strong>2016</strong> AD.<br />
Bharat is almost entirely<br />
occupied by the Lotus<br />
Party and with every<br />
election, more so. Well, not<br />
entirely … one small corner of<br />
indomitable Bongs still holds out<br />
against the Lotus Eaters. And life is<br />
not easy for the Delhi legionnaires<br />
who garrison the fortified camps<br />
of Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza, Palsit<br />
toll plaza, and Murshidabad toll<br />
plaza ...<br />
A few of the Bongs, well, just<br />
one really.<br />
Mamata Banerjee, the hero<br />
of these adventures. A shrewd<br />
cunning little warrior; all perilous<br />
missions are immediately<br />
entrusted to her. She gets her<br />
superhuman strength from puffed<br />
rice …<br />
Mamata Banerjee vs the<br />
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)<br />
acquired even more of an “Asterix<br />
vs the Romans” feel last night,<br />
when the Trinamool Congress<br />
(TMC) said the army had been<br />
stationed at toll plazas in Bengal<br />
without the state government<br />
knowing.<br />
To add to the drama, the chief<br />
minister stayed overnight at<br />
Nabanna, the government<br />
headquarters, tweeting: “Until<br />
and unless the army stationed<br />
in front of Nabanno, the Bengal<br />
state government secretariat,<br />
is withdrawn, I will be staying<br />
at my Secretariat to guard our<br />
democracy.”<br />
Soon TMC was wondering<br />
if the centre had imposed a<br />
“general emergency” along with a<br />
“financial emergency.” “It is worse<br />
than an emergency,” declared the<br />
ever-dramatic chief minister.<br />
Ordinary people can make little<br />
sense of it all. And the frontpages<br />
of newspapers in Kolkata reflect<br />
that confusion. Still leading with<br />
demonetisation, the curious case<br />
BIGSTOCK<br />
of the army showing up in Kolkata<br />
was on the front pages, but mostly<br />
as a second lead.<br />
“Mamata locks horns with<br />
army,” says The Telegraph. “CM<br />
sees red over army ‘surveillance’,”<br />
says The Times of India.<br />
“Why is the army at toll plazas?<br />
Mamata hunkers down till late<br />
at night at Nabanna,” says the<br />
Ananda Bazar Patrika. But it’s not<br />
the stop-the-press above-the-fold<br />
story. The media reckon that its<br />
readers, bouncing from empty<br />
ATM to empty ATM and freaking<br />
out over rumours about gold<br />
jewellery raids, have other issues<br />
on their mind these days than<br />
threats to federalism.<br />
Part of the problem is that no<br />
one is sure what’s going on. The<br />
army says it’s “routine exercise<br />
in all NE states” and only about<br />
checking innocuous parameters<br />
like “load-bearing capacity.”<br />
Banerjee has tweeted at @<br />
easterncomd saying: “We have<br />
great respect for you, but please<br />
please don’t mislead the people.”<br />
Then she added that more<br />
army deployment is happening in<br />
Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Howrah,<br />
Hooghly etc. Observers say what’s<br />
routine in Nagaland and Mizoram<br />
is not routine in Bengal, despite<br />
that tweet from the Eastern<br />
Command.<br />
The problem for Banerjee<br />
is, only a few days before this,<br />
her party was implying possible<br />
sinister motivations in the<br />
technical delay that had her<br />
IndiGo flight from Patna circling<br />
in the air.<br />
That issue caused an outcry in<br />
parliament recently with several<br />
opposition leaders, including some<br />
from sworn enemy Communist<br />
Party of India (Marxist) backing<br />
her up.<br />
Congress leader Mallikarjun<br />
Kharge said the issue was serious<br />
as the Bengal chief minister<br />
was fighting demonetisation.<br />
The civil aviation minister said<br />
Early in her tenure as chief minister, she told The Washington Post that<br />
the CPM and Naxalites were planning to kill her with the help of the<br />
ISI, and that plot was being financed by North Korea, Venezuela, and<br />
Hungary. That was in response to a question about overreacting to a<br />
cartoon about her<br />
the Directorate General of Civil<br />
Aviation had ordered an inquiry.<br />
A TMC source told The Telegraph:<br />
“Whether there was sabotage or<br />
not, the conspiracy theory is not<br />
absurd at all. In any case, it will be<br />
put to good use to mount pressure<br />
on the centre in parliament.”<br />
Banerjee is at her feistiest<br />
when she sees threats, real and<br />
imagined, around every corner.<br />
For example, during the 2014<br />
assembly election campaign in<br />
Bengal, Mamata Banerjee checked<br />
into a hotel in Malda and had to<br />
escape her room after thick smoke<br />
engulfed it. Though some said it<br />
was her air conditioner that had<br />
short circuited, her aide Mukul<br />
Roy cried conspiracy and held the<br />
Election Commission responsible<br />
since law and order in the state<br />
was under their control.<br />
Banerjee too talked about a<br />
“murder plot” at her next few<br />
rallies in Malda and Birbhum.<br />
“Those who do not want the<br />
state’s welfare have joined hands<br />
and made an attempt on my life.<br />
They intended to kill me and pass<br />
it off as a short-circuit accident.<br />
It’s easy to call it a short circuit,”<br />
she told a rally in Naihati.<br />
Early in her tenure as chief<br />
minister, she told The Washington<br />
Post that the CPM and Naxalites<br />
were planning to kill her with the<br />
help of the ISI, and that plot was<br />
being financed by North Korea,<br />
Venezuela, and Hungary. That was<br />
in response to a question about<br />
overreacting to a cartoon about<br />
her. The latest “emergency” story<br />
is thus quintessentially Mamata<br />
Banerjee.<br />
Didi is a street fighter through<br />
and through, and at her strongest<br />
when she is jousting against a Big<br />
Brother. She is vociferous in claiming<br />
victimhood and discrimination<br />
in terms of funds.<br />
She has done that against the<br />
United Progressive Alliance and<br />
the National Democratic Alliance,<br />
and is now claiming the centre is<br />
discriminating against her state<br />
when it comes to cash disbursement.<br />
The BJP wants to present<br />
Banerjee’s anger as the<br />
desperation of a political party<br />
sitting on ill-gotten gains in cash.<br />
But Banerjee wants to turn the<br />
story on its head into one of a big<br />
bully picking on the little guy. Now<br />
the army has unfortunately been<br />
dragged into this tug-o-war.<br />
But with Banerjee leading<br />
the opposition charge against<br />
demonetisation, she hopes<br />
this story will only add to her<br />
importance. What happens to<br />
Bengal today can happen to<br />
Odisha or Bihar tomorrow.<br />
The problem for Banerjee is<br />
that against the backdrop of her<br />
previous claims, even a serious<br />
issue of state-centre power<br />
relations and federalism looks like<br />
a petty battle of one-upmanship<br />
and the settling of political scores.<br />
But here’s the flip side. Just<br />
because you are paranoid does not<br />
mean they are not out to get you. •<br />
Sandip Roy is an Indian journalist. He<br />
can be contacted on Twitter @sandipr.<br />
This article previously appeared in<br />
newslaundry.com.
Opinion<br />
23<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
The world’s most persistent habit<br />
Banning porn will get us nowhere<br />
THE<br />
WORLD IN<br />
PARENTHESES<br />
• SN Rasul<br />
As we speak, heads are<br />
turning within this<br />
government to take away<br />
that most cherished<br />
privilege of the modern male:<br />
Pornography. Before feathers are<br />
ruffled, let me admit: World, listen!<br />
Women watch porn too. Just …<br />
not as much. And not with such<br />
vigour.<br />
Generalisations: That great<br />
argument supporter. And for this<br />
argument, the hunched figure of<br />
the young adult male in front of<br />
his computer screen with eyes<br />
bulging out of his eyes ogling some<br />
nude form of a woman improved<br />
by thousands of dollars’ worth of<br />
surgery is a generalisation that will<br />
come in handy.<br />
We have been that figure, we<br />
have imagined that figure, we have<br />
reviled that figure, and we have<br />
pitied that figure. We have taken<br />
that figure and turned it into the<br />
epitome of solitude and shame,<br />
simultaneously hidden and shown<br />
it in all its pathetic glory.<br />
And that figure, lonely, alone,<br />
frustrated, reaching both a sexual<br />
and emotional climax, is the very<br />
reason pornography exists, and<br />
will continue to exist. Much like<br />
the world’s oldest profession, this<br />
will perhaps be the world’s most<br />
persistent habit. Millions of hands<br />
joined together in mutual … selfflagellation?<br />
Or no?<br />
The government has other<br />
ideas. Tarana Halim and Co are on<br />
their way to, at first, recognising<br />
what these sites are, which contain<br />
“raw porn.” I have, subsequently,<br />
tried to decipher the term. Do<br />
they mean hardcore? Do they<br />
mean sites which feature only<br />
pornography and nothing else?<br />
Do they mean some fetishised<br />
combination of cuisine and sex?<br />
Either way, colour me intrigued.<br />
Is this a good idea? I understand<br />
that, with religion being an<br />
issue, whichever one you wish to<br />
subscribe to, tackling the issue<br />
of sex is tricky. What to do when<br />
premarital sex is such a no-no<br />
in religious canon and there’s<br />
an entire, multi-billion dollar<br />
industry built on just that (and<br />
much worse because … money?)<br />
and your sons and daughters have<br />
such easy access to it?<br />
Won’t their nascent minds give<br />
in to the hedonistic decadent<br />
influences of the West, and won’t<br />
anarchy be the name of the<br />
game in their supple little minds,<br />
and won’t their moral codes be<br />
completely destroyed, and won’t<br />
teenage orgies (three? four? five?<br />
More the merrier, we say!) be the<br />
norm, that it will so inevitably<br />
become if pornography is allowed<br />
to take root in this country?<br />
The simple answer: No.<br />
Let us assume that these are<br />
bad things (ie anarchy, orgies,<br />
hedonism). The kind of freedom<br />
that allows for these kinds of<br />
behaviour to fester, let alone<br />
become the norm, is not the kind<br />
of freedom that Bangladesh can<br />
even boast to have. Every guy<br />
who has had a girl over while his<br />
parents are out will know the stare<br />
of that one security guard with the<br />
slightly orange-tinted beard.<br />
Our country is not conducive to<br />
the kind of free-spirited decadence<br />
that older generations or other<br />
classes of people might be afraid<br />
of.<br />
And take a look at Pakistan:<br />
Theocratic, oppressive,<br />
conservative. Also: Boasts as<br />
being the country with the highest<br />
number of porn-related searches.<br />
Also also: One of the 10 worst<br />
countries when it comes to rape.<br />
No one is saying that<br />
pornography prevents rape. But<br />
what aspect of oppression and<br />
censorship do people find so<br />
It’s not exactly a turn on. But you can’t stop it from happening. But, at<br />
least, you can stop it from becoming a legal sin<br />
hard to understand? If someone<br />
from the government showed<br />
correlations between the banning<br />
of pornography and reduced<br />
crime, or happier populaces, or<br />
more economic growth, anything,<br />
really, I would gladly concede: You<br />
go, girl. You have a point.<br />
But that is not the case.<br />
Oppression leads to reaction.<br />
The more sexually repressed<br />
a populace, the more chances<br />
of reactionary behaviour such<br />
as sexual assault and rape. The<br />
harder it gets to access these sites,<br />
the easier it is for opportunists to<br />
provide alternatives to a bulging<br />
need amongst the populace.<br />
How will young men learn<br />
about consent, about mutual<br />
agreement, when the government<br />
intervenes and tells them: a) You<br />
can’t touch this unless you’re<br />
Is it a crime to be hunched over the computer surfing porn?<br />
married to this, and b) you can’t<br />
see this until you’re married to this<br />
either?<br />
What happens to the urges?<br />
What happens to that “growing”<br />
pain that points upward in shame?<br />
What happens when, after years<br />
and years of sexual frustration, a<br />
young man “bursts”?<br />
I do not mean to provide<br />
excuses for rape. Repressive,<br />
oppressive government or not.<br />
Understanding these things,<br />
being open to newness, or the<br />
very radical idea that women are<br />
occasionally useful for something<br />
other than as a sperm receptor,<br />
can only be brought about through<br />
education.<br />
And that education requires<br />
handling the issue head on. Grab it<br />
by the tail and yank it. Put it up on<br />
the big screen. This is sex. We all<br />
want it, we all have it, do it, have<br />
weird thoughts about it. In fact,<br />
most of the time, it’s all that we<br />
think about.<br />
Just do it good (also, well,<br />
but you can be forgiven for not<br />
keeping up here). Hurt no one.<br />
Don’t impregnate a teenager.<br />
No means no. Yes means yes<br />
sometimes. Be safe. Be kind. Be<br />
thoughtful. Have fun. Be happy.<br />
It’s just sex. And when you’re in<br />
your room all by yourself, imagine,<br />
without sexualising, billions of<br />
similar hunched figures doing the<br />
exact same thing.<br />
It’s not exactly a turn on. But<br />
you can’t stop it from happening.<br />
But, at least, you can stop it from<br />
becoming a legal sin. •<br />
SN Rasul is a Sub-Editor at the Dhaka<br />
Tribune. Follow him @snrasul.<br />
BIGSTOCK
DT<br />
24<br />
Sport<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
TOP STORIES<br />
‘I ask my players to<br />
play with passion’<br />
Dhaka Tribune managed to catch<br />
up with the former Windies<br />
captain for an interview where he<br />
talked about his personal career<br />
and BPL 4 experience, including<br />
captaining the side to the last four.<br />
Here are the excerpts PAGE 25<br />
Dhaka derby takes<br />
centre-stage<br />
Leaders Abahani Limited will take<br />
on their fiercest arch-rival, the<br />
struggling Mohammedan Sporting<br />
Club in the season’s second and<br />
last Dhaka derby at Sheikh Fazlul<br />
Haque Moni Stadium in Gopalganj<br />
today. PAGE 26<br />
Rubel replaces<br />
Shahid for prep camp<br />
Right-arm fast bowler Rubel<br />
Hossain has come in place of the<br />
injured Mohammad Shahid as a<br />
like-for-like replacement in the<br />
22-member Bangladesh national<br />
squad ahead of their preparatory<br />
camp. PAGE 27<br />
Nice regain threepoint<br />
lead<br />
Nice restored their three-point<br />
lead at the top of Ligue 1 with a 3-0<br />
win over Toulouse after producing<br />
another impressive performance<br />
on Sunday, despite the absence of<br />
the injured Italian striker Mario<br />
Balotelli. PAGE 28<br />
Dhaka Dynamites captain Shakib al Hasan talks with Chittagong Vikings coach Mohammad Salahuddin (L) while Khulna Titans players prepare for training at Sher-e-<br />
Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday<br />
MD MANIK<br />
BPL 4 final berth at stake as Dhaka,<br />
Khulna brace for re-match<br />
• Ali Shahriyar Bappa<br />
PLAYOFFS LINE-UP<br />
ELIMINATOR<br />
Chittagong Vikings v Rajshahi Kings,<br />
1pm<br />
QUALIFIER 1<br />
Dhaka Dynamites v Khulna Titans,<br />
5:45pm<br />
Both the games will be held at SBNS,<br />
Mirpur<br />
Chittagong Vikings will face Rajshahi<br />
Kings in today’s Bangladesh<br />
Premier League Twenty20<br />
2017-17 season Eliminator in the<br />
afternoon while table-toppers<br />
Dhaka Dynamites will take on second-placed<br />
Khulna Titans in Qualifier<br />
1 in the evening in Mirpur’s<br />
Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket<br />
Stadium.<br />
Chittagong lost their last two<br />
round robin matches against Dhaka<br />
and Rajshahi respectively. The<br />
star-studded Chittagong team will<br />
surely want to return to winning<br />
ways as there will be no second<br />
opportunity now.<br />
Chittagong captain Tamim<br />
Iqbal is in red-hot form and will<br />
surely try to hold onto the momentum<br />
in the business stage of<br />
the competition.<br />
“I have always tried to contribute<br />
something. So far it (tournament)<br />
has been good for me. But<br />
this is the main stage. This stage’s<br />
performance will prove more valuable.<br />
So I will try to perform well.<br />
But I do not want to give pressure<br />
to any particular player. I hope<br />
everyone will play their role well<br />
to manage a win,” Tamim said.<br />
Big-hitter Chris Gayle has not<br />
played according to his merit in<br />
the tournament so far. But Tamim<br />
believes there is nothing to be<br />
worried about and that Gayle will<br />
play his natural game in the next<br />
match.<br />
“Probably he has not played<br />
well enough but that’s good to<br />
me. I know if he can play an innings<br />
like usually he did in the<br />
past, then he can swing a match<br />
to a one-sided affair. So from this<br />
aspect, he did not play that type of<br />
innings yet, so there is a chance of<br />
that special innings coming very<br />
soon,” Tamim explained.<br />
On the other hand, Rajshahi<br />
captain Darren Sammy said they<br />
have not played their best cricket<br />
but still managed to qualify. But<br />
the time has come for them to lift<br />
their game and play some fascinating<br />
cricket which Rajshahi are<br />
very much capable of.<br />
“We are a good team. The<br />
Kings have the quality to go further.<br />
I don’t think we have played<br />
our best cricket yet. In so many<br />
matches our top-order did not<br />
click. If we play well in the coming<br />
matches and execute our plan<br />
well then we can post challenges<br />
to any cricket team,” Sammy said.<br />
Meanwhile, ahead of Qualifier<br />
1, Dhaka rested key players in<br />
their last match against Khulna<br />
on Sunday. But they will try play<br />
their strongest possible squad today.<br />
That means West Indies pair<br />
Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell<br />
will return to the squad.<br />
In contrast, Khulna produced a<br />
dominant batting display against<br />
Dhaka to clinch the playoffs spot.<br />
Captain Mahumudullah will once<br />
again be their key man with both<br />
bat and ball.<br />
Khulna have no big stars in<br />
their team like the others. But<br />
still, they have played consistent<br />
cricket and clinched a playoff<br />
spot and Khulna coach Stuart Law<br />
thinks hard work is the reason behind<br />
their success.<br />
“It’s great you know, we have<br />
come in this tournament as an<br />
underdog, no real superstars.<br />
Now we have certainly taken big<br />
scalps on the way. To beat Dhaka<br />
twice on the way is a great effort.<br />
Lots of people are saying we have<br />
been really lucky. But we have<br />
worked really hard to become<br />
lucky. And hard work does pay<br />
off,” Law said. •
Sammy: I ask my players<br />
to play with passion<br />
Darren Sammy, the two-time World Twenty20 winning captain of the West Indies, is now<br />
in Dhaka playing in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League T20’s fourth edition. He is also<br />
the skipper of Rajshahi Kings. Rajshahi have played well under his leadership and sealed<br />
their place in the playoffs. Be it with the bat or ball, Sammy has showed his brilliance for<br />
Rajshahi while his captaincy has also been impressive for his side. He has stood tall on several<br />
occasions, rescuing his side from sure trouble. Ali Shahriyar Bappa of Dhaka Tribune<br />
managed to catch up with the former Windies captain for an interview where he talked about<br />
his personal career and BPL 4 experience, including captaining the side to the last four.<br />
Here are the excerpts:<br />
You are a two-time world cup<br />
winning captain. What is your<br />
captaincy motto?<br />
I am quite relaxed as a captain.<br />
What I ask for is to play with passion.<br />
I want never-say-die attitude.<br />
My rule is simple - don’t give up no<br />
matter what happens. Make sure<br />
you give everything for the team. I<br />
do study the opposition. As a captain<br />
I want to make every single<br />
player feel that they are important<br />
in the team.<br />
You have played in the Caribbean<br />
Premier League, the Big Bash and<br />
the Pakistan Super League. How<br />
do you rate BPL as a tournament?<br />
BPL has been very exciting and<br />
competitive this year. I have enjoyed<br />
it and my team has enjoyed<br />
it. So I think all the other players<br />
have enjoyed it too. I think it’s a<br />
tournament that will grow from<br />
strength to strength and would<br />
see young talent of Bangladesh exposed.<br />
What impact can the BPL have on<br />
young players?<br />
Bangladesh have some good talents.<br />
Sport 25<br />
Team review: Barisal fade away after good start<br />
• Ali Shahriyar Bappa<br />
Barisal Bulls have finished last in<br />
the points table with only four wins<br />
out of their 12 games in the ongoing<br />
fourth edition of the Bangladesh<br />
Premier League Twenty20. Barisal<br />
selected Dav Whatmore as their<br />
coach for the tournament. And the<br />
experienced Mushfiqur Rahim was<br />
selected as skipper. Whatmore had<br />
previously worked as the coach of<br />
Bangladesh. He has vast knowledge<br />
regarding Bangladesh cricket. The<br />
Whatmore-Mushfiqur combination<br />
initially brought success for Barisal<br />
but did not last long at the end.<br />
Barisal started their campaign<br />
losing to Dhaka Dynamytes on<br />
November 8. But they came back<br />
strong winning three matches in a<br />
row. Their win against Chittgaong<br />
Vikings perhaps was their performance<br />
of the tournament. At one<br />
stage, Chittagong, batting first,<br />
In this tournament, quite a few local<br />
players have performed well.<br />
It’s good for Bangladesh cricket that<br />
youngsters can share the dressing<br />
room with players like Kumar Sangakkara<br />
or Chris Gayle and learn from<br />
them. You see a 17-year old (Afif<br />
Hossain) got the debut for Rajshahi<br />
and achieved best T20 figure. That’s<br />
the depth of Bangladesh cricket.<br />
That’s a good thing when you have<br />
good young players coming through<br />
from a tournament like the BPL.<br />
Besides Afif, which other Rajshahi<br />
players have impressed you the<br />
most?<br />
Sabbir [Rahman]. Mominul<br />
[Haque] is already established.<br />
He has an average of more than<br />
40 in Test matches. Young [Mehedi<br />
Hasan] Miraz with the ball and<br />
also a very capable batsman. And<br />
through the different teams, there<br />
are young players coming through.<br />
It’s up to Bangladesh to nurture<br />
those talents. After the BPL, make<br />
sure they will be looked after, from<br />
the under-19s to the club level. And<br />
from a tournament like this, that’s<br />
what you hope for.<br />
were 112 for no loss after 12 overs.<br />
But from that position, Barisal<br />
fought back brilliantly, restricting<br />
Chittagong to 163 and eventually<br />
winning the match by six wickets.<br />
Opening batsman Dawid Malan<br />
and No 3 batsman Shahriar Nafees<br />
formed a 150-run partnership - the<br />
highest in the tournament so far –<br />
sealing a win for Barisal at the end.<br />
But after such a good start, Barisal<br />
lost their way and suffered<br />
consecutive defeats in their next<br />
six matches. It is mainly their bowling<br />
and fielding which let them<br />
down. Sloppy fielding in key moments<br />
cost them in a few matches.<br />
Barisal won their penultimate<br />
match of the round robin stage<br />
against Rajshahi Kings and kept<br />
alives their slim chances of qualifying<br />
for the playoffs. But in their<br />
last match, Barisal lost to Rangpur<br />
Riders and finished their campaign<br />
on a low note.<br />
How can young players benefit<br />
from a tournament like this?<br />
The young players can learn from<br />
the senior guys or international<br />
players they meet in the dressing<br />
room. And for us, the overseas<br />
players, we want to leave an<br />
impact in this tournament. Yes,<br />
sometimes it’s all about winning<br />
the cup, but more importantly, if<br />
you could have an impact in young<br />
players by passing the knowledge<br />
of the game, it will always be a<br />
good thing.<br />
Who is your favorite cricketer?<br />
Brian Lara.<br />
What are the best things that you<br />
have witnessed about Bangladesh<br />
cricket?<br />
It’s the people here. They are very<br />
friendly. And the crowds are very<br />
passionate during the match.<br />
What is the biggest challenge of<br />
your career?<br />
I think taking over the West Indies<br />
cricket captaincy was the biggest<br />
challenge so far in my career. •<br />
Local players<br />
Mushfiq was the best Barisal batsman<br />
throughout the tournament,<br />
scoring 341 runs with an average<br />
of 37.88 and strike rate of 134.78.<br />
Shahriar also played brilliantly in<br />
the first phase but later lost his<br />
form. In the process, Barisal’s batting<br />
struggled a bit as the team were<br />
over-reliant on Mushfiq. Shahriar<br />
scored 292 runs in 12 matches.<br />
Apart from Mushfiq and Shahriar,<br />
no other local batsmen, including<br />
Nadif Chowdhury and opener<br />
Shamsur Rahman, played well.<br />
Amid high expectations, Barisal<br />
picked young pacer Abu Haider<br />
Rony in the players draft’. Rony<br />
was arguably the best bowler for<br />
Comilla Victorians last year, helping<br />
his side to clinch the title with<br />
his death-over bowling. But Rony<br />
has failed to repeat his heroics and<br />
was unable to produce any significant<br />
performance. The tall left-arm<br />
paceman played seven matches<br />
for Barisal and picked up only four<br />
wickets with an average of 53.45.<br />
Another pacer Al Amin Hossian<br />
also failed to rise to the occasion<br />
and gave birth to controversies<br />
with his off-field activities. The<br />
right-arm pacer picked five wickets<br />
from as many matches. Only Taijul<br />
Islam performed notably with his<br />
left-arm, taking 12 wickets.<br />
Foreign players<br />
English batsman Malan played<br />
some good knocks and finished the<br />
tournament with 240 runs with an<br />
average of 30. Sri Lankan all-rounder<br />
Thisara Perera scored 163 runs in<br />
his 11 innings and picked up nine<br />
wickets. Barisal expected a little<br />
bit more from the Lankan with the<br />
bat as he is known for his big-hitting<br />
ability. West Indies all-rounder<br />
Rayad Emrit took nine wickets<br />
from as many matches. Lankan<br />
DT<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
MD MANIK<br />
pair Jeevan MEndis and Dilshan<br />
Munaweera did not perform according<br />
to expectations with the<br />
former scoring 146 runs from eight<br />
matches and the latter making 44<br />
runs in six matches. •<br />
BATTING<br />
Inns Runs HS Ave SR<br />
Mushfiq 12 341 81* 37.8 134.78<br />
Nafees 12 292 65 29.2 108.14<br />
Malan 9 240 78* 30.0 133.33<br />
Perera 11 163 34* 27.1 131.45<br />
Mendis 8 146 57 18.2 108.14<br />
BOWLING<br />
Player Inns Wkts BBI Ave Econ<br />
Taijul 12 10 3/18 27.60 6.41<br />
Emrit 9 9 3/27 29.00 7.90<br />
Perera 10 9 2/26 29.22 8.48<br />
Kamrul 8 7 2/29 24.85 7.90<br />
Al-Amin 5 5 3/35 33.40 9.27
DT<br />
26<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Sport<br />
Dhaka derby takes centre-stage<br />
• Tribune Report<br />
Leaders Abahani Limited will take<br />
on their fiercest arch-rival, the<br />
struggling Mohammedan Sporting<br />
Club in the season’s second and<br />
last Dhaka derby at Sheikh Fazlul<br />
Haque Moni Stadium in Gopalganj<br />
today.<br />
Abahani are enjoying one of<br />
their finest seasons in recent times.<br />
The Sky Blues are close to lifting<br />
their fifth professional league title<br />
and with only four rounds left, today’s<br />
derby against the Black and<br />
Whites could prove to be crucial in<br />
their bid to end the premier league<br />
trophy drought.<br />
Mohammedan, who failed to<br />
win any league title in the last decade,<br />
have been going through one<br />
of their most awful seasons recently,<br />
struggling at the bottom half of<br />
the points table. They were completely<br />
outplayed by the Sky Blues<br />
in the first phase, conceding a 3-0<br />
thrashing.<br />
Abahani’s Austro-Hungarian<br />
coach George Kottan has only one<br />
realistic competitor left in the title<br />
race heading into final stretch<br />
of the league. Chittagong Abahani<br />
are second but if Abahani continue<br />
their winning streak against Mohammedan,<br />
they will move five<br />
points clear of their namesake with<br />
four matches to go.<br />
The rivalry between the two traditional<br />
clubs has somewhat lost its<br />
glory and has been failing to attract<br />
crowd like before. The current circumstances,<br />
including the players’<br />
quality and squad strength, have<br />
enabled Abahani to outclass their rival<br />
more often than not in the recent<br />
past. The current gap between the<br />
two clubs in the points table is 22.<br />
Nigerian striker Sunday Chizoba<br />
has been in terrific form, slamming<br />
18 goals so far in the league,<br />
four more than anyone else. But<br />
Abahani’s best performer throughout<br />
the season is unarguably their<br />
new-signing, English midfielder<br />
Lee Andrew Tuck. Both scored<br />
against Mohammedan in the first<br />
phase two and a half months ago.<br />
Abahani also have the most number<br />
of representatives in the national<br />
team while Mohammedan’s<br />
squad is a bit weak compared to the<br />
previous seasons, with no players<br />
featuring for Bangladesh.<br />
The two sides have faced each<br />
other 18 times in professional league<br />
history with Abahani winning six<br />
times and Mohammedan turning<br />
out victorious in four with eight encounters<br />
ending in a draw. Mohammedan<br />
only tasted their first win in<br />
five matches the last time they featured<br />
in the top-flight a couple of<br />
days ago while Abahani are the only<br />
side remaining in the 12-team league<br />
who are still unbeaten.<br />
Currently, Abahani have 39<br />
points from 17 matches while the<br />
port city outfit are only two points<br />
behind having played a game more.<br />
Mohammedan, on the other<br />
hand, are placed 10th with only 17<br />
points from as many matches.<br />
This will be the first time in the<br />
history of the league that Abahani<br />
and Mohammedan will play each<br />
other in Gopalganj.<br />
Baishakhi TV will telecast the<br />
match live at 3pm. •<br />
5 KEY MOMENTS FROM BPL’S 3RD PHASE IN DHAKA<br />
• Mazhar Uddin<br />
When the second and penultimate<br />
phase of the Bangladesh Premier<br />
League Twenty20’s fourth edition<br />
came to an end in Chittagong, the<br />
Dhaka fans were eagerly waiting for<br />
the third and final phase – the business<br />
stage of the competition.<br />
And, the franchises and players did<br />
not disappoint, playing some high-octane<br />
cricket to capture the imagination<br />
of the supporters.<br />
Dhaka Tribune takes a look back at<br />
the five most talked about incidents<br />
from the third phase, held in Dhaka’s<br />
Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National<br />
Stadium.<br />
Sabbir-Shahzad fight<br />
The intense battle between Rajshahi<br />
Kings’ Sabbir Rahman and Rangpur<br />
Riders’ Afghanistan cricketer Mohammad<br />
Shahzad is one of the most talked<br />
about moments of the Dhaka phase.<br />
During Rajshahi’s innings, Sabbir and<br />
Shahzad got engaged in a heated conversation<br />
and the on-field umpire had to<br />
intervene. The situation turned ugly at<br />
one stage when Rangpur came to chase<br />
their target. Shahzad poked Sabbir with<br />
his bat while heading towards the dressing<br />
room after being dismissed. Replays<br />
showed that there was definite contact,<br />
following which Sabbir crouched down<br />
for a few minutes as the rest of the team<br />
celebrated Shahzad’s wicket. Sabbir was<br />
running past Shahzad when the bat was<br />
extended. The Rajshahi players walked<br />
towards the Rangpur dressing-room<br />
while Shahzad was making his way to<br />
the dressing room. Shahzad briefly<br />
turned around before slowly entering<br />
the dressing room. It was no surprise<br />
therefore when both the players were<br />
penalised after the incident. Shahzad<br />
was initially suspended for two games<br />
and fined 30 percent of his match fee.<br />
The franchise duly pleaded guilty and as<br />
a result, Shahzad’s suspension was reduced<br />
by half. Sabbir on the other hand<br />
was fined 30 percent of his match fee as<br />
both the players admitted their guilt.<br />
Afif’s five-for<br />
Prior to Saturday’s match between<br />
Chittagong Vikings and Rajshahi<br />
in Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National<br />
Stadium, hardly anyone had heard of<br />
Afif Hossain, the 17-year old cricketer<br />
from Khulna. The young off-spinner<br />
displayed sheer brilliance, eventually<br />
ending up with magical bowling figure<br />
of 5/21 from his four overs. In the<br />
process, the youngster created a host<br />
of records, including registering the<br />
best bowling figure in the ongoing BPL<br />
4. What’s more, he is the youngest<br />
cricketer in T20 history to bag five<br />
wickets, surpassing Pakistan’s Ziaul<br />
Haque. Afif, a former student of BKSP<br />
and currently the vice-captain of the<br />
Bangladesh under-19 team, is chiefly<br />
a left-handed batsman with the<br />
reputation of being a hard-hitter. The<br />
youngster picked up the huge wicket<br />
of West Indies hard hitter Chris Gayle<br />
as he helped Rajshahi to reach the<br />
playoffs. He is undoubtedly a bright<br />
prospect of Bangladesh cricket.<br />
Tamim’s brilliant form<br />
Dashing opening batsman Tamim Iqbal<br />
has been in terrific touch throughout<br />
the tournament. Tamim guided<br />
Chittagong more often than not and<br />
it was largely because of their skipper<br />
that the port city outfit made it to the<br />
playoffs. The 27-year old smashed<br />
five fifties, including three in the<br />
Dhaka phase, and is now the leading<br />
run-scorer of the competition with<br />
425 runs in 12 games at an average of<br />
42.50. Despite the presence of Gayle,<br />
the in-form Afghan all-rounder Mohammad<br />
Nabi and Pakistan’s Shoiab<br />
Malik in the line-up, Tamim has led<br />
from the front and inspired his side to<br />
gain some much needed momentum<br />
after struggling at the beginning. Yet<br />
again, Chittaging will bank on their<br />
captain consistent when they take on<br />
Rajshahi King in the do-or-die Eliminator<br />
today.<br />
Gayle-Afridi battle<br />
It was a full house at the home of<br />
cricket in Mirpur during the evening<br />
match between Rangpur and Chittagong.<br />
One of the reasons behind the<br />
gathering of the packed crowd might<br />
have been due to the clash between<br />
the two biggest hitters of world cricket<br />
– Shahid Afridi and Gayle. Afridi is playing<br />
for Rangpur while Gayle is featuring<br />
for Chittagong. The mouthwatering<br />
battle was initiated when Gayle hit two<br />
huge sixes off Afridi. Afridi though had<br />
the last laugh as he dismissed Gayle off<br />
the very next ball. Gayle tried to hit his<br />
third six in a row only to top-edge the<br />
delivery onto the hands of Anwar Ali at<br />
short mid-wicket.<br />
Disappointing Comilla<br />
There were a lot of expectations<br />
on defending champions Comilla<br />
Victorians, who were looking to<br />
defend their title under the captaincy<br />
of Mashrafe bin Mortaza. However,<br />
the holders gave a poor account of<br />
themselves, having failed to settle<br />
on their playing XI throughout the<br />
competition. They began the Dhaka<br />
phase with four straight losses before<br />
moving to Chittagong for the second<br />
phase where they lost two and won<br />
one. They began the third and final<br />
phase in Dhaka with a loss but ended<br />
their campaign on a high, registering<br />
four wins in a row. No doubt the<br />
Comilla fans, team management,<br />
owners, and the players themselves,<br />
will eye a much better campaign in<br />
the fifth edition. •<br />
MOST RUNS<br />
Player Inns Runs HS Ave SR 50 4s 6s<br />
Tamim (Chittagong) 12 425 75 42.50 116.43 5 47 11<br />
Mahmudullah (Khulna) 12 369 62 36.90 122.59 2 28 14<br />
Shahzad (Rangpur) 11 350 80* 38.88 110.06 2 36 11<br />
Mushfiqur (Barisal) 12 341 81* 37.88 134.78 2 25 10<br />
MN Samuels (Comilla) 8 334 69* 66.80 116.78 3 27 10<br />
MOST WICKETS<br />
Player Inns Overs Wkts BBI Ave Econ SR 4<br />
Nabi (Chittagong) 12 41.0 18 4/24 14.16 6.21 13.6 1<br />
Shafiul Islam (Khulna) 11 41.3 18 4/17 18.05 7.83 13.8 2<br />
Afridi (Rangpur) 11 40.0 17 4/12 14.94 6.35 14.1 1<br />
DJ Bravo (Dhaka) 11 39.0 17 3/27 17.94 7.82 13.7 0<br />
Junaid Khan (Khulna) 12 44.4 16 4/23 17.00 6.08 16.7 1<br />
POINTS TABLE<br />
TEAMS M W L PTS<br />
Dhaka 12 8 4 16<br />
Khulna 12 7 5 14<br />
Chittagong 12 6 6 12<br />
Rajshahi 12 6 6 12<br />
Rangpur 12 6 6 12<br />
Comilla 12 5 7 10<br />
Barisal 12 4 8 8
Sport 27<br />
DT<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
QUICK BYTES<br />
Victory Day<br />
T20 begins in<br />
Munshiganj<br />
The Victory Day Twenty20,<br />
organised by Munshiganj Zila Krira<br />
Sangstha, got underway yesterday<br />
with the home side, Sadar Upazila,<br />
defeating Tongibari Upazila XI by<br />
19 runs. Sunny of Munshiganj Sadar<br />
Upazila was adjudged player of the<br />
match. A total of six teams are taking<br />
part in the tournament, inaugurated<br />
by Dhaka divisional commissioner<br />
Helal Uddin Ahmed. Shaila Farzana,<br />
Munshiganj district commissioner,<br />
was the special guest on the opening<br />
day of the tournament.<br />
TRIBUNE REPORT<br />
Saif Sporting, T&T<br />
Club share spoils<br />
The second phase of the Marcel<br />
Bangladesh Championship League<br />
kicked off with leaders Saif Sporting<br />
Club and Motijheel’s T&T Club playing<br />
out a 1-1 draw at Bangabandhu<br />
National Stadium yesterday. Milon<br />
Barman gave T&T Club the breakthrough<br />
in the 18th minute before<br />
Matin Mia equalised the margin four<br />
minutes later. This Saif Sporting’s<br />
first season in the second tier after<br />
being formed earlier this year. They<br />
finished the first phase jointly at the<br />
top of the points table alongside Fakirapool<br />
Young Men’s Club but with<br />
their point yesterday, they now have<br />
the solo lead with 14 points. T&T Club<br />
remained second bottom with six<br />
points from eight matches.<br />
TRIBUNE REPORT<br />
DAY’S WATCH<br />
CRICKET<br />
SONY SIX<br />
Bangladesh Premier League<br />
1:00PM<br />
Eliminator<br />
Rajshahi Kings v Chittagong Vikings<br />
5:45PM<br />
Qualifier 1<br />
Dhaka Dynamites v Khulna Titans<br />
STAR SPORTS 2<br />
9:15AM<br />
New Zealand Tour of Australia<br />
2nd ODI<br />
FOOTBALL<br />
TEN 1<br />
1:45AM<br />
UEFA Champions League<br />
Manchester City v Celtic<br />
TEN 2<br />
7:00PM<br />
UEFA Youth League<br />
Manchester City v Celtic FC<br />
1:45AM<br />
UEFA Champions League<br />
Basel v Arsenal<br />
TEN 3<br />
1:45AM<br />
UEFA Champions League<br />
Barcelona v Mgladbach<br />
Roma’s midfielder from Belgium Radja Nainggolan (L) controls the ball before scoring against Lazio during their Italian Serie A<br />
match at the Olympic stadium in Rome on Sunday<br />
AFP<br />
Rubel replaces Shahid for<br />
preparatory camp<br />
• Tribune Report<br />
Fast bowler Rubel Hossain has come in<br />
place of the injured Mohammad Shahid as a<br />
like-for-like replacement in the 22-member<br />
Bangladesh squad ahead of their preparatory<br />
camp.<br />
Shahid injured his right knee while fielding<br />
in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier<br />
League Twenty20’s fourth edition for Dhaka<br />
Dynamites against Comilla Victorians on<br />
November 26.<br />
He was replaced by Rubel who was left<br />
out from the Tigers’ latest squad in the bilateral<br />
home series against England after a<br />
disappointing performance in the Afghanistan<br />
ODIs.<br />
However, Rubel came into contention as<br />
he is currently enjoying a good time with the<br />
leather in BPL 4 for Rangpur Riders, picking<br />
up 15 wickets in 12 matches at an average of<br />
21.06.<br />
The 22 members of the Bangladesh<br />
squad will travel to Sydney, Australia in two<br />
groups this Friday and Saturday. There, they<br />
will train for a week before flying off to New<br />
Zealand on <strong>December</strong> 18.<br />
Squad<br />
Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Shakib<br />
al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah,<br />
Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Sabbir Rahman,<br />
Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain,<br />
Nurul Hasan, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Shuvagata<br />
Hom, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Taijul<br />
Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed,<br />
Shafiul Islam, Shubasish Roy, Rubel Hossain,<br />
Ebadat Hossain and Tanvir Haider<br />
Standby<br />
Shahriar Nafees, Abdul Mazid, Liton Kumar<br />
Das, Mosharraf Hossain, Kamrul Islam Rabbi,<br />
Al Amin Hossain, Alauddin Babu and Nasir<br />
Hossain. •<br />
Roma down<br />
Lazio in derby<br />
• AFP, Milan<br />
Second-half goals from Kevin Strootman<br />
and Radja Nainggolan<br />
kept the local bragging rights with<br />
Roma for the fourth year running<br />
thanks to a controversial 2-0 derby<br />
win at Lazio on Sunday.<br />
With only one point separating<br />
the sides, the biggest “Derby della<br />
Capitale” in years was played out<br />
in a half-empty stadium as Roma’s<br />
hardline ultras continued to protest<br />
strict security measures.<br />
But after a contentious first half,<br />
Roma made light of their relative<br />
lack of support with an improved<br />
second-half performance that saw<br />
Strootman then Nainggolan strike<br />
within 13 minutes of each other. •<br />
SERIE A<br />
AC Milan 2-1 Crotone<br />
Pasalic 41, Lapadula 86 Falcinelli 26<br />
Lazio 0-2 Roma<br />
Strootman 64, Nainggolan 77<br />
Pescara 1-1 Cagliari<br />
Caprari 90+2 Borriello 24<br />
Sampdoria 2-0 Torino<br />
Barreto 51, Schick 90+5<br />
Sassuolo 3-0 Empoli<br />
Pellegrini 22-P, Ricci 36-P, Ragusa 53<br />
Fiorentina 2-1 Palermo<br />
Bernardeschi 33-P, Jajalo 49<br />
Babacar 90+3<br />
POINTS TABLE<br />
Team P W D L GD Pts<br />
Juventus 15 12 0 3 19 36<br />
Roma 15 10 2 3 19 32<br />
AC Milan 15 10 2 3 8 32<br />
Napoli 15 8 4 3 12 28<br />
Lazio 15 8 4 3 11 28<br />
Rahmatganj held by<br />
Feni Soccer<br />
• Tribune Report<br />
Rahmatganj MFS continued to lose points in the Bangladesh<br />
Premier League as they were held by Feni Soccer<br />
Club 1-1 in the last match at the Gopalganj venue - Sheikh<br />
Fazlul Haque Moni Stadium – yesterday.<br />
Following a barren opening half, Didarul Alam put the<br />
Old Dhaka outfit ahead 10 minutes into the second half.<br />
The delight however, didn’t last long as Nigerian midfielder<br />
Uche Felix cancelled out the lead six minutes later.<br />
Despite no wins in four matches, Rahmatganj remained<br />
fourth in the points table with 27 points from 18 matches<br />
while the point did the Feni outfit a huge favour in their<br />
fight to avoid relegation. With 14 points, Feni moved<br />
up a place to 11th from the bottom of the table, having<br />
played the same number of matches as Rahmatganj. Uttar<br />
Baridhara also have the same number of points but an inferior<br />
goal-difference means they are bottom.<br />
Rahmatganj surprised every club in the league when<br />
they finished the first phase at the top of the table. But<br />
Kamal Babu’s side have failed to carry on their consistent<br />
run in the second phase. They won six out of 11 matches<br />
in the first phase but managed only one victory in seven<br />
games in the second phase. •
DT<br />
28<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Nice regain<br />
three-point lead<br />
• Reuters, Paris<br />
Nice restored their three-point lead<br />
at the top of Ligue 1 with a 3-0 win<br />
over Toulouse after producing another<br />
impressive performance on<br />
Sunday.<br />
Despite the absence of the injured<br />
Mario Balotelli, the hosts<br />
scored twice in quick succession in<br />
the first half through Alassane Plea<br />
and Younes Belhanda before Jean<br />
Michel Seri put the result beyond<br />
doubt after the break.<br />
Nice have 39 points from 16<br />
games, three ahead of free-scoring<br />
Monaco who hammered Bastia 5-0<br />
on Saturday.<br />
Champions Paris St Germain are<br />
four points off the pace after losing<br />
3-0 at Montpellier on Saturday,<br />
their first defeat by three goals in<br />
more than five years. PSG host Nice<br />
next Sunday.<br />
Olympique Lyonnais slipped to<br />
sixth on 25 points after their game<br />
at Metz was abandoned on Saturday<br />
when firecrackers were thrown<br />
at visiting keeper Anthony Lopes.<br />
Toulouse are eighth on 22<br />
points, one ahead of 10th-placed<br />
Olympique de Marseille. •<br />
Sport<br />
Napoli, Benfica, Besiktas battle for last 16 slots<br />
• AFP, Paris<br />
As Paris Saint-Germain joust with<br />
Arsenal for top spot in their group,<br />
Napoli, Benfica and Besiktas will<br />
battle it out today for last 16 Champions<br />
League slots.<br />
The Group B trio all have<br />
everything to play for in their final<br />
pool games as the only one of the<br />
eight first phase groups where no<br />
side has yet secured a berth.<br />
Portugal’s Benfica, European<br />
champions back in 1961 and 1962<br />
in their halcyon days but who have<br />
underachieved since, should have<br />
secured their passage on matchday<br />
five but threw away a three-goal<br />
lead at Besiktas.<br />
That Turkish comeback, rekindling<br />
memories of Liverpool’s historic<br />
2005 Istanbul triumph, has<br />
left the group outcome on a knifeedge<br />
with Besiktas knowing that<br />
a win at eliminated Dynamo Kiev<br />
FIXTURES<br />
GROUP A<br />
Basel v Arsenal<br />
Paris SG v Ludogorets<br />
GROUP B<br />
Benfica v Napoli<br />
Dynamo Kiev v Besiktas<br />
GROUP C<br />
Man City v Celtic<br />
Barcelona v M’gladbach<br />
GROUP D<br />
Bayern Munich v Atletico Madrid<br />
PSV Eindhoven v Rostov<br />
will send them through.<br />
In contrast, the final round of<br />
games pits Benfica against a Napoli<br />
side who beat them 4-2 back on<br />
matchday two in Italy - while Besiktas<br />
were dropping home points<br />
against Kiev.<br />
The Turkish side’s subsequent<br />
win in Italy threw the group wide<br />
open and the 14-time national<br />
champions’ refusal to surrender<br />
against Benfica means they now<br />
fancy their chances.<br />
Besiktas will hope that their best<br />
previous showing - a 1987 European<br />
Cup quarter-final appearance<br />
- will not prove a poor omen. Back<br />
then, they lost 7-0 on aggregate - to<br />
Kiev. The winner of Benfica-Napoli<br />
in Lisbon will qualify as group<br />
winners, while a draw would be<br />
enough to send the latter through<br />
given their head-to-head edge. If<br />
Besiktas lose, both will progress<br />
regardless.<br />
Whereas Benfica warmed up for<br />
the game by losing their unbeaten<br />
record in Portugal in slumping to<br />
unheralded Maritimo at the weekend,<br />
Napoli broke back into the top<br />
four in Serie A when Slovakia midfielder<br />
Marek Hamsik moved to<br />
within 11 goals of Diego Maradona’s<br />
record haul of 115 goals for the club<br />
after scoring in Friday’s 3-0 romp<br />
over Inter Milan.<br />
Beyond the tightest group of the<br />
season, the final round of games<br />
is all about securing pole position<br />
and a theoretically softer second<br />
round draw.<br />
It’s been tight at the top<br />
throughout in Group A where there<br />
is nothing to choose between Arsenal<br />
and PSG, both through and level<br />
on points ahead of final games<br />
at Basel and home to Ludogorets,<br />
both winless makeweights.<br />
Atletico Madrid won Group D<br />
by a distance and are the only club<br />
in the competition with a perfect<br />
record as they prepare to do the<br />
double over runners-up Bayern<br />
Munich.<br />
Rostov will look to avoid defeat<br />
at PSV Eindhoven and see their adventures<br />
carry on albeit in the Europa<br />
League. •<br />
LIGUE 1<br />
Rennes 2-0 Saint-Etienne<br />
Ntep 54, Grosicki 90+2<br />
Marseille 3-0 Nancy<br />
Thauvin 46, Gomis 80, Njie 90+3<br />
Nice 3-0 Toulouse<br />
Plea 23, Belhanda 26, Seri 65<br />
POINTS TABLE<br />
Team P W D L GD Pts<br />
Nice 16 12 3 1 20 39<br />
Monaco 16 11 3 2 33 36<br />
Paris SG 16 11 2 3 19 35<br />
Rennes 16 8 3 5 -1 27<br />
Guingamp 16 7 5 4 6 26<br />
Bayern Munich’s Philipp Lahm, Jerome Boateng, Robert Lewandowski, Holger Badstuber, Arjen Robben and Mats Hummels (L-R) warm up during a training session in<br />
Munich, Germany ahead of their UEFA Champions League Group D match against Atletico Madrid today<br />
REUTERS<br />
FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THE PREMIER LEAGUE GAMEWEEK 14<br />
Man City need to regain<br />
composure<br />
It is saying something when the<br />
calmest person in the vicinity of a<br />
touchline shoving match is Diego<br />
Costa, but that was the situation<br />
Manchester City found themselves<br />
in at the end of their ill-tempered<br />
3-1 home defeat by Chelsea. City<br />
dominated the game, took the lead<br />
and might have had three penalties,<br />
but Chelsea’s clinical counter-attacking<br />
- and a healthy dose of good fortune<br />
- ensured it was Antonio Conte’s side<br />
who prevailed, safeguarding their<br />
position at the league summit. City’s<br />
frustrations told in stoppage time<br />
when Sergio Aguero’s brainless lunge<br />
on David Luiz and Fernandinho’s<br />
angry shove on Cesc Fabregas earned<br />
both players red cards that will keep<br />
them out for four and three games<br />
respectively, obliging the fiery<br />
Costa to assume the unfamiliar role<br />
of peacemaker. City manager Pep<br />
Guardiola apologised for his side’s<br />
behaviour and most now make sure<br />
his players get the defeat - and the<br />
nervous tension it engendered - out of<br />
their systems as quickly as possible.<br />
Liverpool tripped up by Achilles<br />
heel<br />
If ever a game highlighted Liverpool’s<br />
Achilles heel is their defence and endangers<br />
their title hopes this one will be<br />
it. Credit to substitute Ryan Fraser and<br />
his Bournemouth team-mates for the<br />
gutsy fightback but an absent left-back<br />
in James Milner twice allowed them<br />
to get behind the defence and led to<br />
goals. The positive is that even without<br />
Philippe Coutinho Liverpool are as<br />
entertaining and ruthless up front<br />
though Reds boss Jurgen Klopp may<br />
rue taking Sadio Mane off as early as he<br />
did after his team conceded three goals<br />
in the last 14 minutes of their stunning<br />
4-3 defeat.<br />
Sanchez swaggers for stylish<br />
Gunners<br />
When Alexis Sanchez posed for a<br />
selfie with a group of ball-boys after his<br />
hat-trick in Arsenal’s 5-1 win at West<br />
Ham on Saturday, it was the closest<br />
anyone connected to the Hammers had<br />
managed to get to the Chile forward all<br />
evening. Sanchez was at his majestic<br />
best with a 14-minute treble in the<br />
second half, leaving West Ham boss<br />
Slaven Bilic to admit he felt humiliated.<br />
The former Barcelona star underlined<br />
his value to Arsenal by setting up Mesut<br />
Ozil’s opener in opportunistic style,<br />
then scored in the 72nd, 80th and<br />
86th minute, the last of the hat-trick a<br />
fittingly show-stopping number as he<br />
deftly clipped the ball over West Ham<br />
goalkeeper Darren Randolph.<br />
Fellaini blunder adds to Mourinho<br />
woe<br />
Just when Jose Mourinho must have<br />
thought Manchester United’s luck was<br />
turning for the better, the Old Trafford<br />
chief was undone by his decision to<br />
turn to the error-prone Marouane<br />
Fellaini in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Everton.<br />
United had taken a first half lead<br />
through Zlatan Ibrahimovic when the<br />
Swede punished a mistake by Everton<br />
goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg<br />
and enjoyed more good fortune when<br />
Marcos Rojo escaped a red card for a<br />
terrible tackle. Yet United were still<br />
frustrated in the 89th minute when<br />
Fellaini, who had only just been sent on<br />
by Mourinho, gave away the penalty<br />
that Leighton Baines converted to<br />
rescue a point.<br />
Leicester headed in wrong<br />
direction<br />
A ‘relegation six-pointer’ for the<br />
champions this early in the season is<br />
worrying indeed and losing 2-1 to a<br />
Sunderland side that takes the ordinary<br />
out of extraordinary makes Leicester<br />
look like they have returned to the<br />
strugglers of old. The Foxes have made<br />
the worst start to a season of any<br />
Premier League champion with only 13<br />
points from a possible 42 and are just<br />
two points above the drop zone. The<br />
problems run deep from Jamie Vardy’s<br />
goal drought to Riyad Mahrez being<br />
totally out of sorts and new players<br />
such as Ahmed Musa taking a long time<br />
to settle. •
Downtime<br />
29<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
CROSSWORD<br />
CODE-CRACKER<br />
ACROSS<br />
1 Male sheep (3)<br />
3 Daybreak (4)<br />
6 Summit (4)<br />
7 Wager (3)<br />
9 Young horse (4)<br />
10 Lyric poem (3)<br />
11 Uncommon (4)<br />
13 Letting contract (5)<br />
16 Niggard (5)<br />
18 Small arachnid (4)<br />
19 Ovum (3)<br />
20 Partly open (4)<br />
21 Make brown (3)<br />
23 Undulation (4)<br />
24 Pay attention (4)<br />
25 Unwell (3)<br />
DOWN<br />
1 Insurgent (5)<br />
2 Tool (3)<br />
4 Drug-yielding plant (4)<br />
5 No score (3)<br />
6 Fragrance (5)<br />
8 Characteristic (5)<br />
9 Gratis (4)<br />
12 Advantage (5)<br />
14 Eastern ruler (4)<br />
15 Row (5)<br />
17 Of the kidneys (5)<br />
18 Labyrinth (4)<br />
20 Tree (3)<br />
22 Boring tool (3)<br />
How to solve: Each number in our<br />
CODE-CRACKER grid represents a<br />
different letter of the alphabet. For<br />
example, today 4 represents A so fill A<br />
every time the figure 4 appears.<br />
You have two letters in the control<br />
grid to start you off. Enter them in the<br />
appropriate squares in the main grid,<br />
then use your knowledge of words to<br />
work out which letters go in the missing<br />
squares.<br />
Some letters of the alphabet may not<br />
be used.<br />
As you get the letters, fill in the other<br />
squares with the same number in the<br />
main grid, and the control grid. Check<br />
off the list of alphabetical letters as you<br />
identify them.<br />
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ<br />
CALVIN AND HOBBES<br />
SUDOKU<br />
How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the<br />
numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must<br />
contain all nine digits with no number repeating.<br />
PEANUTS<br />
YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS<br />
CODE-CRACKER<br />
CROSSWORD<br />
DILBERT<br />
SUDOKU
30<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
Showtime<br />
The Poison Thorn flies to Ukraine<br />
• Showtime Desk<br />
Bangladeshi documentary film,<br />
Bishkanta (The Poison Thorn),<br />
based on the 1971 rape survivors<br />
has been invited to participate at<br />
the Equality Film Festival, taking<br />
place from <strong>December</strong> 8-11 in Kiev,<br />
Ukraine. The festival program<br />
includes screenings of feature and<br />
documentary films, not previously<br />
presented in Ukraine.<br />
The Equality festival has been<br />
established as the platform where<br />
culture, creativity and social<br />
activism can meet and connect<br />
in a variety of combinations. It is<br />
an annual event in the Ukraine,<br />
that can unite diverse people in<br />
their fight against prejudice and<br />
discrimination.<br />
The film is directed by Farzana<br />
Boby and produced by Rubaiyat<br />
Hossain, and revolves around the<br />
narratives of three rape survivors<br />
of the Liberation War of 1971. Their<br />
voices have been resurrected from<br />
the agony of silence. This film<br />
portrays how the pain and stigma<br />
of rape kept haunting them long<br />
after liberation, even though the<br />
war had ended, and another one<br />
had begun in their personal lives.<br />
Women who fought and survived<br />
rape, are still struggling to gain a<br />
respectable existence in society.<br />
They are Birangonas – war heroines<br />
– yet they have to fight everyday<br />
for social approval. Ranjita Mandal<br />
blames patriarchy; Halima Khatun<br />
accuses the state, Rama Choudhury<br />
negates the idea of violence. They<br />
speak to break a silence after forty<br />
three years, and through their<br />
voices, a new part of our history<br />
and identity comes into light.<br />
Bishkanta (The Poison Thorn) is<br />
a production of Khona Talkies. •<br />
Kaif – Sharma duo<br />
DW started broadcasting in highdefinition<br />
in Bangladesh<br />
• Showtime Desk<br />
After Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer<br />
Singh and Mira Rajput and Shahid<br />
Kapoor‘s fantastic episode, Karan<br />
Johar is now at fire with his show<br />
Koffee With Karan. Now, he is ready<br />
to rock again, with two leading<br />
ladies of Bollywood, who are<br />
none other than Katrina Kaif and<br />
Anushka Sharma.<br />
The two actresses reportedly<br />
bonded well during the making<br />
of Jab Tak Hai Jaan. They are also<br />
very close to Dharma Productions<br />
as well. So it was quite obvious to<br />
Starting from <strong>December</strong> 1,<br />
audiences across Asia can tune<br />
in to English-language television<br />
from Deutsche Welle (DW) in<br />
crystal-clear high definition<br />
(HD) quality. The HD channel<br />
will run parallel to DW’s<br />
standard definition (SD) channel.<br />
Tobias Grote-Beverborg, DW<br />
Distribution Executive South<br />
Asia, unveiled Deutsche Welle<br />
HD for Asian viewers at Hotel<br />
• Showtime Desk<br />
have them together, on the show<br />
with Karan anyday. Katrina Kaif<br />
and Anushka Sharma are all set to<br />
be guests on the show. Still no one<br />
has forgotten the explosive Deepika<br />
Padukone and Sonam Kapoor<br />
episode. It’s definitely time to get<br />
another episode, that is high on<br />
female energy, full of fun and fire,<br />
with Karan once again. •<br />
Tobias Grote-Beverborg, DW Distribution Executive South Asia unveils Deutsche Welle HD for Asian viewers at Hotel<br />
Westin in Capital. He has been the Distribution Executive for South Asia since May 2009. Before handling the distribution<br />
in South Asia, he was the Chief-Duty-Editor for Deutsche Welle’s services in Asia. There, he was in charge of Deutsche<br />
Welle’s content in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and English.<br />
Westin in the capital, recently.<br />
The DW HD channel will<br />
include the same schedule of<br />
quality programming on the<br />
same Asia Sat 7 satellite, with<br />
a new frequency, and will be<br />
unencrypted (free-to-air). The<br />
former SD channel will continue<br />
to be broadcast as before.<br />
At the opening ceremony,<br />
Beverborg said, “DW continues<br />
to deliver the best experience for<br />
our audience in Bangladesh and<br />
HD is an essential part of this.”<br />
The move to HD is a big part of<br />
DW’s new strategy to increase its<br />
presence in Bangladesh and, to<br />
expand its audience.<br />
Deutsche Welle (DW) is<br />
Germany’s international<br />
broadcaster and a trusted source<br />
of reliable, news and information,<br />
with content in 30 languages. The<br />
flagship channel DW provides<br />
analysis and insights to viewers<br />
around the globe, reporting on<br />
important issues in English 24/7.<br />
With continuous news, special<br />
features, and talk shows covering<br />
everything from business, science<br />
and politics to culture and sports,<br />
DW brings people closer to what<br />
matters most – made in Germany,<br />
made for minds. •
Showtime<br />
Shabana Azmi visits Dhaka<br />
31<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
WHAT TO WATCH<br />
DT<br />
• Showtime Desk<br />
Veteran Indian actress Shabana<br />
Azmi, recently visited Dhaka to<br />
take part in a private university<br />
graduation ceremony. The five<br />
times Indian National Film<br />
Awards winner joined the 11th<br />
Convocation of Brac University,<br />
held on <strong>December</strong> 5, in the capital.<br />
In the graduation ceremony,<br />
the legendary actress delivered<br />
a speech to the recent graduates.<br />
The actress said in her speech that,<br />
“One can not measure success by<br />
comparing only job and payment.<br />
Anyone can have as much money<br />
as he/she wants. However, to what<br />
extent you are successful in life<br />
could only be measured in a way<br />
that what citizen you are to the<br />
world. A physician can sing, write<br />
or paint as well which represents<br />
his/her personality. An example<br />
of success is how you involve<br />
creativity in the world.”<br />
In the ceremony, Azmi recited a<br />
poem of her father Kaifi Azmi, an<br />
Indian Urdu poet who will always<br />
be remembered for bringing<br />
Urdu literature to Indian motion<br />
pictures.<br />
“I always count on the younger<br />
generation. All you have to do is<br />
think about your dreams and how<br />
you wish to see the world in your<br />
dreams. And from now on work<br />
accordingly your dreams,” she<br />
added.<br />
Azmi, a social and women’s<br />
rights activist and a governing<br />
body member of Brac<br />
International, attended the<br />
convocation in that connection. •<br />
Real Steel<br />
Star Movies 9:30pm<br />
In the near future, robot<br />
boxing is a top sport. A<br />
struggling promoter feels<br />
he’s found a champion in a<br />
discarded robot.<br />
Cast: Hugh Jackman,<br />
Evangeline Lilly, Dakota<br />
Goyo<br />
Mission: Impossible – Rogue<br />
Nation<br />
HBO 9:30pm<br />
Ethan and team take on their<br />
most impossible mission yet,<br />
eradicating the Syndicate<br />
- an International rogue<br />
organization as highly skilled<br />
as they are, committed to<br />
destroying the IMF.<br />
Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca<br />
Ferguson, Jeremy Renner<br />
‘Last Tango in Paris’ rape scene revelation sparks outrage<br />
• Showtime Desk<br />
Marlon Brando and Maria<br />
Schneider starring - Last Tango in<br />
Paris - is making headlines again,<br />
44 years after the controversial<br />
film released. In a recently<br />
surfaced 2013 video, the director<br />
Bernardo Bertolucci admitted<br />
that the infamous rape scene in<br />
the much-lauded 1972 film was<br />
not consensual.<br />
In a Q&A filmed at La<br />
Cinémathèque française in Paris,<br />
Bertolucci, 73, admitted that he<br />
and actor Marlon Brando, who<br />
was 48 at the time, came up with<br />
the idea to use a stick of butter to<br />
rape Maria Schneider onscreen<br />
the morning of the shoot.<br />
“[I] wanted her reaction as a<br />
girl, not as an actress,” Bertolucci<br />
said. “I wanted her to react<br />
humiliated.”<br />
In 2007, Schneider, who was 58<br />
when she died in 2011, mentioned<br />
the fact that both Bertolucci and<br />
Brando had pressured her to go<br />
along with the idea. She was 19 at<br />
the time.<br />
“I should have called my agent<br />
or had my lawyer come to the set<br />
because you can’t force someone<br />
to do something that isn’t in the<br />
script, but at the time, I didn’t<br />
know that,” she once told the<br />
Daily Mail.<br />
The director’s revelation<br />
renewed outrage over what<br />
happened to Maria Schneider on the<br />
set. Jessica Chastain tweeted, “To<br />
all the people that love this filmyou’re<br />
watching a 19yr old get raped<br />
by a 48yr old man. The director<br />
planned her attack. I feel sick.”<br />
Chris Evans also joined the<br />
outrage saying, “Wow. I will never<br />
look at this film, Bertolucci or<br />
Brando the same way again. This<br />
is beyond disgusting. I feel rage.”<br />
Anna Kendrick weighed in that<br />
she “used to get eye-rolls” when<br />
she brought the incident up to<br />
people previously and that she<br />
was “glad at least it will be taken<br />
seriously now.”•<br />
Lethal Weapon 2<br />
WB 5:28pm<br />
Riggs and Murtaugh are on<br />
the trail of South African<br />
diplomats who are using<br />
their immunity to engage in<br />
criminal activities.<br />
Cast: Mel Gibson, Danny<br />
Glover, Joe Pesci<br />
National Treasure: Book of<br />
Secrets<br />
Zee Studio 7:05pm<br />
Benjamin Gates must follow<br />
a clue left in John Wilkes<br />
Booth’s diary to prove his<br />
ancestor’s innocence in the<br />
assassination of Abraham<br />
Lincoln.<br />
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Diane<br />
Kruger, Juston Bartha<br />
WALL-E<br />
Movies Now 9:30pm<br />
In the distant future, a<br />
small waste-collecting robot<br />
inadvertently embarks on<br />
a space journey that will<br />
ultimately decide the fate of<br />
mankind.<br />
Cast: Ben Burtt, Elissa<br />
Knight, Jeff Garlin
32<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, <strong>2016</strong><br />
DT<br />
EUROPE SUFFERS ITALIAN BLOW<br />
BUT BIGGER TESTS LOOM PAGE 10<br />
Back Page<br />
OIL TOPS $55 FOR<br />
FIRST TIME PAGE 13<br />
THE POISON THORN<br />
FLIES TO UKRAINE PAGE 30<br />
Korail fire: Hundreds made homeless<br />
• SM Najmus Sakib<br />
Since the fire razed almost 500<br />
homes in Korail slum on Sunday<br />
making hundreds of people homeless,<br />
many of them are now squatting<br />
near their burnt down homes,<br />
sleeping on the ground without a<br />
roof over their head.<br />
Rohima Begum, 55, a resident<br />
of the slum for 15 years lost<br />
everything in the fire.<br />
She spent the right sleeping next<br />
to what used to be her home on a<br />
cold <strong>December</strong> right with just the<br />
clothes on her back having to rely<br />
on the kindness of strangers for<br />
survival now.<br />
“We slept on the ground that<br />
was wet from fog and dew last<br />
night,” she said.<br />
For the last two days the victims<br />
of the fire have been living under<br />
makeshift tents and food provided<br />
by NGOs and some locals.<br />
Volunteer working there said<br />
only about 100 blankets have arrived<br />
so far and the pledges made<br />
by the government and NGOs have<br />
yet to pour in.<br />
Shahenur Banu, said she had<br />
lost all of her belongings including<br />
Tk3 lakh in cash, 15 house, 3 refrigerator,<br />
a computer, an oven which<br />
were her source of income.<br />
Her physically disabled son also<br />
lost a tea stall and a makeshift shop<br />
Artistes with borders<br />
NEWS<br />
ANALYSIS<br />
• Tanim Ahmed<br />
The government has bowed to pressure and<br />
agreed to ban the advertising of Bangladeshi<br />
products on foreign television channels.<br />
The rationale is presumably that if foreign TV<br />
channels receive advertisement revenue from<br />
local manufacturers then the local TV channels<br />
lose out on what might have been spent on advertisements<br />
in those outlets.<br />
This demand was part of a five-point charter<br />
that a platform of television artistes, Federation<br />
of Television Professionals’ Organisation<br />
(FTPO), put forward with a deadline of <strong>December</strong><br />
31.<br />
Now that local products are banned from<br />
being advertised on foreign channels that are<br />
geared towards Bangladeshi markets, the local<br />
manufacturers might also raise a similar demand<br />
in reverse - a ban on the advertising of foreign<br />
goods on local channels. They could argue that<br />
Charred remains of a part of Korail slum after it was burnt in a fire on Sunday<br />
in the fire.<br />
The victims fear that the aid<br />
provided by the government and<br />
NGO will never arrive as influential<br />
locals might steal them.<br />
Local said fire started at 2:30pm<br />
and the fire fighting crew reached<br />
the spot at 2:50pm and was put out<br />
at 4:20pm. They said most of them<br />
could not save their belongings as<br />
they could not take boats ashore.<br />
Imran Hossain who ran mess<br />
boarded a boat with 28 tenants,<br />
RAJIB DHAR<br />
mostly rickshaw puller, auto driver,<br />
footpath vendors and garment<br />
workers are not living in one single<br />
wet congested room without a<br />
roof.<br />
Shamim Hossain, research<br />
manager of Urban Development<br />
Programme at Brac said, they sent<br />
their team to the spot shortly after<br />
the incident and provided them<br />
with first aid.<br />
“We (city dwellers) could not<br />
give them due respect (slum dwellers)<br />
although they are contributing<br />
so much to the economy and our<br />
lives.”<br />
The Korail slum the largest slum<br />
in the city with around 300,000 of<br />
residents. The slum sit on a land<br />
owned by Bangladesh Telecommunications<br />
Company Limited (BTCL)<br />
has avoided several eviction attempts<br />
by authorities over the years.<br />
This was the second fire that<br />
engulfed Korail slum this year, the<br />
first one was in March. •<br />
foreign products, with their substantially higher<br />
advertisement budgets, are driving rates high<br />
and depriving local products from much needed<br />
airtime.<br />
Therefore, they could argue that companies<br />
like Samsung and Nestle should not be allowed<br />
airtime on local channels if Pran is not allowed<br />
airtime on foreign channels.<br />
No doubt it would be a lame argument. No<br />
one is raising the issue of the quality and popularity<br />
of TV shows.<br />
While Zee Bangla and Star Jalsha, both Bangla<br />
channels, have caught the hearts of Bangladeshi<br />
households with their serials, Bangladeshi producers<br />
and artistes have failed to do that.<br />
Even as the television artistes continue their<br />
campaign against popular shows and local commercials<br />
on foreign channels, they have hardly<br />
made any demand to help them raise their quality<br />
of production. There has been hardly any talk<br />
about the pathetic standards of most of the local<br />
television channels.<br />
It appears to completely escape the TV professionals<br />
that their shows are not popular. That<br />
people flock around the television to watch soap<br />
serials produced in West Bengal does not appear<br />
to worry them at all. They are only bent on depriving<br />
advertisers from the mileage instead of<br />
upping their game. They are bent on depriving<br />
people from popular shows instead of producing<br />
shows that beat the foreign ones.<br />
This must be a rare instance that media artistes<br />
who are often the harbinger of openness<br />
and liberty are demonstrating such a constricted<br />
and narrow vision that pushes for banning others<br />
just so that they do not feel threatened.<br />
If the demands of TV artistes were to be<br />
translated into another industry - publishing,<br />
for example - it would mean that Bangladeshi<br />
writers were pushing<br />
for a ban on translations.<br />
They would<br />
also be moving for a<br />
ban on all advertisement<br />
of Bangladeshi<br />
products on foreign<br />
websites, meaning<br />
that people would be<br />
barred from advertising<br />
through Google<br />
and Facebook.<br />
It is needless to<br />
explain such obtuse<br />
folly. •<br />
Four youths<br />
including 2<br />
NSU students<br />
go missing<br />
• Kamrul Hasan<br />
Four youths aged between 22 and<br />
25 including two students of NSU<br />
have been missing since <strong>December</strong><br />
1 from Banani where they were last<br />
sighted dining at a restaurant.<br />
Safayet Hossain, Zayen Hossain<br />
Khan Pavel, Sujon, and Mehedi<br />
were last seen at a restaurant next<br />
to a Northern University campus<br />
in Banani. Safayet and Pavel are<br />
enrolled at North South University<br />
(NSU). Sujon is known to have been<br />
working at a private firm in Banani.<br />
No solid information has been<br />
discovered about Mehedi.<br />
The police say Safayet and Pavel<br />
went to eat at Northern Cafe in<br />
Banani on <strong>December</strong> 1 evening.<br />
They were joined by Sujon. After<br />
their meal, the three friends left and<br />
have not seen since. Only after the<br />
investigation began it was found<br />
that Mehedi, one of their friends,<br />
was also missing.<br />
Their families reported not receiving<br />
any phone calls demanding<br />
ransom, which makes the incident<br />
seem less likely as a kidnapping.<br />
Banani Inspector (Investigations)<br />
Waheduzzaman told the Dhaka<br />
Tribune that police began looking<br />
into the matter after the GD was<br />
filed by Pavel’s father on <strong>December</strong><br />
4. Police had checked with other<br />
law enforcement agencies to see if<br />
they were being detained.<br />
“As things stand currently, we<br />
cannot call them criminals at this<br />
juncture,” Inspector Waheduzzaman<br />
said.<br />
Pavel is a student at the Electrical<br />
and Electronic Engineering<br />
department of NSU. Safayet was a<br />
student of NSU too but he took a<br />
break from his studies to help out<br />
his father with the family business<br />
in Puran Dhaka. •<br />
Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial Office: FR Tower,<br />
8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com