SECOND EDITION

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016 | Chaitra 26, 1422, Rajab 1, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 354 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

INSI

DE

PROPOSED INDIAN NATIONAL WATERWAYS 1 PROJECT

Jharkhand

Orissa

Madhya Pradesh

Bihar

WestBengal

Kolkata

Pakur

Munger

Chapra Kosir

Haldia

Patna

Declared waterwayLegend:

Terminal

River distancesHaldia (sagar)-FarakkaFarakka-Patna 460kmPatna-Length 600kmTotal Length 1620km

560km

VaramasiGhazipur

Tanda

AllahabadJamuna river

Uttar Pradesh

NORTHGanges river

Berhampur

Ganges river

FarakkaBhagalpur

BalliaTonu’s close ones quizzed againFamily and friends of Tonu have been interrogated again by the Criminal Investigation Depart-ment. PAGE 3

Hopes and fears over Ganges projectBihar representatives are up in arms against a plan by the Indian central government to build 15 small barrages on the Ganges. PAGE 32

Keraniganj ready for central jail shift The Dhaka Central Jail’s new complex in Tegharia, Keraniganj, will soon become operational, with all male prisoners transferred there. PAGE 5

n Anwar Hussain and Adil Sakhawat from Banshkhali

The locals of Banshkhali who joined the pre-scheduled anti-coal plant rally at Gondamara on Mon-day afternoon were not aware of the ban on gathering slapped by the administration only hours ago.

They were also in the dark about the counter-rally announced for the same venue and time by the rival group that comprises mem-bers of the ruling party and some supporters of the proposed power plant.

This is why they could not antic-ipate that the law enforcers might prevent them from gathering on the West Gondamara Primary School premises, and open � re causing massive casualties.

Four people were killed by gun-shots and over 30 others sustained injuries on that day after the law enforcers and the pro-coal plant supporters attacked them to foil the demonstration, witnesses say.

The upazila administration claims that they imposed Section 144 in the morning and announced it through loudspeakers in the area. Locals, however, refuted the claim saying they did not hear any an-nouncement.

Local police claim that they were compelled to open � re as the protesters armed with local � re-arms and sharp weapons wanted

to defy the ban and turned unruly against the law enforcers. But the deaths occurred due to gun� ghts among the two rival groups.

The locals say that they an-nounced the protest rally on Mon-day morning after learning that around seven of the protesters had been picked up by the police the previous night.

Earlier some 30,000 protest-

ers gathered at Gondamara and exchanged views with the repre-sentatives of the police and the ad-ministration on March 23. They de-manded that the government shift the plant away from the crowded area as it would a� ect some 7,000 households and other establish-ments.

Despite that, the pro-plant sup-porters went to the area on April 2

and subsequently faced resistance by the villagers. A case was � led over the protest the next day based on which the police detained seven people.

Banshkhali lawmaker Mosta� -zur Rahman on Thursday blamed local BNP leader Liakat Ali, who is also the convenor of the anti-plant committee, for the clashes and

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Banshkhali was unaware of rally ban'Scrap power plant project by today'n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

The locals of Banshkhali agitating against the proposed 1,224MW coal power plant by S Alam Group issued an ultimatum yesterday asking the authorities to scrap the project by this evening.

Liakat Ali, convener of the Homestead and Graveyard Pro-tection Committee, made the an-nouncement from a condolence rally held on the West Gondamara Primary School premises to pay re-spect to the four protesters killed on Monday.

“I want to make it clear that this is not a movement of any political party. Rather, it is the movement of the people. I urge the prime minis-ter to give a second thought to the proposed project before the prob-lem deepens. Please resolve the problem without further delay,” said Liakat, also the former chair-man of Gondamara Union.

He also announced to lay siege to the UNO o� ce tomorrow morning wearing burial clothes if the project was not cancelled by the deadline.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Members of rights bodies and environmental groups listening to the locals at Gondamara of Banshkhali about Monday’s killings and their concerns regarding the planned 1,224MW coal-based power plant in the area DHAKA TRIBUNE

AQIS claims murderof Nazimuddinn AFP

A Bangladesh branch of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) on Friday claimed responsibility for the murder of a secular activist af-ter he criticised Islamists on social media, a US monitoring group said, as the government vowed to catch his killers.

Ansar al-Islam said its opera-tives were behind the murder of Nazimuddin Samad, a 26-year-

old law student who was killed Wednesday in Dhaka by assailants carrying machetes, SITE Intelli-gence Group said.

“This operation was conducted to teach a lesson to the blasphem-ers of this land whose poisonous tongues are constantly abusing Al-lah ... the religion of Islam and the Messenger ... under the pretext of so-called ‘freedom of speech’,” Muf-ti Abdullah Ashraf, a spokesman

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

US considers refuge for bloggersn Tribune Desk

The United States has condemned as “barbaric” the latest killing in Bangladesh of an outspoken op-ponent of radical Islam and said it is considering granting refuge to a select number of bloggers who face imminent danger.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Thursday strongly condemned the murder of Nazi-muddin Samad and told reporters the US o� ers “unwavering support to the Bangladeshi people in their struggle against violent extrem-ism,” reports the Associated Press.

Assailants hacked and shot to death 28-year-old law student Nazim on Wednesday night on a street in Dhaka. The unidenti� ed attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “Allah is great,” and escaped by motorcycle.

At least � ve secular bloggers and publishers were killed in sim-ilar attacks last year. That has heightened concern that religious extremists are getting a foothold in Bangladesh, a Muslim country with traditions of secularism and tolerance, and that authorities are failing to provide protection.

In December, US-based human

rights groups urged the US to o� er “humanitarian parole” for Bangla-deshi writers targeted by extrem-ists for their secular beliefs. Karin Deutsch Karlekar of PEN America reiterated that call to the US and other countries Thursday, saying that Nazim’s killing “is a cruel illus-tration of the costs of inaction.”

Mark Toner said that humani-tarian parole for a select number of bloggers who continue to be under “imminent danger” is one option under consideration, but referred questions on it to the Homeland Security Department.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

News2DTSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

‘Scrap power plant project by today’At least four protesters were killed in gunshots and over 30 others in-jured on Monday afternoon when the anti-plant agitators were gath-ering on the school ground protest-ing against arrests and intimida-tion.

The local administration im-posed a ban on gatherings Monday morning, a proposition refuted by the protesters.

State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid on Thurs-day hinted that the government would not have any objection rath-er would cooperate if S Alam Group wanted to shift the power plant to any other location.

Meanwhile, members of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, and some rights bodies vis-ited Banshkhali and talked to the a� ected people. From a press brief-

ing at Chittagong Press Club yester-day evening, they blamed the gov-ernment and the plant authorities for the deaths of the protesters.

Prof Anu Muhammad, the mem-ber secretary of the committee, de-manded that the government back o� from any environmentally-haz-ardous project. He also demanded an independent committee to in-vestigate the killings.

“We do not want to see any probe committee that will cover up the whole issue. We will not accept any investigation which will turn out to be a farce,” he said.

“S Alam Group must bear all the medical expenses of the injured and compensate the deceased. Moreover, the false and fabricated cases � led against hundreds of vil-lagers must be withdrawn without any delay,” he said.

Prof Anu alleged that the plant

authorities had not followed the due process to implement the project. “The residents of the area have the right to know the impact of the proposed plant.

“The Banshkhali incident sends a clear message to the government that a coercive measure does not yield any result. The policymak-ers of the government should take lesson from the incident,” he said, alleging that the supporters of S Alam Group had established a reign of terror since the beginning of the project.

He suggested that the govern-ment look for alternatives to coal considering its harmful environ-mental impacts. “We can exploit gas from the Bay of Bengal and set up solar and wind power projects. But the government always looks for some astronomically expensive projects which paves the way for

corruption,” he noted.Earlier, the committee members

held a protest rally on the Cen-tral Shaheed Minar premises and brought a procession in the city.

During their visit to Bansh-khali, the 10-member committee that also included rights activist Sultana Kamal spoke to the locals and expressed solidarity with their concerns over the possible adverse impact of the coal-� red plant.

Sultana Kamal said that the gov-ernment must pay heed to the de-mands of the people.

“The government will have to pay the price if it plays the role of a silent spectator. Any project that may pose a serious threat to the livelihood of the people and the ecological balance must be scrapped. Development should be meant for all the members of the society,” she said. l

Banshkhali was unaware of rally bandeaths on Monday. He, however, declared Tk10 lakh compensation for each of the victims.

During a visit to Banshkhali on Thursday and yesterday, the Dhaka Tribune reporters talked to sever-al local people who alleged that the deaths and injuries could have been avoided had the authorities announced the ban.

Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Moham-mad Shamsuzzaman said they im-posed the ban on gatherings fear-ing a clash since two rival groups had called rally at the same place and time.

“I am not concerned over the coal-based power plant. I am re-sponsible for maintaining law and order. The ban was imposed for three days and for this the villag-

ers were alerted. But when they entered the village, tried to remove police barricades and attacked po-lice, the law enforcers were com-pelled to open � re to save lives and properties,” the UNO said.

But the villagers claimed that they only wanted to protest against the detention of seven people and had no idea about any rival group’s counter-rally.

A shopkeeper near the school said that no protester was alerted about the ban. Section 144 was im-posed when the protesters started to gather at the venue.

Another villager said the pro-testers were angry seeing obstruc-tions put up by the police. At that time, they threw bricks at the law enforcers for supporting the goons

of the coal plant authorities.He said that the local adminis-

tration had slapped the ban just af-ter the clash only to save their face and justify the killings.

Liakat Ali told the Dhaka Trib-une that the UNO o� ce had not informed the organisers about im-posing the ban. “The local admin-istration and the police are now spreading false information. The locals did not have any idea about it,” said BNP leader Liakat, who is also a former UP chairman of Gon-damara.

“We would have not joined the rally had they [administration] informed us about the ban,” said local madrasa teacher Md Nurul Kabir.

Bodi Ahmed, who lost his broth-

er and son-in-law on Monday, said: “The S Alam Group has engaged some brokers to force us to sell o� our arable lands. To intimidate us, their goons picked up several pro-testers on Sunday night.”

UNO Shamsuzzaman, however, claimed that the locals were telling lies about the ban. “However, we will not spare the perpetrators,” he said.

“We were left with no other option but to open � re in self-de-fence. Hundreds of people armed with locally made � rearms and sharp weapons swooped on us,” OC Swapan Kumar Majumder said.

“People did not die in police � ring. Rather they were killed dur-ing the gun� ght between two rival groups,” he claimed. l

US considers refuge for bloggersShin Inouye, press secretary at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is responsible for administering such cases, declined to comment about any speci� c re-quests for humanitarian parole, cit-ing privacy rules.

Humanitarian parole is used sparingly to bring a person into the US for a temporary period of time due to a compelling emergency.

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcon-tinent (AQIS) has claimed respon-sibility for the killing of Nazim, a supporter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.

Bangladeshi police said they suspect Nazim was targeted for his outspoken atheism and for sup-porting capital punishment for war crimes committed during the inde-pendence war against Pakistan in 1971. Hasina’s government set up special tribunals to try war crimes cases, including against senior leaders of an opposition, Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.

The government has accused the opposition of supporting reli-gious radicals it blames for the at-tacks on bloggers, minority Shiites, Christians and foreigners. Some of the attacks were claimed by Dae’sh or the Islamic State group, but the government dismisses those claims and says the Sunni extremist group has no presence in the country.

Democratic Rep Joe Crowley of New York, chair of US congres-sional Bangladesh Caucus, called the attacks on bloggers “extreme-ly concerning” and said they were having a chilling e� ect on freedom of religious expression and speech in the South Asian country. l

AQIS claims murder of Nazimuddinfor Ansar al-Islam, said in a state-ment.

Hundreds of secular activists held a protest earlier in the day to demand action for Nazim’s death, the latest in a string of murders of secular blog-gers and campaigners in Bangladesh.

The murders have sparked in-ternational outrage and demands for the government to protect free-dom of speech in the Muslim-ma-

jority country.Police yesterday � led a murder

case and said they were treating his death as a “targeted killing,” although no arrests have yet been made.

Abu Hena Muneem, a senior Home Ministry o� cial, dismissed claims the government was fail-ing to protect secularists and said the authorities were doing all they

could to track down Nazim’s killers.“The accusations are not cor-

rect. Our law enforcement agencies are working very hard to � nd the culprits and they will soon be ar-rested,” Muneem told AFP.

Activists, however, expressed concerns about the government’s readiness to protect them as they held a protest march in the capital.

Around 400 people chanted slo-

gans including “stop the culture of impunity, save secular Bangladesh.”

“It is very worrying,” said Im-ran H Sarker, the spokesperson for Bangladesh’s biggest secular activ-ists’ group Gonojagoron Moncho. “We wonder whether the govern-ment actually has the goodwill to put an end to this.”

His childhood friend and fellow activist Gulam Rabbi Chowdhury

said he had gone into hiding be-fore the attack and deactivated his Facebook account for a number of months.

Nazim’s murder was the sixth such killing in 15 months.

AQIS previously claimed re-sponsibility for the murder of Avijit Roy, an American atheist blogger who was hacked to death in Dhaka in February last year. l

JnU student Nazimuddin Samad buriedn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Jagannath University student Na-zimuddin Samad, who was killed by suspected militants in Dhaka on Wednesday night, has been laid to rest at his village home in Sylhet, his family says.

His body was taken to Boraut village in Bianibazar on yester-

day morning. He was buried at his family graveyard after a namaz-e-janaza at the local mosque, his un-cle Sadek Ahmed Sajal said.

Nazim, � fth among his seven sib-lings, was also a pro-Awami League activist. He campaigned for secular-ism on Facebook and was critical of radical Islamists, his friends said.

A pall of gloom descended on

the village when his body was taken there. His mother and sisters fainted several times while mourning his loss.

The 28-year-old, also a Gono-jagoron Moncho activist, was hacked and shot to death by sus-pected radicals at Sutrapur. Police say the pattern of the attack re-sembled recent assaults by banned militant out� t Ansarullah Bangla

Team and that the killers were pro-fessionals. No militant organisa-tion has claimed responsibility.

Meanwhile, a murder case was � led with Sutrapur police on Thursday night by Sub-Inspector Nurul Islam, Investigation O� cer Inspector Samir Chandra Sutrod-hor said.

Samir told Dhaka Tribune that

they were investigating the case considering all possible aspects. Police also quizzed Sohel Ahmed, who went for a walk with the vic-tim before the attack. Shop own-ers near the murder spot have also been questioned.

“We are still looking into the mat-ter,” the police o� cer said. “We are yet to make any breakthrough.” l

News 3D

TSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Tonu’s family and friends quizzed againn Mohiuddin Molla,

Comilla

The family and friends of So-hagi Jahan Tonu have been interrogated again by the CID, which is yet to make any sig-ni� cant progress in its inves-tigation.

Tonu’s elder brother Naz-mul Hossain, cousin Laizu Jahan, friend Manisha, and cantonment board sta� Is-mail Hossain were brought in for questioning at the Comilla Criminal Investigation De-partment o� ce, where they were kept between 8:30am and 11am yesterday.

Laizu told law enforcers that Tonu had been harassed over mobile phone by some-one named Pial. The CID team visited the Mainamati Can-tonment later in the day.

Tonu’s father Yaar Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that the investigating team was often fetching them to ask the same questions, but never giving them any update about the case.

Tonu’s brother and cousin

were asked the same ques-tions as before when they went to the CID yesterday, Yaar said, adding that such line of questioning is making him concerned about the out-come of the probe.

Earlier this month, the CID team led by Special Superin-tendent of Police Abdul Kahar Akond inspected the place where Tonu’s body was found and interrogated Tonu’s par-ents, the examining doctor, nurses and several others.

On Thursday, the probe team, along with Comilla CID, interrogated � ve army per-sonnel from the Mainamati Cantonment.

Comilla zone SSP Nazmul Karim Khan said they were trying to � gure out which army men were on duty on the day of the murder near the place where Tonu’s body was found. He said several others will also be questioned.

Tonu, a second-year stu-dent of Comilla Victoria Gov-ernment College, was found dead near her home inside the cantonment on March 20. l

Engr suspended for using bamboo in constructionn Our Correspondent,

Chuadanga

A deputy assistant engineer has been suspended after it was revealed that bamboo was used instead of rod for the construction of a new building of the Department of Agricultural Extension at Darshana in Chuadanga’s Da-murhuda upazila.

Subrata Biswas was super-vising the construction pro-ject of building, estimated to cost around Tk1.5 crore.

Also, a three-member probe committee of the de-partment from Dhaka visited the building yesterday after the anomaly was revealed by some local men.

The men hit the pillars with hammers, which is when the use of bamboo in place of rod was exposed.

Locals said the contractor tried to manage them not to make the irregularity public; however James, a represent-ative of the � rm, refused to comment on the allegation.

Subrata, who was sus-pended yesterday, said he had been on leave for the last three to four days for elec-tions and had no knowledge of what had happened.

He also said construction of the building began on Decem-ber 1 last year and the contract was awarded to Joy Interna-tional, a Dhaka-based � rm owned by Mani Singh. “70% of the building is completed.”

Kamrun Nahar Mita, a DoE o� cial, said "After I found what had happened, I ordered to break the pillars. I also in-formed the higher authorities and asked them to take the next steps.” l

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016News4DT

Two armed men heldn Tribune Report

Members of Rapid Action Battalion arrested two persons with � rearms from the city’s Gopalbag Biswaroad check-post early yesterday.

The arrested were Na-hid Serniabad, 30, son of Barisal’s late Sirajul Haque, and his associate Moham-mad Zubair Alam, 29, son of late Iftekharul Alam from Gopalganj. RAB also recovered a foreign pis-tol, a magazine and two rounds of ammunition.

They were arrested from in front of Raj Furni-ture in the area when they were crossing a RAB 10 check-post, said ASP Mi-

zanur Rahman Bhuiyan, assistant director of RAB Media and Legal Wing.

He said the RAB team challenged the two as their movement looked suspicious. They were on a CNG-run autorick-shaw which the team also seized, he added.

The two were accused in a tender snatching inci-dent which took place on March 4 this year in Ba-risal’s LGED o� ce. They snatched Tk1.68 crore that was deposited as bank guarantee for the tender.

They were also ac-cused in several snatch-ing, land grabbing and extortion cases in the area, the ASP said. l

2 sweepers found dead in Faridpur n Tribune Report

Police have recovered the bodies of two municipality sweepers from Khabashpur Miapara Road in Farid-pur.

The deceased are Manik Jam-addar, 28, and his brother-in-law Bharat Jamaddar, 23, residents of Harijan Polli in Alipur area, reports UNB.

Kotwali police SI Enayet Hossain said locals spotted the bodies on the road while they were going to mosque for Fajr prayers yesterday.

“We recovered the bodies and sent them to Faridpur Medical College morgue. The bodies bore several stab marks. They might have been stabbed to death while they were cleaning the road in the morning.” l

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016News 5

DT

PRAYERTIMES

Cox’s Bazar 33 26Dhaka 39 26 Chittagong 33 27 Rajshahi 41 27 Rangpur 39 23 Khulna 41 28 Barisal 38 27 Sylhet 33 22T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:18PM SUN RISES 5:42AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW39.2ºC 21.0ºC

Chuadanga SylhetSATURDAY, APRIL 9Source: IslamicFinder.org

Fajr: 4:23am | Zohr: 12:00pmAsr: 3:28pm | Magrib: 6:21pmEsha: 7:48pm

PARTLY CLOUDY

Keraniganj ready for central jail shiftn Kamrul Hasan

The Dhaka Central Jail’s new com-plex in Tegharia, Keraniganj, some eight kilometres away from the capital, will soon become oper-ational, with all male prisoners transferred there from the current prison in Old Dhaka.

The complex will be inaugu-rated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 10, jail authorities announced yesterday morning at a press brie� ng at its headquarters in Bakshibazar.

Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin said preparations for the inauguration of the new jail complex was com-plete. The portion for male inmates of the complex, which is almost 90% complete, will be inaugurated by the prime minister.

The IG Prisons said the jail was being moved to solve prisoner ac-commodation problems.

Female prisoners will be shifted to Kashimpur Jail until the unit for them is complete, the IG said, add-ing that he was hoping the work will be complete by 2017.

“The moving of furniture and documents can be completed in

several phases. The task of transfer-ring inmates will be carried out in a single day, possibly over a weekend, so that vehicles from all prisons can be used for the purpose.

“The move can take place on a suitable day this month following consultation with di� erent law en-forcement agencies,” he said.

State authorities implemented the project in Tegharia union in Keraniganj on a 194.41 acre area at

a cost of Tk406.34 crore.IG Iftekhar Uddin admitted that

they had many limitations but it was set to start a fresh move to-wards modernisation of the coun-try’s prisons.

Iftekhar said the entire prisons administration was running with only � ve � rst class o� cers, causing a severe supervision problem.

“A proposal was passed on de-ploying 3,107 o� cials and person-

nel at the prisons and once it is approved by the cabinet, I hope the problems will be solved,” he said.

Answering a question about mobile phone use by inmates, the IG Prisons said if the jails had con-tinuous power supply, they could deploy mobile network jamming technologies.

“But without continuous electric-ity it will not be possible,” he said.

The prison at a glance The newly built jail is some 250 metres from the Dhaka-Mawa Highway. The eight buildings have been named the same as those in the old jail. The six-storey build-ings have � ve rooms on each � oor and a toilet. Each room will house 12 prisoners. Six of the buildings are for prisoners under trial – Ko-rotoya, Karnaphuli, Motihar, Pad-ma, Meghna and Jamuna.

Motihar and Padma are still un-der construction.

Two buildings are for convicts – Madhumati and Rupsa, the lat-ter still being under construction. Each building has one kitchen.

There are four high security cells - Banaful, Bakul, Shapla and Sur-jomukhi. High risk criminals such

as militants will be kept in these. Every room there houses only one prisoner. The new prison will also have a cell for adolescent prisoners named Surma and a VIP cell named Chompakoli.

The prison complex for female inmates is separate from the rest. A portion of the boundary wall has been completed and construction is underway. The unit will accom-modate 200 female prisoners.

In the new jail the gallows are surrounded by a boundary so that no one can look in. The building that will house notorious crimi-nals is coloured di� erently for easy identi� cation.

The guards and prison o� cials will be housed in 20 buildings that are under construction. 17 six sto-ried buildings for the chief prison guards and guards, one four-storey building for the deputy jailor, one three-storey building for jailors and the resident doctor. And a bar-rack named Durjoy with a capacity for some 400 guards.

The jail also has a solar power sys-tem and a mosque. A school and a park just outside the boundary are in the plans but have not begun because of a legal dispute over the land. l

HSC exam centre a cheating havenn SM Rezaul Karim, Jhalakathi

Adakhola Secondary School in Jhalakathi’s Rajapur upazila , an exam centre for the ongoing Higher Second-ary Certi� cate (HSC) examinations, is a cheating haven for exam takers where the invigilating teachers help students cheat.

Hearing the rumours, this corre-spondent visited the centre on Tuesday and found that the rumours were indeed true.

The scheduled test on Tuesday was Business Management test under the Technical Education Board. At total of 257 examinees from four colleges took the exam at the centre that day.

At almost every room in the centre, students were seen consulting book pages that the invigilators allowed them to take inside to write their exams. In some rooms, the invigilators went a step ahead and wrote on the board the answers to tricky questions that the stu-dents could not � gure out themselves.

While the invigilators helped the ex-aminees inside the exam rooms, the hall secretary stood guard in the hallways, alerting the students and teachers of a visiting magistrate or journalist ap-proaching the rooms.

When the hall secretary saw this cor-respondent, they rushed to the exam rooms to alert the examinees. Entering a room, this correspondent saw students hastily stashing the book pages under the table. When this correspondent tried to take photos of the black board, the in-vigilators promptly left the room.

An HSC examinee, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that their college teachers took an extra Tk500 from each student as the “cheating fee” when they collected the admit card for the exam.

“They [the college teachers] have an understanding with both the exam authorities and the exam centres. They ensure that the examinees get all the help they need during the exams,” the examinee said.

This correspondent later went to speak with the hall magistrate who was in charge of the exam centre.

The magistrate, Md Al-Amin Hossain,

an o� cial of Ekti Bari, Ekti Khamar project in the area, was found sitting in the library.

“I am trying to ensure a good exam environment. You should understand: these students are weak,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

The hall secretary, Rezaul Karim, seemed o� ended that a journalist was in the exam centre. “It is not any of a journalist’s business what happens in the exam centre. Journalists cannot en-ter an exam centre. We do try to help the students a little bit, but not in exchange of money. I stand guard in the hallway to monitor the exam, not for anything else,” he said.

Later, he tried to convince this corre-spondent not to publish this report by o� ering a hefty sum of money.

This correspondent contacted Ra-japur Upazila Nirbahi O� cer ABM Sadiqur Rahman, who said: “There is no scope for cheating in any exam. Strict action will be taken against everyone who is involved in this ill practice.”

When contacted, Rajapur police sta-tion OC Monirul Gias said he did not about the rampant cheating. “If some-one � les an o� cial complaint, we will look into this matter.”

No one at the board was available for a comment when this report was � led. l

The new central jail complex at Keraniganj awaits its inauguration by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 10 RAJIB DHAR

‘I am trying to ensure a good exam environment. You should understand: these students are weak’

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016News6DT

BD keen to boost export to Manipur, other Indian Statesn UNB

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, now in the Indian State of Manipur, yesterday said Bangladesh wants to export its quality products to Manipur and adjacent region.

“Bangladesh’s exportable goods have earned reputation in the global market,” he said expressing Bangladesh’s interest to export fur-niture, readymade garments, phar-maceuticals, foodstu� and other products as per demand.

The commerce minister said this in a meeting with Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh at the latter’s o� ce, said a PID handout yesterday.

Tofail said both Bangladesh and India would be bene� ted if Bangla-desh’s export to Manipur and other North East States.

He mentioned that India is pro-

viding duty- and quota-free market access to Bangladeshi products for reducing trade gap between the two countries.

“But, the export didn’t reach ex-pected level due to the imposition of countervailing duties in some cases,” Tofail said adding that Ma-nipur will be able to import Bang-

ladeshi products at a cheaper rates if the problem is resolved through discussions.

Countervailing duties (CVDs), also known as anti-subsidy duties, are trade import duties imposed under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules to neutralise the neg-ative e� ects of subsidies.

Manipur chief minister appre-ciated Bangladesh’s socioeconom-ic development and said his State also keen to have stronger trade ties with Bangladesh. “There’s huge demand for Bangladeshi products in Manipur.”

The Bangladesh Minister at-tended the “Northeast Asean Busi-ness Summit 2016” in Manipur on Thursday.

An 18-member trade delegation, led by FBCCI President Abdul Mat-lub Ahmad, is also attending the three-day business summit. l

2 health information mobile apps launched n BSS

Aponjon, a mobile health messag-ing service for mothers and new-borns, has launched two mobile phone apps for expectant mothers and adolescent girls to provide necessary health information ser-vices, ensuring healthy life.

The two mobile phone apps -- Aponjon Shogorbha and Aponjon Koishor -- have been developed to meet health needs of expectant mothers and adolescent girls, said Chief Executive O� cer of D.net Dr Ananya Raihan at the launching function at Spectra Convention Centre in the capital on Thursday.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat, Ad-ditional Director General of Health Services Prof Dr Abul Lakam Azad and Director of Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Dr Ishtiaq Mannan ad-dressed the function, among others.

Palak said: “We have developed massive collectivity to expand e-health. Upazila-level hospitals and health complexes are enjoying advancement of ICT to provide bet-ter health care facilities to people.”

The ICT Division launched tele-medicine centers at upazi-la-level health complexes to ensure the access of the people especially rural people to better medical ser-vices, he said. “We have a plan to scale up e-health services to bring rural folks under health care facil-ities.”

Marcia Bernicat said: “Despite very impressive successes in re-ducing maternal and child mortal-ity, Bangladesh’s mortality � gures, especially for newborns remain too high.” Improving the nutrition and care, a woman receives during pregnancy, delivery and after birth will not only save lives but also re-sult in healthier, stronger mothers and newborns, she added. l

‘Export didn’t reach expected level due to the imposition of countervailing duties in some cases’

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016News 7

DT

Construction of most tanneries incomplete n Nadim Hossain, Savar

Despite repeatedly missing dead-lines, the relocation of industrial units of tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar Tannery estate remains uncertain as the construction of most tanneries at Savar, in the outskirts of the capital, is yet to be completed.

Moreover, construction of the Central E� uent Treatment Plant (CETP) is un� nished, making the process more di� cult, said tannery owners.

Tannery owners said they can-not run their business as the gov-ernment has deployed police to stop rawhide supplies from enter-ing Hazaribagh’s tanners.

This was done since traders failed to relocate their factories to the newly-built Savar Industrial Park within the stipulated dead-line, which ended on March 31.

During a visit yesterday to the leather industry at Hemayetpur in Savar, this correspondent found most tanneries were still under construction.

Construction on a few tanneries has been completed from 60% to 70%. Their owners said they still need over three months to � nish the work on the tanneries.

Construction has been complet-ed on only a few factories. Their owners said they only have elec-tricity connection, and need gas as well as water supply connections to start production.

Apart from this, construction work on many tanneries is yet to start.

The government decided to transfer the tanneries from the cap-ital’s Hazaribagh area to Savar amid pressure from environmental activ-ists. The decision was taken because the tanneries are harming public health and the environment, as their owners would dump untreated toxic waste into the Buriganga River and in surrounding areas.

To faciliate the relocation, the government allocated plots to 155 tannery owners at the industrial

park set up on a 200-acre land. Many tannery owners said the

government has yet to provide them with the legal papers of those plots. Thus, the traders cannot get loans from banks as well as begin construction of their factories.

Shah Emran Patowary, owner of the under-construction Mess-ers Lien Enterprise, told the Dhaka Tribune that most factories had not yet gotten gas and water connec-tions. Only a few received electrici-ty connections.

“To start production at the fac-tories, we need gas, electricity and

water connections. We cannot even do business at both locations – Savar and Hazaribagh. Here [He-mayetpur] we are not receiving utility facilities, and there, the gov-ernment has stopped the in� ow of rawhide by deploying police.

“If this situation continues, we will face huge losses in the coming days,” he said.

He added that if they relocate tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar, they have to face transpor-tation problems as there is no wide road in Hemayetpur on which to transport their products.

He also alleged that work on constructing the CETP had been stopped for the last one month and the expensive equipment of the CETP was kept under the open sky.

Engineer Ekramul Sheikh told the Dhaka Tribune that most of work on the treatment plant had been com-pleted. The recent work stoppage on the plant was due to a fund crisis.

He said they had already in-formed the higher authorities about the fund crunch.

Seeking anonymity, employees involved in the treatment plant construction told the Dhaka Trib-une that they needed two to three months more to end the work.

Project Director Abdul Kaium told the Dhaka Tribune that tan-nery owners who had applied for electricity and water supply con-nections had gotten them. He, however, said they needed more time to provide gas connections.

Being irritated by the relocation delay, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu gave a 72-hour ulti-matum on January 10 to relocate the factories.

Later, the government has ex-tended the deadline till March 31.

On October 8, 2007, the Ex-ecutive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) had extended the time-frame and ap-proved a Revised Development Project Proposal (RDPP). In the RDPP, it was proposed that the pro-ject would be completed at a cost of Tk545.36 crore by 2012. l

Most tanneries and the Central E� uent Treatment Plant at Savar tannery estate remains incomplete. The photo was taken recently MEHEDI HASAN

One dead in Ctg turf warn Tribune Report

An alleged local criminal was hacked and shot dead by men from a rival faction in Chittagong city’s Sadarghat area on Thursday night over establishing supremacy, the police said.

The deceased was identi� ed as Md Idris, 28, son of Abdul Jabbar, a resident of Sahebpara area of Sa-darghat. Jabbar is a local criminal and drug addict, accused in several cases � led with the Sadarghat po-lice station, said Marzina Akhtar, OC of Sadarghat police station.

The OC said Idris had been at loggerheads with one Jahangir over establishing supremacy in the area. Jahangir and his men had swooped down on Idris with sharp weapons on Thursday night over the issue in the Sahebpara area.

They hacked and shot Idris leaving him critically injured. He succumbed to his injuries in Comil-la on the way to Dhaka from Chit-tagong Medical College Hospital, said OC Marzina.

Police sent the body to the CMCH medical morgue for autopsy. l

Electrical power theft rampant in Panchagarh n Sazzadur Rahman Sazzad,

Panchagarh

A powerful syndicate, which in-cludes corrupt government o� -cials, is stealing hundreds of thou-sands of taka by providing illegal power connections to villages in Panchagarh's Boda upazila.

These power thieves provide power connections to house-holds by illegally extending lines from the 11KV main power line and installing transformers and meters that are not authorised by Panchagarh Palli Bidyut Sam-ity, the Dhaka Tribune found out through investigation.

The head of this syndicate is Mosta� zur Rahman Pramanik, a licensed technician who has been running the business of providing illegal power connections to house-holds and to farmers for irrigation in Boroshoshi, Kajalganj, Chilahati and Kaliaganj unions in Boda for years, making millions in the pro-cess, said sources at Panchagarh Palli Bidyut Samity, one of the co-operatives run by Bangladesh Ru-ral Electri� cation Board (REB).

He installs steel and bamboo

poles and meters to connect the us-ers with the 11KV main power line. For every installation, he charges around Tk25,000-35,000, and then collects a bill of Tk150-300 from the users on the 29th of every month, villagers told the Dhaka Tribune.

The meters are always set to zero, and the bills he shows to the users are not prepared in the for-mat used by the REB, but are made by himself, the villagers com-plained.

Moreover, Mosta� z has ex-tended illegal powers lines as far as 4,300 feet from the main line, whereas the REB regulations allow the maximum of 120-foot exten-sion.

Some corrupted o� cials and employees of Panchagarh Palli Bidyut Samity have been assisting him in running the illegal business in exchange of hefty bribe, causing the government a massive loss of revenue, the sources said.

Locals � led complaints about Mosta� z's rampant theft of elec-tricity at the zonal o� ce, but the authorities never took any action against him, they told the Dhaka Tribune.

Earlier this year, receiving hun-dreds of complaints against Mosa-ta� z, rural electri� cation author-ities raided his business o� ce at Bogduljhula Bazar in Boroshoshi and charged him a � ne of more than Tk600,000, also disconnect-ing the meter at his o� ce.

However, for unknown reasons the authorities neither took any legal action against Mosta� z, nor did they cancel his licence, said the villagers.

Seeking anonymity, an o� cial of Panchagarh Palli Bidyut Samity said installing a new power con-nection requires the approval of the samity's general manager, dep-uty general manager, engineer, su-perviser, wiring inspector and line technician.

“How he [Mosta� z] is getting these approvals astounds me,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

This correspondent tried to con-tact the deputy general manager of Panchagarh zonal o� ce at Thakur-gaon Palli Bidyut Samity in this re-gard, but he was on leave. Assistant General Manager Mahbubul Islam Shaon responded when the Dhaka Tribune contacted him, but he said

he had recently joined the o� ce and did not know much in this re-gard.

Later, this correspondent con-tacted Thakurgaon Palli Bidyut Samity's General Manager Kha-lequzzaman on Tuesday and in-formed him about Mosta� z's illegal power business. Khalequzzaman instructed Panchagarh zonal of-� ce's o� cial Md Yakub Ali to look into this matter.

When this correspondent con-tacted Yakub again on Thursday, he said he had run an investigation and seized nine illegal meters. He also sent a report in this regard to the Thakurgaon o� ce.

The Dhaka Tribune also contact-ed Mosta� z who, despite agreeing to see this correspondent sever-al times, never showed up at the meeting. This correspondent also contacted him on each of his four mobile phone numbers, but he re-fused to talk.

Thakurgaon Palli Bidyut Samity GM Khalequzzaman on Thursday said this matter was currently being investigated. “We will take legal ac-tions against Mosta� z after receiv-ing the investigation report.” l

News8DTSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

8 villages inundated in Dumuria, Koyran Our Correspondent, Khulna

At least 17,000 residents of eight villages in Khulna’s Dumuria and Koyra upazilas were marooned af-ter parts of embankments on the Bhodra and Shakbaria rivers col-lapsed on Thursday afternoon.

Many have taken refuge on higher grounds and living under the sky in inhuman condition with their livestock. The rising water swamped paddy � elds, destroyed commercial � sh enclosures, ponds, � ooded houses, educational in-stitutes and roads. With no food and fodder, the residents stare at a bleak future.

Promila Rani, resident of Chand-gar village, said they could not save

anything as the water rushed in suddenly. Joya Roy of Akra village said the � ash � ood had wreaked havoc on people’s properties and crops.

Chandgar’s Abdus Salam said the residents had taken their families and livestock to higher grounds. “We do not have anything to eat,” he said.

High tides breached a 400-me-tre stretch of the dyke on Bhodra River submerging six villages. Vast swathes of Hariharpur and Gab-bunia villages were � ooded after a 200-metre area of the embank-ment on Shakbaria River gave in to water pressure.

Sharafpur Union Parishad Chair-man Sheikh Rabiul Islam Robi said

the � ooding had a� ected at least 15,000 people in six villages. “We are trying to help them with limit-ed resources but are yet to get any assistance from the Water Develop-ment Board or the district adminis-tration,” he claimed.

Robi said alternatives dykes were constructed 19 times in the past 45 years in Chandgar.

“So far, two primary schools, two mosques, two Eid congrega-tion sites, a madrasa, � ve sluice gates, numerous houses have been lost to river erosion. About 5,500 families have lost everything and 1,500 of them moved elsewhere but the embankment issue has not been addressed,” he said.

Upazila Education O� cer Md

Wahidul Islam said two primary schools in Chandgar had been sub-merged but they were making al-ternative arrangement to continue classes.

Water Development Board (WDB) Sub-Divisional Engineer Debpratim Haldar said they would visit the a� ected area in Chandgar and take steps to mitigate the situ-ation. “We cannot protect the area mainly because of fund crunch.”

Dumuria Upazila Parishad Chairman said making a move to prevent erosion or strengthening the embankment without govern-ment funding was di� cult.

In Koyra upazila, 25 shrimp enclo-sures were inundated in Thursday’s � ooding after high tides washed

away parts of the WDB dyke.“Parts of the embankment

caved in during Tuesday’s low tide. At that time more than half of it was destroyed,” said Gabbunia vil-lage’s Jabbar Gayeen. “Locals and shrimp cultivators tried to repair it but could not avert the disaster.”

WDB Deputy Assistant Engineer Khairul Islam said the part that broke was weak. “We informed the higher authorities but could not re-pair it due to fund crunch.”

Koyra Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Md Bodiuzzaman said they had taken swift action following the disaster. “We took immediate measures to prevent erosion and opened the nearby cyclone shelter for the people,” he said. l

AL activist killed over UP polls n Our Correspondent,

Jhenaidah

An Awami League activist was killed and 20 others were injured in a factional clash between two ruling party groups over the chairman post in union parishad election in Chhoyaile village of the dis-trict’s Sadar upazila yesterday.

The dead was Aka Mir, 50, son of Belat Ali Mir of the vil-lage.

Jhenaidah police station O� cer-in-Charge Hasan Ha� -zur Rahman said the clash broke out between support-ers of Awami League-backed chairman candidate Nizamul Goni Litu and Bikash Chandra Biswas, incumbent chairman of Padmakor union parishad, over the post in the upcoming polls around 7am.

At one stage of the alter-

cation, activists of the two groups attacked each oth-er with sharp weapons and sticks, leaving 21 people, in-cluding Aka Mir – a supporter of Bikash Chandra, injured.

The injured were later tak-en to Jhenaidah Sadar Hos-pital where duty doctors de-clared Aka Mir dead.

The OC said additional po-lice have been deployed in the area to avoid occurrence of any further incidents.

Nomination papers snatched from Comilla election officeMiscreants snatched away nomination papers of the union chairman candidates from the upazila election of-� cer after entering his o� ce in Monoharganj upazila on Thursday midnight.

Quoting Monoharganj elec-tion o� cer Nazir Hossain Mia,

police said a group of people, led by Awami League-nom-inated chairman candidate Ziaur Rahman alias Shahin Zia of Jhalam union, also joint convener of Monoharganj upazila unit Jubo League, stormed the upazila election o� ce at midnight.

Later they tore o� the nom-ination paper of a chairman candidate in front of him and snatched away nomination papers of two others.

Police arrested Noman, general secretary of Mono-harganj upazila unit Chhatra League over the incident, said Bipul Chandra, o� cer-in-charge of Monoharganj police station.

Meanwhile, election o� cer Nazir Hossain Mia � led a case against Noman and some oth-ers unidenti� ed with the police station yesterday morning. l

A martial arts training session titled ‘self-defence training for Tonus’ was organised at the foot of Raju Memorial Sculpture on Dhaka University campus yesterday. The Pritilata Brigade organised the session with a view to creating awareness among women about the importance of knowing self-defence mechanism to prevent sexual harassment DHAKA TRIBUNE

Learn English 9D

T

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Pre-reading task1. Are you religious?2. What do you think about New Age beliefs?Now, read the article and compare your experiences with those outlined in the article.

Want to find more learning activities? Visit www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish © British Council 2016

Word search

AnswersExercise 2

1 services 2 secular 3 dogmatic 4 worship 5 faiths

6 holy text 7 devout8 organised

religion

Exercise 1

1 b2 b3 c4 b5 c

The ideas factory 5

n Graham Bradford

Are people in the modern world losing their sense of spirituality? A hundred and � fty years ago in Britain the question may never have occurred to many people. Britain then was an almost entirely Christian nation. Virtually everybody attended church regularly. Christian faith played a central role in people’s daily lives. But Britain at the beginning of the new millennium is a very di� erent place.

Although about 70 per cent of Britons today consider themselves to be Christians,

only a small percentage of these are actively involved with their faith. Almost half of the population never attend religious services of any kind and 16 per cent say they have no religion at all. Many of the nation’s churches no longer act as places of worship, having become secular community centres instead. Still others stand closed and derelict.

After so many centuries of devout Christianity, what could have brought about such a dramatic break from tradition? A number of intellectual in� uences and social changes are probably responsible. Advances in scienti� c knowledge have cast a shadow

of doubt, and made many question their religious beliefs. The horri� c events of 20th-century history have also caused others to question the existence of God. A wealthier population and all the temptations of the consumer society have made religious worship seem less appealing.

Yet despite these changes, it would be wrong to say that Britain has lost its sense of spirituality. Membership of many non-Christian faiths has increased dramatically over recent decades. Islam, for example, is Britain’s fastest growing religion and there are now over one and a half million Muslims in the population. Members of the Sikh and Hindu faiths have also greatly increased in number over the past 30 years, and there is a rapidly growing interest in Buddhism.

O� cially, Buddhists in Britain today number over a 150,000, but there are also many Christians who practise Buddhist meditation in addition to attending church services. So what is it that draws people to Buddhism? For many the appeal is the healing power, both physical and psychological, of meditation. For others, Buddhism seems less dogmatic than many other forms of organised religion. This may also be the reason why many people are turning to so called New Age religions.

New Age is a catch-all term that includes a variety of beliefs and practices, often with roots in ancient Celtic religions such as Druidry or mystical eastern faiths like Taoism. It is not a religion in the traditional sense, with a holy text or an organised membership, and this is part of its appeal. Faiths such as Druidry tap into spirituality by turning to the forces of the natural world. In an age of environmental destruction, many people are searching for a faith that brings them closer to nature.

So it seems that people in Britain are still searching for something spiritual in their lives. Is this true in your country, too? l

SpiritualityBIGSTOCK

See if you can � nd these words in the grid. They can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal and backwards.

bel_ef membershipChur_h Organi_ed Dou_t Practi_e Fai_h Relig_ous meditati_n Wo_ship

Exercise 1Comprehension: Multiple choice. For each sentence choose the correct ending.

1. 150 years ago the British ...a. awere more in� uenced by Christianity than they are today.b. never missed a church service.c. never had any doubts about their faith.d. were more religious than they are today.

2. Half of the British population ...a. regularly go to community centres.b. do not have any religious beliefs.c. do not consider themselves to be Christians.d. never go to religious services.

3. People in Britain may be turning away from Christianity because ...a. they haven’t got time to attend church services.b. they � nd church services boring.c. their lives have become more materialistic.d. they think it’s old-fashioned.

4. Many practising Christians ...a. � nd church services boring.b. have converted to Buddhism.c. are also Buddhists.d. also attend Buddhist services.

5. Some people are attracted to New Age spirituality because ...a. it’s something completely new.b. they’re unhappy with the consumer society.c. they care about the environment.d. there are no church services to attend.

Exercise 2Vocabulary: Matching. Choose the correct words to � ll the gaps in the sentences:

faiths / worship / services / devout secular / holy text / dogmatic / organised religion

1. Church …..... in Britain often involve people singing hymns.

2. This shop specialises in religious books, but it does sell a number of …..... works as well.

3. He eventually left the church because he found its rules far too ….....

4. For Christians, Sunday is a day of ….....

5. People of many di� erent …..... live in this community, including Hindus, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants.

6. Many religions have a …..... Islam, for example, has the Qur’an.

7. My Grandmother was an incredibly …..... Catholic – she never missed church on a in her entire life, and was always reading the Bible.

8. Many people � nd …..... …..... too restricting; they don’t want to be told when and how to worship.

10DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016Culture

The two faces of childhood: A cultural evening with a di� erence

Happy Times International School arranged a scintillating cultural function and drama on April 7, based on the theme of “Celebrating Childhood at Bangladesh” at the Shishu Academy. With poetry, songs, dance and other performances made by adolescents, the event focused on exploring the essence of childhood, on how it is a

magical experience in mystery, adventure and imagination.

On the other hand, the original drama titled Unheard Voices highlighted another face of childhood: the struggle for survival of children who are poor, vulnerable, exploited by society and made victims of wars over which they had no control.

The drama gave a voice to

these children, who spoke out strongly for their hopes “to live like a child in a world gone mad” and ended on a note of optimism with a stirring song that pledged to give “the children of tomorrow the right to speak, the right to sing, and the right to reach the stars.”

Saidur Rahman, country manager of Edexcel and chief

guest at the occasion, stated that Happy Times was one of the key schools working with Pearson Edexcel and that it had proved its excellence

not only through academic results but also through extracurricular activities which gave students

the skills required by universities at home

and abroad. l

INSIDE

Economic growth in Bangladesh stands on the threshold of exceeding 7% a year for the � rst time since independence.

The planning minister has reported that economic growth crossed 7% in the � rst nine months of the current � scal year. On current projections, the

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics estimates GDP growth will stand at 7.05% in 2015-16, up from 6.55% the previous � scal year.

This is slightly above ADB and World Bank estimates, which forecast GDP growth rising to 6.9% in the next two years.

It is a testament to the e� ort and innovation of Bangladeshi workers and entrepreneurs that the economy is continuing to show tremendous resilience, and is moving to new heights of growth

Getting beyond the 6% growth barrier is an important milestone, but must only be the start.

The government needs to ensure more business-friendly policies to truly unlock the economy’s potential and attract more much needed investment.

With 2 million young workers entering the workforce every year, the country urgently needs to speed up the creation of new high value jobs, to maximise the bene� ts of the demographic dividend.

Bangladesh’s location at the crossroads between the growing markets of South and Southeast Asia means there is still a lot of untapped potential for growth.

The government needs to press ahead with policy reforms to encourage entrepreneurs and attract more foreign investment.

Cutting red tape and improving infrastructure are key to building a more business-friendly environment and freeing the entrepreneurial instincts of our people.

It is vital the government stays focused on reforms to encourage a virtuous cycle of new investment creating new higher value jobs and opportunities.

Every e� ort should be made to nurture and sustain higher economic growth to build a better future for all the nation’s people.

Getting beyond the 6% growth barrier is an important milestone, but must only be the start

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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A new era for GDP growth

11D

TEditorialSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

BIGSTOCK

Climate changePAGE 14

Bangladesh and a world at war

PAGE 19

Heavenly havensPAGE 13

An American education at home?

PAGE 12

n Esam Sohail

I remember being the proverbial � sh out of water when, barely a few weeks after o� cially stepping into

adulthood, I was walking to my very � rst university class at 7am on a wintry morning when the stars were still visible.

Much of the excitement of starting college in a brand new land had gone out of me that morning, as I trudged through fresh snow, wondering if this was such a good idea after all: I mean, not too many weeks ago, my mornings began quite di� erently, at a respectable hour, and with real breakfast ready on the table.

That was a quarter of a century ago.

Today, I live not too far from that campus, have less hair on my head, and have put my formal education and experience to decent use as a contributing, tax-paying member of society here in the United States. But that long journey that I took for a better education continues unabated in the lives of many Bangladeshis every year.

So does the toll for individuals, families, and the country as a whole. I saw an estimate by the central bank in 2012 that a full seven-� gure dollar amount was transmitted o� cially to the US and UK on account of higher education costs; surely that number has gone up considerably today -- and it doesn’t include the probably much higher levels of remittance through informal channels like hundi and hawala.

At the other end of the pipeline is a brain drain of some of the best and brightest of the lot, whose passion, creativity, and good higher education is often, though not always, put to work abroad.

Then there are those who, for reasons of a� ordability and accessibility alone, are unable to take that journey at all, despite having the talent to do so. And � nally, the bonds of family and familiarity su� er, notwithstanding the incredible advances in cheap communications (I remember making � ve-minute phone calls to Dhaka at $3 per minute!).

Yet, there is a solution today that wasn’t available until even 15 years ago: The o� shore campus of an American university. Let us be perfectly candid: Whether we admit it openly or secretly, the cachet of a degree from an American college or university is undeniable in our part of the world, be it in the personal,

professional, or public relations realms.

Instead of paying the incredible social and � nancial cost of making the trek to that university in Michigan or New Jersey, why not have that university come to Bangladesh and provide the same credentials at a substantially lower cost?

Qatar, the UAE, and Singapore, among others, have already moved to adopt this model by negotiating with several American universities to open satellite campuses in their own countries.

Granted, for practical reasons,

not all disciplines and levels can be taught at every satellite campus abroad; but the idea and its implementation have merit worth examining for a country like Bangladesh.

The satellite campus model can be further modi� ed by engaging in actual partnerships between an American university and a reputed private university in Bangladesh which “hosts” some programs of the former with the understanding that the degree granted will have, at the very least, the names of both institutions on it. Several permutations of this model may

be possible and are working elsewhere.

There are going to be several key challenges to the satellite campus model, even if one of the 5,000 or so accredited American post-secondary institutions decide to take that leap. One, there will be the usual regulatory hassles due to outdated laws and the University Grants Commission’s own arcane rules.

Two, there will be the typical protests by assorted groups of leftists and Islamists who see a “Western conspiracy” in even the rustle of the leaves on a tree.

Three, more crucially, before such a satellite campus can be considered, there have to be iron-clad guarantees by the government of the day that freedom of inquiry, scholarship, research, and academic expression will be protected: Those are non-negotiable criteria for accreditation of colleges and universities in the United States whereby, for example, mandating that some area of history or sociology is out of limits for debate is simply a non-starter.

Finally, the physical safety of such a satellite campus has to be ensured in its totality; no university worth its salt will open up a foreign campus knowing that the “student” wing of the ruling party of the day can commit intimidation and violence with decided impunity.

Challenges aside, for the simple reasons of � scal common sense and social demand, it is worth having policy discussions regarding such satellite campuses of foreign institutions. l

Esam Sohail is an educational research analyst and college lecturer of social sciences. He writes from Kansas, USA.

Opinion12DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Can an American education be home-delivered? BIGSTOCK

Instead of paying the incredible social and � nancial cost of making the trek to that university in Michigan or New Jersey, why not have that university come to Bangladesh and provide the same credentials at a substantially lower cost? Qatar, the UAE, and Singapore, among others, have already moved to adopt this model by negotiating with several American universities to open satellite campuses in their own countries

Let’s face it: An American degree has a lot of cachet in Bangladesh

An American education at home?

Opinion 13D

TSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

n FS Aijazuddin

Spring has not shed its bloom, yet its roses have turned the colour of congealed blood. The latest

massacre of our innocents took place this time at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park Lahore on March 27. Over 75 children, their parents, and other holiday-goers died.

More than 340 were injured. It was a cruelly premature Easter resurrection for the Christians amongst them, and a hellish holiday for their Muslim co-victims.

Surviving Lahoris did not need to proclaim: “Je suis Lahore.” Over centuries, that slogan has been repeated with less grief in the adage -- “Lahore Lahore hai” (Lahore is Lahore).

Lahore did not need to illuminate its Minar–e-Pakistan in mourning colours. That eastern Ei� el tower stood shrouded already in white, which on our national � ag symbolises our terri� ed minorities.

Who, it could be asked, amongst those who lost their lives on that Easter Sunday, secured martyrdom -- the suicide bomber or his hapless victims?

A contemporary Oxford historian, Peter Frankopan, speaking recently in Lahore, provided an answer. He di� erentiated between a martyr sacri� cing his/her own life in the name of faith, and those who commit suicide as an act of faith, to gain martyrdom, but murder

unwary martyrs around them.Did that suicide bomber in

Gushan-e-Iqbal Park believe that there are discrete heavens, as there are separate graveyards on earth, for Muslim and Christian martyrs? Surely, divinity does not contain discrimination in its DNA.

Whichever heaven those martyrs have gone to, it is certainly not in Panama. That heavenly haven was once thought secure and inviolate.

Instead, e-Leaks have disclosed reams of secret o� -shore transactions by luminaries such as Putin, the Bachchans, and the Sharifs. They all assumed that they would take their secrets (if not their money) with them to the grave. Instead, their � nancial fandango has been exposed.

Their � scal tomfoolery has become known to the public, and probably also to their spouses. The last thing these well-known names expected to see was their laundered money being washed again like dirty-linen in public.

Money-laundering is not a new

phenomenon. Nations have been doing it for centuries. 

Imperial Athens and Rome, Beijing and Moscow, London and Paris transferred regularly the portable riches of their colonies to swell their treasuries at home. Immoveable assets were

kept abroad, in kind.For example, in the 1880s, King

Leopold II e� ectively owned the Congo Free State. That allowed him to exploit its enormous min-eral resources and then divert the proceeds to his personal bene� t.

Victorian Britain became Great Britain riding astride the elephan-tine economies of its colonies. Even a minnow country like Hol-land expanded its lungs breathing in oxygen provided by the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).   

By contrast, the rulers of today prefer to denude their own nations and, instead, window-dress the economies of foreign ones. One single super-rich Russian oligarch, for example, can prop up London’s property market on his

littlest � nger, like Krishna did Mt Goverdhan.

The post-Gorbachev’s perestroika of 1980s made the island economy of Cyprus a sanctuary to cool red-hot Russian money. Dubai’s property boom soared after Arab oil shifted from

beneath the sand and transmuted into skyscrapers built above it.

Now that Panama has destroyed its reputation (who needs a tell-tale bank manager?) and damaged those of its trusting clients, one wonders how newer 21st century Nadir Shahs will hide their troublesome wealth?

Will they solidify it into gold? Each would need a private Fort Knox to safeguard that. In property abroad? As Rockwood Estate once showed, there is always the danger of having to disclose bene� cial ownership. Through shell companies?

Sea clams are more reticent than Panamanian lawyers. In over-priced jewellery? Not any longer. Even majesties dress like frugal

republicans. The maladies of the over-rich are peculiar to their own species. That is why they invent such Panamanian antidotes.  

Strange as it may seem but plausible in its perversity, perhaps the safest haven for our Muslim magicians is to make their money disappear into Israeli banks.

Who would think of searching there? How could NAB -- even if it was so inclined -- retrieve assets that have been squirreled away in a country we do not even recognise?

Only a myopic optimist or a naïve parliamentarian would believe that money that has been taken out of the country will ever � nd its way back.

Black money has no such hom-ing instincts. Similarly, there will little to be gained from moral � n-ger-wagging and social tut-tutting. Neither will arouse the conscience of either democratically elected kings or of their courtiers.

They do not care. As Nietzsche said: “He who cannot give any-thing away cannot feel anything either.”

Money no longer matters to those slaughtered in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park and in Army Public School Peshawar.

They paid admission fees with their lives. Pakistanis pay every day to admit their � lthy rich into Panama. l

FS Aijazuddin lives in Lahore and is a columnist for Dawn, Pakistan’s main English-language newspaper. This article � rst appeared in Dawn.

Black money does not have homing instincts BIGSTOCK

Now that Panama has destroyed its reputation (who needs a tell-tale bank manager?) and damaged those of its trusting clients, one wonders how newer 21st century Nadir Shahs will hide their troublesome wealth?

Pakistanis pay every day to admit their � lthy rich into Panama

Heavenly havens

Climate Change

This page has been developed in collaboration with the International Centre for Climate Change and De-velopment (ICCCAD) at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and its partners, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and Inter-national Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). This page represents the views and experiences of the authors and does not necessar-ily re� ect the views of Dhaka Tribune or ICCCAD or its partners.

14DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Youth conference on community-based adaptation to climate changen Jennifer Khadim and Rigan A

Khan

Empowering communities in the poor and vulnerable countries to climate change is one of the keys

to building a resilient society. As world leaders in global

platforms debate about di� erent issues and policies, the least developed countries (LDCs) are striving for survival right here on the ground.

The International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) at the Independent Uni-versity, Bangladesh (IUB) is pre-paring for the 10th International Conference on Community Based

Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA10) which will be held at In-dependent University, Bangladesh (IUB) from April 21 - 28.

This conference is aimed to

share and consolidate the latest developments in community-based adaptation practices, policy, and theory across sectors globally.

It aims to strengthen the existing network of practitioners, policy-makers, planners, and donors working on all levels of community-based adaptation, and enhance the capacity of practitioners, governments, and donors to help improve the livelihoods of those most vulnerable to climate change.

There will be a two-day Youth Conference on community based adaptation running parallel to the main conference, which will be held from 26-27 April, 2016.

The CBA Youth conference is

equally multi-dimensional and aims to encourage young people to be agents of change, particularly in addressing climate change issues in their communities.

International participants who took part in the CBA youth conference in Kenya last year are also expected to come this year and share their experience and learning from the conference.

The youth conference is organised by Plan International Bangladesh and International Centre for climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) along with Save the Children, WaterAid Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Youth Environmental Initiative (BYEI).

To get a sense of the realities

faced by vulnerable communities, youth participants will get a chance to go to a community su� ering from the adverse e� ects of climate change.

In addition, the event will integrate the essentials of social entrepreneurship in climate change adaptation into the discussions and look at ways of building long lasting, bene� cial, and sustainable systems that can bene� t young people.

Youth have the strength and potential to build a better future. With the right kind of knowledge

and capacity they can become leaders in the � eld of climate change.

The 10th Community Based Adaptation Youth Conference is a continuation of a journey where young people from all backgrounds are engaged in the � ght against climate change by learning from experts and the � eld. l

Jennifer Khadim (jennifer.khadim.81@gmail.com) and Rigan A Khan (pavel.khan21@gmail.com) are organising the CBA10 Youth Conference.

CBA 10 participants visit sites such as these to understand the challenges posed by urban climate change better

The event will integrate the essentials of social entrepreneurship in climate change adaptation into the discussions and look at ways of building long lasting, bene� cial and sustainable systems that can bene� t young people

Field visits for conference participants give � rst hand experience of living in urban settlementsn Meraz Mostafa

In less than a month’s time, Dhaka City will host the 10th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation

to Climate Change (CBA10) at the Independent University, Bangladesh. The theme of this year’s conference, organised by the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) will be “Enhancing urban community resilience.”

Urban climate change is a rap-idly growing concern, particularly for countries in the global South. Sometime in mid-2009, the majori-ty of the human population shifted from being rural to urban.

In developing countries, cities

have urbanised and grown at un-precedented rates. Dhaka in 1950 had a population of less than half a million and today it is estimated that there are more than 14 million people.

A city like Dhaka has not been able to meet the needs of its overwhelmingly large and dense population. Many people in Dhaka � nd themselves living in informal settlements, or slums, without clean sanitation or proper waste management systems.

Not only do these residents face the constant fear of eviction by local authorities, but environmen-tal calamities such as water-logging and � res also threaten their ability to stay in their homes. As some of the most vulnerable people living in Dhaka, forthcoming anthro-pogenic climate change poses an even greater threat on their already precarious situation.

It is hard to directly link di� er-ent urban environmental hazards to climate change. However, we can suggest that increased temperature and unstable weath-er patterns will exacerbate many issues the city is already struggling to address.

Urban migration caused by climate change and other environ-mental and economic factors will also add pressure to the city. Unfor-tunately, history shows that poor rural migrants to the city are often the ones who su� er most from the absence of basic services.

It is therefore imperative climate change practitioners, urban plan-ners and Dhaka’s city corporations start to think about and implement the best ways to address these future vulnerabilities.

Each CBA conference consists of � eld trips that allow participants to experience � rst-hand commu-

nity-level actions being taken to address climate change. Tentative sites for this year’s visit include informal settlements at Mirpur and Mohammadpur, as well as outside of Dhaka City at Tongi.

CBA participants will work with organisations such as CARE Bang-ladesh, Islamic Relief, Save the Children, Action Aid and Practical Action to see the kinds of projects they are implementing at the ground level.

Field trips tend to be immersive at CBA conferences and partici-pants will get the chance to really dive-deep into the di� erent com-munity-led projects.

Whether the mock DRR drills that occur at a school in Tongi, or the various strategies to reduce wa-ter-logging at Mirpur, participants will learn hands-on how urban resilience is being planned for in Bangladesh.

CBA10 will occur from April 21 to April 28. The � eld trip compo-nent will take up the � rst three days of the conference.

Whereas traditionally most work done on CBA has occurred in rural spaces, urban climate change is a crucial area for researchers and practitioners to now take up. l

Meraz Mostafa is the communications associate for ICCCAD.

Arts & Letters 15D

TSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Art Review16Why archaeologists hate (and love) Indiana Jones17 Re� ection on

lovers18INSIDE Send your submissions to:anl@dhakatribune.com

In about less than a week, the Pahela Baishakh cele-brations will be over and the summer heat will replace

the calming Falgun wind. Arts & Letters wishes its readers a very happy Baishakh in advance and hopes the celebrations this year will he held in high spirits all over the country without any untoward incidents like last year.

Ahead of the o� cial beginning of the sultry summer heat, this issue takes a look at the theme of love, which is so ubiquitous in the arts of this region, through a translated poem and a literary re� ection written by a budding author. The poem, written in the 1970s, describes the emotions of a man waiting for his girlfriend. It’s highly romantic yet modern. The non� ction, on the other hand, strikes more with its cer-

ebral touch than its emotions, verging often on the absurd.

There are also a feature on an art exhibition, and a book re-view.

But most importantly, this is-sue gives adequate space to a crit-ical piece on the Indiana Jones movie series that o� ers a di� er-ent reading of the role the iconic hero plays. In Anvar Alikhan’s reading, the protagonist looks more like a plunderer than an ar-chaeologist. l

Editor’s Note

Arts & Letters wishes its readers a very happy Baishakh in advance

}

Elegy for the waiting manAbul Hasan

Spoons like your eyes rest on the placid tableand my watch – the star of a blue dial is glowing dimly in my wrist!

I look like a tourist nowor like an over-zealous journalist.

At this moment, I have � icked the pains of waitingfrom the ashes of my cigarette into a black ashtray –those slushy pains, soft like dew!

Won’t you come to the restaurant today, Swati?

The cakes, soft and green as your words,are kept neatly on a saucer.

And some spoons rest like your eyes!

The Chinese curtains are � uttering like your laughter

while an impatient butter� y, � ying o� the decorative patterns of a curtainhas made its way right into my head!

Aren’t you coming to the restaurant today, Swati?

Won’t you come to the restaurant today, Swati?

Translated by Rifat Munim

T A L K I N G F I L M SE X H I B I T I O N

n Nadira Sultana Ava

It was indeed a rewarding ex-perience to visit the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka that is

hosting Rashed Alam’s � rst solo exhibition “Three Shadows of Art”.

Rashed loves to experiment. A good number of his paintings verge on the contrarieties of life, the contradictions that consti-tute a basic theme of art and literature from time immemo-rial. In this group of paintings that he calls dualist paintings, he captures the dichotomy between pleasure and pain, happiness and melancholy, transience and permanence etc. Life is not only about happy and ecstatic mo-ments, joy and rebirth, but it’s also about pain and frustration, decay and death.

Then there are those minia-ture sculptures some of which are of great political � gures such as Che Guevara. There are also quite a good number of wonder-ful portraits that would attract anyone with some interest in politics and culture.

His works -- Mystery of Life, Beauty and Dust, Celebration and Frustration -- arrest the viewers’ eyes with a unique shape of the canvas. On the wavy surface, Alam paints in a way that exposes two di� erent perspectives of the subject when seen from opposite angles. In Mystery of Life, Madona, when seen from the left, is a very young looking girl but seen from the right she has grown old.

The artist imbues his paint-ings with life and feelings with

his magical strokes of lines and colours. In another series, named Celebration and Frustration, the joyfully dancing ladies, seen from the left, end in struggle, tension and frustration in the transition of time. One can hardly miss the underlying meaning that humans must enjoy the pleasures of life to their fullest intensity because this pleasure can be over any moment; so one must prepare himself well in advance for the gloomy period of his life as well.

Illustrious personalities like Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Humayun Ahmed have been embodied in his works. In the portrait of Bangabandhu, one can also spot hundreds of free-dom � ghters and mass people in the background to imply their contributions to the Liberation War of Bangladesh. Titled The Author, the portrait of Humayan Ahmed is adorned with hun-

dreds of his book titles drawn in geometric forms.

Another interesting feature is his experimental miniature por-traits of SM Sultan, Zainul Abedin, Da Vinci, Matisse and Picasso, among others, on the wooden handles of small paint brushes. This is how, through tireless endeavour and dedication, Alam pays his tribute to the time-tran-scending artworks of those artists.

Alam was born in 1988 in Laxmipur, Bangladesh. He com-

pleted his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Dhaka Art College, National University.

The exhibition will run till 15 April and remain open, except on Sundays, from 3:00pm to 9:00pm. However, on Fridays and Saturdays it will remain from 9:00am to 12:00pm and 5:00pm to 8:00pm. l

The writer is an art enthusiast and freelance writer.

n Anvar Alikhan

After years of rumours, it’s now o� cial! The Disney studio recently announced that the next Indiana Jones

� lm is in the making, and will be released in 2019.

The entire saga began on a beach in Hawaii in 1977 with a conversation between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Lucas apparently asked Spielberg what he planned to do next. Spielberg replied that what he really wanted to do was to direct a James Bond movie, but that the producers had turned him down, twice.

That conversation eventually ended up with the creation of the bull whip-wielding, leather-jack-eted archaeologist Indiana Jones and the � lm franchise that owes more than a little to James Bond. In fact, Indiana Jones was listed by the American Film Institute as the second-greatest hero in cinema history (after Atticus Finch, the lawyer hero of To Kill a Mocking-bird but, ironically, ahead of Bond himself at #3).

Indiana Jones is a character with whom archaeologists have a love-hate relationship. On the one hand Indy, with his tough-guy persona, exotic adventures and cynical wisecracks, has probably done more to popularise archae-ology as a career than any other single factor. In fact, John Rhys-Davies, one of the regular Indiana Jones crew, claims that he must have met over a hundred young ar-chaeologists who confessed to him that one key reason for their career choice was the fact that they had watched an Indiana Jones movie in their childhood.

On the other hand, archaeol-ogists are embarrassed by Indy’s knuckle-dusting heroics, his lack of scholarship and – most of all – the fact that today he would be described as a “tomb robber” rather than an archaeologist. As an archaeologist once observed about the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark: There is Indiana Jones, surrounded by all the engineering marvels of an ancient civilisation, and all he can think of is how he

can get his hands on that golden idol. For a proper archaeologist, it would be the least interesting thing around; but for a tomb-rob-ber like him, of course, it was the most important.

So who was the real Indiana Jones? And was he based on any real-life archeologist?

George Lucas and Steven Spiel-berg say no. According to them, the inspiration for Indy came from a variety of explorers in the action movies of their childhood. But members of their scriptwriting teams have admitted that they researched some real-life person-alities and blended their elements into the � nal Indiana Jones mix – some of the names mentioned being Otto Wilhelm Rahn and pale-ontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. In fact, these are just two of the dozen-odd historical models who are believed to have been the real-life Indiana Jones.

Otto Wilhelm Rahn was a Ger-man medieval scholar of the 1930s who searched for the Holy Grail – the mythical cup that was used to hold Jesus’s blood when he died – based on cues he had discovered in medieval texts. When Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi leader, read about his quest, he funded Rahn’s expeditions to bring back the Holy Grail, with its occult powers for himself (shades of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade). But Rahn’s quest didn’t lead him anywhere. Persecuted by the vengeful Himmler, he committed suicide.

Roy Chapman Andrews was not an archaeologist, but a paleontolo-gist (or, loosely, a “dinosaur hunt-er”). He was, like Indiana Jones, not just a college professor, but a rugged, two-� sted adventurer. In the 1930s, he went on expeditions to remote corners of the planet, including Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, where he discovered the � rst-known fossil dinosaur eggs. Andrews, like Indiana Jones, habitually carried a gun, which he used to hunt for food as well as to protect his party from bandits. And, interestingly, like Indy, he also habitually wore a broad-brimmed fedora hat.

While both the men might have

Arts & Letters16DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Why archaeologists hate (and love) Indiana JonesArts & Letters wishes to carry critically written crisp pieces on Bangla, Hindi, English and other foreign-language � lms that would be of interest to our readers. As a sample of the kind of write-ups we are expecting, we publish an article that deals brie� y with the history of the Indiana Jones series and brings out the elements that make the iconic hero a plunderer rather than an archaeologist

He captures the dichotomy between pleasure and pain, happiness and melancholy, transience and permanence etc. Life is not only about happy and ecstatic moments, joy and rebirth, but it’s also about pain and frustration, decay and death

}

The dichotomy of life

Celebration and Frustration A miniature sculpture of Che

T A L K I N G F I L M S

contributed to the colourful amal-gam that is Indiana Jones, a more likely historical model is believed to be the swashbuckling archaeol-ogist Hiram Bingham III. Leading a Yale University expedition to Peru in 1911, Bingham discovered the lost Inca city of Machu Pichu and became an overnight celebrity, returning home with a hoard of 40,000 priceless Inca relics, and writing a best-selling book about his adventures. (And he too, like Indy, habitually wore a broad-brimmed fedora hat.)

The more convincing piece of evidence connecting Bingham with Indiana Jones, however, is the 1954 � lm Lost City of the Incas, based on Bingham’s adventures and featuring Charlton Heston in the lead role. It’s interesting to note that, when preparing for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg’s team studied Lost City of the Incas very carefully, and “borrowed” various important elements, including Indy’s costume (down to that hat). But, more than that, they lifted from the Jerry Hopper movie the entire iconic scene of the scale model of the lost city, where Indy uses an ancient re� ector to catch the beam of sunlight and thereby reveal the location of the Bibli-cal treasure (the only di� erence between the two � lms being that in the 1954 original, the scene is set in South America instead of Egypt).

In recent times, Hiram Bingham III’s reputation has been tarnished: he has been accused by the Peruvian government of looting its treasures, which Peru is trying to recover from the US. And so that is perhaps another similarity between him and Indy: they were both, at the end of the day, just “tomb-robbers”.

So does all this mean that today the romance has gone out of archaeology and that today’s archaeologists are just a bunch of dry-as-dust academics? Not really. One contemporary archaeologist whose adventures have been in the Indiana Jones tradition (well, almost) is Ivan Sprajc, who has made a career of � nding ancient Mayan cities lost in the jungles of Mexico, doing Indy kind of things

like hacking his way through the dense foliage with a machete and dealing with poisonous snakes, jaguars and local bandits. Accord-ing to his photographs, he even dresses like Indy, in khaki safari gear, leather boots and, yes, that good old broad-brimmed fedora hat.

Yet, as somebody once suc-cinctly put it, the Indiana Jones theme music gives the game away:

instead of the existing adrena-line-pumping brass-and-percus-sion march, a slow, introspective cello piece would have been much more appropriate to the world of archaeology. The rule of thumb for an archaeologist, after all, being that for every hour of on-site ex-cavation, you spend four hours in the lab analysing and document-ing your � nds.

All this brings us back to

the new Indiana Jones movie, tentatively referred to as Indy 5. All we know for sure about it so far is that Harrison Ford will star, Steven Spielberg will direct, David Koepp will write the script, Janusz Kaminski will be the cinematogra-pher, and the � lm will be released in July 2019.

But there’s obviously a great deal of speculation. First of all, this will clearly be Ford’s last Indiana

Jones movie (he’ll be 77 when it’s released). So how will the series be kept alive after his departure?

Who knows? Perhaps the � lm will begin with Ford, and then go into a � ashback of a fresh new star who will play a younger version of Indiana Jones for now, and the future.

And if there is to be a new star, who will it be?

The names that are being mentioned are Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper and Robert Pattinson. River Phoenix, Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier have also played younger versions of Indy in the past.

Well, just as long as it’s not Shia LeBoeuf, who played Indy’s son in the supremely awful Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it should be okay. l

This piece was first published in Scroll.in

Arts & Letters 17D

TSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Why archaeologists hate (and love) Indiana JonesArts & Letters wishes to carry critically written crisp pieces on Bangla, Hindi, English and other foreign-language � lms that would be of interest to our readers. As a sample of the kind of write-ups we are expecting, we publish an article that deals brie� y with the history of the Indiana Jones series and brings out the elements that make the iconic hero a plunderer rather than an archaeologist

There is Indiana Jones, surrounded by all the engineering marvels of an ancient civilisation, and all he can think of ishow he can get his hands on that golden idol}

(Clockwise) A still from the movie; Otto Wilhelm Rahn; Roy Chap,am Andrews; Hiram Bingham III

R E F L E C T I O N

Arts & Letters18DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

On loversn SN Rasul

Imagine this: you’re staring into the eyes of a girl. In the liquid re� ection of her eyes, because you’re so close, you

can see yourself in all your pathet-ic glory. Your face betrays a sense of desperation, your eyes echo the in� nite number of re� ections of two mirrors standing opposite each other, your mouth stays in a half-open, half-closed state of not-knowing-what-to-say.

You recall the multiple times you kissed her and how, each time, you saw the entire movie of your lives reel across the � oor of your connected timelines. You remem-ber how her neck nestled itself into the groove in your neck, or how the “ground beneath her feet” shook and her voice “could melt mountains.”

But mostly, you remember her eyes, with a hunger so strong that “an astronaut could’ve seen it from space.”

That’s how you think, as you live in art. As you turn a love story into a tragedy through the words of movies, music and literature. Through hedonistic displays of

a� ection and an urge so strong you feel you will explode.

But, of course, you won’t. But that comes later. The

not-exploding comes after the sleepless nights pleasing yourself to the muted displays on your computer, desperately trying to di-vert your attention. It comes after you’ve analysed and overanalysed, and convinced yourself how this person was the very worst thing, the one thing that you thought this person wouldn’t be: normal.

You look into their eyes and this is what you see: a monster.

And how do you normalise them? You make a list of how each lover is the same. Step 1 : They meet the love of their

lives (not you). Step 2 : They get screwed over (not by

you).Step 3 : Find someone who thinks

they are the love of their lives (you).

Step 4 : Screw this person over (you).Step 5 : Go back and forth in confusion

(you and not you). Step 6 : Eventually settle for this

person (you), or:Step 6 : Settle for a nobody they’ve

never met (not you).

Step 7 : Get married, have a baby, and make that their life because they’ve lost everything because they had given too much importance to a person they met when they were too young to know better.

Or so you think. These are the patterns you see amongst your lovers. And with your heart still reeling from the blow, you clutch on to the tiniest bit of attention you get. You need to matter. You need to be not-so-small. You need to be signi� cant.

You take someone’s heart in your hands. You feel it beating to the same rhythm as your heart once did. This is a heart that needs love like you did once. This is where you were. For the shortest time, you perhaps fool yourself into thinking this is what you wanted. This is perhaps what you needed, but you can’t decide.

Confusion in� ltrates your mind. How welcome you are as you take her hand in yours, cradling it in-side your palm; brushing the sides of her cheeks with the back of your palm, your � ngers intertwined in the curls of her hair.

And, imagine this: You’re

staring into the eyes of a girl. In the liquid re� ection of her eyes, because you’re so close, you can see yourself in all your pathetic glory. Your face betrays a sense of desperation, desperate to feel what she feels. Your mouth, half-open, half-closed, says things it wishes to mean, means things it doesn’t wish to say.

And this is what you feel: nothing.

She can’t help but ask: “Is there something wrong with the way I love?”

What do you say to that? What can you? No, darling, this is exactly how I loved once, but not anymore, not now.

How far you’ve come, what stories you told yourself! How you lived in art, and wished to turn a tragedy into a world of happy endings, of striking the perfect balance, of being the one thing you knew you never would be.

You normalise yourself. And how? You make a list of how you are the same.Step 1 : You meet someone you think

is the love of your life (not her).

Step 2 : You get screwed over (not by her).

Step 3 : Find someone who thinks you’re the love of their lives (her).

Step 4 : Screw them over (her).Step 5 : Go back and forth, waver (her

and pre-her).Step 6 : Leave (her). Step 7 : Repeat (not her and not pre-

her). How far you’ve come, to only

end up here, in front of a girl staring at you, ready to traverse the world in your name. How far you’ve fallen to raise yourself up from the depths of an insigni� cant pseudo-lover who saw you as you see this girl now, with unforced indi� erence.

And you wonder if you’ve, � nal-ly, after all these years, learnt your lesson. You wonder if, as you crush someone inside the palm of your hands, you’ve realised that, at the end of all love stories, there is a disappearance. You wonder if you understand that lovers are either butter� ies or caterpillars. Some are beautiful to begin with, and take it for granted. And some, with enough time, become the butter� y it was destined to become. It is perhaps not the end of the world, for the world, as you walk through it, remains so unjust, so all-the-same.

And you wonder, as you look into the re� ection in their eyes and you see yourself, if you’ve become what you most feared: a monster. l

The writer is a writer and journalist.

BOOK REVIEWSpider and Other Storiesn Sumaiya Tasnim

Saleha Chowdhury has authored more than 65 books in Bangla in di� erent genres from � ction to non� ction to translation. For her illustrious contribution to literature, she has won the prestigious Bangla Academy Probasi Sahitya Purushkar (2012), Ashraf Siddiqui Gold Medal (2008) and the Anannya Sahitya Purushkar (2009).

Spiders and Other Stories is a collection of her translated short stories, which introduces English readers to the sheer range and main tenets of her short sto-ries. The book’s neatness in terms of selection and rendering owes much to Professor Niaz Zaman’s deft editorship.

The book has fourteen di� erent short stories and all of them deal with di� erent psychological aspects of men and women. It shows how we, as humans, wear masks and become entirely di� erent than what we, in essence, are. Sometimes she uses black humour, the combination of wit and reality, to capture the contradictions present in society and men. “One Kilogram of Holy Meat” and “Mr Brown’s Feeling Of Loneliness” – both of these stories use black humour.

Her narration always compels readers to empathize with the characters in the stories, some of which have melancholic, humorous or sarcastic streaks in them. The most important part of the book, however, is formed by a group of stories that questions the freedom of women and issues of middle class people.

The stories have been translated in English by Niaz Zaman, Sabreena Ahmed, Jackie Kabir, Masrufa Ayesha Nusrat and Shahruk Rahman, among others. The author herself translated some stories. l

*Sumaiya Tasnim is an undergraduate student of the department of English at BRAC University.

Author: Saleha Chowdhury, Edited by Niaz Zaman, Publisher: Writers.ink, 2016, Page: Tk 400

You recall the multiple times you kissed her and how, each time, you saw the entire movie of your lives reel across the � oor of your connected timelines}

n Tim Steel

We often refer to “the course of history,” deriving the word, with a Latin root,

and, quite possibly, a Sanskrit origin. Likewise, of course, asso-ciation with such as the course of rivers, most of which are di� cult and expensive for mankind to change, even if they attempt to do so. Human history has its own way of creating its own courses.

The wellspring of modern Bangladesh, arguably, originated in the famous, and, to some, infamous, Battle of Plassey. That battle was fought for control of the freedom for the East India Company to continue to trade in north-east India, and also for its ability to maintain its contracts to supply gunpowder to Britain.

From that wellspring we can readily trace the “course of histo-ry” that arrives at the Bangladesh of today. The opening shots in the brief campaign that eventuated in Plassey, and then Buxar, were, of course, � red when the youthful Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Dawlah, captured the constructed centre of Company activities in his realm, Calcutta in June, 1756.

Plassey, it seems, however, fought a year later, in June, 1757, was by way of simply reversing the outcome of what may be considered the real opening battle in what historians are now beginning to describe as the real First World War. Fought across the world, from the Philippines to the Americas, via Europe and Africa, it, arguably, shaped modern history, leading to centuries of almost continuous warfare across the globe. The “Seven Years” is said, by historians, to have commenced in 1756, and ended, temporarily, in 1763.

Is it, we may reasonably ask ourselves, any coincidence that the lands around the Ganges Delta, and the north-east of the Indian sub-continent, should have been the location of these opening shots? Not, if we accept the view that it was these lands that contained, maybe, as much as 75% of the world supply of saltpetre.

The apparent “spat” between the East India Company, which, we need to remind ourselves, was the contracted supplier of Saltpetre and gunpowder to the British government, was not only about securing the Company’s freedom to trade, but it was also a battle between the Company -- together with the British navy and military and local merchant trading allies

-- and the youthful, and somewhat rash, young Nawab of Bengal, and his French “allies.”

Allies who appear to have acted as “agents provocateur,” in the attack on Calcutta. The two great protagonists in this worldwide war were, in fact, Britain and France, each with a regularly changing array of allied, major European nations. Every “theatre” of the war has its own name. In the Indian sub-continent, the struggle between the two “great” powers, Britain and France, to secure control of the declining territories of the Mughal Empire, and defend interests from each other, and the other powerful groupings of the subcontinent, was known as “The Third Carnatic War.”

In many ways, however, it was also as much a struggle for sea power, fought out, mostly, in the Indian Ocean. It was, perhaps, not only the freedom to trade in fabrics and fragrances over which they fought, but, rather, a source

of essential supplies for such warfare -- gunpowder.

There is no doubting that Britain was the ultimate victor in the wars. In India, it had asserted a supremacy that was con� rmed in 1764 at the Battle of Buxar, and from which neither the Mughals, or the French recovered. In North America, Britain had, e� ectively, secured all the previously French controlled territories; in the Caribbean, it had secured new island colonies; likewise, in Africa.

In Europe, the great nations fought each other, almost to a standstill. And Britain had established itself as “rulers of the sea,” a position only, subsequently, and unsuccessfully, really challenged by Napoleon.

Small wonder, perhaps, that the famous anthem penned in 1740, by Tomson and Arne, “Rule Britannia,” became one of the greatest nationalist anthems that has endured for over two-and-a-half centuries.

The lands around the Ganges

Delta, most of which are now the heartlands of Bangladesh, have experienced invasions and attempted invasions, for nearly two-and-a-half millennia. This may, perhaps, owe something to what the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb described as a “paradise” of wealth and trade.

The � rst documented of the would-be-invaders was probably Alexander of Macedon. And the last, if you discount the post-British era success of Pakistan in obtaining over Lordship by treaty in 1947, was the British.

In every case, it is interesting to consider the international context for these invasions and exploitations.

The arrival of the Khilji was almost certainly motivated by the advance across Central Asia by the Mongol hordes, and sought pro� table alternative locations, outside the path of the Mongols.

The Mughals were, opportunistically, seeking to emulate the Safavid and Ottoman

“Gunpowder Empires” in the Middle East. They worked, long and hard, to overcome local opposition in the lands that are now Bangladesh.

The British arrived to trade, which for over a century they did, until the 1680s, when they attempted to seize the port of Chittagong. It may well be no coincidence that the cargoes of saltpetre and re� ned gunpowder, shipped by the East India Company, contracted as suppliers to the British navy, became increasingly important, as European wars developed across the world, fought out by the great European nations.

It may well have been the Seven Years War, often described as the � rst real world war that was the background to the British seizure of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.

Who knows, had not the Nawab, under French and Dutch in� uence, threatened, not only the Company trade, but essential munitions sources for Britain, perhaps the course of history of Bangladesh would have changed!

Fuelled, no doubt, by those ever increasing supplies of gunpowder, especially from the north-east Indian sub-continent, especially the lands in, and around, today’s Bangladesh, warfare increased in Europe throughout the 17th century, especially the famous, “30 Years War” -- and included civil war, such as that in Britain.

It seems to have become a part of the diplomacy of France’s King Louis XIV to continue the largely religious international wars of

the 16th century -- a somewhat aggressive stance continued by his successor, Louis XV. Early in the 18th century, the war of Spanish Succession became a more completely pan European war. In 1756, however, a war that was to spill across the world became a struggle, as much for worldwide, colonial power as for European power.

It seems highly improbable that control of the rich fabrics, dyes, and popular consumer products for which the lands that are now Bangladesh was, justly, famous, would su� ciently distract world powers to embroil these lands and the seas that served them, in a remote corner of the sub-continent, far from major shipping lanes, in a war being played out across the world. It seems likely that the young Nawab of Bengal may have stepped into that con� ict by endangering those vital munitions supply to Britain, and o� ering to Britain’s main adversary, France.

From that error of judgement, we may consider the “course” of history � owed parallel to the ever changing courses of the Ganges, to in 1971, the creation of the nation of Bangladesh.

Plassey and Buxar, it seems, were, in fact, sideshows in international ambitions. But, from their aftermath, and the rise and fall of the two century long British imperial power, came the birth of today’s Bangladesh. l

Tim Steel is a communications, marketing and tourism consultant.

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016Heritage 19

DT

There is no doubting that Britain was the ultimate victor in the wars. In India, it had asserted a supremacy that was con� rmed in 1764 at the Battle of Buxar, and from which neither the Mughals, or the French recovered

The birth of Bangladesh was only possible after a series of battles and the fall of British rule

Bangladesh and a world at war

Downtime20DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 10 represents P so � ll P every time the � gure 10 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Cold dish (5)5 Sword handle (4) 8 Beginning (6)9 On the move (5)10 Corrosion (4)11 Postpone (5)12 Conclude (3)15 Vend (4)18 Unmusical sound (5)21 Female deer (3)22 Identical (4)24 Male deer (4)25 Minister’s residence (5) 28 Repeat from memory (6)29 Relief for the needy (4)30 Scottish dances (5)

DOWN 1 Pollen-bearing organ (6) 2 Fate (3)3 Without moisture (4) 4 Dreadful (4)5 Employs (5)6 Accustomed (6)7 Make lace (3)13 Denial (2)14 Deprive of weapons (6)16 Behold! (2)17 Makes even (6) 19 Wise men (5)20 Printers measure (20) 23 Eastern ruler (4)24 Mineral spring (3)26 Consumed (3)27 Born (3)

SUDOKU

INSIDE

21D

TWorldSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Saudi Arabia’s bitter Lebanese divorceThe abrupt Saudi action in Feb-ruary was triggered by Lebanon’s failure to join other Arab govern-ments in condemning attacks three months ago on the Saudi embassy in Tehran. PAGE 22

Sanders’ hit on Clinton not the � rst, or likely the last Bernie Sanders’ claim that Hillary Clinton isn’t quali� ed to be presi-dent landed with a boom this week. The blow was far from the � rst — and won’t likely be the last — from the candidate who pledged to stay away from negative campaigning. PAGE 24

Ansaru, the other Nigerian militant group besides Boko Haram Despite hogging the column inches due to its bloodthirsty tactics, Boko Haram is not the only militant ji-hadist group causing problems in Nigeria. PAGE 23

INSIGHT

Arab politicisation of #PanamaPapers leak n Tribune International Desk

The leak this week of millions of � nancial documents from a Pana-ma law � rm sparked a range of re-actions across Arabic media, from calls for legal action against lead-ing � gures whose names were im-plicated to claims that the whole thing was a CIA conspiracy.

A clear distinction between pro-government and more liber-al or critical media emerged with some outlets failing to report sen-sitive names, including royal fam-ily members or politicians, while others openly called for prosecu-tion of those involved.

Egyptian news website Mas-rawy focused on Alaa Mubarak, son of deposed Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak. The website re-ported that the Panama papers released copies of Alaa’s passports and revealed that his company was � ned for violating procedural and regulatory laws.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Mousa, a talk show host on Egypt’s Al Bald

TV claimed that the CIA was be-hind the leaks. He argued that the fact no American leaders were implicated and that they targeted the families of Mubarak, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saudi King Salman as well as many oth-ers indicated foul play.

In Morocco, independent web-site albadil.info published an op-ed by Hamed al-Mahdawi, in which he urged the government to inves-tigate the Panama Papers because King Mohammed VI’s secretary was among those named.

“Silence may harm the reputa-tion of the kingdom and the king,” said Mahdawi, who called on au-thorities to take prompt action over the documents.

In Tunisia, Mosaique FM Radio reported that the public prosecu-tion o� ce plans to bring legal ac-tion against some who appeared in the leaked papers and will sue those who are proven to be in-volved in money laundering.

The reaction in the Gulf was di� erent. While many o� cials and

members of ruling families in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coun-tries � gured in the documents, Gulf media was unsurprisingly selective in their coverage, preferring to fo-cus on other countries and ignoring the names of emirs, princes and key o� cials that were revealed by ICIJ.

A news report by al-Jazeera Ar-abic chose to focus on the Syrian leadership, where the cousin of the Syrian president, Rami Makhlouf, was named in the documents.

UAE’s popular news website 24.ae published an article headed: “Iran and Hezbollah at the fore-front of those involved in the Pan-ama Papers scandal with 33 names and companies”.

The news report added that the Iran-Hezbollah involvement in-cluded engaging in the drug trade in Mexico.

The London-based Saudi news-paper, Alsharq Alawsat adopted a similar selective approach by fo-cusing on opponents of the king-dom and GCC countries. The pa-per ran an article titled: “Panama

Papers stir international contro-versy…and Putin is the angriest”.

The opposing camp also went on the attack. The Russian Arabic version of Sputnik news agency seized the opportunity to attack the Saudi king, whose name was one of a dozen heads of state to be revealed in the papers, as well as that of the former emir of Qatar.

The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar seized the opportunity to attack traditional enemies of the Leba-nese militia - Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE.

Egyptian newspaper Youm7 also cherry-picked from the pa-pers and used them to attack Egypt’s political opponents.

The paper focused on the for-mer emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. It reported on his dealings with legal � rm “Mos-sack Fonseca to hide the money he gained when he was an emir”. l

[This is an excerpt of an Middle East Eye article, which can be found at

http://bit.ly/1oIMBwh]

#PANAMAPAPERS LEAK

Gulf royalities implicated n Tribune International Desk

Western media is largely ignoring that the US allies Saudi King Sal-man and UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed are directly implicated in hiding millions of dollars in as-sets and wealth.

Both those countries are con-sidered key allies of the United States on military and � nancial levels. Most Western media seems to focus on other � gures included in the leaks such as Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin, who was not directly linked to the corruption scheme, while ignoring key West-ern allies in the Middle East.

“By December 2015, nearly all the shares in those companies were held by Mossack Fonseca through trust structures, but the true bene� ciary remained the Sheikh (UAE), as well as his wife, son and daughter,” the Interna-tional Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an investigative journalism organisation which received some of the leaked doc-uments, said Tuesday in a break-down of those involved.

In what is described as the big-gest documents leak in the his-tory of journalism, an unknown whistleblower exposed more than 11.5m documents belonging

to Panamanian law � rm Mossack Fonseca that helped world lead-ers, celebrities and rich business people hide assets in o� shore tax havens around the world.

Saudi king’s luxurious London homes, yacht In King Salman’s case, the leaks show that he had “an unspeci� c role” in Verse Development Cor-poration, incorporated in 1999, and Inrow Corporation, incorpo-rated in 2002, both set up in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

In 2009, those two companies took at least two mortgages worth more than $34m and the money was used for purchasing luxury homes in central London in con-

nection to the king and his family. While King Salman’s precise

role is not speci� ed, both mortgag-es are mentioned “in relation to” him and his assets, the ICIJ said.

King Salman was also de-scribed as “the principal user” of a motor yacht, Erga, named after the king’s palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and registered in London by a BVI company named Crassus Limited, incorporated in 2004.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s top oil producer with more than 11m barrels per day. Most of the � nan-cial bene� t from the country’s oil mostly goes to the hands of the ruling al-Saud family. Late Saudi King Abdullah’s fortune was es-timated by Forbes magazine at

$18bn. Meanwhile, current King Salman’s net worth is estimated at $17bn.

However, Saudi Arabia has more than 20% poverty, meaning more than 4m people live on less than $17 a day.

UAE’s al-Nahyan family’s complete dominanceSheikh Khalifa, who became the president of the UAE in 2000 after the death of his father, used the services of Mossack Fonseca to establish at least 30 companies in the BVI that owned and operated $1.7bn worth of commercial and residential assets for the Sheikh in high-end neighbourhoods in the UK.

The UAE is the seventh oil pro-ducer in the world at more than 3m barrels per day, and President Khalifa has a net worth of more than $24bn. The country is made of seven emirates. The richest one is the capital Abu Dhabi as it con-trols more than 95% of the coun-try’s oil. Khalifa is the emir of Abu Dhabi.

In the UAE, most of the wealth from oil is concentrated within the citizen population of the country which amounts to less than 15%, or less than 1m people, of the country’s 7m total population. l

Saudi King Salman, left, and UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed REUTERS

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 201622D

T WorldINSIGHT

Saudi Arabia’s bitter Lebanese divorce n Reuters, Beirut/Riyad

The waspish cartoon in a Sau-di-owned newspaper summed up the anger behind Riyadh’s decision to cancel billions of dollars in mil-itary aid and suspend decades of engagement in Lebanon’s fraught politics. “The State of Lebanon: April Fool”, it read.

Published on the same day that a Saudi-owned television news channel shut down its Lebanese operations, Friday’s cartoon was the latest sign of a falling out which began in January and has become increasingly embittered.

The cartoon’s stinging message, that the Lebanese government is a � ctitious joke, re� ects Saudi Ara-bia’s conviction that the Shia group Hezbollah, backed by Riyadh’s regional rival Iran, now pulls the strings in Beirut.

But the Saudi response, cutting $3bn in military aid and another $1bn to the security services, ap-peared self-defeating to many Leb-anese - by weakening the army, a counter-balance to Hezbollah, it leaves the Shia group even strong-er.

“By default we’re abandoning Lebanon to Iran,” said a senior Eu-ropean diplomat. “It’s a big blow to Lebanon”.

It would leave Hezbollah, and by extension the group’s backers in Tehran, more dominant than they have ever been in volatile Lebanon, a Middle East banking and trade center that is also home to more than a million Syrian refugees.

The abrupt Saudi action in Feb-ruary was triggered by Lebanon’s failure to join other Arab govern-ments in condemning attacks three months ago on the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

The early release from a Leba-nese jail of a former minister, con-victed of smuggling explosives in a plot allegedly supported by the Ira-nian-allied Syrian authorities, sug-gested to Riyadh that Lebanon’s judiciary was also now beholden to its enemies.

Saudi Arabia spearheaded ef-forts to get Gulf Arab states and the Arab League to designate Hezbol-lah a terrorist organisation, which led to reports of Lebanese nation-als being forced to leave Gulf coun-tries because of alleged Hezbollah links.

Lebanon says it is unable to con-� rm any expulsions, but politicians in Beirut are taking the reports se-riously.

What troubles Saudi Arabia is “a militia that is classi� ed as a ter-rorist group is now hijacking meas-ures in government,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said last month.

Beyond that, Saudi Arabia be-lieves Hezbollah also projects pow-er - and Iranian in� uence - well be-yond Lebanon’s borders.

The group has fought for Pres-ident Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s � ve-year con� ict and Riyadh has accused it of intervention as far a� eld as Yemen on Saudi Arabia’s southern border, accusations Hez-bollah denies.

Leaving LebanonSaudi Arabia’s shift signaled a re-treat from a long history of pow-er-broking in Lebanon.

The kingdom hosted peace talks which ended Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and, in the post-war years when violence largely subsided but rivalries festered, it supported Sunni Muslims and their Christian allies in the March 14 coalition.

Six years ago, then-king Abdul-lah of Saudi Arabia visited Beirut to defuse a crisis between March 14 and their March 8 rivals, including Hezbollah, which threatened re-newed con� ict.

Directly or indirectly, through the billionaire businessman and former prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and his assassinated father Ra� k, Riyadh also channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to its allies in Lebanon. The Hariri family owns a major Sau-di construction � rm, Saudi Oger.

Viewed from the Gulf, the king-dom’s actions re� ect a rational re-evaluation of the diminishing returns on its e� orts in Lebanon, frustration with its increasingly impotent Lebanese allies, and stra-tegic priorities which placed the country well below Syria, Yemen and Iraq in a turbulent Middle East.

“The grant (to Lebanon’s army) was based on the assumption that it would strengthen state institu-tions and allow them to challenge non-state institutions. This was not happening,” said Mustafa Ala-ni, a security analyst with close ties to Riyadh’s Interior Ministry.

“They were convinced Hezbol-

lah hijacked the Lebanese state.” A Riyadh-based diplomat said

Saudi Arabia was also frustrated with Saad Hariri, Lebanon’s main Sunni Muslim politician, who has spent most of the last � ve years outside the country because of fears for his secu-rity. His father was killed in 2005.

Viewed from Beirut, Riyadh’s move appears more emotional than strategic.

“They are actively taking pu-nitive measures,” said a Lebanese analyst with close Saudi contacts, adding that Hariri had no advance warning of the move.

“The Saudis have many � ne qualities but statecraft and diplo-macy is not one of their skills,” said Rami Khouri, a senior fellow at the American University in Beirut.

“They are really worried, fren-zied and � ailing around and it’s very dangerous. Right now they are acting in a dangerous and reckless way,” he said.

“What they are doing proba-bly alienates Lebanon more from them... (and) strengthens Iranian links, strengthens Hezbollah. Hez-bollah is essential to the defense of the country today.”

The group, which has two min-isters in the barely functioning government, fought Israel in an in-conclusive war in 2006.

Its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nas-rallah, has mocked Saudi Arabia in recent speeches, saying it spent large sums of money trying to elim-inate Hezbollah over the last dec-ade, and was lashing out after set-backs in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.

“Yes, the Saudis are angry with us,” he said in early March. “I un-derstand the Saudi anger. Why? Because when someone fails, the least he can do is get angry.”

Supporters say Hezbollah’s in-volvement in Syria has limited the spillover of � ghting into Lebanon. Opponents accuse it of fuelling sectarian violence in the country, violence which led Gulf states to warn their nationals against travel to Lebanon long before the recent campaign against Hezbollah.

The percentage of Gulf visitors to Lebanon has halved since 2009, said Nassib Ghobril, chief econ-omist at Lebanon’s Byblos Bank. Gulf investment has dropped o� and Gulf Arabs have been selling their Beirut homes, he said.

“Obviously Lebanon needs to repair its relationship with the Gulf Cooperation Council - it’s a lifeline of our economy,” Ghobril said.

Khouri, the AUB academic, did not rule out future rapprochement, but that appears distant for now.

Friday’s announcement that the television channel Al Arabiya was closing down in Beirut left 27 em-ployees out of work. And hours af-ter Asharq al-Awsat’s cartoon was published, protesters broke into its Beirut o� ces.

On Sunday, a banner was hung from a bridge over a highway near Beirut. A parody of the Saudi na-tional � ag’s image of a sword and the Islamic profession of faith, it showed a bloodied sword poised above a captive’s head. “The dead-ly House of Saud,” it read. l

An employee walks on newspapers after

protesters attacked the o� ce of Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat in

Beirut last Friday REUTERS

WorldSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

23D

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SOUTH ASIAChina seals Pakistan ties with $2bn in dealsCompanies from China’s Xinjiang region signed deals worth about $2bn with Pakistan this week during a visit to Pakistan by Xinjiang’s top o� cial. Pakistan last year agreed energy and infrastructure projects worth $46bn with China to set up a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In return, China will get a free trade zone in Pakistan’s Gwadar port and access to the Arabian Sea. -REUTERS

INDIAIndia in talks to buy US Predator dronesIndia is in talks with the US to purchase 40 Predator surveillance drones, o� cials said. India is trying to equip the military with more unmanned technologies to gather intelligence as well as boost its � repower along the vast land borders with Pakistan and China. It also wants a closer eye on the Indian Ocean. -REUTERS

CHINAChina seeks clari� cation on #PanamaPapersChina needs clari� cation on a massive leak of documents from a Panamanian law � rm that revealed family members of China’s top leaders. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday. The Foreign Min-istry has denounced accusations arising from the release of “Panama Papers” as groundless. -REUTERS

ASIA PACIFICMalaysia extends ban on bauxite miningMalaysia is extending its ban on bauxite mining from mid-April amid concerns over contamination. The government in mid-Janu-ary had initially implemented a three-month ban in Pahang over concerns about hazardous dust and pollution. It was earlier reported that on the modern day gold rush of bauxite mining in Pahang and its impact on residents and the envi-ronment weeks before authorities announced the January ban. -AFP

MIDDLE EASTTurkey believes Ankara, Jerusalem near normal relationsTurkey and Israel are on the brink of restoring their ties after a bitter falling-out � ve years ago after talks in London. Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries cut ties in 2010 over the deadly storming by Israeli commandos of a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza, which left 10 Turkish activists dead. After years of bitter accusations and in� am-matory rhetoric the two sides held secret talks to seek a rapproche-ment. -AFP

ADB: TAPI gas pipeline through Afghanistan doable n Reuters, Islamabad

The Asian Development Bank hopes to overcome by 2020 the challenges of building a $10bn gas pipeline through Afghanistan’s most violent areas, by making sure it bene� ts Afghan contractors and communities, a bank o� cial said.

Shareholders of the Turk-menistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) project agreed on Thursday to invest $200m in studies and engineering for the pipeline, looking to link gas-rich Turkmenistan with eager markets in Pakistan and India.

Originating at the giant Galk-ynysh gas � eld in Turkmenistan, the TAPI pipeline, which involves the four countries’ own energy companies, would carry 33bn cu-bic metres (bcm) of gas a year.

But current plans route the

underground pipeline through one of Afghanistan’s most vio-lence-wracked provinces, Hel-mand, where the Taliban insur-gents hold sway.

“I agree ... we’re going through some of the toughest territory in

Afghanistan,” said Sean O’Sulli-van, the Central and West Asia di-rector general of the ADB, a trans-action adviser for the project.

“The challenge is there. There’s no doubt about it, but I am sure it’s doable.”

The ADB would be able to capi-talise on lessons it has learnt from other infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, including building power transmission lines from Uzbekistan to Kabul and a setting up a railway in the north, O’Sulli-van said.

Turkmenistan, which sits on the world’s fourth-largest gas re-serves, started building its section of the 1,814km link, designed to ease its dependence on Russia and China, last December, but the three other countries have yet to begin work.

Turkmen state energy � rm Turkmengas is the main share-holder of TAPI Pipeline Company Limited, the joint venture set up to carry out the project. Other in-vestors are Afghan Gas Enterprise, Pakistan’s Inter State Gas Systems Ltd and GAIL (India) Ltd. l

INSIGHT

Ansaru, the other Nigerian militant group besides Boko Haram n Tribune International Desk

Despite hogging the column inch-es due to its bloodthirsty tactics, Boko Haram is not the only mili-tant jihadist group causing prob-lems in Nigeria.

The Vanguard for the Protec-tion of Muslims in Black Africa—known by its abbreviated Arabic name of Ansaru—announced its existence in 2012 and has since carried out a spate of kidnappings, particularly of foreign nationals.

Nigerian authorities claimed a success in their counter-extrem-ism operations, when military spokesman Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar said that the purported leader of Ansaru, Khalid Al-Barna-wi, had been arrested on Saturday.

What is Ansaru?Ansaru announced its existence in January 2012 with a statement in which it claimed it would “en-courage what is good and see to its spread and… discourage evil and try to eliminate it.” On other occasions, the group has said it exists to reclaim the “lost dignity of Muslims of black Africa” and wishes to create an Islamic cali-phate in Nigeria.

Though it has been relatively quiet in Nigeria in recent years, the group gained infamy for car-rying out several high-pro� le kidnappings—since 2012, Ansaru is believed by the British govern-ment to have been responsible for kidnapping at least eight mainly European hostages and killing

several of them. In its � rst action in March 2012,

Ansaru reportedly killed one Brit-ish and one Italian hostage in Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, af-ter kidnapping them in May 2011. In one of its deadliest attacks, An-saru said it killed seven foreign hostages in March 2013 after kid-napping them from a construction site in the northern state of Bauchi.

What are Ansaru’s links to other groups?The group emerged as a splinter from Boko Haram in 2012 due to ideological di� erences, according to Bat-el Ohayon, co-founder of sub-Saharan Africa analysts Afri-que Consulting Group. “The lead-ers of Ansaru, among them Khalid Al-Barnawi, did not agree with the operational methods of Boko Har-am, which included killing Mus-lims,” says Ohayon.

Since splitting from Boko Har-

am, various sources have said that the group’s main allegiance is to the global al-Qaeda jihadi movement. In classifying Ansaru as a terrorist group in November 2012, the British Home O� ce said that it was “broadly aligned with al-Qaeda” and an unnamed serv-ing o� cer in the Nigerian Army described Al-Barnawi as “the backbone of all al-Qaeda a� liate groups in West Africa,” according to German publication DW.

Who is Khalid Al-Barnawi?A mysterious � gure subject to a $5m US bounty, Al-Barnawi was allegedly a high-ranking mem-ber of Boko Haram before An-saru broke away from its parent group in 2012. Nigerian authori-ties claimed that Al-Barnawi had been detained in Lokoja, the cap-ital of the central state of Kogi, on Saturday. Defense spokesman Abubakar described the arrest to

Reuters as a “giant stride” in Nige-ria’s � ght against militancy.

But the Nigerian authorities are yet to release reliable images or foot-age of Al-Barnawi in captivity and according to Fulan Nasrullah, an in-dependent con� ict analyst in Nige-ria, Al-Barnawi remains a free man.

According to Nasrullah, Al-Bar-nawi has been based in Cameroon of late, where he heads up a separate group that is a� liated to Ansaru.

Why is Ansaru a problem for Nigeria?One of Ansaru’s main achieve-ments has been to broaden the geographical scope of militancy in Nigeria. Boko Haram, led by the better-known Abubakar Shekau—who, along with Al-Barnawi and another militant named Abubakar Adam Kambar, was categorised as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the US in June 2012—has focused its activities in north-east Nigeria, with the vast major-ity of deaths caused by the group coming in Borno state.

Ansaru, meanwhile, has kid-napped foreign nationals in Kebbi, Katsina and Bauchi states, which are in northwestern, northern and northeastern Nigeria respectively. “Much of Ansaru’s threat comes from its ability to operate in cen-tral areas of the country, areas that are closer to the economic heart of Nigeria,” says Ohayon. l

[This is an excerpt of a Newsweek article, which can be found at http://

bit.ly/1WhQKF2]

TAPI PIPELINE

Couple of Ansaru militants were on patrol in southern Nigeria AFRICAEAGLE.COM

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 201624 WorldD

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USASanders accepts Vatican invitationDemocratic candidate Bernie Sanders embraced a kindred spirit in the popular Pope Francis on Friday when he announced a visit to the Vatican next week. Sanders accepted an invitation to Vatican City, where he will give an April 15 speech on how to create a moral economy, a favourite theme of the ponti� , who has chided the world’s wealthy and political economic elite for being deaf to the poor. -REUTERS

THE AMERICASTop Brazil prosecutor opposes Lula appointmentBrazil’s chief prosecutor dealt a fresh blow Thursday to President Dilma Rousse� and predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, saying his cabinet appointment was an attempt to avoid arrest and disrupt investigations. Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot, in a report � led with the court, recom-mended it annul the appointment. The full court must now rule whether Lula can take up the job. -AFP

UKUK PM slips in polls amid #PanamaPapers sagaDavid Cameron’s approval rating has slipped, with the Panama Papers row taking its toll on the prime minister, according to a poll published Friday. The YouGov poll showed Cameron’s approval rating at 34% compared to 39% in a similar poll in February. The same rating for opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn rose to 30% compared to 25%. -AFP

EUROPEParis attacks suspect Abrini arrestedParis attacks suspect Mohamed Ab-rini was arrested in a Brussels district Friday, a police source con� rmed. The police source gave no details about the location or circumstances of Abrini’s arrest but VRT television said it took place in the Anderlecht district of Brussels. Abrini, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, was seen at a petrol station north of Paris two days before the attacks with key suspect Salah Abdeslam. -AFP

AFRICASaudi to build bridge over Red Sea to connect with Egypt Saudi King Salman on Friday an-nounced plans to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, in a lavish show of support for the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The 80-year-old monarch is on a rare � ve-day trip to Egypt, a country that Riyadh views as a cornerstone to its ambitions in the changing region. Saudi Arabia has been the key backer of Sisi since 2013. -AFP

INSIGHT

O� shore trust admission deepens British PM’s problems n Reuters, London

David Cameron had hoped to fo-cus on campaigning to keep Brit-ain in the EU before a referendum in June, but questions about his wealth, government spending and a steel crisis have blurred the prime minister’s message.

After four days and four dif-ferent statements over his late father’s inclusion in the “Panama Papers”, Cameron said on Thurs-day he once had a stake in his fa-ther’s o� shore trust and had prof-ited from it, spurring calls for the leader to resign.

It is unlikely Cameron will fol-low Iceland’s prime minister and leave o� ce over the documents, but the blow to his image could hurt his campaign to persuade Britons to stay in the EU.

On Thursday, Cameron used a television interview to admit he

had a holding in his late father’s Panamanian trust, Blairmore, but had sold it in 2010 before becom-ing prime minister.

“Of course I did own stocks and shares in the past - quite naturally because my father was a stock-broker. I sold them all in 2010, because if I was going to become prime minister I didn’t want an-yone to say you have other agen-das, vested interests,” he told ITV.

“We owned 5,000 units in Blair-more Investment Trust, which we

sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000.”

He underlined that he had paid tax on the dividends and on the pro� ts, and said his father had left him £300,000 on his death. He also suggested he had not immediately detailed his a� airs because he had struggled with the critical cover-age of his father, “a man I love and admire and miss every day”.

Cameron said the unit trust was not set up to avoid tax but to invest in dollar-denominated shares and he also promised to publish his tax returns.

RichThere is no indication that he or his father had done anything il-legal, but by casting a spotlight on the Eton-educated Cameron’s wealth, the admission has fuelled a public perception that his Con-servative Party rules to protect the

rich while punishing the poorest with its austerity push.

Opposition politicians said his in-itial reluctance to describe his � nan-cial connections with his late father after the Panama Papers were leaked on Sunday begged more questions of the leader, who has championed policies to reduce tax avoidance.

“Did the prime minister know that this fund was linked to tax avoidance? If so, when, and if not, why not? Given that he claimed that “sunlight is the best disin-fectant”, why has it taken six years for this to come to light?” said Tom Watson, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party.

Calls for Cameron to resign trended on Twitter, with one user saying that if “Iceland can do it, I’m bloody sure the UK can too”. Others accused him of hypocrisy for having used an o� shore unit while calling for an end to tax avoidance. l

INSIGHT

Sanders’ hit on Clinton not the � rst, or likely the last n Tribune International Desk

Bernie Sand-ers’ claim that Hillary Clinton isn’t quali� ed to be president landed with a boom this

week. The blow was far from the � rst — and won’t likely be the last — from the candidate who pledged to stay away from nega-tive campaigning.

The Vermont senator kicked o� his insurgent presidential bid last year with a pledge to focus on issues over character attacks and boasted often that he’s never run a negative ad. But for months Sand-ers has sharply criticised Clinton, slamming her for supporting the war in Iraq, for her record on trade and most aggressively for her lu-crative paid speeches before Wall Street bankers.

While his tone has shifted as the race has grown more combat-ive on both sides, Sanders’ cam-paign argues that he has kept his promise. They say he has focused his � re on policy and is simply � ghting back against Clinton’s own attacks.

“They’re going after us very big-time and in a very negative way,” Sanders said Friday in an in-terview with the Associated Press. “And I wanted to make very clear that we will not be a doormat, we will not be attacked without re-

sponding. And my point was to fo-cus on the issues where I thought she was lacking.”

The con� ict between the two � ared this week ahead of the cru-cial April 19 New York primary. On Wednesday, Clinton questioned Sanders’ truthfulness and policy know-how, though she avoided direct questions about whether he was quali� ed to be president.

Still, Sanders seized on the re-marks at a rally that night, telling a crowd of thousands that Clinton has been saying that he’s “not quali� ed to be president.

“I don’t believe that she is qual-i� ed; if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dol-lars in special-interest funds,” he said, referring to outside funding groups that can accept unlimited

donations as long as they don’t co-ordinate with the campaign.

Clinton aides and supporters pushed back aggressively. A fund-raising email sent out shortly after from Christina Reynolds, the Clin-ton campaign’s deputy communi-cations director, said Sanders had “crossed a line,” calling it a “ridic-ulous and irresponsible attack.”

Sanders said in the interview Friday that “by de� nition, she has a great deal of experience. No one can debate that. But I think in terms of judgment,” he said, pointing to her vote to authorise the Iraq war, supporting past trade deals and allowing super PACs to support her campaign. “I think those are judgment calls that call into question whether she should be elected president.”

The increased scrapping comes as the surprisingly competitive Democratic race heads into the high-stakes � nal contests. Sand-ers has been on a winning streak, but still must take 68% of the re-maining delegates and uncom-mitted superdelegates to win the Democratic nomination. That would require blow-out victories in the upcoming primaries.

Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist who advised Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential cam-paign, said Sanders’ comments on Clinton’s quali� cations was an “authentic reaction” to the situa-tion, but “it was not accurate.”

“Trying to prosecute an argu-ment that she’s not quali� ed to be president is ridiculous and it’s a losing argument,” he said.

Sanders has since softened his rhetoric. In an interview Thursday on “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” Sanders noted that Clin-ton “has years of experience. She is extremely intelligent” and said that if Clinton is the party’s nomi-nee, “I will certainly support her.”

On Friday morning at a Manhat-tan town hall meeting broadcast on NBC’s “Today Show,” Sanders said “of course,” Clinton was qual-i� ed to become president.

“I respect Hillary Clinton, we were colleagues in the Senate, and on her worst day she would be an in� nitely better president than ei-ther of the Republican candidate,” he said. l

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders talks to reporters in New York City on Friday REUTERS

David Camron REUTERS

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SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Narine has bowling action clearedWest Indies o� -spinner Sunil Narine was cleared to resume his career after a suspension for a suspect bowling action ruled him out of his team’s World Twenty20 title-winning campaign. The 27-year-old was suspended last November after being cited during a ODI in Sri Lanka. PAGE 27

Arambagh clinch U-16 Pioneer LeagueArambagh emerged as the champions of the Dhaka North and South City Corporation Pioneer (Under-16) Football League, beating Gazipur City Football Academy 2-0 in the grand � nale at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. PAGE 26

Klopp unable to walk alone in Dortmund Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp received a rapturous, emotional welcome on his return to Borussia Dortmund on Thursday, the oc-casion marked by a spine-tingling rendition of "You’ll Never Walk Alone". PAGE 28

‘Rambo’ Ibra sees his life on big screenNever one to shun the limelight, Zlatan Ibrahimovic claimed that he could make a � lm about his life and portray it as a 10-part saga - just like Rambo. “There are talks but nothing has been decided,” the PSG star told a Swedish business newspaper. PAGE 29

Liverpool mid� elder Adam Lallana (C), Borussia Dortmund mid� elder Sven Bender (R) and goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller � ght for the ball during their UEFA Europe League quarter-� nal, � rst-leg in Dortmund, western Germany on Thursday AFP

Klopp’s Liverpool hold Dortmund, champions Sevilla win in Europa

Athletic Bilbao 1-2 SevillaAduriz 48 Kolodziejczak 56, Iborra 83

Dortmund 1-1 LiverpoolHummels 48 Origi 36

Braga 1-2 Shakhtar Donetsk Wilson Eduardo 89 Rakitskiy 45, Ferreyra 75

Villarreal 2-1 Sparta PragueBakambu 3, 63 Brabec 45+4

RESULTS

Dortmund v Liverpool

59 Possession (%) 41 16 Total attempts 13 7 On target 5 2 O� target 3 7 Blocked 5 0 Against woodwork 0 5 Corners 1 1 O� sides 4 3 Yellow cards 2 0 Red cards 0 13 Fouls committed 14 638 Passes 348 578 Completed 287

MATCH STATSn AFP, Paris

Liverpool claimed an excellent 1-1 draw with Borussia Dortmund in the � rst leg of their Europa League quarter-� nal on Thursday as Jur-gen Klopp made an emotional re-turn to the Westfalenstadion.

The game marked Klopp’s � rst coming together with his former club since his departure last sum-mer and subsequent appointment by Liverpool back in October.

He saw Divock Origi put the Premier League side in front in the 36th minute before Mats Hum-mels equalised for the hosts three minutes into the second half.

However, that away goal means Liverpool have the upper hand ahead of next Thursday’s second leg at An� eld and Klopp will be con� dent his side can pro-gress to the last four after an en-couraging display in Germany.

A rousing rendition of "You’ll Never Walk Alone" - the Liverpool hymn that is also a Dortmund an-them - preceded kick-o� as Klopp took in the scene at the stadium where he is still idolised after a highly successful seven years as

coach.“It was respectful, nice and

how it should be,” Klopp said of his welcome.

But perhaps the emotion of the occasion got to the Bundesliga team because they were unable to repeat their superb performance in tearing Tottenham Hotspur apart in the last round.

Their 36-goal leading scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was subdued and they were denied an opener when Mamadou Sakho bravely blocked a Henrikh Mkhi-taryan shot.

Dejan Lovren should have done better than head straight at Roman Weidenfeller at the other end but Origi put the visitors in front when he held o� his marker and slotted low past the ‘keeper after latching onto a Jordan Hen-derson � ick.

Weidenfeller prevented Ori-gi from scoring again just before the interval and Dortmund drew level shortly after the restart, cap-tain Hummels rising above Adam Lallana to head in a Mkhitaryan cross.

Weidenfeller saved well from

Philippe Coutinho and the � nal scoreline means the tie remains up for grabs, even if Liverpool have the edge.

Meanwhile, holders Sevilla remain on course to win the tro-phy for the third season running after coming from behind to win 2-1 away to Spanish rivals Athletic Bilbao in the � rst leg of their tie.

Sevilla have not won away from home all season in La Liga and, after a goalless � rst half in which Aritz Aduriz hit the post for the hosts, they went behind in the 48th minute.

Iker Muniain crossed and the evergreen Aduriz headed in his 32nd goal of a remarkable cam-paign.

But as the rain lashed down in the Basque Country, Sevilla silenced San Mames when Ever Banega pounced on a short head-ed back-pass by Muniain and set up Timothee Kolodziejczak to score.

Kevin Gameiro then set up sub-stitute Vicente Iborra to give Se-villa the win seven minutes from time and leave Athletic up against it ahead of the return leg.l

26DT Sport

An action of the Dhaka North and South City Corporation Pioneer (Under-16) Football League � nal between Arambagh and Gazipur City Football Academy at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. Arambagh goalkeeper Mohammad Emon was named the player of the � nal while Bashundhara Kings' Mehedi Hasan was adjudged the player of the tournament

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

WI series within two months, says BCB chiefn Mazhar Uddin

2016 World Twenty20 champions the West Indies are likely to play a Test series against the Tigers with-in the next two months, Bangla-desh Cricket Board president Naz-mul Hasan informed the media yesterday.

The BCB boss said the West In-dies Cricket Board has expressed their interest to tour Bangladesh and already sent a proposal for a Test series. The BCB though is also considering adding both ODIs and T20Is to the itinerary.

The board is treating the West Indies series with a great deal of signi� cance as it precedes the im-portant tour of India.

“We received a proposal from the WICB and they want to play a Test series with us. We are interest-ed to play the other formats as well along with the Test series,” said Nazmul yesterday.

A � nal decision regarding the West Indies bilateral series will be � nalised in a meeting of the board directors tomorrow.

Meanwhile, BCB CEO Nizamud-din Chowdhury has stated that the Sri Lankan team will not be able to contest a series in Bangladesh this month.

“The BCB had invited Sri Lanka for a series in April but the series has been postponed till February 2017,” said Nizamuddin. l

Murali made Gilchrist feel like a 10-year-oldn cricket.com.au

Adam Gilchrist says legendary subcontinent spinners Muttiah Muralidaran and Harbhajan Singh were the bowlers that caused him the most di� culty during his decorated career.

Gilchrist compiled 33 centuries in all formats across his 12 years at international level and enjoyed success around the world, including in the subcontinent.

But the former wicketkeeper-batsman says the bowlers that troubled him the most were two of the greatest o� -spinners of the modern game, Sri Lanka’s Muralidaran and India’s Harbhajan.

And he says the rubber-wristed Murali, Test cricket’s most proli� c wicket-taker, provided him the biggest challenge.

“It would be a combination of Murali and Bhajji,” Gilchrist was quoted as saying by PTI when asked which bowlers he feared the most.

“I could never read the delivery from Murali’s � nger movements. He always made me feel like a 10-year-old.”

Despite being perplexed by Murali’s unique action, Gilchrist did enjoy plenty of success against both the Sri Lankan and Harbhajan during his career.

And statistics show he was far more

e� ective against Murali than he was against Harbhajan.

One of Gilchrist’s greatest knocks at Test level came against Murali and Sri Lanka in Kandy in 2004, when he hammered a magni� cent 144 batting

at No.3 in the second innings to help steer Australia to a tense 27-run win after they’d conceded a lead of 91 on the � rst innings. The left-hander hit 48 from 68 balls he faced from Murali in that innings, including six fours and a six, although the spinner eventually dismissed him LBW.

Murali removed Gilchrist four times in six matches at Test level, with the batsman averaging almost 52 across nine innings against the o� -spinner.

And the numbers are � rmly in Gilchrist’s favour in one-day cricket; Murali dismissed the Australian just twice in 32 matches at ODI level, the Australian hitting seven centuries against him, including a match-winning performance in the 2007 World Cup � nal.

However, Gilchrist says the numbers belie the true story, saying he employed a horizontal bat to counter Murali’s vicious and unpredictable turn.

“Whenever I was in doubt, I promptly swept,” Gilchrist said. “There was this Test innings where I had gone out with this mindset to sweep.

“First ball, I swept and the ball went for four. Second ball, I swept again.

This time, it went straight up in the sky and I was caught.

“Next match, again I swept Murali the � rst ball and was caught plumb in front of the stumps.”

Gilchrist also used the sweep shot with mixed results against Harbhajan, who dismissed him seven times in Test matches and four times in ODIs.

Gilchrist famously struck centuries in the opening Tests of Australia’s 2001 and 2004 Tours of India, two rollicking hundreds that propelled the tourists to rare Test victories on Indian soil.

While the Australian got hold of Harbhajan on both of those occasions, the Indian ultimately dismissed him both times and also had the last laugh in those two series.

Harbhajan removed Gilchrist for scores of 0, 1 and 1 in the second and third Tests of the 2001 series and dismissed him for another single score in the fourth Test of the 2004 tour.

Overall, Gilchrist wasn’t at his best in matches in which Harbhajan played; he averaged 25 from 10 Tests in matches against the spinner and 31 from 25 ODIs against him.l

Arambagh clinch U-16 Pioneer Leaguen Tribune Report

Arambagh Football Academy emerged as the champions of the Dhaka North and South City Cor-poration Pioneer (Under-16) Foot-ball League, beating Gazipur City Football Academy 2-0 in the grand � nale at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Arambagh, a stone’s throw away

from the � nal venue, were un-beaten throughout the entire cam-paign.

Following a listless � rst half, Ar-ambagh captain Mithu put his side ahead with just two minutes into the second half. After receiving a through pass from Arif, Mithu un-leashed a grounder from the centre of the box which gave the Gazipur City goalkeeper no chance.

Fahim doubled the lead, and in the process, completed their vic-tory in the 66th minute, placing home another � ne cross from Arif.

Meanwhile in the third-place de-ciding match yesterday at the same venue, Bashundhara Kings defeat-ed Uttara Recreation Club 4-3.

Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salahuddin was ex-pected to grace his presence in the

presentation ceremony but was ab-sent. In his absence, Deputy Minis-ter for Youth and Sports Arif Khan Joy distributed the prizes among the winners as the chief guest.

Around 2,000 budding foot-ballers from all over the country, split into 60 teams, took part in the league that got underway last Feb-ruary at eight di� erent venues in the capital.l

Sport 27D

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SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Delegates nominations’ submission deadline expires today As announced earlier, the upcoming Bangladesh Football Federation election is scheduled to be held on April 30 and today is the deadline by which the respective football associations and clubs must submit the names of the delegates to football’s governing body in the country. The draft list of the delegates and the voters will be revealed tomorrow while any objections must be � led by this Monday. The � nal voter list will be given out at the BFF House this Wednesday. The election will be conducted in the capital’s Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel. In that regard, a 3-member election board has been formed with BFF disciplinary committee chairman Mezbahuddin Ahmed as the head. Mah� zur Rahman and Atiqur Rahman vwill assist Mesbahuddin.

–TRIBUNE REPORT

Nagatomo commits to Inter until 2019Japan defender Yuto Nagatomo has extended his contract with Inter Milan until 2019, the Italian club said on their website (www.inter.it) yesterday. “I’ve never thought about leaving,” Nagatomo, whose contract was due to expire at the end of the season, told reporters. “As I’ve said before, I love Inter and want to give my all for the club.” The 29-year-old has scored 11 goals in 172 matches for Inter since joining from Cesena in 2011.

–REUTERS

Ranieri, Kane pick up monthly EPL awardsLeicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has been named the Premier League manager of the month for March, while Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane has won the players’ award. Ranieri guided his team to three wins and a draw during the month to consolidate their position at the top of the table, where they currently sit seven points clear of Tottenham with six games to play.

–REUTERS

Swindon trio suspended over laughing gas videoA trio of Swindon players have been suspended amid reports they inhaled nitrous oxide on a live social media video. The images appeared to show Drissa Traore, Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill and Jeremy Balmy taking the legal high commonly known as laughing gas or hippy crack, via balloons.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Rising Pune Supergiants captain MS Dhoni bats in the nets during a practice session in Mumbai yesterday AP

Indian Premier League set to ease T20 heartachen AFP, New Delhi

The glitzy Indian Premier League (IPL) starts today, helping to ease the heartache of millions of fans following India’s failure to win the World Twenty20 on home soil this month.

India’s short-form extravagan-za, famous for its � reworks and dancing cheerleaders as well as unwanted corruption scandals, gets under way with the Mumbai Indians taking on the Rising Pune Supergiants.

Fans hope the cash-rich league, featuring blockbuster stars includ-ing Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, will soothe the pain of India’s shock semi-� nal defeat to eventual World T20 champions West Indies.

India went into the tournament as favourites but seriously un-der-performed, losing to New Zea-land and only beating Bangladesh on the last ball before prevailing over Australia to scrape into the � -nal four.

“It was a below par performance by Dhoni and company. I hope IPL helps us overcome the pain of the

semis loss,” Kolkata Knight Riders supporter Nehal Ahmed told AFP.

The ninth-edition of the fran-chise-based competition, which has revolutionised world cricket, will see eight teams clash in 60 matches at 10 di� erent venues across India.

The IPL is the most popular domestic league in the world but has been plagued by controversies since its inception in 2008, with corruption and match-� xing cases often taking centre-stage.

A spot-� xing scandal in 2013 led to two teams - Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals - being sus-pended last year for two seasons.

They have been replaced by Pune and Rajkot-based Gujarat Li-ons, who will be making their IPL debut in this edition, which runs until 29 May, when the � nal is in Mumbai.

The IPL, which has spawned a host of similar leagues around the world, was the brainchild of crick-et administrator Lalit Modi, who is refusing to return from Britain to India to face corruption charges.

Despite the controversies, the

IPL has attracted a host of foreign players who have shaped or res-urrected their careers and in turn have become household names in India.

Ace India batsman Kohli will be looking to carry on from his scintil-lating form at the World T20, which saw three ice-cool half-centuries, when he leads Royal Challengers Bangalore. Bangalore boast one of the tournament’s most formida-ble batting line-ups. In addition to Kohli, they have West Indies star Gayle and South African master shotmaker AB de Villiers.

Australian all-rounder Shane Watson will line-up alongside them after Bangalore pocketed him for a whopping $1.98 million during the auction in February.

West Indies’ man-of-the-mo-ment Carlos Brathwaite was a fairly unknown entity when Delhi Dare-devils bagged him for $640,000 at the bid. But it looks like money well spent after the all-rounder smashed four consecutive sixes in the � nal over of the World T20 � nal to snatch an unlikely victory from England. l

Stokes ready for more ‘death’ duty despite World T20 � nal hurtn AFP, London

England all-rounder Ben Stokes has insisted he is willing to bowl at the “death” again despite being struck for four sixes in the last over of the World Twenty20 � nal defeat by the West Indies.

With the West Indies needing 19 o� the � nal six balls of last Sun-day’s tournament climax in Kolka-ta, England were strong favourites for victory.

But powerful batsman Carlos Brathwaite made a mockery of the match position by sending four successive Stokes deliveries soar-ing into the stands, a total of 24 runs, as West Indies won with two balls to spare.

It was a chastening experience for Stokes and one which the Dur-ham fast-medium bowler said had left him feeling “completely devas-tated”.

Nevertheless, asked if he would bowl at the “death” again in a ma-jor match, Stokes told Friday’s Dai-ly Telegraph: “A hundred percent. De� nitely. It is something I work at a lot. Some days they go well. Some

days they don’t. That was a bad day but I won’t be shying away from it.”

Nor did he hide from the emo-tions he felt at the end of an ex-traordinary see-saw match.

“I thought, ‘I’ve just lost the World Cup’. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do. It took me so long to get back on my feet. I didn’t want to get back up.

“It was like the whole world had come down on me. There weren’t any good things going through my mind. It was just complete devas-tation. Setbacks make you want to be better again,” he said. “This will be in my mind for quite a long time and I will re� ect on it for a long time,” the 24-year-old added.

“It will be a little bit of motiva-tion to make sure this does not ever happen again. So train 10 minutes longer every now and again to get better.”

Meanwhile Stokes also paid tribute to Brathwaite’s remarkable ball-striking, insisting he had no regrets about his decision to bowl yorkers despite being way o� target with his � rst ball of the last over, which went down the legside.l

Narine has bowling action clearedn AFP, Dubai

West Indies o� -spinner Sunil Nar-ine was Thursday cleared to re-sume his career after a suspension for a suspect bowling action ruled him out of his team’s World Twen-ty20 title-winning campaign.

The 27-year-old Trinidadian was suspended in November last year after being cited during a one-day match in Sri Lanka. He had also been reported for a similar problem at the 2014 Champions League T20 tournament.

“Sunil Narine’s action found to be legal, can now resume bowling in international cricket and domestic cricket events worldwide,” the International Cricket Council tweeted.

Narine has played six Tests in his stop-start career, taking 21 wickets. He also has 77 wickets in 55 ODIs and 40 victims in Twenty20.l

28DT Sport

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

10 THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN EPL WEEK 33Can the Hammers end Gunners’ title dream?

The Gunners were vastly improved in last weekend’s win over Watford, but the real test will be in today’s early kick-o� , with the Hammers holding Champions League aspirations of their own. Victory at Upton Park will send a real statement while defeat could e� ectively end their season. It seems the only way Arsene Wenger will silence those vociferous voices around the Emirates is to somehow mastermind a late title tilt, and to do that, the Gunners will almost certainly have to earn maximum points from their � nal matches.

Can Canaries build on last-gasp success?

Alex Neil’s Norwich would be much deeper in the relegation mire had they not snatched a dramatic victory against Newcastle last weekend while Palace are in freefall, and have not earned three points since December 19.

Mitrovic to � re Newcastle to safety?

Southampton have su� ered from inconsistency of late, and should Aleksandar Mitrovic carry on � nding the net at a similar rate, the Magpies could start their climb up the table sooner rather than later.

Is Martinez one more defeat away from pressure?

With such a talented squad at his disposal, it is no wonder Roberto Martinez is under pressure to turn things around at Everton, with the To� ees in 12th position. Watford though represent perfect opposition in Everton’s quest for a � rst win in four.

Is this the day the giant falls?

This day has been looming large in England’s second city for some time, but if Norwich better Villa’s result against Bournemouth, then the Midland club will have their relegation con� rmed. It is only a matter of time, but when con� rmed the real inquest

will begin as to what has gone so drastically wrong at Villa Park.

Swans to break League duck?

There may not be a better time for the Swans to make sure of their top-� ight safety and earn that elusive three points over the Blues, given all the Antonio Conte commotion in midweek. It has been a tumultuous week at Chelsea, with Conte announced as Jose Mourinho’s long-term successor - enough to cause much distraction ahead of a weekend � xture.

Can De Bruyne continue to revit-alise City?

City look a force once again with Kevin De Bruyne back in it. They put in arguably their best display of the season in the Belgian’s comeback game last weekend at Bournemouth, before earning the advantage over Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League after a 2-2 draw in Paris. West Brom beware!

Will Leicester slip up?

Many of us refuse to believe they can do it even now, with Sunderland’s quest for survival a potential stumbling block in the Leicester fairytale. However, the Foxes have shown a lot of resilience and travel to Stadium of Light full of con� dence. Slipping up is looking less and less likely, and if they continue to get the points they need to seal a remarkable title success, Claudio Ranieri will rely on the same players once more. Why change a winning formula?

United to continue run at White Hart Lane?

Louis van Gaal’s men are producing something resembling decent form after registering back-to-back wins, but they cannot a� ord any further slip-ups in their pursuit of a top-four � nish against a resurgent Tottenham. Spurs have arguably more at stake, though, as they trail leaders Leicester by seven points, and with the Foxes showing no sign of relenting, Mauricio Pochettino’s men have to keep pace - and must

ignore the history books in doing so.

1-0 to the visitors?

After Liverpool’s embarrassing 6-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium on the � nal day of last season, each of the three meetings between Liverpool and Stoke this campaign have ended 1-0 to the away side. Will recent history repeat itself?l

FIXTURESTODAY

Aston Villa v Bournemouth Crystal Palace v Norwich Manchester City v West Brom Southampton v Newcastle Swansea v Chelsea Watford v Everton West Ham v Arsenal

TOMORROW

Liverpool v Stoke Sunderland v Leicester Tottenham v Man United

Borussia boss warns Bayern ahead of Stuttgart derbyn AFP, Berlin

Borussia Dortmund’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has warned Bayern Munich that his team is ready to pounce in the Bundesliga title race should Pep Guardiola’s leaders slip up at Stuttgart today.

With only six games left, the Ba-varian giants are � ve points clear of second-placed Dortmund but face a tricky tie at Stuttgart in the south Germany derby.

Guardiola’s side has shown signs of fatigue in recent weeks.

They laboured to a 1-0 win over Ben� ca in the Champions League on Tuesday on the back of a work-manlike 1-0 victory over relega-tion-threatened Eintracht Frank-furt in the league.

Likewise, Dortmund must keep winning to stand any chance of a � rst league title since 2012 and they are at arch-rivals Schalke tomorrow in the Ruhr Valley derby.

Bayern are bidding to come the � rst German club to win four straight Bundesliga titles, having won the league at a canter for the last three seasons.

But Watzke is pleased that Dort-mund still have even a remote chance of breaking the Bavarians’ monopoly.

In Stuttgart, Bayern will be without Dutch winger Arjen Rob-ben, who has not played since mid-March because of a groin injury.l

Klopp unable to walk alone on Dortmund return n AFP, Dortmund

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp re-ceived a rapturous, emotional welcome on his return to Borussia Dortmund on Thursday, the oc-casion marked by a spine-tingling rendition of "You’ll Never Walk Alone".

Around 65,000 fans of both teams � lled the air in the West-falenstadion with the stirring hymn marking a � tting return for Klopp who spent seven seasons at the Bundesliga club before leaving for An� eld last year.

A smiling Klopp warmly greeted his former players as they prepared for the Europa League quarter-� -nal, � rst leg clash.

"Kloppo" also smilingly saluted the Yellow Wall of Dortmund fans, banked high behind the goal on the famous south terrace.

“It’s a very special moment. I can’t be unmoved by it,” the 48-year-old coach told Sky of a club where he was in charge from 2008 to 2015.

However, he admitted it was strange walking into the visitors dressing room rather than the home side’s.

“I didn’t know what they looked like,” he smiled although he had been there before - back in his days as coach of fellow Bundesliga team Mainz, where he worked between 2001 and 2008.

“I only had to remind myself when I came in right, instead of left for the dressing room,” he told BT Sport.

Once "You’ll Never Walk Alone" - performed movingly inside the

cavernous arena - was completed, the track-suited Klopp embraced his successor Thomas Tuchel as a huge group of photographers camped in front of the dug-out.

The return of Klopp to Dort-mund for the � rst time has domi-nated sports news in Germany all week.

It even rivalled Wolfsburg’s stunning 2-0 win over Real Ma-drid in the Champions League on Wednesday on television bulletins and websites.

“All the stories around, maybe the media created it a little bit but not a Dortmund player or manager or Liverpool player or manager,”

Klopp added to BT Sport.“For the team it is not a big

di� erence, the team only has to think about what it has to do in the game. Dortmund are pretty good, that’s the truth, but they are beatable. The most di� cult thing is they are full, full, full of con� dence.” l

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp (2L) hugs Borussia Dortmund skipper Mats Hummels after their Uefa Europa League quarter-� nal � rst-leg at Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany on Thursday REUTERS

Sport 29D

T

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

LA LIGA FIXTURES Real Madrid v Eibar Espanyol v Atletico Madrid Real Sociedad v Barcelona Real Betis v Levante

DAY’S WATCHCRICKET

SONY SIX8:30 PM

Indian Premier LeagueMumbai v Pune

FOOTBALL STAR SPORTS 2

5:35 PMBarclays Premier League

West Ham United v Arsenal 7:50 PM

Swansea City v Chelsea 10:20 PM

Manchester City v West Brom STAR SPORTS 4

7:30 PMBundesliga 2015/16

VfB Stuttgart v FC Bayern Munich 10:15 PM

VfL Wolfsburg v FSV Mainz 05 TEN 1

5:30 PMSky Bet ChampionshipBurnley v Leeds United

8:00 PMMiddlesbrough v Preston North

TEN 1 HD3:30 PM

A-League 2015/16Melbourne Victory v Brisbane Roar

8:50 PMFrench Ligue 1 2015/16

Guingamp v Paris Saint-Germain SONY SIX12:40 AM

Serie A TIM 2015/16AC Milan v Juventus

SONY ESPN12:30 AM

Real Sociedad v FC Barcleona

TENNIS TEN 2

12:00 AMATP World Tour 250 2016

Houston Open: SFs TEN 3

11:00 PMWTA Tour 2016

Family Circle Cup: SF1 1:00 AM

Family Circle Cup: SF2

HOCKEY STAR SPORTS 1

2:00 PMSultan Azlan Shah Cup 2016

Japan v Canada 4:00 PM

New Zealand v Pakistan6:30 PM

Australia v Malaysia

BADMINTON STAR SPORTS 2

11:00 PMBWF Badminton World Superseries

Malaysia Open

Bolivia's Bolivar mid� elder Walter Flores (R) and Argentina's Boca Juniors forward Carlos Tevez vie for the ball during their Copa Libertadores Group 3 match at the 'Bombonera' stadium in Buenos Aires on Thursday. Boca won 3-1 AFP

‘Rambo’ Ibra sees his life on big screenn AFP, Stockholm

Never one to shun the limelight, Zlatan Ibrahimovic claimed Thurs-day that he could make a � lm about his life and portray it as a 10-part saga - just like Rambo.

“There are talks but nothing has been decided,” the Paris Saint Ger-main star told Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri.

“Lots of other people do � lms about me, my life and make money but it’s obvious that if the subject of a movie is me then I should have control. There are talks in progress. We can make a lot of � lms about me. It would be like Rambo I to Rambo V - we could do Ibracadabra 1 to 10.” l

Barca seek response to Clasico defeatn Reuters, Barcelona

Barcelona must overcome a dismal record at Real Sociedad today to reinforce the club’s title credentials after their 39-game unbeaten run in all competitions ended with defeat by Real Madrid last week.

La Liga leaders Barca were lifted by a 2-1 victory over Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid in a Champions League quarter-� nal � rst leg on Tuesday but they have failed to win at Sociedad since the Basque side returned to the top � ight in 2011. Four of the Catalan team’s

last � ve visits there have ended in defeat.

“We have beaten Barcelona a lot in the last few years and [today] we can beat them again,” Sociedad mid� elder Illarramendi told.

Barca are without suspended top scorer Luis Suarez, who scored both goals in the comeback win over Atletico, while Aleix Vidal, Jeremy Mathieu and Sandro Ramirez are injured. Their last victory in San Sebastian came under former coach Frank Rijkaard in May 2007 and nei-ther Pep Guardiola, Gerardo Marti-no, Tito Vilanova nor Luis Enrique

have managed to win at Sociedad.Real Madrid host ninth-placed

Eibar today hoping to capitalise on their win at the Nou Camp last week. Zinedine Zidane’s men will also look to put added pressure on the teams above them and bounce back from their shock Champions League defeat at VfL Wolfsburg in midweek.

Real could be without Karim Benzema after the France striker went o� in the � rst half of the 2-0 reverse at Wolfsburg due to a sus-pected knee injury.

Captain Sergio Ramos is sus-

pended after being sent o� for two bookings against Barcelona.

Atletico travel to Espanyol, where they have not won since September 2012, today knowing that a victory and another slip by Barca would leave them three points o� the top. l

Kerber advances as Venus ousted in Charlestonn AFP, Los Angeles

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams will have to wait for a 50th career WTA title after bowing out in the third round of the claycourt tournament in Charleston on Thursday.

Williams, the third seed, had put together back-to-back wins for the � rst time since lifting her 49th title in Taiwan in February, but was top-pled 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-4 by Kazakh-stan’s Yulia Putintseva. The 35-year-old American joined second-seeded Swiss Belinda Bencic, fourth-seed-ed Lucie Safarova and sixth-seeded Andrea Petkovic out of the tourna-ment. But top-seeded Angelique Kerber, the reigning Australian Open champion, powered into the quarter-� nals with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over quali� er Kristina Kucova.

Kerber � red 35 winners and con-verted seven of her 10 break point chances, staying steady in di� cult, windy conditions.l

Napoli eyes on Juve trip to San Siron AFP, Milan

The fall-out from Gonzalo Higuain’s four-match ban will overshadow Serie A this weekend, when the Argentine striker and his Napoli team-mates will be glued to a crucial San Siro clash between AC Milan and Juventus.

Sitting three points behind Ju-ventus before last week’s games, Napoli’s bid for a � rst Serie A title in 26 years looks to be in tatters following a shock 3-1 defeat at Udinese that saw Higuain lose the plot after being shown a red card.

Although Napoli are set to ap-peal what they regard as an “unfair sanction”, their best hopes now lie with Juventus slipping up along the way as they look to secure a � fth consecutive title.

But the champions are on an unbeaten run of 21 games, and defender Andrea Barzagli believes Juve’s strength and belief will pre-vail. A win would allow coach Mas-similano Allegri to walk away vic-torious from the club that sacked him in January 2014.

A 21st win in 22 games would take Juve’s lead over Napoli to a morale-sapping nine points a day before Maurizio Sarri’s men host basement side Verona at the San Paolo.

But Milan haven’t surrendered yet, and Napoli’s players will be praying the Rossoneri cause an upset with a home win that would reignite the title race and boost Mi-lan’s Europa League hopes.

Milan are currently 24 points behind Juventus, 14 o� the last Champions League spot and six be-hind Inter Milan, who occupy the last Europa League spot.

The pressure on coach Sinisa Mi-hajlovic increased after last week’s 2-1 defeat at Atalanta, meaning Milan have taken only two points from their last four games.

It is hardly what you expect from a club that have been Euro-pean champions seven times, but struggling to qualify for the Cham-pions League is now the reality for Rossoneri fans.l

SERIE A FIXTURES Frosinone v Inter Milan Chievo v Carpi Sassuolo v Genoa AC Milan v Juventus

Showtime30DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Celebs implicated in Panama leakn Promiti Prova Chowdhury

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and probably even then), you must have heard by now of the infamous “Panama Papers leak,” where some 11 million documents held by the Panamian � rm, Mossack Fonseca became available to the press, laying bare details of o� shore accounts containing the ill-gotten gains of some of the world’s wealthiest people. The publication of the documents has already causing governments to topple, and now it appears that not even celebs were able to resist the lucrative system that allowed them to launder money, dodge sanctions, and avoid taxes.

The Panama Papers reveal the names of these wealthy, well-known faces, however, that does not imply that they have done anything wrong as there is nothing illegal about moving money o� shore. In fact, during the 1970s, it was a way of moving cash around at a time of widespread currency controls across Europe.

In the current political climate however, questions are raised about the legitimacy and fairness of such accounts. Showtime sheds light on some of the celebrities named in leak.

Simon Cowell, 56, music tycoonCowell is said to have two companies on the British Virgin Islands called Southstreet Limited, set up in February 2007, and Eaststreet Limited, set up in October 2007. The companies were set up at a time when Cowell was planning to purchase two plots of land in Barbados, where he spends his holidays almost every year.

His spokesman said, “The companies were not set up by my client, but by accountants acting for him as a common means for an overseas investor to purchase property in Barbados. Neither of Cowell’s companies were ever used, and both are dormant.”

“My client, however, preferred to purchase them transparently in his own name. Therefore, the

companies were never used for anything at all. I can also con� rm on behalf of my client that he has not used any o� shore companies for any purpose whatsoever.”

Cowell said that he paid tax all over the world, adding, “Whenever I got knocked for what I do, I always say ‘well I do pay my taxes, it helps, and I’m quite proud of that, here and all over the world.’”

Willian, 27, footballer

The Chelsea footballer was the sole shareholder of BVI company called Saxon Sponsoring Limited, which was set up in September 2013.

His address in the UK was given as Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham, Surrey.

A spokesman for the mid� elder, whose full name is Willian Borges da Silva, said the company had lain dormant long before it was closed down the previous year.

Jackie Chan, 61, actor

Chan owned at least six o� shore companies, which were even based in the British Virgin Islands.

The holdings included companies called Jumbo Jaz Investment, Jackie Chan Ltd and Dragon Stream Ltd.

Chan did not respond when approached regarding this matter.

Heather Mills, 48, entrepreneur and former wife of Sir Paul McCartneyMills, who was awarded £24.3M in her divorce from the former Beatles member, was a shareholder of Water 4 Investment Ltd, which was originally set up to create health food.

However, Mills said the investment ended in a long legal battle, in which she lost a seven-� gure sum.

A spokesman said Mills invested a million pounds in a company which intended to utilise algae to harvest Omega 3 oils, and “thus presere the marine ecosystem.”

“I can say hand-on-heart that I am a straight taxpayer, and you will never � nd anything on me if you investigate thoroughly,” she replied in an emailed statement to the Guardian.

Stanley Kubrick (deceased), directorThe semi-recluse spent the last decades of his life in a grand 18th-century manor in Hertfordshire which was transferred to o� shore companies controlled by his daughters.

After Kubrick died in 1999, the ownership of the property passed to three companies registered in the British Virgin Islands; a move that may have saved the family hundreds of thousands of pounds in inheritance tax.

The house is now owned by Anya K Holdings Ltd, Vivian K Holdings Ltd and Katharina K Holdings Ltd.

The companies’ names refer to his daughters Anya, who died in 2009, Vivian, and his step-daughter Katharina.

Pedro Almodóvar, 66, � lm-directorPedro was connected to a company called the Glen Valley Corporation, which operated from 1991 to 1994. The Oscar-winning � lm-maker was given power of attorney over the company, which allowed him to control it, while two Mossack Fonseca employees acted as the company’s directors. Almodóvar is best known for � lms including All About My Mother and Talk to Her.

The director cancelled a press junket on Wednesday for his newest � lm Julieta after facing scrutiny over his � nancial arrangements. He declined to comment on the matter, but his brother, who also had power of attorney over the company, told Spanish media that he had closed down the company because “it did not � t with the way we worked.”

Sir Nick Faldo, 58, golferFaldo was the sole shareholder of a British Virgin Islands company called Blenhim Road Ltd, which was set up in 1995, two years after the six-time majors winner turned professional. 

The company was reportedly shut down in 2009, about the time his sporting career began to wind down. Faldo declined to comment.

Roksanda Ilincic, fashion designer The Serbian fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic, whose clothes have been worn by the Duchess of Cambridge and Samantha Cameron, is the shareholder of a company called Greenland Property Limited. The designer, who lives in North London, co-owns the BVI company with her husband Philip Bueno de Mesquita.

According to her � nancial advisers who manage the � rm from Switzerland, the company’s “region of activity” is Slovenia. A representative for the designer said that Greenland was a dormant company with no assets.

“Roksanda does not avoid tax or obscure ownership of her assets. Indeed, she is taxed in the UK on her worldwide income and is subject to any double taxation treaties in place with the UK revenue,” said the representative. l

Sources: The Guardian, The Telegraph

n Showtime Desk

The central event of the World Theatre Day was observed in Gouangzhou, China on March 27 with the initiative of Chinese Centre of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) and ITI General Secretariat. President of ITI worldwide, Ramendu Majumdar, and Bangladesh ITI vice-president, Prof Abdus Selim joined the celebrations as well.

Anatoly Vasiliev, renowned Russian director, read out his world theatre day message at the event while Ramendu Majumdar and seven other dignitaries opened the celebrations by playing the traditional Chinese drum.

Delegates from 17 Asian countries elaborated on the status of traditional theatres of their respective countries.

In his presentation, Ramendu Majumdar illustrated some examples of the theatres in Bangladesh and highlighted the need to provide a livelihood for the traditional theatre practitioners.

A meeting with the representatives of Asia-Paci� c Regional Council of ITI was held the next day. ITI president of China Dr Ji Gouping, ITI director general Tobias Biancone and Ramendu Majumdar addressed the meeting. It was decided to reorganise the regional centre during the next ITI Congress, which is to be held from May 30 to June 5 in Manaus, Brazil. l

World Theatre Day’s main event held in China

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

Mizan Rahman, the lead vocal of hard rock band Warfaze, has left the pack. Fans were left in awe after the announcement came out yesterday via the band’s o� cial page on Facebook.

The post stated: “Warfaze

regrets to announce the departure of lead voice Mizan from April 7th 2016 on the grounds of ideological and philosophical di� erences.”

It is still unclear on how the decision came about, but the post suggested that it was taken through a “mutually agreed conversation.” l

n Showtime Desk

The magic of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol seemed to be below par this time around. Their film Diwale ended up in the Kela Awards 2016, winning the Worst Film Award at the eighth edition of the Golden Kela Awards. It is being said that the superstar will collect the trophy personally.

“Shah Rukh has never shied off laughing at himself. Even during the promotion of Dilwale, he did spoofs on his own film,” elaborated his friend.

Dilwale was declared the winner over other Bollywood disappointments, including Bombay Velvet, Shaandaar, Tevar and Akshay Kumar’s Singh is Bliing, at the 8th Golden Kela Awards. The event annually recognises the worst in Hindi cinemas.

Although Dilwale was declared the worst film, Salman

Khan’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo earned Sonam Kapoor the Worst Actress Award. Moreover, the film’s director, Sooraj Barjatya, took home the Worst Director Award as well as the “Bas Kijiye Bahut Ho Gaya Award.”

Actor Sooraj Pancholi might have bagged debut awards at various other award functions for his film Hero, but the Golden Kela Awards recognised him as the worst actor of the year. The 25-year-old stood behind actors like Arjun Rampal (Roy), Arjun Kapoor (Tevar) and Imran Khan (Katti Batti).

The award for the most pointless sequel or remake went to MSG 2 for including “over-the-top acting” and “irritating melodrama.” The “Baawra Ho Gaya Hai Ke Award” was earned by director Vikas Behl for his box-office dud Shaandaar.

Voters chose Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’s title track, which even brewed public rage on

social media, as the most irritating song of the year, while “Birthday Bash” from Dilliwaali Zaalim Girlfriend received the most Atrocious Lyrics Award.

In addition, actor Imran Khan won the Why Are You Still Trying Award for his Kangana Ranaut starrer Katti Batti.

Like every year, there were some special awards given out by the Golden Kela team as well.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s national award winning film Bajirao Mastani won Manoj Kumar Award for historical accuracy. Worst Accent Award was given to Randeep Hooda for Main Aur Charles. The “Sangh Parivaar Award” went to the song “Gerua” from Dilwale, while the Shakti Kapoor Award for misogyny was bagged by Pyaar Ka Panchnama 2. Lastly, Sonakshi Sinha received What The Hell award for her single “Ishqholic.” l

Showtime 31D

TSATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

Dilwale receives Kela Award

Mizan leaves Warfaze

WHAT TO WATCH

PrometheusStar Moves 8: 50pmA group of explorers, including some archaeologists, are on an “undisclosed” mission. They arrive at a planet millions of miles away from Earth. The team spot what they believe to be signs of civilization. They go to investigate and � nd more than just signs, they � nd conclusive evidence. But some of them have an ulterior motive for being there, including the Weyland Corporation. They believ e that this is where the human race actually came from. Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce

Shoot ’Em UpWB 11:25pmSmith prefers to be left alone and lead his own life. But all that changes when he gets embroiled in a political conspiracy after he helps a pregnant woman who is going into labour while chased by a hit-man. The woman is killed and Smith runs away with the baby and a prostitute named Donna. Smith gets to understand that a US Senator had been breeding babies  for their marrow to treat his cancer. and that he has contracted Hertz to kill the babies. Cast: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk

The IncrediblesZee Studio 1:15pmBob and Helen used to be Mr Incredible and Elastigirl � fteen years ago. The crime-� ghting duo adapt to a civilian life when they retire from their activities. Their children Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack were born with superpowers that they are not aware of. Bob is thrilled when he gets a message summoning him to a remote island for a top secret assignment. When he gets there, he realises that solving the problem will need the e� orts of a super family.Cast: Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Louis

Underworld: Rise of the LycansZee Studio 3:35pmThe bloody feud between the aristocratic vampires and their slaves, the Lycans, continues. This war has been running for centuries. Lucian becomes a powerful leader of the Lycans. He brings together a number of werewolves to � ght Viktor, the wicked vampire king who has enslaved the Lycans. Sonja, the queen, joins Lucian in his war. Will the Lycans gain their freedom in the end?Cast: Bill Nighy, Michael Sheen, Rhona Mitra, Kevin Grevioux, Steven Mackintosh

300HBO 4:40pmIn 480 BC a state of war exists between Persia, led by King Xerxes, and Greece. At the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas, king of the Greek city state of Sparta, leads his badly outnumbered warriors against the massive Persian army. Though certain death awaits the Spartans, their sacrifice inspires all of Greece to unite against their common enemy.Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, Vincent Regan, Rodrigo Santoro

Back Page32DT

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

BANGLADESH AND A WORLD AT WAR PAGE 19

MURALI MADE GILCHRIST FEEL LIKE A 10-YEAR-OLD PAGE 26

MIZAN LEAVES WARFAZE PAGE 31

India’s Ganges waterways project raises hopes and fearsn Tribune Desk

A noted Indian river expert Dinesh Mishra recalls the fate of two large barrages built in the Bihar state in the early 60’s and mid 70’s. The purpose of the � rst, Kosi barrage completed in 1962, was to control the Kosi River, called “the sorrow of Bihar” due to the � uctuations of its course and the � oods it caused on a regular basis. In 1975, the Far-akka barrage was constructed to help maintain navigability of Kol-kata port. Both failed miserably in their purpose. While the Kosi continues to create immense � ood damage most years, the Kolkata port is choked with silt. Not only that, the Farakka barrage is often cited by Bangladesh as a reason for lack of water in its rivers and pro-gressive increase in salinity.

It is this context which explains why the Bihar representatives are up in arms against a plan by the Indian central government to build 15 small barrages on the Ganges as part of an ambitious waterway pro-ject. Just a few days before the In-dian Parliament passed the Nation-al Waterway Act, ministers from Bihar decided to protest. The water resource minister from Bihar, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, addressing the state assembly, said the plan not only ignores environmental norms but also adds one more major � ood threat to the state.

The projectThe bill converts 111 rivers into a national waterway to develop In-dia’s mostly-untapped potential of using rivers for transport. It will create nearly 14,500km of naviga-ble waterways at an estimated cost of Rs700bn.

The Indian minister for road transport, highways and shipping, Nitin Gadkari, informed Lok Sabha that only 3.5% of trade within India is carried via waterways. Compar-atively, in China 47% of trade, in Europe 40%, in Japan 44%, and in Korea and Bangladesh 35% of trade happens through waterways.

The project will develop six national waterways. The longest, National Waterway (NW) 1 will be on the Ganges from West Bengal’s Haldia to Allahabad stretching 1,620km. It will serve the states of

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. NW 2 to 6 will be built on the Brahmaputra, West Coast Canal, Godavari, Krishna, Brahamani and Barak rivers re-spectively.

A detailed project report has already been prepared for the Rs-42bn NW 1 project, and it is to be funded by the World Bank. This aims to develop the stretch from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal for water tra� c, crossing through the entire state of Bihar. This is the project that is worrying the politicians of Bihar.

The fearsThe waterway project plans con-struction of dams and barrag-es every 100km on the 1,600km stretch of the Ganges covered by NW 1. “There is no blueprint on how this will a� ect silt deposition in the river. Silt will raise the water table, leading to � oods,” Bihar Wa-ter Resource Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh added.

According to the Bihar State Dis-aster Management Authority, near-ly 74% of the state’s area is prone to � ooding. Twenty-eight out of the state’s 38 districts are a� ected by � oods almost every year.

Nupur Bose, a member of the Indian State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority, pointed out that the hydrology of the Ganges in Bihar is very di� erent from rivers in Europe.

“A major stretch of the river lies in the seismic zone and con-struction of 15 dams and barrages is a huge risk,” she said. She added that a proper environment assess-ment of the project is needed. Bose claimed that the barrage-and-dam component of the waterway pro-ject has a striking similarity with that of the Farakka barrage.

“The Farakka barrage destroyed the Hilsa � sh population. And the waterway project will wipe out the Gangetic dolphins. The entire wa-terway runs through the dolphin habitat of the Ganges,” she said.

This is not to dismiss the poten-tial of the project. She believes, like Gadkari, that the waterway project could be a game changing idea for the country’s transport sector. “But such a mammoth project needs a detailed study before implementa-tion,” she said.

Highlighting the project may need constant dredging of the wa-terway, Ashok Ghosh, a member of the regional empowerment com-mittee of the central ministry of environment, forests and climate change, said: “Silt deposition is a major concern and the project should try to resolve this issue.”

A lack of clarity on the technical aspects of the project further baf-� es experts. Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, point-ed out that the bill does not men-tion any technical or environment assessment of the proposed water-way.

“I think it’s highly unlikely that such a large number of barrages

would be constructed on Ganges. But then nothing is clear at pres-ent,” he said. Thakkar feels that the government will adopt the method of dredging to ensure navigabili-ty. “But the silt that comes out of dredging needs to go somewhere. I think a detailed technical part of the project will resolve this mys-tery.”

History of bad engineeringDinesh Mishra pointed out that in 1952 there was only 60km of em-bankments in the state. Today the embankment length is more than 3,700km. “Improper maintenance of these barrages and embank-ments is a major cause of � oods,” he said. In 2008, a crack in an embank-ment led to the Kosi � oods that dis-placed nearly 3.5m people in Bihar. Almost every year relief camps are set up and villagers evacuated in seven districts on the banks of the Kosi during the monsoon.

It is not only about the Kosi, embankments have increased fre-quency and magnitude of � oods in Bihar districts like Muza� arpur and Sitamarhi in the last 30 years. “The badly conceptualised con-crete structures are ruining rivers and the people whose livelihoods are dependent on river are su� er-ing the most,” claimed Nupur Bose.

She again pointed out that the Farakka barrage was conceptual-ised to transfer 40,000 cusecs of water to Hooghly River to wash away silt and keep the Kolkata port navigable. “The barrage has failed to serve the purpose and become a tomb of engineering failure.” In 2012, a group of lawmakers had demanded decommissioning of Farakka barrage. “We could well imagine what will happen when 15 barrages are constructed on the Ganges,” Bose warned.

Unsure of how this will all play out, ministers in Bihar are still try-ing to � gure out how to deal with the plan. It is not easy to protest against a bill passed in Lok Sabha, but the scale of threat is too high to ignore. “We will take legal opinion to stop this devastating project,” Rajiv Ranjan said. l

[The article was � rst published in The Third Pole, which can be found at http://bit.ly/1MUYrPy]

PROPOSED INDIAN NATIONAL WATERWAYS 1 PROJECT

Jharkhand

Orissa

Madhya Pradesh

Bihar

WestBengal

Kolkata

Pakur

Munger

Chapra Kosir

Haldia

Patna

Declared waterwayLegend:

Terminal

River distancesHaldia (sagar)-FarakkaFarakka-Patna 460kmPatna-Length 600kmTotal Length 1620km

560km

VaramasiGhazipur

Tanda

AllahabadJamuna river

Uttar Pradesh

NORTHGanges river

Berhampur

Ganges river

FarakkaBhagalpur

Ballia

‘The Farakka barrage destroyed the Hilsa � sh population. And the waterway project will wipe out the Gangetic dolphins. The entire waterway runs through the dolphin habitat of the Ganges’

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