Showdown on January 5n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Political situation of the country is heating up once again ahead of the second anniver-sary of the much-talked January 5 general elections, as both the ruling Awami League and its arch-rival BNP have announced pro-grammes for that day in the capital.

Last year, the BNP announced to hold a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on January 5 to mark “Democracy Killing Day” but could not do so as its Chairperson Khaleda Zia was al-legedly “barred” from leaving her Gulshan o� ce to attend the event.

In protest, the former premier announced countrywide inde� nite blockade which claimed more than 100 lives. She also stayed in the o� ce with some of her colleagues during the three-month-long movement de-manding fresh elections.

The Awami League also announced rallies at 16 places of the capital to mark January 5 as the “Protection of Constitution and De-mocracy Victory Day.” Since both the parties announced simultaneous programmes, the authorities rejected both the applications.

The BNP yesterday announced that they would hold a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on January 5, only a day after the party chief

said that the incumbent government would have to leave o� ce after holding a free and fair election soon.

The Awami League has also announced that they would observe the day but did not specify the programme details or the venue.

The DMP authorities last night said they would sit today to discuss the matter.

After last year’s countrywide “violent” movement, the BNP was apparently absent in the political arena for months, but it got a space by participating in the municipal polls to make a comeback, political observers say.

They think the situation will not be dreadful like last year as the BNP has lost its strength enough while the Awami League has

consolidated its power at the grassroots level.“It is a non-cooperation cycle and the cy-

cle will not break soon. The government is playing cat and mouse game with the oppo-sition. They sometime ease the situation and sometime toughen it [for the opposition],” Ataur Rahman, a political scientist, told

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

SECOND EDITION

GUNMEN ATTACK INDIAN AIR FORCE BASE PAGE 22

IJTEMA FOR 32 DISTRICTS THIS YEAR PAGE 32

PUBLIC UNI TEACHERS WARN OF NON-STOP STRIKE 11 PAGE 3

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016 | Poush 20, 1422, Rabiul Awal 21, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 257 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

Smugglers den in Dinajpurn Syed Samiul Basher Anik and

Mohammad Jamil Khan

Parbatipur, a sleepy little town near the Indi-an border in Bangladesh’s northern district Dinajpur, is very important.

It is important not because it is a tourist attraction or a major regional administration hub or a mining town. It is important because smugglers use this place as a depository for all kinds of goods brought over from India illegally.

Geographically, the location is very con-venient – Parbatipur is just two hours by train from the border railway station at HiliLand Port.

When the Dhaka Tribune reporters arrived at the Parbatipur Railway Station around 6:30 in the morning on a � ne warm autumn day recently, the place was already hustling and bustling with several hundred women.

All of them were wearing a locally made thick pullover kind of a thing although the weather was pretty warm. They were all waiting to board the Rajshahi-bound Baren-dra Express.

Local residents said that at least 300 peo-

ple from the town, mostly women, work as middlemen and carriers of smuggled goods. In addition, another 100 “black marketers,” who have “special” arrangements with the two train services – Brendra Express and Ti-

tumir Express – so that the carriers do not face any checking.

The pullovers they had on them have se-cret chambers where they carry the smuggled goods. Soon they board the Barendra Express and the reporters follow them. The women are happy and excited and they discuss what they were going to bring for the day, the price of Indian goods, spices, and so on.

In two hours or so, the train reaches the

Hili Railway Station, which has already made a name as a “smugglers’ haven.” The women get down from the train and in a very disci-plined manner they form a single row and start walking o� .

In a few minutes, the women reach an non-fenced area on the Indian border called Burir Bagan, cross the border and reach the Hili area in South Dinajpur of India.

They come back after two hours – all look-ing fatter – and start waiting for another train coming from the opposite direction to take them back to Parbatipur.

“There are at least 50 houses owned by the Indian mahajans [traders] just beside the border. Some of these houses are as close as 10 meters from the Hili [railway] station,” one of the carriers said while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.

Their job is to go to these houses, collect the smuggled goods, carry them inside the secret chambers in their improvised pullo-vers, board a train and come back and deliver the consignments in Parbatipur.

The carrier said she does not have to wor-ry about payments because the smuggling

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Saudi Arabia executes 47, including Shi’ite cleric al-Nimrn Reuters

Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shi’ite Muslim cleric alongside dozens of al Qaeda members on Saturday signalling intolerance of jihadism and minority Shi’ite Muslim vio-lence and stirring a rise in sectarian tensions across the region.

Most of the 47 executed were convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago, but four, including prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, were Shi’ite Muslims accused of shooting policemen during anti-govern-ment protests in recent years.

The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, four prisons using � ring squads and the others beheading. The bodies were then hanged from gibbets in the most severe form of punishment available in the king-dom’s Sharia Islamic law.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

BNP insiders say the party has gained huge popularity after the municipal polls

The pullovers they had on them have secret chambers where they carry the smuggled goods

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

News2DTSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Showdown on January 5the Dhaka Tribune last night.

“If we look at the comparative political history, we even see a legitimate government wants to stay in power using force and intim-idation. On the other hand, when there is a less-legitimate government, they will not al-low the opposition to be on the � eld and mo-bilise the people.”

Ataur thinks that the BNP does not have the strength to enforce any programme. On the other hand, the Awami League has strengthened its organisational base. Now as the BNP is weak, they may try to hold a programme as a political party but would not take any tough stance.

Prof Ferdous Hossain, a political science teacher of Dhaka University, said as there is no political wave in the country right now, this programmes would not have any impact

on national politics.“The two parties could hold programmes

at two separate venues. If the BNP is allowed to hold any event, it will be an as usual meet-ing while the Awami League will try to stage a huge showdown,” he said.

Ferdous said that there would not be spontaneous participation of the people at the events. “People will not be interested in participating in those programmes as no one wants to take any risk.”

BNP insiders say they want to stage an event on January 5 as the party has gained huge popularity in the recent months with the government holding a farcical municipal election using the state machinery.

A senior leader seeking anonymity said if barred from holding the rally at Suhrawardy Udyan, the BNP might announce country-

wide protest processions but would not go for any tougher programme.

Afsan Chowdhury, a teacher and political commentator, said the BNP has returned to the political � eld through the municipal polls as it got around 28% votes despite facing se-vere problems. The Awami League got 51% votes despite being in power.

“It shows that the BNP still has popularity among the people. If the Awami League tries to foil the BNP’s programmes, then it [Awami League] will lose popularity and the BNP’s objective of mobilising public support will be materialised.

“If the BNP is denied holding any pro-gramme on January 5, I think it will not launch any movement. And it will not a� ect the country’s politics in the long run,” he added. l

Saudi Arabia executes 47, including Shi’ite cleric al-NimrRiyadh’s main regional rival Iran and its Shi’ite allies immediately reacted with vigor-ous condemnation of the execution of Nimr, and Saudi police raised security in a district where the sect is a majority in case of pro-tests, residents said.

The executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging Saudis from jihadism after bombings and shootings by Sunni militants in Saudi Arabia over the past year killed doz-ens and Islamic State called on followers in the kingdom to stage attacks.

The simultaneous execution of 47 people on security grounds was the biggest mass execution for such o� ences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca’s Grand Mosque in 1979.

The 43 Sunni jihadists executed included several prominent al Qaeda � gures, includ-ing those convicted of responsibility for at-tacks on Western compounds, government buildings and diplomatic missions that killed hundreds from 2003-06.

However, the execution of four Shi’ites, including Nimr, who were convicted of shooting and petrol bomb attacks that killed several policemen during anti-government protests in Qatif district from 2011-13, pro-voked an immediate response abroad.

A top Iranian cleric warned the kingdom’s Al Saud ruling family would be “wiped from the pages of history”, Yemen’s Houthi group described Nimr as a “holy warrior” and Leba-nese militia Hezbollah said Riyadh had made “a grave mistake”.

Saudi police increased security in Qatif

district of Eastern Province, residents said, a Shi’ite majority area and site of the protests from 2011-13 in which several police were shot dead as well as over 20 local demonstra-tors. Bahrain police � red tear gas at several dozen people protesting against the execu-tion of Nimr, a witness said.

Sending a messageIn a statement issued on state television and other o� cial media, the Interior Ministry named the dead men and listed crimes that included both involvement in attacks and embracing jihadist ideology.

Mustafa Alani, a security analyst close to the Interior Ministry, commented: “There is a huge popular pressure on the government to punish those people. It included all the leaders of al Qaeda, all the ones responsible for shedding blood. It sends a message.”

Analysts have speculated that the execu-tion of the four Shi’ites was partly to demon-strate to Saudi Arabia’s majority Sunni Muslims that the government did not di� er-entiate between political violence commit-ted by members of the two sects.

However, human rights groups have con-sistently attacked the kingdom’s judicial pro-cess as unfair, pointing to accusations that confessions have been secured under torture and that defendants in court have been de-nied access to lawyers.

Riyadh denies practising torture, rejects criticism of its legal process and says its judi-ciary is independent.

The conservative Islamic kingdom, which

usually executes people by public behead-ing, detained thousands of militant Islamists after the 2003-06 al Qaeda attacks, and has convicted hundreds of them.

However, it also detained hundreds of mem-bers of its Shi’ite minority after protests from 2011-13, during which several policemen were killed in shooting and petrol bomb attacks.

Activists angryAt least three other Shi’ites were executed alongside Nimr, including Ali al-Rubh, who relatives said was a juvenile at the time of the crime for which he was convicted, Moham-med al-Shayoukh and Mohammed Suwaymil.

Activists in the Shi’ite district of Qatif have warned of possible protests in response to the executions. However, Nimr’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said he hoped any re-sponse would be peaceful.

“My mobile is getting non-stop messag-es from friends, all shocked and angry. We know four of the names on the list. The fear is for the children among those detained,” an activist in Qatif told Reuters.

The Interior Ministry statement began with Koranic verses justifying the use of exe-cution and state television showed footage of the aftermath of al Qaeda attacks in the last decade. Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh appeared on television soon af-ter to describe the executions as just.

The executions are Saudi Arabia’s � rst in 2016. At least 157 people were put to death last year, a big increase from the 90 people killed in 2014. l

Smugglers denring leaders take care of that part of the deal.

“You can get everything. At this time, spic-es and fertilisers are high on demand. But the demand changes every week,” she said.

“The Indian mahajans deal with the BSF [Border Security Force]. Each of us just have to pay Tk100 tokens to BGB and railway o� -cials,” she continued.

They wait at the Hili Railway Station until afternoon when the announcement comes that a train that would take them back to Par-batipur would arrive in a few minutes.

When the train arrives, there are BGB per-sonnels inside. When the women get on to the train, the BGB men start searching the compartments for illegal goods.

Interestingly, they do not � nd anything sus-picious in there. By 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the carriers come back to Parbatipur by train.

Wishing not to be named, a black market-er said: “There are several places in the town where the smuggled goods are stacked.

“You will not � nd any of the smuggled goods here. Rather, you will � nd them in the shops and stores in Dinajpur and Syedpur towns. Par-batipur is just the depository. Goods are sent across the country from Dinajpur and Syedpur.”

Most black marketers or middlemen live in the Rustamnagar, Fakirtola and Kulipara areas in Parbatipur town.

“Apart from Parbatipur, some of us also live in Joypurhat district town, Panchbibi, Hili and Phulbari areas,” he said.

Based on information given by local res-idents, the Dhaka Tribune reporters visited the o� ce of a local leader of the ruling party and found a huge stack of smuggled Indian goods, including spices, there.

“The carriers hand over the goods to their bosses or the black marketers. The black mar-keters store the goods in a warehouses, includ-ing this one [the one owned by the ruling party leader]. From these warehouses, the goods are sent to Dinajpur and Syedpur for dispatching.

“From police to BGB to railway stu� , everyone are involved in the business. So, nobody can ever stop the illegal trade here,” the black marketer added.

When contacted, Ruhul Amin, chief of Dinajpur district police, said: “The Indian border in Dinajpur is 147km in length. So, the level of smuggling in this area is higher than any other districts.”

He said this can be curbed if people from all walks of life cooperates with law enforcers.

“We need better coordination among the forces such as BGB, RAB, the Narcotics control department. Only then we will be able to bring the smugglers down,” the police super said. l

Rally demanding trial of 195 Pakistani war criminals today n BSS

Antorjatik Juddaporadh Gonobichar com-mittee will hold a rally and procession today demanding trial of 195 alleged Pakistani war criminals.

The rally will be held at Motijheel Shapla Chattar in the capital around 3pm.

The committee will also stage a sit-in in front of Jatiya Press Club on January 6 de-manding upholding of death penalty to war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami by the ICT

and execution of the verdict. Convener of the committee Shipping Min-

ister Shahjahan Khan announced the pro-grammes at a press conference at Swadhinota Hall room in city’s Segunbagicha yesterday.

He said: “Members of Pakistani Army and their associates Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakars carried out the most brutal mass murders of the world. They disgraced thou-sands of our mothers and sisters, they will be tried for committing most heinous crimes against humanity.” l

‘Jamaat planned subversive activities on January 5’n Kamrul Hasan

Rampura police yesterday said they had re-ceived information about a Jamaat plan for conducting subversive activities on January 5.

Police received the information after ar-resting � ve Jamaat-e-Islami leaders in the af-ternoon with Tk1.47 crore and radical books from the city’s Banasree area. They are Ja-maat Rokon and Principal Accountant Gias Uddin, 55, and supporters Aminur Rahman, 57, Abul Hashem, 32, Osman Gani, 40, and

Shahidur Rahman, 40.A team of Rampura police led by OC

Ra� qul Islam arrested the � ve from a building in Banasree residential area with the money from their possessions, said Nur Alam, assis-tant commissioner of Khilgaon zone.

After primary interrogation, the arrestees confessed that they were planning to carry out attacks on January 5 and that the money was meant to be spent for that purpose.

They would be produced before a Dhaka court with a remand plea today, the OC said. l

News 3D

TSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Public uni teachers threaten inde� nite strike from Jan 11n DU Correspondent

The public university teachers have threat-ened to stop working completely if the gov-ernment does not ful� l their demand for a separate pay scale by January 11.

Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association (FBUT) President Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed made the direwarning at a press conference held in Dhaka University’s Teachers’ Club on Saturday af-ternoon.

Prof Farid Uddin said: “The teachers of 37 public universities across the country will stop working from January 11 if the govern-ment doesn’t meet our demands for which we are on protest for the past eight months.”

They have decided to wear black bands on January 3 and observe a three-hour strike on January 7, he said.

The public university teachers have been protesting the proposed national pay scale since May 14, advocating their four-point charter of demand that includesformation of a commission to initiate an in-dependent pay scale for the public university teachers.

Their four-point demand also included the immediate revision of the national pay scale, keeping senior professors and senior secretaries of the government at an equal level of payment. l

Govt o� cials � ock to EC for amended NIDs n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Above 200,000 government o� cials and em-ployees have applied for amended version of National Identity (NID) cards to ensure the salary of December under the new pay-scale.

The high � gure was recorded in last month at the Election Commission (EC).

In November, the government issued a cir-cular that all government employees must sub-mit their online salary payment slip while the process makes the NID number mandatory.

The information they provided during en-trance to jobs and the information in the NID must be identical, otherwise it would not be accepted.

But most of the employees experienced anomalies in the information and that is why they had to gather before the EC to get the NID corrected.

Mohammad Musa, director operations of the EC, told the Dhaka Tribune that they were relentlessly working day and night shifts, even on the holidays, to clear the NID

amendment applications.“We have manpower limitation and with-

in one month, the task of correcting over 200,000 NID cards is really di� cult,” he said.

They expected to get more such applica-tions in the coming weeks.

EC’s another o� cial wished not to be named said the whole process must be � aw-less, otherwise they would not get the salary in case of any wrong information.

“We will not provide new card without any veri� cation,” the o� cial said. l

BNP seeks permission for January 5 rallyn Tribune Report

The BNP has sought permission from Dhaka Metropolitan Police to hold a rally in the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan on January 5 to mark what the party calls “democracy killing day.”

BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir informed reporters about this in a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan o� ce yesterday.

Before that, a meeting was held among the party’s joint and as-sociate organisations there.

“We recognise January 5, 2014 as the ‘Democracy Killing Day.’ As part of our movement for restoration of democracy and mark-ing January 5, we have decided to hold a peaceful rally on the day at Suhrawardy Udyan,” he said.

Fakhrul also said that apart from the rally in Dhaka, all the dis-trict units of the party would observe the day through discussions.

“We hope that the government and the authorities concerned will help make the rally a success and allow systematic continua-tion of democracy,” he said.

Last year, the BNP and the ruling Awami League both announced programmes for the day. But, apprehending unrest, the authorities denied both parties permission to hold their programmes.

The BNP then lodged a violent anti-government street protest that went on for the next three months, leading to huge losses of lives and properties.

During the three months that the protests went on, party chief Khaleda Zia did not leave her Gulshan o� ce. She then complained of being con� ned there by the government.

On January 5, 2014, the BNP boycotted the national parliamen-tary elections, refusing to take part in an election under the then incumbent Awami League government and restoration of the care-taker government system.

In the previous few months, the party and its allies staged a sim-ilarly violent street movement to prevent that election but failed, eventually giving Awami League a free run and throwing itself out of parliament for the � rst time in two and half decades. l

A little visitor is busy deciding which hair clip to buy as she takes a look at the products on display at one of the stalls in Dhaka International Trade Fair 2016 yesterday

RAJIB DHAR

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016News4DT

AL again plans to dominate city streets on January 5n Abu Hayat Mahmud

The Awami League has planned to be in con-trol of the streets in the capital on January 5, the second anniversary of the 10th general elections, like it did last year, sources in the party said.

Awami League Publicity and Publications Secretary Hasan Mahmud told a press con-ference yesterday that his party would chalk out programmes to mark the second anniver-sary of what was described as the victory day for democracy.

“We have not yet decided on the pro-grammes. We will inform the media later,” he said.

The press conference was held at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi o� ce in the capital.

The BNP has already announced that it will hold a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital on January 5, terming it the democ-racy killing day, but was yet to get the per-mission of Dhaka Metropolitan Police till yesterday.

On January 5 last year, members of the Awami League and its associate bodies gath-ered at 15 points in the capital to observe the “victory day for democracy” and resist coun-ter programmes of the BNP.

Hasan Mahmud yesterday alleged that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia had again plot-ted conspiracies to topple the government on January 5 like last year.

“Violence marked by killing and arson at-tacks was perpetrated by the BNP for three months since early 2015, demanding that the government quit o� ce.

“But the party contested the recently held municipal elections and backtracked from violent agitations,” added the Awami League leader. l

BNP braces for political death, says Imran H Sarkern UNB

Gonojagoron Moncho spokesperson Imran H Sarker yesterday said the BNP braces for politi-cal death with Khaleda Zia’s remarks about the number of martyrs in the 1971 Liberation War.

He came up with the remarks at a rally before a protest march in the capital’s Shah-bagh area. The BNP has been producing such statements with an intention to protect the interests of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami and the war criminals, said Imran.

Following the brief rally, Gonojagoron Moncho brought out a demonstration protest-ing the distortion of history of the 1971 Liber-ation War and demanding quick execution of the capital punishment of war crimes convict Matiur Rahman Nizami, the Jamaat chief.

President of Bangladesh Students Union’s Dhaka University unit Liton Nandi and Gono-jagoron Moncho activist Bhashkor Rasha were also present at the rally. l

Fourth Rooppur plant deal due next weekn Aminur Rahman Rasel

Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) is to sign the fourth deal at a cost of $45 million next week with Russian joint-stock company JSC Atomstroyexport for completion of the preparatory stage work of the country’s � rst nuclear power project in Pabna’s Rooppur.

“We hope that we will sign the deal in the second week of this month,” Rooppur Nu-clear Power Plant (RNPP) Project Director Mohammad Shawkat Akbar told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The main work of the fourth contract includes concrete mixing building 1 and 2, canteen, workshop, establishment of goods loading and unloading operations on river bank, external inventory and external elec-tricity system.

On January 15, 2013 during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Moscow, a deal was signed with Russia for the extension of state export credit to � nance the preparatory stage work at the plant.

The government signed three deals, worth $500m, with Russian nuclear equipment and service � rm JSC Atomstroyexport to do the preparatory construction work for the plant.

The � rst phase of construction will now require $50m more than the initially estimat-ed cost of $500m, and the extra amount will be covered under the new deal.

The BAEC, under the Science and Tech-nology Ministry, will implement the project.

The � rst deal with Atomstroyexport worth $45.9m was signed on June 27, 2013 for the pre-construction work including feasibility evaluation, environment impact assessment,

and development and engineering survey at the RNPP site.

The second contract worth $265m was signed on October 2, 2013 for the preparatory stage work of the RNPP, including the devel-opment of design documentation, � rst prior-ity working documentation and engineering survey for the design stage.

The two deals were part of a total of $500m which Russia agreed to provide for � nancing the groundwork at the plant that will be run under Atomstroyexport, which will also run a series of 63 tests as part of the pre-construction work.

On June 5, 2014, the third agreement in-volving $190m was struck to construct di� er-ent structural work at the RNPP site.

Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the ground-work of the 2,000MW plant in Rooppur on October 2 last year. l

Medical student blockade Mirpur Road n Tribune Report

A group of students from Suhrawardy med-ical college yesterday blockaded the Mirpur Road demanding immediate trace of a miss-ing trainee doctor.

They kept the busy road in front of the col-lege campus blocked for one and a half hours from 12 noon. A long tra� c tailback was creat-ed on the adjacent roads during the blockade.

Later they moved away from the road after getting assurance from the administration.

Tejgaon zone Deputy Commissioner of police Biplob Kumar Sarker last night said they had recovered the doctor from a place in the capital.

One of the protesters said some uniden-ti� ed people kidnapped Dr Shamim Khan Topu from in front of the college’s hospital on Friday. The kidnappers came on a micro-

bus and picked Topu up.On Friday, the students � led a written

complaint about Topu’s disappearance with the police station. However, Topu’s friends and classmates could not say for certain why he had been kidnapped.

GG Bishwas, o� cer in-charge of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station, said that they had taken necessary steps to rescue the trainee doctor. l

Intern doctors of Shahid Suhrawardy Medical College in the capital block Mirpur Road in front of the college yesterday protesting the abduction of a fellow intern and demanding immediate action to � nd him DHAKA TRIBUNE

PRAYERTIMES

Cox’s Bazar 26 19Dhaka 27 16 Chittagong 25 16 Rajshahi 26 13 Rangpur 25 12 Khulna 26 9 Barisal 27 14 Sylhet 26 11T 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 5:24PM SUN RISES 6:42AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW28.6ºC 8.9ºC

Sitakunda SrimangalSUNDAY, JANUARY 3Source: IslamicFinder.org

Fajr: 5:19am | Jumma: 12:03am Asr: 3:48pm | Magrib: 5:24pmEsha: 6:54pm

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016News 5

DT

PARTLY CLOUDY

Moghbazar-Mouchak Flyover pesky project to get another extensionn UNB

Having been prone to delays, the Moghba-zar-Mouchak Flyover irritating project is likely to get extension by another 18 months to June 2017, with a fresh proposal of raising the overall project cost by another Tk 446.20 crore to Tk 1218.90 crore.

A proposal in this regard was placed at a project evaluation committee meeting held at the Planning Commission recently, said a Planning Commission o� cial.

The Moghbazar-Mouchak � yover project o� ce put forward a proposal seeking exten-sion of its deadline and increasing the length of the � yover.

At the evaluation committee meeting, a proposal was placed to extend the deadline till June, 2017 from December, 2015 to com-plete the � yover project.

As of June 2015, the project witnessed about 49.47 percent � nancial progress with Tk 382.30 crore being spent since the Local Government and Engineering Department started the work in February 2013.

The project work, which was scheduled to be completed within December 2015, started in 2013 instead of the original schedule in 2011.

The o� cial said the project o� ce pro-posed to increase the project cost from Tk 772.70 crore to Tk 1,218.8969 crore due to in-creased construction cost.

The 8.25-kilometre � yover is being con-structed in three parts -- from Holy Family Hospital to Tejgaon, from Kakrail to Rampu-ra and from Mouchak to Banglamotor -– to ease tra� c congestion between the capital’s north and south parts.

Following a verbal directive from the

Prime Minister’s O� ce, a proposal was given to extend the � yover from FDC gate to Hotel Sonargaon on Tejgaon-Panthapath link road by 450 metres which will make the � yover 8.70km long one as well as facilitate vehicular movement over the Sonargaon level crossing.

Construction of the extended 450-metre � yover will cost Tk 85 crore.

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) and OPEC Fund for International Develop-ment (OFID) have already agreed to increase the amount of the project aid by $ 15 million and $ 6 million respectively.

Activities of the revised project include construction of the � yover, acquiring some 3,843.7 square metres of infrastructure and 40 decimal lands and purchase of two dou-ble-cabin pickups, three laptops and one desktop computer.

Another o� cial at the Planning Commis-

sion said the project’s cost and deadline were proposed to be increased because of huge presence of pipelines of di� erent utility ser-vices, including 132KV high-voltage electric lines, gas pipelines, water pipe lines, storm waterlines, sewerage lines, BTCL cables and � ber optic cables.

He, however, said Pot Bearing and Shock Transmission Unit will be installed in the � yover so that it can tolerate earthquake fol-lowing advice of Buet experts.

Australian � rm SMEC International and its three local associates ACE Consultants Limit-ed, SARM Associates Limited and Kranti As-sociates Limited are working as consultants of the project.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) � rst approved the project on March 8, 2011 involving Tk 772.70 crore. l

Taslima says her conversion to Hinduism untruen Tribune Report

Taslima Nasreen, feminist writer and col-umnist in exile since 1994, has quashed the rumours that she has converted to Hinduism.

“Being noticed by a news that I have re-ceived Hinduism as my religion, I want to say that such sort of write-up on me is not new. Earlier, a news was vastly circulated that I had been regular in prayers and fasting, even Taslima_Nasreenstarted wearing Burqa. For 25 years, such propaganda has remained continued,” Taslima made the statement through her Facebook post Friday.

The Bangladeshi exiled writer also said once upon a time many media used to pub-lish nasty news involving her with man and even they have continued the bad practice

still now. Exiled from Bangladesh in 1994 for “hurt-

ing religious sentiments” with her novel Lajja, Taslima took refuge in Kolkata in 2004.

Since then, she has been getting Indian visa on a continuous basis.

Bangladeshi author’s Indian visa was ex-tended by a year in August this year. l

‘Groom up students as good citizens’n UNB

Terming Bangladeshi students talented and potential ones, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury yesterday urged the well-o� section of society to come forward to groom them up as good and educated citizens.

“Our children are very talented and has po-tential. If they can be educated with speci� c goals, they will surely be good citizens,” she said.

Dr Shirin, also the chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s (CPA) Executive Committee, was addressing the formal inauguration of Afazuddin Memo-rial School and College and Textbook Distri-bution Festival 2016 at Kaliakair upazila in Gazipur, said a handout. l

BFUJ concernedover job cut inmedia housesn UNB

A faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) yesterday expressed deep concern over job cut in various media hous-es, including in The Independent and the Daily Inqilab.

In a statement, BFUJ president Altaf Mahmud and secretary general Omar Faruk said journalists in the two media houses are being terminated indiscriminately without showing any reason though the owners avail of all the government facilities. The BFUJ lead-ers urged the authorities concerned to stop such job cut and pay salaries and other bene-� ts regularly to the working journalists. l

Instead of going to school like one of his passengers, this little boy is working as an assistant for this human haulier to earn a living for himself – and possible for his family too. The photo was recently taken in the capital’s Jurain area

DHAKA TRIBUNE

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016News6DT

Road dust makes city life miserablen UNB

Road dust has become the biggest source of pollution in the capital, especially during the dry season, for various unplanned construc-tion works, posing a severe health threat to city dwellers, say experts.

According to them, the air pollution orig-inating from construction work-related pro-cesses like concrete crushing, cement batch-ing and road stone plants, is destroying the environment and clean air, depriving the city dwellers of breathing in fresh air.

Many mega development projects like Malibagh-Moghbazar � yover project and metro rail project, road repair works and construction works are going on in the city generating huge dust every day.

Jahangir Kabir, who works in a private � rm at city’s Shantinagar, said he has to go to di� erent o� ces in the city on o� cial pur-poses every day, but he gets exposed to dust

severely when he travels through adjoining Malibagh-Moghbazar � yover areas. “I’ve to go through the dust-prone areas to save time in this chaotic city,” he told UNB.

Moshiur Rahman, a High Court employee, said he is exposed to dust every day as he goes to his o� ce by rickshaw and frequently su� ers from allergic problems for dust pollu-tion. “I use mask to avoid dust, but that’s not enough,” he said.

Like Kabir and Rahman, thousands of city dwellers are exposed to dust pollution as the authorities concerned have taken no meas-ure to check it as the focus is always on ve-hicular pollution.

Dr Mahfuzur Rahman Bhuiyan, a former national consultant of World Health Organi-sation, said the number of patients su� ering from respiratory diseases such as emphyse-ma, bronchitis and asthma have increased in the city due to the growing dust pollution. “As concentration of dust particles in air is

on the rise day by day, most city dwellers are su� ering common cold and cough prob-lems,” he said.

Dr Mahfuz, grants manager of the Cam-paign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), said people are being exposed to dust when they go to o� ce or works. “So, they can’t concen-trate on their works.”

As dust generates wax in human ears, he said, patients of ear-infection is also increas-ing in the city.

He said airborne dust from construction sites is a problem for a number of reasons as it creates health hazards, particularly for those su� ering from respiratory problems, causes environmental degradation, includ-ing air and water pollution, and creates prob-lems.

Citing a WHO study, general secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan (Bapa) Dr Ab-dul Matin said capital Dhaka was one of the most air-polluted cities in the world in 2012

and he observed that air pollution has in-creased in recent days.

Dhaka city is a storehouse of air pollution where there is no guideline to check it, he said, adding that dust has been contribut-ing to rapid rise of lung diseases and allergy among city dwellers here.

Former ADB consultant and urban planner Khondker Neaz Rahman said the dust con-tains � y-ash, which comes from construction sites, is very harmful to human health.

He suggested construction � rms working in the capital to take necessary measures to minimise dust. Although airborne dust has been emerging as a severe threat to the city dwellers, the Department of Environment (DoE) is yet to announce any guideline to check it, he said.

DoE director general M Raisul Alam Mondal said the DoE does not have any guideline to check dust, but it has been working sincerely to minimise air pollution in the country. l

Activists of BNP clash with the members of ‘Ashol BNP’ as the latter party tries to enter the BNP’s central o� ce in the capital’s Nayapaltan area yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Tarana to visit Singapore to negotiate Facebook dealn Ishtiaq Husain

State Minister for Posts and Telecommunica-tions Tarana Halim is scheduled to visit Singa-pore in the middle of this month to negotiate a deal with social network website Facebook, as per the government’s initiatives.

“I want to reach to a conclusion regarding the set up of an administrative panel of Face-book in Bangladesh so that we can bene� t from that particular establishment,” she told the Dhaka Tribune recently.

“Facebook certainly has an interest in Bangladesh; as Bangladesh has a big market

for it. Considering that, I hope the Facebook authorities would be convinced to set up an administrative panel here.”

Around 30 million people in Bangladesh are active on Facebook, and the number rises every day.

Tarana will also visit Malaysia and she will observe the two countries’ state-run tel-ecommunication business, said an o� cial from the Posts and Telecommunications Di-vision.

She plans to meet the telecommunica-tions ministers in those countries and seek advices from them, the o� cial added.

The state minister also wants to see Face-book CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Bangladesh.

She hopes violence against women and cybercrimes would be reduced signi� cantly if the Facebook authorities strictly executed its policy in Bangladesh following the laws of the land.

“Hundreds of women are being victimised every day, which is alarming for our society and country. But we did not get any positive feedback from the Facebook authorities. If Facebook establishes an administrative pan-el in the country, Bangladesh could bene� t from this establishment.”

On November 30, in a letter to Facebook, the state minister expressed her interest in signing a deal to ensure cyber security, espe-cially in a bid to stop violence against women using social media.

On December 6, three Bangladeshi min-isters met with two South Asian o� cials of Facebook in Dhaka while the service was suspended in the country.

The government banned the popular social networking platform on November 18 shortly after the Supreme Court rejected review petitions by two war criminals. The ban was lifted on December 10. l

BNP men clash with ‘Ashol BNP’n Tribune Report

Leaders and activists of BNP’s associate bodies yesterday clashed with a group, who called themselves the “real” BNP, in front of the party’s Nayapaltan o� ce.

Around quarter to four in the afternoon, several hundred activists of “Ashol BNP” - as-hol meaning real – brought out a procession from the Fakirerpool intersection and head-ed towards the Nayapaltan o� ce of the BNP.

Witnesses said they there chanting slo-gans and holding placards in the name of Ziaur Rahman, the founder of BNP.

When they reached near the BNP o� ce around 3:40pm, activists of BNP’s youth and student fronts – Jubo Dal and Chhatra Dal – took on the procession, using sticks to beat them up.

Several crude-bombs were exploded dur-ing the skirmish that went on for several minutes.

At least 10 people, including a journalist, were injured in the clash. Later, the men from “Ashol BNP” � ed the scene.

Kamrul Hasan Nasim, leader of the “Ashol BNP,” con� rmed the incident. He also alleged that Jubo Dal and Chhatra Dal men charged crude bombs at their men.

Asked why they were going to the Nayapaltan o� ce, Kamrul said his men were going to there to have some discussions. l

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016News 7

DT

72 held in special driveTribune ReportChittagong district police in separate over-

night drives arrested 72 people, including an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami, for their alleged involvement in vandalism and sabotage acts.

“We also seized 130 pieces of yaba and 53 liters of locally made liquors from them,” said Kazi Abdul Awal, Chittagong Additional Su-perintendent of Chittagong (Special Branch).

Among the arrested, 63 of them were arrest warrantees and eight were accused in regular cases. l

Strawberry farming makes many people happy in Rajshahi regionn BSS

Many people including some amateur ones have become happy through strawberry farming as its commercial farming has start-ed gaining momentum in Rajshahi region during the last couple of years.

Strawberry, a succulent fruit popular in di� erent parts of the globe, is also gradually becoming popular among the local people. Farmers’ level extension of strawberry farm-ing can bring a new horizon to the agriculture sector in the region.

“Strawberry cultivation is as easy as growing potato or eggplant. Saplings can be planted in rows during the period between November and December every year,” said Prof Dr AKM Ra� ul Islam of Department of Botany of Rajshahi University.

Illustrating salient feature of strawberry, a

high-value cash crop, he said the plants start � owering within one month of plantation and fruits can be collected till March.

“Each plant bears around 250 to 300 grams of fruit and some 6,000 plants can be grown on one bigha of land,” Dr Islam said, adding with farmer-level price of around Taka 600 per kg, the commercially potential fruit will have a bigger market locally and globally and bene� t farmers enormously.

Now, a large number of people, mostly un-employed youths, have become dependent on strawberry farming to earn a living, as its cultivation is easier and more pro� table than other crops, he said.

The youths are supplying strawberry to di� erent markets across the country as the soft fruit is being used in preparing ice-cream, jam, jelly, pickles, chocolates and biscuits.

Prof Dr Manzur Hossain, who is pioneer

in the country’s strawberry research, variety innovation and growers’ level farming expan-sion, said Bangladeshi strawberry variety has been adjudged as the world’s best strawberry.

“We have innovated three varieties of strawberry through applying tissue culture method,” he said.

“In the demonstration � eld, all those were found adaptive to the region’s soil and envi-ronmental conditions,” Prof Dr Hossain, an-other teacher of Botany, added. He has been multiplying the variety on his own horticul-ture farm for the last couple of years.

The new variety of strawberry can be har-vested within two and a half months of its plantation and a farmer can earn around Taka 1.5 lakh by farming it on one bigha of land with expenditure of only Taka 30,000, he said.

With farmer-level price of around Taka 300 per kg, the commercially potential fruit

will have a bigger market locally and bene� t farmers enormously, the pioneer said while talking to BSS. In 2003, three varieties yield-ed encouraging results and were found suita-ble in local climate.

Strawberry farming is already in motion in many districts under the region. With the av-erage price of a kilogram of the fruit standing at Taka 700, the commercially viable fruit pre-sents great export potentials and ushers in eco-nomic prospects for those who wish to get high and fast returns from limited land resources.

ATM Ra� qul Islam, Deputy Manager (Ag-riculture) of Barind Multipurpose Develop-ment Authority, said there has been a bright prospect of farming strawberry everywhere in the country excepting the coastal districts. The red juicy and nutritious fruit produced by him is now being supplied to posh mar-kets in the capital Dhaka. l

Three Ctg JMB men sent to jail after remandn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

A Chittagong court yesterday sent three members of banned militant out� t Ja-maat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to prison after they were interrogated during a � ve-day remand in a case � led under the An-ti-terrorism Act.

Metropolitan Magistrate Rahmat Ali sent Naimur Rahman Noyon, Shawkat Rasel and Faisal Mahmud to jail as police produced them

before the court after the end of remand. The trio were arrested in possession of

� rearms in di� erent parts of the port city on December 27 last year, and were shown ar-rested in the case � led with Karnaphuli po-lice station on October 6.

They all were students of physics at Chit-tagong University but their studentships were suspended by the university authorities for suspected link to militancy.

After arresting the three, Detective Branch

(DB) o� cials raided a JMB den in the city’s Aman Bazar area and recovered American semiautomatic MK 11 sniper ri� e along with 250 rounds, two magazines, 10 detonators, 12 sets of Bangladesh Army uniforms, and some books and other documents.

DB’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Babul Akhtar said Fardin alias Noman, chief of JMB in Chittagong, rented the den � ve to six months ago, identifying himself as a busi-nessman named Na� s. l

Ctg DC calls for a drugs-free societyn Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

Chittagong Deputy Commissioner Mesbah Uddin has sought cooperation from every one to build a society free from drug abuse.

The deputy commissioner made the call while inaugurating an anti-drug abuse campaign at the Muslim Hall in the port city yesterday.

Addressing the event as the chair, Mesbah likened drug abuse to a scourge from which every one should be safe.

The event was also attended by Chit-tagong’s acting divisional commissioner Khalilur Rahman as the chief guest, as well as Chittagong Superintendent of Police AKM Ha� z Akhtar, Chittaong Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Commissioner Faruk Ahmed and Chittagong Press Club President Kalim Sar-war as special guests, among others. l

3 shanties gutted n Tribune Report

Three thatched houses were gutted by � re yesterday in a colony adjacent to Chittagong Railway Station in the port city.

However, no casualty was reported in the accident.

Fire service sources said the � re had orig-inated from an electric short circuit around 11:45am. Receiving information, a total of eight vehicles went to the spot and doused the � re after an hour of frantic e� ort.

They said the three shanties belonged to six owners and the extent of damage caused by the � re was estimated at Tk2 lakh. l Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday removes illegal billboards at Siddirganj in Narayanganj DHAKA TRIBUNE

News8DTSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

150 roadside trees felled ‘by JL leader’ in Naogaonn UNB

More than 150 eucalyptus trees beside a road in Manda upazila have been cut down alleg-edly by a local Jubo League leader recently without permission from the authorities concerned.

The trees, worth over Tk10 lakh, had been planted under the government’s social af-forestation programme.

Locals alleged that the administration kept mum despite their knowledge about the destruction of such a large number of trees.

Local union unit Jubo League president Abdul Jalil is behind the act, which he perpe-trated through his hired men, they informed

the correspondent.The felling of the trees in an area from

Manda’s Pirpali Bazaar to Kalapara contin-ued for long three days but the locals did not dare to say anything in protest.

Locals said the trees had been planted 10 years ago by the then Sadar upazila chairman Mohsin Reza under the social a� orestation programme.

Reza said that the union parishad had a deed in non-judicial stamp on the tree plan-tation with a local committee.

According to the deed, the committee members were to get a certain amount of pro� t for nursing the trees.

He also said that Jalil was not a member of

that committee, nor ever was.Mahbubur Rahman, upazila forest o� cer,

con� rmed that 127 eucalyptus trees had been cut down by Abdul Jalil.

He informed Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Saifur Rahman Khan and Assistant Commissioner (land) Razibul Alam about the incident.

He added that no one in the committee had the authority to remove the trees.

It would have to be done only through a tender and obtaining permission from the district forest and environment resolution sub-committee.

Saifur Rahman Khan said he instructed the assistant commissioner (land) to take ac-tions. l

Bank o� cial killed in road accidentn Our Correspondent, Magura

A bank o� cial was killed and 10 other people were injured as a bus plunged into a ditch in Sadar upazila yesterday.

The deceased was Ra� qul Islam, 28, a � eld o� cer of Mercantile bank, Jessore branch and a resident of Omedpur village in the upazila.

Ajmal Huda, o� cer in-charge of Magura police station, said the Jessore-bound bus from Magura fell into the ditch in front of Magura textile mill around 8am after its driv-er lost control over the

steering, leaving Ra� qul dead on the spot and 10 other passengers injured.

On information, police recovered the body and sent it to sadar hospital morgue.

A case was � led with the police station.On the other hand, an indigenous man

was killed in a road accident in Ambari area under Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur district in the morning, said our correspondent.

The deceased was Babu Rai Hemrom, 45, son of Minji Hemrom, a resident of Habibpur village of the upazila.

Police said Babu fell down from a human hauler in the area while he going to Dinajpur town.

Critically injured Babu was sent to Dina-jpur Medical College Hospital where he suc-cumbed to his injuries. l

Farmers busy with extracting date juicen Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

The date-tree farmers, locally known as gachhis at Bagha upazila in the district are passing busy times in collecting date-juice and processing molasses in the winter months.

According to sources, the upazila is famous for gurh (date-molasses). The season of winter is going on in full swing with the trade of date-molasses.

An estimated shows Tk8 crore is earned from this sector in each winter here.

The farmers collect the juice accumulated in the clay pot over the night. They evaporate the juice by heating next morning to make solid (Patali gurh) or thick-slurry (Jhola gurh).

According to the upazila agriculture o� ce, the farmers of the upazila send molasses to di� erent areas of the country including the capital every year.

If they can expand the business, they would achieve huge pro� t and change their socio-economic conditions, the agriculture o� ce sources said.

About 25,000 farmer families under seven union parishads and two municipalities live in the upazila where every family has at least three date trees, the sources added.

There are about 1.5 lakh date trees in around 3,000 orchards and beside roads and railway tracks, and on free lands and homesteads, and date-molasses are produced commercially here, the sources maintained.

One farmer can produce 20 to 25 kg of molasses from a single date-tree in a season. As there is no need of extra care for the trees, so it may be a very pro� table business.

But, some dishonest traders are doing brisk business by making molasses using sugar which is very harmful for human body. The administration should take necessary legal steps against the dishonest traders and their illegal venture, farmers said.

Abdul Baten, a molasses trader of Borokhadia area in the upazila, said the molasses of Bagha upazila was famous throughout the country.

Saimuddin, a farmer of Amodpur village in the upazila said, “I have appointed two farmers to collect juice from my 150 date trees and process molasses. From a single day’s sale, I earn around Tk 3,000.”

Habibur Rahman, an o� cer of the upazila agriculture o� ce, said the date trees had been planted on two kilo meter land beside the upazila road this season.

He however, hoped that the business will play a vital role to change the socio-economic picture of the whole region if everybody comes forward to plant the trees in fellow land.

Assistant o� cer of the agriculture o� ce said:”According to agriculture o� ce, the farmers here earn over Tk 2.25 crore from this sector every year, but as per the information of private organisations over Tk 8 crore is earned from the sector at the same time. In this connection, we are suggesting farmers to further expand the trade.” l

Two villages brought under rural electri� cation network n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Two villages under Gidari union of Sadar upazila were brought under rural electri� -cation network by Gaibandha Pally Bidduth Samity (GPBS) yesterday.

A function was also held on the premises of Gidalpara Govt Primary School of the upazila in the afternoon.

Area Director of GPBS Dr M Shajahan chaired the function.

General Manager of GPBS GHM Wahidul Haque addressed the function as the chief guest and local union parishad Chairman Golam Sadek Lebu was present as special guest.

Later, the chief guest formally inaugurat-ed the electri� cation programme at Baro-

tikree and Gidalpara villages of the union by pressing a switch of a bulb.

A large number of people, including the o� cials of GPBS, public representatives, so-cial workers, political leaders and local elite were present on the occasion.

General manager of GPBS GHM Wahidul Haque said as many as 105 families of the villages would get electricity from now on. l

A farmer in Gochar area under Bagha upazila in Rajshahi preparing date tree for juice extraction. The picture was taken yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Smacking that anger outn Rad Sharar Bin Kamal

The day has barely started and you have already been unfairly referred to as an singular unit of excrement by your respected boss. The project for which your beauty sleep was sacrificed last week is officially resting in the office trash beside the conference room, and that birthday gift you forgot for your significant other hasn’t still arrived its retribution in the form of unreplied text messages and ear-blasting screaming sessions.

Naturally, the thought of jumping from the 14th floor with your boss in your loving arms, becomes strangely appealing at this stage. However, that is strong advised against, for there are better methods to restart your day for the better. Here are six ways you could calm down, and save a few lives, including your own, in the process.

BreatheEven though you wish to blurt out every animal name you ever heard on the Discovery channel at your monitor screen, it would be more prudent to snap it back shut and just, breathe. Counting to ten, annoyingly, helps as well, for what reduces the intensity is in most cases, time. “While it may not remove the stress,” says Swati Mittal Jagetia, a certified professional coach, “it buys you time to step back, put things in perspective, and bite your tongue before you say something you might regret.”

ScribbleAn efficient emotional release is transforming your feelings into words, so grab a few pans and papers (predicting a few company materials to be damaged here) and start writing off what you wish to say and to whom. But make sure it’s tucked back into your pocket. “Don’t put

anything in writing [to someone else] when you’ve been provoked or a foul mood has taken over,” says Jagetia. “Emails can be saved, forwarded, and placed in your file for future reference if something goes wrong.” Your best bet is to shred (or permanently delete) the evidence after you’ve vented it all out.

There’s always EddieThere’s always an Eddie at work who you can trust with, well almost, anything. Eddie understands the dynamics and is always nodding along when you wish to “teepee” the director’s office an hour after office ends. Having a partner in crime helps deal with the office pressures and makes it easier to cope when the heat is up. Trust in Eddie, and vent it all out, but always make sure to assume his/her role when the tables turn.

Call your momNo shame in it. Sometimes all it takes to calm yourself down is a few words of love from a beloved, and it does not have to just be your significant other either. Take a few minutes to sneak to the side and call your dear old mom. The little, silly conversations are always an effective distraction in the worst of situations. But do remember to get that birthday gift next time, yeah?

Find a laughStorm back into your cubicle and go to every hilarious website you ever knew. Happiness is a choice, formed from the decisions you make. Whether you decide to be happy and smiling is all on you, and finding your zen in moments of volcanic frustration will help simmer it down. For recommendations, 9GAG and BuzzFeed usually never fail to disappoint.

However, that is simply phase one. You do need to get back to work, hence topping the comedy sessions off with a few motivational videos may help you get back on track, with confidence to devour whatever is thrown at you.

Take a breakIf things are really intense - say, you have just been passed off your a great promotion by a colleague (damn you, Eddie) who stole your brainchild - one of the best solutions is to distance yourself (at least temporarily) from the situation. Go off to lunch or take a walk, but leaving distracting objects such as your phone behind. Spend some time with the most important person which matters to you, yourself.

At one point or another, we all have that day in the office where we get close to our breaking point. That’s okay. But be ready for it: Have a few tactics that you know work to calm you back down, and keep your professionalism (not to mention your cubicle) intact, no matter how bad it seems in the moment. l

6 ways to keep your cool at work

Take a few minutes to sneak to the side and call your dear old mom. The little, silly conversations are always an e� ective distraction in the worst of situations. But do remember to get that birthday gift next time, yeah?

Feature10DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Pop of colour

Quotes from Poshians• “A close door only for women, where you can post pretty much anything and

everything starting from makeup, beauty, fashion, cooking, health issues, personal problems, even if you are in mood to talk to a friend. This group caterers to all your need. The reason I am mentioning this is because I’m not in lot of groups on Facebook, and I’m not that active on ones that I’m a member of. This is the only group where I post regularly and interact with the members. That’s because this is the healthiest, positive group I have ever come across. There are more than 13k members, and yet there is no negativity and no gossiping. Everybody is super friendly and helping each other out” ~ Beauty blogger Nuzuma Sama

• “This is group all about supporting each other in every single requirement of a woman. The aspect that has amazed me about this group since becoming a member is how comfortably one can share everything in such a manner that gives a sort of positivity” ~ Beauty blogger Niloy Farhana

• “I love POC for many reasons and it’s tough to pick the top 3. One is the unity between all the members . Unlike other groups where everyone’s always hating on each other, this group thrives on a strong support system to encourage, motivate and help others. Tinker Jannat Meem has been wonderful. Despite being so busy, she personally looks into posts, keeps in touch with the members and admonishes any negativity to help the group � ourish and grow in its vibrancy” ~ Natasha Rahman, Assistant Editor ,ICE Today and Yoga Instructor.

• “PoC is di� erent from other girl groups. As a PoC member I got lots of o� ers from di� erent online pages. Also we can get advice from experienced people( beauty bloggers and others)” ~ Tuli Tanjina, EC Harris, Arcadis Project Management Pte Ltd

group, we can’t allow it, following our code of conduct.”

There’s more to the membership than mere words, too. Pochians can now enjoy the bene� ts of exclusive discounts at clothing stores, beauty salons, hospitals, food courts, event management services and much more, for the opportunities keep coming. Products and services are commonly reviewed within the group to assure authenticity, transforming into a true customer market study. Now the biggest challenge Meem faces is to keep up this quality.

Not all their activities are virtual either, for the community came together last year at Army Golf Club Palm View Restaurant. When asked about her most memorable moments,

Meem couldn’t help but smile as she answered: “When international hair stylist Javed Habib announced a discount at all his franchise outlets around the world for the Pochians alone, it was the � rst international achievement of the group, and one I won’t forget.”

In terms of expansion, the group is now knocking every possible door to extend this contemporary venture for more women across the nation. With this initiative, Meem wishes that women may � nd themselves, and update their lifestyle endeavors in the process

Membership cards providing discount o� ers to � ve-star hotels and airlines are being prepared as well. With more surprises planned, Meem seems hopeful for the days to come. l

n Saudia Afrin

Imagine a safe space, exclusive to women, where they can meet and share everything from anecdotes to advice, without any fear of judgement or recrimination. That space is provided by Pop of Colour, and it’s creating a quiet revolution.

What began as a closed group on Facebook that functioned as a discussion board about makeup and beauty, has snowballed into a large community of women in Bangladesh. Their aim is to provide advice and support to one another, and create a virtual sisterhood that is sorely missing in today’s fast-paced, urban lifestyle. At 13,912 members and growing, it’s de� nitely proving to be a force to be reckoned with.

The work model is pretty simple. Any member, or “Pochian”, as they call themselves, is welcome to post a query, or share some personal concern. The solutions and answers are crowd-sourced by the rest of the group. You need someone to boost the likes on your Facebook page/business? You call on your fellow Pochians. Want to know where to get the best price for a product of your choice? The Pochians will hunt it down for you. Having a bad day at work and need a word of inspiration? You know where to go.

Tinker Jannat Meem, the initiator of Pop of colour, re� ected on what made

this community so popular: “Groups on Facebook or other platforms on the Internet aren’t exactly new. But I often found, to some extent, their motives to be hollow. Back in 2014, Pop of Colour came to my mind as a need to do something ful� lling and amazing, yet unique.”

“My wish was to give a women a platform to do what they can proud of. A platform where they actually can enjoy certain privileges in its true essence,” she continued.

Considering women as the prime a� liates of colour, Meem decided on the mantra and name of the group. She believes that Pochians are able to gain support and grow with positivity, which becomes its point of di� erence.

And indeed, it is this unconditional positivity that sets the group apart. Negative comments, criticism and spamming are simply forbidden, and may cost one the membership into this community. Meem confesses that it is often a challenge to verify every new member that joins, particularly as the group continues to grow. The admin panel is working tirelessly to ensure that the safe space stays safe.

Existing members who fail to ful� ll the rules and regulation of the group are given no opportunities to retain their membership. “It is sad but once they’re gone, their involvement in the community is gone forever. Although many ask to rejoin the

Girlpower unleashed

If Bangladesh’s intelligence has the technology available to monitor the Internet, and Bangladesh Bank is aware of terror � nancing, and several intelligence groups are working with a large number of local agents, how is it possible that the attacks continue to take place?

INSIDE

The prime minister is right to point to the need for Bangladeshi businesses to keep improving the quality of their products and to build new markets by investing in knowledge and innovation to grow demand for our nation’s exports.

She made her call at the opening of the Dhaka International Trade Fair in a speech urging entrepreneurs to innovate and diversify products to keep up with global demand.

The month-long fair is a key annual focal point for traders and exporters. Its international dimension with stalls from all around the world is a key part of its attraction for businesses and consumers alike.

As a unique showcase for the widest possible range of Bangladeshi products and businesses, from all sectors of the economy, it is deservedly popular with the general public.

With the political climate more stable than the last two years, organisers are hopeful that DITF will attract a record number of visitors and orders. According to the Export Promotion Bureau, over 68 foreign companies from 21 countries will be exhibiting in around a 10th of the total of 535 pavilions and stalls set up for this year’s trade fair.

Only by actively competing and improving can the country sustain the growth which has seen per capita income more than double in the last 10 years lifting millions of people out of poverty.

We hope the buzz of the fair will help DITF provide added inspiration to business and investors by attracting new customers and acting as a catalyst for future growth.

DITF is an important platform to inspire new investment in innovation and diversi� cation

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DITF showcases the growing con� dence of Bangladeshi business

11D

TEditorialSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

DHAKA TRIBUNE

As the killing continues

Who are we to judge?It is atheists who have faced the harshest intolerance from the general masses. And in recent times, due to the ignorance harboured by the general population, secularists in many cases have been equated with atheists

PAGE 13

PAGE 12

PAGE 14

At odds with endsOptimists will argue that the cracker has grown up to become a quiz and taken over all seasons but nostalgia has its virtues. I o� er an example. Who wanted to straighten out the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Mussolini. Or: Power without democracy is insanity

n Abdullah Zobair

The terrorists operating from in-side the country, this time, have stormed a mosque of Ahmadiyyas in Rajshahi’s Bagmara upazila

despite the fact that the government has invested all-out resources and intelligence to wipe out terrorists after sporadic attacks exhausted the nation.

Law enforcement agencies, armed with intelligence, have failed in taking pre-emp-tive measures against the killings of bloggers and foreigners, the attacks on the Shia mosque, the Ashura rally, or Navy mosques, attacks on police and army personnel, or other terror activities.

The government is blaming opposition parties for grooming terrorism for a decade, and is narrating mythical success in defeat-ing terrorism, though the situation is still completely hostile.

Several ministers have been claiming that all the terror activities are interlinked, but nothing has been unearthed regarding who is behind the uprising of terrorism, its socio-religious and global factors, or its � nanciers.

The ineptitude of the law enforcers shows when the fates of the ethnic, reli-

gious, and open-minded people are being de� ned by the terrorists. The grand � aw in the Mirpur terrorist hunt, where two JMB leaders slipped through police � ngers, raises a question about the capabilities of our law enforcers.

In the 15-hour crackdown, law enforcers seized 16 improvised grenades, ingredients for making over 200 bombs and grenades, a suicide vest, and 15 bullets, but the bomb-makers escaped. After hanging the top JMB leaders during the BNP-Jamaat regime, the renaissance of the out� t at the second consecutive regime of the Awami

League poses a threat for the security of the country, and the failure of the government in uprooting terrorism is unpardonable.

Bangladesh is not known for a history of sectarian violence, but the pattern of terror attacks on soft targets in districts is worry-

ing. That we now have an alleged suicide bombing incident at Bagmara means that the situation is heating up.

According to a daily newspaper, in 2015, at least 19 terror attacks or bombing incidents took place. After committing an attack, law enforcers are seen to be too serious, and ministers are seen defending

themselves by blaming the opposition. That no one is taking responsibility for protect-ing the populace from the attacks clearly shows the government’s failure is combating terrorism.

With the killing of foreigners, and now attacks on places of worship of minority communities and various sects of Islam, it is clear what the perpetrators wish to achieve. Meanwhile, the claim by terrorist organ-isation IS in the media after any attack in Bangladesh is a new dimension of terrorism and its global linkage.

If Bangladesh’s intelligence has the tech-nology available to monitor the Internet, and Bangladesh Bank is aware of terror � -nancing, and several intelligence groups are working with a large number of local agents, how is it possible that the attacks continue to take place?

A divided society is fertile land for grow-ing terrorism, and national unity is still a far cry as people are deprived from giving their mandate in electing a ruler. Putting aside all talks and the blame games, the government must prove its capacity, and aggressiveness to � ght terrorism. l

Abdullah Zobair is Executive Director, Bangladesh Initiative for Political Development.

Opinion12DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

As the killing continues

Bomb-makers keep getting away, while our law enforcement watches idly MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

If Bangladesh’s intelligence has the technology available to monitor the Internet, and Bangladesh Bank is aware of terror � nancing, and several intelligence groups are working with a large number of local agents, how is it possible that the attacks continue to take place?

When will the attacks stop?

n Adit Hasan Khan

Persecution of minority groups has always been an ugly facet of human history. As a believer in God, one of the most shameful aspects of

religion in my eyes has been the murder of people on the basis of their religious beliefs. For instance prior to the 18th century, “atheist” was an insult, and atheism was punishable by death in ancient Greece, ancient Israel, and in vast segments of the Christian and Muslim world during the middle ages.

As we move closer to the 21st century, we like to believe that the human race has moved past its violent ways, and that may be so in many modern societies, but in many countries there are still people living in constant danger solely because they hold a particular ideology.

Bangladesh, in recent times has developed into a hotbed of violent intolerance for secular free thinkers. Citizens of the developed world may � nd this hard to believe, but in Bangladesh, writing books and blogs promoting free-thinking is one of the most dangerous jobs a person can have. The country is of Muslim majority, and has a literacy rate of 57% according to UNICEF. Given the general lack of information, restricted access to education, combined with various economic struggles -- perhaps it is not surprising that the majority of the country is overly sensitive about their religion. People from other religions, Hindus in particular, have from time to time faced immense discrimination and sometimes destruction at the hands of the radical majority.

However, it is atheists who have faced the harshest intolerance from the general masses. And in recent times, due to the ignorance harboured by the general population, secularists in many cases have been equated with atheists.

To provide some context for the recent tragedies that our country has faced, it might be wise to give some historical context to Bangladesh’s close to zero tolerance policy regarding atheists. In the 1990s, author Taslima Nasrin achieved notoriety in Bangladesh for her bold use of sexual imagery in her poetry, her self-declared atheism, and her iconoclastic lifestyle. After various attacks from mobs, and death threats being issued by religious fundamentalists, she had to leave the country. She spent several years in France and Sweden, and then moved to India in 2005. It is not just atheists, but anyone criticising religious fundamentalism faced a similar fate in Bangladesh.

In 1999, Shamsur Rahman, one of the leading Bangladeshi poets, was targeted, and a failed attempt was made to assassinate him at his own home for his writings where he harshly criticised religious fundamentalism. There is a long list of distinguished names in the country that

had been threatened by the radical groups, the common denominator is the failure of the government to protect the people being threatened. This failure to some extent can be explained by the fact that on various occasions, members of radical groups have found representation in parliament, and through their political assets carried out further oppression towards anyone who opposed religious fundamentalism.

In 2013 came the biggest storm of radicalism against bloggers who identi� ed themselves as atheists, or promoted secular ideologies. In January 2013 a blogger by the name of Asif Mohiuddin was stabbed near his o� ce in Dhaka, he barely survived the attack. In February of the same year, Ahmed Rajib Haider, an atheist blogger, was attacked close to his house in Dhaka. His body was found lying in a pool of blood, mutilated to the point where his friends could not

recognise him. In March, Sunnyur Rahaman came under attack and narrowly escaped death with grievous injuries.

On November 15, 2014, a teacher of sociology at Rajshahi University named Sha� ul Islam came under attack and succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

Dr Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-American bio-engineer and one of the most famous bloggers in the country, was attacked in

February 2015 while returning from a book fair. He was the founder of the in� uential Bangladeshi blog Mukto-Mona.

The murder of Dr Roy sparked a number of protests both in and out of the country. However, the protests did little to stop the radical Islamist groups. Since this widely publicised attack, Ananta Bijoy Das, another blogger, was killed in May. Niloy Neel, a fellow contributor of Mukto-Mona, was killed in August. Faisal Are� n Dipan,

a publisher of one of Dr Roy’s books, was hacked to death in October.

Despite domestic and international protests, and outrage expressed by the UN and the Human Rights Watch, there is virtually no security for secular thinkers in Bangladesh. The government on multiple occasions has proven to be ine� ective in dealing with such threats. The lack of security is just one aspect of the horror, these extremist groups have a signi� cant fan-base, particularly in rural areas, their in� uence on the ill-informed rural population makes them powerful political allies, both for the ruling government and the main opposition.

As secular Muslims, many of us cannot express our concerns, and as human beings all we can do is cry for our brothers who are murdered in broad daylight. Religious intolerance has always been a problem in the region, but I believe it was not irrational to expect that things would get better with time. That expectation today seems like a foolish daydream. Despite all the advances we have made in education, and towards our � nancial and economic well-being, we fail to live in harmony as a state that can accommodate alternative theological views.

And with every passing day, we are going further back in time to resort to the most primitive and vulgar acts to settle our di� erences. l

Adit Hasan Khan is a freelance contributor.

OPINION 13D

TSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

The murder of Avijit Roy shows the depth of intolerance that exists in Bangladesh SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

We really need to start practicing the secular values we claim we hold

It is atheists who have faced the harshest intolerance from the general masses. And in recent times, due to the ignorance harboured by the general population, secularists in many cases have been equated with atheists

Who are we to judge?

Opinion14DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

n MJ Akbar

A curious role-reversal seized parlia-ment for much of last year, result-ing in apoplectic � ts that bode ill for the health of the institution. It

is logical to assume that government should have a vested interest in minimal sessions, ideally with legislation going through with-out much debate.

Governments, being establishment, should prefer minimum scrutiny and maxi-mum leeway. Instead, it was the opposition Congress that was determined to destroy the many opportunities parliament provides to act as a pressure house of public opinion, and a court of enquiry that can squeeze information out of the reluctant � les of government.

Congress repeatedly killed question hour by a barrage of hooting and hollering that would invite serious censure in a boarding school at end of term. When Congress did co-operate in the passage of some bills, largely out of fear of public backlash, it did so without much discussion. The notable fact was the isolation of Congress; all other op-position parties distanced themselves from such tactics. Will this make much di� erence to future behaviour? It is di� cult to predict what turns an irrational strategy might take.

A thought for the coming year that could develop into a theme should, of course, be

derivative, building on experience of the days just departed. Voltaire, the French philosopher, rationalist, and revolutionary, was not famous for obedience to God, but when he did raise his head towards the sky, Voltaire could make an e� ective point. “O Lord,” he once prayed, “make my enemies ridiculous.” Who could ask for more in the cut and thrust of public life?

Seasonal angst, like a few other debates, can be cooked up. But this one belongs strictly to the dessert side of the dinner: Delicious, unnecessary, but an essential complement to a proper meal. Whatever happened to the literary Christmas cracker? This was not, as the pre� x clari� es, something that merely produced a brief explosion and died.

It was an intellectual conceit in the form of quaint question and unexpected

answer that carried a shade more meaning than the obvious. It amused while it taught and rescued information from boredom. Newspapers would devote “goodish” space to the art and books would be compiled that eventually became next year’s gifts.

British papers still devote time and atten-tion to this magical tease. Its disappearance from India is a reason to mourn. Optimists

will argue that the cracker has grown up to become a quiz and taken over all seasons but nostalgia has its virtues. I o� er an example. Who wanted to straighten out the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Mussolini. Or: Power without democracy is insanity.

Christmas is about nativity, the birth of a saviour, and a mission of charity and benefaction towards those less fortunate than ourselves. The Christians of the Year

2015 were without doubt Priscilla Chan and Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who celebrated the birth of their � rst child by promising to donate 99% of their fabulous wealth to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The amount is beyond belief; nearly $45 billion. Billion. Frankly, I have no real con-cept of how much a billion amounts to, but 45 of them could well constitute the annual revenues of a small nation. Nor are Priscilla and Mark at that point of their lives when they could be tempted to take out insurance policies on the afterlife. They are young. And they are not alone among America’s new and old billionaires. The founder of Mi-crosoft, Bill Gates has a foundation � nanced by a $44bn trust. Their work in India, among other nations, has been splendid. When will we � nd such billionaires?

Quote of the year must surely belong to the recently published autobiography of fad-ed Hollywood star Burt Reynolds. He recalls the day that the glamorous star Joan Craw-ford died. There was a party that evening, and among the guests was Crawford’s bitter rival, the catty Bette Davis. Davis told reporters: “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Joan Crawford is dead. Good!” l

MJ Akbar is an Indian journalist. He is the founder of The Sunday Guardian. This column also appears in The Sunday Guardian.

Optimists will argue that the cracker has grown up to become a quiz and taken over all seasons but nostalgia has its virtues. I o� er an example. Who wanted to straighten out the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Mussolini. Or: Power without democracy is insanity

Will we � nd the likes of Mark Zuckerberg? REUTERS

Seasonal angst can be cooked up

At odds with ends

15D

TBusinessSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Oil will blow past $80 a barrel in 2016The next big move in the price of oil will be up. For now, OPEC producers are � ooding the market with cheap crude. But low-cost OPEC producers will win the hydrocarbon price war because they can � ght harder for longer. And when they win, the price of oil will rise. PAGE 18

Giants of central banking will be cut down to sizeCentral bankers were the next best thing to superheroes during the � nancial and euro zone crises. But after rescuing banks, mar-kets and even countries, they have � nally encountered their kryptonite: consumer prices. PAGE 17

BEZA vows to set up Habiganj economic zone defying protest Despite widespread protest and criticism from di� erent quarters, Bangladesh Eco-nomic Zones Authority (BEZA) is still deter-mined to establish an economic zone on hun-dreds of acres of arable land in Chunarughat in Habiganj. PAGE 16

Capital market snapshot: Past WeekDSE

Broad Index 4,629.6 0.5% ▲

Index 1,107.1 0.1% ▲

30 Index 1,750.6 0.2% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 19,385.7 -11.4% ▼

Turnover in Mn Volume 451.8 -6.7% ▼

CSEAll Share Index 14,089.6 0.3% ▲

30 Index 12,467.3 0.3% ▲

Selected Index 8,572.1 0.3% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk 1,075.1 -32.4% ▼

Turnover in Mn Volume 34.1 -19.7% ▼

INSIDE

BGMEA to team up with CCC for Ctg apparel zone n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Ex-porters Association (BGMEA) is set to join hands with the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) to establish apparel zone at Kalurghat in Chittagong.

The initiative is aimed at helping the RMG factory owners, who need to relocate their factories to make compliant on safety issues, according to BGMEA.

Due to safety assessment by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a good number of RMG units located in the port city need to be relocated, it added.

“The Chittagong Apparel Zone will be es-tablished in line with the safety standards prescribed by the global retailers and Na-tional Action Plan, BGMEA Vice President Mohammed Nasir told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Factories, especially SME which has been a� ected due to the safety assessment by the Accord and Alliance will get priority

in allocating the � oor as they are in a great need to be relocated for the sake of safety and compliant issue, said Nasir.

In the proposed zone, there will have Ef-� uent Treatment Plant (ETP), � re station, hospital, childcare centre, ambulance for workers and cargo lift, he said.

The BGMEA and Chittagong City Cor-poration will sign a Memorandum of Un-derstanding (MoU) to establish “The Chit-tagong Apparel Zone” at GEC Convention Hall in the port city today.

The CCC will provide over 10 acre of lands to de-velop the zone while the BGMEA members will � -nance the project, which would be adjusted later on from the rents.

A total of eleven 7-sto-ried buildings with 20,000 square feet on each � oor for 30 to 35 entrepreneurs to relocate their factories.

According to MoU, an eligible factory owner has to pay 10% of total construction cost as down payment. The agreement will be valid for 40 years and it would be re-newed automatically after every 10 years.

The factory owners has to pay Tk10 for per square feet as rent, which will be in-creased by 5% after every � ve year and 50% rent of the allocated space would be adjust-ed from the payment of construction. l

Stock investors endure volatile year in 2015 Outlook is murky too in New Year n Kayes Sohel

Stock markets in the country were nervous and divided in 2015 as to how deep the cor-rection should go or what level is the best to buy.

In many cases, investors lost money on their investments as the markets ended the year lower than they started.

The markets which had been on a recov-ery mode in previous two years witnessed a reverse trend in 2015 when DSEX, the main gauge of Dhaka Stock Exchange, dropped more than 6%.

The markets’ poor performance can be attributed to the political turbulence, law and order situation, vulnerable macro economy and continuous e� ect of late 2010 market crash, analysts say.

“The market was nothing but on a wild ride all the year,” said Shahidul Islam, chief executive o� cer at VIPB Asset Management Company.

“If you look at the graph, the DSEX had neared 5,000-mark in the beginning. Then it declined to 4,000-mark and again climbed to 4,800-mark before hovering around 4,600-mark at the end of the year.”

Assessing the performance of the mar-ket, former � nance adviser to the caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam said: “De-spite positive measures like lowering tax for listed companies and beginning trial of the market manipulators in the year, investor con� dence was not boosted because mac-roeconomic signal was not strong.”

“Investor investment depends on the company’s pro� ts. The higher pro� ts ... the

higher returns. But the last year corporate earnings that were a� ected by the political turmoil failed to satisfy investors.”

IDLC Investments Managing Director Md Moniruzzaman said a lot of factors, particu-larly political turmoil in the � rst quarter of 2015, and continuous e� ect of market crash, a� ected the market negatively.

“That is why some recovery made in 2013 and 2014 was not sustained in 2015.”

The bottom line is that the market wit-

nessed mostly weak shares in 2015, some of which went below their o� er values, con-tributing to the con� dence erosion, he said.

“Initial hype on debut date could not be sustained for the IPOs. One major reform in the year is that all premium IPOs will have to follow book building route going forward.”

The lenders’ equities are yet to come out from the red that went during the market crash, he said.

PAGE 16 COLUMN 4

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MOVEMENT OF DSEX INDEX IN 2015

Business16DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Stock investors Analysts believe that fragile macroeconomic performance and political uncertainty might continue to rock the boat of the bourses in the New Year.

“I do not think a big turnaround in 2016,” said Islam, also former chairman of Bangladesh Se-curities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

He said of the notable factors, political risks and law and order situation are the ones, which might continue to put adverse impact on private investment in the New Year too.

VIPB CEO, however, is hopeful that 2016 will be better than 2015, because of higher liquidity and lower commodity prices in the global market.

“But everything depends on political sit-uation.” In the same breath, the IDLC Invest-ments managing director said: “The private investment might fail to pick up until politi-cal concerns are at rest.”

A stock trader Ismail Hossain who entered the market last year to avail the lower prices faced losses instead.

“I bet on stocks in the past year taking op-portunity of lower prices, but I have lost 25% of my investment.” l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

BEZA vows to set up Habiganj economic zone defying protest n Syed Samiul Basher Anik

Despite widespread protest and criticism from di� erent quarters, Bangladesh Eco-nomic Zones Authority (BEZA) is still deter-mined to establish an economic zone on hun-dreds of acres of arable land in Chunarughat in Habiganj.

The economic zone aims to protect great-er interest of tea garden workers, BEZA Ex-ecutive Chairman Paban Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune in an interview recently.

In partnership with the tea garden work-ers, BEZA will establish the economic zone, creating new job opportunities for the tea workers, said Paban.

The government has decided to build an economic zone on around 512 acres of land in Chunarughat, which was earlier leased out to Chandpur Tea Estate operated by the British company, Duncan Brothers.

The lease was recently cancelled for the establishment of the economic zone.

The land, which the tea workers use for cultivation of food grain, now belongs to Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority.

Tea workers have been protesting the de-cision, saying that their livelihood will be at stake once the economic zone is built.

Echoing agitating workers, civil society members, political parties, and rights activ-ists appealed to the government to hold open talks with the tea workers as regards estab-lishing the economic zone on the agricultural land that they use for cultivation.

However, BEZA Chairman Paban Chowd-hury outright rejected any such fear.

Rather, he gave the version that the estab-lishment of economic zone would ensure em-powerment and opportunities for tea workers to come out of their life of deprivation, which they have been going through for nearly 200 years.

“Why are we always against the develop-

ment activities?” questioned BEZA Chairman.“This is a problematic mindset which

needs to be changed,’’ he opined.The land belonged to the government was

earlier leased out to the tea estate for plan-tation of trees. So, the government has can-celled lease of the portion and has transferred around 512 acres of land to BEZA for estab-lishment of the economic zone, said Paban.

To supporting his point, Paban said: “They are now earning Tk69 a day only when they work. If they (tea workers) don’t attend their work, they get nothing. We’ve taken up the initiative to help them coming out from lead-ing lives of the marginalised society people.”

Responding to a query on whether BEZA made any consultation with the tea workers before � nalising the plan, Paban stated that the authorities had a series of meeting with tea workers, in addition to the meetings with trade representative of British High Commis-

sion, Duncan Brothers, and local lawmakers on the proposed economic zone.

During the meetings, BEZA has assured the workers that the government will give them houses under governments Asrayan Project. Besides, they will get � ve decimal of land to be registered in their name so they can cultivate food grains there, he reminded.

As the workers don’t know any other work, the government would construct a skill development centre there, so that the workers can acquire skills, which will help create earning opportunities for them.

There will be schools, houses, hospitals and everything required for a quality life, so that the workers can lead a good life, he added.

Both the Cabinet Secretary and the As-rayan Project Director have also assured BEZA of extending their cooperation in this regard, said Paban.

As part of the welfare initiative, BEZA has

already talked to AK Khan Group and Abdul Monem Group to employ some of the tea workers in their private economic zones and gets assurance from the groups in this con-nection, he added.

“We will change their quality of life. They will get their own house and have their rights on the land. Once the economic zone is built, their life will be changed,” he hoped.

Responding to a query about the ongoing protest, which the tea workers have been doing since December 11, Paban Chowdhury said: “A vested quarter is instigating them as there will be short of workers once the eco-nomic zone is built.”

“We have to overcome the obstacles. We are working to protect greater interest of the tea garden workers. We will able to convince them,” he � rmly said.

Describing the advantages of establish-ment of the economic zone in Chunarughat, BEZA Executive Chairman said: “The area has surplus electricity and gas connections.”

“The area has the potentiality for ceramic factory, food processing, small engineering, automobile spare parts industries, pharma-ceuticals industries. In addition, we have received proposals from Non-Resident Bang-ladeshi’s (NRB) living in England on building green house project in the area,” he said.

Once the zone is built, it will help Bangla-deshi manufacturers to export their products to ‘Seven-Sister States’ of India, he said add-ing that the Indian businesses can also make investment in the economic zones and can re-export the products to their own country.

BEZA has already conducted the initial study and a feasibility study will be conduct-ed soon there.

“We’re expecting that we can build a model economic zone there by next two or two and a half years, in partnership with tea garden workers,” said BEZA Executive Chairman. l

Amin Jewellers honours 27 veterans n Tribune Report

Amin Jewellers has honored 27 veterans of the country in recognition of their signi� cant contributions to respective � elds on the oc-casion of its golden jubilee.

The awards were handed to the intellectu-als at a splendid programme held at the Hall of Fame of Bangabandhu International Con-ference Center (BICC) in the capital yesterday.

Each awardee received an honorarium of Tk3 lakh, a medal of two bhori (1 bhori = 11.664 grams) of gold, a crest and an uttorio (A piece of decorated cloth given to someone as a mark of honour).

The 27 were accorded warm reception in presence of an audience of around 2,000 in-dividuals at the event.

The award recipients included AKM Zaka-ria (Archaeologist), Prof Anisuzzaman (Edu-cationist and Intellectual), Ashalata Baidya (Freedom Fighter), AM Harun Ar Rashid (Scientist and Technologist), AK Azad Khan (Doctor), Kakon Bibi (Freedom Fighter) and Jamilur Reza Chowdhury (Civil Engineer). l

Stocks end last week of 2015 on � at note n Tribune Report

Stock markets ended the � nal week of the year 2015 on a � at note as both retail and insti-tutional investors remained on the sidelines.

During the week that ended on Thursday, the benchmark of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, closed marginally over 20 points or 0.5% higher to 4,629, ending two consecu-tive weeks of losses.

The blue chip comprising index DS30 inched over 3 points higher to 1,750. The DSE Shariah Index, DSES, witnessed a fractional gain of 0.7 points to 1,750. The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Categories Index, CSCX, closed at 8,572, rising 22 points.

“The week started with a negative mode which didn’t turn positive before the third sessions. Despite this improvement, inves-tors preferred the wait only making the end hour of portfolio reallocation while they were looking to 2016,” said IDLC Investments.

However, the last session showed some

enthusiasm of the year, which added nearly 25 points alone, it said.

“Investors’ lackluster participation was re� ected in the slowing turnover. The week observed local government election, which might have played a role in slowing turnover.”

Lanka Bangla Securities said the mar-ket-cap leaders had mixed performance during the week. Though ICB and Titas Gas declined by 3.7% and 3.5% respectively, BAT-BC and Olympic Industries increased by 5.1% and 3.6% respectively, it said.

Trading activities remained sluggish as was indicated in lower turnover. The DSE dai-ly turnover average turnover was Tk387 crore, down over 11.35% over the previous week.

Pharmaceuticals remained as the centre of trading in the week, accounting for 22% of the week’s total turnover, followed by engi-neering 20% and fuel and power 11%.

Beximco Pharmaceuticals dominated the week’s turnover chart for the three consecu-tive weeks on the DSE. l

Tea workers protest against the BEZA move for an economic zone in Habiganj recently DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business 17D

TSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Giants of central banking will be cut down to size n Swaha Pattanaik

Central bankers were the next best thing to superheroes during the � nancial and euro zone crises. But after rescuing banks, mar-kets and even countries, they have � nally en-countered their kryptonite: consumer prices.

In� ation has refused to materialise de-spite the most unorthodox e� orts of the most in� uential rate-setters. US Federal Re-serve Chair Janet Yellen, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and others in the Group of Seven industrial nations have slashed policy rates to record lows and to-gether bought � nancial assets worth more than $10tn – roughly equivalent to the com-bined currency reserves of all the world’s central banks.

Economic activity has picked up but con-sumer prices are proving recalcitrant. G7 in-� ation averaged less than 0.2% in the � rst 10 months of the year, OECD data shows.

Worse still, central bankers’ power to bend markets to their will is waning, reduc-ing their ability to weaken currencies and thus make imports more expensive. Draghi’s old nickname of Super Mario looked less apt after his Dec 3 policy easing had the perverse e� ect of pushing the euro and bond yields up sharply rather than down.

Time to deploy other policy levers. First, governments could start gently reversing half a decade of � scal policy tightening. The mostly rich OECD countries will in 2015 run a structural de� cit – that is, one which strips out the e� ect of economic swings – of 2.5% of potential GDP, the lowest in a decade and a half, the international organisation says.

Voters’ austerity fatigue and circumstances such as Europe’s migrant crisis and security concerns all suggest some slippage ahead.

Second, pay could do with rising faster. In 2014, real average wages in the OECD rose 0.2%, less than a � fth of the average annu-al increase seen between 2000-2007. Politi-cians are already thinking along these lines. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to raise the national minimum wage by 3% each year from the next � scal year, and the UK wage � oor is due to rise more rapidly in

the coming years. Even � scal and wage measures might fail.

Further falls in oil prices or a Chinese curren-cy depreciation could counteract their in� a-tionary impact. But that shouldn’t stop pol-iticians from using what powers they have – especially now central bankers are proving helpless. l

Swaha Pattanaik is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The article was initially published at Reuters.

A general view of the exterior of the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany REUTERS

Ending of China’s super-boom spells pain with no end seen yet n Reuters, Singapore

A decade-old commodity boom came crash-ing to an end in 2015, hurting energy and mining companies and punishing prices as China’s industrial rise and appetite for raw materials slowed. The outlook for 2016 is not much better.

The Thomson Reuters Core Commodity Index fell by a quarter over the year to hit its lowest level since 2002 in December, as com-modities ranging from iron ore to oil took a battering.

“The chances of an optimistic 2016 are bleak,” Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong’s Wing Fung Financial Group, said. “Slowing economic growth and structural re-forms in China might contribute to decreased demand for commodities.”

Further interest rate hikes by the US Fed-eral Reserve will add to the pain by strength-ening the dollar and making many commodi-ties more expensive for international buyers, To said.

The smallest, niche agricultural com-modities were the only bright spots in sight as weather and disease roiled crops, rais-ing concerns about tightening supplies and boosting cocoa, cotton and orange juice.

Among industrial commodities, iron ore prices tumbled 40% this year due to global oversupply and shrinking Chinese steel de-mand, marking a third year of losses. The rout is seen stretching into next year.

In coal, thermal prices fell almost a third in 2015, hurt by waning Chinese demand and the rise of renewable energy, with Goldman Sachs and the International Energy Agency saying China’s coal demand has peaked.

Both iron ore and coal have shed around 80 percent in value since their respective his-torical peaks in 2011 and 2008.

The downturn has hammered mining ma-jors like BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Anglo American, as well as merchants like Asia’s Noble Group and Europe’s Glencore, forcing them to slash jobs and sell assets.

Benchmark oil and natural gas prices have also slumped, down a third this year and two thirds since the rout began in 2014, as bal-looning supply met slowing demand.

“Headwinds (are) growing for 2016 oil,” Morgan Stanley said this week, citing in-creases in global supply and a slowdown in demand, re� ecting a market consensus that meaningfully higher prices are not expected before late 2016.

Fight for survival The outlook is expected to trigger a � ght for survival across the supply chain, including shippers and private oil drillers, while oil-de-pendent countries from Venezuela and Rus-sia to the Middle East face smaller revenues.

Prices of industrial metals also plummet-ed this year. Copper and zinc shed a quarter of their value, and nickel collapsed more than 40%, hammered by slowing growth in top consumer China.

Some investors are hoping base metals are over the worst, but some fund managers and analysts expect further losses next year be-fore miners make signi� cant output cuts to o� set slowing demand growth. l

Investors look to January e� ect at start of 2016 n Reuters, New York

As Wall Street wraps up its � attest year since 2011, investors will have to deal with many of the same issues next year as they attempt to gauge market direction.

While many market participants have a host of worries heading into 2016 that could hurt stocks and keep volatility high, they re-main optimistic for gains in 2016 and a strong start to the year could boost that case.

According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the direction of January’s trading predicts the course for the year 75% of the time.

Stocks could get a boost next week from the so-called “January e� ect,” when stocks that were sold o� in December for year-end tax harvesting rally back in the next month as investors scoop them back up at lower prices.

Of the S&P 500 components, 301 were down 10% or more from their 52-week highs and 175 were o� by at least 20% through Dec 30, ac-cording to Ryan Detrick, market strategist at Kimble Charting Solutions in Cincinnati.

That broad decline was o� set by the nar-row leadership of the “FANG” stocks - Face-book, Amazon, Net� ix and Alphabet. Com-bined, they comprise more than 5% of the weighting in the S&P 500 and have all risen at least 35% for the year.

While the overall breadth of the S&P is not promising, that may leave a broader swath of stocks that could see a rebound next month, according to Je� Saut, chief investment strat-egist at Raymond James Financial in St. Pe-tersburg, Florida.

“The individual investor is in hibernation. There are six distinct stages to a secular bull market and we are nowhere near euphoria, nowhere close, unless you own the FANGs,” said Saut.

Despite the � at performance to � nish out the year, stocks grappled with volatil-ity throughout 2015. The S&P has moved at least 1% on a daily basis in either direction 72 times, the most since 2011, according to Standard & Poor’s data.

The S&P 500 notched a record high of 2,130.82 on May 21 as middling economic

data eased expectations for a rate hike from the US Federal Reserve. But three months lat-er, the benchmark had fallen into correction territory, a drop of 10% from its high, when signs China’s economy may be slowing faster than expected unnerved investors and a Fed rate hike drew closer.

“It turned into a big nothing. We are es-sentially where we started the year. We had a lot of volatility in between,” said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE � oor division at O’Neil Securities in New York.

“In retrospect, actually, it could have been a disaster and it really ended up kind of � at, so I count that as a win, once you add in div-idends.”

Along with the return of many investors next week after the holidays, the economic calendar is more active, culminating with Friday’s payrolls report.

But while recent jobs reports have been closely monitored for signs the Fed will be-gin to raise rates, the in� uence of the report may be muted due to the recent hike by the Fed and its intention to continue raising at a gradual pace.

“The Fed knows it needs to be careful and they are going to be careful,” said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St Louis. l

‘In retrospect, actually, it could have been a disaster and it really ended up kind of � at, so I count that as a win, once you add in dividends’

Business18DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

CORPORATE NEWS

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited has recently organised a business review meeting. The bank’s chairperson, Engr Mustafa Anwar attended the meeting as chief guest

Oil will blow past $80 a barrel in 2016n Andy Critchlow

The next big move in the price of oil will be up. For now, OPEC producers are � ooding the market with cheap crude. But low-cost OPEC producers will win the hydrocarbon price war because they can � ght harder for longer. And when they win, the price of oil will rise.

Brent crude has fallen about 40 percent over the last year to less than $40 a barrel as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has sought to defend its market share by pumping record volumes of oil and driving pro� t out of higher-cost production. Shale oil drillers in America and o� shore op-erators in areas such as the UK’s North Sea are among the most vulnerable. Improving wellhead e� ciency has softened the blows thus far. But these gains will be harder to re-peat in 2016.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) ex-pects shale oil production in the United States to shrink by more than 600,000 barrels per day next year if current low oil prices persist. At that rate, daily U S shale production would soon fall below 5 million barrels per day.

Lower prices will accelerate shutdowns in areas like the North Sea too. Energy consul-tancy Wood Mackenzie reckons that over a third of the area’s 330 � elds could be threat-ened by early closure if prices remain below $85 per barrel for an extended period.

Like shale, the North Sea was once seen as a serious rival to OPEC’s cheap oil but now it looks like its � rst victim. Wood Mackenzie reckons that at least 1.5 million barrels of daily global production are uneconomic at $40. Those volumes make up no more than a couple of percent of supply. But the global oil market is � nely balanced. Small changes can lead to big shifts.

As more high-cost production is either shut down or slowed down, OPEC’s pricing power will come to the fore. The IEA says oil prices will swill around the bottom of the barrel until 2018. If demand for oil rises with

a global economic growth spurt – fuelled per-haps by the low cost of energy – the oil prices will move up sooner than that.

The precise price to be seen at any mo-ment in 2016 is unpredictable. But elemen-

tal oil market forces suggest that a barrel of black stu� will revert back towards its 10-year mean above $80. l

Andy Critchlow is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.

The current price of gasoline is shown on a gas station sign in Encinitas, California REUTERS

Analysts see 2016 oil price rise, while traders bet on fall n Reuters, Singapore

A year ago, after oil prices had halved in six months, analysts were forecasting a price re-covery in 2015 while many traders were busy shorting the market.

As it turned out, the traders were correct and oil prices fell by another third this year. Analysts have now forecast a pick-up in prices over 2016, while traders built short positions on US oil futures to a record in early December.

The di� erence in the two views is on what happens in response to an oil output surplus that has been estimated as high as 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by some analysts.

Many analysts expect a price recovery to-wards the end of 2016 to pull up the average for the full year, with production - especially in the United States - falling as drillers suc-cumb to debt and low revenues.

But traders say analysts based their out-looks for 2015 on similar reasoning and are calling it wrong again for 2016, with oil pro-ducers cutting costs to both survive over the long haul and keep pumping oil at low prices to service debt.

“The party (of past high oil prices) is over, at least for the next two to three years,” said Oystein Berentsen, managing director of crude oil at trading company Strong Petrole-um in Singapore, arguing that oil companies

have cut costs to get ready to live with lower prices for years to come.

With markets tanking in December, and Brent hitting an 11-year low just under $36 per barrel, some analysts are also starting to show signs of reviewing their forecasts.

US investment bank Morgan Stanley said in its latest note, published before Christmas and headlined “Headwinds Growing for 2016 Oil”, that “the hope for a rebalancing in 2016 continues to su� er serious setbacks”.

Still, analysts would have to lower their fore-casts sharply to reverse expectations for a price recovery in 2016. The latest Reuters survey of 31 analysts showed an average price forecast for Brent for next year at $57.95 a barrel, more than $20 above current prompt market values.

And most analysts hold to the idea that production cuts will turn the market around in the coming year.

“We are likely getting closer to a more bal-anced market,” said Ric Spooner, chief mar-ket analyst at CMC Markets, adding that he expected Brent to average $45 a barrel while warning that there would be high volatility.

Yet the market is showing few signs of faith in a recovery even in late 2016.

The Brent forward curve shows a price increase of under $7 per barrel between con-tracts for delivery in February 2016 and those expiring in the following December, a much

narrower spread than in previous downturns and re� ecting little trust in any increase over the year, traders said.

Meanwhile, the average value for monthly 2016 Brent contracts is $40.89 per barrel, just $3.50 above current prices and well below the analysts’ forecasts for the year’s average.

The U S West Texas Intermediate (WTI) forward curve is almost the same, already factoring in a � ip into a premium over Brent that reappeared for the � rst time in years this

month, but which has yet to be re� ected in most analyst forecasts.

Over 2015, Brent and WTI crude prices have averaged $53.60 and $48.76 per barrel, respectively, as of Dec. 31.

Out of the pool of analysts polled by Reu-ters on their outlooks around a year ago, the forecast that came closest to those numbers was Citigroup’s, with expectations that Brent and WTI in 2015 would average $63 and $55 per barrel. l

Biz Info 19D

T

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Akangkha’s Glamour’s World is offering a free party make-over with its exclusive bridal package, which starts from Tk5,000 to Tk12,000. This offer comes as a special

addition to their regular services such as facial, skin polish, pedicure, manicure and hair cut. For details contact: 01937513006 l

Y Combinator, the world famous start-up associate organisation selected by Forbes magazine, has nominated the best ten entrepreneurs among 500 new entrepreneurs across the globe.

Bangladeshi online grocery shop chaldal.com was listed the 9th among the ten best entrepreneurs.

Chaldal provides a one-point services for essential items for its local customers. Three warehouses equipped with 4000 products cater to some 400 customers every day.

Washim Alim, Tejas Biswanath and Zia Ashraf established chaldal.com in 2013 in a bid to provide online shopping facilities to Bangladeshi customers. l

The Peninsula Chittagong ushered in 2016 with a spectacular show of � reworks, and a luau themed party at their Club21 rooftop garden. Guests were greeted with an “Aloha” by associates sporting � oral shirts and garlands. The photo booth had a beach theme, and on the menu were beachy mocktails, whole coconuts, and canapes as starters, followed by a large bu� et with a hundred items, including barbecued

turkey. The fan favourite band Warfaze was at

hand to entertain under the stars, counting down to the new year with a rendition of the evergreen hit “Final Countdown,” which culminated in a shower of � reworks. Chairman Mahbubur Rahman, General Manager Mushtak Luhar, guests and associates ended the night with a ra� e draw and DJ’d after party. l

Exclusive bridal package at Akangkha

Chaldal ranks 9th on Y Combinator survey

Fireworks over the Peninsula

Top Ten open their 14th

Top Ten Tailors Ltd recently opened their 14th branch at Rampura Banashree. Actor/model Adil Hossain Nobel inaugurated the showroom. In attendance were Top Ten’s managing director Sayed Hossain, directors Md Aoual Hossain, Md. Uzzal, and G.M

Shafikul Islam. Top Ten is well known for stocking international brands like Raymond, Arvind, Reid and Taylor, Monty, etc.

Membership cards are available with every purchase worth Tk2,000. l

Downtime20DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 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 11 represents W so � ll W every time the � gure 11 appears.You have one letter in the control grid to start you o� . Enter it 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

ACROSS1 Gem (4)6 Inferior horse (3)7 Utter wildly (4)9 Make orderly (4)10 Garment (5)11 Decoration (5)12 Flightless bird (3)14 Send money (5)17 Savoury (5)20 Lyric poem (3)21 Biblical king (5)23 Replenish (5)25 Legume (4)26 Golf club (4)27 In favour of (3)28 Extremities (4)

DOWN1 Vent (6)2 Hostility (6) 3 Crippled (4)4 Pale (3)5 Dry, of champagne (3) 7 Govern (4)8 Very bright (5)10 Sailor (3)13 Manufacturer (5)15 Up-to-date (6)16 Sport (6)18 That time (4) 19 Tree (3)22 Musical instrument (4) 23 Curved bone (3)24 Today (3)

SUDOKU

INSIDE

21D

TWorldSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Gunmen attack Indian air force base near Pakistan borderSuspected Islamist gunmen staged a pre-dawn attack on a key Indian air base near the Pakistan border Saturday with at least two militants killed in a shootout, o� cials said, striking a blow to the neighbours’ frag-ile peace process. PAGE 22

UK troops could face charges over Iraq WarBritish soldiers accused of unlawful killing and torture during the Iraq War could face prosecution, the head of an o� cial unit probing alleged abuses said in an interview published Saturday.

PAGE 23

Putin names US among threats in new Russian security strategyA new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia’s national secu-rity for the � rst time, a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years.

PAGE 24

Execution of prominent Shiite cleric sparks outragen Reuters

The execution in Saudi Arabia of a promi-nent Shiite cleric on Saturday sparked out-rage in the Middle East, where some leaders called for the closure of Riyadh’s embassy in their countries.

Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in the Sun-ni-ruled kingdom’s east, was among 47 peo-ple executed in Saudi Arabia.

Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman accused Saudi Arabia on Saturday of supporting ter-rorism and executing its opponents, after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric.

“The Saudi government supports terror-ists and tak� ri (radical Sunni) extremists, while executing and suppressing critics in-side the country,” Foreign Ministry spokes-man Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

Lebanese Shiite council condemns the execution Lebanon’s Supreme Islamic Shiite Council condemned the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, saying it was a “grave mistake.”

“The execution of Sheikh Nimr was an execution of reason, moderation and dia-logue,” the council’s Vice President Sheikh Abdel Amir Qabalan said in a statement.

Hezbollah: Execution of Shiite cleric is assassinationLebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah condemned the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, calling it an “as-sassination.”

The “real reason” for the execution was “that Sheikh Nimr... demanded the squan-dered rights of an oppressed people,” the group said in a statement, apparently re-ferring to Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority. The statement was also quoted by Hezbol-lah’s o� cial al Manar television and Leba-non-based Al Mayadeen TV.

Iraqi MP: Nimr execution serves ISSaudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Sau-di Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr serves the in-terests of Islamic State, a prominent Iraqi lawmaker with ties to Iran said on Saturday in a statement condemning the act.

“The execution of Sheikh al-Nimr is a ser-vice to Daesh, which is betting on expand-ing by igniting sectarian wars,” said Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite politician and member of the powerful Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) party.

Iraq’s Maliki: Nimr execution will topple Saudi governmentThe execution of prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday will mark the end of Saudi Arabia’s government, said Nuri

al-Maliki, Iraq’s former prime minister and a prominent politician with ties to Iran.

“We strongly condemn these detestable sectarian practices and a� rm that the crime of executing Sheikh al-Nimr will topple the Saudi regime as the crime of executing the martyr (Mohammed Baqir) al-Sadr did to Saddam (Hussein),” said Maliki, referring to another prominent Shiite cleric killed in 1980.

Iran-backed Iraqi militias want ties with Saudi cutProminent Iran-backed Iraqis called on the government in Baghdad on Saturday to sev-er ties with Saudi Arabia over its execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, al-Sumaria TV said.

“It’s a big crime that has opened the gates of hell,” said Qassim al-Araji, according to the channel’s website. Al-Araji, a leader of the Badr Organization, a Shiite paramilitary groups with a political wing, also called on Baghdad to cut diplomatic ties “immediate-ly.”

Another Iran-backed militia group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to fuel Sunni-Shiite strife, according to the TV’s website. “What the use of having a Sau-di embassy in Iraq,” it asked.

Bahrain police fire tear gas at protesters Bahrain police � red tear gas at several doz-en people protesting the execution by Sau-di Arabia on Saturday of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric, an eyewitness said.

Demonstrators carrying pictures of the cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, faced security forces in a stando� in the Shiite Muslim village of Abu-Saiba, west of the capital Manama.

Activists have called for protests in the Sunni-ruled island kingdom, a sign that Nimr’s death may in� ame already raging sectarian tensions in the Middle East.

Yemen’s Houthis condemn the executionYemen’s Houthi movement mourned the Shiite cleric executed by Saudi Arabia on Saturday as a “holy warrior,” in a strong rebuke of the Sunni-dominated kingdom by the Arabian Peninsula’s most powerful armed Shiite group, a major Saudi foe.

“The (royal) Al Saud family executed to-day the holy warrior, the grand cleric Nimr Baqr al-Nimr after a mock trial ... a � agrant violation of human rights,” an obituary on the Houthis’ o� cial Al Maseera website said.

Brother hopes reaction will be peacefulThe brother of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr said on Saturday the family was shocked by news of his brother’s execution but hoped that any reaction would be peaceful.

Nimr and six other Saudi Shiites, includ-ing Mohammed al-Nimr’s son, Ali, were sentenced to die and to have their bodies publicly displayed, the most severe penalty available to judges in the strict Sunni major-ity kingdom.

Mohammed al-Nimr said residents of Saudi Arabia’s eastern al-Qatif region, where most of the country’s mainly Shiite Muslim minority live, were alarmed by the news.

“Sheikh Nimr enjoyed high esteem in his community and within Muslim society in general and no doubt there will be reac-tion. We hope that any reactions would be con� ned to a peaceful framework,” he said. “Enough bloodshed.” l

Shiite protesters carry posters of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration outside the Saudi embassy in Sanaa in this October 18, 2014 � le photo. The posters read: ‘We are all Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr’ REUTERS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 201622D

T World

Two militants killed as gunmen attack Indian air force base near Pakistan bordern AFP, Pathankot

Suspected Islamist gunmen staged a pre-dawn attack on a key Indian air base near the Pakistan border Saturday with at least two militants killed in a shootout, o� cials said, striking a blow to the neighbours’ fragile peace process.

At least four gunmen suspected to be from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed Is-lamist group dressed in army uniforms in� l-trated Pathankot air base in northern Punjab state at around 3:30 am (2200 GMT).

An operation to secure the base was still ongoing 12 hours after the attack – a rare tar-geting of an Indian military installation out-side disputed Kashmir – as special comman-dos combed buildings looking for militants still hiding out.

“We want peace but if terrorists carry out attacks on Indian soil we will give them a be-� tting reply,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in televised remarks.

A protest broke out on the road leading to Pathankot base in the early afternoon Satur-day as angry residents burned e� gies appar-ently intended to resemble Pakistani mili-tants, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

“At least two of the attackers are dead,” re-gional police chief Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said, adding that six to seven security o� cers were injured, some critically.

Pakistan moved to condemn the attack Saturday afternoon, describing it as a “terror-ist incident.”

“Building on the goodwill created during the recent high level contacts between the two countries, Pakistan remains committed to partner with India... to completely erad-icate the menace of terrorism a� icting our region,” Islamabad’s foreign ministry spokes-man said.

Strategic baseThe Pathankot air base houses dozens of � ghter jets and is important for its strategic location about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Pakistan border.

“We believe they are Jaish-e-Mohammed

terrorists,” a top security o� cial at the scene told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is banned in Pa-kistan, � ghts against Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, where a separa-tist con� ict has claimed up to 100,000 lives.

In July, three gunmen said to be Paki-stan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militants killed seven people, including four policemen, in an attack in the majority-Sikh state.

Modi’s December 25 visit to Lahore to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif indicat-ed a potential thaw in tensions between the his-torical foes, and the foreign secretaries of both countries are to meet in Islamabad this month.

But his friendly outreach prompted critics to warn of retaliation by militants.

“Our prime minister visited and after that the terrorists came here. They want friend-ship with Pakistan but look what they are do-ing to us,” said Ashok Kumar, 52, a shopkeep-er in Pathankot.

Fragile peace process Sameer Patil, a security analyst at the Gate-way House think-tank in Mumbai, said Sat-urday’s attack was likely to be a cross-border strike possibly carried out in retaliation for the visit.

“There is substantial � rst evidence of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba mil-itants trying to sabotage the peace process,” he told AFP.

“The long-term planning was always there

but the ultimate decision to expedite it would have been taken after the visit.”

Operation to secure attack-hit Indian air base over, militants dead: policeA major operation to secure the Indian air force base attacked by suspected Islamist militants has ended, police said Saturday, 14 hours after gunmen wearing army uniforms in� ltrated the installation in northern Punjab state.

“The operation is just over. All four ter-rorists are dead,” Kunwar Vijay Partap Sin-gh, Deputy Inspector General of police for Pathankot region, told AFP.

Singh did not con� rm reports that up to three Indian security personnel had been killed carrying out the operation. l

Taliban suicide bomber hits French restaurant in Kabuln AFP, Kabul

A Taliban suicide car bomber struck a French restaurant popular with foreigners in Kabul Friday, killing two people in a New Year’s day attack that marks the second insurgent as-sault in the Afghan capital in a week.

Fifteen others were wounded in the attack on Le Jardin, an Afghan-owned eatery, which caused a piercingly loud explosion and left a building engulfed in � ames.

The assault comes a day after Afghanistan announced four-way talks in Pakistan on Jan-uary 11, aimed at jump-starting peace negoti-ations with the resurgent Taliban.

“We can con� rm a suicide car bomb attack on Le Jardin,” Fraidoon Obaidi, the head of Kabul’s Criminal Investigation Department, told AFP.

“We are busy extinguishing the � re at the

scene... two Afghans have been killed and 15 others wounded,” he added.

The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Ka-bul said on Twitter that the fatalities included a 12-year-old boy who was declared dead on arrival.

Security forces cordoned off the area as firefighters and ambulances rushed to the restaurant, which sports a large garden festooned with rose bushes and is a popu-lar hangout for foreigners and wealthy Af-ghans.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Twitter claimed several foreigners had been killed and wounded in the suicide attack.

The insurgents routinely exaggerate the death toll in attacks on government and for-eign targets.

The Taliban were unable to breach the compound after the explosion at the en-

trance, Kabul police said after a sweep of the area which led to the detention of one suspect.

Le Jardin has tighter security than many oth-er Kabul restaurants catering to expats, with multiple security doors and armed guards

linked by handheld radio sets.Kabul’s expat workers became more cir-

cumspect in their movements after 21 peo-ple were massacred in an audacious militant attack on a Lebanese restaurant in January 2014.

The attack on the Taverna du Liban saw gunmen mowing down diners and sta� , in-cluding 13 foreigners enjoying an evening out at a low-key social venue.

The attack comes just days after Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif visited Kabul to try to prepare the ground for fresh peace talks with the resurgent Taliban.

Ghani on Thursday said both sides agreed to hold a � rst round of dialogue between Af-ghanistan, Pakistan, US and China on January 11 to lay out a comprehensive roadmap for peace. l

Members from Hindu Sena, a hardline group, burn an e� gy of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to protest against a militant attack at the Pathankot air base, in New Delhi REUTERS

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani: ‘Terrorist attacks killing innocent civilians is an unforgivable crime and unjusti� ed in any religion’

WorldSOUTH ASIARival Taliban factions agree on cease� reRival factions of the Afghan Taliban agreed to stop deadly in� ghting but tensions remained over the status of new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who has not been seen since reportedly being shot last month. On Friday, representatives of a splinter group headed by Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund calling itself the ulema, which rejects Mansour’s au-thority, travelled to an undisclosed location to meet the exiled insurgency leadership headed by Mansour, according to two senior o� cials from both camps. -REUTERS

INDIACongress politicising Pathankot terror attackBJP on Saturday said the resumed dialogue with Pakistan cannot be revoked due to one attack and accused Congress of politicising the Pathankot terror incident. “This process cannot be destroyed due to one attack... Paki-stan is our neighbour. You cannot change your neighbour, you can change friends and there-fore we must continue with the talks but talks have to be mainly on the issue of terrorism and that’s what exactly India is doing,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said. -THE HINDU

CHINAChina says extremism losing grip in restless XinjiangThe religious atmosphere in China’s vio-lence-prone far western region of Xinjiang became markedly less radical last year and the government was broadly successful in main-taining stability, the region’s Communist Party boss, Zhang Chunxian was quoted as saying on Friday. Hundreds of people have been killed over the past few years in violence between the Muslim Uighur people in Xinjiang. “The atmos-phere for religious extremism has weakened markedly,” he said, without elaborating. -AFP

ASIA PACIFICMalaysia seeks to suspend bauxite mining after environmental scareMalaysia is pushing to suspend bauxite mining due to concerns about its impact on the environment, a cabinet source said on Saturday, threatening to interrupt supply of the aluminium-making ingredient to China. The largely unregulated industry has grown rapidly in the last two years to meet Chinese demand. The cabinet wants to temporarily halt bauxite mining until regulations, licens-ing and environmental protection can be put in place, the source told on Saturday. -REUTERS

MIDDLE EASTSaudi-led coalition ending Yemen cease� reA Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing the Houthi movement in Yemen for nine months announced on Saturday the end of a cease� re that began on December. 15, the Saudi state news agency SPA said, in a setback to attempts to end the con� ict. The cease� re began in tandem with peace talks sponsored by the UN, but it was repeatedly violated by both sides. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since the Saudi coalition entered the con� ict in March, almost half of them civilians. -REUTERS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 201623

DT

Probe chief: UK troops could face charges over Iraq Warn AFP, London

British soldiers accused of unlawful killing and torture during the Iraq War could face prosecution, the head of an o� cial unit probing alleged abuses said in an interview published Saturday.

Former police detective Mark Warwick, who is now leading the Iraq Historic Allega-tions Team (Ihat) set up by the Ministry of Defence, told The Independent newspaper he believed his team had gathered enough evidence to justify charges.

“There are serious allegations that we are investigating across the whole range of probe investigations, which incorporates homicide, where I feel there is signi� cant evidence to be obtained to put a strong case before the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) to prosecute and charge,” he said.

The SPA considers criminal cases within the armed services.

“There are lots of signi� cant cases that we are investigating and at the appropriate

time it will be a matter for us to discuss with the SPA whether they meet the war crimes threshold,” he added.

The Ministry of Defence said it was tak-ing the claims “extremely seriously,” but added that “the vast majority of UK service personnel deployed on military operations conduct themselves professionally and in accordance with the law.”

The inquiry has heard evidence of at least 1,514 possible victims, 280 of whom are alleged to have been unlawfully killed.

However, Warwick warned that it may take until beyond 2019, when the unit’s funding is due to end, to work through all the claims and bring prosecutions.

One of its most high-pro� le investiga-tions is into the death of Iraqi hotel recep-tionist Baha Mousa, who was beaten after while held in custody by British soldiers in 2003.

Warwick said the case remained “a live criminal investigation.”

Human rights campaigners however crit-

icised the the unit for lengthy probes with no prosecutions having materialised so far.

“The incredibly slow pace... is wholly unacceptable,” Carla Ferstman, director of the human rights charity Redress, told the newspaper.

“Things seem to still be moving at a snail’s pace. This cannot be a whitewash.”

A British inquiry set up to probe allega-tions of atrocities carried out by troops dur-ing a � re� ght near the town of Majar al-Ka-bir, southwest Iraq, in 2004 cleared them of the most serious claims but found they had mistreated nine detainees.

It was the second public inquiry into al-legations of abuse by British soldiers in Iraq, following one that concluded in 2011 which examined the death of Baha Mousa.

That inquiry found that Mousa was hooded, assaulted and held in stress po-sitions along with nine other Iraqis fol-lowing their detention by 1st Battalion the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment in September 2003. l

China restructures military n AFP, Shanghai

China has unveiled changes to the structure of its military, adding three new units, de-scribed by President Xi Jinping as “a major policy decision to realise the Chinese dream of a strong army,” state media reported.

The formation of the new units, which follows Beijing’s announcement that it was building a second aircraft carrier, comes with China acting more aggressively in ter-ritorial disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea, drawing the ire of its neigh-bours and the United States.

Beijing in November said it planned

sweeping changes in a move intended to en-hance the ruling Communist Party’s control over the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The latest reforms announced late Friday will see a new army unit set up to oversee China’s arsenal of strategic missiles.

Besides the “Rocket Force,” the PLA also unveiled an army general command to serve as the headquarters for land forces and a support unit to assist combat troops, the o� cial Xinhua news agency said.

Xi, who is chief of the Communist Party and also serves as head of the military, has previously announced plans to slash Chi-na’s number of troops by 300,000 to rough-

ly two million to craft a more e� cient � ght-ing force.

China’s Central Military Commission, which Xi chairs, on Friday also released guidelines to help build the country’s vision of a modern military before 2020 by cutting troops and improving the quality of combat personnel, Xinhua said.

The announcements come with China also expanding its naval capacity by build-ing a second aircraft carrier. The nation’s � rst such vessel, the Liaoning, is a second-hand Soviet ship built more than 25 years ago that was commissioned by China in 2012 after extensive re� ts. l

British soldiers near the southern Iraqi city of Basra in April 2006 AFP

WorldUSASkywriters target Trump in aerial Rose Parade protest5 planes � ew over the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on Friday writing messages in the sky that included “America is great! Trump is disgusting. Anybody but Trump, US,” as onlookers craned their necks for a view. It was not immediately clear who was behind the protest, images of which were posted on social media. Trump, whose controversial run for the White House has seen him call for a ban on Muslims enter-ing the US, did not make any immediate response. -REUTERS

THE AMERICASNew Year’s in Rio: 2 million revelers, 315 tonnes of trashThe two million revelers who ushered in 2016 on Rio de Janeiro’s famed Copacabana Beach left behind a calling card Friday: 315 tonnes of trash for the Olympic host city to cart away. An army of nearly 1,200 workers and a � eet of 250 trash trucks began working at dawn to haul away the mountain of refuse strewn over six kilometers of beach. The massive cleanup operation also was good practice for this summer’s Olympic Games, when throngs of visitors will swarm the city, including its iconic beaches. -AFP

UKAnti-IS group claims cyber-attack on BBC A group of computer hackers that wants to target IS has claimed it was behind a cyber attack on the BBC which it intended as a test of its own capabilities, according to mes-sages sent to a reporter at the broadcaster on Saturday. “It was only a test, we didn’t exactly plan to take it down for multiple hours,” the group called New World Hackers said in a message sent to the BBC’s technolo-gy correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, which he posted on Twitter. -REUTERS

EUROPEGerman minister urges closer ties to foreign agenciesGerman Interior Minister Thomas de Mai-ziere said on Saturday closer cooperation with foreign security services was needed after a New Year’s Eve security alert in Munich highlighted fears about an attack on German soil. “In future, we will depend more intensively than before on close co-operation with security services from other countries and the exchange of information,” he told. - REUTERS

AFRICASuicide bomber kills three in Somali capital A suicide bomber attacked a popular restaurant in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, on Saturday, killing himself and at least three others, Somali police said. In comments on state radio, Somalia’s information minister, Mohamed Abdi Hayir, blamed the attack on al Shabaab, the al Qaeda-aligned Islamist militants who wage frequent attacks in the capital as part of a campaign to bring down the West-ern-backed Somali government. - REUTERS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 201624D

T

Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkey needs Israeln AFP, Istanbul

Turkey must accept that it needs Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Satur-day, as the two countries seek to thrash out a deal on normalising ties.

NATO member Turkey was a key re-gional ally of Israel until the two countries fell out over the deadly storming by Israeli commandos in 2010 of a Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, bound for Gaza.

Erdogan further raised hackles in Israel with his sometimes in� ammatory rheto-ric towards the Jewish State. But the at-mosphere has transformed following the revelation last month the two sides were making progress in secret talks to seek a rapprochement, says

“Israel is in need of a country like Turkey in the region,” Erdogan said in remarks to Turkish reporters published in leading dai-lies Saturday.

“And we too must accept that we need Israel. This is a reality in the region,” said Erdogan.

“If mutual steps are implemented based on sincerity, then normalisation will follow.”

Ambassadors were withdrawn in the wake of the 2010 crisis and Erdogan said

Turkey’s three conditions for a normalisa-tion were clear – a lifting of the Gaza block-ade, compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an apology for the incident.

Israel has already apologised and nego-tiations appear to have made progress on compensation, leaving the blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip the main hurdle.

Indicating possible progress on the blockade, Erdogan said Israel had suggest-ed it would allow goods and construction materials into Gaza if they came via Turkey.

“We need to see a written text to ensure there is no deviation from the agreement,” he said.

Analysts have suggested that Turkey’s rapprochement with Israel has been accel-erated by the need for Ankara to make up for its crisis in ties with Moscow after the shooting down of a Russian warplane.

Erdogan last month held closed-door talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal but it was never disclosed what the president discussed with the leader of the the Pales-tinian Islamist movement.

Israel also wants Turkey to prevent senior Hamas operative Salah Aruri from entering its territory and acting from there. Ankara has never con� rmed his presence in Turkey. l

Trump Muslim remark included in Islamist propaganda videon AFP, Nairobi

Republican White House frontrunner Don-ald Trump’s call for a ‘shutdown’ on Muslims entering the US have been used by Somalia’s Shebab in a jihadist recruitment video, a US group that monitors extremist propaganda said Saturday.

The Al Qaeda-a� liated Shebab use an ex-cerpt from Trump’s December 7 speech call-ing for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the US to try woo Muslims in the West to wage jihad, the SITE Intelli-gence Group reported.

In the speech Trump proposed barring Mus-lims from entering the US until the US was “able to determine and understand this problem” of Islamist violence, following the killing of 14 peo-ple by a radicalised couple in California.

In the Shebab video, the Trump soundbite is preceded by a speech by US-born radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki calling on Muslims in America to “� ee the oppressive Western at-mosphere for the lands of Islam.

Al-Awlaki, who Washington alleges was a senior Al Qaeda operative, was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in September 2011.

The Shebab video was uploaded onto Twitter by the Al-Kataib Media Foundation, a regular conduit for the group’s propaganda material, SITE said. l

Putin names US among threats in new Russian security strategyn Reuters, Moscow

A new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia’s national secu-rity for the � rst time, a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years.

The document, “About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation,” was signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year’s Eve. It replaces a 2009 version, endorsed by then- President Dmitry Medve-dev, the current prime minister, which men-tioned neither the United States not NATO.

It says Russia has managed to heighten its role in solving global problems and inter-national con� icts. That heightened role has caused a reaction by the West, it says.

“The strengthening of Russia happens against the background of new threats to the national security, which has complex and in-terrelated nature,” the document says.

Conducting an independent policy, “both international and domestic” has caused “counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global a� airs.”

That in turn is likely to lead to “politi-cal, economical, military and informational pressure” on Russia, the document says.”

Relations between Russia and the West reached a low after Russian forces annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, after protests in Ukraine forced its pro-Moscow president to � ee to Russia.

Since then, the West has accused Rus-

sia of aiding insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies actively assisting the rebels.

The United States and the European Un-ion have since imposed wide-ranging sanc-tions against Russian individuals and com-panies. Moscow has reacted by restricting food and other goods from the EU.

The document says that the United States and the EU have supported an “anti-consti-tutional coup d’etat in Ukraine,” which led to a deep divide in Ukrainian society and a military con� ict.

It also names the expansion of NATO as a threat to Russia’s national security and said that the United States has expanded its net-work of military-biological laboratories in neighbouring to Russia countries.

The document, which serves as a basis for planning strategy related to national security by di� erent state bodies, does not mention Syria. On Sept. 30, Russia began air strikes against anti-government rebels opposed to the government of Syrian Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally. l

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Federal Assembly, including State Duma deputies, members of the Federation Council, regional governors and civil society representatives, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, in this December 3, 2015 � le photo REUTERS

25D

TSportINSIDE

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Bangladesh to host 2017 Sa� ChampionshipBangladesh will host the 12th edition of the Sa� Championship in 2017 following the decision of the Executive Body during a meeting in Kerala, India yesterday. Bangladesh, who previously hosted south Asia’s most prestigious tournament twice in 2003 and 2009, won the battle after Bhutan withdrew their name. PAGE 26

Rabada strikes on stroke of teaA wicket on the stroke of tea restored the balance for South Africa after England made a solid start on the � rst day of the second Test at Newlands yesterday. England were 167 for three at tea after winning the toss and making � rst use of a pitch with good bounce but minimal sideways movement. PAGE 27

Real’s Rodriguez caught doing 200 kphReal Madrid playmaker James Rodriguez was caught by police driving at 200 kilometres per hour on his way to a training session, media reports said on Friday. The Colombian was chased to the training ground gates by an unmarked police car. PAGE 28

‘Utd was holiday compared to Juve’French star Paul Pogba says his time at Manchester United was like being on holiday in comparison to the work he has to do at Juventus. Pogba, who has helped Juve win three consecutive league titles since controversially quitting United in 2012, made the remark in a wide-ranging interview. PAGE 29

Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny (R) scores a goal past Newcastle United’s goalkeeper Rob Elliot during their EPL match at Emirates stadium yesterday AP

Koscielny sends Arsenal clear, Rooney lifts last-gasp Unitedn AFP, London

Laurent Koscielny scored as Arsenal edged Newcastle United 1-0 on Saturday to pull two points clear of Leicester City at the top of the Premier League table.

Koscielny stabbed home a � ick-on from France team-mate Olivier Giroud in the 72nd minute at a rain-lashed Emirates Stadium and Leicester were held 0-0 by Bournemouth, with Riyad Mahrez squandering a penalty.

Manchester City, third, can close to with-in a point of Leicester if they win at Watford later on Saturday. Meanwhile, Wayne Roon-ey scored as Manchester United ended an eight-game winless run by beating Swansea City 2-1.

Arsenal were bidding to build on the 2-0 win over Bournemouth that had sent them top of the table, but Newcastle squandered several opportunities to go ahead.

Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech had to produce smart saves to thwart Giorginio Wijnaldum either side of half-time, while Aleksandar Mitrovic diverted a volleyed cross from Ayoze Perez over the bar from close range.

With the home fans growing restless, Ko-scielny supplied the breakthrough 18 min-utes from time, sneaking in behind Perez to toe the ball past Rob Elliot after Giroud had got his head to a high ball.

Leicester have now gone three league games without winning after their stale-

mate against 10-man Bournemouth at the King Power Stadium.

Jamie Vardy hit the post in the � rst half and was then fouled by Simon Francis in an incident that saw the Bournemouth defend-er sent o� and yielded Leicester’s 60th-min-ute penalty.

But for once this season Mahrez’s radar betrayed him, the Algerian’s penalty parried by Bournemouth goalkeeper Artur Boruc.

At Old Tra� ord, Rooney scored a mile-stone winner against Swansea, which made him the second-highest outright goal-scorer in both Premier League (188 goals) and Unit-

ed (238) history.Anthony Martial headed United in front

from Ashley Young’s right-wing cross early in the second half, only for Gyl� Sigurdsson to draw Swansea level in the 70th minute from a Modou Barrow cross.

But Rooney converted a cut-back from Martial with a sumptuous near-post back-heel 13 minutes from time as United claimed a � rst win in seven league games to further ease the pressure on manager Louis van Gaal.

The result lifted United to � fth place, two points below Tottenham Hotspur, who visit Everton on Sunday.

West Ham United are a point back in sixth after Michael Antonio and Andy Car-roll scored headed goals in a 2-0 home win over Liverpool.

Aston Villa spurned another chance to close on safety after losing 3-1 at second-bot-tom Sunderland, with Jermain Defoe scor-ing twice to leave Remi Garde’s side seven points adrift at the foot of the table.

Patrick van Aanholt put Sunderland in front with a de� ected e� ort and Villa were momentarily level courtesy of a brilliant Carles Gil volley in the 63rd minute, only for Defoe to net twice in the last 18 minutes.

Jonny Evans’s stoppage-time goal earned West Bromwich Albion a last-gasp 2-1 win over Stoke City, who had Geo� Cameron sent o� after an altercation with Claudio Yacob. l

Arsenal 1-0 NewcastleKoscielny 72

Leicester 0-0 Bournemouth

Manchester United 2-1 Swansea Martial 47, Rooney 77 Sigurdsson 70

Norwich 1-0 SouthamptonTettey 76

Sunderland 3-1 Aston Villa Van Aanholt 30, Gil 63Defoe 72, 90+2

West Brom 2-1 Stoke Sessegnon 60, Evans 90+3 Walters 81

West Ham 2-0 LiverpoolAntonio 10, Carroll 55

RESULTS

26DT BPL 2015

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Perth Scorchers’ David Willey (R) accounted for Sydney Sixers’ Nic Maddinson early in their Big Bash League 2015-16 game in Perth yesterday. Promoting the forthcoming Warner Bros. movie Batman v Superman, both teams wore alternate uniforms for the sold-out clash. Led by Willey with the ball and top-order trio Michael Klinger, Shaun Marsh and Marcus Harris, the target was never seriously challenged by the home side who achieved the target losing only a wicket with 33 balls to spare. Earlier, the Sixers were unable though to summon the strength and power of Superman to fend o� rivals Scorchers (Batman) and could only manage 8-112 o� 20 overs

Bangladesh to host 2017 Sa� Championshipn Tribune Report

Bangladesh will host the 12th edition of the Sa� Championship in 2017 following the decision of the Executive Body during a meeting in Kerala, India yesterday.

Bangladesh, who previously hosted south Asia’s most prestigious tournament twice in 2003 and 2009, won the battle after Bhutan with-drew their name in the eleventh hour while another contender, Mal-dives, failed to convince title sponsor World Sports Group with their bid.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be hosted by Pakistan but owing to political turmoil and security concerns, a decision to change the venue was taken by the Executive Body.

Although Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salahud-din Ahmed, also the chairman of Sa� , was absent during yesterday’s Congress, the Executive Body announced the verdict in favour of Bangladesh.

The tournament will be played in December, 2017 and will prob-ably be contested by seven nations – hosts Bangladesh, India, Paki-stan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan – as Afghanistan have decided to move to the Central Asian Football Association from Sa� .l

Tigers usher in New Year with conditioning campn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh cricketers will start the New Year with a conditioning camp at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, beginning today. The 27 cricketers will undergo � tness training under the supervision of national strength and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan.

Bangladesh Cricket Board has already announced the preliminary squad for the upcoming Twenty20 commitment against Zimbabwe, but until yesterday no � xture was con� rmed. BCB previously stated its desire to host Zimbabwe in a T20 series, keeping in mind the imminent 2016 ICC World T20, but it is understood that a � nal decision on the series is yet to be reached.

There were also plans to hold a Test series between the two nations but the BCB had to shelve them due to time constraints.

BCB media committee chairman Jalal Younus informed Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the two boards are currently in discus-sions to organise a four-match T20 series. Younus also said the two teams will play the full T20 series at Sylhet International Crick-et Stadium owing to limited time in hand. If everything goes according to plan, the Zim-babwe team will reach Dhaka by January 12.

“With that said, there are a few things that need to be discussed. A mutual agreement between the boards is yet to be reached. But we are expecting to reach a conclusion on this soon. A con� rmation is expected within a day or two,” said Jalal. l

Gerrard eyes Liverpool coaching return anytime this seasonn AFP, London

Liverpool great Steven Gerrard could return to the club in a coaching ca-pacity as early as this year, he re-vealed in a British newspaper inter-view published yesterday.

Gerrard, 35, left Liverpool for the Los Angeles Galaxy last year, but he has been training on Merseyside dur-ing the Major League Soccer close season and is now eyeing a role on Jurgen Klopp’s coaching sta� .

“I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think it will probably be my last year as a player,” the former Liverpool and England captain told the Daily Tele-graph.

“I have had a chat with Klopp. I haven’t had an o� er as such, but the club have let me know they are keen for me to come back. But there hasn’t been a conversation where they have said: ‘We want you to do this, we want you to do that.’

“They have welcomed me back in. I am always going to be biased to-wards Liverpool and the FA (Football Association) and basically when I am back home I am going to carry on with my punditry work and try and move around clubs and gain more experience, going to watch managers and learning more.

“I am basically available from No-vember, December 2016. Everyone

in the football world will know I am available and hopefully I will be 75 percent into my coaching badges.”

Home-grown hero Gerrard, who made 710 appearances and scored 186 goals during a stellar Liverpool career, also expressed regret that he had not started working towards his coaching quali� cations sooner.

“I have regrets I didn’t start my coaching badges at 21-22,” he said.

“All that time wasted in hotels as an England player when I’ve been bored and was watching ‘The O� ce’ and ‘The Sopranos’. I wish I’d done my CBA (coaching) licence then, so I’d be doing my (UEFA) Pro Licence now.” l

BIG BASH POINTS TABLETeams Mat Won Lost Tied PtsPerth Scorchers 4 3 1 0 6Sydney Thunder 4 3 1 0 6Adelaide Strikers 4 3 1 0 6Hobart Hurricanes 4 3 1 0 6Mel Stars 4 2 2 0 4Sydney Sixers 6 2 4 0 4Mel Renegades 4 1 3 0 2Brisbane Heat 4 0 4 0 0

Sport 27D

T

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

BSJA MEDIA CRICKETSuccess for chasing sidesJamuna TV, Samay TV, ATN News, SA TV, Bangla Vision, Bonik Barta, Baishakhi TV and Independent were victorious on the second day of the Pran-Frooto BSJA (Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association) Media Cup Cricket yesterday at Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium. Jamuna beat Jugantor by three wickets, Samay defeated New Age by � ve wickets, ATN News pipped Naya Diganta by four wickets, SA edged Shokaler Khobor by three wickets, Bangla Vision thrashed BD-news24.com by four wickets, Bonik overcame NTV by 15 runs, Baishakhi thumped Jaagone-ws.com by four wickets while in the � nal match of yesterday, Independent TV su� ered a close eight-run loss against Independent.

–TRIBUNE REPORT

Bournemouth take Iturbe on loan from RomaBournemouth have signed Roma winger Juan Iturbe on loan for the rest of the season, the Premier League club announced on Friday. Argentina Under-20 international Iturbe will o� cially complete his switch to Eddie Howe’s team subject to endorsement from the Foot-ball Association and a European work permit. Bournemouth also have the option of making the move permanent at the end of the season for an undisclosed fee.

–AFP

Garde won’t quit even if Villa go downAston Villa manager Remi Garde insists he won’t quit even if his struggling side are rele-gated from the Premier League. Villa are root-ed to the bottom of the table as they faced fellow strugglers Sunderland yesterday. They are 11 points from safety thanks to an 18-match winless streak and Garde has overseen eight of the games during that miserable run, which has put Villa on course to drop out of the top � ight for the � rst time since 1987.

–AFP

Pakistan to use pink ball in � rst-class � nalPakistan will experiment with the pink ball in the � nal of its premier � rst-class cricket tournament in preparation for a possible day-night Test against Australia later this year, a cricket o� cial said yesterday. “We had experimented with the orange ball in the � nal of the trophy in 2011 and then with a pink ball in 2012 so the latest � nal will help us further assess the pink ball as Australia have o� ered us to play a day-night Test later this year,” said PCB’s committee head Shakil Sheikh.

–AFP

SL wants alleged � xing approach investigatedSri Lanka’s sports ministry has reported an alleged � xing approach made to Kusal Perera and one other Sri Lanka player to the country’s Financial Crimes Investigation Department (FCID). Perera and the other player had allegedly been approached by a net bowler during West Indies tour of Sri Lanka.

–CRICINFO

QUICK BYTES

England’s Alex Hales is hit by a short ball during their second Test match against South Africa in Cape Town yesterday REUTERS

Rabada strikes on stroke of tean AFP, Cape Town

A wicket on the stroke of tea restored the bal-ance for South Africa after England made a solid start on the � rst day of the second Test at Newlands yesterday.

England were 167 for three at tea after winning the toss and making � rst use of a pitch with good bounce but minimal side-ways movement.

Alex Hales, playing in his second Test match, hit 60 - his maiden Test half-century - and shared stands of 55 with opening partner Alastair Cook and 74 for the second wicket with Nick Compton.

Compton was out for 45 in the last over before tea when he pulled a ball from Kagiso Rabada and was well caught by a diving Tem-

ba Bavuma at midwicket.Rabada picked up two of the three wickets

that fell to a depleted South African bowling attack, conceding 58 runs. He earlier made the � rst breakthrough with the help of a su-perb catch by debutant Chris Morris.

Cook made 27 before edging Rabada low to third slip where Morris dived far to his left and held the ball centimetres above the ground.

Hales reached his half-century o� 96 balls but his innings lost momentum before he edged Morne Morkel to AB de Villiers at sec-ond slip after facing a total of 140 balls.

Joe Root made a shaky start, being dropped by Morris, � inging himself to his left from gully o� Morkel when he had 13 and fending a good bouncer from Rabada into the air but short of second slip when he was on

23, his score at tea.Fast bowlers Rabada and Morris were

playing in place of Dale Steyn and Kyle Ab-bott, who su� ered shoulder and hamstring injuries respectively during South Africa?s 241-run defeat in the � rst Test in Durban.

Rabada and o� -spinner Dane Piedt were both playing in their fourth Test match, leaving Morkel, in his 69th Test, as the only experienced member of the South African bowling attack.

Both Rabada and Morris built up good pace, with Rabada clocked at 150kmh shortly before dismissing Cook.

In a third change for South Africa, Quin-ton de Kock replaced out-of-form batsman JP Duminy. De Kock kept wicket, with AB de Villiers playing as a specialist batsman. l

Smith yet to con� rm consulting role with South Africa teamn Reuters, Cape Town

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith said yesterday an announcement on his rejoining the team in a consulting role to help boost con� dence and impart ideas was premature and he was still considering the o� er.

Smith worked with some of the un-der-pressure team’s batsmen on the eve of the second Test against England at Newlands after their 241-run defeat in the � rst Test in Durban, where he had been critical of their form in his radio and television analysis.

“They are low on con� dence,” he said of South Africa’s current batsmen, “and I was asked after Durban to come down and

work with them.“I’ve since been o� ered an extended role

but it is something I need to consider as I already have commitments. The way it was announced was not right,” he told BBC’s Test Match Special, where the 34-year-old former Test opener is serving as a pundit.

South Africa’s Test side are ranked top in the world but have not won in their last sev-en Tests, hammered in India in November and comprehensively beaten by England in Durban on Wednesday.

“I was trying to � nd a feel good factor as they are low on con� dence,” said Smith of his work on Friday. “If you are out of form you can spend too much time over-analysing and working yourself over mentally.” l

28DT Sport

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (C) � ghts for the ball against Espanyol’s Victor Alvarez (R) during a Spanish La Liga match at Cornella-El Prat stadium in Cornella Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain yesterday AP

Hiddink demands Chelsea � nd winning formulan AFP, London

Guus Hiddink has challenged his Chelsea � ops to rediscover the winning formula as they start the new year with a tricky trip to Crystal Palace today.

Hiddink’s side have drawn against Wat-ford and Manchester United since the Dutch-man returned for his second spell as Chelsea interim manager following Jose Mourinho’s sacking.

That those two workmanlike performanc-es were regarded as cause for encouragement shows just how far the champions had fallen during the miserable � nal days of Mourinho’s troubled reign.

In a reversal of fortune that would have

seemed remarkable at the end of last sea-son when Chelsea were hoisting the Pre-mier League trophy after beating Palace, Alan Pardew’s � fth placed Eagles are now 11 points above the 14th-placed Blues.

Chelsea are only three points above the relegation zone and their struggles have been so prolonged that the club’s hierarchy are reportedly concerned about the lack of wage-reducing relegation clauses in their highly-paid players’ contracts.

Hiddink knows Chelsea need to improve quickly to avoid a nerve-wracking � ght against relegation, while a winning run to start 2016 would also lay a strong foundation for salvaging the season with success in the Champions League and FA Cup.l

Real’s Rodriguez caught doing 200 kphn Reuters, Madrid

Real Madrid playmaker James Rodriguez was caught by police driving at 200 kilometres per hour on his way to a training session, me-dia reports said on Friday.

AS.com said the Colombian was chased to the training ground gates by an unmarked police car that had repeatedly signalled for him to pull over.l

Espanyol put brakes on free scoring Barcan AFP, Barcelona

Barcelona missed the chance to open up a three-point lead at the top of La Liga as they were held 0-0 by local rivals Espanyol in a heated Catalan derby yesterday. Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez hit the woodwork either side of half-time for the visitors, but Espanyol’s physical approach was rewarded with a � rst point against Barca in eight matches.

Atletico Madrid can leapfrog Barca to the top of the table with victory over Levante later on Saturday, whilst Real Madrid now trail the European champions by three points ahead of their trip to Valencia on Sunday.

The � rst of three meetings between the sides in 10 days got o� to a frenetic start with Espanyol forcing Barca onto the backfoot.

Their best chance came from a set-piece, though, when Alvaro Gonzalez’s header was brilliantly stopped by Claudio Bravo and Gerard Pique hooked the ball to safety o� the line.

Barca’s star front three of Messi, Suarez and Neymar combined for 137 of a record 180 goals in 2015, but they didn’t come to life un-til midway through the � rst half when Ney-mar’s dangerous cross fell just behind Suarez.

Messi then struck the angle of post and bar with an almost perfect free-kick as Barca began to take control just before the break.

However, Espanyol had another chance to take a shock lead seven minutes into the second period when Hernan Perez poked a shot just wide after a lung-bursting run into the Barca box. The hosts had another slice of luck when Suarez could only strike the out-side of the post after rounding Pau Lopez and turning away from Gonzalez moments later.

Messi should have done better when he � red straight at Lopez when well placed on the edge of the area and the Espanyol ‘keeper made an-other comfortable save from Neymar’s acrobat-ic e� ort as they restricted Barca to surprisingly few clear openings in the � nal stages.

And the closest they came to a dramatic winner was another vicious Messi free-kick from long rage that dipped inches wide of the target a minute from time as Barca failed to score for the � rst time in La Liga this season. l

Benitez in the spotlight on return to Valencian AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid coach Rafael Benitez returns to Valencia, where he won two league titles with Los Che, � ghting to hold onto his job today.

Madrid’s awful 2015 began with defeat at the Mestalla which ended a 22-game winning run and led to the eventual sacking of Carlo An-celotti after he failed to deliver a major trophy.

And his successor could also be set for the chop after just six months in charge should Real su� er a fourth league defeat in eight games.

Yet, despite another unconvincing display in seeing o� Real Sociedad 3-1 on Wednes-day, thanks in part to two debatable penalty decisions in their favour, Benitez insists his

side are improving and can challenge for La Liga and the Champions League in 2016.

“What I want (in 2016) is for the team to keep winning games and the fans to enjoy victories, good football and a title,” he said.

“The review of the year will be made at

the end of the season. We continue in good form because the team reacted well and is playing better every game.”

It is the � rst time that Benitez will return to the Mestalla as the opposition coach after leading a golden age for the club with titles in 2002 and 2004 before joining Liverpool.

That success seems a distant memory with Valencia in desperate need of the points them-selves with Gary Neville yet to taste victory after his � rst three games in charge in La Liga.

A 1-0 defeat to Villarreal on Thursday left Neville’s men 11 points o� their target of a top-four � nish having failed to win any of their last eight games in La Liga or the Cham-pions League. l

LA LIGA FIXTURES Rayo Vallecano v Real Sociedad Real Betis v Eibar Granada v Sevilla Deportivo v Villarreal Athletic Bilbao v Las Palmas Valencia v Real Madrid

Sport 29D

T

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

DAY’S WATCH

Star Sports 12:00PM Big Bash League Brisbane Heat v Sydney Thunder English Premier League7:30PM Crystal Palace v Chelsea10:00PM Everton v Tottenham HotspurStar Sports 23:00PM Premier Badminton League Hyderabad Hunters v Bengaluru Topguns 7:30PM Mumbai Rockets v Chennai Smashers Star Sports 47:00PM Sa� Championship 2015Final: India v AfghanistanTen Cricket2:15PM England Tour of South Africa 2nd Test, Day 2Sony Six12:00PM National Football League 2015Sony Kix9:00AM UFC: 195 Lawler v ConditSpanish La Liga5:00PM Rayo Vallecano v Real Sociedad9:00PMReal Betis v Eibar11:30PM Athletic Bilbao v Las Palmas1:30AM Valencia v Real Madrid

‘Utd was holiday compared to Juve’n AFP, Rome

French star Paul Pogba says his time at Man-chester United was like being on holiday in comparison to the work he has to do at Ju-ventus.

Pogba, who has helped Juve win three consecutive league titles since controversial-ly quitting United in 2012, made the remark in a wide-ranging interview with Turin daily La Stampa in which he also tips Argentinian team-mate Paulo Dybala as a future winner of the Ballon d’Or.

“People need to know that nothing at Juve is easy,” Pogba said. “There is a di� erent cul-ture of work compared to elsewhere. I was at Manchester: it seemed like being on holiday.

“Here we work so much. All these titles, we didn’t steal them. It was by working right to the end.”

Pogba, who joined United as a 16-year-old academy trainee, was accused of a lack of re-spect by former United boss Alex Ferguson after refusing to sign a long-term contract at the club following his promotion to the � rst team squad, for whom he made only three

appearances.And he will not have helped his stand-

ing with United fans by letting slip that the teams he chooses to play on PlayStation in-clude local rivals Manchester City but not his former team-mates at Old Tra� ord.

“I pick Juve, Barca, Madrid and City,” he said. “I even play by myself and sometimes get annoyed because the Pogba in the video game plays better than me.”

Pogba, a regular subject of speculation about a mega-transfer back to the Premier League, also revealed that City mid� elder Yaya Toure is one of the players he spends most time watching in a bid to improve his central mid� eld performances, along with Barca’s Andres Iniesta and Bayern Munich’s Arturo Vidal, a former Juve team-mate.

Playstation also provides Pogba with his nickname for team-mate Dybala, a 32-mil-lion-euro summer signing from Palermo who has struck eight goals in 16 Serie A appear-ances at Juve.

Asked if Dybala, also 22, had the potential to emulate his compatriot Lionel Messi and win the European player of the year award,

Pogba replied: “He can get there.“Do you know what I call him? Square R2,

the button that you have to push on a Play-station to do a shot on the turn: he always gets goals like that.

“Has he surprised me? No, because I al-ways said he was a phenomenon. To do what he has done, playing for Juve, is something phenomenal.”

Having dominated Serie A since Pogba’s arrival in 2012, Juventus have found the go-ing tougher this season following the depar-tures of Carlos Tevez, Andrea Pirlo and Vidal.

But after a disastrous start, Massimiliano Allegri’s men have recently hit form, reeling o� seven wins on the trot to move to fourth in the table and within three points of leaders Inter Milan.

“It is di� erent (without Pirlo etc),” Pogba said. “There is more responsibility on other players and we’ve had to think about playing together even more.”

As well as targetting a fourth Scudetto, Pogba is expected to be one of the stars of Euro 2016, a tournament he believes France can win. l

Pakistan Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi (L) and paceman Mohammad Amir are seen taking a breather following a training session yesterday INTERNET

Pakistan Twenty20 captain Afridi backs Amir selectionn AFP, Karachi

Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi yesterday backed Mohammad Amir’s return to international cricket, saying the team must move on, after the paceman was selected for the national squad for the New Zealand tour.

The 23-year-old left-armer was selected Friday for the Twenty20 and one-day in-ternational squads for an upcoming series in New Zealand, marking his international comeback less than four months after com-pleting a � ve-year ban for match � xing.

“I back Amir’s selection and am happy at his return,” Afridi told AFP.

“We now need to move on and I will back Amir and expect him to serve Pakistan crick-et with complete dedication and commit-ment and support him.”

Amir, once regarded as the hottest prop-

erty in international cricket, remains a polar-ising � gure for Pakistan’s cricket-mad public and even some teammates.

Amir’s return to the squad was opposed by one-day captain Azhar Ali and former Twenty20 captain and current player Mo-hammad Hafeez.

Last week Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali left a training camp Amir was attending in protest at his prospective selection. They were later forced to return after being threat-ened with disciplinary action.

Ali also tendered his resignation Monday in protest, but it was rejected by Pakistan Cricket Board.

“I respect Azhar and Hafeez’a stance. We su� ered a lot due to spot � xing scandal and our image was tarnished everywhere but we must move on,” said Afridi. Pakistan � y to New Zealand on January 10. l

Kohli the highest-paid cricketer in IPLn Cricinfo

Virat Kohli is the highest-paid cricketer in the IPL, according to salary � gures released by the league on Friday.

While Kohli will cost his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore Rs 12.5 crore (approx-imately USD 1.89 million) from their salary purse, they will actually pay him Rs 15 crore (USD 2.26 million). MS Dhoni, for long be-lieved to be the most expensive IPL cricketer, will be paid USD 1.89 million, which is equal to his purse deduction, by the Pune fran-chise. Pune secured Dhoni in a draft of play-ers who were part of the suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises.

Apart from Royal Challengers, who are paying Kohli and Chris Gayle more than the purse deduction, Mumbai Indians are paying Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Ambati Rayudu more than the purse deduction they result in.

In the case of former Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals players, though, the new franchises didn’t have any room to negotiate. The BCCI had assured the players left without teams but drafted by the two new teams they would be paid the same amount as they were earning earlier. So while Ravindra Jadeja might take away Rs 9.5 crore (USD 1.43 million) from Rajkot’s purse, he will actually get only Rs 5.5 crore (USD 0.83 million). l

Showtime30DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

n Showtime Desk

Bollywood is starting o� 2016 in what seems to be a very good note. A couple of blockbusters are on their way.

Showing in January

MastizaadeGuess who stars in an erotic comedy on January 29? Sunny Leone yet again in a raunchy and spicy � lm that is guarantee to stir up a few headlines.

Farhan Akhtar and Amitabh Bachchan star in an intellectual thriller on January 8. Mr Bachchan plays a character that is incapacitated, while Farhan plays as an FBI agent and Aditi Rao Hydari is his

love interest. Neil Nitin Mukesh comes back on screen to play a very dark role for the � lm. It’s sure to be gripping and intriguing, hopefully it lives up to its expectations.

Wazir

AirliftAkshay Kumar kicks o� 2016 in a political thriller. The � lm is based on the 1990 Gulf War, in which Kumar plays as a man struggling to bring back thousands of Indians stuck in Kuwait back home. Nimrat Kaur plays as his wife and is sure to deliver a good performance. The � lm is set to be released on January 22.

Ghayal Once AgainOn January 15, the audience will be treated to the return of Sunny Deol. The � lm is written and directed by the man himself, and it is produced under Dharmendra’s banner.

We’ve got ourselves a new Raj Kumar Hirani project, starring Madhavan. We’re seeing the star in a completely new look. He’s angry, ferocious and ready to knockout

someone out. Madhavan plays a banished boxing coach, who is desperate to scout talent from within the country. January 29 will be a date to mark on your calendar. l

Saala Khadoos

New year at the box n Showtime Desk

The juggernaut that is The Force Awakens will surpass Jurassic World’s $652.3 million domestic gross mark within a few days. It is also expected to � y by Titanic’s $658.7 million mark. This will give the Star Wars � lm a solid place in second, behind Avatar’s $760.5 million � rst place seat. So far, the � lm has garnered over $1.3 billion globally, with no signi� cant signs of slowing down.

However, there has been a slight controversy for George Lucas’ recent comments about the � lm and its studio. He later apologised for his inappropriate analogy after showing seller’s remorse. It is already well known that Lucas had sold the rights to the Star Wars franchise to Disney for $4 billion.

But Star Wars wasn’t the only buzz in the box o� ce as others took stage over the holiday break. Paramount’s Daddy’s Home pulled in $5.9 million, pushing the number to $64.7 million in total. The Big Short earned $2.1, bringing it a total of $24 million. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, alongside Joy, earned around $3.2 million each. The Chipmunks sequel has so far generated $55.6 million in total, while Joy racked up $28.3 million after

debuting on Christmas. To round things up in the box o� ce,

The Hateful Eight has taken in a total of $13.3 million after debuting in select theatres. Now with a wider national release, the numbers will add up signi� cantly. Finally, Point Break su� ers a huge loss by only picking up $15.6 million. This is a � lm that was made for $105 million. Surely, one of the most ill-advised remakes to date. l

Showtime 31D

TSUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

Knockout punch

WHAT TO WATCH

The Pursuit of HappynessSony PIX 7:00 pmChris Gardner is a bright and talented, but marginally employed salesman. Struggling to make ends meet, Chris � nds himself and his � ve-year-old son evicted from their San Francisco apartment with nowhere to go. When Chris lands an internship at a prestigious stock brokerage � rm, he and his son endure many hardships, including living in shelters, in pursuit of his dream of a better life for the two of them.Cast: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Thandie Newton

Thor 2: The Dark WorldZee Studio 11:15 pmThor battles to save all the Nine Realms from a mysterious enemy older than the universe itself. However, a shadowy race led by Malekith who is out for revenge, intends to descend the universe into darkness. Confronted by an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot overcome.Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston

Guardians of the GalaxyStar Movies 9:30 pmPeter Quill arrives on the Xandar city Nova Empire and is chased by Ronan’s warrior Gamora and by the bounty hunters Rocket and The Groot. The Ravagers in an attempt to track down an ancient orb that is also coveted by the evil Ronan, who is in league with the dreaded Thanos, and who dispatches his top assassin Gamora to retrieve it from Star Lord.Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoë Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel

Snow White and the HuntsmanStar Movies Action 11:30 pmSnow White escapes just as the Magic Mirror declares her the source of the Evil Queen’s immortality. The Queen sends her men to bring her back. But upon her capture, the huntsman � nds he’s being played and turns against the Queen’s men, saving Snow White in the process.Cast: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron l

n Showtime Desk

Singer Natalie Cole, the daughter of legendary performer Nat King Cole, passed away at the age of 65. She was best known for the songs “Unforgettable,” “Inseparable” and “This Will Be.”

Cole’s publicist Maureen O’Conner said that Cole died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to complications from ongoing health issues. She received a kidney transplant in May of 2009 and battled against Hepatitis C. She also struggled with a drug addiction through the years.

Natalie Cole was a frequent performer at fundraisers, and helped raise millions for various charitable causes.

Celebrities went on Twitter to express the condolences.

Tony Bennet (via Instagram)I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Natalie Cole, as I have cherished the long friendship I had with her, her father Nat, and the family over the years.

Rev Jesse Jackson Sr#NatalieCole, sister beloved & of substance and sound. May her soul rest in peace. #Inseperable

Arsenio HallIn college, I named my bass guitar

Natalie! As a young stand up comic I opened for Natalie Cole. She was all that, in all ways! [ RIP ] l

Cole dies at 65

n Mahmood Hossain

Sometimes the same formula, with a few tweaks, works out just � ne. In fact, Creed is the perfect � rst step to further the Rocky franchise. More than anything, not disregarding the great directing and performances from the actors, the story is what captures the audience’s attention. And if you’ve watched the � rst six Rocky � lms, you might argue this is the best representation of the franchise.

The director, Ryan Coogler, did a solid job in and outside the ring. He was so impressive, Marvel has signed him on to direct their new � lm Black Panther. Coogler’s approach to Creed was a more realistic take in the world of Rocky. No real cheese-factor to � nd here. With that said, the focus was on the chemistry between the former boxing legend, Rocky Balboa and Adonis Creed. No real surprise that the up-and-coming star Michael B Jordan portrayed

the young boxer to the “t”. Even more impressive, believe it or not, is Sylvester Stallone himself. How good was he? Enough to toss his name in the ring of nominees for a major award. Now, we can’t go as far as to say he’ll got nominated for an Oscar. But who knows? We’ll have to wait later into the month to � nd that out.

Adonis Johnson (Jordan) is a troubled youth who never got to know his father, the former boxing champion Apollo Creed from the � rst Rocky � lms. Jordan’s resolve, and his tamed anger is something to note in the latter stages of life. We’re talking about a character who has never met his dead father, but boxing is coursing through his veins. In the process, he seeks out Rocky (Stallone) and asks him to train him for battles to come. Naturally, Rocky sees a lot of Apollo in the young contender and reluctantly takes him in, trains him and helps earn a title shot.

This is where the � lm di� ers from

Southpaw, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Creed, surprisingly, has a more believable drive and ambition seen through the Adonis character. While most would argue the trailer to Southpaw gave away the entire � lm, the story is what really creates the divide. There’s plenty of redemption plots in the world of sports � lms, but not too many can give the lead character a pathway to grow and prove himself. Adonis isn’t technically seen as an overnight success, he’s seen as a son trying to escape his father’s titanic shadow. He wants to live up to the name of Creed, and this the process make a name from himself. Adonis is there to show the world his worth, and that he’s worth every ounce. Add boxer-turn-mentor, Stallone’s fantastic performance, and you’ve got yourself a winning one-two punch.

Warning: Sly Stallone may just make you discretely shed a tear or two. Here’s to hoping he gets a nod at a nomination from the Academy. l

Back Page32DT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

SHOWING IN JANUARY PAGE 30

STOCK INVESTORS ENDURE VOLATILE YEAR IN 2015 PAGE 15

TIGERS USHER IN NEW YEAR WITH CONDITIONING CAMP PAGE 26

Ijtema for 32 districts this year

n Mohammad Jamil Khan in Dhaka and Raihanul Islam Akand, Gazipur

Devotees from 32 districts would be able to perform the Biswa Ijtema in the � rst two phases this year, to be held from January 8-10 and January 15-17, organisers say.

People from the other districts would at-tend the Ijtema next year. But the restriction is not applicable for the foreigners.

The organisers are working relentlessly to prepare the bank of the Turag River to hold the � rst phase of Ijtema, scheduled to begin on January 8. Many volunteers have also joined hands with the organisers to make the Ijtema, the second largest congregation of Muslims after hajj, successful.

From this year, the Ijtema would be held in four phases. Until 2011, the people of 64 districts used to join the Ijtema at a time. Lat-er the event was divided into two phases due to space constraints.

The authorities will deploy around 16,000 law enforcers to ensure full-proof security at the Ijtema site where some 30,00,000 to 40,00,000 devotees gather every year. More-over, the government has taken up special measures to issue on-arrival visas for the for-eign devotees.

Special attention would be given to the

people coming from some countries includ-ing Pakistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Syria and Yemen in the face of recent militant attacks.

Gias Uddin, one of the organisers of the Ijtema, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had divided 64 districts in four phase to manage space at the site. “For this reason, the devo-

tees from a district will be able to attend Ijte-ma every two years.”

The organisers have already put lists of the 32 districts at the venue.

He added that people from the 32 other districts failing to attend the main Ijtema would be able to join Ijtema to be held in those districts throughout the year.

Visiting at Ijtema ground yesterday, the Dhaka Tribune reporter saw that pillars had already been set up on the ground and work on the main stage was at � nal stage. The organisers are now working to cover the 65-hectare land with jute and making sepa-rate tin-shed rooms for the foreign devotees.

This year, the organisers are setting up two and three-storey washrooms to serve the devotees properly.

In the meantime, the law enforcers have taken � ve-tire security measures to ensure safety of the devotees and to thwart any un-toward incidents. Apart from the security personnel on the ground, there would be 14 watch towers and a number of CCTV camer-as, Harun-or-Rashid, the superintendent of police in Gazipur, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Archways would be set up at every en-trance while members of the police’s plain-clothes unit would patrol the area around the clock, he added.

Harun also said that they would remove all the roadside shops and slums, and ensure that hygienic foods are sold and served on the Ijtema ground.

The government has also taken special measures for the bout foreign devotees. Im-migration sources at Shahjalal Airport said nearly 18,000 foreign devotees are scheduled to enter the country to attend the Ijtema.

Beside this, medical teams are kept on alert at the airport so that no foreigner hav-ing any virus infection could join the Ijtema.

Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the home minister, said they had introduced special transportation and visa measures for the devotees. “Everyone has to enter the ground through an archway,” he said.

“A visa-related committee has been formed and a reception centre set up at the airport for the foreigners,” he said, adding that around 11,000 foreigners joined the event last year. l

PM for measures to end beggingn UNB

Terming begging a mean job, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the Social Welfare Ministry to take steps for the rehabil-itation of those living in the streets and put an end to begging across the country.

“The government will provide housing for those engaged in begging along with giving scope for employment for their livelihood. But, they won’t be allowed to engage in such mean job of begging...we’ll have to take steps in this regard,” she said.

The prime minister was speaking at a pro-gramme marking the National Social Servic-es Day and Social Services Week 2016 at Osm-ani Memorial Auditorium.

Department of Social Services of the So-cial Welfare Ministry organised programme with its State Minister Advocate Promod

Mankin in the chair.Sheikh Hasina regretted that begging

has become a profession for some people. “They (beggars) have leaders, they usually give a portion of their earned money to their leaders...these people engage in begging al-though we rehabilitate them.”

She said directives have already been given to the Social Welfare Ministry to take steps for the rehabilitation of the people who live in the streets, bus, train, railway stations and such other places.

“Whenever you see these people, you’ll take measures at once to rehabilitate them,” the prime minister asked the ministry.

She also directed the authorities con-cerned to � nd out from which village these beggars have come and where they live in. “If they don’t have any home to live, the gov-ernment will provide them house...we’ll give

them loan for rehabilitation, if needed. We’ll give them foods for six months,” she said.

The prime minister said the government will do all these things so that these people could earn their livelihoods standing on their own feet.

“We have to take this step, why a person will live in footpath … they are also human being,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said these people also have their rights and the government will do whatever the duties are in favour of the state.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Welfare Ministry Dr Mo-zammel Hossain MP, Social Welfare Secretary Tariq-Ul-Islam and Director General of the Department of Social Services Gazi Moham-mad Nurul Kabir also spoke at the occasion.

Terming herself an orphan, the prime minister said she will take the responsibility of the country’s all orphans and steps will be

taken to upgrade their living standard.“No one of the country will be a burden

for others…everybody will self-reliant, not an inch of land will remain fallow.”

Hasina said her government has enacted various laws to ensure the rights and welfare for the neglected poor community of society and has already approved the National Social safety Strategy Paper.

Describing today’s children and juveniles as the future of the country, the prime minister said she personally and her government are committed to their development and welfare.

Earlier, the prime minister distributed books of braille system to two blind students and prizes among some successful students of some Shishu Palli.

Later, she enjoyed a colourful cultural function performed by children of di� erent Shishu Palli. l

FIRST PHASEDhaka, Sherpur, Narayanganj, Nilphamari, Sirajganj, Natore, Gaibandha, Laxmipur, Sylhet, Chittagong, Narail, Madaripur, Bhola, Magura, Patuakhali, Jhalakathi and Panchagarh.

SECOND PHASEDhaka, Jhenidah, Jamalpur, Faridpur, Netroko-na, Narsingdi, Comilla, Kurigram, Rajshahi, Feni, Thakurgaon, Sunamganj, Bogra, Khulna, Chuadanga and Pirojpur.

Special attention would be given to the people coming from some countries including Pakistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Syria and Yemen in the face of recent militant attacks

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