District
Nusrat Murder: families of victim and killers accuse each other of diverging case
Families of slain madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi and her convicted killers have carried out simultaneous programs accusing each other of trying to divert the case in Feni.
On Sunday morning, Nusrat’s brother Mahmudul Hasan Noman arranged a press conference at Feni Press Club, where he said that although the court has delivered the verdict based on sufficient proof, certain people are spreading rumors and falsehood to take the case to another direction.
Meanwhile, the family members of the 16 convicts who have been sentenced to death for killing Nusrat formed a human chain on the Press Club premises, demanding the re-investigation of the case. Later, they submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Feni in this regard.
Nusrat, a student of Sonagazi Islamia Dakhil Madrasah, was found burnt at the madrassah complex on April 6, 2019. She died four days later while undergoing treatment at Sheikh Hasina Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Nusrat’s brother Mahmudul filed an attempt to murder case with Sonagazi Police Station on April 8, 2019, which was later converted into a murder case. On October 24, 2019, the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal sentenced a total of 16 people to death in connection with the murder.
Man held with four gold bars on Satkhira border
Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) detained a suspected member of a gold smuggling gang with four gold bars from the border area with India in Satkhira Sadar upazila Sunday.
The detainee is identified as Md Shamimul Islam, 40, son of late Sajedul Islam of Garakhali village in Kalaroa upazila in the district.
Major Reza Ahmed, commandant of the BGB-33, said they conducted a drive at the frontier Binerpota area acting on a tip off, and arrested him with the four gold bars weighing over 2kg.
A motorcycle was also seized in this connection, and a process is underway to file a case.
2 die as microbus plunges into roadside ditch in Sylhet
Two people were killed on Sunday as a Sylhet-bound microbus lost control and plunged into a roadside ditch off the Dhaka-Sylhet highway near Osmaninagar upazila.
The deceased were identified as microbus driver Marzan Ahmed, 32, from South Surma upazila and passenger Syed Lutfur Rahman, 45, from Brahmanbaria.
The accident occurred around 5 am as the bus lost control near an area named 19 mile and fell into the ditch, said Parimal Chandra Deb, Officer-in-Charge of Sherpur highway police station.
Being informed, highway police recovered the bodies from the spot and sent them for autopsy, said the OC.
Schoolboy drowns at waterfall in CU
A 17-year-old schoolboy drowned at a waterfall inside the Chittagong University campus while taking a bath in Hathazari upazila of Chattogram district on Sunday.
The deceased was identified as Rakibul Rashid, class X student of Railway Public High School in Pahartoli area.
Rakibul along with his friends went to the Chittagong University campus to visit the university area, said Senior Section Officer of Hathazari Fire Service and Civil Defense, Mohammad Shahjahan.
There, they went to the waterfall inside the campus in the afternoon.
At one stage, Rakibul slipped in the waterfall and went missing while taking a bath there at noon.
On information, a team of firefighters rushed to the spot and recovered Rakibul's body around 3pm from the area.
Later he was taken to the university hospital where the on-duty doctor declared him dead.
Dengue death toll rises to 94 as five more patients die in 24 hrs
Five more dengue patients died in 24 hours till Sunday morning, raising this year’s death toll from the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh to 94.
During this period, 855 more patients were hospitalised with the viral fever as cases keep rising, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Of the latest deaths, two were reported from Dhaka division and one each from Mymensingh, Khulna and Chattogram divisions.
The dengue death toll in Dhaka division stands at 53, in Chattogram division at 34 while it remained static in Barishal division at five.
Read: Two more dengue patients die in 24hrs
Of the new patients, 523 were admitted to different hospitals in Dhaka and 322 outside it.
A total of 2,847 dengue patients, including 1,957 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.
The Directorate has recorded 25, 181 dengue cases and 22, 240 recoveries so far this year.
Two more Rohingya community leaders killed in ambush inside camps
Unidentified assailants slaughtered two Rohingya leaders in an attack at a Rohingya camp in Ukhiya upazila of Cox’s Bazar Saturday evening.
Moulvi Yunus and Anwar, served as head majhi and sub-head majhi respectively of the same camp Number 13 in Ukhiya.
Faruk Ahmed, assistant superintendent of the Armed Police Battalion (ApBN), said a group equipped with lethal weapons carried out the attack on the duo at the camp around 6pm, leaving them critically injured.
Yunus succumbed to his injuries on the spot while Anwar was referred to the Upazila Health Complex where he died around 9pm, he said.
An adequate number of forces were deployed in and around the camp to fend off any further attack, he said, adding that they are using every tool at their disposal to find out more about the case and to nab the real perpetrators in this connection.
Including the latest deaths, 13 people have been killed inside the camps during the last four months, of whom eight were serving in voluntary community leadership roles such as 'majhi' and head majhi.
Khulna chairman candidate fears Gaibandha-style voter intimidation
A chairman candidate in the upcoming Khulna District Council election claimed voters are being threatened ahead of the polls that are scheduled for October 17.
Chairman candidate doctor Sheikh Baharul Alam said this in a press briefing at Khulna BMA building on Saturday.
He alleged black money is being distributed among the voters and Khulna mayor, whip and parliament members are trying to make Awami League candidate win the polls violating election rules
The candidate warned the election to be held on October 17 in Khulna will not be unbiased and fair and urged the administration to be aware that the election doesn't get rigged like Gaibandha.
He demanded to bring all the polling centres under CCTV camera surveillance.
Three candidates competing for upcoming Khulna District Council election are AL nominated Sheikh Harunur Rashid, president of Khulna Al unit, and independent candidates Sheikh baharul Alam, and Mortaza Rashidi Dara.
A total of 937 voters are supposed to cast their votes from 10 polling centers in this election.
On October 12, the Election Commission (EC) suspended the by-election at Gaibandha-5 parliamentary seat over widespread allegations of vote rigging and voter intimidation.
6 workers suffer burns in city while repairing gas pipeline
Six workers have suffered burn injuries while repairing a gas pipeline in the capital's Jurain area.
The injured were Md Khalilur Rahman,45, Md. Siraj ,20, Md Jummon ,19, Md Azizul ,65, Abdur Rahman ,60, and Jihad ,50.
Shabiul Alam, an engineer of Titas Emergency Gas Control Branch (South), said that they received information about gas leak behind the Jurain graveyard on Friday night.
On information, the workers went to the spot to fix the leakage and dug a hole. At that time, water from a drain entered there.
Later, the workers set up a motor to remove the water. The fire broke out from an electric short-circuit while the workers plugged in the motor, leaving the six injured.
SM Ayub Hossain, a physician of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, said one left the hospital but Khalilur is undergoing treatment with 30 per cent injuries and Siraj with 25 per cent burns.
The rest have been kept under observation, he added.
Fire at Eastern Refinery in Ctg: 4 burnt
Four staff of Eastern Refinery suffered burn injuries in a fire that broke out on its premises at Patenga in Chattogram on Saturday morning, said officials.
The injured were security guard Md Akter, office staff Md Mamun, auditors Abdur Rahman and Md Saiful, said Abdul Karim, said Officer-in-Charge of EPZ police station.
They received treatment from a local hospital, he said
The fire broke out around 10:30 am in the fuel pipeline of Eastern Refinery which was brought under control around three hours later with the efforts of four units of fire service from Agrabad, Karnaphuli, Bandar and EPZ, said the OC.
However, the main refinery was not impacted by the fire, said the officials of the country’s lone state-owned refinery.
Abdul Hamid, deputy assistant director of the Agrabad Fire Service and Civil Defence told UNB that the blaze started in a fuel pipeline of mirroring section of the refinery.
He said several units of the fire department responded quickly after the fire broke out and later Navy’s fire service members joined to douse the flames.
The cause of the fire and amount of damages can be determined after a probe, he said.
An official at the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) told UNB that the main refinery was safe from the fire, and personnel from the Bangladesh Navy and the Air Force joined the firefighters to douse the fire.
The refinery is a subsidiary of the BPC.
“The drainage system has been impacted, not the main refinery,” the BPC official said on condition of anonymity.
Four die in horrific road crash in Gazipur
Four people died when a cycle van was sandwiched between two buses on the busy Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Gazipur on Saturday morning.
The horrific accident in the Telipara area of the city at 8am disrupted traffic movement on the high-speed corridor for over half an hour, before cops cleared the carriageway.
The deceased were identified as van puller Borhanuddin, 45, a resident of Mymensingh district, and Yunus Ali, a fish trader, both occupants of the ill-fated cycle van.
The other two deceased were a pedestrian, Sohrab Hossain, 32, who worked at a local garment factory, and Hazrat Ali, 34, the conductor of one of the buses.
"The accident occurred when the driver of a speeding bus of ‘Basumoti Paribahan’ hit the fish-loaded van from behind and then dragged it to a distance where another bus was parked," said officer-in-charge of Bashan Police Station, Malek Khasru.
The impact of the crash was such that the van got sandwiched between the two buses, killing its two occupants, as well as the pedestrian and the conductor of the stationary bus waiting for passengers, the OC said.
On information, police recovered the bodies and sent them to the local hospital morgue.
"Efforts are on to nab the errant bus driver who fled the spot after the accident," said the OC.