Police recovered a slaughtered deer and three deer hides from Antihara village in Koyra upazila early Saturday.

Tipped off, police conducted a drive in the area and found the slaughtered deer and the dear hides packed in a plastic sack in an abandoned condition, said Md Rabiul Islam, officer-in-charge of Koyra Police Station.

No one was arrested in this connection. A case will be filed with the police station under the Wild Animal Act, the OC added.

A suspected robber and an alleged terrorist were killed in separate gunfights in Bishwanath and Golapganj upazilas early Saturday.

A suspected robber was killed in a reported gunfight with police at Surirkhal in Bishwanath upazila.

The identity of the deceased could not be known yet.

Shamim Musa, officer-in-charge of Bishwanath Police Station, said they conducted a raid in the area around 3:30am acting on a tip-off.

The robber gang opened fire when police reached the area, triggering a gunfight.

One of the robbers was killed in the skirmish while others managed to flee, the OC said.

Three policemen were injured in the gunfight. Police said they recovered a pipe gun from the spot.

Meanwhile, a suspected terrorist was killed in a reported gunfight with members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) at Kadurpur village in Golapganj.

The deceased was identified Ali Hossain, 40, resident of the area. He was wanted in several criminal cases including murder.

Rab-9 said that associates of Hossain opened fire when the elite force was conducting a raid in the area around 12:30am.

Rab managed to arrest five people after the skirmish but Ali was killed in the gunfight. A member of Rab was also injured, the force said.

Several thousand residents of five villages in Monirampur upazila have to use a narrow risky bamboo bridge for crossing the Mukteshwari River as they do not have a concrete bridge.

The villagers said that before the election, political leaders always promise to build a concrete bridge over the river but they forget it once the election is over.

Villagers, particularly students and the old, find it hard to cross the makeshift bamboo bridge on regular basis.

Moreover, farmers face difficulties when carrying their crops to the market.

In monsoon, it becomes too hard to cross the bridge on foot as it gets covered in mud.

Residents of Naili, Gabukhali, Protapkati, Subolkati and Katakhali villages in Dhakuria union told UNB that they have been suffering for years for want of a bridge.

Linkon Biswas, a class four student of Nauli Government Primary School, said that crossing the bridge daily is a scary experience for them. “We always have to worry about safety,” he said.

Pradip Kumar Mallik, a farmer of Nauli village, said that they need to travel several kilometres to take their produced goods to market, which increases the transportation cost.

Rabiul Islam, an upazila engineer, said that a proposal to build a bridge has already been sent to LGED headquarters.

Local union parishad member Gouro Chandra Dey said that there has been no visible progress yet. “All they (the authorities concerned) have been doing is taking measurements since 2017 for building bridge,” he said.

A trolley (power tiller with trailer) driver and his assistant were killed in a road crash on Kushtia-Ishwardi Highway in 10 Mile area of Bheramara upazila on Saturday morning.

The deceased were identified as Shukur Ali, 35, and Alamin, 18, residents of Moslempur village.

Shahjalal, officer-in-charge of Bheramara Police Station, said the accident took place around 8:30am as a truck hit their vehicle, leaving the duo dead on the spot and two others injured.

Also read:Bangladesh needs $7.8bn in additional investment for safer roads

A recent World Bank report says annual road crash deaths per capita in Bangladesh are twice the average rate for high-income countries and five times that of the best performing countries in the world.

Nirapad Sarak Chai, a road safety advocacy group, in a report said that 5,227 people were killed in 4,702 road accidents in Bangladesh last year.

The WB report said Bangladesh needs to invest an estimated extra $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities.

A private organisation inaugurated two Manipuri language learning centres in Sylhet on Friday on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day.

The Nayabazar Manipuri Language Learning Centre and Laldighipar Manipuri Language Learning Centre are located in Nayabazar Khushighat of the city.

Cultural personality and Bangladesh Nritya Shilpi Sangsth Sylhet divisional President Onil Krishna Singh presided over the programme while Manipuri student Dipika Singh coordinated it.

Singh said he had a desire to set up Manipuri language centre in the city and eventually he made it possible with the support of the people. “The language centres have been established to save the Manipuri language,” he said.