killed
Two killed as bus rams motorcycle on Rangpur-Dhaka highway
Two people were killed as a speeding bus crashed into their motorcycle on the Rangpur-Dhaka highway in Pirganj upazila of Rangpur Monday, police said.
The two people killed were identified as Limon, 25, of Hajipur village of Barodargah union of the upazila and Roman, 26, of Shantipur village of Mithapukur upazila.
The accident occurred around 4pm as Rangpur-bound Diganta Paribahan hit the motorcycle near the Ghoshpur area, Zakir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Pirganj Police Station, said.
Limon and Roman died instantly from the impact of the crash, he added.
Read more: Student killed as truck runs over him in Chuadanga
2 killed after boat capsizes in Padma off Rajshahi city
Two women died after a boat with 20 people on board capsized off Rajshahi city in the River Padma, police said.
Eighteen others managed to swim to safety, according to Rajshahi River Police Officer-in-Charge (OC) Obaidur Rahman.
The two people killed were identified as Asia Begum, 35, of the Sonaikandi area of Haripur union of Paba upazila and Rasheda Begum, 45, of the same area.
The accident occurred at 5:30pm in the Srirampur area of Rajpara in Rajshahi city, spilling 20 people into Padma.
Haripur union parishad chairman Bajle Rezbi Al Hasan Munzil said: "On Monday morning Asia and Rasheda went to a pasture on the other side of Padma for hay. As they were returning home in the evening with bales of hay, the boat capsized."
Asked what caused the boat to capsize, he said: "The vessel had been overloaded. Also, a hole appeared in the boat and water started gushing into it."
"Asia and Rasheda were trapped under the boat after it capsized. They were taken out of the water by the locals and whisked off to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. The women were declared dead upon arrival," OC Obaidur said.
Later, their bodies were handed over to the families, he added.
Read more: Dredger capsized during Sitrang: Bodies of 8 workers recovered
Narayanganj: Drivers of two four-wheelers killed in vehicle collision
Drivers of a covered van and a human hauler, locally known as Laguna, were killed in a fatal head-on collision between their vehicles on Araihazar-Madanpur road in Narayanganj's Araihazar Wednesday.
The deceased were identified as Ratan, 42, of Krishnapur village of Araihazar and Din Islam, 45, of Laskkardi village of the same upazila.
The accident occurred around noon when the speeding covered van crashed into the human hauler with a lot of force in the Lengurdi area, Azizul Haque Hawlader, officer-in-charge of Araihazar Police Station, said.
Laguna driver Ratan died instantly from the impact of the crash; covered van driver Din Islam was sent to a local hospital with serious injuries.
Din Islam succumbed to his injuries while being rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
At the request of the relatives of the deceased, the bodies were handed over to them without autopsies, Azizul said, adding that legal action will be taken in connection with the accident.
Read more: 2 killed in bus-auto rickshaw collision in Kishoreganj
Truck-pickup van collision crushes two pedestrians to death in Dhaka's Postagola
Two people were crushed to death after a truck crashed into a pickup van in Dhaka's Postagola Monday, police said.
The deceased were identified as Atiqur Rahman Apel, 30, and Kamrul Huda, 26, from Barishal's Banaripara upazila.
At 7pm, a passenger bus of Raida Paribahan and a pickup van collided head-on, leaving the driver of the pickup van and his assistant, and two pedestrians critically injured, Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) Police Outpost, said.
Read more: Man, woman on motorbike killed in Tangail road crash
"The pedestrians were declared dead at 8pm after being rushed to DMCH. The bodies were kept at the hospital for autopsies," he added.
Meanwhile, Shyampur Police Station seized the bus but the driver managed to flee the scene, Bachchu said.
Read more: Bus collision at accident site leaves 15 dead in Turkey
2 motorcyclists killed in N’ganj
Two motorcyclists were killed when a vehicle hit their motorbike on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway near Kanchpur Bridge early Sunday, said police.
The deceased were identified as Srabon Reza, 18, son of Selim Reza and Amir Hamza, 18, son of Abdur Rashid Bhuiya of Siddhirganj area.
AKM Sharfuddin, in-charge of Shimrail Police Station said the accident occurred in the dead of night when an unknown vehicle hit the motorbike carrying two people, leaving them injured.
Also read: 5 inc. three children, burnt in gas cylinder accident in Dinajpur
Later, they were taken to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and a private hospital in Dhaka where they succumbed to their injuries early Sunday.
Police are trying to identify the driver of the vehicles, said Nabir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Kanchpur Highway Police Station.
Also read: Traffic accident leaves man dead in Kushtia
Schoolboy killed in Dhaka road crash
A schoolboy was killed as an unidentified vehicle hit him in the city’s Tejgaon area on Sunday morning.
The deceased was identified as Ali Hossain, 16, a resident of the area and a class X student of Government Science College.
The speeding vehicle hit Hossain in front of Bangladesh Government (BG) Press in Tejgaon industrial area around 7:30 am when he was going for his coaching classes, leaving him seriously injured, said Hossain’s father Azmir Matbor.
Read: College student killed in Narayanganj road accident
Locals rushed him to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared him dead, said DMCH police outpost in-charge inspector Md Bacchu Mia.
The body has been kept in the hospital morgue, he said.
Southwest China quake leaves 30 dead, triggers landslides
At least 30 people were reported killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China’s southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday, triggering landslides and shaking buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already under a COVID-19 lockdown.
The quake struck a mountainous area in Luding county shortly after noon, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
Sichuan, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet, is regularly hit by earthquakes. Two quakes in June killed at least four people.
The death toll rose to 30 as the search for trapped people continued Monday night, state media said.
Earlier, authorities had reported 7 deaths in Luding county and 14 more in neighboring Shimian county to the south. Three of the dead were workers at the Hailuogou Scenic Area, a glacier and forest nature reserve.
Also read: Strong undersea quake causes panic in western Indonesia
Along with the deaths, authorities reported stones and soil falling from mountainsides, causing damage to homes and power interruptions, state broadcaster CCTV said. One landslide blocked a rural highway, leaving it strewn with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.
Buildings shook in Chengdu, 200 kilometers (125 miles) away from the epicenter. Resident Jiang Danli said she hid under a desk for five minutes in her 31st floor apartment. Many of her neighbors rushed downstairs, wary of aftershocks.
“There was a strong earthquake in June, but it wasn’t very scary. This time I was really scared, because I live on a high floor and the shaking made me dizzy,” she told The Associated Press.
The earthquake and lockdown follow a heat wave and drought that led to water shortages and power cuts due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. That comes on top of the latest major lockdown under China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy.
The past two months in Chengdu “have been weird,” Jiang said.
Also read: 7.3 earthquake hits north Philippines, causes some damage
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 6.6 for Monday’s quake at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Preliminary measurements by different agencies often differ slightly.
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The temblor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
Ukraine says 4 civilians killed, 7 wounded by Russian shells
At least four civilians were killed and seven others were wounded by Russian shelling in the past 24 hours across several regions of Ukraine, Ukraine’s presidential office said Monday.
Most of the casualties were in the eastern Donetsk region, where three people were killed and four were wounded. A large chunk of Donetsk is held by Russia-allied separatists.
In the Kharkiv region, further north, three people were wounded when a rocket hit a residential building, the president’s office said.
Russian shells struck more than a dozen residential buildings along with a school, cafes and stores as the war stretched into its seventh month.
Also read: Ukraine's nuclear plant partly goes offline amid fighting
At the same time, a counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces “is making verifiable progress in the south and the east” of the country, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said.
“The pace of the counteroffensive will likely change dramatically from day to day as Ukrainian forces work to starve the Russians of necessary supplies, disrupt their command and control, and weaken their morale even as counteroffensive ground assaults continue,” the institute said late Sunday.
It predicted that Russian forces will launch “fierce artillery and air attacks” against the advancing Ukrainian troops and on any areas they liberate.
Also read: UN inspectors arrive at Ukraine nuclear plant amid fighting
BNP vows to avenge blood of its slain workers by ousting the govt
Slamming the government for killing a Jubo Dal activist in Narayanganj by attacking a peaceful programme, BNP on Thursday vowed to launch a united movement to unseat the Awami League from power and avenge the blood of its all slain workers.
“Our Chhatra Dal leader Noor-e-Alam and Swechchasebak Dal leader Abur Rahim were killed in police firing in Bhola while observing a programme protesting the price hike of fuel and essential commodities. Our colleague Shaon was also killed in police firing today (Thursday) in Narayanganj,” said party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
In a brief address prior to bringing out a colourful rally at Naypaltan, he also said many leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies were suffered bullet wounds in different districts, including Netrakona, Sirajganj and Manikganj, as police attacked the party’s founding anniversary programmes.
Also read: Jubo Dal activist killing: BNP announces 2-day protest programme
“To avenge the blood of our brothers, we will defeat them (AL govt) through a united movement together with people. This is our oath on this day,” the BNP leader said.
The party brought out the rally from its central office, marking its 44th founding anniversary. Thousands of leaders and activists of the party and its associate bodies holding banners, festoons and photos of the party's top leaders joined the rally.
The BNP followers started gathering Nayapaltan area since 11 am blocking both sides of the road stretching from Bijoynagar crossing to Fakirerpool, halting traffic in and around the areas that caused immense sufferings to commuters.
The rally began around 4pm from Bijoynagar crossing and ended in front of the Jatiya Press Club.
Fakhrul said many BNP leaders and activists sacrificed their blood for establishing democracy and strengthening the party. “We remember with respect all of them.”
He alleged that the current government obliterated democracy and snatched people’s all rights in a planned way.
Also read: Jubo Dal activist killed in N’ganj clash
“Our leader (Khaleda) who has fought for democracy all her life is now under house arrest. Our acting chairman has been exiled abroad by sentencing him in false cases while our 35 lakh leaders and workers are being harassed by implicating them in false cases,” the BNP leader said.
As people have waged a movement to get their voting rights back, he said the government is trying to suppress it to hang onto power by resorting to repressive acts, enforced disappearance and killing. “But BNP was born to establish democracy.”
“We are loudly saying that we want to remove this fascist Awami League regime and establish a truly democratic government for the sake of democracy. Let’s all unite and defeat this government by taking over the streets,” Fakhrul said.
Clashes erupt after Iraqi Shiite cleric resigns, 15 dead
An influential Shiite cleric announced Monday that he would resign from Iraqi politics, prompting hundreds of his angry followers to storm the government palace and sparking clashes with security forces. At least 15 protesters were killed.
Protesters loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pulled down the cement barriers outside the government palace with ropes and breached the palace gates. Many rushed into the lavish salons and marbled halls of the palace, a key meeting place for Iraqi heads of state and foreign dignitaries.
Iraq’s military announced a nationwide curfew, and the caretaker premier suspended Cabinet sessions in response to the violence. Medical officials said dozens of protesters were wounded by gunfire and tear gas and physical altercations with riot police.
Also read: Officials: Landslide at Shiite shrine in Iraq kills 7
As night fell, Saraya Salam, a militia aligned with al-Sadr clashed with the Popular Mobilization Forces security group. A small force from the special forces division and Iraqi Army's 9th Division also joined to contain the militants as the clashes continued for hours inside the Green Zone, the seat of Iraq's government.
At least one soldier from the special forces division, which is responsible for security in the Green Zone, was killed. Many others, including a civilian woman, were wounded, two security officials said. Several mortar rounds were heard.
The crackle of machine gun fire echoed throughout central Baghdad.
The PMF is an umbrella group composed of state-sanctioned paramilitary groups, the most powerful of which are aligned with al-Sadr's rivals in the Iran-backed political camp.
Also read: IS claims Pakistan bombing that kills 56 at Shiite mosque
Security officials said mortars and rocket-propelled grenades were used in the clashes, a culmination of intractable political impasse between the rival camps.
Iraq’s government has been deadlocked since al-Sadr’s party won the largest share of seats in October parliamentary elections but not enough to secure a majority government. His refusal to negotiate with his Iran-backed Shiite rivals and subsequent exit from the talks has catapulted the country into political uncertainty and volatility amid intensifying intra-Shiite wrangling.
Iraq's majority Muslim population is split into two sects, Shiites and Sunnis. Under Saddam Hussein, the Shiites were oppressed until the U.S.-led invasion reversed the political order. Now the Shiites are fighting among themselves, with the dispute centering around power and state resources but also influence over the Shiite street.
To further his political interests, al-Sadr has wrapped his rhetoric with a nationalist and reform agenda that resonates powerfully among his broad grassroots base of supporters who hail from Iraq’s poorest sectors of society and have historically been shut out from the political system.
Many were first followers of his father, a revered figure in Shiite Islam. They are calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections without the participation of Iran-backed Shiite groups, which they see as responsible for the status quo.
During Monday's clashes, Saraya Salam, a militia aligned with al-Sadr gathered in the capital’s Tahrir Square to “protect” protesters, one of its commanders said.
A senior medical official confirmed at least 15 protesters were killed by gunfire.
Iraq’s caretaker premier said he would open an investigation into the shootings and said the use of live ammunition against protesters was forbidden.
Protests also broke out in the Shiite-majority southern provinces, with al-Sadr’s supporters burning tires and blocking roads in the oil-rich province of Basra and hundreds demonstrating outside the governorate building in Missan.
Iran considers intra-Shiite disharmony as a threat to its influence in Iraq and has repeatedly attempted to broker dialogue with al-Sadr.
In July, Al-Sadr's supporters broke into the parliament to deter his rivals in the Coordination Framework, an alliance of mostly Iran-aligned Shiite parties, from forming a government. Hundreds have been staging a sit-in outside the building for over four weeks. His bloc has also resigned from parliament. The Framework is led by al-Sadr's chief nemesis, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
This is not the first time al-Sadr, who has called for early elections and the dissolution of parliament, has announced his retirement from politics — and many dismissed Monday's move as another bluff to gain greater leverage against his rivals amid a worsening stalemate. The cleric has used the tactic on previous occasions when political developments did not go his way.
But many are concerned that it's a risky gambit and are worried how it will affect Iraq’s fragile political climate. By stepping out of the political process, al-Sadr is giving his followers, most disenfranchised from the political system, the green light to act as they see fit.
Al-Sadr also commands a militia and maintains a great degree of influence within Iraq's state institutions through the appointments of key civil servant positions. His Iran-backed rivals also have militia groups.
Iraq’s military swiftly called on the cleric's supporters to withdraw immediately from the heavily fortified government zone and to practice self-restraint “to prevent clashes or the spilling of Iraqi blood,” according to a statement.
“The security forces affirm their responsibility to protect government institutions, international missions, public and private properties,” the statement said.
Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also demanded that al-Sadr call on his followers to withdraw from government institutions.
The U.N. mission in Iraq said Monday’s protests were an “extremely dangerous escalation” and called on demonstrators to vacate all government buildings to allow the caretaker government to continue running the state.
It urged all to remain peaceful and “refrain from acts that could lead to an unstoppable chain of events.”
“The very survival of the state is at stake,” the statement said.
Al-Sadr announced his withdrawal from politics in a tweet, and ordered the closure of his party offices. Religious and cultural institutions will remain open, it said.
The true motivations behind al-Sadr’s announcement appeared to be a reaction to the retirement of Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, who counts many of al-Sadr’s supporters as followers.
In a surprise announcement Sunday, al-Haeri said he would be stepping down as a religious authority for health reasons and called on his followers to throw their allegiance behind Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rather than the Shiite spiritual center in Iraq's holy city of Najaf.
The move was a blow to al-Sadr, who despite harboring ambitions to be a religious authority lacks the scholarly credentials to be an ayatollah. Al-Haeri, who resides in the Iranian holy city of Qom, once provided him with the legitimacy he lacked by designating al-Sadr as his representative in Iraq. He cut ties shortly after with the cleric, but continued to enjoy the support of his followers.
By calling on his followers to side with Khamenei, al-Haeri brought on a crisis of legitimacy for al-Sadr.
In his tweet, al-Sadr said al-Haeri's stepping down “was not out of his own volition.”