United News of Bangladesh

A salon owner was allegedly stabbed to death by a man for refusing to cut his hair on credit in Bhaluka upazila of Mymensingh on Tuesday evening. The deceased was identified as Rabendra Rishi, 43, son of Ranjit Rishi of Uttarpara area in Dhobaura upazila. He lived in a rented house in the Tariff Munshi Mor area of Jamirdia and ran a salon at a local market. The accused, Saddam Hossain, son of Babul Mia, was arrested by police from the National Polymer area of Habirbari following the incident. According to locals, Saddam entered Rabendra’s salon with a sharp knife and stabbed him. In an attempt to save his life, the bloodied victim ran to a nearby shop owned by Saddam’s father, but the attacker followed him and stabbed him repeatedly. Rabendra then tried to take shelter in the courtyard of a nearby house, where Saddam allegedly knocked him to the ground and stabbed him several more times. He died at the scene from excessive blood loss. The victim’s wife, Suchitra, alleged that Saddam frequently extorted money from her husband to buy drugs and regularly received haircuts and beard trims without paying. When Rabendra demanded payment, arguments would break out. She claimed her husband was killed after refusing to provide another haircut on credit. Saddam had allegedly threatened to kill him several times, including before Durga Puja, when he told her, “You will receive your husband’s body after Puja.” Officer-in-Charge of Bhaluka Model Police Station Md Zahidul Islam said police recovered the body and sent it to the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy. He said Saddam had been arrested and police were investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder.  

A prolonged gun battle between the local 'Kakon' and 'Kalu' gangs for control over the waterways of the Padma River triggered panic among fishermen and residents in Kushtia on Tuesday. The exchange of gunfire began around 2pm near the confluence of the Padma and Garai rivers and Digri Char in Ishwardi, Pabna, and continued intermittently for several hours till evening. Locals claimed they easily heard over 100 gunshots during the daylong clashes. According to locals, members of the Kakon gang took positions with speedboats and boats at Digri Char, across the Padma from the Mahanagar Tack area of Haripur in Kushtia Sadar upazila. Members of the Kalu gang were positioned in the Kalabagan area of Digri Char, in Ishwardi of Pabna. Local boatman Nayan said members of the Kakon gang arrived on a trawler and opened fire. Two more boats joined them around 4pm, Nayan said, adding that gunshots were heard intermittently from 2pm until evening. Another witness, Shabuj, said gunfire was heard intermittently, and that the Kakon gang in particular seemed more prolific, although there was no telling whether either side was doing any damage with its firepower.  Sub-Inspector Shafiuddin of the River Police said an intelligence team was investigating the sequence of events to determine who had opened fire. They still had no information as to whether anyone had been abducted. There were no reports of casualties at all, till the filing of this report at 9.30pm. Rajshahi River Police Superintendent Mohammad Billal Hossain said they had received reports of the gunfight and sent personnel to the area along with a team from Ishwardi Police Station. He added that the River Police and district police personnel had taken positions as far as Kalabagan during the exchange of fire, but had not heard any further gunshots. As evening fell, the exact locations of the two groups remained unclear.   

Fire Service and Civil Defence divers recovered the body of one of the two employees of a real estate company who went missing while bathing in the Padma River beneath the Padma Bridge in Louhajang upazila of Munshiganj on Monday. Md Shafiqul Islam, deputy assistant director of Munshiganj Fire Service and Civil Defence, said the body of Md Maruf, 40, was recovered around 2pm on Tuesday near the spot where the two men went missing. However, the search for the other missing man, Maruf's colleague Md Russel, 35, was continuing for the second consecutive day, he said. Maruf was from Khilgaon in Dhaka, while Russel was from Patuakhali. Both worked for Dhaka-based real estate company Sharif Landmarks Ltd. Shafiqul said eight employees of the company went to Mawa on Monday for an outing. They went to bathe in the river near pillar No. 4 at the Mawa end of the Padma Bridge at around 2:20pm. At one stage, two of them were swept away by the strong current, while the other six managed to swim to safety. On receiving the information, divers from the local fire service station rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation.

The third consignment of nuclear fuel, or uranium, for the second unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant arrived at the project site in Pabna on Tuesday morning amid tight security. The convoy, carrying the fuel on three trucks escorted by the Bangladesh Army, entered the plant premises through Dashuria traffic intersection at 7:48am after travelling along the Natore-Kushtia-Pabna highway. Security was tightened along the highway as army personnel and other law enforcement agencies escorted the uranium-laden vehicles. Traffic on Pabna-Natore-Kushtia highway was suspended for half an hour, from 7:30am to 8am, to ensure the safe and uninterrupted movement of the convoy. The consignment arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka from Russia via Delhi, India, on Monday morning aboard by a flight operated by Aviacon Zitotrans. The aircraft carried 41 tonnes of nuclear fuel in 12 transport packages. Officials of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) subsequently received the consignment. The convoy left Dhaka for Rooppur in Ishwardi at around 2:30am. Ashadur Rahman Asad, Officer-in-Charge of Ishwardi Police Station, said police and other law enforcement agencies provided special security to ensure the convoy reached the project site without traffic congestion. According to the plan, nine more flights are expected to transport an additional 48 uranium fuel assemblies for the first unit and 163 for the second unit between November and December. The consignments will travel from Russia to Bangladesh via Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Meanwhile, the first unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant successfully began its nuclear reaction on October 11, following final approval from BAERA on October 8 to proceed with the next phase of operations. A high-level team from Russia's state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom also visited the project from October 20 to 23 to review construction progress and the plant's overall development. This week, the first unit entered the critical Stage-C, or power startup, phase after successfully completing the B-2 physics tests and other required examinations and activities. Dr Md Zahedul Hasan, managing director of Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Ltd (NPCBL), said electricity generation would initially begin on a limited scale. “Generation will gradually increase as the subsequent activities are successfully completed,” he said. Once the plant reaches 30 to 35 percent of its capacity, it will be able to supply electricity to the national grid. The authorities expect the first unit to begin supplying at least 300 megawatts of electricity to the national grid by the end of this year.

A former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leader was seriously injured after being shot by unidentified assailants in Batiaghata upazila of Khulna early Tuesday. The injured is Sohel Sheikh, 36, the former president of the Amirpur union unit of JCD and currently a Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal activist. The incident occurred around 12:30am in front of Baro Karia Government Primary School. According to locals, the assailants arrived on two motorcycles and opened fire at Sohel, who was sitting on his motorcycle. Sohel sustained gunshot wounds to his right hand and the right side of his abdomen. Locals rescued him and took him to Khulna Medical College Hospital, where the attending physicians referred him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment. Officer-in-Charge of Batiaghata Police Station Rahman Sharif said police visited the scene and recovered a spent pistol cartridge. Police were trying to identify and arrest those involved in the incident, he said.

A teenage boy was killed in a head-on collision between a CNG-run auto-rickshaw and a motorcycle in Atrai upazila of Naogaon on Monday night. The deceased was identified as Gourab Kumar Pramanik, 15, son of Gautam Pramanik of Dighalgram village in Singra upazila of Natore district. Officer-in-Charge of Atrai Police Station Mahbub Alam said the accident occurred around 8pm when Gourab was travelling by motorcycle from Santahar in Bogura towards Natore via Atrai. When he reached the Mahadighi area on the Naogaon-Natore highway, his motorcycle collided head-on with a CNG-run auto-rickshaw heading towards Santahar from Atrai, leaving him dead on the spot. Mahbub said they handed over the body to the family without an autopsy as there was no complaint.

Five people including a woman and a child were killed and four others injured when a lorry rammed into some bus passengers standing on Dhaka-Chattogram highway at Chhoto Kumira in Sitakunda upazila early Tuesday. Two of the deceased were identified as Ibrahim, 6, from Netrokona, and a woman named Swapna. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, an officer at the Fire Service's Kumira station, said the passengers were travelling from Chattogram to Netrokona. When the bus faced a mechanical problem, the passengers got off and stood beside the highway, he said. At that time, the speeding lorry ran crashed into the waiting passengers and then hit the stationary bus, leaving three dead on the spot. Six injured people were taken to Chattogram Medical College Hospital where two of them later died.

Police have arrested two journalists, including a staff reporter of a national daily, on charges of extortion and obstructing construction work at a government college in Jhenaidah on Monday. The arrestees were identified as Aritra Kumar Kundu, Staff Reporter of daily Protidiner Bangladesh, and Habibur Rahman Rubel, correspondent of Bangla-71. Aritra went to Government Nurunnahar Mahila College on Monday noon to inquire about the alleged selling of wall bricks and allegedly demanded Tk 50,000 in extortion from College Principal Bijon Kumar Sarkar. When the principal refused, Aritra threatened him, police said. As news spread, a group of locals gathered and physically assaulted Aritra and his associate Rubel. Detective Branch (DB) Police rescued them from the spot and took Aritra to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital for treatment before bringing them to the police station. Later in the afternoon, Principal Bijon Kumar Sarkar filed an extortion case against them. However, Aritra denied the allegations, claiming he went to report on brick smuggling from the college boundary wall. He alleged that he was called back to the campus from a nearby courier service and beaten up by a group of youths who later framed him with false charges. Additional Superintendent of Police Sheikh Billal Hossain said suspects were arrested in the case filed by the principal.

Several hundred people in Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat are spending anxious hours as a tiger spotted near the Amjhol border in Gotamari union remains at large despite efforts to locate it. The tiger was detected by a drone camera around midnight on Sunday after it attacked three people, including a woman, in the border area on Sunday afternoon. However, it later moved out of the camera's range, making it difficult to track. The members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is continuing drone surveillance to determine the animal's whereabouts, while a special team from the Forest Department is trying to rescue it safely. On Sunday, three people including a woman came under attack by tiger while the woman was attempting to save her goat from the tiger. All three injured victims were admitted to Rangpur Medical College Hospital for treatment. Following the attacks, hundreds of local residents spent a sleepless night keeping watch with sticks and other makeshift weapons in an attempt to protect themselves from the tiger. The BGB also fired several blank shots to drive it away. Local administration suspects that the tiger entered Bangladesh from India by crossing the border. Locals believe the animal could be a large leopard, although its exact species has yet to be confirmed. Authorities are continuing efforts to locate and safely capture the animal.

Police arrested a woman and seized 140 rounds of cartridges from a Dhaka-bound passenger bus in Raipura upazila of Narsingdi early Monday. The arrestee was identified as Swapna Akter, 42, widow of late Abdus Samad, hailing from Badughar area under Brahmanbaria Sadar upazila. A police team set up a special checkpoint on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway in Mahmudabad area following a tip-off. Around 4:20am, police intercepted an Ena Paribahan bus heading for Dhaka and recovered 140 cartridges from Swapna's possession, Md. Mojibur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge of Raipura Police Station said. A case has been filed with Raipura Police Station in this connection. Swapna was produced before a Narsingdi court on Monday afternoon following initial interrogation, while an investigation is underway to determine the origin and destination of the ammunition and identify any accomplices, the OC added.