United News of Bangladesh

At least eight people including five children were injured as an old boundary wall collapsed on them at Choumuhoni under Double Mooring police station in the port city on Saturday. The injured were identified as Mifta and Mukta, both aged around 2 years, Anas, 2, Mayra, aged around 2 years, Md Jabed 12, Nargis 48, Ramjan, 50, Anwara Begum 75. The wall collapsed around 12:30 pm due to pressure of soil which was stockpiled beside it for construction work, said fire service officials. Also read: Worker dies, 4 hurt as wall collapses in Rajshahi Informed by locals, a team from Agrabad Fire station rushed to the spot and rescued three children and two women from under the debris, said Shafiul Islam, an officer of the Agrabad Fire Service and Civil Defence. Two of them were admitted to Mother and Child Care Hospital in Agrabad and three others are currently undergoing treatment at Chattogream Medical College Hospital, he said. Others received first aid from a local hospital, he added. Also read: Worker dies as wall collapses in city Saiful Islam, a relative of one of the injured,  said their family’s rivals Ismail and Harun kept the soil to build a house on a disputed land in front of their house.

An Awami League politician was among four people detained by the elite Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in connection with the Shahjahanpur shooting in which ruling party member Zahidul Islam Tipu and a college student were killed. The detainees have been identified as Omar Faruk, 52, general secretary of No 10 ward unit of the Awami League, the alleged mastermind, and Abu Saleh Shikder (38), Nasir Uddin (38), and Morshedul Alam (51). According to Rab, the killing was the fallout of a longstanding enmity between the two AL politicians over the control of a slew of illegal businesses and establishing supremacy in the Motijheel area. Also read: Shahjahanpur double murder: Second suspect put on 1-day police remand Acting on a tip-off, the elite force conducted raids in Mugda, Shahjahanpur and Mirpur areas of the capital and detained them on Friday night. "Our men nabbed them from different parts of the city," said assistant director (media) at RAB headquarters ASP Imran Khan. "We have also seized a bike used in the crime, Tk 3.30 lakh in cash and some mobile phones from their possession." During questioning, the Rab said, the detainees had admitted to their involvement in the murder of Tipu. "There had been a longstanding enmity between the two AL politicians over the control of toll collection and school-college admission racket in the Motijheel area," said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of the legal and media wing of RAB. During investigation, the elite force claimed to have identified a man named Musa, who's based in Dubai. "He probably ordered Tipu's killing. Musa's arrest will only help unravel the bigger plot and who had actually shot Tipu dead," said Moin. “Efforts are on to take legal steps against the detainees,” said the Rab director. On the night of March 24, Tipu, who was on a microbus, and Samia Afrin Priti, a 22-year-old college student, who was returning home on a cycle rickshaw, were killed in firing in front of Islami Bank Hospital. Also read: Shahjahanpur double murder: Second suspect held with gun Tipu was a former general secretary of the AL Motijheel committee while Priti was a student of Begum Badrunnesa Government College. Tipu’s driver was also injured in the firing. They were all stuck in a traffic jam in the area when a biker wearing a helmet and a mask appeared from nowhere and fired at them, according to police. The next day, a case was filed against unidentified people over the double murder. On March 27, police arrested Akash, 34, identifying him as the prime accused in the double murder case from Bogura district. The next day, a Dhaka court placed Akash on a seven-day police remand for custodial interrogation. And on March 31, a second suspect was arrested by Dhaka Metropolitan Police detectives from the city’s Kamalapur area.

Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Friday held a suspected gold smuggler along with 99 gold bars, weighing 12.5 kg from Hatir Mor area of Maheshpur upazila in Jhenaidah district. The suspect has been named as Ibrahim Khalil, son of Abdul Latif of Jagusa village in the upazila. Read:Man held with 56 gold bars at Shahjalal Airport Tipped off, a team of BGB-58 conducted a drive and nabbed Khalil along with the gold bars, said Lieutenant Colonel Shahin Azad, director of BGB-58 in a press briefing on Friday noon. Process is underway to take legal action against the detainee, he added.

Hundreds of buses, cars and trucks have remained stranded at Paturia Ghat since Friday morning due to the onrush of homebound people ahead of two days weekend from Friday amid shortage of ferry. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) sources said over 600 vehicles including private vehicles, passenger buses, and trucks were stranded at Paturia Ghat, causing immense suffering to commuters. Read: Subways to be built in Dhaka to ease traffic jams: Obaidul Mohiuddin Russel, manager of BIWTC Aricha regional office, said Paturia ferry terminal area has witnessed a heavy rush of vehicles heading southwest since Friday morning. Vehicles have to wait for hours for ferries to cross the river. In the morning, a ferry carrying passengers and vehicles from Daulatdia lost control and hit the pontoon at Paturia ghat. Following the incident, the crossing of vehicles through this ghat was suspended for two hours, he added. Read: Shahjahanpur double murder: Second suspect put on 1-day police remand Eighteen small and large ferries were operating to ease the traffic, he added.Vehicles carrying passengers and emergency goods are getting priority to get on board. The regular cargo trucks will have to wait a bit longer, he said. A large number of people are heading home because of two weekends.  

Police have recovered the body of a young man from Chuadanga’s Alamdanga upazila four days after his disappearance. The hanging body of Sajjadul Alam Chapal, 35, was found at their abandoned house in Gobindpur village of Alamdanga at around 2.30 pm on Friday. He was the son of Shahed Ali Gazi of the Mathpara area in the village. Chapal used to live with his family at his father-in-law's house in Meherpur district. No one lived in their abandoned house in Alamdanga. On Friday, locals spotted him hanging there and informed the police. Later his body was recovered and sent to the morgue of Chuadanga Sadar Hospital for autopsy. READ: Stalked by teacher, woman ends life in Chuadanga Alamdanga Police officer-in-charge (OC) Saiful Islam said Chapal's hanging body was recovered from his abandoned house four days after he went missing. Police suspect it as a case of suicide.   The body has been sent to a hospital morgue for autopsy, said the OC adding they have launched an investigation on the death.

An eight-year-old girl travelling in a three-wheeler with her mother died after a bus rammed the vehicle at high speed in Natore's Lalpur area on Friday. The deceased was identified as Mim Akter, daughter of Kakuli Begum. Police said both Kakuli and her child Mim were in the three-wheeler when the bus carrying a picnic party hit it on the busy Ishwardi-Lalpur Road. READ: Farmer electrocuted to death in Natore "Mim fell off the three-wheeler and was run over by the killer bus. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival," said Lalpur police station OC Moniruzzaman. Locals managed to nab the driver and seize the bus after the accident, he added.

Police have recovered the body of a five-year-old boy from the septic tank of a madrasa in Mohadevpur upazila of Naogaon. The deceased was identified as Abdur Rahman, son of Rahidul Islam from Valain Mollapara village in the upazila. The boy went missing from the premises of Shibrampur Hafezia Qawmi Madrasa on Thursday evening. Around midnight, the body was recovered from the septic tank of the madrasa, police said. In fact, the boy's father spotted his son's body floating in the septic tank while searching for him around 9pm. Also read: Elderly man falls into septic tank in Khulna, dies Ajam Uddin Mahmud, officer-in-charge of Mohadevpur police station, said that a team visited the spot and fished out the body. As the body had no injury marks and the family did not file any complaint, it will be handed over to them without an autopsy but post-completion of legal formalities, the OC said. "A case of unnatural death has been filed at the police station in this regard," he added. Also read: Two die in Chuadanga after inhaling toxic gas inside septic tank

Two people were killed and six others injured in a head-on collision between an auto-rickshaw and a pick-up van in Kalihati upazila of Tangail on Friday, police said. The deceased were identified as Ramzan Ali, 55, the auto-rickshaw driver from Uttar Betdoba village, and one of its occupants -- Rina, 30, from Bir Basina village of the upazila. The accident occurred on Friday morning in front of RS Government Pilot High School. According to witnesses, the auto-rickshaw heading towards the Kalihati bus stand was hit at high speed by the pick-up van coming from the opposite side, leaving its driver and the female passenger dead on the spot. READ: 2 killed in Chattogram road accidents The injured were all passengers of the auto-rickshaw. "Two of them have been admitted to Tangail General Hospital in a critical condition, while others are being treated at Kalihati Upazila Health Complex," said Molla Azizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Kalihati police station. Both the ill-fated vehicles have been seized, but the pick-up van driver managed to flee, said the OC. "The bodies will be handed over to the family members of the deceased after completion of the legal process."

This month only, the much-awaited tiger census will begin in the Sunderbans -- the world’s largest and only mangrove delta inhabited by the big cats. Along with tigers, the government will also enumerate deer and pigs in the delta under the 'Sundarbans Tiger Conservation Project’ estimated to cost the state exchequer a whopping Tk 35.93 crore. On March 23, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change gave its nod to the project with a three-year timeline. “The census will be conducted inside the tiger sanctuary in the Sunderbans as well as its periphery,” Abu Naser Mohsin, divisional forest area officer, told UNB. Also read: Tiger recovered from Sundarbans canal most likely died of natural causes

State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid laid the foundation stone of the country's first wind power plant project in Khurushkul, Cox's Bazar Thursday. "Renewable energy will play an important role in future power generation. The contribution of renewable energy in the energy mix of the country has been growing," he said while laying the foundation of the 60MW wind power plant in Cox's Bazar. Read: Bangladesh Army ensures regional peace, stability: Army Chief US-DK Green Energy (BD), a private firm, is setting up the country's first independent power producer (IPP) wind plant from which the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will buy electricity. The sponsor company will invest $116.51 million to develop the plant which will have 22 turbines, each having a generation capacity of three megawatts and a height of 120m. According to the BPDB, the plant will come into operation by December this year. The state minister said more wind power plants will be set up across different places of the country. Read: PM vows to uplift Bangladesh to a developed nation He said the project is a part of the government's development plan in Cox's Bazar including the Matarbari power plant, deep seaport and LPG terminal.