United News of Bangladesh

A college teacher, who suffered critical injuries allegedly after some students beat him up with a cricket stump in Savar, died at Enam Medical College and Hospital in the early hours of Monday. The deceased was identified as Utpal Kumar, hailing from Ullapara upazila of Sirajganj district. Nasir Uddin, operation theatre in-charge of Enam Medical College and Hospital, said Utpal breathed his last while undergoing treatment around 6:00 am on Monday. Utpal was a lecturer of the Humanities Department of Hazi Yunus Ali School and College in Kathaltola area of Ashulia’s Jamgora, he added. Police said every year Hazi Yunus Ali School and College arranged a cricket match on Saturday.  "Around 2pm, some students suddenly hit Utpal with a cricket stump while he was standing on one side of the field following previous enmity, leaving him seriously injured,” he said. Read: Headmaster’s son beats up teacher at Ishwardi school Later, Utpal was rescued and admitted to Enam Medical College Hospital in Savar. On information, police recovered the body and sent it to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medicla College and Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The accused, students of the same institution, have been absconding since the incident.   Efforts are on to arrest the suspects, said Emdadul Haque, sub-inspector of Ashulia Police Station.

The flood situation in Sirajganj showed signs of improvement on Monday as the water level of the Jamuna River dropped. The river was flowing 65cm below the danger mark at Sirajganj point while 57cm below the danger level at Kazipur point on Monday morning, said Nasir Uddin, sub-divisional engineer (HQ) of Sirajganj Water Development Board. He said that the water has receded from many houses in the flood-hit areas and water may recede from most of the low-lying areas in the next two to three days. Also read: Flood Water receding, but not the diseases, food, and water crisis More than 50,000 people in 38 unions of 5 upazilas on the banks of the Jamuna River were stranded due to the flood. With flood waters receding, the miseries of the residents of the char areas in the district have increased. Besides, 9,500 hectares of cropland have been damaged due to the flood. The flood survivors are crying for relief. Apart from facing a food crisis, they need pure drinking water, fuel and fodder. According to district administration sources, 84 educational institutions have been shut due to the ongoing flood, hampering the studies of the students. As water level in the Jamuna started to fall river banks erosion has taken a serious turn in many places in the district. Also read: Receding flood waters reveal disastrous damage in Sylhet However, sand-filled bags were dumped at vulnerable points to protect the area from erosion. Besides, 184 shelters have been opened for the flood victims and 23 medical teams have been formed  to provide services round-the-clock.

A child drowned in a pond near her house while playing there in Bogura's Dhunat Sunday. The deceased was identified as one-and-a-half-year-old Amena Khatun, daughter of Aminul Islam of Chikashi union, Dhunat Upazila Heath Complex Resident Medical Officer Ashraful Kabir said. The child died while being rushed to the Upazila Health Complex, he added. Read: Child's body recovered; 2 remain missing from trawler that drowned in Meghna Earlier, Amena was playing in the yard of her house at 10am. As the family members were not around, she fell into the pond and drowned. The one-and-a-half-year-old's family members started looking for her as she was not to be seen anywhere. At one stage, her body was found floating on the pond near her house, according to local sources.  

Two young motorcyclists who were critically injured in an accident on the Padma Bridge on its very first day are dead, according to police. The deceased were identified as Md Alamgir, 24, and Fazlu, 25, by Bacchu Mia, in-charge of Dhaka Medical College Hospital Police Outpost. The first known accident on the Padma Bridge occurred when they were crossing the bridge on a motorcycle around 8pm Sunday. Later, pedestrians rushed them to DMCH where they were declared dead at 10 pm. Read: Extremely busy first day ends in tailbacks, showcases potential The bodies were kept in the hospital morgue for autopsies, Bacchu said. The Padma Bridge saw a huge pressure of traffic and a crowd of onlookers Sunday, creating tailbacks on both sides of the long-awaited bridge. Hundreds of vehicles including buses, trucks, private cars, motorbikes, and ambulances were seen waiting in front of the two toll plazas at Mawa and Nowdoba points of Shariatpur. They were not maintaining queues and trying to cross each other haphazardly in front of the toll plazas. The Bridges Division banned motorcycles on the Padma Bridge from Monday.

As the waters started receding following Sylhet division's worst flood in living memory, the disastrous damage it inflicted also became evident, along with the challenge any recovery effort will face in the days ahead. The death toll from the third flash flood of the year in Sylhet reached 52 till Sunday morning (from May 17), according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), but this is almost certainly an underestimate, with local sources claiming the toll to be much higher. Many areas haven't even been accessed, where the authorities have no idea of casualties. According to Sylhet District administration, around 22 lakh people from four lakh families are bearing the brunt of this terrible disaster while 80 percent of the area still remains under water as of Sunday. “Part of Sylhet City Corporation, all the 13 upazilas and five municipalities and 94 unions were affected in the district. The exact number of people facing the damages will be 21,87,232 (21 lakh 87 thousand 232)of 4,16,819 families (4 lakh 16 thousand 819),” said Ahsanul Alam, Assistant Commissioner of District Administration. He said 22,450 houses and 28,945 hectares of cropland have been damaged according to official estimation so far. However, locals are claiming the damage is vaster and the recovery will be long. Also read: Flood situation worsens in parts of Sylhet Bearing the brunt Tara Mia, 70, from Janigaon village, has not seen such a terrible flood in his entire life. “On June 16, when all of a sudden water started entering my house I took shelter near a high area beside Sylhet-Sunamganj highway and remained there since. None cares about us though, people come and speed away with their vehicles as we sit helplessly beside the road,” he said. Khushbu Begum, 60, from the same village said, ”Don’t know how we will get back to our homes after flood water lowers as it is filled with soil now.” Husnahar Banu, 35, who took shelter in a ramshackle cottage beside the highway with her six children, said,”We took refuge here 14 days ago and are not sure how many days we will need to spend on the roads. There is still water inside the home that we left.” Fifty-five-year-old Kahar Mia was more worried about his cattle as some of them had already washed away. “We can survive by eating flattened or parched rice but the helpless animals might die without their food,” he said. Akkas Ali, from Jaikar Kandi village in Kandigaon union, returned home from the shelter center on Saturday evening and broke down in tears as nothing but the foundation remained. “The floodwater took away everything but the clothes on our bodies. We are eating the relief provided by people. How will we build everything back now?” he wondered aloud as he was unsure how to bring back his family from the shelter as there is no home. Tahera Begum from Moiar Char village said,”For five days I took shelter in Badaghat High School and as I returned home found the toilet was broken and everything in the house was damaged. Repairing everything is the biggest challenge for everyone as the flood has snatched our income sources too."

Even though the flood situation in Kurigram is improving, but the plight of the flood-affected people hasn’t eased. There is still water in the low-lying areas of the district, and people can’t return to their houses because prolonged presence of floodwater has made them unliveable. Besides, river erosion and damaged roads have exacerbated the sufferings of the people. Abdullah Al Mamun, Executive Engineer of Kurigram Water Development Board (WDB), said that the overall flood situation in Kurigram has improved as water in the Dharla and Brahmaputra rivers is flowing below the danger mark. Also read: More rain forecast, but flood situation in 11 districts likely to improve Sunday

An unidentified man was crushed under the wheels of a train in Sadar upazila of Sirajganj on Sunday. The deceased, aged around 50, could not be identified yet, said police. Read: Youth dies as train hits truck in Chattogram Md Harun-ur-Rashid Mridha, officer-in-oharge (OC) of Sirajganj Bazar Railway Police Station (GRP), said Dhaka-bound ‘Sirajganj Express’ train hit the man while he was crossing the railway tracks at Saydabad  around 7am, leaving him dead on the spot. The body was sent to Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib General Hospital morgue for an autopsy, he said. Read: Bid to take selfie from moving train leaves teen dead in Chuadanga A case was also filed in this regard, he added.

A 40-year-old man died after falling  of an  under-construction building at Khulshi of Chattogram port city on Sunday, said police. The deceased was identified as Md Yusuf, a diploma engineer by profession. Read: 11-year old dies falling off roof in city Sadequr Rahman, inspector of Pachlaish Police Station of Chattogram Metropolitan Police, said Yusuf sustained serious injuries when he fell from the sixth floor of an under-conduction building located  on Technical Road in Khulshi area. Later, he was taken to Chattogram Medical College and Hospital where  doctors declared him dead.

More rains are likely to drench Bangladesh in the next 24 hours, the weather department said Saturday. Light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at a few places over Khulna, Barishal, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions and at one or two places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions with moderately heavy falls at isolated places over the country, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). Meanwhile, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre of the Bangladesh Water Development Board said the flood situation in the Sylhet, Sunamganj, Netrokona, Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria districts may improve in the next 24 hours.   The situation in the flood-prone low-lying Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogura, Serajganj, Tangail and Jamalpur may also improve. Read: Flood situation remains grim across country According to the numerical weather forecast of meteorological agencies, except Teesta Basin, heavy to very heavy rainfall inside Bangladesh and different upstream Indian regions is unlikely in the next 48 hours. During the same period, there is a chance of medium to heavy rainfall in the Sub-Himalayan West Bengal (Jalpaiguri and Sikkim). So, the water level of the Teesta River may remain close to the danger level, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said. Meanwhile, the weather department recorded 24mm rainfall – the highest – in Hatiya in the last 24 hours till 6pm Saturday. The mercury reached 35.5 degrees Celsius – the highest – in Sayedpur, while the minimum temperature was 24 degrees in Teknaf. Day and night temperatures may remain nearly unchanged, the BMD said.

A septuagenarian reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself in the Rampasha union of Bishwanath upazila on Friday, police said. The deceased was identified as Abdul Khaleque, 70, son of the late Abdur Rashid of Chakram Prosad village. The deceased's family members said Khaleque was seen as mentally imbalanced for a few days. Read: Health department official commits suicide On Friday night, they found him hanging from the ceiling of his nephew's house near his house and informed the police. Police rushed to the spot immediately after being informed and recovered the body. The body has been sent to the Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy, Jayant Sarkar, sub-inspector of Bishwanath Police Station.