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Two people, including a housewife, were killed in separate incidents in the district on Tuesday night.
   The police and local people said assailants murdered Subhashi Rani Das, 52, wife of Krishnapada of village Lebugati under Monirampur upazila while she was sleeping on the balcony of her house.
   In another incident, criminals picked up Abul Kalam, 45, from his father-in-law’s house at village Fulshara under Chowgachha upazila at gunpoint and stabbed him to death at the nearby Lashkarpur paddy field.
   The reasons behind the killings were not known, the sources said.
   Both the bodies were recovered by the police and were sent to the hospital for post mortem.
   Two separate cases were filed with the police.

The controversially recruited 544 Class III and IV employees of Rajshahi University on Thursday staged demonstration on the campus demanding regularisation of their jobs.
   The leaders of the employees at a rally also announced a fresh programme from February 7. The programmes include holding rally and two-hour sit-in at the main gate of the administrative building.
   The leaders said they would go for agitation programmes if their jobs were not made permanent.
   During their demonstration programme, the leaders reportedly assaulted the pro vice-chancellor, KAM Shahadat Hossain Mandal, also chairman of the recruitment committee.  
   The pro vice-chancellor, however, denied the attack on him. He told newsmen that he went to the place as the situation was tense but he shortly left the spot.
   The university authorities on April 22, 2004 recruited 544 employees as against 255 vacant posts without publishing advertisements in the newspapers. The recruited employees are allegedly loyal to the ruling BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. 
   But a Rajshahi local court declared the recruitment illegal on June 23 following a case filed by a district bar association member Abu Aslam on April 25.

The cold wave, which has been sweeping over the country, claimed lives of more three persons, including two minors, in the Thakurgaon Sadar upazila in the past two days.
   The deceased were Nabalu, 52, of village Singia, Lata, 2, of village Bangalipara, and Rabi, 3, of village Cheradangi.
   With this a total of eight persons died in the district so far.
   Many people, particularly children, in the district have been afflicted with diarrhea and others cold related diseases. Of them over one hundred people were admitted to the Sadar hospital.

The Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student front of the ruling BNP, accused the Awami League and the intelligence agency of a neighbouring country on Thursday for the killing of former finance minister, Shah AMS Kibria.
   ‘The evil forces committed it to foil the SAARC Summit and to tarnish the country’s image before the world,’ Chhatra Dal president Azizul Bari Helal told a rally at the Aparajeo Bangla in Dhaka University.
   ‘A dead Kibria was very much essential for them in order to foil the summit’, he said.
   The Chhatra Dal held the rally mobilising activists from all over the city, suburbs and the hostels of the university protesting against the hartal called by the Awami League and its alleged attempts to tarnish the country’s image.
   ‘Sheikh Hasina and his expatriate son, Joy, have launched website containing fabricated information to tarnish the country’s image’, Helal said urging people to resist the Awami League.
   ‘Hasina is very much successful in realising her intention of foiling the SAARC summit,’ he added.
   Dubbing Sudha Sadan the Kashimbazar kuthi, the organisation’s general secretary, Shafiul Bari Babu said Hasina
   was hatching conspiracies depicting Bangladesh as
   a country of anarchy and extremist fundamentalism for gaining sympathy from her masters abroad.
   The Chhatra Dal activists brought out a procession from Madhu’s Canteen chanting slogans against Awami League preceding the rally.
   ‘Let the arms of 75 be fired again’ was among the slogans. A banner reading ‘Stop propaganda against Bangladesh’ was also carried by the protersters.

A housewife was hacked to death allegedly by her stepson Abdul Matin over family
   feud at village Domonpukur Sardarpara under Shahjahanpur upazila in Bogra Thursday morning.
   Local people caught Matin and handed over him to the police after a good beating.
   The police recovered the body of the victim, Safia Khatun, 32, second wife of Abdul Jobber and mother of four-year old Sajib of the same area.
   The people sent the body to Bogra Mohammad Ali Hospital morgue for post-mortem.
   The victim’s father, Shamsuuddin, of village Domonpukur Ambigicha, filed a murder case with the Shahjahanpur police, accusing Matin of the killing.
   Villagers said Matin, 30, an accused in the killing of his wife, Dholi, came out from jail on bail recently after five years.
   Emran, younger brother of the victim, and Tanzila, daughter-in-law, alleged that at about 7:00am on Thursday Matin locked the main door of the house and hit Safia in the head with a spade, killing her on the spot.
   Later, Matin confessed that he had killed his stepmother and challenged everybody. At one stage, local people caught him and beat him.
   Informed, the Shahjahanpur police arrested him with his hand stained with blood and sent to Bogra Mohammad Ali Hospital for treatment.
   Earlier, some criminals kidnapped and strangulated a juvenile Zuhurul of village Katabaria under the same upazila Tuesday night. The police arrested his friend Shakil of same area for his alleged involvement in the killing.

The scheduled upazila representatives’ meeting of the Communist Party of Bangladesh on February 5, in Dhaka has been postponed because of the ongoing political situation.
   A fresh date will be announced later, said a release. The freedom fighters’ reunion of special guerrilla forces of the National Awami Party, the Communist Party of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Chhatra Union, scheduled to be held in Dhaka today, has also been postponed.

A man was sentenced to three days’ simple imprisonment in Comilla on Tuesday for smoking in the additional district magistrate’s court when hearing of a case was going on. The court also fined the convict, M Aiyub Ali, of village Moheshpur in Barura Upazila Tk 500, in default, to suffer one-day more in the jail.

Seven people were sentenced to life term imprisonment by a court in Chapainawabganj Thursday for human trafficking.
   The lifers were Nurul Islam, Shukuruddin, Afazuddin, Oli Alam, Abdur Rahim, Amena Begum and Abdul Khalek.
   According to the prosecution report: the convicts abducted Monir Hossain, 7,and Imam Hossain, 8, from Barisal and confined them to the house of Shukuruddin of a village, Bishwanathpur, under Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj for trafficking them to India.
   The Bangladesh Rifles rescued the children on September 15, 1998 and filed a case in this connection.
   After examining records and witnesses, the judge of the special tribunal-2, Mirza Abdur Rob, handed down the verdict.

The founder principal of Agrabad Mohila College, Chittagong, Shafayat Ahmed Siddiqui, died at Holy Crescent Hospital in the capital on February 1. He was 80.
   Pioneer of commercial education in the country, Professor Siddiqui acted was chairman of Comilla and Jessore education board, director of the Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board and principal of Dhaka College.
   His qul khwani will be held at the Ramganj Government Upazila College Chathal Eidgah ground. He was buried in his family graveyard.

The general secretary of Samyabadi Dal, Dilip Barua, has been nominated coordinator of the Left Democratic Front for three months from Febru- ary 2.
   The front, a combine of leftist political parties, changes its coordinator every three months.
   Dilip replaced the Communist Party of Bangladesh leader, Ruhin Hossain Prince.

Syed Shah Neyamat Ullah, also known as Khawja Mia, of Azimpur Daira Sharif died Thursday morning. He was 72.
   His namaz-e-janaza was held at the Daira Sharif mosque after evening prayers on Thursday evening and he was buried in the family graveyard, said a press release.

The agriculture minister, MK Anwar, Thursday said the government took steps to reform the budget structure with an objective to attain rapid economic growth, and ensure proper utilisation and distribution of the resources for keeping macro-economic stability.
   He was speaking at a meeting on the budget estimation for three years of the ministry and its various affiliated organisations under the mid-term budget framework, in the ministry’s conference room.
   The state minister for agriculture, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, agriculture secretary, ASM Abdul Halim, chief executives of various departments and divisions under the ministry, among others, were present.
   The meeting was informed that under the on-going budget reform process, the budget estimation of the financial years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 would be incorporated. Through the budget estimation, there should be a true reflection of the future mission, vision and objectives of the ministry.
   The ministry has estimated its total expenditure for these three consecutive financial years at Tk 1,985 crore, Tk 2,200 crore and Tk 2,430 crore. The budget allocation for the ministry against the current year is Tk 1,777 crore.
   Terming the budget reforms ‘good step,’ Anwar said the authorities of spending of the allocated budget money should be decentralised. ‘Mental preparations are essential for utilising the allocated money properly. The quality of work and the accountability of the local level officials will be enhanced if the ministry gives them more power.’

The detectives supported by the regular police are in the process of detecting the unruly hartal activists from the police videos as well as from the footages of the satellite television channels in the country, the home ministry sources said Thursday.
   ‘Detectives are on their work to identify the people who have been trying to create an anarchic situation in the name of enforcement of hartals,’ a senior official of the ministry said.
   The footages from the satellite television channels and the police videos would be the prime source for such identification, he added.
   The official said some hartal activists have already been identified and some of
   them were already arrested for their direct involvements in setting fire on buses and hurling bombs.
   The police patrol has been geared up in some areas of Mirpur, Mohammadpur and in the old Dhaka areas, where women have been kept ready in rented houses for using them during hartal hours.
   Meanwhile, the ministry of home affairs has decided to put the arrested with specific charges of damaging and
    setting fire on vehicles and hurling bombs under speedy trial act.
   The law enforcing agencies have been asked to remain alert to face any untoward incidents, the official added.

Gold of 1.136 Kg (1,136 grams) weight worth about Tk 11 lakh was recovered Thursday by the east zone of the Coast Guard, along with the Bandar police, in the Bandar Tila area in Chittagong.

A court here on Monday sentenced a man to life term in jail for possessing illegal arms.
   The convict, Rabiul Islam Rabu of village Raghunathpur under Kaliganj upazila was tried in absentia.

Pro-opposition professionals in Rajshahi on Thursday urged the people to start an anti-government movement.
   At a rally at the zero point, organised by the Peshajibi Oikya Parishad, they urged people from all walks of life to be united and take to the streets for a movement to unseat the ruling government.
   The rally was addressed by the former vice chancellor of the Rajshahi University, Professor Saidur Rahman Khan, the president of the Bangladesh College Teachers’ Association’s Rajshahi unit, Abdul Bari, the Rajshahi University Progressive Teachers’ Alliance convener, Professor  Nurullah, the Muktijuddha Pathagar president, Shafique Rahman Badsha, the Rajshahi unit president of Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Abul Hossain, the Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad president, Dr Shafiqul Islam, human rights activist Jahangir Alam Badsha, the Diploma Engineers Association president, Merajul Haque and others.

A three-day regional steering committee meeting of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal and Regional Technical Coordination Committee meeting of the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains will begin at Spectra Convention Centre, Gulshan-1 in Dhaka on
   Sunday.
   The agriculture minister, MK Anwar as the chief guest and the secretary of the ministry, ASM Abdul Halim would attend the inaugural session while the chairman of the steering committee and the chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Dr Badaruddin Soomro would preside over the session, said a press release.
   The meeting would review the rice-wheat yielding patterns, activities and finally adopt recommendations to help strengthen the food security measures of Bangladesh through increasing rice-wheat system productivity.
   About 128 specialists, policy makers, planners and representatives from agricultural organisations of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Mexico, USA, UK, France, Italy, Australia, Philippines, Peru, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Taiwan and
   Africa were expected to participate in the meeting, added the release.