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The Karnaphuli Paper Mills Limited has been incurring a loss of Tk 50 lakh every day since Friday after its turbine plant suffered heavy damage in a fire for the second time in a span of eight days.
   It will take another four to five days to repair the burnt plant for resuming production, said Mir Muzaffar Ali, managing director of the KPM.
   Electric short circuit was blamed for the fire at the turbine plant of the KPM, one of the largest paper manufacturing mills in Asia. The KPM turns out more than 32,000 tonnes of paper a year.
   Earlier a fire at the washing plant of the KPM on November 11 kept it inoperative for two consecutive days.
   The KPM management has formed a four-member team to investigate into the causes of repeated fire incident at the mills.
   Established at Chandraghona under Kaptai upazila in 1953, the KPM has a workforce of more than 3,500.

Many of the voluntary organisations, which have mushroomed in Lalmonirhat, allegedly misuse the grants sanctioned by the government every year for social welfare activities.
   Local sources said more than half of the estimated 181 voluntary organisations across the district exist in name only. Yet the presidents and secretaries of these name only organisations manage the government grant every year by pleasing a section of employees of the social welfare department only spend it for their personal aggrandisement.
   Signboard is all these fake organisations have. The government offers grant to these organisations to create mass awareness against dowry, corruption, health hazards and many other social evils. But the office bearers of these fake voluntary organisations squander away the government grants for their personal benefits, according to the sources.
   Offices of some of these organisations are being used for gambling and gossiping.
   Talking to New Age, a teacher of a high school in Lalmonirhat town said a section of corrupt employees of the social welfare department helped the fake voluntary organisations in getting the government grant in exchange for bribe. It would be impossible to take action against the fake voluntary organisations until the corrupt employees of the social welfare organisation were taken to task, he maintained.
   Of the total voluntary organisations in the district, 41 are at sadar, 32 at Aditmari, 35 at Kaliganj, 33 at Hatibandha and 22 at Patgram upazilas.
   Eight organisations now function in Lalmonirhat municipality.

Three persons, including in housewife, were killed in Jessore and Magura on Monday.
   Jhantu, 40, cadre of an underground party, was abducted by activists the Purbabanglar Communist Party (ML-Janojuddha) from his residence at village Mamunshia under Jhenaidah sadar and brought to village Swaruppur under Chaugachha upazila in Jessore on Sunday night.
   His body was recovered by the Chaugachha police on Monday morning and sent it to the Jessore 250-bed Hospital for post-mortem examination.
   Sabina, 19, a newly wed housewife, was tortured to death at his residence allegedly by her husband Mohammad Sabuj of Nityanandapur under Baghar-para upazila in Jessore on early Monday.
   The police recovered the body and sent it to the same hospital morgue.
   Her brother Musa of village Paroli under Narail sadar alleged that Sabuj tried to bury her alive one month ago but the local people rescued her. He further alleged that she was kept confined in the house of her husband for the last few days and was finally strangled on Monday.
   Unidentified assailants slaugh-tered Rafiqul islam, 38, son of Omar Ali of village Rawtara under Magura sadar.
   The police recovered his body from river Naboganga at village Narihati under sadar upazila at about 5:30pm.
   The police suspected that Rafiqul was abducted by the group on Sunday night on his way home.

The police recovered a Chinese pistol with 15 rounds of bullets snatched from a police escort of a oil tanker three weeks ago in the river Meghna and arrested a oil tanker staff and his father from Wazirpur upazila in Barisal.
   Police sources said Russell, 26, a lascar of the oil tanker OT Panama plying the Chittagong-Narayanganj route, snatched the pistol along with 15 rounds of ammunitions from Subedar Alimuzzaman of range reserve forces and the police escort of that tanker near Chandpur on November 1 and fled.
   A case was filed against Russell of village Bisharkandi under Wazirpur.
   Tipped off, the police raided the house of Sumon Mia, a relative of Russell, at village Shibpur under Wazirpur and arrested Russell Sunday night from there.
   Basing his statement, the police recovered the snatched pistol and ammunitions and also detained his father. Both of them were sent to jail on Monday.

More than 20 people were injured in clash between two groups over the share of smuggled goods on Mogolhat border under Lalmonirhat sadar early Sunday.
   Three of the injured Mizan, 28, Bakkor, 42, and Safik, 25, were taken to Rangpur Medical College Hospital and the rest were sent to local health complexes and hospitals.
   According to locals, a group of smugglers led by Mizan smuggled Indian goods including salt, sugarcane, spices, Phensidyl and hemp worth Tk 50 thousand and hidden these into a bamboo cluster near the border.
   Another smuggler gang led by Bakkor took away these smuggled goods resulting the clash.
   Both the groups fled after a team of the Bangladesh Rifles rushed to the spot. The BDR team, however, could not recover the smuggled goods.

Only four days after the killing of Faridpur journalist Goutam Das, Chapainawabganj correspondent of the Bangla daily Dinkal Monirul Islam Badol was threatened with death on Monday morning.
   Badol told journalists that he had an altercation with an employee of the Tax Department of Chapainawabganj Muni-cipality, Ruhul Amin, after a group of municipal labourers had attempted to assault the rickshaw puller carrying Badal on Boro Indara-Fakirpara Road in the town.
   Badol left the place but Ruhul intercepted him at Boro Indara Square and threatened him to blow out by bombs within 24 hours.
   After the threat, the Chapainawabganj Press Club called an emergency meeting at its office instantly with the president of the club, Golam Mostafa Montu, in the chair.
   The speakers condemned the death threat and demanded his arrest immediately.
   A general diary was lodged with the sadar police in this connection.

Three persons were killed and three injured in a road accident in the Krisnapur area on the Magura-Faridpur Highway Sunday night. They are Liton, 22, Swarajit, 30, and another unidentified person.