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At least 16 people, mostly women and children, died and more than 50 went missing as an engine boat capsized in the Sandwip Channel on Thursday.
   According to the police and local people, ML Imrul Kashem with over 100 passengers on board left Guptachhara of Sandwip for Kumira in Sitakunda and capsized near the Sitakunda coast at about 12:30pm due to strong current.
   The police supernatant, Ansaruddin Khan, told New Age that 12 bodies had been recovered till 5:00pm though the local people claimed that they had recovered 16 bodies.
   Thirteen of the victims were identified as Surma Begum, 40, Khaleda Begum, 35, Fahim Uddin, 7, Ishrat Jahan Proma, 5, Tanin, 10, Abdul Munshi, 50, Noor Jahan, 25, Rina, 12, Rabin, 7, Rubel, 10, Omi, 10, Basher Mistri, 60, and Anwar Hossain, 70, the locals said.
   They said five to seven passengers had managed to swim ashore, 30 to 35 had been rescued by the local people and the fishermen while the rest of the passengers were remaining missing.
   The relatives of the missing passengers were searching for their near and dear ones in the channel with fishing boats. No salvage team was engaged by the local administration till afternoon.
   In another accident in the same channel, three persons went missing as MV Azmir, a cargo boat, sank on its way to Guptachhara from Kumira at about 10:30am due to strong current.

The US Ambassador in Dhaka, Patricia A Butenis, said on Thursday her government hoped that the trend of free and fair election that had begun in 1991 under a caretaker system of administration, would continue in Bangladesh.
   She expressed the hope while exchanging views on different social, political and bilateral issues separately with the minister for health and family welfare, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, and the minister for social welfare, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed. She called on the ministers at their respective offices at the secretariat.
   ‘About the coming election process, I told her (Butenis) that everything will happen systematically,’ the health minister told reporters after the meeting.
   The US ambassador expressed her satisfaction, especially with the reduction in maternal mortality and infant mortality rates. She also praised the government for formulating a strategy on avian influenza and said her government had already extended support in establishing a high quality laboratory in Bangladesh initiated by the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, sources said adding that a memorandum of understanding between the two governments was signed in this regard.
   About his discussion with the ambassador, Mojahieed told reporters the US expected that the next election would be free and fair and free. ‘Such trend started in 1991 under a caretaker system of the government in the country and this will hopefully continue in the elections ahead,’ he quoted Butenis as saying.
   ‘I told her that Jamaat does not have any conflict with people not belonging to the Muslim community, it rather deeply respects all religions,’ the minister, who is also the secretary general of the Jamaat, said.
   Butenis said she had very friendly talks with the minister on different matters including social welfare activities and minority issues.
   The US ambassador also called on the advisor to the energy and mineral resources division, Mahmudur Rahman at his office at the secretariat.

The government and garment factory owners should implement the tripartite agreement immediately to tackle the crisis in the garment industry, speakers said at a roundtable on Thursday.
   Without implemeting the agreement, it would be tough to minimise the labour unrest in the garment factories, they told the National Press Club discussion on ‘crisis in
   garment industry and ways of solution’ organised by the Bangladesh National
   Council of Textile Garments and Leather Workers’ Federation.
   Referring to the recent labour unrest, Abul Bashar said it was nothing, but an outburst of grievances of the workers.
   He also urged the garment factory owners to meet all the legitimate demands of the garment workers to calm down labour unrest in the garment industry.
   Chaired by the federation president, Mamunur Rashid Chowdhury, the meeting was also addressed by labour leaders Wazedul Islam Khan, Shahjahan Khan MP, Abdul Kader Hawlader, Shafiuddin Ahmed, and AZM Kamrul Anam.

The Bangladesh Rifles and Indian Border Security Force exchanged shots at the Hakimpur and Kironganj frontiers in the district early Thursday.
   Major Nawroj, second-in-command of 6 Rifle Battalion, said the BSF men at Ramnagar camp opposite to Hakimpur border outpost fired four shots at the Indian cattle smugglers who were trying to smuggle cattle to Bangladesh at about 3:00am. The BDR also retaliated, he said.
   The BSF at Churi Anantopur camp opposite to Kironganj outpost under Shibganj upazila fired one shot at 4:00am. The situation is, however, clam, he said.

Assailants killed an activist of underground Purba Banglar Communist Party by slitting the throat at Barbhagia in Sujanagar upazila Wednesday night.
   The police said the assailants attacked the in-laws’ house of Ashraful Islam, 35, of Bhatpara village, and dragged him away from the house. Later they killed him nearby a canal.
   Ashraful went to his in-laws’ house Tuesday noon, family sources said. The police suspected that previous enmity might be the reason for the murder.
   The police recovered the headless body and sent it to the Pabna General Hospital morgue for autopsy. A case was filed with the police station in this regard..