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The Nilphamari Contractors’ Welfare Association on Tuesday accused the executive engineer of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Dalia Division, of violating rules for giving the work of construction of a groyne in Teesta Irrigating Project to his favoured Dhaka based company.
   The association threatened to stop all operational and maintenance work of the Teesta Irrigation Project if the wok order given to the Dhaka based construction firm for the construction of the groyne was not cancelled immediately.
   Addressing a press conference in the district town, Rafiqul Islam, convener of the association, alleged that the executive engineer of Dalia Division manipulated tender documents for the construction of a groyne at the right embankment of the Teesta Irrigation Project at a cost of Tk 6 crore funded by the Asian Development Bank.
   The groyne was to be built at Holdibari point under Jaldhaka upazila in Nilphamari.
   Rafiqul complained that the executive engineer in question violated tender rules by intentionally delaying sending of the tender schedules to bank for selling to interested parties. The executive engineer also did not provide copy of tender to the BWDB web site for the information of the contractors. This has deprived the potential bidders of getting information about this particular project, he maintained.
   The executive engineer of Dalia Division has resorted to malpractices in inviting tender for the construction of the groyne only for giving the work to the Dhaka based company in exchange for hefty commission, he charged.
   Earlier on January 23, the aggrieved contractors submitted a petition to the water resources minister calling for cancellation of the tender and holding investigation into the matter.
   They threatened to besiege the BWDB office in the district and stop all operational and maintenance work of the Teesta Irrigation Project if their demand was not met immediately.
   The executive engineer of the Dalia Division could not be contacted immediately for his comment on the allegation of the aggrieved contractors.

Four persons were killed in Pabna, Shariatpur and Lakshmipur on Sunday night and Monday.
   New Age Pabna correspondent reports that unidentified assailants hacked a young man to death in the Bamandanga Garkabell area under Pabna sadar upazila on Monday night.
   The deceased is Rafiqul Islam, 30, of village Rasulpur under Santhia upazila in the district.
   The police said a gang of arms miscreants attacked the house of Mazibur Rahman and kidnapped his son Rafiqul Monday evening. They took him to the Bamandanga Garkabell area and killed him.
   On Tuesday morning, the police recovered the body and sent it to the Pabna General Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination.
   A case was filed with the police in this regard.
   The police said Rafiqul was an accused in a number of cases including murder and extortion.
   A UNB report from Shariatpur said: A man was beaten to death by his rivals at village Sayedbasta under Damudya upazila on Sunday night over irrigating a land.
   The deceased is Abdul Majid, 52.
   The police said Majid had an altercation with his co-villager Khalilur Rahman and his brother Mahbub on Sunday night over irrigation of both of their lands.
   At one stage, Khalil and Mahbub beat up Majid, leaving him seriously injured. Majid died on way to hospital.
   The police arrested Khalilur Rahman in connection with the killing.
   Meanwhile, the police recovered the body of a man from a paddy field at village Dhamaran under Naria upazila on Monday morning.
   The deceased is Nazrul Peyada, 40, of the village.
   Family sources said Nazrul on Saturday went to Dhaka to bring money from his brother and was to return from the capital along with the money on Sunday. But his body was found in the paddy field on Monday morning.
   A case was filed with the police.
   Another UNB report from Lakshmipur adds: The body of an elderly person was recovered from village Uttar Feroa under Raipur upazila on Monday.
   On information, the police recovered the body of Abdul Latif, 70, from a canal and sent it to the Sadar Hospital morgue.
   He might have been killed following a land dispute, local people said. A case was filed with the police.

At least 10 people were injured in separate clashes between two groups of Juba League in Jessore on Sunday and Monday. The clash erupted on Sunday following the attack on a leader of BCL on February 21.
   On Sunday evening, a faction of Juba League, youth front of the Awami League, attacked a rally of its Bhekutia UP unit, injuring at least four persons.
   On Monday, another group of Juba League activists attacked some Juba League activists at Kajipara in the town injuring six.
   Of the injured Palash, Abed and Badal were admitted to Jessore General Hospital.
   On February 21, Shafiqul Islam, Jessore district unit organising secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, was seriously injured in an attack by a faction of the organisation following internal feud. He came under attack at Puratankashba in the town while he was returning from the district’s central Shaheed Minar after placing wreath.

Two women of a family died and four others fell sick after mistakenly taking pesticide at village Sayedabad under Lakshmipur sadar upazila Monday.
   The police said the family members of Abdul Mannan took tea prepared mistakenly with granule pesticide in the evening. As a result, all the six members of his family fell sick. They were taken to Sadar Hospital where Solema Khatun, 70, wife of Mannan, and her daughter in-law Ayesha Begum, 40, died.

The army in a post dawn raid on Monday rounded up three gun-runners and recovered two AK56 assault rifles with magazines and ammunitions from Roangchhari bus stand in the Bandarban town.
   The arrested were identified as Mong Ching Thoai, 40, Ganjyak Marma, 22, and Chey Mong Marma, 26.
   The army caught them red handed along with two AK56 assault rifles, two magazines and five rounds of ammunition from a Chittagong bound bus. The army suspected that the arrested were trying to smuggle out the firearms.
   The arrested were being interrogated at the Bandarban regional headquarters of the army.
   Earlier, on Saturday, the joint forces comprising the army and Bangladesh Rifles recovered a large cache of sophisticated and modern arms, ammunition and combat materials from a jungle on the border of Naikhyangchari and Alikadam upazilas in Bandarban.

Leaders of the landless people of village Mohammadnagar under Batiyaghata upazila in Khulna at a press conference at the Khulna Press Club on Monday morning demanded eviction of the land grabbers from khas land and an end of oppression on them.
   Md Shafiqul Islam, representing the landless people, read out the written statement at the conference which was attended, among others, by Advocate Firoz Ahmed, Khalid Hossain and Ferdaus Hossain of two NGOs Rupayan and Nijera Kori respectively.
   They alleged that the land grabbers had already grabbed a good chunk of land and were continuously oppressing the landless people by threatening and lodging false cases against them.
   The conference was told that Mohammadnagar, a densely populated village built on six hundred acres of government land adjacent to the Khulna city, was the home to about five thousand landless people.
   The press conference was followed by a protest procession that marched across the thoroughfares of the city.