AN UNDERGROUND party operative was killed and another injured in a bomb explosion at village Nariagadai under Santhia upazila in Pabna early Thursday.
   The deceased was identified as Abdullah, 35, a member of the Purba Banglar Communist Party. He was also a listed criminal, the police said.
   According to the police, the bomb one of the party operatives carrying suddenly went off at about 4:00am when a patrol team led by sub-inspector Sharif of the Ataikula police station chased them. The extremists were returning after looting valuables from the houses of Khairul Islam and Habibul Bashar at village Bhulbaria under the upazila.
   Abdullah died on the spot. The police recovered the body and sent it to the Pabna General Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   Seriously injured Moni, 26, of village Gopalpur, was admitted to Santhia Upazila Health Complex.

ARMED robbers looted 28 tolas of gold and valuables worth about Tk 7 lakh from nine houses at village Chandola under Brahmanpara upazila in Comilla on Wednesday night.
   About 25 to 30 armed robbers wearing masks entered the house of Nirod Master breaking open the door. They injured the house owner and looted 28 tolas of gold ornaments worth Tk 4.5 lakh. The bandits also looted valuables worth about Tk 1 lakh from the house.
   On the same night, the robbers looted the houses of Sadhan Chandra Pal, Dilip Chandra Pal, Harpada Pal, Mukul Mohandra Pal, Mukta Rani Pal and looted goods and valuables worth around Tk 1.5 lakh.
   The police arrested Md Mainuddin, 22, of village Pornamoti and Md Robiul, 23, of village Kalikrisnanagar under Burichang upazila in connection with the robbery incidents.

THE police recovered a revolver with six rounds of bullet from the house of an expatriate at Barlekha upazila headquarters in Moulvibazar on Thursday.
   Tipped off, a police team led by the officer-in-charge of the Barlekha police station went to the under construction building of Shahab Uddin, a UK expatriate, near the tempo stand area and recovered the revolver and bullets from a room of first floor of the five-storied building.
   Owner of the building was not present during the recovery. No arrest was made in this connection. The police registered a case.

SMUGGLED timber worth about Tk 50 lakh were seized from seven sawmills under Juri upazila in Moulvibazar on Thursday.
   A team of the upazila administration and forest department led by Juri upazila nirbahi officer Zakir Hussain conducted the drive at the saw-mills and seized five trucks loaded with smuggled timber.
   None was, however, arrested. The seized timber was deposited to local customs office.

A JAIPURHAT court on Thursday sentenced five persons to life-term imprisonment in the sensational Asir Uddin murder case.
   Two of the convicts are absconding. They are Mokhlesur Rahman, 42, of village Bhanai Kushlia and Anwar Hossain, 40, of village Bisnupur under sadar upazila. The other convicts are Abdus Samad, 65, of village Doripara, and Eskender Ali, 55, of village Chandpur under the same upazila.
   They were also fined Tk 5,000 each, in default, to suffer one-year more in jail.
   According to the prosecution, a member of Dholahar Union Parishad under sadar upazila, Bazlur Rashid alias Hamidul, 45, of village Baliator, raped wife of Asir Uddin, 30, of the same village in February 2000. Asir lodged a complaint against the UP member with the UP Chairman seeking justice.
   Influential UP member Bazlur became furious and killed Asir with the help of hired thugs on the night of March 3, 2000 and left the body near Baro Kalimandir in nearby village Ichua.
   Younger brother of the victim filed a murder case and the police submitted the charge sheet against the five accused persons.
   Public prosecutor Advocate Hean Kabir appeared for the state while Advocate Golam Robbani defended the accused.