The police recovered 1,300 bottles of Phensidyl syrup in separate drives in Comilla and Jessore on Thursday.
   In Comilla, the Detective Branch of police recovered 148 bottles of Phensidyl and arrested a man at Banggoda Bazar in sadar upazila.
   The arrested were Abul Kaier, 28, of village Golabari.
   Tipped off, a team of DB police raided the area and arrested the man with the abusive drugs.
   A case was filed.
   In Jessore, according to a UNB report, the police recovered 1,150 bottles of the drug with a private car near a patrol pump in Bridge Keshabpur Bazar in Keshabpur upazila of Jessore on the same day.
   Tipped-off, a team of police raided the Bazar Bridge Ghat Petrol Pump area at about 10:30pm and recovered the Phensidyl from a private car, which was found abandoned.
   The police said smugglers, who brought the Phensidyl through Satkhira border and sending these to capital fled away sensing the arrival of law enforcers.
   Bogra correspondent said the Rapid Action Battalion arrested 24 bottles of the syrup after searching a Dhaka-bound bus in the Nimerparqa area under Shibganj upazila on Friday.
   The police also arrested Saiful Islam, 25, in this connection.
   A case was filed.

A gang of armed robbers looted valuables worth about Tk 4 lakh from a house at village Char Diashur under Gaurnadi upazila in Barisal early Friday.
   Local said the robbers entered the house of one Jahangir Kabiraj identifying themselves as policemen at about 2:00am and looted valuables worth about Tk 4 lakh including foreign currencies and gold ornaments holding the house inmates at gun point and left the place safely with the booties.
   Jahangir and his son Kabir critically injured as the robbers beat them up mercilessly
   when they tried to resist the robbers. They were admitted at Gaurnadi Upazila Health Complex.
   A case was filed.
   Our Gazipur correspondent report the police arrested nine members of inter-district robber’s gang in the Chandana Chawrasta area of sadar upazila on Thursday night.
   The arrested were Mojibur Rahman, 28, Shawan Sheikh, 20, Ali Hossain, 20, Billal, 23, Ful Mia, 22, Mostafa, 22, Abul Hosain, 22, Jakir Hossain, 22 and Ashad, 20.
   The police said they had arrested the criminal while they tried to commit a robbery on a bus on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway.
   The police also seized a bus and some lethal weapons from their possessions.
   The police said they had been involving in robbery on the highway for long.
   A case was filed with the Joydebpur police.

The farmers in Manikganj are expecting a bumper production of maize in the current season.
   A vast tract of land has been brought under maize cultivation in all the seven upazilas of the district and the farmers are expecting a bumper production of the cash crop due to favourable weather and quality seeds.
   Farmers of the district have been brought more land under the maize cultivation this year than the previous years.
   According to the Department of Agriculture Extension in Manikganj, a total of 11,765 hectares of land have been brought under maize cultivation this year whereas 6,765 hectares had been cultivated in the last year.
   The production target has fixed at 61,355 tones, which was 32,755 tonnes in the last year.
   The farmers of the district had been brought 4,700 hectares of land and harvested 23,747 tones of maize in 2006.
   DAE sources said, a few numbers of farmers had started to cultivate maize in their land eight or nine years back.
   Lower production costs, repeated bumper productions and fair prices of the commodity during the last eight to nine years have made the farmers more enthusiastic in farming maize as a substitute cash crop to earn more profits.
   ‘A farmer can produce 20 mounds (37.3242 kilograms) of maize on per bigha of land and per mound maize is being sold at Tk 800 to Tk 1,000’, said Toffazzal Hossain, a farmer of village Annaypur under Shivalaya upazila, adding, that a farmer can easily earn Tk 20,000 investing Tk 5,000 to Tk 6,000 only.
   Mahmud Sarder of village Bara Anulia said he had earned Tk 18,000 from his one bigha of land where the production cost was Tk 5,000 only.
   Another farmer Liton Mollik said he had cultivated maize on two and half bigha of land this year and expecting to earn Tk 40,000.
   Deputy director of DAE Khokan Chandra Nandi said farmers were getting interested of cultivating maize for its easy farming methods and less production cost.
   ‘The farmers will get a bumper production of maize this year,’ he said.

Moulvibazar district administration has dropped the name of former finance minister M Saifur Rahman from ‘Sherpur Square’ and renamed it as ‘Muktijuddha Chattar.’
   Sherpur, a major river port, borders Moulvibazar and Sylhet districts and bears the memories of liberation war heroes who sacrificed their life in a fierce battle with the Pakistani soldiers in 1971.
   Moulvibazar Zila Parishad constructed a fountain and a concrete structure at the intersection of Sylhet-Dhaka and Moulvibazar- Sylhet highways at Sherpur in 2006 and named the square it after M Saifur Rahman, the then finance minister.
   Freedom fighters of the district recently submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner of Moulvibazar and Moulvibazar Zila Parishad demanding that the historic square should be renamed in memory of war heroes.
   The issue was discussed in the monthly meeting of Moulvibazar district development coordination committee last week. It was unanimously decided in the meeting that the Sherpur Square should be named ‘Muktijuddha Chattar’.
   Freedom fighters and leaders of different political parties thanked Moulvibazar district administration and Moulvibazar Zila Parishad for this decision.
   During the immediate-past regime of BNP-led alliance government, Saifur got his name tagged to a number of establishments.
   His name was attached to the century-old Jagatshi Gopal Krishna High School in Moulvibazar, which was changed to Jagatshi GK
   Saifur Rahman School and College, with the founder’s name abbreviated as GK.

Md Jalal Uddin, the chairman of the Pachuria union council at Alfadanga in Faridpur, was on Friday arrested for illegally keeping Vulnerable Group Feeding rice in his office warehouse.
   Tipped off, the Rapid Action Battalion personnel raided the warehouse and seized 5,700 kilograms of rice, packed in 114 sacks, each containing 50 kilograms.
   The battalion later arrested the chairman, who stored the rice after the distribution period had been over.
   The Alfadanga upazila nirbahi officer allocated 19.95 tonnes of rice for distribution among VGF card holders in the union. But the chairman stashed away a portion of the rice.
   Sources said the chairman also failed to explain the matter and produce the correct account of the distribution.
   Jalal was handed to the Alfadanga police after a case had been filed against him by the battalion.