A young man died at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital early Monday five hours after his arrest by the Rapid Action Battalion from his Bogra town residence.
   The deceased was identified as Moniruzzaman Romi, 20. The battalion said they arrested Romi as he was a listed criminal.
   But Romi’s father, Yasin Ali, general secretary of Ward 8 unit of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, said his son was innocent and he was a master-roll employee of the Bangladesh Railway.
   The lawmen in collaboration with Fazlur Rahman and Nur Uddin Sheikh Dulal, leaders of motor owners’ association, arresting Romi, he alleged.
   The battalion said they arrested Romi in his Haddipatti residence at about 10:45pm on Sunday and he was sick then.
   ‘No one tortured him and we handed him over to the police. He died after admission to the hospital,’ claimed the RAB Bogra camp commander, Captain Mahbub.
   The officer-in-charge of Bogra thana, Ahsan Habib, said they took Romi to the hospital immediately after receiving him from RAB Sunday night.
   He died at the hospital at about 3:45am Monday, the OC said, adding that the post-mortem examination report would reveal the cause of his death.
   The body was handed over to the relatives after the post-mortem examination.
   An unnatural death case was filed with the police.

Participants in a programme have said the alarming rate of degradation of climate, environment, ecology and bio-diversity can be reduced by expanding use of alternative energy sources like biogas.
   Disseminating the technology for setting up of the eco- friendly biogas plants can expand use of locally produced biogas in cooking and other purposes to reduce the pressure on the firewood throughout the country, they said.
   The speakers made the observation at the inaugural ceremony of Biogas Expansion Programme organised by Bandhan, an NGO, with the assistance of Infrastructure Development Company Limited at Bindhara Girls High School in Panchbibi upazila of Jaipurhat on Sunday.
   Chaired by Bandhan president Faruk Chowdhury, the programme was attended by the UP chairman, Abdul Basher, as the chief guest while the executive director of Gram Unnayan Prochesta, Rafiqul Islam and Bandhan coordinator, Biplob Chowdhury, were present as special guests.
   Bandhan executive Sohrab Hossain, businessman Golam Faruk, journalists Abdul Halim, Nirmal Roy, Dildar Hossain and Sajal Kumar Das, among others, spoke at the programme.
   Bandhan has undertaken a huge programme of setting up of 300 biogas plants in the area and organized the discussion with a view to motivating the common people in expanding setting up of biogas plants.
   The common people, who were present in the meeting, expressed their firm decisions for using biogas in cooking, lighting and generation of electricity purposes and using the residues as organic fertilizers in their crop fields.
   At present, about 100 biogas plants are producing biogas in the area using cow dung and poultry droppings, waste biomass and hyacinth and have ensured a smoke-free, odor-free, clean and healthy cooking environment for the rural
   people.
   The speakers also said the biogas plants are now being used mainly for cooking purposes with further possibilities for lighting mantels of lanterns, generating electricity for running lights, fans, televisions and converting it into mechanical power for running machines like irrigation pumps.
   Huge wood trees will be saved after installation of over five lakh biogas plants in the country by 2012 next by different organisations and presently, over 30,000 biogas plants are producing biogas in rural areas contributing a lot as an alternative source to totally eco-friendly energy, they said.

Four persons were killed and 25 others injured in a road accident on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway in Gazipur sadar upazila on Monday.
   Two of the deceased were identified as bus driver Kabir Ahmed, 26, of Mirpur in Dhaka, and Rabiul Islam Jewel, 25, of Debiganj in Panchagarh.
   The identity of two others could not be known immediately.
   According to the witnesses, a Dhaka-bound bus of Rupali Paribahan coming from Panchagarh collided head-on with a Tangail-bound bus in the Kodda Bridge area, killing four persons on the spot and injuring 25 others.
   Local people took the injured to Gazipur General Hospital.
   The police recovered the bodies and sent them to the hospital morgue for post-mortem examination.
   After the accident, traffic on the highway was disrupted as hundreds of vehicles remained stranded on both sides.

The Detective Branch of Police seized a truck loaded with 160 sacks of Indian Potas fertiliser and arrested two persons in this connection in the Modem area of Rangpur district town early Monday.
   Acting on a tip-off, a DB police team intercepted a Thakurgaon-bound truck coming from Gobindaganj in Gaibandha at about 4:30am.
   They seized the agri-input after searching the vehicle. The police also arrested truck driver Forman Ali and his helper Mohin in this connection, the police said.
   Din Bhandu Das, inspector of DB police told New Age that the seized fertiliser was smuggled in from India.
   The smuggled fertilisers were repacked in locally made sacks, he said.
   ‘A syndicate is selling substandard Indian fertilisers to farmers under the label of Bangladesh,’ he added.
   The police recorded a case under Special Powers Act.

A woman, who was beaten allegedly by her husband, died at Bhagolpur Zahirul Islam Medical College Hospital in Bajitpur upazila of Kishoreganj Sunday morning.
   Local people said Shahin Miah of village Sarishpur severely beat his wife Ripa Akter, 22, following an altercation over family feud Saturday night.
   Ripa, mother of a daughter, was admitted to the hospital where she died the following morning.
   The police arrested Shahin after victim’s father filed a case.