DISTRESSED children, who carry food for policemen in Rangamati, will now be able to enlighten themselves as a primary school has been set up for them.
   The Rangamati police super, Md Abdul Baten, who is the initiator of the institution, on Saturday inaugurated the night school styled ‘Education Activity for Orphans and Distressed Students.’
   The boys, who work for policemen, orphans and distressed children, who live adjacent to the school, will get chance for studying in the school, the SP said in the opening ceremony at Police Lines Government Primary School as chief guest.
   Classes and examinations will be held every month and the students, who will score first, second and third places, will get Tk 200 as stipend, the SP said adding that Tk 100 will be given for regular attendance.
   The school starts its journey with 28 students.
   Additional SP Amena Begum and Circle ASP Shaikh Joynuddin were present as special guests. Editor of the Giridarpan AKM Maqsud Ahmed and headmistress of the Police Lines Government Primary School Chikochi Mogh, among others, spoke.
   Later, education equipment, including books, papers and pens, were distributed among the students of the new school.

A CHUADANGA court on Monday sentenced four persons to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment an extortion case. Another court in Barisal jailed five persons for 13 years for committing robbery in a launch.
   In Chuadanga, the court also fined the four convicts Tk 10,000 each, in default, to suffer six months more in jail.
   The convicts are Shohag and Kausar Ali, of village Bhandardoha, Riaz, of village Dottail Chuadanga and Sharif of village Shreepur in the Jhenaidah district headquarters.
   According to the procession, the convicts demanded Tk 20,000 as extortion from one Shahidul Islam of village Subdia in the Chuadanga district headquarters on June 30, 1996.
   Shahid filed the case against them.
   Sub-inspector of the sadar police station Nurul Amin submitted charge sheet on September 9, 2007.
   Additional district and sessions judge Motahar Hossain delivered the judgment.
   In Barisal, a court sentenced five persons to 13 years of rigorous imprisonment for committing robbery in a launch three years back.
   First additional district and sessions judge Siddikul Arefin Chowdhury handed down the verdict.
   The convicts are Samir, Rubel, Foisal, Foyez and Sohel. Of them, only Samir was on the dock while the rest were tried in their absence.
   The court also acquitted nine others. Two other accused, Nantu and Rafiq, died in ‘crossfire’ with the Rapid Action Battalion during the trial of the case.
   According to the prosecution, the convicts looted cash and valuables worth about Tk 2 lakh from the passengers of MV Jalpangko launch which was going to Patabunia from Dhaka on October 16, 2004.
   Azizul Huq Akkas, proprietor of the launch, filed the case accusing 16 persons with the Bakerganj police station on October 19, 2004.

SNATCHERS took away more than Tk 6 lakh from two hospital employees on Bishwanath–Rampasha road near Nakikhai Bridge in the Sylhet city on Monday.
   The police picked up the two employees for interrogation. They are Abdul Zalil and Fani Bhushan Sarker, both were working in the Bishwanath Upazila Hospital’s account department.
   Quoting the two, the police said three snatchers riding on a motorcycle stopped another motorcycle, where Zalil and Sarker boarded on, near Nakikhai Bridge at about 11:30am and took away Tk 6.20 lakh from them.
   The hospital employees were returning after drawing the salary of the hospital staff from the Notun Bazar branch of the Sonali Bank in the upazila.
   The hospital authorities, however, suspected that the incident was fixed and the two were involved in the incident. A case was filed with the police.

THE police arrested 11 suspected robbers at Taraboniarchhara in Cox’s Bazar district town Monday.
   They also seized a gun and eight knives from the possessions of Abu Bakar, 18, Suman, 21, Masedul Hoque, 22, Liton, 20, Tipu Sultan, 20, Mohammad Hanif, 18, Abu Bakkar Siddique, 24, Ali Ahmed, 20, Mohammad Imran, 20, Shahabuddin, 20, and Ariful Islam, 20.