A FARIDPUR court on Tuesday sentenced two persons to death for killing a housewife. A Jessore court on the same day convicted a man for keeping heroin.
   Special judge of the Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal in Faridpur Mohammad Nurul Haque sentenced Anwar Sheikh and Awal Sheikh of village Merapara under Madhukhali upazila in the district headquarters. The court also fined each of them Tk 1,000.
   Both of them were present in the dock during the trial.
   According to the prosecution, Anwar had killed his wife Nasima Begum alias Bahana with the association of his uncle Awal on May 1, 2006 as she refused to bring dowry from her parents. Later, they dumped the body of Nasima, mother of two children, into a septic tank of the house.
   The police recovered the decomposed body on May 6. Nasima’s father filed the case with the police accusing six persons of Anwar’s family.
   Four others persons, Batashi Begum, Helena, Bokkar Sheikh and Anguri Begum were acquitted as charge against them could not be proved.
   In Jessore, a court handed down imprisonment for life to Delwar Hossain of village Amrakhali under Sharsha upazila in the district for keeping heroin.
   The court also fined him Tk 5,000, in default, to suffer three months more in prison.
   Special district and session judge Maidul Islam delivered the judgement.
   The prosecution said a team of the narcotics control department had arrested Delwar and recovered 400 grams of heroin on December 2, 2006.

ARMED robbers looted cash and valuables worth several lakh of taka from a house at Khurma under Chhatak upazila of Sunamganj early Tuesday.
   Local people said armed robbers swooped on the house of expatriate Ilias Mia at about 1:00am, beat the residents and confined them in a room. At this, two of the residents sustained serious injuries.
   The criminals then took away Tk 2.5 lakh in cash, 40 tolas of gold ornaments, a camera and three mobile phone sets.
   Hearing the hue and cry local people went to the spot; but the bandits fled firing blank shots.
   Injured Shafiq Mia, 27, and Rafiq Mia, 25, were admitted to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital. A case was filed.
   Another report from Naogaon adds: The police early Tuesday arrested six suspected members of an inter-district robbers’ gang while fleeing with valuables after committing robbery in two buses of a picnic party at Kirtipur Bazar in the district headquarters.

THE joint forces on Tuesday arrested a union council chairman on a charge of misappropriation of government fund in Lalmonirhat.
   The arrested is Sheikh Mohammad Nuruzzaman, chairman of Palashi union parishad under Aditmari upazila.
   According to the police, Nuruzzaman, also a BNP leader, misappropriated government fund of Tk 69,900 in the name of building a bamboo-made bridge over the River Bhateshwari at village Madonpur of the union.
   Local people submitted a written allegation to the Lalmonirhat army camp in last month.
   In the allegation, they said the chairman had misappropriated the money. He had spent only Tk 2 to 3 thousand for building the bridge, they alleged.
   Following the written allegation a team of the joint forces conducted an investigation and picked up the chairman from the premises of Aditmari UNO’s office at about 1:00pm and handed him over to UNO, AYM Zia Uddin Al-Mamun. Later, he was handed over to the Aditmari police.
   The officer in-charge of Aditmari police station said Tuesday evening the chairman was in their custody and the police were preparing to file a case against him.

AT LEAST 57 persons were injured in separate incidents of clash in Gopalganj and Jessore on Monday.
   In Gopalganj, at least 50 persons were injured in a three-hour-long clash between two groups of villagers at Sripur under Kashiani upazila over land dispute.
   The police said there had been a long-standing dispute between present union parishad member Ayub Ali and former member Jaynal Abedin.
   The clash erupted between the two groups when supporters of Ayub Ali tried to make a fence around a disputed land of one Nalini Ranjan Biswas and the supporters of Janal Abedin went to resist them.
   They used lethal weapons during the clash, injuring 50. Fourteen of the injured were admitted to the upazila health complex.
   A team of police failed to control the situation. Later, another contingent of police was sent to the village from district town and it managed to take the situation under control.
   The police arrested four persons whose identities could not be confirmed. A case was filed.
   In Jessore, seven students were injured in a clash between the police and students of Jessore Government MM College on the college campus over the distribution of ‘prasad’, one kind of sweetmeat which is taken by Hindu devotees after prayers, of Swaraswati Puja.
   Witnesses said a quarrel had picked up between two groups of students over the issue.
   As the police tried to interfere, a group of students pelted stones at them. The police also charged batons injuring the seven.

A LOCAL Awami League leader was killed and four were injured in a road accident on the Comilla–Laksam Road at Manoharganj of Laksam in Comilla on Tuesday morning.
   The deceased was the Manoharganj Awami League organising secretary, Md Mostafa Miah, a resident of Pomgai.
   The injured were admitted to hospitals.

THE police on Tuesday morning recovered four hand bombs and a country-made shutter gun from two separate places in Jessore town in abandoned conditions.
   The Jessore Kotwali Model police said the bombs were recovered near the students’ hostel of Jessore Polytechnic Institute while the shutter gun was recovered from the Shankarpur area in the town. But none was arrested.