Several hundred businessmen blocked the Narail-Jessore Highway in Narail town on Tuesday over the death of a fellow.
   The agitating businessmen of Rupganj Bazar blocked the road in front of district press club disrupting traffic from 5:30pm to 8:00pm.
   They alleged that Ranjit Nandi, 55, a cloth trader, died of cardiac arrest as custom officers forced him to pay Tk 2,400 as vat in the afternoon.
   They also confined custom, excise and vat, Jessore circle-2 superintendent Mollah Wazed Ali, inspectors Feroz Hossain, Nabiruddin, Nirod Kumar, Rabiul Islam, Sukumar Das and Ranjit Kumar Samaddar and constables Ansar Uddin and Abdul Malek for two and half hours.
   Later, the police super, Harun or Rashid, and officer-in-charge of the sadar police station Md Mossaraf Hossain went to the spot and rescued the officers.
   He said they would take actions against the officials if they were found guilty.

A Barisal court on Tuesday sentenced a trader to nine years’ rigorous imprisonment for hoarding fertilisers.
   The judge of the second special tribunal, Siddiqul Arefin Chowdhury, handed down the virditc.
   The court also fined the convict Niranjan Sarkar, Batajore Bazar under Gaurnadi upazila of the district, Tk 1,000, in default, to suffer two years more in jail.
   According to the prosecution, a police team led by sub-inspector Khaledur Rahman raided Niranjan’s fertiliser godown at Batajore Bazaaron January 20, 2007.
   During the raid, the police seized 350 sacks of fertiliser from the godown.
   The police also arrested Niranjan on charge of hoarding the fertiliser.
   The police filed a case with the Gournadi police station in this connection.
   The investigation officer Shamsuddin submitted a charge sheet against the accused in the case on April 9, 2007.
   After examining eight witnesses and evidences, the court announced the verdict.

Participants in a farmers’ gathering in Rangpur stressed the need for proper dissemination of knowledge about the latest agri-technologies to the farmers to increase agriculture production.
   They made the observation while addressing the gatheringon ‘Pests Management on Brinjal through IPM’ at village Mahiganj under sadar upazila for the farmers.
   The Department of Agricultural Extension organised the gathering with a view to educating the farmers about the positive impact of IPM methods.
   The speakers said production costs of all variety crops will be reduced, soil fertility will improved through proper usage of the IPM methods of pests management by the educated farmers at the field levels.
   At the same time, production costs of all variety crops will be reduced, the soil fertility will be improved through proper usage of the IPM methods of pests management by the educated farmers at the field levels, they said.
   A total of 300 male and female farmers of the area took part in the gathering to get practical knowledge on the IPM method of pests management from the agri experts.
   Chaired by the deputy director of DAE, Rangpur, Kamal Shariful Alam, the programme was addressed by additional director of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Rangpur Agriculture Zone M Abdur Rouf as chief guest.
   Deputy director of the DAE from Additional Director’s Office Nur Mohammad, senior horticulturists of the DAE, Harun Ur Rashid, plant protection specialist of the DAE, Rabban Ali, sadar upazila agriculture officer Alhaj Delbar Hossain, among others, were present.
   The DAE experts narrated the latest technologies and IPM methods of pests’ managements in the vegetables fields to educate the farmers on the issues with a view to disseminating the technology at the grass roots level.

Two persons drowned as a trawler capsized in the River Rahamatkhali on Thursday.
   The deceased were identified as Malek Majhi, 35, and Belal Majhi, boatmen of the trawler.
   Local sources said the trawler sank in the river after collision with a ferry in the morning at Charramanimohon, two kilometres away from Muj Chowdhury ferry ghat of the district.
   The bodies could not be recovered till filing of the report at about 6:00pm.
   In another incident, a small fishing-boat carrying four persons sank in the river. Fishermen later rescued two minors, Liton, 9, and Rasel, 7. But two others remaine missing.

A freedom fighter was killed in a road accident at Bonapara under Natore sadar upazila early Thursday.
   The deceased is Roziur Rahman Bishu, ex-commander of Chapainawabganj district unit of the Bangladesh Muktijodha Sangsad.
   Locals said Roziur, 56, died when a Chapainawabganj-bound bus from Dhaka fell into a road-side ditch at about 2:30am.

At Least 30 shops were gutted by a fire in Mathbaria pourashava area Wednesday midnight.
   Fire brigade sources said the fire broke out at a medicine shop Pharmacy Patti at about 12:15 am and soon engulfed other adjacent shops.
   On information, firefighters came to the spot and extinguished the fire.
   Affected shop owners estimated the losses caused by fire at about Tk 1.5 crore.