A GAZIPUR court on Thursday sentenced one person to life-term imprisonment for abducting a schoolgirl in the district two years ago.
   Khan Md Abdul Mannan, district judge of Woman and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal, handed down the verdict in the court in absence of the convict, Jahangir Alam alias Joni.
   The court also fined him one thousand taka, in default, to suffer one year more in the prison.
   According to the prosecution, Joni of village Dakhkhin Salna under sadar upazila abducted Farzana Akther Akhi, 12, a Class-VII student of Holy Child School and College and daughter of one AKM Shamsul Haque of the same village from her house at about 8.00pm on April 7, 2006.
   Shamsul Haque filed an abduction case accusing Joni with the Joydevpur police station under Woman and Child Repression (Prevention) act.
   Later, the police arrested Joni. But Joni went into hiding after securing bail from the court.
   After examining records and cross-checking six witnesses, the court delivered the judgment. It took 33 working days to finish the prosecution.

TWO suspected criminals were beaten to death in Narail and Madaripur on Friday.
   A mob beat a man on charge of cattle lifting at village Tularampur under Narail sadar upazila. The deceased was Alomgir Mia, 38, of village Sankarpur in Jessore.
   Locals and the police said the 5 or 6 cattle lifters tried to lift cattle of one Nabir Sheikh early Friday.
   The criminals also kept standing a mini-truck to carry the lifted cattle.
   But local people got alerted and managed to catch hold of Alamgir while the rest managed to get away.
   The mob gave him a good trashing. Later, he was admitted to Narail General Hospital where he died at about 12:15pm Friday.
   An unnatural death case was filed with the police.
   The post-mortem examination of the body was held at the general hospital morgue the same day.
   In Madaripur, according to a UNB report, an alleged robber was lynched by a mob at village Bachamara under Shibchar upazila early Friday.
   The dead was Saidur Rahman Bepari, 35, of nearby village Beparikandi under the upazila.
   Locals said when a gang of four robbers entered the house of Chandu Matabbor at about 2:00am for committing robbery villagers caught one of them, Saidur, gouged out his eyes and then beat him to death. Th other robbers managed to escape.

LOCAL people caught a fake army major and a captain at village Haripur under Akhaura upazila in Brahmanbaria on Thursday.
   The police said three young men went to the house of C&F agent of Akhaura Land Port Abbas Uddin and demanded money after introducing themselves as army officers.
   Of the three, Abu Bakkar Siddique introduced himself as a major while Salauddin as a captain.
   On suspicion, Abbas with the help of local people caught Abu Bakkar and Salauddin and after a good thrashing handed them over to the police.
   Another young man, however, managed to flee the scene.

THE Kotwali police in Jessore on Thursday arrested two suspected drug peddlers and seized 50 grams of heroin after searching a bus on the Jessore–Benapole Highway at Malanchi.
   The arrested were Shahjahan Ali of Namajgram under Sharsha upazila in Jessore and Abdul Jabbar alias Jaibar of Gazipur under Sharsha upazila.
   Tipped off, the lawmen carried out the operation, said the police.

A PRIMARY schoolteacher was killed as a paddy-laden trolley hit him on Mohananda Bridge toll plaza under the Chapai-nawabganj sadar upazila Friday.
   The deceased was Monirul Islam, 56, of Lakshmipur Masterpara of the upazila. He was a teacher of Chamagram Government Primary School of the upazila.
   The police said he was returning home from Chapainawabganj Primary Teachers Training Institute after a training session.