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Some left-leaning political parties and organisations on Friday termed the proposed budget for the 2009–2010 financial year ambitious and doubted if whether it could be implemented.
   They criticized the finance minister, AMA Muhith, for allowing black money to be whitened, saying criminals, looters and plunderers of national resources have been given incentives by providing them with the opportunity.
   The Workers Party of Bangladesh, in a statement, said the biggest challenge the government faced was to implement the objectives of the budget.
   The party’s president Rashed Khan Menon and general secretary Bimal Biswas said the budget had no sense of direction about reduction of the income gap between the rich and the poor as well as the rural and the urban people.
   They viewed dependency on black money would endorse and encourage corruption. The party was also critical of inadequate allocation for non-government schools and colleges.
   The Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal convener, Khalequzzaman, in a statement said the government had violated the constitution by keeping the provision for the whitening of black money. He also said no there was no reason for allocating Tk 410 crore for defence.
   The Democratic Left Alliance at a meeting of its central convening committee said the deficit budget would make the country dependent on other countries.
   The alliance said the budget had made inadequate allocation for disaster management and it contained no indication about how the government would face natural disasters.
   The Democratic Revolutionary Party president, Nirmal Sen, and the general secretary, Mushsrefa Mishu, in a statement termed the budget proposal ambitious and nothing extraordinary.
   They said the budget had no specific direction regarding job creation and nothing related to about lakhs of garment and jute factory workers.
   The party said with the provision for whitening black money, the budget had encouraged corruption, bribe and criminalisation.
   The Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Saiful Huq, in a statement said the budget with such a big deficit would increase the government’s dependence on lenders. He was critical of the budget saying it had no indication about job creation.
   The party termed the provision for whitening black money ‘immoral,’ saying the honest investors would be frustrated and it would hold back investment.
   The Garments Workers’ Action Council coordinator, AAM Faiz, and member secretary Rafiqul Islam in a statement said the budget was ambitious and a document on implementing the prescription of lenders.
   The statement said the proposed budget would not bring about the required changes in society.
   They alleged the budget had no direction about changing the lot of some 22 lakh garment factory workers.
   The Karmajibi Nari general secretary, Sharmin Kabir, in a statement said the budget proposal had been placed in accordance with the Awami League’s election pledges.
   She hailed the budget saying the main challenge before the government was its implementation.
   The statement said this is the first time specific allocations had been made for women and it was encouraging.
   The Bangladesh Upazila Parishad Association chairman, Harun-or-Rashid Hawlader, and member secretary Badiuzzaman Badsha in a statement termed the proposed budget pro-people.
   Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote brought out a procession on Bangabandhu Avenue hailing the budget proposal.
   The organisation later held a rally where its leaders said the budget would help to turn Bangladesh into a digital country and to eliminate corruption.

A section of ethnic minority women staged demonstrations in Rangamati Friday asking the government to publish a white paper on repression carried out in its different forms allegedly by the security forces on the ethnic minority groups.
   They made the demand along with a few others at a rally organised marking the 13th anniversary of the 1996 abduction of Kalpana Chakma, once the organising secretary of Hill Women’s Federation, a platform for political empowerment of backward women on the highlands.
   Jointly organised by the federation and the Parbatya Chattagram Mahila Samiti in front of Rangamati stadium, the rally also called for publication of the full report on Kalpana abduction investigation and punishment of the kidnappers.
   Ushatan Talukder, political affairs secretary of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, Parvin Akhter of Samajtantrik Mahila Forum, Hamid Meer of Chittagong University, Jyoti Prava Chakma and Udayan Tripura of Pahari Chhatra Parisahd addressed, among others, the rally president over by Madhabilata Chamka, president of the samiti.
   The federation and family members of Kalpana Chakma alleged that soldiers had picked her up from her home in Baghaichhari upazila in Rangamati on the night of June 12, 2006 and she never came back.
   The then Awami League-government, which later signed a treaty with the PCJSS to end the decades-long conflict in the hills, turned a blind eye to her kidnapping during its tenure between 1996 and 2001.
   In response to protests by the ethnic minority people and members of the civil society who wanted Kalpana to be returned to her family, the government formed a committee to investigate the incident. The committee submitted a report, but the government never made it public.
   In Dhaka a protest rally was organised on the day by the federation and the samiti at Sahbagh crossing, where academics, rights activists and members of the civil society expressed solidarity with the demands of the ethnic minority groups.
   They urged the government to take steps to stop repression in all its forms in the CHT and remove all temporary military bases established during the conflict.
   ‘The present government cannot turn a blind eye to repression in Chittagong Hill Tracts where a peace treaty is in place,’ writer Sharier Kabir told the rally. He called for immediate steps to stop rights violation of the minority groups.
   Professor Sirajul Islam Chowdhury said that Kalpana’s abduction was a glaring example of the state’s failure to take care of its citizens. He called upon the Awami League government, which signed the peace agreement more than a decade ago, to ensure that the ethnic minorities in the hills could live in peace.
   Professor Mesbah Kamal demanded full publication of the report on Kalpana Chakma abduction.
   The rally demanded a constitutional provision for having three female lawmakers for the three hill district to be represented by the ethnic groups.
   The rally was attended by columnist Syed Abul Maksud, the president of Sammilita Nari Samaj, Farida Akhter, the general secretary of Bangladesh Adibashi Forum, Sanjeeb Drong, politician Haider Akbar Khan Rano, development activist Rokeya Kabir, Dhaka University professor Sadeka Halim, former student leader Depayan Khisa and Jatiya Adibashi Parishad leader Rabindranath Saren.

Five more soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles were arrested on Friday in connection with the February 25-26 carnage at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka that killed 75 people, 57 of them officers.
   They were remanded in police custody for five days.
   The Criminal Investigation Department of police, assigned to investigate the case, produced the five soldiers — nayek Saheb Ali Miah and nayek Rafiqul Islam, sepoy Lutfor Rahman, sepoy Ziaur Rahman and sepoy Hafizur Rahman — before the chief metropolitan magistrates court on Friday afternoon with a plea of showing them arrested in the case and sought seven-day remand for them.
   The police said the five soldiers were arrested on the basis of video footage of the incident and the statements of other soldiers, who were detained earlier.
   After hearing, the metropolitan magistrate MA Majid, remanded them in police custody for five days.
   Meanwhile, three more soldiers made their confessional statement in separate CMM courts on Friday, in connection with the BDR carnage case.
   With the latest, a total of 1,487 people, most of them soldiers, have so far been arrested and 152 of them, including three civilians, made their confessional statement in the court in connection with the BDR carnage case.

The Border Security Force of India shot dead two Bangladeshi cattle traders in Dinajpur and Jessore on Friday.
   The deceased are Mujibur Rahman, 30, of village Dakshin Daudpurin of Birampur in Dinajpur and Saifur Rahman, 28, of village Chandanpur of Sharsha upazila in Jessore.
   The BDR sources said the BSF troops of 57 Veempur camp opened fire on a group of cattle traders while they were entering into Bangladesh from India along with cattle at about 5:00am, killing Mujibur on the spot.
   The BDR have sent a protest letter to the BSF.
   The BDR in Jessore said when a group of cattle traders were returning home with cattle, the BSF troops of Tetulbaria camp opened fire on them, leaving Saifur dead on the spot.
   The BSF troops took away both the bodies, the BDR said.
   Tension was been prevailing along the border area following the incidents.

The Consumer Association of Bangladesh on Friday said the interest of the consumers and common people was ignored in the proposed national budget for the next fiscal year, like the previous budgets.
   The CAB in a statement observed that the finance minister, Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, in his budget proposal failed to provide any direction to check price spiral of essential commodities.
   It also expressed frustration at the finance minister’s failure to allocate money in the proposed budget to enforce the Consumer Rights Act-2009.
   The lower middle class people will suffer for increasing tax on some items, like refrigerator and small piece of land.
   The proposed revenue of Tk 61,000 crore will be paid mainly by the commoners at the cost of decline in their living standard.
   The CAB noted that the budget would protect the interest of businesses, high income group of people and black money
   holders.

Bangladesh Sangbad-patra Parishad on Friday expressed deep concern over the finance minister’s proposal to impose five per cent duty on imported newsprint in the budget for next fiscal.
   ‘We call on the finance minister to withdraw the proposal to impose duty on imported newsprint,’ said a Parishad statement, signed by its president AQM Zainul Abedin.
   The BSP said that the newspaper owners, editors and journalists were deeply concerned and worried over the proposal made by the finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, in his budget speech to impose import duty on newsprint.
   ‘The finance minister is certainly aware that newspaper without a state is more acceptable than a state without newspapers,’ the statement added.

A storm swept over Kishoreganj sadar upazila Thursday night, killing a minor boy and injuring about 50 people.
   Sajan, 4, of village Boulai Dakshin Rajkunti of Boulai union, was killed as a tree fell on his house during the storm.
   According to the district administration, the whirlwind hit the upazila at about 10:00pm and lasted for an hour.
   The strong wind also razed a large number of dwelling houses to the ground, leaving 50 people injured.

The Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh on Friday formed a human chain protesting against the involvement of the World Bank in the management of the government initiated multi-donor trust fund for climate change.
   The organisation at the human chain in front of the National Press Club also put out a call for elaborate discussion of the matter in the parliament and making the issue public.
   They said the immediate-past caretaker government had initiated formation of the multi-donor trust fund to face risk of climate change and this government put into the final form the ‘draft concept note’ on the fund management and governance and proposed to give the task to the World Bank for a fee of $8 million.
   The organisation said such authority of the World Bank in the fund management was completely irrational.
   They said they were protesting against institution of such funds in a non-transparent way and the involvement of the World Bank in it as it is against the policy of climate-related funding ‘polluters pay and it will make a scope for the World Bank to set an example in other developing nations.
   The organisation said the government was capable of managing the fund on the basis of democratic ownership which will involve citizens and affected people along with the government, said a release.

A leading human rights watchdog forum on Thursday expressed its frustration with the government’s failure to provide a clear action plan within the specific timeframe of four years for improving the rights scenario of the country.
   The Universal Periodic Review Forum in a statement expressed its disappointment as the government failed to provide any clear action plan, specific timeframe and measurable indicators to fulfill the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council.
   Foreign minister Dipu Moni while addressing the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva in February said, ‘Bangladesh accepts the recommendations of the council without identifying how, when, or by whom such recommendations will be implemented.’
   The statement said, ‘It is unfortunate that whilst some of the 42 recommendations have been ‘accepted’ by Bangladesh, the real picture illustrates the contrary.’
   The rights defenders slated the government for not taking any concrete action against the perpetrators of extra-judicial killings, although the country had pledged to the UN council to bring the persons responsible for such human rights violation to justice.
   At least 25 people had been killed extra-judicially by the personnel of Rapid Action Battalion, police and army during the January-May period this year after the government assumed office. But the government did not launch any probe into the killing incidents, rather claimed that the forces were entitled to act in self-defence.
   The human rights forum also blamed the government for interfering into the judicial affairs of the country, despite its pledge to full separation of the judiciary from the executive.
   The government’s claim of full separation of the judiciary is contradicted by its own actions of interfering with the trial process to withdraw the pending cases against the top leaders of the ruling party, it said.
   Regarding the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord, the forum said that the government was yet to take steps for activating any viable process of voluntary relocation of the Bangali settlers from the CHT, expedite withdrawal of the military camps, enhance power of the local administration by transferring all the agreed matters and functions to the hill district councils and ensure the full functioning of the CHT regional council.’
   The UPR forum urged the government to hold national consultation involving the parliamentarians, civil society members and other stakeholders as well as adopt a specific time-bound action plan to implement the UN recommendations it had accepted, and reconsider seriously its position on the recommendations it had declined to accept.

Officials of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha on Thursday dismissed the private television channel ATN Bangla’s claim that it owned the house on a 14-katha land at 69 Gulshan Avenue.
   After an aborted late-night attempt by a group of armed men to occupy the house in which a retired civil servant, Abdul Qayyum, 90, has been living for decades, ATN Bangla chairman Mahfuzur Rahman claimed that he had purchased the house from one Abdur Rashid for Tk 20 crore.
   The Rajuk officials said no one called Abdur Rashid, from whom the ATN Bangla chairman claimed to have purchased the plot, did ever own the house.
   ‘We can say it for certain that no one by the name of Abdur Rashid does own the house or its land at 69 Gulshan Avenue,’ Rajuk’s assistant director (asset-1) Mostofa Jamil Khan asserted while talking to New Age on Thursday.
   ‘Abdur Rashid is pursuing a fake claim showing us fake lease papers,’ Khan said.
   He, however, could not confirm whether Abdul Qayyum, who retired as chairman of BIWTC in early 70s, was the real owner of the land. ‘I do not readily have enough documents to say whether Qayyum is the real owner or not,’ he said.
   When contacted, Rajuk chairman Nurul Huda, however, said, ‘I have asked the officials to bring the files on the house and the plot of land to me to see actually who owns the house. I hope we will be able to ascertain the fact by Sunday.’
   A group of armed men numbering 25-30 intruded into the house built on 14 kathas at 69 Gulshan Avenue at around 1:30am Wednesday and tried to force the owners – an octogenarian couple – from the house.
   The miscreants carried a signboard that read ‘ATN Bangla authorities own this land by way of purchase.’ Police seized the signboard and took it to Gulshan thana as a case was filed in this connection.
   Abdul Qayyum alleged, ‘ATN Bangla chairman Mahfuzur Rahman, aided by some brokers, is trying to evict me from this house I got from DIT back in 1969.’
   ‘Mahfuzur Rahman lodged a false complaint with the Gulshan thana a few days back claiming that I have been living in the house on rent and that I am not paying the rent,’ Qayyum, also a freedom fighter, said.
   Mahfuzur Rahman on the other hand claimed Qayyum had long been ‘occupying the house illegally’.
   ‘I bought the house from one Abdur Rashid, a man from Chittagong, via broker Pasha for Tk 20 crore and I got the registration documents of the house in March this year from Rajuk. I have all the documents of the house,’ claimed Mahfuz.
   ATN Bangla Limited in a press release on Thursday renewed its claims that the private TV channel was the ‘legal owner’ of the land and the house as it had purchased the property from its ‘real lessee’ Abdur Rashid Khan, son of late Darbar Ali Khan.
   ‘Abdul Qayyum as a tenant signed an agreement with Abdur Rashid Khan in 1977 but did not return the house to its owner even after signing agreements twice,’ the press release signed by ATN Bangla’s chief adviser Saiful Bari.
   The press release, however, did not reveal what the agreement contained.
   ‘As the owner of the house, Abdur Rashid Khan paid all service charges to the Rajuk in 2008,’ the press release said.
   Referring to the statements made by Rajuk officials about the ownership of the house, the press release said, ‘The Rajuk chairman is the only lawful authority to state its position on such matters. Statements by other officials have created confusion.’

The education ministry on Thursday decided students taking the SSC examinations in 2011 will face creative question papers only in four subjects.
   The government earlier announced to introduce the new type of questions classified as ‘creative,’ with marks set for different segments in a question, for all the subjects in the 2011 secondary school certificate exams.
   ‘In keeping with the earlier announcement, the SSC examinees of 2010 will face the creative question only in Bangla first paper and religious studies. Including the Bangla and religious studies, the examinees of 2011 will face creative questions in four subjects, instead of the earlier announced all subjects,’ the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, announced on Thursday at a briefing.
   ‘The two more subjects for the science group students are physics and chemistry, for humanities group geography and general science and for commerce group introduction to business and general science,’ the minister said.
   ‘As there is lack of preparations, we need to backtrack from earlier decision on the introduction of creative questions in all the subjects in 2011,’ he said.
   The minister, however, did not say anything whether the SSC examinees of 2012 would face creative questions in all subjects.
   The introduction of structured questions was a component of a Tk 793-crore Secondary Education Sector Development Project. When asked about action against corrupt officials of the SESDP project, which deals with the introduction of creative question papers, the minister said, ‘I must take an initiative to punish the corrupt officials.’
   Lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon, also the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on education, the education secretary, Syed Ataur Rahman, and SESDP director Ratan Kumar Roy attended the briefing.

The government has for the first time called for international help to rehabilitate the victims of cyclone Aila.
   The food minister, Abdur Razzak, on Thursday urged development partners and NGOs at a meeting on post-Aila rehabilitation activities at his office to come up with assistance.
   He said the government had earlier not asked for international help because it was carrying on with the initial relief activities on its own.
   He thanked the NGOs working on their own to help the victims of Aila and different calamities.
   He was informed about the NGO activities in the aftermaths of Aila. The activities include normalising the lives of the affected people by building house and bringing them back to their old professions, building cyclone shelter centres in the vulnerable areas, eliminating salinity from the coastal areas, setting up water purifying plants and constructing barracks for the poor.
   The NGO affairs bureau has been tasked with gathering information on these activities and informing the disaster management bureau and the deputy commissioners who will coordinate the activities.
   The food secretary, Mokhlesur Rahman, presided over the meeting attended by representatives from the USAID, Muslim Aid, WFP, IDB, BRAC and Karitas.

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has underscored the demand for establishing the rights of eco-refugees as ‘global citizens’ as Bangladesh is poised to face the dire consequences of global warming.
   ‘As a basic strategy, we may put forward the demand to obtain the status of global citizenship for our people,’ said the minister in his budget speech in the parliament while disclosing the government’s plans for addressing climate change issue in the next fiscal year and beyond.
   He said that the disasters and calamities caused by climate change cannot be prevented.
   ‘Therefore we should aim to mitigate the suffering caused by dislocation and dispossession, and build the capacity to adapt the lives and livelihoods in the coastal area to climate change,’ said Muhith, adding that the government would soon review its medium- and long-term strategies to mitigate the effects of disasters caused by climate change.
   He said the rehabilitation of the displaced people of the affected areas is of tremendous importance because it has been predicted that nearly 20 million people will be displaced by 2050 in the country due to the impacts of global warming.
   The minister mentioned the government’s efforts to create a multi-donor Trust Fund with support from international donors. The commitment for provision of $97.9 million has been received from Britain and Denmark. The Japan International Cooperation Agency has offered budgetary supports for coping with environmental disasters.
   Muhith said that the Climate Change Fund, formed with the government’s own resources, was approved by the cabinet. He proposed an allocation of Tk 700 crore to counter the impending disaster in the 2009-10 fiscal year and said the government was pledge-bound to prepare a detailed action plan that is designed to tackle the probable natural disasters.
   He proposed regular dredging of rivers and canals, strengthening coastal emban-kments, establishing an adequate number of cyclone shelters and reducing air pollution by diesel-run vehicles.
   Muhith also disclosed the plan for bringing 20 per cent of the total land area under an afforestation programme by 2015 to attain national self-sufficiency in forest resources.
   ‘Our target is to bring 4,314 hectares of land under the afforestation programme, create strip gardens over an area of 2,355 kilometres and plant 23,00,000 saplings,’ said the minister.
   He added that a development programme has been taken up for maintaining ecological balance and biodiversity in the Sundarbans mangrove forest, a World Heritage Site, at a cost of Tk 650 crore.

The Awami League on Thursday hailed the proposed budget, terming it ‘pro-people’.
   AL spokesperson Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters at the parliament that the price of daily essentials is not likely to increase as no duty has been imposed on them.
   ‘The creation of employment opportunities, the drive against corruption and trial of the war criminals have been given due importance in the proposed budget,’ he said, adding that the budget would help to turn the Bangladesh into a digital country, as pledged by the party in its election manifesto.
   Ashraf, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, said that huge allocations have been made for widening the social security net and developing rural infrastructure.
   He expressed the hope that the proposed budget would fulfil the people’s desire. Ashraf told reporters that the ruling party would express its official reaction to the budget within a day or two after consulting the party’s forum.
   The Jatiya Adibashi Parishad’s general secretary, Rabindranath Saren, in a statement hailed the government for highlighting the welfare of the indigenous people.
   ‘The finance minister’s speech encourages us as he has acknowledged the rights of the indigenous groups of people. This is for the first time that any government has done so,’ Saren said.
   The Dhaka city Awami League and its associate bodies on Thursday afternoon brought out a procession on Bangabandhu Avenue, hailing the proposed budget.
   Hundreds of leaders and activists of the party and its associate bodies joined the procession which paraded from Zero Point to Muktangan.
   The leaders, at a rally staged later, said the budget would be able to fulfil the people’s expectations and help to increase income of the poor. They termed it a pro-people budget.
   The finance minister, AMA Muhith, on Thursday proposed the Tk 1,13,819 crore budget in the parliament.

Several organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes on Friday to mark the 13th anniversary of the abduction of Kalpana Chakma, once the organising secretary of the Hill Women’s Federation.
   The federation will form a human chain in Dhaka on Friday to ask the government to publish a full report on Kalpana’s abduction, and to press the authorities to stop all sorts of human rights abuse, allegedly by army personnel, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, home to 12 ethnic minority groups.
   The federation and family members of Kalpana Chakma alleged that soldiers had picked her up forcibly from her home at Baghaichhari upazila in Rangamati on June 12, 2006 at the dead of night.
   She never came back.
   The then Awami League-government, which later signed a treaty with the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti to end the decades-long conflict in the hills, turned a blind eye to her kidnapping during its tenure between 1996 and 2001.
   In response to protest by the tribal people and members of the civil society who wanted Kalpana to be restored to her family, the government formed a committee to investigate the incident. The committee submitted a report, but the government never made it public.
   The Parbatya Chattagram Mahila Samity and the Hill Women’s Federation in a statement asked the new government to publish the report, prosecute the kidnappers, remove all temporary army camps from the CHT and fully implement the treaty signed in 1997. The members of the organisations will demonstrate at Shahbagh on Friday.
   Various social organisations have extended their support to the protest programme.

The Sherpur police on Wednesday found dead a youth, abducted from Sher-pur upazila in Bogra on June 3.
   The deceased was Zakir Hossain, 27, of village Tamai of Belkuchi upazila in Sirajganj. His body was found in a sack in a field at village Bhabanipur of Sherpur. The body was brought to Sirajganj on Thursday.
   The Belkuchi police arrested Rafiq, 30, one of the main suspects, from village Tamai and handed him over to the Sherpur detective branch of police on Thursday.
   The police said Zakir went to Sherpur on June 3 to see his prospective bride. He was abducted the same day by miscreants who demanded Tk 20 lakh for his family as ransom. Zakir’s family managed Tk 2.70 lakh and gave to the abductors on Tuesday. But the abductors killed Zakir after receiving the money on Wednesday.
   The Sherpur police officer-in-charge, Amirul Isalam, said if Zakir’s family had contacted with the police before giving the ransom, he might not have been killed.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdur Rahman, father of New Age Jessore correspondent Saifur Rahman Saif, died of old age ailments in Khulna Medical College Hospital on Thursday. He was 85.
   He is survived by three sons and seven daughters.
   Abdur Rahman was buried at his family graveyard under Abhaynagar in Jessore after the asr prayers.
   He was a retired health supervisor.

Aqa Md Abdul Quddus, former regional controller of food, died at Rajib Gandhi Cancer Hospital in New Delhi, India on Wednesday.
   He was 70.
   He is survived by wife, two sons, one daughter and a host of relatives to mourn his death, a press release said Thursday.
   His namaj-e-janaza will be held at West Tejturi Bazar Mosque after Magrib prayers today.

A murder case was filed against 11 alleged collaborators of Pakistan army and around 25 unknown people at Morelganj in Bagerhat on charges of killing two freedom fighters during the war of independence.
   Freedom fighter Nazrul Islam of Teligati union filed the case Thursday afternoon at the court of the additional chief magistrate of Bagerhat.
   The plaintiff says on Nov 13, 1971, brothers Basharat Khan and Mannan Khan were shot dead by a group of armed Rajakar members led by Rashid Khan when they had been passing by the house of Motiar Rahman at Dhuligati of Teligati.
   The court has ordered the officer-in-charge of Morelganj police station to investigate the case.
   Steps will be taken according to the court orders after getting the case papers at hand, sub-inspector Riazul Islam said.
   The defendants are Rashid Khan, 65, Babul Sheikh, 57, Ashraf Khan, 65. Mokser Didar, 80, Sultan Khan, 66, from Teligati; Akram Khan, 56, Shahadat Sardar, 55, from Daibagyahati village; Shahjahan Mistri, 65, from Katabunia; Rustam Ali, 55, from Joshordi under Kochua Upazila; Ensab Ali Khan, 75, from Khalkulia and Sheikh Ukil Uddin, 56, from Chanmari of Rupsha Upazila in Khulna.