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Production at Elbentilla tea garden under Fultola Tea Estate in Moulvibazar has remained suspended for about a month as the workers are not joining their work fearing arrest.
   The workers of the tea garden stopped work after one Masuk Miah filed a case on September 4 against them over beating up his brother Reazul, an alleged hoodlum of the area.
   Noresh Chasha and Boloram Chasha, workers of the tea garden, told New Age that Rezaul had tried to rape Anjana, a teenage
   girl of a worker, on September 1.
   He also attacked some workers of the garden as they resisted him in committing the crime, they alleged.
   Enraged by the incident, tea garden workers caught Rezaul and beat up him.
   The garden authorities lodged a case with the Juri police station on September 2 against Rezaul for attacking the workers.
   Later, Masuk filed a case on September 4 against the manager, assistant manager and nine workers of the tea garden and 20 unidentified people.
   Since then, the workers have refrained from their work fearing arrest and even they could not celebrate Durga Puja at the garden this year.
   Sunil Banerjee and Umakanta Gossami, president and general secretary respectively of the tea garden workers’ union, said local lawmaker Shahab Uddin Ahmed and upazila nirbahi officer Monish Chakma had assured them of withdrawing the case
   on September 19, but the case is yet to be withdrawn.
   Shamim Ahmed Chawdhury, manager of the Fultola Tea Estate under Juri upazila said Rezaul had been harassing the garden workers in various ways for long.
   ‘We have been compelled to beat up Rezaul in protest against his wrong doings,’ he said.
   Rezaul is also a main accused in several cases including murder and robbery.
   The tea garden has incurred a production loss of about Tk 50 lakh in the last 26 days of work abstention, the manager said.
   When contacted, the officer-in-charge of the Juri police station Al Ameen said the two cases were now under investigation.

At least 50 people, including six policemen, were injured when the inhabitants of a village under Boalmari upazila clashed with the dwellers of neighbouring Alfadanga upazila town in Faridpur on Monday.
   Of the injured, 20 were admitted to the Boalmari and Alfadanga upazila health complexes while the rest given first-aid.
   The injured six policemen, including SI Mujibur Rahman, of the Alfadanga police station were treated at the upazila hospital.
   Locals said the clash erupted when a group of young men from Shohosrail village under Boalmari upazila came to Alfadanga town to visit a puja mandap and were locked in an altercation there with the local people at about 11:00am.
   They went back to Shohosrail and later gathered a large number of villagers at the riverside opposite to the Alfadanga upazila town. They started throwing brickbats and stones at the bazar at Alfadanga.
   At this, around 200 dwellers of Alfadanga town gathered at the bazar and threw brickbats and stones at the Shohosrail villagers triggering a brick-battle for about two hours.
   Later, police personnel of the Alfadanga police station rushed to the spot at about 1:00pm and brought the situation under control.

THREE members of a family were electrocuted at Tajhat in the Rangpur town Monday night.
   The deceased were Najnin, 32, wife of CNG-run scooter driver Afzal Miah, her daughter Iva, 16, and two-month old son.
   The police, quoting the local people, said Najnin had come in contact with a live wire while she was boiling water in an electric pressure cooker at around 11:00pm. She died on the spot.
   As her daughter Eva came to her rescue along with her (Najnin’s) minor son in lap, they also met the same fate.
   Later, Najnin’s eldest son Najmul Hossain Nayon, a college student, became unconscious after seeing his mother, sister and brother dead next morning.
   He was admitted to Rangpur Medical College and Hospital.
   On information, the police came to the spot, recovered the bodies and sent them to the RMCH morgue for post-mortem examination.
   The officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, Nazrul Islam, confirmed the incident.
   An unnatural death case was filed in this connection.