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The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has imposed a ban on all kinds of gatherings, rallies and processions around Proshika headquarter in the capital’s Mirpur area where several hundred employees of the NGO were staging a sit-in for the seventh consecutive day on Monday, demanding entry into their office.
   Deputy Commissioner of the DMP (Mirpur Zone) Lutful Kabir said the ban was imposed under Section 29 of the DMP Ordinance restricting all kinds of gatherings, rallies or precessions of more than five people with effect from 2:00pm on Monday.
   Tension was running high at the headquarter of Proshika after supporters of its ousted chairman, Qazi Faruque, forced their way into the office located at Mirpur-6, assaulting some of the staff members and ejecting the employees on duty last week.
   Police took control of Proshika Bhaban on Wednesday after ejecting the outsiders hired by Qazi Faruque.
   Several hundred employees of the organisation, who had been staging sit-in for the seventh consecutive day on Monday in front of Proshika building moved away from there following the police restriction.
   Agitating Proshika employees brought out a procession as the government high-ups remained silent about the stalemate over the NGO.
   Proshika authorities on Thursday wrote to DC (Mirpur Zone) of DMP, requesting that the office be handed over to them. But the DC said that they were waiting for an order from higher authorities in the government.
   Proshika’s governing body replaced Qazi Faruque as chairman in May last year in the face of a growing staff protests against his alleged corruption and nepotism.
   Violent clashes took place on August 1 last year as hundreds of people led by Faruque stormed the Proshika Bhaban in a bid to force their entry.
   Following the clashes, the High Court, upon a revision petition filed by Qazi Faruque, ordered him not to go to Proshika Bhaban with supporters or in procession with a view to maintaining peace and security at the office. The court also ordered both the parties to maintain the status quo.
   Proshika, one of the largest national NGOs, has a total of 6,000 employees and 620 Upazila-based ADCs and sub-ADCs across the country.
   Proshika Chief Executive Officer Mahbubul Karim said he filed a writ petition on January 17 with the High Court praying for handing them over the office keys from police authorities.

Sadness griped Barodi, the ancestral village of legendary Indian politician and Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu as the news of his demise travelled to Narayanganj driving residents of neighbourhood to his home to express their sorrow for the past two days.
   Hundreds of visitors from neighbouring villages and elsewhere thronged his paternal home where the residents also staged spontaneous prayers in line with both Muslim and Hindu faiths.
   The current caretaker of the house, Shahidullah, appointed by Basu himself, told visitors that Basu’s nephew Taposh Kumar Basu conveyed him the sad news through mobile phone soon after his demise.
   A prayer session was held on the premise of the home seeking eternal peace for the departed soul while at the adjoining Loknath Bramachari Ashram, Hindu devotees staged another prayer citing from the holy Geeta and lighting candles.
   Nearly 70-year-old Shahidullah showed the visitors photograph of legendary leader along with his doctor father Nishikanta Basu and mother Sri Hemolata Basu on the premises of the home on an area of more than two bighas of land, which was built in Bengali year of 1329.
   Bangladesh last year decided to preserve as an archaeological heritage site at Basu’s ancestral village at the suburban Sonargaon upazila while the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Sunday told the parliament that his ancestral home would be transformed into a library as per his wish as part of the plan.
   An official familiar with the process earlier told BSS that the cultural affairs ministry, communications ministry and works ministry would jointly work for rehabilitation of the Basu’s ancestral home, which the Basu family left when the British India was partitioned in 1947.
   Basu’s father Dr Nishikanta, hailed from the village while in independent Bangladesh the longest serving chief minister of India’s West Bengal state visited twice his ancestral home at Barodi, where he had sweet childhood memories though he was born and studied in Kolkata.
   Local residents said Shahidullah’s mother late Ayatunnesa Bibi, the former caretaker of the three storied building, reared up Jyoti Basu in his early childhood while Basu used to call her as ‘my dudhma’. She died in 1988.
   Jyoti Basu visited his residence at Barodi and Loknath Bramachari Ashram in 1980s and 1990s along with his wife Kamla Basu, and present chief minister of West Bengal Buddahdev Bhattacharya.

The Bangladesh Sramik League observed hunger strike in front of Bandar Bhabam in Barisal on Monday, demanding that they should be given the lease of Barisal port without facing tender process.
   At the end of the hunger strike that began Sunday night, the port unit of Sramik League, labour wing of the ruling Awami League, arranged a rally at the same place.
   The Sramik League have been continuing movement to press for the demand since the authorities concerned invited tenders for leasing of the Barisal Port last week.
   The Sramik League leaders at the rally demanded cancellation of the tender and directing handing over the operational activities of the port to them. Tender submission ended on Monday.
   The port Sramik League unit president, Parimal Chandra Das, presided over the rally addressed, among others, vice-president Abu Farazi, secretary Jalal Jamaddar.
   They also demanded inclusion of the Sramik League in the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority for operation of the port.
   Kazi Wakil Newaz, Barisal port officer, acknowledging the fact, said tenders were duly dropped on Monday in four places at Barisal Port Office, DC Office, BIWTA Headquarter and shipping ministry. The BIWTA is currently operating the port, according to a decision of the ministry concerned on recommendations by the local lawmakers and tender has been floated as per their directive, he said.
   BIWTA sources said lease contact of the Barisal port expired on January 2009 and since then four attempts have been made to lease two stations of the port but they failed because of pressure by the labour wing of the ruling party.

A Bangladesh medical team is likely to leave Dhaka for Haitian capital Port-au-Prince to provide emergency medical services to the earthquake victims.
   A 30-member medical team comprising doctors, senior nurses and medical technicians along with essential drugs and orthopaedic equipment stands ready to leave for Haiti.
   A senior official of health and family welfare ministry told UNB that the medical team included both civilians and members from the armed forces. There will be 10 civilians in the team while 20 others from the armed forces, he said.
   Civilian members of the medical team: Associate Professor M Mufakhkharul Bari, Assistant professors Monaim Hossain, AKM Zahir Uddin, Jahangir Alam and Sharif Md Noman Khaled Chowdhury from the National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, medical officer Noor Muhammad from Comilla Medical College, anaesthetist Mohammad Sharif, registrar of Dhaka Medical College & Hospital Mamun Khan, and senior nurses of NITOR Sammi Ahmed and Md Abdul Hannan.

The parliament on Monday passed a law to bring private mailing operators and courier services under a legal framework and modernise the century-old postal services in the public sector by adopting new technologies.
   The post and telecommunications minister, Raziuddin Ahmed Razu, sought passage of the Post Office (Amendment) Bill-2009 in the parliament and the lawmakers voted yes to it as vetted by the parliamentary standing committee on ministry of post and telecommunications.
   The house also rejected a number of amendment proposals raised by independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim.  
   ‘The amendments have been proposed to make the law, enacted in 1898, fit in with the present situation,’ the minister said in support of the bill, which was piloted in the house on November 4, 2009.
   ‘The law will help improve the quality of services of the postal department and legitimise private courier services which have been playing a vital role in public life,’ he said adding that the law, if enacted, would allow the public postal department to outsource some of its services.
   The proposed law requires private mailing operators or courier services to obtain licence from the government.
   ‘The government may constitute a licensing authority to grant licences and to regulate the licensed mailing operators and courier services,’ said the bill proposing that the licensing authority should be a three-member body.
   It also stipulates that the post office, for the public interest and development of the postal services, should modify, rearrange or adopt new technologies and provide new services to the people as it deems fit.
   It would venture into new businesses like post shops, e-commerce, address database or other databases as it requires and can also exchange or interchange business transactions with other domestic or international organisations for the purpose of commercial benefits.
   The bill also stipulates that the post office may provide remittance transfer services, banking services, postal life insurance services either individually or by entering into contract with other organisations for the people.

Armed criminals shot a professor of Jahangirnagar University and took away Tk 5 lakh from him in front of the sub-registrar office at Savar Monday.
   Professor Ayub Ali, a teacher of Archaeology department of the university, was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition from a local clinic.
   Police and witnesses said six criminals riding two motorcycles appeared in front of the sub-registrar office at about 3:00pm while the teacher was getting in for land registration.
   ‘The hooligans sprayed him with bullets and took away Tk 5 lakh from him, leaving him critically wounded,’ says a spot account of the gun attack.

The government has decided to honour foreign journalists, writers, artistes, politicians and human rights actors who supported Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971 and campaigned for its cause, a junior minister told the parliament on Monday.
   The foreign sympathisers of Bangladesh’ independence war or their families will be invited to the Victory Day celebrations on December 16 this year to honour and recognise their contributions to Bangladesh’s cause, the state minister for liberation war affairs, AB Tajul Islam, told the house in response to a call attention notice on matters of public importance raised by Abul Kalam Azad of Rangpur-6 constituency.
   ‘We have already started contacting the individuals, politicians, artistes, writers, journalists and human rights activists who mobilised public opinion across the world for Bangladesh’s cause during the war…They will be invited to the celebrations in Dhaka on December 16 this year,’ the state minister said.
   ‘Many people across the world had actively supported Bangladesh’s liberation war in response to the call of Bangabandhi Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and their contributions should be recognised and they should be honoured. It is time we honour them,’ he said.
   The liberation war affairs ministry will finalise the next course of actions to this effect in consultation with the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, the state minister said adding that the government should also prepare a list of the people who had supported the liberation war.

The government has taken initiative to define the responsibilities of the chairman and the vice-chairman of the upazila parishad, as a mismatch in their functions triggered protests.
   The LGRD minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, informed parliament Monday of the government step. Replying to a question from Jatiya Party MP Noor-e-Hasna Lily Chowdhury, he said, ‘A proposal on definition of the duties and responsibilities has been sent to law ministry for vetting.’
   In replying to another question from Meher Afroze, the local government minister said the government was ‘actively considering’ the formation of 18 new municipalities.
   These are: Kuakata in Patuakhali, Kalmakanda in Netrakona, Lohagara and Dohazari in Chittagong, Tarash in Sirajganj, Bonarpara, Saghata and Polashbari in Gaibandha, Kachua in Bagerhat, Fatulla in Narayanganj, Basail and Elenga in Tangail, Narayanpur in Chandpur, Uzirpur in Barisal, Hatibandha in Lalmonirhat, Kaliganj in Gazipur, Rajoir in Madaripur, and Monoharganj in Comilla.
   At present, the minister said, the number of municipalities in the country is 309.

The 18th founding anniversary of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee will be observed across the country in a befitting manner today.
   The committee has chalked up elaborate programmes to observe its founding anniversary.
   The day’s programme will start in the morning with the placing of wreaths at the grave of martyred mother Jahanara Imam at Mirpur Martyred Intellectual Graveyard.
   A total of 150 units of the committee will form human chains all over the country to demand immediate trial of the war criminals by Special Tribunal and reincorporating of secularism in the country’s constitution.
   As part of its central programme, a discussion meeting will be held at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium where deputy speaker Shawkat Ali will speak as the chief guest.
   State minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku and state minister for cultural affairs Promod Mankin will attend as special guests.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, Monday night visited injured JCD president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku at city’s Islami Bank Hospital.
   Tuku received head injury during a clash reportedly between the two factions of JCD, associate organisation of the BNP, on Dhaka University campus on Monday.
   Khaleda spent sometime beside Tuku in the hospital and enquired about the treatment and the present condition of Tuku, according to the party sources.

A group of civil society organisations on Monday criticised the government for ignoring the alternative voices at the three-day Asia-Pacific dialogue on least developed countries, terming it a violation of the memoir of the conference.
   They, however, expressed the hope that the high-level regional conference would come up with stronger resolutions to uphold the interests of the LDCs that include debt cancellation, right to food, protection of the environment and adequate representation of the poor in the international organisations.
   The Equity and Justice Working Group, South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication, Online Knowledge Centre, PRADIP, Rehabilitation Center for Social Victims, Rural Reconstruction Nepal and VOICE came up with the criticism at a media conference in the National Press Club.
   The civil society leaders said the Economic Relations Division, which is a co-organiser of the policy dialogue to review the Brussels Programme of Action, was contacted thrice but it did not invite them to express their alternative views at the conference.
   ‘Those who have been invited are supporters of the so-called neo-liberal economic regime who hobnob with organizations such as the World Bank,’ said Mohammad Shamsuddoha, secretary of the EquityBD.
   Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, convener of EquityBD, said there were bad elements in the ERD who ‘desperately wanted to become consultants of the World Bank’. ‘Those officials made that lending agency the focal point for operating the multi-donor trust fund on climate change, clearly going against the position of the government,’ he said.
   The development activist pointed out that the memoir of the conference talked about the participation of the ‘broader spectrum of the civil society’ but the ERD authorities ignored that for the sake of their self-interest.
   Badrul Alam of La Via Campesina, Ahmed Swapan Mahmud of VOICE, Shahadat Islam Chowdhury of PRADIP, Zaid Iqbal of Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Mostafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD and Prodim Kumar of Online Resource Centre were among those who addressed the media conference.

Corruption, poor local governance, lack of transparency in public procurement and an undesirable law and order situation are the major challenges to Bangladesh’s efforts to achieve global development goals.
   This has been reflected in the Country Review Paper prepared for the Asia Pacific Conference, in order to review the achievements of the least developed countries in line with the Brussels Programme of Action, being held in Dhaka now.
   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her inaugural speech, indirectly blamed her political rival, saying that the change of the government in January 2007 had been caused by unbridled corruption, rise of extremism and terrorism, prevalence of a climate of impunity and tremendous deterioration of the law and order situation.
   The country paper, prepared by the Economic Relations Division, also listed the low capacity of project implementation, limited resources for making investments, uncontrolled population growth, exodus of villagers to cities and lack of sufficient infrastructure as challenges for implementation of the programme.
   Hasina acknowledged that good governance and corruption would be the main challenges, for the consideration of the Istanbul conference of the LDCs, scheduled for next year.
   The official report described external assistance as a significant source of finance for development projects and said that the decreasing trend of official development assistance was a matter of great concern for Bangladesh.
   External assistance accounts for around 2 per cent of Bangladesh’s Gross Domestic Product, and the country could have received much more funds if the developed countries had contributed 0.2 per cent of their gross national income to the least developed countries, according to the paper.
   It expressed the hope that the development partners would play a supportive role by ensuring incremental financial and technical assistance.
   The country paper further admitted, ‘The success of the Brussels Programme of Action depends on effective national strategies, policies and their implementation by different ministries, agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders.’

The BNP senior joint secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Monday called upon all patriotic forces to get prepared to forge movement to save the country.
   He made the call while addressing a discussion at the National Press Club in the afternoon organised by Dhaner Shish, a pro-BNP organisation.
   It organised the programme to observe the 74th birth anniversary of late president Ziaur Rahman, founder of the BNP and to mark the 9th founding anniversary of the organisation.
   Daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman, BNP joint secretary general Mahbubuddin Khokon, Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal general secretary Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Jatiyatabadi Olamadal president Abdul Maleq and Dhaner Shish vice-president Nazrul Islam also spoke at the function presided over by Dhaner Shish founder president Shamsuzzman Didar.
   As part of its yearlong programme Dhaner Shish would set up free medial camp on Ziaur Rahman’s grave premises in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar this morning to provide free treatment and medicines to destitute and floating people.
   It will continue the free medical camp programme round the year through setting up a camp per month in various places across the country.

Dinajpur Textile Institute was closed for an indefinite period Monday to avert an impending clash between two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the associate organisation of the ruling party, as the rivals were at loggerheads.
   The authority asked all students to vacate dormitories by 10:00am today. Additional police were deployed on the campus as a precautionary measure.
   Sources said the authorities expelled seven students of BCL Farhad group on December 19 following a clash between the two factions that left one student, Nuruzzaman Tuktuk, critically injured.
   Meanwhile, the expelled students managed to get their expulsion orders withdrawn.
   When the seven students went to sit for the 3rd-year semester final examination Monday, their rival group protested at it and asked all the students to boycott the exam.
   As most of the students boycotted the examination, the institute authority closed the institute sine die to avert possible encounter between the rival groups.
   Acting principal of the institute Shajahan Ali said, ‘We will reopen the institute when the situation will improve.’

Bangladesh and Libya have formed a six-member joint committee for better management of recruitment system for the Bangladeshi workers intending to go to the oil-rich African country.
   The committee comprising three members from each country will meet every three months in Dhaka and Tripoli for development of human resources and to oversee manpower recruitment.
   Ghulam Mustafa, president of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, said this while addressing a news conference in Dhaka on Monday.
   The BAIRA chief, who recently paid a visit to Libya, said both the countries had agreed to set up an outsourcing company in Libya for transparent recruitment of Bangladeshi workers.
   The first meeting of the committee is expected to take place in Libya in the next three months, he added.
   Mustafa said the remittances from Bangladeshi migrant workers amounted to a record $10.72 billion in 2009 against $8.98 in 2008 although the country’s manpower export declined by 46 per cent last year for global economic meltdown.
    ‘We will be able to export six lakh Bangladeshi workers by the end current year through expanding public-private partnership and the remittances will reach $11 billion;’ he said.
   Mustafa told the briefing that some 72,210 migrant workers returned home from different countries in 2009 for various complexities but only 1,250 of them carried valid passports.
   He put a set of recommendations including steps against illegal passports, hassle-free immigration service at the airport, strengthening the labour wings of the Bangladesh missions abroad, setting up of technical training institutes at upazila level and skilled immigration management.
   He also stressed the need for allocating five per cent of the remittances to strengthen the ministry of expatriate and manpower, employment and training bureau and labour wings of the embassy.

Noted social worker and women leader Jahanara Begum died in her own resident in Comilla on Sunday. She was 78.
   She was one of the leading entrepreneurs in cottage industries and worked for the improvement of the sector.
   Jahanara Begum was honoured with 126 awards, including Queen Elizabeth Award in1962, Best Woman Award in 1985, Independent Award in 1993 and Best Social Worker Award in 1998, in recognition of her contribution to the development to the country, said a press release.
   She was buried at Miahbari in Comilla, where politicians, women leaders, social workers and local elites visited her residence and extended sympathy to the members of the bereaved family.

The state minister for environment and forest, Hasan Mahmud, has urged people to vote for Sundarban to bring it in the list of world’s seven wonders in forest category.
   World heritage Sundarban now at 28th position in the list, competing with Brazil’s Amazon and 15 to 20 crore more votes are required to bring the world heritage in the directory of seven wonders, he told BSS.
   Hasan said he recently talked to the West Bengal chief minister to encourage Indian people to vote for Sundarban of which 45 per cent area is in the Indian state of West Bengal.
   The parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of environment and forest in a meeting at Khulna Circuit House last week discussed the issue and decided to expedite the campaign.
   One of the objectives of the meeting was to focus on Sundarban and draw attention of people to promote the mangrove forests particularly renowned for one of the wild species, the Royal Bengal Tiger and Sundari tree. The UN declared the forest as one of the world heritage in 1995.
   The parliamentary standing committee also discussed the government decisions for strengthening the Department of Environment to deal with the environment-related issues more effectively.
   Hasan said his ministry had taken decision to set up office of DoE outside divisional headquarters where industrial growth is taking place very swiftly. Primarily, we have decided to establish DoE offices in Narsingdi, Gazipur and Narayanganj to help the areas to sustain growth environmentally, he said.
   In this view, he said the existing manpower of the DoE would be enhanced by three times and more 470 officials and employees would be recruited for the news offices and fill the present vacant posts in the DoE.
   About the Buriganga cleaning programme, he said the pilot project might have many fault and drawbacks. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority under the shipping ministry is the implementing agency of the project being funded from Climate Change Trust Fund of the MoEF.
   A site has already been selected in Savar to discharge the wastes, he said adding the pilot project would help taking more effective schemes in future to save the Buriganga, Turag and other rivers around Dhaka as well as other region of the country.
   About the Climate Change Trust fund projects, he said government and non-government organisations have submitted hundreds of projects containing their broader ideas, views and plans to address climate change issues in their areas.

A group of 28 BNP activists accused of demonstrating on the street with homemade lethal weapons were sent to jail custody when they appeared before the court Monday.
   Magistrate Shamsul Islam rejected their bail petitions.
   The BNP had been divided into two rival groups centring round the district council, one led by Syed Mohammad Faisal and the other Minhajuddin Chowdhury Kased. On December 20, activists of the Minhaj group took to the street with lethal arms to resist the victory procession of the rival group.
   The police had filed about 50 named and unnamed demonstrators under the Speedy Trial Act. Poura BNP general secretary Azizur Rahman Kazal and four others arrested earlier in connection with the case had been enlarged on bail.

Ahsan Ullah Master School, named after the late lawmaker Ahsan Ullah, was inaugurated at Gachha in Gazipur on Sunday.
   The eldest son of Ahsan Ullah, Md Jahid Ahsan Russel, a lawmaker himself and also the president of the parliamentary committee on youth and sports, was present in the inauguration ceremony as chief guest.
   Among others, Gazipur deputy commissioner Md Kalam Uddin Talukder, Gazipur district council chief executive Md Fakharuddin Ahmed, Gazipur police superintendent ASM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman, civil surgeon Md Saidur Rahman Bhuyan and Gachha union council chairman Md Sirajul Islam were present on the occasion.
   New books were distributed among the student on the occasion.

The secretary-level meeting between Bangladesh and India for conducting joint survey and determining legitimate ownership of disputed lands was held at Teesta Barrage guesthouse in Lalmonirhat Monday.
   The land secretary, Md Rafiqul Islam, led a five-member delegation at the meeting while the land secretary of West Bengal, Dipankor Roy, headed the Indian side.
   The joint team earlier on Sunday visited Bangladeshi enclave Angorpota-Dahagram and Indian enclave Haldibari-Mekliganj.
   The team will visit today the area in the River Teesta where the international pillar number 796 and 797 are situated. It will also visit the Gazoldoba Barrage about 100 kilometres away from Bangladesh border.
   The high level committee has instructed the joint survey team to complete its work within January 20 which began on January 16 last.
   Md Motahar Hossain, a member of Bangladeshi delegation, told BSS that the joint team would determine the ownership of the disputed lands within on the no man’s land or in the bordering river.

Senior BNP leader and former law minister Moudud Ahmed has said the government cannot revive the 1972 constitution.
    ‘The government can never return to the main constitution. It will require repealing oppressing laws and dropping the word ‘bismillah’ from the constitution that they can never do,’ he said on Monday while speaking at a discussion meeting at the National Press Club.
   Senior ministers, including law minister Shafiq Ahmed, on several occasions said the government would return to the ‘72 constitution, the main one adopted after Bangladesh’s independence that contained the four basic principles on which the war of independence from Pakistan had been fought.
   Moudud, now a member of parliament, said: ‘The Awami League cannot implement what they (AL leaders) are saying.’
   Centre for Democracy and Peace Studies organised the discussion titled ‘Fifth amendment to the constitution is the safeguard of Bangladesh’.
   Referring to the fifth-amendment issue, which is now pending with the Supreme Court, the former minister hoped the highest court would reject the High Court’s August 29 (2005) verdict that declared the fifth amendment illegal.
   The fifth amendment had given constitutional legitimacy to military governments after the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a military coup.
   Criticising the move to ban religion-based politics, he said: ‘Bangladesh constitution allows politics by all people.’
   He posed a question: ‘Why Islamist people will not get the right to do politics when communists and atheists can do politics here.’
   Moudud said they wanted to be free from politics of division. ‘All people have to given right to do politics. If anyone does secret politics against the state and constitution, they are punishable under the existing law.’
   CDPS executive director presided over the discussion, addressed among others, by BNP advisory council member Ahmed Azam Khan and journalists Abdul Hye Sikder and Baker Hossain.

Three women were drowned and five other people went missing as an overloaded boat capsized in River Dhaleswari at Banglapara under Astagram upazila of Kishoreganj on Monday afternoon.
   The deceased were Ratna, wife of Lal Mohan Sutradhar, Arati, 25, wife of Hori Mohan Sutradhar, and Pushpa Sarkar, 40, wife of Shambhu Sarkar, of Daspara village in the upazila.
   Police and witnesses said the mechanised small boat carrying around 50 people—far beyond its capacity—sank for strong currents created by a launch—MV Kuliarchar-2— while it was anchoring at the bank of the river at about 1:30pm.
   ‘Most of the passengers swam ashore but the eight,’ says a report quoting the witnesses.