Another man died in police custody in Goshairhat upazila of Shariatpur district Tuesday evening.

The deceased was identified as Mokhlesur Rahman, 40, of Mashurgaon village of the upazila.

Though the law enforcers described his death as an act of suicide, family members and locals denounced the police claim terming it false.

Locals brought out a procession carrying the body yesterday afternoon demanding a fair probe.

Mokhlesur's wife Morsheda Begum alleged that her husband died from police torture.

Goshairhat police arrested Mokhlesur, a sweeper by profession, at Kuchaipatri Bazar on August 29 in connection with a case filed for killing the two children of Faisal Ahmed of Mashurgaon village.

The children were killed by unknown criminals on August 10, sources said.

Mokhlesur was produced before Shariatpur Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court on August 30 with a seven-day remand prayer. The court placed him on a three-day remand.

He was interrogated at Goshairhat Police Station on Tuesday. Later, constable Jalal Ahmed found Mokhlesur hanging with a piece of cloth from the grill of a window inside the police station at 7:30pm, police said.

Ekram Ali Mollah, officer-in-charge of the police station, claimed that Mokhlesur committed suicide. An unnatural death case was filed with the police station.

The body was sent to sadar hospital morgue for autopsy.

Shariatpur Police Superintendent AKM Shahidur Rahman, who visited the spot, said the man died in police custody.

A probe committee would be formed to investigate the matter, he said.

Two makeshift plastic factories and three shanties were gutted in a fire at Kamalbagh, Chawkbazar in Old Dhaka early yesterday, leaving two people injured.

Kamal Hossain, 27, and Pappu, 28 residents of the affected houses received primary treatment for burns at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Fire brigade sources said the fire originated from an electric short circuit at a plastic toy factory around 3:15am and spread rapidly to an adjacent factory along with three tin-shed houses.

Abdur Razzak, sub-inspector of Chawkbazar Police Station said the fire started from a factory of Jahangir Plastic Toys.

Seven fire engines rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control around 6:00am.

The blaze spiraled and spread to three adjacent houses where 12 families lived, he said.

The state-run 150 megawatt peaking power plant at Shikalbaha in Patiya upazila is going into production after formal inauguration by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on September 8.

Uncertainty, however, looms over running the plant as supply of gas to all gas-fired plants in Chittagong is being made keeping the Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company (Kafco) shut during the Ramadan.

One of the two units of the gas-fired 420MW capacity Rauzan Thermal Power Plant and 116MW Shikalbaha Plant and the two barge mounted units had remained almost shutdown since November last year due to insufficient gas supply.

So, restoration of gas supply to the Kafco after Ramadan would surely stand in the way of ensuring supply of 34 million cubic feet (mcf) gas for running the peaking power plant full time or 15 mcf gas for running in the peak hours.

Project Director Mohammad Asad Ullah Mian said they are now getting the required gas for running the plant on trial basis and hoped to run the plant until gas supply is stopped.

‘After restoration of gas supply at the Kafco, generation at the plant will depend on the availability of gas,’ he added.

Asked about setting up gas-fired plant amid acute gas crisis, the project director said tender for this gas-fired 150MW plant was floated on April 2007 when the crisis was not so acute. The contract was signed with a Chinese company in February 2008.

Tender for developing dual-fuel facilities at a cost of Tk 84 crore is already done and the work is expected to start in December or January, Asad Ullah said.

Chinese state-run company Sino Hydro Corporation was entrusted with setting up of the plant at a cost of Tk 575 crore. The construction was scheduled to complete in September 2009. But, construction and installation of equipment was completed by March 18 this year and testing of the equipment had started in April 20.

Chittagong PDB Chief Engineer (Generation) Mohammad Abu Taher said power generation at the 150MW plant will surely help, but everything will depend on the availability of gas.

Around 220MW to 280MW can be generated from the two units of the Rauzan
Thermal Power Plant, after shutting down of the Kafco. But only 120MW can be generated from one unit of the plant when Kafco remains functional, Taher added.

Besides this, four units of Karnaphuli Hydro Power Station are generating on average 145MW to 170MW.

The dairy co-operatives of Shahjadpur upazila have stopped buying milk from the farmers since this morning halting supply to the Baghabari Milkvita Company to press home their three-point demands.

About 25,000 men are involved in producing milk in the upazila supplying nearly 1.5 lakh liters of milk to 518 milk co-operatives for the Milkvita company.

Unable to supply their produce to the co-operatives, desperate farmers were seen selling milk at Tk 10-12 per litre in the local markets in the day. The milkmen are set to incur a huge loss due to the cooperatives' agitation, sources said.

The cooperatives started their agitation on Monday demanding removal of Milkvita General Manager Nasim Ahmed within 48 hours, fixing of procurement price of milk at Tk 35 a litre and election to Milkvita co-operative union.

Milkvita is paying Tk 26 per litre milk whereas it was Tk 32 during the last caretaker government, sources said.

Co-operatives' 48-hour deadline to the management of Milkvita ended on Wednesday and their leaders are expected to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina later in the day.

The next course of action by the cooperatives will largely depend on the outcome of the meeting with the Prime Minister, sources said on Wednesday.

Earlier, on Monday co-operative leaders put up barricade on Bogra-Nagarbari highway to press home their demands.

Lawmaker from Ullapara constituency Shafiqul Islam Shafi expressing solidarity with the agitators said the farmers have made three reasonable demands including removal of the ‘illegal’ GM.

Chayan Islam, MP from Shahjadpur seat said that a talk in Dhaka on August 24 failed to resolve the issues compelling the farmers to take to the streets again.