Two people were killed and five others injured as a truck hit an auto-rickshaw at Natun Bazar in Muktagacha municipality area on Sunday morning.

The identity of the deceased could not be known immediately.

The accident took place when a Tangail-bound truck hit an auto-rickshaw in the area around 8:45am, leaving two, including a woman, dead on the spot, said Al Amin, additional superintendent of Mymensingh police.

On information, police recovered the bodies while the injured were taken to a local health complex.

Police seized the truck but its driver managed to flee the scene, the official added.

A suspected pirate was killed in a reported gunfight with members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) at Banigram village in Banshkhali upazila on Sunday morning.

The deceased was identified as Morshed Alam, 35. Rab said he was wanted in over two dozen cases including the killing of 31 fishermen in the Bay of Bengal.

A team of Rab-7 conducted a drive in the area around 4:30am acting on a tip-off, said Mahmudul Hasan Mamun, assistant director (media) of Rab-7.

Pirates opened fire as soon as the Rab team reached the spot, triggering a gunfight. Morshed was caught in the line of fire and died on the spot, Mamun said.

A foreign-made pistol, three lighter guns (LG) and 14 bullets were recovered from the spot.

An elderly bystander was killed in a road accident on the Kushtia-Rajbari highway on Saturday.

Witnesses said Yusuf Ali Sheikh, 80, son of late Abu Sheikh of village Poschim Lahinipara of Kumarkhali upazila, died when a cow-laden ‘nosimon’ hit him while he was standing in front of a tea stall at Dobir Molla Gate area on the highway at 11 am.

The cow-laden ‘nosimon’ coming from Kumarkhali dashed Yusuf after losing control, killing him on the spot.

Jahangir Alam, Officer-in-Charge of Kumarkhali police station, said that being informed by the locals, police recovered the body from the spot.

Meanwhile, a worker named Rajib Mollick, 23, died after being dashed by a bus while crossing road at Mirpur Talbaria on Kushtia-Ishurdi highway at 1 in the afternoon.

A two-and-half-month-old baby drowned in a pond reportedly after falling off her mother’s lap at Bajrapur village in Bagatipara upazila on Saturday.

Police detained the victim’s mother, Tarin, for interrogation.

Tarin claimed that the incident took place when she with her baby girl on her lap was walking along the bank of the pond.

The baby fell off her lap when she stumbled abruptly, she said.

Abul Hasnat, additional superintendent of police (Sadar circle), said they were looking into the incident.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder on Saturday said the government will not take the responsibility if anyone is shot to death along the border while bringing cattle from India.

He made the remarks while talking to reporters after attending the founding anniversary programme of Damkurahat High School in Poba upazila of Rajshahi.

“It’ll be pointless to blame others unless our character is good,” he said when asked about the shooting down of three Bangladeshi nationals by members of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in his constituency Porsha of Naogaon.

On January 23, the three Bangladeshis –- Sanjit Kumar, Mofizul Islam and Kamal Hossain -- were killed by BSF members along Doarpalla border in Porsha upazila of Naogaon.

BSF men also took away the bodies of two of the victims.

The minister said, “We won’t allow anyone to bring cattle from India. Our upazila, district law-and-order committees and BGB adopted a resolution in this regard. Bangladesh government won’t take the responsibility if anyone is shot to death while bringing cattle cutting the barbed-wire fence.”

He also said efforts are on to bring back the bodies of the two Bangladeshi nationals.

Border killing has been a contentious bilateral issue between the two neighbours who share a porous 4,100-km border.

Delhi had promised to bring down border killings to zero over the years but the BSF continues to shoot dead Bangladeshis along the border.