As the Cyclonic storm ‘Mocha’ is brewing over the Bay of Bengal, panic gripped the residents of coastal areas of Bagerhat district due to the vulnerable state of dyke at several points. Residents of Sharankhola, Baleshwar, Pashur in Mongla and Panguchhi in Morelganj upazilas are passing sleepless nights, worrying over when and where the storm and high tide will hit. According to Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Mocha is likely to make landfall on Cox’s Bazar coast by Sunday (May 14). If the water rises 5 feet above normal, a number of villages will be flooded as 11km of embankment is at risk while around 25,000 shrimp enclosures may be washed away, said locals. Read More: 409 shelters prepared in Khulna as depression intensifies into Cyclone Mocha At least 446 cyclone shelters have been prepared in the district to accommodate people while 98% of boro paddy has been harvested in the district. Around 11 km of embankment at different points is in vulnerable condition. Many villages in the district will be inundated if the tidal water rises.

Two people were killed as a pick-up van crashed into a stationary truck on Khulna-Dhaka highway at Kakdanga in Bagerhat’s Fakirhat upazila on Monday morning.  One of the deceased, Nur Hossain, 21, was the helper of the pick-up van and a resident of Khalishpur area of Khulna. Another person who died was the helper of the truck but his identity couldn’t be confirmed.  Also Read: Two family members dead, 4 injured in Munshiganj road accident Mehedi Hasan, officer-in-charge of Mollahat highway police station, said the accident occurred at around 4 am when the fish-laden pickup van hit the truck, leaving the two helpers dead on the spot.  The truck driver fled the scene after the accident.  The bodies have been kept at the upazila health complex.     

Police today detained some 25 BNP activists and leaders, including a central leader, on charges of attempts to carry out subversive activities and chaos following a road march in Bagerhat district. BNP, however, claimed that police held at least 40 leaders and activists from different areas after a “peaceful” road march in the district. The detainees included central assistant publicity secretary Shamimur Rahman Shamim, district unit BNP’s former president MA Salam, its incumbent convener ATM Akram Hossain Selim Talim, and another leader Ali Robi, among others. Also Read: Police prevented BNP’s road march in Patuakhali, local leaders say Protesting the detainment and obstruction to their programme, BNP central committee Education Affairs Secretary ABM Dr Obaidul Islam at an instant press conference at Bagerhat Press Club around 11am alleged that at least 40 BNP men were detained centring the road march over several demands including resignation of the government and controlling price hike of essentials.    The BNP leader also announced a programme to be observed at each police station in all metropolitan cities on March 4, protesting the obstruction and detention of their party members across the country today. Md Asaduzzaman, superintendent of police in the district, said they apprehended some 20 to 25 BNP men after receiving information that the party men were hatching plans to carry out subversive activities and disorder in the name of the road march. Verification was going on about the detainees and legal actions will be taken in this connection later, the SP added.    

Bangladesh’s shrimp export industry was already facing major declines, as 72 percent of the world’s shrimp market is occupied by vannamei shrimp, also known as white leg shrimp, while the country mainly exports black tiger shrimp, or ‘bagda’, and scampi shrimp, or ‘galda’. According to industry sources, Bangladesh's shrimp export business suffered another major setback as the current global economic slump also took a heavy toll on the world's food market. As a result, one of the major export items of Bangladesh, shrimp, has lost 80 percent of its previous demand on the world market. On top of that, export prices decreased by 40 percent. Read More: Exporters worry about losing markets as shrimp adulteration continues unabated Exporters and traders urged the government to approve commercial vannamei farming promptly. “Due to the high demand for vannamei shrimp in the world market, bagda and golda shrimp are gradually losing market share in the western market. Against the backdrop of the ongoing global economic recession, demand for bagda and galda shrimp from Bangladesh dropped by 80% in the previous year,” said S. Humayun Kabir, vice president of the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters’ Association.

Khulna division has been experiencing acute load shedding even in the winter due to suspension of power production at Rampal Power Plant amid shortage of coal caused by the dollar crisis. The production came to a halt on January 14, only after 27 days the coal-fired plant in Bagerhat started electricity generation by adding 660MW of electricity to the national grid produced from its first unit. Khulna West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDC), which distributes power in Khulna and Barishal region, authorities have been struggling to meet the electricity demand although the demand for electricity comes to half in the winter. Read more: Hasina, Modi jointly unveil Rampal Power Plant’s unit 1 On Thursday, the Khulna region experienced 24 MW load shedding in off-peak hours while during peak hours it was four MW. On Friday, the load shedding was 5 MW while the residents of different areas in the city experienced power outages, officials said. Anwarul Azim, deputy manager of Bangladesh-India Partnership Power Company Ltd (BCPCL), said import of coal was suspended due to the crisis of US dollar that cut production by half on January 14. BCPCL is a joint venture of the Chinese firm China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC) and Bangladeshi state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (NWPGCL). Rampal Power plant’s Unit-1 has a capacity of producing  660MW of electricity . Before suspension of production, its Unit-1 used to produce 560-570 MW. Read more: Rampal Plant starts electricity production, 660MW from unit-1 added to nat’l grid Of this, 400MW was added to the national grid via Aminbazar-Gopalganj transmission line and 260MW was added to Khulna-Bagerhat. Around 5,000 tonnes of coal are needed for the operation of the power plant and all are imported from Indonesia but due to the dollar crisis the import of coal was suspended. Anwarul Azim said banks did not allow opening of Letter of Credit (LC) for importing coal due to the dollar crisis. “Already, a coal-carrying vessel from Indonesia is ready to leave for Bangladesh but we are trying our best to import coal. We hope the problem will be resolved soon,” he added.

The residents of six villages near the Sundarbans are literally living in fear for their lives as a hundred footprints of two tigers were spotted in Sonatala village of Bagerhat’s Sharonkhola. Two tigers left the Sundarbans and crossed the Bhola river and entered the village early hours of Thursday (January 12) and roamed over an area of about one kilometer of Sonatala village, said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Sundarbans East Division Muhammad Belayet Hossain. Later, the forest department, Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT), Community Patrolling Group (CPG) and villagers searched various areas throughout the day in search of the tigers. However, no tiger was found in that village till Thursday evening, he added. Read more: Tiger census: Installation of cameras begins in Sundarbans The two tigers went back to the forest after roaming different places in that village, claimed the Forest Department after tracing all the footprints the tigers left on the ground. However, villagers were advised to stay on alert, and have just spent an anxious weekend remaining vigilant. With this, tigers have left the Sundarbans and entered the locality more than 50 times in the last 15 years. During this time, both man and tiger have lost their lives due to counter-attacks. Villagers demanded effective measures to prevent tigers from entering the locality. Harun Bhadda of Sonatala village said that he woke up early in the morning and saw hundreds of the unmistakable imprints of the tiger's paw around his house. Ever since seeing them, his entire family has been gripped by fear of tigers. Read More: Panic after tiger strays into Satkhira village In Sonatala village, the Bhola River has almost filled up with silt and has only two to two-and-a-half feet of water. In the Tajur Gate area under the Bhola camp of the Sharonkhola range of the Sundarbans East Division, countless tiger footprints were spotted on the river bed.

A 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death allegedly by another youth following a brawl while watching the World Cup football match between Brazil and Croatia in Morelganj upazila of Bagerhat district on Friday night. The deceased was identified as Tutul Hawladar, son of Abdul Barek Hawladar of Gulishakhali village of the upazila. SM Ashraful Alam, inspector of Bagerhat District Police media cell, said local people arranged a big screen to watch the world cup football match between Brazil and Croatia at Samaddar Bazar of the village in the night. Also read: Bagerhat Hindu house attacked over altercation on India’s prophet comment issue During watching the football match, Turul locked into an altercation with Rubel Samaddar. At one stage, Rubel hit Tutul with a sharp weapon, leaving him critically injured. Later, Tutul was taken to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead. Police kept the body at the Bagerhat Sadar Hospital morgue.  

A Bagerhat court on Thursday sentenced two men to life imprisonment for the 2019 murder of a four-grader. Senior Judge Md Rabiul Islam of Bagerhat District and Sessions Judge Court gave the order in the presence of the convicts. The lifers are Kawsar Sheikh, 53, and Imdadul Shikder, 23, from Kartik Dia village of Sadar upazila. The court cleared another accused Abul Kalam Azad, son of lifer Kawsar, from charges during the hearing. Read: Rangpur: 5 get life in prison for 2015 rape, murder of teen According to the case complaint, on August 23, 2019, Kalyan Paul, son of trader Kamal Paul from Kartik Dia, was playing near his house when the accused lured him away from home and killed him by slitting his throat with a sharp weapon. They later dumped the boy's body in a ditch. On August 25, the accused asked for Tk30,000 from Kalyan's family saying they know the whereabouts of the schoolboy. On the same day, police recovered Kalyan's body from the ditch with the help of the locals and Kalyan's father filed a case against unnamed people with the police. On April 26, 2021, the Police Bureau of Investigation submitted a charge sheet to the court against three people, including Kawsar and Imdadul. Kalyan's father Kamal said he did not get justice and will appeal to the superior court.

Nine people including the prime accused in Swechchasebak Dal leader Nure Alam Tanu Bhuiya killing case have been arrested from Indurkani upazila of Pirojpur district on Saturday night. The arrestees were Farid Sheikh, 28, prime accused and son of Tutul Sheikh, Manir, 26, son of Jamal Mistri, Ratul, 27, son of Ali Akbar, Sirajul, 27, son of Sobhan, Alamin, 30, son of Esmail, Sumon, 26, son of Rustam Ali, Mukul Sheikh, 53, son of Moslem Sheikh, Kabir, 50, son of Sobhan Sheikh and Sohagh, 25 of Bagerhat district town. Read more: 32 BNP men, including ex-councillor, arrested in Dhaka Acting on secret information, a joint team of police, Rab and DB conducted a drive and arrested them at night, said KM Ariful Haque, superintendent of Bagerhat Police while talking at a press briefing on Sunday. Most of the arrestees confessedto their involvement in the killing, he said. All of them will be produced before Bagerhat Chief Judicial Magistrate Court with a seven-day remand prayer, he added. Nure Alam, general secretary of Bagerhat unit Swechchasebak Dal was shot dead following an enmity over establishing supremacy and previous enmity. Police recovered one pistol, one magazine and one bullet used during the killing from the possession of the arrestees. Later, a murder case was filed against 17 identified people and 7-8 unidentified people with Bagerhat Model Police early Sunday.

Local authorities in Bagerhat district on Monday (October 24, 2022) said that vulnerable people would be evacuated to cyclone shelters to save lives as cyclone Sitrang was approaching towards Bangladeshi coast with a forecast to hit the country by early Tuesday (October 25, 2022). The government has kept a total of 344 cyclone shelters ready in nine upazilas of the coastal district, which can accommodate around two lakh people along with their cattle. Mohammad Azizur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Bagerhat, said that they were working to ensure that the impact of the cyclone could have minimum damage. Read: Cyclone Sitrang: Everything you need to know “We’ve taken allout preparations to face Sitrang by keeping dry food, medical teams and rescue teams ready,” he said. In the district’s Sharonkhola, Mongla, Rampal and Morelganj upazilas, the local administration has been asking people to go to the nearest cyclone shelters through loudspeakers. Heavy rains have been reported in the district. Read Cyclone Sitrang: Flood protection embankment is at risk in Bagerhat Mongla Meteorological Department has recorded 29mm rain from 6:00am to 9:00am on Monday morning. Rising water has started to inundate the low-lying areas, while high tide was impacting the Sundarbans. The Mongla Seaport is also bearing the brunt. All kinds of loading and unloading of goods at the port have been suspended, while vessels have been asked to stay close to the shore. A 30km-long embankment that protects Bagerhat from high tide is currently at risk too. Read Inland water transport suspended as Cyclone ‘Sitrang’ approaches According to Bagerhat Water Development Board (WDB), at least 100km of areas could go under water if Sitrang damages the embankment. “The wind is blowing at a speed of 62kph within 54km of the cyclone centre, which has the possibility of reaching 88kph. We’ve asked the Mongla Port authorities to hoist cautionary signal no 7,” said Amaresh Chandra Dhali, Officer (acting) of Mongla Met Office. Read Sitrang: Loading, unloading suspended at Chattogram Port; Alert-3 issued