BANGLADESH

CNG filling stations and petrol pump owners in greater Sylhet region on Tuesday night called off an indefinite strike after talks with the government.

President of Sylhet Division CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association Zubair Ahmed Chowdhury said they halted their programme in the four districts after the Sylhet Mayor and district administration promised to consider their demands.

The platform enforced the nonstop strike earlier in the day at Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj and Moulvibazar districts protesting extortion by pro-government Bangladesh Chhatra League activists and their attack on a CNG station; and demanding compensation for their damages.

Owner of Surma Autocare CNG Refuelling Station Foyez Ahmed filed a case with the Shah Poran police on Sep 6 against eight people, including the Vice-President of the Sylhet district BCL unit.

The plaintiff alleged that some BCL members had come to his station and demanded money, but when he refused to oblige, the pro-government student front members attacked and vandalised his CNG station on Sep 5.

The CNG Owners Association had given the authorities a 48-hour deadline to nab the assaulters.

The indefinite strike was enforced from Tuesday morning as the deadline had ended on Monday night.

"We'll resort to tougher agitation programmes if the culprits are not nabbed and given exemplary punishment," Chowdhury said earlier.

Apparel factory workers have blockaded the Dhaka-Sylhet highway and demonstrated for over two and a half hours pressing for various demands including payment of due wages.

Quoting eyewitnesses Rupganj Police Station's Officer-in-Charge Atikur Rahman Khan said that workers of Harvest Rich Garments factory at Rupganj took to the streets at Bhulta Aukhab area around 9am on Suday.

At one point, they vandalised the windowpanes of the factory building and seven to eight vehicles on the street, he said.

They withdrew from the street around 11:45am after the factory authorities assured to pay their dues within Monday.

The nearly two and a half hour stop in traffic has led to a large backlog on the highway, the police official added.

Anwar Hossain, a worker of the factory, said that their wages for two months were pending. Every month they receive payment not before 22nd-23rd, he added.

The workers became agitated when they came to the factory on Sunday and found that their wages were not yet ready. At one point, around 6,500 workers started demonstrating in the factory premises.

They vandalised the windows of the factory building and the adjacent branch of Rupali Bank. They later took to the streets and vandalised a number of vehicles, police said.

Sporadic chases and counter-chases took place between the workers and police when they tried to force the demonstrating workers out of the highway.

Director of Industrial Police's Adamjee unit (Battallion 4) Mahbub Alam told : "The owners have assured to pay the due wages within Monday after talks with the workers. The workers withdrew demonstration around midday."

State-run oil-gas exploration company BAPEX has found fresh reserves of oil at Kailashtila and Haripur oil fields in Sylhet.

Petrobangla Chairman Hossain Mansur made the announcement at a press briefing at his office at Karwan Bazar on Sunday.

The reserves have a combined 137 million barrels of oil but according to primary estimates, about 55 billion barrels can be extracted a year, Chairman Mansur said.

The current market value of new oil has been put at Tk 420 billion to 450 billion.

BAPEX submitted its report on exploration of the fresh reserves to the state-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation or Petrobangla on Sunday. The oil reserves were found using 3-D seismic survey.

Kailashtila alone has a reserve of 109 million barrels, of which 44 million barrels can be lifted.

The Haripur oil field is believed to have a reserve of 28 million barrels of oil including 11 million barrels extractable in one of the two layers of the reservoir.

"It will take some more time to learn about the oil reserve in the other layer at the Haripur oil field," said Hossain Mansur.

Asked who may be given the job to lift the oil, he indicated that 'a local company' may get the job.

The latest discovery has brought new hopes for Bangladesh's energy-starved economy, added the Petrobangla Chairman.

According to Petrobangla officials, the reserve is enough to meet the country's oil demand for two years as the annual oil demand is around 25 million barrels.

Energy expert Prof Badrul Imam told . "Bangladesh requires oil from 22 million to 25 million barrels every year on average. According to the estimate, Bangladesh may fuel its operations for more than two years with the fresh oil reserves."

Earlier, about 650,000 barrels of oil were extracted from an oil field in Haripur after the field was discovered in 1986. But extraction from the field came to a halt on the grounds that it had not been done following proper procedures.

Police have arrested two people in connection with the killing of two students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST).

The arrests came within hours of their bodies being found on Saturday.

Muggers reportedly kidnapped the victims, second-year students of Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science departments Deepankar Ghosh Anik and Khairul Kabir when they, along with their six friends, went on a cruise in Changger Khal canal at Badaghat on Friday.

The six friends said they returned after up to 10 muggers took away their mobile phones and money, and kidnapped Anik and Kabir from the boat they were travelling in.

Jalalabad Police Station officer-in-charge Selim Hossain said they arrested 'Tarique' and 'Gulzar', the owner and the sailor of the boat.

Earlier, the students of the university blocked the Sunamganj-Sylhet road and lifted it after over three hours following an assurance by police to arrest the killers within a day.