Himu's Window

See the original copy of the story Poachers are hunting migratory birds with “poison traps” in the char lands of the Padma river in Rajshahi and selling those in the city. A large number of migratory birds come to the chars during winter every year and a group of poachers catch these birds mixing grains with deadly pesticides, according to locals and experts. They use this method to avoid being caught by people and the administration, the sources claimed. During a visit to the chars late last month, this correspondent saw the carcass of a Ruddy Shelduck in a char of the river near Khanpur. The bird's internal organs appeared to be gouged out by some wild animal. “The dead bird was left there, because it was of no use to the poachers. Wild cats might have eaten up some of its organs,” said boatman Mosharraf Hossain. Another local boatman Noor Islam told this paper that he had seen some guest birds mostly Ruddy Shelducks, locally known as Chokha-chokhi, lying dead in the chars

Now in her eighties, Rokeya Begum of Kaluhati village in Rajshahi's Charghat upazila is well within her rights to reflect upon life. Having raised five sons and one daughter, as breadwinner and for the most part singlehandedly, she could be forgiven if such reminiscence gives rise to a self-satisfied smile. What's less well known about Begum is how this one woman's efforts brought prosperity to her entire village. And it was a matter as simple as shoes... “In Kaluhati, most men worked as share croppers or day labourers,” says neighbour Mizanur Rahman, remembering what the village 35 kilometres from Rajshahi City was like in the 1980s. “Most villagers had no land then. They lived in houses of clay and straw; the village had a reputation for harbouring thieves.” “It's a past long forgotten,” he adds. Today, almost every family in Kaluhati is solvent and self-reliant. Many families which once had next-to-nothing now live in brick homes with electricity. To accommodate

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Friday, March 5, 2010 Jihadi books seized from female dorms Police yesterday arrested three activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, also students of Rajshahi University (RU), from Bagmara and RU campus. Police also raided five Shibir-controlled private dormitories for female students of different educational institutions in the city and seized seven jihadi books from one of them. One of the arrestees, Abdur Razzak, a final year student of Islamic studies at RU, is an accused in the case filed by Humayun Kabir, a resident student of Ziaur Rahman Hall of RU, who was assaulted by Shibir cadres during their attacks on February 9, said Mrinal Bhattacharya, assistant commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP). Abdur Razzak, a final year student of Islamic studies at RU, was arrested from his village home at Nandanpur in Bagmara in the morning, said Bagmara Police Station Officer-in-Charge Harunur Rashid. Police also picked up Atiur Rahman, a final year student of applied chemistry depart