A total of 78.46 present votes are cast in the second phase of the country’s Union Parishad elections, an official of the Election Commission says.

The BNP high command has lost interest in staying in the union parishad polls race due to “gross irregularities” in the first two phases

Like in the first phase, violence and irregularities marked the second-phase polls to union parishads yesterday, leaving at least eight people dead and around 130 others wounded in clashes and firing. One of the dead is a 10-year-old boy, who went with his uncle to see voting, and another a Dhaka University student who went to his village ahead of the polls.

Voting at a polling centre in Nayanagar union of Jamalpur's Melandah upazila suspended as miscreants tried to snatch ballot boxes before the second phase of the union parishad polls started. Meanwhile, a clash between supporters of two candidates disrupts voting at a polling centre in Daulatpur of Kushtia.

Another 639 unions in 47 districts go to the polls today, a week after violence in the first phase of the elections left around two dozen people dead.

The second phase of Biswa Ijtema, the largest Muslim congregation after the Hajj, concluded yesterday with the Akheri Munajat (final prayers).

The second phase of Biswa Ijtema, the world's second largest Muslim congregation after the Hajj, began yesterday on the bank of the

The second phase of Biswa Ijtema, the largest Muslim congregation after the Hajj, begins today on the bank of the Turag river at Tongi in Gazipur.