The weeklong special drive against militants ended yesterday with 17 suspected militants being arrested in the last 24 hours of the countrywide crackdown.

The head Hindu priest of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission in the capital has received a threat on his life.

Claiming that the ongoing crackdown on militants was not politically motivated, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan yesterday said the drive was being conducted as part of security measures following recent target killings and also on the occasion of Ramadan and ahead of Eid.

Opposing induction of JSD leader Hasanul Huq Inu as a minister, Jatiya Party lawmaker Kazi Firoz Rashid expresses his fear that the prime minister might even bring some secret killers to the parliament someday.

Amid the recent attacks and killings in the country, the superintendent of police in Magura has taken a unique initiative to protect the people in his district.

The UN rights chief yesterday expressed serious concern over the dramatic increase in brutal murders in Bangladesh and urged the authorities to ensure full respect for human rights in investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of recent vicious crimes.

Ex-BNP leader Nazmul Huda-led Bangladesh National Alliance (BNA), a platform of 31 political parties, expresses solidarity with Awami League-led 14-party alliance and will join programmes led by the alliance to protest criminal activities and secret killings.

United Nations expresses concern at the significant increase of murders in Bangladesh, including that of religious minorities and called for the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of the crimes.

Renewing her allegation that the BNP-Jamaat clique is behind the recent killings in Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday

The BNP yesterday expressed its fear that the government might suppress the opposition on the pretext of launching a crackdown on extremists across the country.

Targeted killing continues. Even on the first day of a nationwide special crackdown on militancy yesterday, a volunteer of a Hindu monastery was hacked to death, the latest in a spate of such killings in the country. The victim, Nityaranjan Pandey, 60, was a sebak at Sree Sree Thakur Anukulchandra Satsang ashram in Pabna Sadar upazila.

In the wake of recent spate of targeted killings, including that of SP Babul Akter's wife on Sunday, the police department is