A pastor escaped an attempt on his life when three unidentified youths tried to slit his throat at his house in the district's Ishwardi upazila yesterday.

A Dhaka court yesterday sent suspended national cricketer Shahadat Hossain to jail after he surrendered before it seeking bail in a case filed for torturing his 11-year-old domestic help.

Police arrested five militants of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and recovered grenades, firearms, ammunition, and bomb-making materials during raids in Chittagong yesterday evening.

With no visible progress in the Kunio Hoshi murder case, police have yet to gather some vital pieces of evidence.

Japan's top government spokesman yesterday expressed outrage over the killing of a Japanese citizen who was shot to death by unidentified assailants in Rangpur on Saturday.

Vouching for concerted effort to combat terrorism and violent extremism, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat said the US is determined to work together with its partners for the safety and security of their countries.

A growing number of seizure of wild animals and birds over the last five years shows that poachers and smugglers are using Bangladesh as a route for wildlife trafficking. The Department of Forest (DoF) and law enforcement agencies recovered 21,506 live wild birds and animals, including tiger and bear cubs, during the period.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's allegation that the BNP and Jamaat have links to the recent murders of two foreigners is “totally baseless”, said BNP acting secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir last night.

The home ministry and the police headquarters have directed deputy commissioners and superintendents of police in all districts to beef up security for foreign nationals in their areas and maintain regular contact with them.

The United States yesterday said it has taken seriously the reported Islamic State claims of killing two foreigners in Bangladesh.

The four people who had been detained by police for “questioning” in connection with Saturday's murder of Japanese national Hoshi Kunio did not return home as of last night.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said it's the BNP-Jamaat nexus, not the Islamic State, that was behind the recent killings of a Japanese man and an Italian in the country. "The style of killings of these two foreign nationals are the same … These are planned murders ... I want to remind you of a BNP leader's remarks before and after the [Italian national's] murder. If you compare the two statements, the matter will become clear," she said at a press conference at the Gono Bhaban yesterday.

Police have yet to arrest Gaibandha-1 lawmaker Manzurul Islam Liton though an attempt-to-murder case has been filed against him for shooting 10-year-old Saurav.

Gaibandha-1 MP Manzurul Islam Liton yesterday surrendered two licensed firearms to police, a day after he allegedly shot a 10-year-old boy.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said a vested quarter was trying to create instability in the country in a planned way, but her government would tackle this with an iron fist.

The killing of another foreigner in five days has raised serious concern among foreign missions and citizens in Bangladesh, making them anxious about their safety and security.

Armed criminals shot to death a Japanese national in Rangpur yesterday, just five days after an Italian aid worker was murdered in the capital's Diplomatic zone. Victim Hoshi Kunio, 66, was gunned down around 10:00am when he was going by a rickshaw to his farmland at Alutari under the district's Kaunia upazila, police said, quoting witnesses.

"Have we voted for the MP so that he can kill my child?

A 10-year-old boy was shot allegedly by a ruling party lawmaker at Sundarganj of Gaibandha early yesterday.

Family members of UGC official Omar Siraj, who died in Rab custody on Thursday, alleged that he was subjected to torture and they saw injury marks on his body at the morgue of Dhaka Medical College.