The death toll from Monday's police firing reached eight as Anwar Hossain Babu, 12, son of day labourer Abdul Kuddus Ali, succumbed to his bullet wounds at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital in the early hours yesterday.

The government, meanwhile, formed a three-member committee to investigate the incident and asked it to submit a report within a week.

The committee comprises Mohammad Mohsin, additional secretary of the home ministry, as its convenor and Rajshahi divisional commissioner and an additional inspector general of police as members.

Awami League-led 14-party called a day-long hartal in Chapainawabganj today protesting the police atrocities at Kansat.

Export-import trade through Sonamasjid land port came to a halt due to the road barricade with several hundred trucks stranded on both sides.

Police could not yet identify the dead whose body was taken to Shibganj Police Station during the incident and sent to Chapainawabganj Sadar Hospital morgue.

Five victims -- rickshawpuller Anwar of Kansat Colony, Kaimul Islam Garibul of Koylabari, Nasir of Kharagpur, Abdul Mannan of Shibnagar and Monirul Islam Chowdhury of Trimohini --were buried yesterday without autopsy.

Locals while burying the dead staged demonstrations against the police action and burned tyres on the road in Kansat, Abbas Bazar and Shibnarayanpur.

The entire Shibganj upazila was gripped by panic and grief with signs of devastation and funeral processions seen within the area from Kansat to Abbas Bazar.

Policemen were seen at many points removing logs and concrete poles from the road while people put new barricades at some places in demand for release of three leaders of Palli Bidyut Samity Subscribers Development Association.

Locals said excesses by the police and the district administration coupled with a local lawmaker's strong opposition against the movement of rural power subscribers were behind Monday's Kansat tragedy.

POLICE DENY ATROCITIES
Jamal Uddin of Shibnarayanpur, a witness to Monday's incident, said the policemen entered the houses and beat up women and children mercilessly. Many other locals also said the police were in a marauding mood during the incident.

Chapainawabganj Superintendent of Police (SP) Rezaul Karim however denied the allegations of any fault of the law enforcement agencies. "Police tried their best to avoid firing and it was done only when people surrounded the policemen leaving 46 of them injured and six police vehicles set on fire," he told The Daily Star.

Asked about the power subscribers' agitation, the SP said local Awami League leaders instigated the movement. He also named some Jubo League leaders including Quazi Emdad, Tipu and Fatik.

THE MOVEMENT
Villagers complained that the local Palli Bidyut Samity was collecting additional bills of Tk 10 as rent of electric meter and forced the subscribers to pay Tk 105 to Tk 121 a month as service charge for poor or no service at all.

"We do not get electricity for days together, and when we get, it is not more than for one or two hours a day," said Farhad Islam of Abbas Bazar.

The subscribers elected Rabbani two times as their president to lead the movement for uninterrupted power supply and withdrawal of monthly charge and meter rent.

RAJSHAHI MAYOR VISITS SPOT
Rajshahi City Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu, who is in charge of Chapainawabganj district, visited the troubled area Monday evening and assured local people of justice. He said a judicial probe into the police firing would soon take place.

The mayor formed a 9-member committee of the villagers to look into their electricity problems and assured them of talking to the power minister to meet their demands.