Meanwhile, a grocer, an unidentified young girl and a housewife were killed in separate murder incidents in Keraniganj.

In the Char Washpur incident, the victims were Alam Hossain, 35 and Monir Hossain, 34 while the injured was Anwar Hossain Gedu, 35. They are all owners of Bandhu Dredging Prokalpo, a construction firm run by six partners.

Police and witnesses said the contractors were supervising labourers who were digging to construct a culvert at Ghoppara of Char Washpur, near Hazaribagh, around 9:00am when all of a sudden six sons and a son-in-law of Jamir Uddin alias Tilu, alleged owner of the land, attacked them with sharp weapons.

The locals, however, chased them away.

The three were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where doctors on duty declared Alam and Monir dead. Anwar was undergoing treatment for a stab injury in the back.

Saidul Islam Saju, one of the partners of the construction firm, told The Daily Star that they received a sub-contract of the culvert construction job a month ago for Tk 8.5 lakh. Jamir Uddin barred them from constructing the culvert claiming the culvert was being constructed on his land.

He also alleged that Jamir demanded Tk 2 lakh from them as compensation. Saju claimed the dispute reached a new peak after they refused to compensate.

Locals said they started the construction work with 10 labourers on the land around 8:00am yesterday without resolving the dispute. Alam, Monir and Anwar were supervising the work.

Following the deaths of the contractors, locals vandalised the houses of the attackers including Jamir's house.

Law enforcers rushed to the spot and dispersed the mob. A large number of policemen were deployed there to thwart any untoward incidents.

The mob, however, captured Muslim, son-in-law of Jamir, from a nearby area while he was trying to escape. They handed him over to the police. Jamir's granddaughter Shumi Akhter, 18, was also detained and handed over to the police.

Altaf Hossain, a partner of the firm, filed a murder case accusing nine people.

In another incident, a gang of three broke into a grocery shop and hacked Oli Akand, 22, at Chunkuthia in Keraniganj around 3:00am and left the place.

Injured Oli was rushed to Mitford Hospital where doctors declared him dead.

Police yesterday morning recovered the body of an unidentified woman aged around 22 underneath a pile of sand near an under-construction building at Ambagicha in Keraniganj.

Police suspect the woman might have been strangled to death.

In another incident, a husband allegedly killed his wife over a family feud at Sirajnagar in Keraniganj early yesterday, UNB reports.

The dead was identified as Amena Begum, 40, wife of Bachhu Mia.

Police said Bachhu had an altercation with his wife late Thursday night and at one stage of the argument hit Amena with a wooden stick on her head, leaving her critically wounded.

Amena was admitted to local Kalatia Clinic where she succumbed to her injuries in the morning.

Police recovered the body and sent it to Mitford Hospital morgue for an autopsy. Bachhu went into hiding after the incident.