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Three people were shot and wounded in separate incidents in Khulna on Tuesday, adding to a run of armed attacks that has made public safety the most pressing issue in the city and the surrounding district.

According to Khulna district police, Ahidul Islam Badal, 35, a former Jubo Dal leader, was shot at Chakrakhali Bazar in Batiaghata upazila at about 5:45pm. Attackers on a motorcycle opened fire and fled, and he was taken to Khulna Medical College Hospital. Earlier, at about 11:15am, Salman, 25, an employee of a private company, was shot in the Nirala residential area and his laptop bag was snatched by five assailants riding two motorcycles. Shortly after midnight, Sohail Sheikh, 34, another former Jubo Dal leader, was shot in front of a government primary school in Boro Karia village, also in Batiaghata, and was sent to Dhaka for treatment.

The three cases fit a wider pattern. Police records cited by The Daily Star put the death toll in Khulna city and district at 71 between January and 26 October. Twenty-three of the dead were killed in shootings. Sixty-nine murder cases were filed over the 71 deaths, 34 with the Khulna Metropolitan Police and 35 with district police stations. Fourteen of the city cases and nine of the district cases involved firearms.

Prothom Alo, analysing police statistics up to 23 October, reported the same total and said the killings were linked to drug trafficking, control of extortion, mugging, past enmities and rivalry between criminal groups. The pattern has not spared ordinary residents. On 22 October, Tawhidul Islam was shot dead in Purba Baniakhamar in the morning and housewife Khushi Akter was killed near her home in Jinnahpara in the evening; police suspect drug-related disputes and are examining whether the two cases are connected. Two days later, Ramim Biswas, a Jubo Dal leader in Terokhada, and Dhananjay Kundu, a shop owner in South Tutpara, were shot in separate incidents.

In other cases this year, a 15-year-old schoolgirl was shot on the Rupsha embankment road in July, a young man was shot and robbed of his phone at the Tutpara Amtala crossing on 18 October, and a college teacher who runs a shop was shot at his business on 24 October. Police have said the motives ranged from personal disputes to extortion, mugging and fights over drug territory.

Khulna Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Sazzadur Rahman said the shootings had various causes, including personal disputes, robbery, drugs, extortion and criminal rivalries. Mohammad Ahaduzzaman Mia, deputy commissioner of the KMP's Detective Branch, said drug-related disputes were behind most of the killings, and that some suspects return to crime after securing bail while public reluctance to testify hampers investigations.

Police sources told Prothom Alo that at least nine organised groups are competing for control of drug and extortion networks across the city and nearby upazilas, and that many recovered weapons appear to have been brought in through border routes. Between January and September, the KMP recovered 50 firearms and 233 bullets and filed 43 cases under the Arms Act, arresting 75 people. District police recovered 26 firearms and 53 bullets. Detectives estimate that about 300 illegal firearms remain in circulation in the city.

Inspector General of Police Md Ali Hossain Fakir, speaking about the Khulna situation, said criminals were both being killed and doing the killing, and that the result was public alarm. He said police face criticism as heavy-handed when they use force and as weak when they do not. He pointed to a planned legal framework, backed by the home and finance ministries, to strengthen law enforcement, with community policing operating as a branch of the force, and to a proposed law allowing police to file extortion cases on their own initiative.

Kudrat-e-Khuda, general secretary of the Khulna district unit of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN), blamed shortcomings in policing for the deterioration. Khulna was once a peaceful city, he said, and the sequence of killings is beyond what residents could have imagined. SM Shafiqul Alam Mona, president of the Khulna city BNP, said his party had asked the IGP and other authorities to restore order and warned of a dangerous situation if teen gangs, drugs and extortion are not brought under control. He also said his party would act against its own members involved in such crimes.

The police response has itself become part of the story. On 23 October, Khulna police were instructed in a letter not to move alone at night. Superintendent of Police Sarker Omar Faroque said the instruction was meant to protect officers and did not signal a breakdown in law and order.

Several questions remain open. Police have not announced arrests over Tuesday's three shootings, and the motive in each is still under investigation. It is not clear how many of this year's 69 murder cases have been solved, or when the legal changes described by the IGP would take effect. Nor is there an independent explanation for why the violence has persisted despite repeated recoveries of weapons and arrests.

For now, the immediate test is whether the latest attacks produce prosecutions rather than another entry in the casualty count. Residents and local political leaders say they are watching whether patrols, the promised community policing scheme and the new legal powers change anything on the streets where the shootings keep happening.

Israel's parliamentary election has ended without a clear winner, with exit polls showing both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc and the opposition led by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot short of the 61 seats needed to form a government in the 120-seat Knesset.

The projections do not agree on who is ahead. Channel 12 put Netanyahu's bloc on 52 seats, Eisenkot's bloc on 49 and the Arab List on 19, according to Al Jazeera figures cited by Prothom Alo. Kan 11 and Channel 13, Israel's public broadcaster and a commercial rival, put the two main blocs level at 51 seats each.

At party level, Netanyahu's Likud was projected to remain the largest single party with about 27 seats, while Eisenkot's Yashar was on about 21. The Joint List and Ra'am, the main Arab-led lists, were projected to win a combined 17 to 19 seats, their strongest showing in years, with turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel rising sharply.

Overall turnout was about 77.7 per cent, up from 70.6 per cent in 2022 and the highest in decades. Israeli commentators treated the figure as a sign that voters on both sides saw the election as decisive after a period of security strain and political deadlock.

The vote was held against the background of the coalition Netanyahu formed after the 2022 election, which relied on far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners and held a narrow majority. That majority is now projected to be gone, and his traditional allies were not seen winning enough seats to rebuild it.

Eisenkot, a former chief of staff who entered politics at the head of Yashar, told supporters at his party's headquarters that the result showed the country wanted change. "It is clear that the people of the country are in favour of change and voted against Netanyahu's failed rule," he said, asking the public to wait for the final count.

He went further, calling on Netanyahu to accept that he had lost public confidence and to leave political life. Eisenkot said he would do his utmost to build a "responsible Zionist government" with partners across the spectrum, that his government would make military service compulsory for all and would work to defeat Hamas. "The era of lies and failure is over," he said.

At Likud's headquarters in Jerusalem, ministers and activists celebrated as the later projections came in. Prothom Alo reported that the party was preparing to allege vote theft if it ends up on the losing side, a claim that would sharpen an already tense count.

The Arab-led parties emerged as the most likely kingmakers. Ahmad Tibi, leader of Ta'al, said his party's main aim was to remove Netanyahu's government and to stop him leading any transitional administration. Their support, or refusal to give it, could decide whether either bloc can reach 61.

Neither leader has conceded. Both are expected to present themselves to President Isaac Herzog as the candidate best placed to assemble a coalition, and Herzog's choice will depend on the official results and on which parties clear the 3.25 per cent threshold.

Several things remain unknown. The final seat distribution has not been published, the smaller parties' totals could still shift, and no coalition talks have begun in earnest. It is also unclear whether Eisenkot's bloc, which ranges from centrist and left-wing groups to right-wing partners, can hold together long enough to negotiate a common programme.

What happens next follows Israel's familiar pattern: consultations with the president, a mandate to one candidate, and up to several weeks of bargaining over portfolios and policy. If no one can assemble 61 seats, the Knesset could dissolve and the country would return to the polls, as it did repeatedly between 2019 and 2022.

For now, the only confirmed outcome is the deadlock itself. The campaign is over, but the question of who governs Israel, and with whose support, is still open.