Unsafe storage, system failure behind airport fire: probe
Automatic fire detection, suppression systems recommended
8 November 2025, 18:10 PM
Journalists trapped in legal maze
More than a year since July uprising, at least 296 journalists and media managers remain entangled in cases linked to deaths and violence
1 November 2025, 18:00 PM
Ministry drops independent commission from journo protection law
A draft ordinance prepared by the information ministry has omitted any reference to an independent media commission as proposed by the body tasked with media reforms.
28 October 2025, 18:11 PM
NCP weighing its paths to JS
Nearly half of the NCP’s central leaders favour forging an alliance with the BNP ahead of the 13th national election in February.
11 October 2025, 18:00 PM
Govt plans to form paramilitary force for airports
Named Aviation Guard Bangladesh (AGB), the force would comprise 7,650 personnel
29 September 2025, 18:02 PM
Govt plans sweeping overhaul of NHRC
The government has drafted an ordinance to unshackle the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from a 15-year bar on probing members of the security forces.
20 September 2025, 18:21 PM
AL govt’s secret surveillance state
From snooping devices carried in backpacks to locate people through their phones to a massive infrastructure that can intercept even end-to-end encryption from a central command centre, the Awami League government had been on an increasingly aggressive trajectory towards building a powerful surveillance state.
10 August 2025, 18:00 PM
Bangladesh Police: Equipped to inflict heavy casualties
Police arms records show the brutal truth behind the July killings; the force bought 7 times more lethal weapons than non-lethal ones in 2021-23
9 August 2025, 18:00 PM
Breakdown of money spent over 13 years
The food ministry spent less in fiscal 2022-2023 compared to fiscal 2009-2010, according to data on expenditure over the last 13 years.
6 June 2024, 18:00 PM
Social Safety Net: Share of the poor dwarfed by others
Under the FY24-25 social safety net programme of Bangladesh, the pension for retired government employees and savings scheme interest payments account for nearly the same allocation as social assistance for the poor, the old and the disaster-struck.
6 June 2024, 18:00 PM
Biman U-turns to buy Airbus planes
In 3 days reconstituted evaluation body finds purchase viable after old committee gave the thumbs down
28 May 2024, 18:00 PM
‘Govt meddling in airlines monitoring’
The inspection and monitoring of flight operations of carriers, especially Biman, is hindered by “government involvement”, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has found during a recent inspection.
11 May 2024, 18:00 PM
Stuck inside the boat hull, they suffocated
“We could hear them struggling to breathe and dying slowly and there was nothing we could do,” said 45-year-old Gurudas Mondol, who had survived the horrifying boat accident in the Mediterranean Sea on February 14.
2 May 2024, 18:00 PM
Rights violations: Home ministry snubs two-thirds of NHRC enquiry requests
Nearly two-thirds of the enquiry requests made by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to the home ministry regarding cases of human rights violations by law enforcement agencies have gone unheeded.
4 April 2024, 18:00 PM
20 plates of rice, 118 plates of curries for a lunch of 4!
NRBC Bank’s top managers have great appetites.
22 March 2024, 18:00 PM
Dubious reward for a select few
Only a select 27 employees of NRBC Bank were given salary hikes, and that too astonishingly, in 2022 in violation of banking rules as well as NRBC’s own human resources policy
22 March 2024, 18:00 PM
NRBC branch covered up capital flight
Export proceeds worth at least $3.45 million (Tk 34.41 crore) were not repatriated by six customers of NRB Commercial Bank’s Uttara branch, and the bank concealed the trail of the capital flight, according to the bank’s internal audit and case documents.
21 March 2024, 18:00 PM
Gun in NRBC Bank boardroom
During the 40th board meeting of NRBC Bank on February 7, 2016, current Chairman Tamal Parvez and Director Adnan Imam entered the boardroom accompanied by a man carrying a large gun. Both Tamal and Adnan were board directors back then.
20 March 2024, 18:00 PM
A close call for US-Bangla
Disregarding instructions from the air traffic control, a US-Bangla plane got on the runway in Chattogram less than a minute before another aircraft was about to land, yet no probe was initiated about the close shave
11 March 2024, 18:00 PM
Some user info of Nagad, other entities in public domain
User information of those seemingly having Nagad accounts was being found across several platforms, including Telegram bots, until last week, raising questions about personal data protection.
11 March 2024, 18:00 PM
Death came draped in smoke
Around 11:30pm, there were murmurs of one death. By then, the fire had been burning for over an hour.
1 March 2024, 18:00 PM
To Europe via Libya: A voyage fraught with peril
An undocumented Bangladeshi migrant worker choosing to enter Europe from Libya, will almost certainly be held captive by armed militias, tortured, and their families extorted for lakhs of taka.
22 February 2024, 18:00 PM
Bangladesh Dumping ground for toxic ships
Out of 446 ships scrapped worldwide, 170 ended up in Chattogram beaches, making Bangladesh the biggest dumping yard for end-of-life vessels in the world last year.
1 February 2024, 18:00 PM
Biman ignored its board in hiring pilots
Minutes of Biman’s 269th board meeting held on January 18, 2022, show the board approved recruitment of three captains for its Boeing 777s but the carrier hired eight.
23 January 2024, 18:00 PM
Turnout swung between the two extremes
Two polling centres posted a hundred percent voter turnout each in Sunday’s election, while two others recorded a 98 percent turnout, according to Election Commission’s centre-wise data.
11 January 2024, 18:00 PM
Dhaka saw lowest voter turnout
Dhaka district had the lowest voter turnout in Sunday’s election, with only 25 percent vote cast, according to Election Commission data.
8 January 2024, 18:00 PM
Land Minister Javed owns at least 260 properties in the UK
Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed has at least 260 properties in the United Kingdom for which he has paid at least GBP 134.76 million or Tk 1,888 crore, according to The Daily Star’s calculation from company filings publicly available on UK government websites.
28 December 2023, 18:00 PM
Candidates’ Affidavits: Asset values that don’t fail to amuse
One hundred forty-eight bhoris (1.72kgs) of gold worth Tk 40,000! Twenty bighas of land worth Tk 2,000! A five-katha plot in Barishal worth Tk 400! And a Baridhara flat worth Tk 1.3 lakh!
19 December 2023, 18:00 PM