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
Jobs taken, benefits too
After Dragon Sweaters’ Dhaka factory closed due to the pandemic last year, former garments worker Abdul Kuddus had to sign away rights to half of his termination benefits.
26 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Critically Ill Covid Patients: ICU bed, ventilator ever more elusive
Only families with critically-ill Covid-19 patients know the pain of trying to find an intensive care unit (ICU) bed at this point. ICU wards are chock-full all over the city, while critical patients have their clocks ticking.
21 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Joyless Pahela Baishakh, gloom at iftar tables
When last year the country faced for the first time a Pahela Baishakh indoors, or the first day of Ramadan without family and celebration, the new reality was adopted with much gusto.
15 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Plasma Therapy: Hardly effective on variants from South Africa, Brazil
Researchers in Germany have found that the South African and Brazillian variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus might be able to evade “plasma therapy”.
13 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Empty ICU bed hardest to find
In the capital yesterday, finding an empty ICU bed was akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
7 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Deluge of Covid Patients: Mugda crippled by manpower crunch
How long does it take to get a CT-scan report? A day? Perhaps two?
6 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Ban on Ride-Sharing Bikes: Over a lakh lose means of livelihood
The first day of the ban on ride-sharing services via motorcycles stripped over one lakh bikers of means to a livelihood until further notice.
1 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Commuters left high and dry
In addition to bus capacity being slashed to half, ride-sharing using motorcycles was banned beginning yesterday, leaving commuters in the capital in despair.
1 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Pandemic pushed them below the line
A 40-year-old woman was sitting in a shared kitchen in Korail Bosti, where a pan of catfish stewed away on the stove. But it wasn’t hers -- it was her neighbour’s lunch.
20 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Number of critical patients surging
The number of patients at the intensive care units in hospitals, getting treatment for Covid-19, has been on the rise.
13 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Scars of torture all over him
“If you come close to me you will smell the pus.”
4 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Workers Tricked, Trafficked: Sold in Algeria, waiting for rescue
A group of at least 55 Bangladeshis had paid recruiting agencies over Tk 3 lakh each for jobs in Algeria and the promise of illegal passage into Spain -- what they got instead was indentured labour under subhuman living conditions.
25 February 2021, 18:00 PM
Digital Security Act: Misused to muzzle dissent
Incarcerated for over nine months, writer Mushtaq Ahmed and cartoonist Ahmed Kishore were brought into the courtroom 11 days ago and produced before a judge.
21 February 2021, 18:00 PM
“All I ever wanted was my father to be back home” - Monorom Polok
During the 53 days that journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol spent in enforced disappearance and the additional seven months of imprisonment, the movement for his release was fuelled by the most part by his unrelenting son, activist Monorom Polok.
11 February 2021, 18:00 PM
‘It felt like I was in a grave’
“I decided not to shave the beard. I’ve just trimmed it a bit, I think I quite like the beard,” laughed Shafiqul Islam Kajol, his eyes twinkling with amusement at the irony of keeping the large, shaggy, grey beard that grew out over his 53 days of enforced disappearance and seven months in prison.
5 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Farmers in 2020: Hit hard, yet resilient
They say trouble never comes alone, and to farmers around the country this saying could not have rung truer for the year that passed.
1 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Kajol home after 290 long, bleak days
“The day feels unreal,” said Monorom Polok after his father, photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, was released from the Dhaka Central Jail yesterday.
25 December 2020, 18:00 PM
Violence Against Women: It’s even worse during pandemic
As the year of the pandemic winds down, it becomes even more clear that Covid-19 led to an increase in gender-based violence.
14 December 2020, 18:00 PM
Sinha murder pre-planned
Investigators have found that the murder of Maj (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan was pre-planned and they will mention it in the case’s charge sheet, which will be submitted to court soon.
12 December 2020, 18:00 PM
History erased
Elected lawmaker of Dhaka-7 three times since 1996, he has over the years either had a hand in the destruction of heritage sites and antiquities in his constituency or never showed political support to heritage conservation.
21 November 2020, 18:00 PM