Metropolitan

At least 14 people, including 4 children and six women, were rescued from a human-trafficker at Hakimpur upazila of Dinajpur district on the border with India on Friday, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) sources said. The rescued persons have been identified as Minoti Roy 35, Setu Bala 65, Saleka Bala 60, Nani Bala 55, Kaloni Rani ... Read more

Says Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury There must be a stronger and more coordinated disaster management system in case of future disasters like that of Rana Plaza collapse, said Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury, adviser to a former caretaker government, yesterday. He was addressing a workshop titled “Urban Disaster Response and Lessons Learnt from the Rana Plaza ... Read more

11 ex-RU students still fight against conviction Although four Rajshahi University (RU) teachers, convicted in a case filed over the August 2007 protests, received a presidential pardon, 11 former students have been struggling for nearly six years to overturn their conviction. In December 2007, a Rajshahi speedy trial court sentenced the students to three years’ ... Read more

Says Dr Akbar Ali Khan Former adviser to a caretaker government Dr Akbar Ali Khan yesterday said the country was not enjoying the benefits of democracy due to a lack of the rule of law and democratic values. “There is a shell of democracy in Bangladesh, it has no life,” he told Dhaka YES Conference ... Read more

Rpo Amendment EC pins hope on ordinance The Election Commission is pinning its hope on promulgation of an ordinance to amend the Representation of the People Order 1972 as the chance of the RPO amendment bill passage in the next session is very thin. President Abdul Hamid has convened the 20th parliamentary session of the ... Read more

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has said people would resist the government’s move to hold the coming general election under a partisan government. Inaugurating a political training workshop of the party at a city hotel on Thursday, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir

A Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka on Thursday granted bail to Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member MK Anwar in a case filed under the Information and Communication Technology Act. Metropolitan magistrate Mustafa Shahriar Khan granted the bail after Anwar surrendered to the court seeking bail. Anwar’s defence counsel

More than four years have passed since Shakhari Bazar was announced a national heritage site but indifference of the authorities concerned was turning the historic neighbourhood of old Dhaka into a pile of wreckage. The life of the people living in the neighbourhood is at stake as no step for the restoration or renovation of ... Read more

The district administration of Khulna is set to pull down by the next month illegal structures developed on 1.87 acres of land of the Roads and Highways Division. The land was grabbed by 98 influential people of the city. The decision was made at a recent meeting at the deputy

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday assured Chittagong business leaders of allocating Tk 20 crore to resolve the waterlogging problem of Moheskhal in Agrabad area. She assured the leaders of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) of the allocation after MA Latif, CCCI’s former president and also MP,

Says Mozena The violence against religious minorities in Bangladesh is seldom about religion, US Ambassador Dan Mozena said yesterday. Rather, it is about the pursuit of power and financial gain of the cheap politicians and greedy land grabbers, he told a seminar on “Religious Tolerance and Peace” organised by Inter-Faith Dialogue Forum (IFDF) at the ... Read more

Resolving Ongoing Political Crisis National dialogue now essential Suggests SHUJAN roundtable A national dialogue involving representatives of political parties, the media, business community and civil society has become essential to resolve the growing political stand-off in the country, speakers told a roundtable yesterday. The rigid stance of the major political parties on the issue

The Dhaka South City Corporation on Thursday started selecting tender for leasing out 10 cattle markets under its jurisdiction for the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha. Some bidders alleged that Awami League activists came to the DSCC headquarters, Nagar Bhaban, to show off their power.

The Rajshahi University students observed the ‘day against repression’ on Thursday, demanding withdrawal of all cases filed against students who protested at repression on teachers, students and employees of the university by law enforcers on the campus on  August 22 in 2007 during the then army-backed caretaker government. That day, law enforcers

Local people confined a young man along with a firearm and handed him over to the police in Sylhet city Wednesday night. The detainee was identified as Akash Chowdhury Babul, 26, son of Aftab Uddin of Nayapara at Akhalia in Sylhet city, the police said.

The police recovered a decomposed body from a place opposite to KDS garment at Oxygen area of Baijid police station in the Chittagong city Thursday morning. Baijid police station subinspector Saiful Islam said that they recovered the body at around 11:00am as the residents of that area informed the police

Joydevpur-dhaka Route DEMU train inaugurated in Joydevpur Railway Minister Mujibul Haque yesterday inaugurated a commuter train known as Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) at Joydevpur railway junction. Addressing the inauguration ceremony as the chief guest, Mujibul Haque said the present government has made significant changes in the railway sector

Construction of new footbridges is going on while many of the existing footbridges in the capital are mere death traps with their badly damaged stairs. Pedestrians have alleged that most of the existing footbridges have become unfit for use and almost ruined by hawkers, floating people and drug addicts when

Dalit and excluded community members in Barisal on Wednesday demanded constitutional recognition and end of discrimination by birth and profession. They also emphasised implementing constitutional and anti-discriminative directives to influence developments of socio-economic structures.

Bangladesh Chhatra League activists on Wednesday chased the leaders and activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal at Rajshahi University. Witnesses said a group of JCD activists led by its RU unit convener Arafat Reza Ashique was flexing muscle around campus premise. While JCD men reached at Tukitaki Chattar on the