Md Shahnawaz Khan Chandan

According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and a staggering 9.6 million people died of cancer just in 2018.

On January 25 this year, 13 workers of a brick kiln in Cumilla died in their sleep when a coal laden truck flipped over their shanty. Among them, seven were regular students of two high schools in Jaldhaka upazila of Nilphamari district. They were lured into working in the brick kilns for some extra cash.

On January 27, 1922, in the wake of Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement and the Khilafat movement, hundreds of thousands of peasants, artisans and traders from the entire North and North-West Bengal gathered at a place called Salanga, now located in Bangladesh's Sirajganj district.

Every day at 7am, Limon (not his real name), a boy of around 15, gathers a group of eight teenagers at a tea stall in Rayerbazar slum. In the tea stall, where they have a quick breakfast of a banana and a bun each, they are not particularly welcome.

It was around 12:30 pm when we reached the office of the director of National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH). After a half hour wait, the director called us in.

The results of the 11th Bangladeshi general election was supposed to be determined by the Bangladeshi youth who constitute roughly one-fourth of all voters.

“We know education is important. All of my three daughters studied up to grade five. But in our village, the demand of dowry increases if our daughters cross 15 years of age.

The outcome of four months of protests for reforms on the quota system in government jobs—with protestors having to endure arbitrary arrests, subsequent imprisonment, suspension from universities and torture at the hands of law enforcers ruling party cadres—finally took shape on September 17, 2018.

Md Nasir Uddin, an employee of a private company, has been using shared motorbike rides through ride sharing apps regularly since September 2017. His rating with Uber and Pathao, two popular ride-sharing apps operating in Bangladesh, is 4.9 out of 5 and 93 percent respectively.

More than 700,000 Rohingyas, who fled the genocidal military operations of Myanmar a year ago, are still living under constant threat of attack. Sheltered in 30 refugee camps in different parts of Cox's Bazar district, they are not vulnerable to Myanmar army's raid anymore. This time, they are being threatened by their own people.

When Dr. Asharaful Amin, associate professor and chairperson of Computer Science and Engineering Department of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), started to teach Robotics as a minor course for undergrad students, he did not expect much from his students. “Study of robotics in Bangladesh is still in its infancy. Our software-based job market offers little for a robotics graduate. In the beginning, very few students wanted to take this course.”

In a desperate need for cash, food, and daily necessities, Rohingya refugees are selling relief items to local traders

"How will you write my story? What is the use of writing my story? You can't understand my sufferings.

The grainy black-and-white photo, printed in a new book on the Rohingya crisis authored by Myanmar's army, shows a man standing over two bodies, wielding a farming tool. "Bengalis killed local ethnics brutally", reads the caption.

“Did you see my son Sadman? Please take a look at this photo. Did you see him being taken to the police station? Is he in this police station?” A woman, in her early fifties, was desperately appealing to the sentries stationed at the gate of Shahbagh police station at 1pm on August 6, 2018.

“In Maharashtra of India, 33 people were killed in a road accident, but do they talk about it like the way we do? Whenever something happens in Bangladesh, no matter how insignificant it is, everybody makes a fuss,” commented Bangladesh's shipping minister Shajahan Khan, who is also the executive president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation.

“When I went to the market yesterday, grocers told me that the price of commodities would be increased after Eid-Ul-Adha so I must clear all my dues within August 15,” says Khorsheda Begum, an assistant machine operator of a readymade garment (RMG) factory located in Tongi, Gazipur.

Mother, seek mercy for me from the Prime Minister. Tell her that I am a regular student and that I am not involved with any political party.

What was supposed to be a festive holiday, turned into a nightmare for Jamalur Hasan. He had arrived home from Dhaka in Kawkhali upazila of Pirojpur district on a seven-day leave to celebrate Eid with his wife, only son and parents. “I went out to the bazaar to buy beef and rice for the Eid feast at around 12 pm. My wife was busy in the kitchen. My son Rakib went out to play with his friends—and that's when it happened,” he recalls.

Sajedul Islam Ratul is a second-year student in Dhaka University's political science department. In a batch of around 120 students, Ratul is the only one who is visually impaired. His journey to Dhaka University, the country's highest seat of learning, from Kishoreganj is an odyssey of overcoming one hurdle after another.