Muntakim Saad

Still reeling from Thursday’s fire tragedy, workers of Hashem Foods Limited now hang in the dark over their salary and Eid bonus payment, as the factory suspended its activities, and its owner and high officials were arrested.

Two months ago, her husband fractured his leg in an accident on his way home from Dhaka to Rupganj.

The fire that killed 51 employees of a food processing factory in Narayanganj was not a bolt from the blue for the owners who, according to police, knew such a disaster was imminent but chose to do nothing.

The air was heavy with the stench of death. The smell of burnt plastic, packaging papers, and other factory materials was still lingering.

At least 49 workers and staffers died in a fire at a Narayanganj factory as they were trapped on the third floor with its lone exit locked when the blaze engulfed the building on Thursday.

Sami lost his father a year ago.

Incidents of brutalities have increased alarmingly in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country in recent months with killing, sexual abuse and torture becoming rampant.

The same old pictures of thousands of people leaving the capital have returned as the country braces for another lockdown.

Once a victim of human trafficking, Nodi Akter became a trafficker herself and worked as a coordinator between traffickers in India, Malaysia and UAE.

A few months after she was trafficked to India and forced into sex work, 18-year-old Sania, not her real name, found out that she was pregnant.

Taking advantage of the naivety of some young women and children, cybercriminals are using social media to exploit, expose, blackmail, bully, and even traffic them in astonishing numbers.

A 40-year-old reputed businessperson joined Bigo Live, a video streaming app, a year ago and spent around Tk 26 lakh on young women, who lured him through live streaming.

Two years ago, when she was 18, Tania (not her real name) married Jahidul Islam Rony, 27, a conductor of a city bus. Their days were passing well until she discovered that her husband was a drug addict and irregular in his job.

Many cannot even imagine the brutalities an 18-year-old girl endured for more than two months.

A woman, devastated, is sitting on a bed with two others. There are bruises and injury marks on her legs, face and other parts of her body. Bloodstains can be seen on the bed sheet.

Saima [not her real name], 15, led a regular teenage life of this generation, making videos on popular mobile app TikTok, before she was trafficked to India with the promise of a better job.

Police in the Indian city of Bengaluru said they arrested five Bangladeshis, four men and a woman, yesterday over the rape and torture of a young woman who they also believed to be from Bangladesh.

The restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 remain only on paper as there is little enforcement by government agencies to control public movement and plying of vehicles.

The ban on inter-district buses and restrictions on public movement could not stop the mad rush of homebound people, as thousands made arduous journeys yesterday to celebrate the Eid with their loved ones amid the pandemic.

Be it on the highways or on ferries, people’s desperate rush to go to their home towns for Eid only heightened yesterday, despite mounting difficulties.