Shaheen Mollah

Police have stepped up monitoring of city hotels and messes as they are strictly checking the identities of guests and boarders ahead of Sunday's national election.

With electioneering for the parliamentary polls winding down to a close, residents of the capital's slums are feeling left out, apparently because of a rather one-sided campaigning.

About 200 teenagers were found shouting slogans near the IBA Hostel in Farmgate on Sunday to drum up public support for Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Awami League candidate for Dhaka-12.

Viqarunnisa Noon ninth grader Aritry Adhikary, who committed suicide yesterday, was a brilliant girl who knew seven languages, family members say.

“Tree-men” Abul Bajandar, who “voluntarily” left Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) earlier this year, after being treated there for two and a half years, is appealing to authorities concerned to give him another chance at a full recovery.

Zinnat was living like any other boy. He could walk freely and used to give a hand to his brother at work. Everything went well till age 13 when he started growing tall at an abnormal rate. Within the next few years, he became of a victim of his own body.

“Let's stop here,” Taijul tells his father. The rickshaw-van comes to a stop. The 10-year-old gets off and starts collecting scarps from street corners.

Every month a mindboggling Tk 2.47 crore used to be gathered inside Chattogram Central Jail and the lion's share came from drug dealing, its arrested jailer Sohel Rana Biswas told investigators while in remand.

A youth was killed yesterday as police opened fire during a clash with transport workers and locals protesting the toll hike at the First Bangladesh-China Friendship (Buriganga 1) Bridge in Hasnabad of Dhaka.

Abul Kalam dabs a wet swab on a baby's right arm, unperturbed by the infant's scream in pain from burns. His experienced gloved hands run quickly and carefully from the child's elbow down to his fingers as he dresses the wounds.

Writhing in pain on the floor of the female ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burn unit, Anjuara Begum still kept looking beside her to check on her son who was sedated and placed next to her.

As the sun beat down on the capital at around 1:00pm yesterday, sexagenarian Khijir Ahmed was seen looking for a spot to sit under the shade of a tree inside the High Court mazar (shrine), waiting for Zuhr prayers to be over.

They must be turning in their graves. Jahangir Hossain died one and a half years ago, Mansur Ali a year ago and Zilllur Rahman six months back. Now all these months and years later, police have charged them with vandalising vehicles and planning subversive activities.

Teenage gang feud was behind the murder of 17-year-old Mehedi Hasan Shuvo, who was killed by his rivals in the capital's Dakkhin Khan area on August 31, said police.

Joj Mia, the man who attained infamy when he was falsely-implicated in the August 21 grenade attack, still harbours hopes that one day the state will end his prolonged suffering.

People of Dhaka city started purchasing their sacrificial animals yesterday. Markets, however, have not reached their peaks yet due to prices being high. Traders of cattle markets blamed last year's loss and increased cost of fodder for the high price of the cattle this year.

Remember Tofa and Tahura? The conjoined twins from Gaibandha, who were successfully separated in a marathon surgery at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on August 1 last year, are 22 months old now.

A record number of patients from across the country were admitted at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) in Dhaka during the Eid-ul-fitr holidays.

Street vendors in the capital have to pay much more as extortion ahead of Eid-ul Fitr, further impacting their day-to-day income.

Like in previous years, healthcare at well-known city hospitals during Eid vacation would depend mostly on a handful of doctors and nurses.