Shakhawat Liton

It was around 3:00am of August 15, 1975. Preparations for carrying out a barbaric assassination were almost done. Major Syed Faruk Rahman, one of the masterminds of the massacre, was sitting on a stool in front of the lancer unit headquarters in Dhaka Cantonment. An operation map was open on his knees. Execution of which would send a massive blow to the newly independent Bangladesh. Major Khandaker Abdur Rashid, another mastermind, was standing beside him.

The phone rang. Major General KM Shafiullah picked it up. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was on the other end. “Shafiullah, your troops have attacked my home. They might have killed Kamal [Bangabandhu's son]. Send forces quickly,” he ordered the army chief in an angry voice amid deafening sounds of gunshots in the pre-dawn hours of August 15, 1975.

The only apparent similarity between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is their long-running rule of Turkey. Their rise to power and political mission, however, are completely opposite. One was a revolutionary, who had transformed Turkey into a modern and secular republic, while the other has been known as a leader accused of uprooting the secular foundations of the country.

Adecade ago, when she was in power, Khaleda Zia tried but could not forge national unity to fight militancy. Almost all parties

His expertise in criminal laws matters little. What is a must for his appointment as a prosecutor is his loyalty to the party in power.

The fall of the first woman prime minister of UK, Margaret Thatcher, and the sudden emergence of its second woman premier, Theresa May, can be considered milestones of British history.

The dangerous fate of Fahim, Rohan, Mubasher and Nibras shows how our youths are becoming weapons of destruction if they are brainwashed and transformed into militants.

The unprecedented Gulshan café attack that claimed lives of 20 hostages, most of them foreigners, seems to have compelled Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia to refrain from accusing each other of patronising terrorists and carrying out attacks by their party men.

Even if the police establish Babul's involvement in the murder, they cannot force him to resign using it as a bargaining weapon. The police do not have such jurisdiction and any such action is unlawful. Babul's fate must be decided by the court. If found guilty and convicted, he will automatically be unfit to hold his job in the police force.

David Cameron may now be likened to two of his predecessors -- Edward Heath and Harold Wilson.

He has not joined any of the 134 sittings of parliament in the last one and a half years. This says all about his failure to do parliamentary business as a lawmaker.

Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon yesterday rightly described the death of militant suspects in so-called "crossfire" and "gun battle" as weakness and failure of the law-enforcement agencies.

Ironically in our politics today, ideals, principles, beliefs or ethics do not determine what “stance” our leader will take. Rather, it is determined by power -- is the leader “in power” or “out of power” -- and that will determine the stance.

In the run up to the gubernatorial election in 2014, Nam Kyung-pil promised to transform the governor house from a cold and closed space into a warm and open space for people of the province.

The death of more than 1,100 garment workers in Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 had shocked the world's conscience. The man-made disaster tainted the country's image abroad.

Incidents of police arresting people facing no criminal charges run counter to a Supreme Court verdict against the police's century-old discretionary powers of arrest on suspicion.

The Election Commission has passed the buck to the society by making a ridiculous claim that "social instability is one of the major causes" for the widespread violence in the just concluded union parishad polls.

AMA Muhith yesterday said the poor state of local governance remains a major impediment to good governance in the country.

It was a shock for British Chancellor of the Exchequer Ward Hunt when he stood up to deliver his budget speech in the House of Commons in 1868, opened the briefcase, and discovered he had left his speech at home.

The ongoing union parishad polls redefined the universal definition of election. It has also presented a new model of ballots, which matches no international standards for elections.