NCP weighing its paths to JS
Nearly half of the NCP’s central leaders favour forging an alliance with the BNP ahead of the 13th national election in February.
11 October 2025, 18:00 PM
Govt plans to form paramilitary force for airports
Named Aviation Guard Bangladesh (AGB), the force would comprise 7,650 personnel
29 September 2025, 18:02 PM
Govt plans sweeping overhaul of NHRC
The government has drafted an ordinance to unshackle the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from a 15-year bar on probing members of the security forces.
20 September 2025, 18:21 PM
AL govt’s secret surveillance state
From snooping devices carried in backpacks to locate people through their phones to a massive infrastructure that can intercept even end-to-end encryption from a central command centre, the Awami League government had been on an increasingly aggressive trajectory towards building a powerful surveillance state.
10 August 2025, 18:00 PM
Bangladesh Police: Equipped to inflict heavy casualties
Police arms records show the brutal truth behind the July killings; the force bought 7 times more lethal weapons than non-lethal ones in 2021-23
9 August 2025, 18:00 PM
Hasina’s final days before the fall
A desire for power, intolerance for dissent, and failure to see the writing on the wall undid Hasina's iron-fisted rule
4 August 2025, 18:11 PM
Experts question training flights above mega city
Aviation experts and pilots, both military and civilian, yesterday questioned the rationale behind allowing military aircraft to conduct training exercises over a densely populated area like Dhaka.
21 July 2025, 18:24 PM
2 years lost, life shattered
He was around 15 when he was picked up, a ninth grader.
15 June 2025, 19:20 PM
How the ceiling falling on my head taught me something new about commercial property
When the concrete casting of the ceiling at Gausia market broke off and fell on my head last week, I was determined to hold someone
29 August 2019, 18:00 PM
When it no longer pays to pollute the environment
Just as the city corporations were about to lay down the shovels and pat themselves on the back for a job well done cleaning up all the qurbani waste, more appeared on the streets. Traders threw away reeking piles of hides, dumping them in public garbage spots (also known as sidewalks).
22 August 2019, 18:00 PM
How to co-opt a forest and its people
The Modhupur sal forest exists on the map of northern Bangladesh as a small blob of green in what is otherwise a sea of grey. Being designated the colour green on a map is special—it means that patch of land is an unruly,
8 August 2019, 18:00 PM
The link between violence and mental health
Ismail* is about 16–years–old, and lives in Korail bosti with his mother. He comes over once a week to help me clean my house.
1 August 2019, 18:00 PM
The one thing missing from the conversation
What Priya Saha cited to Donald Trump is a statistical fallacy, and downright irresponsible, but what is way more problematic was our reaction to it.
25 July 2019, 18:00 PM
Dissecting your gas bill
Just one paisa of the gas bill being paid by a consumer, means Tk 35 crores in revenue for the utility companies.
18 July 2019, 18:00 PM
Where is Pathao headed?
Please accept this letter as formal notification of my resignation from my position in Pathao. As per my appointment letter I am
4 July 2019, 18:00 PM
A golden opportunity!
It was while shopping for jewellery for my wedding last year that I realised just how much of the gold in the glitzy, gilded shops are possibly smuggled.
27 June 2019, 18:00 PM
Wringing out the penny-pinchers
One thing is apparent from the budget promises of this year—the “tide of development” that the country seems to be surfing on will
20 June 2019, 18:00 PM
Coronating a child goddess in Kathmandu
Board any flight to Kathmandu, and the co-passengers would nearly all be happy, vacation-bound Bangladeshi families. Nepal with its
30 May 2019, 18:00 PM
SENT FOR HOUSE WORK: MANY TRICKED INTO SEX WORK
Her home is two boat rides away from central Narsingdi—first, a boat drops you off on the outermost banks of the char, and then after crossing half a mile across the sandy islet, a smaller dinghy takes you down a canal that feeds into the body of char.
23 May 2019, 18:00 PM
City hawkers and the public space challenge
Everything is going as is at the traffic signal beside Dhanmondi road number 32, when all of a sudden, the jhalmuriwalah hoists up his
9 May 2019, 18:00 PM
WHY ARE FACTORIES DEEMED UNSAFE STILL OPERATIONAL?
When the Accord and Alliance signed on different brands from all over the world after the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, they pledged that the factories that these brands will do business with will ensure safe working conditions for the workers.
23 April 2019, 18:00 PM
From a t-shirt to Nusrat: Our right to protest
Nusrat Jahan Rafi died for protesting against sexual harassment on the same week that social media hyenas were tearing women apart for daring to wear the ga gheshe daraben na t-shirt on public buses.
18 April 2019, 18:00 PM
The tightening noose of golden fibre
The jute industry is in such deep debt that it would have to sell an arm and a leg, and perhaps both kidneys too, to be able to pay all that it owes their workers.
11 April 2019, 18:00 PM
Anatomy of a city on fire
A resource-strapped fire brigade, skyscrapers with non-existent fire exits, no fire hydrants on the roads, and hospitals on top of chemical warehouses—that is the city of Dhaka.
4 April 2019, 18:00 PM
A city where spectre of fire looms
Only 129 of 3,786 establishments in Dhaka city surveyed by the Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters in 2017 were not classified as “Risky” or “Extremely Risky”.
28 March 2019, 18:00 PM
Eviction in the days of development
Anyone who has witnessed Ashura in and around of Mirpur may have noticed a two-storey red and gold taziya. Tucked inside a one-roomed imambara mausoleum on Lane 18 of Mirpur-11, locked behind green warehouse doors, this taziya is one of the stranded Pakistani community's best kept secrets.
21 March 2019, 18:00 PM
Landless but not helpless
Glance through the Information Commission's publicly available database of applications made under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and something striking stands out.
7 March 2019, 18:00 PM
Mapping Our Many Mother Tongues
Very recently, a video song called “Poran Priyo” released by the telecom provider Robi, featuring an all-girls band F Minor has been making the rounds on social media as a “pahari” song, but very few know that the language of the lyrics is actually Achik, the language of the Garo community.
21 February 2019, 18:00 PM