We cannot emphasise enough the need to heed the call of our Prime Minister for OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) members, currently meeting in Dhaka, to exert united efforts to bring about a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis. There is no question that the Rohingyas must be able to return to their homeland. But repatriation must come along with the guarantee of their full rights of citizenship and security of their lives.

According to a news report in this paper on May 6, law enforcers arrested a physician in possession of yaba pills, who is a post-graduate student and enrolled in BCS. Recent reports tell us that educated people have joined a growing army of dealers who trade in this illicit drug that has seen a phenomenal rise in usage over the years. Indeed, we find that over the course of a decade, yaba shipment hauls by law enforcers jumped from 36,543 pills in

This newspaper yesterday published an alarming report that nearly half a dozen brickfields in Kamalganj upazila of Moulvibazar are situated adjacent to schools.

The spate of violence in the hill tracts is distressing. The killing of an Upazila Chairman on May 3 was followed by the gruesome shooting that killed five and injured seven other indigenous people in Naniarchar of Rangamati.

After nearly a year of proposals and counter proposals, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has approved of the joint bid from a Chinese consortium to become a strategic partner of DSE. The deal is to be inked on May 14 after the Chinese submitted a revised bid on April 30. We welcome the entry of the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange which are listed in the top 10 stock exchanges in the world. Their entry in the running of our premier bourse will certainly help in its development.

The increasing frequency with which violence against women and girls is being carried out, despite a number of legal safeguards and a seeming national consensus about such violence, is mind-boggling. Two reports in this newspaper on Thursday described the killing of one girl and the rape of another, both students of class-III and nearly the same age. The incidents took place in Brahmanbaria and Pabna, when the girls went out from their homes

World Press Freedom Day, observed yesterday across the globe, has given a grim report of the various onslaughts that journalists face today. It also underscores the importance of press freedom and reminds governments of their duty to respect peoples' right to freedom of expression.

The Chittagong Customs House (CCH) has given the job of scanning import cargo to a foreign company (SGS) at a cost of Tk 29 crore. While the CCH is claiming it could do the job itself for a mere Tk 4 crore a year, the fact remains that it failed to set up a permanent scanning department since 2012. We find it perplexing as to why the CCH personnel, who got trained as part of the original contract signed with SGS, got transferred by the time the

That Bangladeshi women migrant workers in the Gulf countries, mostly in Saudi Arabia, have to face various forms of harassment in the hands of their employers including physical torture, sexual abuse, and even rape is nothing new. Reportedly, many of these women are even forced into sex trade and are tortured if they refuse.

A recent survey of disputes in the overall industrial sector during 2017 was unveiled on May Day by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS). The readymade garments (RMG) sector being the largest industrial sector employing 4.4 million people directly and 10 million indirectly recorded the largest number of disputes (91 out of a total 181). We find that nearly half the disputes (40 percent) have to do with unpaid wages and 25 percent is

We welcome the commitment made by the UNSC delegation that resolution of the Rohingya crisis will be its top priority.

The city witnessed around 55mm rainfall during six hours of April 29 and that was enough to produce knee-deep water in major residential and commercial areas.

Unsuspecting people are becoming victims of reckless bus drivers and their killing machines with sickening regularity. Only in the space of 10 days three persons fell victim to wild bus drivers who thought the streets of Dhaka were racing tracks, and consequently, Rajib and Rozina eventually succumbed to their injuries. The case of the latest victim is even more appalling. He is a car driver who was deliberately run over by the driver of a private transport company, when told to stop by the victim after the bus had hit and damaged the car.

In the last two years, farmers in haor areas had lost their boro crops to flash floods caused by heavy rain, followed up by onrush of water from the upstream. This year, water has again entered the paddy fields in 88 villages of Sunamganj's Tahirpur and Dhamapasha upazilas after part of the Naotana dyke along the Tanguar Haor had allegedly been cut by some local fishermen.

We would like to wish a joyous Buddha Purnima to all followers of Gautama Buddha in Bangladesh and all around the world. The day, observed on the occasion of Buddha's birthday, aims to celebrate his life, teachings and the message of peace and non-violence.

The visit of the delegation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to first Bangladesh and then Myanmar comes at a crucial time when Bangladesh is facing several daunting challenges as it struggles to host over one million Rohingya refuges forced to flee Myanmar's persecution.

It was heartening to learn from a report in this newspaper that a councillor at Shibalaya Model Union in Manikganj has set up a library in his community so that people in his locality can nurture their habit of reading and become ideal citizens.

History was made when for the first time in sixty-three years a North Korean leader stepped on the southern side of the divided peninsula that at one time had been one country and one people. We welcome the momentous step that Moon and Kim have taken to shed the baggage of history, turn around from the past and transform a situation of intractable hostility to one that the world hopes presages enduring peace.

To have the Security Council members visit a country is indeed extremely significant, particularly when that is taking place in connection with a matter as important as the Rohingya crisis. Noteworthy is Myanmar relenting eventually to allow a UN visit to the Rakhine State; we would hope that the significance of the entire visit would be fully understood by our policy makers, and that the occasion would be fully utilised to carry our point home to the visiting team members.

A number of human rights organisations have expressed concerns over rising incidents of child rape at a protest rally on April 25 at the central Shaheed Minar. According to their statistics, in just the last three months, as many as 99 children became victims of rape all over the country.