The Rath mela in Dhamrai has been suspended by the local police citing security concerns. But it is alleged that the fair was stopped over a rift between the local lawmaker and the municipality mayor. The Rath mela is integral to the biggest Rath Jatra Utsab in the country.

The latest report of the human rights watchdog Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) is worrying. Apart from 68 people killed in “shootouts” and “crossfire” encounters with the police and other law enforcing agencies in the first six months of 2017, 44 persons were picked up, allegedly by people identifying themselves as members of the law enforcing agencies, according to ASK, during this period.

It is disheartening to note that there are about 10 million out-of-school children, adolescents and youths in Bangladesh, as revealed by a new Unesco policy paper. Some of the reasons mentioned in the paper as to why that is the case were related to their living conditions, financial constraints and social adversities.

A picture published in this paper yesterday showed a dismal state of a good idea gone wrong. The hundreds of waste bins that were set up all over the city as part of the Clean Dhaka campaign by the DNCC and DSCC mayors for better garbage management in the city was without a doubt a good idea which had the potential to make our city cleaner.

It is regrettable that while legal means of money transfer outside the country faces many restrictions there seems to be no impediment to illegal transfer and no palpable effective measures to prevent them. Has the government done anything to find out the final destination of the several thousand crores taken out of some state owned banks like the Basic Bank?

On this day our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the 22 victims of the most horrendous terrorist attack at Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016.

Shortage of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff has become a regular feature during the Eid holidays.

Despite our efforts of curbing and criminalising child marriages, the practice continues. Here, we must point out yet again that the special provision to allow child marriages under special circumstances that has been added to the Child Marriage Restraint Act could undo the limited progress we had made to protect the rights of girls in this country, and give such marriages a legal sanction.

Eid holidays inevitably bring us both joy and sorrow. Sorrow because there are so many road accidents taking away precious lives.

The biggest problem with trafficking from Bangladesh is of course the inability to successfully address the issue of high recruitment fees which leads to victims becoming entrapped into bonded labour. The problems are multifarious and require political will to rectify the systemic faults that exist. Unless we start making some changes, Bangladesh's position is not likely to see improvement in the next year's report.

The BBS, in its report, defined that if a person can write a simple letter, she/he will be considered literate. This clearly contradicts with the definition given by the UNESCO which declares that literacy incorporates three things -- reading, writing and doing simple arithmetic. This is also a globally accepted definition of literacy. Then why have these guidelines of UNESCO not been followed in preparing this report?

First of all this is a direct threat to freedom of the press and the growth of multiplicity of views. Al Jazeera has established itself as an international media outlet that provides divergent views, including the Arab perspective of global issues.

After a month of abstinence, the nation is set to celebrate the biggest festival of Muslims around the world. Ramadan is about teaching us empathy for those less fortunate and help us develop ourselves to be better human beings. As Eid approaches, let us take stock of our learning and our short comings, and with the joy of day, also engage in introspection.

We would hope that the government would not approach the issue in the usual cavalier manner and dismiss the report offhand. The matter demands to be addressed seriously.

A back page photo in this newspaper published on Thursday highlights how futile traffic laws have become. The picture shows VIP cars, including a minister's car escorted by a police contingent going on the wrong side of the road in the midst of a long tail back near Ruposhi Bangla Motor. This is a mockery to the rule of law.

A report published in this paper on Thursday revealed a damning picture of how trains are being used to transport drugs across the country with the alleged collusion of railway police and staff.

Every year before the Eid holidays hundreds of thousands of people leave the capital to celebrate Eid with their friends and families outside of Dhaka city. The rush of people leaving Dhaka right before Eid, therefore, is a common and predictable phenomenon. But because of poor preparations on part of the authorities, their journeys are never made easy and, in fact, often turn tragic.

The World Bank has found that the cost of road-building projects in Bangladesh is far higher than both India and China.

We are appalled by the reports of misappropriation of rice allocated for victims of the recent devastating landslides in the hilly districts.

Waterlogging in Dhaka has become a common problem during monsoon. Rainwater is carried through natural canals and large concrete pipes to flood plains and rivers, but as most of the canals have been grabbed by the encroachers or clogged with solid wastes, the city streets are submerged even after a little rain.