C R Abrar

It has been two months since a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh and Malaysia on the employment of Bangladeshi workers was signed, marking the end of a suspension on their entry to the Malaysian labour market which had been in force since 2018.

After seven long days, the 28 protesting students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) ended their hunger strike, bringing relief to their loved ones and fellow protesters.

The members of camp-dwelling Urdu-speaking community (CDUSC) are both baffled and dismayed over a series of recent decisions by the Bangladesh government.

A small incident took place at a school in Burdwan in 1944. A class teacher of Grade 7 was wrongly reprimanding a student, accusing him of stacking all the high benches of the classroom against the short ones the previous evening, when a lanky boy stood up and said, “It was not Abanti, it was me.” Impressed by the boy’s moral courage, the teacher excused him.

December 18 marks the International Migrants Day.

December 10 marks the Human Rights Day (HRD).

What is academic freedom? Why is academic freedom a necessary condition for educational institutions?

Today, September 28, is observed globally as World News Day.

December 2, 2013 was the birthday of Mahfuzur Rahman’s—a Chhatra Dal leader of Bangshal—son. Mahfuz promised his son that he would bring him flowers on the occasion and went out to buy flowers in Shahbagh.

They work in mills and factories, also under tin sheds in squalid conditions. They begin their long days commuting in crammed public transport vehicles or taking long walks, braving monsoon rain or summer heat.

As human beings, we enjoy the right to think and express ourselves.

“The situation is alarming, ghastly and uncertain. Deaths all around and institutions seem to be collapsing fast. More seriously, there is no able political head who can lead the nation at this stage of serious crisis”.

The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown major challenges to public policy framing. While responses of the states to the pandemic differed significantly,

he Digital Security Act (DSA) has claimed its latest victim. Last Saturday, police arrested Shahnewaz Chowdhury (37), a diploma engineer of Chattogram’s Banshkhali upazilla, after a case was filed under the DSA for posting a Facebook status.

It was quite a sight. Viewers of television channels and readers of the dailies that carried the images of incarcerated journalist Rozina Islam were baffled at the scale of security measures taken by the state.

So far they pursued their vocations with enthusiasm and passion, and enjoyed doing so. Now forced by the circumstances most can no longer be engaged in their professional activities and have to pass their days in intense uncertainty.

As a nation Bangladeshis commemorated the golden jubilee of their independence a little more than a month ago.

The streets and squares of different towns and cities including those of Rajshahi, Sylhet, Chattogram and Brahmanbaria have witnessed outbreak of wanton violence and mayhem over the last week or so.

They were both active, conscientious, thinking citizens. Both were passionate about social issues, and were gifted—one had a penchant for writing, the other for drawing cartoons.

A few days ago a news item carried by The Guardian, a UK daily, created a major stir in the national media of several Asian countries.