Mokammel Shuvo

The Bangladeshi workers who were killed in Mizda town in Libya were kept hostage on the way to Tripoli from Benghazi by a group of international traffickers, comprising Libyans, Bangladeshis and Somalians, who demanded Tk 10 lakh from each of the hostages’ families.

Abdul Karim’s eyes sparkle with joy when he stares at his salt flats shining white under the sun. But his joy soon begins to fade when he thinks of selling the fruit of his labour.

Different transport workers’ associations and local goons are extorting money from cattle-laden trucks at seven points on the Jashore-Dhaka highway.

Under the ongoing food grain procurement programme, the government is buying only 1.5 lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers, which makes up less than one percent of the total estimated production of around 1.96 crore tonnes this boro season.

With sacks of paddy piled on both sides of the road at Barmi Bazar in Gazipur, farmers were waiting under the scorching sun to sell their produce at a fair price.

Services at Narail Sadar Hospital have improved to some extent over the last one week with the attending doctors making sure that no one is absent there.

Recently, Sisnabi Mondol, a farmer in Dinajpur's Chirirbandar upazila, has sold his Aman paddy at Tk 600 per maund, whereas the rate was Tk 720 when the harvest season began in December.

Exhausted Rohingyas walking with loads of firewood on their heads used to be a common sight around the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, raising concerns about the long-term impact on the forest.

The much-awaited launch of the Rohingya repatriation was cancelled at the last moment yesterday as the refugees refused to return to Rakhine for fear of fresh persecution.

The first batch of Rohingyas is all set to be sent back to Myanmar today amid reports that many of the refugees listed for return are hiding in fear of forcible repatriation.

With early rains falling on the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar, the fear of natural calamities has heightened among the refugees living in tiny shanties made of bamboo poles and tarpaulin in the district's Ukhia and Teknaf.

The historic Jessore Road, immortalised in Allen Ginsberg's poem “September on Jessore Road”, is steadily losing the essence of its legacy due to a corrupt chain of unbridled tree-felling.

It was around eleven in the morning.

Although there is sufficient government land on both sides of the historical Jessore Road for its expansion, the local authorities seem to be hell-bent on doing the expansion by felling more than 2,300 trees, a several hundred of them nearly two centuries old.

Seeing the little cormorants flying in the sky in their thousands and feeding their chicks in their little nests on treetops can be a

They consider Tata engines grossly underrated. If a “Tata human haulier” is capable of carrying double the passenger-load than what they usually do, then why not turn them into minibuses? All it needs is a little improvisation; ingenious indeed! While not lawful, this is an aspect that hardly matters as far as Dhaka streets and their diverse array of public transports are concerned.

Keeping its head above the water, a water monitor, locally known as gui shap, swam to the bank of Khashnagar Dighi (lake) near the

Apart from the beautiful sandy beach that makes Kuakata one of the top tourist destinations, it has many other things to offer.

The first light of Mongol Shobhajatra, the colourful procession at the dawn of Pahela Baishakh, illuminated Jessore in 1985. Charupite

A 90-yard stretch of a road, in the capital's Shyamoli, has been illegally made off-limits to all types of vehicle.