Muntakim Saad

A few months after she was trafficked to India and forced into sex work, 18-year-old Sania, not her real name, found out that she was pregnant.

Taking advantage of the naivety of some young women and children, cybercriminals are using social media to exploit, expose, blackmail, bully, and even traffic them in astonishing numbers.

A 40-year-old reputed businessperson joined Bigo Live, a video streaming app, a year ago and spent around Tk 26 lakh on young women, who lured him through live streaming.

Two years ago, when she was 18, Tania (not her real name) married Jahidul Islam Rony, 27, a conductor of a city bus. Their days were passing well until she discovered that her husband was a drug addict and irregular in his job.

Many cannot even imagine the brutalities an 18-year-old girl endured for more than two months.

A woman, devastated, is sitting on a bed with two others. There are bruises and injury marks on her legs, face and other parts of her body. Bloodstains can be seen on the bed sheet.

Saima [not her real name], 15, led a regular teenage life of this generation, making videos on popular mobile app TikTok, before she was trafficked to India with the promise of a better job.

Police in the Indian city of Bengaluru said they arrested five Bangladeshis, four men and a woman, yesterday over the rape and torture of a young woman who they also believed to be from Bangladesh.

The restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 remain only on paper as there is little enforcement by government agencies to control public movement and plying of vehicles.

The ban on inter-district buses and restrictions on public movement could not stop the mad rush of homebound people, as thousands made arduous journeys yesterday to celebrate the Eid with their loved ones amid the pandemic.

Be it on the highways or on ferries, people’s desperate rush to go to their home towns for Eid only heightened yesterday, despite mounting difficulties.

As Eid draws nearer, people desperate to go back to their home districts have continued to leave Dhaka despite all difficulties and while ignoring the restrictions the government imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19.

People are heading home for Eid in droves.

Heavy traffic returned to the streets of the capital after operation of public buses resumed within districts yesterday following over three weeks of suspension.

The sudden halt to oxygen import from India amid the second Covid-19 wave may put Bangladesh in a precarious position if the current coronavirus situation deteriorates, fear health officials and suppliers.

As the government allowed shops and shopping malls to reopen their doors for shoppers amid the “lockdown”, a significant rise in public and vehicular movement was seen on the roads yesterday, with heavy traffic congestion in some areas of the capital.

Just a day after announcement of relaxation in restrictions, a “normal Dhaka life” has almost resumed with the increasing public and vehicular movement on the streets.

Although yesterday was Friday, and almost all the government and private offices were closed, a significant number of people were seen on the streets and kitchen markets in the capital.

If one goes out in the streets of Dhaka, they might mistake the ongoing “strict lockdown” for a public transportation strike -- after all, all sorts of vehicles are plying the streets, save for buses. At some points of the city, there was enough congestion of vehicles and people to cause traffic jams.

Supply of medical oxygen to public hospitals is under strain as the demand for the life-sustaining gas has doubled over the last few weeks, posing new challenges in the battle against the second wave of the coronavirus infections.