Naadir Junaid

Conscious citizens were appalled after seeing the photos of chopped branches and logs in Suhrawardy Udyan after several mature trees of the park were cut down as part of an ongoing government undertaking—the Independence Monument Construction (Phase III) Project.

From the 1920s to the early 1950s, several directors working within Hollywood—as well as filmmakers in former Soviet Union, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan—considered cinema not as a mere tool of entertainment but as a medium for creative expression.

For two successive years now, thousands of inhabitants of Dhaka dressed in traditional Bengali outfits were not seen swarming joyfully in Ramna Park and Dhaka University areas from the early morning on Pahela Baishakh.

At this time of celebrating the 50th anniversary of our independence, it is also necessary to think deeply about our success in eliminating the social and political injustices that existed in our country during the pre-independence period.

In the very first general elections of Pakistan held in December 1970, the Awami League won an absolute majority in the National Assembly. But for the Pakistani military junta as well as the Pakistan People’s Party head Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the desire to retain control of the central government took precedence over the need to abide by democratic norms.

Eminent novelist and filmmaker Zahir Raihan left for Kolkata after the Pakistani military crackdown in Dhaka on March 25, 1971.

Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation through the unconditional surrender of the Pakistani army to the joint command of Bangladesh and Indian forces on December 16, 1971.

Newspaper articles published on the military coups held in Dhaka in November 1975 are often coloured by the authors’ political standpoints and ideologies.