Zyma Islam

“The day feels unreal,” said Monorom Polok after his father, photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, was released from the Dhaka Central Jail yesterday.

As the year of the pandemic winds down, it becomes even more clear that Covid-19 led to an increase in gender-based violence.

Investigators have found that the murder of Maj (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan was pre-planned and they will mention it in the case’s charge sheet, which will be submitted to court soon.

Elected lawmaker of Dhaka-7 three times since 1996, he has over the years either had a hand in the destruction of heritage sites and antiquities in his constituency or never showed political support to heritage conservation.

Twenty-six researchers from 17 Bangladeshi institutions were among the top two percent of the most cited researchers throughout their careers, found a research on metascience by Stanford University.

A judge’s court on September 9 made history by delivering the first verdict punishing three police officials under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, 2013.

Shortly before this story went to print last night, missing journalist Golam Sarwar was found unconscious beside a canal at Sitakunda’s Kumira.

“Please don’t reveal my son’s name in the news, he is still in Libya, he will get killed by his trafficker,” she implored, talking over the phone from Noakhali.

No conversation about rape is complete without recognising this: marital rape, and underage marriage “under special circumstances” are both legal in this country.

While 81 migrant workers returning from Vietnam were incarcerated for more than a month, before finally being released from prison over this past week, the recruiting agents who sent them to the Southeast Asian country in the first place are going scot-free and denying all claims of trafficking.

When the law minister on Thursday announced that the law would be reformed to provide for death penalty for rape, activists, researchers and lawyers pointed out that far more crucial changes need to be made with immediate effect.

With suspended officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station Pradeep Kumar Das now behind bars over the killing of retired army major Sinha, stories are unearthed about the unwritten law of the upazila town: you pay, you live.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has lately witten to Law Minister Anisul Huq seeking amendment to the trafficking prevention law, to potentially leash the capacity of law enforcers in raiding recruitment agencies.

Another 32 migrants, who have returned to the country recently, were thrown into jail yesterday after completion of their quarantine period.

The recruiting agency that sent 14-year-old Umme Kulsum to a Saudi employer, who tortured her to death, threw many others into similar pits of abuse.

Two lots of a diabetes controlling drug of Bangladesh origin were recalled in the US last month for containing a compound that has the potential to cause cancer.

Yesterday afternoon before a Dhaka court, Imtiaz Hossain Rocky, brother of Ishtiaque Hossain Jonny who was tortured and killed in police custody in 2014, was constantly on his feet.

“Differently abled, not disabled” -- this is how Noor Nahian, the founder of Bangladesh Wheelchair Sports Foundation captioned a photo of himself sitting in his wheelchair, that he posted on Twitter.

Shafiqul Islam Kajol was missing for 53 days, discovered by law enforcers roaming the India-Bangladesh border in Benapole in the middle of the night, subsequently thrown in jail and denied bail for 3 months -- and yet the only investigation being done by the state is about a Facebook post by Kajol.

While all eyes are on the Teknaf police right now, it is imperative to remember that deaths due to “gunfights”, “shootouts”, and “crossfires” happen all across the country -- and that the numbers have skyrocketed since the war on drugs was announced in May 2018.