Today marks 48 years of Bangladesh as an independent country. Today, we feel proud as a nation for how far we have come in only a little less than half a century since independence.

If numbers are meant to impress, one must admit that the latest report of the latest committee on road safety, albeit in draft form presently, is a voluminous document deserving our praise.

The Kurdish-led forces in Syria pronounced the death of the IS caliphate after raising their flag in Baghouz, a remote riverside village, where jihadists of different nationalities made their last desperate stand against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

Various reports on the occasion of World Water Day, observed on March 22, have brought the terrible foreboding of a scenario in which we will literally run out of water.

Damning reports along with horrendous pictures about the state of our transport sector were published in all our major national dailies yesterday.

A recent report by the Department of Environment (DoE) states that the discharge of industrial effluents into the Halda River is causing depletion of fish stocks.

It is surprising that scores of drug related cases would remain unadjudicated, some of them for as many as eight years, because witnesses fail to turn up for the hearings.

We are befuddled how the government proposes to increase forest land to 20 percent of the country's total land mass by 2030 when every year various government agencies are taking up forest land for their establishments and development projects.

Following the death of university student Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury who was run over and killed by a bus on March 19, the capital city and some other parts of the country have been rocked by student demonstrations.

Local people living on Manpura Island of Bhola are witnesses to the decimation of trees like chambol and raintree for brick kilns.

How many will have to die before something as fundamental as the safety of travelling is ensured?

According to a report in this daily on March 18, around 300 to 400 Bangladeshi migrant workers are being deported every week from Saudi Arabia.

The railway minister recently hinted about the possibility of raising train fares in the future. But before that is done, we suggest that the ministry addresses a few important things that ail the sector.

That the banking sector in this country is plagued by a culture of loan defaulting is not lost on anyone—as of last year, the total amount of defaulted loans stood at Tk 93,911 crore.

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority's (BRTA) proposal to make proof of cylinder retest certificate mandatory for refilling at filling stations for CNG-run vehicles is promising.

We reiterate fully the prime minister's call to the newly elected leaders of Ducsu to help revive healthy politics on campus. The prime minister has hit the nail on the head with her statement.

We are happy to see that the ambassador, who had gone missing 15 months ago, has returned home. And he happens to be among only a lucky few to have done so.

Seldom do we come across a person so selfless that he dedicates his life to spread literacy among children for the token sum of Taka 1 a day for his labour.

We join the world in mourning the 49 (so far reported) lives lost in the horrific Christchurch (New Zealand) massacre of Muslim devotees who were offering their Friday prayers.

There can be no place for hatred, intolerance and senseless violence anywhere in the world—of the type we witnessed in Christchurch on Friday which has killed at least 49 people so far, including 3 Bangladeshis and injured many more—as of going to print.