Zyma Islam

Enforced disappearances: ‘Hasina herself was involved’

Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her defence adviser Maj Gen (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former director general of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre Maj Gen Ziaul Ahsan, and senior police officers Monirul Islam and Md Harun-Or-Rashid were all involved in enforced disappearances.

4d ago

A law that gagged

Some made a differing comment, some drew a political cartoon and some made a joke online – and they all ended up in jail, in some cases for months. This is how the Digital Security Act (DSA) and later the Cyber Security Act (CSA) were used to gag freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

1m ago

Kazi brothers’ capital abroad without BB nod

Financial statements of former MP Kazi Nabil Ahmed and his brothers’ famed British tea enterprise offer a rare glance into how powerful people in Bangladesh take their money to the UK via Asia’s business hubs.

2m ago

July 36, 2024

Eye-witnesses would describe that as early as mid-day the police were shooting at protesters breaking curfew and trying to go to Shahbagh. When Hasina fell and Gono Bhaban was taken over, the protesters turned on the police. The police were armed—the protesters were not. Even though the government had fallen, they trooped out and shot everyone in sight.

2m ago

S Alam’s tax file shows no foreign income

S Alam Group owner Mohammed Saiful Alam’s 2022-2023 tax file is a puzzle. In that tax year, he declared personal assets worth Tk 2,532 crore, but did not show any personal bank loans from Bangladesh or his foreign income.

2m ago

How Hasina’s flight was kept off radar

When the air force transporter plane carrying Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka on August 5, it took off as a training flight and turned off its transponders to blur its flightpath and location..The transponders, which transmit location, heading

3m ago

How UCB’s Ronny acquired so much offshore assets

As Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed’s grip over United Commercial Bank (UCB) created a trail of disguised loans with abuse of political influence after he became a minister in 2019 back home, his brother Anisuzzaman Chowdhury Ronny’s assets saw a meteoric rise in the UK.

3m ago

Int’l day of the victims of enforced disappearances: Victim pinpoints DGFI detention centre

If there is one thing that differentiates the arbitrary detention of HM Rana from the other victims of enforced disappearance, it is that he knows exactly where he was inside the Dhaka Cantonment.

3m ago
March 22, 2024
March 22, 2024

NRBC branch covered up capital flight

Export proceeds worth at least $3.45 million (Tk 34.41 crore) were not repatriated by six customers of NRB Commercial Bank’s Uttara branch, and the bank concealed the trail of the capital flight, according to the bank’s internal audit and case documents.

March 21, 2024
March 21, 2024

Gun in NRBC Bank boardroom

During the 40th board meeting of NRBC Bank on February 7, 2016, current Chairman Tamal Parvez and Director Adnan Imam entered the boardroom accompanied by a man carrying a large gun. Both Tamal and Adnan were board directors back then.

March 12, 2024
March 12, 2024

A close call for US-Bangla

Disregarding instructions from the air traffic control, a US-Bangla plane got on the runway in Chattogram less than a minute before another aircraft was about to land, yet no probe was initiated about the close shave

March 12, 2024
March 12, 2024

Some user info of Nagad, other entities in public domain

User information of those seemingly having Nagad accounts was being found across several platforms, including Telegram bots, until last week, raising questions about personal data protection.

March 2, 2024
March 2, 2024

Death came draped in smoke

Around 11:30pm, there were murmurs of one death. By then, the fire had been burning for over an hour.

February 23, 2024
February 23, 2024

To Europe via Libya: A voyage fraught with peril

An undocumented Bangladeshi migrant worker choosing to enter Europe from Libya, will almost certainly be held captive by armed militias, tortured, and their families extorted for lakhs of taka.

February 2, 2024
February 2, 2024

Bangladesh Dumping ground for toxic ships

Out of 446 ships scrapped worldwide, 170 ended up in Chattogram beaches, making Bangladesh the biggest dumping yard for end-of-life vessels in the world last year.

January 24, 2024
January 24, 2024

Biman ignored its board in hiring pilots

Minutes of Biman’s 269th board meeting held on January 18, 2022, show the board approved recruitment of three captains for its Boeing 777s but the carrier hired eight.

January 12, 2024
January 12, 2024

Turnout swung between the two extremes

Two polling centres posted a hundred percent voter turnout each in Sunday’s election, while two others recorded a 98 percent turnout, according to Election Commission’s centre-wise data.

January 9, 2024
January 9, 2024

Dhaka saw lowest voter turnout

Dhaka district had the lowest voter turnout in Sunday’s election, with only 25 percent vote cast, according to Election Commission data.