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
December 29, 2023
December 29, 2023

Land Minister Javed owns at least 260 properties in the UK

Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed has at least 260 properties in the United Kingdom for which he has paid at least GBP 134.76 million or Tk 1,888 crore, according to The Daily Star’s calculation from company filings publicly available on UK government websites.

December 20, 2023
December 20, 2023

Candidates’ Affidavits: Asset values that don’t fail to amuse

One hundred forty-eight bhoris (1.72kgs) of gold worth Tk 40,000! Twenty bighas of land worth Tk 2,000! A five-katha plot in Barishal worth Tk 400! And a Baridhara flat worth Tk 1.3 lakh!

December 15, 2023
December 15, 2023

Biman short of cash, yet reaches for pricey Airbus

Biman is looking at a Tk 4,000 crore cash shortfall since it has agreed in principle to purchase two Airbus planes for Tk 8,000 crore, without a prior monetisation plan, a board meeting of the national flag carrier revealed.

November 21, 2023
November 21, 2023

Cases under DSA: ‘It feels unreal to be free’

The phone number of Sirajum Munira, the elder sister of Khadijatul Kubra, a Jagannath University student who was in jail for over 14 months in DSA cases, flashed on the screen of this correspondent’s mobile.

November 20, 2023
November 20, 2023

‘It feels unreal to be out’

Khadijatul Kubra says after walking out of jail on bail

November 14, 2023
November 14, 2023

Passenger ‘Dies Mid-Flight’: Biman does not land, carries on for 9 hours

A Biman passenger fell ill and died two and a half hours into a flight to London from Sylhet on Monday but the plane did not make an emergency landing and flew for nine more hours to the UK.

November 13, 2023
November 13, 2023

Rights record go under UN scrutiny

The UN’s Human Rights Council will be reviewing Bangladesh’s human rights situation in Geneva today as part of its four-yearly Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

November 12, 2023
November 12, 2023

Spin doctors go into overdrive ahead of polls

With the national election just around the corner, both pro-government and anti-government elements are out to manipulate public opinion through a vigorous campaign on social media platforms and private messaging apps, turning them into hotbeds of spin doctoring, disinformation and fake news.

September 12, 2023
September 12, 2023

Biman heading for a mixed fleet

Bangladesh has committed to buying 10 Airbus A350s for Biman but the carrier is yet to come up with a business case for purchasing the planes.

August 16, 2023
August 16, 2023

Websites of 25 govt, private institutions hacked

Amidst a high alert for cyber-attacks by Indian hackers, both government and private institutions saw a number of such attacks, along with data leaks.