Investigative Stories
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
The Daily Star Investigation / A councillor and his illicit tobacco trade
A significant share of Bangladesh’s illegal cigarette market is controlled by two companies where Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) Councillor Abdus Sabur Liton and his brother have the majority stakes, an investigation by The Daily Star has found.
20 plates of rice, 118 plates of curries for a lunch of 4!
NRBC Bank’s top managers have great appetites.
The Daily Star Investigation / Dubious reward for a select few
Only a select 27 employees of NRBC Bank were given salary hikes, and that too astonishingly, in 2022 in violation of banking rules as well as NRBC’s own human resources policy
The Daily Star Investigation / 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.
The Daily Star Investigation / 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.
Star investigation / Sex trafficking: The untold exploitations of Bangladeshi women in India
Many Bangladeshi sex workers, once victims themselves, now serve as brothel managers, perpetuating the vicious cycle. They employ fellow countrywomen, who later become traffickers responsible for bringing new girls from Bangladesh into the clutches of these brothels.
Part-4 / No coming home
After rescuing trafficking victims, the Indian police do not take them to shelter centre; they file cases under criminal laws.
Crimes behind Brahman cows
Import ban, so what? There are ways to sneak those in, through the country’s main airport even.
28 Axle Load Control Centres: Crucial RHD project runs into snag
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has failed to start the physical work of a project taken up two years ago for installing 28 axle load control centres despite a call by one of its wings for implementing axle load control on highways ungently to reduce road damages.
‘It felt like I was in a grave’
“I decided not to shave the beard. I’ve just trimmed it a bit, I think I quite like the beard,” laughed Shafiqul Islam Kajol, his eyes twinkling with amusement at the irony of keeping the large, shaggy, grey beard that grew out over his 53 days of enforced disappearance and seven months in prison.
Toxic ships sail in on false papers
In 2018, aged just 43, Mazidul Haque developed severe breathing problems, consulted a doctor and was diagnosed with asbestosis, a potentially fatal respiratory disease which scars the lungs. After more than a decade working in the shipbreaking yards of Chattogram, he lost his job, and the means to support his family.
Target forex reserve
The burgeoning forex reserve, now hovering around $40 billion, is turning a lot of heads, alarmingly though, as big borrowers shift their eyes from exhausted public banks to the secured coffers.
9 prison doctors for 90,000 inmates
Over 23 inmates are dying every month, amid a shortage of doctors, nurses, and ambulances, and poor medical facilities in 68 prisons of the country.
TRAFFICKED into nightmares
Transnational trafficking gangs allegedly backed by some ruling party men have long been using different border points of Jashore to traffic women and children to India.
YABA, CHARITY hand in glove?
The other side of Abdur Rahman Bodi, widely known as a yaba godfather, is quite intriguing. The former Awami League lawmaker has been spending roughly Tk 19 crore per annum for the last three years on distributing rice among 56,000 poor people in Teknaf every month.