“Bring back my son alive.” This is all Rokeya Khatun could say as her relatives tried to console her in her home on Kushtia town’s PTTI Road.

The bruises on his body speak of the cruelty Abrar Fahad suffered. His hands, legs and back -- injury marks were everywhere.

Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat used to lead a large gang whose members would often torture those who refused to pay extortion money or opposed him, Rab claimed yesterday.

Chasing pot of gold people have long been setting off for urban areas from rural Bangladesh. But that pot would be incredibly hard to find come 2030 as per the World Bank’s latest report: more than half of Bangladesh’s poor households will live in urban areas by then even though 8 in 10 poor currently live in rural areas.

Dhaka University Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury yesterday said the brutal suppression of dissent at universities is alarming because these institutions are supposed to nurture free speech.

After the brutal killing of Buet student Abrar Fahad, police promptly arrested at least 10 suspects.

The road transport and bridges ministry has started working on the prime minister’s directives to collect tolls from vehicles plying the four-lane highways, a move that is likely to eventually increase people’s cost of transportation.

Indian National Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi yesterday said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was a great inspiration for her for the way Hasina overcame personal loss and fought for what she believed in.

Gambling was the only addiction of Jubo League leader Ismail Hossain Samrat, claimed his wife Sharmin Chowdhury. “He had no greed for property, flats or cars … He used to take frequent trips to Singapore to gamble there,” she told reporters when Rab raided their Mohakhali DOHS residence yesterday afternoon, hours after Samrat was arrested in Cumilla.

Barely a month ago, during a doa mehfil at the Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital, Ismail Hossain Samrat was hailed as the “best organiser” of Jubo League by its Chairman Omar Faruk Chowdhury.

Jubo League leader Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat, one of the casino kingpins, has finally been arrested, putting an end to speculations about his arrest since the drive against corruption began over two weeks ago.

The National Human Rights Commission has become a retirement home for top government bureaucrats, said eminent jurist Dr Shahdeen Malik yesterday, criticising the process of appointment to top NHRC posts.

An eight-member delegation of Mymensingh’s Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University is set to go on a 10-day Europe tour to inspect 15 lifts of two brands that are planned to be installed at the university.

Around 120 more Bangladeshi migrant workers returned from Saudi Arabia on Friday night in the face of a crackdown on undocumented workers there.

Bangladesh and India yesterday signed seven bilateral documents, aiming to further strengthen the relations between the two countries.

Over 50 people, including 15 cops, were injured as Geneva camp residents and police clashed in the capital’s Mohammadpur during a demonstration for free and uninterrupted power supply at the camp yesterday.

With Dhaka eagerly waiting for the signing of the Teesta water-sharing deal, Bangladesh and India yesterday signed an MoU allowing India to take 1.82 cusec water from the Feni river.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan yesterday said top-listed criminal Zeesan Ahmed would be brought back to the country soon. “The process is underway to bring back Zeesan. We hope that he will be brought to the country soon,” he told journalists after visiting a Durga Puja pandal at the city’s Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh.

Aiming to reorganise Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islam Bangladesh, Afghan-war returnee Atikullah has been able to establish communication among 33 local leaders of the banned militant outfit in the last six months.

Though the number of dengue patients has been declining for the last one month, the rain for the last one week is increasing the risk of further dengue spread, experts say.