Phulbari coal, power crisis, and a dangerous revisionism

Regarding the Phulbari Open-Pit Coal Mining Project, the chief adviser's press secretary recently made a Facebook post suggesting that Bangladesh is facing a severe power crisis because coal at Phulbari was not extracted.
19 December 2025

Advancing safe, fair, and affordable labour migration

More than 1.3 crore Bangladeshi workers support economies across the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
18 December 2025

Outcome of COP30 does not bode well for climate diplomacy

The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) produced a lacklustre outcome by any measure, as reflected in many post-COP analyses. This remains significant because COP outcomes continue to shape the direction, pace, and credibility of global climate diplomacy, even when they fall short.
18 December 2025

How power and profit paralyse Dhaka’s transport system

The limited success of technical transport plans in Dhaka is a predictable outcome of deep-seated political-economic dynamics.
18 December 2025

Bangladesh’s flag belongs on the world’s shipping lanes

The strongest national interest lies elsewhere: expanding employment and training opportunities for Bangladeshi cadets and officers.
18 December 2025

How data science can shape our financial future

"Data is the new oil," a truth the world has embraced, but Bangladesh is still learning to harness its potential. From banks predicting loan defaults to democratising access to healthcare through telemedicine and health apps, the scope of data science across socio-economic and public sectors is vast.
17 December 2025

Rajuk’s short-sighted DAP puts millions at risk in a major quake

Unplanned urbanisation, violations of the National Building Code and the Detailed Area Plan (DAP), and rampant filling of wetlands with sand for housing projects have made Dhaka the riskiest city in the country.
17 December 2025

The nuisance of distorting Begum Rokeya’s legacy

When I first heard about the desecration of Roquiah Sakhawat Hossain, popularly known as Begum Rokeya, at Dhaka University in the aftermath of the July uprising,
17 December 2025

Mischievous manipulation of established historical facts

The razakar, Al-Badr, Al Shams and similar groups, who collaborated with the Pakistani army, will always be remembered for their sinister role during 1971.
17 December 2025

The war I never saw, but inherited

The trauma of surviving a genocide is passed down through generations.
16 December 2025

The unhealed wounds of 1971: Bangladesh's unfinished liberation

The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War was not merely a military conflict; it was a civilisational rupture that tore through the social fabric of an entire nation, leaving scars that have never properly healed.
16 December 2025

Victory Day and the republic we owe ourselves

The erosion of democracy became most pronounced between 2014 and 2024.
16 December 2025

Preserving 8 Theatre Road: Our Liberation War’s nerve centre

In the heart of Kolkata, at 8 Shakespeare Sarani—formerly known as 8 Theatre Road—stands a building whose walls once echoed with the pulse of a nation's liberation.
15 December 2025

The unfinished story of our liberation

My own act of resistance was small. It came in the form of a tiny pebble thrown at a military jeep passing through our town.
15 December 2025

How RTI activists keep the law alive

Rather than retreating in the face of bureaucratic inertia, these RTI warriors have adopted a strategy of persistence.
15 December 2025

Custodial torture remains business as usual

According to a recent Odhikar report, 40 people have been victims of extrajudicial killings in the 14 months since the interim government took office in August 2024.
15 December 2025

The NHRC ordinance saga: One step forward, two steps back

Bangladesh's rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has been toothless and ineffective since its formation.
15 December 2025

From Jihad to Sajid: Why Bangladesh needs tort law

Two-year-old Sajid from Rajshahi was found dead on December 11, after more than 30 agonising hours trapped inside a narrow shaft, approximately 30 feet deep. Rescuers worked day and night tirelessly, while the country watched helplessly.
14 December 2025

Martyred intellectuals: The torchbearers of our nation

I remember reading a memorable quote from one of the characters in Humayun Ahmed's novel Jochona O Jononir Golpo (2004). She says something along the lines of: "Muktijuddho touched every Bangladeshi soul.
14 December 2025

The police commission ordinance is an eyewash at best

The longstanding public demand and decades of relentless advocacy by stakeholders, particularly articulated as a key aspiration of the July movement, for an independent police commission, have been ruthlessly and shamelessly shattered by the Police Commission Ordinance 2025, gazetted on December 09, 2025.
14 December 2025