Aklakur Rahman Akash

Bride-groom demand repeal of DSA during reception

Many brides and grooms from all over the world have come to the limelight by organising fancy weddings which make for great photos on social media

'I don't need anything else'

After spending five days in jail, Prothom Alo reporter Samsuzzaman Shams was welcomed home by his mother in Dautia village in Dhaka's Dhamrai

Their rallies are picnics

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader yesterday said it would be a blunder for the BNP if seven of its lawmakers resigned from parliament.

Tazreen Tragedy: The scars still haven’t faded

Anjuara was a worker at Tazreen factory in Ashulia. On November 24, 2012, when a deadly fire broke out at the establishment, she was working on the fifth floor of the eight-storey building.

Are we consuming tannery waste?

First, a gang smuggles solid wastes of leather (leftovers after cutting and trimming) from the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate. Then it sells them to poultry and fish feed producing factories around the country.

Police torture victims of robbery

After they were robbed, they went to the police and lodged a complaint. But the law enforcers, instead of giving them the support they sought, brutally tortured them.

‘Sealed factory running in full swing’

A fertiliser and pesticide factory, sealed off by authorities around a year ago, is still reportedly continuing its operation in Dhaka’s Keraniganj area.

Not waste anymore: Maiden shipment of solid tannery soon

A local company is set to export solid waste generated at the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate (STIE), a move that could show the way for curbing the dumping of polluting materials in open yards and cutting the scope for environmental pollution.

Tough times for tannery workers

With the ongoing energy crisis and the rising price of commodities, the tannery industry has been gravely affected, and with that, their workers.

People of ‘Mehndi Gram’ earning big from henna

The Salmashi village in Savar is popularly known as “Mehndi Gram” as most farmers in the area cultivate henna trees on a commercial basis to provide for their families.

Teacher killing: Culprit arrested, finally

The student in Ashulia who bludgeoned a teacher to death with a cricket stump was finally arrested yesterday, five days after the assault.

Ashulia teacher killing accused over 19, mentioned as minor in FIR: School authorities

The age of the student accused in the murder case of Ashulia teacher Utpal Kumar Sarkar was shown as 16 in the FIR, but according to his birth certificate he is over 19, school authorities said today (June 29, 2022).

Killing of teacher: Three days on, police yet to arrest culprit

A student who assaulted a teacher with a cricket stump was yet to be arrested more than three days after the attack and a day after the teacher’s death.

“What did you do when my son was murdered?”

“What did you do when my son was murdered? My son buy medicines for me. Fifteen days ago, he came to see me. My son loved me very much. I’m losing my mind... Please do something… Ensure justice for my son,” wailed 80-year-old Gita Bala Sarker, mother of school teacher Utpal Kumar Sarker, who died after a student hit him with a cricket stump on June 25.

Untimely death of a dream

She lost her mother at six.

Rana Plaza Tragedy: Years pass by, but trauma still remains

Nine years have passed since the collapse of Rana Plaza, and yet majority of the survivors are still reeling from the traumas, both physical and mental, of that fateful day.

Taking the easy way out?

Just a few days ago, this correspondent came across four children collecting medical waste from a temporary garbage station of Super Medical Hospital, a private facility in Savar.

Roses gone, dreams dead

This was supposed to be their time of the year. There’s Pahela Falgun, then there’s Valentine’s Day, both occasions where people buy flowers to give to their loved ones.

700 acres submerged

Once Nurul Haque used to cultivate different types of crops in his land all around the year.

Where risky way is the only way

Owing to the failure of contractors to finish the construction of a foot-over bridge on time, pedestrians on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway’s Joypura area, are risking their lives to cross the road through the unfinished bridge, which doesn’t even have safety railings.

Savar Health Complex: Hamstrung by doctor shortage

Savar Upazila Health Complex has been suffering from capacity issues for quite a long time now. From lack of beds, doctors and every other required facility, the state-sponsored health service is far from fulfilling the needs of the people.

Is it ever going to be repaired?

The pothole ridden Zirabo-Bishmail road in Ashulia, Savar is in an extremely poor shape, causing immense suffering to the commuters.

Savar cultural activists yet to get Shilpakala Academy

It’s been a long-standing resolve of cultural activists in Savar to get a mandated cultural platform like Shilpakala Academy.

At the mercy of political leaders

On over 60 decimals of land stands Yunus Ali’s lemon orchard. It’s located at the banks of the Bongshi river, falling under Amchirmor village in Dhamrai’s Jadavpur union.

As our rivers lie dying

Two major riverbanks on the capital’s outskirts remain at the mercy of illegal encroachers, and the only action the government has taken over the last decade is preparing lists of the grabbers, without taking any action against them.

Savar’s Swanirvor Dhamsona UP sets unique example

Lovely Begum of Nolam Borotek area under Swanirvor Dhamsona Union Parishad in Savar, used to cook meals for her five-member family in a traditional stove fueled by firewood.

Terminal turmoil on Savar road

Savar’s Namabazar Road is a busy place. Every day, people from at least 20 areas of Dhamrai upazila and Savar municipality use the road, which connects to different points of Dhaka-Aricha highway and Savar-Singair regional highway.

Freedom fighters yet to get Muktijoddha Complex in Savar

In 2012, the government took up the initiative for a Tk 1,223 crore project to build multi-storied Upazila Muktijoddha Complexes across 470 upazilas.

The trifecta of disaster

The Nabinagar-Chandra highway is one of the busiest highways in the country. But with result of indiscriminate garbage dumping along Ashulia’s Palli Bidyut to Baroipara area, the area has become hazardous for both traffic movement, commuters, and locals.

The tale of a missing pond

What looks like a garbage dumping ground near the Savar Bazar Bus Stand actually used to be a pond, though this might be hard to believe now.

Where did the money go?

A case document centring two people, who were arrested over drug peddling, has raised questions, due to the discrepancy between accounts of police officials and witnesses.

The curious case of a submerged road

If you are a regular commuter of the Tongi-Ashulia-DEPZ road, you must have had the experience of being stuck in heavy traffic for two or even three hours.

‘We are nobody’s priority’

In absence of any systematic plan from the government or the BGMEA, an overwhelming majority of workers in Ashulia and Savar industrial belt are yet to be registered for Covid-19 vaccines.

People suffer for delay in bridge work

Thousands of residents in Dhaka’s Dhamrai upazila have been facing immense problems due to delay in construction work of a bridge on Bangshi river.

Protesting Drug Peddling: Aimed at teacher, gunshot by JU BCL leader hits own associate

A Chhatra League leader of Jahangirnagar University allegedly fired several rounds of bullets targeting a college teacher, as he protested his peddling drugs in the area. Meanwhile, the teacher was able to save himself and one of the bullets hit an associate of that BCL leader.

Fake pesticide, fertiliser worth Tk 150cr seized from Keraniganj factory

In a two-day mobile court drive, authorities unearthed a fake fertiliser and pesticide factory at Dhaka’s Keraniganj upazila, and seized counterfeit products worth Tk 150 crore.

Many apparel workers walk to work

Many garment workers faced trouble yesterday as they walked to their workplaces in absence of public transport and for not having any transport arranged by the factories on the first day of a week-long strict countrywide lockdown.

‘Feel unlucky to have survived’

Nilufar Yeasmin was 25 when Rana Plaza collapsed. She was an operator at Phantom Apparels on the fourth floor of the building.

February brings hope for florists

Days will be longer for the flower growers for the next couple of months thanks to its increased demand because of back-to-back national events, beginning with Pahela Falgun and Valentine’s Day today, both of which will be observed on the same day in Bangladesh this year.

How Savar became a hub of rose cultivation

Sabed Ali was 16 years old when he began working as a gardener at Bangladesh National Zoo.

Dreaming anew with jute

On June 15, 2017, a section of a clay wall crashed and fell on 18-year-old Sabina Yeasmin, paralysing her from the waist down. The incident happened just when she was about to sit for her HSC exams, and set her education back by two whole years.

A mess 28yrs in the making

Savar Municipality authorities have failed to arrange a landfill or garbage dumping station in its 28 years of establishment, hampering waste management to a great extent.

‘Riverbank grabbers mustn’t contest in polls’

Savar residents yesterday urged authorities to bar riverbank grabbers from contesting in elections.

Garment workers stage sit-in in Ashulia for arrears

Workers of A-One BD staged a sit-in in front of the Ashulia Press Club for the second consecutive day yesterday, demanding ten months arrears from their factory in the Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ).

Another month-old rape surfaces only after video release

Two accused among 15 in a case for gang-raping a girl and assaulting another in Savar confessed to court of the crime yesterday.

Not a one-off crime

Four days after the murder of Savar schoolgirl Nila Roy, information about the dubious past of prime accused Mizanur Rahman (20) has started to surface. Mizan, who allegedly stabbed Nila in an abandoned house owned by his father on Sunday night, has turned out to be a member of “Shakil and Sakib” gang.