Dipan Nandy

Investigators of Dhaka South City Corporation suspect a burning cigarette or a mosquito repellent coil caused the devastating fire at Bangabazar Shopping Complex in the capital.

Bangabazar shop owners are looking forward to today’s meeting between their association and the city corporation in which decisions will be made about how the shop owners will run their businesses in a makeshift arrangement before Eid.

Smoke rises from burnt market on fifth day

Traders of the burnt-down Bangabazar Shopping Complex will erect makeshift shops on the ground to resume their business ahead of Eid.

A six-year-old city corporation initiative to build a 10-storey shopping mall at Bangabazar never saw the light of day because of disagreements between the shop owners and the corporation.

They invested the money they had and the money they could borrow in the hope of good business ahead of Eid but within a few hours yesterday, they lost everything.

A massive fire ripped through the capital’s Bangabazar Shopping Complex yesterday, burning down at least 2,931 shops full of clothes and ruining the livelihood of several thousand traders just weeks before Eid.

Many people from nearby markets were also seen taking their belongings out of the area, with everyone occupying the street with their possessions

You are looking at a large portrait of Bangabandhu, depicting his powerful speech on March 7, 1971. An audiovisual of the precise moment in history plays in the background, making you feel as if you are experiencing the historical moment in-person.

An eerie silence settled over the streets of Kushtia in the early hours of March 30, 1971, as a curfew, imposed by the occupying Pakistan army, was in place.

MA Khair Chowdhury passed the Segunbagicha kitchen market disappointed.

The word “Swadhinata” evokes a powerful image of Bangladesh’s journey to independence, and the Swadhinata Museum, located at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan is a testament to that journey, embodying the spirit of freedom.

MA Khair Chowdhury passed the Segunbagicha kitchen market, disappointed. "It's quite impossible to buy daily essentials from the market due to the high prices."

A dilapidated tin-shed stands precariously at Bittipara area in Kushtia.

If you take a look at the Rayer Bazar Dhaka City Corporation Market, you will see that the age-old building is on the verge of falling apart.

"Around 4:30 or 4:45pm, the ceiling and the walls began to collapse following a big blast. I cannot remember much of what happened afterwards."

After delivering his watershed speech on March 7, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned home with thousands in his wake.

Every year, thousands of poetry books are published at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela, and this year was no exception. According to Bangla Academy data, more poetry books were published this year than other genres of literature, including stories and novels.

As scores of people placed floral wreaths on the pedestal of Central Shaheed Minar yesterday, they also thronged the nearby Ekushey book fair, which commemorates the sacrifice made in 1952 through literature.

Becoming a writer was always a distant dream of theirs. But due to  harsh realities of life and meagre income, they had to sustain  themselves first. In the process, they had to bury that dream a long time ago.