From snooping devices carried in backpacks to locate people through their phones to a massive infrastructure that can intercept even end-to-end encryption from a central command centre, the Awami League government had been on an increasingly aggressive trajectory towards building a powerful surveillance state.
Police arms records show the brutal truth behind the July killings; the force bought 7 times more lethal weapons than non-lethal ones in 2021-23
It was 6:14pm on Friday, July 19, 2024. Two Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel were advancing into Banasree G Block in Dhaka.
Months-long investigation by The Daily Star indicates state forces increased deployment of lethal weapons after the ousted PM authorised their use
CAAB inquiry finds, regulator yet to take action
CAAB’s own inquiry finds irregularities by training academies, raising questions about aviation safety
The Daily Star found evidence of systematic government efforts to cover up medical records and bodies of the July uprising victims so they can never be found again.
When we first started visiting Dhaka Medical College Hospital in January for this story, there were seven protest-related unclaimed bodies freezing in its mortuaries.
“Oh my God! Incredulous!” was the expression of a banking expert as he leafed through the Bangladesh Bank probe report. Page after page of it explains in painstaking details how a Bangladeshi business entity allegedly skimmed at least Tk 765 crore in the name of exports from the state-owned Janata Bank and the BB from January 2017 to February this year.
It's now a national crisis. The influx of deadly yaba appears to have gone beyond control despite efforts by law enforcement agencies to contain it.
Millions are now addicted to the pink pills. They take it as stimulant and end up with organ damage and mental derangement. The Daily Star has prepared a three-part series on the invasion of yaba and is running the third part today.
It was like wooing customers to have kebab and biriyani at popular Bihari restaurants. Only a few steps into the Camper Bazar, youths in small groups were looking for potential customers, holding packets full of pink tablets.
It's called crazy medicine. Produced in Myanmar, the dangerous drug very easily crosses the border and reaches cities, towns and villages of Bangladesh through various channels -- sometimes in full knowledge of law enforcers. It now seems unstoppable and is poised to cripple the country's biggest hope -- the youth.
The figures are alarming. Every year, an estimated Tk 6,000 crore worth of yaba is sold in the country, which would come to 30 crore pieces of the drug. It is a back-of-the-envelope calculation. Last year, 40 million pills were seized by different agencies, which according to standard calculation is about 10 percent of the total drug that got into the market.
Every time he extends his hands to seek alms, Sohrab Hossain, 63, looks embarrassed. Begging has never been his livelihood; it is now.
A woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan in her Boubazar house of Chittagong city yesterday morning.
At least 10 human skulls and some broken bones were recovered while construction workers were digging a land at Shah Doula Degree
Police recovered seven body parts of an unidentified woman, aged around 30, near the Dhaka-Tangail Highway at Baipail in Ashulia,
