It was March 1971, some day between the 7th and the 25th. I was a student of class ten, listening with amazement to the subversive language flying among the crowd gathered in front of General Post Office in Dhaka,

For a couple of months after the 1970 elections everything seemed simple and straightforward.

In conversation with Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor of History and Director of Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies at Tufts University, USA

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the victory that led to the birth of Bangladesh, attention should be paid to the devastating humanitarian crisis that unfolded during the nine-month war.

In an interview with Priyam Pritim Paul of The Daily Star, Major (Retd) Rafiqul Islam Bir Uttam, a Member of Parliament, and Commander of Sector-1 during the Liberation War, discussed some of the initial episodes of the Liberation War of 1971. Below are excerpts of the conversation.

When a column of Pakistan army vehicles entered Dewrachhara Tea Garden in Moulvibazar in the afternoon of May 3, 1971, most of the workers there were alarmed but had little strength left to do anything about it.

April 23, 1971.  A sudden burst of gunshots broke the afternoon silence in the remote Baghoil village of Pabna. All the innocent villagers could do was scream and run to save their lives from the trigger-happy Pakistan military.

Throughout the day, they carried out guerrilla operations against the Pakistan army in different areas and went to sleep without any food at night. As the dawn approached, the occupation forces came stealthily and killed them all when they were asleep.

Dear Opu and Topu, I am writing this letter in the hopes that you will read this someday when you’re all grown up.

We are celebrating the golden jubilee of our country’s independence this year. Fifty years of existence of this sovereign state called Bangladesh; the Bengali people’s thousand-year yearning for statehood finally given tangible shape and form.

Over the last 49 years, we have observed the Martyred Intellectuals Day annually, realising more and more the significance of the damage that the enemy caused to our nation. What sort of an enemy who, on the verge of defeat, c

During a lifespan of more than 80 years, I have had the opportunity to experience a lot of extraordinary events. But there cannot be a parallel to what I saw and felt, sometimes I acted and reacted, in 1971. This was the year of our War of Liberation.

All of you know about the squirrel from the Ramayana, who rolled himself on the sand at the Indian seashore and then dipped into the Indian Ocean, to shed the sand off its body on the presumption that he was helping to build the bridge across the sea that would enable Rama’s forces to reach Lanka.

I do not have the audacity to console you, the same way I couldn’t console the mother of Sheikhpara’s Akram. Do you know when I kept being reminded of you? The day the Pakistani army surrendered in Dhaka.

Even though the affluent middle-class in Bangladesh is growing rapidly and increasing its purchasing power, the demand for passenger cars are still low compared to India and Thailand. 

With time, the number of vehicles getting registered in Bangladesh is on the rise. According to 2019 statistics from BRTA, about 500,000 motor vehicles were registered in 2019 alone and among these, 150,000 were passenger cars, in addition to buses and motorbikes.

Remittances have multipurpose positive effects on rural economies, which enhances Bangladesh’s inclusive growth, according to economists.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ahmed Jamal, from Barishal, was working as a labourer in Oman since 2018. He was forced to return to Bangladesh during the pandemic. As a result, he lost his primary source of income along with the hefty recruitment fee he had paid to secure the job initially.

Remittance flow into Bangladesh will turn around in the long term helped by the rapid expansion of fin-tech-based companies despite the ongoing hiccups facing the key source of foreign currency for the country.

Engaging the country’s vast number of migrant workers and non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) in the national development process could open up a new area of economic development.