Shamim Ashraf
Beauty belies dark trade
The dense mangrove forest on both sides of the road to the Bang Ben bay through Laem Son National Park is indeed intriguing.
Away yet not away
Bangladeshi-American engineer Shah Talukder had definite reasons to feel proud when his daughter launched a language coaching programme for poor students back in his motherland four years ago. And he had reasons to be frustrated too when Leilah, in the US, had trouble communicating with her students in Bangladesh due to hartals, weather, or traffic jams.
Beauty belies dark trade
The dense mangrove forest on both sides of the road to the Bang Ben bay through Laem Son National Park is indeed intriguing.
Women are sexually abused all the way
Afia (not her real name) was not accompanied by any of her family members, but she showed no signs of jitters. While many in the vessel turned pale in panic due to want of food and water in the perilous sea, the beautiful young girl held her nerves.
A trip down the path of horror
The four were in a hurry, had little time to bargain for the cricket bat's price. Most excited among them, Nur Alam pulled out his moneybag hurriedly, paid Tk 300 and almost snatched the bat from the salesman.
Nightmare on board
Fear was what possessed the sailors over the 100 days in captivity. They had been briefed on a situation like ship hijacking. But nothing worked as the pirates boarded their ship and asked them to surrender. Three of the sailors even fainted. “Are they going to shoot me now? Would they let me talk with my daughter, would they?” M Idris, a deck fitter, was uttering to himself, lying on the floor of the ship's Bridge along with several others following the pirates' instruction.