It was a long, dark plot. A chilling conspiracy was getting final touches in an eerie August of 2004, a month that brings to mind the memories of a past bloodbath. The plot for a high-profile assassination was awaiting approval, again.
A syndicate of bureaucrats, politicians and officials of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) in Cox’s Bazar have systematically siphoned off Tk 78 crore in public money from three development projects.
Import ban, so what? There are ways to sneak those in, through the country’s main airport even.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has failed to start the physical work of a project taken up two years ago for installing 28 axle load control centres despite a call by one of its wings for implementing axle load control on highways ungently to reduce road damages.
Transnational trafficking gangs allegedly backed by some ruling party men have long been using different border points of Jashore to traffic women and children to India.
From political leaders to businessmen, fish traders to poultry farm owners and brickfield workers to tailors -- the professions of 102 yaba godfathers and dealers who surrendered to police on February 16 are as varied as their age.
Almost every time any government agency tried to ensure accountability and transparency of the duty-free liquor trade, it found itself in a legal limbo. Over the last two decades, diplomatic bonded warehouses, who import duty-free liquor for diplomats and foreigners, filed writ after writ with the High Court challenging the legality of the government action.
It is a piece of paper full of lies and yet it is the legal government document that allows a person to drink alcohol in Bangladesh.
Officially, most bars and social clubs neither import nor purchase alcohol yet they log huge sales; restrictive law, high import tariff, bureaucratic nightmare encouraging smuggling; govt loses big, earning almost nothing out of this trade.
It was a long, dark plot. A chilling conspiracy was getting final touches in an eerie August of 2004, a month that brings to mind the memories of a past bloodbath. The plot for a high-profile assassination was awaiting approval, again.
A syndicate of bureaucrats, politicians and officials of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) in Cox’s Bazar have systematically siphoned off Tk 78 crore in public money from three development projects.
Import ban, so what? There are ways to sneak those in, through the country’s main airport even.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has failed to start the physical work of a project taken up two years ago for installing 28 axle load control centres despite a call by one of its wings for implementing axle load control on highways ungently to reduce road damages.
Transnational trafficking gangs allegedly backed by some ruling party men have long been using different border points of Jashore to traffic women and children to India.
From political leaders to businessmen, fish traders to poultry farm owners and brickfield workers to tailors -- the professions of 102 yaba godfathers and dealers who surrendered to police on February 16 are as varied as their age.
It is a piece of paper full of lies and yet it is the legal government document that allows a person to drink alcohol in Bangladesh.
Almost every time any government agency tried to ensure accountability and transparency of the duty-free liquor trade, it found itself in a legal limbo. Over the last two decades, diplomatic bonded warehouses, who import duty-free liquor for diplomats and foreigners, filed writ after writ with the High Court challenging the legality of the government action.
Officially, most bars and social clubs neither import nor purchase alcohol yet they log huge sales; restrictive law, high import tariff, bureaucratic nightmare encouraging smuggling; govt loses big, earning almost nothing out of this trade.
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.