The Bangladeshi photographer was charged with criticising his country on Facebook and spent more than 100 days behind bars. Now freed, he replies to the Indian novelist who wrote to him in jail
Dearest Arundhati,
It was a letter I read and reread long before it appeared before my eyes. It was (...)
The 11th National Election in Bangladesh was held on 30 December 2018.
Once again Bangladesh witnessed a national parliamentary election, taking place on 30 December 2018. It was long expected election at home and abroad. This is because the last election which took place on 5 January 2014 was (...)
Dozens of candidates pull out, claiming ruling Awami League rigged country’s first contested election in a decade.
The leader of Bangladesh’s opposition alliance has described Sunday’s general election as farcical, saying any outcome would be rejected and demanding that a new vote be held.
At (...)
Bangladesh is now known as the land of the largest non-governmental organisation (BRAC), and the largest microfinance institution (Grameen Bank). In the last four decades since independence, Bangladesh has become more marketised, more globalised, and more urbanised than ever. It has had (...)
Bangladeshi authorities have jailed the internationally renowned photographer Shahidul Alam — the latest move by the nation’s elites to repress those who speak up for social justice and democratic rights.
On August 5, Shahidul Alam, a Bangladeshi activist and photojournalist, was arrested in the (...)
"Bangabandhu [Sheikh Mujibur Rahman] would have beamed with pride at the passion and idealism of Bangladesh’s student community,” a neighbour told me.
I reached out for my copy of Willem Van Schendel’s A History of Bangladesh on Wednesday last week, almost two weeks after the beginning of the (...)
The students’ movement that erupted on 29 July following the death of two students in a tragic road accident in Dhaka spread to almost all the major cities of the country. Thousands of outraged school and college students laid siege to the streets of the capital Dhaka for a week demanding road (...)
As protests subside, authorities are using onerous digital laws to target demonstrators
Demonstrations in Dhaka, Bangladesh, started as a demand for better road safety and spiralled into a larger expression of frustration against corruption and the government. Photograph: Monirul Alam/EPA (...)
The undersigned Asia-Pacific left parties and organisations condemn the violent repression of the peaceful protests by students in Bangladesh.
These peaceful protests were sparked by the killing of two students — and critical injury of several others — by a speeding bus in Dhaka on July 29. The (...)
The Editor,
Over 250 photographers, Artists, Journalists and activists including: Ram Rahman, Vivan Sundaram, Parthiv Shah, Pushpamala N., Raghu Rai, Devika Daulet-Singh, Pablo Bartholomew, Prashant Panjiar, Dinesh Khanna, Sunil Gupta, Jitish Kalat, Krishen Khanna, Ravi Aggarwal and Gauri (...)
Dhaka: “Mercy?? No mercy today, no mercy tomorrow, no mercy for the next one year. Where was mercy when the two lives were killed? Only mercy to people who will abide rules. Saqib, take this driver to the police.” A tenth grader raised his voice in the middle of a student-led road blockade in (...)
The famous photographer has been tortured and accused of falsifying reports of school and university student protest. Alam was picked up from his home by the police just hours after he went live on Facebook to describe the student protests in the city and how he was attacked by members of the (...)
Nationwide student protests enter fifth day, causing government to shut down thousands of high schools.
Tens of thousands of students, many of them teenagers, have brought areas of Bangladesh to a near-standstill during five days of protests following the deaths of two teenagers killed by a (...)
Bangladesh, which became independent from Pakistan in 1971, is a young country. Only 7 percent of the 160 million people in this South Asian country – which is home to more Muslims than Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia combined – are over the age of 60, according to a 2016 United Nations (...)
No Place for Criticism
Summary
On April 9, 2018, Bangladesh listed its new Digital Security Bill in parliament, which was then sent to a parliamentary standing committee for review. The proposed law is in part intended to replace section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act (...)
A survey of the influence of Marxist thought in Bangladesh.
No I am not talking about my encounter with the ghost of Karl Marx in Bangladesh. If you are interested in such stories you should read Howard Zinn’s Marx in Soho or Sumonto Bandyopadhyay’s Bhuture Molakat (Ghostly Encounter)—two (...)
A HIGH growth rate of the gross domestic product, which has been more than 7 per cent for the third consecutive year and is estimated to exceed the previous best of 7.28 per cent that was in the 2017 financial year, has failed to attend to the problems of chronic unemployment and growing (...)
Students demand the abolition or reduction in civil service recruitment quotas for families of liberation war martyrs, women and minorities. The ´martyrs’ quota is particularly unpopular because of widespread corruption and nepotism
Protesters pushing for reduction in public recruitment quota (...)
In the face of nation-wide protests by thousands of students, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday announced abolishment of the decades-old quota system for recruiting government officials through an annual civil service exam. Over a hundred students, demanding reduction in 30% reservation for children of freedom fighters, were injured in clashes with the police.
Hasina declared in Parliament that “there is no need for quota system in the public service” asking the (...)
The civil service recruitment quota for children and grandchildren of liberation war martyrs is unpopular. It no longer plays a useful purpose and is unfair to many other families which sacrificed or suffered in the 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan
The Bangladesh Civil service, the biggest and the most prestigious public sector employer in the country, appoints personnel for government bureaucracy under quota system in its cadre category. Currently, 44 per cent vacancies are filled up from merit list while the remaining 56 per cent are filled under various quotas. Out of these quota jobs, 30 per cent are reserved (...)
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