Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu

“The cruelty broke my heart but not my dreams,” said Phulpori Khatun, the Islamic University student who was tortured allegedly by two BCL leaders on February 12.

Keya Islam, who lives in Radhanagar village under Pabna sadar upazila, had started her hand embroidery business about a decade ago in order to help provide for her family.

“I have never seen such erosion in winter,” said Md Abdul Karim, a resident of Binanai village in Sirajganj’s Chowhali upazila, who currently lives under the open sky amid the cold winter.

Although ferry services on Najirganj-Dhawapara route, connecting Pabna and Rajbari districts through the mighty Padma river, kicked-off on January 1, it failed to attract travellers and bring any fruitful result for lack of necessary facilities.ccc

Childhood pneumonia cases and deaths have increased around the country amidst the ongoing cold wave.  Pabna and Barishal are no exceptions.

Nurunnahar Begum of Boktarpur village in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila left home for love in 1994, to marry Md Rabiul Islam of the same locality. Rabiul didn’t have any source of income at that time, so her family didn’t approve of the wedding.

Vegetable cultivation is gaining popularity in Pabna as growing profits have spurred local farmers to expand their activities over the past few years, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in the district.

In March 2021, Water Development Board started dredging  5.67 kilometres of Ichhamati river to increase its navigability, under a project worth Tk 5.46 crore. Besides, it simultaneously kicked off an eviction drive, under a Tk 2.69-project, to free the riverbank.

Farmers in Pabna, the biggest onion producing region in Bangladesh, have started harvesting a quick growing variety of the bulb called Kondo, but are being left disappointed by the poor prices currently on offer in local markets.

Operations at the Baghabari river port in Shahzadpur upazila of Sirajganj, one of the most important river ports in Bangladesh for ensuring a supply of fertiliser and fuel to 16 northern districts, has been limping on due to a massive navigability crisis.

A three-member probe committee of Bangladesh Samabaya Bank Limited has found allegations of bank loan default against over thirty farmers in Pabna to be true.

It was a conscious decision for Dr Mohammad Fazle Rabbee, to return to his motherland from the UK where he had gone for higher studies.

Taravanu Begum, a middle-aged woman in Paikartoli village in Sirajganj’s Kazipur upazila, lost her homestead to river erosion and was compelled to take shelter at the flood protection embankment area a few years ago.

Several farmers, accused of defaulting on loans in Pabna, have said they became victims of fraudulent activities when they took the loans from Bangladesh Samabaya Bank.

Due to absence of government-designated dumping stations, tonnes of household, industrial and medical wastes are being dumped under the open sky on a daily basis in Pabna town, posing a serious threat to public health.

Starting off in 1962, the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation’s (BSCIC) industrial estate in Pabna had initially drawn small investors, taking shape as one of the district’s biggest food processing hubs. 

Family members of at least two of the 12 farmers, who were arrested Friday on loan default charges in Pabna, claimed they had repaid the money on time.

Agriculture is a key sector of Bangladesh’s economy but most people never dream of becoming a farmer as even those with the slightest education hope to make a living through other professions of more repute.

An abandoned one-storey building of the health department on Abdul Hamid road in Pabna was mostly used to keep dead bodies. But it all changed in 1984 when a few youths came together and turned the ghostly establishment into a facility to treat diabetes patients.

The Benarasi Palli in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila has remained inactive since its establishment in 2004 due to a serious lack of initiative among the authorities and weavers involved.