‘I break records for fun’
Ashraful Islam, commonly known as “Jhohan Freestyle”, is a young boy from Chattogram who broke four Guinness World Records in freestyle football. He spoke to The Daily Star about how he got started on his record-setting journey and his ambitions for the future.
4 February 2022
Amateur cyclists make the grade
Bangladeshi cyclists Drabir Alam, Tanvir Ahmed, Mohammad Alauddin and Rakibul Islam, better known as Team BDC, claimed the Guinness World Record greatest distance cycled in 48 hours by a relay team by cycling 1670.334 km last month.
4 February 2022
Muntakim makes a mark ‘around the moon’
“The walls in our living room turned white because he would practice football there,” Shahinur Akter said as she reflected on Muntakim Ul Islam’s dedication after her son forged another freestyle world record on June 21.
4 February 2022
Naz Garden, 1st 3-star hotel of north Bangladesh, up for sale
The pandemic has ended up being the final nail in the coffin for Hotel Naz Garden in Bogura, the first three-star establishment of northern Bangladesh, with the owner putting it up for sale to end it from haemorrhaging money.
29 January 2022
‘Logo Land’: Bangladeshi author Amit Biswas on logos of the Netherlands
Logo Land (Lecturis, 2021), a new book by Bangladeshi author Amit Biswas, takes a look at the origin and meaning of logos, exploring the depths of shapes, colours, and forms in the municipality logos in the Netherlands.
23 January 2022
Fistful of rice: A food bank formed by women from minority communities
Around 5,000 women, mostly from the minority communities, are finding self-sufficiency with every passing day.
16 January 2022
Bangladeshi cyclists secure Guinness record
A team of Bangladeshi amateur cyclists bagged a Guinness world record by cycling 1600 km distance in 48 hours.
8 January 2022
Factory fire kills five in Bogura
Five workers died in a fire that spread through three acres of a disposable plastic factory in Bogura’s Adamdighi upazila yesterday.
14 December 2021
Cashew nut processors in trouble for dearth of raw materials Higher import duty also blamed
Cashew nuts processors in Bangladesh are staring at a grim future because of a shortage of raw materials and higher import duty – an ominous sign that can stymie the growth of the budding industry and render thousands of workers jobless.
25 November 2021
Only Tk 50 shy of life?
Bogura Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital authorities yesterday formed a four-member committee to investigate the death of a boy allegedly due to removal of his oxygen mask by a hospital employee for not getting a “satisfactory tip”.
10 November 2021
‘We don’t have a future’
In Taliban’s first news briefing since their return to power in Kabul, the group’s spokesperson said the new regime would be “positively different” from their 1996-2001 stint, which was infamous for deaths by stoning, girls being banned from school and women from working in contact with men.
9 November 2021
Fear never leaves Bagda farm Santals
The Santal people whose houses in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj were set on fire in 2016 are now facing homelessness again as they are among the nearly 1,500 families who might be evicted to make way for setting up an export processing zone.
5 November 2021
Pirganj Hindus: Cowering in fear, still
Nando Rani, 30, is still reeling from trauma after what she and her family suffered on the night of October 17.
25 October 2021
Silence of the river
Fishermen of Majhipara village look to the Akhira for their livelihood, but since October 17 they have been unable to answer the river’s call even though they need its bounties desperately.
22 October 2021
‘I want to commit suicide, but can’t leave my mother alone’
Since Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, Nargis Nayeel Sadat, 22, a business entrepreneur and women activist based in Kabul, is on the run along with her mother to save their lives after a Taliban court found her guilty.
22 October 2021
The 14-year-old who crossed the Bangla Channel
Fourteen-year-old Rabbi Rahman, a tenth grader from Bogura, is the youngest Bangladeshi swimmer to cross the Bangla Channel in the Bay of Bengal. He secured the first place in the 15th Fortune Bangla Channel Swimming competition in November last year, amongst 40 contestants of different age groups. It took Rabbi only 3 hours and 20 minutes to cross the 16.1 km channel from Teknaf jetty to St Martin’s Island.
23 September 2021
I’m scared of returning home
A Bogura court yesterday sent three people, including a high schoolteacher, to jail in a case filed in connection with torturing a teenage baul and shaving his head in Bogura’s Shibganj upazila.
22 September 2021
Planned EPZ in Santal Palli: BEPZA to go ahead despite protests
The government is forging ahead with its plan to set up the country’s largest export processing zone on 1,842 acres of farmland under the Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha district that the local santal community says belongs to them.
19 September 2021
We can behead ‘kafirs’ like you
Habibullah Farzad, a Ph.D. scholar of the South Asian University, New Delhi and also a human rights activist, was beaten
12 September 2021
Customers suffer as Nagad blocks accounts alleging suspicious transactions
A number of customers of Nagad have alleged that they were facing troubles in carrying out transactions on their accounts as the mobile financial service provider has suspended them on suspicion of unusual transactions with e-commerce platforms.
7 September 2021