It's called a sprawl. We just happened to experience a mushroom growth. It happened to us when schools, garment factories, stores, boutiques, offices just stealthily popped up in our neighbourhood.

The information being gleaned from suspects and their laptops is that there is external finance being funnelled in through informal channels such as hundi. But the most worrying development is the discovery of bomb making material and knowhow amongst some of those arrested.

A few decades ago the Joistapura Hills in Chittagong's Boalkhali upazila were deforested and bald; today they support a rich green canopy. The change has been driven by the simple dream of a single young man: 16-year-old Mozammel Hoque Bakul wanted to have his own garden.

As the nation observes the 12th anniversary of the ghastly grenade assault that was carried out at an Awami League rally in Dhaka city on August 21, 2004, discerning observers have to agree that the horrendous crimes committed on that day has left an indelible impact on the course and character of constitutional politics of Bangladesh.

The knowledge industry is still in its infancy in Bangladesh. Firms like the McKinsey & Company or Brookings Institute are now

One can thus feel in one's bones the pain and trauma the wild elephant, separated from its herd by severe flooding in Assam, must have gone through all the way down to Bangladesh.

To express support for a breakaway group on the soil of that country would be a diplomatic incivility, but the shield of technicality was invoked to show that the premises of the Pakistan High Commission were the territory of Pakistan. But be that as it may, there is no doubt that the incident has brought about a complete 'rerouting' of India's policy towards Pakistan.

For the uninformed multitudes, remembering Bangabandhu on August 15 is perhaps a ritualistic observance when the mind does not delve deep to grasp the historical significance of the tragedy.

It's not easy, but one way to try and maintain sanity is by taking a worldwide view of every situation.

We are a land-short country, somewhat proverbially, as it seems. Bangladesh does not exactly have a galloping population but a

It was an ordinary Friday afternoon in Dhaka when, on 7 August 2015, Niloy Neel and his partner Asha Moni heard a knock on their door.

Among the anxieties, fears and confusions generated by the grisly tragedy that occurred on July 1 at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, one refrain was fairly consistent...

You must be kidding, bro,” a friend of mine from Windsor, Ontario, tells me when I ask him about Tamim Chowdhury, the purported leader of ISIS in Bangladesh.

Donald Trump has variously been described as “dangerous,” “fraud,” “unhinged,” “racist,” “mentally unbalanced” and “outright nuts.” Vanity Fair magazine's Mark Bowden summed up these epithets in one sentence in a slightly more charitable manner:

They don't go to schools, schools come to them.

The poor, marginalised, and uninformed madrasa students in Bangladesh are too weak and disorganised to spearhead any violent or revolutionary movement. This explains why urban, rich, and secular-educated – not rural, poor, and madrasa-educated – youths appear so far to be the main foot soldiers of Islamist terror.

The recent government decision to make residential areas residential makes sense. However, authorities seem to have gone gung ho in implementation.

The horrific story of the murder of Sagar Barman, aged 10, was published in the front page of The Daily Star and other leading dailies of the country on July 25, 2016.

It is baffling that physical courage is so common in the world and moral courage so rare. It is hard to find people whose manner is infused with kindness, humility and integrity, in other words, character. The issue is relevant because it is timeless.

The challenge now before all of us is to determine how deep and wide the spread of extremist ideologies is, how entrenched is the threat and, more importantly, how we can effectively fight it.