Time: around 7:00am of July 2. Place: Holey Artisan Bakery. Inside the premises, 20 guests, most of them foreigners, are lying dead. Outside, military personnel are preparing for the final push to end the hostage standoff.

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for one person but acquitted the other four on death row in the sensational case over rape and murder of Shazneen Tasnim Rahman at her Gulshan house around two decades ago.

Shazneen Tasnim Rahman was raped and killed at her Gulshan house in the capital.

The education ministry has asked the home ministry to shut down the “unapproved peace schools” immediately.

Thirty eight Bangladeshi children stranded at a safe-home in West Bengal, India, yesterday urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take measures immediately so that they can come back home.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday sought greater cooperation of people and information from them in tackling militancy and terrorism more effectively.

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft law that curtails the discretionary decision-making power of the chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission.

It was a different day for the students and teachers of colleges and universities as they came out of regular academic routine, took to the streets, joined hands together and vowed to combat militancy.

Global terror outfit Islamic State (IS) in the latest issue of its online magazine Dabiq claimed that the five Gulshan café attackers were “inghimasi soldiers of Caliphate”.

The Gulshan café attackers' photos reportedly released by Islamic State were taken at a flat in the capital's Bashundhara residential area days before the July 1 attack, police said.

When they saw their deaths coming on Tuesday morning, the Kalyanpur militants made final preparations to fight back the law enforcers.

The topic and purpose of the “secret meeting” involving a Saudi national and a leader of the banned separatist movement of Rohingyas at an Awami League leader's house in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar remains a mystery.

"We grieve for the fallen, we stand for the bereaved.” On a black banner, roughly a meter in length, these words welcome you at the entrance of the ill-fated road 79 in the capital's Gulshan.

Every time she steps out of her home in Dhanmondi, one of the affluent neighbourhoods in Dhaka, fear begins to creep into her mind. Be it while taking her kid to school or going out for shopping.

"The government has to be truly sincere in tackling militancy. Heavy prices will have to be paid for any negligence.”

Waterborne diseases are breaking out in the flood-affected northern region as water is receding and coming down to inundate fresh areas in the central parts of the country.

The University Grants Commission wants power to appoint observers to the boards of trustee of all private universities to increase its supervision on them following allegations of militant activities in some private universities.

Bangladesh Border Guard personnel can use Indian roads along the Indo-Bangla border for patrolling the remote areas where Bangladesh has no road links, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

The telecom regulator yesterday asked the subscribers of Citycell to switch to any other operator by August 16 as it has decided to cancel spectrum of the country's oldest mobile phone operator.

“There is no need to think that the state structure will be broken down in one or two militant attacks. The attackers have no courage, no self-strength. They're timid and cowards. It's not at all possible for them to win any war.”