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It was half past eight on a Wednesday morning. The quiet hill settlements of Rasuwa district, on the Nepal-Tibet border,...
01/09/2026

It was half past eight on a Wednesday morning. The quiet hill settlements of Rasuwa district, on the Nepal-Tibet border, had barely stirred awake. At that moment, a modest 4.4-magnitude earthquake in the Tibetan region sent tremors into an already unstable Himalayan glacier.

Within moments, a mass of ice and rock collapsed, blocking a river's course and forming a makeshift lake — which then burst, unleashing a devastating flash flood.

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It was early morning, and the sun had not fully risen. Yet the narrow streets of Islampur were already coming alive, pre...
01/09/2026

It was early morning, and the sun had not fully risen. Yet the narrow streets of Islampur were already coming alive, preparing for another busy day.

Bundles of fabric were being unloaded from trucks, passed from one pair of hands to another. The rhythm seemed almost timeless — as if the movement of cloth through these narrow lanes had changed little over centuries.

One by one, shop shutters began to rise. Inside, sharis, panjabi fabrics, suit materials and bedsheets emerged in an endless spread of colours and textures.

For decades, Islampur has stood at the heart of Bangladesh's textile trade. Traders estimate that the market supplies more than 60% of the fabric distributed across the country's 64 districts.

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The Joint Defense Agreement signed in Mecca on 7 August among Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signals an important shi...
30/08/2026

The Joint Defense Agreement signed in Mecca on 7 August among Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signals an important shift in the security and politics of the Middle East, South Asia and the Muslim world. The core message of the agreement is that an armed attack on any one of the three countries will be considered an attack on all three. Its objective is to enhance collective deterrence capabilities and strengthen regional stability.

Some view this agreement as the beginning of a military alliance in the Muslim world. However, from a practical standpoint, it is not yet a full-fledged military alliance. This is because the public details of the agreement lack specifics regarding a joint force, a defined command structure, military bases, financing, or mandatory military action in the event of an attack. As a result, it remains for now a strategic defense commitment whose effectiveness will depend on political goodwill and practical implementation.

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Imagine a woman floating down the Ganga in a budgerow, singing and dancing as rose petals are showered upon her. This wa...
30/08/2026

Imagine a woman floating down the Ganga in a budgerow, singing and dancing as rose petals are showered upon her. This was not a scene from a vintage film, but a real performance by a tawaif in Banaras during Janmashtami -- a spectacle so mesmerising that it entered local legend.

Such private majlis and lavish rangmahals were not unique to Banaras; they once lit up the narrow lanes of North Kolkata and the historic quarters of Dhaka, where the baijis and tawaifs of Bengal reigned as guardians of high culture, classical music, and refined etiquette. Their mastery of dhrupad and thumri set the tone for an entire era of aristocratic life.

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Korail, one of the most densely populated settlements in Dhaka, has almost no land left. Every open field has been built...
30/08/2026

Korail, one of the most densely populated settlements in Dhaka, has almost no land left. Every open field has been built on, fenced off or claimed. Fire has repeatedly disrupted community life in the area. Major fires in the past decade destroyed hundreds of homes, shops and belongings. Families rebuilt, simply for the sake of survival.

In a place where land is so scarce, every available square metre has to serve multiple purposes. The idea of building a 'community space' here might seem like a luxury. Yet, in reality, the people desperately needed one.

A group of architects and artists from Bangladesh, Greece, Italy and Switzerland, calling themselves the Adda Collective, took on that challenge. But when they found no available land, the only solution was to look up — to add new layers on top of something that already existed.

Over two years of workshops, conversations, and children's drawings, they built a structure from scratch. They named it Jonaki Ghor, meaning house of the fireflies.

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US President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated territorial ambitions, asserted US control over strategic waterways and...
29/08/2026

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated territorial ambitions, asserted US control over strategic waterways and sought to rename geographic features and public assets since returning to office for a second non-consecutive term.

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On Thursday, 27 August 2026, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals announced the death of Ratko Ml...
29/08/2026

On Thursday, 27 August 2026, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals announced the death of Ratko Mladic. The former Bosnian-Serb general, who spent his final years serving a life sentence for orchestrating the bloodiest atrocity in Europe since World War II, passed away while hospitalised in The Hague.

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Scrolling through Facebook one day, I came across a group of children singing Level Five's Tumi in perfect sync, with gu...
28/08/2026

Scrolling through Facebook one day, I came across a group of children singing Level Five's Tumi in perfect sync, with guitars in their hands. Their soothing voices made me stop scrolling. I became curious about where they were from and, more importantly, who had taught them.

That curiosity led me to Bawm Ram Tiam Amlai, a local musician from Bandarban who has spent years teaching guitar to children and young people through his Basic Guitar Learning School.

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As speculation mounts over an invitation to join the Mecca Pact, Bangladesh finds itself at a historic foreign policy cr...
28/08/2026

As speculation mounts over an invitation to join the Mecca Pact, Bangladesh finds itself at a historic foreign policy crossroads.

Geographically isolated from other Muslim-majority states and long committed to a doctrine of strict non-alignment, Dhaka must now balance the promise of collective defence against the risks of entering a formal military bloc.

Proponents argue the alliance would provide vital strategic depth and enhance national security, while sceptics warn it could compromise diplomatic autonomy, alienate key regional partners, and entangle the country in distant Middle Eastern conflicts.Being part of alliance does not mean all members will go to war together: Major General (retired) Fazle Elahi Akbar

We have not yet received any concrete proposal to join the Mecca Pact. However, there is talk that such a proposal may come to us. If it does, and we are to decide what course of action to take, we first need to understand our geopolitics.

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Bangladesh football has never lacked ambition when it comes to hiring foreign coaches. What it has consistently lacked i...
27/08/2026

Bangladesh football has never lacked ambition when it comes to hiring foreign coaches. What it has consistently lacked is a plan for what happens after the appointment letter is signed.

Three foreign coaches have passed through — or are still inside — the BFF's structure in very different versions of the same story: one hired with fanfare and sacked in disgrace, one who survived a players' revolt to deliver history, and one still being sized up by a fanbase that does not know what to make of him. Gerard Jones, Peter Butler and Thomas Dooley are a case study in how Bangladesh football treats the people it hires to fix it.

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