Opinion

Afghanistan - The Taliban factor and peace

Anxiety has gro­wn over the last year because of terrorist attacks carried out at regular intervals by terrorists belonging to the Taliban group as well as those associated with the IS inside Afghanistan. This concern has been further heightened with President Trump abruptly calling off peace ta...

Opinion

Uncertain factors created by the Rohingya presence

Bangladesh has had to be a gra­cious host to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims over the last four decades.  They have sought sanctuary in our country from ethnic cleansing, rape, arson and murder carried out against them by non-Rohingyas and communal Buddhist monks. They came into B...

Opinion

Creating a stateless status in Assam would only promote a human tragedy

On 31 August, as had been declared earlier, India published the final version of a list which effectively strips 1,906,657 people of the north-eastern State of Assam of their citizenship. This number includes about 1.1 million persons of Hindu faith and about 5 lac of Muslim faith.The controversial ...

Opinion

Pro-active engagement within G7

Troubled by street demonstrations in Paris on a regular basis for the last few months, President Emmanuel Macron made a wise decision to convene the recently concluded annual G7 Summit in Biarritz on the southwest coast of France overlooking the Bay of Biscay- known for its surfing and therapeutic w...

Opinion

Language evolution and Indo-European influence

Several scho­lars have been carr­ying out an interesting debate. It relates to the origin of langua­ges. The discussion started with the principle of migration and how it had influenced cultural and linguistic aspects within the evolving matrix of language and literature.Several interest...

Opinion

Tackling illegal migration humanely

Human trafficking and illegal migration has reached unacceptable proportions. The osmotic effect of this equation is proving to be a menace for those trying to gain from this exercise. This has led to about 800,000 illegal migrants and 50,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers being trapped in L...

Opinion

The changing dynamics of the Iranian crisis

The crisis in relations between the United States and Iran has continued to evolve in a manner that is creating an osmotic concern and anxiety not only within the Middle East- Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen and Egypt- but also in Member countries of the Eu...

National,Front Page

We must never forget fifteen August

Fifteenth of August marks the 44th anniversary of the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation and many members of his immediate family. The day of mourning gives us an opportunity to acknowledge the historic role that he played as the master helmsman in th...

Opinion

Boris Johnson has a difficult path ahead

Boris Johnson has assumed the post of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom- the 14th Prime Minister appoin­ted during the reign of the pre­sent Queen Elizabeth (the first having been Winston Churchill) and the 55th since the office of Prime Minister was initiated by the British monarchy....

Opinion

Climate variability--Adaptation and mitigation

A two-day international conference of the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) recently concluded in Dhaka. United Nations former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his speech, delivered during the inaugural ceremony, noted that Bangladesh, in the front line of countries facing problems arising out o...

Opinion

Evolving geo-strategic paradigm reflected through the G-20 summit

There is need to re-visit the G-20 Summit that was recen­tly convened in Osaka, Japan in June. It was the latest annual meeting of leaders from the countries with the largest and fastest-growing economies and reflected concern over the evolving geo-strategic paradigm.It witnessed several dimensi...

Opinion

Diversifying strategic partnership between Dhaka and Beijing

The dyna­mics of ties between Bangladesh and China has intensified in its diversity through greater connectivity within the sub-regional and regional paradigms. Bangladesh’s “Look East Policy” and greater linkages through the One Belt One Road initiative (BRI)- that Bangladesh ...

Opinion

Evolving dimensions of European Union parliamentary elections- 2019

There is general consensus after the 2019 EU elections held at the end of May that certain power blocs have lost their grip on the EU Parliament. Analysts have pointed out that both the big centre-right and centre-left blocs in the European Parliament have lost their combined majority amid an increa...

Opinion

Chinese president Xi visits North Korea

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President of the People's Republic of China (PRC), arrived in Pyongyang by his personal plane on 20 June to pay a state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Chinese President...

Opinion

US-China trade war creating international tensions

The US-China trade war has been escalating in the recent weeks, with both countries announ­cing new tariffs on each other’s goods.It may be recalled that this ball game started on 6 July, 2018, with both countries announcing tariffs at 10 per cent on products valued at US Dollar 34 billion...

Opinion

Pro-democracy civil resistance continues in Sudan

Civil resistance mo­vements have been taking place all over the world for the past year. Venezuela, Spain, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen and Thailand have been in the headlines. Now Sudan is featuring in the forefront of this evolving paradigm. World attention has been drawn once ...

Opinion

Eradicating terrorism and militancy

Terrorism is, in the broadest sense, the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror among masses of people; or fear to achieve a religious or political aim. It is used in this regard primarily to refer to violence during peacetime or in war against non-combatants &ndash...

Opinion

Politics redefined-development over dynasty

After docking up more than 140 rallies while chasing a second term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended up scoring a dramatic election victory. The cult of personality politics was evident all the way. Through this process he has increased his Hindu nationalist Party’s majority in the Lok Sabha...

Opinion

Illegal migration unacceptable

Over the last two years, the world has witnessed the tragic deaths of thousands of people from different countries drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean while trying to enter Europe or Thailand or Malaysia. The latest such incident off the coast of Tunisia in Nort...

Opinion

Zakat and the month of Ramadan

Ramadan symbolizes end­urance and rea­ssertion of faith. It is also a time when one sho­uld indulge in politics or grand display of affluence. Ramadan connects us with the Almighty and reminds us that the most important thing in life is to be able to withstand pain and hunger and help ot...