By Piya Mayenin :: The ISIS led since 2010 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is so hardline and violent that Al Qaida led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is based in Pakistan has disavowed them. Isis is highly fanatical; killing Shia Muslims and Christians whenever possible, as well as militarily and under tight direction by top leaders. What would drive three teenagers ...

BY  SHABBIR AHMED :: The students of history of South Asia know it too well that the partition of India into two nations did not bode well for us, the inhabitants of the then East Pakistan.Punjabi clique ruled our motherland for a long time and that includes the military and the communal forces of Pakistan. These Islam-based communal forces tried ...

By M. Sophia Newman::  This weekend, Bangladesh celebrated Language Martyr’s Day once again. The holiday is one of my favourites – a celebration of the genuinely beautiful thing that brought me to Bangladesh in the first place. Yet I am too afraid to celebrate. In 2011, I came to Dhaka on a scholarship for ten weeks of intensive Bangla-language study. ...

By Abdul Karim Goni :: British Curry Awards Founder Enam Ali MBE has said that moving British visa office from Dhaka to Delhi is quite saddening for me and also discourteous for the Bengali Community in the UK.  He said this in a press briefing held in East London on 24 February.  An influential figure in the area of diplomacy ...

Bangla Mirror Desk :: The largest private airline in Bangladesh, United Airways set to launch new routes direct from Europe to Bangladesh and once again offers expatriates the chance to be part of its success. United Airways (UBD) announced an ambitious investment plan on 23rd February that will attract the funds it needs to operate new routes from major UK ...

Imagine a girl called Sofia – 19 years-old. She could be your daughter, or cousin. You might know a young person like her – your granddaughter, or your next door neighbour. Born in Tower Hamlets, she was educated in a state-of-the-art school and enjoyed it. She was surrounded by committed teachers ready to help launch her onto the next stage ...

Glyn Robbins is standing in Bethnal Green and Bow as the General Election candidate for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).  He is standing in the election on May 7th because he wants to see an alternative to the cuts, privatisation, racism and war peddled by the establishment parties and a left alternative to the right-wing anti-migrant UKIP, a ...

There is no denying that the current political situation in Bangladesh is very grave. The cycle current politically-motivated violence has caused over a hundred deaths so far and many more serious injuries as well as enormous damage to the economy. Naturally, concerned citizens are worried and have recently urged the Honourable President as the guardian of the State to hold ...

We also had many in our own age group to play with. On a hot summer day, before lunch, it was always time for a swim in the Gangina (rivulet) at the outer boundary of the village. That meant taking off all clothes and getting into the fast current of the canal and swimming to our heart’s content. In the ...

Bangladesh has come a long way over the last four and half decades from the maliciously coined phrase, labelled by Henry Kissinger as the ‘basket case of the world,’ to self-sufficiency in food (and even as a net exporter of food) and the healthy gross domestic product (GDP) resulting in significant foreign currency surplus. All this had been achieved under ...