National Parliament Whip and Natore-2 MP Advocate Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu accused the Awami League of turning Bangladesh into an “empty basket” during what he described as 17 years of misrule and then fleeing to India. He made the remarks on Saturday at about 11 a.m. during a cheque-distribution event for development institutions and poor patients at the Natore District Council premises.

Dulu alleged that major projects during the Awami League period were undertaken to enable party leaders, activists and relatives of Sheikh Hasina to loot public money. He claimed that funds were embezzled and transferred abroad, and said people who steal government money would be sent to jail. He also alleged that Awami League-linked figures were spreading misinformation from a neighbouring country.

He said there would be no place for terrorists or extortionists in Natore, and pledged to establish a medical college and university there and arrange jobs for educated unemployed youth. The event was chaired by District Council administrator and district BNP convener Rahim Newaz, with local officials and BNP leaders among the speakers.

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said a special police unit has been formed to recover illegal and looted weapons, with rewards of up to Tk200,000 for people who help locate them. He announced the measure on Saturday afternoon after a quarterly crime review meeting at the Rajarbagh Police Auditorium.

Ahmed said the operation has already begun with intelligence support from various agencies. He said nationwide drives are also under way to arrest extortionists and terrorists, and warned that police officers who fail to take appropriate action against them will face measures.

The minister said efforts are being made to make police a force that meets public expectations and is friendly to citizens, while improving its image and law-and-order conditions. He said police stations damaged during the July mass uprising have resumed operations and many conditions have returned to normal. However, 1,326 weapons looted from police during that period remain untraced.

The National Citizen Party, or NCP, ultimately held its organisational coordination meeting at the Brahmanbaria District Shilpakala Academy on Saturday night after a day of uncertainty over the venue. The event received renewed approval at 5:30pm and began at 7pm, with central chief organiser Sarjis Alam and leaders from central and local levels in attendance.

The meeting had initially been planned for the Shilpakala Academy, but tensions arose after the Qaumi Chhatra Oikya Parishad announced a programme at the same location. The administration later informed organisers that the academy venue had been cancelled, prompting consideration of Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Bhasha Chattar and then the District Council auditorium.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, NCP leaders met Qaumi students at Jamia Islamia Yunusia Madrasa. Following the meeting, the Qaumi students withdrew their announced programme at the academy and said they would not obstruct the NCP event. After prolonged discussions and several venue changes, the academy was again designated as the meeting site.

Speakers at an AB Party seminar in the Tofazzal Hossain Manik Miah Hall of the National Press Club on Saturday warned that replacing the disappearance ordinance with a new law could create opportunities for immunity rather than ensure justice for enforced disappearances. They said ending the culture of disappearances requires a strong law, an independent investigation system and prosecution of every responsible person, including those who gave orders.

BNP media cell convener Dr. Moudud Hossain Alamgir Pavel said a weak police system could not effectively investigate or prosecute an offence as serious as disappearance. FSDS chairman Fazle Elahi Akbar welcomed the government’s committee on the issue but said committees alone would not solve the problem, citing past failures of committees formed on various issues.

BNP lawmaker Hummam Qader Chowdhury said rumours had circulated about the proposed anti-disappearance law, while extensive research had been conducted before drafting it. He said the force accused of a disappearance would not investigate the allegation and that bringing those who ordered disappearances to justice had been considered. Barrister Zubayer Ahmed Bhuiyan said disappearances also leave families in prolonged fear, uncertainty and mental suffering.

Sitakunda Municipal Executive Officer Md Nazrul Islam has acknowledged living in an official room at the municipal building for nearly a decade, saying he stays there to guard the premises like a night watchman rather than for personal convenience. The arrangement, his lengthy tenure at the same workplace and questions surrounding transfer orders have prompted concerns over the use of public property and funds.

More than Tk 400,000 in electricity bills for June and July has also drawn scrutiny. Islam said the amount covers not only the municipal building but also streetlights in all nine wards, and that the bills were calculated on an average basis because the municipality lacks card meters. However, no itemized breakdown has been disclosed separating building consumption from streetlight costs or identifying any personal electricity use.

Former councillor Shamsul Alam Azad said Islam had served almost continuously in Sitakunda since 2015 despite transfers. A May 21, 2024 order transferred him to Kaliganj municipality in Gazipur, though its later status requires document verification. A new order posts him to Shibpur municipality in Narsingdi, where he is due to join by September 1.

Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar alleged that extortion, intimidation, repression, looting and political favoritism have returned under the current government. He made the remarks as chief guest at a Jamaat rally at Terokhada’s new bus stand on Saturday, August 29. He said the government was moving along nearly the same path as the Awami League, which, he said, had been removed from power over similar accusations.

Parwar said people across Bangladesh had sought a corruption-free and discrimination-free country, expecting an end to repression of dissent, terrorism, extortion, money laundering and wrongful detention, killings, cases and remand. He questioned the government’s performance after the election, arguing that six months was not too short a period to assess it. He also alleged political discrimination in lists for farmer cards and family cards, claiming people outside BNP were being excluded.

Referring to law and order in Khulna, Parwar alleged increased violence and armed conflict in Rupsa. He demanded implementation of the July Charter and said consensus had been reached on 84 reforms through 72 meetings over nine months. After the rally, he introduced candidates for upazila chairman, vice chairman and union parishad chairman and urged voters to elect them.

Bangladesh’s Education Ministry said Saturday that disciplinary measures have been taken over cheating during an Open University degree examination at Kazipur Degree College in Gangni upazila of Meherpur. A video showing candidates using books during the first-year degree English first-paper examination circulated recently on social media and in news outlets.

Four examinees involved in cheating during the examination have been expelled, according to the ministry’s press release. Two teachers have also been relieved of all examination-related duties. The ministry said preparations are under way to take departmental and legal action against those involved in the incident.

Two journalists were allegedly attacked and beaten while recording video of the incident, and their mobile phones were reportedly taken. Rabby Ahmed, Meherpur district correspondent for Bangladesh Betar and Nagorik Television, filed a case at Gangni police station on Friday against Rafiqzzaman, Moniruzzaman Biplob and 10 unidentified people over the alleged attack.

Police in Tongi, Gazipur, have identified the 26-year-old woman seen unconscious between two men on a motorcycle on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway. She is Sahena Begum Sumi, a Baul artist who lived with her elder sister in the Bowbazar area and performed songs in different places. After questioning by Tongi West police on Saturday afternoon, she was released into her elder sister’s custody.

Sumi told local journalists that she drank alcohol herself at a bar in Uttara after becoming mentally distressed by family problems. She said no one made her drink. She said she knew the two motorcycle riders as her uncles and called them when her condition worsened after drinking.

According to her account, the two men took her to a friend’s home in Mirpur, Dhaka, after receiving the information. She also alleged that her former husband, Shahriar, had spread false and misleading information to put her in trouble. Deputy Commissioner SM Shafiqul Islam said police found her currently normal, while efforts continue to locate the two motorcycle riders.

Lawmakers, lawyers, former military officers and returned victims of enforced disappearance criticised a draft law on disappearances at a discussion in Banglamotor, Dhaka, on Saturday. The event, organised by rights group Odhikar for the International Day of the Disappeared, heard objections to provisions that could imprison a complainant for five years if an allegation cannot be proven and allow police to investigate disappearance cases.

BNP lawmaker A M Mahbub Uddin Khokon said victims or relatives may not know who carried out a disappearance and questioned whether police could properly verify such allegations. Jamaat lawmaker and returned victim Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem called the draft a “garbage law,” arguing that it interferes with constitutionally recognised freedom of expression and limits legal remedies. Returned victim Abdullah Al Amin said placing the burden of proof on victims was inhumane where state institutions allegedly destroy evidence.

Odhikar placed three demands before the government. It called for investigations to be assigned to an independent National Human Rights Commission rather than law-enforcement agencies, legal arrangements for families of people who have not returned to manage bank accounts and transfer property, and withdrawal of cases described as false against returned victims.

Nurul Islam Bulbul, MP for Chapainawabganj-3 and amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Dhaka South, criticised the government over electricity and fuel shortages, rising commodity prices, corruption and mismanagement at a student-youth gathering in Bholahat, Chapainawabganj, on Friday evening. He said a new Bangladesh should be built by implementing the referendum verdict and reforming the constitution.

Bulbul alleged that corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement had disrupted normal state operations and burdened ordinary people. He said 62,000 employees had lost jobs and 41 power plants had become inoperative, while the government had failed to ensure uninterrupted electricity. He also criticised increases in fuel, oil, gas and commodity prices, saying they had made daily life difficult.

Addressing border issues, Bulbul alleged that people in India who are Muslim and Bengali-speaking were being pushed into Bangladesh, creating an economic burden, and said people were being killed indiscriminately at the border. He called for a safe, humane and liveable country based on justice and fairness. Other speakers included MPs Dr Mu. Mizanur Rahman and local Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Shibir leaders.

Qawmi Chhatra Oikya Parishad has warned that it will not allow National Citizen Party (NCP) programmes in Brahmanbaria unless lawmaker Hasnat Abdullah publicly apologises to local residents. The warning was issued at a brief rally outside the Brahmanbaria Press Club late Friday night, following a protest march that began in the city’s Kandipara area and travelled along the main road.

Speakers at the rally strongly criticised Hasnat’s remarks in parliament concerning recent incidents in Brahmanbaria. They raised slogans against him and demanded that he apologise publicly to the people of the district over the statement.

The speakers said that otherwise they would prevent an already scheduled NCP organisational coordination meeting and political workshop from taking place at the District Shilpakala Academy on Saturday afternoon. Earlier on Thursday, Hasnat had sharply criticised the government in parliament for failing to take effective action after cultural programmes were stopped at police lines in Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria.

The Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance has announced support for a march toward the National Parliament and the submission of a memorandum to the Speaker, marking International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30. The alliance disclosed its position in a press release sent to the media on Saturday.

Hamidur Rahman Azad, coordinator of the 11-party alliance and assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, said the programme will be organised by the National Committee for the Prevention of Enforced Disappearances. The march is scheduled to begin at 3pm on Sunday from in front of Rupayan Tower in Banglamotor, Dhaka.

Participants will proceed in a procession toward the parliament complex and submit a memorandum to the Speaker in front of the parliament building. The 11-party alliance said it fully supports the programme and called on its leaders, activists and the public to participate spontaneously to ensure its overall success.

Mohammad Selim Uddin, Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami’s Dhaka North unit and a mayoral candidate for DNCC, expressed deep concern and anger over the death of a teacher during a mugging near the National Parliament building in the capital. In a protest statement on Saturday, he questioned how muggers could operate near such an important and heavily secured state area.

Selim Uddin said the incident had raised a natural question about where ordinary people could be safe if citizens’ lives and property could not be protected around major state installations. He described the unchecked activities of muggers in busy and important parts of the capital as a matter of deep concern for public safety.

He said ensuring the security of citizens’ lives and property is among the state’s principal responsibilities. He called for effective and strict measures against extortion, mugging, theft, robbery and terrorist activities, and urged law-enforcement agencies to be more active in maintaining normal law and order in Dhaka and across the country. He also sought forgiveness for the deceased teacher and demanded the swift arrest and exemplary punishment of those involved.

The National Committee for Observing the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances has called on people of all political affiliations to join a march toward the National Parliament on Sunday afternoon. The programme includes submitting a memorandum to the Speaker and will begin at 3pm from Banglamotor in the capital, according to a joint statement issued on Saturday.

Professor Dilara Chowdhury, convener of the committee, and its joint convener Brigadier General (retd) Hasinur Rahman Bir Protik made the appeal. They alleged that Bangladesh had experienced widespread enforced disappearances over the past 17 years, describing abductions from homes, detention in “Aynaghar,” torture, killings and disposal of bodies as grave human rights violations.

The leaders said a strict law to prevent enforced disappearances must be enacted to block the path of fascism and help build a “new Bangladesh” after the fall of the Awami League on August 5, 2024. They urged patriotic and conscious citizens to participate in the march and support assurances of the law’s enactment and enforcement.

Chief Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury said artificial intelligence should not be used to write judgments in court cases and called for effective laws and policies governing where and how much AI can be used. He made the remarks on Saturday morning at the opening ceremony of the country’s first AI Governance Summer School at the Asiatic Society Bangladesh auditorium in the capital.

He said public awareness is needed to ensure that the use of AI does not undermine people’s fundamental rights. According to the chief justice, AI should be used with the goals of making human life easier and protecting fundamental rights.

The chief justice’s comments focused on defining limits for AI use through a legal and policy framework. He specifically identified judicial decision-writing as an area where AI should not be used, while emphasizing rights protection as a guiding principle for the technology’s application.