The demand for small battery-powered rechargeable fans has spiked as people scramble to get some relief from the heat. A family tests such a small fan on the sidewalk in Dhaka’s Motijheel. Photo: Abdullah Al Momin

Folk singer and former Manikganj-2 MP Momtaz Begum has been shown arrested in the murder case of Shawon Mufti, who was killed during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement protests. The famed singer was brought to the dock under police protection from the court lock-up around 10:30am. Later, police personnel took off her jacket and helmet when they brought her to the dock. The hearing on Momtaz’s arrest petition in a murder case filed with the Kotwali Police Station began first. On May 12, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch (DB) arrested Momtaz Begum from Dhanmondi.

The Press Wing of Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser has dismissed a widely circulated video as “false and misleading,” which alleged that an elderly Hindu man was publicly humiliated by radical Islamists.In a statement posted on its verified Facebook page, CA Press Wing Facts, on Sunday night, the office clarified that the video had been misrepresented online.The viral clip, shared extensively across social media platforms including X, claimed that a Hindu schoolteacher with 40 years of service was forced to wear a garland of shoes in a public act of humiliation by Islamist extremists, framing it as religious persecution against Bangladesh's Hindu minority.However, according to the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing, investigations — including reverse image searches and media verification — found that the claims were baseless. Credible Bangladeshi outlets like Kaler Kantho, Dhaka Times, and bdnews24.com confirmed that the man in the video is not a Hindu teacher but Ahmad Ali, a retired Muslim community medical officer from Tekati village in Baliakandi upazila, Rajbari district.A report by Kaler Kantho on June 15 stated that Ahmad Ali was assaulted and paraded through a market with a garland of shoes after allegedly making derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) at a local tea shop. Dhaka Times and bdnews24.com corroborated the context, noting that the incident sparked a mob reaction based on blasphemy allegations.The Press Wing emphasized that while the video itself is authentic, the narrative attached to it was fabricated and manipulated online to incite communal tension. “This was not an act of religious persecution against the Hindu community, but a localised incident driven by accusations of religious defamation — later distorted online to falsely portray communal violence,” the statement said.The office urged citizens and media consumers to verify content before sharing, particularly when such misinformation could fuel communal unrest.

NBR Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan said that employees at all tax, VAT and custom houses in the country had returned to work on Monday. There are no problems.”"The NBR has also returned to work. Earlier in the day, the Chief Advisor's Office had issued a statement warning of “severe” action if tax officials did not return to work. At the same time, the interim government declared NBR services “essential”, the statement said. As the government took stricter measures, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) announced it had launched a graft investigation against six NBR officials.

The Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) yesterday said confusion has arisen over certain information involving various media outlets, including Prothom Alo, in a study on the withdrawal of news. "Incomplete and unclear reports have been published by some media outlets on the study findings," it added. After the PIB seminar, some media outlets published reports citing the statistics of retracted news. Meanwhile, to verify the authenticity of the information about retracted reports, Prothom Alo contacted the researcher on Saturday. In a written statement last night, he told Prothom Alo that misleading reports had indeed been published regarding Saturday's seminar.

“They beat me and filmed it”: Muradnagar woman accuses two brothers in rape, assault, viral video caseA Hindu woman in Cumilla’s Muradnagar Upazila has accused a man named Fazr Ali of breaking into her house late at night, raping her, and then being assaulted by a group led by his younger brother, who also filmed the incident. The next day, I filed a case at the local police station.”The woman, whose husband is an expatriate, had returned to her father’s home about two weeks earlier. The statement added that some individuals at the scene filmed the victim and posted the footage online. Police said a case filed by the woman on Friday named Fazr as the primary accused. Fazr was arrested in Dhaka’s Sayedabad early Saturday following a social media backlash over the video, which had by then gone viral.

NBR shutdown withdrawn. Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission announced investigations into six striking NBR officials for alleged graft. Customs officials’ pen-down and shutdown mean nothing is moving, and importers are facing serious financial losses.”Inland Container Depots (ICDs) in Chattogram have seen containers pile up. The finance advisor later announced that no meeting with the protesting NBR officials would take place that day. Among those six, five are reported to be leading figures in the ongoing NBR “shutdown” programme.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has launched a preliminary inquiry against six officers of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) involved in the ongoing “complete shutdown” of the government agency. Among them, all except Badiul Alam have been at the forefront of the protest demanding the resignation of the NBR chairman. According to ACC documents, corrupt NBR officials have routinely collected large sums in bribes in exchange for lowering tax liabilities for business owners and individuals. NBR officials launched a protest demanding the scrapping of the decision, including a pen-down protest. They said discussions would be held with NBR officials and employees to implement the ordinance.

A Saudi Arabian expatriate, his wife, and son have died in Dhaka allegedly of food poisoning after eating from a restaurant near the hotel where they were staying, police have said. The deceased are Saudi expatriate Monir Hossain, 48, his wife Nasrin Akhter Swapna, 38, and their son Arafat, 18. Ramna police chief Omar Faruk said the family had travelled to Dhaka from Lakshmipur on Saturday for medical consultations. The officer said, “We came to know they had dinner from a nearby restaurant named Bhorta Bhaat. Police suspect food poisoning as the cause of death, but have not ruled out other possibilities.

On the second day of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations, a total of 42 examinees and invigilators were expelled on charges of “aiding or abetting”. The Bengali Second Paper, Arabic First Paper in Alim, and English-2 of HSC Vocational, BMT, and Diploma in Commerce exams were held on the second day. Citing information from 1,600 centres, the committee said that 23 examinees and 1 invigilator were expelled during the Bengali Second Paper Examination. In the HSC Bengali Second Paper exam, 917,661 participated in the exams out of 933,539 registered candidates, while 15,898 were absent. The committee informed that 8 candidates were expelled from the English-2 subject exam on the second day of the HSC Vocational, BMT, and Diploma in Commerce exams, while 2,002 were absent.

The interim government has granted policy-level approval to open a United Nations Human Rights Office in Dhaka initially for three years, a move linked to ongoing international engagement following allegations of crimes against humanity during the July Uprising. “Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, submitted a report on crimes against humanity committed during the July Uprising,” Nazrul said. “Discussions had been ongoing over the possibility of setting up a human rights office in Bangladesh. Today marks a significant advancement.”The government expects the UN’s human rights presence in Dhaka to enhance international oversight and domestic accountability amid ongoing concerns over rights violations tied to last year’s political unrest. Based on that, the UN will establish a human rights mission office in Bangladesh.”The approval for a draft MoU to set up an office of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) came at the council meeting on Sunday.

In face of backlash, govt reverses course on marking Aug 8 as ‘New Bangladesh Day’The government has decided not to hold “New Bangladesh Day”, one of the three national days it had announced to commemorate the July Uprising. It was also decided to change the name of “Martyr Abu Sayed Day” on Jul 16 to “July Martyrs Day”. Aug 5 had been declared “July Mass Uprising Day” to commemorate the day the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government was ousted, while Jul 16 was “Martyr Abu Sayed Day” to memorialise the death of the quota reform protester shot dead by police in a turning point for the nation. Aug 8, on the other hand, had been named “New Bangladesh Day” to mark the day the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government took power. The announcement of “New Bangladesh Day” drew widespread backlash on social media, with many saying that the government had not fulfilled the aspirations of the students and the public who led the uprising.

A group of Dhaka University students have staged protests over the rape of a Hindu woman in Cumilla’s Muradnagar. The students chanted slogans condemning rape and calling everyone to take action against the crime. Some people took a nude video of the incident and shared it on social media, sparking criticism at home and abroad. Jahidur Rahman, chief of Muradnagar Police Station, said that a Hindu woman had filed a case accusing Fazr on Friday. The case documents state that the woman had gone to visit her parents’ house a couple of weeks ago.

At a routine security checkpoint in Hatirjheel, law-enforcing officers were stopping and questioning drivers and inspecting vehicles as part of their nightly patrols. The resulting videos, complete with sensational headlines, spread rapidly across social media and news platforms. Ultimately, it disgraces the entire profession.”HOW MEDIA REACH CHECKPOINTSJournalists currently exchange professional updates through internal groups on social media platforms. Given such directives against the public display of arrestees, the recent media coverage of roadside searches for traffic violations and random checks raises questions about justification. “Journalists must act ethically, and law-enforcing agencies must also protect an individual’s privacy and dignity when media are present during searches,” Rafsan said.

Indian MPs call for repair in ties with Bangladesh, focus on shared cultureMembers of India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs have signalled support for repairing and advancing ties with Bangladesh, amid compounding diplomatic and trade tensions between the neighbours. The Hindu cited another source saying there was a broad agreement that India and Bangladesh are linked by shared culture and language, and “should not be viewed as a hostile neighbour like Pakistan”. Several MPs reportedly proposed a “soft launch” of cultural diplomacy involving West Bengal as a way to ease tensions and repair dialogue. The Indian national daily noted that Dhaka has already made such a gesture, with Bangladesh High Commissioner M Riaz Hamidullah meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Monday. Before that, on Apr 9, it withdrew transshipment access that had allowed Bangladesh to export to the Middle East and Europe via Indian ports.