The government has decided to privatise Nagad to increase competition in the mobile financial services (MFS) sector, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. "We want to create more activity and competition in the MFS sector. We have decided to privatise Nagad at the highest level and bring in investors," he said. He was speaking at the Cashless Bangladesh Summit 2025, jointly organised by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) and Mastercard at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
"We will probably issue an advertisement for this within a week," he added. Mansur said Nagad will be taken out of the Post Office's control as it currently lacks the capacity to run the service. "A technology company has to be brought in as the major shareholder of Nagad," he said. "We hope we can rejuvenate Nagad as a worthy competitor in the MFS sector."
A Guyanese national was arrested with around 8.6kg of cocaine at Dhaka airport, and officials said the drug was not meant for local use. They added that since cocaine use is almost nonexistent here, Bangladesh may be a transit point for drug trafficking. The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate seized the consignment, the largest in recent times, and detained the Guyanese citizen, Karen Petula Stuffle, at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
She arrived in Dhaka from Doha. During a search, the CIID officials found the cocaine in 22 large capsule-shaped objects hidden inside her luggage. The value of the contraband is estimated to be Tk 130 crore, said CIID Director General Mohammad Neazur Rahman while talking to reporters at his office. The woman travelled to Doha from Brazil and then to Bangladesh, he said, adding that she was convicted in her country for carrying cocaine earlier. She had a plan to stay in Bangladesh for about a month and then smuggle the drug to another country.
The BNP suspended its chairperson's adviser, Fazlur Rahman, from all party posts, including his primary membership, for three months. According to a letter issued by the party yesterday, Fazlur was warned to exercise caution in his remarks on television talk shows and social media so that the country's dignity, the party's policies, and people's religious sentiments are not undermined. The letter noted that, given Fazlur Rahman's role as a freedom fighter in the Liberation War, the party refrained from imposing stricter organisational punishment.
A show-cause notice was served on Fazlur Rahman on August 24. Instead of submitting a written explanation immediately, he requested additional time. On August 25, the party extended the deadline by 24 hours. However, the reply he submitted eventually was deemed "unsatisfactory" by the party, leading to the temporary suspension. The show-cause related to his recent remarks that the August 5, 2024 uprising had been led by "dark forces," referring to the role of Jamaat-Shibir.
Students of different engineering universities on Wednesday (Aug. 27) blocked roads in four districts including Dhaka where they clashed with the police as they took to the streets demanding reforms in the recruitment and promotion system of engineers in the public service. The protesting students on Wednesday evening announced that they would enforce complete shutdown at all engineering universities across the country from Thursday. They made the announcement from their blockade at Shahbagh intersection in the capital.
In Dhaka, at least 18 people were injured in a clash while the police charged batons and fired teargas shells on the students when they were marching towards the state guesthouse Jamuna from their blockade programme at Shahbagh intersection. In solidarity, engineering university students blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway in Rajshahi, the Sylhet-Sunamganj highway in Sylhet and different busy city roads in Chattogram. The government formed a committee to review the rationale of the demands but the students rejected it.
