Politics

President accepts State Minister Ishraque Hossain's resignation over gun video

President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accepted the resignation in a gazette notification on Tuesday, a day after the Dhaka-6 MP stepped down amid criticism of him carrying a licensed firearm during an anti-drug drive.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 20 Oct 2026, 18:08Updated: 20 Oct 2026, 18:10

Ishraque Hossain, centre, then state minister for liberation war affairs, meets ministry officials at the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka on 18 February 2026. He resigned from the post on 19 October 2026 and the President accepted it the next day. Press Information Department (PID), Government of Bangladesh

President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has accepted the resignation of Ishraque Hossain as state minister for liberation war affairs, a day after the Dhaka-6 lawmaker announced he was stepping down.

The Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification on Tuesday saying the resignation took effect immediately. Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Gani signed the notification by order of the President.

Ishraque announced the decision at a press conference at the National Press Club on Monday, saying he had met Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and asked to be released from his ministerial duties so he could concentrate on clearing drugs from Dhaka-6 and nearby areas.

The resignation followed criticism of his conduct during an anti-drug drive near the railway line in Dhaka's Gandaria area on Saturday. A video posted on his own Facebook page showed him getting out of a vehicle with a loudspeaker and a pistol, then chasing a group of people and at one point pointing the weapon towards them.

Ishraque defended the action, saying he briefly raised his licensed firearm in self-defence after warnings of a possible attack, and that he holds a valid licence for the weapon. He also said the way the operation was reported had put the ruling BNP in an awkward position.

Before his announcement he had disputed media reports that the prime minister had told him to step down, calling them unverified and false. He then confirmed the decision in a Facebook post on Monday morning. Dhaka police had said they would review the video.

The son of the late BNP leader and Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Ishraque won Dhaka-6 in this year's election with 78,850 votes and took charge of the liberation war affairs ministry on 17 February.

He said he would keep up his anti-drug work as a BNP activist rather than as a minister and continue the drives until Dhaka-6 is free of drugs.

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Rajshahi University sends injured student to Dhaka by air ambulance

Chesi Tripura, a microbiology student, suffered a severe head injury when a truck hit the autorickshaw she was riding near Durgapur on Monday evening.

ScrollBeat Desk20 Oct 2026, 19:40Open this article

The campus of Rajshahi University in Bangladesh, photographed in May 2024. Tanvir Rahat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Rajshahi University sent a seriously injured student to Dhaka by air ambulance on Tuesday afternoon for specialist treatment, university officials said.

Chesi Tripura, a microbiology student of the 2021-22 batch, was riding a CNG-run autorickshaw back to campus on Monday evening when a speeding truck hit the vehicle at Durgapur in Rajshahi's Bagmara upazila. She had spent the afternoon at a classmate's home for a Durga Puja invitation.

The impact left her with a severe head injury. She was taken first to the Durgapur upazila health complex, then moved to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, and later transferred to its intensive care unit as her condition worsened.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Md Faridul Islam said doctors advised transferring her to Dhaka by air. The university arranged the air ambulance, which left around 1.30pm, and secured a bed at the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital in the capital after speaking with its director.

The university took a similar step in August, airlifting Jahedul Islam, a student of its Institute of Business Administration, to Dhaka after a stroke. He died while under treatment there.

NEXT STORY Business

New pay scale lifts salaries this month, but allowances stay at June levels

The Finance Division says allowances will be calculated on basic pay as it stood on 30 June 2026 until new rates begin in January 2028.

ScrollBeat Desk20 Oct 2026, 19:40Open this article

A corner view of the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka, photographed in September 2022. Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Government employees will receive higher basic salaries this month under the new national pay scale, but their allowances will stay at the rates that applied on 30 June 2026, the Finance Division said in a notification on Monday.

The order covers staff at ministries, divisions, departments and agencies, as well as state-owned enterprises and autonomous institutions.

Allowances will continue to be paid as a percentage of the basic salary employees drew before the new structure took effect. The government said the change will hold until the basic salaries set in the Service (Pay and Allowances) Order 2026 come into force.

That order was issued on 19 September, a month before Monday's notification. It set the minimum basic salary at Tk 20,000 and the maximum at Tk 1,56,000.

The new scale took effect on 1 July, but the government chose to roll out the full increases in stages. Basic pay rises in three steps: from July to December this year, from January to June 2027, and from July to December 2027. Allowances under the new scale are due to start on 1 January 2028.

Employees have been entering their details in the Pay Fixation module of the government's iBAS++ budgeting system since 5 October, and the exercise was expected to finish on Tuesday. Finance Division officials said the money for the higher salaries at the end of October has already been set aside in the budget.