Politics

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman orders suspension of doctor caught smoking at Shishu Hospital

Dr Rafiqul Islam was suspended after the prime minister found him smoking in an untidy room during a surprise visit to the children's hospital in Agargaon.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 17 Oct 2026, 21:42

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, wearing a face mask, inspects hospital beds during a ward visit in Dhaka. — Prime Minister Tarique Rahman inspects a hospital ward during a surprise visit in Dhaka on 17 October 2026. Handout photograph by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). PMO

At a glance

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman found Associate Professor Rafiqul Islam smoking during a surprise visit to the Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute in Agargaon.
He instructed the hospital board chairman, Prof Dr AKM Azizul Haque, to act, and Dr Rafiqul Islam was placed under temporary suspension.
The visit was part of checks on cleanliness and the dengue situation at Dhaka hospitals and schools.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman ordered the suspension of a doctor at the Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute in Dhaka on Saturday after finding him smoking in his room during a surprise visit, his press office said.

The prime minister inspected the children's hospital in Agargaon around midday as part of a series of unannounced visits to hospitals and schools to check cleanliness and the dengue response. He entered the room of Associate Professor Rafiqul Islam and found him smoking, and the room was also in an unhygienic state.

The prime minister expressed strong displeasure at the conduct and the condition of the room in a children's hospital, his office said. He instructed the hospital's Board of Management chairman, Professor Dr AKM Azizul Haque, to act against the doctor. Dr Rafiqul Islam was then placed under temporary suspension.

The prime minister also underlined the need for a hygienic environment and for doctors and other staff to carry out their duties responsibly, according to the press wing.

His assistant press secretary, KM Nazmul Haque, confirmed the directive, and his deputy press secretary, Hasan Shiplu, gave a similar account to the news agency UNB.

Sources & further reading

Doctor suspended after PM finds him smoking during hospital visit Doctor suspended after PM finds him smoking in hospital room প্রধানমন্ত্রী হাসপাতাল পরিদর্শনে গিয়ে দেখেন কক্ষে ধূমপান করছেন চিকিৎসক, পরে বরখাস্ত

Spotted an error? Read our corrections policy

Keep reading

NEXT STORY World

Iran says two oil tankers hit mines in Strait of Hormuz as waterway stays shut

The Revolutionary Guards say both tankers caught fire after striking naval mines on Saturday, one of them carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude. The US military disputes the account and says projectiles, not mines, are hitting the vessels.

ScrollBeat Desk17 Oct 2026, 23:25Open this article

Satellite view of the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, taken by NASA's Terra satellite on 2 December 2020. Representative image of the waterway. NASA / MODIS, public domain. NASA / MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center (public domain)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that two oil tankers caught fire after striking naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the latest in a string of attacks on shipping in the waterway at the centre of the US-Iran war.

The IRGC Navy said the second supertanker, carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude oil, suffered a massive explosion in its engine room after hitting a mine while taking what it called an unauthorised route, with its tracking and radar systems switched off. Iran's state-run Press TV shared footage it said showed the vessel on fire. The Guards did not name or flag the tankers, and there was no independent confirmation of the incident.

The claim is disputed. US Central Command says it has cleared the strait of naval mines and that vessels are being struck by projectiles rather than mines. It said a container ship that sank this week, the M/V GFS Pride, was hit by an IRGC projectile, not a mine as Iran had said.

The two sides also give sharply different accounts of traffic through the strait. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a Western maritime security body, reported at least 12 ships attacked in the week to 16 October, while warning that most crews were refusing to report incidents. US Central Command chief Brad Cooper said 400 ships and 100 million barrels of oil had moved through the strait over the past week and that the waterway is 'controlled by the United States and our regional partners, not Iran'. Tehran says Washington is exaggerating its progress.

Iran has kept the strait restricted since 28 February, when the United States and Israel began strikes on Iranian territory. Oil flows through Hormuz were about 11.6 million barrels per day in the seven days to 13 October, roughly 68 per cent of the 17.1 million-barrel pre-war baseline, according to the analysis firm Kpler, and Brent crude touched 110 dollars a barrel on Friday for the first time since May.

Diplomacy has not stopped entirely. Messages are still being relayed between Tehran and Washington by regional mediators including Pakistan and Qatar, though no breakthrough is expected soon.

NEXT STORY Culture & Society

CUET team wins international mortar competition in Atlanta

Team CUET C took first place overall at the Fall 2026 American Concrete Institute Mortar Workability Competition and also finished second for economical design. A second Bangladeshi team, from IUT, placed fourth.

ScrollBeat Desk17 Oct 2026, 23:24Open this article

The civil engineering building at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET), whose student team won an international concrete competition in Atlanta. Representative campus photograph. Photo: কামরুল ইসলাম শাহীন, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. কামরুল ইসলাম শাহীন / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

A student team from Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) won first place overall at the Fall 2026 American Concrete Institute (ACI) Mortar Workability Competition in Atlanta, the university and the state news agency BSS said.

Team CUET C also finished second in the economical design category. The competition ran from 11 to 14 October alongside ACI's Fall convention, and 40 teams from around the world reached the final round after a selection process.

Judges gave the greatest weight to flowability, which accounted for 50 per cent of the total score, and to stability at 20 per cent. The remaining points were split among report quality (15 per cent), carbon emissions (10 per cent) and cost-effectiveness (5 per cent).

A second Bangladeshi team, from the Islamic University of Technology (IUT), placed fourth overall and took second place in the environmental design category as well as a judges' choice award in the Aesthetics in Concrete competition. Between them, the two teams representing the ACI Bangladesh Chapter won four awards.

The CUET team was advised by Dr GM Sadikul Islam, a professor in CUET's Department of Civil Engineering and faculty adviser to its ACI student chapter. The IUT team was advised by Prof Dr Tarek Uddin, president of the ACI Bangladesh Chapter.

Swarup Chandra Modak, a member of the winning team, said the competition had shown the students what they were capable of and that, with the right resources and facilities, they could demonstrate that competence anywhere in the world. Prof Sadikul Islam said CUET's ACI chapter had won six international awards since it was founded in 2018, all in online competitions, and that a first in-person win on American soil had long been a dream.