Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Professor Ali Riaz on Wednesday said voting ‘Yes’ in the referendum would pave the way for building a new, discrimination-free Bangladesh for the young generation. “To rebuild the country anew, people must vote 'yes' in the referendum. The decision on what kind of Bangladesh will be handed over to the youth in the future will be determined by this ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote,” he said. “To implement the July Charter, the referendum must receive a ‘yes’ vote,” he explained. Ali Riaz also said that public funds had been looted for the past 16 years and that a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum would help curb looting and corruption in many areas.

Inaugurated Wednesday at the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) auditorium in Agargaon by Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, special assistant to the chief adviser on Posts, Telecommunications, and ICT, the services aim to improve national cloud capacity and support high-performance computing. Under the BDSAT project, long-unused GPUs have been activated, and a Nutanix-based cloud infrastructure with a CNCF-certified Kubernetes PaaS platform is now live. Taiyeb said the upgrades address previous capacity and monitoring gaps, enabling BCC to better support digital governance. He added that the new infrastructure will help agencies comply with the Personal Data Protection Ordinance 2025, National Data Management Ordinance 2025, and Cyber Safety Ordinance 2025. To boost AI and research capabilities, the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority has integrated over 20 NVIDIA Volta tensor-core GPUs into a shared cloud platform, the first public-sector facility of its kind.

Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan spoke at the “Roots to Legacy: Platinum Jubilee Celebration”, marking the 75th anniversary of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College at its Bailey Road campus in Dhaka. Photo: PIDDHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) - Information and Broadcasting, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and Water Resources Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan has called upon the citizens to dedicate them for the welfare of the nation by setting aside the personal gain. “Place national interest above personal gain and dedicate themselves to the service of people and nature,’ she said. An alumna of the institution, Rizwana Hasan said she felt honored to attend the programme not as a chief guest, but as a member of the Viqarunnisa Noon School and College family. Rizwana Hasan also emphasized political awareness and civic responsibility, saying that while personal success is celebrated by individuals and families, societal and national success is celebrated by the state.

DHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) - Qasaituly Somaj Kollayan Parishad registered a 3-1goals victory over T&T Club Motijheel in the Senior Division Football Leagueheld at Birshreshtha Shaheed Sepoy Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Stadium in thecity's Kamalapur today (Wednesday). In the proceeding, Ammar scored a brace while Raihan Hossain supported himwith a lone goal for Qasaituly Ananda Sardar netted a lone goal for T&T Club. After the breather, Qasaituly again went ahead when Ammar scored the secondgoal in the 52nd minute from a penalty. Raihan sealed the victory scoring the third goal Qasaituly in the 70th minuteof the match. T&T Club tried their best to stage a fight back in the match but they couldnot score any in the remaining proceeding.

Photo: BCBDHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) - The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) held a doamahfil at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, seeking eternal peacefor the departed soul of former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson BegumKhaleda Zia. BCB president Aminul Islam Bulbul attended the mahfil, along with boarddirectors, BCB officials and several former and current cricketers. Special prayers and munajat were offered, seeking forgiveness and eternalpeace for the soul of Begum Khaleda Zia.

DHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) - Chattogram Royals team director Habibul BasharSumon revealed that the franchise is in discussions with Pakistan's MohammadHaris to replace injured opener Adam Rossington ahead of the playoffs of theBangladesh Premier League (BPL). Rossington was a key performer for the Royals, scoring 258 runs in sixmatches and playing a vital role in helping the side secure a place in theplayoffs. Chattogram Royals are currently being run by the Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) after the original owner relinquished ownership just before the startof the BPL. "We tried several big players including Tom Latham and Phil Salt, but theyare not available at the moment. Bashar also assured that the players of Chattogram Royals will not face anyissues regarding their salaries, as the BCB is handling the payments.

A Supreme Court lawyer has filed a public interest petition in the High Court seeking suspension of the national election until thousands of firearms looted during last year’s uprising are recovered. Lawyer Md Mahmudul Hasan lodged the writ petition on Wednesday, naming the cabinet secretary, home secretary, law secretary, election commission secretary, inspector general of police and the director general of RAB as respondents, bdnews24.com reports. Citing media reports, the petition said 5,750 firearms and 651,609 rounds of ammunition were stolen from police stations and law-enforcing offices during the 2024 Uprising. It argued that holding elections without recovering the looted arms would violate Article 32 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life. Hasan told bdnews24.com the petition seeks a directive to postpone the election until all stolen arms and ammunition are recovered and a safe environment is ensured.

DHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) – State-run broadcaster Bangladesh Betar will air a special public awareness programme titled “Bangladesh Betar on Referendum and Elections” focusing on issues related to referendums and elections. The programme will be held at 11:30 am tomorrow at the auditorium of Chandana High School and College in Gazipur Chourasta, said an official handout. The event will be broadcast live on Bangladesh Betar Dhaka-K at 693 KHz, FM 106.0 MHz, FM 97.6 MHz, the Traffic Broadcast Service on FM 88.8 MHz, as well as on the website www.betar.gov.bd and the mobile app ‘Bangladesh Betar’. The information was disclosed today by the Liaison & Listeners Research Unit of Bangladesh Betar.

Out of these, he said, 73 appeals were approved, while 17 appeals were rejected and 10 were kept pending. Out of those, 277 appeals were approved, 81 were rejected or cancelled and 23 appeals are pending for various reasons. He further said a total of 645 appeals were heard and the EC will hear the appeals till January 18. The hearings of 381 to 480 appeals and pending appeals will be held tomorrow (Thursday) from 10 am to 5 pm, while 481 to 510 and pending appeals will be held on January 16 (Friday) from 3 pm to 5 pm. Earlier, the Returning Officers or Assistant Returning Officers declared the nomination papers of 1,842 candidates, out of 2,568, valid.

The Election Commission (EC) has issued a show-cause notice to Maulana Mamunul Haque, ameer of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis and the party’s candidate for the Dhaka-13 constituency, over allegations of violating the electoral code of conduct. According to the notice, Mamunul Haque has been instructed to appear at the returning officer’s office on January 17 to submit an explanation. Under the revised election schedule, official campaigning for the 13th National Parliamentary Election is set to begin on January 22 and continue until 7:30am on February 10. However, allegations have been raised that Mamunul Haque engaged in electioneering before the permitted period. According to the election schedule, scrutiny of nomination papers was conducted from December 30 to January 4.

DHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) - Bangladesh leg-spinner Rishad Hossain put up abrilliant bowling performance but couldn't prevent his side HobartHurricanes' from a 3-run defeat to Brisbane Heat at Bellerive Oval in Hobarttoday. Electing to bat first, Brisbane Heat managed to score 160-8, thanks to NathanMcSweeny's 32 ball-49 and Matt Renshaw's 25 ball-37. Fast bowler Riley Meredith took highest 3-40 for Hobart but Rishad showed theeconomical bowling performance, claiming two wickets, conceding 27 runs infour overs. However, Hobart batters couldn't put up the performance that could win themthe game. Despite half-centuries from Beu Webster and Ben McDermott, they wererestricted to 157-8.

Passengers using e-visas are facing delays while clearing immigration at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka, as immigration officials say barcodes on e-visas do not always contain complete information, making verification time-consuming. Sarowardi Hasan, who was traveling to Bangkok with his family, said immigration officials asked him to wait for visa verification. Journalist Asaduzzaman Biku, who traveled to Brazil last November to cover a climate conference, said he and several other journalists faced complications during visa verification at immigration. Liton added that in most countries e-visa verification through barcodes takes no more than five minutes. He added that the digital devices used for visa verification at the airport are insufficient compared to current operational needs and that improving technical capacity is essential to reduce delays.

Photo: Video ScreenshotDHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) - The government today released a special song calling upon citizens to cast 'Yes' vote in the forthcoming referendum to ensure constitutional recognition of the languages of other ethnic groups alongside the dignity of Bangla as the state language. The Chief Adviser's Press Wing released the song this evening, saying the special song was produced as part of the promotional activities for the upcoming national parliament elections and referendum scheduled to be held on February 12. The song was produced under the initiative of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. As part of the government efforts to create public awareness about the national polls and the referendum, eight more songs were also produced for the country's eight divisions under the ministry.

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Tanzid works on his errors to make him more consistentDHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) - Opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim has insisted that he hasbeen working on his errors to become more consistent, as he aims tocontribute to the team's cause on a regular basis. Despite his struggles, Tanzid expressed gratitude to the team management forcontinuing to show faith in him. "I couldn't perform up to the mark in the last six or seven matches, but theteam management and senior players kept their faith in me," he told reporterstoday. Reflecting on his technical adjustments, Tanzid said he has been workingclosely with the coaching staff to address his shortcomings. "I have been working on my errors consistently and tried to figure out wherethe problem lies," he said.