Daily Banglar Bani was a Bangladeshi national newspaper published in Bengali language.[1][2][3]Banglar Bani had a secular ideology and was pro Bangladesh Awami League.[4] It has closed down.[5]
History
The Daily Banglar Bani started publication in 1969 by
Hafiz Hafizur Rahman and Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani as a weekly backed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.[6][7]Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani, a politician of Bangladesh Awami League and the nephew of President
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.[8] Journalist Anwarul Islam Bobby supported Mani in founding the newspaper.[9]
During the
Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971 the Daily Banglar Bani was published from
Kolkata.[10] During the war, the office of newspaper in Dhaka was damaged by Pakistan Army shells which targeted opposition newspapers The Daily Ittefaq, and The People.[11] After the independence of Bangladesh, Banglar Bani started daily publication in Dhaka from 21 February 1972. The pro-Mujib paper received more in payments for government advertising than any other paper when the
Awami League government was in power.[12]
Shahabuddin Chuppu, future president of Bangladesh, worked at the Daily Banglar Bani from 1980 to 1982.[13]Obaidul Quader is a former assistant editor of Banglar Bani.[14] Falguni Hamid previously worked as a reporter at Daily Banglar Bani.[15]
Sheikh Moni was a rival of
Tajuddin Ahmed and would write editorials against him in the paper in 1974.[16] The newspaper was banned in February 1987 by the government of General
Hussain Mohammad Ershad for accusing the government of supplying weapons to militias.[17][18] In the 1990s, Islamic fundamentalist called for the newspaper to be closed.[19]
According to a 2009 extortion case by businessman
Azam J Chowdhury against former Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina, five million BDT of a 29.9 million BDT bribe was deposited in an account of Banglar Bani.[20]