Sangbad, The (1951- ) Bangla daily newspaper. The Sangbad was first published on 2 Jaistha 1358 (17 May 1951) with Khairul Kabir as editor. It was printed and published in six pages from East Pakistan Press, 263 Bangshal Road, Dhaka by Nasiruddin Ahmad. Its initial price was 2 annas. (annas = one sixteenth of a taka, the Pakistany currency of that time).

With the fall of muslim league in 1954, the ownership of the Sangbad changed hands. With the change of proprietorship Zahur Hossain Chowdhury was made editor. At that time Ranesh Das Gupta, Satyen Sen, Santosh Gupta, Tawab Khan, Kamal Lohani, Mohammad Farhad, Ali Aksad, Bazlur Rahman joined the Sangbad. Since its inception the Sangbad played significant role in fostering Bangla language and literature, and Bangali culture.

Over the time the paper grew into a platform of radical thoughts in politics and literary cultivation. One of the attractive feature pages of the Sangbad was 'Khelaghar'. habibur rahman, the poet and juvenile litterateur, was the first editor of the section.

Another attractive feature page of the paper was Mahila Pata (female section). In fact Sangbad was the first daily newspaper to open a section devoted to women. Laila Samad became the editor of this section. The Sangbad expressed its strong and unstinted support to political movements against the Ayub regime and in favour of 'six-point' politics.

Obviously the Ayub regime was hostile to this radical paper. The paper was so alligned to all the progressive movements of the country that it had to face police atrocities occasionally. The Sangbad had to pay the highest price for its radical advocacy in March 1971 when the printing press with all its machinery and equipment were burnt down by the occupation army, while journalist Shaheed Saber died in the fire.

The publication of the Sangbad was kept suspended during the nine months of war of liberation. It began its publication again from 9 January 1972 with ahmedul kabir as editor. Later, Bazlur Rahman became its acting editor. [Manu Islam]