Bangladesh on Sunday summoned the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka to lodge a protest against the killing of a 15-year old girl, allegedly by Border Security Force personnel, ahead of a crucial bilateral meeting of senior home ministry officials. BSF men reportedly shot Falani as she was trying to return home from India, where she was working. "The acting foreign secretary handed over a note protesting the brutal and senseless killing of a minor girl," said Bangladesh.
Norway on Wednesday gave a clean chit to Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, saying it found no evidence of donor fund embezzlement by his bank, removing a cloud that had hovered over the Nobel Laureate.
Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has welcomed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's call for an investigation into allegations that he channelled foreign aid meant for the Grameen Bank to another company.
The import of power is expected to start by late 2012. The state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board on Monday signed the deal with Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd at a ceremony in Dhaka.
Bangladesh has proclaimed an order to redesign the capital city, requiring reclamation of 3,000 acres of land occupied by influential real estate companies, earlier dubbed as "land pirates" by senior government leaders.
Bangladesh on Saturday temporarily blocked the social networking site Facebook amid demands by a radical organisation to ban the website for hurting the sentiments of Muslims. No official comment was immediately available for the closure of the popular network. However, an official source on condition of anonymity told PTI that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission blocked it on directives from the government.
"We have sought Indian assistance in tracking down and arrest the remaining killers," Home Minister Sahara Khatun told media persons as newly appointed Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Rajeet Mitter called on her at her Bangladesh Secretariat office.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the review petitions of five convicted killers of the country's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members in 1975, setting the stage for their execution. Sheikh Mujib, popularly called Bangabandhu, who led Bangladesh to independence in 1971, was gunned down at his home in posh Dhanmandi area, along with his wife and three sons, in a coup on August 15, 1975.
Invoking her father's sacrifice in founding Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday lashed out at Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia and its fundamentalist ally Jamat-i-Islami over their campaign about 'sellout' of the country during her recent India visit.
Leaders across the political spectrum in Bangladesh mourned the death of veteran communist leader Jyoti Basu, who passed away on Sunday after losing his fortnight-long battle to pneumonia that led to complications and multi-organ failure. Basu, 95, who strode the political arena for over six decades and was a leading figure in uniting opposition parties against the Congress in the 1980s and 90s, is survived by son Chandan, his daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.
Defending his claim that Musharraf had met Chetia, Local Government Minister and ruling Awami League's general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said, "We've the evidence. We've not made any statement without evidence. I am aware that no comment should be made about a president without any evidence."
India and Bangladesh are expected to sign at least six deals during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi from January 10, including on cooperation on cross-border terrorism and exchange of convicted criminals, officials said in Dhaka on Thursday.
Bangladesh's envoy to India has sought immediate steps for upgrading the New Delhi mission's security fearing retaliation by United Liberation front of Assam in the wake of the Indian Border Security Force arresting two top militant leaders, who were reportedly earlier detained in his country.
Bangladesh said on Thursady that foreign embassies could deploy their own security personnel to guard their premises, dismissing opposition criticism over reports that India had sent a 50 member security squad for to secure its mission. "The foreign missions can undertake steps on their own for the security and carry out other programmes inside their premises under the Vienna Convention," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
A ferry packed with 1,500 passengers on their way home to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha festival capsized at Nazirpur area in southwestern Bangladesh, drowning 30 people, officials said.
The prosecution demanded the "highest sentence" for the accused in a bloody mutiny by border guards early this year that left 57 Bangladeshi army officers, including their chief Major General Shakil Ahmed, dead. As the nine accused were hauled up before a paramilitary court at southeastern Rangamati cantonment, the prosecution, on Wednesday served them with copies of charge sheets in which they sought the "highest punishment" for them.
A Bangaldesh court has remanded Sheikh Abdus Salam, founder of banned Harkatul Jihad al Islami, to six-day police custody after he was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 2004 grenade attack on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
An absconding Indian militant suspected to have turned a co-ordinator for Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Bangladesh was arrested in Dhaka in an overnight swoop, the police said.
At least one person was killed and five others injured when an explosion ripped through a major state-run corporation complex located at a major commercial hub in Dhaka, the police and witnesses said on Monday.
The Bangladesh cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to return land to members of the Hindu families, which were confiscated by the erstwhile Pakistani regime when they fled the country during the 1965 Indo-Pak war.