Seven top leaders of Bangladesh's main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party were arrested today during raids, prompting it to extend a 48-hour nationwide strike by one more day, defying premier Sheikh Hasina's appeal to shun violence.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has criticised opposition's ongoing agitation to thwart the January 5 polls and warned that Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia would be held responsible for the deaths and violence.
Bangladesh on Monday banned an Islamist militant outfit that is believed to be behind the gruesome hacking deaths of three secular bloggers.
Zia and 27 leaders and officials of her BNP have been accused of instigating the firebombing in Dhaka as part of a deadly campaign against the government.
More than 3,00,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since the latest flare-up in violence on August 25.
In another blow to Bangladesh's fundamentalist Jammat-e-Islami, the cabinet has decided to strip the voting rights of people convicted of "crimes against humanity" during the 1971 liberation war.
Eight Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami terrorists, including its chief, were sentenced to death by a Bangladeshi court on Monday for a 2001 bomb attack targeting Bengali new year celebrations that claimed 10 lives.
Hossain was extradited from India. He had fled the country to evade the trial. He was the mastermind of the murder of seven persons.
The ceremony was scheduled to be held on Monday, but President Alvi had refused to administer the oath to the lawmakers, compelling the government to postpone it.
Bangladesh's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's three top women leaders were arrested on the second day of the 'democracy march' on Monday, as clashes erupted inside the supreme court premises between pro- and anti-government lawyers.
'The 1971 War was our greatest military victory.' 'It had so many stories of exceptional valour and leadership.'
An intelligence agency of a foreign country mobilsed funds for the Dhaka cafe attack which was carried out on behalf of a top fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami leader who is on death row after being convicted for 1971 war crimes in Bangladesh, according to a media report.
Two of the five Bangladeshi attackers, who hacked to death 20 people at a restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone used to follow three controversial Islamists, including Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Nayek.
The Islamic State (Daesh) in the latest edition of its online propaganda magazine warns that the terror group is preparing for fresh attacks in Bangladesh.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday met former Bangladesh President Hussain Ershad's wife and opposition Jatiya Party leader Roshan Ershad before leaving for Delhi at the end of her three-day visit to Dhaka.
Bangladeshi police on Monday arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in the murder of an Italian aid worker in Dhaka last month for which the dreaded Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility.
Bugti announced that he would support the Opposition in the wake of the no-confidence motion submitted against Imran Khan. Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf set to face a no-trust motion in the National Assembly.
'If a bloodbath of this nature can occur in a high security area like Gulshan, I shudder to think how vulnerable other parts of this country are.'
While the Indian Government was aware of it, it tried to play it down and instead referred to it as genocide against the Bengali community in Bangladesh so as to avoid an outcry from the leaders of the then Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the today's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, says Gary J Bass, author of the book The Blood Telegram: Nixon Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide, which recently hit the book stores.
Former captain Abdul Majed was hanged for his involvement in the 1975 coup in which the country's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated, nearly four-and-a-half decades after the high profile massacre.
Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque, however, did not disclose the identities of either of the detainees or where they were being kept.
Bangladesh on Tuesday pressed anti-terrorism charges against several suspects and identified the fifth assailant in the country's worst terror attack as authorities intensified efforts to unravel the plot behind the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by Islamists.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the execution of a senior leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, three months after it overturned a tribunal's ruling that sentenced him to life for genocide during the 1971 war.
Imran Khan on Sunday announced that his party will resume the march to Islamabad from the same spot where he survived an assassination attempt but sustained bullet injuries during a rally in Punjab province, saying he prefers 'death instead of living the life of a slave'.
With Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan virtually losing the majority in the 342-member National Assembly after the defection of two key allies, backdoor efforts are underway to reach a deal between the premier and the joint opposition to dissolve the lower house, according to a highly placed source.
Modi will reach Bangladesh capital of Dhaka on Saturday morning.
Shymanondo Das, in his mid 50s, was hacked by three motorcycle-borne assailants when he was plucking flowers for morning prayers at a garden in the Radhamodon Gopal Moth premises in Jhenaidah, said Jbahar Ali Sheikh, additional superintendent of police in Jhenidah.
The relief material consists of items required urgently by the affected people, namely rice, pulses, sugar, salt, cooking oil, tea, ready to eat noodles, biscuits, mosquito nets etc, it said.
Sharif, 68, was disqualified by the apex court in the Panama Papers case last year under Article 62 of the Constitution for failing to declare a receivable salary as an asset.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that his supporters will put up a grand show on Saturday to celebrate completion of one month of anti-government protests seeking ouster of embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
'The army has neither any role in the country's electoral process nor has it any desire to do so,' he said.
Just as the superstars of Indian cricket only play IPL and international fixtures and ignore the Ranji and Mushtaq Ali trophies in domestic cricket, Narendra Modi should play a very limited role in state assembly elections, argues Sudhir Bisht.
Police have been deployed outside the Mumbai office of a foundation run by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, whose 'hate speech' is reported to have inspired one of the five Bangladeshi militants involved in the recent Dhaka carnage.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and fiery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri have been booked under the anti-terrorist act for attempting to attack Pakistan's parliament.
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
With influential cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri descending on Islamabad with swarms of his supporters, Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday lobbied with top political leaders, including Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif, to uphold the democratic system.
A special Bangladeshi tribunal on Wednesday sentenced opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's 83-year-old leader Abdul Alim to jail until death for committing large-scale killings and other war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
It's something to remember as New Delhi welcomes Sheikh Hasina, says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad, he said the Opposition has laid all of their cards, but the no-confidence motion against him would not be successful.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence against the second highest ranking leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami for war crimes, including massacre of intelligentsia during the liberation war against Pakistan, paving the way for his execution.
