Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal is set to formally hear charges against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday allowing state-run BTV to broadcast live the event, a first such instance in the country's history.
Bangladesh's interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus is considering resigning after political parties failed to reach a common ground, according to the National Citizen Party (NCP) chief. Yunus, appointed after a student-led uprising toppled the previous government, expressed concerns about his ability to function in the current political climate.
The chief adviser's decision to stay in office came two days after he told student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) leaders that he was mulling resignation as he felt "the situation is such that he cannot work", citing difficulties in working amid the failure of political parties to find common ground for change.
A Bangladeshi court has sent 16 people, including veterans of the 1971 Liberation War, to jail under the Anti-Terrorism Act after a mob disrupted their public discussion.
Amid growing outrage here about the large-scale attack on minority Hindus and their places of worship in Bangladesh, United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday spoke with the interim government's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and both leaders expressed commitment to protect human rights in the troubled South Asian nation.
'The government is saying 88 Hindus have been killed, but it could be much more.' 'Their properties are being looted, their businesses have been ransacked. I am getting distress calls from there.' 'Muslims who believe in the philosophy of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are also under attack. Most of those who have fled Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina's fall are Muslims.'
'Religion and extremism is going to be a big force, a very important force, in Bangladesh's politics.'
The move comes a few days after the Yunus-led government dropped the portrait of the country's founding father and deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina's father Mujibur Rahman from new currency notes.
Bangladesh's interim government on Sunday said it will seek Interpol's assistance in repatriating deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India, and other 'fugitives', to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity.
Bangladesh is in turmoil, which is not good news for India, which shares a porous 4000 km border with it. There is a danger of fundamentalism growing there, and India has to move in to reset its ties with the new dispensation before China and Pakistan make capital out of it, alerts Ramesh Menon.
'However, we must implement a tit-for-tat approach -- reciprocating their conduct with precision.' 'If they demonstrate respect, we respond accordingly. If they adopt hostile positions, we mirror that hostility with equal intensity.'
Deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has issued a strong warning against threats to ban her Awami League party, calling the demands "audacious" and accusing Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus of being a "fraud" and "corrupt" for his role in the current interim government. Hasina, who fled Bangladesh in August 2024 following a student-led uprising, claims Yunus assumed power through a "meticulous design" with funding from overseas and misled students and people. She asserts that her Awami League is the legitimate party, with a strong history of fighting for the people's rights, and accuses Yunus and his supporters of having no constitutional basis or people's mandate to rule the country.
'Bangladesh has become unstable and this instability will impact India.'
Bangladesh's fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami leader and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali was hanged on Saturday, the sixth Islamist to be executed for war crimes committed during the country's 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
The clashes broke out this morning when protesters attending a non-cooperation programme to demand the government's resignation faced opposition from the supporters of the Awami League, Chhatra League, and Jubo League activists.
'It was the hostility of the Yunus regime that made India careful and wary of dealing with them.' 'They gradually backed off and lowered the noise, but the damage was done.' 'Their true colours had been exposed.'
The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (SAD), which led protests against Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has launched itself as a political party called the National Citizen Party (NCP). The new party, which aims to 'dismantle constitutional autocracy' and establish a 'second republic,' has pledged to create a 'solely Bangladesh-oriented' political system, with no room for 'pro-India and pro-Pakistan politics.' The NCP's inaugural rally was attended by representatives of various political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami, and envoys from the Vatican and Pakistan.
Raising concern over the nearly 1.25 crore feedback submissions received by the parliamentary committee scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Bharatiya Janata Party member Nishikant Dubey has called for a probe into their sources, including in the possible role of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and China.
Members of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh, a political party, marched to the nation's election commission, ahead of the election schedule declaration, in Dhaka, November 15, 2023. Three days earlier, November 12, 2023, garment industry workers protested demanding a wage raise at Mirpur in Dhaka.
73-year-old leader of the Bangladesh's largest Islamist party had refused to seek presidential clemency.
The veteran diplomat said Hasina has stayed in India before after the assassination of her father and Bangladesh independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who later became the country's prime minister. Rahman was assassinated in August 1975.
Bangladesh's biggest right-wing party Jamaat-e-Islami was on Thursday banned from contesting future polls by a court here which cancelled its registration in a landmark ruling, leaving the once-most powerful fundamentalist party with an uncertain future.
Bangladeshis on Sunday began voting in the general elections expected to be won by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the absence of the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which is boycotting it.
Jaishankar briefed the leaders of all parties about the situation in the violence-hit nation and the steps taken by the Indian government.
Bangladesh's decision to execute Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes committed in 1971 has provoked anger across the Muslim world. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar arrived in Dhaka hours after the execution, an important expression of India's support to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, explains Rajeev Sharma.
Alamgir said that even after the fall of the Hasina government following a people's uprising, the 'Indian establishment is yet to reach out to BNP, even though China, the US, the UK, and Pakistan have already done so.'
The five Pakistan-based organisations are Harakat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami, Jundallah, Khuddam ul-Islam, Lashkar-e Jhangvi and Sipah-e Sahab Pakistan. The Bangladesh-based outfit is Harakat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami (Bangladesh).
'The dominance of her party also meant that the institutions became lopsided -- whether it was the bureaucracy or the courts or the military.' 'She centralised power to the extent that you would see her representatives or her party office bearers having overly represented in these institutions.' 'That perhaps would have been the biggest blunder that she committed.'
Sheikh Hasina, who was elected for a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term this year, was always admired by her supporters as "Iron Lady", before the dramatic development that abruptly ended her 15-year-rule in Bangladesh.
It's intriguing that the prime minister now wants his American partner to help protect the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. That's conceding to the Americans a pre-eminence India has always contested, resented and feared, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami leader and media doyen Mir Quasem Ali was Thursday indicted by a special Bangladeshi tribunal on charges of "crimes against humanity" committed during the 1971 liberation war.
New Delhi -- which has had a disastrous neighbourhood policy that has alienated almost all the States with which it has a land or sea border -- seemed to be unwilling over the past years to even consider that its unquestioning support of Sheikh Hasina was painting it into a corner, points out Mihir S Sharma.
The Bangladesh parliament on Sunday amended the war crimes law to allow the prosecution to try and punish any organisations, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, a significant move that could pave the way for banning the country's largest Islamic party.
People in Bangladesh have welcomed the new interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, hoping it would restore order, end repression and hold a fair election to facilitate a democratic transition of power.
'Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is sincere about maintaining religious harmony in the country.' 'But for mysterious reasons, it does not reach the grassroots activists of her party.'
The United States has blacklisted extremist outfit Harakat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami Bangladesh, suspected of involvement in bomb attacks in India and other countries, as a 'global terrorist organisation'. The US financial institutions will now be required to freeze assets and properties of the outfit that are in the US or "within the control of US persons," a US embassy statement said. Bangladesh, which has already banned HuJI-B, immediately reaffirmed its position against terrorism
The increase in home-grown radicalised Islamic groups and the rise of Islamic State and Al Qaeda in Bangladesh should be a matter of worry for India, which shares a 4,100 km border with its eastern neighbour, says Rajeev Sharma.
A senior leader of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami group has been arrested in Bangladesh for allegedly instigating violence in March during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the country, police said on Sunday.
India on Thursday described as 'matter of serious concern' reports that said some members of the Indian community in Canadian province of British Columbia received 'extortion calls'.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday secured a record fourth straight term as her Awami League party won two-thirds of the seats in the general elections marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition BNP and its allies.
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