'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.'
We have seen reports to this effect (arrest of Zia). We hope that the people of Bangladesh will be enabled to choose their representatives in a free, fair and democratic process," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.
The joint forces also arrested the assistant personal secretary to former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and one of Babar's cousins.
A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday denied bail to prominent Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, arrested on alleged 'sedition' charges, and sent him to prison, amid protests by community members in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chattogram.
Rahman now awaits trial at an ordinary prison ward of Dhaka Central Jail. Legal experts said if convicted he could be imprisoned for five years.
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.
Ahead of Premier Sheikh Hasina's three-day visit to New Delhi next week, Bangladesh's main opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia has warned her against inking any "unequal deal" with India and threatened to take to streets if the government "compromised" the country's interests.
At least 30 suspects have been detained in Bangladesh's Chattogram city for their alleged involvement in the killing of a lawyer and attacking security personnel following the arrest of a prominent Hindu community leader. The violence erupted after Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, spokesperson for Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was denied bail and sent to jail in a sedition case. The lawyer, Assistant public prosecutor Saiful Islam, was killed during clashes between security personnel and Das' followers. The interim government has condemned the violence, urging people to remain calm and has ordered an investigation into the killing and appropriate legal measures.
Two days after violence broke out during a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, life is gradually returning to normal with schools reopening and shops resuming operations. Internet services remain suspended and authorities continue to monitor the situation closely with restrictions in place on entry of outsiders and public representatives. The area around the Shahi Jama Masjid remains deserted, while the police investigate the violence and make arrests.
These were Zia's first comments on politics since the interim administration in emergency-ruled Bangladesh last week denied widely-speculated government plans to exile her and restrict her movement.
PCB chairman Tauqir Zia's son pulled out of the team as he 'has to prepare for his exams'.
National Investigation Agency on Friday told a special court that suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists Tehsin Akhtar and Zia-Ur-Rahman are "still conspiring" to carry out terror strikes at various prominent places in India, especially the national capital, with the aid of Pakistan-based handlers.
Bangladesh government on Tuesday reacted sharply to top opposition leader Khaleda Zia's refusal to meet visiting President Pranab Mukherjee, saying it 'is a departure from democratic norms and courtesy'.
Khaleda Zia, former prime minister of Bangladesh and the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the main opposition party leading the 18-party alliance in Bangladesh, has drastically changed her party's anti-India stance.
'New Delhi has to make up its mind whether it wants to be a friend of the Bangladeshi people or they want to be a friend of a section of people, or one party or one leader'
This has invited sharp reaction from the Opposition, with the Samajwadi Party saying that the BJP was afraid of its defeat in Milkipur due to which it moved the court for "stalling" polls on the assembly seat.
Zia returned home late last night after a three-day visit to India.
Moreover, the process to release those arrested between July 1 to August has started, and many have already been released, it added.
Tarique Rahman, the son of ex-Bangladeshi premier Kaleda Zia, and 29 others were charged on Sunday over a deadly grenade attack in 2004 on a rally of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that killed 24 people and injured some 300 others.
Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission has formally pressed charges against detained former premier Khaleda Zia for allegedly contracting out several gas fields to a Canadian oil company in exchange for kickbacks.
Bypolls to 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be a litmus test for the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)'s unity after the group's success in the recent Lok Sabha polls when they won more than 40 seats, significantly contributing to the Bharatiya Janata Party's failure to win a simple majority in parliament.
Bangladesh's main opposition leader Khaleda Zia has condemned recent attacks on Hindus in different parts of the country allegedly by activists of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and demanded punishment to perpetrators of the attacks.
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.
A total of 78 Muslims were in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections this year, a significant drop from the last polls when 115 Muslim candidates were fielded by various parties.
Zia, elected for a second term in 2001, was making her first bilateral visit to India eight months before her tenure ends.
'My father died in the liberation struggle. Bangladesh is our Motherland. This is home,' says Monindra Kumar Nath, a Hindu who has lived his 74 years in Dhaka.
"I'm taking all responsibility (of the country). Please cooperate," he said in a televised address amid reports that Hasina has left the country.
"Nobody will be spared... we have arrested those who were once believed to be above law," Task Force Coordinator Major General Masududdin Chowdhury told newsmen in a separate briefing after talks with Chowdhury.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina slammed her arch-rival Khaleda Zia of the Bangladeshi National Party on Tuesday for spearheading a "misleading campaign" against the $1 billion loan deal with India that has sparked a row between the government and the main opposition party.
The actor is to star in a film alongside Hollywood biggies Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.
'In the interim, India will be confronted with anti-India feeling because Sheikh Hasina had India's support.' 'We will have to deal with it, but it will not be a permanent phenomenon.' 'There is substantial goodwill towards India which will stand us in good stead.'
"Hafizur Rahman (the prime accused) has told the magistrate that he had met Tarique Rahman at Hawa Bhaban along with Ulfa leader Paresh Barua on April 1, 2004," the state-run BSS news agency quoted a senior police official as saying on Sunday night
Bangladesh descended into chaos on Monday as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina surreptitiously resigned and fled the country in a military aircraft while the Army stepped in to fill the power vacuum.
Videos on social media showed protesters climbing a statue of Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a 1971 Liberation War hero, in Dhaka and smashing it with hammers.
A senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader has blamed an 'ecosystem of former diplomats, bureaucrats, politicians, and think tanks' for creating a 'bogeyman' to mislead the Indian establishment into believing that Indo-Bangla relations would deteriorate without the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League.
India should encourage the second coming of SAARC with climate change as an urgent agenda and keeping Indian security concerns in mind as the subtext, suggest Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
The application accuses Hasina and others of orchestrating a violent crackdown on student protestors, resulting in widespread casualties and human rights violations.
Former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who was arrested on Monday on graft charges, has been kept just yards away from Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina.
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.
