Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina has resigned, interim govt to run country: army chief

[ghazi52]

Bangladeshi actor Shanto Khan and father beaten to death during unrest in Dhaka​

Local media reports that Shanto and his father were trying to escape when they were confronted by an angry mob

News Desk
August 08, 2024

Bangladeshi actor Shanto Khan and his father Selim Khan, the chairman of Laxmipur Model Union Parishad and a film producer, were killed by a mob amidst the ongoing unrest in the country..

Local media reports indicated that Shanto and his father were trying to escape when they were confronted by an angry mob at Dhaka's Forkkabad Bazaar.

Despite firing shots in self-defence, they were attacked by another mob near Bagara Bazaar and beaten to death.

The news of their deaths shocked the Indian film industry.
Filmmaker Sudipto Sen condemned the killings and called for strong protests against the new regime in Bangladesh.

Sen expressed his grief on social media, describing the incident as horrendous and unacceptable.

Shanto Khan, who debuted in 2019 with "Prem Chor," had acted in several films including "Bikkhov" (2022) and "Bubujaan" (2023).

His father, Selim Khan, owned Shapla Media, a company that produced and distributed Bengali films.

 

[Novus ordu seclorum]

Lynch mob culture is another shared commonality and passion among Bharat, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. I wonder how common it is in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

 

[ghazi52]

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus sworn in as head of Bangladesh's transitional govt​

Two students feature in 17-member transitional administration following deadly protests that led to Hasina’s ouster

Anadolu Agency
August 08, 2024

DHAKA: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on Thursday as the head of a 17-member transitional government in Bangladesh. This development follows weeks of protests that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the dissolution of her Awami League government.

The oath-taking ceremony was conducted by President Mohammed Shahabuddin at the presidential office in Dhaka. Yunus, at 84, assumes the role of "chief adviser" to the transitional government, which is primarily composed of technocrats.

The transitional administration includes 16 advisers, among them Saleh Uddin Ahmed, former governor of Bangladesh’s central bank; retired Brigadier General M. Sakhawat Hossain; Dhaka University professor Asif Nazrul; human rights advocate Adilur Rahman Khan; attorney and environmentalist Syeda Rezwana Hasan; and women’s rights activist Farida Akhtar. The team also features two student leaders from the protests that prompted Hasina’s resignation and subsequent departure to India.

The formation of the transitional government was announced by Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman after Hasina fled the country. Yunus, who was in France at the time, returned to Dhaka on Thursday and expressed gratitude for the role of students in the recent political upheaval. “Bangladesh has begun a new chapter. We are thankful to those who made this possible; they (students) saved the country,” Yunus said upon his arrival.

The protests, which began in July, were sparked by disputes over civil service job quotas and resulted in over 400 deaths. Following these events, President Shahabuddin dissolved the parliament elected in January, during which Hasina secured her fourth term as prime minister.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition group, has called for national elections within three months to ensure that power is returned to elected representatives.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Sacked Bangladeshi intelligence chief 'arrested' at Dhaka Airport​

Maj Gen Ziaul Ahsan was arrested after Emirates Flight 585 was instructed to taxi back to boarding bridge from runway.

News Desk
August 07, 2024

.

This guy might as well pray to the heavens.

Those dirty Indians are super quiet right now

Their media sure are making a lot of noise.
Joy is vomiting more than he used to.

 

[ghazi52]

Bangladesh’s Yunus hails slain student in appeal for unity​

AFP
August 10, 2024

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is pictured during a press briefing, as he arrives at the Hazarat Shahjalal International Airport, in Dhaka, on Aug 8, 2024. — Reuters

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus appealed for religious unity on Saturday as he embraced the weeping mother of a student shot dead by police, a flashpoint in mass protests that ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule.

Nobel laureate Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this week to helm a temporary administration facing the monumental challenge of ending disorder and enacting democratic reforms.

“Our responsibility is to build a new Bangladesh,” he told reporters.

Several reprisal attacks against the country’s Hindu minority since autocratic ex-premier Hasina’s toppling have caused alarm in neighbouring India as well as fear at home.

“Don’t differentiate by religion,” he said.

Yunus called for calm during a visit to the northern city of Rangpur by invoking the memory of Abu Sayeed, the first student slain during last month’s unrest.

“Abu Sayeed is now in every home. The way he stood, we have to do the same,” he added.

 

[ghazi52]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1822188759376445589

 

[ghazi52]

Bangladesh chief justice, central bank chief quit amid protests, officials say​

Reuters
August 10, 2024

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s chief justice and central bank governor have resigned, officials said on Saturday, as student protests that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee widen to target more officials appointed during her regime.

Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan resigned, a law ministry official said on the condition of anonymity, after students warned him of “dire consequences” if he did not. Reuters could not immediately contact Hassan.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder has also resigned but his resignation has not been accepted given the importance of the position, finance ministry adviser Salehuddin Ahmed told reporters. Reuters could not contact Talukder.

Days earlier, four deputy governors were forced to resign by 300 to 400 bank officials accusing them of corruption.

Hasina has been sheltering in New Delhi since Monday following an uprising that killed about 300 people, many of them students, ending her uninterrupted rule of 15 years in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.

 

[ghazi52]

Bangladesh student leader insists ex-PM Hasina should face trial​

Reuters
August 10, 2024

Asif Mahmud (left) and Nahid Islam, the student leaders who led the movement against Sheikh Hasina, take oath as advisers in the newly formed interim government, at Dhaka’s Bangabhaban.—Reuters


DHAKA: A Bangladeshi student leader who was instrumental in overthrowing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and is now part of an interim government said she must face trial when she returns home as planned for the killings during her term, including during recent protests, which led her to resign and flee on Monday.

About 300 people, many of them university and college students, were killed in the demonstrations that began in July with students demonstrating against quotas in government jobs before spiralling into violent protests to oust Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh for 20 of the last 30 years.

Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said she will return to Bangladesh from India, where she is sheltering, once elections are announced in her home country, which the main opposition has demanded should be held in three months.

“I am curious why she fled the country,” student leader Nahid Islam, who is effectively a minister in the caretaker government, said late on Friday in his first interview since joining the government on Thursday as an adviser.

“We will seek justice for all the killings that happened under her, that has been one of the main demands of our revolution. Even if she does not come back, we will work towards that.”

“We want to arrest her — whether that will work through the regular judicial system or a special tribunal on that or not, we are discussing how to proceed on the matter,” said Islam, 26, who now heads the postal, telecommunication and information technology ministries.

Joy, who is based in the US, did not respond to a request seeking comment. Hasina, who is under the protection of the Indian government, could not be contacted.

Another student leader, Abu Baker Mojumder, said they want Hasina to return and face trial.

Islam said one of the caretaker government’s main priorities was to hold a free and fair election after the last election was boycotted by the opposition, and also investigate suspected corruption in the previous government.

Islam said Bangladesh would need electoral and constitutional reforms before any election, so it was not clear when the next vote would be held. He declined to give a specific timeline.

“My ambition on what I next become depends on the people of Bangladesh,” he said when asked whether one day he would like to be prime minister.

He said India had fostered a relationship with Hasina’s Awami League party, but not the people of Bangladesh as a whole. “We want friendly ties with India,” he said. “India also needs to look at its foreign policy, else it will become a problem for the whole of South Asia.”

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024