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Muhammad Yunus
Bangladesh interim government's senior adviser on Tuesday said that the state will take responsibility of the family of the Hindu worker who was lynched on blasphemy charges last week. Education adviser C R Abrar met the bereaved family of 25-year-old Dipu Das, who was killed by a mob and his body set on fire on December 18 in Mymensingh. The state has taken the responsibilities of taking care of Dipu Das' child, wife and parents, Abrar said, calling the killing of the garment factory worker a brutal crime which has no excuse. Abrar said ahead of meeting the family, he held talks with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, who asked him to convey to them the government's profound sorrow and deepest condolences. According to newspaper reports, Das' father Rabi Chandra Das demanded justice for his son's killing, describing the condition of the family to the adviser. Yunus's office, meanwhile, reconfirmed that financial and welfare assistance would be provided to Das' family, and relevant ...
Bangladesh interim government's finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday said Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has taken steps to ease strained ties with New Delhi while his administration was working to develop economic relations with India by separating economic interests from "political rhetoric." "The chief adviser is working to improve diplomatic relations with India, and he himself has also been speaking to various stakeholders on the issue," he told reporters after a meeting of the Advisers Council Committee on Government Purchase at his office. Asked if Yunus directly spoke to India, Ahmed said the chief adviser "has not" but he did speak to those associated with the matter. "Our trade policy is not driven by political considerations. If importing rice from India is cheaper than sourcing it from Vietnam or elsewhere, then it makes economic sense to buy the staple from India," he said. The adviser, an economist, however, expressed optimism that bilateral relations would not .
Unidentified gunmen on Monday shot in the head a second leader of Bangladesh's violent student-led 2004 uprising in the country's southwestern Khulna city, days after the killing of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi. "The Khulna Division head of NCP (National Citizen Party) and central coordinator of the party's workers front, Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar, was shot a few minutes ago," NCP's joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post. Mitu, a doctor, said Sarkar was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a critical condition. The Kaler Kantha newspaper, quoting hospital sources, said Sarkar was shot on the left side of his head, and he was bleeding profusely when he was brought to the facility, where the doctors started emergency treatment. The attack came days after Hadi, a prominent leader of the student-led protests last year that led to the ouster of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, was shot in the head on December 12 by
Ten people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh, Chief Adviser of the interim government Muhammad Yunus announced Saturday. Dipu Chandra Das, a 25-year-old garment factory worker, was lynched to death by a mob and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy in Baluka in Mymensingh on Thursday. Of the 10, seven were arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) while three were arrested by the police as suspects in the case, Yunus said in a statement on X. The RAB and police conducted operations in various locations to arrest these individuals, he said. The arrests were made during operations at various locations, and the ages of those arrested ranged from 19 to 46. According to the police, Das was first beaten up by a mob outside the factory over blasphemy allegations and hanged from a tree. The crowd then left the body of the deceased on the side of the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and later set it on fire. The police recovered the body and
Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent leader of the July Uprising who was shot last week, died on Thursday while undergoing treatment at a Singapore hospital after fighting for his life for six days. Hadi, also a candidate in the scheduled February 12 general elections, was shot in the head by masked gunmen on Friday as he initiated his election campaign at central Dhaka's Bijoynagar area. The interim government of Muhammad Yunus on Monday sent Hadi to Singapore in an air ambulance for advanced treatment as doctors in Dhaka described his condition extremely critical. In a televised address to the nation late Thursday night, Chief Adviser Yunus announced Hadi's death and promised swift action to catch his killers. "Today, I came before you with very heartbreaking news. Sharif Osman Hadi, the fearless frontline fighter of the July Uprising and spokesperson of the Inqilab Mancha, is no more among us," Yunus said. He vowed to bring those involved in this brutal murder to justice quickly, say
A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to five years of imprisonment in a land scam case. Judge Md Rabiul Alam of the Special Judge's Court-4 of Dhaka also handed down a seven-year jail term to Hasina's sister Sheikh Rehana, and a two-year term to her niece, British parliamentarian Tulip Siddiq, in the same case, The Daily Star newspaper reported. This is the fourth verdict involving Hasina in graft cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the report said. The ACC filed six separate cases between January 12 and 14 with its Dhaka Integrated District Office-1 over alleged irregularities in the allocation of plots under the Purbachal New Town project. According to the anti-graft body, Hasina, in collusion with senior Rajuk officials, unlawfully secured six plots, each measuring 10 kathas (7,200 square feet), in the diplomatic zone of Sector 27 of the Purbachal New Town project for herself and her relatives, including her son Sajeeb Wazed
Bangladesh's ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party on Tuesday announced nationwide agitations and "resistance marches" till November 30 in protest against the death sentence handed to the former premier by what it described as an "illegal" tribunal. On November 17, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) sentenced 78-year-old Hasina to death along with then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on charges of committing crimes against humanity after a trial held in absentia. Hasina is currently in India, while Kamal is also believed to be hiding in the country. In a post on its official social media account, the Awami League alleged that the tribunal's verdict was part of a political "conspiracy" by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government to keep Hasina and the party "out of the election" scheduled for February next year. Rejecting the "illegal verdict of the illegal ICT tribunal" and demanding the resignation of Yunus, the party announced protests, ...
Bangladesh's interim government has sent an "official letter" to India seeking the extradition of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina after a special tribunal sentenced her to death, a senior adviser said on Sunday. "The letter was sent the day before yesterday," Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency. He, however, did not provide further details. Citing an official source at the foreign ministry, the agency said that the note verbal (official diplomatic letter) was sent through the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi. On Nov 17, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) sentenced 78-year-old Hasina to death along with then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on charges of committing crimes against humanity after their trial in absentia. Hasina is currently in India. Kamal is believed to be hiding in India. Hasina's Awami League government was toppled in a student-led violent protest termed as the July Uprising' on Au
Ousted former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said her return home hinges on the restoration of "participatory democracy", lifting of the ban on the Awami League and the conduct of free, fair and inclusive elections. In an exclusive email interview to PTI from an undisclosed location in India, Hasina also accused the unelected Yunus administration of "endangering ties with India and empowering extremist forces". Contrasting her foreign policy with that of the current interim government, she said the broad and deep relationship between Dhaka and New Delhi should be able to withstand the "foolhardiness of the Yunus interlude. Hasina thanked the Indian government for providing her refuge and said she was immensely grateful to India's government and its people for their kind hospitality. The most important condition for my return to Bangladesh is the same condition that the Bangladeshi people require: a return to participatory democracy. The interim administration must resc
Bangladesh's interim government chief Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday said he feared forces from home and abroad to thwart planned general elections over debarring deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League from contesting. Many forces from inside and outside the country will work to spoil the election. Many powerful forces, not minor ones, will attempt to thwart it. Sudden attacks may come, Yunus's press secretary Shafiqul Alam quoted him as saying at a high-level meeting on election preparedness. Chief Adviser Yunus, he said, told the meeting that the election will be challenging as various types of propaganda will be carried out in a planned manner from inside and outside the country. Yunus said AI-generated images and videos would also circulate online and on social media platforms, stressing immediate action to prevent the spread of such content. We must overcome them (obstacles), 85-year-old Yunus was quoted as saying. His comments coincided with Hasina's interview with