Category: BANGLADESH

• DHAKA
• Nayapara
• Chittagong

Local media reported that Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md. Saiful Islam, who is on vacation, passed the order on Wednesday citing that the plea was rejected because Das did not have a lawyer's letter of attorney on his behalf.

Mark Malloch-Brown, the former President of the Open Society Foundations founded by Hungarian-born billionaire US investor George Soros, met Muhammad Yunus, the head of the interim government in Bangladesh, in Dhaka on Sunday.

The Bangladesh interim government has banned Bangladesh Chatra League, the student organisation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's party Awami League, after a demand by a student group that led the July-August uprising under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009.

The egg import duty cut would reduce import costs of eggs by 13.8 takas per dozen, making the country's cheapest source of protein affordable for the commoners, the NBR said in a statement after issuing an order in this regard.

The interim government in Bangladesh on Monday tried to pin blame for last week's theft of Goddess Kali's crown on the head priest and temple staff while claiming that it continues to carry further investigations and has arrested four individuals in connection with the case.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, the advisor on environment and water resources in the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, said on Wednesday that Bangladesh will soon engage in negotiations with India regarding its water rights and share of the common rivers.

Bangladesh's Chief of Army Staff, General Waker-Uz-Zaman has indicated for the first time that the interim government headed by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus could stay at the helm of affairs in the country for at least 18 months.

The Bangladeshi government on Saturday confirmed another three deaths from dengue fever, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country since January to 95, reports Xinhua news agency.

The death toll from floods caused mainly by the onrush of upstream waters in parts of Bangladesh has risen to 67, including six women and 18 children, said the country's disaster response agency on Monday.

Devastating floods this month in Bangladesh have killed at least 59 people, according to the National Disaster Response Coordination Centre (NDRCC) under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

Four more deaths were reported from dengue in 24 hours till Saturday morning, raising the number of fatalities in Bangladesh to 83 this year, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Ministry of Health.

According to the latest daily disaster situation report by the country's National Disaster Response Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, nearly 4.4 million people were affected due to floods in 11 out of the country's total 64 districts, Xinhua news agency reported.

As cases rise against her, including murder accusations, Bangladesh will decide whether to ask India to extradite former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled to New Delhi last week, the country's Foreign Affairs Adviser Mohammad Touhid Hossain said.

The Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mohajot (BJHM), a grand national alliance of 23 religious organisations in the country, said on Tuesday that as many as 278 Hindu families have faced massive violence and vandalism in 48 districts of the nation since Sheikh Hasina resigned as the Prime Minister on August 5.

Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor of the interim government in Bangladesh, said on Tuesday that establishing human rights and freedom of speech remains one of his prime goals as the country's minority communities, especially Hindus, continue to face horrendous acts of violence and vandalism since Sheikh Hasina's resignation as Prime Minister on August 5.

Addressing mediapersons in Dhaka on Monday, Abul Fayez Muhammad Khalid Hossain, a Bangladeshi Islamic scholar currently serving as the Advisor for Religious Affairs in the Yunus-led interim government, said that the current establishment believes in communal harmony and condemns the attack on minorities.

Tens of thousands of Hindus converged in the heart of Bangladesh's Chittagong on Saturday, holding a massive protest rally against the ongoing attacks on the community and demanding safety and equal rights as citizens of the country.

As many as 205 incidents of persecution of members of minority communities have been reported across 52 districts in Bangladesh since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation on August 5, Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad said on Friday. 

Citing that friendship between China and Bangladesh runs "long and deep", Beijing said on Friday that it "stands ready" to work with the newly-formed interim government in Bangladesh to promote bilateral relations between the two countries.

A total of 2,400 individuals, including several top leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, have been granted bail in connection with cases related to the recent violence following student protests in the South Asian country, local media reported on Wednesday.

Amid the ongoing unrest in Bangladesh, the bodies of 29 people, including 20 Awami League leaders, were found across the country, local media reported on Wednesday. 

Nahid Islam, one of the main coordinators of the anti-quota protests that eventually led to the resignation of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday, has emerged as a key figure in the formation of an interim government in the country.

Attendance at various government offices in Dhaka remained quite low amid growing fear and anxiety, Bangladesh media reported on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country.

Protesters have reportedly set on fire the house of former Bangladesh cricket captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza as violence and chaos continued in the country after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the nation on Monday.

Local media in Bangladesh reported on Monday that "thousands of protesters" have vandalised the residence of the country's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal in Dhanmondi, an upscale area in Dhaka, following the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.