A murder case has been filed against Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
| Photo Credit: AP

A murder case has been filed against Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and six others over the death of a grocery shop owner during last month’s violent clashes that led to the fall of her government, media reports said on Tuesday (August 13, 2024).

The case was the first to be filed against Ms. Hasina, 76, after she resigned and fled to India last week following widespread protests against her Awami League-led government over a controversial job quota system.

The case was filed by a well-wisher of the grocery store owner Abu Sayed, who was killed on July 19 in police firing during a procession in support of the quota reform movement in Mohammadpur, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

The other accused are Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, among others.

Besides, several unnamed high-ranking police officials and government officials were also accused in the case, according to the report.

Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 since the anti-quota protests first started in mid-July.

An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led government, and its Chief Adviser, 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, announced the portfolios of his 16-member council of advisors last week.

On Monday (August 12, 2024), seven political parties, including the Awami League’s arch-rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), met Mr. Yunus separately and said the interim government could take the time necessary to create a conducive environment for holding free and fair elections, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

“We have given this interim government the time required to create a proper environment for holding an election,” the report quoted BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as saying.

He said they did not discuss the election and that the BNP did not mention any specific time frame for holding the next election.

The BNP was extending its full support to all the activities of the interim government, he said.

Quoting sources, the report said that the party urged Mr. Yunus to have all the cases against its leaders, including those against party chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman, withdrawn.

Former prime minister Ms. Zia, 79, was released from jail after Hasina’s ouster. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who was recommended by Bangladeshi student leaders as the head of the interim government in Bangladesh, waves at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy-en-France, France August 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Filling the leadership vacuum in Bangladesh, albeit temporarily, Nobel Laureate and economist Muhammad Yunus has taken oath as head of the interim government. The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer will head the government until fresh polls are held. The parliament has already been dissolved by the nation’s president Mohammed Shahabuddin.

“If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it,” Mr.Yunus said on Tuesday, a day after Ms. Hasina resigned and left the country. He was called on by student coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement to head the interim government.

Banker to the poor

“In Dr. Yunus, we trust,” wrote Asif Mahmud, a key leader of the Students Against Discrimination (SAD) group, in a Facebook post, echoing the widespread acceptability Mr. Yunus has in Bangladesh’s fractious polity.

Born on June 28, 1940, in Chittagong, East Bengal (now Bangladesh), Muhammad Yunus, the third of nine children, completed his primary education at Lamabazar Primary School and then studied at the Chittagong Collegiate School. After completing both a B.A. and an M.A. in Economics from Dhaka University, he started his teaching career as a lecturer in the same university in 1961. Obtaining a PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University, Dr. Yunus began his tenure as an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, U.S., in 1969.

As war ravaged his homeland, as it struggled for liberation from Pakistan, Dr. Yunus lobbied the U.S. Congress to stop military aid to Pakistan. He also helped raise support for the Liberation movement by running a Bangladesh Information Center in Washington D.C, and a Citizen’s Committee in Nashville, Tenessee, along with publishing the Bangladesh Newsletter.

With the birth of Bangladesh, he returned home, joining the Economics Department of the University of Chittagong in 1972. As the newly-separated Bangladesh suffered a famine in 1974, he forayed into rural economics, introducing the Nabajug Tebhaga Khamar to study economic aspects of poverty, and urged his students to lend a hand to farmers in fields. In his visits to farming households in Chittagong’s Jobra region, he realised the necessity and effectiveness of small loans to women bamboo furniture makers, freeing them from claws of loan sharks. Initiating the first ‘small loan’, Dr. Yunus lent $27 to 42 families in Jobra to manufacture their items for sale.

This idea gave rise to microfinance in 1976, where Dr. Yunus offered himself as the guarantor and secured a credit line from Janata Bank to lend small loans to Jobra residents. In 1983, the Grameen Bank was established, specialising in small loans and playing a pivotal role in eradicating poverty via micro-credit requiring no collateral. Over 100 nations, including India, have replicated this model. As of 2024, Grameen Bank has 2,568 branches across 81,678 villages with 10.61 million borrowers.

Dr. Yunus’ pioneering work in microfinance won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for lending a social conscience to capitalism and “their efforts to create economic and social development from below” in Bangladesh. However, it also attracted legal trouble in Bangladesh.

Brief political foray

Ahead of the 2006 polls, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) failed to agree on a candidate to head the caretaker government, leading to the imposition of a state of emergency in Bangladesh. With both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina incarcerated by the military-backed government on extortion charges, Mr. Yunus announced that he would contest in the next polls by forming the Nagorik Shakti party in February 2007. However, he dropped the plans within months due to lack of public support.

Clash with Hasina government

On coming to power in 2009, Ms. Hasina’s government began scrutinising Mr. Yunus and Grameen Bank. In 2011, he was removed as managing director of the microlending bank, as he had passed the retirement age of 60. While he challenged his ouster, he lost the court battle accusing Ms. Hasina of targetting him. On multiple occasions, Ms. Hasina has accused Mr. Yunus for influencing the World Bank, which cancelled a $1.2 billion credit for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project in 2012 – a charge which he has refuted. Over 150 cases have been filed against Mr. Yunus by the Hasina government as of 2023.

The micro-financing model itself came under the scanner after Mr. Yunus admitted that some organisations may have abused the system for profit. The lack of collateral in such loans have attracted high interest rates by some banks, leading to borrowers falling into more debt. In 2019, an arrest warrant was issued against Mr. Yunus for three alleged breaches under the Labour Act.

In May 2023, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) accused Mr. Yunus and several others of misusing the workers’ welfare fund of Grameen Bank and regularising 101 staff members. After a lengthy trial, Mr. Yunus and his colleagues were convicted in January this year, mere days after Ms. Hasina began her fourth consecutive term as Prime minister.

“We have incurred the annoyance of someone because of chasing the three zero dream (zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions),” said Dr. Yunus after his conviction, as thousands pleaded with the then-PM to pardon him.

Within six months, chaos and violence was unleashed in Bangladesh due to anti-quota protests, leading to a stringent crackdown by police. As student protestors sought one single demand – the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, the 78-year-old politician fled to India, ending her 15-year reign.  Now Ms. Hasina, whose government sought to incarcerate him, is out of power and out of the country, while Mr. Yunus is heading an interim government, tasked with overseeing an orderly political transition.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus gestures while speaking to the media upon arriving at Charles de Gaulle’s airport in Roissy, north of Paris, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

“Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, will take oath on Thursday (August 8, 2024),” Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday (August 8, 2024), General Waker-Uz-Zaman said the interim government is likely to be sworn in at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday (August 8, 2024).

Bangladesh crisis live updates – August 7

He also said the advisory council may have 15 members.

Yunus, the 84-year-old economist, on Tuesday (August 6, 2024), was appointed as the head of interim government by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following deadly protests against her government over a controversial quota system in jobs.

New Delhi:

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit this week and fled the country after violent protests demanding her resignation.

Ms Hasina, who started her fifth term as Prime Minister earlier this year, left the capital Dhaka in a military aircraft and landed in India.

Her shocking exit has now impacted the trade between India and Bangladesh, which had grown during her tenure.

Movement of trucks carrying goods between India and Bangladesh at the Changrabandha border check post in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district has almost come to a standstill.

“We estimate that about $300 million worth of export trade has been affected due to the political crisis in Bangladesh. We export about $30 million to Bangladesh every day,” Ajay Sahai, the Director-General of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) said.

Bangladesh, notably, is India’s biggest partner in the subcontinent, while Delhi is Dhaka’s second biggest partner in Asia after China.

Bangladesh is also the fourth largest export destination for India.

ALSO READ | What Sheikh Hasina’s Exit, Bangladesh Crisis Mean For India Ties

“Export has come to a standstill. Many trucks are stuck and even the movement of people with visas has minimised now,” Dhiraj Guha, an Indian exporter, said.

“Indian import is happening but export is completely stalled and many of our trucks are stuck,” another businessman said.

The political crisis in Bangladesh may also stall a potential free trade agreement between the two countries, which began in October last year.

Local Businesses “Hit Hard” Due To Bangladesh Crisis

Local businesses in the Indian states along the border have also taken a hit due to the crisis in Bangladesh.

Shopkeepers, transporters, and money changers are reporting over 80 percent decline in their businesses.

“The movement of people across the border is decreasing with every passing day. We have been sitting the whole day and are not getting any passengers to ferry to the nearest station,” Sanjay Das, an auto rickshaw driver at the international border check post in Petrapole in the Bagaon district of West Bengal, said.

“Our business has been hit hard,” he added.

ALSO READ | Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus To Lead Bangladesh’s Interim Government

The business has also slumped at the Akhurah-Agartala border check post in Tripura, a major India-Bangladesh border trade point.

“Earlier, we used to receive 15 trucks of fish imports daily. Other items would range from about 35 trucks. But today, only one truck of fish and two trucks of other items have entered. There is almost no trade happening and it is hurting us financially,” Titan Das, a good handler, said.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, however, said he doubts that this will “stay for long”.

People gather in front of the ransacked Awami League’s central office in the aftermath of the prime minister’s resignation, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Rights groups and diplomats in Bangladesh on Tuesday raised concerns at reports of attacks on minorities including Hindus, a day after the prime minister was ousted following mass protests.

Some businesses and homes owned by Hindus — a group seen by some in the Muslim-majority nation as having been close to ousted leader Sheikh Hasina — were attacked on Monday, witnesses said.

Police reported mobs launching revenge attacks on Hasina’s allies. Offices of Hasina’s Awami League party were torched and looted across the country, eyewitnesses told AFP.

“Houses and shops of minority people were attacked, vandalised and looted, at least 97 places on Monday and Tuesday,” Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, said in a statement.

The group said at least 10 Hindu temples were attacked by “miscreants” on Monday.

One Hindu man was beaten to death in Bangladesh’s southern Bagerhat district, said a hospital official who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.

“Such attacks on minorities are against the fundamental spirit of the anti-discrimination student movement,” said Transparency International Bangladesh head Iftekharuzzaman, who uses one name.

The United States embassy in Dhaka called for “calm”, in a post on social media platform X.

“We are concerned about reports of attacks on religious minorities and religious sites in Bangladesh,” it said, a message echoed by European Union diplomats.

EU heads of mission “are very concerned about incoming reports of multiple attacks against places of worship and members of religious, ethnic and other minorities in Bangladesh”, EU ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley posted on X.

“We urgently appeal to all parties to exercise restraint, reject communal violence and uphold the human rights of all Bangladeshis.”

Monday was the deadliest day of unrest since protests erupted in early July, with at least 122 people killed.

Some homes of the Ahmadis, a minority Muslim sect, were also torched by a mob on Monday, a local newspaper reported.

The house of celebrated Hindu musician Rahul Ananda – who last year met French President Emmanuel Macron when he visited Dhaka – was also torched.

Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday also said New Delhi was “monitoring the situation with regard to the status of minorities”.

He added that the government would “remain deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored”.

Beijing:

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrived here on Tuesday on a four-day visit for talks with China’s top leadership, including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to further cement the bilateral strategic ties.

In her separate meetings with Xi and Li on Wednesday, the entire gamut of the bilateral relations alongside the regional and international matters will come for discussion, the official BSS news agency reported.

This visit of the Bangladesh premier to China is taking place within 15 days after her last visit to India from June 21 to 22, the Bangladeshi news agency reported.

Hasina had her last discussions with President Xi in a recent meeting on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Hasina will also hold a delegation-level bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People. Following the meeting, Bangladesh and China are likely to sign and renew 20 to 22 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), the report said.

“The MoUs on cooperation in the economic and banking sector, trade and investment, digital economy, infrastructure development, assistance in disaster management, construction of 6th and 9th Bangladesh-China friendship bridges, export of agricultural products from Bangladesh and people to people connectivity are likely to be signed,” Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said on Sunday at a curtain raiser press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Bangladesh.

During the visit, Dr Hasan said the inauguration of several projects of the two countries will also be announced.

The issues like Rohingya, and cooperation on business, trade, commerce and development will dominate the discussions.

This is Hasina’s fourth visit to China and the trip is expected to elevate the relations between Bangladesh and China to “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership” from “strategic partnership”, the report said.

The two countries would celebrate the golden jubilee of their diplomatic relations next year.

Meanwhile, China’s top political advisor Wang Huning met with Prime Minister Hasina on Tuesday in Beijing.

Wang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said that under the strategic guidance of the two countries’ leaders, China and Bangladesh have respected and treated each other with equality, setting a good example of friendly coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries.

China is ready to deepen practical cooperation with Bangladesh in various fields, and push the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries to a new height, to better benefit the two peoples, Wang was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Saima Wazed and Dr. Shambhu Acharya seen together at a meet in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed, was on Wednesday nominated as the next Regional Director for the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region.

She defeated Shambu Acharya, a public health veteran from Nepal, in a vote held here during the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region. 

Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPR (North) Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste — 10 of the 11 member countries — took part in the vote. Myanmar did not send a delegation to the meeting. 

The nomination will be submitted to the WHO Executive Board during its 154th session, which is scheduled to take place on January 22-27 in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO regional office said in an official communication.

The newly appointed Regional Director will take over from the present incumbent, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, on February 1.

Ms. Wazed, in a statement, said the WHO South-East Asia Region was home to over two billion people — more than a quarter of the people of the planet — and that the region represented a diversity with often differences existing within the boundaries of single member states themselves. She said that her priority areas of work would include universal health coverage (UHC), emergency response and pandemic preparedness, collaboration and partnerships (regional and multi-sectoral), and mental health.

“We will work to promote community-based mental healthcare services in member countries, encourage prevention and promotion in mental health while expanding efforts to include mental health in the public health agenda,” Ms. Wazed said.

Reacting to the result, Swarup Sarkar, former Director of WHO SEARO, said the election demonstrated the collective resolve of member states to move forward with the vision set out by Ms. Wazed.

“As a former WHO staff, I would look forward to a stronger, responsive, and responsible WHO working at the global, regional and country levels, on the principle of one WHO and more participation of civil society at all stages of WHO work,” he said.