Bangladesh to seek extradition of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina from India

Interim leader Muhammad Yunus confirms plans to put former PM on trial accused of crimes against humanity

Bangladesh will seek the extradition of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to face trial on charges including crimes against humanity, the country’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, has said in a speech.

Hasina, whose autocratic regime governed Bangladesh for 15 years, was toppled in a student-led revolution in August. Since then she has been living in exile in India after fleeing the country in a helicopter as thousands of protesters overran the presidential palace.

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Regulators urged to examine UK business dealings with Bangladeshi ex-minister

HMRC and FCA asked to look into property deals with Saifuzzaman Chowdhury now under investigation for corruption in Dhaka

British regulators have been urged by MPs to examine the relationship between London estate agents, lawyers and lenders and a former Bangladeshi government minister under investigation for alleged corruption.

Saifuzzaman Chowdhury was the land minister in Bangladesh until earlier this year, when the government of Sheikh Hasina was spectacularly toppled, after her regime’s violent suppression of student protests.

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Bangladeshis taking refuge in emergency shelters after heavy flooding

Nearly 300,000 people forced to flee after monsoon rains, which have killed 42 people in India and Bangladesh

Nearly 300,000 Bangladeshis are taking refuge in emergency shelters from floods that inundated vast areas of the country, disaster officials said.

The floods were triggered by heavy monsoon rains and have killed at least 42 people in Bangladesh and India since the start of the week, many in landslides.

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Thousands flee after Myanmar rebels use drones to bomb Rohingya villagers

Arakan Army targeting Muslim minority as Myanmar’s military are driven out of Rakhine, UN official says

Thousands of Rohingya are being forced to flee from their homes in Myanmar and escape on dangerous boat journeys after being targeted by armed rebels, activists and officials say.

Having seized control of much of Myanmar’s Rakhine state from the military, the rebel Arakan Army has turned on the Rohingya minority in areas it controls, shelling villages, forcing them to leave their homes and reportedly rounding up groups of men.

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Protesters attack supporters of ousted Bangladesh PM in Dhaka

Hundreds of students and activists prevent Sheikh Hasina followers from visiting her father’s former house

Hundreds of student protesters and political activists armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and pipes have assaulted supporters of the ousted Bangladeshi prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and prevented them from reaching the former house of her father, the assassinated independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in Dhaka.

The house in the Dhanmondi area of the capital was turned into a museum to showcase narratives and other objects about a military coup on 15 August 1975, when Rahman was killed along with most of his family members. The house, now called Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, was torched by the protesters hours after Hasina’s downfall on 5 August following an uprising during which more than 300 people were killed.

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Bangladesh court orders inquiry into Sheikh Hasina’s alleged role in grocer’s death

Former PM and others accused over actions of police who fired on protesters, killing shop owner crossing street

A court in Bangladesh has ordered an investigation into the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s alleged role in the death of a grocery shop owner in the capital, Dhaka, during last month’s student-led protests.

The case filed by Bangladeshi citizen Amir Hamza against Hasina and six others was accepted by Dhaka’s chief metropolitan magistrates court after a hearing, Hamza’s lawyer, Anwarul Islam, said. The magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury ordered police to investigate the case, Islam added.

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Children among up to 200 Rohingya killed in Myanmar drone attack

Witnesses say people killed in artillery and drone attack that targeted civilians fleeing violence

Many dozens of Rohingya people, including children, were killed in an artillery and drone attack that targeted civilians as they tried to flee Myanmar last week.

Civilians were trying to escape violence in Maungdaw town, Rakhine state, by crossing the Naf River into Bangladesh when they were targeted last Monday. Videos shared on social media, which appeared to have been taken in the aftermath of the attack, showed bodies and bags strewn across the ground.

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Bangladeshi journalists hopeful of press freedom as Hasina era ends

Reporters cautiously optimistic as interim government takes over after years of intimidation and censorship

Bangladeshi journalists are hoping the resignation of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina will bring an era of censorship and fear to an end, as they prepare to hold a new interim government to account.

Arrests, abuse and forced disappearances at the hands of Bangladesh’s security forces have loomed over journalists for most of Hasina’s 15-year rule, preventing them from routine reporting for fear of writing anything that could be perceived as embarrassing for the government.

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Muhammad Yunus sworn in as interim leader of Bangladesh

Nobel laureate hopes to restore calm and rebuild country after uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule

Muhammad Yunus has been sworn in as head of a new caretaker government in Bangladesh in a ceremony that began with a minute’s silence to remember those who were killed in the recent protests.

The swearing-in, led by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, was attended by more than 1,500 guests including politicians, students, protest coordinators and representatives from the military and civil society. Other members of the interim government also took their oaths. Among them Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent human rights activist who was imprisoned by the ousted regime, and two student leaders.

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Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus urges peace ahead of return to Bangladesh

Incoming head of interim government hails ‘second Victory Day’ but tells Bangladeshis: ‘Violence is our enemy’

The Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is to lead an interim government in Bangladesh, urged people in the country to “refrain from all kinds of violence” after a mass uprising that has included communal attacks.

Concern is rising in Bangladesh and neighbouring India over continuing violent unrest after the ousting of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina; in particular, attacks on Hindu homes, shops and temples.

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Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to head Bangladesh’s interim government

Decision came during meeting of military chiefs and organisers of the student protests that helped drive longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina from power

The Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will be the head of Bangladesh’s interim government after the longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising that left hundreds of people dead and pushed the south Asian country to the brink of chaos.

The decision, announced early on Wednesday by Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of the country’s figurehead president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, came during a meeting that included military chiefs, organisers of the student protests that helped drive Hasina from power, prominent business leaders and civil society members.

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Bangladesh parliament dissolved a day after resignation of prime minister

Move comes after longtime leader Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled country after weeks of deadly unrest

The president of Bangladesh has dissolved the country’s parliament after an ultimatum issued by the coordinators of student protests that forced the resignation on Monday of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

The office of the president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, also announced that the former prime minister and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia had been officially released from prison and given a full presidential pardon.

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Bangladesh PM has resigned and left country, army chief confirms

Sheikh Hasina’s reported departure comes as fresh wave of violent protests erupts across country

The prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has resigned and left the country, the head of the army has confirmed, amid some of the worst violence since the birth of the south Asian country more than 50 years ago.

In a briefing to reporters, Army Chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman announced he was assuming control at “a critical time for our country” and would establish an interim government.

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Bangladesh students call for march to capital Dhaka a day after clashes kill nearly 100 people

Country has been engulfed by protests that began in July after students demanded scrapping of quota system for government jobs

Protesting students in Bangladesh have called for a march to the capital Dhaka in defiance of a nationwide curfew on Monday to press prime minister Sheikh Hasina to resign, a day after deadly clashes in the South Asian country killed nearly 100 people.

The country has been engulfed by protests and violence that began last month after student groups demanded the scrapping of a controversial quota system in government jobs.

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Dozens of people killed in Bangladesh as protesters renew call for PM to quit

Military announces curfew and mobile internet access cut off as fresh wave of demonstrations erupts across country

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds injured as renewed anti-government protests swept across Bangladesh, with protesters calling for the prime minister to resign as mobile internet access was cut off in an attempt to quell the unrest.

The country’s leading Bengali-language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo, said at least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, had died on Sunday in the violence. Channel 24 reported at least 85 deaths.

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Bangladesh arrests more than 10,000 in crackdown on protests

Student protests that began over government-job quotas have led to mass roundups, says families of detainees

Bangladesh has arrested more than 10,000 people and banned a major opposition party as part of a crackdown on dissent after weeks of protests.

The country has been in turmoil since a mass student movement began against quotas for government jobs. It escalated into deadly clashes when protesters were attacked by pro-government groups and hit by police with teargas, rubber bullets and pellets.

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Bangladesh student protests turn into ‘mass movement against a dictator’

Strength of PM’s crackdown shows her nervousness and that climate of fear is breaking down, say critics

Hasan still has the metal pellets Bangladesh police fired at him lodged deep in his bones. Fearful he will join the growing ranks of those thrown behind bars by the state for participating in protests that have swept Bangladesh this month, Hasan has been in hiding for a week and described his state as one of “constant panic and trauma”.

“Whenever I hear the sound of a car or a motorbike, I think it might be the police coming for me,” he said.

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Bangladeshi students allege police torture after protests crackdown

More than 150 reported dead and thousands injured as peaceful demonstrations turn violent

Student activists in Bangladesh have alleged they were abducted and tortured during a violent police crackdown on the protests that have swept the country and led to the arrest of thousands of political opponents and government critics.

Nahid Islam, a Dhaka University student and one of the main organisers of the protest movement, which has been fighting against “discriminatory” quotas for government jobs, said he was picked up by police late last week, tortured and left unconscious on the side of the road.

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Bangladesh’s top court cuts job quotas that led to deadly student-led protests

Court overturns ruling reserving 30% of government jobs for independence war veterans and their relatives

Bangladesh’s top court has scaled back the quotas on government jobs that led to widespread student-led protests and violent clashes that killed more than 100 people.

On Sunday afternoon the supreme court overturned a ruling that had reintroduced quotas for all civil service jobs, meaning that 30% were reserved for veterans and relatives of those who fought in the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

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Bangladesh police given ‘shoot-on-sight’ orders amid national curfew

Citizens confined to homes with no internet access as student-led protests lead to deadly clashes with authorities

Police in Bangladesh have been granted “shoot-on-sight” orders and a nationwide curfew has been imposed as student-led protests continue to roil the country, leaving more than 100 people dead.

The curfew, imposed at midnight on Friday, was expected to last until Sunday morning as police tried to bring the swiftly deteriorating security situation under control, with military personnel patrolling the streets of the capital.

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