Category Archives: Sheikh Hasina

Bangladesh parliament dissolved a day after resignation of prime minister

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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 arrests more than 10,000 in crackdown on protests

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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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Protesters attack Bangladeshi state broadcaster after PM’s call for calm

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Incensed crowd facing riot police set BTV building on fire as students demand end to discriminatory job quotas

Bangladeshi students have set fire to the state broadcaster’s building a day after the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, appeared on the network seeking to calm escalating clashes that had killed at least 39 people.

Hundreds of protesters demanding reform of civil service hiring rules clashed with riot police who had shot at them with rubber bullets on Thursday, chasing the retreating officers to BTV’s headquarters in the capital, Dhaka.

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Hasina wins fifth term as Bangladesh PM after opposition boycotts vote

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Turnout reportedly as low as 40% after opposition party called general strike over ‘sham election’

Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has won office for a fifth term, in an election that was overshadowed by a ruthless crackdown on the opposition and low voter turnout.

The election commission announced in the early hours of Monday that Hasina’s ruling Awami League had won a fourth consecutive term, winning almost 75% of the seats. It will be her fifth term as prime minister as she had previously ruled between 1996 and 2001, before coming back to power in 2009.

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Polls open in Bangladesh election guaranteed to hand Sheikh Hasina a fifth term

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Already decimated by mass arrests, opposition parties have boycotted the ‘sham’ election, which will give victory to the ruling Awami League

Bangladesh began voting on Sunday in an election guaranteed to give a fifth term in office to rime minister Sheikh Hasina, after a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a “terrorist organisation”.

Hasina has presided over exceptional economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless opposition crackdown.

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Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws

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Prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has accused 83-year-old of ‘sucking blood’ from poor people

The Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has been convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws in a trial decried by his supporters as politically motivated.

The 83-year-old, credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his microfinance bank, Grameen, has earned the enmity of Sheikh Hasina, the longtime prime minister, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from poor people.

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Bangladesh media in fear after PM’s ‘people’s enemy’ attack

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Even stories on cost of living leave journalists facing assault, threats and arrest under Digital Security Act

Four weeks ago, a reporter in Bangladesh was hauled from his office, badly beaten – and then thrown from the roof of his building, leaving him with fractures in his back, three broken ribs and a machete wound on his head.

The journalist, Ayub Meahzi, believes he was targeted for reporting on alleged local government ties to a criminal group.

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Two Bangladeshi opposition leaders arrested in government crackdown

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Seven killed and thousands arrested as Hasina regime continues repressive campaign against opponents

Two top leaders of Bangladesh’s main opposition party have been arrested amid a violent crackdown on government opponents during which at least seven people have been shot dead and thousands arrested.

Over recent weeks, Sheikh Hasina’s government has launched a repressive campaign against the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), which has been holding rallies calling for her resignation.

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