Tag: BANGLADESH

Bangladesh crimes tribunal issues arrest warrant for exiled former prime minister

DHAKA (Reuters) -Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, currently in India, citing her alleged involvement in mass killings during violent protests that erupted earlier this year. The protests, which began as a student-led movement against public sector job quotas, escalated into some of the deadliest unrest since the country’s independence in 1971, resulting in over 700 deaths and numerous injuries. The violence ultimately forced Hasina […]

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Bangladesh president dissolves parliament, frees former PM Zia

By Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) -Bangladesh’s president dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for an interim government and new elections a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising. President Mohammed Shahabuddin’s office also announced that the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who had feuded with Hasina for decades, had been freed from house arrest. Student […]

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Bangladesh awaits interim government, army chief to meet protesters

By Ruma Paul and Kanjyik Ghosh DHAKA (Reuters) –Bangladesh’s army chief will meet student protest leaders on Tuesday as the country awaits the formation of a new government a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent uprising against her that killed hundreds. Student leaders, who spearheaded a movement against job quotas that turned into a call for Hasina to resign, said early on Tuesday that they want a new interim […]

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Bangladesh turns back fleeing Myanmar soldiers at border

TEKNAF, Bangladesh, July 16, 2024 (AFP) – Bangladesh stopped dozens of Myanmar security personnel from crossing into its territory to flee advancing rebel forces, a local government official based near their river border said Tuesday. Clashes have rocked Myanmar’s western frontiers since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the country’s 2021 military coup. Hundreds of Myanmar troops have taken refuge in India and Bangladesh […]

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Thousands flee as cyclone heads towards Bangladesh

By Mohammad MAZED PATUAKHALI, Bangladesh, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis left their coastal villages Sunday for concrete storm shelters further inland as the low-lying nation prepared for the expected landfall of an intense cyclone, officials said. Cyclone Remal is set to hit the southern coast and parts of neighbouring India on Sunday evening, with Bangladesh’s weather department predicting crashing waves and howling gales with gusts of up to 130 kilometres […]

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Bangladesh reopens schools despite heat alert

DHAKA, April 28, 2024 (AFP) – Millions of students returned to their reopened schools across Bangladesh Sunday despite a lingering heatwave that prompted a nationwide classroom shutdown order last weekend. Average maximum temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius (7.2-9 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average for the same period, with several more days of hot weather forecast. Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing […]

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Two Rohingya found dead at sea after Indonesia ends survivor search

ACEH JAYA, Indonesia, March 23, 2024 (AFP) – The bodies of two Rohingya refugees were retrieved and several more were spotted at sea Saturday, local rescuers said, days after a wooden boat believed to be carrying around 150 people capsized, leaving many missing or dead. The mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to […]

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Rescuers end sea search for Rohingya refugees

By Zahlul Akbar MEULABOH, Indonesia, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – Indonesian rescuers called off the search for Rohingya refugees missing at sea after their boat capsized, despite reports from some of the survivors that dozens of people were swept away. Friday’s announcement comes a day after authorities staged a dramatic rescue of 69 Rohingya who had been adrift at sea for weeks before the boat capsized, with many found clinging to the hull of the […]

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Upscale Dhaka restaurant fire kills at least 44, scores injured

DHAKA, Feb 29, 2024 (AFP) – At least 44 people were killed and dozens injured after a fire blazed through a seven-storey building in an upscale neighbourhood in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka late Thursday, authorities said. “So far 43 people have died from the fire,” Bangladesh’s health minister Samanta Lal Sen told AFP after visiting the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and an adjoining burn hospital. Police inspector Bacchu Mia said one more person died […]

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UN urges rescue of 185 Rohingya adrift in Indian Ocean

GENEVA, Dec 23, 2023 (AFP) – The United Nations called Saturday for the urgent rescue of 185 people, mainly women and children, on a distressed boat last heard to be near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean. Around 70 of those onboard are children and 88 are women, the UNHCR refugee agency said in a statement. “At least a dozen are feared to be in critical condition with one individual reported to […]

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Nearly 200 Rohingya stranded on Indonesia beach: AFP

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Dec 10, 2023 (AFP) – Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, were stranded on a beach in western Indonesia Sunday after local authorities said they would not accept the new arrivals, AFP witnessed. The refugees arrived by boat at 3:00 am local time (2000 GMT Saturday), the latest in what has been the largest influx of the persecuted Myanmar minority since 2015. The mostly Muslim Rohingya were the target of […]

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Indonesia’s Widodo cites traffickers for Rohingya refugee influx

JAKARTA, Dec 8, 2023 (AFP) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Friday his government suspects a human trafficking network is behind the rising number of Rohingya refugees reaching his country by boat. The mostly Muslim Rohingya face heavy persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar — including a 2017 crackdown that is subject to a UN genocide probe — and many have fled over the border to camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. From there, thousands risk their lives each […]

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