Sheikh Hasina

The protests erupted in the wake of a June 5 ruling by the Bangladesh High Court. The ruling reinstated the 30% quota for posts for the descendants of those who participated in the country’s 1971 liberation movement.

In his remarks to the media, Modi said Bangladesh is India's largest development partner and New Delhi attaches the highest priority to its relations with that country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 76, ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, secured a fifth overall term in the one-sided election in January

Tensions flared up when BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi publicly discarded an Indian shawl and supported the social media campaign against Indian goods

The two leaders were meeting on the sidelines of the prestigious Munich Security Conference, in its 60th edition, which is the world’s leading forum for debate on international security.

Hasina formed her government for the straight fourth term. She has inducted 25 ministers and 11 state ministers in her Cabinet.

She bagged 249,965 votes while her nearest rival M Nizam Uddin Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party secured just 469 votes.

Prime Minister Hasina, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, is set to secure a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term.

At least 18 arson attacks preceded the vote but the election day passed relatively calm. Turnout was around 40%, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said after the polls closed.

According to media reports, over 10,000 opposition leaders and activists, including BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, have been arrested in a nationwide crackdown while the main opposition claimed the figure to be as high as 20,000.

According to the cover story titled "Sheikh Hasina and the Future of Democracy in Bangladesh," the nation under Hasina has taken an authoritarian turn under her Awami League party. The last two elections were condemned by the US and the European Union for "significant irregularities," including stuffed ballot boxes and thousands of phantom voters.

Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart virtually inaugurated the Akhaura-Agartala Cross-Border Rail Link rail link and Khulna-Mongla Port rail line. Both will boost movement of passengers and goods transport between India and its neighbouring countries.

‘Mujib: The Making of a Nation’, on Bangladesh's founding father, will release in multiple languages in India on October 27. The veteran filmmaker, the second Indian auteur after Ritwik Ghatak to make an India-Bangladesh government co-production, on his films and Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy.