Sheikh Hasina

The BNP’s growing influence has been cemented by Rahman’s dramatic return from 17 years in exile and the recent death of his mother Khaleda Zia, which removes the most visible restraint on the party’s hard-line factions.

Hindu leader Gobinda Chandra Pramanik will contest Sheikh Hasina’s former seat in Gopalganj amid rising minority violence in Bangladesh. Interim PM Muhammad Yunus’s government faces criticism for failing to protect minorities.

Ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused Bangladesh’s current rulers of illegally seizing power and persecuting minorities, as fresh lynchings of Hindu men heightened tensions during the Christmas period.

Tarique's Dhaka rally was a direct challenge to the authority of the Yunus administration, which has increasingly appeared paralysed as unrest spreads across Dhaka and other cities.

Bangladesh has seen a fresh spike in violence since Hadi was shot dead at close range on December 12. The unrest was compounded days later by the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu youth, over alleged blasphemy.

Tarique Rahman's presence on the ground is expected to energise the opposition’s campaign at a time when Bangladesh’s political environment remains tense, with recurring violence and growing space for radical groups.

The incident occurred in broad daylight near a medical college, underscoring how lawlessness has spread far beyond Dhaka into other urban centres.

As Bangladesh inches toward elections, the question dominating public discourse is no longer how Sheikh Hasina fell, but whether her removal has accelerated the very forces she once kept contained.

India had Wednesday summoned Bangladesh’s High Commissioner Riaz Hamidullah to lodge a strong protest over what it described as a rapidly deteriorating security environment in the neighbouring country.

It comes as no surprise that Yunus is rushing to embrace Pakistan, a regional player he doesn’t understand, begging for any form of international validation, says Hasina.

Relations between India and Bangladesh have deteriorated sharply under Muhammad Yunus. His administration has leaned closer to China and Pakistan while distancing itself from New Delhi.

This will be the country’s first national vote since last year’s student-led uprising that forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India.

A Dhaka court sentenced prime minister Sheikh Hasina to five years and her UK MP niece Tulip Siddiq to two for corruption linked to the Purbachal New Town land project.

The Awami League described the tribunal’s judgment as “farcical,” claiming it had been “rejected with contempt” by the people and denounced the proceedings as a “mockery of a trial.”

Wazed accused Yunus of damaging the country, alleging that he is turning Bangladesh into a failed state and an Islamist terrorist state.

Legal experts now argue that the court had no authority to try Hasina for crimes allegedly committed in 2024. Its jurisdiction, they say, does not extend beyond the 1971 war.

Speaking about the new US government under President Donald Trump, Sheikh Hasina's son said with this, the situation is completely different and that there is a distinct change in outlook of Washington towards Dhaka.

Behind the facade of the word “international” lies a court that is deeply domestic, politically controlled, and structurally isolated from the global justice system it seeks to imitate.

The August 1975 coup plunged the young nation into years of political turmoil and set off a cycle of military interventions that lasted for decades.

Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, has formally asked India to hand over Hasina, calling it a “legal obligation under the extradition treaty.”