Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Dr Rajiv J Shah has written a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and urged her to find an agreed path to hold a free, fair and credible election.
“The people of Bangladesh want free, fair and credible elections. I urge you to find an agreed path to holding the elections that the Bangladeshi people so deeply want,” he said in the letter to the Prime Minister.
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Looming uncertainty in the political arena and its ultimate consequences through continuous violence on the streets for the last couple of months have restrained foreign entrepreneurs from making fresh investments in Bangladesh.
The number of proposals for fresh investments by foreign entrepreneurs has halved within a month, according to sources, reports the Independent.
The Board of Investment (BoI) received only seven proposals in October against 15 in September this year. The amount of proposed investment against those projects also declined drastically. The foreign companies proposed to invest only $20 million in October against a commitment of $1,915 million in September. The number of local investment proposals also de...
“With election sentiments at the bursting point, Bangladeshi security forces need to overcome their long history of using unlawful force against opposition protesters and respond in a way that is professional and non-partisan.” said Brad Adams, Asia director at the Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“The ruling Awami League should remember the mistreatment suffered by its supporters when they were in the opposition and ensure that law enforcement agencies act within the law”, added Adams.
He said political party and protest leaders should act to prevent violence by their supporters, including against the security forces. The security forces should respond to protests in accordance with international law enforcement standards, only us...
Bangladesh will be catapulted to third in the league table of death penalty countries, behind Iran and China if the executions of 152 border guards to death over ‘2009 mutiny’ are carried out, a process that was slammed by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, amongst others.
In young and developing democracies like Bangladesh, the imprisonment of dissenting voices is commonplace, but not unsurprising. Yet it is the incendiary act of executing high-level opposition leaders before an election which risks plunging Bangladesh into turmoil. Criticism of legal processes aside, it is this challenge to the very fundamentals of a modern democracy that must concern all.
The Indian UPA government led by Congress is learned to have got the BJP’s support for tabling the bill related to the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh in the winter session of parliament beginning on Thursday, signalling its intent to Dhaka to go ahead with the landmark pact.
However, the bill is unlikely to be taken up for ratification, with the BJP making it clear that the government will have to explain its political limitations to Bangladesh, reports The Indian Express on Monday.
Quoting reliable sources the daily said the bill will be introduced in the Rajya Sabha so that it remains alive in the new parliament after the general election.
The BJP, it is learned, has come around to the view that this is how far it can go in an election year, although it is not ...
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged the Bangladesh political leaders on both sides to stop political violence and their ‘destructive brinkmanship’.
“Whatever their differences, political leaders on both sides must halt their destructive brinkmanship, which is pushing Bangladesh dangerously close to a major crisis,” Pillay said in a statement issued from Geneva on Sunday.
Instead, she said, they (political leaders) must fulfill their responsibility and use their influence to bring this violence to an immediate halt and seek a solution to this crisis through dialogue.
The statement came at a time when the...
