Supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) shout slogans during a rally demanding a democratic transition through an election in Dhaka, Bangladesh. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Days after Chief Adviser Prof. Mohammad Yunus promised to hold an election in Bangladesh in 2025 or early 2026, a leading member of his Advisory Council declared on Wednesday that organising “just one election” was not the aim of the people-student uprising. The comment from Asif Mahmud, former student coordinator of the  Anti-Discrimination Students Movement and the current adviser in charge of multiple ministries, has stoked further discussion about the prospects of elections in Bangladesh which has been under the Interim Government since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August.

“The people’s uprising had a one-point agenda; that was to bring down Sheikh Hasina’s government and end the fascist system. The fascist system has destroyed almost all the institutions of the country. For completion of the one-point agenda, it is necessary to implement the reforms process,” said Mr. Mahmud.

Also read | Student-advisers in interim government of Bangladesh gaining higher profile

Mr. Mahmud, who is in charge of the Ministries of Local Governance, Rural Development and Youth and Sports Affairs, said that multiple reform commissions, which were constituted in August, are on track. Citing Mr. Mahmud’s remarks, state-owned Bangladesh Sanbad Sansthan reported that he was talking about long-term issues that were beyond the ambit of electoral politics and said, “More than two thousand people did not die and more than twenty-thousand citizens were not injured just for holding one election or vote”.

He further said, “Our commissions have been working for nearly three months. They will give their recommendations and after that we will discuss the path ahead after discussing with various stakeholders.”

The remarks came days after Mr. Yunus came out with a promise to hold elections in Bangladesh. On the occasion of the Victory Day of 16 December, which annually celebrates the victory of the War of Liberation against Pakistan’s rule, Mr. Yunus had announced that elections in Bangladesh would be held either later in 2025 or during early part of 2026.

The announcement has ever since triggered speculation, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party declaring last week that it was disappointed because Mr. Yunus did not give a specific date for holding elections.

In a press conference, BNP General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “We had hoped that the chief adviser would come up with a clear election roadmap, but he did not do so. This has left us and the nation disappointed.”

The reform process of the Yunus-led Interim Government has also received heightened public attention because of the goals they have set up.

Constitutional Reforms Commission’s head Prof. Ali Riaz pointed out that the constitution reform will aim to make Bangladesh more amenable to the ambition of its young population.

In an interview with popular news outlet Kaler Kontho Mr. Riaz said that the commission is trying to create more space for the participation of the young population in nation-building activities and to that end, the commission was considering reducing the 25-year age limit for MPst down to 21. “We urge political parties to keep 1/4^th or 1/3^rd of their nominations for the youth as tomorrow’s Bangladesh will be built by the young people,” Mr. Riaz was quoted as saying by Kaler Kontho.

BSF personnel keep vigil at the India-Bangladesh international Border on the eve of the Independence Day, at Chatrahati in South Dinajpur district of West Bengal .
| Photo Credit: ANI

A retired judge of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court was detained from the northeastern frontier with India in Sylhet while he was allegedly attempting to flee the country, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said late on Friday (August 23, 2024).

The report came hours after the arrest of Awami League leader ASM Firoz from his residence.

Watch: The story of Sheikh Hasina

The BGB headquarters, in an SMS, informed reporters that they have detained former apex appellate division judge of the Supreme Court Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik as he was trying to cross over to India through Sylhet’s Kanaighat border.

Newspaper Prothom Alo said Manik was kept at a BGB outpost till midnight citing the camp’s in-charge.

Bangladesh descended into chaos after ousted premier Sheikh Hasina’s government collapsed and she fled to India on August 5 amid violent protests over quota for government jobs, while the Army stepped in to fill the power vacuum.

Before that, anti-government protests had killed more than 500 people since mid-July. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took oath as the Chief Adviser of the interim government on August 8.

Since August 5, a number of leaders of the deposed regime, including senior ministers, have been arrested — many of them on murder charges.

The Bangladesh Army has earlier said that several hundred leaders of Hasina’s Awami League and others have been sheltered in cantonments as their lives were at risk.

Former law minister Anisul Huq and the ex-premier’s private sector affairs adviser Salman F Rahman were the first to be arrested from Dhaka’s main river port Sadarghat terminal area as they were allegedly trying to leave Dhaka on a boat.

A number of members of Hasina’s cabinet, including former foreign minister Hassan Mahmud and former social welfare minister Dipu Moni, several lawmakers and leaders of Awami League and its allies, including pro-left Workers Party chairman Rashed Khan Menon, and a number of recently sacked military and civil officials have been arrested.

This included sacked major general Ziaul Hassan, who was serving as the head of the government’s telecommunications system, and Chittagong Port Authority chairman rear admiral Mohammad Sohail, who once was the spokesman of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion.

A TV journalist couple Farzana Rupa and her husband Shakil Ahmed have also been arrested.

People navigate a flooded street following incessant rains in Feni, a coastal district in southeast Bangladesh bordering Tripura on Thursday (August 22, 2024).
| Photo Credit: AP

Bangladesh Chief Adviser Prof. Mohammad Yunus on Thursday (August 22, 2024) met Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma in a meeting that the Indian side described as a “normal call on”. The meeting came minutes after Prof Yunus met his senior colleagues over the unprecedented floods in the eastern districts of Bangladesh that his administration has blamed on India releasing water from neighbouring Tripura without “early warning”. The meeting was scheduled at 4:30 p.m. Bangladesh time.

Information and Broadcasting Adviser Nahid Islam said India has behaved in an inhumane manner by releasing water without early warning. He said this during a meeting with the media in Dhaka.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday (August 22, 2024) denied reports of floods in the eastern districts of Bangladesh were caused due to the opening of the Dumbur dam in Tripura.

Western Tripura and parts of Bangladesh have been inundated with rain in the last few days and this was largely responsible for the flooding in downstream Bangladesh. The Dumbur dam, a hydropower project, had been “auto-releasing” water as a consequence of the rainfall, their statement noted.

The Dumbnur dam is a hydroelectric project and is built upon the Gumti river which flows through India and Bangladesh.

Heavy rainfall has been continuing since August 21 in the whole of Tripura and the adjoining districts of Bangladesh. Relentless monsoon rains and flooding have stranded nearly three million people in Bangladesh and killed two, submerging vast areas and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials from the country’s disaster management ministry said on Thursday.

Washington:

The United States Wednesday said it is ready to work with the interim government of Bangladesh as the country charts a democratic future for its people.

“We continue to monitor developments in Bangladesh, and we obviously have seen the appointment of Muhammad Yunus as the leader of an interim government,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference.

“We think the interim government will play a vital role in establishing long-term peace and political stability in Bangladesh,” Miller said responding to questions on the fast-moving development in Bangladesh.

A State Department spokesperson, meanwhile, told PTI, “All decisions regarding the interim government should respect democratic principles, rule of law, and the will of the Bangladeshi people.” “We understand Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has agreed to lead Bangladesh’s interim government. We stand ready to work with the interim government, as it charts a democratic future for the people of Bangladesh,” the spokesperson said in response to a question.

Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus is set to take oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday, as he made a fervent appeal to everyone to stay calm and “refrain from all kinds of violence” to make the best use of “our new victory”.

As authorities scrambled to bring the law and order situation under control, Army chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman on Wednesday announced that the interim government will take oath around 8 pm on Thursday. He said the advisory council may have 15 members.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)