Sheikh Hasina | DD News

February 12, 2026 2:07 PM

‘A festival’: High turnout as Bangladeshis vote in landmark election

Tens of millions of Bangladeshis voted on Thursday in an election that they hope will provide stability and growth after the 2024 ouster of long‑time premier Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z‑driven uprising. With around 128 million people eligible to vote, turnout reached a high 32.88% by noon at about three-fourths of the 42,651 polling centres across the country, Akhtar Ahmed, senior secretary of the Election Commission, told reporters. Analysts say a decisive result is crucial for steady gove...

February 11, 2026 3:29 PM

Bangladesh election offers hope to garment sector battered by tariffs and unrest

Millions of Bangladeshi garment workers and their bosses will vote on Thursday for a new government hoping it can save the country's biggest industry, which has suffered six straight months of falling exports due to U.S. tariffs and domestic political and labour unrest. The garment sector is Bangladesh's economic lifeblood, driving 80% of exports and more than 10% of the economy, and supplies some of the world's global brands. In a country of 175 million, nearly four million workers, mostly wo...

February 11, 2026 3:27 PM

Why is Bangladesh holding a national referendum alongside its general election?

Bangladesh will hold a national referendum on Thursday together with its first parliamentary election since violent protests ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. The referendum will give people a chance to vote on reforms to state institutions. Here is a look at why the referendum is being held, and what it entails. WHY IS A REFERENDUM NEEDED? The referendum focuses on implementing the 'July Charter' drafted after the 2024 uprising to establish good governance, democracy...

February 11, 2026 12:27 PM

Bangladesh’s Tarique Rahman: From exile to edge of power

Less than two months after returning from nearly two decades of self‑imposed exile in London, Tarique Rahman could win one of Bangladesh's most pivotal elections and become prime minister, leading the country as his parents once did. If opinion polls hold, Thursday's election would mark a remarkable reversal of fortune for the soft‑spoken 60-year-old, who left the country in 2008 saying he needed medical treatment after his release from detention under a military‑backed caretaker administ...

February 11, 2026 12:21 PM

Islamist leader rises from obscurity to challenge for Bangladesh’s top job

Shafiqur Rahman has long been on the margins of Bangladeshi politics, but his bearded face now appears on posters and billboards across Dhaka, urging voters to elect the country’s first Islamist‑led government in a general election on Thursday. The 67‑year‑old doctor and Jamaat‑e‑Islami party chief has risen from near obscurity to be a serious contender for prime minister, after decades of being mostly known only in Islamist circles. A Jamaat coalition is expected to put up a close...

December 22, 2025 4:54 PM

Hostility towards India being manufactured by extremists, says Sheikh Hasina; blames Yunus-led interim government for strained ties

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accused the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government of deliberately stoking anti-India sentiment, empowering extremist elements and weakening law and order, saying the current strain in India-Bangladesh relations is “entirely of Yunus’s making”. In an email interview with ANI, Hasina said hostility towards India was being “manufactured by extremists who have been emboldened by the Yunus regime”, and asserted that New Delhi’s concerns ...

December 4, 2025 9:13 AM

Bangladesh’s Gen-Z battles to gain political ground after ousting Hasina

Thousands in Bangladesh flocked to hear the plans of the students who toppled long-time leader Sheikh Hasina when they launched a new political party this year, but now it finds itself struggling to translate the street power into votes. Fighting to deliver on its promise to free the nation from decades of nepotism and two-party dominance, the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) faces entrenched rivals with deep networks and resources as polls approach in February. "Our organisation is we...

November 18, 2025 12:19 PM

UN chief Antonio Guterres opposes death penalty for Sheikh Hasina

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is against the death penalty imposed on Sheikh Hasina by a Bangladesh court, said his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. “We stand against the use of the death penalty in all circumstances”, he said on Monday, replying to a question at his daily briefing on the sentence imposed in absentia on the leader who is in exile in India. Dujarric cited a statement by UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Turk and said that “we fully agree with” his oppositi...

November 18, 2025 12:14 PM

Protests, arson rock Bangladesh following verdict against Sheikh Hasina

Bangladesh witnessed a night of widespread protests and arson after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Monday. Several vehicles were torched across at least five districts as unrest spread rapidly. The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is a domestic special court system in Bangladesh established to prosecute individuals for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War. The trib...

November 18, 2025 11:14 AM

‘India remains committed to best interests of people of Bangladesh’: MEA after ICT verdict on Sheikh Hasina

The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday said that India has taken note of the verdict announced by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh" concerning former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and said that India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh. The MEA underlined that India will always engage constructively with all stakeholders. The statement said, "India has noted the verdict announced by the " International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh" concerning ...