Most recently, Bangladesh again found a place in global media headlines. Sadly, it was for convicting and imprisoning two of its most prominent human rights defenders, Adilur Rahman Khan and Nasiruddin Elan of Odhikar. This is the first awarding of jail term to any human rights defender in Bangladesh in since independence. Adilur founded  human rights organisation Odhikar in 1994. With an initial slow start, it soon became a leading independent rights monitoring group. Since then, it has been diligently documenting all kinds of violations of human rights by both state agencies, and non-state actors.   Odhikar’s annual reports on rights dating back to 2004 are still available on the organisation’s website. These reports contain well-sourced data about custodial deaths, crossfires, extrajudicial killings, detentions without trial, use of force to break up political and union protests, violences against minorities and women, border killings, and most other violations ...

Sometimes it feels intriguing why some issues kick off fierce debate and why others don’t. One such less discussed, but hugely significant development, was the Hefazat delegation’s recent meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina.  Very little has been divulged about the December 17, 2022 parley, other than the Home Minister telling the media that the prime minister will definitely look into the demands made by the Hefazat-e-Islam leaders and fulfil those which are deemed reasonable. Hefazat leaders, too, have said nothing much, except describing the meeting “very fruitful.” The Bangla daily Bhorer Kagoj quoted Maulana Meer Idris saying, ‘The meeting with the prime minister was very fruitful. She heard us with seriousness.” Press reports say Hefazat had a meeting on the same day under the banner of National Ulama Mashayekh Conference. The conference held at Kazi Bashir Auditorium in Gulistan was attended by representatives of the organisation from all parts of the country. A seven-...

  The violent protests in Bangladesh over a visit by the leader of the county’s most favoured neighbour India, which resulted in the deaths of   at least 14 supporters ,   was an outcome which neither the host nor the guest wanted.  The occasion of the visit was a particularly auspicious one for Bangladesh which rightly prides itself on its independence gained through a nine-month long armed struggle. It was also not unexpected for there to be anything other than high level participation from India in not only the launching of the Golden Jubilee of independence but also the conclusion of a year-long celebration of the birth centenary of the founding leader of the nation, Sheikh Mujibar Rahman. India’s moral, political and military support in Bangladesh’s liberation war meant that any deviation from such participation would have definitely raised eyebrows about the state of the relationship between the two countries. This goodwill visit will inevitably be remembered f...