Timeline Bangladesh
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Bangladesh Arsenic Crises: http://bicn.com/acic/index.html
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bg.html
History: http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/rafiqul_islam.html
USLC: http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/bangla/bangladeshm.html
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. The country is
about 2 times the size of Ireland. The population is predominantly
Muslim.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D4)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.41)
2700BC-700BC
The Harappan civilization flourished in the Indus and Ganges valleys.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
450BC In 2006 archaeologists in
Bangladesh said they had uncovered part of a fortified citadel at Wari,
northeast of Dhaka, dating back to this time that could have been a
stopping off point along an ancient trade route.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
800-900 In northern Bangladesh the Buddhist monastic
complex at Paharpur was built by the Pala dynasty.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.B)
1400-1500 The city of Bagerhat was founded in
southern Bangladesh by Ulugh Khan-i-Jahan as a Muslim colony.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.B)
1947 Sep 27, Sheik Hasina, later
Bangladesh prime minister, was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1947 Bangladesh as part of
Pakistan gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1947 At the time of India’s
partition and the creation of Pakistan, many Muslim Biharis moved to
what was then East Bengal. In 1971, when war broke out between West
Pakistan and East Pakistan (or Bangladesh), the Biharis, who mostly
considered themselves Pakistani, sided with West Pakistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biharis)
1952 Feb 21, Bangladesh Martyrs
Day (martyrs of Bengali Language Movement).
(MC, 2/21/02)
1958 A periodic flowering took
place in the bamboo forests of Bangladesh leading to a plague of rats.
The flowering recurred in 2008 causing a similar rodent plague.
(SFC, 2/16/08, p.B6)
1960 Oct 10, A cyclone and tidal
wave hit the Gulf of Bengal and killed about 6,000 in East Pakistan.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1963 May 20-1963 May 23, In East
Pakistan a cyclone killed about 22,000 along coast of the Bay of Bengal.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1964 Apr 11, The Bangladesh
Observer (East Pakistan) reported that as many as 500 people may
have died as a tornado destroyed villages in the Narail and Magura
regions of Jessore.
(www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/bangladesh.htm)
1965 May 11-1965 May 12, In East
Pakistan a cyclone killed some 12,000.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1965 Jun 1-1965 Jun 2, The 2nd of
2 cyclones in less than a month killed 35,000 along the Ganges River in
East Pakistan.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1969 Apr 14, A tornado struck
Dacca in East Pakistan killing 660.
(www.bangladeshtornadoes.org/climo/btorcli0.htm)
1970 Nov 12, A 240 KPH cyclone hit
East Pakistan (Bangladesh) [see Nov 13].
(SSFC, 9/5/04,
p.9)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1970 Nov 13, The Bhola Cyclone
killed an estimated 300,000 in East Pakistan (Bangladesh). The highest
loss of life and destruction occurred on the low lying islands of the
Ganges Delta south of Dhaka. In particular the island and district of
Bhola, where casualties may have exceeded 100,000 alone, with the towns
of Charfasson and Tazumuddin being devastated. The city of Chittagong
was also badly affected. The official death toll was put at 150,000,
with 100,000 people missing. However many estimates put the true figure
as high as 500,000.
(SFEC, 9/5/04,
p.6)(http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/C_0397.htm)
1971 Mar 21, Sheik Mujibur Rahman
(Mujeeb-ur Rehman) declared East Pakistan (later Bangladesh)
independent of Pakistan. Pakistani Pres. Yahya Khan ordered the army
in; several million East Bengali refugees fled to India. Rahman was the
father of later PM Hasina Wajid.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B3)
1971 Mar 25, Sheik Mujibur Rahman
was arrested in Dhaka. Pakistani forces started Operation Searchlight,
a systematic plan to eliminate any resistance. Thousands of people were
killed in student dormitories and police barracks in Dhaka.
(WUD, 1994, p.
1688)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971)
1971 Mar 26, East Pakistan
proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh. [See Mar 21]
This is considered the official Independence day of Bangladesh.
(AP,
3/26/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War)
1971 Aug 1, The Concert For
Bangladesh, two benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi
Shankar, played to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Concert_for_Bangladesh)
1971 Nov 22, Guerrilla fighting
escalated on the border of East Pakistan. India massed 12 divisions
near the border.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
1971 Dec 3, The 3rd Indo-Pakistani
war began when India intervened in the Pakistani civil war. Pakistan
attacked Indian airfields and India mobilized its army after nearly 10
million refugees poured into India. The India-Pakistani civil war ended
with independence for East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A12)(SSFC,
12/30/01, p.A22)
1971 Dec 6, Bangladesh became
independent from Pakistan following a 9-month war in a struggle led by
Sheik Mujibar Rahman. Sheik Rahman was nominated as president on Dec 20
and released from prison on Dec 22; he returned to Bangladesh Jan 10.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-10)
1971 Dec 6, India recognized the
Democratic Republic of Bangladesh and Pakistan broke off diplomatic
relations. Bangladesh later accused Pakistan of war atrocities that led
to the death of some 3 million people during the 9-month war.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B3)
1971 Dec 16, Pakistani forces in
East Pakistan surrendered to the allied forces of India and Bangladesh,
jointly known as the Mitro Bahini. Bangladesh gained independence.
Bangladesh later accused Pakistan of war atrocities that led to the
death of some 3 million people during the 9-month war.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971)(SFC,
12/31/00, p.B3)
1971 Dec 17, A cease fire began
between India and Pakistan in East Pakistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971)
1971 Dec 20, Sheik Mujibar Rahman
was nominated as president of Bangladesh. He was released from prison
in Pakistan on Dec 22 and returned to Bangladesh Jan 10.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-10)
1971 Following Pakistan’s defeated
by India and Bangladesh in the Bangladesh war. Pakistan decided to
develop a nuclear weapons program.
(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A9)
1972 Jan 10, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
(b.1920) returned to Dhaka from prison in West Pakistan. He soon
promulgated an interim constitution and was sworn in first as president
of Bangladesh, then as prime minister.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ryydhzeZic)
1972 Mar 19, India and Bangladesh
signed a friendship treaty.
(http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/I_0040.htm)
1973 Mar 7, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
(1920-1975), a leader of the Bangladeshi independence movement and
first prime minister of Bangladesh, won a landslide victory in the
country's first general elections. Rahman and the Awami League won
elections.
(SFC, 6/12/96,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladeshi_general_election%2C_1973)
1973 The Shanti Bahini (Peace
Force) guerrillas, mostly members of the Chakma tribe, took up arms
after Bangladesh rejected their demands for autonomy over 5,500
sq.-mile region bordering India and Burma. They also demanded the
removal of more than 300,000 settlers from their tribal homeland.
(SFC, 9/12/96, p.A14)
1974 Feb 22, Pakistan officially
recognized Bangladesh.
(http://pakistanspace.tripod.com/74.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/58uluz)
1974 Aug, Monsoon floods ravaged
Bangladesh and some 2,500 were killed.
(http://library.thinkquest.org/C003603/english/flooding/casestudies.shtml#49)
1975 Aug 15, Bangladesh
army officers killed Sheik Mujibar Rahman, the country's founding
leader and father of Hasina Wajed. A total of 20 people, including
domestic staff, were killed when the group of officers stormed his
house. General Ziaur Rahman, father of Khaleda Zia, became the military
ruler. Rahman had introduced a one-party socialist system and assumed
almost dictatorial powers. In 1997 the government charged two people
with his assassination. In 1998 15 men were found guilty and sentenced
to death. Three were acquitted in 2001. Of the remaining 12, five
appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, six are in hiding and one is
believed to have died in Zimbabwe. In 2010 the Supreme Court upheld the
death sentence for five killers.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A9)(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A14)(SFC,
4/7/97, p.A10)(AFP, 1/27/10)
1975 Smallpox was eradicated in
India and Bangladesh.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1976 Muhammad Yunus began his
microloan program and founded the Grameen Bank. Small loans were
initially made to groups of five women who supported one another.
(Wired, 2/98, p.67)
1980 May 30, In Bangladesh General
Ziaur Rahman was assassinated by dissident army officers.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A9)(www.muktadhara.net/page81.html)
1980 In Bangladesh the
installation of cheap surface wells was begun to keep people from
drinking infected pond and river water [see 1990].
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A8)
1981 May 30, In Bangladesh Major
Gen’l. Abdul Manzoor was shot and killed after he led a failed uprising
that killed Pres. Ziaur Rahman 1980. Hussein Mohammed Ershad and 4 army
officers were later accused of the killing.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/2u8zqz)(AP,
5/30/01)
1982 Mar 24, In Bangladesh Hussein
Mohammed Ershad overthrew Justice Abdus Sattar and seized power in a
bloodless coup.
(SFC,11/27/97,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begum_Khaleda_Zia)
1983 The capital building of
Bangladesh was completed. It was designed by Louis Kahn (1901-1974),
Estonia-born architect
(PBS, Internet)
1983 Muhammad Yunus opened the
Grameen Bank, dedicated to provided small loans to rural villagers. The
bank was very successful and was copied as a model for similar programs
in the US and elsewhere.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, Par p.4)
1985 May 25, A cyclone ravaged the
Meghna River delta of Bangladesh. Some 10,000 people and 500,000 head
of cattle died; hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1985 The South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with
the aim of promoting economic cooperation and alleviating poverty in
South Asia. Members included Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
(AP, 11/13/05)
1986 Apr 20, The Atlas Star, a
double-decker ferry, sank in stormy weather in Bangladesh. 500
passengers were feared drowned.
(http://tinyurl.com/q28gb)
1986 May 25, Some 600 people died
when the ferry Shamia went down in the River Meghna in southern Barisal
district, Bangladesh.
(http://tinyurl.com/yjfo9s)(AP, 2/3/06)
1988 Sep 4, Officials in
Bangladesh reported that floods had inundated three-quarters of their
impoverished nation, claiming at least 882 lives. Monsoon floods left
over 3,000 dead this year.
(AP, 9/4/98)(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A15)
1988 Dec 1, At least 1300 were
killed after a cyclone hit Bangladesh. Half a million were left
homeless.
(http://tinyurl.com/gtev9)
1989 Apr 27, A hurricane in
Bangladesh killed 500.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1990 Dec 6, In Bangladesh an
opposition campaign led by Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina forced Pres.
Hossain Mohammad Ershad to resign.
(Econ, 11/4/06,
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossain_Mohammad_Ershad)
1990 Bangladesh authorities were
warned that arsenic was seeping from the subsoil into the water supply
through the cheap surface wells. The adjoining Indian Province of West
Bengal first noticed the problem. The wells were dug by UNICEF in an
effort to provide clean water.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/24/05, p.W9)
1991 Feb 27, Bangladesh General
H.M. Ershad, leader of the Jatiya Party, was toppled in elections. He
was then jailed for the next 6 years for corruption and abuse of power.
The Nationalist Party of Khaleda Zia, widow of General Ziaur Rahman won
the elections and moved the country away from a socialist economic
system begun by Sheik Mujibur.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E3)(SFC,11/27/97,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begum_Khaleda_Zia)
1991 Apr 30-1991 Apr 31, A cyclone
in Bangladesh killed an estimated 131,000 people. 9 million were left
homeless. Thousands of survivors died from hunger and water borne
disease.
(AP, 4/30/97)(SFC, 5/19/97,
p.A13)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1991 May 11, President Bush
dispatched an amphibious task force with thousands of Marines and
dozens of helicopters to help cyclone-ravaged Bangladesh with disaster
relief efforts.
(AP, 5/11/01)
1991 Bangladesh General H.M.
Ershad, leader of the Jatiya Party, was toppled in elections. He was
then jailed for the next 6 years for corruption and abuse of power. The
Nationalist Party of Khaleda Zia, widow of General Ziaur Rahman won the
elections and moved the country away from a socialist economic system
begun by Sheik Mujibur.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E3)(SFC,11/27/97, p.B5)
1992 Bangladesh began refusing
refugee status to Rohingyas, a dark-skinned Muslim minority from
Myanmar.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.56)
1992 Harkat-ul Jihadi-e-Islami
(HUJEI) was formed with funds from al-Qaeda with the goal of creating
an Islamic state in Bangladesh.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A20)
1993 Islamic fundamentalists
imposed a sentence of death on writer Taslima Nasreen for her 1992
novel "Shame." [see Nasrin 1998]
(WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A20)
1994 Aug 20, More than 250 killed
when a ferry sank in a storm on the River Meghna in Bangladesh.
(AP, 2/3/06)
1994 Taslima Nasreen (32),
Bangladeshi writer, authored her novel "Lajja" or "Shame," which
depicts violence against minority Hindus by Muslim fundamentalists in
Bangladesh. Muslims soon called for her execution for that and other
works. Nasreen went into hiding in India after receiving threats from
Islamic groups.
(AP, 11/28/07)
1995 Dec, A general strike
affected more than 60 cities and towns. It was aimed at forcing the
resignation of Prime Minister Zia, who was accused of corruption and
incompetence. In Chittagong 50 people were hurt when rival student
groups clashed.
(WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)
1996 Jan 1, Some 100,000
Bangladeshi women rallied to protest Islamic clerics’ attacks on female
education and employment.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1996 Feb 15, Violence in
Bangladesh kept the election turnout to about 15%. Opposition leaders
filed no candidates and claimed that the results showed that Prime
Minister Zia had lost authority to rule.
(WSJ, 2/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb, The term of government
of Khaleda Zia expired.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A9)
1996 Mar 17, A gasoline bomb
killed one person and injured 15 aboard a bus that was defying a
nationwide general strike.
(WSJ, 3/18/96, A-1)
1996 Mar 24, Troops broke up
protests in Dhaka and injured about 50 people. In Chittagong a bomb
killed at least 2 people amid a general strike.
(WSJ, 3/25/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar 27, Bangladesh passed a
constitutional amendment setting up a process for calling new
elections. Prime Minister Zia may resign soon.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar, Prime Minister Zia
resigned but enacted a constitutional amendment that all future
elections be held under caretaker governments. Power was passed to
former chief justice Mohammed Habibur Rahman. Ultimate power rested
with Pres. Abdur Rahman Biswas.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A9)
1996 May 13, A severe storm in
north Bangladesh killed at least 447 and injured more than 50,000 in
the district of Tangail. Winds had surged to 125 mph.
(SFC, 5/15/96, A-8)
1996 May 21, Pres. Abdur Rahman
Biswas accused the army chief. Lt. General Abu Saleh Mohammad Nasim of
ordering troops to march against the government. There has been 2
presidents assassinated, 3 military coups, and 18 coup attempts since
independence in 1971.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 23, In Bangladesh as many
as 77 people were feared drowned in a sunken ferry after a collision on
the Jamuna River. More than 50 ferries have sunk since 1981 killing
more than 1,000 people.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A11)
1996 Jun 12, The Election
Commission of Bangladesh announced that the liberal Awami League of
Hasina Wajed won 126 seats, the centrist National Party 103
seats, and the Jatiya Party 28.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C1)
1996 Jul, Grameen CyberNet went
live and offered Net connections to dialup customers in Dhaka.
(Wired, 2/98, p.67)
1996 Sep 11, Shanti Bahini
guerrillas killed 30 Bengali-speaking settlers in the southeastern
Chittagong Hill Tracts.
(SFC, 9/12/96, p.A14)
1997 Jan 9, The top court ordered
former President Ershad freed after 6 years of confinement for
corruption and weapons charges.
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar, Grameen-Phone launched
cell-phone services in Bangladesh. Iqbal Quadir formed a consortium
with Grameen Bank and Telenor of Norway, secured loans and won a
license from the government to launch the service. Telephone access,
administered by local telephone ladies, soon provided phone service to
over 50,000 rural villages.
(Econ, 3/11/06, Survey p.37)
1997 May 18-1997 May 19, In
Bangladesh a cyclone pounded the country and 50,000 people were
evacuated from the flat coastal region. As many as 350 people were
reported killed.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A13)(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12)(SFC,
5/21/97, p.A8)(SFC, 5/22/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 13, A ferry on the Dhanu
River northeast of Dhaka capsized in a whirlpool and at least 50 people
were drowned.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.D3)
1997 Jul 14, Monsoon flooding
killed at least 64 people in the last week.
(WSJ, 7/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 1, At least 150 fishermen
were missing in the Bay of Bengal after a storm sank their boats.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.A16)
1997 Oct 18, It was reported that
a tornado during the week killed 22 people and injured more than 400 at
the site of an annual congregation of Biswa Ijtema, the 2nd largest
Muslim gathering after the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
(SFC,10/18/97, p.A13)
1997 Nov 29, It was reported that
an earthquake rocked Bangladesh and eastern India and that 21 people
were killed in Chittagong.
(SFC, 11/29/97, p.A14)
1998 Jan 6, It was reported that
frigid weather killed at least 165 people over the last 2 weeks.
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Feb, In Bangladesh the war
between the 13 tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the central
government ended after 22 years of fighting. Warriors began turning in
their weapons and lump sum payments were to be made to rebels. The
tribes were Buddhist Southeast Asian peoples with their own languages.
Their struggle was with Bengali-speaking intruders of Indo-Aryan and
Muslim background.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A12)
1998 May 20, A cyclone pounded the
southeastern coast and killed at least 14 people. Nearly 100 fisherman
were missing.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D4)
1998 Jul 5, A memorandum of
understanding was signed with the US that would allow Peace Corps
volunteers to work here.
(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 17, In Bangladesh a week
of flooding left 54 people dead.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 22, The death toll from
flooding reached 103 left some 10 million people stranded.
(SFC, 7/22/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 12, In Bangladesh over
100 fisherman in trawlers and boats capsized in the Bay of Bengal
during a storm and were feared dead.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 13, More rain left 11
more people dead and the death toll grew to 326.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.D3)
1998 Sep 7, It was reported that
20 million Bangladeshis had their homes swamped by monsoon flood that
had lasted 2 months. Over 700 people were reported killed.
(SFC, 9/7/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 18, In Bangladesh Muslim
militants called for the death of Taslima Nasrin, a writer who
suggested that the Koran be rewritten. Her novel “Lajja” (Shame)
criticized Muslims for attacking minority Hindus after the 1992 mosque
destruction in India. [see Nasreen 1993]
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Nov 1, In Bangladesh the
first Peace Corps volunteers arrived. 17 US college will study Bangla,
the local language, for 3 months and then teach English to school
teachers.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 8, A judge convicted and
sentenced to death 15 former military commanders for the 1975
assassination of prime minister Sheik Mujibur Rahman. Only 5 of the
convicted were in immediate custody
(SFC, 11/9/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 9, In Bangladesh a
general strike began and police clashed with strikers. An alliance of 7
opposition parties protested alleged attempts by police to kill their
leader, Khaleda Zia.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.D4)
1998 Nov 10, It was reported that
an estimated 18 million Bangladesh people were slowly poisoning
themselves by drinking from groundwater contaminated with trace amounts
of arsenic. 85 million people were at risk.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A14)(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
1998 In Bangladesh monsoon floods
left over a 1000 people dead.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A15)
1999 Feb 11, Bangladesh opposition
parties called general strikes and 5 people were killed.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999 Feb 22-1999 Feb 25, Strikes
occurred during Bangladesh municipal elections and violence was
widespread.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999 Apr 19, India and Bangladesh
border guards had a shootout that left 6 people dead and 60 wounded.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)
1999 May 8, In Bangladesh 200
people were feared dead when a river ferry boat sank. About 100 people
were rescued or swam to shore.
(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 12, In Bangladesh police
clashed with protestors seeking the resignation of Prime Minister
Hasina. Opposition parties called for a 3-day general strike.
(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 13, In Bangladesh one
person was killed and 50 injured on the 1st day of a general strike
called by opposition parties.
(WSJ, 9/14/99, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, Pres. Clinton stopped
in Bangladesh, but only stood for a reception at the US Embassy due to
security reasons.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 1, In Bangladesh, 13
boats with 130 fishermen were reported sunk during rainstorms.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.C16)
2000 Sep 24, Flooding in
Bangladesh forced some 60,000 to flee their homes and at least 9 people
sere killed.
(WSJ, 9/25/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 1, About 45 people were
reported killed in Bangladesh during 3 weeks of flooding.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct 8, In southwestern
Bangladesh fresh rains submerged 25 villages.
(SFC, 10/9/00, p.A11)
2000 Nov, At least 60 people were
killed in Bangladesh by a cyclone that hit the Bay of Bengal.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.D8)
2000 Nov 25, In Bangladesh 52
people were killed in a fire at the Chowdhury Knitwear Garments factory
at Shibpur.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.D9)(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.D1)
2000 Dec 29, A ferry collided with
another ferry ship and sank on the Meghna River in southeastern
Bangladesh. At least 178 people were killed.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A10)(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 20, A bomb exploded at a
leftist political rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and at least 6 people
were killed.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan, In Bangladesh journalist
Tipu Sultan was attacked by a crowd of bodyguards of an MP, whom he had
reported as linked to crime and corruption. Sultan was left for dead
and spent months recovering outside the country.
(Reuters, 11/24/05)
2001 Apr 10, In Dhaka a general
strike for the resignation of prime minister Sheikh Hasina left 3
people dead after supporters and opponents clashed with guns and
homemade bombs.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C5)
2001 Apr 18, Border fighting
between Bangladesh and India left 16 Indian and 2 Bangladeshi soldiers
dead.
(WSJ, 4/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 3, Ten people were killed
in a church bombing in Baniarchar. Police later detained 7 suspects.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 16, In Narayanganj, a
bomb exploded at a political rally of PM Hasina’s governing Awami
League Party. At least 22 people were killed.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.A20)(WSJ, 6/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 15, PM Sheikh Hasina left
office. Pres. Shahabuddin Ahmad appointed Latifur Rahman to head a
caretaker administration. At least 4 people were killed in street
clashes.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 8, A stampede of textile
workers was caused by a false fire alarm and 23 people were crushed to
death.
(WSJ, 8/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 28, Three people were
killed in Barisal, Sandeep and Pabna. Another 4 were killed in
Chittagong City as elections approached.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A17)
2001 Sep 29, In Bangladesh over
500,000 soldiers and police were deployed to control escalating
violence prior to elections.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A17)
2001 Oct 1, Elections in
Bangladesh for 299 seats in parliament were held pitting Sheikh
Hasina’s allies against those of longtime foe Khaleda Zia. Zia’s
coalition appeared to be headed for a landslide win. Over 150 people
were killed in the weeks prior to the elections. A coalition led by the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) came to power.
(SFC, 10/3/01, p.C12)(WSJ, 10/2/01, p.A1)(Econ,
9/30/06, p.54)
2001 Bangladeshi economist
Muhammad Yunus restructured Grameen Bank to emphasize savings and
relying less on joint liability for groups.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.78)
2001-2005 Transparency International ranked
Bangladesh at the bottom of its global corruption index.
(Reuters, 11/24/05)
2002 Feb 16, It was reported that
80% of the Bangladesh’s 235 rivers were drying up due to silting,
dumping and construction of unplanned embankments.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A26)
2002 May 3, In Bangladesh a ferry
on the Meghna River capsized with some 400 passengers traveling from
Dhaka to southern Patuakhali. Early reports had only 100 survivors. The
ferry was raised and the death toll increased to 370.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A9)(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A10)(SSFC,
5/19/02, p.C15)
2002 May, In Bangladesh journalist
Nazmul Imam, who used to write about the links between drugs, crime and
politicians in the western Kushtia region, was jumped by half a dozen
thugs who cut him with knives and crushed his fingers with clubs.
(Reuters, 11/24/05)
2002 Jul 7, Nearly two dozen
people were killed and thousands left homeless as torrential monsoon
rains lashed large parts of Asia over the weekend, worsening floods and
triggering fresh storms and landslides. Monsoon flooding killed at
least 11 in Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 25, Torrential monsoon
rains and overflowing rivers worsened flooding in eastern India, Nepal
and Bangladesh and officials said 218 people have died and more than
six million people have been left homeless during the last 5 days.
(Reuters, 7/25/02)
2002 Jul 28, Torrential overnight
rains set off more floods in eastern India as the death toll from
floods in India, Nepal and Bangladesh passed 300.
(Reuters, 7/28/02)
2002 Aug 13, Deaths from flooding
in Bangladesh (157), India (265) and Nepal (422) and reached at least
874.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A15)
2002 Aug 20, In Bangladesh the
swollen Jamuna River broke through its mud embankments, flooding a
dozen villages and cutting off thousands of residents.
(AP, 8/20/02)
2002 Sep 8, Authorities closed
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) indefinitely
following weeks of student unrest.
(Reuters, 9/8/02)
2002 Nov 13, Some 200 people were
feared dead after 19 boats disappeared in a storm off Bangladesh.
(WSJ, 11/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 1, In Gaibandha,
Bangladesh, least 30 people, mostly women and children, were killed in
a stampede after a wall collapsed during a give-away of clothes and
money.
(Reuters, 12/1/02)
2002 Dec 7, In Bangladesh 19
people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in near-simultaneous bomb
blasts at four cinemas packed with families celebrating the end of the
Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
(Reuters, 12/7/02)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A9)(AP, 12/7/03)
2002 In Bangladesh Operation Clean
Heart rooted thousands of Rohingyas, dark-skinned members of a poor,
Muslin minority from Myanmar, from local villages. Myanmar’s ruling
junta called them residents of Rakhine state, pressed them into slave
labor and severely restricted their rights to travel and marry. This
led to the Rohingya border camp named Tal, on the banks of the Naf
River in Bangladesh.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.56)
2002 Bangladesh enacted acid
control laws as the country recorded 490 cases of acid attacks. An
attacker would face at a minimum seven years in jail or even the death
penalty. Such attacks dropped to 187 in 2007, the 5th consecutive year
of decline.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2003 Jan 11, The death toll from
Bangladesh's coldest winter in six years reached 489. A three-week cold
spell in South Asia with near freezing temperatures aggravated by
chilly winds raised the total death toll to 779.
(AP, 1/11/03)
2003 Jan 15, The death toll from a
month-long cold spell rose to 1170 people in northern India, Nepal and
Bangladesh.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Jan 17, A bomb ripped through
a village in northern Bangladesh during an annual carnival, killing six
people and wounding six others.
(AP, 1/18/03)
2003 Apr 4, In northeastern
Bangladesh a river boat carrying more than 170 people capsized, killing
79 people, including 49 children.
(AP, 4/4/03)(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Apr 12, In northern
Bangladesh up to 100 people were reported missing after a ferry
capsized in the Nagchinni River. Searchers recovered the bodies of
victims, bringing the death toll to 16.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 21, In Bangladesh two
ferry boats capsized during tropical storms on different rivers, and
hundreds of people were missing. MV Mitali, went down in the Buriganga
River, and the ML Majlishpur ferry, carrying about 90 members of a
wedding party, capsized in the Meghna River.
(AP, 4/22/03)
2003 May 4, In eastern Bangladesh
a tropical storm flattened hundreds of flimsy huts in several villages,
killing 19 people.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 Jun 29, In Bangladesh monsoon
floods claimed 45 lives in the past four days, washing away many houses
and displacing thousands of villagers.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Bangladesh a ferry,
with an estimated 750 passengers, sank at the confluence of the Padma,
Meghna and Dakatia rivers about 40 miles south of the capital, Dhaka.
Some 220 survivors were counted.
(AP, 7/9/03)
2003 Jul 21, Monsoon rains were
reported to have killed at least 579 people in South Asia. India
reported a total of 263 deaths, Bangladesh 169, Pakistan 78, and Nepal
69.
(AP, 7/21/03)
2003 Jul 28, Bangladesh became the
second nation to ban the current issue of Newsweek's international
edition over an article on new interpretations of Islam's holy book.
(AP, 7/28/03)
2003 Sep 10, A Bangladesh court
convicted and sentenced five zookeepers to 14 years in prison for
killing three tigers in 1996 and planning to sell their skins.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep, Bangladesh and India
launched a direct bus route from Dhaka to Agartala, the capital of the
Indian state of Tripura.
(Econ, 10/4/03, p.40)
2003 Nov, In Bangladesh a house
near Chittagong burned down and 11 Hindus were killed in what was
claimed to be an act of intimidation.
(Econ, 11/29/03, p.39)
2004 Jan 15, Manik Saha (49), a
Bangladeshi reporter for the New Age newspaper and the BBC, was leaving
a press club when unidentified attackers hurled a bomb at him. He was
the first journalist in the world to be murdered in 2004.
(AP, 1/16/04)
2004 Jan, The Bangladesh
government banned Ahmediya publications at the insistence of the
Islamic Oika Jote (IOJ).
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.37)
2004 Apr 14, Tornadoes swept
through northern Bangladesh, killing at least 69 people, injuring
hundreds and blowing away thousands of flimsy huts.
(AP, 4/15/04)(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 May 3, In Bangladesh at least
5 women were crushed to death and dozens were injured when a false fire
alarm caused about 4,000 workers to rush for the exits of a garment
factory.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 7, In Bangladesh gunmen
opened fire at an opposition rally outside the capital, killing 4
people including a member of parliament. Ahsanullah Master, a senior
member of Bangladesh's main opposition Awami League, and a young man
were killed when a group of armed men opened fire on a rally being
addressed by the politician. On Apr 16, 2005, a court sentenced 22 to
death for the killings.
(AP, 5/7/04)(Reuters, 4/16/05)
2004 May 8, In Bangladesh
Ahsanullah Master, a member of the main opposition Awami League, was
killed.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, The Bangladesh
government put thousands of security forces on the streets of Dhaka and
nearby Tongi as a strike to protest the killing of Ahsanullah Master, a
member of the main opposition Awami League, brought the country to a
standstill.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 21, In northeastern
Bangladesh a bomb exploded during noon prayers at a Muslim shrine,
killing two Bangladeshi men and wounding about 100 people.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 23, In eastern Bangladesh
2 river ferries carrying about 250 passengers capsized during a storm,
and dozens of people were feared dead. The death toll climbed to 74.
(AP, 5/24/04)(WSJ, 5/24/04, p.A1)(AP, 5/25/04)
2004 Jun 9, In Bangladesh a
six-story apartment building collapsed in Dhaka, killing at least 11
people and trapping about 25 inside.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 14, In Bangladesh the
death toll from a powerful weekend storm rose to at least 13. About 140
fishermen were missing.
(AP, 6/14/04)
2004 Jun 21, In northeastern
Bangladesh a bomb exploded at an opposition rally wounding nearly 40
people.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2004 Jul 12, Monsoon floods
continued to wreak havoc across South Asia, killing 37 more people and
forcing millions to flee their homes or seek emergency shelter.
Flooding has killed 36 people in Bangladesh this year. A total of 47
people have died in Nepal since June. In India a total of 158 people
have died in flooding since the beginning of June.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2004 Jul 17, Monsoon rains
submerged new areas of Bangladesh and India, killing at least 13
people, as the death toll from flooding in South Asia rose to more than
400.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 20, Monsoon floods,
tornadoes and rains roared through already inundated villages in South
Asia, killing 42 more people. 15 died in Bangladesh and 27 in India.
Fresh rains in Asia took the rainy season death toll to nearly 800.
(AP, 7/21/04)(Reuters, 7/21/04)
2004 Jul 27, A boat carrying
people to a flood shelter capsized in Bangladesh killing 10 people. The
total monsoon death toll for SE Asia passed 1,000 as the worst flooding
in years turned the capital, Dhaka, into an open sewer and disease
spread.
(AP, 7/27/04)
2004 Jul 31, Flood-weakened
riverbanks in South Asia collapsed around villages, pushing the death
toll from this season's monsoons above 1,500 and stranding more than 30
million people.
(AP, 8/1/04)
2004 Aug 5, A bomb exploded in the
parking lot of a hotel in northeastern Bangladesh city where the
opposition-backed mayor was holding a meeting, wounding at least 50
people.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 5, The death toll from
monsoons in Bangladesh and India reached 1,823.
(SFC, 8/5/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug 8, The death toll from
monsoons in South Asia reached 1,972. At least 1,152 have died in
India, 691 in Bangladesh, 124 in Nepal and 5 in Pakistan.
(AP, 8/8/04)(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 21, In Dhaka, Bangladesh,
a series of bombs exploded as a top opposition leader was speaking at a
rally from atop a truck, killing 23 people and injuring hundreds.
(AP, 8/21/04)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.37)
2004 Aug 22, In Bangladesh an
angry mob set fire to a passenger train and protesters clashed with
police across the country, leaving dozens of people injured, as
violence spread a day after a grenade attack on an opposition rally
killed 19 people.
(AP, 8/22/04)
2004 Aug 30, A general strike to
protest a recent grenade attack that killed 20 people at an opposition
political rally brought Bangladesh to a near standstill.
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Sep 5, In Sylhet, Bangladesh,
2 people were killed and 10 wounded in a bomb blast.
(Reuters, 9/5/04)
2004 Sep 15, India and Bangladesh
ended a two-day meeting in Dhaka without any breakthroughs on the
sharing of water from common rivers.
(AP, 9/15/04)
2004 Sep 22, Indian officials said
they have fenced nearly 40 percent of the porous border with Bangladesh
and would fence the entire frontier by March 2006 to prevent movement
of insurgents, illegal immigrants and smuggling.
(Reuters, 9/22/04)
2004 Oct 1, India's Border
Security Force (BSF) asked Bangladeshi authorities to hand over 126
Indian insurgents, including top leaders of guerrilla groups it says
are based in the neighboring country.
(Reuters, 10/1/04)
2004 Dec 11, In Bangladesh
millions of opposition activists formed a 900-km "human chain" to
demonstrate no confidence in the government. Up to 100 people were
injured in clashes.
(Reuters, 12/11/04)
2005 Jan 6, In Bangladesh a fire
at the Sun Knit garment factory in Siddhirganj killed 22 people. Most
of the exits were found locked.
(SFC, 1/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 27, In northeastern
Bangladesh a bomb exploded at an opposition rally, killing two people
and wounding at least 30.
(Reuters, 1/27/05)
2005 Jan 30, In much of Bangladesh
traffic ground to a halt and shops closed as a nationwide strike,
protesting a deadly grenade attack on the main opposition party,
entered a 2nd day.
(AFP, 1/30/05)
2005 Jan, India’s oil minister
Mani Shankar Aiyar persuaded Bangladesh in principle to become partner
in an pipeline to bring gas from Myanmar to India.
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.42)
2005 Jan, In Bangladesh A.M.S.
Kibria, former finance minister and Awami League leader, was killed in
a grenade attack.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.37)
2005 Feb 6, In Bangladesh a police
officer was killed and five were injured in a clash with demonstrators
during a continuing nationwide general strike in protest at a deadly
grenade attack on an opposition party rally.
(AP, 2/6/05)
2005 Feb 19, In Bangladesh a
double-decker passenger ferry capsized and sank during a tropical
storm, leaving at least 151 people dead. The MV Maharaj was carrying
about 200 people when it capsized on the Buriganga River just outside
Dhaka.
(AP, 2/21/05)(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb, Bangladesh banned 2
extremist groups including Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.36)
2005 Mar 20, In Bangladesh about
15,000 people were left homeless after twin tornadoes simultaneously
tore through northern Gaibandha and Rangpur districts, killing 55
people and wounding 1,000 others.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.D10)
2005 Apr 9, The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast the Bangladesh economy would grow at a
modest 5.2 percent in the 2004-2005 financial year despite floods and
high oil and commodity prices.
(AFP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 11, In Bangladesh a
nine-story building toppled when a boiler exploded, killing at least 30
people and trapping 200. The death toll soon rose to 57. Up to another
100 bodies remain under the mountain of bricks and concrete slabs.
(AP, 4/12/05)(Reuters, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 13, Top border officials
of India and Bangladesh meet in Dhaka to discuss thorny issues
including New Delhi's plan to fence off the frontier and Dhaka's claim
that India harbors Bangladeshi militants.
(Reuters, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 16, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 22 people to death and six others to life in jail for killing
an opposition lawmaker on May 7, 2004. 18 of the accused were tried and
sentenced in absentia.
(Reuters, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 19, India and its eastern
neighbor Bangladesh traded blame over a weekend border clash that
killed an Indian military officer and two Bangladeshi villagers.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 23, Two Bangladeshi
farmers were shot dead by Indian border forces in the latest in a spate
of frontier clashes.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 26, In Bangladesh at
least 17 people were killed and 33 injured when a bus hurtled down a
bridge.
(Reuters, 4/26/05)
2005 Apr 27, Abdus Samad Azad
(83), a former foreign minister and Bangladeshi independence hero, died
in Dhaka.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 May 15, In southern
Bangladesh at least 22 people have died and over 70 are missing after a
twin-deck ferry with more than 100 aboard sank on the Char Kazal river
during a storm.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 20, Officials said 3
ferry accidents in Bangladesh in the past week left at least 133 people
dead as hope faded for 187 people still missing.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 Jun 4, Bangladesh police
arrested the 2nd wife of former president Hussain Mohammad Ershad
(1982-1990), after he accused her of stealing money and threatening his
life.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 13, In India officials
said at least 275 people have died from sunstroke and dehydration in
northern India and neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh so far this summer,
as high temperatures sweep the region ahead of the monsoon.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 15, It was reported that
Microsoft Corp. will provide computer training to more than 2,000
disadvantaged youths in rural Bangladesh over the next year.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 22, South Asia endured
one of its hottest summers on record and at least 375 people were
reported to have died from sunstroke and dehydration in a month-long
heat wave sweeping India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 27, Bangladesh opposition
parties led by the Awami League staged a human-chain protest in Dhaka
against what they called an anti-people budget taking effect on Friday.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jul 12, India’s Supreme Court
scrapped a controversial immigration law, making it easier for
authorities to crack down on illegal aliens, a move likely to curb
Bangladeshi migrants in the country's northeast.
(Reuters, 7/12/05)
2005 cJul 28, Unidentified
assailants hacked to death 2 field workers for Christian Life
Bangladesh at their home at Boalmari in the central Faridpur district.
A week later the US embassy suggested that it was a religious hate
crime.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Jul 29, Thousands of
Bangladeshi Islamic activists staged a noisy protest in the capital
Dhaka after US congressman Tom Tancredo suggested the US might consider
bombing holy sites, including Mecca. Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo
made the comment on July 14 in answer to a radio host's question about
a possible response to any hypothetical nuclear terrorist attack on the
US.
(Reuters, 7/29/05)
2005 Aug 11, Thirty-five
Bangladeshi children who worked as camel jockeys in the United Arab
Emirates arrived home to an uncertain future as part of a United
Nations-sponsored program. The UAE now plans to use robots to race
camels rather than children.
(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 17, Nearly 500 homemade
bombs planted by suspected Islamic militants exploded nearly
simultaneously across Bangladesh, killing 2 people, including a young
boy, and wounding at least 73. The attacks were later attributed to
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB). 7 leaders of JMB were later arrested and 6
were to be hanged in 2007. In 2008 a court in northwestern Bangladesh
sentenced seven Islamic militants to life in prison after finding them
guilty of carrying the bombings.
(AP, 8/17/05)(Econ, 8/27/05, p.35)(Econ, 2/10/07,
p.40)(AP, 1/31/08)
2005 Aug 19, In western Bangladesh
2 suspected Maoist rebeks were killed while a bomb they were making
exploded.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, Bangladesh was hit by
a nationwide strike called by the opposition to protest at a wave of
bombings earlier in the week linked to an Islamic extremist group.
(AFP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, Bangladeshi and
Indian border guards negotiated a ceasefire, halting a gunbattle that
flared over disputed construction work along the frontier.
(Reuters, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 21, Bangladeshi and
Indian border officials resolved a dispute over embankment building on
a river cutting across their frontier that led to heavy firing by
border troops.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 22, In southeastern
Bangladesh unusually high tides partially submerged two offshore
islands, forcing nearly 20,000 residents to flee their flooded homes.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Aug 28, Bangladesh said it
may reduce its work week from 6 to 5 days and raise fuel prices to
control soaring energy costs that have strained its economy.
(AFP, 8/28/05)
2005 Sep 8, Bangladesh police
seized about 200 small bombs, some explosives, dozens of detonators and
leaflets on jihad, or holy war, during a raid on a house in Dhaka.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 9, Indian border guards
killed 3 Bangladeshi villagers after they had strayed across the border
near the eastern Bangladesh town of Akhaura. India and Bangladesh share
a 4,095-kilometre (2,539-mile) border, which India is busy fencing in a
bid to cut the level of illegal immigration.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 21, India said at least
64 people have died and hundreds of thousands displaced after powerful
storms left a trail of devastation across the Indian and Bangladeshi
coasts in the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 9/21/05)
2005 Oct 3, In southeastern
Bangladesh several bombs went off in crowded court buildings in
Chittagong, Chandpur and Laxmipur towns. 2 people were killed and at
least 25 wounded.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 18, Transparency
International ranked Bangladesh and Chad as the most corrupt on an
annual list of corruption levels in 159 nations. At the other end of
the scale, Iceland was ranked least corrupt. Turkmenistan, Myanmar,
Haiti, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Angola joined
Chad and Bangladesh as the most corrupt countries.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Nov 7, At least 70 people
were missing after a ferry capsized in the Bay of Bengal while sailing
to Chittagong port in Bangladesh from a nearby island.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 12, In Dhaka, Bangladesh,
a 2-day summit aimed to alleviate poverty and boost trade and
cooperation among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) leaders called for greater cooperation within the
region to deal with the aftermath of disasters like the Kashmir
earthquake and last year's devastating tsunami. SAARC agreed to accept
Afghanistan as its 8th member.
(AFP, 11/12/05)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.44)
2005 Nov 14, In Bangladesh 2
senior assistant judges of lower courts were killed and four others,
including the bomber himself, were injured in a bomb attack in the
southern district of Jhalakati. In 2006 a court sentenced Siddiq ul
Islam (aka Bangla Bhai) and Abdur Rahman to death by hanging for the
bombing.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.40)
2005 Nov 22, At least 100,000
opposition demonstrators told Bangladesh's Islamist-allied government
to "quit now" as they rallied in the capital while police kept watch to
avert religious extremist violence.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 25, In Bangladesh
thousands of women rallied in Dhaka to demand that developed nations
open their doors to workers and products from poor nations.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 29, In Bangladesh suicide
bombers targeting courthouses in 2 cities killed at least eight people
and injured 66 in what appeared to be the latest attack by militant
Muslims intent on imposing harsh Islamic law.
(AP, 11/29/05)(SFC, 11/30/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 1, In Bangladesh a bomb
thrown by an Islamic militant disguised as a tea vendor exploded
outside a government building in Gazipur, killing one person and
wounding at least 29. The militant was hurt and captured after the
blast.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, In Bangladesh 9
wedding guests died of suspected alcohol poisoning from drinking toxic
home-brewed liquor the previous evening in a northeastern village.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 3, In Bangladesh police
said they had arrested over 200 suspected Islamic militants in a
three-day sweep after suicide bombers killed at least nine people and
wounded scores in a spate of attacks this week.
(AFP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 8, In Netrokona,
Bangladesh, a suicide bomber on a bicycle rode into a crowd and
detonated his explosives, killing 7 other people and wounding dozens.
Police detained 8 suspects the next day.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 9, Police in Bangladesh
hunting for Islamist suicide bombers seized explosives and detained 30
militants.
(Reuters, 12/10/05)
2005 Dec 11, Bangladesh President
Iazuddin Ahmed approved an ordinance that allows law enforcers to tap
telephones, a measure set to aid the fight against Islamic militants.
(AFP, 12/12/05)
2005 Dec 13, In Bangladesh
security forces arrested the suspected military commander and the
alleged accountant of a banned Islamic group blamed for a wave of
deadly bombings.
(AP, 12/14/05)
2005 Dec 16, Bangladesh police
seized two large caches of bomb-making materials and arrested 4
suspected members of a banned Islamic group that has been blamed for a
wave of deadly bombings. A 5th suspect was arrested the next day.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 28, Jamaat Islami
Bangladesh, the main Islamic partner of Bangladesh's coalition
government, staged a huge rally (some 100,000) in the capital Dhaka to
rebut opposition claims that it supports Muslim militants.
(AFP, 12/28/05)
2005 Iqbal Quadir teamed with
inventor Dean Kamen to provide prototype generators, powered by biogas,
to villages in Bangladesh. Each generator was able to provide a
kilowatt of power, enough to light up to 20 households or shops.
(Econ, 3/11/06, Survey p.37)
2006 Jan 21, In Bangladesh at
least 15 people were injured as police and opposition supporters fought
street battles in Dhaka ahead of a nationwide strike called by
opposition parties. The Awami League and its 13 left-leaning allies
called for a Sunday strike to press for removal of the chief election
commissioner and two newly appointed commissioners.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 22, An
opposition-sponsored strike closed shops and shut down public transport
across Bangladesh as authorities deployed thousands of security forces
to deter violence.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 23, In northwest
Bangladesh 6 people were killed and around 100 were wounded when police
opened fire on a crowd of 10,000 rioting farmers demanding improved
electricity supply.
(AFP, 1/23/06)
2006 Feb 3, In Bangladesh nearly
1,150 people were arrested in Dhaka, a day before opposition supporters
were due to converge on the city in a campaign to oust the government.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 5, In Bangladesh at least
40,000 opposition supporters converged on Dhaka to demand the ouster of
the government after a three-day protest march marked by heavy security
and the arrest of key activists.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 12, Bangladesh's main
opposition party the Awami League ended its 13-month boycott of
parliament and tabled proposals to reform the country's election system.
(AFP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 23, A fire raged through
a Bangladesh textile mill, killing at least 54 people in the
three-story building inside an industrial park in Chittagong.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Bangladesh a
5-story building undergoing renovations collapsed in the Tejgaon
district of Dhaka, crushing tin-roof homes in a surrounding shantytown.
At least 18 people were killed and more were feared trapped.
(AFP, 2/25/06)(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 28, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 21 Islamic militants, aged 21-25, to death for their part in
a deadly wave of blasts that saw more than 400 bombs explode almost
simultaneously across the country on Aug 17, 2005. All were members of
the militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and were
sentenced under the country's Explosive Substances Act."
(AFP, 2/28/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Bangladesh Shaikh
Abdur Rahman, the fugitive leader of an Islamic militant group wanted
for a deadly wave of bombings. surrendered to police after a 33-hour
siege. Rahman, who fought in the Afghan war after graduating from
Medina University in Saudi Arabia, formed the Jamayetul Mujahideen in
the late 1990s.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 6, Bangladesh's second
top Islamist militant was captured after a gunbattle with security
forces. Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, chief of the outlawed Jagrata
Muslim Janata Bangladesh group (JMB), was arrested along with his wife
at his hideout with two of his associates in the northern district of
Mymensingh.
(Reuters, 3/6/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.45)
2006 Mar 13, Bangladesh riot
police fired tear gas in Dhaka to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing
activists who tried to march in support of a general strike.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 17, Bangladesh confirmed
the country's first case of polio in nearly six years, prompting plans
to resume mass vaccinations against the crippling disease next month.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 20, Bangladesh PM Begum
Khaleda Zia began her first visit to India in five years. India and
Bangladesh will be trying to rebuild confidence and end distrust that
has crept into their relationship.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Bangladesh 19
people were injured in clashes between political parties as the nation
marked its 35th Independence Day anniversary under tight security for
fear of Islamic militant attacks.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Apr 15, Bangladesh said it
will vaccinate about 18 million children aged 5 and under to combat
polio, which recently re-emerged after authorities believed it had been
eradicated five years ago.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 21, In western Bangladesh
dozens of people were feared to have drowned when a bus packed with
about 50 wedding guests plunged into a river.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 May 11, Bangladesh PM Khaleda
Zia reaffirmed her government's determination to crack down on Islamic
militants who have killed at least 28 people in the past year.
(AFP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 14, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 10 Islamic militants to life imprisonment and three others to
20 years in jail for their roles in deadly blasts across Bangladesh
last year.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 16, The US State
Department apologized to Bangladesh's national carrier, Biman, after a
flight was barred from landing at New York's JFK Airport on May 13. The
airline said that it would seek compensation for the financial losses
it suffered due to the FAA decision.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 19, In southern Turkey a
truck carrying illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Bangladesh
crashed into a parked transport truck, killing at least 40 people.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 22, In Bangladesh textile
workers demanding better pay and one day off per week went on a rampage
at Savar, an industrial town near Dhaka, setting fire to two factories
and several buses.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 23, In Bangladesh angry
garment workers set fire to seven textile factories in and around the
capital after news that an employee shot in the back during recent
protests over better pay and working conditions had died.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 28, Bangladesh increased
development spending by 21% to a record 3.8 billion dollars for the new
fiscal year to create more jobs and cut poverty ahead of general
elections.
(AFP, 5/28/06)
2006 Jun 8, A boat carrying more
than 70 people capsized in rough waters off Bangladesh's coast.
Rescuers recovered at least 16 bodies.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 11, In Bangladesh police
fired tear gas at thousands of stone-throwing protesters demanding the
prime minister's resignation in Dhaka, leaving dozens of people injured.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 23, Indian border guards
killed four Bangladesh villagers in two separate shootings.
(AFP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jul 2, In Bangladesh 2 people
were killed and nearly 200 injured in clashes as opposition parties
enforced a countrywide transport shutdown.
(Reuters, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 11, In northern
Bangladesh a train plowed through a bus at an unmanned railway
crossing, killing at least 33 people and injuring about 15 others.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Bangladesh more
than 20,000 activists marched in Dhaka, defying driving rains, in the
fifth day of protests to press for electoral reforms ahead of January
polls.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Aug 4, Bangladesh announced a
fresh round of polio vaccination drives amid growing signs that the
lethal disease has staged a comeback in the impoverished South Asian
country.
(AFP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 24, A Bangladesh court
acquitted former military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad of graft
charges in an oil and defense deal, easing the way for his return to
the political mainstream ahead of elections next year.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 25, In Bangladesh
suspected Maoist attackers shot dead 4 policemen and a ruling party
official after hurling bombs and firing bullets in a crowded cattle
market. Police said they suspected the Purba Banglar Communist Party
(PBCP) was behind the attack.
(AFP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 25, A military truck
carrying UN peacekeepers crashed in Ivory Coast, killing six
Bangladeshi troops and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, Thousands of farmers
took to the streets across northern Bangladesh over the fatal shooting
of at least five people protesting against an open-pit coal mine.
(AFP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 31, A minister said
Bangladesh has bowed to demands from protestors and cancelled a 734
million pound (1.4-billion dollar) plan by British firm Asia Energy to
build an open-pit coal mine.
(AFP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 2, Bangladesh's trade
shipments ground to a virtual halt as shipping companies refused to use
the nation's main port in a protest over container fees. Operations
began to resume the next day after 2 shipping companies withdrew the
boycott after a court ruled a surcharge on containers was illegal.
(AFP, 9/2/06)(AFP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 10, in Bangladesh police
used batons to break up a protest, where demonstrators took to the
streets across the country in another general strike ahead of elections
in January.
(AFP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Bangladesh police
in Dhaka baton-charged thousands of opposition supporters in violent
clashes outside the prime minister's office that left at least 110
people injured. A 14-party opposition alliance led by the Awami League
is demanding electoral reforms ahead of January's national elections.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 18, In Bangladesh at
least 100,000 opposition supporters rallied in Dhaka demanding
electoral reforms ahead of national elections and using strident
rhetoric against the ruling coalition.
(AFP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 21, The death toll in
Bangladesh and India rose to at least 95 and nearly 1,000 remained
missing after storms capsized boats, toppled houses and washed away
roads.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 28, In Bangladesh
thousands of people set fire to power supply offices and attacked
government vehicles Dhaka in protest over electricity shortages.
(Reuters, 9/28/06)
2006 Oct 5, The Bangladesh Minimum
Wage Board announced the 1st raise to the minimum wage for garment
workers since 1994. The wage was almost doubled to Tk1662 ($25) a month.
(Econ, 8/18/07,
p.54)(www.cleanclothes.org/news/06-10-12.htm)
2006 Oct 13, Bangladeshi economist
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace
Prize for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans,
microcredit, to lift millions out of poverty.
(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 19, In southeastern
Bangladesh a herd of wild elephants rampaged through a village, killing
five members of one family, including two children.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 21, In Bangladesh
donations of clothing set off stampedes that left at least eight people
dead. All were women except for one child.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 23, In central Bangladesh
a ferry packed with dozens of people going home for an Islamic festival
capsized in a river after hitting a cargo boat, killing at least 15
people.
(AP, 10/23/06)
2006 Oct 26, In Bangladesh the
Liberal Democratic Party was launched, headed by former president
Badruddoza Chowdhury and Oli Ahmed, a former minister with the ruling
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). 13 lawmakers including two
ministers defected from the government to launch the new party to
challenge almost two decades of rule by the country's two main parties
in January 2007 elections.
(AFP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 27, Bangladesh's 5-year
coalition between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its
Islamist allies expired. PM Begun Khaleda Zia, preparing to hand
over power to an interim administration ahead of elections, called for
maintaining peace, as thousands of rival political activists clashed in
Dhaka.
(AP, 10/27/06)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.49)
2006 Oct 28, In Bangladesh at
least 9 people died and about 500 were wounded in political riots after
the man due to take over as interim leader withdrew just hours before
taking the oath.
(Reuters, 10/28/06)
2006 Oct 29, Bangladesh's Pres.
Iajuddin Ahmed was installed as head of the country's caretaker
government, but Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the opposition that led a
political standoff and days of deadly riots in the capital, declined to
attend the ceremony.
(AP, 10/29/06)
2006 Nov 11, Bangladesh
authorities banned demonstrations and barricades ahead of a deadline
set by a 14-party political alliance for the removal of the chief
election commissioner over allegations of bias.
(AP, 11/11/06)
2006 Nov 12, In Bangladesh a 14
party alliance led by the Awami League began a 4-day strike that
paralyzed the country. Thousands of protesters demanding electoral
reforms targeted major transport links, attacking trains and other
vehicles and leaving at least one person dead.
(AP, 11/12/06)(SFC, 11/16/06, p.A3)(Econ, 11/18/06,
p.45)
2006 Nov 13, In Bangladesh
baton-wielding police clashed with thousands of demonstrators who threw
stones and smashed vehicles during protests demanding electoral reform.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 18, Bangladesh's main
opposition announced it would form a grand alliance with other major
political parties to force the ouster of a controversial election chief
and pave the way for "fair" elections.
(AFP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 22, Bangladesh's chief
election commissioner M.A. Aziz bowed to pressure to step aside, an
official said, after months of protests by the opposition which accused
him of seeking to rig national elections in January.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 25, Health workers began
a drive across Bangladesh to immunize 24 million children under five
against polio to combat the crippling virus that has staged a comeback
in the South Asian nation.
(AFP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 28, In Bangladesh
unidentified attackers set three election offices on fire in
Munshiganj, Barisal and Khulna. Thousands of protesters gathered in
Dhaka to demand the resignation of electoral officials ahead of January
balloting.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2006 Dec 2, A US-based election
monitor said Bangladesh's list of voters contains 12.2 million false
names.
(Reuters, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 3, A major political
alliance in Bangladesh staged a nationwide transport blockade to force
electoral reforms. Separate clashes between rival political activists
and police left one man dead and at least 65 people injured.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 11, Four advisers to
Bangladesh's interim government resigned as soldiers patrolled towns
and cities to try to end weeks of often-violent protests.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 21, In Bangladesh riot
police dispersed thousands of protesters who smashed vehicles during a
general strike to force electoral reforms before next month's elections.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 27, Angry protesters
attacked government offices and damaged vehicles in northern Bangladesh
after authorities rejected applications by former army ruler Hossain
Mohammad Ershad to contest next month's elections.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 29, In southern
Bangladesh at least 3 people were killed and 100 hurt after two ferries
packed with passengers rushing home for a Muslim festival collided in
dense fog on the Meghna River.
(AFP, 12/30/06)
2007 Jan 3, A key political
alliance announced it would boycott this month's general elections in
Bangladesh, deepening a political crisis that has crippled the South
Asian country for months.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 5, Bangladesh police over
the last 2 days detained about 1,500 activists ahead of a two-day
nationwide general strike aimed at forcing electoral reform and the
postponement of a general election this month.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 6, In Bangladesh at least
41 people were burned to death after fire engulfed a bus packed with
migrant workers.
(AFP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 7, Activists and police
clashed in Bangladesh, injuring at least 50 people at the start of a
three-day transport blockade aimed at derailing upcoming general
elections.
(Reuters, 1/7/07)
2007 Jan 8, In Bangladesh riot
police used tear gas, rubber bullets and batons to disperse thousands
of stone-throwing protesters in Dhaka, who are demanding postponement
of this month's elections and electoral reforms.
(AP, 1/8/07)
2007 Jan 9, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
turned into a battlefield as protesters, demanding the scrapping of
national elections, hurled bombs and rocks at police who responded by
firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The parties demanded the
postponement of January 22 elections, alleging that they cannot be fair
without massive changes to the voter list.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 11, Iajuddin Ahmed, the
president of Bangladesh, declared a state of emergency following weeks
of violent protests and threats by a political alliance to disrupt
general elections. Gen. Masud Uddin Chowdhury led a coup and forced the
president to cancel elections and declare a state of emergency. Dr.
Fakhruddin Ahmed was sworn in as head of Interim government.
(http://tinyurl.com/6zr23k)AP, 1/11/07)(Econ,
6/7/08, p.54)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.58)
2007 Jan 12, Fakhruddin Ahmed, a
former Bangladesh central bank governor, was sworn in as head of the
country's new interim government.
(AFP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 13, Bangladeshi police
and soldiers arrested more than 2,500 people overnight and raided the
homes of several political leaders after a new caretaker government was
sworn in to quell unrest ahead of elections.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 29, An official said at
least 33,000 people have been arrested in Bangladesh by the army,
police and security forces since a state of emergency was imposed
earlier this month.
(AP, 1/29/07)
2007 Jan 31, The caretaker
government of Bangladesh approved a deal with an Indian company to
build a 240MW power station.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.39)
2007 Feb 4, Bangladeshi security
forces used emergency powers to detain 13 senior politicians and former
government ministers. Some 3 million Muslim devotees raised their hands
in prayer for global peace, putting aside their country's sometimes
violent struggle with political corruption and Islamic extremists, at
one of the world's largest religious gatherings. The annual World
Congregation of Muslims, or "Bishwa Ijtema," has been held each year
since 1966 on the banks of the River Turag in Tongi, just north of the
capital, Dhaka.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 11, Muhammad Yunus,
Bangladesh's "banker to the poor" and Nobel Peace Prize winner,
formally announced his willingness to form a new political party to
take part in forthcoming elections. In May Yunus reversed his decision
to enter politics.
(AFP, 2/11/07)(Econ, 5/12/07, p.46)
2007 Feb 18, A Bangladesh
anti-graft body named 50 people for having wealth that did not match
their income. 30 arrests soon included 11 former ministers, lawmakers
and businessmen with party links.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 25, In Bangladesh at
least six prominent political figures were arrested as they appeared
before an anti-corruption panel to explain how they amassed wealth far
in excess of their income.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Bangladesh a fire
swept through a building that housed two private TV stations and a
newspaper in Dhaka, killing at least three people and injuring scores.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Mar 6, A fire raged through a
congested slum in southeastern Bangladesh, killing at least 21 people,
including 10 children.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 8, The security forces of
Bangladesh's emergency interim government arrested six politicians over
corruption allegations. They included Tarique Rahman, the son of former
prime minister Khaleda Zia, dubbed “Mr Ten Per Cent” for his alleged
cut in almost any deal done by his mother’s government.
(AP, 3/8/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.39)
2007 Mar 18, Bangladeshi police
filed extortion charges against Tarique Rahman, a former prime
minister's son, who had been a powerful political leader in a country
that ranks among the world's most corrupt.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Bangladesh Cholesh
Ritchil, an activist of the Garos people, was tortured to death while
in army custody. Father Eugene Homrich (79), a native of Muskegon,
Mich., made the news public. Homrich began working with the Garos in
1956 when they numbered about 25,000 in the Modhupur forest. By 2007
illegal logging had reduced the forest to a tenth of its size to 23,000
square miles.
(WSJ, 6/13/07,
p.A1)(www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1945435.htm)
2007 Mar 20, Authorities in
emergency-ruled Bangladesh said they have found "huge" amounts of
undisclosed money in the bank accounts of dozens of prominent figures
caught up in a major anti-graft drive.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 30, In Bangladesh 6 top
Islamic militants convicted of killing two judges in a 2005 bomb attack
in southern Bangladesh were hanged. Bangladesh officials said bird flu
has spread to five more farms in central and northern districts.
(AP, 3/30/07)(Reuters, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 31, At least 22 Islamists
were arrested in overnight raids as Bangladesh strengthened security
nationwide.
(AFP, 3/31/07)
2007 Apr 4, In Kuwait a medical
source said preliminary tests for bird flu were positive on four
Bangladeshi workers who had been culling infected chickens.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 11, Bangladesh police
said main opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed, former prime minister
and head of the Awami League, has been charged over the murder of four
people during political violence which racked the nation's capital last
October.
(AP, 4/11/07)(Econ, 4/14/07, p.46)
2007 Apr 15, Authorities in
Bangladesh arrested a second son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia,
as the military-backed interim government stepped up its
anti-corruption drive. Arafat Rahman (36) was released the next day.
(AFP, 4/16/07)(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 18, Bangladesh's
military-backed emergency government exiled opposition leader Sheikh
Hasina Wajed as it stepped up a massive purge of the crisis-wracked
country's political hierarchy.
(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 22, Bangladesh issued an
arrest warrant for opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed as a plane
arrived to take her arch rival, the country's last prime minister
Khaleda Zia, into exile in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 26, Bangladesh's
emergency government backtracked on plans to exile two feuding former
prime ministers but appeared to threaten the women with corruption
charges if they stayed in the country.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 7, Former prime minister
Sheikh Hasina Wajed was greeted by tens of thousands of supporters as
she returned to Bangladesh after the military-backed government
abandoned plans to force her into exile.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 29, Bangladeshi
authorities revived two graft cases against former premier Sheikh
Hasina Wajed. Security forces arrested 4 former government ministers, 2
mayors and a top businessman as the military-backed emergency
government stepped up an anti-corruption drive.
(AFP, 5/29/07)(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 11, In southeastern
Bangladesh at least 130 people were killed in Chittagong and other
districts and many others were injured in mudslides triggered by heavy
monsoon rains.
(AFP, 6/11/07)(AFP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jul 5, Ali Asgar Lobi, a
former Bangladeshi MP who dodged more than 2.4 million dollars in
unpaid tax, was sentenced to eight years in jail.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 16, Bangladesh police
arrested former PM Sheikh Hasina on extortion charges, and she was
ordered jailed pending trial.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 24, Former Bangladesh PM
Sheikh Hasina was charged with extortion for allegedly demanding
hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company seeking to build a
power station.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 30, Bangladesh's High
Court suspended former PM Sheikh Hasina's extortion trial and ordered
her released on bail.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 1, Bangladesh officials
said monsoon floods had misplaced or marooned 5 million people and left
40 dead.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 2, Officials said days of
heavy monsoon rains have devastated large swaths of northern India and
Bangladesh, killing at least 164 people, stranding millions and washing
away vital crops.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 3, The death toll in
south Asia rose to at least 186 people killed. 19 million have been
driven from their homes as heavy monsoon rains triggered floods,
destroyed crops and submerged roads across a wide swath of northern
India and Bangladesh. The UN child welfare agency said that in India
alone, the number of dead from the monsoons topped 1,100.
(AP, 8/3/07)(AFP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Bangladesh deaths
from monsoon rains topped 200, with at least 16 more fatalities
reported overnight. 7.5 million people have been either marooned or
displaced from their homes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from severe
floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and although water
levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede, millions of
people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal still faced hunger. About 40% of
the country was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 9, The death toll from
the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000 even
as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of farmland
and rains shifted west.
(AFP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 21, Students in
emergency-ruled Bangladesh clashed with police for a second day
demanding that the army withdraw from Dhaka university campus.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 22, In Bangladesh clashes
between police and students demanding an end to emergency rule spilled
into the streets of the capital, prompting the government to impose an
indefinite curfew in six cities.
(AP, 8/22/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 23, Bangladesh's
army-backed interim government briefly relaxed a curfew, allowing
residents of the capital the chance to stock up on essentials and those
stranded at airports and elsewhere to return home.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 29, New research said
arsenic in drinking water is a global threat to health, affecting more
than 70 countries and 137 million people. The country worst affected is
Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people are likely to die
from cancers of the lung, bladder and skin caused by arsenic.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Sep 2, Detained former
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed was charged in a new graft case as
part of the emergency government's corruption crackdown.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 3, Former Bangladesh PM
Khaleda Zia and one of her sons were arrested on charges of corruption
and misuse of power.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 8, Hundreds of colleges
reopened in Bangladesh, two weeks after the country's military-backed
government shut them down to quell nationwide student unrest.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 9, Large swathes of
Bangladesh were underwater again after heavy rains, adding to the
misery of millions hit by flooding that has killed more than 830 people
since late July.
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 10, Bangladesh's
military-backed government lifted an eight-month emergency ban on
indoor politics as it promised democracy would be restored by the end
of 2008. A Dhaka-based human rights group said 126 people had been
killed by law enforcement agencies since the emergency rule began with
at least 22 tortured to death.
(AP, 9/10/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.43)
2007 Sep 15, Officials said nearly
13.5 million people have been marooned or displaced by floods in India
and Bangladesh. The flooding in South Asia caused by the
June-to-September monsoon has been described as the worst in decades,
with more than 3,300 people killed. Landslides and floods in Nepal
killed at least another 185 people since the start of monsoon.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 22, At least 25,000
textile workers defied a ban on protests in emergency-ruled Bangladesh
to demand back-pay and bonuses in one of the country's biggest
industrial zones.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 30, Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, a
property tycoon and one of Bangladesh's richest men, his wife and three
sons were sentenced in absentia to five years each in jail as part of a
government anti-corruption drive.
(AFP, 9/30/07)
2007 Oct 13, In southern
Bangladesh 5 rear carriages of an overcrowded express train jumped
their tracks, killing at least five passengers and injuring more than
100 others.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Nov 15, Ten of thousands of
coastal villagers took shelter inland as a cyclone rapidly approached
Bangladesh's southwestern shores, spawning cold drizzles, strong winds
and high waves. Tropical Cyclone Sidr killed at least 3,200 people and
left millions homeless.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 17, The official death
toll from a savage cyclone that wreaked havoc on southwest Bangladesh
reached 1,723, the deadliest storm to hit the country in a decade.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 18, The death toll from a
cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, as rescuers
struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of
survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields. The head of
the country's Red Crescent Society said up to 5,000 to 10,000 people
are believed to have died in the cyclone.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 19, The death toll from
the Nov 15 cyclone in Bangladesh passed 3,100, and officials said that
number could reach 10,000 once rescuers get to outlying islands.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 24, in southwestern
Bangladesh a section of a bridge collapsed under the weight of
thousands of hungry cyclone victims rushing toward a relief center. At
least 3 people died and dozens were injured.
(Reuters, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 25, More than 50 people
were missing after a boat, possibly being ferried by human traffickers,
sank off a southern Bangladesh island bordering Myanmar waters.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 The population of Bangladesh
was about 150 million. The Ahmedija minority numbered about 100,000.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.41)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2008 Jan 12, In Bangladesh
thousands of textile factory workers took to the streets blocking a
major highway in the capital Dhaka, demanding a pay rise and overtime
payments.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 30, The Bangladesh
government said an unidentified person has donated $130 million to help
rebuild hundreds of schools and storm shelters destroyed by a cyclone
along Bangladesh's southwest coast.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Feb 1, Bangladesh livestock
officials said more than 27,000 chickens and ducks have been
slaughtered after bird flu was confirmed at a poultry farm near the
border with India.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 5, A Bangladesh official
said Abdul Kader Mollah, an employee of Titas Gas Distribution Company,
the country’s biggest state-owned gas company, allegedly used his
position to pocket a colossal 145 million dollars in bribes over 12
years. Mollah at the time earned a mere 100 dollars a month.
(AFP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 5, UN officials said
Ethiopia and Bangladesh have offered to jump-start the UN peacekeeping
mission in Darfur by loaning it helicopters to fly troops and supplies
around the vast region in western Sudan.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 16, It was reported that
the first flowering in 50 years had taken place in the bamboo forests
of Bangladesh leading to a plague of rats. The last flowering in 1958
also caused a similar rodent plague.
(SFC, 2/16/08, p.B6)
2008 Feb 28, In Bangladesh a ferry
carrying more than 100 people collided with a cargo vessel and capsized
in a river near Dhaka, killing at least 39 people with 20 missing.
(AP, 2/28/08)(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 3, The Sri Lankan navy
said it rescued 71 Burmese Bangladeshi citizens aboard a vessel that
had drifted for 12 days in the Indian Ocean. 20 others had died from
lack of food and water.
(SFC, 3/4/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 11, Bangladesh's
military-backed government backed down from a policy to ensure equal
property rights to women amid angry protests by Muslim clerics that the
move would override Islamic law.
(AFP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 22, In Bangladesh an
emergency official said a tropical storm has killed at least five
people. The storm also leveled around 3,000 huts.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Bangladesh an
official said Tareque Rahman, the son of detained former Bangladesh
premier Khaleda Zia, has been formally charged with corruption as part
of the military-backed government's anti-graft drive.
(AFP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 12, About 20,000 workers
rioted over high food prices and low wages close to the Bangladesh
capital Dhaka, amid spreading global unrest over soaring grocery costs.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 14, Train service between
Bangladesh and India resumed after a 43-year hiatus.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 15, A Bangladesh official
said at least 17 people were killed when a train plowed through a
packed bus at a railway crossing in Tangail district.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In central Bangladesh a speeding bus plunged off a road, killing
at least 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 23, Officials said
Bangladesh has begun evacuating thousands of stranded workers who were
trafficked into war-ravaged Iraq by illegal manpower traders.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 May 12, In Bangladesh a ferry
on the Ghorautura River capsized with nearly 150 passengers and at
least 44 people were killed.
(WSJ, 5/14/08, p.A13)
2008 May 14, In eastern Bangladesh
8 people died and one person was critically injured when two trains
collided at a station.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 22, Bangladesh reported
its first confirmed case of human bird flu, but said the 16-month-old
victim had now recovered from the virus.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 24, Disaster-prone
Bangladesh announced that it would plant 100 million trees to create a
"natural fence" against frequent floods and cyclones.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 Jun 1, In southwest
Bangladesh police clashed with thousands of garment workers during
fresh protests over low wages and soaring food prices.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bangladesh more
than 1,700 people were detained in the past 24 hours. That takes the
number of detainees to more than 10,000 since May 30 in a drive to
improve law and order before national elections planned for late this
year.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jul 7, In central Bangladesh
2 passenger buses collided head-on, killing at least 20 people and
wounding dozens more.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 18, A border clash
triggered by a smuggling attempt left two Bangladeshi troops dead and
one Indian soldier seriously wounded.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Sri Lanka a two-day
summit of leaders of the 15th South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), opened amid extraordinary security. Leaders of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka attended the summit. Government troops captured
rebel-held Vellankulam village in Mannar, the last rebel stronghold in
the area. Fresh fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger
separatists killed 14 rebels and two soldiers across the embattled
northern region.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 4, Bangladesh held local
elections that observers hailed as a success. A fire swept through a
five-story building in a crowded section of the capital, Dhaka, killing
at least 10 people and injuring five others.
(AFP, 8/5/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.42)
2008 Aug 18, In southeastern
Bangladesh chunks of earth loosened by heavy rains buried several
hillside thatched huts, killing five people and injuring seven.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 20, Bangladesh
prosecutors formally lodged new charges against ex-premier Sheikh
Hasina Wajed over her alleged role in a 130-million-dollar defense deal
with Russia.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Nov 3, In Bangladesh Pres.
Iajuddin Ahmed signed an order sending the army back to the barracks,
drawing to an end the state of emergency that began Jan 11, 2007.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.58)
2008 Nov 29, In Bangladesh police
in Dhaka arrested eight members of a hard-line Islamic group for
damaging a 41-foot outdoor sculpture of a group of white storks. The
statue by sculptor Mrinal Haque has stood at a road intersection since
1989.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 16, Bangladesh's
military-backed government said it will end nearly two years of
emergency rule and restore civil liberties before this month's national
elections.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 23, A court in northeast
Bangladesh sentenced three Islamic militants to death and two others to
life in prison for a 2004 grenade attack that wounded a British
diplomat and killed three other people.
(AP, 12/23/08)
2008 Dec 25, Police in northern
Bangladesh arrested three suspected militants tied to the Jumatul
Mujahedeen Bangladesh, a banned Islamic group, and seized a large cache
of bomb-making materials. The arrests were made in separate raids over
the last 24 hours.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 23, Bangladeshi
authorities said a new outbreak of bird flu had been detected at a
village in the north of the country as they struggled to contain the
disease.
(AP, 12/23/08)
2008 Dec 28, In northern
Bangladesh a truck loaded with iron rods veered off a road, killing 24
hitchhikers riding in the back and injuring 13 others.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 29, Bangladeshis voted in
their droves in elections that marked the end of two years of emergency
rule, with a pair of rival former prime ministers vying to reclaim
power in the impoverished nation. Former PM Sheikh Hasina won a
landslide victory.
(AFP, 12/29/08)(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 29, The Indian Coast
Guard rescued two people off India's east coast during a search for
more than 300 illegal immigrants missing for the past four days and
feared dead. Survivors told Indian authorities that more than 300
people from Bangladesh and Myanmar, members of the ethnic Rohingya
minority, had jumped from a rickety boat that had been drifting for 13
days in the Indian Ocean and tried to swim to shore near the Andaman
Islands. On Jan 16 a refugees' advocacy group accused the Thai navy of
tying up four illegal immigrants and throwing them into the ocean
before abandoning hundreds of others on a barge in open water, where
some 300 drowned. At least 100 were rescued in Indian waters. Survivors
at the time told Indian authorities they had been detained by Thai
authorities, who towed them into the open sea and left them.
(AP, 12/30/08)(AP, 1/16/09)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 6, In Bangladesh Sheikh
Hasina Wajed was sworn in for her second spell as prime minister,
restoring democracy to the impoverished country after almost two years
of rule by an army-backed regime.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 22, In Bangladesh the
Awami League won a landslide victory in the country’s 481 upazilas
(subdistricts). Three people were killed, 150 injured and voter
intimidation was rife.
(Econ, 1/31/09, p.50)
2009 Jan 30, At least two million
worshippers gathered north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka for the
Bishwa Ijtema, or World Muslim Congregation, a three-day event billed
as the largest annual Islamic event after the hajj. It was first held
in the 1960s and was launched by Tablig Jamaat, a non-political group
that urges people to follow Islam in their daily lives.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 8, In eastern Bangladesh
a ferry boat sank after colliding with a larger ferry on the Titas
River, killing 10 women and children.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 19, In southern
Bangladesh 13 people died and scores were missing after a ferry
carrying more than 100 passengers collided with a cargo boat and
capsized.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 25, Mutinous Bangladeshi
border guards opened fire at their headquarters in the capital and
seized a nearby shopping mall, injuring several people in an
insurrection apparently sparked by pay disputes. They agreed to
surrender after the government said it would grant them amnesty.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Bangladesh
mutinous members of a paramilitary unit in Dhaka surrendered their
weapons as tanks surrounded their headquarters after a second day of
gunfire in a mutiny that killed about 50 people. Security forces
searching the headquarters of a mutinous Bangladeshi border guard unit
soon discovered the bodies of dozens of officers in shallow graves on
the compound, raising the death toll to 76. The trial of some 3,500
paramilitary troops began in November. At least 48 had already died
while in custody.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)(AP, 2/27/09)(AP, 2/28/09)(Econ,
11/28/09, p.44)
2009 Mar 1, Bangladeshi police
charged more than 1,000 border guards with murder and arson after a
bloody mutiny in the capital left as many as 148 people dead or
missing, most of them army officers.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 3, Bangladeshi police
arrested Syed Tauhidul Alam, the suspected ringleader of a deadly
border guard mutiny that killed 74 people, during a raid in a slum in
Dhaka. 4 other border guards were also arrested.
(AP, 3/3/09)(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A4)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.48)
2009 Mar 13, In Bangladesh a fire
at Dhaka’s 22-story Bashundhara City mall killed at least 7 people as
helicopters plucked survivors from the roof.
(SFC, 3/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 2, A Bangladesh official
said the government will strictly enforce a new ban on begging that
aims to fully eliminate it within five years.
(AP, 4/2/09)
2009 Apr 6, Bangladesh police
detained Faisal Mustafa, the head of a British-based charity that
funded an Islamic school in southern Bangladesh, where authorities on
March 24 seized weapons and explosives.
(AP, 4/6/09)(SFC, 4/7/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 9, In southern Bangladesh
2 speeding passenger buses crashed into each other, killing at least 11
people and injuring another 50.
(AP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 12, In Bangladesh
security officials arrested eight suspected militants of a banned
Islamic group after raiding a house in Dhaka.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 19, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prize was awarded to 7 activists from 6 nations. Rizwana
Hasan (40) of Bangladesh was awarded for exposing environmental damage
and exploitative practices used in the country’s ship dismantling
industry; Marc Ona Essangui (45) of Gabon, the founder of Brainforest,
was awarded for exposing secret agreements for a Chinese mine project
that threatened Gabon’s rain forests; Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia was
awarded for designing environmentally safe waste management systems for
poor Indonesia n communities; Olga Speranskaya (46) of Eco-Accord in
Russia was awarded for her efforts to control and store chemicals in
Russia and former Soviet republics; Wanze Eduards (52) and Hugo Jabini
(44) of Suriname, leaders of the maroon community, were awarded for
their efforts that led to a landmark ruling ending tribal exploitation
by the government. Maria Gunnoe (40) of West Virginia was awarded for
her fight against the practice of removing of the tops of mountains and
filing valleys below with tailings.
(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A18)
2009 May 6, Bangladesh Home
Minister Sahara Khatun said the UAE has given the government nearly
$1.44 million to distribute among 879 Bangladeshi children who worked
as jockeys at camel races after it was banned in 1993. The law was
openly flouted until authorities reached an agreement in 2005 with
UNICEF to help repatriate and rehabilitate child jockeys, who were
mostly taken from poorer Muslim nations such as Bangladesh, Pakistan
and Sudan.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 14, Bangladesh's high
court moved to plug a gaping hole in the country's laws by introducing
a first-ever ban on sexual harassment. Bangladeshi police arrested 250
border guards accused of spreading violence across the country during a
mutiny that started at a military base in Dhaka.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 17, In Bangladesh a state
prosecutor said a corruption charge against PM Sheikh Hasina has been
dropped because the man who laid it now says he was pressured to do so
by the last government.
(AFP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 26, Cyclone Aila lashed
low-lying areas in eastern India and Bangladesh, destroying thousands
of homes, stranding tens of thousands of people in flooded villages and
killing at least 191 before it began to ease.
(AP, 5/26/09)(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 Jun 10, Authorities in
Bangladesh decided to withdraw all 12 corruption-related cases that had
been brought against PM Sheikh Hasina. Minister of state Kamrul Islam
said the charges were politically motivated. He also recommended
withdrawing 50 other cases against political leaders.
(www.voanews.com/bangla/2009-06-10-voa11.cfm)
2009 Jun 29, In Bangladesh textile
workers set fire to a factory in a third day of demonstrations for
payment of wages, as the global economic crisis hits the South Asian
country's main export industry.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jul 28, In Bangladesh the
heaviest rain in 53 years battered the capital, Dhaka, leaving at least
six people dead and stranding thousands in their swamped homes.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 31, In southeastern
Bangladesh landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains killed 10 people.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 24, Bangladesh awarded
three offshore blocks to two global energy companies to explore for gas
in the Bay of Bengal. The US-based ConocoPhillips and Ireland's Tullow
Oil could start exploration work by early next year.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Sep 30, Bangladesh awarded a
farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a monthlong
campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and reduce
the need for food imports.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 4, Grameenphone,
Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone firm, opened the largest IPO in
Bangladesh history. It aimed to raise $70 million. It was owned by
Telenor, a Norwegian telephone company, and Grameen Telecom, a
non-profit founded by Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer of microfinance.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.88)
2009 Oct 11, In eastern Bangladesh
Rasu Miah (40), who was being questioned about a theft, surprised a
court by confessing to killing 11 women in the past three years after a
woman refused to marry him. Miah told a magistrate in his home town of
Chandpur that 15 years ago he decided to kill at least 101 women after
a woman he loved refused to marry him.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Nov 17, Australian doctors
successfully separated joined-at-the-head Bangladeshi twins after more
than 24 hours of surgery, saying the girls were "in great shape" but
faced a difficult recovery.
(AFP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 27, In southern
Bangladesh the MV Coco-4, a triple-deck ferry packed with hundreds of
travelers heading home for an Islamic festival, capsized on the Tetulia
River as passengers disembarked, leaving at least 77 dead and dozens
missing.
(AP, 11/28/09)(AFP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 4, In northern Bangladesh
an overcrowded passenger boat capsized after being hit by a small
ferry, leaving at least 46 people dead. 18 Bangladesh fishermen were
assaulted in the Bay of Bengal off the southern coast of Bangladesh
after pirates attacked by a band of 25-30 pirates. The survivors said
the pirates severely beat them and slashed some of the fishermen with
knives before throwing them all overboard. 16 fishermen remained
missing.
(AP, 12/4/09)(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 4, Indian officials said
Arabinda Rajkhowa, the commander of a powerful rebel movement in the
remote northeast, was arrested along with a top deputy. Security
officials said the chairman of the United Liberation Front of Asom, or
ULFA, was actually arrested days earlier in Bangladesh, where he had
long been thought to be hiding.
(AP, 12/4/09)(Econ, 12/12/09, p.47)
2009 Dec 6, In southwestern
Bangladesh two passenger buses collided head-on, leaving 21 people dead
and 50 injured.
(AP, 12/6/09)
2010 Jan 1, In southwestern
Bangladesh a speeding bus lost control and hit a tree before crashing
into a canal, killing 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 27, Bangladesh executed 5
former soldiers for killing independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
in a 1975 military coup.
(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A2)
2050 It was estimated in 2007 that
Bangladesh would have 250 million people by this time.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.53)
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Subject = Bangladesh
End of file.