An opinion article published by Amar Desh on August 15, 2026 assesses former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political legacy on her first birthday after death. The author argues that her significance extended beyond being a three-time prime minister, portraying her as a figure whose resilience, self-respect and resistance appealed strongly to young people and women. The article describes her as a rare leader who became part of a generation’s political imagination.

The piece highlights her role in the anti-Ershad movement of the 1980s, which it says established her image as an uncompromising leader. It links her appeal to nationalist language focused on dignity, independent decision-making and national interests. The author also cites pressure, cases, imprisonment, illness and political adversity during Hasina’s long rule, arguing that these circumstances reinforced her image as a leader who did not retreat. The article nevertheless acknowledges controversies involving conflict in parliamentary politics, political violence, politicisation and administrative weaknesses.

According to the article, Zia contested 23 seats across five national elections from 1991 to 2008 and won all of them. It says some participants in the July movement found inspiration in her resistance, while cautioning against treating all young people as politically uniform. The author frames her legacy around courage, electoral rights, democracy and opposition to injustice.

Bangladesh marks the 51st death anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15. According to the report, he was killed in a 1975 coup by a section of freedom fighter army officers. It says 26 people, including his wife, three sons and close relatives, were killed in the uprising. His two daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, survived because they were abroad.

The report says Mujibur was detained in West Pakistan during the 1971 independence war, while Bangladesh’s first provisional government named him president on April 17. He returned to Bangladesh on January 10, 1972, became president and assumed the premiership two days later. It also says he banned all political parties and established the one-party BAKSAL system on January 25, 1975.

After the Awami League returned to power under Hasina in 1996, trials of the killers began and August 15 was declared National Mourning Day and a public holiday. The report says the holiday was later removed and restored, then cancelled after political changes in 2024. It states that the Awami League and its affiliated organisations are currently barred from political activities.

Bangladesh is marking the 82nd birthday of late BNP former chairperson and three-time prime minister Khaleda Zia on August 15. This year’s observances are being held without her presence after she died while receiving treatment at Evercare Hospital in the capital on December 30 last year. Party offices and mosques across the country are arranging milad and prayer gatherings in her memory.

A milad and prayer event is scheduled for Saturday morning at the BNP central office in Nayapaltan, Dhaka, with senior party leaders expected to attend. Another programme is planned in the afternoon at the T&T field in the Korail area of Mohakhali, featuring prayers and distribution of assistance among poor and vulnerable people. Prime Minister and BNP chairman Tarique Rahman is listed as the chief guest.

Khaleda Zia entered active politics after the killing of Ziaur Rahman and became BNP vice chairperson in 1983 and chairperson in 1984. She led opposition to military rule and served three terms as prime minister. Her political life included imprisonment, illness and prolonged political adversity, leaving a deep mark on Bangladesh’s politics.

Bangladesh Jubo Dal has reinstated Hasanur Rahman as joint general secretary of its Kishoreganj upazila unit in Nilphamari, five months after expelling him. The decision was reported on August 15. Rahman had been expelled after an incident involving alleged misconduct with a health official after he did not receive tender work. The party’s central executive committee announced his expulsion through a press release on March 12.

The party withdrew the expulsion order following an application from Rahman and a party decision. Kishoreganj upazila Jubo Dal organisational secretary Obaidur Rahman confirmed the development on Friday night, saying the organisation had revoked the expulsion of the unit’s joint general secretary.

A press release signed by central executive committee joint general secretary, in charge of office affairs, Minhajul Islam Bhuiya announced the decision. A corrected release was issued Friday after Thursday’s notice contained errors in Rahman’s name and designation. The notice said the decision was implemented by Jubo Dal president Abdul Monayem Munna and general secretary Mohammad Nurul Islam Nayon MP.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman may travel to Delhi in the third week of August for a possible bilateral visit, according to multiple government sources in Dhaka. The visit is tentatively expected on August 21–22, although the dates could move by a few days. Officials said India proposed the trip and Bangladesh has indicated that Rahman will travel, while preparations for his first India visit are already under way.

Bangladesh has set several expectations before a final decision is made, officials said. A key demand is that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been in India since August 5, 2024, should no longer conduct political activities or make political statements from there. Officials claimed her statements have generated controversy within Bangladesh and are intended to destabilise the country’s internal situation.

Officials said India has provided one form of assurance, but Bangladesh wants a complete guarantee before the visit is confirmed. An Indian media outlet also reported that Rahman could visit India for two days in the middle of next week. He has separately been invited to a BRICS summit in New Delhi in September as current BIMSTEC chair, though no decision on attending has been made.

Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku said Bangladesh is standing amid devastation and warned that heavy borrowing could eventually make it difficult to pay government officials’ salaries. He made the remarks on Friday, 14 August, at an exchange meeting with Sirajganj municipality officers and employees in the municipality hallroom. He said the situation could become harder without proper planning.

The minister said development is not possible without sound planning. He said the government had presented a budget designed to avoid placing excessive tax pressure on people, but added that ordinary citizens and the administration must work together to implement it. District Commissioner Aminul Islam, municipality administrator Shahadat Hossain, and Sirajganj district BNP general secretary Saidur Rahman Bacchu were among those present.

Earlier, Tuku distributed six vehicles, including a drum truck, for the city’s cleanliness operations and climbed onto a truck himself. He said he did not do so for display, but out of excitement recalled from seeing a road-cleaning vehicle decades earlier. He said everyone must maintain municipal vehicles because the people are the government’s parents. He also inaugurated RCC drain and road construction in Dhanbandhi Dobapara of municipal ward 10.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected European Union statements against Iran made under the pretext of human rights, saying the bloc has no moral right to lecture others because of its own conduct. He made the remarks during a telephone discussion with Greek Foreign Minister Yorgos Gerapetritis on bilateral relations and regional and international developments, according to Iranian media.

Araghchi cited what he described as continuing illegal and aggressive US actions against Iran, including a naval blockade and violation of the June 18 agreement. He stressed Iran’s determination to protect its interests and national security. He also outlined the latest bilateral talks with Oman on identifying a safe route for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian minister said insecurity in the strait was a direct result of US and Israeli military aggression against Iran, and called for aggressors and lawbreakers to be held accountable. He criticized what he called the EU’s double standards, citing support by some European parties for Israel and indifference to alleged crimes in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran. Gerapetritis backed diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions and offered technical and expert assistance.

Bangladesh’s opposition leader and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief Dr Shafiqur Rahman has written to the president requesting a special session of the national parliament to address the country’s severe power and energy crisis, along with worsening socioeconomic and law-and-order conditions. The letter was sent on Friday, according to a report published on August 14, 2026.

A Jamaat press release said copies of the letter were also sent to the prime minister and the parliamentary secretariat. The letter said widespread, unchecked load-shedding had made daily life difficult for ordinary people while seriously harming industrial production, business and trade.

It further said the direct effects of the power and energy shortages had raised prices of essential goods and contributed to a sharp deterioration in law and order, pushing people into uncertainty. Rahman said representatives of the public could not remain silent during the crisis. He called for meaningful parliamentary discussion and immediate solutions, urging the president to convene a special session without delay to resolve the energy crisis and related problems.

BNP standing committee member and Social Welfare Minister Dr A Z M Zahid Hossain said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir remains the party’s secretary general, a standing committee member and a minister despite receiving BNP’s nomination for president. Zahid made the remarks to journalists after an event in the capital on Friday. He said Fakhrul has submitted his nomination for the presidential post.

Zahid said a presidential candidate must first submit nomination papers, which the Election Commission must scrutinize and declare valid before voting takes place. He maintained that there is no constitutional requirement for a candidate to resign before being elected and taking the oath. He urged journalists not to spread what he described as unnecessary rumours about Fakhrul’s resignation.

He asked reporters to wait until the 20th, saying resignation would come before the oath. Zahid also said changes in cabinet or party responsibilities are a normal process in parliamentary democracy and may be made if the prime minister considers them necessary. His statement contradicted comments by senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, who had said Fakhrul resigned from his party posts after receiving the presidential nomination.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami held a candlelight march and rally in Badda, Dhaka, on Friday evening to protest what it described as severe gas and electricity shortages across the country. Organised by the Badda unit of Dhaka North metropolitan Jamaat, the procession began in front of Uttar Badda Kamil Madrasa, travelled through several roads and ended with a rally in Madhya Badda. Mohammad Selim Uddin, the Dhaka North ameer and a DNCC mayoral candidate, led the programme.

Speaking before the march, Selim Uddin alleged that the gas and power crisis had resulted from government mismanagement rather than war. He said households lacked light and candles had become people’s only support. He also said the government could not evade responsibility by citing war, and alleged that those assigned responsibility for the power and energy ministry had failed previously.

Selim Uddin demanded immediate effective measures to resolve the shortages and called for an end to what he termed hidden charges in electricity and gas bills. Participants included Dhaka North working committee member and office secretary Nazim Uddin Molla, Majlis-e-Shura members Qutub Uddin and Mizanur Rahman, advocate Rezaul Karim, and local party leaders and activists. After the march, Selim Uddin said the candles represented both protest and a message that public voices would not be extinguished.

Cockroach Janata Party, or CJP, is launching its “Fix the School” campaign to improve infrastructure and accountability in rural government schools in India. The initiative will begin from Santuk Pimpuri village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, the home village of party founder Abhijit Deepak. A statement said the programme would be inaugurated at 7:30am on Friday, around India’s Independence Day.

Speaking to journalists after returning from Delhi, Deepak said he would ask local leaders to renovate the government school and ensure basic facilities such as benches and drinking water. He said CJP had formed several teams that would visit villages, speak with residents and sarpanches, and urge action to improve school conditions through broader participation.

Deepak cited videos in which girls complain that they must walk seven kilometres to school and that there is no road to reach it. He urged parents to inspect their children’s schools and report shortcomings to CJP. He said Independence Day rallies should take place, but education should also receive importance.

Former state minister for home affairs Tanzim Ahmed Sohel Taj has called on former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, described in the report as staying in India, to return to Bangladesh and face justice. He made the appeal in a video posted on his verified Facebook page on Friday, August 14, 2026, while outside the July 36 Museum in the capital, formerly Ganabhaban.

In the video caption, Sohel Taj wrote that Bangladesh's people were waiting for Hasina. He said visitors from distant parts of the country were coming to see the museum, and that crowds gathered there every day. He also pointed to a long queue outside the museum on a busy road near Mirpur Road.

Sohel Taj said he believed the violence witnessed by Bangladeshis had been directed from the former Ganabhaban. He referred to relatives of those injured or killed, as well as other visitors, coming to the museum. Addressing reports that Hasina might return to Bangladesh with her associates, he said the public was waiting for her and urged her to face the sentence and judicial process he said applied to her.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the United Kingdom as the “Islamic Republic of Britain” while criticising recent British media coverage of Israel and the UK government’s policies. He made the remark on the Israeli podcast “Melekh Blitzar Haim,” broadcast on Thursday. Netanyahu cited British writer Randolph Churchill’s positive coverage of Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and said similar coverage would be difficult to find in Britain today.

Netanyahu also referred to a 2022 comment by US Vice President JD Vance about Britain possibly becoming the first nuclear-armed Islamist country. Raising Iran, Netanyahu said they were ensuring that another country like Iran would not emerge there. Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy, co-leaders of the Movement for Progressive Judaism, called the language dangerous and irresponsible amid fears caused by antisemitism, Islamophobia and social division. They said Netanyahu does not represent British Jews.

Former Downing Street chief of staff Gavin Barwell described the statement as overt Islamophobia. The report says UK-Israel tensions have increased since Labour took power in 2024. University College London associate professor Radwan Abuharb called the comments a new low in relations, while noting significant policy alignment between the countries on Iran.

International Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwat Bangladesh is set to hold a national ulema and mashayekh conference in the capital, calling for the Qadiani community to be declared non-Muslim by the state and for all its publications to be confiscated. The conference is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Engineers Institution auditorium in Ramna.

The organization’s president, Shaykh Allama Sajidur Rahman, and secretary general, Maulana Muhiuddin Rabbani, urged the public to make the event successful. In a joint statement sent to the media on Friday, they made a particular appeal to religious scholars, mashayekh, imams and khatibs to attend.

The leaders said building national unity was an urgent need to preserve the belief in Khatme Nabuwat and prevent what they described as Qadiani activities. They called the planned conference a historic and significant initiative and invited scholars and conscious citizens from all levels to participate. They also prayed that the gathering would strengthen efforts to protect religion, faith and Khatme Nabuwat, while reinforcing unity, brotherhood and religious consciousness among the ummah.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General and the prime minister’s political adviser Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said he had not received any instruction regarding the formation of a new Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal central committee. He spoke at a press conference in Nayapaltan, Dhaka, on Friday afternoon after the organisation’s president Rakibul Islam Rakib and general secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir indicated they were leaving the body.

Journalists asked whether a new Chhatra Dal committee could be announced that day. Rizvi replied that no such direction or instruction had reached him. He said that if a decision of that nature had been made, it would come to him.

Rizvi said the party high command was undoubtedly speaking with the student leaders, but he could not say at that moment what had been discussed or what instructions had been given. He added that if anything reached a final stage or a new decision was made, journalists would be informed through a press series.