A commentary published in the Bangladeshi newspaper Amar Desh on June 2, 2026, alleges that former Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina, described as a fugitive convicted of serious crimes, is currently living secretly in New Delhi. The article claims India granted her refuge out of gratitude for her past alignment with Indian interests and to use her as a political tool against Bangladesh. It further asserts that recent interviews attributed to Hasina in Indian media reflect India’s stance rather than her own verified statements.

The piece argues that Hasina’s political relevance in Bangladesh has ended following recent elections, which it says were participatory and shifted support toward the opposition. It accuses Indian media and pro-Hasina groups of attempting to keep her politically visible as Bangladesh’s new government pursues independent foreign and defense policies that may not align with India’s preferences.

The article concludes that India’s efforts to influence Bangladeshi politics through Hasina and sympathetic voices could create challenges for the current government if not carefully managed.

A police team from Eidgaon Police Station in Cox’s Bazar has been accused of assaulting the elderly mother and wife of an expatriate and forcing them out of their home. The complaint was filed by Shahena Akhter, wife of Malaysia-based expatriate Shahjahan, who alleged that on the night of June 29, officers led by Officer-in-Charge A.T.M. Shifatul Majdar, along with SI Ashraf and ASI Zohir, entered her house without reason, physically assaulted her and her mother-in-law, and expelled them from the residence. She later lodged a formal complaint with the Superintendent of Police and held a press conference seeking justice.

According to the complaint, the police’s actions allowed Shahjahan’s divorced first wife, Shaheda Sultana Beauty, to re-enter the house, causing social humiliation and distress to the family. In response, OC Shifatul Majdar denied the allegations, stating that police intervened only to rescue a girl allegedly confined by the second wife amid a domestic dispute between the two spouses. He claimed the other accusations were baseless.

The matter remains under review following the complaint submission to the district police authority.

A six-year-old boy named Jihad has been missing for three days in Bhangura upazila of Pabna. He disappeared on Sunday around 5 p.m. from the Charbhangura Purbo Para area while visiting his maternal grandparents’ home. Jihad is the son of Zafar Iqbal from Agbohor village in Dilpashar union. His father filed a general diary with Bhangura Police Station on Monday morning after failing to locate him.

According to Jihad’s father, the family lives in Savar, Dhaka, due to his job and had come home to celebrate Eid. On Saturday, they visited his in-laws’ house in Charbhangura. The child was last seen playing with other children near the house before he went missing. Despite extensive searches, the family has not found any trace of him.

Bhangura Police Station’s investigation officer Md. Ariful Islam said police are working to locate the missing child.

Bangladeshi Hindu community leaders have strongly criticized recent remarks by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, accusing him of making inflammatory statements against Muslims and lower-caste Hindus. They urged him to refrain from interfering in Bangladesh’s affairs and to avoid religious provocation. Despite his comments, Eid-ul-Azha was celebrated peacefully across northern Bangladesh in an atmosphere of communal harmony.

Representatives from the Hindu Welfare Trust, Hindu Buddhist Christian Welfare Front, and local business leaders said Adhikari’s actions since taking office have led to oppression of Indian Muslims and marginalized Hindus, particularly around the issue of cattle slaughter during Eid. They emphasized that Bangladeshi Hindus do not support such persecution and maintain close cooperation with Muslims in livestock trade and religious observance.

Community figures from Rangpur and other northern border districts confirmed that Adhikari’s rhetoric has had no impact on Bangladesh’s interfaith relations. They reaffirmed that people of all religions continue to celebrate their festivals together peacefully, upholding the country’s tradition of religious coexistence.

Chapainawabganj District Council Administrator Harunur Rashid sparked controversy after alleging that all current district BNP leaders are secretly affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami and did not vote for their own party during elections. He made the comments on Saturday while addressing a discussion and prayer event organized by the district Chhatra Dal to mark the 45th martyrdom anniversary of former President Ziaur Rahman. Harunur Rashid urged the BNP chairperson to investigate the matter, claiming that those in leadership positions had supported Jamaat instead of BNP candidates.

When contacted on Monday, Harunur Rashid confirmed that he stood by his earlier remarks and declined to elaborate further. His comments drew sharp condemnation from district BNP leaders. Member Secretary Rafiqul Islam (Rafiq Chinese) dismissed Harun’s claims as personal opinions, asserting that the current committee, formed in 2021 under Tarique Rahman’s direction, has been active in political movements. He countered that Harun himself had praised the ruling Awami League in parliament and was rejected by voters in the last election.

Other district BNP leaders also rejected Harun’s allegations, insisting that the party operates transparently and follows Ziaur Rahman’s ideals.

A seven-year-old girl named Fatema was taken by a crocodile from the main ghat of the pond at Khan Jahan Ali shrine in Bagerhat around 9:30 p.m. on Monday. Thousands of people gathered at the site immediately after the incident. Shrine authorities informed the administration, prompting a rescue operation joined by the local lawmaker, deputy commissioner, superintendent of police, and political figures. The rescue team initially failed to locate the child.

At around 4:40 a.m. on June 2, the child’s body was recovered floating near the ghat. The shrine’s chief caretaker, Fakir Tarikul Islam, confirmed the recovery. Local resident Mohammad Hamim described the incident as tragic and warned that such occurrences could discourage visitors unless the crocodile is relocated to a secure area. Another resident, Jaber Sheikh, claimed the crocodile was not originally from the shrine but brought from India and belongs to an aggressive species.

The child’s mother, known locally as Pagli, has been identified and was seen mourning near the site, unable to speak after the incident.

A series of violent clashes broke out in Gopalganj’s Kotalipara upazila on Monday evening following the detention of three men accused of stealing a vehicle battery. The incidents occurred in Ghagorkanda-Beparipara village, where houses were vandalized and at least 20 people, including men and women, were injured. Several of the injured were admitted to the local health complex for treatment.

According to local accounts, members of the village’s anti-drug committee detained three suspects—Morsalin Mia, Rasel Daria, and Abdullah Daria—on allegations of theft and confined them in their office while notifying police. When news of the detention spread, residents from nearby Kathiga and Chitshi villages attacked the office, vandalized property, and freed the detainees. The clashes escalated, leading to widespread damage and injuries.

Kotalipara Police Station Officer-in-Charge Riad Mahmud stated that no formal complaint had been filed as of yet and that the situation in the area remained calm.

In Chattogram, large quantities of sacrificial animal hides have gone to waste again this year, continuing a trend since 2018. Seasonal traders abandoned the market after failing to get fair prices, blaming a powerful syndicate and poor coordination by the Ministry of Commerce. They said the recurring losses are breaking the rawhide supply chain and damaging the national economy.

Industry sources cited several reasons for the sector’s ongoing crisis, including the non-operation of the central effluent treatment plant in Savar, which limits Bangladesh’s competitiveness in international markets. Traders also criticized the government’s annual price-setting process for salted rawhide, claiming it ignores real market conditions and involves participants with little connection to the industry. As a result, confusion spreads among seasonal traders, who often buy hides at inflated rates and incur losses.

Local tannery owners and traders said the government’s fixed prices—ranging from Tk 56 to 67 per square foot—do not reflect actual trading values. They urged authorities to monitor tannery purchases and focus on rebuilding domestic and international markets to revive the struggling leather industry.

Authorities in Narayanganj removed more than a thousand discarded sacrificial animal hides and waste that had been left scattered along a two-kilometer stretch of the Link Road in Fatullah. The cleanup operation, led by Narayanganj Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer S M Fayez Uddin, took place from Monday noon to evening using excavators to collect and bury the decomposing materials. The action brought relief to residents and pedestrians who had been suffering from the stench and health discomfort caused by the rotting waste.

Local residents said the hides and waste had been dumped near the Riaagop International Cricket Stadium and surrounding areas under the Narayanganj City Corporation. Despite jurisdictional boundaries, the upazila administration undertook the full cleanup for public welfare. The official explained that union councils had been instructed earlier to manage the waste, and immediate measures were taken once the public distress became known.

Fayez Uddin urged citizens to dispose of sacrificial waste responsibly to prevent environmental pollution and public suffering, noting that careless dumping wastes government resources. Locals expressed gratitude for the swift administrative response.

The Bangladesh government has approved the purchase of new surveillance equipment worth about Tk 950 million for the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) to enhance content blocking and filtering capabilities. The decision was made on May 20 at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase chaired by Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury. The equipment includes next-generation firewalls, hybrid packet brokers, switch management cards, and accessories for six partially connected data centers. Dhaka-based Global Brand PLC was selected as the lowest bidder.

The NTMC, originally formed in 2008 and renamed in 2013, has faced longstanding allegations of privacy violations and unauthorized surveillance. Following a UN fact-finding report and public criticism, the previous interim government dissolved the NTMC in December 2025 and created a new structure called the Center for Information Support under the Home Ministry. The current administration later amended laws to align surveillance practices with international standards.

Officials stated that the new system aims to strengthen internet security and enforce the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025, though public debate over surveillance practices continues.

During the Eid-ul-Azha holidays, many rural areas of Bangladesh faced severe power outages lasting up to 8–10 hours, causing widespread suffering among residents. Districts such as Bhola, Chandpur, Noakhali, Feni, Rangpur, Patuakhali, Munshiganj, Satkhira, and Jashore were among the worst affected. In some places, locals protested in front of electricity offices. Officials from the Power Division attributed the disruptions to damage caused by seasonal storms that toppled poles and severed transmission lines.

The Power Division stated that electricity demand was low during the holidays due to the closure of offices and factories, but storm damage limited supply to about 5,500 megawatts. Maintenance teams were deployed nationwide, and most transmission lines were repaired within two days. The Power Development Board reported that assessments of total damage were still underway.

Separately, the government reimposed its directive requiring all shopping malls, markets, and shops to close by 7 p.m. from June 1 to conserve electricity. The temporary extension to 10 p.m. for Eid shopping had expired, and the rule now also applies to billboards, fairs, and cultural events.

Nineteen district hospitals in Bangladesh currently have no functioning intensive care unit (ICU) services, according to the Directorate General of Health Services. The shortage has become critical as hospitals struggle to accommodate patients during a measles outbreak. Families are being forced to wait for hours or move between hospitals in search of ICU beds, with many patients dying before receiving care. The crisis is most acute in pediatric hospitals, where demand for ICU beds far exceeds availability.

The report reveals that Bangladesh has 1,620 ICU beds nationwide, about 10 percent of which are nonfunctional. Many ICU units built during the COVID-19 pandemic with World Bank funding are now idle due to corruption, mismanagement, and lack of trained personnel. Equipment worth millions of taka lies unused, and some hospitals have locked or incomplete ICU facilities. Experts say the shortage reflects deeper failures in planning, staffing, and health system management.

Health authorities say the government is working on long-term plans to reopen closed ICUs and recruit skilled staff. However, public health specialists warn that without urgent action, the country’s critical care capacity will remain dangerously inadequate.

Five people, all from the same family, were killed early Tuesday when a private car collided with a parked gas cylinder-laden truck on the Dhaka-Bhanga Expressway in Faridpur’s Bhanga upazila. The accident occurred around 4:30 a.m. in the Maligram area. The deceased include Nurjahan Begum, her son Arif Hasan, Ayesha Begum, Rakib Hossain, and the car’s unidentified driver. The victims were residents of Jhikargacha upazila in Jashore district.

According to police and fire service sources, six family members were traveling from Dhaka to Jashore when the driver lost control and hit the stationary truck. The car was severely damaged, killing four people on the spot, including a child and the driver. Fire service and highway police from Bhanga and Shibchar rescued the victims and took the injured to the district medical college hospital. One of the injured, Rakib Hossain, later died at the hospital.

Police have seized both the private car and the gas truck involved in the accident, according to Shibchar Highway Police Sub-Inspector Nur Alam.

Aftab Shahriar Mahir, a 20-year-old college student, was killed in a head-on collision between his motorcycle and a microbus in Ishwarganj, Mymensingh. The accident occurred around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday at Charhosenpur along the Mymensingh-Kishoreganj highway. Local residents and fire service personnel rescued Mahir and took him to Ishwarganj Upazila Health Complex, where doctors declared him dead.

Mahir, son of Abdul Kaiyum from Musalli village in Nandail, lived with his family in Dattapara of Ishwarganj municipality. He was a first-year political science student at Ishwarganj Government College. According to his family, Mahir had long requested a motorcycle like his friends, and his father finally bought one for Tk 2.75 lakh four months ago. The family is devastated by his sudden death.

Police said the cause of the collision is under investigation and legal procedures are underway. The incident has renewed concern over rising motorcycle accidents on highways and the need for greater road safety awareness.

Inqilab Mancha has announced a special absentee funeral prayer and doa in memory of those killed by the Rakkhi Bahini after Bangladesh’s independence. The event will also honor women who suffered brutal torture during that period. According to the announcement, the program will take place today, Tuesday, at 3 p.m. at Shaheed Osman Hadi Square in front of the National Museum in Shahbagh, Dhaka.

The organization issued a statement on Monday night inviting people across the country to join the event. The statement said the prayer will seek forgiveness for the souls of the freedom fighters and other citizens killed by the Rakkhi Bahini, and remembrance for the women who were victims of sexual violence during that time.

The event aims to commemorate the victims and raise public awareness of the suffering endured by many Bangladeshis in the post-independence period.