Bangladesh opposition party rallies to demand a new election

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Bangladesh opposition party rallies to demand a new election

2024-09-18 01:35 Last Updated At：01:40

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Thousands of activists and leaders of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party rallied Tuesday in the nation’s capital to demand a democratic transition through an election as an interim government has yet to outline a timeframe for new voting.

The supporters gathered in front of BNP headquarters in Dhaka, where they chanted slogans demanding a new election.

The interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has rolled out a number of plans to reform various sectors of the country, from the Election Commission to financial institutions. But major political parties — including the BNP, which is headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia — want the new election sometime soon.

Yunus took the helm after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country during a mass uprising last month, ending a 15-year stint in power. The protests began in July and morphed into an anti-government movement. Hasina has been living in India since. The country's powerful military is playing a crucial role in running the administration, which faces a number of challenges including worker unrest in its garment industry sector, unstable law and order, and an uncertain economy.

In his recent speeches, Yunus hasn't outlined when a new national election would be held and said they would stay in power as long as the people want them to stay. A team of newspaper editors recently said that Yunus should complete crucial reforms first and stay in power for at least two years.

The BNP initially demanded an election in three months, but later said it wants to allow the interim government time for reforms. The country’s main Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, which was once officially an alliance partner under Zia’s party, also wants to give the Yunus-led government more time before an election.

Tarique Rahman, heir apparent to Zia and the BNP’s acting chairman, spoke online from London where he has been living in exile since 2008. He said Tuesday that his party supported the interim government’s plans for reforms, but such changes would only be sustained if the people have their say in the process.

He didn't specify when a new election should be held, but said any reforms must be endorsed in the next parliament.

“Only a free and fair election can ensure the political empowerment of the people,” he said.

He said that reforms by the Yunus-led government should focus on installing an elected parliament and a new government that would empower the people politically.

“To ensure such an election, reforms must be made in the Election Commission, public administration and security agencies, enabling them to perform effectively,” Rahman said.

In another development, a court in Dhaka on Tuesday allowed interrogators to question two senior journalists facing murder charges while they are held in custody.

Shyamal Dutta, editor of Bengali-language Bhorer Kagoj and former general secretary of the National Press Club in Dhaka, and Mozammel Babu, managing director and editor-in-chief of private station Ekattor TV, were arrested on Monday as they reportedly attempted to flee to India. Both of them face murder charges related to student-led protests. Both of them were known as being close to Hasina.

More than 150 journalists have faced charges such as murder and crimes against humanity since Hasina's fall from power, drawing criticism from groups like Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, and the Human Rights Watch.

After two other journalists were arrested last month and more cases were filed against others, the RSF demanded a halt to such cases.

“The purge of journalists who are considered to be affiliated with the former government has reached a new level. Media professionals are bearing the brunt of the need for vengeance that permeates this terrible legal cabal, which is hurting the image of the political transition underway in Bangladesh," said Antoine Bernard, RSF’s director of Advocacy and Assistance.

“The interim authorities, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, must do everything in their power to end this vicious process,” Bernard said.

Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of the agency’s Asia division, told The Associated Press last month that it was “extremely concerning that the justice system is replicating its abusive and partisan behavior since the fall of the Awami League government (of Hasina), with arbitrary arrests and failure in due process, merely reversing those targeted.”

Also on Tuesday, the government granted magistrate powers to commissioned officials of the military to operate outside metropolitan areas across the country for the next two months. A notification by the Ministry of Public Administration said the empowered military officials would be able to apply their power in dealing with organized crime.

A rocket from Yemen strikes Tel Aviv, injuring 16, and Palestinians mourn a dozen children in Gaza

2024-12-21 22:09 Last Updated At：22:10

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Another 14 people sustained minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before dawn Saturday, the military said.

The Houthis issued a statement on Telegram saying they had aimed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target, which they did not identify.

“A flash of light, a blow and we fell to the ground. Big mess, broken glasses all over the place,” said Bar Katz, a resident of a damaged building.

The attack came after Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people Thursday. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi long-range missile that hit an Israeli school building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.

Israel's military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports that will lead to the "immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The Hodeida port has been key for food shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both sides’ attacks risk further escalation in the region.

Mourners in Gaza held funerals for 19 people — 12 of them children — killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.

One strike hit a residential building in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.

In Gaza City, a strike on a house killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken.

One man cradled a tiny shroud-wrapped body as mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City. Women comforted each other as they wept.

Overall, Gaza's Health Ministry said 21 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.

More than 45,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people and triggered the 14-month war. The health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said more than half of fatalities are women and children.

Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian deaths in Gaza. It says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.

Gaza's Health Ministry issued an urgent appeal for medical and food supplies to be delivered to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in largely isolated northern Gaza, while the hospital director described conditions as dire, as Israel's military presses its latest offensive.

The ministry reported continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital, saying “shells have struck the third floor and the hospital’s entrances, creating a state of panic.”

Hospital director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said the facility faced “severe shortages” and asserted that requests for essential medical supplies and ways to maintain oxygen, water and electricity systems "have largely gone unmet.”

He said 72 wounded people were being treated at the hospital.

“Food is very scarce, and we cannot provide meals for the wounded," Safiyeh added. “We are urgently calling on anyone who can provide supplies to help us.”

Aid groups have said Israeli military operations and armed gangs have hindered their ability to distribute aid.

The Israeli military organization dealing with humanitarian affairs for Gaza said Saturday it had led an operation delivering thousands of food packages, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north. It said trucks with the U.N. World Food Program transported them to distribution centers in the area Friday.

Iran on Saturday said unknown gunmen had killed a local staffer of the Iranian embassy in Syria, the official IRNA news agency said.

Its report quoted foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying “terrorists” opened fire on Davood Bitaraf’s car last Sunday. It did not say what he did with the embassy.

Baghaei said Iran considers Syria’s interim government responsible for finding and prosecuting those behind the killing. Iran had been a key ally of recently ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war