Timeline Bangladesh
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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)
The Bengali New Year, celebrated on April 14, is the most important secular festival for the 155 million ethnic Bengalis in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
(http://tinyurl.com/kume6pt) 3200-1600BC The Indus Valley civilization grew up along the banks of the Indus River in what later became Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Dara showed the development of multi-level houses and city-wide plumbing. A natural disaster that altered the course of the Indus River appears to have brought about the collapse of this civilization. The Harappan (Indus) civilization slowly disintegrated by about 1000 BC. It extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square km) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges. In 2012 researchers said Harappans faced climate change and apparently fled along an escape route to the east toward the Ganges basin, where monsoon rains remained reliable.
(http://eawc.evansville.edu)(Reuters, 3/15/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harappa)
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)
1943 Bangladesh, while still part of Pakistan, experienced a famine.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.23)
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)
1970 Dec 7, In Pakistan polling began for 300 seats in the National Assembly. The Awami League, led by Sheik Mujibur Rahman, emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly by winning 160 seats. It was also able to win 288 out of 300 seats in the East Pakistan Assembly. However, the party failed to win even a single seat in the four Provincial Assemblies of West Pakistan. The Pakistan People’s Party, led by landlord Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, won a majority in West Pakistan. Mr. Bhutto and military leader, Gen. Yahya Khan, refused to honor the results.
(www.storyofpakistan.com/articletext.asp?artid=A140&Pg=2)(Econ, 9/21/13, p.90)
1970 Fazle Hasan Abed (b.1936), a Bangladeshi educated in Britain, turned offices in Chittagong into a refuge for victims of the recent Bhola Cyclone. By 1972 it was known as the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC). In 2010 Ian Smillie authored “Freedom From Want: The Remarkable Success Story of BRAC, the Global Grassroots Organization That's Winning the Fight Against Poverty."
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.60)(www.brac.net/index.php?nid=11)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971)(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
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 under Indira Gandhi 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, which became known as 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 The US under Pres. Nixon sent military planes and other material to Pakistan as East Pakistan fought for independence. Nixon, at the behest of national security advisor Henry Kisinger, also deployed a naval task force to the Bay of Bengal to intimidate India.
(Econ, 9/21/13, p.90)
1971 Archer Blood, the senior US consul-general in Dhaka, sent regular, detailed and accurate reports of the bloodshed that was taking place in East Pakistan. In 2013 Gary Bass authored “The Blood Telegram: Nixon, MKissinger and the Forgotten Genocide."
(Econ, 9/21/13, p.90)
1971 Following Pakistan’s defeat by India and Bangladesh in the Bangladesh war, Pakistan decided to develop a nuclear weapons program.
(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A9)
1971 Gholam Azom (aka Ghulam Azam b.1922)) led the Jamaat-e-Islami party. The party’s student wing organized a militia, called Al Badr, to support the West Pakistan army during the war for independence. As the former Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Azom opposed the independence of Bangladesh during and after the 1971 war and led the formation of Shanti Committee, Razakar and Al-Badr to thwart the Mukti Bahini that fought for independence.
(Econ, 3/26/11, p.49)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghulam_Azam)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladeshi_general_election%2C_1973)(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E3)
1973 Bangladesh passed its Int’l. Crimes Tribunal Act.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.68)(http://supremecourt.gov.bd/act_files/act_435.html)
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)
1974 Bangladesh experienced a famine.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.23)
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 In Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus began his micro-loan 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)
1976 Just Faaland and J.R. Parkinson authored “Bangladesh: The Test Case of Development."
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.13)
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 In Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus opened the Grameen Bank, dedicated to providing 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)
1988 Bangladesh’s military ruler declared Islam the state religion by amending the charter, but it barely affected the secular legal system mainly based on British common law. In 1996 the Supreme Court ruled the provision in the constitution is undemocratic. In 2011 the Cabinet decided to keep the provision of state religion considering the national reality.
(AP, 6/21/11)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossain_Mohammad_Ershad)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.16)
1990 Bangladesh Chief Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed took over a caretaker government for three months to oversee elections after the ouster of military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad.
(AP, 3/6/13)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begum_Khaleda_Zia)(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E3)(SFC,11/27/97, p.B5)
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 Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen for her 1992 novel "Shame." [see Nasrin 1998]
(WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A20)
1993 Pakistan halted the repatriation process of Urdu speakers from Bangladesh, saying it did not have the money or land to house them. This left some 250,000 refugees and their descendants to languish in 70 government-run camps across Bangladesh.
(AP, 6/14/14)
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)
1999 The Bangladesh–China–India–Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation was set up, mainly on China’s initiative. It aimed at greater integration of trade and investment between the four countries.
(Econ, 5/25/13, SR p.9)
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 14, In Bangladesh a bombing killed 10 people and injured dozens of others at a park in downtown Dhaka during the Bengali New Year celebration.
(AP, 6/23/14)(http://tinyurl.com/kume6pt)
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)
2003 Monica Ali authored “Brick Lane," a novel that evokes Bangladeshi community of London, England.
(Econ, 6/30/12, p.85)
2003 Bangladesh author Salam Azad published his novel "Bhanga Math" ("Broken Temple") in India. In 2004 it was banned for blasphemy by the Bangladeshi government. In 2012 a court in Dhaka issued an arrest warrant for Azad in response to a petition from a Muslim activist accusing author Salam Azad of hurting religious sentiment in the banned book. Azad (48) said he had become a target after protesting an official’s grabbing of Hindu property.
(AFP, 6/5/12)
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 Apr, Bangladesh police in Chittagong intercepted a shipment from China of rifles, submachine guns, hand grenades and more valued at $5 million. The weapons were intended for rebels in India’s Assam state. In 2014 a trial court sentenced 14 men to death on smuggling charges.
(SFC, 2/20/14, p.40)
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 Sheikh Hasina, a top opposition leader, was speaking at a rally from atop a truck, killing 23 people and injuring hundreds. On March 18, 2012 a court charged Tareque Rahman (46), the eldest son of former premier Khaleda Zia, over the grenade attack. Rahman was living in Britain and would be tried in absentia.
(AP, 8/21/04)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.37)(AFP, 3/18/12)
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 a 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 Jan, Grameen Bank, a Bangladesh-based microfinance institution, opened its first American branch. As of September, 2011, it had lent over 25 million to some 7,300 borrowers.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.42)
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 the Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary unit in Dhaka, surrendered their weapons as tanks surrounded their headquarters after a 2nd day of gunfire in a mutiny that killed 74 people. Security forces searching the headquarters of the 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. In April, 2010, 136 guards were given sentences ranging from four months to seven years for their 2-day uprising. On Nov 5, 2013 152 mutineers were sentenced to hang.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)(AP, 2/27/09)(AP, 2/28/09)(Econ, 11/28/09, p.44)(AP, 4/18/10)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.47)
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)
2010 Feb 23, In Bangladesh at least 20 people were injured and dozens of houses torched in fresh clashes between tribal groups and Bengali settlers in the insurgency-hit southeastern hills.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Bangladesh a fire started at the seven-storey Garib and Garib Sweater factory in the industrial town of Gazipur. Witnesses said the exit gates on the top floor were locked at the time. The fire started on the 2nd floor of the factory, trapping scores of workers. Police say 14 women and 7 men were killed and around 40 people injured.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Mar 4, Bangladesh police said Mahbub Sarwar (26), a Dhaka-based Facebook stocks tipster with more than 10,000 followers, has been arrested on charges of illegally manipulating Bangladesh's overheated stock exchange.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 25, Bangladesh set up a war crimes tribunal for long-delayed trials of people accused of murder, torture, rape and arson during its 1971 independence war.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Apr 7, Bangladesh deployed the army to guard water pumps in the capital Dhaka after acute shortages triggered widespread protests.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 28, Bangladesh Labor and Manpower Minister Mosharraf Hossain said Bangladesh will raise the minimum wage for millions of garment workers, as workers staged another mass protest that blocked the country's main highway.
(AFP, 4/28/10)
2010 May 16, In eastern Bangladesh a speeding bus plunged off a bridge after slamming into another bus, killing 11 people and injuring 32 others.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 30, Bangladesh said it has blocked the popular social networking website Facebook over a page that urges people to draw images of Islam's prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 Jun 2, In Bangladesh a four-story apartment building constructed on a former canal collapsed in Dhaka, burying nearby shanties and killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 3, In Bangladesh an illegal chemical warehouse fuelled a toxic blaze that ripped through one of Dhaka's most densely populated areas, killing at least 117 people.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 15, In southeastern Bangladesh powerful landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 53 people, striking a coastal area as people slept and burying many alive inside their homes.
(AP, 6/15/10)(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 17, Officials and reports said floods and landslides triggered by incessant monsoon rains in Bangladesh and Myanmar have killed more than 100 people.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 27, Bangladesh security forces arrested over 200 activists as the main opposition party led a nationwide dawn-to-dusk general strike to protest alleged government misrule.
(AP, 6/27/10)(SFC, 6/28/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 12, A Bangladesh government minister said 40 people, suspected of killings, rape and arson during its 1971 independence war, have been barred from leaving the country ahead of a planned war crimes trial.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 26, A special tribunal in Bangladesh issued arrest warrants against four senior leaders of the country's largest Islamic party ahead of a planned trial over alleged crimes against humanity during the nation's 1971 independence war.
(AP, 7/26/10)
2010 Jul 27, Bangladesh raised the minimum wage for its millions of garment workers by 80 percent, following months of violent protests over pay and conditions.
(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Aug 21, In Bangladesh at least 15 people died over the last 24 hours after drinking toxic home-brewed liquor in the northeast. They had consumed alcohol mixed with toxic methanol in the Sylhet district late Aug 18.
(AP, 8/21/10)
2010 Aug 22, A Bangladesh lawyer said high court judges have passed an order directing that wearing religious attire should be the personal choice of the students or the employees. No one can be forced to wear them.
(AFP, 8/22/10)
2010 Sep 5, Bangladesh issued a red alert over an outbreak of anthrax which has infected nearly 300 people and killed about 150 cattle in the north of the country in the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 9/5/10)
2010 Sep 9, Bangladesh's high court banned the lease of coastal land to ship-breaking yards, in a ruling welcomed by environmentalists who say the industry destroys fragile eco-systems. Dismantling old ships is a major industry in Bangladesh, providing more than two-thirds of domestic steel and creating tens of thousands of jobs.
(AFP, 9/10/10)
2010 Sep 29, In Bangladesh a speeding train plowed into two buses at a busy crossing in Dhaka, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Oct 7, Bangladesh boat operators said at least 200 fishermen were missing after 15 fishing boats capsized in the Bay of Bengal during a storm. A storm surge over the past two days has sent waves five feet high crashing into several towns and villages along the coast.
(Reuters, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 9, In Bangladesh three days of incessant rains have left at least 17 people dead and 41 fishermen missing across the southern coast.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, In Bangladesh a speeding bus veered off the road and into the water. Many of some 50 passengers swam to safety after the crash. 11 bodies were soon recovered and the search continued for more.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 13, Bangladesh said it would deploy the army at the country's main seaport to keep cargo moving after days of strikes by dock workers hit crucial garment shipments.
(AFP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 23, Bangladeshi police used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse thousands of people protesting against plans to acquire land for army housing.
(Reuters, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 28, Bangladesh police said arrested 20 members of the country’s largest Islamic party and seized homemade bombs from a house where they were holding a meeting.
(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Nov 13, In Bangladesh at least three people were killed and five, including a lawmaker of the ruling party, injured in a suicide bomb attack near Khustia. Police in Dhaka swung batons to disperse hundreds of activists protesting a government bid to evict opposition leader Khaleda Zia from the military-owned house she has lived in for nearly 30 years.
(Reuters, 11/13/10)(AP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 14, Bangladesh police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and swung batons to break up demonstrations in Dhaka as the opposition party enforced a nationwide general strike to protest the eviction of its leader from a military-owned house.
(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Dec 5, Suspected Somali pirates hijacked a Bangladeshi ship carrying nickel ore in the Arabian Sea and appeared to headed to the lawless East African nation. The 25 Bangladeshis on the cargo ship included the wife of one crewman.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 8, In eastern Bangladesh a speeding train slammed into another moving slowly through a station, killing as many as 19 people and injuring scores more.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 9, Human Rights Watch said India's security forces routinely gun down cattle smugglers and other civilians crossing the border with Bangladesh despite scant evidence of any crime.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 12, Bangladesh's Dhaka Stock Exchange plunged 3.32%, its biggest one-day fall since the index was introduced in 2001. Garment workers demanding the implementation of a new minimum wage clashed with police at an industrial zone in the southeast, leaving up to three people dead and 100 hurt.
(AFP, 12/12/10)(AP, 12/12/10)
2010 Dec 14, In Bangladesh a devastating blaze raced through a garment factory near the capital, killing at least 29 people and injuring more than 100.
(AP, 12/14/10)(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, In Bangladesh Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a key figure in the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was arrested. A tribunal has said it has found evidence of Chowdhury committing genocide, rape, arson and looting during the bloody 9-month liberation struggle against Pakistan in 1971. Allegations soon emerged that security forces tortured Chowdhury during interrogations.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 18, In northeastern Bangladesh a boat packed with passengers capsized on the Surma River. Rescuers the next day said at least 37 people died and 18 more were missing.
(AP, 12/19/10)
2010 Dec 23, Human Rights Watch said The United States and Britain should immediately stop supporting the Bangladeshi Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an anti-crime force blamed for killing hundreds of suspects without trial, if there is no visible effort to reform it.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, The Bangladesh government announced it was planning a “high-level" investigation into the operations of Grameen Bank, a microlender founded by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel peace prize.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.75)
2010 The population of Bangladesh stood at about 160 million. 70% were under 35.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.45)
2011 Jan 7, India’s Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead a 15-year-old girl, Felani, at an illegal crossing into Bangladesh from West Bengal. She was on her way to get married.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.54)
2011 Jan 10, Bangladesh suspended trading at its main stock exchange after a market plunge ignited protests by thousands of investors and security officials struck some with batons to disperse them.
(AP, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 15, In eastern Bangladesh 10 policemen were killed when their jeep collided head-on with a truck.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 23, In Bangladesh tens of thousands of Muslims seeking peace and the revival of Islam's tenets joined a mass prayer to wrap up an annual three-day Islamic congregation outside the capital on the bank of the River Turag.
(AP, 1/23/11)
2011 Feb 3, Bangladesh police said they have arrested four Islamic clerics after Mosammet Hena (14) was whipped to death for allegedly having an illicit relationship with a married man, who escaped his 100 lashes. The girl collapsed after she was lashed in public with a bamboo cane about 70 times on Jan 31.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 7, Bangladesh authorities raided the headquarters of the opposition party in the capital as they tried to end the group's strike to protest spiraling commodity prices and crime. In other parts of the country, police fired tear gas and arrested protesters.
(AP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 13, In Bangladeshi hundreds of small investors, angry at a new plunge in share prices, set fire to tires and pelted police with bricks outside the stock exchange and demanded the resignation of the finance minister.
(AP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 19, In Bangladesh 2 trains plowed into packed buses at unmanned railroad crossings in separate accidents, killing at least 13 people and injuring 45 others.
(AP, 2/19/11)
2011 Mar 2, Bangladesh's government ordered Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus from his post as head of his microfinance bank, a humiliating blow for an activist whose revolutionary idea of giving out small loans lifted many out of poverty. The Grameen Bank said he remained in charge and that it would fight the decision.
(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 2, Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi warned "thousands" would die if the West intervened to support the uprising against him. Government troops briefly captured Marsa El Brega, an oil export terminal, before being driven back by rebels. Shells splashed in the Mediterranean and a warplane bombed a beach where rebel fighters were charging over the dunes. At least five people were killed in the fighting. Thousands of Bangladheshi migrant workers, desperate to leave Libya, pressed up against the gates of the Tunisia frontier, angry at their government for sending no help. Britain, Spain, France and others launched emergency airlifts along Libya's borders, trying to prevent racially charged attacks on the tens of thousands of foreign workers try to flee.
(AFP, 3/2/11)(Reuters, 3/2/11)(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 6, Nearly 50 Bangladeshi migrant workers evacuated by sea from Libya to the Greek island of Crete jumped ship during the night, apparently to avoid being sent back to Bangladesh. Three died, 11 remained missing and many others were hospitalized.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 8, A Bangladeshi court upheld an order removing Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus as head of the microlending bank he founded, a move his allies say was prompted by a government vendetta over his political ambitions.
(Reuters, 3/8/11)
2011 Apr 3, Bangladeshi security officials opened fire and used tear gas to disperse stone-throwing members of a hardline Islamic group protesting a government policy for women's equal right to inheritance, leaving one protester dead and 25 others injured.
(AP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 4, In Bangladesh police clashed with demonstrators and arrested dozens in as a hard-line group enforced a paralyzing general strike protesting a new policy giving women equal inheritance rights.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 12, In Bangladesh a ban went into effect forbidding teachers from bringing their phones into class. A ban on student cell phones in class rooms was already in effect.
(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 21, In eastern Bangladesh a crowded ferry carrying about 100 passengers capsized in a river, leaving at least 28 people dead and more feared missing.
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 May 1, The Bangladesh government published the 284-page probe report, with finance minister A.M.A Muhith vowing legal action against stock exchange manipulators. The benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange General (DGEN) index hit a high of 8918.51 points on December 5 last year before plunging to around 5,200 points in two months, gutting hundreds of thousands of small investors.
(AFP, 5/1/11)
2011 Jun 4, Bangladesh opposition supporters set fire to at least six buses in Dhaka, on the eve of a nationwide anti-government strike. Opposition groups, led by former PM Khaleda Zia, were calling for a dawn-to-dusk general June 5 strike to protest government moves to amend the constitution.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 5, In Bangladesh thousands of security personnel fanned out across Dhaka during a daylong anti-government strike.
(AP, 6/5/11)
2011 Jun 30, Bangladesh's Parliament rewrote the constitution and rescinded a 15-year-old requirement that general elections be overseen by nonpartisan caretaker governments, a move the opposition says could allow incumbents to rig the votes.
(AP, 6/30/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.42)
2011 Jul 1, In Bangladesh at least 12 people were killed and more feared missing after three days of heavy rain triggered landslides near a slum in the port city of Chittagong.
(AFP, 7/1/11)
2011 Jul 3, A Bangladesh court issued an arrest warrant for Tarique Rahman, a son of ex-premier Khaleda Zia, over a 2004 grenade attack that killed 24 people at an opposition rally. Rahman has been living in London since 2008.
(AP, 7/3/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Bangladesh dozens of people, including a senior opposition figure, were injured during violent protests as an anti-government strike shut down the country for the second time in four days.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Bangladesh riot police fired tear gas in clashes with thousands of stone-throwing Islamist activists protesting constitutional changes that proclaimed the country a secular state. At least 70 people were injured. a 30-hour nationwide strike was called by a coalition of 12 Islamic parties to protest the removal of a clause from the preamble of country's constitution that expressed "absolute faith and trust in Allah." The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party also backed the protest.
(AP, 7/10/11)
2011 Jul 11, In southeastern Bangladesh a vehicle packed with schoolchildren returning home from a soccer tournament crashed into a canal, killing 44 students.
(AP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 14, Bangladesh and India launched a census of "enclaves" -- areas where one country's territory is surrounded by the other -- in an effort to end complex border disputes.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 16, Bangladesh reported a its population is up nearly 10% in a decade to 142.3 million, following its latest census.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 20, In Bangladesh a Dhaka court indicted 430 people for serious crimes related to the February, 2009, mutiny among border guards.
(SFC, 7/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 28, In northern Bangladesh a crowded bus collided head on with a truck, killing at least 17 people and injuring 30.
(AP, 7/28/11)
2011 Aug 8, Bangladesh police said the main opposition leader, ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia, has been accused of abuse of power and graft in a new case filed by the country's main anti-corruption body. In a separate case, a court Dhaka issued an arrest warrant against Tareque Rahman, Zia's elder son and heir apparent, accusing him of laundering over 204 million taka ($2.73 million) in Singapore between 2003 and 2007.
(AFP, 8/8/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.42)
2011 Aug 14, In Bangladesh a group of influential villagers in Habiganj district voted that Ferdousi Akhter (35) should leave the community after she was accused of having an affair with a neighbor while her husband was working abroad. Akhter took her four children aged 8-12 and jumped with them in front of a train later in the day, killing herself and two of the children.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Sep 6, Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on an official visit aimed at boosting the sometimes fraught relations between India and its smaller Muslim-majority neighbor. Bangladesh and India signed two deals to tackle poaching of critically-endangered Bengal tigers from the world's largest mangrove forest.
(AFP, 9/6/11)(AFP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 7, Indian PM Manmohan Singh said he would "intensify efforts" towards a deal to share water from the Teesta river after failing to sign the key agreement during a visit to Dhaka. A deal to share water from the river fell through after opposition from the chief minister of India's West Bengal.
(AFP, 9/7/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Bangladesh Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a senior leader from the largest Islamic party, was charged with war crimes for allegedly leading groups that took part in killing, looting, arson and rape during the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 10, Bangladesh's main opposition launched a protest campaign in which 3,000 cars drive en masse around the country to demand that the government resigns.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, The World Bank said that it had put on hold a $1.2 billion loan for a huge bridge in Bangladesh amid allegations of corruption in the bidding process.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 31, Bangladesh wildlife officials said Bangladesh will declare three river areas in its southwest as dolphin sanctuaries, in a bid to protect the country's population of endangered freshwater cetaceans.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Nov 2, Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of an anti-poverty group in Bangladesh (BRAC) received the $500,000 education prize awarded by Qatar's Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Bangladesh and Russia signed a deal to build a nuclear power plant in the energy-starved South Asian nation.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Bhutan a Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas was held in Bhutan's capital Thimphu. India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan agreed to cooperate on energy, water, food and biodiversity issues.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 21, The International Monetary Fund urged Bangladesh to tighten monetary policy further to fight runaway inflation and warned that economic growth could undershoot the government's expectations.
(AFP, 11/21/11)
2012 Jan 14, The United States said that it would offer Bangladesh close to $1 billion in aid over the next five years.
(Reuters, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 19, The Bangladesh military said it has foiled a plot by a group of hardline officers, their retired colleagues and Bangladeshi conspirators living abroad to overthrow PM Sheikh Hasina.
(AP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 29, Bangladesh police fired guns and used batons on crowds of stone-throwing opposition activists in several towns, killing at least three people and injuring more than 100. The main Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its key Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami have been demanding an independent caretaker government oversee elections.
(AP, 1/29/12)
2012 Feb 11, In Bangladesh 2 prominent television journalists, Meherun Runi (33) and Sagar Sarwar (35), were brutally stabbed to death at their home in the capital Dhaka. The couple's son (6) called his grandmother and said that his parents were lying on the floor.
(AFP, 2/11/12)
2012 Mar 6, Bangladesh's high court ordered police to sue 17 professors for allegedly distorting the country's liberation war history and maligning its founding leader in a school textbook.
(AFP, 3/7/12)
2012 Mar 6, In Bangladesh Saudi diplomat Khalaf bin Mohammed Salem al-Ali was shot and killed on a residential street in Dhaka. Authorities said the gunman and a motive were unknown.
(AP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 12, In Bangladesh over 100,000 opposition supporters gathered in Dhaka to demand the government step down and hold elections.
(AP, 3/12/12)
2012 Mar 13, In Bangladesh a ferry packed with about 200 people collided with a cargo boat and capsized in the Meghna River, killing 142 people and over a dozen more missing.
(AP, 3/13/12)(AP, 3/14/12)(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 30, Bangladesh police arrested two school teachers on suspicion of staging a drama containing blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. Violence erupted the next day as up to 7,000 Muslims shouted slogans and set ablaze the house of the drama's director, who has fled the remote area.
(AFP, 3/31/12)
2012 Apr 5, In Bangladesh police discovered the badly injured body of Aminul Islam (40) dumped by the roadside northwest of Dhaka, leading his supporters to point the finger at Bangladesh's security forces. He had led a top union that organized protests to increase the wages of the three million workers in the garment sector. Top global retail associations soon demanded a swift and impartial probe into his murder.
(AFP, 4/25/12)(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 Apr 17, In Bangladesh opposition politician Elias Ali (50) and his driver were abducted as they returned home from meeting supporters at a hotel.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 Apr 17, Bangladesh customs agents seized more than 400 tortoises being smuggled in three suitcases through the country's main airport on their way to Bangkok. Two Indian citizens were arrested in connection with the seizure.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 22, Bangladesh police in the northeastern city of Sylhet fired rubber bullets and tear gas at stone-throwing opposition supporters enforcing a strike to protest a politician's disappearance, leaving dozens injured. Elias Ali, who heads the local branch of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, went missing in Dhaka on April17.
(AP, 4/22/12)
2012 Apr 23, Bangladesh police opened fire on hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators who stormed a police station on the second day of an opposition-sponsored general strike protesting a politician's disappearance. Police said one person was killed and more than 50 others injured.
(AP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 29, In Bangladesh 9 small bombs exploded in Dhaka, after an opposition supporter was shot dead the previous evening in clashes ahead of a 4th nationwide strike in eight days.
(AFP, 4/29/12)
2012 Apr 30, Bangladesh police charged 28 opposition officials over a series of bomb explosions in the capital Dhaka, as a nationwide strike again paralyzed the country.
(AFP, 4/30/12)
2012 May 13, A Bangladeshi special court indicted Ghulam Azam (89), a former opposition leader for alleged atrocities including genocide and murder during the nation's 1971 liberation struggle against Pakistan.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 May 13, Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of garment workers during a second day of riots triggered by false reports that a man had been murdered by his employers.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 May 16, In Bangladesh a Dhaka court decision denied bail to 33 key figures, including ex-ministers and lawmakers, over charges stemming from an arson attack during an anti-government protest last month.
(AFP, 5/17/12)
2012 May 17, In Bangladesh 2 small bombs exploded and protesters damaged vehicles in Dhaka, during a nationwide strike against the jailing of 33 opposition leaders.
(AFP, 5/17/12)
2012 May 28, In Bangladesh 9 journalists were wounded in Dhaka when at least 15 attackers wielding machetes stormed Bdnews24.com, the country’s best-known online media outlet, and began slashing staff.
(AFP, 5/29/12)
2012 Jun 4, A Bangladeshi court charged Mohammad Kamaruzzaman (60), a fifth member of the country's largest Islamic party, with alleged atrocities including genocide during the nation's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
(AFP, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 12, Bangladesh turned away 3 boats carrying 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar, bringing to 1,500 the number of refugees blocked in recent days.
(AP, 6/12/12)
2012 Jun 13, Bangladesh refused three more boatloads of Rohingya Muslims fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar, despite growing calls for the border to be opened. A UN rights envoy warned that violence posed a threat to Myanmar’s shift towards democracy, as the death toll from almost a week of unrest rose to 28.
(AFP, 6/13/12)(AFP, 6/14/12)
2012 Jun 28, Bangladesh officials said at least 106 people have been killed in landslides in the southeast after three days of rains triggered flash floods and severed transport links.
(AP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 29, The World Bank cancelled a $1.2 billion loan for Bangladesh's Padma bridge project, saying the government had not cooperated in investigating "high level" corruption in the project. The $3 billion bridge planned to go into service in 2014.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jul 19, Humayun Ahmed (b.1948), Bangladesh's most popular fiction writer, died in the United States after a near year-long battle against colon cancer. He was also the country's leading film director and TV drama-maker. He shot to fame with his first novel "Nondito Naroke" (In Blissful Hell), published in 1972 while he studied at Dhaka university.
(AFP, 7/20/12)
2012 Aug 2, Bangladesh said it has ordered three international charities to stop providing aid to Rohingya refugees who cross the border to flee persecution and violence in Myanmar.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 10, In northeast Bangladesh at least 13 Muslim worshippers were killed and 15 hurt when lightning struck a mosque in a remote village as they held special Ramadan prayers.
(AFP, 8/11/12)
2012 Aug 17, Bangladesh authorities said they have rescued at least 60 fishermen abducted last week by pirates in the Bay of Bengal, as naval and air forces cracked down on criminal activity at sea.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Sep 22, In Bangladesh scores of people were injured in clashes in the capital between police and hundreds of demonstrators, as protests continued in the Muslim world against a film that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 9/22/12)
2012 Sep 30, In Bangladesh thousands of Muslims angry over an alleged derogatory photo of the Islamic holy book Quran on Facebook set fires overnight in at least 10 Buddhist temples and 40 homes near the southern border with Myanmar.
(AP, 9/30/12)
2012 Nov 7, A boat capsized off the coast of Bangladesh. Fishermen helped rescue 23 people, but about 50 illegal migrants, mostly Rohingya Muslims, remained missing.
(SFC, 11/8/12, p.A3)
2012 Nov 24, In Bangladesh a fire raced through the seven-story factory operated by Tazreen Fashions just outside of Dhaka. At least 112 people were killed including 12 people who had suffered injuries after jumping from the building to escape the fire. On Dec 31, 2013, a court issued arrest warrants for two of the factory owners and four employees on homicide charges.
(AP, 11/25/12)(SFC, 1/1/14, p.A3)
2012 Dec 10, It was reported that a Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has accused The Economist magazine of hacking the computer of its presiding judge to record conversations and read e-mails he exchanged with a lawyer regarding charges related to its 1971 war of independence.
(SFC, 12/10/12, p.A2)(Econ, 12/15/12, p.41)
2012 The Bangladesh population numbered about 170 million people.
(Econ, 6/2/12, p.49)
2013 Jan 21, A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal sentenced Abul Kalam Azad to death in absentia for genocide and murder committed during its 9-month war in 1971. Azad was believed to be in Pakistan.
(Econ, 1/26/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 26, In Bangladesh a fire at the Smart Export Garment Ltd. factory killed seven female workers. An investigation was ordered the next day under allegations that the emergency exit was locked.
(AP, 1/27/13)(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 5, A Bangladeshi tribunal prosecuting cases stemming from the 1971 independence war sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah (65), a leader of an Islamic opposition party, to life in prison, sparking street clashes with police that killed two people and injured dozens more.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 8, In central Bangladesh at least two people died and dozens were rescued after the ML Sarash passenger ferry collided with another ship and capsized on the River Meghna, dumping as many as 100 people into the water.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Bangladesh thousands of protesters demonstrated again over the lenient Feb 5 ruling against Abdul Quader Mollah, leader of the Jamaat party, for his role in the 1971 independence war.
(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 16, In Bangladesh an estimated 100,000 people demonstrated in Dhaka demanding move severe punishment for war criminals from the country’s 1971 liberation war.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 22, Police across Bangladesh clashed with protesters from Islamic political parties denouncing war crimes trials linked to the country's 1971 independence war, killing two demonstrators and injuring dozens.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced Delwar Hossain Sayedee (73), a leader of an Islamic political party, to death for crimes during the nation's 1971 war for independence. The decision sparked violent protests that left at least 67 people dead across the nation. Jamaat-e-Islami enforced a nationwide general strike to denounce the trial and demand that Sayedee be freed from detention. On Sep 17, 2014, the sentence was commuted to life in prison.
(AP, 2/28/13)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.49)(AP, 9/17/14)
2013 Mar 1, In Bangladesh protesters clashed for a 2nd day as the death toll rose to 44 in violence triggered by a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a top leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 2, Bangladesh security forces killed two people and injured dozens as they clashed with demonstrators for a 3rd day in violence triggered by a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 3, Bangladesh authorities deployed soldiers in a northern district after Islamic party activists clashed with police, leaving five people dead during a nationwide general strike called to denounce war crimes trials.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 7, In Bangladesh over 100 people were reported killed over the last 3 days by law enforcement agencies under the pretext of controlling violence.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.49)
2013 Mar 12, Bangladesh police clashed with protesters as opposition leaders enforced a daylong, nation-wide strike to protest alleged police intimidation.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, Bangladesh’s figurehead Pres. Zillur Rahman (84) died at a hospital in Singapore.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 6, In Bangladesh hundreds of thousands of members of Hefajat-e-Islam, a hard-line Muslim group, rallied in Dhaka with 13 demands including the introduction of antiblasphemy laws to punish people who insult Islam.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A3)(Econ, 5/11/13, p.55)
2013 Apr 11, Bangladesh authorities in Dhaka arrested Mahmudur Rahman, the acting editor of a pro-opposition newspaper, on charges of sedition and other crimes.
(SFC, 4/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 23, In Bangladesh Rana Plaza owner Mohammed Sohel Rana called engineer Abdur Razzak Khan to inspect an 8-story building after it developed cracks. That night Khan appeared on a private television station saying that after his inspection he told Rana to evacuate the building because it was not safe. The next day garment factory managers told their workers to go inside.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 Apr 24, In Bangladesh the 8-story Rana Plaza building, housing five garment factories, collapsed in the Dhaka suburb of Savar. More than 2,500 people were rescued alive. By May 9 the death toll reached 948. The building was designed in 2004 as a shopping mall and not for any industrial purpose. Three of the floors were built illegally. The final death toll reached 1,129. This was likely the worst garment-factory accident ever. At least 322 people remained missing. On June 1, 2015, police filed murder charges against 41 people accused of involvement.
(Reuters, 4/25/13)(AP, 4/30/13)(AP, 5/1/13)(AP, 5/2/13)(AP, 5/9/13)(Econ, 5/4/13, p.42)(AP, 6/19/13)(AP, 7/5/13)(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A4)
2013 Apr 28, In Bangladesh Mohammed Sohel Rana, the fugitive owner of an illegally-constructed building that collapsed on April 24, was captured at a border crossing with India by members of a commando force. Rescuers located nine people alive inside the rubble of the building.
(AP, 4/28/13)
2013 May 5, Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets to disperse stone-throwing activists who were among thousands who rallied around Dhaka. Officials said at least one person died and 45 others were injured.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 6, Bangladesh police banned all rallies in Dhaka for the rest of the day after at least 31 people died in clashes between police and large numbers of Islamic hardliners demanding that the government enact an anti-blasphemy law. The dead included police officers. The Awami League security crackdown on members of Hefajat-e-Islam, an extreme Islamist group, left as many as 50 people dead in Dhaka. Another 20 were reported killed in clashes in Narayanganj.
(AP, 5/6/13)(SSFC, 5/12/13, p.A4)(Econ, 5/11/13, p.54)
2013 May 8, In Bangladesh a fire fed by huge piles of acrylic products used to make sweaters killed 8 people at the Tung Hai Sweater factory. The dead included a ruling-party politician and a top official in the country's powerful clothing manufacturers' trade group.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, A Bangladesh tribunal sentenced the deputy head of Jamaat-e-Islami, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war for independence.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.55)
2013 May 10, In Bangladesh seamstress Reshma Begum (19), buried for 17 days in the wreckage of the Rana Plaza, was rescued as the death toll climbed to 1045.
(AP, 5/10/13)(SSFC, 5/12/13, p.A6)
2013 May 11, In Bangladesh recovery operations at the Rana Plaza in Savar continued as the death toll reached 1,115.
(AP, 5/11/13)
2013 May 13, Bangladesh's government agreed to allow the country's garment workers to form trade unions without prior permission from factory owners. The search for the dead ended at the site of the worst disaster in the history of the global garment industry with the death toll at 1,127.
(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 Jun 16, In Bangladesh several hundred garment workers were sickened at their factory outside Dhaka apparently after drinking contaminated water. Earlier this month contaminated water sickened 450 workers at another factory in the same area.
(SFC, 6/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 27, The US suspended Bangladesh from its Generalized System of Preferences due to wretched conditions in its export industries.
(SFC, 6/28/13, p.C1)
2013 Jul 10, A group of major North American retailers announced the signing of the Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative. GAP, Walmart and 15 others signed the accord to improve conditions for workers in the Bangladesh garment industry.
(SFC, 7/11/13, p.C1)
2013 Jul 15, In Bangladesh Ghulam Azam (91), a former chief of an Islamic party, was sentenced to 90 years in jail for crimes against humanity during the country's 1971 independence war, angering both supporters who said the trial was politically motivated and opponents who said he should be executed.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 15, Bangladesh approved a labor law to boost worker rights, including the freedom to form trade unions, after a factory building collapse in April killed 1,132 garment workers and sparked debate over labor safety and rights.
(Reuters, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 17, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced Ali Ahsan Mojaheed, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, to death for his role in the kidnapping and killing of people involving Bangladesh's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Aug 1, A Bangladesh court declared as illegal the country's main Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, effectively banning it from a general election due early next year. Party activists took to the streets in the capital, Dhaka, and other towns including Bogra, Jessore and Gaibandha.
(Reuters, 8/1/13)
2013 Sep 17, Bangladesh sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, to death for crimes against humanity in the nation’s 1971 war for independence.
(SFC, 9/18/13, p.A6)
2013 Sep 23, In Bangladesh more than 100 garment factories were forced to shut as thousands of workers protested to demand a $100 a month minimum wage. About 50 people were injured in clashes.
(Reuters, 9/23/13)
2013 Sep 25, In Bangladesh a 5th day of protests forced authorities to close over 100 factories near Dhaka as garment workers demanded higher wages.
(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A5)
2013 Oct 1, A Bangladesh court sentenced to death a top opposition MP for genocide. Salauddin Quader Chowdhury became the first lawmaker to be convicted of war crimes during the 1971 war of independence.
(AFP, 10/1/13)
2013 Oct 2, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed inaugurated the nation’s first nuclear power plant.
(SSFC, 10/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Oct 9, In Bangladesh a huge fire at a factory in Sriput, whose workers were making clothes and fabrics for top Western labels, killed at least 9 people in the latest disaster to blight the country's garment industry.
(AFP, 10/9/13)(Reuters, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 25, In Bangladesh 3 demonstrators were killed as more than 100,000 opposition activists rallied in the Dhaka to demand that PM Sheikh Hasina quit and order polls under a caretaker government.
(AFP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 26, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina phoned Khaleda Zia, leader of the opposition, and requested that national strike be called off. This was their first conversation in many years. The strike continued.
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.48)
2013 Oct 27, In Bangladesh police and backers of the ruling party clashed with opposition supporters, leaving at least 5 people dead and scores injured in different parts of the country as opposition parties tried to enforce a three-day nationwide general strike.
(AP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 28, Bangladesh police said at least 15 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as the 2nd day of an opposition strike demanded elections be held under a non-partisan administration.
(Reuters, 10/28/13)
2013 Oct 29, Bangladesh police opened fire at protesters on a remote island, killing 2 and bringing to 20 the death toll in demonstrations aimed at forcing the premier to make way for a caretaker government ahead of elections.
(AFP, 10/29/13)
2013 Nov 3, A Bangladesh war crimes court convicted and sentenced to death in absentia two men accused of committing atrocities during the country's war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. Britain-based Muslim leader Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, a US citizen, were found guilty of the torture and murder of 18 intellectuals during the war.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 5, A Bangladesh court sentenced 152 soldiers, of the now defunct Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), to death for the February, 2009, mutiny by disgruntled border guards who killed dozens of military commanders during a brutal, two-day uprising. Of the 846 accused of killing 74 people in the mutiny 161 were handed life sentences, over 250 received prison terms of up to 10 years and over 270 were acquitted.
(SFC, 11/6/13, p.A3)(SSFC, 11/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Nov 5, In Bangladesh 2 people died and scores were injured as protesters demanded the government step aside ahead of January elections.
(SFC, 11/5/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 9, The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced another 84-hour nationwide strike, starting Nov 10, after police arrested BNP leaders, triggering violent protests across the country.
(Reuters, 11/9/13)
2013 Nov 12, In Bangladesh riot police fired tear gas to battle thousands of stone-throwing garment workers who rampaged through two industrial towns during a protest over wages that closed at least 200 factories and left dozens of people injured.
(AP, 11/12/13)
2013 Nov 13, In Bangladesh violent protests shuttered some 250 garment factories near the capital Dhaka, as thousands of workers demanded higher wages.
(Reuters, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 14, Bangladeshi garment factory owners said they had agreed to a proposed 77 percent rise in the minimum wage, but police used teargas and rubber bullets to break up new protests by stone-throwing workers calling for a bigger increase.
(Reuters, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 28, In Bangladesh a teenager was killed and 17 people suffered burn injuries after a suspected opposition supporter hurled a petrol bomb into a crowded bus.
(AFP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 29, In Bangladesh a devastating fire ripped through a garment factory supplying major Western retailers, in a blaze set by workers angered over rumors of a colleague's death in police firing.
(Reuters, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 8, A Bangladesh court ordered authorities to hang Islamist leader Abdul Quader Molla (65), months after he was sentenced to death, raising fears of a new wave of clashes. On Dec 10 a late-night reprieve saved his life just hours before he was to be hanged.
(AFP, 12/8/13)(AP, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 11, In Bangladesh deposed military dictator Hussein Mohammad Ershad was detained by Rab (Rapid Action Battalion). The hybrid crime-fighting force picked the Jatiya Party chief up from his residence in Dhaka.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=53FlO_0EuR8)
2013 Dec 12, Bangladesh's Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution of Abdul Quader Molla, an opposition leader convicted of war crimes, rejecting a last-minute appeal in a case that threatens to spark fresh violence ahead of national elections next month. Abdul Quader Molla was sent to the gallows at a prison in Dhaka late today.
(AP, 12/12/13)(AFP, 12/13/13)
2013 Dec 13, Bangladesh was rocked by a new wave of deadly violence as Islamist supporters went on the rampage to vent their fury at the execution of Abdul Quader Molla for war crimes. 3 protesters were killed and 2 activists from the ruling Awami League were hacked to death. An Islamist became the latest fatality after he was shot dead during clashes with ruling party activists in the southern town of Sonaimuri.
(AFP, 12/13/13)
2013 Dec 15, In Bangladesh 6 more people were today killed and 7 overnight in continuing protests sparked by the execution of top Islamist leader Abdul Quader Molla. PM Sheikh Hasina warned of strong action against the rioters.
(AFP, 12/15/13)
2013 Dec 16, Bangladesh police opened fire on bomb-throwing Islamist protesters as five Jamaat-e-Islami supporters died in clashes sparked by the execution of an Islamist leader for war crimes.
(AFP, 12/16/13)(Econ, 12/21/13, p.63)
2013 Dec 22, Bangladesh police charged the owners and 11 others over the nation's worst garment factory fire that killed 111 people, after wrapping up an investigation on the Nov 24, 2012, tragedy.
(AFP, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 22, Bangladesh security forces arrested 37 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals after raiding an illegal Internet telephone operation they were allegedly running in an upscale Dhaka neighborhood.
(AFP, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 26, Bangladesh's opposition accused authorities of placing their leader under virtual house arrest, as tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the country ahead of general elections next month.
(AFP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 29, Bangladesh police barred opposition leader Khaleda Zia from leaving home to lead a banned march in protest at an upcoming election. Two people were killed in battles between her supporters and security forces.
(AFP, 12/29/13)
2014 Jan 4, In Bangladesh scores of polling booths were torched and a train set alight on the eve of elections as the opposition launched a strike against the vote "farce."
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 5, Bangladesh held parliamentary elections. The ruling Awami League won 232 of the 300 elected seats as about half the seats were uncontested due to a boycott by the main opposition party. At least 21 people were killed in election-related violence. Alleged ballot stuffing by the ruling party pushed the turnout just over 40%.
(Reuters, 1/5/14)(AP, 1/6/14)(SSFC, 1/12/14, p.A6)
2014 Jan 6, Bangladesh’s PM Sheikh Hasina held to her stance that fresh polls could be called only if her rivals halt violence. The opposition already called a 48-hour strike and 7 people were killed in clashes.
(Reuters, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 12, In Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina was sworn in for a third spell as prime minister after a deadly general election boycotted by the opposition amid an ongoing political crisis.
(AFP, 1/12/14)
2014 Jan 30, A Bangladesh court sentenced Motiur Rahman Nizami (70), leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, and 13 others to death over a huge 2004 arms smuggling racket, sparking fears of new political unrest.
(AP, 1/30/14)
2014 Feb 4, The head of Bangladesh's largest opposition party, the BNP, accused the government of being involved in the killing or disappearance of more than 300 activists around the time of the country's election.
(Reuters, 2/4/14)
2014 Feb 6, Human Rights Watch said Bangladeshi garment factory owners use beatings, the threat of murder and sexual intimidation to stop workers from forming trade unions.
(AP, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 12, In Bangladesh a mortar shell exploded accidentally during firing practice at a military training base, killing five military and border guard personnel and injuring 14 others.
(AP, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 23, In Bangladesh gunmen opened fire and tossed bombs at a prison van carrying militants of a banned Islamist movement to a court house, freeing three of their colleagues and killing a policeman.
(Reuters, 2/23/14)
2014 Mar 19, Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia was ordered to stand trial over charges that she and her associates embezzled more than $650,000 in a case that could see her jailed for life.
(AFP, 3/19/14)
2014 May 15, In central Bangladesh the M.V. Miraz-4 ferry carrying more than 100 passengers capsized in the River Meghna after being hit by a storm. Some 25 people swam to safety. 54 bodies were recovered over the next two days. An unknown number remained missing.
(AP, 5/15/14)(AP, 5/16/14)(AP, 5/17/14)
2014 May 21, Transparency International said South Asia is the most corrupt region of the world and governments must strengthen their anti-graft agencies to prevent political interference and protect whistleblowers. The watchdog group found serious problems with anti-corruption efforts in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 Jun 14, In Bangladesh arson attacks and clashes between local residents and Urdu-speaking stateless people left 10 people dead in Dhaka.
(AP, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 23, A Bangladesh court sentenced eight people, including a leader of a banned Islamist group, to death for their roles in a bombing at a Bengali 2001 New Year's celebration concert that left 10 people dead.
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jul 8, Bangladesh was awarded nearly four-fifths of an area sprawling over 25,000 sq km (9,700 sq miles) in the Bay of Bengal by a UN tribunal, ending a dispute over a sea border with India that has ruffled ties between the neighbors for more than three decades.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Aug 4, In Bangladesh the M.V. Pinak ferry, licensed at 85 capacity, capsized in the Padma river southwest of Dhaka with about 200 passengers on board. About 100 people were rescued with 19 bodies recovered and at least 125 presumed dead. Police soon launched a hunt for the captain and crew members.
(Reuters, 8/4/14)(SFC, 8/5/14, p.A2)(SFC, 8/7/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 4, Bangladesh said it has resumed sending workers to Iraq after a 3-month ban, despite reports of hundreds of Bangladeshi construction laborers being dragged into the country's bloody sectarian conflict.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe won Dhaka's support for Tokyo's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council as he began a visit to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka aimed at offsetting China's mounting influence in South Asia.
(AFP, 9/6/14)
2014 Sep 29, Bangladesh police said they have arrested a British citizen suspected of entering the country to recruit militants for jihadist groups overseas such as the Islamic State organization.
(AFP, 9/29/14)
2014 Oct 13, Thai police found scores of sick and exhausted boat people hiding on a remote island. All but one of the 79 suspected human-trafficking victims were from Bangladesh. The discovery brought to more than 130 the number of people found since Oct 11 in Phang Nga province.
(Reuters, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 20, In northwestern Bangladesh two passenger buses collided head-on, killing at least 20 people and injuring 25 others.
(AP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 23, In Bangladesh Ghulam Azam (91), a former leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (1960-2000), died died of a stroke while serving jail sentences for crimes against humanity. Azam had opposed the independence of Bangladesh during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghulam_Azam)(Econ, 11/1/14, p.38)
2014 Oct 29, A special Bangladesh tribunal sentenced Motiur Rahman Nizami (71), the leader of the country’s largest Islamist party, to death for atrocities and multiple killings during the nation's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
(AP, 10/29/14)
2014 Nov 1, Bangladesh was hit by a nationwide blackout after a transmission line bringing electricity from neighboring India failed.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 2, A special tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced to death Mir Quashem Ali (62), a senior leader of the country's largest Islamist party, the second death sentence in a week for mass killings during the nation's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
(AP, 11/2/14)
2014 Nov 13, A Bangladesh tribunal sentenced fugitive opposition leader M.A. Zahid Hossain Khokon to death for his role in killing people and other crimes during the nation’s 1971 independence war. Khokon was believed to be living in Sweden.
(SFC, 11/13/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 24, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced Mobarak Hossain, a former commander of a collaborators' group, to death for his role in killings during Bangladesh's 1971 independence war.
(AP, 11/24/14)
2014 Dec 9, In Bangladesh an oil tanker carrying more than 350,000 liters (92,500 gallons) of bunker oil sank on a major river flowing through the Sundarbans after being hit by a cargo vessel.
(AP, 12/12/14)
2014 Dec 23, In Bangladesh Syed Mohammad Qaisar (Kaiser) (73), a former junior minister in the military government, was sentenced to death after a war crimes tribunal found him guilty of atrocities during the country's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
(Reuters, 12/23/14)(SFC, 12/24/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 30, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced A.T.M. Azharul Islam, a senior Islamist party leader, to death after convicting him of leading the Al-Badr militia that committed mass killings and rape during the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
(AP, 12/30/14)
2015 Jan 3, Bangladesh police banned all protests in Dhaka and locked main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in her office in Dhaka as clashes broke out before the first anniversary of an election her party boycotted.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 5, In Bangladesh two men on a motorbike opened fire on a group of anti-government activists in the northwest, killing two amid heightened tensions on the anniversary of a general election boycotted by a major opposition alliance last year. Two more activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party were killed during clashes with supporters of the governing party and security forces.
(AP, 1/5/15)(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 7, In Bangladesh 2 people were shot dead when police and armed protesters began firing in the southern district of Noakhali. An auto-rickshaw passenger was attacked and killed by anti-government protesters in the central district of Sirajganj.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Bangladesh 5 people were killed when demonstrators firebombed a passenger bus and 2 political activists were assassinated as violence claimed at least 22 lives this month. Authorities blamed supporters of opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 19, Bangladeshi police arrested four suspected members of Islamic State in Dhaka, including a regional coordinator for the militant group who told police they had been trained in Pakistan.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 29, A fishing boat carrying migrants to Malaysia capsized off the southern coast of Bangladesh and about 20 people were missing. The passengers were reportedly being taken by traffickers to Malaysia for unconfirmed jobs.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Bangladesh at least 13 people including two women were killed when a fire swept through a plastics factory in Dhaka.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Bangladesh attackers threw crude fire bombs at a packed bus, setting it alight as it moved along a highway and leaving at least 7 people dead during a nationwide strike called by the opposition.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Bangladesh attackers threw crude fire bombs at a packed bus and a moving truck in two separate incidents, killing at least 9 people and injuring 30 others.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 13, In southern Bangladesh a trawler carrying up to 200 passengers sank in the River Payra. Most people were rescued or swam ashore. At least five people died and two were missing.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 22, Bangladesh officials said special forces have raided a training camp in the southeastern Chittagong district operated by an Islamist militant network that was planning to carry out attacks in the country.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Bangladesh a river ferry carrying up to 140 passengers capsized after being hit by a cargo vessel, killing at least 70 people.
(AP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 25, A Bangladesh court issued an arrest warrant for Khaleda Zia, the opposition leader whose political feud with PM Sheikh Hasina has dominated the country's politics for more than a decade.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 26, Prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy, known for speaking out against religious extremism, was hacked to death as he walked through Dhaka with his wife, Rafida Ahmed, who was seriously injured. A previously unknown militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility. Asim Umar, purported leader of al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS), later claimed credit for the killing.
(AP, 2/27/15)(AP, 2/28/15)(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 28, Bangladeshi special forces raided a militant hideout in the southeast town of Chittagong, arrested four suspects and seized explosives and weapons.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)
2015 Mar 2, Bangladeshi security officials arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman as a suspect in the killing of blogger Avijit Roy, a prominent critic of extremist Islam who was hacked to death on Feb 26.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 5, Bangladeshi customs authorities seized nearly 27 kg of gold, worth about $1.67 million, from North Korean diplomat Son Young Nam after he tried to smuggle in the bullion using diplomatic immunity.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 9, Bangladesh said it has ordered North Korean diplomat Son Young Nam to leave the country after he tried to smuggle in gold bullion using diplomatic immunity. North Korea apologized to Bangladesh over the incident.
(AFP, 3/9/15)(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 12, In Bangladesh the roof of a five-story cement factory under construction collapsed, killing 7 workers in the port town of Mongla. Nearly 50 survivors were pulled from the rubble.
(AP, 3/12/15)(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 18, A Bangladesh court indicted Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, a leader of the hard-line Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team, and seven students in the hacking death of atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider two years ago.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Bangladesh at least 10 people were killed and dozens more injured in a stampede during a Hindu religious gathering in Langalbandh.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Bangladesh blogger Oyasiqur Rhaman (27) was hacked to death by three men in Dhaka. Two of the attackers, students at madrassas, were caught near the scene.
(AP, 3/30/15)(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 5, Bangladesh’s former premier and main opposition leader Khaleda Zia was granted bail in two graft cases after she appeared before a special court.
(Reuters, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 5, In Bangladesh a severe storm killed at least 24 people and injured dozens more, mostly in Bogra district in the northern part of the country.
(Reuters, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 9, in southwestern Bangladesh a bus packed with passengers veered off the road, hit trees and plunged into a ditch, killing at least 24 people and injuring 22 others.
(AP, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 11, In Bangladesh Mohammad Qamaruzzaman, an Islamist party official, was hanged in the central jail in Dhaka on charges of crimes against humanity during the country's 1971 independence war.
(AP, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 15, In Bangladesh at least 9 people were killed in central Dhaka when a two-storey home built on swampy ground collapsed.
(Reuters, 4/15/15)
2015 May 10, In Indonesia rescuers brought ashore 469 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh after their wooden boat arrived off Aceh.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 11, Indonesian and Malaysian authorities said nearly 2,000 boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or swum to shore, warning that yet more desperate migrants could be in peril at sea.
(AFP, 5/11/15)
2015 May 12, In Bangladesh blogger and banker Ananta Bijoy Das (33) was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers, the third killing of a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation in less than three months.
(Reuters, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Malaysia said it would turn away any more migrant boats packed with Rohingya and Bangladeshis unless they were sinking.
(AP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 15, In Indonesia more than 1,000 weak, hungry people fleeing persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh came ashore, describing murder, extortion and near starvation after surviving a harrowing journey at sea. Dozens were reported killed in violent clashes between the Bangladeshis and Rohingya on board. A group of 106 people were found on a Thai island.
(AP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 22, Myanmar’s navy said it has carried out its first rescue of a migrant boat when scores of bare-chested men were found crammed into the hull of a wooden fishing vessel and taken to shore. Officials the next day said all 208 men are from Bangladesh and will soon be returned there.
(AFP, 5/23/15)
2015 May 24, Malaysia’s home minister said mass graves and suspected human-trafficking detention camps have been discovered by police in towns and villages bordering Thailand. The mass graves were believed to contain the bodies of hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 5/24/15)
2015 May 25, Bangladesh banned a radical Islamist group accused of attacking and killing atheist bloggers and writers.
(AP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 28, In Bangladesh two garment factories became the first to be declared safe under a scheme set up to prevent a repeat of one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
(AFP, 5/28/15)
2015 Jun 6, Bangladesh and India sealed a historic land pact to swap territories in the presence of visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina. This will finally allow tens of thousands of people living in border enclaves to choose their nationality after decades of stateless limbo. India announced a "US$2 billion line of credit" to Bangladesh in an effort to deepen bilateral ties.
(AFP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, Thousands living near the Bangladesh-India border celebrated an historic agreement that will allow them to choose their nationality after decades of stateless limbo.
(AFP, 6/7/15)
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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