Crisis Chronology | Bangladesh

Home About Discussion Contact ☰

BANGLADESH

01/07/2024

Hasina reelected

General election, although the outcome is a foregone conclusion for Sheik Hasina and her Awami League. The BNP has called for a boycott of the election and many races have only Awami League candidates and candidates that even the Awami League calls “dummy candidates” to provide a false semblance of a contest. In the last six weeks, the Awami League had launched what the US-based Human Rights Watch has termed a “violent autocratic crackdown” against the BNP and arrested thousands of their top leaders and activists. More than a dozen BNP members were also killed in police violence.

05/25/2023

Government says it will hold free and fair elections after US says it will sanction Bangladeshis who attempt illegal practices to affect the voting.

01/17/2023

Unemployment hits an all-time high of 6.9%. Increasing calls for Hasina to step down and/or hold new elections.

12/10/2022

Police arrest hundreds of Bangladesh National Party as a result of tens of thousands protesting high prices and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina. This was the last of a series of rallies, which also called for withdrawal of the cases against BNP chief Kaleda and her son, both of whom were charged and convicted of corruption in 2018. Zia has been temporarily freed and is at home due to her medical condition.

10/04/2022

Most of the country is without power after a national grid failure. The cause is not yet clear.

09/22/2022

For weeks, Myanmar has been firing guns and sometimes mortars into the border region with Bangladesh. The attacks may be an attempt to push more Rohingya into Bangladesh, which already has taken in more than a million Rohingya.

07/27/2022

Government asks the IMF for help as inflation and fuel shortages, along with shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, devastate the economy.

12/10/2021

US imposes wide-scale sanctions on individuals and entities related to Bangladesh, China, North Korea, and Myanmar for human rights violations.

12/02/2021

A mayor is arrested for refusing to put up a mural in honor of Hasina’s father, saying it is contrary to Sharia law. He was arrested under the internet law that criminalizes defaming her father, a founder of Bangladesh, Sheik Mujibur Rahman.

11/11/2021

Local elections. Violence is feared in the wake of killings during the campaign.

05/19/2020

Millions are evacuated from areas of India and Bangladesh in anticipation of super cyclone Amphan.

03/25/2020

Khaleda Zia released from prison for six months for medical treatment.

12/30/2018

Voting for parliament in Bangladesh. Sheik Hasina’s Awami League coalition wins, giving Hasina a third term, on the strength of ten years of economic growth but despite government suppression of the opposition and the opposition media. The League increases its MPs to at least 280 of 350. Initial results indicate that only seven non-coalition candidates won. The opposition coalition Jatiya Oikya Front, led by the Bangladesh National Party and its head, Kamal Hossein, cites fraud in calls for a new vote. The coalition won only seven seats.

11/15/2018

Bangladesh says it will not force Rohingya to return to Myanmar.

11/11/2018

Bangladesh election commission agrees to delay elections until 12/30/18 after an appeal by the opposition parties. This will allow a new opposition coalition, led by Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh National Party and including four smaller parties, called National Oikya Front, to participate in the election.

11/08/2018

International aid groups protest continuing plans by Myanmar and Bangladesh for repatriation of Rohingya, saying that the camps are not ready and would be dangerous for the Rohingya. The movement of people is planned to begin 11/15.

10/28/2018

Khaleda Zia found guilty of misuse of power, adding two years to the previous five-year sentence handed down in 2/18.

02/16/2018

Eighty million dollars disappear from Banglaesh’s account at the New York Federal Reserve. Investigators suspect that the money was transferred to Philippine banks, which are lightly regulated, and then to casinos in that country.

01/19/2018

Rohingya refugee leaders in Bangladesh issue a set of demands for Myanmar government that must be met before repatriation can begin. They ask for citizenship, their land returned, their villages rebuilt, and the military held responsible for crimes, among other things.

11/23/2017

Myanmar and Bangladesh agree to the repatriation of Rohingya.

11/19/2017

China proposes a three-step solution to Rohingya crisis, including a ceasefire and repatriation of Rohingya. Myanmar and Bangladesh reportedly support the plan.

11/11/2017

Supreme Court Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha resigns while abroad following corruption investigation. Sinha decided against the government in 8/17 in re parliamentary power to remove justices. There are reports he was forced to resign.

10/27/2017

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh more than half a million; UN reports that many may have been killed in Myanmar.

09/11/2017

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh now in the hundreds of thousands.

09/06/2017

Bangladesh protests landmines placed at Myanmar border by military.

09/05/2017

Aung Suu Kyi widely criticized for silence about the Myanmar Rohingya, says “misinformation” is distorting the news about them to favor “terrorists.”

09/03/2017

Myanmar Rohingya flee to Bangladesh

Tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh ahead of Myanmar military campaign.

08/02/2017

Supreme Court ends parliament’s right to remove judges, setting up a Supreme Judicial Council for that purpose instead.

07/19/2016

Government making concerted effort to root out terrorists.

07/04/2016

A series of suicide bombing attacks in Turkey, Iraq, Dhaka, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia follow the end of Ramadan. The Islamic State has not claimed responsibility for the Turkey attack or for the three in Saudi Arabia, but investigators suspect the state or its followers.

11/26/2015

Attack on Shiite mosque by militants saying they are allied with Islamic State.

05/11/2015

Many refugees, mostly Rohingya Muslims and some Bangladeshis, fleeing Bangladesh and Myanmar because of persecution. They are going to Malaysia and Indonesia.