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Time of India
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
In lungi and wheelchair, ex-Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid flies out to Thailand amid murder case and regime collapse
Former Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid has left the country on Thursday, months after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the violent July uprising, according to local media reports. Nine months after the dramatic toppling of the Sheikh Hasina government in a student-led uprising , former Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid has quietly fled the country, reportedly donning a lungi and wheeled through the airport in a wheelchair in the dead of night. According to Dhaka Post, Hamid boarded a Thai Airways flight at 3:05 am Thursday, accompanied by his wife, brother, and brother-in-law. The image of the once-powerful President leaving in a humble lungi has gone viral, captured by a security camera and now emblematic of the fall of the Awami League. Hamid, who served two terms as President, is reportedly facing a murder charge. But unlike many top Awami League leaders who were arrested at airports or while crossing borders, he appears to have been allowed to leave the country unimpeded. 'According to Articles 34 and 102 of the Constitution, no Bangladeshi citizen can be prevented from travelling unless there is a specific ban from the court. We have not received any instructions to ban him. There was no request or application from the police to detain or arrest him in any case,' an airport official told Dhaka Post. Since Sheikh Hasina fled to India following the August 5 uprising, several senior Awami League figures have either been jailed or disappeared. The new interim government is being led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus . Hamid has not been seen in public since the transition. Meanwhile, a political counter-wave is building. Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia returned to Dhaka last week after medical treatment in London. Her return turned into a massive street rally as thousands of BNP supporters lined the roads from the airport to her residence in Gulshan. She was accompanied by her daughters-in-law and flown home on a special plane sent by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Zia's son Tarique Rahman, who has been living in London for 17 years due to numerous cases filed during Hasina's rule, now leads the BNP from abroad.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Footage of protester hit with tear gas falsely linked to religious tension in Bangladesh
"In Bangladesh, acid is being thrown on Hindu women in broad daylight for coming out without wearing a burqa," reads a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on February 18, 2025. It includes a video that shows a woman trying to cover her face with her backpack while two other men beside her shout and ask for water to help her. A burqa is a one-piece overgarment that covers the entire head and body, with a mesh panel to see through. Acid attacks on women have dropped dramatically in Bangladesh after it enacted tough new laws that threatened the death penalty for anyone convicted of the crime (archived link). According to the Acid Survivors Foundation, there were 494 reported attacks in 2002 when the new measures came into force, but the number dropped to eight in 2019. The false clip surfaced as minority communities faced a string of violence since a student-led uprising toppled long-time autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 (archived link). In the chaotic days following her ouster, Hindus -- seen by some as having backed Hasina -- as well as Muslim Sufi shrines have been targeted by Islamist hardliners. It was shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook. But a reverse image search with keyframes of the footage led to a longer version of the clip that local online news portal Dhaka Post published on its Facebook page on February 13 (archived link). It shows a tear gas canister exploding in front of a group of protesters before riot police move in to disperse them. "Students clash with police in front of the Secretariat," says the video's caption. The clip in the false post can be seen from the 2:39 mark of the video report. Another outlet Prothom Alo also published footage showing the same scene (archived link). The Dhaka Tribune reported that police dispersed protests staged by students from Narsingdi Textile Engineering College against the institution's closure (archived link). Ashikuzzaman Limon, the man seen on the left of the Dhaka Post clip and a second-year student at the college, told AFP on April 27 that no burqa or acid was involved in the incident. "The way the footage is being shared is not right," Limon told AFP on April 27, 2025. "She was hit with tear gas hurled by police while we were protesting in front of the secretariat." Bangladesh fact-checking organisation Rumor Scanner also published a report dismissing the claim as false. AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation sparked by religious tensions in Bangladesh.
AFP
30-04-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Footage of protester hit with tear gas falsely linked to religious tension in Bangladesh
"In Bangladesh, acid is being thrown on Hindu women in broad daylight for coming out without wearing a eads a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on It includes a video that shows a woman trying to cover her face with her backpack while two other men beside her shout and ask for water to help her. Image Screenshot of the false post taken on April 28, 2025 Acid attacks on women have dropped dramatically in Bangladesh after it enacted tough new laws that threatened the death penalty for anyone convicted of the crime (archived link). According to the Acid Survivors Foundation, there were 494 reported attacks in 2002 when the new measures came into force, but the number dropped to eight in 2019. The false clip surfaced as minority communities faced a string of violence since a student-led uprising toppled long-time autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 (archived link). In the chaotic days following her ouster, Hindus -- seen by some as having backed Hasina -- as well as Muslim Sufi shrines have been targeted by Islamist hardliners. It was shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook. But a reverse image search with keyframes of the footage led to a longer version of the clip that local online news portal Dhaka Post published on its Facebook page on February 13 (archived link). It shows a tear gas canister exploding in front of a group of protesters before riot police move in to disperse them. "Students clash with police in front of the Secretariat," says the video's caption. The clip in the false post can be seen from the 2:39 mark of the video report. Image Screenshot comparison of the footage shared in the false post (left) and the video published by Dhaka Post Another outlet Prothom Alo also published footage showing the same scene (archived link). The Dhaka Tribune reported that police dispersed protests staged by students from Narsingdi Textile Engineering College against the institution's closure (archived link). , the man seen on the left of the Dhaka Post clip and a second-year student at the college, told AFP on April 27 that no burqa or acid was involved in the incident. "The way the footage is being shared is not right," Limon told AFP on April 27, 2025. "She was hit with tear gas hurled by police while we were protesting in front of the secretariat." AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation sparked by religious tensions in Bangladesh.
