bangladesh Archives - Armoured & Luxury

Clashes and boycott mar Bangladesh election

January 6, 2014 / By Armoured Cars / In security

There have been violent clashes between opposition activists and police during Bangladesh’s general election, amid a boycott by the opposition.

At least 18 people were killed during Sunday’s polling. Dozens have died in the run-up to the election.

Scores of polling stations have been torched. Voting ended at 10:00 GMT and was said to be thin.

The opposition has boycotted the vote and called a two-day strike over what it termed a “scandalous farce”.

Results are expected to come in during the early hours of Monday morning.

However, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League is assured of victory, with government candidates already declared victors by default in many seats.

Bangladesh court orders Abdul Kader Mullah to be hanged

December 11, 2013 / By Armoured Cars / In security

A war crimes court in Bangladesh has ordered prison authorities to hang an Islamist leader, months after he was sentenced to death.

Abdul Kader Mullah of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was found guilty of crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971.

He could now be hanged at any time unless President Abdul Hamid or the Supreme Court intervenes.

Jamaat-e-Islami has called for a national strike on Monday in protest.

The special court has been trying Bangladeshis accused of collaborating with Pakistani forces and committing atrocities in 1971.

However, human rights groups say the war crimes tribunal falls short of international standards.

There are concerns that the execution of Mullah could trigger a fresh wave of violence across the country.

H&M and Zara to sign Bangladesh safety accord

May 15, 2013 / By Armoured Cars / In security

European retailers, including Hennes & Mauritz and Inditex which owns Zara, have said they will sign an accord to improve safety conditions in factories in Bangladesh.

The move comes three weeks after a garment factory building collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

Hundreds of factories were forced to close due to recurrent worker unrest sparked by the disaster, officials say.

The government has since announced steps aimed at improving conditions.

That includes raising the minimum wage for industry workers and making it easier for them to form unions.

Death Toll Passes 700 in Bangladesh Factory Collapse

May 8, 2013 / By Armoured Cars / In security

The death toll from the collapse of an eight-storey factory building near the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, has passed 700, officials say.

The announcement came after workers pulled dozens more bodies from the rubble. Many people are still missing.

Several people, including the building’s owner, have been arrested.

The collapse of the Rana Plaza on 24 April stands as Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster. It sparked outrage among workers in the country.

The previous most deadly structural failure in modern times – excluding the 9/11 terror attacks in New York – was the Sampoong department store in Seoul, South Korea, in 1995, in which 502 people died.

Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman dies after illness

March 23, 2013 / By Armoured Cars / In security

The president of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, has died after a long illness, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office in Dhaka has announced.

The president, 84, had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore.

President Rahman was elected by parliament to the largely ceremonial role in February 2009.

Mr Rahman was a stalwart of the Awami League – now in power in Bangladesh – and a close friend of the country’s first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Sheikh Mujib was the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Mr Rahman was sentenced to 20 years in jail during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan and was again imprisoned for four years after Sheikh Mujib’s assassination in 1975.