Bangladesh signed on Monday a 30-year lease with global shipping giant Maersk to run a new container terminal at its largest port, a major deal inked despite dockers’ concerns.”It will be our economic gateway. It will open doors to the future” and help boost economic growth, interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in a statement.Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest garment exporter, relies heavily on Chattogram port — formerly known as Chittagong and strategically located on the Bay of Bengal — for the vast majority of imports and exports.The port is Bangladesh’s main trade gateway and a vital hub in the global garment supply chain.Shipping giant A.P. Moller–Maersk will develop the Laldia Container Terminal on the city’s outskirts through its APM Terminals subsidiary, according to Yunus’s statement.”This is a new beginning for the country,” the interim leader said.The lease agreement “opens a new door for larger and more diversified investment”, he added.Officials at the Chattogram Port Authority said the contract involves APM Terminals investing about $550 million over the next three years to develop the site, boosting cargo-handling efficiency, safety and transparency.APM Terminals will then operate the facility for the remainder of the 30-year concession.This is the first major port deal signed with foreign firms under Yunus, whose interim administration took over after the government of Sheikh Hasina was toppled in a mass uprising in August 2024.The role of foreign operators has sparked anger among some, with dockers this month escalated a strike, worried for their jobs.But supporters of the project say foreign expertise and investment would modernise operations.UAE-based DP World has expressed interest in operating another facility, Chattogram’s New Mooring Container Terminal, and port officials say contract negotiations continue.The government is also in talks with Medlog SA, part of the Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), for an inland terminal on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.

Indian anti-terrorism investigators on Monday presented in court a suspect linked to last week’s deadly car-bomb in New Delhi, one of two men accused of involvement in the suicide attack.Officials have not disclosed any details on the motives or organisational backing of the alleged attackers, both of whom they say came from Indian-administered Kashmir.Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory in full. Tensions remain high between New Delhi and Islamabad.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said suspect Amir Rashid Ali is accused of having “conspired with the alleged suicide bomber, Umar Un Nabi, to unleash the terror attack” last Monday.The NIA put the death toll at 10, though hospital officials told AFP that at least 12 people had been killed. It remains unclear whether Nabi is included in the tally.An AFP photographer saw Ali being taken under heavy guard from a police truck to to a New Delhi court to face charges.Indian media reported that the court had ordered he be held in custody for 10 days by the NIA.The November 10 blast erupted near a busy metro station close to the Red Fort in Old Delhi, where the prime minister delivers the annual Independence Day address.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the attack a “conspiracy” and vowed to bring the “perpetrators, their collaborators and their sponsors” to justice.Nabi was a medical professor at a university in Haryana state, just outside the capital, while Ali had allegedly travelled to Delhi to “facilitate the purchase of the car which was eventually used as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (IED)”, according to the NIA.India has provided no further information on the alleged motives or network behind the two suspects.The bombing was the worst attack since April 22, when 26 mainly Hindu civilians were killed at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing that attack, claims Islamabad denied.In May, India launched strikes inside Pakistan, triggering four days of intense cross-border conflict that killed at least 70 people.After a ceasefire, Modi vowed that “any attack on Indian soil will be considered as an act of war”.Separately on Monday, army chief General Upendra Dwivedi issued a pointed warning to Pakistan, comparing the brief May conflict to a “trailer” rather than a full-length film.”I’d like to say that the movie hasn’t even started — only a trailer was shown, and, after the trailer, it was over within 88 hours,” Dwivedi said in a speech at a defence conference in New Delhi.”So, we’re fully prepared for the future, and if Pakistan gives us such an opportunity, we’d like to provide them with a thorough education — on how a responsible nation should behave with its neighbours.”

A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be hanged for crimes against humanity, with cheers breaking out in the packed court as the judge read out the verdict.Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her.The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, comes less than three months ahead of the first polls since her overthrow in August 2024.”All the… elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the packed court in Dhaka.The former leader had been found guilty on three counts: incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, the judge said.”We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence — that is, sentence of death.”On the streets of Dhaka, crowds waved the national flag and celebrated.Former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also sentenced to death in absentia, after being found guilty on four counts of crimes against humanity.Ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who was in court and had pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.- ‘Pays the dues’ -Hasina, who was assigned a state-appointed lawyer for the trial, called the verdict “biased and politically motivated”, in a statement issued from hiding in India.”Its guilty verdict against me was a foregone conclusion,” Hasina said.Her defence lawyer Md Amir Hossain, who she did not recognise, said Hasina could only appeal if she “surrenders… or is arrested”.Shamsi Ara Zaman, whose photojournalist son Tahir Zaman Priyo was killed during last year’s protests, said she was “satisfied” with the death sentences but “dismayed” that the ex-police chief was handed only five years in jail.Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since the end of Hasina’s autocratic rule, and violence has marred campaigning for elections expected in February 2026.The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power, deaths that were central to her trial.Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman praised the trial.”The verdict pays the dues to the martyrs, to the country, to all citizens, to democracy, the constitution, the rule of law, and to our obligation towards the next generation,” he told reporters.The trial heard months of testimony detailing how Hasina had ordered mass killings.- Deepening crisis -Security forces surrounded the court for the verdict, with armoured vehicles manning checkpoints and thousands of police officers posted across the capital.Crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka this month, mainly petrol bombs hurled at everything from buildings linked to interim leader Muhammad Yunus’s government to buses and Christian sites.Bangladesh’s foreign ministry summoned India’s envoy to Dhaka this month, demanding that New Delhi block the “notorious fugitive” Hasina from talking to journalists and “granting her a platform to spew hatred”.The International Crisis Group said the “political repercussions of this verdict are significant”.”The process has not been without critics,” ICG analyst Thomas Kean said.”In absentia trials are often a source of contention, and in this case the speed with which the hearings were conducted and the apparent lack of resources for the defence also raise questions of fairness… But they should not be used to downplay or deflect from Sheikh Hasina’s actions”.Kean added: “The prospect of Sheikh Hasina mounting a political comeback in Bangladesh now appears very slim”.But Hasina remains defiant.She said in October she “mourned all the lives lost during the terrible days” when students were gunned down in the streets. Her comments enraged many who said she had made a ruthless bid to maintain power at all costs.Hasina also warned that the ban on her former ruling party the Awami League by the interim government was deepening the political crisis in the country of 170 million people before the elections.